Despite mechanical breakdowns we commenced our tour on time at 11am August 11th 2010 at Cape Reinga. There is no mobile internet or phone access at Cape Reinga so we were unable to broadcast live via the internet but we did record the 11am statement. Here is the raw footage.

The tour will see Mary Jane the Cannabus, along with it’s newly pained support vehicles. painted support vehicles, head from Cape Reinga, to the Bluff, and back up to Auckland, stopping by all of the countries electoral offices to spread the truth about cannabis, and to show support for users around the world.

If you are looking to be a part of the tour, then you can ether help us make some noise at 2pm outside your local MPs office when we visit your town, or stop by at our mobile Daktory, which will be setup each night. If you are looking for more info then check out the Armistice Tour 2010 information page, or email us at armistice.tour@thedaktory.org.nz.

The Daktory, live like it’s legal!

Two ideologically diverse advocates on Wednesday echoed an earlier call by a coalition of drug-policy reform groups by condemning a series of recent raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration on medical marijuana collectives operating legally under state law.

The Tenth Amendment Center, a group that advocates for states’ rights, and Jane Hamsher, the publisher of Firedoglake.com, called on the DEA to respect duly adopted state medical marijuana laws and immediately end those raids.

“The federal government is only authorized to exercise those powers that ‘We The People’ delegated to it in the Constitution,” said Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center. “It is especially egregious when these laws are used to justify raids in states where the use and distribution of cannabis is expressly allowed by law.”

“How many hundreds of thousands of people are going to be arrested before We The People say ‘enough is enough’?” Boldin asked. “The time to end this unconstitutional, immoral, and costly federal war on people is now.”

Under the “leadership” of acting administrator Michele Leonhart, the DEA has staged medical marijuana raids in apparent disregard of Attorney General Eric Holder’s directive to respect state medical marijuana laws.

Most recently, DEA agents flouted a pioneering Mendocino County, California ordinance to regulate medical marijuana cultivation by raiding the very first grower to register with the sheriff. Joy Greenfield, 69, had paid more than $1,000 for a permit to cultivate 99 plants in a collective garden that had been inspected and approved by the local sheriff.

Told that Greenfield had the support of the sheriff, the DEA agent in charge responded by saying, “I don’t care what the sheriff says.”

The DEA’s conduct is inconsistent with an October 2009 Department of Justice memo directing officials not to prosecute individuals “whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”

“At least 73 percent of Americans support medical marijuana, according to recent polls, and its use has been made legal in 14 states plus the District of Columbia,” said Jane Hamsher, publisher of progressive political blog and advocacy group Firedoglake.com.

“Attorney General Eric Holder was crystal clear last year when he directed officials within his department not to waste federal resources interfering with state medical marijuana laws,” Hamsher said. “Yet throughout the tenure of President Obama’s administration, the DEA’s raids have continued in a manner wholly inconsistent with the spirit of that directive.”

“What part of ‘not a priority does Michele Leonhart not understand?” Hamsher asked.

“We are pleased that opposition to the DEA’s over-aggressive behavior is spreading across the political spectrum,” said Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project.

“The agency is defiantly sending agents on missions to destroy the private property of citizens who are in full compliance with state medical marijuana laws,” Fox said. “In doing so, the DEA is intentionally undermining the will of state voters and lawmakers who have acted to ensure that medical marijuana patients are no longer treated as criminals.”

“Such acts are not just an insult to advocates of medical marijuana — but also demonstrate a desire to flaunt the power of the federal government in a manner that denies states the right to pass and carry out laws in the best interest of its own citizens,” Fox said.

Based largely upon these recent raids, a coalition of drug policy organizations — including MPP, NORML, California NORML, the Drug Policy Alliance, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), and Students for Sensible Drug Policy — last week called on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Leonhart to be the permanent head of the DEA.

By: Jon Walker Wednesday July 21, 2010 10:01 pm

According to a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll (PDF), American adults overwhelmingly believe the “War on Drugs” has been a failure: 65 percent of adults describe it that way, while only eight percent call it a success and 27 percent are not sure. After several decades, billions of dollars spent and hundreds of thousands of arrests as part of the War on Drugs, illegal drugs remain easily available throughout the nation. It’s no surprise Americans say the policy has failed.

With so many Americans viewing the War on Drugs as a policy failure, they’re now open to legalizing the most common and safest of illegal substances, marijuana.

Even more interesting, the poll finds that 52 percent of American adults either strongly or moderately support legalization of marijuana. A majority of Democrats, 57 percent, and independents, 59 percent, support it. Only 38 percent of Republicans do. The poll finds extremely little support for legalizing any other illegal drug, such as ecstasy or cocaine.

