NASHVILLE - Medical marijuana will again become a topic of discussion and legislation during the 2017 legislative session. An announcement from the House Republican Caucus on Friday said an official announcement will come next week from state Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, and Sen. Steve Dickerson, RNashville, who are planning to introduce legislation about medical marijuana. Medical marijuana has been a popular discussion within the legislature in recent years, and support from both parties has been steadily growing. Details about the legislation were not immediately clear. [continues 413 words]
Congress and President Obama are under pressure to reschedule marijuana. While rescheduling makes sense, it doesn't solve the state/federal conflict over marijuana (descheduling would be better). But more important, it wouldn't fix the broken scheduling system. Ideally, marijuana reform should be part of a broader bill rewriting the Controlled Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act created a five-category scheduling system for most legal and illegal drugs (although alcohol and tobacco were notably omitted). Depending on what category a drug is in, the drug is either subject to varying degrees of regulation and control (Schedules II through V) - or prohibited, otherwise unregulated and left to criminals to manufacture and distribute (Schedule I). The scheduling of various drugs was decided largely by Congress and absent a scientific process - with some strange results. [continues 601 words]
In six months, California will join Maine, Nevada and probably a few other states in deciding whether to legalize large-scale commercial production of marijuana. Residents will be inundated with wild claims about the promises and pitfalls of these initiatives. You will hear debates about government revenue, criminal justice benefits, the environment and the effect of legalization on Mexican drug-trafficking cartels. Public health conversations may prove especially contentious. Some will claim that legalization will constitute a net gain for health. Others will say the exact opposite. [continues 621 words]
Since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana has been a Schedule I drug. Congress placed it in the most restrictive category of psychoactive substances, those with no currently accepted medical value and a high potential for abuse or dependence. The upshot was a renewed ban on marijuana, except for highly restricted research purposes. I say renewed because Congress first prohibited marijuana use for non-industrial purposes in 1937. The Schedule I designation ratified the status quo, with one notable exception: The 1970 CSA in fact reduced federal penalties for cannabis possession, a bit of Nixon-era liberality few recall. [continues 689 words]
There are rumors that the federal government may soon lift its ban on marijuana, but that wouldn't end marijuana prohibitions in the United States. This incongruity is the result of federalism: the ability of each jurisdiction - the federal government and every state - to maintain its own laws as to which drugs are illegal and which are not. Completely legalizing marijuana in the United States would require the actions of both the federal government and every state government. If the federal government repealed its criminal prohibition of marijuana or rescheduled the drug under federal law, that would not change state laws that forbid its possession or sale. Likewise, state governments can repeal their marijuana laws, in whole or in part, but that does not change federal law. [continues 618 words]
Federal Law Prohibits Sites That Would Give Supervision, Antidote Across the United States, users of heroin and other drugs have died in alleys behind convenience stores, on city sidewalks and in the bathrooms of fast-food joints - because no one was around to save them when they overdosed. An alarming 47,000 American overdose deaths in 2014 pushed elected leaders from coast to coast to consider government-sanctioned sites where heroin users can shoot up under the supervision of a doctor or nurse who can administer an antidote if necessary. [continues 243 words]
A bill that would have allowed Tennesseans to weigh in on whether to decriminalize possession of low-level amounts of marijuana has failed in the Legislature. The Senate Judiciary Committee killed the proposal April 12. The measure, which was sponsored by Memphis Democrats Antonio Parkinson and Sara Kyle, would not have legalized marijuana possession. Instead, it would have allowed voters to make their opinion known on whether police should arrest people in possession of one ounce of marijuana or less or give them a warning instead. The proposal would have allowed Metro governments or municipalities with their own police departments to put the question on whether to arrest or warn to voters during a normal election. The results of the election would be advisory only. [end]
The global war on drugs has proved "disastrous" and "humankind cannot afford a 21st century drug policy as ineffective and counter-productive as the last century's." So say more than 1,000 world leaders, including 27 members of the House of Representatives and six U.S. senators, in a letter to the United Nations ahead of a major international drug summit happening this week. The letter's signatories also include 24 current and former law enforcement officials, 37 members of the clergy, more than 230 health and medical professionals and a colorful slate of celebrities, athletes and business leaders, including DJ Khaled, Michael Douglas, Tom Brady and Warren Buffett. [continues 156 words]
A former corrections officer was sentenced to one year plus one day in prison and an inmate was sentenced to 30 months in prison for a scheme to smuggle marijuana into the Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis, the office of U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III said Monday. The corrections officer, Keair Kemp, 33, of Horn Lake, and inmate Travonte Johnson, 34, of Millington, planned last year to smuggle the drug into the prison, according to a news release. "In exchange for cash, Kemp agreed to unlawfully carry marijuana into the prison and deliver it to Johnson, thus violating his official duties as a correctional officer," Stanton's spokesman, Louis Goggans, said in the release. Kemp pleaded guilty in December 2015 to one count of accepting a bribe, and Johnson pleaded guilty in January to one count of offering a bribe to a public official, Goggans said. [end]
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A growing number of states are weighing whether to legalize marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. But for many veterans, the debate is already over. They're increasingly using cannabis even though it remains illegal in most states and is unapproved by the Department of Veterans Affairs because major studies have yet to show it is effective against PTSD. While the research has been contradictory and limited, some former members of the military say pot helps them manage their anxiety, insomnia and nightmares. Prescription drugs such as Klonopin and Zoloft weren't effective or left them feeling like zombies, some say. [continues 555 words]
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a conservative challenge to the marijuana legalization laws adopted in Colorado and elsewhere that permit adults to buy, sell or use an ounce of the drug. By a 6-2 vote, the justices turned away a lawsuit brought by Nebraska and Oklahoma, whose state at torneys complained that illegal marijuana was pouring into their states as a result of Colorado's liberalized laws. The suit brought by Nebraska and Oklahoma also implicitly challenged the Obama administration for it s refusal to intervene more directly in Colorado. Wire Services [end]
Says Exception Aims to Benefit PTSD Sufferers NASHVILLE - While most Tennessee Republican leaders have indicated opposition to any steps toward legalization of marijuana, state Rep. Jeremy Faison said he hopes they will make an exception for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Faison, R-Cosby, is drafting legislation that would "decriminalize" possession of marijuana by veterans diagnosed with PTSD, motivated by conversations with several veterans who believe the medicinal properties of marijuana would help them far more than prescription medications. [continues 368 words]
Memphis In reference to the Oct. 25 article a=C2=80=C2=9CThe bipartisan marijuana myth,a=C2=80=C2=9D in 1937 Harry Anslinger testified before Congress on t he evils of marijuana. Congress made it illegal (The Marijuana Tax Stamp Act of 1937). He later admitted his testimony was not true and in fact marijuana was relatively harmless. The La Guardia Commission report on marijuana also found it was relatively harmless. This law was declared unconstitutional in 1970. That led to President Nixon signing the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Marijuana has been a Schedule 1 controlled substance since then. Under President Nixon the Shaffer Commission issued a report and also determined that marijuana was relatively harmless. Of course, Nixon buried the report. [continues 97 words]
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen added his voice Friday to the growing number of officials calling for reforms to end the nation's high rates of incarceration for nonviolent and lower-level drug offenders. In a speech to the criminal justice section of the American Bar Association's fall institute in Washington, Cohen, D-Memphis, also called for the collection of national statistics on the use of deadly force by law enforcement agencies. He said a bill he has introduced called the National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act would give lawmakers and the public "the numbers we need to measure the problem so we can figure out how best to address it." [continues 181 words]
Violent Crime, Not Dope, Keeps Our Prisons Full Drug offenders account for only 19.5 percent of the total state-federal prison population, most of whom, especially in the federal system, were convicted of dealing drugs such as cocaine, heroin and meth, not "smoking marijuana." It seems that no presidential debate this year would be complete without denunciations of the drug laws, which, it is alleged, result in long prison terms for thousands of people, disproportionately African-Americans, who are guilty only of low-level offenses, thus fueling "mass incarceration." [continues 761 words]
U.S. Combat Vehicles Used in Pot Busts If you're going to wage war on drugs, you need to be outfitted like a warrior. That seems to be the rationale behind hundreds of police department requests for armored trucks submitted to the Pentagon between 2012 and 2014. The requests, unearthed in a FOIA request by Mother Jones magazine, shed light on how the war on drugs has directly contributed to the militarization of local police forces in recent years. Police departments can request surplus military gear from the Pentagon through the Department of Defense's 1033 program, which doles out hundreds of millions of dollars in military goods to cops each year. The equipment includes everything from underwear to office equipment to armored combat vehicles. After Ferguson, Missouri, when images of local cops training assault rifles on peaceful protesters from atop armored trucks flooded the airwaves, the program has come under increasing scrutiny. [continues 249 words]
In "Romeo and Juliet," the lovelorn hero proclaims that "Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs." The line may have actually been inspired by the fumes of cannabis, according to a recently published paper on William Shakespeare and his smoking habits. The report, which cites a 2001 analysis of early 17th-century pipes from Stratford-upon-Avon and the Bard's own residence, argues that Shakespeare could have smoked the substance and was probably well aware of its hallucinatory effects. [continues 292 words]
Police Issue Warrant for Suspect in Slaying of Officer Memphis police were looking Sunday for a 29-year-old bank robber they believe shot and killed one of their own after a traffic stop Saturday night. In a Sunday evening news conference, officials identified the suspect as Tremaine Wilbourn, who was convicted of robbing the Friendship Bank in Covington in 2005. He was on supervised release after being sentenced to 10 years for that robbery. Police believe Wilbourn is the man who shot Sean Bolton, who was gunned down just after 9:15 p.m. Saturday at 4871 Summerlane in Parkway Village. By late Sunday, Wilbourn remained on the run, accused of first-degree murder. A reward of $10,000 has been posted for his capture, and that is expected to grow to $20,000. [continues 542 words]
Could Be Rx for Kids' Seizures It's now legal to use cannabis oil for limited medical purposes in Tennessee. And the Mathes family is ready. The East Tennessee family already had the oil and a recommendation from a doctor before Monday. Their 1-year-old daughter, Josie, still has the seizures that have plagued her short life. They just needed Gov. Bill Haslam to give final approval to arguably Tennessee's first broader step toward legalizing a marijuana product for medicinal use. [continues 486 words]
BOCA RATON, Fla. - The interior of Irvin Rosenfeld's Toyota 4Runner reeks of marijuana. A tin stuffed with hundreds of joints lies in the trunk, and a bag full of them is stored in the door pocket. On a recent weekday, the 62-year-old stockbroker stopped at a red light and took a drag. His exhale filled the cabin with smoke. It was his fourth joint that day. It wasn't yet lunchtime. "This car has 80,000 miles on it," Rosenfeld announced between puffs, stray ash landing softly on the battered towel he drapes over his pleated brown trousers and red tie. "I haven't gotten into one accident." [continues 445 words]
