cannabisnews.com: NORML's Weekly News Bulletin - October 4, 2007





NORML's Weekly News Bulletin - October 4, 2007
Posted by CN Staff on October 04, 2007 at 14:18:33 PT
Weekly Press Release 
Source: NORML
Pot Prohibition Costs Taxpayers More Than $40 Billion Per Year, Study SaysOctober 4, 2007 - Washington, DC, USAWashington, DC: Marijuana prohibition costs US taxpayers nearly $42 billion dollars per year in criminal justice costs and in lost tax revenues, according to an economic analysis released this week.
According to the study, "Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws," law enforcement spends $10.7 billion annually to arrest and prosecute marijuana offenders. This amount comprises nearly six percent of America’s total criminal justice expenditures.Pot’s criminalization also artificially raises the plant’s retail price and diverts billions of dollars into the black market economy, the study finds. According to the report, Americans spend some $113 billion dollars annually to consume an estimated 31.1 million pounds of pot. By criminalizing this market, the study estimates that the government loses more than $30 billion per year in tax revenue."The market in marijuana in the United States is illicit, illegal, and as such it diverts capital away from the channels of the licit or legal economy, especially the channels from which local, state, and the federal government collect tax revenue," the study concludes. "If [the billions of dollars America’s currently spend on marijuana] were spent on legal commodities … those economic transactions would produce billions in tax revenues for local, state, and the federal government."According to data released last week by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), police arrested a record 829,625 persons for marijuana violations in 2006. Of those arrested, 738,915 Americans (89 percent) were charged with marijuana possession.Full text of the study is available online at: http://www.drugscience.orgDL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7380Last Chance To Join NORML In Los Angeles - Join High Times, travel guru Rick Steves, and the nation’s top marijuana law reformers at nation’s largest pot conferenceOctober 4, 2007 - Washington, DC, USAWashington, DC: There is still time to register to attend NORML’s 2007 National Conference, taking place October 12 and 13 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Los Angeles.Network with the nation's top advocates, mingle with celebrities and members of High Times Magazine, as well as NORML's staff and board of directors, and enjoy a variety of unique after-hours events – including the 7th Annual "Stony Awards" for cannabis-friendly cinema Saturday evening at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.Speakers at this year’s conference include PBS travel guru and NORML Advisory Board member Rick Steves, Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann, actor and NORML Advisory Board member Tommy Chong, and Reason Foundation Executive Director David Nott. Topics at this year’s conference include:Cannabis Conundrum: Why is California America’s Only Pot-Tolerant State?Will You Still Arrest Me When I’m 64? (Pot Use and Senior Citizens)Medicinal Cannabis Distribution in America After Prop. 215Cannabis Consumer Safety (Practical Tips for Pot Consumers)The High Times Guide to Growing Your Own Medicine"For the first time in NORML’s 37-year history, our organization will be holding our annual conference in Los Angeles – a location we chose because it is ‘ground zero’ in the federal government’s war on medical pot," NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said. "We join Southern California’s vibrant marijuana law reform community to express our solidarity against the federal government’s excessive and unpopular attacks on Los Angeles’ patients and providers, and to strategize for an end to criminal cannabis prohibition." To register for NORML’s 2007 National Conference, or to learn more about this year’s featured speakers and events, please visit: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7250DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7379Source: NORML Foundation (DC)Published: October 4, 2007Copyright: 2007 NORML Contact: norml norml.org Website: http://www.norml.org/CannabisNews NORML Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/NORML.shtml 
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on October 09, 2007 at 13:08:35 PT
fight_4_freedom 
I just saw your comment and I am glad that you are healing well. 
