The Cannabis Network

BOOBIES(Thu, 10 Jun 2010)

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The ten-year ban handed down to veteran rugby league player Vince Whare makes him another casualty of injustice in our 35 year-old war on drugs, said New Zealand NORML President Phil Saxby today.

The Canterbury Bulls’ prop has just been suspended from any involvement in sport for a decade by the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand after testing positive for cannabis use. He tested positive for cannabis twice before, once in 2005 and then again in 2006.

“The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code requires third-time doping offenders to be banned for at least eight years, but cannabis is no more a performance-enhancing drug than alcohol”, Mr Saxby said. “What would happen to sport if all alcohol-using players were banned after 3 drinking offences?”

“This is blatant discrimination against a man who chooses to relax with a substance that’s better for his health than alcohol. That cannabis is illegal has no bearing on his ability to play rugby, nor his right to play the game.”

“If sports bodies are concerned about their image, the focus should be on alcohol, not cannabis,” said Mr Saxby. “Half of all serious violent offences and one third of all offences in New Zealand are committed by offenders who have been drinking; while alcohol is associated with almost fifty percent of all reported incidents of sexual violence.”

“How is it that Robin Brooke can be drunk and grope a girl and not get banned? Sports bodies have a double standard – you can be publicly drunk and behave indecently, but receive more lenient treatment than if you simply get caught for smoking a joint at home. Is that really what we want young people to believe?”

“Whare’s punishment at the hands of the Sports Tribunal is far harsher than any court would have handed down. For the next ten years, this man can no longer have anything to do with the game he loves and is very, very good at. He can’t coach, he can’t run the line, or referee or be an official. This sentence is almost medieval in its harshness!” Mr Saxby concluded.

NORML New Zealand is far and away the most successful and active international chapter of NORML.  Fully 8% of the web traffic I get here on the Stash is from New Zealand, making it the country second only to the US in web traffic here.

While NORML’s primary mission is to end adult marijuana prohibition in America, we are proud of the international chapters, like the one recently formed in Spain, NORML España, carrying on the NORML legacy and mission in other countries.  If you are outside the USA and would like to help form your country’s national NORML Chapter, send an email to start@norml.org.

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-03-09.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Argentinan prosecutor going after grandmother who planted two marijuana plants, despite personal possession and cultivation being legal in the country
2. Guam faces 10 years for 750 plants, or life in prison if he doesn’t cooperate over the next ten years in cases agains other marijuana offenders
3. Surprising number of candidates in Utah standing for ending marijuana prohibition

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Sahra Kant Photography

• Electric Tuesday: Quadron – “Average Fruit”

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Steele Smith – California medical marijuana defendant whose dog was killed by DEA

NORML Newsmakers

• Clif Deuvall from NORML of Waco, Inc, on new reform bills proposed for Texas

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Quadron

Quadron is a duo from Copenhagen who call their music “electronic soul”, which mixes hand-played instruments with synthetic techniques to form a lush, laid back sound. They began collaborating five years ago when Robin Hannibal met 16-year-old ingénue Coco via their joint participation in successful Danish soul collective Boom Clap Bachelors, they’ve gone from strength to strength in their homeland, throughout Europe, and now in the United States.

This downtempo band is in heavy rotation on renowned radio station KCRW and this particular track was featured as a ‘top tune’ artist of the day in January. Their beautiful arranagements and orchestrations have led to several celebrity fans including Gilles Peterson of BBC Radio, Paharell Williams of N.E.R.D., and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. Quadron’s self-titled debut has recently been released in North America on indie label Plug Research.

A welcome submission to the NORML Stash Blog / NORML Show Live, “Average Fruit” is about “finding what you believe in and what your heart beats for” according to Robin who also says this lounge-influenced song is “heavily inspired by Charles Stepney string arranagements” and the beat is “a take on a modern version of a syncopated African rhythm.” This wafting chill-out tune with gorgeous, soft vocals will relax and inspire.

Check out Quadron on MySpace and Twitter, and purchase their music on iTunes.

Download audio file (Quadron – Average Fruit.mp3)

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This card will be just as effective at preventing your arrest for cannabis as the THC Ministry's ID Card

Roger Christie is the head of an organization in Hawaii calling itself The Hawai’i Cannabis Ministry.  According to their website, “We use Cannabis religiously and you can, too.”  For a mere $50 donation, you can become a “Practitioner” and you will receive a plaque, an “affidavit of religious use”, two ID cards, and seven “Sacramental Plant Tags”.  For just $250, you get a “Sanctuary Kit” which also includes the “THC Minsitry [sic] Cannabis and Religion Guide”.

These ID cards and plant tags, according to Christie’s organization, are all you need to show you are religious user of cannabis and that you are immune from federal, state, and local arrest and prosecution because your religious beliefs are protected by the First Amendment.  See, it’s just that simple; we could end the 850,000+ annual arrests for marijuana violations if only every pot smoker sent in $50 for a laminated ID card from Hawai’i.

At least, that was the understanding of a 25-year-old man in Colorado named Trevor Douglass:

{Georgetown, CO} — Trevor Douglass, a 25-year-old Avon, Colorado resident, is fighting his charges of marijuana possession based on his religious use of cannabis as a sacrament. His case goes to trial on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, in the Clear Creek Courthouse in Georgetown at 2pm.

Trevor was pulled over for having an expired vehicle registration in Clear Creek County in August 2009. The deputy claimed he smelled cannabis in the vehicle. Trevor admitted that there was some aromatic cannabis inside the vehicle, and voluntarily gave it to the officer. Trevor explained to the officer that he uses cannabis for religious purposes.

Remember, this is in Colorado, where Douglass could get a medical recommendation for cannabis use, a registration card from the state of Colorado, and actually be protected from arrest and prosecution.  But since Douglass has his magical religious Get Out Of Jail Free (or, at least, for $50) Card, he felt perfectly at ease driving a vehicle with expired tags while carrying cannabis in a non-smell-proof container in the driver’s area of the vehicle and surrendering it to the officer without a lawful search.  Because, after all, that’s what religious people do… think of all the Roman Catholics who get pulled over with an open bottle of wine or all the Native Americans who get pulled over with a baggie of peyote on the front seat.  You never know when you’ll need to pull over on the highway and engage in some religious sacrament.

Trevor admits that he was guilty of having expired registration and had it immediately renewed after his citation. However, he will defend himself against the charges of possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana and for possession of paraphernalia. Trevor uses cannabis religiously and believes that both acts should be protected by the Constitution.

Remember, this is in Colorado, where possession is decriminalized, a petty offense with a maximum fine of $100.  So Douglass will have spent $50 on his Get Out Of Jail Free card and a few hours of his and the court’s time to get out of a $100 ticket.

Trevor feels so strongly about his beliefs that he is taking his case to trial. He missed the deadline to pay his $25 jury fee, so he will be tried by the Honorable Judge Rachel J. Olguin-Fresquez. Trevor cannot afford an attorney, so he is representing himself.

Which makes sense, since he’s already out $50 for a laminated card, a plaque, and some zip ties.  But not to worry, Douglass is representing himself in a case that, if decided in his favor, would shatter existing US Supreme Court precedent regarding the complex Constitutional issues around First Amendment freedom of religion and the Controlled Substances Act.  Never mind that civil rights attorneys who went to law school and studied and litigated the issue for decades now have been unable to get one single US court to recognize a First Amendment right cannabis as a sacrament.  Douglass has a magic ID card and a Hawai’ian website on his side.

In a statement to the Court, Trevor wrote: “The religious use of cannabis is mandated by my god, just as wine and bread are used by Christians or peyote used by Indians.  Cannabis has been used by my family for generations for prayer, communion, healing and spiritual enlightenment. My religion is that of my fathers.  My religious beliefs are protected by our Constitution and the Church ID I showed Trooper Graham clearly states so.”

And I have no doubt that Douglass believes that.  The THC Ministry has a list of links to Legal Precedents they believe guarantee the religious right to use cannabis, including the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act that has led to favorable decisions for Native Americans who use peyote, Brazilian Indians who use ayahuasca, and the inference that a Rastafarian in Guam might be able to possess marijuana in Guam, even though he was convicted and punished for importing marijuana into Guam.

But here’s the point upon which all attempts to recognize a First Amendment right to religious cannabis use have failed:

The Sherbert Test consists of four criteria that are used to determine if an individual’s right to religious free exercise has been violated by the government. The test is as follows:

For the individual, the court must determine

• whether the person has a claim involving a sincere religious belief, and
• whether the government action is a substantial burden on the person’s ability to act on that belief.

If these two elements are established, then the government must prove

• that it is acting in furtherance of a “compelling state interest,” and
• that it has pursued that interest in the manner least restrictive, or least burdensome, to religion.

So in order for Douglass to prevail, the court would have to find that ordering a $50 laminated card over the internet represents a “sincere religious belief”.  If that’s true, then certainly proscribing that religion’s sacrament would create a substantial burden for the believer; however, the “compelling state interest” of maintaining cannabis prohibition for the non-religious would be impossible if all the 22 million American cannabis users only had to order a $50 card on the internet.  Furthermore, the ban on cannabis is applied equally to the religious and non-religious and nothing about banning cannabis seriously impacts the practices of religion other than the sacrament.

In other words, it’s OK for Native Americans and Brazilian Indians to use peyote and ayahuasca because it is clear through generations of history and ritual that these tribes have a sincere religious belief (even without paying $50 for a Get Out Of Jail Free card) and peyote and ayahuasca are so rarely used by the non-religious that allowing them the sacraments doesn’t substantially burden the government in its “compelling state interest” to keep those drugs illegal for the non-religious.  But cannabis is so widely used by people of so many religions and backgrounds and the non-religious that granting a religious exemption would suddenly result in 22 million newly-religious Americans.

Shorter: Your God’s sacrament is too popular, so you can’t use it.

Now before the Rastas, Coptic Christians, and others pile on about the sincerity of their religion and sacrament, let me emphasize: I believe you and I agree with you.  If the First Amendment doesn’t mean we have the right to expand our consciousness without government interference, it’s not worth the hemp paper it was drafted on.  I truly do believe and support a religious right to use cannabis because I think it is part of the overall human right to use cannabis.

However, my opinions are not matched in law, precedent, or opinion by any court in the United States, and I’m not going to take $50 from you for the promise my opinions will keep you out of jail.

UPDATE: I received my callback from the court clerk in Clear Creek (try saying that three times fast):

• Unregistered Vehicle (violation) = GUILTY, $35 fine
• Possession of < 1 ounce of marijuana = GUILTY, $100 fine (suspended)
• Possession of drug paraphernalia = GUILTY, $100 fine, 15 hours of community service

I wonder if Roger Christie will be mailing to Trevor a refund for his $50 Religious Defense card and $135 (plus fees & court costs) he now owes the county?

UPDATE II: Oh, this just gets funnier… or more tragic, depending on how you look at it.  This just in from The Church of Lighter Wallets:

Judge Fresquez reasoned that Trevor’s acts were not part of an “organized” religion. She said that what Trevor was engaging in was more philosophical beliefs than organized religion.  She said since the Church of Universal Sacraments, a Hilo campus-based church, was now defunct, that Trevor could not claim he was a member. She also said that since Trevor’s affiliation with the THC Ministry came after his citation, it was not relevant to the case.

So we have a guy caught with less than an ounce of weed in a decrim state, where the fine would be only $100, who then decides to send in $50 after the bust to get out of the charge.  He claims that and his membership in a defunct church demonstrate his “sincere religious beliefs”.

I’m not comfortable with government deciding what is and isn’t a real religion.  I don’t think my self-determined spiritual beliefs, lack of affiliation with others who think like me, and the fact I have no ancient holy book make my First Amendment rights to freedom of religion any less valid than the billions of Christians or even the thousands of Rastafarians, for that matter.  I think our system takes the word religion too literally, as if the Enlightenment-era Deists who wrote the Bill of Rights were carving an exception only for those who put on nice clothes and go to a specific building once a week to sing praises to a deity written about in millennia-old folklore.  I think freedom of religion really means freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, and freedom of identity, so long as that practice does not interfere with the rights of others.

But once again, I know the difference between my opinions of the ideal and the facts of reality.  The courts have shown time and again they aren’t going to accept a religious use of cannabis defense, period.  That doesn’t mean earnest people shouldn’t still take those cases to court, but it’s not going to be a 25-year-old white guy named “Trevor” in Colorado caught with a baggie and a pipe in the driver’s area of his car who bought a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card after his arrest that is going to set that precedent.  Maybe an elderly dreadlocked Ethiopian immigrant Rastafarian caught with a personal amount while kneeling in ceremonial prayer in a temple has a slim shot at some sort of judicial relief… maybe, but I doubt it.

And I would never take $50 of your money to tell you:

• Do you have a THC Ministry id card, yet? They work under ‘arrest conditions’ to help set people free. Zero arrest. Zero court. Zero jail. All good.
• Is your THC Ministry paperwork in place? Is our id card in your wallet along with your wallet id from the Universal Life Church as a minister? Is there a sacrament ‘tag’ in with your ’stash’? Are your plants identified with our all-weather plant tags? Is there a Sanctuary sign on the wall near the inside of your front door? Is there another one in your greenhouse?  If so, sleep well tonight and every night.
• Remember: your religious freedom ‘defense to prosecution’ is good for the rest of your life. It’s always working for you 24/7 – forever. Year after year after year.
• We have had a total of ZERO negative experiences with those who have used our kit. As far as we know we have a perfect track record and we want to keep it that way, for your benefit and ours.
• Enjoy more ‘peace of mind’. Say good-bye to fear and shame and worry over herb. Start feeling really good about yourself and your herb enjoyment. You are safe and loved. All is well.

Unless your name is Trevor Douglass.

BOOBIES

I have a sig line on my email I acquired from somebody somewhere that reads:

The amazing thing about marijuana is its ability to addle the brains of people who don’t smoke it.

A perfect example of this is Washington Post blogger Charles Lane.  I’ve covered Lane before in the story “Washington Post opinion article on medical marijuana is an insult to our intelligence” back in October.  Lane’s preconceived notions and opposition to medical marijuana are well known, so it is no surprise that Lane would rush to his word processor when the news surfaced that John Patrick Bedell, the so-called “Pentagon shooter”, was a medical marijuana user.

But in his rush to condemn medical marijuana, Lane takes complete leave of all common sense and logic.  For example, he writes in the beginning of his post:

It might have been avoided if Bedell had received timely and effective treatment for his obviously serious mental illness. The fact that he did not is a cause for soul-searching by all of us. Advocates of “medical marijuana” should be especially chastened. As I have insisted previously on this blog, the legalization of physician-recommended pot in California is a prescription for disaster because it authorizes the “treatment” of a wide range of real maladies with a spurious “medicine” — marijuana — that might be ineffective or actually harmful.

Then follows that in the closing with this:

Let’s debate legalizing marijuana as a recreational drug. If smoking pot makes terminally ill AIDS and cancer patients feel better, give it to them.

But, for the most part, “medical marijuana” is a pseudo-scientific myth, and a dangerous one at that.

So Lane thinks medical marijuana is a prescription for disaster, but is willing to debate full legalization?  Would Bedell have been better served seeing a doctor for his cannabis acquisition than a clerk at a legal pot store, or not?  He thinks it will make terminal AIDS and cancer patients feel better, but it’s a spurious “medicine”?  And what about those doctors in the American Medical Association who declared last year that smoked cannabis is medically effective… are they spreading a “dangerous pseudo-scientific myth”?

In the middle of the piece we get gems like these:

Back in December 2006, Bedell went to see a San Francisco physician, R. Stephen Ellis, complaining of chronic insomnia. As any doctor worth his salt will tell you, this symptom often reflects an underlying physical or mental condition, including depression, bipolar disorder or even schizophrenia.

So proper care for chronic insomnia requires careful screening for, and appropriate treatment of, these ailments. “It would be incomplete treatment to give someone a sleeping pill and send him on his way,” [a Wisconsin doctor who specializes in sleep disorders] told me.

Yes, and chronic insomnia is, like you said, possibly indicating physical and mental conditions other than depression, bipolar, and schizophrenia.  Could be chronic pain, sleep apnea, or restless leg syndrome.  Hindsight is 20/20, Charles.  Furthermore, someone seeking relief from insomnia could have gotten all manner of prescriptions that have side effects like:

Lunesta: Tell your doctor immediately if any of these unlikely but serious side effects occur: mental/mood changes (e.g., worsening depression, hallucinations, agitation, or rare thoughts of suicide), memory problems, loss of coordination, signs of infection (e.g., fever, chills, persistent sore throat).

Rozerem: Tell your doctor immediately if any of these rare but very serious side effects occur: mental/mood changes (e.g., depression, strange thoughts, thoughts of suicide).

Sonata: Tell your doctor immediately if any of these unlikely but serious side effects occur: mental/mood changes (e.g., agitation, seeing/hearing things that are not there, rare thoughts of suicide), unusual behavior.

Now if it had been revealed that Bedell had been using these drugs prior to the suicide mission to the Pentagon, do you think Charles Lane would be writing 500 words on the dangers of these potent prescription insomnia drugs?  I doubt it.

To take the actions of one violent mentally ill man gone berserk and declare that as a reason to eliminate medical marijuana is as spurious a conclusion as blaming Christianity for Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bombing or Islam for Maj. Hasan’s Fort Hood shooting spree.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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Jennifer Alexander, a legislative analyst for Oregon NORML, forwarded to me a complaint the organization is leveling at the Washington County Sheriff, Rob Gordon, a vocal critic of the twelve-year-old medical marijuana law.  At issue for Oregon NORML is the following part of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (emphasis mine):

ORS 475.331

(3) Authorized employees of state or local law enforcement agencies that obtain identifying information from the list as authorized under this section may not release or use the information for any purpose other than verification that a person IS a lawful possessor of a registry identification card or the designated primary caregiver of a lawful possessor of a registry identification card or that a location is an authorized marijuana grow site. [1999 c.4 §12; 2005 c.822 §5]

Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon. 215 SW Adams, MS 32. Hillsboro, OR 97123. Phone: (503) 846-2700. Fax: (503) 846-2719

The first time I reported on Sheriff Rob Gordon was in October 2008.  The sheriff released to the media a map of one of the county’s largest cities, with “Red Cross / pot leaf” icons posted on the map where alleged out of compliance medical marijuana grows had been busted.  While the map didn’t give specific addresses and names, it was accurate enough that any home invader with spare time and a good sense of smell could stake out a neighborhood and find the medical marijuana growers.

The department spokesperson, Sgt. David Thompson, explains that the county knows it is violating the law, and they do not care:

With narcotics sales, or even when growers tell others about their operations, armed take-over robberies and serious assaults inevitably occur, Thompson said.

While these crimes occur in the county and throughout Oregon, the public is unlikely to know about crime trends because Oregon law says law enforcement cannot release or use OMMP participant information except to verify the person has a valid card, Thompson said.

“At this point, we are going against what the state advises,” Thompson said. “This law was designed to help sick people. But when they go out of compliance, or use the law to buy and sell marijuana, that’s not OK.”

So, while admitting that they are going against what the state “advises” (nice to know laws are just “advice” to county sheriffs), and while admitting that when grow operations are known it leads to robberies, they publish on the county sheriff’s website a map of these growsite locations.

Oregon NORML responded to that episode and others with the following:

We feel that this breach of confidentiality also violates the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which is further supported by the OMMA’s statement of their own liability to protect the confidentiality of patient information:

The OMMP follows all Department of Human Services policies on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA uses terms such as “identified data” and “de-identified” or “non-identifying data.” “Identified data” means data that can specifically identify individuals, such as name or date of birth. “De-identified” or “non-identifying data” means data that protects the identity of specific individuals. For example, a count of the number of patients currently registered with the OMMP does not allow the identification of specific individuals

Polk County Sheriff Robert Wolfe, 850 Main St, Dallas, OR 97338. Phone: 503-623-9251, Fax: 503-623-2060

Now we have another county, Polk County, engaging in even more egregious unlawful behavior, this time endangering the safety of an innocent woman and her children:

(Polk County Sheriff’s Office – no link to protect privacy) Medical Marijuana Grower Arrested for Selling Marijuana [date redacted]

Agents of the Polk Interagency Narcotics Team (POINT) served a search warrant at the residence of [name redacted by NORML, but not in the Polk County posting] at [address redacted by NORML, but not in the Polk County posting], Monmouth, Polk County, Oregon on [date redacted], following an investigation to the illegal sales of Marijuana and Prescription medications. Mr. [Name redacted], who is a registered Marijuana grower and Caregiver through the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), was arrested and charged with Illegal Distribution of Marijuana. The investigation concluded that Mr. [Name redacted] was illegally selling the marijuana that he was growing at his residence to non-cardholders in the Monmouth/Independence area. Detectives seized 56 growing marijuana plants, 2 firearms, 44.7 ounces of processed marijuana, 1.9 ounces of hashish, 274 tablets of prescription Percocet and several jars of marijuana butter. Mr. [name redacted]’s wife, who is a card holding patient, was allowed to keep and maintain a user amount of marijuana at the residence. The Department of Human Services was called in to investigate the welfare of three (3) juveniles living at the residence. That investigation is ongoing.

So now the entire world knows Mrs. Name Redacted is sitting at home alone with her three kids at Address in Monmouth, Oregon, with no firearms to protect herself while her husband is in custody.  Since OMMA specifies that police can only seize that which is outside of compliance (assuming they even follow that part of OMMA), we all know she’s sitting there with no husband, no guns, and up to 6 mature marijuana plants, 18 seedlings, and a pound and a half of dried processed cannabis.

Even if Mr. Name Redacted was out of compliance, he was a registered grower and caregiver and subject to the privacy clause in OMMA.  Even if he is allegedly selling cannabis in violation of OMMA protections, he has not been convicted yet.  The police could report this as illegal marijuana growing and sales, but his registration in the medical marijuana program is not something they can release “for any purpose other than verification”, and, frankly, isn’t even germane to the story.

By letting her keep her medicine as a patient and not bringing her up on charges, the Polk County Sheriff is attempting to look compassionate.  However, what this really indicated is that Mrs. Name Redacted has had her privacy as a patient violated for no good reason whatsoever.  Perhaps she is employed somewhere that doesn’t look favorably on medical marijuana; her job isn’t protected by OMMA and they could opt to require a drug test from her tomorrow.  Perhaps her housing is federally subsidized and this news will earn her and her children an eviction notice.  Even if her husband has been using medical marijuana as a cover for illegal black market sales and she was well aware of it, that is no reason to put her home, job, and security at risk from violent criminals!

These data releases are not accidental; they are part of a conscious campaign by law enforcement to paint medical marijuana in Oregon as “out of control”.  They know medical marijuana passed here with 55% of the vote and it has only become more popular with the people over twelve years of smooth operations.  They need to orchestrate a campaign to discredit the compassion people have for the sick and disabled and the general positive support for outright legalization in Oregon among a growing majority of citizens, so they can get back to the easy statistic-padding and asset-forfeiture-booty provided by more marijuana law violation arrests.

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Click here to get your NORML iPhone App

Head on over to http://bit.ly/NORML-iPhone to get your apps for the iPhone that connect you to NORML News, Blog, Alerts, and Stash.

The app does cost 99 cents at the iTunes store, but you can feel good knowing that you’re contributing to the fight for cannabis re-legalization.

We do not currently have the app written for the Droid or Palm or Blackberry, but we’re working on it.  If you’re an app developer who’d like to volunteer your talents to help us do that, please let me know in an email to stash@norml.org.

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-03-08.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Mainstream media painting the Pentagon Shooter as crazed by marijuana use
2. Five become ill from ingesting cannabis brownies from California dispensary
3. Red Cross refusing to assist gunshot victims in Mexican drug war battles

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Eric Greenbud

• Roots Monday: Rick Harris – “Legal Medicine Blues”

Behind the Headlines with NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano

• Paul discusses his new report, “The Real World Ramifications of Cannabis Legalization and Decriminalization“

Government at Work

• Jeanne Ohta from Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii on three new reform bills that have cleared the Senate

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Last week Rhode Island became the fifth state this legislative session to introduce legislation seeking to legalize and regulate the adult use, possession, production, and distribution of non-medical marijuana. Also last week lawmakers in the Hawaii Senate approved legislation seeking to ‘decriminalize’ (replace criminal penalties with civil fines) marijuana possession offenses — a policy reform that now exists in thirteen states.

Opponents of such liberalization proposals inevitably argue that any efforts toward decriminalizing or legalizing cannabis will adversely impact the public’s use of marijuana and/or young people’s attitudes toward it. Yet regional data gleaned from around the word consistently demonstrates that the imposition and enforcement of harsh criminal marijuana penalties do not dissuade cannabis use, and moreover, that criminalization is an objectively ineffective public policy.

To better educate lawmakers, opinion leaders, and our own constituents of this consistent, comprehensive, and growing body of scientific literature, NORML has authored the following white paper, Real World Ramifications of Cannabis Legalization and Decriminalization. This paper reviews dozens studies that have examined this issue in regions that have either:

a) regulated marijuana use and sales for all adults;

b) decriminalized the possession of small quantities of marijuana for adults;

c) medicalized the use of marijuana to certain authorized individuals; or

d) deprioritized the enforcement of marijuana laws.

NORML’s paper also proposes general guidelines to govern marijuana use, production, and distribution in a legal, regulated manner.

Based on the multi-decade experiences of various states and nations that have enacted various versions of marijuana decriminalization and/or legalization, NORML maintains that:

1. Strict government legalization/regulation of marijuana is unlikely to increase the public’s use of marijuana or significantly influence attitudes.

2. Decriminalization is unlikely to increase the public’s use of marijuana or significantly influence attitudes.

3. Free market legalization of marijuana without strict government restrictions on commercialization and marketing is likely to increase marijuana use among the public; however, given that the United States already has the highest per capita marijuana use rates in the world, this increase is likely to be marginal relative to other nation’s experiences.

You can read the entire paper online here.

Spread the word…

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Today I have a very special toker tune! Legal Medicine Blues was written in honor of the namesake of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, It was composed by Rick Harris back in 2001 and it quickly became the anthem for WI MMJ supporters. Today I have a very special guest to help me introduce the song, who better to tell you everything about this great tune than the songwriter himself, I give you Mr. Rick Harris!

Quote from IMMLY.org website:

In his own words: Rick writes how he came to write “Legal Medicine Blues”:

“A while back a mutual old friend of Mark Shanahan and myself asked us to play a benefit gig for a friend of his. She, “Jacki” was a fellow member of a local group trying to promote the legalization of marijuana for medical use. Now I have to admit that this really wasn’t MY issue, but we gladly said yes to the gig. Before we started I was introduced to Jacki and she was then seated directly in front of me. While we were playing I would make eye contact with her and she seemed to really be enjoying the music. All through the night I watched her. I suspected she was having a tough time physically, but she had such warmth and radiated a certain kind of strength. She really made a strong impression on me. A couple days later I was thinking about the benefit and about her and the whole legalization issue. I grabbed my guitar and wrote the lyrics in about one-half hour. I put it aside for a couple of days to get a little distance from it, then tightened up the lyrics and worked out a simple straight forward arrangement. My partner Mark Shanahan added some tasty guitar touches and we recorded it.”

You can find a free download of Legal Medicine Blues at: http://www.immly.org/legal_medicine_blues.htm Also coming soon to iTunes!

Download audio file (LegalMed1.mp3)

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70% of the Mexican drug gangs’ profits are derived from trafficking marijuana to Americans who are not allowed to buy, sell, or grow their own.  I’ve written that numerous times on The Stash Blog… but sometimes some pictures are worth a few thousand words…

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(MSNBC) MEXICO CITY – Red Cross clinics in some parts of Mexico are refusing to treat people wounded by gunshots after finding themselves caught in the drug war, with cartel hit men intercepting ambulances to seize patients and even killing a Red Cross worker this week.

Miguel Angel Valdez, director of operations for the Red Cross in the Gulf coast city of Tampico, said he implemented the policy after gunmen this week forced an ambulance over at gunpoint just two blocks from a Red Cross clinic and dragged off a man wounded in a gun battle.

In drug-plagued Sinaloa state on the Pacific coast, police started escorting ambulances and guarding Red Cross clinics after a Red Cross dispatcher was killed Sunday in crossfire by assailants who followed a wounded man to a clinic to finish him off.

Culiacan’s Red Cross clinics closed for two days following Rogers’ death. And in the violent city of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, doctors and other personnel at two government-run clinics stayed off the job Tuesday to protest gunmen barging into emergency rooms to either rescue wounded comrades or execute rivals.

Gangs have also targeted doctors for extortion.

Amid the drug violence that has killed more than 17,900 people in Mexico in a little more than three years, even the criminals seemed to respect the Red Cross, an organization known for treating everyone — regardless of gang allegiance, criminal or social status, said Valdez, the Red Cross director in Tampico.

“But suddenly, these rules are being broken,” he added.

Well, this must be just more signs of success, according to President Obama’s DEA Administrator nominee Michele Leonhart.

It is only a matter of time before the Rio Grande no longer contains the Mexican Drug War in Mexico.  According to Homeland Security, these Mexican drug gangs are now controlling drug traffic in 230 American cities.  What makes this possible is the 60%-70% of their profits that come from marijuana sales and a prohibition policy in America that ensures those profits.

Mexican drug gangs would not become Boy Scouts following American re-legalization of cannabis.  However, they would become violent criminals with a much smaller budget, unable to buy off judges and police and military and unable to afford as many weapons and as much ammo.  Yes, organized crime still exists in America 77 years after the repeal of alcohol prohibition, but the mafias of today aren’t massacring each other in public over their bootlegging turf.

BOOBIES

(ABC News) The man who opened fire at the Pentagon Thursday is part of a growing pattern in the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. John Patrick Bedell is described as an angry “lone wolf.”

Bedell, according to family and friends, was mentally ill and a marijuana user. But he also had extreme views about the government, and he laid out those feelings in audio postings on the Internet.

[Homeland Security Secretary Janet] Napolitano talked about these “lone wolves” just a week before the Pentagon shooting.

“We have seen an increase in the lone wolf type attacks, which, from a law enforcement and investigation perspective, are the most challenging. Why? Because by definition they’re not conspiring. They’re not using the phones, the computer networks, or any — they’re not talking with others any other way that we might get some inkling about what is being planned,” the secretary told a House of Representatives sub-committee.

Well, mentally ill and a marijuana user? How exactly is that relevant to the story?  Is the inference here that being a marijuana user is possible sign of a “lone wolf” extremist?  Is it that marijuana use would impair his reasoning in a manner similar to mental illness?  Is it that marijuana users are criminals so we should have expected he’d commit an act of terrorism?

ABC News has been framing this story as a “marijuana addict” gone berserk immediately after the Thursday shooting:

The gunman who charged into the Pentagon Thursday and opened fire was intelligent but troubled, and had struggled with a longtime marijuana addiction, a family friend said today.

A “longtime marijuana addiction”?  (Note that the link takes you to a Diane Sawyer interview with a recovering methamphetamine addict.)  Here is the actual statement from the Bedell family:

We are devastated as a family by the news from yesterday. To the outside world, this tragedy is the first and only thing they will know of Patrick.  To us, he was a beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, and cousin. We may never know why he made this terrible decision. One thing is certain though — his actions were caused by an illness and not a defective character.

We wish for a speedy and complete recovery of the two officers involved.

the family asks that you respect  their privacy in this terrible time.

While Bedell does have a past as a marijuana grower leading to an arrest in California, his internet postings show that his mental illness was truly the driving factor in his attack.  He was suffering mental illness (bipolar disorder) for fifteen years and was self-medicating with cannabis, but ABC News’ attempt to portray this attack as the result of a “marijuana addiction” are shameful.

BOOBIES

The Inaugural HIGH TIMES American Medical Cannabis Cup in San Francisco - June 19-20, 2010 - San Francisco - Click here for more information

It’s not too early to be making your plans for the big cannabis events this spring and summer, which with all the reforms taking place in America should be the biggest cannabis protestival season to date (NORML SHOW LIVE will be streaming live from the events that are listed in boldface).  If you have an event you’d like to add to the list, please email me at stash@norml.org (I’m entering these from memory and I live on the West Coast, so please send me Midwest / Southern / Eastern events!)  Also check our NORML Cannabis Community Calendar for the smaller local events sponsored by NORML chapters around the country.

April 2010

• Michigan NORML helps present the Ann Arbor Hash Bash which kicks off the season on the first Saturday in April every year (April 3).  It’s just “one hour of power” around that famous 4:20pm time on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
• The International Hemp & Cannabis Expo takes place in San Francisco on the weekend preceding 4/20 (April 17 & 18). This debut event is happening at the Cow Palace.  “Radical” Russ will be a featured guest speaker.

• CU Boulder's 4/20 Smoke Out draws an estimated 10,000 people

  The world’s largest 4/20 smokeout will likely occur at the campus of Colorado University – Boulder.  There are also big 4/20 celebrations held in many other cities in the US (send me info at stash@norml.org and I’ll post it), as well as Vancouver BC and Dunedin, New Zealand internationally (our NORML New Zealand chapters represent!)  4/20 is on a Tuesday this year and “Radical” Russ will be giving a 90-minute presentation on marijuana law reform at the University of Washington in Tacoma.

May 2010

• The Worldwide Marijuana March takes place in cities all around the world (logically enough) on the first Saturday in May (May 1 – May Day is Jay Day!)  Click the web link to find your city.  “Radical” Russ will appear at Portland, Oregon’s version of the march, the Global Cannabis March, all day at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

June 2010

• This year marks a return to Hunter S. Thompson's famed "Owl Farm" on Woody Creek for a special afternoon cookout.

  NORML Aspen Legal Seminar takes place at the Gant Hotel in Aspen, Colorado, on June 10-12. This is NORML’s only event that is both accredited for cannabis law professionals’ continuing legal education and open to the general public.

• HIGH TIMES’ Medical Cannabis Cup debuts in San Francisco, California on June 19 and 20. This will be a daytime expo featuring medical marijuana experts and activists, leading dispensaries, medical cultivation seminars with Jorge Cervantes, Danny Danko, Nico Escondito and more!  Then on Saturday night the VIP party features performances by Eagles of Death Metal, Lyrics Born, and other top acts.

July 2010

• The Emerald Empire Hempfest takes place on July 16-18 in Eugene, Oregon. Willamette Valley NORML is a major organizer of the event and “Radical” Russ will be speaking at the event.

August 2010

• The second of two California HempCons promoted by Beverly Hills NORML takes place August 6-8 in San Francisco, California.

• This is what Hempfest looked like BEFORE it became a three-day festival and BEFORE the City Attorney in Seattle said he would no longer prosecute personal possession of marijuana...

  The “mother of all hempfests”, the Seattle Hempfest, takes place on the third weekend of August (August 20-22) on Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle, Washington. The Hempfest has expanded to three days for the first time this year and in a very promising development, the newly-elected city attorney in Seattle has said he will no longer prosecute personal marijuana possession offenses!  You thought Hempfest was smoky before…

September 2010

• If you want to be truly effective as a reformer, you must network with your colleagues.

  NORML National Conference is scheduled for September 9-11, 2010 in Portland, Oregon. More details for hotel and conference registration will be announced soon.  NORML SHOW LIVE will carry most of the conference on pay-per-view internet streaming for the first time for activists on a budget or unable to make it to Portland.

• Portland Hempstalk takes place September 11 & 12 at Kelley Point Park in Portland, Oregon, making Sept. 9-12 the perfect four-day “two-fer” for cannabis activists to visit the Pacific Northwest.
• Boston Freedom Rally marks its 21st year on the Boston Common on September 18.

We’ll keep updating this page as more people send us their information.  You can easily find this page with the URL http://stash.norml.org/summer2010.

BOOBIES

One of the best (or worse, it depends on one’s perspective and physical location!) indicators of the total failure of a law, is when it is woefully and subjectively applied.

When trying to answer inquiries from reporters, columnists, policymakers and medical cannabis patients regarding as to ‘why specifically has Bryan Epis been compelled to return to federal prison–at great taxpayer expense during a steep recession–when there are thousands of cannabusinesses operating at the retail level in states like California, Colorado and Montana?’, there are no satisfactory (or logical) answers to provide them.

Suffice of to say, Bryan Epis’ case is both a dinosaur of sorts as well as a badge of shame for the current, and somewhat medical cannabis-supportive Obama administration in that his was one of the first federal arrests in 1997, and after a hotly contested legal battle, Bryan was one of the first medical cannabis primary caregivers to be sentenced under federal law, to ten years. After serving 24 months in prison from 2002-2004, with the greater social and political acceptance of medical cannabis blossoming around Bryan’s prison cell, he was able to procure an appeal bond, leave prison, argue his case in the appeals court again, re-start his successful business, pay taxes, take care of his mother, be a parent to his child, develop a loving relationship–all with the notion that he’d unlikely have to return to federal prison.

What, in the era of 24/7 medical cannabis vending machines, law enforcement having to return back hundreds of pounds of seized medical cannabis to patient-growers and caregivers, insurance companies paying on medical cannabis crop failure and insuring  dispensaries with standard business liability coverage and President Obama implementing the first steps of recognizing medical cannabis’ safety, utility and need to change its legal status specifically-tailored for medical use?

Could the federal government be so arbitrary and capricious so as to seek his re-incarceration for eight more years to be served in prison, for the ‘crime’ of growing over one hundred medical cannabis plants?

Yes. On April 08, 2009, a three panel judge on the 9th Circuit ruled against Epis and ordered him back to prison.

Bryan may have been arrested under the Clinton administration, prosecuted and incarcerated under the Bush 2.0 administration, but the Obama administration’s Department of Justice can ‘do the right thing’: stop wasting taxpayer’s money, stop being subjective in the application of the law and reason, and stop making the average person seriously question the priorities of government institutions and bureaucracies by immediately reducing his sentence, freeing him from a cage, and allow him to return to his family–and the tax rolls.

Below is a communication from Bryan’s partner regarding the two primary things citizens can do to support Bryan and help end this kind of insanity in the war against cannabis consumers:

1) Sign and distribute the petition necessary to appeal to the federal government to reduce Bryan’s sentence;

2) When booking lodging online, please use a search engine called LodgingSite, which not only benefits its owner (Bryan Epis!), but the company will donate 10% of their profit to public interest groups like NORML.

March 4, 2010

Dear Allen,

My name is Monica and I am writing you on behalf of Bryan Epis. As you know they recently took him back in to serve the remainder of a ten year prison sentence.  He wanted me to contact you in hope that you can help us. I have attached a printable petition. Our goal is to come up with 100k signatures within 4 months.  The lawyer he has is filing a 2255 to try to get his sentence reduced. Bryan is hoping you will put this petition on your website, anyone can print it. It holds 25 signatures per page, once a page is complete, at the bottom of the page is our address. We ask that they send them back to me and I will take them to his lawyer.

We have found a way to raise money for your non-profit organization as well as help Bryan.

We have a website called lodgingsite.com powered by Priceline.  It is a hotel reservation web site.  I would assume that all of your members, book at least one hotel a year, if they go to lodgingsite.com and book a hotel room under the “special rates” section.  We offer 10% cash back to any non profit organization of their choice (as long as when they get their confirmation info and send it to cashback@lodgingsite.com along with a designated non profit organization of their choice. They must include the name of the organization of their choice, plus their confirmation number, their name address, the hotel name and city). BTW, 10% equates to about $20 per reservation. If you multiply that by how many members and supporters NORML has it is potentially a lot of money NORML could get for the cause, as well as to help and promote Bryan’s defense.

If you have any questions please contact me at: monica@lodgingsite.com

Sincerely,
Monica Focht
(in care of Bryan Epis)

BOOBIES(Sun, 07 Mar 2010) Detroit Free Press (MI)

BOOBIES

It is well known in Texas that our Law Enforcement Officers are the best in the nation when it comes to that moment in time when the feet need to hit the ground. When you call 911, you can bet that Texas Law Enforcement Officers will respond quickly and deal with the situation at hand decisively.

Once the Law Enforcement Officers deal with the criminal element, they pass them off to the Texas Criminal Justice System. They are well known for their “tough on crime” campaign toting all of the old paradigms left over from the Reagan administration.

This bring us to the story about a Tyler Texas man named Henry Walter Wooten, 54 years old. Henry isn’t the brightest toker in the world. He was caught by law enforcement within 1000 feet of Ebenezer Day Care Center in Tyler with baggies of weed in his pockets toking on a joint. On Thursday, March 4th, Henry received 35 years in a state correctional facility.

Trey Cloud, DPS forensic chemist, testified that the weight of the marijuana seized from Wooten when he was arrested was 4.6 ounces, and the packaging alone weighed 1.06 ounces. He also testified that the drug seized from Wooten was indeed marijuana.

This is, more or less, a warning for those who would openly defy Marijuana Laws in Texas. The Texas Justice system is a series of policies designed to incarcerate people, not rehabilitate or help them in anyway. Henry’s case is unique because his possession limit was on the cusp of being a misdemeanor. In Texas, it is a misdemeanor to possess four ounces or less. One to two ounces is a class B, and three to four is a class A misdemeanor. Henry was found guilty of possessing four ounces to one pound, a felony which could be 2 years in jail and a $10,000 fine. However, since Henry was in a “drug free zone”, Smith County Assistant District Attorney Richard Vance had asked for the jury to give Wooten a sentence of 99 years. Do you think he got off easy?

According to the University of North Texas Rehabilitative Studies professor, James Quinn, Texas is on the cusp of a real grass roots legalization effort.

76% of Texans are pro-Medical Marijuana and 46% are for blanket legalization. However, 80% of those who are in favor of Medical Marijuana believe they stand alone in their thoughts.

According to Ryan Rodriguez, the Executive Director of DFWNorml, (Dallas Fort Worth / North Texas Chapter of NORML),

Once Texans start to understand that most of their neighbors agree with them, they will become emboldened to come out of the Cannabis Closet. We are sitting on a legalization powder keg! Once the powder keg goes off, then we can finally start a real dialog with our policy makers in the Texas House of Representatives.

Legalization in Texas is going to be an uphill battle. Our legislatures meet every two years. This year, 2010, is election year for all of them, including our congressional representatives, and next year the legislature convenes. We intend to submit several bills next year and are working closely with Texas NORML as well as volunteer lawyers and other activists. We could always use more help though!.

NORML activism has increased substantially over the last 18 months, more and more people feel empowered to come out to the meetings and fund raising events mostly because of the encouraging news around the country as more and more states pass legislation for decriminalization. With the possibility of California passing an initiative next year legalizing Marijuana, Texans are starting to open their eyes to the idea of another economic source of income.

The fact is that most of you who are reading this article will probably believe that sentencing a person to prison for 35 years for the possession of a non-toxic, non-addicting, all natural substance that has proven anti-cancer capabilities is not really protecting society from anything dangerous. He might have been stupid choosing his location to medicate, after all, it was Tyler, “Texas”, but nobody should spend a day in a steel cage for medicating, much less their entire life or 35 years. Let’s hope he earns a reprieve in his appeal.

In the meantime, help support your local chapters of NORML. Texas NORML is looking to create a Houston Chapter, so if you live in Houston and want to start a chapter, visit http://texasnorml.org/ and click on the contact link.