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Drug War

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Current

From George Washington to Barack Obama, over the course of the United States' history no less than eleven Presidents grew and/or used cannabis (hemp and marijuana). For these Presidents (to be) cannabis filled economical purposes (as was the case with many of the Founding Fathers), medical purposes (JFK) and cannabis was used as an agent for personal pleasure (Lincoln and Obama).

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Current/Guardian

Argentina and Mexico have taken significant steps towards decriminalising drugs amid a growing Latin American backlash against the US-sponsored "war on drugs". Argentina's supreme court has ruled it unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption, an eagerly awaited judgment that gave the government the green light to push for further liberalisation. It followed Mexico's decision to stop prosecuting people for possession of relatively small quantities of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. Instead, they will be referred to clinics and treated as patients, not criminals. Brazil and Ecuador are also considering partial decriminalisation as part of a regional swing away from a decades-old policy of crackdowns still favoured by Washington. "The tide is clearly turning. The 'war on drugs' strategy has failed," Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former Brazilian president, told the Guardian. Earlier this year, h

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AFP

Toyota Motor said it was developing anti-drunk driving equipment that would lock the ignition of a vehicle if high levels of alcohol are detected in the driver.

The system features a hand-held breathalyser, equipped with a digital camera, that detects alcohol consumption and photographs the driver's face for identification, a company statement said.

 

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Arizona Republic

Five members of a relatively new Arizona Department of Public Safety unit are responsible for confiscating nearly 15,000 pounds of pot, more than 300 pounds of cocaine and about 20 pounds of heroin in the past 18 months.

The officers are part of a DPS unit - the only one of its kind in the country - that combines the talents of some of the agency's more successful drug-interdiction officers with the technical skills of those who understand the smallest of details involved in commercial vehicle enforcement, said department director Roger Vanderpool.

 

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RawStory.com

Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday — a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government's grueling battle against drug traffickers. Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico's corruption-prone police from shaking down casual users and offers addicts free treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.

"This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty," said Bernardo Espino del Ca

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AP

[money maker] Driven largely by ever-rising tobacco prices, he's among a growing number of smokers who have turned to their green thumbs to cultivate tobacco plants to blend their own cigarettes, cigars and chew. Byars normally pays $5 for a five-pack of cigars and $3 for a tin of snuff; the seed cost him $9.

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Reuters

Middle aged baby boomers are still turning on to illegal drugs forty years after Woodstock, doubling the rates of illicit drug use by the previous generation, according to a government study released on Wednesday. The rates of people aged 50 to 59 who admit to using illicit drugs in the past year nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are the same or decreasing, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported. "These findings show that many in the Woodstock generation continue to use illicit drugs as they age," said SAMHSA Acting Administrator Eric Broderick. "This continued use poses medical risks to these individuals and is likely to put further strains on the nation's healthcare system -- highlighting the value of preventing drug use from ever starting." Baby boomers are the post World War II generation born between 1946 and 1964. The data used in the study cam

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Scott Loper

 I was watching Freedom Watch, and I came across this story.  This is unbelieveable.  The story of a sherrif in Canada, who is an American citizen, finding out his fellow cops are dealing drugs, and he uncovers it, and loses everything. 

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Photography is Not a Crime

Donald May spent three months in jail because a central Florida cop thought the breath mints in his mouth were crack cocaine.

The Kissimmee cop even claims he field tested the mints, which proved the mints were crack.

The cop also claimed he saw May buy the drugs and even went as far as claiming that May admitted to buying the drugs.

 

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Washington Post

The Obama administration has concluded that Mexico is working hard to protect human rights while its army and police battle the drug cartels, paving the way for the release of millions of dollars in additional federal aid. The Merida Initiative, a three-year, $1.4 billion assistance program passed by Congress to help Mexico fight drug trafficking, requires the State Department to state that the country is taking steps to protect human rights and to punish polic

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LiveScience

Banknotes from more than 30 cities in five countries, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, and Japan, had "alarming" evidence of cocaine use in many areas.

U.S. and Canadian currency had the highest levels, with an average contamination rate of between 85 and 90 percent, while Chinese and Japanese currency had the lowest, between 12 and 20 percent contamination.

 

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CNN / Rudy Ruiz

"Cooperation with Mexico" involves changing culturally entrenched social hierarchies and dynamics that date to pre-Columbian times. Unfortunately, it's easier and less disruptive to the existing power structure perpetuated by Mexico's ruling elite to wage a war against the cartels than it is to revolutionize a society that denies the vast majority of its members legitimate opportunities for socioeconomic advancement.

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Christian Science Monitor

 Before Washington ramps up yet another losing war on drugs, it should take a clear-eyed look at how its current strategies are affecting the supply and demand of drugs. Congressman Eliot Engel (D) of New York has introduced a bill to do just that.   Washington would be wise to back Congressman Engel's initiative because there has not been a thorough, frank evaluation of the fight against drugs in decades. The drug czar office's annual report is not enough. Recommendations by an independent commission, however, could generate the consensus and strategy we sorely need.

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Drugs, Police & the Law

Jurors have the ability to acquit a defendant if the jurors have no sympathy for the government’s position in a particular case.  Jurors may acquit even if they believe that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged.  The jury “nullifies” a law it thinks is immoral or wrongly applied to a particular defendant.

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CATO

American drug policy has been a central component of U.S.–Mexican relations, and of Mexican drug policy, at least since 1969, when Richard Nixon unleashed Operation Intercept at the San Ysidro-Tijuana border, inspecting every vehicle that crossed the border with the hope, not of finding any drugs, but of pressuring the government of then-President Gustavo Díaz Ordáz to expand Mexican drug enforcement. Since that time at least, the United States has followed a policy of criminalization, interdiction, and de facto drug-consumption acceptance, given that American society has been reluctant to pay the price of a full-fledged attempt at zero tolerance. This has transferred a significant share of the burden of drug enforcement to the supply side of the equation, and in consequence, to the foreign policy domain. 

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Examiner / Garry Reed

Libertarians who fight for marijuana rights should never compromise on rights. They should never meekly beg to be legalized and taxed and regulated. They should never give in to the state. It's the state, after all, who's in the wrong, so make the state give in to you.

 

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Boing Boing

O'Reilly recently invited a couple of pert blond Republican strategists to frighten Fox viewers about Amsterdam's lax pot laws, which have made the city a "mess," and "cesspool of corruption."  The video above was made by a citizen of Amsterdam who used real statistics about drug use in his city compared with drug use in the US.

 

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Motherjones

These provisions were crafted by Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Bob Barr (R-Ga.) and pushed for by then-czar Barry McCaffrey, best remembered for being somewhat comically obsessed with the evils of medical marijuana.

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Just wanted to let you know that Marc will be on FOX 10 News, Wednesday July 29th at 9:00 PM. He will be arguing why we should LEGALIZE MARIJUANA. If you know Marc like I do, you should know it will be a great show and he'll do an AWESOME job. Hello Everyone!   If you all have been wondering what Marc J. Victor has been up to? Guess what, nothing has changed. He is still hassling the government and still fighting for FREEDOM.   Just wanted to le

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