There’s been a lot going on recently in drug war related news, more than I’ve been able to write full posts about. Here’s a roundup of recent items.
– The case in Kitsap County against medical marijuana patient Bruce Olson is scheduled to start on Tuesday, January 20. Bruce’s wife Pam has already been convicted for the same drug charges that Bruce is now being tried for and the couple now reside in an RV after they were forced to sell their home to pay legal expenses. The Olsons also maintain that members of the WestNET Drug Task Force poisoned their dogs before they conducted the raid on their home. The Cannabis Defense Coalition is encouraging people to come by the Kitsap County Courthouse to provide support for Olson.
– Here’s the bill introduced into the Washington State House this week to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. A similar measure was passed by the voters in Massachusetts by a wide margin this past November. With the amount of money it would save the state, passing this bill should be a slam dunk. What happens to it should be a good indication of whether or not we still have a completely dysfunctional government in Olympia.
– Once again, the Obama-Biden Transition Team’s internet outreach at change.gov is demonstrating that drug laws are a big part of where we’re demanding change in the next few years. The most popular idea in the Citizen’s Briefing Book is “Ending Marijuana Prohibition.”
– The violence in Mexico has sparked another legalization debate along the border. This time in El Paso, which is across the river from one of the deadliest cities in Mexico, Juarez. It started when the City Council unanimously passed a resolution to suggest legalization as one possible way to stop the violence in Mexico. A week later, they were forced to retract their resolution after federal and state officials threatened to withhold funding. Apparently, even suggesting we do something correctly is too terrifying for our nation’s politicians to behold.
– A half-hour long debate between Radley Balko and David Freddoso on bloggingheads.tv can be seen here.
I would imagine that federal policy on state laws legalizing medical marijuana is going to change in about 72 hours.
Of course, this has never been about cancer patients or kids puffing tokes. The “war on drugs” has always been a cultural war against “dirty hippies.” The right is stuck in the 1960s. This is progress for which we should be grateful, because until the dirty hippies came along, the right was stuck in the 1860s.
@1
I hope so.
By the way, all the ex-dirty hippies are self-hating crooked Republican mortgage brokers now.
Moron@4:
Proof?
I think we should test the waters by outlawing chocolate for five years. Then, we can legalize marijuana easily.