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Industrial hemp in France produces oils and fiber. (Image via Wikimedia.org)
Industrial hemp in France produces oils and fiber. (Image via Wikimedia.org)

Illinois House Kills Hemp Bill

The Illinois House has turned back a bid to permit farmers there to apply to grow hemp. Opponents cited the federal ban on hemp production and law enforcement's inability to tell the difference between hemp and weed.
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Texas Representative Says Drug Trafficking Organizations Threatening US Agents

Mexican drug trafficking organization members threatened to kill U.S. agents working on the American side of the border. Republican Michael McCaul said a law enforcement bulletin was issued warning that Mexican traffickers were overheard plotting to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Texas Rangers stationed along the border.
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medical marijuana bags (courtesy Daniel Argo via Wikimedia)
medical marijuana bags (courtesy Daniel Argo via Wikimedia)

Montana Senate Votes for Medical Marijuana Repeal Bill

It may be up to Democratic Gov. Bryan Schweitzer to save medical marijuana in Montana. Only a procedural vote is left before the legislature repeals the voter-approved law.
Latest News
Latest News

Further Regulation of Medical Marijuana in Rhode Island Opposed

Medical marijuana patients and the caregivers who provide the drug for them came out in large numbers to a hearing at the State House in opposition to a bill that would further regulate the industry. They said the proposal, introduced by state Rep. John M. Carnevale, would raise the prices for medical marijuana and potentially limit patients’ access.
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Why It's Obvious We Are Losing the War on Drugs

Ed Dolan, an economist and textbook writer, discusses the economics of drug prohibition. He says drug trafficking organizations are strong because the US drug war strategy makes them strong.
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More Black Men in Prison Today Than Enslaved in 1850, Drug Laws the Reason

Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, told an audience at the Pasadena Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, "More African-American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began." Why have rates of incarcerated black men skyrocketed over the past 30 years? Alexander says it's the war on drugs which focuses primarily on minority communities even though multiple studies have proved that whites use and sell illegal drugs at rates equal to or higher than blacks. Despite this data, four of five black youths in some inner-city communities can expect to be incarcerated in their lifetimes.
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Poll: Mexicans Think Drug Trafficking Organizations Are Winning Drug Prohibition War

Six out of 10 Mexicans think that drug trafficking organizations are getting the upper hand in the prohibitionist war that President Felipe Calderon launched when he came to office in late 2006, the poll by Demotecnia found. The poll may augur a change in the country's approach to drug trafficking when a new administration takes over after elections next year.
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lenoconanmarijuanajokes.png
lenoconanmarijuanajokes.png

Marijuana Is Serious Business, But Leno and Conan are Hooked on Bad Pot Jokes

Although cannabis has been known to give people the giggles, there isn't exactly an abundance of amusement to be found in U.S. marijuana policy. Even as the nation moves towards a more sensible approach to the drug, our top comedians are still looking for laughs and coming up short.

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parthenon_24.gif
parthenon_24.gif

This Week in History

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
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Pot Politics on Capitol Hill: Proponents Aim to Shift Industry's Image

Supporters of decriminalizing marijuana are hoping to build momentum on Capitol Hill after a historic election that saw the politics of pot take center stage in four states. The marijuana industry's public relations campaign has so far been limited to states, especially California, where a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana almost passed in November. But today, the National Cannabis Industry Association, launched in December to represent the interests of legal marijuana growers and distributors, will hold the first congressional lobbying day in the nation's capital, hoping to shore up support for an industry they say could bring billions of dollars in revenue to the government.
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the fruits of drug prohibition in Mexico (Image via Wikimedia)
the fruits of drug prohibition in Mexico (Image via Wikimedia)

Mexico Drug War Update

It was a rough week on the highway between Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey, and that's not all, not by a long shot.
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Authorities in Awe of Drug Trafficking Organizations' Jungle-Built, Kevlar-Coated Supersubs

