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HuffPost: Why are cops fighting marijuana policy reform?
Written by SAFER   
Monday, 15 February 2010

A thought-provoking piece from NORML Outreach Director Russ Bellville has been published on the Huffington Post. The title really says it all -- "If 'Cops Don't Make Laws, They Just Enforce Them,' Why Are Police Opposing Marijuana Legalization?"

The following is an excerpt, or you can CLICK HERE to read the entire piece:

Since fourteen states have legalized the use of cannabis for sick and disabled people we here at NORML have reported on numerous stories of medical users harassed, arrested, and jailed by police. We have also reported on healthy adults in all fifty states whose lives are turned upside down by an arrest, sometimes losing student loans, jobs, children, pets, dignity, property, and freedom over a single joint, seed, or even a cannabis stem. When we and others bring up these insane injustices to the police who are making these arrests, we often hear the platitude that "cops don't make the laws, we just enforce the laws."

So why do we consistently see representatives of law enforcement opposing medical marijuana, marijuana decriminalization, and marijuana legalization efforts in state legislatures?

 

 
Westword.com: Marijuana advocate Mason Tvert on why you should boycott Starbucks
Written by Nick Franciose   
Thursday, 21 January 2010

Today, Mason Tvert, founder of SAFER (Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation), called for a boycott of Starbucks, saying the coffee chain supported the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, a lobbying group that has opposed to medical marijuana.

The CDIA, which listed Starbucks as a sponsor on its website alongside such vendors as Glock handguns and Point Blank Body Armor, is a group that is seeking to overturn Colorado's constitutional amendment allowing cannabis for medical use.

 
SAFER on JohnDoeRadio.com
Written by SAFER   
Friday, 22 January 2010

 An interview with SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert is featured on the latest episode of the John Doe Radio Show. Among the topics discussed are recent medical marijuana legislation in Colorado, what SAFER has in store for Colorado in 2012, and what the organization is working on this spring. 

Click HERE to listen to the podcast.

 
SAFER launches nationwide boycott of Starbucks
Written by SAFER   
Thursday, 21 January 2010

UPDATE:  SAFER ended its boycott after Starbucks and several of the other companies listed as "sponsors" on CDIA's Web site publicly distanced themselves from the group (and in some cases said they had no knowledge of them or why they were listed as "sponsors"). Not surprisingly, CDIA has taken down its entire Web site.  CLICK HERE to read more.

  Law enforcement groups are fighting to maintain Marijuana Prohibition and their industry of arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana. SAFER is fighting back and we need your help.

According to a recent report in The Denver Post, state and federal law enforcement officials have been meddling in Colorado's legislative process in hopes of rolling back the state's progress toward safer, more rational marijuana laws. As a result, bills are being introduced on their behalf, which threaten to shut down every medical marijuana dispensary in the state and allow these officials to continue harassing medical marijuana patients.

We wish this weren't the case, but these law enforcement officials are not motivated by maintaining public safety or developing a workable system of medical marijuana regulation. They are motivated by one thing -- job security. Perhaps even more unsettling is the source of the financial support behind the arrest and prosecution industry's war on marijuana.

In particular, the Colorado Drug Investigators Association (CDIA), the group spearheading anti-marijuana lobbying efforts, is sponsored by several local and national businesses including Starbucks Coffee, Glock handguns, and -- you guessed it -- members of the alcohol industry! This might seem a bit odd, but when you consider the fact that their Web site and merchandise features the grim reaper and military helicopters, a skull motif, and the slogan, "Death on Drugs," it all makes a little more sense. These guys are not out to protect people; they're out to fight a literal war on marijuana, ensuring alcohol -- the substance that contributes most to the crime and violence that keeps them busy -- is the only legal recreational drug available.

It's no surprise that the Arrest and Prosecution Industry is determined to maintain the war on marijuana. But Starbucks and other companies' funding of this war should strike any marijuana consumer or reform supporter as truly appalling. It's time to stand up and send them all a message.

 
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