Louis Stocking's blog

WHEREAS, Kalamazoo and other Michigan taxpayers are burdened by the
substantial costs of investigating, arresting, prosecuting and jailing
people for charges involving marijuana, with each case amounting in
thousands of dollars of lost revenue;

WHEREAS, in 2008 Kalamazoo law enforcement agencies made 1,600 arrests
involving controlled substances, nearly 60 percent of which involved
marijuana and nearly 90 percent of those marijuana charges were
misdemeanor offenses.

WHEREAS, Kalamazoo funds and supports Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement
Team (KVET) with a $1.5 million annual budget for fiscal year 2008
alone. Besides enforcing statutes concerning marijuana possession by
adults for personal use, KVET is tasked with investigating
and\arresting individuals for possession and/or sales of cocaine,
methamphetamine, heroin and other devastating controlled substances
that have had a dramatic impact on our community;

WHEREAS, federal education loans are denied to middle-income and
lower-income students pursuant to Congressional amendments to the
Higher Education Act where applicant students have been convicted of
charges involving controlled substances;

The largest group representing physicians in the country is the American Medical Association (AMA), which has over 250,000 members. Traditionally, they have accepted without question the government's position on marijuana, and have always supported the idea that marijuana should continue to be classified as a Schedule I controlled substance (like heroin or LSD).

Of course, this is a ludicrous stance since marijuana is non-habit forming and far less dangerous than many legal drugs. Now it looks like the AMA is starting to come to their senses -- sort of. At least they've taken the first step toward sanity.

On Tuesday, the AMA asked the federal government to reconsider their classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical use. Dr. Edward Langston, an AMA board member, said, "Despite more than 30 years of clinical research, only a small number of randomized, controlled trials have been conducted on smoked cannabis, insufficient to satisfy the current standards for a prescription drug product."

At a time when we Americans may abandon health care reform because it supposedly is "too expensive," how is it that we can afford to imprison people like Curtis Wilkerson? Wilkerson is serving a life sentence in California - for stealing a $2.50 pair of socks. As The Economist noted recently, he already had two offenses on his record (both for abetting robbery at age 19), and so the "three strikes" law resulted in a life sentence.

This is unjust, of course. But considering that California spends almost $49,000 annually per prison inmate, it's also an extraordinary waste of money.

Astonishingly, many politicians seem to think that we should lead the world in prisons, not in health care or education. The United States is anomalous among industrialized countries in the high proportion of people we incarcerate; likewise, we stand out in the high proportion of people who have no medical care - and partly as a result, our health care outcomes such as life expectancy and infant mortality are unusually poor.

KALAMAZOO -- A group that seeks to curtail the enforcement of marijuana-possession laws in Kalamazoo expects to begin circulating petitions in the next several weeks in effort to force a public vote on the issue.

The Kalamazoo Coalition for Pragmatic Cannabis Laws aims to amend the city charter to add language making the possession of small amounts of marijuana "the lowest priority for law enforcement."

Group members say they hope to put the measure on the ballot in November. To do so, the group must collect nearly 2,900 signatures from registered city voters.

Louis Cloise Stocking, 21, the organization's founder, said law enforcement agencies are committing too many resources to arresting people who use small amounts of marijuana on private property.

He also said that arrests for marijuana use in situations where no other crime is committed create unnecessary roadblocks to employment and higher-education financial aid.

The reason I (he) wasn't convicted every-time is because of plea deals involving other charges. Both of these cases were in the city limits of Kalamazoo. The first time the marijuana charge was dropped when I agreed to plea to a greater charge CCW. And most recently (2006) I was facing charges for manufacturing mj, r&c stolen property, and domestic violence - when I knew that I could fight (and win) all charges against me except for the manufacturing charge, I couldn't because if convicted I'd be charged as a habitual offender (for all of my prior marijuana convictions) and that would've meant mandatory prison time. So I was forced to take a plea deal pleading no contest to the r&c charge (which I was innocent of) to avoid a harsher penalty (prison) with a mandatory minimum involving the marijuana charge. All other charges were dropped and I got probation and restitution fees.
So my case here was all to do with marijuana but in the end, my conviction was for another crime that I didn't even commit. Now I have that scar on my record that makes me look like a thief, when all I really am is a hippie at heart.

The peak time for pot usage occurs at or about age 20 -- a period known to most of us as "college" -- before declining fairly rapidly throughout one's 20s and then plateauing from roughly age 30 through age 50.

More important to the policy debate, however, may be the fraction of adults who have used marijuana at any point in their lifetimes. This is a dual-peaked distribution, with one peak occurring among adults who are roughly age 50 now, and would have come of age in the 1970s, and another among adults in their early 20s. Generation X, meanwhile, in spite of its reputation for slackertude, were somewhat less eager consumers of pot than the generations either immediately preceding or proceeding them.

The key feature of this distribution is how rapidly lifetime usage rates decline after about age 55 or so. About half of 55-year-olds have used marijuana at some point in their lives, but only about 20 percent of 65-year-olds have.

KALAMAZOO — Organizers of a push to significantly liberalize the way marijuana is viewed by law enforcement in the city are to begin gathering signatures this spring to get the issue before voters.

The Kalamazoo Coalition for Pragmatic Cannabis Laws is seeking to have an ordinance added to Kalamazoo’s city charter that would make the possession of small amounts of marijuana the “lowest priority for law enforcement.”

If adopted, Kalamazoo would be the only municipality in the state to have such a law. Ann Arbor has an ordinance that makes it a civil infraction to use or possess small amounts of marijuana.

Supporters say the Kalamazoo ordinance would save taxpayer money by significantly limiting police investigations of small-scale marijuana possession and use and would also allow for the responsible recreational use of the drug in one’s own home without the fear of police intrusion.

“We’re stunned at the amount of money being spent for pot arrests,” said Martin Chilcutt, a member of the coalition. “It’s the least dangerous of all drugs. We don’t understand what [law enforcement] is afraid of. It’s irrational fear.”

KALAMAZOO -- Faced with declining resources and fewer officers from other
police departments, the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team will focus its

by Chris Killian | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette

KALAMAZOO — The chief medical officer of Kalamazoo County might use marijuana to alleviate the pain of his glaucoma — if it were legal.

In 2000, Richard Tooker, 54, was diagnosed with pigmentary glaucoma, a rare eye disease where fluid buildup inside the eye can lead to intense pain. Blindness is also possible.

“I would consider taking it, if it were legal, for medical use,” he said. “I want to keep my vision.”

Studies have shown marijuana can lessen pressure in the eyes of those with glaucoma.

Washington, DC: Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), along with Reps. Peter Defazio (D-OR), Jean Schmidt (R-OH) and Lee Terry (R-NE), has introduced legislation in Congress to criminalize the production and sale of any commercial products intended to influence drug test results, such as diuretic teas or chemical adulterants. The bill, H.R. 858, is now before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

http://www.csdp.org/research/1238.pdf - in 2000 there were 425,000 deaths attributed to tobacco, 494,921 deaths due to overweight, 43,354 vehicle deaths, including 16,845 that were alcohol related, 118,539 alcohol-induced deaths, 69,989 deaths to alcohol-related diseases, 140,000 alcohol deaths with previous drinkers included, zero deaths due to marijuana.

http://breakingviews.com/fs.aspx?vt=1b1f6334082946b8ac6f06c5fc26db87

Today the Washington Times published an article announcing that the Obama administration would end the Drug Enforcement Administration's medicinal marijuana raids.

Click the graph for a larger image

Here is the CNN story. A friend copied it and sent it to me because it seems to be getting deleted fast:

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- George Obama, the half brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, has been arrested by Kenyan police on a charge of possession of marijuana, police said Saturday.

George Obama was arrested in Kenya on a charge for possession of marijuana, according to police.

Finally a reference to our site.

Read the Article on MAPInc.org

Things are up and running. I will continue to update the site more extensively and will have periodic updates sent out when major events or new information are present. I will try to update the blog and all of you at least one time weekly but as i said I'm around if you have any questions.

-Louis Stocking