Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 16, 2020




MARY JANE IS HERE TO STAY
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
JUNE 16, 2020


THIS CHAIN OF THOUGHTS BEGAN AS AN IMPULSE THAT I OFTEN FEEL, WHICH IS TO DEFEND BERNIE SANDERS AND THE REST OF US OF THE PROGRESSIVE PERSUASION FOR ONE OF HIS OPINIONS THAT CONSERVATIVE FOLKS DECRY. IT TURNS OUT TO BE A DEEP, DEEP POOL OF MATTERS, THOUGH, AND I HOPE ENOUGH OF IT WILL BE USEFUL FOR MY READERS TO FORGIVE MY VERBOSITY.

MANY PEOPLE ON THE “WAR ON DRUGS” SIDE HERE IN THE USA HATE AND FEAR MARIJUANA, BUT EVEN MODERN MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS DO NOT VIEW IT IN THE SAME LIGHT AS THE ADDICTIVE HARD DRUGS, OR THE PSYCHIATRICALLY DANGEROUS HALLUCINOGENS. IT IS LIKE ALCOHOL IN THAT IT RELAXES AND STIMULATES AT THE SAME TIME, HENCE IT’S APPEAL. IT IS LIKE CODEINE FOR PAIN AND SLEEPING DRUGS FOR SEVERE INSOMNIA, IN THAT IT HAS LEGITIMATE MEDICAL USES, BUT CAN BE ABUSED. IT IS LIKE THE HALLUCINOGENS – AND PERHAPS IS ONE – IN THAT IT HEIGHTENS SENSORY PERCEPTIONS OR, IN A MINORITYOF PEOPLE, CAN PRODUCE “BAD TRIPS.” IT CERTAINLY SHOULDN’T BE EASILY FOUND AND EATEN BY A CURIOUS CHILD. THERE IS NO QUESTION THAT OVERUSE IS LIKELY TO CAUSE LUNG PROBLEMS AND EVEN BRAIN DAMAGE, BUT THAT IS A MEDICAL ISSUE RATHER THAN CRIMINAL.

YES, ADDICTION OR “DRUG ABUSE” IS A MEDICAL MATTER. I ABSOLUTELY DON’T WANT TO SEE PEOPLE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ANYTHING – MOST COMMONLY ALCOHOL -- TO THE DEGREE THAT THEY ARE DANGEROUS BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A CAR, BEAT THEIR WIFE AND CHILDREN, FEEL COMPELLED TO ROB PEOPLE TO GET MONEY TO FINANCE THEIR HABIT, OR SIMPLY ARE UNABLE TO BREAK FREE OF THE CHAINS WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT OUTSIDE HELP. THOSE THINGS ARE ALL BAD, OBVIOUSLY, BUT DO MEN BEAT THEIR WIFE AND FAMILY BECAUSE OF DRUGS IN ALL CASES? NO. THEY DO IT SOMETIMES JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE BASICALLY CRUEL, WHICH CAUSES PEOPLE OF MY TURN OF MIND TO HATE THEM, AND OTHER TIMES BECAUSE THEY FEEL DESPERATE. THAT MAKES PEOPLE LIKE ME FEEL EMPATHY FOR THEM, AND WANT TO SEE THEM RECEIVE HELP.

IN BOTH CASES THEY NEED PSYCHIATRIC INTERVENTION, INVOLUNTARILY IF NECESSARILY, AND FOR LONGER THAN A MERE 24 HOUR PERIOD. PILLS CAN HELP, BUT TALK THERAPY IS ESSENTIAL. ON A DOCUMENTARY SHOW FOCUSING ON SOCIOPATHY SOME YEARS BACK, THE INTERVIEWER ASKED WHAT SHOULD OR COULD BE DONE ABOUT THAT STREAK OF CRUELTY. THE PSYCHIATRIST SAID SIMPLY, “PEOPLE SHOULD STOP TORTURING THEIR CHILDREN.” IN OTHER WORDS, THE WIFE OR CHILD BEATER HAS PROBABLY EXPERIENCED THAT IN HIS OWN HOME AS A CHILD, THE RECIPIENT OF BEATINGS.

SOMETIMES I DISAGREE WITH THOSE WHO ARE RECOMMENDING COMMUNITY CARE FOR WIFE BEATERS, BUT AS LONG AS IT IS LONG-TERM AND THOROUGH, IT MAY ACTUALLY BE A GOOD THING TO TRY. PSYCHOLOGICALLY BASED FAMILY THERAPY IS ALSO GOOD. TOO OFTEN, THE WOMAN WHO IS BEATEN GENUINELY DOES LOVE THE MAN, SO WHEN HE GOES TO PRISON SHE EXPERIENCES SOME LOSS. I’M OF THE OPINION THAT SHE SHOULD LEAVE HIM AND TAKE THE KIDS WITH HER, THOUGH, BECAUSE NOBODY DESERVES TO GO THROUGH THAT. SHE CAN GRIEVE FOR THE LOSS OF LOVE UNDER A PSYCHOTHERAPIST’S CARE AT SOME OTHER PLACE.

THE BOTTOM LINE FOR ME IS THIS. DRUG ADDICTS ARE NOT BEST TREATED IN PRISON; THE MENTALLY ILL ARE TOTALLY MISPLACED WHEN IMPRISONED; VICIOUS PEOPLE DO NEED TO BE IN PRISON BUT THEY ALSO NEED MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT WHILE THEY ARE THERE; SIMPLE POSSESSION OF A DRUG LIKE MARIJUANA SHOULD NOT BE THE EVENT THAT TRIGGERS CAGING A PERSON FOR HALF THEIR LIFE, AND USUALLY WITH NO MENTAL REHABILITATION. MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL, HOWEVER, ONE’S RACE, RELIGION, ETHNICITY, SEXUAL CONDITION OF WHATEVER SORT, DISABILITY, POVERTY OR ANOTHER STATUS MARKER SHOULD NOT BE THE CAUSE OF MORE FREQUENT ARRESTS BY POLICE FOR POSSESSION WITHOUT THE COMMISSION OF A VIOLENT CRIME, AND STRUGGLING AGAINST A POLICE OFFICER OR RUNNING AWAY IS NOT A VIOLENT CRIME. TO DO OTHERWISE IS NOT “EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW.”

THE SOLUTION TO OUR AMERICAN PROBLEM IS, FIRST, TO MAKE POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA NO LONGER A CRIME. THAT IS ALL THAT IS MEANT BY “LEGALIZING” IT. IN ADDITION TO THAT, MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENTS OF ALL KINDS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR DRUG ISSUES, ALONG WITH ALL OTHER PSYCHIATRIC CONDITIONS. THAT IS TRUE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE PRISONS. THOSE THINGS, AFTER YEARS OF TALKING ABOUT THEM, HAVE NOT BEEN ADDRESSED SERIOUSLY. I PUT THE REASON FOR IT INTO TWO CATEGORIES – THE “BASKET OF DEPLORABLES” OPINION, AND THE GOOD OLD “NOT MY PROBLEM.”

THINKING ABOUT THIS AGAIN NOW IS MAKING ME FEEL TIRED, SO I WILL MOVE ON. HERE ARE SEVERAL ARTICLES RELATING TO MARIJUANA.

Biden-Sanders Task Force Members Push For Legalizing Marijuana And Other Drug Reforms 
Published 11 hours ago on June 15, 2020 , By Kyle Jaeger

Two members of a criminal justice task force organized by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and former rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) recently discussed why they feel the criminalization of marijuana is an untenable policy, with one—a former U.S. attorney general—suggesting that even drugs such as opioids and cocaine should be removed from the criminal justice system’s purview.

Another member, who is also a former federal prosecutor, argued that the former vice president’s proposal to decriminalize marijuana is insufficient and should be replaced with a call for broader cannabis legalization.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder said in a C-SPAN appearance last week that racial disparities in drug enforcement have long been a problem, and the solution is to treat such offenses as a public health issue rather than a criminal justice one.

“Think about the crack epidemic and how we dealt with it there. We made it a criminal justice problem, we prosecuted people, we put people in jail,” he said. “Now we’re dealing with the opioid situation and now we’ve declared it—and I think correctly so and I’m not saying this is wrong—but we declared it a public health problem. Two different bodies of people—people perceived as being involved in crack, the use of crack and the use of opioids. It’s a racial component there.”

“I’d like to be able to take out of the system those kinds of determinations and to put law enforcement in places that are needed. But we tend to, again, because of implicit biases, deploy law enforcement to a much greater degree in African American communities and communities of color, which results in disparity when it comes to arrest rates.”

Holder said cannabis represents another example of the problem because “African Americans and whites use marijuana at roughly the same levels, yet you’re four times more likely to go to jail using marijuana if you are a person of color, if you’re black as opposed to if you’re white.”

“If I could change anything, I’d want to take all of that stuff out of the system,” he said. “I think we have the possibility now, given all the protests that we have seen.”

