A former New Mexico Republican governor on a national campaign to push for the legalization of marijuana found support yesterday in Columbia at the Muleskinners Democratic Club.

Gary Johnson, an entrepreneur-turned-two-term governor, was making the rounds in Columbia this week. He spoke to University of Missouri School of Law students Thursday and addressed the Muleskinners at their weekly luncheon before heading to a meeting last night of the Mid-Missouri Chapter of the ACLU.

Johnson dubbed himself the only elected official to have voiced support for legalized marijuana while in office from 1995 to 2003. That said, he has talked to lawmakers from both political parties who said privately that they support the idea.

Johnson said he began speaking out against the war on drugs as governor after he tried to crack down on drunken driving in his state. He was told law enforcement didn’t have the resources to significantly curtail the problem and the court system was too overburdened to deal with an influx of cases involving driving while intoxicated.

“Come to find out half of what police were doing and half of what law enforcement was doing and half of what the courts were doing was drug related,” he said.

Johnson said he began looking into legalization of pot as an alternative. “Little did I know the compelling reasons for legalizing it,” he said.

Just as Prohibition did not stop people from drinking alcohol, keeping marijuana illegal doesn’t make sense, he said, noting that it turns otherwise law-abiding, taxpaying citizens into criminals.

“Ninety percent of drug problems are prohibition related, not use related,” he said.

Johnson — who admitted to using alcohol and marijuana in the past — said he considers pot the safer substance.

Legalizing it, he estimated, would bring in between $7 billion to $11 billion in taxes annually. That’s noteworthy in light of the fact that the country is bankrupt, Johnson said, blaming the steep deficit on recent wars as well as programs such as Medicare.

Although Columbia’s Democratic group embraced his support for legalizing marijuana, partisan lines were quickly drawn at the mention of health care. One audience member countered that Medicare was necessary because elder Americans could not get affordable insurance.

A free-market proponent, Johnson suggested that no American actually goes without health care.

“You’re delusional if you think everyone has health care,” audience member Kay Callison interjected, adding that waiting until someone needs a trip to the emergency room doesn’t count.

To Johnson’s repeated warnings that the nation is bankrupt, Muleskinners member Eleanore Wickersham quipped: “Maybe the solution is to tax marijuana and put it toward our health care system.”

Other audience members also tried to keep the discussion focused on marijuana, an issue on which both sides agreed.

Audience member Steve Skolnick questioned whether conservative lawmakers over the past three decades have turned the debate into a moral issue rather than a public health issue.

“It’s the tail wagging the dog,” he said. “How do we, as rational people, look at the issue and have rational discussions when a very dedicated minority sets policies?”

A recent poll showed 44 percent of Americans are in favor of legalizing marijuana, Johnson replied.

“That’s the highest it’s ever been,” he said. “We’re close to a tipping point.”

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/mar/20/former-gop-governor-wants-pot-legal/

Skip Miller’s sermon on the dangers of marijuana ( “Marijuana too damaging to be legalized,” Jan.  31 ) is a compendium of distortions and discredited drug war assertions.

The idea that legalization would increase substance abuse flies in the face of the evidence.  We were warned that legalizing medical marijuana would dramatically increase teenage use, but an authoritative UCLA study showed that teenage use has actually decreased.

Miller’s claim that cannabis is a “gateway drug” has been thoroughly undone by a number of scientific reports, including a 12-year study from the University of Pittsburgh.

And there is no medical evidence that cannabis causes cancer.  In a large study presented to the American Thoracic Society in 2006, even heavy users of smoked marijuana were found to have no increased risk of lung cancer.

There are a couple of good bills before the Legislature that would decriminalize marijuana.  They cite a report we commissioned in 2007 that found that Hawaii would realize millions in savings by decriminalizing pot; if we were to tax and regulate it, there would be substantial revenue.

Mr.  Miller should consider the approach we took to cut tobacco use – education.  Maybe he should begin by studying the evidence himself.

Pamela G.  Lichty, Mph President, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii

Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville testified at the recent committee meeting on marijuana decriminalization held by the Hawaii County Council. During his presentation against the resolution, he trumpeted the words of King James I, who in 1604 issued a proclamation about the health hazards of tobacco.

What Mr. Damerville neglected to mention was that the king did not throw people in jail for possessing a substance used by consenting adults. Such a policy would have filled the jails and reduced productivity across the land. Instead, he took a wiser course. He educated his subjects about the dangers of tobacco and he regulated and controlled its use by applying tax rates as high as six shillings and 10 pence per imported pound.

As a Canadian police officer visiting Hawaii for the first time, I was surprised by Mr. Damerville’s opposition marijuana reform. While off-duty, I volunteer with an international non-profit organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. LEAP is group of judges, prosecutors, police officers and correctional staff who seek to end the global war on drugs. We don’t support or encourage drug abuse, or breaking the law. However, we believe that a system of regulation would be more ethical and less harmful than prohibition. We seek gradually to legalize and regulate all drugs in order to minimize the crime, addiction, disease and death generated by the black market for illegal drugs.

Perhaps Mr. Damerville will consider joining us?

David Bratzer

Victoria, BC Canada

PEACEFUL SKY ALLIANCE SUPPORTS COUNCILMAN GREENWELL’S EFFORTS TO ENCOURAGE THE DECRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA  December 15, 2009

This resolution 281-009 proposed by Mr. Greenwell has the primary focus of addressing the need to decriminalize the use of Cannabis in Hawaii.

Councilman Greenwell of District 8, Hawaii County

The Peaceful Sky Alliance supports Mr. Greenwell’s resolution. We have specific recommendations for Mr. Greenwell as to how he can improve this legislation so that it addresses specific Hawaii Statutes that require harsh penalties and create criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens and we will be submitting these to the Hawaii County Council when the bill appears for first reading before a committee

Mr. Greenwell’s resolution reflects the mood of the country at large and we see it as a positive step recognizing the inappropriate and harsh sentencing for marijuana use.

Such measures of decriminalizing as proposed in Resolution 281 represent cost-saving measures because resources can be better directed towards more pressing matters of community safety and wellbeing.

Here in Hawaii County, the Peaceful Sky Alliance continues to identify for the Council violations of the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance. The County needs to implement this voter initiative, which is the ‘first step’ in the process Mr. Greenwell proposes for decriminalization in the County of Hawaii. Today, December 15, 2009 represents another opportunity for Board Members to address this matter with Hawaii County Council and remind them of their obligations.

Peaceful Sky Alliance will make specific suggestions to Mr. Greenwell and the Council regarding amendments that would cite specific statutes of Hawaii State law that should be revised, amended or repealed in order to remove harsh and unjust penalties for use of Cannabis.

Further, we hope that in a revision of this Resolution, Mr Greenwell could specifically mention the urgent need to address the problem of ICE in our community. A study performed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse 1991-1994 final report (ICE and Other Methamphetamine Use: An exploratory Study) showed findings that the effect of marijuana eradication was to drive up the street price of Cannabis and cause a rise in use of methamphetamines which became a cheaper alternative to Cannabis.

Mahalo to Councilman Greenwell for proposing Resolution 281-09. We applaud him for his leadership and the steps he is taking to  legislate that the personal use of Cannabis by responsible adults in the State of Hawaii be decriminalized.

CONTACT: Peaceful Sky Alliance Vice President   – Matthew Rifkin

Phone: 917 378 9123
email: peacefulskyhawaii@gmail.com
www.peacefulskyalliance.org

Image by James Moore

“The November 9 Supreme Court arguments on whether it is cruel and unusual to impose life in prison without parole on violent juveniles who have not killed anybody understandably got prominent media coverage,” a National Journal column reports.“But a far more important imprisonment story gets less attention because it’s a running sore that rarely generates dramatic “news.” That is our criminal-justice system’s incarceration of a staggering 2.3 million people, about half of them for nonviolent crimes, including most of the 500,000 locked up for drug offenses.” (From -November 13, 2009 National Journal read about it here: America’s Prison Spree Has Brutal Impact)

and just in .. news from Wall Street Journal  that U.S. Commission is  to Assess Mandatory Sentences

People who drank alchohol used to be the 'bad guys.'

“Congress has ordered the panel that advises judges on prison terms to conduct a review of mandatory-minimum sentences, a move that could lead to a dramatic rethinking of how the U.S. incarcerates its criminals,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The review is a little-noticed element of the National Defense Authorization Act signed into law last month by President Barack Obama. The defense-spending bill calls on the commission to perform several tasks, including an examination of the impact of mandatory-minimum sentencing laws and alternatives to the practice.”  November 12, 2009 (Wall Street Journal)

It looks like this has been a big week for the Drug War. Take heed County of Hawaii. The American Medical Association has announced it will review the scheduling of Cannabis as a ‘dangerous drug’ (which it isn’t)  and a Commission of Judges is asked to review the practice of handing out harsh sentences for absurd ‘crimes’. 20 million prisoners later.. The Drug War is costing us way too much. The budget for Prosecutions in Hawaii County is 11 million dollars. That is a lot for an island with a population of 177,000 men women and children don’t you think?

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Tyrone Brown received a last minute reprieve from death row for smoking pot while on probation

Tyrone Brown served 16 years of a Life Sentence for smoking Cannabis while on probation:

As an example of how much of a joke the Drug War can get to be.. listen to this case; In 1990, Tyrone Brown, then 17 years old, took part in a $2 Dallas stickup in which no one was hurt. He got caught, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, and received a sentence of 10 years probation. A few weeks later, he was in court again — because a drug test detected the presence of marijuana in his urine. For still unexplained reasons, his sentencing judge, Keith Dean, threw the book at him. The 17-year-old was resentenced to life in prison, where he remained up until 2007. We can be thankful that eventually the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry saw the wisdom of pardoning Tyrone but long after it was somewhat of a joke. If you google Tyrone Brown, you will see yet another comparison between the kind of harsh sentence you can get for using Cannabis but you don’t see if you are a convicted killer.  But now, thanks to drug reform activists, a Dallas newspaper, a nationally televised investigative journalism program, and outraged citizens across the land, Brown was freed from his life sentence.

We all know that each prisoner in the United States costs taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars each year that they are incarcerated let alone the money it costs and lengthy court procedures that it takes to put each one of them there. Do you really like to think that your tax dollars are being spent to lock up adults who enjoy Cannabis for their own personal use? You might be shocked to know the cost of the Drug War but chances are by now, you might be well familiar of how this outright war on a plant, has usurped our Nations resources and the treasuries of; the Federal Government, the States and Counties all around the country. That’s the reason for ordinances and new legislation that is determining that adult personal use of Cannabis should go from the highest priority of Law Enforcement to the lowest. Enough already!

Is Justice "Blind"? This is our question for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney

Puna Man sentenced to 18 months jail for selling 2 ounces of Cannabis to a registered medical marijuana user:

A case closer to home received a hearing in the Hilo 3rd circuit court today (Friday November 13). Just to give you an idea of how the Office of The Prosecuting Attorney is spending our County money, take a look at this case. A man 50 years old with debilitating spinal injuries, himself a medical marijuana patient, was caught in 2007 selling marijuana to another medical marijuana patient. He was arrested along with his wife who was 7 months pregnant with their first child. He now has two children since his arrest. This man was not in fact indicted until 18 months later. The Grand Jury indicted him after the passage of the voter ordinance Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance

This man pleaded guilty to the charges and his lawyer is now negotiating the terms of probation for him. In many cases now, the judges rule against medical marijuana patients being permitted to use Cananbis on probation. This is the same man who has more than one debilitating condition and was actually granted permission by the courts recently to leave the island for hip replacement surgery and time needed for his recovery before resuming his court appearances. His surgeon has determined that there are benefits for him to use Cannabis. His doctor here in Hilo attended court today to testify to the fact that while using Cannabis, this man has been able to reduce the doses of morphine he had become dependent on to manage his pain. In spite of two medical opinions, Judge Greg Nakamura would only say that he would take this testimony ‘under advisement’ which for those of us who don’t know, means he doesn’t have to abide by these doctor’s medical opinion. The question we then ask ourselves, is this: Has this judge taken upon himself the responsibility for managing critical health conditions? This is an affront to the profession of medicine by the profession of justice.

This is yet another case of someone who should have seen all charges against him dropped to say nothing of the fact that it shouldn’t be a crime to supply a medical marijuana user who has been licensed by the State of Hawaii to possess and use Cannabis.  The Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance specifically MANDATES the prosecutor NOT to prosecute ANY cases that now fall under the description of ‘adult personal use’ as defined by the ordinance so why are they still prosecuting these cases and wasting County funds?

Countless hours of time of the judges and the prosecution have already been wasted in pursuit of this case and it does not appear to be close to ending. This is yet another example of wasted County Funds that is occurring. It’s also a genuine miscarriage of justice as the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, headed by Mr. Jay Kimura, openly violates our Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance.

Finding this absurd ? Finding this a waste of County funds? Stay tuned because this is a bad habit the County of Hawaii has and the Prosecutor can’t seem to kick. If you have ‘horror’ stories of your own to share, please feel free to post them below or send them to us at peacefulskyhawaii@gmail.com and we can feature them here on this site.

Woo-hoo! Friday night was a great night.. the weather held and the people of East Hawaii sure looked fine all dressed up and on the town. At 100 Kamehameha Avenue, (next door to Cronies Bar and Grill and just down from the Kava Bar)Peaceful Sky Alliance launched the website you are now visiting.

Great music, some divine Hemp Treats and plenty of information giveaways helped to make the night a success.

We celebrated a birthday evening for the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance which just turned one on Thursday November 5th!

Thank you to all who came and shared a little joy with us. We are now launched! (and there will be some great photos to follow but we are still rounding them up)