Poll Finds Texans Ready to Legalize Marijuana

by Phillip Smith

Voters in Texas are among the latest to hop on board the marijuana legalization bandwagon, according to a poll released this week. The Public Policy Polling survey had support for marijuana legalization at 58%, support for medical marijuana at 58%, and support for decriminalizing small-time possession at 61%.

The poll was commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project. The survey of 860 randomly selected Texas voters was conducted September 27-29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3%.

"Marijuana prohibition has been just as big a failure as alcohol prohibition," said MPP executive director Rob Kampia, a part-time Austin resident. "Most Texans agree that marijuana sales should be conducted by legitimate businesses instead of drug cartels in the underground market."

The poll's legalization question -- "Would you support or oppose changing Texas law to regulate and tax marijuana similarly to alcohol, where stores would be licensed to sell marijuana to adults 21 and older?" -- was the only question that allowed respondents to qualify their support as "strongly support" or "somewhat support." Some 41% strongly supported legalization, with another 17% somewhat supporting it.

Unusually, support for legalization was stronger among women (59%) than among men (56%). Also going against the grain, support was stronger among blacks (61%) and Latinos (60%) than Anglos (56%). In most polls across the country, men and whites are more likely to support legalization than women, blacks, or Latinos.

By political affiliation, legalization won strong majority support among Democrats (70%) and independents (57%), while even nearly half of Republicans (48%) also favored it. Legalization also won majority support across all age groups, with even those 65 and older coming in at 52%.

The poll also found that 61% of state voters support removing criminal penalties for possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and replacing them with a civil offense punishable by a fine of up to $100 with no possibility of jail time. Only 30% said they were opposed to that. Under current Texas law, it is a criminal offense for a person to possess a small amount of marijuana, and he or she can be sentenced to up to a year in jail and fined up to $2,000.

"Law enforcement officials' time would be better spent addressing violent crimes instead of adults simply possessing marijuana," Kampia said. "No adult should face potentially life-altering criminal penalties for using a product that is significantly less harmful than alcohol."

Most Texas voters (58%) support changing state law to allow seriously and terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it. Just 31% said they are opposed.

"There is ample research demonstrating the medical benefits of marijuana in the treatment of several debilitating conditions," Kampia said. "People suffering from cancer and multiple sclerosis should not face the threat of arrest for using medical marijuana if their doctors believe it will help ease their suffering."

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Drug Sentences Driving Federal Prison Population Growth, Government Report Finds

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by Phillip Smith

In a report released Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that growth in the federal prison population is outstripping the Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) rated capacity to house prisoners and that the bulge in federal prisoners is largely attributable to drug prisoners and longer sentences for them. That growing inmate overcrowding negatively affects inmates, staff, and BOP infrastructure, the GAO said.

The federal prison population increased 9.5% from Fiscal Year 2006 through FY 2011, exceeding a 7% increase in rated capacity. Although BOP increased the number of available beds by 8,300 during that period by opening five new facilities (and closing four minimum security camps), the number of prisons where overcrowding is occurring increased from 36% to 39%, with BOP forecasting overcrowding increasing to encompass 45% of prisons through 2018.

The drug war and harsh federal drug sentencing are the main drivers of the swelling federal prison population. The GAO reported that 48% of federal prisoners were drug offenders last year, and that the average sentence length for federal drug prisoners is now 2 ? times longer than before federal anti-drug legislation passed in the mid-1980s.There are also now more than 100,000 federal drug prisoners, more than the total number of federal prisoners as recently as 20 years ago.

The negative effects of federal prison overcrowding include "increased use of double and triple bunking, waiting lists for education and drug treatment programs, limited meaningful work opportunities, and increased inmate-to-staff ratios," the report found. All of those "contribute to increased inmate misconduct, which negatively affects the safety and security of inmates and staff." The report also noted that "BOP officials and union representatives voiced concerns about a serious incident [read: riot] occurring."

For this report, the GAO also examined prison populations in five states and actions those states have taken to reduce populations. It found that the states "have modified criminal statutes and sentencing, relocated inmates to local facilities, and provided inmates with additional opportunities for early release," the report found.

Noting that the BOP does not have the authority to modify sentences or sentencing, it nevertheless identified possible means for Congress to address federal prison overcrowding. It could reduce inmate populations by reforming sentencing laws or it could increase capacity by building more prisons, or some combination of the two.

Or it could remove drug control from the ambit of criminal justice altogether and treat the use and distribution of currently illegal drugs as a public health problem.

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Police Officer Finds Fellow Officers Implicated in Murder, Police Respond by Firing Her

Chris | InformationLiberation

Stories like this don't come around often. A female police officer says she received credible information from "multiple sources" implicating two police officers in the murder of a TV news anchor in 1995. Rather than investigate her lead, the police fired her.

?All I want is for the truth to come out. I?m trying to get it out in the open so it won?t be a secret any more,? she said.

?Never in a million years would I believe people would commit crimes they prosecute others on.

?It?s horrifically disturbing. They?re still working on the taxpayers? dollar ? the whistleblower was put on administrative leave and terminated.?

Read the Globe Gazette story here. North Iowa Today has more.

Here's an interview with her about the case, it's a must watch:

- She says a fellow officer pointed an unloaded gun at her when she was walking away and pulled the trigger in an act of intimidation.

- She says the police investigating the murder case are implicated in the murder and are therefor investigating themselves.

It's clear she's standing up against a criminal gang and she needs our support.

Update: I thought this comment by a poster on the North Iowa Today article was quite interesting:

"Howie seriously? I too went to school with several officers on this force as well as others in the area. They were thugs in high school and they are criminals with a badge now. Several of them said they are the largest gang in the area. Not something a lot of people would like to hear. Specially myself. I don't know Philpot nor do I know what his church is about. To be honest who really cares? Bottom line is whether this stuff is true or not, we have rogue cops on the force and no one does a thing about it. I applaud Officer Ohl for doing what she has, it at least opens the publics eyes to the crap some of these criminal cops are doing. I hope this info is true so we can get rid of the scum that call themselves public servants."

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I hope she has some form of protection.

Giant Kudo's to her for going public.

She NEEDS to be MORE public!

Does anyone, anywhere know of a case where a woman has filed sexual harrassment charges and it was investigated properly, justice took place, and she didn't fired??

I ask because I know of a number of women that have had to file sexual harrassment charges, and its ALWAYS those women that get fired.

The guilty always "seem" to keep their jobs and continue their sick behavior, while the victim gets dealt the shit.

So I ask again:
Does anyone, anywhere know of a case where a woman has filed sexual harrassment charges and it was investigated properly, justice took place, and she didn't fired??

Am curious.

What a brave woman. If we had more officers like this I wouldn't fear the police like they are another criminal gang when I am in major cities. When your town is overrun by criminals with badges there is only ONE effective way to solve the problem, but it's not pretty.

So, keep being law-abiding "gentlemen" while your society gets raped by thugs. Better to live comfortably on your knees than actually stand up to tyranny, right? You might break a nail...

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"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill

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