The recent news about a looming controversy regarding medical marijuana and an experimental epilepsy drug raises intriguing questions - but, in the long run, likely will be seen as a footnote on the road to more widespread legalization. At issue in the recent case is an experimental drug, Epidiolex, which is made from cannabis plants grown in England. The drug is a nearly pure extract of cannabidiol, or CBD. It has little of the substance in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), that produces the traditional pot high. A researcher in Columbus, Ohio, says that Epidiolex has shown great promise in treating seizures, especially among children. And, the researcher notes, studies have suggested that children can be hurt by using the whole marijuana plant. [continues 482 words]
MILWAUKIE (AP) - Marijuana stores will be prohibited from selling both recreational and medical marijuana and pot cannot be used on site under preliminary regulations approved Thursday by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. The more than 70 pages of rules will govern Oregon's retail marijuana system once it's fully operational next year. While marijuana stores began selling to adults 21 and older earlier this month, they are operating under temporary authority from the medical marijuana program. By 2017, companies producing or selling marijuana to the general population will have to abide by the OLCC's regulations for health, safety and security. [continues 443 words]
So, maybe the Albany City Council didn't intend to talk about marijuana at its meeting Wednesday night after all. That's OK. But it's becoming clear how the council should talk about marijuana when it finally returns to the issue in a work session scheduled for Nov. 2. You might have followed some of the council's gyrations on the issue, which date back to the good old days, when all we were worried about was the location of the dispensaries allowed by state law to serve medical marijuana patients. [continues 454 words]
The next development in Oregon's fascinating journey to legalized recreational marijuana likely will be dictated by the cold hard laws of business: The dispensaries which were set up to allow easier access to medical marijuana increasingly are under economic pressure. By the time the Oregon Liquor Control Commission steps in to regulate recreational marijuana sales at the start of 2016, many dispensaries around the state may well be shuttered or in the midst of hard times. And the market for medical marijuana may well eventually be largely absorbed by the recreational market. [continues 438 words]
Just read about NASA learning of running water on Mars. After reading the two letters (Mailbag, Sept. 29) by Keta Tom and John Collet about how good pot is for you, I realize who told them. Just one more name of an illegal alien and Trump's outer space wall will be a fact. Just think, smoke pot and no more domestic violence. Get our judges to believe that and Linn County could shut down jail beds. Just sentence violators to smoke three dubies a day and no more problems. Murderers, five dubies a day and we are all safe. And then we also learned that soft drinks, alcohol, cigarettes and legal drugs kill more people than pot ever will. We spend billions of dollars to get rid of cigarette smoking and we have people who know nothing about the dangers of marijuana. [continues 147 words]
The private recreational use of marijuana by adults in Oregon has been legal for months, and last week, you could start buying recreational marijuana at medical dispensaries that elected to join in on early sales of pot. (Well, at least in those jurisdictions that allowed those early sales.) But Oregon's grand experiment with legalized marijuana won't have any effect on the state's colleges and universities, including Oregon State University. College administrators last week emphasized that nothing has changed on campuses, even as people lined up at dispensaries to buy recreational marijuana. [continues 436 words]
Today, Oregon's experiment with legalizing recreational marijuana marks another milestone a green-letter day, if you will: Today is the first day that people over 21 can buy recreational marijuana. Well, not in Albany, or in Linn County, where governmental entities have opted against allowing the early sales of recreational pot by medical marijuana dispensaries. But the curious should be able to travel across the Willamette River to a dispensary in Corvallis that will be more than willing to sell them recreational pot. (Don't light up until you get back home, though.) [continues 465 words]
Here's an interesting question in the wake of this week's Albany City Council meeting, the one at which the council voted in favor of a temporary ban on recreational pot sales by medical marijuana dispensaries: Is the council's 4-2 vote the first step in an effort to impose a more permanent ban on sales of recreational marijuana? Time will tell. But one thing is for sure: Imposing a permanent ban is a much more elaborate process than imposing the temporary ban, which only applies to dispensaries. (Recall that under state law, those dispensaries - and no one else - can sell recreational marijuana beginning on Oct. 1. Other retail sales of recreational marijuana are on hold while the Oregon Liquor Control Commission works out the regulatory framework for those.) [continues 406 words]
The offices of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission must be busy these days: Not only are employees hammering out the rules under which recreational marijuana will be sold, they're also keeping track of those local governments that are working to ban the pot sales. That list gets longer by the week. Currently, it includes mid-valley communities such as Sweet Home and Brownsville. It also includes seven of Oregon's 36 counties. More governments will join the list, possibly including Albany, where the City Council last week made some noise about maybe pursuing a permanent ban on recreational sales. [continues 435 words]
On Wednesday night, I watched as Albany's City Council committed a democratic travesty. Despite statewide approval of the sale of recreational marijuana from licensed medical marijuana facilities, beginning Oct. 1, I watched as four council members usurped the will of Oregon voters. They decided they knew better. They decided they knew better than, not only the voters in this state, or in this town, but they decided they knew better than those individuals who gave impassioned testimonies of why they were against the ban on recreational marijuana sales from medical marijuana facilities. [continues 211 words]
