When Truth Is At Odds With The Law

[Note: Bob Newland will be our guest on NORML SHOW LIVE this Thursday 8/19 - live.norml.org at 4pm ET / 1pm PT.]

Twelve months ago, long time South Dakota NORML activist Bob Newland was legally barred by a state judge from engaging in any public advocacy for cannabis law reform while on probation for a marijuana possession offense. Newland’s First Amendment stripping sentence was all the more egregious given Bob’s high profile role in this November’s statewide ballot initiative campaign (‘Yes on 13′) to legalize the medical use of marijuana for qualified patients.

After months of coerced silence, Bob has finally been unshackled and may once again enjoy his Constitutional right to advocate for rational and compassionate marijuana policies. And he isn’t wasting any time. His op/ed below, published last week in The Rapid City Journal, provides details on Bob’s court-ordered exile, and offers insight as to why he continues to articulately and passionately advocate for cannabis liberation. Bob’s comparison to Galileo, the renowned astronomer who spent decades under house arrest for daring to acknowledge publicly that the Earth revolved around the sun, is disturbingly appropriate.

Marijuana prohibition aids few
via The Rapid City Journal

My tongue was bound. My typing fingers were paralyzed. On July 6, 2009, these acts were performed by a circuit court judge because I am a visible and ardent advocate of informed personal discretion regarding one’s choice of intoxicant or medical palliative.

… Contrary to the beliefs of many, there is plenty of precedent for court-ordered suppression of the truth. Often recalled is the 40-year house arrest imposed on Galileo for pointing out that the Earth revolved around the sun. Millions were burned to death for less.

I’m 62 years old. For 44 years I have observed the incalculably stupid custom of arresting people for possession of a demonstrably beneficial, easily cultivated herb. During the past 20 years alone, over 16 million people have been arrested on marijuana charges in this country, over 12 million of them for simple possession only.

My statistics are understated, purposefully, because most people apparently can’t face how destructive cannabis prohibition has been. It’s been estimated that each arrest has cost the taxpayers of its jurisdiction a minimum of $500. If that were the extent of the damage, prohibition would be a bargain.

It has become common practice for law enforcement to seize peoples’ cash, possessions and children, often based on only an accusation of cannabis use. Those convicted bear an undeserved social and income-reducing stigma for the rest of their lives. No one in government or the financial industry is immune to the lure of the inconceivable amount of cash generated by the prohibited substance trade in general, of which cannabis is the most prevalent. Children find it easier to obtain “prohibited” substances than they do tobacco and alcohol, because the nature of prohibition is to subsidize an unregulated and untaxed market.

As for every politician who endorses prohibition, every judge who sentences someone for possession, every cop who arrests someone for possession; they all are awash in the blood of the 23,000 Mexicans who have been killed in the civil war over drug turf in Mexico during the past three years, and in the less visible detritus of the lives they have shattered senselessly.

… In a twisted and particularly cruel way of parsing the matter, which above all else is the hallmark of prohibition logic, it makes sense for government to stifle the truth.

You can read Bob’s entire commentary here.

And if you reside in South Dakota, you can join with Bob and The South Dakota Coalition for Compassion by voting ‘yes’ this November on Prop. 13 — The South Dakota Safe Access Act.

Bob has done — and continues to do — his part for marijuana law reform. Have you done yours?

Help Oregon Qualify An Important Medical Marijuana Initiative

In another affirmation of cannabis law reform’s political momentum in America, the organizers at VoterPower of Oregon have very likely qualified for the ballot what will be ‘Initiative-28’ this November.

Enough signatures have been gathered, but, in an effort to make sure that enough signatures legally qualify the measure for the ballot it is necessary and politically prudent to turn in the maximum number of signatures to survive scrutiny from the Secretary of State’s office or opponents of cannabis law reform.

Oregon, by all measurement, is one of the best states in the country on cannabis!

The state was the first to decriminalize possession in 1973, the state has had numerous voter initiatives to reform cannabis laws—including the 1998 initiative votes to keep cannabis possession decriminalized (blessedly, an eye-popping 68% of Oregon voters rejected an effort to re-criminalize the possession of cannabis) and Oregon became the ^4th state to pass a voter initiative that allows for the medical use of cannabis by qualifying patients who possess a physician’s recommendation.

Now, in 2010, Initiative-28 seeks to create a state-sanctioned medical cannabis dispensary system where patients can have retail access to cannabis products.

Below is a recent alert from VoterPower director (and former NORML board member) John Sajo letting all concerned cannabis consumers—from Oregon and beyond—know about the politically important opportunity to help get another pro-cannabis law voter state initiative on this fall’s ballot.

