Debby Moore, AKA The Hemp Lady, CEO of Hemp Industries of Kansas, host "Cannabis Corner" Tuesday's 8:00 PM CDT on http://www.BaconRock.com. Debby Moore is acknowledged as a High Times Publication Freedom Fighter, and archived in the National Registry of Who's Who in America.

April 4, 2015 - Kirbys B. Store's event The Mad Kings // Darjeeling // The Heavy Figs // Somber Arrows. 17th & Hillside, south of WSU – see Facebook page for “The Mad Kings”

CANNABIS CORNER – TRANSCRIPTS: March 31, 2015 Hosted by Debby Moore AKA Hemp Lady on http://www.BaconRock.com – Tuesday 8:00 PM CST
Debby Moore is CEO & Director of Research for Hemp Industries of Kansas
xxx
Program Sponsors:
Healthy, beautiful skin food: Les Balm - Restoring & Repairing Tissue Cells on Micro-cellar level. Available online at: http://www.lesbalm.com – questions – free sample -- lesbalmchic@gmail.com
Green Art Rocks - Available at: http://www.Green Art Rocks.com
Art Studio located at Karma Konnections Boutique – 1123 E. Douglas, Wichita, Kansas (Gorilla on roof of building to the east of KK Boutique.) Karma Konnections also sells Les Balm in .05 oz Trial Twist Tube, 2 oz Jar or Tin, & 2.65 oz. Twist Tube.
xxx
CURRENT EVENTS
Fire It Up Kansas – Annual 420 party – Topeka – April 18, 19, 2015 – More information on the “Fire It Up Kansas – Facebook Fan Page.
xxx
Global Million Man Marijuana March – May 2, 2015 – Riverside Park – 11:30 to 1:30 – Bring your own sign & Smile. Exact location is on bridges between Keeper of the Plains & Tennis Courts.
xxx
Tips of the week:
From Marc Emery: The future of dabbing?! ROSIN is the result of a bud (shown here) being pressed under very high heat ( a woman's hair straightener, a flatiron, in the photo) the I had a dab of the result on an electric Dabinator electric nail in a Mothership piece. One small bud when squeezed produced one serious dab, but amazing results were produced from good hash, several dabs. So the next step after heat squeezing the ROSIN, I dabbed out on the ....
ROSIN, the new thing in dabbing? Currently $100 a gram for two kinds of exquisite ROSIN at EdenMedicalSociety?, I was curious about what it was and how it gets you high. Here's what I learned from the BCBubbleman and his cronies on Monday at the Secret Cup (Hash & Extracts Competition):
You use a hair straightener, they are called flatirons, you set it for 230F and squeeze tightly the bud or hash (in thin cloth) between parchment paper for ten seconds, the hash less time I would think. When we squeezed ROSIN out of good hash, it produced a very impressive amount of oil compared to bud. I mean, thats normal, since good hash is 5 - 10 times more potent by weight compared to bud, but its visually impressive when you squeeze a gram of hash under heat on to parchment paper. The parchment paper is perfect, you can very easily and completely collect all the ROSIN with a simple scraper off the parchment paper at any time, and it would produce several dabs versus one very good dab from a 1/2 gram nug (likely two dabs from a decent one gram nug). Here I am hitting a dab of bud extract I had squeezed, and then a dab of Bubbleman's hash when made into squeezed ROSIN on a Mothership Taurus.
xxx
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Authors: Pula Davis, Wayne Laugesen, Christine Tatum
Series: Special report, 'Clearing the Haze:'

MEDICAL MARIJUANA INDUSTRY STILL GROWING IN COLORADO

Colorado made headlines worldwide when recreational marijuana went on sale to the public in January 2014.

News organizations descended on the Centennial State to document, and hype, the advent of legalized retail pot.

The act of applying for and opening a retail pot business became reality-TV drama. MSNBC filmed a six-part documentary titled "Pot Barons of Colorado." There was great anticipation, and long lines, as pot shops opened for business, and a multimillion-dollar industry was born overnight.

By early February 2015, 334 retail shops were selling pot to the public, based on state Department of Revenue data.

And amid all the hoopla around legalized recreational pot, its older cousin, the medical marijuana (MMJ) industry - with 505 stores throughout Colorado - quietly continued to grow, adding patients by the thousands who seemingly had no problem finding physicians willing
to diagnose what critics say are often phantom medical conditions.
Statewide, the number of people on the Medical Marijuana Registry
grew 4 percent in 2014 - the first year of legal recreational sales -
from 111,030 to 115,467 by year's end.

El Paso County was no exception. Although retail pot sales were
banned in Colorado Springs, that didn't dampen the local demand for
marijuana - or its availability. The number of El Paso County
residents on Colorado's Medical marijuana registry grew

17.3 percent - from 15,328 in January to 17,986 in December. And
those people have plenty of places to shop. City records show there
are 91 licenses for medical dispensaries in Colorado Springs - one
for roughly every 4,900 residents. Sales of medical pot in the city
last year were up 11 percent over 2013 - from $53.7 million to $59.6
million - according to Gazette calculations based on tax collections.

Shoppers look for bargains

The rise in the MMJ registry roll likely comes down to personal
finances. Medical marijuana is subject to fewer taxes than its retail
counterpart. When it comes to pot, Coloradans have proved themselves
cost-conscious. A pot purchase at El Paso County's lone recreational
shop in Manitou Springs is subject to 24.03 percent in taxes - and
that doesn't include a 15 percent excise fee collected by the state.
The same purchase at a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado
Springs would be taxed at 7.63 percent.

The cost disparity may explain why tax collections from recreational
pot sales statewide haven't produced the windfall originally projected.

In a blog post by the Colorado Fiscal Institute titled "Half a mile
high: Coloradans not buying as much pot as expected," the institute
noted: "Coloradans are consuming about half as much retail marijuana
as state economists predicted before voters approved special taxes on
recreational pot in 2013, and many state residents have instead stuck
to using medical marijuana, taxed at a significantly lower rate."

Some MMJ stores even advertise their price advantage over retail
shops. A sign at a store on West Colorado Avenue, for instance, touts
"$ave Money! Become a MMJ patient!"

Critics say the data raise questions about pot's role in medicine and
the legitimacy of the medical marijuana industry. Consider Arizona,
which tracks daily sales of medical marijuana. Sales are highest on
Fridays - just in time for the weekend. Wondering which days over the
past few months were most popular for MMJ sales? New Year's Eve and
the Friday before the Super Bowl, according to the Arizona Medical
Marijuana Program.

Twenty-three states have some sort of medical marijuana program, but
regulations vary widely. Minnesota, for instance, will have just
eight medical marijuana dispensaries statewide when its program
launches in July, and patients will receive medical cannabis only in
a liquid, pill or vaporized form. New York's program also only allows
nonsmokable marijuana.

Colorado lawmakers intend to address medical marijuana this
legislative session. Among the issues expected to get attention: the
oversight of caregivers - those designated by medical marijuana
patients to grow pot for them and doctors who approve patients for
the registry.

Some say the number of patients on the state's Medical Marijuana
Registry far exceeds the number of people who have legitimate need
for the plant. Ninety-three percent of medical marijuana patients in
Colorado cite "severe pain" as their reason for using the drug and
are smoking "medicine" with names like "Armageddon," "Willie Nelson"
and "Green Crack."

Dr. Richard Zane, head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the
University of Colorado Hospital, summed up the MMJ industry in
Colorado this way:

"It is not statistically mathematically possible that this one
substance could possibly be effective for all the things that it has
been listed for - and for the number of people in Colorado who have
medical marijuana cards to have an indication for a disease for which
a singular medicine is indicated and works. It's a medical
epidemiological statistical impossibility."

Even so, the state seemingly has made getting on the registry more
attractive; it lowered the application fee to $15, down from $35 in
2014 and $90 in 2012.

History of Amendment 20

In November 2000, Colorado voters approved Amendment 20, allowing
doctors to recommend marijuana for people suffering certain
debilitating conditions. The vote was 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent.

But the industry didn't really take off until after October 2009,
when U.S. Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden issued a memorandum
stating it wasn't prudent to use federal resources to go after MMJ
patients and caregivers who were in "clear and unambiguous compliance
with existing state laws."

His memo said, in part: "The prosecution of significant traffickers
of illegal drugs, including marijuana, and the disruption of illegal
drug manufacturing and trafficking networks continues to be a core
priority in the department's efforts against narcotics and dangerous
drugs. As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not
focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions
are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws
providing for the medical use of marijuana."

This was the green light financiers needed to open medical marijuana
businesses without fear of prosecution - and applications for
Colorado's medical registry exploded.

In January 2009, for example, just 5,051 Coloradans were on the
medical marijuana registry - including 568 people from El Paso County
and 65 from Teller County, according to data from the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment, which was charged with
implementing and administering the MMJ registry.

The registry numbers in El Paso and Teller counties spiked to 2,947
and 300, respectively, by the end of 2009.

Today, MMJ shops in Colorado Springs are about as common as
traditional drugstores. There are 98 pharmacies in the city and 91
licenses to sell medical marijuana. And dispensaries aren't the
city's only marijuana businesses. Colorado Springs has issued 242
medical marijuana business licenses that also include grow operations
and infused-product manufacturers, some just a stone's throw from
residential neighborhoods.

Jason Warf, executive director of the Southern Colorado Cannabis
Council, came to Colorado for marijuana.

"Honestly, I moved out here to be more legitimate as a cannabis
patient," he said. "People stick with their red cards because they're
sick and they need it as medicine. Individuals need this as medicine.
For patients, it's not about recreating. It's about treating what our
issues are."

Warf said he became a cannabis patient after a failed back surgery
left him disabled.

"The red card numbers are up slightly, but there are some factors to
take into account. We still have a huge influx of sick people coming
to Colorado (for treatment)," he said. "And now since it's legal, it
opens the door for more people to be comfortable becoming cannabis patients."

Warf worries that bills set to be introduced in the Legislature will
chip away at the industry.

"In the last three years at the Capitol, what I've seen is really a
push to essentially do away with medical. This is nothing more than a
money grab. Obviously patients don't pay nearly the tax on medicine
that consumers on the recreational side do."

Kevin Sabet, co-founder of Project SAM (Smart Approaches to
Marijuana), which advocates for public health-based marijuana policy,
believes there are components of marijuana that may have medicinal
benefits but they concern only a small fraction of the industry.

"Look, I think the concept of medical marijuana is a political fraud
and most businesses involved with medical marijuana are a sham," said
Sabet, who got top billing in Rolling Stone's list of people deemed
the biggest threats to pot legalization. "However, that does not mean
there is not medical utility we can derive from the marijuana plant.

"We have early evidence about CBD, which could be helpful with muscle
spasticity - if you're suffering from MS or epilepsy," Sabet said,
referring to cannabidiol, a component in marijuana that does not
produce a high. "These things should be further explored and that
research should be promoted.

"But medicine should be approved by the FDA and gotten at a pharmacy
with your doctor's prescription. The way it has panned out in the
last 20 years is that this has become a political movement designed
to essentially get anyone stoned who wants to. It's a political sham
because most people who have medical cards ... the vast majority of
them are just to serve their own recreational pot interests."

Sabet believes voters were duped by medical marijuana proponents into
approving Amendment 20. Only 4 percent of cardholders in Colorado
report using marijuana for HIV/AIDS or cancer, he said.

"But people vote for it and they want it because that's who they
think it's going to," he said.

"The legalization movement - they wanted to change the face of
marijuana from the 1970s stoner to the 80-year-old with cancer. They
did it very effectively. What that has done has unfortunately impeded
the development of proper marijuana-based medications," Sabet said.

A Colorado Springs physician who specializes in pain medicine and is
a member of the Colorado Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory also
believes marijuana may have a medicinal use but said its sales and
use are problematic.

"You can theoretically fill your trunk with medical marijuana
products in one day - there's no system to track that," Dr. Kenneth Finn said.

"You know the definition of a caregiver?" he added. "Anyone who's
over 18 years of age and has a pulse."

"Patients are free to self-medicate with a 10 percent THC bud or 90
percent hash oil," Finn said. "They can eat, smoke and vape all day
without any control.

"To be honest with you, I think that the industry has created a huge
disservice for the people who might actually benefit from it. ... I
think it's important that the terminally ill are not part of the
debate, nor do I have issues with the pediatric population and the
nonpsychoactive cannabinoids to treat pediatric seizure disorders," Finn said.

"But I think it's very important that cannabis as medicine needs to
be studied just like any medication should be studied."

Studies about possible medicinal benefits of marijuana are about to
get underway. The state's Board of Health approved spending

$9 million to research marijuana's impact on several conditions,
including PTSD, Parkinson's and childhood epilepsy.

Not everyone was thrilled by the news, including pot advocates who
argued against funding the studies with the registration fees paid by
those on the registry; the group said such funding is an
unconstitutional use of the money.

The Journal of the American Medical Association weighed in on the
importance of marijuana research in its December issue, noting:
"Patients with some seizure disorders may benefit from the
cannabidiol component in marijuana, and several clinical trials will
soon enroll patients." It also noted: "However, it is unlikely that
marijuana is effective for the wide range of health problems approved
under Colorado law."

Getting the card

According to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, more
than 800 doctors have signed a certification form the state requires
for a person to apply to the marijuana registry.

Dr. Larry Wolk, executive director and chief medical officer of the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said the
majority of those doctors have each made just a handful of
recommendations. But some physicians raise red flags - either by the
sheer number of MMJ recommendations they are making or because they
are making recommendations out of the scope of their expertise.

"Some things that don't make sense - an OB/GYN who's making hundreds
of recommendations for male patients," Wolk said as an example, or a
pediatrician making recommendations to adults.

"Just in the past year alone we've referred 16 physicians for
investigation," Wolk said.

In December, one physician admitted to writing recommendations to
more than 7,000 patients - many whom he didn't personally see or
evaluate. Dr. Lenny Sujdak pre-signed the Medical Marijuana Registry
application forms and delegated the evaluations to mid-level
practitioners. Documents from the state's Department of Regulatory
Agencies show his license to practice was placed on probation for
five years. He is banned from performing any more marijuana
evaluations and he was ordered to complete a course titled "The
Opioid Crisis: Guidelines and Tools for Improving Chronic Pain Management."

It's unclear how many physicians have been sanctioned for similar infractions.

"We don't track discipline by that specificity," said Cory Everett,
director of strategic and external affairs for the Department of
Regulatory Agencies, which maintains licensing and disciplinary
records of physicians. "We track it by the statutory violation."

In order to make a medical marijuana recommendation, physicians are
required to have a "bona fide" relationship with a patient.

"For us, it's ensuring physicians are acting responsibly," Wolk said.
"They have to have a bona fide physician-patient relationship, which
requires an ongoing relationship with a patient - not coming in once
a year and not receiving all of the necessary components of a doctor
visit including a history and physical exam and appropriate
laboratory testing. You would expect to see at least that much if
it's truly a bona fide physician-patient relationship.

"I believe there are physicians who do have bona fide
patient-physician relationships who are earnestly and honestly making
recommendations based on their knowledge of medical marijuana and
their relationships with patients."

Former Colorado Attorney General John Suthers told The Gazette that
Colorado's laws "have driven the adolescent perception of risk into
the ground."

Based on 2012 data from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area, nearly 27 percent of Coloradans ages 18 to 25
reported using marijuana in the prior month - the third-highest
percentage in the nation behind Vermont and Rhode Island, which also
allow medical marijuana.

Although retail sales are banned in Colorado Springs, the city ranked
No. 2 nationwide for pot use in a Movoto Real Estate Blog, behind
only Denver. The blog cited dispensaries per capita, number of
residents with medical marijuana cards and head shops per capita
among the criteria for its analysis.

If the numbers, anecdotes and experts' opinions are indicators of how
hard it is to regulate medical marijuana, Colorado certainly has work
ahead as it attempts to regulate the recreational pot industry.

"What will be the impact of Amendment 64 on Colorado and other
states? Only time will tell," reads an excerpt from HIDTA's 153-page
August report titled "The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado."
"The five-year experience with medical marijuana in Colorado may be
indicative of what to expect."

Does marijuana or some of its components have medicinal benefit?
Early evidence indicates it may, but research is needed.

Suthers said the medical marijuana industry is "pretty much a joke."

"I think there's probably 2 percent of patients who have legitimate
debilitating medical conditions. The surprise to me - I thought that
with legalization the vast majority of these young people who are
lying to their doctor about their chronic back pain would want to go
legit. But that hasn't happened. Apparently the market is a lot more
price-sensitive than I thought it was."

[sidebar]

El Paso County Medical Society policy statement on marijuana use

Evidence exists that may indicate the possibility of certain
medicinal benefits from select components of the cannabis plant. A
growing body of evidence also indicates negative physiological,
psychological, developmental, and cognitive health effects associated
with cannabis use. Until clinical research meeting rigorous
scientific standards can be performed, EPCMS, in line with the
policies of the American Medical Association and the Colorado Medical
Society, believes:

The recreational use of marijuana should be discouraged in adults and
prohibited in children and adolescents;

The medicinal use of marijuana should take place only within the
context of an established physician-patient relationship, under
medical supervision, based upon scientifically valid clinical
research, and for specified medical conditions;

Additional research meeting the rigorous standards of pharmaceutical
research should be conducted to determine any risks and benefits.

Day 4: MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Medical marijuana sales in Colorado exploded after October 2009 as
the result of a federal memorandum stating that resources likely
would not be used to prosecute people involved in the business, which
remains illegal under federal law. Gazette research confirmed the
medical marijuana market continues to grow as the result of porous
regulation and a favorable price differential versus retail marijuana
sales. The issue is big and complex and may derail legitimate efforts
to conduct research on parts of the marijuana plant that could
produce new, clinically proven medicines.

About the series

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

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.

Business comparison

The Colorado Springs City Council voted to ban retail marijuana
stores in the city. However, there are dozens of medical marijuana
dispensaries in town and other marijuana-related businesses. There
are dispensaries in every region of the city, with clusters in some
neighborhoods (see map, facing page).

For a comparison, The Gazette looked up licenses of pharmacies and
liquor stores within the city:

91 medical marijuana center licenses

98 pharmacies

107 retail liquor stores
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 25 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:'

COST MAY BE BIGGEST HURDLE TO RED CARD

Critics of Colorado's medical marijuana program say it's a fraud
starting with the application process to get a red card, which allows
a person to buy and use marijuana.

Is getting on the state's Medical Marijuana Registry as easy as
everyone says? The Gazette decided to see what the process involves.

Applying for a red card was a little more involved than buying cold
medicine containing pseudoephedrine, but not much. The requirement of
a doctor's examination and approval, for example, was as simple as
having a quick cup of coffee with a stranger.

It took $95 and 46 minutes - maybe five of those with the doctor - to
get a recommendation to use medical marijuana. No stethoscope, no
blood pressure reading, no checking of the pulse.

Making an appointment was easy: Google "how to get a red card in
Colorado Springs" to find local clinics, sign up online and you'll
get a phone call and a text within minutes to confirm an appointment.

Don't have any medical records? Shouldn't be a problem. Applicants
need only bring an ID, a $15 money order for the state application
fee and $80 cash to cover the appointment and notary services. All
application paperwork is on-site.

The waiting room in one Colorado Springs MMJ clinic was packed with
men and women, from 20-somethings to senior citizens, on a recent
afternoon. One man worried he wouldn't qualify but was quickly
assured he should see the doctor to be sure. Office staff members
were polite, professional and efficient.

