A ballot measure to make California the first state to legalize the sale and use of marijuana has won the support of one of the state’s most powerful union, officials said Monday, offering the proposition a shot of mainstream legitimacy as well as a potential financial and organizational lift.
The decision by the executive board of the Service Employees International Union of California will be announced in the next few days, according to officials who have been briefed about it but were not allowed to speak publicly before it was announced.
That’s a big union. Another powerful voice to add to the mix.
While dressed in a cowboy hat, boots and Wrangler jeans, Howard Wooldridge sits on his one-eyed American Paint horse, Misty. He looks like he could be out of a scene from a Western movie. Instead he is waving down traffic at the intersection Cherokee and Kettleman lanes.
Describing himself as a modern-day Paul Revere, Wooldridge, 59, has taken to the streets on horseback to encourage people to vote for Proposition 19, a statewide initiative to legalize pot.
As people drive through the Lodi intersection, they honk horns, give thumbs up, wave coffee cups and cheer.
“A majority of Californians believe the war on drugs is nonsense,†Wooldridge said.
Good for Howard! He and Misty are taking 9 weeks to ride through California and spread the word.
When the recent story came out that nine previous heads of the Drug Enforcement Agency had sent a letter to the Attorney General suggesting that the federal government should sue California if Prop 19 passes, there was one really big thing missing… Sue based on what?
Various media reported about the letter (which you can now read here), but none of them indicated what the legal grounds of the suit would be and whether there was any, you know, validity to those grounds.
Anybody can suggest suing somebody. For example, the person in front of you at the grocery store buys the last bratwurst, and without brats your cookout is ruined. I could suggest that you sue them. I could even get eight friends together and write a letter suggesting that you sue them signed by all nine of us. And you still wouldn’t have any legal justification to sue.
Of course, as you can well guess, there’s really nothing there.
Bruce Fein, member of the Just Say Now advisory committee who served in the Justice Department as Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan, responds:
Nothing in the Constitution requires a state to prohibit as a matter of state law and prosecution what the federal government has chosen to prohibit as a matter of federal law and prosecution. Proposition 19 leaves the power of the federal government to enforce federal prohibitions on marijuana trafficking or use unimpaired. It would be flagrantly unconstitutional for Congress to attempt to force states to enact laws prohibiting under state law conduct that Congress has prohibited under federal law! DEA needs remedial education on the Constitution.
…they are wrong on the key question regarding the merits of the lawsuit they desire the Attorney General to file. Proposition 19 withdraws California enforcement of its marijuana law which is its Constitutional prerogative. The Supreme Court ruled in the Printz case that Congress cannot “commandeer” state officials to enforcement federal laws. This is different from the Arizona immigration situation in which Arizona sought to authorize state conduct based on federal immigration status, and to create offenses based on federal immigration status. Immigration is explicitly a Federal power in Article I, section 8 of the Constitution. Marijuana prohibition is not in the Constitution. Federal power over marijuana is based on the commerce clause. Our law is filled with areas in which there is both federal and state regulation of various aspects of commerce. The Controlled Substances Act, unlike the Federal Communications Act, does not exclude states from regulation.
On its face, Prop. 19 is a completely different concept. Historically, Prop. 19 is akin to the act of the New York legislature repealing its alcohol prohibition law in 1923 which was perfectly lawful and Constitutional.
So the answer is, no, the DEA heads have nothing there.
But Eric also hits on another interesting point.
… this letter is the clearest indication that the drug prohibition establishment recognizes the political attractiveness and unique importance of Prop. 19. I cannot recall any previous collaboration of former DEA Administrators of this kind. If our national marijuana prohibition policy were not so clearly failing and not so close to being replaced with real controls, they would never have mobilized in this way to defend it. If Prop. 19 were not proposing a system of control that is so logical and straight forward that it is widely politically attractive, they would not be mobilizing this kind of collaboration.
I’ve noticed this, too.
