GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The manager of a medical marijuana clinic in Southern Oregon has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for growing and selling pot.

Josephine County Circuit Judge Pat Wolke told Brenda Thomas on Monday that he was imposing the sentence to show people that using the Oregon medical marijuana law to cover up illegal drug dealing will be punished.

“The majority of people in the Medical Marijuana Program are obeying the law,” Wolke said. “There is a substantial minority who are not. They are overgrowing, and they are selling. … I think the Medical Marijuana Program is hurt by people who thumb their nose at the law.”

Police raided Thomas’ home in the rural community of Wilderville in October 2009 after a Las Vegas couple pulled over in a traffic stop on Interstate 5 near Ashland told investigators that they bought the pound of marijuana found in their car from Thomas.

According to testimony from [Thomas's marijuana growing partner] Bletko, he and Thomas had a deal to grow marijuana for money, not just for patients, and were careful to have enough medical marijuana cards to cover the 72 plants in the ground.

But when police raided the property, they found drying plants and processed marijuana amounting to 200 pounds, far more than the 19.5 pounds of processed pot authorized by holding medical cards for 13 patients.

I’m shocked – shocked - to find there are people who use medical marijuana laws to cover entrepreneurship in the interstate cannabis market!

Click here to view the embedded video.

You mean to tell us that people who supply Oregon patients with cannabis at a loss sometimes also supply to non-patients at a profit?  Sure, we could have changed this stupid system that forces a patient to find a grower who meets the following diametrically-opposed requirements:

• Extremely skilled at growing medical grade cannabis;
• Unwilling to use those skills to reap huge profits on the unregulated market;
• Willing to donate hours of that time daily for mere reimbursement of expenses;
• Independently wealthy enough to not work a real job while she tends to patients’ plants for free.

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1. MillerCoors employee, medical marijuana patient, denied unemployment benefits because of positive drug test for marijuana
2. Paul Stanford, owner of the THCF Medical Clinics, accepts plea deal on personal income tax evasion, 18 months probation
3. Alert on new bill in New York to stem police abuses of “public view” arrests for marijuana possession

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Grateful Dread Public Radio at http://gdreadradio.net, a 24-hour community service Internet radio station proud to carry NORML SHOW LIVE

• Irie Wednesday: Yuya – “Ganja Wise”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

Radical Rant

• 4th Amendment R.I.P. – Recent SCOTUS Decisions

(Full disclosure: THCF used to be a prime sponsor of this blog and podcast and this blogger’s family have worked for THCF.  THCF has also been a past sponsor of some National NORML events and Oregon NORML events during my tenure as Associate Director of the Portland Chapter.)

Paul Stanford of THCF on Cannabis Common Sense

The government tactic of going after people it doesn’t like by scrutinizing their tax records is a time-tested method of imprisoning those it can’t catch through other methods.  Al Capone was not brought down for his bootlegging activities, it was tax charges that landed him in a cell.  Willie Nelson was famously hit with a $16.7 million tax bill, leading to his album, “The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories?”

Whether it is through purposeful fraud, like Capone, or complicated accident, like Nelson, everyone knows that the gub’mint revenuer is nobody to mess with.  Currently, two of the biggest and best-respected dispensary operations in California, Berkeley Patients Group and Harborside Health Center, are undergoing investigation for their tax issues.

So it is with disappointment that we report on the latest tax prosecution of an activist and cannabis businessman, Paul Stanford of The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation, the broadest nationwide network of clinics specializing in medical marijuana recommendations, based here in Portland, Oregon and operating clinics in California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Washington.

(WWeek) Attorney General John Kroger today announced the arrest of the president of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation on allegations that he failed to pay taxes for two years.

“In these tough economic times every tax dollar is crucial, and we cannot afford to let people cheat on their taxes,” said Attorney General Kroger.

Paul Stanford was arrested March 7 on an indictment charging him with two counts of Failure to File Personal Income Taxes for 2008 and 2009.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on March 21 in Marion County Circuit court. Stanford is the president of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF), an organization started in 1999 as a charitable 501(c)(3) foundation.

The indictment and arrest followed an investigation by the Department of Justice’s Charitable Activities Section and Criminal Justice Division.

A criminal indictment is merely an allegation. Every criminal defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

In 2010, the IRS announced that it had revoked THCF’s status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity.

