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White House Announces Dates, Locations For 2007 Regional Student Drug Testing Summits
Michigan Voters To Decide Municipal Medi-Pot Measure
NORML Announces Second Annual Aspen Legal SeminarWashington, DC: White House Announces Dates, Locations For 2007 Regional Student Drug Testing Summits The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will once again sponsor a series of regional summits to encourage middle-school and high-school administrators to enact federally sponsored random student drug testing. The 2007 summits will mark the fourth consecutive year that the White House is funding the symposiums, which are scheduled to take place this winter and spring in Charleston, South Carolina (January 24), Newark, New Jersey (February 27), Honolulu, Hawaii (March 27), and Las Vegas, Nevada (April 24). Under newly revised federal guidelines, federal education funds may be provided to public schools for up to four years to pay for the implementation of random drug testing programs for students who participate in competitive extra-curricular activities. Since 2005, the Education Department has appropriated more than $20 million to various school districts to pay for random drug testing programs. Federal grant funds may not be used to pay for separate drug education and/or prevention curricula, nor may any funds be used to train school staff officials on how to implement drug testing. Only federal investigators are eligible to review data collected by the school programs, which will be evaluated as part of a forthcoming federal assessment of the efficacy of random drug testing to deter illicit student drug use. A previous evaluation of student drug testing programs conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation concluded, "Drug testing, as practiced in recent years in American secondary schools, does not prevent or inhibit student drug use." Investigators collected data from 894 schools and 94,000 students and found that at every grade level studied -- 8, 10, and 12 -- students reported using illicit drugs at virtually identical rates in schools that drug tested versus those that did not. Currently, only five percent of schools randomly drug test student athletes, and some two percent of schools test students who participate in extra-curricular activities other than athletics. Both the National Education Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics oppose such student testing programs. Flint, MI: Michigan Voters To Decide Municipal Medi-Pot Measure Flint voters will decide next month on a municipal initiative that seeks to exempt qualified patients from local prosecution if they possess and use cannabis under a physician's recommendation. Sponsored by the Flint Coalition for Compassionate Care, Proposal 1 amends city law so that the possession of cannabis and cannabis paraphernalia by authorized patients would no longer be a criminal offense. Proponents submitted approximately 2,000 signatures from local voters last August to qualify the measure on the 2007 ballot. "A win in Flint would send a powerful message to Michigan citizens," said Flint Coalition for Compassionate Care co-director Charles Snyder III. Snyder, who uses cannabis medicinally to treat symptoms of Nail Patella Syndrome (NPS), a rare bone disease, added, "Having already won in four major Michigan cities, a win in Flint would help create the momentum and support necessary to put forward a statewide ballot initiative before Michigan voters in 2008." Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale, and Traverse City have approved similar citizen voter initiatives since 2004. Flint citizens will vote on the measure on Tuesday, February 27, 2007. Washington, DC: NORML Announces Second Annual Aspen Legal Seminar Please join NORML in Aspen, Colorado this June for the 2007 Aspen Legal Seminar. This two-day seminar for criminal defense lawyers will take place on Saturday, June 9 and Sunday, June 10 at the Gant Hotel in downtown Aspen -- one of the nation's most marijuana-friendly cities. Presentations at this year's seminar by some of America's leading criminal defense attorneys will include:
Social events at this year's conference include an opening night reception, a benefit dinner catered by Aspen chef Chris Lanter of Cache Cache, and an afternoon cookout at the fabled Owl Farm, the legendary Woody Creek home of the late Hunter S. Thompson. |
