Marijuana Bill In Congress: Barney Frank, Ron Paul Legislation Would End Federal Ban On Pot

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) will introduce legislation on Thursday to end the federal ban on marijuana and let the states decide whether to legalize it.

“The legislation would limit the federal government’s role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, allowing people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal,” according to the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates for pot legalization. “The legislation is the first bill ever introduced in Congress to end federal marijuana prohibition.”

                                           Photo Courtesy of Huffpost Politics

More than a dozen states allow the sale of medical marijuana, but the practice is not legal under federal law, leading to confusion and clashes between local and federal authorities.

In March, for example, DEA agents raided two medical marijuana dispensaries in West Hollywood, California, and 26 dispensaries in 13 cities across Montana.

This despite the Obama administration's announcement two years ago that it would not arrest or prosecute medical marijuana users or suppliers who are not violating local laws -- a reversal of the Bush administration's policy that federal drug laws should be enforced even in states that had legalized medical marijuana. Attorney General Eric Holder has said he will clarify the Justice Department's position.

The bill by Frank and Paul comes 40 years after President Richard Nixon first declared a war on drugs. Last week, to commemorate the anniversary, a group of former law enforcement officialsunveiled a new report detailing the failures of the government's long battle against illegal drugs and denounces the Obama administration's current drug policies.

"Since President Nixon declared 'war on drugs' four decades ago, this failed policy has led to millions of arrests, a trillion dollars spent and countless lives lost, yet drugs today are more available than ever," said Norm Stamper, former chief of police in Seattle and a speaker for legalization-advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "President Obama's drug officials keep saying they've ended the 'drug war,'" the LEAP member said. "But our report shows that's just not true."

Marijuana Bill In Congress: Barney Frank, Ron Paul Legislation Would End Federal Ban On Pot

Local News | Former U.S. attorney McKay backs effort to legalize pot in Washington | Seattle Times Newspaper

A coalition that includes former U.S. Attorney John McKay, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes and travel guide Rick Steves is launching an initiative that would legalize marijuana in Washington state.

The group, led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, decided to push the initiative this spring after Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed most of a medical-marijuana bill that had passed the state Legislature.

Photo Courtesy of Seattle Times

"We did some more public-opinion research, looked at the numbers and said, 'Yeah, this is the time,' " said Alison Holcomb, campaign manager for the initiative and drug-policy director of the ACLU of Washington.

The initiative would regulate the recreational use of marijuana in a way similar to how the state regulates alcohol.

It would legalize marijuana for people older than 21, authorize the state Liquor Control Board to regulate and tax marijuana for sale in "stand-alone stores" and extend drunken-driving laws to marijuana, with blood tests to determine how much of the substance's active ingredient is present in a driver's blood.

Taxing sales would bring the state $215 million a year, conservatively estimated, Holmes said.

McKay, who spent five years enforcing federal drug laws as the U.S. attorney in Seattle before he was fired by the Bush administration in early 2007, said he hopes the initiative will help "shame Congress" into ending pot prohibition.

He said laws criminalizing marijuana are wrongheaded because they create an enormous black market exploited by international cartels and crime rings.

"That's what drives my concern: The black market fuels the cartels, and that's what allows them to buy the guns they use to kill people," McKay said. "A lot of Americans smoke pot, and they're willing to pay for it. I think prohibition is a dumb policy, and there are a lot of line federal prosecutors who share the view that the policy is suspect."

Supporters would have until the end of this year to gather more than 240,000 signatures to get the initiative before the Legislature. Lawmakers could approve it or allow it to go to the ballot next year.

The coalition pushing the initiative is called New Approach Washington. It also includes Dr. Robert W. Wood, former director of the HIV/AIDS Program of Public Health — Seattle and King County, and state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, who this year sponsored an unsuccessful bill to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. Both McKay and Holmes supported Dickerson's bill.

While Dickerson's effort failed, separate legislation to license and regulate medical-marijuana dispensaries and grow operations, and give patients broader arrest protection, was approved.

Gregoire, however, vetoed parts of the bill in late April, saying it would put state workers at risk of prosecution under federal law, which bans marijuana.

Although the veto wasn't the only factor behind the initiative, that's when members of the coalition began talking more about a measure that would go beyond medical marijuana, the ACLU's Holcomb said.

"The public opinion is there to support full legalization," she said. "If you're going to put the effort into doing an initiative, it doesn't make sense to limit yourself to medical marijuana."

New Approach Washington planned a news conference Wednesday to announce the effort.

No state has legalized marijuana for recreational purposes in such a way, although some have decriminalized it. The initiative would put Washington squarely at odds with federal law.

It would set limits on how much cannabis people can have: an ounce of dried bud, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused foods in solid form, and 72 ounces of marijuana-infused liquids, or all three, Holcomb said. Limits are necessary to help ensure that people don't buy large amounts for resale in other states, she said.

Holmes called the measure the "first comprehensive legalization, regulation and taxation initiative. It addresses every concern that has been voiced in the debate over the last several decades."

California voters last year rejected Proposition 19, which would have allowed for personal possession and growing of limited amounts of marijuana, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Steves, a longtime critic of the nation's marijuana laws, said he supports the Washington state initiative because "I just care about our community, and I think the war on marijuana is hurting people. ... I think it's flat out good citizenship to address a problem that needs to be tackled in a more thoughtful way."

McKay said he long has considered marijuana prohibition a failed policy, but that his job as U.S. attorney was to enforce federal law, and he had no problem doing so.

But now, he said, "I can say the law is stupid."

McKay added that he does not use marijuana and that his position is based on a belief that marijuana prohibition has failed.

"When you look at alcohol prohibition, it took the states to say, 'This policy is wrong,' " he said. "This bill might not be perfect, but it's a good step forward. I think it will eventually shame Congress into action."

Another group, Sensible Washington, already is pushing a legalization initiative that would remove all state criminal and civil penalties for marijuana use, possession and cultivation in any amount. Their effort is an initiative directly to the voters, meaning that, if it qualifies for the November ballot and passes, it would become law without input from the Legislature.

The Associated Press and Seattle Times reporters Andrew Garber and Steve Miletich contributed

to this report.

Amsterdam steps out of the shadows

Forget about the red light district – the Dutch capital’s more sophisticated side is on the up!

Timothy Barber

AMSTERDAM is undergoing an image change. Earlier this month the Dutch government announced plans to ban foreigners from using the city’s coffee shops (the coy name for bars in which you can legally smoke marijuana), turning such places into members’ clubs for permanent residents only. It’s a controversial move designed to make Amsterdam a less controversial place, and will have a serious negative effect on a tourist industry driven by the city’s liberal stance on drugs and prostitution.

While managers of seedy hostels and dodgy “Irish” pubs may be up in arms, though, many Amsterdamers are breathing a sigh of relief. The millions of backpackers, students and stag partiers who flock to the red light district each year are seen by most locals as little more than pests. Real Amsterdamers, the real Amsterdamers point out, don’t go anywhere near the coffee shops – they’re too busy making the most of a city whose vibrancy and culture are often ignored.

Away from the grubby licentiousness of the red light quarter, Amsterdam is still a place of quiet elegance, whose canal-side avenues, alleys and bridges reward exploration by foot or bike. Its tremendous artistic heritage, of course, is celebrated in world class museums.

But as a centre of contemporary sophistication, Amsterdam is a city on the up. Esoteric design shops and vintage stores, a classy social scene and blossoming food culture, mixed with the romance of its history and architecture, make it a wonderful place for a weekend escape. And, to that end, a number of chic boutique hotels have been opening – the latest, Canal House, from the hip British hotel company Curious Group.

Picking one’s way round the endless knot of Amsterdam’s canals and bridges and the streets beyond, you get the sense of a confident city, a place of creativity and style – and a destination in which an entirely classier breed of tourist, compared to those for which it’s famous, will feel ever more at home.

WHERE TO STAY
CANAL HOUSE HOTEL
The brand new Canal House hotel fuses the arcane charms of a historic canal-side townhouse – thin, high proportions, wonky walls, historic features like the eagle moulding that graces the ceiling above the bar – with contemporary design cool. A sultry colour palette of blacks and purples gives it a slightly gothic, boudoir-chic atmosphere which is tempered by the clean lines of the modernist furniture.

It’s a compact place – the tiny cocktail bar doubles up as the reception – but the rooms are lovely, with huge, comfy beds and sleek bathrooms. For a cool bargain, ask for the room installed in the house’s original kitchen, a huge ground-floor espanse with the original range still in place – it’s the size of a suite, with masses of atmosphere, but priced more cheaply to account for the odd creaky floorboard from the corridor above.

