Congress debates Obama’s “schizophrenic” marijuana policies

[Sir X]

Congress debates Obama’s “schizophrenic” marijuana policies

Javier Martinez uses a sign to advertise for LoHi Cannabis Club dispensary at a 4/20 marijuana rally in Civic Center Park April 20, 2012, in Denver, Colorado. MARC PISCOTTY/GETTY IMAGES

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A administration official confirmed to Congress on Tuesday that, in spite of President Obama’s recent comments, the administration still opposes state-based efforts to legalize marijuana.

The administration has been “consistent in its opposition to attempts to legalize marijuana and other drugs,” Michael Botticelli, the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the House Oversight Committee’s Government Operations subpanel.

Congress deemed marijuana a harmful drug under the Controlled Substances Act, he said, and “the Department of Justice’s responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged.”

The comments follow Mr. Obama’s assertion that it is “important” to let the experiments with legalization in Colorado and Washington state proceed, and that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the subpanel, suggested the president’s attitude may contribute to the growing use of marijuana among adolescents.

“Given the recent statements... the president may, in fact, be a major contributor now to some of the declines we see in the perception of risk” associated with the drug, Mica said. “We’re going from ‘Just say no,’ to ‘I didn’t inhale,’ now it’s 'Just say maybe.’”

Obama: Marijuana not "more dangerous" than alcohol
Synthetic marijuana use down, but real pot use up among teens
Mica added, “We have the most schizophrenic policy I have ever seen.”

Botticelli insisted that the administration is attempting to take a “balanced” approach that rejects the so-called “war on drugs” but also rejects legalization efforts.

“The president has indicated this is a public health challenge and that we need to deal with it as a public health challenge,” he said.

Nevertheless, the White House and Congress are left in an awkward spot, now that two states have legalized the drug for adults, while 20 states and the District of Columbia have approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

In fact, while the subpanel discussed the matter, the D.C. city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of decriminalizing marijuana possession. The D.C. vote puts Congress on the spot, since the federal legislative body technically has authority over all Washington, D.C., municipal laws.

Before the new law goes into effect, it must go through a 30-day period during which Congress could pass a resolution “disapproving” of it. Congress could also use the power of the purse as leverage over the District.

While Congress in recent years has shown more deference to the District’s lawmaking, it has a history of intervening on this issue -- the District approved medical marijuana use in 1998, but it took more than 10 years for Congress to let the city implement the new rules. This year, however, Congress doesn’t seem inclined to get involved.

A committee aide for Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del. -- whose committee has jurisdiction over D.C. issues -- said Carper has yet to take a position on whether Congress should intervene or not.

Mica said in a statement to CBS News that the city council vote is “just one more example of the conflict between state and federal law... This is a discussion that is long overdue.”

While Mica criticized the president’s recent remarks, some Democrats at Tuesday’s hearing defended them.

“I think the president was exactly right,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said with respect to Mr. Obama’s point that poor kids, along with minorities, are more likely to get “locked up” for smoking pot.

Cummings said he has “serious questions about the disparate impact of federal government’s enforcement policies on minorities.”

Those concerns are exacerbated, he said, by the divergent laws at the state level.

“It’s one thing when you have equal enforcement, but it's another thing when some people are engaged in purchasing marijuana in the streets and other ones in the suites.” he said. “You have many African-American young men... spending long sentences sitting in prison while others law enforcement don’t even touch.”

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[Sir X]

Deputy Drug Czar Admits Marijuana Is Safer Than Alcohol
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During a congressional hearing today, The Raw Story’s Eric Dolan reports, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) got deputy drug czar Michael Botticelli to admit that marijuana is safer than alcohol. But it was not easy:

“How many people die from marijuana overdoses every year?” Connolly asked.

“I don’t know that I know. It is very rare,” Botticelli replied.

“Very rare. Now just contrast that with prescription drugs, unintentional deaths from prescription drugs, one American dies every 19 minutes,” Connolly said. “Nothing comparable to marijuana. Is that correct?”

Botticelli admitted that was true.

“Alcohol—hundreds of thousands of people die every year from alcohol-related deaths: automobile [accidents], liver disease, esophageal cancer, blood poisoning,” Connolly continued. “Is that incorrect?”

But Botticelli refused to answer. Guessing where the line of questioning was headed, he said the “totality of harm” associated with marijuana indicated it was a dangerous drug, even though it was not associated with deaths.

