propaganda

By. Russ Belville, Opposing Views

 

At Seattle Hempfest, the joint-to-ounce ratio is closer to 1:1

 

The Christian Science Monitor features a “one minute debate” between our own Paul Armentano and legendary prohibitionist Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation. I have a question: what kind of pinners does Calvina Fay roll?

 

Legalizing marijuana use would substantially increase its already formidable costs to society. That’s because the initiative would allow individuals to possess up to about 120 joints and cultivate 25 square feet of plants, capable of yielding up to 240,000 joints. Read more »

By Paul Armentano

 

Last week I posted a brief response to the Los Angeles Times commentary authored by Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske (along with five previous drug czars) condemning California’s Prop. 19.

 

Today the Los Angeles Times has posted my full rebuttal, which I’ve excerpted below.

 

Some marijuana tax revenue is better than none

via The Los Angeles Times

 

… Kerlikowske’s opposition to Proposition 19 … is a fairly common one. Kerlikowske et al argue that, if legalized, marijuana’s perceived social costs would outweigh the economic benefits reaped by regulation. They base this allegation largely on the premise that present taxes on alcohol and cigarettes fail to adequately pay for the societal costs associated with those drugs’ use and abuse. True enough, but here’s why this sound bite is irrelevant to the present marijuana debate. Read more »

By. Steve Elliot, Toke of the Town

 

What do you get when you put six Drug Czars together? Same old bullshit, except more of it.

 

It was probably inevitable, but that doesn't make it any less deplorable. Obama Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske has joined forces with five past directors of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, including czars who served under Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush, against California's marijuana legalization voter initiative, Proposition 19.

 

You would think that six so-called "drug experts" working together could come up with better-reasoned arguments against Prop 19 than these tired old talking points by tired old bureaucrats.

 

Not that anybody's surprised that Kerlikowske, and by extension, the Obama Administration, opposes pot legalization. Gil's already helpfully let us know that legalization isn't in his vocabulary. Read more »

By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director

 

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, along with five previous drug czars (including gambling addict William Bennett), have an op/ed in today’s Los Angeles Times condemning California’s Prop. 19.

 

Given that the Drug Czar is required by law to oppose any and all efforts that would seek to legalize marijuana — including “any study … relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use) of” cannabis — his vitriol should not come as a surprise. Nevertheless, his commentary clearly begs the question: How is it appropriate for Californians to pay taxes to cover the salary of a federal official who spends a significant part of his time telling these same taxpayers how to vote on a statewide ballot measure?

 

As far as Kerlikowske’s specific allegations against Prop. 19, suffice to say that you’ve heard them all before — including this whopper, “Law enforcement officers do not currently focus much effort on arresting adults whose only crime is possessing small amounts of marijuana.” (Really? Then how do you explain this? Or this? Or this?) Read more »

by Thomas Mitchell

 

Miranda in reverse: You don’t have a right to remain silent.

 

A Gardnerville judge has found a whole new way to violate the First Amendment prohibition against abridging freedom of speech. Not by censoring a defendant’s speech rights, but by requiring him to write an essay on the "nonsensical character" of California's medical marijuana law. You know, the one passed by a majority of the voters in the neighboring state.

 

Matthew Palazzolo, 25, of Sacramento was arrested for selling pot to a police informant in a Lake Tahoe casino parking lot. He had grown the weed legally in California by obtaining a medical marijuana card for back injuries incurred while snowboarding and other outdoor activities. As part of his sentence District Judge Dave Gamble gave him 90 days to write a report repudiating California’s medical pot law. Read more »

by Natalia Antonova

 

The authorities’ war on Moscow’s notorious drug culture is escalating, as schoolchildren and military personnel in the Southeast District will be tested for drugs as part of an experimental program to be launched on August 30. According to some experts, such measures are long overdue.

 

“I would have launched such a program ten years ago,” said Vladimir Ivanov, President of the Russia Without Drugs organisation, aimed at both rehabilitating drug addicts and tightening drug laws. “This is not a human rights violation, and it does not violate the rights of patients. Healthy children also have rights – such as the right to be protected from dangerous and addictive substances.” Read more »

by Jim Brunner

 

Republican Dino Rossi has been spending the week attacking the $800 billion federal stimulus plan pushed by Democrats in 2009 as a waste of money, pointing out examples of what he and others say is questionable spending that didn't create jobs.

 

But Rossi's latest example may have misfired.

 

On Thursday, Rossi attacked a WSU-Vancouver professor's study of whether marijuana can increase the effectiveness of pain-treating drugs like morphine. The study received $148,438 in stimulus grants.

 

Rossi's news release -- headlined "It's 5:00 Somewhere, But It's 4:20 At Washington State University" -- conjured images of stoner students toking away on the federal dime.

 

"Washington state taxpayers are tired of their money going up in smoke. This bill isn't going to stimulate anything other than sales of Cheetos," Rossi said in the news release, labeling the research a "boondoggle."

 

But the researcher, Psychology Professor Michael Morgan, said Thursday that Rossi doesn't know what he's talking about. Read more »

By. Steve Elliot, Toke of the Town

 

The California Chamber of Commerce on Thursday released a legal analysis claiming that Proposition 19, which would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by adults, would lead to more workplace accidents by forcing employers to let workers smoke pot on the job and operate dangerous equipment while stoned.

 

"Imagine a workplace where employees show up to work high on marijuana and there is nothing you can do about it," the Chamber's "analysis" begins.

 

This is, of course, patent nonsense, since booze is already legal, and no employer has ever been forced to let an employee get drunk on the job. But since when have facts gotten in the way of a good pot scare story?

 

Prop 19 proponents dismissed the Chamber's claims, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.

 

"It's a lie that's designed to raise money from California employers and other hot-button organizations," said Dan Rush, a union official working for the Prop 19 campaign. Read more »

By. Steve Elliot, Toke of the Town

 

A far-right conservative political group called SaveCalifornia.com is turning its unwholesome attention from anti-gay marriage legislation, Prop 8, to fighting this year's pro-marijuana legislation, Prop 19, the legalization measure on November's California ballot.

 

The group's inaugural television ad ignores decades of scientific evidence showing showing otherwise to claim that marijuana is a "gateway drug" leading to methamphetamine and cocaine, and that it's the addiction most cited by teenagers in drug rehab (failing to mention that most of those teens were forced into "marijuana rehab" under threat of jail).

 

Tellingly, both comments and the "Like/Dislike" buttons have been turned off on the YouTube video. SaveCalifornia doesn't want a dialogue with Californians -- it wants to lecture Californians. Read more »

By. David Downs, EastBayExpress

 

Ex-San Jose Chief Joseph McNamara and Pleasant Hill Police Chief Pete Dunbar squared off on Prop 19 during a live broadcast on the Internet facilitated by the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday from 12 to 12:45 p.m. Addressing the "Societal Consequences of Prop. 19," the two offered starkly different takes on the ballot initiative, with McNamara using what he called common sense and referring to empirical studies, while Chief Dunbar mostly relied on his experiences in the suburb of Pleasant Hill and anti-19 talking points. Highlights:

 

On the subject of usage rates going up after Prop 19:

 

Chief McNamara — a 1991 research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University — said he was not sure. Amsterdam has lower per capita usage rates than the US and ending alcohol prohibition in this country led to less use over time.

 

“Even if there is an increase, is it worth carrying on the incredibly expensive and bad situation that we have with the drug war with marijuana? There are many costs affiliated with this, including violence and corruption and making criminals out of 10 to 30 percent of the population that happen to use a substance that we do not approve of.” Read more »