United States Marijuana Party

Tuesday, 07 September 2010

With Marc Emery, B.C.’s leading marijuana activist, expected to receive a five-year jail sentence in the United States this Friday, his wife and fellow activist Jodie Emery is pointing to recent developments in the U.S.A.’s legalized marijuana movement as further evidence of the hypocrisy of the American and Canadian criminal codes.

“Five years after his initial arrest you have California looking to legalize marijuana this fall [and] you have the original prosecutor in his case saying that marijuana should be legalized,” Jodie told Business in Vancouver on Tuesday morning.

Jodie, who is the director of Cannabis Culture magazine and director-at-large for B.C.’s Green Party, also continues to claim that Marc’s arrest, which stemmed from the online sale of pot seeds from Canada into the U.S., was largely politically motivated.

“You have marijuana seed sellers going in and out of the U.S. to trade shows and talking about how many seeds they sell, but they aren’t being arrested or facing any lengthy prison terms.”

In a release Monday, Jodie added that though the Drug Enforcement Administration and the media have reported that Marc “made millions of dollars,” all of the money generated through seed sales was given away to activism groups and events.

“Marc started selling seeds with the explicit goal of funding the marijuana legalization movement, which he did tremendously well, to the tune of $4 million dollars over the decade he was in business,” she said. “He paid his income tax on seed sales, and operated openly and transparently.”

She said that “Free Marc Emery” rallies are being held in up to 60 cities around the world on September 18.

While Marc’s earlier plea bargain will likely result in his receiving a five-year sentence this Friday in a U.S. federal court in Seattle, Jodie Emery is looking to maintain public awareness of his plight in order to have him promptly transferred to a Canadian prison to serve his time.

She said if Emery, who is the leader of the BC Marijuana Party, can return to Canada to serve his sentence, he could be released on full-parole as early as November 2011.

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Americans Take Stock of Marijuana, Drug Use in Mid-Term Elections

By HUMA KHAN
Sept. 7, 2010

Marijuana is on the ballot in four states this November, including the first effort of its kind in California to fully legalize pot, but don't expect politicians to get high on the idea any time soon.

In what could become another hot button political issue this November, Democrats in California are divided over Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana use and allow government to make money off of it by imposing new regulations and taxes

The California government projected that at an excise tax of $50 per ounce, the new law would bring in about $1.4 billion in revenues for the state. Several members of Congress, such as Reps. Pete Stark, Barbara Lee and George Miller have spoken candidly in favor of it. The California Democratic Party chose not to take any position on it. But virtually all heavy hitters are opposed to it, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer, and both gubernatorial candidates.

The reason -- voters still haven't warmed up to the idea yet.

While polls show increasing support over the years among Americans for full legalization of marijuana, the majority still prefers the status quo. An Associated Press-CNBC poll released in April found that 33 percent of Americans favored legalization of pot, while an overwhelming 55 percent opposed it. An earlier ABC News/Washington Post poll released in January found 46 percent support for legalizing small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

"The public, generally for their children and their community, are just afraid of narcotics and partly rightly so," said Stark, D-Calif., who supports decriminilization of drugs on the federal level.

The split within the Democratic party on this issue is not surprising, Stark said. In an election year where the future of the Democratic party looks unstable and it's unclear whether the party will even keep it's majority after November, candidates running for statewide offices are steering clear of such controversial issues, Stark said, especially when large parts of their constituencies are opposed to legalization of marijuana.

Stark himself represents a district in the San Francisco Bay area, considered to be among the most liberal in the country.

It's also an issue that doesn't rank high on people's minds during a recession and period of high unemployment.

"There's some discussion in Congress but I would suggest that it's probably not one of those leading issues right now -- Jobs being the major concern that we have, and spending a lot of money that we don't have is a far bigger concern," Stark told ABC News. "But it does come up from time to time."

Gary Johnson, former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, supports legalization of marijuana and argues that it will lead to a more effective fight against drugs. He blames the stalemate on the federal government and on both Republicans and Democrats.

"For the most part, politics is about following the herd as opposed to providing leadership," Johnson, who is speculated to be considering a run for the White House in 2012, told ABC News. "For me, it was a cost-benefit analysis, period. It's the fact that half of what we spend in law enforcement and the courts and the prisons is drug related, to what end?"

