Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Drug Czar admits to being the problem. At the Drug Czar's "blog": Medical Marijuana Laws Create Confusion, Problems For Cities Another news report regarding the confusion created by State-based "medical" marijuana laws. From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune: [...] "What the local agencies are grappling with is this discrepancy between federal and state law," said Ray Hamada, the planning director in Irwindale, which has a moratorium. The problem, he explained, is that while California voters legalized medical marijuana with Proposition 215 in November 1996, federal law still bans all marijuana use. Monterey Park's city manager, Chris Jeffers, said his city had a moratorium for the same reason. The city is leaning toward a ban in order to comply with federal law, but hasn't finished studying the issue, he said." It's nice of them to realize that they're the problem, and if the federal government got its nose out of something where it has no business, the states could do a much better job of managing medical marijuana laws (although I doubt they even realize what they're saying). 8:07:34 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

What's wrong with this article? One of the challenges of getting good media coverage for drug policy reform is trying to educate the media. That's made more difficult when they are lazy, incompetent, or just plain stupid. Check out the writing in this piece at News Channel 6 in Wichita Falls... The War on Drugs, is a battle fought daily by the Wichita Falls Police Department. Who's winning that war, the police or the people on the receiving end? and what is the choice of drug-- circulating in our town? News channel six's Ashley Fitzwater takes an inside look and finds out who's controlling the battle? When it comes to popularity and quantity, two different drugs take the number one slot, here in the Falls. "It's about 50/50 split with crack cocaine and meth," says Police Sgt. Larry Robinett . Sgt. Robinette says the W.F.P.D. Put a major dent in the crack cocaine trade recently. "Guys like Cedric Grey, and Empra Holt, these were major drug dealers here in the Falls. They have all been prosecuted federally." Police say the major arrests slow down the process, but someone else is always there to step in and take charge. But with departments like the Organized Crime Unit in place, police are able to keep drugs from taking over. The bad grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure almost overwhelm the bad reporting and logic. 7:46:53 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []