Month of 01/Jan/2006 to 31/Jan/2006

Apparently, the technology to detect 2,000-foot marijuana-smuggling tunnels is either nonexistent or useless.

Key quote:

"The problem is the technology picks up some kind of anomaly or variation of soil," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "We go in with big backhoes and bulldozers, we spend all day doing it, and all we hit is rock or water tables."

That was what happened earlier this month when high-tech gear alerted authorities to a possible tunnel near Boulevard, a hamlet about 60 miles east of San Diego along the Mexican border. A full day of digging turned up nothing.

The technology is "not there yet," Mack said. "What we've seen so far just hasn't proven itself to be effective."

How's that for a glaring example of marijuana prohibition not working? The U.S. simply doesn't have the resources (or the tools, evidently) to prevent marijuana from flowing into our country -- not when we are up against drug dealers motivated by a lucrative criminal market just waiting for them across the border.

Our current marijuana laws don't work. Please help us change them. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

This or a system of strict regulation?

Our marijuana laws work so well, we have cement tunnels with pulley systems running under our border.

Key quote:

Mack described the passageway as longer than most of the 21 cross-border tunnels discovered since authorities began keeping track after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"It's massive," she said.

Twenty-one cross-border tunnels discovered in the last four-and-a-half years since they began keeping track??? Not only do our marijuana laws obviously not work, they jeopardize national security.

Do you suppose the nice people who build these tunnels pay taxes? Or require the gang members and drug dealers who are their clientele to check IDs before they resell the marijuana?

Please help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

Recently released information from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health demonstrates that there is no relationship between marijuana usage rates and marijuana penalties. The survey asked respondents about their marijuana usage in the past month. Looking at Nevada, a medical marijuana and "decrim" state, the past-month marijuana usage rate was 7.4% -- slightly above the national average, but a drop from last year. But in New Hampshire, where possession of any amount of marijuana can get you a year in jail, the past-month usage rate was 9.7%. Shocking? Only if you believe our current marijuana laws actually work.

Our marijuana laws do not work. The marijuana initiative provides a sensible solution to the failed status quo.

Please help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

Tonight CRCM held our inaugural Volunteer Night! Seventeen volunteers arrived to help send off a huge mailing. Fueled by pizza and soda, these tireless folks tore through the job! A heartfelt thanks to everyone who came by tonight. You made a huge contribution to the campaign, and we are very fortunate to have amazing people like you supporting us.

Missed out on all the fun? No fear, we're just getting started! If you'd like to join us next time, please let us know. The office is also open to volunteers anytime between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and between noon and 7:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Feel free to stop by.

Medical marijuana legislation is moving in New Mexico.

A bill was introduced in Mississippi recently that would have the government tax illegal marijuana sales. You did not misread that last sentence.

A little-known fact is that about 20 states have passed similar laws. How it works is if someone possesses more than the designated amount of marijuana, that person is legally required to purchase a tax stamp from the government. Those arrested who do not possess a stamp are subject to tax penalties and possibly even additional jail time. You can actually be found guilty of tax evasion for not giving the government a cut of your marijuana sales that the government says you're not allowed to sell.

The above example illustrates the absolute failure of prohibition as a public policy. If prohibition were successful, there would be no illegal market to tax. Since prohibition has not stomped out the criminal marijuana market (nor can it) then it stands to reason that we should set up a tightly regulated market and tax all marijuana sales -- not just the people who happen to get caught.

That is exactly what our initiative proposes.

Please help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

The prohibitionists in Alaska are pulling a sneaky maneuver. Here's two former legislators' take.

Apparently, the desire to be able to arrest people for small amounts of marijuana is more important to the ruling Republicans than constitutionally mandated privacy protections. How's that for small government?

If the scourge of marijuana is such a problem, why not debate it out in the open instead of this end-run? Oh yes, that's right. They tried that last year, and there was such a public outcry in opposition to the bill that it stalled. Much better to ram through such important legislation without hearings on the "scientific findings," in the dark of legislative night, so your pesky constituents don't have a chance to tell you how opposed they are.

Stay tuned ...

Dave Sanford launched an interesting little screed about not caring much for our campaign, or the movie Forrest Gump, in the Reno Gazette-Journal recently.

Key ramblings:

Stop with the scare tactics and the phony altruism and just tell folks the truth; i.e., that your single mission in life is to get marijuana legalized somewhere in the United States, and then to use that precedent to continue your disingenuous work elsewhere.

Note to the voters of Nevada: If there was a single redeeming line from "Forest Gump," it was "Stupid is as stupid does." Please refer to the item above, and shame on you if you fall for it.

Note to Dave Sanford: Prohibitionists like yourself tend to be fond of imprecise, blanket statements instead of honest debate. There is really no meat on this bone, so it's hard to respond without sounding defensive. But we aren't the ones who engage in "scare tactics," and CRCM's single mission in life is to pass this initiative into law in Nevada. There is nothing disingenuous about what we're doing. We're open about who we are and what we're trying to accomplish.

Oh, and marijuana possession in the home is legal in Alaska. And the city of Denver passed an initiative last November as well. So much for that point.

And is it really necessary to call the hundreds of thousands of Nevadans who are going to vote for this initiative stupid because they think people should not be arrested for having small amounts of marijuana? Because they think it's good public policy to dry up the criminal market? Because they think it's silly that something less dangerous than alcohol in just about every way is "illegalized." Some would call repeating the same action over and over again and hoping for a different result the very definition of stupidity. Or is that insanity?

We believe that our marijuana laws do not work, and we intend to change the law. Clear enough for you?

And what's your deal with Forrest Gump? That wasn't a bad flick ...

The Board of Supervisors has sued to overturn the state medical marijuana law, blatantly ignoring the will of the voters who elected them.

Using taxpayer money on a frivolous lawsuit to try and throw cancer patients in jail sounds like a snappy campaign slogan to me. The idiocy of marijuana prohibition must come to an end. Please help us pass the marijuana initiative.

Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

Charges have been dropped against Eric Footer. Footer was the first person arrested in Denver under state marijuana law since the city's voters wiped out penalties for adults who possess small amounts of marijuana.

Prosecutor Greg Rawlings claims he dropped the charges based on a faulty police search (even though Footer consented to the search), not because he was deferring to the will of Denver voters. Glad to know you did the right thing for the wrong reasons, Greg. Thanks for clearing that up for us.

It's absurd that city officials in Denver are so gung-ho to arrest people for small amounts of marijuana. SAFER, the organization that ran the city initiative, is now gathering signatures to take the initiative statewide, so city officials can no longer hide behind the cloak of state law.

Fortunately for us here in Nevada, we have already qualified our initiative for the ballot this year. While our friends in Colorado are focusing on trying to remove criminal penalties for small amounts of marijuana, that is only one component of the Nevada initiative. Our initiative also sets up a system of strict regulation and taxation. Our law will bring marijuana sales out of the criminal market -- where these sales currently finance the activities of violent gangs and criminals -- and put them under the watchful eye of the state government. By giving people who smoke marijuana a lawful way to purchase it, we get the opportunity to put sensible safeguards on those sales and generate tax revenues.

The victory in Denver shows how mainstream this issue is becoming, and how fed up people are becoming with our marijuana laws.

It's time to change the law.

Please help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

The Las Vegas Review Journal published an editorial on Friday that made some great points about the failure of alcohol prohibition.

Key Quote:

Alcohol prohibition enacted state-by-state was too easy to circumvent by making a "border run" -- only a nationwide "Great Experiment" would satisfy the Prohibitionists. (How did that work out, by the way? ...)

Our history books and current laws indicate it didn't work out so hot. Even our president said recently we should never have "illegalized" alcohol in the first place.

News Flash -- prohibition isn't working out so well with marijuana either. Every year, we arrest more people in this country than the populations of Las Vegas and Reno combined for mostly minor marijuana offenses, yet marijuana is as cheap and available as ever, with no safeguards or oversight possible. It's outrageous.

Our marijuana laws do not work. It's time to change the law.

Fortunately, we have a chance to do that in Nevada this November.

Please help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

The British government’s official scientific advisory body, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), provided the basis for the government’s refusal to reclassify marijuana as a more dangerous drug. The ACMD doesn’t at all claim that marijuana is harmless -- in fact, they take a strong stand against teen marijuana usage. But they do put the dangers of marijuana in a reasonable context.

Key points:

• Teen marijuana use was declining before reclassification and has continued declining since reclassification, with "no evidence" that the change in law has had any effect on teen marijuana usage.
• Many of the studies claiming to show a causal relationship between marijuana use and mental illness have methodological weaknesses, and they don’t eliminate the possibility that common causes may lead to both marijuana use and mental illness (rather than one causing the other).
• The evidence of a dose-response relationship between marijuana and schizophrenia (i.e., consuming more marijuana equals more risk of developing schizophrenia) is "weak."
• "The most recent data are not, overall, persuasive of a causal relationship between cannabis use and development of depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety." (Which is pretty much the opposite of what the U.S. government claims.)

Our British friends decided to base their laws on science and fact, not prohibitionist propaganda.

Help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

Officials in the U.K. have resisted prohibitionists' demand that the government start arresting people for small amounts of marijuana.

MPP strikes back in San Diego.

That's how we roll.

State Sen. Bob Beers (R) launched a playful kick to the groin in the direction of U.S. Rep Jim Gibbons (R). Although we're nonpartisan, funny is funny.

You decide.

