Dying to Get High: Marijuana As Medicine
On August 08, 2008 in Book Reviews, Medical Marijuana, Miscellaneous
In Dying to Get High, noted sociologists Wendy Chapkis and Richard J. Webb investigate one community of seriously-ill patients fighting the federal government for the right to use physician-recommended marijuana. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the Wo/Mens Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) is a unique patient-caregiver cooperative providing marijuana free of charge to mostly terminally ill members. For a brief period in 2004, it even operated the only legal non-governmental medical marijuana garden in the country, protected by the federal courts against the DEA.
DEA Seizes Medical Marijuana Seized By Seattle Police
On August 08, 2008 in Drug War, Government, In The News, Law Enforcement
Washington state has a medical marijuana law, and the city of Seattle has an ordinance making marijuana offenses the lowest law enforcement priority, but that didn’t stop Seattle police from raiding the Lifevine medical marijuana co-op two weeks ago, seizing hundreds of patient files, as well as 12 ounces of dried buds and several pounds of leaf.
In the wake of pointed criticism, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg declined to press charges against co-op operator Martin Martinez and ordered the return of the patient files. But police did not return the co-op’s stolen property - the medical marijuana. Read the rest of this entry »
Britain’s Drug War Not Working
On August 08, 2008 in Drug War, Research, World
Traditional drug war law enforcement tactics have not worked in Britain, according to research released Wednesday by the UK Drug Policy Commission. The commission is a non-governmental body that lists among its objectives providing “independent and objective analysis of UK drug policy.”
In the study, Tackling drug markets and distribution networks in the UK: a review of the recent literature, the researchers reported that British drug markets are “extremely resilient” and that increasing seizures of drugs had had little impact at the street level. Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year on drug enforcement, “there is remarkably little evidence of its effectiveness in disrupting markets and reducing availability,” the authors concluded. Read the rest of this entry »
Narcotics: Pit of Despair - Vintage 60s Drug Film Looks At Heroin And Marijuana
On August 08, 2008 in Video
Latest Illinois Report Prompts Civil Rights Groups to Call for End to Consent Searches
On August 08, 2008 in Civil Rights, Miscellaneous
The Illinois Department of Transportation earlier this month issued its annual report on race and traffic stops. The results showed that police were much more likely to ask minority drivers to consent to searches without probable cause, but that they were much less likely to actually find drugs, guns, or other contraband in consent searches directed at minority drivers.
The results are consistent with the first three years of results under the state’s traffic stop racial profiling monitoring program. That program went into effect in 2004 after the state legislature passed legislation authored by then state Sen. Barack Obama (D) enacting it. Read the rest of this entry »
