Here are some news updates and other links:
– Prosecutors in Kitsap County have dropped charges against Glenn Musgrove, the 56-year-old quadriplegic and medical marijuana patient who the WestNET drug task force initially claimed was selling marijuana for profit. Musgrove won a large settlement for a medical malpractice suit and his attorney believes that Kitsap County went after him in order to get their hands on some of that money. His two caregivers were also facing prosecution, but those charges have also been dropped. It appears that the acquittal of Bruce Olson and the increased media attention on Kitsap Prosecutor Russ Hauge’s behavior is finally starting to yield some positive outcomes. Unfortunately, situations like this are not isolated to Kitsap County. The Cannabis Defense Coalition is also looking into cases in Mason and Pierce Counties as well.
– Glenn Greenwald’s report for the Cato Institute on drug decriminalization in Portugal can be read here. He adds in this post at his regular Salon blog that we’re at the point now that even longtime skeptics of decriminalization are being forced to admit that it works to decrease both drug abuse and its collateral effects. Although there are still some entertainingly obstinate holdouts.
– Washington State’s Senate Democrats have created an online forum similar to the one that the Obama Administration set up for their virtual town hall. I’ve posted a question about regulating and taxing marijuana.
– I’m a bit more pessimistic than Pete Guither here that Attorney General Holder really is on the verge of a spectacularly boneheaded attempt to arrest even more people for simple marijuana possession. At all levels of government, we already arrest around 3/4 of a million people every year for marijuana possession. If Holder actually thinks that increasing those arrest totals will lower the amount of money being made by Mexican cartels, he needs to sit down and read Greenwald’s report on Portugal.
– Finally, the Injustice in Seattle blog is a good local blog that’s flown under my radar for a little while now. I need to get them in my regular reading rotation. I’m not on the Twitter bandwagon yet, but if you are, they have a feed.