tagged w/ Decriminalization
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Mexican President Felipe Calderon, locked in a bloody battle with drug cartels, wants to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of street drugs in a plan likely to irk Washington.
Calderon, a conservative in power nearly two years, sent a proposal to Congress on Thursday that would scrap the penalties for drugs including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, opium and marijuana.
"What we are seeking is to not treat an addict as a criminal, but rather as a sick person and give them psychological and medical treatment," said Sen. Alejandro Gonzalez, head of the Senate's justice committee.
Under Calderon's plan, people carrying up to 2 grams (0.07 ounces) of marijuana or opium, half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin or 40 milligrams of methamphetamine would face no criminal charges.
It would also give Mexican states the power to try drug dealers in local courts instead of at the federal level.
Reviving a similar effort by his predecessor, Calderon aims to free up police to hunt for dealers and smugglers. But the plan could run into opposition in largely conservative Mexico as well as in the United States.
In a separate proposal, the president asked the Senate to shake up Mexico's notoriously inept and often corrupt police.
Calderon said poor training and a lack of coordination between forces are hindering efforts to rein in rampant drug violence and organized crime.
"They are at the limit in terms of not sharing intelligence in crime fighting, something which eventually means a lack of organization in the state's capacity to deal with the crime phenomenon," he said.
Some analysts say that up to half of Mexico's police could be in the pay of drug cartels, which offer bribes that dwarf the paltry wages of the average officer.
Former president Vicente Fox introduced a drug decriminalization measure in 2006 but ditched it after Washington objected and critics on both sides of the border said it could lure "drug tourists" from the United States.
Drug use is less common among young people in Mexico than in the United States or Europe. But consumption is creeping up with the growth of the middle class and as tighter border controls mean more cocaine stays in the country.
Calderon has deployed thousands of troops to clamp down on the drug gangs that shuttle Colombian cocaine over Mexico's northern border. But cartel violence has soared as a result, killing some 3,000 people this year.Mexican President Felipe Calderon, locked in a bloody battle with drug cartels, wants... more
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John McCain:
“I do not approve of the medical use of marijuana—I never have, and I never will. I believe there are other ways of relieving that pain and suffering.”
John McCain:
“I do not approve of the medical use of marijuana—I... more
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What is Law Enforcement Smoking To Oppose Question 2? [Decriminalization of Marijuana]
All the suits who make a living — monetarily, politically and otherwise — off the criminal marijuana laws were there the other day.
There must have been 30 of them. Standing on the steps of the New Bedford Superior Court like a phalanx of armed guards, ready to protect the public against the enemy.
Protect us against what? Why, those horrible marijuana laws, the ones that if we don't keep in place, everyone in Massachusetts under 18 will soon be heading for the corner drug dealer. As if any kid who wants to doesn't do that now.
[Massachusetts possession laws are] the same laws that 11 other states have already eliminated (some of them as long ago as the 1970s) with little to no change in the rates of drug use.
You know the kind of places where they've decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, exotic places like Maine and Ohio. But don't go downeast on vacation — those Maine drug gangs are out of control!
Other states that have decriminalized marijuana include such libertine hotbeds as Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Nebraska and Minnesota.
But there they stood the other day, Bristol and Barnstable counties' finest, all the folks employed by this big, big government business we call the War on Drugs. They as much as warned that we could become like China during the opium wars if those marijuana penalties are loosened.
These are the folks who are currently in charge of this so-called battle against drugs, the war that the country has failed to win for half a century. They were competing with each other for most alarmist comment of the day.
"This will lead to more violence," said Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter, dismissing out of hand the views of many mainstream citizens that prosecuting marijuana possession is both unreasonable and prohibitively expensive.
Mr. Sutter is nothing if not determined to prove he's tough on crime.
"This ridiculous initiative would put our children and young people in dangerous situations" with violent marijuana dealers, he intoned.
And "I don't want to hear," he said, those "specious" and "bogus" arguments that marijuana is like alcohol. Alcohol, he informed the media event, can have health benefits. And tobacco? Why, that takes a long time to do damage, he informed.
Say it ain't so.
Not to be outdone, Fall River Mayor Bob Correia trotted out the time-tested "gateway" argument.
