New Drug Policy Needs a Few Fixes
May 25, 2010 Online Issue
Source: Philadelphia Daily News
USA — The war on drugs is over, but we keep fighting it. And we may keep losing it . . . even with the fall of one of its key warriors, Indiana congressman Mark Souder – the evangelical who is known for abstinence-only sermonizing and who resigned yesterday over an affair with an aide. When Souder served as the chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, with oversight over anti-drug efforts, he was the author of the Drug-Free Student Loan amendment.That policy prohibits college students convicted of drug-related offenses, however minor, from getting federal financial aid. That policy was illustrative of the ill-conceived and ultimately ineffective direction the nation has charted to combat drugs.
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Poll: California Divided on Legalizing Pot
May 25, 2010 Online Issue
By Josh Richman, Oakland Tribune
Source: Oakland Tribune 
California — Voters are evenly divided for and against legalizing marijuana, according to poll results released Wednesday. The Public Policy Institute of California’s survey of 2,003 adults, conducted May 9 through 16 with a two-percentage-point margin of error, shows 49 percent oppose legalization while 48 percent support it.; a subset of likely voters shows almost the same result.Politics, geography and demographics seem to dictate which side people are on: 56 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of independents favor legalization while only 34 percent of Republicans favor it.
The Tax Cannabis 2010 initiative which has qualified for November’s ballot would let people at least 21 have, grow or transport marijuana for personal use, and would let cities and counties decide whether to regulate and tax commercial production and sale, most likely creating a system of “wet” and “dry” counties as in states with similar alcohol laws. It also would boost the criminal penalty for giving marijuana to a minor, prohibit consumption in public or while minors are present, and maintain existing laws against driving under the influence.
Tags: legalize marijuana, marijuana laws, marijuana legalization
Marijuana Initiative Drive Gathers Enough Names
May 25, 2010 Online Issue
By David Steves, The Register-Guard
Source: Register-Guard 
Salem — Oregonians will vote in November on whether the state should create a network of official dispensaries where approved medical marijuana users can buy their drug, advocates said Thursday, declaring that they have gathered enough signatures for their ballot measure.Supporters turned in 20,000 signatures Thursday to the Secretary of State Elections Division, bringing their total to 112,000. That’s well above the 82,769 required to put the measure on the ballot, although advocates plan to continue circulating petitions for more signatures until the July 2 deadline because of concerns that many will be tossed out as invalid.
Tags: marijuana bust, marijuana laws, marijuana legalization
Medical Marijuana Facing a Backlash
May 25, 2010 Online Issue
By Matt Volz, The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Montana — The vandals struck in the middle of the night, hurling Molotov cocktails through the windows of two medical marijuana businesses and spray-painting “NOT IN OUR TOWN” just before the Billings City Council was supposed to take up a ban on any new pot shops.Montana and other states that have legalized medical marijuana are seeing a backlash, with public anger rising and politicians passing laws to slow the proliferation of pot shops and bring order to what has become a wide-open, Wild West sort of industry.
“Yeah, it’s out of control _ and it needs control, if not extinction,” Montana Sen. Jim Shockley said Friday. “There’s no control over distribution. There’s no control over who’s growing it. There’s no control in dosage.”
Fourteen states have legalized medical marijuana, beginning with California in 1996, and the District of Columbia followed suit this month. The laws allow chronically ill people to buy marijuana with permission from a doctor.
Tags: marijuana, marijuana laws, Medical Marijuana
A Patient’s Experience With Medical Marijuana
May 25, 2010 Online Issue
By Jeffrey Sippel, Guest Commentary
Source: Denver Post 
Colorado — MI first met Jack in 2007, and have been with him through chemotherapy and radiation treatments. During the past four years, he has suffered countless symptoms related to lung damage from cigarettes and from side effects of cancer treatment.The short list includes back pain, chest pain, and cough from radiation; and he has shortness of breath from cigarettes to the point where he uses oxygen daily. He is also legally blind, though that condition is unrelated to his cancer.
Jack first asked me about medical marijuana in 2009. “What do you think of it?” he asked. I took a neutral stance, neither endorsing nor condemning it, and asked what he thought of it. “Well, I think it works,” he said. I inquired exactly what was better with it. “I can actually sleep a full night when I use it. I’ve only used it twice,” he said. “It helps me sleep, and it helps my back pain.”
Tags: marijuana for medical use, Medical Marijuana, medicinal marijuana
Butte: No Plans To Limit Pot
May 25, 2010 Online Issue
By Justin Post
Source: Montana Standard
Butte, MT — While other Montana communities wrestle with how to manage the sale of medical marijuana, Butte-Silver Bow officials have no immediate plans of limiting the local industry.Voters in 2004 overwhelmingly legalized medical marijuana in Montana, yet some local government leaders in the state have sought to limit sales of the prescription drug. Butte-Silver Bow leaders have discussed the issue informally, but have no immediate plans to limit caregivers, said council Chairman Dave Palmer.
Sheehy agreed there’s been an influx in caregivers in the city-county – nine have filed for business licenses – but he believes it’s only a matter of time before patients “weed out” the providers who aren’t legitimate.
Tags: legalize marijuana, marijuana for medical use, marijuana legalization, Medical Marijuana
Geithner Urged by Congress for Bank Rules on MMJ
May 25, 2010 Online Issue
By Peter Eichenbaum
Source: Bloomberg.com 
Bloomberg — U.S. Representative Barney Frank is among 15 members of Congress pushing the Treasury Department to set rules that would help banks provide financial services to medical marijuana dispensaries.“Legitimate state-legal businesses are being denied access to banking services, which does not serve the public interest,” the lawmakers said in a May 20 letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner that was distributed today by Americans for Safe Access, a patient-advocacy group.
Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are among U.S. lenders that have stopped opening new accounts for companies that provide medical marijuana because cannabis consumption and distribution are illegal under federal law. Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams didn’t have an immediate comment.
“If states want to make it legal or not, it should be a state matter,” Frank said in a telephone interview today. “It’s wrong for the banks to be told by Treasury they can’t service them the way they would service any other business.”
Tags: marijuana, marijuana dispensaries, marijuana laws, marijuana legalization, Medical Marijuana, medicinal marijuana
