PRO-POT STUDENTS DISCOVER SUPPORT

PRO-POT STUDENTS DISCOVER SUPPORT
by Kelly Whittaker, (Source:Diamondback)
02 May 2006

Maryland
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Students Attend Forum About Looser Pot Punishments

Pro-pot student activists discovered this weekend they have much more support than anticipated in their quest to loosen penalties on marijuana-related offenses, after meeting dozens of other supporters at a conference in New York.

Leaders of the campus' National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for Sensible Drug Policy convened at the Northeast Regional SSDP conference in New Paltz, N.Y., to meet with other students and have information sessions with drug reform leaders to discuss activism tactics on loosening pot policies on campuses.

SSDP president Damien Nichols brought 13 members of his chapter and NORML Terps to take part in the information sessions and social bonding the event offers.

"The conferences have the best and the brightest that drug policy reform has to offer," said Victor Pinho, current leader of NORML Terps.

Of the nine schools that attended the conference, including Brown, Columbia and NYU, this university brought the most representation, incoming SSDP president Stacia Cosner said. The attendees got a chance to attend different "breakout sessions" at which drug reform leaders spoke and members from chapters at different universities had the chance to form support networks.

"We came to the realization that there were many people around to help who feel as strongly as we do about the issue," incoming NORML president Matt Zernhelt said.

The groups' attendance at the event comes on the heels of a recent referendum on the Student Government Association elections ballot asking students if they were in favor of looser marijuana policies on the campus. The referendum passed with 65 percent of voters voting in favor.

Nichols and Pinho, who are both graduating this spring, said attending the conferences early in their college careers cemented their places in drug policy reform. The two also attended the NORML national conference in San Francisco two weeks ago.

"We took the momentum of passing the referendum to New Paltz and San Francisco and talked to some of the greatest minds in drug policy pulling," Pinho said.

The leaders said ever since the referendum to equalize marijuana punishments with those of alcohol was passed during the campus SGA elections in April, there has been increased support from members of both the campus and the drug reform communities. Pinho said activists and lawyers in the area have offered their help with the issue, and some teaching assistants have even asked them to lecture in their sections.

"We learned that there are a lot more people supporting us than you'd think," Cosner said. "There's a lot of influential people involved."

With the passing of the referendum, it is now up to the leaders to pen a reasonable proposal to present to the administration. However, they said they realize it will take a lot of work because the administration is extremely hesitant to consider changing the current policies.

Currently, students found with marijuana on the campus immediately lose their housing and financial aid and could face suspension or mandatory drug testing. Those found with alcohol, however, are first given a warning and community service but must be issued a second offense before their housing is threatened.

"The ball's in our court, it's our turn to present to the university what we believe is an acceptable and fair drug policy," Pinho said. "We know we got kind of quiet after the referendum passed, but don't be discouraged, campus."

Cosner said for the past month the two groups have been working together every day to put together a proposal. Nichols said the leaders will work with members of the administration and the drug reform community to pen a proposal that works.

"The movement's big but we need to grow," Pinho said. "We're calling out to students and faculty all across campus."

Linda Clement, the university's vice president for student affairs, was not available to comment for this story; however, she said last month the administration should strongly consider student opinion on the issue but stressed the potential dangers drugs pose to the campus community.

Zernhelt emphasized he is not discouraged by the administration's hesitance to look into new policies but looks forward to working with university officials to establish a reasonable marijuana policy on the campus.

"Kids would have respect for the administration and police instead of hating them for demonizing the average student for engaging in common behavior," Zernhelt said. "It's a lot of work, but it's worth doing."

Nichols also said the groups want to sit down with the administration to put together an educational approach to drug abuse prevention, instead of just punishing offenders. Pinho said both groups would like to facilitate workshops that would offer help to students with drug-abuse problems.

Currently, Cosner is leading a student advocacy group to hear from victims of the drug policy at the university, and hopes to expand that group once NORML and SSDP move into their new office in the Stamp Student Union's Student Involvement Suite this month. The advocacy group helps students work through the legal baggage that goes along with the campus drug punishments.

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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake
Pubdate: Tue, 02 May 2006
Source: Diamondback, The (U of MD Edu)
Copyright: 2006 Maryland Media, Inc.
Contact: opinion@dbk.umd.edu
Website: http://www.diamondbackonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/758
Author: Kelly Whittaker
Cited: UMD SSDP http://www.ssdpterps.net
Cited: UMD NORML http://www.normlterps.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/NORML (NORML)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?219 (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

IT'S MY PARTY

IT'S MY PARTY
by Carl Wagner, Legalise Cannabis Alliance, (Source:Guardian)
02 May 2006

United Kingdom
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Since 2004 there has been a huge rise in the number of parties registered with the Electoral Commission. So what are these aspiring politicians standing for? Steve Boggan asks six candidates in Thursday's local elections why they are going it alone

Carl Wagner, 47

He is contesting the Avenues ward in Hull for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.

The main reason for me standing is to oppose the increasing appetite for jailing people for using cannabis. There is no rationale for it. To pretend that most people who use cannabis don't benefit and are harmed by it is just nonsense.

I have six children and I find it impossible to explain the reasoning behind Britain's drug policies. Only the other day, a supermarket in Hull was fined UKP80 for selling alcohol to children, but an old woman was fined UKP400 for growing cannabis plants for medicinal purposes.

To argue that cannabis laws are in place to safeguard children is disingenuous. A recent survey for the local paper in Hull showed that 40% of 14- and 15-year-olds smoke cannabis. But when asked how much they were paying for an ounce, respondents said UKP40 or less. The price for good herbal cannabis should be UKP120 an ounce. That means that kids on the streets are being given soap bar, a dangerous, cheap and nasty resin often polluted with coffee, glue or plastics. So society is letting kids smoke that stuff while it turns a blind eye to it. Until this injustice is resolved and I can explain cannabis policy properly to my children, I'll keep on campaigning. When you stand for a single issue, you have a much better chance of getting your message across.

Voters today believe that politicians are inherently corrupt. That is why, increasingly, they are putting people like us first. They feel they can trust us. Something is happening to our electoral system. Dare I call it a revolution?

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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
Pubdate: Tue, 02 May 2006
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2006 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Carl Wagner, Legalise Cannabis Alliance
Note: Five unrelated candidates' statements excised
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Cited: Legalise Cannabis Alliance http://www.lca-uk.org

MEXICAN DRUG-USE BILL TO BE TOUGHENED

MEXICAN DRUG-USE BILL TO BE TOUGHENED
by S. Lynne Walker, Copley News Service, (Source:San Diego Union Tribune)
03 May 2006

Mexico
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MEXICO CITY - Stung by opposition to a bill that would permit the possession of small quantities of narcotics, a top Mexican senator said yesterday the legislation will be toughened to reassure critics that Mexico is not opening its doors to drug users.

President Vicente Fox's government has been bombarded with questions over the past five days from U.S. and Mexican officials who worry that Mexico is backing away from drug enforcement.

Fox's spokesman said the president will sign the bill, but there are signals that Fox may be distancing himself from the legislation, which his office said differs from the proposal he sent to Congress in January 2004.

When San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders met yesterday with Luis Cabrera, the Mexican consul general in San Diego, Cabrera "started by saying: 'First, you need to know the president hasn't signed the bill. It's just a bill,' " said mayoral spokesman Fred Sainz.

"When you lead with that, you know your argument has problems," Sainz said.

As that meeting was taking place in San Diego, Karen Tandy, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was expressing her concerns during a meeting in Mexico City with Public Security Minister Eduardo Medina-Mora.

Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy called Medina-Mora to discuss the impact the law would have on border cities such as Tijuana.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials met with representatives of the Fox government in Washington, D.C., on Monday and "urged them to clarify the law so it would not make it attractive to those who would go to Mexico to use drugs," said Judith Bryan, press attache for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

Sanders, who has called Friday's 53-26 Senate vote "appallingly stupid," was not swayed by Cabrera's assurances.

"Let's be truthful. 'Small quantities' is a diplomatic nicety that is fairly transparent," Sainz said. "We remain incredibly concerned. If passed, this would be a law enforcement problem for our county, a judicial problem for our county and a public health emergency for our county."

Sen. Jorge Zermeno, a member of Fox's National Action Party who heads the Senate's justice committee, said the controversy boils down to one word - "user."

"What generated all this confusion and what distorted the fundamental objective of the law was that the legislators added the word 'user,' " Zermeno said. "We are going to present a modification to this reform to eliminate the confusion."

The current criminal code allows judges to waive jail time for people who can prove they are addicts and possess drugs "for personal use."

Mexican officials said they were changing the law because current laws do not define the amount of drugs one can possess without being subject to criminal prosecution. Officials said dealers caught with drugs would say they were addicts and that the drugs they possessed were for personal use to avoid jail, even when they might be carrying dozens of doses.

The new bill is aimed at clarifying possession for personal use while cracking down on small-time dealers, Zermeno said.

"The objective is not to send drug users to jail," Zermeno said. "The objective is to jail those who sell, those who traffic, those who enrich themselves, those who poison others.

"Now, it looks to everyone like we are legalizing, that we are authorizing people to carry these quantities of drugs because they are users. We have to eliminate the word 'user' so that only those people who can show that they have an addiction, who have a medical prescription, can possess these quantities."

The bill also gives new authority to local and state law enforcement to arrest drug dealers. Now, only federal law enforcement can arrest people on drug charges.

"With this reform, more people go to jail," said Luis Javier Algorri Franco, Tijuana's minister of security.

Medina-Mora said the law "constitutes an indisputable advance in the efforts of the Mexican government to fight small-scale trafficking and drug addiction."

Small-scale trafficking is now one of the biggest threats to public security, he said. Mexico's youths and children are consuming drugs at an alarming pace, with per-capita use growing at an annual rate of 20 percent over the past 10 years.

As the demand for cocaine has declined in the United States, more of the drug is being sold by cartels in Mexico, Medina-Mora said. Sales of hard drugs have fallen so dramatically that the cartels earned more money last year from marijuana than from cocaine, he added.

But he insisted that Mexico will not become a playground for international drug users.

"They will not find in our country a paradise for illegal activities," he said. "Mexico is not, has not been, and will not be a refuge for anybody who wants to come to our country to consume drugs.

But Sainz said yesterday, "We believe that the fact that it remains illegal to sell drugs, but it would be legal to possess them, is a distinction without difference."

Sainz and San Diego's director of binational affairs, Alejandra Gavaldon, who both speak Spanish, read the Mexican legislation Monday. They were disturbed that the bill would allow some users to possess small quantities of marijuana, Ecstasy, cocaine and even heroin.

But Cabrera said the law does not mean that someone found with a small quantity of drugs will not go through the legal system.

"This doesn't mean that a person won't be brought to a prosecutor or judge," he said. "A person found with a certain amount below ( the threshold ) will be sent to a prosecuting agent."

Cabrera said prosecutors will make individual decisions in these minor drug cases as to what is the appropriate punishment. A fine could be levied, or the person could be sent to jail for a few days. If the person is an addict, he or she could be required to go to a drug rehabilitation program, Cabrera said.

Medina-Mora said, "With all due respect to the mayor of San Diego, our youths, our children are just as much of a concern for us as the young people who visit our country."

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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake



Pubdate: Wed, 03 May 2006
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: S. Lynne Walker, Copley News Service
Note: Staff writers Tony Manolatos and Anna Cearley contributed to this report.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Mexico (Mexico)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

'Tony's Law' Would Require Marijuana Users to Imform Interested Neighbors

from: http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4109&n=1&ref=myy

WASHINGTON, DC—Citizens spoke before Congress Monday in support of Tony's Law, a Senate measure that would require all marijuana-law offenders to inform their neighbors if they're holding.

Above: If enacted, Tony's Law will require illegal-drug offenders to announce their status.

