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By Jeremy Daw
 Coming soon to Canada?
WCL News — In response to new rules enacted in Canada allowing foreign corporations to open retail cannabis establishments, the head of the premier US cannabis brand has said that he plans to enter the Canadian market.
“Absolutely,” said Jamen Shively, co-founder and Executive Director of Diego Pellicer Inc., when asked whether he planned to enter the Canadian market.
Long known as an illicit supplier of the US market for British Columbia’s famous “BC Bud,” Canada may soon find itself awash with high-grade American cannabis, courtesy of a former Microsoft executive.
Por Martin Williams
La policía de los EE.UU. llevó a cabo un arresto por drogas cada 20 segundos y un arresto marihuana cada 42 segundos en el 2012, según un informe de la Oficina Federal de Investigación lanzado 16 de septiembre 2013. El Reporte Uniforme del Crimen (UCR ) Informe del Programa cuenta con un arresto por cada instancia independiente en el que una persona es arrestada , citado o convocado por un delito.
Esto demuestra que el 82,2% de todos los arrestos por drogas en 2012 fueron por posesión y sólo el 42,4% de todos los arrestos por drogas fueron por posesión de marihuana (88% de todos los arrestos por marihuana) . Esto equivale a casi 750.000 arrestos por marihuana y más de 1.5 millones de arrestos totales de medicamentos en 2012. El total representa un ligero descenso de los últimos años. Durante los años 2006 a 2010, la policía hizo al año más de 800.000 arrestos por violaciónes de cannabis.
En comparación, la policía hizo 757.969 detenciones en 2011 por delitos relacionados con la marihuana, según el Uniform Crime Report anual, publicado 29 de octubre 2012.
Los datos de 2012 muestran que la policía se han concentrado una vez más un mayor esfuerzo en detener a más personas por delitos de marihuana que para cualquier delito violento. Esta política es preocupante para Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, una organización de la policía, los fiscales, los jueces y otros funcionarios encargados de hacer cumplir la ley se oponen a la guerra contra las drogas. LEAP se refirió a las nuevas cifras como evidencia de que no importa qué tan agresivamente policd la dirija, la guerra contra las drogas es una guerra que no puede ganar y se persigue a un alto costo para la sociedad , así como a otras investigaciones policiales de delitos graves.
“Estas cifras representan una enorme pérdida de potencial humano. Cada uno de estos arrestos es la historia de alguien que puede sufrir una variedad de efectos adversos de su interacción con el sistema de justicia ” , dijo el director ejecutivo de LEAP Neill Franklin , un policía veterano durante 34 años. “Cometer un asesinato o un robo y el gobierno todavía le dará un préstamo de estudiante . Consigue condenado por fumar un pitillo y es muy probable que pierda. Esto se supone para ayudar a las personas a superar su adicción a las drogas?”
“Cada vez que un oficial de policía hace un arresto por drogas , eso es de varias horas de su día no pasó perseguir a los verdaderos criminales “, agregó el retirado capitán de corbeta Diane Goldstein, otra orador LEAP. “A medida que el país ha estado invirtiendo más y más de sus recursos en procesar las drogas ‘crimen’, la tasa de delitos violentos sin resolver ha ido en constante aumento . ¿Dónde están nuestras prioridades aquí?”
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP ) es un grupo de más de 100.000 agentes del orden y otros partidarios que , después de luchar la guerra contra las drogas , ahora abogan por el fin.
By Martin Williams
WCL News — Police in the US conducted one drug arrest every 20 seconds and one marijuana arrest every 42 seconds in 2012, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation report released September 16, 2013. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program report counts one arrest for each separate instance in which a person is arrested, cited, or summoned for an offense.
It shows that 82.2% of all drug arrests in 2012 were for possession only and 42.4% of all drug arrests were for marijuana possession (88% of all marijuana arrests). This amounts to almost 750,000 marijuana arrests and more than 1.5 million total drug arrests in 2012. The total represents a slight decrease from years past. During the years 2006 to 2010, police annually made over 800,000 arrests for cannabis violations.
By comparison, police made 757,969 arrests in 2011 for marijuana-related offenses, according to the annual Uniform Crime Report, released October 29, 2012.
The 2012 data shows that police have once again concentrated more effort on arresting more people for marijuana offenses than for any violent crime. This policy is troubling to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization of police, prosecutors, judges and other law enforcement officials opposed to the war on drugs. LEAP pointed to the new figures as evidence that no matter how aggressively policd conduct it, the Drug War is a war that can never be won and is pursued at a heavy cost to society as well as to other police investigations of serious crimes.
“These numbers represent a tremendous loss of human potential. Each one of those arrests is the story of someone who may suffer a variety of adverse effects from their interaction with the justice system,” said LEAP executive director Neill Franklin, a veteran police officer for 34 years. “Commit a murder or a robbery and the government will still give you a student loan. Get convicted for smoking a joint and you’re likely to lose it. This is supposed to help people get over their drug habit?”
“Every time a police officer makes an arrest for drugs, that’s several hours out of his or her day not spent going after real criminals,” added retired lieutenant commander Diane Goldstein, another LEAP speaker. “As the country has been investing more and more of its resources into prosecuting drug ‘crime,’ the rate of unsolved violent crime has been steadily increasing. Where are our priorities here?”
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is a group of more than 100,000 law enforcement officials and other supporters who, after fighting the war on drugs, now advocate for its end.
By Paul Armentano, NORML
WCL News — A new international survey has concluded that Cannabis use is not a significant contributor to the global burden of disease. The epidemiological review, “Global burden of disease attributable to illicit drug use and dependence: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010,” was published in the September 2013 edition of The Lancet.
An international team of researchers from Australia and the US reviewed data to assess the global prevalence of illicit drug use and quantified its adverse effects on health in terms of years of life lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).
The report was heavily biased against cannabis use, assuming that it is harmful in some way by virtue of simply being illegal, and did not consider the medical benefits of cannabis, the added quality of life and additional years of productivity or the data that suggests marijuana smokers on average live two years longer than non-users. It also did not consider the health consequences of marijuana prohibition, such as healthy people who are sent to prison, where they contract Hepatitis-C and HIV infections.
Nonetheless, investigators reported that more people were likely to be dependent on opioids and amphetamines than on other controlled substances, and that overall, illicit drug use was responsible for 0.9 percent of DALYs worldwide. Tobacco smoking was estimated to cause 6.3 percent of DALYs worldwide; alcohol was estimated to cause 3.9 percent. By contrast, researchers reported that “regular cannabis use made a very small contribution to disease burden through its contribution as a risk factor for schizophrenia” – a link which was acknowledged to be “controversial” in an accompany commentary since existing research on the plant’s potential association with the disease has found no causal link. Many researchers attribute this to self-medication by undiagnosed schizophrenics whose cannabis use only comes to light when they are diagnosed.
In total, researchers estimated that 13.1 million people globally are dependent on cannabis, including 1.8 million people in North America. Investigators estimated 15.5 million people worldwide were dependent on opioid drugs and 17.2 million were dependent on amphetamines. The full text of the study appears in The Lancet.
While the report did not project how many people use marijuana globally, estimates range from about 120 to 700 million people are occasional users, and many more times that number have tried it at least once. The dependency rate for cannabis users is estimated by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to be 9%, which is 10% less than the percent of addictive personalities in the general population base. — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Betty Aldworth, National Cannabis Industry Association
WCL News — Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) president Grover Norquist and National Cannabis Industry Association executive director Aaron Smith held a press conference to mark the release of a new white paper from ATR entitled Legal Cannabis Dispensary Taxation: A Textbook Case of Punishing Law-Abiding Businesses Through the Tax Code. The paper, published on September 12, calls for reform of Internal Revenue Code Section 280E, which essentially forces medical marijuana providers to pay taxes based on gross receipts rather than income, unlike all other small businesses.
 Additionally, the paper details Americans for Tax Reform’s endorsement of H.R. 2240, the Small Business Tax Equity Act, introduced earlier this year by Rep. Blumenauer and strongly supported by the National Cannabis Industry Association. Mr. Norquist also sent a letter explaining his support for H.R. 2240 to House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp.
Smith spoke out strongly against the current enforcement of 280E, which he called “a leftover relic in the tax code that was never intended to apply to small businesses complying with state laws.” Rep. Blumenauer decried the treatment of state-legal cannabis businesses under federal tax laws, noting that “they cannot deduct their business expenses like all other businesses. Then cannot claim advantages like the work opportunity tax credit if they hire a veteran. And they cannot depreciate their American-made irrigation equipment.”
The issue is a classic case of national politics making for strange bedfellows. Blumenauer represents Oregon’s 3rd district, which includes the famously liberal-leaning city of Portland; Norquist rose to fame as the lobbyist who peppered the US Capitol with the Tea Party-inspired pledge not to raise any taxes in the first term of the Obama administration. Yet both men have put aside their erstwhile differences to support the cause of cannabis tax reform. And with the latest Pew Research poll showing strong support for cannabis reform across both major political parties, such bipartisan efforts are likely to only increase for the foreseeable future. — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Allison B. Margolin, Attorney at Law
WCL News — Many, many marijuana felons can and should vote. With the next election cycle right around the corner, it is imperative for current and ex-felons to know and exercise their right to vote when the law allows them –which is most of the time . This way voters can choose leaders who will most effectively improve the legal, political and social contexts that led to their convictions.
In California, the Court of Appeals ruled in League of Women Voters of CA v. McPherson, 145 Cal. App 4th 1469 (2006), that felons can vote when they are in county jail or off parole. The Court relied on the CA Constitution Article II, Section IV: “The Legislature shall prohibit improper practices that affect elections and shall provide for the disqualification of electors while mentally incompetent or imprisoned or on parole for the conviction of a felony,” and ruled that when a felon is in county jail, as opposed to state prison, the crime would be treated as a misdemeanor for purposes of voting rights. The League case arose via a writ of mandate — a request for a court to compel a governmental agency to perform its duty when three nonprofit groups and three felons in local jails brought suit to compel the State to accept voter registrations sent from jail.
Oregon’s voting laws are similar, but a felon there can vote while on parole. A parole violation resulting in incarceration does result in a loss of voting privileges.
In Washington State, all felons automatically lose their right to vote and must petition to have their right to vote restored under Section 994A.637 (1)(a). If the conviction was before July 1, 1984 you must petition the Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board to restore your right. Call 360-493-9266, or go online to srb.wa.gov/restorevotingrights.html. If convicted of a federal felony, a state resident must appeal to the State Clemency and Pardons Board, which can restore civil rights to federal felons residing in the state.
It is vital for marijuana felons to take advantage of their right to vote. Cannabis consumers and providers have a clear stake in these laws and the politicians who apply them. Only by exercising these rights can felons bring about the political and social changes that can result in preventing future generations from being incarcerated. — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Betty Aldworth and Darby Beck
WCL News – Deputy US Attorney General James Cole told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on September 10, 2013 that in states where marijuana has been decriminalized or made legal, implementing a strictly regulated system in which cannabis is sold is the only way to prevent criminal activity such as diversion to youth and across state lines and empowerment of criminals and cartels. Cole did not challenge states’ rights to make their own drug laws, only restated the federal government’s right to challenge their regulatory schemes in pursuing certain priorities, such as preventing sales to minors, trafficking to other states, impaired driving, and increases in violence.
Committee members Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) were fully supportive of the new state laws and repeatedly stated the need for greater clarification of federal policy, particularly in relation to guidelines which prohibit financial institutions, security services, landlords and others from doing business with marijuana providers. They and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) expressed concern that federal regulators’ actions to block state-legal business access to simple banking and financial services inevitably undermines the viability of the industries. Witnesses King County (Washington State) Sheriff John Urquhart and Colorado Governor’s Chief Legal Counsel Jack Finlaw testified to the same problem.
Drug War critics were glad that the hearings occurred but remain wary of the Obama Administration’s history of shifting its stance on legal use of cannabis. “While I would have liked to have seen a substantive change in policy, what we were really listening to in that hearing was the sound of a changing political climate,” said retired Seattle police chief and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaker Norm Stamper. “People who can’t agree on any other political issue are coming together over this one, and politicians on both sides of the aisle ignore that at their own peril.”
When Whitehouse brought up the federal government’s conflicting instructions on marijuana enforcement in the past, Cole merely affirmed the government’s right to intervene on a case-by-case basis.
The hearing drew attention to a growing consensus among legal cannabis regulators, law enforcement officials, and business professionals that allowing access to banking services is now the most pressing obstacle to the success of the regulated marijuana industry in the states where it is legal for medical or adult use and ensuring the eight federal enforcement priorities outlined in an August 29, 2013 Department of Justice memo can be upheld.
“We need to address the [banking situation] and we are working on it,” said Cole, who indicated the DOJ is conferring with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Division to resolve the issue. He said that they were working to establish regulations for financial institutions, landlords would be protected, and iterated that the DEA had merely asked questions of armed car and other security services, and had not issued an injunction forbidding them from working with marijuana businesses.
National Cannabis Industry Association Director Aaron Smith expressed relief that DOJ is “is finally taking seriously the dangers that a lack of access to simple banking services poses to consumers, employees and business owners. We are encouraged that the growing consensus among essentially all stakeholders is that banking access must be available to legal businesses. It portends a quick reform to this dangerous and unnecessary situation.”
“It feels like there’s a paradigm shift underway in the Justice Department’s interpretation of federal drug control law,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “They seem to recognize that drug control should be first and foremost about protecting public health and safety, and that smart statewide regulatory systems of the sort that Colorado and Washington are proposing may advance those objectives better than knee-jerk enforcement of federal prohibitions.”
Nadelmann pointed out that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) recently made headlines when he said, “Maybe we should legalize [marijuana]. We’re certainly moving that way as far as marijuana is concerned. I respect the will of the people.” Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has said the federal government “ought to respect” states that legalize and regulate marijuana. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has suggested decriminalizing all drug users, including marijuana users.
Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, added that “We applaud Sen. Leahy and the committee for initiating a much-needed dialogue about our nation’s failed marijuana prohibition laws. We hope this discussion will inspire Congress to take action and make the Department of Justice policy the law of the land. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) has introduced legislation that would leave marijuana policy up to the states, and we call on members of the committee to consider similar legislation.
“Marijuana is an objectively less harmful substance than alcohol, and most Americans do not believe adults should be punished for using it,” Riffle noted. “Voters and state legislators are poised to approve laws similar to those adopted in Colorado and Washington. The administration is doing its best to work around federal law, but a better approach would be to simply fix federal law and permanently resolve this conflict.”— West Coast Leaf News Service
By Martin Williams
WCL News — The California Assembly voted September 4, 2013 to let prosecutors charge personal possession of illicit drugs as a misdemeanor rather than a felony case, as circumstances warrant. The bill, SB649 authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), passed with 41 votes and bipartisan support. It cleared the Senate earlier and now heads toward the governor’s desk after concurrence.
Current law provides for up to three years of prison, even for a small amount of drugs intended for personal consumption. The option of filing misdemeanor charges is expected to help reduce prison and jail overcrowding in California and potentially reduce overall court costs because misdemeanor offenses do not require setting a preliminary hearing, as felony charges do.
A statewide poll conducted by Tulchin Research in 2012 found that an overwhelming majority of Californians support this type of drug sentencing reform, with 75% favoring prevention and alternatives to jail for non-violent offenders and 62% agreeing that the penalty for possessing a small amount of illegal drugs for personal use should be reduced to a misdemeanor.
“Felony sentences don’t reduce drug use and don’t persuade users to seek treatment,” said Lynne Lyman, California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the bill sponsors, “instead [they] impose tremendous barriers to housing, education and employment after release.” Lyman noted that those three things help to “keep people out of our criminal justice system and reintegrated into their families and communities.”
The vote comes on the heels of US Attorney General Eric Holder’s August 29 announcement of the administration’s plan to scale back federal prison sentences for low-level drug crimes, even as California is struggling to comply with a federal court order to reduce prison overcrowding. Governor Brown and Assembly Democrats have proposed making use of a private prison facility owned by notorious Corrections Corporation of America, but requiring that members of the state prison guards union get the custody jobs. Democrats have introduced an alternative plan in the state Senate to expand so-called ‘realignment’ through additional funds to counties to keep inmates in jail.
The lucrative incarceration industry feeds both Democrats and Republicans. Despite realignment, there were 4,144 people in state prison for drug possession for personal use as of December 31, 2012 at a cost to taxpayers of more than $207 million per year. The fact that SB 649 grants total discretion in charging decisions to the local prosecutor make its effect is difficult to predict. Anticipated savings will provide greater flexibility to local governments to invest in drug treatment and mental health services, or to focus law enforcement resources on more serious offenders.
“Senate Bill 649 provides a safe and logical opportunity to reduce the number of people incarcerated for simple drug possession,” said Lyman, who points to state data showing there are 10,000 convictions for felony drug possession for personal use each year in California. The majority of these are sentenced to felony probation. The federal government, 13 states and the District of Columbia already treat drug possession as a misdemeanor. Drug crime is not higher in those states.
Leno’s bill does not apply to anyone involved in selling, manufacturing or possessing drugs for sale and is co-sponsored by the ACLU, Drug Policy Alliance, CA-NAACP, California Public Defenders Association, National Council for La Raza, William C. Velasquez Institute, Californians for Safety and Justice and Friends Committee on Legislation. — West Coast Leaf News Service
 WCL News — The Washington State Liquor Control Board Sept. 4, 2013 announced its final rules to implement the marijuana legalization law adopted by state voters in 2012, I-502. Teams from across the US had competed to be included in the development of the guidelines. People interested in cultivating or dispensing cannabis to adults will have from November 18 to December 18 to apply for a license.
Details of the proposal will be discussed in future postings. Read the 43-page document online.
 Timeline for implementation:
September 4, 2013: File Supplemental CR 102 with revised proposed rules
October 9, 2013: Public hearing(s) on proposed rules (details pending)
October 16, 2013: Board adopts or rejects proposed rules (CR 103)
November 16, 2013: Rules take effect
November 18, 2013: Begin accepting applications for producer, processor and retailer licenses (30-day window)
December 1, 2013: Deadline for rules to be complete (as mandated by law)
December 18, 2013: All license applications due (30-day window closes)
Public Hearings- One or more public hearings on the proposed rules are to be scheduled. The Liquor Board will post the dates and locations on its website.
By Martin Williams
WCL News — A new federal review and report has illuminated the failures of prohibition as a tool for controlling drug use. Despite hundreds of thousands of arrests and billions of dollars spent to reduce marijuana supply and demand, usage rates remain relatively unchanged while support for legalization has grown by leaps and bounds.
 The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released its annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health on Nov. 4, 2013, along with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In the wake of the longest, broadest and most sustained attack in US history against the cannabis plant and its consumers, medical and otherwise, currently being waged by the Obama administration, social use has become more accepted and actually increased.
Despite the blanket ban being foisted by the federal government, two states voted to legalize marijuana last year and the social consensus that cannabis is for adults and not for adolescents seems to be bearing fruit. The survey documents the fact that overall past-month marijuana use increased by less than half of 1% from 2011 to 2012, and use by individuals aged 12-17 decreased by less than three-quarters of 1%. Adults age 18 and above made up for the drop in teen use and use by seniors is reaching an all-time high for the US.
This outcome is consistent with the expectations of many drug policy reformers, who have long held that legalizing adult use of cannabis would not increase adolescent use and could have the effect of reducing it. As the plant becomes less controversial and is seen more and more as being a medicine rather than a recreational product, illicit use has lost some of its glamor among minors and teen use continues to go down.
“Today’s survey reveals nothing new,” said Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project. “Billions of dollars are being spent to enforce marijuana prohibition laws, yet they have utterly failed to reduce supply and demand. By keeping marijuana illegal, our government is simply handing over control of a lucrative market to violent drug cartels instead of legitimate taxpaying businesses.
“The majority of Americans agree that marijuana prohibition has failed. It is time to replace our broken marijuana laws with a more effective and efficient system of regulating and taxing marijuana for adults. Marijuana is objectively less harmful than alcohol, and it is time to treat it that way,” added Riffle. The Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s largest marijuana-policy-reform organization, has been instrumental in changing most state-level marijuana laws adopted since 2000.
Drug War critic and Hemp, Lifeline to the Future author Chris Conrad said that it is the efforts to legalize cannabis that have led to such approaches as responsible adult use, physician oversight, ‘good neighbor’ and safe smoking techniques. “The DEA and ONDCP want to glamorize marijuana to teens and keep marijuana in the hands of drug gangs,” said Conrad. “The reform movement wants to keep marijuana out of the hands of minors. Society has chosen its course, and only the vested interests of groups like the DEA, drug testing companies and the prison industrial complex want to maintain the status quo.” Ironically, he noted that Obama, himself a former pot smoker, is one of the biggest obstacles to reform.
“Obama has never explained to the country how it helps young people and, specifically, how he personally would have benefited from being arrested, losing his educational benefits and career opportunities and having a police record for the rest of his life for having chosen cannabis over alcohol in his younger days. Obama seems to take the retrograde position that since he was lucky enough to get away with it, screw everybody else,” said Conrad, “although the recent policy change announced in regard to state laws might mean that he’s evolving on this issue.” — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Chris Conrad
WCL News — A major shift in federal banking policy may have been ignited with the August 29, 2013 US Dept. of Justice policy memo. According to reports from CNN.com and the Huffington Post, the agency offered leeway to banks and other financial institutions to provide banking services to marijuana-related businesses that comply with eight priorities that were outlined in Deputy Attorney General James Cole’s memo. Members of the National Cannabis Industry Association have reported closure of personal and business bank accounts, discontinuation of merchant processing services, and even the termination of armored car services. Yesterday’s apparent reversal opens the door to allowing the estimated $1.5 billion regulated marijuana market access to business checking and savings accounts, merchant processing, and other vital services.
“Our NCIA members and others in the regulated medical and adult-use marijuana industry across the nation have gone to great lengths to ensure they are complying with heavy reporting and auditing requirements without bank accounts,” said executive director Aaron Smith. “One of the most basic and fundamental tools for doing so. Cannabis business professionals, regulators, state lawmakers, tax collectors, patients, community members, and even bankers themselves all agree that these businesses should have access to financial services.”
The NCIA and other groups continue to fight to get the onerous IRS 280(e) tax code modified to exempt state-legal businesses from the provision, which disallows normal tax deductions for business expenses to enterprises that engage in cannabis-related activities. The tax code, on the other hand, allows full businesses deductions for businesses that engage in alcohol-related activities and actually provides additional tax benefits for those who manufacture and distribute pharmaceutical drugs. Most of the businesses that have come under attack by the IRS under the provision have been medical marijuana dispensary operators. — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Jeremy Daw and Darby Beck
WCL News — El gobernador del estado de Washington Jay Inslee y el fiscal general Bob Ferguson han llegado a un acuerdo con el fiscal general de EE. UU. Eric Holder para permitir que la legalización de la marihuana siga adelante en el Evergreen State. El anuncio confirma el viejo rumor sobre la existencia de conversaciones de colaboración entre el gobierno estatal y el Departamento de Justicia federal sobre la aplicación de la Iniciativa 502, aprobada por los votantes, para legalizar y regular la marihuana para los adultos.
