News
Marijuana use by seniors goes up as boomers age
By MATT SEDENSKY,
Associated Press Writer -
Feb. 22, 2010
|
MIAMI - In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.
Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.
The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.
Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.
Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging.
Visit:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35517361/?GT1=43001
for full text, comments and to leave yours.
The DEA RAIDS AGAIN
The raids continue - when will the policy change? by ASA |
On Wednesday, August 12th, officers representing seven different law enforcement agencies conducted raids in Los Angeles on two medical marijuana dispensaries and the owner's home.
Please urge our President and Attorney General to stop this practice.
Dozens of officers representing the DEA, FBI, IRS, LA County Sheriff, and three city police departments executed the paramilitary style raids, which included helicopter air support. According to the Los Angeles Times, they even shot the dog.
While nothing yet is confirmed, ASA has learned that the raids may have been conducted over allegations of tax evasion and failure to pay workers' compensation. This does not seem to justify the presence of seven different law enforcement agencies.
Despite California law and recent court decisions, are medical marijuana facilities still being singled out? Heavy-handed tactics like these seem to contradict the President's stated intentions of creating a new federal policy on medical marijuana.
From California cities to the Iowa Board of Pharmacy, more and more communities are taking the time to explore reasonable regulations facilitating access to medical marijuana. It is time for the federal government to follow suit.
Please urge President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to end DEA raids and develop a sensible national policy on medical marijuana.
Thank you for your help!
Sanjeev Bery
National Field Director
Americans for Safe Access
Americans for Safe Access is the nation's largest organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. Contact info: 1322 Webster St., Ste. 402,
Oakland, CA 94612 *
Phone: 510-251-1856 *
Fax: 510-251-2036 * or visit -
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/
Advocacy group says DEA medical marijuana arrests may be firsts under
Obama -
Written by Elizabeth Larson -
Monday, 24 August 2009 |
UPPER LAKE – An advocacy group said Monday that several arrests by
the Drug Enforcement Administration that followed a federal raid in
Upper Lake last week are believed to be the first involving medical
marijuana since President Barack Obama took office.
Tom Carter and Brett Bassignani were arrested Aug. 18 on charges of
conspiracy and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana, as
Lake County News has reported.
An informant had allegedly made a purchase deal with Bassignani and
referenced Carter in the transaction, but last week Carter's federal
defense attorneys filed a document in which they challenged the charge,
saying they were weak and should be dismissed.
Court document reveal there were additional arrests as well – those
of Carter's neighbors, Scott Feil and Diana Feil, and Diana Feil's
stepfather, Steven Swanson. The charges against the Feils and Swanson,
however, are not elaborated in the documents that Lake County News was
able to obtain Monday.
A US Attorney's Office spokesman could not be reached for comment on the
case Monday.
Scott Feil was the former manager of the United Medical Caregivers
Clinic medical cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles, and has been fighting
a federal forfeiture case for several years, according to Dale
Gieringer, PhD, coordinator for California NORML, a group dedicated to
reforming marijuana laws.
Gieringer said the Upper Lake situation is significant because, although
there have been about three or four other DEA raids involving that are
alleged to be medical marijuana collectives, this is the first time
arrests were made and federal charges filed since President Obama came
into office in January.
Earlier this year, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the
federal government would no longer prosecute marijuana offenses that are
legal under state medical marijuana laws. Since then, the DEA has raided
two or three dispensaries in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but without
making any arrests, according to California NORML.
Gieringer said the 154 plants seized from Carter's property – which
Carter's wife, Jamie Ceridono, said were covered by medical
recommendations – is a small number and is in keeping with what
would be found at a medical marijuana collective.
"It sounds like the key to this whole case is this informant who was
setting something up," said Gieringer.
California NORML, which has kept track of all federal marijuana arrests
since they started, denounced the federal government for continuing to
interfere in California's medical marijuana laws in the wake of the
Upper Lake arrests.
The group reported that more than 100 medical marijuana defendants have
been charged under federal law.
Gieringer called for concrete changes in federal law, and said the Obama
administration so far hasn't announced any changes in federal laws or
regulations.
Obama appointees haven't yet replaced Bush appointees – who
Gieringer called "marijuana-hostile" – in the DEA and the
U.S. Attorney's Office in Northern California.
The locals arrested last week were transported to the Bay Area. Feil is
due for a detention hearing at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in San Francisco.