If we can all help Oregon get over the top to qualify for the ballot, the state will join Arizona and South Dakota on medical cannabis-related initiatives, as well as California regarding an outright legalization initiative.**

Please contact VoterPower and lend them your help and financial support to make sure that the citizens of Oregon once again have the chance to lead the way on substantive cannabis law reform measures.

Thanks and kind regards,

Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director

NORML / NORML Foundation, Washington, DC, norml.org

**BTW, Washington State may also qualify a legalization ballot initiative for this year as well. They too are up against tight deadlines and financial restrictions, but might become the fifth state this election cycle to have a major pro-cannabis law reform measure placed directly in front of the voters. To help the effort in Washington State click here.

Friends

We need your help to push Initiative 28 over the top.  This initiative will create a dispensary system where qualified patients can obtain high quality medical marijuana. Patients will have more choices and much better access.

We have already collected over 110,000 signatures, but this isn’t quite enough.  We are waiting to hear from the Secretary of State, who checks to see how many of the signatures are valid registered voters.  We may need another 10,000 signatures.

We have street crews out petitioning who we expect to collect about half of what we need.

We need volunteers like you to help by getting a petition and filling up a sheet or two: One sheet is just ten signatures!

You can collect signatures from your Oregon friends and family or just by asking a few people out in public.

I-28 is going to be an important improvement to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act and it will help make better marijuana laws more likely in the future.  Qualifying for and winning this election are within our grasp.  Please help at this critical time.

If you need a petition we will mail you one, just email me at johns@voterpower.org or stop by our offices in Portland, Medford, or Eugene.

Or, call us at 503-224-3051 or 541-245-6634.

Thank you for helping!!

John Sajo Director, Voter Power

P.S. Contact me to find out other ways you can help the campaign!

Colorado: Yet Another City Votes To Remove Marijuana Penalties

Fewer than 2,000 people reside in the mountain town of Nederland, Colorado — located west of Boulder. Nonetheless, Tuesday’s ‘small town’ vote in favor of a local ordinance eliminating all criminal and civil penalties for the adult personal use of marijuana is no doubt representative of the rising tide of national popular opinion in favor of cannabis legalization.

For the record, Nederland is the third Colorado city in recent memory to vote to remove marijuana possession penalties — following Breckenridge in 2009 and Denver (2007 and 2005) — and it most certainly won’t be the last.

Nederland votes to remove penalties for marijuana
via Fox News

NEDERLAND, COLO. — Voters in the town of Nederland voted on Tuesday and approved a ballot measure that removed all local penalties for private adult marijuana possession, making the mountain town the third Colorado locality to legalize marijuana in the past five years.

Denver voters adopted a citizen-initiative to do so in November 2005, and voters in Breckenridge approved a similar measure in November 2009.

More than 54 percent of Nederland voters supported the measure in what Town Clerk Christi Icenogle said was a high turn-out election.

Voters also ousted incumbent Mayor Martin Cheshes, who had vocally opposed the measure and referred to it as “foolish,” replacing him with Trustee Sumaya Abu-Haidar.

Prior to the announcement of the vote, the Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett told The Daily Camera: “I’ll pay attention if it passes. Marijuana enforcement is a sensitive issue, and it’s important to gauge public sentiment.”

… Durango, which voted largely in support of the statewide initiative to legalize marijuana in 2006, will likely to vote on a similar local marijuana legalization initiative this November.

A recent poll of likely Colorado voters found that 50 percent now support making marijuana legal for adults and regulating it like alcohol.

Medical marijuana’s not getting any better – the time for RE-legalization is NOW!

Author’s update: the graphics in the post below have been updated to correct some minor mistakes, such as dated information that left out Rhode Island and Maine’s dispensaries and Oregon’s recent acceptance of Alzheimer’s agitation as a qualifying condition. Also, I have outlined Oregon’s attempt at legalization through the OCTA petition as it could be reasonably said to be as far along or farther along than Washington’s I-1068. I regret my errors.

Marijuana Law Reform in 2010 (March Update)

With New Jersey recently becoming the 14th medical marijuana state, activists in marijuana law reform have been celebrating. After all, over 82 million Americans now live in states where medical use of marijuana is legal – that’s 27% of the US population! Last election, Massachusetts became the 13th decriminalization state, which means over 107 million Americans live in a state where possession of small personal amounts of marijuana no longer merit an arrest – that’s 35% of the US population.

Population of States with Medical Marijuana Laws

Population of States that have Decriminalized Marijuana

However, after watching fourteen years of marijuana activism focused solely on those who use cannabis for medicine, I must warn activists that medical marijuana is not getting any better and the time for re-legalization of cannabis for all adults – even the healthy ones – is now.

Comparison of five core rights found in existing medical marijuana law

California legalized medical marijuana in 1996. That initiative, Prop-215, established what is clearly the most liberal medical marijuana statute to date:

• A doctor can recommend for any condition;
• You needn’t have a “bona fide” doctor/patient relationship;
• Dispensaries are allowed;
• Self cultivation is allowed;
• Patients are protected from arrest.

Comparison of plant and possession limits and qualifying conditions in medical marijuana law

If we consider these five attributes of the law the baseline, then in the past fourteen years, all thirteen medical marijuana states that have followed have failed to achieve all five. Eight states only offer three or four of those liberties and the rest offer two or only one. Most disturbingly, the right of patients to grow their own medicine (or have a caregiver do it for them), which has been a bedrock principle in medical marijuana law, was taken away from patients in the most recent medical marijuana state, New Jersey. Bills that were considered but vetoed in 2009 in Minnesota and New Hampshire, and those moving forward in New York, Pennsylvania, as well as an initiative in Arizona, all sacrifice this core right.

New Jersey - The (No Medical Marijuana) Garden State

A comparison of plant and possession limits also shows the decline from the original starting point in California, where 12 plants and 8 ounces are allowed. Oregon and Washington passed their laws next and have the highest statutory limits: 24 plants and 24 ounces in Oregon and 15 plants and 24 ounces in Washington. (To be fair, all the West Coast states started with lower limits or more vague limits that were modified by the legislature.) But since then, only one state has allowed more than 3 ounces (New Mexico with 6 ounces) and average number of plants allowed is a little less than ten.

The "Big 8" Conditions for which marijuana is recommended in the states

Another decline in medical marijuana freedom appears when we look at the conditions for which medical marijuana protection is afforded in the various states. There are eight conditions which could be considered the “standard” ones: cancer; HIV/AIDS; seizure disorders, like epilepsy; spastic disorders, like multiple sclerosis; glaucoma; chronic nausea; cachexia; and chronic pain. Most medical marijuana states recognize all eight conditions; a couple (Vermont and Rhode Island) recognize seven of eight.

Other conditions recognized in state medical marijuana laws (not a complete list)

The latest law in New Jersey, however, eliminated chronic pain, chronic nausea, and cachexia, making it the most restrictive list in the nation. The bill proposed but vetoed in New Hampshire required one to try all other remedies for chronic pain before trying medical marijuana. The vetoed Minnesota bill wouldn’t even allow cancer and HIV/AIDS patients to use medical marijuana unless they could show they were terminal (about to die). The lists in the latest proposed bills continue to become more restricted.

Until we do have legalization for all, every medical marijuana law is going to fail to adequately serve all medical users and subject them to increasing restriction and scrutiny. Additionally, medical marijuana laws make patients an attractive target for criminals because prohibition maintains huge profits for stolen medical cannabis, as well as becoming targets for overzealous anti-marijuana cops and prosecutors.

(more…)

CBS News: “Pot Measure One Step Closer To California Ballot”

As a general rule, NORML tends not to publicize or comment on ballot initiative drives — including campaigns we are involved in — until they have officially qualified for the ballot. But in this case, we (and the mainstream media) just couldn’t resist.

Pot Measure One Step Closer to California Ballot
via CBS.com

An initiative to make marijuana legal, and open to local taxation and regulation, is one step closer to getting on the California ballot this November.

Backers of the initiative on Thursday turned in nearly 700,000 signatures to state officials to place the measure on the state ballot, according to reports — far more than the 433,971 valid signatures required. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has until June 24 to certify the initiative, the Sacramento Bee reports.

The measure, if approved by voters, would allow anyone over 21 years old to possess up to an ounce of marijuana or grow plants within a limited space for personal use. It would also allow local jurisdictions to tax and regulate it.

[Author's Note: There is a clause in the initiative that allows for municipalities, if they desire to do so, to establish regulations governing the retail distribution and sale of cannabis. Personal, non-commercial possess or cultivation of marijuana would not be subject to taxation under this initiative.]

… An April Field Poll found that 56 percent of California voters supported legalizing marijuana, and Mark DiCamillo, the poll’s director, said the initiative had a 50 percent chance of passing, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Next week, proponents of a statewide measure to legalize medical marijuana in South Dakota will also turn in signatures to the Secretary of State’s office to place the proposal on the November 2010 ballot. Petitioners claim that they possess nearly twice the number of signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot.

Separate ballot drives are under way in several other states, including Washington and Oregon.