A video showing Rio de Janeiro police hunting down a drug trafficker from a helicopter raises all kinds of questions…

Read the article and learn more… And just keep saying, “It can’t happen here…”

Kudos to Fred Gardner who obviously got to Hendrik Hertzberg. The article is perfect and ends with a heads up to some great guys.

Read the whole thing right here…

And a quick quote just to get it out there…

You can find good reporting on marijuana in general and medical marijuana in particular in O’Shaughnessy’s, a journal named after the physician who introduced cannabis to Western medicine in 1839. The annual print edition is distributed by doctors to patients, and articles are now being posted on its Web site, along with a blog by the managing editor, Fred Gardner. Gardner’s unusual résumé includes stints as an editor atScientific American, an anti-war organizer, a private investigator, and press spokesman for the district attorney of San Francisco—all relevant experience, given thatO’Shaughnessy’s covers pot-related science, medicine, politics, law, and history.O’Shaughnessy’s was co-founded in 2003 by the late Tod Mikuriya, M.D., the California doctor who was famously accused by Bill Clinton’s drug czar Barry McCaffrey of practicing “Cheech and Chong medicine.”

weedporndaily:

Michigan Supreme Court rules medical marijuana users can drive after using the drug

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that medical marijuana users aren’t automatically breaking the law if they’re caught driving after using the drug.

The court unanimously overturned an appeals court decision in the case of a Grand Traverse County man, Rodney Koon. He was stopped in 2010 for speeding — going nearly 30 mph over the limit.

Koon admitted having smoked medical marijuana earlier, and a blood test revealed the drug in his system.

It’s illegal for Michigan drivers to consume marijuana. But the state high court said medical marijuana users have some protection. The court says police must show that a driver actually was “under the influence” of marijuana for a charge to stick.

Click here to read the actual ruling. We agree with the idea that locals should have a lot of say over local businesses but we see some problems with the idea of land use and zoning powers being over amped. There were no cannabis zones or local land use restrictions on pot because it was coimpletely forbidden at the time Prop 215 was passed by the electorate. We note that the ruling never mentions patients cultivating for their own personal use but we could see some locals trying to interfere with this right. This ruling leaves many questions unanswered and quite frankly has a Jim Crow feel to it and this court’s whole pespective reeks of discriminatory condescending contempt for those of us who use mariana as a medicine. Does the court want to imprison cancer patients for some reason?

“Common criminal or populist lawmaker? Read my eBook and you decide. In the early days of the AIDS epidemic I started the first cannabis buyers’ club to serve those who needed it most. Through Prop. 215 I legalized all medical use of marijuana in California. Then it turned out that all use is medical…

Every bust is an adventure and a life lesson; One learns to fight back. Like in Utah where I was caught red handed with a pound of California green bud. I beat the state to a standstill using just a public defender. (And you could too!)

Think of this eBook as a brain dump, a mixture of history and activist philosophy, a lit torch passed directly to the reader.”

JE Says: And you can buy it right this second from our friends at amazon.com for just $7. And better yet, as an eBook you can read it on any device or computer. And best of all, you can preview the first seven chapters for free, NQA!!!

This report summarizes the Washington and Colorado marijuana legalization laws and evaluates whether, or the extent to which, they may be preempted by the CSA or by international agreements. It also highlights potential responses to these recent legalization initiatives by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and identifies other noncriminal consequences that marijuana users may face under federal law.

Finally, the report closes with a description of legislative proposals introduced in the 113th Congress relating to the treatment of marijuana under federal law, including H.R. 499 (Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013); H.R. 501 (Marijuana Tax Equity Act of 2013); H.R. 689 (States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act); H.R. 710 (Truth in Trials Act); H.R. 784 (States’ Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act); and H.R. 964 (Respect States’ and Citizens’ Rights Act of 2013).

John Entwistle says: This is must reading for those following this issue. Here’s the link to the pdf file: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43034.pdf

Excerpt from The Baptist Press, March 22, 2013:

President Obama in December told ABC News his administration would not prosecute marijuana users in Colorado and Washington. “We’ve got bigger fish to fry,” Obama said. “It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it’s legal.”

Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research at the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said the administration needs to be careful with this decision.

“Marijuana is a dangerous drug that creates multiple problems for those who use it. Future lives and livelihoods are at stake in this debate,” Duke told Baptist Press. “President Obama’s recent comment that he doesn’t consider these state decisions to be a high-priority issue raises significant concerns for me about this administration’s commitment to enforce federal law on marijuana use.”

Duke added, “I am hopeful that Attorney General Holder will recognize the responsibility of his office to enforce the laws of the land and put a stop to the wrongheaded marijuana policy decisions of these states.”

The Obama administration has chosen not to stand by federal law in at least one other major instance. In 2011, Holder announced the Justice Department would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Meanwhile, the United States has received a rebuke from the United Nations’ drug-monitoring body which said the new laws in Colorado and Washington violate international drug treaties.

The International Narcotics Control Board, in its annual drug report released in March, called on the U.S. government to act “to ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory.” 

JE Says: This is a long article quoting many sources and generally does a nice job of surmising much of our current quandary. Here’s the link to the main article.

Absolutely fascinating video. A must see and a definite conversation starter. Source: Mother Jones Magazine.

First, a great article in the Christian Post.

Second, The official Press release. & The CSM with the truth.

Two attacks at the same time, one from the left (State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano - AB 473) and one from the right (State Senator Lou Correa - SB 289). Both bills are based on lies and hysteria about the dreaded reefer that intoxicates its hapless users into crazed anti social out of control psychopaths. Thus the need to control us at every turn and ban us from the nations roads and highways. A couple of quick links follow for those interested in details.

Medical Marijuana Patients Wary of Booze Cops Regulating Pot

Marijuana Would Be Policed By Calif. Alcohol Authorities Under New Proposal

Medical pot rules for California proposed

&

Which California Senators You Need to Pressure to Stop the New Sober DUI Bill

Excerpt from the East Bay Express, March 18, 2013:

On April 23, the California Senate Public Safety Committee holds a hearing on a bill to send sober drivers to jail — and you can stop it.

Sen. Lou Correa’s SB 289 makes it a crime to drive a vehicle up to six weeks after taking physician-recommended medical cannabis, even though cannabis’ effects wear off after a few hours. Why? Because SB 289 would “make it unlawful for a person to drive a motor vehicle if his or her blood contains any detectable amount of a drug … unless the drug was consumed in accordance with a valid prescription issued.”

Medical marijuana’s broken-down metabolites stay in the human body up to six weeks, and due to federal law, the pain, nausea and multiple sclerosis drug is not available by prescription, rather by doctor’s recommendation only. There are thought to be hundreds of thousands of medical marijuana patients in the state.