Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: Boston, cannabis, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, Massachusetts, Middlesex, pot, skunk, weed
Boston, MA — For the first time in years there is good news on drugs: Marijuana use among Massachusetts teens has declined significantly since 2001.
It’s good news because kids who smoke marijuana are more likely to do poorly in school and engage in violence. It’s good news because drivers who’ve smoked pot are 10 times more likely to be injured, or to injure others, in car crashes. It’s good news because marijuana is more carcinogenic than tobacco, and young people who smoke pot are more likely to use other illegal drugs.
Unfortunately, there is a radical effort underway to undo this progress. Question 2 on November’s ballot will decriminalize marijuana use and turn possession of an ounce or less of marijuana into a fine similar to a traffic violation. For kids under 21, the penalties will be reduced well below penalties for alcohol possession.
A vote for Question 2 will begin a slippery slope resulting in several negative consequences. It will increase addiction to marijuana and other drugs, as we know that pot is a powerful gateway drug. It will result in increased related crimes, and additional taxpayer costs to combat them, as we know that drugs are the root of much of the violence that erodes communities. And it will result in increased instances of impaired driving.
This measure also will result in other unaddressed problems. For instance, there are no regulatory reviews in place to assure that these newly decriminalized drugs are safe, and we know that marijuana is now exponentially more potent than a decade ago. More disturbingly, the measure does not address the fact that if young people want to buy pot, they will still need to buy it from illegal drug dealers. We can not think of many more dangerous, combustible situations than that.
Proponents of Question 2 have two central arguments. First, that existing laws unfairly punish those caught with an ounce or less of marijuana. That is simply untrue. Current law mandates that first-time marijuana offenders receive no more than probation and have their record wiped clean if there are no further violations. In Suffolk and Middlesex counties last year, no defendants were sentenced to jail for a first-time marijuana offense alone.
Their second claim is that enforcement of marijuana laws leads to expansive police costs. That is also false. A survey of our busiest courts revealed that marijuana prosecutions account for only a tiny fraction of cases, and many of those also involved other violent crimes that so frequently accompany drug abuse. To claim that officers are out trolling the streets for marijuana users, at great cost to taxpayers, is not reality.
And despite their best efforts to paint an ounce of marijuana as innocuous, the fact is that one ounce of marijuana is worth about $600 and represents about 60 individual sales.
In communities throughout the state, law enforcement and neighborhood and faith-based organizations work together to improve public safety. Question 2 is a misguided approach that threatens to derail much of that important work.
We cannot afford to take a step back in our efforts to combat drug addiction and reduce violence in our communities. And we absolutely can not afford to send mixed messages to our kids about the seriousness and dangers of drug abuse.
Gerry Leone is the Middlesex district attorney. The Rev. Jeffrey Brown is co-founder of Boston Ten Point Coalition.
Source: Boston Globe
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, King County, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, pot, Satterberg, seattle, skunk, therapeutic use, weed
Seattle, WA — A new rule determining how much pot constitutes a 60-day supply for medical-marijuana users was finalized on Thursday, a decade after Washington voters passed an initiative legalizing marijuana for people suffering from terminal and debilitating illnesses.
The new state rule, which goes into effect Nov. 2, sets the supply limit at 24 ounces of usable marijuana plus 15 plants. Those who need more marijuana to manage their pain will have to prove they need it — though how they would do that remains unclear.
While the new, 60-day-supply rule is meant to clarify the law and help police officers determine legitimate amounts, medical-marijuana advocates say the amounts are unreasonable — especially the 15-plant limit — and put patients at risk of criminal prosecution.
In King County, though, that’s not going to happen, said Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, who has met with local law-enforcement officials and created an office policy that looks upon medical-marijuana cases “with a very lenient eye.”
“Having this rule, having some amount … is helpful, but it’s not the end of the analysis,” Satterberg said. “If you’re in King County and you’re dying of cancer, we’re not going to prosecute you if you have 15 plants or 30. If somebody is legitimately ill, we’re not going to prosecute that case, period.”
In 1998, Initiative 692 legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Passed by 59 percent of Washington voters, the initiative said patients with valid certification from their doctors could possess a 60-day supply — but never said how much pot that was. The confusion and uncertainty led to conflict between police and patients.
Last year, the Legislature ordered the state Department of Health to spell out an acceptable amount. An early recommendation put the limit at 35 ounces of usable pot plus 100 square feet of growing space. That proposal was changed after Gov. Christine Gregoire’s policy analysts urged the health department to get more input from law-enforcement agencies and medical experts because the amounts appeared to be on the high side.
Earlier this year, the draft rule was changed to 24 ounces of usable pot, six mature plants and 18 immature ones. The new rule finalized Thursday, however, doesn’t differentiate between mature and immature plants.
The rule also drops a requirement included in the earlier draft that patients get a doctor’s note if they need more marijuana than the determined 60-day supply. The department opted “for more general wording” to better reflect what is written in state law, said Health Department spokesman Tim Church.
During a public hearing in August, many patients argued that their doctors were unlikely to write them a note because of the controversy surrounding supply limits, he said.
The department didn’t come up with an alternative to a doctor’s note because that wasn’t their task from the Legislature. While Church acknowledged that the new language muddies the waters some, he said it will now “be up to patients and the courts to determine what medical necessity is” and how to prove it.
Gregoire’s spokeswoman, Laura Lockard, said Thursday the governor “wanted the department to have a solid sense of wide-ranging opinions and information to develop the best possible rule. She feels they have done that.”
But doctors and patient advocates say the new 60-day limit is woefully inadequate and could have a chilling effect on physicians if they have to go to court to defend their medical opinions.
“I’m disappointed. I think it’s more politically driven — they used politics rather than science” in determining amounts, said Dr. Greg Carter, a clinical professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington. Carter was one of the first researchers to report marijuana’s effectiveness in treating the symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“The state is really not operating in the best interest of sick people who require this medicine,” Carter said.
Steve Sarich, the executive director of CannaCare, an advocacy group that provides patients with starter plants, said the health department “has set up a law you can’t possibly follow.” He said the rule doesn’t take into account marijuana’s growing cycle, which exceeds 60 days, or the fact that someone would need to plant 60 plants in the hope that 15 or 20 of them might reach maturity.
Alison Holcomb, the drug-policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, said the new rule “is a step in the right direction,” even though it doesn’t begin to address the practical matter of accessing medical marijuana.
“Twenty-four ounces and 15 plants is a heck of a lot clearer than ‘60-day supply,’ ” she said. “It gives an average law-enforcement officer a very quick and easy way to determine if they’re in compliance, move on and leave that patient in peace.”
But Douglas Hiatt, an attorney who represents medical-marijuana patients, disagrees. He said he plans to file a lawsuit to have the limits thrown out.
“No one I know is in compliance with the number of plants. No one,” he said. “We will drown in cases if we can’t get this rule stopped and keep it out of the hands of law enforcement.”
Satterberg said that, at least in King County, he’s advised law-enforcement officers not to confiscate patients’ pot supplies on the spot, even if they seem questionable.
Essentially, Satterberg’s policy says, growers — including cooperatives — won’t be prosecuted unless prosecutors believe the operation is a front for distributing marijuana to those who are not ill. He said Thursday that his office hasn’t yet encountered any such illegal operation.
Satterberg said he’s told local police agencies and the sheriff’s office that “If there are any questions [about a patient's legitimacy], officers should take a small sample and some photos and give us a call.”
Source: Seattle Times
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, Dea, drug, enforcement, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, pot, skunk, weed
Oregon — By the 1930s, using marijuana was illegal in Oregon and it has remained that way — except for medicinal use — ever since. A group of local residents is aiming to reverse history.
The Legalize Ashland organization hopes to make adult marijuana use the lowest law enforcement priority and legalize the production of industrial hemp by May 2009.
