This week, in observance of 4/20, we’re taking a look at the politics of pot in America. We kicked off yesterday with a quick overview of marijuana law reform efforts over the past twelve months. Today, we check in with a leading legalization advocate, Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, for a take on the path ahead. Below, some highlights from our talk.
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Vancouver’s controversial safe injection site became an election issue Monday after yet another published study showed it has saved lives, prompting the study’s author to say Conservative policy on the site has no basis in fact.
Critics demanded Prime Minister Stephen Harper drop his government’s opposition to the clinic and abandon efforts to have it shut down.
Harper was in Yellowknife on Monday where he touted his government’s national drug strategy, saying it is based on prevention and treatment.
But the Conservative government has said in the past that it doesn’t condone the safe injection site and claims it fosters addiction.
The latest study was published this week in the influential medical journal The Lancet. It was written by Dr. Thomas Kerr, along with his colleagues from the Urban Health Research Initiative at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital.
“Canadians should be concerned about how the federal government is approaching problems like drug addiction — that they’re really not basing their decision on science, they’re basing it on ideology,” Kerr said.
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DRUG FIRMS AGAINST PATIENTS GROWING MEDICINE
Did you know the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved pill form
of marijuana (Marinol) only contains one of the compounds or
cannabinoids that are found in the marijuana plant? That compound is
tetrahyrdocannabinol or THC.Recent research in marijuana has shown it has many therapeutic
compounds or cannabinoids in it, such as CBD, a nonpsychoactive
cannabinoid that has been clinically demonstrated to have analgesic,
anti-spasmodic, anxiolytic, anti-psychotic, anti-nausea and
anti-rheumatoid arthritic properties. Along with CBD, there are
other naturally occurring terpenoids (oils) and flavonoids (phenols)
that also have been clinically demonstrated to possess therapeutic utility.If you are wondering why this information has not been in the
mainstream, you need look no further than Sunday’s Birmingham News
(“Doctors rethink ties to drug industry”). The drug industry is rich
and powerful. It pays doctors to promote its products and to not
promote products. The drug industry doesn’t want you to be able to
grow your own medicine. Where’s the profit in that?Obviously, there is merit to marijuana helping to relieve symptoms
for various illnesses or 15 states would not have legalized it for
medicinal purposes, nor would the Veterans Administration have
relaxed its policies concerning marijuana.This legislative session, Alabamians could have the chance to try
this medicine with a recommendation from their doctor. Let your
legislators know to vote yes for House Bill 386, the Michael Phillips
Compassionate Care Act.Dawn Palmer
Tarrant
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Download over 650 peer-reviewed journal articles and significant reports on Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Reform!
This comprehensive (and amazing) collection of references includes the following categories of papers:
Alcohol harm reduction
Cannabis
Drug Education / prevention
Drug policy documents – the need for change
Drug policy history
Economic issues
Entheogens and psychedelics
Health and social consequences of drug prohibition
Incarceration
Needle Exchange
Policing and drug law enforcement
Positive or non problematic relationships with drugs
Post prohibition options
PowerPoint presentations
Ranking of drug harms
Science is trumped by ideology
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Violence and drugsThe download time is approx 10 minutes and the file you receive will need to be unzipped.
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28 raids in 24 hours. That’s the unfortunate reality for medical marijuana patients in Montana and California.
Federal agents shutdown 26 dispensaries across Montana and 2 in the medical marijuana sanctuary city of West Hollywood, California this month in their latest attack on patients and legitimate businesses.
But back in 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder issued a memo ordering an end to federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries. Despite his memo, federal agents have continued these operations sporadically for years, without regard for patients’, states’ or business’ rights.
Attorney General Eric Holder clearly doesn’t have control of his own cavalry. This assault on patients rights has to stop now.
Sign our letter telling Attorney General Holder to enforce his memo and prohibit federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries.
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A whopping 72% of California voters support reducing the penalty for possession of a small amount of illegal drugs for personal use from a felony to a misdemeanor
A brand new poll this week finds that a whopping 72% of California voters support reducing the penalty for possession of a small amount of illegal drugs for personal use from a felony to a misdemeanor, including a solid majority who support this reform strongly. The March 21-24 survey of 800 California general election voters was conducted by Lake Research Partners and commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, the ACLU of Northern California and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Poll results and analysis are available online.
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An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the federal medical marijuana program is unconstitutional, giving the government three months to fix the problem before pot is effectively legalized.
In an April 11 ruling, Justice Donald Taliano found that doctors across the country have “massively boycotted” the medical marijuana program and largely refuse to sign off on forms giving sick people access to necessary medication.
As a result, legitimately sick people cannot access medical marijuana through appropriate means and must resort to illegal actions.
Doctors’ “overwhelming refusal to participate in the medicinal marijuana program completely undermines the effectiveness of the program,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
“The effect of this blind delegation is that seriously ill people who need marijuana to treat their symptoms are branded criminals simply because they are unable to overcome the barriers to legal access put in place by the legislative scheme.”
Taliano declared the program to be invalid, as well as the criminal laws prohibiting possession and production of cannabis. He suspended his ruling for three months, giving Ottawa until mid-July to fix the program or face the prospect of effectively legalizing possession and production of cannabis.
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11/n241/a08.html
Pubdate: Wed, 13 Apr 2011
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2011 The Toronto Star
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Jennifer Yang
Referenced: The Decision http://mapinc.org/url/Q7Itqn7O
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis – Canada) -
DrugSense recognizes Stan White of Dillon, Colorado for his eight
letters published during March, bringing his career total that we
know of to 856.You may read Stan’s published letters by clicking this link:
http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Stan+White