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Site offers home delivery of marijuana
Friday, December 20, 2002 Posted: 9:58 AM EST (1458 GMT)
MONTREAL, Canada (Reuters) -- Canadian activists for the medicinal use of marijuana celebrated a court victory on Thursday by launching an Internet site offering home delivery of cannabis for seriously ill people. Saying it would even offer tax deductions for orders, the Marijuana Party Foundation took the unprecedented step after Quebec Superior Court Judge Gilles Cadieux stopped the drug-trafficking trial of two volunteers from Compassion Club of Montreal, a group that provides marijuana for medicinal purposes.

. . . Read more!


posted by A Curmudgeon 11:19 PM

 

New Jersey Court Declares State's Civil Forfeiture Funding Scheme Unconstitutional
(DRCNet.org, 12-13-02)
Under New Jersey's civil forfeiture law (N.J.S.A 2C:64-6a), prosecutors and police had been entitled to keep the money and property confiscated from individuals through the state's civil forfeiture law, thus giving them a direct financial stake in the outcome of forfeiture efforts. The court ruled that this provision violates the Due Process clauses of the US and New Jersey constitutions. . . . "The decision will ensure that police and prosecutors make decisions on the basis of justice, not on the potential for profit." . . . By ruling the statute unconstitutional, the decision affects every county in New Jersey. And the decision could prove a harbinger of future challenges to laws in other states. David Smith, an Alexandria, VA, attorney who has written a treatise on forfeiture laws and is a former deputy chief of the Department of Justice's asset forfeiture office declared last month, "This is the single most important civil forfeiture case being litigated anywhere." Several other states and the federal forfeiture law also permit police and prosecutors to keep forfeited property and proceeds. . . . "We will challenge laws in other states to guarantee that the due process rights of property owners are protected when confronted with civil forfeiture," Bullock added.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 6:21 PM

 

Drugs, Guns and Money
(Santa Fe New Mexican, 12-10-02)
Just about everone hates the War on Drugs. Public officials and pundits at every point along the political spectrum, from the governors of New Mexico and Minnesota to the former mayor of Baltimore, have railed against its wastefulness; Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver blames it for exacerbating inner-city crime. William F. Buckley calls it a "plague that consumes an estimated $75 billion per year in public money"; Christopher Hitchens has labeled it "grotesque, state-sponsored racketeering." . . . The U.S. government spends over $40 billion annually to promote the cause of a drug-free America, while Bob Dole appears on national television shilling for Viagra. Marijuana is non-lethal and non-addictive, but you can't talk about it on the phone; Xanax is known to be dangerously addictive and Valium is responsible for thousands of deaths by overdose every year, but both are readily available with the click of a mouse. . . . The DEA, in an effort to make wayward states comply with the federal ban on any kind of marijuana use, has stooped so low that it's raiding California hospices and carting away the terminally ill. . . . In fact, by the end of "Busted," which concludes with Lester Grinspoon, M.D., reminding us that, among other things, if cannabis could be patented and profited from, it would be legal by now, it seems clear that the solution to both the drug war and our national drug problem is, ironically, to legalize all drugs - from heroin to methamphetamine to LSD. . . . Dr. Charles Grob's "Politics of Ecstasy," written by one of the bravest and most outspoken proponents of clinical MDMA in the medical establishment, rings axiomatically true. . . . It's not likely that someone like Senator Orrin Hatch, who gets a half a million dollars every campaign season from the same pharmaceutical industry that bankrolled the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, is going to pick up "Busted" and experience some sort of lightning-bolt flash of sagacity that will induce him to stop sponsoring bills that extend the draconian provisions of the crack-house law to raves. But as a source of ammunition for opponents of the drug war, a manifesto of reason, and a document of where our drug policy stands now, Gray has compiled an invaluable and comprehensive reference.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 9:01 AM

 

Racine Wisconsin: Police Raid Benefit . . . 441 persons in attendance issued $968 citations
(Electronic Music Defense & Education Fund, December 2002)
Police in Racine Wisconsin raided a non-profit fundraising event featuring electronic music and cited everyone in the downstairs "techno room" for being "inmates of a disorderly house with narcotics." Each of the 441 persons cited in the raid now faces a $968 fine. The event was sponsored by the Uptown Theatre Group Inc., a local non-profit organization working to restore a historic landmark theater in Racine. . . . The purpose of this event was in no way related to drug activity nor were any of the ticketed individuals accused of providing drugs, assisting those who provided drugs, or being involved with drugs in any way whatsoever. Rather, the event was held to raise funds for the non-profit organization, the Uptown Theater Group, Inc., and its efforts to restore a historic landmark located in downtown Racine. Not only did the advertisements for the event include notice that attendees would be subject to search and that drugs would not permitted inside, the Uptown Theater Group also sought to hire members of the Racine Police Department to act as security during the concert, as they had previously done for several other events. Moreover, despite a massive police raid and the forcible seizure of hundreds of individuals inside the hall, only a small number of persons were arrested on drug-related charges.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 12:50 PM

 

War On Drugs Clock
The U.S. federal government will spend over 19.2 billion dollars at a rate of about $609 per second on the War on Drugs this year.
State and local governments will spend at least another 20 billion.
People Arrested for Drug Law Offenses this Year: 1, 458, 198 [at 8:54 am on 12-2-2002] ... click the link above and watch the numbers rise!

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 5:50 AM