Teen Marijuana Use Linked to Later Illness - washingtonpost.com
Teenagers who smoke marijuana put themselves at risk for future mental illness and higher rates of depression, according to a report to be released today by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Although fewer teens overall are smoking marijuana, the report said, there is growing concern that those who do, particularly those who view the drug as a way to cope with depression, do not understand its consequences. It also is not clear whether their parents, who might have indulged when they were younger, understand the risks, experts say.
The report, whose release coincides with the start of Mental Health Awareness Month, said studies show links between marijuana use and risk of mental illness later in life, and that use could increase the risk by as much as 40 percent.
Teenage girls who smoke marijuana are particularly at risk, the report said. It found that teen girls who smoke marijuana daily are more likely to develop depression than those who do not.
The report also found that teenagers who smoke marijuana at least once a month are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than non-users. It said that even though the percentage of teens who are depressed is equal to the percentage of adults who say they are depressed, teenagers are more likely to seek solace in marijuana or other illicit drugs.
“Significant numbers of teenagers are self-medicating,” said John P. Walters, director of the White House office. “They’re turning to marijuana to reduce [symptoms of depression], and [the depression] is getting worse.”
Walters said advances in technology allow researchers to better understand the effect drugs such as marijuana have on brain function. The research being done today “is breaking new ground in showing the role marijuana use is playing in depression,” he said.
[T]he report’s conclusions mirror many of the findings of a 2005 survey of Fairfax County youth. According to that study, Hispanic, Asian and African American teens reported higher percentages of depression than their white counterparts.
Contributing to the risk is the higher potency of marijuana being distributed today compared with what was available in the 1970s, when federal officials began analyzing the drug. A study done last year by researchers at the University of Mississippi found that, since the 1980s, the potency has doubled.
Walters said that despite a drop in usage among teenagers, those who are using are becoming more dependent on it. About 60 percent of first-time users are under the age of 18.
“We forget because we think of marijuana as something that’s the least dangerous of illicit drugs, but far more teens are in treatment for dependency on marijuana than alcohol,” Walters said.
If you smoke the reefers, it’ll make you insane! Who would have thought we’d get a whole new round of marijuana scaremongering just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month?
I’ll let Dr. Earleywine tear into this new report next Wednesday, but initially, I would have to ask these few questions about the study:
This “report” ignores so many of the factors that lead to teen depression. Suppose a kid is depressed and he smokes some pot. Then he’s subject to the stigma of being a “pothead”. Maybe he gets busted and loses college money, or a job, or gets grounded, or gets sent to jail or rehab - doesn’t that all sound pretty depressing to you? In other words, did anyone think to control for the effects of the prohibition of pot on someone’s depression?
As for the “40% more likely to develop mental illness” point - could it be that people at higher risk for mental illness tend to use marijuana? And could you show me, please, where rates of mental illness have risen and fallen along with the rates of marijuana use? Clearly there should’ve been some massive spike in mental illness after the Summer of Love, right? No, the rates of mental illness do not seem to fluctuate with the rates of marijuana use.
Minority kids are more depressed than white kids? While I believe it, what does that have to do with marijuana?
At least they said that marijuana is only twice as potent, and not thirty times more potent like they say in the UK. But again, they misunderstand the effect of potency on the experience. More potent marijuana doesn’t cause a more harmful high, it just gets you to the same high by smoking less of it.
Finally, more kids are in treatment for marijuana than ever before because when we catch them with marijuana, we force them into treatment. When you factor out the people forced by the criminal justice system to attend rehab for marijuana, the numbers of self-referred treatment-seeking marijuana abusers is quite small.
The businesses in Union Township and Newport specialize in detox products to help customers pass pre-employment drug tests.
Spectrum Labs is in the middle of the business district in Newport. On Wednesday morning, neighboring businesses couldn’t help but notice police and federal agents arriving at the 818 Monmouth Street.
“First we saw three Newport cops come up and the DEA and the FBI and they all ran in with their guns held up and then they came out and took off their vests,” said Natasha Luster, a witness.
A rental truck arrived a short time later and agents began removing dozens of boxes of files.
The FBI and DEA are not commenting on the specifics of their investigation. They would only say they were executing search warrants that are currently sealed.
No one has been arrested or charged.
The part of the story they aren’t telling you is that Spectrum Labs is the company that also is funding and distributing the documentary (”a/k/a/ Tommy Chong”) about Tommy Chong’s ordeal in the prosecution culminating in his imprisonment for nine months for selling bongs on the internet.
The force behind that prosecution was the United States Attorney appointed by George W. Bush to the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mary Beth Buchanan.
So, care to guess which US Attorney is behind this raid of Spectrum Labs and the seizure of the movie that paints Mary Beth Buchanan in an unflattering light?
TODAY May 7, 2008: District Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan continues targeting Tommy Chong (”Cheech & Chong”), raiding his Spectrum Labs warehouse and confiscating DVDs.
Moments ago, Buchanan’s task force raided a warehouse where Chong was storing DVD copies of his documentary A/K/A TOMMY CHONG, a film chronicling Chong’s 2005 arrest by Buchanan for selling bongs over state lines. D.A. Buchanan has a reputation for chasing national headlines instead of criminals and has received much media attention for her prosecution of Tommy Chong.
In a hastily-written description of the raid, the director of the documentary, Josh Gilbert, told NORML in an email:
newsflash: 30 fully armed swat team commandos raided cincinnati office and held 5 overweight, middle aged women hostage while they emptied out their warehouse of piss testing agents; fake penises (the whizzinator); fake pee and a dvd about the feds busting tommy chong of cheech and chong…for selling bongs over the internet. all starring the same justice serving federal prosecutor, mary beth buchanan!
Be sure to download the Friday Stash for our interview with Tommy Chong about this breaking news story.
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a measure into law Wednesday that bans the sale of “marijuana flavored products” to minors — anyone under 18 — and calls for a fine of up to $500 for each offense.
The measure takes effect July 1st.
It targets businesses that sell the candies with drug-inspired names such as “Kronic Kandy” and “Pot Suckers.”
The law says the candies promote drug use.
Vote Hemp, a national organization that promotes the use of hemp products and tracks legislation, says the measure would make Georgia the first state to ban the sale of the candy to minors.
The reefer madness has gone so far that now lawmakers feel they have to criminalize a taste? How exactly do you enforce a law like that? Taste is a subjective experience - a child and I may taste the same piece of black licorice, but she might like it and I think it’s the candy of Satan. There’s a flavor that should be illegal!
Will Georgia have a state-certified tastologist to verify the sticky-ickiness of the lollipops on a case-by-case basis? Have scientists in Atlanta come up with a Dynometric Tastometer? What if we call the lollipop “Ganja Grape”, “Bonghittin’ Banana”, or “Cinnamon Sativa”, but they actually taste like grape, banana, or cinnamon?
How ganja-like must a confection taste before it is criminal? Certainly the flavor of killer freshly-harvested BC Bud lollipops would be a crime, but can we lower the fine if it tastes like Mexican brick ditchweed overcooked in a poorly-made chocolate brownie? And is there some epidemic of kids craving the mere taste of weed? Last I checked, sour was really popular, as is chocolate.
I suppose Root Beer will still be legal, though. That doesn’t promote any drug use by kids, does it?
Seriously, this is a little like the thought police, isn’t it?
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, announced the reversal yesterday of the Government’s earlier decision to downgrade the drug. But under18s caught with it will not be treated any more harshly, to avoid criminalising them.
Punishment for the over18s will increase from the existing “confiscate and warning” for a first offence to a possible penalty notice for disorder on a second offence followed by arrest and prosecution for a third offence.
Although the new jail term for possession rises from two to five years, it is unlikely that anyone will be imprisoned for simple possession of cannabis for personal use.
Reclassification will not take effect until early next year because Parliament has to approve the decision.
A report from the advisory council concluded that the health dangers from cannabis did not justify its inclusion in the higher category and that it should remain a Class C drug. Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the council, said: “Changing the classification of cannabis is neither warranted nor will it achieve the desired effect.”
Ms Smith said that the Government was overruling the council because she was unwilling to “risk the future health of young people”. She told MPs: “Where there is a clear and serious problem, but doubt about the harm that will be caused, we must err on the side of caution and protect the public. I make no apology for that – I am not prepared to wait and see.”
The Home Secretary said she was concerned about the mental health effects of smoking super-strength skunk cannabis, which now accounts for 81 per cent of cannabis seized on the streets. There were also suggestions that young people were “binge smoking” to get the maximum high.
The reefer madness of Gordon Brown continues. The public health and law enforcement experts on the prime minister’s advisory body voted 20-3 that cannabis should remain in the lowest classification of drugs - Class C - and that Britons should not be arrested for its possession.
But politicians love to look “tough on crime” and by treating cannabis use as a crime, they can score easy points in the political arena, despite the overwhelming evidence that cannabis use is not a serious social problem and what few problems it does present are best treated in a public health model, not a criminal justice one.
Jacqui Smith says we can’t afford to “wait and see”, yet since cannabis has been downgraded from Class B to Class C, we’ve found that cannabis use has gone down in the UK. Furthermore, cannabis has been in widespread use since the 1960s - how much longer does Ms Smith need to wait and see?
This is driven in the UK by the tabloid headlines of the dreaded “skunk” cannabis, otherwise known by realists as “quality marijuana”. They trumpet false stats like “skunk is 30 times more potent than regular cannabis”. Since “skunk” tests out at about 12%-14% THC, then they must consider hemp rope to be “regular cannabis”. Actually, “regular cannabis” tests out to 7%-10% THC, so maybe it is at most twice as potent.
However, as we all know, more potent cannabis does not equal more public danger. Cannabis is non-toxic, so smoking more of the more potent varieties isn’t going to cause any more physical harm. Cannabis is self-titrating, which means users smoke to get high, and if the cannabis is more potent, they just smoke less of it to get high. Considering that inhaling the smoke of burning vegetable matter of any kind isn’t the nicest thing for your lungs, smoking less of it is probably a good thing.
We here at NORML call on all our friends in the United Kingdom to call your member of Parliament and tell them to vote no on the upgrade of cannabis from Class C to Class B.
reason.tv - Videos > Mississippi Drug War Blues
At 11p.m on December 26, 2001 police in Prentiss, Mississippi raided the residence of Cory Maye, a 21-year-old father who was at home with his 18-month-old daughter Ta’Corriana.
The cops were looking for drugs and smashed through the back door. In the ensuing chaos, Maye hunkered down with his daughter in a bedroom and when the police broke down that door, he fired three bullets, one of which killed Officer Ron Jones. Maye testified in court that the police did not identify themselves until after they had entered his residence; indeed, he testified that they did not identify themselves until after he had fired his shots. Once they did, he said he put his weapon on the floor, slid it toward police, and surrendered.
The police, who refused to talk with reason.tv, tell a different story. They claim that they identified themselves multiple times before entering Maye’s house and bedroom, and that there was no way Maye couldn’t have known who they were. A jury rejected Maye’s case that he was acting in self-defense and he was sentenced to death for the murder of Office Ron Jones.
“Mississippi Drug War Blues” is a story about the intersection of race (Maye is black and Jones was white); the war on drugs; the disturbing increase in the militarization of police tactics; and systemic flaws in the criminal justice and expert-testimony systems.
It is a tragedy in which one man is dead and another may spend his life in prison.
It was printed on a 16-foot-wide banner and strung above one of the busiest roads here, calling out to any “soldier or ex-soldier.”
“We’re offering you a good salary, food and medical care for your families,” it said in block letters.
But there was a catch: The employer was Los Zetas, a notorious Gulf cartel hit squad formed by elite Mexican army deserters. The group even included a phone number for job seekers that linked to a voice mailbox.
Outrageous as they seem, drug cartel messages such as the banner hung here late last month are becoming increasingly common along the violence-savaged U.S.-Mexico border and in other parts of the region. As soldiers wage a massive campaign against drug trafficking across Mexico, they are encountering an information war managed by criminal networks that operate with near impunity.
“The cartels are very good at this — they’ve had songs written about them, they put up these signs, they make themselves out to be Robin Hoods,” Carlos Martínez, a Nuevo Laredo elementary school principal and community activist, said in an interview.
The banners also appeal to many poorer Mexicans who respect the brashness of the cartels, which provide food, clothing and toys to win civilians’ loyalty.
Marcelino, a 74-year-old pensioner who did not provide his last name for fear of retribution, said that he had been wronged plenty of times by police but that drug traffickers had given him a sturdy mountain bike.
Marcelino said police had harassed his neighbors, trumping up phony criminal violations and extracting bribes to avoid incarceration. Previous local governments tried to throw him and other squatters off government land. Drug traffickers, however, sided with the squatters, earning their enduring gratitude by paying to build cinder-block shacks and distributing clothing.
“I trust the Zetas more than the thieving police and soldiers,” Marcelino said. “The police are rats.”
Once they join drug gangs, the deserters seem “cool” to many people, according to Martínez. Children in his neighborhood see banners advertising jobs in drug gangs and connect those images with the suddenly prosperous deserters, and other cartel recruits, they meet on the streets. With few opportunities for employment in Mexico’s weak economy, the prospect of joining a gang is appealing, he said.
And of course, what is fueling the massive profits for murderous Mexican drug cartels more than anything is the prohibition of drugs in the United States and failure to provide treatment and rehabilitation rather than arrest and incarceration for drug addicts. Without countering demand, we will never affect supply.
However, we will never eliminate demand for drugs in this country or any other; it is human nature for some to seek altered states of consciousness. Therefore, it behooves us to take the production, marketing, merchandising and distribution of drugs out of the hands of black market criminals. All we accomplish by prohibiting drugs is more violence, corrupt cops, and wealthy drug gangs.
The Associated Press: 75 students arrested in San Diego State University drug bust
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Dozens of San Diego State University students were arrested and six fraternities were suspended after a sweeping drug investigation found that some fraternity members openly dealt drugs and one even sent a mass text message advertising cocaine, authorities said Tuesday.
A five-month investigation prompted by a cocaine overdose death last year led to the arrests of 96 people, 75 of them San Diego State students. A second drug death occurred while the investigation went on.
Twenty-nine people were arrested early Tuesday in raids at nine locations including the Theta Chi fraternity, where agents found cocaine, Ecstasy and three guns. Eighteen of them were wanted on warrants for selling to undercover agents.
Two kilograms of cocaine were seized in all, along with 350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said.
The district attorney’s office said search warrants were served in San Diego and suburban La Mesa, including the Theta Chi fraternity house and several apartments.
A member of Theta Chi sent out a mass text message to his “faithful customers” stating that he and his “associates” would be unable to sell cocaine while they were in Las Vegas over one weekend, according to the DEA. The text promoted a cocaine “sale” and listed the reduced prices.
San Diego State suspended Theta Chi and five other fraternities Tuesday pending a hearing on evidence gathered during the investigation. Members of at least three fraternities were arrested, according to law enforcement.
Investigators infiltrated seven fraternities in the course of the probe.
The undercover probe, dubbed Operation Sudden Fall, was sparked by the cocaine overdose death of a student in May 2007, authorities said. As the investigation continued, another student, from Mesa College, died Feb. 26 of a cocaine overdose at an SDSU fraternity house, the DEA said.
OK, first of all, anyone who would send out a mass text message advertising to sell cocaine should have his scholarships and grant money revoked and given to a student with with some sense. Advertising one’s felonies through traceable mass electronic communication doesn’t sound like the work of someone with stellar SATs.
However, are 75 arrests really required here? As we know, every one of those students, if convicted, will lose all federal student financial aid. They will have a drug conviction on their records for life as they enter the job marketplace. Surely, not all 75 of these arrests are for the kingpins of this enterprise. There was no violence involved. Isn’t this a bit of overkill?
Nobody wants college kids dying from cocaine overdoses. One of the reasons we lobby so hard for the end of adult marijuana prohibition is that it removes marijuana from the cohort of really dangerous illegal drugs and provides young people with the safest choice of recreational intoxicant. It’s sad that two kids died from cocaine, but how many students every year die from alcohol overdoses? When are the feds initiating a massive undercover probe to root out underaged drinking on campuses?
WASHINGTON – The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is conducting the latest in a series of regional summits designed to convince local educators to begin drug testing students randomly and without cause – a policy unsupported by the available science and opposed by leading experts in adolescent health, including the Academy of Pediatrics, National Education Association, the Association of Addiction Professionals and the National Association of Social Workers.
“Subjecting students to unsubstantiated searches flies in the face of the values taught in our nation’s classrooms,” said ACLU Legislative Counsel Jesselyn McCurdy. “Random drug testing is not only ineffective in preventing teen drug use, it’s counter-productive. We know that the threat of random drug testing can discourage students from participating in the very activities proven to reduce drug use, such as high school sports. It marginalizes already at-risk teens and undermines trust between students and educators.”
While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that random drug testing of students involved in extracurricular activities does not violate the Constitution, many state constitutions provide stronger privacy protections, disallowing such testing schemes. For example, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found random drug testing of students unconstitutional under state law in 2003, and the Washington Supreme Court most recently declared it unconstitutional in March of this year.
In addition to exposing schools to costly litigation, studies have found that suspicionless drug testing is ineffective in deterring student drug use. The first large-scale national study on student drug testing in 2003 found no difference in rates of student drug use between schools that have drug testing programs and those that do not. In addition, the results of a two-year trial published last November in the Journal of Adolescent Health concluded random drug testing targeting student athletes did not reliably reduce past month drug use and, in fact, produced attitudinal changes among students that indicate new risk factors for future substance use.
Money not well spent: Fraser
Sheila Fraser, the federal Auditor-General, yesterday released her latest report on Ottawa’s management of its programs and spending. As in the past, the Auditor-General found many areas in which government spending was excessive or lacked proper oversight.
The federal government is charging too much for passports, doesn’t know what to charge for medical marijuana and may not be charging enough for some other fees it collects.
Yesterday’s report indicated Ottawa collected $1.9-billion in fees on everything from issuing passports to granting licences to manufacture drugs. The money represents a small fraction of the more than $200-billion collected every year in taxes and duties.
[T]he auditors discovered Health Canada is probably undercharging Canadians who are allowed to buy marijuana for medical purposes. Health Canada charges $5 for a gram of dried marijuana or $20 for a packet of 30 marijuana seeds. Some “compassion” clubs, which try to assist those who need marijuana to ease chronic pain, charge twice as much for similar amounts.
Health Canada plans to recalculate its charge.
There’s just one problem with this analysis: the marijuana being supplied by Health Canada is of very poor quality compared to that which is sold in the compassion clubs. It is only worth half of what the quality marijuana is worth.
Health Canada maintains a monopoly supply on government medical marijuana. The herb is grown 500 feet below the earth in an abandoned zinc and copper mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba. I’ve spoken with Philippe Lucas from the Vancouver Island Compassion Society about this issue, and he tells me that not only is the Flin Flon weed quite schwaggy, but also there are concerns about its safety after being grown where so many harsh mining chemicals had been used.
Health Canada needs to open up the production of marijuana to the many excellent independent growers in Canada. British Columbia itself could probably manufacture enough high-quality marijuana to supply the whole country.
But here is where the prohibition rub comes in. Because there is a lucrative black market both in Canada and the US for high-quality marijuana, the price of marijuana is artificially inflated by prohibition risk. BC growers want to divert their strains to the top dollar buyers, not to some government that will fix the price and create many bureaucratic headaches.
And the government must either grow poor quality weed that can remain low cost and out of competition with “BC Bud”, or raise quality and prices to match the black market. Government can’t charge less for good medicine, else people will purchase it and resell it on the black market for the margin.
Come on now. $5, $10, $15 for a gram for a weed? $20 to $50 for a packet of seeds? Can you name any other consumer agricultural product that demands such exorbitant pricing (yes: tobacco, due to high taxes and saffron, which grows in few places during a short season and must be harvested by hand by picking the individual stigma off the flower)? What do you think marijuana would cost if it were completely legal and farmers could grow acres of it outdoors?
“We are facing in Brazil too much repression against the march. From 10 cities that were confirmed for the march, the Justice prohibited 6 cities from taking part. As citizens of a democracy we are very disappointed”.
It was a similar story in Moscow, with the Military and Police blocking the way to the Friendship of Nations fountain at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. The meeting place for the 2006 Global Marijuana March in Russia, organised once again by the Cannabis Legalize League (CLL), who were hoping not to have any injuries to treat this year.
[A spokesman for CLL said,] “We published an official statement on the CLL site, so that both authorities and activists could learn that no marches would be held in Moscow in 2008. We invited our supporters to come to the “Friendship of Nations” fountain at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. We made it quite clear there should be no banners or other means of political propaganda: only thematic clothes, excellent mood and musical instruments.”
“As soon as the statement was published we received an aggressive reaction from the Federal Service of Drug Control (Russian DEA analog). In the interview to one of the most famous Russian news agencies the head of the informational department of the FSDC Alexander Mikhailov commented our action in the following expressions”:
“Legalization of cannabis as a drug is out of the question. This theme mustn’t be discussed at all. Such actions are the grossest breach of the peace and hooliganism. This is a spring exacerbation on which the bodies of internal affairs and psychiatrists should react”.
Congressman John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has responded to the requests of numerous citizens as well as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco regarding the use of federal DEA resources in enforcement of marijuana laws against patients legally using medical marijuana under state law.
The Conyers letter, sent to Acting DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, asks for the administration’s response to the complaints in advance of hearings to be held in front of the Judiciary Committee. Conyers’ questions include:
Is the use of civil asset forfeiture, which has typically been reserved for the worst drug traffickers and kingpins, an appropriate tactic to employ against individuals who suffer from severe or chronic illness and are authorized to use medical marijuana under California law?
Has the DEA conducted any analysis of the potential economic consequences of using civil asset forfeiture in an area that is experiencing some of the nation’s sharpest declines in property values?
Has the DEA considered the consequences of shutting down legally-operated public dispensaries, and whether that might drive the cannabis sales activity underground?
Given the increased level of trafficking and violence associated with international drug cartels across Mexico, South America and elsewhere, do you think the DEA’s limited resources are best utilized conducting enforcement raids on individuals and their caregivers who are conducting themselves legally under California law?
Have you considered that DEA activities against qualified individuals is negatively impacting the ability of state and local officials across California to collect tax revenue, which they are entitled to under California law?
Every month new science supporting the therapeutic value of cannabis is published. As a result, medical and scientific organizations, like the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association, are urging reform of the laws that place in legal jeopardy physicians or their individual patients who may benefit from the use of cannabis. As the Administrator, you have the discretion to decide whether to continue heightened enforcement activities in California and in other states that have authorized the use of medical cannabis by qualified individuals. Please explain what role, if any, emerging scientific data plays in your decision-making process to conduct enforcement raids on individuals authorized to use or provide medical cannabis under state law.
Would you support the creation of an intergovernmental commission comprised of law enforcement, law makers and people affected by the laws, to review policy and provide recommendations that aim to bring harmony to federal and state laws?
While Conyers awaits the response from the DEA, let me play the psychic and predict what the DEA’s answers to those questions will be: no, no, no, no, none, and no.
Willamette Week | Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Conservative ballot-measure supremo Kevin Mannix just told WWire he and his cohorts are dropping a proposed ballot initiative to kill the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.
“That petition’s going to stop this week,” Mannix says. There was not enough time or money to gather the 82,769 valid signatures needed, he says.
“That’s the best news I’ve had all day,” says Paul Stanford, head of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation, a Portland-based national chain of medical marijuana clinics.
Mannix says the decision to drop the petition drive had nothing to do with lack of public support, but rather lack of resources. But Stanford says he believes Mannix ran into trouble because the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, approved by voters in 1998, is still supported by a clear majority.
Stanford says it’s good news for medical-marijuana advocates that the petition has been dropped.
“We don’t have to waste our resources encouraging people not to sign that petition,” Stanford says. “We don’t have to mount a campaign against them in the fall. It just saves us a lot of time and effort.”
The so-called Oregon Crimefighting Act would have done three things:
•Given repeat “major felony” sex offenders a minimum 25-year sentence.
•Made third-strike DUII convictions a felony.
•Replaced medical marijuana with prescription THC pills.
Stanford has called the initiative a cynical effort to tear down medical marijuana by tagging it onto slam-drunk issues like opposing drunk drivers and sex predators. He says many marijuana patients oppose the change because THC pills are too expensive and not as effective.
Mannix told WWire that the ballot initiative, which he drafted, had financial support from the Florida-based nonprofit Save Our Society From Drugs. He says backers may return with another effort to gut medical marijuana in the 2010 election.
How about Save Our Society From Ignorance? This was the most shameful attempt to repeal medical marijuana in the second state to enact such protection for serious ill and disabled people. Mannix is a well-known conservative troublemaker in this state. He’s the man behind our ill-fated Measure 11, a state-level get-tough-on-crime mandatory minimum sentencing scheme that has helped overcrowd Oregon’s prisons and led us to spending more money on prisons than colleges. He’s lost a couple attempts to become governor and is now eyeing the federal Congressional seat of the retiring Representative Darlene Hooley.
Rep. William Lacy Clay is supporting a bill that would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.
The Missouri Democrat has signed on as a co-sponsor of the measure to eliminate federal penalties for possessing up to 100 grams - or about 3.5 ounces - of marijuana for personal use.
The bill also would remove penalties for the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce of marijuana between adults.
Clay is only the third lawmaker to sign onto the bill introduced last month by Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Frank says prosecuting people for smoking marijuana is an unwise use of law enforcement resources.
Clay joins Ron Paul (R-TX) as a cosponsor. I am thrilled to hear of a lawmaker in the Midwest who’s unafraid to stand up for marijuana decriminalization.
New centre will fight marijuana - National - smh.com.au
Cannabis use and addiction have become such a problem, particularly among the young, that the Federal Government is funding a $12 million research centre at the University of NSW to try to turn the trend around.
Cannabis is the most popular illicit drug in Australia, with 33.5 per cent of adults having used it, [The centre’s director] Professor [Jan] Copeland said.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from last year showed that 750,000 people used cannabis weekly and 300,000 used it every day.
The number of those seeking treatment had tripled since 1992, but many young people still did not understand the significant potential for harm to their health nor that there were treatment services available, Professor Copeland said.
She said about one in 10 people who tried cannabis would develop a dependence.
Those under 16 who had used it at all were three times more likely to either drop out of school or finish without attaining their Higher School Certificate, she said. Professor Copeland said those who began smoking cannabis in the 1970s were starting to develop respiratory, head and neck cancers.
A single cannabis joint has the same effect on the lungs as smoking up to five cigarettes in one sitting, according to research published in the respiratory medicine journal Thorax last year.
Nothing like starting the week out with a trifecta of drug war lies.
Yes, admissions for drug treatment, both in Australia and the US and elsewhere, have increased since 1992. This is because courts are increasingly sentencing people to drug rehab when they’re caught with marijuana. Imagine if they sent to rehab people who are ever found to be buzzed on alcohol - would there be a mass media frenzy about the incredible increase in alcoholism? Of course not, because not all use is abuse. If you factor out those forced into marijuana rehab, you find the number of pot smokers choosing to enter rehab is quite small.
The “one joint = 5 / 10 / 20 cigarettes” myth has been debunked as well. Marijuana does not cause emphysema and marijuana smokers show much better respiratory function than tobacco smokers.
(Long Island, N.Y.) On Wednesday, May 14, 2008 the Marijuana Policy Project (www.MPP.org) will host a spring soiree, a night of comedy and music to benefit MPP’s efforts to protect seriously ill New Yorkers from arrest and jail if they use medical marijuana with their doctor’s recommendation. Patient advocate Joel Peacock will be honored and Sony/BMG recording artist Nicole Atkins & The Sea and other special guests will perform. All funds raised will be used to pass a bill to make New York the 13th medical marijuana state in the country.
The Host Committee for the event and those attending include: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’s Lewis Black, Political Pundit Tucker Carlson, Tony Award Winner Savion Glover, MTV News’ Kurt Loder, Musician Michelle Phillips, ABC’s John Stossel from 20/20, Talk Show Host Montel Williams and more.
Last year - - for the first time ever - - the New York Assembly passed a medical marijuana bill - by a 95-52 vote, sending the bill over to the Senate.
Before his resignation, Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) expressed his openness to signing medical marijuana legislation, and the new Gov. Paterson seems likely to be a supporter as well, so all eyes are now focused on the Republican-controlled Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is supportive of allowing medical marijuana, but has not brought the issue to a vote.
With the Republicans facing a tough election this November, when they could very well lose control of the Senate, we’re hoping they’ll pay attention to the public opinion polling that indicates 76% of New York voters -and even 55% of Conservative Party voters in the state –support legal protection for medical marijuana patients.
The MPP benefit will take place at the Highline Ballroom, 431 W 16th Street between 9th and 10th Aves. (212) 414-5994. Tickets for $250 in advance- $300 at the door (most of your contribution is tax-deductible) are available at (202) 462-5747 Ext. 104 or www.mpp.org/highline
Just catching up on some of the reports from the March this weekend:
Close to 500 protesters took to the streets [of Calgary, Alberta, Canada] Saturday in favour of marijuana’s medicinal use and making it more accessible to those suffering debilitating pain.
Amid the incense aromas and reggae beats, several hundred Austinites rallied at the Capitol on Saturday for the legalization of marijuana for personal and medical use.
“These guys are easy compared to the anarchists,” said Sgt. Voepel of the Portland Police Department, “they’re on time, and they’re orderly.”
According to the Sarge, the only rabble rousers during the march were two drunkards who were pestering people but were unconnected to the peaceful pro-pot gatherers. No pot smokers were spotted.
The death of Timothy Garon, 56, at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive care nursing center was confirmed to The Associated Press by his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and Alisha Mark, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center, which operates Bailey-Boushay.
Dr. Brad Roter, the physician who authorized Garon to smoke pot to alleviate for nausea and abdominal pain and to stimulate his appetite, said he did not know it would be such a hurdle if Garon were to need a transplant.
The case has highlighted a new ethical consideration for those allocating organs for transplant, especially in the dozen states that have medical marijuana laws: When dying patients need a transplant, should it be held against them if they’ve used pot with a doctor’s blessing?
Garon died a week after his doctor told him a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver transplant list because of his use of marijuana, although it was authorized under Washington state law.
“He said I’m going to die with such conviction,” Garon told an AP reporter at the time. “I’m not angry, I’m not mad, I’m just confused.”
Garon believes he contracted hepatitis C by sharing needles with “speed freaks” as a teenager. In recent years, he said, pot has been the only drug he’s used. In December, he was arrested for growing marijuana.
He had been in the hospice for two months and previously was rejected for a transplant at Swedish Medical Center for the same reason he later got from the university hospital.
Swedish said he would be considered if he avoided pot for six months and the university hospital offered to reconsider if he enrolled in a 60-day drug treatment program, but doctors said his liver disease was too advanced for him to last that long. The university hospital committee agreed to reconsider anyway, then denied him again.
The idea of keeping drug addicts off of transplant lists is not necessarily a bad idea. There are precious few organs to go around, and one should not be given to a person who is just likely to destroy the new organ because of their addictions. But this is clearly not the case with medical marijuana patients.
The grim irony here is that Garon could have used other drugs to treat his hepatitis symptoms, but those pharmaceuticals are toxic to the very liver he needed to be transplanted. He used medical marijuana because of its lack of liver toxicity. Perhaps it is what kept him alive as long as he was; perhaps the other drugs would have killed him more quickly.
Doctors in charge of the transplant division at UWMC were unsure that after the transplant, Garon wouldn’t resume using medical marijuana. Most of their quotes revealed an astonishing lack of understanding about cannabis, with worries about Garon being unable to control a so-called addiction to cannabis, that, had he continued smoking cannabis, his immune system, suppressed for the transplant, would be unable to fight off any infections or molds he might pick up from smoking.
A man is dead today because of ignorance about medical marijuana, stereotypes against responsible cannabis users, and the cruel federal prohibition of the most helpful plant known to mankind.
The legislation would make it a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison to own a house where marijuana is being cultivated, packaged and distributed.
The bill would also reduce the number of marijuana plants that would have to be in a home for a person to be convicted of a second-degree felony, which would be punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Right now, a person would have to have 300 plants in their home to be convicted of a second-degree felony, but the bill would reduce that number to 25.
