Alaskan Prisoners In Colorado
KTUUMonday, December 21, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Johnson: Dad will be home for Christmas joy - The Denver Post
Johnson: Dad will be home for Christmas joy - The Denver Post
I started by asking when he knew he hit bottom. Most guys would cough, hack and fiddle, trying to soft-pedal it. Not Mike Irby.
"It happened after the first year and a half in prison," he said. "I was into a lot of self-pity then, you know, how I'm a screw-up, my kids will never know me, how my life is over.
"I got fat. I was getting even lazier. One day I was sitting on my bunk in my underwear, and I just said, I can't do this anymore."
That afternoon, he signed up for classes. He talked to the teachers about what he needed to do to be successful.
He remembers the date Feb. 12, 2008, as if it were his birthday. "No forgetting that day," he says. It was the day he walked out of prison.
I think we can use all the Christmas stories we can get our hands on, and Irby's is a good one.
For the first time in 11 years, he will spend the day with his now-15- year-old daughter, Lyia, in his very own home. Trust me, this is a huge thing.
He was a burglar but, clearly, not a very good one. He explains it this way:
"I was such an avid methamphetamine user, I couldn't reason or think clearly. I had to have money and my drugs somehow, so I resorted to burglary."
Authorities in Denver, Jefferson and Arapahoe counties got him on a host of charges.
"You don't just break into one house and get 14 years," Irby, 41, says flatly.
Through his prison teachers, he entered an intensive, 18-month behavior-modification program. He was to observe others, identify their negative behaviors and apply it to his own life. It opened his eyes, he said.
Once released from prison, he immediately enrolled in James Thomas' offender re-entry program in Aurora called the Road Called STRATE, which seeks to reunite former inmates with their families by helping them find jobs, enroll in school and generally atone for their past.
Irby enrolled first in a parenting class. He "just paid attention," he said. He wanted Lyia back.
Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14039396#ixzz0aQN9oZOz
Colorado court pulls the curtain back on adoption records - The Denver Post
This is still going to be a widespread problem when we still have parents who are losing their children because of prison and policy.
Colorado court pulls the curtain back on adoption records - The Denver Post
Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14045792?_requestid=1445523#ixzz0aQLqJASR
Monday, December 21, 2009
Early Release Program Could Increase Public Safety
Greeley Tribune
Colorado Department of Corrections director Ari Zavaras defended a plan Saturday to reduce prison costs by releasing some prisoners up for parole early.
“We didn't just decide, you know we've got the budget crisis, we've got to save some buck,” he said. “The goal of this is increased public safety. Not only do I not think this is not a public safety risk, I think we're going to increase it, and I think the research has shown that.”
Zavaras — a longtime law enforcement official and former Denver police chief — spoke at a community forum hosted by Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, at the Evans Community Complex. He said some of the revenue saved by the early release program will go to increased monitoring of those on parole and programs to help the prisoners adjust back into society after leaving prison.
More than 50 people, including Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner attended the forum. Garner and Cooke expressed concerns about the plan.
Zavaras told the crowd that since its beginnings in September, only about 12 prisoners have been released early into the northern Colorado region. The early release program — officially known as accelerated release to parole — was announced in August. It is part of the effort to close the state's budget gap this year. The program allows the parole board to release prisoners who are within six months of release early.
The program was initially projected to save $19 million. Karl Spieker, the chief financial officer for the Department of Corrections said that because early releases have been slower than projected, it's too early to tell how much exactly the program will actually save. He said it costs about $20,000 a year to house a prisoner for a year.
Zavaras said that while the first objective of the plan is to improve public safety by giving paroled prisoners a better chance to return to their community without falling back into criminal activity, the budget savings also are important.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Medical pot dispensaries growing at a fast clip - The Denver Post
Medical pot dispensaries growing at a fast clip - The Denver Post
Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14035186#ixzz0aKQcunSo
Officers Label Women WIth Aids
a social worker called up her record.
Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/greene#ixzz0aEey14ON
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Prison Population First Drop Since 1972
DALLAS — The United States may soon see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other.
The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.
"It's a reversal of a trend that's been going on for more than a generation," said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. "In some ways, it's overdue."
The U.S. prison population dropped steadily during most of the 1960s, and there were a few small dips in 1970 and 1972. But it has risen every year since, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
About 739,000 prisoners were admitted to state and federal facilities last year, about 3,500 more than were released, according to new figures from the bureau. The 0.8 percent growth in the prison population is the smallest annual increase this decade and significantly less than the 6.5 percent average annual growth of the 1990s.
Overall, there were 1.6 million prisoners in state and federal prisons at the end of 2008.
In the past, prison populations have been lower when drafts were enacted, including during World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
"People who go to war are young men, and young men are the most likely to get arrested or prosecuted," said James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, a research organization that advises states on prison issues.
The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't involved in a draft.
Instead, the economic crisis forced states to reconsider who they put behind bars and how long they kept them there, said Kim English, research director for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.
In Texas, parole rates were once among the lowest in the nation, with as few as 15 percent of inmates being granted release as recently as five years ago. Now, the parole rate is more than 30 percent after Texas began identifying low-risk candidates for parole.
In Mississippi, a truth-in-sentencing law required drug offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentences. That's been reduced to less than 25 percent.
California's budget problems are expected to result in the release of 37,000 inmates in the next two years. The state also is under a federal court order to shed 40,000 inmates because its prisons are so overcrowded that they are no longer constitutional, Austin said.
States also are looking at ways to keep people from ever entering prison. A nationwide system of drug courts takes first-time felony offenders caught with less than a gram of illegal drugs and sets up a monitoring team to help with case management and therapy.
Studies have touted significant savings with drug courts, saying they cost 10 percent to 30 percent less than it costs to send someone to prison.
"I don't think they work. I know so," said Judge John Creuzot, a state district judge in Dallas.
The reforms in many state prisons and courts come even as crime rates continue to drop nationwide.
"It's economically driven, but the science is there to support it," Austin said. "They are saving money, but not doing it in a way that jeopardizes public safety."
One exception to the trend is Florida, which has enacted a law requiring all convicts to serve a high percentage of their sentences. The law is straining the state's prison resources.
"They know that they are stuck in a time bomb they can't get out of," Austin said.
Cañon City correctional officer avoids prison in bribery case - The Denver Post
Cañon City correctional officer avoids prison in bribery case - The Denver Post
Over the objections of a federal prosecutor, a combat veteran was sentenced Friday to five years of probation rather than prison for selling tobacco to inmates at a Florence prison.
Prosecutors wanted John K. Brownfield Jr. to spend a year and a day in prison, but Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane said he was concerned Brownfield is suffering from trauma due to serving three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Figuratively speaking, Brownfield returned from the war, but never really came home," Kane said.
Brownfield pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official for smuggling tobacco to at least seven inmates in 2007 in exchange for $3,500 in bribes.
The sentence requires Brownfield to participate in any treatment and counseling ordered by his probation officer. If he violates his probation, Brownfield faces prison time.
Brownfield, 25, of Cañon City, is a decorated Air Force veteran and was an independent overseas contractor before he began his job at the Florence prison as a correctional officer.
About three months into his deployment to Afghanistan, Brownfield responded to an explosion where he had to dig out the bodies of three adults and three children, and the incident is just one of many that altered his mental state, the judge wrote in his 28-page order.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda McMahan said there is no evidence that Brownfield has post-traumatic stress disorder and that his abuse of alcohol began before he enlisted in the military.
"I am very sympathetic to the fact that you have a veteran in front of you, but the government has treated this veteran with honor and respect," McMahan said. "He used his prior military service for his own benefit and it allowed him to obtain lucrative contracts overseas."
McMahan also argued in court records that other defendants who committed similar crimes received a sentence of a year and a day and that granting Brownfield a probationary sentence would lead to a sentencing disparity and would not provide a deterrent to other correctional employees.
McMahan said she was not sure whether the government will appeal the sentence.
Brownfield told the judge he was sorry for what he did.
"I understand what I did was wrong and I appreciate the court is hearing both sides about all this," he said. "I hope I will have the chance to change and get help through therapy and counseling."
Brownfield's attorney, Vaughn McClain, said his client did not have an alcohol and anger problem until he returned from his tours of duty.
Kane said he suspects the same and fears prison time won't solve the problem.
Laws clash in medical pot lawsuit - The Denver Post
Laws clash in medical pot lawsuit - The Denver Post CENTENNIAL — As state and local governments try to get a grip on the burgeoning medical-marijuana industry, the city of Centennial defended in court Friday its decision to close down an existing dispensary and institute a six-month moratorium on new ones. Three licensed users of medical marijuana along with the two owners of the CannaMart dispensary tried to convince an Arapahoe County judge that, by closing the dispensary, the city was trying to use federal law to circumvent state law and that it was trying to ban an entire industry. "In January 2000, 54 percent of the state's voters approved Amendment 20 to the state constitution," argued attorney Robert Hoban, representing the users and dispensary owners. "No city gets to decide if Amendment 20 is right or wrong. You can't prevent an entire industry from operating within a community." But attorney Andrew Nathan, representing Centennial, argued before Arapahoe County District Judge Christopher C. Cross that the city had the right to close the dispensary because it violated both local zoning laws and federal drug laws. "Federal law prohibits the use of the marijuana," Nathan said. "So this dispensary never operated legally. It was located in a B-1 zoning area, which is for general office use that does not permit retail sales." Igor Kaminer and Stan Zislis opened the CannaMart Wellness Center on East Arapahoe Road near Interstate 25 on Sept. 18, with a retail-sales license it obtained from Centennial five days earlier. The two claim to have served more than 600 patients before the city issued a cease-and-desist letter on Oct. 15. No sooner did the first witness take the stand for the plaintiffs then Cross stopped the interrogation and asked the witness, Shannon Mosher, a licensed user, if he was aware he was forgoing his Fifth Amendment rights and incriminating himself by admitting he used marijuana. Cross said he had just received an e-mail from Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers saying that she plans to review all trial testimony and consider prosecuting admitted users. She also advised the judge that she thinks the use of marijuana for any reason by people on probation violates the terms of their probation and that she may prosecute them. After examination by the judge, Mosher said he was prepared to continue testifying and that he wasn't worried about being prosecuted. Another witness, Kirsten Lamb, said the same and testified about her use of medical marijuana to treat pain from her multiple sclerosis.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Ritter Administration Stands By Early Release Decision
CNA
More than 200 state inmates—no sex offenders, but probably some convicted of assaults, thefts and drug charges—have left prison so far under a much-debated initiative by Gov. Bill Ritter granting some prisoners parole up to six months early. Ritter administration officials confirmed the updated status of the program this week and say they remain committed to the effort—originally touted as a budget-cutting measure—despite disappointingly low savings.
The early releases, initially projected to save the state budget $19 million, are now likely to net closer to $5 million in savings, according to Ritter administration spokesman Evan Dreyer.
Shortly after the program’s announcement last August, the initiative drew a flurry of attention from the media as well as criticism from some minority Republicans in the legislature who raised concerns about public safety. That was followed by media accounts in October indicating far fewer inmates were deemed appropriate for early release than had been anticipated—meaning scaled-back savings–and that some of those who were being released had extensive and even violent criminal histories.
Dreyer defended the program at the time as “good public policy and good fiscal policy.” However, David Michaud, Chair of the Colorado State Board of Parole, had told the Denver Post that public safety was his primary concern, trumping the budget concerns.
“I’m not going to let someone out early if I don’t think it’s safe,” Michaud said in an Oct. 15 Post report. “I don’t care how much money they save or don’t save.”
The parole board has so far granted early release to a total of 235 prisoners as of Dec. 15. Michaud said today that no prisoners have been released who have committed serious crimes.
Dude, they're putting pot in more than brownies - The Denver Post
Dude, they're putting pot in more than brownies - The Denver Post
DENVER—Any slacker living over his parents' garage can make pot brownies. Gourmet chefs are taking the art of cooking with marijuana to a higher level. In Denver, a new medical-marijuana shop called Ganja Gourmet serves cannabis-infused specialties such as pizza, hummus and lasagna. Across town in the Mile-High City, a Caribbean restaurant plans to offer classes on how to make multi-course meals with pot in every dish.
And in Southern California, a low-budget TV show called "Cannabis Planet" has won fans with a cooking segment showing viewers how to use weed in teriyaki chicken, shrimp capellini and steak sandwiches.
The evolution of pot cooking was perhaps inevitable given the explosion of medical marijuana around the country in recent years. Many health-conscious patients would rather eat the drug than smoke it. And they would prefer to eat something other than sugary treats.
"When I started using marijuana, I was eating a brownie every day. I gained a ton of weight," said Michael DeLao, a former hotel chef who hosts the "Cannabis Planet" cooking segments on Los Angeles' KJLA. "Then I learned how to really cook with marijuana, and once more people learn about all the possibilities, we're going to see a lot more people wanting this in their food."
Ganja Gourmet's menu includes lasagna ("LaGanja"), "Panama Red Pizza" and an olive tapenade called "ganjanade," along with sweets such as cheesecake, muffins and brownies. Employees wear tie-dyed T-shirts that proclaim, "Our food is so great, you need a license to eat it!!!"
All patrons at the Ganja Gourmet must show a medical marijuana card that proves they have a doctor's permission to use pot for some kind of malady. The place opened last week, and so far, 90 percent of its business has been takeout.
How Does Someone In Jail Have A Baby With No One Noticing
Alternet
Over the past year, incarcerated women and their allies have achieved a remarkable string of victories against inhumane treatment. First, they persuaded the Bureau of Prisons to issue a new policy in October 2008 limiting the use of restraints on women who are in labor, giving birth or recovering after childbirth; the Marshals Service, which transports people in federal custody, followed suit. Next, they won legislation in the spring and summer of 2009 restricting the use of restraints on pregnant women in New Mexico, Texas and New York. Finally, they successfully petitioned the US Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit for a rehearing of the full court in a case from Arkansas, which resulted in a ruling in October that shackling women in labor is unconstitutional.
These developments send a strong signal to the rest of the country to stop subjecting women to this dangerous and degrading practice. But what happens to pregnant women in prison before they wind up in chains at a hospital?
When women are brought to a hospital in shackles, the pain and humiliation they endure likely caps months of difficulty from being pregnant behind bars, months without adequate prenatal care or nutrition, or even basics like a bed to sleep on or clothes to accommodate their changing shape.
The lack of common sense and compassion with which imprisoned pregnant women are treated is chilling. Three stories illustrate the dangers women face when they cannot get anyone to take their medical needs seriously.
First, some women are not taken to the hospital until after they have already given birth, despite having informed staff members that they are in labor. Women wind up giving birth in their cells with the assistance of a nurse, corrections officer or cellmates. Others give birth in their cells with nobody to help. Both situations endanger the woman and her baby. Nineteen-year-old Terra K. screamed, pounded on the door and asked for the nurse in the Dubuque County Jail in Iowa, only to give birth alone in her cell. Afterward she asked, "How does somebody have a baby in jail without anybody noticing?"
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Pot dispensary near Stapleton school ignites controversy - The Denver Post
Pot dispensary near Stapleton school ignites controversy - The Denver Post
A medical-marijuana dispensary opening near a high school is creating divided opinions in Denver's Stapleton neighborhood and seems likely to have narrowly beaten new rules that could restrict dispensary operations in the city.
"I voted for medical marijuana, but I didn't expect it to be in my backyard," said Will Robbins,who lives in the neighborhood built on the site of the city's old airport.
Robbins said he has friends with debilitating diseases who would benefit from medical marijuana, which Colorado voters authorized when they passed Amendment 20 in 2000. But he said he worries about the high school students whom he used to coach in lacrosse at the nearby Denver School of Science and Technology, rated the top school in Denver.
"The last thing those students need is a medical-marijuana dispensary within a mile of them, let alone 500 feet," Robbins said.
Tonya Le, a server at the An's Lemon Grass Grille restaurant in the same commercial complex as the planned dispensary, said she doesn't understand all the fuss.
The restaurant serves alcohol near the high school but follows pertinent regulations and doesn't sell to those underage, Le said. Surely, a business selling medial marijuana could also follow proper regulations, she said.
Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14005945#ixzz0Zrm4kYTT
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Cannais Therapy Institute Reform Calendar
Please attend some of these upcoming meetings and events to get further
involved in medical cannabis reform and patient rights.
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Denver City Council Safety Committee Meeting
When: Wed., Dec. 16
Time: 8:30 am
Where: Council Conference Room, Room 391
City & County Building
1437 Bannock Street, Denver, CO
On the west side of the Civic Center Park.
What: Discuss Councilman Charlie Brown's proposed medical marijuana
ordinance
Email: Denver City Council dencc@ci.denver.co.us
Click here to read Charlie Brown's proposal (PDF file)
http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com/bills/denver.city.ordinance.draft3.09.11.30.pdf
Click here to read attorney Rob Corry's comments on the proposal
http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com/bills/denver.city.ordinance.corry.comments.pdf
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Court Hearing in Centennial on Constitutionality of Medical Marijuana
Business Ban
When: Fri., Dec. 18
Time: 1:30 pm
Where: Arapahoe County District Court
7325 S. Potomac St., Centennial, CO
What: A coalition of medical marijuana patients and caregivers are
challenging the City of Centennial's decision to shut down CannaMart, a
medical cannabis caregiving business. Attorneys Bob Hoban, Rob Corry, and
Jessica Corry will appear for the plaintiffs.
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Sensible Colorado Stakeholder Meeting
When: Sat., De. 19, 2009
Time: 1-4pm
Where: University of Denver Sturm College of Law: Forum
2255 East Evans Ave., Denver, CO 80208-0001
What: Stakeholder Meeting to craft a unified legislative agenda for 2010.
Sponsored by: Sensible Colorado
Contact: Brian Vicente <info@sensible.org>
For more information:
http://www.sensiblecolorado.org
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NORML Monthly Re-Legalization Rally
When: Dec. 26, 2009
Time: 3pm to 5pm
Where: State Capitol Building, West Steps, Denver, CO
What: Activists will be educating the public and distributing directories
of all the state legislators. Merry Cannabis and Hempy Holidays.
Sponsored by: Mile High NORML
For more information:
http://www.myspace.com/420rally
http://www.milehighnorml.org
AIDS Activists Cheer End to Ban on Needle Exchange Funding
AIDS Activists Cheer End to Ban on Needle Exchange Funding
For years, needle exchange programs in three dozen states have provided clean needles to intravenous drug users as a way to reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. But the programs have relied solely on state and local funding because of a longtime ban at the federal level, where some have regarded needle exchange as an incentive for drug addicts to continue to use.
"People have been afraid that this is going to conflict with some sort of zero tolerance policy," says Bill McColl, who is with the Washington D.C.-based advocacy group AIDS Action. He says the vote to lift the ban is a vote for science over outdated stereotypes.
"There are eight federal reports that show that syringe exchange will decrease HIV and Hepatitis," he says. "It doesn't increase substance abuse. You know, this is a real opportunity to do some serious outreach to a population that is often overlooked."
In some places, such as Maine, needle exchange rates have been on the rise. At the Eastern Maine AIDS Network, for example, about 4,000 dirty needles are swapped out for clean ones every month. Just three years ago, only 300 clean needles were given out monthly.
Observers credit a new director with effective outreach. But Maine has also had an increase in IV drug use. And Andrew Bossie of the Maine AIDS Alliance says that's why federal funding for needle exchange is so important -- as many as 12 percent of people being infected with HIV are getting infected by injecting drugs.
"So we're really very happy that the U.S. House and Senate have lifted this ban and that we're on our way to more sound policies that prevent the spread of HIV."
Though it's a rural state, Maine has four needle exchange programs which Bossie says are all facing funding problems. Around the country there are about 200. President Obama has previously expressed support for liftting the ban on federal funding of needle exchange as a way to reduce rates of infection.
And while his expected signing of the bill later this month won't guarantee programs get additional funding, activists say it could give more options to those affected by state and local budget cuts.
Pot Advocates Have Signatures For Ballot
SF Gate
(12-14) 16:56 PST SACRAMENTO -- Advocates of legalizing marijuana say they've collected more than enough signatures to have California voters decide next year whether to tax and regulate the drug.
The signatures in support of the Tax and Regulate Initiative, which would give local governments the authority to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana, will be submitted to state election officials early next year for verification.
Delaying the submission of signatures improves the chances that the measure will be on the ballot in November, said Richard Lee, the measure's chief supporter.
The petition drive collected more than 680,000 signatures in two months, less than half the time allowed for such a drive, said Lee, who owns two marijuana businesses in Oakland - Oaksterdam University and Coffeeshop Blue Sky.
The signature-gathering effort, which was managed by a professional firm and so far has cost more than $1 million, needs 433,971 valid signatures from registered voters to make the ballot, he said.
"It's long overdue," Lee said. "It was very easy. People were eager to sign. We heard they were ripping the petitions out of people's hands to do it."
He said supporters hope to raise $7 million to $20 million to pass the measure. Law enforcement groups, including a group of narcotics officers, are expected to oppose the measure if the initiative qualifies for the ballot.
Proponents of the initiative say it is similar to the regulation of alcohol and tobacco products. It would give local governments the power to tax and regulate sales of small amounts of marijuana to adults 21 and older.
The measure also calls for increasing penalties for providing marijuana to a minor and prohibits consumption of marijuana in public, smoking marijuana while minors are present and possession of marijuana on school grounds.
Supporters say studies from the Board of Equalization, California's tax regulator, suggest that taxing and regulating of marijuana could raise as much as $1.4 billion in annual revenue.
The possibility of raising such revenue in cash-strapped California, which faces a $22 billion budget deficit in the coming year, has sparked support from some surprising sources.
"This initiative is moral, sensible and the right thing to do," Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn of the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative, an effort by religious groups to ease drug laws, said Monday. "Regulating cannabis is a common-sense solution that puts our priorities in order and reflects our values."
A recent California Field Poll suggested that a majority of California voters, 56 percent, support the idea of legalizing and taxing cannabis.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Villafuerte withdraws as U.S. attorney nominee - The Denver Post
Villafuerte withdraws as U.S. attorney nominee - The Denver Post
Stephanie Villafuerte has withdrawn her name from consideration to become Colorado's next U.S. Attorney.
In a letter to President Barack Obama, who nominated her for the post, and Attorney General Eric Holder, Villafuerte said she was confident she would have "served well in this important position" but was withdrawing because of "political attacks" surrounding her role in the 2006 Colorado gubernatorial campaign.
"Unfortunately, a needless and extraneous political fight has emerged in Colorado and that fight, in my judgment has completely overshadowed the deliberative and independent assessment of my qualifications for this important office," Villafuerte wrote. "I continue to stand by my statements and maintain that my involvement was appropriate at all times."
The move comes two days after U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked that consideration of her nomination as Colorado U.S. attorney be delayed because her record is "incomplete."
Carroll: Colorado's marijuana mess - The Denver Post
Carroll: Colorado's marijuana mess - The Denver Post
State lawmakers shouldn't kid themselves about the looming fork in the road for medical marijuana, or the inescapable tradeoffs.
On the one hand, they can pass some version of Denver Sen. Chris Romer's plan to provide state licenses to marijuana dispensaries and growers. But if do, they'll solidify a marijuana industry that serves not only a rapidly growing number of genuine patients but many recreational-minded frauds as well. And Colorado will have created, in one fell swoop, a class of potentially influential marijuana entrepreneurs.
Or, lawmakers can elect to return to the medical marijuana model that Colorado followed before this year's explosion of retail dispensaries (brought about in part by a change in federal enforcement policy). If they take this path, the industry will once again sink below the public's radar as dispensaries disappear. Meanwhile, however, hundreds and maybe thousands of legitimate patients who swear by marijuana's effectiveness will be forced into an anxious world where they secure their pain or nausea relief from unregulated strangers.
As the debate sharpens, advocates on either side will deny this tradeoff exists. Some will claim that the previous system worked just fine and that dispensaries cater to a clientele that for the most part is gaming the system. Their opponents, meanwhile, will pack hearing rooms with patients relating poignant stories of their suffering before dispensaries emerged, while insisting that a well-written law will screen out bad actors.
Neither side's claims are fully believable.
A plan for medical marijuana - The Denver Post
A plan for medical marijuana - The Denver Post
Marijuana. Most people see it as a recreational drug and are skeptical of its tangible, medical benefits for patients with chronic pain, including those whose use of prescribed narcotics often leaves them vulnerable to addiction.
Take, for instance, Janice Beecher. A Coloradan since 1968, she suffers from osteoarthritis and chronic back pain. Until recently, she had to take as much as four oxycodone just to make it through the day. Fortunately for her, a permit to use marijuana legally allows her to live without debilitating pain to go days without taking this highly addictive drug.
Janice explained that "the blessing comes with the knowledge that I can pick what works for me at the dispensary. I don't have to just take what I can get on the black market."
It is cases like Janice's that compel us to make common sense policy for medical marijuana usage. Colorado voters spoke clearly when they passed a constitutional amendment that permitted medical marijuana use, but the amendment left many oversight and regulatory questions unanswered. That is why we are acting in 2010 to honor the intent of the constitution and help patients.
We need a model that, on the one hand, destigmatizes and makes available medical marijuana for those who have a medical need, and on the other, keeps it out of the hands of recreational users and black market dealers. The amendment did not fully legalize marijuana. To that end, any legislation must address the needs of a number of interested parties.
Patients must have access to physicians in good standing who can make sound recommendations. They also need reasonable access to dispensaries, and some assurance that the marijuana is safe and legally grown.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Inmate who won settlement after prison rape complains about being kept amid sex offenders - The Denver Post
Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_13986806#ixzz0ZZTALMMS
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Lifelong Criminal Puts His Past Behind Him
The New York Times
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- On a rare visit to his childhood home, Eddie Williams is 16 again, peering down a shotgun barrel as he crouches in the kitchen doorway. The intruder then swivels and shoots, and Williams sees his mother, a pastor's widow, tumble face down on the yellow linoleum floor.
''I was never scared, just shocked,'' he recalls in a voice husky with emotion. ''I distinctly remember the blood coming from under her.''
Twenty-five years have passed and the careworn house on Tremont Street is hardly changed. Williams points out the two-story rear extension his father built to accommodate 11 children, and it triggers a tide of happy memories. ''I can never say I didn't feel love as a child,'' he says.
At 41, having spent more than half his adult years behind bars for a string of drug-fueled burglaries and thefts, Williams is back chasing ghosts. Released from prison in January for a fourth time, he has signed up with a re-entry program designed to help even high-risk convicts adjust better outside.
By late summer, he hasn't found a job, has broken up with a longtime girlfriend and is looking the worse for wear. So the old questions loom once more: Can Eddie Williams put his life of drug addiction and crime behind him, soothe family betrayals, find a redemptive place in a society that has passed him by?
Ann Graham, who oversees therapy, job training and other re-entry services at Catholic Family Center, gives newly released inmates plain advice: ''You're not good at this, so stop doing it.'' Williams would agree: During one drug-addled break-in, he sat down to eat a sandwich, dozed off and was awakened by a cop.
An internal change is invariably the key, re-entry advocates say. The 380 men in this year's Rochester-area program, a model tried across New York since 2006 after finding success in Georgia, Michigan and other states, range from 16 years on up. It's the older ones who seem to hear Graham's message best.
''The hardest thing for many guys, especially as they get old, is to have anything to live for when they get out,'' she says. ''They've burned a lot of bridges, and the connections they make get broken over and over again.
''In the end, most want what everybody else wants, to earn a decent living, have a family who will love them and who they can love. Unfortunately, a lot take this very circuitous route'' before realizing that what ''really makes them happy in life, they're X-ing themselves out of by their actions.''
Friday, December 11, 2009
Sentence Commission Is A Sentence, For It's Members
State Bill
LAKEWOOD — The Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice’s sentencing commission met today to vote on recommendations for legislation modifying state prison sentences.
There didn’t seem to be much headway.
Since January, the committee has held monthly meetings to discuss and vote on recommendations for sentencing reform bills in efforts to save the state budget from the vice-like grip of prison costs and overcrowding.
Last month, the committee voted the recommendations that were to be made to the legislature. They were to make their final decisions today. After votes were submitted on reopening DUI issues for discussion, confusion resulted on what committee members voted for in regards to putting recommendations up for discussion.
“I’m sensing some confusion here on what people just voted on,” Jeanne Smith, director of the Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Justice, said to a room filled with 23 exhausted-looking committee members. The meeting was moved back nearly two hours to open a discussion on the recommendations and further explanation of voting protocol.
Colorado Public Defender Doug Wilson and Adams County District Attorney Don Quick both agreed that today’s meeting went much slower than others, noting that confusion surrounding voting was at fault.
“This is the slowest flow of information we’ve ever had at a meeting,” Quick said. “The pace has been tough on everyone.”
One hot topic were the DUI recommendations, including the question of removing mandatory jail sentences for those with repeated driving offenses of non alcoholic-related crimes. Wilson was noticeably frustrated over the confusion over the DUI sentencing that arose as a result of a Denver Post article that reported a staggering number of repeat DUI offenders.
“A little bit of confusion is normal for large meetings like this,” said Attorney General John Suthers, who warned the committee that he wasn’t “going to testify on a bill that did not come out of this committee.”
Sentence Reform Panel Meeting Today
State Bill
By Ali McNally, STATE BILL COLORADO
Reform is a must for the tight grip prison costs have on the state budget. But reaching an agreement on recommendations to cut sentences for non-violent crimes hasn’t been the easiest task.
A report released last month by the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, which was created to organize the process of sentence reform, shows just minor proposed changes to sentencing for DUI and escape offenses.
At a meeting today, the commission will vote on revisions and recommendations for:
- the language of a provision that will affect probation sentences for those with multiple past felonies.
- DUI sentencing, on issues such as consistency, probation, bond statutes and eliminating non-alcohol related driving offenses as prerequisites for mandatory jail sentences for DUI offenders.
- drug possession sentencing. State Bill will cover the event. Please return to this site for full coverage.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Run On Sentencing
Colorado Springs Independent
It took a single legislative amendment in 1985 to double the prison sentences for Colorado felons. Other laws created "mandatory minimums" for certain crimes or stiffened penalties for the ones thought to show "extraordinary risk."
Going the opposite direction hasn't been as easy, even with prison costs helping to crush the state budget. Last spring, legislators balked at a wide-ranging proposal to cut sentences for many nonviolent crimes, instead passing a law requiring the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice to examine the matter.
But the 27-member group's report, released in late November, only recommends minor changes to sentencing for drunk driving or escaping from detention. On Friday, Dec. 11, the panel will vote on recommending other possible changes to drug sentencing laws, including separating the crime of simply possessing a few grams of a drug from the one of getting ready to sell it.
Regardless, don't expect big headlines from the group's work. Doug Wilson, the state's public defender and a commission member, sounds a wry note of frustration when asked to talk about its progress so far.
"Hold on a minute," he says when reached by phone Monday, coming back moments later with an explanation: "I had to roll my eyes."
In the commission's 96-page report, which was greeted with deafening silence, the most notable recommendation could be this: People convicted of simple charges who walk away from halfway houses and the like should not be treated as harshly as the handful who actually escape from jails and prisons.
As for what to do with extraordinary-risk crimes and other mandatory sentencing requirements? Two words: "Further study."
"As far as I can tell," Wilson says, "we've addressed some low-hanging fruit."
Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, co-sponsored last session's proposal to shorten sentences, and is one of four legislators on the commission. He says reform is essential — "there's no evidence that longer sentences protect public safety at all," he says — and sees the commission's work, slow as it may be, as the best way to achieve it.
Rep. Mark Waller, a Colorado Springs Republican who recently joined Morse and Co., says he thinks the commission is making "a real attempt to reduce sentences." That could be useful for nonviolent drug offenders, he adds, but he's still waiting to hear what alternatives to prison could help them recover.
And that's what Wilson calls the "ultimate Catch-22": Prisons cost a fortune to run, but they're judges' main option for sentencing. Developing treatment and job programs might ultimately save money, but there's no cash to get them started.
The bill Morse sponsored this year, which Wilson backed, was supposed to solve that problem. It proposed using some money saved by shortened sentences to pay for programs aimed at reducing the number of people getting out of prison only to go right back.
Current proposals are less ambitious. One, supported by Waller, would eliminate a mandatory five-day jail sentence for anyone caught driving with a suspended license. (It wouldn't touch the stiffer penalties for those whose licenses were suspended for drunken driving.)
Wilson says he's heard grumbles that even this idea could be argued over at Friday's meeting, as could proposals for changing drug sentencing laws. He offers a grim prediction: "It's going to be a big pissing match."
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Will Colorado Republicans Show Fiscal Leadership on Prison Spending
The Huffington Post
Republicans often claim to be the party of fiscal conservatism and limited government. But Republican lawmakers in Colorado show little enthusiasm for applying those principles to Colorado's hugely expensive prison bureaucracy. So when sentencing reform bills pop up in the next legislative session, it will be an excellent opportunity for Republicans to show if they really are the party of fiscal discipline, or if they are going to leave the heavy lifting to the Democrat majority.
In 1985, the Colorado Legislature arbitrarily doubled the maximum penalties in Colorado's presumptive sentencing range for all levels (and all types) of felony crimes. Colorado's inmate population more than doubled in the next five years. It has more than doubled again since, growing at a rate significantly faster than the state's overall population.
Along the way, lawmakers have continued to enact numerous new laws which have created new sentencing enhancements, and even new crimes, often with less than clear public safety benefit.
In a desperate effort to keep pace with the capacity demands of such unprecedented prison growth, successive legislatures and governors have pushed corrections spending over the last twenty years from less than 3 percent to nearly 9 percent of the state's general fund, or from around $97 million to over $675 million of general fund appropriation.
That's a more than 10 percent annual compound growth rate in prison spending. In other words, for decades now, "fiscal conservatives" have been eager and active participants in one of the most extreme spending sprees in state history.
Late in the 2009 legislative session, Democratic Senator John Morse of Colorado Springs introduced Senate Bill 286, which would have kept our current very tough sentences for violent and sex crimes, while re-writing a significant portion of Colorado's criminal code. Morse was joined by a group of liberal and progressive Democrat sponsors and prime co-sponsors including Senator Morgan Carroll of Aurora and Representatives Claire Levy of Boulder and Mike Merrifield of Colorado Springs. Dozens of other Democrats signed on to the bill.
The Republican opposition was both unified and visceral. Senate minority leader Josh Penry of Grand Junction called SB 286 "radical" and "wrong." Senator Scott Renfroe of Greeley said the bill "caves into crime."
Click on the link above for more...
Shelter space sparse for solo homeless women in Denver - The Denver Post
Shelter space sparse for solo homeless women in Denver - The Denver Post On Monday night, when the temperature dropped to 5 degrees in metro Denver, as many as 35 solo homeless women were turned away from city shelters. Although the number of unaccompanied homeless women in the metro area has tripled since 2007 — to 1,606 from 552, according to the 2009 Metro Denver Homeless Initiative's point-in-time survey — there are only 241 shelter beds for solo women available in Denver. Emergency-shelter beds "are extremely limited for women," said Geoff Bennett, director of the Samaritan House. "There are many more men's beds than there are beds for women." When the beds fill up, some of the women may receive motel vouchers, but they must meet certain criteria. And if they don't, they must fend for themselves. On some cold days, they go to The Gathering Place — a homeless resource center on High Street, near East Colfax Avenue — to work the phones, looking for a place to bunk. On Tuesday afternoon, facing a forecast overnight low of minus 5, Laurallee Rucker said she was thinking about getting arrested on a misdemeanor so she'd have a warm place to stay. Bernadette Ortega said she had slept on the street for the past three nights of single-digit temperatures, huddled in a cardboard box outside a downtown church. On Tuesday afternoon, unable to find a bed for the night, she panhandled on Colfax, trying to get $42 for a hotel room. "It's really messed up," Ortega said, frustrated at her inability to find shelter. "No matter how early you get up, whoever you call, the beds are already full." For the first time, the city this year funded 15 overflow emergency beds at The Delores Project, the city's largest shelter for solo women. Women who can't get an emergency bed may be eligible for motel vouchers. But not every woman qualifies. Some women are on a do-not-readmit list because they have caused problems in the past. And experts said the vouchers are available only to people who have lived in Denver for 60 days. Each person is limited to 12 nights of motel vouchers annually, although "we're not going to be hard and fast with that on a night like tonight," said Denver Human Services spokeswoman Jamie Glennon. "We are trying to do everything possible to get these women connected to services. We want to make sure these women are indoors during the cold weather."
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
American's Prison Spree Has Brutal Impact
National Journal
The trend toward long-term imprisonment of nonviolent offenders has made us no safer while ruining countless lives.
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.
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.
Forty percent of these prisoners are black, 20 percent are Hispanic, and most are poor and uneducated. This has had a devastating impact on poor black families and neighborhoods, where it has become the norm for young men -- many of them fathers -- to spend time in prison and emerge bitter, unemployable, and unmarriageable. (These numbers come from studies cited by Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a reform group.)
America imprisons seven times as many people as it did in 1972, several times as many per capita as other Western nations, and many more than any other nation in the world.
Yes, violent criminals should be locked up for long enough to protect the rest of us. But the mass, long-term imprisonment of nonviolent, nondangerous offenders in recent decades and excessive terms for others has made us no safer while ruining countless lives and converting potentially productive citizens into career criminals.
The 13-year-old rapist and the 17-year-old serial robber-burglar who are serving life without parole in two Florida cases inspired impassioned comments from justices with opposing views. But the outcome may not have much impact on these two prisoners or anyone else. Even if the Court strikes down their sentences, the state will be free to resentence them to serve, say, 40 years before being eligible for parole, and thereafter to deny successive parole applications until they die. And even if the Court upholds life without parole, the state will be free in the future to relent and release them.
Monday, December 07, 2009
Job Fair For Veterans
Veterans Deserve Best Treatment For Addiction
DET News
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a Michigan Democrat, has been a leader in expanding the availability of treatment for Americans suffering from heroin addiction. In 2000, he co-sponsored with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the Drug Addiction Treatment Act -- groundbreaking legislation that allows community-based physicians to treat opioid-dependent patients with buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is similar to methadone, which has more than 40 years of proven effectiveness, but which may only be used by comprehensive treatment programs; both medications have a high degree of success in treating dependency on heroin and prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin.
In 2006, Levin sponsored another bill that substantially increased the number of patients for whom physicians can prescribe buprenorphine. At that time, he noted "the great success of buprenorphine treatment" and continued, "It is tragic if the personal and community benefits of this new anti-addiction medication ... are limited because of artificial limits on its use."
Unfortunately, precisely such "artificial limits" persist, and one of the greatest barriers to care is our Department of Defense. In clear defiance of congressional intent and ignoring decades of proven efficacy of medication-assisted treatment, the Department's TRICARE insurance plan refuses to pay for any maintenance treatment for addiction. And who are the people desperately seeking and needing help, but being denied coverage? American military, veterans and their families, including survivors of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their country and been killed in action.
Ex Con Tries Talking Sense Into Wayward Teens
The Gazette
Tillman Clifton sits down with eight teenagers in a room in Colorado Springs municipal court.
The kids, ages 13 to 17, have been sent here by Teen Court for offenses ranging from shoplifting to fighting to marijuana possession.
They look like there are plenty of places they’d rather be. Two brothers slouch in their chairs, never taking off their coats. A girl sits anxiously on the edge of her seat. One boy, sitting the farthest away, is wearing a pair of woolen gloves. He swivels his chair constantly.
But when Clifton starts to speak, the teens seem riveted as the 35-year-old ex-convict and former Chicago gang member tells them his life story as part of a program called “Straight Talk.”
He tells them his mother was a crack addict. He and his brothers and sisters went to live with her after their parents split up.
“We had Christmas 12 times a year — at the beginning of each month when the food stamps came in,” he explains. On those days, his mother would bring back buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken and videos.
By the end of the month, the kids learned to beg food from neighbors, he said.
When a friend was badly beaten by a drug dealer, his friends started walking the streets in twos and threes for protection. When they got a chance to inflict payback on the dealer, they took it.
“So before we realized it, we had become a gang. We weren’t just a group of friends any more,” he said. “We quickly forgot what we had started for and became what we didn’t want to be.”
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Prisoners Story Not An Isolated Case
The Denver Post
It would be easier never to have heard of Tommy Silverstein.
The convicted bank robber is locked in the federal Supermax in Florence until 2095 for killing two fellow inmates and fatally stabbing a guard.
I don't defend the former member of the Aryan Brotherhood, considered one of the country's most dangerous prisoners. I'm far less interested in him than in his quarter-century in extreme isolation and in what those conditions mean about us and our system.
Silverstein, 57, has lived behind bars since age 20. He spent 26 years under a "no human contact order."
He did a year in a federal pen in Atlanta, where he was permitted no books or clothes. Then came a transfer to Leavenworth, where his 6-by-7-foot basement cell was infested with rats.
Next, he spent 15 years in another cell at Leavenworth known as the Silverstein Suite. He lived under constant surveillance and the buzz of 24-hour fluorescent lighting.
Guards refused to speak to him as a way of honoring the guard he killed.
Silverstein transferred in 2005 to a similar lockdown in the secretive Range 13 at Florence where only one other prisoner, World Trade Center bomber Ramsey Yusef, was housed. Each was locked in cages within cages in the most restrictive unit of the country's highest security prison.
Silverstein taught himself to read, write and sketch in prison. He never knew how long his isolation would last or what he could do to end it.
"A
sick trip," is how he describes conditions about which he's suing the Bureau of Prisons for cruel and unusual punishment. There are good reasons why prisons use isolation, which prevents violence and provides a disincentive for inmates to kill guards.
But there are better reasons against it, one of which is it may amount to legalized torture. Social contact, the argument goes, is an identifiable human need. People — even the worst of us — need people.
American POWs call isolation as agonizing as physical abuse. Condemned worldwide, isolation units "impose pointless suffering and humiliation" and "reflect a stunning disregard of the fact that all prisoners . . . are members of the human community," reads a report by Human Rights Watch.
A bipartisan federal commission on prison policies deemed extreme confinement to be "expensive and soul destroying," and recommended that prisons "end conditions of isolation."
"When we think about people being waterboarded overseas by our government, the idea of sitting in a cell with three meals a day doesn't seem that bad," says Laura Rovner, professor at DU law school's civil-rights clinic. "But that doesn't account for the scars you can't see or the devastating human erosion."
Silverstein's case has sat for two years as prosecutors try to dismiss it in court. Meantime, Rovner and her students bring a level of human contact that he hadn't had since before most of the 20-somethings were born.
His gratitude comes weekly in letters to the clinic penned in meticulous handwriting and in sketches that are exquisite both in their pain and tenderness.
It's tempting not to look closely at the self-portraits, and not to let yourself feel the loneliness. It's easier not to think about the artist with the steady ballpoint and all the other prisoners whose lives we're draining of meaning.
Friday, December 04, 2009
Details Emerge In Prison Murder
Westword
Last week, we reported on the bludgeoning death of inmate Ronald Ferguson, a convicted child molester, at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility outside of Canon City.
A fifty-year-old habitual offender serving time for kidnapping and sexual assault on a child, Ferguson was struck repeatedly in the head with a metal bar; his alleged assailant, Kevin Lust, is serving a life sentence for the murders of his wife and ex-fiancee.
Now, inmate sources have come forward with more details that raise questions about general security issues at Territorial and whether Ferguson was being set up for attack. If their reports are correct, Ferguson begged corrections officers to protect him from Lust, given a history of altercations between the two, but was ignored.
"Apparently, these guys got into a fight some 7-8 months ago in the kitchen," one inmate writes. "They were separated and sent to different units."