"Marijuana," he said, is "the one they start our children off with!"
Ah, the children. It's always the children.
So on went the show, speaker after speaker pointing out that hard drug users are also marijuana users and that they inhabit a violent economy.
So what? These hoods are also alcohol users, and maybe a lot of them like pizza, too.
The only guy to bring a modicum of reality to the proceedings was Barnstable County Sheriff Jim Cummings. He sounded as if he knew he was trapped in a politically-correct soap box but dared not get out.
"This morning, in the Barnstable County correctional facility, no one there was serving time for 1 ounce or less of marijuana," he said.
The sheriff was conceding that no one even prosecutes for 1 ounce or less of marijuana now! But he quickly slipped back into the gateway argument, saying it's just "common sense" that decriminalizing marijuana sends the wrong message about other DRUGS!
The committee in November is putting an outrageous question before the people. "Wouldn't it make sense to make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine?"
All the blue-shirts in the world speaking authoritatively won't change the fact that the 50-year drug war has failed relentlessly.
The simple fact is — as was proven during equally crime-ridden Prohibition — you can't enforce a law the public is determined to ignore.
Contact Jack Spillane
at jspillane@s-t.comWhat is Law Enforcement Smoking To Oppose Question 2? [Decriminalization of Marijuana]... more
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In 96 hours, the government might finally say it will scrap a 148-year-old law dating from British times, which criminalizes gay sex.
It has taken eight long years and much debate for India to get to the stage of even thinking seriously about decriminalizing homosexuality. If Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code were repealed, it would be a giant leap forward for AIDS prevention in a country with one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world.
Gay rights activists say the delay in repealing the law is criminal. On Thursday, the government will argue its case in the Delhi High Court.
Though it has been sending mixed messages, activists say they take heart from the health minister's recent statement that the law needs changing. Speaking at the international conference on AIDS in Mexico City last month, Anbumani Ramadoss had said, Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalizes men who have sex with men, must go.
Ashok Row Kavi, founder of India's first gay group Humsafar Trust, says, Gays are the largest group vulnerable to AIDS. But the government doesn't seem to understand this. Section 377 is one of the main reasons India has an estimated 2.35 million people classed as vulnerable to AIDS but who may not get treated. In 96 hours, the government might finally say it will scrap a 148-year-old law dating... more
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Rama Yade, the French minister of human rights and foreign affairs, has confirmed that she will appeal at the United Nations for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality. Since France is holding the Presidency of the European Union until the end of 2008, Yade will represent all EU member states when presenting her plea at the UN General Assembly.
Earlier this year it was reported that the French initiative on decrminalisation will take the form of a solemn declaration from UN states, rather than a vote in the UN on the matter. However, Ms Yade said yesterday that France will submit a draft declaration at the UN General Assembly in December.
More than 80 countries outlaw same-sex relations in all circumstances. The maximum punishments range from a few years jail to life imprisonment. In nine countries, or regions of countries, the mandatory punishment for homosexuality is death by execution.Rama Yade, the French minister of human rights and foreign affairs, has confirmed that... more
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Woman supplied LSD to a partygoer, has been freed from jail.
A Watford woman who supplied LSD-laced chocolates to a partygoer, who was then left paralysed due to a drug-fuelled fall, has been freed from jail.
After eating Maltesers laced with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, Christopher Marlow, 25, from Heathfield, East Sussex, ripped the skin and hair from his head in a bid to "free demons".
He then broke his neck and spine after falling 30ft from a tree.
Mr Marlow was left paralysed from the chest down after the devastating fall at a friend's party.
Earlier this year, Lisa Hillyer, 28, of Vicarage Road, Watford, was jailed for handing out the hallucinogenic chocolates at the party.
She was jailed for two years on April 25, after pleading guilty to possession of LSD with intent to supply, as well as charged of supplying LSD and possession of LSD.
Mr Justice MacKay, sitting with Mr Justice King at London's Criminal Appeal Court, today freed her after quashing her sentence.
Instead they imposed a 12-month community order with a drugs treatment programme.
The court heard on the day of the accident Mr Marlow was discovered writhing in pain at the bottom of the tree.
Doctors found he had broken his neck, four ribs, his foot and lumbar vertebrae in his spine.
