Federal Trial of Charles Lynch
On Wednesday, July 23rd at 10am, the federal trial of Charles Lynch officially begins.
Lynch was the Morro Bay owner of a licensed medical cannabis collective that was fully supported by local officials and did wonders to help patients in the community. On March 29, 2007, Lynch was violently raided by the DEA. Lynch was not arrested, and later reopened with the blessing of the landlord and city officials. However, DEA threatened to seize the property and arrest Lynch’s landlord if he was not evicted. The collective was closed on May 16, 2007, and on July 17, 2007 federal agents and the local sheriff arrested Lynch and charged him with a series of federal crimes.
Now Charles Lynch is standing trial, and the Federal Government has blocked the jury from knowing that his business was allowed by California State Law and sanctioned by the City of Morro Bay. He’s being portrayed as a large scale drug kingpin, and no evidence is allowed to mention that he was growing cannabis for medical reasons.
ASA has inside word that the opening statements to the trial will be explosive, and we anticipate that it could have a major impact on similar cases.
For more information visit http://www.friendsofccl.com Watch Drew Carey’s account of Lynch’s struggle with the Federal Government on Reason.tv: http://www.reason.tv/video/show/413.html
J.Porter
John Stossel says "End the Drug War"
"ABC's John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with your right to get high ... The crowd went silent at his call to legalize hard drugs." I had attended a Marijuana Policy Project event celebrating the New York State Assembly's passage of a medical-marijuana bill. (The bill hasn't yet passed the Senate.) I told the audience I thought it pathetic that the mere half passage of a bill to allow sick people to try a possible remedy would merit such a celebration. Of course medical marijuana should be legal. For adults, everything should be legal. I'm amazed that the health police are so smug in their opposition. After years of reporting on the drug war, I'm convinced that this "war" does more harm than any drug. Independent of that harm, adults ought to own our own bodies, so it's not intellectually honest to argue that "only marijuana" should be legal -- and only for certain sick people approved by the state. Every drug should be legal. "How could you say such a ridiculous thing?" asked my assistant. "Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect. If you do crack just once, you are automatically hooked. Legal hard drugs would create many more addicts. And that leads to more violence, homelessness, out-of-wedlock births, etc." Her diatribe is a good summary of the drug warriors' arguments. Most Americans probably agree with what she said. But what most Americans believe is wrong.
Myth no. 1: Heroin and cocaine have a permanent effect.
Truth: There is no evidence of that. In the 1980s, the press reported that "crack babies" were "permanently damaged." Rolling Stone, citing one study of just 23 babies, claimed that crack babies "were oblivious to affection, automatons." It simply wasn't true. There is no proof that crack babies do worse than anyone else in later life.
Myth no. 2: If you do crack once, you are hooked.
Truth: Look at the numbers -- 15% of young adults have tried crack, but only 2% used it in the last month. If crack is so addictive, why do most people who've tried it no longer use it?People once said heroin was nearly impossible to quit, but during the Vietnam War, thousands of soldiers became addicted, and when they returned home, 85% quit within one year. People have free will. Most who use drugs eventually wise up and stop. And most people who habitually use drugs live perfectly responsible lives; their habits are invisible to their neighbors. As Jacob Sullum writes in "Saying Yes," there is a "silent majority of users: the decent, respectable people who, despite their politically incorrect choice of intoxicants, earn a living and meet their responsibilities."
In 2005, the British Journal of Health Psychology reported that a study of 126 long-term heroin users showed that: "Participants had levels of occupational status and educational achievement comparable to that in the general U.K. population, and considerably higher than typically found in heroin research." The researchers advised, "Drug research should more fully incorporate previously hidden populations to more fully inform theory and practice," adding that the "pharmacological properties of specific substances should not be assumed to inevitably lead to addictive and destructive patterns of drug use."
Myth no. 3: Drugs cause crime.
Truth: The drug war causes the crime. Few drug users hurt or rob people because they are high. Most of the crime occurs because the drugs are illegal and available only through a black market. Drug sellers arm themselves and form gangs because they cannot ask the police to protect their persons and property. In turn, some buyers steal to pay the high black-market prices. The government says heroin, cocaine, and nicotine are similarly addictive, and about half the people who both smoke cigarettes and use cocaine say smoking is at least as strong an urge. But no one robs convenience stores for Marlboros. Alcohol prohibition created Al Capone and the Mafia. Drug prohibition is worse. It's corrupting whole countries and financing terrorism.
The Post wrote, "Stossel admitted his own 22-year-old daughter doesn't think [legalization] is a good idea." But that's not what she said. My daughter argued that legal cocaine would probably lead to more cocaine use. And therefore probably abuse. I'm not so sure. Banning drugs certainly hasn't kept young people from getting them. We can't even keep these drugs out of prisons. How do we expect to keep them out of America? But let's assume my daughter is right that legalization would lead to an increase in experimentation, and that would lead to more addiction. I still say: Legal is better. While drugs harm many, the drug war's black market harms more. And most importantly, in a free country, adults should have the right to harm themselves.
Mr. Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20" and the author of "Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity."
- Article from the New York Sun, June 18th 2008
America's Gulag by Ethan Nadelmann
"We're No. 1! We're No. 1! The New York Times' Adam Liptak wrote a disturbing front-page story April 23 about how the United States dwarfs the rest of the world when it comes to locking up its citizens. The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population, but a quarter of the world's prisoners. There are now 2.3 million people behind bars in the United States. According to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics' most recent report, the number of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails jumped by more than 60,000 in the year ending June 30, 2006. That jump represents the largest increase since 2000. The United States continues to rank first among all nations in both total prison/jail population and per capita incarceration rates. The United States has held first place for decades, followed by China ( with more than four times our population ) at 1.6 million and Russia at 885,670, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College in London.
Annual Causes of Deaths in the United States
Tobacco = 430,700
Alcohol = 110,640
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs = 32,000
Suicide = 30,575
Homicides = 18,272
All Licit and Illicit Drug-induced Deaths = 16, 926
Anti-inflammatory Drugs (such as aspirin) = 7,600
Marijuana = 0
Excerpted from Common Sense for Drug Policy. www.csdp.org and www.drugwarfacts.org. Statistics gathered and analyzed between 1982 and 1998.
Former Surgeon General: Mainstream Medicine Has Endorsed Medical Marijuana
"One of America's largest and most important groups of physicians has moved to cut through the clutter of political controversies over medical use of marijuana. Lawmakers and the public alike would do well to pay attention. The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second largest physician group in the United States. Its 124,000 members are doctors specializing in internal medicine and related subspecialties, including cardiology, neurology, pulmonary disease, oncology and infectious diseases. The College publishes Annals of Internal Medicine, the most widely cited medical specialty journal in the world." full story