Drug War Chronicle, Issue #604 -(urls + editorial)- 10/16/09

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #604 -- 10/16/09
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604

A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

DRUG WAR CHRONICLE NEEDS YOUR DONATIONS -- THANK YOU FOR
HELPING!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/changingminds09/donate

Table of Contents:

1. FEATURE: IN ACT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, HEMP FARMERS PLANT
HEMP SEEDS AT DEA HEADQUARTERS
The hemp industry is growing weary of waiting for the right to
grow hemp in this country. It has filed lawsuits, it has a bill
in Congress, and it is asking the Obama administration to treat
hemp the same way it treats medical marijuana. But nothing is
happening, so now, the movement is turning up the heat with
civil disobedience.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/civil_disobedience_hemp_farmers_plant_seeds_DEA

2. FEATURE: MAINE MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY INITIATIVE AHEAD
IN NOVEMBER ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Maine is poised to become the next medical marijuana state to
adopt a dispensary system with a measure on the ballot in next
month's elections. Despite opposition, including from some
unexpected quarters, the initiative appears set to pass handily.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/maine_medical_marijuana_dispensary_measure

3. LATIN AMERICA: MEXICO DRUG WAR UPDATE
Ciudad Juarez continues to earn the title of Mexico's drug war
murder capital, but there was plenty of prohibition-fueled
killing to go around this past week.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/mexico_drug_war_update

4. FEEDBACK: DO YOU READ DRUG WAR CHRONICLE?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to
evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to
funders. We need donations too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

5. SENTENCING: SEN. DURBIN INTRODUCES BILL TO ELIMINATE
CRACK/POWDER COCAINE DISPARITY
Is this the year we finally see an end to the infamous
crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity? A bill to do just
that has passed the House Judiciary Committee, and now, Sen.
Dick Durbin and nine cosponsors have introduced companion
legislation in the Senate.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/durbin_introduces_cocaine_sentencing_disparity_bil
l

6. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A sheriff shaking down motorists under the guise of asset
forfeiture gets a slap on the wrist, and so does a narc who
stole the cash from a drug raid. A drug investigation nets two
New Jersey cops -- among others -- and another Florida deputy
goes down for extorting a pot grower. And sometimes, a cop may
not be as corrupt as she first seems.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/police_drug_corruption

7. MARIJUANA: MASSACHUSETTS LEGALIZATION BILL GETS HEARING
On Wednesday, a Massachusetts bill that would legalize marijuana
got a hearing before the legislature's Joint Revenue Committee.
That's a start.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/massachusetts_marijuana_legalization_bill_gets_hea
ring

8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: WISCONSIN BILL TO BE FILED
Medical marijuana patients and supporters in Wisconsin have been
pushing for action in the legislature this year. Now, a bill is
set to be introduced.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/wisconsin_medical_marijuana_bill

9. AUSTRALIA: WESTERN AUSTRALIA PREMIER VOWS TO ROLL BACK
MARIJUANA REFORMS, REENERGIZE DRUG WAR
The forces of reaction are on the move in Perth. Claiming a
mandate from a year-old election, Western Australia Premier
Colin Barnett wants to turn back the clock on marijuana law
reform, and he's got some more ugly surprises in store, too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/western_australia_marijuana_reform_roll_back_decri
minalization

10. NEW ZEALAND: NEW ANTI-METH MEASURES SET TO GO INTO EFFECT --
TOUGH LUCK, FLU SUFFERERS
Faced with high levels of methamphetamine use, the New Zealand
government is moving to require prescriptions for cold and flu
medications containing pseudoephedrine, and just in time for the
swine flu. It's got some other anti-meth measures coming, too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/new_zealand_methamphetamine_pseudoephedrine_flu

11. AFRICA: LIBERIA INSTITUTES DRACONIAN NEW DRUG SENTENCES
West Africa has become an important transshipment point for
cocaine headed from South America to Europe. They also grow a
lot of marijuana there. Now, the Liberian government wants to
crack down, and it's reading from the old US drug war playbook.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/liberia_harsh_new_drug_law

12. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/drug_war_history

13. ANNOUNCEMENT: THE 2009 INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY REFORM
CONFERENCE, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, NOVEMBER 12-14
Every two years drug policy reformers from across the United
States and around the world come to the International Drug
Policy Reform Conference to listen, learn, network and
strategize together for change. This year the conference is in
Albuquerque, in November, and StoptheDrugWar.org is a partner.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/2009_international_drug_policy_reform_conference_a
lbuquerque_new_mexico

14. STUDENTS: INTERN AT STOPTHEDRUGWAR.ORG (DRCNET) AND HELP
STOP THE DRUG WAR!
Apply for an internship at DRCNet and you could spend a semester
fighting the good fight!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/drcnet_internships_to_stop_the_drug_war

15. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"Why Does PayPal Have a Problem With Medical Marijuana?,"
"Awesome: Protesters Plant Hemp at DEA Headquarters, Get
Arrested," "What's the Actual Value of a Marijuana Plant?"
"Where NOT to Hide Your Stash," "Oakland Cannabis Tax on Lehrer
News Hour Last Night," "Senators Sponsor Bill to Lower Crack
Cocaine Penalties," "Busy Night on the Medical Marijuana Front."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)

===============

1. Feature: In Act of Civil Disobedience, Hemp Farmers Plant
Hemp Seeds at DEA Headquarters
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/604/civil_disobedience_hemp_farmers_plant_seeds_DEA

Fresh from the Hemp Industries Association
(http://www.thehia.org) annual convention last weekend in
Washington, DC, a pair of real life farmers who want to be hemp
farmers joined with hemp industry figures and spokesmen to
travel across the Potomac River to DEA headquarters in
Arlington, Virginia, where, in an act of civil disobedience,
they took shovels to the lawn and planted hemp seeds. Within a
few minutes, they were arrested and charged with trespassing.

Hoping to focus the attention of the Obama administration on
halting DEA interference, North Dakota farmer Wayne Hauge,
Vermont farmer Will Allen, HIA President Steve Levine,
hemp-based soap producer and Vote Hemp (http://www.votehemp.com)
director David Bronner, Vote Hemp communications director Adam
Eidinger, and hemp clothing company owner Isaac Nichelson were
arrested in the action as another dozen or so supporters and
puzzled DEA employees looked on.

"Who has a permit?" demanded a DEA security official. "A permit
-- that's what we want from the DEA," Bronner responded.

After being held a few hours, the Hemp Six were released late
Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, two pleaded guilty to
trespassing and were fined $240. The others are expecting to
face similar treatment.

Although products made with hemp -- everything from foods to
fabrics to paper to auto body panels -- are legal in the US,
under the DEA's strained interpretation of the Controlled
Substances Act, hemp is considered indistinguishable from
marijuana and cannot be planted in the US. According to the hemp
industry, it is currently importing about $360 million worth of
hemp products each year from countries where hemp production is
legal, including Canada, China, and several European nations.

The DEA refused to comment on the action or the issue, referring
queries instead to the Department of Justice, which also refused
to comment beside pointing reporters to its filings in the
ongoing hemp lawsuit.

Currently, eight states -- Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,
Montana, North Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia -- have
programs allowing for industrial hemp research or production,
but their implementation has been blocked by DEA bureaucratic
intransigence. This spring, however, President Obama instructed
federal agencies to respect state laws in a presidential
directive on federal preemption
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Memorandum-Regarding-Preemption/)
:

"Executive departments and agencies should be mindful that in
our federal system, the citizens of the several States have
distinctive circumstances and values, and that in many instances
it is appropriate for them to apply to themselves rules and
principles that reflect these circumstances and values," said
Obama. "As Justice Brandeis explained more than 70 years ago,
'it is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a
single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a
laboratory and try novel social and economic experiments without
risk to the rest of the country.'"

The hemp industry and hemp supporters see several paths forward.
Farmer Hauge is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challengingly the DEA's
interpretation of the Controlled Substances Act. That case is
now before the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. US
Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA) are sponsoring a
bill that would allow farmers to plant hemp in states where it
is permitted, and the industry is urging President Obama and the
Justice Department to follow their own example on medical
marijuana and leave hemp farmers alone as long as they are legal
under state law.

