Cannabis Politics and Government Policies, a view from the public gallery

Washington >

The White House has laid the groundwork to place more conservatives on the Supreme Court, scrutinizing the backgrounds and legal views of a shrinking list of candidates amid speculation that ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist soon will step down. Keenly aware that a chapter of President Bush's legacy is at stake, conservative and liberal advocacy groups are preparing for what both sides believe will be a bruising confirmation fight.Court experts expect that Rehnquist, who is battling thyroid cancer, will leave by the end of June when the current court session concludes. But those tracking the process say the counsel's office has researched the resumes of prospective justices, their court opinions and their views about constitutional law. Justice Department lawyers are carefully looking into the personal backgrounds of possible nominees. Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed despite allegations of sexual harassment. One of President Reagan's nominees, Douglas Ginsburg, withdrew from consideration after it was revealed that he had smoked marijuana. Full Backgrounds............

'smell of marijuana wafting through the institution'
Winnipeg Sun. BC
Kathleen Harris
May 29th 2005:

The removal of the arachnid >a "pet" of a British Columbia inmate -- touched off a riot that caused $40,000 damage to the provincial institution last June. According to Behind Bars II, a damning report of Canada's prison system compiled by Conservative MP Randy White, other uprisings were caused by disrupted kitchen schedules, late snack delivery and fury over "snooping" when a guard tried to investigate the smell of marijuana wafting through the institution. White said the incidents reflect how convicts across Canada are ruling the roost. "This tells you very clearly that the inmates have control. If they don't get what they want, they'll just tear the place apart," he said. "Management says, 'OK, if you tear it apart, we'll put a minimal effort into stopping you, but if you do it we'll just use taxpayers' money and repair it again. Full Conviction...........

Chicago > A fifth

Chicago police officer has been charged in connection with a drug ring in which federal authorities allege corrupt officers stole cocaine, money and guns from drug dealers, according to a federal indictment. Federal authorities have charged Erik Johnson, a 10-year Chicago police veteran, with conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana and brandishing a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime, according to the indictment made public Friday. The charges allege Johnson, 40, of Chicago, played a role in obtaining about one kilogram of cocaine from a drug dealer in summer 2004 on Chicago's South Side. Johnson received some of the profits after the cocaine was sold, the indictment alleges. Full Scam..............

Beijing- Chinese officials issued an unusual appeal to the public on Thursday for help fighting drug trafficking, acknowledging in a nationally televised news conference that they have failed to stop surging narcotics abuse despite repeated crackdowns. Drug smuggling and the difficulty of fighting it are rising as a result of globalization and freer trade, the officials said, citing the seizure this month of 900 pounds of the party drug ketamine brought in from India via the Middle East. ``Although we've made a lot of achievements, the spread of drug problems remains serious,'' said Yang Fengrui, secretary-general of the National Narcotics Control Commission. ``Heroin use is down in some areas, but the use of new drugs such as ecstasy, marijuana and others is increasing.''
Communist Party leaders declared a ``People's War on Drugs'' in April, Yang said. He appealed to the public to inform on traffickers and to help addicts reform - a rare step by a government that usually says it can handle crime and social problems on its own. `People's War on Drugs' cannot go ahead without the support of the broad masses,'' Yang said. Full War..........................

'This is a social evil'
News India
May 26th 2005:

Thiruvananthapuram,

May 26: Kerala, said to be India's leading producer of cannabis, has set itself a target of one year to wipe out the cultivation of the plant along its border with Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said this after he and his team visited an 8,000-acre area with illegal cannabis cultivation on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border near Idukki."In a matter of one year we will ensure that the entire cannabis cultivation in the area is destroyed. We have sought the assistance of the Narcotics Control Bureau too," Chandy told reporters here after a cabinet meeting Wednesday."Reports suggest that the best quality cannabis is grown in this area and Kerala is the leading producer of cannabis in the country. This is a social evil and we will do everything to stop it," said Chandy. Full Evil............

'that takes into account all psychoactive substances'.
Swiss info
May 24th 2005:

Experts in Switzerland say tobacco and alcohol should be included in drugs policy
Switzerland should adopt a more coherent and credible drugs policy that includes alcohol and tobacco as well as illegal drugs, says a government commission. In a report published on Monday, the federal commission on drugs called on the government to prepare the ground for a new strategy "that takes into account all psychoactive substances". Last year parliament rejected a government proposal to decriminalise cannabis – the second time it had voted against a more liberal drugs policy. The existing drugs law dates back to 1975, Full Report..............

