This Thursday: US Senate Committee To Debate Reevaluating The Drug War

"Senate Bill 714 will establish a `National Criminal Justice Commission to undertake a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system and make reform recommendations for the President. The lead sponsor of this measure, Democrat Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, has remarked that this review ought to include a debate of federal marijuana policy, including regulating marijuana like alcohol."


http://blog.norml.org/2009/11/30/th...ommittee-to-debate-reevaluating-the-drug-war/

I like the sound of this... Not quite there yet - but its progress.

as i have said before, the times are changing and they are changing quick. ive been fallowing this movement since i discovered the plant. 7 years later i have to say, in the last year there have been more steps taken place in the right dirrection then i have ever seen. This snowballs starting to get a little momentum behind it. now that its rolling, we need to clear the path and help push this thing till it reaches the bottom.

I wouldn't get my hopes up for national legalisation. The most optimistic outlook IMO is that congress votes for giving states more power for regulation. An example would be allowing medical marijuana to be determined by a state by state basis. As of right now there is no federal law allowing states to legal marijuana for medical use. All we have is a president's directive. However if he doesn't get reelected, that may change unless congress votes.

EDIT: After reading the article, I change my "most optimistic outlook" to the reclassification of marijuana as a Schedule I narcotic to perhaps a schedule II or III.

even if nothing changes in the law books this time around. it still is getting pushed out into the open. it isnt as taboo as it once was to discuss the legalization of it. it all depends on how you look at things. if you see defeat in not getting things done right away, then you are a very narrow minded person. the way i see things, is the more talk about it there is, the more people are going to start listening. the more people start listening, the more important this issue seems to be.

there still is alot of peoples minds that need to be changed on the subject. and if we stop now, and continue to let these bias antidrug propaganda campains to continue spilling their lies based on bias and outdated scientific reviews. this is going to be a long hard process. it already has been as people have been working since when it first became illegal.

any talk about legalizing is a step in the right dirrection. if it changes things right away or not, it still is getting talked about. thats still alot more then say 2 years ago when this topic was of very high taboo across the board.

Its a start. Lets hope for the best.

This is what they should do. They should get a few volunteers. One camp will go to the debate loaded and the other will go to the debate really stoned. I think that would illustrate an interesting point.

420_Skier said:

I change my "most optimistic outlook" to the reclassification of marijuana as a Schedule I narcotic to perhaps a schedule II or III.

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That would be huge for compassionate care.

What happened?
Google isnt turning nothing up on news

I think from what I have read the debate got pushed back another week. But I am not absolute with this information.

You are correct - it has been pushed back another week. I actually watched that whole meeting and you would have thought that they were just sitting down for the very first time together. They had to debate how long they would debate. It was rather sad really, and makes me less hopeful that any sort of drastic changes will take place if this bill is approved and passed. I guess it is a step in the right direction, but damn if it isnt slow.

So they'll have it this Thursday?

Supposedly, but with the setup, they may or may not get to it again. Eventually we will get an answer.

Has anyone followed this? I still think it is on for tomorrow. I think it will be interesting to see the point of views that oppose us, and with what basis they try to tell us. Always hopeful though.

Here is an interesting fact along this subject (I hate to be a cut and paste Genie but WTH) -
House and Senate negotiations for the 2010 Appropriations bill have been completed. This is the huge federal budget bill and it just so happens that Washington DC is a federal district and its spending is controlled by Congress.
In 1998, DC passed a medical marijuana bill overwhelmingly, but Congressional drug warriors led by Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia prevented DC from spending any federal money to count the votes (thats right, in our democracys capital, our leaders conspired to prevent citizens from counting votes in a legal election). When that was deemed unconstitutional, they spent the money to count the votes, showing that 69% of DC supported medical marijuana. So Rep. Barr created the Barr Amendment that prevented DC from spending any money to implement the medical marijuana program they had voted in.
Well, todays 2010 Appropriations bill changes all that. In addition to removing bans on abortion, domestic partnerships, and needle exchange, Congress has given the go-ahead to begin implementing DC medical marijuana!

(US Senate) Removing Special Restrictions on the District of Columbia: Eliminates a prohibition on the use of local tax funds for abortion, thereby putting the District in the same position as the 50 states. Also allows the District to implement a referendum on use of marijuana for medical purposes as has been done in other states, allows use of Federal funds for needle exchange programs except in locations considered inappropriate by District authorities, and discontinues a ban on the use of funds in the bill for domestic partnership registration and benefits.

DCs medical marijuana bill was written with the same sort of open language as was passed in California will we be seeing marijuana dispensaries on K Street anytime soon?

http://blog.norml.org/2009/12/09/congress-allows-dc-to-implement-1998-medical-marijuana-law/

You can watch it live here:
http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4218

as of 12:02 EST time they are on the final part of the S. 448, Free Flow of Information Act of 2009... so it should be coming up soon.

At least to those who watch it end up with an understanding of how slow government works. they just got done talking about who can report on it or something. 41 minutes into it.

I dont even think what I watched was the right meeting lol.

Heres an FC.com first:
I can honestly say I watched my first congress anything today. I was vaked pretty good and ended up watching the end of something else but I was vaked so I didnt catch that. So I ended up watching 40 some minutes of discussion about information and journalist and frankly I think someone got shafted and others more defined but hey I was vaked but it seemed to me those who do stupid things and tried to hide by protections for journalist when they genuinely are not will no longer get journalistic protections but hey I was vaked. The congressmen and congresswoman or whatever they call themselves seemed like good people on both sides and their views all had merit.

I only say all that as I had some time and thought I would watch it, but I screwed it up and watched the wrong one lol. So since I was gonna talk about it with anyone who was willing to this is what I ended up so their it is, now you heard it too and just like me, you cant give it back lol.

anyways, I dont see it listed for today. Are we sure it is happening?

Salutations everybody,

AGBeer said:

In 1998, DC passed a medical marijuana bill overwhelmingly, but Congressional drug warriors led by Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia prevented DC from spending any federal money to count the votes (thats right, in our democracys capital, our leaders conspired to prevent citizens from counting votes in a legal election). When that was deemed unconstitutional, they spent the money to count the votes, showing that 69% of DC supported medical marijuana. So Rep. Barr created the Barr Amendment that prevented DC from spending any money to implement the medical marijuana program they had voted in.

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I found the word Georgia so perpahs the following article will fit in here just fine:


Other victims: Bounkham Phonesavanh a baby, Jonathan Ayers an old pastor (...) and even more casualties it seems!...

This is great. Now every one get up off your behinds and VOTE next month.

Any word on how this hearing went today?

Of course it's a long way from being implemented. At this point it's just a bill being proposed by the Democrats in the Senate. The bill would have to get out of committee, be passed by the Senate, then the House, then signed by Obama.

And we all know how well they work together in DC.

The hearing was FIVE years ago, not today.

Whoops! And I'm not even stoned.

Salutations Nesta,

Nesta said:

Whoops! And I'm not even stoned.

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By chance the prohibitionists are busy in Russia and vaporizers don't seem to be specifically targeted just yet...

ADDENDUM



Some photographs from the Russian hosting site:


And it seems the WHO people are enjoying themselves quite just fine out there:




Here are specifically designated targets:


Also including (as per FCTC/COP/6/11):




Lets hope dry-leaves vaporizers aren't on their radars - though that would be day-dreaming IMO!...

So, fuck democratically-voted sovereing laws: prohibitionists are thinking global, via international treaties!!