New survey results put out by anti-drug lobbyists formerly known as the Partnership for a Drug Free America, now calling themselves, “The Partnership at Drugfree.org”, says that teen marijuana use has risen sharply over the last few years. The nonprofit group is best known for their 1980’s and 1990’s “this is your brain on drugs” ad campaign aimed to curb teen drug use.

They released the survey today that said 1 in 10 teens said that they smoke marijuana regularly. This is an 80 percent rise in past month reported use among teens since the last survey the organization put out in 2008. The Partnership at Drugfree.org along with the MetLife foundation says that during the same time frame, prescription drug abuse has dropped slightly, but still remains high.

They obtained the results after polling by anonymous questionnaires, 3,322 teenagers in grades 9 through 12. The teens were polled at schools from March to June of 2011. The current partnership president, Steve Pasierb blames the increase partly on the mindset of parents that a little weed or a few prescription pills isn’t a big deal. He said that parents are scared about cocaine and heroin and those are the drugs they warn their children about. He said the groups survey has shown that use of those harder drugs among teens has stabilized in recent years.

The percentage of teens that smoke marijuana at least once in the last month rose from 19 percent in 2008 to 27 percent in 2011. The percentage of regular users, those that used marijuana at least 20 times in the last month went from 5% in 2008 to 9 percent last year, an estimate of 1.5 million teens toking up, according to the Partnership. They say that teens who smoke 20 or more times a month are more likely to have substance abuse problems later in life. They also report that kids in that heavy user group of more than 20 times a month are also twice as likely to use ecstasy, cocaine or crack.

Other findings in the report include 1 in 10 teens report using prescription painkillers – Vicodin or OxyContin – in the past year, down from a peak of 15 percent in 2009 and 14 percent in 2010. Just over half of Hispanic teens report using an illicit drug, such as Ecstasy or cocaine, in the past year. That compares to 39 percent for Caucasian teens and 42 percent for African American teens. Past-year alcohol use and past-month drinking is holding steady from the 2008 report at 56 percent and 38 percent respectively.

External Links: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57426249-10391704/report-frequent-marijuana-smoking-up-80-percent-among-teens/

Full report: http://www.drugfree.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/PATS-FULL-Report-FINAL-May-2-PDF-.pdf

An interesting Attorney General Race is heating up in Oregon State between two very different Candidates. The job is to oversee the thousands of laws in the state of Oregon, but one law in particular has been defining the difference between the two candidates from the same party. Ballots for the Democratic primary have already been sent out and the race is essentially between the two Democrats, since no Republican is seeking the position. All alone, Democrats will get to choose the state’s top lawyer in the May 15th primary in Oregon.

The choice in the race could not be more clear for the cannabis community – Dwight Holton was the US Attorney for Oregon and approved raids of marijuana grows that were legal under state law. He has publicly called Oregon’s Medical marijuana law a “train wreck”. Bob Wolfe is the head of the Citizens for Sensible Law Reform, a group that is currently gathering signatures to try and get marijuana legal in the state of Oregon through a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution. He called Dwight Holtons stance on medical marijuana out of step with his own party on the issue. Holton has established himself as a tough-on-crime supporter of law enforcement, and has indeed won the endorsements from most of Oregon’s sheriffs and district attorneys. He has been on record numerous times complaining that Oregon’s lax marijuana regulations make it too easy to get a card and give traffickers cover to grow marijuana that ultimately ends up on the black market.

Holton’s opponent seeking the same position of Attorney General is retired Court of Appeals judge, Ellen Rosenblum who has said recently on a public debate between the two that she thinks the 55,000 citizens that use medical marijuana legally deserve a safe place to get it. She has also stated that marijuana enforcement in general would be a low priority under her leadership if elected. Holton slammed that position, saying that he would, “welcome a conversation about how to do this better, how to meet the will of the voters better,” but then added, “But I’ll gladly enforce the law.”

Some background on the two Democratic candidates, Holton who is a 46, has been a federal prosecutor for the last 15 years, first in Brooklyn, NY, and then transferring to Portland, Oregon in 2004. Holton’s father, Linwood Holton, was a Republican governor of Virginia, elected in 1969, and his brother-in-law, Tim Kaine, is a former Democratic governor of Virginia and chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Rosenblum, who is 61 joined the Oregon Bar in 1975 in Oregon, and has painted Holton as an outsider pointing out that Dwight Holton only joined the Oregon Bar Association just three years ago.

Here at NORML, we can’t tell you who to vote for, but larger turnouts usually favor our cause, so I will just encourage you, if you live in the state of Oregon to please mail in your ballots by May 15, every vote counts, especially in this very important race, please send in your ballots now.

External Links: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20120430/NEWS/304300008/Medical-marijuana-issue-AG-race?odyssey=nav

The Coalition Chief, Malcolm Speed, said that from here on out in Australia, marijuana will be treated as an illicit substance only, not performance enhancing, meaning that the penalties for being caught with it in your system is much, much less. Chief Speed also said that when he is at a meeting of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) this week, he will ask them about removing marijuana, saying that when a substance is on the banned list, but isn’t a performance-enhancing substance, it should be removed from that list.

The WADA is an international independent agency that is funded by world sports events, and governments to monitor the World Anti-Doping Code, an international document that has compiled anti-doping policies in all sports for all countries. They are headquartered in Montreal, Canada, but they are a private Swiss foundation whose mission is to make sure international athletes compete in a doping-free sporting environment. Their logo is an equal sign.

Most countries use their guidelines to make drug and substance rules in their own sports organizations. According to their website, WADA is responsible for the science, medicine, and scientific research of sports, along with maintaining that list of prohibited substances. They also use international laboratories, issue therapeutic use exemptions for international athletes, and they help with the Athlete passport program, a program that helps world athletes get the documentation they need to compete in world events. WADA does maintain different lists. Marijuana is on the list of substances banned during competition. They also maintain a list of substances banned at all times and cannabinoids are not on that list.

External Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/australian-sporting-bodies-want-marijuana-off-performance-enhancing-drugs-list/2012/05/01/gIQAfdYntT_story.html

But as of today, only citizens of the Netherlands who hold a “weed pass”, a card that you can get from your local government office will be allowed to patronize a Dutch coffee shop. You must be a Dutch resident to get a weed pass, so the policy effectively bans tourists from entering and purchasing marijuana from the coffee shops. Who is getting the weed pass?  It is reported that Dutch cannabis consumers aren’t getting the passes, assuming the law won’t be enforced. Some are worried the information required to obtain a weed pass will somehow leak from a government database. This may cause them difficulties with health insurance or getting a mortgage.

Mayors of some of the border towns have joined in the protests of the weed pass policy. Many tourists come into their towns only to be able to purchase and consume marijuana while they are there. Of course, the locals also understand that the cannabis tourists also pay for hotels, food, and other entertainment when they are in town. The Dutch Government, as well as the Belgian government says that more than a million foreign tourists annually enter the city of Maastricht alone, this causes daily traffic headaches. The tourists come just so they can purchase as much cannabis as they can, going from shop to shop, then drive back home to redistribute it.

The coffee shops in Maastricht and other key border towns, Tilburg, Roermond, and Eindhoven, kept their doors closed on Tuesday, a move that the Mayor called, “rude” saying that they were disrupting city society by remaining closed. There was one exception, a shop called “Easy Going” that stayed open long enough to garner a legal conflict today. Owner Marc Josemans, who also is the Chairman of The National Coffee Shop Owners Association, turned away of group of foreigners who were there protesting the new rules. That group immediately went to the police station and filed discrimination complaints. Then Josemans started selling cannabis to anyone who came in, not asking to see a weed pass. The police who were on hand to monitor the protests let that continue for about an hour and a half, then issued a warning to the shop that if they violated the new rule by not checking for passes, they would be forcibly closed for a month. He continued to sell cannabis to anyone who came in, but closed early and says he will be back tomorrow and fully expects them to follow through with their threat of closing his shop. Then he plans on opening a suit in European Court of Justice, saying that discrimination is never the answer to a societal problem.

Many of the coffee shops say they will take a vacation and just wait for this to pass, a move they now expect since the Dutch Conservative National Government collapsed last week under pressure from a growing budget deficit and an internal argument over budget priorities. Prime Minister Marck Rutte and his entire cabinet have resigned and won’t be seeking re-election in September. Some think that the struggling administration will not have the resources to continue to monitor the shops, and that things will roll back to where they were before the current conservative government took power, about eight years ago.

External Links: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=151773181

The New Hampshire Senate has rejected a bill that would have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana in the state. Currently in New Hampshire, marijuana possession of any amount is a misdemeanor and punishable with up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. The bill would have changed the law to decriminalize a person’s first two marijuana possession charges of less than a half an ounce.

Under House Bill 1526, the first offense of possession of less than 14 grams of marijuana would be a $250 fine. The second would be a $500 fine. Any additional marijuana possession charges would be a possible year of jail and a $1000 fine. Any offenders under 21 may have also been ordered to complete a drug awareness program. The Bill narrowly passed the House in March by a 162-161 vote.

There was much debate during that vote and at the same time they voted overwhelmingly 228-89 to kill a second measure to regulate and legalize marijuana. Gov. John Lynch had promised to veto both measures at the time. The Senate has now saved him the trouble. A Senate Committee that looked over the bill had recommended that the Senate kill the bill, and without ANY debate before the vote, bill was voted down. The bill will not become a law this year.

Claire Ebel, the executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union commented yesterday that the current law is not proportionate to the crime, and that the effect of marijuana convictions, particularly on young people includes the inability to be employed in most government agencies, join the military or get student loans.

External Links: http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2012/05/02/nh_senate_kills_pot_decriminalization_bill/

The bill, Senate Bill 117, is similar to last years, setting a 5 nanogram THC blood limit as a way to measure impairment as far as law enforcement goes. Activists argue that blood tests are faulty science at best; they are invasive, discriminatory and inaccurate gauges of levels of impairment. Opponents of legalizing marijuana say that drugged driving is a real threat, that there must be a measurable limit, and that science has shown that 5 nanograms shows recent consumption.

The Federal Government has called for all states to adopt drugged driving standards. Colorado already has drugged driving laws on their books that cover cannabis. Twelve other states have laws creating a THC limit for driving — laws that are known as “per se” laws. Several other states have zero-tolerance driving laws for THC.

The bill made for serious drama today in the Senate. First, it looked like it was killed on a voice vote, but the bill’s sponsor, Senator Steve King, a Republican from Grand Junction, revived the bill for a recorded vote, and it narrowly passed, 18-17.  The bill still needs another, recorded vote in the Senate before going over to the House, where it will need another rounds of OK’s before it goes before the governor.
External Links:

http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_20521964?source=commented-

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/05/01/marijuana-dui-bill-back-before-colorado-senate/

The inspection was prompted by another Fire Captain, Ricky Jones who reported to the Murfressboro Police that he discovered two mostly smoked marijuana joints inside the station shortly after he arrived to work on Sunday, according to the police reports. Jones told the police that he found one of the joints on the ground behind a fire truck that was parked in the station garage, and the second one, also partially smoked, was found in an area where employees park their vehicles, and according to police reports, it was found on top of a half-eaten Oreo Cookie. Jones found one right after the other at 7:30 am, photographed them, then put them into a bag and turned them into a supervisor, who in turn contacted the police.

The other substance was found when it fell out of Pertiller’s locker when the investigators asked him to empty it for inspection on Tuesday. The small brown substance was held in a folded paper and just fell out of his locker. The investigators have sent the joints, along with the newly found “brown substance” to the state Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab in Nashville for identification. A field test found the joints tested positive for marijuana, and the field test of the brown substance tested negative for opiates, so we aren’t quite sure what they found in Fire Captain Petillers locker. He was placed on administrative leave with pay, after the inspection on Tuesday, waiting for an outcome of the full investigation into the incidents in reference to the substance that was recovered from his locker.

Police have not commented on if they believe the two incidents are connected. Pertiller has been placed on leave before. He was charged twice last year by Murfreesboro Police in two separate incidents. He was charged with felony aggravated assault in reference to an April 2 incident at a sports arena, during which he punched a patron in the throat during a pickup basketball game. He later plead guilty to reduced charges of misdemeanor assault.

Captain Pertiller was arrested and jailed again May 15 for a domestic assault incident involving his wife, which began with a verbal argument while he was on duty at MFRD Fire Station 3.  While Pertiller was placed on administrative leave following the May incident, he was later allowed to return to work.

External Link:

http://www.dnj.com/article/20120314/NEWS/303140037/UPDATE-Two-suspected-marijuana-cigarettes-found-local-fire-station-Brown-substance-recovered-from-captain-s-locker?odyssey=nav|head

http://www.murfreesboropost.com/fire-department-captain-placed-on-leave-cms-30524

The police became aware of his activities from a confidential informant that said 29-year-old Benjamin Crook was selling marijuana. The informant then purchased marijuana from Mr. Crook a few times in January and a few times this month. The marijuana was placed inside plastic bags that were then placed in empty pizza boxes and sold for cash at the pizza chain.

The restaurant manager was arrested yesterday and charged with possession with an intent to distribute, delivering marijuana, selling marijuana and maintaining a dwelling to sell a controlled substance.

Investigators had also gone through his trash at him home, found what they are calling evidence of drug activity, and obtained a search warrant. According to those warrants, police seized just 21.8 grams of marijuana from his locker at Dominos and another 18 grams of marijuana in the store safe.

No comment from Domino’s so far on the incident.

External Links:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/02/21/1873316/dominos-manager-charged-with-selling.html

In Poland, possession of marijuana can get you up to three years in jail. Police who knew about the protest today arrested three people before the event with a substance they say they are waiting to have tested. Those arrested say it was the herb marjoram.

With Palikot and a few others lighting up a joint and passing it around, dozens surrounded them with the chant “Grow it, Smoke it, Legalize it”. The police did not arrest those smoking, and said they were not convinced they really had marijuana, although those attending the event say you could smell burning marijuana not only from the protesters, but coming from several of those int he crowd as well.

Cannabis activists in Poland say they consider their countries harsh stance on cannabis hypocrisy since Poland is a major vodka producer. The head of the Polish Drug Policy Network, a group campaigning to decriminalize soft drug use called Poland’s current laws “outdated and wrongheaded.” saying vodka is far more dangerous to society. Other activists called today’s protest during a light snow fall the beginning of the country’s citizens who smoke weed to come out of the closet and show that smoking pot is as normal as drinking a beer.

Marijuana was tolerated during the communist era with few laws restricting it’s use. With Solidarity’s victory over communism, the Catholic church took a strong role in guiding public policy, and laws criminalizing drug use have since then become more and more restrictive and punitive. Janusz Palikot, who led the demonstration is the head of the left-wing party, has served in the Parliament since he was elected in 2005 and is a wealthy businessman.

External Links:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/polish-activists-smoke-pot-front-parliament-15712843

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/polish-activists-light-up-in-bid-to-legalize-pot-1.3537738

The deputy released them, but called the sheriff of Malheur county, the next county over, to report the situation. County investigators spotted the car in their county and watched as it met up with a vehicle from Utah. The two vehicles spent the night in Ontario and the next morning, the car from Utah was stopped as it headed into Idaho. Both the occupants were arrested.

The Oregon residents who had the police encounter the day before were stopped as they traveled back through Oregon on Highway 26, shortly after the Utah car was stopped and detained.

Even though the Oregon couple had cards and could possess and transport, it is still illegal for them to trade or give the marijuana away to individuals without an Oregon medical marijuana card. They were jailed and charged with unlawful manufacturing of marijuana, unlawful delivery of marijuana and unlawful possession of marijuana and are currently in a Malheur County jail.

External Links:

http://www.argusobserver.com/news/oregon-pair-arrested-on-marijuana-charges/article_a21ff87e-57ff-11e1-836f-001871e3ce6c.html