Commentary from activist Laird Funk here in my home state of Oregon.  Laird was one of the exceptional people who helped to pass Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Act in 1998.  He writes about the contracting, drug rehab, and drug-testing lobbies who are pushing for discriminatory laws that would allow to fire registered users medical cannabis solely for their possession of a medical marijuana card:

NORML.ORG US OR: OPED: The Bulletin Supports Medical Marijuana Discrimination
Fire ‘em all! That is the thrust of your Feb. 25 editorial calling for laws allowing Oregon workers who therapeutically use marijuana to be immediately and arbitrarily fired, regardless of where or when they used their medication. Darkly hinting of problems in the workplace, you see danger in even such basic tasks as driving a car. Clearly you agree with the position of Associated Oregon Industries that the number of Oregonians lawfully registered with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program is a serious and burdensome problem which actually ranks as an emergency!

Reviewing available information, including the number of accidents caused by therapeutic marijuana-using workers cited by AOI, we find the following: 1998, 0 accidents; 1999, 0; 2000, 0; 2001, 0; 2002, 0; 2003, 0; 2004, 0; 2005, 0; 2006, 0; and from 2007, 0! Yes, there is a story in those numbers, and it has a lesson to be learned - a lesson that fits right in between those we learned from other stories, like Chicken Little, whose sky was falling, and the boy who cried “wolf,” who felt neglected and made up claims of danger.And so it has been that for the last three legislative sessions, AOI’s “Chicken Little,” Don Harmon, has teamed up with a small rotating cast of ditto-heads in the role of the boy who cried “wolf” to call for emergency legislation to deal with the growing problem of therapeutic marijuana-using Oregonians actually having jobs and being productive members of society.

But even they had to answer “none” when asked by Rep. Peter Buckley how many accidents had been caused by those workers. Some emergency!

Each of the ditto-heads prefaced their remarks with claims that they themselves had voted for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, but then claimed that the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program had become riddled with fraud and abuse and that the number of registrants was both proof of that claim and a real problem for Oregon employers.

But patient numbers are not evidence of abuse - convictions are.

One thousand, eight hundred convictions a year would be an abuse rate of 10 percent.

But by most accounts there are fewer than 1 percent, or 180 OMMP registrants, annually arrested for violating provisions of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act and, of course, far fewer convictions. Ninety-nine percent compliance seems OK to me. It is noteworthy that, by law, registrants who are convicted of violations must report that fact to the OMMP and may not be registered as a grower for five years.

Another fantastic essay from our Deputy Director, Paul Armentano. Be sure to read the whole article at AlterNet.org.

Outrageous Anti-Pot Lies: Media Uses Disgraceful Cancer Scare Tactics | DrugReporter | AlterNet
On Tuesday, January 29 — three days prior to the publication of a forthcoming study assessing marijuana use and cancer — Reuters News Wire published a story under the headline: “Cannabis Bigger Cancer Risk Than Tobacco.” Mainstream media outlets across the globe immediately followed suit. “Smoking One Joint is Equivalent to 20 Cigarettes, Study Says,” Fox News declared, while Australia’s ABC broadcast network pronounced, “Experts Warn of Cannabis Cancer ‘Epidemic.’”

If those headlines weren’t attention-grabbing enough, one only had to scan the stories’ inflammatory copy — much of which was lifted directly from press statements provided by the study’s lead author in advance of its publication.

“While our study covers a relatively small group, it shows clearly that long-term cannabis smoking increases lung-cancer risk,” chief investigator Richard Beasley declared. Beasley went on to speculate that pot “could already be responsible for one in 20 lung cancers diagnosed in New Zealand” before warning: “In the near future we may see an ‘epidemic’ of lung cancers connected with this new carcinogen.”

The mainstream press, always on the look out for a good pot scare story, ran blindly with Beasley’s remarks. Apparently not a scribe among them felt any need to confirm whether Beasley’s study — which remained embargoed at the same time it was making worldwide headlines — actually said what was claimed.

It didn’t.

For those who actually bothered to read the study’s full text, which appeared in the European Respiratory Journal days after the global feeding frenzy had ended, they would have learned the following. Among the 79 lung cancer subjects who participated in the trial, 70 of them smoked tobacco. These individuals, not surprisingly, experienced a seven-times greater risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer compared to tobacco-free controls. As for the subjects in the study who reported having used cannabis, they — on average — experienced no statistically significant increased cancer risk compared to non-using controls.

I know, you’re thinking, “So what does this have to do with marijuana?”

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brett Favre has decided to retire from the NFL after 17 seasons. FOX Sports first reported Tuesday that the Green Bay Packers quarterback informed the team in the last few days. ESPN.com said that according to Favre’s agent the quarterback told coach Mike McCarthy of his decision.

Well, nothing really. I’m just a huge Green Bay Packers fan and this is really bumming me out today. However, I do have some thoughts on what this does have to do with marijuana… click on the link below to read the

Full Story

I have a cousin back in Idaho who likes to send to me those forwarded chain e-mails.  I hate ‘em; they’re the worst form of spam, because they come from someone you know, so you open them, then there are fifteen levels of recursively-indented forwards, the “to” list containing a billion-and-a-half names, and usually by the time I’ve scrolled down to see what was so important, it’s a picture of a puppy or a stupid joke.

But I still answer her, because often she’s forwarded me something hateful or just plain wrong, and I can’t resist setting the record straight.  (For example, she sent me the “Barack Obama… Muslim?” email that’s been debunked a million times.)

Her latest forward was a series of pictures showing how a vibrant young girl’s life was tragically altered when a 17-year-old drunk driver ran into her car.  She was burned over 90% of her body, and the tagline to her picture is “Not everyone who is hit by a drunk driver dies.”

One of the points we make over and over at NORML and on The Stash is about how we are an invisible minority.  If the 90,000,000 people who have smoked marijuana in America at least once suddenly had green skin, you can bet all the laws that discriminate against green people would be changed.  But since we’re all too scared (rightfully so, in many aspects) to “come out of the closet”, we can’t affect any real change.

So one thing you can do is Never Miss An Opportunity to educate someone about marijuana policy, or at least get them to thinking about it.  Below the jump is my reply to my cousin demonstrating this “rhetorical jiu-jitsu”:

Full Story

We posted earlier our Deputy Director, Paul Armentano’s argument on how to re-legalize cannabis (and some dunderheaded excuses from a commenter on why we shouldn’t).  Pete Guither at Drug WarRant offers his analysis (mostly in agreement), and it’s worth a full read, but this section I wanted to share on the Stash because he gets to the heart of changing the minds of those who resist re-legalization:

Drug WarRant
Now, it would be nice if the people would recognize that laws against marijuana use are in contradiction to the principles of our country. But as Cliff notes in comments, the people as a whole are not, unfortunately, interested in looking after the Constitution. They want others to do it for them, and may even find the content of it a bit of an annoyance.

So where does that leave us? Self-interest.

We need to take a page from the SAFER campaign. No, I’m not suggesting a national campaign to show that marijuana is safer than alcohol.

What we need to do is show the people that legalization is safer than prohibition.

We need to convince people that marijuana prohibition is endangering their children, robbing their checkbooks, hurting their property values and causing moral decay. We need them to understand that legalizing pot will make their streets safer and eliminate poverty.

You get the idea. Self-interest.

NORML Board Member Norm Kent wrote a great article for CounterPunch about growing older in the cannabis community. It made me remember something an older pot-smoking friend once told me about drugs: “You hardly ever meet an old speed freak, an old junkie, or very many old alcoholics. But there’s a whole lot of us old stoners!”

Norm Kent: Pushing 60 with Pot
I am close to being a senior citizen. Though I will always think of myself as a student at Hofstra who was the 19 year old President of the Sophomore class, I am turning 58 this year. Damn, 60 is around the corner!

You know what that means? When I open a newspaper in the town I have lived in for the last thirty years, I know the people in the obituaries. I am older than some of them. When the city councilmen go to jail for the bribes they always seem to take in every city everywhere, I realize they are kids I grew up with. That means I smoked dope with them, got laid with them, partied with them, and got drunk with them.

If you are from the 1960’s, let’s be honest. Pot was the least of the things we did. There were mushrooms and Quaaludes, acid trips with LSD, body painting, psychedelic and psychotropic drugs up the yin yang tree. So a little weed was just a nominal high. By the time we were 20, we were reading about classmates who overdosed on Heroin.

The Baby Boomers are hitting retirement age and the bong! It’s one of my stock responses to some prohibitionist reefer madness argument. They say something stupid like “Marijuana smoking causes cancer!” and I reply, “Yeah, that’s why cancer rates went up so much right after the Summer of Love… oh, wait, they didn’t. Don’t you think if marijuana caused huge health problems, a lot of those Baby Boomers would’ve had those problems in the 1970s? By the 1980s, at least!” (My other favorite is the reply to the claim that marijuana causes infertility: “Yeah, that’s why there aren’t any Rastafarian babies, right?”)

I’m inviting you to tune in to my live political talk radio show - The Russ Belville Show - which airs on XM Satellite’s Air America Channel 167 (2pm-4pm ET) and AM 820 WCPT Chicago (2pm-3pm CT) tomorrow (Saturday), and is rebroadcast on AM 620 KPOJ Portland from 8am-10am PT Sunday.

My guest will be Eric Petersen, the editor of Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness, a collection of the essays of Thomas Jefferson.  I’ll be pointing out that Jefferson was a hemp farmer and advocate of personal liberty who declared that hemp was of first necessity to the country.

DILLON, MT - The large-scale marijuana bust that law officers here touted as a major success this month was instead the persecution of a terminally ill man who needed the drug to help ease his suffering, a pro-medical marijuana group said Friday.

Patients and Families United, based in Helena, blasted the bust and said it would not stand up in court thanks to Montana’s Medical Marijuana Law passed three years ago. And they criticized law officers for making a terminally ill man’s last days miserable because of the worry that he would end up in prison.

“It amounts to persecution of somebody who’s already so overburdened with a medical condition that no one should have,” said Tom Daubert, founder and director of PFU. “That’s the purpose of our law, to have some relief for somebody who wants to be left alone.”

Daubert said his group will step up to help with the legal defense for the man, whose name has not been released by officials.

Law officers from Beaverhead County and the Southwest Montana Drug Task Force last week were trumpeting the seizure of 96 marijuana plants from a mobile home north of Dillon. They said the sophisticated growing operation was meant to keep a steady supply of marijuana coming, with plants at all stages of development.

Daubert said if taken into custody, Beaverhead County taxpayers will be on the hook for medical care that costs a staggering $136,000 a month for injections to keep the man alive.“Beaverhead County can have some fun with this: pay to keep a guy alive for a trial that probably won’t happen quickly,” he said.

Daubert promised a “vigorous” legal defense of the man. He said although the quantity of marijuana seized far exceeds the limits allowed under state law, they will use an affirmative defense to prove that he needed the quantity for his medical needs.The man is not a registered medical marijuana user, Daubert said. But his medical records will provide more than enough evidence that he has a qualifying condition and needs the drug to help ease his suffering in the final months of life.

You’d think it would be obvious to law enforcement the difference between an entrepreneur trying to grow marijuana for sale on the black market vs. a terminally ill patient growing his own medicine to alleviate suffering.  But unfortunately, the dichotomy of legal-for-the-sick / criminal-for-the-healthy forces lawmakers to create possession limits in order to help law enforcement determine who’s medical vs. who’s not.  Too often we find patients with severe need for whom six plants (Montana’s limit) to 24 plants (Oregon’s limit) is not enough to guarantee a steady supply of medicine.  Only when marijuana is re-legalized for all — sick and healthy — will patients finally get the unimpeded access to medicine they deserve.

WINDHAM, NH — Retired Salem police Officer John Tomassi is among a handful of police officers who believe the criminal penalties for marijuana possession are too severe.

Tomassi, a Windham resident, is testifying in support of a New Hampshire bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. If passed, people caught with a quarter ounce of pot would receive a ticket and a maximum $200 fine.

Attempts to legalize marijuana have failed in the past. But last week, a House subcommittee passed this bill 3-1 with some amendments….

Tomassi, who now teaches economics at Bentley College, sees the problem from both an economic and law enforcement perspective.

Legalization would not end the nation’s drug problem but it would stop the violence, he said. Last year, 1.8 million people were charged with drug crimes, Tomassi said.

“You would like to think most of them were major drug dealers,” he said. But most were charged with marijuana possession. Tomassi said drug dealers fear the legalization of drugs, which would dry up their profits and put them out of business. He draws a parallel between the current situation and crime during Prohibition.

Police officers are often on our side when it comes to reducing the penalties for personal marijuana possession. They are the ones on the front lines of the drug war who see firsthand that prohibition is a costly failure. They’d much rather be busting people for real crimes, but the laws require them to harass and arrest people who use marijuana. And what kind of message do we send to kids when we arrest more people for growing or possessing a non-toxic plant than we do for all violent crimes combined?

Many fine activists are working hard to free up police resources for serious crimefighting by eliminating the laws against marijuana possession. Be sure to check out today’s Audio Stash and hear our interview with one such activist, Matt Simon from the New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy.

[Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog] Ease off on marijuana, a national doctor group is telling the feds.The American College of Physicians, 124,000 members strong, has issued a 13-page position paper asking the federal government to drop marijuana from its classification as a substance considered to have no medicinal value and a high chance of abuse, reports the Baltimore Sun. (Read this Health Blog post for one doctor’s high opinion of medical marijuana.)“They’ve said essentially that the federal government has it all wrong,” Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, tells the Health Blog. The ACP, which represents internists, is the largest physician group to date to ask for such a classification change, he says.

The Sun reports that the ACP’s declaration could pressure legislators and regulators to consider pushing for the schedule change. The federal government thus far has resisted fully exploring the medical benefits of marijuana, but a dozen states have legalized medical use. The ACP paper makes a broad case for easing restrictions on marijuana research and says that doctors and patients in these states shouldn’t be penalized under federal law.

But at least some in the government disagree vehemently with the idea of legalizing medical marijuana. “What this would do is drag us back to 14th-century medicine,” Berta Madras, the deputy director for demand reduction at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy tells the Sun. “It’s so arcane.”

Somebody needs to tell Ms. Madras that marijuana is medicine no matter which century you’re talking about. Healers throughout time have recognized marijuana’s medicinal properties. Prior to the 1937 prohibition of the herb, cannabis was a major ingredient in most medicinal remedies available over the counter. Queen Victoria’s doctors gave her marijuana for menstrual cramps. There are references to medical use of cannabis in nearly every ancient civilization. All we’re trying to do is undo the 70 years of prohibition that has led to ignoring 5,000 years of medical use. We’re trying to bring our government into the 21st century where scientists and doctors know the plain truth — that marijuana is medicine.

The comments code is working now.  Add your thoughts to the Stash.  I’ll read the best ones on the show. — “R”R

Our Deputy Director, Paul Armentano, has written an excellent essay that I mentioned a couple of posts ago for Alternet called Making Pot Legal: We Can Do It — Here’s How.  We’ll talk with Paul on Friday about that.  But I just had to include this comment that his essay received (with boldfacing by me):

Victim baloney

Excuse me? The talk about “victims of marijuana prohibition” is baloney. The last I heard, dope smoking was illegal in the US. That means that people who choose to smoke dope, violating the law in the process, are criminals. Where does the victim stuff come from? If you want to smoke dope– go ahead and smoke it. But please– take responsibility for your actions. If you drive 90 miles an hour on the freeway and get a ticket, are you a victim of speed limits? Knock it off. I smoked plenty of dope forty years ago I stopped because it is a waste of time. Never would I have claimed to be a victim: I was a shit-for-brains dope head. If I had gotten caught I would have deserved whatever the system dished out. I wish you losers would grow up. And if all you can find to do with your time is fight for people’s freedom to screw up their brains with dope, you have too much time on your hands.

This is what we face.  Might as well face the truth - there are many people out there like commenter “PJT” who believe this very sentiment.  I couldn’t help myself, I had to reply.  This is like waving a red cape in front of a bull.

Some other “victims” for you

Not “victims of slavery”, just Africans who deserved what the colonial system dished out.  (Shouldn’t have gotten caught… it was legal, after all.)

Not “victims of racism”, just black men who chose to marry white women, violating the law in the process (- criminals!)

Not “victims of homophobia”, just gay men who refuse to take responsibility for their actions.  (If you get caught having gay sex in Texas and get arrested, are you a victim of anti-sodomy laws?)

Dr. King taught us that there are “just laws” and “unjust laws”. An “unjust law” is one that a power majority forces upon a minority that it won’t obey for itself. Prohibition of certain intoxicants is such a law: the power majority has no problem with you getting wasted, so long as it’s Budweiser and not buds. And even when the power majority disobeys that law, the effects differ: compare the case of cokehead Bush vs. any crackhead.

Just because something is illegal doesn’t make it wrong, no more than doing something legal is automatically right (i.e., waterboarding torture, warrantless wiretapping, invading the Middle East).

So, yes, there are victims of marijuana prohibition, just as women were victims pre-Roe if they obtained an abortion, gays were victims pre-Lawrence if they made love, and blacks were victims pre-Loving if they married whites.

But you did have something right. Your 11th sentence, with a change to the present tense and deletion of “dope head”.

Yeah, I know, it’s not a perfect analogy and I did get a little ad hominem, but everything you need to know about this guy is summed up when he said “…if all you can find to do with your time is fight for people’s freedom…”  Even if you believe that smoking marijuana is “screw[ing] up [your] brains with dope”, why would you oppose someone’s freedom to do with their brains as they choose?  You cannot demonstrate any societal harm from our marijuana smoking, so why do you need a law against someone else feeling good with a non-toxic herb?

Hailey, Idaho, residents to vote on marijuana initiatives again

Residents of the mountain town of Hailey, Idaho, will get to vote again soon on four new initiatives aimed at legalizing or reforming marijuana laws.Four new initiative petitions filed by an Idaho based pro-marijuana group have been certified, and scheduled to go on the May 27th primary election ballot in Hailey.The initiatives are identical to four other measures that were on the November 6th ballot. The initiatives for treating marijuana as the lowest law enforcement priority, the medical use of marijuana, and the legalization of hemp, passed by large majorities. The fourth initiative which would legalize marijuana for all adults was rejected.

Hailey city officials have said they plan to file a lawsuit in Fifth District Court seeking clarification on the three initiatives approved in November. The officials note that all three initiatives have possible conflicts with existing state and federal laws, which take precedence over local codes.

Good to see marijuana reform happening in one of the most conservative states – my homestate of Idaho! I played many gigs there with my band back in the longhaired club musician days. I can testify that there is a large pro-marijuana contingent in Hailey! The town has burst at the seams with growth. It’s just south of the glitzy ski resort town of Sun Valley, and many of the people who work the resorts, bars, and restaurants live in Hailey.

Hailey’s also famous for having been the home of Bruce Willis & Demi Moore, who bought up a lot of property in the small mountain town and renovated its downtown.

Smell of pot smoke no longer grounds for search, arrest

Matt Kruchak , Canwest News ServiceSASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA - The scent of weed wafting from an open car window doesn’t give an officer the right to make an arrest and search a vehicle, according to a recent decision made by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.The ruling is centred around the case of a driver who was pulled over by an RCMP officer. His truck had a broken headlight.The officer approached the vehicle and said he could smell burnt marijuana from a metre away. The driver was immediately arrested for possession of marijuana based only on the smell of the burnt narcotic.The officer then searched the vehicle and found eight grams of marijuana and what he thought was a list of contacts, which led to the driver being charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.The case went to trial and the judge found the driver’s charter right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure had been violated. The scent of marijuana created a suspicion it was smoked, but didn’t provide reasonable and probable grounds for an arrest or a search, the judge concluded before excluding the evidence. The driver was declared not guilty.

The lawyer who defended the driver said, “The smell alone can’t constitute the grounds, because the smell of burnt marijuana - as opposed to raw marijuana - gives an inference that the material is gone, it’s dissipated into the atmosphere. So how can you say you’re in possession of something that doesn’t exist?”

Nice to see a court decision in favor of a cannabis consumer, but I can think of a better way to avoid being arrested for the smell of freshly-burnt marijuana coming from your car window… don’t smoke marijuana in your car!

California Supreme Court upholds firing of employees for using medical marijuana

By: ALYSOUN BONDE, The California Aggie Online

The California Supreme Court voted 5-2 on Jan. 24 to allow employers to fire employees who legally use medicinal marijuana.Gary Ross sued RagingWire Telecommunications Inc., his former employer, for wrongful termination and employment discrimination under the Fair Employment and Housing Act after he was fired in September 2001 after testing positive for marijuana. Ross was terminated despite having informed his employer at the time of hire about his status as a legal marijuana user and provided documentation to prove it, according to an appellate court brief.The California Supreme Court upheld the Third Appellate Court’s 2005 decision that “because the possession and use of marijuana is illegal under federal law, a court has no legitimate authority to require an employer to accommodate an employee’s use of marijuana, even if it is for medicinal purposes and thus legal under California law.”Due to injuries sustained during his service in the U.S. Air Force, Ross has suffered from lower back pain and muscle spasms since January.

“All I am asking is to be a productive member of society,” Ross said in a press release. “I was not fired for poor work performance, but for an antiquated policy on medical marijuana.”

Do we really want to be a country where the titans of industry get to make medical decisions for their employees? A nation where people have to choose between non-toxic effective herbal remedies and gainful employment? And those of you who don’t smoke marijuana, remember the Neimoller Poem… first they came for the trade unionists… Who’s to say the next thing they test for are anti-depressant drugs, under the theory that you’re a potential danger because you’re mentally unstable?

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“When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently - that was the point” - Sen. Barack Obama.

With Illinois Senator Barack Obama racking up big wins in the Democratic primaries and caucuses lately, there has been more scrutiny about his views on marijuana reform.  In 2004, he had stated that he supported the decriminalization of marijuana.  He has backed off of that position recently (as detailed on the Stash last week and at Drug War Chronicle and CelebStoner.com), but I see that as just political posturing.  Given that he’s admitted his past use of marijuana and cocaine in his youth, perhaps Obama knows that he needs to protect himself from what could be a political liability — appearing to be “soft on drugs”.

Yet I think the success of the Obama campaign, in light of his honesty about marijuana use, shows that our society may finally be ready to enact meaningful reform of marijuana laws.  You need only think back to Bill Clinton’s “I didn’t inhale” from the 1990s and Judge Ginsberg’s doomed Supreme Court nomination from the 1980s to see the progress being made.  Now you can be a serious candidate for political office even if you are one of the 90 million or so that have tried marijuana!  And you don’t even have to elaborately parse your marijuana experiences into a nonsensical rationalization (”I didn’t inhale”?  Please.  He was a sax-playing longhaired college kid studying abroad in the late 1960s!), you can be honest even if you “inhaled frequently”.

I’d prefer that Obama could stand by his 2004 call for decrim, but with the pressing issues of this election like the Iraq occupation and our floundering economy, I can understand how he wouldn’t want to be distracted and vulnerable to attacks on drug policy, which, while important to us, isn’t an issue that he’d want sidetracking his campaign.

Just the fact that he can be honest about his marijuana use is a positive step.  To have a president who was honest about marijuana and can understand what marijuana and the people who use it are really like will certainly be an improvement over the current administration.

Plus, I don’t think an Obama Administration would surprise us like the Clinton Administration did by ratcheting up the War on Marijuana and setting records for annual marijuana arrests.  It seemed like Bill Clinton’s administration tried to counter a “soft on drugs” image by locking people up.  Clinton put himself in that corner by sheepishly deflecting questions about his use, implying that marijuana use was something to be ashamed of, something to deny.  Obama’s openness leads me to believe that he wouldn’t feel the same pressure to be “tough on drugs”.  Also, I think his background as an African-American man may make him more sensitive to the injustices of the War on Marijuana.

Only time will tell, and he hasn’t gotten the nomination yet.  But I am hopeful about finally seeing some meaningful change in marijuana policy at the federal level.

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NORML’s Senior Policy Analyst Paul Armentano makes a convincing argument about how we can re-legalize marijuana. We’ll discuss that and other topics on tomorrow’s Stash, but I wanted to post this clip of his essay:

MAKING POT LEGAL: WE CAN DO IT — HERE’S HOW

This month marks my 13th year working for marijuana law reform. During this time I’ve witnessed many successes and many more signs of progress. Nevertheless, it remains frustratingly clear that despite sincere efforts and millions poured into campaigns, very little headway has been made toward attaining the larger, essential goals of the movement — specifically, abolishing the criminal laws that result in the arrest and prosecution of more than half a million Americans every year for possessing even small amounts of herb and establishing a framework for regulating legal access to marijuana to adults. Is either one of these goals achievable? Certainly. Is either goal realistic? Not until we as a movement instigate significant shifts in both public attitude and political opinion.

…Legalizing Cannabis Like Alcohol Will Send a Public a Message That Pot Is “OK”

Of all the concerns commonly expressed by the public, fears that marijuana regulation will imply that pot is “OK” may be the easiest to respond to. Why? Because compared to the use and abuse of other legal intoxicants — most notably alcohol and tobacco — the responsible use of marijuana is, by typical societal standards, “OK.” Pot lacks the dependence liability of tobacco or booze and, unlike alcohol — or even aspirin — marijuana consumption is incapable of causing a fatal overdose. According to government survey data, the majority of Americans who use pot do so intermittently — not daily — and most voluntarily cease their habit by time they reach their early 30s. (Compare this use pattern to most people’s use of cigarettes, a habit that often continues unabated throughout one’s lifetime.) Of course, inhaling marijuana smoke over time may be associated with certain pulmonary risks, such as wheezing and chest tightness. However, most of these adverse effects can be mitigated by vaporizing cannabis — a practice that heats marijuana to a temperature where active cannabis vapors form, but below the point of combustion.

It is time for marijuana law reformers to embrace rather than dispute the notion that the responsible use of cannabis by adults falls well within the ambit of choice we permit individuals in a free society. Reformers shouldn’t be afraid to educate the public as to the relative safety of cannabis, particularly when compared to the use of other common intoxicants. Recently, a regional education campaign comparing and contrasting pot use with alcohol launched by the group SAFER (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation) resulted in a majority of Denver voters electing to do away with minor marijuana law enforcement within the city’s limits. The enactment of a similar marijuana “image enhancement” campaign by reformers on a national level would arguably result in a significant increase in public support for broader legalization.

I’ve always believed that it’s the moral issue that most impedes our efforts - that somehow smoking pot is intrinsically “dirty”, the province of “slackers”, and a mark of “immaturity”.

Personally, I make the case that smoking pot is the smart choice if you wanna get intoxicated (the SAFER case). As George Carlin said, “It don’t make your breath stink and you won’t puke on your shoes.”

That’s why I love media portrayals of pot smoking that show it neutrally or at least as no big deal. I saw one of the episodes of the new “Bionic Woman” series (thankfully, only one), where the bionic woman is leading her 14-year-old sister away from a stern lecture at the office of the young girl’s principal. Bionic Woman says, “I can’t believe you! Caught smoking pot behind the bleachers? How terribly cliché.”

And that was it. No demonization of the girl, no plot line that has the girl “paying the price” for her demon weed, no lectures about saying no to drugs. It was as if the girl had been caught toilet-papering the cafeteria.

I encourage everyone to take the positive message public. For example, many times when a politician or celebrity does something stupid, someone will remark, “My goodness, what the hell are they smoking?” Don’t let a slur like that stand! Would you let them say (of a female), “My goodness, is it her time of the month or what?” It’s just as bigoted a remark. I respond with, “They must be smoking crack, because marijuana smokers are smart responsible people.”

Remember, this is a civil rights issue. We must fight every assumed negative perception if we hope to make any headway.

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Brevard Sees Rise is Marijuana “Grow” Houses

MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) — The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office tells FOX 35 that, in recent months, they have seen a dramatic increase in the number of marijuana “grow houses,” in middle class neighborhoods. In 2007, twenty-five such houses were raided in the county. Five have been busted this year alone.

Brevard County Lt. Michael Wong says grow houses are popping up where he least expects them. “It’s a trend through the entire state of Florida,” Wong said, emphasizing that the operations are not only illegal but potentially dangerous. “Most of them are air tight and not properly ventilated, so there are some hazards with the mixture of chemicals” he added.

From the chemicals used to grow the plants, to the way the growers rig and wire their labs — bypassing electric meters — it all adds to the danger.

Taken right from the pages of Showtime’s Weeds! Sure people are converting middle class homes into large scale grow operations… because illegal marijuana is very profitable and middle-class suburban cul-de-sacs are less conspicuous than grow ops in shady neighborhoods or outdoors in the woods.

But if you’re worried about the danger, then re-legalize! Here in Oregon there are some mighty fine, well-ventilated and expertly-wired gardens, thanks to legal medical marijuana growers who don’t need to circumvent electric meters to hide high bills and don’t need to hide the smell of the herb from the outdoors (though most do, through very effective air filtration systems).

Once again, it’s the prohibition that’s the problem, not the pot. If you could buy it at a liquor store, there’d be little profit for dope dealers to subsidize a suburban mortgage.

Cannabis activist, Daweedking, invokes constitution

Craig Pearson, The Windsor Star

A lawyer for a marijuana-legalization advocate known as Daweedking is one step closer to what may become a legal first in Canada — requiring police to provide proof that informants they use to obtain search warrants are reliable.

Defence lawyer Frank Miller launched a constitutional challenge Monday against the search warrant police used to raid the home of his clients, Fred Pritchard, 40, and his wife Renee Pritchard, 44, in order to seize marijuana plants and drug paraphernalia.

Miller is challenging the claims made by police to get a search warrant. He said the search warrant for the Pritchards’ home was based on information provided by two informants, who allege that the accused had 50 to 80 three-foot-high marijuana plants in their basement.

He noted the warrant was strikingly similar to one issued against another client of his — though police in that case ended up finding 180 three-foot- high plants and 261 one-inch-high seedlings.

“It could be anybody in the city of Windsor making up this song and dance,” Miller said in court. “Our position is that nobody was down there.”

The use of informants in our criminal justice system in the US is just as suspect. We’re supposed to have the right to confront our accusers in court, but often these “narcs” remain secret to protect their identity. Many times, these informants are lying in order to save their own skin in some plea deal. That we don’t demand some sort of accountability for the accuracy and honesty of informants is a lousy way to build a system of justice.

Teacher Charged After 13 Marijuana Plants Found in Closet

COLUMBIA, SC (AP) — A Greenville County high school teacher has been arrested on drug charges after authorities found more than a dozen marijuana plants at her home.

Twenty-three-year-old Tyesha Nicole Barber was arrested Sunday and charged with one count of manufacturing marijuana.

Sheriff’s deputies went to Barber’s home Sunday morning after she called to report that she had been assaulted by her husband. A sheriff’s report says deputies noticed a strong smell of marijuana and found 13 marijuana plants in a bedroom closet, worth an estimated $19,500.

Master Deputy Michael Hildebrand says deputies did not find 25-year-old Paul Michael Barber.

Tyesha Barber is in her first year teaching honors English at Southside High School in Greenville. She’s been placed on leave.

How many other victims of domestic violence are out there, refusing to call police because they fear having their small personal private grow busted? I think of these issues — the ancillary harms of the war on marijuana — all the time. Take your 2nd Amendment rights. You know most crimes involving marijuana violations carry enhanced mandatory minimum sentences if you’re also caught with a firearm, whether it’s legally registered or not. So cannabis consumers are forced to choose between the right of self-protection vs. the right of self-medication. Ironically, since marijuana is worth its weight in gold (well, not quite, anymore), cannabis consumers are more in need of the right of self-protection than most others. At least, I’ve never heard of a beer drinker facing a home invasion robbery by crooks seeking to rip off his stash of Budweiser and his home-brew kit.

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Every day I will repost the news stories I read on the air… and add my own commentary afterward. My opinions are mine alone and not necessarily the official stand of NORML… but they usually are. Let’s hit it!

Oregon’s marijuana suppression fund clipped

The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Oregon authorities seized a record number of marijuana plants last year, but now face a sharp drop in a federal grant used to eradicate clandestine outdoor marijuana grows.

President Bush’s latest budget proposes a 67 percent drop in the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, just as planting season nears.

Byrne Grant money over five years in Oregon totaled $21.7 million and helped fund drug courts and treatment programs across the state. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the program a “vital source of funding for drug eradication efforts in Oregon” and said he’s trying to rectify the cuts, mandated in a budget bill Congress passed in December.

The Byrne grant was cut to $170 million this year. Oregon will get $1.2 million, down from $3.4 million last year.

I cut the grafs that demonized the “Mexican drug gangs” that are always mentioned in stories like these. It’s almost like the ghost of Harry Anslinger has come full circle; they demonized the Mexicans in the Southwest in the early 20th century by calling hemp “marijuana”, they demonize the Mexicans again in the 21st century.

That’s not to say there isn’t environmental degradation and potential violence in our remote forest lands due to black market profiteers trying to tend a garden of gold… but it ain’t the Mexicans and it ain’t the marijuana, it’s the prohibition. If you imprisoned people for growing and eating carrots, there would be deadly Mexican carrot gangs.

UN Board Says Marijuana Vending Machines Are Illegal

The Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Marijuana vending machines in Los Angeles violate international treaties and should be shut down, the U.N.-affiliated drug control board said Friday.

At least three Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries have installed vending machines to distribute the herb to people who carry cards authorizing marijuana use. Supporters say the machines, which dispense 1/8th or 1/4 of an ounce of marijuana at a time, offers users lower prices and increases security.

The Drug Enforcement Agency and other U.S. agencies have been shutting down major medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California in the last two years and charging their operators with felony distribution charges.

In its statement, the Vienna-based drug board also said scientific research about the therapeutic usefulness of cannabis or cannabis extracts was still in progress and had not produced much evidence.

Uh… doesn’t medical marijuana, period, violate certain international anti-drug treaties? And note to the public relations geniuses behind the medical marijuana vending machines: you call it (or media calls it) “vending machine” and Ma & Pa ‘Merikun envisions li’l Sally and Billy buying gumballs for a quarter, and whammo, you just lost the media cycle. “Eek! Li’l Billy’s gonna get a blunt from a soda machine!”

“Automated Dispensary Vault.” There. You can have it, no strings attached. Can’t guarantee the media won’t still call it a “vending machine”; you just be dogged about correcting them and replying, “Have you ever had to give a thumbprint to get a Coke from a vending machine?”

California Hemp and Health Initiative 2008 in Circulation

Bay Area Indy Media by California NORML

Activists are circulating a sweeping legalization initiative for the 2008 ballot, the California Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative. Sponsored by veteran hemp advocate Jack Herer along with Eddy Lepp and other activists, the initiative would repeal criminal and civil penalties for cannabis, ban drug testing for metabolites, and provide that marijuana be regulated in a manner similar to the wine industry. Also included is a controversial provision ordering the immediate release from jail of all non-violent marijuana offenders, which many believe goes farther than voters would be apt to support. The initiative closely resembles previous hemp initiatives that Herer has sponsored since 1990, none of which have come close to qualifying for the California ballot.

The initiative needs 434,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot; signature gathering continues through April 5, 2008.

Herer is not hiring professional signature-gatherers, but is calling on volunteers to circulate the initiative. A poll last year by California NORML found that California voters remain strongly opposed to legal marijuana by a 60-40 majority, even though a similar majority agrees that marijuana users should be treated like alcohol users and not sent to prison.

For more info on the initiative, see http://www.calhemp08.org

I had a minor quibble with the way this story was presented. The sentence originally read:

The initiative closely resembles previous failed hemp initiatives that Herer has sponsored since 1990, none of which have come close to qualifying for the California ballot.

Which I thought was inaccurate and a bit mean. If the initiative didn’t make the ballot, it didn’t fail. Nobody voted “yea” or “nay” on it. You could say “previous initiatives that failed to qualify for the ballot” and that would be accurate and fair. I also debated whether to say “come close to qualifying”, but I figured that’s accurate if they really didn’t gather a realistic number of signatures to qualify.

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Good day and welcome to the new NORML Daily Audio Stash. Many thanks to the great techs at RedAphid for this great-looking and easy-to-use site.

I’m your new host, “Radical” Russ Belville. What’s up with the “Radical”? Well, I grew up in conservative small-town Idaho, and when you believe that free fields of cannabis hemp should be growing from sea to shining sea, saving our environment, ending our oil addiction, feeding our people, saving our farms, and boosting our economy, people in my hometown tend to think of you as a “radical”. So be it. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Ben Franklin were “radicals”, too.

I’ve come to this position thanks to lots of great luck on top of lots of hard work. I couldn’t be where I am right now without having been involved with my local chapter of NORML, Oregon NORML. That’s what is so great about NORML: this is the grassroots organization dedicated to ending adult marijuana prohibition. There is a place for you and your talents — whatever they may be — in joining (or founding) your own local chapter. The staff at NORML are eager to help you get started.

Get involved with your movement. You have nothing to be ashamed of. The responsible use of marijuana by adults is of no harm to society, and the prohibition of marijuana is, in fact, detrimental to society. The continued harassment and arrest of adults who use cannabis is a civil rights outrage and antithetical to our Constitutional rights as written two centuries ago on hemp paper.

Come out to the festivals, protests, and conferences in your area. Fifty percent of this battle is just showing up. As my Executive Director of Oregon NORML (and new NORML Board Member), Madeline Martinez, is fond of saying, “Put down the joint and step away from the bong. You’re government and I’m government!” Together we can finally bring and end to the war on American citizens who choose marijuana over martinis or Marlboros. Make a pilgrimage to the Seattle Hempfest or the NORML Annual Conference and feel the camaraderie and the strength that our numbers truly provide. One of our movement’s problems is that prohibition forces us to be an invisible minority, so step out of the cannabis closet and join us in demanding our rights to farm and use nature’s most perfect plant - cannabis sativa!

Finaly, I’ve got to give much thanks to Chris Goldstein, who has built this podcast into the #1 source for marijuana-related news, politics, music, and comedy on the web. Again, another fine person working for marijuana law reform that I met through activism with my local NORML chapter by attending the National NORML Conferences.

The movement needs you. Are you ready to join with me in re-legalizing hemp?

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