Canadian marijuana reform advocates are not going to be able to use deficiencies in Canada's medical marijuana program to invalidate the broader pot law -- at least not in British Columbia.
In the face of ominous warnings from US Rep. Silvestre Reyes and the city's state legislative delegation, the El Paso City Council has backed away from last week's resolution calling for a national debate on drug legalization. But some council members aren't too pleased with the heavy-handed interference.
Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has named herself drug czar, declared war on drug traffickers, and started off by ordering the random drug testing of high school students. But she's just beginning.
After years of delay and obstructionism, the DEA has finally acted on the request of a UMass researcher to grow marijuana for FDA-approved research. The response: Get lost!
President-elect Obama met with Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Monday. Mexico's drug wars were high on the agenda, but it seems unlikely, given Obama's list of pressing issues, that Mexico will get any higher priority than it has in recent years.
The drug reform movement is not a monolith, and the rumored nomination of former Minnesota congressman, recovering alcoholic, and recovery advocated Jim Ramstad is showing where some of the fissures lie. But with an acting director appointed this week from ONDCP's current ranks, and with Ramstad himself jockeying for a different post, the exercise may be an intellectual one.
The drug treatment and prevention group Join Together has joined together with the controversial National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA).
"Another Chance to Pressure Obama for Drug Policy Reform," "If You Think Alcohol Should be Legal, You're an Alcoholic," "Marijuana Law Reform No Longer a Political Liability, It's a Political Opportunity," "Cop Fired for Supporting Marijuana Decriminalization, Wins $815,000 Settlement," "Supreme Court Strikes Another Small Blow Against Exclusionary Rule," "El Paso City Council Threatened With Funding Cuts for Proposing Drug Legalization Debate," "Ducking Drug War Questions at Change.gov," "Bush Appoints Interim Drug Czar," "DEA Blatantly Blocks Medical Marijuana Research."
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For many politicians, any intelligent discussion about what the drug laws are actually doing to us is more reality than they can take. For others, the reality is too awful to not discuss.
Obamaâs Change.gov website has created yet another feature for soliciting ideas from the public. This time itâs called the Citizenâs Briefing Book and you can vote on ideas or submit your own. The winning ideas will be printed out and handed to Barack Obama, so he can wipe his ass with them.
Unsurprisingly, the most popular idea is legalizing marijuana, yet again. This has really escalated to the point of absurdity and if the new administration hasnât figured it out yet, this will continue until they either give us an intelligent response, or stop asking us to post ideas on their website. Â
If, like me, youâre becoming cynical about this whole process, shake it off. Go to the website and vote. There is no way of measuring the impact of our repeated domination of Change.gov, but it is intuitively greater than zero. They wouldnât keep doing this if it didnât mean something to them.