The World Wide War on Drugs #8 - Demonstraties in Mexico

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Raad Amsterdam wil experiment gereguleerde wietteelt

Burgemeester Eberhard van der Laan van Amsterdam heeft donderdag de gemeenteraad toegezegd te willen lobbyen voor een experiment met gereguleerde wietteelt. Een grote meerderheid in de raad stemde vandaag voor een motie die de burgemeester oproept voorbereidingen te starten voor zo'n experiment.

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Van der Laan waarschuwde niet te hard van stapel te lopen door alvast te gaan experimenteren. 'Als we het doen, moeten we geloofwaardig blijven. Alvast een beetje beginnen zou ons kwetsbaar maken. Tempo maken met beleid voorbereiden is beter dan gaan provoceren. Ook Utrecht, Heerlen en Eindhoven zijn nog niet verder dan de planfase', zei Van der Laan.

twitter:

jdscee twitterde op donderdag 06-11-2014 om 21:35:41 Silk Road 2.0's alleged owner arrested as drugs website shuttered by FBIhttp://t.co/XOn3dYAEINSilk Road 3 won't be far away. #warondrugs reageer retweet

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Hickenlooper unveils next year's Colorado budget and taxpayer rebates

DENVER - There is some good news for taxpayers. Gov. John Hickenlooper's proposed $26.8 billion Colorado budget, unveiled Monday afternoon, includes two rebates for taxpayers.

Taxpayer rebates totaling $167.2 million are mandated by Colorado Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, assuming current law and the September forecast by the Office of State Planning and Budget.

A $30.5 million rebate for new marijuana taxes is coming. Total state marijuana revenue was different than what was projected in the election blue book for 2013's Proposition AA. Because the estimate was off, under TABOR, the state must refund the money being collected or ask voters again to keep it.

Hickenlooper said he'll let the legislature decide the nuts and bolts of the rebate.

"It will be important to engage the legislature when the session begins on the issue of marijuana rebates, and at this time, it would be unwise for the state to plan to spend any of those funds in advance of that discussion," Hickenlooper said.

Meanwhile, current revenue projections indicate a $136.6 million refund for revenue above the Referendum C cap in Fiscal Year 2015-16. If they materialize, the rebates would go out under existing formulas via tax credits or sales tax refunds when people file their 2016 taxes.

The budget allocates substantially increased funding for K-12 education -- some on a one-time basis -- continues strong support for higher education, and secures funding to complete construction projects already underway.

In Fiscal Year 2015-16, the General Fund will provide additional funding for transportation per the provisions of Senate Bill 09-228. The budget allocates $102.6 million under the statute's formulas.

"Colorado's economic activity continues to outperform the national expansion," Hickenlooper said. "Total employment and personal income have steadily increased for several years running. The state's unemployment rate stands at 4.7 percent, the lowest since 2008. Looking ahead, the most likely scenario is for the momentum to continue at a steady pace."

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Op zaterdag 8 november 2014 20:52 schreef heiden6 het volgende:
SFL End the Drug War Event in Serbia Stormed by Neo-Nazis

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Betogers blokkeren luchthaven Acapulco om verdwenen studenten

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Betogers hebben maandag de ingang van aankomst- en vertrekhallen van de internationale luchthaven van de Mexicaanse badplaats Acapulco geblokkeerd. Ze demonstreren vanwege de 43 studenten die in september in de plaats Iguala verdwenen.

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The legalisation of marijuana isn't just about liberal values - it's about dollars

The tax revenues from marijuana in states where it has been legalised are relatively sizeable - is this one of the reasons why many places are consenting to pro-marijuana legislation?

On Tuesday, Oregon, Alaska and Washington D.C. voted in favour of pro-marijuana legislation. A vote in Florida won 58% support, falling just short of the required 60% threshold. Nearly 18 million Americans now live in states where marijuana is fully legal.

So, why is it that legislatures and voters in red states favourably lean towards what, on paper at least, would seem to be a liberal issue? One reason (at least when it comes to governments) might be to do with money.

One of the states they now join is Colorado, where marijuana was legalised (with some restrictions) last year. On average, the state now gets more tax revenues from the plant than from alcohol.

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NYPD will stop arresting people for minor marijuana offenses

In policy shift, NYPD officers will soon have option to issue court summonses rather than arrest those caught with less than 25 grams of cannabis in open view

The New York police department, the largest in the US, will stop arresting people in possession of small amounts of marijuana, in a marked policy change that mayor Bill de Blasio said reflects his campaign promise to repair frayed relations between officers and the city’s minority communities.

Starting next week, NYPD officers will have the option to issue court summonses rather than arrest those caught with less than 25 grams of pot, the mayor and the NYPD police commissioner William Bratton announced during a joint press conference on Monday afternoon.

“When an individual is arrested, even for the smallest possession of marijuana, it hurts their chances to get a good job; it hurts their chances to get housing; it hurts their chances to qualify for a student loan,” DeBlasio said. “It can literally follow them for the rest of their lives and saddle young people with challenges that for many are very, very difficult to overcome.”

Under the new policy, people caught burning or smoking weed in public still face arrest. Other exceptions include those with outstanding warrants and people who can’t provide proper identification, Bratton said. If a police officer decides to issue a summons, the person will be given a ticket to appear in court and sent on their way. Officers will seize the marijuana, and take it back to the station for processing.

The fine for a first offense will be $100, which can go up to $250 for a second offense. Bratton said official guidelines would be released on Tuesday, and the policy would go into effect on 19 November. Officers are to undergo training this week.

The new policy is a sharp pivot from the “broken windows” crime-fighting strategy Bratton champions: tough enforcement of low-level crimes to stop offenders from committing more serious ones in the future. But he said on Monday he welcomes the opportunity to direct more resources to fighting serious, violent crime.

The policy is expected to curb the tens of thousands of arrests for low-level pot possession the NYPD makes each year. Research shows such arrests disproportionately affect black and Latino residents, even though white residents are as likely to use marijuana.

In the first eight months of 2014, 86% of the people arrested for marijuana possession were blacks and Latinos, according to the Marijuana Arrest Research Project.

Advocates offered lukewarm praise of the new policy, warning that summonses still entangle New Yorkers in the criminal justice system. A missed court date may result in arrest.

“We’re glad to see the consequences of a marijuana offense won’t include handcuffs and jail time,” said New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman in a statement on Monday.

“But we’re still concerned that too many New Yorkers will become involved with the court system because of a small amount of marijuana. And because there is no required reporting on the demographics of who is issued summonses, we won’t be able to track the racial disparities that result from the new initiative.”

