Can Adam Assenberg’s Story Help Change Federal Medical Marijuana Policy?

By Adam Assenberg

Please let me introduce myself to you,

My Name is Michael ( ADAM ) Assenberg and here is my story,

Even with me not living in your State my STORY will have impact on anyone in any state who needs MEDICAL MARIJUANA.

I used to be a Security Guard for a Company down by Riverside, California back in 1985 and on Jan. 25, 1985 was a day that would change my life forever. I was Guarding a place in Corona, California called the 3-m plant and they had TNT on the site. Well, while on patrol I went and checked the “shack” like I always do on my drives and found a white pick-up by the shack, as I started to drive up to them they spotted me and started driving to the back of the complex where they ran out of road and tried to cross a train bridge in there pickup truck. They started driving half way across and stopped in the middle.

As they acted this way I knew there would be trouble so I took my night stick in one hand and my Mace in the other ready for action if needed. I wanted to get a good look at them so I could give the police the best info, while I talked to them a number 3 man came up from behind and hit me in the middle of my back with a baseball bat, then pushed me backwards off the train bridge 15 feet down into a dry riverbed full of boulders.

I did not black-out when I hit but I acted like they killed me as I knew if I moved they would end what they started. After they left I tried to get up and found that I could not move from my waist down so I crawled up a 45 degree embankment and 2.5 miles on my hands and elbows to get to a phone where I called 911. Next thing I remember is waking in the hospital.

I ended up with breaking nine bones in my spine and crushing my Cervical Process at the base of my neck. It took six months to get some feeling back into my legs and seven years to walk again. Now I suffer INTRACTABLE PAIN 24 hours a day seven days a week. After years of different treatments and medications I have tried everything known to mankind. A friend of mine in 1987 told me about the GREAT benefit he gets from the Medical use of Marijuana, I tried it and the PAIN SPASMS and the blackouts stopped just about over night, When it became legal under STATE LAW under the 10Th Amendment that Doctors are to be allowed to act in anyway that a STATE so deemed fit to have them act, signed my paper under Washington State LAW I-692 and I became legal to use MEDICAL MARIJUANA.

Now, unlike California that has it legal to have ” Clinics ” for people needing Medical Marijuana, Washington state has it to where you need to find it on your own. Or you are allowed under State LAW to grow up to a TWO MONTH SUPPLY. Also it is also written into Washington State LAW that few people know about that it is legal for the police to give out MARIJUANA that they get from grows that are not from medical users to the sick that need it. The ONLY TRICK is they wrote it in the law that they MUST wait for the FEDERAL GUIDELINES for passing it out and that we all know will not come unless we fight for what is right. Reference: WA State Initiative – 692.

Now in 2004 my Mother passed away from Cancer and there was no one Left that was around to worry about me or for me to care about, so in Nov. of 2004 I made up my mind to end the suffering of going through what looks like GRAND MAUL SEIZURES, all RELATED to the level of PAIN I was SUFFERING from. I go through at least a dozen of them a day all related from pain when I don’t use the Medical Marijuana. The way I went about trying to end my life may seem shocking to some but to them I say, ‘you have never suffered the way I do each and every day of every week.

I stabbed myself in the heart four times and one of those times was in front of many police officers. They tried to ‘tazer’ me with three of their guns. The pain I suffer is far greater then anything those can pump into me so, I pulled the wires off of me and took the 4Th plunge, I only had a 20% chance of pulling through, The Doc’s evaluated me and found The ONLY reason I did this is due to pain. Now, without the use of Medical Marijuana, each and every day is a living hell even with the doc’s giving me 500MG of Morphine a day as well as 60MG of endocet a day for pain.

Now here is where my story is going to hit EVERY STATE that has MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS.

In March of the following year I was living in Tacoma, Washington and was on the Internet where I met this Wonderful woman and two Children who lived many miles away from me in Anacortes, Washington. She had raised these children since they were babies all by herself.

Then she meets me and we fall in love and the kids just about right away start loving me like I have always been there dad, Well she ends up asking me to move in with her and her two children. TheresaMcCallum the Director of Anacortes Housing Authority gets wind that I have a legal service animal plus I use Medical Marijuana with a doctor’s note under I-692. She asked me about it and I gave her my Doctors Statements. After she has these letters from my doctor she still gives us an eviction for using a controlled substance plus the use of a service animal and she said this exact thing on the eviction letter.

