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Raising awareness of the consequences of drug prohibition | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)

Stop the Drug War (DRCNet) calls for an end to drug prohibition (e.g. some form of legalization), and its replacement with some sensible framework in which drugs can be regulated and controlled instead. Founded in 1993 by executive director David Borden, DRCNet has from the beginning called unambiguously for an end to prohibition; we are the largest "full-purpose" national membership organization with a wide range of programs to hold that position.

DRCNet is the acknowledged leader in the field of online educational publishing in drug policy reform. Our educational programs are global in scope; currently the primary ones include the acclaimed weekly online newsletter Drug War Chronicle, and now the "Stop the Drug War Speakeasy" blogosphere network. Drug War Chronicle is a major resource used extensively by activists, media and leaders in a range of relevant professions to empower their work. DRCNet's "Prohibition in the Media" campaign, which is organized as a part of the "Speakeasy," seeks to have mainstream media outlets recognize the consequences of prohibition as such in their reporting. In 2003 DRCNet organized an educational Latin American drug legalization summit in Mexico, in which legislators from six nations including a Colombian senator and former supreme court chief justice participated, a record level of high-level political participation for a drug reform conference.

DRCNet is also a "support" organization that uses our 32,000+ online network and publishing venues to build, support and amplify the work of all the other organizations in the movement -- DRCNet in fact directly started or enabled the founding of three other organizations, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Flex Your Rights and Drugsense.

Finally, DRCNet is an advocacy organization that works for concrete policy reform in the US at both the federal and state level. DRCNet is the organization that launched the campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act, a law which delays or denies financial aid to would-be students because of drug convictions. This campaign scored a major victory with the scaling back of the law in February 2006. DRCNet founded and coordinates the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform, which has broadened the effort to also target the inadvertent denial of state financial aid that this federal law has caused. In 2002 DRCNet organized a CHEAR press conference outside the US Capitol which set another record for drug policy reform by drawing the participation of ten members of Congress. DRCNet also disseminates "action alerts" urging our supporters to lobby Congress and other policymaking bodies in support of positive reforms such as sentencing reductions, medical marijuana and needle exchange and in opposition to new mandatory minimum sentences and escalation of the drug war in Colombia, and many other issues.

A DRCNet program that straddles advocacy, education and charity is the John W. Perry Fund, a program assisting students who have lost federal financial aid because of drug convictions with scholarships. The Perry Fund has distributed more than $20,000 in scholarships to 15 students, several of whom have gone on to do interviews with major media outlets. DRCNet's National Perry Fund Campaign has held receptions featuring several members of Congress as well as other political leaders, celebrities and prominent advocates. The Perry Fund was responsible for locating two of the three student plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit organized by the ACLU that is challenging the drug provision on constitutional grounds.

DRCNet opposes the prison-building frenzy and supports rational policies consistent with the principles of peace, justice, freedom, compassion and truth. Each of these has been compromised in the name of the Drug War.Stop the Drug War (DRCNet) calls for an end to drug prohibition (e.g. some form of... more

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Feds Predict Major Drop in Marijuana Prices | United States | Cannabis News

Unless you measure success by the number of people arrested, the failure of the war on marijuana is becoming more obvious than ever before.
A new Department of Justice report, Drug Threat Assessment 2008, reveals that increased indoor cultivation is flooding the U.S. market with high quality marijuana.

As a result, marijuana users may soon be getting more bud for their buck:

In the section, "Predictive Estimates," the report concludes:

• Increased cannabis cultivation may result in reduced marijuana prices.

The recent increases in cannabis cultivation and marijuana production within the United States coincide with the continued flow of marijuana from foreign sources, which may lead to market saturation [in] major markets. This saturation could reduce the price of the drug significantly. [CelebStoner.com]

That's good news for marijuana enthusiasts and bad news for anyone invested in trying to eradicate America's #1 cash crop. Ironically, drug warriors have often cited increased potency as evidence that marijuana is becoming more harmful. This is all nonsense, because users adjust their dose to achieve the desired effect, just as an alcohol user might drink a 12 ounce beer, but not 12 ounces of vodka (not to mention the lack of evidence that marijuana is harmful even in large doses). Nevertheless, the real story here is that marijuana eradication efforts are failing to affect price and supply.

