Posted January 6, 2009 by Richard Cowan

Links to the most interesting news stories and editorial comment on the cannabis issues, with history and context provided by MarijuanaNews.com.

Welcome to the MarijuanaNews Daily Briefing, and Program notes for the Podcast for January 6, 2009.

Item 1. Massachusetts Law Enforcement and Boston Newspapers Panicked By Question 2. Or by Democracy?

In Massachusetts, Question 2, which made possession of one ounce of a substance containing THC subject only to a civil fine of $100, and not arrest, passed with 65% of the vote.

This happened despite (because of?) the fact that it was opposed by virtually all of the Commonwealth’s law enforcement, political establishment, and most of the newspapers, including both the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.

The Herald, which is an appalling rag, summed up their view: “But there is just no escaping the fact that Question 2, which is opposed by every district attorney in the commonwealth, is viewed by many advocates as a back door approach to marijuana legalization.”

It also passed despite the fact that it was so flawed that even some supporters of legalization opposed it.

See Dr. Grinspoon Opposes Massachusetts “Decrim” Initiative As “Fatally Flawed”. Internal Possession Of Marijuana Metabolites?!!

Law enforcement is fighting back by demanding that the Commonwealth legislature make smoking “in public” an arrestable offence.

Attorney General Martha Coakley has prepared a sample bylaw that would punish public pot smokers with an additional $300 fine and the possibility of being charged with a misdemeanor crime.

So much for democracy.

“All assumed power is usurpation.” — Thomas Paine, Rights of Man [1791-1792]

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives:

See The Boston Globe Wins Another Reefer Madness Award With Its Prohibitionist Propaganda On Manitoba Marijuana.

Item 2. Uganja In Uganda? In most of Africa, the people are caught between a kleptocratic government, brutal police, and a quack-ridden medical establishment. While that gives them much in common with Americans and Britons, the Africans are really too poor to be able to afford such luxuries. One more thing that they have in common with us seems to be that their liars have also lost their ability to fool the people.

Yesterday, the Guardian carried an article, “Scene and Heard: Ugandan Dancehall”:

“In the Ugandan dancehall scene, however, there are artists who have a major sway on the actions of much of their local community.

VBS.TV recently flew out to Uganda to film a documentary about a dancehall collective called Fire Base Crew, who have set up a breakaway republic, the Ghetto Republic of Uganja, in one of the slums in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

While there, the internet TV station discovered the republic has a full cabinet of appointed members: Bobi Wine (who is the leader of the crew) is the president, the vice president is an artist called Buchaman, they also have a prime minister, a defence minister, a minister for disaster preparedness, a minister of agriculture (whose crop of choice, unsurprisingly, is cannabis) and many more.

The whole concept may appear trivial, but these musicians have much more influence on local people than politicians could ever wish for.”

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives:

See Chewing and Injecting Marijuana A Major Health Problem In Uganda? Or Quackery, and Corruption? How Reefer Madness Kills the Most Vulnerable. Selective Indignation, Indeed.

Items 3. NYTimes Notices Real Terror In Mexico.

As noted in yesterday’s posting, Introducing the MarijuanaNews Daily Briefing With News and Analysis by Richard Cowan., The Drug War has done so much damage to the already fragile (corrupt) law enforcement system in Mexico, that the major American media are taking notice.

An article in the New York Times reported, Kidnappings in Mexico Send Shivers Across Border:

“The relatives of Mexicans in the United States have become a new profit center for Mexico’s crime industry,” said Rodolfo García Zamora, a professor at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas who studies migration trends. “Hundreds of families are emigrating out of fear of kidnap or extortion, and Mexicans in the U.S. are doing everything they can to avoid returning. Instead, they’re getting their relatives out.”

Typically, The Times does not “get it” and they continue to refer to it as “drug-related violence” – as though it was caused by “drugs” rather than by the Drug War – Drug Prohibition.

Of course, the Times has been missing the point for decades

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives: New York Times Editorial Accidentally Tells the Truth: “The War on Drugs Starts Here”. Indeed It Does! And It Must End There. And New York Times Cheers “MEXICO TO JOIN US IN FIGHT ON DRUGS – Treaty is expected to cut down smuggling across border and break up gangs of dealers.” We Couldn’t Make This Up! and links

Today’s Daily Briefing Podcast with comments (rants) by Richard Cowan

Contact Richard Cowan cowan@MarijuanaNews.com

Post from the original Marijuana blog: MarijuanaNews.com | Cannabis & Marijuana News

The MarijuanaNews Daily Briefing With News and Analysis by Richard Cowan. January 6, 2009 “Decrim” Panic In Massachusetts. Uganja In Uganda? NYTimes Notices Real Terror In Mexico.

Program Notes:

Introducing the MarijuanaNews Daily Briefing With News and Analysis by Richard Cowan.

Posted January 5, 2009 by Richard Cowan

Welcome to the first installment of the MarijuanaNews Daily Briefing, and Program notes for the first Podcast.

The MarijuanaNews Daily Briefing will appear five days a week on MarijuanaNews.com with links to the news stories that I think are the most important items on any given day, and a brief explanation about why they are worth reading.

There will also be links to stories in the MarijuanaNews.com archives to give the current news a bit of context.

Also, it will usually have a link to a daily podcast with the appropriate comments, AKA rants, trying to fit the stories into the broader context that gives them meaning.

Although the topics will usually be about cannabis prohibition directly, sometimes they focus on related subjects such as the Drug War as a whole.

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives see The Invisible Context: The Drug War Is the Context for Marijuana Prohibition, But It Is Also The Context for Everything Else.

Or it may be about the failures of medical science to deal honestly with a subject over which its practitioners claim competence. (Quack, quack.)
From the MarijuanaNews.com archives:
Prohibitionists to Patients: “Drop Dead!” Police, Politicians, and Quacks Put Cannabis Prohibition Ahead of the Sick, Dying and Disabled. “To Jail In An Ambulance.”

Similarly, I will continue to be critical of the way “journalism” is practiced in covering the various aspects of the cannabis question. Mark Twain supposedly said, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” And cannabis was still legal when he said that!

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives:
If Freedom of the Press Isn’t Harmless, Why Am I Not In Favor of Censorship? The “Latest Research” Shows Long Term Incompetent Journalism Leads To Shrinking Freedom.

However, there are a few topics to which I will be giving more attention than most.

1. Lawless law enforcement.

All too often the police and prosecutors not only refuse to obey the laws they don’t like – meaning any reduction of their arbitrary power over cannabis users, medical or not. They also do everything they can – meaning lie – to prevent any reform of the laws that they abuse.

Current News: (UK) Police are to launch a crack down on retailers who display drug-related paraphernalia, because of fears they are glamorising abuse of illegal substances.

“The businesses, known as “head shops”, operate entirely within the law but the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is devising new rules on how police and local councils can work together to combat “community concerns” about the stores.”

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives: See Fascism on the Right In Italy and On the Left In the UK Brings Bad Cannabis Policies. There Is A Long Tradition Of Ignoring Reports On Cannabis That Don’t Support The Prohibitionist Party Line.
and
It’s The Stupidity, Stupid. How the Prohibitionist Ideology Has Wrecked The Republican Party and Undermined Democracy Everywhere. When Ideology Trumps Reality, The Result is Stupidity.
and
Hugely Important California Supreme Court Ruling Ignored by Media. State Officials Must Obey State – Not Federal – Law.

2. Mexico and other countries that are being seriously hurt by the Drug War.

It is not a question of “blame” – but just looking honestly at the costs of prohibition. We need for Mexico to be stable and prosperous, at least until Lou Dobbs can figure out how to move us to a nicer neighborhood.
Current news: U.S., Mexico at odds over $1.4 billion aid package to battle drug cartels By Josh Meyer

“Doubts are growing about whether the United States and Mexico’s $1.4 billion aid package can successfully combat increasingly violent drug-trafficking cartels….”

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives:
Will “Plan Mexico” And Its Surge in the Drug War Put Prohibition On the Public Agenda? Analysis by Richard Cowan and The War Next Door – Three Mexican Police Chiefs Seek Political Asylum In US! Drug War Takes Precedence Over National Interest.
and
Lou Dobbs and the Second Mexican War. Has It Already Begun? Counting the Costs of the Drugwar.
and
Lou Dobbs Plays Arthur Andersen to The Drug War’s Enron. A Week of Prohibitionist Propaganda And 91% Of His “Pseudosophisticate” Viewers Still Vote for Decrim.

3. The Dutch Experience. Lying about The Netherlands is actually an integral part of the Drug War, and even the rehab rackets. It is sad that Americans need to be reminded that freedom works.
Current News: Are Dutch Cannabis-Selling Cafes Going Extinct? Here’s The Truth! November 30th, 2008 By Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives:
Tale of Two Countries, The Netherlands and Mexico, Regulation Versus Violence. Dutch Cannabis Smokers To Go “American”? When Will the Murders Cross Our Border?

4. Obama, the Internet and medical cannabis. We will soon know if Barack Obama will keep his word and stop the federal attacks on patients – and the sources of their medicine. If he does not, then it will be up to us to use the tool that got him elected – the Internet, specifically the blogosphere, to demand the “Change” we were promised.

Current news: Legalizing Marijuana Tops Obama Online Poll By National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Deputy Director Paul Armentano

From the MarijuanaNews.com archives:
The Evil Idiocy of the Republican National Committee. Attacking Obama For Not Attacking the Sick and Dying. McCain Means Four More Years.
and
Obama Flip-Flops On Decrim. Shame on Him, Or Shame on Us? Why Do Politicians Fear Something A Huge Majority Supports? Who Is Their Real Constituency?

Today’s Daily Briefing Podcast with comments (rants) by Richard Cowan

Click here for podcast: MarijuanaNews Daily Briefing #1

……………

Let me know what you think!

Contact Richard Cowan cowan@MarijuanaNews.com

Post from the original Marijuana blog: MarijuanaNews.com | Cannabis & Marijuana News

Introducing the MarijuanaNews Daily Briefing With News and Analysis by Richard Cowan.

Post from the original Marijuana blog: MarijuanaNews.com | Cannabis & Marijuana News

Win 6 Day Paid Vacation to Amsterdam for only $10! Check out NORML’s Win 4 Charity Event

“Coffee Shops Will Disappear Within Two Years…The Netherlands Can’t Continue To Tolerate Existence of Coffee Shops Because Of International Opposition.”
-Henk van de Bunt, Professor of Criminology at Erasmus University (Radio Netherlands, Nov. 10, 2008)

In the last few weeks, NORML has received numerous inquiries from international and American media, and concerned NORML members, regarding the current and future legal status of The Netherlands’ tolerant and pragmatic cannabis policies. Recent news headlines have concentrated on minority Dutch parties and academics (many of whom have historically opposed the ‘coffee shop’ model) that have been able to persuade coalition government parties (who favor cannabis tolerance) in making two small concessions on where cannabis-selling cafes can be located in the country:

*43 of 228 cannabis-selling cafes in the city of Amsterdam will have to close by the end of 2011 because they are located less than 275 yards from a secondary school. One of the unfortunate victims of this political and zoning concession is the famous Bulldog Café on the Leidseplein.

*In the border city of Maastricht, in an effort to assuage neighboring countries, the city council has voted to remove coffee shops from the center city area (however, allowing them in the suburbs and neighborhoods).

According to the ministry of justice ‘coffee shops’ in The Netherlands where cannabis is sold fell from 729 in 2005 to 702 in 2007.

Dutch drug policy expert Peter Cohen tells NORML that the efforts of the anti-cannabis Christian Democratics “maybe no more than a prelude to some sort of regulation of cannabis production for recreational use. Every one is ready for it.”

A few days after these minor changes in Dutch cannabis were announced, a cannabis policy summit was convened by the influential Association of Dutch Municipalities in Almere where announcements were made that seem to affirm the Dutch’s fondness for their hundreds of cannabis-selling cafes:

1) Surveys of Dutch mayors from Binneblands and NRC newspaper were released indicating strong support for cannabis-selling cafes: 54 of 88 mayors favor legalizing cannabis sales, including the mayors of Amsterdam, Maastricht, Haarlem and Hilversum. Another 25 said they are satisfied with the current system of tolerated sales and 9 favor banning cannabis-selling cafes.

2) A result of convening the November 21 ‘cannabis summit’ in Almere was that instead of a narrowing the Dutch cannabis policies, representatives of more than 30 city governments seeking a path towards genuinely legal sales of cannabis agreed to create a municipally owned cannabis cultivation and processing center in the city of Eindhoven.

In an interview in the November 21st Volkskrant Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen makes it clear that the closing (or likely re-location) of the 43 cannabis-selling cafes in Amsterdam slated for 2011 is happening because of pressure from the national government, not his own judgment, “ We have cast iron arguments…a total ban on coffee shops really will not reduce the use of drugs.”

‘The Mafia In The United States Was Founded Thanks To Prohibition’
-Christian Democrat mayor of Maastricht

The ‘maverick’ Christian Democrat mayor of Maastricht, like his counterpart Mayor Cohen in Amsterdam, favors regulated coffee shops and compromise now with the national government with an eye to future regulations and controls for cannabis-selling cafes. Mayor Cohen went on to tell the cannabis summit in Almere that legalization of cannabis production and sales makes it easier for government to control and reduce the involvement of organized crime.

Volkskrant estimates that 25% of tourists coming to Amsterdam visit cannabis-selling cafés, and Mayor Cohen points out that cannabis tourists cause much less of a nuisance than foreigners who drink alcohol.

What is the uptake of all of this?

-Cannabis has been for almost 30 years, is now, and will continue to be legally sold in the Netherlands at hundreds of cannabis-selling cafes to adults over 18 years of age;

-The 43 cannabis-selling cafes scheduled to close (or re-locate) in 2011 are part of citywide effort to gentrify parts of Amsterdam’s ‘Old City’ that are prime for urban and tourist redevelopment;

-Cannabis tourists from Germany and Belgium can no longer readily purchase cannabis at nearby cross border cannabis-selling cafes or in the center of Maastricht;

-The Dutch still have the best, most effective and humane cannabis policy in the world.

Post from the original Marijuana blog: MarijuanaNews.com | Cannabis & Marijuana News

Are Dutch Cannabis-Selling Cafes Going Extinct? Here’s The Truth!

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Announcing MarijuanaSeeds.com — The Latest Addition to the Marijuana News Network

Wednesday October 22, 2:25 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Dynamic Alert Limited (OTC Bulletin Board: DYMC - News; the “Company”) is an emerging biotechnology leader specializing in the commercialization of medical cannabis-based pharmaceutical products. Today the Company is pleased to announce it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the assets of Cannex, a privately owned California group operated by Medical Cannabis pioneer and political activist Steven W. Kubby (www.kubby.com). The asset purchase agreement includes all intellectual property rights, formulas, patents, trademarks, client base, hardware and software, etc… pertaining to Cannex’s pharmaceutical cannabis research & development business. Dynamic Alert anticipates closing this transaction upon completion of a 90-day due diligence period.
Richard Cowan, Dynamic President & CEO, stated, “Mr. Kubby’s background in the medical cannabis arena is simply put, the living proof that it works. Mr. Kubby, the founder of Cannex, is a long-term cancer survivor. Mr. Kubby is an entrepreneur with a wide range of experience and success in businesses ranging from property management to publishing to political fundraising. He received his BA in Psychobiology from California State University. Kubby is a survivor, for more than three decades, of a rare form of adrenal cancer with a mortality prognosis of 6-12 months. Leading specialists in the US and Canada have attributed his survival to medical cannabis. Mr. Kubby is a director of the American Medical Marijuana Association, an internationally recognized organization comprised of doctors, lawyers, nurses and patients working for the rights of medical cannabis patients primarily in the United States. Having been a leader in the passing of California’s medical cannabis initiative (Proposition 215) in 1996, Kubby is intimately familiar with the legal and regulatory problems involved in developing and marketing cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals.”

As well, Dynamic Alert has just appointed world-renowned Medical Cannabis Research expert Dr. Robert Melamede as its newest Director and Chief Science Officer. Dr. Melamede has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the City University of New York. He retired as Chairman of the Biology Department at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in 2005, where he continues to teach and research cannabinoids, cancer, and DNA repair. Dr. Melamede is recognized as a leading authority on the therapeutic uses of cannabis, and has authored or co-authored dozens of papers on a wide variety of scientific subjects. Dr. Melamede also serves on the Advisory Board of The Journal of the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine, and the Scientific Advisory Board Medical of the Marijuana Policy Advocacy Project, as well as the Scientific Advisory Board of Americans for Safe Access. Please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n31Nuj_AvTg to view one of many video speeches by Dr. Robert Melamede speaking on the effectiveness of Medical Cannabinoids.

Dynamic Alert President & CEO, Richard Cowan added, “This is truly a great step for Dynamic Alert, because this transaction and the addition of Dr. Melamede to our team will certainly expedite our plans to bring critical pharmaceutical cannabis products to market. Cannex has several innovative formulations in various stages development, including a lozenge that has just gone through informal human trials by a Canadian Compassion Society with outstanding results. We have updated our website, http://www.dynamicalertlimited.com/ to keep our shareholders informed as we progress through our plans to become a leader in pharmaceutical cannabis products.”

You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements in this press release. This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Words such as “will”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “plans”, “goal”, “expects”, “future”, “intends” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many reasons, including the risks we face as described in this press release.
Source: Dynamic Alert Limited
–
Walter Paris
Dynamic Alert Limited
NASD OTCBB: DYMC
info@dynamicalertlimited
www.dynamicalertlimited.com

Toll Free: 1.888.889.0888

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Dynamic Signs Asset Acquisition Deal With Cannex and Brings Onboard Leading Medical Cannabis Research Scientist Dr. Robert Melamede, Former Chairman of the Biology Department, University of Colorado