There’s been little change in the use and availability of marijuana among teenagers in the U.S. in 2005, according to information released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and by the University of Michigan. Good news, right? Cause we’re fighting a war on drugs that’s keeping teenage marijuana use under control?

Wrong. Despite marijuana arrests nearly tripling in the last 30 years, teenagers in 2005 aren’t so different from teenagers in 1975: Around 90% say marijuana is "very easy" or "fairly easy" to get. And as of 2004, more teenagers use marijuana than cigarettes.

Our current laws do not work.

Help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

On January 5, the Las Vegas Review Journal wrote an editorial in favor of medical marijuana. On Sunday, there were a couple of strong letters-to-the-editor in favor of the editorial, including a plea from Robert Sharpe for regulating marijuana across the board.

Key quote:

Taxing and regulating marijuana, the most popular illicit drug, is a cost-effective alternative to a never-ending drug war. As long as marijuana distribution is controlled by criminals, consumers will continue to come into contact with hard drugs like methamphetamine. This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.

While we disagree with Mr. Sharpe's phrasing at the end of his letter, which says that pulling marijuana out of the criminal market and strictly regulating it sends the wrong message to children, he did a good job of making the point that marijuana prohibition is a failure.

Regarding "the children," we believe our initiative sends the right message. By pulling marijuana sales in off the street and under the watchful eye of state government, we will have far more control over who can purchase marijuana and what people are purchasing. Under the initiative, no one may enter an establishment that sells marijuana unless they are over the age of 21, and these establishments cannot be located within 500 feet of a church or a school, cannot permit gaming, cannot sell alcohol, and cannot be a convenience store, a nightclub, or a dance hall. On top of these sensible safeguards, the initiative also dedicates 50% of the tax revenue generated from marijuana sales to drug and alcohol treatment and education, and doubles the maximum penalty for giving or selling marijuana to a minor.

We think putting up more obstacles for kids to get marijuana, funneling money into drug education, and cracking down on adults who give or sell marijuana to minors sends the right message to children.

Please help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

If you weren’t entirely sure when the term "podcast" lost all hipness, now you know.

Last week, President Bush went a few more rounds with the English language, and once again the English language ended up bloody.

Key quote:

"Now, some of you all may be old enough to remember the days of prohibition. I'm not. But remember, we illegalized whiskey, and guess what? People found all kind of ways to make it and to run it."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. (OK, we could have.) The point is we agree wholeheartedly with the president that alcohol prohibition was a failure. It criminalized the behavior of many Americans. It created a criminal market that forced everyday citizens to participate in unlawful activity. It led to millions of dollars flowing into the hands of criminals and away from communities.

Sound familiar?

Please help us pass the marijuana initiative. Register to vote, volunteer, donate.

Every year in this country, more people are arrested for marijuana offenses than the populations of Las Vegas and Reno combined. Almost 90% of those arrested are arrested for simple possession. Yet, 35 years into the federal government's declaring "war" on otherwise law-abiding marijuana users, marijuana is still inexpensive, widely used, and available everywhere. You would be hard-pressed to find a bigger and more costly policy failure. And while we waste endless government resources prosecuting the war on marijuana, we create an illegal market that finances the activities of violent gangs and drug dealers at the same time. We're financing both sides of this idiotic war. Everyone loses.

Our laws do not work.

It's time to change the law.

And that's why we're here. We are the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, a Nevada-based ballot action group dedicated to passing the marijuana initiative that will appear on the November 2006 ballot. Under our initiative, the possession and sale of small amounts of marijuana would be taken out of the unregulated, illegal market and put into a strictly regulated and taxed one.

Our laws do not work, and we're going to change the law.

But we need your help.

Please tool around our site and tell us what you think. And be kind, as this site is a work in progress. If you don't like something, feel free to tell us what you think we should be doing. PLEASE send us your ideas, designs, and grand visions for the campaign. Since we cannot afford to hire the twelve absolute smartest people in the world, any and all guidance we receive would be incredibly helpful. We promise to take the best ideas from our supporters and implement them throughout the campaign, always giving credit where credit is due. We cannot win this without you. This is your campaign; we just work here.

So, first and foremost, we are proud to debut this, our home-page blog. All the marijuana news that's fit to print. Please make sure you bookmark this page or subscribe to our RSS feed, as we promise an endless stream of entertaining, fresh content. And while you're on the site, drop us a little change, why don't you? In the near future, we're going to make it very easy for you to volunteer from the comfort of your own home. In fact, we have so much coming your way over the next few weeks and months, it's too much to mention. So make sure you check back regularly. We're going to continually roll out new features and gizmos that are so amazing, your knees might actually quake. Seriously.

It has been my honor to write the very first ever CRCM blog post. Now go back to work.

Sincerely,

Neal Levine
Campaign Manager