A student caught with marijuana successfully challenged Cornell University Police Department’s right to search the student, according to a one-page public record of the University Hearing Board case issued earlier this month.
“A tree sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed stops the heart; a shrub causes intolerable pain; a vine intoxicates; a leaf triggers a war. Within the plant kingdom lurk unfathomable evils,” writes author Amy Stewart in her most recent New York Times bestselling book, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities.
John, a junior at UCLA, is worried. For the past three years, he has been earning extra cash at school by dealing marijuana, and an if new legislation passes in November, he might have to get a less lucrative job, such as filing books at the library.
Marijuana law reform is back at the forefront of national debate after the Obama Administration’s new guidelines on medical marijuana investigation and prosecution came out Oct. 19. The federal government’s new stance comes as a relief to the many users and suppliers of marijuana for medical purposes and is seen by some as a move towards a more liberalized drug enforcement policy in the nation generally. However, with all the excitement over the new policy comes a wakeup call for the states which have legalized medical marijuana use or are considering such legislation. Inconsistent regulation, vague standards and patchwork enforcement are threatening to stall marijuana law reform.
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