The Los Angeles chapter of A New PATH is demanding greater access to Naloxone for overdose prevention and to eliminate the stigma by treating drug overdoses like any other medical emergency. As part of the 14th annual International Overdose Awareness Day this Sunday, Aug. 31, a march will be held in Santa Monica through the streets and Beachfront Walk. The organizers of the event is the Los Angeles chapter of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) and Moms United who are bringing together the Drug Policy Alliance, Amity Foundation, LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), The Center for Living and Learning, Oasis Women's Recovering Community, Broken No More, GRASP, and Paso Por Paso to join similar organizations throughout the U.S. and abroad who will be participating in the day. [continues 608 words]
A moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries in Santa Monica originally set for 45 days will now be extended for a complete calendar year, as the City Council approved last Tuesday a 10 month 15 day extension to place into a holding pattern the issuing of business licenses, entitlements, or permits to companies seeking to issue the substance for medicinal purposes. The 320-day extension comes exactly three weeks after council members unanimously approved the 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries coming into Santa Monica. [continues 478 words]
A 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries was officially put into effect Tuesday after the Santa Monica City Council approved an interim ordinance to place into a holding pattern the issuing of business licenses, entitlements, or permits to companies seeking to issue the substance for medicinal purposes. Council members unanimously approved the moratorium with the intention of determining how Santa Monica could possibly have medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits once the 45-day suspension comes to an end. City staff recommended the moratorium due to a recent wave of inquiries received from entities seeking to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Monica. [continues 815 words]
The fans who have come to see Tommy Chong, of the legendary Cheech and Chong comedy duo, are gathering in Barnes and Noble's events room, clutching vinyl albums, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with marijuana leaves. Tommy Chong is waiting to "go on" in a secret room on the top floor, and that is where this Mirror reporter gets to have some time to talk with Chong about his new book, Cheech and Chong: The Unauthorized Biography. Still looking youthful at 70, Chong, who is on the phone with his wife, asks how many people are at the event. I tell him that it is already standing room only. He looks pleased. [continues 636 words]
Dear Santa Monica Mirror, I offer this poetry effort to you mostly as a consequence of Tom Elias' insightful piece in this week's issue of the Mirror ("No Good Reason for Medipot Decision Counter to Voters' Wishes," July 10-16). Perhaps poetry can achieve something positive to address the prohibition that prosaic efforts have not. It's a persona song, wherein the speaker/protagonist is a Drug Enforcement Agent addressing his superior. Sincerely, Ivan If you use, you lose [continues 195 words]
It is almost certain that the 56 percent of California voters who approved Proposition 215 in an attempt to legalize medical use of marijuana did not intend for employers to discriminate against persons who take advantage of the law they passed. As it has evolved since passage, the 1996 initiative lets cities and counties issue medipot usage cards to users who smoke the weed to ward off pain caused by ailments from migraine headaches to a wide variety of cancers. Where they exist, the cards can only be obtained with a doctor's recommendation. [continues 745 words]
Regarding Michael Rosenthal's November 15 column: Marijuana prohibition has done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future Study" reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records. [continues 143 words]
I was on yet another road trip a couple of weeks back. Went through central Oregon on a beautiful fall weekend when the colors were resplendent and near their peak. We took the Cave Junction cutoff, which takes you right to the redwood forests of the Northern California coast. Stopped on the Smith River late at night and were reminded what the Milky Way really looks like when you have a clear sky. WOW, I bet there is a lot of life up there in those star clusters! [continues 993 words]
Santa Monica staff has prepared a report for the City Council in regards to how to regulate medical marijuana farmacies. The report is designed to provide guidance to the Council, as if this group of conservative Neanderthals will ever take up the issue. There is NO sign this Council will do the right thing and every sign that they will continue to force Santa Monica residents to either buy their medical marijuana through local drug dealers or go out of town for it. Their main argument is that they are concerned about the element it will bring to town; people who are just plain stressed out about life in our modern urban society and need something natural to help them relax instead of prescription Valium, Zanex, or Prozac. And people like cancer patients, who need pain relief, or glaucoma patients who would like to keep their eyesight. Where is the compassion of this City Council for these people? [continues 132 words]
Re: Medipot Harassment Lets Illicit Use Thrive, August 2-8, 2007 In the final paragraph of his featured opinion essay, Tom Elias essentially said that "if marijuana is truly destructive," why not focus anti-marijuana police and adjudication monies and forces against large-scale commercial growers of cannabis "whose sales have truly destructive potential." Respectfully however, the problem with what he said is that marijuana is NOT truly destructive. On the other hand, the federal anti-marijuana laws are destructive, immoral and in violation of the supreme law of the land that is the U.S. Constitution. [continues 286 words]
Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children. Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. [continues 133 words]
There's something almost idiotic about the obviously confused and misguided way in which federal authorities are trying to enforce anti-marijuana laws in California today. Nothing better illustrates this than the headlines that appeared together in newspapers this spring and summer about numerous pot raids in middle class neighborhoods across the state and those about the second trial of medical marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland, an author sometimes known as the "guru of ganja." In the eastern Los Angeles County suburb of Diamond Bar, authorities burst into a three-bedroom home one day and found the entire house had been converted into a massive indoor marijuana farm with an elaborate irrigation system and overhead lights on timers set up to bypass electric meters that might have alerted the local utility something odd was going on in the house. [continues 739 words]
If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. [continues 61 words]
Okay, maybe we won't be fighting New Hampshire in court over use of that motto. But you can bet that as soon as the post-election punditry settles down and the news channels start looking for "Hey, Martha!"-type topics, our town will draw attention for having passed Measure Y, which reduces the enforcement priority on adult personal use of marijuana in Santa Monica. I voted in favor of the measure, and obviously so did a lot of other Santa Monica voters. Now that we've spoken, saying, I think, that we don't want law enforcement resources distracted with "busting" adults for deploying joints (with exceptions for minors, sale of marijuana, use on public property and driving under the influence) when there's a world of other things they could be doing what else have we said with the passing of Y? [continues 538 words]
MARIJUANA MEASURE PASSES; PROP. W FAILS The ballot measure to reduce the enforcement priority on adult, personal use of marijuana in Santa Monica easily passed in the November 7 voting, with over 65 percent of the voters approving the proposition, Measure Y. But Measure W, which would have repealed stringent restrictions on political contributions to city officials, was defeated by a narrow 53-47 percent vote. In other local measures, voters approved charter amendments to give the City Manager more authority in personnel matters (Measure U); passed a parcel tax for watershed management by barely the 2/3 majority required (Measure V); and overwhelmingly approved a school bond issue (Measure BB). [continues 300 words]
Shouldn't the government Go after terrorists With evil plans to hatch? Yeah … but sick people In wheelchairs are Much easier to catch. [end]
The war against marijuana took two interesting, and very divergent, turns last week. In Ukiah, California, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors placed a measure on the November ballot to decriminalize the personal cultivation and use of marijuana. In Sacramento, the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to reimpose California's "Smoke a Joint, Lose Your License" law. Mendocino County is where the state's war on marijuana began 21 years ago. In a headline-grabbing event that helped fuel his gubernatorial ambitions, then-Attorney General George Deukmejian, accompanied by automatic rifle-toting, flak-jacketed agents, descended by helicopter on a northern Mendocino County garden. Since then, billions of dollars have been spent annually on all aspects of the marijuana war, and the weed is more prevalent than ever. [continues 742 words]
