What We Saw at the San Francisco Marijuana Rally

On April 2, federal agents raided Oaksterdam University as well as the home of Richard Lee, Oaksterdam founder and the main supporter of Prop 19, California's 2010 initiative to legalize marijuana that received 46% of the vote.

On April 3, several hundred people gathered at a rally at the San Francisco City Hall to protest the federal government's crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries.

On the City Hall steps, six of the eleven San Francisco Supervisors spoke out against the federal crackdown, as did representatives of the city council, the city attorney's office and the California State Legislature.

Later in the day, protestors marched to the Federal Building a few blocks away and chanted "DEA go away" to a line of federal officers guarding the entrance.

Approximately 2 minutes.

Produced by Paul Feine and Alex Manning.

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Comments

[R C Dean]

OT:

Bullet bounces off of pit bull's head. Why anyone is surprised, I have no idea.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/20.....-survives/

[sarcasmic]

That's why cops are trained to shoot dogs in the body, not the head.

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

Good Kilo! Good dog! Now tell your owner to buy a damn gun!

[BakedPenguin]

A dog getting shot is never OT on a thread about drug laws and their enforcement.

[Mad Scientist]

Good boy, Kilo!

[Alack]

Dog named Kilo? Sounds like probable cause to me! Someone get the cops in there to finish the job.

[JW]

"My dogs are HU-UN-GRY!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

"And, just as a mother, I hope other mothers understand it's not this plant that's dangerous, it's prohibition."

Yeah, try peddling that line in your school soccer stands.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

Which is a pity, since it is arguably true. Certainly at LEAST as true as the "The truth about the Killer Weed, Marijuana" claptrap the drug enforcement weenies have been peddling since I was a boy.

[pmains]

They're chanting, "our state, our laws." Strange. I thought believing in federalism meant you were a racist who wanted to reinstate slavery.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I wish I was in Dixie
Puff PUFF, puff PUFF
'Tis true, indeed, we got the best weed,
The weed we got in Dixie
Oh wow, oh wow,
The weed we got in Dixie

[I, Kahn OClast]

But them boys from Oklahoma roll their joints all wrong ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgd-tkjxQ94

[Eduard van Haalen]

Sweet home, Alabama
It's the land of hope
Sweet home, Alabama
Where we got the best dope

[o3]

george will has a negative column on drug legalization.
>short version - aLcOHolIcs bBbaAAdDD.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yeah, that was a retarded article.

[Brandon]

Link?

[SammyJ]

Marijuana policy in the United States is the strangest, most nonsensical political story I've seen in a while.

[sarcasmic]

It's thoughcrime. You either accept what authority tells you, or you think for yourself. Thinking for yourself is a crime.

[Suki]

Dittoes!
The more I learn about that history, the stranger it sounds.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

Yup! Stuff happens in real life that no novelist would have the unmitigated gall to ask you to believe.

[Jake W]

"You can't make this stuff up!"

[Sevo]

OT, just since it's SF:
"Happy Meal lawsuit dismissed by Calif. judge"
Yep, Micky D's can give out toys. But the interesting part is that the suit was brought by "[a woman] and The Center for Science in the Public Interest,"
What part of this suit had anything to do with scientific methods?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/......DTL&tsp=1

[Joe M]

Public Interest = Unscientific, advocacy bullshit.

[Warty]

The CSPI has at least three lies in its name.

[SugarFree]

I bet, in a strict definition, it's not even really a center.

[Gerholdt]

IMHO it was not the legalization that got Prop 19 voted down, it was the "regulate and tax" part.

[Arf?]

It lost by almost 700,000 votes. I just can't imagine there are that many people voting no or not voting just because of the regulate and tax part. In another state, maybe. Here in CA, no.

[Sevo]

In discussions before the vote, it was obvious there were many boomers who figured it didn't harm them, but they were special!
It certainly could harm their kids who just weren't capable of making such careful decisions.
Let's just be honest and call it hypocrisy.

[crazyfingers]

http://legalize2012.com/mpp/

There is a measure on the ballot in Colorado this fall but it has it's pro-pot detractors as well:

"Init. 30 was modeled after HB 10-1284, the medical marijuana regulatory model created by the General Assembly in 2010, which was designed to put most dispensaries out of business through an onerous and burdensome model of over-regulation, controlled by law enforcement. Init. 30 gives sweeping powers to Department of Revenue "pot police" to regulate cannabis for all Coloradans in any way they want. It also creates an unlimited funding source for the police. Even more dangerous, Init. 30 puts DUI-Marijuana into the state Constitution and does nothing to protect Colorado citizens from the federal government's enforcement of federal marijuana prohibition laws. Since HB 10-1284 was opposed by most patients and cannabis activists in the state as a statute, activists think it is a bad idea to put this language into the Colorado Constitution, which is so difficult to amend."

I have to say they make some good points. I think so-called "decriminalization" might be the best we can hope for, like in my home state of CT. At least that way people will stop getting arrested for simple possession. If we "legalize" (and tax and heavily regulate) it, we might end up with a situation that's even worse than the status-quo.

[PM]

Everybody there looks like they really need cannabis for their glaucoma and chemo therapy side effects. Give me a mother fucking break. You want to get high. Dandy. Go make the case that you should be allowed to get high just like alcoholics do. Fuck you and your "medicine" when you're out with your pants around the crack of your ass, mid 20's, 6 feet tall, 180 pounds. All that does is piss off anybody with 2 brain cells who can see it for the sham that it is. You'd get a lot further making an honest argument.

[joy]

it is so crazy.riem lacoste

[Malcolm Kyle]

An appeal to all Prohibitionists:

Why do you wish to continue with a policy that has proven itself to be a poison in the veins of our once so proud & free nation? Even if you cannot bear the thought of people using drugs, there is absolutely nothing you, or any government, can do to stop them. We have spent 40 years and trillions of dollars on this dangerous farce; Prohibition will not suddenly and miraculously start showing different results. Do you actually believe you may personally have something to lose If we were to begin basing our drug policy on science & logic instead of ignorance, hate and lies?

Maybe you're a police officer, a prison guard or a local/national politician. Possibly you're scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, the many kick-backs and those regular fat bribes. But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies, vats of acid and marauding thugs carrying gold-plated AK-47s with leopard-skinned gunstocks?

Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition-engendered mayhem.

Prohibition Prevents Regulation : Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

[Ralph Wylie]

What is the REASON that the current and former presidents all used drugs, yet when they get elected they become "Carry Nation-like" prohibitionists. There's got to be payoff money involved here somewhere, right?

[LambMaritza]

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