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By Peter Mucha

Inquirer Staff Writer

Why the burglar alarm went off, Steve Haver still doesn't know.

Because it did, while Haver and his wife, Karen, were away in the Poconos on the morning of July 8, 2006, Reading police searched the couple's semidetached three-story home and found five pot plants growing under lights.

Because of that discovery, the Havers were soon caught in a swirl of legal decisions that overturned their lives, prompted questions about the enforcement of marijuana laws, and served as a lesson to homeowners with security services.

Steve Haver spent a weekend in jail on $1 million bail, wound up with a felony conviction for drug manufacturing, lost his driver's license for six months, and expects to lose his job as general manager of the performing arts center at Penn State's York campus.

The case has been on the front page of the local paper more than most murders, he said.

After being arrested and jailed on $500,000 bail, Karen Haver quickly lost her job as manager of the Sovereign Performing Arts Center in Reading.

Monday, though, the couple got some good news: Authorities wouldn't seize her house after all - just the growing equipment.

Under Pennsylvania law, property can be seized by...

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by KYW's Kim Glovas

The Marijuana Policy Project, a national organization, screened a documentary Sunday night in Powellton Village on the reasons why medical marijuana should be legalized.

Derek Rosenzweig, co-chair of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, explains what the documentary "Waiting to Inhale" was all about:

"It documents the medical marijuana movement from the perspective of patients who get raided by the DEA...

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by KYW's Mike Dunn

Philadelphia Mayor Nutter has ordered his prisons commissioner to come up with a plan to relieve overcrowding in the city's lock-ups.

Mayor Nutter admits the city's prisons are "bursting at the seams," and now he's giving Prisons Commissioner Louis Giorla 30 days to come up with a plan to ease the rampant overcrowding.

Giorla predicts this will worsen in the short term and then, hopefully, ease:

"The police department's crime plan, and some of the new initiatives to control crime, are going...

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Dear NORML Supporters:

NORML is pleased to announce that it has partnered with our longtime ally, Democratic Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, to introduce legislation in the House of Representatives that would strip the federal government of its authority to arrest responsible cannabis consumers. The bill, referred to by Frank as the 'Make Room for Serious Criminals Act,' is the first federal cannabis decriminalization bill introduced in Congress in 24 years.

“It's time for the politicians to catch up with the public on this [issue],” Frank said Friday during an appearance on the nationally syndicated television program 'Real Time with Bill Maher,' in which he announced the imminent introduction of the measure.

As drafted, Frank's proposal would eliminate all federal penalties prohibiting the personal use and possession of up to 100 grams (3 1/2 ounces) of marijuana. Under this measure (based on the recommendations of the 1972 National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, also known as the Shafer Commission), adults who consume cannabis would no longer face arrest, prison, or even the threat of a civil fine. In addition, this bill would eliminate all penalties prohibiting the not-for-profit transfers of up to one ounce of cannabis between adults. In short, for the first time since 1937, the possession, use, and non-profit transfer of marijuana by adults would be legal under federal law!

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October 31, 2007

The Democratic Presidential Candidates participated in an MSNBC Debate hosted by Drexel University this week. PhillyNORML, the premier reform group in the greater Tri-state area, had previously submitted questions about marijuana for the candidates to answer.

While MSNBCs Tim Russert did not use the ones PhillyNORML submitted, clearly the subject is gaining potency and support because he did ask a question concerning marijuana decriminalization. The question was posed in way to allow the others a response to Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd's open support of decriminalization. Candidates raised their hands if they disagreed with Dodd. All but Kucinich raised their hands, though Obama seemed to do so somewhat reluctantly. Sen. Dodd was allowed time to re-iterate and expand on his position.

MR. RUSSERT: "Senator Dodd, you went on the Bill Marr show last month and said that you were for decriminalizing marijuana. Is there anyone here who disagrees with Senator Dodd in decriminalization marijuana? Senator Biden?"

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By Derek Rosenzweig - PhillyNORML

Since 1990, 10,448,499 Americans have been arrested for marijuana offenses. A couple of years ago, I was one of them, although I don't know which number. These days someone's arrested for a marijuana offense every 38 seconds. In 2006, that amounted to a record 829,625 people, nearly a six percent increase over 2005. In Pennsylvania alone, approximately 29,144 people were arrested.

As usual, the vast majority of nationwide arrests - 89% - were for possession only. The remaining 11% were for sales and/or manufacturing. So, with these ever increasing, record arrests ever year, you'd expect this 'War on Marijuana™' to be won by now, right? Unsurprisingly, this is not the case. By our government's own estimates, about 94 million Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once in their lifetimes, and about 14.6 million Americans smoke, eat, or vaporize the plant regularly. Guess how much money we as taxpayers pay every year to lock up these people. Guess how much money the prison and drug testing industries make off of the suffering of people who hurt nobody. How much more are you willing to spend to put the remaining 93.2 million Americans who have tried it in jail? We already jail more people for drug offenses than the entirety of Europe does for all offenses combined.

