Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: Boston, cannabis, ganja, hashish, hemp, law, marijuana, pot, skunk, weed
Boston, MA — What’s wrong with a few joints? Nothing, if you ask the proponents of one of the worst ideas on the ballot this year.
Question 2 would make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana a civil offense, punishable by a $100 fine. A recent poll suggests that the question will win easily. Over 70 percent of voters in the poll backed it in a Channel 7/Suffolk University survey.
That isn’t a huge surprise. Public attitudes about marijuana use have clearly relaxed, to the point where a presidential candidate’s youthful dalliances with it have been a nonissue in the campaign. That doesn’t mean this should pass.
Money has poured in to support it, much of it from out of state. Billionaire George Soros, who has led the charge to decriminalize marijuana possession nationwide, has donated at least $400,000.
The major argument of the proponents is that enforcing marijuana laws is a waste of time and public resources. They have produced a report arguing, absurdly, that Massachusetts would save $29.5 million a year, if only cops would stop chasing pot smokers around.
They might have a point, if police officers were really doing that. But in fact, marijuana possession charges are almost always tacked onto more serious offenses. In 2007, not one person went to jail in Suffolk or Middlesex counties for marijuana possession alone. First offenders, by statute, get six months’ probation, after which the charge is dropped. “The well-financed proponents got a jump on providing misinformation to the public ranging from public health issues to law enforcement,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone said last week.
Prosecutors and police are up in arms about Question 2, and they are not alone. The Rev. Jeffrey Brown of the Boston TenPoint Coalition, who has spent years dealing with crime issues that spring from drug use, castigated the backers of Question 2 as out-of-touch suburbanites who have no clue about the drug problems in the neighborhoods he works in.
“I’ve heard that the legalization lobby has targeted Massachusetts because this is a liberal state,” Brown said. “What I need is someone to help me in the street, helping these young men and women get jobs and educations and rebuilding families. I don’t need a bunch of suburban folks asking what’s wrong with a little marijuana. It’s amazing that anyone would consider this.
“Does the average suburban person even know how many blunts you can get from an ounce? Twenty-eight – we’re not talking about a thimbleful.”
Whitney Taylor is running the campaign for Question 2. She argues that 7,500 people a year get criminal records because of marijuana possession.
“We’re not saying that people are going to jail for this,” she said. “We’re saying that arrests and bookings are a drain” on public resources. She said 11 states have passed similar laws, with no increase in drug use.
The arguments in favor of Question 2 are weak. If people are not going to jail for possession, what is the argument for making the law even weaker? Turning marijuana possession into a lesser offense than speeding will only encourage and embolden drug pushers and their customers. Why, exactly, is that a good idea? This is a bad solution to something that isn’t even a problem.
There will be a range of opinion on this, but I don’t like the fact that this campaign is being bankrolled and run by people who will never to have to deal with its consequences. Soros and his organization are based in New York; one of the biggest individual contributors locally is Woody Kaplan ($10,000, according to campaign finance records) of fashionable Commonwealth Avenue. It’s no accident that you won’t see many people in neighborhoods ravaged by drugs signing up for this cause. This is a classic limousine liberal movement.
The public pays so little attention to ballot questions that they have become the vehicle of choice for ideas that would never pass in the Legislature. This is one that should not fly under the radar.
Source: Boston Globe
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: Arkansas, cannabis, ganja, hashish, hemp, law, marijuana, pot, skunk, weed
Fayetteville, AR — A ballot petition to have marijuana arrests and convictions as a “low priority” by law enforcement and prosecutors may make its way to the voters this November.
The group Sensible Fayetteville collected 900 more names to add to a petition which already had the signatures of 3,385 registered Fayetteville voters, said Ryan Denham, an organizer for Sensible Fayetteville. It takes 3,686 voters to move the initiative to the ballot. When supporters of the measure turned in their first set of signatures Aug. 20, they were 310 names away from the mark.
“We have collected close to 900 gross signatures and are confident we at least have 301 valid,” said Denham, who turned in the final set of signatures to city hall Friday.
Officials in the Fayetteville City Clerk’s office will begin verifying the signatures next week. The measure will appear on November ballots if the 3,686 valid signature mark is met.
The drive by Sensible Fayetteville to put the marijuana issue to voters began in November 2007. If the “Lowest Law Enforcement and Prosecutorial Priority Policy Ordinance” passes, Fayetteville police and prosecutors will be required to treat adult marijuana possession offenses as a low priority.
Further, the measure requires the city clerk to send an annual letter to state and federal legislators, governor, and president stating: “The citizens of Fayetteville have passed an initiative to de-prioritize adult marijuana offenses, where the marijuana is intended for personal use, and request that the federal and Arkansas state governments take immediate steps to enact similar laws.”
Getting the extra signatures needed was not difficult, said Denham.
“The majority signed because they agreed with the initiative,” remarked Denham, adding getting “over the hump” or being part of the democratic process were not the top concerns among signers. “We had visitors from neighboring counties come to take literature and support our effort.”
Eureka Springs is the only other Arkansas city to support such a ballot measure. Similar laws have been passed by communities in Missouri, Montana, Washington, California and Colorado.
Source: Morning News, The (Springdale, AR)
Website: http://www.nwaonline.net/
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, died, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, law, marijuana, medical cannabis, seattle, Timothy Garon, transplant, USA
By Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) – A musician who was denied a liver transplant because he used marijuana with medical approval under Washington state law to ease the symptoms of advanced hepatitis C died Thursday.
The death of Timothy Garon, 56, at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive care nursing center was confirmed to The Associated Press by his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and Alisha Mark, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center, which operates Bailey-Boushay.
Dr. Brad Roter, the physician who authorized Garon to smoke pot to alleviate for nausea and abdominal pain and to stimulate his appetite, said he did not know it would be such a hurdle if Garon were to need a transplant.
The case has highlighted a new ethical consideration for those allocating organs for transplant, especially in the dozen states that have medical marijuana laws: When dying patients need a transplant, should it be held against them if they’ve used pot with a doctor’s blessing?
Garon died a week after his doctor told him a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver transplant list because of his use of marijuana, although it was authorized under Washington state law.
“He said I’m going to die with such conviction,” Garon told an AP reporter at the time. “I’m not angry, I’m not mad, I’m just confused.”
Garon believes he contracted hepatitis C by sharing needles with “speed freaks” as a teenager. In recent years, he said, pot has been the only drug he’s used. In December, he was arrested for growing marijuana.
He had been in the hospice for two months and previously was rejected for a transplant at Swedish Medical Center for the same reason he later got from the university hospital.
Swedish said he would be considered if he avoided pot for six months and the university hospital offered to reconsider if he enrolled in a 60-day drug treatment program, but doctors said his liver disease was too advanced for him to last that long. The university hospital committee agreed to reconsider anyway, then denied him again.
Link http://www.komonews.com/news/18475224.html
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, cocaine, drug, executions, ganja, hashish, hemp, heroin, indonesia, law, marijuana, traffic, war on drug
JAKARTA, Indonesia — This country has resumed executions for serious drug crimes after a four-year hiatus, and Indonesia’s attorney general has warned drug offenders on death row that their executions may now be accelerated.
The resumption follows a decision last year by Indonesia’s Constitutional Court that upheld the death penalty for serious drug offenses.
Two Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were the first to be executed for drug crimes after the long break. The two, Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa, were put to death on June 26.
All executions in Indonesia are by firing squad. Prisoners are taken to a field to stand in front of 12 men who each fire one shot aimed at the chest. If that barrage does not kill the prisoner, a commander stands ready to fire a point-blank shot to the head.
Although Indonesia is known for some of the world’s strictest penalties for drug offenses, Kathryn Duff, a representative of Amnesty International, said the country was “not typically an enthusiastic executioner.”
Indeed, Indonesia had suspended executions for drug offenders while the court was considering the constitutional case and had not put drug offenders to death for two years before that while prisoners pursued judicial reviews and clemency, said A. H. Ritonga, a deputy attorney general.
Mr. Ritonga said the statement last month by the attorney general, Hendarman Supandji, about speeding up executions did not necessarily mean all 58 prisoners on death row for drug-related crimes would be executed soon. “Death row inmates will only be executed according to the law, after their appeals are exhausted,” Mr. Ritonga said, adding that they can also apply for clemency.
The president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has publicly said, however, that he would not pardon drug offenders.
Using the death penalty for drug offenses had been challenged by three Australians sentenced to death for trying to smuggle heroin off the resort island of Bali, and by two Indonesians. Last October, the Constitutional Court ruled that a constitutional amendment upholding the right to life did not apply to capital punishment. The court added that the right to life had to be balanced against the rights of the victims of drug trafficking.
Indonesia executed the two Nigerians on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, as a message to those trafficking drugs through the country.
Indonesia is fighting an epidemic of drug abuse. Its population of 238 million includes an estimated 18 million addicts, according to the Ministry of Health.
There are 112 felons on death row. Seven have exhausted appeals and may be executed soon; they include three prisoners convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, according to the attorney general’s office. Eighteen other prisoners have appealed for clemency.
Indonesia executed only three prisoners in 2006, the year before the death penalty challenge was filed. By comparison, according to Amnesty International, China is estimated to have executed at least 1,000 prisoners that year; Iran executed 177; and Pakistan, 82. In the United States, there were 53 executions.
Still, President Yudhoyono has been a staunch supporter of the death penalty since taking office in October 2004, rarely granting clemency.
He went ahead with the executions of three men who had been convicted in connection with attacks by a Christian militia on Muslims, despite concerns from international human rights groups that not all the evidence had been presented during their trial.
So far, Mr. Yudhoyono, a former general, also has not bowed to pressure from Australia to commute the death sentence of the three Australians imprisoned for trying to smuggle heroin.
The three are entitled to seek one more judicial review and, should that fail, to appeal for clemency.
By PETER GELLING
From “New York Times”
Link http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/world/asia/13indo.html?ref=world
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: 2007, arrested, cannabis, cocaine, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, heroin, italy, law, marijuana, report, repression, skunk
The last report about the use of drug in 2007 admitted that in Italy use of cannabis is increased.
Last year 32413 people has been signaled to authorities: 73% for cannabis,16% for cocaine and 8% for heroin and 26985 people has been arrested, more than in 2006
The use of cocaine is increased in 2006,but not in 2007.On the other hand, in 2007 use of cannabis is increased and 14 Italians on 1000 between 15 and 64 years old have admitted and 14% had used cannabis more than one time in 2007.
320000 people has been cared for drug: 205000 for heroin and 154000 for cocaine.
84,6% of Italians are against the use of every drug and 89,8% believe is danger.70% is worried and 80% is against the use of cannabis. More people are against cannabis respect 2006.
I believe real number of cannabis smokers is more higher, and not so many people (80%) are against the use.
Younger Italians, particularly, are less worried about cannabis.
I’m afraid in 2009 a new and more strong wave of repression will beat us…
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: anti-drug, cannabis, cocaine, drug, drug-test, ganja, hashish, hemp, italian parliament, italy, law, marijuana, prohibitionism, skunk, war
In October 2006 a popoular tv transmission (“Le iene”) had done a secret drug-test on 50 members of italian parliament.
The result was incredible: 1/3 of members use drugs.
The report was stopped and starded an incredible discussion:is it correct a secret drug-test for parliament’s member?
I think it isn’t correct,but:
-it wasn’t possibile recognize the members (the faces were obscurated and voices changed)
-the tests were mixed,so it wasn’t possible recognize whic test a members had used
-Italy has the strongest anti-drug law in Europe and one of the strongest in “occidental world”
-it was the first time for a drug-scandal among italian parliament’s members.Emilio Colombo (more than 80 years old) ammited he use cocaine as therapy (cocaine therapy…) and he didn’t suffered of restriction (as example jail,driving license and passaport suspended)
The tv-report was stopped,the trasmission fined and some party proposed drug-test for every members,but nothing has done.
On 10 june 2008 the italian supreme court condamned the transmission because the report “had demanged the public imagine and onorability of parliaments”.
Today, Carlo Giovanardi (the co-author of the anti-drug law,with Gianfranco Fini) has admitted that drug ,particularly cocaine, is diffused also in parliament.He said also drug test will be done for every category of workers that could be “on risk”.
He forget members of parliament…
Filed under: Hemp&Law | Tags: cannabis, ganja, hashish, law, marijuana, medical cannabis, oregon, supreme court, us
Portland — The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled that an employer must make a reasonable accommodation for medical marijuana use for a disability. In an opinion issued Wednesday, the appeals court upheld a ruling by the state Bureau of Labor and Industries.
The agency said that Emerald Steel Fabricators in Eugene violated state laws barring discrimination against the disabled by discharging an employee who used medical marijuana.
A key issue was the fact the employee never used marijuana in the workplace — an issue the Oregon Supreme Court avoided in 2006 when it ruled against a registered medical marijuana user fired from his job at a Columbia Forest Products plant after urine tests detected traces of the drug.
Employers do not have to let patients smoke medical marijuana in the workplace. But the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act approved by voters in 1998 was unclear about whether employers must accommodate workers who smoke medical marijuana off the job.
In the opinion by Judge Timothy Sercombe, the Oregon Court of Appeals went back over the 2006 Oregon Supreme Court ruling to emphasize the Emerald Steel employee never used the marijuana at work — just like the worker in the Columbia Forest case.
The appeals court also noted the Oregon Supreme Court did not address some of the defenses raised in the earlier case, including the argument an employee could be affected by medical marijuana use while on duty or in “safety-sensitive positions.”
It also rejected an attempt by Emerald Steel to raise new issues on appeal, including the fact that marijuana remains illegal under federal law despite state law allowing its use for medical purposes.
“Accordingly, we will not consider those issues for the first time on review,” Sercombe wrote.
Medical marijuana has been opposed by the construction industry, which wants laws to prohibit medical marijuana users from potentially hazardous jobs such as operating heavy machinery.
Associated General Contractors has lobbied for laws defining safety-sensitive jobs, including driving large trucks, handling explosives, working at construction sites and other jobs listed as hazardous under state work safety laws.
Supporters of restrictions on medical marijuana use, including state Rep. Mike Schaufler, D-Happy Valley, have said they are trying to ensure public safety.
But medical marijuana activist John Sajo says that during legislative hearings last year, nobody was able to identify a single case where a medical marijuana patient had caused a workplace accident or problem.
He also said the vast majority of medical marijuana patients are too ill to work.
Eleven other states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state — have medical marijuana laws.
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Filed under: hemp in general | Tags: amsterdam, cannabis, coffee shop, drug, dutch, hashish, hemp, holland, law, legal, marijuana, prostitution, rdl, red light district
Gedogen is a Dutch verb that cannot be properly translated.
It roughly means ‘tolerated,’ but in a wider and different sense of the word. It is used of a situation or activity that technically is illegal, but which is actively tolerated as a matter of government policy — since everyone knows the issue (say, prostitution or the use of soft drugs, can not be legislated away).
In short, gedogen is used in reference to something that is illegal, but not illegal.
Prime example: coffeeshops — where soft drugs can legally be bought and used.
Technically, however, it is illegal for a coffeeshop to buy soft drugs. As the saying goes, “the front door is legal, but the back door is illegal.”
That it happens anyway is one of those peculiar contradictions that make ‘gedogen’ necessary.
http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/192-gedogen
Demise of Pillarization
The Netherlands has a long tradition of social tolerance. In the 18th century, while the Dutch Reformed Church was the state religion, Catholicism and Judaism were tolerated.
In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of ‘pillarization,’ in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government.
Pillarization (verzuiling in Dutch) organized society into several smaller segments or “pillars” according to different religions or ideologies, which operate separately from each other in a non-racial form of apartheid.
In many respects, these pillars formed the building-blocks of a tolerant, relatively diverse, non-confrontational society.
At the same time this approach unintentionally also led to intolerance. For instance, your religion influenced which supermarket or bakery you frequented. You wouldn’t want your purchase of sugar to financially aid the wrong religion.
http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/171-why-is-amsterdam-so-tolerant#gedogen
Amsterdam i think is the most “free” town in Europe.
Cannabis and prostitution are “gedogen” but all the dutch i’ve know are diffident with cannabis.I didn’t ask about prostitution but i can imagine…
People i’ve know are beetween 16 and 20 years old and it was very strange for us (italian) find 40 boys and girls of this age that didn’t smoke and were very diffident about cannabis:only the boyfriend of a girl was a smoker and the girl hated his passion for smoke.
Italy has the most repressive law in Europe against cannabis,but more young are smoker and drug-users.
Filed under: *Welcome | Tags: *Welcome, cannabis, ganja, hashish, hemp, jail, law, marijuana, presentation, prohibitionism, reform, skunk, war on drug
Many people get scared just when they heard the name:marijuana.
The same people,in a discussion about hemp,praise the different uses of hemp.
Is it possible that only a synonymous could change the opinion? We do not believe is possible.
The problem,for us,is the historical,political and cultural legacy we have inherited from 30’s and especially from the media that everyday give us an information everyday more biased and under the controll of lobbies that are trying to controll our mind and (just like in Bradubury’s book “Fahrenheit 451“) would like to see us,motionlesses looking tv.
We don’t want to “make information on 360 degrees”,but we only would like to give you a bit of truth in a sea of false allarmism and metropolitan legends against hemp.
We would like to show that another way (opposited prohibitionism) is today possible,and already exist places where this way is followed.
We will try to show the power of this plant,her medical,industrial,alymentary and cosmetic uses and everything we think is important to know about. We are doing this for an our common passion and because are trying to give awareness about an unfairly persecuted plant.
We don’t want to istigate the use,or worst the abuse,of a forbidden substance (in Italy),but diffuse true information that could reach much people as possible.We will be happy if only a person will inform himself about hemp after the reading of this blog.
We don’t want to change the world,make a revolution or that people believe us in a blind way.
We want only that people heard our voice,we want to inform.
Hempyreum Weblog Team