'cannabinoid receptors may fit the bill'
New Scotman
Frank Urquhart
May 23rd 2005:

Scottish scientists found that the drug can cause increased bone loss, which in turn leads to osteoporosis.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence on the dangers of cannabis and prompted campaigners to renew their calls for the government to rethink its drugs law. Psychosis, bone disease, what next ?
Cannabinoids act in the same way as chemicals in cannabis by attaching themselves to receptors in the body, stimulating appetite or bone metabolism. Prof Ralston said: "These experiments were not carried out on human patients, Prof Ralston, now based at Edinburgh University, said the discovery opened the door to drugs used to treat obesity being used to prevent and treat osteoporosis. He said the drugs that block cannabinoid receptors to suppress appetite could also be used to stop bone loss. Full Skeleton.............

'included decriminalization of marijuana'
Leader Times
John Gizzi
May 22nd 2005:

"The Aviator," last year's hit film on Howard Hughes, traces the role of the "bashful billionaire" in politics. From a guarded Las Vegas hotel suite, the reclusive Hughes schemes to defeat his political enemies in Washington. There has been no one quite like Howard Hughes for a long time. But if anyone qualifies as a reclusive power broker these days it is Peter B. Lewis. A graduate of Princeton University and chairman of Progressive Corp., based in Cleveland, Lewis oversees America's third-largest automobile insurer and is worth an estimated $1.6 billion, according to Forbes Magazine, which makes him the 356th richest person in the world. Whatever motivated Peter Lewis to change his mind remains unclear. Along with his Bush-bashing, financial reports show Lewis' favorite causes in 2004 included decriminalization of marijuana, gay rights and the environment. The cause of marijuana legalization particularly interests Lewis, who openly acknowledges using marijuana and hashish and was arrested in New Zealand in 2000 for possessing them. Full Possession.........

Community leaders in North Carolina and other parts of the country are raising an outcry against candy that tastes like marijuana, including Chronic Candy and Pot Suckers, WNBC-17 in Raleigh, N.C., reported May 10. Chronic Candy is sold by the ounce or "nickel bag," using the tagline, "Every lick is like taking a hit." Pot Suckers are marijuana-flavored lollipops; flavored gum drops and gummi bears also are available. "To me, it's aggravating to be in law enforcement and try and keep kids off drugs," Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said. "And we didn't even know about it. To see drugs are in this candy ... it's disgusting." More Disgust..............

Sir Ian Blair,

the Comissioner of the Metropolitan Police, added that if the Government re-classified cannabis from a class C to a class B drug - reversing the change made last year - his force would "lobby fiercely" for the offence to be dealt with by the issuing of fixed penalty notices, rather than arrests and prosecutions.
While there have been misgivings in the police about "mixed messages" sent to young people by the legal downgrading of cannabis, it is acknowledged that it has saved a lot of time previously spent filling forms after people were arrested for carrying small amounts of the drug. Sir Ian said his view, "personally and professionally," was that it was "a waste of time in terms of police dealing with possession of small amounts because the courts and the Crown Prosecution Service have persistently refused to do anything about it" The Full Ticket........................

Drug experts

will begin debating today whether stronger "skunk" varieties of cannabis should carry higher penalties for possession. The Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, which meets in London, has been asked by the home secretary, Charles Clarke, for its advice on varieties of cannabis containing high levels of THC, the active ingredient. In his letter to the committee, Mr Clarke pointed it to these forms of the plant, known as skunk, which are often grown in nutrient-rich water. "I am aware the Dutch government are taking a particular interest in very high strength strains and are considering whether cannabis above a certain strength should be a higher classification," the home secretary said. The council is reviewing whether the recent relaxation of the penalties for cannabis possession should be reversed. Tony Blair told the Commons on Tuesday that he hoped the experts would produce their report within weeks, but those hopes are likely to be dashed. Full Joke............

'This world is rife with coincidence'.
The Daily Journal
Michael Riemenschneider
May 19th 2005:

In gradual response to the 2003 passage of Senate bill (SB) 420, legislation creating a statewide medicinal marijuana identification system and database, seven California counties are expected to launch trials of the program. Mendocino County, as one of the few counties to already have established a medicinal marijuana identification system, is one of those seven. The County Board of Supervisors heard the matter Tuesday, but postponed action until next week. Proposition 215, by making medicinal marijuana legal in California but not clearly stating law enforcement specifics, has created an administrative nightmare. Interpretations vary widely across the state, and the quasi-legal status of the drug results in significant ambiguity. SB 420 was passed to make the law more uniform. Full Passage.............

