420 Use and Health

[Crow]

Washington (US)

"Washington Democratic Party Endorses Marijuana Legalization"

The Washington state Democratic Central Committee endorsed a marijuana legalization initiative in the state over the weekend, calling cannabis prohibition a waste of taxpayer money.

Simple marijuana possession charges now account for fully half of all drug arrests in Washington, according to the Democrats, who pointed out pot's status as the second biggest cash crop in the state. reports Jonathan Martin at The Seattle Times.

The group said cannabis has the potential to raise $215 million in new tax revenues each year if a current legalization drive, Initiative 502, also known as New Approach Washington, passes.

I-502 is sponsored by the ACLU of Washington and endorsed by prominent figures including former U.S. Attorney John McKay (who was responsible for the prosecution of "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery), Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes and travel host Rick Steves.

It is expected to gather enough signatures to go before the state Legislature in the upcoming session. At that point, the Legislature can either take action or, more likely, let the initiative be decided by the state's voters on the November 2012 ballot.

Unlike previous efforts like Sensible Washington's two unsuccessful drives to simply remove all penalties for marijuana, I-502 would set up a regulatory structure, allowing heavily taxed cannabis to be sold in state stores licensed by the Washington Liquor Control Board.

Medical marijuana advocates have expressed grave concern that I-502 would criminalize driving over a codified blood THC level of five nanograms per milliliter (5 ng/ml). Advocates maintain that many medical marijuana patients, who must use cannabis heavily to control the symptoms of terminal or debilitating diseases, never drop below that level, even when completely sober.

Cannabis metabolites typically stay in the human system for 30 to 60 days after last ingestion.

Concerns about the DUI provision, the low allowable limit of marijuana (one ounce), and the prohibition on home cultivation, among other concerns, have led to the formation of a group, Patients Against New Approach Washington, on Facebook.

I-502 would allow adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, but would not allow any home cultivation. Marijuana growers would have to be licensed by the state, and marijuana could only be bought at state stores licensed and regulated by the Liquor Control Board.

It is worth noting that I-502 will have no affect on medical cannabis laws in Washington. Patients will still be able to cultivate up to 15 plants, and possess up to 24 ounces of dried, cured cannabis (60-day supply). Collective gardens are also exempt from I-502.

[sirloot]

the low allowable limit of marijuana (one ounce), and the prohibition on home cultivation, among other concerns, have led to the formation of a group, Patients Against New Approach Washington, on Facebook.

I-502 would allow adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, but would not allow any home cultivation. Marijuana growers would have to be licensed by the state, and marijuana could only be bought at state stores licensed and regulated by the Liquor Control Board.

Bummer

sure you can have those peppers .. long as you dont grow them yourself !

[Crow]

I don't see how it's a bummer. One ounce is a fair amount for a recreational user. If you run out, then you can always go to the store to get more.

Again, these limits and restrictions do not apply to medical cannabis patients.

The "Patients Against New Approach Washington" are misinformed.

sure you can have those peppers .. long as you dont grow them yourself

Yeah, I see your point. I would have liked to see a 6 plant cap in the initiative, but that's something that can be addressed later. Right now, we need to get this initiative passed.

[Crow]

British Columbia (Canada)

"DISPENSARY RESUMES MARIJUANA SALES"

Two Months After It Was Raided, the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Has Resumed Providing to Clients

The Langley Medical Marijuana Dispensary is back, providing pot for people with Health Canada permission to use it.

The doors opened Sept. 19, with dispensing resuming today ( Tuesday ).

The dispensary in the 20200 block of Fraser Highway was raided July 19, about 11 months after it opened.

Various strains of marijuana and baked goods containing marijuana were seized by the RCMP.

"Still to this day there haven't been any charges," noted Randy Caine, the Langley man who owns the dispensary.

Since the raid, the dispensary has been open to provide people with advice and assistance, although with only one staffer. A handful of other staff have been unemployed in the two months since the raid.

Randy said feedback from members since the raid was that many could not afford to go to Vancouver or other places to obtain their medical marijuana, or they couldn't travel for health reasons.

"We do know many who had to return to the parks [and drug dealers]," he said.

Supporters of the dispensary collected more than 1,100 signatures on a petition. Caine said the petition booth was put at places such as Langley Mall and McBurney Lane.

No one from the police or Crown have contacted him since the raid.

"I would love to have a day where I could stand in front of a judge," he told the Langley Advance.

Since the raid, the dispensary has cleared out inactive memberships and will be issuing new cards for members.

Caine and others involved in compassion clubs and dispensaries recently met with Health Canada which has been holding such meetings across the country. Health Canada administers the medical marijuana program which was brought in more than a decade ago.

Caine added he's pleased that Health Canada is now recognizing the need for more marijuana strains to be available. People who ordered their pot from Health Canada only had access to a mild strain.

Caine's dispensary had various strains, useful for different ailments.

The federal officials spoke about dispensaries being a model for distribution.

"There was some discussions about pilot projects," Caine added.

He is licensed to provide pot to two people, but had about 150 active members at the dispensary when it was raided.

Caine maintained that he followed court rulings on distribution and other issues, even if the laws haven't been changed to reflect the court decisions.

At the meeting, he asked Health Canada how he and others are supposed to resolve the discrepancies between drug law, Health Canada rules, and medical needs.

"They weren't sure how they could handle something like this," he told the Advance.

While there have been a few people who grumbled while passing the petition booth, no one has voiced opposition to the people gathering signatures or to the dispensary office itself, he said. The dispensary is being reopened because of the strong support that the community has shown, Caine said.

[Crow]

United States

"FBI: 750,000 People Arrested for Simple Marijuana Possession. And For What?"
(Source: Morgan Fox, MPP)

The FBI released their annual Uniform Crime Report yesterday, and the results are anything but surprising. Across the country, people continue to be arrested for marijuana-related violations at an alarming rate, despite the steadily decreasing stigma associated with it and increasing efforts at reforming our irrational marijuana laws. And guess what? It still isn’t working. Our esteemed leaders claim otherwise, even while admitting that they need to change their tactics!

Over the past year, the Obama administration stated that the “war on drugs” is over, and that the government was going to shift its focus away from law enforcement and interdiction and instead put more effort toward public health and education with regard to drugs. At a press conference just last week, Office of National Drug Control Policy director Gil Kerlikowske stated that we cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem.

If these statements are true, then how do they justify the arrests of more than 853,000 people for marijuana-related violations in 2010? That’s one person arrested every 19 seconds! The Drug Czar maintains that law enforcement protocols are still considered a useful tool for eliminating suppliers and dealers as a way to decrease overall use.

Okay, that seems like it makes sense. So how many of those 853,000 arrests were for sale or manufacture of marijuana? The answer is just over 103,000. That means that more than 750,000 people were arrested last year for simple possession! A remarkably small number of people who may have distributed marijuana were arrested last year, along with three quarters of a million simple users, in an effort to curb marijuana use nationwide.

Were those people “useful tools” in preventing marijuana use? Absolutely not. According to the government’s own data, marijuana use actually increased last year.

Now, we’ve seen that Kerlikowske is correct when he says that we can’t arrest our way out of this “problem.” We can see that arresting people for marijuana, even for marijuana sales, has no effect on marijuana use rates. This glaringly obvious fact makes such statements from the federal government even more confusing, given their continued trend of upholding the status quo at all costs.

Let’s look at some slightly more disturbing aspects of this report.

Arrests for simple marijuana possession accounted for 5.7% of all arrests in 2010! That is a significant percentage of our law enforcement efforts devoted to punishing people for a victimless crime. It seems that there are better ways to use those resources, especially considering that there were more arrests for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes. How many violent acts occurred last year that did not result in an arrest? How many rapes and murders went unsolved due to lack of funds or personnel?

