And by getting ready, I mean mostly highlighting some news and happenings tomorrow. Long gone are the college days where we'd wander over to Patel's dorm room on April 20th, using his handheld sports click-counter to track how many collective bong tokes were being dispensed in the room. [The goal was to eventually reach four hundred twenty on the counter while simultaneously acquiring James Franco-faces].
Via drcnet.org:
Maine legislator will introduce a bill on April 20th co-sponsored by Republicans to re-legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis.
She said her bill also has bi-partisan support in the Legislature, where it's co-sponsored by Rep. Richard Cebra, R-Naples; Rep. Aaron Libby, R-Waterboro; Rep. Wayne Mitchell, who represents Penobscot Nation; Rep. Andrew O'Brien, D-Lincolnville, and Rep. Frederick Wintle, R-Garland.
Also, Obama scheduled his Facebook townhall for 4/20.
Officially billed as a “Town Hall Meeting,” can this be any less than attempt to bring the cannabis community back into the Obama fold? Otherwise why pick 4/20 to have an event when the previous 3 similar events brought the massive online cannabis law reform movement flooding to whatever page it was on? There is no voting this time, but there is also no doubt the online cannabis community will dominate the discussion once again.
Also, congratulations to the Vermont State Senate for passinga medical mj dispensary bill, which has the backing of the Democratic Governor. Real Democrats will show leadership on this issue, instead of clinging to an eroding Prohibitionist policy. When there is bi-partisan support for an issue, as there is with this, the only thing a politician has to lose is contributions from prison guard/law enforcement lobby. [which is significant $$, no doubt about that at all. See: California, which spends as much on prisons as higher education 4/11/11]
Also, residents of Washington, via MPP (Marijuana Policy Project):
Contact Gov. Gregoire today and ask her to sign SB 5073, which would tax and regulate cannabis dispensaries, thus raising revenue, providing access to medicine for patients, outline regulations for the booming dispensary business, and providing law enforcement with rules and prevent unlawful arrests/prosecution.
[The ACLU and others fight back against Governor's veto threat]
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The state of Massachusetts, along with its Democratic Governor, continues to embrace progressive cannabis policies.
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Obama's Drug Czar Wants Out.
This could make for an early end to Kerlikowske's term as head cheerleader for the U.S. War on Drugs, but it isn't hugely surprising. He struck me as a rather reluctant drug czar, willing to read the script, but uninspired when it came to the dirty game of D.C. drug war politics. I'm tempted to speculate that he never fully appreciated the extent to which the job simply involved performing public relations duties as Americans grow increasingly disgusted with everything that office stands for.
Obama's Deputy Drug Czar tells the NY Times: "I Hate this Job"
The New York Times has a rather strange visit with Deputy Drug Czar Tom McClellan in which he says he only took the job because his son had recently died from a drug overdose and now admits that he hates working there:
In a recent interview in his office here — still sparsely decorated except for a photocopied picture of his family, including his surviving son and two young grandsons (or "grand felons," as he called them) — Dr. McLellan put his feet up on the coffee table and declared, "I hate this job."
"This is a job that needs scientific background," he went on. "But if you come to it with the kind of desires to turn everything into a scientific experiment, you will have your poor little heart broken."
Little wonder that Rep. Jared Polis is talking about de-funding the ONDCP office. It's worthless, unlike Planned Parenthood or the EPA.
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All I can say is: cheers to the Cannabis Movement 2.0. After Vol. 1 fell off in the Reaga era, it's been a long slog. It's time to keep ramping up pressure on the feds, state-by-state, until the back of cannabis prohibition is broken. Will it be 2011 or 2012? Washington or California? Or maybe Maine?
In the past few years here, my hate mail has fallen off from the "you belong back in prison!" to the "yer...uh...yer...YER HOOKED ON MARIHUANA!". Pretty clear sign of where the zeitgeist is heading and the progress made (to use a very tiny, specific metric).
So....is THIS how they ended Alcohol Prohibition? [pic] On a related note, Sensible Washington will be marching tomorrow, check 'em out.
Cheers.
-ctb