Eventually the activists want to make legal recreational use of pot, giving it a similar status as alcohol, according to their Web site and MySpace page.”It is time for Ashland’s laws to reflect the priorities of its citizens. The majority of the citizens of Ashland believe that spending money on the enforcement of misdemeanor possession of marijuana is a waste of budget resources, and that public policy should reflect this,” the group’s Web site states.
Group members did not respond to e-mail messages sent to the address listed on the Web site.
The site states that the group held a meeting Sept. 13 at the Ashland Public Library to discuss putting an initiative on the city ballot next year.
A handful of cities across the country, including Seattle and Oakland, have passed similar laws.
Dan Rubenson, an economics professor at Southern Oregon University, said he would like to see a serious discussion about the implications of legalizing pot.
“I see us spending huge amounts of money for prosecuting and especially for incarcerating people for what I see as victimless crimes and so, from that perspective, I say, ‘Let’s talk about this,’” he said.
Rubenson, who is not affiliated with Legalize Ashland, endorsed a 2005 economic study urging public officials to engage in an “open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition.”
“We believe such a debate will favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods,” the endorsement states.
According to the “Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States” study by Jeffery A. Miron, a visiting professor at Harvard University, legalizing marijuana would save approximately $7.7 billion annually in law enforcement fees. Taxing pot, like other goods, would yield about $2.4 billion per year and approximately $6.2 billion annually if marijuana was taxed like alcohol or tobacco, the study states.
“I tend to look at things in terms of notions of efficiency and also there’s a little bit of a Libertarian flavor there. Why should we intervene in people’s lives unless there’s a significant reason to?” Rubenson said.
He said the benefits of legalizing marijuana could outweigh the costs.
“I think it’s something that’s worth talking about. I’m not trying to prejudge the outcome of the conversation, but anytime we’re spending so much money on something that doesn’t seem to be working, it’s time to talk about why we need to keep dong that.”
“When we look at it, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of evidence that making marijuana illegal is having a huge effect on keeping people from using it.”
Rubenson said legalizing marijuana could “put criminals out of business” by eliminating some drug trafficking and regulating distribution.
Vicki Brown, division manager for the Jackson County Public Health Department, said she doubts public health officials would support decriminalization of marijuana use.
“I think it would probably drive down the price, which would mean it would be more accessible and I think anything with widespread acceptance will become more popular. It remaining illegal and there being consequences (for using pot) definitely deters use,” she said.
Brown said the Public Health Department feels that the costs of using marijuana outweigh any benefits, unless it is being used for medicinal purposes and is recommended by a doctor.
“From our perspective, we don’t view it as harmless. It definitely has health consequences and it affects basic respiratory health if the person’s smoking it. It definitely impairs judgment and it’s definitely used abusively,” she said.
Deputy Police Chief Rich Walsh said the Ashland Police Department doesn’t focus on enforcing marijuana laws as it is.
“We don’t have the manpower or the personnel to put a huge effort into it. It’s not one of our priorities. Most of what we enforce (regarding marijuana) is just kind of because we run into it.”
It’s possible that if using marijuana was decriminalized for adults, illegal use among teens could increase, he added.
“Generally speaking, I think the more that you see adults doing whatever it is that it may be, (teens) are going to see that and think it’s OK. And then they may not have the education to know that it’s not OK. The question is, are they educated enough to make a good sound decision?
“It’s kind of like medical marijuana. You can basically go out and stub your toe and get a medical marijuana card, and say your toe hurts. And that’s just not right,” Chief Walsh said.
Source: Ashland Daily Tidings
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: alcohol, cannabis, drug, drug war, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, pot, skunk, USA, Valium, weed, Xanax
USA — It has been four decades since the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but aging baby boomers haven’t stopped turning on.
The federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released earlier in September, finds that as boomers move into their 50s in large numbers, drug use among older adults in the United States has hit its highest point ever.
In the government’s latest report — reflecting drug use in 2007 — 1 in 20 Americans ages 50 to 59 told researchers they had used illicit drugs in the last month. More than one-half of these older users still like their street drugs, including marijuana and cocaine.
But as older users contend with the aches and pains of aging, they are adding prescription drugs to their mix, according to the report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
By contrast, the new, younger generation of drug users isn’t waiting to reach middle age to add prescription drugs to its portfolio of abuse, the report says.
Among teenagers and young adults ages 12 to 25, one-third of those who use illicit drugs say they recently have abused prescription drugs — including painkillers, tranquilizers and stimulants.
Among kids 12 to 17, 3.3 percent had abused prescription psychotherapeutic drugs in the last month. And among 17- to 25-year-olds, 6 percent had abused prescription drugs in the same period.
These generational trends are driving a significant change in the landscape of American drug abuse. After years of declining use of street drugs — cocaine, hallucinogens and marijuana — prescription medications have begun moving front and center as the nation’s drug of choice.
The result, according to the latest federal drug-use survey: Last year, Americans who began abusing prescription drugs outnumbered those who took up smoking marijuana.
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, says the report underscores a “paradigm shift” in drug abuse and, hence, in its treatment.
Though addiction to prescription drugs is not new, the current generation of teenagers and young adults has grown up around widespread medical use of prescription drugs, Volkow says, and is inclined to view them as “safe” because they are prescribed by doctors.
“That comfort level,” Volkow says, “facilitates the abuse” of these medications.
Because of the high from such drugs as narcotic pain relievers, she adds, young users are at high risk of becoming addicted.
Peter S., 26, a recovering addict from New Jersey, says the ubiquity of prescription drugs in American homes is reassuring to kids eager to take a controlled risk or dull the emotional challenges of being a teenager.
“You don’t have to go to the drug dealer or even leave the house,” says Peter, who spoke on condition that his last name not be used. “You can just go upstairs to mom’s medicine chest and boom! You’re locked and loaded … People feel like, ‘Wow, how bad could it be? It came from our doctor. And I’m not doing street drugs — cocaine or mushrooms. I’m doing what mom has in her medicine cabinet.’”
Many parents, whose images of drug abuse may be dominated by street drugs, “just don’t realize,” Peter says, that the leftover pain pills from mom’s back spasm or the unused anti-anxiety pills prescribed for dad during a rough patch at work may furnish a kid’s first chance to experiment with drugs.
Parents “take one and feel better and put the rest up there in the medicine chest,” Peter says. “They just don’t know.”
Volkow adds that a shift toward prescription drug abuse also may make it harder for the new generation’s drug users to “age out” of their habit, as many baby boomers have done. Users of street drugs, Volkow says, frequently quit as they find that unpleasant side effects become more pronounced with age and prolonged use.
But users of prescription medicationstend to build tolerance to the effects over time, prompting them to use more, not less, and more often, Volkow says.
Researchers with the federal substance abuse agency said they remain uncertain if boomer drug users continued to do drugs into adulthood or, rather, returned to a youthful habit as they aged.
John P. Walters, the nation’s drug czar, expressed surprise that young Americans are turning away from cocaine and methamphetamine, but use of such street drugs continues among their elders.
Jim Steinhagen, executive director of the Hazelden Center for Youth and Families in suburban St. Paul, Minn., says that for young people, experimentation with prescription drugs only appears “safer” than their parents’ drug forays.
“We’re seeing kids coming to the treatment center more acutely addicted than we ever have before, so the degree of detox we need is more extensive and takes a longer period of time,” says Steinhagen, 32, a practitioner of addiction treatment.
“The kind of substance use that goes on today is like extreme sports for this generation — quicker, faster, a more dangerous thrill-seeking experience.”
The recent government report comes on the heels of a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University showing that 19 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds believe prescription drugs are easier to get than cigarettes, alcohol and street drugs.
The new report also underscores the ease with which abusers of prescription drugs can get controlled substances. More than one-half of those who reported they had recently taken prescription drugs for nonmedical uses said they got the drugs from a friend or relative for free, and almost 20 percent got them from a physician. About 1 in 10 who took prescription pain relievers said they bought or stole them from a friend or relative.
Drug-enforcement officials have long known that teenagers and young adults widely trade, sell and steal stimulant medications, heavily prescribed among student populations to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Fewer than 5 percent told interviewers that they had turned to a drug-dealing stranger to acquire prescription drugs, or logged on to an Internet site selling prescription drugs.
Peter S. says his initiation to prescription drugs came from the medicine chests of his — and a friend’s — parents.
“I had found Vicodin and Percocet and had heard about them and Xanax and Valium — the benzodiazepams — and took a couple,” Peter says. “I reached up in that medicine chest and took a couple and thought, ‘Oh this is fun.’ It made me feel floaty … It was fun in the beginning.”
The government report, which also tallies Americans’ mental-health status, makes clear that illicit drug use is frequently a form of self-medication.
Among 12- to 17-year-olds, roughly 2 million had experienced a major depressive episode in 2007 — about 8.2 percent of that age group’s population. Illicit drug use was roughly twice as high — 35 percent — among youths who had experienced depression than among those who had not.
Note: Kids prefer prescription drugs to their parents’ street drugs.
Source: Daily Press
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, heroin, London, marijuana, NORML, Paul Armentano, pot, skunk, uk, weed
Survey: One In Five High Schools Drug Test Students
September 25, 2008 – Washington, DC
Washington, DC: An estimated one in five high schools and one in ten middle schools engage in some form of student drug testing – including random testing, according to survey data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and published in the fall issue of Strategies for Success, a newsletter of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
“Findings indicate that the number of schools conducting … drug testing may be [approximately] 4,000 – more than double the highest estimates cited previously,” the ONDCP reported.
In all, 14.6 percent of all public and private middle schools and high schools now conduct some type of student drug testing, the CDC’s School Health Policies and Programs study found. Slightly more than 50 percent of these schools reported conducted random drug testing among specific groups of students.
Of the schools that drug test, 84 percent utilize urinalysis – a method that detects the presence of inactive drug metabolites, but does not have the ability to determine recent drug use or impairment. Fifteen percent of schools employ hair follicle testing, the study reported. Eight percent use saliva testing, and three percent use sweat patch testing technology.
Of the drugs screened for, 86 percent of schools test for the presence of marijuana. By contrast, 75 percent of school drug testing programs screen for cocaine, 50 percent screen for alcohol, and fewer than 20 percent test for nicotine.
Last year the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on School Health resolved, “There is little evidence of the effectiveness of school-based drug testing,” and warned that students subjected to random testing programs may experience “an increase in known risk factors for drug use.” The Academy also warned that school-based drug testing programs could decrease student involvement in extracurricular activities and undermine trust between pupils and educators.
A 2003 cross-sectional study of national student drug testing programs previously reported, “Drug testing, as practiced in recent years in American secondary schools, does not prevent or inhibit student drug use.”
A 2007 prospective randomized clinical trial also reported that students who underwent random drug testing did not differ in their self-reported drug use compared to students at neighboring schools who were not enrolled in drug testing programs.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director.
DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7709
Text Messaging Impacts Psychomotor Skills Far More Than Cannabis, Study Says
September 25, 2008 – London, United Kingdom
London, United Kingdom: Sending text messages from one’s mobile phone impairs motorists’ ability to drive a car to a far greater degree than does smoking cannabis, according to the findings of a study published this week by Britain’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and reported by Reuters news wire.
Seventeen volunteers age 18 to 24 years old participated in the driving simulator study.
“The reaction times of people texting as they drove fell by 35 percent, while those who had consumed the legal limit of alcohol, or taken cannabis, fell by 21 percent and 12 percent respectively,” Reuters reported.
The study also found that drivers’ ability to maintain lane position and headway with the vehicle in front of them was more adversely impacted by texting than by the influence of marijuana.
Currently, five US states have enacted laws prohibiting text messaging while driving. By contrast, fifteen states have enacted laws criminally prohibiting drivers from operating a vehicle with trace levels of cannabis or inactive cannabis metabolites in their blood or urine.
A study published earlier this year in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention reported that in terms of overall driving performance, subjects under the influence of cannabis performed in a manner comparable to motorists with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05 percent.
For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director. NORML’s white paper, “Cannabis and Driving: A Scientific and Rational Review,” — http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7459
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: Boston, cannabis, Dea, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, Massachusetts, pot, skunk, war on drug, weed
Boston, MA — Backers of a pro-marijuana ballot initiative charged yesterday that 11 district attorneys from Massachusetts violated campaign-finance laws and twisted the truth about the question.
Whitney Taylor, of the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, said the DAs raised and spent money to oppose the question before forming their Coalition to Save Our Streets. Campaign-finance laws require groups to form a committee before raising and spending money.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone brushed aside the group’s criticism, calling it a “ploy” to distract attention from critics of the ballot question.
Leone attended a rally on the steps of the State House yesterday with other district attorneys, police, clergy and community organizers to call for the measure’s defeat.
“I’m not sure what the proponents of this question were smoking when they brought this to our state,” said the Rev. Jeffrey Brown. “We don’t need more weed.”
The question would make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a civil rather than criminal offense, punishable by a $100 fine.
Opponents say such a change in law would essentially normalize the use of marijuana, while supporters say it would reduce a burden on the criminal-justice system by sparing those found with small amounts from facing a criminal record and jail.
Taylor’s group has filed complaints with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance and the attorney general’s office, and against the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association and the public-relations firm hired to handle opposition to the question.
“This was an attempt to keep their organization as covert as they could for as long a possible,” Taylor said. The group also named Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett and Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz individually.
Taylor said state records show the district attorneys began raising money as early as July 18, but didn’t file a statement of organization with the state until Sept. 5.
An official from the Office of Campaign and Political Finance said the Coalition to Save Our Streets was originally formed as a political action committee that the district attorneys used to oppose Question 2. They changed their status to a ballot question committee on Sept. 5, after being informed that they needed to make the switch.
Taylor’s group has raised far greater sums than the district attorneys’ group, according to campaign finance reports.
The district attorneys raised just $27,670, virtually all of it from their own campaign accounts, while Taylor’s group has raised nearly $650,000.
The vast majority of the money raised by Taylor’s group came from outside Massachusetts, including a $400,000 donation from billionaire financier and liberal activist George Soros and $180,000 from the Washington D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project.
Taylor also faulted the district attorneys for using their state Web site to urge voters to oppose the question, and for misrepresenting the initiative.
In a statement on the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association Web site, the district attorneys say if the question is approved “any person may carry and use marijuana at any time.”
Taylor said if the question passed, possession of marijuana would still be illegal and anyone carrying or using marijuana would face a $100 fine.
Leone called Taylor’s accusations “a weak ploy to try to derail the public’s attention” about the negative fallout if the question failed. He said district attorneys are free to use money from their campaign accounts to support or oppose ballot questions.
At the rally, speakers said easing penalties would threaten recent positive trends in marijuana use among teens. They also said there’s a link between marijuana use and crime, car accidents and workplace safety.
“The same people dealing drugs now will be dealing drugs in the future, except they will have fewer obstacles,” said Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley. “Why would we put another monkey on society’s back?”
The district attorneys also said that existing law is fair.
Massachusetts law requires first-time drug offenders be placed on probation and that, at the successful conclusion of probation, “the case shall be dismissed and the record shall be sealed.”
If the question is approved, Massachusetts would become the 13th state to lift or ease criminal penalties on marijuana possession.
Source: Providence Journal
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, Dea, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, NORML, pot, skunk, war on drug, weed
USA — If denial is the first sign of addiction, then Drug Czar John Walters is hooked to the gills. He’s addicted to targeting and arresting marijuana consumers, and he’ll do and say anything to keep this irrational and punitive policy in place.
Speaking earlier this month on C-Span, the reigning Czar stretched his usual deceit to outrageous new heights. Responding to a question from the Marijuana Policy Project’s Dan Bernath, Walters flatly denied the charge that over 800,000 Americans are arrested annually for violating pot laws.
“We didn’t arrest 800,000 marijuana users,” Walters proclaimed. “That’s [a] lie.”