“I guess I’m sticking with the president—the head of your administration—who is making a different point,” Connolly fired back. “He is making a point that is empirically true. That isn’t a normative statement, that marijuana is good or bad, but he was contrasting it with alcohol and empirically he is correct, is he not?”

Botticelli again tried to dodge the question, but Connolly interrupted him and told him to answer.

“Is it not a scientific fact that there is nothing comparable with marijuana?” Connolly asked. “And I’m not saying it is good or bad, but when we look at deaths and illnesses, alcohol, other hard drugs are certainly—even prescription drugs—are a threat to public health in a way that just isolated marijuana is not. Isn’t that a scientific fact? Or do you dispute that fact?”

“I don’t dispute that fact,” Botticelli said.

Michael Botticelli (Image: ONDCP)
Michael Botticelli (Image: ONDCP)



The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, by contrast, refuses to admit that marijuana is safer than anything. At a a recent meeting of county sheriffs, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart reportedly criticized President Obama for speaking candidly about the relative hazards of alcohol and marijuana. It’s not clear whether Leonhart thinks Obama’s statement was incorrect or merely inconvenient. But either way, the outrage generated by Obama’s remarks shows drug warriors believe he conceded a point crucial to their cause. I hope they are right.

[cross-posted at Hit & Run]

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[Sir X]

Marijuana Decriminalization Advances in Washington, D.C.
By William Selway Feb 5, 2014 12:01 AM ET 18 Comments Email Print
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Photographer: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg
A movement to soften or eliminate marijuana laws has been stoked by legalization in... Read More
The city council in Washington, D.C., took a first step toward decriminalizing marijuana in the nation’s capital amid a widening U.S. push to loosen sanctions against users of the drug.

The District of Columbia council, on an 11-1 vote, gave initial approval yesterday to lowering the punishment for possession of as much as an ounce of marijuana to a fine, instead of potential jail time. The bill faces a second vote before it goes to Mayor Vincent Gray for approval. The Democrat is in favor of the change.

A movement to soften or eliminate marijuana laws has been stoked by legalization in Colorado and Washington state, the first states to allow its sale for recreational use. While the drug is still illegal under federal law, the Justice Department hasn’t moved to stop those states from proceeding.

Fifteen states, including California, have already lifted criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of the drug, according to the Washington-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which advocates legalization.

In the District of Columbia, council members in favor of changing the law cited concern that the criminal penalties disproportionately affect blacks, who are statistically more likely to face arrest for drug charges than whites.

President Barack Obama, in an interview with the New Yorker magazine published last month, citied similar concerns about how marijuana laws are enforced and said he didn’t think the drug was more dangerous than alcohol.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Selway in Washington at wselway@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net

[Sir X]

Alaska moves another step closer to August marijuana-legalization vote
BY MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS
mtheriault@adn.comFebruary 4, 2014 Updated 11 hours ago
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Campaign to Regulate Marijuana
Tim Hinterberger and fellow Campaign to Regulate Marijuana backers submit over 46,000 signatures for a proposed ballot initiative to legalize marijuana on Wednesday, January 8, 2014, at the state Division of Elections office in Midtown. The effort is co-sponsored by Hinterberger, a UAA professor; Bill Parker, a former deputy commissioner of the Dept. of Corrections, and Mary Reff.
ERIK HILL — Anchorage Daily News Buy Photo

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Alaska moved one big step closer Tuesday to a public vote on legalizing marijuana.

On Tuesday, a ballot initiative campaign to decriminalize and regulate pot reached the signature threshold necessary under state election law to put the issue on the Aug. 19 primary ballot.

If the measure passes, Alaska would become the third state in the nation, after Colorado and Washington, to allow cannabis for recreational use.

Backers modeled the proposed initiative after Colorado's new law, which regulates and taxes marijuana similarly to alcohol.

Alaska's Campaign to Regulate Marijuana reached the signature threshold on Tuesday morning, when totals posted on the Alaska Division of Elections' website showed that 31,593 valid voter signatures had been counted. State election law requires 30,000 signatures. Ballot initiative backers also met a requirement to gather signatures from voters in at least 30 of 40 House districts.

"They have hit the magic numbers," said state elections director Gail Fenumiai.

Nothing is official quite yet.

First, workers must examine the remaining 5,000 signatures and Lt. Gov Mead Treadwell must sign certification paperwork, Fenumiai said. That's expected to happen next week.