The Obama administration has repeatedly claimed that we need to rethink our approach to drug problems. If it really means this, it needs to seriously consider the most obvious starting point: taxing and regulating marijuana for adults. It is time we stop spending billions of dollars ruining people’s lives in a vain attempt to prevent them from using a plant that humans have used safely for thousands of years.

http://blog.mpp.org/tax-and-regulate...what/09202011/

[Crow]

"We the People Want to End Marijuana Prohibition"

Today, the White House launched its new, long-awaited website “We the People.” The administration describes the site as a “tool [that] provides you with a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country.”

The White House further promises, “If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.” The White House has set this threshold at 5,000 signatures within 30 days.

Demand the Obama administration to explain their support for marijuana prohibition. If they can not, then why do they continue to endorse this failed public policy?

Below is the petition NORML has submitted for consideration:

We Petition the Obama Administration to: Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol.

We the people want to know when we can have our “perfectly legitimate” discussion on marijuana legalization. Marijuana prohibition has resulted in the arrest of over 20 million Americans since 1965, countless lives ruined and hundreds of billions of tax dollars squandered and yet this policy has still failed to achieve its stated goals of lowering use rates, limiting the drug’s access, and creating safer communities.

Isn’t it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol? If not, please explain why you feel that the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?

Click here to sign.

(NOTE: The White House has been experiencing technical difficulties with their website, please be patient and allow the petition time to load, if you receive an error message; retry later)

[Patients Against I-502]

New Approach is the WRONG Approach!

Washington (US)

"Washington Democratic Party Endorses Marijuana Legalization"



It is worth noting that I-502 will have no affect on medical cannabis laws in Washington. Patients will still be able to cultivate up to 15 plants, and possess up to 24 ounces of dried, cured cannabis (60-day supply). Collective gardens are also exempt from I-502.

I-502 will most definitely have a detrimental affect on patients. Sure, you can have your medical marijuana laws, you just can't drive. Nice trade off, NAW. I-502 puts a new DUI law in place (aka a new PROHIBITION) that will assuredly lead to INNOCENT people being convicted of DUI, even if they are not impaired in the least. I-502's new "per se" law makes it so that impairment is no longer the basis of the crime, the crime will now be having a certain amount of THC in your blood while also driving a car.

Countless studies have shown, time and time again, that there is no correlation between impairment and a person's plasma concentrations of THC.

Let me put this in perspective: It's the equivalent of measuring the nicotine in your body and setting an arbitrary limit at which they have ranDUMBly decided you are impaired. If you have X amount of nicotine in your body, you are guilty of "Per Se DUI" even if you were not impaired by that nicotine. In this case, they've substituted cannabis for nicotine, but what's to stop them from trying to implement this same system with other drugs.

New Approach has plenty of slick talk to distract you from this issue, but it all comes back down to this: The current DUI law is not broken. Neither cops nor prosecutors have called for a new tool to get stoned drivers off the street. Neither cops nor the courts have deemed the current system ineffective. Under the laws as they stand now, the burden of proof is on the officers to prove impairment. Under I-502's "per se" scenario, not only are you automatically presumed guilty because of the THC content in your blood, you have no "rebuttable presumption" (i.e. the right to defend yourself in court).

To see links to the scientific research and other valuable information about I-502, please visit https://facebook.com/PatientsAgainstNaw

[Patients Against I-502]

I don't see how it's a bummer. One ounce is a fair amount for a recreational user. If you run out, then you can always go to the store to get more.

Again, these limits and restrictions do not apply to medical cannabis patients.

The "Patients Against New Approach Washington" are misinformed.

Misinformed? Have you bothered to read the scientific data for yourself? Have you even read I-502 in its entirety? We are backed by two MD's, two lawyers, a prominent patient advocate and the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Seattle Hempfest. Do you really believe these extremely intelligent folks are MISINFORMED?

Patients Against New Approach Washington's number one goal is to help the general public wade through the "misinformation" (mostly doled out by New Approach Washington itself) and get to the FACTS. The fact remains that I-502 trades off the future of countless INNOCENT people, so that another subset of the population can have their 1 oz. decrim. Is it right to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate innocent people, just so we can stop doing the exact same thing to others.

"Patients Against New Approach Washington" firmly believes that creating a brand new law (aka prohibition) that targets cannabis users is counterintuitive and undermines the very goals of repealing prohibition. The last thing we should be doing is creating a brand new, unnecessary prohibition in the process of trying to repeal another.

You can learn more by visiting https://facebook.com/PatientsAgainstNAW. Come see the arguments we present and decide for yourself. We're confident that the vast majority of voters will make the right decision when presented with ALL the facts.

[Crow]

First off, I'd like to say thanks for visiting SnusOn, and welcome to boards!

Washington's current DUI law already includes "implied consent" and "per se DUI" provisions.

If you drive on Washington roads, you are deemed to have given consent to tests of your breath and blood if you are "arrested for any offense where, at the time of arrest, the arresting officer has reasonable grounds to believe" you are DUI.

The fact that you are "entitled to use a drug under the laws of this state" (e.g. you have a prescription for oxycodone or a medical cannabis authorisation, for example) is not a defense.

Regarding the threshold... I-502 adds a per se threshold for THC and distinguishes THC from THC-COOH.

The initiative clarifies that THC-COOH, the inactive metabolite also known as carboxy-THC that is sometimes used to convict marijuana users of DUI under current law, is not to be considered in determining THC concentration for the purposes of the per se limit.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School conducted a clinical study of THC concentrations in 25 daily or near-daily users of marijuana who, on average, had used marijuana for 8.8 years.

The study's participants reported daily or near-daily use ranging from 1 "blunt" to 1 ounce. More than half had used marijuana within 24 hours before admission.

Only 1 participant had a THC concentration above 5 ng/mL upon admission (7 ng/mL), and it dropped to 2.9 by the next morning. Just 3 participants had levels between 1.0 and 2.0 at the time of admission, 10 were below 1.0, and 9 had no positive THC test result at all.

Scientists should continue to study the relationship between marijuana use and driving impairment, and I-502 earmarks funds for this specific purpose.

Alcohol BAC limits have changed over time as new information has become available, and further research may lead to recommendations to revise the THC concentration limit.

Research requires funding, and I-502 specifically earmarks a portion of new marijuana tax revenues for research and education regarding marijuana intoxication and impairment.

One more thing to note... I-502 offers medical cannabis patients protection from arrest, whereas the current law only provides an affirmative defense.

[Crow]

General Mills and Cheech-n-Chong Team Up To Sell Magic Brownies, Sort Of

General Mills selling ‘magic brownies’? Flaming Pole Festival in the desert? The need for fiber? Cheech-n-Chong?

Well…I guess the Baby Boomers are now squarely in control as they’ve successfully married ‘pot’ culture to a candy bar-like laxative through mass marketing.

Well done!

Watch the video at:
http://www.fiberone.com/magicbrownie/

[EricHill78]

Seattle, it's a bit like if you have a script for Vicodin, drive around on the shit they can still get you on DUI right?

[Crow]

Seattle, it's a bit like if you have a script for Vicodin, drive around on the shit they can still get you on DUI right?

Right. If you're on Vicodin (for example), and you fail the FST (field sobriety test), they can arrest you for DUI.

[Crow]

[sgreger1]

Seriously California's medical MJ law is so perfect right now I just hope nobody messes it up or changes it. It's semi off the radar, anyone can get a script, and it's almost entirely unregulated. You can grow what you want, own what you want (20 lbs? no problem) etc etc. And most importantly it keeps the titans of industry out of it and is left to the local growers. Best quality, easiest access, cheapest prices, almost no regulation, this is about as good as it gets. I will be voting against anything that changes it in any way.

[Crow]

You can grow what you want, own what you want (20 lbs? no problem) etc etc.

SB 420 (California's amended medical cannabis law) only allows you to have 8 ounces of dried, cured cannabis, and up to 12 cannabis plants (6 mature, or 12 immature plants). While it is possible that you can possess larger amounts of cannabis (if recommended by your physician), you will have to prove this in court.