NEWSMARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

Patricia Spottedcrow, the 26 year-old mother of four who was convicted of selling $31 of marijuana to a police informant, has had her 12 year prison sentence reduced to eight years with four years of probation.

While the reduction in her sentence shows understanding, it is not justice and does not go far enough. As Spottedcrow's attorney, Josh Welch puts it, she shouldn't be in jail at all:

"Nobody understands why this woman is serving this long of a sentence for this type of crime. Look at other states; you can commit this same crime and it's not illegal. That's insane. She sold $30 of marijuana for gas money and food money for her family. It's stupid. It's wrong. But you don't go to prison for eight or 12 years for that. You shouldn't go to prison period."

If the State of Michigan won't protect the people, activists will.

So went the cry of medical marijuana groups in Michigan this week, concerned that the privacy of medical marijuana patients there is at grave risk.

According to reports, the Michigan Association of Compassion Clubs filed an emergency motion this week to halt efforts by the federal government to gain access to the records of several Michigan medical marijuana patients. As a result, A U.S. District Court hearing this week that would have decided whether the Michigan Department of Community Health would have to comply with a June subpoena by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for the records was postponed until Feb. 1, giving a host of advocacy groups a chance to file amicus "friend of the court" briefs against the DEA's efforts.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) said it filed its own brief on Thursday, pointing out that the current medical marijuana law in Michigan protects the privacy of patients and that the state is obligated at all costs to uphold it, even at the risk of crossing the federal government.

"We must do everything we can to protect that right to privacy, especially for medical marijuana patients who remain vulnerable due to an outdated federal law," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, author of the group's amicus brief, in a statement. "Patient privacy is an important ethical and public health issue of our time, regardless of whether patients benefit from the use of medical marijuana."

More than 34,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon stepped up the war on illegal narcotics four years ago, with more than 15,000 – including 11 mayors and a leading candidate for governor -- killed last year alone. Yet drugs are just as cheap and available as anytime before, if not more so. Clearly prohibition isn't working.

But if you work for the U.S. government, don't you dare say that or you'll be out of a job. Former Border Patrol agent Bryan Gonzalez found out the hard way.

As a lawsuit filed last week by the ACLU of New Mexico alleges, Gonzalez was terminated by U.S. Border Patrol last fall after a fellow agent reported him for remarking during a casual conversation that maybe the war on drugs – which isn't just a slogan, but an actual war with actual guns and militaries – is contributing to the violence that has engulfed Mexico and begun spreading through Central America.

According to the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District, Gonzalez was reported to his superiors – and an Internal Affairs investigation was launched soon thereafter – when he “remarked that legalization of drugs would end the drug war and related violence in Mexico,” noting that the vast majority of narcotics that pass through the country are intended to meet U.S. demand. In other words, he was fired for exercising his right to free speech.

Three months after taking office, President Obama took part in a town hall-style meeting where he answered questions voted on by Americans – about 3 ½ million of them, to be exact.

But when the top vote-getter turned out to be a question about legalizing marijuana, the president's response wasn't as respectful and dignified as a whole lot of people had hoped it would be, consisting of a hefty dose of condescension spliced with laughter, which is all too typical of politicians confronted with the opinions of the unwashed masses they claim to represent.

“[T]here was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy,” Obama said, chuckling. “I don't know what this says about the online audience … The answer is, no.”

And I don't know what it says about our elected officials that they are so dismissive of maybe, just possibly, pursuing a different strategy than the tried-and-failed one of the last few decades of spending billions of dollars incarcerating evermore Americans for non-violent drug offenses; in 2009, more than 858,000 people were arrested for marijuana violations alone. Well, actually, I do know what that says about our politicians, but the words that come to mind aren't printable.

Later this week, Americans will again get a chance to ask President Obama why he's so committed to a marijuana policy – and a war on drugs – that is so costly in terms of lives and taxpayer money, but has achieved little more than the largest prison population in world history.

Medical marijuana advocates in Michigan are crying foul in the wake of recent demands by the federal government that the state health department turn over the records of seven legal medical marijuana patients.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. attorney's office has asked a judge to order the Department of Community Health to comply with an earlier subpoena for the records of seven people with Michigan user and caregiver cards.

The request was made on behalf of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which would not comment on the case; there is no additional information available on whose records are being targeted. According to the report, the DEA first asked for the records in June. So far, the health department has declined because of a privacy provision in the Michigan law, according to the AP.

Michigan's medical marijuana law, one of 15 in the U.S. today (Arizona voters were the latest to approve one this past November) has been in effect since 2009. Voters there passed the new law by referendum with 63 percent of the vote in 2008.

Public opinion is slowly but surely turning against the drug war, with more Americans than ever now saying marijuana ought to be legalized. But you'd never know it from listening to the country's politicians. Indeed, when voters asked President Obama whether he thought legalization was the right prescription for the nation's economic woes, he laughed off the question -- because throwing tens of thousands of people in jail for possessing a benign plant that has never killed anyone is funny!

So rather than wait for politicians to change the laws -- and wait, and wait, and wait -- prospective jurors in Montana chose to do something refreshing: rather than go along with a system and a set of laws they know is unjust, they outright refused to enforce them.

As Gwen Florio reports in the Missoulian, potential jurors in Missoula County last week "made it clear they weren't about to convict anybody for having a couple buds of marijuana." In fact, of 27 potential jurors -- several had already been dismissed for airing philosophical objections to drug laws -- "maybe five raised their hands" when Judge Dusty Deschamps asked if they would be willing to convict someone for possessing a small amount of marijuana, with several openly wondering why the state would waste taxpayer money prosecuting a case involving possession of 1/16th an ounce of pot.

“I thought, ‘Geez, I don’t know if we can seat a jury,’ ” said Deschamps. They couldn't. In the end, unable to find a jury willing to even consider a conviction, prosecutors were ultimately forced to work out a plea deal with the defendant.

And Judge Deschamps thinks that's going to be the norm from here on out.

It has been a turbulent year for marijuana reformers, with the failure of California's Proposition 19 and the effort to legalize pot possession and a few other setbacks across the country.

There's no doubt, however, that the issue entered the national consciousness this year. And once the taboo around marijuana wears off and the public gives a moment of thought to the massive failure of a century of prohibition, the war on pot will fall like a house of cards.

Fifteen states have approved the use of medicial marijuana and 13 have decriminalized the substance. And now a Vermont lawmaker says he plans in January to introduce a bill decriminalizing the possession of less than one ounce. The state's new Governor-elect Peter Shumlin has said he supports this reform, which could save the state $700,000 and would avoid countless unnecessary arrests and prosecutions.

A great article in Alternet by Steven Wishnia looks to New England as the next frontier for marijuana reform. So, you know what this means: New Englanders should be gearing up for a reform push in 2011.

California anti-prohibition activists say a prosecutor with an ax to grind has convicted a man for illegally selling medical marijuana in a state where its legal to sell medical marijuana. They say it is the second time that San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has tried Jovan Jackson on similar charges, and in order to make this one stick, she made sure his best defense was hidden from the jury: that selling pot to card-carrying medical marijuana patients in a storefront dispensary is perfectly legal under California's medical marijuana statutes.

"Embarrassed by her earlier loss and desperate for a conviction, District Attorney Dumanis manipulated the criminal justice system to unfairly try Jackson a second time," said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and the attorney who will argue that Jackson deserves a new trial. "To make matters worse, the court deprived Jackson of the defense that was used to gain an acquittal in his first trial, and a defense to which he's entitled."

ASA, which calls itself the country's largest medical marijuana advocacy group with 50,000 active members in 50 states, has filed a motion in Jackson's case for a new trial and sentencing, and will argue its case in San Diego Superior Court today. Critics say San Diego has been trying to dismantle the medical marijuana industry there, partly by engaging in a series of raids over the last few years on dispensary storefronts, such as Jackson's Answerdam Alternative Care Collective. According to reports, Answerdam had been raided twice since 2008, resulting in the arrest of dozens of people. In December 2009, Jackson was acquitted on charges of marijuana possession. Jurors in that trial told reporters that the laws governing medical marijuana sales from collectives were vague, prompting them to find the defendant not guilty.

The prosecutor from the District Attorney's Office in that case, Chris Lindburg, tried to convince the jury that Answerdam had been breaking the law and that Jackson's activities were not about helping sick people, but "about making money, plain and simple."

Willie Nelson has long been an outspoken activist, so it was no big surprise that soon after his recent arrest for marijuana possession the country music legend and pot aficionado was calling for a national movement to end the U.S. government’s destructive crusade against cannabis.

"There's the Tea Party," Nelson wrote in an email. “How about the Teapot Party? Our motto: We lean a little to the left.”

And the platform? "Tax it, regulate it and legalize it," of course. After all, "Why should the drug lords make all the money? Thousands of lives will be saved."

More than 44,0000 people have since joined the Nelson-inspired Teapot Party on Facebook. And supporters are hosting their first in-person events later this month, with the goal of fielding a slate of pro-pot candidates nationwide.

But if Nelson wants to help end pot prohibition, he can do more than inspire the push for reform -- he can help lead it. And one relatively easy way he can do so is by hosting a benefit concert next year to draw attention to the evils of the drug war, using his iconic pop culture status to raise money for those organizations and people that are working to make the dream of reform a reality.

When country music legend and noted marijuana enthusiast Willie Nelson was arrested in Texas last month for misdemeanor pot possession, he came up with an idea for a new political movement aimed at ending the government's decades-long crusade against cannabis.

Forget the Tea Party, Nelson said, "How about the Teapot Party? Our motto: We lean a little to the left.”

Since Nelson announced the party, more than 40,000 people have joined a Facebook group created with his blessing. And now supporters across the U.S. -- and even as far away as Finland -- are planning their first real-life gatherings, set for December 15 and January 18.

The group's platform? Simple: "Tax it, regulate it and legalize it," as Nelson put it after his arrest. And the organizers' goal is ambitious: "We want our own candidates who support legalizing marijuana and hemp as their main issue."

Of course, any nascent third party in the U.S. faces a massive uphill battle, with ballot laws in most states crafted by the two major parties with an eye toward preventing any challenges to their duopoly. And given the winner-takes-all electoral system -- as opposed to the proportional representation system used in some countries that awards seats in parliament based on a party's percentage of the vote -- Teapot Party supporters will have a tough time combatting the "wasted vote" mentality.

But they're willing to give it a shot. "It's time to end the war on marijuana smokers," organizers say in a press release. "So let's all join together, one nation under a marijuana cloud, and get this Teapot Party started!"

To find an event near you -- or to organize your own -- check out the Teapot Party page on Meetup.com.

Photo Credit: Teapot Party