With 18% of the returns in, the election in Maine is being watched nationwide for its contentious “Question 1″, a vote on whether to reject the state’s recognition of same-sex marriage.  It’s too close to call in that race, but most of the other statewide questions seem to be being decided rather strongly.

Currently, “Question 5″, the proposal to create a statewide registry ID card system for medical marijuana patients (a la Oregon) and medical marijuana dispensaries (a la Rhode Island and New Mexico), is winning by a 63% – 37% vote.

For our readers in Maine, don’t forget to get out and vote tomorrow on Question 5.  Here’s a summary from Maine Citizens for Patient Rights:

Current law allows a person who has been diagnosed by a physician as suffering from certain medical conditions to possess marijuana for medical use. This initiated bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services to issue registry identification cards to patients who qualify to possess marijuana for medical use and to their designated primary caregivers. It sets limits on the amount of marijuana that may be possessed by qualifying patients and their designated primary caregivers. It allows the establishment of nonprofit dispensaries to provide marijuana to qualifying patients and directs the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a registration certificate to a nonprofit dispensary that meets certain criteria. It changes the description of the medical conditions for which the medical use of marijuana is permitted. It directs the Department of Health and Human Services to establish application and renewal fees sufficient to pay the expenses of implementing and administering the provisions of the initiated bill.

Download link: NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2009-07-31

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-07-31.mp3)

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4. Maine medical marijuana grower’s prison sentence upheld by Maine Supreme Court

CelebStoner.com Entertainment Report with Steve Bloom, co-author of Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life

• Death at the Gathering of the Vibes – the “nitrous scene”
• Steve pans the new Kevin Spacey dope-smoking psychologist film, “Shrink”

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• It’s a Rap Friday – ‘I Get High’ by Coolie High

Cannabis Conversations

• Adam Scorgie, filmmaker behind “The Union: The Business Behind Getting High”, with revelations of growers who hope for stronger sentences against marijuana smokers, as it boosts the revenue.

(Bangor Daily News) Voters passed a referendum in November 1999 and the Legislature amended it in 2002 to allow the medical use of marijuana. The law allows a designated caregiver to possess 2½ ounces of harvested marijuana for the benefit of a patient eligible to receive medical marijuana plus a total of six plants, of which no more than three could be mature, flowering plants, according to Bickerman’s brief.

Since the enactment of the law, people have asked [Donald K. Christen, 55] to be their caregiver once they have received the necessary medical permission to use the drug medicinally from their physicians. Christen [argued he] was following the law when Somerset County sheriff’s deputies, armed with a warrant on Nov. 10, 2004, seized 13 marijuana plants from his residence.

Christen [argued he] had the proper paperwork to show that he was acting legally as a caregiver to at least six people, including his wife, Pamela Christen, 45, of Madison, who was suffering from ovarian cancer.

Let’s see, six patients times three flowering plants equals eighteen plants, doesn’t it? And an ounce shy of a pound of medicine, right? A wife suffering from cancer, thirteen measly plants, what else does a guy have to do to prove he’s not abusing the medical marijuana law?

Donald K. Christen, 55, was sentenced in August 2007 to 14 months in prison with all but six suspended, followed by two years of probation. A jury found him guilty four months earlier of aggravated marijuana cultivation and not guilty of drug trafficking at the end of a three-day trial in which Christen represented himself. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday unanimously upheld the 2007 conviction.

Well, there’s the first mistake. A person who represents himself in court has a fool for a client.

Peter Bickerman, the Augusta lawyer who represented Christen in the appeal, argued that Superior Court Justice Kirk Studstrup incorrectly instructed the jury about the state’s medical marijuana law.

Because Christen did not ask for specific jury instructions or object to jury instructions at the time of the trial, the court was limited in its review to obvious mistakes, [Justice Ellen] Gorman wrote. She also said that although Studstrup never specifically told jurors that a designated caregiver could possess a usable amount of marijuana for each eligible patient, he did give them written copies of the law.

This is why the battle over medical marijuana must include marijuana legalization for all.  As long as cannabis is prohibited to the majority of its users, medical marijuana laws will always have to draw lines to separate the “criminals” from the patients.  Many legitimate patients will be left on the “criminal” side and the rest will suffer the scarcity, prices, and hassles prohibition brings to all cannabis users.

And when it comes to marijuana, always get yourself a real lawyer.  Lawyers are cheaper than a lifelong criminal drug conviction.

Thank you for contacting me regarding Marijuana. I appreciate hearing from you.

As you know, voters in Maine agreed in a 1999 referendum to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for patients with certain debilitating conditions. While I personally have some reservations about the use of medicinal marijuana and it’s effect, especially in on our nation’s youth, I have voted in the past to prevent the federal government from overturning Maine’s law in this matter.

I support the efforts of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as well as legislation to provide strong enforcement of laws against the production, distribution, and use of illegal drugs. But I also believe strongly in the need to prevent drug abuse through education programs, provide adequate drug treatment programs for substance abusers, and ensure quality in our drug laws and their enforcement. Please know that I will keep your thoughtful comments in mind as legislation on there issues is addressed in Congress.

Thank you again for sharing your views with me. I appreciate the opportunity to represent you.

With warmest regards,

Michael Michaud

Member of Congress

BREAKING NEWS: Maine Expands Marijuana Decrim Law

NORML is writing you today with good news from Augusta.

On May 1, Gov. John Baldacci signed LD 250 into law — expanding the state’s longstanding marijuana decriminalization law.

Under current law, possession of up to one and one-quarter ounces of marijuana is a civil violation punishable by a fine of no more than $600. Defendants who possess greater amounts are presumed to be engaging in the sale of cannabis and face criminal penalties and potential jail time.

Under Maine’s newly enacted measure, possession of over 1.25 ounces but less than 2.5 ounces of marijuana will also be defined as a civil offense, punishable by a fine of $700 to $1,000 dollars. (Civil fines for the possession of less than 1.25 ounces of marijuana will remain the same.) The measure also removes the inference that possession of quantities of marijuana above 1.25 ounces but less than 2.5 ounces are presumed to be for sale.

To date, only one other state (Ohio) treats possession offenses of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis as a fine-only (no jail) offense.

The new law takes effect 90 days following adjournment of the 124th Legislature.

NORML would like to thank those of you who wrote your elected officials in favor of LD 250.

Thank you for supporting marijuana law reform in Maine

Download link: NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2009-04-21

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-04-21.mp3)

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• Jonathan Leavitt from Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative on upcoming 2009 vote to fix Maine’s medical marijuana law.

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Cannabis Conversations

• James Kowalsky from Northwestern University NORML/SSDP on their 420 Week of marijuana activism.

AUGUSTA, Maine – Maine’s current law that allows use of marijuana for medical purposes isn’t working, said leaders of a petition effort to allow state-licensed facilities to sell the drug.

“The way it is now is patients have to make their own determination how they are going to access their medicine,” said Jonathan Leavitt of Maine Citizens for Patient Rights, the group that organized the petition drive. “There is essentially no legal way to buy it.” The proposed law would direct the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to issue identification cards to qualifying patients. It would also allow nonprofit dispensaries licensed by the agency to provide marijuana to those patients.

Mainers in 1999 overwhelmingly approved the existing law to allow residents to possess marijuana for medical use with a doctor’s recommendation. Patients are allowed to keep up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana and up to six marijuana plants.

“The reality is that patients are not equipped to do that,” Leavitt told the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. “And landlords and people that own property are hesitant because of the law enforcement issues to allow that. So essentially, people access it through the black market.”

If lawmakers don’t enact the bill, the proposal automatically goes to a statewide vote because supporters collected more than the 55,087 signatures needed to put it on the November ballot. All told, the proposal’s supporters collected 80,000 signatures, Leavitt said.

Jonathan Leavitt will join us next week on the Stash to discuss this proposal.  I’m always amused by legislators who are supportive of medical marijuana but dismissive of dispensaries.  We support your right to use medicine, but not to get any.  In a sense, every legislator who votes for medical marijuana without supporting a dispensary system for it is essentially voting for subsidies and state endorsement of black market marijuana dealers.

Download link: NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2009-03-24

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-03-24.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Massachusetts introduces marijuana legalization bills
2. Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows
3. Jury Acquits Bruce Olson in Washington Medical Marijuana Case
4. Maine Medical Marijuana Initiative has 55,000 signatures

Government at Work

• Dan Linn from Illinois NORML on SB 1381 (medmj) bill hearing tomorrow.

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards

• Variety Tuesday – ‘Ganja’ by Echo Movement

Cannabis Conversations

• Clifford Schafer from DrugLibrary.org on prohibition economics and hard choices.

If you’re thinking, “but Maine already has medical marijuana!” you’re not alone. But Maine’s medical marijuana is a strange thing: they have no medical marijuana program or medical marijuana cards. If your doctor recommends it, you can have medical marijuana… if you can find it:

Sometime in the next couple of months, Maine lawmakers will take up a bill that could revolutionize the way medical marijuana patients are treated in Maine and how they get access to the drug. If the Legislature fails to approve the Maine Medical Marijuana Act, the measure will be headed for Maine voters this fall. That’s because supporters have gathered more than 55,000 valid signatures to get it on the ballot.

Maine, along with 12 other states including California, has had a medical marijuana law on the books for ten years. Maine voters approved it by a wide margin. But ever since the law was passed, patients have had no practical, legal way of accessing marijuana. First they have to find a doctor willing to recommend it as a treatment. Then they have to grow a few plants on their own or find someone willing to do it for them. So activists have launched a new initiative to legally distribute medical marijuana through non-profit, state-licensed dispensaries.

The initiative proposed by Leavitt and the group Maine Citizens for Patient Rights directs DHHS to issue identification cards to patients who qualify for medical marijuana. The cards are voluntary. And they would also be issued to patients’ primary caregivers, those who provide pot through the dispensaries. Each caregiver would be limited to five qualified patients and no more than six marijuana plants for each. The plants would be grown in a secure facility.

In addition to creating a dispensary system for medical marijuana, including registration and renewal fees to pay for it, Maine’s initiative also expands the list of diseases and conditions eligible for medical marijuana treatment. Hepatitis C, Crohn’s disease, ALS and chronic pain would be added.

But Roy Mckinney says the very nature of these dispensaries will make them hard to police. He points to research from the California Police Association that highlights numerous problems with California’s medical marijuana law and a white paper from the Riverside District Attorney’s Office, “that in fact stated, and I’ll quote: ‘Medical marijuana storefront businesses have allowed criminals to flourish in California.’ And I don’t think that’s anything that the people in Maine want,” he says.

Maine cops fear California dispensary attack!

Which is why the people of Maine have signed an initiative to create dispensaries nothing like what’s happening in California.  Law enforcement in other states need to understand that California’s medical marijuana law is its own creature unlike any of the other twelve medical marijuana states.  Doctors there can recommend medical marijuana for any condition they feel marijuana will help.  Dispensaries there can serve anyone with a card or recommendation.  While there are operating guidelines, there is no mandated caregiver system requiring the dispensaries to care for certain patients or limiting how many patients they can serve.  Finally, there is no statute on the production of the medical marijuana aside from the plant and possession limits.  Using any comparison of California’s dispensary system’s pros and cons to discuss the Maine dispensary bill is like pointing out a shark attack off Venice Beach, California as reason why Mainers shouldn’t set lobster traps.  What applies in California does not apply to Maine!