Category: Drug’s

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2014: 6 Months of Marijuana Sales: Positive Trends Emerge in Colorado

From a decrease in crime to millions in tax revenue, things are looking up. With the passage of Amendment 64 in November 2012, Colorado made history and became one of the first two states to approve legal regulation of the cultivation, manufacture and sale of marijuana for adults 21 and over. Colorado has become a proving ground to demonstrate the positive impacts of regulation instead of prohibition – and hopefully will promote similar efforts elsewhere. Despite warnings from legalization opponents, Colorado looks pretty much the same as ever since regulation, if not better. Crime is down, the economy is sound, and there remains strong overall support for legalization throughout the state. Even the state’s Director of Marijuana Coordination was quick to note recently that “the […] Read More

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Worldwide Protests Erupt Over the Racist, Failed War on Drugs

On June 26, people in over 100 cities in at least 46 countries will speak out against the war on drugs. It is difficult to overstate how much of a failure the war on drugs has been. By any reasonable standard it has done much more harm than good. Drug trafficking-related violence has soared, our prisons are stuffed with drug offenders (many of them non-violent), with minorities disproportionately represented. It is a costly, global economic disaster with economic gains from cannabis and other drugs restricted to the black market. Scientists are kept from studying cannabis, a plant that has proven to ease the suffering of countless medical patients—and those patients are forced to break federal law if they want to obtain their medicine. Even by […] Read More

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Attorney General Holder Just Took a Big Step To Help Prisoners of America’s War on Drugs

The Attorney General is urging the U.S. Sentencing Commission to let some people serving excessive sentences for nonviolent drug crimes get out of prison early. Attorney General Eric Holder supported an initiative yesterday that would let tens of thousands of incarcerated nonviolent drug users petition for shorter prison terms, but federal defenders and advocacy groups noted that the proposed strategy is not nearly as sweeping as those they and judges have recommended. In April, the U.S. Sentencing Commission approved a proposal to lower the guidelines for federal drug offenses two levels for defendants sentenced after Nov. 1, 2014. It estimated that the move would reduce average sentences by 23 months. The commission will vote next month on whether to let that amendment apply retroactively. During […] Read More

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Bill de Blasio’s NYPD Keeps Sticking Mostly Blacks and Latinos in Jail for Low-Level Pot Offenses

His top cop Bill Bratton seems unaware that pot has been decriminalized . . . since 1977. The NYPD continues to toss blacks and Latinos in jail for low-level pot offenses, despite Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s campaign pledge to end arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana.   Data assembled by the Marijuana Arrest Research Project indicates that the NYPD under de Blasio has managed to pull slightly ahead of the Bloomberg administration‘s 2013 arrest rates for pot possession. In the first 4 months of 2014, police have arrested an average of 80 people per day for small amounts of pot; the average last year was 78.   The department is also continuing the proud NYPD tradition of primarily targeting young minorities in poor neighborhoods. […] Read More

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Big Tobacco Planned on Big Pot Sales in the 70s—They Were Just Waiting for Legalization

Documents reveal they’ve viewed marijuana as both a rival and potential product. It turns out that the history of Big Tobacco companies and marijuana is more intertwined than was previously known, according to a new study in The Milbank Quarterly. Based on previously secret tobacco industry documents, the study reveals that, since at least the 1970s, tobacco companies have been interested in marijuana as both a rival and potential product. As a result of litigation against the tobacco industry, more than 80 million pages of internal company documents became available at the University of California San Francisco’s Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (www.legacy.library.ucsf.edu). This study, led by Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the […] Read More

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GOP-Controlled House Votes to Block Feds from Interfering in States with Legal Medical Pot

Drug law sanity from a place where usually there is none. The GOP-controlled House showed signs of sanity when it voted early Friday in favor of blocking the federal government from interfering with states that permit the use of medical marijuana. The 219-189 vote came about as the House debated a bill funding the Justice Department‘s budget, AP reported. Conservative GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, the first state in the country to legalize medical marijuana, was among those behind the amendment, pointing out that, “Public opinion is shifting.”  This is true even among Republicans. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 61 percent of Republicans support the legalization of medical marijuana. And in general, Pew found nearly three-in-four Americans (72%) believe that efforts […] Read More

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U.S. Blocks Legal Marijuana Growers From Using Federal Irrigation Water

Feds will not allow government water to be used for the growing of a Schedule I controlled substance. Cannabis farms cannot take advantage of water from federal irrigation projects, the U.S. Interior Department announced. The announcement is a major setback for growers in the states of Washington and Colorado, where both recreational and medical marijuana is legal. The Bureau of Reclamation, the branch of the Interior Department that maintains dams, power plants, and canals in 17 western states, reaffirmed that the growers cannot use water supplied through the federal system. The bureau helps provided irrigation water to about 1.2 million acres of land in Colorado and Washington. “As a federal agency, Reclamation is obligated to adhere to federal law in the conduct of its responsibilities […] Read More

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Latinos are Fed Up with the War on Drugs

California’s prisons are outrageously overcrowded, and Latinos say it’s time for drug sentencing reform. A bill that would significantly reform California’s drug sentencing laws is poised for approval in the state Senate, and a new poll showing strong support for sentencing reform among Latino voters could help push it over the top. Senate Bill 1010, the Fair Sentencing Act, would equalize the penalties for sale of crack and powder cocaine. Under current California law, crack offenses are treated more harshly than powder cocaine offenses. The bill would also equalize probation requirements and asset forfeiture rules for offenses involving the two forms of the same drug. Sponsored by Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), the bill passed the Senate Public Safety Committee last month and the Senate […] Read More

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Corporations Want Control of the Marijuana Industry — Here’s How to Stop It

Putting the growing legal pot business in the hands of for-profit corporations could pose serious and dangerous consequences to the public The standard debate about marijuana legalization has been “Should we, or shouldn’t we?” For better and for worse, the country appears to be moving toward answering that question in the affirmative. The next logical question is, or ought to be, “What sorts of organizations do we want to supply that legal marijuana?” The debate typically skips past that crucial question and presumes that legal cannabis will be produced and sold by for-profit companies—with the government setting some regulatory limits such as restricting access to minors. Colorado and Washington, the two states where voters have already approved legalization, have gone this commercial route. At first […] Read More

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10 Medicinal Weeds That May Grow In Your Backyard

For thousands of years, man has looked to nature to cure disease. In the last decade particularly, medicinal plants have been catapulted into mainstream culture, with the  popularity of plant medicines such as ayahuasca, ibogaine and cannabis making headlines for their powerful healing abilities against some of today’s most prominent illnesses.  However, these plant medicines come with illicit conditions in most countries. The good news is, some of the most common weeds in our backyard yield amazing healing abilities, and they are all legal! Here are ten weeds which possess interesting medicinal properties. (Note: Consult with your health professional before self-medicating with these plants) Chicory (Cichorium intybus), the light blue flower frequently seen along roads, provides the main commercial source of the compound inulin. Patients take inulin to fight high […] Read More