Election Day is only a few days away, so this week I want to recap the drug war-related initiatives and candidates that face the voters on November 7 (also check out the Drug War Chronicle for
their roundup as well, including
Arizona's Proposition 301, that would disallow prison terms for first and second time meth offenders).
Nevada - Question 7
The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana have set the bar for marijuana legalization initiatives with their Question 7 campaign this year. Question 7 is not just a legalization measure, it is a mandate for the state of Nevada to regulate the market so that the state can most effectively combat the black market underworld that develops as a result of marijuana prohibition. Campaign manager Neal Levine has done a tremendous job all year in countering the expected onslaught of scare tactics that meets any drug law reform proposal. And he has continued to make the very clear case that the current situation is less safe for all Nevadans and that regulating marijuana makes sense in a state that already tolerates, but heavily regulates, both gambling and prostitution.
Colorado - Amendment 44
In Colorado, Amendment 44 had a later start than Nevada's initiative, and is not doing as well in polling, but the Colorado movement is younger and more energetic. Their initiative does not focus on regulation, only decriminalization of up to one ounce of marijuana (similar to what passed in just the city of Denver last November), and is largely based on the central hypocrisy that centers around alcohol being legal for adults while the safer marijuana remains illegal. Mason Tvert is the man behind this movement and he's one of the most dynamic and confident drug law reformers anywhere. Unlike the Nevada movement, which is more button-down and actually manages to get the media to show them in a good light very often, the Colorado initiative has been more confrontational. We'll see on Tuesday how these two different campaigns fare.
South Dakota - Initiated Measure 4
Last year in South Dakota, lawmakers killed a proposal to legalize medical marijuana, so this year it's on the ballot. It's a solidly written proposal that allows for medical marijuana patients to grow up to six plants. It's hard to gauge how this will fare. There's no polling available yet, and it's hard to tell whether the large amount of support nationwide is enough in a socially conservative state.
Lowest Law Enforcement Priority Initiatives
Three years ago, Seattle passed Initiative 75, a ballot initiative that made adult marijuana use the lowest priority for the city's police department. The initiative has proven to be a success without any of the doom and gloom predicted by drug warriors. This year, 5 communities will be voting on a similar measure: Santa Cruz, CA, Santa Barbara, CA, Santa Monica, CA, Missoula, MT, and Eureka Springs, AR.
Alabama
Libertarian gubernatorial Candidate Loretta Nall has been the highest profile anti-prohibition candidate this year. This has been partially because of her propensity to be controversial, but is also because she's a furiously determined candidate. She was unable to get on the ballot, but has been campaigning as a write-in candidate. Her message that the drug war is severely impacting the black community is starting to resonate in a state with a large black population slowly being disenfranchised by drug laws.
Connecticut
Green gubernatorial Candidate Cliff Thornton is someone I haven't written much about, but deserves your attention. He's willing to tell the truth when no major party candidate has the courage to do so.
Congress
Other good drug reform candidates include Kevin Zeese in Maryland and Bruce Guthrie in Washington. They're both running for Senate. I strongly believe that it's a higher priority to elect Democrats in Congressional races than third-party candidates with better drug policy positions, but if the polling widens in these races and Cantwell and Cardin are cruising to victory, it would be worthwhile to boost these candidates' vote tallies and show that candidates who stand up for our freedom have some popular backing.
-------------------
In the news this week...
Libby Spencer has some links to what's happening in old and new narco-states.
Kari Huus writes about a new controversial treatment for meth and cocaine abusers.
Scott Morgan talks about how THC-based drugs like Marinol and Sativex are marketed as being marijuana substitutes while drug warriors attempt to stress that they're vastly different.
A study found that two-thirds of American parents would submit their teenage son or daughter to a drug test.
John Tierney writes about how the libertarian revolt against the GOP is coming from a lot of angles.
David Borden marks the 20th anniversary of federal mandatory minimum sentences for drug violations.
A U.S. border guard in Washington State is accused of letting a female smuggler through the border in exchange for sexual favors.
Police found a half-pound of marijuana and several explosive devices after a raid in Spokane, WA.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer boasted about the state's efforts to seize marijuana plants, even though there's no evidence that the 1.7 million plants seized this year even made a dent in the overall supply.
Whig at Cannablog writes about the October 25 hearing on the charges against medical marijuana pioneers Ed Rosenthal and Rick Watts.
Seven men in the Bay Area were indicted on federal drug trafficking charges.
San Luis Obispo County in California has agreed to an administrative fee and is moving forward with distributing medical marijuana ID cards.
The Los Angeles City Council Public Safety Committee approved a one-year moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries.
Seven medical marijuana patients were arrested in San Diego while protesting at the DEA office requesting to speak with Karen Tandy.
San Diego is seeing a large increase in the amount of meth in their community, an expected side effect of the giant shift in the American meth market to Mexican producers that happened after various laws made it more difficult for Americans to buy the precursor elements.
A survey of Arizona teenagers show a drop in the prevalence of drug use from four years ago.
A mock election at a Durango, CO high school found that high school students have no problem with legal marijuana or gay marriage, but are concerned about the lack of money spent on their schools.
A federal judge in South Dakota ruled against the Students for Sensible Drug Policy in their challenge to the Higher Education Act's Drug Provision, which makes individuals with drug convictions ineligible for financial aid. The SSDP needs some help.
In Kansas, the SSDP gets some good press.
A 16-year-old girl in El Paso faces a potential sentence of up to 40 years in prison after being caught at the border with 50 pounds of cocaine in her car. Her trial has been postponed until November 20. Scott Henson talks more about what's going on at the border.
The Austin Chronicle breaks down the spin from an appearance by someone from the Drug Czar's office.
A former Milwaukee police officer was sentenced to four years in prison on drug charges.
A Chicago area business group is alarmed by the United States's prison population, prompting Pete to wonder how obvious this stuff has to be before we notice that the drug war is a failure.
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette endorsed Democrat Tom Hayhurst, the opponent of longtime incumbent and avid drug warrior Mark Souder.
Georgetown, Ohio plans to randomly drug test all village employees.
Nine people were arrested in a major cocaine bust near Nashville.
Two Mississippi police officers were indicted for accepting bribes from a drug dealer.
A Biloxi, Mississippi police officer will be spending five years in jail for trying to sell ecstasy.
In Flagler County, Florida, a 12-year-old boy was arrested in a drug raid and charged with felony possession of crack-cocaine.
Police in North Carolina seized $47,580 from a motorist who was only suspected of being involved in drugs.
The Henry County (VA) Sheriff and 13 of his deputies were indicted on a series of charges involving drug distribution.
Fire investigators in Charleston, West Virginia believe a fire that damaged two homes started with a meth lab explosion.
A New Jersey man faces up to life in prison after being convicted of running a major heroin distribution operation.
Two high school girls in upstate New York were busted for possession of cocaine at school.
Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick has a very strange position on legalizing marijuana that involves supporting it in theory, but not in practice.
Boston Police are investigating whether police officers stole drugs from the evidence warehouse.
Over 90% of Canadians tolerate the use of medical marijuana.
An Ontario police officer was charged with several crimes, including cocaine possession.
$10 million worth of pot was found on a farm owned by Canadian snowboarder Ian Hadgkiss.
A British Columbia school board chair argued on the radio that it's wrong to put more emphasis on meth than alcohol.
Four Vancouver residents were arrested trying to smuggle an actual boatload of ecstasy into Port Angeles, WA.
An 18-year-old drug mule died in a hotel room in the Dominican Republican as he prepared to travel to Europe with ingested balloons full of cocaine.
The Colombian government is using advertising to try to milk European governments for some of the same wasteful government expenditures that they get from us.
The Emigrant Online has a roundup of recent drug war activity.
A UK-based drug warrior responds in the Herald Online to a letter that pointed out the silliness of his arguments.
A 22-year-old recent college graduate in South London died after she allegedly drank GHB, the date-rape drug.
A study in Scotland found that 97% of people in the methadone treatment program for heroin users were still taking methadone or other illegal drugs 3 years later. It's hard to really understand how significant this is without knowing which illegal drugs the patients were taking. Someone who goes from being hooked on heroin to being a daily marijuana user is undoubtedly a successful rehabilitation story but would be part of the 97% according to how this was presented.
A wanted Colombian drug trafficker, Orlando Sabogal Zuluaga, was arrested near Madrid after Spanish officials were tipped off by American officials that Sabogal was in the country.
Two men near Naples, Italy were arrested after officials found marijuana growing in the garden of a school where one of the men worked.
AlertNet writes about the futility of Swaziland's efforts to stop marijuana farming. The country is looking into allowing the cultivation of hemp for economic reasons.
A woman unsuccessfully tried to mail about a pound of heroin from Islamabad to Johannesburg by pretending to be a South African official.
The price of cannabis has gone up considerably in Israel since the brief war against Hezbollah this summer shut down the country's northern border.
Another Canadian publication is asking why we're not doing the extremely obvious thing in Afghanistan.
A new study in Australia found the not-very-surprising fact that women addicted to hard drugs die at a much higher rate than other women. Another Aussie study showed the also not-very-surprising fact that workplace injuries can be caused by workers who are drunk or high.
A woman in northern New Zealand is accused of selling cannabis from her fish and chips shop.
A study of Guam in the 1970s showed that the efforts of law enforcement to arrest dealers and confiscate heroin had no effect on the drug trade.
A member of Parliament in Vanuatu wants to allow villagers in a remote town to grow marijuana because they needed the money to pay for their children's schooling.