These are making a whole lot more sense to me now...

A story about a large cannabis bust caught my eye today. This one comes from Brownsville, Texas, and was executed by the Customs and Border Protection agency. In what must have taken untold hours to conceal, agents found more than 3,500 pounds of marijuana concealed in cabbage. No, the marijuana wasn’t hidden in a truck full of cabbage…the marijuana was actually wrapped into ball shapes, and then wrapped up on the outside with actual cabbage leafs to make it look like they were innocent cabbage heads coming from Mexico and headed to a salad bar near you. The cabbage-looking marijuana globes were being transported in a refrigerated truck to help keep up that charade. All in all, there were 1,378 cannabis balls, weighing in at 3,663 pounds of marijuana.

And, in another enterprising bust today, down in Texas, a state trooper pulled over an AT&T service truck for speeding 72 mph in a 60 mph zone. The troopers were suspicious when the driver suddenly bailed and started running on foot. He was caught after a short chase. Authorities found 190 bundles of marijuana inside the AT&T truck weighing in at 2168 pounds. Although the truck looked like an authentic AT&T service vehicle, it was a clone, just a paint job to conceal its contents. Authorities say this isn’t the first time they have come across a cloned work truck. They have also made busts on a fake Halliburton vehicle and a fake FedEx van.

External Links:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Officers-intercept-marijuana-loads-shaped-like-2612482.php#photo-2098781

Trying pain pills is three times more likely to lead to regular hard drug use than trying marijuana.

One of the most frustrating arguments presented by supporters of prohibition is the “Marijuana is a Gateway Drug” trope. The idea here is when you ask a heroin, cocaine, or meth addict “what was the first drug you ever tried?”, they inevitably answer “marijuana”. Therefore, the gateway theory goes, sparking up that first joint will begin the long slippery slide into crippling drug addiction.

It does not matter that government researchers have already declared in 1999 that “There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs“. The “gateway” theory is one of those urban legends that is proving very difficult to kill.

However, an analysis of the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) shows that your first aspirin is more likely to be your gateway to hard drugs than your first joint.

We cross-referenced the NSDUH numbers based on whether someone had ever tried marijuana. We found that only 1.5% of people who have toked became monthly cocaine users. For ecstasy, crack, meth, heroin, LSD, and PCP, less than 1% of the people who’ve tried pot are using those drugs regularly. Meanwhile, 2.9% of the people who’ve ever tried an legal analgesic (pain reliever) are regular cocaine users. For ecstasy, crack, and meth, more than 1% of who tried analgesics are regular users. People who tried analgesics are more than twice as likely as people who tried pot to use heroin regularly and three times more likely to use LSD regularly.

We also find that binge drinkers – defined as 5 or more drinks at a sitting at least once a month – are more likely to be regular hard drug users than people who have tried marijuana. To be fair, alcohol supporters might point out that comparing regular beer use to one-time pot use is unfair, and when compared to regular marijuana users, beer users have 1/2 to 1/3 the hard drug regular use rates. In response, we’d say that regular beer drinkers don’t have to pick up a six pack from an illegal dealer who also sells other drugs.

But if opponents want to cling to the idea that we should do everything in our power to stop someone from smoking that first marijuana joint, lest they become illegal drug addicts, then it is time to prohibit Vicodin, Lortab, Lorcet, and Oxycontin, those powerful legal opioid pain killers. The first Vicodin/Lortab/Lorcet leads to almost three times the risk of becoming a non-pot illegal drug user than the first joint amd almost the same risk as smoking a joint every month. That first Oxycontin is more than five times the risk for drug abuse than the first joint.

The Washington Post is reporting that the Mexican Government has allowed domestic marijuana and opium production to climb to record levels. Current Mexican President, Philpe Calderon has been in office since 2006 and has tackled his country’s drug problem with military techniques, a tactic that activists have said is partially responsible for the thousands of deaths at the hands of powerful drug cartels. Military troops that were once used to cut and burn the illegal crops, are now patrolling the streets in cities and towns where the violence associated with drug trafficking has gotten out of hand. Since the military forces are now being used to wage urban warfare against the criminal gangs, the fields of poppies and acreages of marijuana have grown relatively free, tucked away in low population areas of the country.

More here:

Mexican Drug War Being Waged in Urban Areas

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. Mexican President Calderon urges US to explore “market alternatives” to prohibition of marijuana to reduce demand
2. Small town residents in Roy, New Mexico, complain of medical marijuana “stench”
3. Gov. Jerry Brown vetoes bill that would keep dispensaries 600ft away from residential areas

Daily Toker Tunes

• Groovin’ Thursday: Tony Ozier & The DooDoo Funk All-Stars – “Keep the Funk Alive (feat. Bootsy Collins)”

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Speaker’s Corner

• Stephen Downing, former LAPD Deputy Chief, on RAND Corp survey of dispensaries and crime

NORML Newsmakers

• Tonya Davis from Miami Valley NORML on latest obstacles to medical marijuana petition in Ohio

Four Airline travelers in Canada heading from the West Coast to a medical marijuana conference in Toronto were allowed to bring their marijuana vaporizer on board the commercial flight earlier this month. The group, which includes Canadian Activist Lisa Kirkman, may be the first people in Canadian history allowed by an airline to use medical marijuana during a commercial flight.

Read more:
Canadian Airline Passengers Fly the Weed-Friendly Skies

Fees for registering with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program will double, from $100 per year to $200 per year, due to a Budget Bill that passed out of the Joint Ways and Means Committee and into the main chambers late Wednesday.   The increase in fees was included in one of the over 30 bills that the Committee “barreled through” on Wednesday.

[Russ adds: Double is the least that will happen to our fees. If you're that guy paying $100 a year for your card and you have a friend who's your grower, you have to pay $200 for you and $200 for him... so that's quadruple.  If you're on Food Stamps or Oregon Health Plan and had used that status to qualify for the $20 registration fee for you and your grower, tough luck.  You will no longer qualify as 'low income' (only SSI will count) and you'll have to pay the same $400 as the first guy.  Is there a word for twenty-times the fee...?]

On March 17th at high noon things with get a little greener in Manhattan: Empire State NORML will remind New Yorkers that marijuana is a safer alternative to alcohol for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.  A rally and a press conference are planned for City Hall Park.

“While scores of New Yorkers are out getting hammered, we want to remind the Big Apple that there is a safer, greener and cleaner choice for adults: marijuana,” said Douglas Greene of Empire State NORML. He organized the event after being inspired by the book Marijuana is Safer – So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano and Mason Tvert.

Read full post at www.freedomisgreen.com

Full info:

PRESS CONFERENCE: Marijuana is Safer than Beer for St. Pat’s
Empire State NORML
New York State Chapter – The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: St. Patrick’s Day, Thursday, March 17th, 2011 at high noon
WHERE: City Hall Park – Broadway between Park Place and Barclay (east side)
WHO: Empire State NORML, Dr. Julie Holland, Dr. Harry Levine, Tony Newman of the Drug Policy Alliance, Daniel Jabbour of SSDP, Chris Goldstein PhillyNORML/NORML-NJ

CONTACT: Douglass Greene (516) 242-4666 doug{ at }empirestatenorml.com

The US News & World Report Health Section reports on a ten-year look at drug rehab admissions (known as the Treatment Episode Data Set, or TEDS) with the frightening statistic that admissions to rehab for marijuana are way up!

Drug Abuse Treatment Rates on the Rise: U.S. Report

A 15% drop for alcohol abuse while cases of marijuana, prescription painkiller abuse rise

Admissions for alcohol abuse treatment have remained the same in parts of the Midwest and South while dropping elsewhere in the United States, while treatment rates for illegal drugs are increasing across the country, especially for marijuana abuse, according to a new report.

The overall rate of substance abuse admissions in the United States remained stable from 1998 to 2008, at about 770 admissions per 100,000 people.

Admission rates for marijuana use rose by 30 percent nationwide.

Let’s see if I understand this: from 1998-2008 we have the same rate of people admitted to treatment for drug abuse but now fewer of them are alcoholics and more of them are cannabis consumers?

Did problem drinking decrease in that decade?  This table tells me that alcohol-related motor-vehicle fatalities have remained consistently between 36%-38% during that decade. Per capita consumption of beer, wine, and spirits actually increased from 2.14 gallons per year per person in 1998 to 2.31 gallons by 2007. More alcohol being consumed, the same number of alcohol-related deaths on our roads, yet fewer people getting help for their alcohol abuse problems.

Meanwhile we’ve got 30% more admissions to rehab for cannabis consumers between 1998-2008? You know what else increased from 1998-2008? Marijuana arrests and the use of drug courts that force marijuana arrestees to choose between rehab and jail.

The FBI Uniform Crime Report shows marijuana arrests increased by 10,000 to the 2nd highest-levels ever recorded

According to the TEDS, 57% of the people admitted to rehab for marijuana are court/criminal justice referrals, a figure that largely represents people who have merely been caught with marijuana. Only 15% of referrals are folks who refer themselves for treatment of a marijuana dependence.

Now compare that to alcohol, where only 39% of those in alcohol rehab are there because they were referred by a court. Keep in mind that to earn a court referral for legal alcohol, you have to have committed an actual crime, like DUI, to earn that type of referral. Self referrals for alcohol are 30% – double the rate for marijuana.

To compare further, let’s look at the use of marijuana and alcohol by those going to rehab. 38% of those in rehab who had been using daily used alcohol, while only 11% had used marijuana daily. 37% of the marijuana users hadn’t even used marijuana in the thirty days prior to being admitted to rehab.

The facts are that arrests for marijuana lead to rehab admissions for marijuana whether the users need treatment or not. This is a shift of drug rehab resources from alcoholics and hard drug addicts who need treatment to marijuana users who don’t. I suspect it’s also much more likely a marijuana user is employed and has the kind of health insurance that pays the bills for drug rehab compared to the average heroin addict.

We’re seriously rockin’ this week, folks. The music comes courtesy of Welsh psychobilly outfit Demented Are Go. The group has been a cult indie favorite in the European underground (and among in-the-know music fans on this side of the pond) for more than a quarter-century. Still active, the group’s website boasts that Demented Are Go encapsulate everything bad about rock and roll. Well, bad becomes good as these twisted cousins explore everything from 50s grind-house to acid-soaked 60s garage to drag-punk heaven. Get more info on the band and check out its voluminous discography on MySpace (www.myspace.com/officialdementedarego) and on its official web site, dementedarego.co.uk.

Enough chatter: Today’s rockin’ Friday track for NORML SHOW LIVE comes from the band’s 2003 Fury Records release Orgasmic Nightmare. The song: “Marijuana.”

Download audio file (Demented Are Go – Marijuana.mp3)

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