Show 001: Steve Fox (MPP), Mason Tvert (SAFER), & Paul Armentano (NORML) discuss "Marijuana is Safer" book; NORML Exec. Dir. Allen St. Pierre; MMA Fighter Toby "Tigerheart" Grear

I am thrilled to be hosting our debut show tonight at 6pm PT / 9pm ET. I hope you all make it a regular Saturday night ritual.

You can listen to the show live three ways (and no, regular terrestrial or satellite radio is not one of those ways… yet):

1. Point your web browser to http://live.norml.org and follow the links to Show 001.  (Or use the link on the powder-blue BlogTalkRadio player you see there on the right…)
2. Point your mobile phone’s browser to http://m.blogtalkradio.com/norml.  Click the link at the bottom of the page for Shows and Blogs.  Click the link for Show 001. (I’m not completely sure the live show will play this way; it may only allow you to see the blog and comments.  If so, try…)
3. Call 347-994-1810 on your mobile phone.  (”347″ is a New York area code, so long distance charges, if any, would apply.  Probably only an option if you’ve got unlimited minutes and free domestic long distance.)

The show will also be archived about one hour following the live broadcast.  You’ll be able to hear it all week on the embedded player to the right or by subscribing to it as a podcast on iTunes.

Paul Armentano, Mason Tvert, Steve Fox

Guests for our premiere in the first hour are Steve Fox (MPP), Mason Tvert (SAFER), and Paul Armentano (NORML) discussing their new book, “Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?”.  Later in the hour, NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre joins the discussion.

Toby "Tigerheart" Grear from True Warrior Fitness

In our 2nd hour, mixed-martial arts champion Toby “Tigerheart” Grear of True Warrior Fitness discusses being banned from fighting professionally in California because of positive tests for his legal medical marijuana.

We’re also taking your calls at the bottom of each hour.  Dial 347-994-1810 to listen in on your phone and press 1 at any time if you’d like to speak to the host or guests.  Your call will be screened and we remind you to have a question ready, keep it short and to the point, and avoid profanity (we’re not FCC regulated on the net, but if we want to take this to terrestrial radio, we need to act like it.)

NORML’s Paul Armentano has already done a stellar job taking on the latest reefer madess on ABC News.  This is another one of what seem to be an increasing number of stories (NY Times, Dr. Drew, The Tenneseean, CNN, TransWorldNews, Christian Science Monitor)  that bring up the idea of “marijuana addiction” by telling the personal stories of people whose lives became full of turmoil and regret when they just couldn’t give up the doobies.

Many years ago the former head of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Alan Leshner made this statement when forced to confront the fact that tens of thousands of patients were successfully using cannabis as a medicine:“The plural of anecdote is not evidence.”

Someone ought to pass on Lesnher’s cop out to ABC News, whose recent feature, “Reefer Madness Redux: Is Pot Addictive?“, is little more than a series of anecdotes from folks claiming that it’s becoming harder and harder for some individuals to quit weed.

Yes, if 10,000 people say that using marijuana helped them medicinally, that’s just anecdotes and no basis for medicine.  But if a dozen people say that they were daily tokers, it ruined their lives, and they had a hard time quitting the bong, that’s enough for the mainstream media to question “Is Pot Addictive?”.  Which, by the way, is one of those sneaky ways the media tries to push a narrative by just asking the question and not declaring the fact.  “Is President Obama a Kenyan-born Illegal President?” or “Has Former President Bush Returned to His Hard Drinking Ways?” would be similar examples of the technique.

It’s the old “some people say” trick where media presents an issue as if it has two sides when the facts are all on one side.  “Some people say pot is addictive,” they’ll intone, and bring on three anecdotes of wasted lives, “and some people say it isn’t,” they’ll continue by presenting three doctors who tell the truth and present the evidence that it isn’t addictive in the potential-death-from-withdrawal sense.  See?  Three pot smokers who blame marijuana for their life’s failures vs. three well-educated doctors with studies of thousands of pot smokers whose lives turned out just fine.  Fair and Balanced!

Let me pick this apart a little.  In the piece, we meet “Vicky”, a 53-year-old who started smoking pot at age 13.  Well, there’s a clue!  We know marijuana use before age 18 can have detrimental effects and we here at NORML have been very forthright about explaining that.

Since the 1970s, when marijuana was the symbol of political protest, the risks of marijuana dependency have been clouded by the legalization debate and long-held beliefs that the illicit drug is harmless.

You’re not finding those beliefs here.  I’ll be the first to tell you marijuana is not harmless.  Neither is water.  But it is far less harmful than other drugs we allow even our teenagers to consume, like a Starbucks Frappacino loaded with caffeine, for instance.

Today, there are no FDA-approved drugs to counteract withdrawal symptoms, although the synthetic cancer drug Marinol shows some promise.

So, the treatment for the new “Pot 2.0: Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed™”, the deadly addictive skunkweed that can be up to (gasp!) 25% THC, is a synthetic THC pill that’s 100% THC?  Sheesh, next they’ll tell us that lithium is a good treatment for marijuana “addiction”!  Whoops, too late.

The reclassification of marijuana is important, according to the APA because its omission as an addictive substance then professionals might not see treatment regimens for dependence as necessary.

Ah, so the association representing psychiatrists is telling us that if we don’t classify marijuana as addictive, psychiatrists might not declare people marijuana addicts in need of expensive treatment from psychiatrists.  Got it.

As the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, marijuana produces dependence and relapse rates comparable to other drugs some researchers believe.

About 9 percent of all those who used marijuana became dependent, compared to rates of 32 percent for tobacco, 23 percent for opiates and 15 percent for alcohol, according to the 1994 National Comorbidity Survey.

In what branch of math are values 255% greater, 155% greater, and 66% greater considered “comparable”?  This is like saying my one minute eight second time in a 200 meter dash is comparable to Usain Bolt’s 19.3 second world record time.

For daily smokers, that dependency rate soars to between 33 and 50 percent, say more recent studies.

And what is the dependency rate for daily tobacco smokers, 100%?  Or daily beer drinkers?  Doesn’t it seem a good thing to you that half to two-thirds of daily marijuana smokers can quit cold turkey without any negative withdrawal effects?

With stronger pot, emergency rooms have reported more associated accidents. Just this week, seven people were killed when the driver — drove the wrong way on a New York highway and collided head on with a pickup truck. Although the drivers family has disputed the results, toxicology tests showed high levels of alcohol and marijuana.

Yes, high levels of alcohol, as in a .19 BAC!  So naturally this is the perfect example to show how stronger pot is causing accidents.

All addictive drugs have a “common signature,” according to NIDA director Nora D. Volkow. “They increase dopamine levels in the brain’s pleasure center and produce repetitive behavior. Marijuana appears do both, though at intermediate levels compared to other drugs.

Absolutely untrue, according to a new study published this June in NeuroImage, which concluded, “In the largest study of its kind so far, we have shown that recreational cannabis users do not release significant amounts of dopamine from an oral THC dose equivalent to a standard cannabis cigarette.”

Roger A. Roffman, a professor of social work at University of Washington… argues that the reform movement makes a “tragic mistake” to convince the public that marijuana is relatively harmless.

We’ve never claimed marijuana is harmless!  We’ve always claimed it is less harmful than alcohol.  Quit putting your words in our mouths!

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-08-03.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Special Comment: NBC, CBS, ABC, & FOX happy to profit from marijuana, as long as nobody talks about legalizing it

Behind the Headlines with NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano

• Paul previews the book he co-wrote with Mason Tvert and Steve Fox: Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?, published by Chelsea Green (see details of tomorrow’s book signing at Oaksterdam U on NORML’s Calendar of Events)

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• Message Monday – ‘Herbal Healing’ by Ras David

Grassroots Activism

• Clif Deuvall of the newly-formed NORML of Waco, Inc. (contact Clif at clif107 at yahoo dot com)

Paul Armentano's New Book, with Steve Fox and Mason Tvert. Click to pre-order!

(Reuters) Tough marijuana laws are driving millions of Americans to a more dangerous mood-altering substance, alcohol. The unintended consequence: violence and thousands of unnecessary deaths. It’s time, therefore, for a serious public debate of the case for marijuana versus alcohol.

How dismally that effort has failed is not in doubt. Marijuana is so easily available that around 100 million Americans have tried it at least once and some 15 million use it regularly, according to government estimates. The U.S. marijuana industry, in terms of annual retail sales, has been estimated to be almost as big as the alcohol industry — $113 billion and $130 billion respectively. On a global scale, marijuana is the world’s most widely used illicit drug.

The case for adding a compare-and-contrast dimension to the debate is laid out in a statistics-laden book to be published next month entitled “Marijuana is Safer, So why are we driving people to drink?” The authors are prominent legalization advocates – Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project, Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and Mason Tvert, co-founder of SAFER (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation).

“The plain and simple truth is that alcohol fuels violent behaviour and marijuana does not,” Norm Stamper, a former Seattle police chief, writes in the foreword of the book. “Alcohol … contributes to literally millions of acts of violence in the United States each year. It is a major contributing factor to crimes like domestic violence, sexual assault and homicide. Marijuana use … is absent in that regard from both crime reports and the scientific literature. There is simply no causal link to be found.”

Columnist Bernd Debusmann has been a guest on the NORML Daily Audio Stash… and will be again!

You can’t escape the headlines; recently a cornucopia of athletes have been in the headlines relating to Marijuana. Some in possession, others test positive in urine tests, and others are photographed with a bong like Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps.

In this particular article, two Oklahoma State football players were arrested for Marijuana possession. As you read this article and my opinion, try and put yourself or one of your children in the place of one of these young men.

Stillwater Newspress - Two Oklahoma State football players — sophomore Jamal Mosley and freshman Dexter Pratt — have been charged with one count each of misdemeanor possession of marijuana in court documents filed on Wednesday.

Both players were charged on June 17 and arraignment for both is scheduled for July 29.

OSU media relations said Thursday that OSU head coach Mike Gundy is out of town and would have no immediate comment on the situation and that information on the situation would likely come within the next few days.

Mosely, a tight end, is expected to battle for the starting spot while Pratt was one of the top incoming recruits for the Cowboys at running back. There has been talk of Pratt redshirting with Kendall Hunter and Keith Toston expected to see much of the playing time.

Police records said that both players possessed and controlled within a residence a small plastic bag containing what appeared to be, and subsequently field tested positive as a small amount of marijuana.

Most people will probably snicker after reading this and move onto more important things in their lives. But, for these athletes, their dilemma has just got started.

Because they are college students, they will probably lose their college loan, and also any scholarship they may have earned. You see, these athletes signed a contract with their university which allows them to compete in athletics. The contract specifies each athlete will support NCAA rules and regulations.

Let’s see what the NCAA requires when one fails a drug test:

NCAA Positive Test Result
If the NCAA tests you for the banned drugs listed in Bylaw 31.2.3.1 and you test positive, you will lose a season of competition in all sports if the season of competition has not yet begun for you. If the season of competition has begun, you will lose one full season of competition in all sports – i.e. remaining contests in the current season and contests in the following season up to the time that you were declared ineligible in the previous year.

Now let’s not forget these guys live in a state with extremely draconian Marijuana laws. The article didn’t mention the quantity the athletes were charged with, but assuming it was a smaller amount, the laws leave a great deal of discretion to the judge. They could receive any amount in fines and up to 1 year in prison for simply choosing a safer alternative. Is this the message we want to send our children as they approach college?

There is a really good chance that one or both of them will have to leave his college dreams behind and go to work. Since they have a drug conviction, the only jobs they can find are the kind of jobs that you and I don’t want to do. Over time they see their friends succeed financially, and it’s only logical to conclude that some people in their position have turned to selling drugs. Why not? The rationalization is that society has already made them outcasts and the only way to make an appropriate income means selling contraband or committing crimes.

In comparison, college binge drinking is a worse offense, although tolerated by universities a great deal more than Marijuana use.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers

* 54 percent of binge drinking college students black out and forget what they did or where they were at some point in the year. For students who don’t binge drink, the number was 25 percent.
* 48 percent of the alcohol consumed at a 4 year college is consumed by an underage student.
* 44 percent of students report symptoms of alcohol abuse and dependency
* 25 percent of students say they have faced academic consequences (missing class, getting a bad grade, etc.) as a result of drinking.
* On average, students who have more than 5 drinks per occasion have a GPA that is half a grade lower than the GPA for other students.

A little non-toxic Marijuana isn’t going to hurt you, but alcohol may kill you and you might just take a few people with you when you slam your car head-on into someone else.

Think for just a moment; our standing President admitted he had used Marijuana earlier in his life. The only difference between these young men and our current standing president is they got caught, he didn’t. Does that sound fair to you?

Mr. President, can you take just a moment of your time to address the growing number of Americans who are clamoring to get your support for Marijuana legalization? I know you think it’s really funny, but people are going to prison and lives are being ruined every day because you can’t stop laughing long enough to be a real president. Step up, your constituents are demanding it.

From the Denver Post:

Coloradans say they are doing less hard drinking than they did in the past few years but say they are more likely to smoke pot, according to a two-year federal assessment to be released today.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found Colorado was the only state to log a decrease in those who think they are at risk to binge- drink since the last study completed in 2006, from 29.8 percent in the previous study to 25.8 percent in the most recent.

Meanwhile, Colorado is one of seven states that notched “significant” increases in teens and adults who say they are more likely to smoke pot at least once a month than those who participated in the last government survey.

“We’ve been saying for some time that many adults want a safer alternative to drinking,” said Mason Tvert, executive director of the Denver-based pot-legalization group Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, which has passed two pro-pot public votes in the city since 2006.

The increase in stoners could logically be tied to the rocky economy, said Tvert, co-author of a book to be released in August that measures the economics of getting buzzed, “Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Do We Drive People to Drink?”

The report also puts Colorado among the top 10 states for:

• The highest illicit-drug use in every age category.
• Failure of teens and adults who need alcohol treatment to receive it.
• Survey takers using cocaine in the past year.

The report and raw numbers for each state, to be released today, will be posted at oas.samhsa.gov/2k7state/TOC.cfm.

Even though the previous drug czar, John Walters, commonly characterized Americans as stupid for choosing a safer alternative, it’s not stupid.

We all know that alcohol kills brain cells, impairs judgment, and has a measurable addiction rate. Alternatively, Cannabis – when consumed responsibly – can help one’s health and happiness.

I’m proud of you folks who live in Colorado for choosing a safer alternative! Lead the charge, Lead the Country and Free the Weed!

[I'll testify - these Coloradoans are not only smoking more pot, it's really good pot! -- "R"R]

420Knight, Sister Sativa, Dwarvenbud, and WeedWizard cannot play in World of Warcraft, but KegKnight, Sister Champagne, DwarvenBudweiser, and WhiskeyWizard would be welcome.

Blizzard Entertainment sells the most-popular MMORPG in cyberspace, “World of Warcraft” .  (That’s MMORPG, or a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.  For those of you my age and older, think back to your old Dungeons and Dragons game, but instead of you and five geeky friends, a bunch of arcane rule books, 2-liter bottles of Mountain Dew, and funny-looking dice being thrown on a library table, imagine hundreds of thousands of people worldwide playing that D&D game online in real time.)

Players in this cyberspace world can become wizards and fighters and clerics and so forth, all your typical fantasy world Tolkien-esque stuff.  Players can give themselves fantastic names and as players gain power, they can join together and form “guilds” with fantastic names.

So long as those player names or guilds are not in any way a slang reference to marijuana.

A Stasher named Thomas noted this policy when his online character’s name was changed because it was a slang term for pot (he never told me what the original name is, maybe he’ll explain more in the comments).  As Thomas so adroitly noted:

there are multiple references to different herbs in the game that are not only hallucinogenic but way more potent and dangerous than marijuana (which by the way could be said about almost anything). all of which are illegal as well. theres even an herb you can be addicted to as well am i correct?

After many emails to many different employees at Blizzard Entertainment, Thomas finally got an answer:

Thank you for your continued interest in how the World of Warcraft policies are created. I have looked at your account history and I will do my best to answer any questions you have had regarding our naming policies.

I understand that your concern is that your name was changed due to its association with a slang term for marijuana while there are numerous references to alcohol within the game. Please understand that the naming policy currently prohibits the use of any name which refers, directly or indirectly, to illegal activity. As the use of alcohol is not illegal, names and activities associated with the use of alcohol are not currently against our policies.

Sincerely,

Karliss
Account Administrator
Blizzard Entertainment
www.blizzard.com

So, let me see if I understand this.  You run a game where a person can become a fighter, name himself “Skullcrusher”, purchase a two-handed broadsword, and murder other people in battle, yet with a straight face you tell me you’re concerned about Warcraft promoting illegal activity.  Player characters can become “rogues”, whose skills include assassination, lock picking, and thievery, but we can’t have that “rogue” have a “420″ anywhere in his name, because we don’t want to promote illegal activity.  We can’t promote illegal activity in the World of Warcraft, but for a significant portion of players (those under 21), the promotion of alcohol does represent an illegal activity.  Ironically, player characters can become “herbalists” and use any number of plants with mystical or hallucinogenic properties, like “Ghost Mushrooms”, “Black Lotus”, and “Deathnettle”, and they can sell those plants for a profit to “alchemists”, but we can’t have any “420″s anywhere reminding people of the illegal market of selling cannabis plants for a profit.

Ultimately, the marijuana may be less harmful to you than the World of Warcraft itself:

According to Stiftelsen Ungdomsvård, a Swedish youth organisation specializing in game addiction, “(World of Warcraft) is the crack cocaine of the computer world.”

The Youth Care Foundation is about to release it’s report in which labels World of Warcraft as “the most dangerous game on the market.”

Author of the report, Sven Rollenhagen, claims, “There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part.”

The poster child for the report is a 15-year-old Swedish boy who collapsed and suffered seizures after playing World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King for 24 hours straight.

The report also has the backing of the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, which warns of the ever-growing increase worldwide of game addiction.

I’m not a fan of throwing the word “addiction” around unless we’re talking about physical withdrawal / severe craving akin to kicking cocaine, meth, heroin, Oxycontin, Vicodin, or alcohol, so I don’t buy the idea that World of Warcraft is like crack cocaine.  But if we’re talking about compulsion or dependence, then I’m willing to personally say that for some people, World of Warcraft is more dangerous than marijuana.

Moscow Police say a 23-year-old University of Idaho student from Wilder died Saturday morning from a toxic level of alcohol.

Daniel Mark Miller was a senior at the University of Idaho, said Moscow Assistant Police Chief David Duke.

Miller was found unresponsive about 8 a.m. on Saturday and transported via ambulance to Gritman Medical Center in Moscow where he was later pronounced dead.

Miller and a group of friends started drinking about 7 p.m. Friday at a local tavern. The group left about 11:30 p.m. and went to a private residence where they continued playing drinking games up until 2 a.m., Duke said.

Miller was “quite intoxicated and passed out,” Duke said. Friends put him in a bed and checked on him several times through about 4:30 a.m. When they checked on Miller at 8 a.m., he did not respond.

Dan Miller did not break any laws or university policies.  University of Idaho does list the following restrictions on alcohol use on campus:

ARTICLE VIII–DRUGS AND ALCOHOL. [section renumbered 8-07]

1. The sale, use, or possession of illegal drugs is a violation of this code.
2. Sale or illegal possession or illegal consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited in facilities owned, leased, or operated by UI and on campus grounds.
3. Alcoholic beverages may not be possessed or consumed under any circumstances in areas open to and most commonly used by the general public. These areas include, but are not limited to, lounges, student union buildings, recreation rooms, conference rooms, athletic facilities, and other public areas of UI-owned buildings or grounds.
4. UI’s primary role in handling matters involving the use or potential use of drugs or alcohol by its students is that of counseling. However, in appropriate situations, the full range of sanctions may be applied.

Dan was 23-years-old and did his drinking in a tavern and at a private home, so he abided by University standards.  If he’d been caught with a baggie of weed, he would he be alive now, but he’d be subject to a full range of potential sanctions by the University, including suspension, permanent loss of student housing, and expulsion.

My friends attended University of Idaho in the late ’80s and I visited a few times.  Moscow, Idaho, is a tiny college town and the drinking culture is very much a part of student life.  I was but 17 and my friends 18 and 19 when I visited the Delta Chi house for a night of drunken revelry (fair notice: Idaho’s drinking age was 19 back then).  Dan Miller was a 23-year-old senior, which suggests to me he was once a 19-year-old (or younger) freshman.  You don’t just go on 7-hour drinking binges to start – that’s something you build up to over time.  What if Dan had been caught drinking before age 21, or was caught drinking on campus?  How does the University of Idaho demonstrate how seriously they want to stop underaged drinking?

10. The Regents of UI adopted guidelines for enforcing campus alcohol regulations which include sanctions for violation of these regulations. Minimum sanctions for violations of Article VIII, Sections 1 and 2 of the Student Code of Conduct are listed below. These sanctions will be minimum standards and more severe sanctions may be applied. [See next page.]

a. First Infraction

1. Open container or minor in possession violations = Referral to judicial council for education programs and payment of administrative costs.
2. Illegal distribution of alcohol = Referral to judicial council with sanctions to include community service, period of probation, administrative costs, and education programs.

b. Second Infraction

1. Without injury; or without conduct likely to lead to injury = Referral to judicial council or similar authority for action which must include a treatment and/or education program.
2. With injury; or conduct likely to lead to injury = Referral to the proper administrative body of the institution for action must include notification to the criminal justice system, strict probation, and, a treatment or education program.

c. Third Infraction

1. Without injury; or without conduct likely to lead to injury = Referral to the appropriate administrative body of the institution for appropriate action, which must include, at least, suspension from school for one semester.
2. With injury; or conduct likely to lead to injury = Referral to the appropriate administrative body of the institution for appropriate action, which must include, at least, referral to the criminal justice system and expulsion from the institution for one year.

These are minimums and the University may punish alcohol violations more severely, but there are no such minimums listed for marijuana possession.  So, a UI freshman caught with beer “without injury” – remember, an illegal drug for someone under 21 – must be caught three times before being suspended from school.  Any one involved in an alcohol incident on campus “with injury” would have to be caught twice before the police are called.

So what is the standard operating procedure for marijuana on campus?  This story from the student newspaper sheds some light:

[Laura] Hutchinson, director of campus life and student conduct, said anyone who violates the Student Code of Conduct can be placed in UI’s judicial system.

Hutchinson said she sees anywhere from 900 to 1,100 students in her office for issues ranging from candles in a dorm room to sexual assault. About 10 to 15 of those cases come from police reports.

The amount of time students spend in the system varies according to their offense, said Bruce Pitman, vice provost of student affairs. The most common cases are ones of alcohol abuse, where a student will attend an educational program, pay a fine and be out of the system in a matter of weeks.

Amanda Dougherty, a sophomore RA in the Chrisman Hall last semester, said her biggest difficulty enforcing rules was in trying to get mutual respect from students.

As an RA, her job was to make sure the students in her hall were following the law and code of ethics. Vandalism, alcohol, drugs, stealing or general rule breaking could result in the student being written up.

RAs go through formal training to learn how to react to situations like suicide and legal issues.

In cases involving drugs, like marijuana, Dougherty said the first thing an RA is instructed to do is call the police.

It’s no wonder you have students drinking themselves to death when they learn even before age 21 that drinking will only get you a slap on the wrist, but the safer choice of marijuana will get them kicked out of school and sent to jail.

In the Associated Student Government election last week, the SAFER Referendum, which stated that marijuana offenses should not be punished by the university any harsher than alcohol offenses, passed with 67 percent of the student vote. The sanctions for marijuana possession and use have not yet been modified, but the changes will be discussed, said Daniel Pugh, vice provost for Student Affairs.

“Most of the students we see make the same poor decisions with marijuana that they do with alcohol,” Pugh said. “It’s not the usage itself that’s the bad thing.”

Proponents of the initiative are excited to meet with Pugh and other university officials to discuss where to go from here, said Robert Pfountz, campaign director for the initiative and a member of the campus chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

A workforce composed of law enforcement, professors, administrators and members of the SAFER campaign will discuss how to adjust the penalties, said Pfountz, who said he is optimistic that progress will be made because both Pugh and Chancellor G. David Gearhart seem open-minded.

Reducing penalties for marijuana use is a way to curb binge drinking, which is involved in 90 percent of sexual assaults on college campuses and 95 percent of violent crime, Pfountz said. Alcohol encourages violent behavior and contributes to 1,700 deaths on college campuses a year, he said.

Though they do not want to demonize alcohol, members of NORML maintain that it does more damage than marijuana, so the university should not punish people for choosing a safer alternative, Pfountz said.

“There is an epidemic across college campuses of kids being hurt very badly,” he said. “Some may scoff at promoting marijuana over alcohol, but we believe it is a matter of life and death.”

via Marijuana initiative SAFER passes, changes are considered – News.

Ronald Reagan for Chesterfield Cigarettes (tvparty.com)

It’s not really about promoting marijuana over alcohol.  It’s really about not promoting alcohol over marijuana!  Think about this: how many alcohol ads do you see on TV in a day?  Plenty.  Now, how many tobacco ads do you see on TV in a day?  None.

On April 1, 1970, President Nixon signed legislation banning cigarette ads from airing on television and radio. The ban took effect at midnight on Jan. 2, 1971.

The last cigarette TV commercial (for Virginia Slims) was broadcast on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show at 11:59pm on January 1, 1971. It was expected to be devastating for the networks when tobacco ads were banned – but they did all right without them, in spite of immediately losing $220 million dollars a year in revenues.

Now they make more than that from anti-smoking ads!

Not only did cigarette advertising disappear from TV and radio, but also from all major sporting events as well.  Even the most signature tobacco-sponsored event – NASCAR’s Winston Cup – had to become the Nextel Cup.

Yet not only are alcohol ads ubiquitous on TV, advertisement has been open now to the previously-banned hard liquor.  In almost every ad, drinkers are reminded to “drink responsibly”.  Clearly alcohol use is accepted and promoted in this country, despite the statistics on drunk driving, alcoholism, date rape, domestic violence, and poor health related to alcohol abuse.

More Doctors Smoke Camels (genuineseller.com)

Yes, smoking cigarettes is not good for you, but where is the logical consistency here?  What reason can there be for banning a tobacco company’s free speech that wouldn’t apply to alcohol companies?  Addictive?  Yes to both.  Adults-only?  Ditto.  Legal?  Uh-huh.  Bad for your health?  Surely!  The only difference I can find is that smoking responsibly directly affects the people around you (secondhand smoke), whereas drinking resonsibly does not.  However, smoking irresponsibly, if there is such a thing, doesn’t warp your personality and turn you into a puking, crying, violent, drunk-driving ass.

Of course, like many laws concerning intoxicating substances, there isn’t a whole lot of logic involved.  Our intoxicant laws are based on emotion. Back in the 1910s & 1920s, drinking was evil, a scourge on society.  We came up with an emotional law – prohibition.  In response more people drank and drank harder liquor.  After prohibition was repealed, drinking became cool again.  Now, everybody likes a nice beer at the game, wine at dinner, or some cocktails late at night.  It’s ingrained into our society and our emotional response to ban it probably made it more of a part of our culture.

Smoking cigarettes used to be a normal accepted part of life; doctors were promoting cigarettes, every TV and movie star smoked, and our GI’s in WWII were given cigarettes in their government rations.  Then, some unbiased doctors at the Surgeon General’s office in 1964 determined they would cause cancer and kill you.  We placed warning labels on the smokes and soon the emotional backlash to cigarettes was on.  This was heightened by Americans discovering we’d been lied to by those doctors and tobacco execs about how bad these thing were.  Soon we passed another emotional law banning the free speech rights of tobacco companies.*

So these two legal drugs which kill half a million Americans a year sit on two ends of an emotional spectrum.  Cigarettes are reviled, banned from advertising, and considered a dirty filthy habit.  Alcohol is celebrated, ubiquitous in advertising, and considered a normal healthy way to relax and socialize.

Now consider cannabis.  Not particularly popular in the 1910s and 1920s, but considered to be a scourge on society, as it was the drug of choice for the Mexicans.  We came up with an emotional law – prohibition.  In response, more people smoke marijuana and it has become much better marijuana.  Pot is already ingrained into the shadows of American culture like speakeasies were in the ’20s – would pot become even more ingrained in American culture if prohibition were repealed?

Then consider how the American people reacted to learning they’d been lied to by doctors and government about the health risks of tobacco.  Something society once revered became reviled in the span of a decade.  Would the reverse happen with cannabis, if the Surgeon General issued an objective report on the health benefits of cannabis?

*No, I don’t want the return of tobacco ads.  Banning them has helped reduce smoking.  But if we’re going to ban ads for addictive stuff that’s bad for us, Budweiser and McDonald’s have to go, too.  And enough of the “ask your doctor about” ads for pharmaceuticals, too; you know, prescription ads used to be illegal, too.  I shouldn’t be “asking my doctor” for drugs – that’s called “a pusher”.  My doctor should be prescribing my drugs based on my condition and his diagnosis.  I don’t need a TV commercial trying to find a way to sell me a pill.

The Colorado-based Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), which drafted the document, contends that the criminalization of marijuana is inconsistent with the legal status of alcohol. The organization argues that the high penalties colleges and universities dole out for marijuana use force students to revert to alcohol as a recreational alternative.

“[Colleges and universities] are sending a dangerous message that fosters and perpetuates a ‘culture of alcohol’ on campuses nationwide, and drives students to drink rather than make the rational, safer choice to use marijuana instead,” the Emerald Initiative website, safercampuses.org, states. “Marijuana is safer than alcohol. It’s time we treat it that way.”

The Emerald Initiative is a more radical offshoot of the Amethyst Initiative, a national petition circulated last summer which called on college and university presidents to support lowering the drinking age to 18 in an effort to curb high-risk binge drinking.

Following the passage of the Drug-Free Student Loan Act of 1998, students convicted of possessing or distributing marijuana or any other type of narcotic stand to lose federal student loans.

Such government legislation is based on “entirely arbitrary reasons” that foster dangerous recreation patterns, SAFER executive director Mason Tvert told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “The government and universities clearly acknowledge that alcohol is a problem on campuses, but all their policies to prevent it — ‘Drink Responsibly’ campaigns, for example — just promote the notion that students should be drinking.”

via – The Daily Princetonian “Emerald Initiative fights marijuana use penalties“