There is real fear out there on the part of the prohibitionists. They see Prop 19 as the thread that could start to unravel the entire prohibition regime. If Prop 19 passes and the world doesn’t end/sky doesn’t fall/streets don’t erupt with violence/population doesn’t suddenly become mindless zombies, then why will the public support their prohibition gravy train?
A good day today for Prop 19. The money bomb is getting close to $50,000, and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition has been around the state making important points.
Joseph McNamara, who headed the San Jose Police Department for 15 years, called the ballot measure a potential “game-changer†that would allow police agencies to devote more resources to fighting other crimes and undercut criminal syndicates that are largely funded by illegal marijuana sales.
“Opponents say we should do more of the same of what has not worked for more than a century,†McNamara said in phone call with reporters. “I think we should return some common sense to law enforcement by protecting people from crimes they are concerned about. People are not terrified by pot smokers.â€
Also in the Ventura Star:
[retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James] Gray called the campaign for Proposition 19, “Probably the most important election of my lifetime.â€
Gray was joined by former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara in arguing that much of the money flowing to violent drug cartels comes from the illegal sale of marijuana.
Citing White House statistics, McNamara said 60% of cartel money stems from marijuana. Those who argue that a black market would remain aren’t paying attention to history, McNamara said.
After the prohibition on alcohol was repealed, bootleggers disappeared, said McNamara, now a research fellow in drug policy at Stanford University.
And what about those other law enforcement groups?
Active law enforcement groups, including the California Police Chiefs Assn., are opposed to the measure, saying it would increase usage and promote crime. Gray, the retired judge, said he believes that many in law enforcement support legalization but are afraid to say so because of political pressure on the job.
“They have a political job, so they can’t tell the truth,” Gray said. “People are free to speak out honestly only after they are retired.â€
Supporters said keeping pot illegal props up drug cartels and overburdens the state’s court system. Stephen Downing, former deputy chief for the Los Angeles Police Department, said the nation’s drug policy has failed, likening it to cutting off the leg of a spider to cripple it.
“The drug organizations are more like starfish,” Downing said during a press conference at a West Hollywood park where children were playing with their parents behind him. “You cut a leg off, it regenerates. We are dealing with a sea of starfish. The only way you kill a starfish is to remove its nutrient. And that nutrient is money.”
Kyle Robertson, 16, was suspended from school because his eyes were red and watery.
On the basis of this fact alone, they decided he had been smoking pot.
No other reasons for bloodshot eyes were considered, like the fact that Kyle’s father had been stabbed to death two days earlier, and he had been crying. He could have stayed home, but wanted to be at school with his friends.
Administrators, after talking with his mother and learning the situation, still required her to take him to get a drug test within two hours and show a copy of negative test results, before they’d let him back in school.
Never forget how the prohibitionists will willingly and eagerly exploit tragedy and death in order to market their profitable drug war and protect their gravy train.
Never forget how the DEA built a museum exhibit glorifying themselves, centered around the debris of the World Trade Center.
Never forget that the government decided to blame pot smokers for terrorism, carefully ignoring the fact that prohibition is the cause of black market profits.
Never forget…
Never forget that the DEA exploited those who tragically lost their lives to drugs by organizing a “Vigil for Lost Promise” on DEA grounds, closed off to media and protests.
This, despite the fact that the DEA and the drug war have actually made the harms of drugs worse. And also despite the fact that the DEA cuts young lives short, through activities like shooting 14-year-old Ashley Villareal to death.
Never forget…
Make no mistake. 9/11 was a tragedy that we should not forget for itself. However, we must also remember always that there are those who exploit tragedy to feed their own power and agenda. We must be vigilant or we’ll fall into their trap and trade away our freedom and sovereignty. The moment we give in to fear and let our government “protect us” by increasing their own power, we lose.
As California voters gear up for a November 2 vote on Proposition 19, a ballot measure that would legalize the growth, possession and distribution of marijuana, nine former administrators of the Drug Enforcement Administration have issued a preemptive call to the White House: If Prop 19 passes, they say, President Obama should sue.
