Drug Policy

Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps -- and What They Say About Our Idiotic Drug Policies

David Sirota | Posted 10.23.2009 | Politics

Read More: Marijuana, Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, Sports, Endorsements, Drug War, Medical Marijuana, Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, Politics News

Why do we as a country encourage the consumption of drugs that are far more harmful than some of the drugs, like marijuana, we outright criminalize?

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Holder's Baby Step On Medical Marijuana

Chris Weigant | Posted 10.25.2009 | Politics

Read More: 2835, Necessity, Medical Necessity, President Obama, Glaucoma, Marijuana, Barney Frank, Dea, Doj, Raid, Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, Medical, Medical Marijuana, Obama, War on Drugs, Injustice, Drug, Eric Holder, California, Drug Enforcement Agency, Gonzales v Raich, Federal Prosecutor, Schedule I, Schedule, Ed Rosenthal, Marinol, Schedule II, Medical Use, US v Rosenthal, Drug War, Department of Justice, Justice, Federal Attorney, Oakland, Gag Rule, Federal, Attorney General, Necessity Defense, US v OCBC, Justice Department, Barack Obama, Holder, Controlled Substances Act, Ag, Cannabis, Chris Weigant, Ashcroft v Raich, hr2835, Drug Policy, Medical Necessity Defense, Raich, Ocbc, Rosenthal, Politics News

Obama's plan is good news for medical marijuana advocates, but although this is a historic shift in the War on Drugs, it does not go far enough because it does not resolve the illogic of the underlying legal issue.

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Turning the Corner on Drug Law Reform

Norm Stamper | Posted 10.07.2009 | Politics

Read More: Ecuador, The Netherlands, Law Enforement Against Prohibition, Argentina, Mexico, Carol Ruth Silver, Drug War, Colombia, Brazil, Drug Laws, Leap, Drug Policy, Politics News

Australians are acutely aware that the U.S. is and has been since 1971 the chest-thumping, fist-banging four-star general in the global war on drugs. Their willingness to stand up to our bullying ways is growing.

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Colorado's War on Drugs a Fiscal Disaster

Mike Krause | Posted 10.07.2009 | Denver

Read More: Colorado Politics, Drug Policy Task Force, Marijuana, Ccjj, Cocain, War on Drugs, Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Heroin, Drug Policy, Colorado General Assembly, Denver News

Colorado's failed attempt to incarcerate away drugs costs taxpayers roughly $140 million per year just for prison beds. Budget hawks have turned a blind eye to one of the most extreme spending sprees in state history.

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Pot Wars: A Bipartisan Failure

Jessica Corry | Posted 09.25.2009 | Denver

Read More: Tom Tancredo, Marijuana, Medical Marijuana, Regulation, War on Drugs, Marijuana Legalization, Drug Policy, Hillary Clinton, Colorado, Prohibition, Denver News

Democrats calculate they will have nothing to gain by legalizing. Republicans fear angering a socially conservative base of voters all too eager to forget its beer-bonging college days.

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FBI Report: One Drug Arrest Made Every 18 Seconds

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 09.14.2009 | Politics

Read More: Drug Arrests, Fbi, Drug Policy, Fbi Report Drug Arrests, Drug Laws, Politics News

Someone is arrested in the United States for a drug-law violation every 18 seconds, an FBI report released Monday shows. More than four-fifths of th...

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Marijuana Use By The Numbers

Paul Armentano | Posted 09.10.2009 | Politics

By age 25, 54 percent of the population has admittedly used marijuana. Does anyone still believe that marijuana prohibition is working -- or that all of these people deserve to be behind bars?

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Task Force Raids LA Marijuana Dispensaries, Shoots Dog (HuffPost Exclusive: Search Warrant)

Anthony Citrano | Posted 09.18.2009 | Politics

Read More: Raids, California, Marijuana, Medical Marijuana, Obama Drug Policy, Dea, Los Angeles, Eric Holder, Exclusive, Drug Policy, Politics News

There hasn't been a more confusing legal environment regarding marijuana than there is now in California, as recent multi-agency raids on two L.A. medical marijuana dispensaries demonstrate.

