• Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Weekly Standard Exposé: Pot Prohibition Promotes Pretense, Paranoia

    By Jacob Sullum

    Matt Labash has an amusing, informative, and frequently astute report on Michigan’s medical marijuana industry in the latest issue of The Weekly Standard. As in California, he finds, it’s not hard to qualify as a patient who is permitted to use cannabis under state law, and many people who do so have common complaints (such as back pain and migraine headaches) that are difficult to verify and may simply be a cover for recreational use. Likewise, the people who go into the business of supplying patients with marijuana include budding entrepreneurs and black-market dealers going semi-legit as well as sincere Good Samaritans who are keen to help people suffering from debilitating conditions such as AIDS wasting syndrome and the side effects of cancer chemotherapy. This being The Weekly Standard, Labash’s emphasis is on the shadier patients and suppliers, and the title of his piece is “Going to Pot: The Medical Marijuana Charade.”

    But which charade is Labash talking about? It’s not the claim that marijuana is a useful medicine.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    California Braces for an Unstoppable Onslaught of Stoned Drivers and Employees

    By Jacob Sullum

    Opponents of Proposition 19, California’s marijuana legalization initiative, are falsely claiming it would allow people to drive while stoned. In a June Sacramento Bee op-ed piece, Bishop Ron Allen of the Greater Solomon Temple Community Church warned:

    If this proposed initiative passes, California drivers will be able to operate a car while under the influence of marijuana.

    The initiative states smoking marijuana while driving is impermissible, but it would be perfectly legal to smoke or ingest marijuana immediately prior to driving.

    And because marijuana stays in the body so long, police officers will have virtually no way to prove if someone just ingested marijuana 10 minutes ago or 10 hours ago. Unlike with alcohol, there is no current test to show the level of marijuana intoxication. All authorities can currently do is test for the presence of marijuana. If this initiative passes, it is perfectly fine to have marijuana in your system at any time—even while driving a school bus, taxi or light-rail train.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Sooner Or Later, Marijuana Will Be Legal

    By Bill Piper, Special to CNN

    Editor’s note: Bill Piper is the director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.

    (CNN) — It’s as predictable as the sun rising and setting. Even though police made more than 850,000 marijuana arrests last year, a recent government report shows youth marijuana use increased by about 9 percent.

    Supporters of the failed war on drugs will no doubt argue this increase means policymakers should spend more taxpayer money next year arresting and incarcerating a greater number of Americans. In other words, their solution to failure is to do more of the same. Fortunately, the “reform nothing” club is getting mighty lonely these days — 76 percent of Americans recognize the drug war has failed; millions are demanding change.

    In the almost 40 years since President Nixon declared a war on drugs, tens of millions of Americans have been arrested and hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent. Yet drugs are just as available now as they were then.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    How many people are arrested for possessing marijuana?

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 9-29-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 9-29-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3083

    Question of the Week: How many people arrested just for possessing marijuana?

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation compiles arrest data through a system called the “Uniform Crime Reporting Program.” This system collects data for 29 different offenses as submitted to it by law enforcement agencies. The annual report generated from these data called “Crime in the United States – 2009” was released on September 15th.

    In 2009, there were an estimated 13.7 million arrests in the United States. This total was down by -2.3% over the same total for 2008. Over the 14-year span from 1996 to 2009, all arrests totaled more or less the same number.

    In 2009, there were an estimated 1.7 million arrests for drug abuse violations, representing the total arrests for all illegal drugs. This total, too, was down by -2.3% over the prior year and was more or less the same sum as fourteen years ago.

    In 2009, there were an estimated 858 thousand arrests for marijuana, including simple possession, trafficking, and sales. This total was up by +1.2% over the prior year. However, marijuana’s percentage of total drug arrests has grown from about a 40% to over 50% during the fifteen year 1995-2009 period.

    In 2009, 88% of marijuana arrests or 759 thousand were for simple possession, representing a jump from about a third to about a half of all drug abuse violation arrests over the last fourteen years. The fourteen-year average annual growth rate for marijuana arrests of +3.1% contrasts starkly to the negligible growth rates for total drug arrests and for all arrests.

    These facts and others like them can be found in the Marijuana chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected].

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy - Question of the Week

    Is today’s marijuana more potent?

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 9-19-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 9-19-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3070

    Question of the Week: Is today’s marijuana more potent?

    The DEA states on it’s website that,

    “Although marijuana grown in the United States was once considered inferior because of the low concentration of THC, advancements of plant selection and cultivation have resulted in higher THC contained in domestic marijuana.”

    A 2004 report called, “An Overview of Cannabis Potency in Europe,” from the EMCDDA [European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction] says that,

    “The information on which the claims have greatly increased cannabis potency have been made is not always clear.”

    To clarify the issue, officials in the United Kingdom have issued the “Home Office Cannabis Potency Study 2008.” It found that,

    “The mean THC concentration potency in sesamia samples was 16.2%” and that the “mean THC concentrations potency of traditional imported cannabis samples was 8.4%.”

    From the last 420 Drug War News show, we recall that the Dr. ElSohly of the University of Mississippi has been analyzing seized cannabis samples since 1985. Potency percentages from his 2009 report are currently listed as Fact #14 in the Drug War Facts Marijuana chapter.

    Using the data to reduce peaks and valleys, finds a three year average potency from 2005-2008 for sensimilla was 11.2% THC and for herbal marijuana, 5.8% THC. The three year average percentage change in cannabis potency was +3.9% for commercial marijuana and  –1.3% for sensimilla.

    That European Monitoring Centre Report explains the difference between the US and British data by concluding that,

    “It most be assumed that the quality of herbal cannabis consumed in the US more than 20 years ago was unusually poor but that in recent years, it has risen to levels typical of Europe.”

    These facts and others like them can be found in the Marijuana chapter of Drug War Facts at www.drugwarfacts.org.

    Questions concerning these or other facts concerning drug policy can be e-mailed to [email protected].

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Just Say Now! – NORML Conference 2010 Footage Now Available

    The leaves are starting to change color, harvest season is upon us, and fall has officially begun. As the days grow shorter and the temperature gets a bit cooler it is a good time to reflect on the year that was in cannabis law reform.

    2010 turned the steady momentum we had built in previous years and amplified it to a near unstoppable force. Nowhere was the enthusiastic spirit more prevalent than at this years annual NORML Conference in Portland, OR. The theme, “Just Say Now!”, was perfectly encapsulated in both the mood and tone of speakers and attendees. With the addition of states such as New Jersey and the District of Columbia to the list of localities legalizing some form of medical use and Proposition 19 only five weeks from the polling booth, there is much to be optimistic about.

    NORML invites to you visit our site at www.youtube.com/natlnorml and experience some of the conference’s best moments. For now, treat yourself to speeches from show stealers Alice Huffman and Greta Gaines, as well as a recap of the first day of the conference. More will continue to be posted in the coming days.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Federalism and Medical Marijuana

    Let the states serve as experimental laboratories.

    By Patri Friedman

    Since medical marijuana was legalized in California in 1996, use has been widespread. And once the Obama administration reduced the harassment, the number of dispensaries has grown rapidly. Not that pot was ever that hard to get out West, but it is now fair to say that the “medical” qualification is close to irrelevant.

    So marijuana is now de facto legal in California, requiring only a couple hundred bucks and a short doctor’s visit to become a qualified purchaser. Perhaps as a result, a ballot initiative to fully legalize marijuana is polling at about even odds in the Golden State, and marijuana initiatives are in the pipeline elsewhere.

    Now, any libertarian must raise a cup, pipe, vaporizer (or whatever) to finally seeing a little bit of progress in the demented War On People Who Use Some Kinds Of Drugs. Combined with the resurgence in research on medical uses of psychedelics—which often find positive benefits—it looks like this may be the beginning of a positive shift in America’s drug policy. Slow, partial, and late, but in the right direction.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Public Forum: Where is Marijuana Reform Heading?

    The ACLU-WA presented a discussion on the history, current status, and future of marijuana-law reform in Washington and the United States. Local and national panelists included travel writer Rick Steves; Keith Stroup, founder of, and legal counsel to, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws; Washington state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles; Rob Kampia, co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project; and Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Moderated by ACLU-WA Drug Policy Director Alison Holcomb.