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Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Notable discussion of traffic fatalities in Colorado after marijuana legalization
Radley Balko has this notable new Washington Post piece headlined "Since marijuana legalization, highway fatalities in Colorado are at near-historic lows." The full piece merits a full read for those thinking about the potential public safety impact of marijuana, and here are excerpts:
It makes sense that loosening restrictions on pot would result in a higher percentage of drivers involved in fatal traffic accidents having smoked the drug at some point over the past few days or weeks. You'd also expect to find that a higher percentage of churchgoers, good Samaritans and soup kitchen volunteers would have pot in their system. You'd expect a similar result among any large sampling of people. This doesn't necessarily mean that marijuana caused or was even a contributing factor to accidents, traffic violations or fatalities.
This isn't an argument that pot wasn't a factor in at least some of those accidents, either. But that's precisely the point. A post-accident test for marijuana metabolites doesn't tell us much at all about whether pot contributed to the accident....
It seems to me that the best way to gauge the effect legalization has had on the roadways is to look at what has happened on the roads since legalization took effect.... [R]oadway fatalities this year are down from last year, and down from the 13-year average. Of the seven months so far this year, five months saw a lower fatality figure this year than last, two months saw a slightly higher figure this year, and in one month the two figures were equal....
What's notable here is that the totals so far in 2014 are closer to the safest composite year since 2002 than to the average year since 2002. I should also add here that these are total fatalities. If we were to calculate these figures as a rate — say, miles driven per fatality — the drop would be starker, both for this year and since Colorado legalized medical marijuana in 2001. While the number of miles Americans drive annually has leveled off nationally since the mid-2000s, the number of total miles traveled continues to go up in Colorado. If we were to measure by rate, then, the state would be at lows unseen in decades.
The figures are similar in states that have legalized medical marijuana. While some studies have shown that the number of drivers involved in fatal collisions who test positive for marijuana has steadily increased as pot has become more available, other studies have shown that overall traffic fatalities in those states have dropped. Again, because the pot tests only measure for recent pot use, not inebriation, there's nothing inconsistent about those results....
Of course, the continuing drop in roadway fatalities, in Colorado and elsewhere, is due to a variety of factors, such as better-built cars and trucks, improved safety features and better road engineering. These figures in and of themselves only indicate that the roads are getting safer; they don't suggest that pot had anything to do with it. We're also only seven months in. Maybe these figures will change. Finally, it's also possible that if it weren't for legal pot, the 2014 figures would be even lower. There's no real way to know that. We can only look at the data available. But you can bet that if fatalities were up this year, prohibition supporters would be blaming it on legal marijuana.
August 5, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, National and State Crime Data, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, August 03, 2014
Round-up some more potent posts from Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
Not surprisingly, the New York Times series explaining its editorial judgment that marijuana prohibition should be ended (first noted here) has generated lots of buzz. And, as demonstrated by this round-up of recent posts at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform, lots of folks are talking about lots of issues in addition to the points being raised by the NYTimes:
Latest Florida poll shows considerable support for both medical and recreational marijuana
Colorado and Washington Senators press White House for clearer marijuana policy guidance
Rand Paul amendment to block certain federal prosecutions in medical marijuana states would raise interesting legal questions
"Colorado's Rollout of Legal Marijuana Is Succeeding: A Report on the State's Implementation of Legalization"
Another potent statistical take-down of bad science used to prop up pot prohibition
Interesting history as New York Times highlights its "the Editorial Board's changing view of marijuana over six decades"
Project SAM places full-page ad in New York Times and creates another reform-opposition website
August 3, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Thursday, July 31, 2014
More potent reviews of criminal justice data via the Washington Post's Wonkblog
In this post last week, titled " "There's little evidence that fewer prisoners means more crime," I made much of some recent postings on the Washington Post Wonkblog and suggested that sentencing fans ought to make a habit of checking out Wonkblog regularly. This set of new posts at that blog reinforce my views and recommendation:
The federal government's incredibly poor, misleading argument for marijuana prohibition
Medical marijuana opponents' most powerful argument is at odds with a mountain of research
Though all these posts merit a close read, I especially recommend the first one linked above, as it meticulously details all significant problems with all the "science" claims made by the federal government to justify marijuana prohibition. Here is how that piece it gets started:
The New York Times editorial board is making news with a week-long series advocating for the full legalization of marijuana in the United States. In response, the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) published a blog post Monday purporting to lay out the federal government's case against marijuana reform.
That case, as it turns out, it surprisingly weak. It's built on half-truths and radically decontextualized facts, curated from social science research that is otherwise quite solid. I've gone through the ONDCP's arguments, and the research behind them, below.
The irony here is that with the coming wave of deregulation and legalization, we really do need a sane national discussion of the costs and benefits of widespread marijuana use. But the ONDCP's ideological insistence on prohibition prevents them from taking part in that conversation.
July 31, 2014 in Data on sentencing, Marijuana Legalization in the States, National and State Crime Data, Pot Prohibition Issues, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
"The Federal Marijuana Ban Is Rooted in Myth and Xenophobia"
The title of this post is the headline of this latest editorial in the New York Times series explaining its editorial judgment that marijuana prohibition should be ended (first noted here). Here are excerpts:
The federal law that makes possession of marijuana a crime has its origins in legislation that was passed in an atmosphere of hysteria during the 1930s and that was firmly rooted in prejudices against Mexican immigrants and African-Americans, who were associated with marijuana use at the time. This racially freighted history lives on in current federal policy, which is so driven by myth and propaganda that is it almost impervious to reason.
The cannabis plant, also known as hemp, was widely grown in the United States for use in fabric during the mid-19th century. The practice of smoking it appeared in Texas border towns around 1900, brought by Mexican immigrants who cultivated cannabis as an intoxicant and for medicinal purposes as they had done at home....
The law enforcement view of marijuana was indelibly shaped by the fact that it was initially connected to brown people from Mexico and subsequently with black and poor communities in this country. Police in Texas border towns demonized the plant in racial terms as the drug of "immoral" populations who were promptly labeled "fiends."
As the legal scholars Richard Bonnie and Charles Whitebread explain in their authoritative history, "The Marihuana Conviction," the drug's popularity among minorities and other groups practically ensured that it would be classified as a "narcotic," attributed with addictive qualities it did not have, and set alongside far more dangerous drugs like heroin and morphine.
By the early 1930s, more than 30 states had prohibited the use of marijuana for nonmedical purposes. The federal push was yet to come. The stage for federal suppression of marijuana was set in New Orleans, where a prominent doctor blamed "muggle-heads" — as pot smokers were called — for an outbreak of robberies. The city was awash in sensationalistic newspaper articles that depicted pushers hovering by the schoolhouse door turning children into "addicts." These stories popularized spurious notions about the drug that lingered for decades.
Law enforcement officials, too, trafficked in the "assassin" theory, under in which killers were said to have smoked cannabis to ready themselves for murder and mayhem.
In 1930, Congress consolidated the drug control effort in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, led by the endlessly resourceful commissioner, Harry Jacob Anslinger, who became the architect of national prohibition. His case rested on two fantastical assertions: that the drug caused insanity; that it pushed people toward horrendous acts of criminality. Others at the time argued that it was fiercely addictive....
The country accepted a senselessly punitive approach to sentencing as long as minorities and the poor paid the price. But, by the late 1960s, weed had been taken up by white college students from the middle and upper classes. Seeing white lives ruined by marijuana laws altered public attitudes about harsh sentencing, and, in 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse released a report challenging the approach.
The commission concluded that criminalization was "too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use," and that "the actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance." The Nixon administration dismissed these ideas.
During the mid-1970s, virtually all states softened penalties for marijuana possession. Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia have made medical use of some form of the drug legal. The Justice Department's recent decision not to sue states that legalize marijuana — as long as they have strong enforcement rules — eases the tension between state and federal laws only slightly but leaves a great many legal problems unresolved.
The federal government has taken a small step back from irrational enforcement. But it clings to a policy that has its origins in racism and xenophobia and whose principal effect has been to ruin the lives of generations of people.
Prior related posts:
- New York Times: "on every level — health effects, the impact on society and law-and-order issues — the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization" of marijuana
- "The Injustice of Marijuana Arrests"
July 30, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Monday, July 28, 2014
"The Injustice of Marijuana Arrests"
The title of this post is the headline of this latest editorial in the New York Times series explaining its editorial judgment that marijuana prohibition should be ended (first noted here). This lengthy editorial is authored by Jesse Wegman, and here are excerpts:
America's four-decade war on drugs is responsible for many casualties, but the criminalization of marijuana has been perhaps the most destructive part of that war. The toll can be measured in dollars — billions of which are thrown away each year in the aggressive enforcement of pointless laws. It can be measured in years — whether wasted behind bars or stolen from a child who grows up fatherless. And it can be measured in lives — those damaged if not destroyed by the shockingly harsh consequences that can follow even the most minor offenses.
In October 2010, Bernard Noble, a 45-year-old trucker and father of seven with two previous nonviolent offenses, was stopped on a New Orleans street with a small amount of marijuana in his pocket. His sentence: more than 13 years. At least he will be released. Jeff Mizanskey, a Missouri man, was arrested in December 1993, for participating (unknowingly, he said) in the purchase of a five-pound brick of marijuana. Because he had two prior nonviolent marijuana convictions, he was sentenced to life without parole.
Outrageously long sentences are only part of the story. The hundreds of thousands of people who are arrested each year but do not go to jail also suffer; their arrests stay on their records for years, crippling their prospects for jobs, loans, housing and benefits. These are disproportionately people of color, with marijuana criminalization hitting black communities the hardest.
Meanwhile, police departments that presumably have far more important things to do waste an enormous amount of time and taxpayer money chasing a drug that two states have already legalized and that a majority of Americans believe should be legal everywhere....
Nationwide, ... [f]rom 2001 to 2010, the police made more than 8.2 million marijuana arrests; almost nine in 10 were for possession alone. In 2011, there were more arrests for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes put together.
The costs of this national obsession, in both money and time, are astonishing. Each year, enforcing laws on possession costs more than $3.6 billion, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. It can take a police officer many hours to arrest and book a suspect. That person will often spend a night or more in the local jail, and be in court multiple times to resolve the case. The public-safety payoff for all this effort is meager at best: According to a 2012 Human Rights Watch report that tracked 30,000 New Yorkers with no prior convictions when they were arrested for marijuana possession, 90 percent had no subsequent felony convictions. Only 3.1 percent committed a violent offense.
The strategy is also largely futile. After three decades, criminalization has not affected general usage; about 30 million Americans use marijuana every year. Meanwhile, police forces across the country are strapped for cash, and the more resources they devote to enforcing marijuana laws, the less they have to go after serious, violent crime. According to F.B.I. data, more than half of all violent crimes nationwide, and four in five property crimes, went unsolved in 2012.
The sheer volume of law enforcement resources devoted to marijuana is bad enough. What makes the situation far worse is racial disparity. Whites and blacks use marijuana at roughly the same rates; on average, however, blacks are 3.7 times more likely than whites to be arrested for possession, according to a comprehensive 2013 report by the A.C.L.U.
While the number of people behind bars solely for possessing or selling marijuana seems relatively small — 20,000 to 30,000 by the most recent estimates, or roughly 1 percent of America's 2.4 million inmates — that means nothing to people, like Jeff Mizanskey, who are serving breathtakingly long terms because their records contained minor previous offenses....
Even if a person never goes to prison, the conviction itself is the tip of the iceberg. In a majority of states, marijuana convictions — including those resulting from guilty pleas — can have lifelong consequences for employment, education, immigration status and family life. A misdemeanor conviction can lead to, among many other things, the revocation of a professional license; the suspension of a driver's license; the inability to get insurance, a mortgage or other bank loans; the denial of access to public housing; and the loss of student financial aid....
As pioneers in legalization, [Colorado and Washington] should set a further example by providing relief to people convicted of crimes that are no longer crimes, including overturning convictions. A recent ruling by a Colorado appeals court overturned two 2011 convictions because of the changed law, and the state's Legislature has enacted laws in the last two years to give courts more power to seal records of drug convictions and to make it easier for defendants to get jobs and housing after a conviction. These are both important steps into an uncharted future.
July 28, 2014 in Drug Offense Sentencing, Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Sentences Reconsidered | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Sunday, July 27, 2014
New York Times: "on every level — health effects, the impact on society and law-and-order issues — the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization" of marijuana
The title of this is drawn from the heart of this this important new New York Times editorial calling for the legalization of marijuana. The editorial is headlined "Repeal Prohibition, Again," and it kicks off a series of pieces about marijuana law and policy. Here are excerpts from the editorial:
The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana. We reached that conclusion after a great deal of discussion among the members of The Times's Editorial Board, inspired by a rapidly growing movement among the states to reform marijuana laws.
There are no perfect answers to people's legitimate concerns about marijuana use. But neither are there such answers about tobacco or alcohol, and we believe that on every level — health effects, the impact on society and law-and-order issues — the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization. That will put decisions on whether to allow recreational or medicinal production and use where it belongs — at the state level.
