cannabisnews.com: Pot Legalization Won’t Change Mission
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Pot Legalization Won’t Change Mission
Posted by CN Staff on April 25, 2013 at 06:44:24 PT
By Brian Witte, The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Baltimore -- The nation’s drug czar said Wednesday the legalization of marijuana in Washington state and Colorado won’t change his office’s mission of fighting the country’s drug problem by focusing on addiction treatment that will be available under the federal health overhaul.Gil Kerlikowske, director of the National Drug Control Policy, released President Barack Obama’s 2013 strategy for fighting drug addiction Wednesday at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. The strategy includes a greater emphasis on using public health tools to battle addiction and diverting non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of prisons.
“The legal issue of Washington and Colorado is really a question you have to go back to the Department of Justice,” Kerlikowske said when asked about the impact the two states would have on national drug policy.The key to the administration’s efforts to deliver health care to drug addicts is in the federal health care overhaul because it will require insurance companies to cover treatment for substance abuse disorders, as they currently do for chronic diseases like diabetes. That change could lead to addiction treatment for several million more people.“Treatment shouldn’t be a privilege limited to those who can afford it, but it’s a service available to all who need it,” Kerlikowske said.The strategy outlined by Kerlikowske also supports a greater emphasis on criminal justice reforms that include drug courts and probation programs aimed at reducing incarceration rates. It also will include community-based policing programs designed to break the cycle of drug use, crime and incarceration while steering law enforcement resources to more serious offenses.Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, said addiction needs to be acknowledged as a disease that can be diagnosed and treated. He said the debate over the nation’s drug problem has become locked in a highly charged ideological debate in which there are no simple answers.“We’re not going to solve it by drug legalization, and we’re certainly not in my career going to arrest our way out of this problem, either, and these two extreme approaches really aren’t guided by the experience, the compassion or the knowledge that’s needed,” Kerlikowske said.Kerlikowske was joined by Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse; Anthony Batts, Baltimore’s police commissioner; and Dr. Eric Strain, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and Research at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.Batts noted that Maryland lawmakers this year showed signs of becoming more lenient on laws relating to marijuana, and he expressed his opposition to leniency. The state Senate passed a bill to decriminalize the possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana, but the bill did not pass in the House of Delegates.Batts said he views marijuana as a “starter drug.”“I’m seeing more takeover robberies — people breaking into houses — surrounding marijuana, and it is dealing with younger people who are doing these takeover robberies that are resulting in murders, shootings and killings,” Batts said.Newshawk: The GCWSource: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Brian Witte, The Associated PressPublished:  April 24, 2013Copyright: 2013 The Associated PressCannabisNews  -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on April 27, 2013 at 11:08:08 PT
We used to call them "Drug Raids"
The government perpetrated them. Creeps on the other side of the thin blue line like to do it, too, looks like."“I’m seeing more takeover robberies — people breaking into houses — surrounding marijuana, and it is dealing with younger people who are doing these takeover robberies that are resulting in murders, shootings and killings,” Batts said."But ultimately, these "raids", too, are the fruit of the prohibition tree.
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Comment #10 posted by Lucas on April 27, 2013 at 10:17:33 PT
Reefer Madness Kills
> a former Seattle police chief, said addiction needs to be acknowledged as a disease that can be diagnosed and treatedA police chief is making medical decisions, and wants a new disease to be "acknowledged"? iow, there is NO scientific proof that addiction is anything but a confabulation of law enforcement.> Batts said he views marijuana as a “starter drug.”
“I’m seeing more takeover robberies — people breaking into houses — surrounding marijuana, and it is dealing with younger people who are doing these takeover robberies that are resulting in murders, shootings and killings,
If I drink water every day, am I a water addict? If I start smoking cigarettes, was water my starter drug? note that Batts is a pure prohibitionist, he believes in the gateway theory, which is completely made up by law enforcement, not doctors. And he is "seeing more…. robberies, break ins, involving younger people, and murders, shootings and killings"So in other words, Marijuana leads children to murder and addiction.. Wow! still the same song as in 1937.. Still the same lies.
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Comment #9 posted by anomalies on April 25, 2013 at 18:22:49 PT:
It seems to work in Colorado 
In western Colorado there there was a bust, A BIG BUST, 10 pounds of meth , 9 pounds of coke and over $144,000 US Dollars. Colorado legalised marijuana and low and behold, they get to go after the troublesome drugs, Very good job guys. THIS is why I want cannabis legalised, I don't drink nor do I do drugs AND yes I even go to church, Colorado has a working plan... now let's free up the REST of the country to do the same. 
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Comment #8 posted by museman on April 25, 2013 at 14:49:55 PT
hypocrisy blooms in high places
addictions abound from 'new sports cars, to nuclear bombs'
Addicted
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on April 25, 2013 at 10:55:59 PT
More news
Colorado appeals court OKs firing for off-duty marijuana useA divided Colorado Court of Appeals panel on Thursday upheld the firing of a man for off-the-job medical-marijuana use, concluding that, because marijuana is illegal under federal law, employees have no protection to use it anytime.Cont.http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23104820/colorado-appeals-court-oks-firing-off-duty-marijuana
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on April 25, 2013 at 09:06:50 PT
What's this?
“The legal issue of Washington and Colorado is really a question you have to go back to the Department of Justice,”What does that mean? Is the czar indicating considering CO & WA cannabis legalization is not His job?
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Comment #5 posted by runruff on April 25, 2013 at 08:41:24 PT
Kerli and Nora have Batts in the belfry.
This is an awkward and desperate attempt to remain relevant in this evolving issue and they are losing ground.For them the truth is like quicksand.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 25, 2013 at 08:27:57 PT
Cannabis versus Hard Drugs
They are not the same thing. Someone might think they have to have marijuana but they won't go thru serious withdrawal pain if they stop. If you stop drinking coffee you will feel lousy for awhile. Drug programs should only be to help someone who is strung out on Heroin and Narcotic Pain Drugs that will be overwhelming for a person to stop cold turkey.
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Comment #3 posted by HempWorld on April 25, 2013 at 07:53:40 PT
Cornerstone of Marijuana Prohibition:
Here is a substance that has been used as medicine and in recreation for thousands of years, it is relatively benign with no long term health consequences and no physical addiction.Enter Rocky and it is made illegal (1937). So that the negative consequences if it being illegal are then associated with it and the public at large will forever be convinced that it should never be made legal.We learned the lesson with alcohol prohibition but then right after that Rocky made mary jane illegal and this is where we have been stuck, all these years!Go figure! Then in 1938 Rocky made his friend Hitler, man of the year in Time Magazine! (On and on... )
Hemp Magazine
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on April 25, 2013 at 07:40:21 PT
Here we go again...
This is so disingenuous! Yeah, go after marijuana, when this substance; a plant in it's natural state, has never killed anyone in the history of mankind. NEVER KILLED ANY HUMAN DIRECTLY! Got that Gil?Gil, if you really want to so something good with your life and our taxpayer dollars (or all the trillions created by the FED out of nothing) then GO AFTER CIGARETTES AND ALCOHOL!These substances are the BIGGEST KILLERS!IF, you/Gil Kerlikowske think that PROHIBITION is such a wonderful model, as we have seen during the roaring twenties that it is NOT, then why don't you make cigarettes and alcohol illegal?Why don't ya?But you don't. You can't have it both ways! Do you really think the public at large is THAT stupid? Apparently you do, but let me point out this GROSS inconsistency!If every anti prohibitionist would drive this point (at) home and in Wash. DC it would soon be over!God help us end this madness and this form of government control in the form of stupidity.We are getting it, are you Gil?
Pot Law
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 25, 2013 at 06:50:30 PT
I Agree With This Quote
Quote: “Treatment shouldn’t be a privilege limited to those who can afford it, but it’s a service available to all who need it,” Kerlikowske said.I know a couple who are on a very expensive medicine to keep them from going back to Heroin. They have to pay for it which keeps making it very hard for them to build a quality life for themselves and their children.
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