Angus Reid, a Canada-based international polling firm, was very accurate in the 2008 Canadian federal election. This poll was an online survey of 1003 American adults with a margin of error of 3.1 percent, conducted on July 14 and 15.

Even if a slim majority of all American adults supports marijuana legalization, it is likely there is not yet majority support for legalization among that all-important group of individuals: those who will cast a ballot this November. It is important to note that the poll was of all adults. As a group, all American adults tend to be noticeably younger and more liberal than “registered voters.” The group of “likely voters,” those who are expected to vote on Election Day, is, on average, older and less liberal. This discrepancy of opinion between all adults and the small subset of adults who normally vote is why registration and turnout will be so critical to the fate of Proposition 19 in California.

Original Article: http://elections.firedoglake.com/

Speaking privately with Richard Nixon in 1971, the late Art Linkletter offered this view on the use of marijuana versus alcohol. “When people smoke marijuana, they smoke it to get high. In every case, when most people drink, they drink to be sociable.”

“That’s right, that’s right,” Nixon agreed. “A person does not drink to get drunk A person drinks to have fun.”

The following year Linkletter announced that he had reversed his position on pot, concluding instead that the drug’s social harms were not significant enough to warrant its criminal prohibition. Nixon however stayed the course — launching the so-called “war” on drugs, a social policy that now results in the arrest of more than 800,000 Americans each year for violating marijuana laws.

Read the rest of the article at alternet.org

Bucking the recommendation of their executive board, delegates to the Washington State Democratic Convention endorsed I-1068 (the marijuana legalization initiative) with 62 percent “yes” vote (314 to 185). The executive board had given no recommendation on the initiative because “the committee was even more split than the delegates,” according to State Vice Chair Sharon Smith.

The endorsement of the State Democratic Party may be too late to ensure marijuana legalization is on the ballot this November. A petition with signatures from at least 241,153 registered voters must be submitted by July 2nd, just five days from now in order to put I-1068 on the ballot.

The truly grassroots organization Sensible Washington has run a very strong signature gathering campaign to promote I-1068. However due to limited funding they may fall short of the requisite number of signatures. The task of running a true grassroots petition campaign in Washington State as opposed to a professional signature gathering operation, has been strongly hampered by the state’s ridiculous restriction preventing petitions from being printed on a standard 8.5 x 11 inch office paper (PDF).

That the marijuana legalization initiative was endorsed by the State Democratic Party is a good sign that it may get on the ballot in 2012 with a broad campaign working to gather signatures. It’s more likely to happen if the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act 0f 2010 passes in California this November, setting a precedent for Washington State.

More importantly this may be another very positive sign that marijuana’s legal status is finally moving away from being some weird moralistic taboo to becoming just another political/policy question to be debated on its merits. Does it make sense to maintain a law so universally violated that it has been broken by both our current and at least one former President of the United States?

reposted from www.katu.com

SALEM, Ore. – The State of Oregon has re-classified how it views marijuana.

The State Board of Pharmacy voted Wednesday to recognize pot as a drug that has medical use.

The move came because of a law passed last year that ordered marijuana to be removed from a list of drugs that have “high abuse potential and no acceptable medical use.”

Marijuana will now be what is known as a “Schedule II controlled substance.” That’s a drug that has medical use but still has “high abuse potential.”

Oregon becomes the first state in the nation to make marijuana anything less serious than a Schedule I drug.

On Thursday night, June 3rd, Marc was put into solitary confinement, or “SHU”, (Security Housing Unit) at SeaTac Federal Detention Centre (SeaTac FDC) while he awaits his sentencing in September. The reason? For unknowingly breaking an unwritten rule. I haven’t heard from him since… Here’s what happened.

On Thursday afternoon, Marc had me record a phone call that was meant as his first US Prison Podcast, similar to the ones he did last fall while imprisoned here in BC and posted on iTunes and our website. That evening, as he was writing me an “email” through the Corrlinks prison messaging system, he mentioned that a guard had just given him a citation, said his phone access was suspended for “at least three days” and that there would be a disciplinary hearing in “a few days”.

Marc was shocked at the citation because he had read the inmate rule book and there was no mention of recording phone calls being against the rules. He was so worried that he wouldn’t be able to call me for three days, with a potential penalty of no phone access for up to 2 months, and now it’s been longer… and with an unknown amount of time ahead.

Marc’s email to me that night was the last I’ve heard from him. When I didn’t hear from him on Friday morning, I was worried and had our US lawyer call the prison. He found out for me that Marc was put into SHU, and we don’t know for how long, and lawyers can’t do anything when it comes to prison rules and discipline. It’s horrible not hearing from my beloved husband, not knowing what’s going on, when I’ll be in touch with him next… And the solitary confinement is just the period where he waits for the punishment to be determined, as if it’s not punishment enough! They can take away phone, email, AND visits.

I pray they let him out of solitary as soon as possible, give him his disciplinary hearing, and decide to “punish” him with only 3 days of no phone… It’s terrible, the US prison system. So cruel and soul-crushing for everyone involved.

———————–

Here is Marc’s last email to me. At the time we were planning for me to go visit him on Sunday June 6th. The first portion of the email was personal stuff so I removed it, but part-way through, the happy message was interrupted by the following bad news:

Thursday evening, June 3rd 2010
From: Marc Emery
To: Jodie Emery

Oh dear! I can’t call you for three days! I’m not allowed to do podcasts and I was given an official citation! I lose my phone privileges for a minimum of three days and perhaps longer! Oh NO!

Wow, that’s sad. There’s nothing in my rule book that says you can’t record my calls, so I thought it was OK. But I may lose my calls for up to 60 days! I have a hearing in a few days, a disciplinary hearing, so whatever punishment I’m going to get I’ll find out shortly. There’s probably a hearing about it in a few days. Wow, will my mood plummet if I lose you for more than 3 days, and three days is sad even , especially since I did those prison podcasts from North Fraser Remand before here every week and that was fine there. I read that rule book thoroughly too.

The officer read me my rights and I confessed because I’m not going to lie about anything. I did say if I had understood it was a violation of the rules I would never have done it. Oh dear, Jodie, I’m so sad now! I just got presented with the Incident Report in the middle of this email. I guess my email privileges aren’t affected, but I sure do look forward to speaking with you every day. I sure hope you get to visit here this Sunday or Tuesday because now I may not hear your voice for a while.

Everything was going so well too. I was in such a positive mood. The officer suggested maybe they’ll go easy on me (just 3 days phone suspension) since I confessed and expressed earnestly that I wouldn’t think a call to an authorized person that’s merely recorded would break the rules, but it does. No podcasts the officer said. So that’s that. But I can live with that if I get to talk to you by Sunday (maybe you’ll be here that day!) or Monday…

Wow, that takes the steam out of my day. I just got a haircut and pressed my clothes, was feeling good… I’m so surprised and disappointed. I didn’t even say a single negative this about this institution, I bet everyone else bitches and complains; me, I try to be positive, in part because I value my 10 minutes a day with you on the phone… this is so sad.

Going to miss my sweet wife…
Your prince,
Marc
xxx

PLEASE – write a letter to Marc so he’s not entirely cut off from the outside world! His mail service is much slower in solitary confinement, but if he’s there for a long period of time, he’ll really need and appreciate any messages from supporters and friends. Thank you for your support! FREE MARC EMERY!

A New Plymouth man convicted of drug possession has been ordered to help fund a DVD on the dangers of smoking cannabis.

In the New Plymouth District Court yesterday, Reuben William Wade, 25, was ordered to pay $1500 to Waves towards the production of a Youth Horizons Trust video informing youth about the drug.

Wade was convicted and discharged on possession of cannabis plant, cannabis resin and cannabis seeds, and cultivating cannabis.

On April 27 police searched Guru Gardener, where Wade is a retail assistant, and following his arrest for supplying equipment for cultivation of cannabis, he was searched, police persecutor Lewis Sutton said.

Police found two heads of cannabis and five grams of cannabis resin in Wade’s pocket.

On a later search of his house police found an indoor cannabis operation in a children’s playhouse at the back of the property, which had seven small plants and one larger plant growing.

“In the garage was a stalk of cannabis which still had cannabis head on it and when plucked it weighed 11 grams,” Mr Sutton said.

Cannabis head and seeds were also found in Wade’s bedroom, he said.

Judge Robert Murfitt said the $1500 donation will go towards informing the community on the effects of cannabis use.

“Substance abuse is a notorious problem in our community and you will pay to educate young people about the toxic effect of heavy cannabis use,” he said.

Yesterday the Waves Youth Horizons Trust received a total of $6000 from offenders ordered to pay a donation for their crimes.

Researchers from Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and the University of Iowa had 85 subjects participate in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial where they were tested on a driving simulator before and 30 minutes after smoking a marijuana cigarette.

The researchers found there were no differences between the performance of marijuana smokers and those who were given a placebo in either the simulator’s baseline driving segment or its collision-avoidance scenarios. In fact, the only difference between the two groups was that the subjects who got the real stuff were more likely to decrease their speed during certain parts of the simulation.

Nevertheless, this study didn’t address the vicious way marijuana smokers have been known to attack their roommates’ bottles of Nuttella. Which is the real reason why the ancient herb must remain illegal.

Source asylum.com