Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

LEAP Responds To White House: Pot More Popular Than Obama

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 29, 2011 News

Late Friday night the White House issued a typical evasive rejection of eight marijuana legalization petitions that collected more signatures than any other issue on its “We the People” website. Even though recent polls show that more voters support marijuana legalization than approve of President Obama’s job performance, the White House categorically dismissed the notion of reforming any laws, focusing its response on the possible harms of marijuana use instead of addressing the many harms of prohibition detailed in the petitions.

One of the popular petitions, submitted by retired Baltimore narcotics cop Neill Franklin, called on the Obama Administration to simply stop interfering with states’ efforts to set their own marijuana laws.

White House ‘Responds’ To Marijuana Legalization Petitions

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 28, 2011 News

Injustice In Seattle

White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is lying his ass off.

The Obama Administration has officially “responded” to the “We The People” online petitions regarding marijuana legalization. Well, kind of — if you’re willing to dignify a bureaucrat mouthing the same old meaningless platitudes by calling that a “response.”

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske chose to respond to eight petitions regarding cannabis law reform with one blanket response. Speaking of which, ol’ Gil tried to put a wet blanket on the grass-fire that is the legalization movement, but it turns out all he could do is blow smoke.

Conventional wisdom dictates that when you have to make a press release, but really want it to get as little media attention as possible, you release it late on a Friday — which is exactly what the White House has done with this one. That way, all the top-line reporters have gone home or are bar-hopping by the time the release hits, and it has Saturday and Sunday to blow over before the week’s regular news cycle resumes Monday morning.

Kerlikowske, required by law as director of the ONDCP to oppose marijuana legalization, is either completely unaware that history has passed him by, or is pointedly ignoring the obvious. His refusal to even meaningfully engage with drug policy reform advocates shows that worse than being useless, he is an intentional obstruction — a willing part of the problem.

Colorado Issues First Medical Cannabis Business Licenses In US

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 28, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Cannabis Therapy Institute

I could surely do without that big ‘CRIMINAL’ up there at the top of the badge, but it’s still good news that the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division of the Colorado Department of Revenue has issued the first medical marijuana business licenses in the United States.

The great state of Colorado has started issuing the first state medical marijuana business licenses in the nation, bringing to fruition an application process that lasted more than a year for dispensaries and makers of cannabis-infused products.

The state issued 11 licenses to businesses in Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Littleton, said the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division of the state Department of Revenue, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post.

Another seven shops have been told they’ll probably get a license. The state has sent out letters to local governments regarding an additional 467 dispensaries and products-makers, double-checking that those businesses have local approval, which is one of the final steps in the licensing process.

SF Board of Supes President Condemns Cannabis Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 28, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Lance Iverson/San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu: “With its recently announced ‘crack down’ on these dispensaries, the federal government has proposed a solution in search of a problem”

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu responded this week to the Obama Administration’s crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in California, calling the action “a solution in search of a problem.”

“Medical marijuana dispensaries are providing safe access to treatment options that many Californians depend on to live a comfortable, pain-free life,” Chiu wrote in a Wednesday email to Shona Gochenaur of the Axis of Love, a San Francisco dispensary.

“With its recently announced ‘crack down’ on these dispensaries, the federal government has proposed a solution in search of a problem, while California law supports allowing these distribution centers to give patients the medicine they need,” Chiu said.

“I am very disappointed in Attorney General Holder’s decision and hope that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco focuses on more important issues than restricting access to a legal medical treatment,” Chiu said.

Chicago May Decrim Possession Of Up To 10 Grams Of Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 28, 2011 Legislation, News

Kush Weed

Ten grams of pot is not much to be decriminalized — but it’s a 10-gram improvement over what Chicago has now.

Cannabis users in Chicago may soon be able to stop worrying about jail. Well, at least if they don’t have more than 10 grams at the time.

Several city councilmen on Thursday said they plan to introduce a city ordinance decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana in order to cut enforcement costs and free up police to go after more serious crimes, reports AFP.

More than 23,000 Chicagoans are arrested every year for marijuana possession, according to the Chicago Police Department. The misdemeanor carries up to six months in jail, a $1,500 fine and a criminal record.

