The New York City Council Committee on Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse and Disability Services, jointly with the Subcommittee on Drug Abuse will hold a hearing on Friday, November 18, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. in the 16th Floor Committee Room, 250 Broadway, New York, NY to consider Proposed Res. No. 94-A, a resolution… Read More New York City Council to hold hearing on proposed resolution calling on the NYS legislature to enact a medical marijuana law

The annual global cannabis policy protest day is scheduled for this coming Saturday. See the Global Cannabis March website for a list of participating cities.I for one find it very impressive that this event, which grew out of the annual May Day Marijuana Parade in New York City, has gone viral so to speak and… Read More Global Cannabis March

I read with great interest the material at freetaitajuan.org concerning a Colombian ayahuasca healer who was arrested in Houston for possession of the substance. It got me thinking about one of the alternative paradigms of psychedelics. (Thanks to Ben for bringing it to my attention.) We are all familiar with the model of psychedelics use… Read More Psychedelic sacraments

The November 16 conference at the Bar Association went off well. The presentations were top-notch. I found especially interesting Steve Rolles and Mark Haden’s discussions of classifying psychoactive substances. One point which Steve made in After the War on Drugs and repeated in his presentation is the limited utility of saying that one drug is… Read More Further musings

Hello all. Various personal and professional issues have separated me from my true love – you, my readers – but I am back for a brief and discreet rendezvous. There is a vast stream of news and information regarding ‘drugs’ rushing through the media arteries. Most of it relates Proposition 19 in California, the “legalization.”… Read More October 2010: current events and musings about The Big Picture

Following is the notice for an upcoming event to be held at the New York City Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street, New York (between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue) on Tuesday, November 16, beginning at 5:30 pm: CONFRONTING AN OXYMORON: TAKING CONTROL OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES The federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 defines U.S.… Read More Upcoming program at the New York City Bar Association

I am allowing myself a short and strictly conceptual post (as opposed to an attempt to analyze a statute or policy statement). In studying other aspects of drug control I have come to the conclusion that there is a missing change in terminology. Once upon a time there was a “War on Drugs.”Actually twice: there… Read More It’s no longer a "war." What is it? What it has always been.

Hello all. I have been out on personal and professional matters for the month of August, and September likely will be full as well. However, I hope to be back soon with more postings on legal developments and announcements concerning upcoming events.

Saturday’s New York Times ran a story that crystallizes into a little pill-size dose large volumes of the conceptual chaos called “drug control policy.” The title of the article is “New Jersey’s Medical Marijuana Law Loses Planned Grower and Dispensers.” That is utter nonsense.It is the famed Newspeak of Orwell’s “1984.” The headline is a… Read More "Rutgers University delivers strong uppercut to Governor Christie," or "The New York Times’ Newspeak"

I have been turning over in my head recently the whole phenomenon of the “medical marijuana” movement and I conclude that it is time to discard a pernicious dichotomy. I believe that the irony of the struggle in New Jersey resides in the statutory name of the not-for-profit corporate dispensaries which the medical marijuana statute… Read More Cannabis as alternative medicine