Tag: Legality of cannabis

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2014: Historic: New York Times Calls for Marijuana Legalization

“The social costs of the marijuana laws are vast.” The New York Times’ editorial board agrees with the majority of Americans that marijuana prohibition has got to end. In an editorial on July 26 titled “Repeal Prohibition, Again” the board outlined the many reasons to legalize the herb, drawing comparisons with the nation’s 13 years of failed alcohol prohibition in the 1920s and ’30s. Following a “great deal of discussion … inspired by a rapidly growing movement among the states to reform marijuana laws,” the board came to the conclusion that the federal government should repeal its 40-year ban on marijuana. Marijuana has been criminalized as a “most dangerous” Schedule I drug for too long and the toll has been great. It is by far […] 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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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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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

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The Latest Pot Myth, Smacked Down By Science

Why do prohibitionists keep pushing lies about legal weed? Those opposed to the legalization and regulation of marijuana for any purpose, including the plant’s therapeutic use when authorized by a physician, often allege that the adoption of such laws will result in a significant increase in pot use by young people. “The damage of marijuana—and these laws—is clear,” claims David Evans, executive director of the Drug Free Schools Coalition, in a recent open letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder and DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart. “Legalization of marijuana for ‘medical’ use and recreational use in those states has resulted in more marijuana use, particularly among young people.” Adds Kevin Sabet, co-founder of Project SAM and a former senior policy advisor at the White House Office of National Drug […] Read More

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The Most Unbelievably Absurd Argument Against Legal Pot, Yet

Legal marijuana opponents are getting increasingly desperate in their efforts to thwart legalization. Maryland is going green. Last week, the State Senate passed by a margin of 34 to 8 a bill that would decriminalize marijuana in the Old Line State. Governor Martin O’Malley – a potential frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination – said in a statement that he would sign the bill. He said:  “As a young prosecutor, I once thought that decriminalizing the possession of marijuana might undermine the public will necessary to combat drug violence… I now think that [it] is an acknowledgment of the low priority that our courts, our prosecutors, our police and the vast majority of citizens already attach to this transgression of public order and public […] Read More

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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

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2014: Majority of Law Enforcement Officers Support Marijuana Policy Reform

Former cop: the war on drugs changed the very nature of policing for the worse. Though not conducted with the methodological rigor of the Pew poll that came out yesterday showing 54% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana and two-thirds believe drug policy should focus on treatment rather than prosecuting drug users, Law Officer magazine has provided LEAP a poll of its own showing an even more surprising finding: a majority of law enforcement officers also support marijuana policy reform. Though some of the provided answers seemed to overlap, the overall effect is one indicating broad support for change among the readership of the publication, 97% of whom indicated they are or had been in law enforcement.  Some of the most surprising results include 66% saying marijuana possession should […] Read More

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2014: Debunking the 5 Biggest Myths About Pot

The more research is released, the more legalization makes sense. Back in the 1930s, the arguments to criminalize cannabis were bizarre and openly racist. The anti-pot crusader Harry Anslinger made all sorts of over-the-top claims, such as, “Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters.” Nowadays more than 100 million Americans say they’ve smoke pot, millions use cannabis regularly to treat illnesses and it is as legal as alcohol in two U.S. states. However, it remains illegal under federal law largely due to scare tactics ingrained in our society, which date back even prior to Anslinger. Today, pot legalization opponents try a little […] Read More

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2014: Pot Progress: NJ Prosecutors Reverse Age-old Position and Now Support Marijuana Legalization

The majority of municipal prosecutors in the state want to nix marijuana prohibition. Huge strides were made in the struggle for marijuana legalization on Tuesday: The New Jersey State Municipal Prosecutors Association said they support legalizing the possession of pot. This is significant because the association leads the prosecution of all marijuana related charges in the state. “Each week, New Jersey police officers arrest hundreds of citizens for the disorderly persons offense of possession of under 50 grams of marijuana,” said Jon-Henry Barr, president of the board of trustees of the Municipal Prosecutors Association, to the Ashby Park Press. The paper reported that Barr’s other reasons for backing marijuana legalization include: • Requests by prosecutors to analyze samples of marijuana are overwhelming the state’s drug-testing […] Read More