cannabisnews.com: Activists Pushing To Relax Marijuana Enforcement





Activists Pushing To Relax Marijuana Enforcement
Posted by CN Staff on May 18, 2006 at 11:58:54 PT
By Chris Dart, Contributing Writer
Source: Northwest Meridian
Oregon -- A marijuana advocacy group wants Portland police to get their priorities straight. Introduced by the Citizens for a Safer Portland in early February, a new citywide initiative is aimed at reducing adult marijuana-related offenses to be the “lowest law-enforcement priority.”  Chris Iverson, chief petitioner of the initiative and campaign manager for CSP, is confident Portland voters will approve the measure if it gets on the ballot.
About 56 percent of city voters endorsed the failed statewide medical marijuana expansion initiative two years ago, which he said was “under-funded and not well-organized.”“Because of the high yes vote in Portland with Measure 33 in 2004, we feel that we have a good chance to win,” said Iverson. Past low-priority proposals like Seattle’s Initiative 75, passed in 2003, and Oakland, Calif.’s Proposition Z, passed in 2004, seem to have spawned greater support for drug law reform. Other similar measures may be headed to the November ballot in several California cities as well as Missoula, Mont. The Portland initiative defines marijuana-related offenses as any “in which possession, delivery or manufacture of marijuana is an element.” It declares that “law enforcement activities related to all offenses other than marijuana-related offenses shall be a higher priority than all law enforcement activities related to marijuana-related offenses.” Sales, cultivation, distribution, and possession of pot by minors or adults on public property and use in connection with the operation of a vehicle aren’t covered by the initiative directive. Supporters say the initiative is a good first step toward focusing law enforcement more on real threats to the community, like crimes against people and property. Portland police officials reported 799 adult arrests last year for marijuana-related offenses. According to one study, the average cost of sending an offender through Multnomah County Drug Court is about $6,000, meaning that taxpayers spent about $4.8 million to prosecute adult pot possession offenses in 2005. The initiative also contains restrictions on the Portland police department’s relationship with federal and state authorities as well, stating that local officials “shall not accept formal deputization or commissioning by a federal law enforcement agency to the extent that such deputization or commissioning will include investigating, citing, arresting, or seizing property from adults for marijuana- related offenses.” Some supporters of the measure say this part of the initiative is important to keep local officials from joining with federal agents to bust medical marijuana collectives.   “This really strikes at the heart of the issue with regard to local law enforcement cooperating with the Drug Enforcement Administration against medical cannabis dispensaries,” said Nikos Leverenz, acting director of the California office of the Drug Policy Alliance. Cutting off funds that contribute to law enforcement activities for marijuana-related offenses is a unique part of the Portland initiative; of the six proposals introduced this year and the two past successful ones, only the Portland and Missoula initiatives specify that city officials cannot “accept any funds from any source, organization or individual, including federal funds or state funds.” The present California initiatives only prohibit federal funds. Of course, marijuana possession of any amount and for any purpose remains a federal crime. And advocates for the measures don’t expect the DEA to be particularly mellow about any effort seen as undermining the drug war. They anticipate a federally-backed “smear campaign” against the Portland initiative if it makes it to the ballot. On May 6 CSP representatives attended the Million Marijuana March, hosted by Oregon NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), to gather signatures and raise support for the initiative with the 300 or so marchers in attendance. However, signature-gathering for the measure has been a little lethargic thus far. With the signatures due on July 7, the CSP is only about half-way to the 26,691 they need to make the Nov. 7 ballot, according to the CSP website - http://www.makeportlandsafer.orgThe group also claims it is short on campaign funds. Even after a grant from the Marijuana Policy Project for $120,000, local organizers say they need an additional $20,000 for advertising and campaigning. Despite these hurdles, Iverson is optimistic that with more people out gathering signatures and more public events planned they will raise the support needed to move the initiative forward. Note: Portland initiative would direct cops to stop wasting resources arresting people for pot possession.Source: Northwest Meridian (OR) Author: Chris Dart, Contributing WriterPublished: May 18, 2006Copyright: 2006 NW Meridian, Inc. Contact: questions nwmeridian.comWebsite: http://www.nwmeridian.com/Related Article & Web Sites:Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/Oregon NORMLhttp://www.ornorml.org/ Puff, Puff, Pass The Petitionhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21839.shtmlCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on May 20, 2006 at 07:37:39 PT
Hoffa Hoffa Hoffa
Whig this is my new gripe! I know all about Jimmy Hoffa. HE's DEAD and is Dust in the Wind! There coming to take me away ha ha ho ho to the funny farm! LOL!
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Comment #11 posted by CorvallisEric on May 20, 2006 at 06:56:32 PT
The Portland proposal - untangling the exclusions
From the article:Sales, cultivation, distribution, and possession of pot by minors or adults on public property and use in connection with the operation of a vehicle aren’t covered by the initiative directive.Due to a couple of missing commas, I was very confused until I read the actual text of the proposal:(2) This lowest law enforcement priority policy shall not apply to the following:(a) distribution or sale of marijuana to minors; possession, use, distribution, sale, or cultivation of marijuana by minors; distribution, sale, cultivation, or use of marijuana on public property; or driving under the influence of marijuana;(b) marijuana-related offenses on private property, if a person in lawful possession of the private property requests police intervention;(c) marijuana-related offenses within 100 feet of any lawfully licensed business, if the licensee, licensee's agent, employee, or contractor, with the authority to do so, requests police intervention; and(d) marijuana-related offenses within 1,000 feet of any school ordinarily attended by children under 18 years of age.http://www.makeportlandsafer.org/06init.html
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Comment #10 posted by jose melendez on May 20, 2006 at 03:57:54 PT
traced
Drug war is crime. We have proof:http://www.drugwar.com/pDyncorpMotionToDismiss.shtmhttp://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/firststone/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,583254,00.html
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Comment #9 posted by whig on May 19, 2006 at 21:51:54 PT
FoM
What I'd like to know is whatever happened to the Anthrax killer? Funny how the trail went cold when they seemed to have traced the spores to the USAMRIID.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on May 19, 2006 at 17:13:28 PT
Max Flowers 
Oh no you aren't alone. Remember Chandra Levy? Never did charge the killer either.I think it's a real waste of time following individual cases when we have the problems we have in the world. I feel bad for any child of any race that gets murdered but we have soldiers being killed in a war with no purpose or end in sight. What about them?Families - NYI see a light aheadThere's a chill wind blowin' in my headI wish that I was home insteadwith my familyhttp://www.human-highway.org/lyrics/lyrics-47.html#005
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Comment #7 posted by Max Flowers on May 19, 2006 at 16:59:49 PT
that wiki 
I want to say that it's gratifying to me that other people recognize this phenomenon, especially to the point where it has a Wikipedia entry. I had thought I was the only one who noticed it happening.
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Comment #6 posted by Max Flowers on May 19, 2006 at 16:54:52 PT
whig
I appreciate that, but in fact, I'm entitled to it. You see, though not a girl, I am blond-haired, so I know that if I ever go missing or something, the whole word will drop everything it's doing and focus on the fact that I may or may not have been killed. Because I'm blond, I deserve the world's rapt attention.Actually, probably not, since I'm not a pretty girl.Seriously though, I do feel for the families of missing kids, but there is something very wrong when their cases, without any serious new developments to report, trump real national news that affects us all (like the hijacking of the Bill Of Rights, for one example).
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Comment #5 posted by whig on May 19, 2006 at 15:04:33 PT
Heh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome
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Comment #4 posted by whig on May 19, 2006 at 14:53:09 PT
Max
I think we should stop talking about Cannabis here and focus on what's really important. Natalie Holloway. We really need to get to the bottom of that. For the next hour, we'll have Beth Twittie and some other people here to talk about this.
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Comment #3 posted by Max Flowers on May 19, 2006 at 14:38:23 PT
Brilliant snippet from a dailykos.com post
Could you please just stick to dead blond girls, because that would give us all something to really sink our teeth into while the Constitution goes up in smoke.
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Comment #2 posted by global_warming on May 18, 2006 at 15:46:37 PT
May The Light of God
"Of course, marijuana possession of any amount and for any purpose remains a federal crime. And advocates for the measures don’t expect the DEA to be particularly mellow about any effort seen as undermining the drug war. They anticipate a federally-backed “smear campaign” against the Portland initiative if it makes it to the ballot."Fill the minds and hearts of the voters this November, from another article, "What is it about marijuana that drives our politicians insane?"I reckon that small minds need very little conditioning, they are so easily brainwashed, even some noisy commercial selling some garbage car may seem a good buy, if some paid whore model is breathing in your ear.This also applys to those confounded drug commercials, whether it is the giant pharmaceutical corporations, pushing their "drugs", or the ondcpee pushing their better choices of drugs, if you want to stay legal', in the meantime, the law is the law, and power is power, and truth and justice, can wait, while politics spits it economic spit balls, in the face of the people.
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Comment #1 posted by global_warming on May 18, 2006 at 15:28:54 PT
Seems Like Masons Fire
Has spread from Colorado, 
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