Search Results: clemency (23)

Just your average, .32-gram joint here.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

A ProPublica investigation finds that field drug tests widely-used by police are unreliable and can turn up false positives.

A study in JAMA Psychiatry found that cannabis use disrupts the reward processing mechanism in the brain. The journal editorializes that more research into the plant’s effects on the brain is urgently needed.

Smoking cannabis and tobacco together, a practice more common in Europe than the U.S., may contribute to dependency on both, a study found. See the study here.

In Canada, border authorities have cracked down on shipments of CBD oil. In Australia, some children with epilepsy will have access to the CBD-based drug Epidiolex before trials are complete.

The average joint contains .32 grams of marijuana, researchers have learned. This is an important figure for tax assessments and public health studies, the Washington Post says.

The .32 number was obtained by a statistical analysis of arrest data. In the past, researchers have tried to learn it by asking subjects to compare joint-size to common objects or having subjects roll joints with oregano.

Uruguay’s law allows pharmacists to sell weed, but most don’t want to. A small political party in Japan wants to lift the national ban on MED research.

Synthetic cannabis is still very dangerous.

President Obama’s clemency initiative has commuted the sentences of more than 300 offenders with a focus on non-violent drug offenders. The New Yorker asks why nearly 12,000 prisoner petitions remain undecided.

A case in South Dakota highlights the practice of urine tests obtained by force, with a catheter. State Attorney General Marty Jackley (R) defended the practice on legal grounds, but said “I don’t think anyone wants to go through that methodology.”

The Texas Tribune tells the story of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who got romantically involved with a marijuana smuggler.

The Kind profiles Jeff Mizanskey, who until his release last year was the only man in Missouri serving life for a non-violent marijuana offense. He spent 21 years in prison.

Richard DeLisi, sentenced to three consecutive 30-year terms, or 90 years, for a marijuana importation conviction in 1989, will remain incarcerated. Judge Michael E. Raiden denied a motion requesting a review of his sentence last week. DeLisi has spent the past 26 years behind bars for a nonviolent offense that has a normal guideline sentence range of 12 to 17 years.

Call Gov. Jay Nixon at 1-573-751-3222 and tell him to free Jeff Mizanskey.


Governor Jay Nixon is the only person in the world who has the authority to release Jeff Mizanskey from prison. And activists want to make sure he’s reminded of that every time he leaves his house.
The marijuana reform group Show-Me Cannabis recently purchased billboard space less than two miles away from the governor’s mansion. The billboard urges people to call Nixon directly and ask for the release of Mizanskey, who is 21 years into a life-without-parole sentence for marijuana-only charges.

Show-Me-Cannabis


Efforts to free Jeff Mizanskey, Missouri’s only prisoner serving life without parole for marijuana charges, are continuing with an online fundraiser that seeks to raise money for a media blitz that would aim to persuade Gov. Jay Nixon to grant clemency.
The goal of the Indiegogo campaign is to raise $21,000 – a symbolic amount to represent the 21 years that Mizanskey has been imprisoned – for a series of ads for print, radio, TV, online, and billboards. The radio and TV ads will feature Mizanskey himself. Please visit Indiegogo for more on the campaign and to donate.
Read more on Mizanskey and the campaign to free him over at the Riverfront Times.


Jeff Mizanskey wants you to write the governor.
The only person in Missouri serving a life without parole sentence for nonviolent, marijuana-only charges, Mizanskey says he is overwhelmed by all the attention his case has received over the past year, which included nationwide coverage and a Change.org petition with nearly 500,000 signatures asking Governor Jay Nixon to give clemency to the 61-year-old prisoner.


As Indonesia’s most popular vacation destination, the island of Bali expects to welcome as many as 10 million tourists this year. Being surrounded by crystal clear waters, white sand beaches, and cheap Nepalese hash may sound like paradise…oh, ok, it is paradise.
But if you plan to be among those planning a trip to Bali in 2014, you should beware that the National Narcotics Agency Bali (BNN) – sort of Indonesia’s version of the DEA – has vowed to crack down on narcotics tourism in what they say has already been a busy year of drug busts.


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.

Riverfront Times/Kholood Eid.
Jeff Mizanskey.

The print edition of the Riverfront Times this week tells the whole story of Jeff Mizanskey, the only man in Missouri serving a life sentence without parole for marijuana charges.
Twenty years ago this month, Mizanskey was arrested in a sting operation that resulted in him being convicted a few months later of possessing and intending to distribute about five pounds of marijuana. The story tells how the sting operation came about, how an over-the-top prosecutor and judge were able to dole out such a harsh sentence, and why Mizanskey believes the governor should grant him clemency — his only option of ever getting out of prison.

Weldon Angelos.

Weldon Angelos has been in prison for nearly ten years on federal charges of selling about $350 worth of pot and he’s got another 45 to go. The heavy sentence comes from the fact that Angelos had guns in the house where he delt the pot, never mind that he never used them, showed them or even mentioned them in the deal.
Think that sounds absurd? So do several prominent politicians, scholars and even an ex-FBI director who are all asking President Barack Obama to set Angelos free.

Wikipedia commons.
Rusell Simmons.

What do P-Diddy, Cameron Diaz, Nicki Minaj, Ron Howard and Mark Wahlberg all have in common? Aside from being ridiculously famous and wealthy, they all support the reformation of drug laws in this country.
More than 175 actors, artists, athletes and elected officials signed on to an open letter to President Obama today, asking him to change our drug policy laws from punitive, harsh jail times to one that favors evidence- based prevention and rehabilitation.