Top 10 Cannabis Studies the Government Wished it Had Never Funded
Yes, that's right.....Government funded studies have reached conclusions that marijuana prevents cancer, the gateway effect is a myth, and has no increased risk of lung cancer.
Can't really claim bias for this one....
10) MARIJUANA USE HAS NO EFFECT ON MORTALITY:
A massive study of California HMO members funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found marijuana use caused no significant increase in mortality. Tobacco use was associated with increased risk of death.
A Big Week for Marijuana Legalization
The California Assembly's public safety committee voted 4-3 yesterday in favor of a bill that would legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol. Although the bill likely won't go anywhere (it will miss a deadline to reach the full floor for a vote), this is the first time a statewide committee has approved such a measure and it's a sure sign that attitudes are changing in California and across the country.
The news came a day after New Jersey became the 14th state to approve marijuana for medicinal use. Gov. Jon Corzine says he'll sign the bill into law before he leaves office this week.
The momentum toward marijuana legalization continues to grow. On Monday, activists filed a petition in Washington state that will put full legalization on the ballot before voters in November.
A poll this week in California found 84 percent of the state in favor of legalizing marijuana, and a study conducted by the legislature found that taxing marijuana $50 an ounce would raise about $1 billion for the state.
Legalizing and taxing marijuana would benefit society
California's budget turmoil is the worst in the nation. Sacramento closed a $42 billion deficit this summer only to face tens of billions more red ink already. Most expect another round of tortured budget balancing that further slashes aid to the most vulnerable, raises taxes and fees and kicks the can down the road with billions more in borrowing.
Meanwhile, California's largest cash crop is being largely ignored in the frenzied search for politically-viable revenue. The state’s marijuana yield is conservatively valued at $14 billion annually – nearly double the combined value of our vegetable and grape crops. The state Board of Equalization estimates that taxing adult marijuana consumption like alcohol would generate $1.4 billion in new revenue for the state. While that’s only a modest contribution toward our fiscal woes, it’s one more incentive to end decades of failed marijuana prohibition. In fact, the financial and human price that we currently pay for criminalizing pot is far too high.
Legal pot business growing in popularity in California
When Anneliese Curtis Place tore a ligament last month, she turned down the painkillers her doctor prescribed. Instead, she shopped for dope.
“It’s very easy to access it,” Curtis Place tells Metro. “I just drove to Venice Beach. There was a place called Botox on the Beach, and next to it there’s a medical marijuana store. They waved me in, for $150 their doctor did an exam, and I got my marijuana.”
There was nothing illegal about her purchase. Since 1996 the state of California permits the use, sale and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes. Anyone with a doctor’s recommendation can legally buy the drug in publicly available stores.
OREGON: Medical pot a growing problem, but really is it?
Law enforcement officials in Albany and Linn County say there’s been a decline in seizures of large marijuana operations during 2009, but they are growing increasingly concerned about abuse of the medical marijuana card system.
The Democrat-Herald talked with Det. Capt. Paul Timm of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office and Capt. Eric Carter of the Albany police about trends in drug enforcement.
Timm said his agency’s “top four” drug concerns are marijuana, meth, heroin and prescription drugs.
Here is a rundown of the year 2009 in drugs from the sheriff’s office:
Seized: Some 1,294 grams of meth, 9,905 grams of dried marijuana, 1 gram of heroin, 27 prescription pills and six MDMA (Ecstasy) pills.
In 2008, 336 grams of meth were seized as were 1,831 grams of marijuana, 1 gram of heroin, 3 grams of cocaine and 95 prescription pills.
During the summer, Linn County runs special marijuana eradication efforts. Of the 526 marijuana plants seized in 2009, only seven were in outdoor grows. In those cases, 21 arrests were made.
The economics of drugs: marijuana, cocaine, meth – supply vs demand is twisted!
Now that's a nice cloud of marijuana smoke. Credit: Pam Templeton
The Government Action Plan on Methamphetamine is working by at least one measure – price. A gram of P, according to one Auckland drug dealer, now costs around $800, whereas a year ago the same amount set users back about $300-$400.
The doubling in price tells a supply side-story. Prime Minister John Key launched the plan in early October and, among other measures designed to restrict supply, made the important precursor drug, pseudoephedrine, prescription-only.
Also, in the two months to early December, Customs intercepted a total of 230kg of pseudoephedrine at the border. When commodities become scarce, consumer demand drives the price up.
The government is, says Key, winning "the fight against P".
But if "we" are winning the fight, what will success entail? An exhaustive account of the global cocaine trade (The Candy Machine, How Cocaine Took Over the World, by Tom Feiling) suggests all of the efforts by government and its agencies will make not a jot of difference and may even generate a worse social outcome.
Washington among states considering legalizing marijuana, dozens of states weigh other reforms
Washington is one of four states where measures to legalize and regulate marijuana have been introduced, and about two dozen other states are considering bills ranging from medical marijuana to decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the herb.
"In terms of state legislatures, this is far and away the most active year that we've ever seen," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, which supports reforming marijuana laws.
Nadelmann said that while legalization efforts are not likely to get much traction in state capitals anytime soon, the fact that there is such an increase of activity "is elevating the level of public discourse on this issue and legitimizing it."
"I would say that we are close to the tipping point," he said. "At this point they are still seen as symbolic bills to get the conversation going, but at least the conversation can be a serious one."
Opponents of relaxing marijuana laws aren't happy with any conversation on the topic, other than keeping the drug illegal.
"There's no upside to it in any manner other than for those people who want to smoke pot," said Travis Kuykendall, head of the West Texas High Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area office in El Paso, Texas. "There's nothing for society in it, there's nothing good for the country in it, there's nothing for the good of the economy in it."
Saving Mexico: To weaken the cartels, some argue the United States should legalize marijuana
An agent carries marijuana plants at a large plantation found near San Cristobal de Coyutlan in August. Credit: Associated Press
To weaken the cartels, some argue the U.S. should legalize marijuana, let cocaine pass through the Caribbean and take the profit motive out of the drug trade
In the 40 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs," the supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way. The only difference: a taxpayer bill of more than $1 trillion.
A senior Mexican official who has spent more than two decades helping fight the government's war on drugs summed up recently what he's learned from his long career: "This war is not winnable."
Just last week, Mexican Navy Special Forces swarmed a luxury apartment tower in a central city and gunned down Arturo Beltrán Leyva, a drug trafficker whose organization helped smuggle several billion dollars worth of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. during the past decade, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Within days of Mr. Beltrán Leyva's death, Mexican officials were already trying to guess which of his lieutenants would take his place. Almost no one expected the death of Mr. Beltrán Leyva to slow down the business of drug trafficking or the horrific drug-related violence in Mexico that has claimed around 15,000 lives in the past three years. On Monday, hit men gunned down several family members of a Mexican naval officer who had been killed in the Beltrán Leyva raid. Four people have been arrested in connection with the killing, though Mexican authorities say the hit men are still at large.
Top 10 Events That Shaped Marijuana Policy in 2009
#10 Oregon NORML Opens 'Cannabis Café,' Media Frenzy Follows
In November Oregon NORML opened the state's first café catering to state-authorized medical marijuana patients. Unlike conventional marijuana dispensaries that operate in states like California and Colorado, medical cannabis is not sold on the premises, nor is the primary function of the café to dispense marijuana. "This is not a medical marijuana dispensary with a café; this is a café for medical marijuana patients," said Madeline Martinez, Oregon NORML Executive Director. The Associated Press, Reuters, USA Today, The New York Times, and Democracy Nowwere among the hundreds of media outlets that covered the story. Read the full story at: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=8024.
MOVIE: Cash Crop: Going where the green grows (a full feature documentary)
Undercover for a year and a half, we are now going public with news on our upcoming release: CASH CROP, a daring feature length documentary exploring Californias biggest cash crop: Marijuana. The film wrestles with the issues of freedom, self government, entrepreneurship, greed, and sustainability in the Golden State gone green.
2010 Will Be Even Better Than 2009 For Marijuana Advocates
Already Four States Have Marijuana Legalization Bills In Play; Californians To Vote On Legalization in 2010
It can readily be said that 2009 was one of the busiest and most productive years in cannabis law reform since NORML’s founding in 1970. However, it appears as if 2010 is going to be an even busier year–notably marked by the increasing number of actual state legalization bills and a voter initiative in America’s most important state.
Currently, there is legalization legislation pending in California, Massachusetts, Vermont, and a legalization bill was just introduced this week in Washington. Frankly, most of these bills do not have a strong prospect in passing this time out, however the immense public discussion that is generated is crucial for overall reform efforts.
The formula is simple: No public discussion or debate about legalization, obviously equates to no substantive law reforms. This is what regrettably happened in the United States, Canada and Europe from 1980-2000, buttressed by extreme federal anti-marijuanism in the form of the DARE program in the public school, the blitzkrieg of Partnership for a Drug-Free America ads polluting media airwaves and omnibus federal crime bills overloaded with severe and costly penalties (i.e., mandatory minimum sentencing, civil forfeiture, mass drug testing, etc…). However, since the turn of the century, there have been ever-increasing public discussions and debates about marijuana prohibition–principally driven by the creation and implementation of medical cannabis laws in thirteen states–which is leading to greater public support for reform.
Continue reading this article by Allen St. Pierre who is the Executive Director at NORML
