DrugSense

Spokesman-Review, 31 Dec 2012 – The Dec. 16 editorial said "Obama needs to clarify pot stance soon." We do not have to wait for the White House to act while we have representatives in D.C. Representatives from Oregon, California, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Maine have signed on to the Respect States’ and Citizens’ Rights Act of 2012. This one-page bill would stop the Controlled Substances Act from pre-empting any state law that pertains to marijuana. Washington and Colorado, not to mention 16 other states that permit medical marijuana, could breathe easier if this bill becomes law. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers should sign on to help move this bill along.

DrugSense

DrugSense

The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader, 26 Dec 2012 – I keep hearing people say our new law to legalize marijuana isn’t going to hold up because federal law always supersedes state laws. This is just not true. The Founding Fathers did not allow for a totalitarian central government. The Constitution separates the powers between the state and federal governments. Drugs clearly fall under the state jurisdiction. This is why the Volstead Act in 1919 to prohibit alcohol needed to be backed up by the 18th Amendment. Everyone realized the feds did not have authority to override state liquor laws without changing the Constitution.

Seattle Times, 20 Dec 2012 – 5-Year Probation, $25,000 Fine First to Be Sentenced on Federal Charges Just a year ago, Brionne Corbray was a flashy entrepreneur in the Seattle medical-marijuana market, with a late-model Mercedes-Benz and three storefront dispensaries to his name, including a White Center smoking lounge he described as "like a bar, without the alcohol."

The Columbian, 20 Dec 2012 – Sheriff’s Sergeant Among Speakers At Rotary Meeting Forget worrying about excess sugar and butter when reaching for baked goods at holiday parties this year. Sean Chavez of Prevent! coalition said you should be worried a different ingredient: Marijuana.

Spokesman-Review, 19 Dec 2012 – Why the misinformation about marijuana, its use, history and benefits? Doctors and patients are discovering the curative and palliative benefits that traditional medicine has practiced for about 5,000 years. Who wouldn’t support legalization? Except the drug lords who take in about $5 billion annually, banks that launder the cash and are too big to indict, politicians profiting from "political contributions," enforcement agencies warring against drugs and confiscating property, even U.S. growers who don’t want things to change.

The Herald, 18 Dec 2012 – Everett voters approved marijuana legalization by a healthy margin last month, but now it’s December and the City Council is about to do something that will make all those voters quite unhappy. Council is set to enact a so-called "nuisance ordinance" that would so drastically limit where medical cannabis collective gardens might locate that it would create an effective ban on safe access for patients in the city. It would also likely ban any Everett marijuana retail locations for recreational users that the State Liquor Board might wish to license when it begins to issue licenses for those in about one year. Many thousands of Everett voters will find council’s action a nuisance, but, rest assured, black market pot dealers will be thrilled.

The Columbian, 13 Dec 2012 – The voters of Washington state are way ahead of the politicians in Washington, D.C. The cautions outlined in a Dec. 6 editorial, "Pot: Proceed with caution," highlight the pressing need for marijuana law reform on a national level. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. As a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy, I think the federal war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. Robert Sharpe