The Stoner Army

Honolulu Advertiser, 19 May 2010 - During Prohibition, Alcohol Could Be Bought at the Corner Drugstore "He owned some drugstores, a lot of drugstores," Daisy Buchanan said. "He built them up himself." To Daisy, this was a perfectly reasonable explanation of the wealth of her new neighbor, Jay Gatsby. To her husband, more knowing about the world beyond the boundaries of East Egg, it was evidence that Gatsby had made his money as a bootlegger.

St. Petersburg Times, 19 May 2010 - "He owned some drugstores, a lot of drugstores," Daisy Buchanan said. "He built them up himself." To Daisy, this was a perfectly reasonable explanation of the wealth of her new neighbor, Jay Gatsby. To her husband, more knowing about the world beyond the boundaries of East Egg, it was evidence that Gatsby had made his money as a bootlegger.

Moose Jaw Times-Herald, 19 May 2010 - It's Certainly Not the Worst Crime Committed in the Name of the War on Drugs. That title probably belongs to the countless innocent people killed in botched raids. Or the police officers who died in pursuit of the impossible. Or the lives lost to easily preventable overdoses and blood-borne diseases. Or the funding handed to thugs, terrorists and guerrillas. Or the civil liberties eroded, the corruption fostered, the chaos spread. Or maybe it belongs to the hundreds of billions of dollars governments have squandered in a mad, futile and destructive crusade.

The Province, 19 May 2010 - Shop Dispensing Medical Marijuana -- Without Even A Business Licence Why am I not surprised that a medical marijuana dispensary has now opened, without a business licence, in downtown Maple Ridge?

Pueblo Chieftain, 19 May 2010 - Councilwoman Judy Weaver Wants Ballot Question to Decide Medical Pot Issue. Never mind. It turns out that City Council received some bad information Monday when city staff briefed council on the pending state law for licensing medical marijuana dispensaries.

Kamloops This Week, 19 May 2010 - Marijuana producers growing as few as six plants for sale could face minimum jail sentences if a new bill becomes law in Ottawa. The Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act, or Bill S-10, was introduced in the Senate on May 5 by Conservative Sen. John Wallace.

Bangor Daily News, 18 May 2010 - AUGUSTA, Maine -- The effort to expand access to marijuana in Maine for both medical use and by the general population will continue with two new petitions being circulated by Maine Vocals. Maine Vocals founder Don Christen of Madison said his group seeks to expand and improve existing medical marijuana laws in one petition and to legalize pot outright in the other.

El Paso Times, 18 May 2010 - U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske says our strategy to combat illegal drugs hasn't worked -- for 40 years. It's difficult to argue otherwise. Countless numbers of schools have proclaimed to be "Drug-Free Zones." We've all seen those words woven with crepe paper on school-yard chain-link fences -- for years.

El Paso Times, 18 May 2010 - EL PASO -- A new drug war, this one over whether marijuana legalization would help or hinder Juarez, got under way Monday. City Reps. Beto O'Rourke and Susie Byrd called a news conference to say they believe reforming drug laws and legalizing marijuana would help reduce violence in Mexico.

Denver Daily News, 18 May 2010 - Poll: Growing Support for Legalization; Med Pot Industry Braces for Likely Regs A leading marijuana-legalization activist believes a poll showing that almost half of Coloradans' support legalizing and taxing marijuana is a "sign of things to come."

The Citizens' Voice, 18 May 2010 - The debate over legalizing medical marijuana continues to heat up locally. Critics of medical marijuana have planned a rally for Wednesday to voice opposition to two bills in the state legislature that would allow people to buy and smoke marijuana to treat approved medical conditions.

Marin Independent Journal, 18 May 2010 - CORTE MADERA town officials are playing catchup, trying to regulating medicinal marijuana dispensaries after two already are open and doing business in town. One of the medical pot shops already has more than 2,500 clients and is objecting to the town setting a limit on its number of patients.

