The biggest single risk in legalizing marijuana in 2012 - with no other issue even close - was the effect it might have on adolescents.

Would usage skyrocket among this group? Teens who use drugs are more likely than adults to end up dependent on them and to suffer other long-term consequences, such as academic failure. If it can be shown for sure that legalization pushes more kids into pot use, most arguments on behalf of legal pot would be overwhelmed.

That's why the recent data from the state's Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, which shows marijuana use among high school students has not increased and is roughly the same as the national average, is so heartening. Even the most ardent opponents of legalization ought to pleased, since the prospect of repealing Amendment 64 in the near future is approximately zero. We're going to be living with the consequences of legalization for the time being, both good and bad.

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Recently, New Approach Idaho withdrew the medical marijuana initiative due to erroneously listing the American Academy of Pediatrics as supporting medical marijuana. While AAP did acknowledge the potential value of CBD, for severe seizures - and called for rescheduling to allow for research and called for decriminalization for use by minors and young adults - they do not support medical marijuana generally.

Sadly Elisha Figueroa, Idaho's "drug czar," used this unfortunate error to criticize decent and dedicated Idaho citizen activists saying they "misled, manipulate, and outright lie." She went on to play the "kid card" so common with prohibitionists who have nothing else, saying in part "... so today is a great day for the health and safety of Idaho's children." This, after she testified against the CBD oil bill that would have allowed use only for children with intractable seizures.

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Sick or just looking for a good time, marijuana is not the answer in Idaho.

Utah is in the middle of a legislative debate on whether to legalize some forms of medical marijuana. Recreational pot use is legal in Oregon and Washington. Medical marijuana is legal in Montana and Nevada. Cannabidoil to treat seizures is legal in Wyoming and legislation to decriminalize pot possession is being considered in that state.

Here in Idaho, the resolve to keep marijuana illegal remains steadfast.

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Payette County Sheriff Chad Huff doesn't want to see his 72-bed jail filled with cannabis smokers.

Before July 1's legalization of recreational marijuana across the Snake River in Oregon, Huff spoke with his deputies. He encouraged them to cite and release violators of Idaho's marijuana possession law. Possession of up to 3 ounces of pot in Idaho is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

"I've basically asked that they not overload our jail with marijuana arrests," Huff said. "We're going to take more of a citation in the field (approach) vs. an actual physical arrest on marijuana charges."

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BOISE - A discrimination case against the Idaho State Police for targeting a driver for a marijuana search because his license plates were from Colorado has been dismissed at the request of both sides.

That means the court won't weigh in on license-plate profiling in this case. But a legal expert said Darien Roseen's lawsuit, the release of the state trooper's dash-cam video under the Idaho Public Records Law, and the subsequent national attention it drew helped shine a light on the practice and may cause law enforcement agencies to stick to "more traditional probable cause or observed infraction findings."

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Decision follows criticism of plan by local professionals

The Blaine County School District will go back to the drawing board to develop a plan to help students with substance abuse problems.

The decision by the district board of trustees to scrap the proposed Adolescent Substance Abuse Program, referred to as ASAP, came during the board's May 12 meeting. It followed criticism of the plan by local professionals involved in helping youngsters with substance abuse problems and offers by those professionals to help the district develop a plan reflecting the latest research and with more chance of success.

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10-Year-Old Suffers Rare Kind of Epilepsy

Family Says Extract Could Ease Her Seizures

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Ten-year-old Alexis Carey has a rare but intractable form of epilepsy, Dravet Syndrome. The genetic disease causes severe and multiple seizures, which often leave parents guessing if the terror of watching their child seize up will pass or turn fatal.

Her Boise, Idaho, family learned that oil extracted from marijuana had helped other children and wanted to see if it would help Alexis, too.

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Responding to Art Rigsby's letter of June 12 in which he criticized mine of May 20, where I stated marijuana shouldn't be called recreational nor legalized, he states there's been no definitive study proving marijuana is a gateway drug to others. Which also means you can't prove it isn't.

If marijuana has any medical benefits, synthetic cannabinoids as a prescription should be sufficient, even though they may take longer to be effective. Smoking anything is bad for our health.

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Court Asked to Toss Colorado Man's Claim of Pot Profiling

Boise, Idaho (AP) - The state of Idaho says its sovereign immunity from lawsuits should protect the Idaho State Police from being sued in a license-plate profiling case.

The state made the argument in its response to a lawsuit filed by Darien Roseen of Colorado, the Spokesman-Review reported.

Roseen, 69, alleges ISP Trooper Justin Klitch pulled him over at a rest stop as he crossed into Idaho from Washington state in January 2013, detained him for hours and searched his vehicle for marijuana for no other reason than because he had a Colorado license plate and a Washington state driver's license.

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A Spokane man says he was pulled over by the Idaho State Police on Interstate 84 last summer and accused of having marijuana solely because he had Washington license plates and had his car windows open.

"At that point, my jaw just dropped," said Paul Dungan, 58. "I said 'No.' I told him, 'This is the way I cruise in the summer time ... so I don't fall asleep.' ... He said, 'I want to search your car,' and I said, 'No, you have no right to search my car.'"

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A recent news story detailed how police departments across the nation (including Boise's) are acquiring surplus military equipment to use as a resource in protecting citizens and officers.

The story also raised the question: Are we are seeing the militarization of local police?

I think the answer lies not in the symbolism of a free vehicle, but in the substance of a police department's actions every day.

I have a great deal of respect for our nation's military, but our roles are clearly different: The military fights threats from outside of our country; police protect and serve citizens in our local communities. Our traditions, uniforms, and titles are superficially similar, and we both pledge our allegiance to our nation and take oaths to serve our citizens.

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Fear of being labeled "soft on crime" has led state and federal politicians on a three-decade-long odyssey through a morass of laws that transformed the criminal courts into chambers of arbitrariness.

Caught with 500 grams of cocaine? Or 100 marijuana plants? How about 28 grams of crack?

You're going to a federal penitentiary for five years. No questions asked.

Say you were arrested with 5 kilos of cocaine. Or 1,000 pot plants. Or 280 grams of crack?

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BOISE, Idaho - As some Western states relax medical and recreational marijuana laws, Idaho lawmakers are instead sending a clear message against marijuana use in any form.

On a 63-7 vote Wednesday, the House approved a resolution declaring the Legislature's opposition to the legalization of pot.

The Senate passed the same resolution in February.

Democrats in opposition argued the resolution doesn't do anything and could be interpreted as lawmakers passing judgment on the political and voter-driven actions of other states.

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Thank you for publishing Paul Armentano's March 3 guest column.

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. As long as cartels control marijuana distribution, consumers will be exposed to illegal cocaine, meth and heroin. By taxing and regulating legal marijuana, Colorado and Washington State will effectively close the gateway to hard drugs.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, 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.

It's time to stop the arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

Washington, D.C.

[end]

America is at a tipping point regarding the public's desire for common-sense alternatives to marijuana prohibition. Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for ending the nation's nearly century-long experiment with pot prohibition and replacing it with a system of legalization and regulation. The historic votes on Election Day in Colorado and Washington - where, for the first time ever, a majority of voters decided at the ballot box to abolish cannabis prohibition - underscore this new political reality.

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A Republican senator has brought forward two motions to oppose legalizing marijuana in the Idaho legislature, a move that could put the kibosh on local efforts pushing for Idaho to follow Washington and Colorado.

Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, brought forward two pieces of legislation that will be heard before the Senate State Affairs Committee at 8 a.m. on Feb. 20. Public testimony will be taken, though testimony may be limited to three minutes per person depending on the number of people who sign up to testify.

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Nonbinding Resolution States It Would Eliminate 'Black Market'

The Blaine County Republicans approved a resolution in support of legalized marijuana during a meeting Tuesday night, but many area Republicans say legalization won't solve the valley's drug problems.

The resolution, introduced by precinct Committeeman Mike Conner, was approved with only two votes against during the local party's monthly meeting at the Senior Connection in Hailey. However radical it may be, the resolution has no legal effect.

Unlike previous pieces of legislation introduced in the Legislature over the past two years by Republican Rep. Tom Trail of Moscow, which would have legalized marijuana only for medical use, the county GOP's resolution is in support of legalizing all use.

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Regarding the seizure of what was described as "$2 million worth" of plants recognized as legal medication in 17 states and the District of Columbia, I had to say "Thank goodness this dangerous plant was kept off our streets!"

Can you imagine what could have happened if it had made its way into the hands of consenting adults who wished to engage in the victimless act of consuming it especially if they had purchased it with their lawfully acquired money? Crisis averted!

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In remote mountains at about 7,000 feet, above the small southeast Idaho farm town of Grace, developed one of the largest and more sophisticated criminal enterprises Idaho has recently seen. There must have been some crooked smiles among purveyors of the illicit as they passed through.

A mass coalition of law enforcement agencies, including even the state National Guard, swept into the Caribou County backcountry last week and found an estimated 40,000 marijuana plants. Street value estimates in such cases often are inflated, but it had to have been large. There was law enforcement talk of possible connections to a Mexican cartel; the size of the operation would argue in favor of that theory.

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Twice-Yearly Meetings Would End

An oversight committee formed in the wake of initiatives passed by Hailey voters in 2008 to weaken marijuana laws in the city may soon be dissolved.

"We realized there is not very much else we can do unless there is a state referendum or the Legislature changes the laws about marijuana," said Marijuana Oversight Committee Chair Peter Lobb.

Mayor Fritz Haemmerle said he will hold a public hearing on Feb. 27 to take comment on the issue, before the City Council votes on whether to dissolve the committee.

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