Cannabis Freedom

PRESS RELEASE:

Fayetteville, AR: Fayetteville voters will have the choice on Election Day to vote on making adult marijuana possession the lowest police priority. Sensible Fayetteville initiative sponsors turned in just over 1000 additional signatures on August 29 to meet a shortfall of 301 valid signatures. City Clerk Sondra Smith contacted campaign coordinator Ryan Denham today to say that the petition has qualified with over the required total of 3686 signatures that were required to qualify the petition.

Denham praised the city clerk and staff for their professional conduct and courtesy during the laborious verification process. "They worked hard. We were impressed by city operations."

"Now we turn our attention to providing more in-depth information to the voters leading up to Election Day. This initiative offers residents an important opportunity to help guide Fayetteville’s future through better allocation of our resources. It also shows that Fayetteville is willing to take a leadership role among other cities across the nation in addressing failed public policy. And we believe this will benefit Fayetteville’s largest industry, the University of Arkansas, by reducing the number of students penalized with loss of financial aid for marijuana prosecutions. We respect the dedication of our police and prosecutor and believe this measure spells out the public’s full support for their use of enforcement discretion."

Sensible Fayetteville formed in 2007 as a coalition of OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, & Ecology, the Green Party of Washington County, the University of Arkansas student group NORML-SSDP, and the Alliance for Reform of Drug Policy in Arkansas, Inc.

The measure, entitled "Lowest Law Enforcement and Prosecutorial Priority Policy Ordinance," would require Fayetteville police and prosecutor to treat adult marijuana possession offenses as their lowest priority. Further, the measure requires the city clerk to send an annual letter to state and federal legislators, governor, and president stating: "The citizens of Fayetteville have passed an initiative to de-prioritize adult marijuana offenses, where the marijuana is intended for personal use, and request that the federal and Arkansas state governments take immediate steps to enact similar laws." This duty shall be carried out until state and federal laws are changed accordingly.

The full text of the proposed ordinance can be viewed at www.sensiblefayetteville.com Similar laws have been passed by communities in Missouri, Montana, Washington, California, and Colorado. In Arkansas, a similar measure in Eureka Springs passed with 62% of the vote in 2006. Sponsors state that more than one survey by Zogby International have show that over two-thirds of Arkansas voters support reforms that would reduce penalties for adult marijuana use.

I'm becoming more and more impressed with the story of a couple walking from Seattle to New Hampshire and chronicling it on a YouTube video blog. Right now they're headed through Oregon, over the Cascade mountain range. The scenic views and Will's witty commentary have his blog on my A list(my top 5% of 290 subscriptions).

Will and Brooke are walking to New Hampshire to generate awareness to the Free State Project, an organization of liberty loving individuals moving to New Hampshire. By pooling the political power of hundreds of libertarian they hope to shrink the government of New Hampshire. This of course means ending the state war on drugs in New Hampshire.

The latest installation, Day 27, covers waterfalls, mountain trails, and wildlife and more. Watch it to get the joke in the title.

From The Gates of Memphis: Opera and Go Go in Memphis:

25 years ago today, Memphis strippers and their supporters executed one of the strangest and greatest protests in Memphis' history. During the performance of the Metropolitan Opera's Macbeth at the late Dixon-Myers Hall, they stripped.

So some of us used to stand up in the face of tyranny in Memphis. Even as late as the 80's. It's not surprising that the women held out longer than the men. It's like the "Christian" Coalition road in and converted the city. If the conversion doesn't take you end up at 201 Poplar. Kinda sad, no one knows the address of their jail in any of the other cities I've been to.

No word on if charges are pending in this case. As of now the feds have just confiscated his associates' property. Full Story

Chong says agents seized 10,000 DVDs of his documentary. Federal prosecutors may be targeting Chong for trying to profit off his prosecution. "I'm not profiting off the story of my first amendment violation at all," said Chong.

HT: Prison Planet

My hat is off to the students of SDSU. After draconian efforts to rid a California college of a few drugs, the students sprang into action, using their persecution as a platform for their message of harm reduction. The group is called Student's for Sensible Drug policy and they're underwritten by the stand-up guys at the MPP.

On Tuesday, May 6th, the Drug Enforcement Administration swept into San Diego State University and arrested 75 students accused of selling drugs on campus. The news media swarmed on the story, eager to declare victory in San Diego's War on Drugs, but the SDSU chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy wouldn't let that happen. Within 24 hours, SSDP had organized a demonstration and reframed the issue for nearly all the local and national media outlets covering the story, pointing out the futility of drug prohibition, while calling for the school to enact a life-saving Good Samaritan Policy. Click here for SSDP's press release and SDSU SSDP founder Randy Hencken's speech to the press. http://ssdp.org/sdsu/

Watch the news coverage:

Congrats to Texas NORML for a fantastic job in organizing this event. It got some great media coverage locally in Austin. The story below from KEYE TV has two news telecasts included if you click the link.

Austin, TX - Hundreds protested for pot on the steps of the capitol today. A "cannabis crusade" came calling on Texas lawmakers Saturday, calling for the legalization of marijuana.

So maybe there's hope for Texas after all.

Update! I just realized I could embed video from the KEYE TV web site.