Carter's detention hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, and
Ceridono said she and supporters plan to attend.
Visit:
http://lakeconews.com/content/view/10037/764/
for full text, comments and to leave yours.
Survey on the Modes of Delivery of Cannabinoids
Subject: IACM-Bulletin Special of 18 August 2009 |
There is an international survey on the advantages and disadvantages of
different modes of delivery of cannabis-based drugs and substances.
People who want to support the survey are cordially invited to spread the
word on it in the internet. There are direct links to the questionnaire in
different languages:
English:
http://www.cannabis-med.org/limesurvey/index.php?sid=91387&lang=en
German:
http://www.cannabis-med.org/limesurvey/index.php?sid=91387&lang=de
Spanish:
http://www.cannabis-med.org/limesurvey/index.php?sid=91387&lang=es
French (soon available):
http://www.cannabis-
med.org/limesurvey/index.php?sid=91387&lang=fr
Dutch:
http://www.cannabis-med.org/limesurvey/index.php?sid=91387&lang=nl
Anyone who uses cannabis or other cannabinoids for medicinal purposes and has experience with two or more of the following substances or modes of delivery is invited to participate:
- Smoking of cannabis,
- Inhalation of cannabis with a vaporizer,
- Oral use of cannabis as a tea,
- Oral use of cannabis in baked goods/cannabis tincture,
- Oral use of dronabinol/Marinol (THC),
- Oral use of nabilone/Cesamet,
- Inhalation of dronabinol (THC) with a vaporizer,
- Sativex,
- other use.
Participants remain anonymous. The survey was approved by the Ethics
Committee of the Medical School of Hannover and is headed by the chairwoman of the IACM, Dr. Kirsten Mueller- Vahl, Professor at the Medical School of Hannover (Germany), in cooperation with Dr. Arno Hazekamp of the University of Leiden (The Netherlands), Dr. Donald Abrams, Professor at the University of California San Francisco (USA), Dr. Ethan Russo, Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Montana (USA), Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen of the nova-Institut (Germany), Dr. Mark Ware, Assistant Professor at the McGill
University, Montreal (Canada), Dr. Ricardo Navarrete-Varo, Malaga (Spain), and Dr. Rudolf Brenneisen, Professor at the University of Bern (Switzerland).
The questionnaire is available at:
http://www.cannabis-med.org
Contact info: International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM),
Am Mildenweg 6,
D-59602 Ruethen,
Germany *
Phone: +49 (0)2952-9708571 *
Fax: +49 (0)2952-902651 *
or visit -
http://www.cannabis-med.org
If you want to be deleted from or added to the IACM-Bulletin mailing list
or
if you want to change your e-mail address please visit
www.cannabis-med.org/english/subscribe.htm. You may choose between
different
languages (English, German, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish).
The articles of the IACM-Bulletin can be printed, translated and
distributed
freely for any non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is
properly cited. The source of the IACM-Bulletin is "IACM, www.cannabis-med.org".
WHY NOT TWO DAYS INSTEAD OF 366?
NORTH AMERICA: USA (Blog) - June 12, 2009 -
By Jacob Sullum |
As I predicted/hoped, U.S. District Judge George Wu used the "safety valve" for nonviolent, low-level drug offenders to avoid imposing the otherwise mandatory five-year sentence on Charlie Lynch, former operator of a medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California.
The only thing that might have prevented Wu from using this provision was a determination that Lynch had acted as a "leader" of a criminal enterprise, and Wu decided that he hadn't. At the same time, Wu said he felt constrained to impose a sentence of at least one year because a cancer patient whose parents brought him to the dispensary was under 21, triggering a provision of federal law that doubles the sentence that would otherwise apply.
Visit:
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/134098.html
for more info.
CARCIERI VETOES BILL ALLOWING MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES, House and Senate Move to Override Governor's Veto
NORTH AMERICA: USA /
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Republican Governor Carcieri has, as promised, vetoed
legislation that would make Rhode Island the second state in the nation
to allow state-licensed dispensaries to sell marijuana to the
chronically and critically ill.
In his first veto message of the year, Carcieri said:
"Although the
intent of the legislation is to allow consenting adults to use marijuana
only for medicinal purposes based on illness, the increased
availability, along with a complacent attitude, will no doubt result in
increased usage, and will negatively impact the children of Rhode Island."
However, the identical House and Senate versions of the
marijuana-dispensary bill passed both chambers with enough votes to
easily override the governor's veto.
In fact, the lead House sponsor -- Rep. Thomas Slater -- said both the
Senate president and the House speaker have promised him they would
override the veto, if necessary. Echoed the Senate sponsor, Rhoda E.
Perry: "I believe we have the intent and the numbers to override the veto."
In an interview on Friday moments after the veto came down, Slater said
he expects to start a medical marijuana protocol on his own doctor's
advice in the coming days in an effort to help relieve the symptoms of
advanced breast cancer and stimulate his appetite.
State law already allows doctors to prescribe marijuana for use by
people with severe, chronic and debilitating illnesses, such as cancer,
hepatitis C and HIV. As of April 30, there were 681 people registered to
do so with the Department of Health.
But that law, adopted in 2006, does not provide a legal avenue for any
of these registered patients -- or their 581 registered caregivers -- to
obtain the drug.
"The principal problem that our patients had was their fear of dealing
with the illegal market," said Perry, D-Providence. "They were very
frightened."
Visit:
http://www.projo.com/news/content/marijuana_veto_06-13-09_NDEN34V_v16.3db725c.html
for the full story.
NADELMANN VS BENNETT ON CNN
Tonight's "Great Debate": Is the war on drugs a failure and would legalizing marijuana be a better solution? Former drug czar Bill Bennett and the head of the Drug Policy Alliance in a frank discussion about addiction, crime, and violence.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Time for our "Great Debate."
And tonight's premise: The war on drugs is a failure.
The Obama administration just announced a new strategy to fight drug trafficking at the U.S.-Mexican border, adding literally hundreds of agents in the field and new technology at ports of entry. But critics say it's all basically for a lost cause.
So, joining us to debate, CNN political contributor Bill Bennett, who is host of the national radio talk show "Morning in America." He was also the nation's drug czar under President George H.W. Bush. And, officially, that is the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. And he says we can win the war on drugs.
On the other side of this, Ethan Nadelmann, who is founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which works to promote new drug policies and alternatives to the current battle that we're fighting, the war on drugs.
Visit:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0906/11/ec.01.html
for more info.
A DRUG WAR TRUCE?
Obama's new drug czar says the administration won't legalize pot - but pressure for real reform is growing.
By Tim Dickinson |
Looking at the headlines, you might get the impression that America is approaching a cease-fire in the War on Drugs. After four decades of mindless prohibition and draconian prison sentences for addicts and casual users, the first four months of the Obama era have seen a rapid turn toward rationality. The administration has announced that it will no longer bust clinics that legally dispense medical marijuana, and incoming drug czar Gil Kerlikowske declared flatly in May that he had "ended the War on Drugs."
Prominent politicians from Virginia to California — including Sen. Jim Webb and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — have begun to discuss the merits of legalizing and taxing marijuana. And most striking of all, New York — the state that pioneered the use of prison cells for drug addicts — has repealed its repressive Rockefeller drug laws, replacing the nation's harshest sentences with a progressive approach to treatment. "We put a stop to 35 years of bad policy," Gov. David Paterson tells Rolling Stone.
Visit:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28600327/a_drug_war_truce/1
for more info.
SMOKED CANNABIS' EFFECT ON LUNGS |
NORTH AMERICA: USA (Video) -
Does regular marijuana smoking cause COPD, Emphysema and/or Lung Cancer? In part 1, Donald Tashkin, MD examines risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Donald P. Tashkin, MD - Medical Director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory, Professor of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles.
Presented to Fifth Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics held in Pacific Grove, CA, April, 2008. Conference hosted by Patients Out of Time.
Visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXKhHv5VuEI
for more info.
LIBERALS TEAM WITH CONSERVATIVES TO PASS A NASTY NEW DRUG LAW
By Dana Larsen, CANNABIS CULTURE | NORTH AMERICA / CANADA: On June 8, Canada's Parliament passed a new set of mandatory minimum penalties for a variety of marijuana and drug offences.
The new law now goes to the Senate, where it will likely be approved. Even though Canada's Senate has many members who oppose prohibition, it is extremely rare for the Senate to block a bill passed by Parliament, especially when it has the support of both Liberals and Conservatives.
