On Friday, January 16, the venerable NBC news show Dateline has scheduled an hour-long profile of the tragic death of Florida college student Rachel Hoffman. Ms. Hoffman was arrested with cannabis and unfortunately trusted local police to become an undercover informant, which ultimately led to her murder.
Right now, the public’s call to “legalize the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana” is the most popular issue on the website. (A related question asking Obama to “end the war on drugs” is #4.) However, several other important issues are just a few votes behind, so it is vital that those of you reading this post take the time to log on to the Ideas for Change website and vote to make cannabis legalization the #1 issue in America!
Since the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, despite the government’s best, but utterly feckless efforts to suppress cannabis culture and use in America, the ‘buzz’ in Washington D.C. and nationwide these days about alternatives to cannabis prohibition is palpable.
Fantasy Fest still wreaks havoc to the city every fall, but the Pirate image of this out of the way city has been lost for a long time now, to t shirt shops and condos; to name hotels and tourist traps.
Currently, over 25,000 public policy questions have been submitted to Obama’s website. Dozens of these questions pertain to cannabis law reform. Right now, the leading vote-getter among these (with 2,000 votes) is:
If these are Mr. Goddard’s genuine concerns then he should consider joining NORML’s staff on a ‘fact finding’ mission to Amsterdam to see how readily cannabis can be distributed to adults for responsible use and his staff should download and read NORML’s drugged driving information and recommendations.
It brings me no joy to point out that some of the leaders of the law enforcement community in my home state of Massachusetts have apparently lost their minds in anticipation of a minor change in criminal law that will soon formalize the decriminalization of a small amount of cannabis.
Activists called on “President-elect Obama to keep his campaign promise and end the raids on the medical marijuana dispensaries here in California. To stop this wave of ‘domestic terrorism’ by President Bush’s Drug Enforcement Administration against California medical marijuana patients and providers.”