Upon arrival, patients were asked for a driver's license, which was
photocopied and returned, and given a clipboard with a sheet from the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment titled "Medical
Marijuana Registry - Application for Registration Card."
Instructions: Fill out lines 1 through 12 only, which consists of the
usual personal data - name, address, date of birth. "Line 8 says
County, Not Country," each person was instructed. "Please put El Paso."

Two other sheets required signatures, one detailing health privacy laws.

Our diagnosis after explaining our symptoms: severe pain. Advice: Try
eating a very small amount of an edibles cookie before bed. With
that, the physician paperwork was signed.

Next step: Hand over $80. A packet was put together with everything
necessary for a red card, including a notarized copy of the
application, a driver's license copy, the $15 money order and the
physician certification sheet, and placed in an addressed envelope to
the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Final instructions: Send the envelope certified mail and keep the
receipt. Apparently some dispensaries accept the receipt and a copy
of the paperwork as a temporary red card.

[sidebar]

Local Red Card Holders

The number of people on the Medical Marijuana Registry has jumped in
El Paso and Teller counties: Year        El Paso Teller Dec. 31,
2014 17,986   936 Dec. 31, 2013 15,320   855 Dec. 31, 2012
14,888   922 Dec. 31, 2011 10,408   737 Dec. 31, 2010* 12,173   949
Dec. 31, 2009 2,947   300

* First year after federal memorandum

Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Day 4: MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Contact the Gazette:

Email: ClearingtheHaze@gazette.com Call: 719.636.0291

About the series

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

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.

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 25 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:'

NO APPROVED 'MEDICINE' IN MARIJUANA

Dr. Stuart Gitlow, a physician serving as president of the American
Society of Addiction Medicine, does not mince words: "There is no
such thing at this point as medical marijuana," he said. It's a point
he has made routinely for the past decade, as advocates for marijuana
legalization have claimed the drug treats an array of serious
illnesses, or the symptoms of illnesses, including cancer,
depression, epilepsy, glaucoma and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Backing up Gitlow are the National Institute on Drug Abuse and
practically every major medical association in the United States,
including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Academy of
Pediatrics, which recently reaffirmed its stance. Cannabis in its
various forms is an addictive drug that is especially dangerous to
the developing brain - a linchpin the country's largest medical
groups give for opposing its legalization.

NIDA details specific reasons why the cannabis plant is "an unlikely
medication candidate" - whether smoked as marijuana or consumed in
the form of hash oil or "wax." The organization argues:

The plant contains numerous chemicals with unknown health effects.

It is too variable to be considered medicine, which requires all
ingredients to be specified so the product can be reproduced
consistently. In other words, there's no way to guarantee a plant
produced and processed in northern Colorado yields the same, or even
similar, treatment as one produced and processed in another part of
the state, much less in a different region of the country.

It is typically consumed by smoking, further contributing to
potential adverse effects.

It has cognitive and motor-impairing effects, which may limit its utility.

At the same time, medical experts say it is important to distinguish
between the whole marijuana plant - which is sold in dispensaries
without U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval or oversight and
has been shown to have more carcinogenic compounds than tobacco when
combusted - and isolated ingredients of the plant. Those ingredients
can and be researched and developed into nonsmoked medications that
actually work and do not subject users to unreasonable risks of
addiction and communities to greater public-safety risks, medical
experts and marijuana legalization opponents say. They point to
medications that have received FDA approval, such as dronabinol,
which is man-made THC, or are being developed under the agency's
supervision. The FDA is monitoring Sativex, an oral spray made from
cannabis for the treatment of neuropathic pain related to cancer and
spasticity related to multiple sclerosis, and Epidiolex, also derived
from cannabis, for the treatment of intractable epilepsy.

Since 2007, the National Institutes of Health has awarded more than
$14 million for research of components of cannabis and whether they
could be used to treat several diseases and conditions, including
chronic pain, brain damage, Crohn's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

"Could we and should we speed up research? Absolutely, and let's make
sure we push for the funding that allows qualified and highly skilled
scientists to do that work, free from the influence of politicians
and the marijuana industry," said Kevin Sabet, a former senior White
House drug policy adviser who co-founded Smart Approaches to
Marijuana, a nonprofit, marijuana policy reform group whose science
advisers, including Gitlow, are among the world's most respected
addiction researchers and treatment specialists. "We do not have to
legalize marijuana and trigger massive problems for public health and
safety to conduct this science."

State policies sanctioning marijuana for medical use are undermining
the integrity and safety of the country's medicine approval process,
the world's safest and most respected, said David Murray, a senior
fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he co-directs the Center for
Substance Abuse Policy Research. He formerly served as chief
scientist and associate deputy director of the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

"With marijuana, we are seeing medicine created by popular vote and
political pressure, both of which undermine the safety and efficacy
of the U.S. medical supply," he said. "No matter where anyone stands
on marijuana, do we really want to allow the subversion of this
process and the integrity of medical approval? The cost of doing so
would be greater than I think we can imagine now."

[sidebar]

Day 4: MEDICAL MARIJUANA

About the series

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

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: Tue, 24 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:'

TEEN: COLORADO VOTERS WERE DUPED INTO LEGALIZING RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA

Nineteen-year-old Kaleb is 41 days and seven hours sober when he sits
down for a long conversation about his marijuana addiction.

Two more months, his treatment providers tell him, and he'll likely
be able to deliver his first clean drug test in many years showing no
presence of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that produces a
euphoric high and can affect the mind and body for weeks after use -
especially if you're like Kaleb, who was getting high every day along
with about 6 percent of American high school seniors. This according
to the federally funded Monitoring the Future, one of the United
States' most extensive and longest-running surveys of students' drug
use and attitudes toward substances.

By his own admission, Kaleb, who is days away from his 20th birthday,
has spent practically all of his teen years stoned, or "blazed." He
is still coming out of a mental and physical haze - and also coming
to terms with the problems that stacked up for him when he checked
out of life to pursue recreation of the chemically induced kind.

He's regaining clarity and focus - and a sense of ambition he says he
hasn't felt in years.

It is a different kind of ambition than the one that drove him to
manipulate everyone around him to score his next hit. With an easy
smile - but determined brown eyes that family and friends say are
finally clear again - Kaleb says he wants a fresh start and to be
fully present in his life and community. He doesn't want credit for
merely showing up - which is how he sums up his graduation from Sand
Creek High in 2013 with a 1.8 GPA. Kaleb wants a college degree and a
career. He wants to repair strained relationships.

And when he's healthy and confident enough, Kaleb also wants to work
to stop the United States' burgeoning marijuana industry and to
reverse what he calls "clueless and dangerous" cannabis laws. Kaleb's
story suggests a state at risk of triggering a public health crisis
that will hit youths especially hard because they are caught in a lot
of the same social dynamics Kaleb said he found in his high school's cafeteria.

"It's [marijuana industry] all so misleading, and there's a lot of
trickery going on because there are big money and politics in this
and not enough people standing up to do the right thing because
they're afraid of losing something - like money, power, privilege or
image," Kaleb said. "I compare it to Big Tobacco and bogus 1950s ads
pushing everyone to smoke cigarettes - you know, as an expression of
personal freedom and with a mythical 9 out of 10 doctors saying it's
all right. Only this time, it's not just a buzz from some nicotine
we're talking about. Weed is a psychoactive, mind-altering substance.
It is addictive. And I don't care what anyone says; it is being
marketed to kids."

Advocates for drug abuse prevention say many Americans - including
and especially those making public policy and influencing public
opinion from massive media platforms - either have been duped by or
are caught up in the hype generated by an industry that derives its
chief profits from addiction.

"People are voting without the knowledge," Dr. Nora Volkow, director
of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told hundreds of people
gathered in February 2014 in Washington, D.C., for an annual meeting
of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. "We have to counter
investments of individuals wanting to change the culture and (promote
beliefs that) it (marijuana) is a safe drug."

And while no, most people who use marijuana - and alcohol for that
matter - aren't addicts, Kaleb says, "You just have to be
intoxicated, not an addict, to cause serious damage. And yeah,
getting sober in Colorado is really hard because drugs and media
telling you why they're so great are everywhere all the time now."

Indeed, while the state reports that about 485,000 Coloradans 18 and
older are regular marijuana users (defined as using at least once a
month), state auditors examining marijuana sold in state-licensed
facilities found that about 106,000 Coloradans - or nearly 2 percent
of the state's population - drove more than two-thirds of demand for
the drug. Reports from the Colorado Department of Revenue refer to
those people as the "heaviest users" because they consume cannabis
daily or near daily - behavior consistent with substance addiction.

"We're mortgaging our future for the almighty dollar," said Kevin
Sabet, a former senior White House drug policy adviser who teamed
with former Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy and political pundit
David Frum to start Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a national,
nonprofit group that advocates for marijuana policy reform but does
not support the drug's legalization. "Make no mistake," Sabet said.
"Legalization is about cranking up the number of heavy users,
targeting the most vulnerable - as every industry selling an
addictive drug does - and making money. That's it. If it were about
getting people out of prison or increasing science-based prevention,
there are myriad ways to do those things without ushering in Big Tobacco 2.0."

In December, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health delivered
more troubling news reinforcing the cacophony of late-night jokes
that Colorado has a drug problem and plenty of enablers. Pick a
substance - alcohol, abused prescription painkillers, cocaine,
heroin, marijuana or tobacco - and the state ranks above the national average.

But it is marijuana use that Colorado works hardest on these days.
The need to explain spiking drug-use rates while implementing
legalization of retail marijuana sales is increasingly pressing: The
state's 2013 past-month marijuana use rate was the nation's second
highest, coming in at 12.7 percent of Coloradans age 12 and older.
That is up from 10.41 percent in 2012, when voters sanctioned
recreational marijuana use, and from 7.8 percent in 2000, when they
sanctioned marijuana for medical use. With the January 2014 rollout
of retail marijuana, Colorado usage rates are likely to increase.

Use of alcohol and nonmedical painkillers also increased in Colorado
between 2012 and 2013. While marijuana legalization's impact on the
consumption of other drugs is the subject of heated debate among
economists and drug-policy advocates, the connection is much more
straightforward for Kaleb.

"The weed, not alcohol or tobacco, came first, and the more I used,
the more I drank, and the more pills I eventually popped," he said.
"That (progression) doesn't happen to everyone who uses weed, but it
happens to enough of us. It's a gateway."

The trends in marijuana use and addiction specifically among
Colorado's youths are also disturbing - if for no other reason than
the state has kept poor data and now finds itself building a baseline
by which marijuana's impact on youth can be determined.

The 2013 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, administered to youths
enrolled in public schools, is the state's most robust evaluation of
students' marijuana use and attitudes about the drug, said Alyson
Shupe, chief of the health statistics and evaluation branch of the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Comparing the
2013 state-survey data to the much smaller samples collected from
students in previous years for a federally funded study released by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is difficult. "The
actual percentages aren't affected so much as the confidence with
which you can say you have a clear picture of what has happened and
can detect meaningful change over that time," Shupe said. The state
now wishes to press on with a more robust survey, but it will be
years before researchers can determine use trends - a lag in
information that could keep a response years behind any problems.

While Kaleb blames himself for getting high the first time, he also
recognizes that he was a 14-year-old who believed his friend's
parents when they said marijuana wasn't addictive and was safer to
use than alcohol. The couple had medical marijuana cards and diverted
their stash to their son and his friends, Kaleb said.

His experience is consistent with research conducted by Dr. Christian
Thurstone, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of
Colorado, and his colleagues: 74 percent of Denver teens in substance
treatment and 18 percent of Denver teens not in substance treatment
reported getting the drug from people with a state-issued license.
(Thurstone is the husband of reporter Christine Tatum, who worked on
this project for The Gazette.)

When he turned 18, Kaleb wasted no time getting a "red card" - and
dealing the drug. He found plenty of customers at schools. Of the 2.4
million Americans who try cannabis for the first time each year,
about 57 percent are younger than 18, according to the NSDUH. Peak
use among Americans is at age 20 - followed by ages 19 and 18. One of
every six adolescents who try marijuana becomes addicted to the drug
- a rate medical experts say was determined decades ago when
marijuana was far less potent than it is today.

To land the state's permission to use weed, Kaleb said he headed to a
Colorado Springs business that sold medical marijuana evaluations for
$65. He fabricated a story about hurting his knee while playing
football at school - a sport he'd never played at school. The doctor
Kaleb briefly met diagnosed him with tendinitis and recommended what
essentially became an unlimited supply of marijuana, hash oil and
THC-infused foods and drinks.

By then, Kaleb knew where to find coupons and special offers of pot
freebies and paraphernalia in the free glossy magazines that were
always stacked in local convenience stores.

Though the state permits medical marijuana users to designate only
one "caregiver," or supplier of the drug, Kaleb said he maintained
"memberships" at 12-15 dispensaries at a time.

Fueled by constant buy-2-grams-get-1-free specials, Kaleb quickly
amassed a cannabis stash. Each day he dealt to other kids, he said,
he typically cleared $1,083 in profit - much of which fed his own
drug habit, which had advanced from smoking marijuana to consuming
hash oil. The oil, which can be vaporized or infused into foods and
drinks, typically starts at 85 percent THC. That's about 40 times the
potency of the weed of Woodstock, which was around 2 percent THC.
Even 1 ounce of the oil can impair hundreds of people. Kaleb said he
consumed hash oil five to eight times a day just to feel normal.

"It's the crack of marijuana," he said.

Use of hash oil is a relatively new and increasingly popular trend
that can cause severe reactions, such as panic and psychosis,
Thurstone said. Kaleb said he saw those reactions in friends.

Kaleb's newfound drive to take a stand against cannabis in all its
forms is fueled in part by anger he says he's determined to channel
to spare other people - especially youths - the problems he
experienced. His use of hash oil really did him in, he said - but not
so much that he didn't notice the adults in his life who essentially
shrugged their shoulders about his marijuana use.

There were the traffic stops, when waves of pungent pot smoke
billowed from his car and into the faces of police officers who said
nothing when Kaleb produced his red card. There were the teachers who
winked and joked about how he'd obviously "had a really nice lunch"
when he returned to their classrooms so stoned he'd just put his head
on his desk. There were the parents of friends who liked toking with
high schoolers.

And then there were Kaleb's parents, who, after years of pleading and
efforts to find him treatment, finally asked him to leave their home
a couple of months before his high school graduation. Chief among
their fears was that he would be a harmful influence on his younger brother.

"That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life, but I
know it's what had to be done to save his life and to protect the
rest of our family," said Lisa Taylor, Kaleb's mother. "What really
gets me about this entire issue is that our country is rushing to
legalize a drug under the guise of helping the very sick and the
dying and the ruse that everyone agrees kids have no business using
marijuana. But the truth is that we're just clearing the way for more
kids to become addicts."

About a year after being forced to strike out on his own, Kaleb
decided to fight for his sobriety.

"I was losing my family and losing my motivation," he said. "I was
seeing people a lot older than me using weed and working in the same
low-level jobs as me and being perfectly content. I just saw where my
future was heading, and it scared me. I texted my mom for help."

[sidebar]

Day 3: YOUTHFUL ADDICTION

Protecting our children was a priority as the public headed to the
polls to vote on Amendment 64. The most recent research on adolescent
brain development and related addiction studies indicates this is
more important than ever thought before. Adolescent exposure to
marijuana is most troubling because young users are more vulnerable
to addiction throughout their lives. Post-legalization trends in
Colorado raise concerns because regulation has fallen short of the
promises made by the state. The increasing rate of pot use also is a
concern of employers.

About the series

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

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.

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 24 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:'

CONCERNS OVER ADOLESCENTS' USE

Much of the latest brain development science conducted around the
world shares this bottom line: Adolescent substance use is harmful
and a bigger deal than researchers previously thought.

"Parents don't have to accept teen drug use or the notion that drug
use is just a part of growing up," said Dr. Christian Thurstone, an
associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado, who
also serves as medical director of one of Colorado's largest
adolescent substance abuse treatment programs.

Thurstone said many companies selling addictive drugs - including
alcohol, marijuana and tobacco - are staffed with executives and
researchers who know what he does about the science: The best way to
develop the lifelong customers who guarantee business survival and
boost profits is to hook people when they are young because that is
when the brain is especially vulnerable to developing addiction. Most
adults who struggle with addiction started their drug use as
adolescents, he said.

Consider internal statements - publicized during the country's
tobacco lawsuit settlements - that informed tobacco companies'
advertising and business-development efforts:

From Lorillard in 1970: "We have been asked by our client group to
come up with a package design ... a design that is attractive to kids
. While this cigarette is geared to the youth market, no attempt
(obvious) can be made to encourage persons under 21 to smoke. The
package design should be geared to attract the youthful eye ... not
the ever watchful eye of the federal government."

From R.J. Reynolds in 1973: "Realistically, if our company is to
survive and prosper, over the long term we must get our share of the
youth market."

From Brown & Williamson in 1980: "The studies ... of young smokers'
attitudes towards 'addiction' ... contain multiple references to how
very young smokers at first believe they cannot become addicted, only
to later discover, to their regret, that they are."

Companies offer the drug in familiar candy shapes and bright colors,
promoted using fashion labels, media and events popular with youths.
In doing so, they follow Big Tobacco's playbook, said Bob Doyle,
executive director of the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance.

"Marijuana is shaping up to be Big Tobacco 2.0," Doyle said. "Only
this time, the consequences stand to be even worse."

Among the findings about pot use during adolescence:

Heavy use of the drug starting in adolescence predicts up to an
8-point drop in IQ from age 13 to age 38, according to research
published in 2012 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study findings suggest the drop in IQ is permanent and
dose-dependent - meaning the more marijuana used, the greater the drop in IQ.

Adolescent exposure to marijuana doubles the risk of developing
psychosis in adulthood - which includes seeing and hearing things
that aren't there and maintaining fixed, false beliefs not shared by
the larger community, according to research published in Lancet in
2009. This finding first was reported in 1988 and has been replicated
at least five times with studies controlling for dozens of possible,
confounding variables - and all yielding similar results.

Adolescent exposure to marijuana predicts a doubling in the odds of
having an anxiety disorder in adulthood, according to research
published in 2013 in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction.

Adolescents who use marijuana are at least twice as likely to go on
to use other substances, compared with those who do not use the drug,
according to research published in Addiction.

Science has shown for many years that the brain achieves its maximum
size and weight at about age 6. What researchers didn't know until
the start of the 21st century is that the brain fully matures around
the age of 25.

During adolescence, the brain changes rapidly. While under this
important construction, it is especially vulnerable to harm from
substance use, said Thurstone, who directs the medical training of
physicians completing fellowships in addiction psychiatry at CU. To
underscore how easily teens become addicted to substances, he
provides a quick rundown of peer-reviewed research published in
respected medical journals:

One in six people younger than 18 who try marijuana becomes addicted
to it - compared with one in 11 adults. These rates were calculated
decades ago, when marijuana was much less potent.

It's the sequence of brain development that makes adolescents more
vulnerable to addiction than adults. The reward circuit matures in
early adolescence. But the part of the brain that helps us plan,
organize and contemplate consequences develops in the mid-20s.

"So for about 12 years, kids are biologically off to the races with
fully functioning gas pedals and no brakes," Thurstone said. "The
imbalance could be a good thing if it encourages teens and young
adults to take some risks - such as leaving home and finding a mate -
but it presents big challenges that should underscore for all of us
that adolescents are not merely little adults and that the ages of 18
and 21 aren't somehow going to make drug use all right."

[sidebar]

Day 3: YOUTHFUL ADDICTION

Contact the Gazette:

Email: ClearingtheHaze@gazette.com Call: 719.636.0291

About the series

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

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.

BABIES, CHILDREN AT RISK

In January, a group of Colorado Springs pediatricians had an unusual
topic on the agenda for one of their monthly meetings: Breastfeeding
and babies who test positive for THC.

"When that hits the agenda, it's clearly important," said Dr. Darvi
Rahaman, a pediatrician at Peak Vista. "There's so many, so many good
things about breastfeeding and its positive effects. When a child is
born, we and the nursing staff promote breastfeeding. The question is
what happens when we know Mom was positive on a THC screen? Do you
recommend you breastfeed or not? What do you do?"

Rahaman, a pediatrician of nearly 20 years, said the concentration of
THC in breast milk is several times higher than in the mother's blood
and "there are very few studies about end results of children who are
breastfeeding to moms who are consistently using."

Rahaman said that although his colleagues report seeing more and more
THC-positive infants, determining the number of babies born positive
has been difficult because there is no specific code for a
marijuana-exposed baby - only a general code for illicit drugs.
"We're trying to figure out how to track this," he said.

"I think most people were a little frustrated that this was even a
discussion. But then there's the realization that this is happening
so we should have a consistent way to approach this. I think one
thing for sure is that we haven't come up with a final approach in Colorado."

Guidance may be coming: The Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment plans to release a document this month for physicians to
use in talking with pregnant or breastfeeding women.

But doctors and hospitals in Colorado report seeing more people of
all ages testing positive for marijuana - from tots to teens to
20-somethings and older.

In 2009, Children's Hospital Colorado reported two marijuana
ingestions among children younger than 12. In the first six months of
2014, there were 12, according to a report by the Rocky Mountain High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

"Our children's hospital is seeing a significant number of
admissions," said Dr. Richard Zane, professor and chairman of
emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

"The problem that's really come into fruition is this issue of
marijuana looking just like childhood candy," he said of edibles made
to look like lollipops and gummies. "For the first time ever, we have
enough concentrated marijuana in one edible product where it's
sufficiently strong enough to cause a child to stop breathing. There
have been children admitted to the ICU with respiratory support."

Dr. Kenneth Finn, a pain medicine specialist in Colorado Springs, is
studying emergency room data locally from Penrose-St. Francis hospitals.

"The preliminary data is somewhat frightening," Finn said. "If you're
looking at the unintended consequences of Amendment 64, you're
looking at a much broader acceptance of use and safety. My
perspective is a public health perspective."

The number of urine drug screens positive for marijuana only in
patients younger than 18 more than tripled from 2009 to 2013, going
from 30 to 101, he said. Among all ages at the time, the number of
positives went from 355 to 1,090.

[sidebar]

Day 3: YOUTHFUL ADDICTION

About the series

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

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.

PARENTS, SCHOOLS SAY MORE YOUTHS USING POT

Employers aren't the only ones drug testing these days. Parents are
springing tests on their kids, who are smoking more marijuana since
legalization. The owner of two labs in Colorado Springs reports
seeing large increases in such tests.

Amy Mullins, who owns two Any Lab Test Now franchises, says the
number of drug tests conducted at her location near Chapel Hills Mall
was up more than 22 percent in 2014 over the prior year. It was even
higher at her south-side location: Testing was up 45 percent.

"I thought 22.4 percent was insanely high," she said after running
the numbers for The Gazette.

While the company offers everything from DNA to thyroid panels,
Mullins said it's not uncommon to receive multiple phone calls a day
from moms and dads about marijuana.

"We have had an uptick for sure in parental testing. We're seeing a
lot more parents bring their kids in for marijuana testing,
especially because lines have been blurred with the legalization of
recreational marijuana. I think kids think they can get away with it
because they are hearing in the news the word 'legalization.' "

Terra Runyan, medical assistant supervisor at the north branch, said
she typically sees 10 teens a day - most of them surprised when they
figure out where they are.

"A parent will walk in and the children don't know they're being
tested. They just picked them up from school and took them straight
here." Some, she said, save their parents the $49 testing fee and
confess to using marijuana.

The increase comes in the aftermath of surveys that show teens have a
decreasing perception that marijuana is harmful.

The 2014 Monitoring the Future survey, released by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, showed marijuana use "steady among
eighth-graders at 6.5 percent, 10th-graders at 16.6 percent and
12th-graders at 21.2 percent. Close to 6 percent of 12th-graders
report daily use of marijuana.

"However, the majority of high school seniors do not think occasional
marijuana smoking is harmful, with only 16.4 percent saying
occasional use puts the user at great risk, compared to 27.4 percent
five years ago," according to the survey.

In addition, a June 2014 survey of 100 Colorado school resource
officers conducted by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area found that:

89 percent of officers saw an increase in marijuana-related incidents
since recreational marijuana was legalized.

The most common on-campus violation was possession, followed by being
under the influence and then by possession of edibles.

Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey said school resource
officers are being "inundated" with issues regarding vape pens.

"I'm worried about how it's affecting our kids, our expulsion rates
and suspensions," Carey said.

It's too early to tell how marijuana is affecting schools in the
Pikes Peak region. District 11 reports that through mid-January of
this academic year, 102 students were suspended or expelled for
incidents related to marijuana. In all of 2013-14, there were 184
suspensions/expulsions.

A Gazette analysis shows that overall, local school districts
recorded 602 drug violations in 2013-14, up 12 percent from the
previous year. That's higher than the state average increase of 7.4
percent. Statewide, drug incidents reported by all public high
schools hit a decade high last school year of 5,377.

While local middle schools had the highest percentage increase (24
percent), high schools in the region had the most violations last
year - 469. That's an increase of 8.3 percent. Statewide, high school
violation numbers were flat.

[sidebar]

Day 3: YOUTHFUL ADDICTION

About the series

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

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.

DRUG USE A PROBLEM FOR EMPLOYERS

Two families with deep Colorado roots - the Johnsons of Colorado
Springs and the Haseldens of Centennial - have built rival commercial
construction companies, each employing hundreds of people and
reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. In
business, they are practically sworn enemies.

But there is at least one issue where the Haseldens and the Johnsons
are in agreement and encourage key members of their staffs to
collaborate: construction safety. It is of paramount importance, and
all of their employees must be drug-free.

"I'll get straight to the bottom line," said Rick Reubelt, Haselden
Construction's director of environmental health and safety. "If
you're in the construction industry, marijuana use is not acceptable
at any time, under any circumstance or condition."

"He couldn't have said it better," said Jim Johnson, GE Johnson's
chief executive officer. "We endorse that stance, and this is one
thing we absolutely unite on."

Company hires out of state

Johnson said his company has encountered so many job candidates who
have failed pre-employment drug tests because of their THC use that
it is actively recruiting construction workers from other states.

The dwindling candidate pool especially affected GE Johnson during
its trumpeted, $57 million renovation of the luxurious Broadmoor
hotel's West Tower in late 2013. The company had such a tough time
staffing required shifts that Johnson said his team decided to
abandon local job-recruitment efforts, pay current workers plenty of
overtime wages and look outside Colorado for drug-free employees.

"This is a very troublesome issue for our industry, but I do not see
us bending or lowering our hiring standards," Johnson said. "Our
workplaces are too dangerous and too dynamic to tolerate drug use.
And marijuana? In many ways, this is worse than alcohol. I'm still in
shock at how we (Colorado) voted. Everyone was asleep at the wheel."

Since Colorado's 2009 boom in medical marijuana dispensaries and 2012
vote sanctioning the psychoactive drug's recreational use, many of
the state's employers have had to confront marijuana's growing impact
on their budgets, operations and staffing.

So far, the prevailing interpretations of Colorado's state amendments
sanctioning marijuana use have sided with the rights of employers to
terminate employees who use the drug even if their use is off the
clock and premises and/or part of a healthcare regimen.

Marijuana-using workers are challenging those restrictions, claiming
their employers have no right to regulate what they do during their
free time. Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not
approved THC as a safe and effective drug for any condition,
employees are using arguments of medical necessity against employers
who don't tolerate marijuana use.

Hard to test lingering effect

Legal skirmishes also center on employee drug testing.
Marijuana-using workers and lawyers representing the marijuana
industry argue that a positive test showing low levels of THC does
not meet the burden for proving impairment on the job. Unlike
alcohol, marijuana can remain in a user's system for weeks. A heavy
user who stops using can test positive for the next 60 days or more.

Therein lies a dilemma for workplace safety professionals like
Reubelt. An employee who drinks over the weekend can be sober and
safe to work on Monday. In the event of a workplace incident, it is
relatively easy to determine whether alcohol was a factor.

Not so with marijuana. If an employee tests positive for low levels
of THC, Reubelt said, it is nearly impossible to rule out impairment
as a cause.

The company maintains a 100-vehicle fleet that travels the Rocky
Mountain region, and Reubelt said he must be able to determine
whether drivers are working under the influence.

"I don't think it's right to expect employers to deal with
ticking-time-bomb situations like these," Reubelt said. "The science
is not available to show exactly how someone is affected by the
marijuana they've used . . . marijuana isn't voided from the body
like alcohol... ."

Reubelt also worries about employees easily concealing their use of
THC. A powerful concentration of the drug can be infused into
brownies, cookies, candies and other food products that can be openly
consumed without raising a red flag.

Reubelt said it's all a threat to the bottom line. If an employee
causes injury or death and then tests positive for THC, he believes
the employer will pay.

"It'll be a company owner long before it's an individual employee," he said.

While numbers show marijuana use is on the rise in Colorado, the
state has not reported the drug's impact on dynamics important to
employers, such as absenteeism, accidents and worker's compensation claims.

However, the number of workers nationwide who tested positive for
marijuana jumped 6.2 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to the
Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index. And the number of positive
tests was dramatically higher among workers in Colorado (up 20
percent) and Washington state (up 23 percent). It was the first
national spike in positive drug test rates recorded in 10 years - and
one attributed largely to the use of marijuana and amphetamines.

Substance-abusing workers are more costly for companies than their
drug-free colleagues.

A U.S. Postal Service study found that absenteeism is 66 percent
higher among substance-abusing workers. The U.S. Department of Labor
cites multiple studies showing higher use of health benefits among
substance-abusing employees. It also found lower turnover among
companies with substance abuse programs that include drug testing.

Small business especially hurt

Small businesses bear the brunt of workplace drug problems, the
Department of Labor reports.

"I see it all the time," said Jo McGuire, a Colorado Springs-based
consultant who helps employers promote and maintain drug-free work
environments and serves on the national board of the Drug and Alcohol
Testing Industry Association.

"Small businesses often feel as if they don't have the money to
conduct regular, random drug testing programs, and they're willing to
gamble that they won't need them," McGuire said. "But they really do
need them because they're losing a lot more productivity and wasting
far many more resources than they often realize. And if an accident
happens, they're likely to be financially destroyed."

Even without data from the state, Leona Wellener, owner of Front
Range Staffing in Colorado Springs, said marijuana use has
compromised the state's workforce. In February, Wellener said, more
than half the applicants who came to her company looking for work
failed the required drug tests because of THC use.

Wellener said she's also seeing more people trying to cheat drug
tests by passing off substances that are not their urine. Her firm
has started asking people to take drug tests soon after walking in
the company's door for the first time.

"I'm not wasting my time and money or my clients' time and money on
people who use marijuana," she said. "If you can't pass a drug test
right away, then we don't even want to interview you."

Chuck Marting, owner of Fort Morgan-based Colorado Mobile Drug
Testing, urges his clients - and all Colorado business owners - to
adopt clearly defined rules like Wellener's and apply them consistently.

Doing so, he explained, can preclude charges of discrimination. In
the event of a workplace accident, evidence of clearly communicated
and consistently enforced drug policies and testing could help
employers defend themselves and mitigate financial damages, he said.

Marting also urges employers to avoid the misperception that everyone
is using marijuana. He points to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use
and Health, which shows that a minority of American workers report
illicit drug use.

"It's obviously not everyone, but those numbers will grow if
employers don't set firm limits and stick to them," said Marting, who
worked in law enforcement as a drug recognition expert for 17 years.

Marting said employees who do not use drugs urged one of his clients
to begin administering drug tests. They were concerned about
continual "screw-ups" by stoned co-workers.

"All of this is going to catch up with Colorado - and our country,"
Marting said.

[sidebar]

Day 3: YOUTHFUL ADDICTION

About the series

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

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.

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:'

LEGALIZATION DIDN'T UNCLOG PRISONS

Of all the misunderstandings about marijuana's impact on the country,
perhaps none is greater than the belief that America's courts,
prisons and jails are clogged with people whose only offense was
marijuana use. This is the perception, but statistics show few
inmates are behind bars strictly for marijuana-related offenses, and
legalization of the drug will do little to affect America's growing
incarceration numbers.

"It's this myth that won't go away and gets repeated by people who
should know better. Unfortunately, no one reads public records," said
Ernie Martinez, Denver-based at-large director for the National
Narcotics Officers Association Coalition. "But the truth is there -
and it looks a lot different than the story pushed by
marijuana-legalization advocates and amplified in news media."

Leaders of the country's biggest groups pushing for and against
marijuana legalization surprisingly stand on a lot of common ground.

Both camps say they do not want people jailed only for drug use
and/or possession of small amounts consistent with personal use. They
also agree with what public records show: Nationwide, racial and
ethnic minorities are arrested and convicted at higher rates than
whites across many criminal categories, including drug possession and use.

Both camps also favor law enforcement strategies that streamline
low-level drug offenders into drug courts and treatment programs.
They push for reforms of the criminal justice system that would give
judges more flexibility in sentencing in specific, lower-level,
nonviolent cases.

Similarly, advocates on both sides of the legalization debate say
they want to see legal reforms that could help remove the stigmas
that may prevent low-level drug offenders with personal-use
convictions from having housing, jobs and scholarships that help them
lead productive and healthy lives.

Where the factions sharply disagree is on the question of whether
marijuana legalization is needed to accomplish any of those goals.

"Marijuana legalization isn't required to reform problematic laws,
and it's not the answer to our prison problems, and it certainly
won't end racism where it exists in the legal system," said Kevin
Sabet, a former senior White House drug policy adviser who co-founded
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a nonprofit organization advocating
for reform of marijuana laws without legalizing the addictive drug.

"Legalization is really about creating a heavily commercialized Big
Tobacco 2.0 that lets people make a lot of money from the sale of
another addictive drug that we have every reason to believe will
disproportionately harm poor people who don't have the resources to
overcome the problems of substance abuse and addiction," Sabet said.
"We've already seen this with alcohol and tobacco."

Data needed to track impact

Martinez, the law enforcement officer who has been appointed to serve
on local and state committees tasked with examining and implementing
marijuana laws, said law enforcement agencies throughout the state
are only now beginning to gather the marijuana-centric data they need
to track the drug's impact on their resources.

In the meantime, his more than three decades of professional
experience - and those public records he would like more people to
review - tell him very few people are arrested and/or imprisoned only
for marijuana possession and/or use.

"Our courts and prisons are actually filled with people who committed
serious crimes while under a drug's influence or while they were in
possession of very large amounts of a drug with the intent to sell it
in circumstances associated with violence and/or firearms," he said.
"If anything, we need to conduct more research on how marijuana use
contributes to criminal behavior."

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2004 - eight years
before Colorado voters cited the reduction of prison populations as a
chief reason for their 2012 vote to legalize recreational marijuana:

One-tenth of 1 percent of people in state prisons were serving
sentences for first-time marijuana possession. Those people also may
have concurrent sentencing for other offenses.

Three-tenths of 1 percent of people in state prisons were serving
time for marijuana possession with prior criminal offenses. They,
too, may have concurrent sentencing for other offenses.

1.4 percent of people in state corrections were imprisoned for
offenses involving only marijuana-related crimes.

Those national numbers are consistent with a report released by the
Colorado Drug Investigators Association. In 2010, only 1 percent of
court commitments to prison in Colorado involved marijuana charges.
There were more court commitments to prison for traffic-related
offenses (185) than for all marijuana offenses (91) that year, the
association reported, citing a review of Colorado Department of
Corrections records.

Casual users not targeted

In 2011, the U.S. Sentencing Commission issued reports also
suggesting that low-level drug users are not the targets of law
enforcement nationwide:

That year, there were 216,362 inmates in the federal system. Among
them were 6,961 marijuana offenders, only 103 of whom were imprisoned
for simple possession - the result of plea bargains in which
prisoners pleaded down to possession in exchange for lesser sentences.

The federal government convicted only 48 marijuana offenders who
possessed less than 5,000 grams of marijuana. The average amount
possessed was 3,800 grams - the equivalent of about 9,000 joints, or
marijuana cigarettes.

Though people generally are not jailed for marijuana use, the
nation's criminal justice system is flooded with possession charges.
In 2011, the FBI reported that law enforcement agencies across the
country made about 800,000 "arrests" for marijuana possession - but
there are two major caveats Martinez and Sabet say often are not reported:

Though a charge might be recorded as an "arrest," most localities
across the U.S. treat marijuana possession much like a parking or
speeding ticket. Many users are not actually arrested or taken to
jail. But a possession conviction can harm someone unnecessarily for
years, Sabet said.

"That is why we should advocate for laws that do not discriminate
against those with records for small-time marijuana possession only -
for instance, for getting college loans, public housing or other
benefits," he said. "We don't have good data on the number of people
affected by a criminal record tarnished only with marijuana
possession arrests, but the number is not trivial."

Possession charges are typically levied in conjunction with charges
for more serious crimes, usually trafficking, and often the result of
plea bargaining down from more serious charges.

"In other words, many times, the system has done a lot of these
people a favor by letting them plea only to possession," Martinez said.

In 2008, Martinez coordinated a committee appointed by then-Denver
Mayor John Hickenlooper to examine all marijuana-possession summonses
the Denver Police Department issued that year. The review of 1,368
summonses, conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado
Denver's School of Public Affairs, found:

The typical offender was a white male, representing 46.3 percent of
the total sample. African American males followed at 33.9 percent,
Hispanic males at 18.3 percent and Asian males at 1.5 percent.

The most common reason for contact between an alleged offender and a
police officer was a traffic stop, cited in 32 percent of cases.
Suspicion of other criminal activity was the second most common
reason police cited for stopping someone, recorded in 22 percent of cases.

In cases where locations were noted on a summons, marijuana
possession citations were issued in a public setting 83.6 percent of
the time, compared with 14 percent issued at a private home -
typically residences where officers had been summoned for help.

Use high among offenders

Sabet and Martinez say they also stand against legalization because
it would increase use of an addictive drug prevalent among people
caught up in the criminal justice system.

"Correlation is not causation, but I do not think we've looked
thoroughly enough at this association between criminal behavior and
marijuana use - which has increased since marijuana legalization in
Colorado," Martinez said.

Indeed, marijuana is the "drug most commonly admitted when ...
arrestees were asked about use in the prior 30 days," according to
the federal Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program's 2013 annual
report, the most recent data available. Consider:

In Denver, 53 percent of adult, male arrestees admitted marijuana use
in the 30 days before their arrest.

Of male arrestees tracked by the program, those in Denver reported
the least difficulty buying marijuana, with 17 percent reporting a
"failed buy" in the previous 30 days.

Arrestees tracked in Atlanta and Chicago, where recreational
marijuana use is illegal, reported more difficulty obtaining the
drug, with 24 percent and 40 percent "failed buys," respectively.

The findings are consistent with a Colorado Department of Corrections
report released in 2011 - before the legalization of recreational
marijuana - that found 80 percent of court commitments to Colorado
prisons had a moderate to severe substance abuse problem.

[sidebar]

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

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

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.

POTENCY CREATING PROBLEMS

Marijuana isn't just for smokers - especially under the law
established by Colorado's Amendment 64.

The state constitutional amendment that legalized the drug's
recreational use permits possession of up to 1 ounce of
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient that produces a
euphoric high.

Many people think only in terms of the raw plant material that is
dried and smoked and called marijuana. They envision an ounce of
dried marijuana plant in a small bag or container - a form that
yields about 40 standard cigarettes.

They do not consider THC in concentrated and highly potent forms
known as hash oil and wax, typically sold at potency levels between
80 percent and 90 percent THC. At that concentration, these products
are a far cry from the weed smoked at Woodstock that was around 2 percent THC.

THC concentrates are sprayed on and infused into foods and drinks
called edibles. They are also loaded into electronic cigarettes,
where the concentrate heats and is vaporized by the user for a
faster, more intense high. Users talk about "waxing," "dabbing" and "vaping."

One ounce of concentrated THC is the chemical equivalent of more than
2,800 average-size servings of edibles such as brownies or candy (the
state has determined that an edibles serving size is 10 mg).
Researchers say vaping one hit of THC is the equivalent of 1/20th of
a gram. That means 1 ounce of hash oil is the rough equivalent of 560
standard hits.

[sidebar]

About the series

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

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.

TOUGH TASK FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

The legalization of marijuana has forced police officers to violate
federal law, say a group of sheriffs who are suing Colorado over the
drug. It has dramatically affected the officers who have to patrol
the streets - delivering them a new set of complex problems.

"It's legal, man, why are you hassling us?"

It's a phrase Barry Rizk, a Colorado Springs police officer assigned
to the downtown area, has heard frequently.

People think because pot is legal they can smoke in the open.

From January through October last year, police in the downtown area
wrote 24 tickets for pot smoking in public; citywide through Dec. 28,
the number was 52.

Rizk has all kinds of stories associated with marijuana.

"I've had people driving by smoking it. I remember it was super hot
one day, and I had my windows rolled up (with the air conditioning)
and I'm in my patrol car and I'm on Tejon and a guy honks his horn at
me and tells me to roll my window down. He's driving by in his
vehicle, smoking marijuana, sees me and has me roll my window down. I
ended up writing him a couple of tickets. I asked him 'what were you
thinking?' "

There was the guy from Texas who said he moved here for Colorado's
grow. Others for the "hot bud."

Then there were the four teens from Oklahoma who came here for pot.
"They basically drove around looking for it, and they found a dealer
with a red card who went to an MMJ dispensary and bought the pot. He
went in and bought it and came out and sold to them. We ticketed them
and identified the dealer and arrested him, who also had LSD.

"I've run into both transient and nontransient people who have moved
here because of medical marijuana and now because of the legalization
of marijuana. I can tell you personally, I'm sure you have noticed
this, too, but we smell it everywhere. Just everywhere," Rizk said
recently while on the job downtown.

Michael, a 58-year-old homeless man who did not want to give his last
name, agrees with Rizk that pot is prevalent.

"Pretty much everyone out here uses," he said on a recent warm day
while resting in Monument Valley Park. "It's a new game. Now it's
tough to get a cigarette. It used to be harder to get a buzz in this
park than it was to get a cigarette. Now the shoe is on the other
foot. It's tough to get a cigarette," he said.

"It seems like it's falling out of trees. I've found buds on the
ground. It invaded the entire culture of the town."

In Colorado, anyone 21 and older can possess up to an ounce of pot.
Medical marijuana cardholders get to have twice as much. Police Chief
Pete Carey has had to equip officers with the right tool for the laws.

"Aside from some training issues, I had to purchase scales for our
officers so they know exactly how much an ounce is when they stop
somebody," Carey said. He bought 100 of them.

"If it's 28 grams or less, they give it back," Carey said, citing the
equivalent of an ounce.

[sidebar]

About the series

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

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.

AUTHORITIES ALARMED OVER INCREASE IN HASH OIL EXPLOSIONS

It's known as wax, shatter, honey oil or, simply, BHO - butane hash oil.

Making it is legal in Colorado, but the process of extracting highly
potent hash oil from marijuana plants using butane is highly
dangerous. And it might be going on next door.

The number of hash oil explosions in Colorado nearly tripled in the
first year of the legalization of marijuana - 32 reported explosions
in 2014 versus 12 in 2013, according to data collected from the Rocky
Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program. And people
admitting themselves to the University of Colorado Hospital Burn Unit
went from one in 2011 to 10 in the first four months of 2014.

The increases were so alarming that Thornton police Sgt. Pat Long
took it upon himself to develop a training program to educate law
enforcement, firefighters and other first responders about the
process and the inherent dangers of extracting nearly pure THC from marijuana.

So far, about 2,500 people in eight states have attended the
training, including officers in the Pikes Peak region - one who cited
it in court records regarding an explosion in Manitou Springs in May:

"While approaching the residence I observed several windows to the
residence had been blown out and were lying on the ground," the
Manitou Springs officer wrote. "Visible from the outside is the
kitchen area. I observed the refrigerator door was broken off the
hinges. It appeared that something inside the refrigerator had
exploded and the contents were lying on the floor below."

Long said he first heard about hash oil extractions a little more
than a year ago, when Thornton police and firefighters responded to a
residential fire but didn't know the cause.

"There was no logical explanation of why a freezer would blow up," he
said of that incident.

"This whole hash oil stuff was so new - our department had no idea
about it, no training, so I actually talked with our fire department
and I started making phone calls to various fire agencies," he said.

"What I was learning is most law enforcement and fire agencies missed
their first one or two explosions before they knew what it was."

Now, Thornton has an ordinance prohibiting the use of any flammable
solvent in a hash oil extraction, and a similar ordinance may be
coming in Colorado Springs: City Fire Marshal Brett Lacey plans to
propose an ordinance that will ban extraction of marijuana hashish
oil in residences.

In addition to the case in Manitou Springs in May, news reports in
The Gazette also cite at least three other local incidents - one more
than a year ago when a man caused an explosion in an apartment on
East Pikes Peak Avenue, another when a man was arrested in March 2014
after an explosion on University Drive, and most recently, a home
fire in the Cragmoor neighborhood in late February.

The process of extracting hash oil involves forcing butane - a
volatile and explosive solvent - through a glass tube filled with
marijuana. What results is a highly potent THC stripped from the
plant. But something as simple as a spark or a pilot light - even
static electricity - can trigger an explosion.

"It's a process that's too dangerous for amateurs to undertake on
their own," said Sgt. Jeff Bredehoeft, training manager for the Rocky
Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. "They're not doing it
correctly and they're doing it hastily, and when you mix those two
things together, you're going to have problems."

[sidebar]

About the series

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

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.

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Mar 2015
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Copyright: 2015 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Author: William Clark

MEDICINAL OIL FOR THE PRINCE OF PEACE

Big business interests should not be allowed to outlaw home
cultivation. You cannot patent a plant, only the strains you have
created. If home cultivation is forbidden, the number of strains
available to patients and public alike will be limited to those that
enrich a few wealthy, greedy, morally unscrupulous people who favor
"limited prohibition" in order to line their own pockets.

Prohibition of marijuana is a premise built on a tissue of lies:
"Concern For Public Safety." Our new laws save hundreds of lives
every year, on our highways alone. In November of 2011 a study at the
University of Colorado found that, in the thirteen states that
decriminalized marijuana between 1990 and 2009, traffic fatalities
have dropped by nearly 0 percent - now nearly ten percent in Michigan
- while sales of beer went flat. No wonder Big Alcohol opposes it.

In 2012, a study released by 4AutoinsuranceQuote revealed that
marijuana users are safer drivers than non-marijuana users, as "the
only significant effect that marijuana has on operating a motor
vehicle is slower driving," which "is arguably a positive thing."
Despite occasional accidents, eagerly reported by police-blotter
"journalists" as "marijuana-related," a mix of substances were often
involved in such cases. Alcohol, most likely, and prescription drugs,
nicotine, caffeine, meth, cocaine, heroin - plus a trace of the
marijuana from a party last week. However, on the whole, as revealed
in big-time, insurance-industry stats, within the broad swath of
mature, experienced consumers, slower and more cautious driving shows
up in significant numbers. A recent federal study has reached the
same conclusion. And legalization should improve those numbers further.

No one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana. It's the most
benign "substance" in history. And most people - and particularly
patients who medicate with marijuana - use it in place of
prescription drugs or alcohol.

Marijuana has many benefits, most of which are under-reported or
never mentioned in American newspapers. Research at the University of
Saskatchewan indicates that, unlike alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and
Nancy ("Just say, 'No!'") Reagan's beloved nicotine, marijuana is a
neuro-protectant that actually encourages brain-cell growth. Research
in Spain (the Guzman study) and other countries has discovered that
it also has tumor-shrinking, anti-carcinogenic properties. These were
confirmed by the thirty-year Tashkin population study at UCLA.

Drugs are man-made and cooked up in labs for the sake of patents and
the profits gained by them - often useful, but typically burdened
with cautionary notes and lists of side effects as long as one's arm.

Marijuana is a medicinal herb, the most versatile in history.
"Cannabis" in Latin and "kaneh bosm" in the old Hebrew scrolls, quite
literally the Biblical Tree of Life, marijuana was used by early
Christians to treat everything from skin diseases to deep pain and
despair. The very name "Christ" translates as "the anointed one."
Well then, anointed with what? It's a fair question. And it wasn't
holy water, friends. Holy water came into wide use in the Middle
Ages. In Biblical times it was used by a few tribes of Greek pagans.
But Christ was neither Greek nor pagan.

Medicinal oil, for the Prince of Peace. A formula from the Biblical
era has been rediscovered. It specifies a strong dose of oil from
kaneh bosom, "the fragrant cane" of a dozen uses: ink, paper, rope,
nutrition. It was used for clothing on their backs and incense in
their temples. And a "skinful" of medicinal oil could certainly calm
one's nerves, imparting a sense of benevolence and connection with
all living things. No wonder that the "anointed one" could gain a
spark, an insight, a sense of the divine, and the confidence to
convey those feelings to friends and neighbors.

I am appalled at the number of "Christian" politicians, prosecutors,
and police who pose on church steps or kneeling in prayer on their
campaign trails, but cannot or will not face the scientific or the
historical truths about cannabis: Medicinal Herb Number One, safe and
effective for thousands of years, and celebrated by most of the
world's major religions.

William Clark, Rochester, Michigan
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 25 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

ALLGREENS BEATS THE IRS, NOCO HEMP EXPO KICKS-OFF AND MORE

Northern hemp party

At the second annual NoCo Hemp Expo 2015, people can expect to find
everything imaginable involving hemp: hemp CBD products, hemp
apparel, hemp food, Colorado Hemp Beer, a hemp movie room,
caricatures on hemp paper, over 30 expert speakers on topics about
hemp, and even a "hemp-bodied sports car." The event will be held
April 4 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Ranch Events Complex/Thomas M.
McKee Building in Loveland (5260 Arena Circle, nocohempexpo.com).
Tickets are anywhere from $15 to $100, with standard costs set for
$20 at the door.

Pot beats feds in court

The IRS has settled with Denver-based dispensary Allgreens, LLC for
$25,000. Last July, Allgreens sued the IRS over a tax penalty imposed
on companies that pay payroll taxes in cash. As Allgreens cannot
bank, and therefore cannot pay electronically, it felt the policy was unfair.

In February, the IRS told Allgreens the penalty would not be waived
just because Allgreens couldn't get a bank account. According to the
Denver Post on March 19, though, the IRS settled with Allgreens and
refunded $25,000 in paid fines. It's considered one of the first
legal victories by the marijuana industry over the federal government.

By settling, rather than letting the court set a precedent, the IRS
has not removed the penalty against cash businesses. It has agreed to
waive the penalty for Allgreens, but other marijuana businesses may
have to go to court to get out of similar penalties. That said,
Allgreens' attorney, Rachel Gillette, is cautiously optimistic. In an
interview with the Post, she said "Not applying [the penalty] to
other businesses uniformly would be as ludicrous as having applied it
in the first place."

What's in your weed?

A Denver laboratory named Charas Scientific made headlines on Monday
for its report at the annual meeting of the American Chemical
Society. "We've seen a big increase in marijuana potency compared to
where it was 20 or 30 years ago," said lab founder Andy LaFrate in a
video released by the Society. "I would say the average potency of
marijuana has probably increased by a factor of at least three. We're
looking at average potencies right now of around 20 percent THC."

Though THC concentrate in bud is often in the 20s, LaFrate says he's
even seeing percentages in the 30s. He also says he sometimes finds
marijuana covered in fungal spores, or featuring traces of heavy
metals. "It's a natural product. There's going to be microbial growth
on it no matter what you do," said LaFrate. "So the questions become:
What's a safe threshold? And which contaminants do we need to be
concerned about?"

- Additional reporting by Jess Agius and Griffin Swartzell
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 25 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

CHRISTIAN CHRONIC, KILLER POT, AND SOME SUING SHERIFFS

Passing the Dutchie to the Right This Time.

The idea of Higher Ground is to "elevate the dialogue," and thus it's
important to remain open-minded to individuals and organizations on
all sides of the marijuana-legalization conversation. With that in
mind, let's light the peace pipe and reach the roach across the aisle.

WHAT WOULD JESUS DOO-BIE? Strongly opposing marijuana legislation are
activists Alan Gordon and Anne Armstrong, who made headlines by
bum-rushing a press conference supporting a new state legalization
bill in Rhode Island. The duo aren't against the notion of legal
weed, but instead believe that taxing the plant is against the
teachings of the Bible, and Satanic. They take issue with the
language of the law, claiming medical use of cannabis (which they
believe is the Biblical plant called "kaneh-bos") outweighs any laws,
restrictions, or taxes.

" 'Marihuana' is a slang term popularized by William Randolph Hearst
in his 'yellow journalism' Reefer Madness-type propaganda," Armstrong
told Marijuana.com. "To pass laws about 'cannabis,' the plant
specified in the Bible as essential to the Holy Anointing Oil, as
'marijuana' is as offensive to me as would be a law referring to
'Equal Pay for Bimbos.' "

Gordon and Armstrong will be planting fields of the sacred herb in
National Parks this summer, and dedicating them to religious freedom.

Praise Sativas!

CHRONIC KILLS New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is claiming
that ganja is responsible for the murders, mayhem, and overall rise
in crime in the Big Apple for the first three months of this year.

"In this city, people are killing each other over marijuana more so
than anything we had to deal with in the '80s and '90s with heroin
and cocaine," Bratton stated. While murders in NYC have increased 17
percent from last year, whether pot is to blame is somewhat
questionable. The overall crime rate in New York City is actually
down: felony assaults have decreased 18 percent, robberies 22
percent, and crime on subways more than 25 percent.

Compare that to the largest cities that have legalized weed: In
Denver, homicides are down 24 percent, but in Seattle they've
soared-from 23 to 26. And the biggest fact-check of all: In 1990
there were 2,245 murders in New York. Last year? 383. While I'm
attempting to be objective, it seems as though the marijuana plant's
not killing anyone.

SHERIFFS SUE While the Evergreen State skates, for some reason
Colorado's getting picked on, and has already been sued by
neighboring states Nebraska and Oklahoma for its dope-smokin' ways.
Now a group of sheriffs from Kansas and Nebraska, and even inside
Colorado, are piling on, and also filing suit.

"When these Colorado Sheriffs encounter marijuana while performing
their duties," the new lawsuit states, "each is placed in the
position of having to choose between violating his oath to uphold the
U.S. Constitution and violating his oath to uphold the Colorado Constitution."

The reason sheriffs from Kansas and Nebraska submitted the initial
lawsuit had to do with the porous borders their states share with
Colorado. Apparently, it's too damn easy for Okies to mosey over to
Colorado, pick up that-there marihuana, and cruise back home with the
wacky weed to share with friends and family at the annual Toothless
BBQ. (Sorry, I'm really trying here, I swear.) In addition to
violating federal law, officers state, legalization in Colorado
jeopardizes the U.S.'s compliance with international anti-drug treaties.

As the sheriffs put it, departments are "suffering a direct and
significant detrimental impact, namely the diversion of limited
manpower and resources to arrest and process suspected and convicted
felons involved in the increased illegal marijuana trafficking or
transportation in their jurisdictions." Maybe they should consider
legalizing it.

Funded by the Florida-based Drug Free America Foundation, the suit
goes on to play the Kid Card! "As a result of Amendment 64-related
interdiction efforts," it mopes, "departments have been forced to
scale back on drug education and awareness programs in schools." That
hurts. (A related aside: Marijuana sales in Colorado since Jan. 1,
2014 have brought in $15.6 million in excise taxes specifically
earmarked and voter-approved solely for public schools, according to
the director of the office of capital construction for the state's
Education Department . . . just sayin'.)

LEGALIZE LETTUCE Finally, a pro-life, pro-gun, Tea-Partying Texas
Republican has a unique and simple take on the legalization matter:
Take every law that prohibits weed off the books. Representative
David Simpson of Longview said his bill would increase individual
liberties and decrease government control, bedrock values of the
conservative movement's libertarian wing.

"I think we're at a tipping point," Simpson said. "I think it's clear
the war on drugs has failed, that the war mentality has eroded
individual rights, the sanctity of one's home, the ability to travel
freely with dignity. And at the root of all this is prohibition."

The bill is as no-nonsense as the man behind it. Rather than add
flowery language about taxation and registration, House Bill 2165
simply regulates marijuana . . . as a plant.

"I'm hopeful that if this bill were to pass, we could see hemp
cultivated and used as ropes," noted Simpson. "We can see the
marijuana with differing levels of THC used medicinally. I think it's
the right thing to do. It's the conservative thing to do."

The bill allows folks to farm it and use it, like tomatoes, coffee,
and corn. Untaxed. Deregulated. Done and get 'er done.
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 25 Mar 2015
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/dMrjcrVG
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: Zaz Hollander

WASILLA PULLS BACK FROM TOUGH NEW MARIJUANA LAWS

WASILLA -- The "Smoothie Lady" can celebrate: Some of Alaska's
strictest municipal regulations on marijuana got rolled back Monday
night in light of concerns that they could violate state law.

The Wasilla City Council voted 4-2 to remove a local prohibition on
cooking marijuana edibles -- which includes everything from cannabis
butter to brownies to smoothies -- in a home kitchen within city limits.

The council also removed a 2-ounce limit on the amount of pot that
can legally be carried in one vehicle, a prohibition more rigorous
than the 1-ounce per person, six-plant limit in state law.

Medical marijuana cardholder Kathy Smith told the council she eases
the neuropathy from a brain cyst by throwing raw marijuana into her
blender along with whatever fruit she has handy.

Before the vote, the self-proclaimed "Smoothie Lady" urged a removal
of the manufacturing ban.

"It makes me feel like I'm ... a criminal in my own home because I'm
making myself a smoothie," she said.

The council did vote to ban manufacture for sale or commercial use,
as well as make extracts or concentrates using a "volatile or
explosive gas" -- a method that can lead to explosions.

The changes were proposed to remove sections believed to be in
conflict with state law or the Alaska Constitution, said Brandon
Wall, the council member who proposed the revisions, along with
Colleen Sullivan-Leonard.

"What somebody does in the privacy of their own home, we don't care
as long as they're not hurting anybody," Wall said, describing his
stance on the manufacturing change.

Council member Gretchen O'Barr said she heard from numerous medical
marijuana users concerned that the city's regulations were overly
harsh and blocked their self-treatment.

O'Barr said she supported removing the restriction on home-cooked
edibles and "it's kind of silly" that Alaska's law allows for medical
marijuana but doesn't provide for dispensaries.

She added, however, that she is not in favor of "large manufacturing"
marijuana operations coming to Wasilla. "I want manufacturing, but
not this kind."

Alaskans in November voted to legalize recreational marijuana, though
residents of Wasilla narrowly rejected the initiative. Lawmakers have
yet to enact retail and commercial regulations.

Wasilla voted in new regulations proposed by council member Stu
Graham at a meeting in late February. Graham on Monday called the
initiative process "so flawed it's almost unworkable."

But the day after Wasilla enacted its law, Wall said, he heard from a
state legislator and her staff in Juneau that the home manufacture
provision apparently violated constitutional protections against
vetoing an initiative within two years of its effective date.

Graham, participating by phone Monday, said the "constitution
provides for maximum local control" but there's not a lot of good
guidance when it comes to initiatives.

Wasilla's law still includes tough provisions, including one that
makes it illegal to smoke pot if it disturbs the neighbors.

Even the city's police chief, Gene Belden, told the council and a
small audience Monday that his officers don't plan to do more than
seize marijuana and write a report -- and even then, only if they
happen to find amounts or types that appear to violate local law.
Belden said the Palmer district attorney on Monday afternoon
explained how he'll be handling potential marijuana offenses: without
arrests or prosecution until the state clarifies its laws.

"As far as going into houses and stuff of that nature, we don't do
that," he said. "If we go in on another call and find some, then
we're going to snip and write a report."

The council on Monday voted down proposals to exempt caregivers and
alternate caregivers for medical marijuana users from manufacture
limits after the city attorney advised them that "alternate
caregiver" was a wide-open category without much legal definition.

Sullivan-Leonard pointed out that Alaska already has a medical
marijuana law in place.

Other proposed changes that failed Monday night: a sunset clause that
would have repealed the city regulations in November and a provision
allowing people "currently licensed by the state of Alaska to
transport marijuana in greater quantities" than state law now allows.

City attorney Richard Payne said the manufacturing limits would be
"problematic on enforcement" but so would the license proposal for
transport, since there's no such provision in state law yet.

After the council spent some time debating and deleting various
provisions, Graham suggested they start from scratch.

"It doesn't look anything like what it started off as," he said.

But Wall said the process worked just as he hoped it would.

"It was better to have a whole lot of ideas in here and trim what we
don't like instead of inventing something at the table," he said.

Graham and Clark Buswell voted against the new marijuana ordinance.
David Wilson, O'Barr, Sullivan-Leonard and Wall voted in favor.
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 23 Mar 2015
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact: letters@therecord.com
Website: http://www.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Murray Brewster
Page: A1

FEDS SPEND $4.3M ON MEDICINAL MARIJUANA FOR VETERANS

OTTAWA - The cost of providing medical marijuana to the country's
injured soldiers under a Veterans Affairs program jumped to more than
$4.3 million this fiscal year, an increase of 10 times what was spent
last year.

And the number of ex-soldiers eligible for taxpayer-funded,
prescribed pot more than quadrupled to 601 patients, according to
figures released by the department.

The numbers represent a dramatic escalation, even from last fall,
when former veterans minister Julian Fantino was told in a briefing
note that there were 224 approved cases.

There were 116 eligible veterans at the beginning of the last budget year.

In 2013-14, the government spent $417,000 on medical marijuana for
soldiers, said the briefing obtained by The Canadian Press under
access to information legislation.

The jaw-dropping increases may represent a conundrum for Health
Canada, which routinely warns against marijuana use, and the ruling
Conservatives. The Conservatives have ridiculed Liberal Leader Justin
Trudeau's campaign for overall legalization of marijuana.

In a statement, a Veterans Affairs spokesperson stood by the program,
pointing to government documents explaining that even though the
government does not want to see marijuana used as medicine, the
courts have ordered patients to have access to it if prescribed.

"Marijuana for medical purposes is not an approved drug or medicine
in Canada and Health Canada does not endorse or promote the use of
marijuana," said Janice Summerby in an email. "However, (Veterans
Affairs) will support eligible veterans by reimbursing the cost of
marijuana for medical purposes if their physician deems it is an
appropriate treatment for the veteran's health condition and
authorizes its use in accordance with Health Canada's regulations."

Throughout much of last year, there was a growing debate within the
veterans department about how much would be covered by the program,
introduced in 2008, and whether it should be capped or even cancelled outright.

Fantino, who has since been replaced by Erin O'Toole as minister, was
presented with four different options, including dropping the policy,
but retaining existing clients; or eliminating it altogether.

In a pamphlet sent to constituents last year, Fantino claimed Trudeau
wants to "make buying marijuana a normal, everyday activity for young
Canadians" and even charged that the Liberal leader wants to allow
the sale of pot in corner stores.

At the same time, Health Canada - which oversees the country's
burgeoning medical marijuana industry - is running ads saying: "The
science is clear. Marijuana use equals health risks."

Clayton Goodwin, a former reservist who was injured in the Far North
in 2004, said the mixed messages make it hard to get pot prescribed
by a doctor, even though medical marijuana has been legal since 2001.

"The personal stigma and shaming of an individual's choice of
medicine is something that needs to be addressed," said Goodwin, who
noted that a group run by an ex-combat engineer in New Brunswick -
Veterans Helping Veterans: Marijuana for Trauma Inc. - is helping
pair veterans with doctors who will prescribe marijuana.

He said many veterans with chronic pain, anxiety and post-traumatic
stress are choosing medicinal pot over pharmaceuticals for safety and
to get away from some of the side effects of prescription drugs.

Goodwin agreed that the price of anywhere between $9 and $15 per gram
was too high, but blamed the government.

"Right now, normal Canadians, never mind veterans, do not have enough
access from the licensed producers from the program that's been put
in place to supply us our medication because (the government) hasn't
licensed enough of them and they are taking on too many consumers,"
Goodwin said.

Cancelling or capping the program, especially in an election year,
could further anger an already incensed veterans community.

The debate at Veteran Affairs started last spring after Health Canada
introduced regulatory changes that limited its role to overseeing the
rules and licensing of private producers.

"There are no longer any health criteria to be met and fewer controls
over who can prescribe," said the Oct. 20, 2014 briefing note to Fantino.
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 24 Mar 2015
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: insight@orlandosentinel.com
Website: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.
Author: Joshua Goodman, Associated Press

HERBICIDE REKINDLES DEBATE ON DRUG WAR

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, 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 lymphoma in humans.

The ruling last week is likely to send shock waves 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
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,
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 halfcentury armed conflict.

Daniel Mejia, a Bogota-based economist who is chairman of a 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.

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.
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 24 Mar 2015
Source: Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY)
Copyright: 2015 Daily Freeman
Contact: letters@freemanonline.com
Website: http://www.dailyfreeman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3269
Author: Froma Harrop, Creators Syndicate

THE WAR AGAINST THE WAR ON DRUGS

Give thanks for the little things, they say. A bill that would stop
the feds from going after medical marijuana users in states that
permit such activity is something for which we should give thanks.
But it is little.

Let's not criticize the sponsoring senators - Rand Paul, R-Ky.,
Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cory Booker, DN.J. - for such a small
reprieve from the War on Drugs. They've probably gone about as far as
they could within the two-faced confines of our national politics.

If the measure becomes law, federal authorities could continue
harassing and arresting patients, dispensaries, cultivators and banks
serving the business in states that don't allow medical marijuana.

And what about Colorado, Washington and Oregon, states that have
legalized marijuana for recreational purposes? Their non-medical pot
users are still disobeying federal laws. The Obama administration is
pretty much leaving them alone, but that's just a matter of current
policy, Sean Dunagan, a former intelligence analyst at the federal
Drug Enforcement Agency, told me.

"That could change with a different administration, with a different
attorney general," he said.

Dunagan is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, former
law officers backing legalization of all drugs. They welcome such
halfhearted reforms, but argue that they do not break the violent
cartels that our drug laws keep in business. And they preserve our
two-tiered system of justice, which ruins the lives of little people
and lets the well-connected off the hook.

Speaking of which, Jeb Bush admits to having smoked pot in high
school. Actually, Bush's dorm room at Phillips Academy Andover
reportedly served as stoner central, where students would smoke hash
to the strains of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride."

Kids from modest backgrounds were being jailed at that time for doing
far less. Today, even a minor drug conviction bars one from many
jobs, including joining the military.

Yet Florida's former Republican governor evidently doesn't think his
illegal behavior should disqualify him from serving as commander in
chief. Why would he? The current holder of that job, President Barack
Obama, also admitted to smoking pot, as did his predecessor, Jeb's
brother George W. Bush.

If Jeb owned up to the rank injustice and fully supported ending the
war on marijuana, that might lighten the hypocrisy factor. But Bush
piously insists that he's against legalizing marijuana. If states
want to do it, that's OK, he says. But that leaves the vast majority
of Americans subject to arrest for smoking a joint after dinner.

Here's an idea. Why doesn't Bush volunteer to do the time behind bars
that youths from less powerful families were being sentenced to in
the 1960s? He could share a cell with Patrick Kennedy, the former
liberal congressman from Rhode Island.

In the wee hours of May 4, 2006, Rep. Kennedy crashed his car into a
barricade on Capitol Hill while under the influence of who knows how
many controlled substances. He served in Congress for four more
years, leaving at a time of his choosing.

Kennedy is now a staunch foe of legalizing marijuana, but, like Bush,
has not offered to do his time. Given Kennedy's decades of addiction,
that would be no small piece of change.

Many argue that marijuana at high potency and in great quantity can
be harmful. That may be so, but the same is true of many things we
can legally consume.

If states' rights is the excuse for easing up on the ludicrous drug
war, so be it. Any change that makes life less miserable for good
people - and saves the taxpayers huge sums - is to be cheered. But
oh, the waste!
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Sat, 21 Mar 2015
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/4J1q0uqs
Copyright: 2015 The Windsor Star
Contact: letters@windsorstar.com
Website: http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Chris Selley
Page: A13

CAN A NEW PHILOSOPHY SAVE THE RIGHT?

Conservatarian Movement Needed in U.S, Author Says

What does it mean to be a conservative in 2015?

In Canada, Stephen Harper's coalition of libertarians, Red Tories and
social conservatives struggles with newly advanced debates on drug
laws, prostitution and assisted suicide. Stateside, the rebuilding
Republicans battle to reconcile their small-government reputation
with George W. Bush's disillusioning legacy, and to attract
millennial voters who are fiscally conservative but socially liberal.

In his new book, The Conservatarian Manifesto, National Review
contributor Charles C.W. Cooke proposes that the U.S. Constitution
sorts it all out.

The Founding Fathers never intended Washington to have as much power
as it does, and it's impractical to expect such an enormously diverse
population to live (for example) under the same gun control or
abortion regimes.

Cooke proposes libertarians and conservatives combine their best
instincts to "re-establish (the GOP) as the party of liberty" - a
party that's "committed to laissez-faire," that's "tolerant of . . .
how others wish to live their lives," and that's above all committed
to local governments running things as their constituents see fit.

Q: Why does America need a "conservatarian" movement?

A: There's two reasons. The first is that there is a generational
divide within the Republican party, especially on gay marriage and on
the war on drugs. If it doesn't adapt, it's going to be out of step
with future generations. (The second is that) the Bush administration
was not the success that conservatives hoped. Some of that was the
product of 9-11. But even when conservatives had no pressure, they
voluntarily violated the rhetoric that arguably put them into power.
They passed No Child Left Behind, a federal takeover of education;
they expanded Medicare without paying for it; and although I
understand the instinct, they intervened in the Terri Schiavo affair.
So you have a party that talks a good game, but spent too much,
intruded too much, invaded too much and controlled too much.

Q: Is there anyone in contemporary American politics who you see as a
likely champion of this movement?

A: I think intellectually the person who has most in common with what
I'm suggesting is Rand Paul. But I'm not sure I'd want him as a
champion because - well, first thing, his father is a kook.

Q: Many view America's experience with guns as a mark of shame on
conservatives. You argue it's been a triumph.

A: Since 1994 we've seen almost 180 million guns sold in the United
States. But the murder rate has dropped 49 per cent. And the general
crime rate with guns has dropped 75 per cent. Now that's not to say
that the U.S. doesn't have more gun crime because it has 350 million
guns. But pretending that there is some hardand-fast link between the
number and the outcomes is folly. The second point I would make is
that it is the law, and laws matter. It's enumerated within the
constitution, its meaning is clear, and if advocates wish to see a
change then they will need to repeal that law.

Q: Pretty much every western country has been stupid about drugs. But
in the United States, to me, it's the most glaring, because liberty
is supposed to be the ideal. And yet we see enormous incarceration
rates, the prison-industrial complex, outrageously militarized police forces .

A: Conservatives claim to be the true defenders and champions of the
constitution as it was written and amended. And yet on the question
of drugs, they are happy to tolerate all sorts of intrusions upon the
constitution's precepts that they never would otherwise. It's not
just the obvious violations of privacy, it's not just the
militarization of the police. It's the fact that the federal
government is involved at all. Conservatives claim to wish issues of
commerce to be restricted to the state. Drugs is an issue of
commerce. This has been a disaster financially; there is still
widespread drug use that's created perverse incentives that lead to
gang activity. And finally, I think it puts people off. They look at
the conservative offering and say, "Well, I don't understand how you
can talk all the time about liberty and small government and localism
and then support this monstrosity."

Q: On same-sex marriage, a common libertarian position is that
government should get out of the marriage business altogether. That
always struck me as a somewhat elegant solution. You don't agree.

A: The problem as I see it, and this is the problem with libertarians
in general, is that it presumes the state has been shrunk to the size
of a pea. The reality is that marriage is inextricable from
government because government is inextricable from our lives.
Although I find this difficult to imagine as a libertarian-leaning
person, the most effective argument in favour of gay marriage has
been that to refuse to acknowledge or accept it is some form of
animus, and that the state is refusing its imprimatur. Now if what
you want is the imprimatur of the state, then you're not going to
accept the removal of the state completely from that process.

- This interview has been edited and condensed.
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 24 Mar 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Column: A Conversation With
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Claudia Dreifus

SEEKING THE FACTS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have legalized
medical marijuana, but scientific research into its appropriate uses
has lagged. Dr. Mark Ware would like to change that.

Dr. Ware, 50, is the director of the Canadian Consortium for the
Investigation of Cannabinoids and the director of clinical research
of the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of McGill University Health
Center. Medical marijuana has been legal in Canada for 16 years, and
Dr. Ware, a practicing physician, studies how his patients take the
drug and under what conditions it is effective.

We spoke for two hours at the recent meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and later by telephone.
Our interviews have been condensed and edited for space.

Q. How did you become interested in the medical possibilities of cannabis?

A. In the late 1990s, I was working in Kingston, Jamaica, at a clinic
treating people with sickle cell anemia. My British father and
Guyanese mother had raised me in Jamaica, and I'd attended medical
school there.

One day, an elderly Rastafarian came for his annual checkup. I asked
him, "What are your choices of medicines?" He leaned over the table
and said, "You must study the herb."

That night, I went back to my office and looked up "cannabis and
pain." What I found were countless anecdotes from patients who'd
obtained marijuana either legally or not and who claimed good effect
with a variety of pain-related conditions.

There were also the eye-opening studies showing that the nervous
system had specific receptors for cannabinoids and that these
receptors were located in areas related to pain. Everything ended
with, "More studies are needed."

So I thought, "This is what I should be doing; let's go!"

Was getting started that easy?

Actually, not.

That summer, I went to England and considered working with a British
pharmaceutical concern researching cannabinoids. But just then, a
Canadian court took up the case of an epileptic who'd been arrested
when he used cannabis for his seizures. The court essentially
legalized medical marijuana throughout Canada.

When I heard that, it seemed like Canada was the place I should be
going to. I packed up my young family and moved to Montreal. What I
proposed to McGill was a clinic where we might evaluate the claims of
patients about medical marijuana.

So much of what we knew about the drug was anecdotal. Some of it was
folkloric. My idea was to listen to the patients' stories and put
them to a clinical evaluation.

When you first moved to Canada in 1999, what was known about medical marijuana?

We certainly knew that cannabinoids were analgesic in animal models.
There were case reports floating around of people with multiple
sclerosis who'd been helped.

In California, people with H.I.V. were using it for appetite
stimulation, nausea and pain. Cancer patients sometimes used it to
curb nausea from chemotherapy.

Since then, there have been at least 15 good-quality trials around
the world. Cannabinoids are reported to help with H.I.V.-associated
neuropathy, traumatic neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, pain from
diabetes. There have also been a few small studies on fibromyalgia and PTSD.

When you talk about translational medicine, a drug usually moves from
"bench to clinic." But cannabis has had this unique trajectory: The
patients were using it on their own, and then you had these papers,
often based on a few case studies. And sometimes, you had later
trials which led to drugs - like with H.I.V. patients' using
cannabis, which led to Marinol.

Tell us about some of your own research.

One investigation we published in the Canadian Medical Association
Journal in 2010 studied 23 patients who used three slightly different
levels of cannabis preparations and one placebo for two months. They
had one puff three times a day. We found that the 9.4 percent THC
level was superior to the placebo in terms of its effect on pain.

We also found that it helped with anxiety and sleep. Interestingly,
our patients appeared to actually use very small quantities of the
drug to control their symptoms, a lot less than recreational users.

Later this spring, we hope to take this research further by launching
what we think will be the first ever longitudinal study of medical
marijuana patients. We'll follow the long-term effects of those of
our regular patients who've been using it for chronic conditions.
We'll look at safety over the years.

Why do you think cannabis use has been generally so under-researched?

The fundamental answer is that the illegality of the drug has
stigmatized most research. In Canada, people are sometimes afraid
because of the perception that they are working with illegal
substances, even when that's no longer the case.

In the United States, it's a different matter, because on the federal
level, cannabis is listed as a Schedule I drug, like heroin. That
means that the medical community is quite restricted in gaining
access to research materials.

At the same time, there are more than 20 states where medical
marijuana, to differing degrees, is legal. However, the plants grown
in Colorado may be quite different from those grown elsewhere.
Moreover, the medically eligible conditions vary from state to state.

This lack of standardization has been another factor making research
difficult, because when you're talking about cannabis in one state
and cannabis in another, you may not be talking about the same thing.

You've said that physicians call you frequently for practical advice
about the drug. What do they ask?

The most common question is, "How do I make the distinction between
patients who want it for medical or recreational use?" The other call
I get is from a clinician who wants me to take his patient and
explain whatever I can.

Actually, I wish those doctors would inform themselves better; a lot
of information does exist, though we need more. I believe that by not
informing themselves, physicians aren't fully serving their patients.

In Canada, for instance, we've noticed that our oncologists generally
don't tell their patients about medical marijuana. It's the nurses
who'll go, "Dear, why don't you go outside and have a puff."

Your own Canadian Medical Association reminds its members that they
are not obligated to write marijuana prescriptions because there is
"insufficient evidence on clinical risks and benefits." What is your
take on their stance?

Well, I agree with them, at least on this: We need more research.

I think the time has come for us as a global community to agree on
what we want to know and then go get it. And our patients need to
move away from self-experimenting with substances and derivatives we
don't know about, and move to a situation where we know what they are
using and where we can better help them. This isn't going away.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 24 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: Linda Searing

Quick Study

Pot and the Brain

DOES MARIJUANA USE IN TEEN YEARS CAUSE MEMORY PROBLEMS IN ADULTHOOD?

THE QUESTION When a person smokes marijuana, the chemical THC goes
quickly to the brain, producing a mood alteration. How might this
affect memory?