According to Conservative Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, the law is aimed at "serious drug traffickers, the people who are basically out to destroy our society."
Click
here
for more info.
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
(WebCast)
Broadcasting on the Drug Truth Network, this is Cultural Baggage.
It's not only inhumane it is really fundamentally Un-American... "NO MORE" "DRUG WAR"
|
Cultural Baggage Radio Show - 06/10/09 -
Claudia Rubin w/ RELEASE in the UK, regarding their campaign: "Nice People Take Drugs" + Dr. Joel Hochman's warning to parents & Julie Roberts of Drug Policy Alliance on forthcoming cannabis distribution in New Mexico
My Name is Dean Becker. I don't condone or encourage the use of any drugs - legal or illegal. I report the unvarnished truth about the pharmaceutical, banking, prison and judicial nightmare that feeds on eternal drug war.
"Hello my friends and welcome to this edition of Cultural Bagage. I think we have got a great show for you today. Our first guest is going to be Claudia Rubin, she is with RELEASE, in the U.K."
Visit:
http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/?q=node/2453
for more info.
Stimulus dollars fund NW study on marijuana
by KATU.com Staff | VANCOUVER, Wash. - A Southwest Washington psychology professor has received federal stimulus money to study marijuana and pain management.
WSU Vancouver Professor Michael Morgan qualified to receive $148,438 for his two-year study, which aims to determine whether the use of marijuana along with other anti-pain medications such as morphine provides better pain relief than either drug alone.
The grant from the National Institutes of Health is part of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the economic stimulus package enacted by Congress and signed by the president in February.
"This research is innovative in the field," Morgan said in a news release. "Currently there are no other projects that are studying this chemical relationship using these parameters."
His project was picked because of "its potential to stimulate the economy and create or retain jobs within the community" as well as its likelihood of making scientific progress in two years, school officials said in a news release.
Visit:
http://www.kpic.com/news/local/46728052.html
for more.
City closes medical marijuana clinic loophole
By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer -
Updated: 06/02/2009 |
In a move to check the proliferation of questionable medical marijuana
clinics, city officials moved Tuesday to close a loophole that has allowed nearly 500 clinics to set up shop over the past two years despite a city moratorium.
A city panel voted to change the language on an interim measure that allowed clinics to open under a "hardship exemption" clause. The clause allowed clinics to argue why they should be allowed to open even with the moratorium in place.
The City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved a proposal from Councilman Jose Huizar to strike the exemption from its
Interim Control Ordinance, adopted in September 2007.
"I am a supporter of Proposition 215 to give reasonable access to medical
marijuana," Huizar said in a written statement. "But, we have seen a
proliferation of these clinics operated by people who are seeking a quick
profit"
Visit:
http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12504085
for more.
Video: Orange County Seniors Demand Medical Marijuana Access
by David Borden on Sun, 05/31/2009 |
This video by "Drug Crazy" author Mike Gray is from Orange County, California -- not a liberal bastion, but medical marijuana has been state law there for over 12 years. Senior citizens are calling for access to medical marijuana, local authorities are sympathetic, and advocates are willing help. But they can't find a landlord willing to rent to them, presumably because of threats by the US DEA to use asset forfeiture laws to take the property away.
Along with the sheer barbarism of these federal policies, the video also hints at what may be the largest tragedy, people who because of those policies never find out that marijuana could have helped them.
Click
here for more info and to see the video.
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF MARIJUANA WERE DECRIMINALIZED? A Freakonomics Quorum
By Stephen J. Dubner |
Two years ago we ran a quorum debating the pros and cons of decriminalizing marijuana. Since then, a largely theoretical debate has moved quite substantially toward the realm of reality, with a growing number of states and municipalities having changed their laws. The details from place to place vary greatly and are very much a patchwork; the most prominent state to make a move is Massachusetts. The California legislature, meanwhile, is wondering whether marijuana could save its economy — which, as we read just this morning, is badly in need of saving.
Although President Obama doesn’t seem interested, arguments in favor of decriminalization are popping up everywhere, from the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition platform to the senior thesis of a graduating economics major at Brown named Max Chaiken, which finds that “a legally taxed and regulated marijuana market could generate upwards of $200 billion annually in excise tax revenues for the federal government … [which] would be enough to fund Medicaid.”
Visit:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/pot-quorum/
for more.
