XPost: alt.drugs.psychedelics, alt.drugs.pot, alt.hemp.politics

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1203 -- 1/26/24
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1203

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. Will you support it? https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2023/dec/21/what_are_we_after_30_years

Table of Contents:

1. SRI LANKA DRUG WAR SEES TENS OF THOUSANDS ARRESTED IN WEEKS [FEATURE]
A nasty drug war is brewing in this island nation off the coast of India. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/24/sri_lanka_drug_war_sees_tens

2. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
Wisconsin Republican lawmakers tussle over medical marijuana, Delaware lawmakers move to expand that state's medical marijuana system, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/25/medical_marijuana_update

3. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
It's jailers gone wild this week. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/17/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

4. NJ MAGIC MUSHROOM BILL FILED, WI GOP AT ODDS OVER MEDMJ, MORE...
(1/17/24)
The Florida legislature meddles with foreign policy, Wisconsin
Republicans remain in search of agreement on advancing medical
marijuana, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/17/nj_magic_mushroom_bill_filed_wi

5. WV MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION BILL FILED, CO ASSET FORFEITURE REFORM BILL
FILED, MORE... (1/18/24)
A bill to broadly legalize drug test strips advances in West Virginia,
DOJ releases FY 2021 arrest and imprisonment stats, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/18/wv_marijuana_legalization_bill

6. OK ANTI-DRUG BILL LABELS HISPANIC RESIDENTS "TERRORISTS," ME BILL
WOULD LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS, MORE... (1/19/24)
A Georgia bill would raise the age for medical marijuana, a South Dakota
bill would clarify that workers in certain safety-sensitive positions
can still be fired for medical marijuana use, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/19/ok_antidrug_bill_labels_hispanic

7. WV BILL REFELONIZES DRUG POSSESSION, OR MEASURE 110 AUDIT RELEASED,
MORE... (1/22/24)
Wisconsin Republicans are at an impasse over medical marijuana, a Hawaii
civil asset forfeiture reform bill gets filed, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/22/wv_bill_refelonizes_drug

8. US SENDING LETHAL AID TO ECUADOR TO FIGHT DRUG GANGS, HOUSE MEMBERS
TARGET "GAS STATION HEROIN," MORE... (1/22/24)
The Justice Department seeks to throw out a challenge to federal
marijuana prohibition, Mexico wants to know where military grade
weaponry reaching drug cartels is coming from, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/23/us_sending_lethal_aid_ecuador

9. OR DEMS UNVEIL PROPOSAL TO RECRIMINALIZE DRUG POSSESSION, NY HOME
GROW RULES, MORE... (1/24/24)
Ireland's first safe injection site will open in September, New York
regulators release draft rules for adult use home grows, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/24/or_dems_unveil_proposal

10. FEDERAL "GAS STATION HEROIN" BILL FILED, AZ PSILOCYBIN STUDY BILL
ADVANCES, MORE... (1/25/24)
A restrictive South Dakota medical marijuana bill is killed, a Florida
Senate resolution designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations advances, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/25/federal_gas_station_heroin_bill

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

1. SRI LANKA DRUG WAR SEES TENS OF THOUSANDS ARRESTED IN WEEKS [FEATURE] https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/24/sri_lanka_drug_war_sees_tens

Sri Lanka police have arrested 40,000 people in anti-drug operations in
the past few weeks, according to Acting police chief Deshabandu
Tennakoon (https://apnews.com/article/sri-lanka-drug-raids-human-rights-4a2c267c246e89fe919335d927f68887).
The campaign, known as Operation Yukthiya (Justice), features
heavily-armed police and soldiers using sniffer dogs to stage nighttime
raids on homes, searching public transport, seizing drugs, and arresting
not only drug users and dealers, but even people whose only offense is
having been arrested for drugs in the past.

The campaign has been replete with reports of unauthorized searches,
arbitrary arrests, torture and even strip searches in public, and
international concern and criticism is mounting.

Earlier this month, the UN Human Rights Council expressed its concerns
with those reports, saying that (https://apnews.com/article/sri-lanka-drug-raids-human-rights-4a2c267c246e89fe919335d927f68887):
"While drug use presents a serious challenge to society, a heavy-handed
law enforcement approach is not the solution. Abuse of drugs and the
factors that lead to it are first and foremost public health and social issues."

And international civil society is joining in. In a joint statement (https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2024/01/240112%20Sri%20Lanka%20-%20Joint%20statement%20on%20Yukthiya.pdf)
last week, more than 30 global human rights and drug reform
organizations including Amnesty International, Harm Reduction
International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of
Jurists expressed their concern with the "drastic intensification" of
anti-drug operations, which they say is leading to significant human
rights violations.

"Alongside the Sri Lankan police, members of the armed forces have been supporting this operation, during which several human rights violations
have been reported," the joint statement said. "These violations include alleged arbitrary arrests, primarily against individuals from
marginalized socio-economic communities; searches conducted without
warrants or reasonable suspicion; and degrading treatment including
strip searches in public as well as cavity searches. The searches and
arrests have been televised, in violation not only of the right to
privacy (and of basic human dignity) but also of a person's right to be presumed innocent."

The groups point out that drug suspects are generally jailed after
arrest, punishing them with loss of income and housing before they are
even convicted of any crime, and stretching an already overcrowded
prison system to the brink. Drug prisoners account for nearly two-thirds
of all persons convicted of crimes, according to Sri Lanka's Department
of Prisons.

"Persons are being arrested primarily under Section 54A of the Poisons,
Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, an offence which is non-bailable.
As a result, those arrested are bound to spend time (sometimes months)
in pretrial detention, thereby exacerbating already poor conditions of imprisonment in an overburdened prison system," the joint statement said.

But the joint statement's complaint that authorities had arrested 29,000
is already outdated. Another 11,000 have been arrested since the joint statement was released in mid-month.

The human rights groups also drew attention to Sri Lanka's use of forced
drug treatment, noting that more than 1,600 people have been sent to
compulsory drug rehab "in violation of several fundamental rights;
including the right to the highest attainable standard of health, which includes the right to consent to and withdraw from medical treatment."

And they painted Sri Lankan drug treatment centers as more akin to
torture centers than medical facilities, even putting quotation marks
around the words drug treatment in the Sri Lankan context.

"'Drug treatment' in these centers is abstinence-based, essential harm reduction services are not available, and persons undergo severe
withdrawal symptoms without any medical assistance while in detention,"
the statement says. "The use of violence to discipline and punish has
been reported in at least two compulsory drug rehabilitation centers
which are within the purview of the Bureau of the Commissioner General
for Rehabilitation and are operated by the military, which is in itself
a violation of international standards," it added.

Concerns over Sri Lankan drug treatment practices are longstanding, the
groups noted.

"The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in its statement at the
conclusion of its visit to Sri Lanka in 2017 expressed concern regarding
the involvement of military personnel in drug treatment and
rehabilitation, the fact that strenuous physical exercise was the core component of compulsory drug treatment, and at the lack of trained professionals to monitor the health of people in detention. Furthermore,
the statement highlighted the irregularities in the judicial process by
which persons were sent to drug rehabilitation centers without a medical assessment."

The Sri Lankan war on drugs is putting the country outside the
mainstream of global current thinking on drug policy, the groups argued,
noting that "a punitive and militarized approach to drug control
contravenes recognized international human rights standards and
guidelines, is ineffective to protect individual and public health, and ultimately fails to make communities safer."

The joint statement calls on the Sri Lankan government to immediately
cease Operation Yukthiya, release people arrested without evidence or reasonable suspicion, release people forced into drug treatment centers,
close those centers, repeal the laws that allow those centers, and end
the involvement of the armed forces in drug policing and drug treatment.

That would be a good beginning at righting a policy of drug war excess.
But if Sri Lankan Public Security Minister Tiran Alles can be taken at
his word, then the excesses will continue.

"We will not stop this operation. We will go ahead and we will do it the
same way because we know that we are doing something good for the
children of this country, for the women of this country and that is why
the general public is wholeheartedly with us in these operations," he
told the Associated Press (https://apnews.com/article/sri-lanka-drug-raids-human-rights-4a2c267c246e89fe919335d927f68887).

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

2. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2024/jan/25/medical_marijuana_update

Wisconsin Republican lawmakers tussle over medical marijuana, Delaware lawmakers move to expand that state's medical marijuana system, and more.

Delaware

Delaware House Committee Advances Medical Marijuana Expansion Bill Ahead
of Adult Use Sales Launch (https://www.marijuanamoment.net/delaware-house-committee-approves-bill-to-significantly-expand-medical-marijuana-program-ahead-of-adult-use-sales-launch/).
The House Health and Human Development Committee on Wednesday approved a
bill to significantly expand the state's medical marijuana program. The
measure is House Bill 285 (https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?legislationId=140809), from Rep.
Ed Osienski (D).

The bill would make a series of changes to Delaware's medical marijuana program, including removing limitations for patient eligibility based on
a specific set of qualifying health conditions. Instead, doctors could
issue marijuana recommendations for any condition they see fit.

Osienski, who also led the successful push for adult use legalization,
said this bill would allow the state's medical marijuana program "to be
more successful as the state moves forward with recreational sales, and
to make it less expensive and easier for patients to access medical
marijuana."

Georgia

Georgia Bill Would Raise Age for Medical Marijuana (https://www.wfxg.com/story/50352372/lawmakers-to-raise-age-for-medical-marijuana).
Lawmakers have just filed legislation that would raise the age to buy
medical marijuana products from 18 to 21.

The state only allows low-THC cannabis and hemp products under the
rubric of medical marijuana.

The bill has yet to appear on the legislative web site.

Iowa

Iowa Bill Would Expand State Low-THC Medical Marijuana Program to
Include Flower (https://www.marijuanamoment.net/iowa-bill-would-expand-state-medical-cannabis-program-to-include-raw-flower/).
A bill that would change the state's definition of "medical cannabidiol"
to include forms of oral, topical, and inhalable cannabis, including raw flowers advanced in a subcommittee vote Tuesday. House Study Bill 532 (https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=90&ba=HSB532) now
goes to the full Committee on Public Safety.

Current state law requires medical cannabis products to be extracts, but proponents of the bill say that process is costly and allowing the use
of other forms of the drug would lower costs for patients.

"We are the only state really left in the country that is requiring
extracts in their products," said industry lobbyist Dane Schumann. "The
reason other states have moved away from requiring that is because of
what I just described, it's very expensive to make patients have to buy
that."

South Dakota

South Dakota House Committee Approves Bill Requiring Notice That Medical Marijuana Cardholders Cannot Legally Own Firearms (https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2024/01/12/house-committee-passes-bill-requiring-notice-that-medical-marijuana-card-holders-cannot-legally-own-firearms/).
The House Judiciary Committee has approved House Bill 1024 (https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/24528), which would "require
that an application for a medical marijuana registry identification card include a notice and acknowledgement of federal law regarding firearms
and the unlawful use of a controlled substance."

The committee also approved a companion bill, House Bill 1036 (https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/24809), which would "require
that a dispensary post notice of the federal law regarding possession of
a firearm and the use of marijuana and to provide a civil penalty."

Gun safety and concealed pistol permit instructor Rep. Kevin Jensen (R) sponsored both bills.

"The bill (HB 1024) only requires an additional statement on the medical marijuana card about firearms," Jensen said. "It's just an
acknowledgment. Then it is up to the consumer."

The two bills now head for a House floor vote.

South Dakota House Approves Bills Warning Medical Marijuana Patients
They Cannot Legally Buy Guns (https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2024/01/17/bills-alerting-medical-marijuana-card-holders-that-they-cant-purchase-firearms-passes-house/).
The House on Tuesday approved House Bill 1024 (https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/24528), which would "require
that an application for a medical marijuana registry identification card include a notice and acknowledgement of federal law regarding firearms
and the unlawful use of a controlled substance."

"All this bill (HB1024) would require on the application for a medical marijuana card is the same language used on the federal form (to
purchase a firearm)," Jensen said.

The House also approved a companion bill, House Bill 1036 (https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/24809), which would "require
that a dispensary post notice of the federal law regarding possession of
a firearm and the use of marijuana and to provide a civil penalty."
HB1036 would require a marijuana dispensary to post language similar to
the federal firearm application that a medical cannabis cardholder
cannot purchase a gun.

Jensen said to comply, all a dispensary would need to do is print out
the language on a sheet of paper and post it near the cash register or
the door.

The bills now head to the Senate.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Republicans Appear to Be at Impasse over Medical Marijuana
Plan (https://www.beloitdailynews.com/news/wisconsin-news/wisconsin-republicans-appear-to-be-at-an-impasse-over-medical-marijuana-legalization-plan/article_13199395-f3a2-5197-b410-347ad7fb48dd.html).
Prospects for legalizing medical marijuana dimmed this week after
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) said Tuesday he would not compromise with
Senate Republicans who oppose his proposal to create state-run dispensaries.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R) said last week that the
state-run dispensaries were "a non-starter."

But Vos countered that "months and months of negotiation" had resulted
in a "very detailed bill" that has the votes to pass among Republicans.

"Taking and renegotiating the bill means we probably lose votes in our
caucus," Vos said. "So I'd rather get us through to keep the promise we
made, which is to have a comprehensive bill that can actually become law
as opposed to an ethereal idea that maybe somebody could support someday
but it never actually makes it anywhere."

Vos's bill is highly restrictive. It limits medical marijuana to people
with a specified list of qualifying conditions, does not allow the use
of smokeable marijuana, and would limit the number of dispensaries to five.

Wisconsin is one of only a dozen states that have yet to legalize
medical marijuana.

================  ...


                                         ___________________

                                          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>
                                       ___________________

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      It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
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