The Ex-DEA heads are showing that they are not only ridiculous, motivated by the self-interest of the DEA, but that they also don’t have a clue about the law. The courts have already ruled that the state is not required to enforce federal criminal law. Since Prop 19 doesn’t overturn federal cannabis laws, the federal government has nothing to sue about.
Unfortunately, the AP and CBS don’t include a link to the letter or the text of it. Anyone have it?
Imposing Emery’s sentence Friday, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez honored a plea agreement struck earlier this year by Emery to avoid a potential 10-year prison term.
Marc Emery and his supporters took this opportunity to show how politically motivated the case was, and the attorneys too, the opportunity to try to claim that it was just about Marc being a bad guy, but everybody expected the plea deal that had been negotiated over years to stand, and so there were no surprises.
So now who watches the prisoners who are arrested for not watching the prisoners?
Eighty-five prisoners escaped from a jail near the U.S. border on Friday, authorities and media said, the latest prison break underscoring the challenges Mexico faces as it battles powerful drug cartels. […]
The prisoners, mainly cartel members, climbed over a prison fence in the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, in the early hours of Friday morning, local radio and newspapers reported, saying 85 men escaped. […]
Police arrested more than 40 prison guards and staff who were on duty when the men escaped, and two prison guards are missing, local radio and newspaper El Norte said.
A panel of marijuana criminal defense attorneys on the opening day of NORML’s 39th Annual National Conference in Portland Thursday were unanimous and emphatic on one thing people with pot should do when confronted by police: exercise their right to remain silent.
“Don’t talk to those people,” warned Oakland defense attorney and NORML board member Bill Panzer. “Their job is to throw your ass in jail. They are not there to help you.”
“Don’t talk to the cops,” agreed Seattle defense attorney Jeffrey Steinborn. “No matter what you say to a cop, they will write down what they want to hear. They can’t misinterpret stone cold silence.”
“Shut the fuck up,” punctuated Seattle defense attorney Douglas Hiatt, noting that people were understandably under stress when having encounters with law enforcement. People are prone to try to talk their way out of trouble, he said. “This is not the time you’re going to be doing quality thinking.”
Video: Marijuana Heals Cancer …Cannabinoid Receptors In The Human Body
[Thanks, Julie]
Press conferences coming this Monday should be good.
A group of police officers, judges, and prosecutors who support Proposition 19, the California ballot measure to control and tax cannabis (marijuana), will hold simultaneous press conferences Monday, September 13 in front of Oakland City Hall and in West Hollywood Park near Los Angeles at 10 AM PDT to release a letter of endorsement signed by dozens of law enforcers across the state.
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Obama took the unusual step Thursday of retracting a statement made a day earlier by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about Mexico’s drug war.
Clinton said Mexico’s drug war was like Colombia’s war against insurgents 20 years earlier, which was funded by money from drug cartels. […]
Clinton’s comment drew sharp rebuttals from Mexican politicians, who described their effort against drug cartels as more of a police action than a war against military insurgents.
Obviously, I’ve paid more attention to him because I’m involved in drug policy and his views are favorable to drug policy reform, but I find it odd that he’s known for being unknown. Is it because of the echo chamber of the cable news networks?
There’s something really wrong in public discourse when, from a political perspective, Sarah Palin is well known but Gary Johnson is little known.
And I agree. Johnson is a “legitimate long-shot candidate.”
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While dressed in a cowboy hat, boots and Wrangler jeans, Howard Wooldridge sits on his one-eyed American Paint horse, Misty. He looks like he could be out of a scene from a Western movie. Instead he is waving down traffic at the intersection Cherokee and Kettleman lanes.
This, despite the fact that the DEA and the drug war have actually made the harms of drugs worse. And also despite the fact that the DEA cuts young lives short, through activities like 
Servetus on Tech versus tech in marijuana drug enforcement: “Hemp biomass passes a Δ9-THC analysis in its use as a dairy cattle feed: 30-Jun-2025–A new study [Oregon State University]…” Jul 1, 00:00
