WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration on Friday gave banks a road map for doing business with legal marijuana sellers without getting into trouble, another step by the federal government toward enabling a legalized marijuana industry to operate in states that approve it. The guidance issued by the Justice Department and Treasury Department is intended to increase the availability of financial services for legal marijuana businesses that are licensed and regulated, while preserving the government's enforcement power. Washington and Colorado in 2012 became the first states in the nation to approve recreational use of marijuana. A citizens' group is hoping to make Alaska the third state in the nation to do so. [continues 173 words]
WASHINGTON - The tragic death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman seems to have muted for the moment the giddy talk about making medical marijuana routinely available across New York State, as though it were a logical next step to recreational use. Yes, Hoffman died from heroin, pending release of official forensics, not the dangerous drug, marijuana. But the two are linked in back-alley culture. Marijuana is a gateway for hard drugs, and plenty hazardous by itself. Credit Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo with the best of intentions for moving to ease the suffering of cancer patients and others who can benefit from this treatment. It is inevitable that New York will join the nearly 20 other states that have made this humanitarian move. But is New York on course to join Colorado and Washington state to sanction marijuana for recreational use? [continues 493 words]
Aren't all drug-related deaths tragic? If so, why do we as a community and a nation tend to ignore the 38,000 overdose deaths in the United States each year until it claims the life of someone with celebrity status? Whether it's Philip Seymour Hoffman dying of a heroin overdose or Whitney Houston from cocaine abuse, are their lives more important than the life of your friend, relative or neighbor who may have also succumbed to drugs? Perhaps the media coverage of Hoffman's recent passing is a good thing. We need to shine a spotlight on the drug epidemic that is sweeping through Western New York right now, paying no attention to the social status of the victims in its path. [continues 211 words]
Philip Seymour Hoffman's death at the end of a heroin needle again spotlights the dangers of a poisonous drug. And so did the Vermont governor's plea last month to confront the "fullblown heroin crisis" plaguing his rural state. His population is far poorer and more isolated than an Oscar-winning actor in New York's Greenwich Village. But though drug overdoses are democratic in choosing victims, the War on Drugs is anything but. Every year, billions of dollars pour down the War on Drugs drain, and the drugs are cheaper and easier to find than ever. The war enriches dealers by constricting the supply while turning addicts into criminals afraid to publicly confront their drug use. [continues 373 words]
The Feb. 2 editorial cartoon by Steve Sack suggests that no one has died from smoking marijuana. While I cannot dispute that, does the cartoonist take into account the number of deaths caused as a result of persons being under the influence of marijuana? How deep was his research into those facts? He foolishly disregards the fact that under the influence of marijuana, judgment is impaired, perceptions are distorted, actions are out of the ordinary and behavior is suspect, just to name a few. [continues 59 words]
Local Greenhouse Hopes Bumper Crop of Medical Marijuana Is at End of Albany Maze ALBANY With 5 million pounds of tomatoes grown last year by a sprawling 12-acre greenhouse operation in Niagara County, Gary Smith and his partners can arguably be called the tomato kings of Western New York. If Smith has his way, though, marijuana plants could be his next bumper crop. Smith's company, H2Gro Greenhouses in Lewiston, is believed to be one of the first in the state with an actual site in mind to grow marijuana plants in the event New York, as appears now likely, will start letting patients with certain medical conditions use the drug for relief from an assortment of ailments. [continues 1149 words]
SEATTLE - In his second-floor office above a hair salon in north Seattle, Ryan Kunkel is seated on a couch placing $1,000 bricks of cash dozens of them in a rumpled brown paper bag. When he finishes, he stashes the money in the trunk of his BMW and sets off on an adrenalized drive downtown, darting through traffic and nervously checking to see if anyone is following him. Despite the air of criminality, there is nothing illicit in what Kunkel is doing. He co-owns five legal medical marijuana dispensaries, and on this day he is heading to the Washington state Department of Revenue to commit the ultimate in law-abiding acts: paying taxes. After about 25 minutes at the agency, Kunkel emerges with a receipt for $51,321. [continues 978 words]
Colorado took an extraordinary step when, on Jan. 1, it implemented a law that legalizes the sale of marijuana for recreational use. The state of Washington isn't far behind Colorado, and it's likely that if their experiments play out reasonably well, other states will legalize pot, as well. in fact, the Washington Post reports that proponents for legalization have collected enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot this year in Alaska, and they have hopes for oregon next year and six more states by 2016. [continues 586 words]
Cuomo Putting Needs of Patients First in Allowing Medical Use of Marijuana Any loosening of laws governing marijuana use remains a politically charged subject, but a new proposal by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is creative, narrowly scaled and compassionate to New Yorkers who are suffering from debilitating conditions that some version of marijuana could help to alleviate. It's the right move. Cuomo's plan is to make use of the Antonio G. Olivieri Controlled Substance Therapeutic Research Program, an obscure 1980 law that allows for the use of controlled substances for "cancer patients, glaucoma patients and patients afflicted with other diseases as such diseases are approved by the commissioner." With that, Cuomo is able to circumvent the need for legislative approval. Measures to allow the medical use of marijuana have passed in the Assembly in recent years, but always stalled in the Senate. [continues 427 words]
Columnist Ruth Marcus makes the common mistake of assuming that marijuana prohibition deters use. 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. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. Not just in Colorado but throughout the nation, it's time to stop the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy [end]
WASHINGTON Marijuana legalization may be the same-sex marriage of 2014 a trend that reveals itself in the course of the year as obvious and inexorable. At the risk of exposing myself as the fuddy-duddy I seem to have become, I hope not. This is, I confess, not entirely logical and a tad hypocritical. At the risk of exposing myself as not the total fuddy-duddy of my children's dismissive imaginings, I have done my share of inhaling, though back in the age of bell-bottoms and polyester. [continues 543 words]
Paige Figi traveled all the way from Colorado to tout the benefits of medical marijuana during a New York State hearing Thursday in Buffalo. Figi was one of more than two dozen speakers invited to testify about the benefits of legalizing medical marijuana in New York. She encouraged Assembly members conducting the hearing to sanction its use for patients facing severe or terminal illnesses. Figi's daughter, Charlotte, has Gervais syndrome, a devastating seizure disorder that is untreatable by conventional medicines. Before gaining access to medical marijuana, which is legal in Colorado, Charlotte suffered up to 1,200 seizures a month, Figi said. [continues 544 words]
Orchard Park Woman Believes Drug Could Help Treat Daughter's Severe Seizures Wendy Conte thinks she has found something that could enable her daughter, Anna, to live without a tube constantly feeding drugs into her belly in hopes of staving off the severe seizures that have plagued her nearly the entire 81/2 years of her life. The solution that the Orchard Park mom points to is medical marijuana. Conte is among a growing number of people advocating for the State Legislature and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to legalize its use in New York. [continues 1040 words]
It is nice that Americans are finally seeing through the haze of pot smoke. A national Gallup poll released last week revealed that, for the first time, most people think marijuana should be legalized. The ramifications are deep and wide: Bill Clinton can inhale. Celebratory fumes are blowing out the back of Willie Nelson's tour bus. More significantly, a nation of covert pot smokers may soon be able to come out of the closet, joining legal tokers in Colorado and Washington. A pot-legalization referendum could be on the ballot next year in California. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo backs decriminalization of public possession of small amounts. The Gallup numbers will only encourage state legislators to get on board. [continues 451 words]
Medical marijuana gives us hope that our child will not have to suffer the violence of daily epileptic attacks. If you're like most parents, you don't look forward to the day that your child first tries marijuana. But I do. My daughter Anna is not like most 8-year-olds. Before her first birthday, she was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome, an intractable form of epilepsy, and after years of battling the condition together we think medical marijuana may be one of our last hopes to alleviate her suffering. [continues 502 words]
Rise of the Warrior Cop By Radley Balko Public Affairs 382 pp, $27.95 The battle over gun control in the United States seems to focus on opponents worrying about a government assault on their constitutional right to bear arms. And their argument seems as much about taking their guns away as to use arms against them. Enter Radley Balko into the fray, but with a whole different tack; he believes it's the police forces of the country citizens need to fear most about subverting constitutional rights. And he pins his belief on the military-like buildup of the nation's police departments. [continues 812 words]
WASHINGTON - In a ruling that gives new momentum to the national push to legalize marijuana, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday that it would not interfere with plans by the states of Washington and Colorado to sell and tax pot for recreational use beginning next year. The department made its long-awaited announcement in a memo to federal prosecutors. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had been under growing pressure to respond to the new state laws, since marijuana is still classified as an illegal drug under federal law. [continues 558 words]
WASHINGTON - Of the pressing policy questions facing the White House this week Syria, the National Security Agency, Egypt it was another that administration officials feared would create the biggest buzz. "Given the reported medical benefits of marijuana, does the president believe the government should reconsider?" a CNN correspondent asked about the federally banned substance during the White House briefing Wednesday. No, spokesman Josh Earnest answered, President Obama isn't high on such a change "at this point." With a chuckle, he added: "I have the sneaking suspicion that this is going to draw me all kinds of traffic on Twitter." [continues 344 words]
WASHINGTON - U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske is leaving office unceremoniously, forgotten long before he was ever known to most Americans. But for those leading the push to legalize marijuana, he will be remembered as the tough-talking former police chief from Seattle and ex-Buffalo police commissioner who never yielded on the question of legalization, always warning of the health dangers linked to smoking pot. That stance put him at odds with the growing majority of Americans who now back legalization. [continues 184 words]
This has been an intense time of reflection and critical self-examination for many Americans. In the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, there have been emotionally charged conversations about the way young black men are viewed in the United States and how valued their lives are. All the way up to President Obama we are witnessing soul-searching attempts to confront the complicated role of race in our culture. Revealed throughout the Zimmerman trial, as Trayvon Martin's character was scrutinized for signs of how threatened Zimmerman may have felt by him, was the uncomfortable truth that racism results in black men being commonly viewed as menacing simply for being human. [continues 342 words]
DENVER (AP) An American flag made of industrial hemp is flying over the U.S. Capitol today, Independence Day . Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., announced Wednesday that his request for the hemp-made flag was granted. Polis has long pushed for making the plant legal for farmers to grow. Industrial hemp looks much like marijuana but does not have its psychoactive properties. Federal law prohibits growing hemp, but not importing it. Historians say the first American flags were made of hemp grown by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. [end]
State Laws Out of Joint With Federal Statutes WASHINGTON (AP) - It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of "reefer Madness" to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of "Just say No." The next 25 years took the nation from Bill clinton, who famously "didn't inhale," to Barack obama, who emphatically did. And now, in just a few short years, public opinion has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug for medical use and just for fun. [continues 738 words]
I am writing in response to Rod Watson's June 13 column, "Vicious cycle of injustice is black plague." The drug war has been waged in a racist manner since its inception. The Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 was preceded by a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. Opium was identified with Chinese laborers, marijuana with Mexicans and cocaine with African-Americans. Racial profiling continues to be the norm, despite similar rates of drug use for minorities and whites. Support for the drug war would end overnight if whites were incarcerated for drugs at the same rate as minorities. [continues 76 words]
Normally, I'm not much for conspiracy theories. But you don't have to wear a tin-foil hat to connect the dots implicit in the New York Civil Liberties Union report showing that blacks are disproportionately arrested for having marijuana, even though more whites use the drug. Alarmed by New York City's "stop and frisk" program that targets high crime read "black" neighborhoods, the NYCLU looked at federal crime data for 2010 across the state and found blacks 4.5 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. [continues 474 words]
Niagara, Chautauqua and Erie Counties Lead Uneven Enforcement in Western New York If you are black and stopped by police in Niagara County, you are 7.5 times more likely to be arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession than if you are white. If you are black and in Erie County, the likelihood of being charged is 5.6 times greater than if you are white. In both counties, that represents a substantial "racial disparity" in how the law is applied, according to a New York Civil Liberties Union report released Thursday. [continues 944 words]
I'm pleased to see at last a broad opening up of the discussion of our country's failed "war on drugs." I recently attended a conference in Buffalo, titled "Leading the Way: Toward a Public Health & Safety Approach to Drug Policy in New York." Presented by the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo and the Drug Policy Alliance, it began by viewing and discussing the award-winning documentary: "The House I Live In," which chronicled the ravages to the lives of people and communities ground up by our current policies toward illicit drugs. [continues 233 words]
In his May 5 Viewpoints article, Dr. Robert Whitney makes the common mistake of assuming that marijuana prohibition actually deters use. The truth is that punitive marijuana laws have little deterrent value; in fact, forbidden fruit appeal may increase use. Americans did not begin to smoke pot in significant numbers until our federal government declared it illegal to do so. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize 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. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. [continues 56 words]
It's time to set the record straight about marijuana policy in New York. The May 5 article "Look before you leap," by Dr. Robert Whitney, is both inaccurate and misleading. New Yorkers have had a hard and decades-long look at our marijuana policies, and they understand how much destruction they have caused criminalizing seriously ill New Yorkers, saddling tens of thousands of young people with criminal records each year and creating reprehensible racial disparities. Under our current policies, thousands of New Yorkers living with cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening conditions must break the law or needlessly suffer, despite the fact that there is good scientific evidence to support the health benefits of medical marijuana for a range of serious conditions. In addition to at least 110 controlled clinical studies, including randomized controlled trials meeting the "gold standard" of scientific evidence, looking at cannabis or other cannabinoids, in 1999, the congressionally chartered Institute of Medicine conducted the most extensive review of the medical literature on marijuana to date. It concluded that "[t]he accumulated data indicate a potential therapeutic value for cannabinoid drugs, particularly for symptoms such as pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation." [continues 239 words]
Society Will Bear Substantial Costs If State Legalizes Marijuana Public media have given significant attention over the past several years to the work of activists who wish to legalize marijuana. As a result of their efforts, a number of states have begun to implement laws, which purport to make marijuana available to people with a range of health problems. Colorado and Washington now have laws that permit adults to openly grow, sell and possess marijuana; no other jurisdictions in the world have implemented this level of tolerance. [continues 1543 words]
Medical Marijuana Isn't Part of Decriminalization ALBANY - One of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's top "progressive" priorities for this legislative session is the decriminalization of 25 grams or less of marijuana the equivalent of about 0.9 ounce, or 40 to 50 joints so that young people, especially minorities, don't get criminal records that haunt them for years to come. "We want to decriminalize low levels of marijuana so we're not going to have those arrests for stop-and-frisk anymore," Cuomo told a gathering of black and Hispanic state lawmakers last weekend in Albany. [continues 1124 words]
The war on marijuana is going up in smoke, and it's about time. There is no bigger waste of money and resources in all law enforcement. Failure is too polite a description for the long campaign to eliminate the pot trade in the United States. A colossal flop is what it is. After four decades and billions spent, marijuana is easier to get, and more potent, than ever. More than 40 percent of all Americans over age 12 have tried it, and at least 30 million people smoke it every year. The most recent national drug survey found that 18.1 million Americans had used it during the previous month. [continues 711 words]
This is the first step in putting more drugs on the street, and legalizing them. Has Esmonde ever talked to people about drug addiction in their families and how they feel about what he says is a good idea? Pot is the beginning of the end for all drug users. Isn't it bad enough that we have an alcohol and smoking problem in our country? Or does Esmonde really think that pot isn't that bad? Give us the facts about those who never got over the pot and heroin problems, as opposed to those who do not do drugs. Francis Zimmerman Hamburg [end]
I am writing in regard to Donn Esmonde's Nov. 10 column, "It's high time we started legalizing pot." If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize Mexican drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply-and-demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. There is a reason you don't see drug cartels sneaking into national forests to cultivate tomatoes and cucumbers. They cannot compete with legitimate farmers. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Spain legalized personal use cultivation and has lower rates of use. Portugal decriminalized all drugs and still has lower rates of use than the United States. If anything, marijuana prohibition increases use by creating forbidden fruit appeal. [continues 82 words]
Prepare for a migration to Colorado. Expect the population of Washington to explode. In what looks to me like a blow for common sense and fiscal sanity, citizens in those two states voted on Election Day to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Willie Nelson and his entourage may already be on the road to Boulder. Rocky Mountain High, indeed. Fourteen states (including New York) have reduced possession of small amounts of pot to a violation. Eighteen states have legalized use of medical marijuana, which is often a flimsy cover for healthy folks to get high. But this is the first time voters of a state have OK'd possession of up to an ounce of pot for personal use. As with same-sex marriage, one by one, the dominoes are falling. Indeed, I hear there is a smoldering effort in the State Legislature to legalize medical marijuana use in New York. It sounds like the "bong" of freedom ringing. [continues 351 words]
New York voters may not have the opportunity to approve or reject ballot items on Nov. 6, but citizen lawmakers in six other states will vote up or down a variety of marijuana ballot initiatives that may, in the long run, have a major impact nationally and even here in New York. * Medical marijuana: Voters in Massachusetts and Arkansas will decide if marijuana can be used for medical purposes with the advice of a licensed doctor. If passed, Massachusetts will join nearby states - Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island - where the drug is already used to ease pain caused by cancer and other serious conditions. [continues 354 words]
Cuomo Is on the Right Track in Trying to Further Decriminalize Marijuana New York State and the rest of the country have tried for a very long time to make marijuana go away. To say that it hasn't worked is to redefine understatement. Pot is, for all intents and purposes, mainstream. That may not be the most desirable turn of events, but it's a fact that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has decided to confront. It's the right move. [continues 566 words]
WASHINGTON - The human nervous system interacts in pleasing and addictive ways with certain molecules derived from some plants, which is why humans may have developed beer before they developed bread. Psychoactive - consciousness-altering - and addictive drugs are natural, a fact that should immunize policymakers against extravagant hopes as they cope with America's drug problem. The costs - human, financial and social - of combating (most) drugs are prompting calls for decriminalization or legalization. America should, however, learn from the psychoactive drug used by a majority of American adults - alcohol. [continues 525 words]
How did America's addiction to prisons and mass incarceration get its start and spread from state to state? Perhaps the best explanation is found in a new book titled "A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America." According to public health expert and Columbia professor Ernest Drucker, the rapid growth and spread of American prisons follows the classic life cycle of an infectious bacterial or viral epidemic. From 1970 to 2009, the number of federal prisoners increased from 21,094 to 208,118, while state prisons went from 177,737 to 1.4 million. When the 767,620 people in local jails are added in, America's grand total for 2009 was nearly 2.4 million people behind bars- a world record. As for New York, from 1970 to 2009, state inmates increased fourfold, from 12,059 to more than 58,000. [continues 339 words]
As we move toward the end of the budget crisis, the legalization of medical marijuana is still on the minds of many. Although approval of medical marijuana in the budget seems less likely these days, there is still a slight chance it can be worked in. Only about 30 percent of the budget is left to be passed and so far it seems as though medical marijuana will be left out. However, the battle isn't over yet. Even if medical marijuana doesn't get passed through the budget, it still may get passed as a stand-alone bill. [continues 385 words]
The Obama administration shares Buffalo News columnist Doug Turner's belief that drug use and its consequences pose a serious threat to public health and public safety ("Someone tell Obama, the war on drugs is real," June 7), and President Obama has been unwavering in his support for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In my first interview after accepting the job of director of National Drug Control Policy, I told the Wall Street Journal that it was time to retire the phrase "war on drugs." I said then, and continue to believe, that a continual war footing unnecessarily limits the tools we have available to confront this complex issue, and given the prevalence of addiction in the United States, feeds perceptions that the country is at war with its own citizens. [continues 295 words]
First of a Two-Part News Series: Arresting a Street Dealer Removes a Big Fish, but Overall Problem Persists The sun was just coming up on May 4, 2006, when the cops put the hammer down on Frank "Fat Frank" Battaglia, the drug kingpin in the Lovejoy section of Buffalo. About 20 heavily armed Buffalo police officers and federal agents stormed into his apartment on Willett Street. They arrested the corpulent dealer in his bedroom - festooned with posters of Tony Montana, the homicidal drug kingpin from the movie "Scarface." [continues 1895 words]
Failures of Prohibition Put Focus on New Steps Every 18 seconds, on average, someone in the United States is arrested for a drug crime. The nation's jails and prisons are teeming with drug offenders. Despite a drug war that costs taxpayers billions of dollars every year, drug abuse continues to be a serious problem. That is why some people -- including some former cops -- believe that the nation needs to take a serious look at legalizing certain drugs. "Prohibition of drugs isn't working," said Peter J. Christ, a retired Town of Tonawanda police captain who is one of the founders of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization of ex-cops who advocate legalizing drugs. [continues 1235 words]
The drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2008, there were 847,863 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police officers, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use. The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long-overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls marijuana distribution, consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy [end]
Washington, D. C., finally seems to be getting the message that the war on drugs has failed. Following years of resistance if not outright hostility to reforming our nation's drug laws, Congress has passed two major changes to U. S. drug policy as part of an end-of-year omnibus spending package. First, the legislation repeals a decades-old policy that prohibited cities and states from using their share of federal HIV/AIDS prevention money to fund syringe-exchange programs, which have been shown to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases without increasing drug use by allowing intravenous drug users to trade in their used syringes for sterile ones. [continues 370 words]
Would-Be Informant Says Police Coerced Her into Cooperation Bianca Hervey, a 20-year-old college student, was returning home to her apartment in Attica when a village police officer drove up behind her, put on his flashing lights and pulled her over. It was 3 p.m. on Sept. 9, and she had just finished classes for the day at the Genesee Community College campus in nearby Warsaw. She was a block from her house. "Do you know why I stopped you?" Hervey recalled the young officer asking her. "He told me I didn't have a license." [continues 1472 words]
Need more evidence that marijuana has gone mainstream in America? Two weeks ago on NBC's "Today" show, Matt Lauer chatted up a piece on so-called Stiletto Stoners -- educated, professional women with killer careers and enviable social lives who favor marijuana as their intoxicant of choice, and are increasingly comfortable admitting it. The sympathetic piece featured interviews with a wide range of successful women who wind down at the end of the day with a joint instead of a martini. [continues 395 words]
FORT ERIE, Ont. -- Canadian border police seized 44 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $2.7 million, that had been concealed in a truck attempting to cross the Peace Bridge, officials announced today. Ontario public safety officials said it was the largest seizure of cocaine ever made in the Niagara Falls and Fort Erie section of the province. The drugs were confiscated last Saturday, when a truck driver attempting to cross at the Peace Bridge was referred for secondary inspection, according to a news release from the Canada Border Services Agency. [continues 115 words]
The savage drug war in Mexico. Crumbling state budgets. Weariness with current drug policy. The election of a president who said, "Yes - I inhaled." These developments and others are kindling unprecedented optimism among the many Americans who want to see marijuana legalized. Doing so, they contend to an ever-more-receptive audience, could weaken the Mexican cartels now profiting from U.S. pot sales, save billions in law enforcement costs, and generate billions more in tax revenue from one of the nation's biggest cash crops. [continues 1170 words]
Over the past week the issue of legalizing marijuana has been at the forefront of the media. In New York State, Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried has sponsored a bill that would make marijuana available to individuals who he claims might benefit from its possible therapeutic effects. Specifically, he has suggested that smoking marijuana should be approved in New York to be used by "registered" patients who would obtain a prescription by physicians. We applaud his compassionate intentions of helping those who suffer. However, we believe that this proposal is bad public policy. The potential benefits of the ingredients of marijuana have received substantial scientific study for use in a range of health problems. Conclusions about possible risks and benefits are mixed. [continues 326 words]
Compassion Should Dominate Debate Over Proposed Medical Marijuana Law New York State has the opportunity to demonstrate the compassion shown by 14 other states in legalizing medicinal use of marijuana. But lawmakers also must ensure tight controls to avoid simply making marijuana easier to get for nonmedical uses, and must review serious scientific studies to avoid basing this kind of law only on anecdotal evidence. The issue of medical marijuana has been a topic of debate across the country, with the federal government still staunchly opposed. But states have carved out their own laws to help people in pain from diseases such as multiple sclerosis or experiencing nausea from undergoing chemotherapy. [continues 431 words]
