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| Weed Watch: Pot Arrests Reach New High |
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Posted by CN Staff on September 29, 2006 at 07:01:04 PT By Jordan Smith Source: Austin Chronicle 
Texas -- According to new crime statistics released last week by the FBI, arrests for marijuana possession reached a record high in 2005, which saw nearly 800,000 marijuana-related arrests nationwide. About 88% of those were for simple possession; the remaining people – just over 90,000 – were charged with sale and/or manufacturing, a category that includes people busted for growing pot for medicinal use. Indeed, says Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the arrest numbers have increased steadily over the last decade, as the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy – home of the nation's drug czar and the brain trust behind the failed anti-drug media – has increasingly focused on maintaining its always-losing pot prohibition. "People are running around with meth mouth and out of their minds, and we're focusing on marijuana," St. Pierre said. "There are [law enforcement agencies] all over the country going bonkers over their meth problems, and yet the ONDCP shoves money at them … to go look for ditchweed." Using the current arrest numbers as a guide, St. Pierre figures that a pot smoker is arrested every 40 seconds – "it's just a totally skewed priority," he said. Coincidentally, also on Sept. 18, just hours after the FBI released its latest arrest figures, the 40-second spotlight shone on Willie Nelson, who was ticketed for having a pound and a half of pot and several ounces of psychedelic mushrooms on board his tour bus. Reportedly, Nelson's bus was traveling down I-10 outside Lafayette, La., on Monday when he was pulled over for a routine – ahem – commercial vehicle inspection. When the bus door opened, the officer smelled pot and began a search of the bus. While anyone else caught with that amount of pot and 'shrooms would've been carted off to the pokey faster than you can say, "Whiskey River," Nelson and three others, including his sister, slid through with misdemeanor tickets – but not before local officers hightailed it over to the bus, a source tells the Chronicle, to get their pictures taken with the Red Headed Stranger. Perhaps that's punishment enough. Finally, in an attempt to further its anti-drug message, the ONDCP has taken to cyberspace, posting a number of its ridiculous just-say-no-esque ad spots on YouTube.com. Ironically, the drug czar's office has used the same key words – pot, weed, ganja, etc. – to tag its spots as those used by everyone else loading pot-related videos onto the site, meaning viewers will get to compare the pro-pot videos of, say, NORML to those of the anti-pot ONDCP. Let the duel begin. Marijuana Arrests For Year 2005: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7040 Source: Austin Chronicle (TX) Related Articles & Web Sites: Willie Nelson This Is Your Ass on Drugs YouTube Meets Reefer Madness Shouldn't Willie Be Left Alone? Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #19 posted by FoM on September 29, 2006 at 12:38:02 PT |
| Thank you. I won't give up.I'll skip voting when Brown and DeWine come up but I will vote for all the other Democrats. I hope DeWine doesn't win. I know why Brown did it because Democrats are attacked for not being strong on terrorism but it's just politics and it don't mean nuttin in the real world of life. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #18 posted by FoM on September 29, 2006 at 12:31:52 PT |
| I doubt anything will make me feel better but it is hopeful to read. I never knew anyone like Bush. If I had I would have moved away fast from that person. I don't have words to say how I feel about him. I really couldn't say it or I would need to remove it. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #17 posted by whig on September 29, 2006 at 12:26:36 PT |
| This is also a bill of attainder in that it singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial. http://www.techlawjournal.com/glossary/legal/attainder.htm [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #16 posted by Max Flowers on September 29, 2006 at 12:26:04 PT |
| Please don't give up. We all have to keep fighting this. Otherwise we just give our country away to criminals. We have to pull each other along when we get tired and feel hopeless. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #15 posted by Max Flowers on September 29, 2006 at 12:23:52 PT |
| At least I did. It's an excellent discussion, from people with very good points and the right attitude: http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2006/09/congress-is-powerless-to-absolve-bush.html An excerpt: Bush is in a heap of trouble. The US Congress should be impeaching Bush —NOT conspiring with him to cover his backside! Whatever torture compromise may work its way through an intimidated Congress, it cannot help Bush. The US Constitution requires nothing less than a Constitutional Amendment to relieve US obligations under the Geneva convention; and, at least one Constitutional provision means that nothing legal can get Bush off the hook for the crimes that he has already committed. Let's take the second one first. Bush seeks an ex post facto law that will make legal —after the fact —his violations of the Geneva Convention having to do with torture. No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. —US Constitution, Article I That means that Bush cannot commit crimes, possibly including having ordered summary executions and brutal tortures, only to have them made legal later on. The Constitution flatly states that it doesn't work that way! I've been screaming about this for a long time now. Maybe the time has come to be vindicated. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #14 posted by FoM on September 29, 2006 at 11:54:52 PT |
| I think I will quit caring and go back to not voting. It isn't fair. I've had it. If the republicans want to control and rule the world they can have it then. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #13 posted by whig on September 29, 2006 at 11:42:13 PT |
| DeWine voted for it too. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by whig on September 29, 2006 at 11:41:52 PT |
| Republicans hate cannabis because they hate God, and fear his power. They drink for exactly the reason you said, to drown out their sorrow. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by FoM on September 29, 2006 at 11:40:24 PT |
| I guess I will have to vote for DeWine because Brown did that. The only other options is to let DeWine win if I don't vote for Brown. I don't know which way to go on Brown now. Sad thing is he is very liberal and I really liked Brown and he voted for medical marijuana and other things I care about. That's why I might not vote if it keeps getting more complicated. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by whig on September 29, 2006 at 11:35:47 PT |
| Sherrod Brown agreed to this bill. I don't know if he was "gotten to" but he's politically owned by the Republicans now. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by whig on September 29, 2006 at 11:34:33 PT |
| http://cannablog.wordpress.com/2006/09/29/night-has-fallen/ [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by Max Flowers on September 29, 2006 at 11:30:05 PT |
| The US Constitution prohibits retroactive legislation: Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution states that "no ... ex post facto law shall be passed." An ex post facto law is one "formulated, enacted, or operating retroactively." How can they just ignore this? I mean, I know they have been ignoring the Constitution since day one, but come on---someone tell me they can't get away wiith this! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by Max Flowers on September 29, 2006 at 11:21:47 PT |
| I was given to understand that the Constitution prohibits lawmaking that provides retroactive immunity. In other words, I thought that it didn't allow making a law, after the crime, that makes that crime not a crime, exactly as Bush is trying to do here. I have been pinning my hopes this whole time on the belief that there was, at least, the possibility of war crimes charges being laid against Bush and his cronies. I admit that I don't know the particular clause that refers to this, but I am going to be looking it up now for sure. And even if a corrupt Republican-led Congress allows this, couldn't a less corrupt Democrat majority Congress (if that will exist and if that's possible) overturn this evil piece of legislation later on? [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by FoM on September 29, 2006 at 08:25:31 PT |
| When a soldier is captured in Iraq now they could be tortured like we will be able to torture. I know that the republicans will use something like that to make republican leaning people hate more and vote them in because it's the way they are and people who follow the republicans will never be my friend. I wash my hands of republicans and the right leaning folks. I don't have time to waste on cruel people. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by dongenero on September 29, 2006 at 07:46:51 PT |
| I hope a wholesale change is made in November. Time for the People to take back the country. It's amazing the degree to which the neocons have lowered the standards of our great nation in the name of their perceived high standards. It's a mad world. By the way, that is an apropos Black Sabbath reference there mayan. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by FoM on September 29, 2006 at 07:46:14 PT |
| I have a very piercing conscience. If I cause harm I feel so guilty. I can be my own worse enemy so I try really hard to do good and not hurt anyone and if I do I never do it intentionally. What kind of conscience do the Republicans have? Maybe that's why alcohol is such a popular drug for those in power. It numbs a person conscience and we know that cannabis doesn't numb a person's mind. We need to feel our convictions. America isn't special anymore to me. The more they do what they do the more I will withdraw into my own world. I am so ashamed of Bush and all of the Republicans that love to kill and torture. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by mayan on September 29, 2006 at 07:34:10 PT |
| Bush and the neo-cons will only have to answer to God. Vengeance will be the Lord's. Torture Bill Gives Bush Retroactive War Crimes Immunity - Cafferty: "What Are We Becoming?" http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/torture_bill_gives_bush_retroactive_war_crimes_immunity.htm [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by FoM on September 29, 2006 at 07:29:00 PT |
| I am sick about what Bush has done. We have slide into an area that I never thought I'd see. I am happy that very few Democrats agreed to this terrible bill. I hope and pray I live long enough to see him charged with war crimes. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by mayan on September 29, 2006 at 07:22:35 PT |
| Bush Given Authority To Sexually Torture American Children:
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/terror_laws_bush_given_authority_sexually_torture_us_kids.htm Freedom is dead. Satan,laughing, spreads his wings. [ Post Comment ] |
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