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

'A slice through the politics and policies with regard to cannabis from accross the Globe, a sideways swipe at grass stupidity and the hidden agendas with a political slant, cannabis politics with a
whiff of hypocrisy, cannabis politics of the Christian right,cannabis politics of the far left, read on......

A house used as a marijuana grow operation has been ordered forfeited to the Crown, say Burnaby RCMP.
Judge Bagnell has ordered the property at 3788 Venables Street to be forfeited to the Crown, with the provincial and federal government splitting the proceeds 50-50, said Burnaby RCMP Cpl. Pierre Lemaitre.
The 2005 assessment of the house was $367,000 (with market value another 25 per cent on top of that), with $279,188 in equity. The former homeowner was also given a nine-month conditional sentence, Full Forfiet....

Washington, DC: Recent allegations by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) that cannabis is a significant causal factor in on-road accidents and may adversely impact psychomotor skills up to 24 hours after past use are not supported by scientific evidence, said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre. His remarks were in response to a White House campaign launched earlier this week, entitled "Steer Clear of Pot." More.....

A Jamaican man, who was caught at the V.C. Bird International Airport with 615.5 grams of cannabis, was last week convicted on drug trafficking charges and was fined in the St. John’s Magistrates Court. Wayne Michael Morgan has until 8 Dec., to pay $250,000 or in default serve five years in prison. Morgan pleaded guilty to importation and possession of cannabis and not guilty to possession with intent to transfer. The latter was dismissed since the prosecution did not offer any evidence. He was severely reprimanded for possession of cannabis. The court heard that Morgan arrived in Antigua from Jamaica on 13 Nov., on board a BWIA flight and as he proceeded to get his documents and luggage checked, immigration officials told him to have a seat, Full Decision....

The arrests of three Qantas employees allegedly involved in a drug syndicate strengthen claims by convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby that marijuana was planted in her baggage, her mother says.
Three men have appeared in court accused of being part of a sophisticated drug syndicate with access to secure areas of Sydney Airport and items that had not been cleared by Customs.
The trio, who have been sacked by Qantas, were arrested on Friday after investigations by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Customs teams.Rosleigh Rose said she was glad to see airport staff had been charged.
Corby is serving a 15-year sentence - reduced from the original 20 years - in a Bali jail after 4.1kg of cannabis was found in her luggage at Denpasar airport in October last year, Full Story.....

A cannabis retailer from Carlisle who was arrested in Holland after three-and-a-half years on the run will face an extradition hearing next week. Alan Mason, who fled Carlisle in January 2002, was arrested in Zaandam last month.
The 45-year-old is now due to appear before a court in Amsterdam where his appeal against extradition will be heard.
If this fails, he could be brought back to Cumbria to serve a sentence for a conviction for possessing cannabis with intent to supply. Mason, a cannabis campaigner, recently wrote to the News & Star from the Dutch jail where he is imprisoned. He said he was suffering from asthma, joint stiffness and deteriorating eyesight because he was being deprived of the drug, More Running....

Drug abuse is increasing across the EU, with cocaine and ecstasy becoming the drug of choice for new users, an EU report shows. "Europe remains a major market for stimulant drugs, and indicators suggest that the trend in amphetamine, ecstasy and cocaine use continues to be upwards," the 2005 annual study from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) states. The report is based on data provided by the 25 EU countries, plus Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Norway. Cocaine is popular with around 9 million Europeans - or 3 percent of all adults - having used the drug. Between 3 and 3.5 million are likely to have taken cocaine in the last year, while around 1.5 million are so-called current users, having used it in the last month, the report shows, Read On.....

Two council

workers avoided jail yesterday after they admitted using their internal email to deal cannabis to colleagues. Caroline Stewart and Thomas McCann supplied dope over a 10-month period at West Dunbartonshire Council's social work and housing office in Clydebank, near Glasgow. Dumbarton Sheriff Court heard they lost their admin jobs when the emails were discovered. Sheriff Simon Pender fined McCann £110 and ordered him to do 180 hours of community service. Stewart, 22, received 180 hours of community service and a £75 fine. McCann, 20, of Clydebank, admitted selling cannabis to four council colleagues between January and November last year, More.....

San Diego> After a spirited debate, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors recently voted 3-2 to oppose a state

mandate that the county set up a system to distribute identification cards to people who use medicinal marijuana.
Federal law bans the cultivation, sale, possession and use of marijuana for any purpose; however, in California, Proposition 215 decriminalizes the use of marijuana and Senate Bill 420 forced counties to issue ID cards.
Vice Chairman and Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn said approving identification cards would be hypocritical since the board has long opposed the use of marijuana, Full Opposition....

The Auckland fashion label owner charged with cultivating cannabis valued at tens of thousands of dollars is suffering a "trial by media", his lawyer said today.
Insidious Fix clothing label owner John Campbell Crawford, 35, was charged with cultivating cannabis and allowing a premises to be used for the purpose of cannabis cultivation on Monday.
Crawford's lawyer Gary Gotlieb said he was "very concerned" with the media interest in the case.
"The thing that's concerning me is we're having a trial by media here rather than go through its due process in court," he said. Media have flocked to the Onehunga warehouse used by Insidious Fix where police uncovered a "huge and sophisticated" hydroponic operation, Full Trail....

David

Monson is a conservative Republican in North Dakota's legislature. He's also a farmer who believes that a new cash crop could revitalize his state's agricultural industry, which has been suffering from poor harvests and depressed soy and corn prices.That policy has led to an explosion in goods containing high-fiber, high-protein hemp that has been fueled by Americans' thirst for organic products — and perhaps by the tie some consumers see between hemp and marijuana, a counterculture symbol for decades. It also has put the cannabis plant at the center of a battle, Full Dea Logic...

Marijuana is the drug of choice for Australian teenagers, with more than five per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds having already tried it.A major report on drug use in Australia has found that one in 14 (7.2 per cent) of 12- to 15-year-olds tried illicit drugs last year. While 5.2 per cent indulged in marijuana, two per cent tried to get a kick from painkillers or analgesics and just over one per cent opted for inhalants, Full Report.....

There is a renewed push in Tasmania for tougher penalties for cannabis users. At the moment police give

three cautions for offences involving small amounts of cannabis within a 10-year period.
But Opposition Leader Rene Hidding says those laws need to be tightened to reduce the number of warnings and allow for the establishment of a special drugs court. Mr Hidding says the use of drugs in Tasmania is on the increase. "There is clear evidence that the incidence of the use of illicit drugs in Tasmania has been increasing markedly," Mr Hidding said. "Secondly there has been the release of a number of very serious reports, medical studies, that show that the use of illicit drugs, particularly marijuana, is being linked to an epidemic in mental illness around Australia."But the Government has rejected the call, Jolly Good....

Cannabis is to keep its listing as a low-risk drug. The Home Office downgraded the drug to class C in 2004, meaning it has a low risk of addiction and few long-term health hazards. The government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs found that although there was evidence linking cannabis and mental illness, it was not strong enough to justify raising its classification.

Scotland's

drug criminals are increasingly growing or making their own illegal substances, shock statistics have revealed. Figures for drug convictions in 2001-04 show a sharp rise in cases of home-made drugs, while smuggling from abroad has fallen.Most of the crimes relate to home-grown cannabis, with recent figures from the Independent Drugs Monitoring Unit showing 66% of all cannabis consumed in the UK is cultivated at home. There were 88 cases of illegally manufactured or cultivated drugs in Strathclyde last year - up from 47 in 2000 and compared to just five cases in Dumfries and Galloway and 47 in Lothian and Borders. The figures were released by Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson in a parliamentary written answer to the SNP's Stewart Stevenson, Full Increase.....

Elderly drug traffickers permitted to live at home
abc.net.au
November 18th 2005

The Director of Public Prosecutions has confirmed an elderly Perth couple convicted of drug trafficking will be allowed to stay in their Carlisle home, despite it being seized under the Criminal Property Confiscation Act.
David and Florence Davies were found guilty of possessing 19 kilograms of cannabis with intent to supply last year. The couple lost a High Court appeal against their convictions last month.
DPP Robert Cock says the Davies will have to sign a contract regarding the payment of rates and taxes on the property. However, Mr Cock says they will be allowed to stay in their home of 50 years for as long as they want.

'require pot dispensaries to pay'
Heraldnewsdaily.com
Lisa Leff
November 17th 2005

San Francisco>

Medical marijuana clubs will need a permit and will have to follow new zoning under regulations passed Tuesday by San Francisco supervisors. The new rules, crafted with input from Mayor Gavin Newsom, require pot dispensaries to pay a total of $9,710 for a permit and business license.
Officials acknowledged that the zoning rules and fees would probably force a handful of the city‘s 35 clubs out of business.
Kris Hermes, legal director of the medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, said most patients and club owners were generally pleased with the new rules and see them as a stamp of approval from the city, Full Requirements.....

The Dutch government has said that it would not defer to the wish of a parliamentary majority that the production of cannabis be legalized in the country, Dutch newspaper "De Volkskrant" reported on Tuesday. Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner told the parliament on Monday that the government has major practical and legal objections and will not tolerate any exceptions. He said municipalities that experiment with "legal weed" will be prosecuted. According to the newspaper reports, the MPs supporting the legalization hold the view that the current Dutch soft drugs policy is halfhearted: the sale of cannabis in coffee shops has been tolerated for years but the cultivation of cannabis and its supply to coffee shops is illegal. The parliament hopes that legalization can put cultivation on the right track and end the criminal side-effects that illegal cultivation brings with it, More....

What is believed to be North County's first medical marijuana-related trial ended Monday with a man being convicted of possession of marijuana for sale, marijuana cultivation and possession of more than 28.5 grams of the drug. A Superior Court jury found that Dean Childers had more marijuana plants in a rented Fallbrook home than allowed under California's voter-approved Compassionate Use Act. Childers faces about three years in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 14. After the verdict, Judge Harry Elias told the jury that "this is the first trial that I'm aware of at least in North County on the issue of medicinal marijuana." The judge instructed the jury that the law limits possession for medicinal purposes to six mature or 12 immature plants. Childers possessed 80 plants, half of them mature, prosecutor Richard Madruga said. Childers' attorney, James Dicks, told jurors that his client needed the drug to relieve pain from a back injury suffered at work.

'to completely wipe out poppy and marijuana farmlands'
Indybay.org
Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi
November 14th 2005

Farmers in the north are up in arms over a government programme to stamp out marijuana. Marijuana-growing is an old and venerable occupation in the northern province of Balkh. The province is famous for “shirak”, a high-quality hashish made by experts and marketed inside Afghanistan. Friday nights are traditional shirak-party nights, where relaxing with a pipe or a bong and some local is a normal pastime. The drug is illegal, but its use is so widespread that the authorities have traditionally turned a blind eye. Now all of that is changing, in the face of a determined government effort to stamp out narcotics. Since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, surging cultivation of opium poppies, from which heroin is produced, has led western governments to warn that Afghanistan is in danger of becoming a narco-state. According to a United Nations report released last year, some 90 per cent of the world’s heroin originates in Afghanistan. More....

'prone to exaggerate the pot problem'
Theglobeandmail.com
Ian Mulgrew
Movember 13th 2005

Among the many soft spots in the road to marijuana-law reform is the lack of hard numbers. People in the cannabis trade don't report to StatsCan, and the police are prone to exaggerate the pot "problem" to justify the $300-million

Canada sinks every year into the war on drugs. But however anecdotal or even apocryphal, the numbers do matter, because they are, like dispatches from the front, our only way of gauging the progress of the battle. So it is here, with the calculus, that Vancouver journalist Ian Mulgrew opens this timely and engaging book. He turns for help to Simon Fraser University economist Stephen Easton, who has developed a mathematical formula to track the growth of Canada's marijuana industry (a formula that I, as a one-time pot grower, find largely credible). The figures churned out by Easton's computers are stunning: a Canadian wholesale value in 2003 of $5.7-billion, or $19.5-billion at high-end street prices, with the bulk of this coming from British Columbia. And the trend of production has nowhere to go but up, more than trebling in B.C. over the past seven years, Full Exaggeration......

Police have arrested a 32-year-old man for drug trafficking seizing $9.5 million in cannabis in To Kwa Wan on November 11, the biggest haul since 2002.
Officers ambushed a building on Tam Kung Road at 4.45pm yesterday and intercepted the man when he left with 1kg of herbal cannabis. Another 211kg was found in his flat in vaccum-packed plastic bags.
The cannabis was imported from the Mainland. The man has been held for questioning.

Mental

illness and homelessness was the price the nation was paying for a "lax attitude" towards cannabis, John Howard has warned. "We need to think again as a community about what messages we are sending to people about the dangers of cannabis to their mental health," the Prime Minister said yesterday.
"I have long been concerned about the relatively lax attitude that has been taken in Australia towards cannabis use." Mental illness put a great strain on families, and too many people, especially young people, were ending up unemployed and homeless, he said. "There is also growing evidence that many disorders are exacerbated or even brought on by drug use. This is particularly distressing in young people, but we are also seeing increasing numbers of older people with impaired mental function from long-term heavy cannabis use." Full Impairment......

$ new job has reversed his view $
Theaustralian.news.com.au
Adam Cresswell
November 10th 2005

A former defender of cannabis decriminalisation has reversed his view and is now calling for more urgent action

to tackle the threat. Less than 12 months after taking over as head of the Queensland Government's Mental Health Review Tribunal, barrister Barry Thomas yesterday said he was now convinced the drug played a big role in mental illness and decriminalisation was not the answer. The tribunal's main role is to protect the rights of people with mental illness who have been ordered to receive treatment even if it is against their wishes.
It also assesses whether patients who are facing criminal charges are fit to stand trial.
Mr Thomas told The Australian that before taking up his post in January he had acted as prosecutor and defence counsel in cannabis-related cases, "and more or less formed the view that for small offences we were criminalising our young folk for very little benefit", Full U-turn.....

Khartoum> Omjameal Marshue Mohammed was 18 when she was convicted of selling marijuana and sentenced to 20 years in Omdurman Prison, Sudan's largest women's prison located near the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
Released recently after a judge reduced her sentence by a half because she was a young first offender, Mohammed, explained that selling marijuana was one of the few options she had to support her two children.
"My husband and I were living in Mayo camp [for internally displaced persons (IDPs), 20 km south of Khartoum], and he made very little money from his day job. We had two children and so we both began selling hashish to make ends meet."There are currently an estimated 1,000 women in the facility, the majority of whom are serving sentences for brewing and selling alcohol, an illegal substance in Sudan since the country adopted Islamic Sharia law in 1983, Full Sentence.....

A coroner's inquest gets under way Monday morning into the death of Heather Benson, a 37-year-old Yukon

woman who died while in police custody two years ago. Police had arrested Benson, in the middle of the night, after discovering marijuana plants at her home in Tagish, about 70 kilometres south of Whitehorse. She died on route to Whitehorse when the police cruiser left the highway and rolled. Constable Jeff Monkman was convicted for careless driving and fined $1,000 last February. The inquest will try to come up with recommendations to prevent similar accidents in future. The hearing is expected to run all week in a courtroom at the Yukon Law Centre.

DEA spent $12.2 million on marijuana enforcement in 2002
Collegian.com
November 7th 2005

Although

some might argue that supporters of the issue are looking for a legalized high, this columnist has neither done nor intends to do dope. Rather, many supporters are searching for sensible drug laws that minimize frivolous spending. It is time America considered an intelligent drug policy, especially when it comes to marijuana.
While some European countries have legalized marijuana possession, at times subvertly, the United States continues to spend millions of dollars at the federal and state level to enforce laws banning the possession of marijuana.
According to testimony before the House Appropriations Committee in 2003, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spent $12.2 million on marijuana enforcement in 2002. Full Spending.....

Residents of the Mile High City on Tuesday legalized the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for adults, capping a surprisingly nasty campaign that included allegations of misleading voters and exploiting their fears of

violent crime. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, 54 percent, or 56,001 voters, cast ballots for the ordinance, while 46 percent, or 48,632 voters, voted against it. Also Tuesday, voters in the ski resort town of Telluride rejected a proposal to make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people 18 or older the town's lowest law enforcement priority. The measure, rejected on a vote of 308-332, was placed on the ballot in August by the Town Council. “We educated voters about the facts that marijuana is less harmful to the user and society than alcohol," said Mason Tvert, campaign organizer for SAFER, or Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation. “To prohibit adults from making the rational, safer choice to use marijuana is bad public policy."

'call Crimestoppers on 0800 666 111'
Thisislocallondon.co.uk
Jonathan Bunn
November 5th 2005

Burglars are breaking into Newham houses which appear unoccupied, hoping to find one of the many cannabis factories uncovered in the borough this year. Police are warning residents to take steps to ensure their properties look lived in when they go out by switching lights or radios on and opening curtains to stop their homes being targeted.
The warning comes in the light of an increase in residential burglary which police intelligence suggests is down to opportunist criminals hoping to cash in on a large cannabis find. Over 160 factories producing the potent skunk strain of cannabis have been found in rented houses in Newham so far this year and police believe the publicity surrounding the scale of the problem has stimulated the escalation in residential burglary. Full Crime.....

Sacramento, CA: Provisions passed last week by the state Board of Equalization requires medical cannabis dispensaries registered with the agency to pay a sales tax on their merchandise. The measure seeks to regulate

the state's dozens of dispensaries in the same manner as other commercial establishments.
Under the new policy, businesses may apply with the Board for a sellers permit without indicating whether their merchandise is "unlawful" to sell. NORML Legal Counsel Keith Stroup said that the Board's decision demonstrates that "medical cannabis providers are viewed by lawmakers as an inherent part of the state's economy. These dispensaries ought to be treated under state law like any other business, and medical cannabis ought to be treated in the same manner as any other legal commodity."Currently, only a handful of state dispensaries are registered with the Board, but more are expected to do so in light of the new policy.

A majority

of MPs in the Parliament is in favour of experimenting with regulating cannabis cultivation. This emerged during a debate about the Dutch drugs policy on Wednesday. Small government party D66 and the opposition Labour (PvdA) and the green-left Groenlinks persuaded MPs of the Liberal party (VVD), the second largest coalition party, to back the idea. Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Home Affairs Minister Johan Remkes oppose the move because they say it would be against the law. The PvdA intends to put forward a concrete plan before the end of the year. Earlier this year Gerd Leers, the mayor of Maastricht, led calls to legalise cannabis cultivation to remove criminals from the process. It is legal to sell cannabis in so-called coffeeshops but it is illegal to supply it.

Police continue to target cannabis operations
National News Release 4:01pm 3 November 2005. The Police commitment to reducing the availability of Cannabis in New Zealand and targeting those persons involved in the commercial cultivation and distribution of the drug, was again demonstrated in the results achieved in this years National Cannabis Crime Operation, said Detective Senior Sergeant Scott McGill.
The Operation, carried out between November 2004 and April 2005 resulted in:
approx 108,000 plants destroyed
564 offenders arrested
46 firearms seized
estimated $230,000 stolen property recovered
75 kilograms dried cannabis plant material seized and destroyed? Full Copywrite....

Denver voters decided whether to make it legal for adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. The city attorney's office said that if the measure passed, police would simply file marijuana possession charges under state law. Seattle, Oakland, Calif., and a few college towns already have laws making possession the lowest law enforcement priority. A similar measure was on the ballot in the ski resort town of Telluride.

Denver>

The nickname Mile High City could soon have an entirely new meaning. Voters will decide Tuesday whether to make it legal for adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. Seattle; Oakland, Calif., and a few college towns already have laws making possession the lowest law enforcement priority. Supporters in Denver have launched a "Make Denver Safer" campaign that contends the change will help curb domestic violence.
"There's no doubt that if people choose to use marijuana instead of alcohol we would not have the same number of problems," said Mason Tvert, the 23-year-old campaign organizer. The argument has angered local officials.
"It's a deceptive and deceitful campaign," said Councilman Charlie Brown. "Domestic violence is not on the ballot. ... Marijuana is on the ballot."

Sensimellia-smoking singer Dean Friedman has been barred from throwing cannabis seeds to fans.
Seventies legend Dean, famous for the hit Thank Your Lucky Stars, planned the giveaway at a gig in Swindon, Wilts. But council chiefs threatend to pull the show.
The star, 50, whose hits include Doint Doint, It's Just a Little Joint, said: "Alcohol is sold there and is far worse for you." Nice one Dean......said the people.co.uk