If only it were.
According to data released yesterday in the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report, police in 2007 arrested over 872,000 US citizens – that’s nearly one out of every two Americans busted for illicit drugs — for weed.
(The raw data is available from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation here and here.)
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/arrests/index.html
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_29.html
That figure is a five percent increase over the total number of Americans busted in 2006. It’s more than three times the number of citizens charged with pot violations sixteen years ago.
Of those arrested in 2007, 89 percent – some 775,000 Americans — were charged with simple pot possession, not trafficking, cultivation, or sale. (By comparison, 27 percent of those arrested for heroin and cocaine offenses were charged with sales.) Three out of four were under age 30; one in four were 18-years-old or younger.
The FBI’s tally is the highest marijuana arrest total ever-reported in law enforcement history. If this pace continues, annual arrests for pot will surpass one million per year by 2010.
But to hear America’s top drug cop tell it few, if any, citizens are ever arrested for pot possession, and absolutely no one goes to jail for breaking marijuana laws.
“The fact is today, people don’t go to jail for the possession of marijuana,” Walters alleged on C-Span. “Finding somebody in jail or prison for possession of marijuana is like finding a unicorn. It doesn’t exist.”
Not true says the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, which reported last year in black and white — perhaps the Drug Czar is reading impaired – that 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug abuse violations are serving time for marijuana offenses. Combining these percentages with separate U.S. Department of Justice statistics on the total number of state and federal drug prisoners suggests that, at a minimum, there are now about 33,655 state inmates and 10,785 federal inmates behind bars for marijuana offenses.
(The report failed to include estimates on the percentage of inmates incarcerated in county or local jails for pot-related offenses, nor did it take into account the number of inmates serving time for violating the terms of their marijuana-related probation, such as those who submitted a ‘dirty’ urine to their parole officer.)
No matter how one slices it, that’s a lot of unicorns.
It also begs the question: Why does the Drug Czar feel the need to go to such absurd lengths to hide this overt outgrowth of American drug policy? After all, the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy typically issue chest-thumping press releases when they achieve record busts for offenses involving cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine? Why then do they shy away from making similar proclamations for pot?
Perhaps it’s because, deep down, even the Drug Czar knows that the use of cannabis does not pose anywhere near the health and safety threat as does the use of other intoxicants, including alcohol, and that most Americans – rightly – would be outraged to learn that our nation’s so-called war on drugs is really just an assault on young adults caught with small bags of weed.
Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of NORML and The NORML Foundation in Washington, DC.
Note: Cannabis arrests now comprise nearly 47.5 percent of all drug arrests in the United States, 89% of them for mere possession.
Source: AlterNet
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: Alternet, cannabis, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, pot, skunk, Washington, weed
Washington, D.C. — Twenty years ago, on Sept. 6, 1988, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s chief administrative law judge issued a landmark ruling, but don’t expect any celebrations or commemorations in Washington, D.C. Our government has ignored this historic decision since the day it was issued, inflicting needless misery on millions.
Indeed, most Americans don’t know it ever happened.
In response to a petition asking that marijuana be moved from Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bars medical use, to a lower schedule that would permit physician prescriptions, Judge Francis Young held extensive hearings that began in the summer of 1986. He heard from an impressive array of expert witnesses, resulting in thousands of pages of documentation.
Young laid out his findings in a detailed, 69-page ruling, walking readers through the scientific evidence. He concluded that the law didn’t just permit moving marijuana to Schedule II, but required it.
“Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man,” he wrote. “By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care. … The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”
Remember, this was no pot-addled “legalizer” writing. It was the chief administrative law judge within the top federal agency responsible for enforcing our drug laws. Unfortunately, the ruling had no legal force. In legal terms, it was a recommendation, not an order that had to be followed.
And the DEA chose not to follow it. Six years after top DEA officials rejected Young’s recommendation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit ruled that the agency did have the right to ignore its own administrative law judge.
