Policy and Legislation

© Casey Serin

Small time Louisiana pot dealer gets life for 3rd marijuana arrest.

© rafaelmarquez

The controversial drink Four Loko, is hitting store shelves with a new formula that keeps the high alcohol content but gets rid of the caffeine. As the new legal formula, which is caffeine-free, begins to stock up on store shelves, the old formula is being converted to fuel for consumption by automobiles.

• Neuroscience: Scientists Explain Why We Act Foolishly When Drunk
• Alcohol at Work: Silicon Valley Retains Workers with Free Beer
• Drinking Age: Researchers Ask EU to Impose Drinking Age of 21

© Darby Rose

The Michigan Liquor Control Commission has given retailers 30 days to get rid of their stocks of the now banned drinks, which can contain as much as 12% alcohol by volume.

© PJOnori

Researchers in B.C. Canada say that heroin users who frequented Vancouver’s Insite safe injection clinic were more likely to quit injection drug use for at least 6 months, primarily as a result of getting into frequent contact with health workers and an increased likelihood of entering into an addiction treatment program

© Waldo Jaquith

An article review of medical research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal states that Vancouver’s Insite safe injection clinic is doing what it is supposed to be doing and that it saves lives and increases access to treatment. Based on this medical evidence, the study authors ask that the federal government abandon a last-ditch Supreme Court challenge attempt to shut the clinic down.

© Dana Gonzales

A Canadian legal group is calling for alternative to incarceration sentencing guidelines to better deal with offenders coming before the court with fetal alcohol syndrome.

• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Older Women More Likely to Cause Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• Fertility: Men Born to Women who Drank While Pregnant Have Lower Sperm Counts
• Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Can’t Understand Emotions of Others

© HTB

If you get caught with 500 grams (more than a pound) of powder cocaine – you face a 5 year federal prison sentence, but if you’re caught with only 5 grams of crack cocaine, you also face a 5 year sentence…but maybe not for long. Congress has now approved the passing of a bill that will change this sentencing disparity that many consider very unfair and perhaps even racially discriminatory.

© Ashen Grove

In a letter to the FTC, he says that alcoholic energy drinks are being marketed at teens while being made to look like regular energy drinks to mislead parents – marketing practices he calls, “at minimum, grossly irresponsible."

© Boodoo

Calling this a civil rights issue, the California charter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has announced its support of a ballot measure that, if passed, could mean the legalization of up to an ounce of marijuana for personal consumption.

• Oakland Votes to Tax Marijuana Sales – America’s First Marijuana Tax
• Poll: Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

© Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Senator Orin Hatch says that people receiving social assistance from the government need to prove that they won’t be spending that money on drugs. He’s calling for drug testing for each of the 15 million Americans receiving unemployment assistance or welfare.

© livingroomshadows

Most Americans do not support legalization, but most do support medical marijuana.

© Photo Credit: Solifr

Teens in Kansas are getting high on a legal synthetic marijuana-like blend.

• Synthetic Marijuana: Synthetic marijuana - Still Legal, but Dangerous

© Photo Credit: Lincolnian (Brian)

Congress is set to restore funding to needle exchange programs so long as they are located at least 1000 feet from any areas where children might congregate (parks, schools, libraries, colleges etc.). Workers at needle exchange clinics say that the 1000 foot rule makes getting funding impossible.

• Research Breakthrough: Scientists Produce Non-Addictive Opiates
• HIV: Needle Exchanges Reduce HIV Rates
• Heroin : The Addiction Treatment Lessons of Vietnam

© Photo Credit: Caveman 92223

Federal law prohibits the sale and use of marijuana without exception, but 14 states have independently legalized medical marijuana to those in need. Under Bush, medical marijuana providers still risked federal raids and prosecution – under Obama, that won’t happen anymore.