“Hoy recibimos la confirmación que la ley de marihuana, aprobada por los votantes del estado de Washington, se llevará a cabo”, escribieron Inslee y Ferguson en un comunicado de prensa del 29 de agosto de 2013. “Recibimos una buena noticia esta mañana cuando el fiscal general Eric Holder le dijo al gobernador que el gobierno federal no impedirá de antemano a los estados de Washington y Colorado mientras implementan un mercado altamente regulado para la marihuana legalizada.”
El comunicado también señala que “el fiscal general Holder dejó en claro que el gobierno federal continuará haciendo cumplir la Ley federal de Sustancias Controladas, centrándose su aplicación en ocho preocupaciones específicas, incluyendo la prevención de la distribución a los menores y la importancia de mantener la marihuana cultivado en el estado de Washington dentro de las fronteras de nuestro estado . Compartimos esos asuntos de interés y estamos seguros de que nuestra iniciativa estatal se llevará a cabo según lo previsto.” La referencia a los objetivos de impedir el acceso a los menores y la prevención del tráfico interestatal puede ser señal de una relación de trabajo entre los gobiernos estatal y federal que aliviaría las tensiones entre la política del estado de Washington, que permite el uso de cannabis en adultos, y la ley federal que prohíbe la posesión para el público en general. El senador Patrick Leahy (I- VT) ha programado audiencias el próximo mes sobre el tema de la tensión entre las políticas de cannabis federal y estatales.
El profesor de UCLA de la política pública Marcos Kleiman, quien también ha consultado con el estado de Washington en la aplicación de la I- 502, publicó recientemente un artículo que examina cómo una cláusula que permite contratos cooperativos dentro de la Ley Federal de Sustancias Controladas – la ley federal que prohíbe la cannabis – podría legalmente permitir a reformas como la I- 502 avanzar si los gobiernos estatales y federales cooperaran en una política destinada a reducir los resultados no deseados.
Defensores de la reforma reaccionaron con entusiasmo al anuncio. “Si bien sabemos que el gobierno federal ha invertido el curso de este tipo de anuncio en el pasado, esto tiene el potencial de ser un gran avance en la historia de la reforma de las drogas “, dijo el jubilado jefe de policía de Seattle Norm Stamper, miembro asesor de Enforcement Against Prohibition, un grupo de agentes del orden público se opuso a la guerra contra las drogas.” El permitir a los estados legalizar y regular la marihuana canalizará millones de dólares de ganancias de las organizaciones criminales que han controlado el comercio hacia empresas legítimas que comprueban las tarjetas de identificación y generan puestos de trabajo e ingresos fiscales muy necesarios. Para mí, esto significa que mis compañeros oficiales podrán enfocarse en su verdadero trabajo de prevención y solución de los crímenes violentos, aumentando su capacidad para realizar ese trabajo y devolver el honor a la profesión de vigilancia policial.”
El director ejecutivo de LEAP, veterano de 34 años de la policía, Major Neill Franklin ( Ret. ) dijo lo siguiente: ” Esta es la noticia más alentadora que ha salido de Washington en mucho, mucho tiempo. El gobierno federal no está simplemente haciéndose a un lado y permitiendo que la voluntad del pueblo prevalezca en estos dos estados. El fiscal general y la administración de Obama están mostrando liderazgo inspirado. El mensaje al pueblo de los otros 48 estados, a todos los que valoran la libertad personal y la regulación responsable, es claro: aprovecha el día.” — West Coast Leaf News Service
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Coming soon to Canada?