Search Results: siegel (8)

THC Finder

Blacks and Latinos Disproportionately Arrested  
Colorado Voters to Decide on Making Marijuana Possession Legal With November Vote 
With just two weeks remaining before Colorado’s voters decide whether to make marijuana possession legal in their state, a new report — “210,000 Marijuana Arrests In Colorado, 1986-2010” — reveals that more than 200,000 people have been arrested in Colorado since 1986.  Police made more than half of those marijuana arrests in just the last 10 years.
The study, based on FBI-UCR crime data, reports that nearly everybody arrested was young. In the last ten years, 86 percent of the people arrested were 34 years or younger. 
In the last decade, Colorado arrested Latinos for marijuana possession at 1.5 times the rate of whites, and arrested blacks at 3.1 times the rate of whites.  
But young blacks and Latinos use marijuana at lower rates than young whites. 

Andy Bronson/The Bellingham Herald
Renee Devan, right, takes down a phone number for Martin O. Nickerson of Northern Cross medical marijuana collective, as he sits in the back of a Bellingham Police Department vehicle, under arrest, in the alley behind the store, March 15, 2012

Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans Disproportionately Arrested; 25 Years of Arrests in WA Cost $300 Million or More 
With just three weeks remaining before Washington voters decide whether to make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana legal in their state, a new report — “240,000 Marijuana Arrests: Costs, Consequences, and Racial Disparities of Possession Arrests in Washington” — reveals that nearly a quarter of a million people have been arrested in Washington for marijuana possession since 1986.  Police made more than half of those marijuana arrests in just the last 10 years.

The Op-Toons Review
Obama’s response to calls from the public for marijuana legalization

​Petitions relating to the legalization of marijuana far exceed those on any other subject posted to a U.S. government website designed to garner citizen feedback described as “an experiment in democracy.”

During the first two months since the Obama Administration launched the We The People petition website, 119 active petitions were posted on November 14; petitions that fail to meet the 25,000-signature threshold after 30 days are removed from the site and archived, reports Joseph Marks at Nextgov.

The Weed Blog

​Conference Will Spotlight Devastating Impact of Drug War on Mexico, Latin America and U.S. Latino Communities
 
More than a thousand activists, experts, health professionals, elected officials, students and law enforcement will gather in Los Angeles November 2-5 for the 2011 International Drug Policy Reform Conference.
 
Among a broad range of topics, part of the conference program will focus on the destructive impact of the drug war on Latin American and Latino communities, and the urgent need for a new and more effective approach. Several panels and roundtable discussions – featuring prominent scholars, activists, journalists, human rights defenders, peace movement leaders and current and former officials – will address the failure of current drug policies for Latin Americans and Latinos, and the possibilities for critical reforms in the future.

Graphic: Jewlicious

​Medical marijuana will be grown in Israel for at least the next two years, because imports would be 10 times more expensive, according to the Israeli Health Ministry.

Health Ministry director-general Dr. Ronni Gamzi decided on Thursday to establish a unit within the ministry to manage and supervise the supply of medicinal cannabis, reports Judy Siegel at the Jerusalem Post.
The unit is scheduled to begin operating in January 2012.
The Israeli Pharmacists Association’s members are pressing for permission to distribute medical marijuana to authorized patients through their pharmacies.

Photo: The Jerusalem Post

​The government of Israel is expected to decide on establishing a state agency which would be responsible for authorizing and processing requests for medical cannabis.

Currently, about 6,000 patients receive medical marijuana in Israel, reports Judy Siegel Itzkovich at the The Jerusalem Post. But the number of authorizations could reach 40,000 in five years, according to Dr. Yehuda Baruch, a psychiatrist at the Abarbanel Mental Health Center in Bat Yam who has, for the last two years, single-handedly been responsible for the matter.

Photo: Mike Siegel/Seattle Times
Former U.S. Attorney John McKay is sponsoring a drive to legalize marijuana for adults in Washington state.

​Marc Emery’s Prosecutor Switches Sides; Joins ACLU, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, and TV Host Rick Steves in Backing Inititiave

The former U.S. Attorney for Seattle who prosecuted “Prince of Pot” Marc Emery said Tuesday that he is sponsoring an initiative to legalize and tax marijuana in Washington state. John McKay, who spent five years enforcing federal drug laws, said he hoped the measure would help “shame Congress” into ending cannabis prohibition nationwide.

McKay, who was fired by the Bush Administration in early 2007, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the laws criminalizing marijuana are destructive because they create a black market fueling international drug cartels and crime rings, reports Gene Johnson.
“That’s what drives my concern: The black market fuels the cartels, and that’s what allows them to buy the guns they use to kill people,” McKay told the AP. “A lot of Americans smoke pot and they’re willing to pay for it. I think prohibition is a dumb policy, and there are a lot of line federal prosecutors who share the view that the policy is suspect.”

Photo: The Washington Post
Oakland City Attorney John Russo wouldn’t advise the city council on their plans for an industrial pot farm — so they hired another law firm.

​The City of Oakland has hired a new law firm to press ahead with its plan to authorize large-scale industrial medical marijuana farming operations. Last week, City Attorney John Russo said he and his office would no longer represent the city after the Council introduced a revised ordinance for the pot farm plan, in spite of recent warnings of potential criminal liability from both the district attorney and the U.S. attorney.

The law firm of Meyers Nave Riback Silver & Wilson have been hired to provide medical cannabis cultivation legal advice to the city in the absence of any help from City Attorney Russo.

City Attorney Russo’s withdrawal has inflamed relations with the city’s new mayor and several council members who accuse him of putting politics before his client’s interest, reporets Kate Moser of The Recorder.