DRUG TESTS COULD SAVE LIVES, DEAD TEEN'S MOM SAYS

SASKATOON - Marie Agioritis suspected something was wrong with her
19-year-old son in the weeks leading up to his death.

Now, months after Kelly accidentally overdosed on fentanyl, she only
wishes she could have proven it.

"I was a little suspicious something was going on with him, but I
didn't have a drug test at home," she said.

Agioritis said Kelly wasn't an addict and was only experimenting when
he took a lethal dose of the opiate.

She wishes she had acted on her suspicions before it was too late.
More than that, she wishes a take home drug test would have been at
her disposal.

"If I could have just driven over to the drugstore and grabbed a drug
test kit and brought it home and said, 'Do it, buddy.' It's instant," she said.

Take-home drug test kits can test for everything from marijuana to
methamphetamine to heroin with nothing more than a simple urine
sample. The tests are common on drugstore shelves in the United
States, but they are harder to find in Canada.

While the kits can be purchased online and occasionally at some
specialty stores, they are noticeably absent from the shelves of
major drugstore chains.

"It should be more readily available," said John Haines, the
executive director of Addictions Canada.

Haines said the drug tests are a regular part of interventions at
Addictions Canada's drug rehabilitation centres, but the company
orders them in bulk online.

There are no Health Canada restrictions on the take-home tests.

"I don't think this is the responsibility of the pharmacies, but I
think pharmacies should maybe be looking into supplying better
options for parents," Haines said.

Agioritis has been fighting for better drug education in the wake of
her son's death. She said the take-home tests are just one more tool
for parents who might suspect their children are taking drugs.

"They could save lives. The drugs out there are way different then
the drugs we saw in the '70s," Agioritis said.

She had ordered drug tests online for her other son, Kayle, but the
weeks-long waiting period is just too much, she said, adding it's
much easier to act on your suspicions right when they happen.

She hopes speaking out will encourage more pharmacies to carry the
test kits and help stop drug abuse before it's too late.

"There is no harm of having these drug tests on the shelves. They are
only going to do good," she said.
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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Perry Stein

IN D.C., THAT'S GROW BIZ

The weekend after marijuana became legal in the District, Capital
City Hydroponics ran a sale on the indoor gardening kits needed to
grow it. Business doubled.

In a narrow Petworth basement stuffed with high-end gardening
supplies, Michael Bayard gingerly explains that tomatoes are best
grown indoors given the District's unfavorably dank weather.

Tomatoes, it turns out, are cultivated similarly to marijuana. And
since his shop, Capital City Hydroponics, opened in 2011, Bayard has
often explained to customers how to grow the food - tacitly aware
that some of them just go home and use their new tomato knowledge to grow pot.

But marijuana was legalized in the District on Feb. 26, which means
Bayard can talk openly to customers about growing the plant all he
wants. Initiative 71 - the law that D.C. voters overwhelmingly
approved in November - allows people to possess up to two ounces of
marijuana and grow a maximum of six plants in their homes (with up to
three mature at one time).

As a result of intervention by the Republican-controlled Congress,
selling marijuana is still prohibited in the District, making
Bayard's niche store uniquely positioned to benefit from the law. And
Capital City Hydroponics isn't the only business looking to cash in:
 From marketing firms to security companies, a number of business not
traditionally associated with marijuana are making a play for a
now-viable market in Washington.

Referencing Congress's repeated attempts to kill the local
initiative, Bayard says marijuana won't be mentioned too much in the
store because he wants to maintain his family-friendly business
reputation and ensure that marijuana legalization is here to stay.

"Something that is flowering or fruiting, like tomatoes, or something
else, right? Then you are going to need a flowering stage where the
fruits and vegetables can mature," Bayard said in his shop one
afternoon before legalization took effect. "So this is how I talk to
customers."

Still, the weekend after Initiative 71 took effect, Capital City
Hydroponics ran a sale of the indoor gardening kits needed to grow
marijuana - the cheapest one started at the gimmick price of $420 -
and, according to Bayard, business doubled. His neighborhood shop, he
said, felt like the more bustling Metro Center area downtown than a
typically sleepy Petworth alleyway.

Countless studies have looked at how much the economy, both locally
and nationally, could gain if marijuana is legalized and regulated.
The District's Office of the Chief Financial Officer estimated last
year that, if the city were to tax the drug, marijuana could balloon
to a $130 million annual industry here.

But determining how much the city and local businesses could make
from the current law - which prohibits sales and regulation - is a
bit more complicated, particularly considering that many would-be
customers have long been purchasing marijuanarelated paraphernalia,
albeit typically under the guise that they'd be using the gear for
something other than marijuana.

"The real type of economic opportunities come directly from selling
cannabis," says Malik Burnett, the policy manager for the Drug Policy
Alliance, adding that, for now, the biggest economic benefit for the
District comes from the reallocation of funds the city would have
otherwise used to enforce laws and imprison residents for
marijuana-related crimes.

So cannabis may not directly bring an extra $130 million to city
coffers just yet, but Adam Eidinger, who spearheaded efforts to put
Initiative 71 on the ballot, is working to guarantee that it brings
in at least some new cash. He plans to reopen his Capitol Hemp shop
in Adams Morgan this year now that marijuana is legal. The D.C.
government forced him to shutter the shop in 2012, saying the
merchandise he sold, including pipes and vaporizers, were in
violation of the city's drug laws. When he reopens Capitol Hemp,
Eidinger plans to stock the shop with the same type of items.

"If you said you were going to use the pipe for marijuana, we would
tell you to leave," Eidinger says. "We don't have to play that game anymore."

Island Dyes, a similar type of paraphernalia shop that opened last
summer in the H Street NE area, is openly advertising on social media
that it sells marijuana-related items now that it's legal.

"Time for a fattie," an Instagram post reads under a picture of eight
large, tightly rolled marijuana joints. The post also features the
hashtag: "It's legal in D.C."

And while that blunt advertising seems directed at a very specific
audience, it's working: Since marijuana was legalized, store owner
Glen Schow says business has nearly tripled.

"It's been so busy, I'm exhausted," says Schow.

Businesses poised to benefit from legalization go beyond purveyors of
high-end bongs and paraphernalia. The weekend after legalization went
into effect, a cannabis convention came to town, and dozens of
businesses showcased how they could contribute to the industry. Yes,
there were shops that sold paraphernalia and schlocky
marijuana-related apparel. But there were also more unexpected
businesses, like Abe Garcia and TJ Cichecki's twoman creative
branding firm, Workhorse.

They've been operating out of a co-working space in Northeast
Washington for more than a year and work with some nonprofit groups
in the area. Now, they're trying to add pot businesses to their
portfolio of clients.

"I've never seen such a low barrier to entry," Cichecki said of the
pot industry, adding that he wants to help businesses move away from
the teenage-boy/Bob Marley images associated with pot and move toward
more sophisticated branding associated with vineyards or beer
breweries. "This cannabis industry is serious, it's not going away.
We want to help people craft this new image."

Other businesses can't fully benefit from the marijuana law just yet.
Jonas Singer, one of the co-founders of Union Kitchen - a local
incubator focused on fledgling food businesses - knows that marijuana
and food could be a profitable combination.

If a Union Kitchen member wants to market its food business to hungry
marijuana users without actually selling the drug, Singer says he'd
be okay with that. And, if and when it's legal to sell marijuana in
the District, Singer says he'll welcome chefs and businesses that sell edibles.

"Hell, yeah, we will," Singer said. "And you can quote me on that."
__________________________________________________________________________
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 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: Collin Binkley

OSU OFFERS CLASS ON POT

Law School Course Focuses on Policy, Marijuana Reform.

Professor Douglas Berman teaches a class about marijuana, so he has
heard the jokes. He even allows a little pot humor in the classroom.
But he isn't especially fond of the nickname his class has picked up:
Weed 101. "It's a lot more than that," Berman said about his class at
Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Flippant attitudes
toward the marijuana debate are in part what inspired him to start
teaching "Marijuana Law, Policy and Reform," which aims to cut
through claims on both sides of the marijuana debate.

"This is a serious area that is a matter of significant public
policy," Berman said. "If we leave it to the snickers and the hahas
and the people who think it's a joke, you ensure that it's not going
to be regulated and reformed in a sensible way."

The class, offered only on Fridays to deter students who might take
it as a novelty, is among the few in the country that explore the
federal and state laws surrounding marijuana.

Vanderbilt University in Tennessee started a similar course this
semester, and the University of Denver in Colorado - which has
legalized recreational marijuana use - now offers a class titled
"Representing the Marijuana Client." As a field trip, students in the
Denver class visited a dispensary last month to see how marijuana is
grown and sold.

"Whether one agrees with the premise or not, it is an emerging area
of the law in the country," said Jon Allison, a Columbus lawyer who
represents the Drug Free Action Alliance, which opposes the
legalization of marijuana in Ohio.

"There are all kinds of clients in the world, and they all deserve
good lawyers," Allison said.

Berman doesn't take a stance in his class, instead urging students to
explore how marijuana legalization can affect the worlds of banking,
taxation, criminal justice and politics.

He draws on cases pulled from headlines across the country, including
the four states that have legalized recreational use of marijuana.
The class also is keeping a sharp watch on Ohio as advocates and
opponents square off, with the possibility of a November ballot issue.

"It seems quite possible to me that Ohio is going to be the focal
point for debate over marijuana reform throughout 2015 and probably
into 2016," Berman said.

Among the 16 students in class on a recent Friday, some hope to find
work in the field.

Ashley Braxton, 24, wants to be an advocate for minorities who have
made a living in the blackmarket sale of marijuana, which could be
replaced by a regulated industry.

"For some people, the black market is their livelihood," said
Braxton, of the East Side.

But even students headed into other legal specialties are taking
heed. Steven Swick, who plans to work in business law, said he's
learning how marijuana legalization could ripple through the business
community.

"Having some knowledge could be useful," said Swick, 25, of Lima.

Berman started the class in 2013 after voters in Colorado and
Washington state approved measures to make recreational marijuana
legal. He predicted that more states would follow.

"I went to my associate dean and said, 'I've got to do a seminar on
this,'" he said.

At the start of the semester, Berman draws parallels with the U.S.
prohibition of alcohol that ended in 1933. Later, he asks students to
dig into a topic, such as taxation or bioethics.

At its core, the class is a lesson on the complexities that arise
when state and federal laws conflict. Even in states that legalized
marijuana, Berman said, there's a question about whether federal tax
code should treat sellers like business owners, who get tax benefits,
or like illegal dealers, who don't.

Last week, Berman was at a conference in Washington for American
Indian tribes that are considering growing marijuana. Some tribes
live in states where marijuana is legal, but live on land that falls
under the jurisdiction of the federal government, which outlaws the
drug. Lawyers are trying to untangle the web of laws that apply.

"State-level reforms have an extra layer of complication to them,"
Berman said. "That's a very valuable lesson for all lawyers to understand."

Part of the thrill for students and for Berman is that they're
studying the law as it evolves, unlike other classes that analyze
centuries-old rules. Instead of a textbook, Berman keeps an online
blog directing students to daily updates from across the country. One
of the struggles, he said, is choosing what he has time to cover in class.

"Almost every morning, I get up and check my Google news feed and
it's like, 'Oh, there's another story I ought to be talking about,' "
he said. "Things are moving so quickly, there's no way I could teach
everything."
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2015
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2015 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Craig Wolf

SAFELY REGULATE MARIJUANA SALES

One of the reasons that the implementation of marijuana legalization
has stumbled is because these measures failed to structure what an
effective regulatory model and its market would look like.

While our organization is neutral on the question of legalization,
there is no denying that the modern three-tier beverage alcohol
system delivers consumers a wide diversity of products in a manner
that guarantees product integrity, works to prevent underage access,
ensures tax revenue for government, and provides regulatory oversight.

Licensed and regulated suppliers can sell only to licensed and
regulated wholesalers who in turn sell only to licensed and regulated
establishments.

Regulators and legislators should stop trying to reinvent the wheel.
A solution has already proved its effectiveness: a three-tier model
like that used to regulate beverage alcohol would ensure that
marijuana - if legalized - is properly controlled.

Craig Wolf, president and CEO Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America;
Washington, D.C.
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xxx
Newshawk: VancoBoy
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 2015
Source: Coast Reporter (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Coast Reporter
Contact: editor@coastreporter.net
Website: http://www.coastreporter.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/580
Author: John Gleeson

MEDMA ONE STEP CLOSER TO PRODUCTION

Medma Cannabis Pharms Inc. is one step closer to becoming the first
medical marijuana production facility in the District of Sechelt to
operate under Health Canada's new regulations.

Although not yet licensed by Health Canada, the company trucked 18
steel containers to its site on Sechelt Crescent in East Porpoise Bay
on Monday.

The containers, measuring 40 feet in length, were brought in empty,
but are intended to house the KM5000 hydroponic growing system
designed by Archer Adler Consulting Solutions and engineered by the
AME Consulting Group, Yoram Adler said Wednesday.

"The KM5000 grow system will be fabricated inside the containers,"
Adler said. "It's a vertically stacked system and the first of its
kind in Canada. It's a Canadian first."

Features include a professionally engineered air handling system and
filters to ensure "the community has no smell," as required by the
District and Health Canada, he said.

"Our filtration system is extremely robust."

The 18-gage steel containers were chosen for fire safety, as they are
not combustible. "There's nothing in our system that's combustible.
Even the plant is in water, so the combustibility factor is extremely low."

The containers will also provide added security, Adler said, noting
the facility will have 200 cameras inside and outside the building.

Waste management, he said, will follow Health Canada secure
destruction protocols.

Adler said he was aware that some residents have been trying to push
the District to reverse the previous council's position allowing
medical marijuana production facilities under current zoning as a
light industrial use.

"What possible risk is there?" he asked. "What possible side effect?
Medma has spent over $800,000 in the community, buying land and
hiring local contractors to do the work."

Other lots have been bought up to build plants in the same industrial
area, he said.

"Doesn't it make sense to have something secure, discreet, with
cameras, sensors, multi-layer security?"

Resident Marc Nixon, who has written letters to the District
questioning the project, said his main concern was "a total lack of
due process," but added he believes there is a very good chance that
Health Canada will deny the company a licence due to inadequate setbacks.

"With 116 residential condos within 60 metres, Medma in my opinion
will never go into production," Nixon said.

Adler disagreed.

"Health Canada looks at all kinds of factors when it comes to site
appropriateness. We're in an area where the zoning allows it."

Adler said the plant, which could be operational within 120 days,
will employ at least four full-time workers, while a planned second
phase would see more jobs created. Medma COO Bal Uppal, a retired
Mountie, and a quality assurance manager will relocate to the Coast
to run the facility, which is 80 per cent automated, he said.
__________________________________________________________________________
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugwarfacts.org
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n144/a01.html

THE TROUBLE WITH EMPLOYEE POT SCREENING

Re: "Employers should stop testing for marijuana," March 8 Gina Tron column.

I hope Colorado employers are able to evaluate job performance based
on employee productivity rather than the contents of bodily fluids.
Drug tests are lifestyle tests designed to penalize marijuana
consumers. Drug tests may compel marijuana consumers to switch to
more dangerous drugs to avoid testing positive. This is why the
American Academy of Pediatrics opposes student drug testing.

Marijuana's organic metabolites are fat-soluble and can linger for
days. More dangerous synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and
prescription narcotics are water-soluble and exit the body quickly.
If you think drug users don't know this, think again. Anyone capable
of running an Internet search can find out how to thwart a drug test.

The most commonly abused drug and the one most closely associated
with violent behavior is alcohol. Legal alcohol kills more people
each year than all illegal drugs combined. Hangovers don't contribute
to workplace safety and counterproductive drug tests do absolutely
nothing to discourage the No. 1 drug problem: alcohol.

Robert Sharpe, Arlington, Va.

The writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy.
__________________________________________________________________________
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Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2015
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2015 Sun-Times Media, LLC
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/5QwXAJWY
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Frank Main

HIGH CRIMES

Expert Rips Rahm's Positive Spin on Impact of Pot- Law Enforcement on
Blacks, Hispanics

The Emanuel administration has touted as a sign of "progress"
statistics showing that the percentage of arrests to tickets in
marijuana cases was about the same for blacks, Hispanics and whites in 2014.

But a deeper dive into the numbers tells a more complex story, one
that's raising a question among some critics of how much progress is
actually being made.

When you look at the raw numbers, blacks were busted 16 times more
than whites for small amounts of pot in 2014- including tickets and
arrests. And for every white Chicagoan busted for marijuana, four
Hispanics were busted, according to police statistics. Those stats
come despite the fact that white Chicagoans outnumber both black and
Hispanic Chicagoans by a ratio of approximately 3- to- 2.

Last week, though, Emanuel's administration put the focus on the
percentage of arrests to tickets that was about the same for blacks,
Hispanics and whites in 2014- calling it "progress."

Several aldermen, including Ald. Howard Brookins ( 21st), chairman of
the City Council's Black Caucus, reacted positively to that news,
saying it was evidence of the police treating African- Americans more fairly.

But Kathie Kane- Willis, director of the Illinois Consortium on Drug
Policy at Roosevelt University, said the overall pot enforcement
totals actually show a continuing racial bias in policing.

"To me, this speaks to two Chicagos that exist, one for the black and
brown people and one for wealthy white people," she said.

Marty Maloney, a spokesman for the police department, responded that
the top six police districts for marijuana enforcement are also the
top six districts for 911 calls about narcotics crimes.

And all of those districts are predominately African-American.

"In neighborhoods where there are more calls to police from residents
complaining about narcotics sales or narcotics loitering, there are
higher levels of enforcement," he said.

More than a quarter of the arrests in 2014 were mandated because the
offender was committing another crime, Maloney added.

But Kane- Willis believes most of the pot arrests are spinoffs of 911
calls about more serious crimes like heroin and drug sales in open-
air-markets. She thinks cops are going on those heroin and cocaine
calls, frisking people at the scene and finding petty amounts of pot
in their pockets.

"Why make all these [ pot] arrests when you acknowledge they take
away officers' time on more serious crimes?" she asked.

Kane- Willis noted that Cook County had the biggest racial disparity
in marijuana possession arrests among the 25 most populous counties
in the nation in 2010, according to FBI data and census statistics.

"There's been marginal progress here, but it's still unfair and
unjust," she said.

Only a state law decriminalizing possession of small amounts of pot
would end the racial disparities in the numbers of people busted for
having marijuana, Kane- Willis said.

Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, who is running for
mayor against Emanuel, declined to comment on the raw numbers of
arrest and the disparities.

Charlene Carruthers of Black Youth Project 100, a Chicago-based group
of activists ages 18 to 35, said she doesn't think arresting people
for small amounts of pot is keeping the city safer.

"It's hyper-surveillance and harassment for what shouldn't even be an
offense. No one should be arrested for having 15 grams of marijuana
or less. Even the cost of a ticket could throw someone into a very
difficult situation," Carruthers said of the citations, which run $
250 to $ 500.

Carruthers, the national director of Black Youth Project 100, said
the group has expressed its concerns to Ald. Danny Solis ( 25th),
sponsor of the city's pot ticketing ordinance and to police officials.

Chicago cops started writing pot tickets in 2012 when Emanuel pushed
the City Council to approve an ordinance that would allow officers to
issue citations for possession of 15 grams or less of marijuana.
Police retained the option of arresting people on a misdemeanor
possession charge punishable by up to six months in jail and a $ 1,500 fine.

In 2013, cops issued 1,074 citations, compared with 4,032 last year.
Meantime, arrests dropped from 14,374 in 2013 to 11,088 last year.
__________________________________________________________________________
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xx
Newshawk: chip
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2015
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Website: http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Zusha Elinson

Aging Baby Boomers Bring Drug Habits Into Middle Age

Older adults are abusing drugs, getting arrested for drug offenses
and dying from drug overdoses at increasingly higher rates

UPLAND, Calif. - From the time he was a young man coming of age in
the 1970s, Mike Massey could have served as a poster child for his
generation, the baby boomers. He grew his hair long to the dismay of
his father, surfed, played in rock bands and says he regularly got
high on marijuana and cocaine.

The wild times receded as he grew older. In his 30s, he stopped using
drugs altogether, rose into executive positions with the plumbers and
pipe fitters union, bought a house in this Los Angeles suburb and
started a family. But at age 50, Mr. Massey injured his knee running.
He took Vicodin for the pain but soon started using pills heavily,
mixing the opioids with alcohol, he said.

"It reminded me of getting high and getting loaded,"  said Mr.
Massey, now 58 years old, who went into recovery and stopped using
drugs and alcohol in 2013. "Your mind never forgets that."

Today, the story of this balding, middle-aged executive continues to
reflect that of his generation.

Older adults are abusing drugs, getting arrested for drug offenses
and dying from drug overdoses at increasingly higher rates. These
surges have come as the 76 million baby boomers, born between 1946
and 1964, reach late middle age. Facing the pains and losses
connected to aging, boomers, who as youths used drugs at the highest
rates of any generation, are once again - or still - turning to drugs.

The trend has U.S. health officials worried. The sharp increase in
overdose deaths among older adults in particular is "very
concerning,"  said Wilson Compton, deputy director for the federal
government's National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The rate of death by accidental drug overdose for people aged 45
through 64 increased 11-fold between 1990, when no baby boomers were
in the age group, and 2010, when the age group was filled with baby
boomers, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention mortality data. That multiple of increase was greater than
for any other age group in that time span.The surge has pushed the
accidental overdose rate for these late middle age adults higher than
that of 25- to 44-year-olds for the first time. More than 12,000
boomers died of accidental drug overdoses in 2013, the most recent
data available. That is more than the number that died that year from
either car accidents or influenza and pneumonia, according to the CDC.

"Generally, we thought of older individuals of not having a risk for
drug abuse and drug addiction,"  Dr. Compton said. "As the baby
boomers have aged and brought their habits with them into middle age,
and now into older adult groups, we are seeing marked increases in
overdose deaths."

Experts say the drug problem among the elderly has been caused by the
confluence of two key factors: a generation with a predilection for
mind-altering substances growing older in an era of widespread opioid
painkiller abuse. Pain pills follow marijuana as the most popular
ways for aging boomers to get high, according to the federal
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which
conducts an annual national survey on drug use. Opioid painkillers
also are the drug most often involved in overdoses, followed by
antianxiety drugs, cocaine and heroin.

Wall Street Journal interviews with dozens of older drug users and
recovering addicts revealed an array of personal stories behind the
trend. Some had used drugs their entire lives and never slowed down.
Others had used drugs when they were younger, then returned to them
later in life after a divorce, death in the family or job loss.

"If you have a trigger, and your youth is caught up in that Woodstock
mentality, you're going to revert back,"  said Jamie Huysman, 60,
clinical adviser to the senior program at Caron Treatment Centers, a
residential drug treatment organization that plans to break ground
this summer on a $10 million medical center in Pennsylvania catering
to older adults. "We were pretty conditioned that we could be
rebellious, that we could take drugs, and so this is how we respond today."

Drug-rehabilitation programs are grappling with how to handle the
boom in older patients. More than 5.7 million people over the age of
50 will need substance-abuse treatment by the year 2020, according to
estimates from government researchers. Meanwhile, hospitals have seen
a sharp increase in the number of older adults admitted for
drug-related health problems, government statistics show."We're still
in the process of figuring out: How do we ensure we have a strong
workforce that can address this, and the appropriate settings to
address this?"  said Peter Delany, director of the Center for
Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality at the Department of Health
and Human Services.

Over the past decade, illicit drug use among people over 50 has
increased at the same time that the rate for teens""the group that
draws the most public concern when it comes to substance abuse""has
declined, according to the federal government's annual survey on drug
use. A similar pattern exists for drug arrests: rates fell in nearly
every younger age group in the country between 1997 and 2012, but not
for those between the ages of 45 and 64.

Boomers have always ranked high on the charts that measure drug use.
In 1979, high school seniors, born in 1961, set the record for
self-reported illicit drug use in the past year, according to an
annual national survey called Monitoring the Future. The rate of drug
use among boomers has fallen significantly as the cohort has aged,
but it is about triple the percentage of people in the previous
generation who reported drug use in their older years.

Neil Howe, a historian and author of several books on generational
trends, said that boomers have always stood out for their willingness
to break with convention and take risks, which included using drugs.

"They themselves continue to behave in a less inhibited fashion even
as younger generations turn away from that type of risk taking,"  he said.

(Rates of major sexually transmitted diseases have also increased for
people over 45 in recent years, according to the CDC.)

Rehab centers that were designed for younger people are adjusting to
the new clientele. Getting rid of bunk beds, hiring more experienced
addiction counselors and providing medical care on-site are some
measures being taken. Amid prescription painkiller abuse, old-age
aches and pains are treated with acupuncture and nonaddictive
painkillers. Another change is therapy sessions that are designed for
older adults.

Caretaker children At the Hanley Center at Origins in West Palm
Beach, Fla., there is a treatment program just for baby boomers
separate from both older and younger adults. They live together in
the same building during their stay and attend group therapy together.

At one session, a woman who said she was an alcoholic told the dozen
people sitting in a circle that she had received roses from her
family that day. It made her feel guilty: "I really don't deserve
anything from them,"  she said, breaking down in tears.

Deborah Christensen, a counselor and boomer herself, then led an
exercise where other recovering addicts acted out the woman's family
dynamics. In the scene, her adult daughter was the voice of reason,
calming the family during frequent fights over substance abuse.

The guilt from having forced adult children into that role struck a
chord. "I identify,"  another woman chimed in. "My ex-husband was an
opiate addict, and I saw my oldest as the caretaker."

John Dyben, who heads the boomer and older adult programs at Hanley,
said that there are different barriers to getting each generation on
the road to recovery. With the oldest generation, it is shame about
admitting an addiction; with youth, it is a belief that they are
indestructible. With boomers, he said, it is an attitude that they
know all the answers and a belief that drugs aren't necessarily a bad thing.

To that end, counselors at Hanley put less emphasis on the
traditional stories about how substance abuse ruins people's lives
when treating boomers because, "for every story you've got, they've
got 15 others about people who expanded their minds with drugs and
then became successful CEOs,"  Dr. Dyben said.

Instead, they focus on educating them about the science of addiction.
They also give them a more active role in planning their own treatment.

Opiates are the drug that is most frequently landing boomers in
treatment, according to federal data that tracks admissions to
centers that receive some public funding. In 2012 for those aged
45-64, 36% of admissions for drugs were for heroin, with an
additional 12% for opioid painkillers, followed by 22% for crack
cocaine, and 10% for methamphetamines.

Alcohol and alcohol mixed with a secondary drug made up more than
half of the overall admissions.

For Clare Mannion, 64, the trigger was looming retirement from a long
career in real estate. Five years ago, Ms. Mannion said, as she
settled down in Florida after a lifetime of moving around the
country, "most people were saying, "'What more do you want? Why
aren't you ready to - the magic word - 'retire?' "

"What I heard, given my personality was, "'Aren't you ready to retire
from life?' "  she said. "Internally, I felt pretty hopeless, and
what was the most easily accessible were prescription drugs and alcohol."

Ms. Mannion said she would mix antianxiety pills known as
benzodiazepines with alcohol. After two DUI arrests, Ms. Mannion
landed in treatment in 2013 in a program designed for baby boomers
and run by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in Florida. She has
been clean ever since, she said. Today, she said, she feels
"electrically alive."

For older adults, the side effects of getting high can be much
harsher than for younger people, experts say. As the body ages, the
metabolism slows, making it harder to process drugs, said NIDA's Dr. Compton.

The rates of hospital stays and emergency room visits for
drug-related health problems have skyrocketed for older adults in the
past two decades. In 2012, people between the ages of 45 and 64 had
the highest rate of inpatient hospital stays for opioid overuse; two
decades ago, it was those between 25 and 44, according to the federal
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

For Mr. Massey, the Southern California executive, a near-overdose
two years ago was one of the dramatic events that pushed him toward
getting clean. One night, sitting on his bed after taking a cocktail
of painkillers, he had a seizure and blacked out. "Next thing I know
I was waking up and my wife was upset and my kids were crying and
these paramedics were pumping on my chest,"  he said.

Before getting hooked on pills, Mr. Massey said he thought he had
left the habits of his younger days behind. Back then, in the 1970s,
doing a line of cocaine was a pickup move at parties, and pot was
plentiful. He worked as a welder in San Diego and played lead guitar
in a rock band called Loose Enz. His idol was Rolling Stones
guitarist Keith Richards. "I tried to live like I was in the
Stones,"  he said dryly. "I was on tour every night."

Lucky Dare Fleming, 66, a friend who was a drummer in the band, said
he didn't realize at the time that drugs would become a serious
problem for Mr. Massey. "Me, I've just gone along and dabbled
recreationally,"  said Mr. Fleming. "It was a little more alluring to
Mike, and he had to get away from it."

Mr. Massey's late father, George, was a World War II vet, a tough
steward in the plumbers and pipe fitters union, and a heavy drinker,
said his son, who recalls him carrying his union contract, a
half-pint of whiskey and a pistol in his lunch pail.

A knee injury, and pills After getting clean, Mr. Massey said he came
to realize that he had been harboring deep shame about not being
strong or tough enough his whole life, and that a violent childhood
had affected him more deeply than he knew. He grew up in hardscrabble
neighborhoods, carried weapons to school and fought frequently. But
he doesn't like to cast blame for his drug use, saying, "I never put
anything in my body against my will."

After he stopped using drugs - which included a stint with meth in
his late 20s - for the first time, his career took off: At age 35, he
was promoted to a leadership position at a Los Angeles-based trust
fund that represents the interests of unions and union contractors in
the plumbing and piping industry. He met his wife, Dena, bought a
home in the suburbs and had two children.

Then eight years ago, while exercising to lose weight, he aggravated
an old knee injury and took a few Vicodin pills from a friend for the
pain. A day later, he took a handful.

"I thought, no big deal - my knee hurts and they're prescription
drugs,"  he said. "The fact of the matter was I was abusing them the
second day I had them."

After surgeries to repair his knee and an arm he also injured,
prescriptions brought him a steady supply of pain pills. He would
down about 40 every day while drinking heavily. By that time, he had
become executive director of the trust fund and several associated
businesses, an organization known as the PIPE Group, which employs
more than 200 people across the country. It was a stressful job
probably better done by two people, saidSid Stolper, Mr. Massey's
boss for 21 years.

After Mr. Massey got, in his own words, "blasted"  at work on pills
and alcohol, Mr. Stolper called a meeting and delivered an ultimatum:
Get clean or you're fired.

"He is a very valued employee and does a lot for the
organization,"  said Mr. Stolper. "He was worth the effort of saving."

At first, Mr. Massey resisted. But after detoxing for two weeks at
home, he entered a two-week recovery program in San Diego. The
center's president, Tom Horvath, is a seminal figure in a
rehabilitation movement called SMART Recovery, a secular,
cognitive-behavioral-therapy based alternative to the 12-step
approach. Mr. Massey now leads an online SMART Recovery group, and he
is back at his job.

Talking about his generation, Mr. Massey said: "What I suspect is, we
know how to get high; we know the sensation. In a broad sense, once
you've been there, it's easier to get back into it."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Mar 2015
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/gzc8ym62
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: Debra J. Saunders

MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL LOST IN SMOKE

Last year, Congress passed an amendment that barred the Department of
Justice from using federal dollars to prosecute medical-marijuana
dispensaries in states that have legalized them. Last week, three
senators have proposed a measure to clean up the federal-state
medical-marijuana mess once and for all.

Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; and Rand Paul,
R-Ky., introduced their Carers (Compassionate Access, Research
Expansion and Respect States) Act, which should draw support from the
right and left. Why? First, it would reclassify marijuana from a
Schedule I to a Schedule II drug, granting recognition that marijuana
has legitimate medical uses, a sop to the left. Second, it would
direct the federal government to stop prosecuting dispensers in
states that have legalized marijuana for medical use - a states'
rights emphasis that should draw GOP votes.

The measure also would allow cannabidiol imports to help patients
with epilepsy and seizure disorders - the folks who need medical
marijuana the most - and allow Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend
medical marijuana. Booker sees his legislation as a matter of "common
sense, fiscal prudence and compassion."

For decades, Congress wouldn't move on medical marijuana because D.C.
pols thought of advocates as goof-offs who just want to get high.
They didn't see the legitimate medical benefits. Then, two years ago,
CNN physician-reporter Sanjay Gupta looked at the issue anew and
found that cannabis could help children with life-threatening
seizures. Medical marijuana has been used to treat people with
epilepsy, Parkinson's, brain tumors and posttraumatic stress disorder
without the serious side effects often associated with prescription drugs.

 From San Francisco, Carers looks like a political slam dunk. It has
bipartisan support. Already 23 states have legalized medical
marijuana, which puts momentum on the "yes" side. "It stands a good
chance of moving because it's so bipartisan in nature," said Bill
Piper, the Drug Policy Alliance's man in Washington, D.C. But: "The
hard part is going to be getting it through committee." Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, opposes the bill.

Will Grassley allow the bill to come to a vote? "The committee is
unlikely to take up a bill in the near future that remakes these laws
so broadly," spokeswoman Jill Gerber answered. She added that
Grassley "is looking at ways to lift any unnecessary barriers" to
scientific research into marijuana-based medicines to treat epilepsy
and other conditions affecting children.

There are 11 GOP and nine Democratic senators on the committee. I see
three R's who could vote yes - Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas
support states' rights, and Jeff Flake of Arizona voted for similar
legislation in the House. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are more.

That would put Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the middle. Other committee
Dems are very likely to vote yes. On the one hand, Feinstein and
Grassley often work closely on drug-war issues. On the other hand,
Feinstein does represent California. Her office told me DiFi is still
reviewing the legislation.

Which leads to my final question: Would President Obama sign Carers?
Advocates believe the White House could have and should have made
marijuana a Schedule II drug years ago, but didn't. The
administration has been behind the curve.

"Everyone pretty much believes that" Obama is not really for current
federal marijuana laws, said Marijuana Majority Chairman Tom Angell,
just as many believed Obama supported same-sex marriage back when he
said he was against it.

"I wouldn't be shocked to see him evolve on this issue the same way
he did for marriage equality," Angell mused. "Maybe all we need is
for Joe Biden to say that marijuana should be legal."
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2015
Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2015 The Lethbridge Herald
Contact: letters@lethbridgeherald.com
Website: http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239
Author: Tijana Martin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

ROYAL VISIT: 'PRINCE OF POT' THANKS LOCAL SUPPORTERS

Reality of Marc Emery's Time in Prison Was Eased by Various Donations

Marc Emery "the Prince of Pot" was in Lethbridge this past weekend to
thank the community for its support.

On Aug. 12, 2014, Emery was released from a United States federal
prison after serving his five-year sentence after he pleaded guilty
to selling marijuana seeds from Canada to American customers from 1995-2005.

He was released after 54 months for good behaviour.

"That was the result of a brilliant fundraising event I had to raise
for the cannabis movement ... by selling seeds to Americans and
people around the world, I was able to give away about five million
dollars to activist groups all across North America," said Emery.

While Emery was in prison, some Lethbridge residents organized
fundraising events that contributed $6,000 to his commissary account
in prison, according to Emery.

"The money that was raised by the people of Lethbridge at these
Christmas fundraisers every year was just invaluable, plus it was an
incredible morale booster when you're in prison to think that many
people would show from just one community," said Emery.

Since being released, Emery has noticed a change in marijuana acceptance.

"In that four-and-a-half years of incarceration, the world went from
having no legal (marijuana) states in America to now having five," said Emery.

And he feels that Canada will be quick to follow.

"Canada has a candidate for Prime Minister and his party that wants
to legalize marijuana, so it's possible that even in Lethbridge,
Alberta we could see legal marijuana by the end of this year.

"These are momentous times that I'm living in. I feel a good
sacrifice was made that was worthwhile and the trade was very
beneficial. If I would have had the opportunity to give up
four-and-a-half years of my life in prison to gain what we have
gained, then I would do that again in a flash.

"Even if Stephen Harper were re-elected, I think the Conservative
government would still legalize marijuana because the United States
is going to - you have seven states coming up next year with
legalization on the ballots and it's likely to pass in at least five
of them," he said.

Emery said he's sure that a medical marijuana dispensary will open up
in Lethbridge some time this year, and vapour lounges as well.

While marijuana may still be legal, vapour lounges across the country
have found a grey zone to operate and often establish themselves as
retail shops or eateries.

"So by operating a lounge we don't really do anything illegal, we
only allow people that are possessing it themselves to sit and
congregate, because under the charter of rights people have the right
to associate culturally with people."

In Vancouver, there are more than 60 dispensaries currently open
which sell up to 40 different kinds of marijuana.

"I actually thought it would only be in my dreams that we would see
those kinds of things, but they're happening right now in Vancouver,"
Emery said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Mar 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Todd C. Frankel

CORNERING THE POT MARKET

After Washington State Made It Legal, a Struggling Small Town Went
into Business

North Bonneville, Wash. - Deep in the Columbia River Gorge, a short
drive from the Bridge of the Gods, the nation's only government-run
marijuana shop was running low on weed.

The store had been open for just a few days. Inside, manager Robyn
Legun was frantically trying to restock. Outside, five customers
stood waiting for the doors to open. Someone cracked a joke about
this being a typical government operation, always running late.

But, of course, it's not. This government store, bearing the cozy
name Cannabis Corner, sells dozens of strains of marijuana and in
several different forms, from pungent buds to infused cookies and
coffee. It sells glass bongs and rolling papers. And it does it all
at the direction of the North Bonneville Public Development
Authority, making the local government uniquely dependent on this
once-illicit drug.

"If I don't get this order in this morning, we're going to be out for
the weekend," said Legun, 36, fretting over her inventory list.

Legun used to manage a Bed Bath & Beyond. Now, she leads a team of 10
people trained to sell pot. Her new government job had her placing
orders for Blue Magoo, Purple Kush and Pineapple Express. "I can't
believe this is my life," she said. Just two years ago, selling
marijuana for nonmedical purposes was a crime everywhere in the
country. Pot prohibition was on. Today, four states are setting up
legal marketplaces open to anyone 21 or older.

Tightly regulated private stores began popping up in Washington and
Colorado in 2014; Alaska and Oregon plan to open stores in 2016. In
the District, voters approved legal pot possession in November and
the law took effect last month. And in November 2016, marijuana
advocates expect to put legalization on the ballot in at least five
more states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts and Maine.

"I've been surprised at how quickly things are moving. It's just
tremendous," said Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug
Policy Alliance.

Marijuana clearly has momentum. For the first time, a majority of
Americans - 52 percent - favor pot legalization, according to a
recent poll by the well-regarded General Social Survey. Last month,
former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.)  two likely
candidates for the Republican presidential nomination - said
legalization should be left to the states. And last week in the
Senate, another potential GOP presidential contender, Rand Paul
(Ky.), joined Democrats Cory Booker (N. J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand
(N.Y.) in introducing a historic bill to end the federal ban on
medical marijuana.

"It's night and day from 2009," said Dan Riffle, chief lobbyist for
the Marijuana Policy Project. He said doors on Capitol Hill once
closed to him are now swinging wide.

Still, even Riffle didn't see the Cannabis Corner coming - a store
where pot is not only tolerated by the government but promoted by it,
like stamps, or maps, or Smokey Bear tchotchkes.

"That's something that would've been anathema six or seven years
ago," Riffle said.

In many places, it still is. In 38 states, possessing an ounce of
marijuana continues to carry the threat of jail time. Even in
Washington, which in 2012 became one of the first states to legalize
pot for recreational use, the drug is not universally embraced.

Of 281 incorporated municipalities, more than 90 have banned the
opening of pot shops or enacted moratoriums. Officials in Pierce
County are fighting a pot shop that opened last month in the city of
Parkland, despite a county ban on the establishments. In Skamania
County, home to North Bonneville, county commissioner Chris Brong
said he personally doesn't approve of the town's decision.

"I don't think it's the type of business we want," Brong said.

Fellow commissioner Doug McKenzie agreed. At the very least, he said,
Cannabis Corner should have a private owner. "I don't like government
competing with private enterprise," McKenzie said.

A town upturned

North Bonneville is no hippie haven. Initial thinking behind the shop
was, in fact, defensive: to deter a bad owner. But the town - a drab
collection of buildings thrown up in the 1970s when its 1,000
residents were relocated to make way for the expansion of the nearby
Bonneville Dam - was struggling financially. The potential economic
benefit was hard to resist.

A pot shop would provide a reason for tourists to stop in North
Bonneville. Making it government-run would keep the profits local.

Mayor Don Stevens pushed the idea. Stevens is 58, a former Marine
with wire-rim glasses, a beard and curly gray hair along the sides of
his head. As a teenager in 1970s Oregon, he joined the pro-marijuana
group NORML, believing that legalization was just around the corner.

"Forty years later, it's finally happening," he said. "It's been a
long, strange trip, as they say."

The Cannabis Corner sits at the edge of town just off State Highway
14 in a renovated storage barn. Red and white "Grand Opening" banners
hang from a chain-link fence topped by barbed wire. State laws limit
advertising, so the store can be easy to miss.

Inside, it looks like a cross between a head shop and a gift
boutique. It's clean and spaced out. Classic rock plays quietly in
the background. Long glass display cases line two walls, arranged by
marijuana breeds, stretching from indica (calming) to sativa
(energizing), with hybrids in between.

The marijuana comes by the gram in prepackaged, sealed plastic bags,
usually $15 to $18 a pop - significantly less than at nearby private
shops. Six days after the store opened, its menu apologized that 13
varieties were already "temporarily sold out!"

As three "bud tenders" helped customers make their selections, Glen
Jorgensen, 67, settled on some Sour Diesel. The retired construction
worker wore a gray Tshirt with an American flag on it and carried a
small brown bag with a Cannabis Corner sticker bearing his purchase.

"There's a lot of people my age who've been getting it under the
table for years," said Jorgensen, a Vietnam veteran who stopped by
the store on his way back from the VA hospital. "Now, we don't have to."

After lunch, business spiked. In walked Levan Mattson, 23, with his
parents, Daniel, 60, and Diana, 56. The family had been hiking nearby
when Mom suggested they stop by the pot shop.

The younger Mattson was stunned. He loved pot. But he had never seen
his parents get high. Now, his mom was perusing the edible products.
She settled on a cookie.

"It's weird seeing this," he said. "But it's also kind of awesome."

Mayor Stevens dropped by the store in his new "I [pot leaf ]
Washington" T-shirt. He had just attended a meeting of the county
Chamber of Commerce, where the Cannabis Corner was a new member.
Legun filled him in. "I just placed our next re-up order," she said.
"We're almost out of weed!" The mayor beamed. "How great is that?" he asked.

Will pot pay off?

Initially, some residents opposed the pot shop. But the upset faded
during a regulatory approval process that took more than a year. The
city could not run the shop directly, so it set up a public
development authority, like the one that runs Seattle's Pike Place
Market. The five-member board is responsible for business decisions
and doling out store profits. Stevens's first priority is renovating
the town's dilapidated playground.

But there is no promise of profitability. The marijuana business is
competitive. Pot stores have opened 45 minutes away to the east and
west. Just across the river gorge, Oregon could add stores of its own
next year. And North Bonneville must repay $260,000 in high-interest
loans it borrowed to get the store started.

At a meeting last week, development authority board members studied
an early sales report. The store was averaging about $2,200 a day -
well below initial projections. But board members felt confident that
business would pick up with the summer tourist season.

"As we get another month or two under our belts, it' ll loosen up,"
said John Spencer, a consultant hired to develop the store's business plan.

Legun cheered the group with the Cannabis Corner's first Yelp review:
five stars. Then she brought up a potentially controversial topic:
the employee discount program.

The bud tenders - all regular government workers with benefits and
starting pay of $11 an hour - are a committed bunch. For instance,
Kayley Blood, 25, left her job at a medicinal pot shop in Colorado to
work at the Cannabis Corner. The Colorado market was already feeling
too money-hungry and corporate, she said. She was attracted by the
idea of a small store run for the people.

Legun wanted to offer employees a steep discount. At the board
meeting, she compared the Cannabis Corner to any other retail
operation, where it's important to have informed workers.

"We need to be doing constant trial and testing," she argued.

One board member did not want to give up the profits. The board's
attorney worried that discounts might be considered gifts of
government services. In the end, the board voted to offer the staff
marijuana and bongs at a price just above cost.

