GROWING HEMP HELPS FARMERS, NOT POT SMOKERS
The history of hemp’s black-sheep cousin marijuana leads to hysteria
when the plant is mentioned in the same breath with legalization.
That is based on ignorance. It’s time to give farmers the option of
growing this valuable cash crop.

You could say that the roots of this nation’s agricultural heritage
were those of hemp plants.

In 1619, King James I decreed that every colonist in the New World
had to grow 10 hemp plants for export to England. George Washington
grew hemp at Mount Vernon.
Hemp fibers were used to make rope and weave fabric. In the 18th and 19th Centuries, hemp was a valued cash crop in the United States.
Hemp was a major crop in central Pennsylvania. Between 1720 and 1870, there were more than 100 hemp mills in York and Lancaster counties.  Adams County was a major producer of the crop.
Hemp was so ubiquitous in Lancaster County that it has two townships and a school district bearing the name Hempfield.
Hemp is still a useful and profitable crop. What changed? In 1937, led by hysteria over marijuana use, Congress passed a law that pretty much killed the hemp-growing industry in the United States.
Some hemp advocates have argued that the law, called the Marihuana
Tax Act, was intended to essentially outlaw growing hemp, something
that had been pushed by powerful industrial concerns - cough, Dupont,
cough - that viewed hemp as a competitor to its synthetic fiber
business. No matter. As the law evolved, industrial hemp was grouped
in with marijuana - they are cousins, so to speak - and cultivating
it was declared illegal. It is based on nonsense. You can smoke
industrial hemp until you turn blue in the face, and it won’t get you high.

It contains a very small amount of the psychoactive substance that
gives its cousin its kick.
And yet, industrial hemp still has a multitude of uses from rope to
building materials to biodiesel fuel.

United States industry still uses hemp, but because of bans on its
production, it must be imported from places such as China. It’s
absurd. Congress has realized that, sort of. The Agricultural Act of
2014 opened the door for states to allow hemp production.

Ten states have moved to legalize industrial hemp production for the
very simple reason that it can be a valuable crop for farmers.
It is easy to grow, requires little care and can be sold to a number
of different markets.

The only reason it remains illegal in Pennsylvania is its distant
relationship to marijuana.

That could change. State Rep. Russ Diamond, a Republican who
represents parts of Lebanon County, is the primary sponsor of a bill
in the state House that would permit cultivation and processing of
industrial hemp in the Commonwealth.
The bill has the support of Rep. Dan Moul, an Adams County
Republican, who said, “If farmers can find another crop to grow to
help them, I’m all for the farmer.”

And that’s what this bill and another, competing bill in the state
Senate is all about: helping farmers.

The history of hemp’s blacksheep cousin marijuana, though, leads to
hysteria when the plant is mentioned in the same breath with legalization.
That, again, is based on ignorance.
It’s time to give farmers the option of growing this valuable cash crop.
And, to be sure, that’s what it is. A crop.
Legalizing the cultivation of industrial hemp will not transform the
state into some kind of stoner’s paradise.

But it will give farmers, who have a hard enough time making a
living, another source of income.

And that, as the kids used to say, would be groovy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 09 Apr 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Josh Barro

Revenue Disappointment
WHY MARIJUANA TAXES WON’T SAVE STATE BUDGETS
Colorado’s marijuana tax collections are not as high as expected.
In February 2014, Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office projected Colorado would take in $118 million in taxes on recreational marijuana in its first full year after legalization. With seven months of revenue data in, his office has cut that projection and believes it will collect just $69 million through the end of the fiscal year in June, a miss of 42 percent.
That figure is consequential in two ways. First, it’s a wide miss.  Second, compared with Colorado’s all-funds budget of $27 billion, neither $69 million nor $118 million is a large number.
“It’s a distraction,” Andrew Freedman, Colorado’s director of marijuana coordination, says of the tax issue. And despite the marijuana tax miss, overall state revenues are exceeding projections, which may force the state to rebate some marijuana tax receipts to taxpayers.
In the political debate over marijuana policy, fiscal benefits - bringing marijuana into the legal economy and taxing it - have loomed large. The summary of the marijuana legalization question put before voters in 2012 stipulated the first $40 million raised by one of the three taxes on recreational marijuana would be put toward school construction each year. In practice, Colorado is likely to receive just $20 million from that tax this year.
But it’s not just Colorado. When Scott Pattison, the executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, appeared on C-Span’s Washington Journal call-in show to discuss state finances in December, callers repeatedly suggested that legal marijuana could fix budget gaps in other states. One asserted, incorrectly, that legal marijuana had increased Colorado’s tax revenues by a billion dollars.
Colorado’s marijuana taxes are part of a broader trend in recent years: States, looking for ways to close budget shortfalls without raising broad-based taxes, have leaned on “sin” revenues: higher taxes on cigarettes, higher fees and fines and higher revenue from gambling. And as they have sought to squeeze more revenue from these sources, they have often been disappointed.
Gambling revenue has stagnated as markets have become saturated.  Nearly every state has legal gambling, including 37 states with casinos. Expansions of gambling do more to siphon revenue from existing gambling outlets than to generate new tax and lottery revenue.
High cigarette taxes have led to counterfeiting of tax stamps and cross-border smuggling of cigarettes from low-tax jurisdictions to high-tax ones. Because the taxes have also succeeded in the policy goal of reducing smoking, the other policy goal of raising revenue is less of a success.
In the case of marijuana, Colorado’s revenue has disappointed because legal recreational marijuana sales have been lower than expected.  State officials thought many customers of medical marijuana dispensaries would migrate to the recreational market. But this process has been slow, in part because there is a financial disincentive to switch: Medical marijuana is subject only to general sales tax, while a 15 percent tax is imposed on recreational marijuana at wholesale and a further 10 percent at retail, in additional to the general sales tax.
But Mr. Freedman says the biggest drag on revenue is that so much of Colorado’s marijuana market remains unregulated. A 2014 report commissioned by the state’s Department of Revenue estimated 130 metric tons of marijuana was consumed in the state that year, while just 77 metric tons was sold through medical dispensaries and recreational marijuana retailers. The rest was untaxed: a combination of home growing, production by untaxed medical “caregivers” whose lightly regulated status is protected in the state constitution and plain old black-market production and trafficking.
The state is trying to get its marijuana market in order. It has imposed new rules to limit the number of plants that caregivers may possess, aiming to ensure their operations are truly aimed at providing for a small number of patients, not diverting some of the supply into the recreational market. And it is tightening oversight of doctors to ensure medical marijuana recommendations are written only for bona fide debilitating medical conditions. In time, these moves may draw more users into the recreational market where they belong.
On the other hand, falling market prices could cut into future tax revenues. Retail prices in Colorado were generally more than $10 a gram as of last fall. In some cases, that was more than marijuana in the illegal market. But illegal production is costly and inefficient.  As legal producers scale up and compete, they are likely to cut prices sharply, according to Mark Kleiman, a drug policy expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has played a major role in establishing Washington State’s legal marijuana market.  According to Samantha Chin, the director of marketing at Colorado Pot Guide, retail prices have fallen between 16 and 30 percent in the Denver area since November.
“If commercial cannabis is $2 per gram at retail, I doubt people will bother getting a medical card,” Mr. Kleiman says. Because the state’s marijuana tax is levied per dollar, not per gram, a sharp drop in prices would mean even less tax revenue.
There are lessons here for other states. Because of low public support for marijuana prohibition, many jurisdictions have intentionally lax enforcement around illegal marijuana markets. This often shows up as a wink-wink culture around medical access. (See, for example, “Medical Kush Doctor” signs that once adorned storefronts in Venice, Calif.) After legalization, that culture of lax enforcement can be a barrier to tax collection.
Another lesson is that marijuana taxes should be “specific excise” taxes per unit of intoxicant. In most states, cigarettes are taxed by the pack and alcohol by the liter. Marijuana could similarly be taxed by the gram (either of plant or of T.H.C.), which would protect states from revenue declines if pretax prices fall.
Taxes on intoxicants are meant to offset the negative social effects of intoxicant use; the size of those effects should not be expected to vary with market price.
But even if Colorado got all this right, improved revenues would not be among the most important effects that marijuana legalization has on the state.
“Tax revenue is nice to have, but in most states is not going to be enough to change the budget picture significantly,” Mr. Kleiman says.  “The stakes in reducing criminal activity and incarceration and protecting public health are way higher than the stakes in generating revenue.”
Mr. Kleiman has advocated an alternative legalization model, currently being introduced in Washington, D.C., in which cultivation, possession and use are permitted but sales are not. One goal of this model is to avoid the creation of a commercial marijuana sector that markets its products aggressively. A downside of the model is that there are no legal sales on which to collect taxes - but as Colorado shows, Washington, D.C., may not be giving up that much, fiscally.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
xxx
REMEMBER – 1 CUBIC METRE OF HEMP SEQUESTERS 110 KILOS OF CARBON. IF IN A PRODUCT LIKE BUILDING SUPPLIES, THE SEQUESTATION COULD BE 100 YEARS OR MORE…..PRICELESS
XXX
Newshawk: howard wooldridge
Pubdate: Sat, 11 Apr 2015
Source: Standard-Journal (PA)
Copyright: 2015 Standard-Journal
Contact: sjnews@uplink.net
Website: http://www.standard-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3286
Author: Matt Farrand
Referenced: http://leap.cc/

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE
Howard Wooldridge wore a T-shirt lettered with the words “Cops Say Legalize Pot, Ask Me Why” as we talked last week at Lisa’s Milltown Deli. The shirt is among his trademarks, as were the stickers on his car which echoed the words. Also notable were his boots, jeans and belt buckle not much different than what Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.10) wears on the House floor.
Wooldridge made a name for himself as co-founder of Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition (LEAP), and is one of its more than 200 speakers
available for talks on the topic of replacing current drug laws with a
practical system of legal distribution and control. MCFCU - Big Box

Most are former cops or retired from careers in law enforcement. A
handful are active in their jobs, or from other countries including
Brazil, Canada and Costa Rica.

To legalize or not has been a topic of interest personally and in the
newsroom. I tilt in favor of personal liberty rather than not, as the
war against substances deemed illegal creates victims out of
proportion to the perceived benefit of removing dealers and users from
society.
Wooldridge spent 18 years in law enforcement in Michigan, three years
as a detective and 15 on the road. He is outspoken about the cause,
decrying the mess created by a century of prohibition. Donning a
cowboy hat, also a trademark, Wooldridge is still on the road a lot,
speaking to groups like the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter.

Wooldridge said it is easier to get pot or narcotics now than it would
be if they were legal and regulated. It is much like the 14 years the
sale, manufacture and transportation of intoxicating liquors was not
legal in the United States.
One in 14 police officers is a narcotics officer, Wooldridge added,
and all police personnel are drawn into drug enforcement in
proportions which inevitably leads to bad policing. Civil Asset
Forfeiture, by which cash, vehicles and property can be seized from
suspects, served as the basis for situations which should trouble
anyone who travels and carries large amounts of cash.
Wooldridge sketched a scenario where a person buys a car at an online auction and travels from a small community to complete the sale, let’s say from Milton to Wilkes-Barre. If pulled over for any reason, Wooldridge said an officer could ask how much cash you are carrying, and without other proof, could suspect you were involved in trafficking if you are heading to a known drug hub and take your money.
Even if a person is never formally charged, the cost of retrieving
confiscated cash could in turn cost more that it is worth.

“Regular good citizens (are) losing a thousand, $2,000 (or) $3,000
(and my) blood boils,” he said, noting the pride he took in his work.

Wooldridge cited the Swiss as a model, a nation where drug use is seen
as a medical challenge rather than left to law enforcement. Crime,
disease and death rates are lower, and the success is not something
peculiar to the Swiss culture. Wooldridge added similar models have
been adopted in half a dozen other countries including Germany.
Wooldridge stressed that mind-altering substances are not for
children, conceding that they can cripple people mentally whether
legal or not. He recalled a Michigan State University classmate who
dropped out because of marijuana use.
A number of things have happened in the time since I wrote a piece
proclaiming that possession of all substances now illegal should be
made legal. Recreational use of marijuana got a green light in
Colorado and Washington with other states perhaps climbing on board.
Wooldridge predicted that as more states adopted similar policies, the
federal classification of marijuana would be revised, clearing the way
for wider acceptance.
I’ve also had to clarify a couple of things. It should obviously still be illegal for persons under 18 years to buy pot or other substances, and that it is still wise to prohibit jumping from doctor to doctor or forging prescriptions for manufactured pharmaceuticals.
I also had to update an image I had that pot growers and dealers could be limited farmer’s market style retailing of hemp grown in backyards.
As Wooldridge noted, it is big business. Colorado now has a worldwide
reputation as a pot producer that even exceeds that of California. He
also noted that a regulated substance industry has to be allowed to
price its product just right and not undercut by well-established
underground channels.

As my talk with Wooldridge wrapped up, a clean cut and neatly dressed
man leaned in our direction. He said he’d been listening in and noted
that he had been in the counseling field, often working with clients
who had damaged themselves during times of drug use.
It was unclear whether he thought legalization as outlined by Wooldridge was a timely idea or not. But I had a hunch the man was not keen on it.
The anonymous man’s caution is still shared by many, and they are
tough to convince otherwise. It indeed may take a generation or more,
with additional casualties possible as we go, for societal attitudes
to accept liberty in this area along with its corresponding
responsibilities. Freedom, as noted in other contexts, still isn’t
free.
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MAP posted-by: Matt
xxx
Newshawk: http://www.novembercoalition.org
Pubdate: Sat, 11 Apr 2015
Source: Economist, The (UK)
Copyright: 2015 The Economist Newspaper Limited
Contact: letters@economist.com
Website: http://www.economist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/132

Drug Dealing
THE NET CLOSES
The web’s two largest drug markets go down, panicking dealers and
buyers
“I JUST can’t bear this any longer,” writes “Megan” in an anonymous
internet forum. Waiting for online shopping to be delivered is
frustrating. But for drug users it can be agony. Megan’s vice is
OxyContin, an addictive prescription painkiller. Like many users, she
buys her illicit supply on the “dark web”, a hidden corner of the
internet accessed with anonymous browsing software. In the past month
the online market for drugs has been rattled, after the two main
drug-dealing sites suddenly locked buyers and sellers out. “If you know
anyone...who would sort something out for me tonight or tomorrow I’ll
drop dead of gratitude,” pleads Megan.
The illegal-drugs trade, worth perhaps $300 billion a year, has been creeping onto the web. Like other online retailers, drug dealers can undercut the high street by spending less on maintaining a physical presence and employing salesmen. Consumers like the convenience and safety of shopping from home, and online product reviews are especially useful when buying potentially deadly substances. Bitcoin, a near-untraceable digital currency, covers their tracks. One in seven American drug users have ordered a fix online, according to one survey.
In this section
This was all upset on March 18th when Evolution Marketplace, the Amazon of the dark web, vanished in a puff of pixels. Unlike Silk Road, shut down by the FBI in 2013, Evolution seems to have been taken down by the people who ran it. In a brazen “exit scam”, the site’s anonymous administrators apparently made off with up to $15m in Bitcoin payments that they were holding in escrow.
A few days later, users reported that Agora, the next-biggest
drug-peddling site, was inaccessible. Amid rumours of another scam, its
administrators reassured buyers and sellers that they were simply
carrying out technical upgrades. A rush of users migrating from
Evolution may have put its servers under strain. The site has also
suffered “denial of service” attacks-by law enforcers or rival dealers,
no one is sure. After a wobbly Easter weekend, Agora is back, for now.
Together, Evolution and Agora were responsible for 82% of online drug listings, according to the Digital Citizens’ Alliance, which monitors illicit online markets. Each was bigger than Silk Road ever was. A dozen smaller players, such as Nucleus Marketplace and Black Bank, stand to benefit from their problems.
The recent trial of Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s creator, showed how deeply police have infiltrated the dark web. This is bad for business: though punters don’t much fear arrest, they are wary of being ripped off, and better law enforcement increases the incentive for administrators to shut up shop and run off with the loot, says James Martin, a criminologist at Macquarie University in Australia.
Back in the online forum, another user suggests to Megan that if she
can’t get hold of OxyContin online, she could ask local dealers for
heroin, which satisfies the same craving. What’s more, he observes,
“it’s available in any country that has streets”. It is also far
deadlier. Driving drug users off the web and onto the backstreets
carries risks.
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xxx
Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2015
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2015 Tucson Weekly
Contact: mailbag@tucsonweekly.com
Website: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: Maria Ines Taracena

420
Maryjane, Weed, Dope, Pot ... Whatever You Want to Call It, It Has
Taken Root to Call Tucson Home
In upcoming weeks, Earth’s Healing dispensary will get to christen a 10,000 square-feet cultivation site with new medical marijuana strains.
The one they are most proud of was donated to the dispensary by a caregiver who wanted the special medical strain he’d been harvesting for years to have a legacy. The so-called Champasu is highly enhanced with CBD, or cannabidiol, one of the major medicinal compounds of ganja. CBD is used for treating chronic pain, diabetes, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other neurological disorders.
“Having that CBD strain, which a lot of people don’t have or aren’t able to get, is going to be a staple,” says William Elliott, Earth’s Healing operations director. Champasu’s CBD metabolites doubles the amount of THC metabolites, the compound that makes you high. Earth’s Healing already has a few kinds with high levels of CBD but this one will be different, and they want you to stay tuned.
For decades, the industry solely focused on weed with tons of THC. In recent times, CBD strains have begun to make a name for themselves, especially among patients who seek the healing powers of pot without the stoner aftereffects, but they still like that.
There’s a handful of other kinds of premium marijuana the dispensary will debut after they finally move into their new growing facility in approximately four to six weeks. Earth’s Healing owner Vicky Puchi-Saavedra got her hands on the site early into 2014. For more than a year, the dispensary’s been in the process to get city and state permits, and fluffing the place up to grow some pristine green for their customers.
The current site is only big enough for a limited amount of 14 different strains. More room now means at least 20 strains, and lots of plants for each.
The move is possible thanks to the Tucson City Council’s unanimous decision last September to get rid of size restrictions on cultivation sites. Before then, these facilities had a size limit of 3,000 square feet, leaving many dispensaries, including Earth’s Healing, with no other option but to purchase pot from Phoenix dispensaries - where growing spaces can be unlimitedly large””to keep up with the demand.
It took a while, but the city jumped onto the unlimited-space train after many dispensary owners showcased the potential grand economic benefits it could have in Tucson, not just among dispensaries but patients, as well. Also, renting or buying property results in property tax revenue for the city.
“The council members want us to stay in Tucson, they want us to generate business and they want us to generate employment,” Puchi-Saavedra says. If the council didn’t give in, she considered moving the cultivation site to Phoenix, which would have meant creating more jobs there rather than down here.
Also, the cost of weed traveling from Phoenix reflects in what the customers are paying. Now, Earth’s Healing is looking forward to being self-sufficient and have that trickle down to lower prices and maybe even incentives for patients who can’t afford their medicine.  (Although, the dispensary is already one of the cheapest in town at about $13 to $20 per gram.)
Since the size restrictions were lifted, Earth’s Healing has hired 10 new people and expect to bring many more on board. A new facility means a greater need for weed trimmers, at least one warehouse manager, people to keep track of the inventory and security personnel.
They already have a decent amount of local growers, who “keep getting better with time,” Puchi-Saavedra says. And where do they find these growers? “At Circle K,” Elliott jokes.
No, they are actually professionals, some with degrees in biochemistry.
“It is more like a manufacturing lab than a mom-and-pop growing facility,” Puchi-Saavedra says. “Growers wear lab coats, we are going to go through a lot of sanitation, make sure everything is sterile.  We are trying to grow medicine that is potent. We don’t want any mold, any pesticides. That is our goal and that is why it takes so much time and effort to get there.”
The dispensary currently sees an average of 200 patients a day, according to its marketing director, Florence Hijazi. As soon as the growing site is up and running, a bigger office is next in line and perhaps branching out in Arizona and other states.
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xxx Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Maura Dolan

POT LEGALIZATION IS DEALT A BLOW
A Judge Upholds a 1970 Federal Law Classifying Marijuana As a Dangerous Drug.
SAN FRANCISCO - Efforts to legalize marijuana suffered a defeat in court Wednesday when a judge upheld the constitutionality of a 1970 federal law that classifies cannabis as a dangerous drug akin to LSD and heroin.
U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, announcing her decision at a hearing in Sacramento, said she could not lightly overturn a law passed by Congress.
Mueller agreed last year to hold an extensive fact-finding hearing on the issue, raising the hopes of activists seeking to legalize marijuana and worrying opponents who consider the drug a threat to health and public safety. The hearing marked the first time in decades that a judge was willing to examine the classification of marijuana under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.
The Schedule 1 classification is for drugs that have no medicinal purpose, are unsafe even under medical supervision and contain a high potential for abuse. In addition to marijuana, heroin and LSD, other Schedule 1 drugs include Ecstasy and mescaline.
Mueller, an Obama appointee, announced her decision before issuing a written ruling, which is still pending.
She considered the constitutionality of the classification in response to a pretrial motion brought by lawyers defending accused marijuana growers.
“At some point in time, a court may decide this status to be unconstitutional,” Mueller was quoted as saying on leafonline.com, a pro-marijuana blog that has been covering the case. “But this is not the court and not the time.”
Dale Gieringer, director of the California branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said Mueller’s decision could not be appealed until after the criminal case against the growers was resolved. A trial is not expected until late this year or early next year.
“This is on a very slow train,” Gieringer said.
He said Mueller remarked that much has changed since marijuana’s classification but “a lower court judge has to follow the law.” He said last year’s hearing “showed the dysfunctionality of the current drug laws.”
Because of marijuana’s Schedule 1 status, federal restrictions make it difficult for researchers to obtain legal cannabis for study, advocates say.
NORML’s national office praised Mueller for “having the courage to hear this issue and provide it the careful consideration it deserves.”
“While we are disappointed with this ruling, it changes little,” said Paul Armentano, NORML’s deputy director. “We always felt this had to ultimately be decided by the 9th Circuit and we have an unprecedented record for the court to consider.”
Scott Chipman, Southern California chairman of Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana, said he was pleased with the ruling but found it “disturbing “ that Mueller had even conducted a fact-finding hearing on the issue.
“There is a false sense that marijuana legalization is on the move, when we are seeing a huge pushback against legalization, particularly in small towns across the country,” Chipman said. “It is a seriously harmful drug that is much stronger than it was in the ‘70s and is getting stronger by the month.”
U.S. Atty. Benjamin B. Wagner, whose office is prosecuting the marijuana growers, said he was pleased with Mueller’s decision.
The question before the judge, he said, “was not whether marijuana should be legalized for medical or recreational use, but whether decisions concerning the status of marijuana under federal law should properly be made in accordance with the science-based scheduling process set forth in the Controlled Substances Act passed by Congress.”
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
xxx
Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Tue, 14 Apr 2015
Source: Comox Valley Echo (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Comox Valley Echo
Contact: dmartin@comoxvalleyecho.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/785
Author: Drew A. Penner

AVICC HOLDS TALK ON WASHINGTON STATE’S POT LEGALIZATION VOTE
Delegates consider the finer points of a pro-pot campaign
Washington’s weed warrior gives politicians something to put in their
pipe and smoke
The ganja smoke hung thick in the air over the hall packed with red-eyed delegates from up and down British Columbia’s West Coast who had gathered to ponder how to “free the weed.” Not.
In fact, the mayors, councillors and industry reps attending the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) conference session about the success of Washington State’s marijuana legalization drive might as well have been listening to a corporate marketing presentation about a new product or a slick Power Point slide-show on urban planning metrics.
“Lets just talk about the elephant in the room,” said Tonia S.
Winchester, former deputy campaign director of Washington State’s
Initiative 502 which brought in legal marijuana to BC’s southern
neighbour, asking audience members to shout out various monikers for
cannabis. “For the last 75 years we have been so focused on the plant
itself, and all the puns that surround the plant...we’re forgetting
that prohibition has had negative consequences on our
communities.”

In order to combat organized crime and fight drug trafficking while
raising tax revenue, Initiative 502 organizers focused on coalition
building to push the paradigm shift that legal weed holds the answer.
The role of weed crusader is an unexpected spot for Winchester to find herself in. Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, she was president of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) chapters at her junior high and high schools.
“I felt that if you used marijuana you were one step away from using heroin or other drugs,” she said in an interview. “I avoided it like the plague.”
She became a prosecutor in Washington and started locking people up for marijuana offences. But something didn’t feel right.
“I realized that I had a stack of domestic violence cases on my desk and I was spending more time prosecuting marijuana possession than I was focusing on the domestic violence cases where someone was actually injured,” she said. “I felt that was a misuse of my time and energy as a prosecutor and that citizens wouldn’t really appreciate that if they knew what was happening.”
She joined the team to make weed legal in her state and later started working for Tilray, the large marijuana production facility on Vancouver Island.
Washington took a different approach to appealing to voters for support, Winchester told delegates.
Instead of pushing weed as a drug with less harmful effects than alcohol, the 502 team got endorsements and ran commercials around the concept that ending prohibition was a public safety initiative.
That’s not the only thing that’s different between the two states.  Colorado grossed $76 million (netting $44 million) in the last calendar year thanks to marijuana. Winchester said Washington likely made about $2.7 million last year from weed (although she projects that will jump to $236-276 million over the next two years).
Residents and business there have complained about a lack (and then glut) of product and an onerous tax regime that has actually encouraged the development of a “grey” weed market. Winshester admits there has been controversy, but says good things take time.
“We’re at least progressing forward and not stuck with the status quo,” she said. “As frustrating as it may seem that things aren’t happening faster, we’re taking a pragmatic approach and going step-by-step through what needs to happen.”
Comox Valley municipalities have all considered the implications of the current medical marijuana production regime on community planning.
Cumberland is the most open to seeing a cannabis production facility opening in its borders. Comox and the regional district both have provisions that would allow this kind of development in some areas.  Courtenay has said no way.
Following the AVICC presentation, Courtenay councillor Rebecca Lennox said a second look might be a good idea.
“Bringing industry to the Valley that’s sustainable and semi-green would be a great step,” she said, noting tax revenue could be directed towards fixing water and sewer infrastructure. “This is something I think we should be open to in the future.”
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MAP posted-by: Matt
xxx
Source: Comox Valley Echo (CN BC)   Author: Drew A. Penner
AVICC HOLDS TALK ON WASHINGTON STATE’S POT LEGALIZATION VOTE
Delegates consider the finer points of a pro-pot campaign
Washington’s weed warrior gives politicians something to put in their pipe and smoke
The ganja smoke hung thick in the air over the hall packed with red-eyed delegates from up and down British Columbia’s West Coast who had gathered to ponder how to “free the weed.” Not.
In fact, the mayors, councillors and industry reps attending the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) conference session about the success of Washington State’s marijuana legalization drive might as well have been listening to a corporate marketing presentation about a new product or a slick Power Point slide-show on urban planning metrics.
“Lets just talk about the elephant in the room,” said Tonia S.Winchester, former deputy campaign director of Washington State’s Initiative 502 ….”For the last 75 years we have been so focused on the plant itself, and all the puns that surround the plant...we’re forgetting that prohibition has had negative consequences on our communities.”
The role of weed crusader is an unexpected spot for Winchester to find herself in. Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, she was president of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) chapters at her junior high and high schools.
“I felt that if you used marijuana you were one step away from using heroin or other drugs,” she said in an interview. “I avoided it like the plague.”
She became a prosecutor in Washington and started locking people up for marijuana offences. But something didn’t feel right.
“I realized that I had a stack of domestic violence cases on my desk and I was spending more time prosecuting marijuana possession than I was focusing on the domestic violence cases where someone was actually injured,” she said. “I felt that was a misuse of my time and energy as a prosecutor and that citizens wouldn’t really appreciate that if they
knew what was happening.”……..
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Newshawk: Jim
Pubdate: Tue, 14 Apr 2015
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2015 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Trevor Hughes