You may have seen in the Thursday, Sept. 23 edition of the Democrat-Herald that the Albany City Council placed a moratorium on the sale of recreational marijuana from medicinal marijuana dispensaries until January 2017. I want to assure my constituents in Ward I that I did not vote for this and in fact agreed with the room full of our citizens that its passage was a foolish thing to do. To me it is a sad irony that recreational marijuana use is now legal, but we must seek out the criminal element in order to purchase it. As always, prohibition is a blessing for the criminal element. Dick Olsen Albany (Sept. 24) [end]
A nine-year study supported by NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) set out to prove marijuana caused domestic violence (pub med: Psycol Addict Behav. 2014 Sep;28(3):734-42, Epub 2014 Aug 18). It found the opposite. Marijuana use by either one or both married partners reduced domestic violence. The more marijuana used, the less domestic violence. By opposing dispensaries for adult marijuana use, the Albany city council is encouraging domestic violence. Restricting marijuana use apparently means the city council is standing firm for traditional values; have a drink to relax and knock 'em around, show 'em who's boss. Keta Tom Corvallis (Sept. 27) [end]
The City of Albany allows the sale of soft drinks, alcohol, cigarettes and all kinds of legal drugs that have killed more people than marijuana ever will. I don't like hanging around with Albany's tweekers, but I rather throw my lot in with them than with Albany's high-brows, who are always stuck in their bizarre little property values world. John Collet Albany (Sept. 25) [end]
SWEET HOME -- Members of the Sweet Home School Board will spend part of Monday's board meeting discussing whether to join other mid-valley districts in random student athlete drug testing. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the district office and is open to the public. Superintendent Keith Winslow said no decision is expected immediately; the issue is up for discussion only at this point. Winslow said he received a request from the board to look into possible drug tests and is bringing a policy from Junction City as an example. [continues 365 words]
Want to be a midnight toker? Better wait till next summer, because anyone caught with recreational marijuana before then can expect to get busted as usual. That's the word from Oregon State Police, the Corvallis Police Department and the Linn County Sheriff's Office, all of which say they'll enforce existing marijuana laws until Oregon's new law allowing recreational marijuana use takes effect July 1, 2015. "We understand the voters have passed this," Corvallis Chief John Sassaman said. "But currently, today, as it stands, marijuana is still illegal. We don't fudge the lines." [continues 332 words]
Will Tuesday's election prove to be a turning point for marijuana legalization efforts across the United States? Or will it mark a substantial setback for advocates of legalized pot? Three measures to legalize the use of recreational marijuana including Oregon's Measure 91 are on the ballot across the country. (The other measures are in the Alaska and Washington, D.C.; the D.C. measure hasn't drawn nearly the sort of publicity that has accompanied the Oregon and Alaska measures.) [continues 387 words]
One might reasonably ask this question of the recent events listed below: What do they have in common? The deaths of four young women, college athletes, by an out-of-control tractor-trailer rig in Oklahoma. The death of a gifted young NASCAR driver who, enraged, leapt out of his disabled race car and stormed into the path of another speeding race car. The physical abuse of his son by a world class athlete. The shooting death of a young black man after he robbed a convenience store and attacked a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri [continues 150 words]
We are all free to make our own decisions but not free to choose the consequences. When you cast your vote on Measure 91, make sure you understand the choices you will be making. Measure 91 is poorly crafted with many fatal flaws. It allows people to legally posses eight times more pot than even what is allowed in Colorado. If it passes, possession of marijuana in jail will no longer be a felony but instead a mere infraction, similar to a traffic ticket. This greatly reduces our ability to maintain security and order in the jail. [continues 234 words]
It's a little alarming - and, truth be told, a little amusing - to watch city and county governments line up, one by one, for their potential slice of tax revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana. Even communities that have made it clear that medical marijuana dispensaries are not welcome within their boundaries are hoping to cash in on recreational marijuana as a way to drive some additional dough into their coffers. Just this week in Linn County, the Albany City Council voted to slap a 10 percent additional tax on the sale of recreational weed. On the same day, the Lebanon City Council approved a similar 10 percent tax. The issue is pending before councils in Brownsville and Jefferson - and a variety of other governmental bodies throughout Oregon. [continues 307 words]
The Oregon Sheriff's Association contributed $100,000 to defeat Measure 91, which would legalize and regulate marijuana for adults over 21. In essence, Oregon's sheriffs support and encourage domestic violence. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) supported a study tracking 534 newly married couples and domestic violence, called intimate partner violence perpetration. The study set out to confirm marijuana increased domestic violence. It found the opposite; marijuana reduced domestic violence even when only one partner used it. The more marijuana was used, the less violence. The researchers surveyed and paid couples who applied for marriage licenses and got and stayed married nine years. The study results were published in "Psychology of Addictive Behaviors," Aug. 18, 2014, and is available on PubMed. Police say they hate working domestic violence cases. Law enforcement should consider its risk and support legalizing marijuana. The job it does would be safer. Michael Bolton Albany (Oct. 19) [end]
