Search Results: war on drugs (862)

LaughParty.com

​The federal government just released the latest ‘Monitoring The Future‘ survey of teen drug use, and as Bruce Mirken over at the Marijuana Policy Project wrote, “the results do not bode well for current policies.”

In the past 30 days, more high school seniors smoked marijuana (20.6 percent) than smoked tobacco (20.1 percent), according to the survey.
In 2009, marijuana use in the prior 12 months was reported by about 12 percent of the nation’s 8th graders, 27 percent of 10th graders, and 33 percent of 12th graders.
While teen marijuana use is slightly up, it’s in the same general range it’s been in for years; meanwhile, teen tobacco use continues to decline, and has dropped precipitously since 1990.
“Regulation of tobacco, combined with solid educational campaigns, has clearly cut youth access to cigarettes,” Mirken said, “It’s time for officials to take off their blinders and apply those same proven policies to marijuana.”

Federal Art Project

“A weed is a flower, too, once you get to know it.” ~ Eeyore from “Winnie The Pooh”

After 72 years of the debate being controlled by those who’ve made it taboo to even talk honestly on the subject, it’s time to tell the truth about marijuana.
The deck remains stacked, of course, in favor of cannabis prohibition. The reason? Folks who know that marijuana should be legal are often too intimidated to say so — because, until now, speaking cannabis truth has sometimes carried a heavy price.
For years, a few brave medical doctors such as Lester Grinspoon of Harvard have been voices in the wilderness of marijuana prohibition. Their repeated calls for an open and honest debate on the subject have largely fallen on deaf ears.
Until now, when it comes to marijuana, those who know won’t say, and those who say don’t know.

Photo: Public Domain
Federal government pot farm at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS. Under Washington state’s proposed legalization bill, pot would be grown by state-licensed farmers and sold only through state liquor stores.

​Washington state pot advocates who thought they had to choose between a marijuana decrim bill ($100 fine for under 40 grams) and the status quo (including a mandatory night in jail for possessing any amount) just got another choice. A state lawmaker introduced a bill Monday to legalize marijuana in the state.

Under the bill, introduced by Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle), marijuana would be legal for persons 21 and older to use and possess, subject to regulations similar to those controlling alcohol.

Photo: Zack Clark
Honduran police face a tough fight with drug traffickers, despite plenty of Yankee dollars.

​The top anti-drug cop in Honduras was killed by unidentified gunmen on Tuesday, a national police spokesman told CNN, Mariano Castillo reports.

Gen. Julian Gonzalez, director of the Office for Combatting Drug Trafficking, was shot in his SUV by two people on a motorcycle, according to police spokesman Orlin Cerrato.
No arrests have been made, and the investigation remains active, Cerrato said.

MPP-NV
Nevadans, do you want legal marijuana? Sign the initiative, then get out and vote in 2012

​Nevadans, after turning down similar initiatives in 2002 and 2006, may get to vote again on legalizing marijuana in 2012.

Dave Schwartz, manager of the Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada (MPP-NV), announced today that he has filed documents with the Nevada Secretary of State establishing a Ballot Advocacy Group to support an initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana for persons 21 or older.

Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws has been organized to conduct a signature drive in 2010 that will place an initiative on the November 2012 ballot. The committee says it will file the language of the initiative with the state in January.

Photo: Coaster420
Medical marijuana: Will Pennsylvania become the Keystoned State? Oh, yeah… Stereotypes bad.

​ The good news, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News, is that Pennsylvania is finally having a discussion about medical marijuana.

The bad news? “In our socially conservative state this is likely as far as the debate will go on the issue,” the editorial says.
Pennsylvania’s House Health and Human Services Committee last week heard from patients, doctors, and medical marijuana advocates who said the state should legalize the herb for those suffering debilitating medical conditions.

AP Photo
They wanted to make a Palin version, but it stopped working halfway through the trip.

​Police in Palmview, Texas last week seized a batch of reputed Ecstasy pills made in the image of President Barack Obama, Ryan Smith reports on CBS’ Crimesider blog.

A stash of the orange tablets was found last Monday during a south Texas traffic stop.
The 22-year-old driver had a drug collection of Hunter S. Thompson-esque proportions. Found in the car were black tar heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, along with the supposed Obama Ecstasy. He’s expected to face multiple felony drug possession charges.

The Save Jersey Blog
Flaunting ignorance: Conservative columnist Paul Mulshine doesn’t trust those damned medical marijuana patients.

​Once in awhile, some rabidly anti-pot yahoo publishes a piece so mean-spirited and so bereft of facts that it calls out for correction. Paul  Mulshine, who purports to be a conservative columnist for The Star Ledger, today published just such a piece.

Mulshine is unhappy that New Jersey is apparently, at long last, going to allow the medical use of marijuana. His toxic little screed is shot through with the sort of sneering, self-satisfied ignorance of the boorish know-it-all who sees nothing but avarice and darkness in others (Projection? You make the call), and is filled with a resolute refusal to empathize or understand.
The benighted columnist’s “Legalizing medical marijuana in N.J.: What life will be like in the marijuana Garden State” isn’t even close to journalism, unless you have a taste for the yellow variety. His smug insinuations about the motivations and medical conditions of patients seeking relief through marijuana reveal a wrenchingly bitter and unhappy worldview.

Photo: Coaster420
Nugs like this Purple Kush beauty could be legal for medical use if Pennsylvania legislators show some leadership.

​A public hearing on legalizing medical marijuana is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 2, in Harrisburg, Pa., before the House Health and Human Services committee.

Discussed will be House Bill 1393, introduced in April by State Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia. According to Cohen, the bill aims to ease the lives of suffering patients, take money away from the illegal drug trade and create about $25 million a year in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana.
“The bill has a 1-in-4 chance of becoming law, but I think that health care groups will lean toward it,” Cohen told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

“Jephthath’s Sacrifice” by Maciejowski (c. 1250)
If you sell pot on the Gaza Strip, be careful or you could lose your head.

​Selling pot can now officially get you killed in Gaza City — by the government, that is.

Despite the area’s proud tradition of fine hashish (Blond Lebanese, anyone?) the Hamas-run government of Gaza has approved a law that will allow for the execution of “convicted drug dealers,” its attorney general said today, according to the Associated Press.
The Islamist government ruling Gaza is taking a page from the tired old playbook of drug prohibitionists in America and worldwide — that imposing draconian sentences will reduce drug smuggling and discourage drug use. The policy, in place for close to a century in many parts of the world, has proved to be a colossal failure.
Hamas has cracked down on drugs, saying it has arrested more than 100 drug dealers and users. Dozens of pounds of contraband, mostly marijuana, have been seized.
Blithely undeterred by the facts, Gaza’s attorney general blamed the Israeli government for not punishing potheads severely enough (or killing them quickly enough). If the intent is to prove governments in the Middle East can have drug policies even dumber than those of the United States, then mission accomplished! 
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