Get Involved! Help Defeat Prohibition

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 1:00am
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We need to get a lot of work done to legalize marijuana, here's some ways to help!
 
Get active helping build activism in Canada!
 
May 7, 2011 is the Global Marijuana March, and of course there is always 4/20 (April 20) and Cannabis Day, July 1. We need organizers working across Canada on these and other events.
 
Send that link out over Facebook and Twitter, encourage your friends to sign up! WhyProhibition.ca will is the basis for a number of important campaigns, including a new BC referendum to legalize Marijuana. We need people to register so they can find out about upcoming protests, rallies, and laws.
 
We need bloggers, researchers, newshawks, and activists to get posting! You can use the userblogs section to post blogs, news, upload files (especially pamphlets, we're looking to host as many drug policy pamphlets as we can find!)
 
One of the most important things you can do is get involved in your local community. Join other activist groups, volunteer at soup kitchens, march in local parades. When we get involved, not only do we reach out to potential allies, but we also represent the best of our community to people who may be unfamiliar with it. If you're unsure about a group, attend some meetings and see if they're amenable to drug policy reform.
  Read more »

C-15 Has Returned - Now Called S-10

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Wed, 05/05/2010 - 3:19pm
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Rob Nicholson today reintroduced C-15 as Bill S-10, the bill is slightly different, with mandatory minimum sentences kicking in at 6 plants, not 1. So, to say again, the bill no longer has a mandatory minimum sentence for 1 marijuana plant.
 
That being said, the bill is a disaster for Canada. S-10 will imprison thousands of Canadians for victimless crimes, send people to jail for growing 6 marijuana plants, making any hashish (or baked goods) and a host of other offences.
 
There is no evidence that S-10 will work, indeed, every scientific study says it will fail. We know that prohibition has never worked, and we know that mandatory minimum sentences only increase the violence in our society.
 
Please contact your Member of Parliament (Login to WhyProhibition.ca, your MP will display in the top Right of the page) and let them know you oppose S-10 or any mandatory minimum sentence for marijuana.
 
Additionally, please, call (866) 808-8407 to let the Conservative Party of Canada know you oppose their harmful and dangerous so called "tough on crime" strategy. The evidence is clear, S-10 will do nothing but harm our society and cost billions of dollars. Read more »

Stop S-10 Petition

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 12:29am
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Whereas crime in Canada is at a 30-year low;
 
Whereas more than half of Canadians want marijuana legalized;
 
Whereas harm reduction measures have been more effective at curbing social harms from drug use than criminal penalties;
 
Whereas the Drug War has failed to achieve any of it's goals despite more than $1 Trillion spent;
 
Whereas Mandatory Minimum Sentences have failed to curb drug use or availability in any jurisdiction which has implemented them;
 
Whereas the Conservative Government was unable to provide any evidence that S-10 or it's predecessors would achieve their stated goal of decreasing crime;
 
Whereas all expert opinion oppose S-10;
 
Whereas all newspaper editorials oppose S-10;
 
We the undersigned demand our Representatives in the House of Commons stand up against this unconscionable Conservative agenda and Vote NO on Bill S-10. Read more »

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Submitted by rxjxmm on Sat, 10/16/2010 - 2:45am
When: 
Saturday, October 16, 2010 - 03:00

The truth rolex watches must be over the top "of the almost paranoid pursuit of touch a lot of individuals, groups or sectoral interests. Meanwhile, as a" fake self-employed, "Fang's crackdown with a strong personal touch, the loner style, Jieruchou personality, act "and different" alien cultural traditions. If we as by their personal values, knowledge of, the process of questioning sometimes flawed, deeply moved more easily from replica guccithe "demanding 'demanding persons'" social psychology, led to question the motives of spectators. Read more »

Free Marc Moneybomb Legal Fundraiser Donation Tracker

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Sat, 10/16/2010 - 2:05am
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Hard drugs are the source of B.C.’s notoriety

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 5:08pm
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By Ethan Baron, The Province
 
Whether or not you give credence to the assertion in Maclean’s magazine that B.C. is home to half the top 14 crime cities in Canada, it’s clear that we do have a crime problem.
 
And the root of the problem is drugs. Pot, coke, heroin, meth, ecstasy and other illicit substances fuel property crime, gang wars and street violence.
 
We pay for these social ills with loss of peace in our communities, with policing costs, with the expenses of putting drug dealers and users through the justice system and in some cases housing them in jail. Read more »

Feds oppose Calif. Prop 19 to legalize marijuana

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 5:04pm
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By. Associated Press
 
Attorney General Eric Holder says the federal government will enforce its marijuana laws in California even if voters next month make the state the first in the nation to legalize the drug.
 
The Justice Department strongly opposes California's Proposition 19 and remains firmly committed to enforcing the federal Controlled Substances Act in all states, Holder wrote in a letter to former chiefs of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter, dated Wednesday.
 
