| Graphic: Connecticut Citizens for Marijuana Reform |
Friday, June 17, 2011, marks 40 years since President Richard Nixon, citing drug abuse as “public enemy number one,” officially declared a “War On Drugs.” A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, the War On Drugs remains a complete failure.
Drug policy reform advocates across the U.S. will mark this date with a coordinated day of action to raise awareness about the failure of drug prohibition and call for an exit strategy to the failed War On Drugs. Events will be held in 15 states, and in major cities like Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans.
Day of Action events include:
• Chicago: Hundreds of Chicagoans will gather at the State of Illinois James R. Thompson Center to rally against drug policies that have led to injustices such as extreme racial disparity in Illinois’s prisons and jails.
• Los Angeles: Grassroots organizations and students, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Pico Youth and Family Center, Mothers United to End the War on Drugs, All Of Us Or None, Homies Unidos and other criminal justice organizations, will stage a Day of Action to call for community solutions to end the 40-year War On Drugs and mass incarceration. Also, the William C. Velasquez Institute will host a forum in Los Angeles with top Latino leaders to discuss the impact of the Drug War on communities of color.
| Photo: Rigoberto Hernandez/The Oregonian |
| Investigators fro the Westside Interagency Narcotics Team served search warrants on Wednesday in connection with the Wake ‘n’ Bake Cannabis Lounge in Aloha, Oregon. Detectives claim the business was selling marijuana to customers. |
Narcotics detectives on Wednesday raided a marijuana lounge in Aloha, Oregon, spending a good part of the morning removing computers and interviewing customers who showed up at the door.
No arrests were made at the Wake ‘n’ Bake Cannabis Lounge by the Westside Interagency Narcotics Team, but search warrants were also served at residences associated with the store and its owners, reports Dana Tims at The Oregonian.
“Today just happened to be the day when the investigation culminated to the point we were ready to serve our search warrants,” said Dave Thompson, a spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s office.
| Photos: U.S. Marshals Service |
| Mark Steven Phillips was arrested in his senior community apartment 31 years after his original arrest in 1979, left. |
More than three decades after he went on the run, Mark Steven Phillips, a former associate of the Black Tuna Gang of marijuana smugglers, will serve five years in federal prison for his part in bringing cannabis into the United States, a federal judge has ruled.
Phillips, 62, was re-arrested in January while living at a retirement community in West Palm Beach. He was sentenced on Wednesday by the same judge who was over his case in 1979 in Miami: U.S. District Court Judge James Lawrence King, reports David Ovalle at the Miami Herald.
| Photo: NORML Blog |
| Florida has some of the nation’s harshest laws when it comes to growing marijuana — and it leads the nation in busts of grow houses. |
You’d think a place called the Sunshine State should be growing outdoors, but last year, more indoor marijuana grow houses were busted in Florida than in any other state, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Nationwide demand for high-potency marijuana has supposedly turned Florida into a top producer of hydroponic weed, reports Alexia Campbell at the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and hundreds of Floridians are turning their homes into grow houses.
Florida law enforcement agencies raided 818 grow houses in 2010, followed by California’s 719, according to the DEA, but not all agencies report their findings to the DEA.
| Photo: Meredith J. Graham |
| Deputy District Attorney Jeff Greeson holds up a jar of marijuana obtained from defendant Joel Castle’s hotel room ore than a year ago. Castle, left, was ultimately found guilty of possession and sale of marijuana. He chose nine months in prison rather than three years’ probation. |
A California medical marijuana patient said he prefers being behind bars to being told he can’t use cannabis. Joel Castle is going to prison for nine months rather than spending the next three years on probation, because a condition of the probation a judge offered him was that he quit smoking pot.
Castle, the former Chico Cannabis Club operator who was found guilty last month of two felonies associated with a guitar-for-pot trade in January 2010, was sentenced earlier this month, reports Meredith J. Graham at the Chico News Review.
Judge Robert Glusman at first offered Castle three years’ probation. But the medical marijuana patient refused, and was sentenced instead to two years, eight months in state prison.
