Marijuana - The Facts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe6pllN15Dc

It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html?_r=1&hp

For the first time since territorial days, rain will be free for the catching here, as more and more thirsty states part ways with one of the most entrenched codes of the West.
Precipitation, every last drop or flake, was assigned ownership from the moment it fell in many Western states, making scofflaws of people who scooped rainfall from their own gutters. In some instances, the rights to that water were assigned a century or more ago.
[...]
Who owns the sky, anyway? In most of the country, that is a question for philosophy class or bad poetry. In the West, lawyers parse it with straight faces and serious intent. The result, especially stark here in the Four Corners area of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, is a crazy quilt of rules and regulations — and an entire subculture of people like Mr. Bartels who have been using the rain nature provided but laws forbade.
[...]
Just 75 miles west of here, in Utah, collecting rainwater from the roof is still illegal unless the roof owner also owns water rights on the ground; the same rigid rules, with a few local exceptions, also apply in Washington State.

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Schwarzenegger open to studying marijuana tax idea

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/05/schwarzenegger-open-to-studying-marijuana-tax-idea.html

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says California should study other nations’ experiences in legalizing and taxing marijuana, although he is not supporting the idea.
He says it’s time to debate proposals such as a bill introduced in the Legislature earlier this year that would treat marijuana like alcohol. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat, says taxing marijuana at $50 per ounce would bring more than $1 billion a year to the state.
Schwarzenegger said during a Tuesday news conference that “it’s time for debate” on the idea. But he warned against making harmful decisions just for the sake of raising money.
He said some other nations have had negative experiences.[Which nations? Look at Portugal's 'experience'] Ammiano’s bill is on hold in the Legislature. He delayed seeking approval until next year.

[Source: AP through latimesblogs.latimes.com]

Thousands of marijuana smokers gather in Vancouver to celebrate "420"

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Thousands+marijuana+smokers+gather+Vancouver+celebrate/1515882/story.html

VANCOUVER — Thousands of marijuana smokers gathered in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery on Monday to celebrate "420," which is dubbed National Pot Smoking Day.

"We're trying to stay upwind," joked Vancouver police Sgt. Jim Patenaude, who was watching with a number of other officers on bicycles as smoke clouds arose from the crowd.

He said police were mainly monitoring the situation for crowd control and public safety.

"We're just here to keep the peace," Patenaude explained.

"It would be totally inappropriate to jump in and arrest."

He estimated about 5,000 people, mainly in the 18 to 20 age range, had gathered by noon, with more expected as the time approached 4:20 p.m. on 4\20.

The significance of 420 is hazy but is believed to be code for smoking pot started by a group of students at a California high school who would meet at 4:20 each day, after detentions finished.

"My alarm on my phone goes off at 4:20 every day," said Jermaine Coe, 16, a Langley Secondary school student who attended the event with friends.

Julia Trudell, 18, who lives near Nanaimo, said she and a friend caught the 8:30 a.m. ferry to attend the 420 celebration.

"It's unbelievable," she said, smoking pot from a purple bong (pipe). "It almost feels fake, it's so unreal."

One booth set up on the plaza was selling snacks for stoners and $1 stickers that said: "Legalize, Regulate, Educate, Medicate."

"We promote cannabis as a wonderful medicine" said the booth's operator, who would only reveal his first name: Jim, 48.

"The only thing that's harming people is the prohibition of it," he said.

Source: vancouversun.com

Legalisation of drugs could save UK £14bn, says study

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/apr/07/drugs-policy-legalisation-report

[Front page from July/August, 2001 issue of The Economist.]

The regulated legalisation of drugs would have major benefits for taxpayers, victims of crime, local communities and the criminal justice system, according to the first comprehensive comparison between the cost-effectiveness of legalisation and prohibition. The authors of the report, which is due to be published today, suggest that a legalised, regulated market could save the country around £14bn.

For many years the government has been under pressure to conduct an objective cost-benefit analysis of the current drugs policy, but has failed to do so despite calls from MPs. Now the drugs reform charity, Transform, has commissioned its own report, examining all aspects of prohibition from the costs of policing and investigating drugs users and dealers to processing them through the courts and their eventual incarceration.

As well as such savings is the likely taxation revenue in a regulated market. However, there are also the potential costs of increased drug treatment, education and public information campaigns about the risks and dangers of drugs, similar to those for tobacco and alcohol, and the costs of running a regulated system.

The report looked at four potential scenarios, ranging from no increase in drugs use to a 100% rise as they become more readily available.

"The conclusion is that regulating the drugs market is a dramatically more cost-effective policy than prohibition and that moving from prohibition to regulated drugs markets in England and Wales would provide a net saving to taxpayers, victims of crime, communities, the criminal justice system and drug users of somewhere within the range of, for the four scenarios, £13.9bn, £10.8bn, £7.7bn, £4.6bn."

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