THIS STUDY analyzed data on 54 people in their mid-20s. Some had
smoked marijuana almost daily for about three years when they were
teens but had not smoked it for about two years. The other
participants had no history of heavy drug use. All were given brain
scans and a battery of standardized memory tests to assess their
ability to recall information. Among those who had smoked marijuana
almost daily, the scans showed an abnormally shaped hippocampus, the
part of the brain that is key to longterm memory. The longer they had
smoked marijuana, the more abnormal the brain shape. On the memory
tests, people who had once been heavy marijuana smokers scored about
18 percent worse than those who had never smoked marijuana regularly.

WHO MAY BE AFFECTED? Teenagers who smoke marijuana now and adults who
smoked marijuana heavily in their teen years. The National Institute
on Drug Abuse notes that marijuana affects brain development, which
can be problematic for teenagers because their brains are still developing.

CAVEATS The study included a small number of participants. Data on
marijuana use came from the participants' responses to interview
questions. The study did not determine whether the observed effects
were permanent or would change over time. It is possible that the
change in brain shape and memory issues occurred before the marijuana use.

FIND THIS STUDY March 11 online issue of Hippocampus, viewable at
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hipo.22427/ abstract.

LEARN MORE ABOUT marijuana and memory at www. drugabuse.gov (search
for "marijuana"). Learn about the brain at www. strokeassociation.org
(search for "brain tour").

The research described in Quick Study comes from credible,
peerreviewed journals. Nonetheless, conclusive evidence about a
treatment's effectiveness is rarely found in a single study. Anyone
considering changing or beginning treatment of any kind should
consult with a physician.
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 30 Mar 2015
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/iZHqEJTU
Copyright: 2015 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Joe Garofoli

WOMEN CASH IN WITH POT KLATCH - 'A TUPPERWARE PARTY FOR CANNABIS'

In a Russian Hill apartment, 17 women passed around cannabis-infused
gluten-free vegan blueberry almond granola and rubbed marijuana-based
topical cream into their shoulders.

The attendees - lawyers and chefs and nurses and tech executives
among them - inhaled from vaporizers and erupted in laughter when a
woman lauded the aphrodisiac wonders of "Sexx-pot," a new strain of
Humboldt County -grown herb that she recently smoked with her husband.

For Amanda Conley, the host, it was "a Tupperware party for cannabis."

Part professional women's networking group, part social group for
weed-loving women, part showcase for female entrepreneurs, last
week's pot klatch stands on the leading edge of the cannabis
movement. As Californians prepare to vote on legalizing weed as early
as next year, the ladies are quietly hatching two plans: to help
women have more power in an incredibly lucrative industry, and to
break through what some are already calling that industry's "green
ceiling." While women are being targeted with new products in the
booming $2.7 billion marijuana market, many female weed entrepreneurs
are frustrated that their voice is muted in a business that - much
like those in the original Tupperware party era - is male-dominated.

Karyn Wagner, whose Humboldt collective created "Sexxpot," said
dispensary buyers scoffed when she pitched them the strain aimed at
the female libido with the marketing tagline, "the flowers she really wants."

"That's because all of the buyers at these dispensaries are men,"
Wagner said. "How do they know that there's no market for it? But we
hear that all the time."

Ramona Green got similar shrugs from male buyers when she pitched
them products from her Doc Green's Healing Collective line. The
Berkeley company sells topical healing creams that combine strains of
cannabis with shea butter lotion. Many women, she's found, want
something that offers pain relief without the buzz. But that point is
often lost.

Weed business

"They're like, 'Oh, it doesn't get you high?' " said Green, who has a
master's degree in public health. "So they say, 'Well, then, I'm not
interested in it.' "

It was stories like these that inspired Conley and her friends to
create a group where women could connect over their professional,
personal and health-related interests - all linked by cannabis. The
group gathered at Conley's apartment included her mother, who
recently rekindled her interest in cannabis, and two women in their
20s, comparing notes on the men they met on High There, a dating app
for weed-friendly singles.

They christened their group "Synchronicity Sisters."

Conley and her co-organizers -Shabnam Malek, Chelsey McKrill and
Isamarie Perez - met a few months ago at a local meeting of Women
Grow, a national network for women in the weed business. But they
wanted to create a broader space for women to share more than
business cards. They knew there would be some challenges.

Environment for women

"We have a lot to risk because of the roles we otherwise play in
society, like in the home," Malek said.

At one of the group's first meetings, a woman shared how she had
recently visited a dispensary and asked a young male budtender if he
had any strains to help alleviate her perimenopausal symptoms. The
budtender's jaw dropped - he could barely say the word.

"And then this woman working next to him nudged him and said, 'I got
this,' " Conley recalled.

"It can be overwhelming for some women to go into a dispensary and
see all of those products," said Malek, who along with Conley chairs
the Bay Area chapter of Women Grow. "This is the environment where
it's OK to ask those kind of questions."

Some men in the cannabis industry acknowledge that it isn't as
female-friendly as it could be. Part of that is due to the legacy of
the industry's "boobs and buds" imagery, in which women are largely
seen as ornamental. But things are changing. At a January conference
for high-net-worth investors looking to break into the cannabis
market, Troy Dayton, cofounder of the pot industry analysis firm
ArcView Group, surveyed the audience in a San Francisco ballroom and
told them that "for the most part this crowd is about the whitest,
male-est crowd in the world."

Shifting industry

Then, he made a plea for a shift. "I would just like to ask for your
help in making ArcView and the industry not just another old boys'
network," said Dayton, whose company was a sponsor of the event. "We
have an opportunity to build a new kind of industry, and there's a
lot of ways to do that, but it starts with ensuring that the women
that are here today feel welcomed and treated as the pioneering
businesspeople that they are so that more and more women join this
industry and this industry looks like America."

One of those pioneers is Alison Ettel, who spent most of her career
in finance and tech. A few years ago, she briefly lapsed into a coma
after contracting viral meningitis while on vacation. For months,
mainstream pharmaceutical drugs did little to help her recovery until
her friends convinced her to try weed. It helped, and she became
fascinated with the industry.

She quit her tech industry job a year ago to found SweetLeaf, which
makes what it describes as "healthier options for medicating with
cannabis" with products like vegan blueberry almond granola.

Learned from mistake

"And all of my products are GMO-free, too," said Ettel, an attendee
at the San Francisco Tupperware party for pot. "I'm like the Martha
Stewart of the cannabis industry."

Adding to Ettel's Martha image: She no longer consumes cannabis.

That combination, she admits, can make it hard when she's trying to
secure a supplier in Humboldt County. "Everybody was like, 'Who are
you? Are you with the feds?' "

Eventually, she found a supplier to help her produce the goodies.
Though the women at the party raved about her offerings afterward,
Ettel learned something for the next time she presents to a small group.

"I made a mistake. I shouldn't have handed out my samples when I'm
speaking," she said and laughed. "They were very distracted."
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 29 Mar 2015
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2015 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact: inquirer.letters@phillynews.com
Website: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Joseph N. DiStefano

STIRRING THE POT AT JOINT HEARING ON MEDICAL USES

It was doctors against lawmakers, science against anecdotes, at
Tuesday's joint committee hearing on medical marijuana.

Yes, joint. Twenty state representatives from the Judiciary and
Health Committees, mostly Republicans, filed into Pennsylvania
Hospital on Tuesday, many bearing grim accounts of ill constituents
who say pot helps them feel less pain.

But doctors told the reps there is little proof marijuana does more
good than harm, for any ailment. They called for new research funding
and Food and Drug Administration approval before a new law is passed.

I was there with one of this region's would-be pot capitalists, Scot
"Zippy" Ziskind, of Camden-based Zipco Wine Cellars, who says clients
in some of the 23 states where medical or recreational pot is legal
want him to expand from wine-storage coolers to marijuana grow-rooms.

Ziskind supplied color commentary, which is helpful when watching
government in action. Even if you're not high.

The medicos led with Dr. John C.M. Brust, a Columbia University
professor whom the American Academy of Neurology tapped to help scour
1,700 studies and evaluate marijuana as medicine.

The docs found some pot compounds are "probably effective in
relieving certain symptoms in multiple sclerosis." But pot hasn't
been shown to help other MS symptoms or "epilepsy and seizures,
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain
injury, post-concussion syndrome," or others proposed for marijuana
therapy in Pennsylvania Senate Bill 3, the pro-pot proposal, Brust said.

Naysayers "said the same about penicillin," Zippy whispered.

The bill would enumerate a list of things for which marijuana could
be used. But backers noted that the measure failed to pass last year.
This and future hearings are meant to build a consensus that would
pass the House and be signed by Gov. Wolf, a medical-marijuana supporter.

At the moment, "Bill 3 is long on bureaucratic structure and short on
pharmacology," Brust added. The state offers no dosage data, doesn't
sort the hundreds of marijuana component chemicals, and doesn't say
who pays for treating pot intoxication, impairment, or induced craving.

Reps insisted there must be proof somewhere in the world. "Why are
your results so different from what Israel is doing?" asked Rep. Mark
Rozzi (D., Berks). He said he's heard "they use it to treat" Crohn's
disease, basal-cell carcinoma, and cancer patients' pain.

"Show me a randomized prospective controlled study that shows
marijuana is good for basal-cell carcinoma, and I'll read it," Brust
said. "Anecdote and testimonial is not research."

"Medical marijuana has never killed anyone," Rep. Jim Cox (R.,
Berks-Lancaster) said later.

Dr. Lee Harris, chief of neurology at Abington Memorial Hospital and
medical head of its MS unit, said his fellow specialists want more
research. But he agreed with Cox that pot is a lot less deadly than
prescription narcotic painkillers in common use.

"There is a push by the business community to legalize medical
marijuana," said Dr. Charles Cutler, vice president of the
Pennsylvania Medical Society.

"Yeah!" Zippy said. "They'd be employing people! And paying tax dollars!"

"Read our white paper, 'Is Marijuana Medicine?' " Cutler urged the
reps. The short answer: Not much. (See http://www.pamedsoc.org/
IsMarijuanaMedicine)

"When I talk to constituents whose children are having 50 to 100
seizures a day, I think they would disagree with you,' said Rep.
Joseph Petrarca (D., Westmoreland).

"How many children will die" before medical pot is legal? asked Rep.
Mike Regan (R., Cumberland-York). "I wear a 'Legalize for Lorelei'
bracelet. It's for a little girl in my district who takes [a
marijuana-based product] for seizures." He accused the docs of
leaving kids to "years and years of suffering in order that we can
study it ad nauseam."

"Suppose the product doesn't work. And the parents imagine it helps,"
leaving the parents "fooled," and the kids suffering, Cutler said.

"I can't imagine that," Cox said.

Cutler cited colleagues who said some parents were wrongly convinced
pot had stopped their kids' seizures.

Rep. John Lawrence (R., Chester-Lancaster) asked a question
sympathetic to the doctors: Does it make sense "for nonmedical
professionals making decisions on what should be permitted, as
opposed to the FDA?"

With so many states allowing pot and so many interests lobbying for
it, "it's hard to push back." But it's the courageous thing to do, Cutler said.

Zippy wrinkled his face and told me pot "is like an abortion: If you
don't like it, don't have one."

Do the science first, Cutler pleaded. If treatments work, "we are
going to be back here begging this committee to legalize 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: Sun, 29 Mar 2015
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/Vhux7mHY
Copyright: 2015 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@mercurynews.com
Website: http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Eric Kurhi

CELL TRACKER ACQUISITION MET WITH SCRUTINY

Activists, Leaders Push to Learn About Possibly Invasive Devices

The secrecy surrounding a military-grade cellphone-tracking device
that's already being used in the Bay Area - and coming soon to Santa
Clara County - has come under increased scrutiny, with local
governments, courts and lawmakers around the nation joining civil
rights groups in demanding more information about the potentially
invasive technology.

Earlier this month, a New York judge ruled that a sheriff's office in
that state must pull back the curtain on the controversial "stingray"
devices, which simulate cellphone towers and allow police to track
suspects but also gather location information on potentially
thousands of bystanders. Judge Patrick NeMoyer cited a case in which
the FBI instructed the Erie County Sheriff's Office to drop charges
instead of revealing any information about the stingray.

"If that is not an instruction that affects the public," he wrote,
"nothing is."

Locally, privacy advocates have sought more information about systems
already in use in San Jose, Oakland, Fremont and San Francisco and
found their requests stymied by nondisclosure agreements and national
security concerns as reasons to keep mum.

It recently became an issue in Santa Clara County, when supervisors
approved the purchase of one. While the sheriff's department insists
gathered information will be limited to the targeted person, county
lawmakers have found themselves in the awkward position of crafting
rules for the use of the device without having full knowledge of just
what it can do because the manufacturer and federal authorities
refuse to detail the device's capabilities even to local officials
who purchase them.

"I can't even get a disclosure to the contents of the nondisclosure
agreement, so we don't even know what it is we have agreed not to
disclose," frustrated Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian
said. "It's unlike anything I've previously encountered."

The device can pinpoint a target based on cellphone signals, whether
in use or not. Stingrays have long been used covertly by the military
and federal authorities, and an increasing number of local law
enforcement agencies have been picking them up, commonly via Homeland
Security funding, as did Santa Clara County.

It functions by emulating a cellphone tower to hijack a signal from
the target phone, which can then be traced to within 10 feet of its
location. Privacy advocates are concerned that when it does its
mimicry magic, every cellphone in the area responds, including those
of potentially thousands of folks who haven't done anything wrong but
happen to be in range. They say that to safeguard civil rights, there
must be rules in place on not only how and when the tracker is used
on a specified target, but what is done with all the ancillary
information that is picked up.

"I don't object to the technology in itself," said Mike Katz-Lacabe,
a former San Leandro school board member and longtime privacy
advocate. "But if it's being used as a standard tool in standard
cases, we need to pull back the cloud of secrecy so as a democratic
society we can decide what tools we use and how."

Simitian, who was alone in opposition to using a $500,000 federal
grant to get the Hailstorm system before rules about its use were in
place, pointed to required nondisclosure agreements with both the
manufacturer, Harris, and the FBI and said there are "obvious
difficulties in trying to make policy and law with so little information."

County Executive Jeff Smith explained at a recent committee meeting
on the device that manufacturer Harris won't "discuss the capacity or
abilities of the device with individuals who are not sworn police
officers," including elected officials.

Despite what local police may use the device for, it is considered
first and foremost an anti-terrorism tool. Privacy advocates say now
that it is being used in domestic policing, its capabilities should
be disclosed.

"The whole point of keeping military secrets a secret is because
they're only used in military applications," said Alan Butler of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center. "But once you start handing it
out to local law enforcement, and they're using it on the streets for
random drug busts, it's not a military secret any more - you can't
have it both ways."

Butler's group and others have been repeatedly rebuffed in requests
for information. This month, the American Civil Liberties Union filed
suit against Sacramento County and Anaheim, the latest litigation
seeking more transparency in stingray use and policies.

State Sen. Jerry Hill, DSan Mateo, just introduced a bill that would
require adequate public notice and comment before cellphone
interceptors are acquired. And senators from Florida, Vermont and
Iowa recently pressed the Federal Communications Commission, the U.S.
attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security for answers
to questions about how, when and by what process the devices are used.

Privacy activists are certain the trackers can be upgraded to do more
than just locate a cellphone. Other government-contracting companies
that sell less advanced cellphone surveillance devices boast about
their broader capabilities.

Meganet's website says its Dominator and Interceptor models can
intercept voice and text, allow voice manipulation, block channels,
intercept and modify texts, and call or send texts on behalf of the
user, among other things.

And activists say the stingrays certainly have the same potential,
pointing to the Department of Justice's Electronic Surveillance
Manual, which states that cell site simulators and similar devices
"may be capable of intercepting the contents of communications and,
therefore, such devices must be configured to disable the
interception function, unless interceptions have been authorized."

Santa Clara County is in the early stages of getting a stingray and
only provided limited information related to the grant proposal in
response to a public records request from this newspaper. However,
even agencies that already acquired the devices have revealed little.
San Jose, which quietly acquired a stingray in 2013, offered heavily
redacted purchasing documents, citing the Homeland Security Act and
international arms regulations. It is a similar response seen from
other agencies that maintain that under those laws, disclosing
information "is a felony punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment
and up to $1 million per occurrence." Privacy advocate Katz-Lacabe
has filed public records requests with more than 200 agencies across
the nation with all the largest cities and counties, as well as every
state, and got plenty of responses but little in the way of revelations.

"Pretty much if a law enforcement agency has it," he said, "they'll
say we have records, but they are exempt from the Public Records Act."

Hanni Fakhoury, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation
privacy group, said it was "ridiculous" that it has taken so much
prying to glean just basic information about the device and its use.

"It's secrecy for the sake of secrecy," he said. "Now they're
dismissing cases rather than disclosing information - that's not in
the public's interest. We're not asking for a blueprint, just some
transparency."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2015
Source: Trentonian, The (NJ)
Column: Passing the Joint
Copyright: 2015 The Trentonian
Contact: letters@trentonian.com
Website: http://www.trentonian.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006
Author: Ed Forchion, NJWeedman.com For The Trentonian

NJ WEEDMAN HAS A DIFFERENT VIEW OF CHRISTIE'S STORY

On Monday Gov. Chris Christie was in Ewing taping the Ask the
Governor show on NJ 101.5, I was feeling all butt happy at the
success of the great Spring Smoke-out held last Saturday at the
Statehouse. I wanted to call-in and ask The Gov, why is it that 400
citizens could smoke marijuana at the statehouse without arrest yet
22,000 others were arrested last year on the streets of New Jersey,
but the screeners wouldn't let me.

So I thought tactically - I'll meet him outside the studio and use
the Pa system on The Weed mobil to ask him my own uncensored question
and video tape it. That plot was extremely successful and went
semi-viral, being watched by over 5000 in less than 24 hours and
several national news media outlets ran stories about our confrontation.

So on Wednesday Gov. Chris Christie held a press conference in
Manahawkin, where the Daytop treatment center was having a grand
opening for its new outpatient location. This was his first New
Jersey press conference since Oct. 2014 so he had a full house. He
has been giving press conferences around the country but not in his
home state. Surprisingly because of those news reports he dedicated
three minutes to talking about his "old friend" Weedman and marijuana
legalization in New Jersey. Now I found that extremely pleasing, and
proof that my tactics are effective. But the "old friend" story he
cheerfully, playfully told to the press was not truthful! Gov.
Christie lied by omission.

The old saying about there are two sides to every story is relevant
here. What Mr. Christie recited to the press wasn't the complete
story I remembered.

Before I explain Gov. Christie's lie by omission I have to give you
the back story, then my side of the same story.

In my "Paul Harvey" voice Now for the rest of the story.

Back story - I've always engaged in unorthodox tactics and methods to
get my point across and to present my views to the public. I call it
thinking outta the bong. Jeff Edelstein "The Trentonian Master
Columnist" was one of the first members of the state press corps to
notice this. I admit his early articles led me to today where I'm
practically a legendary living breathing counter culture nationally
known weed-lebrity. I'm now a contemporary of his because of him.
Example: He was the reporter I called when I decided to "smoke a
joint" in the Statehouse (3/16/2000), before the entire state
assembly. That was a classic.

In 2000 I was sentenced to 10 years in prison for knowing the truth
about marijuana and willingly providing marijuana to those who wanted
it. After a total waste of 18 months of my life for that; I was
released into the state Intensive Supervision Program (ISP). Again I
informed Jeff that two state officials; Harry Goldstein and Thomas
Bartlett were threatening to imprison me if I didn't stop talking to
the press or about marijuana (which is protected speech). I described
this as an unconstitutional pissing contest between me and the state.
I gave Jeff copies of three pro-marijuana legalization TV public
service ads I had contracted with Comcast network to air on August
19th 2002. A few days before airing Jeff wrote a story about my ads,
"Weedman takes to the air." These two state officials immediately
convinced Comcast to yank them and then they illegally conspired with
Ocean County Judge Giovine to have me confined in the Burlington
County jail until I could be processed back into the state prison
system to serve the remainder of my 10 year sentence; for making
public service ads about marijuana.

These two officials told Judge Giovine that my actions amounted to
advocating criminal activity. It was a bogus, malicious claim to
which there wasn't even a criminal statute against it.

To make a long story short In the BC Jail I went on a hunger strike
and filed a Pro Se "writ of habeas corpus" with the federal court in
Camden only eating after Federal Judge Irenas accepted my writ. He
ordered these state officials to respond to my allegations of this
gross First Amendment violation. It took five months of federal court
proceedings, the help of the ACLU of NJ, and Clifton attorney John
Vincent Saykanic to win my freedom. Jeff reported on each of these
proceedings including the Jan 24th, 2003 hearing where Judge Irenas
ordered the state of New Jersey to release me, ruling my imprisonment
a violation of my free speech rights.

Note: Upon this release I went to the department of Justice and
attempted to filed federal criminal charges against Mr. Goldstein and
Bartlett with the U.S. Attorneys office - my friend - Mr. Christie.
About 6 months later I received a letter from Mr. Christie's office
saying he was declining to prosecute these two state employed
criminals for the illegal acts they persecuted upon me and my family.
I was jailed for telling the truth about marijuana and was rightfully
angry, and I was angry with U.S. Attorney Christie too now.

So in August 2004 almost a year to the day I was illegally jailed by
these state officials I began exercising my 1st amendment rights
again, this time by protesting then U.S. Attorney Christie for not
prosecuting Goldstein/Bartlett. Like Mr. Christie said at his press
conference, "I held signs in front of his Newark office by myself
with his face on it calling him a fat hypocrite."

This is where Mr. Christie during his three-minute cheerful rendition
differs from my painful recollection, he omits what then happened.

So the rest of the story: My old friend Mr. Christie bullied me and
failed to mention to the press assembled that I was arrested each
time I protested him - by myself. For three weeks in a row I was
roughly arrested, specifically I was hogcuffed. This is where your
handcuffed behind your back with your feet cuffed. I was painfully
carried into his office by the cuffs, and held for a couple hours
until after U.S. Attorney Christie left for home and didn't have to
see me when he left.

I was off every Monday so on Mondays August 4, 11 and 18 I protested
him. Each time my arrest got progressively rougher. Finally when I
showed up on August 25th his security detail met me outside with riot
gear on which finally convinced me stop trying to exercise free
speech at Christie's U.S. Attorney's office.

Mr. Christie conveniently also doesn't tell that I also represented
myself before Judge Martone and got each of these charges dismissed -
again on free speech grounds. The only press that covered this was
the New Jersey Law Journal.

He after omitting the rest of the story my old friend Chris said the
argument to legalize marijuana because alcohol is legal "is not an
excuse" and leads to a "slippery slope" of advocating decriminalizing
other drugs.... Blah blah blah ...This should not be permitted in our
society. It sends the wrong message.

In direct contradiction to what Dr. Sanjay Gupta and the current
Surgeon General says he also bloated out... "Every bit of objective
data we have tells us that it's a gateway drug to other drugs. He
said states that have legalized marijuana did so "mostly in pursuit
of tax riches"....." cash business"... blah blah blah. I'm governor
of New Jersey, there won't be legalized marijuana. To me, that's
blood money. I'm not going to put the lives of children and citizens
at risk to put a little bit more money into the state coffers. At
least not on my watch," he said.

How backwards and antiquated he sounds. Please someone tell him. The
world is round, there are no witches in Salem and Marijuana is good
for you. ------The Garden State? Meanwhile 200 miles south in the
nations capital last Thursday 800 people received free legal
marijuana seeds to home grow.

Unless he flipflops on his reefer madness mentally he will never be
elected to the Presidency just because of his marijuana policies.
Ironically, Christie recently stressed the need to elect candidates
who believe in protecting individual liberties, which he said should
be protected - not dictated - by government. 'Those are not given to
us by the government,' he said. 'Those are given by God and the
government is supposed to be there to enforce and protect those
liberties and freedoms, not to determine how we exercise them.' "

God gave us this herb Mr. Christie.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2015
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/1mzEjnqH
Copyright: 2015 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581

$2 MILLION SECURED IN FIGHT TO STOP ILLEGAL MARIJUANA WATER DIVERSIONS

As part of Gov. Jerry Brown's recent $1 billion drought package, Sen.
Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, has secured $2 million in state water and
drought relief bonds in an attempt to halt illegal water diversions
from trespass marijuana grows in Northern California, McGuire's
office announced Wednesday.

The bond dollars, which were approved by the Senate Wednesday
afternoon, are to be immediately utilized through the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife, which will create an additional 11
positions, McGuire's office said in a news release.

Additionally, the new hires will join a marijuana taskforce created
by Brown's office last year and will be focused on ending the
thousands of illegal cultivation-related diversions in Northern
California watersheds.

There will also be expanded funding for the protection of streams and
rivers for in-stream flows, fish and habitat as well as water
efficiency programs to benefit local customers, the release stated,
adding 2014 was the first year since written records have been kept
that both the Eel and the Mattole Rivers ran dry due to the historic
state drought and a multitude of illegal diversions.

"Northern California has been particularly hard hit due to the
state's historic drought and the thousands of illegal marijuana grows
that have taken hold in our forests," McGuire 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: Sat, 28 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

THE WEED THAT WASN'T

In Zealously Punishing an 11-Year-Old, Officials Exhibit Clouded Judgment.

THE NEWS is full of instances in which deficits in common sense
produce bad outcomes. But rarely is the deficit so clear, or the
outcome so wretched, as in the case of a sixth-grade boy in Bedford
County, Va., who received a year-long suspension from school for
possessing a single leaf of marijuana - which, on closer inspection,
turned out not to be marijuana at all.

The pupil, who is 11, was enrolled in a gifted-and-talented program
not far from Roanoke when an assistant principal found the leaf in
his backpack in September. Leave aside the possibility - hardly
remote in middle school - that the leaf may have been planted as a
prank, which the boy's parents suspect is the case; the leaf was not
in dried, smokable form, and there is no suggestion that the boy
smoked, sold or purchased this particular leaf - or any other.

Seized by official zero-tolerance fervor, the boy was, in short
order, suspended for 364 days and charged in juvenile court with
possession of marijuana. That's how things stood for more than two
months until, at a court hearing in November, prosecutors dropped the
charge when it turned out that repeated testing proved the leaf was
not marijuana.

End of story? If only. The school didn't budge. Instead, officials
took refuge behind the school system's policy, which prohibits not
only controlled substances but also imitations. (Similar policies are
in place throughout Virginia, including in Fairfax County, as well as
in other states.)

We get why schools frown on imitation drugs: No one wants kids on
school property peddling bags of oregano or passing off cornstarch as
cocaine. But in this case we're talking about an 11-year-old, a
single leaf of what may have been Japanese maple or some other
marijuana doppelganger and no known attempt at trafficking. Did the
boy's offense really merit a year's suspension?

His parents, both teachers, are furious. They sued the school system
as well as the county sheriff 's office, which filed the erroneous
charges against the boy. In the meantime, the school system ordered
that the boy be evaluated for substance-abuse problems, which it
turns out he doesn't have.

"But by then," wrote Dan Casey, who broke the story in the Roanoke
Times, "the boy had other problems." His parents says he now suffers
from depression and panic attacks and fears being in public. Hardly
surprising if you remember that this is an 11-year-old.

The school system, after trying to channel the boy into a program for
troubled kids, finally allowed him to return this month to a regular
school, though not his old one. But he remains on strict probation,
meaning even a minor slip-up could result in expulsion.

Whatever damage that single leaf could have done, even if it had been
marijuana, cannot possibly compare to the harm that has resulted from
the school system's policies and actions. The real question is: Why
couldn't anyone in Bedford County figure that out?
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2015
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2015 The Associated Press
Contact: opinion@abqjournal.com
Website: http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: Kristen Wyatt, the Associated Press

COLORADO DEFENDS POT LAW IN HIGH COURT FILING

Neb., Okla. Suing Over Legalization

DENVER (AP) - States are free to legalize marijuana, Colorado argued
Friday in a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court in response to a lawsuit
from neighboring states that have asked the nation's highest court to
shut down Colorado's pot law.

The filing marks the first time Colorado has defended legal marijuana
in writing. The federal government did not sue to block the state's
2012 vote to legalize pot for all adults over 21.

Colorado said that Nebraska and Oklahoma should sue the federal
government for not enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, not other
states. Colorado said the states' "quarrel is not with Colorado but
with the federal government's" approach to letting states experiment
with pot law.

"Nebraska and Oklahoma filed this case in an attempt to reach across
their borders and selectively invalidate state laws with which they
disagree," Colorado argued.

Because federal drug law bans marijuana for any purpose, including
medical, the federal government can't throw out recreational pot laws
but not medical pot laws in effect in 23 states and Washington, D.C.,
Colorado argued.

"Congress has endorsed a policy, at least with respect to medical
marijuana, supportive of state regulatory and licensure laws,"
Colorado wrote. "This suit threatens to upset those administrative
and political decisions."

The U.S. Supreme Court has not said whether it will hear the
challenge, and it has no deadline for doing so.

Colorado Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman opposes
marijuana legalization, but she said the problem needs to be fixed by
federal drug authorities. "This lawsuit ... won't fix America's
national drug policy- at least not without leadership from
Washington, D.C., which remains noticeably absent," Coffman said in a
statement.

In addition to the lawsuit from Nebraska and Oklahoma, Colorado faces
three more marijuana challenges in a lower federal court.

A set of county sheriffs from Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska have
filed a separate lawsuit in federal court in Denver. The third
lawsuit comes from a Colorado hotel owner who argues that marijuana
is hurting his business.

Two other states that have legalized recreational marijuana, Oregon
and Washington, filed their own briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on
Friday arguing that states are free to legalize pot.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2015
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2015 Albuquerque Journal
Contact: opinion@abqjournal.com
Website: http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Authors: Ryan Boetel and Dan Boyd
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

MEASURE WOULD KILL 'POLICING FOR PROFIT'

Law Enforcement Seeks Veto of Legislation Ending Civil Asset Forfeiture

SANTA FE - Prompted by calls from across the political spectrum, New
Mexico lawmakers took aim during this year's 60-day legislative
session at civil asset forfeiture - decried by some as "policing for profit."

The measure, which was approved unanimously by the House and Senate,
would prevent law enforcement from seizing money, cars or other types
of property from people on civil grounds during an arrest or traffic
stop on suspicion the property was connected to a crime.

The practice has funneled millions of dollars and property to state
and local law enforcement agencies, which are now scrambling to ask
Gov. Susana Martinez to veto the measure.

The forfeitures occur in various kinds of cases. For example,
Albuquerque police stopped a father and son from Illinois for not
signaling a turn and called in a federal agent who seized $17,000 in
cash from them, though the men were never charged with a crime. The
American Civil Liberties Union intervened and the men got their money
back two years later.

The measure, House Bill 560, would not prevent forfeiture - of cars,
houses or other assets - in criminal cases when a defendant is found
guilty. It would, however, require proceeds from forfeitures to be
put into the state's general fund instead of being used to bolster
individual law enforcement agencies' budgets.

The bill creates a mechanism for individuals found not guilty to seek
to reclaim their seized property upon acquittal.

During the session, an unlikely coalition of backers supported the
bill. The alliance included the ACLU of New Mexico, the Drug Policy
Alliance and the Rio Grande Foundation, an Albuquerque-based group
that favors limited government and open markets.

While there was little formal opposition to the bill, law enforcement
agencies across the state are lining up and asking Martinez to veto
the measure.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales made that request in a
letter sent to the governor Thursday.

"The passing of this legislation would cause a financial hardship on
our department," Gonzales said in the letter. "These monies are
currently utilized to combat and thwart criminal activity such as
drug trafficking and violent crimes."

San Juan County Sheriff Ken Christesen, the chairman of the New
Mexico Sheriff's Association, said the organization is drafting a
letter that asks for a veto. And Rick Tedrow, the district attorney
in San Juan County and president of the New Mexico District
Attorney's Association, said the DA's association also will ask for a veto.

'A big deal'

"It's a big deal to us. This bill would take money out of (law
enforcement agencies') hands and put it in the state general fund and
we'll never see it again," Christesen said. "A lot of equipment and
overtime wouldn't happen because the counties don't have the money.
You'll get less law enforcement."

Christesen said it's common practice across the state for agencies to
seize money and property during drug-trafficking cases, and then put
that money back into narcotics investigations to make undercover
purchases and pay investigators' overtime.

The state Department of Public Safety, in a fiscal analysis of the
bill, warned the legislation would eliminate revenue that is
"critical" to funding the agency's investigations and operations. And
the Law Offices of the Public Defender said it could need more
funding to handle a likely uptick in forfeiture cases.

Supporters of the legislation, however, said seizing property from
people who haven't been convicted of a crime is unfair and should be
brought to a stop.

Former Attorney General Hal Stratton, who testified in support of the
bill in a House committee, said he helped craft the state's
forfeiture law while a member of the Legislature in the 1980s.

But he said that legislation was intended as a crimefighting tool,
not as a pretext for property to be seized from innocent individuals.

Steven Robert Allen, director of public policy for the ACLU of New
Mexico, said recorded comments of a Las Cruces city attorney that
were published in The New York Times last year increased public
interest in the issue, but he said work on the bill already was underway.

"The system ... is completely indefensible from a due process
perspective and a property rights perspective," Allen said.

The city attorney, Harry Connelly, was recorded at a conference
talking about undercover officers ogling a suspected drunken driver
with a "beautiful" Mercedes.

"And he gets out and he's just reeking of alcohol. And it's like, 'Oh
my goodness, we can hardly wait,'" he said.

Millions at stake

Albuquerque-area law enforcement agencies have received millions from
seizures in recent years and they've been involved in controversial cases.

Since the 2010 fiscal year, Albuquerque police have received $11.6
million from forfeitures, while the Bernalillo County Sheriff's
Office netted $2.1 million, according to city and county documents.

That money stems from seizures in cases where officers and deputies
working alongside federal agents get a portion of property seized
during investigations, typically drug trafficking cases, as well as
from seizing vehicles from people suspected of repeat drunken driving.

Rio Rancho recently passed a DWI seizure law that is set to take
effect in July unless state seizure laws are changed, said Rio Rancho
police Lt. Paul Rogers.

The BCSO was ordered to pay $3 million in damages in 2011 when a
District Court judge ruled the agency was violating state laws in the
way it was seizing property during traffic stops.

And Albuquerque is facing a class action lawsuit over allegations its
DWI seizure program has confiscated the vehicles of "innocent owners"
who owned the car but had nothing to do with the DWI.

Albuquerque police officer Tanner Tixier, a police spokesman, said
the department has not asked the governor for a veto or taken an
official stance on the bill. Police and city officials declined
interview requests on the bill.

Colin Hunter, an Albuquerque attorney who has filed a class action
lawsuit against Albuquerque for its DWI seizures, said the bill will
rein in seizures in Albuquerque if signed into law.

"The city's not going to pony up and do this if they have to give the
money to the state," he said.

The bill was approved unanimously by the House and Senate during the
session that ended March 21, though it was not passed in the Senate
until the session's final day.

The governor told reporters at a news conference an hour after the
Legislature adjourned that she plans to review the legislation, but
did not offer any indication as to whether she will sign it.

"I'll have to look at it," said Martinez, who has until April 10 to
act on legislation approved during the session's final days. A
spokesman for the governor declined to comment further.

Rep. Zach Cook, R-Ruidoso, the bill's sponsor, said public awareness
of the issue has increased due to several highprofile recent incidents.

"Law enforcement agencies, at least some of them, are abusing the
system," said Cook, an attorney. "When you have cases of the
government seizing property without charges, people's ears perk up."

"Clearly, we have to be cautious when we provide the government with
this kind of power and authority," said Stratton, a Republican who
served as attorney general from 1987 through 1990.

Stratton also said this year's bill is not "anti-law enforcement"
legislation, adding law enforcement groups should be adequately
funded by state and local governments, and should not be reliant on
seizures to help balance their budgets.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Sat, 28 Mar 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/nYCK9Bux
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

CITY DA DROPS CHARGES IN BLAST

The Arrest Was a Test Case on the Validity of Concentrated-Pot Laws.

Denver prosecutors Friday dismissed all charges against a man whose
arrest became a test case for whether the state's laws against making
concentrated pot are still valid.

Paul Mannaioni, 24, was arrested last year in connection with a
marijuana hash-oil explosion. He had faced felony charges of arson
and manufacture of marijuana concentrate.

In a brief motion Friday, the Denver district attorney's office asked
for the charges against Mannaioni to be dismissed because "the People
are unable to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt."

Hash oil is a potent goop made by dissolving marijuana's active
chemicals from the underlying plant material. Some production methods
use highly flammable solvents.

Mannaioni was one of three people charged in connection with a
hash-oil explosion on Lipan Street a year ago. He had argued that
Amendment 64, the recreational marijuana measure, legalized the
processing of marijuana plants - thus making the state's law against
manufacturing marijuana concentrate unconstitutional. The state
attorney general's office disagreed.

After a lengthy hearing, a Denver judge rejected Mannaioni's
constitutional argument. But Mannaioni's attorney, Rob Corry, said he
probably would have raised the question more specifically again at
trial. He believes prosecutors were wary of convincing a jury that
making hash oil is a crime.

"That's what we probably would have prevailed on at trial," Corry said.

DA's office spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough disagreed. Instead, she said,
prosecutors were concerned they couldn't convince a jury that
Mannaioni was present at the crime.

"As the case went forward, we were unable to put Mr. Mannaioni in the
hashoil production part of that," she said.

Prosecutors also dismissed charges against one of Mannaioni's
co-defendants. Another co-defendant pleaded guilty, Kimbrough 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: Sat, 28 Mar 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/nSQ6kgoZ
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122

DON'T GIVE UP ON EDIBLES MANDATE

The state Senate's Health and Human Services Committee dug in its
heels Wednesday and, with a commendable 5-0 vote, gave a resounding
"no" to a proposal to water down current requirements that marijuana
edible products be easily identifiable - even outside their packaging.

That requirement has not yet been put in place at the manufacturing
end, admittedly, for several reasons.

First, a task force charged with making recommendations regarding
edible products' appearance threw up its hands in November and said
it couldn't reach consensus.

Second, state regulators say they are having trouble devising rules
given present statutory language.

And third, the official date for implementation is still not until
the end of this year.

Sen. Owen Hill, R-Colorado Springs, sought to give regulators "more
options" with Senate Bill 136, but his colleagues were not impressed.
To some, it seemed as if the state would be edging away from its
commitment made just last May that it would crack down on edibles
that were indistinguishable from common food items - and in some
cases, were those very items sprayed with cannabis infused oils and repackaged.

We credit Hill's good intentions - and those of state regulators, for
that matter - in trying to revise the current statute. And we
recognize that some marijuana products (a liquid, for example) would
be very difficult to make identifable outside a container. No doubt
that's why last year's legislation said the products should be
"clearly identifiable, when practicable ... ."

But most edible products can be made identifiable on their own and
some of those that can't be don't necessarily need to be on the
market. Amendment 64 never bestowed a constitutional right to retail
every conceivable variety of edible marijuana product, no matter how
confusing it might be to unwary consumers, let alone kids.

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

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Mar 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Jack A. Markell

END THE LOSS OF DRIVER'S LICENSES FOR DRUG CRIMES

To the Editor:

"Job Hunting With a Criminal Record" (editorial, March 19) rightly
highlights the unjust challenges ex-offenders face in the job market.
I applaud ban-the-box laws, which, as you say, "require employers to
consider applicants more fully before asking about their criminal
history," and we have done that for Delaware state jobs. To reduce
the number of people entering the criminal justice system, I'm
hopeful that my state will decriminalize possession of small amounts
of marijuana.

But the editorial doesn't mention a critical issue: A valid driver's
license is essential to earning and keeping a job, but wrongheaded
policies too often take it away.

Nationwide, we should eliminate the arbitrary loss of driver's
licenses for drug crimes that don't involve automobiles, something
I'm proud that Delaware did last year. In our small state alone,
nearly 800 nonviolent offenders a year will now have licenses
returned after release.

Many thousands more people lose their licenses because of difficulty
paying fines and fees. Everyone should work to pay back what he owes,
but we must reserve automatic suspension of licenses for only the
most serious of circumstances.

JACK A. MARKELL

Governor

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

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 27 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
Authors: Aaron C. Davis and Perry Stein

SEEDING DISTRICT'S ERA OF LEGAL POT

Hundreds Turn Out for Giveaway Intended to Promote Home Growing

The District witnessed a massive, public drug deal Thursday - and for
those involved, it was quite a bargain.

With D.C. police officers looking on, hundreds of city residents
lined up and then walked away from an Adams Morgan restaurant
carrying baggies containing marijuana seeds.

Taking advantage of a ballot measure approved last fall by voters
that legalized possession of the plant, the unprecedented giveaway
scattered what organizers said were thousands of pot seeds to
cultivate in homes and apartments across the nation's capital.

If D.C. residents have green thumbs, a homegrown crop of pot could be
ready for legal consumption by late summer.

The District is unique among the handful of jurisdictions that have
legalized pot for recreational use; under a prohibition by Congress,
buying and selling marijuana remains against the law. That made
Thursday's giveaway - and not the opening of stores for legal sales,
as has happened in Colorado and Washington state - the
highest-profile event to date marking the reality of legalization.

The line for the marijuana "seed share" at the Libertine bar and
restaurant snaked around 18th Street NW almost all the way to
Champlain Street. It included people of many ages and ethnic
backgrounds and from all corners of the city. Close to 8 p.m., it
also featured a pouring rain.

Wendell Myers didn't want to to stand at the back of a line hundreds
of people long, but he had no choice. He wanted marijuana seeds, and
this was the only place he could legally snag some.

"If I could buy it, I wouldn't need the seeds," said Myers, 53, who
lives in Petworth. "I can't grow anything. But it's a weed. I know
I've already been able to grow those in my back yard."

Thanks to Congress, the District has no ability to track the seeds
dispersed Thursday. That could feed a "gray market" for bartering and
other attempts to profit off legalization.

In Colorado, every seedling raised for the commercial sale of pot is
tracked with a 24-digit radio-frequency identification tag. Sales are
heavily taxed by the state, with the money going mostly to education.
In the District, thousands of plants could soon begin growing with no
such oversight or benefit to the city.

But proponents of the ballot measure say that a crop from amateur
growers could increase supply and reduce the market for illegal street sales.

The giveaway attracted no protest and little attention from official
Washington. D.C. police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump offered a short
comment went asked about the event: "Seed sharing is not prohibited."

Home growing was intended by the ballot measure, known as Initiative
71, which voters approved in November. The measure allowed for
owning, growing, sharing and smoking (out of public view) marijuana.
Each resident in the District is allowed to cultivate six seedlings
and up to three mature plants. The limit per household is 12 plants.

Growing pot in publicly subsidized housing complexes remains illegal
in the city under federal law.

"Home growth is what 70 percent of voters approved," said Adam
Eidinger, head of the seed giveaway's sponsor, D.C. Cannabis Campaign.

Near the entrance to Libertine, Eidinger was the marijuana maestro
Thursday night, wearing a red bandanna and ushering inside a
single-file line of grinning patrons with talk of the racial
injustices in D.C. jails that led him to spearhead the effort to
legalize marijuana.

Eidinger said he and about 50 people brought seeds to share. In the
days before the giveaway, thousands were divvied up according to
genetic strains. In bags of 10 to 20 seeds each, they were arrayed on
tables on the bar's second floor when the doors opened at 5:30 p.m.

Todd Kingman, 22, brought thousands of seeds from his personal
collection to give away. He wasn't specific about how he obtained
them but said he collected them over time and purchased at least some
from online seed banks abroad. He already grows marijuana at his home
near Adams Morgan and said he didn't mind handing out the seeds free.

"I wanted to give someone else an opportunity to do what I do," he said.

Outside, many in line declined to be interviewed or share their names
with reporters. But the giveaway was festive. An activist from People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals dressed in a cow costume and
handed out vegan snacks. The group's message: When the munchies
strike, "Say No to Pot (Roast)."

A second giveaway is planned Saturday at the cannabis campaign's
headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue off Dupont Circle. Eidinger said
1,300 people in all had signed up to attend the two events.

While Thursday's event marked the beginning of public use of
Initiative 71, it also amounted to the curtain call for the
successful campaign pushed by Eidinger and other hard-core advocates
of marijuana legalization in the District.

Under city election laws, the campaign must disband this spring and
discontinue organizing public events. Eidinger said he wishes it
could continue defending the law from critics. He said he plans to
form a new community group to continue promoting safe marijuana use,
and he will keep pressing members of Congress to allow the city to
set up a system to tax and regulate pot like Colorado does.

Of the seed giveaway, he said: "Once the campaign is over, we won't
be doing this every year. This is a one-time deal."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Mar 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/ZOAsvahh
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Ricardo Baca

OKLAHOMA MAN SHOOTS SELF AFTER EATING POT CANDIES

A 22-year-old Oklahoma man fatally shot himself with his gun on
Saturday while on a family ski vacation in Colorado, according to
reports from the Summit County sheriff's and coroner's offices.

The family of the man, Luke Gregory Goodman, is blaming his suicide
on the multiple doses of marijuana-infused edibles he ingested just
hours before his selfinflicted death, according to witnesses and reports.

Goodman, a Tulsa resident and graduate of Oral Roberts University,
died just after 4 a.m. Tuesday morning at St. Anthony's Hospital in
Lakewood after more than two days on life support, according to
Summit County Coroner Regan Wood.

"It was 100 percent the drugs," Goodman's mother, Kim, told Denver TV
station CBS4, noting her son was well-adjusted. "It was completely
because of the drugs - he had consumed so much of it."

When contacted by phone Thursday, Kim Goodman declined to comment.
She is planning a memorial service for her son Friday in Tulsa and is
calling for action against Colorado's marijuana laws.

"I would love to see edibles taken off the market," she told CBS4.

Wood said "the circumstances and manner surrounding the death are
consistent with a suicide." The cause of death, the coroner said, is
a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Summit County sheriff 's
spokeswoman Taneil Ilano said the case is under investigation.

Wood is awaiting a toxicology report, which could take three weeks.
Wood did note that witnesses said Goodman "had consumed a large
amount of edible marijuana candies prior to his death."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Mar 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/cDiFkvip
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact: openforum@denverpost.com
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Ricardo Baca

WILLIE NELSON TO OPEN WEED STORES

Move over, Marley Natural - the Bob Marley estate's global cannabis
brand poised to launch this year. Another famous weed-worshiping
musician is throwing his hat into the retail weed arena.

Willie Nelson, 81, let the cat out of the bag at the South by
Southwest music festival: Willie's Reserve branded marijuana will be
sold from branded storefronts in states where pot is legal starting next year.

"In the next calendar year that there will be movement," Nelson's
spokesman Michael Bowman told The Daily Beast. "As you can imagine,
it's not a problem in states like Colorado, Washington, Alaska.
There's a pretty clear path on where retail can go."

The retail concept was developed by Nelson's family, with
environmental and social issues in mind. The stores will sell
Willie's Reserve strains, as well as strains from other growers.
"There will be our own, and then there will be opportunities for
other growers, who meet quality standards," Bowman said. "It will be
like when you walk into a Whole Foods store. Whole Foods has their
365 brand, or you can buy Stonyfield, or you can buy Horizon. It'll
all fall under that umbrella of 'here's our core beliefs, and here's
our mission statement,' and they will be a part of that, to be a part of us."
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 26 Mar 2015
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact: sactoletters@newsreview.com
Website: http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: Ngaio Bealum

GREEN LEAVES, WHITE FACES

Hey, Ngaio. I am hella stoked that marijuana legalization is on the
way. However, when I go to conferences and look at marijuana
businesses, all I see are white faces. Are people of color going to
get a chance to get a piece of the legal marijuana game?

-Tokely Carmichael

Good question. In 2014, Michelle Alexander, author of the book The
New Jim Crow, said, "After 40 years of impoverished black men getting
prison time for selling weed, white men are planning to get rich
doing the same things. So that's why I think we have to start talking
about reparations for the war on drugs. How do we repair the harms
caused?" Reparations would be cool, but I feel like people would be
waiting forever for the government to pass anything close to a drug
war reparations bill. Fortunately, some activists and ganjaprenuers
have also noticed the whiteness of the green rush and have started
taking steps to keep marijuana culturally diverse.

I was just at the Oregon Medical Marijuana Business Conference. I
noticed more than one black person in the audience this time. That's
a good step. Steve DeAngelo from Harborside Health Center in Oakland
gave two talks, and reminded people more than once that diversity
should be viewed as a strength, not a grudging obligation. I also had
a chance to meet Jesce Horton from the Minority Cannabis Industry
Association (www.minoritycannabis.org) and talk to him about ways to
create more diversity in the industry. They are doing great things.
Check out my interview with him here: http://bit.ly/1HcE385.

Look, marijuana is still a gray-market industry, and law-enforcement
officers go after minorities first, so some trepidation is completely
understandable. I never tried to open a club because I didn't want to
be a target. However, I feel like now is the perfect time for more
entrepreneurs of color to get involved in the fastest growing
industry in America.

Happy spring! I want to grow some good old-fashioned outdoor
marijuana this year. What should I do?

-Mr. Green Jean

First: Check your local rules and regulations to make sure you aren't
violating any laws. California NORML's website has a good guide:
http://bit.ly/1ARxOzk. Call your local city hall if you are confused.
Nothing ruins a harvest more than the sheriff showing up just before
you are about to reap the bounty of your work. Next: Make sure you
have good dirt. Third: Put your plants in the dirt and care for them
as if they were your favorite children. Give them water and food and
shelter and keep them free of pests and pathogens. Sing to them.
Train them to stand tall in the sunshine and to grow strong in the
fall. Lovingly and tenderly cut them down when they are at their
peak. Have fun. Invite me over to help you trim. Happy cannabis!
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

xxx
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 2015
Source: SF Weekly (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Village Voice Media
Contact: http://www.sfweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters
Website: http://www.sfweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/812
Author: Chris Roberts

A Startup Is Banking on Cannabis Consumers Caring Where Their Weed Comes From

CANNABIS SUSTAINED AGRICULTURE

There's a new addition to farmers' markets in San Francisco of late:
At a table stacked with empty small mason jars, a few smiling young
fellows are handing out free apples.

The apples are bait. These guys are marijuana salesmen.

Stuck on each organic Fuji is a coupon for a free joint from
FlowKana, the latest San Francisco-based, app-hailed cannabis
delivery startup. FlowKana is a bit late to the "Uber for marijuana,
Lyft of pot" game - there are already at least three services
promising weed delivered to wherever you happen to be in under 10
minutes. So its angle is different: It'll deliver a product most
people don't want.

It sounds like a recipe for disaster. But it could work. There's
precedent. It relies on convincing conscientious consumers - the kind
of people who care that chickens led a happy, carefree life before
they were rendered into stock - to ask a few questions.

They're simple questions, but they're ones most pot smokers don't ask:

Who grew my weed, and why does it matter?

Most legal marijuana in America is grown indoors. This is partially a
result of prohibition, which drove pot farmers inside for pure
survival. It also drove demand.

Thanks largely to the reputation of cheap, poorly grown black market
weed - the kind sold in high schools and mall parking lots across the
country for most of our lives - outdoor marijuana is not held in high
regard by the typical consumer. At dispensaries, the cheapest bud on
offer is almost always grown outside.

"Outdoor" is such a bad word in cannabis circles that dispensaries
have rebranded the stuff "sungrown." It still sells for 20 to 30
percent less than indoor.

This is what FlowKana CEO Michael Steinmetz thinks he can get people
to buy at a premium. For "farm-to-table," "sustainable" marijuana,
the former organic vegetable trader is charging $50 an eighth - the
same price as top-shelf, mind-bending indoor.

So for the extra money, what do you get, aside from a guy on a
bicycle bringing you weed? You get "organically grown" weed (since
pot is federally illegal, there's no such thing as certified organic
yet). And in the same way you get a newsletter from the farmer in
Dixon in your CSA box, you get to know your farmer. In FlowKana's
case, you can even email him or her. Trading messages with
Cicero-quoting Casey O'Neil, a third-generation Mendocino cannabis
farmer, is absolutely something new in the billion-dollar cannabis
industry. As is sampling O'Neil's "heirloom" strains - Broken Arrow
Royal Kush, Long Valley Royal - the likes of which you cannot find in
the store.

You also won't get as high. This is a selling point. "Most commercial
marijuana is bred to have high amounts of THC and nothing else,"
Steinmetz says. "So you're just gonna get really fucking high, no
matter what other experience you have." O'Neil's weed, on the other
hand, "is more earthy, more mellow, more balanced... the word is just
more balanced."

Outdoor cannabis does have a small but extremely dedicated following.
They're not bargain seekers, they're aficionados who will outright
refuse to smoke anything grown inside.

It's hard to quantify, but there's something different about weed
grown using the sun. It tastes different. The high is different.

This is where Flowkana's customers - not to mention Steinmetz's
investors - have to take what sounds like a New Age leap of faith.
The sun, it appears, gives marijuana more flavor. This is
quantifiable in a cannabis flower's terpene count. Terpenes, put as
simply as possible, are what determines how a plant smells. More
cannabis users believe they also determine a high. It's those
terpenes that balance everything out.

Now all Steinmetz has to do is create a demand for the "Whole Foods of weed."

FlowKana's late February launch party was pure Silicon Valley
boomtimes. Guests were whisked to a redwood mansion in the Berkeley
hills with stunning views of the entire bay, a full bar, exquisite
snacks, an acrobat dangling from a length of red silk, and, of
course, loads of finger-sized joints of Casey's weed.

These parties serve one major purpose: Write-ups in TechCrunch, the
Verge, and other national press followed. But that was all weeks ago.
None of it will mean a thing unless the same crowd that prefers Uber
to taxi cabs out of pure cost and convenience - damn what it means
for workers - can be convinced to be mindful about its marijuana source.

There are a few things working in FlowKana's favor: economics and
climate change.

Indoor marijuana is expensive to produce. It takes a lot of
electricity to run grow lights. To grow a pound of indoor pot, you
need the energy created by burning up to 2,000 pounds of fossil
fuels. Not only is the sun sustainable, it's free. Once full
legalization hits California, farms using free solar energy to grow
crops will be able to undercut indoor's prices. It may soon be
cost-prohibitive to grow inside.

In the meantime, FlowKana is looking for the kind of people who hang
out at farmers markets, the folks who prefer Niman Ranch to
McDonald's. Farmers' markets are a good place to start. And at least
when smokers do finally ask where their weed comes from, there's an answer.
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 26 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

DRAINED DRY

A study published last week posits a parched forecast for several
North Coast watersheds that host concentrated marijuana cultivation sites.

The report, co-written by scientists from the California Department
of Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service,
outlines the stream-sucking impacts of grows in the areas of Upper
Redwood Creek, Salmon Creek and Redwood Creek South, located in
Humboldt County, and Mendocino County's Outlet Creek.

Using satellite imagery, stream flow data and anecdotal evidence
gathered by tagging along during raids, the team determined that in
three out of the four watersheds, "water demands for marijuana
cultivation exceed streamflow during low-flow periods."

In other words, the researchers predict that during summertime - when
growing marijuana plants require the most water and rainfall all but
ceases - many stream beds will dry up.

This won't come as much of a surprise to anyone who's seen maps like
the ones environmental biologist Scott Bauer (who co-authored the
study for Fish and Wildlife) has produced, showing clusters of grows
on tributaries of many North Coast rivers.

And while research areas contain tens of thousands of marijuana
plants, "the total number of registered, active diversions on file
with the State Water Resources Control Board accounted less than half
of the number of parcels with [grows] that were visible from aerial
imagery," the study reads. "In some watersheds, the number was as low
as 6 percent."

The research indicates that relatively small, private-land grows have
proliferated in the last two decades. Most of those rely on surface
water to irrigate crops, meaning big draws on streams from many
users. That adds up, the research shows, and it can have devastating effects.

"Flow modification is one of the greatest threats to aquatic
biodiversity," the report reads. But before now, most research on the
impacts of dewatering watersheds has been limited to large-scale
projects like hydroelectric dams.

The focus areas of the Fish and Wildlife study are rich in fragile
species, including the coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead trout,
each of which are considered threatened by the federal and/or state government.

Even for the larger streams that aren't anticipated to run completely
dry, lower flows are correlated with rising temperatures, which
hinder salmon's ability to reproduce and survive. "Given the specter
of climate change-induced ... droughts and diminished summer stream
flows in the region, continued diversions at a rate necessary to
support the current scale of marijuana cultivation in Northern
California could be catastrophic for aquatic species," the report reads.

Fish, amphibians and other water-reliant wildlife aren't the
researchers' only concern either. "On a localized scale, with
regional implications, this study detects an emerging threat to not
only aquatic biodiversity but also human water security, since
surface water supplies most of the water for domestic uses in
watersheds throughout Northwestern California."

One can imagine a farmer, surprised by a usually reliant stream's
mid-season shrinkage, taking matters into his or her own hands and
stalking up a creek bed with bolt cutters, lopping every upstream
water pipe along the way.

Bauer and his co-authors call for more research of streamflow
impacts, more enforcement of illegal diversions, more education of
best practices for growers, and careful attention to land use
policies for local and state legislators. (Read the full 25-page report here.)

After all, pot is for smoking; water's for fighting.
__________________________________________________________________________
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, 26 Mar 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Frances O'Neill Zimmerman

DRUG ADDICTS AREN'T INNOCENT

Re "A gentle lamb taken by wolves," Opinion, March 22

Author Kerry Madden should keep going to Al-Anon. She's still
struggling to understand what's happened to her son, a recovering
addict, and his dead friend Noah, and she never reveals what their
gateway drug may have been. Could it have been pot?

But Madden's confusion and pain testify to the scourge of drug
addiction. It takes money, silence, complicity with other users,
deals with dealers, and lies upon lies to loved ones and to oneself
to become an addict. No one is a "lamb." No one is a "wolf."

No addict is the person you once knew. Everyone involved gets burned
- the addict, the friends, the family. Some addicts die. Some addicts
live permanently impaired. Some addicts get sober and live to rebuild.

Frances O'Neill Zimmerman

La Jolla
__________________________________________________________________________
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