B.C. POT GROWER WON'T FORFEIT HOUSE, SUPREME COURT RULES
In a landmark ruling, the country's top court said Friday that a convicted marijuana grower in North Vancouver won't lose her house as part of her sentence.
It's the first time the Supreme Court of Canada has tested federal drug laws that allow confiscation of assets related to crime.
It ruled 5-2 that Judy Ann Craig, convicted in 2003 of growing pot worth more than $100,000 in her home, does not have to give up her house as crime-related property.
Prosecutors had said the laws are a powerful deterrent against home-based grow-ops. But Craig's lawyer Howard Rubin argued the law should target only organized traffickers and not unfairly punish home-based growers.
Visit:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/05/29/pot-supreme-court.html
for more.
UNDER THE RADAR: US DEMOCRATS OVERSEAS PASS MARIJUANA RESOLUTION
By Stephen C. Webster |
The Democratic Party Committee Abroad, otherwise known as Democrats Abroad, passed a resolution on April 25 recommending the legalization of marijuana in all 50 states.
The news appears to have gone completely unnoticed by all mainstream outlets.
The Democrats Abroad are considered a state party by the Democratic National Committee, which affords them eight elected, voting members. They help U.S. citizens who are traveling and living outside the United States cast ballots in national elections.
The DNC maintains a pool of 200 voting members divvied up by individual states’ populations.
The resolution was first put forward by the Japanese branch of Democrats Abroad. After only minor debate, according to Daily Kos diarist YoYogiBear who says he created the resolution, it passed, moving up for debate by the Democratic Party Committee Abroad, where it was met with some resistance.
Visit:
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/26/under-the-radar/
for more.
ILLINOIS SENATE PASSES MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL 30-28!
The Illinois Senate passed the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, also known as SB 1381, by a vote of 30-28. SB 1381 would allow seriously ill patients with diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis to use marijuana if recommended by their doctor.
If this legislation becomes law, patients with a state- issued ID card would be allowed to possess up to six plants and 2 ounces of usable marijuana.
Here are a couple of things you can do to help keep SB 1381 moving forward:
Visit:
http://www.mpp.org/states/illinois/alerts/illinois-senate-passes.html
for more.
First thieves, then cops take man's medical pot
By RAY LANE,
KOMO-TV STAFF |
"FBI! Get on the floor!"
Those were the words Roger Spohn said he heard as four gunmen masquerading as federal agents stormed into his Wallingford home.
The men wanted one thing: marijuana - which Spohn was growing plenty of for legal medical use - and they took off with several pounds of it.
But when Seattle police responded to the home invasion call, Spohn didn't get sympathy or protection. Rather, according to him, a bigger crime was committed.
Officers and detectives moved in and hauled away hundreds of marijuana plants that were a part of a large growing operation inside the house.
Spohn, who is legally able to grow up to 15 plants for medical use, said he was cultivating a larger amount for fellow medical marijuana patients.
"Every patient can't grown their own 15 plants. It's fairly difficult getting them to root and keeping them alive," he said.
Growing good, medical-grade marijuana is not easy, according to Spohn. But patients with terminal or debilitating health conditions rely on it.
No matter, Spohn was detained for hours as police chopped up the plants and stuffed them inside bags.
Visit:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/406593_pottheft27.html
for more.
Government runs nation's only legal pot garden
OXFORD, Mississippi (CNN) -- Here, in what could be called the Fort Knox of dope, Mahmoud ElSohly waits patiently as an assistant unlocks the stainless steel door to a climate-controlled vault. Mahmoud ElSohly oversees the nation's largest legal marijuana garden at the University of Mississippi.
Once inside, under the gaze of security cameras and a blinking motion sensor, another scientist pries open the lid of a large cardboard barrel, opens a large plastic bag and digs his hand into the vat of meticulously manicured marijuana.
We are in the Coy W. Waller Laboratory Complex on the campus of the University of Mississippi, getting a look at the only legal marijuana farm and production facility in the United States. This is the government's "cannabis drug repository."
This is the government's stash.
Since 1968, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has contracted with the university lab to grow, harvest and process marijuana and to ship it to licensed facilities across the country for research purposes.
The lab also collects samples of marijuana seized by police to determine its potency and to document national drug trends.
Visit:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/18/government.marijuana.garden/
for more.
