NORML: A Father’s greif: Cannabis Prohibition, Race and My Son
An unfortunate college photo of Barack Obama comes back to bite. During Obama’s freshman year at Occidental College, a classmate took a picture of the “cool cat.”
Despite the bizarre claims of some prohibitionists and law enforcement representatives that ‘no one in America gets arrested or goes to jail for cannabis charges’, NORML receives hundreds of emails and letters a week from our fellow citizens who’ve been negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition laws–notably due to an encounter with law enforcement.
A few weeks ago I received a letter from a father of a young man arrested and incarcerated on minor cannabis-related charges in Arlington, Virginia. The father’s lament is deep and profound, beyond the standard pleas for help NORML so regularly receives. So much so that I asked him if he would send NORML the original letter for publication.
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.
CANADA: Guelph cannabis club a smoking “business” — not far from Toronto
Rade Kovacevic runs the Medical Cannibis Club of Canada in Guelph where medicinal marijuana is available. Credit: Guelph Mercury
It’s a controversial operation but quietly so.
While it promotes itself and its workings via the internet, it guards its location closely. Even when you’ve arrived at the lobby of the downtown building where it’s situated – for now at least – only a simple sign marks its presence. White plastic letters on a brown board softly announce: Medical Club of Guelph.
The front door of the second-floor office is always locked. A doorbell chimes when a visitor wants access.
Behind the closed door, employees of the club – the Medical Cannabis Club of Guelph — dispense medical marijuana. It opened just over three years ago. It has quietly grown to 238 members.
The discreetness is to keep away those seeking recreational marijuana, said club founder Rade Kovacevic.
Canadian teenagers are among the largest consumers of cannabis worldwide
The damaging effects of this illicit drug on young brains are worse than originally thought, according to new research by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. The new study, published in Neurobiology of Disease, suggests that daily consumption of cannabis in teens can cause depression and anxiety, and have an irreversible long-term effect on the brain.
"We wanted to know what happens in the brains of teenagers when they use cannabis and whether they are more susceptible to its neurological effects than adults," explained Dr. Gobbi, who is also a professor at McGill University. Her study points to an apparent action of cannabis on two important compounds in the brain - serotonin and norepinephrine - which are involved in the regulation of neurological functions such as mood control and anxiety.
"Teenagers who are exposed to cannabis have decreased serotonin transmission, which leads to mood disorders, as well as increased norepinephrine transmission, which leads to greater long-term susceptibility to stress," Dr. Gobbi stated.
Previous epidemiological studies have shown how cannabis consumption can affect behaviour in some teenagers. "Our study is one of the first to focus on the neurobiological mechanisms at the root of this influence of cannabis on depression and anxiety in adolescents," confirmed Dr. Gobbi. It is also the first study to demonstrate that cannabis consumption causes more serious damage during adolescence than adulthood.
Dr. Gabriella Gobbi is a researcher at the neuroscience axis of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and also a psychiatrist and associate professor at the Department of Psychiatry, McGill University.
Funding
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This study was funded by a grant from The Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation (CPRF)
Partners
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This article was co-authored by Dr. Francis Rodriguez Bambico; Ms. Nhu-Tram Nguyen, and Mr. Noam Katz from from IR-MUHC and the Neurobiological Psychiatry Unit, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University.
California Marijuana Measure Set for 2010 Vote, Supporters Say
A ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use in California has received enough signatures to place it before voters next year, organizers said.
The “Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010” has garnered 680,000 signatures, more than the 433,971 required to be placed on the state’s ballot, said Salwa Ibrahim, a spokeswoman for the measure’s sponsor, Oaksterdam University in Oakland, which bills itself as “America’s first cannabis college.”
“We’re going to keep collecting signatures until we have to turn it in,” before the February deadline, Ibrahim said in an interview today. “They’re from all over the state of California.”
The measure, which must be certified by the secretary of state before it can officially be placed on the ballot, would allow adults 21 and older to possess an ounce of marijuana and cultivate 25 square feet (2.3 square meters) for personal consumption, Ibrahim said. Cities and counties can decide how and if to tax commercial sales and cultivation.
“So for instance, in a Danville or Alamo, if they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, we do not want dispensaries or any of that in our communities,’ that’s fine, they don’t have to have it,” she said. “But a place like Oakland, where we desperately need the revenue, it would be a perfect fit.”
A Field Poll conducted in April showed that 56 percent of registered voters in California supported legalizing and taxing marijuana.
Rally photos: MS patient John Wilson facing 15 years for 17 plants
Rally at the Somerset City courthouse for John Wilson 12/14/09
Family and supporters of John Wilson demonstrated today in front of the Somerset County Courthouse as jury selection began in his trial.
About 50 volunteers held signs for over 5 hours and passing cars honked their support.
Without healthcare 36-year-old Wilson was using marijuana to help treat Multiple Sclerosis. John has also been enduring an overzealous prosecution on the part of the State Attorney General. He faces first-degree felony charges of ‘Operating a Drug Manufacturing Facility’ after a National Guard Helicopter spotted 17 cannabis plants growing outside his home.
Two state Senators have already appealed for a pardon in a case that has generated national outrage and national media attention. John has been barred by the trial judge from telling the jury that he has MS.
Medical marijuana business booming in Fort Collins, Colorado
Various strains of medicinal marijuana are offered at Medicinal Gardens of Colorado, based in Fort Collins.
Medicinal Gardens of Colorado is not your average Fort Collins retail shop.
It's tucked away in a stone cottage on the east edge of the parking lot of the Carriage House Complex, 420 S. Howes St., with a modest sign showing its location.
To get in, customers have to be "buzzed" through a locked door after being checked out via a video camera.
Once inside, a client - or patient, as the business prefers to refer to its customers - must check in at a reception desk and prove his or her legal right to be in the store and to move on to the "medication room."
There lies the attraction and the controversy surrounding the business and what it has to sell: medical marijuana.
Glass cases reminiscent of a deli display a variety of marijuana products: edibles such as brownies, holiday cookies, Rice Krispies bars; small pot plants; tinctures in capped bottles; and several types of marijuana for smoking.
Trouble Ahead for Medical Marijuana in California
A display case at Belmont Shore Natural Care showcases a large variety of marijuana types at the dispensary in Long Beach, California. Credit: Corbis
California and Los Angeles have been pioneer sites for the expansion of the legal right to use marijuana. But local officials may now be at the forefront of curtailing some of that exuberance. If the Los Angeles city council has its way, the plethora of largely unregulated medical-marijuana facilities that have become a neighborhood blight in parts of the city may finally be brought under control. L.A. officials and medical-marijuana advocates estimate there may be as many as 1,000 such dispensaries. But in a preliminary vote on Tuesday, Dec. 8, the council indicated its intention to cap the number at just 70.
At the same time, the language of the medical-marijuana ordinance being debated is putting dispensaries under increased scrutiny. At the moment, the proposed ordinance would allow the facilities to accept monetary contributions for their services, a way of finessing the stipulation under state law that dispensaries remain essentially nonprofits. Currently all dispensaries stay in business by selling marijuana, a status that city attorney Carmen Trutanich and Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley believe already violates the nonprofit requirement. According to their interpretation, recent court decisions have shown that marijuana collectives cannot sell the drug over the counter for a profit, although members can be reimbursed for the cost of growing it. "Whatever [the city council does] come up with, we will study very carefully, and if they're proposing anything that is inconsistent with California state law, we will ignore their act and enforce the law as we're sworn to do," Cooley tells TIME.
Some high times in southern Oregon – Section leads Oregon in medical marijuana cards
In this August 2009 photo provided by the Rogue Area Drug Enforcement Team via The Grants Pass Daily Courier a marijuana grow site in on Allen Creek Road is seen in Grants Pass. Josephine County has hundreds of grow sites for medical marijuana.
‘‘Not Frank’’ doesn’t want his real name getting around. It could cost him his crop, even if it’s behind a 6-foot electric fence. And ‘‘Not Frank’’ isn’t completely legal himself.
Elsewhere, James Bowman says he’s just another farmer, with Tasers, surveillance cameras and pepper spray, after a plot to steal his crop at gunpoint failed.
‘‘Not Frank’’ and Bowman legally raise cannabis under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.
Demand among patients for OMMA cards to get relief from AIDS, glaucoma and other chronic conditions has mushroomed since a 55 percent majority of Oregonians approved the act in 1998.
As of Oct. 1, 23,873 people statewide had cards, a nearly fourfold increase since 2000, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services.
Jamaica lawmaker calls for legalizing small amounts of marijuana for private use
A ruling party lawmaker is urging Jamaica's Parliament to decriminalize possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal use.
Sen. Dennis Meadows, a deputy general secretary of the Jamaica Labor Party, issued a statement on Saturday saying that relaxing laws against marijuana cigarettes - commonly referred to as "spliffs" - would free up the island's courts and police to focus on violent street crime and harder drugs.
"What I am advocating is that ganja, at the level of spliffs for private use, be treated similarly to a traffic ticket," Meadows said.
Support for Medical Marijuana– and Outright Legalization – on the Increase
Standing outside Sunset Holistic, a medical-marijuana dispensary on Hollywood Blvd., short-order cook Steve Jones still remembers the day 20 years ago when his college roommate was arrested for possessing an ounce of cannabis.
"Back then, marijuana was the evil ganja weed of 'Reefer Madness,' " says Mr. Jones. "Now they say it's medicine and you take it to heal.... What'll it be next, the corner ganjaria?"