I fought this eviction in Federal Court and Federal Judge Lasnik, with our right to a Jury trial even with the power of what my doctor statement said about my medical need, said that no matter how much a person suffered they could not use marijuana for medical reasons, what about the right to a life or a right not to live in never-ending suffering? The way I suffer amounts to nothing less than torture without the medical use of marijuana. Another item Lasnik overlooked when he tossed out my case, without a Jury Trial, is the right not to live in Torture and without the Federal Government allowing for my Medical use amounts to the Federal Government Torturing me for as long as I live.

With the power of my doctors statement it is very clear that, no matter what our Federal System has to say about MMJ, all levels of the Federal and State Government will not allow the medical use of Marijuana for any reason, no matter how sick or disabled a person is.

My case should be a ‘wake up’ call to all people that our ‘votes’ do not count anymore. When I called the Governor of Washington State and informed them of what was going on, they hid behind the AngelRaich case. Even the Attorney General would not help protect the rights of what was voted into State Law. Judge Myers, out of Mount Vernon ‘STATE’ Court said, in open court, he does not believe in the State Law, even with him being informed of the State laws that Housing was violating by throwing my family out onto the street, said he does not feel I-692 was a good law and was not going to up-hold State Law. At the end of this letter is the case numbers if you wish to look anything up.

Also at the bottom is my phone number and web site should anyone wish to contact me. Considering this is an election year and with it being about throwing out a family over the Medical use of Marijuana with the power of my doctors statement it could kill Medical Marijuana for everyone, Everywhere. As we all know Marijuana is not legal in the United States for use in any way, under Federal Guidelines. This came to be in 1937. Schedule I drugs have the highest abuse potential and have no accepted medical use. Now, if this is the case then why, from 1850 until 1942, was Marijuana prescribed for various conditions including labor pains, nausea, and rheumatism listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia?

Now Marijuana dates back way before that even. Take a look at the Chinese medical compendium, traditionally considered to date from 2737 BC. Marijuana use spread from China to India and then to N. Africa and reached Europe at least as early as AD 500.

Not only has Marijuana been used as Medicine from way back but also as a intoxicant, giving the non-medical user a feeling of euphoria, Marijuana in all this time has never contributed to killing anyone. Can the same be said for drinking alcohol? If we take a look at the reasoning the Government gives for it’s ban on Marijuana, why aren’t Cigarettes, that are full of additives that get you hooked, as well as alcohol, banned by the Federal Government? If you want to argue that the reason the latter two are not banned is because they are not drugs, then look at the listing of chemicals that are used to make Cigarettes.

If you take a good look at the things that Marijuana is helping with today, you need only to look at the States who are helping the sick and disabled right now. Take a good look at California, at Proposition 215, The People of California voted in Medical Marijuana to help the sick in their State. Since the Federal Government did not like what California did they, the Federal Government, have chosen to give many of the sick a quicker death sentence, like they did to McWilliams who choked to death on his own vomit, because the Government did not allow him access to his Medical Marijuana. Now I don’t know about you but, how would YOU like it if the Federal Government gave your Father, Mother or your Child that sentence?

THAT sentence HAS been given to me, by a STATE judge who did NOT OBEY the LAW under I-692 Washington’s Medical Law. PLUS again by a FEDERAL JUDGE who did not allow for a JURY trial with respect as to how powerful my doctors statement was that MEDICAL MARIJUANA WAS the ONLY thing that really worked for me and that I would suffer a great deal more without it’s use.

The ONLY reason Marijuana is still listed as a Schedule I drug today is because Congress is getting ‘Donations’ from pill manufacturers. They and not looking at the facts that Marijuana helps the sick. Congress in DC is no longer for WE THE PEOPLE and the US Department of Justice is hiding behind Congress. The FDA is unwilling to act on behalf of the people. Looks like poli-tricks is the norm in DC.

