Jeremiah Vandermeer

Jeremiah Vandermeer

CANNABIS CULTURE - Bill Maher criticized President Barack Obama over his policies on marijuana legalization this week on HBO's Real Time. Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens and Mos Def discuss the President's recent comments poking fun at Americans who favor legalization.

Smoking pot doesn’t cause schizophrenia, but marijuana as an issue sure gives our political system the symptoms. We have just elected our third president in a row who at least tried marijuana in early adulthood, yet it remains illegal.

WASHINGTON — Calling the US criminal justice system "a national disgrace," US Senators urged for a top-to-bottom review with an eye on reforms aimed at reducing America's massive prison population.

Bill C-15 is a government Bill calling for mandatory minimum sentencing for drug crimes, including the possession of one marijuana plant if it is deemed to be for the purpose of trafficking. Libby Davies and the NDP oppose this Bill. Mandatory minimums have been an expensive failure in the United States, divert needed resources from prevention, treatment, and harm reduction measures, and further criminalize what must be recognized as a public health issue.
Activism

CANNABIS CULTURE - CNN News mainstay Larry King will discuss marijuana legalization tonight at 9pm ET with Montell Williams, Stephen Baldwin, and Charles Lynch, owner of a California medical marijuana dispensary busted by the DEA. Though medical marijuana is legal in the state of California, Lynch is facing up to 100 years in a federal prison.

Mexico and its wave of prohibition-related violence were front and center in Washington this week as the Obama administration unveiled its "comprehensive response and commitment" to US-Mexico border security and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Mexico to preach renewed support in the fight against the powerful drug trafficking organizations, but also to enunciate a mea culpa for the US role in the bloody situation.
Medical

A bill that allows the use of medical marijuana passed the House and is on its way to the Senate then, if successful there, to a governor who might have some concerns about signing it into law. The House passed the bill 234-138 in an active day in the legislature that also saw the House repeal the death penalty.
1 … 360 361 362 363 364 … 381