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Marijuana Arrests in New York City Skyrocket to 15 Percent of Total
Location:
New York, NY
United States
See map: Google Maps
More than 50,000 people were arrested last year in New York City for low-level marijuana offenses, according to the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services. Those 50,383 arrests represented 15 percent of all arrests by the New York Police Department. The 50,000-oplus figure is more marijuana arrests in one year than the number of similar arrests made by the New York Police Department over the entire period from 1978 to 1996, according to an analysis for the alliance done by Harry Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College.
Publication/Source:
International Business Times (NY)
URL:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/111662/20110211/marijuana-arrests-new-york.htm
Cannabis Council Reaches Out to Help Colorado Teenager Denied Access to Medical Marijuana for Very Rare Condition
Location:
Colorado Springs, CO
United States
See map: Google Maps
Mark Slaugh, membership director of the Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council, wrote to Rep. Mark Barker, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs to urge legislative action on behalf of a teenage medical marijuana patient being denied access to his medicine by Colorado's Harrison School District 2. The teenager in question was diagnosed a little more than a year ago with a very rare condition that causes seizures, which can last for days. Slaugh said the district should take a more reasonable approach to the situation and the legislature should rewrite medical marijuana laws so that this situation doesn’t come up in the first place.
Publication/Source:
The Colorado Independent (DC)
URL:
http://coloradoindependent.com/74315/cannabis-council-reaches-out-to-help-teenager
Teen's Medical Marijuana Fight Escalates As School Says He Cannot Come Back to Class After Going Home for Medicine, Father Appeals to Legislators for Help
Location:
Colorado Springs, CO
United States
See map: Google Maps
The saga of a Colorado Springs, Colorado teenager struggling with a rare neurological condition best controlled with medical marijuana lozenges became a little more surreal when school officials informed the student’s father that the child cannot return to school on any day that he consumes medical marijuana. The child missed most of the last school year when he was diagnosed with diaphragmatic and axial myoclonus, which causes seizures that can last for 24 hours or more. He spent extensive periods of time hospitalized and used morphine and other narcotics to control the seizures until doctors discovered that THC works better than any other medication.
Publication/Source:
The Colorado Independent (DC)
URL:
http://coloradoindependent.com/74138/teens-medical-marijuana-fight-escalates-as-school-says-he-cannot-come-back-to-class-after-going-home-for-medicine
Greenway University Makes Medical Marijuana Education History
Location:
Denver, CO
United States
See map: Google Maps
Greenway University has received full formal state approval from the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The university has received authorization to teach ten medical marijuana state-approved courses, the only such state-approved and regulated medical marijuana courses in the United States. Greenway University is renowned for its compliance driven medical marijuana educational services in California, Colorado, Arizona and the Western US.
Publication/Source:
PR Newswire (NJ)
URL:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/greenway-university-makes-medical-marijuana-education-history-115469759.html
Law Student Sues St. John’s University for Rescinding Readmission Over Drug Charges
Location:
8000 Utopia Parkway St. John’s University
Queens, NY 11439United States
See map: Google Maps
David Powers, an accountant who took time out of law school at St. John’s University, has sued the Roman Catholic university in New York after it refused to readmit him, saying that he had not been honest about a criminal conviction, since expunged, in his past. Three semesters into his law degree, Mr. Powers was granted a leave of absence to manage a $2-billion investment fund in Hong Kong.
Publication/Source:
The Chronicle of Higher Education (DC)
URL:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/law-student-sues-st-johns-u-for-rescinding-readmission-over-drug-charges/30251
Columbian Marching Powder: How Reforms to the Rockefeller Drug Laws Could Help the Alleged Ivy League Drug Dealers
Location:
NY
United States
See map: Google Maps
In 2009, after years of debate and political wrangling, the New York state legislature finally passed a bill revising the state's notorious Rockefeller drug laws. Now it turns out that the first high-profile beneficiaries of the reforms could be a bunch of kids from Columbia University. The arrest of five students on Dec. 7 — they allegedly sold $11,000 worth of marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, Adderall, and LSD — may be a "test case" for the new reforms.
Publication/Source:
Slate (NY)
URL:
http://www.slate.com/id/2283406/
Talking to Your Kids About Drugs: Four Healthy Concepts to Consider
Carole Bennett, a substance abuse counselor and activist who has lectured at a number of rehabilitation centers as well as schools and universities, offers four healthy concepts to consider when talking to children about substance use.
Publication/Source:
The Huffington Post (CA)
URL:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-bennett/talking-to-your-kids-abou_b_807171.html
White Privilege and Illicit Drugs
Algernon Austin, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute, explores white privilege in conjunction with the war on drugs against the backdrop of the book Dorm Room Dealers: Drugs and the Privileges of Race and Class by A. Rafik Mohamed and Erik D. Fritsvold.
Publication/Source:
The Huffington Post (CA)
URL:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/algernon-austin/white-privilege-and-illic_b_804130.html
Invest in the Future of Drug Policy Reform
Happy New Year Friends!
This was an amazing year for Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
We helped bring the issue of marijuana legalization into the national spotlight by launching the Just Say Now campaign, a project with our friends at Firedoglake, that provided important tools like a free online phone banking system for activists around the country to call voters in four states with marijuana reforms on the ballot.
Make a tax-deductible donation to help SSDP continue our important work.
Our chapter network continues to expand throughout the U.S. and with the addition of an international liaison, SSDP is now rapidly expanding outside of the states and into key places like Mexico City. And for the first time, we hosted our international conference on the west coast and with over 500 people, it was our largest conference to date! Now that 2010 is behind us, we're looking forward to 2011.
This is the last chance to give a tax-deductible gift in 2010, so please consider donating today. Our goals in 2011 are ambitious, and we couldn't do what we do without the generous support of people like you.
Sincerely,
Aaron, Jon, Stacia, Patrick, Garret & Edward
National Staff
P.S. There's still one day left to get your early-bird discount when you register for our 2011 Training Conference & Lobby Day at the University of Maryland, March 17-19, 2011. More details at conference.ssdp.org
Connect with SSDP
No Mas: Mexico Students Unite to Stop Drug War
Location:
Ciudad Juárez, CHH
Mexico
Amidst a deadly drug prohibition war in Juarez, Mexico, a group of college students have emerged from the violence to tell their city that they've had enough. The Juarez "students are quite heroic," said Bruce Bagley, who heads the Latin American affairs department at the University of Miami. "The fact that they are standing up to the military has highlighted the fact that the military in its conduct of the war on drugs in Mexico has actually fallen into numerous human rights violations.
Publication/Source:
ABC News (US)
URL:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/mas-mexico-students-unite-stop-drug-war/story?id=12462284
