(AP) The Montana State University-Billings poll said 62 percent of respondents favored the overhaul of the pot law adopted by the Legislature earlier this year.

The Legislature’s crackdown on pot repealed the original medical marijuana statute approved by voters in 2004. It replaced it with a much tougher law that makes it more difficult to get a medical marijuana card and severely limits the supply of the drug.

Supporters of the new law argued it was needed to control an industry that was out of control.

The poll also found that 55 percent believe medical marijuana users should not be allowed to buy guns and ammunition. Recently, the federal government warned gun dealers not to sell to people holding medical marijuana cards.

Montana NORML and other supporters have worked hard to get the signatures to place a repeal of this new SB 423 “repeal lite” on the ballot in 2012.  Unfortunately, the poll shows that only 28% of those surveyed opposed SB 423.

But to see a majority in Montana support the federal government taking away the guns of law-abiding citizens… I never thought I’d live to see the day.  This goes to show you how deeply-set the hatred of hippies and pot smokers is when people who’ve been screaming that “the Democrats are gonna take yer guns!” are perfectly fine with that so long as you’re a stoner.

"Counter-culture" activists for NORML (L-R) Keith Stroup, Assem. Tom Ammiano, PBS Host Rick Steves... crazy hippies!

From time to time on blogs I read a complaint about NORML, like this one:

NORML hasn’t accomplish­ed anything since the disco era!  They haven’t done a damn thing in the last 30 years!  Paul A is the only good thing NORML has going; aside from him, this movement wouldn’t even notice if NORML ceased existing.

I will concur that Paul Armentano is an MVP All-Star in marijuana law reform.  You cannot find a person better educated on the science of marijuana.

But to conclude Paul is the “only good thing NORML has going” is to disparage the incredible work being done by hundreds of grassroots activists working in the NORML chapter network.  To wit:

More "counter-culture" activists with NORML

Chris Goldstein, Anne Davis, & NORML NJ – instrumental in negotiations with New Jersey lawmakers to bring about Gov. Corzine’s signature on the law making it the nation’s 15th medical marijuana state.

Derek Rosenzweig & PhillyNORML – uncovered and published research on Philadelphia’s racial bias in marijuana enforcement leading to a change in policy to end arrests of low level marijuana consumers in the city.

Another couple of "hippies"

Michigan NORML and MassCann/NORML laid the groundwork for 2008′s medical marijuana and decriminalization, respectively, in Michigan and Massachusetts by passing numerous municipal measures in support of marijuana.

Madeline Martinez and Oregon NORML led negotiations with lawmakers to set medical marijuana limits to 24 ounces and 24 plants, the highest statewide statutory limits in the nation (along with Washington State).

The "grass" in "grassroots" - so counter-culture!

Dale Gieringer, Bill Panzer, and California NORML helped co-author Prop 215 in California, worked for the clarifications found in SB420, worked with Assem. Ammiano to produce the first legalization bill in decades, helped shepherd the latest California decrim measure to Schwarzenegger’s desk, and are organizing with Prop 19′s leaders for a new legalization initiative in 2012.

Kandice Hawes and Orange County NORML held the nation’s first medical marijuana conference specifically for seniors… across the street from Disneyland!

No wonder "normal" people won't join... look at these two!

Mary Mackenzie (apologies for the original name misspell – I sure know what that’s like!), AZ4NORML, and Phoenix NORML were the foot soldiers gathering the signatures that got MPP’s Arizona Prop 203 on the ballot.

Kelly Maddy, Joplin NORML, Dan Viets, Missouri NORML, all worked in Missouri to pass lowest-law-enforcement and other municipal initiatives.

These guys have done nothing since the disco era...

Ben Masel, Gary Storck, Madison NORML all have lobbied intensively for the Jackie Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, moving it farther along in the legislative process every year.

Colorado NORML, Mile High NORML, have worked with SAFER on their initiatives, gathering signatures that lead to Denver’s legalization and other low-priority initiatives.

Obviously too tie-dyed and love-beaded to make any difference

Isaias Valdez and Idaho NORML are beginning the grassroots education and activism in one of the most anti-marijuana states in the nation; the state currently has a medical marijuana bill in the legislature and the group is following up with a citizen’s initiative.

John & Heather Masterson in Montana NORML, battling to mitigate the perception of abuse of medical marijuana created by unethical “ganjapreneurs” and most recenlty providing live coverage of the DEA raids in Montana.

Sure, they're doctors... but they're "pot" doctors!

Then there are the hundreds of attorneys who make up the NORML Legal Committee, who have donated thousands of hours of pro bono time helping average cannabis consumers avoid jail and retain voting rights, also working on new laws.  For example:

Jeff Blackburn, who kept an AIDS patient out of a Texas prison with an affirmative defense that a jury agreed with in only 11 minutes of deliberation.  The patients’ original public defender only offered a plea deal that would have meant six months of drug testing that would’ve left the patient without his medicine, wasting away.

And that whole "boobs and buds" issue turns women off to the cause...

Doug Hiatt, who fought for the life of Hep C patient Tim Garon, denied a liver transplant because his legal medical marijuana use in Washington State made him a “drug addict” in the eyes of the hospital.  Hiatt is now behind the Sensible Washington effort to fully legalize by citizen initiative.

Let’s not forget the national staff (like me) who constantly educate, advocate, interview, debate, advertise, litigate, lobby, and keep the conversation on marijuana legalization moving forward.

No wonder nobody wants to legalize pot - look at these people!

I’ve already written way too much for a comment and that is just reviewing my own memory of NORML Activism within the four years I’ve worked for NORML.  And remember, aside from the lawyers (sometimes), NONE of these activists made a single dime for performing these heroic acts.

As far as I’m concerned, all of the groups involved in marijuana law reform have an important role to play.  It’s like the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard – we have different jobs and different specializations in service of the same goal.  Sure, we have internecine grudges and rivalries.  Just as jarheads goad sailors, just as grunts tease flyboys, drug war reform groups may also grouse about each other, but when the rubber hits the road, we’re all fighting for the good ol’ U S of A.

For me personally, there are some important differences.  DPA is about drug policy – they think drug prohibition sucks.  MPP is about marijuana policy – they think marijuana prohibition sucks.  SAFER is about offering choice – they think alcohol sucks compared to marijuana.  ASA is about medical marijuana – they are silent on healthy people’s use.  LEAP is about cops’ expression of drug war failure – they think drug prohibition sucks.

NORML, of all the groups, is the one that doesn’t just think marijuana prohibition sucks, but that cannabis use is a positive.  We’re not just anti-prohibition, we’re pro-cannabis!

Finally, to the disparagement of the counter-culture you believe NORML represents: in actuality, most of our NORML Affiliate and Chapter leaders are far from what anyone would consider “hippie”.  Anne Davis, head of NORML NJ, is a successful attorney and mother of two.  Tonya Davis, head of Central Ohio NORML, is a disabled patient in a wheelchair.  Clif Deuvall, head of NORML of Waco Texas, is a disabled veteran.  Isaias Valdez, head of Idaho NORML, is a clean-cut college student.  I can’t speak to what you may have seen from NORML in the 1980′s or 90′s, but I know since my involvement I have never met a better representative group of average cannabis consumers.  In my tenure, we have instituted sixty new state, local, and college affiliates, so it seems to me plenty of people are eager to organize under the NORML banner.

There is a drug reform group for everyone.  I don’t care what acronym you want to associate with so long as you’re on this side of the battle over prohibition.  But to dismiss and disparage NORML’s role in the war is to vilify the most committed activists in the battle – the ones not doing it for some billionaire’s largess.  If you think someone might not support ending prohibition because someone in a NORML T-shirt might have long hair, piercings, or tattoos, then you aren’t very good at illustrating the need to end the drug war.

Russ Belville

NORML Outreach Coordinator

P.S. If you really want to know what is going on in grassroots reform, check out the podcasts from all around the nation and even England at The NORML Network – http://live.norml.org

Montana NORML Executive Director John Masterson sent me this essay via email.  He tells me it is circulating among the Republicans who now dominate the state legislature.  It was written by the statewide coordinator of the drug court system, who surely must have no conflict of interest in calling for the repeal of a law that would create more business for drug courts, drug testers, and drug rehabs.

I’ll snip it up a bit as I respond – no need for y’all to have to sift through the entire barrel of crap…

Why Montana’s Medical Marijuana Law Should Be Repealed

Montana voters did not vote for the increased crime that has accompanied medical marijuana. Considerable crime has accompanied the legalization of medical marijuana.

Then Montana must be considerably different than California and Colorado, which have much greater patient and dispensary numbers.  Sheriffs there researched the situation and found no greater crime numbers surrounding medical marijuana than any other business.

The risk of criminal involvement is determined to be between 1.5 and 3.0 times greater for cannabis users than for non-users. We certainly have had our crime wave in Montana.

What a junk stat that is!  Being involved with cannabis is criminal if you’re not a legal patient.  To tear down the legal patients for the illegality of the non-patients is absurd.  Besides, if you want to see a causal relationship between substance and crime, look at alcohol.

[UPDATE: Just found this interesting data on Montana's Crime Rates.  Seems in 2004, the Crime Index per 100,000 persons was 3,229.9.  In 2009, the rate is 2,717.6, the lowest rate in forty years.  So... where's that "crime wave in Montana"?]

Additionally most “caregivers” do not abide by the law. According to Andrew Paul, deputy Missoula County attorney, “many caregivers are going over their limit with anywhere from a dozen to 100 more plants than they can legally have. Every single search warrant, they’ve had more than their limit.”

Again, junk stat.  If you’re getting a search warrant for a registered caregiver, you’re doing so because you suspect they are not in compliance with the law. Why would a deputy Missoula County attorney know about the majority of caregivers complying with the law; they wouldn’t be searched!

Jason Christ, Director of the Montana Caregivers Network (MCN)….

And here lies the rub.  Christ’s roving medical marijuana “caravans” and Skype “video exams” have given a black eye to the entire medical marijuana program in Montana.  Add to that an unstable personality and disorderly conduct and you have one bad apple spoiling the bunch.

Montana voters did not vote to have nearly 10% of parolees/probationers using and carrying medical marijuana cards. According to the Department of Corrections and the Helena Independent Record, more than 9 percent of Montanans on probation and parole, including those who were previously arrested for drug offenses, carry registered medical marijuana cards.

How many parolees / probationers have medical prescriptions for controlled substances like oxycodone?  Did it occur to you that many may have gotten in trouble with the law for medically using and growing marijuana before it was legal? How cruel are you that you think a man imprisoned for treating his illness illegally with cannabis should not be able to treat his illness with cannabis when it’s legal because it was illegal when he first tried the treatment?

According to Columbia University and the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, alcohol and other drugs are significant factors in all crime. In 2006, alcohol and other drugs were involved in these offenses: 78% of violent crimes; 83% percent of property crimes; and 77 percent of public order, immigration or weapon offenses, and probation/parole violations. Why would we ever consider providing dangerous drugs to probationers and parolees without expecting a significant increase in Montana’s crime rate?

Um, you know the great proportion of those stats refer to the alcohol and other drugs besides cannabis, right?  And that cannabis isn’t a “dangerous drug”?

Montana voters did not vote for an increase in intoxicated driving crashes and fatalities. We will not be able to get control of our intoxicated driving problem in Montana until we repeal the legalization of medical marijuana. Marijuana is the most common illicit drug of abuse. In Montana over 12% of persons age 12 or older have used marijuana during the past month.

The National Survey on Drug Use & Health State Tables say it’s 8.29%.  Eh, 8%, 12%, what’s the difference? (A 50% difference!)

Eighty to one hundred percent of chronic marijuana users drive under the influence of marijuana.

Now this stat came from the Department of Right Outta Yer Ass.  Any stat that gives you a range (80% – 100%?) is suspect.  Any stat that says “to one hundred percent” should be immediately trashed.  There ain’t 100% in any demographic category except “People That Will Die”.  This junk science is based on the notion that you’d test positive for marijuana metabolites in your system, which we all know has no bearing on your driving ability.

Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for Montana passenger vehicle drivers in fatal crashes shows marijuana use to be 13% or higher in the years 2007, 2008, and 2009. In 2009 marijuana use contributed to the deaths of 39 people on Montana highways.

Let’s take a look at the data.  Here are the total number of fatal crashes in Montana over the 2000s.

Since medical marijuana passed in 2004, the number of fatalities this year is the lowest it has been in a decade, with only 221 people killed on Montana roads.  Eight fewer than the year it started.  In fact the three years with the fewest fatalities happened since medical marijuana passed.  Even though the most fatalities occurred in 2006-2007, since there were more people and more miles driven in Montana then, the rate of 2.45 fatalities per 100 million miles was lower than 2002′s 2.59, before medical marijuana.

So where’s that “increase in intoxicated driving crashes and fatalities” the Montana voters didn’t vote for?  With 7,339 patients as of 2009 you have the lowest fatality stats of the decade.

As for the 39 fatalities attributed to marijuana drivers, this is again a reference to detection of inactive THC metabolites which don’t prove a thing about what caused the accident.  Smoke a joint on Friday, slide off a slippery Montana road on a snowy Sunday, and your death would be one that marijuana contributed to.

In an article in the Missoulian, January 16, 2011 entitled, ‘Stoned’ driving growing problem, Missoula Police Sgt. Ed McLean said officers making traffic stops “tend to get the greatest resistance from people who think that, ‘OK’ because I have a medical marijuana card, it’s legal for me to smoke.’ Or, their doctor is prescribing pain medication and then they get behind the wheel of a car and become a danger to themselves and others.”

Hmm, some people think when their doctor recommends cannabis or opioid pain meds that they can then drive, yet you’re only interested in banning the safer of those two choices.  Interesting.  This sounds more like a case for public education of Montanans about the risks of any impaired driving.

Montana voters did not vote for increased use of marijuana by their children. Adolescent drug use, particularly marijuana has increased all over the country and certainly in those states that have legalized medical marijuana the increases are more significant.

Certainly not.  Let’s look at the data.

Hmm, it says here that between the 2002-2003 NSDUH and the 2007-2008 NSDUH, nationally the rate of 12-17 year-olds smoking marijuana monthly has declined 16.9%.  In Montana in 2002-2003, before medical marijuana, 12.07% of all 12-17 year-olds smoked pot monthly; in 2007-2008 that dropped 28.7% to 8.6%.  Montana was one of the eight of twelve medical marijuana states where teen pot smoking declined greater than the national average.  Teen smoking declined in all the medical marijuana states.

So… where’s that “increased use of marijuana by their children” Montana voters didn’t vote for?  Only Hawaii saw a greater reduction in teen use of cannabis than Montana did.

Montana voters did not vote to increase school drop-out rates. A few weeks ago the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health results were announced. This is an annual survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration taken by people in this country over the age of 12. The survey includes 67,500 in the sample. This survey is the primary source of information on the prevalence of drug use in this country. In one year, between 2008 and 2009 illicit drug use increased by 9%. The press release states that, “young people’s negative attitudes about drugs, particularly marijuana, were softening. Historical data show that such softening of attitudes typically signals future increases in use.”

Yes, “illicit drug use” went up, but marijuana use only increased from 6.09% of Americans using monthly to 6.49%, an increase of 6.7%.  In other words, use of other illicit drugs went up much more than marijuana use went up.

Nowhere in the next two paragraphs did the author cite any data to back up the drop-out rates assertion.  To be fair, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s “Kids Count” website, Montana has experienced a dramatic increase in high school dropouts:

…but the point he wants to make tying that drop-out rate to medical marijuana doesn’t work when we refer back to that 28.7% drop in monthly teen use of cannabis.  If around 3% were dropping out before medical marijuana when teen use was 12%, and now around 5% are dropping out after medical marijuana when teen use is 8.6%, does that tell us kids have to smoke weed to endure Montana public schools?

Montana Voters did not vote for an increase in lost productivity by their state’s workforce. Business and industry in this state realizes that there are another 28,000 people with psychosocial impairment that can have a very negative impact on their businesses? Medical marijuana causes more workers to be impaired in the workplace creating unsafe working conditions, higher healthcare costs to employers, higher workers’ compensation rates and less productivity.

If Montana GOP lawmakers spent more time looking at their own state's statistics on the web, they'd know their Drug Courts Coordinator is lying to them.

Sometimes they just make these debunks too easy for me.  Thirty seconds on Google took me to the State of Montana’s Dept. of Public Health & Human Services.  There I learned that in 2004, when medical marijuana passed, there were 4.7 deaths per 100,000 workers.  In 2009, it was 4.8.

As for workplace injury, in 2004 the rate of total “nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses” (everything from a cut you could bandage and keep working to a serious accident that requires you to take time off work) was 7.2% and the rate of “nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses involving days away from work” was 226.7 per 10,000 workers.  In 2008, “total injuries and illnesses” rate was 6.4% and “days away injuries” rate was 213.3 per 10,000.

Again, reality is completely contrary to his point.  The injuries, illnesses, and deaths at work are fewer since medical marijuana has passed, so how can that lead to “more workers to be impaired in the workplace creating unsafe working conditions, higher healthcare costs to employers, higher workers’ compensation rates and less productivity”?

[UPDATE: Speaking of productivity, from 2005 - 2008 Montana experienced growth in Gross Domestic Product at levels close to or greater than the national average.  So... where's the decreased productivity?]

Business and industry are already thinking twice about Montana and whether this is the place and the workforce they want to rely on. Medical marijuana creates more users–many people did not use because of the illegality of using.

We already know 28.7% fewer Montana teenagers are toking since 2004′s medical marijuana law.  How about the adult, non-medical users?  Monthly use among 18-25 year-olds has increased, but use among those 26 and older has declined.  Applied to the entire 18+ Adult demo, monthly use has increased 4.55% from 2004-2008, an increase of almost 8,000 new marijuana users overall.

Legalization of medical marijuana increases the amount of drugs consumed on a regular basis by each user since the law no longer impedes their use. Medical marijuana shifts the social norms and makes the behavior “normal.” Which has always been the objective of NORMAL and other related organizations wanting legalization.

As Ganja Jon called it, “NORMAL – the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana’s Asinine Laws”.

The theory being proposed here is that not only will more people smoke pot, but the people who smoke pot will smoke more of it.  Annual tokers will smoke monthly, monthly tokers will use weekly, and weekly tokers will wake’n'bake daily.  But the pesky data just don’t back it up.  While the rates of monthly use have increased and annual use has declined, in overall terms there are almost three-and-a-half times fewer annual users than new monthly users from 2004-2008.  In other words, for every two annual tokers who did become a monthly tokers, five annual tokers quit altogether.

Montana voters did not vote for more dysfunctional citizens and the need for more psychiatric and addictive disease treatment. Marijuana is physiologically and psychologically addictive for 8-10% of the population. In fact in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders manual (the most widely used psychiatric reference in the world) in addition to cannabis dependence which has been there in previous editions, there will be a new official diagnosis entitled cannabis withdrawal syndrome.

True enough, but this is a case of not telling the whole story.  Of all recreational drugs, cannabis is the least prone to dependence, with 9% of its users experiencing dependence (and that’s the very anti-marijuana NIDA government stat), compared to 15% and 32% for the legal drugs alcohol and tobacco, respectively.

[UPDATE: In 2004, 19.2% of people admitted to rehab in Montana listed marijuana as their "primary substance" of abuse.  In 2008, that had fallen to 18.6%.]

Then we have to tell the story of what it means to be a cannabis “addict”.  Here are what psychologists are proposing for the definition of cannabis withdrawal in the new DSM-V, characterized by three of more of the following symptoms: “Irritability, anger or aggression; nervousness or anxiety; sleep difficulty (insomnia); decreased appetite or weight loss; restlessness; depressed mood; physical symptoms causing significant discomfort – must report at least one of the following: stomach pain, shakiness/tremors, sweating, fever, chills, headache.”

Heroin?  ”Restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), and kicking movements (“kicking the habit”). Users also experience severe craving for the drug during withdrawal, which can precipitate continued abuse and/or relapse. …[S]udden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health is occasionally fatal.”

Alcohol?  ”Anxiety or nervousness; Depression; Difficulty thinking clearly; Fatigue; Irritability or easy excitability; Jumpiness or shakiness; Nightmares; Rapid emotional changes; Clammy skin; Enlarged (dilated) pupils; Headache; Insomnia (sleeping difficulty); Loss of appetite; Nausea and vomiting; Pallor; Rapid heart rate; Sweating; Tremor of the hands or other body parts; Agitation; Delirium tremens — a state of severe confusion and visual hallucinations; Fever; Seizures.”

Marijuana has negative effects on cognitive functioning averaging approximately 30 days of residual cognitive impairment and psychosocial functioning, called amotivational syndrome which has been recognized scientifically since the early 70′s.

Amotivational syndrome, really?  That’s a pre-Michael Phelps blast from the past!  10% of full-time workers in America smoke marijuana.  Amotivational syndrome is a myth.  Cognitive functioning, even for daily users, is not affected by cannabis use.

Understand that the research is clear, children who use marijuana by the age of thirteen are more than three times more likely to develop mental illness as an adult and children who use alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs before age 15 are twice as likely to develop an addiction as those that do not.

OK, then we agree: kids aged 15 and younger should not use cannabis.  Now, what does that have to do with re-criminalizing medical use by adults?  We’ve already established that fewer teens are using cannabis now.

Montana voters did not understand that marijuana is not medicine and it is not safe. The FDA has not approved smoked marijuana for any condition or disease. The FDA notes that” there is currently sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful,” and “that no sound scientific studies support medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use.”

Funny, those quotes from the FDA came from before Montana voters approved medical marijuana by a 62% vote.

Smoked marijuana has no documented medical value and the medical community does not accept smoked marijuana as medicine. Regarding medical harm, in many respects, smoked marijuana has the potential to be as, or more harmful than cigarettes. Regular marijuana use is associated with everything from chronic respiratory ailment to a four-fold increase in the risk of a heart attack during the first hour after smoking. Marijuana is an intoxicating and addictive drug that poses serious medical risks akin to those of nicotine and alcohol.

I’ve clipped the rest of the quotes used to show how mainstream medical orgs don’t think marijuana is medicine.  The only one I care about is from the American Medical Association which said “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.”

I’m still trying to understand how smoked marijuana has the potential to be more harmful than cigarettes when 443,000 people die from the latter.  Or how marijuana smokers have lower risk of head, neck, and lung cancer and less incidence of chronic lung diseases than not just cigarette smokers, but non-smokers.

The NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) has openly stated at their annual conferences for years that medical marijuana is simply a means to legalization, that if they can normalize its use for medical purposes, they can get it legalized.

Now we’re like Ohio State University – The NORML.

It’s true that we have pointed out how learning the truth about cannabis’ medical use will also reveal the truth about cannabis’ relative safety as a recreational substance.  Once you uncover part of the lies the whole charade unravels.

But think about the implication here.  For him to be alleging that we’re going to get marijuana legalized through medical laws, he has to accept the premise that a majority of voters would approve of legalization once exposed to medical marijuana.  That means accepting that the only way to keep a majority from legalizing is to maintain absolute prohibition and ignorance about cannabis.

Medical marijuana is advanced by people who really do not care about public’s health but who are interested in making substantial amounts of money by means of legalized drug dealing and getting high.

For the welfare of the citizens of Montana, legalization of medical marijuana should be repealed.

It is beyond disappointing that such a set of incorrect and incomplete information is being circulated to Montana legislators in an effort to repeal a successful medical marijuana law.  Excesses can be curbed without condemning the majority of patients who are following the law as intended.

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access
Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-11-29.mp3)

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2. Idaho Moms 4 Marijuana publicly smoke marijuana on Boise streets in civil disobedience action
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Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Roots Monday: Trixie Smith – “Hit that Jive, Jack”

NORML Newsmakers

• Montana NORML’s Executive Director John Masterson on the series of bad news stories in medical marijuana leading to a legislator backlash

Radical Rant

• NJ Gov. Chris Christie’s stonewalling of medical marijuana means people suffer

(Missoulian) Law enforcement reports of incidents involving marijuana continue to rise in the city of Missoula, and members of an oversight committee asked the county of Missoula on Wednesday to help reverse the trend.

A report released this week analyzing data for the last half of 2008 concluded the recommendation of voters in November 2006 that adult marijuana offenses be given the lowest priority by government officials “continues to be ignored by most of the officials in position to heed it.”

Donna Hamilton of the county-appointed Marijuana Initiative Oversight Committee presented the third semiannual report to commissioners at their weekly public meeting. It stated that while there have been modest decreases in incidents reported by the county sheriff’s department and the University of Montana, incidents reported by the Missoula Police Department seem to have risen by 50 percent since the first year.

John Masterson, chairman of the oversight committee [and head of Montana NORML], said many of the questions arising from the increase can’t be adequately answered, because the panel isn’t receiving initial incident reports from law enforcement agencies.

“We were told incident reports were impossible for us to review because they contained information about persons who were not yet charged with a crime,” he said.

Angela Goodhope, the third member of the oversight panel to testify in front of the commissioners, asked that they help law officers get on board with the initiative’s intent.

“We’re coming to you to ask for your help,” she told commissioners Bill Carey, Jean Curtiss and Michele Landquist. “Whether it’s overzealous law enforcement practice due to us voters maybe asking them to change their priorities, or whether it’s that people are flagrantly using marijuana because of (the initiative), we need to know this information.”

Remember when we complained that police shouldn’t arrest pot smokers and the cops would say, “We don’t make the laws, we just enforce them”?  So we get together and put up an initiative and the voters agree that while the law still exists, the police shouldn’t enforce them if they have anything more important to do.  So what’s the excuse now, “We just enforce the laws, even if you don’t want us to”?

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2009-03-11

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-03-11.mp3)

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• John Masterson from Montana NORML on decrim bill hearing

Hey, Stashers, I’m trying out a new format for the Stash blog post.  What do you think?

Subject: Montana Senate To Decide On Medical Marijuana; House To Debate Decriminalization

We’re contacting you today with good news from the State House.

First, the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled to hear testimony in favor of HB 541 — which would amend state law so that the possession of up to 30 grams of marijuana is reduced from a criminal misdemeanor (punishable by up to six -months in jail) to a $50 fine — on Wednesday, February 18, at 8am in Room 137 of the State Capitol.

Please consider traveling to the Capitol and voicing your support for this common sense proposal. Also, if you have not yet done so, please write your Representative today, and urge him or her to vote ‘yes’ on HB 541. You can do so here.

