USA: Bill to legalize marijuana

[ADD]

Eli republikaani Ron Paul ja demokraatti Barney Frank ovat tekemässä ehdotusta jolla annetaan USA:n osavaltioille oikeus päättää itse kannabiksen laillisuus. Lukekaapa itse:


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-intr ... 35489.html

Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

A group of US representatives plan to introduce legislation that will legalize marijuana and allow states to legislate its use, pro-marijuana groups said Wednesday.

The legislation would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, and allow people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal.

The bill, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday by Republican Representative Ron Paul and Democratic Representative Barney Frank, would be the first ever legislation designed to end the federal ban on marijuana.

Sixteen of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

But planting, selling or commercially distributing marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Last year, California citizens voted not to legalize recreational marijuana use, although the debate continues in about half a dozen other states.

Three weeks ago a group of ex-presidents of Latin America as well as former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan denounced the failure of the global war on drugs and called for urgent changes, including the legalization of cannabis.

Between 1998 and 2008, worldwide consumption of opiates increased 35 percent, with cocaine use growing 27 percent and marijuana use growing 8.5 percent, according to the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

June marks the 40th anniversary of the "War on Drugs" launched by President Richard Nixon in 1970, the first major US anti-drug initiative.

[ADD]

Ja vielä uutisvideo samasta aiheesta;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkfQya3kTOI

Ron Paul is the man.

[Doc]

Ron Paul, siinä on mies jonka olisi pitänyt voittaa jo viime presidentinvaalit, toivottavasti tää mies saa vielä jonain päivänä kiitosta työstään.

[Dilemma]

Ron Paul, siinä on mies jonka olisi pitänyt voittaa jo viime presidentinvaalit, toivottavasti tää mies saa vielä jonain päivänä kiitosta työstään.

Esim abortin vastustamisesta ja yrityksestä saada ihmiset ja ympäristö markkinavoimien alle vielä enemmän ?

Toi äärioikeisto ei oikein puhuttele, toisin kuin esim Ralph Nader. Kuinka maailma olisikaan parempi paikka jos esim hän pääsisi johtamaan ainoaa supervaltaa...

"Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government." <- juttuja mitä USA vois tarvita ?

[ADD]

Russian Today noteerasi myös uutisen:

http://rt.com/usa/news/congress-legaliz ... gislation/

Congress to legalize marijuana?

Lawmakers in DC will be presented with a bill today that could legalize marijuana across the US. When the legislation is introduced to the House, it will mark the first ever bill proposed to Congress to end federal marijuana prohibition.

Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) are spearheading the legislation, with Reps Steve Cohen (D-TN), John Conyers (D-MI), Jared Polis (D-CO) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) all co-sponsors of the proposal.

Though it is being billed as “bipartisan legislation,” Ron Paul is the only Republican that has so far signed-on. He has made the legalization of marijuana one of the priorities of his 2012 presidential run.

Speaking on Wednesday, Congresswoman Lee said, "The human cost of the failed drug war has been enormous – egregious racial disparities, shattered families, poverty, public health crises, prohibition-related violence, and the erosion of civil liberties."

Lee added that in the 40 years since President Richard Nixon launched his “war on drugs,” the US has spent over a trillion dollars to incarcerate millions of young people on drug charges.

An average of 800,000 people are arrested each year on marijuana charges.

"I co-sponsored this bipartisan legislation because I believe it is time to turn the page from this failed drug war,” Lee added.

Speaking to LA Weekly, former cop and head of law Enforcement Against Prohibition Neill Franklin says, “Making marijuana illegal hasn't prevented anyone from using it, but it has created a huge funding source that funnels billions of dollars in tax-free profits to violent drug cartels and gangs.”

“More and more cops now agree: Legalizing marijuana will improve public safety.”

If legislation passes, the federal government will still be able to enforce cross-border and inter-state smuggling, however, they will have no say in the growing or selling or marijuana in the states that allow it.

Sixteen states across America and the District of Columbia have so far legalized marijuana usage for medical purposes, but the planting, selling and commercial distribution of pot is still a federal crime.

Earlier this month authorities raided five medical marijuana dispensaries in Fresno County, California, leaving many patients with legitimate pot prescriptions smoking mad.

[Locker]

Mitähän torstaita tossa tarkoitettiin, että sen pitäisi edetä? Viime- vai tämän viikon - onko kellään tietoa?

[ADD]

Mitähän torstaita tossa tarkoitettiin, että sen pitäisi edetä? Viime- vai tämän viikon - onko kellään tietoa?

Ymmärsin että se oli nimenomaan viimeviikon torstai 23-Jun-2011. Ihmeen vähän tuosta näkyy sitten sen jälkeen juttua olevan, tässä yksi jossa selkeästi sanotaan että se esitys jätettiin 23 päivä:

edit: HR 2306 -hakusanalla google löytääkin aiheesta meleko paljon juttuja, siitä vaan surffaamaan.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washing ... frank.html

Marijuana bill officially introduced to Congress by Ron Paul, Barney Frank

Marijuana laws should be set at the state, not federal, level, Reps. Ron Paul and Barney Frank argued in a bill they introduced Thursday.

The goal of the bill, HR 2306, is not to legalize marijuana but to remove it from the list of federally controlled substances while allowing states to decide how they will regulate it.

"I do not advocate urging people to smoke marijuana. Neither do I urge them to drink alcoholic beverages or smoke tobacco," said Frank (D-Mass.). "But in none of these cases do I think prohibition enforced by criminal sanctions is good public policy.

"Criminally prosecuting adults for making the choice to smoke marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources and an intrusion on personal freedom," he added.

Frank admitted in a conference call Thursday that he didn't think the bill had a chance of passing, but according to Reason's Hit & Run blog, the congressman was "particularly struck by the hypocrisy of public officials who will themselves talk about smoking marijuana, wink at it, and then make it criminal for other people," which leads to "a very discriminatory pattern of enforcement."

The bill appears doomed on arrival, according to the Associated Press, which reported that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith said his panel, which the proposed law is required to venture through, would not even consider it.

"Marijuana use and distribution is prohibited under federal law because it has a high potential for abuse and does not have an accepted medical use in the U.S.," said Smith, who like Paul is a Texas Republican. "The Food and Drug Administration has not approved smoked marijuana for any condition or disease."

Smith cited the theory that pot is a gateway drug, and then added the curious belief that legalizing weed would increase the coffers of drug lords.

"Decriminalizing marijuana will only lead to millions more Americans becoming addicted to drugs and greater profits for drug cartels who fund violence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Allowing states to determine their own marijuana policy flies in the face of Supreme Court precedent," Smith said.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy echoed some of Smith's fears and said decriminalizing pot was a nonstarter.

"Our concern with marijuana is not borne out of any culture war or drug war mentality, but out of what the science tells us about the drug’s effects. The facts are that marijuana potency has tripled in the past 20 years and teens are using the drug at earlier ages," the office said in a statement to The Times.

"The earlier a person begins to use drugs, the more likely they are to progress to more serious abuse and addiction -– reflecting the harmful, long-lasting effects drugs can have on the developing brain. Legalization remains a nonstarter in the Obama administration because research shows that marijuana use is associated with voluntary treatment admissions, fatal drugged driving accidents and emergency room admissions," the statement said.

[elfheart]

H.R. 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act on kongressin käsiteltävänä.

Kun joinasin tälle foorumille aikanaan, itseasiassa päivälleen kuusi vuotta sitten, niin täällä tuskin kukaan olisi voinut uskoa, että tämä päivä tulee vielä joskus. Hampun laillistaminen ja huumesodan loppuminen olivat kaukaisia asioita, joista puhuttiin lähinnä haaveillen. Toki tämä lakialoite ei tarkoita, että hamppu laillistuisi Jenkeissä, mutta kuudessa vuodessa muutos on ollut suuri. Hampusta puhutaan paljon useammin faktisessa valossa mediassa, nk. huumevalistus ei uppoa nuoriin samalla tavalla. Lisäksi polttelijoita, sekä kasvattajia on todennäköisesti enemmän kuin koskaan. Jopa Suomessa tehdään tutkimusta kannabiksesta ja sen käyttäjistä, vaaroja ja negatiivisia vaikutuksia liioittelematta. Monet asiantuntijat ovat "tulleet kaapista", niin Jenkeissä, Briteissä kuin jopa Suomessakin. Tämä kehitys näyttäytyy ainakin itselleni positiivisena.

On ihan selkeetä, että toistaiseksi USA on maailman ykkösvalta, vaikka BRIC-maat, etenkin Kiina, ovatkin marssimassa ohi. Nk. Länsimainen kulttuurikenttä ottaa isoimmat vaikutteensa juuri sieltä, mukaan lukien Eurooppa. Euroopan Unionilla ei yksinkertaisesti riitä paukkuja tehdä Yhdysvaltojen intressien vastaista politiikkaa avoimesti. Tämä vuosi on kuitenkin kiihdyttänyt huumausainesodan lopettamista, Avaaz-verkoston ja Human Rights and Drug Policy -think tankin tuotua esille huumesodan ihmisoikeusaspektin, josta olen itsekin (enkä todellakaan ole ainoa) puhunut jo useamman vuoden.

Ehkä tästä vielä tulee jotain, jopa kohtuullisella aikavälillä.

Itse uutinen:

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/201 ... zation_bil

The first Congressional marijuana legalization bill is now in Congress -- please support it!

H.R. 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, would remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act and limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or interstate smuggling. States would be able to legalize and regulate marijuana, or to continue to prohibit it, as they individually choose.

Please use our web form to contact your US Representative and your two US Senators in support of this historic bill. Please follow-up by calling their offices too -- if you don't know their numbers (or aren't sure who they are), you can reach them by calling the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. And please use our tell-a-friend form to spread the word.

Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/201 ... ral_mariju for more information on these bills, and sign up for our email list or paste http://stopthedrugwar.org/taxonomy/term/229 into your RSS reader to follow the news about marijuana policy.

Thank you for taking action!

Eli levittäkää sanaa, jos tunnette Jenkeistä ihmisiä, jotka ovat tästä kiinnostuneita.

[peltiritari]

Lakiehdotus on sinänsä mielenkiintoinen veto. Tässähän ei laillisteta kannabista vaan annetaan osavaltioille oikeus päättää siitä. Jenkeissähän on aina olemassa valtataistelu osavaltioiden itsemääräämisen ja liittovaltion lakien välillä. Tämä voi hyvinkin mennä läpi kannabisvastaisillakin senaattoreilla/edustajilla, koska laki lisää osavaltioiden valtaa liittovaltion yli.