A bill signed by Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday (August 15th, 2017) makes personal-use possession of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs a misdemeanor, not a felony. Oregon joined just a handful of other U.S. states in defelonizing drugs under the new law, which was supported by law enforcement groups and takes effect immediately. Original…
The new law takes effect immediately. (August 16th, 2017) *Link “It’s a great recognition of the fact that we don’t need to further criminalize and turn people into felons over substance abuse, mental health addiction — problems like that,” public defender Aaron Jeffers said Wednesday. “I think the hope is that this will open up the opportunity to…
The poor quality of research-grade marijuana is skewing the results of cannabis research, according to a report released earlier this year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). “Because of restrictions on production and vicissitudes in supply and demand, federally produced cannabis may have been harvested years earlier, is stored in a…
*slums in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital ,where Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called for the execution of “suspects” Indonesia’s president, has instructed police to shoot suspected drug dealers. The rights group said Karnavian “should denounce the Philippines’ ‘war on drugs’ for what it truly is: a brutal, unlawful assault on the rule of law, human rights,…
A bipartisan group of Oregon lawmakers joined legislators from across the country on Monday (August 6th, 2017) in calling for the federal government to remove marijuana from the list of controlled drugs. The lawmakers’ vote to pass the resolution took place in Boston, at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual summit. If the federal…
But what does Russia get out of slowing down efforts to end the war on drugs? How does Russia make its influence felt in ways that matter for the rest of us? The Russians have used their role at the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and on the U.N. Security Council to block reform.…
New federal bills aim to remove state-legal marijuana and industrial hemp from the purview of the Controlled Substances Act. The bill would “make the Controlled Substances Act inapplicable with respect to marijuana in states that have legalized marijuana and have in effect a statewide regulatory regime to protect certain Federal interests.” Original Article (Stop the…
Convicted pot felons that want to own a legal marijuana business in Oakland will now be prioritized under new, radical permit rules designed to make amends for the United States’ war on drugs. The city’s new Equity Permit Program calls for 50 per cent of all licenses for medical marijuana facilities to go to…
*DEA field offices The question is no longer ‘should we legalize marijuana?’; it is ‘how do we legalize marijuana?’ We must do so in a way that recognizes that the people who suffered most under prohibition are the same people who should benefit most under legalization,” said Queen Adesuyi, policy associate at the Drug Policy…
Since voters approved Initiative 502, FBI crime statistics show lower rates of violent crime in Washington than before legalization. According to the FBI data, in 2011 there were 295.6 violent offenses reported per 100,000 Washington residents. In 2015, the most recent full year of data available, that rate had fallen to 284.4 violent offenses per…
Recent Comments