We considered whether it would be best for Washington to hold back while the states continued experimenting with legalizing medicinal uses of marijuana, reducing penalties, or even simply legalizing all use. Nearly three-quarters of the states have done one of these.
But that would leave their citizens vulnerable to the whims of whoever happens to be in the White House and chooses to enforce or not enforce the federal law.
The social costs of the marijuana laws are vast. There were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2012, according to F.B.I. figures, compared with 256,000 for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives. Even worse, the result is racist, falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives and creating new generations of career criminals....
Creating systems for regulating manufacture, sale and marketing will be complex. But those problems are solvable, and would have long been dealt with had we as a nation not clung to the decision to make marijuana production and use a federal crime.
In coming days, we will publish articles by members of the Editorial Board and supplementary material that will examine these questions. We invite readers to offer their ideas, and we will report back on their responses, pro and con.
We recognize that this Congress is as unlikely to take action on marijuana as it has been on other big issues. But it is long past time to repeal this version of Prohibition.
I will be covering this notable editorial development, reactions to it, and the coming Times series more fully at Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform.
July 27, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Round-up of posts from Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
As demonstrated by this round-up of recent posts at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform, there are many developments for lawyers and law reform observers to be thinking about these days:
Analysts predict Oregon would generate $38.5 million in tax revenue in first year of pot legalization
Highlighting the short bench of those crusading against marijuana reform
"Light, Smoke, and Fire: How State Law Can Provide Medical Marijuana Users Protection from Workplace Discrimination"
Could Vermont become the first state to legislatively legalize marijuana?
Is anyone seriously tracking collateral industries and jobs created by marijuana reform?
July 24, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Latest polling shows rich, white, midwestern guys aged 30-44 most likely to favor pot legalization
As this press release details, the "latest research from YouGov shows that most Americans (51%) support legalizing marijuana, while 37% oppose it." And, as the title of this post highlights, I find especially interesting the demographics of which groups of persons are most in favor of legalization as reflected in these detailed breakdowns:
Male: 54% to 36%
Age 30-44: 60% to 28%
Democrat: 62% to 27%
White: 52% to 37%
Income $100+: 57% to 32%
Midwest: 55% to 31%
Cross-posted at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
July 16, 2014 in Elections and sentencing issues in political debates, Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Friday, July 11, 2014
Some more informed legal buzz about marijuana reform via MLP&R
The mainstream media is buzzing plenty about marijuana law and policy again now that Washington state has now officially started legal recreational sales under its state legalization initiative. But, as demonstrated by this round-up of recent posts at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform, there is a lot much for lawyers and law reform observers to be thinking about these days:
Unsurprisingly, two very divergent views of the impact of marijuana legalization in Colorado
Mixed results for defendant in WA medical marijuana appeal involving recommendations on "non tamper resistant" paper
Massachusetts SJC holds marijuana smell insufficient to justify car search
Seattle's City Attorney Makes an Opening Day Marijuana Purchase
Fantastic new Americans for Safe Access report on state medical marijuana laws
Pot's latest business maven: former Gov and Prez candidate Gary Johnson
New rules for edible marijuana products are moving forward in Colorado
July 11, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Wednesday, July 09, 2014
Following the money behind sustaining pot prohibition
The Nation has this fascinating new investigative report with a headline and subheadline that highlights its themes: "The Real Reason Pot Is Still Illegal: Opponents of marijuana-law reform insist that legalization is dangerous — but the biggest threat is to their own bottom line." Here are excerpts from the start of a lengthy article:
Taking the stage to rousing applause last February, [Patrick] Kennedy joined more than 2,000 opponents of marijuana legalization a few miles south of Washington, DC, at the annual convention of the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America (CADCA), one of the largest such organizations in the country....
Given that CADCA is dedicated to protecting society from dangerous drugs, the event that day had a curious sponsor: Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of Oxy-Contin, the highly addictive painkiller that nearly ruined Kennedy's congressional career and has been linked to thousands of overdose deaths nationwide.
Prescription opioids, a line of pain-relieving medications derived from the opium poppy or produced synthetically, are the most dangerous drugs abused in America, with more than 16,000 deaths annually linked to opioid addiction and overdose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more Americans now die from painkillers than from heroin and cocaine combined. The recent uptick in heroin use around the country has been closely linked to the availability of prescription opioids, which give their users a similar high and can trigger a heroin craving in recovering addicts....
People in the United States, a country in which painkillers are routinely overprescribed, now consume more than 84 percent of the entire worldwide supply of oxycodone and almost 100 percent of hydrocodone opioids. In Kentucky, to take just one example, about one in fourteen people is misusing prescription painkillers, and nearly 1,000 Kentucky residents are dying every year.
So it's more than a little odd that CADCA and the other groups leading the fight against relaxing marijuana laws, including the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids (formerly the Partnership for a Drug-Free America), derive a significant portion of their budget from opioid manufacturers and other pharmaceutical companies. According to critics, this funding has shaped the organization's policy goals: CADCA takes a softer approach toward prescription-drug abuse, limiting its advocacy to a call for more educational programs, and has failed to join the efforts to change prescription guidelines in order to curb abuse. In contrast, CADCA and the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids have adopted a hard-line approach to marijuana, opposing even limited legalization and supporting increased police powers.
A close look at the broader political coalition lobbying against marijuana-law reform reveals many such conflicts of interest. In fact, the CADCA event was attended by representatives of a familiar confederation of anti-pot interests, many of whom have a financial stake in the status quo, including law enforcement agencies, pharmaceutical firms, and nonprofits funded by federal drug-prevention grants....
The opponents of marijuana-law reform argue that such measures pose significant dangers, from increased crime and juvenile delinquency to addiction and death. But legalization's biggest threat is to the bottom line of these same special interests, which reap significant monetary advantages from pot prohibition that are rarely acknowledged in the public debate....
[B]oth CADCA and the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids are heavily reliant on a combination of federal drug-prevention education grants and funding from pharmaceutical companies. Founded in 1992, CADCA has lobbied aggressively for a range of federal grants for groups dedicated to the "war on drugs." The Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997, a program directed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, was created through CADCA's advocacy. That law now allocates over $90 million a year to community organizations dedicated to reducing drug abuse. Records show that CADCA has received more than $2.5 million in annual federal funding in recent years. The former Partnership for a Drug-Free America, founded in 1985 and best known for its dramatic "This is your brain on drugs" public service announcements, has received similarly hefty taxpayer support while advocating for increased anti-drug grant programs.
The Nation obtained a confidential financial disclosure from the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids showing that the group's largest donors include Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, and Abbott Laboratories, maker of the opioid Vicodin. CADCA also counts Purdue Pharma as a major supporter, as well as Alkermes, the maker of a powerful and extremely controversial new painkiller called Zohydrol. The drug, which was released to the public in March, has sparked a nationwide protest, since Zohydrol is reportedly ten times stronger than OxyContin. Janssen Pharmaceutical, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that produces the painkiller Nucynta, and Pfizer, which manufactures several opioid products, are also CADCA sponsors. For corporate donors, CADCA offers a raft of partnership opportunities, including authorized use of the "CADCA logo for your company's marketing, website, and advertising materials, etc."
July 9, 2014 in Drug Offense Sentencing, Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Thursday, July 03, 2014
"6 Months Later, Legalizing Weed In Colorado Is A Huge Success"
The title of this post is the headline chosen by Business Insider for this Reuters mid-year update on marijuana reform in Colorado. Here is an excerpt:
Six months on, Colorado's marijuana shops are mushrooming, with support from local consumers, weed tourists and federal government taking a wait-and-see attitude. Tax dollars are pouring in, crime is down in Denver, and few of the early concerns about social breakdown have materialized - at least so far.
"The sky hasn't fallen, but we're a long way from knowing the unintended consequences," said Andrew Freeman, director of marijuana coordination for Colorado. "This is a huge social and economic question."
Denver, dubbed the "Mile High" city, now has about 340 recreational and medicinal pot shops. They tout the relaxing, powerful or introspective attributes of the crystal-encased buds with names like Jilly Bean, Sour Diesel and Silverback Kush. In the first four months, marijuana sales amounted to more than $202 million, about a third of them recreational. Taxes from recreational sales were almost $11 million.
Despite some critics' fears of a pot-driven crime explosion, Denver police say burglaries and robberies were down by between 4 and 5 percent in the first four months of the year. On the down side, sheriff's deputies in neighboring Nebraska say pot seizures near the Colorado border have shot up 400 percent in three years, while Wyoming and New Mexico report no significant increases.
In May, controls on marijuana edibles were tightened after two people died. In one case, a college student jumped from a hotel balcony after eating six times the suggested maximum amount of pot-laced cookies. In the other, a Denver man was charged with shooting dead his wife after apparently getting high from eating marijuana-infused candy.
As Colorado passes the six-month mark, Washington state is approaching with some trepidation the launch next week of the nation's second recreational pot market.
July 3, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack
Wednesday, July 02, 2014
Another round-up of recent posts of note from Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform
The official start of summer does not slow down the array of marijuana developments in states and elsewhere, and here is a collection of recent notable posts from Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform:
Another new chapter for marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington getting underway
How should reform advocates respond to states enacting low-THC marijuana laws?
Bill Clinton on medical marijuana: "I think we should leave it to the states"
Oregon joins Alaska and Florida as states for marijuana reformers to watch extra closely in campaign 2014
So far, no Colorado marijuana stores have been found to have sold to minors
Article examines the impact of marijuana legalization on whether high school seniors plan to use marijuana
July 2, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Friday, June 27, 2014
New York Times op-ed laments Kettle Falls 5 federal marijuana prosecution
I am pleased to see the op-ed pages of the New York Times giving attention to a remarkable federal drug prosecution mving forward in Washington state. This foreceful commentary by Timothy Egan, headlined "Lock 'Em Up Nation: Mandatory Sentencing for Medical Marijuana," includes these passages:
[In] ruggedly beautiful, financially struggling eastern third of Washington State ... 70-year-old Larry Harvey, his wife, two family members and a friend are facing mandatory 10-year prison terms for growing medical marijuana — openly and, they thought, legally — on their farm near the little town of Kettle Falls.
To get a sense of the tragic absurdity of this federal prosecution, reaching all the way to the desk of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., consider what will happen next month. Pot stores will open in Washington, selling legal marijuana for the recreational user — per a vote of the people. A few weeks later, the Feds will try to put away the so-called Kettle Falls Five for growing weed on their land to ease their medical maladies....
Harvey is a former long-haul truck driver with a bad knee, spasms of gout and high blood pressure. He says he has no criminal record, and spends much of his time in a wheelchair. His wife, Rhonda Firestack-Harvey, is a retired hairdresser with arthritis and osteoporosis. Mr. Harvey says he takes his wife's home-baked marijuana confections when the pain in his knee starts to flare. The Harveys thought they were in the clear, growing 68 marijuana plants on their acreage in northeast Washington, one of 22 states allowing legal medical marijuana. (Federal authorities say they are several plants over the limit.)
Their pot garden was a co-op among the four family members and one friend; the marijuana was not for sale or distribution, Mr. Harvey says. "I think these patients were legitimate," Dr. Greg Carter, who reviewed medical records after the arrest, told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane. "They are pretty normal people. We're not talking about thugs."
But the authorities, using all the military tools at their disposal in the exhausted drug war, treated them as big-time narco threats. First, a helicopter spotted the garden from the air. Brilliant, except Harvey himself had painted a huge medical marijuana sign on a plywood board so that his garden, in fact, could be identified as a medical pot plot from the air.
This was followed by two raids. One from eight agents in Kevlar vests. The other from Drug Enforcement Agency officers. They searched the house, confiscating guns, and a little cash in a drawer. The guns are no surprise: Finding someone who does not own a firearm in the Selkirk Mountain country is like finding a Seattleite who doesn't recycle. Still, the guns were enough to add additional federal charges to an indictment that the family was growing more than the legal limit of plants.
Now, let's step back. The Harveys live in the congressional district of Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is part of the House Republican leadership. She loves freedom. You know she loves freedom because she always says so, most recently in a press release touting her efforts to take away people's health care coverage. "Americans must be protected from out of control government," she stated.
Well, maybe. Unless that government is trying to take away the freedom of a retired couple growing pot to ease their bodily pains. That freedom is not so good. Astonishingly, in our current toxic political atmosphere, Republicans and Democrats joined together last month to vote, by 219 to 189, to block spending for federal prosecution of medical marijuana in states that allow it. Yaayyy, for freedom. There was one dissent from Washington State's delegation. Yes, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, standing firm for an out of control government instead of defending one of her freedom-loving constituents....
Trial is set for July 28, and the Harveys can't use legal medical marijuana as a defense, a judge has ruled. All the government has to prove is that the Harvey family was growing marijuana — a federal crime. If they go to prison for a decade, as the mindless statutes that grew out of the crack-cocaine scare stipulate, they would become part of a federal system where fully half of all inmates are behind bars for drug offenses. And one in four of those crimes involves marijuana.
So remember the Kettle Falls Five when all the legal pot stores and their already legal growing facilities open for business in Washington State next month. There will be silly features about cookies and candy bars laced with pot, and discussions about etiquette, dos and don'ts. The press will cite polls showing that a majority of Americans favor legalizing marijuana, and more than 80 percent feel that way about medical cannabis. But in the eyes of the federal government, these state laws are meaningless.
If Larry Harvey, at the age of 70, with his gout and high blood pressure and bum knee, gets the mandatory 10-year term, he's likely to die in prison, certainly not the last casualty of the assault on our citizens known as the War on Drugs. For him, freedom is just another word his congresswoman likes to throw around on the Fourth of July.
As I have said before and will be saying again and again as more and more states legalize medical marijuana, there are a number of viable constitutional arguments based in the Eighth Amendment that I think could and should limit the federal prosecution and extreme federal sentencing of defendants like the Kettle Falls 5. I hope these defendants press these arguments aggressively and persistently in the months ahead.
In addition, I am pleased that this op-ed calls out Cathy McMorris Rodgers for failing to be eager to support and defend freedom and family values in this context. Rep. Rodgers says on her official website here that she has a "passion and determination to protect America's values -- including family, faith, freedom, opportunity, and responsibility." I hope she gets often pressed on how these values justify the federal government seeking to imprison the Kettle Falls 5 for many years.
Prior related post:
June 27, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Offense Characteristics, Pot Prohibition Issues, Purposes of Punishment and Sentencing, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Citing Windsor, marijuana defendant aggressively attacks federal prosecution
This interesting local article from Michigan, headlined "Attorney says marijuana wrongly classified as dangerous drug, federal prosecution unfair," highlights interesting arguments being made in a local federal prosecution:
A West Michigan man facing federal marijuana charges has filed a constitutional challenge based, in part, on disparate federal prosecution in different states. Shawn Taylor, the alleged leader of a marijuana grow operation, also argues that marijuana has medicinal value and should not be classified as a Schedule 1 drug -- the designation for the most dangerous drugs.
Taylor is seeking an evidentiary hearing on the issues before U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids. "We're raising arguments that have really never been raised before in a federal marijuana case," former Kalamazoo attorney John Targowski, now practicing in Santa Monica, Calif., said on Thursday, June 19, after he filed an 86-page brief on behalf of his client. "We're arguing that cannabis is wrongly scheduled -- it has medicinal value," Targowski said.
Taylor is one of 37 people arrested for alleged roles in grow operations in Kent, Muskegon, Oceana and Ottawa counties and Traverse City.
Targowski said that a U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidating the Defense of Marriage Act should have bearing on marijuana cases. "Recognizing the historical support for defining marriage as between one man and one woman, the court determined that it was the duty of the judiciary to rectify past misperceptions which result in constitutionally unsound legislation," Targowski wrote in court documents.
"Like the long held beliefs regarding the marital relationship, the long held beliefs about the effects of marijuana have evolved. While the former evolution has been the result of societal ideologies, the latter is predicated on scientific evidence, and therefore, can be more readily established through an evidentiary hearing."
Targowski has asked that Jonker consider declarations of three experts, including a former FBI supervisor and a physician, to establish there is no rational basis to treat marijuana as a controlled substance. Medical science has documented that "marijuana has a notably low potential for abuse," Targowski wrote.
He said the Supreme Court has acknowledged its medical value. "Compared to other over-the-counter substances, cannabis has the lowest potential for abuse, as it is impossible to die from an overdose: further, no studies have proven that the use of cannabis causes harms similar to those caused by the use of common over-the-counter medications, even at recommended dosages," he wrote. "In effect, the facts upon which marijuana was scheduled as one of the most dangerous narcotics in 1970 have been disproven."
He also said that the government's policy of not prosecuting those who comply with their state's medical marijuana laws amounts to unequal prosecution based on where people live. "The policy statement presented in the memorandum to U.S. Attorneys from Deputy Attorney General James Cole, issued on Aug. 29, 2013, by Attorney General Eric Holder has resulted in a discriminatory application of federal law, in that it protects similarly situated individuals from criminal sanctions for actions identical to that alleged to have been conducted by the defendant, and therefore violates the Equal Protection Clause," Targowski wrote.
The government contends Taylor ran a large-scale drug operation that sold marijuana in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. He worked with a doctor for "certification clinics" for alleged patients, police said. The government said Taylor used the state's medical marijuana law as a ruse.
As the title of this post suggests, I find the argument based on the Supreme Court's rejection of DOMA in the Windsor ruling the most intriguing (and perhaps most viable) argument here. Until I can see the defense's 86-page filing in this case, as well as the feds response, I am disinclined to predict whether the defendant here will even secure an evidentiary hearing to present all his best evidence to attack federal marijuana law and policy. But I am already inclined to predict that these kinds of arguments could become a real game-changer if hundreds of federal marijuana defendants were to start raising them in dozens of federal district courts.
Cross-posted at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
UPDATE: The lawyer representing Shawn Taylor in the federal indictment in the western district of Michigan reported to me via e-mail that he "essentially replicated work that has been successful in another case in the Eastern District of California, which has led to the scheduling of an evidentiary hearing later this summer to allow the defendant to raise the issues with expert testimony." He tells me that "California attorneys Zenia Gilig and Heather Burke wrote the originally brief in the ED of CA case {though] their work didn't get any press." He also provided this link to a California blog covering the case out there which has some pdfs of some key documents.
June 21, 2014 in Drug Offense Sentencing, Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack
Friday, June 20, 2014
Some recent posts of note from Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform
Continuing the sporatic tradition of a review of activities on marijuana law and policy fronts, here is a round up of recent notable posts from Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform:
New York pols work out deal to legalize only smoke-free medical marijuana
Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul, ASA's new ad, and the shifting politics of drug policy
Is a home rule/preemption local/state/federal legal battle brewing in Wenatchee, Washington?
1.8 grams of marijuana results in 20 month sentencing bump for federal gun defendant
Could marijuana some day "become a new frontier in addiction medicine" to wean addicts from more dangerous drugs?
June 20, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Is God a supporter of marijuana reform?
The question in the title of this post is my (only slightly) tounge-in-cheek response to this Christian Post article headlined "Oklahoma Senator Quotes Genesis 1:29 to Seek Marijuana Legalization." Here are excerpts:
Oklahoma state Sen. Constance Johnson announced the filing of a statewide initiative petition to legalize marijuana, telling supporters that the campaign is based on Genesis 1:29, which suggests that God created "this wonderful, miraculous plant."
"We're putting forth Genesis 1:29 as the basis of this campaign," KFOR.com quoted Sen. Johnson, a Democrat, as telling supporters at the State Capitol on Friday after filing the petition with the office of the Oklahoma secretary of state.
"God created this wonderful, miraculous plant and we know that it has been vilified for the last 100 years, and it's time to change that in Oklahoma," added the senator, who has led efforts, along with attorney David Slane, to legalize pot. The advocates of marijuana will require 160,000 signatures from registered voters within three months to get the proposal on a statewide ballot....
The petition states that up to one ounce of marijuana should be allowed for recreational use, and three ounces for medical reasons. The senator is of the opinion that resultant tax benefits would benefit the state.... Johnson also says that decriminalizing possession would ease the burden on prisons. "We're locking up non-violent, marijuana possessing people, giving them felonies and filling up our prisons."
"It's just the right thing to do. It's a plant. It's a God given plant and it could change the world," Fox 25 quoted a petition supporter, Pamela Street, as saying Friday....
Marijuana is different in nature from caffeine, Christian theologian John Piper wrote on the blog of his Desiring God ministry recently. While marijuana "temporarily impairs the reliable processing of surrounding reality," caffeine "ordinarily sharpens that processing," he said.
Cross-posted at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
June 15, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Purposes of Punishment and Sentencing, Religion | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack
Friday, June 06, 2014
Notable new federal drug war frontier: "DEA targets doctors linked to medical marijuana"
The title of this post comes from the headline of this lengthy Boston Globe report, which gets started this way:
US Drug Enforcement Administration investigators have visited the homes and offices of Massachusetts physicians involved with medical marijuana dispensaries and delivered an ultimatum: sever all ties to marijuana companies, or relinquish federal licenses to prescribe certain medications, according to several physicians and their attorneys.
The stark choice is necessary, the doctors said they were told, because of friction between federal law, which bans any use of marijuana, and state law, which voters changed in 2012 to allow medical use of the drug.
The DEA's action has left some doctors, whose livelihoods depend on being able to offer patients pain medications and other drugs, with little option but to resign from the marijuana companies,where some held prominent positions.
The Globe this week identified at least three doctors contacted by DEA investigators, although there may be more. "Here are your options," Dr. Samuel Mazza said he was told by Gregory Kelly, a DEA investigator from the agency's New England Division office. "You either give up your [DEA] license or give up your position on the board . . . or you challenge it in court."
Cross-posted at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
June 6, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Monday, June 02, 2014
"After 5 Months of Sales, Colorado Sees the Downside of a Legal High"
The title of this post is the headline of this lengthy recent article appearing in the New York Times. As the headline suggests, the article documents glass-half-empty data and perspectives on Colorado's on-going experiment with marijuana legalization. Here are excerpts:
Five months after Colorado became the first state to allow recreational marijuana sales, the battle over legalization is still raging. Law enforcement officers in Colorado and neighboring states, emergency room doctors and legalization opponents increasingly are highlighting a series of recent problems as cautionary lessons for other states flirting with loosening marijuana laws.
There is the Denver man who, hours after buying a package of marijuana-infused Karma Kandy from one of Colorado's new recreational marijuana shops, began raving about the end of the world and then pulled a handgun from the family safe and killed his wife, the authorities say. Some hospital officials say they are treating growing numbers of children and adults sickened by potent doses of edible marijuana. Sheriffs in neighboring states complain about stoned drivers streaming out of Colorado and through their towns.
"I think, by any measure, the experience of Colorado has not been a good one unless you're in the marijuana business," said Kevin A. Sabet, executive director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes legalization. "We've seen lives damaged. We've seen deaths directly attributed to marijuana legalization. We've seen marijuana slipping through Colorado's borders. We've seen marijuana getting into the hands of kids."
Despite such anecdotes, there is scant hard data. Because of the lag in reporting many health statistics, it may take years to know legal marijuana's effect — if any — on teenage drug use, school expulsions or the number of fatal car crashes. It was only in January, for example, that the Colorado State Patrol began tracking the number of people pulled over for driving while stoned. Since then, marijuana-impaired drivers have made up about 1.5 percent of all citations for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Proponents of legalization argue that the critics s are cherry-picking anecdotes to tarnish a young industry that has been flourishing under intense scrutiny. The vast majority of the state's medical and recreational marijuana stores are living up to stringent state rules, they say. The stores have sold marijuana to hundreds of thousands of customers without incident. The industry has generated $12.6 million in taxes and fees so far, though the revenues have not matched some early projections.
Marijuana supporters note that violent crimes in Denver — where the bulk of Colorado's pot retailers are — are down so far this year. The number of robberies from January through April fell by 4.8 percent from the same time in 2013, and assaults were down by 3.7 percent. Over all, crime in Denver is down by about 10 percent, though it is impossible to say whether changes to marijuana laws played any role in that decline....
The argument is being waged with fervor because both sides say Colorado's successes and failures with regulating marijuana will shape perceptions of legalization for voters considering similar measures in other states and for leery federal law enforcement officials. After the 2012 legalization votes in Colorado and Washington State — where recreational sales are expected to begin this summer — Justice Department officials gave the states a cautious green light. But they warned that they might intervene if marijuana ended up fueling violence or drug trafficking, or flowing across state lines or into the hands of children.
Marijuana opponents like Thomas J. Gorman of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, which helps law enforcement, say Colorado is already falling short of those standards. "In any other state if they were making as much money and growing as much dope, they'd be taken out by the feds," Mr. Gorman said.
Few agree on how much legally purchased marijuana is being secreted out of Colorado. Michele Leonhart, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, told a Senate panel in April that officials in Kansas had tallied a 61 percent increase in Michele Leonhart, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, told a Senate panel in April that officials in Kansas had tallied a 61 percent increase inseizures of marijuana that could be traced to Colorado. But according to the Kansas Highway Patrol, total marijuana seizures fell to 1,090 pounds from 2,790 pounds during the first four months of the year, a 61 percent decline.
Some sheriffs and police chiefs along Colorado's borders say they have noticed little change. But in Colby, Kan., which sits along an interstate highway running west to Colorado, Police Chief Ron Alexander said charges for sale, distribution or possession related to marijuana were rising fast. This year, he tallied 20 such cases through May 23. Two years ago, there were six during that same time period. Sheriff Adam Hayward of Deuel County, Neb., said he was locking up more people for marijuana-related offenses. "It's kind of a free-for-all," he said. "The state or the federal government needs to step up and do something."...
Police and fire officials across the state have been contending with a sharp rise in home explosions, as people use flammable butane to make hashish oil.. And despite a galaxy of legal, regulated marijuana stores across the state, prosecutors say a dangerous illicit market persists....
Many of Colorado's starkest problems with legal marijuana stem from pot-infused cookies, chocolates and other surprisingly potent edible treats that are especially popular with tourists and casual marijuana users. On Colorado's northern plains, for example, a fourth grader showed up on the playground one day in April and sold some of his grandmother's marijuana to three classmates. The next day, one of those students returned the favor by bringing in a marijuana edible he had swiped from his own grandmother. "This was kind of an unintended consequence of Colorado's new law," said John Gates, the district's director of school safety and security. "For crying out loud, secure your weed. If you can legally possess it, that's fine. But it has no place in an elementary school."
So far this year, nine children have ended up at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora after consuming marijuana, six of whom got critically sick. In all of 2013, the hospital treated only eight such cases.
Cross-posted at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
June 2, 2014 in Drug Offense Sentencing, Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack
Sunday, June 01, 2014
Some recent posts of note from Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform
Continuing the sporatic tradition of a review of activities on marijuana law and policy fronts, here is a round up of recent notable posts from Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform:
Jobs, jobs, jobs: why legalization will garner fans among those eager for economic development
Brookings discovers "professional businesses that are innovative and scientific" in Colorado
House votes to block the DOJ from spending money on medical marijuana investigations
Examining regulatory realities in Canada's new federal medical marijuana landscape
New Mexico Appeals Court holds medical marijuana expenses covered under state Workers' Comp law
June 1, 2014 in Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Saturday, May 31, 2014
"Why Republicans are slowly embracing marijuana"
The title of this post is the headline of this recent Los Angeles Times article, which includes these excerpts:
Marijuana is a political conundrum for the GOP, traditionally the stridently anti-drug, law and order party. More than half the voters in the country now live in states where medical marijuana is legal, in many cases as a result of ballot measures. The most recent poll by the Pew Research Center found most Americans think pot should be legal, a major shift from just a decade ago when voters opposed legalization by a 2-to-1 margin.
Most GOP stalwarts, of course, continue to rail against liberalization of the laws. Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, a physician, declared during floor debate that medical marijuana is a sham. Real medicine, he said, "is not two joints a day, not a brownie here, a biscuit there. That is not modern medicine."
But in a sign of how the times are changing, he found himself challenged by a colleague from his own caucus who is also a doctor. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) spoke passionately in favor of the bill. "It has very valid medical uses under direction of a doctor," he said. "It is actually less dangerous than some narcotics prescribed by doctors all over the country." Georgia is among the many states experimenting with medical marijuana. A state program there allows its limited use to treat children with severe epileptic seizures.
The rise of the tea party, meanwhile, has given an unforeseen boost to the legalization movement. Some of its more prominent members see the marijuana component of the War on Drugs as an overreach by the federal government, and a violation of the rights of more than two dozen states that have legalized cannabis or specific components of it for medical use.
Pro-marijuana groups have lately taken to boosting the campaigns of such Republicans, even those running against Democrats. A notable case is in the Sacramento region, where the Marijuana Policy Project recently announced it was endorsing Igor Birman, a tea partier seeking to knock out Democrat Ami Berra in a swing congressional district.
Cross-posted at Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform
May 31, 2014 in Elections and sentencing issues in political debates, Marijuana Legalization in the States, Pot Prohibition Issues, Who Sentences? | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack


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November 25, 2014
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Charleston Police are investigating a stabbing that happened early Sunday morning.
Police say it happened around three o'clock in the morning on Sunday at The Renaissance Circle Apartments.
They say Paul Brown stabbed Nathaniel Youngblood with a pair of scissors. Youngblood is the boyfriend of Browns mother.
Police haven't said what motivated the stabbing, although they do say Brown was under the influence of drugs during the fight.
Youngblood is believed to have suffered only minor injuries to his hand and back.
Brown was taken to the hospital with an injury to his wrist before being taken to jail. He's charged with malicious wounding.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks to you and your family,too.
wishing you and your family a holiday which good memories are made. Blessings. Ed.
A Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well t-w!!! Hope it's been a good one. No family for me remaining, only a couple of friends. I don't get on here much these days. Working OT, and it's sure needed after NOT having had any to speak of under Clinton, Bush, Obama and Congress working with and under them all.
Thanks for the greetings. Just finished Turkey Day 1! Get to celebrate again, tomorrow! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
Thank you, Tom. A Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Thanks t-w. Happy thanksgiving to u 2
Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you ate lots of turkey!!
Thanks! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too!
Happy Thanksgiving May you and your family enjoy it Have a nice day


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Financial News
West Coast Mainline Deal: Ministers 'Lied To'
The Transport Department was "irresponsible" over its role in the collapse of the £5bn West Coast Mainline rail contract, a group of MPs has said.
Members of the Transport Committee said the Government department had embarked on an "ambitious, perhaps unachievable" reform in haste, and claimed that ministers and senior officials were lied to.
FirstGroup was told it had won its bid to take over the franchise from Virgin Trains, but the decision was scrapped after the discovery of "significant technical flaws" in the way the procurement was conducted.
Virgin has now been told it can run the service until November 2014, with the fiasco costing taxpayers over £40m.
The mistakes came to light after bidder Virgin Trains, which had run the West Coast Mainline since 1997, launched a legal challenge against the decision.
A Government-commissioned report led by businessman Sam Laidlaw last month gave a damning indictment of how the competition was handled.
Three members of staff at the DfT were suspended over the episode.
The Transport Committee said in its report today: "A more direct description of what happened is that ministers and senior officials were lied to about how the outcome of the franchise competition had been reached.
"We cannot categorically rule out the possibility that officials manipulated the outcome of the competition not only to keep First Group in the running for as long as possible, as Mr Laidlaw suggested, but to ensure that First got the contract.
"We recommend that the DfT find a way of undertaking a full email capture, reporting to someone suitably independent, to help get to the bottom of why DfT staff discriminated against Virgin and in favour of First Group during the franchise competition."
Louise Ellman, chair of the committee, added: "We also want to hear from the Secretary of State what lessons he thinks current and future ministers must learn from this episode where policy ambition exceeded his department's capability and resources."
A DfT spokesman said: "We are putting in place measures that will prevent this embarrassing episode from happening again and the Secretary of State has given an undertaking to keep Parliament updated on costs.
"While we are currently working to minimise the impact on the taxpayer, we estimate the failure of the competition and subsequent independent inquiries is around £48m."
on Orange News today
- Police Recruit Public In Fight Against Terror
- Police Shoot Dead 12-Year-Old Holding Fake Gun
- Drain Baby: Mum Charged With Attempted Murder
- NHS Staff Stage Four-Hour Strike Over Pay
- The Graduate Director Mike Nichols Dies
- Band Aid 30 Single At Number One In Charts
- Spying Virus May Be Work Of A 'Nation State'


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Article VII of the Constitution established a new ratification requirement for the states that met after the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
NCC Staff's posts.
Article VI: Prior Debts, National Supremacy Clause, and Oaths of Office
Article VI of the Constitution allowed the new federal government assumed the financial obligations of the old government, established the "supremacy clause" as the most important guarantor of national union, and required state and federal officials to take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Article V: Mode of Amendment
Article V of the Constitution defines how the Constitution can be amended.
Article IV: States' Relations
Article IV of the Constitution outlines the duties states have to each other, and the duties the federal government has to the states. It provides for the admission of new states and defines a process for changing state boundaries. It also originally included the Fugitive Slave clause, which is now obsolete.
Article III: The Judicial Branch
Article III of the Constitution identifies the third branch of our separated government, empowering the courts to decide cases and limiting them to the exercise of a certain kind of authority. It establishes the Supreme Court of the United States, and defines the crime of treason, the only crime listed in the Constitution.
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"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." ~ John Adams
Olympic Battle: Londoners to Form Human Shield to Keep Missiles From Homes
Submitted by Melinda L. Secor on Sun, 2012-06-03 00:00
"Residents in east London have threatened to form human barricades to prevent missiles being installed on the rooftops of their homes for the Olympic Games. Six sites in east London have been earmarked for the deployment of Rapier and Starstreak missiles, each with a range of over three miles and capable of travelling at three times the speed of sound. During the Olympics, London will have more soldiers on the streets than at any time since the Second World War and that there will be more armed personnel patrolling the capital than the entire number of British troops serving in Afghanistan."
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New in Technology (page 14 of 23)
Apr 24, 2012 | 10:45 AM CDT
Leonard Lauder Honored by LISCC
Leonard Lauder received the Lifetime Achievement Award for the Advancement of Cosmetic Sciences from the Long Island SCC during a recent event hosted to recognize his contributions to the industry.
Apr 24, 2012 | 07:56 AM CDT
Winners Announced for Cosmetics & Toiletries R&D Awards and Innovation Zone Awards
At the In-cosmetics Awards Ceremony on April 17, 2012, Cosmetics & Toiletries announced the winners for the 2012 Cosmetics & Toiletries R&D Awards. In addition, In-cosmetics named the winners for its Innovation Zone Awards.
Apr 19, 2012 | 04:03 PM CDT
PCPC Announces Support for Cosmetic Safety Amendments Act of 2012
The Personal Care Product's Council and the Safe Cosmetics Alliance have both announced their support for H.R. 4395, a bill introduced by Representative Leonard Lance known as the "Cosmetic Safety Amendments Act of 2012.
Apr 04, 2012 | 04:43 PM CDT
Senescence: Reversing the Clock on Skin Aging
By: Shyam Gupta, PhD, and Linda Walker
Preventing skin aging by targeting multiple causes with a single bullet is of primal scientific and consumer interest. Treatments based on cellular anti-senescence can offer this single solution to multiple skin ailments, including skin aging.
Apr 04, 2012 | 03:45 PM CDT
The Process of Product Development
By: Darrin C. Duber-Smith and Gregory Black
The beauty industry is hypercompetitive, and on-shelf success requires that new product development is conducted as scientifically as possible, utilizing proven models and due diligence.
Mar 28, 2012 | 10:49 AM CDT
L'Oréal Inaugurates New Global Hair Research Center
Exclusively dedicated to hair, L'Oréal's new research center is the head of a network of six regional centers around the world that research hair care formulations and consumer needs and product interactions, aiming to help L'Oréal achieve its goal of reaching one billion new consumers globally.
Mar 20, 2012 | 04:24 PM CDT
Nanomaterials and the EU Cosmetics Regulation: Implications for Your Company
By: Giles Chappell
In a preview of his InnoCos Europe presentation, Giles Chappell offers some insights into how EU regulations will impact nanomaterials.
Mar 02, 2012 | 04:08 PM CST
Examining Skin: A Functional Barrier
By: Marie Alice Dibon, PharmD
New research reveals that we need to let the skin protect itself, and product development strategies should focus on restoring the skin barrier and, more importantly, not impair skin's function.
Jan 31, 2012 | 10:14 AM CST
New Paradigms
By: Steve Herman
Not every method is good for every product type, but a tool box of new ideas can surely jump-start a sleepy development program. And innovation, often a risky proposition, has a higher likelihood of success if the underlying ideas are sound.
Jan 18, 2012 | 04:23 PM CST
In-cosmetics Asia Grew Despite Thai Floods
Number of exhibiting companies grew 13%; event continues to be platform for ingredient launches.


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95135 Real Estate & Homes For Sale
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5507 Cribari Bd, San Jose CA New Listing!
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Listing provided by Mario Burnias, Broker
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Thomas Cree - (510) 853-5737 - Beautiful home with a fantastic view of the Evergreen Foothills. Located on a quiet cul-de-sac, this home has a remodeled kitchen with granite countertops, remodeled bathrooms, 2 fireplaces and complete with a formal dining room. Professionally maintained yards. Per ... See More
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Listing provided by Remax Santa Clara Valley
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Listing provided by Keller Williams San Jose Gateway
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Beautiful 18yrs old, 2,428 sqft, 11,500sqf lot 2-stories SFH w/ 4 beds, +1 office,3 full baths, 3car garage; Open Floorplan, Lots of natural lights! Top Schools:SilverOak, Chaboya, Evergreen HS. Grand entry w/ high ceilings & open floor plan. 1bed & 1bath downstairs. Travertine tile flooring.Gour ... See More
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Gorgeous home located in the top schools of Evergreen. Loft, Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors, Custom paint, New water heater, Oversized two car garage with additional space. Storage cabinets in garage. Electric fire place. Stamped concrete in patio. Fruit trees. Close to all amenities. More pict ... See More
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DON'T MISS THIS Wonderful opportunity to build your own custom home w/great mountain/valley views on 26,000 sf lot -Seller will carry 60-70% financing-reasonable interest rate. Seller is very flexible in coordinating building costs with buyer - Have soils report, geotech, approved tentative map, ... See More
Listing provided by Davey & Associates Real Estate, Inc.


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Review Details
Rainbow Kids Medical Bracelet
- Product Review (submitted on December 14, 2011):
- I have been ording from N-Style for a while now. We love their products. The sliders are great for kids they can change bands whenever they want. My son loves the rainbow so it's not just for girls. I have ordered medical bracelets from other places and they scratched very easy and we could not even read them in an emergency. N-style is very durable and has never scratched at all. Thanks for a great product that keeps are children safe.