• Cannabis & Hemp - Focus Alerts

    #452 Time for California to End the Unwinnable Marijuana War

    TIME FOR CALIFORNIA TO END THE UNWINNABLE MARIJUANA WAR

    **********************************************************************

    DrugSense FOCUS Alert #452 – Sunday, September 11th, 2010

    Kevin Zeese, the president of Common Sense for Drug Policy
    www.csdp.org wrote the following for posting to various websites,
    including ours.

    The facts presented both in the article and the references may assist
    you in writing letters in response to the many articles, both pro and
    con, appearing in California newspapers.

    Proposition 19 news clippings may be found at http://mapinc.org/find?272

    To date only about a dozen letters on our side which mention
    Proposition 19 have been published in California newspapers. In an
    election that may be close your letters could influence enough voters
    to make the difference.

    A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed,
    it’s the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead

  • Cannabis & Hemp

    Canada’s ‘Prince of Pot’ Sentenced to Five Years

    Pubdate: Sat, 11 Sep 2010
    Source: Seattle Times (WA)
    Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/rxc0sghl
    Copyright: 2010 The Seattle Times Company
    Contact: [email protected]
    Author: Mike Carter
    Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

    CANADA’S ‘PRINCE OF POT’ SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS FOR SELLING MILLIONS
    OF CANNABIS SEEDS

    Marc Emery, Canada’s “Prince of Pot” and a powerful voice in the
    debate over the decriminalization of marijuana, was sent to federal
    prison for five years on Friday for selling millions of cannabis
    seeds by mail and phone order, the culmination of a five-year
    prosecution and plea agreement that saw Emery extradited from Vancouver.

    In a statement to U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez and in a
    letter to the court, Emery admitted his attempt to force a change in
    U.S. and Canadian drug laws through “civil disobedience” and flouting
    the laws was “overzealous and reckless.”

    “I acted arrogantly in violation of U.S. federal law,” he wrote. “I
    regret not choosing other methods — legal ones — to achieve my
    goals of peaceful political reform.

    “In my zeal, I had believed that my actions were wholesome, but my
    behavior was in fact illegal and set a bad example for others,” he said.

    The five-year prison sentence was no surprise. Emery and the
    government had agreed to it as part of a deal that saw Emery
    surrender to U.S. authorities in May after fighting extradition from
    Canada for four years.

    Two clerks who worked for him at his seed store in Canada had pleaded
    guilty earlier and received probation.

    Emery was indicted in 2005, and at the time, the then-director of
    Drug Enforcement Administration, Karen Tandy, called Emery’s 2005
    arrest a “significant blow” to drug trafficking and the
    “marijuana-legalization movement.”

    “Drug-legalization lobbyists have one less pot of money to rely on,”
    Tandy said at the time.

    Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10.n745.a04.html

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

    How is marijuana’s potency determined

    Drug Policy Question of the Week – 9-6-10

    As answered by Mary Jane Borden, Editor of Drug War Facts for the Drug Truth Network on 9-6-10. http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/node/3052

    Question of the Week: How is marijuana’s potency determined?

    The World Drug Report 2009 states,

    “The amount of THC in a cannabis sample is generally used as a measure of ‘cannabis potency.’”

    As described in that report,

    “The secretion of THC is most abundant in the flowering heads and surrounding leaves. The amount of resin secreted is influenced by environmental conditions during growth …, sex of the plant, and time of harvest.”

    The report also notes that,

    “Most data on cannabis potency are derived from the analysis of seized [marijuana] samples. This means that these samples need to be representative of the entire seizure so that inferences and extrapolations can be made.”

    As described in a 2004 report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Addiction,

    “Data on the THC content of cannabis products in the USA have been collected by [Dr.] ElSohly et al. (1984, 2000) for many years as part of the University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project. Samples were submitted by law enforcement agencies and it is assumed that they are representative of the market.”

    To assist data analysis, details concerning the aforementioned environmental conditions, the type of cannabis, and the size of the plant canopy if known accompany the seized samples to a lab at University of Mississippi’s School of Pharmacy. Here they are put through a series of chemical tests to determine their THC percentage, as well as percentages of the cannabinoids, CBD, CBN, and CBC. One of their recent reports read,

    “As of March 15, 2009, the Project has analyzed and compiled data on 65,247 Cannabis, 1365 Hashish, and 476 Hash Oil samples.”

    That’s since the project’s inception.

    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]

    is marijuana’s potency determined?
  • Cannabis & Hemp - What You Can Do

    Stop the Lies about Marijuana Legalization

    Opponents of California’s Prop. 19 are already ramping up a misinformation campaign to scare voters with wild claims about the dangers of legalizing marijuana for adults 21 and up. Let’s fight back! Sign the petition below to tell the drug war fearmongers that the whole country is watching and their tactics aren’t fooling anybody.

