This 2011 Reefer Madness propaganda is Anslinger Approved!

It’s end-of-year retrospective time!  While my colleagues on the NORML Blog (go check out the new look that matches the new site) are going to bring you the biggest marijuana news stories of 2011, here at The Daily Stash Blog we’re going to bring you stories that may have fallen through the cracks of other drug policy 2011 remembrances.

Today we bring you the Top Ten “Reefer Madness” Stories of 2011.  ”Reefer Madness”, of course, is the 1936 anti-pot propaganda film showing young people becoming crazed and violent on the effects of “reefer”.  Today, we use “Reefer Madness” as shorthand to describe the hysterical warnings by the anti-drug zealots as reported unchallenged by a complacent media.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the Top Ten Cannabis Science Stories of 2011.  Thursday we’ll cover the Top Ten “Stupid Stoner Stories” of 2011.  Friday we’ll cover the Top Ten People in Marijuana of 2011.

Top Ten “Reefer Madness” Stories of 2011 (audio mp3)

10. Oregonian editorial board hypes fears of medical marijuana and teen pot smoking

(The Oregonian – “Seeing through the smoke” editorial) It’s about time someone took action on the increasing number of medical marijuana dispensaries. … Right now, anyone, including teenagers, can apply [for a medical marijuana card]. A study done by Oregon Partnership found, for example, that 35 percent of students at Wilson High School and 46 percent at Marshall High School knew someone with a card.

Unlike the Oregonian editorial board, I check sources (I work for NORML: I have to.) The survey they refer to was addressed at a Marshall High community town hall meeting. The poll was conducted by students as part of a project called “SMASH” in a “confidential, random, peer-to-peer” survey – meaning one high school kid asking another high school kid. We have no control group, no control for confounding variables, not even a mention of the survey size or the randomness of those polled (maybe the SMASH kids are more likely to “randomly” speak to their friend, for instance, or stood in the hall and talked to anyone passing by who would answer.)

But besides all the methodological issues arising from trusting the polling data of high school kids talking to their friends, it’s important to note what their survey actually said:

PERCEPTION: Students surveyed believed that 8 out of 10 students smoke marijuana

REALITY: 7 out of 10 students DO NOT smoke marijuana

Kids surveyed thought 77.3% of others were smoking marijuana.  76.07% of kids never smoked marijuana, another 12.27% smoked it once or twice a month.  So, kids think 3 out of 4 other kids smoke pot when 3 out of 4 kids actually don’t.  Where, oh, where could the kids be getting the message that youth cannabis smoking is out of control, when, in fact, Oregon’s 12th grade monthly cannabis use rates have declined 14% (before | after) since 1999, when medical marijuana got underway in Oregon?

9. Papa John’s Pizza supports driver who reported medical marijuana patient to police

You would think that pizza delivery companies would understand who their customers are and that a great number of them smoke marijuana.  If you’re a pizza delivery company in Colorado, you’d understand that many of the marijuana smokers in your delivery area may be legally using cannabis for medicinal purposes.  But apparently Papa John’s pizza in Colorado doesn’t care too much about its drivers violating the privacy of its customers who are medical marijuana patients.

(9News) The man was smoking medical marijuana just before the pizza arrived on Friday evening. The delivery driver smelled the marijuana and called the cops. The Papa John’s employee, who was not identified, was concerned because the customer’s 9-year-old daughter was in the house.

8. The annual scaremongering about marijuana-laced Halloween treats begins now

L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Glen Walsh said parents should definitely inspect the candy their children bring home after trick-or-treating.

Walsh said a pungent smell or an odd taste can serve as indicators on whether the food contains marijuana. As for the potency of the marijuana-laced prodcuts, Walsh said the level of THC, the chemical found in marijuana, can vary from zero to over 90 percent.

OK, so watch closely, parents.  You don’t want your kid getting a candy with 0% THC in it.  But if you find any of that 90% THC stuff, you can send it my way for proper disposal.

How stupid is this?  First off, if there is a person out there who would intentionally hand THC-laden treats to children, they are a criminal.  They’d be just as likely to poison Halloween treats or put pins or razor blades in them.. which is an urban legend with no truth to it whatsoever.

Second, if you are a person who uses THC-laden treats for medical or recreational purposes, why are you handing out a $20 “Buddafinger” when you could pass out a 20-cent “Butterfinger”?  You want to be so sure some kid you don’t know and won’t see gets high that you’ll spend 10 times more on Halloween candy?

7. Portland Reporter Anna Canzano: A medical marijuana-hating sheriff’s best friend

[Oregon Sheriff's Association President] Tom Bergin said at the rate Oregon is going, he believes Oregon is three times sicker than California. Why? Well, more than 90 percent of cardholders say they’re using pot to treat pain — not glaucoma or cancer — as the bill was initially marketed.

Here are the facts from the state’s medical marijuana program registry:

• There are 49,220 medical marijuana patients
• There are 44,756 patients who indicate chronic pain as a qualifying condition

So Canzano, Bergin, and every prohibitionist who scoffs at people in serious pain treating it with a non-toxic herb pull out their calculators and exclaim “90% of cardholders are using it for pain, not glaucoma or cancer!”  (The number is actually 90.9%.)

What Canzano distorts lies in the word “not”.  Under Oregon law, a registry cardholder can qualify under more than one condition.  The state even puts “A patient may have more than one diagnosed qualifying medical condition” right there on the website where you got the numbers to crunch.  Are we to believe people with cancer and glaucoma don’t suffer chronic pain as well?

6. Florida Woman Sues Over Being Arrested for Sage

A woman in Florida who was arrested for felony marijuana possession is suing for wrongful arrest. She might just have a case, she was charged with marijuana possession even though the bag they caught her with turned out to be Sage. 49 year old, Robin Brown says a Broward County Sheriff’s deputy caught her while she was bird watching back in March of 2009. He used his field kit on the herb she had in a bag, and said that in the field it tested positive for marijuana. The deputy sent the 50 grams of substance to a state crime lab.

Her lawsuit says that she was arrested before the test was performed. Her arrest was ordered by the Assistant State Attorney, Mark Horn, in June of 2009. She was arrested at her place of business, Massage Envy in Weston. She said that she was arrested in front of co-workers and her customers and subjected to a full body cavity search during her overnight stay in jail. When her lawyer discovered the herbs had not been tested a second time, he used the courts to force the tests which determined what Ms. Brown was contending all along, her sage was completely marijuana free.

5. Teen dies after plastic fumes scar lungs, media blames synthetic pot

The boy smoked the fake marijuana out of a plastic PEZ candy dispenser. The chemicals in the drugs caused extensive damage to his lungs. Brandon was put on a respirator in June and had a double lung transplant in September.

So, we’re to assume here it was the K2 that scarred the boys lungs and not the freakin’ fumes from the melting plastic of a PEZ dispenser?!?

Tonya Rice told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper Brandon was put on a respirator in June after smoking Spice fake cannabis, which is said to be ten times more dangerous than cocaine.

Not to be cruel or insensitive about the boy’s death, but he didn’t suddenly die from the acute effects of K2 use.  He used it in June, fell very ill, was given a double lung transplant, and died from an infection because of his lowered immune system in October.  So, to compare, we have cocaine, which can give you a heart attack by overdose and kill you the minute you snort / smoke / inject it, versus a synthetic cannabinoid smoked through plastic, requiring a double lung transplant, leading to a fatal infection four months later in the hospital that kills one boy.  We’re not trying to say K2 is safe – it isn’t – but it’s not “ten times more dangerous than cocaine”.

4. CASA’s Joe Califano blames marijuana for Arizona shooter

I haven’t seen press reports or talking heads discuss their concern about how easy it has been for this mentally ill young man to get marijuana. And there has been no mention of the potential of marijuana to spark latent psychosis and exacerbate schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

So as we continue to think about this killer and his deranged mind, we should be asking this question: Is Jared Loughner an individual whose psychosis was prompted or exacerbated by the use of marijuana?

Gee, Joe, what do you think we ought to do?  Make marijuana illegal?  Lock up people who use it?  Break down their doors at night and shoot their dogs?  Use helicopters and infrared to eradicate the plant wherever it’s grown?  Throw billions at American and Mexican law enforcement for armor and weapons to fight its traffickers?  Train dogs to sniff it out?  Drug test employees, high schoolers, even middle schoolers to detect its use?

The facts are that 1% of the population exhibits schizophrenia, whether it is 1979 and 60% of high school seniors have tried marijuana or it is 1992 and 33% have tried it.  A study of 186 UK mental hospitals found no increase in schizophrenia or psychosis admissions, despite use rates of cannabis increasing greatly during that decade.

3. UK Daily Mail: Cannabis ‘kills 30,000 a year’

Cannabis ‘kills 30,000 a year’

Oh, dear.  From zero deaths* in 5,000 years of human use to ’30,000 a year’.  That sounds serious.  Let’s read on…

More than 30,000 cannabis smokers could die every year, doctors warn today.

Wait, “could die”?  We’ve gone from the active headline verb “kills” to the lede adverb “could”?  Usually you bury that wiggle room somewhere in paragraph umpteen.  Continue…

Professor John Henry, a leading authority on the drug, said the change – due to take place this summer – had undermined doctors’ efforts to highlight the risks.

He said: “Cannabis is as dangerous as cigarette smoking – in fact, it may be even worse – and downgrading its legal status has simply confused people.”

“May be” worse?  Where are the wards full of cannabis smokers?  Britain actually has some level of health care worthy of a civilized (civilised) people.  You’d think the National Health Service would bring these figures up.  It sounds like quite a cost to the government.

2. American Cancer Society says marijuana use can lead to amputation

Although it is rare, severe shutdown of blood circulation to the arms or legs has been reported in young people who smoked marijuana. In some cases, it was so severe that amputation was required.

In all my years beating back reefer madness, this is a first.  I have never heard a story of someone’s marijuana use leading to amputation.  I have covered stories of people who use marijuana for their already-existing amputation, since it is a superior medication for “phantom” pain, and I’ve covered one double-amputee diabetic’s eviction for her medical marijuana use, though.

1. Butt-chugging, vodka tampons, drinking bleach, and other parent-frightening urban legends

(KPHO) [School Resource Officer Chris] Thomas spends his days patrolling the halls of a Valley high school. He’s heard first hand how kids are getting tipsy.

“What we’re hearing about is teenagers utilizing tampons, soak them in vodka first before using them,” Thomas said.

“This is definitely not just girls,” Thomas said. “Guys will also use it and they’ll insert it into their rectums.”

Rather than the traditional beer bong you’d find at a college party, kids are sticking the tube elsewhere to get wasted.

They’re calling it “butt chugging.”

Rrrighttt… young teenage males, typically the most homophobic and self-conscious creatures on the planet, are dropping trou in front of their peers and inserting plastic tubes up their ass to chug beer.  And the vodka tampons?  Huffington Post reports that “the practice remains unverified despite multiple reports of incidents in the U.S. and elsewhere” and that a blogger “conducted her own informal trial to see whether the purported method worked“, where she notes the alcohol dissolves the glue and consistency of the tampon so much it couldn’t be inserted and that even if it were inserted, the burn you’d feel on your sensitive lady parts would not make this an enjoyable drunk.  Plus, the idea that it would help teens avoid detection with no alcohol on their breath is false, as alcohol metabolizes in your breath no matter how you ingest it.

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"Preparing" for Seattle Hempfest involves more than just sunscreen, sensible shoes, and cash for vendors...

This weekend we prepare for Seattle Hempfest.  This 20th anniversary event will, for the first time, take place over three days at the Waterfront between Olympic Sculpture Park in the South and Centennial Park in the North (see hempfest.org).  It’s 1.6 miles, six stages, hundreds of vendors, and 150,000 or so attendees, all gathered to celebrate freedom, assemble peaceably, and petition our government for a redress of grievances; namely the prohibition of cannabis hemp.  We begin our live streaming of Hempfest on Friday at http://live.norml.org.

Legalization is no longer the forbidden topic (even if we’re playing it close to the vest and calling it “sensible regulation”) and this short week we are taking a closer look at the topic with the proponents of marijuana legalization in four Western states.  We’re calling it “Legalization Week” – it’s like “Shark Week”, but much mellower.

MONDAY:  Oregon Cannabis Tax Act’s Jen Alexander, Sensible Oregon‘s Leland Berger, and Oregon Marijuana Policy Initiative‘s Bob Wolfe on marijuana legalization and medical dispensaries in Oregon.

TUESDAY: Oaksterdam University‘s Dale Sky Jones on marijuana legalization in California and Oaksterdam’s expansion into Michigan.

WEDNESDAY:  SAFER‘s Mason Tvert on the Sensible Colorado marijuana legalization proposal.

THURSDAY:  ACLU of Washington Drug Policy Project‘s Alison Holcomb and Sensible Washington‘s Douglas Hiatt on marijuana legalization in Washington State; plus Vivian McPeak, Executive Director of Seattle Hempfest, with a preview of the weekend.

We may add more guests for Legalization Week, so watch this post for updates.  We’re also taking your live calls at 971-533-7111 in Hour Two to discuss the various proposals.

(The Oregonian – “Seeing through the smoke” editorial) It’s about time someone took action on the increasing number of medical marijuana dispensaries. The dispensaries are ignoring both the law and the will of Oregonians, who voted in November to defeat Measure 74, which would have legalized state-regulated dispensaries.

Of course, technical violations of the law may not really be the issue here. The original medical marijuana law was full of flaws. Lawmakers who are inclined to try to fix it could start with age restrictions on who can hold a card. Right now, anyone, including teenagers, can apply. A study done by Oregon Partnership found, for example, that 35 percent of students at Wilson High School and 46 percent at Marshall High School knew someone with a card.

Holton has done a good job in pointing to the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries, which may help nip it in the bud, so to speak. But, if Oregon is to continue allowing medical marijuana, then, at least, legislators must work harder to tighten up the rules.

Shame on the Oregonian for parroting the baseless “What About the Children?!?” scare tactic of US Attorney Holton and the majority of Oregon law enforcement. “35 percent of students at Wilson High School and 46 percent at Marshall High School knew someone with a card.” Knew a fellow student or knew someone with an OMMP card? A friend’s parent? A local store clerk? Their own parent? Their parent’s friends? The Oregonian cleverly places the stat in the context of implying high schools are overrun with cardholding minor students.

Unlike the Oregonian editorial board, I check sources (I work for NORML: I have to.) The survey they refer to was addressed at a Marshall High community town hall meeting. The poll was conducted by students as part of a project called “SMASH” in a “confidential, random, peer-to-peer” survey – meaning one high school kid asking another high school kid. We have no control group, no control for confounding variables, not even a mention of the survey size or the randomness of those polled (maybe the SMASH kids are more likely to “randomly” speak to their friend, for instance, or stood in the hall and talked to anyone passing by who would answer.)

But besides all the methodological issues arising from trusting the polling data of high school kids talking to their friends, it’s important to note what their survey actually said:

PERCEPTION: Students surveyed believed that 8 out of 10 students smoke marijuana

REALITY: 7 out of 10 students DO NOT smoke marijuana

Kids surveyed thought 77.3% of others were smoking marijuana.  76.07% of kids never smoked marijuana, another 12.27% smoked it once or twice a month.  So, kids think 3 out of 4 other kids smoke pot when 3 out of 4 kids actually don’t.  Where, oh, where could the kids be getting the message that youth cannabis smoking is out of control, when, in fact, Oregon’s 12th grade monthly cannabis use rates have declined 14% (before | after) since 1999, when medical marijuana got underway in Oregon.

One could argue that when authority figures are telling kids youth pot smoking is rampant, kids believe “everyone’s doing it” and that peer pressure makes them more likely to want to try it.

REALITY: Almost 1 in 2 students surveyed knows someone who has a medical marijuana card.

Do you know anyone who is prescribed* medical marijuana? 46.63% YES

*Nobody is prescribed medical marijuana; it is “recommended”. Federal prohibition forbids “prescription” of marijuana.

Another REALITY? Of the 40,000 registered medical marijuana patients in Oregon, less than fifty are under the age of 18. That’s one-eighth of one percent of all patients in Oregon. I’ve met one minor on the program in all my six years working with patients in Oregon – a 16-year-old young man with a painful congenital disorder accompanied by his very clean-cut white-bread middle-class non-pot-smoking parents who only allow him to use medicated edibles; no smoking. There simply is no crisis of youth marijuana smoking in Oregon and certainly not one that can be attributed to a medical marijuana program with very strict requirements for qualification.

If the Oregonian is really concerned about the children, these existing cannabis clubs provide much more protection than the unregulated market they and US Attorney Holton seem to be advocating. I’ve visited a number of these clubs and each one – despite me being very well-known to them as a marijuana advocate at the national level – required that I show my Oregon ID and valid medical marijuana program card prior to entry.

US Attorney Holton and 33/34 county D.A.’s would like to you to believe that teens can walk into the state OMMP, complain about a headache, get an OMMP card, walk into a cannabis club and walk out with a pound and a half of marijuana. The truth is that the card is much more difficult to get here and the over 3,000 doctors who have recommended cannabis as medicine in Oregon are especially stringent in reviewing the records of minors for medical marijuana qualification.

Furthermore, these clubs pull the patient community away from the unregulated market’s back alleys, parking lots, and apartment living rooms. There is nothing that a prohibition profiteer hates more than regulated legal competition. Legality removes the prohibition risk tariff, drives down prices, and improves access and quality for patients. It creates jobs in the community, controls the distribution of cannabis far better than prohibition, contributes local tax revenue, and protects patients from unscrupulous growers taking advantage of their desperate need for medicine they can’t just buy at Walgreen’s or CVS.

If the Oregon county D.A.s outside of Multnomah are lacking for better things to do than harass sick and disabled adults trying to be legal consumers in a state with no legal retailers, perhaps they could work on the 72.4% of sex crimes and 80.4% of property crimes that didn’t lead to an arrest in 2009 in Oregon.

Russ Belville, OMMP Caregiver
Outreach Coordinator & Talk Radio Host
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
Portland, Oregon

When one of your cities has more Drug War murders than California, it refocuses your attention on ending the Drug War

The marijuana internets are abuzz with the latest headline about world leaders declaring the War on Drugs to be a failure and calling for the legalization of marijuana. Here are a few:

World Leaders: Time to End Marijuana Prohibition

Who’s Who of World Leaders Call Global Drug War a “Failure”

World Leaders Recommend Ending The ‘Failed’ Drug War

These headlines cover the report released by the Global Commission on Drug Policy yesterday.  However, I think the preceding headlines fail to make an important distinction, one that was not lost on the editors at NPR (emphasis mine):

‘Global War On Drugs Has Failed,’ Former World Leaders Say

MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL COMMISSION ON DRUG POLICY

– Asma Jahangir; human rights activist, former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions; Pakistan.
– Carlos Fuentes; writer; Mexico.
– Cesar Gaviria; former president of Colombia.
– Ernesto Zedillo; former president of Mexico.
– Fernando Henrique Cardoso; former president of Brazil.
– George Papandreou; Prime Minister of Greece. [The exception that proves the rule? --"R"R]
– George Shultz; former secretary of state.
– Javier Solana; former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy; Spain.
– John Whitehead; banker and civil servant, chair of the World Trade Center Memorial; United States.
– Kofi Annan; former secretary general of the United Nations.
– Louise Arbour; former U.N. high commissioner for human rights; Canada.
– Maria Cattaui; member of the board, Petroplus Holdings; former secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce; Switzerland.
– Marion Caspers-Merk; former state secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Health, Germany.
– Mario Vargas Llosa; writer; Peru.
– Michel Kazatchkine; executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; France.
– Paul Volcker; former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
– Richard Branson; entrepreneur; founder of the Virgin Group; U.K.
– Ruth Dreifuss- former president of Switzerland.
– Thorvald Stoltenberg; former minister of foreign affairs and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees; Norway.

It’s rarely current world leaders expressing these sentiments.  They seem to only speak out after they are out of office and lacking the power to help end that “failure”.  I’ve been reporting on the “former leaders” who call for an end to the Drug War since 2008:

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox calls for debate on marijuana legalization

Latin American ex-presidents urge US to decriminalize marijuana, rethink drug war

Former UK Drug Warrior: “What harms society is the illegality of drugs…”

Fortunately a few brave leaders speak out while they are still in office:

Argentine president calls for decriminalization of drug use

Jamaica lawmaker calls for legalizing small amounts of marijuana for private use

And when they succeed in decriminalization of drug use, they get amazing results:

United Nations backs drug decriminalization

The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal

The report itself makes many of the same recommendations NORML has been touting for four decades now.  The former world leaders recommend that we stop ”the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others.”  They point out that “models of legal regulation of drugs” should be instituted by governments to reduce the power of organized crime and protect the health of citizens and that this “applies especially to cannabis.”  They explain that a realistic government drug policy would avoid “simplistic ‘just say no’ messages and ‘zero tolerance’ policies in favor of educational efforts”.  It’s nice to finally have world leaders, even former ones, recognizing we were and are right.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

Unfortunately, it’s the current ones – the ones who have the power to make these changes – we have to convince… and they’re not budging from their “Schedule I dangerous drug what about the children?!?” rhetoric:

(Los Angeles Times) ”Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe,” said Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

More available?  Almost 1 in 4  high school kids can get a bag of weed within an hour and say it’s easier to buy than beer and prescription drugs.  Twenty-five million American adults are using cannabis annually and fifteen million use monthly.  Marijuana is already quite available, it’s just a question of who controls and profits from the market – regulated businesses or violent criminals.

“Legalizing dangerous drugs would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences,” drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said this year.

Administration officials dispute the idea that nothing can be done to reduce the demand for drugs in the United States. A spokesman for the White House drug agency said U.S. consumption peaked in 1979, when surveys showed that 14% of respondents had used illegal drugs in the previous month. Now that figure has dropped to 7%.

Remember that when Gateway Gil says “drugs”, he means “marijuana”.  Among 12th graders, monthly use of marijuana peaked in 1978, but amphetamines peaked in 1981, cocaine use peaked in 1985, ecstasy use peaked in 2000, hallucinogen use peaked in 1975, heroin use peaked in 2000, and sedative use peaked in 1975.  Since marijuana is far more popular (15 million annual users) than all other drugs combined (6 million annual users), any movement of the marijuana numbers moves the “drugs” numbers.

And since he brought it up, I’d remind Gateway Gil that his claim of that monthly drug use dropped in half since 1979 came as sixteen states passed medical marijuana laws and two states decriminalized marijuana possession.  Your predecessors warned us that if we legalized marijuana, even in those very specific and limited ways, it would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences.  It’s understandable, since you and your predecessors are bound by law to oppose any move toward legalization, so you can understand when we completely ignore your Chicken Little warnings about legalization.

At Least 1 – 1.5 Million Americans are Legal Medical Marijuana Patients

Market for these patients in sixteen states and D.C. estimated at between $2 – $6 billion annually

MAY 31, 2011 - We don’t know his or her name, but somewhere in one of sixteen states and the District of Columbia is America’s 1,000,000th legal medical marijuana patient. We estimate the United States reached the million-patients mark sometime between the beginning of the year to when Arizona began issuing patient registry identification cards online in April 2011.

16 states, the Capitol, and ONE MILLION legal marijuana users.

Between one to one-and-a-half million people are legally authorized by their state to use marijuana in the United States, according to data compiled by NORML from state medical marijuana registries and patient estimates.  Assuming usage of one-half to one gram of cannabis medicine per day per patient and an average retail price of $320 per ounce, these legal consumers represent a $2.3 to $6.2 billion dollar market annually.

Based on state medical marijuana laws, the amounts of cannabis these legal marijuana users are entitled to possess means there is between 566 – 803 thousand pounds of legal usable cannabis allowed under state law in America.  These patients are allowed to cultivate between 17 – 24 million legal cannabis plants.  There may possibly be more, as California and New Mexico “limits” may be exceeded with doctor’s permission and some California counties explicitly allow greater amounts, so there may be as much as 1 million pounds of state-legal cannabis allowed under state law in America.

Yet after fifteen years, one million patients, and a million pounds of legal marijuana, few if any of the dire predictions by opponents of medical marijuana have come to fruition.  Medical marijuana states like Oregon are experiencing their lowest-ever rates of workplace fatalities, injuries, and accidents.  States like Colorado are experiencing their lowest rates in three decades of fatal crashes per million miles driven.  In medical marijuana states for which we have data (through Michigan in 2008), use by minor teenagers is down in all but Maine and down by at least 10% in states with the greatest proportion of their population using medical cannabis.

Fourteen of the seventeen medical marijuana jurisdictions have mandatory registries while two (California and Colorado) offer optional registries and one (Washington) has no registry system.  Estimating California’s patient numbers is hampered by its registry system being on a county-by-county basis.  California NORML’s Dale Gieringer estimates between 2% – 3% of the state’s population are holding medical marijuana recommendations – meaning possibly over one million medical marijuana patients in California alone.

California’s patient population can be estimated from data from other medical marijuana states where patients are required to register, shown in the table below. The top two of these are Colorado and Montana, which, like California, have a well developed network of cannabis clinics and dispensaries, and which report usage rates of 2.5% and 3.0%, respectively. Other states, where medical marijuana is less developed, report lower rates of 1% and less. However, California is likely to be on the high side because it has the oldest and most liberal law in the nation. Significantly, California is the only state that permits marijuana to be used for any condition for which it provides relief – in particular, psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD, bipolar disorder, ADD, anxiety and depression, which account for some 20%-25% of the total patient population. Adjusting for this, usage in California could be as much as 25% to 33% higher than in Colorado and Montana, which would put it well over 3% of the population (1,125,000).

A 2%+ patient population estimate is supported by data from the Oakland Patient ID Center, which has been issuing patient identification cards to its members since 1996. The OPIDC serves patients from all over the state, but especially the greater Oakland-East Bay area of Northern California, where its cards are honored by law enforcement. As of 2010, the OPIDC had issued ID’s to 19,805 members from five East Bay cities (Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Hayward and Richmond), amounting to 2.4% of the local population.Because the cards were issued over a period of 14 years, they include numerous patients who have lapsed, moved, or deceased. On the other hand, they do not include many other local patients who have current recommendations but never registered with the OPIDC.

We have made a similar estimate for Washington State’s patients, who are the only ones in the nation with no registry system in place (Gov. Gregoire recently signed a bill that initiates a voluntary registry).  With a law very similar to Oregon’s concerning qualifying conditions, applying Oregon’s 1.04% patient population figure gives us about 69,000 patients in Washington. However, Washington State’s larger urban centers (Seattle and Spokane), combined with a more liberal law than Oregon’s regarding who can sign recommendations (osteopaths, naturopaths, and nurse practitioners can recommend in Washington) and the lack of a state registry’s burden to patient compliance with the program suggests a higher estimate of 1.5% – 2% may be appropriate.  Numbers like Colorado’s 2.5% and Montana’s 3% are improbable as Washington lacks the greater patient access to dispensaries seen in those states.

Delaware, New Jersey, and D.C.’s programs are not operational yet, so they are not shown in our data table.  Most of the other state’s programs produce reports of patient registry numbers.  With Arizona signing up over 3,600 patients since mid-April, when it’s online-only registration went into effect, Arizona is on track to register over 30,000 patients this year.

Quick Facts about Medical Marijuana States:

• The 1.1 – 1.5 million estimated and registered medical marijuana patients in America are legally entitled to cultivate 17 – 24 million cannabis plants and possess 283 –  402 tons of harvested buds.
• The seventeen jurisdictions with medical marijuana encompass over 90 million Americans and 162 votes in the 2012 Electoral College.
• Patients make up over 3% of the population of Montana, almost 2.5% of Colorado, over 2% of California. and over 1% of Oregon, and Washington.
• After Michigan at 0.76% of population, every other medical marijuana state has less than 3 in 1,000 (0.3%) patients in its population.
• California, Colorado, Washington, Michigan, Oregon, and Montana comprise over 98% of the legal medical marijuana patients in America.
• More than 3 out of four (77% – 83%) of all medical marijuana patients live on the West Coast.
• Rhode Island and Vermont, two states where over 10% of the adult population uses marijuana monthly, have patient populations of 0.29% and 0.05%, respectively.
• Monthly teen use of marijuana is down in every medical marijuana state except Maine.
• Annual highway fatalities are down in every medical marijuana state except Rhode Island.
• Incidents of workplace injuries and illnesses are down in every medical marijuana state.

In 2002, the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis submitted a petition to request that marijuana be reclassified, but they have never received an answer. Today, they filed a lawsuit in the Washington DC Circuit Court asking for President Obama’s administration to respond to the petition. The groups represented in the coalition are Americans for Safe Access, Patients out of Time and several individually named patients. What they filed today was a “writ of mandamus.” They say the government’s unreasonable delay in giving them an answer is in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. A writ of mandamus is a request to legally protect the rights of someone suffering a grievance and denied a legal right. The coalition is asking for the administration to respond within 60 days.

Note that a previous petition to reschedule cannabis filed by NORML in 1972 went unanswered for 22 years before being denied. The writ of mandamus also argues that cannabis is not a dangerous drug, and that there is evidence of its therapeutic benefits. This would create a weak point in the defense for the schedule one classification of cannabis since by definition, a schedule one substance has no medicinal value. In fact, in regard to the 1972 NORML petition, in 1988 the DEA’s own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young stated that, “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” He recommended “the Administrator transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II to make it available as a legal medicine.” Nevertheless, DEA Administrator John Lawn rejected Young’s recommendation. Since then, the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians have called upon the government to review the scheduling of marijuana.

The Coalition’s lawsuit is basically forcing the government’s hand, so to speak. A formal rejection of their petition would allow the group to go to court to challenge the DEA’s assertion that marijuana has no medical value.

Read more from the original source:

Lawsuit Demands Feds Respond: Marijuana as a Schedule II Drug?

Kathleen Chippi (top right): "(T)his will be (P)rop 19 all over again, and we will help kill it with smiles on our faces."

Remember all the fun we had in 2010 with the “Stoners Against Legalization”?  These were a loose collection of starry-eyed idealists, anti-authority anarchists, and unscrupulous medical marijuana business owners who believed that keeping healthy people out of jail for using pot would end the gravy train they’re enjoying from their current medical marijuana laws.  I dubbed them the “I Gots Mine” crowd and unleashed a torrent of blogging fury to call them out and expose them as the enemies of legalization they are.

Well, get ready for Round Two.  An unprecedented coalition of pro-legalization groups, including Drug Policy Alliance, Marijuana Policy Project, Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation, Sensible Colorado, National NORML, Colorado NORML, and Mile High NORML, filed eight ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana in Colorado.  From those eight they will see which pass muster from the Secretary of State’s office, which gets the best official ballot title, and which poll with the best chance of winning.

However, one group, Cannabis Therapy Institute (the folks that brought you Miguel Lopez making a scene at the Capitol that killed a patient-friendly amendment… and then blamed the legislator who submitted it!) is fuming mad that they weren’t given the chance to vet the language before submission.  Here are some of the reasons why CTI thinks we should continue to lock up people who are too healthy to be a part of their marijuana club:

Ironically, Denver conservative cannabis group SAFER has always espoused the belief that marijuana should be treated like alcohol. But the MPP/DPA/Sensible/SAFER (MDSS) initiative treats cannabis much stricter than alcohol. By limiting cannabis consumers to one ounce at a time, unlike alcohol with no limits, the MDSS initiative will ensure greater scrutiny on cannabis consumers than any alcohol consumer ever had.

“Conservative cannabis group SAFER”?  Wow, I’ll have to check with National Review, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, and The Christian Science Monitor so they can write articles on their conservative brethren.  Oh, and FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, all those AM talkers on right-wing radio, they’re all big fans of SAFER and marijuana legalization.

So let’s get this straight: because a legalization initiative might limit you to purchase and possession of an ounce, instead of allowing you to buy as much as you want and possess as much as you want, you’d prefer that healthy Coloradoans continue to be arrested, jailed, and saddled with a lifetime criminal record?  If your input is “We ought to be able to have all the marijuana we want!” and you seriously think that will pass in a state that rejected one ounce legalization by a 59% vote in 2006, I’m not surprised if you weren’t consulted.  

The MDSS Initiative would also allow for and set Constitutional standards for driving discrimination, employment discrimination, and tenant discrimination of marijuana users. The MDSS Initiative makes “Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana” a new Constitutional crime, completely wiping away victories scored by patient advocates to kill a THC/DUI bill in the state legislature this year.

News flash: Driving under the influence of marijuana is a crime in Colorado NOW.  Here is the scary language in Section 6 of the initiatives CTI is scaremongering:

6. Employers, Driving, Minors and Control of Property.

(A) Nothing in this section is intended to require an employer to permit or accommodate the use, consumption, possession, transfer, display, transportation, sale or growing of marijuana in the workplace or to affect the ability of employers to have policies restricting the use of marijuana by employees.

So… employers can continue to do to cannabis consumers what they do NOW, but at least those consumers won’t be arrested and jailed for cannabis use.  And those consumers would have a better case to fight discrimination against cannabis use since it will be legal.  CTI would prefer an initiative that forbids employer discrimination and without it, those healthy cannabis consumers should continue to be locked up.  Despite the fact that Prop 19 had that kind of anti-discrimination language and it was cited as a major reason the business community opposed it.

(B) Nothing in this section is intended to allow driving under the influence of marijuana or driving while impaired by marijuana or to supersede statutory laws related to driving under the influence of marijuana or driving while impaired by marijuana, nor shall this section prevent the state from enacting and imposing penalties for driving under the influence of or while impaired by marijuana.

So… the cops can still bust you under the DUID laws that exist NOW.  Now read carefully, do you see any of that THC/DUI language CTI mentioned they killed?  No?  CTI would prefer an initiative that protects cannabis consumers from driving discrimination and without it, healthy cannabis consumers ought to still be locked up even when they’re not driving.

(C) Nothing in this section is intended to permit the transfer of marijuana, with or without remuneration, to a person younger than twenty-one years of age or to allow a person younger than twenty-one years of age to purchase, possess, use, transport, grow, or consume marijuana.

To their credit, at least CTI (to my knowledge) isn’t bellyaching about this paragraph.  My personal preference would be an age of 18 but I’m politically wise enough to know that nothing under 21 has a shot in hell of passing.

(D) Nothing in this section shall prohibit a person, employer, school, hospital, detention facility, corporation or any other entity who occupies, owns or controls a property from prohibiting or otherwise regulating the possession, consumption, use, display, transfer, distribution, sale, transportation, or growing of marijuana on or in that property.

So… your landlord, boss, etc. can still prevent you from possessing and using marijuana on their property like they can NOW.  CTI would prefer an initiative that allows you to take your marijuana into any public space and without it, healthy cannabis consumers should still be locked up if caught with marijuana in their private spaces.

Back to CTI.  Another of their complaints is that taxes would be collected on marijuana sales and would go to the big bad gub’mint!

Some of the 8 versions of the MDSS Initiative reportedly also allow a 15% excise tax, which will create more funding for the Department of Revenue marijuana police force. The MMED already has a budget larger than the entire Colorado Bureau of Investigation, all funded by the medical marijuana industry. Do we really want to be handing over a 15% per ounce extra tax to buy more handcuffs?

Handcuffs for all those cannabis consumers who will not be arrested for buying, selling, and possessing one ounce of legal marijuana?  So let’s be clear; CTI thinks if marijuana is legalized, no money should go toward the enforcement of those laws.

And let’s make one provision of the initiative perfectly clear: It specifically and directly does not affect Colorado’s medical marijuana laws:

7. Medical marijuana provisions unaffected. Nothing in this section shall be construed:

(A) To limit any privileges or rights of a medical marijuana patient, primary caregiver, or licensed entity as provided in section 14 of article XVIII and the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code;

So if you’re healthy, you get an ounce away from the home, three mature and three immature plants in the home and all the marijuana produced on the premises (a.k.a. “a shit-ton of marijuana”):

3. Personal Use of Marijuana. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the following acts are not unlawful and shall not be an offense under Colorado law or the law of any locality within Colorado or be a basis for seizure or forfeiture of assets under Colorado law for persons twenty-one years of age or older:

(A) Possessing, using, displaying, purchasing, or transporting marijuana accessories or one ounce or less of marijuana.

(B) Possessing, growing, processing, or transporting no more than six marijuana plants, with three or fewer being mature, flowering plants, and possession of the marijuana produced by the plants on the premises where the plants were grown, provided that the growing takes place in an enclosed, locked space, is not conducted openly or publicly, and is not made available for sale.

(C) Transfer of one ounce or less of marijuana without remuneration to a person who is twenty-one years of age or older.

And if you’re sick or disabled you can still get your card and have your three plus three plants, two ounces away from the home, and the new legalization allowance of all the processed marijuana at your grow site, and you still have an affirmative defense for more.  But because some of the taxes might buy handcuffs, according to CTI, the healthy people should be arrested and locked up for even one plant.

Beyond complaints with the language, CTI adjusts the tinfoil hat and offers explanations why this out-of-state cabal (whose Mason Tvert and Brian Vicente are Coloradoans) went ahead with legalization initiatives without the CTI’s blessing:

This unilateral move by MPP/DPA/Sensible/SAFER cast doubts that any cannabis law reform ballot initiative in Colorado would be successful. These conservative groups seem to want to duplicate the strategy of dividing and ignoring the progressive grassroots, as MPP/DPA did in their medical marijuana campaigns of 1997/98 nationwide.

“These conservative groups” that WON their medical marijuana campaigns in 1997/98, you mean?  That helped to WIN the medical marijuana law in Colorado?  CTI keeps trying to paint this as some sort of “conservative” vs. “progressive” argument and in the very next sentence, shred any credibility one might have of their understanding of those ideological terms:

Many people don’t know that billionaire currency manipulator George Soros funded Amendment 20 in 1997/98 through the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), headed by Rob Kampia in DC, and the Open Society Institute, headed by Ethan Nadelmann. Nadelmann now works with the Drug Policy Alliance, based in New York and California, but also funded by Soros…

Yes, George Soros, the man demonized by conservatives from Glenn Beck to George Will as the liberal billionaire scourge trying to legalize drugs , is CTI’s conservative boogey man.

No, what this is really a “divide” between is the rational, educated, politically mature adults and the people who have their hearts in the right place but their brains in vapor-lock by thinking a majority of the voting public is ready to treat marijuana like tomatoes.  In politics, you don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  If there is an opportunity to prevent the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of cannabis consumers and you are publicly opposing it, you are my enemy as much as the prohibitionists who will be voting along with you against reform.

The real fun Stoners Against Legalization tirades take place in the comments:

Kathleen Chippi in reply to Enough CTI

I’m sick of you f’ing know nothings–I’m starting to believe your cops infiltrating to cause problems.

No matter because enough people appreciate and respect CTI and ACT and other local groups that this will be prop 19 all over again, and we will help kill it with smiles on our faces. It is better to have NOTHING different rather than have shit language screw with patients, caregivers and voters in general for years to come…we have heard the “we can fix it later”  and we know that means nothing will be fixed.  They also promised to fix A20 13 years ago and they have done nothing.

This language and any language will fail as the national groups have split the vote and were not even in 2012.

You read it right: she and her allies will kill legalization with a smile on their faces. That’s something you’d expect a drug czar or a narc to say, huh?

Kathleen Chippi in reply to Paul

Paul Armentino?  The NORML nazi?  Come on Pual where is the evidence of things I have done to hold up the ‘industry’?  Love to see something other than personal attacks.

Yeah, you Nazi, enough with the personal attacks.

Robert in reply to Paul

If this is Paul Armentano, we know about your organization and its commitment to legalization; your President said NORML did not care about legalization in West Virginia and that it is too easy to get cannabis in California — you aren’t national and you aren’t for legalizing cannabis either.  Asking WW to exclude us from about the only media forum where the grassroots of Colorado can speak is a fascist impulse.

You keep using this word “fascist”.  I do not think it means what you think it means.

By the way, it wasn’t Paul Armentano.  Oddly enough, Paul has a little too much on his plate reviewing thousands of medical and scientific studies on cannabis to engage people who violate Godwin’s Law on WestWord comments sections.

Corey Donahue in reply to Paul

[W]hy are you supporting language in our Constitution when you reside out of state Paul?  And why are you supporting language that is called “legalization” but only up to 6 plants and 1 oz, which would make it illegal over 6 plants or an oz?

Seriously, this is the level of political reason and basic logic the Stoners Against Legalization possess.  If you make it legal to have six plants (and ALL the cannabis you harvest from them) and an ounce (outside the home), that’s not legalization because people with 30 grams and seven plants could be prosecuted.  Which leads me to believe if it was twelve plants and a pound or a hundred plants and a pickup truck load, those wouldn’t be legalization either, because people above those limits could still be busted.

High Country Caregiver

The legal 1 oz laws are total garbage.  The same laws got passed in Breckenridge and they mean nothing.  An initiative like this is not legalization, and I will never be fooled into voting for fools trying to make fools of us pot heads just trying to get high and have fun.  Anything shy of making cannabis as legal as tomatoes is just further prohibition and should be voted down.

If marijuana can’t be grown by anyone, anywhere, bought and sold in farmer’s markets, available to children (kids can have tomatoes), and grown in unsecured backyard gardens, then adults over 21 who possess less than an ounce and grow six plants at home should continue to be arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated.  (HCG, you need nobody’s help to look the fool.)

What all these detractors misunderstand is the word “legalization”.  What they want is “deregulation” – they’re looking for no regulations, as in “treat it like tomatoes”.  Sorry, folks, legalization requires regulation and marijuana is never going to be treated like tomatoes.  For one, tomatoes do not get you high.  Nobody is worried about their kids sneaking tomatoes from your garden.  Nobody is concerned with how many tomatoes you’ve eaten before you drive a car.  Nobody’s worried about people overeating tomatoes and how they may behave in public afterward.

Peter Tosh's 1976 PSA for NORML will be included on the Legacy re-release as a hidden track - make sure to look for it!

Collectible 7-inch vinyl single of “Legalize It” b/w “Equal Rights” released in Rasta colors of red, green and gold on National Record Store Day, April 16th

Legacy and NORML re-launch Tosh’s 1976 PSA at radio, promoting legalization of marijuana, in honor of NORML’s 40th anniversary birthday in 2011

Download audio file (Peter-Tosh-PSA.mp3)

NEW YORK, April 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — The first two solo albums by Peter Tosh on Columbia Records, cornerstones of the roots-rock-reggae movement, will be commemorated with the releases of LEGALIZE IT: LEGACY EDITION and EQUAL RIGHTS: LEGACY EDITION. Both double-CD packages will contain a lion’s share of previously unreleased material from the original sessions (and material previously available on very limited edition Dub Plates), along with new essays by Reggae scholar Roger Steffens (on Legalize It) and former manager Herbie Miller (Equal Rights). Both packages will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting June 21st through Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

The re-releases of Legalize It (1976) and Equal Rights (1977) coincide with the 40th anniversary birthday in March 2011 of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, based in Washington, DC). Tosh endorsed and supported the organization, and recorded a PSA (public service announcement) for NORML in 1976, promoting the legalization of marijuana. In 2011, Tosh’s PSA is being re-launched at radio in a partnership between Legacy and NORML.

Along with Tosh’s advocacy for NORML, Legalize It and Equal Rights serve as reminders of the glory of vinyl. In recognition, the two classic title tracks, “Legalize It” and “Equal Rights,” will be coupled as a special 7-inch vinyl single. The double-A sided single will be released in conjunction with this year’s fifth annual National Record Store Day on Saturday, April 16th. Honoring the colors of Tosh’s beloved Rasta flag, the single will be available in collectible red, green and gold vinyl editions.

Adding immeasurably to the historical impact of LEGALIZE IT: LEGACY EDITION is an evocative 2,000-word liner notes essay by Roger Steffens, a close friend to Peter Tosh in his lifetime, and an enduring keeper of the flame as the curator of the Reggae Archives, the world’s largest collection of Wailers and Peter Tosh material. Steffens is the co-author (with Jodie Pierson) of Bob Marley and the Wailers: The Definitive Discography (2005), and Reggae Scrapbook (2007, with Peter Simon). He has also annotated dozens of reggae collections and reissues, including virtually every major Peter Tosh album. Among them is Legacy’s 3-CD box set of 1997, Honorary Citizen.

Herbie Miller, who wrote the liner notes essay for EQUAL RIGHTS: LEGACY EDITION, is internationally known for his work as the trusted former manager of Peter Tosh and a highly-respected member of the Jamaican community. He is the director/curator of the Jamaica Music Museum, based in the Institute of Jamaica in downtown Kingston. A cultural historian and photographer, Miller has also annotated many historic reggae releases, including Live & Dangerous: Boston 1976 by Tosh, a previously unreleased chronicle (issued on Legacy, 2001) of his first American tour, in support of Legalize It.

Thirty-five years have passed since the release of Legalize It, Tosh’s first album as a solo artist after more than a decade in the Wailers with Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston. During that time, the Marley-Tosh signature began to achieve a worldwide notoriety that would have seriously rivaled the likes of Lennon-McCartney and Jagger-Richards, if the original Wailers had been able to stay together past 1975. Among the gems of the Marley-Tosh repertoire are such rock and reggae staples as “400 Years,” “Get Up, Stand Up,” “Brand New Second Hand,” “Soon Come,” “No Sympathy,” “Reaction,” “Baby We’ve Got a Date,” and “Can’t You See.” The Wailers’ songbook, hundreds of compositions predominantly penned by Marley, also included Tosh’s “Stop That Train,” “Downpressor,” “Love,” “One Foundation,” “Sun Valley,” and “You Can’t Blame the Youth,” among others.

As Roger Steffens’ liner notes to LEGALIZE IT: LEGACY EDITION point out, “All of the previously unreleased versions on this package are from the extraordinary archives of British collector, Sam Dion, to whom the tapes were passed along.” He refers to Tosh’s vast archives that survived his assassination of September 11, 1987. CD one presents the original nine-song, 38-minute album, followed by demo versions of seven of the nine songs, all previously unreleased. CD two then presents Tosh’s own original mix of the album, the way he was sending it out to major record labels in 1976 (rescued from the garbage heap by someone “with a keen eye”!). Those nine tracks (all previously unreleased) are followed by a previously unreleased alternate version of the title song, and then six extremely rare dubs, only one of which ever actually made it onto an album (“Igziabeher”).

Tosh’s first self-produced recording for a major label, Legalize It was also his first with the rhythm team of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare, who subsequently became the backbone of his recording and touring groups. The album contained a number of staples: “What’cha Gonna Do,” “No Sympathy,” “Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised),” “Ketchy Shuby,” “Till Your Well Runs Dry,” and of course the title tune standard, “Legalize It.”

Similarly, CD one of EQUAL RIGHTS: LEGACY EDITION presents the original eight-song, 40-minute album as it has been embedded in listeners’ heads for decades. Then the disc follows up with seven previously unreleased outtakes from the original album recording sessions, offering a different program of compositions. CD two presents a well-sequenced mix of 15 tracks – about half of which are previously unreleased . These include original session alternate and extended versions, and extremely rare dubs.

Equal Rights brought together Peter Tosh’s dedications to the revolutionary movements growing in Africa, and the mysticism and wonders of his personal growth as a prophet, poet, preacher and world-class musical trailblazer. The album included a number of songs that became human rights anthems over the next two decades: “Get Up, Stand Up,” “Downpressor Man,” “African,” “Apartheid,” and the title tune. There were also intensely personal songs of his revelations as a Rasta: “I Am That I Am” and “Jah Guide”; and the ultimate rude boy, proto-punk declaration of “Stepping Razor,” by reggae’s original roots-rock and Rasta ragamuffin.

“A quarter century later,” Steffens writes, “[Tosh's] songs ring eternal with millions of strugglers worldwide, still crying out for equal rights and justice with the words of the immortal Minister of Herb.”

LEGALIZE IT: LEGACY EDITION by PETER TOSH (Columbia/Legacy 88697 76490 2) CD One – Selections: 1. Legalize It * 2. Burial * 3. What’cha Gonna Do * 4. No Sympathy * 5. Why Must I Cry * 6. Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised) * 7. Ketchy Shuby * 8. Till Your Well Runs Dry * 9. Brand New Second Hand * Bonus tracks: 10. Legalize It (Demo) * 11. No Sympathy (Demo) * 12. Why Must I Cry (Demo) * 13. Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised) (Demo) * 14. Ketchy Shuby (Demo) * 15. Till Your Well Runs Dry (Demo) * 16. Brand New Second Hand (Demo).

Notes:

Tracks 1-9 originally issued August 1976, as Legalize It (Columbia 34253).

Tracks 10-16 previously unreleased.

CD Two (Original Mix) – Selections: 1. Legalize It * 2. Burial * 3. What’cha Gonna Do * 4. No Love, No Sympathy * 5. Why Must I Cry * 6. Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised) * 7. Ketchy Shuby * 8. Till Your Well Runs Dry * 9. Brand New Second Hand * 10. Legalize It (Alternate Version) * 11. Burial (Dub Plate) * 12. What’cha Gonna Do (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 13. (Igziabeher) Let Jah Be Praised (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 14. Second Hand (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 15. Burial (Dub Plate) * 16. Legalize It (Dub Plate).

Notes:

Tracks 1-10 previously unreleased.

Track 13 previously released on The Ultimate Peter Tosh (Shanachie, 2008).

Tracks 11-12 & 14-16 previously available on very limited edition Dub Plates.

EQUAL RIGHTS: LEGACY EDITION by PETER TOSH (Columbia/Legacy 88697 74691 2) CD One – Selections: 1. Get Up, Stand Up * 2. Downpressor Man * 3. I Am That I Am * 4. Stepping Razor * 5. Equal Rights * 6. African * 7. Jah Guide * 8. Apartheid * Bonus tracks: 9. 400 Years (Out-take) * 10. Hammer (Extended Version / Out-take) * 11. Jahman Inna Jamdung (Out-take) * 12. Vampire (Out-take) * 13. Babylon Queendom (Out-take) * 14. You Can’t Blame The Youth (Out-take) * 15. Mark Of The Beast (Out-take).

Notes:

Tracks 1-8 originally issued April 1977, as Equal Rights (Columbia 34670).

Tracks 9-15 previously unreleased original session Out-takes.

CD Two – Selections: 1. Get Up, Stand Up (Alternate Version) * 2. Dub-Presser Man (Dub Plate) * 3. I Am That I Am (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 4. Heavy Razor (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 5. Equal Rights (Extended Version) * 6. African (London Sound System Dub Plate) * 7. Jah Guide (Dub Plate) * 8. (Fight) Apartheid (Alternate Version) * 9. Vampire (Demo) * 10. Jahman Inna Jamdung (Demo) * 11. Hammer (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 12. Blame The Yout (Dub Plate) * 13. Babylon Queendom (Dub Plate) * 14. Vampires (Dub Plate) * 15. Get Up, Stand Up (Extended /Alternate Version).

Notes:

Tracks 1, 5, 8-10 & 15 previously unreleased original session alternate and extended versions.

Tracks 2-4, 6 & 11-14 previously only available on extremely limited edition Dub Plates.