What then is the point of spending billions in an unsuccessful attempt to eradicate this plant? What desirable outcomes are being achieved in exchange for the innocent lives disrupted or lost in the course of this fruitless crusade? Reasonable people can disagree about marijuana use, but who among us cannot think of better things for police to do than this?

Anyone who ever thought we might someday purge this plant from our borders can now be relieved of that foolish notion. Opponents of marijuana and its users must now take stock of the situation and ask whether the indefinite continuation of this endless cat and mouse game is desirable.

It is amusing, perhaps, to the marijuana fans among us to hear that the price of a ¼ bag could go down soon. But remember how much our nation has sacrificed in a hopeless effort to prevent this from happening. Remember how many of our friends and neighbors have been yanked off the streets, forced out of school or work, even lost custody of their children, all because of the stupid idea that we could successfully wage war on marijuana.

I don't begrudge any of you your cheap bags of good bud, but don't get too comfortable. The war on marijuana may have failed, but it still sucks.
http://stopthedrugwar.org Unless you measure success by the number of people arrested, the failure of the war... more

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The war on pot: America's $42 billion annual boondoggle

What else could we spend $42 billion each year on? Health insurance for kids? Better... more

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Burning giant marijuana plants giving soldiers the munchies | United States | Cannabis News

Other than taking pot shots at Taliban soldiers, forests of massive marijuana plants... more

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Marijuana Dealers/Growers Offer Schwarzenegger One Billion Dollars | United States | Cannabis News

August 6 -- A coalition of California marijuana growers and dealers has offered Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger one billion dollars to solve the current state budget crisis.
The group, calling itself Let Us Pay Taxes makes the offer through its web site LetUsPayTaxes.com . The offer comes at a time when the California legislature is deadlocked on a new budget and California has stopped issuing checks for vitally needed social services. Legislators are currently arguing over which programs will be cut in order to balance the budget.
"It is ridiculous that California can't pay its bills," said spokesman Clifford Schaffer. "It is a tragedy that they will cut badly needed services and programs such as medical care for the elderly and prison drug treatment when the money to fund all these programs and more is there and available. Everyone who is currently waiting for a check from the state should be enraged at this foolishness."

Regulation and taxation of marijuana could produce six billion dollars in additional tax revenue, according to economic studies linked from their web site LetUsPayTaxes.com. In addition, it could save up to ten billion dollars in enforcement costs. "That is a conservative estimate," said Schaffer. "By other estimates, the revenues could be five times that. The economists are with us all the way on this one. Marijuana prohibition is an economic disaster."

"Drug Czar John Walters is being dishonest when he says that marijuana money goes to criminals and terrorists. The only reason any of that money goes to criminals or terrorists is because of the prohibition that Walters supports," said Schaffer.

"Marijuana prohibition makes criminals rich just like alcohol prohibition did. The criminals are now so rich and powerful that they can challenge the legitimate governments of their own countries. There is no reason to send billions of dollars per year to foreign criminal gangs when patriotic Americans make the best products in the world. There is no reason to suffer such a huge foreign trade deficit when that money could be providing jobs and funding badly needed services right here in the USA."

Let Us Pay Taxes calls upon all US citizens to sign their petition at their web site http://LetUsPayTaxes.com and press the issue with their lawmakers. "Take the money, please," said Schaffer. "These people want to contribute. Now it is up to our politicians to tell us why they want to send those billions to foreign criminal gangs rather than to their own voters."
August 6 -- A coalition of California marijuana growers and dealers has offered... more

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Holy smoke! Police find cannabis in nunnery | Europe | Cannabis News

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek Orthodox nunnery was turned into a marijuana plantation by... more

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Chasing down brain tumor wildfires - The Boston Globe

CHICAGO - When the world's top specialists in removing and treating brain tumors talk about surgery, they never utter the word cure.

That's because a brain tumor is much like a wildfire, always seeking new territory to conquer. An operation can douse the hottest part of the inferno, but doctors know that dangerous embers remain behind.

As a result, patients such as Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose malignant tumor was excised Monday by physicians at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, must endure radiation and chemotherapy in an attempt to neutralize stray cancer cells.

"These tumors are very aggressive," said Dr. Mark Gilbert, a neuro-oncologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "They cannot be treated by surgery alone."

A statement released yesterday by Kennedy's office said that the senior senator from Massachusetts had experienced no complications from his operation and "has been walking the hallways, spending time with family, and actively keeping up with the news of the day." The statement predicted he would leave Duke in about a week.

At the same time Kennedy was undergoing surgery Monday, brain tumor specialists here were revealing their latest research at an international scientific meeting of cancer doctors, showing modest progress in treating brain cancer and advances in understanding its underlying biology. Specialists debate how much surgery can extend patients' lives, but studies presented this week and previously have shown that a three-year-old form of chemotherapy, when combined with surgery and radiation, adds at least several months to the lives of patients.

Once the surgeon's work is finished, follow-up treatment proceeds on two fronts: in the region where the tumor once sat and in more distant corners of the brain.

Radiation, carefully calibrated and narrowly targeted, aims at the tumor bed and, usually, a 2-centimeter ring around it.

"So radiation provides some control of the tumor at and around where the original tumor was, but still there are individual tumor cells that might have migrated much further out" in the brain, said Dr. Deepa Subramaniam, director of the Brain Tumor Center at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington. "And it is those cells that are targeted by chemotherapy."

A few weeks after surgery is completed, patients begin receiving radiation and chemotherapy simultaneously. Typically, the course of radiation lasts six weeks, with five treatments each week.

Patients also start a daily dose of chemotherapy called temozolomide, which comes in a pill. Once radiation is finished, patients continue taking the pills for at least the next six months. The doses become less frequent, with pills taken on only five consecutive days in each month.

Unlike some other forms of chemotherapy, temozolomide usually does not cause patients' hair to fall out or severe bouts of nausea. Continued... http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/06/04/chasing_down_brain_tumor_wildfires?page=2CHICAGO - When the world's top specialists in removing and treating brain tumors... more

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Cannabis News

United States, Canadian and United Kingdom. Updated daily with with interesting and... more

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Cannabis news from Canna Zine

Adult cannabis consumers create a legal association.

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Welcome to Jack Herer's Home on the Web

This is the book that started the hemp revolution. More than 600,000 copies have been... more

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Seattle Hempfest | August 16-17, 2008

The Seattle Hempfest is founded in the belief that the public is better served when... more

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Website of the Legalise Cannabis UK Campaigns

Whatever politicians and the police might try to tell you, cannabis is not really a... more

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Industrial hemp information and advocacy - Vote Hemp

Vote Hemp is a national, single-issue, nonprofit organization dedicated to the... more

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Hemp makes ethanol and biodiesel too

"Hemp is the term commonly employed for the industrial (non-drug) usage of the... more

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Jack Herer explains why hemp is the #1 Natural resource

The godfather of the hemp movement, talks within the picture window on the pages of... more

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JACK HERER ON HEMP

A clip from the 2000 documentary THESE ARE NOT SEPARATE ISSUES, Jack Herer speaks out... more

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The Cannabis Consumers Campaign

The goal of the Cannabis Consumers Campaign is to create public policy changes by: 1)... more

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John Conyers wants DEA to stop busting California medical marijuana users

Slate posted a letter from John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House judiciary... more

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Pot is burning issue on Mendocino ballot

Marijuana is so ubiquitous here that everyone, from schoolteachers to kids, can tell... more

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Marijuana Orgasms and the Oregonian Newspaper

Dr. Phil Leveque Salem-News.com When I chose this title I thought I was being a smart... more

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