Legalization Key to Ending Drug Violence

You don’t have to be a Harvard economics professor like Jeffrey Miron to know that America’s war on drugs has been a lost cause for decades.  Now a bloody war between the Mexican government and vicious drug cartels is raging just across our southern border, killing thousands and threatening to [...]

Economist Cover Story: Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution

A HUNDRED years ago a group of foreign diplomats gathered in Shanghai for the first-ever international effort to ban trade in a narcotic drug. On February 26th 1909 they agreed to set up the International Opium Commission—just a few decades after Britain had fought a war with China to assert [...]

Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper on Fox News

Marijuana Vs. Anti-Depressants for PTSD Marijuana Wins Hands Down

Dr. Phillip Leveque spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Pharmacologist, Forensic Toxicologist and Physician.
(MOLALLA, Ore.) – I was asked by a healthcare professional at the Portland VA Hospital if I would help PTSD Veteran Victims to get permits to use legalized medical marijuana. I already had some [...]

Libertarian Judge Jim Gray’s retirement party draws a bipartisan crowd

Judge Jim Gray’s retirement party was held last night at the home of Tony and Freydel Bushala, in Fullerton.  The event drew a large, bipartisan crowd.  Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby, a Republican, made a few opening comments, and got the crowd riled up.  Other Republicans in attendance [...]

County Sheriff Bill Masters Celebrates Three Decades with the Department

Once A Drug Buster, Now A Prominent Critic Of The ‘War On Drugs’
Source (Telluride Daily Planet)
Sheriff Masters honored for 30 years of service (Norwood Post)
San Miguel Sheriff’s Office
LibertyBill.net
DRCNet Interview: Colorado Sheriff Bill Masters
Bill Masters at LEAP

Five Essential Things We Must Do to Stop America’s Idiotic War on Drugs

The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars waging its 40-year “war on drugs,” responsible for the imprisonment of 500,000 of our fellow American citizens. Despite this enormous waste of money and lives, drugs are as easily available and cheap as ever. The drug-warmongers say it is all for [...]

Academics and the Chihuahua Government Say Decriminalizing Drugs is a Subject That Can’t be Avoided

Mexican lawmakers and legal experts decry El Paso Mayor John Cook’s veto of a City Council resolution that proposed a debate over drug decriminalization
Yesterday, the El Paso mayor’s rejection of a debate over decriminalizing drug use was considered on the Mexican side of the border to go against the necessity [...]

Ecstasy For Treatment Of Traumatic Anxiety

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2009) — Treatment with a pharmacological version of the drug ecstasy makes PTSD patients more receptive to psychotherapy, and contributes to lasting improvement. Norwegian researchers explain why.
People who have survived severe trauma – such as war, torture, disasters, or sexual assault – will often experience after-effects, in [...]

EZLN Criticizes the Drug War

During the Festival of Dignified Rage in Chiapas, Subcomandante Marcos breaks the EZLN’s silence on the drug war
On the first day of the Zapatista National Liberation Army’s participation in the Festival of Dignified Rage, its spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos discussed the drug violence that has increasingly plagued Mexico.  Marcos’s speech marks [...]

Students ’should be given smart drugs to get better exam results’

Ministers and doctors should consider making the drugs available without prescription and for non-medical use, said John Harris, director of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester.
The drugs, which include Ritalin, more commonly prescribed for attention deficit problems, could help students achieve better grades [...]

Round One of Obama’s “Open for Questions” Reveals Clamor for Drug Policy Reform

President-elect Obama – fulfilling multiple campaign promises to more deeply involve the public in setting priorities for his administration – opened up his Change.Gov website to questions from citizens, and asked the people to then rate the questions up or down.
The first round of questions closed at midnight last night, [...]

Scientists Back Brain Drugs For Healthy People

NEW YORK — Healthy people should have the right to boost their brains with pills, like those prescribed for hyperactive kids or memory-impaired older folks, several scientists contend in a provocative commentary.
See:
Welcome back, Bill Postmus
Cranking Out the A’s
The U.S. Military Needs Its Speed

Attacking Alzheimer’s with Red Wine and Marijuana

Two new studies suggest that substances usually associated with dulling the mind — marijuana and red wine — may help ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of age-related memory loss. Their addition comes as another study dethrones folk remedy ginkgo biloba as proof against the disease.

Laws against providing alcohol to minors at homes being considered

Inland law enforcement officers can arrest minors who have alcohol in public and they can bust bartenders and shopkeepers who sell it to them, but they have trouble stopping
underage drinking where it happens most: at home.
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Successful Marijuana Users?

See Bradley’s Blog at The Agitator

Chicago’s top cop says it might be time to re-think the so-called “War on Drugs.”

Jody Weis says rising violence is a bigger issue for police on the street.
WEIS: I hate to say it, but if you have a gang that’s simply selling drugs and not killing anyone, that’s not on our priority list. There are far too many that are engaged in simple violence.

Hell Freezes Over: White House Drug Czar Backs Decriminalization

October 27, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Marijuana Policy Project today congratulated White House “drug czar” John Walters for backing a Mexican government proposal that would remove criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
“I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but John Walters is right,” said MPP executive director Rob Kampia. [...]

Honduran president calls for legalizing drug use

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says drug consumption should be legalized to stop violence related to trafficking.

Sri Lankan government in a bid to legalise the weed

Government officials looking for legal avenue for marijuanaThe Sri Lankan government is out to legalise marijuana for medical purposes. The plant, which is used in indigenous medicine, has many accepted applications in Sri Lanka, including treating high cholesterol, diabetes and arthritis, is currently not legal, though they are hoping to change this.

College presidents want lower drinking age

RALEIGH, North Carolina — College presidents from about 100 of the best-known U.S. universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.