    Shame on Prop. 19 opponents for distorting the facts about ending the failed war on marijuana. Misinformation and scare tactics have no place in the debate about changing California’s marijuana laws.

  • Cannabis & Hemp

    Marijuana Gateway Risk Overblown: Study

    A young woman smokes a joint outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. New research suggests use of marijuana as a teen is not a major factor in using hard drugs later in life. (Jonathan Hayward)
    Ethnicity, employment better predictors of hard drug use

    Long-held fears that the use of marijuana will lead to harder drugs are overblown, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.

    The research, in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, found that other factors, such as whether or not a person has a job, or is facing severe stress, are far more predictive of future hard drug use than whether they smoked pot as a teenager.

    “Employment in young adulthood can protect people by closing the marijuana gateway, so over-criminalizing youth marijuana use might create more serious problems if it interferes with later employment opportunities,” said co-author Karen Van Gundy.

  • Cannabis & Hemp

    Smoking Marijuana Relieves Some Pain: Study

    Smoking marijuana does help relieve a certain amount of pain, a small but well-designed Canadian study has found.

    People who suffer chronic neuropathic or nerve pain from damage or dysfunction of the nervous system have few treatment options with varying degrees of effectiveness and side-effects.

    Neuropathic pain is caused by damage to nerves that don’t repair, which can make the skin sensitive to a light touch.

    Cannabis pills have been shown to help treat some types of pain but the effects and risks from smoked cannabis were unclear.

    Smoked cannabis for chronic neuropathic pain: a randomized controlled trial, http://mapinc.org/url/THI4fclA

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Hot Off The 'Net

    Six Drug Czars, and Between Them They Can’t Muster a Decent Argument for Marijuana Prohibition

    By Jacob Sullum

    “Our opposition to legalizing marijuana is grounded not in ideology but in facts and experience,” say drug czar Gil Kerlikowske and his five predecessors in a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece that urges Californians to vote against Proposition 19. They argue that voters should listen to them because they are “experts in the field of drug policy, policing, prevention, education and treatment.” If this is the best case the experts can make against marijuana legalization, they had better call in the amateurs.

    Kerlikowske et al. say it’s not true that “legalizing and taxing marijuana would generate much-needed revenue,” because everyone will grow his own, thereby avoiding sales and excise taxes. Although “people don’t typically grow their own tobacco or distill their own spirits,” they say, marijuana is different because it is “easy and cheap to cultivate, indoors or out.” If growing pot were as easy as the Six Drug Czars imply, there would not be much of a market for all the books and periodicals that explain how to do it properly. In any case, one could also say that tomatoes are “easy and cheap” to grow, or that beer is “easy and cheap” to brew. I’ve done both, but I still buy tomatoes and beer in stores. The supply is more reliable and varied, and it’s a lot easier. Accounting for the time and effort required to grow tomatoes and brew beer, buying them in the store is cheaper too, even though I have to pay taxes on them.

  • Cannabis & Hemp - Drug Policy

    Facebook Blocks Ads For Pot Legalization Campaign

    From the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/facebook-blocks-ads-for-p_n_692295.html.

    Facebook Blocks Ads For Pot Legalization Campaign

    by Ryan Grim

    For a typical college student, if it didn’t happen on Facebook, it didn’t happen. That gives the social networking behemoth an out-sized influence on the confines of political debate, if that debate falls outside what Facebook deems acceptable discourse.

    Proponents of marijuana legalization, which is on the California ballot in 2010, have hit a Facebook wall in their effort to grow an online campaign to rethink the nation’s pot laws. Facebook initially accepted ads from the group Just Say Now, running them from August 7 to August 16, generating 38 million impressions and helping the group’s fan page grow to over 6,000 members. But then they were abruptly removed.

    Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for Faceboo

    k, said that the problem was the pot leaf. “It would be fine to note that you were informed by Facebook that the image in question was no long[er] acceptable for use in Facebook ads. The image of a pot leaf is classified with all smoking products and therefore is not acceptable under our policies,” he told the group in an email, which was provided to HuffPost.

    Noyes is on vacation and didn’t respond to an email. A request sent to Facebook’s general press address generated an auto-reply indicating that the company receives many requests and intends to respond. [Scroll down for a Facebook statement.]

    Facebook’s ad rules, however, only ban promotion of “[t]obacco products,” not smoking in general. Since the 1970s, shops selling marijuana paraphernalia have sought ways around the law by disingenuously claiming their products are “for tobacco use only.” The Just Say Now campaign is arguing the exact opposite: No, really, it’s for marijuana, not tobacco.

    The censorship is a blow to the campaign, which is gathering signatures on college campuses calling for legalization and registering young people to vote. “It’s like running a campaign and saying you can’t show the candidate’s face,” said Michael Whitney of Firedoglake.com, a blog that is part of the Just Say Now coalition.

    Conservative college students condemned the site’s restrictions. “Our generation made Facebook successful because it was a community where we could be free and discuss issues like sensible drug policy. If Facebook censorship policies continue to reflect those of our government by suppressing freedom of speech then they won’t have to wait until Election Day to be voted obsolete,” Jordan Marks, the head of Young Americans for Freedom, told HuffPost in an email. YAF was founded in the 1960s and William Buckley’s estate; Buckley was a longtime supporter of marijuana legalization. Marks is a member of the Just Say Now board.

    Aaron Houston, the executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, said that Facebook was out of touch with its customers.

    “Their business will suffer if they don’t reverse this decision. We’re way beyond reefer madness and censorship. Facebook should get with the times,” he said.

    While Facebook is banning the ad, a number of conservative and liberal blogs and news outlets have agreed to run it beginning on Tuesday. The Nation, The New Republic, Human Events, Red State, Antiwar, Reason, Drug War Rant, Stop The Drug War, Daily Paul, Lew Rockwell, The Young Turks, MyDD, AmericaBlog, Pam’s House Blend and Raw Story are among them.

    To protest Facebook’s decision, Just Say Now is launching, naturally, a Facebook petition, cognizant that the social networking company often responds to user feedback. The group is also asking people to replace their profile picture with an image of a censored pot leaf.

    “By censoring marijuana leaves, Facebook is banning political speech. This is unfair, and unacceptable,” reads the petition. “Facebook should reverse its decision and allow the free discussion of U.S. drug policy that the country is ready for.”

    UPDATE: The Libertarian Party has had the same problem. Spokesman Kyle Hartz emailed HuffPost to say that after initially approving the ad, Facebook reversed its decision and censored the ad on July 23rd.

    “Thanks for writing in to us,” a Facebook representative wrote to the party. “I took a look at your account and noticed that the content advertised by this ad is prohibited. We reserve the right to determine what advertising we accept, and we may choose to not accept ads containing or relating to certain products or services. We do not allow ads for marijuana or political ads for the promotion of marijuana and will not allow the creation of any further Facebook Ads for this product. We appreciate your cooperation with this policy.”

    UPDATE II: Facebook spokesman Noyes says in a statement: “The image in question was no longer acceptable for use in Facebook ads. The image of a marijuana leaf is classified with all smoking products and therefore is not acceptable under our policies.”

    UPDATE III: Facebook objects to the pot leaf under medical circumstances, as well. As Washington, D.C.’s city council was debating how to write regulations to permit the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana, the District of Columbia Patients’ Cooperative took out Facebook ads to encourage city residents to attend the hearings, the cooperative’s Nikolas Schiller tells HuffPost. Facebook shut it down, though the hearings went on regardless. The ads contained a pot leaf and were, like the others, initially approved and later rejected.

    “The aim of the District of Columbia Patients’ Cooperative use of targeted Facebook ads was to engender community support for the DC medical cannabis law which had been placed on ice for 12 years by Congress,” said Schiller. “We created the ads to target those on Facebook who are sympathetic to the subject and might be interested in coming to District Council hearings and meeting with elected officials. While we were able to organize through Facebook, our efforts were severely hampered by Facebook’s continued rejection of our ads. The ads ran between between January and May 2010, with the final rejection on May 10th–the ad stated “Have you spoken to your doctor yet? You will soon be able to use medical marijuana with a recommendation from your doctor!” and contained a cannabis leaf with the DC flag superimposed over it.”

    UPDATE IV: Johnny Dunn writes in to say that Facebook initially blocked ads for his t-shirts, which read “Legalize Gay Pot,” merging two pop-culture streams. He took the pot leaf off and they are now apparently in compliance.

    Ryan Grim is the author of This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America

  • Cannabis & Hemp - What You Can Do

    Who is for & against Proposition 19?

    We have updated our list of who is for and against Proposition 19.

    FOR

    The International Longshore and Warehouse Union

    The National Black Police Association

    The United Food and Commercial Workers Union

    The California National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

    Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

    The Drug Policy Alliance Network

    Students for Sensible Drug Policy

    The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

    The American Civil Liberties Union

    The Courage Campaign

    Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the former United States Surgeon General

    The Cannabis Consumers Campaign

    DRCNet

    DrugSense

    Common Sense for Drug Policy

    Marijuana Policy Project

    Citizens Opposing Prohibition

    The California Black Chamber of Commerce

    Retired Orange County Judge James Gray

    Republican Liberty Caucus

    California Young Democrats

    AGAINST

    The California Chamber of Commerce

    The California Police Chiefs Association

    The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

    Mexican Marijuana Trafficking Organizations

    The California Narcotics Officer’s Association

    Gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown

    Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer

    The California League of Cities

    Mothers Against Drunk Driving

    Please check out the new Proposition 19 website at
    http://yeson19.com/ – and please do whatever you can to support the effort.