Politics

Welcome to Los Angeles, the city that can't quite get it together about medical marijuana. Voters love it, politicians shy away from acknowledging that it has redeeming qualities for patients -- well except one, thanks for being brave Councilman Bill Rosendahl and glad to hear that your medical marijuana use is helping your life.

 

Ups and downs in medical cannabis have been the norm for Los Angeles in recent years with pre-interim control ordinances, threats of bans, bans, repeals of bans, court rulings, council members dropping dimes on collectives in their areas to the DEA, closings, openings and now we have city council members ready to do something.

 

The new idea? Create a monopoly.

 

Measure D will create a limited number of medical marijuana collectives in the city - right around 138 for a city of 3,800,000 people. The 138 come from registering in 2007 and 2011 with the city.

 

In the measure's logic, somehow the first collectives to open must be the best ones. If you came a day late to providing patient access to medical marijuana, tough luck, we already have enough caring people in the city.

 

The more reasonable Measure F sets the bar higher for sensible regulation and taxation along with medicine testing, background checks and auditing of shops. Measure D does not require testing of medicine -- a critical component for those with suppressed immune systems. Measure F lets more collectives stay open than Measure D and in a city as large as Los Angeles, patients deserve access that's better than what D is offering.

 

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

During a Wednesday House oversight hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder that overwhelmingly focused on the invasive government search of Associated Press phone logs and the IRS, one House member took the opportunity to grill Holder on another Department of Justice issue that has provoked criticism from the left. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) tore into Holder over his approach to marijuana, asking why his Justice Department is “continuing to put people in jail,” even as polling shows a majority of Americans believe the plant should not be illegal:

 

One of the greatest threats to liberty has been the government taking people’s liberty for things that people are in favor of. The Pew Research Group shows that 52 percent of people do not think marijuana should be illegal. And yet there are people in jail, and your Justice Department is continuing to put people in jail, for sale, and use, on occasion, of marijuana.

 

That’s something the American public has finally caught up with. It was a cultural lag. And it’s been an injustice for 40 years in this country to take people’s liberty for something that was similar to alcohol. You have continued what is allowing the Mexican cartels power, and the power to make money, ruin Mexico, hurt our country by having a Prohibition in the late 20th and 21st century. We saw it didn’t work in this country in the 20s. We remedied it. This is the time to remedy this Prohibition, and I would hope you would do so.

 

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org

President Barack Obama’s drug czar toed a strict line on marijuana Wednesday, saying federal laws will prevail regardless of state-level efforts to legalize pot.

 

Gil Kerlikowske said enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 — which ranks marijuana as a Schedule One drug alongside heroin, LSD and ecstasy — remains in the hands of the US Department of Justice.

 

“No state, no executive can nullify a statute that has been passed by Congress,” the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy told a National Press Club luncheon.

 

“Let’s be clear: law enforcement officers take an oath of office to uphold federal law and they are going to continue to pursue drug traffickers and drug dealers,” he said.

 

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com

I found this mildly interesting. DEA director Michele Leonhart is testifying before Congress today on the DEA budget. I took a look at her prepared remarks, and was struck by the lack of any reference to what is going on in the United States regarding cannabis.

 

There were three references to marijuana in her speech: a reference to the various kinds of drugs seized in Mexico; a reference to non-medical prescription drug use being second only to marijuana; and a reference to synthetic cannabinoids.

 

Nothing about medical marijuana. Nothing about marijuana legalization efforts. Nothing about Colorado or Washington. Absolute silence.

 

Wonder how much of this is about the White House still not wanting to discuss legalization, and how much from the DEA recognizing that to discuss domestic marijuana today is akin to opening the discussion about the future relevance of the DEA.

 

Source: http://www.drugwarrant.com

VIENNA — The head of the U.N. drug watchdog agency is urging U.S. federal officials to challenge the decriminalization of possessing small amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and over in Washington and Colorado.

 

While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, both states legalized possession of up to an ounce in November and are setting up rules to govern growers, processors and retailers.

 

Raymond Yans of the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board said in a statement Thursday that Washington is obliged to ensure nationwide implementation of a drug convention "to which the United States is party" and which bans recreational marijuana use.

 

The INCB has no enforcement ability.

 

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said last week the Justice Department has not yet decided whether to sue to block the measures.

 

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com