cannabisnews.com: Efforts To Relax Pot Rules Gaining Momentum in US
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Efforts To Relax Pot Rules Gaining Momentum in US
Posted by CN Staff on June 10, 2012 at 13:11:09 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Providence, R.I. Catharine Leach is married and has two boys, age 2 and 8. She has a good job with a federal contractor and smokes pot most every day.While she worries that her public support for marijuana decriminalization and legalization could cost her a job or bring the police to her door, the 30-year-old Warwick resident said she was tired of feeling like a criminal for using a drug that she said is far less harmful than the glass or wine or can of beer enjoyed by so many others after a long day's work. Like others around the nation working to relax penalties for possession of pot, she decided to stop hiding and speak out.
"I'm done being afraid," she said. "People in this country are finally coming around and seeing that putting someone in jail for this doesn't make sense. It's just a changing of the time."Once consigned to the political fringe, marijuana policy is appearing on legislative agendas around the country thanks to an energized base of supporters and an increasingly open-minded public. Lawmakers from Rhode Island to Colorado are mulling medical marijuana programs, pot dispensaries, decriminalization and even legalization. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now authorize medical marijuana and 14, including neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts, have rolled back criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of pot.Rhode Island is poised to become the 15th state to decriminalize marijuana possession. The state's General Assembly passed legislation last week that would eliminate the threat of big fines or even jail time for the possession of an ounce or less of pot. Instead, adults caught with small amounts of marijuana would face a $150 civil fine. Police would confiscate the marijuana, but the incident would not appear on a person's criminal record.Minors caught with pot would also have to complete a drug awareness program and community service.Gov. Lincoln Chafee has said he is inclined to sign the legislation.One of the bill's sponsors, state Rep. John Edwards of Tiverton, has introduced similar proposals in past years but the idea always sputtered in committee. Each year, though, he got more co-sponsors, and the bill passed the House this year 50-24. The state Senate passed it 28-6.Some supporters of decriminalization say they'd like to go even further."America's 50-year war on drugs has been an abysmal failure," said Rep. John Savage, a retired school principal from East Providence. "Marijuana in this country should be legalized. It should be sold and taxed."Opponents warned of dire consequences to the new policy."What kind of message are we sending to our youth? We are more worried about soda for health reasons than we are about marijuana," said one opponent, Rhode Island state Rep. John Carnevale a Democrat from Providence.A survey by Rasmussen last month found that 56 percent of respondents favored legalizing and regulating marijuana. A national Gallup poll last year showed support for legalizing pot had reached 50 percent, up from 46 percent in 2010 and 25 percent in the mid-'90s.Medical marijuana helped bring marijuana policy into the mainstream back in 1996, when California became the first state to authorize the use of cannabis for medicinal use. Other states followed suit."It's now politically viable to talk about these things," said Robert Capecchi, legislative analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports the reduction or elimination of penalties for medical and recreational pot use. "The public understands that there are substances that are far more harmful alcohol, tobacco that we regulate. People are realizing just how much money is being wasted on prohibition."Colorado and Washington state will hold fall referendums on legalizing marijuana. A ballot question on legalization failed in California in 2010.This month, Connecticut's governor signed legislation to allow medical marijuana there. Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed cutting the penalty for public possession of small amounts of pot.Liberal state policies on marijuana have run into conflict with federal prohibition. Federal authorities have shut down more than 40 dispensaries this year in Colorado, even though they complied with state and local law. In Rhode Island, Gov. Lincoln Chafee blocked three dispensaries from opening last year after the state's top federal prosecutor warned they could be prosecuted. Chafee and lawmakers then rewrote the dispensary law to restrict the amount of marijuana dispensaries may have on hand.Robert DuPont, who served as the nation's drug czar under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, said Americans should be wary of a slippery slope to legalization. While marijuana may not cause the life-threatening problems associated with heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine, it's far from harmless."It is a major drug of abuse," he said. "People ask me what the most dangerous drug is, and I say marijuana. Other drugs have serious consequences that are easy to recognize. Marijuana saps people's motivation, their direction. It's a drug that makes people stupid and lazy. That's in a way more dangerous."Source: Associated Press (Wire)Published: June 10, 2012Copyright: 2012 The Associated PressCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #11 posted by Paul Pot on June 18, 2012 at 05:05:30 PT:
AP Marijuana News Articles
Find AP marijuana articles at this address.http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/search.hosted.ap.org/wireCoreTool/Search?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&query=marijuana
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #10 posted by Cannazoid on June 13, 2012 at 12:31:00 PT:
C'mon Now...
Dupont, Hearst, Carnegie & Harry J. Anslinger were the main forces behind
marijuana prohibition!
AMA studies had begun on cannabis exposing some of it's many beneficial uses.
Anslinger illegally managed to silence this information!
These greedy folks needed to eliminate hemp as an industrial competitor.
Wm. R. Hearst had control of the mass media & began the anti-marijuana campaign, aimed at alarming the public with blatant lies.
75years have passed, but their need to preserve
their massive fortunes has not changed.
I personally doubt they care that burning fossil fuel is destroying our environment, killing our young at war
& leaving our beloved offspring to deal with the mess!
What Bio mass....? 1%'ers get RICHER!ANY opinion by any of these 1% is, DOG FECES!CANNAZOID
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #9 posted by ekim on June 12, 2012 at 15:10:08 PT
Comment #5
http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/39012-worldwide-population-of-lawful-medical-marijuana-patients/
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #8 posted by Hope on June 12, 2012 at 07:21:32 PT
Sam.
Bulls-eye!
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on June 11, 2012 at 17:23:31 PT
Stupid and Lazy
Just curious - what drugs were the Duponts and the other Wall Street elite on when they burned off $3 trillion taxpayer dollars? Apparently they were on the rapacious greed drug, instead of the stupid and lazy one.DuPont's quote makes it crystal clear - MJ prohibition is just a penalty for being poor. Like many other penalties for being poor in this country - no health care, no college, no house. Sorry folks! Did you think you were in Canada or Europe? "Stupid and lazy" is what the rich have been telling each other about the poor since medieval times. Makes them feel better about stripping an entire generation of people of financial security or the chance to own a house. They're stupid and lazy! They deserve it! That is the classic attitude of the US rich toward the poor underclasses.Remember, before political correctness, it was the blacks and Latinos that were "stupid and lazy". Now they can't say that in the mainstream media anymore, so they use code words. Remember, modern MJ prohibition was started by Nixon in response to the ending of the American apartheid system.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #6 posted by Hope on June 11, 2012 at 13:14:48 PT
Afterburner
It's even better in Texas than it was. No one, I hope, goes to prison for five years for one joint. And that really used to happen. They might still shoot you in a "Raid"... but they are much more reasonable than they were when I was younger. Aaargh. It was soooo wrong.It's getting better and one day, if we don't give up, they will stop assaulting and persecuting people over it. Entirely.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #5 posted by afterburner on June 11, 2012 at 10:59:47 PT
Has Anybody Done the Math?
"Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now authorize medical marijuana and 14, including neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts, have rolled back criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of pot."What percentage of the United States national population lives within medical cannabis and decriminalized cannabis regulation?Plus, if we can change unjust laws, we can change unjust and destructive business models:AlterNet / By Tara Lohan.
14 COMMENTS.
Time to Ditch Our Profit-Hungry Corporate Economy: Here's What the Future Could Look Like Instead.
Marjorie Kelly's new book explains how we can create a "generative economy" that is focused on sustaining life rather than extracting profit.
June 10, 2012 | The economy was bound to tank. Not just because greedy corporations rigged the system or because government helped grease the wheels for them. But because the dominate way that we've come to do business -- profit at the expense of all else -- is simply incompatible with the planet we're living on. It's an economy that Marjorie Kelly would call "extractive."
http://www.alternet.org/story/155777/time_to_ditch_our_profit-hungry_corporate_economy%3A_here%27s_what_the_future_could_look_like_instead?page=entire
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #4 posted by schmeff on June 11, 2012 at 08:34:00 PT
So Blind They Cannot See
"What kind of message are we sending to our youth? We are more worried about soda for health reasons than we are about marijuana." - Rhode Island state Rep. John Carnevale.Of course, intelligence is not a requirement for public office.The irony is that sugary soda IS far more harmful to one's health than cannabis. Cannabis smoking improves lung function and prevents lung cancer...the studies are scientific and conclusive.Carnevale's comment shows why it is so important - and I can't emphasize this enough - people shouldn't be marrying their cousins.
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on June 10, 2012 at 21:33:54 PT
Really
DuPont:"People ask me what the most dangerous drug is, and I say marijuana. -0-Maybe if people ask me who the most ignorant person is, I should say Robert DuPont.
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on June 10, 2012 at 18:03:22 PT
Future Poll Finds US Marijuana Legalization:
Yes: 70% No: 30%Check Out The New Graph Here:
70% Yes 30% No sometime in 2014!
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #1 posted by Oleg the Tumor on June 10, 2012 at 15:21:07 PT:
AARRGH! I can't take it anymore!
"Marijuana saps people's motivation, their direction. It's a drug that makes people stupid and lazy. That's in a way more dangerous."Speak but the word and thy hole will be sealed!
[ Post Comment ]
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