THCF is also a prime sponsor of the Seattle Hempfest and Portland Hempstalk, two of the largest hemp festivals in the world, and produces through its political arm, CRRH, the cable access show Cannabis Common Sense that is seen throughout the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the country.

As the fight to re-legalize cannabis heats up out here on the West Coast, I want to provide the opportunity for activists to get the word out to a national audience here at the Stash.  If you have a well-written essay you’d like to feature here, please send it to us at stash@norml.org.

“Why Should I Support the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA)?”

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”  – Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe

by Jennifer Alexander
Board of Directors, Oregon NORML
4/20/10

Many Oregonians are proud to be citizens of one of the first states to have allowed the use of medical marijuana.  For many years, the federal government has led us to believe that marijuana had “no medical value” by retaining it in Schedule I and by continuing to plague us with propaganda that insists that marijuana is “dangerous.”   As of April 1, 2010, there are over 32,000 medical marijuana patients currently holding cards in Oregon that disprove the notion that marijuana has “no medical value.”[i] Marijuana remains among the safest drugs known to mankind.

Proven Medical Value

In recent years, our society is rediscovering the value of marijuana for a wide range of disorders, including AIDS, cancer, muscle spasms, chronic pain and many others.  The ongoing research is astounding and could demonstrate tremendous breakthroughs in our health and overall well-being.  Research continues to demonstrate that marijuana is not as dangerous as once believed, and far more beneficial than most ever thought it could be.  However, this research is still very limited due to the status of cannabis as a Schedule I drug.   This needs to change; sound clinical studies need to be done to determine more about the potential benefits and possible risks of using cannabis.

There have been multiple petitions to reschedule cannabis at the federal level (the latest was filed in 2002 by the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis and is still under review[ii]).  Rescheduling cannabis would allow for further medical studies, but the process is either incredibly slow or completely stalled.  It has become clear to many that the prohibition of cannabis must end for our society to recognize the full benefits of cannabis and minimize the damage to our society that is almost exclusively due to its status as an illegal drug with “no medical value” according to our federal Controlled Substances Act.[iii]

NOTE: Due to the internal conflict in Oregon law present in Oregon’s Controlled Substances Act (classes marijuana as a Schedule I drug with “no medical value”) and the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (which is based on the medical value of marijuana according to doctors and patients), Oregon Senate Bill 728 was passed last year to reschedule marijuana to a schedule II through V in the Oregon Controlled Substances Act, and that is currently underway.[iv] The Oregon Board of Pharmacy will be accepting public statements on the rescheduling of marijuana through May 2010.

“Marijuana…Treated Like Other Medicines”?

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, approved by Oregon voters in 1998, states that “marijuana should be treated like other medicines.”[v] Support for medical marijuana has continued to grow, and recent national polling by AP-CNBC shows that large majorities of Americans support the medical use of marijuana across all age groups, ranging from as low as 50% to as high as 71%.[vi] It is clear that the vast majority of Americans accept the medical value of marijuana.

While medical marijuana is a step towards the end of prohibition, there is still much more work to be done.  Only 15 states recognize the legal use of medical marijuana, and even in those states, medical marijuana users are marginalized and discriminated against.  The most horrific part about this discrimination, however, is that it is supported by the government.

Oregon Supreme Court Validates Discrimination Against Medical Marijuana Patients

On April 15, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled in Emerald Steel Fabricators Inc. v BOLI that medical marijuana patients are “illegal drug users” and therefore do not qualify for the protections awarded other disabled workers.[vii] In essence, they are saying that even though Oregon voters support the medical use of marijuana, Oregon Medical Marijuana Program Patients are not to be treated any differently than any other “illegal drug users,” with the exception of not being arrested by State officials.  However, they can still be arrested by federal officers, they can still be fired from their jobs, they can still be kicked out of their rental homes, have their children taken from them, and they can still be harassed in many other ways.  This is all because they are not considered “patients” under the law, but simply “illegal drug users.”

Medical marijuana movements have demonstrated that the truth about cannabis has been hidden from us for years.  We now know that marijuana does have medical value, thanks to those that championed the medical marijuana movements throughout the country.  However, the Emerald Steel v BOLI case highlights why medical marijuana laws are not sufficient to protect patients.  It is now time for Oregon to be at the forefront once again: legalizing marijuana is something that concerns us all – whether or not we choose to use cannabis products ourselves.

What can Oregonians expect from passage of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA)?

The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) is our chance to stand up for the liberty of those prosecuted and discriminated against for their refusal to accept the federal government’s lies about marijuana.  The OCTA ballot title reads: “Permits personal marijuana, hemp cultivation/use without license; commission to regulate commercial marijuana cultivation/sale.”  The full text of OCTA, sponsored by Madeline Martinez, Executive Director of Oregon NORML, and Paul Stanford, founder of THCF clinics, can be read at www.cannabistaxact.org.

OCTA is “a scientific experiment by the people of the state of Oregon to lower the misuse of, illicit traffic in and harm associated with cannabis and will set up voluntary studies of cannabis users under ORS 474.045 (b) and other studies.”  Some highlights of OCTA include:

• Recapturing the revenue currently lost to the “black market.” Currently, the high price of marijuana creates a lucrative source of revenue for illicit, “black market” businesses.  Under OCTA, sales of cannabis will be regulated through the Oregon Cannabis Control Commission (OCCC), which will be tasked with the sales and ensuring the quality of psychoactive cannabis products, minimizing out-of-state diversions and preventing sales of cannabis to minors.  OCTA distributes 90% of the profit from the sale of cannabis to the state General Fund, which primarily covers expenses for education, healthcare, and public safety.
• Minimizing minor consumption. In an unregulated market, there are no controls to prevent minors from acquiring marijuana.  Under OCTA, cannabis will only be sold to adults 21 and over.    Sale of cannabis to minors under OCTA will be a class B felony, and providing cannabis gratuitously to a minor is a class A misdemeanor.  A drug education program will also be funded to discourage minors from consuming any intoxicants while they are minors, and to encourage responsible use if, as adults, they choose to use intoxicants, while “emphasiz[ing] a citizen’s rights and duties under our social contract.”
• Promotion of industrial hemp. Industrial hemp has many uses, including fuel, fiber and food.  In 1938, Popular Mechanics referred to hemp as “The New Billion-Dollar Crop.”[viii] However, hemp production in the United States has remained illegal since the 1937 passage of the Marihuana Tax Stamp Act, and later the Controlled Substances Act.  The only exception to the legality of hemp was during World War II, when the Department of Agriculture encouraged hemp production to support the war effort when imports of hemp were interrupted.   Domestic production of hemp will minimize our imports of hemp raw materials from foreign economies and allow this domestic industry to flourish.  OCTA removes restrictions in the State of Oregon for hemp production and sets aside 2% of profits for promotion of the domestic hemp industry.

Further, instead of restricting industrial hemp to low-THC content strains, which are not necessarily the “best” strains for many industrial uses, OCTA takes a much more logical approach.  OCTA tasks the OCCC with defining the psychoactive content to qualify as psychoactive marijuana and defines all other cannabis as “hemp” and prohibits regulation of hemp.  This logical approach will enable the OCCC to regulate the intoxicating cannabis without impeding the industrial production of hemp.

NOTE: While Oregon did legalize the production of hemp as of January 1, 2010 under SB 676 – hemp production cannot begin until the federal government issues DEA permits, which do not appear to be forthcoming.   OCTA specifically states, “No federal license shall be required to cultivate hemp in Oregon.”

• Allows adult cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal, noncommercial use. Cannabis is used by many adults in social settings, much like many adults use alcohol or coffee.  OCTA will allow adults to determine to grow and/or consume personal, noncommercial marijuana without risk of civil or criminal penalties for doing so.  While some may be concerned about the social costs of legalizing marijuana for adult use for “recreation,” marijuana has not been shown to be the primary cause of a single death in the recorded history of its use – and legalization under OCTA will simply regulate cannabis and protect those that are ALREADY using marijuana.

OCTA is needed for Oregon to recapture control of its crime-rates, its economy, its healthcare and the liberty of all Oregon citizens.  While some may not feel that legalization within our state is “enough” to make the necessary changes, it is vital that our state, as well as others, stand up and proclaim to the federal government that we will no longer accept the irrational abuse of its citizens.  It is possible that the federal government may challenge OCTA; however, under OCTA, it will not be the private citizens (who have often lost assets to civil forfeiture) defending themselves against the federal government.  Instead, it will be the federal government challenging the state of Oregon.  This is the conversation on cannabis that is long overdue.

How You Can Voice Your Support for OCTA:

1. You can download and print the single-signature petition from www.cannabistaxact.org, sign it and mail it back to the OCTA office.
2. You can volunteer to gather signatures to ensure that OCTA makes it on the ballot.  We need about 125,000 signatures by July 2, 2010 to be certain that there are enough valid signatures to make it to the November 2010 ballot.
3. You can start an advocacy group for OCTA at your local college or within your community, or participate in running a booth at your local Saturday Market by contacting the OCTA office through the website.
4. You can attend the “Hemp Is Earth Medicine” concert series currently underway to support fundraising for OCTA, presenting John Trudell, Tim Pate and State of Jefferson.  More info available at the website.
5. You can attend the Global Cannabis March at Pioneer Square on May 1, 2010 from 10am – 5pm to show your support for legalization.
6. In November, when OCTA is on the ballot, VOTE YES!

For more information about the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, please visit www.cannabistaxact.org.

---

[i] Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), Statistics, April 1, 2010, accessed from: http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/ommp/data.shtml on April 20, 2010.[ii] Petition to Reschedule Cannabis, Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis, 2002, accessed from: http://www.drugscience.org/index.html on April 20, 2010.

[iii] 21 USC Sec. 812 01/22/02 accessed from: http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/csa/812.htm#b on April 20.

[iv] Oregon Senate Bill 728, accessed from: http://www.leg.state.or.us/09reg/measures/sb0700.dir/sb0728.en.html on April 20, 2010

[v] Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, ORS 475.300, accessed from: http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/ommp/docs/ors.pdf on April 20, 2010.

[vi] AP-CNBC Marijuana Poll, April 2010, accessed from: http://www.cnbc.com/id/36601126/page/3/ on April 20, 2010.

[vii] Emerald Steel Fabricators Inc v Bureau of Labor and Industries, Oregon Judicial Department Appellate Court Opinions, Filed April 14, 2010, accessed from: http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/S056265.htm on April 20, 2010.

[viii] “New Billion-Dollar Crop,” Popular Mechanics Magazine, February 1938, accessed from: http://www.jackherer.com/popmech.html on 4/18/2010.

Tonight on CCS, you can bet Paul Stanford’s going to talk a bit about being called “King Bong” and a “Legal Pot Pusher” by CNN. You can bet Madeline Martinez will be talking about being interviewed by CNN and opening up the Oregon NORML Cardholders Meeting to CNN, yet not appearing on camera but for one brief flash of the meeting with the implication that it was run by Paul. And I’ll be there playing bass and adding my two cents when necessary.

CALL IN! The number is 503-288-4448.

Remember back in 2002 when CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta was going off about how cannabis use leads to depression, schizophrenia, and psychosis?

But the three studies you are talking about talk specifically about schizophrenia and depression, and the fact that marijuana use earlier in life actually may lead to an increased — 30 percent increase — in schizophrenia later in life.

Or back in 2006 when he was writing the article “Why I Would Vote No on Pot“?

Frequent marijuana use can seriously affect your short-term memory. It can impair your cognitive ability (why do you think people call it dope?) and lead to long-lasting depression or anxiety…. But I’m here to tell you, as a doctor, that despite all the talk about the medical benefits of marijuana, smoking the stuff is not going to do your health any good.

Now in 2009 it seems like the good doctor has finally paid attention to the over 17,000 studies showing marijuana’s medical efficacy.  Here’s a transcript from his appearance last night on the Anderson Cooper 360° show (emphasis mine):

ANDERSON COOPER: Sanjay, let’s get at it. Are there benefits to medical marijuana? Is there a case for its use, because the patients we talk to swear by it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the answer is yes. I mean, there are some medical benefits to marijuana, and this is more than just anecdotal evidence now, Anderson. There are some studies to sort of back that up.

We know that there are receptors in the brain, cannabinoid receptors. And they control things like your pain levels, your hunger levels, things related to your mood. And therein lies some of the possible benefits, medically, of marijuana.

For example, someone who’s having terrible malnourishment or terrible nausea as a result of chemotherapy or being infected with HIV/AIDS, using marijuana could stimulate appetite.

Neuropathic pain, Anderson, something I deal with quite a bit as a neurosurgeon. It’s that lancinating nerve pain that’s often caused by trauma or some sort of injury or surgery. Sometimes it can be very refractive to pain medications. Marijuana can help there, as well.

Multiple sclerosis, something else that I treat: that’s something that can cause significant tremors, for example. Marijuana can help.

But the caveat, Anderson, is that sometimes other medications which we know more about may be better alternatives. So it can help, but there might be other things that are even better.

We know a whole lot about some of those other medications, all right.  Like most of them have severe side effects, some are addictive, and many are toxic at high doses.

COOPER: Is there medical evidence that it can be dangerous? What do doctors say?

GUPTA: Well, most of the studies on this really look at some of the shorter term effects of marijuana. It is hard to make the statement right now about the longer term dangers of marijuana.

I guess Dr. Tashkin’s 30 years of studying of marijuana smokers doesn’t count as “long term”.  How about the evidence of the human race using marijuana medicinally for over 5,000 years, does that count for anything?

The medical community as a whole, for example the American Medical Association is against the smoking of marijuana. That is a stance that they take as an organized medical association.

But there are several areas in the brain, again, that marijuana affects. The hippocampus, Anderson, is an area that’s responsible for memory. So short-memory problems is something that is often cited.

While you are under the influence of marijuana.  Studies have shown there is no long term effect to cognitive abilities even for frequent and heavy marijuana users.

Also the developing brain; is marijuana — does it have somehow a greater impact on the developing brain? There are studies on this, although as I looked at them today, even not conclusive. It’s a real concern.

It probably does impact the developing brain, which is why marijuana use is something for adults only.

There’s also, you know, this idea that you talk about THC, the active ingredient that Joe Johns was talking about in a lot of the other pieces this week. But there are 300 other compounds or so, as well. And what exactly do they do?

Well, we know that one of the cannabinoids, cannabidiol, inhibits breast cancer cell growth, inhibits glioma (a type of brain cancer) growth, inhibits prostate cancer, and slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.  We know that cannabidiol, as well as cannabigerol, cannabichromene, and cannabinol, are effective anti-bacterials against drug-resistant MRSA and tuberculosis.  We also know that these few cannabinoids of the 60 that exist have analgesic, antispasmodic, anxiolytic, antipsychotic, antinausea, anti-convulsant, anti-rheumatoid arthritic, anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, anti-tumoral, and antioxidant properties, and can help mitigate or protect against glutamate neurotoxicity, multiple sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Huntington’s Disease.

And finally, this issue that you raised, Anderson, about addiction. Is it addictive? You’re going to find conflicting studies, not an exact number. But anywhere between 5 and 9 percent of people who smoke marijuana regularly could become addicted.

Take a look there, as compared to other substances: tobacco, 31 percent; heroin, 23; cocaine 17. You can see the numbers there, and you have cannabis at the bottom, 9 percent.

So there is that risk, as well, Anderson.

COOPER: Because, I mean, a lot of people like Melissa Etheridge. I said the addictive question. She basically just laughed and said, “Absolutely not. There’s no way it’s physically addictive.”

Other people say, well, maybe psychologically it has some addictive. Does one make a difference between possible psychological addiction and physical addiction?

GUPTA: That’s a great question. And when you talk about addiction, typically, from a medical standpoint, you are talking about some sort of physical addiction. So the body changes in some way. It could be a mood-related thing, but associated with that mood you may have — you know, some sort of physical manifestations of the withdrawal. So there are criteria for withdrawal.

They really should have pointed out that the figures mentioned have to do with clinical dependence and not addiction.  According to the DSM-IV, in order to be considered dependent, you must exhibit three or more of these criteria within a twelve-month period with regard to your substance use:

• Tolerance (marked increase in amount; marked decrease in effect)
• Characteristic withdrawal symptoms; substance taken to relieve withdrawal
• Substance taken in larger amount and for longer period than intended
• Persistent desire or repeated unsuccessful attempt to quit
• Much time/activity to obtain, use, recover [I've always found this one unfair, because prohibition is what makes weed harder to find!]
• Important social, occupational, or recreational activities given up or reduced [Unfair as well, because sometimes a pee test forces us out!]
• Use continues despite knowledge of adverse consequences (e.g., failure to fulfill role obligation, use when physically hazardous) [Or, say, being incarcerated?]

Or just forget about the DSM-IV and use your common sense: have you ever met someone who’s tried to quit tobacco, heroin, cocaine, or alcohol?  Have you ever watched their body being physically wracked by withdrawal symptoms?

COOPER: We got a text question I want to get to. Matthew from New Mexico asks, “Can we not obtain the medical benefits of marijuana without smoking it?” So, how about that? I mean, there is this federally-approved drug on the market, Marinol, that treats the same symptoms as the medical marijuana does. Some people say it doesn’t work fast enough. Is Marinol just not a decent substitute?

GUPTA: I don’t think we’re there yet. It’s a synthetic form of THC. So the advantage, you get rid of a lot of those other compounds that we don’t know a lot about. One of the disadvantages, you just mentioned, it’s a pill, so it may not work fast enough.

No, the disadvantage of Marinol is that “you get rid of a lot of those other compounds.”  THC is the most psychoactive of the compounds in marijuana and it lacks the antipsychotic cannabidiol to balance it out.  I’m a XL guy and I’ve smoked marijuana every day for years and the one time I tried a Marinol pill, it messed me up for the whole evening, throwing me into a really dark depressive suicidal mindspace.

I also think Matthew from New Mexico was trying to lead the discussion over to vaporization, edibles, and tinctures, not to Marinol pills.

One thing about using marijuana, either smoking it or vaporizing it, is you can titurate it a little bit more easily. So you can get the appropriate dose. With the pill, you may take too much or too little. It’s a little bit harder to triturate.

COOPER: All right. Interesting information, good facts.

Sanjay Gupta, appreciate it. Thanks, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you, Anderson

Overall, a pretty surprising performance from Dr. Gupta.  I spoke on the phone with Paul Stanford this morning and he tells me he slipped a lot of this information for Dr. Gupta to Joe Johns during their interview because Stanford actually wanted to debate Dr. Gupta on his reefer madness from 2002 and 2006.  Stanford tells me that some of Dr. Gupta’s comments were word-for-word some of the information he passed along.

Well, now if I were the president of this land
You know, I’d declare total war on The Pusher man
I’d cut him if he stands, and I’d shoot him if he’d run
Yes I’d kill him with my Bible and my razor and my gun

God damn The Pusher
Gad damn The Pusher
I said God damn, God damn The Pusher man

–Hoyt Axton

Tonight on Anderson Cooper 360°, as part of the continuing series, “America’s High: The Case For and Against Pot”, CNN managed to malign this podcast’s sponsor and a personal friend of mine, Paul Stanford of The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation.  I knew we were in for something sinister when during the preceding Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Mr. Cooper promoted the segment by saying we’d meet “the man some call ‘King Bong’”, a reference to a derogatory moniker given by the headline writers of the Willamette Week.

During the Joe Johns interview of Mr. Stanford, the onscreen graphics called him “Legal Pot Pusher” and a bullet point showed he runs a “$3 million business”.

push er -noun
1. a person or thing that pushes.
2. Slang. a peddler of illegal drugs.

ped dler -noun
1. a person who sells from door to door or in the street.
2. a person who tries to promote some cause, candidate, viewpoint, etc.

According to my dictionary (dot com), the only way Paul Stanford is a “pusher” is if he is “a person who tries to promote the cause of illegal drugs”, technically true, since he produces a TV show and sponsors this podcast both dedicated to promoting what is defined as an illegal drug.  As in a “pusher” for “legal pot”.

But we both know what you really meant, and it’s that Hoyt Axton lyric wailed in the late Sixties by John Kay and Steppenwolf, “the pusher is a monster, good God, he’s not a natural man.”  As in a “legal pusher” OF “pot”, not a “pusher” FOR “legal pot”.

Combined with the graphic of “Owns a $3 million business”, your viewers will be led to the conclusion that Paul Stanford is able to legally sell marijuana and become a millionaire.  Will they hear Joe Johns’ voice explanation that his business is a medical marijuana consultation and referral business and that he gives away medical marijuana, or will they see “Legal Pot Pusher”, “Owns a $3 million business”, and a screen full of pot plants?  They won’t ever know from your report that Paul Stanford doesn’t sell so much as a gram of marijuana, but he gives away literally hundreds of pounds of it, or that nearly all his money is plowed back into the marijuana movement while he lives a very frugal lifestyle.

However, Paul has his talk down, especially when he smacks down the idea that the social costs of legalized marijuana would outweigh the tax revenue and savings with, “That’s assuming that marijuana is like alcohol and tobacco, and it isn’t.  Marijuana is a healthy alternative and much safer than alcohol and tobacco.”  I’m still waiting for someone to point out that people are already smoking marijuana now, so we’re absorbing any social costs already without gaining any tax revenue and we’re spending money on a fruitless effort to prohibit marijuana.  That $20 billion number CNN flashed on the screen is how much new marijuana users, above and beyond the 22 million current annual users, would have to cost us before that theory makes any sense.  And even if it did, then you have to explain why we’re so eager to take a loss on alcohol and tobacco, but not demonstrably safer marijuana?

(The final absurd point about the cartels “ramping up” their sales of methamphetamine and cocaine made me laugh.  Wouldn’t it be nice if people weren’t buying one of your products anymore, you could just “ramp up” their demand for some of your other products?  Who are these cartels going to sell coke and meth to?)

This not-so-subtle stereotyping is beneath you, CNN and Anderson Cooper.  You know millions of people watching your broadcast primarily get their information from the pictures, not the audio.  While I’m happy you prominently displayed the addiction rates for various drugs and that Dr. Gupta seems to have gotten some education since he was writing “Why I Would Vote No on Pot” for TIME Magazine, you needlessly slandered a good man who has helped thousands of the most vulnerable Americans and is employing hundreds of dedicated activists.

(Detroit News) Madison Heights — When Dr. Eric Eisenbud takes the stand in an Oakland County courtroom today to defend a medical marijuana prescription, he’ll be thrust into an unwelcome spotlight.

Forcing doctors to court to discuss patient cases often has a chilling effect on other physicians, and, in this case, on doctors who are considering prescribing pot to sick patients, legal experts, doctors and observers all agree.

“I am concerned about it having a chilling effect on a physician’s willingness to write recommendations for people who are deserving patients,” said Matthew Abel, a Detroit attorney for medical marijuana patients.

“They might have some concern of being put in the spotlight, but the major concern is a doctor is there to treat patients and not testify in court.”

Eisenbud, a Colorado-based ophthalmologist licensed in Michigan who sees patients at the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation clinic in Southfield, is expected to discuss his evaluation of patient Torey Clark, who is charged along with co-defendant Robert Redden with growing marijuana plants inside their Madison Heights home. Clark and Redden have asserted a medical defense.

Madison Heights Judge Robert Turner ordered Eisenbud to testify today about the document Eisenbud signed March 4 that qualifies Clark, who has cancer, to use medical marijuana.

I still can’t get over a licensed eye doctor who recommends medical marijuana whose name sounds like “Eyes and Bud”.  It always reminds me of alcohol and drug researcher Dr. Earleywine and his cannabis studies student, Miss Smoker-Barnwell; the pioneering cocaine research done by Dr. Blow; and the LSD research perfomed by Dr. Fried.  (All actual names of bona fide drug and alcohol researchers!)

THCF Medical Marijuana garden, Portland, Oregon

CNN’s AC360 special, “America’s High: The Case For and Against Pot” continues tonight at 10pm ET with a look at Portland, Oregon’s The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation’s (our podcast sponsor) medical marijuana garden.

You have to wonder about security. A narcotics officer told us that they got most of their leads on cannabis grows because of tips from neighbors saying they can smell it. For anyone in the neighborhood, it would be pretty obvious what was going on in this backyard, and it was easy to imagine people climbing the fence and stealing the plants. The garden owners said it was a concern, and sometimes they build up the fences a bit higher, but that barbed wire would just attract more attention. Mostly they just relied on friendly neighbors and a fierce-looking gardener.

I wonder if that “fierce-looking gardener” is my friend Junior, a 6’5″ Mexican-American transplant from East L.A. who rocks some bitchin’ tattoos and a cool soul patch?  He’s a right gentle and dare I say tender fellow, despite being a Lakers and Raiders fan.

All week long CNN’s Anderson Cooper focuses on the popularity of marijuana legalization.  Oregon NORML and NORML Board’s Madeline Martinez and the Oregon NORML Cardholders Meeting should be on Wednesday night, as well as THCF’s Paul Stanford and his outdoor medical garden.