Friday, March 15, 2013

Marijuana laws in Colorado, Washington should be nullified, say ex-DEA administrators

Tomorrow, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee -- and eight ex-heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration suggest that members ask him why the hell he hasn't brought the hammer down on Colorado and Washington state for their respective pot laws. That's the message of a letter on view below. It was released today under the banner of an organization that was by far the largest funder of failed efforts to derail Amendment 64, which allows adults 21 and over to use and possess small amounts of marijuana.

The letter doesn't list a single author, but the designated promoter appears to be Peter Bensinger, who fronted the DEA from 1976 to 1981 and has served in the administrations of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. It's addressed to senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Grassley, the senior Democrat and Republican on the judiciary committee, and features the signatures of Bensinger and seven other previous DEA administrators, plus assorted officials, including General Barry McCaffrey, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's director under Bill Clinton.
peter bensinger.jpg
Peter Bensinger.
Paragraph one sets the tone. It reads:
We, the undersigned, strongly support the continued enforcement of federal law prohibiting the cultivation, distribution, sale, possession, and use of marijuana -- a dangerous and addictive drug which already has severe harmful effects on American society.
From there, the missive quotes from Holder's October 13, 2010 response to an earlier letter from the DEA administrators, this one prompted by Proposition 19, a California marijuana-legalization measure that fell short at the ballot box. Just before its big vote, Holder stressed that if Prop. 19 was approved, the Justice Department would continue to enforce the Controlled Substance Act, which calls for "the prosecution of those who manufacture, distribute, or possess any illegal drugs -- including marijuana."
Holder didn't issue a similar declaration prior to the November 2012 election, and in the time since then, he hasn't ordered a federal crackdown in Colorado or Washington -- and the DEA veterans want to know why. They suggest that Leahy and Grassley ask Holder the following questions: "Why isn't the Department of Justice enforcing the Controlled Substances Act in Colorado and Washington?," and "What is being done to honor our international drug control treaty obligations, which require the United States as a nation to enforce the law prohibiting the distribution, sale and cultivation of marijuana?"
The letter also mentions a pre-election study by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area that attempted to prove marijuana from Colorado is being diverted to other states across the country, thereby making what many here see as a local issue into a national problem.
As for the document's letterhead, it features the logo of Save Our Society From Drugs, a Florida-based outfit that provided the lion's share of cash given to No on 64, the group that unsuccessfully rallied opposition to Colorado's marijuana measure. Here's a graphic from a post about Amendment 64 spending published last September.
amendment 64 funding graphic 2.jpg
Continued from page 1

mel sembler.jpg
Mel Sembler.
A 2012 article from The Nation sported the vivid headline "GOP Mogul Behind Drug Rehab 'Torture' Centers Is Bankrolling Opposition to Pot Legalization in Colorado." Here's an excerpt from writer Lee Fang's piece, which focuses on the group's driving forces, Mel and Betty Sembler:
The Semblers have been waging a war on marijuana for decades.
Before they led Save Our Society from Drugs, and its sister nonprofit, the Drug Free America Foundation, the Semblers were at the helm of STRAIGHT, Inc., which operated drug abuse treatment centers, mostly for teenagers, from 1976 through 1993.
Former clients of the rehab center recount episodes of brutal beatings, rape and systematic psychological abuse.
At one facility in Yorba Linda, California, state investigators found that STRAIGHT Inc. subjected children to "unusual punishment, infliction of pain, humiliation, intimidation, ridicule, coercion, threats, mental abuse...and interference with daily living functions such as eating, sleeping and toileting." Samantha Monroe, who was placed into a STRAIGHT Inc clinic in Tampa at age 13, says she was locked in a room, and forced to wear a clothes stained with urine, feces and menstrual blood -- a punishment her counselors called "humble pants."
Richard Bradbury, a former STRAIGHT patient and counselor-turned-whistleblower, told the St. Petersburg Times that Monroe's experiences weren't unique. "It was pure child abuse," Bradbury told reporters. "Torture."
By the way, Mel Sembler was a big financial supporter of Mitt Romney.
As for Holder, he said late last month that a decision about a federal response to the Colorado and Washington pot laws would be announced relatively soon. No telling at this point whether he'll choose tomorrow's judiciary committee meeting as the venue for dispensing this information. But Bensinger and company, not to mention the Semblers, are doing their best to point him in their direction.
Here's the complete letter:
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The State Senate Doesn't Want You Buying Weed with Your EBT Card

EBT Card.jpgWant to buy medical marijuana with your state-issued Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card? If the state Senate has its way, you won't be able to for long. That's because on Tuesday, by a vote of 39-10, the Senate passed Senate Bill 5279, which would add marijuana and medical marijuana to the list of items prohibited from purchasing with an EBT card - a list that already includes things like alcohol, tobacco, lottery tickets, bail bonds, tattoos and body piercings.
Sponsored by Lakewood Republican Mike Carrell, SB 5279 is being sold as a way to keep state cash benefits intended for "items related to childcare," as the Capitol Record blog put it, from being used for pot. But whether you support the idea or not, such a description doesn't fully tell the tale of how EBT cards work or the implications of the proposed legislation.
"Something that is not appropriate for children shouldn't be purchased with money intended for children," the Capitol Record blog quoted Carrell as saying Tuesday.
That seems sensible enough, but it's only partially accurate. While the bulk of state and federal assistance doled out via EBT cards - like the food stamp program and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) benefits - are welfare benefits intended for single parents and families, there are other programs that disperse money through EBT programs - like the state Aged, Blind or Disabled cash assistance program, for instance - that have nothing to do with children or families. The Aged, Blind or Disabled program provides a maximum monthly cash grant of $197 to Washington residents who meet income and resource requirements and are 65 or older, blind or have a long-term medical condition that is meets federal disability criteria.
In other words, these are folks who could benefit from the use of medical marijuana - a treatment option the state has recognized as legitimate since voters approved it in 1998.
But SB 5279 would prohibit the purchase of medical marijuana via EBT cards no matter where the money on the card came from.
Moreover, while it's true the bulk of the state's cash assistance goes to single parents and families, that's not to say all these funds are exclusively intended for children. Parents can use cash assistance for a wide array of things, from housing costs and food, to transportation costs, to over-the-counter and prescription drugs.
This being the case, why wouldn't the state allow qualified medical marijuana patients - who also happen to be parents - to utilize cash benefits for a legitimate medical purposes like medical marijuana (as its been classified under state law for the past 15 years)?
Because of the stoner stigma attached to medical pot, of course.
Battling this stigma, and fighting for the medical rights of the poor, is the exact reason that Tacoma's Sen. Jeannie Darnielle pushed for an amendment that would have excluded qualifying medical marijuana patients from the restrictions included in SB 5279. Unfortunately for those who rely on EBT cards to get by, it was an effort that ultimately fell on deaf ears.
"I find it so difficult to believe that we would allow someone to buy an aspirin, to buy lotion, to buy things that make living pain-free, and can not recognize that medical usage of marijuana are absolutely appropriate to people of all economic status," Darnielle said, according to the Capital Record blog.
"There are all kinds of reasons for people to utilize medical marijuana," Darnielle tellsSeattle Weekly. "Even poor people."
"Over the years the Legislature has just added more and more ways the EBT can't be used," she continues, noting the injustice of preventing a parent receiving cancer treatment or battling pain from obtaining a treatment option the state sanctions simply based on their economic status.
"This one just goes a little too far," Darnielle says.
However, whether Darnielle likes it or not, SB 5279 - minus her amendment - is now on its way to the House to be mulled over. It will be interesting to see if that body has more compassion for qualifying medical marijuana patients than the Senate.
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Magpul or marijuana? Cartoon pokes fun of Colorado’s political environment


Used with permission
This cartoon is one of the props Senate Republicans plan to use Friday when debating gun bills on the floor.
When the House debated four gun bills on the floor, Democratic House Speaker  told Republicans they could take as long as they wanted. Despite predictions the debate could go past midnight, the House began around 9:30 a.m. and ended around 10 p.m.
Senate Republicans are not going to go as quietly into that good night. It’s not going to be Wisconsin, but it’s not going to be over quick.
There now are seven Democratic gun bills to be heard on the floor starting at 9 a.m. Friday — the four passed by the House, and the three introduced in the Senate.
Sen. , R-Greeley, said Republicans plan to read testimony from people who showed up Monday to speak against the bills when they were heard in two Senate committees but didn’t get a chance too because of the size of the crowds.
But it’s not just that there are more gun bills. It’s the intensity of the gunfight in Colorado has mushroomed since the House debate on Feb. 15, when Colorado already was in the national spotlight.
Two Democratic lawmakers’ fumbling rape comments — Rep. Joe Salazarand Sen. Evie Hudak – have gone viral. Republicans are charging the gun legislation has been orchestrated by the White House and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun group.
And the Colorado GOP, long frustrated over the seeming invincibility of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, now believe they have found something to go after him on. The governor backs three of the gun bills, including , limiting magazine rounds, although the largest producer in Colorado, Erie-based , has threatened to leave the state if it passes.
The Magpul cartoon, which was provided to the Denver Post, refers to marijuana, which voters in November chose to legalize. Hickenlooper, by the way, opposed that ballot measure.
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‘Marijuana cannon’ fires pot across border fence


By 
Senior Media Reporter
By  | The Sideshow – Thu, Feb 28, 2013
The "marijuana cannon" (Mexicali Public Safety Department)
Mexican police have confiscated an improvised cannon that they say was used to fire packages of marijuana across a border fence into California.
The makeshift cannon was made of plastic pipe and powered by compressed air sourced from an old car engine, police in the border city of Mexicali said. The device was able to fire cylinders packed with up to 30 pounds of pot.
The cannon was discovered on Tuesday after U.S. officers told Mexican police that they had been confiscating a large number of drug packages that appeared to have been fired over the border, the Associated Press said.
It's not the first time drug traffickers have used a cannon to transport marijuana across the border. In December, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials recovered more than 30 cans of marijuana scattered in Yuma, Ariz., near the Colorado River.
According to NBC, an investigation of the area "determined that the cans were fired from about 500 feet away with a pneumatic-powered cannon" and that a "carbon-dioxide tank was found nearby."
In that case, the cannon was not found. But Mexican border police said on Tuesday that they have confiscated similar devices in recent years.
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