"Right now, countless Americans are living on the very same blocks as convicted illegal-drug users," said Sharon Logan of the Weed For Tony Coalition. "Without a federal mandate requiring full disclosure, how are unsuspecting residents supposed to find any decent weed?"

Designed to protect Americans from dry spells, Tony's Law was named after 19-year-old New Jersey resident Tony DiCenzo, who went nine months without getting high before discovering that he lived in the same apartment building as a reliable marijuana source.

"Can you imagine the shock and anger Tony must have felt when he found out that the guy on the second floor possessed the Schedule I federal controlled substance?" Logan said. "The offender could have invited poor Tony into his apartment to smoke some at any time. It's heartbreaking."

Tony's Law would create a national public registry of drug-law offenders' names, addresses, and pager numbers. Additionally, offenders charged with dealing marijuana would be required to either post signs or go door-to-door and let neighbors know when they're holding.

Privacy-rights groups oppose the legislation on the grounds that it violates the individual's right to a stash, but Austin, TX's James W. Clancy is one of many stoner-rights lawyers who traveled to Washington to rally in favor of the law's passage.

Above: A convicted drug user in Kenner, LA informs his neighbor that he has the number of a guy.

"Millions of Americans love to be high," Clancy said. "Unfortunately, their neighbors often keep them in the dark about what kind of shit is going around."

Clancy and other proponents of Tony's Law argued that the bill would result in increased domestic trade in consumer snack products and a heightened sense of community and well-being.

More powerful, perhaps, were the personal testimonials of hundreds of drug-drought victims, who stood before lawmakers to share their experiences with dope deprivation.

"As a parent, I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to finding weed," Minneapolis resident Kyle Berman said. "All my wife and I wanted to be able to do was get Tina and Tyler to bed, put on a movie, and smoke a joint. It wasn't until the police busted the guy across the street for growing marijuana that we realized how close we'd come to actually finding some pot. A whole set-up with lamps and everything was less than 50 feet from our living room. It sickens me to think about it."

Several lawmakers have spoken out in opposition to Tony's Law, largely due to what Rep. Chris Chocola (R-IN) called "complications stemming from the illegality of marijuana."

Nonetheless, the bill's many devoted supporters said they'll continue their fight.

"After nine months of hell, Tony eventually found a hook-up through the friend of a guy whose brother met someone at a former girlfriend's birthday party," activist Stephen Miller said. "In spite of the nightmare he was going through, Tony didn't give up...and neither will we."

Snow Bong

My friend Brad and I were really stoned one night, talking about smoking weed in an igloo or something crazy like that. Then I suggested making a bong out of an igloo. But he said that probably wouldn't work since you'd have to smoke the igloo bong inside on an igloo or it would melt, so you might as well just use a normal bong in the igloo, like he said in the first place.

Well, this doesn't have too much to do with that.. but these three guys make a snow bong. I guess you'd need a ladder to smoke it, and the bowl looks big enough for about 3 oz of weed... Not to mention the fact it's right outside some building that looks kinda like a college.... but hey, I'm proud of the fact that they put the doritoes down long enough to actually build this thing.

I traded my weed for shrooms today

Psilocybin Mushrooms on a pretty day

It's okay though, because shrooms are cool. I also got to smoke before I traded the weed away. We're probably going to go out in the woods sometime this week or this weekend and eat the shrooms. I hope it turns into an adventure.

I was supposed to smoke with a friend today, but she got a text message that read "DO NOT SMOKE YET". . . Mysterious. . .

It was a nice day today for once. We probably could've just picked shrooms, but we were lazy. I grilled some chicken and corn. Yes grilled corn. Don't hate. Take some fresh corn and pull the husks back, wrap some bacon around it, and put the husks back in place. It's awesome I promise.

How to Grow and Identify Psilocybin Mushrooms

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet

Small mushroom navel ring - in Blue

Now THATS a lot of green

Pot Smoker table manners

This dude is a FOOL with his herb. I assume he grows it himself, why else would he have hundreds of buds just laying around? I dont care how cool that weed is, I wouldn't take a picture like that and leave my face on it!

Okay then I have to go smoke some marijuana now. Peace out green ones.