cannabisnews.com: Senator Outlines Effort to Legalize Marijuana Senator Outlines Effort to Legalize Marijuana Posted by CN Staff on April 17, 2003 at 20:52:43 PT News Advisory Source: U.S. Newswire While the eyes of the world have been on Iraq and also on the UN role in that crisis, the International Antiprohibitionist League (IAL), has been stepping up its campaign to repeal or sharply amend the three UN treaties that impose drug prohibition on the world. The signal for the heightened effort was the April meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotics to review progress in the war on drugs. In the view of the IAL, and its parent body, the Transnational Radical Party, (TRP) that war is a continuing disaster. Proposed drug reforms in Canada and around the world will be the topics of an April 29 press conference highlighting a leading Canadian senator and a prominent European Parliament member. A live video broadcast of this event will be available on satellite for the free and unrestricted use by news organizations. Live broadcast time: Noon to 1 p.m. EASTERN TIME; A Test Signal will be available from 11:45 to Noon EASTERN TIME Ku-band analog satellite: AMC2 (Ge2)Transponder: K8Orbital Position: 85 west. Downlink Frequency: 11860 MHz Horizontal Transmission Contact: 202-513-1000 WHO: Arnold Trebach, President IAL (U.S.) Senator Pierre Claude Nolin (Canada) Marco Cappato, Member, European Parliament (Italy) WHAT: Press Conference on Official Efforts to Legalize Marijuana & Other Drugs & to Amend UN Treaties WHERE: National Press Club (Murrow Lounge) 529 14th Street NW, Washington DC WHEN: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 12 noon to 1 p.m. The IAL/TRP want to open up legal power for individual nations to repeal drug prohibition and to implement systems for the legal manufacture and control of drugs along the alcohol-tobacco models. Recently, a number of countries have proposed or implemented departures from rigid prohibition, much to the dismay of US prohibitionists. For example, the Canadian Senate Committee on Illegal Dugs, chaired by Sen. Nolin, proposed a historic reform of the UN treaties on drugs and also recommended that marijuana be legalized, not simply decriminalized. "The result was predictable: Taliban-like reactions from the UN drug bureaucrats and similar intolerant reactions from American drug control officials," says Trebach. "The US-UN reaction to the rational proposals of our sovereign Canadian friends provides a powerful example of the harm caused by rigid adherence to the failed prohibition dogma." Cappato is a young, rising IAL/TRP star who has been voted the most influential European in a poll by European Voice Magazine. He recently served a brief jail sentence in the UK for openly and non-violently defying the laws on marijuana possession. This press conference is allied with an ongoing global campaign, "Out from the Shadows: Ending Drug Prohibition in the 21st Century, which recently held a Latin American summit on drug legalization in Merida, Mexico, sponsored by StopTheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network. For more information on the campaign to amend UN drug treaties, visit: http://www.antiprohibitionist.org or http://www.trebach.com Press Conference: Canadian Senator Outlines Step-by-Step Effort to Legalize Marijuana Contact: Ryan Fletcher, 202-232-1724 or Adam Eidinger, 202-986-6186 both for the International Antiprohibitionist League Source: U.S. NewswirePublished: April 16, 2003Copyright 2003 U.S. Newswire Website: http://www.usnewswire.com/ Contact: http://www.usnewswire.com/contactusn.html Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmPot Charges Could Be Stayed Across Canadahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15828.shtmlSenate Report on Cannabis: Get Whole Story http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14319.shtmlLegalize Marijuana, Senate Committee Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13989.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 18, 2003 at 11:22:38 PT afterburner Thanks! These are interesting times. I have articles ready to post as soon as Matt fixes the page. I was turning over on 16,000 articles that I've posted and I know it has something to do with that number. I don't know if he has access to his computer like when he is at home and it could be broken for awhile but at least we can use the comment section and view articles easily enough. Heck now that the war is slowing down maybe will be able to get more momentum going again. I'm listening to Paul Simon singing America on a Progressive adult alternative channel we have on the satellite and it is so mellow and nice. I'm making lemonade out of my lemon today! LOL! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by afterburner on April 18, 2003 at 11:00:01 PT: Hoping for a POT-TV feed for this press conference I sent this post to Chris Bennett at POT-TV, so that those without satellite may-may-may have an alternative. I hope to hear some positive news from Chris. I'll keep you posted.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment