Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2006.6.29

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Weekly News in Audio

June 29, 2006

Congress Votes To Continue Prosecuting State-Authorized Medicinal Cannabis Patients.
163 House Members Vote To End Federal Prosecutions.

Drug Czar's Office "Obsessed" With Marijuana, Fails To Address 'Hard Drug' Use, Study Says

Washington, DC:
Congress Votes To Continue Prosecuting State-Authorized Medicinal Cannabis Patients

163 House Members Vote To End Federal Prosecutions.

State-authorized patients and their caregivers who use or possess medical cannabis will continue to be subject to federal arrest and prosecution, after the House of Representatives rejected a proposed amendment that sought to bar the US Department of Justice (DOJ) from targeting patients who use cannabis medicinally in accordance with the laws of their states.

The House voted 259 to 163 against the bi-partisan measure, sponsored by Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Maurice Hinchey (D-NY). The 163 House votes in favor of the patient-protection provision was the highest total ever recorded in a Congressional floor vote to liberalize marijuana laws. Of those who voted in support of the Hinchey/Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment, 18 were Republicans (a gain of three votes from 2005) and 144 were Democrats (a loss of one vote from last year). The House's only Independent Congressman, Vermont Representative Bernard Sanders, also voted in favor of the amendment.

"For the fourth year in a row, Congress had an opportunity to stop wasting taxpayers' dollars arresting seriously ill patients who possess and use medical cannabis in compliance with state law," NORML Executive Director St Pierre said. "Instead, 259 members of Congress chose to prosecute patients."

Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), along with Reps. Sam Farr (D-CA), Barney Frank (D-MA), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Barbara Lee (D-CA), David Obey (D-WI), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) spoke in favor of the amendment, while Reps. John Boozeman (R-AR), Steve King (R-IA), Tom Latham (R-IA), John Mica (R-FL), John Peterson (R-PA), and Frank Wolf (R-VA) spoke in opposition to the amendment.

Following the vote, Rep. Hinchey vowed to keep lobbying in favor of the medicinal use of cannabis. "People who are dying and suffering in states where medical marijuana is legal should be able to use the drug under a doctor's supervision to ease their pain without having to worry that the federal government is going to bust down their door and arrest them," he said. "It is immoral to deny people access to medicine that can help relieve their pain and suffering. We will continue our fight in Congress to protect medical marijuana users and doctors in states that allow such use. This is a battle that must be won."

Washington, DC:
Drug Czar's Office "Obsessed" With Marijuana, Fails To Address 'Hard Drug' Use, Study Says

The White House Office of National Drug Policy (ONDCP) has wasted billions of taxpayers' dollars since its formation in 1988 on ineffective and counter-productive policies that fail to meet the agency's core objectives, according to a report released this week by the non-partisan Washington, DC think-tank Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW).

"The federal government and the ONDCP have chosen to ignore evidence suggesting that the methods being used in the war on drugs are not effective," the report says. "[T]he federal government has become so obsessed with marijuana use that it is spending money unwisely."

The report cites the ONDCP's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and the Justice Department's decision to prosecute medicinal cannabis patients and their caregivers as examples of two particularly wasteful and counterproductive programs.

"The government has thrown more than $1 billion at a campaign that has only succeeded in increasing the number of teenage marijuana users," the report states, noting that reviews of the media campaign have found that it often encourages - rather than discourages - cannabis use among viewers.

Regarding the Justice Department's prosecution of state authorized medicinal cannabis patients, the report determines: "It is useless to throw millions of dollars into attacking patients that are simply trying to find the most effectual medicine possible. ... [S]tates must be given the right to create and enforce these [medical marijuana] laws within their jurisdiction."

Congress voted 259 to 163 this week to continue enforcing federal penalties upon state-authorized patients.

The CAGW report also rebukes government claims that marijuana serves as a "gateway" to harder drug use, finding that ONDCP policies aimed at reducing marijuana availability are unlikely to make a dent in the use and availability of harder drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, or heroin.

Citizens Against Government Waste issued a similar critique of the ONDCP last year, calling the agency a "federal wasteland" that fails to show objective results.

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