[UPDATE: Sorry, test over. It only took us a half hour to find out how bad my connection sounded. However, it was with this cheapo headset I use for Skype. I will be back tomorrow early with the full pro setup to see if it will pass. If not, we'll be back at the home studio. Thanks everyone who helped us test. -- "R"R]

I’m down here in North Portland at the World Famous Oregon NORML Cannabis Café. I’ve got the new 4G wireless connection which has been stellar in tests so far. But tonight I need to run a 2.5 hour test and I need to test multiple callers, just to put the system through a stress test.

So I’m here, at the café, testing the BlogTalkRadio platform from 7pm to 9:30pm tonight (Pacific Time, of course). It’s a test show, so nobody can hear it over the intertubes, but you can call in if you know the secret number (347-994-1810). Cannabis Karri should be along sometime as well. It won’t be a real “show”, we’ll just be hanging out and doing what you do at a cannabis café.

If you want to just sit and listen to the sounds of cannabis café and my rambling, go ahead and call in. If you want to chat, just press 1 at any time and it will signal me on the switchboard.

For extra good measure to test the wireless, I’m also streaming the gamecast of my beloved Boise State Broncos. So don’t be surprised if I suddenly yell “Touchdown!”

Thank you for contacting me to share your support for legalizing marijuana. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.

I have given much thought to this matter over the years. I do not support the decriminalization if marijuana or any other controlled substance. I have been open to considering changes to the Controlled Substance Act which would permit the dispensing of tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) to assist individuals in chronic pain or with other medical conditions, and I have been supportive of research to do just that. I believe this position strikes a careful balance between Oregonians’ decision to allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes while maintaining control over a substance which I believe is ultimately harmful to our society.

Over the years, I have been called upon to vote on measures that would affect the legal status of marijuana. One such vote was on an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill of 2007, popularly called the Hinchey Amendment. This amendment would have prohibited the federal government from prosecuting individuals who use marijuana for medicinal purposes in states where such use is legal under state law, including Oregon. Not only do such federal actions apply to Oregonians’ decision to allow limited medicinal use of this drug, they may also have an impact on Oregon’s death with dignity law, which I strongly support. I have done my best to make sure Congress does not trample on Oregonians’ rights. For this reason, while I remain concerned with the potential for abuse in the distribution of this controlled substance, I did vote for the Hinchey Amendment. However, the amendment failed by a vote of 165-262. I maintain my support for this effort and will vote for such an amendment again should it be offered.

While you and I may disagree on the overarching matter of marijuana legalization, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me and I will keep them in mind when considering future legislation.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Should you have further questions or comments, please call my Oregon office at 503-326-2901 or 800-422-4003. If you would like to receive my email newsletter, visit www.house.gov/wu to sign up.

With warm regards,
David Wu
Member of Congress

(NBC Miami) When you think of the world’s most prolific pot smokers, certain names come to mind: Snoop, Cheech and Chong, Willie Nelson.

How about Irvin Rosenfeld?

The 56-year-old Fort Lauderdale stockbroker will put his name among the greats when he sets a world record tomorrow for weed consumption while lighting up his 115,000th joint.

One of the few people I know can smoke me under a table - Irv Rosenfeld at NORML CON 2006

The best part is that it’s all legal.

Rosenfeld’s pot has been provided by the government since 1982, when he became a patient in the Federal Drug Administration’s Investigational New Drug Program. Grown on a farm on the campus of the University of Mississippi, the weed is delivered to a local pharmacy where Rosenfeld gets it by the bushel.

Rosenfeld suffers from a rare bone disorder called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses, which causes severe pain, alleviated by a healthy dose of ganja.

He’s been getting 300 joints every 25 days for the past 27 years, and said he smokes between 10 and 12 per day.

The sad thing for Irv is that the ganja the feds grow for him is the schwaggiest of the schwag.  This is the marijuana grown by Dr. ElSohly in Mississippi and it’s about 4%-5% THC.  They don’t bother to manicure the bud much before grinding, so the joints contain stems and leaves and the occasional seed.  So don’t be too surprised when he tells you that smoking it doesn’t get him high.

I’ve also had the pleasure of knowing another of the four remaining IND patients, Elvy Musikka.  She has the benefit of being both a federal medical marijuana patient and an Oregon state medical marijuana patient.  She can tell you better than anyone the difference between federal schwag and Oregon’s finest, and the race isn’t even close.

What’s really disturbing is that the government set up this “Investigational New Drug Program” in 1978 and to this date they haven’t done a bit of investigation.  Irv, Elvy and the other two patients have never been surveyed or studied by our government to determine how these decades of medical marijuana use have affected the humans using it.  It might make you think our government never really wanted people to know how effective medical cannabis can be, huh?

NORML SHOW LIVE provides you with exclusive access to Oregon’s world-famous Cannabis Café, this Saturday Night from 6pm-8pm Pacific.

You’ve read about it on the Reuters wire, New York Times, the Times of London, and even Al Jazeera, USA Today, and the Associated Press will be bringing you the story soon, but only “Radical” Russ can get you inside the first café exclusively for Oregon’s 21,000 medical marijuana cardholders.

Madeline Martinez from Oregon NORML and the NORML Board joins us to describe how her vision of a cannabis café has become a reality. We also speak to the patients in the café enjoying cannabis liberty in a way few outside Amsterdam enjoy.

We’ve upgraded to the latest 4G WiMax wireless technology to bring you the best remote audio possible from the café. Cannabis Karri will be screening your calls from back in the studio and Cousin Kenny will take your questions online via our live chat window.

It’s two hours of live talk radio from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Hosted by “Radical” Russ Belville, NORML SHOW LIVE features a recap of the week’s top stories in medical marijuana, consumer cannabis, and industrial hemp; interviews with the top cannabis activists, politicians, scientists, doctors, actors, musicians, and comedians; and your calls live at 347-994-1810.

(The Romeo Observer) Members of the Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition learned that new marijuana laws are leading to strains on law enforcement.

Assistant Prosecutor Bill Dailey of the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office spoke to the coalition about some of the drug use problems he has seen in the county, mainly with medical marijuana.

He said he is concerned it will be more readily available to students due to people owning medical marijuana cards that grow their own plants.

“I think there is going to be more marijuana available to our young people and I think that it’s because there is now a lawful way for it to be out in the stream of commerce,” he said. “The same thing has happened with Vicodin and OxyCotin pills.”

I think if medical marijuana were as toxic, addictive, and laden with side effects as Vicodin and OxyContin, that statement would scare me more.  Or if I didn’t know that in the medical marijuana states that have been at it long enough to collect data, fewer teens are using marijuana and their use rates are declining faster than the national average.

“Not to offend anybody, (but) in my opinion, it’s pretty amorphous criteria to get a card,” Dailey said. “There are people I know who have got a card for asthma, which is kind of surprising.”

I don't think Georgine would be offended; I think she'd see it as a teachable moment.

Well, you wouldn’t be surprised if you met Georgine DiMaria or any one of the dozens of medical marijuana patients I’ve met who use cannabis to treat asthma.  THC is a bronchodialator – it opens up the breathing passages – and other cannabinoids work as anti-spasmodics.

He said that the offices don’t want to bug people who are lawfully following the program. He said that part of him wonders why the state didn’t just totally legalize it so there could be quality control and regulation instead of the current “middle ground.”

That part of you would be called the “logical” part, Mr. Prosecutor.  Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that refrain from law enforcement.  “Just legalize it,” one cop told me, “either it’s illegal for everybody or it’s legal for everybody, but this in-between some-legal some-not shit is impossible for us to deal with.”

We’re working on it.  In the meantime, the way you folks in law enforcement have gone about scaring the hell out of people regarding marijuana for the past seventy years has made it very difficult for us to just legalize it.  Only people’s compassion for the desperately sick and disabled people suffering with pain has allowed us even this tiny bit of marijuana regulation for a small subset of its users.  So if the slow process from prohibition to regulation temporarily makes your jobs a bit more difficult, excuse me if hundreds of thousands of marijuana patients and twenty million marijuana arrestees don’t shed a tear.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why, it was just yesterday that I was telling you…

(DEA) Exposing the Myth of Smoked Medical Marijuana

Q. Does marijuana have any medical value?

…The American Medical Association recommends that marijuana remain a Schedule I controlled substance.

And now today when you go to that same link…

Q. Does marijuana have any medical value?

And the AMA reference is gone.  Congrats to the folks at LEAP who spearheaded the campaign to harass the DEA about it.  (Though if you want to believe it was the fast response of the loyal frontline battle grunts in the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs™ known as “Stashers” that provided the “bump” that put the DEA over the edge, well, I’m not going to disabuse you of that notion.  Whatever keeps you writing to your government is fine with me.)

But the rest of the document needs some serious fixing, too…

…The Institute of Medicine conducted a comprehensive study in 1999 to assess the potential health benefits of marijuana and its constituent cannabinoids. The study concluded that smoking marijuana is not recommended for the treatment of any disease condition. In addition, there are more effective medications currently available. For those reasons, the Institute of Medicine concluded that there is little future in smoked marijuana as a medically approved medication.

See?  The AMA in 2009 recognizes “smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis.” So the DEA removes that current reference and replaces it with a contrary reference from a decade ago.  (I often win arguments this way, like my trivia contest where I guessed there were nine planets, the 49′ers had the most Super Bowl trophies, and Bill Clinton was the president.)

But it is nice to know that the DEA recognizes that decade-old reference from the Institute of Medicine’s 1999 Study: Marijuana and Medicine, Assessing the Science Base.  For it, too, recognizes the “Scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs, primarily THC, for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation”.  It also rebukes the DEA’s statement that “smoking marijuana is not recommended for the treatment of any disease condition” when the study concludes, “for certain patients, such as the terminally ill or those with debilitating symptoms, the long-term risks [of smoked marijuana] are not of great concern.”

It’s nice that the DEA cites the 1999 IOM study, especially when they claim:

Q. Is marijuana a gateway drug?

* Yes. Among marijuana’s most harmful consequences is its role in leading to the use of other illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine.

…while the IOM study says, “There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.”

…In other studies, smoked marijuana has been shown to cause a variety of health problems, including cancer, respiratory problems, increased heart rate, loss of motor skills, and increased heart rate.

And not only that, I also hear it can cause increased heart rate.  But not cancer; in fact, cannabis users show a reduced risk of head, neck, and lung cancers compared to non-using controls.  And not respiratory problems, at least not seriously debilitating problems like emphysema and COPD.  And not a loss of motor skills in any permanent or even long-lasting way.  Sure, you don’t smoke a blunt and then go see how well you’ll do on the driver’s test, but a couple of hours later and you’re no worse to drive than anybody else.  But I do hear that it can cause an increased heart rate… an increase about the same as walking up a flight of stairs.

…It’s also important to realize that the campaign to allow marijuana to be used as medicine is a tactical maneuver in an overall strategy to completely legalize all drugs. …. The New York Times interviewed Ethan Nadelman, [when asked] “Will it help lead toward marijuana legaization?” Mr. Nadelman said: “I hope so.”

I’m not sure what “legaization” is, but maybe there is a shortage of “L’s” at the DEA.  Anyway, let’s look at this tactical maneuver.  According to the DEA, Ethan Nadelmann and the rest of us “legaizers” are following this strategy:

1. Scenario: All (currently illicit) drugs are illegal.
2. Goal: Legalize all (currently illicit) drugs.
3. Tactic: Convince voters that they should make one (currently illicit) drug available to very sick or disabled people under very strict conditions.
4. Premise: Once voters are accustomed to sick people using one drug, they’ll decide that all people should be able to use all drugs.

How exactly does that work?  How is it that Joe Q. Public sees a cancer patient smoking a joint and decides, “You know, if they put up an initiative to put meth-flavored lollipops in the 7-Eleven, I’ll vote for it!”

The very notion that medical marijuana is a “Trojan horse” is both an insult to the public’s intelligence and an endorsement of the legalization we seek!  Are they really suggesting that the only way they can keep the public from rejecting prohibition as a policy is to make sure people in pain don’t smoke pot?  The fact that they think a public exposed to a non-punitive, regulatory solution to drug control will be inexorably drawn to more of those non-punitive regulatory solutions for more people and other drugs just shows you how bankrupt prohibitionist ideology is!  They can’t support it with reason, they can only support it through the barrel of a cop’s gun.

SAN DIEGO (10 News) — A judge ruled the identity of a deputy district attorney who has admitted to being a member of a marijuana collective must be released, 10News reported.

On Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney James Pitts confirmed his membership in the now defunct Amsterdam Alternative Care. The collective was one of several shut down after being raided last September.

San Diego resident and Navy veteran Jovan Jackson is being charged with several counts involving possession of medical marijuana and the sale of medical marijuana. If found guilty, Jackson could spend several years in prison.

San Diego defense attorney Gretchen von Helms said it’s easy to see why Jackson’s defense wants to call Pitts as a defense witness.

“If the defense attorney can say, ‘Look, my client’s just doing what your deputy DA’s are doing,’ how in the heck do you prosecute someone like this? That’s a great strategy for the defense attorney,” said von Helms. “What you want to show is that all sorts of normal people utilize medical marijuana. They do so as lawfully as they can.”

Ms. District Attorney Dumanis, even your own deputy DA agrees with Prop 215 and uses medical marijuana in accordance with the law!  Will you do the sensible thing and call off your crusade against medical marijuana, or will you do the petty thing and fire your deputy district attorney?  Either way it works out well for us.  Obviously we’d be thrilled with ending the crusade, but even if she fires Pitts, she opens San Diego up to a lawsuit from a bitter former deputy DA.

Cue up to 2:15 in the video… nice punchline… even better follow-up!

(The Snitch) Ignoring the advice of anti-pot City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, two Los Angeles City Council committees yesterday rejected a proposed ban on sales of medical marijuana.

Anti-pot zealots within L.A. city government had coordinated an 18-month assault on the dispensaries, with headline-grabbing pronouncements from media hogs Trutanich and Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley dominating coverage of the issue in recent weeks.

Both Trutanich and Cooley have been widely quoted in the press as claiming that most of the dispensaries are operating in violation of state law. Cooley’s recent declaration that “approximately zero” of the dispensaries were operating legally sent chills and outrage through the medical marijuana community, seeming to echo San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ statement that there are “no such things” as legal dispensaries.

Council members on both committees wrestled with the idea of ignoring the opinion of the city’s top prosecutor. But after four hours of a contentious and heated hearing, council members had heard more than enough.

A crowd of about 400 people filled the main council chamber for the hearing, with the proceedings often becoming raucous. Most of the speakers were medical marijuana supporters, along with a sprinkling of community activists and conservatives who supported the ban.

Marijuana supporters argued that dispensaries should be regulated, not banned, with a reduction in the number of shops and a crackdown on operations that become a public nuisance.

You cannot stuff this genie back into the bottle, Mr. City Attorney and Mr. District Attorney.  The people of Los Angeles like their clean, reliable, diverse selections of cannabis and aren’t going to go back to hiding in shadows and purchasing on a black market.  The economy has grown accustomed to the sales taxes and foot traffic the dispensaries generate.  Technically legal or not, the dispensaries exist, the people are using them, and they are in many cases improving the neighborhoods where they reside.  Instead of tilting at windmills because they don’t personally like cannabis and its users, the city and county should work with medical marijuana activists to come up with sensible regulations that everyone can live with.