In addition, if a child was living in the home, a person could spend up to 30 years in prison.
The Senate unanimously passed the bill today. It passed the House last month.
I think this is a bill they haven’t really put much thought into. Suppose you are a Florida landlord and you rent your property out to someone who then grows a single marijuana plant for personal uses. As the owner of the home, are you now headed to five years in prison? If your renter grows 25, are you sent up for 15 years? If your renter has kids, are you going to prison for 30 years?
Think about the consequences of this. The rental market is tight already and landlords are always having trouble finding good tenants. What will landlords do to protect themselves from the potential grower/renter? Will landlords, in addition to criminal background checks they already perform, now be insisting on pre-rental and random drug testing of their renters? Will they be forced to perform those 24-hour notice rental inspections?
And what of the people trying to rent? If you had made a mistake in your youth and got busted with marijuana, how likely are landlords going to want to rent to you? I believe this will create even more homeless people in Florida, as those people on the margins economically who have drug convictions in the past are rejected for rentals.
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE — After being rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 4-0 vote last Thursday, HB 1623 was defeated this afternoon in a voice vote by the full Senate. The bill, which would have reduced the penalty for possessing less than a quarter ounce of marijuana, had been marked for death since it received a rare veto threat from Governor Lynch following passage by the House.
Matt Simon, executive director of the NH Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy, was not discouraged by the result. “A strong majority of voters now understand that our marijuana laws were written for the 1970’s, and that they need to be updated for the 21st Century,” he explained. “Through this process, I think we have demonstrated that a reform of this nature is both wise and inevitable.”
Simon cited the 193-141 House vote as a turning point for marijuana reform in New Hampshire. “It’s tough to raise this kind of issue in an election year,” he said, “but given the results from our recent poll, we’re confident that decision-makers will catch up with public opinion when the next opportunity arises.”
Congratulations to the reformers who have moved decrim forward in the Granite State. Matt is right; just getting a passage from the House is a major accomplishment. Don’t be too discouraged about losing this battle, because we keep making progress on winning the war.
The Senate has already approved the bill, and it’s expected to hit the House floor in about a week.
Ads are already hitting the airwaves asking the governor not to veto the bill like he’s promised.
Like the governor, the Minnesota Sheriffs Association and the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association are against medical marijuana.
“They can say they’ve got a prescription but if we call the doctor, they’re not going to release if they have a prescription. It becomes a HIPAA issue,” says Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi.
First of all, Sheriff, people don’t get prescriptions for medical marijuana, as that would violate federal law and cause the DEA to revoke a doctor’s license to prescribe scheduled drugs. But doctors are free to recommend medical marijuana, as adjudicated in the case Conant v. Walters.
As for the so-called HIPAA issue, there is no HIPAA issue (though it is nice to see law enforcement concerned about patient’s right to privacy). Obviously, the sheriff has not read the text of the Minnesota bill, which states:
A qualifying patient who possesses a registry identification card shall not be subject to arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner…
“Registry identification card” means a document issued by the commissioner that identifies a person as a qualifying patient or primary caregiver…
The commissioner shall maintain a confidential list of the persons to whom the department has issued registry identification cards. Individual names and other identifying information on the list shall be confidential, exempt from the Minnesota Freedom of Information Act, and not subject to disclosure, except to authorized employees of the department as necessary to perform official duties of the department.
The commissioner shall verify to law enforcement personnel whether a registry identification card is valid solely by confirming the random registry identification number.
Keith Stroup on MA marijuana conviction; Charles Thomas on Interfaith efforts to pass MN MedMJ; GOP reaction to Obama MedMJ comments; music by Mikey Dread.
Pot’s Effects On Driving Performance Contrast Alcohol’s, Study Says; Survey: One In Seven Public School Districts Drug Test Students; Hawaii: Legislature Approves Medical Marijuana Task Force Measure; Dale Geiringer on CA bills; Jesse Stout on RI bill.
UK Parliament to vote on stiffer pot penalties; Inhaled cannabis reduces neuropathic pain; Keith Stroup goes to trial Monday, will argue constitutionality of Mass. pot laws; interview with Douglas Hiatt, attorney for Tim Garon.
Hepatitis C Patient Denied Transplant Based on State and Doctor Approved Medi-Pot Use; New Study Indicates Cannabis-Associated Psychosis Risk Is Minimal; More Than 230 Cities, 35 Countries To Hold Marijuana Rallies This Weekend
Part 1 of Marijuana Law Reform 2007: State Legislative Reforms and Future Efforts panel at the NORML 2007 Conference. Panelists: Mikki Norris, Joshua Schimburg, Alison Holcomb, Esq., Keith Stroup, Esq., Jesse Stout, Ray Warren, Ethan Nadelmann, Ph.D. Panel chair: Paul Armentano
