Showing posts with label marijuana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marijuana. Show all posts

Pot Legalization Likely To Be On Michigan's 2016 Ballot

by Mara MacDonald.     It looks like Michigan voters will be deciding whether they want to legalize marijuana in 2016. Nearly 40,000 signatures have been collected in just 12 days as part of a push to get the issue on the ballot. There are two ballot proposals which have seen language approved by the state board of canvassers, but only one has   ... MORE

Cautious Effort To Legalize Marijuana In California In 2016

by Steven Greenhut.   By ballot initiative. Regardless of one's take on the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on Friday forbidding states from banning same-sex marriage, it's clear the ruling didn't come in a vacuum. Analysts said the court "created" a new civil right, but public attitudes have shifted dramatically in recent years. The court simply gave its blessing  ... MORE

Marijuana Legalization: Bad For The Cartels, Better For All

by Hillary Bricken.        Marijuana legalization has already led to many benefits in the United States, ranging from increased tax revenues to decreased cannabis use by minors. Marijuana legalization is also putting a dent into what the Department of Justice calls the “greatest organized crime threat to the United States,” the Mexican drug cartels.    ... MORE

Government Study Confirms Marijuana Impairs Drivers Less Than Alcohol, Casts Doubt on Stoned Driving Definitions

by Jacob Sullum.   A new study by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) confirms that marijuana has a less dramatic effect on driving than alcohol does and casts further doubt on the standard that Colorado and Washington use for determining when someone is too stoned to drive. In the double-blind study, 18 occasional cannabis   ... MORE

Police Raid A Marijuana Dispensary, Destroy Equipment, Eat Pot Brownies, And Joke About Assaulting Amputee

by Ed Krayewski.   Public service is a noble pursuit. Cops in Santa Ana, California, donned ski masks to break and enter into a local medical marijuana dispensary, raiding it with guns drawn in a May 27 police action. They then proceeded to remove surveillance cameras and recording equipment, but they didn't remove it all. Video from a camera   ... MORE

David Downs: Seeking To Prove The Opposite, Scientist Finds Smoking Marijuana Decreases Lung Cancer Risk

An inconvenient truth for drug warriors.    As more and more Americans consider the pros and cons of cannabis legalization, many points are worth repeating, and chief among them: cannabis actually decreases the risk of lung cancer. It’s a counter-intuitive notion, since tobacco smoking causes cancer, marijuana smoking must as well. But as    ... MORE

Chris Ingraham: Portugal Decriminalized Drugs 14 years Ago – And Now Hardly Anyone Dies From Overdosing

The result of ending the drug war are in. Portugal decriminalised the use of all drugs in 2001. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it — Portugal decided to treat possession and use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. The drugs were still illegal, of course. But now getting caught with them meant a small fine    ... MORE

Arizona Court Upholds Warrantless Search At Wrong House

State lawyers in robes castrate the Fourth Amendment.     An Arizona court has upheld a woman's marijuana convictions based on a warrantless search conducted when sheriff's deputies were sent to a home in response to a 911 "hang-up" call that was treated as an emergency. The Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected Starr Bennett's argument   ... MORE

JURY NULLIFICATION: Jury Sends Message To Cops, Chase After REAL CRIMINALS; Acquits Man On Felony Pot Charges

by Matt Agorist.    In an emotional courtroom display Friday, Steven Ficano, 65, embraced his attorney and his wife after the jury read their verdict of “not guilty.” In 2012, Ficano’s house was raided by heroes protecting the citizens of Nevada from the horrors of marijuana plants. For the next three years, Ficano anxiously lived his life thinking that  ... MORE

Pot Prohibition: Unscientific, Unconstitutional & Unjust

by Jacob Sullum.       A few days before the House of Representatives passed a federal ban on marijuana in June 1937, the Republican minority leader, Bertrand Snell of New York, confessed, “I do not know anything about the bill.” The Democratic majority leader, Sam Rayburn of Texas, educated him. “It has something to do with something that is   ... MORE

Forfeiture Funds Used To Oppose Marijuana Legalization

by Ray Stern.      For a narco cop, freedom is bad for business. A law-enforcement task force in Yavapai County cut a $50,000 check from RICO funds to a substance-abuse group dedicated to fighting marijuana legalization in Arizona, New Times has learned. The deal between the Yavapai County-based Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking    ... MORE

Kelly McLauglin: Morgan Freeman Makes Impassioned Plea For Legalization Of Cannabis While Discussing His Habit

'I'll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it' Hollywood's favorite narrator Morgan Freeman opened up about being an advocate for legalizing marijuana last week, claiming that 'pot is very useful'.  Freeman, 77, is a longtime user who was turned on to the drug by his first wife 'many years ago'.  'I'll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it! This movement is    ... MORE

Jacob Sullum: Obama Frees Drug War Prisoners

Credit where credit is due.  On October 31, 1996, the Sanilac County Sheriff's Office, which serves a largely rural area in Michigan's thumb, got a call from a local resident who said he was concerned about his neighbor, Darrell Hayden. No one had heard from Hayden for several days, the man said, and his horses were wandering down Argyle Road. The       ... MORE

Tom Knapp: J-U-R-Y does not spell 'rubber stamp'

It's getting harder to prosecute victimless crimes. Break out the world’s smallest violin for prosecutors in Alachua County, Fla. They’re having problems finding citizens who will jail other citizens for marijuana possession. In one recent case it took hours to weed out (pun intended) prospective jurors who didn’t think marijuana should be illegal.  ... MORE

These 8 States Could Be Next For Marijuana Legalization

by Andrew Meola.      The times, they are a-changin' for marijuana, as longtime prohibition laws risk going up in flames. The New York Times advocated for legalization of pot at a national level last year, arguing that the "social costs" of the current prohibition laws are vast -- unreasonable prison sentences, a judicial system skewed against minority    ... MORE

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