Search Results: firedoglake (25)

Graphic: Cannabis Fantastic

​A narrow majority of Colorado’s registered voters believe marijuana should be legalized, according to a new PPP poll. Voters of the state may have a chance to make that a reality next year.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is gathering signatures to put a cannabis legalization measure on the ballot in 2012.
When asked, “Do you think marijuana usage should be legal or illegal?” 51 percent of voters said “legal,” 38 percent said “illegal,” and 11 percent were not sure, reports Jon Walker at Just Say Now.
The breakdown of support in Colorado is almost identical to national patterns of support.

Graphic: markell.org
Governor Jack Markell of Delaware on Friday signed into law a measure legalizing medical marijuana in the state.

​Governor Jack Markell on Friday signed SB 17 into law, making it legal for Delaware residents with certain serious medical conditions to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

The bill had bipartisan sponsors and support in the Legislature. This makes Delaware the 16th state, along with the District of Columbia, to pass an effective medical marijuana law.
The law goes into effect on July 1 and will permit people diagnosed with cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, decompensated cirrhosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), agitation of Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), intractable nausea, severe seizures, severe and persistent muscle spasms, wasting syndrome, and severe debilitating pain that has not responded to other treatments, or for which treatments produced serious side effects, to possess up to six ounces of marijuana without fear of arrest.



Photo: CBS News
ATF Agent John Dodson says he was ordered to let guns get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels

​CBS News has uncovered that the U.S. government has actually been allowing thousands of military-style firearms to be smuggled into Mexico “to see where they would end up.” Investigators call the tactic “letting the guns walk.” 

The entire operation, which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) called “Fast and Furious,” was kept secret from Mexico.

“Documents show the inevitable result,” Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News reports. “The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets … the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.”

Photo: Huffington Post
Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the DEA, is a Bush-era drug warrior who has overseen raids of legal medical marijuana dispensaries — yet Obama is keeping her on.

​The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing tomorrow for Michele Leonhart to serve as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a post Leonhart has held on an interim basis for two years after serving as deputy administrator under the Bush Administration from 2003 to 2007.

During her tenure, Leonhart has presided over hundreds of paramilitary DEA raids on medical marijuana patients and providers in states where medical marijuana is legal.
Even after the Department of Justice, in an October 2009 memo, instructed federal prosecutors to no longer target medical marijuana providers “whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with state laws,” the DEA, under Leonhart’s “leadership,” has continued to raid individuals and collectives operating under state law.
DEA agents in July flouted a pioneering Mendocino County, California ordinance to regulate medical marijuana cultivation by raiding the very first grower to register with the sheriff.

Photo: Democracy Now
Jon Walker, FireDogLake: “…Massachusetts is a strong candidate for becoming one of the first states to embrace legalization”

​”If you want to win, you can do it here in Massachusetts”

~ Bill Downing, MassCann
Voters in Massachusetts appear to be ready to legalize marijuana in 2012, according to an analysis of the votes on local cannabis legalization advisory ballot questions on Tuesday.

Massachusetts allows for citizens to put non-binding local “public policy questions” on the ballot, reports Jon Walker at FireDogLake. And voters in several precincts weighed in this year on whether their local representatives should “vote in favor of legislation that would allow the state to regulate and tax marijuana in the same manner as alcohol.”
More than 150,000 votes were cast on the marijuana issue across Massachusetts in districts containing about 8.5 percent of the total vote.

Graphic: uuLyrics
“Some call it tampee. Some call it weed. Some call it marijuana. Some of them call it ganja. Legalize it; don’t criticize it. Legalize it, and I will advertise it.”

​When reggae legend Peter Tosh released the song and album “Legalize It” in 1976, a new anthem for the marijuana movement was born. And that same year, as a newly licensed 16-year-old driver, Legalize It was one of the first 8-track tapes (I know, LOL) I ever bought.
Now, in 2010, the family of Peter Tosh is, for the first time, coming out and announcing its strong support of California’s Proposition 19 and the Just Say Now campaign to legalize marijuana nationwide, reports Michael Whitney at Just Say Now.
Part of that support is the launch of a new video from Peter Tosh’s son Dave, intended to help mobilize voters to vote November 2, and to organize supporters to call voters for Prop 19 this weekend.
Peter Tosh’s family released this statement:
Today, as Peter Tosh did back in 1976 with the release of Legalize It, the Peter Tosh Estate proudly speaks out for marijuana legalization. They do this in the name of Peter Tosh, his music, and their strong belief in the power of “Yes” on California’s Proposition 19. Join them in the fight for legalization by supporting the Just Say Now campaign.