The 25-year-old is likely to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Hillyer, the court was told, had struggled with drug addiction herself before being jailed and had been undergoing a residential treatment programme.
Mr Justice King, giving the judgment of the court, said it was "in the public interest and in her own interest" that Hillyer be freed now so that she is able to resume her rehabilitation from addiction.
He said: "Her actions had a tragic outcome for the person to whom she supplied the LSD, although she had not done so for profit.
"But we have concluded that we are now in a position to temper what would otherwise be the appropriate course with some mercy."
He concluded: "She will be released in order to embark on a rehabilitation programme." Woman supplied LSD to a partygoer, has been freed from jail.
A Watford woman who... more
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The TV program is titled "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation," but it's unlikely many viewers of network stations will be talking about it.
Of the three local network stations, only one agreed to run the show, produced by the American Civil Liberties Union and hosted by travel writer Rick Steves.
KOMO-TV turned down the ACLU this week; KIRO-TV never got back to the group at all. KING-TV ran the program in March — but only at 1 in the morning.
ACLU produced the video to engage people in a serious conversation about whether marijuana laws are good and working well, or are actually harming society, said Alison Holcomb, ACLU of Washington's marijuana-education project director.
"Our frustration is that we see plenty of prime-time TV shows depicting marijuana use in a humorous light, yet when we produce a half-hour program designed to take a serious look at our marijuana laws and their impact on our communities, we can't get any airtime."
Steves, the host of a panel discussion on the video, has been an outspoken advocate of decriminalization of marijuana and will speak Aug. 16-17 at Seattle Hempfest.
Producing the program cost more than $100,000, partly for studio time at KOMO, where Steves moderated a panel of local and national experts with an attentive audience nodding approval in the background.
But the heads of the TV stations, when asked to sell airtime, weren't so receptive.
Jim Clayton, vice president and general manager at KOMO, the ABC affiliate, refused to sell time. The show, he said, promoted marijuana use.
"The last I checked, it's illegal," Clayton said. "We don't use our public airways to promote illegal things."
Monday, Clayton met with ACLU Director Kathleen Taylor and others. "They said, 'How do we generate discussion?' " Clayton recalled. "I said, 'Get it on the ballot.' "
KIRO-TV, the CBS affiliate, did not respond to requests from the ACLU.
At KING-TV, Pat Costello, vice president and station manager, said the video was a "very well-done program" that was "fairly balanced" and outlined the arguments "pretty fairly, given that it's done by a group that has an objective."
However, the show delivered "an adult message," he said. "We don't want to send the wrong message to kids that might be impressionable."
Locked into network programming slots, and not wanting to run the show during hours when children might watch, he said, left the 1 a.m. slot. In March, the show ran 11 times on KING and its affiliate, KONG, at 1 a.m. Holcomb said KING leaders told the ACLU that they were concerned about the business impact of running the show in an earlier slot, particularly about reaction from advertisers.
Holcomb said the turndown by KOMO was particularly troubling, because the ACLU had repeatedly shared the program script with KOMO officials, telling them they planned to buy time. They were not told of any concerns, she said.
Comcast, which runs the show on its "On Demand" service, has reported no complaints, Holcomb said.
But there's a big difference having to actively seek out a show and having it on a channel a viewer might stumble upon while channel-surfing, Clayton said.
"We're a federally licensed entity. People welcome us into their homes by flipping a switch. [The ACLU officials] said the thing is doing really well on Comcast On Demand. Of course it would. You say, 'Oh, I want to find out more about the marijuana I'm smoking right now.' "The TV program is titled "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation," but... more
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President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner takes a stand on cracking down on drug traffickers but wants to allow the personal use of recreational drugs. Not quite sure how she plans on getting the product to her peeps without traffickers however. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner takes a stand on cracking down on drug... more
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Barney Frank on CNN
Ron Paul on Fox News
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Our drug war has been a failure comparable to prohibition. It's time to rethink our policies.Our drug war has been a failure comparable to prohibition. It's time to rethink... more
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At a federal level. Long overdue? Hold your breath? What do you think about the decriminalization of marijuana?At a federal level. Long overdue? Hold your breath? What do you think about the... more
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