"We will vigorously enforce the CSA against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law," Holder wrote. Read more »

Federal Drug Numbers Are Garbage, RAND Corp. Finds

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 4:59pm
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By. David Downs, Eastbay Express
 
The independent RAND corporation said yesterday that federal drug statistics are pretty much total garbage, leading to questions over the empirical validity of the ongoing, $17 billion a year U.S. drug war. “Existing estimates about drug production and consumption are cryptic, inconsistent, and often impossible to verify,” stated the RAND Corporation, in a paper studying the effects of legalization of cannabis in California via Proposition 19.
 
“It's a topic I've been writing about for 25 years,” said a RAND drug policy researcher on a conference call yesterday. “Government estimates have been exactly as we describe it. These are numbers that come out of nowhere and there's often no explanation of how they derive them or why they're inconsistent over time. They're just utterly inconsistent with data that is available and documented.” Read more »

California's next attorney general can't punt on marijuana

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 4:55pm
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By. Paul Armentano, NORML
 
Regardless of which candidate wins the race for California attorney general, voters expect that San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris or Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley will respect the outcome of the election gracefully.
 
But they appear reluctant to extend that respect to Proposition 19, which would legalize the private, adult use of limited amounts of marijuana statewide and allow local governments to regulate commercial production and retail distribution. At their debate last week at UC Davis, neither Harris nor Cooley would state whether they would, as attorney general, enforce and defend Proposition 19.
 
Democrat Harris was ambiguous regarding what her actions as attorney general might be: "I believe that if it were to pass, it would be incumbent on the attorney general to convene her top lawyers and the experts on constitutional law to do a full analysis of the constitutionality of that measure ... and what action, if any, should follow." Read more »

80 percent of Pennsylvanians support legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, survey shows

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 4:50pm
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BY DAVID WARNER, For The Patriot-News
 
He’s in his 30s now, a man with serious health issues, never figuring he’d be in the position he is now: a regular marijuana user.
 
Back in his high school days, he remembers, he used to scorn the pot smokers. He was an athlete, and saw drug use as inconsistent with sports.
 
“I would make fun of those kids, call them potheads” said the Lehigh Valley man, who did not want his name published because he’s breaking Pennsylvania law nearly every day. “Now I guess I am.”
 
He is a big supporter of a bill pending in the state Legislature that would legalize the use of marijuana for medical reasons. The bill was introduced by Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia, who concedes that he does not yet have the votes to pass it. He’s sure the time will come. Read more »

Sex workers win right to challenge Canada's prostitution laws

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 4:46pm
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By. Pivot Legal Society
 
A former sex worker and an organization of current and former street-based sex workers can challenge Canada’s criminal laws relating to adult prostitution, according to a decision released by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
 
The Court of Appeal decision overturned a lower court decision that said that these two plaintiffs do not have the right to challenge the laws.
 
In 2007, the Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence Society (SWUAV), a non-profit organization composed of street-based sex workers, and Sheryl Kiselbach, a former sex worker with 30 years of experience in the sex industry, filed a constitutional challenge to the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution. Read more »

Schwarzenegger's Pot Reform Doesn't Cut It -- We Need the Whole Enchilada of Legalization

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 4:42pm
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By Hanna Liebman Dershowitz, AlterNet
 
Schwarzenegger's reducing marijuana to an infraction is great, but it doesn't go far enough. Prop. 19 would bring real reform, converting a black market into a legitimate industry with jobs, tax revenue and economic development.
 
SB1449, which reclassifies present penalties for small amounts of marijuana as an infraction rather than a misdemeanor, is a signal of the true necessity of Proposition 19. It is an acknowledgment by the legislature and the governor that marijuana prohibition has failed and is not worth spending scarce law enforcement resources on.
 
SB1449 means that if a guy is caught smoking a small amount of marijuana, he is subject to the same $100 fine as has been the penalty since 1972, under a different name. Prop. 19, in turn, would eliminate the catching and fining part for adult petty possession, freeing up more police resources to devote to crimes that pose a real threat to public safety. Prop. 19 would also address the pressing need to bring our $14 billion per year marijuana industry into the light of day and control and regulate it, taking it out of the hands of violent criminals and drug cartels. Read more »

Hemp "Attractive" for Biodiesel, Researchers Say

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 10/15/2010 - 4:35pm
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by Phillip Smith, Drug War Chronicle
 
Researchers at the University of Connecticut reported last week that the fiber crop cannabis sativa, also known as industrial hemp, has several qualities that make it an attractive feedstock for producing biodiesel, a sustainable diesel fuel made from renewable plant resources.
 
Industrial hemp can grow in infertile soils and does not require lots of water, fertilizer, or high-grade inputs to flourish, said researchers led by Dr. Richard Parnas, a professor of chemical, materials, and biomolecular engineering. It produces strong fibers that, until the advent of synthetic fibers in the 1950s, made it the premier product used in making rope and clothing around the world. Read more »