Movement Starts To End Abuses Against Formerly Incarcerated

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 28, 2011 Culture, News

Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted Peoples Movement

The damage of the War On Drugs continues long after the original arrest and incarceration. Discrimination against formerly incarcerated people lasts a lifetime, in the form of reduced employment opportunities, removal of the right to vote, and economic hardship.

“The War on Drugs is the biggest cause of disenfranchisement,” said Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted Peoples Movement co-organizer Pastor Kenny Glasgow. In 2008 Glasgow won a groundbreaking lawsuit restoring the voting rights of the currently incarcerated and those convicted of drug crimes in Alabama.

Activist Legend Avoids Marijuana Sentence — With Heart Attack

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 27, 2011 Culture

Free Dana Beal

Dana Beal to Toke of the Town: “They had to let me go, ’cause I up and died on them”

Exclusive Interview: Dana Beal

Longtime marijuana activist Dana Beal has had a rough year. Back on January 6, he was charged with possessing 169 pounds of marijuana after being pulled over in Dodgeville, Wisconsin for a broken taillight and missing bumper — and he was already facing charges involving 150 pounds the previous year in Nebraska. On September 20, he got a five-year prison sentence for the newer charges.

It seemed a foregone conclusion. Beal — with an ancestor who signed the Declaration of Independence, Beal, a founding member of the Youth International Party (Yippies) along with the legendary Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, Beal, who’d been involved in every major social justice movement since the early 1960s — was going to be spending some time in the Big House. His sentence was a “half and half,” where he’d have to serve the first 2.5 years and be paroled for the second half.

But Dana’s life has never been, and probably never will be, a boring one, from the 1960s to being in his 60s. In 1967 he was charged with trying to sell acid to an undercover cop; he went on the run but eventually ended up serving a year on that rap. In 1972 he founded, then edited, the Yipster Times (later to become Overthrow) which published until 1979. His efforts to promote the use of ibogaine to cure addiction to heroin, cocaine and alcohol through the organization Cures Not Wars have resulted in thousands of people being able to walk away from hard drugs.

Medical Marijuana Advocates Sue Obama DOJ Over Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 27, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Marylanders 4 Safe Access

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a medical marijuana advocacy organization, filed suit in federal court on Thursday challenging the Obama Administration’s attempt to undercut local and state medical marijuana laws in California.

ASA argues in its lawsuit that Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has “instituted a policy to dismantle the medical marijuana laws of the State of California and to coerce its municipalities to pass bans on medical marijuana dispensaries.”

The DOJ policy has involved aggressive SWAT-style raids, criminal prosecutions of medical marijuana patients and providers and threats to local officials for merely implementing state law.

“Although the Obama Administration is entitled to enforce federal marijuana laws, the 10th Amendment forbids it from using coercive tactics to commandeer the lawmaking functions of the state,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who filed the lawsuit Thursday in San Francisco’s federal District Court.

U.S. Atty. Claims Obama Didn’t Order Med Marijuana Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 27, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

U.S. Department of Justice

Rogue U.S. Attorneys? We are being told California’s four federal prosecutors: from left, U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner (Eastern District), U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy (Southern District), U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag (Northern District) and U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte (Central District), went off on their own, unauthorized by the Obama Administration, and announced a federal crackdown on medical marijuana. If that’s really true, the next we hear from these morons should be their resignations — or their mugshots.

After California’s four U.S. Attorneys announced a medical marijuana crackdown in that state, a howl of protest went up from patients and advocates. After all, the Obama Administration had said that going after patients and providers who were following state law would “not be a priority.” Now, a spokeswoman for one of the four federal prosecutors involved claims that Obama didn’t order the crackdown, and in fact wasn’t involved at all.

Is it just me, or does that “revelation” lead to mental images of a headless beast thrashing about, dangerously and inexcusably out of the control of any leader who can be held to account? Is anybody in charge here?

Are we really to believe that four rogue U.S. Attorneys have actually staged a medical marijuana coup of sorts in California, forging off on their own and writing a new federal policy 180 degrees opposed to the President’s previous position?

If that’s so, then the next we hear from these four ass-clowns should be their resignations — or their mugshots.

In any event, the outpouring of rage and dismay from the medical marijuana community must be making an impact for this sort of ridiculous announcement to be seen as necessary.

DPA To Host Drug Policy Reform Conference In L.A. Nov. 2-5

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 26, 2011 Culture, News

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.

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