Johnson disagrees with the idea that dabbling in the politics of drugs would be harmful -- he cites his own approval rating as governor, saying it was steady even after he made his position known.

"It's a really good political issue because it's the truth. It's the emperor wears no clothes," he said.

Initiatives opening up the passage of medical marijuana use will be up for a vote in three states -- Oregon, Arizona and South Dakota. If the measures pass, these three states would join 14 other states and Washington, D.C., where medical marijuana use is legal.

Support for medicinal use, unlike full legalization, is still strong. An ABC News/Washington Post poll in January found that 81 percent of Americans supported medical marijuana laws.

Proposition 19 Faces Difficult Road in California

Support for Proposition 19 is divided, with most recent surveys showing more support for it than opposition. But unlike other recent hot button issues, such as gay marriage, this has so far failed to attract the kind of grassroots attention among voters, especially young Californians, that proponents were hoping it would.

In fact, even some who support legalization of marijuana oppose Proposition 19 on the grounds that it doesn't achieve the goals it was designed to do.

"The taxation scheme is so convoluted that folks who are supposed to be the main beneficiaries are coming out against it," said Roger Salazar, spokesman for the "No On Proposition 19" campaign. "There are concerns across the board because the thing was so poorly written."

Supporters say the initiative will generate new revenue for the state and lessen the burden on law enforcement and prisons if it passes, but some argue that the idea that it will help cash-strapped California is a hoax.

"You can't get revenue for something that's a federal felony and a state law can't repeal federal law," said Mark Kleiman, professor of public policy at University of California, Los Angeles and director of the Drug Policy Analysis Program. "All the revenues have to be spent on drug prevention and treatment -- it does nothing for states' or localities' budget deficits."

"We have to be very, very, very stoned for that proposition to make sense," Kleiman added.

Regardless, supporters say the fact that such a measure is on the ballot is still a step forward. California is the second state to dabble in such a measure. Earlier this year a marijuana-legalization bill in Washington state was struck down by the legislature.

Proposition 19 is the "opening stage of the modern era of modern reform," said Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates for legalization of marijuana.

"Whether Proposition 19 wins or loses, it's already a winner," Nadelmann told ABC News. "What it's done is legitimized and elevated a discussion about marijuana policy in a way that has never happened before. It's generated a level and seriousness and sophistication of dialogue and debate unlike what we've had before. This is the first time you have members of Congress saying they will vote for it."

Nadelmann and other proponents of the ballot initiative equate it to gay rights, in that "people are coming out of the closet and defeating the notion that they need to be punished for engaging in this 'deviant activity.'"

Slow Movement on the Federal Level

While support for decriminalizing marijuana has gained momentum, especially in Washington and California, at the federal level the subject remains a sensitive one.

Rand Paul, the GOP libertarian-leaning Senate candidate in Kentucky whose father supports legalization, illustrated that when he famously reversed his position -- initially supporting medical marijuana usage but then shifting his stance, telling the Associated Press this month he opposes legalization of marijuana, even for medicinal purposes.

Members of Congress say discussions on the issue have been brewing but have yet to surface. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is an outspoken advocate of states' rights when it comes to legalizing marijuana and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has also spoken widely in favor of legalizing it. But there has been mostly silence from the Senate on this issue.

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Written by Neill Franklin & Norm Stamper

The current and former White House drug czars unwittingly reveal the profound weakness of the case for continuing marijuana prohibition by relying on tired "reefer madness" hyperbole. As law enforcement veterans with a combined 68 years of police experience, we'd like to outline the many compelling reasons to support legalizing and regulating marijuana through measures like California's Proposition 19. The bottom line is straightforward: Proposition 19 is not about the right to get high. It's about public safety. We are just two of the growing number of law enforcement professionals who understand that it's prohibition that causes just about all our problems with marijuana - not the plant itself.

The violence, the enrichment of criminals, the wasted police resources, the alarmingly widespread access our kids have to the drug - all of these result from prohibition. The clear answer is to regulate marijuana similar to the way we do alcohol. Research has consistently shown that it is easier for kids to obtain marijuana than it is to buy beer.

That's because alcohol is legal and age-regulated. On the other hand, illegal marijuana dealers don't ask for ID. As front-line cops, we've seen the impact of the war on marijuana at close range. We have futilely worked alongside many talented professionals to enforce laws that can never work.

