“He is certainly the polar opposite of his predecessor, Mark Souder,” says Allen St. Pierre, spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “Since the time the [ONDCP] was created in 1988, there have always been friendly people in that subcommittee and the ONDCP has always been able to get what they want under the guise of protecting children and saving America from drugs. But Kucinich doesn’t believe any of that. Any of it!”

For instance, St. Pierre notes, Kucinich is a supporter of industrial hemp, the non-psychoactive product of the cannabis sativa plant. He is also a supporter of medical marijuana and of the federal rescheduling of marijuana, where it is currently illegal as a Schedule I drug, classified as having “no medical value.” This classification clashes with states such as California, which have legalized medical use of marijuana, and leads directly to the current rash of raids on medical marijuana dispensaries by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. Kucinich is expected, St. Pierre says, to be a sponsor of a new bill to be introduced in March that would decriminalize pot.

Washington insiders, however, are not holding their breath for great upheaval in federal drug policy overall. Sources close to the appointment, who asked not to be named, say that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the Democratic leadership have effectively embargoed major crime or drug policy legislation for the next two years, to avoid looking soft on crime in the 2008 election.

Kucinich, however, is promising a couple years of entertaining and edifying hearings.

“We’re going to open up the discussion to new hearings,” says Kucinich, interviewed Sunday in Culver City, where he presented his bill for Universal Health Care, which is co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). “We want to explore the federal government’s policies and the Department of Justice’s policies on medical marijuana, for example. We need to also look at the drug laws that have brought about mandatory minimum sentences that have put people in jail for long periods of time. I think it’s an appropriate time to look at the proliferation of drugs in America, and how that fits in with our health care crisis, and how that fits in with law enforcement.”

The ONDCP did not reply to several requests for comment. That office, however, which is a function of the executive branch, has been deeply involved in pushing heavy sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and resisting medical marijuana, buying big-money ad campaigns attacking marijuana in states trying to legalize at the state level. Controlling that ad money could be a key to reform. When asked if his subcommittee has any budget oversight or other muscle, Kucinich shook his head and added, “No, this committee does not have control of the budgets, but it does have control of the policy, and it can ask questions and get documents that others couldn’t get.”

That can make a difference, says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the nation’s biggest drug policy reform organizations. His group plans to push for incremental slices of legislation that can move a progressive agenda while not upsetting Democratic unity, adding that Kucinich can “hold hearings on some of the subjects that haven’t been addressed in, you know, decades. Like a hearing on America having the highest incarceration rate in the world. Or maybe a hearing on why the DEA has jurisdiction over medical issues.

“One can obviously empathize with the democratic leadership’s desire to be cautious when it comes to supporting drug policy reforms and other sentencing reforms,” he adds. “But when you have a growing number of Republicans supporting sentencing reform, this might be a good time for the Democrats to show a little leadership.”

In fact, several activists point out, the new Congress may be the most sympathetic to drug-law reform that America has ever seen. Progressives like Senator Richard Durbin and Reps. Pelosi, George Miller, Conyers, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, Kucinich, and Bobby Scott have all turned up in leadership positions.

“If we had to pick out our 40 best friends in Congress, they’d be disproportionately in leadership positions,” says Nadelmann. He includes Sen. Patrick Leahy on that list, but cautions: “Mind you, seven years ago, Leahy said that sentencing reform was one of the top priorities, but now it’s not even a top-10 priority. Part of that’s because there’s so much other stuff to deal with.”

Still, action on several fronts is expected. Sentencing reform should get some attention, with an aim of reducing the number of non-violent drug offenders currently getting long prison sentences, which has given the U.S. the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world. One such change would be to make sentences involving crack cocaine equal to those given for powdered cocaine, as community activists have long contended these simply punish the black and poor who are more likely to use the drug in the form of crack. Hearings might also bring new media scrutiny to decades-long marijuana rescheduling motions and several Data Quality Act petitions, which force bodies like the Food and Drug Administration to make decisions based on science rather than ideology, and which have been roundly ignored by the Bush administration.

St. Pierre points out another potential point of influence: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, or HIDTAs. Congress funnels millions of dollars to local law enforcement for use in these areas, and activists have long argued they are wrongly prioritized.

“That’s a very obscure acronym, but when it comes down to the billions of dollars that get channeled out to local governments and their law enforcement, HIDTA is the battleground. That’s where Dennis can come in and say, ‘Mr. Walters, we the Congress, and, clearly, your own constituents want methamphetamines as the number one priority, not marijuana, and certainly not in the states that have medical marijuana laws.’ A couple of weeks ago, Walters was out in Fresno giving awards away for busting buyers’ clubs. Dennis can clip those wings. It all depends on how he’s going to want to pull the trigger.”

Note: Progressive Dennis Kucinich takes over a new House subcommittee, signaling changes in national drug policy.

Source: Los Angeles City Beat (CA)
Author: Dean Kuipers
Published: February 1, 2007
Copyright: 2007 Southland Publishing Inc.
Contact: editor@lacitybeat.com
Website: http://www.lacitybeat.com/

Dennis Kucinich
http://kucinich.us/

NORML
http://www.norml.org/

Drug Policy Alliance
http://www.drugpolicy.org/

Bennett may not be the one responsible for the campaign that took place against one particular effort of legalization in the seventies.

The woman I'm thinking of was a lawyer and noticed her kids smoking marijuana at a backyard party. It may have been a state level campaign against a state rep that had a bill to legalize an ounce of cannabis...and whoever I'm thinking about, orgainized a group of parents to make phone calls and send ounce bottles of an herb to the reps as an example of just how much an ounce was. They effectively squashed the efforts, and perhaps the career, of that particular congressman.

Information I've found on Sandra Bennett indicates that she joined the anti-drug campaign when her son died of a cocaine overdose.

It's someone else, apparently, that I have mixed up with S. Bennett. I am sorry about not getting my prohibitionist's names straight.

My sincere apologies to Ms. S. Bennett...and I'm sorry about your horrible loss...but Ms. Bennett...prohibition didn't save your son...and I don't believe prohibition is going to save anyone. Harm reduction and true regulation can.

About the Bourne/Stroup debacle. I'm aware of that and the harm it caused. Basically blew up the entire access highway to change with that one.

Think of all the lives lost because of your campaign in the seventies. Please don't kill and destroy any more people because of your unfounded and hysterical fears. Please.

It came close then...but was it ever actually presented as a bill by a congressman?

Call or write Pelosi's offices and tell her that inaction on the issue of medicinal cannabis for the sake of appearing 'soft on crime' is unacceptable, that the sick and dying have no time to wait until the Dems acquire a backbone and stand up for what's right, and that she wasn't installed where she was to sit on her hands to suit the Republicans. Couch it diplomatically, of course, but get the point across.

It would also be a good opportunity to write both Dennis and Pelosi and inform them of the shenanigans that HHS has been engaged in these past 4 years regarding their failure to initiate the cannabis rescheduling they were supposed to do under the Data Quality Act.

Dennis's Contact Page. http://kucinich.house.gov/Contact/

Lakewood Office number: Phone (216)228-8850 Parma Office number: (440)845-2707 Congressional Office number: (202)225-5871

Pelosi's Home District office number: (415) 556-4862

Her Congressional Office number: (202) 225-4965

Page from her Website for email contact: http://www.house.gov/pelosi/contact/contact.html

Volunteers Needed for Washington DC Event Tomorrow!

Dennis Kucinich will speak on Friday, February 2 at 11:50am at the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting in Washington DC. This is the event that sparked the Howard Dean 2004 Campaign. If you are in the area and would like to come to that event, Dennis would like to invite you to come walk in the meeting with him. Please arrive at the Hilton Hotel at 9am and come to the Kucinich table in the lobby. You will be escorting Dennis through the door of the DNC Meeting holding Kucinich signs. All materials provided.

Democratic National Committee Meeting

Where: Washington Hilton 1919 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, District of Columbia, United States 20009 Tel: 1-202-483-3000 Fax: 1-202-232-0438 Near DuPont Circle)

When: Arrive at 9am

FoM I believe that the only way to get the politicians' attention, is to fire them for misrepresentation.

Here is a great article explaining how Democrats low self-esteem stop them from standing up to bush!

Ask yourself, are you, or your friends in this category? Send this far and wide, as it truly is our low self-esteem, symbolized by the so-called leaders of the Democratic Party, that keeps us from taking back our power, as they waffle and position themselves for re-election!

Peter Michaelson Discusses His 'Little Self-Help Book' for Democracy "Liberals are often codependent, and our so-called compassion becomes suspect when it is based on the desire to use others to prop up our self-worth."

-- Peter Michaelson, author, Democracy's Little Self-Help Book

* * *

Peter Michaelson is a therapist, author and contributor to BuzzFlash.com. We were intrigued with his latest tome, "Democracy's Little Self-Help Book," because it raises the issues of psychological hang-ups that many liberals have. We believe that we are doing good and making the world better, but many of us have inner psychological conflicts that prevent us from actualizing our goals effectively.

BuzzFlash would specifically point to the ambivalence and confliction many progressives -- and certainly the Democratic leadership in Congress has -- about the use of power. The Cheney/Bush thugs have no compunction whatsoever about attaining unilateral power in any way possible: lie, cheat and steal.

Liberals, on the other hand, often have a profound ambivalence about being aggressive and assertive with power.

In many ways, we see this inner psychological conflict being played out again as the Dems in Congress pussyfoot around with a watered-down "bi-partisan rebuke" of Bush's mad death warrant on our GIs through an escalation of the war in Iraq.

The Democrats are perennially afraid of appearing partisan, of being attacked for standing up for their principles, of grabbing onto power and asserting it. To want power and wield it without regret is often seen as being -- well -- so "like them."

But if you don't achieve and utilize power to realize your principles, you end up being a victim and a patsy.

When will the subpoenas start flying in Congress? When will the Dems say enough is enough? When will they screw "bi-partisanship" and stand up for sanity, democracy and the Constitution without compromising their principles?

We have a rogue, runaway executive branch that is daffy with delusional behavior, allowing thousands upon thousands of Americans and Iraqis to be killed and wounded, wasting hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars -- and calling it a success.

Yet, the Democrats on the Hill are talking compromise.

Maybe, it is time to look at our inner selves and our feelings about power, passivity, and our internal obstacles to assuming authority without guilt.

"It is important that we evolve toward greater personal authority," Michaelson notes in his latest work. "It is the framework of our sovereignty and our democracy depends on us having it."

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/051

"They can't even stay clean before they go to court"

Lucky for Rush Limbaugh, he didn't even have to go to court.

John Walter's would honor him for cutting back on his illegal legal medications.