The Aztecs referred to them as "the flesh of the gods". Lewis Carroll based whole passages of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on them. And the Glastonbury organisers have found that, unlike Ecstasy, "shrooms" (as the psychedelic fungi sold across the country are known) do not fill the medical tent with dehydrated zombies. A new law puts a harmless fungus on a par with crack and heroin Indeed, magic mushrooms seem to have no adverse health consequences (unless you take them while operating heavy machinery). Which makes it curious, as Alice might have put it, that next month's Glastonbury will be the last where devotees can journey to the spirit world without fear of ending up in a prison cell. Full Trip....................

Indonesian diplomats in Australia have received threats over the high-profile trial of an Australian woman on drug smuggling charges in Bali, Indonesian officials said on Tuesday. The Indonesian Embassy in Canberra told reporters its diplomats in Canberra and consular officials around Australia had received threats by mail and e-mail about the case of 27-year-old beauty therapist Schapelle Corby. It did not give details. Australian Federal Police would not comment on the threats, which follow an incident in April when bullets were sent to the Indonesian consulate in the West Australian city of Perth, warning staff would be killed unless Corby was freed. Corby, 27, faces life in jail if convicted of smuggling 4.1 kg (9 lb) of marijuana into Bali in 2004. Full Tale............

Indianapolis resident Benjamin Haas, 27, was arrested about 3:31 a.m. Saturday on charges of disorderly

conduct, intimidation and possession of marijuana. Haas was arguing in the driveway with his brother, who lives on Ursal Lane in Greenwood, a police report said. When police arrived, an officer saw Haas toss a bag of green, leafy vegetation suspected of being marijuana onto the front lawn, according to the report. The man was arrested and put in the car, but became violent by threatening the officer, kicking at the officer's computer and spitting inside the patrol car, a report said. Haas ignored warnings, and Officer Matt Fillenwarth had to restrain him with a Taser shot to his upper left back, a report said. He was taken to the Johnson County jail and put in leg shackles and a waist chain, the report said. Haas was being held Sunday in the jail on $5,000 bond.

Cannabis advisers don't want rethink
Sunday Times
David Leppard. PA
May 15th 2005

GOVERNMENT advisers are likely to reject a tougher line on cannabis despite mounting concerns about the drug's potential dangers and reservations by Tony Blair and the home secretary. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will meet this week to decide whether

to review new evidence suggesting cannabis can cause mental illness. Before the election Charles Clarke asked the committee to reassess the government's decision 16 months ago to downgrade crimes involving cannabis. Both Clarke and Tony Blair are understood to regret the decision, which coincided with an influx of stronger strains of the drug to Britain. However, a leading member of the committee said last week he would be "very surprised" if it decided to urge a reversal.
The Rev Martin Blakeborough, who runs the Kaleidoscope drug abuse charity in Kingston, west London, said the committee had already made its decision when it recommended in 2001 that penalties for using the drug be reclassified from category B to category C. Blakeborough said there would need to be "an awful lot" of new evidence to convince the committee. "I would be extremely surprised if anything were to happen in terms of change," he said. Blakeborough added that senior police were in favour of the relaxed laws. Officers were issued with guidelines saying that possession in small quantities for personal use should no longer lead to an arrest. Arrests for cannabis possession halved in the first year of the relaxed regime, freeing up officers' time to deal with other crimes. Full Advice......

Marijuana, cases take so long to reach because every find has to be confirmed as marijuana, Public Prosecutions Office spokeswoman, Asishna Prasad says.The time taken to prosecute offences relating specifically to marijuana is anything from between a day to a week, Mrs Prasad said. We have a Serious Offences Unit in our office that deals with all drug related offences. But our office does not spend much time on prosecuting the smaller drug related offences like possession of small amounts of marijuana as the police prosecutors largely deal with these cases, she said. Between 1997 and 2001, police recorded 2231 offences against the Drug Ordinance/Act under the Offences Against Penal Code category. An even more recent scenario of the actual drug crimes was of statistics from January to Full Tale.......................

Officers have

cracked down on drug paraphernalia Police are warning shopkeepers of the consequences of selling drug paraphernalia. The move follows the recent conviction of a Glasgow shopkeeper for selling equipment which police believe was going to be used to prepare drugs. Some £3,000 worth of stock was seized, including bongs, cannabis pipes and magazines about marijuana cultivation. The Strathclyde force said it was the first conviction of its kind in Scotland, and possibly the UK. Officers said they were aware that other shopkeepers in the area were selling equipment which they wrongly thought was lawful. I would urge all shopkeepers to think of the effects these products can have on our communities Each of the force's divisional drugs awareness officers will now identify and visit shops within their own areas to offer guidance on the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Seeds Next Perhaps ? Full Misuse.................

Almost a third of the HIV-positive patients attending an outpatient clinic in west London have used cannabis to alleviate symptoms associated with HIV infection or treatment, according to a cross-sectional study presented in the April edition of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
Anecdotal reports have claimed that cannabis use can alleviate some of the symptoms associated with HIV, such as poor appetite, pain, anxiety and depression. To assess the extent of cannabis use, researchers from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital asked patients attending the hospital's HIV clinic to complete an anonymous questionnaire about their use of cannabis and the effects of the drug on their HIV-related symptoms. "Despite the fact that cannabis is still illegal, its use for medical purposes appears to be quite widespread," they write. "A large number of patients reported that cannabis improved symptom control." Full Story......................

Judges hearing the case against Schapelle Corby, the Australian accused of drug smuggling in Bali, will not consider claimed evidence alleging luggage tampering at Australian airports. The Gold Coast woman's defence team has made its final response to prosecution submissions. The 27-year-old is accused of bringing 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into Bali last year. In the final act of this trial before a verdict, the defence asked the court to consider new material, including comments from Bali's chief drugs police officer. Corby's lawyers say the comments question the handling of evidence in the case. Full Story.........................

In "Dealing dope in B.C. is far from a victimless crime," you opined that our "naive judges" are too lenient on "drug kingpins," that U.S. judges understand the value of long prison sentences, and that cannabis consumers are "contributing to a dark, dirty and increasingly violent business." Despite incarcerating more drug offenders than Western Europe imprisons for all crimes combined, the U.S. remains its own largest cannabis supplier. There is no evidence that U.S. sentencing practices have made their black marketeers less dark, dirty, violent or organized than ours. On the contrary, their aggressive war on cannabis contributed to their methamphetamine epidemic. Full Epidemic.........

Singapore

will hang an ethnic Tamil man on Friday for trafficking about 1 kg of cannabis despite a rare public plea by his teenage sons to stop the execution, a human rights group said. After 38 year old Shanmugam Murugesu lost an appeal to escape the gallows in January, his 14-year-old twin children took to Singapore's streets, handing out flyers last month urging public support to stop the execution, saying it would make them orphans. Think Centre, a Singapore human rights group, said Murugesu's family had received notification on Monday he will be hanged on Friday, May 13. "We are calling everyone, wherever they are, to hold a silent vigil for Shanmugam," Think Centre president Sinapan Samydorai said on Tuesday.

Tony Blair's hint that the downgrading of cannabis may be reversed means drugs is firmly back on the political

agenda at the start of the new term. In his new book, Griffith Edwards, founder of the National Addiction Centre, offers some radical solutions. Cannabis, the drug of choice for students and regarded by millions of otherwise law-abiding people as a harmless high, is the subject of renewed debate about its effect. It was downgraded last year to Class C, the same as steroids and some prescription anti-depressants. This made most cases of cannabis possession a non-arrestable offence. But in March, the Home Office ordered a review after fresh research suggested the drug could be more harmful than previously thought. And on the final day of the election campaign, the prime minister hinted at a U-turn. "We have asked for advice on it," he said. "What we did was perfectly sensible but I think it sent out the wrong message." Thirty or 40 years ago I was writing that cannabis was a drug without harm and dependency but I've had to eat my hat now, Full Hat Eating.........

Festival-goers

who take illegal drugs then drive home afterwards will be targeted in a major government campaign this summer. The "zero-tolerance" campaign follows a six-fold increase in the number of road accidents caused by motorists who use cocaine, cannabis or ecstasy then get behind the wheel of their vehicle, often with fatal consequences. A new anti-drug-driving crackdown will be launched this June at Glastonbury, Europe's largest music festival. Ticket-holders will be issued with special credit-card-size expandable flyers which warn them of the dangers of driving while on drugs. Department of Transport officials confirmed they are also in the process of drawing up plans to target other events, including the V music festivals in, Full Tale......................

Not only does John Cook plan to plead not guilty to a charge of possession of 500 grams of marijuana when he goes to Truro provincial court on Wednesday, he intends to ask for his weed back. Mr. Cook, 40, president of the provincial chapter of the Cannabis Buyers' Club of Canada, said the pot was destined for his 50 or so clients, who all use it for medical reasons. The Harrietsfield husband and father of two started running the buyers' club from his home after falling from a ladder, then further straining muscles in his back when he returned to work. "It gets my mind off (pain) enough that I can function - be with the kids, be a father to the children type of thing," he said. "Otherwise, I'd be a vegetable on the couch." More Muscle Straining...............

Professor Vikram Amar teaches at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and is an expert in constitutional law. I think the biggest case

of the term still to come down is out of California involving medical marijuana, and in particular, Congress' power under the so-called "Commerce Clause" of the Constitution to regulate possession and noncommercial distribution of controlled substances, including marijuana. It's called Raich v. Ashcroft. And this case is the latest in a series of cases the court has handed down in the past decade and a half concerning how far federal power extends to regulate things that some people think are local matters. The Supreme Court has used that new federalism to strike down a bunch of federal laws involving gun control and environmental regulation and protecting women against violence and protecting the disabled. And the question is whether that same new federalism will also stop Congress from regulating things like medical marijuana and physician-assisted suicide. Full Story.......................

The Home Secretary's decision has failed to explain why it is right to tell one set of people that it is
half permissible to take cannabis, but to tell another set of people
they may be put in prison for 14 years if they sell it.
It is for these reasons that a Conservative Government would reverse
Labour's decision to downgrade cannabis to a Class C drug. I believe
that it is very important indeed that this country maintains tough drug laws.

Cannabis Reclassification
On 29th January 2004, cannabis was reclassified from a Class B to a Class C drug across the UK. As a controlled drug, production, supply and possession remains illegal.

Changes to the law/penalties
Cannabis is still illegal. It is only the penalties that have changed.

Supply, dealing, production (including cultivation) and trafficking
The maximum penalty remains at 14 years’ imprisonment. In addition, the maximum penalty for dealing ALL class C substances has increased from 5 to 14 years’ imprisonment. Other class C drugs include GHB and Valium.

Liberal Democrats would break the link between cannabis use and organised crime
Maintaining the classification of cannabis as a Class C drug in the short term, but issuing
policy guidance that it is not in the public interest to prosecute individuals for possession
of cannabis for their own use, cultivation of small numbers of cannabis plants for their
own use, or social supply of cannabis.

'error over cannabis downgrade'
Philip Johnston : George Jones
May 4th 2005:

Tony Blair admitted yesterday that his Government could have been wrong to downgrade the seriousness

of cannabis. He told worried parents during an election event in Lancashire that there was increasing medical evidence that cannabis was "not quite as harmless as people make out" Tony Blair appeals to voters at an election event in Huddersfield. Mr Blair's comments were the most striking acknowledgement yet that ministers now fear that the controversial policy was a mistake. Fifteen months ago the Home Office reclassified the drug from a Class B to a Class C substance, Full upgrade............

For

the past 15 years, lawmakers have pursued tough-on-drugs policies in an effort to create a "drug free America," plowing billions of dollars into prosecuting and imprisoning drug offenders. Is it working? Not according to many drug policy observers of each political stripe, who claim the war on drugs has been a complete, and extremely costly, failure. Europe, Australia and some corners of North America treat drug abuse like a disease rather than a crime. U.S. drug policy makers could learn a lot from them. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were hemp farmers, which, during colonial times, made them good citizens. Read more in this drug war timeline.

A lawsuit filed last week against a Central Valley city signals medical marijuana advocates' growing concern over a municipal backlash against cannabis clubs up and down the state.
Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access sued Fresno last Monday for enacting a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, which the group says violates California laws entitling patients and caregivers to the medicinal herb. But almost nine years after Golden State voters approved a compassionate use law, what that law and a 2003 implementation law actually allow remains somewhat vague. Full Tale..................................

Australia

has sent a draft prisoner exchange agreement to Indonesia to speed up talks on a treaty with Australia. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock started negotiations for an agreement with Indonesia during a visit to Jakarta last week. He says an agreement between Indonesia and France may be used as a possible model. There are currently 10 Australians suspected of drug trafficking being held in Bali. They include nine arrested 12 days ago on the island of Bali, along with the seizure of more than eight kilograms of heroin. The other is 27-year-old Schapelle Corby, who is accused of trying to smuggle marijuana onto Bali. Civil liberties groups say any international transfer of prisoners treaty should see a limit set for life sentences. Full Exchange................