Search Results: ignore (219)

Since 2013, the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federally funded law-enforcement organization, has been issuing highly critical, persistently biased reports about the impact of marijuana legalization in Colorado.

But beyond a few scattered stories and a brief reference in U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer’s unexpectedly strident September 28 anti-pot op-ed in the Denver Post, the group’s latest salvo, released this month, has gotten comparatively little traction, especially compared to its earliest offerings.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Jeff Sessions missed major opportunities this week to rail against legal marijuana, giving marijuana-industry experts some much-craved hope that a crackdown is not imminent.

The cannabis-hating U.S. Attorney General delivered a speech at the Nevada U.S. Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas on Wednesday about crime, drugs, and immigration, but failed to mention the state’s newly launched recreational program.


As far as late Christmas presents go, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s decision to pardon nine non-violent offenders is as big and unprecedented as they come.
But for a governor who before Monday pardoned only one person since taking office in 2009, the list of formerly-naughty Missourians is arguably more notable for the name it doesn’t include.
While the eight men and one women Nixon pardoned yesterday already served their sentences for felony and misdemeanor crimes ranging from minor theft, writing bad checks and marijuana possession, there’s no mention of Jeff Mizanskey, the only inmate in the state currently serving a life sentence without parole for three nonviolent pot charges.
Our buds over at the Riverfront Times have the full story.

More than 52 percent of voters in South Portland, Maine made it clear earlier this week that they are tired of their fellow South Portlanders getting hassled for small amounts of herb. A new ordinance makes the possession of an ounce or less legal for adults 21-and-up.
The move is largely symbolic, but the cops still say they don’t care. They’ll continue to enforce the law as they see fit.
South Portland Police Chief Ed Googins says his officers are going to ignore the people they are charged with protecting and serving. The same thing happened in Portland, which passed a similar measure earlier this year and yet still sees marijuana possession charges in their courts.


Governor Jay Nixon came to St. Louis on Friday for a ceremony celebrating the building of a dental school. And after the event, he finally addressed the topic of granting clemency to Jeff Mizanskey, the man who has been in prison for more than twenty years, serving a life without parole sentence for marijuana charges.
Well, maybe “addressed” is being a bit generous.


Both the State of Colorado and City of Denver tourist agencies have resisted the temptation to use marijuana as a way to lure visitors to the area, despite mainstream media pot coverage that’s essentially free advertising. It seems their non-approach isn’t working.
Against that backdrop comes word that hotel searches for Denver on 4/20 weekend are up 73 percent from this time last year — and a national cannabis activist thinks the digits might be even higher if officials weren’t so shy about embracing weed.

wikipedia.com
A Dutch shepherd from wikipedia.

Normally, drug dogs and I don’t get along. That whole I-smell-like-skunk-ass-daily thing really puts a damper on any chance of a mutually-respectful friendship.
But Loveland, Colorado police might have just changed that by training drug dogs that specifically do not sniff for weed thanks to voter approved Amendment 64 which legalized small amounts of marijuana for personal use and possession.

Sean Work/MLive.com

Law Enforcement Officials Declare Their Disapproval of City’s Undemocratic Approach
The City of Flint, Michigan has announced that despite a successful ballot measure decriminalizing the adult possession of marijuana approved by 54 percent of voters last week, it will continue to prosecute people for marijuana possession. City officials called the vote “symbolic,” saying they would continue to arrest people for pot.
“We’re still police officers and we’re still empowered to enforce the laws of the state of Michigan and the United States,” said Flint police chief Alvern Lock, reports Gary Ridley at mlive.com. “We’re still going to enforce the laws as we’ve been enforcing them.”
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of law enforcement officials who support legalization of marijuana, on Wednesday publicly condemned the city’s actions. 

Opposing Views

What do our servants in the federal government do when the voters have spoken? They promptly announce their intention to ignore the voters. At least, that’s what happens when it comes to the marijuana laws.

The citizens of Colorado and Washington may have thought the decision was theirs on whether to legalize cannabis — that they’d have the final say in the matter. But a spokesperson for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has other ideas.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration’s enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged,” an agency spokesperson blithely told Reason this morning, Mike Riggs reports.

Opposing Views
Drug Czar Gil Kerlkikowske adamantly refuses to consider rational policy alternatives that don’t involve criminal penalties, according to the Marijuana Policy Project’s Morgan Fox

Marijuana Use Rises in 2011 While Alcohol and Prescription Drug Use Decline
 
In a press conference Monday morning, representatives from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced the release of the latest results of the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. As is their custom, the federal officials used the event — and the survey itself — as an opportunity to decry the use of marijuana in the United States and focused on perceived risk as a driving factor for increased use.
Marijuana use has slightly increased in the past year, while alcohol use has declined.
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