POT INDUSTRY WARY OF BIG TOBACCO
DENVER - While federal law makes their entire industry illegal, many marijuana store owners, growers and retailers fear something completely different: Big Tobacco.
Today, most legal recreational marijuana operations are small, limited to a single state and barred from ever getting large by regulators who want to keep a close eye on the fast-growing industry. But those small operators struggle to get bank loans for expansion, often produce an inconsistent product and sometimes have no idea how to balance supply and demand for their crops.
And many fear that tobacco companies, with their deep pockets, longstanding experience dealing with heavy government regulation, and relationships with generations of farmers will jump into the burgeoning marijuana market. At marijuana business conventions and in private conversations, it sometimes seems like everyone has heard a rumor about Big Tobacco getting in.
“I think there’s a ton of paranoia that they’re buying up warehouses and signing secret deals,” said Chris Walsh, the editor of Marijuana Business Daily, an industry publication.
t’s not just paranoia: Tobacco companies for generations have talked privately about getting into the weed business.
This past summer, researchers poring through more than 80 million pages of previously secret tobacco industry documents found that Big Tobacco has long had interest in pot.
“Since at least the 1970s, tobacco companies have been interested in marijuana and marijuana legalization as both a potential and a rival product,” researchers Rachel Ann Barry, Heikki Hiilamo and Stanton Glantz wrote in a June 2014 paper published in the Milbank Quarterly, which focuses on population health and health policy. “As public opinion shifted and governments began relaxing laws pertaining to marijuana criminalization, the tobacco companies modified their corporate planning strategies to prepare for future consumer demand.
“In many ways, the marijuana market of 2014 resembles the tobacco market before 1880, before cigarettes were mass produced using mechanization and marketed using national brands and modern mass media,” they wrote. “Legalizing marijuana opens the market to major corporations, including tobacco companies, which have the financial resources, product design technology to optimize puff-by-puff delivery of a psychoactive drug (nicotine), marketing muscle, and political clout to transform the marijuana market.”
The researchers entitled their paper “Waiting for the Opportune Moment:
The Tobacco Industry and Marijuana Legalization.”
Today, spokesmen for Altria Group (MO) and R.J. Reynolds (RAI) said their companies have no plans to enter the legal pot marketplace.  Altria is the new name for Philip Morris.
“We continually evaluate opportunities for portfolio enhancement but focus our efforts on companies and products designed to meet the preferences of adult tobacco consumers and companies where we feel we could add value,” said Richard Smith of RJR. “None of Reynolds American’s operating companies is evaluating entering the U.S. market with commercial brands of marijuana.”
Jeffrey Friedland, chief executive of the international cannabis investment and development company INTIVA, said it’s unlikely tobacco companies ever seriously considered marijuana as a product. The tobacco documents archive, turned over to the public following the 1998 national tobacco settlement, show that cigarette companies periodically discussed marijuana as both a potential threat and possible product, including combining pot with menthol cigarettes.
“I don’t think they probably got far, maybe just to the in-house legal counsel’s desk,” Friedland said. “They’re not going to do anything until you have an act of Congress and it’s legal.”
Tobacco companies already are facing stiff government regulation and taxation and likely worry that moving into marijuana would bring additional scrutiny when they’re trying to move into e-cigarettes, which aren’t taxed and regulated the same way as traditional cigarettes, he said. Many marijuana stores sell e-cigarettes filled with marijuana oil.
The idea of Big Marijuana runs contrary to the counter-culture attitude of many marijuana industry insiders, especially those who honed their specific strains and growing techniques underground. For them, marijuana is more than a product, and it’s hard to accept that their labor of love could be commoditized, homogenized and sold without the personal grower-to-user relationship many marijuana stores in Colorado strive to maintain.
The reality of the modern world suggests otherwise, said President and CEO Derek Peterson of Terra Tech, a California-based company that makes hydroponic greenhouse equipment for both traditional and marijuana growers and is opening medical marijuana facilities in Nevada. Peterson, a former Wall Street investment banker, also operates a dispensary in California and says the economics ultimately favor large companies.
“We’re a mass-produced society, from the food we eat to the television we watch,” he said. “Ultimately, big alcohol or big tobacco is going to come into this space. I just can’t imagine that won’t happen.”
Because state-legalized marijuana remains a patchwork of rules, few companies are operating in more than a single state. That’s an advantage for the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes the mainstreaming of marijuana.
Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy co-founded the group with the message, in part, that Big Tobacco wants in on Big Marijuana. SAM co-founder Kevin Sabet said Americans would be naive to think tobacco companies won’t try to use the same techniques they long used to market to kids.
“We’re going to see the nightmare repeat,” he said. “It’s one thing to say you don’t want see someone to go to prison for having a joint in their pocket. It’s another thing to have Philip Morris-type tactics.”
Election of a conservative president could alter marijuana legalization efforts radically, Walsh said. President Barack Obama’s administration generally has taken a hands-off approach in states that have legalized recreational marijuana, but that could quickly change.
Also a possibility: Our next president could open to the door even wider to legalization by pushing the Food and Drug Administration to remove marijuana’s listing as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, he said.
Meanwhile, Friedland said tobacco companies likely are taking a wait-and-see approach.
“I think they’re freaked out and they’re not going to touch it because it will bring down the wrath of governments on them until it’s legal,” he said. “And then I think they end up owning the industry.”
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Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2015
Source: Tucson Weekly (AZ)
Copyright: 2015 Tucson Weekly
Contact: mailbag@tucsonweekly.com
Website: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/462
Author: Mari Herreras

No Surrender
PTSD researcher Sue Sisley keeps up the fight and road to marijuana
research to help U.S veterans
Set back is not in Sue Sisley’s vocabulary.
When the researcher was fired from her UA non-tenured clinical assistant professorship last summer, Sisley took center stage on news outlets across the country. While the UA denied it, Sisley claimed political pressure from a conservative and anti-marijuana state Legislature led to her contract not being renewed, derailing the marijuana PTSD research she’d be fighting for the past five years.
Problem is Sisley’s research is for U.S. military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and she’s grown really fond of them.  They in turn have gone to bat for her on the steps of the state capitol, as well as before the Arizona Board of Regents, asking that she be reinstated.
The latest round targeted ASU, hoping it could provide a new home for her research with 50 veterans she’s been working with who live and work in Arizona. But she and her veterans have given up on ASU making a home, so Sisley told the Tucson Weekly she’s going to do her research independently and keeping it in Arizona, having recently been approved by the private, federally regulated Institutional Review Board. Besides the private research approval, Sisley is celebrating approval and funding from Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory Council and Johns Hopkins University partnering with her in the study. This comes with a state grant of more than $2 million.
The remaining study, however, is in Arizona. But why? Why not pack it all end and say good bye the crazyland?
“I intend to keep this research in the backyard of our opponents. I’ve lived in Arizona for 30 years and I have no intention of moving,” she says. “Just because there are a few extremists out there who oppose this work who tried to run me and my research out of town doesn’t mean I am going to roll over and allow that to actually happen. I have a duty to the veterans of this state.”
Sisley says she made a commitment to those veterans when her study was first approved by the Federal Drug Administration five years ago-the first study of its kind to received FDA approval.
Sisley says she’s disappointed that all three state universities have said no to her work, effectively turning their backs on state combat veterans suffering from PTSD in her opinion.
Reportedly, ASU representatives have said they never heard from Sisley, but the researcher says it was the university that never communicated with her and the veterans. “They walked away from us,” she says, “not the other way around.”
Sisley says they have a location selected in Scottsdale for the research, but continue to negotiate the lease agreement with the landowner. Another promising turn is that the National Institute of Drug Abuse confirmed with Sisley’s sponsor, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, that it finally had three of the four strains ready for Sisley’s research.
Sisley says the delay in getting the marijuana came from the federal requirement that it comes from NIDA and not from a private grow operation.
Sisley says that fourth strain is important to her study, as it must be a strain that is equal parts THC and equal parts cannaboids. It’s a strain many of her veterans have told her works very well for their PTSD symptoms. But because she can’t get the strain from medical marijuana or legal marijuana grow operation, she has to wait for NIDA to grow this particular kind of strain.
A typical grow takes three months, but with the feds involved, Sisley says it’s taken longer. She’s been told by the summer, but she’s thinking it will most likely be by fall because NIDA does not have a track record of growing CBD-rich marijuana.
Sisley says the private research approval has helped her get over rejection from ASU and the state, and with the three strains now available, the research is ready to move forward.
“A lot of folks rooting for us here and that’s what matters. We tried to work with ASU. We hoped UA would reconsider. Obviously the private sector was our best hope,” she says.
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xxx
Newshawk: The GCW
Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2015
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Copyright: 2015 North Coast Journal
Contact: letters@northcoastjournal.com
Website: http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n203/a09.html
Author: Stan White

IT’S ALIVE!
Grant Scott-Goforth is mistaken to equate ending cannabis (marijuana) prohibition with an experiment (“Give It Away Now,” April 9). Like the original prohibition with alcohol, which historically is known as the Grand Experiment, the sequel, with cannabis, is the experiment. More like a Frankenstein experiment.
The effort in Washington D.C. is simply a desperate attempt to end one of America’s worst policy failures in history. Ending the negative consequences of cannabis prohibition requires forcing government to regulate cannabis. Unfortunately, Republican Congress chooses to force the black market to regulate the God-given plant. The proof: knowing most people in D.C. who have cannabis were not given their plant material.
Stan White, Dillon, Colorado
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April 17, 2015 Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL MAKING MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGAL IN GEORGIA
6 things to know now that medical marijuana is legal in Georgia
Senate to propose new medical marijuana plan Georgia State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon shows a bottle of medical cannabis oil as he presents his House Bill 1 on Feb. 3, 2015.
1. House Bill 1 took effect immediately on Thursday, and makes it legal for people in Georgia who suffer from eight illnesses to possess up to 20 ounces of cannabis oil if a physician signs off.
2. The eight disorders are: cancer, Crohnas disease, Lou Gehrig disease, mitochondrial disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, seizure disorders and sickle cell disease. The AJC in February told the story of Blair Brown, a young mother battling grand mal seizures for whom cannabis oil could be a ray of hope.
3. The administrative framework for doctors and patients should be in place within two months, Gov. Nathan Deal said.
4. The law requires the oil contain no more than 5 percent THC, the high-inducing chemical associated with recreational marijuana use. It also legalizes clinical trials sought by some senators to further study how the drug works.
5. You can’t cultivate the oil in Georgia, so interested citizens will have to obtain it in states where home cultivation is legal, such as Colorado. Legalizing home cultivation is Georgia is seen by some advocates as the next legislative step.
6. Travel to and from such states will be tricky, as marijuana possession is still illegal in many states, including every one of
Georgia’s immediate neighbors.
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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Wed, 15 Apr 2015
Source: Kimberley Daily Bulletin (CN BC)
Webpage: http://www.dailybulletin.ca/breaking_news/299839001.html
Copyright: 2015, Kimberley Daily Bulletin
Contact: editor@dailybulletin.ca
Website: http://www.dailybulletin.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1427
Author: Carolyn Grant
Page: A1

A GROWTH INDUSTRY
Couple wants to open medical cannabis dispensary in Kimberley
Medical marijuana is a growth industry, says Tamara Duggan of Kimberley. Duggan and her husband, Rod, were at Kimberley City Council on Monday evening, informing Council of their plans to open Tamarack Dispensaries, purveyors of high quality medicinal cannabis products, in Kimberley.
Medical marijuana can be distributed through Health Canada, but that only allows for the purchase of dried plant product from authorized growers. But Duggan says there are many who could benefit from the medicinal qualities of cannabis who don’t wish to inhale it.
Their plan is to promote the use of edible cookies, butters, oils and tinctures in a storefront that is “upscale and clinical”.
“Image is everything in the dispensary business,” Duggan said. “We will be as presentable and professional as any pharmacy.”
Tamarack Dispensaries will be a member of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries. The CAMCD’s vice president is Dana Larsen, who headed up the decriminalization of marijuana petition last year.
“I like to say we are not legislated,” Larsen said. “When dispensaries have gone to court, the court consistently recognizes that we’re helping people, that the federal government’s medical marijuana program is a failure; and they are not willing to treat it like a serious crime.”
“Government programs are simply not meeting people’s needs,” Duggan told Council. “It’s simply a matter of time before legislation will govern this industry. If it’s not us, it will be someone whose vision is different from ours.”
In the meantime, the Duggans have consulted with local RCMP Constable Chris Newel.
“We will work closely with the RCMP to ensure legitimacy and accountability in our business operations.”
Newel said the RCMP would ensure the business operated within the laws and regulations set down by Federal Government and Health Canada.
Duggan says she grew up with a strong ‘say no to drugs’ message and has never touched drugs, including marijuana. However, when her husband Rod was injured four years ago and she watched him deal with chronic pain, that changed. Last December, they visited a dispensary in Vancouver and he tried the medicinal cannabis. There was a marked improvement in his condition.
“I got my husband back,” she said. “Medical marijuana should be made available to those who need it.”
Rod Duggan says that there are quite a few people in Kimberley, at least 100 that he is aware of, that need alternatives to opiates. And the business would hope to draw customers from Cranbrook as well.
Their product would be lower THC and focus more on the medicinal benefits of cannabis.
“I would support it 100 per cent,” said Coun. Bev Middlebrook. “I know people with MS who need it.”
Coun. Nigel Kitto, says in his role as a registered nurse he often comes across people who need medical marijuana but don’t smoke.
Council had some concerns about security, but the Duggans said the product would not be on display and kept in three safes in the store.  There would also be a security system.
They say they believe in responsible stewardship and would only sell to eligible customers who meet stringent qualifying criterion, such as prescriptions. As legislation is brought in, they say they would welcome more rules governing the business.
“Our vision is to add a viable, legitimate, and clinical business to Kimberley’s economy. Our research indicates that the presence of medical marijuana dispensaries is a growth industry in Canada with BC being the leader. And it provides a vital enhancement to the government’s Marijuana for Medical Purposes regulations.”
The Duggans hope to open Tamarack Dispensaries by mid-summer.
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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2015
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Gordon Clark

SELF-ENTITLEMENT CARRIED TO DANGEROUS HIGHS
There is considerable evidence that narcissism is on the rise, particularly among the young. Many studies show that greater numbers of young people now score higher on standardized tests for narcissism than older folks or young people a generation or two ago.
There are a variety of explanations offered up to explain the phenomenon, but the growing consensus among psychologists is that the rising levels of self-centredness, self-admiration and inflated opinions of self-worth are linked to how individualistic Western culture has become in recent decades.
If the baby boomers, now grandparents, were the “Me Generation,” author Jean Twenge has dubbed younger members of Generation X and the Millennials as “Generation Me” - folks who took the egotistical character traits of the Me Generation as the starting blocks in a race toward truly staggering levels of bloated self-importance.
Personally, I also blame the Internet and social media, which allows everyone to be the divas of their own lives in ways never before available to humans. While the rise of selfies and the over-sharing of mundane details of our lives is probably pretty harmless, other online behaviour related to narcissism is getting people hurt.
Take the online video that hit the news last week of Attish Kumar Kalia, the young man apparently so puffed up with his own sense of entitlement that he thought he had something to gain by the following:
a) refusing to follow the instructions of a Vancouver police sergeant after being pulled over for suspected impaired driving, and; b) posting a video online of his arrest on drug charges, presuming to suggest that one officer had breached his “rights” by breaking, as a result of his non-compliance, the window of his car while arresting him.

Kalia, born in 1990, received sympathy from some like-minded people
who thought the officer was wrong to smash the window. Frankly, they
all need to give their heads a shake.
According to police, the vehicle displayed signs of driver impairment, meaning he was a risk to others on the road, and there was a smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle. As well, police have said that Kalia was “known” to them, which could mean that the officers wanted to be careful approaching his vehicle, especially on a dark, rainy night. With drugs, there is always the possibility of guns and the No.  1 rule of being a police officer is returning home safely to your loved ones at the end of your shift, not something most citizens would deny them.
Kalia’s narcissism and self-importance drips from his comments to police in the video, where he refuses numerous lawful requests to open his door and argues with officers on every point: “You can’t intimidate me ... I have not done anything wrong ... you do not smell marijuana in my vehicle ... I do not give you consent.”
After he’s pulled from his car, he can be heard changing his tune, telling the officers that he can possess marijuana because he’s “medically exempted ... you cannot do this!”
Later, Kalia admitted to the website Vancity Buzz that there was pot in his car, but that he is “prescribed cannabis for medical purposes and was licensed under the”marijuana medical-access regulations but did not sign up because of the high cost of the legal pot. It seems his story keeps changing. Turns out, police allegedly found a full pound of pot in Kalia’s vehicle. He’s now before the courts facing a charge of possession of a controlled substance, two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of willfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
Kalia is part of a new phenomenon of young people videotaping themselves getting into confrontations with police and other officials and then sharing the various reactions they provoke, usually in an attempt to make the officers look bad. This can be enhanced by showing only part of the exchange or editing videos in ways so that viewers don’t get the whole story. The Internet is full of videos of cyclists doing this, in their case riding in ways that provoke drivers and then smugly recording drivers who react badly.
LiveLeak has a new video up this week of several cyclists riding in the middle lane on a freeway that ends with one cyclist barely escaping death by partially going under the tires of a semi-trailer while changing lanes without looking. These guys should trade in their self-entitlement for better self-preservation.
Kalia called himself Bodhi Sattva in his video. “Bodhisattva” is a Buddhist term for a regular person who lives his or her life in a way “that moves in the direction of Buddha,” according to the Buddhist magazine, Tricycle. Pretty ironic. Kalia seems more about entitlement than enlightenment.
Oh, and don’t worry about his broken window. He no longer owns the car. It was seized as a proceed of crime. People should, of course, stand up for their rights, but that doesn’t mean refusing to comply with a cop. Take it up with them later. They have rights - and an obligation to do their jobs - too.
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xxx
Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Fri, 17 Apr 2015
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2015 The Arizona Republic
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

BALLOT MEASURE WILL ASK ARIZONA VOTERS TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA
WHERE IS MARIJUANA LEGAL?
Although many states have laws legalizing marijuana usage, it is still illegal under federal law; but the Justice Department said it will not challenge states’ marijuana laws as long as they do not run counter to certain federal enforcement priorities, such as selling pot to minors.
A planned 2016 ballot initiative would ask Arizona voters to legalize marijuana for recreational use and establish a network of licensed cannabis shops where sales of the drug would be taxed, in part, to fund education.
Supporters are expected to file language of the Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act with the secretary of State on Friday. The Arizona Republic obtained a copy of the proposed initiative.
Under the initiative, adults 21 and older could possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants in their homes without obtaining licenses, as long as the plants are in a secure area.
It would also create a distribution system similar to Colorado’s, where licensed businesses produce and sell marijuana.
The initiative also creates a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control to regulate the “cultivation, manufacturing, testing, transportation, and sale of marijuana” and gives local governments the authority to regulate and ban marijuana stores. It also establishes a 15 percent tax on retail sales to be allocated to education, including full-day kindergarten and public health.
RELATED: Could Arizona see a glut of medical marijuana?
“In the interest of the public health and public safety, to protect and maintain individual rights and the people’s freedom and to better focus state and local law enforcement resources on crimes involving violence and personal property, the people of the State of Arizona find and declare that the use of marijuana should be legal for persons who are at least twenty-one years of age,” the initiative says.
Local supporters, backed by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, for years have planned to expand the state’s medical-marijuana program, which voters approved in 2010. They have eyed the 2016 election cycle, when a presidential race is expected to draw to the polls young voters who may be more likely to support marijuana legalization.
“People are coming to realize that marijuana is not as harmful as they’ve been led to believe ... and it makes little sense to punish adults who choose to use it responsibly,” Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, told The Republic on Thursday.
Summary of the proposed initiative
The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act: (1) allows adults twenty-one years of age and older to possess and to privately consume and grow limited amounts of marijuana; (2) creates a system in which licensed businesses can produce and sell marijuana; (3) establishes a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control to regulate the cultivation, manufacturing, testing, transportation, and sale of marijuana; (4) provides local governments with the authority to regulate and prohibit marijuana businesses; and (5) establishes a 15% tax on retail marijuana sales, from which the revenue will be allocated to public health and education.
Source: Marijuana Policy Project
“Right now, there are millions upon millions (of dollars) in marijuana sales that are taking place in Arizona in the underground market, and this is an opportunity to start controlling those sales and taxing them and raising revenue that will benefit communities in Arizona,” Tvert said.
Marijuana remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act, but in 2013 the U.S. Department of Justice said it would not interfere with laws regulating recreational use of marijuana.
The initiative almost certainly will face stiff opposition from law-enforcement officials, faith-based organizations and education groups that could highlight the harmful effects of marijuana on children and society. Those opponents have noted the state’s medical-marijuana program only narrowly passed, and point to problems Colorado has encountered with its recreational-marijuana program.
For example, some hospital officials there have said they are treating an increased number of people who got sick from eating marijuana-laced foods. Law-enforcement officials in neighboring states have complained that motorists coming from Colorado are driving through their towns while high.
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, a critic of marijuana legalization, has joined forces with anti-drug advocates to oppose pro-marijuana initiatives and to “inform the public about the science of today’s marijuana.” Polk has pointed to studies that suggest marijuana can lead to lower intelligence among users and that regular use is bad for teen brains.
On its website, Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy says it hopes to attract financial support to stand up against “those who wish to legalize another dangerous substance without regard to the lifelong effects on our children.”
Under the 2016 Arizona initiative language, driving while impaired by marijuana would remain illegal, as would consuming marijuana in public and selling or giving the drug to anyone under 21.
Taxation of the program would fund the state’s cost of implementing and enforcing the initiative. Forty percent of the taxes on marijuana would be directed to the Department of Education for construction, maintenance and operation costs, including compensation of K-12 teachers. Another 40 percent would be set aside for full-day kindergarten programs. And 20 percent would go to the Department of Health Services for unspecified uses.
Revenue from the taxes could not flow into the state’s general fund, which would allow it to be spent for other purposes.
The state health department, which oversees the medical-marijuana program, would relinquish that role to the new Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control. The governor would appoint the director of that department. And a seven-member marijuana commission would set program rules and approve and deny licenses.
The initiative limits the number of marijuana shops to about 150 until 2021 and then the number could increase if the department determines there’s a need. Existing medical marijuana dispensaries in good standing would be granted licenses to sell, manufacture and distribute marijuana for retail use.
Initiative supporters must collect 150,642 to qualify for the 2016 ballot.
Legalization efforts were in jeopardy of splintering weeks ago, when a group broke ranks with MPP’s proposal and created a competing legalization effort. The move highlighted factions within Arizona’s marijuana industry and the infighting threatened to derail the 2016 effort.
RELATED:Marijuana group executive says he will target rival
group
In recent days, the groups came together to “conceptually” agree on language, said Gina Berman, a medical director at a local medical-marijuana dispensary who recently left MPP’s legalization effort to start another. She said Thursday that she is now “conceptually on the same page” with MPP.
Ryan Hurley, a marijuana-industry attorney and chairman of the group’s campaign committee, described the effort as “collaborative” among MPP, local dispensaries and local activists.
Summary of the proposed initiative
The Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act: (1) allows adults twenty-one years of age and older to possess and to privately consume and grow limited amounts of marijuana; (2) creates a system in which licensed businesses can produce and sell marijuana; (3) establishes a Department of Marijuana Licenses and Control to regulate the cultivation, manufacturing, testing, transportation, and sale of marijuana; (4) provides local governments with the authority to regulate and prohibit marijuana businesses; and (5) establishes a 15% tax on retail marijuana sales, from which the revenue will be allocated to public health and education.
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The Anti Team:
Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Sat, 18 Apr 2015
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2015 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: James L. Gapra

LEGALIZING DRUGS IS NOT THE ANSWER TO A GLOBAL ISSUE
I am continually amazed by all the so-called experts moaning that the war on drugs is a lost cause and that nothing has changed in 40 years.  This rhetoric spewed by legalizers, libertarians, talking media heads and many in Congress is a tactic that combines emotional capital with fallacious information to seek drug legalization under the guise of liberty, capitalism and countering racial bias.
Those of us who have challenged those assertions with facts that prove otherwise have routinely been attacked professionally and personally, accused of nefarious motives for our positions. I have often found these responses laughable while at the same time sad, because supposedly reasonable and intelligent people are hell-bent on destroying the next generation of Americans.
Substance abuse and addiction cost American society $600 billion annually, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. These figures take into account tobacco, alcohol and illicit substances. To suggest that legalizing any illicit drug will have a positive impact on this number or improve the safety and security of our society is illogical. Legalizing marijuana or any other illicit substance will do nothing but increase the number of users and the societal costs burdening our country.
Time and time again, researchers, social scientists and law enforcement professionals have witnessed that as the perception of harm for marijuana or any drug decreases, use and abuse increase. Look no further than the acute issues arising in Colorado and Washington since those states approved the recreational use of marijuana.
Regulations or regulatory processes and procedures are often touted as the answer to mitigate use and abuse of the proposed legalized substance. I have been told a number of times that it is easier for kids to get marijuana than alcohol because, as they say, alcohol is regulated. During an event some years ago, I challenged a former school administrator who made that statement and asked him what his factual basis was. His reply: Ask any schoolkid.
The fact is, marijuana use by teens is second to the use of alcohol by teens in almost every state. Last year in its “Monitoring the Future” study, New York University’s Center for Drug Use and HIV Research found that two-thirds of surveyed teens reported drinking alcohol and 50 percent said they smoked pot. So much for the regulatory process having a mitigating effect on use and abuse. There is, however, growing evidence that more people are seeking treatment for marijuana dependence than for problems with all other illicit drugs combined. This alone should cause us to think critically about the consequences of pursuing outright legalization in the United States.
Regardless of the constant rhetoric, there are no 800,000 nonviolent drug users in state, federal and county jails and prisons, and the U.S.  does not warehouse addicts and users as a policy. Statistics reveal that those prisoners incarcerated for simple possession make up one-tenth of 1 percent of all inmates, and they probably have pleaded down from more serious crimes. The statistics further reveal that the overwhelming majority of individuals doing time for drugs are incarcerated for felony drug-trafficking offenses. This is not to say that some addicts and users have never spent time in jail. Some addicts have served jail time for crimes committed under the influence.
In addition, in some states if you are caught in possession of a small amount of marijuana you may still be processed by the local police and temporarily held in custody. That said, many states have pursued decriminalization, not legalization, of small amounts of marijuana, resulting in simple fines or very low-level offenses. However, to suggest that law enforcement agencies and more than 900,000 federal, state and local officers are simply looking to arrest “Billy and his bong in his basement” is just another part of the emotional tactic that is not supported by facts.
Drug trafficking, as well as use and abuse, is a global problem that requires global partnerships to respond effectively. Until recently, the U.S. had taken the lead, and its comprehensive strategy served as an example of how to combat this issue. The past 30 years of illicit-drug prohibition in the United States has been tremendously successful on that front. Cocaine use and abuse have dropped more than 45 percent, and a 75 percent reduction in cocaine-production capacity has been achieved through strategic partnerships and the commitment and political will of the government of Colombia. These successes were born of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary drug policy that includes enforcement, treatment, education and global partnerships.
Unfortunately, the U.S. now appears positioned to give up its role as a global leader in favor of pursuing legalization as a so-called progressive answer to a global criminal and social problem.
During my testimony before the Senate Drug Caucus last year, I drew on my years of experience as a federal narcotics agent and stated that drug legalization in our country is reckless and irresponsible. During my tenure as a government executive, I routinely advised legislators and civic leaders, as well as Department of Justice officials, that we have a responsibility to the next generation and that if we disregard the drug issue in our country under the guise of liberty, we must be willing to accept the consequences that are sure to come.
Following my testimony, I received a copy of a letter that was sent to President Barack Obama and signed by several members of Congress from both sides of the aisle that declared that my statement before the Senate “served no purpose other than to inflame passions and misinform the public.” I was taken aback by how the truth based on evidence can be dismissed by those who are sworn to uphold the Constitution and ensure that the next generation has an opportunity to be successful. These legislators have forgotten that the first duty of government is the protection and security of the governed, even if that means to protect them from harming themselves.
Legalization is not the panacea to the drug issue in America or the global arena.
Legalization will only exacerbate the social costs and tragedy that increased addiction will ultimately bring. Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado recently reiterated his position that marijuana legalization in his state was reckless, as he is now undoubtedly witness to the social and societal costs that come with such an irresponsible piece of legislation.
American history - as well as examples from many parts of the world - provides ample evidence that legalization has never worked as an effective strategy to combat drug use and abuse. We must remain vigilant to pursue a well-rounded, comprehensive, global strategy that gives hope for the next generation and minimizes the threat that drug use and abuse pose to the most vulnerable in all societies.
James L. Capra is CEO of the Front Line Leadership Group and the author of “Leadership at the Front Line: Lessons Learned About Loving, Leading and Legacy from a Warrior and Public Servant.” He retired from the Drug Enforcement Administration as chief of operations.
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MARIJUANA USE AMONG TEENS, YOUNG ADULTS MAY BE DOWN: SURVEY
Marijuana use may be down among teens and young adults, a new report
from Statistics Canada suggests.
Younger Canadians are still the biggest consumers of marijuana, with a third of 18 to 24-year-old respondents reporting they had used marijuana or hashish in the past year.
But the percentage of teens between the ages of 15 and 17 who reported having ever used marijuana dropped to 25 per cent in 2012 from nearly 40 per cent in 2002, according to the report, published Wednesday in the monthly Health Reports.
And the percentage of 15- to 17-year-olds who reported having used marijuana in the previous 12 months dropped by about 30 per cent over the 10 year period, said co-author Michelle Rotermann, a senior analyst with the statistical agency.
As well, the proportion of 18 to 24-year-olds who reported having used the drug at least once fell to about 54 per cent from 62 per cent over the same time frame.
The report is based on data collected during the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey on mental health. Over 25,000 Canadians aged 15 and older responded to the survey ; the sample is considered representative of about 28 million Canadians over the age of 15.
The survey asked respondents if they had ever used marijuana or hashish, and if they had used either drug in the previous 12 months.
The data are self-reported and not verified. The authors note that means some respondents may have modified their answers to give what they thought is a socially acceptable reply. That’s a recognized and routine problem with self-reported data, especially about behaviours society may frown on.
The data clearly show that marijuana is more of a guy thing than a girl thing.
“That is a fairly consistent finding that we find in all age groups and ages combined, that use of marijuana is more common among males than females - and often by 50 per cent,” Rotermann said in an interview from Ottawa.
More than 49 per cent of males reported having used marijuana at some point in their life, compared to 36 per cent of females. And daily use was more common among males; 2.4 per cent of males reported using marijuana every day, double the percentage of females who reported daily use.
The findings also call into question the suggestion that marijuana is
a gateway drug that leads to use of harder drugs.
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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2015
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 The Toronto Star
Contact: lettertoed@thestar.ca
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Rachel Mendleson
Page: GT1

CRITICS URGE BROADER REVIEW OF MOTHERISK
Lawyer suggests Sick Kids may ‘have discovered more problems’
The “stakes are too high” to allow the Hospital for Sick Children’s Motherisk laboratory to perform hair drug and alcohol tests for use in court, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) says.
In a letter to retired Appeal Court Justice Susan Lang, who is probing the reliability of five years’ worth of drug tests on hair conducted by Motherisk, AIDWYC’s James Lockyer argues that such analysis should only be done in a forensic lab, which has more rigorous standards than a hospital setting.
The letter is also highly critical of both Sick Kids and Motherisk founder and director Gideon Koren. Lockyer said the hospital must explain why it allowed Koren to rise to such a prominent position in light of his “torrid past” and why it “so vigorously” defended him “in the media in the face of calls for a review of Motherisk’s work.”
Motherisk has provided hair drug and alcohol tests in criminal and child-protection cases, where it is typically used as evidence of parental substance abuse, in courts across Ontario and Canada, as the Star has reported.
AIDWYC joins the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, York University’s Innocence Project and the Family Lawyers Association in urging a broader inquiry into Motherisk. The letter calls for all cases in the review period - 2005 to 2010 - “in which questions have been raised” to be “thoroughly investigated.”
The letter also asks Lang to probe the concerns related to Koren’s ties to the drug company Duchesnay that have recently surfaced.
A Sick Kids spokeswoman, Gwen Burrows, said the hospital “is engaged cooperatively in (the) review process” and said it is “not in a position” to respond to many of AIDWYC’s criticisms “to maintain the integrity” of Lang’s review. She added that the hospital is “aware of questions raised with respect to Dr. Koren and Duchesnay” and is “looking into these concerns.”
Koren did not respond to a request for comment.
Lockyer has first-hand knowledge of the issues currently under scrutiny. He represented Toronto mom Tamara Broomfield last year in the Appeal Court case that first raised questions about the reliability of the hair drug analysis Koren presented at her 2009 criminal trial.
Broomfield was sentenced to seven years in prison for feeding her young son cocaine, based largely on Motherisk’s analysis of the boy’s hair, which Koren said showed he had regularly consumed high doses of the drug for more than a year.
The court’s decision last October to overturn Broomfield’s cocaine-related convictions sparked the Star investigation of Motherisk that led the province to launch a review of the lab in November.
Lockyer writes that Sick Kids must explain why it initially appeared to ignore the revelations in the Broomfield case and what, specifically, prompted it to reverse its position.
In March, Sick Kids announced the temporary suspension of hair drug and alcoholtests at Motherisk pending the result of Lang’s review, but has refused to provide further details.
In response to questions for this story, Burrows said, “during the course of Justice Lang’s review and Sick Kids’ own review, additional information has arisen of which we were not aware in November.”
Lockyer said the public has the right to know more.
“It raises the suggestion that they have discovered more problems . .  . with the work that Motherisk has done, but we don’t know and we’re entitled to know,” Lockyer said in an interview. “They’re a public hospital, and they should be open to the public.”
Motherisk is accredited as a clinical lab. But during Broomfield’s appeal, an expert for the defence, Craig Chatterton, the deputy chief toxicologist in the office of the chief medical examiner in Edmonton, said the hair drug test should have been conducted in a forensic lab.
Chatterton said the test Motherisk used to analyze Broomfield’s son’s hair in 2005 - called immunoassay - was a “preliminary” screening test. He said the result should have been confirmed with a gold standard test, which it was not.
In defending the Motherisk program in the press, Sick Kids initially relied on the opinion of toxicologist Douglas Rollins, who conceded under cross-examination that hair drug tests presented in court should be performed in a forensic lab.
In the letter to Lang, Lockyer says Koren’s testimony at the Broomfield trial, in which he described the immunoassay technique as “robust,” was “misleading.”
Other Motherisk employees, Lockyer writes, “were equally reticent in their failure to inform the court that the immunoassay methodology was universally recognized in their profession as being merely a preliminary screening test.”
Lockyer said AIDWYC’s characterization of Koren’s past as “torrid” relates to a 2003 incident in which Koren was reprimanded and fined $2,500 by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons for penning harassing, anonymous letters to colleagues during a dispute over research by fellow doctor Nancy Olivieri.
Amid questions about ties between Koren and Duchesnay, Sick Kids recently confirmed it has temporarily reassigned medical oversight of Motherisk, which also counsels pregnant women on which medications are safe to take.
The questions related to a booklet (featured on the Motherisk website) on treating morning sickness which was co-authored by Koren and heavily promotes the use of Duchesnay’s drug Diclectin, but did not disclose the financial support Motherisk gets from the drug company.
Burrows said this week that the hospital is “looking into these concerns” and has added a disclaimer on the Motherisk website making clear that Duchesnay sponsors Motherisk, and that Koren serves as a paid consultant to the drug company.
The report is expected by June 30.
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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Sat, 18 Apr 2015
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Jesse Winter
Page: A10

FORMER MP URGES LEGALIZED POT
Canadian conservatives who have launched a cheeky new billboard campaign in Ottawa are urging Tories to embrace their libertarian roots and legalize marijuana.
A group called Canadian Conservatives for Legal Marijuana put up the billboards, which parody the familiar federal Conservative party branding but feature a few more hints of green. One is at the corner of Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue, and the second has gone up near King Edward Avenue and York Street.
Former Conservative MP Inky Mark has lent his name to the campaign. He says it makes perfect sense for someone with conservative leanings to be in favour of legalizing marijuana because that would be in line with a policy that provides less government intrusion into the lives of people.
“If you legalize it, tax it, control it, it just makes sense. You’ll keep people out of jail and make a lot of money,” he said in an interview Friday.
While many people might associate the federal Conservative “C” and blue branding with increased mandatory minimum sentences and a hard line stance against pot, Mark said that doesn’t need to be the case.  He said many prominent members of the Conservative party privately support his cause but they don’t want to run afoul of their leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“I don’t even consider Harper a conservative. He’s just Harper. The man basically wanted to jail 40,000 people who were using medical marijuana and growing it themselves. That should tell you a lot about him right there,” Mark said.
Local marijuana activists Russell Barth and his wife Christine Lowe were surprised by the billboard but not by its message when they stopped by to have a look.
“Conservatives seem to have a cognitive dissonance when it comes to marijuana. They’re like ‘yeah, smaller government, less regulation, get out of my bedroom and get out of my life,’ unless it’s marijuana.  Then you’ve gotta just crack down on that,” Barth said.
Barth said that while ideally he’d like to see pot legalized “and sold just like tomatoes,” it’s much more important to clarify the situation around medical marijuana and the ability of users to grow their own pot.
Barth and his wife both use medicinal marijuana, and said when the laws changed last year they lost their licensed distributor.
“We’re essentially breaking the law now,” he said. “We no longer have access to a legal and ongoing supply. We’re existing on marijuana charity from around the country right now but that needs to change.”
The website for the group behind the billboards lists three sitting Conservative MPs who are all quoted on the site making statements in support of legalizing or at least decriminalizing pot, including Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington MP Scott Reid.
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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Sun, 19 Apr 2015
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2015 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact: http://www.newsok.com/voices/guidelines
Website: http://newsok.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Gerald Jackson
Page: 2C

LEGAL MARIJUANA COULD BE COMING TO OKLAHOMA - ON TRIBAL-OWNED LANDS
While the picture is still blurry, legal marijuana could be coming to Indian country in Oklahoma. Such a possibility may seem far-fetched, but recent policy pronouncements by the U.S. Department of Justice are making the once unthinkable a real possibility.
While marijuana is still illegal in all of its forms in Oklahoma, more than 20 states have legalized it for either medical or recreational use. Nonetheless, it is still illegal in all states under federal law to manufacture, distribute or dispense marijuana.
Federal banking and money laundering laws also make activities connected with selling or distributing marijuana a federal crime.
However, beginning in 2009, the Justice Department issued a series of policy statements announcing that the federal government will not use its scarce resources to prosecute activities that comply with state marijuana laws so long as the state implements strong and effective regulatory enforcement systems to control the distribution, sale, and possession of marijuana and the access of minors to marijuana.
In October 2014, the Justice Department issued another policy statement acknowledging tribal governments’ right of self-determination and extending its policy for state marijuana legalization to lands within tribal governments’ jurisdiction.
Interest is high among tribes to explore the possibility of legalizing marijuana and reaping the economic benefits experienced by states that have blazed the legalization trail. Nonetheless, tribes must be cautious as there are many issues to consider, including:
Policy statements, such as those on marijuana, do not have force of law and can be changed at any time. Tribal authorities and employees that rely on current Justice Department policy could be prosecuted under federal marijuana laws if those policies change, even for activities occurring under the old policy favoring legalization. This risk is increased because Attorney General Eric Holder recently resigned and his replacement may have different views. Also, the new administration after the 2016 presidential election could change or completely rescind current marijuana policy.
Implementing adequate regulatory enforcement systems for marijuana legalization to satisfy the current policy requires a great deal of resources and expertise in areas many tribes may not have much experience.
These areas include preventing involvement of criminal enterprises in the marijuana trade, preventing the export of marijuana to states or areas outside of tribal lands where it is not legal, and preventing drugged driving. These are not activities tribes have historically undertaken.
Legalizing marijuana on tribal lands within the border of a state such as Oklahoma that has not legalized marijuana may set off political or legal battles between the two sovereigns. In most instances, legalized marijuana on tribal lands will require transportation across non-tribal areas and sales networks will use banking systems regulated by the state. Oklahoma’s recent lawsuit against Colorado over its legalization effort indicates Oklahoma will likely oppose any legalization effort on tribal lands located within the state.
The potential social consequences to tribal members may not justify the potential economic benefit. Many tribes already suffer the devastating consequences of substance abuse rates that, according to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, are higher among Native Americans than the population at large. Legalizing marijuana may increase difficult social problems already facing many tribes.
A lot of legal, structural and practical concerns are rolled into the question of whether a tribe should legalize marijuana on tribal lands.  Even with these many questions, however, the economic benefits might be too tempting for some Oklahoma tribes to pass up. Gerald Jackson is an attorney with Crowe & Dunlevy and a member of the firm’s Indian Law & Gaming practice group.
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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Sun, 19 Apr 2015
Source: Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Copyright: 2015 Morning Journal
Contact: letters@morningjournal.com
Website: http://www.morningjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3569
Author: Richard Payerchin
Page: A1

PORTMAN DISCUSSES MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION, FAIR TRADE
Legalizing marijuana will not help Ohio deal with the problem of drug abuse, said Sen. Rob Portman.
The Cincinnati Republican spent April 17 in northern Ohio on multiple visits before heading to Lorain, where he was to deliver the keynote address for the Lorain County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner.
Portman discussed a number of issues as part of an afternoon visit to The Morning Journal.
If Ohioans vote to legalize marijuana, Lorain could become one of 10 cities around the state to house a growing and processing facility for the plants.
Portman said he is not in favor of legalization.
Now an advocate for social re-entry programs for convicted offenders, Portman said he first came to learn about prisoner re-entry by working with drug use prevention efforts. In his hometown, Portman said he also has worked with local coalition to reduce drug use through education and prevention.
“I think we have a lot of work to do there and can do much more,” Portman said. “And I worry that if you legalize it, then the stigma is gone, which all the prevention experts tell me is one of the main reasons that young people don’t use, is that they think there is societal disapproval.”
Portman said he has seen consequences and devastation of drug abuse.
Some proponents argue marijuana does not have the same effects as other addictive drugs, Portman said. He countered that for some people it becomes a problem and hurts their ability to function.
Experts also say marijuana is a gateway drugs to other illegal drugs that are incredibly damaging, Portman said. He noted Ohio’s top cause of death is opiate overdosing, largely with heroin and prescription drugs.
“So I think rather than going down the track of just saying, heck, let’s just legalize it (marijuana), it would be better to really put more effort and time into prevention and education and certainly treatment,” Portman said.
As for people already incarcerated, Portman said he has seen efforts
to teach job and
communication skills to inmates at the Grafton Correctional Institution. He also cited a visit to a Columbus foundry, meeting an ex-offender there who had a job that was leading to life with sobriety, a house and custody of the man’s son.
“The best way to get them out of a life of crime and back into productive lives and paying taxes and taking care of the kids is to get them a job,” Portman said.
Employers should know there are great opportunities with some ex-offenders if companies will give them chances to prove themselves, Portman said.
Part of Portman’s April 17 tour was a visit to Timken
Steel in Canton. That company recently had 52 layoffs, a fraction of workers cut from U.S. Steel’s Lorain Tubular Operations, which has become idle due to low demand.
Portman pledged to continue the fight to keep unfairly traded imports out of the United States and to stop other countries from manipulating values of their currencies that make American steel expensive to buy abroad.
He also hopes to change the trade definition of material damages so domestic companies affected by unfair trade don’t have to wait so long for relief from trade regulators.
Portman’s northern Ohio visit was not all about politics, trade and Republican campaigns.
Today, Portman said he and his wife, Jane, will attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland. It is a first for the couple, he said.
When asked what performers he hoped to see, Portman answered:
“Everybody.”
“You know Miley’s coming,” Portman added about singer Miley Cyrus, who will present for Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ induction. The senator also said he was looking forward to hearing The “5” Royales, who will be inducted as an early influence on rock ‘n’ roll music.
“I like R&B,” Portman said.
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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Sun, 19 Apr 2015
Source: Mail on Sunday, The (UK)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
Contact: letters@mailonsunday.co.uk
Website: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/255
Author: Kirsten Johnson
Page: 5

THEY WON’T ARREST US ALL!
Astonishing claim of the arrogant cannabis campaigners who intend to
light up in public
THOUSANDS of illegal drug users plan to flout the law by smoking cannabis in public tomorrow.
Activists who want the Class-B substance legalised will taunt police by lighting up at the ‘Cannabis Celebration’ in Glasgow’s George Square - claiming ‘they can’t arrest us all’.
Nearly 4,000 people have pledged to attend Scotland’s biggest pro-cannabis rally in front of the City Chambers. Speakers will promote the so-called health benefits of the plant - including incredible claims it can cure cancer - as well as encouraging people to ‘grow their own’.
Among those speaking will be a retired police inspector who believes all drugs should be legalised and the internet millionaire behind a procannabis party fielding dozens of candidates in the General Election.
Musicians, rappers and comedians will perform from noon until 8pm and a range of drug paraphernalia will be available to buy.
Potent cannabis ‘skunk’ seeds - which can be sold legally as ‘souvenirs’ - will also be on offer.
Glasgow City Council tried to block the event last month after refusing the organisers permission to use the site. But campaigners still intend to descend on George Square tomorrow afternoon.
Politicians and addiction charities have put pressure on Police Scotland to ban the event. But the force said last night officers had been liaising with organisers to ensure it would be ‘policed appropriately’.
The Glasgow Cannabis Social Club, the group behind the event, set up a Facebook page to ‘spread the word’. By last night, 3,985 people had signed up to attend.
Many supporters have vowed to bring cannabis and ‘hotbox’ - slang for filling a room with cannabis smoke - George Square.
Facebook user Lewis Robertson posted: ‘Let’s just keep calm and get high.’
Shaun Conway said: ‘There will be thousands of people, how are they going to manage to lift us all? They can’t just lift one person for the same thing everybody is doing. There isn’t enough police.’
Adam Mcrae said: ‘If you love weed and love puffing it then who gives a f* about the police.’
Five people were reported to the procurator fiscal after being caught with cannabis at a smaller event at Glasgow Green last year, but supporters say it has not put them off.
Andy Crone: ‘I went last year and had no bother smoking.’
Scottish Tory chief whip John Lamont said: ‘It’s not a good look for Scotland’s largest city to have such an irresponsible rally right in its heart.
‘No doubt campaigners will spend the day telling people how harmless cannabis is. But the fact is it’s responsible for one in ten drug-related hospital admissions and there is increasing concern within the medical profession at the impact it has on mental health.
‘Hopefully, the police will have enough resources to deal with any illegal activity which may occur at this event.’
Christine Duncan, chief executive of Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs, said: ‘Any glamorising of substance misuse cannot be supported as we are too aware of the impact on families.
‘The more young people see an illegal behaviour so publicly exhibited, the more difficult it will become to educate them on what is still an illegal substance.’
One of the most high-profile speakers tomorrow will be retired Strathclyde Police inspector Jim Duffy, a member of the organisation Law Enforcement against Prohibition.
He said: ‘The war on drugs is lost and unwinnable. Drugs have never been more plentiful or easier to get. We need to do something different and the way to do that is to legalise, regulate and control.  The way forward is to take drugs out of the hands of criminals. It’s about time the Scottish Government were more progressive.’
Paul Birch, founder of social networking site Bebo who launched the Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol Party earlier this year, will be launching his Scottish manifesto at the event.
Glasgow City Council confirmed the event had not been given permission, but said it was powerless to prevent people gathering in a public place. A spokesman said: ‘We told the applicant we were refusing permission because the event appeared to encourage the use ofcannabis and it was felt that this would be not be appropriate in one of our parks.’
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: ‘We are aware of this event and will be liaising with the organisers. As with all events, it will be policed appropriately.’
 

[sidebar]
Illegal drug that can land users in prison for five years
THE most widely used illegal substance in the United Kingdom, cannabis is controlled under Class B of the Misuse of Drugs Act.
It is illegal to possess, grow, distribute or sell cannabis - even being caught smoking it can lead to a criminal conviction.
The maximum penalty for supplying or producing cannabis is 14 years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine, while anyone caught in possession of the drug can face up to five years in jail.
People in England and Wales can escape with a police warning the first time they are caught with a small amount of the drug. But anyone found in possession of cannabis In Scotland will automatically be reported to the procurator fiscal and a decision on cautioning or prosecution will be made.
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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Mon, 20 Apr 2015
Source: Cairns Post (Australia)
Copyright: 2015 The Cairns Post Pty. Ltd.
Website: http://www.cairns.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/617
Page: 14

CANNABIS AS PAIN RELIEVER
PAIN relief for families with suffering loved ones may be just around the corner, following Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement that Queensland will join NSW’s medicinal trials of cannabis.
The State Government needs to be congratulated, at the very least, for having the courage to put this controversial issue to the test - to see whether marijuana, when administered under medical supervision, does actually make a difference - for the better - to people’s lives.
Marijuana has long been outlawed in Australia but the case is building to have the drug decriminalised for those seeking an escape from chronic pain.
Elyshia Hickey is such a person, in constant pain from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which with she and younger sister Emily are afflicted.
The 19-year-old - in Cairns Hospital obtaining treatment to manage the rare disease affecting her joints - wants to be among the first in Queensland to trial medical cannabis as an alternative tool for pain management.
Allowing people such as Elyshia access to a drug that will ease her suffering is not only a humanitarian issue, it is also one of resources.
There is a substantial cost associated with helping the thousands of Queenslanders who suffer chronic pain to manage their conditions, with the University of Queensland estimating a cost to Australia’s economy in the order of $34 billion each year.
Medicinal marijuana would help free up some of these resources.
With action to decriminalise the drug now happening at federal and state levels, families in need of relief may no longer be treated as criminals when all they want to do is help their loved ones live normal lives.
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Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Fri, 17 Apr 2015
Source: Wausau Daily Herald (WI)
Copyright: 2015 Wausau Daily Herald
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/zFWcSrzy
Website: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1321
Author: Jim Maas

ENDING MARIJUANA PROHIBITION IS HUMANE, SENSIBLE
Public, religious groups, law enforcement coalition support ending marijuana prohibition.
H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as, “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” We may think that is something from the distant past but then we are reminded of it from time to time, even in 21st century Wisconsin.
Legislation which would end the prohibition of the use of cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana) has been introduced in the Wisconsin Assembly. What has taken them so long to reform prohibition is a mystery. So far, 23 states and the District of Columbia permit the use of this herb with a doctor’s prescription for medical use. A few states are treating cannabis more like alcohol.
The late Peter McWilliams, author of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do,” available from the public library, would have us remember these important points:
You need not personally support or take part in any activity in order to support another person’s freedom to take part in it.
Although, in order to exist, a society must have certain mores, rules and codes of behavior, putting these mores, rules and codes of behavior into the hands of the criminal justice system is the least effective method to bring about compliance.
Your freedom of choice is paid for by giving others their freedom of choice.
Drug prohibition has been a huge, costly government blunder. It is
time to end it. Opinion polls indicate that over 70 percent favor
legalizing medical marijuana in Wisconsin. Support for regulating and
taxing recreational use, like alcohol, is around 50 percent and climbing
Despite what you may have heard, the criminal justice community doesn’t necessarily oppose reforms. The Law Enforcement Against Prohibition organization’s vision statement says that, “LEAP envisions a world in which drug policies work for the benefit of society and keep our communities safer. A system of legalization and regulation will end the violence, better protect human rights, safeguard our children, reduce crime and disease, treat drug abusers as patients, reduce addiction, use tax dollars more efficiently and restore the public’s respect and trust in law enforcement.” Bravo.
Furthermore, faith communities are becoming more actively involved in supporting reforms. The Unitarian Universalist Association resolved that: “Recognizing the right of conscience for all who differ, we denounce the war on drugs and recommend alternative goals and policies. Let neither fear nor any other barrier prevent us from advocating a more just, compassionate world.”
The Presbyterian Church, Quakers, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Progressive Jewish Alliance are among the groups that have lent their support to redirect efforts for a more just world.
Our communities are more diverse and compassionate than our Puritan
ancestors and perhaps more compassionate that our
legislators.

Jim Maas lives in Rothschild.
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MAP posted-by: Matt