Marijuana Legalization Movement’s Top Ten For 2010

NORML and NORML Foundation are supported by cannabis consumers and other caring citizens. Please make an end of the year donation to help us keep going strong into 2011. —Thanks from NORML’s staff and nationwide chapter network!

#1 ‘Gold Standard’ Studies Show That Inhaled Cannabis Is Medicine
The results of a series of randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials assessing the efficacy of inhaled cannabis concluded that it is safe and effective compared to conventional medications, according to the findings of a 24-page report published in February by the California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. “This (report) confirms all of the anecdotal evidence – how lives have been saved and pain has been eased,” said California Democrat Senator Mark Leno at the press conference announcing the findings. “Now we have the science to prove it.” Read the full story here.

#2 Record Number Of Americans Nationwide Say They Back Pot Legalization
National polling data published by Gallup in October showed that Americans’ support for ‘making marijuana legal’ is now at its highest reported level of support ever. The poll reported that a new high of 46 percent of Americans are now in favor of legalizing use of the drug, and a new low of 50 percent are opposed. The increase in support this year from 44 percent in 2009 continues an upward trend that has been consistent since 2000. Read the full story here.

#3 Over 4.6 Million Californians Vote For Legalization
More than 4.6 million Californians voted in November in favor of Proposition 19, which sought to legalize the private adult use of marijuana and enact regulations regarding its commercial production and distribution. The measure was defeated 47 percent to 53 percent, but garnered the greatest percentage of citizen support ever recorded on a statewide marijuana legalization effort. Commenting on the result, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said, “Legalizing the adult use of marijuana in a regulated manner is no longer a matter of ‘if;’ it is a matter of ‘when.’” A similar measure is expected to qualify for the 2012 statewide ballot. Read the full story at here.

#4 Washington DC Approves Medical Marijuana Dispensary Measure
Members of the DC City Council gave final approval in May to legislation authorizing the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries in the District of Columbia. The legislation seeks to enact components of Initiative 59 – a 1998 DC ballot measure that garnered 69 percent of the vote, but was never implemented. In July, Congress declined to overrule the legislation, which is expected to take effect by summer 2011. Read the full story here.

#5 California: Marijuana Possession No Longer A Criminal Offense
Outgoing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in October signed Senate Bill 1449 into law, reducing adult, non-medical marijuana possession charges from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil infraction. The measure amends the California Health and Safety Code so that the adult possession of up to 28.5 grams of marijuana is classified as an infraction, punishable by a $100 fine — no court appearance, no court costs, and no criminal record. The measure takes effect on January 1, 2011. Read the full story here.

#6 California Supreme Court Affirms State’s Medi-Pot Possession Laws Are A Floor, Not A Ceiling
The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled in January that the state’s medical marijuana possession and cultivation guidelines, enacted by the legislature in 2004, do not supersede the broader patient protections provided by California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996. In a 53-page decision (The People v Patrick K. Kelly), the Court found that patients who possess quantities of medical cannabis above those recommended under the state’s 2004 law (six mature or twelve immature plants and/or eight ounces) may still be afforded legal protections if this amount is “related to meet (the patient’s) current medical needs.” Read the full story here.

#7 NORML Launches NYC Times Square Ad Campaign
NORML debuted a pair of digital ads this spring on the CBS Super Screen in New York City’s Times Square. NORML’s ads appeared eighteen times per day on the CBS’s digital billboard, located on 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues. Approximately 1.5 million people walk by the billboard each day. Read the full story here.

#8 United Kingdom, Other Countries Approve Marijuana Spray As Medicine
British health regulators in June approved the sale and marketing of Sativex, an oral spray consisting of natural cannabis extracts (primarily the plant cannabinoids THC and cannabidiol aka CBD) as a treatment for symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Regulators in Spain and New Zealand also approved the prescription use of the drug in 2011. Read the full story here.

#9 Arizona Becomes The 15th State To Legalize Medical Cannabis
Arizona voters in November narrowly passed Proposition 203 , making Arizona the 15th state to allow for the physician-supervised use of marijuana. Regulations overseeing the new law, which allows for the licensed production and dispensing of medical marijuana to state-authorized patients, are expected to be finalized by April 2011. Lawmakers in New Jersey also passed medical marijuana legislation in 2010, although that law has yet to be implemented. Read the full story here.

