On March 17th at high noon things with get a little greener in Manhattan: Empire State NORML will remind New Yorkers that marijuana is a safer alternative to alcohol for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.  A rally and a press conference are planned for City Hall Park.

“While scores of New Yorkers are out getting hammered, we want to remind the Big Apple that there is a safer, greener and cleaner choice for adults: marijuana,” said Douglas Greene of Empire State NORML. He organized the event after being inspired by the book Marijuana is Safer – So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano and Mason Tvert.

Read full post at www.freedomisgreen.com

Full info:

PRESS CONFERENCE: Marijuana is Safer than Beer for St. Pat’s
Empire State NORML
New York State Chapter – The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: St. Patrick’s Day, Thursday, March 17th, 2011 at high noon
WHERE: City Hall Park – Broadway between Park Place and Barclay (east side)
WHO: Empire State NORML, Dr. Julie Holland, Dr. Harry Levine, Tony Newman of the Drug Policy Alliance, Daniel Jabbour of SSDP, Chris Goldstein PhillyNORML/NORML-NJ

CONTACT: Douglass Greene (516) 242-4666 doug{ at }empirestatenorml.com

Author Beth Mann is editing the Mary Jane Category at www.freedomisgreen.com. Her first feature was a good one!

Here are a few pointers:

1.   Smoke and Do. Initiate a project after a smoke session. It’s surprising how much you can accomplish. Whether it’s a spring-cleaning or a car repair or a complex splinter removal, smoking pot can free up your mind and help you focus.

2.   Smoke and Move. Physical exercise after getting high is naturally pleasurable. Get outside, breathe in the air, don’t be afraid to care. Fire up the iPod. Go for a bike ride. Run. Dance. Stretch. Have a real-life, aerobic surround-a-sound experience.

3.   Smoke and Sit. Meditating and marijuana smoking go together like peanut butter and that weird marshmallow shit they used to put on our sandwiches way back when.

Read the full post here

from Diane Fornbacher at  www.freedomisgreen.com

Maryland: Medical Marijuana and Decrim Bills Update

3/8/11 - Maryland is moving on bills that would legalize medical marijuana for ill residents and decriminalize possession for all adults. Both had committee hearings scheduled on March 3.

Phillip Strause, a marijuana activist local to Maryland and Virginia had this to say about HB291, the compassionate use bill,

“The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene requested to work with Delegate Morhaim to ‘craft a better bill.’ The bill is currently not scheduled to be voted on for this reason. I believe political fear drives the system in MD, as few are willing to condone such a shift in policy.”

Ken Wolski, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana—New Jersey (CMMNJ) submitted supporting testimony for MD through Americans for Safe Access saying, “Maryland needs to propose a bill that has at least some chance of actually getting marijuana to qualified patients. A provision for home cultivation is really the only way to guarantee this, as New Jersey’s experience proves.”

Read full article

Dr. Poonam Alaigh Comissioner, NJ Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS) - photo c/o NJ state website

from Chris Goldstein at The Philadelphia NORML Examiner

Dr. Poonam Alaigh, the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS) is refusing to call marijuana a “medicine” but is willing to recognize its therapeutic benefits in one of her own private practice patients.

Testifying before a the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Services Committee on March 3, 2011 she said, “I am a scientist. So unless I see studies to verify that marijuana can be used a medicine, and I don’t see those studies right now, I cannot call it a ‘medicine.’”

“I have to tell you I have patient right now who tells me how impactful his medicinal marijuana is…and his life changes because of what he takes. So, is it effective in a certain patient population? Yes, I have patient where it is effective.”

Senator Whelan responded quickly, “Well it sounds like a medicine to me.”

READ FULL

by Chris Goldstein - A rare standoff between the Legislature and the Governor over the medical marijuana program has now steered New Jersey into uncharted waters within the Constitution.

Governor Chris Christie wants all the medical cannabis in The Garden State to be just three genetic strains, all containing less than 10% THC. The mid-grade pot would also come with orders for the state to intrude into the doctor/patient relationship.

Residents who live here with AIDS, cancer, Crohn’s Disease and other conditions that would qualify want something better from the compassionate use law that passed last year.

The Legislature is backing these potential medical marijuana patients and is currently moving to invalidate the contentious rules. Although the process was threatened under previous administrations no Governor has even taken it this far, with another deadline set to expire on Monday 2/21.

Last month the New Jersey Legislature delayed medical marijuana access into next year and from behind closed-doors in Trenton an extraordinary concept was floated: Rutgers University could be named as the sole source for all medical cannabis cultivation and the marijuana would be distributed only at hospitals.

The full presentation from the New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals (NJCTH) was reported in the Newark Star-Ledger today.

But NJCTH President J. Richard Goldstein (no relation) spoke with me via phone last Friday.

He said that NJCTH was invited for informational discussions but not to draft language for the law and described the medical marijuana proposal as “pie in the sky.”

NJCTH’s Goldstein explained, “This is not a full plan. This was just an initial conversation with some key players. The Christie Administration just ran with it.”

Governor Chris Christie’s staff and some legislators have been speaking frequently with the media about the proposals.

Patients could access marijuana at hospitals to be sure and Rutgers University certainly has the capability of farming medical cannabis. But their Boards of Directors and retained attorneys would be hard pressed to take on the one thing that private businesses already do: Risk.

New Jersey hospitals and Rutgers University have not fully examined their federal liabilities.  None of those entities have committed themselves to putting their assets on the line for sick and dying patients. They are not alone; not a single hospital or university in the US currently engages in the production or distribution of state regulated medical marijuana.*

Thirteen states have medical marijuana programs running where private non-profit or for-profit business owners take on the tremendous risk presented by ongoing federal prohibition. Any one of several authorities could seize their properties and assets at any given moment. The owners and employees of medical cannabis businesses also take on the risk of personally losing their freedom through federal arrest.

There do exist groups of private citizens ready to get New Jersey’s program running.

New Jersey’s medical cannabis patient advocacy organizations and other groups interested in offering information about the medical marijuana program have not been afforded the same opportunities to meet with “key players” that Rutgers the NJCTH have enjoyed.

In fact, form letters sent from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services claimed that state officials were considering no proposals from any group. Link

The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act currently calls for the initial licensing of six, private Alternative Treatment Centers around the state.

Patients can only gain legal protections by purchasing marijuana from an authorized ATC.

NJ Council of Teaching Hospitals President also commented that in his meetings about the medical cannabis program: “ There was not much about patients. It was about how to control the marijuana and who grows it.”

The NJ Department of Health and Senior Services are currently scheduled to begin the regulatory process in October and bring the medical cannabis program online starting in January 2011.

Legislators already seem keen on amending the medical marijuana law again, before it gets off of paper and into practice.

Ken Wolski RN, the Executive Director of The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey (CMMNJ) said, “The proposal to monopolize NJ’s medical marijuana program to provide a funding source for training new doctors in the state represents a betrayal of the very patients that the law was designed to protect and serve.”

CMMNJ plans to intensify  efforts to educate the public about the ways to best serve the patients who qualify under the law.

* The University of Mississippi hosts the only DEA licensed marijuana cultivation facility. The single strain of cannabis is distributed to four federal medical marijuana patients. The National Institutue on Drug Abuse (NIDA) also oversees the federal marijuana. It is used for research on a very limited basis.

More about medical marijuana in New Jersey at www.cmmnj.org

NJ residents may contact legislators here

Read the full text of NJ’s medical marijuana law http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/PL09/307_.HTM

Facts about new synthetic drugs K2 or Spice

No, not that K2, the world's second-highest mountain... but since we mentioned highest...

Federal authorities in Philadelphia seized parcels of a new drug containing synthetic cannabinoids at a UPS shipping facility last week. Users seek a marijuana-like high with the ability to pass a standard drug test. Technically they are fully legal and with no current prohibitions. The various preparations of these chemical cannabinoid substitutes are sold as “Spice” or “K2.”

The article also reports that on Jan. 6th a small shipment of the ingredient that is the main synthetic cannabinoid in these new drugs, JWH-018, was also seized in Philadelphia.

JWH-018 has been found in legally marketed products around the world lately.

PhillyNORML spoke with two leading cannabinoid experts to find out more.

Jahan Marcu recently published a landmark study highlighting the effect of pure cannabinoids on gliomas or brain cancers. Currently conducting research at Temple University he is one of the few cannabinoid scientists in America. He was familiar with Spice.

“When we see these things starting to appear in designer drugs or herbal [products] it is a concern because not much is known about these compounds. They are very new and are used to test receptor function.”

Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of national NORML and a respected author on the topic of cannabinoids. We spoke with him yesterday. Paul explained that the frontal lobe of the brain has a dense concentration of CB1 cannabinoid receptors. The JWH-018 and other synthetic cannabinoids are likely activating those receptors.

Armentano is also an expert on drug testing.  Natural marijuana uses the delta-9-THC molecule mainly to produce the high, thus standard drug screens only look for THC metabolites. “You could create some test for these synthetic cannabinoids,” Armentano said.

But if you smoked these synthetics would you pass a workplace or other current, standard drug screen? “Yes.” READ FULL ARTICLE

(Philadelphia NORML Examiner) In Philadelphia and other urban environments white women are the group least arrested for marijuana. Mainstream media has given significant attention recently to American women’s appreciation for cannabis. From Tyra Banks to The View and Marie Claire to the New York Times we can see businesswomen, celebrities and soccer moms smoking pot for medication and recreation.

But a look at the data for Philadelphia in August 2008 reveals that just 9 white women were arrested for marijuana possession of less than 30 grams. In sharp contrast, 362 black men were arrested that month alone for the very same offense.

The data comes from the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Report and has been confirmed by Philadelphia Police representatives.

Anne Davis (NORML NJ), Madeline Martinez (Oregon NORML / NORML Board), and Cheryl Shuman (Beverly Hills NORML) - members of the NORML Women's Alliance

Nationally, statistics show that there is a stronger preference among men for marijuana (or at least to admit use on surveys). The same data shows that women of most ethnicities are well represented within America’s millions of marijuana consumers.

Several studies indicate that black and white women choose cannabis at near equal rates.

Still, black women were three times more likely to be arrested for pot in Philadelphia.

The city saw just 90 white women arrested in all of 2008 for minor marijuana possession while 345 black women were arrested for the same offense.

Overall in 2008 for Philadelphia: 4716 adults were arrested for simple pot possession: 3908 were black men.

Unfortunately Philadelphia is in no way unique. In New York City the data showcasing a racial and gender disparity in marijuana arrests is shocking: NYC saw over ten thousand arrests during just a single year for Marijuana in Public View (MPV), a criminal misdemeanor. Ninety percent of those arrests were black men. Read more

Again, the least arrested category for pot in NYC was white women.

The charge in Philly for cannabis possession less than 30 grams is rather harsh: A Class-A criminal misdemeanor. Unlike every other county in Pennsylvania it requires immediate custodial arrest in the city.

PhillyNORML met with Philadelphia city officials last May to discuss the local marijuana arrest statistics. A report quantifying those arrests in the city criminal justice system is still in progress.

Linda Davies (California) and NORML Stash Activist of the Year Donna Lambert (San Diego medmj defendant)

Clearly though, the cumulative effect of marijuana prohibition enforcement in Philadelphia and many urban environments across America is a stark racial and gender disparity. Members of the cannabis reform effort point to such data as the civil rights and social justice core of the national legalization movement.

As more women are being showcased in the media, National NORML in Washington DC created a Women’s Alliance this year to focus on this aspect of reform. Locally at PhillyNORML and NORML-NJ, women are in leadership roles. More info: NORML Women’s Alliance

Women have been some of the strongest voices in the medical marijuana movement: WAMM’s Valerie Corral, OregonNORML’s Madeline Martinez and US Supreme Court litigant Angel Raich, have had a profound impact on the national debate.

Seventy years ago American women decried the effect alcohol prohibition was having on their fathers, brothers and sons. The voice of women made the final push to end the failed policy of alcohol prohibition in 1933.

Madeline Martinez (Oregon NORML / NORML Board), Tonya Davis (Miami Valley NORML), Mikki Norris (Publisher of West Coast Leaf)

Today, marijuana advocates are working to bring greater attention to the cannabis arrest disparity. Statistics in Philadelphia and New York City compel greater scrutiny of pot prohibition enforcement.

The infrequent arrest of white women underlines that marijuana legalization is a social policy issue with complex and far-reaching implications.

NORML-NJ volunteers 12/14/09

Supporters are being asked to have a strong presence inside and outside the courtroom throughout the trial. Please contact Ken Wolski: ohamkrw (at) aol.com or Chris Goldstein: director (at) normlnj.org if you would like to help this effort.

Somerville, NJ- The trial is moving with unexpected speed for John Wilson, a New Jersey Multiple Sclerosis patient who was found to have with 17 cannabis plants outside his home last year. A jury was selected and the trial got underway today at 1:30PM at the Somerset County Courthouse.

The prosecutor and judge have zealously kept out any testimony regarding medical marijuana or even personal use, arguing the reason why the plants were grown is irrelevant.

The state Attorney General’s office has charged him with the first-degree felony of  ‘Operating a Drug Manufacturing Facility,’ a statute originally created to go after cocaine dealers.  The Superior Court Judge presiding over the trial has barred John and his defense attorney from mentioning to the jury that John even has MS.

Supporters held signs in front of the courthouse again today, the third public demonstration for John.

State Senators Nicholas Scutari and Raymond Lesniak have asked for NJ Governor Jon Corzine to grant a pardon. They are both co-sponsors of the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act and Senator Scutari is himself a municipal prosecutor in Lynden. Their statement requesting the pardon was strongly worded:

“It seems cruel and unusual to treat New Jersey’s sick and dying as if they were drug cartel kingpins. Moreover, it is a complete waste of taxpayer money having to house and treat an MS patient in a jail at the public’s expense,” said Senator Scutari, D-Union, Middlesex and Somerset. “Specifically, in the case of John Ray Wilson, the State is taking a fiscally irresponsible hard-line approach against a man who’s simply seeking what little relief could be found from the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis. Governor Corzine should step in immediately and end this perversion of criminal drug statutes in the Garden State.”

“Without compassion and a sense of moral right and wrong, laws are worth less than the paper they’re printed on,” said Senator Lesniak, D-Union. “New Jersey’s tough criminal drug laws were never intended to be used against patients suffering from chronic and terminal medical conditions. The prosecutors and presiding judge have set up a scenario where Mr. Wilson is no different than a common street thug in the eyes of the law.” Read their release in full

Do y0u live in NJ? Send an online letter right now to Gov. Corzine asking for a pardon!

Here are some related recent news articles about the trial
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20091215/NEWS/912150338/Testimony+continues+Wednesday+in+Franklin+man+s+marijuana+trial

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7170696

NJ: Support grows for John Wilson medical marijuana pardon

NJ: Politicians speak out for medical marijuana

Rally for John Wilson 12/14/09

Somerville, NJ – Family and supporters of John Wilson demonstrated today in front of the Somerset County Courthouse as jury selection began in his trial.

About 50 volunteers held signs for over 5 hours and passing cars honked their support. The rally was organized by the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey and NORML New Jersey.

Without healthcare 36-year-old Wilson was using marijuana to help treat Multiple Sclerosis. John has also been enduring an overzealous prosecution on the part of the State Attorney General. He faces first-degree felony charges of ‘Operating a Drug Manufacturing Facility’ after a National Guard Helicopter spotted 17 cannabis plants growing outside his home.

Two state Senators have already appealed for a pardon in a case that has generated national outrage and national media attention. John has been barred by the trial judge from telling the jury that he has MS.

Some more photos and news video of the rally- here.