You don’t have to go far to read about scandals going on in DC. While the folks in DC sit back with their donations, WE THE PEOPLE suffer to the point of wanting to die. All because money was more important to the Government than the lives of WE THE PEOPLE. Money is the ONLY reason that Marijuana is not legal in the United States under Federal Law. In California, Marijuana is listed as Medicine for: Cancer, Anorexia, Aids, Chronic pain, Spasticity, Glaucoma, Arthritis, Migraine or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.

In Oregon Marijuana is used as medicine for: Cancer, Glaucoma, positive status for Human Immunodeficiency Virus or acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or treatment for these conditions, Cachexia, Severe pain, Severe nausea and Seizures, including but not limited to seizures caused by Epilepsy, and Persistent muscle spasms, including but not limited to spasms caused by Multiple Sclerosis.

There are 11 states in the United States that have accepted marijuana as medicinal. We are now waiting for the Federal Government to acknowledge that marijuana has medical properties. If you were to look at the Law in Washington State, where I live, it’s used for: Chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting in cancer patients, AIDS Wasting Syndrome; severe Muscle Spasms, associated with Multiple Sclerosis and other spasticity disorders, Epilepsy, Acute or Chronic Glaucoma and some forms of Intractable Pain.

I suffer from Intractable Pain. Every pain medication that can be used for me has been tried. During a twenty-four hour period, there is not a moment that I don’t suffer. The pain is so intense that it feels like my head wants to rip off my body and by the bottom of my spine it feels like a 500 pound weight is sitting on my back. I feel like this 24 hours a day, 7days a week, etc. So if you look at these few States that I have listed you will see that there is plenty of accepted medical use. ONLY at the Federal Level is it still a crime to use Marijuana.

When have the Members of Congress started becoming doctors? All you need do is look at the money trail. How much have manufacturers in the pharmaceutical industry donated to the Members of Congress?

Look at the congressional corruption going on with Abramoff and the sleazy way the Superior Court in California hid behind the Commerce Clause, stating that the private growing of Medical Marijuana would upset the market on Marijuana sales. Well first off, there are two items wrong with the choice the Court made. The First mistake is that there is NO legal market for the sale of marijuana so how can a market be said to be upset when there is no legal market. Plus the fact that if the person growing it for medical reasons has the grow operation in their own home and it never hits the street, then how is it adding to the market of sales be it legal sales or the black market?

The Second mistake: with all the congressional corruption, how can the Government be trusted to do what is right by the American people when so many people are sick and/or suffering and being mis-led by OUR Government?

Anacortes Housing Authority is trying to hide behind the Gonzalez v. Raich ruling of June 6, 2001 over my use of Medical Marijuana. The Gonzalez v. Raich ruling is about the Oakland Marijuana club and NOT about end users like myself. If our State Government from the Governor’s office on down the line will not protect the laws that WE THE PEOPLE put into effect then at that point we then live in a dictatorship as is VERY clear in this case.

Another item to note, when we were thrown out of our home we had to move across Washington State into Eastern Washington because I am so sick that no shelters were willing to take me in. Since our move to this side of Washington, I have NOT found any doctor that is willing to sign my paperwork. Since I am so willing to stand up for my rights, I am forced to drive to Anacortes to see the one doctor on the other side of WA that signed my paperwork.

Now by state law, with the Medical coupons I have, they are to pay to get me to my doctors appointments. At this point in time, I am having to drive to my doctor appointments on the other side of the state with out help from the state. I am now fighting that battle as well. I think it it is very important to point out that I took this to Federal Court under the right to life, Right not to have to live in Intractable pain and the right for a doctor to act in accordance with State Guidelines. ALL of which Federal Judge Lasnick as well as State Myers turned down.

Another item of interest to readers of ALL Medical Marijuana States, is that because I lost the first round in Both Federal Court and State Court I am getting ready to file a Multi-Billion dollar Class Action Lawsuit for violating what the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled we have a VERY BASIC right to above all other laws and that is a right to LIFE in ANY way that needs to be met for that person to be able to live a basic life.

This has been violated in all lower Courts all with the Court System never allowing me a Jury Trial. I am asking for anyone in Any State that would like to take part on this Class action Suit to give me a call as soon as they can. I file this suit Dec. 1, 2006 and after that I will not allow anyone else in on the suit that I am filing. The ONLY reason for that rule is that I am doing all the paperwork myself without the use of a Lawyer.