At the Cannabis Corner, workers take the same drug test the town
administers to all new hires. But they're allowed - expected,
actually - to test positive for marijuana.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Mar 2015
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2015 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact: letters@newsminer.com
Website: http://newsminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764

MARIJUANA BILL'S FUTURE UNCLEAR: WITH SEN. KELLY'S CONTROVERSIAL
AMENDMENT, SB 30 MAY NOT BE PASSED THIS SESSION

After a rough initial outing and complete rewrite, the Alaska
Legislature's attempt at setting state rules for marijuana
legalization appears to have ground to a halt once more. Senate Bill
30 would rewrite state laws to reflect marijuana's legal status for
personal possession and use following voter approval of Ballot
Measure 2 in November 2014. But a controversial amendment by
Fairbanks Sen. Pete Kelly has dimmed the prospect that a fix to
conflicting state laws on legalization is imminent.

At first, SB 30 was an ugly bill. Rather than reflect marijuana's
legal status, as originally written, the bill would have left state
drug laws intact - including illegal status for pot - and simply let
defendants charged with marijuana possession offer the passage of
legalization as an affirmative defense. Legislators, state law
officials and legalization advocates railed against the bill's
language as not reflective of voters' intention in passing the ballot measure.

After a brief hiatus, the bill was rewritten to better address laws
in the state that needed to be changed to reflect the drug's legal
status. It took time and debate, but the Legislature appeared to be
heading toward a bill that would clarify state drug laws, reflect
voter intention and maintain prohibitions on larger-scale marijuana growing.

That changed last week, when Sen. Kelly introduced an amendment that
would make marijuana concentrates and edibles - and perhaps even the
plant itself - illegal in 2017, as soon as the initiative could
legally be altered.

Sen. Kelly, in arguing for his amendment, said voters had no idea the
marijuana initiative would legalize marijuana edibles and
concentrates if passed. While it's true the language of the ballot
measure as it appeared on the ballot doesn't make explicit mention of
edibles and concentrates, instead referring to "marijuana and
marijuana products," significant advertising and debating was done by
those opposing the measure that highlighted the fact such products
also would be made legal. Alaska news reports and coverage of the
legalization of the drug in Colorado and Washington also made
repeated mention of edibles and other marijuana products. While some
Alaskans may not have been aware of that aspect of the measure, it's
a safe bet most did know about it.

Whether or not one agrees on Sen. Kelly's reading of voter awareness
of the legalization of derivative marijuana products, the wording of
his amendment, either by accident or design, might well ban marijuana
possession and use outright come 2017. It would criminalize any
"material" containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active
ingredient in marijuana. It's not hard to see how that could result
in a complete ban on marijuana.

So SB 30 appears dead in the water once again, with no hearings
scheduled and no apparent way to resolve the bill's conflict with
voter intent in passing marijuana legalization.

All of a sudden, 90 days is looking like it might not be enough time
for legislators to clean up state drug laws and bring Alaska's
statutes into line with the intent of its people. If that proves to
be the case, it would be an indictment of those in a position to make
a difference on the issue in Juneau.

Municipalities have done good work in sorting out their definitions
of how and where marijuana can be used. The Legislature should get on
the ball and eliminate the conflicts in state law, not create them.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Mar 2015
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited
Contact: guardian.letters@theguardian.com
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

THE STING

Using undercover agents, the DEA spent four years trying to bring
down a cocaine trafficking gang in west Africa. Was the operation a
triumph in the global war on drugs or a case of American overreach?
By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

On a sultry May afternoon in 2009, a car stopped at the end of a dirt
road in the Liberian capital of Monrovia. Guards toting Kalashnikov
rifles opened the gate to a large house, and the vehicle rolled into
the driveway, setting off a chorus of barking by a group of mastiffs
caged inside the compound.

A muscular Nigeria Nigerian named Chigbo Umeh stepped out of the car
with two Colombians, both members of a drug cartel.

The three were led into an elegantly decorated living room, where one
of the most powerful figures in the Liberian government was waiting.

Their host was Fombah Teh Sirleaf, the stepson of Liberia's president
and director of the country's National Security Agency. After Sirleaf
had greeted the visitors, the men sat down to talk. Chigbo, dressed
in jeans and a T-shirt that showed off his biceps, opened the
conversation with a line that summed up his worldview. "In this
life," he said, smiling, "you have to make some money." He then
spelled out the cartel's proposition: it would pay Sirleaf handsomely
in exchange for his help in using Liberia as a transit hub for
smuggling cocaine from Colombia into Europe. The traffickers would
bring the cocaine into the west African country by air and sea; from
there, they would move it to cities across western Europe, where the
drug fetches as much as UKP34,000 per kilogramme.

Sirleaf assured them of his cooperation before sitting back and
letting his representative, who called himself Nabil Hage, take over.
Hage, a balding man of Mediterranean descent, laid out the terms of
the deal, fiddling with a pack of Marlboro Lights as he spoke.
Sirleaf's men would take care of security arrangements at the airport
and at ports.

For bringing in a tonne of cocaine, the traffickers would have to pay
$1m upfront and provide 50kg of cocaine that Hage said would be
smuggled to the United States. He was very insistent on this final point.

The meeting went on for two hours, with Chigbo and Hage doing most of
the talking.

Chigbo, blustery and keen to control the negotiations, cut Hage off
when Hage began conversing directly with the Colombians in Spanish.
"These are my people," he told Hage sternly. "You don't talk to them.
You talk to me." Worried about eavesdropping, Chigbo would pause the
discussion every time Sirleaf's housekeeper came in to serve drinks
or empty the ashtray.

One of the Colombians took notes on a tablet computer.

The two sides eventually agreed to an advance payment of $200,000;
the balance would be paid after the traffickers had brought their
first shipment into the country.

Shortly after the visitors had left, three agents from the US Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrived.

One of the agents was Sam Gaye, a friend of Sirleaf. Every minute of
the meeting had been recorded by cameras hidden inside the room. What
the traffickers had taken as the closing of a deal was in fact the
opening of a sting operation planned by the DEA and the Liberian
National Security Agency.

Reviewing the videos of the meeting, Gaye thought Chigbo's face
looked familiar.

Later, when he saw a mug shot of the Nigerian, familiarity turned
into recognition. "I know this guy," Gaye said. "I arrested him in the 1990s."

In the decades since President Richard Nixon formally declared a "war
on drugs" in 1971, naming drug abuse "public enemy number one in the
United States", that war has evolved from a primarily domestic effort
into an offensive that crisscrosses the globe.

The DEA, formed in 1973, partnered with law enforcement agencies in
Mexico and Colombia through the 80s and the 90s to help destroy
marijuana plantations and cocaine labs in those countries.

Under the Ronald Reagan administration, DEA agents trained with the
military and entered South American nations such as Bolivia to aid
local police fight drug cartels. The argument for these incursions
was straightforward: a significant portion of the drug supply into
the United States originated in or passed through these countries.

Disrupting the supply near the source, before it crossed over into
the US, was a desirable solution.

Over the past decade, the DEA has taken the fight to other parts of
the globe in the belief that breaking up drug trafficking
organisations anywhere in the world benefits the United States. Elite
DEA squads of commandos trained by the US military have been deployed
in Afghanistan, where narco-trafficking helped fund the Taliban, as
well as in Haiti, Honduras, Belize and the Dominican Republic. In
recent years, the DEA has increased its presence in Africa, primarily
in response to the growing footprint of Colombian and Venezuelan drug
cartels in west African countries.

DEA agents based in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Egypt
have conducted a series of investigations in the region, exercising
extra-territorial authority to pursue charges against individuals overseas.

As a result, several drug traffickers arrested in west Africa have
been extradited to the United States and prosecuted under US law. The
trend has created the distinct impression that the DEA is,
increasingly, assuming the mantle of global cop. Appearing before the
US Senate caucus on international narcotics control in 2012, the
DEA's deputy administrator, Thomas Harrigan, explained the rationale
behind the agency's extended reach. "The cocaine, heroin,
methamphetamine, chemical, money laundering and narcoterrorism
threats in Africa have an impact on the US," he said, "particularly
since some of the drug trafficking organisations that smuggle illicit
drugs in the US are the same as those using Africa as a base of
operations for smuggling drugs in Europe and the Middle East."

Sam Gaye, one of the three DEA agents who led the operation to nab
Chigbo and his associates, has served as a foot soldier in this
expanded war. He is a bald man with kindly eyes and a quiet
demeanour, closer in image to a laid-back school principal than a
cop. Despite that unassuming persona - or perhaps because of it -
Gaye has successfully navigated danger time and again throughout his
career, having run dozens of undercover operations for the DEA. He
has often played the role of a drug dealer himself.

Born in Liberia, Gaye moved to the United States when he was 20, and
went to college in Philadelphia before joining the DEA 11 years
later, in 1987. In one of his first cases, he posed as a corrupt
African diplomat and negotiated a fake drug deal with a Dominican
drug trafficker and his aide, a Washington, DC cop, at a parking lot
in DC. In 1989, upon instructions from his supervisor, Gaye had an
informant show up near the White House and sell him a bag of cocaine.
He learned later that the operation had been requested by White House
officials who wanted the bag as a prop for a speech by President
George HW Bush about the nation's fight against drugs.

In the early 90s, Gaye was posted to Nigeria to track down fugitives
and leads relating to cases the DEA was pursuing in the United
States. A decade later, in 2005, after stints in Haiti and Puerto
Rico, Gaye returned to Nigeria for a second posting to help the DEA
fight an alarming trend.

Once considered a backwater of the international drug trade, west
Africa was quickly becoming a hub for cocaine smuggling.

Colombian cartels had already established safe passage for their
contraband through Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Guinea by bribing
top government and military officials.

In an increasingly interconnected world, these new trafficking routes
were seen by the DEA to be as much of a threat to the United States
as to Europe and Africa.

In the autumn of 2007, Gaye received a phone call at his office in
Lagos. It was from Fombah Sirleaf, who had spent part of his
childhood in Philadelphia and got to know Gaye when he was there.
Sirleaf's mother was at the time married to a distant cousin of Gaye,
and Gaye often came over to their house to visit.

Sirleaf, who was not yet a teenager, came to regard Gaye as a big brother.

Through the decades since, their friendship had grown.

Sirleaf told Gaye he had something important to discuss with him that
he couldn't mention on the phone.

Gaye flew to Monrovia for a meeting. Sirleaf said he had been
approached by a cocaine trafficking organisation that wanted to use
Liberia as a base. Gaye suggested that the DEA could help Sirleaf's
national security agency identify the traffickers and stop them. If
Sirleaf simply turned them away, they were likely to target other
officials in the Liberian government. Preventing traffickers from
making inroads in Liberia wouldn't just be an act of goodwill by the
DEA - the operation would further its goal of disrupting global drug
trafficking networks.

After Sirleaf's stepmother, President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, gave her
approval, the DEA and the National Security Agency began planning a
sting. Leading the effort, along with Gaye, were three agents from
the DEA's special operations division in Chantilly, Virginia: Lou
Milione, a former movie actor who helped capture the international
arms dealer Viktor Bout, and two of Milione's younger colleagues,
James Stouch and Ryan Rapaszky.

Supervisors at the DEA suggested that Gaye play the role of Sirleaf's
assistant, but Gaye felt uneasy because he had heard that a Nigerian
was involved. "I had this intuition," he told me. "Something told me
it could be somebody that could recognise me because I have put
Nigerians in jail."

The special operations division ended up assigning the primary
undercover role to a Greek-American named Spyros Enotiades, a
flamboyant, talkative personality who had worked with the DEA on
dozens of cases before.

With his Mediterranean looks, Enotiades was a natural fit for the
part he'd been given: that of Nabil Hage, an ostensible member of the
Lebanese expatriate community, which controls several businesses in
Liberia. Picking Enotiades for the job - rather than Gaye - proved to
be a prescient choice.

If Gaye had been the one to represent Sirleaf in negotiating with
Chigbo, the sting would have ended in an instant.

Chigbo got into the drug trade in the early 1990s, when he was a
student in Lagos, studying business administration. The university
shut down because of a strike just as he was getting ready to take
his final exams.

Frustrated by the delay in graduating, the enterprising Chigbo began
helping Nigerian friends in the US to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan
through Nigeria into New Jersey. He earned so much money that he
forgot about returning to college when the strike ended.

But the good times were soon to be interrupted. In 1993, a DEA
investigation in New Jersey led to federal indictments against Chigbo
and his associates. Chigbo, who had yet to set foot in the United
States, became a fugitive in the eyes of American law.

For about two years, the indictment did not change anything for
Chigbo, who continued to traffic heroin through Lagos. Then, one day
in 1995, before sunrise, one of Gaye's informants led a team of
Nigerian law enforcement officials - accompanied by Gaye - to an
apartment in an affluent Lagos suburb where Chigbo had been living
with roommates.

He laughed as the team handcuffed him and marched him out of the building.

He was not as nonchalant, however, when officials put him on a flight
to the US, accompanied by Gaye. "Then he knew it was serious," Gaye told me.

Chigbo served a six-year sentence in the US, and was sent back to
Nigeria after his release in 2001. If the jail term was aimed at
reform, it was a failure.

When he returned home, Chigbo moved up in the trafficking world.

Travelling between South America, Europe and Africa, he graduated
from moving heroin in and out of Nigeria to brokering deals involving
hundreds of kilograms of cocaine across continents. He taught himself
Spanish and built connections with members of a Colombian cartel who
found in him the ideal partner to help them carve out new trafficking
routes through west Africa.

After that first meeting at Sirleaf's house in the summer of 2009,
Chigbo stayed in touch with Nabil Hage by phone.

In October, he returned to Monrovia for another discussion with
Sirleaf and Hage that was again secretly filmed by the DEA. He
attempted to convince Sirleaf to allow the drugs to come into Liberia
without a downpayment, but Sirleaf and Hage would not budge.

They were anxious not to arouse suspicion and did not want to lose
authenticity in Chigbo's eyes. "You need to pay $200,000 before
anything can happen," Sirleaf told Chigbo, who agreed to wire the
money when he went back to Nigeria.

But the payment did not arrive as promised.

Chigbo called Hage to explain that banking rules in Nigeria were
causing a problem.

He would have to break up the $200,000 into several smaller amounts
and wire those individually into the Liberian account that Hage had
provided. When he called Hage again a day or so later to say he was
still having trouble, Gaye texted Chigbo from a Liberian mobile phone
to make it look like a message from Sirleaf: "Chigbo, there have been
too many delays.

If I don't get the money now, don't call me any more. The deal is off."

Chigbo panicked.

Within minutes, he called Hage to say that he was willing to pay
$100,000 in cash immediately if Hage could have a trusted person to
pick up the money in Lagos. Hage agreed, and Gaye began planning the
pick-up, recruiting a young woman he knew in Lagos to do the job.
They arranged for the exchange to take place in the lobby of the
Federal Palace Hotel in downtown Lagos. At the agreed hour later that
day, Chigbo's courier showed up at the hotel and handed Gaye's
contact a bundle of $100 bills wrapped in a newspaper.

Now that real money had changed hands, the deal was on. "Chigbo
figured he got Sirleaf," Gaye told me. "He had the credibility now."
Over the next few months, from late 2009 to early 2010, Chigbo made
several trips to Monrovia, sometimes accompanied by the Colombians.

With Sirleaf's blessing guaranteed, the DEA agents and their Liberian
counterparts expected the traffickers to waste no time in having the
cocaine flown into Liberia. But Chigbo wanted to revise the business
plan. Bringing in a single tonne of cocaine at a time would not be
cost-effective for the traffickers, he explained to Hage and Sirleaf.
They would need to fly in bigger shipments to make it profitable
enough for investors in Colombia, and that would require a larger
aircraft. "He was very articulate in explaining the breakdown of the
different costs, and why the initial proposal would need to get
adjusted," the DEA's Ryan Rapazsky told me. "It was a drug dealer's
version of economics 101."

Chigbo's partners only had access to small planes, and they asked for
help in arranging a larger plane.

The DEA had one on hand. Working a trafficking case out of
neighbouring Guinea two years earlier, the agency had confiscated a
Russian Antonov that, in addition to having the required capacity,
was equipped with an extended fuel tank that would enable it to fly
straight from Venezuela to Monrovia.

Even before the operation in Liberia began, DEA agents had been
pursuing a Russian pilot named Konstantin Yaroshenko, a handsome,
blue-eyed man in his 40s who they believed to be an international
transporter of contraband. Since June 2009, the DEA had been looking
to develop a case against him and now an informant had told them that
Yaroshenko was looking for work.

The DEA thought pairing Chigbo's partners with Yaroshenko would seem
like a perfect solution to both sides.

The informant put Yaroshenko in touch with Nabil Hage, who flew to
Ukraine for meetings with the pilot, first in December 2009 and again
in March 2010. During the conversations in March, at Kiev's
Intercontinental Hotel, Yaroshenko agreed to provide his services to
Chigbo's Colombian partners.

He would fly cocaine from South America to Liberia, and then from
Liberia to Ghana and other parts of Africa.

Despite soliciting Hage's help in finding a larger aircraft and a
pilot, the Colombians did not need Yaroshenko's services to fly their
first shipment from South America. By April 2010, they were
finalising plans to send 2,000kg of cocaine to Monrovia by a
Gulfstream business jet controlled by one of the traffickers, a
Colombian named Marcel Acevedo Sarmiento. The shipment was expected
to be flown in by mid-May. The traffickers still wanted to hire
Yaroshenko, however, to fly a portion of the shipment from Liberia to
Ghana. Chigbo would send it on from there to Europe, into the hands
of bulk dealers in the Netherlands and elsewhere.

At the end of April, three of the DEA team - Stouch, Rapazsky and
Milione - who had flown in and out of Liberia several times over the
previous year, travelled to Monrovia once again for what they
envisioned as the last phase of the sting.

Chigbo was going to be there when the shipment arrived in May. Hage
had invited Yaroshenko to be there as well. The plan was to seize the
cocaine when it landed and swoop down on all the targets.

Then began the waiting game. Chigbo was stuck in the Netherlands
because of the eruption of the Iceland volcano, which had forced
thousands of flights to be cancelled from 14 April to early May. When
he finally made it to Monrovia, there was still no word from the
Colombians on when the shipment would arrive.

On 13 May, Hage arranged a meeting between Chigbo and Yaroshenko, who
had landed in Monrovia days earlier.

Hage wanted the two men to come to an agreement on the price to be
paid to Yaroshenko for his first job  flying 700kg of the cocaine
arriving in Monrovia to Accra, Ghana's capital.

When they met in a cosy hotel room, Hage asked Yaroshenko if he
wanted a drink, and the Russian asked for tonic. "I'll give you
Coca-Cola. I know you like Coca-Cola," Hage said with his usual aplomb.

Chigbo and Yaroshenko exchanged greetings, sizing each other up. Hage
told Yaroshenko that he had arranged for 200kg of that amount to be
loaded on a Delta flight bound for the United States. "It's going to
be with diplomatic baggage," Hage said, implying that the contraband
would have safe passage through customs. Yaroshenko's willingness to
transport the cocaine, despite being made aware of Hage's plan - as
the investigators saw it - made the Russian potentially culpable of
conspiring to violate US laws.

Hage stepped back, letting Chigbo and Yaroshenko haggle.

The two discussed jobs within Africa, as well as transportation from
South America to Liberia. At one point, when Chigbo remarked that
Yaroshenko was asking for too much money, the Russian stood firm. "My
friend, I know all prices from working from Latin America to here,"
Yaroshenko said. "I know all prices." The two agreed on a sum of
$4.5m for flying a future shipment of five tonnes from Venezuela to
Liberia. For the more immediate job of transporting to Ghana,
Yaroshenko would be paid $1.2m.

Over the next few days, while they awaited word from Colombia, Chigbo
and Hage continued to meet almost daily.

Chigbo had a new business plan for Hage's boss to consider: he wanted
to build a lab in Liberia to make ecstasy and ice, an amphetamine
drug. Using Fombah Sirleaf's backing and influence, he told Hage, it
would be easy to import the chemicals required to synthesise the drugs.

He claimed to know 10 Mexican chemists - the best in the business -
who could staff the lab. At one point, when Hage was talking about
distributing ecstasy in the United States, Chigbo highlighted the
perils of doing business there, without going into his firsthand
experience of those risks. "America is a delicate market," he said.
"Everywhere is delicate," Hage replied. "Chigbo, tell me one place
where it's not delicate. Even fucking Colombia is delicate, man."

"Everywhere is delicate, but what I'm talking about is in the sense
that everywhere else you can do it and you can get fucked up and you
can go home," Chigbo continued.

That wasn't the case in the US, he said.

He knew, he explained, because he had lived in the US for 15 years.
"I went to school in America. University of Minnesota." "Really?,"
Hage asked. "Yes, I played football in America, I went to school on a
scholarship for playing football, American football," Chigbo replied.
"Wow. Which ... which?" "Golden Buffaloes," Chigbo said. It sounded
like a plausible name for a team.

"Really?" Hage asked, doing his best to sound admiring rather than
sceptical. "Yes." "You could have been a multimillionaire without all
this shit," Hage said.

Chigbo laughed, then continued with the story.

He had been drafted by the New York Jets, he said, but had to quit
after a year because of an injury. "I couldn't perform.

So that was it," he said. "I'm sorry to hear that," Hage replied,
sounding sincere. "But you are OK now?"

"Yeah. I'm OK, you know, I'm OK."

While these meetings were going on , Stouch and his fellow DEA agents
had to cool their heels at their hotel, reviewing the recordings of
each day's conversations. As the wait for the anticipated shipment
stretched from days to weeks, with the traffickers informing Hage of
new delays, frustration mounted for the agents. "We called it
Operation Speculation at those points," Rapazsky told me. "When you
do these cases, you get used to the drug traffickers not getting
there on time." To keep themselves occupied, the agents hit the hotel
gym frequently. Stouch - who was training for a triathlon back home -
ventured out to the ocean to swim whenever he could.

Finally, in mid-May, Hage got an email from Chigbo's Colombian
partner, Marcel Acevedo Sarmiento, providing the flight plan for the
shipment. It said that the aeroplane would take off from Venezuela on
26 May. Weather problems got in the way, and the departure was
scheduled for two days later.

Then, on 29 May, Acevedo called Hage to say the plane had been seized
by Venezuelan authorities on the tarmac.

The DEA and Sirleaf's agency decided it was time to end the charade.
Hage asked Chigbo to come to Sirleaf's office the next day. When
Chigbo showed up, Sirleaf's assistant led him to a waiting room,
where he found himself surrounded by policemen from the NSA. "I don't
want you to make any sudden moves, because if you do you could lose
your life in this office," the assistant told Chigbo. "I want to see
the director," Chigbo said with anguish, as he was put in handcuffs.
"It must be a mistake." Around the same time, another set of NSA cops
arrested Yaroshenko at the hotel where he had been staying.