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The Five Stages of Grief over Obama's Drug Policies

Stanton Peele | Posted 09.08.2009 | Politics

Read More: Gil Kerlikowske, Needle Exchange Program, Medical Marijuana, Stanton Peele, Gil Kerlikowske Drug Czar, Ethan Nadelmann, Political News, Harm Reduction, Obama Administration, Marijuana Legalization, Drug Policy, Politics News

Obama is not committed enough to drug policy reform to incur the symbolism taking any steps towards liberalization would send.

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Obama Deal With Drugmakers Sparks Debate Over Reform

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 09.06.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama Drug Policy, Pharmaceutical Industry, Robert Gibbs, Obama Meetings, Barack Obama, Obama Health Care Titans, Obama Health Care, Drug Policy, Obama Reform, Pharma, Drug Makers, Politics News

The White House backtracked slightly on Thursday from reports that it had made a hugely significant and binding backroom deal with the pharmaceutical ...

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'Outlaw Mother's Milk' Says Drug Czar

Don Parker | Posted 08.23.2009 | Comedy

Read More: Mother's Milk, Nurses, Marijuana, American Academy of HIV Medicine, American Public Health Association, Institute of Medicine, Medical Marijuana, Science, Teen Alcohol Abuse, Political Humor, War on Science, Gil Kerlikowske, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Teenagers, Teen Tobacco Abuse, Drunk Driving, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, American Nurses Association, Seattle Police Chief, Fresno Bee, Drug Czar, Drug War, Doctors, Political Satire, Drug Policy, Tobacco, Republican War on Science, Legalize Marijuana, Lymphoma Foundation of America, Comedy News

After declaring on Wednesday in Fresno that "marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office...

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California TV Stations "Just Say No" to Drug Policy Ad

Anthony Citrano | Posted 08.08.2009 | Media

Read More: Television, California, Breaking Media News, Media News, Media, Marijuana, Drug Policy, Aclu, Corporate Media, Marijuana Legalization, AB 390, Political News, Politics, California Politics, Breaking Politics News, Media News

Marijuana decriminalization is getting fresh attention due to broad public support of the new AB 390 bill, but only a handful of media outlets, including CNN and CNBC, will air pro-legalization ads.

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Exclusive Excerpt: This Is Your Country On Drugs

Ryan Grim | Posted 07.30.2009 | Politics

Read More: Andy Warhol, Drug Culture, Lsd, This Is Your Country on Drugs, Drug War, Acid, Drug Use, Burning Man, LSD Statistics, Drugs, Ryan Grim, War on Drugs, Drug Policy, Drug Policy Reform, Politics News

When approached in isolation, drug policy almost always backfires, because it doesn't take into account the powerful economic, social, and cultural forces that also determine how and why Americans get high.

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Barney Frank Introduces Marijuana Legislation

Chris Weigant | Posted 07.23.2009 | Politics

Read More: Dangerous Controlled Substance, White House, President Obama, Marijuana, Ron Paul, Barney Frank, Dea, Medical Marijuana, Obama, Drug, President, Drug Enforcement Agency, John Stuart Mill, Schedule I, Schedule, Schedule II, Medical Use, Bill Maher, Committee, House, Frank, Democrat, Henry Waxman, Paul, Democrats, Barack Obama, Marijuana Patient Protection Act, Dana Rohrabacher, Chris Weigant, Controlled Substance Act, Drug Policy, Personal Use, Rohrabacher, Politics News

How many Democrats do we need to elect to Congress before such commonsense laws are passed to rein in some of the excesses of past eras?

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Why We Must Reform Our Criminal Justice System

Sen. Jim Webb | Posted 07.11.2009 | Politics

Read More: Prison Reform, Senator Jim Webb, Criminal Justice System, National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, Ex-Offender Re-Entry Programs, Gangs, Mexico Drug Wars, Drug Policy, Politics News

One in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. Numbers only tell part of the story.

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Drug War: Brazil Drug Crackdown Arrests Dozens, Including 19 Police

The News | Posted 07.11.2009 | World

Read More: Latin America, Rio De Janeiro Drug Bust, Drug War, Rio De Janeiro, Foreign Affairs, Brazil, Rio De Janeiro-Brazil, Drugs, War on Drugs, Brazil Drug War, Advocacy, Drug Policy, World News

At least 41 people were arrested Tuesday, among them 19 police officers, in the largest operation conducted by authorities in the Brazilian state of R...

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Drug Czar's Pot-Potency Claims Go Up In Smoke

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 06.29.2009 | Politics

Read More: Marijuana, Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, Drugs, War on Drugs, Pot, Drug Policy, Politics News

A newly released report about marijuana potency undermines previous claims by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) that the drug's poten...

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Ending the War on Drugs: The Moment is Now

Arianna Huffington | Posted 06.14.2009 | Politics

Read More: Crack Cocaine Sentencing, Eric Holder Drug War, Eric Holder Attorney General, Marijuana, Drug War, Crack Cocaine, Medical Marijuana, Obama Drug Policy, War on Drugs, Ryan Grim, Obama Marijuana, Eric Holder, Drug Policy, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Politics News

When it comes to addressing America's disastrous war on drugs, the Obama administration is saying the right things. But when it comes to putting its rhetoric into action, the administration has faltered.

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Steroids: Baseball's Misunderstood Savior

Alec Brownstein | Posted 06.08.2009 | Comedy

Steroids provide the unpredictability that baseball so desperately needs. What could be more interesting than emotionally volatile man children with rock-like projectiles and bats?

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Governor David Paterson Does the Right Thing

Anthony Papa | Posted 06.07.2009 | Politics

Read More: Rockefeller Drug Laws, War on Drugs, Cocaine, Mandatory Minimums, Drug Policy, Politics News

The Rockefeller Drug Laws had evolved to become a racist entity that was a complete failure in balancing the scales of justice with the needs of protecting our communities.

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Nature Versus Narco

Wallace J Nichols | Posted 05.27.2009 | Green

Read More: Drug Reform, Mexico, Drugs, Drugs Environment, Mexico Drug War, Drug Policy, Green News

The production, processing and trafficking of narcotics are slowly and quietly wreaking havoc on nature and undermining environmental conservation from Colombia to British Columbia.

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WATCH: The Conservative Case For Medical Marijuana (Video)

Lee Stranahan | Posted 05.21.2009 | Politics

Judge Jim Gray is a former prosecutor, member of the Navy JAG Corps and served as a judge for years in famously conservative Orange County. In this exclusive interview, he discusses medical marijuana.

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Obama: Reduce Drug Trafficking To "Localized Criminal Problem"

HuffingtonPost.com | Ryan Grim | Posted 05.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: Drug Trafficking, Mexico, Drug Policy, President Obama, Politics News

President Barack Obama, at a joint press conference with his Mexican counterpart Thursday, said that the goal of the joint U.S.-Mexican war against dr...

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Mexican Drug War: 10 Shocking Facts

GlobalPost | Posted 05.16.2009 | World

Read More: Mexico Drug War, Drug War, Drug Lords, Foreign Affairs, Mexico, War on Drugs, Barack Obama, Drug Policy, Summit of the Americas, Mexican Drug Lords, Obama Summit, Mexico Drug Violence, Mexico Drug Wars, Advocacy, Mexico's Drug War, Mexico City-Mexico, Mexican Drug War, Mexican Drug Wars, Mexico Drug Facts, Mexican Drug War Facts, Drug War in Mexico, Mexican Drug Wars, Mexico's Drug War Facts, Mexican Drug War News, World News

In anticipation of President Obama's trip south this week -- first to Mexico on Thursday and then to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tob...

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Is the Media Finally Getting it On Drug Policy?

Maia Szalavitz | Posted 05.03.2009 | Media

Read More: Addiction, Drugs, Media, Drug Policy, Marijuana, Mexico Drug Wars, Afghanistan Opium, Us Drug Policy, Media News

With the Mexican drug war completely out of control, Afghanistan supplying 90% of the world's opium, and our economy in collapse, the media has finally begun to seriously question our approach.

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