In other news, on Friday the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee votes 5-2 to pass SB 326, an act to provide greater access to medical marijuana for state-authorized patients. The full Senate is expected to vote on the measure later this week!

If passed, this proposal would:

1. Expand the number of qualifying conditions for which marijuana may be legally recommended;
2. Increase the amount of marijuana a patient may legally possess;
3. Prohibit employers and landlords from discriminating against medicinal marijuana patients solely because of their medical status.

Please contact your Senator today and tell him or her to vote ‘yes’ on SB 326. You can do so by clicking here.

These next few days are crucial for the fate of marijuana law reform in Montana. Please write or call your elected officials and voice your support for these efforts.

For additional information, please please contact Montana Patients and Families United at: info@mtmjpatients.org or Montana NORML.

Thank you for supporting NORML’s marijuana reform efforts in Montana.

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2008-12-11.mp3)

On today’s Stash we go to Big Sky Country to speak with the head of Montana NORML, John Masterson, who is also co-author of a report showing that city officials in Missoula are ignoring the will of the voters who said they wanted marijuana offenses to be the lowest priority in the county.  Then we visit with Tere Joyce down in Hollywood with some 420 Comedy and comedian Howard Dover.

Missoula Marijuana Arrests Up, Report Suggests | Missoula | New West Missoula
A report released Wednesday suggests a jump in marijuana offenses in Missoula County compared to last year, despite the passage in 2006 of Initiative 2, the “marijuana initiative,” which made adult misdemeanor marijuana offenses the County’s lowest law enforcement priority.

Marijuana incidents in the City of Missoula, the County and on the University of Montana campus are up 27 percent, the report estimates; 63 percent in the city alone.

The numbers are stark enough for the Community Oversight Committee that compiled the report (PDF) to conclude: “The voters’ recommendation is apparently being ignored by most of the officials in a position to heed it.”

John Masterson, chair of the committee and director of Montana NORML, says it should be disappointing to the 55 percent of voters in Missoula County and the 80 percent of voters in some city precincts that voted for the initiative.

But no matter the vote margin, Missoula Chief of Police Mark Muir says nothing’s being ignored—it’s a county, not city, initiative. “The initiative itself never gave any direction to municipal government. Period.”

But peruse through the cases and you’ll see police officers are looking awfully hard for marijuana, Masterson says. He cites one case where pot residue was lifted from a vehicle console with white tape, and another in which a man was busted with less than a hundredth of a gram.

I get into a lot of discussions with law enforcement types regarding marijuana.  My eldest female cousin and her husband are both county sheriff’s deputies in the conservative Idaho county where I was born.  They believe the laws requiring them to investigate and arrest cannabis smokers are a ridiculous waste of their time.  They’d prefer to spend their time going after meth – a big problem in that area.

One of the most oft-heard justifications they and other law enforcement types give me is “We don’t make the laws; we just enforce them.”  I’ve always found this to be a cop-out (pardon the pun), because officers have a great deal of latitude in policing crime.  Officers will let people go 5-10mph over the speed limit, they typically ignore jaywalking, they’ll often “look the other way” when enforcement of an violation or misdemeanor is too much of a distraction from protecting the public safety.

When you ask a cop about the anti-cannabis laws, he might say, “We don’t make the laws, we just enforce them”, which is supposed to mean “I think this law is stupid and I wish I didn’t have to enforce it, but it’s my job to bust you”.  But when the citizens make laws that would allow the police to “look the other way”, like in Missoula County or Denver, Colorado, suddenly that pro-cannabis law isn’t in such strict need of enforcement.  Apparently they don’t make the laws, but they do pick and choose which ones they want to enforce.

Furthermore, when citizens make laws that remove the mandate to arrest cannabis consumers, like this year in Massachusetts or Michigan, we see law enforcement actively campaigning against such pro-cannabis laws.  Apparently they don’t make the laws, but they do lobby against the laws they don’t want to enforce.