Drug WarRant

Link

Medical marijuana users in Maine will be able to buy their pot at licensed dispensaries after voters approved a bill that expands the state’s existing medical marijuana law.

The new law allows patients to buy marijuana at nonprofit dispensaries. It also expands the medical conditions under which people can be prescribed the drug.

In unofficial returns, Question 5 was leading 60 percent to 40 percent with half of precincts reporting.

Link

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — The skiing town of Breckenridge voted Tuesday night by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 to legalize the adult possession of marijuana.

Breckenridge voters passed Measure 2F, which removes criminal penalties from the town code for the private possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older. The ordinance also removes criminal penalties for the possession of bongs, pipes and other drug paraphernalia.

It passed 73 percent to 27 percent.

Perhaps the leaders of California’s law enforcement community, that has spent so much time and money fighting against any kind of reform of marijuana laws, would be willing to explain this:

Via MPP

Peter Hitchens

Don’t read this unless you’re interested in raising your blood pressure.

Continue reading →

… and not very well

Mr Brown backed Mr Johnson’s decision and defended the right of elected ministers to reject the advice of scientists at times. He said: “On climate change, or health, for example, we take the best scientific advise possible. But in an area like drugs we have to look at it in the round.

In the round? Ah, yes, I see here you have proved that 2+2=4. But, you see, in this area, we have to look at it in the round, so I declare it to be 3.

Lots of random “for the children” and “mixed messages” nonsense, and then.

He rejected the argument that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes.

“We’ve seen brands of cannabis that are distorted by other products and ingredients. That’s one of the reasons why it’s important to send a message that drug abuse is not acceptable and a criminal offence.”

(Yeah, your spliff becomes dangerous when cannabis is mixed with tobacco, but that’s because of the tobacco.)

There’s so much wrong with those sentences…

If you live in Maine, you have a chance to vote for the following today:

Question 5 reads: “Do you want to change the medical marijuana laws to allow treatment of more medical conditions and to create a regulated system of distributions?”

According to Leavitt, the goal of the new legislation is “to provide legal access for qualified patients who couldn’t access their medicine through the 1999 Maine Medical Marijuana Act.”

For those of you (like myself) who have not had the chance to see a first-class medical marijuana operation, here’s a nice look (Via Scott Morgan)

It’s also the potential vision of what a post-legalization distribution method could be.

Good job, Jessica Corry.

Joe Fiorito has an excellent column in The Star, discussing Canada’s plans to add mandatory minimums to a bunch of drug offenses, and a speech by Eugene Oscapella of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy.

The column is like a basic primer: Why tough drug laws won’t work

Here’s the problem, according to Oscapella and almost everyone else who looks at drugs with a clear eye: The first result of the prohibition of any substance – alcohol, tobacco, cocaine – is the creation of a lucrative black market. […]

Drugs are less about getting high, and more about making huge pots of money. As for risk, it is possible to fit enough heroin to supply this country for a year in the back of a cube van; a year’s supply of cocaine will fit in a shipping container. How many shipping containers and cube vans come into Canada in any given year? What’s the cost of a timely bribe?

In other words, criminal law has created a lucrative black market, and criminal law is powerless to stop it. […]

Oscapella said, “If you’re a mom-and-pop producer of marijuana, mandatory minimums will scare you out of business.” Yeah, so? “Organized crime will step in; the government has moved the competition out of the way.”

This is an unintended consequence of the worst kind: Banning a substance makes it wildly lucrative; punishing the small fry makes it easier for the bad guys to do business.

Mandatory reading for all Canadian politicians.