Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, Colorado, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, police, pot, skunk, therapeutic use, weed
Colorado — University of Colorado police on Monday returned marijuana to a CU student — who’s a medical-marijuana cardholder — after officers in May confiscated about two ounces of the drug from the freshman outside his residence hall room.
Now-CU sophomore Edward Nicholson, 20, had threatened to sue the university after he said CU police confiscated marijuana that he’s legally certified to administer to his brother — who Nicholson said suffers from chronic, debilitating pain from football injuries.
Nicholson said he’s been, buying, holding and administering the drug to his 23-year-old brother for more than a year. State law allows marijuana to be used if it’s recommended by a doctor for debilitating medical conditions.
Caregivers, like Nicholson, must carry state-issued medical-marijuana cards. Nicholson is a cardholder for his brother, he said, because he said pot is easier to buy in Boulder than in Aurora, where his family lives.
Nicholson said he feels he was “targeted” last year when CU police smelled pot coming from his residence hallway and assumed it was coming from his dorm room. After confiscating the drug in May, CU officials threatened to suspend Nicholson for a semester, require he do 24 hours of community service and comply with drug and alcohol testing. He also was charged to write a paper about the harmful effects of the drug on his schooling.
CU officials dropped the case against Nicholson after his attorney, Robert Corry, threatened a lawsuit. Nicholson now lives off campus.
CU officials also revised their housing policy this fall to ban students from storing marijuana in their dorms, even if they’re medical-marijuana cardholders. Freshmen can, however, be released from the on-campus residency requirement if they are cardholders, said CU lawyer Jeremy Hueth.
There are 1,955 cardholders in Colorado, according to last year’s statistics from the state health department.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said about the CU case that the medical-marijuana law has become a “front for widespread marijuana distribution.”
“The proponents of these laws make them intentionally ambiguous, causing significant problems for law enforcement in Colorado and elsewhere,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Daily Camera
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, Colorado, Denver, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, pot, skunk, weed
Huerfano County, CO — Mike Stetler is proud of his garden. It took him months to get the lush jungle just right. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” he said.
A decade ago, the labor of planting would have been impossible for Stetler. Strung out on Demerol, OxyContin, morphine and oxycodone, the pain-addled Navy veteran was, he says, “a slobbering zombie, stupid and living in la-la land.”
Since 2002, though, when he started growing and smoking the medicinal marijuana he now tends so carefully, he hasn’t touched a pill.
“The pain isn’t all the way gone, but I can live again. I can get out of bed. The sun is shining on me again,” he said. “See what God does? He gives us something beautiful to use. This healing herb. And what happens?”
What happened is sheriff’s deputies landed a helicopter on his land, broke open two padlocked gates and ransacked his trailer, ripping a gaping hole in the roof. They seized 44 marijuana plants and more than eight state-issued medical-marijuana cards that indicate other medical-marijuana patients have told the state he is their designated caregiver. They left a search warrant hanging over Stetler’s medical-marijuana sign.
Almost eight years after Colorado voters approved Amendment 20, engraving in the Colorado Constitution the lawful use of doctor-recommended medical marijuana for those “suffering from debilitating medical conditions,” police and prosecutors zealously pursue medical-marijuana growers like Stetler, citing everything from the fact that they just don’t like the law to concerns about public safety and confusion over what the law allows.
The law is “overly broad,” “a work in progress,” “vague” and “a mistake,” according to cops and prosecutors along the Front Range, home to more than three-quarters of the state’s 3,302 residents enrolled in the Colorado medical-marijuana registry program. There are 12 states in the U.S. that have medical-marijuana laws. Of the 10 with marijuana card systems, Colorado is the only state that does not issue caregivers like Stetler licenses that specifically allow for cultivation.
“Marijuana cultivation is a violation of federal and state law. Just because someone says ‘medical marijuana’ doesn’t mean we automatically back off and we don’t enforce the law,” said Larry Abrahamson, district attorney for Larimer County, where more than 45 percent of felony marijuana cases in the past decade have involved growers, many with state-issued cards. “Just because we have Amendment 20 does not mean we have free marijuana for everyone.”
Complete Article: http://drugsense.org/url/SOVH7sM4
Source: Denver Post
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, Colorado, drug law, ganja, hashish, hemp, hemp laws, marijuana, pot, weed
Colorado — Why this country allows its citizens to consume alcohol, but not marijuana, is a bit of a mystery. Both substances have mind-altering capabilities. Both substances, if abused, can destroy the lives of the user and anyone who crosses the user’s path.
But both substances can be used responsibly and moderately, according to Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat.
And perhaps most importantly, our government spends an inordinate amount of time and money arresting and prosecuting pot users — about 12 million citizens have been arrested on a marijuana-related charge since 1965, according to NORML, an organization that wants marijuana use to be legalized.
Frank announced this week that he would introduce a bill that would decriminalize the possession of less than a quarter-pound of marijuana. Advocates argue that because alcohol is a legal substance, marijuana should be, too. Instead, marijuana should be regulated in the same way as alcohol, and the threat of arrest should be limited for only those whose use affects someone else, such as in the case of driving while intoxicated by the drug.
Frank’s proposal seems to have merit, particularly when applied to medicinal marijuana users. Even in states that have passed laws allowing medicinal marijuana use, patients who use prescribed pot still are running afoul of federal laws.
While marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the U.S., it seem highly unlikely Frank’s proposal will become law. Being “soft on crime” — and drug use is a crime — is a cardinal sin in American politics. When former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders dared to suggest that the legalization of drugs should be studied, she was publicly ridiculed.
But the success of the “War on Drugs” is debatable; there are reports that cocaine use is down, but the number of incarcerations for drug-related convictions has risen. The U.S. government reports it has spent $30 billion incarcerating those who break drug laws.
Additionally, a report from the United Kingdom’s government revealed that a tough stance on drug use has fueled price hikes for most drugs, which simply helps increase the profitability of businesses the war on drugs aims to destroy.
And despite comparisons between pot and alcohol — a drug many a Congress member has been known to use — the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still considers pot to be a gateway drug to harder, more addictive and more damaging substances. Nevermind the fact that alcohol is a factor in a large number of local arrests, and that in 2006, 13,470 died in the U.S. in crashes involving a drunken driver.
It would be nice if Frank’s proposal sparked an honest debate about the effectiveness of the war on pot, especially in a nation grappling with the war on terror, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and facing the largest deficit in its history.
Source: Vail Daily (CO)
Website: http://www.vaildaily.com/
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, Colorado, Denver, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, pot, weed
Colorado — The potency of marijuana has increased over 151 percent since 1983. But Coloradans still say, “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.”
A study released yesterday by the Office of National Drug Control Policy indicates that Colorado ranks in the top 10 for states with the highest current marijuana use. At least 7.6 percent of Coloradans smoked weed in the past month.
Also, contrary to arguments made by pot proponents, the 2008 Marijuana Sourcebook revealed that less than one half of 1 percent of inmates in state prisons are serving time for marijuana possession only. Marijuana still accounts for two out of five drug violation arrests nationwide.
Drug Czar John Walters said that while marijuana use among teens has continued to decrease, convincing adults to stop using the drug has remained a problem.
“Baby Boomers have this perception that marijuana is about fun and freedom. It isn’t,” he said. “It’s about dependency, disease and dysfunction.”
The Marijuana Sourcebook was released one day before Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., is expected to hold a news conference today in Washington announcing plans to introduce legislation that would remove federal penalties for personal marijuana use. The resolution would eliminate federal penalties for the adult possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana, and for the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce of the drug.
“The Drug Czar must be truly scared of the federal marijuana decriminalization bill that is moving through Congress,” said Denver pot proponent Mason Tvert. “It appears his office spent more time preparing this one marijuana ‘report’ than it has ever spent actually helping people with substance abuse problems receive treatment.”
Tvert is an advocate of legalizing marijuana. He ran a successful campaign in Denver in 2005 that legalized the adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. A second successful campaign last year instructed the Denver Police Department to make marijuana its lowest enforcement priority. The campaign was launched after Denver marijuana arrests increased despite the decision by voters in 2005.
Tvert said that while few marijuana users are thrown in prison, the fact that they’re arrested in the first place is a significant problem.
“They are permanently branded as criminals with drug convictions just for using a drug less harmful than alcohol,” he said. “If the Drug Czar is so thrilled with how states are handling those arrested for marijuana possession, he should support the bill introduced by Rep. Barney Frank that simply leaves marijuana enforcement up to the states.”
Second-Most Used Illicit Drug
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug next to psychotherapeutics like anti-anxiety medications, according to the Marijuana Sourcebook report. In addition to Colorado, northern California, Alaska, Hawaii, parts of Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, most of the Northeast and northern Florida are all experiencing high marijuana usage rates. In California, over 4.9 million marijuana plants were destroyed last year.
Approximately 2 million people started using marijuana in the past year, according to the report. Fifty-three percent of people scored weed for free and 43 percent bought it. Seventy-eight percent of marijuana users got it from their friends. And 55 percent used pot inside their own homes, while 22 percent smoked it at an outside public area.
There are about 25.4 million people smoking marijuana in the United States, according to the report. Users spent an estimated total of $11 billion in all to obtain the drug.
Walters believes strongly that there are serious consequences to smoking marijuana, including emotional and physical tolls.
“Too many of us are in denial and it’s time for an intervention,” he said.
Tvert, however, said regardless of pot’s potency, it’s still less harmful than the legal alternative — alcohol.
“Alcohol use alone is the nation’s third leading preventable cause of death, whereas there has never been a single death in history attributed solely to marijuana use,” he said. “Why on earth would the Drug Czar prefer adults use a more deadly drug?”
Source: Denver Daily News (CO)
Website: http://www.thedenverdailynews.com
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy | Tags: cannabis, Colorado, hemp, marijuana, prohibition laws
Colorado — The number of Americans arrested for marijuana-related offenses is inching toward 20 million. The first such arrestee, it turns out, was an unemployed overall-clad Colorado farmhand who sold two marijuana cigarettes to an undercover federal agent in a Denver hotel in October 1937. Sentenced to four years in prison, Samuel Caldwell died of stomach cancer in Leavenworth prison before he could complete the term — also making him, some believe, the first unofficial medical marijuana patient.
But if the attorneys for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) have their way, smokers and dealers will no longer fill the nation’s prison beds. The dope lawyers descended on Aspen this weekend for a legal seminar covering everything from the intricacies of medical marijuana laws to search-and-seizure statutes to high-driving standards.
Despite the skunky scent in the air this weekend at The Gant, where the conference was held, this is not a circle of zooded Funyun-munching stoners. It is an assembly of committed reformers fighting against what they believe are unjust drug prohibition laws.
Since its founding in 1970, the organization has lobbied legislators and bent local laws with vigilant persistence. And after almost four decades, they believe the green tide of justice is slowly turning in their favor.
“The federal government remains recalcitrant on every level,” said Allen St. Pierre, NORML’s head lawyer and self-proclaimed Head Head. “But on the city and state level we’re making progress on medical and decrim. And look at the culture. Look at the popularity of the show ‘Weeds.’ Look at this whole 4/20 phenomenon that popped up organically while the feds were spending millions on anti-drug ad campaigns. How many states will it take before the federal government takes action? 25? 26? The national culture and the states are going to push Congress into action.”
NORML was founded by attorney Keith Stroup, who remains active in the organization. He attended the weekend conference, and is currently appealing a Massachusetts conviction entered against him for smoking pot at a rally with High Times publisher Rick Cusick last year. Two years after Stroup started NORML, a federal commission convened by President Richard Nixon concluded that marijuana use did not pose a threat to society and they recommended eliminating criminal penalties for adult users.
Nixon rejected the commission’s recommendations. But NORML was emboldened. And Stroup’s bifer army has since made inroads to legalization, getting medical marijuana provisions passed in 14 states — including Colorado — and decriminalizing it from New York to California.
Their efforts have rendered the drug quasi-legal in much of the country, and they believe outright legalization is no longer a pipe dream, but an inevitability.
However, the progress has also brought some unintended and undesirable results. The least of which is the quality and availability of the drug (“When we get legalization we’re going to have a lot of demands for the government on growing and taxation,” Stroup said).
Overlapping and contradictory local and federal drug laws have ensnared hundreds of drug users in recent years. Marijuana may be legal to smoke when prescribed by a doctor in places such as California and Colorado, but transporting it is still illegal. Thus, as attorney William Panzer pointed out, a nurse carrying medical cannabis down a hospital hallway is technically a felon.
Panzer co-authored California’s Proposition 215, the nation’s first successful medical marijuana ballot initiative, and said most of the new laws are intrinsically flawed. In Colorado, for instance, it is legal for people with debilitating medical conditions to grow up to six marijuana plants or to possess two ounces of dried buds. But the number of plants is essentially meaningless, Panzer said, because of their varying size and harvest potential. If they yield more than two ounces of marijuana, for instance, the legal plants yield an illegal crop.
“Plant numbers don’t make any sense,” Panzer said. “That’s like trying to guess how much 10 dogs weigh.” More than 100 medical marijuana-prescribed patients are currently facing criminal charges in California, Panzer claimed.
The transforming legal landscape is also killing people, said Seattle-based lawyer Doug Hiatt. Hiatt gave an impassioned presentation at the conference Friday about ill clients of his who have been knocked off of organ donation lists because they tested positive for marijuana that had been prescribed and administered by their doctors.
“I don’t think anybody who voted for a medical marijuana law in the state of Washington saw this bullshit as a result of it,” Hiatt said. He told the story of a hepatitis patient who medically qualified as a top donor recipient for the liver transplant he needed. But the state donation board denied him the organ because he was a medical marijuana patient, and he died while Hiatt appealed the decision.
In addition to the legal seminars, the NORML conference provided a social gathering for the like-minded legalization advocates. Evening smokeouts were held at the Aspen home of former National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers President Gerald Goldstein and at the Woody Creek ranch of the late writer Hunter S. Thompson.
“These conferences are the most intellectually stimulating thing I get to do every year,” former Washington state Senator George Rohrbacher said over a poolside joint at The Gant. “We’re not making any money off of this work. We just believe in an America that doesn’t lock people up for getting high.”
Note: There are some things higher than the laws. — Clarence Darrow, 1920
Source: Aspen Daily News
