Archive for June 12th, 2012

White House softball team smoked by pot lobby’s bats

While the ONDCP’s softball team always seems to have something else to do whenever they’re scheduled to play the powerful One Hitters, STOTUS (Softball Team Of The U.S.) at least showed up, although they lost 25-3.

“The One Hitters enjoyed slugging it out with the White House,” said Aaron Houston, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the group that sponsors the team. “Hopefully we can play them again when they aren’t totally absorbed in work.”

We almost missed the pun hidden there. Hint: David Maraniss’s latest book revealed that President Obama’s high-school pot smoking philosophy included “total absorption” of the precious weed.

Way to go, One-Hitters!

The Supreme Court for the state of Michigan has ruled that city election officials cannot prevent Detroit voters from deciding on a municipal ballot measure that seeks to remove marijuana possession penalties for those age 21 or older.

The Court refused to review an appeal brought by the Detroit City Clerk’s office and the Detroit Election Commission that sought to strike down the proposed ballot question, sponsored by the group Coalition for a Safer Detroit.

In 2010, the Coalition collected over 6,000 signatures from registered voters to place the measure on that year’s electoral ballot. The vote failed to take place, however, because election officials at the time alleged that the proposal conflicted with state anti-drug laws.

This past February, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Detroit election officials acted illegally in 2010 when they denied voters the opportunity to decide on the issue. “[Plaintiff[s] had a clear legal right to the placement of the initiative on the ballot,” the court ruled.

The Supreme Court’s ruling upholds the Appellate court’s decision. Detroit voters will now decide on the measure this November.

More information about this campaign is available here.

Rasmussen: 61% in Colorado Favor Legalizing, Regulating Marijuana

… and it’s in an important Presidential election state.

Here are the marijuana-based questions that they asked in the poll:

5* Should it be a crime for people to smoke marijuana in their own home or the home of a friend?

6* Would you favor or oppose legalizing marijuana and regulating it in the similar manner to the way alcohol and tobacco cigarettes are regulated today?

7* Suppose that marijuana was legalized and regulated so that it was illegal for people under 18 to buy, that those who drove while under the influence of marijuana received strict penalties, and that smoking marijuana was banned in public places like restaurants. With such regulations in place, would you favor or oppose legalizing and regulating marijuana?

8* Suppose that, if marijuana was legalized and regulated, it could be sold only in pharmacies. Drug dealers who sold marijuana on the street would be subject to strict jail sentences. Would that reduce the number of drug dealers in the country?

9* If marijuana was legalized and regulated, but could be sold only in pharmacies, would you favor or oppose legalizing and regulating marijuana?

I think you have to be a subscriber to get the breakdowns of responses.

24-Year-Old Gets 3 Life Terms in Prison for Witnessing a Drug Deal: The Ugly Truth of Mandatory Drug Sentencing

At the age of 24, Aaron was sentenced to three life terms for his role in a cocaine deal. That’s effectively three times the sentence imposed upon Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square in 2010. Aaron was a student and football player at Southern University in Baton Rouge. He’d never been arrested. In 1992, he made the mistake of being present for the sale of nine kilograms of cocaine and the conversion of one kilo of coke to crack. Aaron would have earned $1,500 for introducing the buyer and seller. He never actually touched the drugs.

It’s a good article, written by someone else who is serving an exceptionally long time in prison for a small drug crime.

It points out the added injustice when the judge and pretty much everyone involved in the case thinks that the prisoner should be released, but there’s no mechanism to do so when Presidents fear to use their clemency power.