Alberni Valley Times, 18 May 2010 - Pot Activists Look For Leader As the leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party, Marc Emery faces extradition to the United States. That leaves the future of the grassroots cannabis-fueled lobby group in doubt. But according to a local weed activist, the charge could spark further publicity for possible pot legalization.

Huffington Post, 18 May 2010 - Mark Souder resigned his congressional seat on Tuesday, confessing to an affair with a staffer and ending an eight-term career as a Republican from Indiana. In stepping down, he asked God for forgiveness in a rambling, all-caps public statement. "I SINNED AGAINST GOD, MY WIFE AND MY FAMILY BY HAVING A MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH A PART-TIME MEMBER OF MY STAFF," he wrote. "MY COMFORT IS THAT GOD IS A GRACIOUS AND FORGIVING GOD TO THOSE WHO SINCERELY SEEK HIS FORGIVENESS AS I DO."

The Modesto Bee, 18 May 2010 - A judge ruled Monday that two people arrested for handing out clean syringes to drug users and collecting dirty ones will be barred from telling a jury they did so to help prevent a public health emergency. Kristy Tribuzio, 36, and Brian Robinson, 38, face up to a year in jail after undercover officers said they caught the two operating an unauthorized needle exchange in a south Modesto park in April 2009.

Denver Post, 18 May 2010 - Colorado and Other States That Have Enacted Medical Marijuana Laws Should Be Allowed to Proceed Without Federal Interference. Now that Colorado is poised to begin regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, it makes sense to consider how the potential state law jibes with the long arm of federal law.

El Paso Times, 17 May 2010 - EL PASO -- A group that includes two El Paso City Council members today is asking the federal government to legalize marijuana. The event is timed in anticipation of a state visit to Washington, D.C., Wednesday by Mexican President Felipe Calderon. El Paso city Reps. Beto O'Rourke and Susie Byrd are helping to organize the event, at 1 p.m. at the base of the Paso del Norte Bridge, which connects El Paso to Juarez. Oscar Martinez, a Juarez native and history professor at the University of Arizona, will speak.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, 17 May 2010 - The Ex-D.A.'S Drug Demagoguery Made for Bad Policy. In recent testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, former Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham displayed dangerous ignorance about America's marijuana market, engaged in bombastic Reefer Madness rhetoric, and made demeaning generalizations about marijuana users.

Washington Post, 17 May 2010 - Mexican President Felipe Calderon will make his first full-fledged visit to Washington this week since taking office 3 1/2 years ago. Given the issues facing their countries, Calderon and President Obama might be tempted to nickel-and-dime their encounter. But the time is a ripe for a "big idea," not unlike what NAFTA -- warts and all -- was when it was proposed in 1990. Instead of narrowing everything down to drugs, security and how the United States can best back Mexico's war, the two countries should "de-narcoticize" their relationship and make their goal Mexico's development and transformation into a middle-class society. Calderon has been battered by the effects of the international economic crisis at home (Mexico's economy shrank 6.5 percent last year); by 23,000 deaths in the drug war (257 deaths in early May constituted the highest weekly toll since 2007); by opposition intransigence to reforms and institutional gridlock; this past weekend, by the kidnapping and possible death of the most influential figure of his party for the past two decades; and by Arizona's new immigration law, which is seen in Mexico as anti-Mexican. With the 2012 Mexican presidential campaign already underway, Calderon, on his way to lame-duck status, would probably be content with raising a few specific issues (trucking, American gun-running into Mexico), obtaining a categorical restatement of U.S. support for Mexico's fight against organized crime and one more acknowledgement of U.S. responsibility for drug use.

Houston Chronicle, 16 May 2010 - Houston Native a Force Behind California's Vote to Legalize Pot His testosterone-charged youth filled with Harley-Davidsons, ultralight aircraft and ski-slope derring-do, Richard Lee hardly fit the mold of social warrior. But when an accident left the Houston native partially paralyzed, fate intervened to transform him first into a millionaire, then into one of the nation's top advocates for legalized marijuana.