  | The forum was a success! Please keep checking back and we should have audio and video available by the end of August, or contact us for more information. In the meantime, here are summaries of the forum: Marijuana and Federalism: California a Test Case, by Jesse Stout, California Correctional Crisis Blog, Aug. 22, 2010. Prop 19 heating up debate on pot use, by Seth Hemmelgarn, The Bay Area Reporter, Aug. 19, 2010. Lawyers Talk Legalization, And You Are There, by Jack Rikess, The Cannabis Post Blog, Aug. 9, 2010. Blowing Smoke: Proposition 19 & Medical Marijuana, by Rick Horowitz, Probable Cause Blog, Aug. 7, 2010. Marijuana and Federalism: California a Test Case The Legal Implications of Proposition 19 If a state were to legalize cannabis, as California's Proposition 19, or A.B. 2254, the Ammiano bill, are attempting to do, what legal tools might the federal government use to block operation of such laws? Additional areas of law - employment law, family law, municipal law, insurance law, corrections policy - would be implicated. What are the issues? Please join the VCL and our panel of experts in addressing the legal and practical issues when a state legalizes cannabis. Then stay and join us for a networking reception. CDs with comprehensive literature will be available for attendees. 2 CLE credits are pending. Friday, August 6th, 2010 3:30 - 4:00 PM check-in 4:00 - 6:00 PM panels *Hiram W. Johnson State Office Building* Milton Marks Auditorium 455 Golden Gate Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 Speakers:
Moderators:
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05.13.10 Richard M. Evans, Esq., co-founder of the VCL, has important letter to the editor published in the Wall Street Journal emphasizing the historical importance of the repeal of prohibition.
04.22.10 The New England Journal of Medicine publishes an editorial by two law professors from the University of Massachusetts, Medical Marijuana and the Law, arguing that the federal government should change the status of marijuana so more research can be done.
08.14.09 The VCL holds an open house for the grand opening of its new headquarters in Suite 302 of the Pioneer Building overlooking Pioneer Square in Seattle, WA.
06.18.09 The Massachusetts Bar Association Drug Policy Task Force releases a new report, The Failure of the War on Drugs: Charting a New Course for the Commonwealth.
06.01.09 The VCL moves to its new office in the Pioneer Building, overlooking Pioneer Square in Seattle, at 600 First Avenue in Suite 302.
05.01.09 The VCL holds a Law Day Reception at the Culture Center in New York, honoring Judge Robert W. Sweet with the Joseph H. Choate, Jr. Award for Leadership.
04.29.09
PLEASURE, PAIN, PHYSICIANS AND POLICE: The law of controlled substances and the practice of medicine, program presented by the New York City Bar Association's Committee on Drugs and the Law and the Health Law Committee, with speakers: Marcus Reidenberg, MD, FACP; Joseph Spillane, PhD; Buford Terrell, JD, LLM.
04.09
The New York City Bar Association's Committee on Drugs and the Law releases A Wiser Course: Ending Drug Prohibition, Fifteen Years Later.
04.02.09
The Sentencing Project released a report assessing the impact of drug courts, Drug Courts: A Review of the Evidence.
03.02.09
The Pew Center released a report, One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, showing that 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S. adults, is behind bars, on parole or on probation.
02.11.09
The Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, which includes the former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, released a statement, Drugs and Democracy: Towards a Paradigm Shift, declaring the War on Drugs a failure and calling for a meaningful debate on alternatives.
02.05.09
The ABA Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia have released a new study, Internal Exile: Collateral Consequences of Conviction in Federal Laws and Regulations.
10.22.08
Article by our President, Eric E. Sterling, on a way to stimulate the economy: stop locking up and saddling so many of our citizens with felony records so that we may increase their spending power.
09.17.08
You can now BECOME A MEMBER of the VCL at set membership levels or DONATE and help support the VCL's mission of creating and expanding the dialogue examining the efficacy of the war on drugs within the legal, medical and other professional communities. JOIN NOW!
06.26.08
"No one should be stigmatized or discriminated against because of their dependence on drugs."
-United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
05.01.08
Our new website is live. Welcome!
Introduction
The VCL is an association of lawyers and judges whose members share strong misgivings about the wisdom and consequences of America's perpetual drug war. While favoring no specific drug control policies, the VCL seeks to promote, within and by the legal profession, informed discussion about the objectives of the drug war and its costs to our cherished institutions of liberty and justice. This is the view of one of our founders, former United States Attorney General, Elliot Richardson.
The VCL is modeled after a group of the same name which played a leading role in the repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933. VCL members see in modern drug prohibition many of the same harmful and unintended consequences associated with alcohol prohibition. Like our predecessors, we seek to work quietly through bar association committees, encouraging study and discussion of drug policy, especially its impact on criminal justice and Constitutional law.
Please browse the rest of this site and sign the open letter from lawyers and judges, and urge your colleagues to do the same. We hope you will lend your support and participation.
Thank you.
Eric E. Sterling
President
Thank you to Logo Bee for our logo.