Global Ganja Report

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has issued an internal order to the New York City Police Department directing officers to stop making arresting for small quantities of marijuana, if the marijuana was never in public view. The directive, leaked to radio station WNYC, comes as the NYPD is under heat over alleged improper marijuana arrests.

In an August 24 ruling (PDF), the Colombian Supreme Court rejected a 2009 constitutional amendment recriminalizing the possession of personal-use amounts of illegal drugs. Prior to that amendment, pushed vigorously by then-president Alvaro Uribe, the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use had been legal under a 1994 Constitutional Court decision. Between the 1994 ruling the 2009 amendment, adults were allowed to legally possess up to 20 grams of marijuana, one gram of cocaine, and two grams of synthetic drugs. After Uribe's reform, people arrested with small amounts of illegal drugs faced prison sentences of 64 to 108 months.

Tim Padgett of Time magazine's Global Spin blog queried Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske about comments made by Mexican President Felipe Calderón in his speech following the recent Monterrey casino massacre, in which he said the US was complicit for its "insatiable" demand for drugs and should consider "market alternatives" to failed anti-drug policies. Was this a coded reference to legalization, and would this put pressure on the White House to consider the idea? Kerlikowske responded:

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) passed a resolution July 26 calling for an end to the “War on Drugs” during the venerable civil rights organization's 102th annual convention in Los Angeles. "Today the NAACP has taken a major step towards equity, justice and effective law enforcement," said NAACP president Benjamin Jealous. "These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidenced-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America."

Writing on his Celebstoner blog, Steve Bloom recalls that while campaigning for the Senate in 2004, President Barack Obama said, "We need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws." But on July 22, at a town hall meeting at the Univeristy of Maryland, he stated,: "Am I willing to pursue a decriminalization strategy as an approach? No."  Instead, he offered predictable rhetoric about treatment and prevention:

During his much-hyped Twitter Town Hall on July 6, President Barack Obama neglected to answer 4,911 questions about his marijuana policy—making it the most-asked question of the online forum. "Would you consider legalizing marijuana to increase revenue and save tax dollars by freeing up crowded prisons, court rooms?" was retweeted that many times, according to the analytics service. A question about letting the Bush tax cuts expire came in second place, with only 1,800 retweets. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who moderated the online town hall, focused on questions pertaining to the economy, education and space exploration. (Raw Story, July 6)

A new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy finds that the "global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," and calls upon governments to explore the legalization of cannabis and other controlled substances. "Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately, that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem and that the war on drugs has not and cannot be won," the report states.

Voters in more than a dozen Massachusetts legislative districts backed dramatic expansions to legal access to cannabis in the Nov. 2 elections, and advocates plan to use the results to press lawmakers. Nine of 18 advisory questions placed on the ballot queried voters on medical marijuana, while another nine backed legalizing cannabis outright, allowing the state to regulate and tax it.