Because the federal government chose to disregard the results of its own investigation, the medical marijuana controversy continues to rage today. Losing patience with the feds, 12 states have acted to permit medical use of marijuana under their state laws. If Michigan passes the medical marijuana initiative on its November ballot, that number will increase to 13, comprising roughly 1 in 4 Americans.
But while those state laws provide considerable protection for medical marijuana patients, states cannot provide an exemption from federal law. Even in the 12 states that have medical marijuana laws, patients and caregivers have been arrested, terrorized and even had their children taken away.
Meanwhile, the medical evidence continues to mount. Another federally commissioned study, this time by the Institute of Medicine, confirmed in 1999 that marijuana has legitimate medical uses.
More recently, newly published clinical trials have found that marijuana effectively relieves certain types of hard-to-treat pain, including the nerve pain that often accompanies multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Other research suggests that by relieving the nausea and vomiting often caused by the harsh drugs used to treat hepatitis C and HIV, medical marijuana can help patients stick to these challenging drug regimens — and live.
Because our government has ignored science, needless suffering has been inflicted on millions of Americans who have benefited or could benefit from medical marijuana. In 2009, we will have a new president and a new Congress, and they should move quickly to end this sorry record of federal stonewalling.
Source: AlterNet
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, cocaine, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, pot, skunk, weed, white house
Washington, D.C. — Cocaine and methamphetamine use among young adults declined significantly last year as supplies dried up, leading to higher prices and reduced purity, the government reports. Overall use of illicit drugs showed little change.
About one in five young adults last year acknowledged illicit drug use within the previous month, a rate similar to previous years. But cocaine use declined by one-quarter and methamphetamine use by one-third.
Drug use increased among the 50-59 age group as more baby boomers joined that category. Their past month drug use rose from 4.3 percent in 2006 to 5 percent in 2007.”The baby boomers have much higher rates of self-destructive behavior than any parallel age group we have data from,” said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Walters, 55, is a boomer himself.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, being released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is based on interviews with about 67,500 people.
Overall, about 20 million people 12 or older reported using illicit drugs within the past month. Marijuana was the most popular by far, with 14.4 million acknowledging use of marijuana in the past month.
Among adolescents, age 12 to 17, drug use dipped from 9.8 percent in 2006 to 9.5 percent last year, continuing a five-year trend. Their use of alcohol and cigarettes also fell during the same period.
“The earlier you use drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, the more likely you are to have a lifelong problem,” Walters said.
Much of the progress in curbing drug use occurred from 2002 to 2005. Critics of the nation’s drug policies warned not to read too much into the latest numbers.
“Use of marijuana and other drugs naturally fluctuates and if you look at long-term trends, current rates are smack in the middle of the range they’ve been in for decades,” said Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates the decriminalization of marijuana. “There is simply no evidence that current policies … have made any difference.”
A World Health Organization survey of 17 countries this year showed that people in the United States were more likely than people elsewhere to have tried illicit drugs. The United States tied New Zealand for the highest rate of marijuana use and far outpaced other countries on cocaine use, the survey found.
The U.S. report measured drug use over the past month, while the WHO’s looked at drug use over a lifetime.
The WHO survey concluded: “The use of drugs seems to be a feature of more affluent countries. The U.S., which has been driving much of the world’s drug research and drug policy agenda, stands out with higher levels of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies as well as a higher minimum legal alcohol drinking age than many comparable developed countries.”
More than half the people who tried drugs for the first time in 2007 used marijuana, according to the U.S. survey. The rate of new marijuana users came to about 6,000 people a day.
The overall rate of illicit drug use dropped from 8.3 percent of those 12 and older to 8.0 percent in 2007.
Walters also acknowledged concern about non-medical use of prescription pain relievers among young adults. He urged parents to have more awareness of where they keep their prescriptions and to throw them away when the drugs are no longer needed.
The survey, which also examined mental health, indicated that 24.3 million people 18 or older experienced “serious psychological distress over the past year.” It stressed the link between mental health and substance abuse, noting that adults experiencing depression within the past year were more than twice as like to have tried illicit drugs during that time than other adults.
Source: Associated Press
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