Medical pot supporters rally at state Capitol - The Denver Post
Medical pot supporters rally at state Capitol - The Denver Post
DENVER—Acknowledging that they have an image problem, supporters of medical marijuana held a rally at the Colorado Capitol on Friday to support better regulation of their industry. About a dozen people braved subfreezing temperatures on the west steps of the Capitol to speak on behalf of the Colorado Patients and Providers Coalition, which says it wants to reassure Coloradans that the medical marijuana industry is legitimate.
Ohio To Switch To One Drug Lethal Injection
Executions will use a single drug, thiopental sodium, "in an amount sufficient to cause death," Attorney General Richard Cordray's office said in filing in U.S. District Court in Columbus. The drug is an anesthetic.
The new procedure will be in place by Nov 30.
The new procedure is similar to one used in euthanizing pets a massive dose of an anesthetic. The drug is also sometimes used in medically-induced comas.
Ohio will be the first state in the U.S. to use the one-drug procedure.
The state filing also listed a new backup procedure, if the first one doesn't work or can't be used.
The backup method involves an injection with a needle into a large muscle such as the arm or upper thigh. It was described as "much like a flu shot." One of the drugs to be used is Dilaudid, a commonly used painkiller.
"I have full confidence that this protocol will allow my staff the ability to fulfill our legally mandated obligation in carrying out the execution process for the state of Ohio," said Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction officials announced the new execution procedures this afternoon. The state has been considering a major overhaul of lethal injection procedures since problems forced a halt in the Sept. 15 execution of Romell Broom of Cleveland.
It was the first time in modern U.S. history that an execution had to be abandoned after it was started.
State officials have been consulting with Dr. Mark Dershwitz, a University of Massachusetts professor of anesthesiology, in developing a new process.
Ohio would become the first state to make major changes in a three-drug execution process that was essentially copied by 35 states from Oklahoma, where it was developed by an anesthesiologist in 1977.
Medical marijuana gets a boost from major doctors group -- latimes.com
Medical marijuana gets a boost from major doctors group -- latimes.com The American Medical Assn. on Tuesday urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research.
The nation's largest physicians organization, with about 250,000 member doctors, the AMA has maintained since 1997 that marijuana should remain a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive category, which also includes heroin and LSD.
In changing its policy, the group said its goal was to clear the way to conduct clinical research, develop cannabis-based medicines and devise alternative ways to deliver the drug.
"Despite more than 30 years of clinical research, only a small number of randomized, controlled trials have been conducted on smoked cannabis," said Dr. Edward Langston, an AMA board member, noting that the limited number of studies was "insufficient to satisfy the current standards for a prescription drug product."
The decision by the organization's delegates at a meeting in Houston marks another step in the evolving view of marijuana, which an AMA report notes was once linked by the federal government to homicidal mania. Since California voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 1996, marijuana has moved steadily into the cultural mainstream spurred by the growing awareness that it can have beneficial effects for some chronically ill people.
This year, the Obama administration sped up that drift when it ordered federal narcotics agents not to arrest medical marijuana users and providers who follow state laws. Polls show broadening support for marijuana legalization.
Thirteen states allow the use of medical marijuana, and about a dozen more have considered it this year.
The AMA, however, also adopted as part of its new policy a sentence that admonishes: "This should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product."
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Denver Council Crafting Regulations For Pot Shops
The Denver Post
Denver City Council members suggested today that they would bar those convicted of recent felonies from getting into the business of dispensing medical marijuana.
The council held no formal vote on a package of proposed regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries from Councilman Charlie Brown and agreed to meet in committee again Dec. 16 to continue hashing out the issue.
A full set of regulations likely will go before the council in January for final consideration.
Brown originally had submitted a proposal that required applicants for a marijuana dispensaries to state whether they had "ever been convicted of a felony, or of violating any federal, state or local law governing the manufacture, distribution, possession or use of controlled substances."
Sensitive that the issue would be debated, Brown noted on his draft proposal that the issue was subject to further discussion on just what should be a disqualifying conviction.
The broad language struck a few council members as too onerous.
Council members settled on felony convictions as the place to draw the line and further decided such a disqualifying conviction would be within five years of completion of a felony sentence.
Councilman Chris Nevitt said he thought using recent felonies as a disqualification was a compromise that would work, but he cautioned against overregulating the industry.
Nevitt said the city doesn't do criminal background checks for those who want to open up donut shops or jewelry stores. Further, he said medical marijuana once was deemed illegal by state officials so it wouldn't be a surprise if some of those getting into the business might have had brushes with the law.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Senate Committee To Debate Criminal Justice Commission
This Thursday, December 3, members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will debate Senate Bill 714, The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009.
Senate Bill 714 will establish a `National Criminal Justice Commission’ to “undertake a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system … and make reform recommendations for the President.” The lead sponsor of this measure, Democrat Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, has remarked that this review ought to include a debate of federal marijuana policy, including regulating marijuana like alcohol.
It’s been many years since a federally appointed commission has taken an objective look at American criminal justice policies, and it’s been nearly 40 years since federal lawmakers have undertaken a critical examination of U.S. marijuana policy. Please take time today to urge your United States senators to support Senate Bill 714. If your senators sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, then it is especially important that that they hear from you.
Medical pot advocates roll out poll showing support - The Denver Post
Medical pot advocates roll out poll showing support - The Denver Post Medical marijuana advocates released a poll Monday they said shows overwhelming support — by a 2-to-1 margin — for licensing and regulating cannabis dispensaries popping up across Colorado. The poll comes as lawmakers are drafting legislation to regulate the burgeoning industry, a response to legal developments that have left local governments and medical marijuana dispensaries seeking clarity. "There's vast public support for responsibly regulated medical marijuana," said Matt Brown, executive director of Coloradoans for Medical Marijuana Regulation, a coalition of dispensaries and growers that helped sponsor the poll. However, Attorney General John Suthers, a Republican who has opposed medical marijuana as violating federal law, made little of the poll results. "It's easy to say in a vacuum that voters support the type of medical marijuana distribution system that the dispensary owners advocate, but the devil is in the details," Suthers said. "Once the voters understand the full extent that the current system is being abused to allow healthy young people to procure marijuana, they will be much less likely to support it." The telephone poll of 500 likely Colorado voters asked just one question regarding medical marijuana. In the survey, which had a margin of error of 4.38 percent, respondents were first told there were "some proposals that voters might be voting on in the election next November."
