By Sawsan Morrar

 
Recent data from the Criminal Justice Statistics Center reported that California is seeing its lowest number of juvenile arrests in nearly 50 years.
Juvenile arrests fell roughly 20 percent overall from 2010 to 2011. About 150,000 youth were arrested last year, making it the lowest annual rate since state records were kept in 1957.
Sacramento County Juvenile Hall is witnessing this same decline in arrests.
The area detention center currently houses approximately 180 youth. Their current capacity is 225, which dropped due to budget cuts.
“We haven’t seen this low of a number since 1970,” Sacramento County Chief Probation Officer Don Meyer said. “We now get an average of seven [juveniles] a day, and that’s come down from 20 a day.”
 
Full Article:
http://fairoaks-carmichael.patch.com/articles/juvenile-crime-at-all-time-low-leaving-empty-beds-at-juvenile-hall-65dc665f
 

Written by Kristina Davis

SAN DIEGO — Arrests in San Diego County reached a 10-year low last year, with the most notable drop seen in marijuana-related arrests, according to data released Wednesday.

Pot-related arrests plummeted by 90 percent from 2010 to 2011 due to a change in state law that reduced the charge for possession, according to the report compiled by the San Diego Association of Governments. The law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2011, reduced possession of up to one ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction, on par with jaywalking or littering.

 
Full Article:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/nov/28/marijuana-arrests-plummet-90-countywide/
 

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Federal investigators are demanding records related to a Northern California county’s medical marijuana permitting program.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman told local news outlets this week that county officials received a subpoena in October from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco.
The records request is connected to the county’s now-canceled program to authorize certain marijuana growers to grow as many as 99 plants, exceeding the local limit of 25 plants. The permitting process garnered more than $800,000 in county fees in its two-year existence.
 
Full Article:
http://www.cbs47.tv/news/state/story/Feds-demand-marijuana-records-from-NorCal-county/AYsm-RTb_EyNo3mP5T_eig.cspx

Vivian McPeak

Growing up with my father was an unusual experience. He was a hard-working, zany wanderlust who loved women, cigarettes and booze. My dad served in the U.S. Army, and it was while serving overseas in Korea that he was given army ration cigarettes with his gear. It did not take long before my dad was addicted to tobacco, and he became a human chimney, smoking two packs a day for over 40 years. There are only a handful of photos of my father where he does not have a cigarette in his hand. I remember him having one in two ashtrays at different ends of the apartment.
My grandparents raised me about half my childhood, with my father living in the same apartment building. They were both chain smokers too, and I recall being in the back seat of their car on holiday trips with all the windows rolled up and the three of them chain smoking the whole way.  When they ate dinner on TV trays, I ate mine on the living room floor so I could be below “cloud level”. I hated it so much that I vowed never to smoke a single cigarette in my entire life.
In 1996 I received a phone call from my dad. He called to tell me that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, and it had spread to his brain. He was walking out in the middle of radiation therapy, and he needed somewhere to go to die. Naturally, I told him to come to me, to my home. Fortunately, I had an empty room.
My father was 6 feet tall, and although he had always been thin, I was wholly unprepared for the sight of my father when he arrived at my home. His hair gone from radiation burns on his head, my father weighed only 100 pounds. He looked like Skeletor on bath salts. I brought him in and got him settled. Later, at dinner time, I asked my dad what he wanted to eat. “Fry me an egg”, he replied. “Just one egg?” I asked. “Yes, one fried egg.”
I prepared my dad an egg, he ate it, and within minutes he threw it up. After three days of this ritual, my father had lost another 8 pounds. I called his doctor. “Just hydrate him, he has only weeks,” was the answer. So I got right to work.
I cooked up a batch of strong marijuana brownies, putting well over a 1/4 ounce into a small baking pan, making four mondo magic brownies that would tip any old saddle tramp into the trail dust. I told my father I was going on some errands, and that the brownies were medicine, not candy, and that he should take it very slow.
Upon my return a few hours later, I checked in on my pops. “Son,” he said, “I believe I am a little woozy, a bit tipsy, do you think it could be those brownies?” I lifted up the tin foil and saw that my dad had eaten the entire batch in one sitting. “Take me to QFC” he said.
I took my frail, wobbly, stoned dad to the store, expecting some kind of a let-down when we returned. My father selected some pasta, some spaghetti sauce made by a deceased movie actor, a berry pie, and some vanilla ice cream.
When we got home, my father ate an entire meal and held it down. I was stunned. I had been an advocate of medical marijuana, but I had absolutely no idea just how powerful and effective it could be at staving off, or reducing the symptoms of, cancer. I swiftly prepared another rather expensive batch of baked goods. My father continued to hold food down, sometimes three small meals a day.
 
Full Article:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/vivianmcpeak/2012/07/30/why-i-gave-my-dad-marijuana/
 

By TOM LoBIANCO The Associated Press

State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell. Aug. 28, 2006. AP
 
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s state police chief told lawmakers Tuesday that marijuana should be legalized and taxed, prompting his own agency to quickly walk back his statement as lawmakers consider decriminalization.
State police Superintendent Paul Whitesell told members of the State Budget Committee on Tuesday that he’s followed the issue during his 40-year law enforcement career and believes “it is here, it’s going to stay.” He cited voter-passed measures in Colorado and Washington that allow adults to have small amounts of marijuana as evidence of a national shift on the issue.

“My thought is, toward the zenith of my career, it is here, it’s going to stay,” Whitesell told the panel. “That’s an awful lot of victimization that goes with it.
“If it were up to me I do believe I would legalize it and tax it, particularly in sight of the fact that several other states have now come to that part of their legal system as well.”
 
Full Article:
http://posttrib.suntimes.com/16659236-537/indiana-state-police-chief-i-would-legalize-marijuana.html

As Cannabis Becomes Legal in Colorado and Washington, Hawaiian Minister Remains Locked Up
HONOLULU, Nov. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following release was issued today by Mintwood Media Collective:
As more Americans demand legalization of cannabis, thousands of prisoners are still locked up on non-violent marijuana charges, including Reverend Roger Christie.  Since July 8, 2010 Rev. Christie has been behind bars without bail awaiting trial on charges of marijuana possession and trafficking, despite being a Christian minister with a state sanctioned license as a “Cannabis Sacrament Minister.”
Rev. Christie’s case is unique because his use of ‘marijuana’ was for religious purposes and from his perspective should be protected under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  Because cannabis has an ancient history of ritual usage in many religions and cultures including Christianity, Christie has decided not to plea his way out of jail. His perspective is couched in a religious context of medicinal cannabis as a tool in healing the sick which to deny anyone is counter to morality. Rev. Christie also connects cannabis sacrament to the ancient anointings and burnt offerings referenced in the bible.
This Christmas is Rev. Christie’s third behind bars at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center.  Despite seven attempts at bail, U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi has denied Christie’s request to be released to his home in Hilo or to a halfway house in Kalihi.
Tommy Otake, Rev. Christie’s attorney, said his client was at first disappointed by the ruling, but then decided to remain positive and take the most recent bail denial as a “blessing.” Rev. Christie is committed to the Christian faith and to religious freedom for all. He is continuing to minister while in prison and is using his time as an opportunity to help other inmates.
 
Full Article:
http://www.ibtimes.com/press-release/20121127/christian-minister-still-behind-bars-marijuana-charge-903984
 

By The Associated Press
 
ARCATA, Calif. — A public university located in one of California’s prime pot-growing regions has formed an academic institute devoted to marijuana.
The Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research at Humboldt State University plans to sponsor scholarly lectures and coordinate research among 11 faculty members from fields such as economics, geography, politics, psychology and sociology.
The Times-Standard of Eureka reports that one professor is studying recent campaigns to legalize marijuana, while another is investigating the environmental effects of pot cultivation.
“If anyone is going to have a marijuana institute, it really should be Humboldt State,” economist Erick Eschker, the institute’s co-chairman, told the newspaper. Eschker is studying the connection between marijuana production and employment in the county.
 
Full Article:
http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/11/26/news/doc50b42a06337c8784178608.txt

LYN HUMPHREYS

By Jon KellyBBC News Magazine, Washington DC

 

Hemp, once a major US crop, has been banned for years because of its close association with cannabis. But several states now want to resume hemp farming, and two states voted this month in favour of legalisation of cannabis. Could change be in the air?

There’s an all-American plant that weaves its way throughout the nation’s history.
The sails of Columbus’ ships were made from it. So was the first US flag. It was used in the paper on which the Declaration of Independence was printed.
Today, however, industrial hemp is effectively banned by the federal government, damned by association with cannabis, its intoxicating cousin.
While hemp cannot be grown in the US, it can be imported and used to manufacture paper, textiles, rope, fuel, food and plastics.
Its advocates say it is a hugely versatile crop which is already popular with US consumers – a 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service estimated that the annual US retail hemp market could exceed $300m (£188m) in value.
 
Full Article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20463504

(New York) – Few of those who enter New York City’s criminal justice system as a result of marijuana possession arrests become dangerous criminals, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
With the 33-page report, “A Red Herring: Marijuana Arrestees Do Not Become Violent Felons,” Human Rights Watch offers new data indicating that people who enter the criminal justice system with an arrest for public possession of marijuana rarely commit violent crimes in the future. Over the last 15 years, New York City police have arrested more than 500,000 people – most of them young blacks or Hispanics – on misdemeanor charges of possessing small amounts of marijuana in public view. While Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the police have said the arrests have helped reduce violent crime, they have never specified how.
“Our findings support those of other researchers who question the public safety gains from massive marijuana arrests,” said Jamie Fellner, senior adviser to the US Program at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “Public officials need to explain exactly how placing thousands of people in cuffs each year for possessing pot reduces violent crime.”
Using data provided by the New York Department of Criminal Justice Services, Human Rights Watch tracked until mid-2011 the subsequent criminal records of nearly 30,000 people who had no prior convictions when they were arrested for marijuana possession in public view in 2003 and 2004. Ninety percent of the group had no subsequent felony convictions. Only 3.1 percent were subsequently convicted of one violent felony offense. An additional 0.4 percent had two or more violent felony convictions.
According to Human Rights Watch’s data, the New York City police sweep large numbers of people into the the city’s criminal justice system – particularly young people of color – who do not go on to become dangerous felons. These findings are consistent with and add to research by Harry Levine, a sociologist at Queens College, City University of New York, which shows that the preponderance of marijuana arrestees do not have prior criminal convictions.
 
Full Article:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/23/usnew-york-few-arrested-pot-become-violent-criminals