Damn Sam Productions & NY Citizens Against Marijuana Prohibition Present:
OUR CHANGE: Concert, Rally & Lobby Day To End Cannabis Prohibition
April 17, 2009 - Albany, NY
(before The Dead show)

Noon - 2pm* - LOBBY
Legislative Office Building - State Street Entrance: across the street from the Rally.
Look for our signs and volunteers when you get nearby.

2pm - 6pm - CONCERT AND RALLY
East Capitol Park - Steps of the NY State Capitol Building
Visit our website for directions.

Featuring:
Over 13 activist speakers:
Abigail Storm - NY CAMP
Rob Robinson - Damn Sam - NY State CAN - NY Harvest Fest & Freedom Fair
Joe Anderson - Activist - Drug War Victim - US Army Vet. - Filed Suit Against NY State After Marijuana Arrest That Could Change The Law for us all!
Arron "The Pieman" Kay - Lifelong Activist - YIPPIE
Justin Holmes - Digital Activist / Singer Songwriter / Tuvan Throat Singer
Michael W. Lurie - Indi. Candidate for US Senate (NY)
Burton Aldrich - Wheelchair Patient - MMJ Activist
Jen Rog - End Prohibition Now - NY Harvest Fest & Freedom Fair
Terry Phelan - The Hemp Coalition
Jim Miller - MS Caregiver - MMJ Activist
Dave Lawson - Activist / Performer / MMJ Patient
and still more to be announced

Musical Performances by:
Lynch (w. members of moe., Conehead Buddha, Schelaho & Yolk)
Half Step
Free Grass Union (acoustic)
Dr. Jah and the Love Prophets
Rev Tor (Acoustic)

Damn Sam is also publishing our 3rd issue of Notes on the Scene.
Notes is a free, full color publication that covers the live music culture and the issues and scene that surrounds it. We still have space for advertisers and maybe even a good story, illustration or photograph. This is a great place to advertise your band, event or product to our scene and beyond. We will be printing 35,000 copies that will be distributed roughly: 20k northeast, 10k west coast, 5k southeast. Ad rates vary from $125 - $1,500 so we can work with any budget to help get your message out. Support Damn Sam while supporting yourself! Ad deadline is April 1, 2009.

*From Noon-2pm we will Lobby our NY State Senators and Assembly Members! We will have guides to help you express yourself, and literature to hand to your elected reps. More Lobbying will take place from 2-5pm. We will have free info packets for you to drop off at your representative's offices, which are in the building across the street from the concert and rally (we will help you figure out who they are if you don't know). Sign up in advance with Damn Sam and we will have a package made for your representatives for you to delever. Look for our booth at the rally and come talk to us if you're interested in making a big impact. Join us at the largest, single day, marijuana lobby effort in NY history! If you cannot come to the event we have set up links on Damn Sam for you to write letters to your elected representatives and help increase the overall impact of this action.

More info to come soon. Be safe and have fun. Take care of each other.

Peace, Music, Cannabis & Liberty,

Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy?
Buzz Up Send

By ALISON STATEMAN / LOS ANGELES Alison Stateman / Los Angeles – Fri Mar 13, 7:10 pm ET AP

Could marijuana be the answer to the economic misery facing California? Democratic state assemblyman Tom Ammiano thinks so. Ammiano introduced legislation last month that would legalize pot and allow the state to regulate and tax its sale - a move that could mean billions of dollars for the cash-strapped state. Pot is, after all, California's biggest cash crop, responsible for $14 billion a year in sales, dwarfing the state's second largest agricultural commodity - milk and cream - which brings in $7.3 billion a year, according to the most recent USDA statistics. The state's tax collectors estimate the bill would bring in about $1.3 billion a year in much needed revenue, offsetting some of the billions of dollars in service cuts and spending reductions outlined in the recently approved state budget.

"The state of California is in a very, very precipitous economic plight. It's in the toilet," says Ammiano. "It looks very, very bleak, with layoffs and foreclosures, and schools closing or trying to operate four days a week. We have one of the highest rates of unemployment we've ever had. With any revenue ideas, people say you have to think outside the box, you have to be creative, and I feel that the issue of the decriminalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana fits that bill. It's not new, the idea has been around, and the political will may in fact be there to make something happen." (See pictures of stoner cinema.)

Ammiano may be right. A few days after he introduced the bill, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that states should be able to make their own rules for medical marijuana and that federal raids on pot dispensaries in California would cease. The move signaled a softening of the hard-line approach to medicinal pot use previous Administrations have taken. The nomination of Gil Kerlikowske as the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy may also signal a softer federal line on marijuana. If he is confirmed as the so-called drug czar, Kerlikowske will take with him experience as police chief of Seattle, where he made it clear that going after people for possessing marijuana was not a priority for his force. (See a story about the grass-roots marijuana war in California.)

In 1996 California became one of the first states in the nation to legalize medical marijuana. Currently, $200 million in medical-marijuana sales are subject to sales tax. If passed, the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act (AB 390) would give California control of pot in a manner similar to that of alcohol while prohibiting its purchase by citizens under age 21. (The bill has been referred to the California state assembly's public-safety and health committees; Ammiano says it could take up to a year before it comes to a vote for passage.) State revenues would be derived from a $50-per-oz. levy on retail sales of marijuana and sales taxes. By adopting the law, California could become a model for other states. As Ammiano put it, "How California goes, the country goes."

Despite the need for the projected revenue, opponents say legalizing pot would only add to social woes. "The last thing we need is yet another mind-altering substance to be legalized," says John Lovell, lobbyist for the California Peace Officers' Association. "We have enough problems with alcohol and abuse of pharmaceutical products. Do we really need to add yet another mind-altering substance to the array?" Lovell says the easy availability of the drug would lead to a surge in its use, much as happened when alcohol was allowed to be sold in venues other than liquor stores in some states. (Read why Dr. Sanjay Gupta is against decriminalizing pot.)

Joel W. Hay, professor of pharmaceutical economics at USC, also foresees harm if the bill passes. "Marijuana is a drug that clouds people's judgment. It affects their ability to concentrate and react, and it certainly has impacts on third parties," says Hay, who has written on the societal costs of drug abuse. "It's one more drug that will add to the toll on society. All we have to do is look at the two legalized drugs, tobacco and alcohol, and look at the carnage that they've caused. [Marijuana] is a dangerous drug, and it causes bad outcomes for both the people who use it and for the people who are in their way at work or other activities." He adds, "There are probably some responsible people who can handle marijuana, but there are lots of people who can't, and it has an enormous negative impact on them, their family and loved ones." (See pictures of Mexico's drug wars.)

In response, retired Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray, a longtime proponent of legalization, estimates that legalizing pot and thus ceasing to arrest, prosecute and imprison nonviolent offenders could save the state $1 billion a year. "We couldn't make this drug any more available if we tried," he says. "Not only do we have those problems, along with glamorizing it by making it illegal, but we also have the crime and corruption that go along with it." He adds, "Unfortunately, every society in the history of mankind has had some form of mind-altering, sometimes addictive substances to use, to misuse, abuse or get addicted to. Get used to it. They're here to stay. So let's try to reduce those harms, and right now we couldn't do it worse if we tried."

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Cartels in Mexico's drug war get guns from U.S.
The Associated Press

Tuesday, January 27th 2009, 12:31 PM

PHOENIX — As police approached a drug cartel's safe house in northwestern Mexico last May, gunmen inside poured on fire with powerful assault rifles and grenades, killing seven officers whose weapons were no match.

Four more lawmen were wounded in the bloodbath and a cache of weapons was seized, including a single AK-47 assault rifle that authorities say was purchased 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) away at a Phoenix gun shop and smuggled into Mexico.

The rifle's presence in Mexico underscores two realities in the government's war against drug traffickers: Nearly all the guns the cartels use are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S., and officials say a small number of corrupt American weapons dealers are making the gun running possible.

