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Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1201 -- 12/21/23
Phillip S. Smith, Editor,psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1201

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director,borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

After 30 years we still have work left to do. Will you support us? https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate

Table of Contents:

1. WHAT ARE WE UP TO AFTER 30 YEARS?
30 years ago this month, we sent the first bulletins to our fledgling email list. Today StoptheDrugWar.org continues to target unfilled or underfilled roles in drug policy reform where can make a needed difference.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/21/what_are_we_after_30_years

2. THE TOP TEN INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY STORIES OF 2023 [FEATURE]
There were signs of progress on the global drug policy front in 2023, but drug war brutality endures.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/19/top_ten_international_drug

3. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
A Pennsylvania medical marijuana expansion bill heads to the governor's desk, a Delaware medical marijuana expansion bill gets filed, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/19/medical_marijuana_update

4. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A North Carolina cop was acting like a gangster, a Florida deputy let his habits get the best of him, jail guards go wild, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/19/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

5. PA MEDMJ PERMIT EXPANSION BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR, KY PONDERS IBOGAINE FOR OPIOID TREATMENT, MORE... (12/14/23)
The Ohio legislature's effort to revise the voter-approved marijuana legalization law will not get done this year, the Kansas Republican Senate leader says he is open to medical marijuana, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/14/pa_medmj_permit_expansion_bill

6. OK SUPREME COURT ASKED TO BLOCK PROSECUTIONS OF MEDMJ-USING PREGNANT WOMEN, MORE... (12/15/23)
Maryland's governor orders a bureaucratic reshuffling in a bid to stem the overdose crisis, a fentanyl and xylazine testing bill heads to the Pennsylvania governor's desk, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/15/ok_supreme_court_asked_block

7. CO GUN RIGHTS FOR POT USERS INITIATIVE FILED, DE MEDMJ BILL FILED, MORE... (12/18/23)
The parties in a lawsuit over the constitutionality of imposing federal pot prohibition in legal marijuana states agree to an extension, an Italian petition drive to force parliament to take up marijuana legalization is underway, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/18/co_gun_rights_pot_users

8. UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY SYNTHETIC DRUGS RESOLUTION, JORDAN STRIKES DRUG SMUGGLERS IN SYRIA, MORE... (12/19/23)
Presumed drug gangs kill a dozen people at a Christmas party in Mexico, Peruvian coca farmers are blamed for killing an indigenous leader, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/19/un_general_assembly_synthetic

9. SAN FRANCISCO DRUG CRACKDOWN, SWISS CAPITAL CITY CONSIDERS LEGAL COCAINE SALES, MORE... (12/20/23)
Voters in California's fabled Humboldt County will vote in March on whether to rein in marijuana grows, Colombia ponders whether to legalize coca and poppy production for non-drug purposes, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/20/san_francisco_drug_crackdown

10. CA AG KILLS DREAM OF INTERSTATE POT SALES, UKRAINE APPROVES MEDMJ, MORE... (12/21/23)
Pennsylvania bills to protect medical marijuana patients from DUI charges are moving, Oregon releases an audit of the state's progress in dealing with its drug problem in the Measure 110 era, and more.
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/21/ca_ag_kills_dream_interstate_pot

(Not subscribed? Visithttps://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up today!)

================

1. WHAT ARE WE UP TO AFTER 30 YEARS? https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/21/what_are_we_after_30_years

Dear reformer,

30 years ago this month, I sent the first bulletin to our fledgling email list. Our network in the 1990s was the first movement-wide structure for drug policy reform efforts online. You can read about our early work, and some of the directions it's taken
us, in the history section of our About page (https://stopthedrugwar.org/about).

We are still following some of those directions in the 2020s. One is our practice of identifying roles in the issue that are unfilled or underfilled, and for which we're able to bring something new or needed. But sometimes needs in a movement go unfilled
because the movement's funders aren't focused on it.

That makes organizations like ours more dependent on supporters like you. Will you make a donation to our work (https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate) today - or sometime before the end of this year - to help us continue doing work in drug policy reform that
others aren't?