#10 NORML Launches The NORML Women’s Alliance
In January NORML launched the NORML Women’s Alliance (NWA) – a nonpartisan coalition of prominent, educated, successful, geographically diverse, professional women who believe that cannabis prohibition is a self-destructive and hypocritical policy that undermines the American family, sends a mixed and false message to our young people, and destroys the cherished principles of personal liberty and local self-government. Visit the NWA online here.

*Please make an end of the year donation to help keep the grass in our grassroots movement to reform America’s antiquated cannabis laws!

Sativa Survey Time: Marijuana Use and Behavioral Data Sought By NORML

Longtime cannabis researcher, professor, author, frequent medical expert on NORML’s daily podcast and NORML Advisory Board member Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D, from the University at Albany, is once again seeking the help of cannabis consumers by asking for their participation in some basic research regarding cannabis use and behavior.

Below is a description of the anonymous online survey, along with a link to take the survey.

Dr. Earleywine’s research into cannabis use is frequently published and it very often provides great insight for policy makers, public health officials, parents and law enforcement. See a lecture from Dr. Earleywine at a past NORML conference here.

Thanks in advance for…advancing science!

* * *

Airport Screening Machines and Marijuana: Good Catches?

From December 26 Washington Post: “The full-body scanners in use at 78 U.S. airports can detect small amounts of contraband and hidden weapons, all while producing controversial images of travelers.

The “good catches,” federal officials say, have largely gone unnoticed amid the criticism that erupted over the ghostly X-rays and “enhanced” pat downs. The Transportation Security Administration, which intensified airport screening last month, points to several successes: small amounts of marijuana wrapped in baggies, other drugs stitched inside underwear, ceramic knives concealed in shirt pockets.”

Check out photos of airline travelers busted for cannabis here.

With over 1,000 of these high tech scanning devices deployed at airports by our Reefer Madness-loving federal government, cannabis consumers need to pay special attention when attempting to travel with their medical or recreational cannabis supply.

Question: Do you feel safer knowing that the feds are spending billions annually on technology that is largely used on busting passengers with small amounts of a dried vegetable matter that possesses strong healing and mild psychotropic properties?

Answer: I’ll bet hip-hop legend Kurtis Blow doesn’t feel any safer after getting popped by TSA scanners for a little bit of ganja earlier this month.

NORML: Give Thanks And Praises!

December 24, 2010

Dear NORML Members and Supporters,

Social change doesn’t happen overnight – but it does happen. This is the message we took away from the November 2010 election, an election that will influence NORML’s work in 2011 and beyond.

California Legalization Initiative: Prop. 19
I’m sure that by now you know the news. Forty-seven percent of Californians voted in favor of Proposition 19, which made the possession, cultivation, and sale of cannabis lawful for adults. No legalization initiative in any state has ever received so much voter support, nor has any effort generated such positive national discourse. In fact, by the end of the campaign even our staunchest opponents had to concede that America’s present criminal prohibition is an unequivocal failure. They recognize that the question is no longer, ‘Should we legalize and regulate marijuana?’ but, ‘How should we legalize and regulate marijuana?’ This marks a monumental shift in the public and political debate over marijuana policy.

But that’s not all. Let us remember one of the tangible and significant victories of the campaign: The signing into law of Senate Bill 1449 reducing the adult possession of up to 28.5 grams of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor to a noncriminal infraction, punishable by a $100 fine—no court appearance, no court costs, and no criminal record. Passage of this law, which arguably would not have happened if it were not for advocates’ stepped up lobbying efforts regarding Prop. 19, will spare tens of thousands of Californians from criminal prosecution in 2011 and beyond.

Am I disappointed we failed to gain the support of 50 percent of California’s electorate?

Of course.

But I am proud of the progress we made, and of the broad coalition of political and civil rights organizations who endorsed our efforts, including the California NAACP, The Latino Voters League, the SEIU (one of America’s largest unions), and the Black Police Officers Association. That is why I remain confident that we can – and will – bring about the legalization and regulation of cannabis for adults in California in 2012, and that is why I believe that we can extend these same freedoms to the citizens of other states in the years to follow.

Elections Matter; Threats Ahead
Yet when I view the ever-changing political landscape nationwide, I recognize there are many significant hurdles before us. This fall’s resurgence of Republican-elected officials in both Washington, DC, and throughout the nation threatens to undermine many of our recent gains. As I write to you today, U.S. Senators are in the process of confirming Michele Leonhart – who has ordered more than thirty raids of state-sanctioned medical marijuana providers – to head the Drug Enforcement Administration, and House members are likely to promote Texas Republican Lamar Smith – arguably the most reefer-mad member of the U.S. Congress – to head the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives.

At the statewide level, New Mexico’s newly elected Gov. Susan Martinez has threatened to repeal the state’s three-year-old medical cannabis law, which so far has licensed 17 dispensaries to produce and provide marijuana to nearly 3,000 authorized patients. In Michigan, incoming Attorney General Bill Schuette has also pledged to roll back the state’s popular medical cannabis law, which voters overwhelmingly approved in 2008. And in Montana, lawmakers are planning an all assault upon the state’s six-year-old medical marijuana law, despite its passage with over 60 percent of the vote.

Drug warriors are emboldened by the statewide initiative defeats of medical cannabis proposals in Oregon (regarding the regulation of state-licensed dispensaries) and South Dakota (regarding the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes), and advocates’ razor thin margin of victory in Arizona (which became the fifteenth state to authorize the medical use of marijuana since 1996), but NORML remains unbowed. We will continue to forge ahead with our push for full legalization in states like Colorado, Washington, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Rhode Island. Rest assured, we have not lost our momentum, and we do not intend to let our opponents roll back even one of the many statewide victories that we – and all of you – have worked so hard to achieve.

“What Does Not Kill You Makes You Stronger”
In fact, according to the most recent Gallup national public opinion poll, momentum in favor of adult legalization and regulation has never been stronger. According to the October survey, a record 46 percent of voters nationwide now support making marijuana legal, and only 50 percent support prohibition (an all-time low.) To put these percentages in proper perspective, consider this. A decade ago, fewer than 30 percent of Americans said that they backed ending cannabis prohibition and a whopping 70 percent supported it.

This is why our opponents are running scared, and it is why they have targeted 2011 as the year they strike back. They have no other choice. They are aware, just as we are, that public opinion is moving exponentially in favor of marijuana law reform, and that this trend shows no signs of abating. We may have lost a battle in November, but we are clearly winning the war – and the drug warriors know it.

NORML: Putting The ‘Grass’ Into Grassroots Since 1970
As we approach 2011, our prohibitionist opponents are keenly aware that they have lost the hearts and minds of the electorate, and they are preparing to wage one final stand. We plan to meet them head on – and defeat them. Will you support our efforts? Your continued financial support will assure that we hold the line in 2011, and it will allow us to continue the national dialogue that is turning a record number of Americans toward cannabis liberation. Victory is at a hand, but only if we keep the pressure on – and only if we have the resources to fight back when necessary.

Supporting NORML and NORML Foundation is both simple and rewarding. If you want your donation to be employed for political purposes, such as for lobbying state and federal policy makers, please direct your donation to NORML. If you’d prefer a tax-deductible donation, which will be used for education, litigation, advertising and social organizing, please direct any cash or stock donations to the NORML Foundation.

Many of NORML’s members and supporters generously donate to both!

Social change doesn’t happen overnight – but it does happen, and it is happening. That is why NORML needs your support now more than ever. 2011 promises to be a battle, but with your continued financial contributions I know that we will emerge victorious.

NORML @ 40-Years-Young
Lastly, as the collective calendar is turned, NORML—a remarkably enduring and resilient hub for a now sprawling social justice movement and medical cannabis industry—embarks upon it’s 40^th year of representing the interests of cannabis consumers by, among other services, providing legal assistance and moral support to the many tens of thousands of consumers, growers and sellers (our brothers and sisters) arrested and incarcerated annually because of our nation’s antiquated Cannabis Prohibition laws.

NORML provides both in-office and 24/7 online support services for medical cannabis patients; citizens facing drug testing concerns; the victims of civil forfeiture; students researching papers; also, NORML’s staff provides over 3,000 local, State, national and international media interviews annually. On the tightest budget in the drug policy reform movement, NORML produces the most popular cannabis-centric conferences, as well as the most popular cannabis-related webpage and daily podcast on the Internet.

None of this is possible without the support of thoughtful and engaged citizens like you!

Again, your end-of-the-year donations to either NORML or NORML Foundation is proof positive of your stakeholdership in a really important 40-year-old Washington, D.C. institution among public interest organizations.

Here’s to a safe and hemp-filled holiday and New Year to all! Thanks, as always, for caring and sharing!

Cannabem liberemus,

Allen St. Pierre
Executive Director
NORML / NORML Foundation

*Have you seen some of the unique ‘thank you’ gifts for members and donors?

Holy Hemp! Pat Roberston Supports Ending Cannabis Prohibition In An Effort To Get ‘Smart On Crime’

Break out the recorders! Don’t let this one get away!

If I didn’t watch it with my own eyes I might not believed it possible: Televangelist and former Baptist minister Pat Robertson making a cogent argument on alternatives to arresting and incarcerating citizens who use drugs, with a clear emphasis on legalizing the possession of a few ounces of cannabis.

The 700 Club segment on alternatives to crime helps promote a new right-of-center organization that seeks to actively lobby for reform of the criminal justice system principally as a poor use of scant public funds called Right on Crime. Notable conservative activists such as Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist, American Conservative Union’s David Keane and Prison Fellowship Ministries’ Pat Nolan are spearheading this important new front in the now 40-year-old effort to reform cannabis laws.

Also, with unbelievable karmic timing, Pat Robertson endorses ending Cannabis Prohibition for possession of a few ounces at the 4:20 mark of the video.

Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Unconventional Views: Race Relations And The War On Some Drugs

Among the three subgroups of Americans that need special attention from cannabis law reformers—women, seniors and minorities—recently, John McWhorter, a lecturer at Columbia University and author of many books, and formerly a scholar at Berkeley and the Manhattan Institute, gave an interesting talk on “Race Relations and the War on Drugs” at a Cato Institute seminar in New York.

In future, it would behoove the current public discourse regarding ‘Reefer Madness and Race’ to get Mr. McWhorter and NAACP’s Cailifornia director Alice Huffman on stage together because whether African Americans are conservative or liberal the war on some drugs disproportionately impacts minority communities by readily creating remarkable social, economic and legal disparities that ending Cannabis Prohibition can certainly help to address and outright alleviate.

Drug Czar Blames Rising Teen Pot Use On Medical Cannabis Laws Rather Than On His Own Failed Policies

[UPDATE! I have a revised version of this blog post online now on The Hill.com's Congress blog. This is the website where Washington DC insiders go to blog. Click here to read my op/ed, and when you are done please leave a polite comment for the Drug Czar.]

Since 1975 the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has been tracking students self-reported use of cannabis and other intoxicants, and every year their use of these substances trends either up or down from the prior survey. Predictably, when self-reported use goes down, drug war lackeys like Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske claim that drug prohibition is working. Conversely, when use trends upward — as it did this past year — drug warriors respond by pointing the blame at everyone else.

White House Drug Czar: Teen Marijuana Use on the Rise
via ABC News

Teenagers are beginning to think of marijuana as medicine, and more and more young people are toking up as a result, White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske argues upon the release of a major survey on teenage drug use.

The 2010 Monitoring the Future Survey queried 50,000 eighth, 10th and 12th graders about their use of, and attitudes toward, illicit drugs.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy survey found that daily pot use among high school seniors is at 6.1 percent, its highest point since the early 1980s. In the past month, 21.4 percent of 12th graders said they had used marijuana, continuing an upward tick that began in the middle of the decade. Monthly, more seniors now smoke pot than cigarettes, a phenomenon not seen in nearly three decades.

It’s the decreasing perception of the harm of marijuana that is leading to increased pot use, according to the drug czar.

“If young people don’t really perceive that [marijuana] is dangerous or of any concern, it usually means there’ll be an uptick in the number of kids who are using. And sure enough, in 2009, that’s exactly what we did see,” Kerlikowske told ABC News Radio.

“We have been telling young people, particularly for the past couple years, that marijuana is medicine,” the former Seattle police chief argued. “So it shouldn’t be a great surprise to us that young people are now misperceiving the dangers or the risks around marijuana.”

On the other hand, he said, a broad understanding of the harms of tobacco and alcohol has led to lower cigarette smoking and binge drinking in teens. Regular cigarette smoking continues its decline, and binge drinking (five or more drinks at one sitting) among high school seniors is down from 25.2 percent to 23.2 percent. Tougher enforcement has also contributed to these declines, Kerlikowske said.

“We know that through education and enforcement, something can be done. But I think we should also be very concerned about these marijuana numbers, particularly among these very young people,” Kerlikowske said.

Okay, let me get this straight: California enacted legislation legalizing the physician-supervised use of medical marijuana in 1996 — some fourteen years ago — thus kicking off the national debate that is still taking place today. Between 1996 and 2005, nine additional states enacted similar laws (Alaska, 1999; Colorado, 2000; Hawaii, 2000; Maine, 1999; Montana, 2004; Nevada, 2000; Oregon, 1998; Vermont, 2004; Washington, 1998). Yet, the Drug Czar claims to the national media that this discussion has only been taking place in earnest for “the past couple years”?! Does he really think the public is that stupid?!

Further, the Czar is well aware that throughout this period of time, youth-reported use of marijuana declined across the nation — including in the very same states that enacted medical cannabis access. NORML Advisory Board member Mitch Earleywine co-authored a comprehensive review of this data here, concluding: “More than a decade after the passage of the nation’s first state medical marijuana law, California’s Prop. 215, a considerable body of data shows that no state with a medical marijuana law has experienced an increase in youth marijuana use since its law’s enactment. All states have reported overall decreases – exceeding 50% in some age groups – strongly suggesting that the enactment of state medical marijuana laws does not increase marijuana use.”

Investigators at the Texas A&M Health Science Center also assessed whether the passage of medical cannabis laws encourages greater recreational use. They too found, definitively, that it does not. “Our results indicate that the introduction of medical cannabis laws was not associated with an increase in cannabis use among either arrestees or emergency department patients in cities and metropolitan areas located in four states in the USA (California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington). … Consistent with other studies of the liberalization of cannabis laws, medical cannabis laws do not appear to increase use of the drug.”

As this government map (Marijuana Use in Past Year among Persons Age 12 or Older) so keenly illustrates, marijuana use rates as a percentage of the overall population vary only slightly among states, despite states having remarkably varying degrees of marijuana enforcement and punishments. In fact, several states with the most lenient laws regarding marijuana possession — such as Nebraska (possession of up to one ounce is a civil citation) and Mississippi (possession of up to 30 grams is a summons) — report having some of the lowest rates of marijuana use, while several states that maintain strict penalties for personal users (e.g., Rhode Island) report comparatively high levels of use. The Drug Czar is aware of this of course, yet he is forbidden by his office from ever acknowledging it publicly.

But wait, it gets even sillier. One statistic gleaned from the Monitoring the Future study that was not emphasized by the Drug Czar (for obvious reasons) was that more than eight out of ten 12th graders report that marijuana is “fairly easy” or “very easy” to get — a percentage that has remained constant for three and a half decades! So much for the notion that criminal prohibition is limiting youth marijuana access. It never has and it never will. On the other hand, Kerlikwoske concedes that the legalization, regulation, and the imposition of age restrictions on alcohol and cigarettes is associated with a reduction in teens use of those drugs. Nevertheless, the Czar irrationally brags that, when it comes to cannabis, those words are not even in his vocabulary. Seriously.

Finally, as to the Czar’s notion that teens are ‘misperceiving’ (a term that was apparently made up by Kerlikowske) the harms of marijuana compared to cigarettes and alcohol, let’s get real. Cigarette smoke is far more dangerous to humans than cannabis smoke, the latter of which has been shown to have an inverse relationship with incidences of certain types of cancer, even when consumed long-term. Further, unlike alcohol, marijuana is incapable of causing lethal overdose, is relatively nontoxic to healthy cells and organs, and its use is not typically associated with violent, aggressive, or reckless behavior. That’s why, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, fewer than one in five Americans nationwide now believe that consuming marijuana is more dangerous than drinking alcohol, and by a nearly two-to-one majority, respondents agree that marijuana is far less dangerous than smoking cigarettes. In short, the public has gotten it right even though their government keeps getting it wrong.