Even worse is the increasing discrepancy along racial lines of who is arrested. In 2006 in Philadelphia county, according to the Pennsylvania Unified Crime Report, 6,572 people were arrested. Of those, 5,137, or 78.2% were black, whereas only 1,405, or 21.8% are white. According to the 2000 census, 43.2 percent of the city's population is black and 45 percent is white. It's pretty hard to see these numbers and not come to the conclusion that there is something inherently racist about the war on marijuana users. Of course, Harry Anslinger used racism - often blatant racism - in his testimony to Congress in 1937 when he effectively made marijuana illegal. These blights on our country are kept in the archives for anybody to see. In this day and age, I would hope that racism would have been diminished, but these numbers clearly show that America has far to go.

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By Chris Goldstein - Oct 10, 2007

Denver police and the FBImove in to make a drug sting at a nondescript hotel called the Lexington.They quickly arrest two men, seizing two marijuana joints. The date was Oct. 2, 1937, and the arrests implemented a law that had taken effect that very same day: the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act.

Samuel R. Caldwell and Moses Baca thus became the first of millions of Americans arrested and imprisoned because of marijuana prohibition. Caldwell was sentenced to four years of hard labor in Leavenworth penitentiary; Baca received 18 months. Both men served every last day.

The Marijuana Tax Stamp Act was passed by Congress after just 90 minutes of floor debate, despite vehement opposition from the American Medical Association. Championed by the country's first drug czar, Harry Anslinger, the law and its proponents' characterizations of marijuana smokers were starkly racist. (Propaganda linked marijuana smoking to black jazz musicians and Mexican immigrants.) Meanwhile, the "tax stamps" themselves were never for sale; the federal legislation was fully understood to be used as a prohibition, not a regulation.

Fast forward several decades; the...

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Posted by Scott Morgan on Wed, 10/10/2007 - 4:35pm

McCain, Giuliani, and Romney have all attracted unwanted attention this week with their pledge to continue the federal government's unpopular war on medical marijuana patients and providers. The question is "why?" Everyone knows mainstream republican politicians are often a tough sell when it comes to drug policy reform, but given massive public support for medical marijuana, their callous position appears politically unwise and thus more difficult to explain.

First, it helps to clarify how narrow and simplistic their argument really is. The McCain/Giuliani/Romney consensus on medical marijuana is grounded in the claim that "other medications" are available and should be used instead. This one argument virtually encompasses the totality of their opposition to medical marijuana. It is their only talking point, which is why they move on quickly to the next topic after saying it.

Still, I don't believe this argument actually tells us very much about their true motivations. When Mitt Romney recommends "synthetic marijuana" to a wheelchair-bound patient, it becomes clear that he understands the medical efficacy of the drug. Indeed, these "other medications" are often derived from synthetic cannabinoids, so the debate is clearly not over whether marijuana has medical properties. We've moved beyond that, thankfully.

At this point, it becomes a question of how patients should be acquiring and administering...

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October 8, 2007 - WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was confronted head-on Saturday over the issue of medical marijuana.

Following a campaign appearance in Dover, New Hampshire, a member of the audience, Clayton Holton, told Romney he has muscular dystrophy and said five of his doctors say he is "living proof medical marijuana works."

"I am completely against legalizing it for everyone, but there is medical purposes for it," Holton told Romney.

Romney pointed out that there is synthetic marijuana as well as other pain medications available.

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By Rob Kampia, AlterNet
Posted on October 9, 2007, Printed on October 10, 2007

What would you buy if you had an extra $42 billion to spend every year? What might our government buy if it suddenly had that much money dropped onto its lap every year?

For one thing, it might pay for the entire $7 billion annual increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program that President Bush is threatening to veto because of its cost -- and there'd still be $35 billion left over.

Or perhaps you'd hire 880,000 schoolteachers at the average U.S. teacher salary of $47,602 per year.

Or give every one of our current teachers a 30 percent raise (at a cost of...

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PhillyNORML took our activism to the highly visible Citizens Bank Park to show the masses that support for ending prohibition has a voice in Philadelphia. Taking the initiative, we unveiled a gigantic banner which read "LEGALIZE" above home plate during the Sept. 27 Phillies vs Braves game.

After the game, we started our campaign to collect 25,000 signatures for a petition to decriminalize marijuana, and we enjoyed good success. Philadelphia is ready for decriminalization.
See the Video!

Washington, DC: Marijuana prohibition costs US taxpayers nearly $42 billion dollars per year in criminal justice costs and in lost tax revenues, according to an economic analysis released this week.

According to the study, "Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws," law enforcement spends $10.7 billion annually to arrest and prosecute marijuana offenders. This amount comprises nearly six percent of America's total criminal justice expenditures.

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Washington, DC: Police arrested a record 829,625 persons for marijuana violations in 2006, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. This is the largest total number of annual arrests for pot ever recorded by the FBI. Marijuana arrests now comprise nearly 44 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 38 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."

Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 89 percent, 738,915 Americans were charged with possession only...

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