Cannabis Corner Transcripts June 23 2015, hosted by Debby Moore, AKA Hemp Lady on http://www.BaconRock.com Tuesdays 8:00 PM. Debby Moore is a world renounded expernt on restoring dignity and honor to the Cannabis Plant.

CANNABIS CORNER – TRANSCRIPTS: June 23, 2015 – Debby Moore, AKA Hemp Lady, CEO Hemp Industries of Kansas, host broadcast on http://www.BaconRock.com
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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 2015
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact:
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154

TEENS’ USE UNALTERED BY LEGAL MEDICAL POT

NEW YORK (AP) - Medical marijuana laws don’t trigger an increase in
teen pot smoking, a new study concludes.

Some opponents of medical marijuana have said that legalizing the
medicinal use of marijuana could send a message to young people that
smoking pot is no big deal, ultimately encouraging them to experiment
with marijuana and harder drugs. Pot smoking by teens has been
increasing, but the new study suggests that medical marijuana laws
are not the reason.

The research showed no significant increase in 21 states with medical
marijuana laws.

“Our findings provide the strongest evidence to date that marijuana
use by teenagers does not increase after a state legalizes medical
marijuana,” lead author Deborah Hasin, a researcher at Columbia
University in New York, said in a statement.

The study, published online Monday by the journal Lancet Psychiatry,
is based on an ongoing government-funded survey of eighth-, 10th- and
12th-graders that asks about marijuana use in the previous month. The
researchers reviewed responses from more than 1 million students in
48 states, from 1991 through 2014.

They found that marijuana use tended to already be higher in states
that went on to adopt medical marijuana laws. But they did not see an
additional spike after the law was passed.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jun 2015
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/tJTLrilV
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
Authors: William J. Bennett and Seth Leibsohn
Note: William J. Bennett was the nation’s first drug czar, the
secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and is the co-author of
“Going to Pot: Why the Rush to Legalize Marijuana Is Harming
America.” Seth Leibsohn is a radio host in Phoenix and chairman of
Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy.

PUBLIC OPINION GOING TO POT

William J. Bennett and Seth Leibsohn: Not So Fast on Legalizing Marijuana

Twenty years ago, drug dealers were seen for what they were -
criminal and dangerous elements in our society. They were shunned by
the mainstream. People who sold marijuana were considered losers, in
the business of harming our children. Parents warned their kids to
stay away from those known to use drugs.

Thanks to the marijuana lobby, what was once scorned is hyped and
celebrated - even as the drug has become more potent, with THC, the
intoxicating chemical, present at much higher levels than in the
1990s. Dealers run state-sanctioned dispensaries, lobby to further
legalize their product and receive positive media coverage when doing so.

The dangers have gone up and the stigma has gone down. Many in the
Republican Party are aiding and abetting in this social collapse.
Recently, two prominent California Republicans, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
and Rep. Tom McClintock, have taken the lead in helping reverse the
long-standing consensus between both parties that marijuana, and
other drugs, should remain illegal. A few of the potential 2016
Republican candidates for president are forcefully against
legalization, but most have been all over the map on this issue.

Yet it is no more a Republican Party or conservative value than it is
a Democratic Party or liberal value to help legalize, and thus expand
the use of, a dangerous product.

Mario Cuomo, the late Democratic governor of New York, spoke out
forcefully against legalization. Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy follows
in his footsteps today. Over the years, others who have opposed
legalization include Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush,
George W. Bush, Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and Jack Kemp, and
think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute and
the Claremont Institute. As Reagan said in 1986, “Drug abuse is not a
so-called victimless crime.” Indeed, it is not. We wish more of our
current elected officials understood that fact.

The science is overwhelmingly clear that marijuana use is harmful to
human health, particularly among children and young adults. As the
American Medical Association stated in 2013 when it came out against
legalization: “Current evidence supports, at minimum, a strong
association of cannabis use with the onset of psychiatric disorders.
Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to harm.” A 2014 study in the
journal Current Addiction Reports found that regular pot use (defined
as once a week), especially among teenagers and young adults, can
lead to cognitive decline, decreased IQ , and poor attention and
memory. This backs up a growing number of studies with similar
findings, including a lengthy 2014 report in the New England Journal
of Medicine, and another report from the same year by Northwestern
Medicine and Massachusetts General-Harvard Medical School, showing a
link between the recreational use of marijuana and significant brain
abnormalities in young adults.

If conservatives believe the efforts to contain marijuana use have
been too expensive or burdensome on our law enforcement and
corrections systems (as is often claimed), we ask them to simply look
at the numbers and costs associated with enforcement of the legal
product they compare it to so often, alcohol.

According to the FBI, arrests and imprisonments for alcohol and
liquor violations (DUIs, drunkenness and liquor law violations)
exceed arrests and imprisonments for all drug violations combined -
by nearly 500,000. Marijuana possession accounts for 40 percent of
the drug violations. Why? One is legal and available, and one is
still - mostly - illegal and less available.

As for any claim of unconstitutionality, there is no argument against
the legal barring of marijuana that does not also apply to heroin,
cocaine and meth. That is why some of the more honest proponents in
the legalization movement will admit that marijuana legalization is
but a first step toward the legalization of all drugs.

Abraham Lincoln said government’s “leading object is to elevate the
condition of men ... to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all.”
Overseeing or encouraging more marijuana use is the last thing a
government trying to elevate the condition of men and clear the path
of laudable pursuits would do. At stake is the safety of our youth,
and that should be one thing both major parties can agree is precious.
__________________________________________________________________________
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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jun 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/ZIpWppgf
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Jakob Rodgers, The Gazette

CANNABIS-BASED OIL USE OK’D

Memorial Hospital to Let Parents Apply Remedy to Kids

Colorado Springs - Parents of children currently using cannabis-based
oils to treat seizures can administer the oils at Memorial Hospital
under a newly approved policy announced Tuesday.

Under the policy, parents must administer the oils themselves and
sign a release before doing so, according to Dan Weaver, a spokesman
for University of Colorado Health, which leases Memorial Hospital.

The issue arose after Memorial Hospital took over all pediatric
operations from Children’s Hospital Colorado on June 4 in the wake of
a wide-ranging state and federal investigation into the two hospital systems.

Children’s Hospital often had allowed parents to administer the oils
in its ward at Memorial Hospital Central, although “patients need to
be really sick,” such as with terminal, chronic or debilitating
diseases, and doctors could prohibit the oils at any time, a
Children’s Hospital spokeswoman said.

But Memorial Hospital had no such policy - until Tuesday.

Despite giving parents the green light to use the oils on its campus,
the statement announcing the policy warned that “parents must
understand that there are risks involved with giving patients CBD oil.”

“Memorial Hospital believes additional research is critically
important to determine the benefits and potential side effects of
cannabinoid oil,” the statement said. “We will continue working with
Children’s Hospital Colorado to monitor any research on the safety
and efficacy of the oil and will assess our policies accordingly.”

Most therapeutic oils are considered hemp because they have no more
than .3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is the substance
that gives marjiuana users a high.

Marijuana, by contrast, has more THC.
__________________________________________________________________________
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receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jun 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/Qo1T60ZW
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Keith Stroup
Note: Keith Stroup is an attorney and founder of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

COATS VS. DISH DECISION IS A CALL FOR REAL CHANGE

Many observers were shocked and saddened when Brandon Coats, a
quadriplegic who is authorized to use medical marijuana under
Colorado law, was fired from his job with Dish Network in 2010 after
a positive drug test. Dish failed to make an exception for Coats, who
used marijuana while off duty to control his seizures, and the
company insisted on his being fired, leaving Coats no choice but to
challenge this issue in court.

Specifically, Coats claimed that his conduct should have been
permitted under the state’s Lawful Off-Duty Activities Statute, which
makes it an unfair and discriminatory labor practice to discharge an
employee based on the employee’s “lawful,” away-from-work activities.
But the trial court, followed by the Court of Appeals and now the
Colorado Supreme Court, have all ruled that the statute only protects
conduct that is legal under both state and federal law - and
therefore offers no job protection to Coats.

“Therefore, employees who engage in an activity, such as medical
marijuana use, that is permitted by state law but unlawful under
federal law are not protected by the statute,” Justice Allison H. Eid
wrote in the opinion.

This case highlights one of the most pressing issues that needs to be
addressed in the states that have legalized medical cannabis use as
well as the states that have adopted full legalization for all
adults. Although employees are protected from arrest and prosecution
under state law by these various laws, they remain vulnerable to
employment discrimination in almost all states.

Simply put, if an employer wants to insist on what they frequently
call a “drug-free workplace,” they are legally permitted to do that -
regardless of the unfairness this policy may cause, because we must
note that they do not apply those same standards to off-job alcohol
consumption or the use of prescription drugs.

Most Americans would strongly support the right of an employer to
fire anyone who comes to work in an impaired condition. But smoking
marijuana leaves one mildly impaired only for about 90 minutes.
Certainly smoking marijuana in the evening or on the weekend would
have no impact on the employee who comes to work the following day.

What we really need is for employers in these legalized states to
become responsible corporate citizens and to do the right thing: Stop
penalizing employees, absent a showing of impairment on the job. But
without that voluntary shift in policy, the obligation is now on
those of us who favor marijuana legalization to go back to the
legislatures in states that have legalized cannabis, either for
medical use or for all adults, and enact appropriate job protections
for those who use marijuana legally under state law.

Before being allowed to fire an employee who tests positive for THC,
the employer must be required to demonstrate on-the-job impairment.
Just as we do not permit someone to be fired for their gender,
religion or race, neither should we permit an employee to be fired
simply because they elect to use marijuana legally under state law,
without a showing of actual on-the-job impairment.

Otherwise, we are requiring many medical-use patients to choose
between relieving their pain and suffering and keeping their
employment. And we are allowing employers to fire good, hard-working,
loyal employees for off-the-job activities that are totally unrelated
to their job performance.

