Of all of the claims in print about marijuana, this is the most revealing, yet the most ignored quote of all: "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." -- administrative law, Judge Francis L. Young (1988), Drug Enforcement Administration. I envy the day when we can say with certitude that freedom, though inconvenient to the powers that be, has found its way into the hearts and minds of our fellow Americans. That day is not now. Instead, we live under an entrenched and tyrannical coalition of prevention, prohibition, incarceration and probation that continues to dominate U.S. drug policy despite the fact that the majority of marijuana consumers are moderate and responsible adults. [continues 688 words]
Michele Leonhart has been a nightmare as the head of the DEA. Following recent raids, medical marijuana advocacy groups have called on President Barack Obama to withdraw nomination of Michele Leonhart to be DEA administrator. The following organizations have called on President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Leonhart if she does not end the attacks on individuals acting in compliance with state medical marijuana laws and commit to making decisions related to medical marijuana based on science, not a personal anti-marijuana bias: California NORML; Drug Policy Alliance (DPA); Law Enforcement Against Prohibition; Marijuana Policy Project; National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML); and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). [continues 424 words]
DENVER -- The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years. A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states. The policy will not permit department doctors to prescribe marijuana. But it will address the concern of many patients who use the drug that they could lose access to their prescription pain medication if caught. [continues 1087 words]
Will Dems' Shift On Medical Marijuana Pave The Way For Legal Pot Dispensaries? For the first time in Nevada history, a major political party has endorsed the creation of a safe, legal medical marijuana industry -- a move that could ease the suffering of thousands of patients and finally legitimize the state's black market network of pot dispensaries. In their official party platform, released just days after their late-June convention, delegates with the Nevada Democratic Party for the first time included clear, powerful language endorsing Nevada's emerging medical marijuana industry "as a contributing part of a compassionate, alternative health care in Nevada." [continues 869 words]
With the selection announcement drawing near, municipalities, businesses and neighborhoods are bracing themselves in the event that a compassion center may be coming to the area. Three of the 15 compassion center applicants have proposed sites in Warwick, one of which may be chosen as the first center to sell marijuana to patients in the state's growing medical-marijuana program. "Obviously, the city has concerns about such a business and we have made suggestions that a proposed center should really be part of a larger medical facility and have the requisite amount of medical supervision as well," said Mayor Scott Avedisian. [continues 701 words]
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) famously defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Nothing better describes the war on drugs. The 40-year war on drugs has cost U.S. taxpayers $1 trillion, thousands of lives and broken up families and failed to meet any of its goals. Cocaine, heroin and marijuana were sold in drug stores without a prescription as medicine and treated as such in the early years of the last century. Yet the deadly drug of tobacco is legal (because it's taxed) which kills hundreds of thousands a year. [continues 86 words]
Pot Advocates Ask DARE Officers to Read Book on Pot Vs. Alcohol Local pot advocate Mason Tvert is daring officers to read his book. The publisher of Tvert's 2009 release, "Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?", is distributing free copies of the pro-marijuana book this week at a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) conference in Cincinnati. DARE officers and instructors at the training conference are being encouraged to read the book and then take its message back to students that marijuana is safer than alcohol N a message that has propelled Tvert into local and national stardom for his efforts to legalize marijuana. [continues 628 words]
Says initiative based on flawed drug theories PHOENIX - Arizona's top health official says voters should reject a ballot measure that would allow doctors to recommend marijuana to their patients. There probably are some people who would benefit by being able to inhale the now-illegal substance, said Will Humble, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services. These include those who have nausea from chemotherapy and individuals who need an appetite stimulant to keep from wasting away. But Humble said health chiefs from other states with similar laws told him the vast majority of the "medical marijuana" cards they issued were for people with "severe and chronic pain." [continues 433 words]
PHOENIX -- Arizona's top health official says voters should reject a ballot measure that would allow doctors to recommend marijuana to their patients. Will Humble said there probably are some people who would benefit by being able to inhale the now-illegal substance. These include those who have nausea from chemotherapy and individuals who need an appetite stimulant to keep from wasting away. But Humble said health chiefs from other states with similar laws told him the vast majority of the "medical marijuana' cards they issued were for people with "severe and chronic pain.' Humble said that, at best, is subjective. [continues 711 words]
Allegations of profiteering pot doctors aren't unique to California. Lawmakers in Montana are looking at changing the state's medical marijuana laws in response to "cannabis caravans" in which doctors and marijuana advocates travel around the state giving out medicinal marijuana cards. The caravans have helped swell the number of medical marijuana cardholders in Montana in one year from about 3,000 to 15,000, according to The Associated Press. Facing similar complaints in Colorado, the state's legislature late last month passed laws geared at reining in prolific pot physicians. [continues 465 words]
Few people on either side of the marijuana debate would disagree that outdoor illegal marijuana growing operations are enormous problems for the environment in California and states across the country. But when you phrase the debate by asking whether or not these illegal grows are "worth fighting," you miss the point entirely. Officials have been "fighting" these outdoor grows for nearly 30 years - since the creation of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) in 1983 - and by every objective standard they have only made the problem worse, squandering millions of precious tax dollars and law enforcement resources in the process. [continues 213 words]
Is Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko a mercenary, taking federal cash to pursue marijuana growers while his department's budget cuts leave more serious crimes unaddressed? A front-page Wall Street Journal story this weekend didn't say that, but its exploration of the financial dynamics that have left the sheriff cutting routine patrols because of falling local taxes even as teams prowl the backcountry for illegal plantations fed that line of thinking, especially among drug-war skeptics. In a typical takeaway, the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project's Mike Meno wrote in an online commentary that "it really all comes down to money." [continues 397 words]
In November, voters will decide a variety of issues - from allowing renaming the state's No. 2 office to prohibiting affirmative-action programs. As of Thursday's filing deadline, nine measures qualified for the Nov. 2 general-election ballot. But only one initiative - an effort to legalize medical marijuana - qualified for through a citizen petition. The other eight measures were referred to the ballot by the Legislature. Organizers and observers attribute the low number of citizen-driven initiatives to the lagging economy, which they say made it difficult for groups to hire companies to gather signatures and get the word out about their petitions. [continues 1402 words]
Medical Marijuana Can Lead to Problems in Custody Cases Medical marijuana is a hot topic in the news. People are always hearing about whether it should be legalized in more states or if the legalization should be revoked. There is a side effect from the use of medical marijuana that people are not aware of. Medical marijuana use is viewed negatively in courtrooms during custody battles. Nicholas Pouch of southwest Washington runs an organic farm and glassblowing studio. In 2007, Pouch's former partner tipped off a drug task force who raided his property, according to The Oregonian. [continues 486 words]
Alcohol is the most popular recreational drug in the world and the most dangerous with 100,000 people dying annually in America from the direct health effects of drinking. Alcohol use is also associated with half of all violent crime including vehicular homicide. Marijuana is the second most popular recreational drug on our planet and the safest. No one has ever died from the effects of smoking weed. No statistics are available for marijuana-related violence because it almost never occurs. [continues 439 words]
Sen. Rory Respicio yesterday revised and reintroduced his bill that would allow for the medicinal use of marijuana on Guam. Among the changes to "The Compassionate Health Care Act of 2010," which is now Bill 423, specific language was added to state that doctors cannot write prescriptions. Instead, they can only recommend the drug and certify that it has been recommended. "This falls directly in line with decisions by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court," Respicio said. "This issue was pointed out by a legislative analyst from the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., who reviewed the bill." [continues 204 words]
For many years I had in my possession four medical prescriptions, issued in 1926, for different patients with various ailments. No matter what the "illness," the doctors' prescribed remedy printed on the official government form was the same: Whiskey. This was during "prohibition," that 13-year period in American history when the "manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors" was forbidden under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment, ratified in 1919, went into effect in 1920. Under the National Prohibition Act of 1919 (also known as the Volstead Act), there were a couple of exceptions. Alcohol could be obtained for medical reasons with a physician's prescription, and the clergy were allowed to secure wine for the sacrament. [continues 593 words]
A push to bring the issue of legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes before Arizona voters was successful, as the Arizona Secretary of State recently verified that the petition contains enough signatures to be placed on the ballot. On Nov. 2, voters will decide whether to allow patients with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana for medical purposes. The Secretary of State's website notes that the act "protects terminally or seriously ill patients from state prosecution for using limited amounts of marijuana on their doctor's recommendation." The de scri ption of the bill also notes, "Qualifying patients who register with the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) will obtain marijuana from nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries regulated by ADHS. Private cultivation will be allowed by ADHS only when no dispensary is available." [continues 450 words]
Even though Nevada voters have rejected them twice in recent years by 60-40 margins, the drug legalizers will return to the Silver State in 2012. I hope we send them home for good next time around. The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) announced last December that it is again seeking signatures for a Nevada ballot measure to legalize the "recreational, non-medicinal use" of marijuana. As most Nevada voters realize, however, that would only be the first step down the slippery slope of drug legalization. The MPP will need to collect more than 100,000 signatures by Nov. 9 in order to put their misguided measure on our 2012 ballot. [continues 342 words]
Is The Case Of Frederick Wayne Dagit Bad For The Medical Marijuana Cause? On Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. Frederick Wayne Dagit sat in a black- and white-striped Ingham County Jail jumpsuit in 55th District Court in Mason. He looked calm, rested and alert. It was his second appearance in court after the Tri- County Metro Narcotics Squad raided his Okemos house and Williamstown Township pot smokers club and church exactly two weeks ago, allegedly finding a total of more than 200 pounds of marijuana at both locations. [continues 566 words]
