Lou Dobbs - “Some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day.”
The American Medical Assn. changes its policy to promote clinical research and development of cannabis-based medicines and alternative delivery methods.
The American Medical Assn. on Tuesday urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research.
The nation's largest physicians organization, with about 250,000 member doctors, the AMA has maintained since 1997 that marijuana should remain a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive category, which also includes heroin and LSD.
In changing its policy, the group said its goal was to clear the way to conduct clinical research, develop cannabis-based medicines and devise alternative ways to deliver the drug.
"Despite more than 30 years of clinical research, only a small number of randomized, controlled trials have been conducted on smoked cannabis," said Dr. Edward Langston, an AMA board member, noting that the limited number of studies was "insufficient to satisfy the current standards for a prescription drug product."
The decision by the organization's delegates at a meeting in Houston marks another step in the evolving view of marijuana, which an AMA report notes was once linked by the federal government to homicidal mania. Since California voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 1996, marijuana has moved steadily into the cultural mainstream spurred by the growing awareness that it can have beneficial effects for some chronically ill people.
This year, the Obama administration sped up that drift when it ordered federal narcotics agents not to arrest medical marijuana users and providers who follow state laws. Polls show broadening support for marijuana legalization.
Thirteen states allow the use of medical marijuana, and about a dozen more have considered it this year.
The AMA, however, also adopted as part of its new policy a sentence that admonishes: "This should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product."
The association also rejected a proposal to issue a more forceful call for marijuana to be rescheduled.
Nevertheless, marijuana advocates welcomed the development. "They're clearly taking an open-minded stance and acknowledging that the evidence warrants a review. That is very big," said Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. "It's not surprising that they are moving cautiously and one step at a time, but this is still a very significant change."
Advocates also noted that the AMA rejected an amendment that they said would have undercut the medical marijuana movement. The measure would have made it AMA's policy that "smoking is an inherently unsafe delivery method for any therapeutic agent, and therefore smoked marijuana should not be recommended for medical use."
Dr. Michael M. Miller, a psychiatrist who practices addiction medicine, proposed the amendment. "Smoking is a bad delivery system because you're combusting something and inhaling it," he said.
Reaction from the federal government was muted.
Dawn Dearden with the Drug Enforcement Administration said: "At this point, it's still a Schedule I drug, and we're going to treat it as such." The Food and Drug Administration declined to comment.
In a statement, the office of the White House drug czar reiterated the administration's opposition to legalization and said that it would defer to "the FDA's judgment that the raw marijuana plant cannot meet the standards for identity, strength, quality, purity, packaging and labeling required of medicine."
The DEA classifies drugs into five schedules, with the fifth being the least-restrictive. Schedule II drugs, such as cocaine and morphine, are considered to have a high potential for abuse, but also to have accepted medical uses.
Several petitions have been filed to reschedule marijuana. The first, filed in 1972, bounced back and forth between the DEA and the courts until it died in 1994. A petition filed in 2002 is under consideration.
Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, said that advocates hoped the petition would receive more attention. "Given the change of heart by the AMA, there is every opportunity for the Obama administration to do just that," he said.
In a report released with its new policy, the AMA notes that the organization was "virtually alone" in opposing the first federal restrictions on marijuana, which were adopted in 1937. Cannabis had been used in various medicinal products for years, but fell into disuse in the early 20th century.
Sunil Aggarwal, a medical student at the University of Washington, helped spark the AMA's reconsideration after he researched marijuana's effect on 186 chronically ill patients. "I had reason to believe that there was medical good that could come from these products, and I wanted to see AMA policy reflect that," he said.
The AMA is not the only major doctors organization to rethink marijuana. Last year, the American College of Physicians, the second-largest physician group, called for "rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana" and an "evidence-based review of marijuana's status as a Schedule I controlled substance."
Last month, the California Medical Assn. passed resolutions that declared the criminalization of marijuana "a failed public health policy" and called on the organization to take part in the debate on changing current policy.
West Memphis police busted eight members of Wu-Tang's Clan's entourage on Monday during a traffic stop for speeding. DJ Mathematics and Streetlife were among those arrested. The Drug Task Force seized 18 bags of weed, 110 Ecstasy pills and $8,615 on the smoked-out tour bus.
The bus - apparently en route to the Snoop Dogg show featuring Wu-Tang member Method Man in Tunica, Mississippi - was pulled over at 9 pm on Nov. 9 at Exit 276 on I-40 in Arkansas just west of Memphis.
“When the officer approached the bus, it was like a Cheech & Chong movie," says Captain Donald Oakes. "He smelled the odor and at that point he knew.” Adds West Memphis Police Chief Robert Paudert: "They recovered 18 or 19 bags of marijuana, a jar of marijuana and 110 ecstasy tablets."
Each was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to sale or deliver, taken to the Crittenden County Jail and released on bond the next day. The bus driver, who was clocked at 70 mph in a 65 mph zone, received a speeding ticket.
According to Boombox, "Mathematics produced Ghostface's Mighty Healthy album, released in 2000. Streetlife was signed to Meth's record label and made his debut appearance on his 1994 album Tical. They released the album Back to Back: Raw and Uncut in 2008."
We are handing one of our biggest industries over to armed, criminal gangs
The proponents of the "war on drugs" are well-intentioned people who believe they are saving people from the nightmare of drug addiction and making the world safer. But this self-image has turned into a faith – and like all faiths, it can only be maintained by cultivating a deliberate blindness to the evidence.
The recent furore about the British government's decision to fire its chief scientific advisor on drugs, Professor David Nutt, missed the point. Yes, it is shocking that he was ditched for pointing out the mathematical truth that taking ecstasy is less dangerous than horse-riding, and that smoking cannabis is less harmful than drinking alcohol. But this is how the war on drugs has to be fought. The unofficial slogan of the prohibitionists for decades has been: The facts will only undermine the war, so invent some that show how successful we are, fast.
Look at the United States, the country that pioneered the drug war, and still uses its military and diplomatic might to demand the rest of the world cracks down. In 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy was ordered by Congress to stop funding any scientific research that might give the impression that we should redirect funding from anti-trafficking busts into medical treatment of addicts, or that there is any argument to legalise, regulate or medicalise drug use.
It's Nutt cubed: only tell us what we want to hear. So, to give a small example, the ONDCP spent $14bn on anti-cannabis adverts aimed at teenagers, and $43m to find out if the ads worked. They discovered that kids who saw the ads were more likely afterwards to get stoned, so the evidence was suppressed, and the ad campaign marched on.
What would happen if we started to build our drugs policy around the facts, rather than our desire for a fuzzy feeling inside? Prof Nutt only took baby steps in this direction before he was booted out. He argued that we should rank drugs by the harm they do, rather than by the size of the panicked headlines they trigger. Now the row is fading, it is possible to see how conservative he was. A must-read new report out this week – "After The War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation", by the Transform Drug Policy Foundation – follows the facts as far as they will take us. It shows that the rational solution is to take the drug market back from the unregulated anarchy of criminal gangs, and transfer it to pharmacists, off-licences, and doctors who operate in the legal economy. To see why this is necessary, we have to look at some of the facts our politicians refuse to see:
Fact One The drug war hands one of our biggest industries to armed criminal gangs, who unleash terrible violence across the country. When alcohol was prohibited in the US in the 1920s, it didn't vanish. No: armed gangsters like Al Capone stepped in and sold it – and they shot anybody who got in their way. Yet today, Wine Rack does not shoot up Threshers. Oddbins does not threaten to kill anybody who sees its staff selling wine. Why? Because it wasn't the booze that caused the violence; it was the prohibition. Once alcohol was reclaimed for legal businesses, the dealer-on-dealer violence swiftly stopped.
Where there is a huge profit to be made in a black market – it's 3,000 per cent on drugs today – people will fight and kill to control it. Arrest a dealer, and you simply trigger a new war for his patch, with the rest of us caught in the crossfire. In 1986, the Nobel-prize winning economist, Milton Friedman, calculated that there are 10,000 murders in the US alone every year caused this way. Legalise, and you bankrupt most organised crime overnight. With their profits in freefall, the gangsters don't suddenly become cuddly – but the huge financial incentives >> http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-accept-the-facts-ndash-and-end-this-futile-war-on-drugs-1818167.htmlWe are handing one of our biggest industries over to armed, criminal gangs
The... more
Editors Note: This article was written last Remembrance Day by Steve Rolles of the UK's Transform Drug Policy Foundation. Besides a steady growth in US Troop levels, political strife, and death tolls, little has changed in Afghanistan - and this post is as poignant today as it was a year ago.
Remembrance Sunday, a tradition that seemed to be waning in its national importance, has assumed a new meaning and relevance for the younger generations with the event of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The day is still marked by the wearing of poppies, a tradition that grew out of the emergence of the flowers on the battlefields in the Flanders and Picardy regions of Belgium and Northern France at the end of World War I.
It is hard to escape the dual-symbolism of the poppy in relation to the Afghanistan conflict. Over 800 coalition soldiers have died in Afghanistan, over a hundred of them British - at least some of which have been as a direct result of anti-drug operations aimed at eradicating the poppy harvest that provides the raw opium that in turn feeds over 90% the West's demand for illicit heroin. Many more Afghans have also died, both combatants and civilians. The symbolic historical links of the poppy with death are not just the blood red from battle fields but also the opium connection; the poppy being used as a traditional tombstone emblem to symbolise eternal sleep.
The Afghan conflict is, of course, more complex than merely a war on drugs, but the massive illicit profits that flow from the poppy fields are fueling the violence, and helping destabilize the entire region. Eradication of the illicit trade is a key element of the coalition and now NATO strategies into which billions of pounds has been poured, and for which no let up is on the horizon. Yet there is nothing from the experience of the past 7 years to suggest it is even remotely possible, as recent bumper harvests and stockpiling demonstrate.
It also needs to be repeated that it is the prohibition of opiates for non medical use that creates the illicit trade in the first instance. There is no violence, criminal profiteering or terrorism associated with the 50% of global poppy production (for medical use) that is entirely legal and regulated. It is prohibition that creates the link between drugs and terror, and prohibition that is responsible for the nexus of their respective wars - which become increasingly difficult to disentangle as each year passes.
If we do make the terrible decision to send soldiers to war, with all the consequences and bloodshed that entails, then we should have a damn good reason for doing it. An unwinnable and counterproductive war against drugs comes nowhere close. Whilst we remember our fallen soldiers with poppies, we should not forget that their fellow soldiers continue to die in a pointless fight against poppies.
We may not know yet how to solve the complex issues of international terrorism, but we do know how to solve the problems created by the drug war.
- Article from Transform Drug Policy Foundation on November 10, 2008.
The tailspin may be over, but no one's suggesting that bedrock industries of the Michigan economy like cars and real estate are headed for boom times again.
The Michigan marijuana economy, on the other hand, appears to be going gangbusters.
Once largely underground, activity linked to the cultivation and use of pot is now in full public view thanks to voter approval in 2008 of marijuana use for medicinal purposes.
Equipment manufacturers, retailers, doctors, lawyers and publishers are suddenly advertising, hanging up shingles, opening storefronts and building growing equipment all over the state.
But suppliers of the newly defined medicine -- the certified caregivers who can grow up to 12 plants a year for as many as five clients -- are, so far, less visible in part because the distinction between legal commerce and criminal activity isn't always clear.
"There's a whole lot going on," said Matthew Abel, a Detroit attorney who has become a sort of medical marijuana specialist, "and it's going to keep growing."
Like a weed.
Medical pot opportunities flourish
Rick Ferris worked 25 years in construction until a debilitating leg condition took him off ladders. Then he got into landscaping and was doing OK until 2008, when "every laid-off guy with a truck" in southeast Michigan started mowing lawns.
But Ferris isn't complaining. In fact, things are looking up at Big Daddy's, site of his latest venture, an Oak Park facility to manufacture hydroponic growing systems. The kind used for growing marijuana.
Ferris, 46, is one of an increasing number of Michiganders looking to cash in on last year's voter-approved initiative that legalized the use of medical marijuana. In addition to his manufacturing operation (which shares space with the still-operating landscape business), Ferris is set to publish next month the first issue of the Michigan Medical Marijuana magazine.
So far, so good, he said in a recent interview.
Since getting under way in the spring, Ferris has hired five employees, three of them full-time. He has sold at least 140 hydroponic (soilless) growing systems and said without them, the landscaping business would have closed.
Endocannabinoids are derivatives of arachidonic acid (and of other poly-unsaturated fatty acids), that have been discovered approximately 15 years ago. Nowadays they are recognized as a new class of lipid signaling molecules, that play several central and peripheral roles. Endocannabinoids are endogenous ligands of brain-type (CB1) and spleen-type (CB2) cannabinoid receptors, that bind also an exogenous ligand like Δ9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of Cannabis sativa.
CB1 receptors have been found mainly in the central nervous system, but they are also present in lymphocytes, ovary, uterine endometrium, testis, vas deferens, urinary bladder, and other peripheral endocrine and neurological tissues. CB2 receptors have been identified mainly in immune cells, but are expressed also in astrocytes and in the brain stem.The best characterized endocannabinoids are N-arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide, AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), that are prototype members of two types of compounds: the fatty acid amides and the monoacylglycerols, respectively. These lipids are not stored in intracellular compartments, but are synthesised from membrane precursors through multiple biosynthetic pathways; therefore, they are released “on demand” by neurons and peripheral cells. AEA is produced mainly by a transacylase-phosphodiesterase-mediated pathway, starting from the precursor N-arachidonoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine through the action of N-archidonoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE) hydrolysis, catalysed by a specific phospholipase D (NAPE-PLD). The biosynthetic pathway of 2-AG provides for rapid hydrolysis of inositol phospholipids by a specific phospholipase C; this enzyme generates diacylglycerol (DAG), which is subsequentially converted to 2-AG by a sn-1-DAG lipase. The biological effects of AEA and 2-AG depend on their life span in the extracellular space, which is limited by a rapid transport through the plasma membrane. Both compounds have been proposed to be taken up by cells through a specific carrier, but the identity of this putative entity is still a controversal issue. Once inside the cells, endocannabinoids can be metabolized by multiple pathways; AEA is a substrate for fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), that breaks the amide bond and releases arachidonic acid and ethanolamine, whereas 2-AG is degraded to arachidonic acid and glycerol mainly by a specific monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL). As mentioned above, AEA and 2-AG act primarily at cannabinoid receptors. These are seven trans-membrane spanning receptors that belong to the rhodopsin family of G protein-coupled receptors, particularly those of the Gi/o group. The binding of endocannabinoids to CB receptors triggers various signaling pathways, such as the inhibition of adenylyl cyclase, the regulation of ionic currents (inhibition of voltage-gated L, N and P/Q-type Ca2+ channels, activation of K+ channels), the activation of focal adhesion kinase, of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and of cytosolic phospholipase A2, and the activation (CB1) or the inhibition (CB2) of nitric oxide synthetase. In addition, recently an unprecedented coupling of CB1 to Gq/11 proteins has been shown, suggesting further diversity of CB1 signaling. Furthermore, there is some evidence that endocannabinoids induce a biological activity via other CB receptors, like a purported CB3 (GPR55) receptor, via non-CB1/non-CB2 receptors, and via non-cannabinoid receptors. In the latter group, type-1 vanilloid receptor (now called transient receptor potential vanilloid 1, TRPV1) has emerged as an important target of AEA, but remarkably not of 2-AG. TRPV1 is a six trans-membrane spanning protein with intracellular N - and C - terminals; this ligand-gated and non-selective cationic c-terminals; this ligand-gated and non-selective cationic channel is activated by molecules derived from plants, such as the pungent component of “hot” red peppers capsaicin, by noxious stimuli like heat and protons, and by peptides contained in spider toxins. AEA is so far the only “endovanilloid” known, behaving as an authentic (though weak) endogenous ligand of TRPV1. In the last 5 years endocannabinoids have emerged as key-mediators of several central and peripheral pathophysiological processes. In fact they act as retrograde neurotransmitters, and as neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory substances, taking part in neuronal circuitries that include dopaminergic, glutamatergic and GABAergic transmission. In addition, they participate in signaling networks that include cytokines (e.g., interleukins, growth factors, interferon-γ and tumor necrosis factor-α), and steroid hormones (e.g., progesterone, 17-β-estradiol and glucocorticoids). Furthermore, only recently new endocannabinoids (like N-arachidonoyldopamine) have been discovered, that along with “endocannabinoid-like” molecules (e.g., N-oleoylethanolamine and N-palmitoylethanolamine) are able to activate unexpected molecular targets like TRPV1, peroxisome proliferator activator receptors (PPAR), and CB3. Against this background, it is not surprising that endocannabinoid signaling is at the basis of neuroinflammatory diseases (like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), of cancer cell survival and death, of immune response and of metabolic disease. For instance, endocannabinoids have been shown to regulate food intake, and in fact a selective CB1 antagonist is available on several markets as the first anti-obesity drug for humans. Last but not least, human reproduction is under the control of endocannabinoid signaling, that regulates oviductal transport and implantation of embryos (on the female side), as well as spermatogenic output, sperm viability and motility (on the male side).Taken together, endocannabinoids have emerged as widespread signaling molecules, which take part in neuronal circuitries and cytokine-hormone networks that impact to different extents a number of pathophysiological conditions in humans.
"I’m on MSNBC today, on the Dr. Nancy Snyderman Show, around 12:45 (eastern) for what I’m sure will be a brief and silly ‘debate’ with a yet-to-be-announced prohibitionist about the AMA decision yesterday to endorse a re-scheduling of cannabis for research purposes and medicinal access."
[Editor's Note: This essay was originally published on March 1st, 2009. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's deconstruction and the fall of Communism being recognized around the world this week, and with the ever-falling support for cannabis prohibition in America, this essay from NORML board member George Rohrbacher seems even more apropos today than last March.]
It is said that almost everyone in the marijuana law reform movement has a seminal moment they can point to when their public activism started. My moment was in the fall, six years ago.
I’m a past president of our local Kiwanis Club. I’ve been a member for years; we meet for breakfast at 6:30am, every Wednesday morning. My fateful “activism moment” was meeting face-to-face with one morning’s Kiwanis Club program, our town’s newly acquired dope dog. Some rock-ribbed citizen had left money in his will for the city to buy a dope dog for our town of 3,000, in a county of 18,000 people. The dog’s handler and the police chief were up at the speaker’s table. I had to fight back the urge to turn around and run.
As I sat down at my usual spot, ordered breakfast and clipped on my Kiwanis Club nametag, my heart was just racing! Thank God, my neck pain had not been severe enough that morning that it had required some marijuana medication, because, I imagined, triggered by the smell of freshly consumed ganja, that huge German Shepard would have leaped from the podium to pin me down to the floor, the dog’s sharp white teeth snarling and snapping at my throat.
As we went through club business about our kid’s reading program, ate breakfast and conducted the normal chit-chat that makes Kiwanis Club so enjoyable, I slowly calmed myself. I had not been found out as a marijuana user, yet. There was no need for me to panic, because the likelihood that I would be found out now by this agent of the state, was growing smaller and smaller by the moment. But, as the primal fear drained away, it started to piss me off; this dope dog was invading my space.
The dog handler got up and spoke glowingly about his charge, the alpha male of his litter. This dog had been born of a long and impressive pedigree in Baden-something, formerly East Germany. Looking at me from across the room was the pride of the jack-booted police state, the purebred German Shepard—smart, vicious, relentless.
The dog handler went chirping on, to mostly nodding heads, about what a fantastic dog he had and how many pot busts he had already made with it. Suddenly, all I could think was: This dog was born in East Germany, it’s father could have pulled someone down off the Berlin Wall…this dog’s great-grandfather would have marched the Jews or Gypsies to the ovens at Buchenwald or Auschwitz… And now, my own little town had a new resident from the same police dog gene pool that serviced the two most brutal totalitarian regimes in the history of the mankind!
Scenes from my childhood of when German Shepards attacked the Civil Rights marchers at Selma floated before my eyes… This well-groomed dog was a tool of the modern police state in all its scariest manifestations. The more I thought about it, the madder and madder I got.
I paid my breakfast bill and left in the first wave. I drove back out to the ranch and fed our cows their daily ration of hay, all the while mulling over my close brush with the dope dog. By the time I got done with my chores and back to the house, I absolutely had to do something! I picked up my telephone and called NORML, and I volunteered for the fight that very day…our fight for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”
The Prohibition against drug use is causing more trouble and expense than the drug use itself, former Gov. Gary Johnson said in a live interview on KRQE News 13.
In this episode of Cannabis Culture's "Reality Check" - Footage of the Canada-wide FREE MARC RALLY (Saturday November 7th, 2009) at Dona Cadman's(Conservative Party) North Surrey, BC office. A special Thank You goes out to all of you across Canada that participated in the Free Marc Rally http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLTu2E2ZrWc&feature=player_embeddedIn this episode of Cannabis Culture's "Reality Check" - Footage of the Canada-wide... more
Anti-pot propaganda drives most people to drink alcohol instead. But booze is far more dangerous than marijuana.
Professor David Nutt didn’t play the game. As the chief drug policy advisor in the British Government, an unspoken part of his job description was to help maintain a public fiction about marijuana – or cannabis, as it is known in the U.K. and other parts of the world. Specifically, he was expected to further the misperception of cannabis as a substance worthy of being classified and prohibited in a manner similar to more dangerous drugs like heroin and cocaine.
He made a big mistake at the end of last month. In a lecture at King’s College in London, he spoke honestly – and truthfully – about the fact that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and urged the government to factor the relative harms of substances into their policy-making. Moreover, he accused the British government of ignoring the evidence about the true harms of cannabis in order to reclassify the drug and increase penalties for possession.
Reacting with the logic and reason of pub patron after last call, Home Secretary Alan Johnson immediately demanded that Prof. Nutt resign as the head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He said Prof Nutt had "crossed the line between offering advice and … campaigning against the government on political decisions."
More accurately, Prof. Nutt crossed the line between deceiving citizens and being honest with them. The home secretary, a former member of Parliament, is no doubt comfortable with a little verbal jousting over public policy decisions. What he could not abide by was a top ranking official threatening the anti-cannabis mythology embraced at the very top level of government. Based on Nutt’s fateful bout of truthfulness, Johnson said he had “lost confidence” in Nutt as an advisor.
In a letter to Professor Nutt, Mr. Johnson explained how the system is supposed to work. He said: "As Home Secretary it is for me to make decisions, having received advice from the [Council] ... It is important that the Government's messages on drugs are clear and as an adviser you do nothing to undermine the public understanding of them ... I am afraid the manner in which you have acted runs contrary to your responsibilities."
The Home Secretary’s chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson put a similar spin on this hostile reaction to fact-based statements to the public. "These things are best sorted out behind the scenes,” he said, “so that the government and their advisers can go to the public with a united front."
In the real world, what this means is that advisors are free to provide research or reports based on an honest assessment of the scientific evidence, but when this research is completely ignored in setting policy, they are expected to keep their mouths shut and move on as if nothing ever happened.
This is all part of the game the government plays in order to maintain marijuana prohibition. In the United States, there are many examples of significant advisory opinions related to marijuana being completely ignored – even where the opinions were part of a decision-making process that should have led to action by the federal government.
In 1970, Congress established the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse to study marijuana and make recommendations about how to control its use. The Commission’s final report suggested removal of criminal penalties, noting, “The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior.” President Nixon ignored the Commission’s findings and launched and all-out war on marijuana users.
In 1988, Francis Young, an administrative law judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), following hearings to determine whether marijuana should be placed into a less restrictive category under the Controlled Substances Act, wrote that marijuana should be moved from Schedule I (theAnti-pot propaganda drives most people to drink alcohol instead. But booze is far more... more
Riding on the wave of President Obama’s memo to end DEA interference in states’ medical marijuana laws and an unprecedented response from the media, Oregon NORML’s Cannabis Café opens at 4:20pm on November 13, 2009 at 700 NE Dekum St, Portland, OR 97211.
“The response has been overwhelming,” says Madeline Martinez, Executive Director of Oregon NORML. “We are excited to be able to provide a safe place for patients to medicate that is out of public view within the guidelines of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA).”
Many patients travel to Portland for medical care and treatment and have no place they can go to use their medicine during those often exhausting and intensive trips. “Do they go out into an alley and hide in the back of their car?” Martinez said. “There needs to be a place, much like our meetings, where people can socialize and network.”
In the week since the announcement of the café’s opening, stories have appeared in most major Oregon newspapers and television stations. Martinez appeared on OPB’s Think Out Loud talk show and attended the local neighborhood association meeting to reassure the public that the café will be operated at the highest of standards and strives to be a positive addition to the area.
Members must be registrants of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) and members of Oregon NORML to gain entrance to the café. Please contact Oregon NORML for more information on the message line 503-239-6110. Details and information will also be available at www.ornorml.org as they become available.
Taxing medical marijuana sales is an idea worth considering, not because it is a potential cash cow for fiscally constrained governments, but because it could raise revenue needed to cover the services the flourishing businesses will require.
But caution is in order. There are some dominoes that need to fall first.
The topic came up again last week, as Denver City Council members Chris Nevitt and Charlie Brown publicly expressed support for imposing a city sales tax on medical marijuana sales. "We've got to tax this damn thing at the city rate, which is 3.62 percent," Brown told us. "We're talking millions of dollars here."
And that may be. But some questions about legality of taxation and the future of medical marijuana have to be answered first. And we think that overall, cities such as Denver ought not look to the emerging industry as a windfall that could close budget gaps.
First, the legality of taxing the commodity is up in the air.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is researching the issue, and his decision will turn on whether the substance is deemed a prescription or something more like an herbal remedy.
The latter seems more likely, since marijuana isn't a drug that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And herbal remedies are already taxed.
Second, we don't think governments ought to take advantage of the medical marijuana laws in the way that so-called "ganjapreneurs" have been doing.
Meaning, governments would be just as wrong to reap great wads of cash from back-door legalization efforts as are the mass dispensaries, some of which are just barely pretending to be serving the most infirm among us.
Amendment 20, which passed in 2000, did not approve the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, despite the wishful thinking of some.
Furthermore, legislators are poised to address the medical marijuana issue in the upcoming session, which begins in January, and their decisions could seriously affect how medical marijuana is delivered in Colorado. (See Alicia Caldwell's article from today's Perspective section.)
If their decisions shrink the number and reach of distributors, then a basic sales tax should be enough.
But if lawmakers create a structure that encourages a broader distribution model — with attendant regulatory and service requirements — then other fees and taxes would be worth contemplating.
It would seem prudent, we think, to wait until the shape of medical marijuana is more clearly defined before settling on a taxing structure.
It's smart to get ahead of the game and contemplate the tax and revenue-generating alternatives. But we hope governments will exhibit some foresight and restraint before they make decisions they might have to revise once the medical marijuana landscape is clearly defined.
SEBASTOPOL, Calif. -- A surge in medical marijuana in California has left communities trying to regulate or ban the drug. This wine country town has welcomed a dispensary as a strong source of tax revenue during the recession.
Peace in Medicine marijuana dispensary is a clean, modern operation in a former auto dealership, and has more registered patients than the town has residents. It could easily be mistaken for a doctor's office, if not for the three security guards and overwhelming skunky smell of pot.
"I guess I had my prejudices that it was going to have bars on the windows and be something very obvious and unappealing to the public," longtime city councilman Larry Robinson said.
Now the dispensary is about to open a second location, next to a Starbucks.
"I'm the luckiest guy in the world to be leading this thing," said Peace in Medicine's operator, Robert Jacob.
In Los Angeles - the marijuana dispensary capital of the country - about 800 dispensaries are estimated to have opened despite a 2007 order halting new pot operations.
The explosion is blamed on a loophole in the City Council's moratorium. Final regulations are still not in place.
The struggle has been linked to the vagueness of the ballot initiative that California voters passed in 1996 legalizing medical use of the drug. The measure makes no mention of how or where the drug can be sold.
"I think Los Angeles has made this more difficult by not having acted sooner," said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, a pro-medical marijuana group. "There has been pressure for a long time on the City Council to do something."
The issue took on greater urgency after the Obama administration announced looser federal marijuana guidelines last month.
Federal crackdowns followed the 1996 vote, and fear of prosecution kept pot storefronts out of many areas. But looser federal guidelines, first signaled by Attorney General Eric Holder in February and further outlined in an October memo, have emboldened would-be dispensary operators. The new guidelines simply instruct federal prosecutors to avoid prosecution when dispensaries comply with state medical marijuana laws.
Sacramento is looking to other pot-tolerant cities such as San Francisco, Oakland and Malibu for insight into keeping medical marijuana available but in check.
Most of the state capital's 39 registered dispensaries opened this year before the city passed an emergency moratorium in June.
"They're seeing a little bit of leniency in the federal government that they haven't seen before," said Michelle Heppner, who is leading the city's effort to regulate dispensaries. "They're seeing this as a perfect time in their movement to progress."
One key for cities is finding a way to ensure dispensaries truly operate as nonprofits as called for by state Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Officials in Fresno have decided the best way to avoid problems with dispensaries is to not have any. In 2006, the City Council passed a zoning ordinance requiring any pot dispensaries to comply with both state and federal law, and the U.S. government still bans the drug outright.
A state judge last month sided against nine Fresno dispensaries that opened this year, upholding the zoning ordinance that forbids them and ordering them to close.
Smaller cities are also turning to zoning laws. In Claremont, a college town about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, Darrell Kruse sought to open a dispensary in mid-2006 but the zoning code did not permit them.
Kruse opened Claremont All-Natural Nutrition Aids Buyers Information Service (CANNABIS) anyway. Several months later, he was convicted of operating without a business license and fined. A state court rejected his appeal.
Federal government lawyers will ask a judge today to throw out the case of an Ontario restaurant owner who wants one of his former patrons stripped of his right to smoke medical marijuana.
This is the latest manoeuvre in the legal battle between Ted Kindos, owner of Gator Ted's Tap and Grill in Burlington, and former customer Steve Gibson.
The restaurant owner is facing a human rights complaint for asking Mr. Gibson not to light up outside his business.
So Mr. Kindos is looking for a declaration from the Federal Court that people with a permit to smoke medicinal marijuana cannot do so in a public place or any licensed establishment.
He also wants the court to order Health Canada not to renew the permit of his former patron, arguing Mr. Gibson has not been in compliance with its terms of use.
Mr. Gibson contends in his human rights complaint that he's being discriminated against because he has a disability. Mr. Kindos argues he could lose his liquor licence if he allows Mr. Gibson to smoke or hold the controlled substance in or out front of his restaurant.
The case is one of three dealing with medical marijuana working its way through the human rights complaints process in Ontario.
In court documents, federal government lawyers said they are seeking to dismiss the case, arguing there is no dispute that requires adjudication because Health Canada does not purport to authorize permit holders to smoke marijuana in violation of any applicable law or in an establishment subject to Ontario's liquor licensing laws.
The regulations are "completely silent" in terms of where and when Mr. Gibson is authorized to use marijuana for medical reasons and there is no evidence he disregarded the terms of his permit in any way, according to the documents.
In addition, they argue Mr. Kindos lacks the standing to challenge Mr. Gibson's permit renewal and that the regulations do not authorize Health Canada to refuse renewal of a permit on the basis an applicant has "flagrantly disregarded its terms."
But Mr. Kindos's lawyer, Gary Graham, said in court documents the medical marijuana regulations do allow Health Canada to refuse to renew a permit if any information, statement or other item in the renewal application is false or misleading.
He said compliance with the regulations also includes following an information document issued to permit holders advising that controlled substances should not be consumed in public places or in contravention of other applicable federal or provincial laws.
As the mother of an autistic child, Marie Myung-Ok Lee is navigating uncharted territory as she struggles to manage her son's condition. She has bravely come forward to share her son's battle with this mysterious disorder, and to discuss how medical marijuana has brought them both back from the brink of despair.
During what Marie calls the "dark phase," her son J had unpredictable mood swings that could erupt into fitful rages. Her 9-year-old would scream during lengthy tantrums, he refused to eat and threw his food on the floor. J broke plates, windows, and other household items as a way of expressing his pain and frustration. The family would hide out within the confines of their home until the darkness passed.
J's behavior disrupted his school performance and terrified the staff. "The teachers were wearing tae kwon do arm pads to protect themselves against his biting," Marie said. The school monitored J's daily outbursts on an "aggression chart" that documented as many as 300 episodes in one day that involved hitting, kicking, biting, or pinching another person.
With her son in crisis, Marie had no choice but to perform an intervention. But the only solution offered by child psychiatrists came in a pill bottle. "His school tried to force us to medicate him," says Marie, who feared the risk of dangerous side effects associated with commonly prescribed antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal. Many of the FDA-approved drugs on the market used to treat symptoms of autism have no proven safety track record for use in children.
Despite the unknown risks, more kids are using prescription drugs than ever before. The number of children on psychiatric meds has skyrocketed in recent years, according to reports in medical journals such as Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Prescription drug use is growing faster among children than the elderly and baby boomers. But when it comes to medicating kids with marijuana, the issue becomes taboo.
"There's no such thing as a harmless drug, but marijuana is much less harmful than other drugs," said Lester Grinspoon, M.D., a professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Grinspoon is a leading expert in the field of medical marijuana, who has authored several books on the subject. "No one in the world has died from marijuana," insists Grinspoon, who has spent four decades researching the illicit drug.
Undeterred by the social stigma, Marie pursued this more natural approach to calm J's demons. After discussing her wishes with J's pediatrician, Marie decided to check out Marinol, a synthetic form of THC, which is the primary cannabinoid in marijuana. After fine-tuning J's dosage, she began hearing praises like, "J was a pleasure to have in speech class," instead of complaints about his violent episodes.
After a few months, J built up a tolerance to the drug and his unruly behavior returned. "The drawback of taking Marinol is that it's only THC. That's the most powerful cannabinoid, but it may not be the most relevant," said Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany. Earleywine says there are about 70 different cannabinoids in the marijuana plant, many of which have medicinal value. Marie decided to take a chance on the real deal.
All it took was a signed prescription and a background check for J to become the youngest person in Rhode Island to obtain a license for pot. After buying some marijuana-infused olive oil, Marie made a batch of pot cookies. That night, J ate half of one cookie and "he was tired and conked out," said Marie, who checked hourly on his sleep, "half-expecting some red-eyed ogre from Reefer Madness to come leaping out at us." To her relief, J slept soundly and appeared happy and mellow the next day.
Over the past four months, Marie has documented her son's progress in an online blog entitled, Why I Give My 9-Year-Old Pot, Part II. While she doesn't believe marijuana is a cure for autism, it "allows J to participate more fully in life without the dangers and sometimes permanent side effects of pharmaceutical drugs." Dr. Grinspoon has seen positive results with a number of his autistic patients who are undergoing pot therapy. "I can confidently say to a parent that marijuana relieves some types of pain. It's not going to hurt them if you use it responsibly," Grinspoon says. Ingesting the drug works better because the effects can last up to eight hours. "A little goes a long way," says Earleywine, who reminds parents that the drug can take up to an hour and a half to kick in, "so wait a little while before administering any more."
While a growing number of distressed parents are turning to the herbal remedy, many moms with autistic kids are skeptical. "I feel it does more harm than good," says Trish, the mother of a 7-year-old boy with autism. "You are sedating the child, not treating the cause of the rage." Trish believes that medicating kids with pot is a cop-out. "Nobody said parenting was going to be easy, or that the solution to every problem is to get our children stoned."
The mainstream medical community shuns the subject, and the government refuses to fund any research that would legitimize marijuana use in treating autism or aggression disorders. "Marijuana is a very loaded subject," says Cara Natterson, M.D., a pediatrician and mother of two. "As a parent and as a pediatrician, I feel a responsibility to know that what I am putting into a child -- mine or someone else's -- is safe and tested."
The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes the legalization of marijuana, but does support further research into the potential medical benefits of cannabis. "We need to make sure the treatment is safe -- we haven't done that," Natterson adds. The doctor can sympathize with parents who desperately want to help their child. "But wanting to advocate for your child and making sure your child is safe are two different things," Natterson said.
Marie is confident that she has made the right choice when she sees J's transformation. "He doesn't look stoned. He just looks like a happy little boy."
An incremental acceptance of medical marijuana has spurred a cottage industry of business ventures — from iPhone applications to lobbyists — whose expansion shows no sign of slowing despite the recession. Instead, pot is the new growth industry.
The market began to take off in 1996, when California became the first state to approve the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Today, medical marijuana sales in California are estimated at $700 million to $2 billion per year. Profits from "canni-businesses" as a whole are potentially much greater.
"It is a social movement with cash flow," said James Anthony, an activist and attorney who has advised numerous dispensaries, of which there are at least 2,100 nationwide, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
The group estimates that Californians alone consume nearly $6 billion of marijuana annually.
The money has always been there, Anthony said. It has just risen to the surface because people think there is less risk of being prosecuted.
The most obvious beneficiaries of what has been dubbed a "hempire" are dispensaries, growers and doctors, who charge up to $200 per consultation.
Newer are the small business ventures such as delivery services and publishers of books about how to start pot-related businesses. Pharmacologists are standardizing the safety and strength of the pot consumed in everything from lemon bars to olive oil.
Companies are preparing special machines, packaging and containers for the industry.
Hotels also are affected by cannabis-related tourism, conventions and competing trade shows that draw thousands to cities. And if anyone has trouble finding what they need, the iPhone and iTouch offer a cannabis application that allows users to locate resources worldwide.
Media involved with pot also have expanded. The Web-based station "Marijuana Radio" has been featured on the front page of the iTunes comedy podcast section, and the Denver Westword news weekly went further by posting a help wanted ad for a reviewer of Colorado's marijuana dispensaries and their products.
In addition, the number of pot lawyers and political consultants have exploded, and a half-dozen marijuana lobbying groups have sprung up in Washington, D.C., a few on K Street. Oakland activist Richard Lee said he spent more than a $1 million gathering signatures for a measure that would permit adults to possess cannabis for personal use and allow local governments to tax it.
Cannabis has become a regular political issue instead of just a crazy, hippie dream, Lee said. His "Oaksterdam University" was the first cannabis college. There are now at least a half-dozen in California, and others are looking at creating online versions of the classes available for about $50 a seminar.
Lee said last year he took in between $4 million and $5 million from his businesses, which also include an advertising agency, a tour company, a bicycle rental and glassblowing business, a gift shop selling souvenirs and merchandise, and the Bull Dog Café in downtown Oakland. (Visitors can take an "Oaksterdam" tour of the city's cannabis dispensaries through Segway of Oakland.)
The Harborside Health Center, an Oakland dispensary that offers numerous services, had about $20 million in gross revenues last year and expects to pay $400,000 in taxes to Oakland in 2010, according to founder and longtime activist Stephen DeAngelo. He employs 76 full-time workers, up from 43 in 2008.
"We are seeing the first stages of this industry that has been in the shadows come into the light," said DeAngelo, a longtime advocate for cannabis legalization. "A legal cannabis industry would be a huge economic benefit."
Those potential benefits have prompted cash-strapped cities and states to take another look at marijuana. Oakland in 2004 became the first city to license medical cannabis outlets. That year, the city's four licensed dispensaries reported $26 million in revenue. Advocates projected income to reach $64 million in 2009.
Those numbers are dwarfed by the $280 billion pharmaceutical industry. But the pot-based figures were enough to convince Oakland voters in July to approve a tax on the proceeds of medical marijuana sales that could raise $300,000 per year for the city.
Advocates also were heartened recently by signals from President Barack Obama's administration that federal authorities were backing off pursuing smokers or distributors of medical cannabis as long as they operate according to the laws of their state.
That does not mean selling marijuana is legal or that the patchwork of local, county, state and federal law has been coordinated. But, DeAngelo said, "it is a significant change."
"Every day I went to work," he said, "I didn't know if I would be going to prison or coming home at night."
AUGUSTA, Maine- In a landmark vote, Maine voters today approved Question 5, making the state the third in the country to license nonprofit organizations to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients and the first ever to do so by a vote of the people.
With 49 percent of the vote tallied, the measure was cruising to an easy win with 60.2 percent voting “yes” and 39.8 percent voting “no.”
Under the measure, the state will license nonprofit organizations to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients and set rules for their operation. While 13 states permit medical use of marijuana, only Rhode Island and New Mexico have similar dispensary provisions, both of which were adopted by the states’ legislatures. Maine’s original medical marijuana law was passed in 1999.
“This is a dramatic step forward, the first time that any state’s voters have authorized the state government to license medical marijuana dispensaries,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., which drafted the initiative and provided start-up funding for the campaign. “Coming a decade after passage of Maine’s original marijuana law, this is a huge sign that voters are comfortable with these laws, and also a sign that the recent change of policy from the Obama administration is having a major impact.”
In October, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a formal policy indicating that federal prosecutors should not prosecute medical marijuana activities authorized by state law.
Question 5 also expands the list of medical conditions qualifying for protection under Maine’s law to include several conditions that are included in most other medical marijuana states, including intractable pain, agitation of Alzheimer’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (“Lou Gehrig’s disease”).
