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Flint decriminalization of marijuana vote only 'symbolic;' arrests will continue

FLINT, MI -- Flint police will continue to arrest people for marijuana possession despite a ballot proposal that voters approved Tuesday, Nov. 6, to decriminalize the drug, according to a statement released by the city Wednesday.

The United States' first marijuana cafe opened on Friday, posing an early test of the Obama administration's move to relax policing of medical use of the drug.

f you were to put televangelist Pat Robertson, progressive media mogul Arianna Huffington, libertarian billionaire David Koch, and rap/reggae artist Snoop Dogg in a room together, do you think you could get them all to unanimously agree on anything?

Sounds like an impossible task. But actually there is common ground: they all believe our war on marijuana has failed. All of the above public figures believe in either the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana.

Hailey police officers won't be trying to bust anyone for smoking marijuana in the privacy of their own home from now on—not since the City Council adopted three weeks ago a lowest-police-priority ordinance with regard to misdemeanor marijuana offenses.

The San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice (CJCJ) recently released a policy briefing with an analysis of arrest data collected by the California Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Statistics Center. The briefing, “California Youth Crime Plunges to All-Time Low,” identifies a new state marijuana decriminalization law that applies to juveniles, not just adults, as the driving force behind the plummeting arrest totals. Police don’t arrest people for infractions; usually, they ticket them.

MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WANT MARIJUANA LEGALIZED

For the first time, the majority of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, indicating a shifting public opinion in regards to the government’s criminalization of drug use.

The new survey, which was conducted by the Pew Research Center, indicates that 52 percent of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, which is 11 points higher than the results of the 2010 survey asking the same question.

The last decade and a half have been good to marijuana (or kind to bud, if you go for that kind of joke). More and more states have passed medical marijuana laws since California blazed the path way back in 1996, and just last year, Colorado became the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use. That was a dream come true for both proponents of legalization at the federal level and the long-suffering residents of Colorado, who have absolutely nothing else to do but smoke pot...

Moms got tougher drunk-driving laws on the books and were directly responsible for passing and then repealing alcohol Prohibition. Now marijuana activists are trying to enlist the nation's mothers in legalization efforts with a sales pitch that pot is safer than booze.

CANNABIS CULTURE - In a case with wide-ranging implications, an Ontario Superior Court judge struck down Canada's laws prohibiting the possession and production of marijuana on Tuesday, giving the federal government 90 days to fix the country's medical marijuana program before the ruling comes into effect and effectively legalizes cannabis.