As for the Drug Czar and his mindless rhetoric, never forget the words of novelist Upton Sinclair, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” In reality, Kerlikowske is not nearly as stupid as his sound bytes imply; he just assumes that you are.

New Jersey: Lawmakers Reject Christie Administration’s Draconian Medical Marijuana Regulations

Senate lawmakers voted 22 to 16 today in favor of a concurrent resolution that forces the Department of Health and Senior Services to revise draft regulations regarding the implementation of the New Jersey Compassionate Medical Marijuana Act. Assembly lawmakers had previously approved the resolution in November.

The Department now has 30 days to rewrite the regulations. (You can read NORML’s critique of the draft regulations here.) “Failure to publish proposed rules that are consistent with the intent of the legislature may result in the legislature passing a concurrent resolution to prohibit those proposed rules from taking effect in whole or in part,” the resolutions states.

Lawmakers, patients, and reform activists took issue with several aspects of the draft regulations, which they argued violated the intent of New Jersey’s yet-to-be implemented medical marijuana law. These included provisions:

* requiring qualifying patients to establish that their diagnosed condition has proven resistant to all other conventional therapies;

* capping the number of state-licensed medical cannabis producers to no more than two;

* restricting the varieties of marijuana available to patients to six strains, and capping the plant’s THC content at ten percent;

* prohibiting the dissemination of any edible medical cannabis product;

* mandating that doctors who authorize their patients to use marijuana must “make reasonable efforts” at least every three months to wean them off the drug.

Earlier this month, Gov. Chris Christie — who has previously voiced disapproval of the state’s nascent medical cannabis law — agreed to allow for establishment of six licensed facilities to produce and dispense marijuana to authorized patients, and loosen the eligibility requirements for specific patients. The Senate’s vote today indicates that lawmakers will demand the administration to make additional changes regarding how the law is ultimately implemented.

Chris Goldstein of New Jersey NORML and the Coalition for Medical Marijuana – New Jersey said: “[We are] pleased that the New Jersey Legislature heard the concerns of severely ill residents in the continued fight for fair and legal access to marijuana. The vote today sends a strong message to the Department of Health and Senior Services as well as Governor Christie that officials need to craft more reasonable rules for the medical cannabis program. This can only be accomplished by engaging in a transparent process that involves patients and advocates.”

For more information or to get involved, contact NORML New Jersey or the Coalition for Medical Marijuana – New Jersey.

The Nation: “Breaking The Taboo”

Several cover stories appearing in the new issue of The Nation take issue with United State’s ‘war on drug’ policies. The entire issue is arguably worth reading, but the following essay, penned by Drug Policy Alliance director Ethan Nadelmann, is particularly relevant to marijuana law reformers as we look to 2011 and beyond.

Breaking the taboo
via The Nation

[excerpt] The prospects for reforming drug policy have never been so good. The persistent failure and negative consequences of drug war policies, combined with budgetary woes and generational change, are mainstreaming reformist ideas once considered taboo.

Nowhere is this convergence more evident than with respect to marijuana. In 1969, when Gallup first asked Americans if they support legalizing marijuana use, 12 percent were in favor. Support hovered in the mid-20s for many years, then started drifting upward—from 25 percent in 1995 to 36 percent in 2005. In October, at the height of the landmark campaign for legalization in California, the latest Gallup poll found 46 percent in favor nationally, with 50 percent opposed. Prop 19 garnered 46.5 percent of the vote—and roughly a quarter of Californians who voted against it said they favored legalization but were hesitant to vote yes for one reason or another.

Criminal justice reformers know that marijuana offenses account for “only” 50,000–100,000 of the roughly 500,000 Americans behind bars for a drug law violation, but arrests for marijuana possession represent 45 percent of the 1.7 million drug arrests made annually in recent years. And as Queens College professor Harry Levine has amply documented, African-Americans and Latinos are arrested for marijuana offenses at dramatically higher rates than whites, even though they are no more likely to use or possess marijuana. It’s only a matter of time before the racial justice implications of marijuana prohibition and legalization overcome the cultural conservatism of African-American and Latino communities.