"It's a war," said Bill Newell, special agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Arizona and New Mexico.

"It's a war between the drug cartels. And it's a war between the government and the drug cartels. And the weapons of war are the weapons that they are acquiring illegally here in the United States."

Authorities don't know how many firearms are sneaked across the border, but the ATF says more than 7,700 guns sold in America were traced to Mexico last year, up from 3,300 the year before and about 2,100 in 2006.

The increase is attributed both to a higher volume going south and a growing interest among Mexican authorities in running recovered weapons through a U.S. gun-tracing database.

Mexican and U.S. officials estimate the cartels get 95 percent of their guns from the United States; others are stolen when cartels overrun Mexican authorities. Cartels recruit "straw buyers" in the United States who make purchases on their behalf. Then people are paid to bring the weapons across the border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose inspectors scrutinize border-crossers at ports of entry, declined to characterize the frequency of its searches of vehicles driving into Mexico, but conceded that not all traffic leaving America is searched.

Inspections of vehicles coming into the United States are considered a bigger priority, because they are aimed at stopping weapons, terrorists and other dangerous elements from coming into the country.

Periodic searches of outgoing traffic are done as spot checks and in response to tips of upcoming attempts to smuggle guns or cash.

"We just don't have the manpower to do 100 percent inspections of outgoing traffic," said agency spokesman Jason Ciliberti.

Federal agents say the small number of dealers who knowingly sell guns to smuggling rings have the potential to inflict a lot of damage.

As evidence, they cite the Arizona gun dealer accused of selling the AK-47 recovered at the May 27 shootout in Culiacan involving the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

George Iknadosian, owner of X-Caliber Guns in Phoenix, is accused of selling guns to two groups of straw buyers when he knew the weapons were going to be smuggled into Mexico.

He also was targeted in stings in which he allegedly sold guns to undercover officers posing as straw buyers.

Iknadosian is set for trial Feb. 3 on fraud and other charges. His lawyer, Thomas M. Baker of Phoenix, didn't return calls seeking comment.

Investigators believe 600 guns sold by Iknadosian ended up in Mexico, most headed to the violent Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa.

The overwhelming majority of guns recovered in Mexico come from America's four southern border states, with Texas first, followed by California, Arizona and New Mexico, according to the ATF.

Many of the rest come from other Western states (Washington, Nevada, Colorado and Oklahoma), the South (Georgia, Florida and Louisiana) and the Midwest (Illinois, Ohio and Indiana).

Gun smuggling corridors are usually dictated by proximity to the nearest and easiest sources of weapons.

Drug smugglers seek out guns in America because gun laws in Mexico are more restrictive than in the United States.

Mexicans must get approval for a gun purchase from the Mexican defense department and are limited to guns with a caliber no higher than the standard .38-caliber. Larger calibers are considered military weapons and are off-limits to civilians.

Gun traffickers break caches into small loads to lower the risk of losing them all in a bust. Some guns are walked into Mexico, but most are driven through ports of entry, stuffed inside spare ties, fastened to undercarriages with zip ties, kept in hidden compartments, or bubble-wrapped and tucked in vehicle panels.

Investigators say smugglers sometimes wait until inspectors on both sides are busy with peak border traffic to drive across.

Prosecutors allege Iknadosian offered smuggling advice to a confidential informant during a police sting at his shop in Phoenix, telling the informant to break up purchases.

"If you got pulled over two is no biggie," Iknadosian is quoted as saying in a search-warrant affidavit. "Four is a question. Fifteen is what are you doing. So if you got two, hey me and a buddy are going to go out shooting."

Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, says his country wants the U.S. government to fully enforce gun exportation laws, crack down on more straw buys at guns shows and gather more information on which firearms dealers are selling to rings.

For its part, Mexico must put more money and people into searching incoming border traffic, Sarukhan said.

"If Mexico and the United States are going to be successful, we are going to have to tango together," Sarukhan said.