Rooms from €210 per room per night, based on two sharing. Opening offer: book three nights for the price of two if staying between Sunday-Thursday.www.canalhouse.nl reservations@canalhouse.nl

THE DYLAN AMSTERDAM
A sumptuous, but effortlessly chic, hotel that’s arguably Amsterdam’s most fashionable place to stay. Its gorgeous courtyard and historic canal house façade are matched by interiors of cool, calm classiness. Its restaurant, Vinkeles, serves Michelin-starred French cuisine. From £330 for a double room on room only basis, via Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Call 0800 525 48000 or visit www.slh.com/dylan.

SOFITEL LEGEND THE GRAND
Now the European flagship of Sofitel’s most high-end hotel category, Sofitel Legend, the Grand occupies a building that dates back to 1578. Last year it underwent a major renovation – it’s a sleek, svelte place with a beautiful spa and one of Amsterdam’s most trendsetting restaurants, the Bridges. Rooms from £292 per night. www.sofitel.com

MINT HOTEL
Another British company, Mint Hotels – which opened one of the largest new hotels in the City earlier this year – has opened its first international property a few minutes walk from Amsterdam’s central station. A smart business hotel that’s also useful for weekend breaks. Opening room rates start at €199. www.minthotel.com

HOTEL PULITZER
Several ancient canal houses were knocked together to form the Hotel Pulitzer, which has its own art gallery, large restaurant and an atmospheric lounge bar. Upstairs, the rooms and corridors still follow the original, rickety layout of the original buildings. From £230 per double room per night.www.luxurycollection.com/pulitzer

WHAT TO DO
RESTAURANTS
A few years ago Amsterdam’s dining scene was no great shakes, but in the last half-decade things have come on apace. The new breed of luxury hotels includes some pretty fabulous restaurants – as well as the previously mentioned Bridges Restaurant in the Grand (www.bridgesrestaurant.nl) and the Dylan’s Michelin-starred Vinkeles dining room, Hotel Okura, a huge concrete slab of a business hotel outside the canal network, includes two world-class restaurants. A traditional Japanese menu is served in the zen ambience of Yamazato, which has one Michelin star, while top floor French restaurant Ciel Bleu has two, as well as panoramic views across the city. The hotel also has a dedicated training kitchen for one-day food courses with its top chefs, called Taste of Okura. Details for all three at the hotel’s website, www.okura.nl.

There are plenty of options away from the hotels too. De Kas (www.restaurantdekas.nl) is a fascinating project from chef Gert Jan Hageman, who took an old municipal greenhouse due for demolition and turned it into a restaurant and plant nursery, where he harvests ingredients to cook. Thanks to Holland’s old colonial associations, Indonesian food, served tapas-style in sharing dishes known as rijstafel, is extremely popular, and the place to sample it is Restaurant Blauw (www.restaurantblauw.nl), on the edge of the popular green space, Vondelpark.

SHOPPING – THE NINE STREETS
Occupying a small grid of streets at the heart of the canal network, the Nine Streets – De Negen Straatjes in Dutch – is packed with independent, esoteric shops. The vintage clothes boutiques, design shops, art galleries, jewellers and interiors specialists that crowd along these little lanes are colourful and endearingly off-beat – the pleasure is to wander from shop to shop with no agenda, seeing what you pick up.

Among the best are leatherwear and handbag designer Hester van Eeghen (www.hestervaneeghen.com), Terra (21 Reestraat) which specialises in pottery with a sideline in designer shoes, and the Amsterdam Watch Company (www.awco.nl), a simply gorgeous emporium of vintage and new watches.

CULTURE
The perfect high culture antidote to Amsterdam’s seamier offerings is a trip to Concertgebouw (www.concertgebouw.nl), the splendid concert hall that is regarded as being one of the world’s finest classical music venues thanks to its spectacular acoustics. A pleasingly intimate space, it hosts around 900 concerts a year from the finest musicians and orchestras on the planet.

For art lovers, the Riksmuseum (www.rijksmuseum.nl) is a temple to the great artists of the Dutch tradition – it has the world’s finest collection of Rembrandt paintings (including the Night Watch), as well as works by Vermeer, Frans Hals, Jan Steen and many others. A few minutes’ walk away, the modernist edifice of the Van Gogh Museum (www.vangoghmuseum.nl) contains a massive collection of Vincent Van Gogh’s works, as well as many by his contemporaries. For modern art, the Stedelijk Museum (www.stedelijk.nl) is one of Europe’s finest.

If you’re interested in jewellery, consider a trip to Gassan Diamonds (www.gassandiamonds.nl), the diamond company who’s workshop HQ is open to tours, and reflects the city’s historic position at the heart of the global diamond industry.

TRAVEL DETAILS
BY RAIL
Changing in Brussels, you can go from St Pancras to Amsterdam in just over four hours – a great service for those who want to do away with the hassle of airports and get some work done on the move. From £116. www.eurostar.com

BY AIR
British Airways flies from London City Airport from £129.95. www.ba.com

All I have to say about this is booo. I can't help but think that they really aren't fully understanding how much revenue is going to be lost from those, "controversial tourist dollars." If they don't want our money I'm sure there is another city in Holland jumping at the chance for all that tourism, so where do we want to visit?

Medical-marijuana proposal abandoned; dispensaries now 'clearly illegal'

According to the Seattle Times,
An intensive effort to overhaul Washington's medical-marijuana law died Tuesday in Olympia, leaving cities and law enforcement to muddle through changes that will clip short the boom in dispensaries.

Medical-marijuana champion Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles said lawmakers were too focused on the state budget to fix confusing provisions left over from Gov. Chris Gregoire's partial veto of an earlier bill.

"By far, this represents the greatest disappointment of my legislative career," she said in a statement. She plans to take up the issue again next year.

As a result, a law will take effect in July that allows 45-plant collective gardens for the first time while undercutting dispensaries' best legal defense. Cities around the state will have to choose between tolerating dispensaries or cracking down.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said that as a result of Gregoire's veto, the law took "a significant step backward."

"The commercial dispensaries jumped the gun, and are out aggressively marketing their services. Whatever gray area used to exist to allow that is gone now. They are clearly illegal as of July," he said.

The new law "puts cops and prosecutors back in the business of making the medical-marijuana law work. I don't think that's fundamentally the law that cops and prosecutors should be in. It should be a medical issue, not a law-enforcement issue," Satterberg said.

Dispensaries popped up over the past year by seizing on vague patient-provider definitions in the 1998 voter-approved law.

Responding to concerns from police and cities about the uncontrolled dispensary boom, the Legislature passed a landmark law to legalize and regulate dispensaries and growers, create a central patient registry and provide arrest protection.

Gregoire vetoed most of the bill, citing a harsher tone from federal prosecutors that could potentially expose state regulators to arrest, even though that has not been seen in other states with legal dispensaries.

In Seattle, City Attorney Pete Holmes said the new collective gardens will be a headache for police and could lead to more arrests of patients. He has asked the Seattle Police Department for an inventory of operating dispensaries — estimated to be at least 50 — with the idea that the city could try to "grandfather" them in.

But enacting a city-based regulatory scheme could run Seattle afoul of federal prosecutors, he said, and it could make Seattle a magnet.

"We're back to the worst-case scenario," said Holmes, an advocate of legalization. "We've only had a few hours to get used to that again."

Cities, including Shoreline, Lake Forest Park and Federal Way, have already begun trying to shut down dispensaries through civil actions. Satterberg said that is his preferred way to respond, instead of criminal charges.

Tacoma had put on hold cease-and-desist letters to 42 dispensaries pending the outcome in Olympia, but now must decide what to do, said spokesman Rob McNair-Huff.

In Kent, City Attorney Tom Brubaker said the city would decide how to deal with its four or five dispensaries soon.

"We've told these dispensaries that they're illegal, but haven't taken any stiff enforcement action," he said. "I'd just as soon they weren't in my town."

Scott Snyder, an attorney who advises a dozen suburban cities, including Issaquah and Redmond, said cities could take a mixed approach: denying business licenses while requiring dispensaries to pass fire and safety codes. "I think it's something most communities will get into gingerly within the vacuum we're in now," he said.

As cities sort it out, entrepreneurs still have ads on Craigslist seeking real estate to open dispensaries. Ben Livingston of the Cannabis Defense Coalition, a patient-advocacy group, said reality doesn't seem to be sinking in.

"What's next? Raids," he said. "The question, is who is going to be first. My money is the people who were bolder, more out there."

David Ahl helped open a nonprofit dispensary, Greenside Medical, on Seattle's Lake City Way Northeast on April 20, investing in a security system that includes a concrete-walled check-in booth and sophisticated alarm system.

He said shady dispensaries, or those opened purely for profit, already are shutting down. He sounded rattled. "I definitely know there's a big ax above my head," said Ahl, 26.

Another dispensary owner, Steve Saarich, filed a referendum Tuesday to roll back the law to its pre-session status, which would restore a legal defense for dispensaries. Sponsors must gather 120,577 voter signatures by late July for it to qualify for the November ballot, according to the Secretary of State's office.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com

Arizona sues Justice Dept. over medical marijuana

PHOENIX —

Arizona officials are taking the state's own medical marijuana law to court.

Attorney General Tom Horne late Friday sued the U.S. Justice Department and other defendants on behalf of the state and Gov. Jan Brewer.

The suit asks a federal judge to rule on whether strict compliance with the Arizona law provides protection from federal prosecution or whether the Arizona measure is pre-empted by federal law.

The state law approved by voters in November, like those in other states, decriminalizes distribution, possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes under specified circumstances.

However, the U.S. attorney for Arizona has reminded state officials that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Horne said the Arizona suit was intended get a court ruling "that makes it clear what direction we can safely go - either to implement the law or that we cannot."

The suit also named medical marijuana supporters, a group representing would-be dispensary operators and others as defendants in the case. Horne said they accepted invitations to be included in the case to ensure the state law gets a vigorous defense.

Brewer announced the planned lawsuit Tuesday, saying she's concerned that state employees could face federal prosecution for regulating the state program.

The governor and Horne, both Republicans, opposed the medical marijuana law but said they weren't trying to thwart the will of the voters. They said the lawsuit is specifically prompted by a May 2 letter in which U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke noted that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and that criminal prosecutors of traffickers and others are possible.

Burke's letter did not specifically mention state employees, but he said his office intends to prosecute individuals and organizations engaged in illegal manufacturing, distribution and marketing involving marijuana.

Burke did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but he told The Arizona Republic there had been no policy change.

"We have no intention of targeting or going after people who are implementing or who are in compliance with state law," Burke told the newspaper. "But at the same time, they can't be under the impression that they have immunity, amnesty or safe haven."

Horne said Burke's letter and similar letters sent by U.S. attorneys elsewhere raised the prospect of federal prosecutions related to medical marijuana, and he noted that a letter signed by U.S. attorneys in Washington state said state employees administering a medical marijuana program would not be immune from liability under a federal drug law.

Saying she was worried about federal prosecution of state workers, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed key parts of a legislative measure to clarify her state's medical marijuana law.

Elsewhere, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has suspended plans to license three medical marijuana dispensaries after a U.S. attorney warned the dispensaries could be prosecuted for violating federal law.

In Montana, two medical marijuana providers sued the Justice Department on May 10 to challenge March 14 raids of their businesses. The lawsuit claimed the raids exceeded the federal government's authority, pre-empted Montana's medical marijuana law and violated the providers' civil rights.

A spokesman for a Washington-based medical marijuana advocacy group said the Arizona lawsuit won't accomplish anything because it won't change federal law or enforcement policies and because individual patients can grow their own marijuana.

"Gov. Jan Brewer is trying to hamstring this program," said Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Between April 14 and Tuesday, Arizona approved 3,696 applications for patients to have and use medical marijuana, including 2,694 for growing up to 12 plants each. An additional 69 applications have been approved for caregivers, who can provide marijuana for up five patients other than themselves.

An application period for dispensaries is supposed to begin Wednesday, but Brewer is expected to direct the Department of Health Services to not proceed with that part of the program.

M. Ryan Hurley, a Scottsdale lawyer for would-be dispensary operators, said they're troubled because the state is not proceeding with full implementation of the law.

"They've invested a lot of time and effort and money in this process in reliance of the law," he said.

Seniors' medical pot collective stirs up trouble

LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. —

Joe Schwartz is a 90-year-old great-grandfather of three who enjoys a few puffs of pot each night before he crawls into bed in the Southern California retirement community he calls home.

The World War II veteran and stroke sufferer smokes the drug to alleviate debilitating nausea and is one of about 150 senior citizens on this sprawling, 18,000-person gated campus who belongs to a thriving - and controversial - medical marijuana collective operating in the middle of one of the largest retirement communities in the United States.

The fledgling collective mirrors a nationwide trend as more and more senior citizens turn to marijuana, legal or not, to ease the aches and pains of aging. But in Laguna Woods Village, tucked in the heart of one of the most conservative and wealthiest counties in California, these ganja-smoking grandparents have stirred up a heated debate with their collective, attracting a crackdown from within the self-governed community.

Many members of the 2-year-old collective keep a low profile, but others grow seedlings on their patios and set up workshops to show other seniors how to turn the marijuana leaves into tea, milk and a vapor that can be inhaled for relief from everything from chemotherapy-related nausea to multiple sclerosis to arthritis.

The most recent project involves getting collective members to plant 40 seeds from experimental varieties of marijuana that are high in a compound said to have anti-inflammatory properties best suited for elderly ailments. The tiny plastic vials, each containing 10 seeds, are stamped with names like "Sour Tsunami."

Under California law, people with a variety of conditions, from migraines to cancer, can get a medical marijuana card with a doctor's recommendation and join a pot collective to get what they need. All the members of Laguna Woods Village's collective have medical marijuana cards and are legal users under state law, but the drug is still banned under federal law.

Lonnie Painter, the collective's president and perhaps most activist member, worries daily about his high-profile position within the tiny community of pot users. The 65-year-old grandfather supplements regular painkillers with marijuana tea for osteoarthritis and keeps stacks of marijuana collective applications on a desk in the living room, just a few feet from the Lego bricks his 7-year-old grandson plays with on his frequent visits.

"We've got people who don't like it here, they don't like marijuana and they still have that `communism' and `perversion' and `killer weed' attitude," said Painter, who has shoulder-length gray hair, a white goatee and wears several gold necklaces. "What I get more worried about is myself getting put in jail. If you were just a patient you'd be safe, but if you are active and involved in any way in making it available for others, the federal government can come and scoop you up."

In the first two years of the collective's life, however, Painter and other members have had more trouble from their fellow residents than from the government.

When things first got under way, Painter and three others were growing about two dozen plants with names like Super Silver Haze in the Laguna Woods Village community garden. Photos show his 800-square-foot plot overflowing with marijuana plants taller than a grown man butting up against the staked tomatoes and purple flowering clematis of other gardeners.

But the Golden Rain Foundation, the all-volunteer board that governs the community, cracked down and prohibited the cultivation of marijuana on all Laguna Woods Village property. The vote followed the report of the theft of two marijuana plants, tangerines and a rake and shovel from the community garden, according to meeting minutes of the Community Activities Committee's Garden Center Advisory Group.

The foundation, which maintains the 3-square-mile community's 153 acres of golf courses, seven clubhouses and other amenities, adopted the policy late last year after a lengthy legal review.

"We thought that it was not proper. It sets a precedent. Our gardens are for flowers and vegetables, and that's all, and it's been that way since 1964 or 1965 when this was started," said Howard Feichtmann, who was chairman of the Garden Advisory Group. "We thought that's what it should remain and not get involved with medical marijuana or anything else that is considered on the fringe."

Those with medical marijuana cards can still grow the state limit of six mature plants per person in their private residences.

Susan Margolis, who sat on the Garden Center Advisory Group, said the debate has divided people along generational lines in a community where the average age is 78 but new residents can move in at 55. She estimated that up to 10 of her younger neighbors take medical pot for ailments but said many older residents are fiercely opposed.

"This did stir up a lot of feelings," said Margolis, 67, who said those opposed the public pot plots had valid safety concerns. "There are a lot of people that have never used marijuana and there are younger people who have used marijuana who say, `Come on now, this is just ridiculous.'"

After the vote, the collective had to rip its plants out and has struggled to produce the pot it needs for its members.

At first, the senior citizens tried to run their own grow site by creating a greenhouse in a rented facility off-site, but they lost thousands of dollars of crop when someone plugged a grow light into the wrong outlet, giving the plants 24 hours of light a day during the critical flowering period instead of 12 hours. Then, they gave seedlings to a grower operating a greenhouse in Los Angeles, but that ended just as badly: The place was busted by police, and all the plants were confiscated and destroyed.