While Holder didn’t explicitly use the words “legalization” or “decriminalization” to describe his views on how drugs should be handled, those polices would generally be implicated when taking them “out of the system” of law enforcement. The former attorney general has previously said he would vote to legalize marijuana if he were in Congress, though he declined to reclassify the drug under federal law when he had the power to do so during his time leading the Justice Department.

Watch Holder discuss marijuana and drug policy below:
[GO TO WEBSITE.]

In an interview with NPR that was published last week, another member of the Biden-Sanders task force, former federal prosecutor Chiraag Bains, said that while he’s encouraged that Biden has made modest evolutions in his criminal justice platform, “we need a specific agenda and it needs to be bold.”

“I do see that the vice president is moving that direction,” he said. “I just think we need to do more.”

Ideally, “more” will involve Biden moving past his opposition to marijuana legalization and embracing the policy change ahead of the November election. At this stage, the presumptive nominee has stopped short of backing the reform move despite its popularity, particularly among Democratic voters. Instead, he’s proposed decriminalizing cannabis possession, federally rescheduling it, expunging prior records, legalizing medical use and letting states set their own policies.

Bains, who was appointed to the task force by Sanders, said that mere decriminalization doesn’t prevent some of the systemic issues that marijuana prohibition has created.

“Decriminalization typically means that you don’t have a criminal penalty, but you could still be issued a civil fine. And then there are other kinds of consequences that could follow from that,” he said. “It’s still illegal conduct. If possession of marijuana is just decriminalized and that is the hook for extensive police involvement in people’s lives, and if you haven’t addressed the underlying systemic problems in policing and the justice system overall, then people could continue to be stopped and searched and frisked and so forth.”

It’s not clear whether the task force will formally recommend that Biden adopt a pro-legalization platform—or if he would accept that recommendation even if they did. Pressed repeatedly on the issue, Biden has continued to argue that more research should be done before enacting broad reform.

He also recently indicated that his personal experience knowing individuals who consume cannabis has not convinced him that the plant should be legal for recreational use.

But it is the case that a majority of members on the task force favor legalization—something his former primary rival Sanders has long advocated for.

Biden’s campaign could feel additional pressure to have the candidate back legalization to push back against the image of him as an architect of punitive anti-drug laws that disproportionately impacted communities of color. Biden’s record as a senator who authored bills further criminalizing drugs is being leveraged by the Trump campaign, which is attempting to cast the incumbent president as the criminal justice reform candidate.

For the time being, the former vice president is stuck in a criminal justice rut. On the one hand, progressives lament that he’s maintaining opposition to policies like cannabis legalization and defunding the police. On the other hand, conservatives are attempting to tie him directly to the so-called “radical left” despite the fact that he’s made clear he’s not willing to meet their demands.

Last week, for example, Biden said $300 million should be invested in law enforcement for community policing training at a time when protestors are calling for defunding. He also renewed his call for mandatory drug rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration for drug offenses.

“We must remain vigilant of alternate ways the state can inflict violence on marginalized communities,” Maritza Perez, director of national affairs for Drug Policy Action, said in a press release on Thursday. “One of those ways is through mandating people to receive treatment they do not want. Many of the same constructs that led to mass criminalization and incarceration are behind involuntary and coercive treatment, including racism, stigmatization, ableism, and profit over people.”

“Involuntary and coercive treatment are billed as the solution to the problem of people who are unwilling to enter treatment,” she said. “The root problem, however, is systematic inequality and lack of access to the resources, including attractive evidence-based substance use disorder treatment, that help people to live healthy, self-sufficient lives. Biden’s proposal ignores this and is merely an extension of our country’s punitive approach to drug use.”

Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon pledge.



POLITICS   Portland Lawmakers Vote To Take Marijuana Tax Money Away From Police Department
Published 3 days ago on June 12, 2020
By Kyle Jaeger

The Portland City Council approved an amendment to a proposed budget on Thursday that would divest marijuana tax revenue funds from the city’s police department. The budget as a whole has not yet passed and will be taken up again next week.

Amid widespread calls to defund law enforcement in response to police killings of black Americans such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the local lawmakers approved about $27 million in cuts as part of the spending legislation. City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly voted against the full package, however, arguing that it didn’t make enough cuts to police.

The Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) had called on the Council to stop appropriating cannabis tax dollars to the department in a press release on Wednesday, emphasizing that a significant amount of that revenue is funding law enforcement despite the city passing a measure in 2016 stipulating that those funds should be designated for substance misuse treatment, public safety and small business development.

