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NorCal Blogs

LEAP Cites Public Safety Concerns Created by Illegal Marketplace
A former narcotics cop on Tuesday morning delivered a letter signed by 73 current and former police officers, judges, prosecutors and federal agents to Attorney General Eric Holder urging him not to interfere with the wishes of the voters of Colorado and Washington State to legalize and regulate marijuana.
“We seem to be at a turning point in how our society deals with marijuana,” said Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), the group that authored the letter. “The war on marijuana has funded the expansion of drug cartels, it has destroyed community-police relations and it has fostered teenage use by creating an unregulated market where anyone has easy access.

Speckled Axe
Judge Richard A. Posner: “I think it’s really absurd to be criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana”

Most-Cited Judge In America Criticizes Drug War As ‘Absurd’

A widely respected federal judge called for the legalization of marijuana in a lecture at Elmhurst College in Illinois on Thursday.

Judge Richard A. Posner of the influential Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago “is an intellectual giant who is the most-cited judge in America,” reports Larry Bodine at Lawyers.com. “His call for legalization is considered significant because Posner is considered a legal conservative,” Bodine wrote.
“I don’t think we should have a fraction of the drug laws that we have,” Posner said. “I think it’s really absurd to be criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana. I can’t see any difference between that and cigarettes.”

Michael Montgomery/California Watch
A federal drug agent stands in a marijuana field near Redding. The 2010 raid led to federal charges against 27 people.

​The pattern of the American government using domestic spying on its own citizens — begun after the 9/11 attacks and the PATRIOT Act — may soon be going to a new level. Congress may empower federal intelligence agencies to participate in the struggle against marijuana cultivation in national forests and on other federal land.

One provision in the 2012 intelligence authorization bill calls on James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, to report on how federal spy agencies can help park rangers, fish and wildlife wardens, and other federal agents eradicate cannabis gardens, report Andrew Becker and Michael Montgomery at California Watch.
The bill also directs the top spy to work with federal public land managers to identify intelligence and information-sharing gaps related to drug trafficking. The House passed its version of the bill, HR 1892, in September; it is now before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

LSQ

​In a major escalation of the U.S. federal government’s war on medical marijuana dispensaries, federal prosecutors have warned California collectives they have 45 days to shut down or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property — even if they are operating legally under the state’s medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 1996.

California’s four U.S. Attorneys sent letters on Wednesday and Thursday to at least 16 dispensaries or their landlords notifying them they are violating federal drug laws, reports Lisa Leff at the Associated Press. Medical marijuana is legal in California, but federal law prohibits pot for any purpose.
The U.S. Attorneys are scheduled to announce their coordinated crackdown on dispensaries at a Friday news conference. Their offices have so far refused to confirm the closure letters.

Photo: Rien Zilvold
One Dutch town has banned foreigners from its cannabis-vending coffee shops. Does that violate the principles of the European Union? A court will soon decide.

​A Dutch city has banned “foreigners” from its cannabis selling coffee shops. A European court will now decide whether such a ban is legal.

The struggle of Dutch border towns against marijuana tourism hangs in the balance as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gets ready to make a ruling regarding one of the most extreme measures employed in the battle so far, reports Paul van der Steen at NRC Handelsblad.
The ECJ heard arguments Thursday in Josemans v. Maastricht, a case which dates back to 2006 when police found two foreign nationals on the premises of Easy Going, a “coffee shop” of the kind that sells cannabis.

Photo: Wellsphere

​The Washington Senate Friday passed a bill that adds physician assistants, nurse practitioners and naturopaths as health care professionals who can authorize medical marijuana. Physicians can already authorize cannabis use for medical purposes in Washington.

Senate Bill 5798 passed by a convincing vote of 37-11, and now goes to the Washington House of Representatives for consideration, reports Michelle Dupler at the Tri City Herald.