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[Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project] At least 10 of the 18 Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are now on the record in favor of ending the DEA's raids on medical marijuana and/or the federal government's prohibition on medical marijuana. Thanks to MPP's work, seven candidates have publicly pledged to end the DEA's raids in states where medical marijuana is legal — Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM), and former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R-WI). In addition, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) has voted in favor of medical marijuana legislation on the House floor four out of four times, former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-AK) said on C-SPAN, "That one is real simple. I would legalize marijuana," and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said, "I will let states decide that issue." That's right: Even Sen. McCain, when given the opportunity to comment on medical marijuana publicly, said something positive, not negative. It has been only two months since MPP began lobbying the presidential candidates to take strong, public, positive positions on medical marijuana during the presidential primary race in New Hampshire, which is the first state to hold a primary (on January 22, 2008). One particular success story involves Sen. Edwards. In 2003, we trailed him around the state, relentlessly questioning him about medical marijuana access. At the time, Sen. Edwards insisted it would be "irresponsible" to end the DEA's raids on sick and dying people. Now, four years later, his position has changed from vowing to continue the raids to vowing to end them. A majority of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are supportive of medical marijuana access. Our favorite quote so far is from former Gov. Thompson, who told MPP's Stuart Cooper in Manchester, "No, they should not be arrested. They should not be arrested. They should not be arrested. I would do away with the DEA raids!" And this doesn't even count the support that other candidates — including every Libertarian Party candidate, as well as potential candidate Ralph Nader — have expressed for ending marijuana prohibition entirely. Of the two Democratic candidates I haven't yet mentioned, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is studying the issue, and we haven't yet spoken with Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) this year, although he told me personally in the fall of 2004 that he supports medical marijuana. Of the six remaining Republican candidates, they're all bad so far, but we'll keep working on them: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R-VA), former Mayor Rudy Guiliani (New York City), former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), and former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA). Again, you can read about the specifics of their comments by visiting our Web site at www.mpp.org.

For Immediate Release: June 27, 2007 For More Info: Tony Newman, T: (646)335-5384 The United States Conference of Mayors Passes Resolution Calling for a “New Bottom Line” in U.S. Drug Policy Urging Radical Policy Changes, the Nation’s Mayors Seek to Reduce the Harms of Both Drug Misuse and the Failed War on Drugs Mayors Resolve that the U.S. Must Focus on Reducing the Incarceration of Nonviolent Drug Law Violators, Preventing Overdose Fatalities, and Eliminating Racial Disparities Created or Exacerbated by the Drug War The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) made history last weekend by passing a resolution calling for a public health approach to the problems of substance use and abuse. “The mayors are clearly signaling the serious need for drug policy reform, an issue that ranks in importance among the most serious issues of the day,” said Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. The resolution, sponsored by Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City, Utah, was considered at the USCM 75th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California. Adopted resolutions become the official policy of the USCM, which speaks as one voice to promote best practices and the most pressing priorities of our nation’s cities. In adopting this resolution, the mayors have declared that addiction is a chronic, treatable medical disorder and a broad public health concern, and outlined specific policy measures that they endorse. These include a clear imperative to: -Provide greater access to drug abuse treatment on demand, such as methadone and other maintenance therapies; -Eliminate the federal ban on funding sterile syringe access programs; -Establish local overdose prevention policies; and -Direct a greater percentage of drug-war funding toward evaluating the efficacy and accountability of current programs. The resolution further recognizes that U.S. policy should not be measured as it currently is simply by examining drug use levels or number of people imprisoned, but rather by a “New Bottom Line” based on how much drug-related harm is reduced. National drug policy should focus on reducing social problems like drug addiction, overdose deaths, the spread of HIV/AIDS from injection drug use, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and the enormous number of nonviolent offenders behind bars. Federal drug agencies should be judged—and funded—according to their ability to meet these goals. Moreover, since the impact of drug policies is most acutely felt in local communities, evaluation and decision-making must occur at the local level—and federal funding should go toward enabling communities to pursue those policies that best meet the unique challenges of substance abuse.

For Immediate Release: June 28, 2007 For More Information: Naomi Long, T: (202) 669-6071, or Grant Smith, T: (202) 669-6573 Congress Votes to Lift Washington, DC Syringe Funding Ban Change Will Save Thousands of Lives Today the U.S. House of Representatives rejected an amendment that would have restored a ban that prohibits the nation’s capital from spending its own (non-federal) money on syringe exchange programs. The ban was eliminated weeks ago in committee. Congressman Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) tried to reinstitute a modified ban on the floor that would have had a chilling effect on the existing needle exchange program in D.C. (which currently operates entirely on private funds), but the House rejected it 216 Nays to 208 Yeas. In 1998, the Republican-led Congress barred the District Government from spending its own local funds on syringe exchange programs. The ban has been reauthorized in the appropriations bill every year since. But with Democrats now in power, the push to lift the ban gained traction. The Drug Policy Alliance applauds Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), who chairs the Financial Services Subcommittee, for spearheading the effort to lift the ban, and recognizes the tireless efforts of D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. “This is a huge step in helping to reduce HIV and AIDS in Washington, DC,” said Naomi Long, director of the Washington Metro office for the Drug Policy Alliance. “We are pleased that Congress decided to stop playing politics with the lives of intravenous drug users in D.C. at a time when the District is suffering from a HIV/AIDS crisis.” It has been long established by the scientific community that needle exchange programs reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst people who inject drugs without increasing drug use. In Washington, DC, injecting drugs is the second-most common means of contracting HIV among men – and the most common form among women. Approximately one-third of new AIDS cases annually are the result of intravenous drug use. Supporters of needle exchange include the American Medical Association, American Public Health Association, Centers for Disease Control and three former U.S. Surgeons General. A number of faith communities officially support needle exchange including The Presbyterian Church (USA), Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ.

[Courtesy of NORML] Cannabis Has "Clear Medical Benefits" For HIV Patients, Study Says Smoked marijuana produces "substantial and comparable increases in food intake...with little evidence of discomfort and no impairment of cognitive performance" New York, NY: Inhaling cannabis significantly increases daily caloric intake and body weight in HIV-positive patients, is well tolerated, and does not impair subjects’ cognitive performance, according to clinical trial data to be published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS). Investigators at Columbia University in New York assessed the efficacy of inhaled cannabis and oral THC (Marinol) in a group of ten HIV-positive patients in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. All of the subjects participating in the study had prior experience using marijuana therapeutically and were taking at least two antiretroviral medications. Researchers reported that smoking cannabis (2.0 or 3.9 percent THC) four times daily "produced substantial … increases in food intake … with little evidence of discomfort and no impairment of cognitive performance." On average, patients who smoked higher-grade cannabis (3.9 percent) increased their body weight by 1.1 kg over a four-day period. Researchers reported that inhaling cannabis increased the number of times subjects ate during the study, but did not alter the average number of calories consumed during each meal. Investigators said that the administration of oral THC produced similar weight gains in patients, but only at doses that were "eight times current recommendations." The US Food and Drug Administration approved the prescription use of Marinol (a gelatin capsule containing synthetic THC in sesame oil) to treat HIV/AIDS-related cachexia in 1992. Subjects in the study reported feeling intoxicated after using either cannabis or oral THC, but remarked that these effects were "positive" and "well tolerated." Although not a primary outcome measure of the trial, authors reported that patients made far fewer requests for over-the-counter medications while taking either cannabis or oral THC than they did when administered placebo. Most of these requests were to treat patients’ gastrointestinal complaints (nausea, diarrhea, and upset stomach), investigators said. Patients in the study also reported that smoking higher-strength marijuana subjectively improved their sleep better than oral THC. "The data demonstrate that over four days of administration, smoked marijuana and oral [THC] produced a similar range of positive effects: increasing food intake and body weight and producing a ‘good [drug] effect’ without producing uncomfortable levels of intoxication or impairing cognitive function," authors wrote. They added, "Smoked marijuana … has a clear medical benefit in HIV-positive [subjects] by increasing food intake and improving mood and objective and subjective sleep measures." A previous preliminary trial by Columbia investigators published in the journal Psychopharmacology in 2005 also reported that inhaling cannabis "produce[s] substantial … increases in food intake [in HIV+ positive patients] without producing adverse effects." Survey data indicates that an estimated one out of three HIV/AIDS patients in North America use cannabis therapeutically to combat symptoms of the disease or the side-effects of antiretroviral medications. Clinical trial data published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2003 reported that cannabis use by HIV patients is associated with increased CD4/T-cell counts compared to non-users. A separate study published in JAIDS in 2005 found that HIV/AIDS patients who report using medical marijuana are 3.3 times more likely to adhere to their antiretroviral therapy regimens than non-cannabis users. Most recently, investigators at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California's Pain Clinical Research Center reported this year in the journal Neurology that inhaling cannabis significantly reduced HIV-associated neuropathy (nerve pain) compared to placebo. The Columbia University study is one of the first US-led clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of smoked cannabis to take place in nearly two decades, and it is the first to compare the tolerability and efficacy of smoked marijuana and oral THC in HIV patients. For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at: [email protected]. Full text of the study, "Dronabinol and marijuana in HIV-positive marijuana smokers: caloric intake, mood, and sleep," will appear in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Further discussion of this trial is available on the Thursday, June 28 edition of the NORML Daily Audio Stash, online at: http://www.normlaudiostash.com.

Angus Reid Strategies has released the results of an opinion survey showing that a majority of Canadians believe marijuana should be legalized. The full report is at http://www.angus-reid.com/admin/collateral/pdfs/polls/ARS_Drugs.pdf The release is found at http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/16300.

Best Medipot Dispensary: Mellowest practitioners of the good work Named after the military spy plane, SR-71 offers high-grade to the low-key in Downtown Oakland. Like many of the dispensaries of the bay, the caregivers are compassionate, attentive, and concerned. Unlike many, SR-71 captures the look, feel, and attitude of the coffeeshops of Amsterdam. To walk in the front door is to step thousands of miles east into a black-lit tavern replete with a timeless atmosphere that demands you to order a cappuccino, pull out a copy of Fanon, your journal, and contemplate the big questions of life, art, and love to the music of John Coltrane, Gil Scott-Heron, and some Cypress Hill for good measure. Even if you don't smoke, SR-71 is a great old-school coffeeshop. Link to East Bay Express article: http://bestof.eastbayexpress.com/bestof/award.php?award=424024 SR-71 is found at 377 17th St., Oakland, CA, T: 510-251-0690

For Immediate Release: June 27, 2007 – 12:00 EST Contact: Laura Jones, Phone: 202-558-7974, ext. 307 or Cell: 202-425-4659 or Jason Ziedenberg, Cell: 510-332-6503 New numbers show “alarming growth” in incarceration; Justice Department survey shows biggest increase since 2000 California responsible 1 out of 5 new people in prison last year WASHINGTON – After six years of slowing growth prison and jail populations, new statistics due out Wednesday from the Justice Department show an alarming increase in incarceration across the U.S. According to Prisoners and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2006, a new survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics embargoed for release noon Wednesday, June 27 the midyear accounting for prison and jail growth found that “in both absolute numbers and percent change, the increase was the largest since midyear 2000.” The new survey showed that about 6 out of 10 people in prison and jail were African American or Latino, and that nearly 5 percent of African American men were in prison or jail. The new survey showed that one out of every five new people added to prison in the United States were in California. “Once again, communities of color are paying for our troubled criminal justice policies,” said Jason Ziedenberg, Executive Director of the Justice Policy Institute. “The population increase in the already overburdened prison system indicates an alarming growth that should not go unchecked. Billions of public safety dollars are absorbed by prison expansion and limits the nation’s ability to focus on more effective strategies to promote public safety.” When considering the growth, JPI points out that: There is little relationship between prison growth and change in violent crime: Coming just weeks after the Justice Department released its preliminary crime statistics for 2006, regional imbalance in the growth of prison underscore how little relationship there is between crime and the use of incarceration. The two regions that experienced the least change in prison populations (the Northeast, +1.7 percent increase, and the South, +1.2 percent) either experienced a decline in violent crime, or marginal change in violent crime.[1] By contrast, the West saw the biggest increase in violent crime of any region (+2.8 percent), and the biggest increase in the use of incarceration (5.2 percent). The Midwestern region also saw an increase in violent crime (+2.1), and prison growth (+3.0 percent). Some states have reduced prison populations and closed prisons, and others have enacted billion dollar expansion plans. Some states and jurisdictions (8 out of 51) saw no growth, or declining prison populations. Maryland, where prison populations have been falling for the last 4 years, recently closed a prison, potentially saving the state tens of millions of dollars. By contrast, 20 percent of new prisoners added last year were in California, where numerous proposals to reduce prison sentences, reform parole, and provide more resources to drug-involved people in the criminal justice system failed to be enacted. California legislations recently voted for multi-billion dollar prison expansion plan. ### The Justice Policy Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank dedicated to ending society’s reliance on incarceration and promoting effective and just solutions to social problems. See www.justicepolicy.org.

For Immediate Release: June 27, 2007 For More Info: Tony Newman, T: (646) 335-5384 Justice Department Report Finds Largest Increase in Prison and Jail Inmate Populations Since Midyear 2000 2.24 Million Behind Bars, Giving the United States the Shameful Title of World’s Number One Incarcerator Prison Growth Persists Despite Growing Public Sentiment for Alternatives to Incarceration; One in Four Locked Up for Drug Law Violations The Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reports today that the number of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails jumped by 62,037 in the year ending June 30, 2006. That jump represents the largest increase since 2000. There are now 2.24 million people behind bars in this country. The United States continues to rank first among all nations in both total prison/jail population and per capita incarceration rates – with about 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. The failed drug war policies of 30-plus years are a major contributor to America’s prison population explosion. Approximately 50,000 people were incarcerated for drug law violations in 1980. The total is now roughly 500,000. (This number does not include hundreds of thousands of parolees and probationers who are incarcerated for technical violations such as “dirty urines,” nor does it include non-drug offenses committed under the influence of drugs, or to support a drug habit, or crimes of violence committed by drug sellers.) “Two powerful forces are at play today,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “On the one hand, public opinion strongly supports alternatives to incarceration for non-violent, and especially low-level, drug law violators – and state legislatures around the country are beginning to follow suit. On the other hand, the prison industrial complex has become a powerful force in American society, able to make the most of the political inertia that sustains knee-jerk lock-‘em-up policies.” The Drug Policy Alliance has played a pivotal role in reforming drug sentencing laws around the country, including Proposition 36 in California, reform of the Rockefeller drug laws in New York, and equalization of crack and powder cocaine penalties in Connecticut.

For Immediate Release: June 27, 2007 On the occasion of the International Day against Drugs (June 26th), Antonio María Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, declared that “for almost all drugs - cocaine, heroin, cannabis and amphetamines - there are signs of overall stability, whether we speak of production, trafficking or consumption.” Yet repression is rising. Stability in this case means that current drug policies place the heaviest burden among those who are already among the most marginalised in the first place: drug consumers and producers of drug-related plants, both in the North and in the South. They experience far more damage from drug policies than from the drugs themselves. Stability means an escalation of law enforcement and repression. Millions of people are in jail or on trial because they have grown, used or possessed drugs or drugs-related plants. Aggressive eradication campaigns of opium and coca have created a humanitarian crisis in resp. Afghanistan and Colombia. Meanwhile, there is no sign that the war on drugs is having any effect on the strength and effectiveness of criminal organisations dealing with drugs. Stability means a war against minorities. In Laos, the internal resettlement of indigenous ethnic communities promoted by international aid agencies, is increasing the mortality rates up to 30% more than the national average. In US, a black person has 5.5 bigger chance of incarceration than a white person, while a Hispanic has 2 times more. In the fiscal year 2005, 53% of all federal powder cocaine defendants were low-level offenders such as mules or street-dealers. Only 12.8% were high-level dealers, as stated by the US Sentencing Commission. Stability means also that opium poppy crops in Afghanistan have boomed; new trafficking routes for heroin and cocaine smuggling have been opened, among others through Africa; the use of opiates is rising in East Europe and Africa, and the use of cocaine is increasing in South America, Africa and Europe; the total potential amount of cocaine has increased from 980 metric tons I 2005 to 984 mt in 2006. UN coca crops estimations seem to be extremely low, while the US Office of National Drug Control Policy states 157,200 hectares of coca crops in Colombia for 2006, the UN presents the figure of 78,000 h. In many countries the use of one drug increases, and of another one decreases. This has been the case for many years. It is probable that levels of use, abuse and dependence have been reached that will stay fairly constant for a long time, with or without repression. The term "stabilization" could have been used many years ago, but it wasn't convenient at that time for UNODC and other authorities to do so. Now, because it is impossible for UNODC to pretend any progress in the war on drugs, the term stabilization is used to hide this failure. Drug users can not be considered just sick or criminal people: we are also citizens. Drug policies cannot be effective without the voice of those affected by them. For more than 20 years, the European Union has committed itself to start a process of dialogue with civil society on future drug policies in Europe, but as yet, it has not been able to establish an effective and professional way to construct a transparent and inclusive structure to achieve this. ENCOD has commented the history of dialogue with citizens in EU drugs policy in: http://www.encod.org/info/IMG/pdf/GPENCOD-2.pdf On the other hand, the year 2008 will be the deadline to “eliminate or significantly reduce” the drug related crops all over the world. This goal was declared by the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) held in 1998. It is time to accept that the current regimen is a failure. It is time to stop the war on citizens which the drugs war has become. It is time to open the door to alternative and pragmatic drugs policies. A world without repression: we can do it. EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES (ENCOD) Lange Lozanastraat 14 2018 Antwerpen Belgium Tel. 00 32 (0)3 237 7436 Mob. 00 32 (0)495 122 644 Fax. 00 32 (0)3 237 0225 E-mail:[email protected] Website: www.encod.org