Our local Portland weekly, the Willamette Week, has a lengthy cover story, “Just Say Now”, on the surging popularity of the cannabis legalization movement.  It features quotes from Ethan Nadelmann of DPA, Bruce Mirken of MPP, Rep. Barney Frank and others, and gives the average non-reformer a really good explanation of the valid reasons to end prohibition.

But what most warmed my heart is the accompanying article by James Pitkin on the local efforts to legalize cannabis in Oreg0n:

Last month, when CNN’s Anderson Cooper needed a place other than overhyped California to film a series about legalizing pot, his producers called the head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre knew just where to send them—Oregon.

“Oregon is second fiddle to California,” St. Pierre told WW in a phone interview from NORML’s office in Washington, D.C. “But it’s really the only other instrument in the orchestra.”

Some eye-popping statistics show [Oregon Gov. Ted] Kulongoski and other Oregon leaders may be passing on an opportunity.

The feds consistently put Oregon in the top 10 states for cannabis use. More than 300,000 Oregonians say they’ve smoked marijuana in the past month—more than 8 percent of the population. If pot were sold by the state, some say it could outstrip liquor as a revenue source, bringing in up to $200 million a year.

Without a standard-bearer in Salem, Oregon’s small but earnest band of cannabis activists is left to do for themselves. They plan to put the issue on the 2010 ballot with an initiative called the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.

If they can gather 87,000 signatures to put it on the ballot, and voters then approved the initiative, the act would set up the Oregon Cannabis Control Commission. The new agency would sell pot to buyers 21 and over, with 90 percent of the profit going to the state’s general fund and 10 percent for drug treatment.

The article also includes a review of state politicians and their stand on legalization, with a surprising number in favor of legalization… but unwilling to risk political capital to push for it.

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Screen capture from Wednesday's feature on "America's High: The Case for and Against Pot" on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°

If you blinked, you would have missed it, so here it is in freeze-frame.  It’s me and Urb on CNN!  Two seconds of our fifteen minutes of fame!

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Hemp Headlines

1. Rep. Barney Frank reintroduces bill to end federal penalties for personal pot possession
2. Cops question medical marijuana cards for “seemingly healthy” people
3. America’s first state-certified medical marijuana dispensary set to open in New Mexico
4. Paul Stanford, a “Legal Pot Pusher” with “$3 million business”? CNN, Anderson Cooper, shame on you!

Cannabis Conversations

• Paul Stanford of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation on last night’s AC360° profile.

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards

• Best Acoustic Song – ‘It’s Only a Weed’ by Chief Greenbud

Southern California Scene with Tere Joyce

• Laura Levites, comedian from New York City, toured with Lisa Lampenelli, now living in Los Angeles, on the differences between NY vs. LA weed scene.

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Remember back in 2002 when CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta was going off about how cannabis use leads to depression, schizophrenia, and psychosis?

But the three studies you are talking about talk specifically about schizophrenia and depression, and the fact that marijuana use earlier in life actually may lead to an increased — 30 percent increase — in schizophrenia later in life.

Or back in 2006 when he was writing the article “Why I Would Vote No on Pot“?

Frequent marijuana use can seriously affect your short-term memory. It can impair your cognitive ability (why do you think people call it dope?) and lead to long-lasting depression or anxiety…. But I’m here to tell you, as a doctor, that despite all the talk about the medical benefits of marijuana, smoking the stuff is not going to do your health any good.

Now in 2009 it seems like the good doctor has finally paid attention to the over 17,000 studies showing marijuana’s medical efficacy.  Here’s a transcript from his appearance last night on the Anderson Cooper 360° show (emphasis mine):

ANDERSON COOPER: Sanjay, let’s get at it. Are there benefits to medical marijuana? Is there a case for its use, because the patients we talk to swear by it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the answer is yes. I mean, there are some medical benefits to marijuana, and this is more than just anecdotal evidence now, Anderson. There are some studies to sort of back that up.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

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Well, now if I were the president of this land
You know, I’d declare total war on The Pusher man
I’d cut him if he stands, and I’d shoot him if he’d run
Yes I’d kill him with my Bible and my razor and my gun

God damn The Pusher
Gad damn The Pusher
I said God damn, God damn The Pusher man

–Hoyt Axton

Tonight on Anderson Cooper 360°, as part of the continuing series, “America’s High: The Case For and Against Pot”, CNN managed to malign this podcast’s sponsor and a personal friend of mine, Paul Stanford of The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation.  I knew we were in for something sinister when during the preceding Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Mr. Cooper promoted the segment by saying we’d meet “the man some call ‘King Bong’”, a reference to a derogatory moniker given by the headline writers of the Willamette Week.

