Please join me, NORML’s board of directors and the best and brightest speakers in the world about cannabis this October, right on San Francisco Bay, to review the past year’s law reform efforts, strategize about future reforms and celebrate cannabis’ unique place in culture, medicine and humanity.
Anyone who follows this issue closely knows that paid prohibitionists like John Walters and Scott Burns refuse to engage in debate with marijuana law reformers.
The California Court of Appeals, Fourth District, ruled yesterday that the state law requiring counties to issue identification cards to authorized medical marijuana patients is constitutional and must be implemented by the counties.
Rob Kampia from the Marijuana Policy Project discussed the broader implications of the federal government passing decriminalization legislation and how it could affect state efforts to reform cannabis laws, notably this November’s decriminalization initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts.
Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and other House members will convene a press conference on Wednesday, July 30, in support of legislation to remove federal penalties for personal marijuana use, and take questions from the media.
Nearly six years ago, Deputy Drug Czar Scott Burns mailed a two-page letter to every prosecutor in America urging them to target and “aggressively prosecute” marijuana violators, including first-time offenders.
Ask any seasoned drug policy reformer about one of the biggest hurdles to overcome in reforming cannabis laws and they’ll quickly acknowledge that to be the lack of both outreach to and participation from minorities (and women).
In the seminal legal case challenging the US government’s mis-scheduling of cannabis under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act (CSA), NORML vs. DEA, at a crucial junction in 1988, which would have readily ended most administrative law challenges, NORML, et al (Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, Drug Policy Foundation, etc…) won the re-scheduling argument before Drug Enforcement Administration Law Judge Francis Young.