Right now, some of the underfilled or otherwise unfilled roles we play in the movement are these:

* Analyzing how the continuing prohibition of cannabis (marijuana) puts workers in danger (https://stopthedrugwar.org/delays) by increasing the use of cash for purchases, at a time when people are using less cash, and using our findings to help pass
reforms like Safe Banking that Congress could pass now.

We're not the only group trying to pass Safe Banking. But no one had studied what actually happens during cannabis retail robberies before we did, and that allowed some members of Congress to deprioritize the bill. Our research and our advocacy have
made it harder to claim that fully legal banking access for cannabusinesses isn't a true worker safety issue.

We're also more focused than most players in the issue on what may be needed beyond the SAFER Banking Act to reduce cash prevalence. Our first paper was about what happened in Washington State; our second will take a national and state-by-state look.

* Arguing the human rights case for justifying drug legalization (and particularly cannabis legalization) in the United Nations treaty system, despite problematic language for legalization in the drug treaties. Our assertion is that the global
prohibitionist drug control systems inevitably leads to very serious human rights violations. But it's human rights that takes precedence over other issues, according to the UN Charter. So does the core purpose that the drug treaties state - but which
they don't achieve very well - which is the well-being of humankind.

Our work at the UN (https://stopthedrugwar.org/global) has advanced this position in civil society, supported governments making similar arguments, and brought directly related issues to the attention of major media. We are returning to this thread of
our work in 2024.

* We are taking a "Modernizing Global Drug Policy" agenda to Congress, seeking to embed more of the key human rights, health and development concerns in drug policy into US foreign policy and diplomacy. Changes to the drug treaties are part of that, but
there's a lot more. I can't share our legislative proposal publicly yet, but the issues you'll find on documents linked from our UN page (https://stopthedrugwar.org/global) suggest a lot of it.

* We are championing advocacy for using international Rule of Law mechanisms, like the International Criminal Court and Magnitsky targeted sanctions against rights-abusing officials, to address serious human rights violations in the drug war around the
world. We do this through a series of events we've held since 2017 at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and other UN and international meetings, working with coalitions that support those kinds of programs, lobbying with allies on Capitol Hill, and even
the occasional protest.

Much of our work in this area has dealt with the drug war in the Philippines (https://stopthedrugwar.org/philippines), in which the former president instigated what's believed to have been more than 30,000 extrajudicial killings, and which has
continued under the new president. But we also played a role encouraging allies to undertake a successful effort seeking US Magnitsky sanctions for killings in the Bangladesh drug war (https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0526). Some of our
work in this area has been very high profile, and plans are in the works right now for 2024.
* We continue to publish the Drug War Chronicle (https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle) newsletter. While reporting on drug policy is more extensive than it was 30 years ago, Drug War Chronicle is still the only daily source bringing all the key news
on the full range of drug reform issues together in one place, and plays an important role for the most interested advocates and observers.

Your support will let us continue to play roles in the movement that are unfilled or underfilled, and make a needed difference both in cannabis policy reform and in efforts to end the larger war on drugs. If you donate to our educational 501(c)(3)
nonprofit (link from our main donation form (https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate)) before the end of the year, and if you're a US taxpayer, you can get a deduction on your taxes for 2023. Non-deductible donations to our 501(c)(4) nonprofit are also needed,
for our lobbying work and for a share of our publishing costs.

Our donation forms let you make a one-time donation, or you can sign up to make your donation recurring, and it takes credit cards, PayPal or ACH. The donations section (https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate) on our About page has info for how to donate by
mail or give stocks instead.

Thank you for your new or continued support after these 30 years, and to those of you who have donated before.

Sincerely,

David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org
P.O. Box 9853, Washington, DC 20016
https://stopthedrugwar.org (https://stopthedrugwar.org)


================  ...


                                         ___________________

                                          It's time to correct the mistake:
                                        Truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

                                      Cops say legalize drugs--find out
why:
<http://www.leap.cc>

                                       Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
                                       ___________________

     bliss -- Cacao  Powered... (-SF4ever at DSLExtreme dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

      "It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
      It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
      the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
      It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
         --from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

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