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Sig, I deleted everything afterwards thinking it was here for the reviewing. As Norma sends posts my way ill repost here for those of us who enjoy the news about the fight. oh ya sig you should add jack herer to your friends list on MS. he has some great posts.:thumbsup:
Confirmed!
To the editor,
Kudos to the Aurora Daily Sun & Sentinel for rightly criticizing the US
Drug
Enforcement Administration¹s decision to use taxpayers¹ funds and paid
staff
time to campaign against Amendment 44, The Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization
Initiative. (³Tax dollars used for ill-conceived DEA push,² August 29,
2006)
Regardless of whether one favors or disapproves of Amendment 44, Colorado
voters deserve the opportunity to decide this issue free from undue,
federally sponsored interference.
Of course, it¹s not surprising that the DEA would oppose any potential
liberalization to the current blanket prohibition of cannabis a policy
that results in the arrest of some 750,000 Americans on marijuana charges
every year and costs taxpayers between $10 and $12 billion annually.
Nevertheless, despite this costly criminal crackdown, the US National
Institute on Drug Abuse reports that 94 million Americans -- that¹s 40
percent of the US population age 12 or older -- have used cannabis during
their lives.
It makes no sense to continue to treat nearly half of all Americans as
criminals for their use of a substance that poses no greater -- and
arguably
far fewer -- health risks than alcohol. The law should reflect this
reality,
not deny it.
Sincerely,
Paul Armentano
Senior Policy Analyst
NORML | NORML Foundation
Washington, DC
Source: Aurora Sentinel (CO)
Published: August 29, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Aurora Sentinel
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.aurorasentinel.com/
Colorado -- It's hardly news that Drug Enforcement Agency officials are
opposed to a Colorado ballot initiative seeking to make it legal for adults
to possess small amounts of marijuana.
It certainly is news, however, when DEA agents admit to spending staff time,
paid for by taxpayer dollars, fighting that ballot measure or any other. The
Daily Camera reported Aug. 27 that DEA agent Michael Moore sent out e-mails
to political consultants looking for someone to advise the federal agency
how to set up a campaign against the amendment.
The issue comes before voters in November and seeks to allow state residents
over 21 to keep up to 1 ounce of marijuana.
The wisdom of such a change in drug laws is certainly debatable. American
learned hard lessons during Prohibition, mostly that it neither kept people
from drinking nor persuade Americans to shun alcohol.
Clearly, for all the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on fighting the
so-called War on Drugs, illegal drug use seems as dangerous and pervasive as
ever.
It's unclear whether decriminalization of drugs such as marijuana would have
any effect on American drug use or drug sales, but it's hard to argue that
there's much of a black market for alcohol these days.
There are many unanswered questions from this proposal that the media and
voters will certainly look to the DEA to for answers. Rest assured anything
the DEA says about the issue will be big news, freely disseminated as their
side of the story. But any opinions from the DEA are just that.
It's a given that drug-agency officials will be releasing only information
that supports their position that legalizing even small amounts of marijuana
would be bad for Coloradans. It could be that there would be a need for
fewer DEA agents. That means current DEA would be spending time on the job
paid for by taxpayers to lobby voters to keep them employed. That's wrong.
Certainly DEA agents, like all Americans, enjoy the right of free speech.
But here in Colorado, we've wisely limited how the government can use tax
dollars to promote that free speech.
Congress would do well to amend the age-old Hatch Act, which limits federal
employee involvement in partisan political races, to include limits on all
political questions.
And DEA agents would do well to back off their ill-conceived plan against
this state ballot issue so that any Hatch Act amendments are precautionary
rather than justifiably punitive.
LOL.....Classic! Hope this is what you were lookin' for....if not, give me a general idea and I'll transfer it.
Have a good one!:thumbsup:
T-town coppers and maybe one in edmond!
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GRANT DECLINE CUTS PROJECTS
Tulsa Police Forced to Reassess Priorities
Federal grants to the Tulsa Police Department are drying up, forcing
cuts to special projects including those that pay overtime costs for
monitoring sex offenders and for meth-lab cleanups.
Since 2002 -- the earliest year for which records could be located --
grants to Tulsa police from the U.S. Department of Justice have fallen
from about $952,000 to about $373,000 in 2006, said Cpl. Art Surratt,
the Police Department's grants coordinator.
The grants, now called Justice Assistance Block Grants, totaled as
much as $3 million one year, Chief Dave Been said.
The drop has forced the department to take hard looks at the special
programs that are funded by the grants, some of which put more
officers in crime-plagued areas of the city.
The decline is specific to the Bush administration, Been
said.
"I'm not sure I disagree" with the philosophy of cutting federal
grants, Been said. "As a local municipal police department, we need to
find a way to finance our own needs. It shouldn't be up to the federal
government to do that."
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the International Association of Chiefs of
Police reports that the Bush administration has cut about $2.3 billion
that had been going to law enforcement, including proposed 2007 budget
cuts to the Justice Assistance Block Grants.
Been said the Police Department will have to live within its
allocations. He pointed out that the department continues to be
understaffed and won't be gaining any positions for additional
officers this year.
Pending approval by the City Council, the department has about
$554,000 in recently received 2005 grants that are devoted to a list
of programs, Surratt said.
The money will pay for items that include more "stop sticks" that
deflate tires on cars that are being pursued, Global Positioning
Satellite technology for drug interdictions, a data-archiving system
and evidence-storage improvements.
The approximately $373,000 from 2006 grants is not yet available,
Surratt said. Grants from 2003 paid the department about $815,000, and
the following year's grants brought about $334,000.
Faced with decreasing grant funds, department officials had to decide
which programs were the most needed and make changes accordingly, Been
said.
One grant has been used to pay for overtime hours generated while
officers check to see whether sex offenders are living where they say
they do, Surratt said.
The sex-offender registration program could see cutbacks at a time of
high public and political concern about where such offenders live, but
officials are looking at ways to do the job more effectively.
Sgt. John Adams, who supervises the department's sex-offender
registration program, said his unit has been giving on-duty patrol
officers lists of sex offenders' addresses to check when they have the
time. That results in about 15 to 20 hours of work a week but without
overtime costs, he said.
Tulsa has 478 registered sex-offenders, and "we are really behind on
our efforts," Adams said.
Been said the department is looking at several proposals to compensate
for the grant cutback.
One of those options is letting reserve police officers, who are
volunteers, check sex offenders' reported addresses, Adams said.
Another program funded by grants pays officers' overtime for cleaning
up methamphetamine labs and also pays for such items as officers'
protective clothing and respirators.
A $250,000 grant that expires at the end of August has paid for
expenses associated with helping children recover after living in
homes used as meth labs. The city is not renewing that Community
Oriented Policing Services grant, Surratt said.
Anticipating cutbacks to the meth-lab cleanup grant, narcotics
investigators will use their money to replace equipment before the
grant expires, said Sgt. Harold Adair, a supervisor with the
department's Special Investigations Division.
Meth labs are cleaned by a team of officers who are on call and paid
overtime for their work.
Recent state legislation regulating the sale of a primary ingredient
of the drug has dropped the number of labs seized by about 75 percent,
and the teams now average about four to five labs a month, Adair said.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that the average
cost of cleaning up a lab has fallen to between $2,000 and $3,000, the
Office of National Drug Control Policy's Web site said.
Two programs that put more officers on the streets in specific areas
of the city have been added to the overtime-grant package.
The grant pays overtime costs for officers and supervisors working the
patrols. It has also been used to buy equipment such as barricades,
traffic cones and a trailer to transport equipment.
One area of the North Peoria Enhanced Security Grant's focus has been
violent crime sites, including murders, over the years. Police began
heavily patrolling the 5000 block of North Peoria Avenue after a man
fired shots into a crowd there July 7, 2002. That man, Aundra Maurice
Talton, opened fire in a parking lot and wounded two people. He also
shot at police, who returned fire and killed him.
Another fatal shooting took place there early Oct. 3, 2004, when James
Alan Brown Jr., 38, was killed.
The 21st Street and Garnett Road Security grant is similar to its
counterpart on Peoria, Surratt said.
The extra patrols were in response to violent crimes, including
shootings, in the area, Surratt said. "We have officers there to kind
of keep the peace," he said.
Thanks...
Psycho4Bud, are you an okie?
Sorry.......cheesehead. LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by Markass
Have a good one!:thumbsup: