www . theSkaNNeR . COM
D eCeMBeR 7, 2011
S eattle , w aShiNgtON
V OluMe XXXiii, N O . 58
25
CeNtS
I NSIDE
Movie Openings
page 2
Bullying
page 4
Russell Simmons
C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
page 6
Pot Back
On the
table?
Jingle
Bells!
Gregoire launches
new push for
medical marijuana
By Rachel la corte
The Associated Press
pHoto By SuSaN FRIED
Rainier Beach Children’s Choir sang
Dec. 3 for Columbia City’s first annual
holiday lighting Celebration at Rainier
avenue South and South hudson Street.
the festivities included performances
by the Beaconettes and the Columbia
City Community Choir. hot chocolate,
coffee and treats were provided
courtesy of a number of local Columbia
City businesses including geraldine’s
Counter, the Columbia City Bakery,
tutta Bella, and wink eyewear. the
lighting festival concluded with Xmas
lights being turned on along Columbia
City’s entire business district on Rainier
avenue South.
activists: States Need Crackdown
Human trafficking busts hindered by patchwork of state laws
By Greg Bluestein
The Associated Press
A
new report says 41 states
have failed to adopt
strong penalties against
human trafficking, and advo-
cates say a patchwork of differ-
ing state laws makes it difficult
for authorities to target the
crime.
In Connecticut, for instance,
the strict penalties for sex traf-
fickers are among the toughest
in the nation. Neighboring
Massachusetts, meanwhile, had
no statute specifically targeting
sex trafficking until one was
signed into law days ago.
The report released Thursday
by the advocacy group Shared
Hope International said more
than a dozen states have passed
new crackdowns, but four states
- Maine, Virginia, West Virginia
and Wyoming - have yet to
impose any specific restrictions
on the crime.
“Each state’s laws show omis-
sions in protective provisions
for child victims and (they) lack
strong laws to prosecute the
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men who rent the bodies of
other men’s children,” said
Linda Smith, the group’s
founder and president.
Washington Attorney General
Robert McKenna, president of
the National Association of
Attorneys General, said policy-
makers have to play catch-up to
establish consistent policies to
rein in the crime.
“Having a strong, fairly uni-
form set of laws across the
country is very important,
because traffickers are mobile,
their victims are mobile and we
don’t want traffickers to be
moving their victims even more
trying to evade stronger state
laws, by moving to states with
weaker laws,” he said.
As many as 15,000 victims of
human trafficking are brought
into the U.S. each year, accord-
ing to advocacy groups.
Victims are sometimes smug-
gled in from outside the U.S.,
but many started out as young
runaways or simply needed
money. Human traffickers target
men, women and children for
See lawS on page 3
olyMpIa, wash. (AP) — Washington
Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island Gov.
Lincoln Chafee have filed a petition with
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
asking the agency to reclassify marijuana so
doctors can prescribe it and pharmacists can
fill the prescription.
The governors said Wednesday they want
the federal government to list marijuana as a
Schedule 2 drug, allowing it to be used for
medical treatment. Marijuana is currently
classified a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it’s
not accepted for medical treatment and can’t
be prescribed, administered or dispensed.
Washington and Rhode Island are two of
16 states, and the District of Columbia, that
have laws allowing the medical use of mar-
ijuana.
“Each of these jurisdictions is struggling
with managing safe access to medical
cannabis for patients with serious medical
conditions,” the 99-page petition and report
reads. “Our work with the federal agencies
has not resolved the matter.”
Gregoire said that the conflict between
state and federal laws means legitimate
patients lack a regulated and safe system to
obtain marijuana.
“It is time to show compassion and time to
show common sense,” she said in a confer-
ence call with reporters Wednesday.
Washington voters approved a medical
marijuana law in 1998 that gives doctors the
right to recommend - but not prescribe -
marijuana for people suffering from cancer
and other conditions that cause “intractable
pain.”
Earlier this year, Gregoire vetoed most of
a bill that made major reforms to the state’s
medical marijuana law, saying state workers
could be prosecuted under federal law the
way the measure was written.
The legislation was passed to set clearer
regulations on medical marijuana use and to
See pot on page 3
‘Occupy’ Moves to Foreclosed homes
Seattle, Portland protesters arrested helping homeowners stay put
By Manuel Valdes
The Associated Press
SEattlE (AP) — The Occupy Wall
Street protests are moving into the neigh-
borhood. Finding it increasingly difficult to
camp in public spaces, Occupy protesters
across the country are reclaiming foreclosed
homes and boarded-up properties, signaling
a tactical shift for the movement against
wealth inequality.
Groups in more than 25 cities held
protests Tuesday on behalf of homeowners
facing evictions.
In Atlanta, protesters held a boisterous
rally at a county courthouse and used whis-
tles and sirens to disrupt an auction of
seized houses. In New York, they marched
through a residential neighborhood in
Brooklyn carrying signs that read
“Foreclose on banks, not people.” Southern
California protesters rallied around a family
of six that reclaimed the home they lost six
months ago in foreclosure.
“It’s pretty clear that the fight is against
the banks, and the Occupy movement is
about occupying spaces. So occupying a
space that should belong to homeowners but
See occupy on page 3