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 was checking out Memphis photographer, Amie Vanderford's, online slideshow when my wife noticed the Ganja leaf belt buckle in this pic. On further examination we noticed that the photog Amie's reflection is in the ganja leaf. Pretty freaking cool.

Checkout more of Amie's photography on Flickr and her own site.

Allen St. Pierre, Executive Directory of NORML has a scathing rebuttal of the ONDCP's outrageous claims on their blog. The post is on The Hill's blog which is widely read by congressional staffers and lobbyists. Hopefully staffers at the ONDCP will stop getting invited to D.C. cocktail parties and change their tune.

Congress and the Media Should be Dubious of Office of Nat’l Drug Control Policy’s Claims: ...Cannabis cases however, notably minor possession cases, still clog the criminal justice system and are at the heart of dozens of state and federal appellate cases that have largely established less—not more—liberty and economic freedom for citizens. The gravitas of the state and federal conflict on the issue of cannabis prohibition so contentious the US Supreme Court has had to twice intervene since 2001 on the specific issue of medical access to cannabis for dying, sick and sense-threatened patients (in both cases, the court strongly deferred to Congress’ prerogative to pass anti-cannabis legislation, regardless of how illogical or devoid of compassion, reason and science).

Perhaps, having more credibility with law and order crowd, Seattle's former police chief, Norm Stamper can affect the debate with his brilliant arguments in the video below, courtesy of Reason.tv.

Possession of a plant can not only cost you your right to vote, it can also disqualify you from public service.

Commercial Appeal - Felony arrest ends Pearson's bid for Bartlett post - The Shelby County Election Commission ruled that Steve Pearson III, who filed to face Young in the Nov. 4 election, did not qualify for the race. While there were questions about Pearson's residency, a guilty plea to a felony charge of possession of 46 pounds of marijuana in 1989 was enough for the commission to disqualify Pearson, 57, from the election.

This is how they silence their political dissenters. I watched AKA Tommy Chong last night that anecdotes how they railroad non-violent pot offenders through the system, cage them, and strip them of their rights. Pot-prohibition violators are political prisoners. It's time to end this war on the American people and restore the rights of its casualties.

Due to a void I've found on the blogging scene, I'm looking for 6-10 pro-cannabis, pro-medical marijuana, pro-hemp, or anti-prohibition, however you define it, to write on this blog about once a week. If you'd like to contribute and individual piece, that's great too. If you normally write on issues other than marijuana and re-legalization on your own blog and would like to keep your pro-cannabis views separate and anonymous I can give you a forum here. If you're from Memphis, the Mid-South, or the Southeastern US, I especially want you, because there are regional issues that affect the debate here. You can email me at the address in the right-hand column or message me on my Twitter account.

I swear that any personal information you choose to divulge to me, none necessary I assure you, will never become public. The privacy of my partners will be protected by the First Amendment Freedom of the Press.

• Matt Welch at Reason asks, "Where are the Democrats on civil liberties?" Good question.
• Hicktown lawyer points out that McCain has never had to work a day in his life.
• MPD Enforcer says Memphis Police Department's disciplinary system is broken. It's certainly not effective.
• Cuban refugees take note, Junk raft made of plastic bottles sails the Pacific.
• An ABC News reporter in Denver has been arrested for videotaping Senators with lobbyist. So much for the First Amendment. I'd say a fundamental flaw of the Constitution is that it doesn't require Congress to punish those who violate it.
• Jacksonville SuperBitch Laura Capitano, calls Memphis "Nashville's dirty, drunken cousin" and slanders the Beale Street Flippers.
  

I read this news story: Morocco destroyed a 2,736 hectare cannabis farm. That's an area almost 20 times the size of Overton Park*. That's an unreal bust, and yet supply for the United States in the coming year won't be diminished. We're the country with the greatest marijuana consumption in the world.

I saw this story later: Police make large marijuana bust, police in Louisville take in 5 suspects for possessing between 200 and 500 pounds of marijuana. Why does the news media not take note of the outrageous claims of law enforcement? Repeatedly we are told about large busts of multiple hundreds of pound of cannabis, but that's not even a comet in the universe of buds smoked in this country. According to the White House's Marijuana SourceBook [PDF] I've conservatively approximated that 60,000 Memphians use cannabis. That crowd would fill the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

No one could fathom the acreage of bud you would have to produce to feed the demand of the residents of our city. We are constantly bombarded with claims that the drug warriors are winning, Blue Crush?, that they're "keeping drugs of the streets", when clearly they aren't. Instead we're crowding 201 Poplar full of the fathers of our dying babies. Watch the 20/20 preview if you haven't already. If marijuana were taxed and regulated, or simply free to grow and consume the money wouldn't be going to the thugs fueling the violence.

We're giving outrageous profits to the gangsters that rule our streets and cause one of the highest homicide rates in the country. Marijuana prohibition is causing and perpetuating our problems. You just can't keep drugs out the hands of a free people. Unless you want a totalitarian state, end the marijuana prohibition.

*2,736 hectares / 342 acres = 19.77