WEED WATCH

After lobbying delegates, fielding questions, and asking for a floor
vote, the Texas League of Women Voters during their annual convention
April 16-18 voted to conduct a two-year study of the state's drug
policies. Two Texas LWV members and drug reform advocates - Austinite
Noelle Davis, executive director of the newly formed Texans for
Medical Marijuana, and Dallas chapter member Suzanne Wills, also with
the Drug Policy Forum of Texas - successfully championed the motion,
which calls on the LWV to evaluate the state's current drug laws and
the effects the laws might have on "young people, communities of
color, and medical care and public health." The study also calls for
an evaluation of the "social and economic costs of relying on
prohibition, law enforcement, and imprisonment to solve problems
related to drugs." According to the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
Wills said that she and Davis argued that a drug policy study could
help the graying LWV attract younger members. "[T]his could be an
issue that does that," Wills said.

In other drug news, the Drug Enforcement Administration's request that
the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals revisit its decision earlier
this year to toss out the DEA's hemp-food ban proposal was denied last
week. The DEA filed its request for a hearing a day late, and the
court denied the agency's request to file late. (For more on the hemp
food fight, see "Please Don't Eat the Hemp," April 11, 2003.) The DEA
isn't giving up quite yet and has filed an appeal of the denial.

On April 22, the Marijuana Policy Project filed a motion with the
Nevada Supreme Court, asking the court to force U.S. drug czar John
Walters to provide an accounting of all taxpayer money he spent during
travels in Nevada in an attempt to defeat a 2002 ballot initiative
that would have decriminalized marijuana possession and provided for
the drug's legal sale. According to the MPP, Walters' Silver State
stumping was a clear violation of the 1939 Hatch Act, which regulates
the political activities of government officials and employees.

The MPP called for Walters' ouster and then asked the Nevada secretary
of state to force Walters to comply with the state's election
expenditure reporting requirements. Walters refused, sending the SOS
to the state's attorney general for an opinion on the matter.

In April 2003, the AG reprimanded Walters for his "disturbing"
interference in the state vote, but concluded that a court would
"likely" find Walters immune from Nevada's campaign finance laws. The
MPP is now challenging that decision, which, they argue, is not based
on any legal precedent.

The MPP is now asking that the state's high court step into the fray
and order Walters to file campaign reports in accordance with Nevada
law. "Asking the drug czar to file campaign finance reports after
campaigning in the state is no different from requiring U.S. Postal
Service employees to obey state and local traffic laws while
delivering the mail," MPP executive director Rob Kampia wrote in a
press release.