Will Mendocino County become the Napa Valley of marijuana?
09:51h
Swap the Dungeness crab cakes and peasant skirts for lobster rolls and L.L. Bean khakis, and this snug seaside hamlet a few hours north of San Francisco could be a dead ringer for a New England village. (It was a stand-in for Cabot Cove, Maine, in the long-running TV series Murder She Wrote.)
But if California voters approve a controversial ballot proposition in November to tax and legalize marijuana for recreational use — and it's ahead in several polls — some local growers say Mendocino, pop. 900, might become better known as the tourist capital of a "Napa Valley of cannabis."
It seems quite possible, even likely, that California’s historic Proposition 19 to legalize adult possession and growing of marijuana will actually pass in November. The arguments against the ballot measure—both its alleged socially damaging effects and its alleged unconstitutionality—are weak and unconvincing to anyone not already prejudiced against pot.
Polling in support of the measure is consistently at or near 50 percent (though often within the margin of error in either direction), with the latest from the Public Policy Institute of California clocking it at 52 percent in support. Opposition is out there, publicly represented by a rather goofy reverend with a checkered past, but that opposition has been so far restrained and not willing to spend much money. The most prominent anti-19 campaign, Public Safety First, has spent just under $200,000 this year and is sitting on only $54,000 right now.
"Tools for debate: U.S. Government Data Demonstrates Failure of Cannabis Prohibition"
09:46h
The International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP) today released a new research report that demonstrates the clear failure of U.S. marijuana prohibition and supports calls for evidence-based models to legalize and regulate the use of cannabis. The British Medical Journal, one of the world’s most influential medical journals, published a supportive commentary to coincide with the report’s release today.
An Austrian undercover police officer pleaded not guilty Thursday to assaulting an American teacher after mistaking him for an African drug dealer at a subway station in Vienna.
The officer's lawyer, Bernd Gahler, acknowledged, however, that the officer had made mistakes and used force during the Feb. 11, 2009, incident in which Mike Brennan, a former football player from Jacksonville, Florida, suffered injuries to his back, head, neck, hand and wrist. Brennan now works at a school for the children of expatriates in Vienna, the Austrian capital.
Dass er den Sportlehrer Mike Brennan bei einer Razzia mit einem Drogendealer verwechselte, bedauert ein Polizist - Den Vorwurf der vorsätzlichen Körperverletzung weist der angeklagte Fahnder aber zurück
Wien - "Wie groß ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass in einer U-Bahn zwei Schwarzafrikaner sitzen, die ähnlich angezogen sind, in derselben U-Bahn-Station aussteigen und beide auf mich zukommen?" Mit dieser rhetorischen Frage entschuldigt sich am Donnerstag im Wiener Landesgericht der angeklagte Drogenfahnder für eine fatale Verwechslung, die dem Sportlehrer Mike Brennan zwei Wirbelbrüche, Rippenprellungen und Muskelzerrungen einbrachten. Es waren "menschliche Fehler", räumt der 37-jährige Polizist ein, doch was die angeklagte vorsätzliche Körperverletzung betrifft, bekennt er sich "nicht schuldig".