According to a 2019 report from the Portland City Auditor, 79 percent of marijuana tax revenue has gone to public safety, including about 46 percent directly to the Portland Police Bureau.


Minority Cannabis
@MinCannBusAssoc
Hey, #Portland!

Tell @tedwheeler to divest the tax revenue from Portland’s cannabis tax away from @PortlandPolice.

A 2019 audit report showed that these funds were not properly allocated, with 79% of cannabis tax revenue going to PPB. https://minoritycannabis.org/2159-2/

View image on Twitter
43
2:07 PM - Jun 10, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
23 people are talking about this
“Cannabis has historically—and continues to be to this day—a tool weaponized against communities of color,” Dr. Rachel Knox, an MCBA board member and chair of the Oregon Cannabis Commission, told Marijuana Moment. “We can go back to the 1970s, to the Controlled Substances Act and to the beginning of the war on drugs, where we saw marijuana being used, being wielded, against communities of color to criminalize them for simple things like possession.”

“It’s really, in my opinion, paradoxical that we are now using the economy of cannabis to fund the very institution that continues to terrorize communities of color and continues to disproportionately police our communities for the enforcement of marijuana laws,” she said.

The budget was approved for a second reading without an emergency clause attached, meaning that unlike Thursday’s initial vote, it will not require unanimous support for passage. If it is approved as amended when lawmakers reconvene next week, marijuana tax revenue that’s current funding police would instead be invested in restorative justice initiatives.


Lashay Wesley
@LashayKATU
Commissioners approve a plan that will pull cannabis tax funds from the PPB's traffic enforcement team. The funds will be used for restorative justice. #LiveOnK2 https://twitter.com/LashayKATU/status/1271227406368423936 …

Lashay Wesley
@LashayKATU
Portland City Commissioners unanimously approve motions to fund a Tribal Liason a position and Civil Rights Title Six Program with PPB funds. #LiveOnK2

11
7:51 PM - Jun 11, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
See Lashay Wesley's other Tweets
“This is not just an Oregon problem, this is a national disgrace,” MCBA President Jason Ortiz said in a press release. “We call on all cannabis justice activists to investigate their municipal finances, their local cannabis company investments, and discover if and how dollars meant for community uplift are being sent to law enforcement. This mockery of justice is a shameful moment in our history and we will not allow it to be our future.”

MCBA wants jurisdictions across the country to follow Portland’s lead and end the allocation of marijuana revenue to law enforcement.

“For too long we’ve invested so many resources to a law and order approach that has been unjust, unfair, and violent particularly towards communities of color, especially the Black community,” Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said. “We simply cannot police our way out of inequities. Today, we disrupt that pattern. Today, we begin to collectively reimagine and build towards community safety and police alternatives.”


Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty
@JoAnnPDX
My full statement on today's budget vote. (Thread - 1)

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter
288
9:38 PM - Jun 11, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
120 people are talking about this
The commissioner also criticized the “no” vote from her colleague, stating that she does not “want to let this detract from the very real steps taken, but it is an important reminder on what performative allyship looks like.”

“While we are making strides in realigning our budget with our values, this ‘no’ vote does nothing to materially support our BIPOC communities,” she said. “All this does is delay the much-needed relief for our communities and continues to allow these units to exist for that much longer.”

Across the U.S., there are active conversations about the relationship between cannabis criminalization and racial injustice in policing.

Two members of the House circulated a sign-on letter on Thursday urging fellow lawmakers to keep marijuana reform in mind as a way to further promote racial justice while they debate policing reform legislation.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom described his states’s legalization of marijuana as a “civil rights” matter last week. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said that the passage of cannabis decriminalization legislation this year represents an example of how his state has addressed racial inequities that are inspiring mass protests.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) also recently said racial disparities in marijuana enforcement is an example of a systemic injustice that underlies the frustration of minority communities.

Last month, 12 House members introduced a resolution condemning police brutality and specifically noting the racial injustices of the war on drugs. It now has 173 cosponsors.

That measure came one week after 44 members of the House sent a letter to the Justice Department, calling for an independent investigation into a fatal police shooting of Taylor in a botched drug raid.

In New York, there’s a renewed push to pass a package of criminal justice reform legislation that includes a bill to legalize marijuana.

The head of a federal health agency recently acknowledged racial disparities in drug enforcement and the harm that such disparate practices have caused—and on Monday, NORML [NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE REFORM OF MARIJUANA LAWS; https://norml.org/] asked her to go on the record to further admit that this trend in criminalization is more harmful than marijuana itself.


Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon pledge.


****    ****    ****    ****    


No comments:

Post a Comment