According to the Gallup poll, 58 percent of Americans who live in the West now favor legalizing marijuana use. It’s thus highly likely that 2012 will see more legalization initiatives in Western states, and with the support of young people—who consistently say they care a lot about this issue and turn out in higher numbers for presidential elections—a few may actually succeed.

The Nation isn’t the only mainstream media outlet taking aim at the drug war. Earlier this month the Associated Press published the second installment in their ‘AP Impact’ series. Their first analysis, published in May (and summarized on NORML’s blog here) concluded that the United States drug ‘war’ has cost over $1 trillion dollars, has led to the arrest of over 37 million nonviolent drug offenders, and yet has done “little” to reduce Americans’ access to or desire to use illicit substances. The AP’s second analysis takes an equally critical approach to the United State’s efforts in Mexico, which have led to “little, if any, slowdown in the drug trade.”

AP IMPACT: Cartel arrests did not curb drug trade
via San Luis Obispo Tribune

[Excerpt] Almost four years later, a grave Eric Holder called his first news conference as attorney general and announced where those phone numbers had led – to a sweeping investigation called Operation Xcellerator, which produced the largest-ever federal crackdown on Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, with 761 people arrested and 23 tons of narcotics seized.

Standing with Holder that day in 2009 was acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart, who declared: “Today we have dealt the Sinaloa drug cartel a crushing blow.”

But just how crushing was it? An Associated Press investigation casts doubt on whether the crackdown caused any significant setback for the cartel. It still ranks near the top of Mexico’s drug gangs, and most of those arrested were underlings who had little connection to the cartel and were swiftly replaced. The cartel leader remains free, along with his top commanders.

The findings confirm what many critics of the drug war have said for years: The government is quick to boast about large arrests or drug seizures, but many of its most-publicized efforts result in little, if any, slowdown in the drug trade.

For decades the drug warriors functioned with the full complicity of the press. That isn’t the case any more. And without a lapdog media, it is becoming glaring obvious to the majority of the public that the Emperor absolutely wears no clothes.

Marijuana Meetup: Teapot Party Invitation

The Teapot Party
We lean a little to the left

Meetup.com - http://www.meetup.com/TeapotParty/
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/TeapotParty
Twitter - http://twitter.com/TheTeapotParty

CONTACT: teapotmedia@celebstoner.com

MEDIA NOTE - The Teapot Party is launching a Meetup Everywhere community and encouraging nationwide gatherings on 12/15/10 and 1/18/11

Teapot Party announces first nationwide event

The recent arrest of music legend Willie Nelson for marijuana possession by the US Border Patrol in Texas has sparked a new national political effort called The Teapot Party.

Rather than stay quiet about the 11/26/2010 bust, Willie sent an email to Steve Bloom of CelebStoner.com: “Let’s start a new party. There is the Tea Party. How about the Teapot Party? Our motto: ‘We lean a little to the left.’ Tax it, regulate it, legalize it. And stop the border wars over drugs. Why should the drug lords make all the money? Thousands of lives will be saved.”

With Willie’s blessing, a page for Willie Nelson’s Teapot Party was created at Facebook. Tens of thousands of people have stopped by to voice their enthusiastic support for our core position: It’s time to end the war on marijuana smokers.

Over 35, 000 people joined the Facebook group in just one week. Teapot Party groups have already formed in all 50 states and some international chapters are developing.

The administrators of the Teapot Party Facebook page are now using the free and open internet platform Meetup Everywhere as their main organizing tool.

LINK  http://www.meetup.com/TeapotParty/

Two meet-up dates have been scheduled: December 15, 2010 and January 18, 2011.

The Teapot Party is in its nascent stage. We want our own candidates who support legalizing marijuana and hemp as their main issue.

It’s time for us to take back America to restore our economy and return our liberties, the most important of which is the freedom to responsibly use marijuana.

We’re looking forward to getting feedback from you, the people, the pot-smokers of America. So let’s all join together, one nation under a marijuana cloud, and get this Teapot Party started!