Marijuana Forum at VCU

VCU Students for Sensible Drug Policy in co-operation with Virginia NORML held a forum to advocate decriminalizing marijuana at Virginia Commonwealth University's Student Commons on Saturday, September 25, 2010 in Richmond, Virginia.

Part 1/3 - Cannabis in the Commonwealth - Sept. 25, 2010 - Duffy, Stroup, Sterling, Gettman - Richmond, Virginia from Silver Persinger.

Dee Duffy, Executive Director of Virginia NORML, opened the meeting.

Keith Stroup, founder of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, spoke about his 40 years of experience in the marijuana movement. It is interesting to note, that in places where marijuana is already legal, NORML is fighting to establish that individuals have a right to raise at least 5 plants for personal use and they are working to oppose to "unconscionable profiteering." Kudos Mr. Stroup and NORML!

Eric Sterling, President of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, discussed excessive government power, some history of alcohol prohibition, and government's immoral persecution of marijuana users, growers, and distributors.

Jon Gettman [Cannabis policy expert, The Coalition for the Rescheduling of Cannabis] had technical difficulties for the first half of this talk, the projector started working where his comments leave off here in Part 2. Mr. Gettman discussed statistics showing that African Americans are disproportionally arrested for marijuana compared to whites.

Part 2/3 - Cannabis in the Commonwealth - Sept. 25, 2010 - Gettman, Leibig, Werth, Sharpe - Richmond, Virginia from Silver Persinger.

Part 2 contains the conclusion of Jon Gettman's PowerPoint presentation on the racial disparity of marijuana arrests.

Criminal defense attorney, Virginia NORML Board of Directors, and NORML Legal Committee Member Christopher Leibig advocates preserving the police's right to illegal searches based on probable cause triggered by the aroma of marijuana as a way to appease law enforcement's opposition to decriminalization.

Lennice Werth from Virginians Against Drug Violence recounted some history of the Marijuana Movement in Virginia and urged the audience to contact their members in the Virginia House of Delegates to tell them to support House Bills 1134 and 1136, introduced by Harvey Morgan (a Republican pharmacist) in Virginia's General Assembly last year.

Robert Sharpe [Media Awareness Project] discussed the history of marijuana law, dispels some popular myths about marijuana use, and makes an economic argument for decriminalization.

Part 3/3 - Cannabis in the Commonwealth - Sept. 25, 2010 - Questions & Comments - Richmond, Virginia from Silver Persinger.

In this portion of the forum panelists solicited questions from the audience. This clip includes helpful legal advice including be polite to police and only tell them your name, but don't answer any questions, you don't have to tell the police where you are coming from or where you are going. Ask, "Am I free to leave? Am I being detained?" They recommended watching the video, "Busted: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters."

Watch it here,
video.google.com/​videoplay?docid=3435730304776119545#

Two Interesting Stories from RTD in Last Two Days - 100th Anniversary

The Richmond Times Dispatch recently reported two stories that I found particularly interesting. In yesterday's newspaper, it was reported in an article entitled "Richmond looks to reassign workers to avoid layoffs" that Mayor Jones' budget proposed to eliminate 150 positions bringing the city's number of employees, "non-school, full-time-equivalent positions from 5,108.6 to 4,958.94."

This is interesting because the "total number of city employees" that has been thrown around at City Hall for the last few years has been 4000. Recently and notably by Dr. Tyrone Jackson, Richmond's Director of Human Resources. Listen here as Dr. Jackson references the city's "4000 plus" employees during his presentation to the Governmental Operations Committee on February 26, 2009.

However, the Times-Dispatch article took no exception to this discrepancy, even though it represents a difference of 20% over what had been the conventional wisdom on the employment number. The above example is the sort of thing that bloggers and watchdogs can be effective at exposing. And with the ease of digital recording, it makes it easier to hold people accountable and serves as an aid to remember what they said. It also highlights, the failure of our newspapers to be a valuable asset in assisting the public to make informed decisions about our government.

The second story I was interested to read in today's newspaper was entitled, "Richmond jail inmates to pay $1 a day." The article stated that it would generate $500,000 annually. The jail's current operating budget is $30 million. I think that is a crummy idea and is petty "feel good" act of meanness towards individuals whose lives are already being destroyed by their mere jail sentences. The best way to save money at the City Jail is to reduce the number of people in the jail. Deal with the mentally ill in an appropriate manner and don't jail non-violent and drug offenders and release individuals who can't pay their bonds when such bond is less than $500.

Today marks 100 days of blogging the Richmond City Council Reporter and Telegraph.

It has evolved in that short time. I have decided to focus more on the video format. After three years of making audio recordings at Council meetings, I recently bought a video camera and have been filming the Council meetings. The videos are so much more compelling to watch than the audio recordings were to listen to. There is so much going on in the videos and visual signs of the speakers show meaning that is not captured in an audio recording.

I'm still trying to figure out how I should be making videos. The long format, entire meeting is nice but I know people would be more inclined to watch a ten minute summary. I will experiment and try to come up with different ways to present information. And be sure to leave feedback when you think something is working or not working. And let me know what you want to see.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I was going to give up on this blog. I didn't and in the last couple of weeks, I have really put a lot of work into it. I hope I can keep it up. It is taking up a lot of time and space.