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on October 09, 2007 at 13:06:51 PT
Addition Article from NORML's Press Release
Quarter Of A Million Facebook Users Voice Their Support For Ending Pot ProhibitionOctober 4, 2007 - Washington, DC, USAWashington, DC: Nearly 250,000 online subscribers to the online social networking website Facebook have voiced their support for marijuana law reform by joining NORML's newly launched ‘Cause’ group. 'Cause' pages, a new feature of Facebook, allow subscribers to use the site to financially donate directly to their favorite non-profit organizations."We are extremely pleased that NORML is leading the way in online activism -- not only among drug policy reform groups, but among all non-profit organizations," NORML Outreach Coordinator Ron Fisher said. "Building effective and influential coalitions within online communities such as Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, and other emerging online networks is an integral part of NORML’s educational and outreach activities."Fisher continued: "We are particularly excited about encouraging our supporters to utilize GoodSearch.com, a Yahoo-powered search engine where users raise funds for select non-profits every time they search the web. If all of NORML’s online supporters simply set GoodSearch as their default search engine and selected NORML as their beneficiary, it would raise substantial funds to assist NORML's marijuana law reform efforts. It's clear that these emerging web technologies -- such as Facebook, GoodSearch, and MySpace -- offer NORML a powerful tool for harnessing public support against America's archaic and ineffective pot laws."Fisher added that NORML's daily podcast remains one of the most downloaded political podcasts on the Internet. In September, NORML launched an 'in-world' office on the popular 3-D virtual world Second Life.For more information, please contact Ron Fisher, NORML Outreach Coordinator, at (202) 483-5500, or at ron norml.orgDL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7381
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Comment #6 posted by fight_4_freedom on October 05, 2007 at 12:58:49 PT:
thanks fom
and I am doing just fine. Two weeks to go until I can have the pin taken out and cast removed.I guess on the bright side of things, I'm beginning to have more coordination with my left hand. And I now have an even bigger appreciation for being blessed with working arms, legs, and everything in place like it should be.So all in all, a positive experience.
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Comment #5 posted by mayan on October 04, 2007 at 18:08:16 PT
The Seed Lives
If it wasn't for the 9/11 inside job, cannabis would be completely legal in Canada and the UK by now. The fascists killed many birds with one stone on that day but until they have destroyed the last cannabis seed on earth they have failed.THE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...William Rodriguez and the Key to 9/11:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=38307Kucinich 9-11 Hearings Delayed:
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20071004132640555Giuliani's 9/11 Albatross (w/video archive):
http://infowars.com/articles/sept11/giuliani_911_albatross.htmDistracting The Defenders: Radar Injects, Ringing Phones and Fools Errands: 
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/10/distracting-defenders-radar-injects.html9/11: Family Members, First Responders & Experts Speak Out, 11/3/2007:
http://911blogger.com/node/118289/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB - OUR NATION IS IN PERIL:
http://www.911sharethetruth.com/
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Comment #4 posted by paulpeterson on October 04, 2007 at 16:54:18 PT
Canada caved to heavy pressure from their "Uncle&q
How much of a budget entry did it take to cause them to cave in?When Reagan's storm troopers galloped into town in Chicago in 1983, the price tag was $5 Million-to get the "Dangerous Drug Commission" blown apart and all records buried under the sands of time. In 2002, the DHS responded that in 31 years, they had never authorized once-but ahem, they had no records of what the DDC might have done on this. How many astute researchers had to spend their waning years bristling with the knowledge of what they had learned, and were forced to keep buried also-upon threats of criminal liability, career cessation or worse, eh?Were their children threatened by the Stalin style Gulag police? How many people have died since then, that could have been saved-I would say at least as many as the "witches" that were burned at the stake in another "inquisition" along with Michael Servetes, torched with green wood in October, 1553-the first modern cannabis extract researcher-the first man since Jesus documented to be able to bring down a fever (Jesus used it to take down Peter's mother-in-law's illness so she could fix dinner for him, down by the sea of Galilee). PAUL PETERSON, Storm Lake, Iowa.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on October 04, 2007 at 15:36:54 PT
fight_4_freedom 
It hasn't been posted and thank you. I hope you are healing well since your surgery.
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Comment #2 posted by fight_4_freedom on October 04, 2007 at 15:35:20 PT:
i'm not sure if this video has been posted
but it is of john mccain in new hampshire making an *ss of himself. I'm sorry if it was already posted
idiot
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on October 04, 2007 at 14:33:38 PT
NYT: Canada Revives Stance Against Marijuana 
OTTAWA, Oct. 7 — Reversing earlier moves to decriminalize marijuana use, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada announced new legal and spending measures against drug use and distribution today.In 2005, the government, then Liberal, introduced legislation to eliminate criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana. The bill, criticized by United States officials, did not pass Parliament before the election that brought Mr. Harper and the Conservatives to power. It was never reintroduced.“Far too long now in Canada governments have been sending out mixed message on drugs,” Mr. Harper said today. “Canadians hardly know what the law is anymore.”URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/world/americas/05canada.html
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