Now, a fellow Laguna Woods Village resident and collective member recently started growing for the group in two off-site greenhouses whose location Painter and others declined to provide. The all-organic supply is distributed to members on a sliding scale, from $35 an ounce to about $200 an ounce based on ability to pay and need. Many members also grow their legal limit of six seedlings on private patios or in space-age looking indoor tents designed to coddle the growing weed.

The collective's website, which includes three albums of photos of the pot plants growing alongside regular produce, dresses down the community's board members for the collective's rocky path, calling them "ill-informed, intolerant tyrants" who have violated members' rights.

"It's just so difficult and it shouldn't be because it makes me feel like I'm doing something criminal but I'm not," said Barbara Ayala, a Laguna Woods Village resident and collective member who says she received nasty emails when she organized a daylong medical marijuana workshop. "I'm only trying to provide people with medicine ... that is the best quality that we can provide."

Call Off the Global Drug War

NYTimes.com states that, "IN an extraordinary new initiative announced earlier this month, the Global Commission on Drug Policy has made some courageous and profoundly important recommendations in a report on how to bring more effective control over the illicit drug trade." The commission includes the former presidents or prime ministers of five countries, a former secretary general of the United Nations, human rights leaders, and business and government leaders, including Richard Branson, George P. Shultz and Paul A. Volcker.

The report describes the total failure of the present global antidrug effort, and in particular America’s “war on drugs,” which was declared 40 years ago today. It notes that the global consumption of opiates has increased 34.5 percent, cocaine 27 percent and cannabis 8.5 percent from 1998 to 2008. Its primary recommendations are to substitute treatment for imprisonment for people who use drugs but do no harm to others, and to concentrate more coordinated international effort on combating violent criminal organizations rather than nonviolent, low-level offenders.

These recommendations are compatible with United States drug policy from three decades ago. In a message to Congress in 1977, I said the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, with a full program of treatment for addicts. I also cautioned against filling our prisons with young people who were no threat to society, and summarized by saying: “Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.”

These ideas were widely accepted at the time. But in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan and Congress began to shift from balanced drug policies, including the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, toward futile efforts to control drug imports from foreign countries.

This approach entailed an enormous expenditure of resources and the dependence on police and military forces to reduce the foreign cultivation of marijuana, coca and opium poppy and the production of cocaine and heroin. One result has been a terrible escalation in drug-related violence, corruption and gross violations of human rights in a growing number of Latin American countries.

The commission’s facts and arguments are persuasive. It recommends that governments be encouraged to experiment “with models of legal regulation of drugs ... that are designed to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens.” For effective examples, they can look to policies that have shown promising results in Europe, Australia and other places.

But they probably won’t turn to the United States for advice. Drug policies here are more punitive and counterproductive than in other democracies, and have brought about anexplosion in prison populations. At the end of 1980, just before I left office, 500,000 people were incarcerated in America; at the end of 2009 the number was nearly 2.3 million. There are 743 people in prison for every 100,000 Americans, a higher portion than in any other country and seven times as great as in Europe. Some 7.2 million people are either in prison or on probation or parole — more than 3 percent of all American adults!

Some of this increase has been caused by mandatory minimum sentencing and “three strikes you’re out” laws. But about three-quarters of new admissions to state prisons are for nonviolent crimes. And the single greatest cause of prison population growth has been the war on drugs, with the number of people incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses increasing more than twelvefold since 1980.

Not only has this excessive punishment destroyed the lives of millions of young people and their families (disproportionately minorities), but it is wreaking havoc on state and local budgets. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pointed out that, in 1980, 10 percent of his state’s budget went to higher education and 3 percent to prisons; in 2010, almost 11 percent went to prisons and only 7.5 percent to higher education.

Maybe the increased tax burden on wealthy citizens necessary to pay for the war on drugs will help to bring about a reform of America’s drug policies. At least the recommendations of the Global Commission will give some cover to political leaders who wish to do what is right.

A few years ago I worked side by side for four months with a group of prison inmates, who were learning the building trade, to renovate some public buildings in my hometown of Plains, Ga. They were intelligent and dedicated young men, each preparing for a productive life after the completion of his sentence. More than half of them were in prison for drug-related crimes, and would have been better off in college or trade school.

To help such men remain valuable members of society, and to make drug policies more humane and more effective, the American government should support and enact the reforms laid out by the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, is the founder of the Carter Center and the winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.