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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Drug Policy FOUNDATION

1988 & 1989 Biennial Report PREFACE




“The Drug Policy Foundation was created by people who were convinced that the excesses of the massive worldwide war on drugs were an evil that had to be openly opposed by good men and women everywhere. While the founders of the organization were Americans, they had sympathetic colleagues in many countries who urged them on and joined them in this effort. These citizens and officials constitute what may be termed the loyal opposition to the war on drugs. They support the worldwide effort to control drug-related crime and corruption, to combat predatory criminal syndicate, to ameliorate the tragedies of drug abuse, and to improve public health. But they oppose many of the extremist tactics and counterproductive strategies now used in this effort.

The Foundation believes that peaceful methods offer the best hope for curbing drug abuse while preserving the constitutional rights of all. Through research, education, legal action, and public information programs the Drug Policy Foundation hopes to delineate rational models of effective drug policy reform for the nations of the world. The first step is to convince the public and policy makers that opposition to the drug war is decent and humane….

Contrary to claims made by drug warriors, we in the reformist movement are not “pro-drug”. We are concerned about the negative health effect. We are concerned about the negative health effects of drugs, but we see the problem aggravated by a prohibitionists policy. Drug prohibition provides criminals a thriving black market that generates obscene profits. These criminals use their money to buy guns and bribe police. Overworked police fight a losing battle with the drug gangs.

We in the movement are alarmed at the harsh, mandatory penalties for drugs. In some places, a rock or two of crack will land a user in prison for at least 10 years. As a result, prison overcrowding has reached crisis proportions, and the United States has the largest prison population in the Western world.

The avid enforcement of drug laws has the perverse effect of increasing drug abuse. Not only do we see our neighborhoods getting more dangerous, but we see increasingly potent drugs and the rapid spread of AIDS.

The Foundation is an education, research and legal center. It publishes books, articles and newsletters; rewards peoples for outstanding achievement in the field off drug policy; responds to media and scholarly information requests; presents regular forums and an annual international conference; and represents in court those wronged by the drug war.

The foundation is a charitable corporation under the laws of the District of Columbia and section 501 ©(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Thus all contributions to the foundation are tax deductible. To maintain its independence, the Drug Policy Foundation neither seeks nor will it accept government funding. The Foundation is supported through the contributions of hundreds of private citizens and organizations.

The Drug Policy Foundation extends thanks to those persons and organizations who provided vital support during 1988-89. Special thanks go to our thee largest contributors: the Chicago Resource Center and its president, Richard Dennis, and executive director Mary Ann Snyder; the Linnell Foundation in Boston, Mass., and the late Robert Linnell; and Anne “Petey” Cerf of Lawrence, Kan. Their support was and continues to be invaluable to the work of the Foundation.

While the Drug Policy Foundation has outstanding counsel in Kevin Zeese, the leading Washington law firm Covington and Burling accepted the Foundation as a pro bono publico [for the public good] client in regard to corporate and tax matters in 1988. We have received valuable advice from Marialuisa Gallozzi, the Covington and Burling associate assigned to take primary responsibility for advising the Foundation. Having Covington and Burling in our corner is a source of great comfort.”

With the assistance of good people everywhere, we look forward to the challenges facing us in the 1990s. We will continue to build an enduring institution for rational drug policy reform.”

Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese
Washington, D.C.
March 1990

Research Campaign Financing

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/RENAMED_Concerned_Parent/newt-gingrich-marijuana_b_1126122_121333527.html

Google a politician­'s state name and the term, "campaign finance"

Then search the campaign finance site for his/her name.

Then search his/her info for the terms, beer, beverage, spirits, liquor, wine, hospitalit­y.

Then get mad.

Then search his/her info for the term, "correctio­ns" , just to see if they're getting paid by the private prison industry.

Then you'll know something about their position on marijuana.

Tell your friends.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Romney- Criminal Mercantilism for Pharma




Is OK with "synthetic" marijuana, but not the real thing- indicating that it is not MJ's properties but rather that it was something that people could grow rather than have to pay for a doctor, prescription and extra expense of a synthetic pharmaceutical preparation.

So this is what people consider as "electable"?

http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/2012/01/romney-crony-capitalism-on-cannabis.html

Monday, January 9, 2012

MPP- Grading the Repubican Presidential Candidates



Excellent short video from the Marijuana Policy Project.

Gingrich, Romney and Santorum all shown as the complete losers on the issue.

Still, we need to also talk about Coca and Opium.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Romney Ignoramus About Industrial Hemp



Asked about 'industrialized Hemp' Romney expresses ignorance and no curiosity- NOT good!

This piece of plastic has no business running for U.S. President, yet sadly substantial number of idiots exist to support him as a 'front runner'.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Newt Gingrich LIES About Washington & Jefferson



He claims:
“I think Jefferson or George Washington would have rather strongly discouraged you from growing marijuana and their techniques with dealing with it would have been rather more violent than our current government,”

Gingrich needs to read this blog thoroughly:

http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html

excerpt

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food. Government is just as infallible too when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere: the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error. This error however at length prevailed, the earth became a globe, and Descartes declared it was whirled round its axis by a vortex. The government in which he lived was wise enough to see that this was no question of civil jurisdiction, or we should all have been involved by authority in vortices. In fact, the vortices have been exploded, and the Newtonian principle of gravitation is now more firmly established, on the basis of reason, than it would be were the government to step in, and to make it an article of necessary faith. Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.- Thomas Jefferson