Even before Ohio voters decide whether they want to legalize marijuana, backers of the issue are pushing ahead with the next step - - a way to expunge past criminal records of some marijuana users. Ian James, spokesman for ResponsibleOhio, the group that wants to put a marijuana-legalization amendment to the state's constitution on the Nov. 3 general-election ballot, said signature collection will begin next month on a follow-up proposal called the Fresh Start Act. Wording of the proposed initiated statute was not available, but James said it will be modeled on laws in other states that allow prior convictions for possession of small amounts of marijuana - typically less than 8 ounces - to be reviewed by a court and expunged. It would not apply to drug-trafficking convictions. [continues 316 words]
Where is the surgeon general? Where are the physicians? Even the American Medical Association has softened its stance. All have intimate knowledge of the debilitating effect marijuana has on the central nervous system, yet they remain silent when attempts are made by state legislatures to legalize a substance known to have a long-lasting impact on society. If it becomes legal for adults, the more vulnerable youngsters will, in all likelihood, feel free to give it a try, and many who do so will find that this experiment will lead to trying hard drugs. Isn't it time for those who know better to step up and represent the current and future victims? Westerville [end]
Once again, a minority of people think that their rights should supersede the good of the whole. The working, taxpaying people will pick up the tab for those who care only about their own desires and aren't concerned with the plethora of problems that inevitably will come with the legalization of marijuana ("Board OKs next step for pot ballot issue," Dispatch article, last Saturday). Here are a few of the most obvious potential problems: Medical issues from smoking; Medical and irreversible cognitive problems of children who use marijuana; [continues 197 words]
An Ohio group backing medical marijuana is lobbying state legislators to expand an existing bill for children who suffer from seizures. Ohio Patients Cann wants to see medical marijuana become part of state law, but it would be willing to go to the ballot if necessary, said Bob Bridges of Columbus, the organization's executive director. "This is strictly for patients," he said. "All the other organizations appear to have a financial incentive for full legalization." Bridges, who ran unsuccessfully last fall as a Libertarian candidate for state auditor, said lawmakers and average Ohioans might find his group's limited approach to marijuana legalization to be a better alternative than that of ResponsibleOhio. That group got the go-ahead from the Ohio Ballot Board last week to begin collecting signatures for a fall vote on a constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana for personal and medical use. [continues 302 words]
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has a stern message for the younger generation about their political priorities: Care more about climate change and less about marijuana. Obama, who has been open about smoking pot in high school, chided an interviewer from Vice News who suggested that, if marijuana were legalized, young people would view that as a top item when considering the president's legacy. "First of all, it shouldn't be young people's biggest priority," Obama said in the interview, posted at news.vice.com. [continues 142 words]
Just to be clear, I have no dog in the fight concerning gay marriage, abortion rights or the legalization of marijuana. I have, however, read the Constitution of the United States. Nowhere in it do I find any reference to any of these subjects. I did find that on March 4, 1789, several amendments to the Constitution were put into law. For this discussion, the one of importance is the Tenth Amendment. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." [continues 103 words]
Plan to Create a Marijuana Cartel Would Overrule Local Zoning Controls The cartel of investors seeking a constitutional monopoly to legalize and sell marijuana in Ohio really must be using too much of their own product. Not only would the backers of the proposed November ballot issue have voters grant exclusive business rights to a limited group of 10 investors and their partners, but they seek constitutional powers to trump local zoning controls. Zoning in even the most routine circumstance is a ready battlefield, with county commissioners and city councils holding legal hearings to protect quality of life and neighbors' investments. Traffic and noise studies are done. Land use, drainage and aesthetics are considered. [continues 425 words]
I respond to the Feb. 9 letter "Legal pot coming but make it fair," from Martyn Brodnik. The writer asserted that "legal marijuana is coming, whether all Ohio residents like it or not. Fortunes will be made." The problem he identified with legalizing marijuana is the fairness of who is going to be making these fortunes. I strongly disagree with Brodnik's assessment, and find the problem to be much more devastating. In the Feb. 7 Dispatch article "Addiction programs in budget," I read that "eight of 10 people come to Ohio prisons with a history of abusing drugs and alcohol." On that same page, I read the Dispatch article "Two men convicted of heroin trafficking." [continues 310 words]
WASHINGTON - When Colorado and Washington won permission from the U.S. Justice Department to begin selling marijuana in retail stores, the states promised to keep the drug inside their borders and away from children. It has not been easy for them to do so. Even before Colorado opened its recreational pot shops last year, when only the sale of medical marijuana was legal, the state had a reputation as a top pot exporter. In 2013, 40 states intercepted marijuana that came from Colorado, with Missouri ranked first in the number of cases, followed by Texas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Kansas, according to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program. While no final count has been released for 2014, there's been no stop in the seizures. [continues 281 words]
Some of the investors in a for-profit marijuana ballot issue were revealed yesterday, including basketball legend Oscar Robertson and fashion designer Nanette Lepore. But Ohioans still aren't getting the list of all investors or being told how much individuals gave. ResponsibleOhio, the group proposing a constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana for personal recreational and medicinal use, reported raising $1.78 million and spending $1.34 million on its campaign. Reports filed with Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted cited total amounts contributed, but no individuals were listed. Instead, there are investment groups, headquartered in Cincinnati and Chicago, which each contributed from $20,000 to $150,000. [continues 330 words]
A ballot initiative to legalize marijuana and create a forprofit industry was ripped yesterday by some of Ohio's top elected officials, who called it "outrageous" and a "stupid idea" to create a dangerous constitutional monopoly. "I don't know (if) I've ever seen a worse idea than this," Secretary of State Jon Husted said at a Columbus forum sponsored by the Associated Press. Auditor Dave Yost called it "outrageous we are creating business monopolies by ballot issues. ... What's next, 12 monopolies for whorehouses in the 12 largest counties?" [continues 453 words]
Ohioans Should Reject Proposal That Would Create Legal Drug Cartel The latest in a string of proposals to legalize marijuana in Ohio provides another example of a secretive, self-serving group trying to disguise its motives while pushing a supposedly consumer- and taxpayer-friendly scheme on voters. The backers of the latest plan have taken a bad idea and made it worse. The group, laughably calling itself ResponsibleOhio, is gathering signatures for a November ballot issue that would legalize the drug for medical and recreational use - something only four states so far have done - but allow a cartel of only 10 individuals or investor groups to have exclusive rights to operate one of 10 legal marijuana businesses in the state. [continues 377 words]
The New York Times article in the Jan. 4 Dispatch, "High-end dining takes on a new meaning with edible marijuana," has me shocked and confused. Marijuana is an illegal substance in our state. Why would the use of an illegal substance in food be included under the label of "Trends" in a central Ohio newspaper? The article itself was more puzzling to me, as it clearly stated that it doesn't taste good and that the resultant high cannot be controlled. Why would central Ohio readers need to be aware of a trend involving a bad-tasting, illeffecting illegal substance? [continues 204 words]
Backers of a prospective investment-based marijuana ballot issue said yesterday that they would set up five "testing centers" throughout Ohio to verify for consumers the chemical content of marijuana for sale for personal use. ResponsibleOhio said the testing program would end the uncertainty about dangerous drugs purchased on the black market. The centers tentatively would be established in Athens, Lorain, Mahoning, Scioto and Wood counties, according to a source familiar with the proposal. "We've heard too many stories of families who have lost children, siblings and loved ones because marijuana they purchased was laced with dangerous drugs like heroin or PCP," said ResponsibleOhio spokeswoman Lydia Bolander. [continues 115 words]
The Recreational Use of Marijuana Is Now Legal in Alaska and Oregon, but the Change Won't Take Effect Until Next Year. Pot-Legalization Groups Are Looking Ahead to California in 2016. PORTLAND, Ore. - Voters in the blue state of Oregon and the red state of Alaska have joined the fledgling green column of the U.S. political map by choosing to legalize recreational marijuana, but supporters are not at liberty to light up or buy their cannabis just yet. Ballot measures approved in both states on Tuesday will take months to go into effect, with pot enthusiasts in Oregon having to wait until next summer to legally indulge. Neither state is likely to make marijuana available for commercial sales before 2016. [continues 375 words]
Those who used marijuana daily before age 17 were less likely to finish school and more likely to abuse other drugs. LONDON - Teenagers who use marijuana daily run a higher risk of becoming drug-dependent, committing suicide or trying other drugs, and they are less likely to succeed at their studies than those who avoid it, researchers said yesterday. The scientists analyzed studies on marijuana to determine its long-term health and life effects. "Our findings are particularly timely, given that several U.S. states and countries in Latin America have made moves to decriminalize or legalize cannabis, raising the possibility the drug might become more accessible to young people," said Richard Mattick, a professor at Australia's National Drug and Alcohol Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who co-led the study. [continues 205 words]
In response to last Friday's letter "Smoking pot has ill effects on adolescents" from Dr. Peter D. Rogers, I do not disagree that smoking marijuana is harmful to adolescents. That is a scientific fact. What he does with this fact, however, is stretch it into an overly broad, sweeping opinion of all marijuana users. He mentioned that children showing up to his addiction clinic who smoked marijuana were doing poorly in school, drifting from their families and were unmotivated. That is a clear example of selection bias and does nothing to prove causal effects of marijuana smoking. [continues 116 words]
The Wednesday op-ed "Drug courts can help reduce recidivism" by Jack D'Aurora certainly offers a step in the right direction. However, it is only a step, not the final destination. I think we need to put up the white flag in the war on drugs. The most practical approach would be the legalization of most, if not all, of the illicit drugs. We have spent billions of dollars and seen innumerable deaths in the attempt to eliminate the supply and dampen the demand with little, if any, success. Production sites simply shift when confronted with possible destruction and demand remains unabated. [continues 172 words]
I respond to Wednesday's op-ed column by Jack D'Aurora regarding the use of drug courts to reduce Ohio's inmate population. D'Aurora pointed out many of the benefits of drug courts, but the need for specialized dockets extends beyond drug-treatment courts. I am proud to say that Franklin County's judges have been proactive in reducing incarceration and recidivism rates through the operation of seven specialized dockets, four of which are drug courts. In the Common Pleas Court, Judge Dana Preisse has operated the Family Drug Court in the Domestic Relations and Juvenile Division since 2002 and the Treatment is Essential to Success (TIES) program has operated since 2004, with Judge Stephen McIntosh currently presiding. [continues 484 words]
Columbus police and fire chiefs now are subject to random drug tests, a move safety officials hope will increase accountability and trust within the divisions. The city started the random tests for its highest-ranking officers a few months ago. It's the first time it has done so. Regular officers and firefighters have been subject to random tests for years. Safety Director Mitchell J. Brown's office said there wasn't a particular reason for the new testing other than to hold chiefs to the same standards as their subordinates. [continues 346 words]
Marijuana has now been legalized or decriminalized in 17 states and the District of Columbia, with Maryland joining the list just last week. Ballot measures to loosen rules on marijuana use could come to a vote this year in at least five states. Twenty-one states already allow marijuana for medical use. What's unhealthy about this trend is that it coincides with a declining awareness of marijuana's dangers - especially among young people. Less than 40 percent of high school seniors think marijuana use poses a great risk, down from 55 percent in 2003. Cigarettes are dangerous, more and more adolescents have come to realize, but they don't believe marijuana is. (In fact, they're both unhealthy.) [continues 396 words]
Global cannabis use seemed to have decreased, reflecting a decline in some European countries, but a lower perceived risk has led to more use in the United States, a U.N. report says. VIENNA - More Americans are consuming cannabis as their perception of the health risks declines, the U.N. drugs agency said yesterday, suggesting liberalization could further increase its use among the young. In a finding that could feed into an international debate on the decriminalization of marijuana, it said more people around the world, including in North America, were seeking treatment for cannabis-related disorders. [continues 536 words]
About 10 days ago, our crime reporters heard a dispatcher announce on a police scanner that two bodies had been found in an apartment on the Northwest Side. Homicide detectives were on their way. Reports of a body being found are not uncommon, with people dying of natural causes, suicides, accidental drug overdoses and such. But two bodies? That's unusual. Typically, in cases where two bodies are found it's a murder-suicide or a double homicide, and that's news. [continues 460 words]
Ethan Nadelmann, the chief architect of marijuana-legalization issues coast-to-coast, paused when asked if voter approval of medical marijuana in Ohio is inevitable. "A good ballot issue will win," he said. "The broader public support is there." But Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said a campaign won't happen here this year and probably not in 2015. The focus this year is on ballot issues in Oregon, Alaska and Florida, he said. "Support for medical marijuana is very high here," he said during a stopover yesterday in Columbus. "But there is a very negative attitude about (recreational) marijuana. Plus, it's a very expensive state to run a campaign." [continues 329 words]
Medical-Marijuana Farms in Northern California Accused of Damaging, Draining Waterways SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Some drought-stricken rivers and streams in northern California's coastal forests are being polluted and sucked dry by water-guzzling medical-marijuana farms, wildlife officials say. The issue has spurred at least one county to try to outlaw personal pot gardens. State officials say much of the marijuana being grown in northern counties under the state's medical-pot law is not being used for legal, personal use, but for sale in California and states where pot is still illegal. downstream into the lake and our water supply," she said. An environmental scientist holds a dead juvenile coho salmon found in a drought-stricken creek. [continues 558 words]
WASHINGTON - For the first time, the U.S. House voted yesterday to block the federal government from enforcing its marijuana laws in states that have approved use of the drug for medical purposes. Marijuana advocates called the vote historic. "This is a game changer that paves the way for much more policy change to come," said Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans For Safe Access, a group that has lobbied to end federal penalties for marijuana use. The plan passed 219-189, with 49 Republicans teaming up with 170 Democrats to approve the measure. [continues 414 words]
This would be easy to overstate, but in comparison with much of the world, our country does a decent job of administering justice in a measured, equitable manner. Sure, there's lots of room for improvement. For example, blacks are considerably more likely to be executed or incarcerated than are whites who commit the same crime. We should work on this. Still, in a world that has at least 37 countries that outlaw homosexuality, at least 10 of which punish it with the death penalty, we do a reasonable job of administering evenhanded, let-the-punishment-fit-the-crime justice. Then there's Jacob Lavoro. Last week my local newspaper, the Austin American Statesman, reported that Lavoro, a 19-year-old from Round Rock, Texas, has been charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. [continues 548 words]
People in Colorado have a medical-marijuana law and a recreational-marijuana law. They also have the law of unintended consequences. For example, businesses that legally sell marijuana under state law sometimes have to spray their cash with air freshener or the banks won't accept it - because the money smells like marijuana and selling pot remains illegal under federal law, which regulates banks. A medical-marijuana patient in Colorado can't legally buy a firearm, faces potential eviction from federal housing projects and might be prohibited from receiving veterans benefits. [continues 356 words]
TOLEDO (AP) - A petition drive has begun to decriminalize the use of marijuana in Toledo. Members of Toledo's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws began collecting signatures on Tuesday to put the measure before voters. Mary Smith, a spokeswoman for the group, said supporters have collected 2,800 signatures so far and need 3,800 more to get the ordinance on Toledo's November ballot. The measure would prohibit police from citing or arresting someone for having, selling or using marijuana. It also would prohibit city prosecutors from trying marijuana cases. The drive is separate from a statewide effort to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio. [end]
Ali and Adam Oliver aren't sure what they'd think about medical marijuana if it weren't for Alex. Maybe they'd vote no if the issue were on a ballot, or not care much either way. As it is, 5-year-old Alex, the younger of the Upper Arlington couple's two sons, has endured seizures every day for most of his life, some so severe that he has to go to a hospital, where doctors force him into a coma to stop the erratic brain activity. [continues 1037 words]
Ed FitzGerald, Democratic candidate for governor, says a House Republican plan to spend $45 million on heroin-addiction treatment would just siphon that money away from other mental-health services. The Kasich administration says it's not that simple. FitzGerald, who is also the elected Cuyahoga County executive, said in a news release yesterday that his county alone would lose $7.5 million for mental-health services if the Ohio Senate approves - and Gov. John Kasich signs - the House-passed legislation including the drug-treatment funding. [continues 297 words]
Marijuana has now been legalized or decriminalized in 17 states and the District of Columbia, with Maryland joining the list just last week. What's unhealthy about this trend is that it coincides with a declining awareness of marijuana's dangers - especially among young people. Fewer than 40 percent of high-school seniors think marijuana use poses a great risk, down from 55 percent in 2003. Cigarettes are dangerous, more and more adolescents have come to realize, but they don't believe marijuana is. (In fact, they're both unhealthy.) [continues 421 words]
The Move to Legalize Marijuana Is Gaining Global Traction After Successful Efforts in Two U.S. States. In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a brand-new plan to let stores sell the drug. [continues 507 words]
Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is yet another victim of the war on drugs. Prohibition is not working. It is time to try something new. Hoffman, 46, was found dead in the bathroom of his Manhattan apartment Sunday morning, apparently the victim of a heroin overdose. According to widely published reports, there was a syringe in his arm. Hoffman had lived through a familiar pattern: experimentation, addiction, rehab, abstinence, relapse, more rehab, more abstinence, another relapse. Why would a man held in such high esteem, a man with so much going for him and so much to live for, risk it all by buying illegal drugs from a criminal on the street and then injecting them into his veins? For the same reason any addict uses drugs: to get high. [continues 565 words]
By criminalizing certain chemicals, Ohio could finally have a way to cease the sale of drugs such as bath salts and synthetic marijuana. The rule change, set to take effect in March, comes from the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy. It will list certain pharmacophores - molecules that elicit a response from the human body - as Schedule I controlled substances, which also include heroin and ecstasy. That classification will make the drugs illegal to possess or sell. Drugs known as bath salts, synthetic marijuana and incense have thwarted Ohio lawmakers for several years because of their chemistry. To keep them off the street, lawmakers have repeatedly banned the chemical structure of each specific drug, starting in 2010. [continues 206 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - The way Bryan Weinman sees it, he and his friends already won their Super Bowl bet. Two weeks ago, the nightclub DJ and a few buddies were sitting at a sports bar in Denver, joking about how funny it would be if the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos - the NFL teams from the two states that have legalized marijuana - made it to the big game. They decided to plunk down a $44 wager - the fee for registering the Internet domain www.stonerbowl.org - just before the Seahawks and Broncos won their conference championships. [continues 401 words]
SEATTLE - The new year is shaping up to be one of the marijuana movement's strongest. The first legal pot storefronts in America opened to long lines in Colorado this month. Washington state is poised to issue licenses for producing, processing and selling the Schedule I drug - once officials sift through about 7,000 applications. Signature gatherers have been at work in at least five other states to put marijuana measures on the ballot in 2014. On Wednesday, organizers announced they had gathered more than 1 million signatures in favor of putting a medical-marijuana measure before voters in Florida, a high-population bellwether that could become the first Southern state to embrace pot. [continues 795 words]
WASHINGTON - The District of Columbia moved closer yesterday to weakening restrictions on marijuana as city lawmakers advanced a plan to make possession of up to 1 ounce of the drug a civil violation. In a unanimous voice vote, the city council's public-safety committee sent the full council a proposed ordinance that would decriminalize the possession of marijuana, making it subject to a fine as low as $25 and seizure of the drug. The penalty for possessing any amount of marijuana in the District of Columbia is up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. It is legal for medicinal use. [continues 148 words]
With days to go before recreational pot use becomes legal in Colorado, those of us who live in Boulder are wondering what will change. Marijuana use already is ubiquitous. Open up the free newspapers on campus at the University of Colorado, and ads for "medical" marijuana fill the pages. Funny how a "medicine" whose primary benefits are restricted to glaucoma, chemotherapy-induced nausea and peripheral neuropathy - conditions far more likely to afflict the elderly - is being marketed to college kids. But, come Jan. 1, pot entrepreneurs will be able to push Purple Haze, Blue Rhino and Sour Diesel without the fig leaf. [continues 629 words]
Federal Judge John Gleeson of the Eastern District of New York says documents called "statements of reasons" are an optional way for a judge to express "views that might be of interest." The one he issued two months ago is still reverberating. It expresses his dismay that although his vocation is the administration of justice, his function frequently is the infliction of injustice. The policy of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses has empowered the government to effectively nullify the constitutional right to a trial. As Lulzim Kupa learned. [continues 673 words]
GREENVILLE, Ill. - A lifer with a pen sat in the 65-square-foot cell he shares. A calendar taunted from a bulletin board. He began to write. Dear President Obama. He acknowledged his criminal past. He expressed remorse. And he pleaded for a second chance, now that he had served 18 years of the worst sentence short of execution: life without parole, for a nonviolent first offense. Mr. President, he wrote, you are my final hope. Sincerely, Jesse Webster. Eleven-hundred men reside in medium security at a remote federal prison in Greenville in southern Illinois. Most come and go, sentences served. Others stay, their legal appeals exhausted, their only hope to take up a pen and enter the long-shot lottery of executive clemency with a salutation that begins: Dear President Obama. [continues 517 words]
Two States Have Legalized and Taxed Recreational Marijuana; Will Others Do the Same? WASHINGTON - Earlier this month, Colorado voters overwhelmingly approved a plan for taxing their state's legal marijuana market. And next month, Washington state will start issuing licenses to retailers to sell recreational marijuana. Washington and Colorado are set to provide a case study in the debate over legalization. That debate is expected to spread to other state legislatures next year - advocates have identified Rhode Island and Maine as potential targets - and also to foreign countries such as Uruguay. [continues 1158 words]
CINCINNATI (AP) - A former Ohio police officer who once received a medal of valor for rescuing a woman from a burning home avoided jail time yesterday stemming from his connection to a marijuana smuggling operation. Bryon Roos, formerly an officer in the Cincinnati suburb of North College Hill, admitted to depositing money meant to avoid bank-reporting requirements as part of the operation that involved at least 10 other men. In exchange for his guilty plea in February, prosecutors dropped more-serious charges of marijuana importation and exportation and conspiracy to distribute marijuana. [continues 140 words]
DENVER - The use of recreational marijuana is now legal in Colorado, but if a proposed ordinance is approved in the state's largest city, pot smokers could face jail time and fines if smoke wafts onto a neighbor's property. A measure under consideration by the Denver City Council would impose up to $999 in fines and a maximum one-year jail sentence for anyone caught smoking marijuana in city parks or other public venues. But as written, the law would extend the same criminal sanctions to offenders on private property. [continues 294 words]
29 Sep 2013 The Columbus Dispatch Ohio could be hitting the ballot box, California-style Ohioans next year could confront a full crop of statewide ballot issues, ranging from medical marijuana to unionbusting. The Election Day mechanisms are called the "initiative" and "referendum" -$5 words for the power of voters: To propose ("initiate") an Ohio constitutional amendment by voter petition, and submit such amendments directly to all voters for approval or rejection. To propose ("initiate") an Ohio law by voter petition to the General Assembly, then, if legislators don't pass it, to ask all voters to pass it. [continues 528 words]
While violent crimes showed a slight uptick for the first time in six years across the U.S. in 2012, drug arrests continued to dominate the Ohio and national crime picture. There were more than four times as many arrests for drugs as violent crimes in Ohio last year - 26,936 to 6,236 - according to new Uniform Crime Reporting statistics released on Monday by the FBI. The report is compiled using statistics provided by more than 18,000 law-enforcement agencies across the country. Violent crimes include murder, voluntary manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and assault. [continues 308 words]
DENVER (AP) - Hundreds of people lined up in Denver for a free marijuana cigarette yesterday as part of a protest against a ballot proposal that would impose high taxes on the drug, which is now legal in Colorado for recreational use. The measure on the November ballot asks Colorado voters to approve a 15 percent excise tax plus a 10 percent statewide sales tax on all retail marijuana purchases. The marijuana was donated by a local lawyer who got it as part of a legal settlement after authorities determined the stash was seized illegally, according to Larisa Bolivar, campaign manager for opponents of the ballot measure. [continues 137 words]
WASHINGTON - In a ruling that gives new momentum to the national push to legalize marijuana, the U.S. Justice Department said yesterday that it would not interfere with plans by the states of Washington and Colorado to sell and tax pot for recreational use beginning next year. The department made its long-awaited announcement in a memo released to federal prosecutors. Attorney General Eric Holder had been under growing pressure to respond to the new state laws, since marijuana still is classified as an illegal drug under federal law. [continues 285 words]
For all who believe in colorblind justice and want to see fewer African-American and Hispanic men caught up in the system, there are two items of good news: a judge's ruling ordering changes in New York's "stop and frisk" policy and Attorney General Eric Holder's initiative to keep nonviolent drug offenders out of prison. First, "stop and frisk." Mayor Michael Bloomberg is having a hissy fit over U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin's finding that the policy amounted to "indirect racial profiling." On his weekly radio show, the mayor wouldn't even say Scheindlin's name, calling her "some woman" who knows "absolutely zero" about policing. [continues 600 words]
It's been a war on justice, an assault on equal protection under the law. And a war on families, removing millions of fathers from millions of homes. And a war on money, spilling it like water. And a war on people of color, targeting them with dronestrike efficiency. We never call it any of those things, though all of them fit. No, we call it the War on Drugs. It is a 42-year, trillion-dollar disaster that has done nothing - underscore that: absolutely nothing - to stem the inexhaustible supply of, and insatiable demand for, illegal narcotics. In the process, it has rendered this "land of the free" the biggest jailer on Earth. [continues 525 words]