When Chigbo was being taken to another floor of the NSA headquarters
for fingerprinting, Sirleaf passed him by on the stairway. "He didn't
look me in the eye," Sirleaf told me. "I felt bad. Because you have
been in this undercover capacity for such a long time, you develop a
relationship, like you are friends, but really you are not. You feel
so awkward.

It's a funny feeling." While Chigbo was being fingerprinted, Gaye
walked into the room. "Do you know this guy?" somebody asked Chigbo,
pointing at Gaye. Chigbo nodded in recognition, his facial expression
betraying a sense of unpleasant deja vu.

On April 10 2011, Chigbo, Yaroshenko and two of Chigbo's accomplices
stood in a federal courtroom in Manhattan, facing trial for
conspiring to bring cocaine into the United States. The case rested
on the DEA's secret recordings of the conversations these men had had
with Hage and Sirleaf over the previous year. Chigbo and the others
now understood precisely why Hage had in the course of these meetings
mentioned, time and again, that he intended to send a portion of the
cocaine to the US. The traffickers' acquiescence to Hage's plan -
even though they hadn't thought of it themselves - was enough for
them to be charged with violating American law.

None of the defendants except Yaroshenko had any qualms accepting
their involvement in the global drug trade.

Chigbo's lawyer, Ivan Fisher, described his client as having been
"for a very long time a very active international drug merchant all
over the world". But even though putting an end to drug trafficking
anywhere in the world was a noble thing to do, Fisher argued, the
United States government had no right to punish Chigbo for his
actions as long as those actions did not harm the United States. "You
see, no crime against the United States was ever afoot until this man
named Nabil [Hage] went around attempting to create it," Fisher said.
He argued that Chigbo had in fact, after serving his six-year
sentence in the US years earlier, effectively become a spokesperson
for the DEA in the narcotics world, dissuading dealers from sending
drugs to the US because of the risks involved.

In the end, that argument failed to save Chigbo. The jury delivered a
guilty verdict for him as well as for Yaroshenko. Chigbo was later
sentenced to 30 years in prison, and Yaroshenko was handed a 20-year
sentence. Acevedo Sarmiento, who was to supply the cocaine, was
arrested by Colombian authorities and extradited to the US. He
pleaded guilty and, in March 2013, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Chigbo and I began talking by email and phone shortly after he was
placed in a medium-security prison in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to
begin serving his sentence.

He called me once on his 44th birthday to tell me how angry he was to
be thousands of miles away from friends and family. "What I did in
Africa is wrong.

My way of life is wrong," he told me. "But I have nothing to do with
the United States. I did not live here. I did not go to school here.
I did not pay taxes here. I never asked for a loan from a US bank to
start my business in Africa. I believe I have the right to make my
living the way in the way I see fit in Africa, and if Nigerian law
caught up with me, I should be punished there, not in the United
States of America."

In later conversations, Chigbo told me that he had explicitly advised
Hage and Sirleaf against sending cocaine to the US, since Europe was
a far more profitable market.

The price of bulk cocaine in parts of the US is comparable to what it
sells for in countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, Chigbo wrote to me
in an email.

The shipment from South America would have fetched $21,000 per
kilogramme in Liberia itself and $25,000 per kilogramme in Ghana, he
said, while selling for a marginally higher $27,000 per kilogramme in
New York - about half the price it would command in Italy or France.
"The ultimate goal of a drug dealer is to make money and make it
safe," he told me. Knowing the risks of transporting cocaine from
Africa to the US, and given the slim profit margin, "tell me who will
be doing that kind of deal?" Chigbo asked. "Only the delusional DEA."

I asked Milione what he thought of Chigbo's defence.

Milione did not deny that it would generally make more economic sense
for traffickers to ship cocaine from west Africa to Europe rather
than to the US. However, he said, that would not automatically
preclude traffickers from also taking advantage of opportunities to
send a supply to the US. For example, if a trafficker had a
trustworthy contact at an airline flying to New York, Milione
explained, the trafficker would not mind sending a shipment there,
even if the profit were smaller than selling to Europe. "The
connection that they have at the airport in west Africa is the one
that's going to give them personal profit," he told me. "They don't
care about the logic.

They care about making money."

Even though the US was not their chosen destination country, Milione
denied that Chigbo and Yaroshenko were hapless victims of a DEA trap.
"They knew that a portion of what was coming into Liberia was going
to go to the United States. They didn't choose to walk away," he
said. "They were nervous about that fact because they didn't want to
necessarily expose themselves to US laws but they still went forward on it."

Milione portrayed the investigation less as an example of the US
policing the world and more as a strategic strike against the
multi-headed hydra of global drug trafficking - intended to help both
the United States and its allies in Europe and Africa. "There was a
national security interest in making sure that the trafficking groups
that are in west Africa don't believe they are completely
untouchable," Milione said.

Some have questioned the policy, especially the lengths to which the
DEA is going to in order to bring these cases under US jurisdiction.
As Jeralyn Merritt, a criminal-defence lawyer in Colorado, puts it on
her blog, TalkLeft: "Considering unless the DEA demands otherwise,
the (illusory) drugs are going from South America to Africa to
Europe, why is it even their business to intervene?

Or to steer non-US criminal activity into the US?"

The intervention does appear to be having an impact, however.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the
estimated flow of cocaine through west Africa declined from 43 tonnes
in 2007 to 16 tonnes in 2013. Bruce Bagley, an international studies
professor at the University of Miami who examines the effects of the
narcotics trade on security, believes it is worthwhile for the US to
continue dismantling drug trafficking networks in the region. "The US
needs to disrupt these organisations in west Africa to prevent them
from growing much stronger and threatening many weakly
institutionalised African governments in danger of becoming failed
states," he says.

For Sirleaf and Gaye, who now runs a security company in Monrovia,
the operation's success was more than an accomplishment in law
enforcement. It was also a tribute to their friendship and shared
love for Liberia. If the traffickers had succeeded in developing a
base on Liberian soil, they told me, it would have done incalculable
harm to the country's future. "It would have been terrible," Sirleaf
said. "When you infuse that kind of money into a political system,
you're going to turn it into a narco-state."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 17 Mar 2015
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 2015 The Columbus Dispatch
Contact: letters@dispatch.com
Website: http://www.dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93

OBAMA TO YOUTHS: FOCUS NOT ON THE POT

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has a stern message for the
younger generation about their political priorities: Care more about
climate change and less about marijuana.

Obama, who has been open about smoking pot in high school, chided an
interviewer from Vice News who suggested that, if marijuana were
legalized, young people would view that as a top item when
considering the president's legacy.

"First of all, it shouldn't be young people's biggest priority,"
Obama said in the interview, posted at news.vice.com.

"Young people: I understand this is important to you, but as you are
thinking about climate change, the economy and jobs, war and peace,
maybe way at the bottom you should be thinking about marijuana," he said.

Obama has long said he supports decriminalizing marijuana but not
legalizing the drug. He has called for reform of the criminal-justice
system for disproportionately incarcerating African-Americans for
nonviolent drug offenses.

The Justice Department under Obama has taken a handsoff approach to
enforcing a federal ban on marijuana use in states such as Colorado,
Washington and Alaska, where recreational marijuana use is allowed.

But Obama said concerns about substance abuse and marijuana are real.

"There is a legitimate, I think, concern about the overall effect
this has on society, particularly on vulnerable parts of our society," he said.

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

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Mar 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact: talkback@baltimoresun.com
Website: http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Thomas F. Schaller
Note: Thomas F. Schaller teaches political science at UMBC; his most
recent book is "The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but
Surrendered the White House." His column appears every other Wednesday.

DRUG AND DEATH EFFORTS KEY FOR STATE

 From gay marriage to marijuana decriminalization, Maryland has been
a national leader on social issues in the new century. This year,
state legislators and new governor Larry Hogan can further burnish
the state's reputation by setting a national example on heroin
intervention and death-with-dignity legislation.

Let's start with Governor Hogan's noble call to mitigate heroin
addiction and overdose deaths in Maryland. The governor brings
personal experience to the issue: He lost a cousin to a heroin overdose.

Maybe the issue would not have figured so prominently on Mr. Hogan's
mind if not for his family's tragedy, but so what? Governors lead
best when they move low-salience or dormant issues to the forefront
of the state agenda, and Mr. Hogan should be commended for doing so,
whatever his reasons.

Heroin overdose deaths have been rising in the state each year since
2010 and have doubled in that period. A big part of the problem - one
hardly limited to Maryland - has been the introduction of fentanyl
into the heroin supply. Even for careful users with strong
tolerances, fentanyl can be lethal the very first use.

Because fentanyl is both cheaper and more potent than heroin itself,
profit-minded drug dealers find it particularly attractive to cut
their heroin supplies with it. They may lose a few customers along
the way, but drug dealers who don't bear the personal or social costs
of their menacing trade care little about the collateral damage.

The first wave of fentanyl-related heroin overdoses came in 2006, but
then a second wave began two years ago. The Northeast and Midwest
regions have been hardest hit.

Mr. Hogan tasked Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford to oversee the state's
heroin response efforts. Mr. Hogan also created two state panels to
investigate and remediate the problem of heroin addiction, and
applied $500,000 in federal funds to increase drug treatment programs
in Maryland's jails and prisons.

Let's hope Governor Hogan's prioritization of this issue reduces the
state's number of tragic, untimely deaths from heroin overdose.

Timely deaths are another matter, and Maryland should cement its
reputation as an early policy adopter by passing physician-assisted
suicide legislation.

The right to control one's life is indelibly linked to the right to
manage one's death, especially when pain and suffering for those
dying and their loved ones can be relieved by suicide.

Before touting the benefits of "death with dignity" laws, I encourage
people to read Atul Gawande on the subject of end-of-life medical
decision-making: either his 2014 book "Being Mortal: Medicine and
What Matters in the End," or his shorter but still powerful 2010 New
Yorker article with the headline Letting Go. (Dr. Gawande has not
staked out a clear position on physician-assisted suicide.)

People should not be forced to live in pain to satisfy other people's
religious beliefs. And they darn sure shouldn't be kept alive to run
up medical bills and bankrupt their survivors. As Dr. Gawande
explains, people who accept their fates and embrace palliative care
on average live as long if not longer than those who try vainly to defy death.

In the Maryland General Assembly, Howard County Del. Shane
Pendergrass and Montgomery County Sen. Jamie Raskin are two of the
leading advocates for "death with dignity" legislation. They have
modeled their proposed bill on the first-in-the-nation law adopted in
1994 by Oregon. (Legal challenges prevented the law from being
implemented until 1997.)

That's where 29-year-old Brittany Maynard moved so she could die with
dignity last November from a brain tumor that had made her life
miserable. Because hers was such an unusual case - a young woman
willing to sacrifice her privacy so she could empower others with
painful, terminal illnesses to have the same choice she made - Ms.
Maynard became a global figure.

With a bit of luck and a lot of mercy, perhaps in the future a series
of eponymous "Brittany's laws" will spread across the country much in
the same way that so-called "Megan's laws" and "Amber alerts" have
taken hold nationally.

Until then, Maryland should join the handful of states that permit
assisted suicide.
__________________________________________________________________________
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xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Mar 2015
Source: Seattle Weekly (WA)
Column: Higher Ground
Copyright: 2015 Village Voice Media
Contact:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters
Website: http://www.seattleweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/410
Author: Michael A. Stusser

THE STUSSER OMNIBUS MARIJUANA BILL

A modest proposal to head off the awful Senate Bill 5052.

Last week, three U.S. senators introduced a bill that attempts to
amend many of the outdated medical-marijuana conundrums at the
federal level. The bill would end the prohibition of medical
marijuana, reclassify the plant from its current designation as a
Schedule 1 narcotic (a status that suggests no medical value and high
potential for abuse), and allow for more cannabis study and research.
While the bipartisan bill doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of
passing, it's a great conversation starter.

Inspired by those ballsy senators-and in fear of the awful Senate
Bill 5052 that is currently wending its way through Olympia-I've
decided to take my own shot at solving Washington state's own
clusterfuck. So without further ado, I present the framework of my
own Omnibus Marijuana Bill.

Let my people grow! I mean, really. Every other state that's
legalized marijuana has allowed citizens to grow for personal use,
and we should too. It's a no-brainer. Put a limit on the number of
plants per person (six per adult, perhaps, or higher if used for
medicinal purposes), and, like tomatoes and snap peas, allow folks to
play in the garden. (Probably not a great plant for community pea
patches, but fab for collective gardens for medical patients, many of
whom are too sick to tend to the crop themselves.)

Regulate medical dispensaries. The state estimates that there are
more than 1,000 dispensaries, operating all willy-nilly. While many
are clearly fly-by-night operations that don't check ID, a good
number have been instrumental for decades in helping the medical
community find strains and products and oils that help patients. So
it just makes sense that any longstanding, established dispensary
should be allowed to continue operating. Hell, I'll pick a random
number that can be allowed: 420.

No medical registry. The bill from Republican Sen. Ann Rivers that
the state Senate just passed calls for the creation of a statewide
registry for medical patients. Puh-lease. Patients don't fear putting
their names on the dotted line because they're faking their illnesses
to get cheaper weed, but because admitting to a felony at the federal
level is a pretty bad idea. Patients can lose their jobs and have
their children taken for this kind of admission. No registry.

Whack the taxes. Right now there's a triple-decker tax structure in
place: Recreational weed is hit with a 25 percent tax when it moves
from farmer to processor, then again from processor to retailer, and
again to the end customer. Pretty much everyone agrees a single tax
is the best idea here-so pick a single sin-tax percentage and go with
it. Too high, though, and I'm staying with my dealer.

Medical cards. Any patient with a qualified doctor who recommends
(not prescribes) marijuana to alleviate suffering for terminal or
debilitating conditions such as cancer, epilepsy, PTSD, and chronic
pain should be allowed to purchase it tax-free at licensed medical
dispensaries, just as citizens across the country (except Illinois)
can receive their tax-free prescriptions for Ambien, Valium, Prozac,
and whatever that purple pill is.

Free hemp now. My Omnibus Marijuana Bill is so comprehensive that I
plan to roll hemp legislation into it, thus killing two buzzed birds
with one stone: Legalize hemp for farming, commerce, and production,
and just ignore the absurd bans on industrial hemp. Don't be silly;
the fibrous stuff doesn't even get ya high.

Rec stores must stock medicinal products. Most of the individuals
working to bring cannabis out of the shadows and into the legal
mainstream were from the medical community-and riskily toiling long
before the greedy Green Rush Potrepreneurs got in line for a Weed
Lotto Ticket to make marijuana moolah. The least these green-lit
licensees can do is stock their shelves with a small percentage of
medicinal items in their inventory.

No pot, no pay. Cities and counties that ban marijuana outlets-either
recreational or medical-will get absolutely no tax revenue from sales
of marijuana. Period. In addition, as they are restricting both the
will of the people and access for medical patients who may not be
able to drive to places that do allow marijuana sales, these cities
must build a FastTrack Elevated Electric Train system for their
residents to travel from their homes to the nearest marijuana-friendly city.

Let's get loungey! Pot lounges and cafes where adults can smoke
marijuana are a safe and social way for folks to get fired up. Hell,
even the Seattle City Attorney likes the idea. Allow for cigar
lounges and smoky pool halls too! You don't like 'em? Don't patronize
'em! We're not looking to be Amsterdam with a cannabis cafe on every
corner-though if Howard Schultz wants to get into the franchise game,
Starbuds is a damn fine name. Probably shouldn't allow alcohol in
cannabis clubs however; people get crazy on that shit.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Mar 2015
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: CannaBiz
Copyright: 2015 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact: letters@csindy.com
Website: http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Author: Bryce Crawford

NEW CLUB 420 SPEAKEASY OPENS, SALES TAX REVENUE SPIKES AND MORE

Nice and easy

Travis Perkins knows exactly why he recently moved from Indiana to
Colorado: "to be part of the movement!" The 24-year-old is the new
owner of 420 Speakeasy (1532 N. Circle Drive, 471-3398), a 3-week-old
cannabis social club with an old-school feel.

"Moving out here ... I went to a lot of smoke clubs around town; I
liked them a lot. I just wanted to do one specifically for the
community, make it very nice, very clean, very safe," Perkins says.
"And really try to point this game in a very professional, very clean
direction so we can take over the masses and don't get beat out by
[big companies like] Pepsi and Coke."

To that end, Perkins says to expect "a very suit-and-tie kind of
place," which is exactly what male employees wear, while women rock a
flapper look. Additionally, pool tables, dart boards and a dance
floor and deejay booth join chandeliers, shiny marble floors and
seating. On one side, there's a small shatter-wax bar for the dab-inclined.

"All of our wax, our oils, is member-made, member-donated, and
actually smoked by members on a member premises," Perkins says. "And
that's how we keep it legal."

An advertisement on the club's Facebook page refers to a group within
the club called the Oil Inn - a "private growers concentrate league"
- promising a monthly competition in which homemade wax is judged 3.5
grams at a time. Naturally, the first event comes April 20.

Meanwhile, membership starts at $50 per month, with additional levels
available at added cost. Perkins says he has more than 100 members
already, with the venue often filling to capacity - so much so that,
this week, the company will tear down a wall and expand into the
space next door.

"And we are right next to Baskin-Robbins," the owner says, "so it's a
win-win in the stoner world."

Keef crumbs

January brought a bonanza from Colorado's marijuana industry, which
generated $8.8 million in sales-tax revenue for the state. The
Associated Press reports that $2.3 million came from an excise tax
dedicated to funding school construction, a more than 10-fold
increase from January of last year, when it brought in $195,000.

The money comes at an interesting time for the legislature, however,
as it has yet to maneuver around a TABOR law that says the state must
either refund marijuana monies collected or ask voters if it can keep them.

Quote of the week, from the Brookings Institution's John Hudak
regarding the glut of lawsuits filed against Colorado recently: "This
is the last hurrah for a lot of individuals in the anti-marijuana
community," Hudak told The Washington Post. "It's pretty clear that
they've lost the battle for public opinion."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
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---
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xxx
Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Sun, 15 Mar 2015
Source: Roanoke Times (VA)
Copyright: 2015 Roanoke Times
Contact: letters@roanoke.com
Website: http://www.roanoke.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/368
Author: Dan Casey

Now Under a Psychiatrist's Care

NOT-POT LEAF GETS 6TH-GRADER IN BIG TROUBLE

An 11-year-old boy at Bedford Middle School was suspended for 364
days after being caught with a substance that tested negative for marijuana.

At first blush it sounds like an open-and-shut school disciplinary
matter in a zero-tolerance age:

Some schoolchildren claim another student bragged about having
marijuana. They inform school administrators. An assistant principal
finds a leaf and a lighter in the boy's knapsack. The student is
suspended for a year. A sheriff's deputy files marijuana possession
charges in juvenile court.

All of the above and more happened last September to the 11-year-old
son of Bedford County residents Bruce and Linda Bays. He was a
sixth-grader in the gifted-and-talented program at Bedford Middle School.

There was only one problem: Months after the fact, the couple learned
the substance wasn't marijuana. A prosecutor dropped the juvenile
court charge because the leaf had field-tested negative three times.

Their son remains out of school - he's due to return Monday on strict
probation. But in the meantime, the events of the past six months
have wreaked havoc on the formerly happy-go-lucky boy's psyche. His
parents say he's withdrawn socially, and is now under the care of a
pediatric psychiatrist for panic attacks and depression.

The couple - both are schoolteachers - have filed a federal lawsuit
against Bedford County Schools and the Bedford County Sheriff's
Office. It refers to their son only by the initials R.M.B.

It alleges Bedford Middle School Assistant Principal Brian Wilson and
school operations chief Frederick "Mac" Duis violated his due process
rights under the U.S. Constitution.

"Essentially they kicked him out of school for something they
couldn't prove he did," said Roanoke attorney Melvin Williams, the
Bays' lawyer.

It also accuses the Bedford County Sheriff's Office of malicious
prosecution, because Deputy M.M. Calohan, a school resource officer,
filed marijuana possession charges against the boy despite field
tests that indicated otherwise.

"The field test came back not inconclusive, but negative," Williams
said. "Yet she went to a magistrate and swore he possessed marijuana
at school."

Filed Feb. 3 in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg, the lawsuit doesn't
ask for specific damages. "We intend to see what a jury would say
about that," Williams said.

Bedford Sheriff Mike Brown did not return my phone call Thursday (a
woman in his office said he was off work last week). Wilson and Duis
each declined to comment, and instead referred me to the school
system's lawyer, Salem attorney Jim Guynn. He's also representing the sheriff.

Guynn has moved to dismiss the suit for a couple of reasons that
we'll get into below. One argument, he told me, is that under the
school board's anti-drug policies it may not matter whether the leaf
was marijuana or not.

Even if the lawsuit is as meritless as he suggests, the case presents
a cautionary tale about the current zero-tolerance drug climate in
Virginia schools.

'We have never seen the leaf'

The events leading up the boy's 364-day suspension began Sept. 22.
The Bays said they're still unclear about how or why school officials
targeted their son - because they've heard three different stories about that.

"We know they relied on 'tips' that after the fact turn out to be
less than reliable," Williams said.

One was that R.M.B. was showing off the leaf on the school bus (which
also transports Liberty High students) that day. The second was that
it happened in a school bathroom. The third is that it occurred
inside his homeroom class.

Word apparently made it through the school grapevine to Wilson, who
took the Bays' son out of gym class that day, along with his
knapsack, which had been in an unsecured gym locker. They went to
Wilson's office.

There, Linda Bays said, Wilson asked their son "if he had anything he
shouldn't have. He said, 'No.' "

Wilson then asked the boy to empty his knapsack. As their son did,
the assistant principal personally unzipped a small pouch on the
pack's exterior, and found a crumpled leaf and a lighter. He summoned
a school resource officer, Bedford County Sheriff's Deputy M.M. Calohan

Next, Wilson called Linda Bays at work. She's a teacher at
Stewartsville Elementary School.

"He told me [her son] had been seen in the bathroom with a marijuana
leaf and lighter and that I needed to come to [Bedford Middle School]
quickly," Linda said. She called her husband (a retired schoolteacher
in both Bedford and Pittsylvania counties) and they met in Wilson's office.

"He had us sit down and he proceeded to tell us [our son] had been
seen in the classroom with a lighter and a leaf," Linda said. Wilson
added that their son told "several students" that "we had marijuana
growing in our back yard and that his dad knew about it and didn't
care," Linda said.