Reaching the signature requirement was the last major hurdle to getting the question on the Aug. 19 primary election ballot.

There, Alaskans will decide on legal pot along other big questions for the state, including a controversial oil-tax referendum, an initiative that would require legislative approval for future large-scale mines in the Bristol Bay region and potentially a boost to the minimum wage.

All that -- plus a contested U.S. Senate race primary -- could draw large numbers of voters, said Ivan Moore, an Anchorage pollster and campaign consultant.

"The primary election is looking at being one of the highest turnout primaries we've had ever, I think," he said.

It's not clear how that will play for the marijuana question.

But in Alaska as in the rest of the United States, attitudes toward legalizing the drug have dramatically softened in recent years.

In a 2004 Ivan Moore Research poll that asked if pot should be decriminalized, only 38 percent of Alaskans said yes. By 2010, the number jumped to 43 percent when Alaskans were asked if pot should be legalized. A 2013 poll by the North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling firm on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project found that 54 percent of Alaskans polled would vote yes on a ballot initiative.

"There has been phenomenal change," Moore said.

So far, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana has mostly been funded by the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that is the largest marijuana policy reform group in the country.

The group has contributed $1,000 in cash and $3,757 in services and other in-kind donations, according to Alaska Public Offices Commission campaign disclosure reports. Four individual donors had contributed a total of $1,800 as of Jan. 11.

Backers argue that pot should be legalized and regulated in a manner similar to alcohol, with local communities retaining the ability to opt-out.

So far, most of the campaign's energy has been spent on gathering signatures, said spokesman Taylor Bickford, who works for Strategies 360, a Seattle-based public relations and consulting firm with offices in Alaska and throughout the West that's managing the initiative effort.

Campaigners handed 48,000 signatures to the Division of Elections on Jan. 8.

About 79 percent of signatures counted so far have been found "qualified" by state rules, said Fenumiai.

Past petitions have had signature acceptance rates of between 80 percent and 89 percent, she said, putting the marijuana initiative at the low end of the spectrum.

"The bottom line is we exceeded the required number of signatures," Bickford said. "You don't get bonus points for having a higher validity rate."

Most of the 8,485 signatures found "unqualified" by the state are considered invalid because the signers couldn't be identified as registered voters, Fenumiai said.

A national anti-legalization group headed by Patrick Kennedy has said it plans to campaign against the ballot initiative.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana, like its opponent the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana, appears to be selling its side of the issue as the only approach compatible with the Alaskan value of independence.

"Smart Approaches to Marijuana has been approached by Alaskan activists who don't want to see the safety problems and burdensome government regulation that would come with legalization," wrote spokesman Kevin Sabet in an email Tuesdsay.

Sabet wouldn't say who those Alaskan activists were. Plans will be announced later this spring, he wrote.

Bickford said that argument won't far.

"I don't think Alaskans are going to have a member of the Kennedy family from the East Coast telling us how to live our lives," Bickford said.

Reach Michelle Theriault Boots at mtheriault@adn.com or 257-4344.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/02/04/330681...#storylink=cpy

[Sir X]

Marijuana Legalization Bill Introduced in Oklahoma
Posted: 02/05/2014 2:00 pm EST Updated: 02/05/2014 5:59 pm EST Print Article
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MORE: The 420 Times Marijuana Oklahoma 420 State Alcohol Medical Decriminalization Marijuana Marijuana Recreational Marijuana Connie Johnson Weed Politics News
Unyielding efforts are being made in the Oklahoma State Senate to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes for adults age 21 and older.

Senator Connie Johnson has introduced Senate Bill 2116 that, if successful, would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana similar to alcohol in her republic.

"By taxing and regulating marijuana we can take the lucrative market out of the hands of criminals and drug cartels and put it in the hands of tax-paying, law-abiding businesses," Senator Johnson declared.

The Sooner State residing senator was also quick to point out that the perpetuation of the current prohibition of marijuana diverts the attention of law enforcement officials from more serious crimes.

"More importantly, we can stop arresting adults simply for using a substance less harmful than alcohol and focus our law enforcement resources on violent crimes and real threats to public safety," Senator Johnson affirmed.

Not only does Senator Johnson believe that it's immoral to punish people that choose to use "a substance less harmful than alcohol," but she also feels there has to be an intelligent alternative to overpopulating the privatized industrial prison complexes with individuals arrested for nonviolent drug crimes such as marijuana possession.

"As taxpayers, we're spending over $30 million each year policing, jailing and incarcerating our citizens on marijuana-related offenses. Yet marijuana is almost universally available. It's time for a smarter approach," Senator Johnson avowed.

[Sir X]

Up in smoke: The Obama administration's pot politics problem
By Halimah Abdullah, CNN
updated 9:00 AM EST, Wed February 5, 2014
Watch this video
Obama on legalizing marijuana
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Obama administration largely taking a pass on bumper crop of state pot laws
State and federal lawmen frustrated by patchwork of pot laws, Obama administration attitude
Midterm and 2016 elections could herald a change on nation's marijuana policies
Experts say the federal government will eventually have to step in

Washington (CNN) -- The state-led push to legalize pot is a "chronic" problem for the Obama administration.
Marijuana is not only legal in Colorado and Washington, but cannabis has become a cottage industry complete with 420 sampler tours and shops where customers can buy pot brownies or candy in those two states.
And New York and Florida could soon join the 20 states and the District of Columbia where medical marijuana is legal, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The administration has taken a fuzzy stance on the matter: in states where it's legal to puff, the government will pass on punishment.
"We're going to see what happens in the experiments in Colorado and Washington," President Barack Obama said in a recent interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. "The Department of Justice ... has said that we are going to continue to enforce federal laws. But in those states, we recognize that ... the federal government doesn't have the resources to police whether somebody is smoking a joint on a corner."
Obama's 'schizophrenic policy' on pot? Obama back-tracks on marijuana? W.H.: Don't misinterpret pot comments Fla. to vote on medical marijuana
That approach frustrates some in state and federal law enforcement — including the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, Michele Leonhart, who according to several media reports, blasted the administration's approach during an annual sheriffs meeting last month.
Jon Gettman, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Shenandoah University, said it is "politically convenient" for the administration to allow the states to tackle pot policy rather than change the federal approach.
"They see social change happening and they're caught between a rock and a hard place," Gettman said.
That social change includes a sea change in the way Americans view pot use.
A CNN/ORC International poll last month showed that just over half the country — 55% —supports marijuana legalization. This is up from the 16% who felt that way a quarter century ago.
Nearly three-quarters of those polled say alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana.
Where pot is legal
It's a sentiment the president shares.
"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life," the President told the New Yorker in a recent interview. "I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."
Shortly after the interview was published, the administration rushed to clarify the President's position. It said the White House opposes a national move to decriminalize pot despite Obama's personal views on marijuana use.
Marijuana is currently classified under the Controlled Substances Act as "Schedule I," much like heroin or cocaine, with a high likelihood for abuse and no medical value.
"What is and isn't a Schedule I narcotic is a job for Congress," Obama told Tapper during the CNN interview. However, the President did not say during the interview whether he would urge Congress to move to reclassify marijuana.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, has been working to gather lawmaker signatures on a letter to Obama in support of reclassifying marijuana. The administration has previously indicated that it is unlikely to reclassify marijuana under a less stringent category of drugs.
Frustration with what some lawmakers see as the administration's mixed messaging on marijuana was evident during a House Government Operations Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.
When Michael Botticelli, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, hedged on answering whether cocaine, methamphetamine or marijuana is more dangerous and addictive Blumenauer pounced.
"If a professional like you cannot answer clearly that meth is more dangerous than marijuana which every kid on the street knows, which every parent knows -- if you can't answer that maybe that's why you are failing to educate people about the dangers," he said.
"I don't want kids smoking marijuana. ... But if the deputy director of the office of drug policy can't answer that question how do you expect high school kids to take you seriously?"
Feds working on new pot banking rules
Obama on legalizing marijuana Obama, Perry backpedal on marijuana Should marijuana be legalized?
The administration has "a bad political problem" when it comes to pot, said Kevin Sabet, an assistant professor at the University of Florida's Drug Policy Institute.
"I think this is a very difficult position for them and they see it as a lose-lose," said Sabet, who served as a drug policy adviser to both Republican and Democratic administrations and is on the board of directors of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an anti-pot legalization group. "They don't want to alienate a voting bloc in favor of legalization."
Obama's views so incensed the DEA director that Leonhart blew off a little steam about the topic during the annual meeting of the country's sheriffs late last month, according to the Boston Herald.
Sheriffs who were present told the paper she expressed frustration over Obama comparing smoking pot to consuming alcohol.
"Her comments are not necessarily unexpected," said Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro pot legalization group. There are a lot of folks who have spent the last 20 to 30 years fighting the war on drugs. It's natural for them to revolt."
Still, the nation's attitudes and laws regarding marijuana are changing.
During a drug policy debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he advocated decriminalizing marijuana. But he stopped short of pushing for legalization. However, the stance, coming from a Republican who once ran for President seems to offer further evidence of a change toward views on marijuana even in conservative corners.
"As the governor of the second-largest state in the country, what I can do is start us on policies that can start us on the road towards decriminalization," Perry said, adding that he views Colorado's marijuana laws as constitutional but he opposes a federal mandate.
The politics of pot even hovered over this year's so-called "Stoner Bowl" as teams from Colorado and Washington faced off in New Jersey, a state where it's illegal to toke.
As Super Bowl traffic curled through the Garden State toward Met Life Stadium, drivers had front row seats to an off-field battle of the billboards by pro and anti-marijuana legalization forces.
"Marijuana. Safer than alcohol ... and football," boasted a billboard by the Marijuana Policy Project. "Marijuana kills your drive. Don't lose in the game of life," read the counter by Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
Pot and the Super Bowl
Mayor: I did not support legalizing pot Piers, Coulter battle over 'potheads' Enforcing the new pot laws in Colorado
Eventually though, both marijuana legalization advocates and opponents say, the federal government will have to clear the smoke.
"The real issue is: are we going to have a system where 25 states have legalization and 25 states don't?" Gettman said, adding, "Things are going to change dramatically after the next two elections in 2014 and 2016 when more states pass this."
The direction of federal pot policy could be determined by upcoming midterms and the 2016 presidential election as states weigh whether to legalize marijuana.
There's big money at stake.
Billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros gave $1 million in 2010 to help legalize marijuana in California, a vote which ultimately failed. He and fellow billionaires John Sperling and former Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis, who died late last year, have donated millions to the pot legalization causes in a number of states.
"The long-hair, tie-dye types cut their hair and put on Armani suits and got very serious about pot," Sabet said adding that opponents worry marijuana could become "the next big tobacco" with billions of dollars at stake for a product they feel has serious health concerns.
A slate of anti-government regulation, pro-states rights, GOP potential presidential candidates such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Perry will find their positions on marijuana tested by factions within their party that oppose legalization.
Rubio opposes legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana for recreational use but recently told the Tampa Bay Times that he is open to learning more about medical marijuana. Last year, during an interview with the Hoover Institution, Paul said he is opposed to legalization but does support decriminalization.
One place for common ground might be in efforts to decriminalize the penalties for marijuana-related crimes, opponents and advocates say.
The push to decriminalize pot has made for some unlikely partnerships.
Obama on the problem of criminalizing marijuana use
For example, liberal Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont teamed up with Paul, a tea party backed conservative on a measure aimed at changing mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes such like marijuana possession. The measure also has the support of Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.
Tea party backed Republican Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho and Congressional Black Caucus member Rep. Robert Scott, D-Virginia have joined forces on a similar measure that would judges more wiggle room in sentencing.
Obama, civil rights organizations and both pro and anti-marijuana legalization groups all acknowledge that minorities are often disproportionately incarcerated for pot-related crimes.
"My concern is when you end up having very heavy criminal penalties for individual users that have been applied unevenly and in some cases with a racial disparity," Obama told Tapper during the CNN interview. "I think that is a problem."

[Jangle]

This movement is picking up top speed. Maybe by the end of the year it will be decriminalized by the Feds.

[Sir X]

Obama put fuel on the fire when he said it was up to congress,they threw it back at him and the DEA director .The DEA director is more in line with KD and Historian views,and the president is dealing with the science.Something has to give ?.....thank the lord public opinion is with the science and the schizophrenic view of classing ganja with hard drugs is being ripped to shreds.

Trying to see what the repugs trying to do with this issue,at best its decriminalise for medical marijuana.Decriminalising for recreational use ,is the mental block on their part they view it as legalisation.Some not all ,and that some seems to be dividing them.

Rubio & Christie.

[Jangle]

The Mexican Connection
In the early 1900s, the western states developed significant tensions regarding the influx of Mexican-Americans. The revolution in Mexico in 1910 spilled over the border, with General Pershing’s army clashing with bandit Pancho Villa. Later in that decade, bad feelings developed between the small farmer and the large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor. Then, the depression came and increased tensions, as jobs and welfare resources became scarce.
One of the “differences” seized upon during this time was the fact that many Mexicans smoked marijuana and had brought the plant with them, and it was through this that California apparently passed the first state marijuana law, outlawing “preparations of hemp, or loco weed.”
However, one of the first state laws outlawing marijuana may have been influenced, not just by Mexicans using the drug, but, oddly enough, because of Mormons using it. Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church’s reaction to this may have contributed to the state’s marijuana law. (Note: the source for this speculation is from articles by Charles Whitebread, Professor of Law at USC Law School in a paper for the Virginia Law Review, and a speech to the California Judges Association (sourced below). Mormon blogger Ardis Parshall disputes this.)
Other states quickly followed suit with marijuana prohibition laws, including Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), Iowa (1923), Nevada (1923), Oregon (1923), Washington (1923), Arkansas (1923), and Nebraska (1927). These laws tended to be specifically targeted against the Mexican-American population.
When Montana outlawed marijuana in 1927, the Butte Montana Standard reported a legislator’s comment: “When some beet field peon takes a few traces of this stuff… he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies.” In Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy.”

[Jangle]

Again, racism was part of the charge against marijuana, as newspapers in 1934 editorialized: “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.”

[Jangle]

In 1930, a new division in the Treasury Department was established — the Federal Bureau of Narcotics — and Harry J. Anslinger was named director. This, if anything, marked the beginning of the all-out war against marijuana.

Harry J. Anslinger
Anslinger was an extremely ambitious man, and he recognized the Bureau of Narcotics as an amazing career opportunity — a new government agency with the opportunity to define both the problem and the solution. He immediately realized that opiates and cocaine wouldn’t be enough to help build his agency, so he latched on to marijuana and started to work on making it illegal at the federal level.
Anslinger immediately drew upon the themes of racism and violence to draw national attention to the problem he wanted to create. He also promoted and frequently read from “Gore Files” — wild reefer-madness-style exploitation tales of ax murderers on marijuana and sex and… Negroes. Here are some quotes that have been widely attributed to Anslinger and his Gore Files:

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”
“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”
“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”
“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”
“Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”
“You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”
“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

And he loved to pull out his own version of the “assassin” definition:

“In the year 1090, there was founded in Persia the religious and military order of the Assassins, whose history is one of cruelty, barbarity, and murder, and for good reason: the members were confirmed users of hashish, or marihuana, and it is from the Arabs’ ‘hashashin’ that we have the English word ‘assassin.’”

[Sir X]

I take issue with it ,personal issue living here in the states on the Island and seeing caucasians use ganja like water, and the garrisonisation of the hoods where stop an frisk to criminalise is standard,how can one not speak out about it.You see the same crap in Jamaica 100 times over ,middle calls and upper middle class dont get harrased or criminalised for ganja ,its a downtown or so called garrison problem that put peace officers against the community.Brutality,the escapism that ganja is the fault for all our evils,the escape for mental illness,unemployment,violence,etc etc.Not the social,econoimic,political policies but ganja?..The same plant that the chinese have cornerd the market in pattents and hemp ,the same plant the indians have been celebrating for a millenia.

Rivers of blood have flowed in Jamaica and the USA for ganja.It is a human rights issue and anyone who hides behind the schizophrenia reasoning of the KDs are cowards because they refuse to acknowledge the science,while good citizens are murdered/brutalised for a plant.The street activist in Obama is coming out on one issue that impacts people of colour all over the world

Harvard PHD/MD Emeterius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK-UftmB6Po

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QlMR6ImSoI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CiqXOTRIL4

[Sir X]

Uruguay’s president nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for legalizing marijuana
Published time: February 06, 2014 09:18
Edited time: February 06, 2014 13:03 Get short URL
Uruguay's President Jose Mujica (Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins) Uruguay's President Jose Mujica (Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
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The president of Uruguay has been nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. According to his advocates, José “Pepe” Mujica's much talked-about marijuana legalization is in fact "a tool for peace and understanding."

For the second year in a row, the Drugs Peace Institute, which has supported Mujica’s marijuana legalization drive since 2012, insisting that the consumption of marijuana should be protected as a human right, has endorsed his candidacy, along with members of Mujica's leftwing political party the Frente Amplio, the PlantaTuPlanta (Collective of Uruguayan growers) and the Latin American Coalition of Cannabis Activists (CLAC).

Despite an avalanche of global criticism, in late December Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalize the production and sale of the popular herbal drug. Under the new law, which comes into full effect in early April, Uruguayans will have several options to gain access to it.

The Drugs Peace Institute said that Mujica’s stand against the UN-led prohibition of mind-altering substances is a "symbol of a hand outstretched, of a new era in a divided world."

"It is a promise to bridge the gap between defiant marijuana consumers and the prohibiting society. Hopefully, the start of the acceptance of this consumption by society and the concomitant development of understanding of its use as a natural medicine, historically used for spiritual liberation, might initiate a process of healing in a world, very confused and deeply divided, over its religious legacy," the Dutch NGO stated on its website.

People take part in a demo for the legalization of marijuana in front of the Legislative Palace in Montevideo, on December 10, 2013, as the Senate discuss a law on the legalization of marijuana's cultivation and consumption. (AFP Photo / Pablo Porciuncula)People take part in a demo for the legalization of marijuana in front of the Legislative Palace in Montevideo, on December 10, 2013, as the Senate discuss a law on the legalization of marijuana's cultivation and consumption. (AFP Photo / Pablo Porciuncula)

The institute pointed out that, unlike coca-based products that reinforce the ego and individual self-esteem, marijuana has the "peculiar quality of diminishing the consumer’s ego." It pointed out that so far only one government leader has succeeded in challenging the prohibition: "the World’s Poorest President” - Mujica - dubbed so due to his modest lifestyle.

"Jose Mujica once said that he’s been looking for god but [hasn’t] found him yet. By legalizing marijuana and opening the doors of spiritual happiness to the young, he might not have found the god of other nations…, but he certainly has followed in the footsteps of Jesus when he said ‘Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these,’" the NGO noted.

“I’m very thankful to these people for honoring me,” Uruguay’s president responded in Havana, as quoted by La Nación Argentine daily. “We are only proposing the right to try another path because the path of repression doesn’t work. We don’t know if we’ll succeed. We ask for support, scientific spirit and to understand that no addiction is a good thing. But our efforts go beyond marijuana - we're taking aim at the drug traffic," Uruguay's 78-year-old guerrilla-turned president said.

The leader of the South American state has championed the controversial legislation as a way to snuff out the illegal drugs trade in Uruguay, noting that both Washington and Colorado had legalized marijuana. He signed the bill into law on December 25. The Uruguayan government has until April 9 to finalize the regulations that will govern the sale and cultivation of marijuana.

AFP Photo / Desiree MartinAFP Photo / Desiree Martin

Marijuana aficionados will be given carte blanche to grow cannabis. However, the law forbids having more than six hives per person. There will be a cap on the amount that can be bought every month, initially set at 40 grams. Residents aged over 18 will have to register in a special nationwide database that keeps track of how much marijuana was purchased in the past month. The law will forbid foreigners to buy it, and in an attempt to undercut the illegal market price of $1.40, the market price for the drug will be set at a dollar a gram.

Late last month, Uruguay's National Cannabis Federation launched special training courses on the cultivation of the popular plant. The training courses are also put forward as one of the measures taken by the authorities to control the trafficking and consumption of marijuana.

The international community lashed out at Uruguay's leader, with the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board chief, Raymond Yans, saying that Uruguay "knowingly decided to break the universally agreed and internationally endorsed treaty." Mr Yans argued in a statement that claims that the law would help reduce crime were based on "rather precarious and unsubstantiated assumptions."

Uruguay's president made it into the top 10 finalists for the award last year. However, the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Mujica has been president of Uruguay since 2010. He was a member of an armed political group inspired by the Cuban revolution, the Tupamaros, in the 1960s and ‘70s. After the military coup in 1973, during the dictatorship, he spent 14 years in prison. This included being confined to the bottom of a well for more than two years.

When democracy was restored in 1985, Mujica was freed under an amnesty law. He was Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2005 to 2008 and a senator afterwards. When he became president, he pledged to give away 90 percent of his monthly salary to charities that benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs. Much to everybody's surprise, the unpretentious leader has also shunned the grandeur of the presidential residence in favor of his humble farmhouse.