Because Washington State, starting from the Governor’s office and on down, has not supported I – 692, and because of the State and Federal Governments not supporting this law, I now have to file in Federal Court the right to end my life due to the Federal and State Government forcing me into a life of Intractable pain and daily torture, without being able to use Medical Marijuana as was guided by my Doctor under article 10 of the United States Constitution. My family also suffers from my disability, (the pain I go through, the spasms, etc) because of the Federal Governments decision.

Case numbers,

1st Federal case # Case No. C05-1836RSL ( Now in the ninth circuit court of appeals )

State Case Number No. 06-2-00999-4

2nd Federal Case # No. CV06-0987 ( Soon to be in the ninth also. )

To get a hold of me by phone please call 509-288-0830 or check out his website: http://www.marijuanafactorfiction.net/

Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal

Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.

Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:

Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

“There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,” said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

The number of addicts considered “problematic” — those who repeatedly use “hard” drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.

Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.

“This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies.”

Many of these innovative treatment procedures would not have emerged if addicts had continued to be arrested and locked up rather than treated by medical experts and psychologists. Currently 40,000 people in Portugal are being treated for drug abuse. This is a far cheaper, far more humane way to tackle the problem. Rather than locking up 100,000 criminals, the Portuguese are working to cure 40,000 patients and fine-tuning a whole new canon of drug treatment knowledge at the same time.

None of this is possible when waging a war.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/

Israeli Politicians Approve Medical Marijuana Guidelines

By Phillip Smith

The Israeli cabinet Sunday gave its approval to medical marijuana guidelines that will govern the supply of marijuana for medical and research purposes. In so doing, it explicitly agreed that marijuana does indeed have medical uses.

“The cabinet today approved arrangements and supervision regarding the supply of cannabis for medical and research uses,” said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman. “This is in recognition that the medical use of cannabis is necessary in certain cases. The Health Ministry will — in coordination with the Israel Police and the Israel Anti-Drug Authority — oversee the foregoing and will also be responsible for supplies from imports and local cultivation.”

The cabinet move comes on the heels of the Health Ministry’s decision last week to deal with supply problems by setting up a unit within the department to grow medical marijuana. That unit will begin operating in January 2012.

The Health Ministry also decided that the country’s medical marijuana supply should be domestically produced. Israeli police had lobbied for medical marijuana to be imported instead, in a bid to reduce diversion.

Israel currently has about 6,000 medical marijuana patients, but the program is so popular that there are estimates that number could rise to 40,000 by 2016. Medical marijuana for existing patients is currently provided by private Israeli growers.

Artilcle From StoptheDrugWar.org – Creative Commons Licensing

Legalize Marijuana to Decrease Usage

by Jeremiah Vandermeer - Wednesday, August 3 2011

The latest stats show the number of Americans who use marijuana has gone up since last year. If the government really wanted to reduce marijuana use, they would legalize it.

The AFP reports:

SAMHSA also looked at Americans’ marijuana use and found that numbers using pot in the past month were up for the two years covered by the report: 6.4 percent of Americans aged 12 and older said they had used marijuana in the past month compared to six percent in 2007-2008.

In the 12- to 17-year age group, marijuana use fell, but seven percent of US teens still use cannabis, the report said.
The 10 states that saw the highest use of marijuana were Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Medical marijuana is legal in all of those states except for Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Perceptions of the dangers associated with marijuana use were lowest in the 10 states where the drug was used the most, according to the study.

Drug Warriors love to shout in booming voices that if we legalized marijuana, stoners would begin coming out of the woodwork and cause an epidemic of bong-rips and bloodshot eyes. Scientists completely disagree, and say that marijuana law reform does not lead to an increase in usage.

In fact, they say just the opposite. Evidence from countries like Portugal and the Netherlands shows that liberalizing drug laws actually leads to a decrease in usage. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Drug Warriors.

Don’t believe me? Listen to The Young Turks:

Administration Medical Marijuana Memo Causes Dismay, Anger

The medical marijuana movement is reeling after the Obama Justice Department released a memo last week declaring that it might prosecute large-scale medical marijuana cultivation operations and dispensaries even in states where they are operating in compliance with state laws. Advocates reacted with dismay and disappointment, even as they plotted strategies about what to do next.

President Obama is losing friends in the medical marijuana community. (image from whitehouse.gov)

The memo, written by US Deputy Attorney General James Cole, “clarifies” the October 2009 memo from then-Deputy Attorney General David Ogden that told federal prosecutors not to focus their resources on patients and providers in compliance with state laws. The earlier memo gave some substance to President Obama’s campaign promise not to persecute medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal.

But after the 2009 memo, federal officials watched aghast as a veritable medical marijuana cultivation and dispensary boom took off in places such as Colorado and Montana, where dispensaries went from near zero to hundreds of operations, and as localities in California began considering huge commercial grows. The Justice Department responded with increased federal raids — now at twice the rate of the Bush administration, according to Americans for Safe Access, the nation’s largest medical marijuana advocacy organization — and earlier this year, sent threatening letters from US Attorneys to governors and legislators in states considering or implementing medical marijuana distribution programs.

Those letters “are entirely consistent with the October 2009 memorandum,” Cole argued in last week’s memo. “The Department of Justice is committed to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act in all states. Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that the illegal distribution and sale of marijuana is a serious crime that provides a significant source of revenue to large scale criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels,” Cole continued.

Noting that “some of these jurisdictions have considered approving the cultivation of large quantities of marijuana, or broadening the regulation and taxation of the substance,” Cole reiterated the Ogden memo’s message that “it is likely not an efficient use of federal resources to focus enforcement efforts on individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or their caregivers.”

He then took care to narrowly define the term “caregiver,” which is commonly applied to people growing medical marijuana for authorized patients. “The term ‘caregiver’ as used in the memorandum meant just that: individuals providing care to individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses, not commercial operations cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana.”

Cole then went on to write that it is not the Obama administration’s position that has changed, but facts on the ground. “There has, however, been an increase in the scope of commercial cultivation, sale, distribution and use of marijuana for purported medical purposes. For example, within the past 12 months, several jurisdictions have considered or enacted legislation to authorize multiple large-scale, privately-operated industrial marijuana cultivation centers. Some of these planned facilities have revenue projections of millions of dollars based on the planned cultivation of tens of thousands of cannabis plants,” he wrote.

The 2009 memo “was never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law,” Cole continued. “Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law… Those who engage in transactions involving the proceeds of such activity may also be in violation of federal money laundering statutes and other federal financial laws.”

It didn’t take long for the medical marijuana and drug reform movements to fire back. While some took small solace in the fact that patients are still protected from federal persecution, the dominant reaction was dismay and disgust.

Dispensaries operators might want to get rid of the neon signage and get on the down low. (image via wikimedia.org)

“It is disingenuous of the Obama Administration to say it is not attacking patients while obstructing the implementation of local and state medical marijuana laws,” said ASA executive director Steph Sherer. “The president is using intimidation tactics to stop elected officials from serving their constituents, thereby pushing patients into the illicit market.”

“Well, this is disappointing,” said Dale Gieringer, long-time head of California NORML. “It certainly conflicts with Obama’s original implication that he would let the states take care of medical marijuana. Now, it’s the same as Bush’s policy. Even before this memo came out, people have been saying for a long time that with a raid here and a raid there, it seemed like no real change in federal policy, and now — bingo — it’s confirmed.”

The Cole memo “raises more questions than it answers,” said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “The department’s 2009 Ogden memorandum established guidance that federal resources should not be employed to target medical marijuana patients and providers who are in ‘clear and unambiguous compliance’ with state-based medical marijuana laws. Last week’s so-called clarification is in fact open to many interpretations and falls far short of the explanation of policy that state lawmakers, members of Congress and advocates sought.”

While the Cole memo clearly states that large-scale commercial grows are now targeted, even if they are in compliance with state laws, Piper noted, it “does not provide guidance on what the federal government considers to be the line between small and large-scale production.”

Piper pointed out that regardless of federal policy, states can still legalize marijuana for medicinal use. He also called out politicians who hide behind fears of the feds to stall or thwart medical marijuana programs and scoffed at the notion that state employees could be prosecuted for setting up registries or collecting medical marijuana taxes.

“State officials who await blanket federal endorsement of medical marijuana or blame the federal government for their own failure to act are compromising the health and well being of their citizens while failing to implement in good faith the laws of their state,” he said. ”With regard to concerns about prosecution of state employees, which some state policymakers have expressed, the federal government has never sought to prosecute any state employee for licensing or otherwise regulating medical marijuana providers. In fact, we know of no instance in recent times in which state officials were personally prosecuted for implementing any state law. It is something that is just not done.”

For Gieringer and other medical marijuana advocates, the Obama administration’s behavior on the issue has dried up any reservoirs of good will generated by his campaign promise and the Ogden memo. Now, the administration is in the movement’s cross hairs.

“They want to put a stop to any large scale distribution of medical marijuana, but all they’re doing is prolonging the conflict between federal law and reality,” Gieringer said. “We have to put pressure on Obama. He’s up for reelection; he owes us an explanation of his waffling on this issue, and certainly his failure to address rescheduling. The reform movement needs to press him on this and inject it into the campaign. Why has he ignored all the studies, why has he ignored the rescheduling petition, why does he persist in sending people to prison for medical marijuana crimes? If we can put him on the defensive during the campaign, we might get a concession.”

“The Obama Administration missed a huge opportunity to ease the state/federal conflict over medical marijuana and pave the way for responsible regulation in 16 states and the District of Columbia, home to 90 million Americans,” agreed Piper. “By issuing vague guidance, the Obama Administration is sowing confusion and doing voters, state policymakers, and medical marijuana patients a disservice. The administration needs to be clear in its support of responsible state and local regulations designed to make marijuana legally available to patients while enhancing public safety and health. If the federal government is unable to provide leadership in this area, then the very least it can do is get out of the way and allow citizens to determine the policies that best serve local interests.”

But the administration has given no indication it is likely to do that. Relations between the medical marijuana movement and the Obama administration are starting to feel like the Cold War.

Washington, DC

United States

- stopthedrugwar.org

NYPD Only Arrests Minorities For Marijuana, Here’s How They Do It:

by Scott Morgan

Since 1977, it’s been technically legal in the State of New York to carry around a concealed bag of marijuana weighing less than 7/8 of an ounce. But you could be forgiven for not knowing this, since getting popped for petty pot possession is easier in New York City than anywhere else on the planet.

It’s a monumental injustice that owes its costly continuation to one simple tactic: tricking people into committing the crime of displaying their marijuana in plain sight:

What’s happening is that disproportionate numbers of black and brown young men, ages 16 to 29, are being duped into publicly revealing their allowable marijuana and then being arrested, thereby gaining a criminal record, advocates say. Police officers will say, “Empty your pockets!” turning a routine stop into an arrest and a police record.

“In 2010 in New York State, there were 54,000 marijuana arrests … 50,000 of them came from New York City, and — surprise, surprise — from neighborhoods that primarily are black, Latino and low income,” says Kyung Ji Kate Rhee, executive director of the IJJRA. “It’s not like these individuals had a felony charge and marijuana happened to be an additional charge … You’re telling me that 50,000 had marijuana in plain view? Does that sound right to you? After that initial point of police contact, they trick you into turning out your pockets.”

The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment. (The Root)

 

Now this is where I get confused, because if arresting young black and Latino men for tiny little bags of marijuana were as important to me as it is to the New York Police Dept., I would be extremely pleased with these results and eager to take credit for them. It makes little sense to provide your officers with special training in how to make trivial arrests for petty crimes under legally-dubious circumstances if you aren’t going to be proud of the outcome.

Why not instead spend the $75 million that all of this costs on something that you’re at least willing to admit you’ve been doing? Surely they can think of something to do with those resources that will make sense to the public, something — anything! — other than a massive, utterly pointless exercise in transparent racism that plainly violates the spirit of the laws of the State of New York.

Please click here to send a message to Mayor Bloomberg that New York City’s senseless war on marijuana must be ended once and for all.

Artilcle From StoptheDrugWar.org – Creative Commons Licensing