NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- February 17, 2005

[IndianaToker]

All of these articles are posted throughout the forums, but for anyone that's missed the news this week:

Weekly Press Release
Source: NORML

Ohio Senate Passes Ominous "Drugged Driving" Bill February 17, 2005 - Columbus, OH, USA

Columbus, OH: The Ohio Senate voted 30-1 yesterday to approve legislation (SB 8) criminally sanctioning any person who operates a motor vehicle if trace levels of marijuana or non-psychoactive marijuana metabolites (compounds produced from the chemical changes of a drug in the body) are present in their blood or urine.

NORML Senior Policy Analyst Paul Armentano strongly criticized the proposed legislation, which is scheduled to be debated in the House next week, arguing that it improperly defines and punishes sober drivers as if they are impaired. "Because marijuana's main metabolite, THC-COOH, remains detectable in certain bodily fluids, particularly urine, for days and sometimes weeks after past use, this legislation seeks to define sober drivers as if they were intoxicated," he said. "Someone who smokes marijuana is impaired as a driver at most for a few hours, certainly not for days or weeks. To treat all marijuana smokers as if they are impaired, even when the drug's effects have long worn off, is illogical and unfair."

Similar laws classifying motorists who test positive for trace amount of illicit drugs or drug metabolites in their bodily fluids as criminally impaired have been enacted in twelve US states: Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wisconsin.

In January, a German law defining motorists with any detectable level of drugs or marijuana (THC) in their blood as per se impaired was struck down by the German Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500.

Additional information on Ohio's proposed law is available online at: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=6857541

DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6448




Cannabis Becoming A 'Minor' Offense In EU, Study Says

February 17, 2005 - Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal: A growing number of European nations are amending their laws to treat the possession of small quantities of cannabis and other drugs as "minor" offenses punishable by non-criminal sanctions, according to a report released this week by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon.

"In the EU Member States, notwithstanding different positions and attitudes, we can see a trend to conceive the illicit use of drugs as a relatively 'minor' offense, to which it is not adequate to apply 'sanctions involving deprivation of liberty,'" the report concludes.

Among EU nations, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, and Spain have laws forbidding the incarceration of defendants found to be in the possession of small amounts of cannabis or other drugs, absent aggravating circumstances. Several other countries - including Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - have enacted similar policies specific to cannabis possession.

However, the EMCDDA report states the implementation of administrative, non-criminal sanctions for minor drug offenders has not cut down on the number of individuals cited for minor drug law infractions - noting that over 50 percent of all reported drug offenses in the EU are for drug use and/or possession only, primarily for cannabis. (For example, 86 percent of all drug offenses in France in 2001 were for marijuana, the report found.) Nevertheless, authors reported, "Even though the use and possession of drugs for personal use are among the majority of drug related offenses reported to the judiciary, indeed the courts seem to prefer treatment [or] other social support measures and to a certain extent sanctions not involving deprivation of liberty ... when simple use of drugs is not accompanied by aggravating circumstances."

They concluded, "In these countries, prison sentences do not seem to be the most effective instrument to prevent (and punish) drug use."

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said that he found the EU's rejection of America's "Do Drugs-Do Time" drug policies encouraging, but added, "A policy that taxes and regulates cannabis in a manner similar to wine and other spirits is necessary if European nations are ever going to see a substantial reduction in the arrests and prosecutorial costs related to minor marijuana offenses."

For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the report, entitled "Illicit Drug Use in the EU: Legislative Approaches," is available online at: http://www.emcdda.eu.int/?nnodeid=7079

DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6447




Ex-Cop To Ride Horseback Across US To Promote Drug Law Reform

February 17, 2005 - Los Angeles, CA, USA

Los Angeles, CA: A former police officer and founding member of the organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is embarking next month on a cross-country trek to raise awareness to the harms caused by criminal drug prohibition.

Howard Wooldridge, a 16-year veteran of the Bath Township, Michigan police force, will be traveling by horseback from Los Angeles to New York City on a speaking tour promoting alternatives to current US drug policies. "By fighting a war on drugs the government has increased the problems of society and made them far worse," says Wooldridge. "A system of regulation rather than prohibition is a less harmful, more ethical and a more effective public policy."

A coalition of national and grassroots drug law reform organizations, including Oklahoma NORML, the November Coalition, Americans for Safe Access, and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, are assisting Wooldridge with his effort, which is scheduled to begin on March 5, 2005.

For more information, please contact Norma Sapp of Oklahoma NORML at 405-321-4619 or email: ekco@swbell.net

DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6449

Source: NORML Foundation (DC)
Published: February 17, 2005
Copyright: 2005 NORML
Contact: norml@norml.org
Website: http://www.norml.org/