Summonses do not require race or ethnicity reporting, so it will be difficult to identify who police are ticketing.

The city’s five district attorneys met with the mayor and the police commissioner to discuss the new policy on Monday, Bratton said, adding that he believed all supported the move.

Earlier this year, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office announced it would stop prosecuting small-scale marijuana cases. In a memo, the district attorney, Kenneth Thompson, said the policy aimed to keep nonviolent offenders – who are disproportionately young men of color – out of the criminal justice system.

In response, Bratton said at the time that the city’s police officers would continue to enforce the law. On Monday, De Blasio said the disagreement between the district attorney and Bratton had been overstated.

In 1977, New York state legislature decriminalised the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Despite this, New York City persisted as the marijuana arrest capital of the world, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, a reform advocacy group.

Inimai Chettiar, director of the Justice Program with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law, said the city’s action is reflective of a broader shift in criminal justice policy that moves away from the tough-on-crime measures of past decades, which resulted in record-level incarceration rates.

“This is very emblematic of a larger movement across the country that’s supported by conservatives and law enforcement alike,” she said. “Across the country there really is a unique bipartisan consensus that we need to focus law enforcement and criminal justice resources on the most serious offenders as opposed to low-level offenders … I think that this policy really positions New York as a leader in this area.”

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Afghan opium crop set for record high

Helmand province remains country’s top opium-cultivating province, with drug money financing Taliban operations

The opium crop in Afghanistan will hit a new high this year, the United Nations has said, presenting a challenge to the country in tackling the trade that fuels the Taliban-led insurgency.

Opium cultivation has risen 7% year on year to 224,000 hectares, and production in 2014 may reach 6,400 tonnes – a 17% increase – according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Afghanistan’s southern provinces, which have been disproportionately affected by the recent surge in violence, continued to drive overall production, with a 27% increase in yields.

In Helmand province, where British forces operated and the UK government spearheaded eradication efforts, opium cultivation appears to have stabilised. Nevertheless, it still remained the country’s top opium-cultivating province.

The report confirms how the international community’s efforts to reduce opium production in Afghanistan have been met by dismal failure. After the Taliban seized power in 1996, production rapidly grew. It fell back in 2001 – when the Taliban leader Mullah Omar declared opium to be un-Islamic. Since the US-led invasion of 2001 and the Taliban’s exit from Kabul, it has inexorably risen.

The money from opium sales finances Taliban operations, and also serves as a source of systemic corruption inside the Afghan government.

With much of the country slipping out of central control, eradication by local governors decreased by 63%. The number of fatalities during the campaign also dipped from 143 in 2013 to 13 in 2014.

The figures showed counter-narcotics efforts had failed, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, director for policy analysis and public affairs at the UNODC, said, but there was hope for success under the new government.

“[Changing] the economic incentives away from the illicit economy to the licit economy, now that’s a hell of a task, but that’s exactly what indeed this new government seems to stand for,” he said.

President Ashraf Ghani was inaugurated in late September, following months of tension followingafter a disputed election. The political wrangling has accelerated a sharp economic downturn caused by the withdrawal of foreign troops.

“For him the criminalisation of the economics and politics of Afghanistan is one of the main problems. It penetrates everything and anything he [Ghani] wants to achieve,” Lemahieu said.

A recent report by the US watchdog found that the opium economy employs 411,000 Afghans with jobs – more than the fledgling Afghan national security forces. The poppy industry still makes up 4% of Afghanistan’s estimated gross domestic product (GDP).

Ghani has a comprehensive plan to tackle the drug problem, Lemahieu said, including creating incentives for farmers to plant alternative crops and prosecuting smugglers.

The president, who wrote a book on how to fix failed states, has said the key to opium eradication is jobs. He has also suggested cotton could replace opium if the west scrapped tariffs on Afghan textiles. Poor Afghan farmers, however, point out that they can make far more money from opium than from other crops such as wheat.

The failure of the eradication campaigns has inspired some Afghanistan experts, such as the former UK ambassador to Afghanistan Sir William Patey, to come out endorsing legalisation of the drug.

“If we cannot deal effectively with supply, then the only alternative would seem to be to try to limit the demand for illicit drugs by making a supply of them available from a legally regulated market,” he said earlier this year.

The US has spent $7.6bn (£4.8bn) on counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban in 2001, according to the US government watchdog for reconstruction, and ending Afghanistan’s illicit drug trade was listed as one of the reasons for deploying British troops to Afghanistan.The country remains the world’s biggest supplier of opium, producing 90% of illicit opiates.

Ethan Nadelmann: Why we need to end the War on Drugs

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“The reason some drugs are legal and others are not has nothing to do with science or health or the risk of drugs, and everything to do with who uses, and is perceived to use, certain drugs,” says Nadelmann during his TedGlobal talk. “If the principal smokers of cocaine were affluent older white men and the principal users of Viagra were young black men, using Viagra would land you time behind bars.”

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Gouverneur verleent eigen zoon gratie na veroordeling drugsbezit

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Mike Beebe, de gouverneur van de Amerikaanse staat Arkensas, is van plan gratie te verlenen aan iemand die gestraft werd voor het bezit van marihuana. Het is niet zomaar een veroordeelde, het is zijn zoon.

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Mexico at breaking point as anti-government anger escalates

Corruption and violence threaten to destabilise country after mass murder of students and scandal over presidential home

Mexico is facing an escalating political crisis amid growing fury over a mansion built for the presidential family and the disappearance and probable massacre of 43 student teachers.

The two apparently unrelated issues have fed the widespread perception that unbridled political corruption is the underlying cause of the country’s many problems – ranging from stunted economic growth to a breakdown of law and order that has left parts of the country at the mercy of murderous drug cartels.

“The drama of Mexico is about impunity,” said leading political commentator Jesús Silva-Herzog. “This is not about the popularity or unpopularity of the president, that is irrelevant. It is about credibility and trust and, at its root, it is about legitimacy.”

Thousands of protestors are expected to join a mass demonstration planned for Thursday in Mexico City to protest over the disappearance of the students by municipal police in collusion with a local drug gang in the southern city of Iguala six weeks ago.

But the latest focus for anti-government anger is a video released late on Tuesday night by first lady Angélica Rivera in an attempt to mitigate a scandal over a multi-million minimalist white residence built to measure for her and President Enrique Peña Nieto in one of Mexico City’s most exclusive barrios.

The house is still owned by a subsidiary of a company with a long history of obtaining lucrative contracts from Peña Nieto administrations, dating back to his term as governor of the state of Mexico.

In her address, Rivera, a former telenovela star, said she was going to sell her interests in the house, but vehemently insisted there had never been any strings attached.

“I don’t want this to continue to be a pretext for offending and defaming my family,” she said.

Rivera said she had been paying for the house from the fruits of her labour earned during a 25-year long career within TV giant Televisa that ended in 2010 with the payment of 88.6 million pesos ($6.5m) and the transference of property of another luxurious residence that backs onto the controversial new mansion.

She said she had already paid about a third of the cost of the new home worth 54 million pesos ($4m), in accordance with a contract signed with the company over eight years.

She said she had met the company’s owner, who also happens to be a personal friend of the president, “like I meet many businessmen, professionals, and artists.”

The existence of the house was revealed 10 days ago by the website of leading Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui.

But the the first lady’s attempt to turn the page of the scandal was met with widespread skepticism.

“There have always been rumours, but we have never before had documents that suggest that a president in office has participated in illegal operations,” commentator Silva-Herzog said, adding that he expected the unanswered key question to further fuel public skepticism and anger.

“This is the worst possible moment for a scandal of this kind.”

Rivera’s attempt to shake off the suggestion of wrong-doing came as the president adopted a new combative stance in the face of intensifying protests triggered by the disappearance of the 43 students in the southern city of Igualá on 26 September.

The students went missing after being arrested by municipal police who also participated in a series of attacks during the night that left six people dead.

Over time the focus of the protests has moved from demands for the return of the students alive, to disbelief at the government’sfailure to crack down on widespread collusion between law enforcement agencies and drug mafias.

The disappearance of the students has sparked numerous demonstrations in many parts of the country, which have been much more widespread than protests prompted by allegations of fraud in Peña Nieto’s electoral victory in 2012.

Unlike during the previous wave of dissent, the current protests have expressed anger at perceptions of corruption across the entire political class that is viewed as corrupt, not just Peña Nieto.

Peña Nieto had previously adopted a conciliatory tone, expressing sympathy for the victims’s families and promising a full and thorough investigation, but on Tuesday he used a speech to denounce violent outbreaks in some of the numerous demonstrations in recent weeks.

The violence, he said, “appears to respond to a general interest to destabilise and, above all, attack the national project that we are pushing forward”.

The harder line echoes some calls in the national press by commentators such as Ricardo Alemán who has begun regularly urging politicians to discard their “fear of governing”, and crack down radical elements in the demonstrations.

Other analysts, however, detect a menacing tone in the president’s words.

Silva-Herzog drew parallels with the language used by President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, who governed at the time of the watershed 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in which scores – and possibly hundreds – of pro democracy students were killed by government forces in Mexico City.

“It is dangerous because it polarizes the climate,” he said. “The solution has to start by recognizing the legitimate foundations of the collective irritation. The country has good reason to be angry.”

With Thursday’s key demonstration approaching on the 104th anniversary of the Mexican revolution, the authorities announced the cancellation of the annual military parade that usually fills the capital’s central streets on that day.

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Groot protest in Mexico om verdwenen studenten

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In de hoofdstad Mexico-Stad gooiden betogers molotovcocktails naar de oproerpolitie al voordat de demonstraties begonnen. Gewonden zijn er volgens de politie niet gevallen.

De sfeer werd grimmig toen drie verschillende protestmarsen het centrale plein in de hoofdstad bereikten. Daar ging onder meer de beeltenis van president Enrique Pena Nieto in vlammen op.

Sommige actievoerders botsten buiten het presidentieel paleis met de politie, die massaal aanwezig was om het gebouw te beschermen.

De verdwenen studenten werden op 26 september door de politie in de plaats Iguala meegenomen en overgeleverd aan een drugsbende. Sindsdien ontbreekt elk spoor. Sommige actievoerders droegen spandoeken met opschriften als ''de staat heeft het gedaan''. Ook familieleden van de verdwenen studenten liepen mee.

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US judge sentences 'El Chapo' Guzmán associate to 22 years in prison for drug crimes

In sentencing Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez, judge said he wanted to send a stern message to Hernandez and other Mexican cartel traffickers

A US judge sentenced a reputed lieutenant of captured Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman to 22 years in prison on Monday for his role in a $1b conspiracy to traffic narcotics to Chicago and other cities.

In sentencing Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez, Chief US District Judge in Chicago Ruben Castillo said he wanted to send a stern message to Hernandez and other Mexican traffickers. Hernandez, 58, is one of 11 alleged traffickers indicted in Chicago, including Guzman himself. Hernandez was the first to be sentenced.

“I tell you on behalf of all citizens of Chicago ... we are tired of this drug trafficking,” Castillo told Hernandez, who minutes earlier apologized to the court and US government and asked Castillo to take pity on him.

The case is regarded as one of the US government’s most important against Mexican cartels. Guzman remains jailed in Mexico and Mexican authorities haven’t said if they might extradite him to Chicago.

The spotlight during and in the lead-up to Hernandez’s sentencing was on the credibility of two Sinaloa cartel associates-turned-government witnesses, Pedro and Margarito Flores.

Secret recordings and other evidence provided by the twin brothers in 2008 led to the Chicago indictments of Hernandez and 10 others, including Guzman and the Flores twins themselves.

Hernandez, of Mexico, was the first up for sentencing. He pleaded guilty to possessing drugs with intent to distribute.

Hernandez was a close friend of Guzman, using his logistical skills to ship tons of heroin and cocaine by train from Mexico to Chicago concealed in bogus furniture cargo, according to the Flores brothers.

But defense lawyers accused the brothers of exaggerating Hernandez’s rank in the cartel to curry favor with US prosecutors and ensure the lowest possible prison terms for themselves.

The twin brothers sought to hoodwink federal agents even after they agreed to cooperate, they allege.

Lawyers for Hernandez also cited court documents indicating the brothers – while behind bars working with the feds –had someone hide up to $2.5m in cash. From jail, they also allegedly bought a $100,000 Bentley as a gift for Pedro Flores’ wife.

Prosecutors say the Flores brothers cut deals with Guzman, Hernandez and others in the Sinaloa cartel to distribute drugs in the United States with Chicago as the operational hub.

The brothers claimed they sold up to two tons of cocaine a month in Chicago alone by 2007. They also supplied eight other cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

In statements unsealed recently, the Flores twins said they know assassins would try to kill them and their families if the cartel ever discovered where they are being held in protective custody.

twitter:

ggreenwald twitterde op dinsdag 25-11-2014 om 14:41:37 The movement to end the evils of drug criminalization has global momentum - proud to join the Advisory Board of @LEAPBrasil reageer retweet

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Mexican authorities accused of persecuting peaceful protesters

Eleven demonstrators charged with attempted murder and riot after mass protest in capital over disappearance of 43 students

Human rights groups have accused Mexican authorities of using arbitrary detentions, trumped-up charges and excessive force in an attempt to quell a mass protest movement unleashed by the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students.

The complaints centre on the indictment for attempted murder, criminal association and rioting of 11 protesters who were arrested after masked youths clashed with police in the central Zócalo square, following a huge and mostly peaceful march through the capital last Thursday.

Supporters of the 11 accused insist that they had nothing to do with the violence, alleging that several of the detainees were arrested later, during an aggressive police operation to disperse the crowd.

“There is no evidence that they did anything other than attend the march,” said Fernando Ríos of the Mexican human rights network All Rights for Everybody. “What we do know is that the police used excessive force as they cleared the Zócalo.”

Ríos said human rights groups fear the crackdown is associated with a recent statement by President Enrique Peña Nieto, who accused violent protesters of “kidnapping” the wave of indignation triggered by the disappearance of the 43 students after they were arrested by police in the southern city of Iguala.

“This is more than an attack on freedom of expression,” Ríos said. “It is an effort to discourage people from demonstrating for the truth and for justice in the face of an inoperative, ineffective state that only pretends to be acting in the case [of the students].”

The eight men and three women arrested on Thursday are now being held in high-security jails hundreds of miles from Mexico City. The detainees – most of whom are students – include a 47-year-old Chilean doctoral student, whose case has prompted demonstrations in the Chilean capital, Santiago.

In an interview on Radio Fórmula on Monday, the interior minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio, insisted that any detainees not involved in the violence “have nothing to worry about”.

He added that the police “passed from tolerance to action” in the face of violence at the march because “a majority of Mexicans are asking for a stop to this kind of behaviour”.

Videos and testimonies documenting the aggression of the police at some distance from the battles in front of the presidential palace have been widely circulated on social media.

These include the account of Layda Negrete, one of two lawyers behind a hit documentary called Presumed Guilty which exposed systematic abuses of due process in Mexico’s capital city.

After being pushed against shop fronts by riot police forcing back the mass of peaceful demonstrators, Negrete says officers shouted, “fucking bitches, is this why you wanted to come out and march?” while they attacked her and three other women with their truncheons and shields.

“It is very worrying that a march to repudiate crimes committed by police ended with more crimes committed by police,” the lawyer said.

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Weer toeristen dood na mogelijk gebruik witte heroïne in Amsterdam

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Dat meldt de politie woensdag. Het gaat om twee mannen van 20 en 21 jaar. De politie denkt dat ze de witte heroïne hebben aangeschaft terwijl ze dachten dat het cocaïne was.

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11 Burned Bodies Found in Troubled Mexican State

Eleven beheaded bodies were found Thursday in Mexico's troubled southern state of Guerrero, a region still reeling from the apparent massacre of 43 students.

The grisly discovery came as President Enrique Pena Nieto prepared to unveil a new security strategy in response to a wave of protests that erupted after a police-backed gang confessed to killing the 43 students.

In the latest carnage to hit Guerrero, 11 bodies were dumped on a road near the town of Chilapa following reports of a shootout, state and municipal officials said.

"In addition to being executed, the 11 people were decapitated and subsequently some were burned," said a state government official who requested anonymity.

A note was left near the bodies with a message addressed to the criminal group "Los Ardillos" (The Squirrels), with the words "here's your trash," the official said.

A state police officer said the bodies had high-caliber bullet wounds. The victims appeared to be in their 20s.

Chilapa is 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Ayotzinapa, where the teacher-training college of the 43 students is located.

Authorities say the aspiring teachers, all young men, were rounded up by municipal police in the city of Iguala on September 26.

The case has become a tragic example of collusion between local authorities and organized crime in Mexico, a country struggling with drug violence that has left 100,000 people dead or missing since 2006.

On the eve of his announcement, Pena Nieto said the Iguala case was a "turning point for the nation."

"It is only a constructive, positive attitude that will allow us, society and government, to build the Mexico that we want and that we want to project to the entire world," he said.

Pena Nieto is expected to push for passage of dormant anti-corruption legislation and announce an overhaul of the country's municipal police forces.

Prosecutors say Iguala's mayor ordered his police force to confront a group of students over fears they would disrupt a speech by his wife.

Guerreros Unidos gang henchmen confessed to killing the students and incinerating their bodies after officers turned them over.

Pena Nieto will not be the first Mexican president to seek to reform the police.

Some 400,000 federal, state and municipal police forces across the country have undergone anti-corruption exams with polygraph tests, a system that began under his predecessor, Felipe Calderon.

The interior ministry said this month that 13 percent of municipal officers failed the exam, compared to 10 percent of state and six percent of federal forces.

The non-government organization Common Cause said this week that 42,214 federal, state and municipal police staff are still working despite failing the "control de confianza" (trust test).

"We have made it clear to governors ... that they must remove them from their positions," Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong. "None of them can be in the streets today, in any state, in any town."

When he took office in December 2012, Pena Nieto vowed to reduce the everyday violence besetting the country.

But he maintained the controversial militarized strategy of Calderon, who deployed 50,000 troops against the drug cartels in 2006.

Pena Nieto launched a crime prevention program, which officials acknowledged will take years to show results, and created a 5,000-strong militarized police force, the gendarmerie.

In an editorial, the national daily El Universal noted that past governments launched anti-crime measures in response to public discontent, with some positive results.

"But the depth of the problem is so large that these actions have not changed an indisputable fact in the perception of people, that crime continues to grow," it said.

"This time, the State's response will have to be stronger."

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President Mexico grijpt in na studentendrama

De Mexicaanse president Enrique Peña Nieto gooit het veiligheidsapparaat van zijn land op de schop. Daarmee probeert hij een einde te maken aan de corruptie en de georganiseerde misdaad de kop in te drukken. Aanleiding is vooral de verdwijning van en vermoedelijke moord op 43 studenten twee maanden geleden.

Peña Nieto kondigde vandaag een reeks wijzigingen in de grondwet aan. Zo wil hij dat de gemeentepolitie verdwijnt en wordt vervangen door de landelijke politie. Verder moet de centrale regering meer bevoegdheden krijgen om lokaal in te grijpen als het gemeentelijke apparaat geïnfiltreerd blijkt door georganiseerde bendes.

Door de verdwijning van de studenten in de staat Guerrero eind september werden verbanden blootgelegd tussen criminelen, politie en politici. Zo is de voormalige burgemeester van de Mexicaanse plaats Iguala, waar de 43 studenten verdwenen, José Luis Abarca Velázquez, gearresteerd en officieel van moord en doodslag beschuldigd.

Pena Nieto werd twee jaar geleden gekozen omdat hij bezwoer de rust in het land te zullen herstellen. Sinds 2007 zijn al 100 duizend mensen om het leven gekomen in de oorlog tussen allerlei drugsbendes. Sinds de verdwijning van de studenten eist de bevolking dat hij zijn belofte gestand doet.

Opnieuw mensen vermoord

Vandaag nog zijn elf nieuwe lichamen gevonden, de meeste onthoodfd, aan de kant van de weg in het zuidwesten van Mexico. Volgens het Openbaar Ministerie werden de lichamen gevonden in Chilapa, in dezelfde provincie waar de studenten zijn ontvoerd.

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'Doing life when no one died': Prop 47 ends 'insane' drug penalties in California

Public defenders applaud ballot initiative’s passage after decades under harsh three-strikes law offering ‘strong incentive to arrest’


Russell Griffith, a deputy public defender in the Los Angeles crucible known as Compton, had strong words to describe the criminal justice system: “inhumane”, “stupid”, “insane”, and “completely screwed up”.

Seated on the eighth floor of Compton’s courthouse, his view obstructed by bulletproof glass, the veteran attorney let rip in an outspoken interview this week, denouncing a system in which he has worked for 25 years.

Griffith cast California’s network of police, courts and jails, the embodiment of the rule of law, as a cross between Kafka and Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, which he lauded as an accurate depiction of judicial dysfunction.

“Everyone has gone along with this big lie – our own version of the cheque is in the post,” said Griffith, who is paid by the state to represent those who cannot afford an attorney. “Everyone is part of this giant system that funds the machine – I’m including us, public defenders. We have all had our bread buttered by this. And it has been at the expense of generations of Latino and, above all, African American men.”

He was excoriating California’s draconian sentencing policies and America’s war on drugs, follies which produced needless mass incarceration, he said.

But during a tour of the courthouse, a 14-storey structure which towers over a landscape of gritty bungalows and discount stores, the public defender kept cracking a smile.

The reason was the legal thunderclap resounding through the corridors he considered a second home. “It’s a game changer,” said Griffith, 57. “In this job you lose most of the time. But now you actually have the law in your favour. It’s all gravy.”

He was referring to Proposition 47, a ballot initiative which Californians approved on 4 November in a rare victory for progressives on the day conservative Republicans swept congressional races across the US.

The measure reduces penalties for drug and other non-violent crimes, triggering instant releases for hundreds of inmates and shortening jail time for potentially tens of thousands of others. Combined with other reforms, it effectively ends America’s most notorious tough-on-crime experiment.

In 1994, California’s three-strikes law required courts to impose harsh sentences on habitual offenders. Dozens of other states subsequently adopted their own versions, fuelling an explosion in the US jail population, which grew from around 300,000 in 1986 to more than 2.4 million by 2014, rivaling China for the world’s highest incarceration rate. African Americans were jailed at nearly six times the rate of white people.

Compton, a poverty-stricken 10-square mile city of 97,000 souls in south LA, filled a disproportionate number of prison bunks. This, after all, was home to the rap group NWA, which scorched into popular culture with the double platinum album Straight Outta Compton, featuring tracks like Fuck Tha Police and Gangsta Gangsta. Bullet holes pockmarked the courthouse.

Griffith, paid by the state to defend clients who could not afford their own lawyers, watched the system flip from excessive lenience – in the 1970s you could kill and get just three years – to excessive harshness. “When three-strikes came in, that’s when everything became completely insane,” he said. “People were doing life for cases where no one died.”

Gun possession triggered ever-longer mandatory terms, regardless of whether the gun was unloaded and stuck in a waistband, or loaded and stuck in someone’s face. Possessing heroin or crack cocaine became a felony.

“It gave cops an enormously strong incentive to arrest people because they were cheap statistics,” Griffith said.

Police routinely testified that upon their approach, “startled” suspects “dropped” rocks of crack cocaine, a lie giving a legal pretext to search, said Griffith. “It kept the whole machinery going.”

Police got collars, courts got cases and prisons – which multiplied exponentially – got inmates. “These were largely victimless crimes. Incarcerating people on drugs charges is just absurd. But it was essentially funding the system.”

Carole Telfer, 60, another veteran public defender, said felony convictions condemned vulnerable people to unemployment and lack of federal assistance after lengthy terms inside. “It just ruins their life,” she said. “You can’t in good conscience handle all these cases and say it’s fair.”

Griffith said a zip code lottery compounded injustice. In heavily black and latino areas like Compton and Inglewood, juries were sceptical of police testimony and prosecutors tailored cases accordingly, resulting in lighter sentences. Locals nicknamed Compton the “love court” for its relatively sympathetic hearings.

Griffith called it a model of cooperation and camaraderie between clerks, prosecutors, public defenders, and judges. Wealthy areas like Torrance and Long Beach, in contrast, were more polarised and imposed heavier sentences. “Old white people sending a message: don’t come to our town or you’ll get screwed. Venue is everything.”

Both lawyers have been victims of crime. Griffith was badly beaten and robbed. Telfer had a shotgun pointed at her during a robbery. As citizens, they said they wanted dangerous people kept off the streets. Focusing on largely harmless drug users diverted police from chasing murderers, rapists, and child molesters, they said.

Both believe California’s lock-’em-up spree blurred the distinction between bad people and people who had done bad or stupid things. “Draconian sentencing seems inhumane. We’re saying this person is beyond redemption,” said Griffith.

Defence lawyers may be expected to say such things, but the nation’s top law-enforcer, attorney general Eric Holder, said much the same when changing federal jail policy last year.

California voters, fed up with huge prison bills and emboldened by low crime rates, also agree. In 2012, they approved proposition 36, which eased the three-strikes law, and earlier this month they approved proposition 47. It reclassifies common drug violations and certain thefts – about a quarter of all crimes - from potential felonies to misdemeanours. Inmates serving felony sentences for such offences have a three-year window to apply for reduced sentences.

An estimated 40,000 are eligible. In Compton, 115 have already been freed, with more due as the courts work through the backlog. Telfer is the designated attorney for such cases, which means continuous calls from clients and their relatives. Her phone rang about two dozen times while she spoke to the Guardian.

“We’re kind of inundated,” she said.

Prosecutors are unhappy. Jackie Lacey, the LA county district attorney, said in a phone interview she agreed with reclassifying minor offences as misdemeanours but said the new law created new problems.

A felony charge encouraged offenders to do drug rehab if offered as an alternative to jail, but a misdemeanour strips that incentive because county jails have no space for those charged with lesser offences. “Just a few minutes and they’re out. You have removed that leverage,” said Lacey.

The law also raises the hurdle for proving dangerousness, meaning prosecutors may struggle to keep violent offenders inside. “There are unintended consequences here,” she said. Even so, the DA pledged to apply the law as the will of the people.

Compton’s public defenders shared concerns about addicts skipping rehab and also about thieves feeling emboldened to steal goods valued up to $950, a misdemeanour.

But it was a small price, said Griffith, for correcting a system which jailed generations of essentially harmless people. “It’s a brave new world. We’re doing what we’re supposed to do: getting people out of custody who are supposed to be out of custody.”

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Global Drug Survey 2015: why you should tell us what you take

Help us in this scientific research to find out the world’s drug consumption patterns. See what we learned from last year’s study and what we hope to find out in this one

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For the last few years the Guardian has been collaborating with the Global Drug Survey to find out about what drugs people take, how and why. If you have not already done it then you can take the survey here.

Last year 80,000 people from across the globe completed the survey on their drug usage, making it the largest research project of its kind. It gives us a wealth of information about how people were approaching the consumption of substances both legal and illegal.

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The aim of this year’s survey is to to reach 120,000 people. It has been launched in partnership with media organisations in20 different countries and has been translated into 10 separate languages.

The study will, as always, look at prevalence, price, purity, value for money and the proportion of people seeking medical treatment but there are a few specific areas that will be explored this year including:

Performance enhancing drugs - weight loss agents and anabolic steroids
Cognitive enhancers - Ritalin, modafanil and atomoxetine use among students and working people
The dark net - now Silk Road has closed, how are people buying drugs online?
Nitrous oxide - the risks of neurological harm from this drug
E-cigarettes - whether these might be used for something other than nicotine
Why do people stop using different drugs - and when?

Completing the survey will help us cover a subject which is, for obvious reasons, often shrouded in secrecy. The researchers do not track or store IP addresses, browser types, or other identifying information. As always though, caution is suggested when sending information over the internet.

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Op een na grootste drugsvondst ooit in haven Rotterdam

De douane heeft in de Rotterdamse haven zeker drieduizend kilo cocaïne gevonden. Het is de op een na grootste vangst ooit in de Rotterdamse haven, zo meldt het Openbaar Ministerie zondag.

De smokkelwaar werd vrijdag ontdekt bij een Rotterdams havenbedrijf in een container met cassaves, eetbare wortelknollen, die uit Costa Rica kwam. De drugs zaten in 3.003 pakketten met een brutogewicht van in totaal 3.500 kilo.

De cocaïne heeft een straatwaarde van ruim 120 miljoen euro en is inmiddels vernietigd.

In de haven van Rotterdam is tot nu toe één keer een grotere drugsvangst gedaan. In 2005 werd ruim 4.200 kilo cocaïne verstopt in enorme haspels gevonden.

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State-run marijuana sales plan survives as left wins Uruguayan election

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Tabare Vazquez won Uruguay’s presidential election on Sunday in a show of support for the leftist coalition that has governed the country for the past decade and allows the government to proceed with its plan to create the world’s first state-run marijuana marketplace.

Vazquez, a 74-year-old oncologist who was president from 2005 to 2010, topped center-right rival Luis Lacalle Pou of the National Party 53% to 40%.

The runoff vote drew international attention after Lacalle Pou promised to undo much of the pioneering plan to put the government in charge of regulating the production, distribution and sale of marijuana on a nationwide scale.

Vazquez said he would proceed with it, unless it produced negative results.

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Mens consumeert al miljoenen jaren alcohol

Onze voorvaders consumeerden vermoedelijk al miljoenen jaren geleden alcohol. Dat blijkt uit Amerikaans onderzoek. De conclusie haalt eerdere aannames onderuit; er werd altijd gedacht dat mensen pas negenduizend jaar alcohol consumeerden.

De biologen van het Sante Fe College in Gainesville (Verenigde Staten) bekeken wanneer in de evolutie het enzym ADH4 opdook. Dat enzym is nodig om alcohol af te kunnen breken. Het blijkt dat de voorvaders van de mens al zeker tien miljoen jaar geleden het enzym in hun lichaam hadden.

Dat gaf een evolutionair voordeel. Zo'n 15 miljoen jaar geleden veranderde het klimaat drastisch, en daarmee ook de leefomgeving van onze voorvaders in Oost-Afrika. Als gevolg daarvan gingen zij meer fruit eten dat op de grond was gevallen, in plaats van fruit dat zij uit bomen plukten. Gevallen fruit bevat meer ethanol - een alcoholsoort - en dankzij het enzym kon dat worden afgebroken na consumptie. Andere diersoorten konden dat niet.

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Heroïnetesten te koop in Amsterdam

In zeker dertig smartshops in Amsterdam zijn vanaf vrijdag testen te koop die kunnen aantonen of gekochte drugs witte heroïne bevatten. Dit moet voorkomen dat er nog meer slachtoffers vallen door het gebruik van de harddrugs.

Dat zei burgemeester Eberhard van der Laan vandaag tegen de gemeenteraad. Ook zijn er speciale teams op straat die de testen - die 2 euro per stuk kosten - bij zich hebben. Via matrixborden, posters, flyers en social media worden bezoekers van de stad gewezen op de mogelijkheid de drugs te controleren.

Mocht er sprake zijn van heroïne, dan wordt verzocht contact op te nemen met de GGD. Op die manier hoopt de gemeente de dealer te kunnen opsporen.

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UN: parents of missing Mexican student teachers are at risk and need protection

High Commission for Human Rights says parents and protesters have been put at risk by a social media campaign to ‘vilify and insult’ their sons

The UN High Commission for Human Rights has warned that the parents of 43 Mexican students who disappeared after they were attacked by police have been put at risk by a campaign to demonise their missing sons.

Javier Hernández, the representative in Mexico for the UN High Commission, told the Guardian that the parents – and protesters calling for justice – needed protection amid a campaign to denigrate the trainee teachers who vanished 10 weeks ago.

“Some are starting to vilify and insult the disappeared students and demonise their parents and their demands,” said Hernández. “The vast wave of protest generated by the case of the 43 students needs to be protected.”

The disappearance of the students – apparently at the hands of corrupt local police in league with a criminal gang – has triggered a wave of demonstrations against violence and criminality enabled by the country’s deep-rooted political corruption. More protests are planned in the country’s capital on Saturday.

Several previous marches in the city ended with outbreaks of violence – fuelled by heavy handed police tactics and the alleged presence of agents provocateurs among the protesters.

The street fighting has partly drawn attention away from the collective disgust at the collusion between criminals and local authorities, which lay behind the attack on the students on 26 September in the southern city of Iguala. The students were set upon by police – allegedly acting on the orders of the local mayor – and then handed over to a local drug gang called Guerreros Unidos.

Fernandez said he was particularly worried about jeers and insults directed at the missing students posted on social networks.

“Unfortunately, these attitudes are affecting the way demonstrations are being handled and the police response to the violence in some of the protests,” he said.

Hostile reaction to the students has often focused on the radical reputation of their teacher training college in the town of Ayotzinapa. Two of the country’s most famous guerrillas from the 1970s studied at the college, and the curriculum includes classes on “social struggle”. The disappeared students had gone to Iguala, two hours’ drive away, to commandeer buses to use in a later protest.

The anti-student tweets included dismissals of the missing as “bloody vandals”, alongside racist slurs and references to their poverty. Numerous jokes have used the government’s announcement that it believes the students were probably massacred in a rubbish dump and burned on a huge funeral pyre. One this week read: “The Hunger Games: Ayotzinapos in Flames”.

Hernandez visited Ayotzinapa earlier this week to support the families there, and he called upon other organizations to make similar gestures. He also warned that arbitrary arrests at protests threatened people’s right to protest.

The families and their supporters have called on the government to ensure that the students are returned alive, but the protests have tapped into anger over general violence and impunity.

Emiliano Navarrete, whose 17-year-old son José Angel is one of the missing, said: “People feel impotent and angry for good reason. The president has to take responsibility. The army was there and it did nothing. The federal government knew what kind of government there was in Iguala. It knew Iguala was a clandestine cemetery.”

Omar Garcia, one of several Ayotzinapa students who survived the attack, said the incident had crystalised the widespread sense that political corruption was driving Mexico’s descent into violence. Garcia has received death threats since the incident but played down the risk he faced. “We are all vulnerable before the alliance of organized crime and the state,” he said.

Fury at the government’s handling of the investigation has been further fueled by its failure to acknowledge the depth of its own crisis of credibility.

Leading the efforts to contain the damage to Mexico’s international image, the undersecretary for multilateral affairs and human rights, Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo, rejected accusations that the government has been too focused on its economic agenda to tackle violent crime and corruption.

“[The disappearance of the 43 students] is a big challenge but it does not mean we were not working on these issues before,” he told the Guardian. “It sounds a warning and tells the people, the government, and the private sector that economic reforms will never bear their fruit if rule of law does not prevail.”

Last week President Enrique Peña Nieto announced a 10-point package of measures he promised would strengthen the rule of law. Several were focused on corruption in local police forces. None addressed federal responsibility.

There has still been no serious explanation of why soldiers based in Iguala did not intervene to help the students during the attack, little more than a mile from their barracks.

Guillermo Valdez, a former head of the national intelligence agency, told the Guardian it was unlikely that the security services were not fully aware of longstanding accusations that the mayor of Iguala headed a kind of co-government in the city with Guerreros Unidos.

“It’s very likely they knew,” he said.

The president’s invocation of the chant “Todos Somos Ayotzinapa”, or “We Are All Ayotzinapa”, during his announcement also prompted derision during the last mass protest on Monday.

The president has yet to visit either Ayotzinapa or Iguala. On Thursday, he made his first visit to Guerrero since the disappearance of the students. While inaugurating a new bridge, he called for “a collective effort to move forward so that we can truly leave behind this painful movement”.

Some analysts suggest the government’s strategy centres on the hope that the movement has peaked and will begin to fade away.

“It seems they are trying to buy a little time with the measures, hoping that things will calm down a bit over the Christmas holidays,” said Valdez. “It is a serious error not to address the problem of credibility because [even if things do calm down] another event like Iguala will fire things up again.”

Saturday’s march will be headed by parents and students from Ayotzinapa, but the protest has also drawn mass support from independent trade unions and campesino groups – as well as students and human rights campaigners.

“[The parents’] presence is the constant reminder that the government is not fulfilling its most basic functions,” he said. “The government and the political class lacks moral standing, and the parents are overflowing with it.”

The movement is also mining Mexican history for symbols that reflect the tradition of the struggle for justice. Saturday’s march coincides with the 100th anniversary of the entrance into Mexico City of the most popular figures from the Mexican revolution, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa.

“The date symbolizes a lot. It contains the message that people are looking for real change,” says student leader Garcia, who will head the protest in Mexico City.

Garcia says the movement is currently seeking to harness the anger in a common agenda of clear demands, a difficult task given the multiplicity of visions; it is not yet clear how much can be achieved.

“The 26th of September is already a historic date,” he said. “Everything goes out of fashion, but we are not going to go away.”

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Burgemeester Mexico had eigen politiekorps

De omstreden oud-burgemeester José Velázquez van de Mexicaanse plaats Iguala had een 'schaduwpolitie' met agenten die alleen verantwoording aan hem aflegden.

Het gaat om tussen de negentig en honderd agenten die niet op de loonlijst van de politie stonden, maar wel politietaken uitvoerden en mogelijk zelfs misdaden pleegden.

Dat zei Jorge Hurtado van het ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken tegen de krant La Jornada.

Velázquez is beschuldigd van onder meer moord op 43 studenten die eind september verdwenen in de staat Guerrero. De studenten werden door de politie in Iguala meegenomen en overgeleverd aan een drugsbende, die ze heeft gedood. Mogelijk waren de agenten van de 'schaduwpolitie' daarbij betrokken.

Het privekorps bestond uit gewapende mannen die geen vertrouwenstest hadden ondergaan, wat in Mexico verplicht is. Volgens de regering heeft de politie-eenheid van Velázquez corruptie en geweld in het gebied in de hand gewerkt.

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B.C. Judge Gives Absolute Discharge for Man Caught Growing 414 Pot Plants

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A judge has given an absolute discharge to a man charged with trafficking marijuna after police raided his Lions Bay home and found 414 marijuana plants, although almost half most were seedlings.

Michael Santos, an audio engineer with no criminal record, pleaded guilty to possessing about three kilograms of marijuana for trafficking.

The police raid took place on Feb. 28, 2013, when a battering ram was used to break the front door when no one immediately answered at Santos’ rental home, where he lived with his wife and two children.

[...]

But the judge granted Santos’ request for an absolute discharge, noting Santos was an otherwise law-abiding, respected member of the community and a good family man, so his crime was one of very low moral culpability, akin to violating a regulation.

“His conduct was not dangerous or antisocial and recent polls suggest that a majority of Canadians do not believe such conduct should be the subject of criminal sanctions,” the judge said.

The judge added that law makers should seriously consider amending or repealing Canada’s marijuana laws, to bring them in line with today’s values.

“When it becomes common for persons of good character to willingly and knowingly conduct themselves in violation of a law, which is widely seen to be unwarranted or unjust or unfair, this should cause those who enact our laws and who are tasked with enforcing or upholding the law to give serious consideration to the repeal or amendment of that law to bring it into accord with modern social values,” Challenger said.

_{- Read the entire article at Metro.}

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Houston Police Chief Calls Drug War A 'Miserable' Failure, Says Feds Need To Lead Reform

The drug war is a "miserable" failure and the federal government needs to take the lead on reforming marijuana policy, Houston Police Chief Charles McLelland said Friday in a radio interview.

"Most of us understand, we do believe, those of us that are law enforcement executives, that the war on drugs, the 1980 drug policies, was a miserable failure, there's no doubt about that," McLelland said to Dean Becker, host of "Cultural Baggage," a radio show focused on the war on drugs.

Law enforcement needs to find the "most efficient and effective" ways to keep communities safe, McLelland said, and in order to do that, "we have to think differently about crime, crime prevention, drug rehabilitation, substance abuse, mental illness -- there's a whole host of things that we need to treat differently than we did 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 15 years ago."

McClelland is the police chief of a city that's home to more than 2 million people, and is the fourth most populous city in the U.S., behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The drug war, he said, has "disproportionately criminalized a certain segment of our population," namely young minority men. "It has a trickle-down effect, that a lot of young men who are minorities, in their early 20s, have a felony conviction on their resume, and now they're unemployable. And we wonder why they don't have jobs, they're not working, they're not contributing to society in a productive way, but we've put them in a position to where the odds are stacked against them."

According to a recent study from the American Civil Liberties Union, while black and white Americans use marijuana at about the same rate, across the nation in 2010, blacks were nearly four times more likely than whites to be arrested on charges of marijuana possession. In Texas that same year, blacks were about twice as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana, and Texas was second only to New York for the most arrests for marijuana in the U.S.

"Have we ... stopped the flow of drugs coming from other countries into the United States?" McLelland asked. "I would say we've done very little because of our appetite and consumption. If there was not a market here in the United States, people would not be bringing drugs and contraband into our country."

Indeed, while the U.S. government spent between $40 billion and $50 billion a year fighting the war on drugs between 2000 and 2010, American spending on illicit substances remained about the same at about $100 billion per year, according to a recent RAND report.

During the interview, McLelland also called for the federal government to take the lead on reforming marijuana policies and not simply leave it up to states to change their laws. To date, 23 states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, and four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana.

"In my opinion, the federal government must take the lead into setting our drug policies, otherwise you will have all of these different states or different local, state governments coming up with different policies when it comes to certain drugs such as marijuana," McLelland said.

Under the Controlled Substances Act, the federal government classifies marijuana as one of "the most dangerous" drugs available, "with no currently accepted medical use," alongside heroin and LSD. McLelland explained that law enforcement is part of the executive branch of government, and as long as the federal government continues ban marijuana, it puts police departments in a bind.

"The federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, and it's a federal crime; it's very difficult for states to do that in a way that it doesn't put law enforcement in conflict with enforcing their oath of office," McLelland said. "And that's why the federal government has to decide: Is marijuana just as dangerous as cocaine, heroin? I don't know, but they're going to have to do that. And if it's something that should be changed, then take it off the list [of banned substances]."

Several lawmakers have introduced legislation that would significantly decrease the federal government's ability to interfere with state-legal marijuana operations or that would fully legalize marijuana at the federal level. And while Congress has failed to pass any of those bills, attitudes are changing rapidly on marijuana policy.

While Texas has legalized neither medical nor recreational marijuana, marijuana prohibition in the state appears to be on shifting ground. Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson announced that beginning in October her office wouldn't pursue criminal charges against first-time offenders in possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana. And Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said earlier this year that while he doesn't support full legalization, he does support decriminalization of marijuana use.

Even in the historically conservative state of Texas, McLelland said, he believes marijuana policy could be changing soon, and a majority of state voters appear to agree with him. A 2013 survey from Marijuana Policy Project found 58 percent of state voters support making recreational marijuana legal for adults and regulating the substance like alcohol. An even higher percentage of voters supported removing criminal penalties for possession.

"I do think that you're going to see some movement, and even here in the state of Texas -- and we have been known to be a little conservative here just as a state -- but the support and growing interest in changing some of our marijuana laws, even from Gov. Perry, shows you that people are beginning to think about this issue differently, and they know that we've got to do something different than what we're doing."

_{Listen to the full interview here.}

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NWS / Hongaarse premier wil drugstest voor journalisten en politici

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"De drugsmaffia is in ons land een groeiende bedreiging", zei de Hongaarse premier tijdens een interview op de Hongaarse radio. "We moeten daartegen strijden met de meest draconische straffen en procedures."

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The Federal War on Medical Marijuana is Over

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Good news for medical pot smokers: The $1.1-trillion federal spending bill approved by the Senate on Saturday has effectively ended the longstanding federal war on medical marijuana. An amendment to the bill blocks the Department of Justice from spending money to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries or patients that abide by state laws.

"Patients will have access to the care legal in their state without fear of federal prosecution," Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.), a supporter of the rider known as the Hinchey-Rohrbacher amendment, said in a statement. "And our federal dollars will be spent more wisely on fighting actual crimes and not wasted going after patients."

The Department of Justice last year pledged not to interfere with the implementation of state pot laws, but the agency's truce left it with plenty of room to change its mind. Earlier this year, for instance, the DOJ accused the Kettle Falls Five, a family in Washington State, of growing 68 marijuana plants on their farm in Eastern Washington, where pot is legal. Members of the family face up to 10 years in jail—or at least, they did; the amendment may now stop their prosecution.