Cannabis Freedom

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:

I fired up Google Reader with my new Memphis OPML file import. The first post I opened from my new Memphis feeds was the one in the screenshot below. At that instant I had exactly 666 unread messages. The devil is messing with me.
The blog post was apparently intended for someone else. Unless she had a premonition that I was coming. I checked my email. Not me.

In other news: Notice the cool commenting feature they've added to shared items. I might start using it more often. Check the sidebar to the right. I share all the cannabis news I read but don't have time to comment on.

I blogged a few days ago about Brittany Zimmermann, the young lady who was murdered after a 911 operator failed to follow up on her distress call. Unfortunately, she fell victim to the misconception that government is here to help you. I regret not mentioning Brittany's name in my first post. Victims of tyranny and incompetence need to be remembered as individuals.

The Reason Magazine blog has now mentioned the tragedy. I wonder if the story will get any traction.

The 6th Amendment gives you a right to a fair trial by a jury of your peers. But does it? The legal system does a great job of disenfranchising cannabis users to dilute the pool of activists and advocates that can participate in the system. This way the system can mitigate the risk of jury nullification. Thus, a person brought up on drug charges its only going to face drug warriors on a jury.

In today's news:

Judge Sherman Ross tried to assemble a jury of peers for a woman accused of possession of a marijuana on trial Tuesday.

But authorities say prospective juror Cornelia Mayo might have taken that concept a bit too far after she was caught smoking a joint outside the courthouse during a break.

My question for the Houston Chronicle reporter, "How can you take fundamental rights 'too far'? Would you place such restrictions on the freedom of the press?" Remember, you can't spell Chronicle without "Chronic."

For my Tennessee Readers:
The TN State Constitution Declaration of Rights thought impartial jury trials be so crucial to individual rights that the concept is discussed in Sections 6, 8, and 9.

Today, 96 students got arrested at San Diego State University on drug warrants. The DEA and campus police infiltrated a network of students after a student died of a cocaine overdose last year. What doesn't surprise me is that these weren't a bunch of thugs:

"A sad commentary is that when one of these individuals was arrested, they inquired as to whether or not his arrest and incarceration would have an effect on his becoming a federal law enfocement [sic] officer," Partridge said.

Officials said one of the students arrested on suspicion of selling cocaine was a month away from getting his master's degree in homeland security and another worked as a student community service officer and reported to campus police.

Today 96 young lives ruined because one woman decided voluntarily to put herself in a very dangerous situation.

American Drug War is a documentary film produced by Joe Rogan, of Fear Factor fame, and directed by Kevin Booth. I'll post a full review later, but for now someone has posted the full movie on Google Video. I'm not sure if its authorized so get it while it lasts.

American Drug War - The Last White Hope via Google Video.

You can watch the trailer here.

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.