• Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1049 -- 12/20/18 - Table of Contents with Li

    From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to All on Thu Dec 20 19:11:49 2018
    XPost: alt.drugs.psychedelics, alt.drugs.pot, alt.hemp.politics

    Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1049 -- 12/20/18
    Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1049

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

    Table of Contents:

    1. THE YEAR IN DRUGS I: THE TOP DOMESTIC DRUG POLICY STORIES OF 2018
    [FEATURE]
    The good, the bad, and the ugly in the world of domestic drug policy
    this year. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/20/year_drugs_i_top_domestic_drug

    2. IN RARE SHOW OF BIPARTISANSHIP, SENATE PASSES PRISON AND SENTENCING
    REFORM BILL [FEATURE]
    It's expected to sail through the House and be signed into law by
    President Trump. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/20/rare_show_bipartisanship_senate

    3. HERE COMES HEMP: CONGRESS VOTES TO UNCHAIN A BILLION-DOLLAR INDUSTRY [FEATURE]
    Marijuana's lanky, straight-laced country cousin is about to get legal. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/15/here_comes_hemp_congress_votes

    4. WHAT'S KILLING US: THE TEN DRUGS MOST IMPLICATED IN OVERDOSE DEATHS [FEATURE]
    Multi-drug combinations prove particularly deadly. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/19/whats_killing_us_ten_drugs_most

    5. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
    A Nebraska medical marijuana initiative campaign gets underway, New
    Jersey and Pennsylvania announce expansion plans, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/19/medical_marijuana_update

    6. CHRONICLE AM: CONGRESS PASSES HEMP BILL, CDC REPORT ON OVERDOSE
    DEATHS, MORE... (12/13/18)
    Congress has passed a bill to legalize hemp, the CDC issues a new report
    on overdose deaths, St. Vincent and the Grenadines legalizes medical
    marijuana, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/13/chronicle_am_congress_passes

    7. CHRONICLE AM: NJ LEGALIZATION DELAYED, NM COURT REJECTS ALBUQUERQUE
    CAR SEIZURES, MORE.. (12/14/18)
    A national coalition of civil rights, labor, and civic groups calls for descheduling marijuana; New Jersey isn't quite there yet, France takes a
    step toward allowing medical marijuana, and more.

    https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/14/chronicle_am_nj_legalization

    8. CHRONICLE AM: NY GOV WANTS LEGAL MARIJUANA IN 2019, UT OFFENDERS'
    DRUG TREATMENT REPORT, MORE... (12/17/18)
    The governors of New Hampshire and New York have very different views on marijuana legalization, New Jersey doubles the number of dispensaries, a
    new report examines drug treatment for criminal offenders in Utah, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/17/chronicle_am_ny_gov_wants_legal

    9. CHRONICLE AM: FEDERAL SENTENCING BILL MOVING, NO NJ LEGALIZATION THIS
    YEAR, MORE... (12/18/18)
    The Senate is finally taking up the prison and sentencing reform bill,
    New Jersey's legalization push is stalled until next year, New Zealand
    is set to vote on legalizing marijuana in 2020, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/18/chronicle_am_federal_sentencing

    10. CHRONICLE AM: SENATE PASSES SENTENCING REFORM BILL, NM SUED OVER
    MEDMJ RULES AND FEES, MORE... (12/19/18)
    A major sentencing reform bill takes a major step toward becoming law, a
    New Mexico medical marijuana producer is suing the state over rules and
    fees, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/19/chronicle_am_senate_passes

    11. ERRATA: NO, YOU DON'T JUST GET A TICKET FOR DRIVING HIGH IN
    MICHIGAN, YOU GO TO JAIL
    Getting caught driving high in Michigan is NOT a ticketable offense. You
    will go to jail and face either misdemeanor or felony charges. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2018/dec/13/errata_no_you_dont_just_get

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    The Year in Drugs I: The Top Domestic Drug Policy Stories of 2018 [FEATURE]

    Post to: Twitter Facebook Digg StumbleUpon Reddit

    by psmith, December 20, 2018, 12:22am, (Issue #1049)
    Posted in:

    2018 Cocaine Congress Decriminalization Executive Branch Fentanyl
    Hemp Heroin Mandatory Minimums Marijuana -- Personal Use Marijuana
    Industry Marijuana Legalization Methamphetamine News Feature Overdoses Psilocybin / Magic Mushrooms Safer Injection Sites Sentencing State &
    Local Executive Branches State & Local Legislatures

    This is a year that just about everybody is eager to see come to an end,
    but when it comes to drug policy, 2018 hasn't been half-bad, at least in
    the US. (Check back next week for our Top International Drug Policy
    Stories.)

    We've seen marijuana legalization spread further, we're on the verge of
    seeing Congress pass major sentencing reform legislation, and the ban on domestic hemp cultivation is coming to an end, among other things.

    A lot went on in drug policy in 2018. Here are eight stories that helped
    define the year:

    1. Overdose Deaths Remain Unconscionably High But Appear to Have Leveled Off

    That's enough fentanyl to kill you. It killed thousands this year. (dea.gov) The nation's fatal drug overdose crisis is far from over, but it now
    looks like it at least didn't get any worse this year. Driven in large
    part by the rise of fentanyl, overdose deaths reached a stunning 72,000
    in 2017, a figure ten times the number in 1980 and double that of only a
    decade ago.

    But preliminary reports on the 2018 overdose numbers suggest that this
    may be the year the crisis began to ease. In June, the Centers for
    Disease Control and Prevention released provisional data showing that
    overdose deaths had declined for six straight months, dropping 2.8
    percent from their 2017 peak. That report also found that opioid
    overdose deaths had declined by 2.3 percent.

    With both heroin and prescription opioid deaths declining, fentanyl has
    emerged as the most common drug involved in overdoses, being implicated
    in about a quarter of all drug overdose deaths. While the apparent
    decline in opioid overdose deaths this year is good news, the recent
    increases in cocaine and methamphetamine overdose deaths is not. And
    while any break in a years-long climb in overdose deaths is certainly
    welcome, another 70,000 or so Americans will still have died from them
    this year. We have a long, long way to go.

    2. Safe Injection Sites Draw Nearer, But Feds Fire Warning Shots

    Safe injection sites -- also known as supervised consumption sites,
    among other names -- where drug users can consume their doses under
    medical supervision and with an opportunity to engage with social
    services are a proven harm reduction intervention. More than a hundred
    cities around the world, mainly in Europe, Canada, and Australia have
    resorted to such facilities as a means of providing better outcomes, not
    only for drug users but also for the communities in which they live.

    There are no legally permitted safe injection sites in the United States (although some underground ones are reportedly operating in Seattle, and
    there may be more in hiding), but this year saw mounting pressure and
    serious efforts to get them up and running in a number of American
    states and cities. It also saw mounting resistance from federal officials.

    At the state level, California, Colorado, Missouri, and New York all saw
    safe injection site bills filed. Only the bill in California made it out
    of the legislature, but to the great frustration of reformers, it was
    vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D), who cited long outdated beliefs about
    substance use in his veto message. Still, the fact that bills are being
    filed shows the issue is gaining momentum.

    The momentum is even stronger among a handful of major cities. Denver,
    New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle have all taken steps to clear
    the way for safe injection sites this year, although none are yet in place.

    While like California's Gov. Brown, some state and local level political figures are hesitant to embrace them, a major reason none is yet in
    place is federal hostility. As the clamor for the facilities grows
    louder, so does opposition from the Trump administration. As Denver
    publicly pondered opening one, the local DEA and the US Attorney loudly
    warned they would be illegal, and the Philadelphia US Attorney did the
    same thing. Early in the year, the DEA in Washington issued a warning
    against safe injection sites, and in August, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein authored an op-ed in the New York Times issuing similar dire threats.

    3. A Major Federal Sentencing Reform Bill Is Set to Pass

    A rare example of bipartisanship on the Hill. (Creative Commons)
    The first major federal sentencing reform bill in eight years is now one
    vote away from passing Congress. The bill, known as the First Step Act (S.3649), is the culmination of years of work by the likes of Senate
    Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Dick
    Durbin (D-IL), and includes prison reform language as well as provisions
    that would reduce sentences for certain drug offenses. It very nearly
    died earlier this month when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
    (R-KY) announced he would not bring it to a Senate floor vote, but under
    broad pressure, including from President Trump, McConnell relented, and
    the bill passed the Senate Tuesday

    The sentencing reforms include retroactivity for the Fair Sentencing Act
    (the 2010 law that reduced the crack/powder cocaine sentencing
    disparity), allowing the potential release of around 2,600 people;
    expansion of the "safety valve" allowing judges more discretion to
    sentence beneath mandatory minimum sentences; reform of the "three
    strikes" law, reducing the "second strike" mandatory minimum of 20 years
    to 15 years, and reducing the "third strike" mandatory minimum of life-in-prison to 25 years.

    The late word is that the bill will pass the House easily, but that
    hasn't happened as of this writing. If and when it does, the country
    will have taken a significant step toward a more just and humane federal criminal justice system. The passage has also drawn major media
    attention as a rare example of bipartisanship in Washington today.

    4. Marijuana Legalization Advances in the States

    At the beginning of the year, marijuana for adult recreational use was
    legal in eight states, all in the West or New England and all thanks to
    the initiative process. As 2018 comes to a close, that number has jumped
    to ten, with Vermont in January becoming the first state to legalize it
    through the legislature and Michigan in November becoming the first
    Midwest state to legalize it.

    The initiative process is available in only half the states, and when it
    comes to legalizing weed, the low-hanging fruit has already been picked.
    A legalization initiative in conservative Nebraska went down to defeat
    this year, and remaining initiative states like the Dakotas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Arkansas are among the most socially conservative and
    least likely to free the weed. But prospects are rosier in initiative
    states Arizona, Missouri, and Ohio. We are likely to see pot on the
    ballot in all three in 2020.

    Vermont remains the sole state to legalize it legislatively, but a
    handful of states edged ever closer close this year. New Jersey Gov.
    Phil Murphy (D) wanted pot legalized in his first 100 days. That didn't
    happen, and legalization hasn't gotten through the legislature yet, but
    there is a small chance it could still happen this year and a very good
    chance it will be a done deal by early next year. Legislatures
    throughout the Mid-Atlantic states and Northeast grappled with the
    issue, laying the groundwork for next year and the year beyond, and just
    this week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) called for legalization next
    year. The long march continues.

    5. Marijuana Is Still Federally Illegal, But the Crackdown Never Came

    As the year comes to end, legal weed is still here and Jeff Sessions
    isn't. President Trump's first attorney general was an avowed foe of
    marijuana (as well as drug and criminal justice reform in general), but
    despite rescinding the Obama-era Cole memo, which basically told federal prosecutors to leave state law-abiding pot businesses alone, the
    much-feared crackdown on the industry never came.

    Federal prosecutors, for the most part, continue to view legal marijuana businesses as a low priority, especially when faced with much more
    serious drug problems, such as the opioid overdose epidemic. But
    Sessions was also undercut by his own boss, who in April arranged a deal
    with Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in which he agreed to support
    a bill protecting states that have broken with federal pot prohibition
    in return for Gardner's allowing Justice department appointments to move forward.

    This year saw a plethora of federal marijuana reform bills, but with
    Republican leadership in both houses firmly opposed, the Capitol was
    where marijuana reform went to die. With Democrats in control of the
    House next year, things promise to be different next year, although the
    GOP-led Senate will remain an obstacle. But with pot consistently
    polling in the 60s, those Republican senators may grudgingly start
    coming on board.

    6. Marijuana Legalization is Nice, But We Need Social Justice, Too

    This year saw social justice concerns around marijuana legalization move
    front and center in two distinct ways: demands for the expungement of
    marijuana arrest records for people whose offenses are no longer crimes
    and demands for restorative racial justice from communities that have
    suffered the brunt of the war on drugs.

    The year started with two major West Coast cities, San Francisco and
    Seattle, leading the way on expungement. The, in September, California
    became the first state to put state-level automatic expungement into
    effect. Delaware and Rhode Island, which have both decriminalized but
    not legalized pot, also passed expungement bills this year. Expungement
    is also a contentious issue in the ongoing battle to get legalization
    passed in New Jersey.

    After a half-dozen years of legalization and well-heeled white guys
    making bank off legal weed, the call for racial justice, whether in
    terms of set-asides to guarantee minority participation in the industry
    or for funding streams aimed at restoring drug war-ravaged communities,
    is growing too loud to be ignored. This is an ongoing struggle now being
    played out not only in pot-legal states, but especially in states on the
    cusp of legalization. Moving forward, it's likely that every successful
    state legalization bill is going to have to address issues of social and
    racial justice. As they should.

    7. Industrial Hemp Becomes Federally Legal

    The sun rises on the American domestic hemp industry. (votehemp.org)
    Finally, the absolutely most ridiculous aspect of federal marijuana
    prohibition is dead. Recreational marijuana's country cousin, hemp can't
    get anyone high, but is extremely useful in a broad range of industries,
    from foods to textiles and beyond. Thanks to a lawsuit from hemp
    interests more than a decade ago, hemp could be imported for American
    firms to use in their products, but because the DEA refused to recognize
    any distinction between hemp and recreational marijuana, American
    farmers were forced to stand on the sidelines as their competitors in
    China, Canada, and other countries raked in the rewards.

    But having a hemp-friendly senator from a hemp-friendly state allowed
    hemp legalization to move this year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch
    McConnell (R-KY) actually fought for the hemp bill, shepherding it into
    the must-pass farm appropriations bill and keeping it in there through negotiations with the House. President Trump has signed the farm bill, including the hemp provision, into law.

    8. Here Come the 'Shrooms

    Initiative campaigns to legalize or decriminalize the use and possession
    of psilocybin-containing magic mushrooms began popping up in 2018.
    Actually, the first state-level initiative came last year in California,
    but this past summer it failed to qualify for the fall ballot.

    Right now, there are two psilocybin initiatives in the
    signature-gathering phase, a municipal initiative in Denver that would decriminalize the use, possession, and cultivation of
    psilocybin-containing mushrooms, and the statewide Oregon Psilocybin
    Service Initiative, which would decriminalize possession of psilocybin,
    allow magic mushrooms to be grown with a license, and would allow for therapeutic use of psilocybin. The Denver initiative would go before
    voters in May 2019, while the Oregon initiative aims at the 2020 election.

    If psilocybin initiatives follow the pattern set by marijuana
    legalization initiatives, the first time may not be the charm. But more
    will follow.


    ================ ...
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    <http://www.briancbennett.com>

    Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
    <http://www.leap.cc>
    Stoners are people too:
    <http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
    ___________________

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