"It's farfetched," Bruce said. "Anybody who knows me knows that's not true."

The assistant principal also told the couple that their son had told
Wilson a high-schooler on the bus had given him the leaf. (The couple
said their son has told them repeatedly he has no idea how the leaf
got in his backpack, that he didn't know it was there, and that he
never showed it off to anyone.)

"I asked, 'Can I see the leaf?' and the deputy said, 'No, it's
already in evidence,' " Linda told me. "We have never seen the leaf.
He's been out of school for six months."

The boy was immediately suspended for 10 days pending an
administrative hearing. That happened before Duis on Sept. 29 at the
Bedford Science and Technology Center.

Wilson was there but the deputy was not, the Bays said. In the
meantime they'd hired Bedford attorney Emily Sitzler to represent
their son for that hearing and his later one in juvenile court. They
paid her $1,500. (She didn't return my phone call Thursday.)

Bruce Bays said: "During the hearing I asked Wilson, 'What about the
field test on the marijuana leaf?' "

The assistant principal hemmed and hawed "and finally he got around
to it and said 'I'm not qualified to interpret the results of the
field test,' " Bruce Bays said.

The couple said Duis ultimately rejected Wilson's recommendation for
expulsion, but instead suspended their son for 364 days. The reason
Duis cited in a letter he sent later was "possession of marijuana."

The juvenile court hearing happened late in November. When the Bays
got there, Sitzler informed them that the commonwealth was going to
ask for a continuance because they had neglected to send the leaf off
to a state lab for testing.

Linda Bays told Sitzler they wouldn't agree to a continuance. Sitzler
went back to the prosecutor, "and she came back and said they were
going to drop" the charge. That's when the Bays learned the leaf had
field-tested negative three times.

The lawyer "said the assistant commonwealth's attorney told her they
were going to have problems with this case anyway," Linda Bays told me.

After that, "I immediately sent a letter to Dr. Duis requesting a new
hearing," Linda Bays told me. His response: "The court system and the
school system were two different entities."

Schooled at home

Duis' suspension letter also made an allowance for R.M.B to
attendBedford County's alternative education program. Basically,
that's a school full of students who are in trouble for all sorts of
infractions.

When Linda Bays looked into that, she discovered her son would be
searched before and after school every day. Besides that, he'd be
going to school with the problem students from every other school.
And she didn't want that.

Williams compared it to when a person with no criminal background is
sent to prison. They end up getting educated in all kinds of
nefarious conduct, the lawyer said.

Instead, the Bays worked out a deal with the school system. They
would not appeal the suspension to the Bedford County School Board if
their son was allowed to complete the alternative school's online
educational program at home.

It's called Edgenuity. However, that program is strictly timed and if
their son could not keep up with it, he would have to attend the
alternative school in person, Linda Bays said.

With that hanging over his head, their son was unable to concentrate
on the online program and he fell behind. So the Bays worked out
another arrangement allowing them to home-school their son. But that
has meant he missed out on band practices, performances and the
social aspect of school.

The school system also required the boy be evaluated for substance
abuse problems. So the Bays took him to his longtime pediatrician in
Lynchburg, who referred them to a pediatric psychiatrist.

They said the psychiatrist told them he didn't believe their son had
a substance abuse problem. But by then, the boy had other problems.
After the disciplinary hearing, "he just broke down and said his life
was over. He would never be able to get into college; he would never
be able to get a job," Linda Bays said.

Now their son is skittish about going out in public, suffers from
panic attacks and is depressed. The psychiatrist is treating him for that.

In a letter to the school system, Linda Bays said, the doctor has
recommended the best thing for their son would be to go back to
school. The school system has agreed to allow him to resume attending
another school beginning Monday.

But their son will remain on strict probation until next September,
under the terms of the original suspension letter. A minor infraction
could get him kicked out again.

Lookalike drugs prohibited

I spoke about this case Thursday with the school board's and the
sheriff's attorney, Jim Guynn. He said he's filed motions to dismiss
the malicious prosecution claim against the sheriff's deputy because
it's in the wrong court.

"Malicious prosecution is a state claim," Guynn told me. "If you want
to make a malicious prosecution claim you need to be in state court."
But beyond that, he argued, the deputy's filing of the juvenile court
charge against R.M.B was not malicious. That's because she visually
identified the leaf as marijuana, Guynn said.

"The young man was telling people on the bus that he had marijuana
that was given to him by someone from the high school," Guynn told
me. The attorney added the leaf was not dried, as marijuana typically
is, but that "it was a little sprig" that looked to Guynn exactly
like a photo of a marijuana leaf he found on the Internet.

And under the school system's anti-drug policy it may not matter
whether the leaf was actually marijuana or a similar-looking leaf,
such as from a Japanese maple tree.

That's because the policy treats "lookalike" and "imitation" drugs
the same as the real thing. Here's what it says:

"The unlawful manufacture, distribution, dispensation, possession,
use or being under the influence of alcohol, anabolic steroids, or
any narcotic drug, hallucinogenic drug, amphetamine, barbiturate,
marijuana or other controlled substance ... [or] imitation controlled
substances or drug paraphernalia while on school property, while
going to and from school, or while engaged in or attending any
school-sponsored or school approved activity or event, is prohibited,
and will result in an automatic recommendation of expulsion."

Guynn called that "a pretty standard rule across the commonwealth."

"It's the same punishment and exactly the same result" whether the
leaf was marijuana or not, he said. For that reason, the Bays'
due-process claim should be tossed out, too, Guynn said.

Williams countered: "If the school argues now that they were
justified in suspending him for possession of lookalike marijuana,
that's disingenuous because they've never argued that prior to the
suit being filed."

Guynn responded: "I understand what he's saying. I disagree with that."

A possible prank?

In our interview Wednesday in Williams' office, I asked the Bays if
they thought it was possible their son had showed the leaf to other
students and joked about having marijuana.

Back when I was in the sixth grade, I did something similar. I
scratched the raised letters BAYER off an aspirin and told another
student it was LSD. I think my parents ended up getting a phone call
from the school. When they asked me about it later, I told them it
was a joke. That was true.

There were no consequences because this happened in 1969, long before
an anti-drug fervor had gripped this nation to such an extent that
school drug policies covered schoolboy pranks.

The Bays are adamant that's not what happened in this case, however.
They said their son has no idea how the leaf or lighter got in his
knapsack, and that he wasn't joking around.

But there indeed have been consequences. The Bays are out money for
lawyers and doctors, and they're out the time they've taken to
homeschool their child. Meanwhile, his psyche is very fragile now
compared to its state before Wilson found the leaf in his knapsack.

Linda Bays said that based on scuttlebutt she's heard since his
suspension, she believes one or two students who dislike her son put
the leaf in his knapsack, probably on the bus, and then informed
school officials about it.

That's left a situation in which, Bruce Bays said, "any kid can tell
on another kid and set that kid up. And a principal or assistant
principal could potentially push a kid out of school."

Linda Bays added: "Why would you want an 11-year-old
gifted-and-talented student out of school for 364 days?" That's a
good question. It seems out of proportion to the offense.

Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon ordered the lawsuit
be referred to mediation with U.S. Magistrate Robert Ballou. That
hasn't yet been scheduled.

Stay tuned.
__________________________________________________________________________
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receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Mar 2015
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/MHwuU02j
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: David Garrick

1ST LEGAL POT SHOP OPENS

First Legal Marijuana Dispensary Opens in S.D.

City-Permitted Store Sets Up in Otay Mesa Strip Mall; 3 More in Line

OTAY MESA - San Diego's first permitted medical marijuana dispensary
opened relatively quietly Wednesday morning in an Otay Mesa strip
mall near the international border.

There were no long lines or anything else conspicuous, just a few
customers excited they can start buying pot from an authorized shop
in San Diego for the first time since California voters approved the
use of medical marijuana in 1996.

"There's another one around the corner, but this one, I guess, is the
most legit in San Diego," said Gerard Bennett, who's been a regular
customer elsewhere. "It's nice to know that these guys are regulated.
With illegal dispensaries, the concern is getting busted right out in
front when you're leaving."

Regulated city dispensaries must be nonprofits, allow their products
to be tested, meet rigorous security requirements and adhere to
strict zoning rules that include being at least 1,000 feet from
schools and 100 feet from residential areas.

Supporters of medical marijuana say the regulation of dispensaries
will accelerate the closure of an estimated 100 pot shops operating
without permission across the county, with essentially no rules,
while authorities try to shut them down.

San Diego joins nearly 50 other cities in California that offer a
process to legitimize medical marijuana dispensaries, but it is the
only city in this county to do so. The county government allowed a
dispensary to open last summer in an unincorporated area outside El Cajon.

The city last week gave final approval to two more dispensaries, one
in Kearny Mesa and one in San Ysidro. They're expected to open this spring.

A fourth dispensary in the Midway District just east of Point Loma is
scheduled to receive final approval from the Planning Commission on Thursday.

The opening of the Otay shop on Wednesday was a major milestone for
the city, said David Blair, the owner.

"Patients finally have a place to go for completely safe access,"
said Blair, an HIV-positive San Diego State business ethics lecturer
who smokes pot daily to relieve his symptoms. "We're achieving a
longtime goal."

Mike Arlotta, a customer, agreed that it was a big moment. He also
expressed confidence the dispensary would be run well, noting it has
surveillance cameras, a security guard and a metal detector.

"It seems like with the security they're putting into play, they're
definitely doing it the right way," he said.

The dispensary, a 1,400-square-foot suite sandwiched between a car
insurance office and a duty free shop, doesn't have any signage
indicating what kind of business it is or that marijuana is available.

It simply has the shop's name, "A Green Alternative," written above a
long row of glass windows surrounded by frames made of cream-colored,
freshly painted wood.

Nearby businesses said they're unsure how the dispensary might affect
the strip mall, which is at 2335 Roll Drive near state Route 905.

"We're treating it just like another business so far," said Hector
Cisneros, manager of a nearby Subway restaurant. "It's something new
for us, so we're not exactly sure how it's going to work out."

In addition to customers from San Diego, the Otay dispensary is
expected to draw people from Chula Vista and National City, which
don't allow dispensaries, because of its location.

Blair, who hasn't previously operated a dispensary, called Wednesday
a "soft" opening geared toward people who follow the dispensary on
social media, with a more formal grand opening scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday.

"Today we're trying to get the kinks out of our system," he said.

San Diego's legalization of marijuana sales follows a nationwide
trend, with 23 states allowing the sale of medical marijuana and four
others - Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska - allowing the sale
of recreational pot.

Critics say the city has essentially legalized drug dealing by giving
dispensaries permits to operate.

"These are still businesses selling an illicit drug for profit," said
Scott Chipman of San Diegans for Safe Access.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Mar 2015
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/ihEdWr3a
Copyright: 2015 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact: letters@adn.com
Website: http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Scott Woodham

ARE HOMEMADE POT BUTTER AND WATER HASH OFF LIMITS UNDER ANCHORAGE
CONCENTRATES ORDINANCE?

Our question today involves Anchorage Municipal Ordinance 8.35.350,
section 1, which reads as follows:

It is unlawful for any person to manufacture a marijuana concentrate,
hashish, or hash oil by use of solvents containing compressed
flammable gases or through use of a solvent-based extraction method
using a substance other than vegetable glycerin, unless the person is
validly licensed and permitted in accordance with statute,
regulation, or ordinance.

A reader going by the name "Heckuva Job, Brownie" wonders, "Does that
mean no cold water hash or pot butter brownies, as both water and
butter are not 'vegetable glycerins'? You HAVE to use a vegetable
oil? Am I misunderstanding the terminology? Margarine brownies are
OK; butter brownies are not?"

The short answer is yes, you're misunderstanding the terminology, but
you're forgiven. Under the Anchorage ordinance, and substantially
similar ones that have been adopted by other jurisdictions, like
Yakutat for one, it's OK to make cold water hash and pot butter
brownies without a permit or license, when those eventually become
available. Don't let the "vegetable" throw you either. Glycerin is
not a vegetable oil.

Concentration methods that involve water, dry ice, edible oils (like
butter, olive, or coconut oil), mechanical separation, or any
non-flammable, non-solvent-based process are not prohibited under the
ordinance, according to Municipal Attorney Seneca Theno, a prosecutor
who helped draft the ordinance.

She said the idea was to make certain dangerous processes off limits
to amateurs. The idea wasn't to prohibit people from making water
hash to economize a home garden, for instance, or to force anyone to
use margarine in their pot brownies. (Side note: Eew. Butter equals love.)

The list of "whereas" clauses in the ordinance's preamble make it
clear that the intent of the ordinance is to prevent the home fires
and explosions that have happened elsewhere, most notably in
Colorado. And those clauses must be taken into account when reading
the ordinance.

So if your extraction process poses an explosion or fire hazard,
you're in violation and could face penalties. The ordinance treats a
violation as a Class A misdemeanor, and provides for the possibility
of seizure of the cannabis, any finished concentrates, and any
apparatuses or equipment that may be part of the scenario.

So, that's the quick and dirty of it. But let's look closer at that
misunderstanding. Theno told me that the question Brownie asks came
up during the process to create and pass this ordinance. So he's not
alone. Brownie also included a reference to the city's
pot-information website, "Know your Grow," part of which may be
adding to the confusion.

With apologies to science teachers everywhere

As we all learned in science classes, a "solvent" broadly defined is
any substance, usually a liquid, that is capable of dissolving
another substance to create a solution.

By that broad definition, water is certainly a solvent. So are paint
thinner, acetone, naptha and alcohol. And in the case of fat-soluable
cannabinoids, butter, margarine and other oils are too. Glycerin (a
sugar alcohol) also acts as a solvent when it comes to pot's active
ingredients. However, the term "solvent" here is narrower than the
standard chemical definition because it involves legal intent.

"The idea was to prohibit certain methods, not prohibit extraction
itself," Theno said. "Lots of things can be considered a solvent. But
we don't think of (water or butter) as a solvent in this context.
We're really looking at the flammables and the unsafe solvent-based
methods of extraction."

So the municipal ordinance isn't talking about all solvents, just the
ones that figure in processes that pose a danger to individuals and
public safety. Theno said that glycerin was specifically excluded
from the ban because it was one method that came up during the
learning process which involved something that qualified as a solvent
in their minds, but whose process didn't pose a fire or explosion hazard.

To make glycerin concentrate, the process is essentially to let some
dried trimmings or buds to sit around in some food-grade glycerin,
then filter out the bits and pieces and refrigerate the solution. No
heat, fire hazard or boom-potential. Other solvents used in
concentration methods, like alcohol, butane, and so on, are more
hazardous because they typically involve heat and flammable vapor.
Two aspiring hash oil cooks in North Pole found that out the hard way
in December. Although the dwelling sustained a good deal of damage,
luckily, neither of them was injured.

According to the authorities, they were trying to make hash oil with
a butane process. And scenarios like that are what the Anchorage
ordinance aims to prevent, but other parts of the ordinance or the
city's website may be adding to the confusion.

The means of production

The city's information site, "Know your Grow," lists substances the
ordinance defines as "marijuana concentrates," but some of the
substances named aren't typically created by solvent-based methods.
"Marijuana concentrate means any product which, through manufacture,
contains THC. Common names and types of product include "shatter,"
butane or CO2 hash oil, 'ring pots,' butter, hash, hashish, keif, oil, or wax."

Hash, kief and hashish are terms that encompass a variety of
products, but most of them are made by amateurs with mechanical, not
chemical means. Medical and commercial grade hash processes have
reached a high level of sophistication lately, and the products'
purity can be amazing, but home hash production is still possible
using the same old methods. That may be a source of confusion for
people in the know.

For folks who don't know, kief is essentially a greenish-blondish
powder made mainly of the resin-containing glands (trichomes) that
have been separated from the flowers, stems and leaves of the
cannabis plant. There are a variety of separation methods that don't
involve flammable solvents, grinders and kief boxes to name two
old-school ones. People sprinkle it straight on to smokable flowers
as a powder to add potency when vaporizing or smoking. It can also be
compressed, pounded or kneaded into hash or hashish, sometimes,
though less commonly, involving a bit of heat to assist the process.
Depending on the method involved, the product can range in color from
greenish blond to black.

Also depending on the hash-making process, alcohol may be involved as
a solvent to ease separation of the raw material, and in that case,
that process would appear to be off limits according to the
ordinance. But what if the filtered alcohol-cannabis solution is
evaporated over several days sitting open at room temperature in a
well-ventilated place instead of rapidly on a stove top? That method
would still seem a violation because alcohol is a flammable solvent
even when it just sits there.

Mechanically-based hash making processes have been happening for
thousands of years in some parts of the world. And they're
time-consuming. Other techniques using the same mechanical action,
like cold-water, bubble or dry ice hash are much faster and involve
less work, but are still time-consuming. Because elbow grease isn't
flammable, none of these methods pose a fire or explosion hazard.

Ring pots? Come again?

Another potential confusion created by the ordinance's definition
comes from the term "ring pots" being included in the list of
concentrates. Cannabis enthusiasts are likely to be familiar with
every other term in the list of concentrates except that one. Ring
pots? What? Like something you smash at a wedding?

But it turns out "ring pots" aren't any kind of marijuana concentrate
at all. They're a kind of candy that caused a stir a while back, and
they don't have any intoxicating properties at all beyond a sugar
buzz. Contents: Zero marijuanas. Just a marketing gimmick.

On a web-search, I found two other references to "ring pots" in
Alaska public documents, but there may be others out there. The
phrase seems to have legs. One occurred in a City and Borough of
Yakutat draft ordinance very similar to the Anchorage ordinance.
Yakutat Borough Clerk Cathy Bremner said the proposal passed with two
small language amendments that related to fines. The other instance
can be found in the opposition statement included in Legislative
Affairs' neutral pro-con statement presenting Ballot Measure 2.

Maybe the phrase "ring pots" (or the misspelling of kief, for that
matter) will be removed from the ordinances, and maybe not. There
will be a fair amount of adjustment to these ordinances as time goes
on. But in my opinion, it's not in immediate need of revision. There
is absolutely no danger of anyone violating the ordinance by trying
to replicate ring pots at home. Candy-making does not involve
flammable or pressurized solvents. Candy burns can be nasty, as many
chefs can attest to, but the only explosion hazard it poses is to our
waistlines.

So, the ordinance doesn't prevent Anchorage residents from making pot
butter or mechanical hash without a license or permit, but they just
can't do anything that could set fire to their home or blow anyone or
anything up.

Have a question about marijuana news or culture in Alaska? Send it to
cannabis-north@alaskadispatch.com with "Highly Informed" in the subject line.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Mar 2015
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Copyright: 2015 North Coast Journal
Contact: letters@northcoastjournal.com
Website: http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Grant Scott-Goforth

WEED-MART

Local Planned Parenthood employees got a bit of a scare recently,
when a suspicious package prompted a call to the bomb squad and an
evacuation of the Cutten clinic.

A little before noon on March 16, the U.S. Postal Service dropped a
2-foot by 2-foot package at the Planned Parenthood Northern
California office. The package had been sent to an undeliverable
address in Georgia and bore a return address - the Planned Parenthood
clinic on Timber Falls Court - and a name: J. Black.

Employees became alarmed and contacted the sheriff's office, which,
after a deputy inspected the box, called the county's bomb squad to
the scene, according to a press release. The package was returned
amid the ongoing 40 Days for Life campaign, which has brought
abortion protesters to the Cutten clinic in recent weeks.

 From the scene, the Lost Coast Outpost snapped a picture of the
sheriff's remote-driven bomb robot apparently handling the package in
the parking lot of the clinic.

At the end of the day, Lt. Wayne Hanson sent a brief conclusion:

"[The robot] opened the packaged and it contained about 4 pounds of
marijuana ... Was not an explosive device."

Phew, right? Well, for everyone except the original sender, who
thought it was clever to put Planned Parenthood's clinic as the
return address. The postal service, struggling in the era of digital
communications, stands by its lofty creed: "Neither snow nor rain nor
heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift
completion of their appointed rounds."

But if you're sending valuables, it's best to double check your
recipient's address and, for goodness' sake, print neatly.

A recent report shows that marijuana use around the nation is most
prevalent among people who've never attended college. That result
comes as a surprise to some, because of the college-educated
hipster-stoner stereotype, a Vox columnist suggests. As German Lopez
points out, people studying and writing about marijuana issues -
reporters, politicians, professors - tend to be college-educated, and
tend to conflate their own experiences with those of society at
large. That could be furthered by the misguided belief, I would
suspect, that people's first pot experience comes in the experimental
college years.

But according to survey data analyzed by Carnegie Mellon University
Professor Jonathan Caulkins, only one-sixth of today's marijuana
market is comprised of college graduates. The largest segment of
smokers - hovering around 50 percent of the market for the last
decade - is people with no college education. Around one-quarter of
smokers reported having attended some college. Teenagers seem to be
the only group with steadily declining use between 2002 and 2013,
from 13 percent to 6 percent of the marijuana market share.

As Lopez suggests, the data presents an argument for
decriminalization, as current marijuana laws disproportionately
target poor and minority communities - who are also pot's biggest
users. But it also presents an argument against commercialization
that could lead to targeted community marketing (think more liquor
stores in poor neighborhoods), increasing marijuana-related
addiction, intoxication and health issues, which are thought to make
it more difficult for people to rise out of impoverished situations.

One solution that policy analysts are suggesting is a state-run
marijuana dispensary system. That, and the survey results, poke a bit
of a hole in the much-touted Northern California paradise of boutique
buds slung out of upscale markets to scenesters from Humboldt to
Silver Lake. Those customers certainly exist, but, as Caulkins puts
it, "Most of the marijuana market is more Wal-Mart than Whole Foods."

A marijuana activist who successfully fought for decriminalization in
Washington, D.C. recently got a thank you, of sorts, from the city's
mayor. In a letter to pot advocate Adam Eidinger, the mayor of the
nation's capital approved a specialized license plate that reads, yep, "420."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

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

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH LIVE-RESIN EXTRACT?

Dear Stoner: What's the deal with "live resin" extract? What makes it
so expensive, other than the fact that tourists will buy it? If the
extraction process for "live resin" is to freeze and process the
plant while it's still alive, then "live resin" does not cure. As a
patient, this seems odd, because the shops don't cure enough, and
some say that's where the best flower shines through - after the cure.

Resinator

Dear Resinator: Live-resin extractions are concentrates made from
entire plants that are cryogenically frozen soon after harvesting.
You're right that the plants aren't cured, but that actually doesn't
impact the concentrates in the way that you would expect. Curing is
the process of slowly drying out a bud to preserve as many of the
oils, cannabinoids and terpenes (the things that give bud flavor) as
possible. But a lot gets lost during curing. The freezing process
preserves more of the oils and terpenes that are present in the plant
when it is alive and allows for them to be extracted into the
finished product. When done right, this results in the most
full-flavored, complex concentrates around - and also the most
expensive. The price comes in part from the comparatively low yields
as compared to other extraction methods, and in part because the
process is very time-consuming. Frankly, this stuff isn't so much for
tourists as it is for purists. And at $70-plus for a gram in some
shops, we mean purists with deep pockets. For us it's an occasional
treat, something to toke on for a special occasion. We'll stick with
normal, bud-run shatter or high-grade bubble hash for day-to-day
concentrate use.

Dear Stoner: I saw your answer last week about how opening a
dispensary in a home isn't likely. So how do I get my permit to sell
my bud to the stores?

Basement Bobby

Dear BB: Our answer about dispensaries applies to your question about
commercial grows as well. Basically, you aren't going to be able to
just grow pot in your basement and then sell it to dispensaries. This
isn't Cali, brah. Instead, you need to apply with the state and your
local municipality - and to do that, you'll have to grow in an
approved space, and we don't know of any municipalities that allow
for home growing for commercial purposes. You'll have to find a
warehouse. For more information on what it takes at the state level,
visit
colorado.gov/pacific/enforcement/business-license-application-process-retail-marijuana.
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Mar 2015
Source: Georgia Straight, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 The Georgia Straight
Contact: editor@straight.com
Website: http://www.straight.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1084
Author: Travis Lupick

CORPORATIONS MOVE IN ON CANADA'S MEDICINAL CANNABIS INDUSTRY

As a result of policy changes introduced by the Conservative
government, corporations are taking over medicinal cannabis,
concentrating business in the hands of people with ties to Big Pharma.

One morning in February, Nanaimo councillors and business leaders met
in an industrial area about 20 minutes from the city's downtown.

The building they stood before is nondescript. But, recounted Sasha
Angus, CEO of the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation, "It's like
a vault wrapped by Fort Knox wrapped in a castle.

"Cameras, vibration sensors, and a lot of time and effort," he
continued, describing the facility's security measures. "There's a
vault that's two feet thick with more vibration sensors. It's about
one level below a nuclear-missile silo."

What all those precautions keep safe is one of the largest marijuana
grow-ops in Canada: 60,000 square feet, with plans to scale up to an
operation more than five times that size, according to a rezoning
application that Nanaimo council approved last December.

Angus noted that the group was impressed by the facility, which is
more akin to a pharmaceutical laboratory than your stereotypical
marijuana operation. There are white walls, bright lights, and glass
cages holding dozens of strains and thousands of plants.

"It's incredibly clean," Angus said. "Each room is designed with
perfect climate control and all of the different pieces that you need
to make sure you have the best-quality product for your patient."

Asked if there was anything seedy about Nanaimo's most respected
citizens touring a grow-op, Angus noted that the company, Tilray,
cultivates a medicinal product with a federal licence. He suggested
that nothing separates it from any other legitimate business that
calls Nanaimo home.

"We actually helped bring them to town," Angus added. "They're a great
corporate citizen."

Corporate may be the operative word.

Tilray declined requests for an interview. However, the company's new
CEO and a 25-year pharmaceutical veteran, Greg Engel, recently shared
his thoughts on marijuana in an online essay published by the
Huffington Post.

"Medical cannabis was grown in dangerous and unsanitary conditions
without any form of oversight or standards to ensure consistency,
quality, safety and integrity," he wrote. "That's changed under the
new system as we are transforming the industry to be more like the
pharmaceutical industry."

Engel's article ran under the headline, "Why I'm leaving big pharma
for medical cannabis". A look at B.C.'s authorized marijuana producers
reveals the transition may not have been much of a shift.

The creation of an expensive pot oligarchy

On April 1, one year will have passed since Health Canada's Marihuana
for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) replaced the previous set of
rules. There have been public stock offerings, American investment
bankers have entered the game, and buyouts and mergers have seen
millions of dollars change hands.

Tilray is one recipient of 25 licences issued under the MMPR, which,
in the words of Health Canada, "establishes the conditions for a
secure and efficient system that provides access to marihuana".

The MMPR requires that all 55,180 Canadians authorized to possess
medicinal marijuana (as of October 2014) fill their prescriptions via
mail order from federally approved producers.

According to Health Canada, 1,224 companies have applied since the
introduction of the MMPR. Of those, 881 were refused or withdrew from
the process. Meanwhile, about 320 remain under review.

By October 31, 2014 (the period for which Health Canada supplied
data), 16 of the 25 companies licensed sold 1,400 kilograms of dried
marijuana. (Nine companies can cultivate but are still waiting for
final approval to sell.)

The government expects all of these numbers to grow. "The proposed
MMPR would enable an entirely new industry to be created in Canada,"
reads a 2012 assessment. That document estimates by 2024, the size of
the market will expand to 450,000 consumers spending $1.3 billion annually.

In October 2013, the Straight reported smaller business owners warned
Health Canada's new system would create an expensive pot oligarchy.
Now, they say that prediction is coming true.

Eric Nash has grown medicinal marijuana in Duncan, B.C., with an old
Health Canada permit since 2001. But he's struggled since the
introduction of the MMPR, stuck doing consul-tancy work for other
companies until Health Canada gives his company, Island Harvest, final
approval to sell.

"Health Canada does not want small producers in the program," he said.
"It looks like we can't be a piece of this industry as a small
business, and that is really unfortunate."

According to Nash, the most obvious proof of Health Canada's
preference for corporate growers is the startup costs associated with
security requirements. "You can't even get into it now for $1
million," he emphasized. "It pretty much eliminates the ability for
small business to take part."

Nash's estimate for security costs roughly matches numbers provided by
everyone interviewed for this story. To grow marijuana in accordance
with Health Canada regulations, businesses are spending $500,000 to $1
million or more before they can even begin to sell product.

Stringent requirements on matters like security and bookkeeping must
be met on a continual basis. According to the government's 2012
analysis, that will cost producers between $290,000 and $395,000 a
year.

John Moeller is the cofounder and general manager of Broken Coast
Cannabis, which also grows in Duncan. In a telephone interview, he
told the Straight the struggle for his group (whose operation covers
just 12,000 square feet, compared to Tilray's planned 345,000) wasn't
so much financial as it was bureaucratic.

"The application itself was very large and very complex, with a lot of
facets to it," he said. "Writing and understanding it was a challenge
in itself, and then you have to put it all into practice and build the
facility accordingly. That is definitely not a simple thing for a
small company to do. And it looks like it's getting more difficult."

Whistler Medical Marijuana Corporation founder Christopher Pelz is a
fan of the new rules. Noting his company offers organic pot certified
by the Fraser Valley Organic Producers Association, he argued
regulation is what's required to help clean the industry of unchecked
pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Pelz argued the most determined can make it, but he agreed regulatory
costs will likely weed out most mom-and-pop shops.

"The evolution of the business after 12 months here [since the MMPR
took effect] is showing that the capital costs are favouring the
bigger companies," he said. "What likely will start to happen is
you'll maybe see the bigger companies start to absorb the people that
are in the lineup."

A trend towards a smaller number of larger producers

Health Canada has long refused to grant the Straight an interview on
the topic of marijuana. A bolded message at the top of its website on
marijuana emphasizes the Conservative administration's opposition to
the medical applications of cannabis. "The Government of Canada does
not endorse the use of marijuana, but the courts have required
reasonable access to a legal source of marijuana when authorized by a
physician," it reads.

The B.C. Ministry of Finance declined a request for an interview on
the taxation of marijuana. According to spokesperson Jamie Edwardson,
Ottawa's system dictates medicinal marijuana is taxed based on a
person's province of residence. B.C. does not collect provincial sales
tax on medicines and, since marijuana sold under the MMPR is
classified as such, the province is seeing little in the way of
financial benefits from medical cannabis. (Marijuana sold for
recreational use would be a different story. When the previous
minister, Kevin Falcon, was in office, he shared his thoughts on pot's
potential: "The revenues are very enticing to this particular minister
of finance," Falcon said in 2012.)

The MMPR is presently in the courts, subject to a lawsuit that claims
a prohibition on cultivation for personal use is a contravention of
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. John Conroy, the lawyer
arguing that case, told the Straight a victory for his clients
wouldn't necessarily disrupt the business of Health Canada's
established growers.

"A lot of people make their own beer, a lot of people make their own
wine-it hasn't been a problem for the brewers," he said. "I don't see
personal production preventing the development of the market."

B.C.'s authorized growers have so far mostly decided to remain private
companies. But a number of MMPR-licensed operators across Canada have
gone public. A look at three Ontario businesses reveals the value of
legitimate operations and a licence from Health Canada.

When in August 2014 Bedrocan Cannabis Corp. appointed a trio of former
life-science executives to its board of directors and went public
through a reverse takeover, the company's stock price tripled, from 40
cents a share to $1.17, on the first day of trading. In October 2014,
Mettrum Health Corp. debuted on the TSX and its stock price jumped
from 15 cents to $2. And when Tweed Inc. named a former DelMar
Pharmaceuticals executive to its board of directors, its stock
recovered from a near low of $1.80, surging to $2.88.

Tilray is owned by Lafitte Ventures, a Nanaimo company that in turn is
owned by Seattle-based Privateer Holdings. Privateer has made
headlines for an influx of cash worth millions it received in January
from Founders Fund, a major financial player in Silicon Valley run by
PayPal founders Ken Howery and Peter Thiel.

Financing a number of B.C.'s other private marijuana operations is a
group of investment bankers and entrepreneurs based in Toronto.
According to the website of PharmaCan Capital, the group owns 100
percent of In the Zone Produce, which is located in the Okanagan
Valley; holds a 21.5-percent stake in Whistler Medical Marijuana
Corporation; and has the option to acquire a 25-percent interest in
Evergreen Medicinal Supply, an MMPR applicant based in Victoria.

On the phone from Toronto, PharmaCan president and CEO Paul Rosen said
investing in cannabis is just like investing in other sectors in which
he's had dealings.

"Marijuana as a black-market industry is probably very different from
other industries," he said. "But participating in the delivery of a
regulated program where government is giving licences to companies-the
fundamental principles that would guide a business to success or
failure are highly relevant to the emerging legitimate
medical-marijuana industry."

Marijuana sellers in U.S. states that have legalized pot for
recreational use have encountered trouble banking on account of
federal laws that still outlaw the drug. But in Canada, Rosen
reported, that hasn't been a problem. He noted Toronto-Dominion Bank
handles the money for two of PharmaCan's marijuana investments, the
Bank of Nova Scotia deals with a third, and Moneris Solutions
processes credit-card payments. "We don't have issues opening bank
accounts at all," he said.

Where does Rosen see the industry headed?

"There is a trend line forming towards a lesser amount of larger
licensed producers rather than a larger amount of smaller licensed
producers," he concluded. "I'm quite confident Health Canada wouldn't
look credibly at any company if they were not larger in scale. I think
the likely minimum capital to get a licence is measured in millions,
not hundreds of thousands, of dollars."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Matt

xxx
Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Mar 2015
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Ron Corbett
Page: 17

INSURANCE OBJECTIONS GO UP IN SMOKE

And so the levee breaks. The man to break it is called Jonathon
Zaid.

A student at the University of Waterloo. Anearnest, likeable young man
with an almost unbelievable story to tell.

Although we always knew the person who would break the
medicinal-marijuana-insurance-levee would have those qualities.

Jonathan Zaid was diagnosed at the age of 14 with New Daily Persistent
Headache (NDPH), a medical condition so poorly understood doctors
debate everything from forms of treatment to whether it should be
viewed as a syndrome or diagnosis.

As though that would make any difference to a person afflicted with
it. Because there is agreement on a few salient points-the pain when
you have NDPH is migraine like. It is persistent and unremitting.
There is no cure.

Zaid is part of an unlucky NDPH subset that is also sensitive to light
and noise. He had to drop out of public school in Grade 8 because of
this.

He has tried 48 different pharmaceuticals to treat or manage his
condition, and had no lasting success with any of them.

It is only through sheer determination that he managed to complete his
secondary education at a private school that made accommodations for
his condition.

His parents were paying for his marijuana.

Yes, if the people out there looking for a test case to break the
insurance company levee against medicinal marijuana claims had called
down to central casting, they could not have done better than Jonathan
Zaid.

And there were plenty of people waiting for Jonathan
Zaid.

Let's be clear on that. He is sort of the Harry Potter of medicinal
marijuana.

That is because the medicinal marijuana industry in Canada is not
sustainable (too small a market) and is premised on one of two things
happening in the near future.

Either marijuana will be allowed for recreational use, and the
companies sellingpot can stop pretending they are pharmaceutical companies.

Or a private insurance company will pay out on a medicinal marijuana
claim and this whole pharmaceutical charade becomes highly lucrative.
Ka-ching on number two. Sun Life, the company that paid out Zaid's
claim under the University of Waterloo's student health insurance
plan, has taken pains to say this was an exceptional circumstances
case.

There are not a lot of Jonathan Zaids in the world.

This will not set a precedent for future medicinal marijuana claims,
the company says.

But everyone knew it would be an exceptional set of circumstances that
would merit the first medicinal marijuana claim paid out. And now it
has happened. It is difficult to fathom how the insurance industry can
maintain a position for any length of time that basically says one
person with a medical document for marijuana use has more rights than
another person with the same medical document.

Likable doesn't count for much in a court challenge.

The facts are there - an insurance claim was paid out for medicinal
marijuana.

The country's leading medicinal marijuana providers, Bedrocan, helped
Zaid in his battle to have his marijuana expenses covered under the
University of Waterloo's health insurance plan.

And the same company has now appointed him to its "patient advisory"
board.

But the problem with all this-what keeps this from being merely a
curious little story-is that this precedent will ultimately affect
everyone's insurance rates.

And that's not so funny, or quirky.

Perhaps it is time for the government to legalize, or at least
decriminalize, recreational marijuana use.

This medicinal marijuana ruse is about to get costly.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Matt

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Mar 2015
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2015 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-letters-to-the-editor-htmlstory.html
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Kristen Olshan

FLORIDA - CATCH UP ON LEGALIZED MARIJUANA

My home state continues to disappoint me, and it saddens me more and
more each day. Florida has become the mockery of the rest of the
country, and we just keep screwing things up.

Colorado, Oregon, Washington and even the nation's capital have all
legalized marijuana for recreational use. And we can't even pass a
medical marijuana bill?

Marijuana has proven effective for easing side effects of
chemotherapy for cancer patients, and I myself use it for stomach
issues. In this Republican state, where following the leader seems to
be modus operandi, why would we not follow in the footsteps of our
nation's capital?

Especially since we have such a high aging population which could
benefit from the easing of pain associated with arthritis and other
inflammatory diseases.

Kristen Olshan,

Boca Raton
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Mar 2015
Source: Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
Copyright: 2015 The Jamaica Observer Ltd,
Contact: editorial@jamaicaobserver.com
Website: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1127
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

JAMAICA TO LEAD CHARGE TO CHANGE INT'L TREATIES ON MARIJUANA

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce,
Anthony Hylton, says Jamaica intends to lead a charge in the United
Nations to effect changes to the international treaties concerning marijuana.

The aim is to change the schedule class of marijuana in light of
scientific studies that have proven its therapeutic benefits and
medicinal value.

"We believe that the schedule in which marijuana is now placed, which
is one of the highest schedules as a drug, we believe that it should
be removed from that schedule and looked at in the light of... the
evidence, which has revealed its strong medicinal (value)," Hylton
said, while addressing a session of the recently concluded Jamaica
Investment Forum (JIF) at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

"Jamaica intends to participate, and to lead, if necessary, a process
in the United Nations to have those treaties amended or to reflect
what I believe is the evidence that is available, and take those
fully into account in the international treaties as they now exist," he said.

The industry minister noted that Jamaica has a reputation in the
international community as a legal nation and has the requisite
skills and know-how to lead a diplomatic effort to have the laws and
treaties changed.

Jamaica has passed the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act to
decriminalise the use of ganja for specified purposes.

The legislation makes the possession of two ounces, or less, of ganja
a non-arrestable, but ticketable, offence attracting a fixed monetary
penalty. It will also allow for a scheme of licences, permits, and
other authorisations, which enable the establishment of a lawful,
regulated industry for ganja for medical, therapeutic and scientific purposes.

Minister Hylton, who was responding to queries from potential
investors, regarding the production or export of ganja, made it clear
that the passage of the legislation does not provide for such undertakings.

"Our treaty obligations at the moment require that we address some
issues having to do with exports and trans-shipment into other
countries. We have to be respectful of those, otherwise we (can
easily) become an outlaw in... the community of nations," he pointed out.
__________________________________________________________________________
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---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: Herb Couch
Pubdate: Fri, 20 Mar 2015
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2015 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Ian MacLeod
Page: C11

MEDICAL POT REGULATIONS IN TOP COURT

OTTAWA - Canada's high court is contemplating whether it's a
constitutional right to munch cookies, brownies and oils laced with
medical marijuana.

Federal regulations restrict authorized users of physician-prescribed
cannabis to consuming only dried marijuana plants. Brewing pot in
tea, baking it into a brownie or any form of consumption other than
smoking the dried plant buds can trigger criminal trafficking and
narcotics possession charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

The question Friday before the Supreme Court of Canada, in its first
foray into the medicalmarijuana debate, is whether the Health Canada
regulation violated medical marijuana users' constitutional right to
life, liberty and safety.

That's what Owen Smith contends. Police in 2009 found more than 200
pot cookies and cannabis infused olive oil and grapeseed oil in his
Victoria apartment. The former head baker for the Cannabis Buyers
Club of Canada was charged with possession for the purpose of
trafficking and unlawful possession of marijuana.

At Smith's 2012 trial, lawyer Kirk Tousaw argued the restrictive
regulation was unconstitutional and arbitrary, and did not further
the government's interest in protecting public health and safety.
Instead, it forces the critically and chronically ill to smoke
medical marijuana, which is potentially harmful, he said.

Even though Smith is not a medical marijuana user, a judge agreed.
Smith was acquitted of the drug offences. The Crown appealed and
lost. The majority decision of the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled the
government had no basis to assert that transforming dried marijuana
into tea or baking oil put individuals at greater risk. It gave the
government until August to draft new regulations to allow medicinal
marijuana users to use products made from cannabis extract, such as
creams, oils and brownies.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada is now asking the Supreme
Court to strike down that judgment. It also contends that since Smith
is not a medical marijuana user, he should have no standing to
challenge the constitutional validity of the regulation.

The prosecution service declined to comment for this story. The
government does not endorse the use of marijuana, but the courts have
required reasonable access to a legal source of marijuana when
authorized by a physician.

There's concern, too, of pot-laced cookies and other illicit treats
being diverted to the black market, and of the difficulties police
would encounter trying to determine whether a batch of cookies or
brownies contained more dope than the patient was authorized to possess.
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Sat, 21 Mar 2015
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/CUQR20RB
Copyright: 2015 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact: letters@adn.com
Website: http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Laurel Andrews

ANCHORAGE POLICE SEIZE MARIJUANA PLANTS, COMPUTERS IN RAID ON ALASKA
CANNABIS CLUB

Anchorage police served a search warrant on the Alaska Cannabis
Club's downtown clubhouse on Friday afternoon, taking boxes of
evidence from the residence as club owner Charlo Greene watched.

Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Jennifer Castro told
reporters on scene later Friday afternoon that police had received
reports of illegal marijuana sales occurring at the clubhouse. No
charges had been filed Friday, Castro said.

Police arrived about 1 p.m., Greene said. Greene, whose legal name is
Charlene Egbe, is a former television news reporter who achieved
national notoriety in September when she quit on-air after announcing
she was the owner of the club.

A copy of the search warrant provided by Greene specified police were
searching for evidence of "misconduct involving a controlled substance."

According to Greene, there were nine marijuana plants in one duplex
and 14 in another. Five medical-marijuana cardholders live at the
residence, Greene said. She said 10 to 12 medical marijuana
cardholders were in the residence when the search warrant was served.

"I'm not surprised but I am disappointed," Greene said of the raid.

Two marked police cars were outside the residence on Friday
afternoon, with a few more arriving as the search wore on. Greene
said about seven officers were boxing up marijuana plants, computers,
papers and other materials in the clubhouse. Greene said she was free
to go but chose to wait while police took evidence from the home.

An officer on scene confirmed no arrests were being made Friday afternoon.

At 3:10 p.m., police began to load evidence in paper bags and
cardboard boxes into a white van from the back door of the clubhouse.
At about 3:15 p.m., a red pickup and black Jeep were towed away from the house.

Greene and boyfriend, Peter LoMonaco, watched as the vehicles were towed away.

Greene said the club would "open tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. and give
free weed to all our members who come through."

Greene said she would be hiring an attorney and was "gonna sue the
s--- out of the city."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Mar 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Authors: Pula Davis, Wayne Laugesen, Christine Tatum

ADDRESSING DRIVER IMPAIRMENT DIFFICULT

In Colorado, if you drive while impaired by drugs such as marijuana,
you can be arrested and charged with a DUI. But the logistics of
determining a driver's level of THC (marijuana's active ingredient)
impairment have yet to be standardized, and there is no continuity in
reporting arrest data for marijuana impairment.

The state's marijuana driving impairment limits could be entirely too
high. A recently released report issued by the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment is at odds with that limit. State
officials also concede the toll THC takes on road safety is likely
underreported and that Colorado's law enforcement agencies and the
Colorado Department of Transportation aren't equipped to gather the
data needed to determine a full and accurate scope of the problem.

"The challenges with the data are that reporting is not specific to
marijuana, there are not clear standards for reporting marijuana
impairment, and there is not consistency or standardization in
reporting from local levels to the Colorado Department of
Transportation," states a September report released by the Governor's
Office of Marijuana Coordination. "While fatality data associated
with marijuana use are available, there is limited information on
accidents not involving fatality or serious injury."

Then, there's this from the same report:

"Based on several review papers, it is estimated that there is a
twofold increase in the risk of an accident if there is any
measurable amount of THC in the bloodstream. Risks can be even higher
when marijuana is used in combination with alcohol. Blood-alcohol
content can be tested on the side of the road with a Breathalyzer,
but the same is not true for marijuana."