But despite all their efforts, nothing is happening. Tuesday's
civil disobedience was designed to begin breaking up the logjam.

"We're getting frustrated," said Bronner, president of Dr.
Bronner's Magic Soaps (http://www.drbronner.com), which has been
used hemp oil in its soaps since 1999. "This is supposed to be
change with Obama, and things aren't changing. We just had the
DEA and local DA go nuts on the dispensaries in San Diego where
I live. We spent money on a lobbying firm to get a statement
from the Justice Department along the lines of Holder's
statement on medical marijuana, but nothing is happening. This
would be easy to do, but it's not happening. We understand that
Obama has a lot going on, but we're getting increasingly
disappointed and frustrated. We hope this will help catalyze
something in this administration."

"We're like the fired-up hempsters, we're keeping Jack Herer's
ideas alive," said Eidinger, still fired up a day after his
arrest Tuesday. "We're beginning a new chapter of hemp activism,
and there needs to be a lot more of this stuff. Civil
disobedience has to be part of a comprehensive campaign in the
courts, in Congress, and out on the streets, in front of DEA
offices all over the country."

"We've passed a law in Vermont that you can grow industrial
hemp," said Allen, the white-haired, pony-tailed proprietor of
the certified organic Cedar Circle Farm
(http://www.cedarcirclefarm.org). "The only barrier now is the
DEA, so we're trying to convince them to back off on this like
they backed off on enforcing the medical marijuana law in
California. Here, we have a crop that isn't going to get anybody
high. We grow organic sunflower and canola, and we'd like to
have another oil crop in rotation at our location. It just makes
economic sense, and it's a states' rights thing. The DEA
shouldn't be involved in this; this isn't a drug."

"We want to get some attention for the cause and show the
distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana," said North
Dakota farmer Hauge, who is licensed by the state to grow hemp
and who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the DEA now before
the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals. "It's not a drug; it's just
another crop that can be grown in rotation. If it wasn't for the
DEA, I would be harvesting my crop right now."

Getting himself arrested for hemp activism in Washington, DC,
was a totally new experience for Hauge, who is usually hunkered
down on a few hundred acres of North Dakota prairie just south
of the Canadian border and just east of the Montana state line.
"It was definitely a first for me," said Hauge. "I've never even
been stopped for anything."

"We need industrial hemp here in the US, we need to bring jobs
to this country," said Nichelson, founder, owner, and CEO of
Livity Outernational (http://www.livityouternational.com), a
California-based fashion and accessory company that mixes art
and activism. "I'm sick of making all our stuff in China cause
that's the only place I can get the raw materials. We sent the
message that there is a clear distinction between marijuana and
industrial hemp," Nicholson said. "We need the support of our
president and our law enforcement branches. They need to
understand that the US is missing out on a giant opportunity.
The myth that hemp causes any problems in society has been
completely dispelled."

Even DEA underlings -- if not their higher ups -- get it, said
Nicholson, recounting his exchange with one agency employee on
Monday. "One DEA official came out and said, 'What's the
connection between weed and hemp?' and we said, 'Exactly.'"

The action brought some much-needed media attention to the
issue, said Eidinger. "We got a really good article in the
Washington Post, the Washington Times wrote about it, too, CNN
used our video, NPR talked about the action, the Associated
Press picked it up, we had a number of TV stations do reports,
so we definitely reached a national audience," he recounted.
"And North Dakota media has covered this closely; I've been on
the phone with all the media in Bismarck."

It wasn't just civil disobedience in front of the cameras. After
the HIA convention ended, hempsters headed for Capitol Hill,
where dozens of people attended over 20 scheduled meetings with
representatives of their staffs to lobby for the Frank-Paul hemp
bill. Some unannounced, unscheduled meetings also took place,
Eidinger said.

If the hemp movement indeed adopts further civil disobedience
actions, it will have added another prong to its multi-prong
strategy of pressing for the end of the prohibition on
industrial hemp planting in the US. It might be time for other
segments of the drug reform movement to start thinking about
civil disobedience, too.

[Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJgHS6SLEe4 for footage of
the farmers' DEA protest.]

================ .

___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>

Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

later
bliss -- Cacoa Powered... (at sfo dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

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