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  Richard Lake 9:21 pm on June 30, 2010 Permalink  

  Mexico: Calderon Calls on Mexicans to Unite Against Crime Gangs 

  Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jun 2010
  Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
  Page: A3
  Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
  Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/bc7El3Yo
  Author: Ken Ellingwood, Reporting from Mexico City
  Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
  Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

  MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

  CALDERON CALLS ON MEXICANS TO UNITE AGAINST CRIME GANGS

  Facing widespread dismay over the assassination of a leading
  gubernatorial candidate, President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday urged
  fellow Mexicans to join hands against the forces of organized crime
  that he said were to blame.

  The killing of Rodolfo Torre on Monday in northern Mexico has added
  to Calderon’s political headaches as voters are to head to the polls
  Sunday in 14 states to pick a dozen governors and hundreds of mayors
  and lawmakers.

  “United, Mexicans can and will overcome a common enemy that today
  threatens to destroy not only our tranquillity but our democratic
  institutions,” Calderon said in a broadcast message. “It’s in the
  divisions between Mexicans where criminals find spaces and
  vulnerabilities to harm Mexico.”

  [snip]

  Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n505.a03.html

   
• 

  Richard Lake 2:39 pm on June 30, 2010 Permalink  

  Mexico: How Juarez Became the World’s Deadliest City 

  Pubdate: Thu, 1 Jul 2010
  Source: Boston Review (MA)
  Webpage: http://bostonreview.net/BR35.4/hill.php
  Copyright: 2010 Boston Review
  Contact: editors@bostonreview.net
  Author: Sarah Hill
  Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Juarez

  The War for Drugs

  HOW JUAREZ BECAME THE WORLD’S DEADLIEST CITY

  In April 2007 Ciudad Juarez-the sprawling Mexican border city girding
  El Paso, Texas-won a Foreign Direct Investment magazine award for
  “North American large cities of the future.” With an automotive
  workforce rivaling Detroit’s and hundreds of export-processing
  plants, businesses in Juarez employed 250,000 factory workers, and
  were responsible for nearly one-fifth of the value of U.S.-Mexican
  trade. The trans-border region of 2.4 million people had one of the
  hemisphere’s highest growth rates.

  Just three years later, as many as 125,000 factory jobs and 400,000
  residents have vanished. More than ten thousand small businesses have
  closed, and vast stretches of residential and commercial areas are
  abandoned. It is no surprise that the Great Recession temporarily
  shuttered factories and forced layoffs in a city intimately tied to
  American consumers. Mexico’s economy contracted by 5.6 percent in
  2009, far worse than the United States’s “negative growth” of about 2 percent.

  But Juarez has suffered from much more than recession. Its murder
  rate now makes it the deadliest city in the world, including cities
  in countries at war with foreign enemies. On average, there are more
  than seven homicides each day, many in broad daylight. Some 10,000
  combat-ready federal forces are now stationed in Juarez; their
  armored vehicles roll up and down the same arteries as semis tightly
  packed with HDTVs bound for the United States. Factory managers wake
  up in El Paso-one of the safest U.S. cities-and go to work in the
  plants of a city bathed in blood.

  [snip]

  Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n504.a04.html

   
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  Matt 2:32 pm on June 30, 2010 Permalink  

  Bush Crony Working for Obama Seeks to Undermine Medical Marijuana Industry 

  By Mason Tvert, Executive director and co-founder, SAFER

  According to an e-mail just unearthed by Complete Colorado, a Bush holdover in the U.S. Drug Czar’s office is fishing for information that links crime to the growing number of medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado.

  The e-mail is addressed to Colorado’s chief medical officer, Ned Calonge, at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and it appears to be authored by an Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) research assistant on behalf of former Bush (and current Obama) drug warrior Kevin Sabet.

  • URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mason-tvert/bush-crony-working-for-ob_b_629890.html
   
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  Richard Lake 12:32 pm on June 30, 2010 Permalink  

  US MI: Medical Marijuana Patient Fired, Now Suing 

  Pubdate: Wed, 30 Jun 2010
  Source: Battle Creek Enquirer (MI)
  Webpage: http://mapinc.org/url/8bAyYf6G
  Copyright: 2010 Battle Creek Enquirer
  Contact: http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/customerservice/contactus.html
  Author: Elizabeth Willis, The Enquirer
  Referenced: Casias v. Wal-Mart

  http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/casias_complaint_6_24_10.pdf

  Cited: Wal-Mart https://www.walmartethics.com/
  Cited: ACLU of Michigan http://www.aclumich.org/
  Referenced: Michigan law http://drugsense.org/url/8mvr7sW8
  Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Joseph+Casias
  Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Michigan+medical+marijuana

  MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENT FIRED, NOW SUING

  Battle Creek Man Taking Wal-Mart to Court

  On the steps of the Calhoun County Justice Center, Joseph Casias said
  Tuesday it was unfair of his former Battle Creek employer to fire him
  for legally using marijuana to treat his chronic pain.

  On Casias’ behalf, state and national branches of the American Civil
  Liberties Union along with St. Joseph attorney Daniel Grow filed a
  lawsuit Tuesday morning in Calhoun County Circuit Court against
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc. alleging his wrongful termination in November.

  Casias, 30, had undergone a routine drug screening after spraining
  his knee on the job. He was not under the influence of marijuana at
  the time, according to the lawsuit, but the urine screen later
  revealed the Calhoun County man had used marijuana sometime in the
  previous days or weeks.

  He then told his employers he was registered in Michigan to use
  marijuana for chronic pain caused by an inoperable brain tumor and
  previous sinus cancer treatments, ACLU spokeswoman Rana Elmir said.
  At first his bosses told him that was fine, but shortly thereafter
  terminated his employment.

  “I feel like I’m being treated like a felon,” Casias said.

  [snip]

  Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n503.a08.html

   
• 

  Richard Lake 11:48 am on June 29, 2010 Permalink  

  US CA: NAACP Signs Onto Pot Legalization Measure 

  Pubdate: Tue, 29 Jun 2010
  Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
  Webpage: http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_15395193
  Copyright: 2010 Bay Area News Group
  Contact: http://www.insidebayarea.com/feedback/tribune
  Author: Josh Richman, Oakland Tribune
  Cited: California NAACP http://www.californianaacp.org/
  Cited: Proposition 19 http://www.taxcannabis.org/
  Referenced: Targeting Blacks for Marijuana http://mapinc.org/url/btjAQH1v
  Referenced: Marijuana Arrests and California’s Drug War

  http://mapinc.org/url/gf9Qvr0S

  Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Tax+Cannabis+Act

  NAACP SIGNS ONTO POT LEGALIZATION MEASURE

  The state NAACP is expressing “unconditional support” for the
  November ballot measure to legalize marijuana, continuing proponents’
  framing of it as a civil rights issue.

  “We are joining a growing number of medical professionals, labor
  organizations, law enforcement authorities, local municipalities, and
  approximately 56 percent of the public, in saying that it is time to
  decriminalize the use of marijuana,” state NAACP President Alice
  Huffman said in a news release Monday. “There is a strong racial
  component that must be considered when we investigate how the
  marijuana laws are applied to people of color.”

  The measure, Control and Tax Cannabis Initiative 2010, was designated
  Monday as Proposition 19.

  [snip]

  Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n499.a04.html

   
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  Matt 10:09 am on June 29, 2010 Permalink  

  Marc Emery: U.S. Federal Prison Blog #5 

  Free from 21 days of isolation

  By Marc Emery

  (Marc Emery’s U.S. federal prison blog #5 originally ran here on the Cannabis Culture Web site.)

  At 6:00pm on Thursday, June 24th, I was finally released from solitary confinement after three weeks of isolation.

  The Disciplinary Hearing Officer was very gracious (in so much as I was in solitary for 21 days) and agreed that the phone use infraction – the podcast to supporters that was never released – was minor in the big picture. He made it a “397″ which involves no loss of good time (the discount of 15% a year on my sentence). He also said “Everyone here knows you are famous and it was a shout-out to your supporters that was not harmful, and we know you didn’t criticize the Federal Detention Centre, but you can’t do third-party political lobbying over the phone.” So lesson learned. I don’t have phone access until July 25th, but at least I can “email” Jodie through CorrLinks and have visits in person, instead of the cruel “video visits” they’ve recently designated for inmates in solitary confinement.

  • URL: http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/24072
   
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  Matt 4:28 pm on June 28, 2010 Permalink  

  Aaron Houston: Help Us Stop Drug Testing 

   
• 

  Matt 11:07 am on June 28, 2010 Permalink
  Tags: Video (53)   

  Did You Know: War on Drugs Edition 

   
• 

  Matt 10:26 am on June 28, 2010 Permalink  

  Experts call for new course on illegal drugs in fight against HIV 

  VIENNA (June 28, 2010): A team of experts and health organisations on Monday called for a scientific approach to illicit drugs, arguing that their criminalisation has been costly and ineffective and has fuelled a high HIV infection rate among intravenous drug users. The experts made the appeal in the lead-up to the 18th International AIDS Conference, to be held July 18-23 in the Austrian capital Vienna. They are launching a global signature drive for a declaration on a “science-based” approach to illegal drugs.

  “As scientists, we are committed to raising our collective voice to promote evidence-based approaches to illicit drug policy that start by recognizing that addiction is a medical condition, not a crime,” Julio Montaner, conference chairman and president of the International AIDS Society, said in a statement.

  The failure by law enforcement to prevent the availability of illegal drugs where there is demand “is now unambiguous,” the so- called Vienna Declaration says. The declaration – drafted by 32 medical doctors and leading specialists – appeals to governments, the United Nations and other international organisations to review the effectiveness of current drug policies, increase “evidence-based” drug addiction treatments and abolish compulsory drug treatments that violate human rights.
  The declaration also calls for an increase in funding for drug treatment and “harm reduction” measures.

  The consequences of failed drug-enforcement efforts are manifold, the declaration says, pointing to HIV epidemics fuelled by the unavailability of sterile needles, HIV outbreaks among prisoners and record incarceration rates in many countries.

  The massive market for illicit drugs, worth some 320 billion dollars annually, has also destabilised entire countries, such as Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan. Outside sub-Saharan Africa, intravenous drug use accounts for roughly one in three new cases of HIV, the declaration says. In some areas where HIV is spreading most rapidly, such as Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as many as 80% of those infected with HIV are intravenous drug users.

  Alternative approaches to illicit drug use – such as those implemented in the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and other countries – have proven effective, conference organisers said

  • Website: http://www.viennadeclaration.com/
   
• 

  Matt 10:40 pm on June 27, 2010 Permalink  

  Drug and Health 

  June 26 marks International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. According to World Drug Report 2010 by the UN, drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets. To better understand the current situation on drug use around the world, we have ….

  Guests:

  Jack Cole, Executive director of LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
  Prof. Dr. Liu Renwen，Director of the Department of Criminal Law with Law Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
  Prof. Lu Lin, Director of National Institute of Drug Dependence, Peking University Health Science Center

  • URL: http://english.cri.cn/8706/2010/06/25/481s579172.htm