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Graphic: Madison NORML

​Students at more than 80 colleges across the United States are urging their universities to allow them to use marijuana, rather than the legal party substance, alcohol, as part of National Alcohol Awareness Month.

The students argue that stiff penalties for being caught in a campus dorm with cannabis encourages students to use alcohol and promotes binge drinking.

Photo: popten
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske: “You can envision a lot of different things.” Oh yeah, Gil? Like you being out of a job?

​The Obama Administration’s top drug enforcement official dodged a question Thursday on how the federal government would react if Californians vote to legalize pot in November.
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said he “wouldn’t speculate” on what Obama would do if the marijuana legalization ballot initiative is approved.
“Since it hasn’t passed — right now it would be improper to speculate on what the federal government’s role is,” Kerlikowske said during an appearance on ABC’s Top Line webast, reports Michael O’Brien at The Hill.
When pressed, Kerlikowske admitted Thursday that a number of possible responses, including lawsuits to litigate the differences in state and federal drug laws, could spring up if California voters legalize pot.
“You can envision a lot of different things,” Kerlikowske said.
An April 2009 Field Poll showed 56 percent of Californians favor making pot legal for recreational use, while taxing the proceeds.

Graphic: DemocraticStuff.com

​With sad predictability, the GOP’s cowardly, conservative apologists for the status quo in California have dutifully lined up against the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, which will appear on this November’s ballot in the Golden State.

The California Republican Party wasted no time in making their opposition to marijuana legalization official, reports Joe Garofoli at SF Gate.
“The last thing California needs is hundreds of thousands of more people getting high, and the costs to society that would come from widely expanded drug use,” said GOP chair Ron Nehring Wednesday, seemingly unaware that pot use has already expanded.
“We know a top factor behind whether young people try drugs is cost, and legalization would certainly bring the cost of dope down, making it much more widely accessible,” Nehring said, seemingly unaware that, so far in human history, cost of drugs has never kept any teen from trying the stuff, and besides, weed is already widely accessible.

Photo: stingus.net

​Internationally renowned musician and activist Sting has teamed up with the Drug Policy Alliance to call for an end to the failed War on Drugs. The musician has written a passionate letter spelling out the devastating consequences of the Drug War, and is urging people to support the DPA in advocating for sane drug policies.

“The War on Drugs has failed — but it’s worse than that,” Sting writes. “It is actively harming our society. Violent crime is thriving in the shadows to which the drug trade has been consigned. People who genuinely need help can’t get it. Neither can people who need medical marijuana to treat terrible diseases. We are spending billions, filling up our prisons with non-violent offenders and sacrificing our liberties.”

Photo: Peter Dean Rickards/The Independent

​A Washington state medical marijuana activist — who nearly killed an armed intruder in his home this month — has been barred from buying guns, even though he says he has no criminal record.

Steve Sarich of CannaCare said he tried to buy a shotgun and a pistol a few days after the March 15 shootout at his home, to replace guns that were seized by investigators, reports Gene Johnson of The Associated Press. But Sarich said he failed the background check.
Sarich got an email from the King County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday, attempting to explain the denial. It says Sarich showed law enforcement officers his paperwork as a medical marijuana patient — and those papers create a presumption that Sarich is an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance.
Sarich is a legal medical marijuana patient under Washington’s medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1998.

Graphic: International Cannabis & Hemp Expo

​The International Cannabis & Hemp Expo is coming to Daly City, California’s Cow Palace next month. Organizers say no marijuana will be sold during the expo, planned for April 17 and 18.

“It’s mainly to bring awareness and education to the public” on the medical, recreational and industrial uses of cannabis, according to Bob Katzman, the expo’s chief operations officer.
“We want to enlighten people on the fact that we are looking at an estimated $8 billion-a-year industry in California alone,” Katzman said, reports Neil Gonzales of the San Mateo County Times.

Patients are allowed to bring their own medical marijuana to the Cow Palace, according to organizers, but they will need to show valid documentation before they can enter a “safe, secure” designated outdoor smoking area.
​”It will be an area outside the building and only accessible to people who prove to have a valid prescription [he means a doctor’s recommendation]for medical marijuana use,” Cow Palace CEO Joe Barkett told The Oakland Tribune.

Graphic: Oregon NORML

​It’s full speed ahead for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA), a ballot initiative which would legalize and tax marijuana in the Beaver State, as the Oregon Supreme Court has dismissed the only challenge to OCTA’s ballot title.

The challenge — filed by Bradley Benoit from the Beaverton, Ore., area — came from an earlier comment regarding OCTA’s summary explanation. The comment requested the summary of the measure describe in detail the fact that the Oregon Attorney General would be responsible for defending Oregonians, and the law itself, should a federal case arise.

Photo: Just Another Blog (From L.A.)
Then-Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown (center) with Linda Ronstadt (the babe), Jackson Browne (right), David Lindley (left) and the Eagles in the late 1970s

​Back in the 1970s when he was dating Linda Ronstadt, hanging with the Eagles and was the dashing young governor of California, a few roaches were allegedly — and famously — spotted by a reporter in the aftermath of a wild party at Jerry Brown’s place. For a brief, shining moment, “Governor Moonbeam” was the darling of the counterculture crowd.

Especially after his 1975 signing of California’s marijuana decrim law, Brown seemed just about as hip as a politician could be, considering. He even admitted trying pot.
But it’s funny what 30 years can do.

Photo: RBerteig
Los Angeles County D.A. Steve Cooley’s idea of a good time is to make fun of medical marijuana patients while getting drunk.

​Medical marijuana patients were among the punchlines at a rowdy roast last week honoring pot-hating Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley. There were plenty of gags involving Cooley’s crackdown on medical marijuana, with each guest receiving rolling papers in a package reading, “Cooley’s Collective.”

​Cooley, who apparently long ago gave up even the appearance of being fair and impartial when it comes to medical pot, evidently finds humor in the plight of Los Angeles patients who are facing  an uncertain future due to safe access being put in jeopardy because of his policies.
While Cooley and his cronies are quick to poke fun at marijuana users — even sick and dying medical marijuana patients — drinking must be OK.
After Cooley’s roast the top financial official in Los Angeles, Miguel Santana, was arrested in the San Gabriel Valley at 12:15 a.m., on his way home from the Cooley event, for drunk driving.


Photo: Eugene Davidovich
Medical marijuana patient, provider and activist Eugene Davidovich was victorious in court today.

​San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’s war on medical marijuana patients and providers suffered another crushing defeat Thursday afternoon, as activist Eugene Davidovich was acquitted by a jury of all charges stemming from his arrest last year as part of Operation Endless Summer.

Davidovich was facing four felony charges and the very real possibility of a long prison sentence.

A Navy veteran with an honorable discharge, Davidovich started a legal medical marijuana collective in San Diego, carefully abiding by state law.
Eugene was arrested in February 2009 by San Diego narcotics officers for providing another legal patient with medical marijuana.
He told Toke of the Town that the chief investigative officer in his case testified on the stand that the officer based his expert testimony on “medical marijuana training” on a handout from something called the Narcotic Educational Foundation of America, “Drug Abuse Education Provider of the California Narcotic Officers’ Association.”
In these “training” materials, titled Use of Marijuana As A “Medicine” (PDF) (the quotes are theirs), we learn immediately — in the first sentence! — how these guys roll.
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