We have seen some of these brave cops die in the line of fire because of these policies. And for what? Today, marijuana remains available to anyone who wants it, and vicious drug cartels are reaping 65 to 70 percent of their enormous profits from marijuana alone.

More than 28,000 people have been killed in Mexico over the last four years as the result of turf wars over unregulated drug markets. By contrast, the number of deaths resulting from violent clashes over regulated beer and liquor markets is zero. There are no wine cartels growing grapes in our national parks.

No level of law enforcement skill and resources can end the carnage inherent in illegal markets for easily available products that many people want. It's a lesson we should have learned from the failure of alcohol prohibition. We can change all this by passing measures like Proposition 19.

When we regulate marijuana, it will be harder for kids to obtain. We will reduce violent gang wars and will slash the lavish funding of cartels in Mexico from the tax-free proceeds of California's biggest cash crop.

Law enforcement will be able to focus on preventing and solving robberies, murders, assaults, rapes, domestic violence, impaired driving and terrorism when we are no longer making 60,000 marijuana arrests a year in California alone - that's nearly 200 every day of the year.

These issues were missing from the piece by the drug czars because they have no answer to the grim realities of prohibition.

This November, Californians have a chance to say "no more" to decades of failed policy. Proposition 19 will enable police across the state to focus on what's important and to be more effective.

It deserves law enforcement's energetic support.

Neill Franklin and Norm Stamper are members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com). Franklin, a 34-year veteran cop, led anti-narcotics task forces for the Maryland State Police and did narcotics training for the Baltimore Police Department. Stamper was a police officer in San Diego for 28 years before serving as Seattle's chief of police for six years.

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by Phillip Smith, September 05, 2010

(Update: On Saturday, September 18, Emery supporters are organizing Free Marc Emery rallies worldwide. Read the listings and other information here. Supporters are also calling on the Canadian government to repatriate Emery into the Canadian justice system, a right they have under treaty.)

In a Seattle Times op-ed Saturday, former US Attorney for the Western District of Washington John McKay defected to the other side. As the federal prosecutor in Seattle, McKay oversaw the indictment and prosecution of Canadian marijuana seed seller and pot advocate Marc Emery, who now sits in an American federal detention facility awaiting the formal handing down of a five-year prison sentence later this month.

But while he thinks Emery and most pot-smokers are "idiots," McKay has come to see the futility of continuing to enforce marijuana prohibition. "As Emery's prosecutor and a former federal law-enforcement official, however, I'm not afraid to say out loud what most of my former colleagues know is true: Our marijuana policy is dangerous and wrong and should be changed through the legislative process to better protect the public safety," he wrote.

Marijuana prohibition "has utterly failed," McKay concluded. "The demand for marijuana in this country has for decades outpaced the ability of law enforcement to eliminate it," he declared, ready to throw in the towel.

"Brave agents and cops continue to risk their lives in a futile attempt to enforce misguided laws that do not match the realities of our society," he wrote. "These same agents and cops, along with prosecutors, judges and jailers, know we can't win by arresting all those involved in the massive importation, growth or distribution of marijuana, nor by locking up all the pot smokers."

Pot prohibition fills the pockets of "Mexican and other international drug cartels and gangs," even though marijuana is nowhere nearly as harmful to users as other illegal drugs, McKay wrote.

"So the policy is wrong, the law has failed, the public is endangered, no one in law enforcement is talking about it and precious few policymakers will honestly face the soft-on-crime sound bite in their next elections. What should be done?" McKay asks.

It is a rhetorical question, of course, and McKay has answers: Recognize that the real public safety danger to Americans is not from marijuana but from prohibition, build policy on "sound science, not myth," and... drum roll please... "We should give serious consideration to heavy regulation and taxation of the marijuana industry (an industry that is very real and dangerously underground). We should limit pot's content of the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), regulate its sale to adults who are dumb enough to want it and maintain criminal penalties for sales, possession or use by minors, drivers and boaters."

Not to worry, though, McKay assures his erstwhile partners in the prohibition racket. There will be years to come of extirpating criminality from the former black market, and that means job security: "DEA and its law-enforcement partners must therefore remain well equipped and staffed to accomplish this task: to protect our families from truly dangerous drugs and to drive drug cartels, gangs and dope dealers from our society."

Still, a remarkably candid confession from a man who made a living prosecuting marijuana offenders. Too bad he didn't find himself on the road to Damascus when he still had the prosecutors' powers.