Thursday, May 31, 2012

It's time for Californians to get smart on crime, and put the war on drugs behind them.

It's time for Californians to get smart on crime, and put the war on drugs behind them.

California can no longer afford to continue locking up thousands of people each year and branding them "felon" for life simply for possessing a small amount of illicit drugs for personal use. The waste of valuable resources and human life is far too great. For low-level drug offenders, treatment – not incarceration – is the most effective crime prevention. 

State Senator Mark Leno is sponsoring Senate Bill 1506 to revise the penalty for the simple drug possession under state law from a felony to a misdemeanor. This bill will be voted on today or tomorrow in the CA Senate. So, please take a few minutes to write your State Senator today. The legislation will free up funding that can be used effectively to help more people get the treatment they need. It will help to improve safety and relieve overcrowding in California jails and prisons. It will also remove barriers to community reintegration efforts that work against sobriety and public safety.

Tell your California State Senator to support SB 1506 for meaningful drug law reform in California today! 

Sincerely,

Devon Tackels

Regional Outreach Coordinator
Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Monday, May 28, 2012

Judge Jim Gray 2012 Vice President Nomination Speech.

Preserving Freedom: Judge Jim Gray VP Nomination Speech
Judge Jim Gray VP Nomination Speech. Libertarian Vice President nominee Judge Jim Grayspeaking at the Libertarian National Convention, May 5, 2012.
rongstad.blogspot.com/.../judge-jim-gray-vp-nomination-spee...

War on Drugs

Barack Obama drug warrior, Clarence Aaron collateral damage
San Francisco Chronicle (blog)
This story provides another example of how Barack Obama is worse in the war on drugs than George W. Bush. Pardon expert/blogger extraordinaire PS Ruckman alerted me to this MSNBC appearance in which former pardon attorney Sam Morison talks about how ...
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Women on the rise in Mexican drug cartels
Bangkok Post
The high mortality rate in Mexico's drug war has seen women progress quickly in the shadowy underworld of the cartels and they are increasingly taking on key management roles, a new book says. Mexican Army soldiers guard Irasema Lopez Garza, ...
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NARCOTICS: CIA-Pentagon Death Squads and Mexico's 'War on Drugs"
Center for Research on Globalization
In the context of the misbegotten "War on Drugs," that "client" is the US government and the nexus of bent banks, crooked cops, shady airplane brokers, chemical manufacturers, and spooky defense and surveillance firms who all profit from the chaos they ...
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Center for Research on Globalization
Gone but not forgotten: Hampton hosts Memorial Day ceremony
Seacoastonline.com
"Chief Maloney was killed in action in the war on drugs," Fatello said. "The Global War on Terrorism and the global war on drugs are closely related. The sales of these dangerous drugs help finance the war on terror." The American Legion also paid a ...
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Sasquatch! 2012: The War On Drugs
SSG Music
The War On Drugs took on the Bigfoot stage at Sasquatch! with a blend of folk/mountain music approached from a riff-heavy rock/shoegaze approach. The War On Drugs are a band that falls easily in line with both riff-rock and folk-rock traditions.
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SSG Music
Sinaloa cartel, Zetas push Mexico's drug violence to new depths
Los Angeles Times
(Alexandre Meneghini, Associated Press / May 21, 2012) By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times CULIACAN, Mexico — The cartel henchman nicknamed "El Loco" was reported behind the latest atrocity in Mexico's ever-more-depraved drug war: mutilating 49 ...
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Establishment on a Witch Hunt?
Tenth Amendment Center
... civil liberty violating aspects of the Patriot Act and presidential war power abuses, not to mention an unconstitutional federal "War on Drugs" that cages millions of minorities and criminalizes thousands of people simply seeking some pain relief.
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Going beyond scandal to substance
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Recently, many national leaders and citizens have joined the list of strident critics of the "war on drugs" approach. Clearly, the "war" cannot be won. Guatemala's President, Otto PĂ©rez Molina, has even advocated legalising drug consumption and ...
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At the heart of American justice (Part I)
allvoices
The grisly War on Drugs is, perhaps, the pinnacle example of policy adoption to augment imprisonment of civilians. Despite a glaring report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which condemned the drug war as utterly counterproductive, ...
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If you're using illegal drugs, you're accessory to murder
Mansfield News Journal
Then I suspect that many of these same concerned citizens go on home, kick back and light up a joint or maybe they even might lay out a line of coke or some other drug of choice. The war on drugs will not succeed until the demand for drugs in this ...
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Friday, May 25, 2012

Press Conference with Judge Jim Gray, LP Vice Presidential ...

Press Conference with Judge Jim Gray, LP Vice Presidential ...
Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate To Appear in Oakland on Thursday Anti- Drug-War Message Bolstered by New Nationwide Poll WHEN: Thursday May ...
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=408951355811766

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Contra Costa Libertarians Present Vice Presidential Candidate ...

Contra Costa Libertarians Present Vice Presidential Candidate ...
This will be a great opportunity to meet "The Next Vice President of The United States" Judge Jim Gray. Meet and socialize with other Libertarians and Liberty ...
www.dailypaul.com/.../contra-costa-libertarians-present-vice-p...
Marijuana Support Given By Superior USA Court Judge James P. Gray
Vaporizing Marijuana has been known to PREVENT LUNG CANCER Vaporizing means there is ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF1YUnrLp-0

Judge Jim Gray, Libertarian VP candidate, to speak and get stroked ...

Judge Jim Gray, Libertarian VP candidate, to speak and get stroked ...
Posted in: "The OC" , 2012 Presidential Elections , Bowers Museum , Fresh Juice , Judge Jim Gray , libertarian party , liberty , marijuana legalization , Santa Ana ...
www.topix.com/forum/city/santa-ana.../T6LAR3OL9U1RF5BI...
First Judge Jim Gray Rally Saturday, May 12 2012 | SBCLP.org
JUDGE JIM GRAY HONORED AS LIBERTARIAN PARTY VP NOMINEE Returned Home to Orange County for Saturday Rally Fresh from winning the Vice ...
www.sbclp.org/node/972

Judge Jim Gray (L-CA) Homecoming - 2012 Libertarian Party VP ...


Judge Jim Gray (L-CA) Homecoming - 2012 Libertarian Party VP ...
Judge Jim Gray, 2012 Libertarian Party Nominee for Vice President, Speaks at Homecoming ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-JDcA2hD00

Gary Johnson and Judge Jim Gray could catch presidential race by surprise

Gary Johnson could catch presidential race by surprise

To date, Johnson has been polling between 6 and 9 percent nationally – several points shy of what he needs.

Johnson, a Republican who served as governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003, is running on a platform that includes slashing government spending to balance the federal budget by 2013, ending wars the U.S. in involved in, and drug reform --  beginning with the legalization of marijuana but extending all the way to the war on drugs, drug policy, relations with Latin America, and even law enforcement policies and priorities-- issues that neither of the two major candidates President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are pursuing right now.  

Blog | MEET LIBERTARIAN VP CANDIDATE JUDGE JIM GRAY!

Judge Jim Gray Homecoming - 2012 Libertarian Party ... - Open Salon
Judge Jim Gray Homecoming - 2012 Libertarian Party VP Nominee On May 12, 2012 Judge Jim Gray, 2012 Libertarian Party Nominee for Vice President at his ...
open.salon.com/.../judge_jim_gray_homecoming_-_2012_lib...
Blog | MEET LIBERTARIAN VP CANDIDATE JUDGE JIM GRAY!
Attention all liberty-lovers! The June meeting of the Ventura County Libertarian Party is one that no freedom advocate will want to miss! Fresh from winning the ...
lpvc.org/2012/.../meet-libertarian-vp-candidate-judge-jim-gra...

Libertarian Party nominates Vice-Presidential candidate Jim Gray

Libertarian Party nominates Vice-Presidential candidate Jim Gray
Orange County Breeze
Fresh from winning the Vice Presidential nomination at the Libertarian Party annual convention last weekend in Las Vegas, Newport Beach Judge Jim Gray returns home to begin his campaign for office with Presidential nominee Gov. Gary Johnson.
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Retired O.C. judge named to Libertarian presidential ticket

Retired O.C. judge named to Libertarian presidential ticket

Newport Beach's Jim Gray is a longtime drug-reform activist.

  
By MARTIN WISCKOL

By MARTIN WISCKOL 
COLUMNIST 
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray's national recognition as a drug-reform activist ratcheted up a notch last week, when he landed on the Libertarian Party presidential ticket.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson got the expected nod as the Libertarian Party presidential nominee while Gray was confirmed as Johnson's running mate May 5 at the party's national convention in Las Vegas.

Article Tab: party-orange-jim-vice
Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray speaks at the May 5 Libertarian Party convention, where he was named the party's vice presidential nominee.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Newport Beach resident Gray, whom Johnson had previously mentioned as his preferred running mate, is hardly new to the political arena.

He ran as a Republican for the House of Representatives in 1998, losing in the primary as Bob Dornan advanced to the general but failed to win back his seat from Loretta Sanchez. Gray ran as a Libertarian for U.S. Senate in 2004 and helped lead the failed 2010 campaign for Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana for recreational use in California.

Johnson also supports legalized marijuana, but his differences from Mitt Romney and Barack Obama hardly end there. He attacks both for not being what they say they are – criticizing Romney's plan to cut the budget as unrealistic given his spending plans and criticizing Obama on civil liberties and involvement in Afghanistan.

Johnson dismissed suggestions that he could cost Romney the election.

"You know, all of those Romney supporters that are ardent marriage-equality advocates?" Johnson, who favors legalization of gay marriage, told the Daily Caller. "All those pot smokers that are for Romney? Nah, I don't buy it."

Tobacco money

Tobacco companies have pitched in more than $39 million to defeat Proposition 29, which would impose an additional $1 per pack cigarette tax, according to an analysis by non-partisan Maplight watchdog group. The new tax proceedings would go to research into and prevention of tobacco-related diseases,

Philip Morris alone has contributed $23.6 million so far, five times the $4.7 million total raised by measure proponents. Next comes R.J. Reynolds with $9.6 million. The top five contributors against Prop. 29 are tobacco companies. No. 6 is the California Republican Party, which has given $695,000. Americans for Tax Reform and the California Chamber of Commerce also oppose the measure.

Top contributors supporting the measures are the American Cancer Society ($1.6 million) and the Lance Armstrong Foundation ($1.5 million). Other proponents include the California Medical Association and the California State PTA.

Gay marriage poll

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he now supports gay marriage but added that it should be up to the individual states. That stops short of the federal gay marriage preferred by the vast majority of Democrats surveyed in a new OC Political Pulse poll.

Among the 130 county Democrat respondents, 88 percent would prefer gay marriage be enacted on the federal level and another 4 percent wanted civil unions – rather than marriages – on the federal level. Just 5 percent shared Obama's position that states should take responsibility and perform same-sex marriages.

Republicans take a far different view. Of the 220 Republicans surveyed, only 4 percent of wanted to see gay marriage on a federal level.

Forty-nine percent of GOP respondents said gay couples should not have the same legal rights as man-woman married couples, while 28 percent approved of civil unions on a state-by-state basis.

Contact the writer: 714-796-6753 or mwisckol@ocregister.com

Friday, May 11, 2012

A Look at Libertarian Party Nominees Gary Johnson, Jim Gray

A Look at Libertarian Party Nominees Gary Johnson, Jim Gray
OpEdNews
The Libertarians selected former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson for President, and retiredjudge James Gray of California for Vice President.

Retired OC judge named to Libertarian presidential ticket

Retired OC judge named to Libertarian presidential ticket
OCRegister
By MARTIN WISCKOL Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray's national recognition as a drug-reform activist ratcheted up a notch last week, when he landed on the Libertarian Party presidential ticket. Former New Mexico Gov.
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Retired OC judge named to Libertarian presidential ticket - Judge Jim Gray

Retired OC judge named to Libertarian presidential ticket
OCRegister
By MARTIN WISCKOL Retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray's national recognition as a drug-reform activist ratcheted up a notch last week, when he landed on the Libertarian Party presidential ticket. Former New Mexico Gov.
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

LIBERTARIAN GARY JOHNSON TAPS JUDGE JIM GRAY FOR VP


Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson announced his pick for V.P. -- Judge Jim Gray. As The Daily Caller reports:

Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has picked California Judge Jim Gray, a prominent pro-marijuana legalization advocate, to be his running mate, The Daily Caller has learned.
The decision to run with Gray "puts pot front-and-center in the campaign," one Johnson adviser told TheDC, before adding that Johnson's opposition to the war in Afghanistan will likely remain the campaign's defining issue.
But Jim Gray is no pothead; he's serious, conservative minded libertarian who has never used illegal drugs. His arguments aren't frivolous.
I interviewed Jim Gary a couple of years ago. Here's part of the that interview -- decide for yourself.



Monday, May 7, 2012

Three man presidential race now more interesting with Libertarian nominee

Three man presidential race now more interesting with Libertarian nominee
Examiner.com
The process of nominating the Libertarian Party's Vice Presidential Candidate began shortly before 5:30 pm ET this afternoon with retired Judge Jim Gray winning the nomination with 59.5% of the vote and Lee Wrights receiving 38.2%. Judge Gray was ...

Libertarians Nominate Judge Jim Gray for Vice-President

Libertarians Nominate Judge Jim Gray for Vice-President
Uncovered Politics
By Austin Cassidy on May 5, 2012 With nearly 60% of the vote on the first ballot, former Superior Court Judge and marijuana legalization activist Jim Gray has been selected by the Libertarian Party as Gary Johnson's running mate.