B.C. marijuana activist Marc Emery returns to Canada on Tuesday morning after a four-and-a-half-year stint in U.S. prisons for selling marijuana seeds to a U.S. buyer. Nick Eagland of Postmedia News phoned him at a Louisiana detention centre to learn more about his return.

Q What's the plan for today?

A I get put on a plane at probably about 10 or 11 (EST) in the morning and arrive in Detroit around three. At that point, U.S. marshals deliver me under the tunnel to the Canadian border point and [wife] Jodie and some friends of mine should meet me there. If it's nice weather, we'll have [a few] hours in Centennial Park by city hall. Hopefully by nine or 10 o'clock, Jodie and I will retire and go get something to eat. Then we've got to get on a plane at six in the morning and fly to Toronto for a whole variety of things, not the least of which is to buy some stuff like new glasses and a cellphone. I've never texted in my life so people have to show me how these things all work.

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He's back. Pot activist Marc Emery returns to Canada on Tuesday morning after a four-and-a-half-year stint in American prisons for selling marijuana seeds to a U.S. buyer. Postmedia phoned him at a Louisiana detention centre to learn more about his return.

Q: What's the plan for today?

A: I get put on a plane ... in the morning and arrive in Detroit around three. At that point, U.S. marshals deliver me under the tunnel to the Canadian border point and Jodie and some friends of mine should meet me there.

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Medical Marijuana Bill Dies in the Senate

Medical marijuana has been legal in Louisiana since 1991, allowing doctors to prescribe pot to certain patients. But sometimes-conflicting federal law and no state infrastructure for dispensing and regulating marijuana have effectively neutered that law, though it remains on the books.

On April 30, the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare voted to defer Senate Bill 541 from state Sen. Fred Mills, R-Breaux Bridge. That bill deletes the current law and replaces it with a comprehensive means of regulating the prescription of marijuana, including creating a Therapeutic Marijuana Utilization Review Board and coordinating authority with the state's Department of Agriculture and Forestry, the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy and the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners. The committee voted 6-2 against the bill.

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When the sheriffs and district attorneys team up in Baton Rouge, they are pretty much guaranteed to have their way.

So Louisiana remains out of step, spending millions putting harmless potheads in prison long after the rest of the South has recognized that marijuana possession poses no serious threat to civic order, and made it a relatively minor offense. A Senate committee shot down the latest attempt Tuesday to inject some humanity and common sense into our laws.

That we need to do so is apparent from the case of Bernard Noble, as the Lens recently reported. Noble was sentenced a couple of years ago to five years after police found he was carrying enough dope for a couple of joints. That sentence would surely be savage enough for most tastes, but Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro is a tough hombre. Cannizzaro pushed for more time on grounds that Noble is a multiple offender. Indeed, he is, but all but one of his busts have been for simple possession, and the 13 years that Noble is serving cannot square with any decent concept of justice.

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Regarding your recent story, "Strange bedfellows push incarceration limits":

So state Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe, is "not concerned by Louisiana's high incarceration rate." He remains dead set against House Bill 14, which would reduce sentences for second and third convictions of marijuana possession, which even "hard on crime" Gov. Bobby Jindal supports and would save the state about $4 million a year. He says, "If you do the crime, you do the time," and "We're not putting innocent people in jail. We're not incarcerating people unless they've been convicted and are guilty."

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Twenty states and the District of Columbia have passed medical marijuana laws legalizing the use and production of medical marijuana for qualifying patients under state law.

Some states have legalized marijuana for public use with across-the-counter purchases.

Approximately 50 years ago, Switzerland legalized drugs. The result was the drug users took over all public facilities like parks and swimming pools. Used needles were strewn on lawns, sidewalks and overflowing trashcans. My wife and I witnessed that mess in Lucerne in the early 1960s.

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Thank you for making the case for marijuana legalization in your Feb. 2 editorial. The days when politicians can get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure.

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Another reason for re-legalizing cannabis (marijuana) that doesn't get mentioned is because it is biblically correct since God created all the seed-bearing plants saying they're all good on literally the very first page of the Bible.

Christ Jesus requests that we love one another, and you can't do that by caging humans for using what God says is good.

A sane or moral argument to continue punishing and caging responsible adults for using cannabis doesn't exist.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

Marijuana has been in the headlines a lot lately.

Partly, that is because it is now being sold legally for medical use and recreational use in Washington and Colorado.

In recent meetings, there have been indications Louisiana lawmakers might once again revisit the possibility of easing the penalties faced by those caught with marijuana in this state.

That would certainly be a good start, but lawmakers really should take the issue much further. Louisiana should be the next state to legalize it. No matter from what angle one looks at the issue, that makes the most sense.

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I'm writing about the not-so-thoughtful letter from Quentin Johnson, Jr. titled "Marijuana logic faulty" on Jan. 25.

The cannabis legalization issue is not whether or not cannabis is completely safe for everybody, including children, it is not. But rather freedom of choice for adults.

Children have died from eating peanuts but we don't cage peanut growers, sellers or consumers.

And the voters of Colorado and Washington state have decided that we should not cage cannabis growers, sellers or consumers.

I submit that all adults should have the same freedom of choice that they have in Colorado and Washington.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

It has been well documented by many organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Cancer Society and the surgeon general of the United States that tobacco smoke is harmful to your health. It contributes to more than 400,000 deaths a year in the U.S. and about $90 billion a year in medical costs.

It is a major contributor to lung diseases, cancer, coronary artery disease as well as other health issues. And, according to the American Theoretic Society, marijuana contains most of the same chemicals as tobacco and therefore just as harmful.

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One room in the state Capitol was buzzing Tuesday and could've led to an old-fashioned stoning, and maybe it did for some. The Louisiana House Criminal Justice Committee held a public meeting to discuss a study requested by state Rep. Dalton Honore regarding the feasibility and effectiveness of legalizing marijuana possession and use. Pardon the pun, but with a large public turnout, tensions were high.

Medical professionals, law enforcement officers and Louisiana residents from college-aged to much older filled up the seats. The public was able to give prepared testimonials; most of those cases were in support of legalization.

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The recent article citing the coroner's information on the heroin epidemic is alarming, and certainly in keeping with what I am seeing in the patients I treat. I am an addictionologist and provide detoxification services for two programs in the area. The surge in heroin use has continued over the past year. Many of my patients "graduated" to heroin because the price of pain pills, such as Roxicodon (roxies) has increased to $25 to $30 each. Suboxone costs $20 per tab, or strip, on the street. If you are using 6 "roxies" a day, that's close to $60,000 a year. My patients tell me heroin is cheaper and easily acquired if you are in the drug culture. I want to emphasize Louisiana is not the only place with a heroin problem. I also treat patients from out of state and their stories are the same. My younger opioid addicted patients, who are in their 20s (and younger), frequently report using heroin.

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The Greater New Orleans Drug Demand Reduction Coalition was formed in 2011 to develop and implement a comprehensive strategic plan using prevention, treatment and law enforcement to reduce the negative consequences of the use of illicit drugs and other drugs of abuse and the abuse of alcohol in the Greater New Orleans area, with a primary focus on youth and the prevention of youth substance abuse.

In response to the Sept. 6 front-page article, "Majority favor legalizing marijuana," the GNODDRC would like to call your attention to the following:

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Bossier City resident Missy Matthews is keeping a close eye on the Arkansas medical marijuana ballot initiative.

Arkansans will decide Nov. 6 whether patients with a limited number of chronic conditions can use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. The proposal applies only to Arkansas residents. Arkansas is the first state in the South to vote on the issue.

Matthews is a member of Moms for Marijuana, a national organization that promotes education, discussion and research about marijuana's benefits. She chats online with other members who use marijuana in foods like cannabutter to help treat bipolar disorder, ADD and other mental health issues in their children.

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A state legislator told the Jindal administration that he is not ready to go the way of Washington state and Colorado by asking voters to legalize and tax marijuana.

Instead, state Sen. Dan Claitor said, he thinks the Jindal administration is missing the opportunity to generate revenue through a decades-old law that attempts to collect taxes from the drug trade through a different angle.

A law on Louisiana's books since the 1990s requires marijuana dealers to pay taxes on their product by buying stamps from the state revenue department or face seizure of their valuables if they are arrested.

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Journalist John Stossel has an article in his Fox News Blog on the so-called war on drugs. He points out that because of this federal policy, the United States has more people in prison than Russia and China do.

Stossel believes, as we did about alcohol after Prohibition, that we should decriminalize drugs. This won't end drug use, of course, but it would end this terrible policy of imprisoning drug users as well as end the killings on our borders and in Mexico. The money spent on this program should then be spent on rehabilitation, not imprisonment.

We should write our congressmen and state legislators, calling Stossel's article to their attention, and ask them to act to decriminalize drug use.

Wesley Bowers

Nashville 37215

[end]

BATON ROUGE - If anything good comes out of the expulsion of Tyrann Mathieu as far as the LSU football team is concerned, it will be this.

Current athletes in any sport continuing to smoke marijuana or synthetic marijuana or partaking in any other drug use, better light up their brains with some smarts. If LSU is going to kick the Honey Badger - one of its greatest players in history - it will surely dismiss anyone else in a heartbeat.

Tailback Spencer Ware and cornerback Tharold Simon were both suspended for a game last season because of positive drug tests that revealed marijuana use. They could be next, and they better know that.

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BATON ROUGE - Less than a month ago, LSU released an interesting story that went largely unnoticed.

The athletic department gave $4 million of its own money - largely earned from a Microsoft-type football program - to the university to help with a budget crisis that it has has been dealing with for years through layoffs and early retirements. LSU also said it would take over the university's financial responsibilities of the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes at a cost of $1.5 million a year.

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Depression, delusions and hallucinations tied to the use of synthetic marijuana are giving a whole new meaning to the term "reefer madness," law enforcement officers and physicians said.

"You can call it what you want -- Russian roulette, roll of the dice. People just do not know what is in it," said Mark Ryan, director of the Louisiana Poison Center, "It is highly dangerous."

There have been numerous raids across Louisiana targeting the sale and manufacturing of so-called synthetic marijuana with the Terrebonne Sheriff's Office recently getting in on the action.

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