NOTE: The CIND patients also get their medicine from this source. It's unfortunate they didn't mention the CIND patients ... More unfortunate that it was deliberate. This is ... part of the propaganda campaign against medical marijuana and cannabis in general.
Medical-pot advocate-grower gets 10 years
(05-18) 14:47 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A medical-marijuana advocate who grew 32,000 plants on his land in Lake County was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday by a federal judge who criticized the law she was applying.
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"I think that amount of time is excessive, but it's not up to me," U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said in sentencing Charles "Eddy" Lepp in a San Francisco courtroom crowded with his supporters.
Patel gave Lepp until July 6 to report to prison and said she would reconsider the sentence if Congress changed the law, which requires a 10-year term for growing at least 1,000 marijuana plants.
Lepp, 56, was arrested in 2004, after federal agents said they had found more than 32,000 marijuana plants in gardens near his home in Upper Lake, most of them in plain view of Highway 20.
He said the plants were all for patients who had a right to use marijuana with their doctors' approval under California law. Courts have ruled, however, that the state law does not bar federal prosecutions.
Lepp also said that he was a Rastafarian minister, for whom the plants were a sacrament, and that he was growing the plants for 2,500 members of his church who were sharecroppers. Patel barred the religious defense last year, saying Lepp could not credibly claim that his faith compelled him to distribute thousands of plants to unidentified parishioners.
A jury convicted Lepp in September of conspiracy and cultivation with the intent to distribute marijuana. His lawyer, Michael Hinckley, argued for a lesser sentence, but Patel said the 10-year term was mandatory because the evidence showed Lepp led the operation and supervised others.
Visit:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/19/BASQ17MLBA.DTL
for more.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Eddy+Lepp
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
U.S. Supreme Court rejects Prop. 215 challenge
(05-18) 12:13 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- California's medical marijuana law survived its most serious legal challenge Monday as the U.S. Supreme Court denied appeals by two counties that argued they were being forced to condone violations of federal drug laws.
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The justices, without comment, denied a hearing to officials from San Diego and San Bernardino counties who challenged Proposition 215, an initiative approved by state voters in 1996 that became a model for laws in 12 other states. It allows patients to use marijuana for medical conditions with their doctor's recommendation.
The counties specifically objected to legislation requiring them to issue identification cards that protect holders from arrest by state or local police for possessing small amounts of marijuana for medical use.
The cards are objectionable because "the state law authorizes individuals to engage in conduct that the federal law prohibits," said Thomas Bunton, a lawyer in the San Diego County counsel's office. "We are disappointed that the court did not take the case to resolve what we believe was a conflict between federal and state law."
Medical marijuana advocates were relieved.
"This was the most threatening case to state medical marijuana laws, the only one that tried to invalidate state laws," said attorney Graham Boyd of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented patients and advocacy groups in the case.
"No longer will local officials be able to hide behind federal law and resist upholding California's medical marijuana law," said Joe Elford, lawyer for Americans for Safe Access, which also took part in the case.
Visit:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/19/BASQ17MIN1.DTL
for more.
Note: The ACLU's opposition brief to the Court http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/medmarijuana/39603lgl20090415.html
Note: The Americans for Safe Access page on the case http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org/article.php?id=4405
Cited: San Diego County Board of Supervisors http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/general/bos.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Proposition+215
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/San+Diego+County+supervisors
International Drug Policy Reform Made Easy With DrugSense/MAP
When Mexican President Vincente Fox bowed to U.S. pressure and refused
to sign a bill that would have legalized the personal possession of all
drugs, DrugSense was there. When England nearly re-criminalized the
adult possession of cannabis, DrugSense was there. When American and
Canadian activists, researchers, politicians and drug policy reformers
organized a counter-symposium in Montreal to protest the DEA's
International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC), DrugSense was there.
DrugSense.org/donate.
Whether it's decriminalization efforts in Mexico or Canada, the
rejection of drug interdiction funding by Latin America, or ongoing
harm reduction efforts in Europe, DrugSense/MAP is there to help
organize these international efforts.
For example, they created a Canadian media contact list for the recent
IDEC counter-conference in Montreal using their powerful and
comprehensive Media Contact on Demand mapinc.org/mcod/.
Coverage of this conference was then tracked through their MAP DrugNews
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may represent one of the best tools to push for positive change in the
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policy reform, they have long been aware of the importance of assisting
reformers all over the world.
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