For decades, Colombian drug trafficking organization have pursued their trade with amazingly professional ingenuity, staying a step ahead of authorities by coming up with one innovation after another. When false-paneled pickups and tractor-trailers began drawing suspicion at US checkpoints, the traffickers and their Mexican partners built air-conditioned tunnels under the border. When border agents started rounding up too many human mules, one group of Colombian smugglers surgically implanted heroin into purebred puppies. But the drug runners’ most persistently effective method has also been one of the crudest — semi-submersible vessels that cruise or are towed just below the ocean’s surface and can hold a ton or more of cocaine.
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Prohibition's filthy lucre is too much for some to resist (Image via Wikimedia)
Prohibition's filthy lucre is too much for some to resist (Image via Wikimedia)

This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

It was a relatively quiet week on the crooked cop front -- not including officers who've gone astray but haven't been caught -- but we've still got us a trio of law enforcement miscreants.
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First Federal Agency to Acknowledge Medical Marijuana Removes Anti-Tumor Information from Database

Last week, The American Independent was first to report that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) had added a section on medical marijuana to its treatment database, making it the first federal agency to formally recognize marijuana’s medicinal properties. Now, for reasons unknown, NCI has altered the page by removing any mention of the evidence that marijuana can diminish and even reverse tumor growth. The American Independent is awaiting reply from NCI on the reasons for the change.
In The Trenches

28 Raids in 24 Hours!? Tell Attorney General Holder to Stop Federal Raids of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries (Action Alert)

Tell Attorney General Holder:
Stop federal raids
of medical marijuana dispensaries

» Sign the petition

Friends,

28 raids in 24 hours.That's the unfortunate reality for medical marijuana patients in Montana and California.

Federal agents shutdown 26 dispensaries across Montana and 2 in the medical marijuana sanctuary city of West Hollywood, California this month in their latest attack on patients and legitimate businesses.

The DEA isn't even supposed to be conducting these raids in the first place. In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder issued a memo ordering an end to federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries. Yet, despite his memo, federal agents have continued these operations sporadically for years, without regard for patients', states' or business' rights.

Attorney General Eric Holder clearly doesn't have control of his own cavalry. This assault on patients rights has to stop now.

Sign our letter telling Attorney General Holder to enforce his memo and prohibit federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries.

Click here to sign the letter: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/fedraids

But is Holder being dishonest and hypocritical? Or does he simply lack strong leadership among US Attorneys General?

A memo issued on February 1st by US Attorney Melinda Haag (who, ironically, represents Northern California) directly contradicts Holder’s edict. She declares that ANYONE engaging in the buying or selling of marijuana, regardless of their protection under state laws, will be punished by the federal government.

That doesn’t just mean dispensaries and the patients who rely on them, but goes as far as to include landlords, financiers and property owners as well. It’s a full-court press designed to intimidate supporters of reform and ostracize patients seeking their prescribed medications.

This attitude puts lives in jeopardy and undermines our democratic institutions by foiling state attempts to provide solutions for their own people. We need to put an end to the federal harassment of medical marijuana patients now.

Tell Attorney General Holder to enforce his own memo banning federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries and take a stand for patients rights.

Click here to add your name: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/fedraids

This kind of official hypocrisy at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens is a disgrace to the notion of basic human rights everywhere. Thank you for standing up for a patients’ basic rights to treatment.

Thanks for all you do.

Brian Sonenstein
Just Say Now.com

 

Contribute to Just Say Now to support marijuana legalization. Click here:

Chronicle
Uniondale, New York, where a man died after swallowing drugs in a bid to avoid arrest. (Image via Wikipedia)
Uniondale, New York, where a man died after swallowing drugs in a bid to avoid arrest. (Image via Wikipedia)

New York Man Dies in Small-Time Drug Bust

Long Island cops moved in to make a small-time drug bust, the suspect apparently swallowed the drugs, and now he's dead. That makes 21 dead in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.