DrugSense Weekly - May 23, 2008 #550

DrugSense Weekly - Domestic News- Policy - May 23, 2008 #550

The week was filled with ironies in drug news. One media outlet wonders if other media outlets aren't being negative enough in their portrayal of cannabis.

The next one is kind of tough to follow, but it seems to be happening: One formal opponent to a citizen initiative that modifies marijuana law in an Idaho town has announced he will actually defend the initiative against a lawsuit from his fellow opponents. How vigorous will that defense be?

A former high-level political candidate from North Carolina details illegal drug use in the upper echelons of his state's society. And, one U.S. congressional committee suggests drug violence will be reduced by pulling more money and weapons from the drug war pork barrel to militarize the U.S.-Mexico border.

DrugSense Weekly - Law Enforcement and Prisons - May 23, 2008 #550

The murder of Rachel Hoffman is raising questions outside of Tallahassee about the practice of using untrained police informants in drug investigations, while the local community continues to react to the tragedy. In New York, another deadly tragedy and another reminded that cannabis may not be lethal, but cannabis prohibition is. And baby boomers who are settling into retirement and even those a bit older, watch out: You now fit the profile of drug mule when driving on interstates.

DrugSense Weekly - Cannabis and Hemp- - May 23, 2008 #550

We can add Ohio to the list of states considering medicinal cannabis law reform, however timid.

Canadians have moved on to the question of where medicinal cannabis may be consumed.

Washingtonians are pondering how much medicinal cannabis patients should be permitted to grow and possess.

Formerly resource-based communities in British Columbia are coming to grips with their dependence on cannabis revenues to maintain their economies.

DrugSense Weekly - International News - May 23, 2008 #550

As the days count down to June 30 - when the legal exemption for the supervised injection center Insite in Vancouver, Canada expires - supporters are becoming more emphatic. This week, retired police from Vancouver and around the world plead with the rightist Harper government for permission to continue to operate. Said one ex-cop: "Put quite simply, if it's kept open, lives will be saved. If it's shut, people will be condemned to certain death." While federal Health Minister Tony Clement says the Harper government is keeping an open mind, his office this week provided "rebuttals to arguments in favour of Insite." Also last week, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan joined calls for the Province of British Columbia to take over funding for Insite.

Prohibitionists' escalation of violence in Mexico is backfiring. President Calderon's use of increasing military power, has been answered by yet more violence as cartels jockey for market share. Which is not to say die-hard prohibitionists will admit it. This week politicians in the U.S. haggled over how many hundreds of millions of dollars would be taken from U.S. taxpayers, and given to the Mexican government, ostensibly to fight drugs there. Opponents of the larger drug prohibition package cite human rights abuses; supporters accuse others of "abandoning" Mexico by giving only $350 million to Mexican drug warriors, instead of $500 million.

In the U.K., a national propaganda campaign ("National Tackling Drugs Week") has created a flurry of sensational "big bust" articles for tabloids there. Many papers, like the Evening Chronicle, have dropped pretense of objectivity, and campaign "for drugs awareness and crime prevention in our War on Drugs initiative." Following the 2005 heroin overdose of a promising football star, the Evening Chronicle "launched" its own campaign to "catch dealers." Busts of small cannabis growers have been given prominence in the U.K. news media during "Tackling Drugs Week."