“It was the first time I really spoke my mind to that judge,” Castle said. Castle ended up being ejected from the courtroom during his sentencing, never a good sign.
| Photo: Grace Slick |
| Rock legend Grace Slick supports the legalization of cannabis through her art. |
You’re invited to the premiere showing of the 420 Collection™ of artwork by rock and roll legend Grace Slick, this Saturday in San Francisco.
Singer/songwriter Slick, formerly at the helm of the high-flying Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, isn’t just a singer, she’s also an accomplished artist and a dedicated marijuana activist.
Saturday’s special exhibit will feature art by Slick, supporter of efforts to end prohibition and ensure safe and legal access to medical cannabis, according to the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
Grace has created a series of paintings and limited edition prints especially for this exhibit, and a portion of each sale with benefit the MPP.
The exhibition will be held from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at SPARC, a medical cannabis collective at 1256 Mission Street in San Francisco.
If you’re in the Bay Area, this is a unique opportunity to view and purchase art by Grace Slick, and at the same time support MPP’s work to make marijuana legal for adults.
| Photo: NewsChannel 3 |
| Jeffrey Hagerman, Karl’s Korners: “We had opened up a dispensary in the back” |
A corner store in West Michigan, specializing in party items like beer and chips, was recently raided for also dispensing marijuana.
The son of the owner of Karl’s Korners in Oswego said he has a medical marijuana license, and so does his partner. But selling marijuana out of a party store is against both liquor laws and a local ordinance, reports WWMT NewsChannel 3.
“We had opened up a dispensary in the back,” said Jeffrey Hagerman.
Hagerman said they started up a compassion center in the back of the business, beyond he beer cooler and the snack counter.
“My partner and I both hard medical marijuana cards, performed patient-to-patient transactions,” Hagerman said.
| Graphic: Emilie_Ann_McGregor |
40th Anniversary of President Nixon’s Declaration of a ‘War On Drugs’ Will Be Marked By Thursday Press Conference
June 17 will mark 40 years since President Richard Nixon, claiming drug abuse was “public enemy number one,” officially declared a “War On Drugs.” A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, the War On Drugs has proven to be a catastrophic failure, according to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).
The DPA, considered one of the nation’s leading organizations promoting drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, will host a press conference on Thursday, June 16 with elected officials, celebrities and VIP’s to call attention to the failures of the Drug War and to propose new solutions.
The press conference is intended to raise awareness about the failures of drug prohibition and call for an exit strategy from the failed War On Drugs.
The press conference will also be streamed on the web and can be viewed live at http://www.newseum.org/streaming/index.htm.
| Photo: Doug Beghtel/The Oregonian |
| Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske wouldn’t meet with a group of former law enforcement officers who were concerned about the bad effects of the War On Drugs. Instead, he sent a staffer to take their report. |
Cops Hand-Deliver Report To Drug Czar’s Office While Czar Refuses To Meet
In conjunction with this week’s 40th anniversary of President Nixon declaring “War On Drugs,” a group of police, judges and jailers who support legalization released a report Tuesday showing how the Obama Administration is ramping up a war it disingenuously claims that it ended two years ago.
Following the report’s release at a press conference Tuesday morning, the pro-legalization law enforcement officers attempted to hand-deliver a copy to Obama Administration Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, the former Seattle chief of police who claimed he ended the War On Drugs two years ago.
Instead of making time to listen to the concerns of fellow law enforcers who have dedicated their careers to protecting public safety, the Drug Czar simply sent a staffer to the lobby to receive a copy of the cops’ report.
| Photo: KULR 8 |
| David Dayton, Heightened Harvests: “A lot of it is related to what’s happening with the news lately” |
Montana’s medical marijuana system is set to begin a new, extremely restrictive phase, and cultivators and dispensaries aren’t the only businesses affected by the crackdown.
Owners at Heightened Harvests said they’ve seen a drop in demand for indoor growing equipment since Senate Bill 423 passed, reports Kyle Midura at KULR 8. The store specializes in indoor gardening supplies.
Store owner David Dayton said hardware sales, especially of grow lights, are down. “Indoor gardening typically is a big slower in the summer and it usually picks up in the fall, but a lot of it is related to what’s happening with the laws lately,” Dayton said.