Tag: Drug Policy Alliance

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Colbert Calls Out Ohio Gov. Kasich: You’re ‘Ruining People’s Lives’ by Locking Them Up For Marijuana

Stephen Colbert recently took on Ohio Governor and GOP presidential candidate John Kasich, over the Ohio marijuana legalization debate. The recent initiative to legalize marijuana in Ohio ultimately failed, after a group of corporate investors tried to amend the state constitution to prohibit entrepreneurs from getting in on the pot trade. The bulk of Ohio voters do, however, support marijuana legalizations, but not if it is tied to a corporate get-rich-quick scheme. “I know this is a dirty word when you’re running in the Republican primary, but you seem reasonable,” Colbert said on The Late Show. “We have a huge drug crisis in this country,” Kasich said. “Is it really pot, the drug crisis?” Colbert stopped him, adding that, “lots of people are going to jail for minor […] Read More

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DEA Chief Rejects Science, Says ‘Medical Marijuana Is A Joke’

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration chief Chuck Rosenberg has some strong words about medical marijuana… the only problem is those words contradict all of the known science on cannabis to date. Rosenberg said Wednesday that he doesn’t think marijuana can actually be “medicinal”. He added that the entire premise of “medical marijuana” is a “joke,” according to a CBS News. “What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal — because it’s not,” Rosenberg said to reporters. “We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous, but don’t call it medicine. That is a joke.” “There are pieces of marijuana — extracts or constituents or component parts — that have great promise medicinally,” […] Read More

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Mexico Considering legalizing Marijuana To Weaken Drug Cartels

Later this month, the supreme court of Mexico will review the country’s current prohibition of marijuana, as well as the possibility of legalizing the plant for medical and recreational use. Medical marijuana is currently legal in Mexico, but the black market drug trade in the country continues to cause widespread violence, drug cartel, and gang activity, just as it does in America. Marijuana legalization has traditionally been a very popular concept in Mexico, where people understand the real-life consequences of the drug war and prohibition. However, the United Nations has forced many countries around the world, including Mexico, to comply with the drug prohibition policy the United States government has championed. Now, with many U.S. states choosing to legalize the plant, Mexico is seeing a […] Read More

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The U.S. House Votes to Chip Away at Marijuana Prohibition

A series of votes on the Justice Department appropriations bill attempt to rein in the rogue agency. Washington is chipping away at pot prohibition. In a series of votes on Tuesday, the U.S. House ended the DEA’s controversial bulk data collection program and also passed three amendments cutting funding from the DEA and shifting it to other federal law enforcement priorities. In more votes today, it approved three amendments aimed at blocking DEA and Justice Department interference with industrial hemp, CBD cannabis oil, and medical marijuana in states where they are legal. A fourth amendment that would have barred interference in legal marijuana states was narrowly defeated. The votes came as the House considers the FY 2016 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. Reps. Jared […] Read More

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Feds Admit Medical Pot Works on Brain Tumors — but They’re Going After Users Anyway

“The Justice Department is ignoring the will of the voters, defying Congress, and breaking the law” In a report issued by a U.S. government-funded research group tasked with studying drug abuse and addiction, researchers are admitting that marijuana is useful in killing off specific types of brain tumors. The report — coming from a government-backed group with annual budget of over $1 billion — arrives at an awkward time for the administration following an announcement by the Department of Justice this week that it will continue to prosecute medical marjiuana cases against individuals in defiance of Congress. According to the Daily Caller, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) issued a revised report for the month of April, stating, “recent animal studies have shown that marijuana […] Read More

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Federal Judge Considers Declaring Marijuana ‘Schedule I’ Status Unconstitutional

A federal judge in Sacramento, California just heard closing arguments in a case that challenges the constitutionality of the federal government’s Schedule I classification for marijuana. The motion points out that a true schedule I substance is defined by a substance having a “high potential for abuse.” It also mandates that the substance have “no currently accepted medical use,” as well as “a lack of accepted safety… under medical supervision.” But all of that is completely untrue of marijuana. Thus, the motion argues that the status restricting the plant is unconstitutional. This marks the first time that a federal court has heard evidence like this since the early 1970s.  The case is United States v. Pickard, et. al., No. 2:11-CR-0449-KJM, and the legal briefs for it are all available online here. So what is the federal […] Read More

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The NY Times’ Hypocritical Employee Drug Tests, Like Marijuana Prohibition, Need to End

Workplace drug testing is unjust and ruins lives. The following article first appeared on Substance.com:  Unless you’ve been in hiding, you’ll know that the New York Times made history last Sunday, July 27, when it launched a series of editorials calling for an end to marijuana prohibition. The first piece, “Repeal Prohibition, Again,” was a complete reversal of the Grey Lady’s hitherto cautious—some would say conservative—position on the drug war: “It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit […] Read More

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Drug Treatment Court Fatally Misunderstands Addict Psychology

My son’s experience of drug treatment court highlights a failed system of catch and release courts. The following article first appeared in The Fix. Also on TheFix.com: The New Recovery; No Drugs, No Drink, No Problem—Straight Edge, Then and Now; CNN Reporter Clearly High While Talking to Anderson Cooper At least if he’s in jail, I know he is safe, I thought, desperately, as I accepted the collect charges from my son. I’m not sure if it was his fourth or fifth incarceration since he’d entered the drug treatment court program—I’ve lost count of the seven to 14 day sentences he has “served” for his disease in the last four months (not to mention the associated fees). Four months ago (six years into his addiction) my son […] Read More

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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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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