Graphic: Emperor Of Hemp

​The Jack Herer documentary, Emperor of Hemp will be the featured film on Firedoglake.com’s Movie Night Monday October 25, beginning at 8 p.m. (Eastern Time) and ending at 9:30 p.m.

A story on the film by Lisa Derrick will begin at 8 o’clock and kick off a live online chat with Director Jeff Jones and Writer/Producer Jeff Meyers.
“Firedoglake’s Just Say Now campaign has been instrumental in supporting medical and recreational marijuana legalization initiatives this political season,” Meyers told Toke of the Town on Monday.
When we lost cannabis activist Herer on April 15, he passed into the hallowed hall of hemp history, a man who devoted his life to the cause of marijuana freedom.
Jack pledged to fight every day of his life until either cannabis was legal, he was dead, or until he turned 84. He took the pledge very seriously and never stopped fighting, giving an impassioned speech at Hempstalk 2009 and then collapsing with the heart attack that ended up taking his life a few months later.

Photo: KELOLAND.com
The South Dakota Highway Patrol isn’t officially allowed to interfere with elections. But they found a way around the rule.

​South Dakota’s medical marijuana initiative, Measure 13, is fending off a new foe: the state’s Highway Patrol.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol saved “news” about marijuana busts from the summer — supposedly related to “out of state medical marijuana” — to release two weeks before the election, Michael Whitney of JustSayNow.com told Toke of the Town on Wednesday.
“It certainly looks like the South Dakota Highway Patrol is interfering with the state’s medical marijuana ballot initiative,” Whitney told us Wednesday afternoon.
“Just Say Now is working with Measure 13’s campaign to fight back,” Whitney said.
Measure 13, which would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis in South Dakota for patients with a doctor’s authorization, is in a tight race going down to the wire on November 2.

Photo: Lotsa ‘Splainin’ 2 Do
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske falsely claimed that marijuana profits are a “small part” of the cartels’ operations — when the government’s own figures estimate the figure at 60 percent.

Just Say Now Infiltrates Press Conference, Hand Delivers 52,536 Petition Signatures
The Just Say Now campaign to legalize marijuana slipped into a press conference Thursday with US Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske to deliver a petition signed by 52,536 people, asking President Obama to end the federal government’s war on marijuana.
Daniel Pacheco, a Colombian student studying at Georgetown University and member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, confronted Kerlikowske and offered the petition on behalf of 52,536 Just Say Now activists, and the 28,000 people killed in Mexico in the bloody battle with drug cartels.
“Today I represented the voices of 52,536 people who asked President Barack Obama to end the war on marijuana, to deliver our petition directly to Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, the man most responsible for the country’s continued prohibition of marijuana,” Pacheco said. “We ask that President Barack Obama and his administration hear Mexican President Calderon’s and Colombian President Santos’ call for a debate on legalizing marijuana in the United States – the only way to have any impact on the brutal war with cartels.”
Kerlikowske accepted the petition from Pacheco and Just Say Now. But when asked to respond to Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s call for an open conversation about legalizing marijuana as a way to defund the drug cartels, Kerlikowske falsely claimed that marijuana profits are a “small part” of the cartels’ operations.

Graphic: Yes On Prop 19

​It’s gonna be a close one in California, as the latest poll on Proposition 19, this November’s tax and regulate voter initiative, shows the numbers tightening.

According to the latest SurveyUSA poll [PDF] of likely voters, taken August 31-September 1, Prop 19 still holds a modest lead with 47 percent of voters saying they will vote yes with 43 percent saying they will vote no. Ten percent still weren’t certain how they’d vote on the measure.
The last two times SurveyUSA polled the state, August 9-11 and July 8-11, 50 percent of likely voters said they’d vote yes for legalization, while 40 percent said they would vote no, reports Jon Walker at Firedoglake.
The initiative would allow adult Californians to possess up to one ounce of cannabis, while allowing cities and municipalities to allow, prohibit or regulate its sale in retail stores, reports Dennis Romero at LA Weekly.
Just this week, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein announced she will co-chair the campaign against legalization of marijuana with L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca.
“Is it no surprise that people are going to get killed behind this easy profit?” Baca said Wednesday, reports Nannette Miranda of ABC 7. The sheriff seems to be unaware that the illegal nature of pot is what leads to the violence — just as with alcohol Prohibition.
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