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

Uruguay Unveils Details for World’s First National Legal Marijuana Market

It is refreshing to see a small, trailblazing country pave the way for more intelligent, coherent and humane drug policies. On Friday, Uruguay released its long-anticipated regulations accompanying the law that was signed into effect last December, which made Uruguay the first country in the world to legally regulate the production, sale and consumption of marijuana for adults. Drug prohibition has devastating effects on people’s lives around the globe, from the 650,000 marijuana possession arrests per year in the United States to the 100,000 drug war deaths in Mexico in the past 7 years. Amidst growing consensus among political leaders in Latin America that the war on drugs isn’t working, Uruguaymade this bold move in an effort to regulate an existing marijuana market currently controlled by illicit drug traffickers and to generate public […] Read More

The Drug War Fuels Mass Deportation of Nonviolent Migrants

250,000 people have been deported for drug offenses in the last 6 years. The drug war has increasingly become a war against migrant communities. It fuels racial profiling, border militarization, violence against immigrants, intrusive government surveillance and, especially, widespread detentions and deportations. Media and politicians have tried to convince us that everyone who gets deported is a violent criminal, a terrorist or a drug kingpin. But a newly released, first-of-its-kind report shatters that notion, showing instead that the majority (some two-thirds) of those deported last year were guilty of minor, nonviolent offenses – including thousands deported for nothing more than possessing small quantities of drugs, typically marijuana. The report, an analysis of federal immigration data conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, […] Read More

2014: Politicians Who Oppose Marijuana Legalization Are On the Wrong Side of History

A majority of Americans support marijuana legalization. A majority of Americans support marijuana legalization – yet not one sitting governor or U.S. Senator supports it, according to a New York Times piece. Marijuana prohibition is a disastrous failure. 43 years after President Nixon launched the “war on drugs,” the U.S. arrests 650,000 people a year for marijuana possession – yet marijuana and other illegal drugs are as available as ever. Thanks to the drug war, the U.S. has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet nearly 25 percent of its prisoners. Colorado and Washington made history in 2012 becoming the first states – and the first two political jurisdictions anywhere in the world – to legally regulate the production and distribution of marijuana, and many […] Read More

2014: Obama Needs to Fire His Rogue DEA Chief

The DEA head said the agency is “fighting back” against the Justice Department. DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart told a congressional committee today her agency is “fighting back” against Justice Department policies tolerating marijuana in states where it is legal. The president needs to dump her, or at least remind her who the boss is. Thanks to the Marijuana Policy Project for the heads up on this. Here’s their release on it: DEA Administrator Tells Congress Her Agency Is “Fighting Back” Against Administration’s Tolerance of Marijuana Legalization                                                                At a Wednesday House subcommittee hearing, DEA director Michele Leonhart publicly opposed Department of Justice position on legal marijuana in Colorado and Washington and warned of dangers of marijuana legalization … to pets. WASHINGTON, D.C. — Michele Leonhart, administrator of the […] Read More

2013: Despite Resistance, Uruguay Near Passing Landmark Marijuana Laws

Natural Society Here in the U.S., we hold up Colorado and Washington as being models of future marijuana policy. Where they legalizes recreational marijuana, creating regulated and taxed systems, the majority of states are still trying to determine how to implement medicinal pot. In Uruguay, however, lawmakers have taken one big step towards creating a nationwide regulated marijuana industry, and they’ve done it despite the resistance of the people. In Uruguay last month, members of the lower house of parliament passed a bill that could create the world’s first such nationwide regulated marijuana market, on a vote of 50-46. Next the bill will head to upper house later this year where it is expected to pass if the current momentum sustains. The bill will create a system where residents can […] Read More