During the Joe Johns interview of Mr. Stanford, the onscreen graphics called him “Legal Pot Pusher” and a bullet point showed he runs a “$3 million business”.

push er -noun
1. a person or thing that pushes.
2. Slang. a peddler of illegal drugs.

ped dler -noun
1. a person who sells from door to door or in the street.
2. a person who tries to promote some cause, candidate, viewpoint, etc.

According to my dictionary (dot com), the only way Paul Stanford is a “pusher” is if he is “a person who tries to promote the cause of illegal drugs”, technically true, since he produces a TV show and sponsors this podcast both dedicated to promoting what is defined as an illegal drug.  As in a “pusher” for “legal pot”.

But we both know what you really meant, and it’s that Hoyt Axton lyric wailed in the late Sixties by John Kay and Steppenwolf, “the pusher is a monster, good God, he’s not a natural man.”  As in a “legal pusher” OF “pot”, not a “pusher” FOR “legal pot”.

Combined with the graphic of “Owns a $3 million business”, your viewers will be led to the conclusion that Paul Stanford is able to legally sell marijuana and become a millionaire.  Will they hear Joe Johns’ voice explanation that his business is a medical marijuana consultation and referral business and that he gives away medical marijuana, or will they see “Legal Pot Pusher”, “Owns a $3 million business”, and a screen full of pot plants?  They won’t ever know from your report that Paul Stanford doesn’t sell so much as a gram of marijuana, but he gives away literally hundreds of pounds of it, or that nearly all his money is plowed back into the marijuana movement while he lives a very frugal lifestyle.

However, Paul has his talk down, especially when he smacks down the idea that the social costs of legalized marijuana would outweigh the tax revenue and savings with, “That’s assuming that marijuana is like alcohol and tobacco, and it isn’t.  Marijuana is a healthy alternative and much safer than alcohol and tobacco.”  I’m still waiting for someone to point out that people are already smoking marijuana now, so we’re absorbing any social costs already without gaining any tax revenue and we’re spending money on a fruitless effort to prohibit marijuana.  That $20 billion number CNN flashed on the screen is how much new marijuana users, above and beyond the 22 million current annual users, would have to cost us before that theory makes any sense.  And even if it did, then you have to explain why we’re so eager to take a loss on alcohol and tobacco, but not demonstrably safer marijuana?

(The final absurd point about the cartels “ramping up” their sales of methamphetamine and cocaine made me laugh.  Wouldn’t it be nice if people weren’t buying one of your products anymore, you could just “ramp up” their demand for some of your other products?  Who are these cartels going to sell coke and meth to?)

This not-so-subtle stereotyping is beneath you, CNN and Anderson Cooper.  You know millions of people watching your broadcast primarily get their information from the pictures, not the audio.  While I’m happy you prominently displayed the addiction rates for various drugs and that Dr. Gupta seems to have gotten some education since he was writing “Why I Would Vote No on Pot” for TIME Magazine, you needlessly slandered a good man who has helped thousands of the most vulnerable Americans and is employing hundreds of dedicated activists.

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More video from the continuing Anderson Cooper series, “America’s High: The case for and against pot”:

My dos centavos:

#1 Oh, go get a glass of water! It’s tough enough breaking the stoner stereotype (”stoneotype?”) when your eyes naturally look half-lidded anyway, but to add the audible smacks of a dry mouth makes it even harder.

#2 When David goes for the FDA route, decent comeback on “we’d love to”, but how can you miss mentioning the FDA warning released hours earlier that says Zicam may kill your sense of smell? Or uttering the word “Vioxx”? Also need to point out the disingenuousness of the FDA route and bolster medical marijuana’s acceptance by picking up on Anderson’s AMA comment – “the AMA says there isn’t enough scientific proof of medical marijuana, despite 17,000 peer-reviewed studies that prove it, but when we try to get scientific studies of marijuana from the government, NIDA refuses to allow them to take place

#3 When David goes to the “alcohol and cigs cost more to society than the taxes they bring in”, decent comeback on how harmful they are and marijuana’s safer, but still leaves viewer with impression there will be increased usage and costs from legal marijuana. I’d add, “David, almost everyone who wants to — 22 million adults annually — use marijuana NOW, so we’re already absorbing any of these ‘imaginary costs’ you mention, while also taking in $0 in tax revenue and spending $7.7B on prohibition. Taxing existing marijuana users would bring in $6.2B and eliminate $7.7B in prohibition costs, so these imaginary costs from the few new users would have to top $13.6B/year for your theory to make any sense. Also, if these new users were giving up other drugs and alcohol in favor of marijuana, overall costs for drug and alcohol abuse in this nation would drop.”

Overall, nice job discussing a complicated issue in the sub-five minutes you were given. But I think the days where we need be polite and respectful to our prohibitionist opponents on TV are over. These people need to be treated like the liars they are and our responses should become a bit more forceful in that respect. The people are largely on our side and are thirsting for someone to smack down one of these opponents of liberty.

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Here’s the wonderful Melissa Etheridge, one of hundreds of thousands of patients who have had a positive experience with medical marijuana. Her quote about “that’s a people problem, not a drug problem” is beautiful, but my favorite has to be “it’s not about getting high, it’s about getting to a place of normal”. That’s what Keith’s been saying since 1970!

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(CNN) Hovering in a canyon in a chopper is not for the faint of heart. We came to do a story for AC360° on the “marijuana gardens” that exist on public land — like national parks and U.S. forests. About 80 percent of marijuana grown outdoors is grown in those areas.

We came to the right spot here. As we hovered we could see the plants below us as well as the irrigation system the growers illegally installed in the forest. The system diverts the rain water to these “gardens,” so the rest of the forest is deprived of water while the marijuana plants thrive.

Our pilot dropped us on a ridge. I was glad we didn’t see where we were landing until after we climbed out of the chopper. We were with deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and they gave us green floppy hats to wear to help blend in among the trees so “they” wouldn’t see us.

Who are “they?” I’m told “they” are Mexican immigrants who have been smuggled across the border. They’re the ones who are allegedly responsible for growing this stuff. They bring in the seeds, the fertilizer and everything else they need when they enter the U.S. It’s all financed, according to law enforcement, by the drug cartels in Mexico.

It’s a basic exchange: immigrants rely on the cartels to get them across the border, and the immigrants re-pay their debt by tending the “marijuana gardens” for the cartels.

It’s an uphill battle for law enforcement, which doesn’t have enough money or manpower to keep destroying the drug.

Then the solution should be obvious, shouldn’t it?  Last time I checked, Mexican cartels have never transplanted foreign nationals into national parks to plant tobacco or hops or wine grapes.  I’m pretty sure American farmers would be more than happy to grow legal marijuana and hemp and follow environmental, commercial, and tax laws while doing so.

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This week we have a series planned for you called, “America’s High: The Case For and Against Pot.”

Anderson presents his interview with Melissa Etheridge who says marijuana helped relieve her pain as she battled cancer. On the flip side, Randi Kaye spoke to a teacher with bi-polar disorder who was prescribed marijuana, but it made her mood swings more severe, she became addicted, and it nearly killed her! Make sure you tune in to hear these stories.

Oh, you can be sure we will.  I’d like to know how, if marijuana made the mood swings more severe, then what was the addictive quality that made you want to keep taking it?

CNN’s blog is taking your comments on the title question, “Do you need marijuana for your pain?“

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All week long CNN’s Anderson Cooper focuses on the popularity of marijuana legalization.  Oregon NORML and NORML Board’s Madeline Martinez and the Oregon NORML Cardholders Meeting should be on Wednesday night, as well as THCF’s Paul Stanford and his outdoor medical garden.

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