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In The Trenches
Disenfranchisement: News/Updates (March 2, 2007 Edition)
[From our friends at The Sentencing Project]
Florida: Continued Debate on Restoring the Vote
Gov. Charlie Crist postponed a vote this week that would have allowed most formerly incarcerated individuals voting rights upon completion of sentence. The Florida Board of Executive Clemency was expected to vote in favor of the long-awaited change, but Crist did not want to isolate fellow Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum as the lone vote, according to the Miami Herald. âObviously, I favor the restoration of civil rights and I am optimistic we will be able to get to that point, but I want to build a consensus before we go there,â said Crist following the state clemency board meeting.
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Web Scan
Libby Davies at CSSDP, prosecuting youth as adults, Drug Truth update, Silja Talvi on Raich v. Schiavo coverage, Huffington Post, Save Bernie's Farm web site.
In The Trenches
The LEAP Report: Issue III
A note from (LEAP) Assistant Speakers Bureau Coordinator Jodi James:
LEAP would like you to help us welcome David Doddridge as our newest speaker. David had a distinguished career in law enforcement, including a tour undercover in L.A. Retiring after 21 years of service, David recognizes the greatest harms associated with drugs are the drug laws. You can read more about David Doddridge and all of LEAPâs incredible speakers on our bio page. With the addition of David Doddridge, LEAP boasts active speakers in 26 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and abroad.
Chronicle
Event
First Annual Ken Gorman Memorial Smoke-In
Please attend this memorial event honoring the work of Ken Gorman, who was recently killed in his Denver home. To learn more about Ken, please see http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/474/colorado_mar
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Blog
ONDCP Gloats Over Ken Gorman's Death
The New York Times reports on the death of Ken Gorman, a Colorado medical marijuana provider who was murdered by thieves. It's a fair story, though NORML's Allen St. Pierre is misquoted as saying that 20 medical marijuana providers have been killed in robberies (the correct figure is an unfortunate but much smaller 6).
Shamefully, the ONDCP blog blames Gorman's death on medical marijuana laws:
Fortunately, widespread public support for medical marijuana ensures that concern over such violence will often tip in favor of regulation. The safeguards necessary to prevent deaths like Gorman's will be viewed by many as the responsibility of government; a responsibility the government continues to reject at every turn.
Persecuted and abandoned, patients have instead turned to the democratic process for relief, mobilizing state legislatures and millions of voters to their aid. They have built and now operate their own institutions, withstanding remarkable pressure as they push away the recreational marijuana economy with one hand and fight off the DEA with the other. Problems with medical marijuana laws are both wildly exaggerated and entirely attributable to interference and false propaganda from government officials whose utter lack of credibility necessitates the celebration of murder.
Ken Gorman's blood now stains the hands of the liars and quacks whose belligerent resistance to medical marijuana is truly the primary destructive force at work here.
Shamefully, the ONDCP blog blames Gorman's death on medical marijuana laws:
Drug Violence: State Medical Marijuana Laws Creating More Confusion and AbuseOne cannot possibly overstate the appalling falsity of ONDCP's attempt to paint the medical marijuana industry as inherently violent and chaotic, particularly in light of ONDCP's ongoing commitment to undermining the safety of medical marijuana patients. The rank dishonesty of this notion even compares unfavorably to the typical bile churned out by this organization on a daily basis.
Today's New York Times covers the latest murder generated by the passage of State-based "medical" marijuana laws. For years, marijuana legalization groups have worked to bypass the Supreme Court's decision, the FDA's official Interagency Advisory, and Federal law regarding medical marijuana. Symbolic medical marijuana laws which have been passed in some U.S. states have given too many citizens the false impression that growing and distributing marijuana is safe and legal.
Fortunately, widespread public support for medical marijuana ensures that concern over such violence will often tip in favor of regulation. The safeguards necessary to prevent deaths like Gorman's will be viewed by many as the responsibility of government; a responsibility the government continues to reject at every turn.
Persecuted and abandoned, patients have instead turned to the democratic process for relief, mobilizing state legislatures and millions of voters to their aid. They have built and now operate their own institutions, withstanding remarkable pressure as they push away the recreational marijuana economy with one hand and fight off the DEA with the other. Problems with medical marijuana laws are both wildly exaggerated and entirely attributable to interference and false propaganda from government officials whose utter lack of credibility necessitates the celebration of murder.
Ken Gorman's blood now stains the hands of the liars and quacks whose belligerent resistance to medical marijuana is truly the primary destructive force at work here.