Tuesday, August 3, 2004

Detroit vote on Medical Marijuana looking good Detroit Free Press: With 40 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, 62 percent of voters approved the measure. Thirty-eight percent opposed it. The Detroit proposal exempts residents who use or possess marijuana for medical purposes from the portion of the city code that makes the drug illegal. That means Detroit police officers would not arrest or ticket residents with medical permission Update: A Win for Medical Marijuana! From AP (Earlier version from WXYZ-TV was incorrect): With 98% of precincts reporting: Yes 38,604 59% No 26,497 41% Thanks to Richard Lake and Jim White 10:33:17 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

A drug war cheerleader who lies about medical marijuana or a guy from Maryland who lost a senate race in his home state. Just announced CHICAGO -- The five-week search for a Republican U.S. Senate candidate is down to two contenders: two-time presidential hopeful Alan Keyes and former Bush administration deputy drug czar Andrea Grubb Barthwell. State party chairwoman Judy Baar Topinka announced Tuesday night that Republican leaders would interview Keyes and Barthwell on Wednesday and then choose one to take on Democratic rising star Barack Obama, almost assuring that Illinois will produce only the fifth black U.S. senator in history. 8:56:18 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Treatment Statistics or, The Drug Czar is Lying to You Many of us in the drug policy reform community have been offended by the Drug Czar's and Administration's distortion of treatment numbers to claim that they somehow prove marijuana is addictive, or that today's marijuana is more dangerous than before. Jim at Vice Squad gives some additional rebuttal based on the limited information that SAMHSA released publicly. However, while the government likes to release information only in ways that support their contentions, the underlying data is public information if you know how to wade through it. I have run the government's data myself here so that it's available in a convenient form (and shows clearly that the Drug Czar is lying). Let me know if you'd like to see other data comparisons in the treatment data. The sad fact is that the data can provide useful information that should inform a national discussion, but it's been hijacked in the Drug Czar's desire to demonize marijuana to the detriment of any other policy. See the data for yourself. 8:01:31 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Odds and Ends There's still hope in Nevada. U.S.  District Judge James Mahan issued a temporary restraining order Friday stopping the state from taking any further action on the marijuana initiative petition that is short of the necessary signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. Mahan has set Aug.  13 as the date for oral arguments on the suit by the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the groups supporting the petition to allow adults to possess and use one ounce of marijuana. There are a number of legal arguments being considered regarding the petition and the legality of the requirements. The state claims that the initiative has 50,088 valid signatures and needs 51,337 to qualify for the ballot. Libby at Last One Speaks has a ton of interesting stuff to read, including the anniversary of the signing of the Marijuana Tax Act, comments on an article by Amanda L. Stevens on legalizing marijuana, and a report of a good review of the new book by Martin Booth called Cannabis - A History. Vice Squad continues to have some of the most fascinating material in the world of Vice. Check out Michael's post on the war on drugs in Russia (I was particularly taken by the story of the veterinarian who was charged with "trafficking" for supplying ketamine to a cat by injection -- they must have gotten training from U.S. prosecutors). Jim notes that drug selling in Iraq is one of the nine activities that qualifies for the unofficial death penalty administered by radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his army of devotees. The nine include theft, kidnapping, robbery, spying 'for the Wahabis, al-Qaeda and Saddamists', trafficking in women, and selling alcohol, pornographic CDs and drugs. 8:06:59 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []