Cannabis // Current

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5 days ago

Life in prison for growing!

At a time of heightened national security post-911, a near-depression economy and state government budgets bleeding red coast to... more

ras_menelik
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A Bong Fit for Mac Lovers

Honestly, we're surprised that this doesn't already exist: Tribudesign, a young Lebanese firm, has secured a distributor... more

pjacobs51
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The Hanging Gardens of Cambridge?!?

Cannabis found in 'hanging baskets' A BIZARRE new cannabis growing method using hanging baskets was discovered during... more

ras_menelik
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America’s ‘Preposterous War On Pot’ Continues

Seven million Americans have been arrested since 1995 on marijuana charges and 41,000 of them are rotting in federal and state... more

WakeUpPeople
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Is Marijuana Prohibition America’s ‘Berlin Wall’?

[Editor's Note: This essay was originally published on March 1st, 2009. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's deconstruction and the fall of Communism being recognized around the world this week, and with the ever-falling support for cannabis prohibition in America, this essay from NORML board member George Rohrbacher seems even more apropos today than last March.]

It is said that almost everyone in the marijuana law reform movement has a seminal moment they can point to when their public activism started. My moment was in the fall, six years ago.

I’m a past president of our local Kiwanis Club. I’ve been a member for years; we meet for breakfast at 6:30am, every Wednesday morning. My fateful “activism moment” was meeting face-to-face with one morning’s Kiwanis Club program, our town’s newly acquired dope dog. Some rock-ribbed citizen had left money in his will for the city to buy a dope dog for our town of 3,000, in a county of 18,000 people. The dog’s handler and the police chief were up at the speaker’s table. I had to fight back the urge to turn around and run.

As I sat down at my usual spot, ordered breakfast and clipped on my Kiwanis Club nametag, my heart was just racing! Thank God, my neck pain had not been severe enough that morning that it had required some marijuana medication, because, I imagined, triggered by the smell of freshly consumed ganja, that huge German Shepard would have leaped from the podium to pin me down to the floor, the dog’s sharp white teeth snarling and snapping at my throat.

As we went through club business about our kid’s reading program, ate breakfast and conducted the normal chit-chat that makes Kiwanis Club so enjoyable, I slowly calmed myself. I had not been found out as a marijuana user, yet. There was no need for me to panic, because the likelihood that I would be found out now by this agent of the state, was growing smaller and smaller by the moment. But, as the primal fear drained away, it started to piss me off; this dope dog was invading my space.

The dog handler got up and spoke glowingly about his charge, the alpha male of his litter. This dog had been born of a long and impressive pedigree in Baden-something, formerly East Germany. Looking at me from across the room was the pride of the jack-booted police state, the purebred German Shepard—smart, vicious, relentless.

The dog handler went chirping on, to mostly nodding heads, about what a fantastic dog he had and how many pot busts he had already made with it. Suddenly, all I could think was: This dog was born in East Germany, it’s father could have pulled someone down off the Berlin Wall…this dog’s great-grandfather would have marched the Jews or Gypsies to the ovens at Buchenwald or Auschwitz… And now, my own little town had a new resident from the same police dog gene pool that serviced the two most brutal totalitarian regimes in the history of the mankind!

Scenes from my childhood of when German Shepards attacked the Civil Rights marchers at Selma floated before my eyes… This well-groomed dog was a tool of the modern police state in all its scariest manifestations. The more I thought about it, the madder and madder I got.

I paid my breakfast bill and left in the first wave. I drove back out to the ranch and fed our cows their daily ration of hay, all the while mulling over my close brush with the dope dog. By the time I got done with my chores and back to the house, I absolutely had to do something! I picked up my telephone and called NORML, and I volunteered for the fight that very day…our fight for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”

Marijuana prohibition is a corrupt and evil social institution, just like the Berlin Wall was. For generations both have been symbols of the ruthless and relentless oppression of the state.., by the sheer weight of internal political http://blog.norml.org/2009/11/11/is-marijuana-prohibition-america%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98berlin-wall%e2%80%99/[Editor's Note: This essay was originally published on March 1st, 2009. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin... more

copperdragon
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20 comments

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12 days ago

Johnson: Drug enforcement pricey waste

The Prohibition against drug use is causing more trouble and expense than the drug use itself, former Gov. Gary Johnson said in a... more

copperdragon
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13 days ago

Oregon NORML’s groundbreaking Cannabis Café opening this Friday

Riding on the wave of President Obama’s memo to end DEA interference in states’ medical marijuana laws and an... more

copperdragon
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4 comments

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12 days ago

Fox Freedom Watch - Pro Marijuana Legalization

MPP Director of Government Relations Aaron Houston appears on Fox Freedom Watch to talk about the advances in marijuana policy and... more

pjacobs51
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4 comments

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13 days ago

Ask Cheech and Chong anything you want...

Cheech and Chong are taking over Current and we're taking your questions! They'll definitely be talking about the... more

chapinyoung
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64 comments

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14 days ago

Dick's War Dead?

A More Liberal Approach to US Drug Policy?: This year marks the 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s declaration of...... more

ras_menelik
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3 comments

added
18 days ago

Government's chief scientist backs David Nutt on cannabis

Prof Beddington, the country's top science adviser, said the evidence was "absolutely clear cut" but stopped short of criticising the removal of Prof Nutt.
However, he is now consulting other heads of expert committees to see if they have experienced difficulties or political interference in their roles.

Only in August this year, Prof Beddington warned leading academics will be discouraged from working with government if they fear being reprimanded for expressing their views.

It came as Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, backed the decision by his Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to force Prof Nutt to resign as chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) for criticising government policy, especially on cannabis.
The move has sparked a bitter row between the science community and politicians amid concerns over the future use of independent scientific advice.
Two ACMD members have already resigned and there remains the prospect a mass resignation of the remaining 28 if they do not receive sufficient reassurances about the future from Mr Johnson in a meeting next week.
One member said last night that the situation is on a "razor's edge".
The row over Prof Nutt followed a series of public comments including a view that alcohol and tobacco is more harmful than cannabis, ecstasy and LSD.
He has also criticised the Government's decision to move cannabis back to Class B, against the recommendation of the ACMD.
On whether cannabis is less harmful than cigarettes and alcohol, Prof Beddington said: "I think the scientific evidence is absolutely clear cut. I would agree with it."
He said the sacking was the result of a breakdown in trust between Prof Nutt and Mr Johnson but stressed it was for scientists to offer expert advice and politicians to make policy decisions.
"I think it's very difficult – when clearly trust had broken down between the Home Secretary and Professor Nutt – to see how that could go on," he said.
"I think it's fair to say we need to make a distinction between scientific advice and evidence – which is the role of experts and scientific committees and the role of ministers – which is to make policy."
Mr Brown publicly backed Mr Johnson's decision to sack Prof Nutt and warned that the latter's comments gave the impression the Government was sending "mixed messages" about drugs.
He told an audience of police, council workers and members of the public London: "Scientific advice is very important and we value it. You can see that with swine flu, with climate change and with all sorts of environmental problems.
"But advisers advise and ministers have to make decisions.
He added: "I think the issue here is we did have advice that we should not reclassify cannabis. We did not accept that.
"We have to take a broader view in the round that was more than just the scientific advice. It's about the effects on young people that drugs are harmful and not acceptable."
The move has caused splits inside Government after Lord Drayson, the science minister, wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to reverse the decision.
He said he was "pretty appalled" and claimed that Mr Johnson had made "a big mistake".
However Lord Drayson later rowed back from his comments claiming they were a hasty reaction before knowing the facts.
He said: "My comments in the email exchange were my immediate reaction to what had happened, without full knowledge of all the facts.
"I have talked to Alan Johnson and he has assured me of the importance he attaches to scientific advice and his respect for scientific advice while being the person who has to make the final difficult decisions."Prof Beddington, the country's top science adviser, said the evidence was "absolutely clear cut" but stopped short... more