Marijuana.com

Pompo

Congress completes appropriations process
12/27/07|Bay Area Reporter| by Bob Roehr

Members of Congress staggered home on December 19 after the House wrapped up a $555 billion omnibus appropriations bill that included an additional $70 billion for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only 78 Democrats voted for it, while 141 said no.

The measure rolled 11 appropriations bills into a single bill. It was the second try, as President Bush had vetoed an earlier omnibus measure that was $11 more than he had proposed. The Democratic majority, lacking the votes to override that veto, grudgingly agreed to the spending total but did some minor tinkering on how funds would be spent.

Congressional earmarks for pet projects were trimmed back by about 25 percent but still approached 9,000, totaling nearly $8 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Funding for research at the National Institutes of Health also went up, but not enough to cover inflation.

Funding for global health programs, primarily for HIV, increased a substantial $1.2 billion, to $6.5 billion. Domestically, Ryan White AIDS services programs received a modest $29 million increase. That is a bit more than 1 percent in the $2.167 billion program. It is less than the cost of inflation for the year, and not enough to address the growing caseload.

San Francisco will not suffer quite so great a loss a under the proposed Bush budget thanks to the efforts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to assure inclusion of a "stop-loss" provision in the final bill. Instead of the $8.5 million in reduced spending under the Bush budget, just over half, $4.8 million, will be restored.

The HIV prevention budget at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was actually cut by $3.6 million, to $692 million. This is after no increases over the last five years. Some said it is no wonder that the number of new HIV infections in the U.S. is believed to be increasing. The CDC is likely to make those numbers public early in 2008.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, applauded a $10.5 million increase in the runaway and homeless program, the first in four years. LGBT youth are disproportionately likely to either be kicked out of or run away from their homes when parents learn of their sexual orientation.

But Foreman called it "a disgrace that even one penny is going to be spent on abstinence-only programs." But at least the program ultimately did not receive the $21 increase in funding proposed by Appropriations Committee chairman Representative David Obey (D-Wisconsin) as part of an attempt to build Republican support for the overall spending package.

Another small victory came in the so-called war on drugs, where the White House drug czar's advertising budget was slashed to $60 million for this year. That is less than half of the $130 million proposed in Bush's budget, and less than the $99 million spent in fiscal year 2007. Much of the advertising has focused on "evils" of marijuana.

Hate crimes legislation that would have expanded coverage to include sexual orientation and gender identity had been dropped earlier in the month from the appropriations bill for the Department of Defense.

Another area of backtracking was in overturning the ban on funds for groups working overseas that offer abortions and information about them with separate, non-government funds. The Democrats first lifted the "Mexico City" rule adopted during the Reagan administration, but abandoned that effort in the final package of legislative compromises.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has decided that the Senate technically will remain in session over the holidays, with a single member opening and quickly closing business every few days. That will prevent Bush from making recess appointments that are good for the remainder of the legislative term.

Bush previously had used that power to name controversial judges whose confirmation had been held up in the Senate, such as Charles Pickering, as well as John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations. This year one rumor had been that he might name the anti-gay James Holsinger to be U.S. surgeon general.

 

Jake

The less amount of "hate crime" bullshit we have, the better. But as long as we're gonna make thoughts criminal actions, we might as well include the gays and trans...
That's nice. It's not anything too important in the large War on Drugs, but I gotta love having less of my tax money spread propaganda.

__________________

eltone

Thank you for this very informative article. I am very pleased to see that congress isn't giving King George II all the money he wants to create his own "Reefer Madness" anti marijuana ad campaign. With the educating of people of the true SAFE/HEALTHY effects of marijuana, whether used medically or recreationally we can turn the laws around and retroactively release anyone in any jail/prison or halfway house for the cultivation, sale and/or use of marijuana. To deprive the public of this non addictive non fatal drug for medical or recreational use, or to imprison anyone having anything to do with marijuana, is an example that we are still living in the DARK AGES when it comes to marijuana laws. If NORML or any other group that knows the truth about marijuana's effects on the human body could pool their money and have their own national ad campaign informing the public of the truth about marijuana use and the human body we might realize the best possible change in the marijuana laws which would be to legalize marijuana, tax it and sell it like alcohol and cigarettes which are both fatal and extremely addictive just like heroin but not so with marijuana so the public will have a choice of a non addictive & non fatal drug to alter their conscienous, and legalize Industrial Hemp for the products we can get from this plant which is very sturdy and easy to farm, a few of the products from Industrial Hemp are 1) Fuel 2) Food 3) Clothing 4) Fiber and of course 5) Medicine, gee do ya think any of these companies would have an interest in keeping marijuana illegal, even to the point of buying their vote/politicians? Face it people marijuana, even when smoked, is not fatal nor addictive like booze and cigarettes. It actually has many theraputic effects in helping to control the symptoms of whatever ails you. The DEA is doing their best to counteract the truth about cannabis. Like I've said before it is inhumane & insane to limit recreational drug use to drugs that are only addictive and fatal. We now know that the effects of marijuana are temporary, especially the psychoactive effect while leaving no health problems behind. The marijuana that is stored in the bodies fat, even the fat that surrounds each brain cell, does take longer to leave the body but that does no harm to the body, just like alcohol is still in your system even after you have sobered up the next morning. Smoking cannabis has even been proven to fight lung cancer and cancerous tumors growing in the body. But due to racial prejudice, which is why the U.S. made marijuana illegal in the first place to push back the mexicans flooding the southwest seeking a better way of life, you know the "American Dream." But prejudice against the mexicans and a new law used in gun control was adapted for marijuana control. It was the "Marijuana Tax Stamp Act of 1937." However the Supreme Court struck down that law for the feds never had any intention of printing tax stamps in the first place. However our government found another way and that was to put cannabis in a schedule 1 drug catagory. Which means it has no medical value whatsoever and a very high potential for abuse. I have news for you, if any human wants to alter their consciencous, or treat symptoms such as nausea, cannabis is the safest most effective way for it is neither fatal nor addictive plus has over 2,000 years of documented medical records of the safe use of cannabis to treat many, many symptoms from many, many diseases whether they are fatal, life long or temporary. I have used many other anti nausea meds but they all have one thing in common, after 6 months of daily use they cause nausea rather than preventing it. Cannabis controls the symptoms with no adverse effects at all, except for those who find the psychoactive effect uncomfortable. The most dangerous part of using marijuana are our laws. They ruin lives and families thus breaking the family foundation, which is one of the best aspects of life in the USA. People have died from heart attacks when the DEA breaks down their door rushes in their home and puts a gun to their head, not realizing that they are at the wrong address, the count is only at 2 people who went DOA on the DEA. But give them time soon the casualities of the marijuana laws will be right up their with the casualties of war, because the DEA seems to think marijuana is worth causing an internal war. Oh yeah, they've been doing that since 1970. I guess I didn't notice it because we have the same amount of people addicted to drugs in 2007 as we had in 1927 and that was addiction to drugs that are heavily addictive like heroin and cocaine. Marijuana is not addictive. Some people who smoke marijuana experience anxiety when they don't have any. This is not due to addiction, it is due to the fact that the person has an already existing anxiety disorder they are not aware of because the smoking of marijuana controlled the anxiety. In all honesty though some people do experience anxiety when they first use marijuana but that is due to the fact that it is illegal and thus the person becomes frightened causing a rise in heartrate, bloodpressure and adrenaline. This, as all other aspects of using marijuana, are temporary. Let's do the right thing, vote out the ignorant, prejudice and bought off politicians and put in educated, enlightened politicians who will not put up a political barricade to the study and research of any drug, especially marijuana. The lies that our government force on us has to stop, the DEA raids on legal medical marijuana patients has to stop. Hell, the prohibition against marijuana has to stop for it is just as wasteful as burning money. Peace...

__________________
Peace Out

disheartenedwamerica

The U.S. is making what I would call great progress, while others would call it marginal at best. Obviously slashing only $70 million from the war on drugs- especially proganda advertising isn't a "major victory", but it is a step forward. Luckily what we are seeing is that the government is finally held somewhat slightly responsible for the filth they are trying to push onto our youth. No, no one called the government on its lies, but there have been a lot of swell about the effectiveness of these "anti-drug" commercials and whether or not they may actually lead to increased marijuana use in teens. I watched an interview a few weeks ago on CNN, it was with Mr. Souder, a congressman. While he continually attempted to prove the usefulness of the war on drugs, he was asked why the government spends so much of its drug funding on fighting marijuana, which is easily the least dangerous of all illegal drugs. He couldn't give a straight answer other then "the gateway effect" and someother parental scare tactics, but I guess you can't expect any different from someone with absolutely no facts to back his claims. In addition he was asked how many deaths were related to marijuana in the year 2007, and the short and simple answer aside from a few "uhs", "ums", and some stalling, Congressman Souder admited the number. A big fat ZERO. Next the cnn reporter went on to speculate what many other researchers have begun suspect; the children who watch these commercials, are more likely to go out and try marijuana because they have been told over and over again not to do it, but when they see these PSA's then they think everyone does it. But hey, Who'd-a-thought, tell someone what they can't do and they will fight ten times harder to do it, whether they wanted to initially or not. Anyway, just want to spread some holiday cheer about the slow victories. Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays.