TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The pot vote may decide the Florida governor's race. Democratic operatives are pushing a statewide referendum on medical marijuana that Republican Gov. Rick Scott's supporters say threatens to tilt the race against him. State Republicans have filed a legal challenge to keep the referendum off the ballot. Democrats and marijuana activists across the country are monitoring Florida's quest to become the first state in the South to legalize some marijuana use, watching to see if the issue has a spillover effect that may offer a blueprint for the 2016 elections. [continues 614 words]
Heroin overdoses claim about 11 lives each week in Ohio, it has been estimated. The epidemic, which has spread to the Mahoning Valley, also ruins thousands of lives and makes battlegrounds out of some neighborhoods. Various initiatives have been undertaken to reduce the enormous human carnage caused by the spread of heroin use in Ohio. State Attorney General Mike DeWine has established a task force to focus on it. More than two dozen health care providers have had their licenses revoked for prescribing or providing opiate painkillers improperly. And street-level arrests and raids occur frequently. [continues 403 words]
Everybody's doing it -- confessing their youthful, pot-smoking ways - -- so here goes. I don't remember. Kidding, kidding. Anyone over 30 recognizes the old adage: If you remember the '60s, you weren't there. Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk. It is true that marijuana smoking tends to affect one's short-term memory, but the good news is that, while stoned, one does relatively little worth remembering. At least that's my own recollection. So, yes, I toked, too. This doesn't mean anyone else should, and I haven't in decades, but our debate might have more value if more of us were forthcoming. [continues 677 words]
Schapelle Corby approaches final hurdles for parole bid, awaits Indonesia's political approval by Michael Bachelard, Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax Media Schapelle Corby has cleared two of the bureaucratic hurdles standing between her and her parole bid, and has only two more to go before she can be released from Kerobokan prison. A spokesman for the Indonesian Corrections department, Ayub Suratman, has confirmed that the Australian government has issued the convicted drug smuggler a new passport at the request of the country's immigration department. [continues 342 words]
The rights of adults to purchase and use marijuana is about personal freedom - the freedom of adults to seek their own happiness the way they want as long as they are not harming someone else. Peanuts are lethal to some, but we don't cage peanut growers, sellers or consumers, and neither should we cage cannabis growers, sellers or consumers. Kirk Muse Mesa [end]
Norfolk Police Services Board chair Peter Hellyer's claim, "It's definitely a conduit to harder drugs when used for recreational purposes" (Legalizing pot use would be tricky issue, Jan. 10, 2014), eludes to the gateway theory, which has been historically discredited and even prohibitionist U.S. government quit using that one years ago. One reason is due to the fact cannabis (marijuana) prohibition actually increases hard drug addiction rates because it puts buyers in situations where they purchase the relatively safe plant from people who may also sell hard drugs. [continues 76 words]
Council Votes To OK Facility Near Scottsdale Airpark After Earlier Rejecting Permit The Scottsdale City Council narrowly agreed to allow a medical-marijuana kitchen in the Scottsdale Airpark, two months after turning down the request. The council on Jan. 14 granted a conditional-use permit to Pure Bliss Premium Medibles and Topicals, which is the trade name for a line of marijuana infused goods ranging from brownies to pot pies, according to its website. The facility, near Hayden and Redfield roads, will prepare foods infused with marijuana and sell them wholesale to medical-marijuana dispensaries, a city report said. [continues 603 words]
On Jan. 1, Colorado began permitting the legal sale of marijuana. Even before that, the nation's news media had swung into action, arguing just about everything - marijuana is dangerous or not dangerous, a gateway drug or just a lot of smoke. Nothing I saw mentioned why I, for one, will not smoke marijuana. I'm afraid it would lead me back to cigarettes. Once I was addicted to cigarettes. (I suppose I still am.) I tried to quit numerous times - hypnotism, acupuncture, hypnotism again, willpower and shame and mortal shame - but for the longest time, nothing worked. I felt enslaved - sucking this poison into my body, soiling my lungs - and enraged at an industry that encouraged me as a youth to smoke and, despite all the health findings, continued to give me that encouraging wink: Smoke. Go ahead. Such sweet pleasure! [continues 582 words]
Everybody's doing it - confessing their youthful, pot-smoking ways - so here goes. I don't remember. Kidding, kidding. Anyone over 30 recognizes the old adage: If you remember the '60s, you weren't there. Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk. It is true that marijuana smoking tends to affect one's short-term memory, but the good news is that, while stoned, one does relatively little worth remembering. At least that's my own recollection. So, yes, I toked, too. This doesn't mean anyone else should, and I haven't in decades, but our debate might have more value if more of us were forthcoming. [continues 677 words]
Re: "State pushes $7M in grants to test claims of pot cures," Jan. 11 news story. Kudos to Colorado's health director, Dr. Larry Wolk, for proposing state investment in serious research on medical benefits of marijuana. Patients and their families, including many who are receiving or considering marijuana derived treatments for epilepsy, deserve the best answers that medical science can deliver. We know that it is possible (though not easy) to do high-quality research on medical marijuana in the U.S. For example, Dr. Orrin Devinsky of New York University has recently obtained FDA approval for a rigorous study of Epidiolex, a British cannabis-based medication with no THC (the psychoactive component of marijuana) with epilepsy patients. Other promising but not yet rigorously tested medical marijuana treatments should receive similar attention, and we hope Dr. Wolk's recommendation will help to make such research happen faster. Gail Pundsack, Centennial The writer is executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado. [end]
Everybody's doing it-confessing their youthful, pot-smoking ways-so here goes: I don't remember. Kidding, kidding. Anyone over 30 recognizes the old adage: If you remember the '60s, you weren't there. Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk. It is true that marijuana smoking tends to affect one's short term memory, but the good news is that, while stoned, one does relatively little worth remembering. At least that's my own recollection. So, yes, I toked, too. This doesn't mean anyone else should, and I haven't in decades, but our debate might have more value if more of us were forthcoming. [continues 580 words]
