AlterNet, 30 Jul 2010 - With Only a Few Months to Go Until the Election, the Campaign to Legalize Marijuana in California Has Only $50,000 in Cash on Hand. The Question Now Is: How Can It Win? Today, at least a third of Americans say they've tried smoking weed. Is it possible that after half a century of increasingly mainstreamed pot use the public is ready for marijuana to be legal? We may soon find out.
US: Black Church Group Criticizes California NAACP On Marijuana Support
Wilmington Journal, 28 Jul 2010 - WASHINGTON (NNPA) Some Black church leaders are calling for the head of the California NAACP to step down over her group's support for the legalization of marijuana in her state as well as over alleged ties to the marijuana lobby. Rev. Anthony Evans, president of National Black Church Initiative, and Bishop Ron Allen, president and chief executive officer of the Inter-national Faith Based Coalition took issue with an editorial California NAACP president Alice Huffman wrote in a popular online newspaper The Huffington Post outlining reasons why her organization supports California Proposition 19 - the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act 2010 - a measure that would make California the first state to legalize marijuana.
US CA: Blacks In California Split Over Marijuana Measure
New York Times, 20 Jul 2010 - SACRAMENTO - Ron Allen says he knows all too well the ravages of drug addiction. "I was a pastor on crack cocaine, sir," said Mr. Allen, who says he has been sober for 11 years and now identifies himself as the bishop of the International Faith Based Coalition here. "Drugs have no religious preference."
The Economist, 15 Jul 2010 - THE LAW OF THE WEED California, Ever a Global Leader in Cannabis Matters, May Forge Ahead Again IN 1971 a group of teenagers in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, started meeting after school, at 4:20PM, to get high. The habit spread, and 420 became code for fun time among potheads worldwide. Ever since, California has remained in the vanguard of global cannabis culture. Oaksterdam University in Oakland is today unique in the world as a sort of Aristotelian lyceum for the study of all aspects--horticultural, scientific, historical--of the weed.
The Press Democrat, 18 Jul 2010 - IN 1971 a group of teenagers in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, started meeting after school, at 4:20PM, to get high. The habit spread, and 420 became code for fun time among potheads worldwide. Ever since, California has remained in the vanguard of global cannabis culture. Oaksterdam University in Oakland is today unique in the world as a sort of Aristotelian lyceum for the study of all aspects--horticultural, scientific, historical--of the weed. Legally, California has also been a pioneer, at least within America. In 1996 it was the first state to allow marijuana to be grown and consumed for medicinal purposes. Since then, 13 states and the District of Columbia have followed, and others are considering it. But this year California may set a more fundamental, and global, precedent. It may become the first jurisdiction in the world to legalise, regulate and tax the consumption, production and distribution of marijuana.
US: Web: The Passing of My Spiritual Father Social Activist
AlterNet, 14 Jul 2010 - In 1985 I was sentenced to 15 years to life under the Rockefeller Drug Laws of New York State. I struggled to survive in the maximum security hell hole, Sing Sing, and did many things I was not proud of to stay alive. Being in prison for many years had drained me spiritually and emotionally. There were times when the only emotion I was aware of was a quiet, smoldering rage. Because of the barriers I'd built to survive, I'd become desensitized, and I knew it. There was still a part of me that could see myself from the outside in, and what I saw I didn't like: a callous, bitter individual consumed with the injustices of the world. I knew that I needed to heal if I ever wanted to interact normally with people upon release. I had some insight into human behavior because of the bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science I'd earned from Mercy College in 1993. The problem was, the program was over and I had to serve an additional 7 years.
US NJ: What's Up With N.J.'s Medical Marijuana Law?
Philadelphia Weekly, 14 Jul 2010 - WHAT'S UP WITH N.J.'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW? Is the administration trying to pull the plug on New Jersey's medical marijuana law? Of all the shitty ways to die, ALS is arguably the shittiest. Also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and in short it is slow death brought on by the steady and methodical withering of the nerves that control your muscles. First, you can't button your shirt. Then, you can't walk and eventually, you can't breathe. The cruelest irony is that the disease does not affect higher brain function, and so even at the very end, you are a fully present mind trapped in a lifeless body, a ghost in a dead machine. Upon diagnosis, most victims live three to five years. A small percentage live for up to 10 years, but only with the assistance of a ventilator, and few would call that living. There is no cure.
US PA: Column: Legalized Pot? Like Getting Bonged in the Head
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 13 Jul 2010 - In November, Californians will have the opportunity to vote on a ballot initiative legalizing all marijuana use, whether medicinal or not. According to the latest poll of likely California voters, Proposition 19 will pass. This will put the Obama administration in an awkward position.
US CO: Column: California Might Overturn Odious History of Marijuana Laws
Denver Post, 11 Jul 2010 - Close to 40 years after Richard Nixon sparked America's "war on drugs," California voters this November get to vote on the war's biggest challenge ever. It's a ballot proposition making it legal for any Californian 21 or older to grow or use marijuana. If passed, there will be no more requirements to prove medical need (today's law in California and 13 other states). Cannabis would be subject to taxes, potentially yielding billions of dollars in state, county and city levies.