Tuesday, Mar. 9 2010 @ 2:52PM
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| Graphic: ficiency.com |
The U.N.'s International Narcotics Control Board's (INCB) attempts to meddle in marijuana reform in the United States were denounced by the Marijuana Policy Project on Thursday.
The INCB, which is currently meeting in Vienna, Austria, said in a recent report that they were "deeply concerned" that the 14 U.S. states that have medical marijuana laws are sending the "wrong message to other countries."
And here you were thinking that American states got to decide for themselves what "messages" to send! Silly you, they're supposed to get the permission of the United Nations, first!
"The last thing the INCB should be doing is meddling in our states' affairs," said Aaron Houston, MPP director of government relations.
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| Photo: Country.com.br |
Argentina's Supreme Court ruled in August 2009 that it is unconstitutional to punish adults for privately using marijuana, as long as the use doesn't hurt anyone else. For that reason, a federal judge had previously issued a stay against prosecuting the woman, who swore she used the cannabis solely for herself, reports CNN.
But the public prosecutor's office appealed the ruling, and a federal appeals court overturned the previous decision because the woman lives with her two sons and a grandchild.
The three-page appeals court ruling said the grandmother could not prove the marijuana was solely for her personal consumption.
Last year's unanimous Supreme Court ruling made Argentina the second Latin American nation within a one-week span to allow personal use of a formerly illegal drug.
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| Photo: AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe |
| "Dude... I am soooo high." (Or the local equivalent.) Men smear colored powder on each other's faces during celebrations of Holi, the Hindu spring festival of color. |
The festival, celebrated in March each year (the exact date depends on the lunar calendar), is an occasion during which men, women and children play wildly with water guns and colored powder, according to The Observers. And the fact that "bhang thandai," an almond-flavored milk shake blended with cannabis, is a prominent part of the celebration doesn't hurt the festive atmosphere one bit.
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| Photo: LEAP |
| Officer David Bratzer: "I will try to find other venues to present my views about drug policy" |
Constable David Bratzer was scheduled to speak at a harm reduction meeting in Victoria Wednesday night representing the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
Bratzer says the War On Drugs is not winnable and is doing more harm than good.
But the Chief of the Victoria Police Department doesn't want Bratzer to share those views.
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| Photo: Denver Post |
Meanwhile the cultivation of cannabis in Mexico rose 35 percent in 2009, to nearly 30,000 acres, according to a report released by the U.S. State Department.
Marijuana seizures by the DEA went from 1,539 metric tons in 2008 to 2,980 metric tons in 2009.
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| Photo: AP |
| Mexican Army soldiers stand at attention, desperately trying to keep a "military bearing" as the intoxicating smoke from a buttload of marijuana being burned billows over them in Ciudad Juarez |
Unfortunately, the talks concluded with no reference to the most sensible strategy for reducing that violence: removing marijuana from the criminal market, thus depriving drug cartels of their main source of income and strife.
"The only solution to the current crisis is to tax and regulate marijuana," said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. "Once again, Mexican and U.S. officials are ignoring the fact that the cartels get 70 percent of their profits from marijuana."
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| Graphic: TalkLeft |
| The United Nations wants us to stop questioning the almighty Drug War |
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said in its annual report, released Wednesday, that is is "concerned" that Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico have decriminalized possession of drugs, particularly marijuana, for personal use reports Lucia Baldomir at Bloomberg Business Week.
The decrim movement "poses a threat" to the "coherence and effectiveness" (as if it ever had any of either) of the international Drug War if not "resolutely countered," according to the report, and besides that, it sends "the wrong message to the general public."
Hey, INCB, I guess you think the "general public" doesn't have any say in policy matters? Maybe you're the one with the same old "wrong message," there in your ivory tower in Vienna. Have you considered that maybe people are beginning to see the folly of locking people up for growing and using an herb?
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| Photo: DEA |
Disgraced businessman Christopher Sanders had been given time out by Sudbury Prison officials to find a job on the outside, in preparation for being released early from a seven-and-a-half-year prison stretch for fraud, according to the Daily Mail.
The 41-year-old instead spent £10,000 (more than $15,000) of his savings on high-tech equipment to grow a crop of cannabis.
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| Photo: Dakta Green |
| Dakta Green: "I will never stop campaigning to free cannabis users from these harsh and unfair laws" |
A report on a trip to the Waitangi Day celebrations by marijuana activist Dakta Green and others in the "Cannabus" bus was featured on the TV show "Close Up" last Tuesday, reports the New Zealand Herald.
"Nobody in New Zealand should be ever punished by their boss simply for smoking cannabis on their own time," Green said Saturday.
"So long as no one is being hurt and no disturbance caused, what goes on outside of the job is no matter of the company or the employer," Green said.
Green is a leading member of the New Zealand contingent of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
The report featured scenes of "drug taking," according to the Kiwi press, which sounds pretty bad until you remember it's just some folks smoking cannabis.
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| Photo: Customs and Border Protection |
| "Lo, thou must hide thy stash much better next time." |
"This is not the first time we have seen smugglers attempt to use religious figures and articles of faith to further their criminal enterprise," said William Molaski, port director of the agency's office in El Paso, Texas.