That is simply unfair, and it cannot be allowed to stand. So let’s
get to work and fix this problem.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jun 2015
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
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.
Author: Phyllis McKinney
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n312/a09.html

FOLLOW THE MONEY ON MARIJUANA OPPOSITION

Doctors can weigh in on medical marijuana when they get their own
house in order, meaning the addiction, deaths and black market
business (rampant among seniors) caused by prescription drugs.

These issues are far more serious and dangerous than any problems
caused by the natural substance, marijuana.

Could the real opposition be financial?

Phyllis McKinney

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

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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jun 2015
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Copyright: 2015 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Author: David Downs

A TECTONIC SHIFT FOR MARIJUANA

With a Landslide Vote, the California Assembly Passed Sensible
Medical Pot Regulations. This Is What the End of a Drug War Looks Like.

California’s billion-dollar medical cannabis industry stands a good
chance of getting its first-ever state-level regulations this year.
Assembly Bill 266 passed by a landslide vote - 62-8 - on the Assembly
floor on June 4, and experts say it faces decent odds of passing the
state Senate and being signed by Governor Jerry Brown.

If that happens, California will begin regulating the cultivation and
distribution of medical cannabis statewide, as called for by voters
nineteen years ago when they passed Proposition 215 and kicked off
the modern era of medical pot. “We watched history getting made,”
said Nate Bradley, lobbyist for the California Cannabis Industry
Association, referring to the Assembly floor vote. “The votes came
out and it was just a powerhouse - boom, 50. Then it went to 62. Even
some ‘no’ votes flipped. That many votes is nothing but a win.”

AB 266 is an unprecedented compromise - the merging of one
police-crafted bill and one that was more industry-leaning. It is
co-authored by Assemblymembers Rob Bonta (D-Alameda), Ken Cooley
(D-Rancho Cordova), and Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles).
The bill spreads regulatory authority over seven state agencies, with
oversight by the governor’s office. It creates twenty specific
business licenses for the commercial medical cannabis industry.
“Local jurisdictions were onboard - [along with] industry, patients,
the reform movement, unions, the medical board; it’s really kind of
historic that happened,” said Hezekiah Allen, director the Emerald
Growers Association, which represents small pot farmers.

Bonta said in an interview that his bill would benefit East Bay
patients and collectives by “fully bringing the industry out of the
shadows.” The bill also could end the federal crackdown by installing
the strong state controls that the US Department of Justice has
called for. “By implementing this stronger regime throughout
California, it adds a greater chance and a higher level of protection
against that type of federal intervention we’ve seen in the past,”
Bonta told me.

AB 266 now heads to the Senate, where medical pot regulations have
already passed two key litmus tests. Last year, a regulatory bill
from then-Senator Lou Correa cleared the Senate before it died in the
Assembly. The Senate also voted this year to pass pot regulations
from Senator Mike McGuire (D-Eureka). “I think that those are good
signs,” Bonta said. “I think there’s some inter-house dynamics that
can get tricky. This is when things get a little more difficult.”

Regulations could cost $10 million annually, but would be financed
mostly by licensing fees. There are an estimated 40,000 cultivation
sites throughout California, and an estimated 4,000 medical marijuana
dispensaries.

We’re also seeing unprecedented buy-in from California’s sprawling
bureaucracy, and the Brown administration. The state Board of
Equalization has employees assigned full-time to a task force on
cannabis taxation. The state water board is working on water
regulations. And other state agencies are mobilizing as well. “From
what we’ve been told, divisions are already preparing,” Bradley said
of the state agencies. “Everyone has people assigned to look at this issue.”

The bill also creates a first-ever oversight role for the governor’s
office to ensure accountability and sort out regulatory overlap. “The
governor was part of the conversation through which the bills were
merged,” explained Allen of the Emerald Growers Association.

Opposition to AB 266 is mostly coming from hardcore marijuana
activists and law enforcement groups, which either want fewer
regulations or marijuana to remain illegal.

AB 266 would have mixed effects on patient rights. The legislation
exempts patients “who do not provide, donate, sell, or distribute
cannabis to any other person or entity” from having to get a license,
as well as primary caregivers who have up to five patients.

But the bill also continues the patchwork of bans and restrictions on
cultivation and distribution that have been enacted by about half of
California’s cities. Patients in places such as Fresno and
Pleasanton, as a result, would remain behind enemy lines.

But statewide rules should ease local bans over time, Bradley said.
Local pot industry tax revenue is “also going to be another huge
motivating factor,” he said.

“It won’t address the patchwork overnight, but it will start
standardizing the elements of regulations [that] locals can
customize,” Allen added.

All in all, a tectonic shift in California policy is occurring. “A
revolution is underway in how we talk about cannabis and nowhere is
that revolution more obvious than in the legislature,” said Allen.

“We’re really excited with where this bill is,” Bonta said. “I think
it’s historic. It’s unique. We’ve never seen a bill of this nature on
this topic have this much momentum at this stage in the process.”

If California sorts out its regulations in 2015, the stage will be
set for adult-use legalization next year in the eighth largest
economy in the world, thereby bringing the century-long war on
marijuana to an end.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jun 2015
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: letters@globeandmail.com
Website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Page: A10

HOW THE (POT) COOKIE CRUMBLES

There’s this great natural pain remedy you can legally buy in Canada.
It’s called salicylic acid. One source is willow bark. You boil the
bark into a tea and drink it, as the ancient Greeks did. If you want,
you can also source salicylic acid from castoreum, an anal secretion
of the North American beaver, as was often done in the 18th century.

Alternately, if you like things a little more modern, you can ingest
it in a modified pill form. You know it as Aspirin.

The point is, the government lets Canadians take salicylic acid in
various forms because it recognizes that it is a valued medicinal
ingredient. The government also reluctantly lets Canadians use
marijuana because the courts have ruled that it is a legitimate
treatment for some medical conditions.

But for arbitrary reasons, the Harper government decided the only way
anyone could legally take legal medical marijuana was the old way - by
drying and smoking it. Extracting the active ingredient and putting it
in a lotion, a pill or some other edible form, like a cookie, was
illegal and could result in a prison sentence.

That anomaly has now been rectified by the Supreme Court of Canada. It
ruled last week that the Harper government’s restrictions on medical
marijuana violated the right “to life, liberty and security of the
person.”

Those are big words in defence of a pot cookie. But the court is
right. The government’s aversion to alternative forms of medical
marijuana comes in spite of Health Canada findings that the oral
ingestion of pot can “be appropriate or beneficial for certain
conditions,” as the court noted. As well, it’s well known that smoking
pot, like smoking tobacco, presents its own health risks.

Furthermore, Ottawa has never shown that limiting medical pot’s intake
to the bong has a justifiable legal goal, such as curbing the drug’s
diversion into the illegal market.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose said she was “outraged” by the decision
because it “normalizes a drug where there is no clear clinical
evidence that it is, quote-unquote, a medicine.”

But the law already says that pot is a legal medicine. It makes no
sense to have a rule that legalizes a drug - while threatening someone
with jail unless they use it in its most archaic form.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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MAP posted-by: Matt

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Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jun 2015
Source: Rocky Mountain Collegian, The (Colorado State U, CO Edu)
Copyright: 2015 Rocky Mountain Collegian
Contact: letters@collegian.com
Website: http://www.collegian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1370
Author: Erik Petrovich

MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS: BE GLAD YOU DO NOT LIVE IN KANSAS

Something terrible and heartless is happening east of our pot-friendly
state.

Shona Banda is a marijuana activist who attributes her recovery from
Crohn’s disease to her use of cannabis. Banda used a vaporizer to
collect cannabis resin, with which she would create cannabis oil
capsules for her personal use.

In April, Banda’s home was raided after her son spoke out against his
drug prevention program at school. Her son was taken into protective
custody and her medicine was confiscated because of her use of the
drug within her private residence.

After a two month battle through the gauntlet of the legal system,
Banda turned herself in Monday for arrest on charges of possession,
cultivation and distribution of cannabis, as well as child
endangerment and possession of paraphernalia, according to the Garden
City Telegram.

Now she faces the highest punishments in her state because of its
archaic laws about “the reefer.”

Banda will be made an example of, have no doubt about that. In a state
where the culture is so adverse to even the mention of drugs that a
boy who spoke out against his drug prevention class can be taken away
from his mother, no Kansas politician would dare pass up the chance to
send out a message to all the dope fiends and pot heads that so plague
their state that they are hard on crime.

In fact, in an interview with Truth in Media, Banda said, “I do
believe that they’re trying to make an example out of me.”

If she had lived an hour to the west, Banda would be able to live her
life without harassment and without the threat of imprisonment.

But she does not. She lives in Garden City, Kansas.

Banda is a mother whose only crime was trying to make her life better,
and her only out was through illegal means. Instead of being taken
into protective custody by the state, like her son, Banda is instead
trapped by the ideologies of a very anti-progressive and a very
disturbing society.

I highly doubt Dorothy would have been chanting “There’s no place like
home” if she had been yearning for present-day Kansas.

Kansas is a state that has no qualms about destroying a life, and
those around it, so that it might be able to say, “Look! We got
another pothead!” and pat themselves on the back while the victim of a
victimless crime rots out of the public view.

In Kansas, there is nothing wrong with the destruction of Shona
Banda’s family.

We must lend our aid to the state, as people and as activists, for no
other reason than to possibly drill some sense of reason into its
aggressive and thoughtless actions against this family.

Shona Banda’s gofundme page has accrued $25,000 more than the original
$15,000 that was asked for, but donations are not enough. If you have
family in Kansas who believe in Banda’s cause, urge them to contact
their senator or representative.

There is nothing wrong with treating a disease with medicine that
works, and it is past time that Kansas realizes this.

Our neighbor cannot go on crushing its people for using cannabis to
cope with their illnesses.
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Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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MAP posted-by: Matt

Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jun 2015
Source: Rocky Mountain Collegian, The (Colorado State U, CO Edu)
Copyright: 2015 Rocky Mountain Collegian
Contact: letters@collegian.com
Website: http://www.collegian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1370
Author: Erik Petrovich

MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS: BE GLAD YOU DO NOT LIVE IN KANSAS

Something terrible and heartless is happening east of our pot-friendly
state.

Now she faces the highest punishments in her state because of its
archaic laws about “the reefer.”

In fact, in an interview with Truth in Media, Banda said, “I do
believe that they’re trying to make an example out of me.”

If she had lived an hour to the west, Banda would be able to live her
life without harassment and without the threat of imprisonment.

But she does not. She lives in Garden City, Kansas.

I highly doubt Dorothy would have been chanting “There’s no place like
home” if she had been yearning for present-day Kansas.

In Kansas, there is nothing wrong with the destruction of Shona
Banda’s family.

We must lend our aid to the state, as people and as activists, for no
other reason than to possibly drill some sense of reason into its
aggressive and thoughtless actions against this family.

There is nothing wrong with treating a disease with medicine that
works, and it is past time that Kansas realizes this.

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jun 2015
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Column: The Week in Weed
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

TAKE ME TO CHURCH

The city of Arcata has declared victory in its war on the megawatt.
In a June 16 press release, Environmental Services Director Mark
Andre announced that the city’s High Energy Use Tax, implemented in
2013 to discourage indoor marijuana grows, has paid off the $600,000
it cost for Pacific Gas and Electric to incorporate the tax into its
utility bill collection.

The city expects to continue pulling in around $25,000 a month from
the remaining 76 high energy users. That’s significantly less than
originally anticipated, but Mayor Michael Winkler said in a statement
that the purpose of the tax is to reduce the amount of energy being
used, not to collect money.

The total monthly electrical use from Arcata’s 8,500 meters has
dropped by more than 1.3 million kilowatt hours since the tax went
into effect - the equivalent use of more than 1,400 average households.

Recent votes are fueling speculation that longtime California Sen.
Dianne Feinstein is softening her previously staunch anti-medical
marijuana stance.

Feinstein voted in favor of allowing veterans to use medical
marijuana but, more recently, she voted against legislation that
would stop federal meddling in states with medical marijuana
programs. The Chronicle’s Debra J. Saunders surmised in a March
column that Feinstein is the “linchpin” when it comes to changing
marijuana law at the federal level.

Indiana has become home to the country’s First Church of Cannabis, a
congregation that, according to Yahoo News, “preaches the power of
pot to heal the world.”

While marijuana has millions of unaffiliated followers, it apparently
took the IRS until 2015 to clear a house of weed worship for
nonprofit status, making it the first temple to toking in the U.S.

The church is led by a 59-year-old carpenter (ahem) named Bill Levin,
who has collected more than $100,000 in an online crowdfunding
campaign to lease a building.

The church’s tenets range from specific (No. 8: “Do not be a ‘troll’
on the Internet”; No. 4: don’t drink soda) to more broad panacea (No.
3: “Help others when you can”). The church’s general golden-rule
focus is exemplified in the No. 1 tenet: “Don’t be an asshole.”

Marijuana is illegal in Indiana, and, according to the Marijuana
Policy Project, “Possession of even a single joint is punishable by
up to a year of incarceration and a fine of up to $5,000” with a
prior drug offense.

The Santa Ana Police Department is investigating several of its own
officers after a video surfaced showing one of them apparently
munching on marijuana edibles during a dispensary raid.

A KTLA segment featured video taken from inside the dispensary of an
officer reading an apparent edible’s label before taking a bite of it
and giving a thumbs up to fellow officers. Officers smashed the
business’ doors with a battering ram on May 26 and tried to dismantle
the dispensary’s surveillance system. Remaining video shows them
playing darts and, according to an attorney, threatening and
intimidating the dispensary manager, who uses a wheelchair.

A department spokesperson told the LA Times that “it’s not uncommon
for officers to eat their own snacks while they are at the scene of a
lengthy investigation,” and added they will be tested for drugs.

The pot headline of the week comes from Alaska’s JuneaEmpire.com:

As police make big marijuana bust, alleged farmer escapes in skiff, swearing.
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jun 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: Herbert Fuego
Column: Ask A Stoner

WILL FORIA OIL GET ME HIGH DOWN THERE?

Dear Stoner: I just heard about Foria, some marijuana oil claiming to
enhance a female’s sex life. Is it basically female Viagra that also
gets me high down there?

Brittany

Dear Brittany: I’m still looking for a girlfriend who will help me
with hands-on research, but reviews of Foria describe it as more of a
sex enhancer than a magic arousal lube. According to Foria’s website,
the potion is made with coconut oil and solventless cannabis oil, so
a two-milligram serving sprayed in your mouth will eventually give
you a high similar to that of tinctures or edibles - but its main
area of application is downstairs. Women who’ve used Foria describe
it as having moderately to significantly enhanced their sex lives
while providing new sensations in bed - both with a partner and
riding solo. However, for the most part, their vaginas were left
disappointingly sober. To Foria’s credit, its website says the oil’s
effects are more about getting you off than getting you high; while
some people use it as lubricant, for maximum effect it should be
applied to your nether parts thirty minutes before you have sex. And
even if it’s not as uplifting as Viagra, at the very worst, it’s a
jar of edible sex oil that you can spray in your mouth for a good buzz.

Dear Stoner: I saw an interesting program about the Charlotte’s Web
strain. Has it ever been used for people with Parkinson’s disease?

David

Dear David: Strains with high amounts of cannabidiol - a
non-psychoactive component of marijuana - have created something of a
truce between medical marijuana activists and prohibitionists, who
both agree that anything that helps sick kids is worth supporting. We
featured the Colorado Springs-born Charlotte’s Web in a cover story
last year; the strain is named after Charlotte Figi, a child whose
epileptic seizures severely decreased after using cannabidiol
extractions of the strain. It became so well known that Florida’s
medical marijuana bill was named after it.

While there is strong support for what cannabidiol can do for
epileptic patients, the jury is still out regarding Parkinson’s
disease. A 2004 study showed cannabis helped alleviate general
symptoms by more than 45 percent - but that was before cannabidiol
extractions were used (patients orally consumed dried leaves). A 2014
study noted that 300 milligrams daily of cannabidiol might improve
quality of life for Parkinson’s patients, but more research and
larger sample sizes were needed. So has it been used by people with
PD? Absolutely. But as is so often the case with the federally
illegal plant, science has yet to provide a definitive answer as to
its effectiveness.
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jun 2015
Source: Reno News & Review (NV)
Column: Let Freedom Ring
Copyright: 2015, Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact: renoletters@newsreview.com
Website: http://www.newsreview.com/issues/reno/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2524
Author: Brendan Trainor

THE SILK ROAD TO NOWHERE

A federal judge recently sentenced a 31-year-old man with no criminal
record to life in prison for running a website.

Russ Ulbricht ran the Silk Road on the dark net. Many don’t know that
Google-style search engines only sweep 30 percent of the internet.
The other 70 percent is accessible on The Onion Router (TOR) through
a freely downloadable browser. The dark web is perfectly legal, used
for legitimate research purposes. The dark web is anonymous, as the
digital packets are rerouted over and over through servers in multiple nations.

The dark net has its illicit side, however. There are assassination
sites and child porn and hacker sites. But Ulbricht was not running
that kind of site. Ulbricht is an Agorist.

Agorism is a branch of libertarian anarchy that builds voluntary
alternative markets to provide a way for people to exchange forbidden
but desired items. Agorists want to decrease the violence in society
by making non-violent black market transactions between willing
buyers and sellers as safe and secure as possible. If you buy the
product peer-to-peer on your computer instead of in a dark alley with
a criminal drug dealer, the black market violence caused by
prohibition will be significantly lessened.

The Silk Road website offered a Bitcoin encrypted exchange that
consumers ultimately controlled by rating their satisfaction
publicly, like Uber does.

Silk Road specifically forbade any vendors offering child pornography
or murder or fraud. There was a vibrant forum to discuss Agorist
ideas. The owner of the Silk Road called himself “Dread Pirate
Roberts,” based on the Princess Bride character who said he was just
one of many DPRs. Silk Road had over 100,000 customers purchasing
illegal drugs, banned gun products, and other illicit goods.

Then Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, saw the Silk Road website and
was shocked-shocked!-to find this sort of thing right in the open,
and demanded DPR’s head. DPR was tracked down through an old email
address that linked Ulbricht to him. Ulbricht was arrested in a
coffee shop with a laptop containing a journal that linked him to
Silk Road and the DPR alter ego. That was enough to convict.

There were allegations Ulbricht betrayed his principles to order a
hit on a former employee, but they were never presented at his trial.
There are corruption charges against some of the investigators for
stealing Bitcoins for themselves.

Worse than the conviction was the sentencing on May 29. Judge
Katherine Forest shockingly gave Ulbricht a life sentence for a first
offense. The prosecutors produced parents who claimed their child
overdosed on drugs purchased on Silk Road. But the defense produced
evidence that Silk Road actually saved lives by reducing drug gang
turf wars and violent police action. The prosecution’s theory would
charge Craigslist because someone you met there gave you an STD.

In fact, government nannies regularly try to take down websites that
facilitate sex work. If they succeed, they only increase the violence
in sex workers’ lives. Government laws enforce a pain-oriented
society driven by a Calvinist ethic that values work as an end in
itself, not as a means to provide for the needs of individuals,
including erotic and consciousness-altering needs. The judge saw only
the law, not the harms caused by the law.

The dark web, 3-D printing, and cyber currencies are here to stay.
They will outlast the state. If Dread Pirate Roberts is condemned,
many new Dread Pirates will appear-indeed, they already have.
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Fri, 19 Jun 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Stacy Cowley

TRADE SHOW IN NEW YORK FOR A TRADE NOT YET LEGAL

A question hung in the air at the Cannabis World Congress and
Business Exposition at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in
Manhattan on Thursday: How do you show off your wares in a place
where actually using them would be illegal?

The sales pitches were carefully honed.

“These are for tobacco only,” Raj Tiwary, a vice president for the
vaping accessory maker Ultimate Vapor Source, said repeatedly, while
demonstrating a line of pipes and pens. “Tobacco and dry herbs.”

Nearby, a set of self-watering pots housed several thriving tomato
plants - “the pots work well for all kinds of plants,” Marc Lippman,
the co-owner of Aqua Camel, emphasized - and a $2,000 vacuum sealing
machine showed off its power by endlessly reinflating and resealing a
pouch stuffed with spinach. One row over, Vaughn Fitzgerald, a
representative of Desiccare, illustrated his company’s packaging
system for preserving organic matter.

“You put your weed in here - in theory - and seal it up, and it’ll
stay pristine for the next 15 years.” Asked about the sample “weed,”
which looked like florists’ moss, Mr. Fitzgerald laughed and replied,
“It’s New York, hon. We all gotta play the game a little bit.”

The mood was light, but for many in the room, the gathering was
serious business. Marijuana is now legal in some form in more than 20
states, and next year, New York will join the list, with the state’s
first medical marijuana dispensaries scheduled to open in January.
Entrepreneurs in a wide range of industries see a rare window of
opportunity. About 2,000 attendees, many in suits and ties, came to
the show to network and to check out new products.

The goods ranged from the offbeat, like hemp chews for dogs, to
pharmaceutical-grade equipment, drawing attention from those planning
to invest millions in their marijuana ventures. A carbon-dioxide
extraction system from Apeks Supercritical drew admiring looks from
Andrei Bogolubov, the executive vice president for PalliaTech, a
medical technology company that has applied for one of the five state
dispensary licenses New York plans to grant.

Mr. Bogolubov’s company, based in Sea Cliff, N.Y., has leased a
former Pfizer plant to use for its operations, and it is eyeing a
3,000-square-foot space in Downtown Brooklyn. He likes how wide open
the industry is: “Anyone who is nationally or federally regulated
can’t play, and the institutional money has to stay on the sidelines.
That’s a rare opportunity for small businesses to be at the forefront
of a vast new market.”

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are laying the foundations for their
businesses and waiting for the law to catch up. Jill Alikas St.
Thomas, the founder of the Mad Hatter Coffee and Tea Company in
Colorado, came to the show to find a New York licenser for her
beverage line, which is available in six states. New York’s strict
medical marijuana law does not permit the kind of edible products she
makes, but she is optimistic that will change.

New York trade shows are a bit different from those in Colorado.
“There, we have trays of samples - light doses, obviously,” she said.
“Our infusion is really clean and pure. People ask, ‘Is there really
THC in here?’ Ten minutes later, they wander back past looking spacey
and go, ‘Oh yeah, it’s definitely in here.’ “

Bridging the East and West Coast business cultures was one of the
goals in bringing the Cannabis World show to New York, according to
Dan Humiston, the president of the International Cannabis
Association, an industry trade group.

“This business thrives in places like Colorado and Washington, but it
doesn’t have footholds here,” he said. “New York is the center of the
business world. People here need to understand this industry. There
are so many ancillary businesses, and so much market potential.”

The show was full of small signs that the industry is becoming a
mainstream one. Lawyers, consultants and a smattering of financial
services companies - a crucial missing link in an industry that most
banks won’t touch - roamed the floor and staffed exhibit booths. The
industry even has a new, Washington-based trade research firm, New
Frontier, which produces reports for business owners and investors.

But even the most button-down businesses couldn’t resist a few nods
to the market’s more countercultural past. A display of free brownies
drew a steady stream of curious attendees to the booth of Medbox, a
medical technology company that makes dispensing systems and other devices.

“We didn’t want to give away pens,” Evan Forsythe said. Informed that
the brownies were “regular and traditional,” a few people wandered
off, grumbling.

“We need to put up a sign,” Mr. Forsythe said. “One that says, ‘Come
see us in two weeks in Denver.’ “
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 19 Jun 2015
Source: Dayton Daily News (OH)
Copyright: 2015 Dayton Daily News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/7JXk4H3l
Website: http://www.daytondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/120
Author: Steven A. Joyce, Community Contributor
Note: Steven A. Joyce, a resident of Middletown since 1949, is
retired from AT&T.

LEGALIZING MARIJUANA OFFERS BENEFITS TO SOCIETY

The recent trend to legalize marijuana (aka “pot,” “weed,” and maybe
other names with which I, as a non-user, am unfamiliar) has aroused
much furor. Even some in law enforcement and medicine now question
the wisdom of continuing policies that seem only to have exacerbated
a problem arising mainly from propaganda-induced hysteria (e.g.,
“Reefer Madness” and its progeny). So, let’s sort out the main issues.

Addiction: Marijuana is described as an addictive drug, despite that
most users exhibit no clear signs of dependence. Many puff a joint
now and then, but have been known to put it aside for months at a
time. Still, some individuals are unusually susceptible to addiction;
as with those prone to alcoholism, even minimal exposure triggers dependence.

But we now treat alcoholism as a health issue, not a crime. We don’t
punish mere consumption of alcohol, but only dangerous behavior
resulting therefrom. Why should we treat marijuana differently? Doing
so hasn’t solved problems, but rather has created them, by
overflowing prisons and burdening many otherwise harmless and
productive people with criminal records. (Users’ money supports
crime? Easy fix:Legalize pot!)

Gateway drug:It’s “a known fact” that marijuana use leads to use of
more dangerous drugs - except that this “fact” isn’t borne out in
reality. Granted, many hard-drug users first experiment with
marijuana; but to conclude that one causes the other is fallacious.
Closer scrutiny reveals why: Most marijuana users are content with
their substance of choice, and never “graduate” to truly dangerous
drugs. The bogus cause-effect claim is thus refuted.

But consider the law itself, based on the claim that marijuana is
dangerously addictive, when it’s arguably less so than legal tobacco
and alcohol. For nearly a century, children have been warned of
marijuana’s supposed horrors; yet, motivated by curiosity,
rebelliousness or peer pressure, many have tried it anyway. Finding
first-hand that marijuana isn’t nearly as dangerous as claimed, kids
lose any credence and respect they might have had for authorities
making that claim.

Problems with legalization: Would marijuana legalization introduce
any bad effects, such as reckless indulgence and crime-ridden
neighborhoods? Probably no more than what we have already. Repeal of
alcohol prohibition was followed by a transient surge in use, but
this subsided as the novelty faded. And obviously, legalizing
marijuana would drastically reduce its contribution to criminality.

Safeguards: Legal or not, marijuana is an intoxicant. It shouldn’t be
used before or while driving, operating machinery, using weapons or
making important decisions. Production and distribution should be
regulated, and facilities fenced. Retail outlets should be zoned and
restricted as are liquor stores, with sales taxed to recover
government expenses. Bootlegging should remain illegal. The main
hurdle, I think, will be getting our dysfunctional federal government
to legalize nationally, so that banks’ facilitation of the business
is no longer hobbled by fear of violating federal law and regulation.
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jun 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

RECOGNIZE MEDICAL CANNABIS

In 2014, Congress quietly ended the federal government’s prohibition
on medical cannabis with a provision buried in the 1,603-page federal
spending bill, The Los Angeles Times reported at the time. The rule
says that states where medical cannabis is legal would no longer need
to worry about federal drug agents raiding retail operations and
prohibits agents from doing so. The change was prompted by bipartisan
supporters. The change, however, does nothing to protect patients who
use medical cannabis because the scientifically flawed and old
federal law, favored by the Drug Enforcement Agency, still considers
all cannabis a dangerous, addictive drug, with no medical use.

This year, for the first time ever, the Senate has joined the House
in calling for a schedule reclassification for medical cannabis -
from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 - acknowledging that it does have
medical uses. In March, the Democratic and Republican senators
introduced the “Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect
States Act,” which would also direct the federal government to stop
prosecuting dispensaries in states that have legalized marijuana for
medical use, just as the provision in the spending bill did. The law
would allow cannabidiol imports to help patients with epilepsy and
seizure disorders, and allow Veterans Affairs doctors to prescribe
medical cannabis.

Despite the bipartisan support, (not to mention petitions from
governors, state attorneys general, police groups, medical groups,
researchers and activists) the bill might be shut down by one man:
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is chairman of the powerful
Senate Judiciary Committee, where the Senate bill was sent. Grassley
has said he supports research into medical uses of marijuana, but
won’t support the bill because he doesn’t want cannabis changed from
a Schedule 1 drug. (Of course, research can’t happen until that
reclassification is made.) His “argument,” as reported by the Des
Moines Register: “Recent studies suggest marijuana use by young
people can cause long-term and possibly permanent damage to brain
development.” Which completely ignores the medical applications, of
which there are many, and focuses on “recreational” use by teens.
Which is to say, Grassley is ignoring the entire, actual content of
the bill, which again, has to do with medicine.

It’s beyond frustrating to have non-scientists and non-medical people
such as Grassley and DEA officials in Washington D.C., and the
Washington state Liquor Control Board members here at home, deciding
what policy should be regarding medical cannabis.

Congress needs to collectively override Grassley and get the bill passed.

The president, the attorney general and/or the DEA can also change
the classification, but Congress might as well, since the bill has
been introduced.

Of hundreds of examples of why this law needs changing, here’s one:
This week the Colorado state Supreme Court ruled 6-0 that a medical
cannabis patient who was fired after failing a drug test cannot get
his job back, citing the federal law. The worker, Brandon Coats, is a
quadriplegic who uses cannabis to calm violent muscle spasms.

Coats, a telephone operator, was fired by Dish Network after failing
a 2010 drug test. The company agreed that Coats wasn’t high on the
job, but said it has a zero-tolerance drug policy.

Dish Network applauded this ruling, although it’s difficult to
understand why: They lost a good worker, and good telephone operators
are hard to find.

Change the federal classification of cannabis and let the states get
on with research, and helping people, which in turn will lead
businesses, such as Dish Network, to rethink their “zero-tolerance
drug policy.” Because taking medicine, and not being high at work,
shouldn’t get one fired.
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Sat, 20 Jun 2015
Source: Times-Herald, The (Vallejo, CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Times-Herald
Contact: opinion@timesheraldonline.com
Website: http://www.timesheraldonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/993
Author: Paul Armentano

FACTS, NOT ‘STIGMA,’ SHOULD DRIVE MARIJUANA POLICY

In their op-ed article against cannabis legalization (June 17, “What
happened to the pot stigma?”), former drug czar William J. Bennett
and Seth Leibsohn yearn for a time when shaming and fear-mongering,
not facts, drove the marijuana policy debate in America. Those days
are largely over.

Bennett and Leibsohn blame the “marijuana lobby” for re-shaping the
way Americans think about the cannabis plant and the public policies
governing it. But the reality is that voters’ views on pot have
evolved in recent years based on both the failures of marijuana
prohibition and the success of its legalization and regulation. For
decades, those opposed to amending cannabis criminalization warned
that any significant change in marijuana policy would lead to a
plethora of unintended consequences. Yet the initial experience in
Colorado and Washington, in addition to many other states’
deep-rooted experiences regulating the production and distribution of
marijuana for therapeutic purposes, has shown these fears to be misplaced.

For example, neither the imposition of statewide medical marijuana
legalization nor the establishment of dispensaries is associated with
increases in violent crimes, burglary or property crimes, according
to the available literature. A federally commissioned study,
appearing in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, determined
that there are “no observed associations between the density of
medical marijuana dispensaries and either violent or property crime
rates.” A second paper, published last year in the journal PLOS One,
concluded that legalizing medical marijuana access at the state level
“is not predictive of higher crime rates and may be related to
reductions in rates of homicide and assault.”

Similarly, incidences of violent crime in Denver, the epicenter of
Colorado’s commercial marijuana industry, fell significantly
following the opening of retail marijuana businesses in 2014. Between
Jan. 1 and April 30 last year, violent crime and property crime
dropped 10.6 percent compared with that same span one year earlier.

Liberalized marijuana laws also are not predictive of upticks in
overall cannabis use by young people. Authors of a federally
commissioned study published just this past week in Lancet Psychiatry
assessed the relationship between state medical marijuana laws and
rates of self-reported adolescent marijuana use over a 24-year period
in a sampling of over one million adolescents in 48 states.
Researchers reported no increase in teens’ overall use of the plant
that could be attributable to changes in law, and acknowledged a
“robust” decrease in use among eighth-graders. They concluded: “(T)he
results of this study showed no evidence for an increase in
adolescent marijuana use after the passage of state laws permitting
use of marijuana for medical purposes. ... ©oncerns that increased
marijuana use is an unintended effect of state marijuana laws seem unfounded.”

Researchers’ results were similar to those of a July 2014 paper
published by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research
which determined: “Our results are not consistent with the hypothesis
that the legalization of medical marijuana caused an increase in the
use of marijuana among high school students. In fact, estimates from
our preferred specification are small, consistently negative and are
never statistically distinguishable from zero.”

Likewise, state survey data released last August by the Colorado
Department of Public Health & Environment found that fewer high
school students in the state consumed cannabis in 2013 as compared
with 2011. (Marijuana legalization went into effect in Colorado in
2012, although retail sales of cannabis to adults did not begin until
Jan. 1, 2014.) According to the survey, the percentage of high
schoolers who reported using marijuana within the past 30 days fell
from 22 percent in 2011 to 20 percent in 2013 - a percentage that is
below the national average.

In short, government can regulate cannabis in a manner that satisfies
the seller, the consumer and the tax man - and the sky won’t fall.
Just the opposite is true. Regulations, such as age restrictions for
consumers and licensing requirements for commercial producers and
merchants, are effective and proven alternatives to prohibition. For
instance, the public’s overall consumption of alcohol and tobacco,
and young people’s use in particular, now stands at near-historic
lows. According to recent federal government figures alcohol
consumption within the past 30 days among young people has fallen
from 70 percent of 12th-graders in 1980 to 40 percent today. Monthly
tobacco use among 12th-graders has similarly plunged from nearly 40
percent in the late 1970s to just 16 percent today.

These results have not been achieved by imposing blanket
criminalization upon society, but rather by regulation and public education.

Policymakers, as well as pundits like Bennett and Leibsohn, should
welcome the opportunity to bring these necessary and long-overdue
controls to the cannabis market.

A pragmatic regulatory framework that allows for the legal, licensed
commercial production and retail sale of cannabis to adults but
restricts its use among young people - coupled with a legal
environment that fosters open, honest dialogue between parents and
children about cannabis’ potential harms - best reduces the risks
associated with the plant’s use or abuse.

It makes no sense from a public health perspective, a fiscal
perspective or a moral perspective to perpetuate the prosecution and
stigmatization of those adults who choose to responsibly consume a
substance that is objectively safer than either alcohol or tobacco.

Paul Armentano/Vallejo
__________________________________________________________________________
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

FACTS, NOT ‘STIGMA,’ SHOULD DRIVE MARIJUANA POLICY

These results have not been achieved by imposing blanket
criminalization upon society, but rather by regulation and public education.

Policymakers, as well as pundits like Bennett and Leibsohn, should
welcome the opportunity to bring these necessary and long-overdue
controls to the cannabis market.

xxx
Newshawk: chip
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 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
Authors: Jeanne Whalen and Arian Campo-Flores

RURAL U.S. STRUGGLES TO COMBAT IV DRUG ABUSE

Hepatitis C and HIV Outbreaks Test Public-Health Resources in Midwestern States

Every Friday afternoon, dozens of drug addicts carrying bags and
coffee cans filled with dirty needles stream into a makeshift clinic
in downtrodden Portsmouth, Ohio. As the only such facility in a
region blighted by heroin and painkiller abuse, it attracts addicts
from as far away as Kentucky and West Virginia.

City health workers run the clinic on a shoestring, handing out clean
needles and encouraging addicts to get tested for hepatitis C and
HIV/AIDS, and to seek addiction treatment. But the best treatment
options are at least an hour away.

“We have hundreds and hundreds of injection-drug users,” says nurse
Lisa Roberts. “It’s like the plague of the heartland. And rural areas
are not prepared to handle that.”

A wide swath of middle America, particularly Appalachia and
Midwestern communities east of the Mississippi River, is finding
itself ill-prepared to cope with a problem that many big cities
tackled long ago: injection-drug abuse and the blood-borne infections
that accompany it. As drug users with no memory of the AIDS crisis
decades ago put themselves in harm’s way, public-health officials are
bracing for the huge expense of treating a wave of chronic disease.

Abuse of opioid painkillers and heroin in rural areas and small
cities is causing hepatitis C and HIV to spread in regions where they
were uncommon two decades ago. New hepatitis C infections nationwide
rose 150% between 2010 and 2013, with the largest increases in rural
areas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last month, the CDC said new hepatitis C infections in young adults
more than quadrupled in four states - Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia
and West Virginia - from 2006 to 2012, with many cases linked to
injection-drug use. Infections in Ohio have grown by 50% over the
past five years.

An HIV outbreak in March in the small town of Austin, Ind. - the
first in the U.S. in years tied to injection of prescription pain
pills - brought national attention to the crisis. An estimated 450
people in the economically struggling town of 4,200 are addicted to
prescription painkillers. Austin has only one doctor, no
drug-treatment facilities and no substance-abuse counselors. So far,
170 in the area have tested positive for HIV.

Eric Hodge lives in a gritty neighborhood at the center of the
epidemic, where emaciated users, some of them prostitutes, wander the
streets. He says he has injected prescription painkillers as many as
12 times a day over the eight years he has been hooked, often reusing
needles more than 100 times and sharing them with two or three people
each round.

In April, he learned he was infected with HIV. “It’s just
shocking,” said Mr. Hodge, 28 years old. “I wish I never picked that
needle up.”

Hidden pockets

What worries public officials, given the scope of the drug-abuse
problem and the relative scarcity of testing, is that there likely
are other HIV pockets out there like Scott County, where Austin is located.

“Nobody should be saying it’s only in Scott County,” says Beth
Meyerson, co-director of Indiana University’s Rural Center for
AIDS/STD Prevention. “We’re not screening elsewhere. We don’t know.

Nor does anyone know how high the public-health costs could climb.
Left untreated, hepatitis C can lead to cirrhosis or cancer of the
liver, and ultimately to the need for a liver transplant. New drugs
have high cure rates, but can cost more than $80,000 per patient.
Lifetime treatment of HIV can run as much as $400,000.

“The cost of this epidemic is spectacular,” says Judith Feinberg, a
University of Cincinnati doctor who treats intravenous-drug users for
hepatitis and other problems.

The injection of prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Opana
climbed more rapidly in rural areas than in urban ones between 2008
and 2012, the most recent year for which data are available,
according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration. Addicts liquefy and inject the pills for a stronger high.

The pharmaceutical industry tried reformulating some drugs to make
them harder to inject, but addicts came up with ways around those
measures. In Austin and elsewhere, users cook tamper-resistant Opana
into a viscous solution, which requires larger-gauge needles to
inject. Public-health officials say that spreads even more blood””and disease.

Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., the maker of Opana, says it is committed
“to addressing opioid misuse and abuse” and continues to research
abuse-deterrent technology. Purdue Pharma LP, which makes OxyContin,
says the drug’s reformulation is “expected to reduce abuse,” though
abuse “is still possible.”

Cheap heroin also has flooded the rural market.A spread-out rural
population makes it harder for public-health officials to track and
contain outbreaks, and for those in need to reach health services.
Many areas lack substance-abuse clinics or doctors skilled at
treating infectious disease.

Needle exchanges have been shown to curb the spread of infections,
but federal funding for them is banned. Legal obstacles, funding woes
and community opposition make it difficult to operate exchanges. West
Virginia has none, although it plans to open one next month.Kentucky
passed a law in March allowing cities and counties to open exchanges.
In April, Indiana adopted a law allowing exchanges in counties where
the state has declared a public-health emergency. So far, only Scott
County has received that designation.

Big cities have been dealing with injection-drug use for decades.
Substance-abuse facilities and needle exchanges are common, as are
public-health campaigns warning about the risks of abuse. But in
rural areas and smaller cities, young users have no memory of the
1980s AIDS epidemic and typically view such risks as urban problems,
health officials say.”In many urban settings in the U.S., people who
inject drugs have had years of preventive counseling and messaging
and know how to protect themselves,” said Jonathan Mermin,director
of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and
TB Prevention, earlier this year. In rural areas, he said, many may
not have received counseling, “and it presents a problem.” The
crisis has overrun cities like Portsmouth, population 20,000. Steel
and brick mills once made the Ohio River port prosperous enough to
have its own NFL team””the Spartans, which moved to Detroit in the
1930s and became the Lions. But many of the town’s factories have
closed in recent decades, and today the town is dotted with empty
storefronts and boarded-up homes.

The current drug scourge dates back to the 1990s, when
prescription-drug “pill mills” run by unscrupulous doctors popped up
around town. Authorities eventually shut them down, but the addiction
problem remained. Rampant opioid abuse and hepatitis C infection
prompted the city’s health department in 2011 to open the state’s
second needle exchange.

Shared needles Robert Morris, 45, says he got hooked on prescription
Percocet in the mid-1990s, after a tailbone injury, then switched to
heroin about six years ago because it was cheaper. He often shared
needles with friends, a habit that led to hepatitis C infection.

“I’ve had needles I’ve used for two weeks,” he says. “It’s so bad.
You try to sharpen it with fingernail files and everything.” He
started visiting the needle exchange this year.

On a recent afternoon, he emptied his used syringes into a plastic
biohazard bucket and received a fresh supply. He tucked them into his
belt, hiding them under a sweatshirt. “I’m embarrassed,” he said.

Kevin Conkle, 38, says he got hooked on painkillers after falling and
breaking his ribs, and eventually started snorting and then injecting
OxyContin. When it became too expensive amid the pill-mill crackdown,
he switched to heroin.

For about a dozen years he was essentially homeless, bouncing from
sofa to sofa and even living one summer in an open-air chicken coop.
To pay for his habit he lived what he calls a “corrupt life,”
including “oemanipulating money from friends.”

He says he got hepatitis C by sharing needles, then passed it on to
his girlfriend that way. Now he gets clean syringes at the health
department’s exchange.

Eventually, he started going to a Portsmouth addiction clinic for
doses of Suboxone, a medication used to wean addicts off heroin. But
that clinic closed down last year. The nearest clinics dedicated to
opioid-addiction treatment are now 60 miles away, says Ms. Roberts,
the nurse at the health-department facility.

Ms. Roberts and the facility’s founder, Bobbi Bratchett, both have
children who have struggled with drug addiction. When addicts show up
with their used needles, the two women chat with them and encourage
them to get tested for hepatitis and HIV. Ohio provides state funds
for free HIV testing, but recently stopped providing free hepatitis C
kits. Anyone wanting a hepatitis test now must have insurance or pay
the $50 out of pocket.With no government funding, the Portsmouth
exchange relies on private donations or syringe handouts from
sympathetic hospitals. Some Portsmouth residents help out by donating
unused insulin syringes from deceased relatives. Ms. Bratchett says
she constantly begs for donations on Facebook.

“I think it’s a shame we have to have such a program, but we have a
need for it,” says Portsmouth Mayor Jim Kalb.

Ohio Medical Director Mary DiOrio says the state is tracking the
spread of hepatitis and helping local governments, which she says are
responsible for health programs.

The hepatitis C rates in Scioto County, where Portsmouth is located,
are among the highest in Ohio. So far, the county has recorded only a
handful of HIV cases each year, but everyone is nervous, Ms.
Bratchett says. A poster near the exchange’s front door warns
visitors about the Austin, Ind., outbreak.

In Austin, which is about 200 miles west of Portsmouth, the primary
drug of abuse isn’t heroin, but the prescription painkiller Opana.
Because the high only lasts a few hours, users shoot up as many as 15
times a day. Its street price is high, so addicts split and share the
pills, along with needles.

Mr. Hodge, the addict who is HIV-positive, says he first started
shooting OxyContin around 2007, then switched to Opana about three
years ago. To support his habit, he says, he has sold his belongings,
from vehicles to clothes, and has stolen from his mother.

He has never sought treatment, he says, but after learning of his HIV
infection, he is reconsidering. “I’m fed up with it,” he says.

He has started taking HIV medication and is hoping to get clean by
enrolling in a detoxification program in Jeffersonville, about a
half-hour away. But he worries about returning from treatment to a
neighborhood rife with drugs.

Another Austin addict, Donnie Letner, 37, also is desperate to get
clean. He says he has been addicted to pain pills for 10 years. He
enrolled at a drug-treatment facility in nearby Louisville, Ky., a
year ago, but left a day later when he was told about the cost, he says.

He has tried kicking painkillers by taking the addiction medications
methadone and Suboxone, purchased on the black market. Each time, he
relapsed. Living in a house with other addicts, he says, “makes it hard.”

He recently tested negative for HIV.

“It’s humiliating,” he says. “I’m ashamed of myself.” But with no
drug-treatment program in town and the one in Jeffersonville giving
priority to those who are HIV-positive, he says, he isn’t sure what to do.

The Jeffersonville detox facility, Turning Point Center, is
struggling to meet demand with only 28 beds to serve much of southern Indiana.

William Cooke, Austin’s sole doctor, says it has been difficult to
persuade mental-health providers and others who work with addicts to
open offices in Austin, in part because providers didn’t think they
would get reimbursed sufficiently.

A needle exchange began in April and is authorized to operate for a
year. But users still run the risk of transmitting viruses if they
share equipment to prepare drugs for injection.

Scores of women in town support their drug habits by engaging in
prostitution with truckers passing through on I-65, says Jeanni
McCarty, a nurse who works with Dr. Cooke. One told her she slept
with more than 70 truck drivers despite learning she was
HIV-positive, fueling concerns of far wider contagion.

The stigma attached to addiction and HIV has deterred some infected
users from seeking services, says Ms. McCarty. “They want the help,
but they’re scared.”

The HIV crisis has traumatized the town. Some church leaders have
organized prayer walks in response. One recent evening, hundreds of
people took to the streets near downtown, stopping every few blocks
to pray in a large circle””some silently, others out loud.

“Heal this land, God!” one man called out at one stop. “We are
taking back this city, God!”

On a nearby sidewalk, someone had written in chalk, “Just say no to drugs.”
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jun 2015
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2015 Albuquerque Journal
Contact: opinion@abqjournal.com
Website: http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: Bill McCamley
Note: BY REP. BILL MCCAMLEY DEMOCRAT, MESILLA PARK

LEGALIZING POT SALES MAKES ECONOMIC SENSE

Colorado Is Making Hundreds of Millions Taxing Pot. N.M. Could, Too

Why don’t they pass a constitutional amendment
prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it
works as well as prohibition did, in five years
Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth. Will Rogers

It’s time to regulate and tax the consumption of
marijuana like alcohol. Why? The reasons are
compelling, conclusive and plentiful.

The most obvious? Prohibition increases use. When
the United States banned alcohol in 1919
consumption initially went down. However, by the
time it was repealed in 1932 more people were
drinking more alcohol - a 30-40 percent increase
? than they did before prohibition was passed.

The same thing is happening with marijuana; as more states tax and regulate teen use is decreasing at a significant level.
Comparing alcohol and marijuana shows the later
is much safer. From 2006 to 2010, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control reported that 88,000
people died from alcohol poisoning. Yet a category for marijuana doesn’t= exist.
Furthermore, alcohol has been shown in numerous
studies to trigger violent behavior including
domestic violence. Marijuana, on the other hand,
is the substance least likely used by emergency room patients.

The argument that marijuana leads to harder drug
use is simply incorrect. While 50 percent of
Americans have tried marijuana, only 15 percent
have admitted to trying cocaine. That number
drops to 3.6 percent for crack and 1.6 percent for heroin.

The National Academy of Sciences, in a report to
Congress, stated “because underage smoking and
alcohol use typically precede marijuana use,
marijuana is not the most common, and is rarely
the first, “gateway” to illicit drug use. There
is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects
of marijuana are causally linked to the
subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.”

Furthermore, hard drug use in states with legal
marijuana will probably decline. After all, if
you visit a dealer to buy pot they will always
have other drugs for sale. A regulated store selling marijuana will not.

Prohibition increases violence by benefiting
cartels and gangs. During the years of alcohol
prohibition the country’s murder rate doubled
only to decrease substantially after it was repealed.

In Colorado, the same thing is happening now that
marijuana policies have been reversed. After a
year of taxation and regulation violent crime
rates in Denver declined, as have statewide traffic fatalities.

Furthermore, as marijuana has become legal in
various ways throughout the United States the
price for illegal marijuana grown in Mexico and
sold by cartels has dropped by half, giving them
less resources for their activities, namely
killing people -estimated at 60,000 murders between 2006 and 2012.

Regulating marijuana like alcohol would also be good economically.
Currently, when police, court and incarceration
costs are combined, New Mexico spends $33 million
of your tax money to enforce prohibition. In
light of the information presented above, that
money would be much better used going after murders, rapists and thieves.

Rather than marijuana revenue furthering
violence, money would go to legitimate businesses
contributing to the economy. Currently in
Colorado, legal marijuana is selling at between
$2,000 and $3,000 per pound. This is generating
huge economic gains, totalling $700 million.

The outgrowth? Revenue for schools. Colorado’s
law requires marijuana taxes to fund education,
and (the state) is expecting to bring in $100
million per year from taxes and licensing fees by
2016. This is so much that the government doesn’t
know what to do with it, and Colorado residents may actually get a refund.

Last year I introduced House Bill 160, the
Cannabis Revenue and Freedom Act. It would have
allowed private use of marijuana for adults over
21. Republican Party leaders killed it quickly,
but I won’t quit. If we want less crime, better
schools, and a healthier state let’s stop our
outdated prohibition laws and do this right.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jun 2015
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/EOss8qui
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

CANNABIS TRADE SHOW BUILDS BIG BUZZ
Longtime cannabis activist Russ Belville couldn’t be more definitive in delivering his “Marijuana Legalization State of the Union” Saturday.
“The state of the union is stronger than it’s ever been,” Belville said after giving his address at the Cannabis Cup, the marijuana trade show that is expected to draw 16,000 people to the Cow Palace in Daly City through Sunday. Unlike the president’s address delivered annually in Washington, Belville began his by welcoming “the tokers, tokettes and non-toking lovers of liberty.”
There is much to bring a smile to a cannabis supporter these days. With marijuana legal for adult recreational use in four states, and headed to the ballot in the next two years in potentially 10 others, including California, the industry is worth almost $3 billion in the United States.
Nowhere is that more evident than at the Cannabis Cup, which isn’t just a trade show but a competition that rewards the best buds, the best edible products and a whole host of other bests that the winners tout as green bragging rights. Steve DeAngelo, a longtime activist and the founder of Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, will receive a lifetime achievement award Sunday.
The first show in the United States was held in San Francisco five years ago, and the event has blossomed to where there will be seven in various states this year.
“I can barely keep up,” said Dan Skye, editor in chief of the 41-year-old High Times Magazine, the monthly that chronicled the high life long before the mainstream embraced it and now sponsors the event.
There’s no trade show in the world like this. Go to a trade show at Moscone Center, and you may get a free T-shirt and a key-chain fob. Here, you get a buzz.
The centerpiece of the event is a fenced-in area where participants holding a medical marijuana card can imbibe, sampling the wares of 416 vendors. Don’t have a card? For a $40, medical professionals will provide an immediate exam to determine whether you need cannabis treatment and provide prospective patients with permission to get inside on the spot, since marijuana is legal in California only for medicinal purposes.
Inside is a marijuana mall of products, from cannabis-infused hot sauce to dog treats to “sugarfree, vegan, non-GMO” edibles to Dank Darts - billed as “the world’s first ever marijuana dart game.” Doesn’t that sound like something you think up when you’re baked?
“Pretty much,” said Dank Darts owner Jenn Delmoral. “But that’s why we did it. The drinkers have beer pong. We should have something, too.”
Vendors showcasing products involved in “dabbing” - a process where users ingest a concentrated form of cannabis in a wax or oil - were prominent. Popular with younger adults who don’t want to smoke a lot of flower to get a strong buzz, the product has boomed over the past few years. Particularly because you only use half a pea-size amount of the wax - a dab - to get high.
“I’ve been in the industry 20 years, and nothing has affected it like the dabs,” Tony Van Pelt said as he worked at a tent for a company called I Love Dabs, which sells equipment used in the process. It isn’t cheap - $300 for a complete setup - but the buzz is powerful.
“It’s like the difference between drinking a shot and drinking a beer,” Nate Andreas said after enjoying a dab.
Andreas, who lives in Visalia (Tulare County), enjoys coming to the cannabis shows because “unlike being in a small town, where everything is all hushhush, here you can openly go up and talk to people about how they do things, how they make things.”
Belville, who has attended almost every Cannabis Cup across the country, sees that. “Maybe not in San Francisco, but in a lot of parts of the country, there’s a stigma about marijuana still.”
As the cannabis industry has boomed, the Cup events have mirrored those changes, Belville said.
“It used to be about the activism,” he said. “Now it is about the business.”
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
xxxNewshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 2015
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/LdgKRbXc
Copyright: 2015 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Dan Morain

THE NUMBERS CRUNCH: COLORADO STARTS SURVEYING THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
The Mile High City definitely is.
A survey by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment shows 18.5 percent of adults 18 and older in Denver have smoked, vaped or eaten marijuana in the past month.
By comparison, 13.6 percent of Colorado adults statewide and 7.4 percent nationally have used the weed in the past 30 days.
Kevin A. Sabet, head of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an organization opposed to legalization, said the first major survey of marijuana use in one of the first two states to legalize the weed suggests consumption is rising, while it’s leveling off in the rest of the country.
Because survey methods have changes, comparisons are tough to make between use now and before 2012 when Colorado voters approved a state constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana.
But those earlier surveys showed 10.4 percent of adults used marijuana in 2012, and 12.9 in 2013. If those numbers are correct, Sabet said, use has increased significantly since legalization.
“These are pretty big jumps whereas in a lot of the country you’ve seen a leveling off,” Sabet said.
However, Dr. Larry Wolk, Colorado’s chief medical officer, noted that Colorado traditionally has been a heavy use state, and said the survey “doesn’t indicate or support the notion that there is a surge as a result of legalization.”
“As a public health guy, I was a bit reassured,” Wolk said. “We’re not seeing a significant increase in use.”
In Colorado, a third of users in 2014 reported using marijuana daily.
Of the current users, 18.8 percent report driving after getting high, a percentage that should worry the highway patrol, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and car insurance companies, but might hearten plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Latinos are the least heavy users among various ethnic groups. Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults are much more likely to currently use marijuana than straight people. Younger adults and people who have lower household income are heavier users than are older or wealthier people. Far more men than women use marijuana.
Probably the most alarming number is that 6.9 percent of parents of children between 1 and 14 stash their marijuana in or around the home. Like other experts, Wolk noted that marijuana use is detrimental for teenagers whose brains are developing.
Wolk worries edible marijuana in the form of candy, brownies and other sweets entice kids, just like the Joe Camel logo was aimed at luring kids into smoking tobacco.
Even if use is flat in Colorado, there is plenty in this latest survey that is relevant to California, where Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is the leading proponent of an initiative probably headed to the 2016 ballot to fully legalize marijuana here.
Newsom has said he intends to learn from the experiences of other states. Maybe he could start by writing into the proposed initiative a ban on the use of sweets spiked with marijuana’s brain altering chemical.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jun 2015
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/sCTupl5m
Copyright: 2015 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/0n4cG7L1
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: George Runner
Note: George Runner represents more than 9 million Californians as a taxpayer advocate and elected member of the State Board of Equalization.
TIME TO REGULATE MEDICAL MARIJUANA
As a lifelong conservative, I’m no fan of government regulation. Even so, I’m convinced it’s time for California to aggressively regulate the medical marijuana industry.
I’ve spoken with concerned citizens, local government officials, rural law enforcement officers, federal officials, anti-drug crusaders and medical marijuana industry insiders.
George Runner | courtesy candidate courtesy candidate
I visited the Emerald Triangle with fellow Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma. Our April tour showed how we can work with the industry to generate greater voluntary compliance with California law.
The current cash-based system is dangerous. Crime, corruption and tax evasion are far too common. Murder and armed robbery rates in California’s rural counties have skyrocketed as the cannabis industry has grown. The FBI and U.S. attorney are investigating and prosecuting local law enforcement officials at staggering rates for taking cash bribes.
These problems stem in part from ongoing conflict between state and federal laws. Nearly 19 years ago California voters approved Proposition 215, making medical marijuana legal under state law, even while it remained illegal under federal law.
Cannabis has become readily available to the seriously ill and anyone who has an hour to visit a “doctor” to get a recommendation and a “215 card.” Freeway billboards advertise local dispensaries, while apps provide for doorstep delivery. During this time, federal raids and prosecutions have waxed and waned depending on the political climate in Washington, D.C.
There’s no state regulation, just a patchwork of local rules. True, the California Department of Public Health runs a voluntary identification card program for patients and caregivers, but it has no jurisdiction over retail dispensaries or the production industry.
A better structure would be what Californians voted for in 1996. Proposition 215 sought to “encourage the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana.”
State rules would help law enforcement distinguish the good actors from the bad, leading to improved public safety. Rules would help stem the tide of rural murders, armed robberies and public corruption, allowing for a more effective use of limited law enforcement dollars. Local governments would be able to better respond to complaints related to cannabis grown and sold in their communities.
One irony of the status quo is that tax evasion deprives governments of the funds it needs to enforce laws already on the books.
As an elected tax official, it’s my job to ensure the collection of taxes owed the state. Cash-based businesses are very difficult for the Board of Equalization to audit, especially when we can’t get records of their wholesale transactions. It’s also a safety risk to have dispensaries pay their taxes by carrying duffel bags into state offices with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
A new Board of Equalization effort, the Cannabis Compliance Pilot Project, aims to determine the scope of noncompliance and develop strategies to address compliance barriers. A report is due in November.
We won’t solve this problem on our own.
The good news is state lawmakers appear ready to do their part. A recent bipartisan vote for Assembly Bill 266 is a sign that lawmakers see the need for a regulatory structure.
The federal government must also act. Under current federal law, it’s nearly impossible for those in the medical marijuana industry to have bank accounts.
Many conservatives fear that regulating the medical marijuana industry will pave the way for full legalization of recreational marijuana I disagree. One can oppose recreational marijuana, as I do, while recognizing the reality of the current situation. To improve public safety and tax compliance, we need greater state structure and oversight.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
xxx
Newshawk: www.flcan.org
Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jun 2015
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2015 The Tribune Co.
Contact: http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-letters/submit/
Website: http://tbo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Elizabeth Behrman, Tribune staff
Page: A1

GROW HOUSES SPROUT IN HILLSBOROUGH
Sheriff On Pace For More Marijuana Busts Than In 2014
TAMPA - There are a number of signs that a house is being used to grow a marijuana crop.
The windows are always covered or the blinds are always closed, deputies say. There might be more than one air-conditioning unit. People may be coming and going at odd hours from a house that otherwise seems unoccupied.
If someone gets that ‘gut feeling,’ as many neighbors do, that something just isn’t right, they can alert the police to the potential grow house, said J.R. Burton, a major with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
The agency already has busted 18 grow house operations this year. Deputies have collected 583 marijuana plants, collectively worth more than $1.1 million.
‘I think there’s a lot more out there than anyone realizes,’ Burton said.
Law enforcement in Hillsborough County shut down 29 indoor grow operations in 2014, the second highest number in the state, according to a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services report on the state’s Domestic Marijuana Eradication Program. Miami-Dade County took the top spot with 124 busts.
Marijuana operations aren’t a new phenomenon in Hillsborough. The sheriff’s office started to crack down on grow houses in earnest years ago. In 2008, a joint sting operation with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office netted about 3,200 pounds of marijuana and 70 arrests in six months.
Investigators rely on tips from neighbors of these operations but also do a lot of proactive work undercover, Burton said. Sometimes, tips come from the Tampa Electric Co., which watches for telltale signs that the growers have tapped into power lines illegally.
Cherie Jacobs, a TECO spokeswoman, said the company probably sees a grow house case every week.
‘We have put an emphasis on grow houses for a number of years,’ Burton said.
Deputies have found more and more grow houses in suburban areas over the years. Where there are grow houses, Burton said, there is the potential for violent crime.
In May, deputies responded to a Brandon home, where they found a man dead after a report of a fight. In the home, they also found a grow house operation, leading them to believe the motive for the killing was drug-related. Last week, deputies found a grow house after they smelled marijuana while responding to a domestic disturbance call.
‘All this is taking place in a residential neighborhood,’ Burton said. ‘That is frightening for us.’ The Tampa Police Department has busted some grow houses this year as well, although the numbers weren’t immediately available, spokeswoman Andrea Davis said.
Officers don’t see them as frequently as the sheriff’s office does, probably because they aren’t as common in urban areas, she said.
‘Neighbors tend to notice signs of things like grow houses in neighborhoods,’ she said. ‘The houses are much closer together.’ Once detectives find a grow house, they reach out to TECO to calculate how much electricity is being used to power the operation. Most of the time, the suspects also are charged with utility theft, Burton said.
TECO will tip off detectives if they find suspicious line hookup, Jacobs said. Some TECO employees receive special train ing so they know what to look for.
Thieves will hook into the power line ahead of the meter so TECO’s system doesn’t record the usage and therefore isn’t flagged when a home’s electric bill suddenly jumps hundreds of dollars compared with its neighbors.
‘These are folks that are working around the system so that they’re not drawing attention to themselves,’ Jacobs said.
Almost every time when deputies bust a grow house and later ask neighbors about it, they are told they thought something seemed ‘off’ but they couldn’t be sure, Burton said. Often, the neighborhood will notice the seemingly large and unfinished ‘remodel’ of a home or strange cars parked in the driveway at all hours. But they can’t be sure and don’t want to cause trouble for their neighbor, Burton said.
Still, a number of the busts this year have resulted from anonymous tips received through Crime Stoppers.
‘This is the norm for us,’ Burton said.
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jun 2015
Source: Wales on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: 2015 Trinity Mirror Plc
Contact: wosmail@wme.co.uk
Website: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3763
Author: James McCarthy

DOCTOR GAVE OUT HEROIN AND CRIME FELL
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, by Johann Hari, is published by Bloomsbury, priced UKP18.99.
A DOCTOR hounded from Britain by the establishment has revealed how he slashed heroin addiction and crime by doling out the drug to addicts. Psychiatrist John Marks now works in Vienna. But in 1982 the South Wales Valleys-raised medic was working in Widnes, in the Wirral.
In a new book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, he reveals how he became the accidental pioneer of an initiative to give free heroin to addicts and that it worked.
“There were maybe a few dozen lads, the occasional girl, who came and got their tot of junk railwaymen, bargemen, all walks of life really,” Dr Marks said, describing the patients he was given when he moved to Widnes.
He told them to stop using. They said they needed it.
“I found this a bit of a headache,” Dr Marks said. “I had bigger fish to fry.”
He moved to axe the programme but then there was a directive from Margaret Thatcher’s government. Every part of Britain had to show it had an anti-drugs strategy. Clinics had to conduct cost-benefit studies to show what worked.
Dr Marks commissioned academic Russell Newcombe to look into it. He
assumed Dr Newcombe would find his patients were like cliche junkies
? unemployed and unemployable, criminal, with high levels of HIV and death.

But he didn’t. On receiving the report, Marks looked at his patients.
There was Sydney.
“He was an old Liverpool docker, happily married, lovely couple of kids,” Dr Marks said. “He’d been chugging along on his heroin for a couple of decades.”
He had a decent, healthy life. So did all the users prescribed heroin.
“How could this be?” Dr Marks asked himself.
“Doesn’t heroin inherently damage the body? Doesn’t it naturally cause abscesses, diseases and death?”
Allan Parry worked for the local health authority. Patients without prescriptions were injecting smack with “brick dust in it, coffee, crushed bleach crystals, anything”.
Dr Marks could see the difference between street addicts arriving at the clinic and patients on legal prescriptions.
The former had abscesses like hardboiled eggs rotting under their skin. They had open wounds on their hands and legs.
“It looked like a pizza of infection,” Mr Parry said.
“It’s mushy, and the cheese you get on it is pus. And it just gets bigger and bigger.” But the prescription addicts could have passed for clinic staff.
Dr Marks began to believe many “of the harms of drugs are to do with the laws around them, not the drugs themselves”.
In the clinic, they started calling the infections, abscesses and amputations “drug war wounds”.
“If prescription is so effective, why don’t we do it more?” Dr Marks
wondered. He expanded his heroin prescription programme from
a dozen to more than 400. The police noticed the effect.
Inspector Michael Lofts studied 142 heroin and cocaine addicts in the area. He found a 93% drop in theft and burglary.
“You could see them transform in front of your own eyes,” Lofts told a newspaper.
“They came in outrageous condition, stealing daily to pay for illegal drugs, and became, most of them, very amiable, reasonable law-abiding people.”
He said elsewhere: “Since the clinics opened, the street heroin dealer has slowly but surely abandoned the streets of Warrington and Widnes.”
A young mother called Julia came into Dr Marks’ surgery. She had been working as a prostitute to support her habit. He wrote her a prescription. She quit sex work that day.
Something else happened. The number of heroin addicts in the area fell.
Dr Newcombe had an explanation. Street addicts were buying drugs and taking what they needed.
They cut the rest to sell. They were persuading others to become addicts.
Prescription addicts did not have to do this because they got their fix for free.
Dr Marks’ experiment began to attract media attention and pressure from the US government. The British government panicked. It shut it down.
When Dr Marks was prescribing, from 1982 to 1995, he never had a drug-related death. After closure, of 450 patients he prescribed to, 20 were dead in six months. Forty-one were dead in two years. More lost limbs and caught potentially lethal diseases.
Sydney the docker and Julia the prostitute died.
Dr Marks was blacklisted. He ended up in Gisborne, New Zealand.
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
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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jun 2015
Source: Wichita Eagle (KS)
Copyright: 2015 The Wichita Eagle
Contact: http://www.kansas.com/604
Website: http://www.kansas.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/680
Author: Rhonda Holman

POT LAWS NEED TO CHANGE
Though it’s a long way from playing out in the courts, the criminal case against Shona Banda is helping make the wider case for change in Kansas’ marijuana laws.
At least as the public knows the facts so far, what’s happening to the ailing Garden City mother defies reason and dramatically serves the cause of those advocating that medical use of marijuana be decriminalized and penalties for nonviolent drug offenses be relaxed.
Banda has used cannabis oil to treat her Crohn’s disease - something she wrote about in a book and her 11-year-old son mentioned at school during an anti-drug program in March. Her son’s statement prompted investigations by the Department for Children and Families and the Garden City Police Department, as well as a police search of their home and placement of the boy in protective custody.
In the wake of a June 5 arrest warrant, Banda turned herself in to authorities on Monday and appeared in court Tuesday. She faces three felony and two misdemeanor charges for marijuana use. If convicted, her attorney says, Banda could spend a maximum of 30 years in prison.
Authorities had to consider both current state drug laws and the safety of the boy. An April law enforcement release mentioned that “the items taken from the residence were within easy reach of the child.” That concern should not discounted.
But many people in and outside of Kansas see Banda as someone in need of compassion, not a jail cell. Her case has inspired more than 143,000 people to sign an online petition calling on DCF and the Finney County district attorney to “keep this family together,” and led to online donations of more than $45,000 for her legal defense.
The medicinal benefits of marijuana are increasingly understood and accepted. People across a wide political span are coming to a shared belief that there are better uses for scarce public resources than to prosecute and imprison those who use pot, whether it’s to ease or relieve suffering or for recreation.
Not only do opinion polls show this in Kansas, but voters of Wichita decided in April to approve an ordinance making first-time possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a criminal infraction with a $50 fine for those 21 and older. Even the conservative Kansas House voted 81-36 last month to lower penalties for first and second possessions of marijuana, as well as allow limited production and sale of hemp oil to treat seizures.
The Wichita ordinance is on hold amid a challenge from the Kansas attorney general, and the House bill died in the Senate this session. But they stand as more evidence, along with the public outcry over Banda’s case, that Kansans’ views of marijuana are changing and that laws will need to change as well.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
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, 23 Jun 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248

POT-USE STUDY TO ANALYZE SEWAGE
The federal government is chipping in money for a three-year pilot study using sewage samples to determine levels of marijuana use in two Washington cities - research that could help answer some key questions about pot legalization, the University of Puget Sound announced.
The National Institutes of Health has agreed to pay $ 120,000 so that Dan Burgard, an associate chemistry professor, can conduct the study, which will look at how per-capita pot use changed after Washington’s first legal pot shops opened in July.
The research involves analyzing wastewater samples for levels of metabolites produced when the body processes drugs.
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
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