DRUGS
5 Amazing New Discoveries About the Potential of Marijuana That You Won't Hear in the Corporate Media
Five new cannabis-centric studies warrant major attention.
By Paul Armentano / AlterNet February 9, 2015
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Mimi Peleg stands with medical cannabis plants.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Mimi Peleg

Scientific discoveries are published almost daily in regard to the healing properties of the cannabis. But most of these findings appear solely in subscription-only peer-reviewed journals and, therefore, go largely unnoticed by the mainstream media and by the public. Here are five just-published cannabis-centric studies that warrant attention.

Men Who Smoke Pot Possess a Reduced Risk of Bladder Cancer

Is cannabis use protective against the development of certain types of cancer? The findings of a just released study in the journal Urology imply that it might be.

Investigators at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, Department of Neurology assessed the association of cannabis use and tobacco smoking on the risk of bladder cancer in a multiethnic cohort of more than 80,000 men aged 45 to 69 years old over an 11-year period. The results? While men who smoked cigarettes possessed a 1.5-fold increased risk of cancer, those who only smoked pot possessed a 45 percent reduced risk of being diagnosed with the disease.

“After adjusting for age, race or ethnicity, and body mass index, using tobacco only was associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer (hazard regression 1.52) whereas cannabis use was only associated with a 45 percent reduction in bladder cancer incidence (HR 0.55),” investigators reported.

The study is not the first time that researchers have identified an inverse association between marijuana use and the development of cancer. In 2009, Brown University researchers similarly reported that the moderate long-term use of marijuana was associated with a reduced risk of head and neck cancers in a multi-center cohort involving over 1,000 subjects. In addition, the largest case-controlled study ever to investigate the respiratory effects of marijuana smoking found no positive association between inhaling pot and lung cancer risk. “We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” pulmonologist Dr. Donald Tashkin, Professor Emeritus at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA told The Washington Post. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.

Long-Term Pot Exposure Isn't Damaging to Lung Health
 

All smoke is not created equal.

Unlike tobacco smoking, the inhalation of marijuana cigarettes – even long-term -- is not associated with significant adverse changes in pulmonary health, according to data published online in December in the journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

Investigators at Emory University in Atlanta assessed marijuana smoke exposure and lung health in a large representative sample of US adults age 18 to 59. Researchers reported that cannabis exposure was not associated with FEV1 (forced expiratory volume) decline or deleterious change in spirometric values of small airways disease. They further reported that marijuana smoke exposure may be associated with some protective lung effects among long-term smokers of tobacco, acknowledging, "[T]he pattern of marijuana's effects seems to be distinctly different when compared to that of tobacco use."

Their findings are similar to those of a 2013 literature review, published in the same journal, which concluded: "[H]abitual use of marijuana alone does not appear to lead to significant abnormalities in lung function. Findings from a limited number of well-designed epidemiological studies do not suggest an increased risk of either lung or upper airway cancer from light or moderate use. ... Overall, the risks of pulmonary complications of regular use of marijuana appear to be relatively small and far lower than those of tobacco smoking."

Alcohol, Not Pot, Alters the Brain

It was less than a year ago when the mainstream media was chock-full of headlines like this one: ‘Brain changes associated with casual marijuana use in young adults, study finds.’ But a funny thing happened when a team of scientists from the University of Colorado and the University of Kentucky tried to replicate these results in a larger, more well-controlled cohort of subjects.

They couldn’t.

“We acquired high-resolution MRI scans, and investigated group differences in gray matter using voxel-based morphometry, surface-based morphometry, and shape analysis in structures suggested to be associated with marijuana use, as follows: the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus, and cerebellum,” researchers summarized in the January 28 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience. “No statistically significant differences were found between daily users and nonusers on volume or shape in the regions of interest. Effect sizes suggest that the failure to find differences was not due to a lack of statistical power, but rather was due to the lack of even a modest effect.”

They concluded, “In sum, the results indicate that, when carefully controlling for alcohol use, gender, age, and other variables, there is no association between marijuana use and standard volumetric or shape measurements of subcortical structures. … [I]t seems unlikely that marijuana use has the same level of long-term deleterious effects on brain morphology as other drugs like alcohol.”

Marijuana Use Doesn’t Lead to Depression

“Regular use of marijuana has also been linked to depression, anxiety, and a loss of drive or motivation.” So says the online publication, ‘Marijuana: Facts for Teens,’ published by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse. But is this claim true? No, according to longitudinal data published online ahead of print in the Journal of Affective Disorders, which reports that future incidences of major depression are not higher among cannabis users compared to nonusers.

Investigators concluded, "Our results do not support a longitudinal association between cannabis use and increased incidence of MDD (major depressive disorder); rather, they indicate an inverse relationship between the two, which may be attributed to self-medication factors."

Previous studies have similarly dismissed the notion that pot use is associated with increased suicide risk. Specifically, a 2013 study published in the American Journal of Public Health reported a drop in suicide rates in states that had legalized marijuana compared to those that had not, finding: “Suicides among men aged 20 through 39 years fell after medical marijuana legalization compared with those in states that did not legalize. The negative relationship between legalization and suicides among young men is consistent with the hypothesis that marijuana can be used to cope with stressful life events.”

Marijuana Possesses a Unique Margin of Safety Compared to Other legal and Illegal Drugs

Despite the US federal government’s ongoing insistence that pot is one of the most dangerous substances known to man, an objective review of the plant’s safety profile finds that it is comparably safer than most other drugs, particularly alcohol.

Writing in Nature.com this past January, an international team of German and Canadian researchers published a comparative risk assessment of the toxicity of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis. Their evaluation concluded that the risks of cannabis have likely been “overestimated” while the dangers associated with booze “have been commonly underestimated.”

They concluded: “[Our] results point to risk management prioritization toward alcohol and tobacco rather than illicit drugs. … [and] suggest a strict legal regulatory approach [for cannabis] rather than the current prohibition approach.”
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Session of 2015
HOUSE BILL No. 2329
By Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources
2-12
AN ACT concerning agriculture; enacting the alternative crop research act;
amending K.S.A. 2014 Supp. 21-5702 and repealing the existing
section.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
New Section 1. (a) Sections 1 and 2, and amendments thereto, shall
be known and may be cited as the alternative crop research act.
(b) As used in the alternative crop research act:
(1) "Certified seed" means industrial hemp seed that has been
certified as having no more tetrahydrocannabinol concentration than that
adopted by federal law in the controlled substances act, 21 U.S.C. § 801 et
seq.
(2) "Department" means the Kansas department of agriculture.
(3) "Hemp products" means all products made from industrial hemp,
including, but not limited to, cloth, cordage, fiber, food, fuel, paint, paper,
particleboard, plastics, seed, seed metal and seed oil for consumption and
certified seed for cultivation if the seeds originate from industrial hemp
varieties.
(4) "Industrial hemp" means all parts and varieties of the plant
cannabis sativa, cultivated or possessed by a state educational institution or
the department, whether growing or not, that contain a
tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of no more than that adopted by
federal law in the controlled substances act, 21 U.S.C. § 801 et seq.
(5) "Seed research" means research conducted to develop or recreate
better strains of industrial hemp, particularly for the purpose of seed
production.
(6) "State educational institution" means the university of Kansas,
Kansas state university, Wichita state university, Emporia state university,
Pittsburg state university and Fort Hays state university.
(7) "Tetrahydrocannabinol" or "THC" means the natural or synthetic
equivalents of the substances contained in the plant or in the resinous
extractives of cannabis or any synthetic substances, compounds, salts or
derivatives of the plant or chemicals and their isomers with similar
chemical structure and pharmacological activity.
New Sec. 2. (a) The department, alone or in coordination with a state
educational institution, may cultivate industrial hemp grown from certified
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35
36
HB 2329 2
seed and promote the research and development of industrial hemp. This
research may include:
(1) Oversight and analysis of growth of industrial hemp to conduct
agronomy research and analysis of required soils, growing conditions and
harvest methods relating to the production of various varieties of industrial
hemp that may be suitable for various commercial hemp products;
(2) seed research on various types of industrial hemp that are best
suited to be grown in Kansas, including seed availability, creation of
hybrid types, in-the-ground variety trials and seed production;
(3) analysis on the economic feasibility of developing an industrial
hemp market in various types of industrial hemp that can be grown in
Kansas;
(4) analysis on the estimated value-added benefits, including
environment benefits, that Kansas businesses would reap by having an
industrial hemp market of Kansas-grown industrial hemp varieties;
(5) a study on the agronomy research conducted worldwide relating
to industrial hemp varieties, production and utilization; and
(6) a study on the feasibility of attracting federal and private funding
for industrial hemp research.
(b) The secretary of agriculture shall have the authority to promulgate
rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of the alternative crop
research act.
(c) Nothing in the alternative crop research act shall be construed to
authorize any person to violate any federal law.
Sec. 3. K.S.A. 2014 Supp. 21-5702 is hereby amended to read as
follows: 21-5702. (a) Prosecutions for crimes committed prior to July 1,
2009, shall be governed by the law in effect at the time the crime was
committed. For purposes of this section, a crime was committed prior to
July 1, 2009, if any element of the crime occurred prior thereto.
(b) The prohibitions of this act shall apply unless the conduct
prohibited is authorized by the pharmacy act of the state of Kansas, the
uniform controlled substances act, the alternative crop research act or
otherwise authorized by law.
Sec. 4. K.S.A. 2014 Supp. 21-5702 is hereby repealed.
Sec. 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the statute book.
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xxx
Newshawk: chip
Pubdate: Fri, 13 Feb 2015
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Website: http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: John Jurgensen

TELEVISION IS ADDING MORE POT-DRIVEN SHOWS

On a recent episode of ABC's popular comedy "Modern Family," the new
couple next door to the Dunphy family has an unusual line of work: They
own a marijuana dispensary. But nobody on the show seems to care, and
when the Dunphys get into a feud with the neighbors, it's about
something entirely different-the eyesore powerboat parked in their driveway.

It was not always thus in TV-land, where pot has been a long-standing
taboo. Even a comedy with lots of jokes about the stuff, "That '70s
Show," never showed anyone actually lighting up. While movies and music
embraced stoners, they were rare on TV, where advertisers are still
cautious and broadcasters adhere to government regulations about social
responsibility.

These changing norms are affecting how pot is portrayed on television.
On "Bones," which teams an FBI agent with a forensic investigator,
producers got the Fox network's green light for a character who uses
cannabis to treat the side-effects of cancer. Writer Keith Foglesong
says, "We felt that there's some good that medical marijuana can do and
we wanted to say that." Though the characters visit a dispensary (fully
stocked with prop pot) in Washington, D.C., where medical marijuana is
legal, the producers opted not to show anyone smoking it.

In the current season of "Justified," a critically acclaimed crime
series on FX, a gangster played by Sam Elliott grabs up land in Kentucky
(using cash from the legal pot trade in Colorado) with a plan to grow
marijuana if the state legalizes it.

  "There's a time-honored tradition in crime fiction of the guy who's
trying to go legit," says executive producer Graham Yost. "The
uncertainty [surrounding the business] makes it fun for us. You get the
sense that legal or not, he's going to be working in the weed world."

An array of bongs, joints and marijuana vaporizers have co-starred on
"Broad City," a buddy comedy led by Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, now
in its second season on Comedy Central.

On the "unscripted" side of the TV industry, reality TV producers are
scouring the fast-changing landscape of the legal pot industry, looking
for entrepreneurs and other colorful characters to build shows around.
Networks hope cannabis culture is ripe to produce a "Duck Dynasty"-style
hit. A priority: trying to capture the get-rich-quick vibe surrounding
the nascent industry.

This spring, CNN will air an eight-part series called "High Profits,"
focused on one Colorado couple's efforts to corner the pot business in
resort towns. Both Discovery and MSNBC have aired shows on the emerging
legal marijuana business, with MSNBC considering a second season of its
"Pot Barons of Colorado." Last month, CNBC aired its fourth documentary
on the subject, "Marijuana Country: The Cannabis Boom."

Ten years ago, the pay channel Showtime broke ground with "Weeds," about
a mom who builds a clandestine pot business. Now more shows are
incorporating plots about the pot trade as it evolves in the real-world.
A more low-key corner of the business comes across in the well-regarded
web series "High Maintenance," which follows a fictional weed delivery
man on his travels around New York and into the everyday lives of his
clients. Actor Ben Sinclair, who co-created "High Maintenance" with his
wife Katja Blichfeld, says, "There's more of a real-people movement
towards weed."

Still, some TV networks seem hesitant about spotlighting the pot-smoking
in their shows. Comedy Central declined to comment for this story, or to
make the creators of "Broad City" or "Workaholics, " another show which
features heavy pot smoking, available for interviews.

Medical marijuana is now legal in 23 states and recreational use for
adults is legal in two states, soon to be four, when Alaska and Oregon
join Colorado and Washington this year. In Washington, D.C., voters
recently approved an initiative to allow recreational use. The drug
remains illegal on the federal level, but the reform of state marijuana
laws is slowly chipping away at the drug's outlaw status. According to a
Gallup poll in November, 51% of Americans favor legalization.

  Legalization further complicates the age-old debate about whether drug
use on screen drives drug use among audiences. Seeing lots of characters
smoking pot as a matter of routine can have a cumulative impact on
viewers, especially young ones, argues Steve Pasierb, president and
chief executive of the non-profit Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.

"Right now, marijuana's hot. One of the biggest dangers of this is the
normalizing force, that message that causes kids to overestimate how
many people are [smoking pot] and to think they're the only ones who
aren't. This is not a nanny state thing-`the more we show this stuff the
more kids are going to turn into reefer heads'-we're just talking about
the natural progression of how young people process the media," Mr.
Pasierb says.

TV has long been a lens for society's shifting attitudes on drugs. In a
1967 episode of "Dragnet," a pot-using character (a computer programmer
wearing a suit and tie) debates cops Joe Friday and Bill Gannon,
predicting, "Marijuana's going to be like liquor-packaged and taxed and
sold right off the shelf." Later, a pot party ends in the accidental
death of his child.

Sales of retail and medical marijuana in the U.S. reached $2.7 billion
in 2014, up 74% from the year before, according to a new report
published by the ArcView Group, a market research firm. The vast
majority of sales occurred in California (49%) and Colorado (30%). Total
legal cannabis sales could hit $10.8 billion by 2019, the report says.

The marijuana lobby is concerned about the sudden interest from
television. "We're working against multiple decades of `Reefer
Madness'-style propaganda that we have to try and dispel," says Taylor
West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a
trade group founded in 2011. She says the organization often plays
matchmaker, steering TV producers toward pot retailers and other members
most likely to represent "role model" businesses.

  Gary Cohen, a Stamford, Conn.-based producer whose company Triple
Threat TV has made shows for MTV and ESPN's "30 for 30" series, says he
is focusing most of his company's resources on the pot boom. "We're in
the marijuana-television business now," he says. "I expect to be doing
this for years to come."

Last year Mr. Cohen deployed an eight-person crew for three months in
Denver, where they networked with the movers and shakers of the nascent
industry, and embedded with a half-dozen businesses to create a six-part
news documentary for MSNBC called "Pot Barons of Colorado," which aired
last fall. His team continues to shoot in Colorado while MSNBC decides
whether to pick up the show for a second season. Meanwhile, Mr. Cohen
says he's developing several shows that use pot in various TV formats.

"Getting High with Jake Browne " would star a pot critic for the
Cannabist, a web publication of the Denver Post, as he indulges with,
then interviews, a range of simpatico celebrities. In the talk show's
so-called sizzle reel, a five-minute sample that Mr. Cohen has been
showing to networks in hopes of securing a deal, Mr. Browne shares a
joint with former Denver Broncos tight end Nate Jackson, who talks about
paraphernalia preferences and being a pot-smoker in the high-pressure
world of pro football.

Mr. Cohen, explaining the pitch for the interview show, says, "When you
start a conversation with `Do you want to get high?', you move past a
lot of the perfunctory stuff and get down to the stuff that matters."
The producer says the concept has gotten "meaningful interest" from a
couple networks, but no takers yet.

There are big challenges to turning the pot business into reality-TV
gold. Marijuana growers and dispensaries, navigating a landscape of
legal gray areas, are being careful not to do anything wild on camera.
Plus, most of these entrepreneurs are struggling to build a business,
and don't have the time to accommodate production crews.

In 2011, Discovery was the first channel to launch a docu-series about
the marijuana business, with "Weed Wars," about a mega marijuana
dispensary in California. But scenes of employees expounding on the
therapeutic benefits of marijuana and addressing a pot conference failed
to make sparks fly. After a first run of four episodes, the show was
canceled. Discovery tried again with "Weed Country" (about growers) and
"Pot Cops" (about police hunting illicit crops), but those shows didn't
last long either.

Though the spread of legalized pot has more networks exploring shows,
Mr. Cohen the producer says that many networks still worry about scaring
off advertisers, because of lingering taboos and federal laws against
marijuana.

TruTV commissioned a pilot episode of a reality series about a
family-run chain of pot shops (also featured in "Pot Barons") called
Medicine Man. "They want to become the Starbucks of weed. That's
something that everybody understands," says Chris Linn, the channel's
president and head of programming. However, the pilot didn't have enough
compelling pieces, and he passed on the show.

The channel is currently developing another show set in the cannabis
industry. Mr. Linn declined to offer details, but says it won't devote
inordinate screen time to pot smoking itself.

"It's perhaps more fun to participate in than to watch on TV, so I've
heard," Mr. Linn says. "I'm not interested in mining the sillier side of
stoner culture. The business side is more interesting to me."

When it comes to dramatizing the marijuana lifestyle, "High Maintenance"
strives for realism. The series revolves around a fictional dealer known
only as "the Guy," who responds to his customers` phone requests via
bicycle. His job serves as a window into the funny, poignant lives of
his clients, such as a cross-dressing dad and a harried personal
assistant. Because it's still illegal to buy or sell pot in New York,
the Guy has an instant intimacy with his customers. "They're complicit
in an act that is secret for both of them," says Mr. Sinclair, the
co-creator.

"High Maintenance" launched independently in 2012 as a series of short
webisodes, flirted briefly with a pickup from a cable-TV network, and
now premieres new episodes for a fee on the streaming service Vimeo.

Of course, before there was much TV about people getting stoned, there
was a long tradition of people getting stoned to watch TV. And now (at
least in some states) there are marijuana pairings recommended by
budtenders, the dispensary equivalent of bartenders.

At Starbuds, a Denver-based chain with four locations, founder Brian
Ruden often suggests Purple Voodoo to customers asking for a pairing for
binge-watching their favorite show or just vegging out in front of the
tube. A proprietary variety grown by Starbuds, Purple Voodoo is a hybrid
of sativa, a strain known for its stimulating cerebral effects, and
indica, which is more likely to lay you out. "We tell our customers
`indica' [equals] `in-da-couch.' That's how they remember."

Mr. Ruden's own favorite show is ABC's "Shark Tank," in which
entrepreneurs seek investment from a panel of business moguls.
Ironically, the demands of his business often prevent him from indulging
in it in any fashion. "Nowadays I rarely have time to watch TV," he
says, "or even smoke pot."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Matt

xxx
Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Feb 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: Heather Mallick
Page: A11

HAVE MERCY ON DRUG USERS WHO HURT AS WE ALL DO

The war on drugs has been a catastrophe that has multiplied human
pain. One risks one's unincarcerated life to take illegal drugs. But
people still do it. This mystery cries out to be solved.

Rather than studying worthy half-measures, like legalizing medical
marijuana, arresting dealers, rehab, all the things we try in this
Calvinistic part of the world that deplores human weakness, British
journalist Johann Hari decided to be bold. In his new book,Chasing the
Scream, Hari decided instead to study the whole mess, the pain that
makes people ingest anything that will fill "an inner void," and the
way we punish people for suffering.

In three years of research, meticulously mapped, Hari studied the
origins of the American anti-drug mania, talked to dealers, met cops
who had changed their minds on anti-drug enforcement, visited Portugal
where drug use is legal, and talked to doctors on Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside, among many other explorations.

He writes about terrible things, from the hounding of Billie Holiday
to a hideous early death or the 2009 cooking of a U.S. woman named
Marcia Powell for the crime of once having had two joints in her car.

Yes, I said "cooking." After a minor drug offence, Powell, who had
bipolar disorder, was Prisoner #109416 in Perryville State Prison
Complex in Arizona. She was put in an outdoor cage in the desert sun.
Sixteen guards saw her screaming as hours passed and the cage grew
hotter. They laughed while other prisoners called for help. She died
soon after in hospital, her skin badly burned, her internal organs
oven-cooked and her eyeballs "dry as parchment."

It was a protracted version of what Islamic State did recently to a
Jordanian pilot in a cage, but that's on film. Nobody bothered to film
Powell. Taking drug prohibition to extremes leads to horrors like this.

Hari asks why people still take drugs when the risk is so high. He
refers to animal trials that basically conclude this: a rat alone in a
cage will drink morphine water but rats with toys, good food and
plenty of rat friends will hardly drink it at all. Why should they?
Their little rat lives are great.

The drive to intoxication is externally imposed. In Vietnam, water
buffalo normally shun opium plants, Hari writes, but when American
bombs began dropping, they began chewing. A mongoose who loses his
mate will chew on the intoxicating morning glory plant to soothe his
grief.

Living creatures have an intoxicant drive. But, as Hari points out,
only a few of our drinking friends become alcoholics, and only a few
light drug users get hooked. Why are we so concerned about a small
percentage who use too much and need help?

Hari has known pain himself. A famous journalist who was caught
repeatedly plagiarizing, he wrote this meticulously sourced book
partly as a way of apologizing and making amends. He has done so
spectacularly. I approached the book skeptically and was won over by
its compassion and rationality.

Take Bruce Alexander, a B.C. professor who conducted the rat
experiments described above. He tells Hari that throughout history,
addiction has soared when social bonds have been destroyed: the
English Gin Craze of the 18th century when the poor were driven into
cities, American crack in the de-industrialization of the 1980s, meth
in the damaged central U.S. "Today's flood of action is occurring
because our hyperindividualistic, frantic, crisis-ridden society makes
most people feel social(ly) or culturally isolated," Alexander tells
Hari. "(Drug-taking) allows them to escape their feelings, to deaden
their senses - and to experience an addictive lifestyle as a
substitute for a full life."

Nothing eases the rub of life on the nerves, but I can see that drugs
might well feel like your best shot. Alcohol, arguably the worst drug
of all, often makes people violent, but that's the drug pushed on you
legally. It's hypocritical. It's vicious.

We live in a punitive world awash in cheap sentiment. In the small
space in between, people snort drugs, or shoot up, or do some other
unkindness to their bodies.

Who does it serve? This small act is the basic unit of a giant
industry comprising drug cartels, small-time dealers and police.
Without drug crimes, the legal, policing and incarceration industry
would shrink.

Anything is a commodity now, from freedom to health. Portugal
decriminalized all drugs in 2001, partly because draconian drug laws
didn't help solve a growing heroin problem. It has done sensible
things, including giving tax breaks to those who employ recovering
addicts, rather than dumping a user back into his unhappiness.

Portuguese officials talk about the "non-problematic user." It's an
interesting phrase because in Canada we think of almost everything as
a problem to be solved; we punish and shame.

Maybe legal drug use should be a minor matter, not a life-destroying
act. Maybe we'd play with the other rats, have a good life without
being wracked with shame. Hari's book is wonderful, and with it he is
nudging a door open. We might find a better way of comforting those in
pain.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Matt

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Feb 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/nX8AADlf
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

HIGH COURT GRANTS EXTENSION

State Wants More Time to Respond to Pot Challenge

The U. S. Supreme Court has given Colorado an extra month to respond
to a lawsuit that claims the state is polluting its neighbors with marijuana.

Colorado had been due to file its response by Monday. The state now
has until March 27 to file its response, according to a one-sentence
order posted last Tuesday. No other details about the extension were available.

In what could be a history-making case, Nebraska and Oklahoma have
sued Colorado over marijuana legalization. The suit seeks to overturn
Colorado's first-in-the-country regulations for recreational
marijuana stores, arguing that the stores both violate federal law
and have caused a flood of Colorado grown marijuana into neighboring
states. Nebraska and Oklahoma said their law enforcement budgets have
been stretched thin trying to police the influx.

Because the lawsuit involves a dispute between states, it was filed
directly to the Supreme Court, under what is known as the high
court's "original jurisdiction."

When the lawsuit was filed late last year, Colorado Attorney General
John Suthers vowed to defend Colorado's law vigorously, arguing that
Nebraska and Oklahoma's complaint "stems from non-enforcement of
federal laws regarding marijuana, as opposed to choices made by the
voters of Colorado." Suthers has since left office due to term
limits. Newly elected Attorney General Cynthia Coffman has said she
also will fight the lawsuit.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for Coffman said the attorney general's
office requested the extension because it needs more time to study
the complex legal issues involved.

"This is a routine practice when there are novel issues that require
additional research," spokeswoman Carolyn Tyler said.

If the Supreme Court does agree to hear the case, it could take years
to resolve.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Feb 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/pqHkvyqQ
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: David Migoya

IRS REFUSES RESPITE FOR DISPENSARY

Business Penalized for Not Paying Taxes Electronically Has No Bank Option.

A Denver medical marijuana dispensary penalized for not paying
certain taxes electronically got a succinct reply from the Internal
Revenue Service during its appeal: Tough luck.

An Internal Revenue Service appeals officer told All greens LLC that
not being able to get a bank account is no excuse for not paying
employee withholding taxes electronically, as required by federal tax
law. The dispensary has tried to get a bank account for at least two years.

That All greens "cannot secure a bank account due to current banking
laws is not considered reasonable cause to abate the penalty," an IRS
hearing officer ruled in denying the dispensary's request to waive
the 10 percent penalty.

The dispensary is one of many to face the fine, assessed even though
the company pays its taxes in cash and on time at the Denver downtown
IRS office twice each month.

The IRS requires all businesses to pay the quarterly tax by bank
wire, which is impossible for hundreds of medical and recreational
marijuana shops nationwide that are unable to obtain banking services.

Rather than waive the penalty for cash-only businesses paying the tax
on time, the IRS has advised the companies to avoid the assessment by
using techniques that amount to money laundering, Allgreens' attorney
Rachel Gillette has said.

The dispensary was the first to challenge the IRS policy in U. S. Tax
Court, saying the penalty is unfair since many marijuana businesses
cannot find banking because the drug remains illegal under federal law.

In newly filed court papers, the dispensary said a hearing officer's
determination in October that the business' inability to get a bank
account was little more than hard luck runs afoul of the agency's own rules.

The IRS imposes the penalty "unless it can be shown that such failure
( to pay electronically) is due to reasonable cause and not due to
willful neglect."

Allgreens "meets the requirements of reasonable cause because the
petitioner exercised ordinary business care and prudence in paying
its federal employment tax obligations," Gillette writes in a new court brief.

"The application of a penalty to an entire industry that, though
willing, is unable to comply, is discriminatory, unjust and unfair,"
Gillette wrote the IRS.

The IRS was clear that its "position is all ( withholding taxes) are
to be made via Electric Funds Transfer Deposit System, and as of now
IRS has not made any policy change or exception for businesses that
cannot use banks to make their federal tax deposits," IRS settlement
officer Linda Andrews wrote in her decision denying Allgreens' request.

Gillette said the decision shows how the IRS "has forsaken its role
as a fair and impartial enforcer of the tax code as it has allowed
the federal government's position on marijuana to influence its decision."

Enforcing the penalties is "a wasteful and inefficient use of
taxpayer dollars," Gillette wrote in her Tax Court challenge.

Allgreens' case is pending.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Feb 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Elise Cleva
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n095/a11.html

DRUG-TESTING THE POOR HURTS US ALL

Thanks to Catherine Rampell for exposing in her Feb. 13 op-ed column,
"Drug tests for everyone," the hypocrisy of governors and legislators
who want to test those who receive public funds and benefits.
Targeting the poor and the most vulnerable for drug testing has
proved that it costs more to do the testing than to pay the benefit.
Not a prudent use of taxpayer money.

However, we can be certain that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and
politicians of his political bent will not be targeting those (the
top 20 percent) claiming tax breaks, although doing so could, as Ms.
Rampell says, "produce a huge windfall."

Bullying and intimidating the poorest with drug testing is nothing
more than a way for politicians to establish their conservative bona
fides, and it is certainly not the path to follow for weeding out
those receiving the biggest public subsidies.

Elise Cleva, Arlington
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Feb 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact: talkback@baltimoresun.com
Website: http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Howard J. Wooldridge

HEROIN PROHIBITION IS THE PROBLEM

Tsunamis of drugs have rolled into and around Maryland since the
1960s. As a retired detective, I worked the trenches of our drug war.
Polls show 80 percent of the people recognize the total failure of policy.

Indeed, the police are a mosquito on the butt of an elephant. We have
never, ever been able to make more than a dent in drug availability.
Attorney General Brian Frosh needs to come clean to Maryland
residents and admit that heroin prohibition is more the cause of
deaths than a way to reduce them ("Maryland joins multistate task
force to combat heroin," Feb. 12).

Howard J. Wooldridge, Buckeystown

The writer, a retired police detective, is co-founder of Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition.
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Feb 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Paula D. Gordon
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n100/a06.html

THE NIGHTMARE OF POT LEGALIZATION

Regarding the Feb. 16 front-page article "D.C. lacks pot rules even
as legalization day nears":

Do city officials want the District to be known for pot use and as a
pot distribution center? A recent Police Foundation report on the
impact of pot legalization tells of the nightmare that is unfolding
in Colorado. The same nightmare is likely to unfold in the District
if the law goes forward with or without regulation. The following can
be expected: increased use among youth; increased numbers of those
seeking treatment; increased pot-related DUIs; increased secondhand
smoke issues; increased drug cartel and black-market activity; and
increased homelessness.

A Lancet Psychiatry study published this week on pot use and
psychosis says daily users of high-potency marijuana were five times
more likely than non-users to have a psychotic disorder; weekend
users were three times more likely.

D.C. officials, Congress and the Supreme Court can still stop this nightmare.

Paula D. Gordon, Washington

The writer helped draft the legislation that established the Special
Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention under President Richard Nixon.
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Feb 2015
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2015 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact: letters@newsminer.com
Website: http://newsminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764
Author: Amanda Bohman

NORTH POLE FIRST IN BOROUGH TO APPROVE POT CONSUMPTION POLICY

NORTH POLE - The City Council approved an ordinance allowing outdoor
marijuana use on private property, even if it's in public view, so
long as it's not a nuisance.

The panel voted 6-1 in favor of the ordinance by Mayor Bryce Ward,
which set a $100 civil fine for consuming marijuana at a public
place. Councilman Thomas McGhee was the "no" vote.

New state laws allowing people to carry, trade and consume marijuana
more freely go into effect on Feb. 24. Public consumption remains prohibited.

What is a public place? In North Pole, the council defined it as
streets, highways, sidewalks, alleys, transportation facilities,
parking lots, convention centers, sports arenas, schools, places of
business or amusement, shopping centers, malls, parks, playgrounds
and prisons, plus hallways, lobbies and doorways at hotels and
apartment buildings.

"When people voted for this, they voted that marijuana would be
regulated like alcohol. Well, alcohol is regulated," Councilwoman
Elizabeth Holm said.

North Pole is the first municipality in the Fairbanks North Star
Borough to make a local law addressing marijuana since the voters
decriminalized pot last November.

Separate ordinances are coming before the City Council in Fairbanks
and the Borough Assembly next week.

An ordinance prohibiting the use of flammables to extract marijuana
oils was approved by the North Pole council without debate or objection.

That measure sets a $1,500 fine for using a flammable substance, such
as butane, to extract oils from the marijuana plant.

Hash oil extraction using butane is blamed for an explosion at a
North Pole home on Dec. 8.

The measure dealing with where people can use marijuana drew the most
discussion.

One person, Don Penrod, spoke during public testimony. He suggested
that the council define nuisance.

The nuisance clause states that "a person who consumes marijuana must
take reasonable precautions to ensure consumption is not a nuisance
to neighboring properties."

"It's very open to interpretation," Penrod said.

Councilman Thomas McGhee proposed an amendment removing the nuisance
clause and removing businesses from the definition of public place.

McGhee complained the nuisance clause is too vague. And he pointed
out that businesses are private entities.

"We are adding an additional bureaucracy to businesses," McGhee said.

The amendment failed.

"Businesses in general is what I think of as where the public comes
in and does its business," Councilwoman Sharron Hunter said. "It's
part of what I think of as a public space."

"If we took it out," she said, "it would probably mean that every
business that didn't want marijuana would have to post it."

Councilwoman Elizabeth Holm proposed another amendment defining
nuisance as dealing with sights and odors.

That amendment also failed after a councilman read an email from the
city's attorney essentially stating that people do not forfeit their
privacy rights on their private property because they live on a busy
street or have a large picture window.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
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---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Feb 2015
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/uIV8YFHU
Copyright: 2015 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact: letters@adn.com
Website: http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Michelle Theriault Boots

RECOMMENDATIONS OFFER WINDOW INTO ALASKA POLICYMAKERS' THOUGHTS ON LEGAL POT

A new set of recommendations from the state regulatory agency charged
with managing legal marijuana offers a window into what policymakers
are currently thinking about how Alaska's nascent pot industry should run.

Staffers of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control division prepared
the report, called "Preliminary Considerations for Implementation of
AS 17.38," said Cynthia Franklin, the head of the agency. The ABC
Board endorsed its release, she said.

The recommendations, which lean heavily on the experience of Colorado
in regulating a commercial pot industry, cover everything from
serving sizes of marijuana edibles to local control.

The Feb. 12 memo is intended to "to provide a common frame of
reference, identify major policy issues and where feasible, make
recommendations as to implementation and policy decisions."

Among the recommendations in the report:

No distinction should be made between marijuana sold for medical use
vs. recreational use. "Differentiating between medical and
recreational marijuana has caused many regulatory issues for the
states that have done so," the report says.

Separate licenses for cultivation, manufacturing, retail sales and
testing laboratories should be issued.

Alaska should make the recommended serving size for marijuana edibles
5 milligrams of active THC, with a maximum of 50 milligrams per
package, which is half of what Washington allows.

The state should ban the sale of "adulterated" products, where a
ready-to-eat product such as a candy bar is sprayed with a marijuana
concentrate, repackaged and sold as a marijuana "infused" product.
"Colorado's most contentious marijuana edibles would be unsellable in
Alaska markets by making this statutory change," the report says.

Marijuana should be "removed from the controlled substances schedule"
entirely, to "be truly regulated like alcohol."

Packaged marijuana products should carry an easily recognizable
symbol and childproof packaging should be required.

The state should emulate current options for local control of alcohol
that would offer communities around the state the ability to set
their own rules for marijuana.

Further documents including a report on a state delegation to a
Colorado conference on pot regulation can also be found on the website.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
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---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: www.flcan.org
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Feb 2015
Source: Tampa Bay Times (FL)
Copyright: 2015 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/
Website: http://www.tampabay.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author: John G Chase
Page: A6

NO NEED TO REINVENT WHEEL

Medical Marijuana

In a few weeks the fight will begin in Tallahassee to write
legislation to make medical marijuana available to Floridians who need
it. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Seven states know what
works because they have been living with medical marijuana laws since
2000.

Maine is one of the seven. Maine gets high marks from Americans for
Safe Access, the flagship national organization for medical marijuana.
Maine's law provides provisions for adding new diseases/conditions,
child custody protections, employment protections, housing
protections, explicit privacy protections, protections from arrest,
reciprocity (with other states), restrictions on where patients may
medicate, and zoning restrictions. Maine also allows personal
cultivation, the feature most responsible for the rapid collapse of
the street market and its violence.

In 1929, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote approvingly
of resolving contentious social issues in 'the laboratory of the
states.' Then it was about alcohol prohibition. Today it is about
marijuana prohibition. We should heed his advice.

John G. Chase, Palm Harbor
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
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---
MAP posted-by: Matt

xxx
Newshawk: Suzanne Wills
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 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

POT BACKERS LOBBY DUBIOUS LEGISLATORS

AUSTIN - Nearly 300 marijuana enthusiasts made their way to the Texas
Capitol on Wednesday to persuade tough-on-crime Republicans to loosen
their stance on the drug.

They were sober and dressed to impress. And though lawmakers may give
their proposal some consideration, their hopes are likely to go up in smoke.

Undeterred by the conservative leadership's anti-pot position, Shaun
McAlister of Arlington left home at 5:30 a.m. to drive to Austin. He was
determined to educate lawmakers about the benefits he believes marijuana
has to offer. The North Texas Republicans he met with were polite but
noncommittal.

McAlister, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, is part of a
coalition supporting bills to lessen the penalties for possession of
small amounts of marijuana. Eventually, he'd like to see medical and
recreational use of marijuana legalized in Texas.

McAlister didn't happen to cross paths with a group of Texas sheriffs
who were also lobbying at the Capitol on Wednesday, toting a different
message. A.J. Louderback, president of the Sheriffs' Association of
Texas, said his organization takes a hard line against decriminalization
or legalization of pot.

"We don't think it's good for Texas," Louderback said. He added: "We
don't want to take something that's illegal and is a gateway drug ...
and increase the use of that."

While legalization remains a vast longshot in Texas, House Speaker Joe
Straus said he feels the discussion is becoming "more serious."

"I'm not predicting that a bill will pass, but I do think there will be
some consideration, when before it may have just been put off to the
side," the San Antonio Republican told government students and faculty
at the University of Texas at Austin last week.

Referring to medical uses of marijuana, Straus said: "It's pretty moving
when you talk to the parent of a child who thinks that laws are
restricting the ability of a family to get help for their children."

However, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said he won't support legislation to
allow the medical or recreational use of marijuana. And Gov. Greg
Abbott, according to a spokesman, "supports current drug laws and
opposes the legalization of marijuana."

`Ruined' by arrest

Decriminalization is the coalition's first and biggest priority, said
Heather Fazio, Texas political director of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Currently, possession of 2 ounces of marijuana or less is a Class B
misdemeanor. Offenders could spend up to 180 days in jail and be fined
$2,000.

Arlington resident Teresa Rushing told lawmakers that a cousin's life
was "ruined" by a possession arrest.

"Once they've served time in jail, they get out and it's impossible for
them to find a legal job," Rushing said. "So therefore they go back into
the criminal world and resort to more criminal activity to make money to
save themselves and their family. It's what they have to do to survive."

Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, has filed a bill that would treat possession
of up to an ounce of marijuana like a traffic ticket. Offenders would be
cited. They would then have to appear in court and pay a fine of $100 or
less. But they wouldn't be arrested or left with a criminal record.

Landlords, employers and colleges often require applicants to disclose
any criminal history.

"We are creating a whole class of folks who are unemployable," Moody said.

Illegal medicine

No one has yet filed a bill to legalize medical marijuana, but the
coalition is seeking a sponsor.

McAlister said his brother suffers from a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
and must undergo radiation therapy. Medical experts say marijuana can
lessen the harsh side effects of such treatments.

The government "can't be surprised when we're illegally medicating
ourselves to save our own lives," McAlister said. "They're making us
criminals by forcing us to have no other choice."

The coalition told lawmakers that THC, the psychoactive chemical in
marijuana, can serve as an appetite stimulant for cancer patients and
others. And CBD, a non-euphoric compound found in cannabis plants, can
lessen seizures in people with epilepsy. It's also a pain reliever.

Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, has filed a bill in each of the past
six legislative sessions that would provide a legal defense for people
who use marijuana for medical purposes. It has never been brought to a
floor vote. He hopes it will be better received this year.

Rep. Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth, is pushing a more narrowly focused
measure. it would allow people with intractable epilepsy who haven't
found success with other medications to use low-THC cannabis.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Matt

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Feb 2015
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: CannaBiz
Copyright: 2015 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact: letters@csindy.com
Website: http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Pubdate: 18 feb 15
Authors: Brian Tryon and Griffin Swartzell

MARIJUANA MURAL DRAWS HEAT, VERMONTERS SEEK POT LEGALIZATION, AND MORE

Monstrous cookies

It's been about two weeks since a commissioned artist started a mural
on the side of Wellstone Medical Marijuana, located at 1602 W.
Colorado Ave. However, this past week the dispensary was already
whitewashing the work due to a neighbor's complaint about its appeal
to children.

The formerly offensive sight? Images of Cookie Monster (pictured),
ice cream, peaches and Girl Scout Cookies. More were on their way,
but that's all dead for now, says manager Johnny Van Galder.

"Our intention is to make the building look good and beautify the
neighborhood," says Van Galder. "We weren't intending to offend
anybody, or anything of the sort. Now we know that we need to plan it
differently."

Delegates and doobies

Colorado has been the cannabis capital of the country since passing
Amendment 64, and last week, a nine-person delegation from Vermont
visited Denver to get the facts while Vermonters consider legalization.

"We met with a lot of people," says Mary Alice McKenzie, co-founder
of the Vermont branch of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an
anti-marijuana-legalization group, and executive director of the Boys
& Girls Club of Burlington. "And right across the board, everyone was
very transparent and very open with us." The delegates also toured
the Sweet Leaf cultivation facility and the Denver Relief
recreational/medical store.

David Mickenberg of the Marijuana Policy Project came away from the
visit seeing Colorado as proof that marijuana can responsibly be
legalized. "I'm sure things are going to come up that could not be
anticipated," he says. "I was impressed by everyone's willingness to
address those issues."

Litigious neighbors

The Denver Post reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has given the
state of Colorado additional time to respond to the marijuana
lawsuits filed by the governments of Oklahoma and Nebraska. Recently
elected Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman was due to file her
response on Monday; the new due date is March 27.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Feb 2015
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: CannaBiz
Copyright: 2015 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact: letters@csindy.com
Website: http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Pubdate: 18 feb 15
Authors: Brian Tryon and Griffin Swartzell

MARIJUANA MURAL DRAWS HEAT, VERMONTERS SEEK POT LEGALIZATION, AND MORE

Monstrous cookies

It's been about two weeks since a commissioned artist started a mural
on the side of Wellstone Medical Marijuana, located at 1602 W.
Colorado Ave. However, this past week the dispensary was already
whitewashing the work due to a neighbor's complaint about its appeal
to children.

The formerly offensive sight? Images of Cookie Monster (pictured),
ice cream, peaches and Girl Scout Cookies. More were on their way,
but that's all dead for now, says manager Johnny Van Galder.

"Our intention is to make the building look good and beautify the
neighborhood," says Van Galder. "We weren't intending to offend
anybody, or anything of the sort. Now we know that we need to plan it
differently."

Delegates and doobies

Colorado has been the cannabis capital of the country since passing
Amendment 64, and last week, a nine-person delegation from Vermont
visited Denver to get the facts while Vermonters consider legalization.

"We met with a lot of people," says Mary Alice McKenzie, co-founder
of the Vermont branch of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an
anti-marijuana-legalization group, and executive director of the Boys
& Girls Club of Burlington. "And right across the board, everyone was
very transparent and very open with us." The delegates also toured
the Sweet Leaf cultivation facility and the Denver Relief
recreational/medical store.

David Mickenberg of the Marijuana Policy Project came away from the
visit seeing Colorado as proof that marijuana can responsibly be
legalized. "I'm sure things are going to come up that could not be
anticipated," he says. "I was impressed by everyone's willingness to
address those issues."

Litigious neighbors

The Denver Post reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has given the
state of Colorado additional time to respond to the marijuana
lawsuits filed by the governments of Oklahoma and Nebraska. Recently
elected Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman was due to file her
response on Monday; the new due date is March 27.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/nhSPmcHg
Copyright: 2015 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Carla Marinucci

HARRIS NOT OPPOSED TO MAKING POT LEGAL

California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the state's top cop and
Democratic front-runner in the race for a U.S. Senate seat next year,
said Thursday she has "no moral objection" to legalizing the
recreational use of marijuana, but cautioned that special care will
be required to assess the impacts on children and public safety.

"It's easy to stand up and make a grand gesture, but we really do
have to work out the details," said Harris, who told The Chronicle on
Wednesday that she believes "it is an inevitability" that
recreational use of marijuana will be legalized in the state.

"But to be very clear, it's not a passive position," Harris said,
adding that as the state's senior law enforcement official, she has
already been studying the impacts in Colorado and Washington state,
where recreational use is legal. It becomes legal in Oregon later this year.

"I'm actually in constant communication with Washington and Oregon to
watch what they are doing and to explore all of the options, to make
sure we do this in a way that takes advantage of learning from their
mistakes," she said.

California will need to "figure out the important issues" related to
legalization, especially "as it relates to children, as it relates to
schools and advertising and the quantities ... and issues like safe
driving and enforcement of our rules around that," as well as about
the impacts of edible marijuana, she said. "That's where I'm focused,
on all the details of that."

Her personal views on the drug: "I don't have any moral opposition to
legalization," she said.

"But I do feel a very strong sense of responsibility as a top cop to
pay attention to the details ... to make sure that if it were
legalized ... that vulnerable people are safe," she said.

Harris' statements were her first to address a potential campaign
issue since declaring herself a candidate to fill the seat of Sen.
Barbara Boxer, who announced last month that she would not run for
re-election. The California attorney general has been criticized
lately for brushing off questions about the race to replace Boxer.

Last week, at an event at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, an
aide physically tried to block a Chronicle reporter from asking
questions, but Harris intervened and promised to speak soon to
reporters about her campaign.

The interview came on the same day that the Field Poll released a new
survey showing she is the first choice among Democrats to replace
Boxer, though Republican Condoleezza Rice was the top choice of
Californians of both parties.

Democratic former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is widely
expected to enter the race soon. Others whose names have been
mentioned as possible competitors include U.S. Reps. Loretta Sanchez
of Santa Ana, John Garamendi of Walnut Grove (Sacramento County) and
Jackie Speier of Hillsborough.

Rep. Rocky Chavez, a Southern California Republican, this week
indicated he may also be interested in running.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/xw8B0Pad
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post

STUDY LINKS SOME POT TO PSYCHOSIS

Frequent use of high-potency weed might be linked to an increased
risk of having a psychotic episode. But milder strains of marijuana,
even when used heavily, don't appear to carry an increased risk of psychosis.

Researchers got data from 410 London patients sent to the hospital
for a first-episode psychotic incident and compared those numbers
with data from370 control individuals living in the same area.

Compared with someone who had never smoked, a weekly user of high-
potency weed, defined as having greater than 15 percent THC content,
was three times as likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder.
The researchers found no link between frequent use of low-potency
weed and psychotic disorder.

The findings were published Tuesday in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/6yeIn8bK
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

D. C. GROUP PLANS MARIJUANA LAWSUIT

A Washington, D. C.- based group opposed to the legalization of
marijuana has announced plans to sue the state of Colorado in federal
court, in the hopes of closing the state's pot stores.

The Safe Streets Alliance, which touts itself as "a nonprofit
national organization founded over two decades ago to reduce violent
crime in America," plans to announce the lawsuit Thursday in a news
conference on the Colorado Capitol's east steps.

According to information posted on the group's website, the lawsuit
will name both Colorado officials and "several prominent
participants" of the marijuana industry.

The lawsuit apparently will argue that Colorado's system for
regulating marijuana stores violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.
S. Constitution and federal anti-racketeering laws. Reached by phone,
an attorney for Safe Streets refused to provide further details,
including the names of the lawsuit's plaintiffs.

Colorado already is defending its legalization laws from a lawsuit
filed by two neighboring states. The state attorney general's office
has yet to respond to that lawsuit but has indicated the lawsuit lacks merit.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Brady Dennis

NEURONS MAY EXPLAIN WHY POT SMOKERS GET 'MUNCHIES'

Researchers think they have deciphered the neurological mechanism
that causes marijuana users to get the "munchies."

The phenomenon appears to be driven by neurons in the brain that
typically involve suppressing the appetite, according to a paper
published Wednesday in the journal Nature. When responding to
marijuana, neurons that normally turn off hunger pangs instead made
users ravenous - at least in transgenic lab mice.

Tamas Horvath, the study's lead author and a Yale University
neurobiologist, likened the reaction to hitting a car's brakes and
accelerating instead.

"It fools the brain's central feeding system," Horvath said in an
announcement accompanying the research. "We were surprised to find
that the neurons we thought were responsible for shutting down eating
were suddenly being activated and promoting hunger, even when you are full."

Horvath said that more research is needed to determine whether the
reaction is happening in people. "Obviously, this is a very primitive
mechanism that's likely to be the same in humans," he said in an
interview. "Nevertheless, there needs to be confirmation of that."

Horvath and other scientists hope that a clearer understanding of the
appetite triggers in the brain could lead to practical uses. For
instance, it could lead to new medications, perhaps even a pill, to
jump-start hunger in cancer patients, who often lose their appetites
during chemotherapy.

Also, the ability to block cannabinoid receptors in the brain
eventually could lead to new approaches to treating obesity.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/MDrcJVoT
Copyright: 2015 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact: letters@utsandiego.com
Website: http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Note: William Brownfield, assistant secretary of state for
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), met with
the U-T Editorial Board recently to discuss INL programs, drugs and border rel

BATTLING CRIME THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS

Q: You're in town to talk about an agreement with San Diego Police
Department. Tell us about that.

A: I'm responsible for the United States government's overseas
programs on drugs and other international crime such as cyber,
financial, money laundering, trafficking persons, firearms and so
forth. As well as supporting rule of law and law enforcement institutions.

Q: When you talk about narcotics, how do you separate domestic from
international?

A: Obviously we don't in terms of impact.

But I am not permitted by law to spend money on programs inside the
United States. I do not do domestic law enforcement. What we have
been trying to do for the last four years is build partnerships with
state and local law enforcement and other criminal justice
institutions. In California we've got a number of very good partners.

The California Department of Corrections, the attorney general of
California and her office, the California Highway Patrol and a couple
of municipal police departments. I have come to San Diego to talk to
the police department about reaching some sort of agreement with us.

We are offering the opportunity to engage in programs with law
enforcement outside of the United States. Although it's not
necessarily the case, the logic for the San Diego Police Department
would be engaging with Mexico. But it could be further down into
Central America as well.

My promise would be that the Police Department of San Diego would
engage as they wish, when they wish, when they have personnel
available, when they have training slots open to permit foreign law
enforcement to come into their academies and training centers.

We would absorb all costs up to and including salary costs.

We will pick them up as well when they deploy on overseas missions.

This is good for the department as well as for us. For us, we have
highly skilled police and their training mechanisms that are
available to work with overseas law enforcement. But for them, my
argument is we are working at the root of the issues that are
affecting the citizens in San Diego on their streets and in their
communities. Whether it's drugs or gangs or trafficking in people.

Whether it's moving firearms, whether it's cyber, whether it's
financial crime and money laundering, that they are able to engage
the San Diego Police Department in those countries and with those
police departments where they have direct and immediate impact on
what they're working.

Q: Give us an example of a mission.

Are you talking about permanent posting of San Diego police somewhere abroad?

Or are you talking about specific missions where they go and come
back? I know that New York City has people stationed in Europe permanently.

A: Missions can be in either of two directions. NYPD has been one of
our partners formally for the past two years.

And informally now going on more than 10. Their informal arrangement
started with Haiti. The New York Police Department is one of only two
in the U.S. that has a large contingent of Haitian-American police officers.

For the past 10 years, the New York Police Department have deployed
on long-term training missions, groups of either six or four
bilingual Creole and obviously English-speaking police officers.

They have 50 or 60 in the entire police force.

What they're doing is breaking out at any given time, roughly 10
percent of their Creole speaking police officers. They did deploy for
missions of four to five months.

Now this is kind of the maximum that we would ever ask of a local
police force. In Haiti they do basic training.

They do both formal instruction and they pair up with Haitian police
and patrol with them. Speaking their own language and providing them
guidance, recommendations, suggestions on how to do modern community
policing. Most of our deployed missions are matters of a couple of weeks.

And they do a specific course or a training mission.

Q: Have you found any countries that are not receptive to the idea?
Who say, "No, we don't want your cops down here"?

A: Oh, without a doubt.

I have little doubt that I could name about 50 countries in the world
that would say we have no particular interest in engaging with the
United States of America in any way, shape or form. There are some
where we have engaged in the past, and no longer do. Venezuela comes to mind.

There are some places where we engage but we have to do it, because
of the inherent sensitivity of the issue, very low profile.

I'll offer an example I believe has been a major success.

Over the last seven years we have assisted in standing up, training
and equipping a police force in the West Bank of Palestine. We have
done it with the concurrence of the Palestinian Authority, not Gaza.
I want to be clear: We do not do anything at all in Gaza. But in the
West Bank, we do it with the support obviously of the Palestinian
Authority, which is responsible for their own policing.

And with a complete concurrence of the government of Israel. We
operate in that zone of overlap between what the Israeli government
is prepared to tolerate and what the Palestinian Authority wants.

On some issues that overlap gets very narrow.

But we have stayed within that zone for the last seven years.

Over the last five years or so, there have been a lot of troublesome
issues, but we have not heard of things such as Intifada, massive
riots or mass protests in the West Bank. One reason is the
Palestinian Authority now has a competent domestic police apparatus
that is able to maintain some degree of control and civil order.

Even in difficult times.

Q: What about the broader aspects of U.S. drug policy, the mixed
messages from the U.S. government on drug policy particularly as it
relates to marijuana.

You've got the White House in essence conceding the legalization of
marijuana in states that have voted to legalize it. What is the view
of the American government toward marijuana?

A: Remember that the I in INL stands for international. So where I am
directly engaged is overseas as opposed to domestic.

That said, there is an international component to this issue.

The United States of America is a party to, has ratified the three
international drug control conventions, the '61 convention, the '72
convention and the 1988 convention. The '61 and the '88 conventions
specifically list marijuana and cannabis as on their annex of
prescribed most dangerous substances. We are, by the terms of the
conventions, obligated to take steps to prevent the use or misuse of
marijuana. Those conventions have been ratified by more than 180
governments in the world.

The United Nations works principally on consensus. The likelihood of
finding a consensus of those 180 plus governments for a new set of
conventions, is pretty much zilch.

If you think there's a disparity of views on drug control in the
U.S., multiply that by a factor of about 10. In some countries
overseas they are still executing drug traffickers for the simple
crime of trafficking in drugs.

And other countries, they have legalized entire categories of product.

Internationally. the formula that I am trying to support on behalf of
the U.S. government, is a four-part formula. First, we all agree to
respect the integrity of the three conventions. Because it's going to
be impossible to change them. Second, use the flexibility that is
inherent in these conventions. They have an exception for federal
constitutional systems for example. They do permit governments to use
their scarce law enforcement resources in the way that they think is
best. They allow some flexibility and discretion as long as the
objective is to limit and eventually prevent the misuse of drugs.

The flexibility is in the conventions. Third principle is tolerance
for other governments that will pursue their own national drug
control strategies. Accepting that different countries have different
realities.

And the fourth principal is, regardless of our position on
prohibition versus legalization, let us all agree that those
transnational criminal organizations that traffic in the product for
profit and use violence and blood as their means of penetrating and
establishing market share, that we are all in agreement that we will
resist and combat them.

Q: Give us your view of the state of control of the international
border with Mexico.

A: It is an improving picture in my opinion.

The border is more modern in terms of the equipment they have
available for it. Much more modern than it was in 2007 when we
started this cooperative effort. Second, I will say that the border
is better served today because we no longer look at the U.S.-Mexico
border as just one single border.

They're actually two. And the second one is located at the border
between Mexico and Central America, specifically Guatemala and
Belize. And the fact that we are working and cooperating on that
border is a positive thing.

Third, I believe that the law enforcement institutions on the Mexican
side of the border are better trained and better equipped than they
were in the past. Fourth, I believe that communication and
cooperation between U.S. entities and Mexican entities is better
today than it was seven years ago. All of that is good news. All of
that should produce an improving picture in the years ahead.

I am not suggesting that the problem is solved.

There is more work to be done. If we think in terms of a 10-year
video instead of a snapshot, I believe you'll see that the video is
telling a better story.

For a longer version of this Q&A transcript visit us online at
http://utsd.us/1G4EspC
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 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
Author: Grant Scott-Goforth

TAX RETURNS

A weeeeeird thing is happening in Colorado. All of the tax money the
state collected from recreational marijuana transactions during its
first year of legalization - $44 million from the 28 percent sales
tax - has to be returned, thanks to a tax loophole in the state's constitution.

While high state revenues must have been a selling point to reluctant
voters who approved recreational legalization in 2012, the $44
million figure was actually underwhelming compared to government estimates.

But Colorado law has a provision protecting against unnecessary new
taxes. Specifically, the state constitution says a new voter-approved
tax (like that on marijuana, which followed voter approval of legal
weed) can only go into effect when the state needs the money. In 2014
a strong economy boosted overall tax revenue beyond state
projections, meaning money from the new pot tax must be returned.

How the state will do that has yet to be determined; it can dole out
$44 million in checks to all income tax payers, or it can stop
charging sales tax on weed for a year. At least one state senator has
said that will harm the drug programs and schools that were slated to
get money, and is pushing to ask voters to go ahead and let the state
keep the revenue.

That could go either way. While many non-users likely approved
legalization for the tax boon to schools, it's hard to imagine people
turning down a government issued check (even for a paltry half-eighth
sum). Some dispensary owners reportedly like the tax, as it
legitimizes their enterprises, but their customers - who paid more
than $8 in taxes on a $30 eighth last year - probably wouldn't
complain about a year's worth of tax-free weed.

Even the tax-leery Right has waffled on its give-us-back-our-money
stance. The Associated Press reported that, while state Republicans
typically oppose the government keeping refunds guaranteed by the
state constitution, they think pot should "pay for itself."

One if by land, two if by university? The suits keep coming: The
former head of the University of Nevada, Reno was recently awarded
one of the city's first medical marijuana business licenses. Joe
Crowley, who was well liked at the university, according to the Reno
Gazette-Journal, said his brother and sister used marijuana to
relieve pain from multiple sclerosis and surgeries.

I'm going to make an assumption (yes, I know what happens when I
assume) that there's a big crossover between Humboldt County's legion
of anti-vaxxers and those who enjoy and/or grow weed. So be wary of
exploding heads, as the new surgeon general, who has been touring the
nation promoting vaccination, also recently told CBS This Morning
that marijuana "can be helpful" for certain conditions and symptoms.
Vivek Murthy called for science-driven marijuana policies, but came
short of calling for legalization like former Surgeon General
Joycelyn Elders and one-time surgeon general candidate Sanjay Gupta.

The buzzkillers at the Mateel Community Center squashed your chance
to drop the kids while you float around the Ganjier Spring Kickoff
this coming weekend. Though the festival initially advertised a
"Kid's Zone" nestled between the Law Offices of Kathleen Bryson and
the Pure Analytics Cannabis Potency and Safety Screening booths
(where little Jack and Jill would presumably be soothed by the sweet
sounds of SoHum Girls and EZ Money from the nearby stage), the
Mateel's board raised its jack boots and curbed the notion of anyone
under 18 getting into the festival, "even in a designated kids area,"
according to event organizers.

Maybe grandma can look after them.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2015 Boulder Weekly
Contact: letters@boulderweekly.com
Website: http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Leland Rucker

CU RESEARCHERS FIND NO CORRELATION BETWEEN CANNABIS AND BRAIN CHANGES

One of the main cannabis prohibition memes these days is based around
some recent studies that suggest that cannabis use produces physical
changes in the brain. This one really caught fire after The Journal
of Neuroscience published research last spring from a
Harvard/Northwestern report that scanned the brains of 40 students,
half who used cannabis and half who didn't, and found volume, shape
and density changes in two brain areas involved with emotion and motivation.

This got an enormous amount of press in publications no one should
ever trust or read again like Time and USA Today, both of which seem
to have become anti-marijuana mouthpieces. Media outlets greeted the
Harvard study with the usual, scare-the-shit-outof-you headlines: USA
Today came up with "Casual marijuana use linked to brain changes";
Time went even farther with "Recreational Pot Use Harmful to Young
People's Brains."

Science being what it is, other researchers try to replicate results
from other studies. To that end, Barbara J. Weiland, Rachel E.
Thayer, Amithrupa Sabbineni, Angela D. Bryan and Kent Hutchison of
the University of Colorado and Brendan E. Depue of the University of
Kentucky looked at the brains of 158 individuals. They obtained
high-resolution MRI scans from other studies and did their own
investigations of differences in brain matter in the same regions.

Their report, "Daily Marijuana Use Is Not Associated with Brain
Morphometric Measures in Adolescents or Adults," was published in the
same Journal of Neuroscience this year. It found no statistically
significant differences between daily users and nonusers on volume or
shape in the brain regions of interest. "The results indicate that,
when carefully controlling for alcohol use, gender, age and other
variables, there is no association between marijuana use and standard
volumetric or shape measurements of subcortical structures."

Whoa. Wait a minute. There are all these other studies. All those
frightening headlines.

"Brain studies are difficult. When you look at the studies, one will
find an effect in one region. The next group doesn't find an effect
there but finds a different effect. If you take one region across all
studies, there's no consistency," says Hutchison, a member of the
research team and the CU Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

As it turns out, the brain is malleable. Stress can change it. So can
depression and meditation.

"Learning to play a music instrument changes the brain," Hutchison
says. "It's possible that a person may have a slightly different
brain in the first place. Ultimately, we won't be surprised to find
out marijuana causes changes in the brain."

Hutchison says there is plenty of work yet to be done, but that so
far, none of the studies have proven that cannabis causes the brain
changes, especially when alcohol use is factored in. He hopes a
multi-year U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse study that will
examine the brains of 10,000 kids from before they begin using
marijuana, tobacco and alcohol and follow them through the years will
answer some of those questions.

Speaking of government studies, a recent one comes up with some
surprising results for one of the vexing problems of legalization:
What is the correlation between using cannabis and getting behind the
wheel of a car?

Colorado and most states that are legalizing treat cannabis
intoxication much as they do alcohol. Here if you are found to have
five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood, you can be considered
impaired if you're driving. Prohibition organizations scream bloody
murder about stoned carnage on the highways while advocates argue
that marijuana is less predictable and works far differently than
alcohol, it's much more difficult to test and many medical and
regular users would test positive for five nanograms, whether they
were impaired or not.

So the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration's comprehensive study of 3,000 drivers involved in
accidents over a 20-month period was eagerly anticipated. It found
that fewer people are drinking alcohol and driving and more people
are driving under the influence of cannabis. The number of drivers
with evidence of marijuana in their system grew by nearly 50 percent
from 2007 to 2014.

For alcohol, the study not surprisingly found the crash risk for
drivers with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent was twice that
for sober drivers, and the danger went up dramatically from there -
up to 12 times as high for a 0.15 reading.

But the cannabis finding was quite different: THC-positive drivers
were 25 percent more likely to be in an accident, but once the
researchers adjusted for confounding variables like age, gender,
race, demographics and alcohol use, they could find no more risk of a
cannabis user causing an accident than someone who was completely straight.

This is a pretty astounding result and admission, especially for a
government agency. It's so interesting, in fact, that the official
paper buries the info in favor of reporting that marijuana use is up
rather than that its use was statistically not found to be a factor
in accidents.

None of this is suggesting that people should be driving under the
influence of marijuana - tests show it can impair driving ability.
But what it does say is that perhaps the effects of cannabis are not
as significant as those of alcohol, that cannabis doesn't work in the
body like alcohol and that we need better ways to study and approach
the concept of cannabis impairment.

As far as I can find, neither USA Today nor Time covered the CU
study. I did find the headline for the USA Today government driving
survey: "Study finds new driving threat from dopers, druggies."

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com

You can hear Leland discuss his most recent column and Colorado
cannabis issues each Thursday morning on KGNU. http://news.kgnu.org/weed
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Westword (Denver, CO)
Copyright: 2015 Village Voice Media
Contact: http://www.westword.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters
Website: http://www.westword.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1616
Author: William Breathes

ARE DISPENSARIES SCANNING IDS NOW?

Dear Stoner: I recently stopped in at Euflora on the 16th Street
Mall, and they wanted to scan my driver's license. I've been there
before, and they never did that. I'm clearly over 21 and not buying
enough to make it matter if I live in state or not. (For the record,
I'm a sixty-plus Colorado native.) They told me that every shop does
it, and that it's how they check to make sure a license is legit; the
guy at the door basically said it's the law. But that's not what I've
experienced at any other shop; they just look at the license. What's the deal?

Timid Toker

Dear Timid: Although we've never encountered a scanner before, we
have found confusion over how to handle IDs. On January 1, 2014, the
day that recreational sales began, we waited in line for a while at
Annie's in Central City - only to find when we reached the front of
that line that staffers were putting ID information into their system
- reportedly to prevent someone from buying more than one ounce from
the company in a day. Annie's said the information was purged every
24 hours, but it still seemed a bit strange to us.

So did this report on Euflora. We'd been to the shop on the mall
twice before reviewing it in January and hadn't had anyone scan our
ID - but we'd had concerns about other Euflora moves, including the
fact that this all-recreational shop still advertised as a medical
marijuana dispensary for months until we called them out on it in our
review. When we checked, we found that Euflora is indeed now scanning
IDs - not because the state requires it, but because Aurora does, and
since Euflora now has a store in Aurora that uses the same security
crew, the owners wanted the rules to be the same at both places.

Here's the applicable Aurora policy: "For retail marijuana stores,
the business shall verify the proof of age of every person entering
the business with an electronic identification scanner. An electronic
identification scanner is a device that is capable of quickly and
reliably confirming the validity of an identification using computer
processes." That's a lot more strict than state law, which simply
says that a shop needs to give the ID a visual inspection, the way a
bartender or bouncer would.

With all of the tourists and street kids on 16th Street, we can kind
of see why Euflora might want to scan - but we can also see why it
makes people nervous. We're not paranoid, but we'd rather keep our
personal information to ourselves. We caught up with Euflora co-owner
Jamie Perino (yes, Dana Perino is her cousin), who says that if a
customer is squeamish, the 16th Street store should be able to verify
the ID with a visual check - but the customer will have to request it. Firmly.

Send questions to marijuana@westword.com or call the potline at 303-293-2222.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Westword (Denver, CO)
Copyright: 2015 Village Voice Media
Contact: http://www.westword.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters
Website: http://www.westword.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1616
Author: William Breathes

ARE DISPENSARIES SCANNING IDS NOW?

Dear Stoner: I recently stopped in at Euflora on the 16th Street
Mall, and they wanted to scan my driver's license. I've been there
before, and they never did that. I'm clearly over 21 and not buying
enough to make it matter if I live in state or not. (For the record,
I'm a sixty-plus Colorado native.) They told me that every shop does
it, and that it's how they check to make sure a license is legit; the
guy at the door basically said it's the law. But that's not what I've
experienced at any other shop; they just look at the license. What's the deal?

Timid Toker

Dear Timid: Although we've never encountered a scanner before, we
have found confusion over how to handle IDs. On January 1, 2014, the
day that recreational sales began, we waited in line for a while at
Annie's in Central City - only to find when we reached the front of
that line that staffers were putting ID information into their system
- reportedly to prevent someone from buying more than one ounce from
the company in a day. Annie's said the information was purged every
24 hours, but it still seemed a bit strange to us.

So did this report on Euflora. We'd been to the shop on the mall
twice before reviewing it in January and hadn't had anyone scan our
ID - but we'd had concerns about other Euflora moves, including the
fact that this all-recreational shop still advertised as a medical
marijuana dispensary for months until we called them out on it in our
review. When we checked, we found that Euflora is indeed now scanning
IDs - not because the state requires it, but because Aurora does, and
since Euflora now has a store in Aurora that uses the same security
crew, the owners wanted the rules to be the same at both places.

Here's the applicable Aurora policy: "For retail marijuana stores,
the business shall verify the proof of age of every person entering
the business with an electronic identification scanner. An electronic
identification scanner is a device that is capable of quickly and
reliably confirming the validity of an identification using computer
processes." That's a lot more strict than state law, which simply
says that a shop needs to give the ID a visual inspection, the way a
bartender or bouncer would.

With all of the tourists and street kids on 16th Street, we can kind
of see why Euflora might want to scan - but we can also see why it
makes people nervous. We're not paranoid, but we'd rather keep our
personal information to ourselves. We caught up with Euflora co-owner
Jamie Perino (yes, Dana Perino is her cousin), who says that if a
customer is squeamish, the 16th Street store should be able to verify
the ID with a visual check - but the customer will have to request it. Firmly.

Send questions to marijuana@westword.com or call the potline at 303-293-2222.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 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

GOODBYE WILL

Humble Announces Resignation, but No Word on WHO Replaces the Adhs Director

Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble announced
he plans to step down on March 3.

Humble gave Gov. Doug Ducey his resignation on Friday, Feb. 13.

The director was front and center in the implementation of the
state's voter-approved medical marijuana program, and while some
marijuana advocates feel Humble did little to speed up the program
steeped in bureaucracy, there's more concern about who Ducey will
pick to fill Humble's shoes.

Humble said in a letter he posted on his director's blog that he
started working for the department in 1992 doing risk assessment for
state superfund sites. He became director in 2009. He never mentions
medical marijuana in his online farewell.

"We've made tremendous progress in so many areas. Accomplishments
that change and save lives every day in Arizona. From making it more
convenient and quick to get a birth certificate, to saving hundreds
of lives a year with our cardiac arrest initiatives, to overhauling
our healthcare institution and childcare licensing programs, to
building a behavioral health system focused on measurable outcomes,
and literally hundreds of other system improvements-we have a lot to
be proud of. And we had fun along the way," he wrote.

Last year, Humble was named in two medical marijuana law lawsuits.
One related to those diagnosed with post-traumatic stress-disorder.
Humble had required that patients be in counseling or regular care in
order to qualify, while plaintiffs insisted that was unconstitutional.

In August 2014, the Tucson Weekly interviewed Humble and
representatives from the Arizona Cannabis Nurses Association. Last
summer, an administrative judge recommended that the state allow PTSD
as a qualifying condition for a medical marijuana patient card. Jan.
1, 2015 was when those with PTSD could apply for cards, but the
nurses association disagreed with how Humble implemented qualifications.

AZCNA attorney Kenny Sobel said cancer patients aren't asked if they
are in chemotherapy to qualify.

Humble moved forward with the judge's decision, but wanted PTSD
patients to show they were receiving assistance or under a therapist's care.

In Humble's letter, he wrote that a replacement, interim or
permanent, will be announced in the next few weeks.

"Careers have a lifecycle. Figuring out when it's time to turn the
page and to move on to something else is a hard thing to do. That
time has come for me. After a lot of thinking I've decided that it's
time for me to move on to something else... I'll keep you updated
over the next couple of weeks regarding who will be named Interim or
Permanent Director of our agency," Humble wrote. "I don't have any
exact professional plans yet. I think I'll just catch my breath for a
while and see what turns up-but I'm sure it'll be in public health in
one way, shape, or form."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact: sactoletters@newsreview.com
Website: http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Ngaio Bealum

PIPES AND ORGANS

Hey, I hear the California Legislature is all fired up about
marijuana regulations. What have you heard?

-Wanda

"Fired up" may be too strong a phrase. Most of the legislation that
has been introduced is mostly the same as last year. I don't think
that anything is going to happen on the regulation front for a while.

However, the Medical Cannabis Organ Transplant Act (AB 258,
introduced by Assemblyman Marc Levine) is an important bill that
would allow medical cannabis patients to receive organ transplants.
As it stands now, people have been denied transplants solely because
they use medical cannabis. Because marijuana is still listed as a DEA
Schedule I drug (no acceptable medical use), many hospitals classify
any cannabis use as "substance abuse" and will deny transplants even
if a doctor has recommended cannabis as a medicine. More than one
person has died after being removed from the transplant list because
they used cannabis.

We all need to call our representatives and tell them to support this
bill. I admit I have a personal stake in this issue: My good friend
Yamileth Bolanos (she helped me start the Greater Los Angeles
Collective Alliance) is a liver transplant recipient and a medical
cannabis user. She received a liver transplant 18 years ago, but get
this: The same doctor that told her to use marijuana to help
alleviate her symptoms also told her that she would be ineligible for
the transplant list if (God forbid) she ever needed a new liver. This
sort of ridiculousness is what happens when we let politics get in
the way of science and common sense. Please write, call and email
your representatives and tell them to pass this bill. Lives depend on it.

I want to get a nice water pipe, but the only place to smoke it would
be in my apartment, which isn't really ideal because I have poor
ventilation and I don't want to give off any smell or leave any
residue. Are there any truly effective ways to reduce the smoke
produced by a water pipe, or should I just drop the plan entirely? I
currently use a pipe with a canvas case and a Smokebuddy for the
exhale, which seems to be working fine.

-Antsy

"Water pipe"? You can go ahead and call it a bong. We are all adults
and I don't work at a head shop. You should probably stick with what
you have. Bongs create huge clouds of smoke and bong water is stinky.
And for those that don't know: A "Smokebuddy" is a commercially
available higher-tech version of the "dryer sheet in the paper-towel
tube" trick. It's a pretty good product, though I don't understand
why all of their advertising features half-naked women. I mean, I do
understand, but still. Anyway, I have seen some bongish (water
pipe-esque?) attachments for home vaporizers on the Internet. But
really, a good, clean pipe is the best way to smoke. If you want
cooler smoke, get a longer pipe.
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact: chicoletters@newsreview.com
Website: http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559
Author: R. Sterling Ogden

ON POT AND FRACKING

Re "Fracking ban fails" (Newslines, by Tom Gascoyne, Feb. 12):

There are many marijuana users living in Butte County and no oil
executives. Yet the majority of the members of the Board of
Supervisors obviously does not like medical marijuana growers, whose
negative impacts can be mitigated. They obviously do love those who
have the money to horizontally fracture and whose destruction of our
public water is permanent. Does the Butte County Board of Supervisors
represent its residents or the out-of-county wealthy who want our
resources and are willing to destroy our agricultural livelihood and
our health to get those resources?

R. Sterling Ogden

Chico
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: SF Weekly (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Village Voice Media
Contact: http://www.sfweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters
Website: http://www.sfweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/812
Author: Chris Roberts

Marijuana Legalization Might Occur Long Before the Feds Give Up Their
Quest to Shut Down Two Bay Area Pot Clubs.

TIME TO RETIRE

Sometimes you know you've lost.

Other times, you have to be dragged from the field, long after the
lights are shut off and the crowd has gone home.

Intervention is needed right now in the East Bay, the only place in
the United States where the federal Justice Department is trying to
seize private property used for a legal enterprise.

Emphasis on "trying."

Since 2012, United States Attorney for Northern California Melinda
Haag has been attempting to put a pair of pot clubs out of business:
Berkeley Patients Group and Oakland's Harborside Health Center.
Prosecutors in Haag's office filed asset forfeiture proceedings
against the two city-licensed, taxpaying dispensaries in 2013 and 2012.

Note the date. It's now 2015. Both cases are still tied up in court,
and following a Feb. 6 ruling, they could easily be tied up in court
until 2017.

It is entirely possible that marijuana could be legal in California
and retail cannabis stores in operation by the time the Justice
Department is through trying to shut down the two dispensaries, which
continue to sell cannabis to hundreds of people every day. The
dispensaries, which are legal under state law, came under target by
the feds, which claim the pot clubs are too big and too close to schools.

This charade could end now. The government has a chance to listen to
the voices, and kindly say it's past time to stop and bow out.

You've heard the story before: California's cannabis industry got too
big too fast. The state's pot clubs might have taken in over a
billion dollars in revenue as of 2007, the state Board of
Equalization estimates. It might sound outlandish until you consider
this: One Hayward dispensary, the Compassionate Patients' Cooperative
of California, recorded $26.3 million in revenue in the first six
months of 2007.

You can only make millions under the feds' noses for so long. A big
raid and subsequent criminal proceedings ended the CPCC's ride (the
clubs' operators, the twentysomething Norton brothers, accepted plea
deals and took six-month sentences in 2013), and the industry got the
message - for a little while. Obama was elected, and the industry boomed again.

This time, the feds trimmed things back using only lawyers. The U.S.
Justice Department threatened pot clubs with asset forfeiture
proceedings, forcing the closure of hundreds of shops around the
state. Only a few in the Bay Area stood fast and fought the
government in court.

So far, the feds are 0 for 1. Late last year, the landlord of
Shambhala Healing Center in the Mission District accepted a plea deal
from the government. In return for $150,000, the Justice Department
dropped its claim and gave up trying to grab a piece of the Mission.

Uncle Sam still wants a piece of San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley and the
Oakland Embarcadero. The claims against BPG and Harborside are still pending.

Both are the biggest pot clubs and biggest taxpayers in their
respective cities. (BPG pays $1.3 million in annual state sales tax,
on top of another $526,000 annually to the city of Berkeley; the most
recent figures for Harborside were not immediately available).

Both clubs may owe their continued existence to their home cities.
BPG's case is on hold pending the outcome of an appeal filed by the
city of Berkeley, which is trying to be added to the lawsuit on BPG's
side. On Feb. 6, a judge put the forfeiture case on hold until
Berkeley's case is completed, which could take two years. Oakland is
similarly trying to get involved on Harborside's side.

Even U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, whose district includes both
dispensaries, introduced legislation in the House of Representatives
that would ban the Justice Department from filing asset forfeiture
lawsuits against medical marijuana dispensaries that are following
state law. That would codify the provision put into the Cromnibus
spending bill, which Congress passed in December, removing funding
for Justice Department enforcement efforts against state-legal
cannabis enterprises.

The feds have received the message that the war on medical marijuana
is over. The U.S. Surgeon General earlier this month admitted that
marijuana "can be helpful." Lawmakers in the reddest of red states
are introducing bills that would give sick kids access to cannabis
oil. Nowhere else in the country are there asset forfeitures pending
against state-legal dispensaries, industry legal experts believe.

Even the federal judges sitting on the cases have openly questioned
the wisdom of continuing an unpopular fight to the end.

Only in the Bay Area is the Justice Department acting like Uncle Rico
in Napoleon Dynamite and still insisting that it's fit to play the
game, years after the fourth quarter ended.

Exit strategies are available. There are settlement options, like the
one pursued in San Francisco, or one put forth by a mediator.

"We've offered to take it to mediation," said Lara DeCaro, BPG's
counsel. "But they've refused."

A message left with Haag's spokeswoman was not returned. And it
probably never will be. The Justice Department has rarely commented
publicly on the local war on legal weed, except to say that the
dispensaries were targeted for closure because they were too big.

That's a condemnation of the people. Without them, there would be no
demand for cannabis in America, which is valued at several billion
dollars - and counting.

Haag lives in Berkeley, not far from BPG. Maybe it's personal. Maybe
she's waiting until 2017 when Obama will be termed out.

There will be a new U.S. attorney then. One of his or her first acts
could be to call it quits on this fight.

The score is in. The war is over. As soon as one of the players
realizes it, we can move on.

It's their move.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 20 Feb 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/sKNyIu1s
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Authors: Ricardo Baca and John Ingold

FEDERAL SUITS WANT SALES PLOWED UNDER

The Two Actions, Which Name the Governor As a Defendant, Claim a Pair
of Businesses Violate Anti- Racketeering Laws.

Two federal lawsuits filed Thursday in Colorado aim to "end the sale
of recreational marijuana in this state," according to attorney David
Thompson, who represents the plaintiffs in both cases.

Gov. John Hickenlooper is among the defendants named in the lawsuits,
which also target state and local officials and two Colorado
marijuana businesses. Both suits claim that the businesses are
causing nuisances in violation of federal anti-racketeering laws.

One of the suits takes that a step farther, arguing that Colorado's
licensing of all recreational marijuana businesses should be halted
because it conflicts with federal law - a claim similar to that made
by Nebraska and Oklahoma in their ongoing lawsuit against Colorado
over legalization.

"Federal law criminalizes a recreational marijuana business,"
Thompson said Thursday at a news conference announcing the suits,
"and state and local officials cannot implement a licensing regime
designed to facilitate federal felonies."

Both suits were filed on behalf of Colorado residents by the Safe
Streets Alliance, a Washington, D. C.- based group opposed to the
legalization of marijuana.

In one suit, the plaintiffs- Hope and Michael Reilly-claim that the
construction of a large marijuana cultivation facility next to land
they own in Rye interferes with their views and their property's scenic value.

"We bought our land in part for those spectacular views, but now they
are marred by the sight of an illegal drug conspiracy at our
doorstep," Hope Reilly said at Thursday's news conference.

The grow facility is being built by Rocky Mountain Organics. Multiple
voice mails left at the store's Black Hawk location for owners Joseph
and Jason Licata, named as defendants in the suit, went unreturned
Thursday. Other defendants named in this lawsuit are Hickenlooper,
Department of Revenue executive director Barbara Brohl, Marijuana
Enforcement Division director Lewis Koski and the Pueblo County Commission.

In the other lawsuit, Holiday Inn in Frisco claims its business is
already suffering because of a recreational marijuana shop it says is
planning to open 75 yards from the hotel's front door.

"Many of its guests are youth ski teams and families with children,"
the lawsuit says. "Many parents and coaches will avoid booking with a
hotel that is within a short walking distance and direct sight of a
recreational marijuana store and grow facility."

At the news conference, Thompson said he couldn't quantify how much
business the hotel has lost but called the damages ongoing. The
hotel's owners protested Summit Marijuana's proposed move to the
Frisco Town Council in January. Frisco's mayor rejected the hotel's complaint.

Marijuana legalization supporters slammed both suits Thursday.
Advocate Mason Tvert said the lawsuits would not overturn Colorado's
laws legalizing marijuana use, home cultivation and limited
possession, even if they succeeded in shutting down the state's
regulatory system for stores.

"Ultimately," Tvert said, "the goal of the lawsuit is to ensure that
Colorado is not controlling marijuana."

Sam Kamin, a University of Denver law professor who teaches a course
on marijuana law, also expressed skepticism about the suits. Neither
of the businesses targeted in the suits is even operating in its
contested location yet, Kamin said. And, he said, the Reillys'
complaint about obscured views has nothing to do with the marijuana
grow's illegal activity.

For a federal racketeering lawsuit filed by an individual to succeed,
"you have to show that your business or property interest were harmed
by a corrupt organization," Kamin said. "Displeasure is not good enough."

A spokeswoman for the Colorado attorney general's office said the
state has not been formally served with the suits. When it is, she
said, the attorney general's office will defend Colorado's marijuana laws.
__________________________________________________________________________
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receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 20 Feb 2015
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Times, LLC.
Contact: yourletters@washingtontimes.com
Website: http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Valerie Richardson

NEIGHBORS OF POT BUSINESSES FILE SUITS UNDER RICO ACT

Plaintiffs Turn to Federal Government to Protect Properties

DENVER - A Colorado hotel franchise and two property owners filed
lawsuits Thursday to bring a halt to the state's legalization of
recreational marijuana, citing violations of the federal Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The federal lawsuits, which also list the anti-crime Safe Streets
Alliance as a plaintiff, are the first of their kind challenging
Colorado's first-in-the-nation recreational marijuana market, which
began operating in January 2014.

The lawsuits "ask the federal courts to order Colorado officials to
comply with federal law and stop issuing state licenses to deal
illegal drugs," according to a Thursday statement on the alliance's website.

"In addition to shutting down the operations targeted in its suit,
Safe Streets hopes that its use of the federal racketeering laws will
serve as a model for other business and property owners who have been
injured by the rise of the commercial marijuana industry," the statement said.

The latest challenges arrive two months after the attorneys general
for Nebraska and Oklahoma filed lawsuits against Colorado alleging
that recreational marijuana is seeping into their states illegally.
That case is before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority in Washington, D.C., said
he doubted the effort would be successful, but "if it is, its primary
effect will be to push marijuana back into the hands of the cartel-
and gang-controlled black market."

"The legal marijuana industry has to abide by regulations and
controls that seek to protect public safety, whereas organized crime
groups have absolutely no incentive to play by the rules and keep
marijuana out of the hands of young people or to test and label
products for potency and purity," Mr. Angell said.

Along with state officials, the lawsuits list as plaintiffs a number
of pot shops, business consultants, bankers, construction companies
and others accused of being part of the "racketeering enterprise."

The first lawsuit was filed by Michael and Phillis Reilly, who own
105 acres adjacent to a recreational marijuana grow in Rye, Colorado,
owned by 6480 Pickney LLC. The company has leased the land to Camp
Feel Good, according to the brief.

The lawsuit alleges that those corporations, along with participating
pot shops, a construction company and an insurance company, form a
racketeering ring "for the purpose of cultivating marijuana," which
violates the RICO statute.

The Reillys, who own nearby lots used for horseback riding at the
Meadows at Legacy Ranch, have had their property values reduced by
the large marijuana cultivation facility, the lawsuit says.

"Furthermore, the large quantity of drugs at marijuana grows makes
them targets for theft, and a prospective buyer of the Reillys' land
would reasonably worry that the 6480 Pickney Road marijuana grow will
increase crime in the area," said the lawsuit. "Prospective buyers
would also worry that once it is complete the 6480 Pickney Road
marijuana grow will emit pungent odors, thus further interfering with
the use and enjoyment of the Reillys' land."

The second lawsuit was filed by New Vision Hotels Two, a company that
owns a Holiday Inn franchise in Frisco, Colorado. A marijuana
retailer, Summit Marijuana, is constructing a store that will share a
parking lot with the hotel.

The hotel attracts large numbers of families and teen groups,
including members of two youth ski teams whose booking agents have
said they will not return to the hotel once the pot shop opens for
business, according to the brief.

"Last year alone, those two teams were responsible for approximately
$50,000 in revenue for the hotel," said the brief. "Numerous other
ski teams regularly stay with New Vision, and additional teams are
likely to decide not to return after they learn of Defendants' nearby
recreational marijuana operations."

The lawsuit could have an impact beyond Colorado.

Colorado and Washington state voters legalized recreational marijuana
in 2012, followed by Oregon and Alaska last year. The District of
Columbia has legalized the use of small amounts of marijuana for
adults but not retail sales.

Although marijuana remains illegal under federal law, the Justice
Department issued a guidance in August 2013 essentially allowing
states that have legalized pot to proceed under certain parameters.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sat, 21 Feb 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/0qiQj3TD
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg News
Note: The longer version of this commentary is at denverpost.com/opinion.

BIG TOBACCO'S FUTURE AS BIG MARIJUANA

You may like technology ( who doesn't these days?) or the energy
sector ( where would we be without it?) - but if you're making a
longterm bet as an investor, there's a lot going for Big Tobacco.

It's not just that tobacco boasts the best historical performance of
allU. S. industries. The industry's future seems especially bright.
As marijuana gradually becomes a legal drug, Big Tobacco is poised to
dominate the market.

According to the 2015 edition of Credit Suisse's Global Investment
Returns Yearbook, a dollar invested in tobacco in 1900 would have
turned into $ 6.3 million by the end of 2014, by far the best
performance of all the industries that existed at the start of the
20th century.

That, of course, reflects the decline of some old industries, like
coal, railroads and shipbuilding, and fails to account for the
emergence of new ones. ( A small investment in "some kind of fruit
company," called Apple Inc., is how Forrest Gump earned his fortune.)
So perhaps the last 10 years are a better indicator of tobacco's resilience.

Since the beginning of 2005, the MSCI Global Tobacco Index has risen
196.4 percent, providing an 11 percent annual return. It far
outperformed the catch- all MSCIWorld Index, which went up 50.6
percent in the same period. It even did better than the MSCIWorld
Information Technology Index, which rose 94.4 percent in the past decade.

Despite governments' efforts to get people to quit smoking, a lot of
them still do, and they represent a stable core market for Big
Tobacco. In the U. S., for example, 20.9 percent of adults smoked in
2004 and 19 percent still had the habit in 2011. Markets for
addictive products are less susceptible to economic crises than any
others, and- in part because they're so politically toxic-they are
less bubbly. So investors tend to get a steady return.

Right now, the industry is undergoing a vaping revolution. A
Bloomberg Intelligence analytical report from last December predicted
sales of vapor products in the U. S. could climb 44 percent to $ 2.6
billion this year. So far, much of that market has been in vaping
liquids and the e-cigarettes that use them, but that technology is
growing obsolete. The new cutting edge is in "heat not burn" devices,
which, according to the Bloomberg Intelligence report, "may be highly
disruptive to the existing tobacco industry" because they use real tobacco.

A "heat not burn" vaporizer heats ground tobacco leaves and delivers
a nicotine hit to the user without producing much smoke or ashes.
This still amounts to using an addictive substance in a slightly
different way, but it's not hard to imagine why smokers might find it
appealing to inhale less smoke, none of which contains burned paper.

Such "heat not burn" devices are already available from a host of
smaller companies, but the bigger tobacco companies, such as Philip
Morris and Reynolds, have made it clear they're intent on catching up.

It may seem that Big Tobacco is merely cannibalizing its existing
sales by putting out such products. Yet it may be something of a bet
on the future, too. "Heat not burn" vaporizers can just as easily be
used to smoke marijuana as tobacco. And they are already gaining
popularity among cannabis users.

Tobacco companies have never said publicly that they'd like to get in
on the marijuana business. That's understandable. Selling marijuana
is still largely illegal in Europe and in much of the U. S., and it
would be politically suicidal for companies that face as many
regulatory barriers as tobacco companies do to suggest that they want
to go into soft drug dealing. But they have long watched marijuana as
a potential market.

For those not overly worried about the moral strings attached to
investing in companies that pander to addictions, a greener future
for Big Tobacco may be one of the biggest opportunities of a lifetime.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sat, 21 Feb 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/0hWkOVN4
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Authors: Jordan Steffen and Ricardo Baca
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

POLIS INTRODUCES BILLS TO LEGALIZE, TAX POT ON FEDERAL LEVEL

For the second time in two years, Colorado's U. S. Rep. Jared Polis
has introduced legislation that effectively would legalize and tax
marijuana at the federal level.

Along with a fellow Democrat, Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Polis
on Friday introduced two bills, the first of which would remove
marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and shift regulation
from the Drug Enforcement Administration to the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF then would regulate
marijuana like alcohol.

A second bill would impose a federal excise tax on the sale of
marijuana for nonmedical purposes and would include an occupational
tax for marijuana businesses. The excise tax initially would be set
at 10 percent and over time increase to 25 percent.

"Rather than be a medicinal substance, it would be a controlled
substance like alcohol and tobacco, so there's still a federal
interest in enforcement," Polis told The Denver Post on Friday. "It's
important as we head into a presidential election. We don't know if
the next president will have the same hands-off approach that Barack
Obama and Eric Holder eventually found their way toward.

"And it is gaining more and more support because more and more
members of Congress are hearing about these issues from their
constituents, for whom the federal law is a problem."

Polis and Blumenauer introduced similar, unsuccessful bills in 2013.
And in 2011, Polis introduced a bill to allow banks to carry business
accounts of medical marijuana distributors and not face federal
prosecution. That bill did not get a vote.

The proposed Marijuana Tax Revenue Act would establish civil and
criminal penalties for people who do not comply and would require the
IRS to study the marijuana industry and make recommendations to Congress.
__________________________________________________________________________
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receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Feb 2015
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/NiG9BpFl
Copyright: 2015 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Joe Garofoli

GOP'S CRUSADER FOR LEGAL POT CALLS IT CONSERVATIVE CAUSE

Politicians don't get much more conservative than Orange County Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher. He was Ronald Reagan's speechwriter, an inspiration
behind California's anti-immigration Proposition 187, a Cold War
hardliner, and a man who self-deprecatingly calls himself a
"Neanderthal Republican."

But now, Rohrabacher has emerged as a national leader in one
not-so-conservative issue: legalizing marijuana.

"The marijuana laws have been used to expand the power of government
over people's lives more than just anything else I can think of,"
Rohrabacher said recently in San Francisco, shortly after a prime
speaking slot at the International Cannabis Business Conference. "I
would like marijuana to be treated the same way we treat alcohol."

Doing so, he says, would be the proper conservative move.

Republicans believe in personal responsibility, he said. They believe
in states rights - and medicinal marijuana is legal in 23 states and
the District of Columbia, and adult recreational use is legal in
four. "And Republicans are supposed to believe in the doctor-patient
relationship," Rohrabacher said. "That's what Republicans are
supposed to be about."

Reagan would have jumped on board now, too, Rohrabacher said. OK,
maybe not Nancy Reagan, the driving force behind the "Just Say No"
antidrug campaign of the 1980s, but her husband - the ex-Hollywood
actor who costarred with a chimp in "Bedtime for Bonzo" - might have
been a late-in-life convert. For conservative reasons.

"Reagan was a libertarian conservative, and he always felt that
limited government was his goal - as was personal responsibility,"
Rohrabacher said. "I think he would be very susceptible to actually
joining ranks with others to achieve this goal at this time. It was
not doable in his time. Even with medical marijuana. But I think he
would be on the side of freedom.

"He had me hanging around, after all," Rohrabacher said, tugging at
his gray sweater vest and matching shirt to reveal a puka shell necklace.

In his younger days, Rohrabacher admits, he lived "a pretty wild life."

"My goal in life was to drink Tequila and catch a good wave," he said.

And yes, he smoked some weed.

His "free spirit" ways were so obvious that Lyn Nofziger, the press
secretary of Reagan's unsuccessful 1976 presidential bid, once told
him he "can't use marijuana on this campaign," the congressman recalled.

By then, Rohrabacher says, he hadn't smoked in years (he insists he
gave the stuff up at 23). "I was focused on defeating the Soviet
Union," he said.

Larger societal issues

Rohrabacher, who was elected to Congress in 1988, supported
California's medicinal marijuana law and the failed 2010 state ballot
measure to legalize pot for recreational use, but didn't make a huge
deal about either.

But over the years, he began to see the larger societal issues linked
to marijuana. He would like the federal government to ease
restrictions on marijuana research to see "what wonderful things
could come of it." He wants wounded combat veterans to have access to
medicinal cannabis from Veterans Affairs hospitals to ease their
suffering. And he's sickened by the money and time spent on policing
and adjudicating marijuana crimes.

"Years ago, if I had been arrested for smoking marijuana, all the
things I did to make this a better world wouldn't have happened,"
Rohrabacher said.

Last year, he joined liberal Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, in crafting an
amendment that would forbid the Justice Department from spending
money on preventing the implementation of medical marijuana laws in
states where voters have approved its use. Rohrabacher rallied four
dozen Republicans to join him, telling them it was the conservative
thing to do.

"He's been very consistent in his position, and he hasn't wavered -
that means a lot," said Farr's chief of staff, Rochelle Dornatt.
"He's been one of the reasons we've been able to have some success here."

"To have him out here saying this is huge," said Alex Rogers,
executive producer of the International Cannabis Business Conference
and a pot activist for more than two decades. "The message it sends
is powerful: Your voters won't leave you over this issue."

Conservative district

Rohrabacher concedes that for a while last year, he was a bit worried
about what his conservative district would think. But in November, he
was elected with 64 percent of the vote - 3 percent more than he
garnered in 2012.

"I think I've gained 5 percent of the vote of people who never
consider voting for some right-wing jerk," Rohrabacher said.

But his stance on marijuana, he says, is "based on my principles and
not some pragmatic calculation of political support."

"I'm 67," he said. "I might as well do everything I think is right.
What am I worried about?"

Longtime marijuana leaders praise the Republican - which is not a
phrase that has often been written.

"What's remarkable about him is that he's one of the few politicians
who's leading from the front on this," said Dale Sky Jones, chairman
of the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform and a leader in the
effort to legalize weed in California and elsewhere. "The way he's
explaining it to Republicans, they have a chance to get it right on
cannabis now after all these years."

Rohrabacher visited the Green Door Medical Cannabis Dispensary when
he was in San Francisco. He's considering getting a medical marijuana
card so he can use a cannabis-based salve to ease the pain in his
aching shoulders. The discomfort is so bad, he hasn't been surfing in
more than a year.

"I'm going to try it out," he said, then smiled at the notion of
becoming perhaps the first medicinal marijuana cardcarrying member of
Congress. "If it helps, that's what I'll do."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Feb 2015
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Anderson Valley Advertiser
Contact: editor@theava.com
Website: http://www.theava.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2667
Author: Fred Gardner

BILL BENNETT'S ANTI-POT GOSPEL

Bill Bennett, who had been Secretary of Education under Reagan and
Drug Czar under George H.W. Bush, was on the talk shows last Sunday
plugging his new book, "Going to Pot: Why the Rush to Legalize
Marijuana Is Harming America." Co-author Robert White is a former
federal prosecutor.

An obsequious piece about the book in the Washington Times refers to
"Mr. Bennett's research revealing that more Americans are admitted to
treatment facilities for marijuana use than for any other illegal
drug..." As Bill Bennett knows, almost everyone receiving "treatment"
for marijuana is court-mandated or parent-mandated or job-mandated.
In other words, forced. Very few marijuana users consider themselves
in need of treatment. And nobody gives up their drug of choice until
they themselves really want to, according to the 12-steppers'
collective wisdom.

When Bennett was Drug Czar under George H.W. Bush, he decreed: "'The
simple fact is that drug use is wrong... And the moral argument, in
the end, is the most compelling argument.'"

According to Bennett, drug use is immoral because drugs are illegal,
and drugs are illegal because they're immoral. He urged prosecutors
to go after casual users whose lives were manageable because their
example might send a confusing signal to their friends, neighbors,
and children. He promoted public hospitals' drug-testing of pregnant
women, which resulted in many women losing custody of their newborn
babies. (Only poor women have to rely on public hospitals.)

Bennett's biggest accomplishment as Drug Czar was to increase the
budget 52%. After 18 months he declared victory and resigned
unexpectedly. He then served briefly as chairman of the Republican
National Committee, but quit the $125,000/year gig when it turned out
that he couldn't pocket the speaking proceeds. "I didn't take a vow
of poverty," Bennett said at the time. It seemed venal and gross, but
later we came to understand.

In 2003 Bennett was exposed in Newsweek and the Washington Monthly as
a big-time compulsive gambler who holed up at Las Vegas casinos for
three-day binges. Bennett had blown at least $8 million at the slot
machines. Only profits from his best-seller, "The Book of Virtues,"
and its many spin-offs, plus $50,000 speaking fees, enabled him to avoid debt.

It also came out that he played in a weekly Washington poker game
with Supreme Court Justice Scalia, Chief Justice Rehnquist (who took
Fentanyl daily for back pain and checked into a rehab spa every
summer), and the failed rightwing nominee, Robert Bork.

The Republican Damage Control Team tried put a lid on the story of
Bennett's gambling addiction, employing the same arguments that
Bennett's Drug War victims had used in vain to fend off persecution.
There they were on TV: "Why is it anybody's business?" asked the
effete Billy Kristol. "He did no one any harm," said Tony Blakely
(himself a compulsive overeater). "He has taken personal
responsibility," declared Anne Coulter (brushing back a strand of
hair thinned by excessive bleaching). "It's between him and his
family," said another blonde who'd had some bad work done on her
lips... The Damage Controllers promptly turned out poor Mrs. Bennett
to announce that she would not let Bill take any more "trips."

Other arguments were splashed on the flames by these Friends of Bill:
gambling isn't a sin to Catholics, gambling is legal, he didn't go
into debt, and so forth. It was all a misdirection play. What's
reprehensible about Bill Bennett is not his gambling but his
monumental hypocrisy. When someone who really understands the force
of compulsion tells the world that compulsion can easily be overcome
by will, it's a conscious lie. To imprison people behind that lie is
completely immoral.

Joshua Green of the Washington Monthly elicited from Bennett an
evasive but revealing quote: "When reminded of studies that link
heavy gambling to divorce, bankruptcy, domestic abuse, and other
family problems he has widely decried, Bennett compared the situation
to alcohol. 'I view it as drinking,' Bennett says. 'If you can't
handle it, don't do it'."

A source at a casino told Green that Bennett always tried to slink
around unseen. "He'll usually call a host and let us know when he's
coming. We can limo him in. He prefers the high-limit room, where
he's less likely to be seen and where he can play the $500-a-pull
slots. He usually plays very late at night or early in the morning
-usually between midnight and 6 a.m."

Bennett's connections are so powerful that, after a brief absence, he
resumed pontificating on the airwaves. Rosie heard him recently
advising parents never to tell their kids that they once smoked
marijuana and found it to be harmless. "He said that hypocrisy is
better than honesty because it shows you have moral standards. I
don't know about his Catholic schools, but in my Catholic schools we
received a moral education, we read philosophers and discussed them,
we were taught that you don't lie and that hypocrisy is completely
immoral. Jesus said, 'You hypocrite, take the beam out of your own
eye before you talk about the splinter in someone else's'."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Feb 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Kimberly Hartke
Note: The writer is a Northern Virginia landlord and blogger.

WHEN DOPE IS THE BOMB

Landlords, tenants and homeowners have an unexpected new worry:
legalized marijuana. Already, marijuana use is an issue for D.C.
landlords under decriminalization. One owner of 350 rentals in the
city is about to add a no-smoking clause to his lease. He has always
advertised his properties as non-smoking. But he is getting an
increasing number of complaints from tenants in his buildings about
the pungent odor from dope-smoking.

The latest trend in the marijuana subculture is the smoking of "dabs"
of marijuana concentrate. This highly concentrated form of marijuana
is expensive but growing in popularity for recreational use. And it's
explosive - literally.

Because of the expense of buying marijuana concentrate at a
dispensary or pot shop, marijuana users are following Internet
instructions to manufacture the most potent, concentrated form of the
drug, known as BHO (butane hash oil or butane honey oil), at home.
Besides dabs, street names for the drug also include 710, wax, honey
oil and shatter.

Colorado saw 32 home explosions in 2014, up from 11 in 2013,
triggered by attempts to make BHO. Butane is a highly volatile
solvent and a flammable gas at room temperature. When cooling, or
without proper ventilation, it can easily explode with a ball of
fire, blowing out windows, causing property damage and putting
neighbors at risk. This is particularly of concern to multilevel
housing units such as motels, condominiums and apartments.

Because a large number of D.C. residents live in multi-unit housing,
we must take note.

According to an Oregon newspaper report last May, fires and
explosions from BHO production sent 17 people to a Portland burn unit
in 16 months. The explosions caused numerous injuries, extensive
property damage and at least one death in Oregon.

A horrific BHO explosion occurred in November 2013 in Bellevue, Wash.
All 10 units of an apartment building were destroyed, and residents
jumped from second- and third-story windows. The explosion and fire
caused $1.5 million in damage to the building and the loss of
$150,000 in belongings. Seven people were hospitalized. A former town
mayor, an elderly woman who lived in the building, died from a pelvic
injury sustained trying to escape the fire. Several weeks before this
incident, police were called to investigate suspected BHO activity.
Two men suspected of making BHO denied it.

On Oct. 31, a multi-unit apartment building in Walnut Creek, Calif.,
went up in flames because of BHO. One explosion near Sacramento
displaced 140 people. The Sacramento Bee reported that Shriners
Hospitals for Children-Northern California treated 68 victims for BHO
burns in a three-year period. The average child was burned on 28
percent of the body.

There is no sign the spate of explosions in these Western states will
end anytime soon.

In California, law enforcement unsuccessfully tried to get marijuana
concentrates banned. Once marijuana advocates get what they want, it
will be very difficult to stop marijuana in any form, including the
"bomb," BHO.

The recently passed D.C. Initiative 71, which would allow personal
possession, did not outlaw, fine or hold accountable amateur hash oil
manufacturing in a residential setting. Retail sales of marijuana in
the District would bring a rash of explosions.

Landlords, homeowners and tenants who want to protect their lives,
property and fortunes need to rally against any law that will allow
the commercialization of marijuana in our nation's capital. We in the
suburbs are not immune, as marijuana use will skyrocket in Virginia
and Maryland if the D.C. Council legitimizes head shops, pot shops
and hash oil manufacturers and growers.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Feb 2015
Source: Daily Local, The (PA)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: letters@dailylocal.com
Website: http://www.dailylocal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4704
Author: Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press

COLORADO RESIDENTS ARE FIRST TO ASK FEDS TO BLOCK LEGAL POT

Colorado already is being sued by two neighboring states for
legalizing marijuana. Now, the state faces groundbreaking lawsuits
from its own residents, who are asking a federal judge to order the
new recreational industry to close.

The owners of a mountain hotel and a southern Colorado horse farm
argue in a pair of lawsuits filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in
Denver that the 2012 marijuana-legalization measure has hurt their
property and that the marijuana industry is stinky and attracts
unsavory visitors.

The lawsuits are the first in a state that has legalized recreational
or medical marijuana in which its own residents are appealing to the
federal government to block pot laws.

"It is a bedrock principle of the United States Constitution that
federal law is the supreme law of the land," said David Thompson, a
lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

The lawsuits are also the first to claim that federal racketeering
laws allow them to win damages from pot businesses that f lout
federal law. The plaintiffs have not specified amounts they would seek.

Experts say the racketeering approach is a new one.

"If these lawsuits are successful, it could be devastating for the
industry," said Sam Kamin, a University of Denver law professor who
helped craft Colorado's pot regulations. "But it will be very
difficult for the plaintiffs to prove damages directly attributable
to the marijuana industry."

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman released a statement saying
she would "defend the state's marijuana laws and our clients" if the
lawsuits go to trial.

Marijuana legalization supporters say that states are free to stop
enforcing certain drug laws, as long as they don't try to overrule
the federal Controlled Substances Act.

"Colorado has every right to stop punishing adults for using
marijuana," said Mason Tvert, who ran Colorado's legalization
campaign and joined about a dozen other legalization supporters who
marched to the state Capitol on Thursday. They carried signs saying,
"Regulation Works!"

One legalization backer, Democratic state Rep. Jonathan Singer, said
the pot industry has boosted tax coffers and hurt the black market.

"The sky hasn't fallen. We're doing the right thing," Singer said.

Technically, federal law making pot illegal for any purpose remains
in effect in the 23 states that have authorized its use for people
with certain medical conditions. However, it's not clear how far the
federal government can go to compel states to enforce drug laws.

For nearly 20 years, the U.S. Department of Justice has said that
marijuana is illegal and that the federal government can enforce even
small-possession crimes. However, U.S. authorities have left most
enforcement to the states, saying they focus on larger drug crimes.

One of the lawsuits came from the owner of a Pueblo County horse
farm, Hope Reilly, who said Thursday that she's "been horrified" to
see a marijuana cultivation facility go up next door.

"This land means a great deal to me," said Reilly, who says the pot
facility mars "spectacular views" of the Rocky Mountains.

Also suing is the owner of a Holiday Inn, who argues that a pot shop
opening nearby is keeping away families.

"Marijuana businesses make bad neighbors," the lawsuit says. "They
drive away legitimate businesses' customers, emit pungent, foul
odors, attract undesirable visitors, increase criminal activity,
increase traffic, and reduce property values."

The owner of the pot shop being sued by the hotel said Thursday he
had no idea his neighbor even opposed his license. He said the hotel
owner did not appear at public zoning hearings.

"It's kind of silly," said Jerry Olson, owner of Summit Marijuana,
which hasn't yet opened.

Nebraska and Oklahoma also are suing Colorado for legalizing
marijuana in 2012. Nine former heads of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration filed a brief Thursday with the U.S. Supreme Court
supporting the two states.

Colorado's pot law "impinges on the interests of all citizens and the
United States in a uniform and coherent national drug policy," the brief says.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Feb 2015
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2015 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact: letters@heraldnet.com
Website: http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Amy Nile

BUDDING MARKET IS A TOUGH BIZ

One Grower Says Regulations, Taxes and a Volatile Market Are Making
the New Marijuana "Green Economy" Just a Pipe Dream So Far.

ARLINGTON - The farm near here looks much like its rural neighbors on
Highway 9. But this one is under 24-hour surveillance.

Signs outside a house and two buildings warn that guns and children
are not allowed. As one approaches the locked doors of the operation,
there is a faint smell of marijuana.

Inside, about a dozen workers grow and harvest plants, package dry
leaves and buds and prepare it for sale on the state's newly legal
recreational marijuana market. The agricultural part of the operation
is backed by a sophisticated business that is navigating a labyrinth
of regulations, changing rules and nervous neighbors.

Avitas Agriculture is a state-licensed marijuana producer and
processor. Its name is sativa spelled backwards, a subtle disguise
for a company trying to apply traditional business sensibility in a
market with a smoky reputation.

So far, though, volatile market shifts and taxes have made it tough
for Avitas and other marijuana companies to turn a profit. A
challenging business environment is making it tougher to make a
living than many expected.

"We see a lot of people who jumped into this with a 'green-rush'
mentality," said Brian Smith, a spokesman for the Washington State
Liquor Control Board, which regulates the commercial marijuana system.

Many of the recreational marijuana businesses will not survive, he
predicted, and it could take several years before enterprises recover
startup costs.

Volatile market

Adam Smith, no relation to the state official, and Jason Smit
co-founded Avitas, which grows top-shelf weed for recreational pot
stores from Bellingham to Olympia.

When voters in 2012 approved Initiative-502 to legalize recreational
marijuana for adults, Smith saw an entrepreneurial opportunity. Until
recently, he worked in Seattle as a vice president of business
operations at a sports media company. Smith partnered with Smit, who
was an engineer for an aerospace company.

Smit knew how to work within strict government regulations and had
experience growing medical marijuana. Now he oversees the crop at
Avitas while Smith runs the business.

They are working under stringent rules of the Liquor Control Board.
The state tracks every part of the production process from seed to sale.

Avitas and other marijuana businesses have seen the market flip-flop
since last July, when sales began. Retailers couldn't keep enough pot
on the shelves. Supplied by few approved growers early on, stores
were unable to keep up with demand for the newly legal marijuana. Pot
was selling for more than $30 a gram at the cash register.

Now prices have fallen to between $11 and $28 per gram because
there's more marijuana available, according to one industry analysis.
The state has licensed more growers, and the fall harvest flooded the
market with sungrown crop from Eastern Washington.

Average legal retail prices are still higher than those on the
competing black and medical markets. State officials think legal
recreational weed can compete favorably with those other sources if
prices stabilize at around $12 a gram.

The state now has licensed about 380 growers and 100 pot stores. In
Snohomish County, Avitas is among about 16 growers. At least seven
marijuana shops have opened in the county.

Avitas is waiting to see if the Snohomish County Council will shut
down marijuana businesses in certain rural areas, including its
present location. Under pressure from residents in those areas, the
county is to reconsider rules this spring.

The Legislature, meanwhile, is considering more than a dozen bills
that could affect the industry.

Accountability on the farm

Avitas invested about $500,000 to get started, Smith said. Much of
that cost came from complying with government workplace standards,
among other things.

Once the Liquor Board approved the site, Avitas had 15 days during
which regulators looked the other way as the company acquired the
actual plants, which were technically illegal. Each plant was then
given a barcode and entered into the state tracking system.

Smit grows about a dozen strains of marijuana, including indicas,
sativas and hybrids. He knows he has exactly 570 plants. The tracking
requirement of the state has been likened to a winemaker documenting
every grape.

Even waste is accounted for. At Avitas, plants that are to be
disposed of are ground up, mixed with soil and placed in a bin that
is padlocked until it can be hauled to a commercial compost site.

Avitas grows marijuana inside a 4,200-square-foot greenhouse -
smaller than a basketball court.

Smit and Smith believe passers-by should not be able to tell
marijuana is being grown inside. But when the plants begin to flower,
there is a faint smell outside, close to the buildings. Smit said he
hasn't had any complaints and would take measures to control the odor
controls if the smell bothered neighbors.

Avitas harvests about 50 pounds of marijuana a month. The weight of
the harvest is entered into the state system, and the plants are
placed under 24-hour quarantine to give regulators time to make a random check.

The marijuana is then moved to a separate processing building, where
they are line-dried. The buds that comprise sellable product are
hand-trimmed and cured.

Samples are sent to a state-approved lab for analysis. The marijuana
is checked for contaminants, and the potency of the ingredients is measured.

"There are no checks and balances like that on the medical side,"
Smit said. "It's like the Wild West."

While the sale of marijuana for medical use is legal under certain
circumstances, there is no state oversight of the product.

To the store

The marijuana is then weighed, packaged and labeled. Workers at
Avitas follow similar hygiene standards to those for food handlers.
They wear hair nets and latex gloves.

"We're definitely trying to bring professionalism to the industry,"
said employee Jeremy Montgomery, as he packaged the "Chocolope"
strain during a recent tour of the business.

Another Avitas employee, Shane Smullin, previously worked as a
quality inspector on a production line in aerospace. While the jobs
are different, he said, the regulatory requirements have a similar
effect on the work.

"You make sure you're producing exactly what you say you are," he said.

The packaged product, too, must be placed in 24-hour quarantine to
allow the state time for random checks. It then is shipped, in a
state-approved vehicle with a manifest, to the 36 stores which Avitas
supplies. At the stores, the product is entered again into the state
tracking system.

Herbal Nation in Bothell and Kush Mart in Everett are among the local
shops that sell Avitas pot.

"They're our top shelf," said Kush Mart employee Eric Wing, pointing
out the frosty appearance and the sticky texture of Avitas buds.

Why the price is high

Smith said stores are marking up marijuana considerably. Recently,
Avitas has been selling wholesale marijuana to retailers for about $7
a gram. Retailers, he said, are selling it for prices ranging from
about $15 to more than $25 a gram.

Kush Mart co-owner Dmitry Loffe said he tries to keep prices low, but
taxes make it hard for retailers to make money when they compete with
other purveyors of pot who are subject to less tax or none at all.

Smith agrees that taxes put pressure on the profit margin.

First, a 25 percent excise tax is levied on recreational marijuana at
each step of the process - from grower to processor, from processor
to retailer, and from the store to the customer. Avitas gets a break
on the producer-to-processor step because it does both.

Also, the standard state sales tax and the state
business-and-occupation tax apply to recreational marijuana.
Ironically, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service also collects taxes
from marijuana businesses, even though, at the federal level, the
product is illegal.

Smith and other marijuana business owners are calling for reforms to
the tax system so they can lower the overhead that affects prices.
Sellers on the black market obviously don't add taxes to the price of
their wares. Medical marijuana businesses add state sales tax to
their prices, pay the state business-and-occupation tax and pay
federal income tax - but do not pay the special, multi-level
recreational marijuana excise tax.

In the meantime, Smith is coming up with creative ways to survive in
a market of high taxation, fluctuating prices and a glut of product.
He is negotiating what he believes is the industry's first "forward"
contract - agreement to buy future marijuana produce at a price
agreed upon today. It's a common practice in agriculture and other industries.

Smith said he is working on deals with two marijuana farms in Eastern
Washington to buy about 1,000 pounds of marijuana from the coming
summer and fall harvests. He plans to expand Avitas' processing
business by making the sun-grown pot into concentrated-marijuana
products. The deals would also help Avitas tamp down the effect of a
surge in inventory that drives down prices, he said.

Smith thinks Avitas is well positioned to survive the volatile market
in the short-term, but believes changes are needed to stabilize
prices and ensure the viability of the industry.

"It's a regulatory nightmare for the farmers," Smith said. "Marijuana
is an agricultural plant. It should be treated like agriculture."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Feb 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Ellen Nakashima

POLICE SECRETLY SPY ON PHONES

Fla. Case Unravels After Surveillance Is Revealed

Tallahassee - The case against Tadrae McKenzie looked like an easy
win for prosecutors. He and two buddies robbed a small-time pot
dealer of $130 worth of weed using BB guns. Under Florida law, that
was robbery with a deadly weapon, with a sentence of at least four
years in prison.

But before trial, his defense team detected investigators' use of a
secret surveillance tool, one that raises significant privacy
concerns. In an unprecedented move, a state judge ordered the police
to show the device - a cell-tower simulator sometimes called a
StingRay - to the attorneys.

Rather than show the equipment, the state offered McKenzie a plea bargain.

Today, 20-year-old McKenzie is serving six months' probation after
pleading guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor. He got, as one civil
liberties advocate said, the deal of the century. (The other two
defendants also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two years' probation.)

McKenzie's case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use by
local law enforcement of a sophisticated surveillance technology
borrowed from the national security world. It shows how a gag order
imposed by the FBI - on grounds that discussing the device's
operation would compromise its effectiveness - has left judges, the
public and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works.

That secrecy, in turn, has hindered debate over whether the
StingRay's use respects Americans' civil liberties.

"It's a terrible violation of our constitutional rights," asserted
Elaine Harper, McKenzie's grandmother, who raised the young man.
"People need to know - the public needs to know - what's going on."

The StingRay is a box about the size of a small suitcase - there's
also a handheld version - that simulates a cellphone tower. It
elicits signals from all mobile phones in its vicinity. That means it
collects information not just about a criminal suspect's
communications but also about the communications of potentially
hundreds of law-abiding citizens.

The Tallahassee police used the StingRay or a similar device in more
than 250 investigations over a six-year period, from mid-2007 through
early 2014, according to a list of cases compiled by the Tallahassee
Police Department and provided to the American Civil Liberties Union.

That's 40 or so instances a year in a city of 186,000, a surprisingly
high rate given that the StingRay's manufacturer, Harris Corp., has
told the Federal Communications Commission that the device is used
only in emergencies. At least 48 state and local law enforcement
agencies in 20 states and the District of Columbia have bought the
devices, according to the ACLU.

The secrecy surrounding the device's use has begun to prompt a
backlash in cities across the country. In Baltimore, a judge is
pushing back against the refusal of police officers to answer
questions while testifying. In Charlotte, following a newspaper
investigation, the state's attorney is reviewing whether prosecutors
illegally withheld information about the device's use from defendants.

In Tacoma, Wash., after a separate newspaper investigation found that
judges in almost 200 cases had no idea they were issuing orders for
the StingRay, the courts set new rules requiring police to disclose
the tool's use. The state legislature is weighing a bill to regulate
police use of the equipment.

The FBI and Tallahassee police say that the device is used only with
an appropriate court order and that they do not collect the content
of calls or text messages. The FBI also said it retains only location
data that is relevant to an investigation and immediately discards
all other data.

So far, there is virtually no case law on how the Fourth Amendment -
which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures - should apply to
this technology.

Pot purchase gone wrong

The robbery, judging from police reports, legal documents and
interviews, was small-time.

At about 6 p.m. on March 4, 2013, McKenzie, then 18, and two friends
met a young man named Jamal Williams at a local Taco Bell. They had
set up a deal to buy some marijuana from Williams, whom McKenzie had
first met at a party, with the intent of robbing him of the dope.

During the robbery, one of McKenzie's buddies pulled what appeared to
be a 9mm handgun out of his pocket, pointed it at Williams and
demanded "everything you got."

The other friend removed what looked to be a shotgun from the trunk
of a car and leveled it at Williams. "I'm not scared to put a hole in
you," he said, Williams recalled.

Both weapons were BB guns. But they scared Williams enough that he
gave the men the pot, left behind his iPhone and fled in a car driven
by a friend who had escorted him to the Taco Bell.

That evening, Williams reported to police that he had been robbed of
cash and his phone when he tried to buy marijuana from some dealers
he did not know. Later he admitted that he, in fact, was the seller
and assessed the stolen pot's value at $130.

The police had little to go on beyond vague descriptions of the three
men, a license-plate number and a cellphone number that McKenzie had
provided. A check of the tag number turned up nothing. McKenzie had
not given his real name.

The day after the robbery, the police obtained a court order from a
judge to authorize Verizon to hand over data collected from cell
towers that would show the approximate locations where the phone in
question had been used.

Two days after the robbery, shortly after 4 a.m., several police
officers drove to a house at 3197 Springhill Rd., on the south side
of town, and set up surveillance.

About 6 a.m., McKenzie left the house, got into his car and pulled
away. The officers tailed him past Sam's Tires and Repairs, past the
Family Dollar store, past Jerusalem Baptist Church, past Tony's Gas.
Three and a half miles later, they pulled him over. The youth, a
senior looking to graduate, had been on his way to school, which
began at 6:45 a.m.

The police found some marijuana and zip-top bags in the car. They
detained McKenzie and took him to the police station. He confessed,
giving police the names of his two friends and showing investigators
where they lived. All three were charged with robbery with a deadly weapon.

Tracing a phone's location

Months passed. The case dragged along.

In November 2013, after McKenzie's original lawyer dropped out, his
case was assigned to a public defender, Carrie McMullen. Around that
time, the attorney for one of the co-defendants began to wonder: How
did the police figure out that McKenzie was at 3197 Springhill Rd.
that morning?

McMullen's office hired a lawyer with technology expertise. John
Sawicki, the expert, produced a map on which he plotted all the
locations provided by Verizon, and they clumped in three different
areas of town.

Cell-tower data can show general geographical areas where a phone was
used, but "they will not tell you he's in House X," Sawicki said.
"That's how imprecise it is."

In March, the defense team deposed police investigator Robert
Newberry. The lawyers tried to get Newberry to explain how the police
zeroed in on 3197 Springhill Rd. He mentioned the celltower records
and then, under probing, acknowledged that they had not been
sufficient on their own to locate the suspect.

He said a "Sergeant Corbitt" in the department's technical operations
unit had identified the phone's location. "He would have to tell you
how he got to that," Newberry said, referring to Christopher Corbitt,
who handles electronic surveillance operations.

There were other questions about whether the police had reasonable
suspicion to pull McKenzie over. The descriptions Williams gave of
the suspects were vague, and in fact, none closely matched McKenzie's
appearance.

The descriptions fit "two-thirds of the young black males living on
the south side of town," Sawicki said.

Newberry could not fully explain how Corbitt determined the phone's
location. "I can't address it because I don't know the magic behind
it," he said.

In April, the defense team deposed Corbitt. He told the attorneys
that he turned up the address on Springhill Road by running phone
numbers that the suspect's phone had dialed through a subscription
database, called Accurint, that helps law enforcement agencies locate
individuals through data such as phone numbers, property records and
court records.

But how did he know that the phone was in the house at 6 in the
morning? The phone was a "burner" - one not registered under McKenzie's name.

"We do have specific equipment that allows us to . . . direction-find
on the handset, if necessary," Corbitt said.

"What is that, and how does that work?" McMullen asked.

"I can't go into that," he said. "Due to [a] nondisclosure agreement
with the FBI, we're not able to get into the details of how the
equipment operates."

He acknowledged that the device was a cell-tower simulator.

He also acknowledged that the device, whose model name he could not
give, was used to "assist in locating or determining the person in
possession" of the cellphone, and that it could elicit signals from a
target's phone even when the phone was not in use.

"It is not nearly as invasive or as sinister as it is sometimes
characterized to be," he said.

"I so wish that I could tell you how this equipment operates, because
I think I could put so many people at ease," Corbitt said.
"Unfortunately, I am not able to do that."

He said that if the defense wanted more specific information, then he
had "a specific protocol" to follow requiring him to notify the FBI
and the Justice Department.

The Tallahassee police declined to comment for this article.

'100 percent' reliable

In June, in response to a motion for public access by the ACLU, the
state released a transcript from a closed court hearing in 2010
relating to a Tallahassee rape case in which Corbitt testified that
he had used a cell-site simulator to identify a suspect in an
apartment complex. "In essence, we emulate a cellphone tower," he
said. "We force that handset to register with us. We identify that we
have the correct handset and then we're able to - by just merely
direction-finding on the signal emanating from that handset - we're
able to determine a location."

He noted that the equipment "is evaluating all the handsets in the area."

"Using portable equipment," he said, "we were able to actually
basically stand at every door and every window in that complex and
determine, with relative certainty . . . the particular area of the
apartment that that handset was emanating from."

He said the Tallahassee police began using the device in the spring
of 2007. From that point until August 2010, he said, the police had
used it "200 or more times" to locate a cellphone.

How reliable was it? "Truthfully," he said, "100 percent."

In September, McMullen drew up a motion to suppress the evidence
obtained against McKenzie prior to his arrest, alleging that his
Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the use of the StingRay. She
argued that the police had not obtained a warrant based on probable
cause to use the device.

"By scooping up all manner of information from a target cellphone, as
well as nearly all cellphones in the general area, a StingRay device
engages in exploratory rummaging," she wrote.

McMullen also argued that the order the police did obtain not only
failed to meet the requirements of a warrant but was also obtained
without telling the judge that it would be used to operate a StingRay.

Then, in October, McMullen sought a subpoena to compel Corbitt to
show the device in court. In November, Florida Circuit Court Judge
Frank Sheffield held a hearing on the issue.

The state's attorney, Courtney Frazier, argued that details of the
equipment's operation were protected from disclosure under a law
enforcement exception to the state open-records law.

Sheffield broke in. "What right does law enforcement have to hide
behind the rules and to listen in and take people's information like
the NSA?" he said.

Frazier protested that the information about the device was sensitive
and that disclosure could inhibit the police's ability to catch criminals.

"Inhibiting law enforcement's rights are second to protecting mine!"
Sheffield thundered, gesturing with both hands and fixing his gaze on
the prosecutor.

On Dec. 2, Sheffield signed the subpoena forcing Tallahassee police
to show the device they used.

Two days before Corbitt was due to show up with the device, McMullen
received notice of the plea deal from the prosecutor. She had never
gotten such a sweet deal on a case.

The defense attorneys were disappointed that they would not see the
device, but they couldn't refuse the plea bargain.

"How do you not take it?" Sawicki said. "How do you take these kids'
future away?"
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Feb 2015
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Times, LLC.
Contact: yourletters@washingtontimes.com
Website: http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Stephen Dinan

JFK OFFICIALS FILTER FECAL MATTER IN SEARCH FOR DRUGS

2014 Saw 176 'Cavity Conceals'

The federal government is looking for doctors to help monitor
suspected smugglers' bowel movements at John F. Kennedy International
Airport in New York, in a solicitation that sounds like it could be
something out of the Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" program.

In reality it's all a very sanitary process and even includes a
special high-tech toilet to recover the drugs or other contraband
from the other waste passing from the suspected smuggler's system.

But the details, described in a new solicitation for doctors to
assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection, underscore the efforts
smugglers will go to in trying to get their goods into the country,
and the lengths the government will go to try to flush them out.

Doctors must be available round-the-clock in case CBP officers
suspect they have a "swallower," which is what internal drug
smugglers are known as. The doctors are charged with X-raying or
otherwise examining suspects' body cavities, and if drugs are found,
the work order says "the detainee may be held for a monitored bowel
movement (MBM) to wait the passage of the contraband material."

"During the MBM, the detainee will remain in the medical facility
under the care and monitoring of the contractor," CBP said.

Airport Medical Offices at JFK currently holds the contract, which
was last renewed in 2009. The company ignored phone and web messages
seeking comment. The Department of Homeland Security officer in
charge of the contract didn't respond to a request for more details,
but CBP in a statement said the medical program is a key law
enforcement tool that maintains "the highest levels of integrity,
dignity and respect" for all involved.

"CBP regularly intercepts individuals who ingest wrapped packets of
illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, ecstasy,
marijuana or hashish to transport them," the agency said. "CBP
officers apply their keen knowledge, expertise and intelligence to
detect and intercept suspected body cavity concealers at our nation's
ports of entry."

CBP identified 176 "body cavity concealment incidents" in 2014, which
was down from 187 the previous year.

On Thursday CBP announced it had nabbed a man in Texas who tried to
smuggle nearly 3 ounces of heroin hidden in a body cavity into the
U.S. A drug-sniffing dog alerted officials to the man, who had
arrived in a taxi.

"History has shown that people will go to extreme lengths to smuggle
drugs into the country," said Alberto Perez, CBP Port Director in Del Rio.

But Kennedy Airport is the real nexus for swallowers, according to
the New York Daily News, which reported in 2011 that the busy
international facility saw more of them than all other U.S. ports of
entry combined.

The Daily News even profiled the "drug loo," as it's known, and which
CBP officers were thankful for, because they no longer had to go
fishing through the contents of bedpans to find the packets of drugs.

If the drug packets rupture inside a smuggler, they can be deadly,
and the CBP contract proposal requires the medical facility to be
prepared for problems.

The contract raises other concerns, including the potential for a
female smuggler to be pregnant. The proposal says women who are
suspected of having ingested contraband must be given a pregnancy
test before they can be X-rayed.

And the contract underscores the potential danger of dealing with
desperate smugglers, urging the facility to "reduce access to wires,
cables and objects that might be used as a weapon."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Feb 2015
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2015 Sun-Times Media, LLC
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Becky Schlikerman

DOCS INVESTING IN POT

It's OK for Illinois Physicians to Get into the Medical Marijuana
Business- As Long As They Don't Recommend It to Patients

At least three Illinois doctors are getting into the legal medical
marijuana business, according to a review of records of the companies
recently approved to grow and sell marijuana.

The rules say that's OK as long as they don't recommend marijuana to
their patients.

But physicians' involvement in the medical marijuana industry raises
questions about the potential for conflicts of interest.

"We don't like doctors prescribing or directing patients to taking
therapies they're making money on," said Laurie Zoloth a professor of
bioethics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

But, it's not "inherently wrong" for doctors to be involved in this
burgeoning field, she said.

Their medical knowledge could be useful.

"It's not a bad thing for doctors to be involved . . . you just want
it to be separated," Zoloth said.

Katherine Katsoyannis, a licensed Illinois doctor, is an investor in
MedMar and MedMar Rockford, which has been awarded licenses to open
dispensaries in Lake View and northern Illinois.

In a statement released through a spokeswoman, Katsoyannis said she
is "simply an investor" and will not be recommending patients to use
the product.

Katsoyannis owns 10.21 percent of MedMar, the company that plans to
open the Chicago dispensary, records obtained through a Freedom of
Information Act request show.

On Friday, MedMar was denied a Chicago permit needed to operate the
dispensary. A state spokesman did not respond to questions about what
that means for MedMar's state permit.

Mapleglen Care Center LLC was also given permission to open in the
Rockford area. The company's listed manager is Paul L. Manganelli, of
Naperville. He's also a doctor, with a specialty in pain medicine,
working in DuPage County, according to state records and his medical
practice's website.

Manganelli, an investor with Mapleglen, could not be reached.

In a statement, Matt Sobolewski, a Mapleglen spokesman and investor,
said, "Our investorship is made up of a diverse group of
professionals including physicians, attorneys and business owners. We
see great value with physician participation in medical marijuana
dispensaries as their experience in evidence-based medicine makes
them best qualified to provide education and training to care center
staff and patients."

And Progressive Treatment Solutions LLC has been granted a permit to
grow medical marijuana in the area near East St. Louis, records show.

Records show Christine Heck is the company's CEO. Online company
documents identify Heck as a podiatric physician and surgeon who
practices in Chicago and Melrose Park.

Heck and other company officials did not respond to a request for
comment, but their online document described the company as
"medically focused."

"Products and services provided by PTS will be condition specific and
based on the most advanced research presently available," the
document said. The company says it will produce products that won't
require smoking the marijuana including vaporizers, transdermal
patches, tablets, capsules, suppositories and topical products.

A state spokesman said regulators who awarded the business licenses
relied on the clear-cut rules for medical marijuana dispensaries and
cultivation centers.

A dispensary can't "allow a physician to hold a direct or indirect
economic interest in the dispensary if the physician recommends the
use of medical cannabis to qualifying patients or is in a partnership
or other fee or profit-sharing relationship with a physician who
recommends medical cannabis."

Doctors can't examine a patient at the dispensary in order to
diagnose a condition that would allow for the use of medical marijuana.

The law also says doctors can't serve on a dispensary or cultivation
center's board of directors or as an employee.

Katsoyannis said she won't be be violating any of those requirements.

The Mapleglen spokesman said they know the requirements, too.

The boundaries are important.

"We want to trust that the doctor is figuring out the complexity of
the illness and he's not thinking of you as a potential customer for
his product," Zoloth said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Feb 2015
Source: Journal Standard, The (Freeport, IL)
Copyright: 2015 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact: frontdoor@journalstandard.com
Website: http://www.journalstandard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3182
Author: Kirk Muse

MARIJUANA NEVER KILLED ANYONE

I am writing about the not-so-thoughtful Feb. 8 letter from Robert F.
Becker: "Marijuana is not the answer to our problems."

Marijuana is certainly the answer for my chronic pain, which is
caused by my spinal stenosis and spinal scoliosis.

Two of the medications prescribed by my doctor, Meloxicam and
Linsospril, and used as prescribed almost killed me by destroying my
kidneys. My bloodwork number, which is supposed to be greater than
61, was down to 17. If that number had gotten down to 15, I probably
would have died from kidney failure.

All medications have side effects. Marijuana is not really a drug but
rather a plant and natural herb - a natural herb that has never
killed anyone in the 6,000-year history of its use.

Kirk Muse, former Freeport resident
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Feb 2015
Source: Journal Standard, The (Freeport, IL)
Copyright: 2015 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact: frontdoor@journalstandard.com
Website: http://www.journalstandard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3182
Author: Kirk Muse

MARIJUANA NEVER KILLED ANYONE

I am writing about the not-so-thoughtful Feb. 8 letter from Robert F.
Becker: "Marijuana is not the answer to our problems."

Marijuana is certainly the answer for my chronic pain, which is
caused by my spinal stenosis and spinal scoliosis.

Two of the medications prescribed by my doctor, Meloxicam and
Linsospril, and used as prescribed almost killed me by destroying my
kidneys. My bloodwork number, which is supposed to be greater than
61, was down to 17. If that number had gotten down to 15, I probably
would have died from kidney failure.

All medications have side effects. Marijuana is not really a drug but
rather a plant and natural herb - a natural herb that has never
killed anyone in the 6,000-year history of its use.

Kirk Muse, former Freeport resident
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom