NORML’s Weekly Legislative Round Up

Below is this week’s summary of pending state legislation and tips to help you become involved in changing the laws in your state.

California: The state Assembly approved Assembly Bill 2279 this week by a vote of 42-29. The measure now awaits action by the Senate. If passed, AB 2279 would protect patients from employment discrimination on the basis of their state-licensed medical cannabis use in off-work hours. Californians are strongly encouraged to contact their Senators via NORML’s online advocacy system.

California: Voters in Northern California’s Mendocino County will decide on Tuesday whether or not to repeal an eight-year old county law (The Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative, also known as Measure G) which legalized the possession and use of up to 25 marijuana plants. Measure B, a Mendocino County-wide ballot initiative, seeks to overturn the measure. Activists are also challenging the validity of Measure B in court, arguing that a recent state District Court of Appeals decision prohibits municipalities from imposing limits on the quantity of marijuana patients may possess under state law. To learn more about efforts opposing Measure B, please visit California NORML or No on B.

Vermont: Legislation seeking to establish licensing procedures for state farmers who wish to commercially cultivate industrial hemp became law this week. However, as amended, House Bill 267 will not take effect until “such time as the United States Congress amends the definition of ‘marihuana.’”

North Carolina: Legislation seeking to establish a task force to study options for regulating the legal use of medical marijuana for qualified patients was introduced this week and referred to the House Committee on Health. As introduced, House Joint Resolution 2405 would “study whether a public benefit would be derived from making it lawful for physicians to prescribe and patients to possess and use marijuana.” Residents in North Carolina are strongly encouraged to contact their House Members via NORML’s online advocacy system.  

“They Sell Bud. We Sell Weed”: Travails On Pot Prohibition’s Silly Side (Unless You’re Getting Screwed By It, Then It Ain’t So Funny Or Cheap)

One of the only things that makes me madder than seeing the day in, day out waste of public resources and abuse of citizens’ rights associated with pot prohibition are some of the absurd stepchildren born of the government’s zeal in trying to enforce cannabis prohibition laws, quash popular culture and stymie entrepreneurialism.

Case in hand, a federal bureaucracy, the US Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is harassing a family-owned microbrewery in Northern California for some creative marketing, while looking the other way regarding the advertising practices of a huge, politically powerful beer company.

Treasury technocrats are taking umbrage with the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company’s use of bottle caps imprinted with ‘Try Legal Weed’, claiming that beer (AKA a drug) can’t have a drug reference, even when the reference is the name of the brewery’s hometown and last name of the city’s (Weed, California) 1880s wood baron founder (Abner Weed).

Mt. Shasta Brewing Company’s already sold 400,000 brews with names like Shastafarian Porter and Mountain High IPA (an additional catchy slogan on these notable craft beers: ‘A Friend in Weed is a Friend Indeed’), and had started printing up an additional 400,000 bottle caps in February when the feds put the kibosh on these funny and effective marketing double entendre.

Vaune Dillmann, Mt. Shasta Brewing Company’s 61-year-old owner and a former cop, irked by the government’s heavy handedness and lack of a sense of humor, is vexed by the obvious double standard that the feds don’t harass Budweiser for their now ubiquitous slogan ‘This Bud’s for you’.

Dillmann tells the LA Times’ Eric Bailey, “They Sell Bud. We Sell Weed”.

The ‘Weed’ beer debacle reminds me of a another recent and equally absurd government effort to ‘protect’ citizens from marketing imagery prohibitionists and well intending public health officials don’t like…

Cannabis, Cancer, And The Ongoing Federal Suppression Of Research (Part 3)

I’m proud to be a guest on this week’s edition of KPFT’s Century of Lies radio program to discuss the therapeutic use of cannabis and the federal government’s multi-decade campaign to suppress research documenting its clinical utility. You can listen to the radio show online here.

You can also watch a separate interview with me discussing the anti-cancer properties of pot, and join the ongoing discussion on Alternet.org here.

Potent Pot Myths Exposed (Again)

“This ain’t your grandfather’s or your father’s marijuana. This will hurt you. This will addict you. This will kill you.”– Mark R. Trouville, DEA Miami, speaking to the Associated Press (June 22, 2007)

Having spent over a decade debunking the ‘potent pot myth‘ — the false yet wildly popular notion that today’s cannabis is dramatically more potent, and thus more dangerous (or as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown likes to say, “more lethal“) than the marijuana of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, it’s nice to finally get some back up.

Writing in the forthcoming issue of the scientific journal Addiction, researchers at the University of New South Wales, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, examined the potency of over 100,000 pot seizures from around the word. They concluded (drum roll please), “Claims made in the public domain about a 20- or 30-fold increase in cannabis potency and about the adverse mental health effects of cannabis contamination are not supported currently by the evidence.”

The investigators also addressed the equally popular myth that ‘potent pot’ is responsible for an increase in the number of people seeking ‘treatment’ for cannabis, finding, “Another reason for increase in treatment seeking could be the introduction of cannabis diversion programmes, some of which involve mandatory treatment for those who have committed a cannabis-related offense” — a point we’ve made here on several occasions.

Want more details? NORML podcaster extraordinaire Russ Belville has an extensive summary of the study here.

NORML’s Weekly Legislative Round Up

Below is this week’s summary of pending state legislation and tips to help you become involved in changing the laws in your state.

Ohio: Legislation was introduced this week in the state Senate to legalize the medical use of cannabis to authorized patients. The Ohio Medical Compassion Act is modeled after existing medical cannabis laws in twelve other states.  Tonya Davis of the Ohio Patient Network discusses the new bill on NORML’s Daily Audio Stash here.

California: Legislation seeking to halt the role of state and local police in assisting in the US Justice Department in carrying out arrests and prosecutions against state-authorized medical marijuana patients and providers is scheduled for a vote by the full Assembly. As amended, Assembly Bill 2743 would prohibit state and local law inforcement personnel from “assisting in federal raids, arrests, investigations, or prosecutions [of] marijuana-related offenses … if the target is … covered under state medical marijuana laws.” A similar resolution is also pending in the Senate. Californians can support both bills via NORML’s online advocacy system.

New Jersey: The state Health Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee held an informational hearing this week on legislation that seeks to allow for the state-authorized use of medical cannabis. NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano and NORML Legal Committee member Alan Silber both submitted testimony. New Jersey activists are encouraged to contact their state elected officials in favor of this measure by visiting NORML’s online advocacy system.

Minnesota: Minnesota Representatives adjourned this week without taking action on House File 655, which sought to authorize the medical use of cannabis by qualified patients. A companion measure had previously passed the Senate. House leadership failed to call the bill for a floor vote after promises by Gov. Tim Pawlenty that he would veto the measure. Medical marijuana proponents can contact the Governor here.