Medical experts warned state lawmakers that even 1 nanogram of THC
per milliliter of whole blood could double the risk of a car accident.

Nevertheless, the state Legislature set the THC impairment limit five
times higher.

"The current policies are not rooted in science," said Marco Vasquez,
chief of the Erie Police Department and a member of a state task
force appointed to identify data the state of Colorado needs to
gather and analyze to determine marijuana's impact on key aspects of
public health and safety. "And while many voters might have been
well-intentioned, I don't think they understood how difficult,
resource-intensive and costly the enforcement of just marijuana
driving laws - forget all of the other marijuana enforcement that has
to happen - would be."

DUI enforcement shines a harsh light on one of the chief fallacies of
marijuana-legalization supporters' claims, said Vasquez, who served
as former chief of investigations for the Colorado Division of
Medical Marijuana Enforcement.

"When it comes to driving, marijuana is not necessarily safer than
alcohol - and in practice, (law enforcement) officers all over the
state will tell you that they're seeing people using both substances,
which is even worse," he said.

Officers across the state agree. Among them is Sgt. Craig Simpson of
the Colorado Springs Police Department, who said that even when an
officer suspects a driver is impaired by alcohol and cannabis,
"typically, just the alcohol is going to be reported."

Law enforcement officers, including Simpson and Vasquez, give many
reasons for this. Among them:

The difficulty of determining THC impairment. There are no
Breathalyzer equivalents to determine marijuana impairment easily,
and because many drivers pulled over on suspicion of THC impairment
register at less than the state's 5 nanogram limit, convictions are
difficult to land.

The cost of testing. A Breathalyzer and related analysis typically
costs a department around $30, while the blood tests required to help
determine THC impairment cost around $300, Vazquez said.

The time required to investigate possible marijuana impairment.
Because the state is still ramping up training to put more officers
certified in drug recognition on patrol, even one traffic stop for a
suspected THC-impaired driver can take an officer who is not
certified in DRE off his or her beat for several hours.

[sidebar]

The impact of pot on traffic

- Overall, traffic fatalities in Colorado decreased 14.8 percent from
2007 to 2012. During the same five years in Colorado, traffic
fatalities involving operators testing positive for marijuana
increased 100 percent.

- In 2007, Colorado traffic fatalities involving operators testing
positive for marijuana represented 7.04 percent of the total traffic
fatalities. By 2012, that number more than doubled to 16.53 percent.

The Colorado State Patrol DUID program, initiated in 2014, shows that
in the first six months of 2014:

- 77 percent (349) of the 454 DUIDs involved marijuana.

- 42 percent (191) of the 454 DUIDs involved marijuana only.

- According to Colorado Department of Transportation Drug Recognition
Experts coordinator Robin Rocke, in 2013, 192 DREs completed 531
impaired-driving evaluations of which 330 (62.15 percent) were for
marijuana as confirmed by toxicology results.

Source: Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area report

Day 1: REGULATION

Two important assumptions about successful legalization of marijuana
in Colorado were:

1.) Regulation would provide a safer solution to the state's drug problems.

2.) By regulating the sale of marijuana the state could make money
otherwise locked up in the black market.

Today's stories suggest the net gain from taxes and fees related to
marijuana sales will not be known for a while, as costs are not known
or tracked well, and there are many other unknowns about pot's
effects on public health and safety.

About the series

After the first year of recreational pot sales, The Gazette takes a
comprehensive look at the unintended consequences of legalizing sales
and use of recreational marijuana.

Day 1: Colorado has a fragile scheme for regulating legal marijuana
and implementing a state drug prevention strategy.

Day 2: One of the suppositions about legalizing pot was that
underground sales would be curtailed, but officials say there is
evidence of a thriving black market.

Day 3: One teen's struggle to overcome his marijuana addiction shows
how devastating the effects of the drug can be for younger, more
vulnerable users.

Day 4: Amid the hoopla about recreational marijuana sales, the
medical marijuana industry is flourishing and has its own set of
complicated concerns.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Mar 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Authors: Pula Davis, Wayne Laugesen, Christine Tatum

REGULATION STILL INEFFECTIVE

The promises of Colorado's Amendment 64 largely hinged on two words
blazing from campaign signs dotting the state before the historic
November 2012 vote that legalized recreational marijuana for people
21 and older: Regulation works. But how it would work was described
only in general terms and sound bites before voters headed to the
polls to make a decision Gov. John Hickenlooper later would call
"reckless" and "a bad idea" and new Colorado Attorney General Cynthia
Coffman declared "not worth it" to dozens of state attorneys general
last month.

The pro-Amendment 64 campaign's website claimed that "by regulating
marijuana like alcohol, Colorado can further reduce teen marijuana
use, minimize teens' access to marijuana, reduce exposure to more
dangerous drugs and take sales out of the hands of criminals."

After the first year of the drug's recreational legalization,
professionals working on the front lines of marijuana's impact - at
police departments, addiction treatment centers, child welfare
organizations - say Colorado put commerce ahead of kids, communities,
public health and safety. The state opened itself up for the drug's
trade without establishing and enforcing many crucially important
limits and without adequately funding the data collection and
analysis required for Colorado - and the rest of the United States -
to determine whether marijuana legalization is wise.

Colorado officials can't even say how much marijuana is produced and
sold in the state because a black market continues to thrive. The
seed-to-sale tracking program highly touted by state officials and
marijuana-industry leaders does not address diversion of the drug
after the point of sale.

"I realize the story keeps changing and that plenty of people now
want to describe abject regulatory failures as an experiment or one
big startup experiencing typical growing pains," said Ben Cort,
director of professional relations for the Center for Addiction
Recovery and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado Hospital.
"But the ugly truth is that Colorado was suckered. It was promised
regulation and has been met by an industry that fights tooth and nail
any restrictions that limit its profitability. Just like Big Tobacco
before it, the marijuana industry derives profits from addiction -
state officials euphemistically call that heavy use - and its
survival depends on turning a percentage of kids into lifelong customers."

The costs of launching a regulatory scheme for the sale and
distribution of cannabis were anyone's guess - and they still are as
Colorado heads into its second year of the drug's legalization for
recreational use. Potential unexpected costs are on the horizon as
Colorado is mired in legal questions about lower-than-projected tax
revenues and suits filed against it by the state governments of
Nebraska and Oklahoma. Those states' attorneys general have asked to
appear before the U.S. Supreme Court to explain why Colorado's
regulation not only isn't working but is harming their states and the
rest of the country.

Indeed, Colorado hasn't lived up to many of the basics of the
regulatory framework approved by the state Legislature in 2013 and
2014, much less to the campaign promises of Amendment 64. State
reports do not answer many questions about how marijuana is produced,
sold, distributed and used:

The state has not launched a system to test marijuana and THC-infused
foods and drinks, called "edibles," for contaminants. It promises to
do so this year.

In the past year, tests conducted by news organizations have found
discrepancies between the potency levels recorded on marijuana
product packaging and the goods inside. Colorado has outsourced
potency testing to privately held businesses, awarding 16 licenses
for testing facilities by the end of last year. But such testing is
not required for marijuana and THC-infused products used for medical
purposes - the bulk of Colorado's marijuana market.

Colorado officials have not released even aggregate data showing the
potency of marijuana sold in accordance with state law.

The problem of determining the impact of Colorado's legal marijuana
runs much deeper than what state officials are able to report. The
state does not have the funding, tools or training to gauge marijuana
legalization's impact on public resources and communities. Fully
equipping state guardians of public health and safety to collect and
analyze this data must become a priority, said Ed Wood, director of
DUID Victim Voices, a national group advocating for stronger
drugged-driving laws.

"Colorado owes it to our country to accurately and fully report on
marijuana's consumption, sale, distribution and societal impact, but
that level of data do not exist and may never exist if Americans
don't demand greater accountability of this state," said Wood, whose
tireless voice in state legislative halls has demanded better data
collection and reporting since his son was killed by a drugged driver.

State marijuana regulators have focused less on analyzing the data
they have collected, choosing instead to direct most of their time
and resources to keeping the state's cannabis industry from forcing
the hands of federal officials who have opted not to enforce federal
law. It's an abdication of responsibility in Washington, D.C., that
former Attorney General John Suthers has noted in defense of Colorado
against the legal challenges mounted by Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Then there are the data Colorado officials know the state does not
collect and must if it is ever going to have a shot at understanding
the impact of the drug's legalization. In January, a governor-
appointed task force started meeting to determine the priorities and
processes for gathering marijuana-related data. The costs of
procuring, analyzing and reporting that voluminous information are
many months - and maybe even years - away from being determined, said
Marco Vasquez, chief of the Erie Police Department and a task force member.

"While the commercial marijuana industry continues to ramp up,
Colorado still operates in a zone of not knowing what it doesn't know
about marijuana and the expansion of drug legalization, and people
are getting hurt," said Vasquez, who is also a former director of
investigations for the Colorado Division of Medical Marijuana
Enforcement. "Voters were sold a bill of goods, and I don't think
they really understand what they did.

"The industry behind it is another Big Tobacco that has millions and
millions of dollars to spend on influencing media and public policy -
which will always outpace the findings of reputable science and the
public workings of government."

Since the opening of recreational pot shops on Jan. 1, 2014, some
data support that regulation is not having its intended effect:

Colorado youths remain among the nation's heaviest cannabis users,
with usage increasing at the second-highest rate in the nation. They
use strains of the drug widely considered among the world's most
potent. Denver schools reported a 7 percent increase in drug-related
arrests on campus during the 2013-14 school year over the previous
year, jumping from 452 to 482 arrests. Middle schools across Colorado
reported 951 drug violations, a 10-year record. County and state
education officials attribute the increases to marijuana.

Local addiction treatment centers are reporting more admissions for
marijuana addiction. Among them is the CU adult-treatment hospital,
which is continuing to track numbers, said Cort, the center's
director of professional relations.

Colorado hospitals are reporting sharp increases in the number of
children admitted for marijuana exposure, including accidental
ingestion. A state committee charged with rule-making for edibles
disbanded in November without reaching consensus.

Black-market sales are booming at such high rates that they've been
blamed for cannabis tax revenues that are tens of millions of dollars
short of initial projections and campaign slogans. While speaking to
a conference of other attorneys general last month, Coffman blasted
legalization advocates' linchpin argument that regulating sales would
eliminate the black market, reduce associated criminal activity and
free up law enforcement agencies' resources. "Don't buy that
argument," she said, according to U.S. News & World Report. "The
criminals are still selling on the black market. ... We have plenty
of cartel activity in Colorado (and) plenty of illegal activity that
has not decreased at all."

More than 30 hash-oil explosions occurred last year, prompting local
and state authorities to call for laws prohibiting oil production in
residential homes. At the end of last month, Colorado Springs
authorities responded to a fire caused by hash-oil extraction in a
home just south of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
"We'd never even heard of a hash-oil explosion before marijuana
legalization," said Vasquez, the Erie police chief.

Colorado is only beginning to learn how to collect information about
marijuana-related driving arrests. In 2014, the Colorado State Patrol
issued 674 marijuana-related driving citations. The agency typically
issues about 20 percent of the state's DUI citations each year.

Then there are the more mundane problems faced by Coloradans like
John and Lisa Young and their teen daughter, who couldn't escape the
odor of marijuana wafting into their Lakewood apartment from a
neighboring unit. The couple insisted the management firm supervising
the property enforce its stated ban on the drug's use - living up to
the drug-free-community signs posted in its administrative offices -
or move their family to a unit where they wouldn't be bothered by the
odor of pot. At the end of their nine-month lease last year, the
Youngs and the property management firm agreed that the Youngs needed
to live somewhere else.

"At every level of governance - from the state Legislature and
governor's office to homeowners' associations - Colorado has shown
many times in just one year that it cannot muster the political will
to regulate legal marijuana as it must be, that it doesn't have the
resources to enforce many of the regulations on the books," Lisa Young said.

The current level of regulation effectiveness may have been foretold.

In January 2013, debates among members of a governor-appointed task
force charged with recommending to state lawmakers rules for the
implementation of Amendment 64 focused more on money than on matters
of public health and safety.

When task force members ranked eight primary "principles" on which
their deliberations were to focus, "Be responsive to consumer needs
and issues" was placed second only to "Developing guidance for
certain relationships, such as employer/employee ... " - an area of
cannabis regulation that remains fraught with problems for Colorado employers.

Last on the list? "Promote the health, safety and well being of
Colorado youth." What else ranked lower on the list than "consumer
needs?" This principle: "Ensure our streets, schools and communities
remain safe."

In early March 2013, the New York-based drug-abuse-prevention
advocacy group The Partnership at drugfree.org released a survey of
1,603 adults living across the country - 200 of whom were Coloradans
with children ages 10-19, and 200 of whom were parents of children in
the same age range in Washington state, which also voted to legalize
recreational cannabis. The survey provided one of the first glimpses
of the restrictions on cannabis that adults 18 and older - and
specifically parents surveyed - expected.

The research findings were announced in July 2013 at the University
of Denver, where a couple of hundred people gathered to learn more
about the challenges of regulating legal cannabis from an expert
panel that included former Colorado Attorney General Suthers and
former senior White House drug policy adviser Tom McLellan, a
world-recognized substance abuse researcher and co-founder of the
Philadelphia-based Treatment Research Institute.

The panel noted that while Coloradans surveyed expressed overwhelming
support for tight cannabis regulation, they may not have understood
what a large and complex undertaking that would be.

"Horribly naive," McLellan said during an interview after the event.
"It appears people here are horribly naive about how regulation works
and what it costs."

Consider:

High percentages of parents (90 percent of Colorado parents and 91
percent of Washington parents) said marijuana should be banned in
public places where tobacco is banned. Today, public use of the drug
is illegal, but police in Colorado Springs - where recreational sales
are prohibited - wrote 52 citations for public pot smoking last year,
and Denver County reported a 451 percent increase in public use
citations. Vaporizers and e-cigarette devices have made it difficult
to police public use.

Of Colorado parents surveyed, 87 percent said "marijuana advertising
should still be banned." And when forced to choose, a majority of
parents identified the No. 1 place where it should be permissible to
advertise marijuana as "nowhere."

Today, marijuana is advertised locally in free publications available
in convenience stores, on prominent storefront signs and on 24/7
social media networks and websites. "Sesame Street's" beloved Cookie
Monster recently was painted on the wall of Wellstone Medical
Marijuana, a Colorado Springs dispensary - but quickly removed after
lawyers for Sesame Workshop sent a cease and desist letter.

"Cognitive dissonance. That's what I see here," Suthers said of the
survey's results during the 2013 presentation. "You can't say you
want legalized marijuana and then you don't want your kids exposed to
it." He added: "History (with alcohol and tobacco regulation)
suggests we're not going to be very successful at (banning the
commercialization of a legal industry). Don't count on any corporate
responsibility. Don't look for the online folks to cooperate.

"I just don't want anybody to fall into this notion that we are going
to regulate this and everything is going to be fine."

[sidebar]

Day 1: REGULATION

Two important assumptions about successful legalization of marijuana
in Colorado were:

1.) Regulation would provide a safer solution to the state's drug problems.

2.) By regulating the sale of marijuana the state could make money
otherwise locked up in the black market.

Today's stories suggest the net gain from taxes and fees related to
marijuana sales will not be known for a while, as costs are not known
or tracked well, and there are many other unknowns about pot's
effects on public health and safety.

About the series

After the first year of recreational pot sales, The Gazette takes a
comprehensive look at the unintended consequences of legalizing sales
and use of recreational marijuana.

Day 1: Colorado has a fragile scheme for regulating legal marijuana
and implementing a state drug prevention strategy.

Day 2: One of the suppositions about legalizing pot was that
underground sales would be curtailed, but officials say there is
evidence of a thriving black market.

Day 3: One teen's struggle to overcome his marijuana addiction shows
how devastating the effects of the drug can be for younger, more
vulnerable users.

Day 4: Amid the hoopla about recreational marijuana sales, the
medical marijuana industry is flourishing and has its own set of
complicated concerns.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Mar 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Authors: Pula Davis, Wayne Laugesen, Christine Tatum

ANALYZING COLORADO'S GRAND EXPERIMENT

Advocates told the people of Colorado that legalization of marijuana
would unclog prisons, help fund education, produce new revenue for
the general fund and hobble drug cartels. An important part of the
new plan and theme for the passage of Amendment 64 was that
regulation was a better idea to mitigate marijuana's effects on our state.

The state and national media have reported on the progress of
Colorado's grand experiment, describing it mainly as a
forward-thinking renaissance. In a nationally televised "60 Minutes"
broadcast, a Colorado-based marijuana industry executive claimed that
Colorado has done a "phenomenal job" regulating marijuana.

See also: No tax windfall from medical, retail sales

The Gazette created a special project team made up of editorial staff
and a seasoned reporter to look into these claims and compare them to
information compiled after a year of legal recreational marijuana
sales in Colorado. We wanted to examine whether the claims of
legalization are on a path to becoming realized. We also looked for
stories that have not been reported to create a clearer picture of
the state of the industry.

Gazette researchers have spoken with local, regional and national
experts in law enforcement, medicine and public policy about
Colorado's experiment with legal sales and use of medical and
recreational marijuana. We looked at data the state has compiled and
consulted with drug users, their families and their friends.

See also: Addressing driver impairment difficult

Unlike Denver and several other cities, Colorado Springs did not
approve recreational sales of marijuana. Yet our research found a
flourishing black market of recreational pot procured as medicine and
resold on the street. One teenager spoke in detail about clearing
more than $1,000 a day by selling medical marijuana at local high schools.

Medical professionals told us about marijuana's harmful effects on
the developing brains of teens and young adults. Drug treatment
centers report spikes in admissions since legalization.

Meanwhile, tax revenues have failed to meet projections. While the
public reads about how much tax revenue legalization has generated,
state leaders have provided no adequate cost-benefit analysis to
quantify costs associated with the drug's use and abuse. Colorado
isn't even equipped to gather such data.

There are also numerous and growing reports of unintended
consequences of legalization, including more arrests for driving
under the influence, lawsuits against the state, manufacturing
hazards, the impact on resources for the homeless and a growing
concern over exposure and availability to children.

We hope this examination of Colorado since legalization will provide
a new perspective on an issue that may shape up to be a public
health, safety and policy quagmire for the ages.

The reporting team: editorial board members Pula Davis and Wayne
Laugesen and local reporter Christine Tatum.

[sidebar]

Day 1: REGULATION

Two important assumptions about successful legalization of marijuana
in Colorado were:

1.) Regulation would provide a safer solution to the state's drug problems.

2.) By regulating the sale of marijuana the state could make money
otherwise locked up in the black market.

Today's stories suggest the net gain from taxes and fees related to
marijuana sales will not be known for a while, as costs are not known
or tracked well, and there are many other unknowns about pot's
effects on public health and safety.

About the series

After the first year of recreational pot sales, The Gazette takes a
comprehensive look at the unintended consequences of legalizing sales
and use of recreational marijuana.

Day 1: Colorado has a fragile scheme for regulating legal marijuana
and implementing a state drug prevention strategy.

Day 2: One of the suppositions about legalizing pot was that
underground sales would be curtailed, but officials say there is
evidence of a thriving black market.

Day 3: One teen's struggle to overcome his marijuana addiction shows
how devastating the effects of the drug can be for younger, more
vulnerable users.

Day 4: Amid the hoopla about recreational marijuana sales, the
medical marijuana industry is flourishing and has its own set of
complicated concerns.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Mar 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Authors: Pula Davis, Wayne Laugesen, Christine Tatum

NO TAX WINDFALL FROM MEDICAL, RETAIL SALES

A year ago, Colorado's governor's office had grand plans to fund
programs and resources aimed at protecting public safety and health
in the aftermath of legalized retail pot sales.

The state anticipated a marijuana tax windfall from medical and
recreational sales to pay for it all - and Gov. John Hickenlooper
called for nearly $100 million for prevention and treatment programs,
including a project aimed at analyzing the correlation between
marijuana use during pregnancy and birth defects.

"Our administration is committed to the responsible regulation of
adult-use marijuana and the effective allocation of resources to
protect public safety and health and to prevent underage use," reads
a Feb. 18, 2014, funding request for fiscal year 2014-15 that the
governor signed. "Indeed, we view our top priority as creating an
environment where negative impacts on children from marijuana
legalization are avoided completely."

Along with legalizing pot in Colorado, voters approved Proposition
AA, which tacked on high taxes to retail marijuana - a 15 percent
excise tax to fund school capital projects and a 10 percent sales tax
to offset costs associated with retail pot, such as regulation.

But sales haven't matched expectations, and complications resulting
from Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, or TABOR, could further
affect the amount of money the state receives. It's possible some of
the money collected could be refunded to voters.

Taxpayers may get two refunds under TABOR.

One refund occurs when state revenue exceeds revenue cap. The second
occurs when a new tax is imposed, such as the taxes on marijuana, and
the amount that officials believe will be collected is not met.

"TABOR required you do a second thing," explained Tim Hoover,
communications director for the Colorado Fiscal Institute. "You say
what the total state revenue would be without the new taxes, so if
this marijuana tax didn't pass, how much money would you still have."

The legislative council's estimate of taxes the marijuana industry
would generate was off by 1 percent, so the money must be returned,
Hoover said.

The state can keep the tax money collected if it's shown that voters
approve - which Hoover believes they did when they approved Amendment
64 and Proposition AA, which imposed taxes to fund school capital
projects and marijuana enforcement.

Last month, state officials released tax figures on recreational and
medical sales for 2014, which amounted to roughly $63.4 million. Tack
on additional licenses and fees and Colorado's total take was about
$76 million.

The 15 percent excise tax dedicated for schools - projected alone to
raise $40 million - has generated about one-third of original
estimates. Excise taxes totaled $13.3 million from Jan. 1 through
Dec. 31, according to data from the Colorado Department of Revenue.

The 2014-15 fiscal year, which began July 1, is shaping up a bit
better. Between July 1 and Dec. 31, the state collected $38.9 million
in taxes from recreational and medical sales, a monthly average of
nearly $6.5 million. If tax revenues hold steady for the remaining
six months of the current fiscal year, tax collections - not
including licenses and fees - will ring in around $77.8 million.

None of this is to say a lot of pot isn't being sold. It's just that
Coloradans have been savvy about where they shop or how they get
their pot. Some grow their own (adults are allowed to have up to six
plants), and others choose to make their purchases at medical
marijuana dispensaries, where the drug isn't subject to the extra 25
percent in taxes.

That was an unexpected consequence to many people who have followed
the marijuana tax money - everyone from former Colorado Attorney
General John Suthers to legislative economists.

The original plan to spend marijuana tax revenue included:

$11 million for the Department of Education to pay for more school
resource officers and programs to address mental health and substance
abuse prevention.

$32.2 million for the Department of Human Services for substance
abuse programs.

$456,760 for the Department of Law to develop expertise on retail
regulations and provide training for regulators and law enforcement.

$42.3 million ($16.9 million from the general fund and the rest
federal funds) for the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing
for substance-abuse initiatives, including treatment and prevention
programs in 230 schools.

That roughly $100 million plan was drastically modified.

"We ended up with much closer to a $33.5 million budget for this
fiscal year," said Andrew Freedman, director of the Governor's Office
of Marijuana Coordination.

Freedman said the first priority for the tax revenue is to cover
regulatory costs at the Department of Revenue and the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment.

Money also has been spent on youth prevention, public safety and
public health programs related directly to marijuana.

Here's where some tax money is going in the current fiscal year:

$7.6 million to enforce current regulations for retail and medical
sales of marijuana.

$5.6 million for a statewide public education campaign.

Freedman said the "Good to Know" campaign, which currently tells
people how to use the drug safely and legally, will expand. "There
will be a youth prevention message coming out, I believe, in late
spring," he said. There also will be more education on marijuana
edibles in ensuing rollouts of the campaign.

The Department of Education is getting $2.5 million to fund health
professionals in schools to identify and help kids at risk for drug
use. Freedman said the money is paired with $6.3 million for
school-based prevention and intervention services; $2.1 million of
that is a federal match.

$2 million to Tony Grampsas Youth Services for prevention of
marijuana use among youths.

$2 million for jail-based behavioral programs.

$2 million for prediversion programs at the local level, offering
alternatives to incarceration.

[sidebar]

Day 1: REGULATION

Two important assumptions about successful legalization of marijuana
in Colorado were:

1.) Regulation would provide a safer solution to the state's drug problems.

2.) By regulating the sale of marijuana the state could make money
otherwise locked up in the black market.

Today's stories suggest the net gain from taxes and fees related to
marijuana sales will not be known for a while, as costs are not known
or tracked well, and there are many other unknowns about pot's
effects on public health and safety.

About the series

After the first year of recreational pot sales, The Gazette takes a
comprehensive look at the unintended consequences of legalizing sales
and use of recreational marijuana.

Day 1: Colorado has a fragile scheme for regulating legal marijuana
and implementing a state drug prevention strategy.

Day 2: One of the suppositions about legalizing pot was that
underground sales would be curtailed, but officials say there is
evidence of a thriving black market.

Day 3: One teen's struggle to overcome his marijuana addiction shows
how devastating the effects of the drug can be for younger, more
vulnerable users.

Day 4: Amid the hoopla about recreational marijuana sales, the
medical marijuana industry is flourishing and has its own set of
complicated concerns.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sun, 22 Mar 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Authors: Pula Davis, Wayne Laugesen, Christine Tatum

STATE PREVENTION EFFORTS CRITICIZED

In one of the neatly maintained, brick buildings lining a street on
the campus of the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan in
southwest Denver is a hive of offices where about 60 state employees
focus on the prevention and treatment of mental health problems,
including substance abuse and addiction.

Their work in the Office of Behavioral Health is cut out for them in
Colorado, home to some of the highest drug-use rates in the nation
and one of the country's worst track records for public funding of
mental health care, especially for youths. The state almost entirely
bankrolls the office's efforts to prevent substance abuse and
addiction with an $8.3 million federal grant.

How much did Colorado budget in fiscal 2014-15 for the office's
substance prevention work? About $34,000.

"Let's just say this state talks a good game about wanting to prevent
problems but ultimately aligns its priorities much more closely with
the interests of industries whose profits come from addiction and use
of a harmful drug," said Bob Doyle, executive director of the
Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance and chairman of
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a policy group opposed to marijuana
legalization.

"It is especially obvious that the state of Colorado is prioritizing
marijuana and the marijuana industry over public health and welfare
and basically ignoring many effective prevention strategies and
professionals," he said.

Money funds messages

Indeed, the Office of Behavioral Health, which is the only state
office specifically charged by statute with the development,
coordination, supervision and evaluation of statewide efforts to
prevent drug abuse and addiction, hasn't received a dollar this
fiscal year to support efforts aimed at preventing marijuana use.

Instead, money for marijuana prevention and education initiatives has
been channeled to the Governor's Office of Marijuana Coordination and
to the Prevention Services Division of the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment, which provides information on its
website about "marijuana and your health" under the heading "Retail
Marijuana" - the state's preferred term for recreational marijuana.

Unlike the OBH, where every staff member is a certified prevention
specialist holding an internationally recognized credential,
employees at the helm of Colorado's marijuana prevention and public
education efforts have comparatively little training and work
experience in substance prevention and issues related to substance
treatment. None is a certified prevention specialist.

But there's a more important difference: Unlike these better-funded
prevention groups, the OBH does not invite drug industry executives
to help it develop and execute prevention strategies or lead
community meetings.

"We have learned early on (in) substance abuse prevention from
tobacco and alcohol that the industry has no place with direct
prevention," said Stan Paprocki, who retired March 1 as the OBH's
director of community prevention programs.

Paprocki has more than 28 years of professional experience in
substance prevention and treatment and recently wrapped up
supervision of a federally funded, five-year, $11 million campaign
aimed at reducing underage alcohol consumption, especially among
Latino youths, in Adams, Denver, Pueblo and Weld counties. The OBH's
work was so effective that it met its five-year goal to reduce binge
drinking among Latino youths in three years.

Paprocki said it didn't occur to him or his colleagues to ask alcohol
industry executives to consult on the campaign.

But working with marijuana industry executives has been a consistent
method employed by the CDPHE and governor's office when developing
prevention and public awareness campaigns. The latter issued this
edict when searching for a creative team to produce its three-week,
$2 million "Don't Be a Lab Rat" campaign: "Offerer will demonstrate
ability to navigate and thoughtfully address the potential of
involving representatives from the pharmaceutical and marijuana
industry as part of a collaborative effort toward a successful campaign."

Promotion or prevention?

The resulting initiative was developed with input from marijuana
industry representatives and from health care providers who urged
state officials to distance themselves and the work from industry
involvement. They presented state officials with published,
peer-reviewed studies showing that industry involvement in prevention
campaigns has been associated with increased substance use rates.

"We know what works. We know that media working with interventions
that change environments and speak to personal drug use prevent use.
But that's not what industry wants to do," said Harold Holder, a
world-recognized researcher in substance prevention science and the
former director of the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific
Institute for Research and Evaluation.

One element of the campaign was a 30-second video focused on teens
getting high in a car. The spot has no voiceover. Viewers instead
must read a brief message alluding to debated brain research that is
transposed over footage of youths who appear to be having a great
time as they smoke pot.

"It was all just so stupid because there was no clear prevention
messaging," said William Crano, a professor of psychology at
Claremont Graduate University in California who specializes in the
development of media to support scientific, evidence-based drug
prevention initiatives.

Crano knows a thing or two about angering bureaucrats who develop
anti-drug messaging without full regard for its effectiveness. He was
an early and outspoken critic of the federal government's memorable -
but ineffective - "This Is Your Brain On Drugs" campaign of the 1980s.

"I quickly became a pariah with our Office of National Drug Control
Policy and the drug czar," Crano said with a laugh. "But what I care
about is effective messaging that changes behaviors and attitudes to
prevent drug use."

Research shows effective drug prevention campaigns are not made up
only of media, such as websites, billboards and television
commercials. Successful campaigns also include an array of regular
and consistent education carefully developed for specific audiences
and community interventions that limit access to, and availability
of, a substance in various ways, including price, Crano said.

He has even sharper words for Colorado's recently released "Good to
Know" campaign - which also was crafted with significant input from
marijuana business owners.

Supervised by the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment, "Good to Know" so far is telling people not to avoid
marijuana use but, rather, to use the drug responsibly. The tactic
mirrors the alcohol industry-driven "Drink Responsibly" campaigns
that have been shown to increase alcohol use, Crano said.

"It's an old and dirty trick the alcohol industry loves - and pays
many millions of dollars for because it's obviously working for their
bottom line," he said

"The message isn't prevention; it's about creating acceptance of
alcohol use, which drives up sales. So, Colorado isn't preventing
marijuana use. It's now in the business of promoting it."

Many of the state's addiction treatment providers, substance
prevention professionals and advocates working in their communities
to reduce drug use and abuse also say the CDPHE and the Governor's
Office of Marijuana Coordination have given marijuana industry
representatives too much influence. Among them is Jo McGuire, a
Colorado Springs-based consultant who specializes in helping
employers maintain drug-free workplace policies and serves on the
national board of the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association.
"It's like inviting Philip Morris executives to help us learn how to
use tobacco and develop our next anti-smoking campaign." - Jo
McGuire, Colorado Springs consultant specializing in helping
employers maintain drug-free workplace policies and a member of the
National Board of the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association

In August, McGuire attended a CDPHE event headlined "Marijuana
Workshop for State and Local Public Health," during which a lawyer
for the marijuana industry and a physician who recommends marijuana
spoke. She was particularly surprised by the bud tender who lectured
the safe, regular use of highly potent THC concentrates.

"None of what these marijuana-industry representatives said was
supported by one shred of responsible science, and it was absolutely
stunning to me that our state health officials gave these people such
a place of authority and legitimacy," she said.

"It's one thing if CDPHE officials want to better understand the
industry by meeting with people and taking their own notes, but it is
very much another and beyond ridiculous for them to make marijuana
industry leaders keynote speakers who get to dominate the floor and
drive the agenda.

"It's like inviting Philip Morris executives to help us learn how to
use tobacco and develop our next anti-smoking campaign."

[sidebar]

Day 1: REGULATION

Two important assumptions about successful legalization of marijuana
in Colorado were:

1.) Regulation would provide a safer solution to the state's drug problems.

2.) By regulating the sale of marijuana the state could make money
otherwise locked up in the black market.

Today's stories suggest the net gain from taxes and fees related to
marijuana sales will not be known for a while, as costs are not known
or tracked well, and there are many other unknowns about pot's
effects on public health and safety.

About the series

After the first year of recreational pot sales, The Gazette takes a
comprehensive look at the unintended consequences of legalizing sales
and use of recreational marijuana.

Day 1: Colorado has a fragile scheme for regulating legal marijuana
and implementing a state drug prevention strategy.

Day 2: One of the suppositions about legalizing pot was that
underground sales would be curtailed, but officials say there is
evidence of a thriving black market.

Day 3: One teen's struggle to overcome his marijuana addiction shows
how devastating the effects of the drug can be for younger, more
vulnerable users.

Day 4: Amid the hoopla about recreational marijuana sales, the
medical marijuana industry is flourishing and has its own set of
complicated concerns.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom
xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Mar 2015
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Gazette
Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/
Website: http://www.gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165
Authors: Pula Davis, Wayne Laugesen, Christine Tatum
Series: Special report, 'Clearing the Haze:'

BLACK MARKET IS THRIVING IN COLORADO

A shrinking black market for marijuana was among the biggest benefits
Colorado would realize from legalizing and regulating the drug,
proponents of Amendment 64 promised in the months leading up to the
state's historic decision to sanction pot's recreational use.

However, the black market is thriving - and growing in new,
unforeseen ways as marijuana, highly potent THC concentrates and
THC-infused foods and drinks produced in Colorado make their way
across the country.

More than 40 states have reported seizures of Colorado marijuana and
THC products, according to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area. The federally funded task force also reports that
seizures involving Colorado marijuana bound for other states have
risen nearly 400 percent, from 58 incidents in 2008 to 288 in 2013 -
the year before Colorado's marijuana retail stores opened. That is
consistent with Denver police records showing a nearly 1,000-percent
spike in the amount of marijuana officers have seized - 937 pounds in
2011 compared to a little more than 4 tons last year.

El Paso, Denver and Boulder counties are the top three sources for
out-of-state marijuana trafficking, the HIDTA reports.

"Colorado is the black market for the rest of the country," HIDTA
Director Tom Gorman said. "Now, the state just has a so-called legal
market competing with the cartels, which haven't missed a beat. All
ships rose with this tide."

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman spoke in similarly stark
terms when meeting with fellow state attorneys general at a
professional conference in February. She lambasted marijuana
legalization advocates' linchpin argument that marijuana producers
and users would play by the rules of law and significantly wrest
control of marijuana sales from drug traffickers and cartels.

"Don't buy that," she told the room. "The criminals are still selling
on the black market. ...We have plenty of cartel activity in Colorado
(and) plenty of illegal activity that has not decreased at all."

Mexican cartels remain big players in Colorado's illicit drug trade,
working their turfs as usual. Only now, because American marijuana
users increasingly are turning to the more potent forms of pot
produced at home, the cartels are changing tactics to capitalize on
other profitable drug sales. Mexican drug producers have shifted
their crops from marijuana to opium poppies - which produce the black
tar heroin that has ravaged many parts of the country - and they're
ramping up production of methamphetamine. Last year, U.S. law
enforcement agencies seized more than 2,100 kilograms of heroin
coming from Mexico - almost triple the amount confiscated in 2009 -
and about 15,800 kilograms of meth, up from 3,076 kilos in the same
period, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. The DEA estimates
that about 90 percent of meth sold in the U.S. is produced in Mexico.

Americans' consumption of all three drugs - marijuana, meth and
heroin - is on the rise, and Colorado's use rates are higher than the
national average, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and
Health, which is funded by a U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services agency.

"The cartels are flooding our markets with cheap heroin and meth at
the same time we're growing the numbers of marijuana users who might
move on to try that next thing," said Ernie Martinez, national
at-large director for the National Narcotic Officers' Associations
Coalition. "Nothing good will come from this."

Colorado's black-market marijuana trade is hardly limited to cartels
- and state officials can't say how much marijuana flows through it.
However, they estimate that only 60 percent of the marijuana consumed
in Colorado is purchased through legal channels. The rest is sold
through illicit operations that include back-door sales out of
warehouses and other licensed facilities and home-grow operations far
exceeding the six-plant limit Colorado law allows those 21 and older
to cultivate.

Colorado's home-grow market is "minimally regulated" and a chief area
of concern, said Lewis Koski, director of the state's Marijuana
Enforcement Division. Yet home-grows take a back seat to the
division's mandate to ensure that Colorado's 2,250 licensed marijuana
facilities - businesses including edibles manufacturers and retail
marijuana stores - follow the rules. Of the division's 55 employees,
38 conduct criminal and compliance investigations, spending most of
their time at licensed establishments. The office is requesting 13
additional, full-time employees.

"One of our main enforcement priorities is specifically focusing in
preventing or limiting the diversion of regulated marijuana outside
the state of Colorado," Koski said.

Promises of increased enforcement ring hollow with law enforcement
agencies in several other states. Sheriffs in neighboring Kansas and
Nebraska have joined sheriffs from Colorado in filing a lawsuit
against the state, alleging in part that Colorado's inability to keep
black-market marijuana from flowing over its borders has put an
economic burden on other states.

"We're running into more people with marijuana out of Colorado - just
a regular, old traffic stop," said Dillon Mach, a sheriff's deputy in
Custer County, Okla., who regularly patrols Interstate 40, a major
east-west freeway stretching across the country. "They'll drive to
Colorado, they'll pick it (marijuana) up, and they'll drive back to
where they're from, whether that be Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri or Arkansas."

Traffickers are also flying the drug across state borders, former
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers told The Gazette.

"I can't talk details, but there's some cases in the pipeline that I
think will come to fruition in the next month or so that will
indicate just how much marijuana is going straight out of grow
operations in Colorado to regional airports and being flown to other
states," he said.

Then there's the black-market marijuana that stays in Colorado - much
of it falling into the hands of the very people legalization
proponents said regulation would protect: youths. Marijuana use among
Colorado adolescents is among the highest in the country, the state's
public schools are reporting record numbers of marijuana-related
problems, and healthcare providers say diversion of the drug from
legal recreational and medical buyers to underage users is common.
One study conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado
found that about 74 percent of teens reported using marijuana they
had obtained from a medical-marijuana license holder.

[sidebar]

Day 2: Marijuana and crime

Proponents of Amendment 64 said legalizing recreational sales and use
of marijuana would stifle the black market in Colorado. That is not
the case; crime statistics indicate we have more to learn about the
long-term effects of legal pot on public safety and other concerns.

Data indicate there is new black market trafficking across the
country as a result of legalized pot sales in Colorado. Other safety
concerns surrounding concentrates and their manufacture are
consequences of legalization that were never anticipated.

About the series

After the first year of recreational pot sales, The Gazette takes a
comprehensive look at the unintended consequences of legalizing sales
and use of recreational marijuana.

Day 1: Colorado has a fragile scheme for regulating legal marijuana
and implementing a state drug prevention strategy.

Day 2: One of the suppositions about legalizing pot was that
underground sales would be curtailed, but officials say there is
evidence of a thriving black market.

Day 3: One teen's struggle to overcome his marijuana addiction shows
how devastating the drug can be for younger, more vulnerable users.
And employers face new workplace issues.

Day 4: Amid the hoopla about recreational marijuana sales, the
medical marijuana industry is flourishing and has its own set of
complicated concerns.

RECENT BUSTS

Last year, about 148,000 pounds of marijuana were sold in Colorado's
regulated retail shops and medical dispensaries, along with 4.8
million edible products, according to a recent report by Colorado's
Marijuana Enforcement Division. How much was sold in the black market
is unknown, but some recent busts with Colorado ties have been big:

In November, three people - two from Summit County and a third from
New Mexico - were arrested in Tennessee after investigators found
them with 425 pounds of what the Metropolitan Nashville Police
Department called "high-grade marijuana from Colorado" valued at $1.7
million, along with nearly $355,000 and 17 cellphones.

In January, two men from the metro Denver area were arrested after a
routine traffic stop in South Carolina and found with 168 pounds of
marijuana with a street value of around $900,000. The marijuana was
believed destined for Charlotte, N.C., according to news reports.

In January, Pueblo police responded to a UPS facility after being
alerted to a suspicious package. Inside: $58,000 of high-grade pot
and $5,000 worth of marijuana edibles bound for San Angelo, Texas.
Police say 23-year-old Johnny Wolfe was trying to ship the package to
his home in San Angelo; he was later arrested by authorities in his
home city and extradited to Pueblo to face charges.

Earlier this month, brothers Gideon Barker, 19, and Seth Rhoades, 21,
of Wisconsin were charged with drug conspiracy after police
investigated a 45-pound marijuana bust. Police say Barker paid
drivers to travel to Colorado to pick up large quantities of
marijuana and take it to Wisconsin. Authorities found more marijuana,
cash, drug paraphernalia, marijuana edibles and a document titled
"Dos and Don'ts When Making a Run to Colorado" at Barker and Rhoades' home.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Mar 2015
Source: China Post, The (Taiwan)
Copyright: 2015 The China Post.
Contact: webeditor@mail.chinapost.com.tw
Website: http://www.chinapost.com.tw
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2840
Author: Joshua Goodman

COLOMBIA DRUG DEBATE REVIVED AS WORLD-POPULAR HERBICIDE DEEMED
CARCINOGEN BY CANCER AGENCY

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The new labeling of the world's most-popular
weed killer as a likely cause of cancer is raising more questions for
an aerial spraying program in Colombia that is the cornerstone of the
U.S.-backed war on drugs.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based
research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), has reclassified
the herbicide glyphosate as a result of what it said is convincing
evidence the chemical produces cancer in lab animals and more limited
findings it causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans.

The ruling on Thursday is likely to send shockwaves around the globe,
where the glyphosate-containing herbicide Roundup is a mainstay of
industrial agriculture.

In Colombia, there is an added political dimension stemming from the
fierce debate that has raged over a program that has sprayed more
than 4 million acres of land in the past two decades to kill coca
plants, whose leaves are used to produce cocaine.

The fumigation program, which is financed by the U.S. and partly
carried out by American contractors, has long been an irritant to
Colombia's left, which likens it to the U.S. military's use of the
Agent Orange herbicide during the Vietnam War. Ending Colombia's
spraying program has also been a demand of leftist rebels negotiating
with the government on an accord to end the country's half-century
armed conflict.

Daniel Mejia, a Bogota-based economist who is chairman of an expert
panel advising the Colombian government on its drug strategy, said
the new report is by far the most authoritative and could end up
burying the fumigation program.

"Nobody can accuse the WHO of being ideologically biased," Mejia
said, noting that questions already had been raised about the
effectiveness of the spraying strategy and its potential health
risks. A paper he published last year, based on a study of medical
records between 2003 and 2007, found a higher incidence of skin
problems and miscarriages in districts targeted by aerial spraying.

But Mejia cautioned that while he favors ending aerial spraying,
there hasn't been a consensus for that move on the advisory panel he leads.

Mejia's concerns were echoed by Colombia's ombudsman office, which
said it would request the suspension of the spraying program if the
WHO results are convincing.

The U.S. government, which has seen American pilots shot down on the
drug flights, says damage to the environment and health risks from
production of cocaine far outweigh the adverse effects of aerial
eradication. It's a position Colombia shares.

"Without a doubt this reopens the debate on fumigation and causes us
to worry," Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria told The Associated
Press on Saturday. "But these are interests here that transcend" science.

Monsanto and other manufacturers of glyphosate-containing products
strongly rejected the new WHO ruling, pointing to a U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency ruling from 2012 determining the
herbicide is safe.

Colombia has already been scaling back fumigation in favor of manual
eradication efforts amid mounting criticism spraying generates
ill-will among farmers that the state is trying to protect from armed groups.

Aerial spraying last year was around 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres),
down from a peak of 172,000 hectares (425,000 acres) in 2006. And
even opponents of the program say the government has made strides
improving safety, such as not spraying in strong winds to avoid
chemical drift and installing GPS devices on fumigation planes so
farmers' claims of injury can be promptly investigated.

In 2013, Colombia agreed to pay Ecuador US$15 million to settle a
lawsuit over economic and human damage tied to spraying along the
countries' border.

Gen. Ricardo Restrepo, head of the anti-narcotics police, said that
he had not yet seen WHO's new warning and that the spraying program
is operating as usual.

"My job is to carry out the strategy," he said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom