In Recognition of Women’s History Month

This is part of an ongoing series featuring women who are leading the movement for the elimination of marijuana prohibition and the reform of laws governing its use in the United States. They are making history in law reform advocacy, cannabis related business and politics and in the field of medical research and patient care.

In May 1929, Pauline Sabin founded the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR). It was a platform for women who were demanding the repeal of the 18th amendment forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Known as the Sabin women, the leadership of the WONPR consisted primarily of the nonpartisan wives of leaders of American industry. In a little over a year, almost 1.5 million Sabin Women were publicly calling for an end to prohibition-inspired violence and political malfeasance related to the illegal production of alcohol.

“We believe that there are multitudes of women who are opposed to national prohibition who welcome an opportunity as a body to voice their opposition and work for such a change in the law.” –Pauline Sabin

In 2010, concerned female scientists, politicians, mothers and working women all over America are fighting with equal passion to end the prohibition of marijuana. They are following in the footsteps of Pauline Sabin, M. Louise Grosse (Founder of the Molly Pitcher Club), Mary T. Norton (the first female Democrat elected to serve in the house and member of the WONPR Advisory Council), and other female leaders of the 1930′s anti-prohibitionist movement. Like their predecessors, these women are the true change makers who are working to normalize, legalize, tax and regulate the use of a substance currently used by tens of millions of Americans. They are inspiring women from all social circles and political spheres to speak up and publicly support sensible, responsible cannabis policies based on science, reason and compassion.

While any attempt to identify the most impressive female leaders of the marijuana legalization movement is guaranteed to miss many of those who have toiled long and hard to move this cause forward, the women listed here were selected for their outspoken activism and media outreach. They are presenting a new public face to the reform movement and serving as inspiration for like-minded women everywhere. If there is a sister in the movement you would like to see recognized by the NORML Women’s Alliance, please email Sabrina Fendrick with her name and a bio of her accomplishments at sabrina@norml.org.

The NORML Women’s Alliance would like to honor all of the female NORML Directors who are paving the way toward rational cannabis policies and are setting a wonderful example as women who have actively taken on leadership roles (this year and last) within the NORML family. Thank-you ladies, you are making history:

NORML Women Chapter Leaders

• Dawn Dunlap Central Ohio NORML – (OH)
• Terri Zeman Greater St. Louis NORML – (MO)
• Trena Moss Hillsdale County NORML – (MI)
• Elizabeth Brandt Iona County NORML – (MI)
• Apryl Coleman Kent County NORML – (MI)
• Carol Reed Macomb County NORML – (MI)
• Kim Schmidt Ohio NORML – (OH)
• Norma Sapp Oklahoma NORML – (OK)
• Kandice Hawes Orange County NORML – (CA)
• Madeline Martinez Oregon NORML – (OR)
• Lori Duckworth Southern Oregon NORML – (OR)
• Melissa Posecznick Tennessee NORML – (TN)
• Lacey Viviano Upstate NY NORML – (NY)
• Linda Adler US Virgin Islands NORML – (USVI)
• Melody Karr Wexford County NORML – (MI)
• Dee Duffy Virginia NORML – (VA)
• Cheryl Shuman Beverly Hills NORML – (CA)
• Emily Busalacchi Mile High NORML – (CO)
• Christeen Landino Michigan NORML – (MI)
• Sarah Zenk-Blossom Minnesota State University NORML – (MN)
• Anne Davis New Jersey NORML – (NJ)
• Ruth Liebesman Martiniuk Empire State NORML – (NY)
• Crystal Caudebec Hudson Valley NORML – (NY)

Madeline Martinez is the Sole Proprietress of the United States’ first Cannabis Cafe which opened in late 2009. She is the Executive Director of Oregon NORML, NORML’s largest and most successful chapter affiliate, boasting more than 2,000 dues paying members. She is currently working on legislation to remove all civil and criminal penalties surrounding cannabis use for adults with Sensible Oregon. Her goal is to inspire all states to push for similar legislation and create Sensible America.  Madeline is a retired peace officer and grandmother of six. Martinez is also a member of NORML’s Board of Directors as well as NORML’s Pauline Sabin Winner in 2007.

Mieko Hester-Perez is a brave mother and newcomer to the marijuana reform movement. Hester-Perez received national attention after being featured on ABC News, CBS News, Good Morning America and Fox News as a parent who uses medical cannabis as treatment for her autistic son. “At first I did some research, and I found a doctor who actually had a protocol for medical marijuana in children diagnosed with autism,” Hester-Perez told “Good Morning America.” Her 10-year-old son was dangerously underweight, “you could see the bones in his chest. He was going to die,” she said on the nationally syndicated television morning show. “My son had self-injurious behaviors. He was extremely aggressive, he would run out of our house… he was a danger to himself and others.” A few hours after giving her son a cannabis-infused brownie she saw a major change in her son’s eating habits and behavior. “Marijuana balanced my son,” says Hester-Perez. She is a wonderful mother and a proud parent who understands the importance of marijuana law reform and is fighting to normalize the movement with her public advocacy and activism. She was also a featured speaker at the hugely successful Los Angeles Hemp Conference and Medical Marijuana Expose.

Cheryl Shuman is the founder and Executive Director of the new Beverly Hills NORML chapter, one of NORML’s most high-profile affiliates. For many years, Shuman ran a thriving celebrity serving business and was known as the “Optician to the Stars.” She recently organized one of the most successful and widely attended gatherings of the medical marijuana community, the 2010 Los Angeles Hemp Con Medical Marijuana Show. She was presented as the key note speaker and partnered with HempCon funder Mega Productions to serve as a co-producer. As an ode to women in the marijuana reform movement, Shuman planned a full day dedicated to women speakers that included several high profile female activists. Her press conference, prior to the convention, featured cultural icon Cheech Marin of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong. The news event received significant local coverage and was picked up by major national outlets, including USA Today. She has brought considerable attention to the cannabis crusade in California, and is working to normalize the image of the movement into that of a modern, mainstream fight for social justice.  Several major media outlets have done feature stories on Shuman’s activism, including Reason TV, who captured the well known standing ovation Shuman received after giving testimony to the LA City Council. She has also been featured on KTLA and in The Sacramento Bee.

Dr. Ester Fride (1953-2010) Israeli Scientist who showed that a newborn mammal can not suckle when lacking one of the two cannabinoid receptors. Upon receiving her doctorate in psychoneurobiology, she conducted her research in the U.S. at Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health, focusing on how prenatal stress and neonatal development in the brain. In 1990 in Israel, she began work in the lab of Raphael Mechoulam, who concentrated his research on the clinical application of cannabinoids. Fride was also involved in the identification of an endocannabinoid, 2-Arachidonyl Glyceryl ether, and was co-author of a breakthrough paper describing how the newly found compound responds to the cannabinoid receptor. She is best known for her work at the College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel, where she first hypothesized that endocannabinoids played a role in the nursing process and found evidence of a third cannabinoid receptor. Fride wrote in the European Journal of Pharmacology in 2004 that, “The medical implications [that newborn mice lacking the cannabinoid receptor CB1 are unable to suckle at birth] are far-reaching…and suggest a promising future for cannabinoids [CB1 deprived puppies injected with THC promptly after birth, were able to suckle and developed normally] in pediatric medicine for conditions including ‘non-organic failure-to-thrive’ and cystic fibrosis.”

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Is There Too Much Marijuana On Prime Time TV?

I was asked by Fox News to discuss a clear and growing trend on prime time TV: cannabis use

While there have been dozens of prime time TV shows that have featured cannabis use since the 1960s, often for medicinal purposes circa the mid 1990s, currently there is a crush of shows on broadcast and cable that have one or more episodes where cannabis use is a featured part of the show. In my view, most if not all of these shows spotlighting cannabis is both an effect of the general popularity of cannabis and the herb’s prohibition.

What precipitated this on-air discussion is the concern of the socially conservative Parents Television Council that there is too much cannabis use on TV and that this sends the proverbial ‘wrong message to children’.

So what shows are we generally talking about?

-The Simpsons

-Family Guy

-American Dad

-Cleveland Show

-Gossip Girl

-Glee*

-Parenthood (NORML Outreach Coordinator writes about the premiere episode of the show that featured…guess what?)

-Parks and Recreation

Ironically, we were debating the appropriateness of cannabis in these popular shows on the very network that largely produces the shows in question.

While most parents will rightly be upset and concerned if there is overt and gratuitous cannabis use on youth-oriented shows that glamorize drug use in prime time TV, but an evaluation of the story plot lines on these shows in question will often find it is the prohibition of the herb that creates the narrative friction, plot line tensions or character conflicts—not the cannabis use per se.

Counter intuitive as may sound to some, but if the experience of tobacco and alcohol products (which are illegal for children to use) in prime time TV are an indicator of how certain drugs become unpopular, then for cannabis use to be de-glamorized and made culturally passé it will have to be made legal, actually controlled (prohibition is the abdication of social controls and policy-making) and moderately taxed.

With ‘4/20’ just around the corner, if the experience of the last few years serve as any guidance, there will be a number of TV shows, and entire networks such as G4, Spike and Comedy Central that will have special 4/20 programming.

*Russ adds: Minor edit to correct “Glee Club” to “Glee” – it’s one of my guilty TV pleasures.

America’s Marijuana Prohibition Apologist-in-Chief: John Walters

Someone should clue in neo-con John Walters (who Drug Policy Alliance director Ethan Nadelmann aptly described once as Bill Bennett’s ‘Mini-Me’) that he no longer is compelled by statute to lie about cannabis any more seeking to thwart the will of American citizens. Blessedly, taxpayers are no longer paying him high wages to lie to beat the band. But, apparently the ‘Weakly Standard’ and Hudson Institute are willing to pay up for Walter’s anti-pot prevarications.

Walters—a political operative who revolves in and out of government jobs when Republicans control the executive branch—in a gratuitously written essay attempts to both praise the Democratic president while condemning him at the exact same time. A difficult feat to achieve, and Walters only disappoints with petty partisanship and self-promotion.

Obama Just Says No to Soros

From the March 22, 2010 Weekly Standard

by John Walters

For anyone who feared that the Obama administration would abandon efforts to control illegal drugs, the president’s first year in office has been on balance reassuring.

The anti-antidrug camp had high hopes that Barack Obama would end “drug prohibition.” Last year, George Soros, a leading proponent of drug legalization and perhaps the most generous financial backer of the president, seemed in a position to get the change he wanted. In fact, Obama drug czar Gil Kerlikowske made it his first order of business to tell the press he was ending “the drug war.” More significantly, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that federal enforcement regarding “medical marijuana” would be dialed back, which caused the number of storefront marijuana shops in Los Angeles to skyrocket.

Things are looking a little different a year later, however. Kerlikowske turned old school and proclaimed that drug legalization was not in the administration’s “vocabulary.” The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continues to enforce marijuana laws in California (although without vocal support from Holder). And the Obama administration just released its first drug control budget requesting a fully funded, well, drug war. At the end of the Bush administration, federal drug control spending in fiscal year 2009 was $15 billion—65 percent of it devoted to border security, law enforcement, and other supply control efforts. Obama wants $15.5 billion in 2011, 64 percent for supply control—an increase of $100 million over Bush’s final year.

President Obama did not speak of the importance of drug treatment in his first State of the Union address as his predecessor had, but he requested a bit more money for it—all to the good. And he even tried to avoid adding these funds to the most unaccountable federal treatment programs.

Last year, Congress and the administration cut prevention funding 17 percent, the only significant change from 2009. This year, the administration is seeking to restore some, but not all, of that cut.

The drug-legalization zealots may be singing “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” But with the exception of the Carter administration, when some senior members of the White House staff favored legalization, every president from Richard Nixon through Barack Obama—Republican and Democrat—has sought to attack both supply and demand. It was during the Carter administration that the drug problem exploded, leading to the worst destruction from substance abuse in living memory and the enduring root of the smaller problem still with us today.

It is very important that President Obama has not listened to George Soros on drugs. Should we expect anything more? Are there any signs that the president cares about the drug problem? Will he actually show some leadership on this issue? If he wanted to, he could teach young people something. He could say that illegal drugs make people sick, and his generation did not understand this and paid a horrible price for its ignorance. Now we know better, and we should act like it. If he wanted to show real courage, he could say we know that marijuana makes people sick and that marijuana is the illegal drug causing the greatest dependency and addiction by far. He could even say it is time to stop several decades of lying to ourselves about marijuana and teaching that lie to our children.

President Obama as no other president before him could use his appeal to youth to end, almost overnight, the cultural dogma that drugs are cool. It would be easy for him to become the greatest contributor to drug abuse prevention since Nancy Reagan—and he could explain how difficult it is to stop using these substances even when you know better, as he has found with cigarettes.

Of course, none of this is likely to happen. The Obama administration has shown itself willing to spend to support antidrug programs, but it probably will not lead at home and abroad in the areas where truly historic gains are possible.

President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia has all but taken his country back from drug trafficking terrorists. One result of Uribe’s victories is that dramatically less cocaine reaches American cities. Is that not important to President Obama? The Obama administration could draw attention to this magnificent example of turning the tide against drugs and terror and explain how it happened—a great drug war victory led by Colombia’s president and supported by both the Clinton and the Bush administrations. If similar efforts are led, adapted, and sustained in Mexico and Afghanistan, the damage caused by cocaine, heroin, and marijuana in the United States and globally can be dramatically reduced. The changes would be profound. Does President Obama see this? Thus far, there is no evidence he thinks about it at all.

The president surely did not need Charles Lane of the Washington Post to tell him “medical marijuana is an insult to our intelligence.” But the president and all his key officials—Eric Holder, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Margaret Hamburg, and even Gil Kerlikowske—are playing dumb as “medical marijuana” is brought to Washington, D.C. The agencies of the federal government know what a dangerous fraud this has been in California and particularly in its large cities—Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco. It is beyond question that “medical marijuana” fosters rapid rises in abuse, addiction, and crime. The Post has reported this in detail. Does the capital of the United States need a bigger drug problem? Are all these Obama administration officials really too busy to make the obvious argument that “medical marijuana” is a stupid and dangerous fraud?

We are fortunate that President Obama has resisted the wrongheaded advice of George Soros. But it is not enough. Today, leadership is needed on curbing use of marijuana, helping Mexico defeat the traffickers, and working to integrate the battle against terror and drugs in Afghanistan. On these issues the new boss is failing, and there are already troubling survey results indicating youth drug use may be about to rise. Attitudes about drugs are a product of teaching, not mere spending. The annual reports of historic rates of substance abuse among aging Baby Boomers should have taught us by now that exposing our children to these substances is not dangerous for them only as teens. All too often, substance abuse lasts a lifetime.

Truth and history vs. Walters’ polemical

>Kerlikowske turned old school and proclaimed that drug legalization was not in the administration’s “vocabulary.”

Of course Walters fails to inform the reading audience that Kerlikowske has abandoned Walters’ overblown rhetoric by dropping the term ‘war on drugs’ from the fed’s vocabulary.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced that federal enforcement regarding “medical marijuana” would be dialed back, which caused the number of storefront marijuana shops in Los Angeles to skyrocket.

Is this true? Or, is it more accurate to admit that the massive increase in the retail outlets for cannabis for medical purposes happened under the Bush/Walters tenure, specifically between 2001-2008? Even with the executive branch winning two US Supreme Court decisions against medical cannabis in 2001 and 2005, Bush and Walters (along with fellow Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger) utterly failed to stop the massive proliferation and increased popularity of retail cannabis dispensaries in states like California and Colorado.

It was during the Carter administration that the drug problem exploded, leading to the worst destruction from substance abuse in living memory and the enduring root of the smaller problem still with us today.

Is this historically accurate or another pathetic partisan attack? Were there not massive increases in the use of heroin (under Nixon), cocaine (under Reagan), crack (under Bush 1.0), ecstacy (under Clinton) and meth (under Bush 2.0 and Walters)?

He could say that illegal drugs make people sick, and his generation did not understand this and paid a horrible price for its ignorance. Now we know better, and we should act like it. If he wanted to show real courage, he could say we know that marijuana makes people sick and that marijuana is the illegal drug causing the greatest dependency and addiction by far.

Apparently Walters looks to Obama to be as dishonest as he was in misleading and lying to the public and Congress about cannabis. Walters’ absurd and unscientific claims that cannabis ‘makes people sick’ and that cannabis ‘causes the greatest dependency and addiction by far’ in a country that sells and taxes alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals demonstrates how out-of-touch this man really is and how manipulative Walters tries to be with the distracted ignorance of the general public (and elected policy makers).

He could even say it is time to stop several decades of lying to ourselves about marijuana and teaching that lie to our children.

Talk about self-delusional! Who exactly has been lying for decades about cannabis? Was it not Walters who wasted taxpayer dollars on rank propaganda like ‘Stoners in the Mist‘? Is Walters to have his reading audience believe that government (federal and state executive branches; Congress and state legislatures; the DEA, ONDCP, NIDA, FBI, NIH, etc…) has been lying for decades to the general public in favor of cannabis, and now, Obama has a chance to retard decades of pro-cannabis government propaganda? Does this make any sense to sane people?

But the president and all his key officials—Eric Holder, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Margaret Hamburg, and even Gil Kerlikowske—are playing dumb as “medical marijuana” is brought to Washington, D.C. The agencies of the federal government know what a dangerous fraud this has been in California and particularly in its large cities—Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco.

Once again, resistant to democracy and the will of the voters, Walters is vexed by the fact that voters–not politically-appointed technocrats like him–are determining their fates and public policies, and  childishly bemoaning  current federal officials for not acting in the same reckless, elitist and anti-democratic manner that Walters chose to look down his nose at the public. Obama and Kerlikowske will be as successful as Bush and Walters were at thwarting the public’s will for long overdue cannabis law reforms, which is to say, not at all.

It is beyond question that “medical marijuana” fosters rapid rises in abuse, addiction, and crime. The Post has reported this in detail. Does the capital of the United States need a bigger drug problem? Are all these Obama administration officials really too busy to make the obvious argument that “medical marijuana” is a stupid and dangerous fraud?

I think Walters meant to write ‘It is beyond question that prohibition laws fosters rapid rises in abuse, addiction, and crime.’

Walter blissfully cites the Washington Post as some kind of paragon of clarity against medical cannabis, when in fact the Washington Post editorial board and its columnists over the years, like most of the country, has come to embrace medical cannabis research and law reform.

Irony as rich as a Sara Lee poundcake

In what really is little more than a nakedly partisan, Soros-paranoid attempt by Walters to chide Obama (and by extension the entire presidential field of Democrats in 2008 as all of them supported medical access to cannabis; contrastingly, Republican candidates other than Ron Paul did not) for 1) the audacity of agreeing with approximately 80% of the US public on the question of allowing physicians to recommend cannabis to sick, dying and sense-threatened medical patients, and 2) more importantly, for upholding a campaign promise to back the federal government off of state autonomy on the issue of medical cannabis.

Obama, a real politician, can’t ignore 14 states (with 90 million citizens) who’ve provided legal protections for patients who use cannabis, whereas Walters, near a life-long political appointee who couldn’t get elected local dog catcher, and his duplicitous boss, for eight years, embraced a strange form of anti-democratic elitism as their way to ‘solve’ the failure of cannabis prohibition (President George W. Bush claimed as both governor of Texas and presidential candidate in 2000 that he, along with the rest of the GOP, strongly support states’ rights against a highly centralized, all-controlling federal government in big bad ol’ Washington, DC, but when the editorial board of the Portland Press Herald effectively asked candidate Bush ‘you claim you support states’ rights against encroaching federal supremacy, here in Maine voters elected to pass medical cannabis laws that run counter to federal laws. If elected president, what are you going to do regarding the increasing number of states that are rejecting federal anti-cannabis laws in favor of medicinal access for qualified patients?’ Bush’s reported reply: If elected president I’ll strongly encourage states’ rights, but will rigorously enforce existing federal laws.).

Walter’s obscene boast in his bio at Hudson of reducing teen drug use 25% during his tenure is hard to comprehend and belies any credibility to speak publicly on the topic of cannabis prohibition, as he well knows that government drug surveys do not accurately measure drug use. Is it not ironic that when Walters is in government the monumentally unachievable is claimed, but when out of government, he is hypercritical of those in government for taking scientifically sound and politically popular decisions?

Mirabile dictu

Rather than salivate and snipe in such a partisan way at Democrats who’re responding to the will of the American people on medical cannabis, I suggest Walters and his fellow neo-cons at Hudson (like Lewis Libby, Robert Bork and Norman Podhoretz) should instead pay much more attention closer to home as his fellow conservatives are increasingly abandoning Nixon and Reagan-era policies intended to deter drug use.

How much must it sting for Walters to read about the recent reversal in thinking and advocacy of John Dilulio about drug policy reform? It can’t feel too good when a respected co-author abandons and rejects, for all good and obvious reasons, long-claimed theories and advocacy, and Walters (and Bennett) is still clinging to bogus data, racist criminal justice enforcement and cultural elitism as their justification to continue a self-evidently failed public policy like cannabis prohibition.

The former director of President George W. Bush’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and the co-author with former Drug Czars Bill Bennett and John Walters of the book “Body Count: Moral Poverty…And How to Win America’s War Against Crime and Drugs” has just come out in favor of medical marijuana and serious consideration of marijuana decriminalization.

[In a] 1993 book review for The New Republic, he implied that [drug users] were getting off too lightly. “It is not unreasonable to argue,” he wrote, “that the problem with the ‘get-tough’ approach of the last twenty-five years is that it hasn’t actually been followed. Despite mandatory sentencing laws, most drug offenders and other felons continue to spend only a fraction of their sentences behind bars.”

In a recent article in Democracy his prescription for reducing crime addresses marijuana thusly…

“… legalize marijuana for medically prescribed uses, and seriously consider decriminalizing it altogether. Last year there were more than 800,000 marijuana-related arrests. The impact of these arrests on crime rates was likely close to zero. There is almost no scientific evidence showing that pot is more harmful to its users’ health, more of a “gateway drug,” or more crime-causing in its effects than alcohol or other legal narcotic or mind-altering substances. Our post-2000 legal drug culture has untold millions of Americans, from the very young to the very old, consuming drugs in unprecedented and untested combinations and quantities. Prime-time commercial television is now a virtual medicine cabinet (”just ask your doctor if this drug is right for you”). Big pharmaceutical companies function as all-purpose drug pushers. And yet we expend scarce federal, state, and local law enforcement resources waging “war” against pot users. That is insane.”

One has to wonder what Walters thinks when he witnesses dyed-in-the-blue conservatives like Wall Street Journal columnist Mary O’Grady speak out this week against the obvious, tax-draining, border-destabilizing and ineffective public policy of prohibiting so-called recreational drugs like cannabis?

Revolving government door-types like Walters—who was paid over $1 million by taxpayers to, in the minds of many critics, twist scientific data and oppose democracy in his tenure as ‘drug czar’—should try to minimize their hypocrisy less they may reduce their value next time the political winds change and they, again, get to be a highly paid political apparatchik.

NORML’s Deputy Director Debates The Drug Czar

Well, the ex-Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey that is. (As a rule, acting Drug Czar’s do not debate marijuana law reformers in public forums.)

Below is the clip from this afternoon’s edition of the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC.

Before anyone comments, yes I am well aware that the host — who was clearly favorable to NORML’s position — did not give us equal time. Then again, former General McCaffrey is a regular consultant to MSNBC (and a guest) so the deference was to be expected. That said, Ratigan, to his credit, did allow me the first and the last word on the subject.

Anyone who wants to read all of what I would have liked to have said, given the proper time, can see my recent commentary — Are U.S. Pot Laws the Root Cause of Mexican Drug Violence? — from last week’s online edition of The Hill, or you can listen to my recent appearance on FoxNews.com. I think they say it all.

This November Is Going To Be Very, Very Interesting

This coming November’s mid-term election is going to have major implications for cannabis law reform.

In South Dakota, election officials last week certified Measure 13, the South Dakota Safe Access Act, for the November ballot.

If approved by voters, Measure 13 would exempt state criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana or six plants by authorized patients — making South Dakota the fifteenth state to legalize medicinal cannabis use. Proponents of the measure, the grassroots South Dakota Coalition for Compassion, collected over twice the number of signatures necessary to place the proposal on the 2010 ballot — a feat that they believe is indicative of medical marijuana’s growing support in the Great Plains. In 2006, voters narrowly rejected a similar proposal – marking the only time that citizens have rejected a statewide medical marijuana legalization proposal.

The stakes are arguably even higher in California, where election officials last night confirmed that the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 will appear on the November ballot.

If approved, the measure will allow adults 21 years or older to possess, share or transport up to one ounce of cannabis for personal consumption, and/or cultivate the plant in an area of not more than twenty-five square feet per private residence. It will also permit local governments the option to authorize the retail sale of marijuana and/or commercial cultivation of cannabis to adults and to impose taxes on such sales. Personal marijuana cultivation or not-for-profit sales of marijuana would not be taxed under the measure.

The measure will not alter or amend any aspect of the California Health and Safety code pertaining to the use of marijuana for medical purposes, when such use is authorized by a physician.

You can read more about this proposal here.

According to an April 2009 California Field Poll, 56 percent of state voters back legalizing and regulating the adult use and sale of cannabis.

Other states are in play as well. Ballot drives in Washington and Oregon are ongoing, and numerous municipal measures are also pending. Meanwhile, in the nation’s Capitol, DC council members are discussing allowing authorized patients to grow their own marijuana legally — despite the federal ban.

No matter how you look at it, this November is shaping up to be the most important month for marijuana law reform ever.

Let the battles begin.

Fox News: Are You Cannabis Deficient?

For several years I have postulated that marijuana is not, in the strict sense of the word, an intoxicant.

As I wrote in the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009), the word ‘intoxicant’ is derived from the Latin noun toxicum (poison). It’s an appropriate term for alcohol, as ethanol (the psychoactive ingredient in booze) in moderate to high doses is toxic (read: poisonous) to healthy cells and organs.

Of course, booze is hardly the only commonly ingested intoxicant. Take the over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen (Tylenol). According to the Merck online medical library, acetaminophen poisoning and overdose is “common,” and can result in gastroenteritis (inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract) “within hours” and hepatotoxicity (liver damage) “within one to three days after ingestion.” In fact, less than one year ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called for tougher standards and warnings governing the drug’s use because “recent studies indicate that unintentional and intentional overdoses leading to severe hepatotoxicity continue to occur.”

By contrast, the therapeutically active components in marijuana — the cannabinoids — appear to be remarkably non-toxic to healthy cells and organs. Further, they mimic compounds our bodies naturally produce — so-called endocannabinoids — that are pivotal for maintaining proper health and homeostasis.

In fact, in recent years scientists have discovered that the production of endocannabinoids (and their interaction with the cannabinoid receptors located throughout the body) play a key role in the regulation of proper appetite, anxiety control, blood pressure, bone mass, reproduction, and motor coordination, among other biological functions.

Just how important is this system in maintaining our health? Here’s a clue: In studies of mice genetically bred to lack a proper endocannabinoid system the most common result is premature death.

Armed with these findings, a handful of scientists have speculated that the root cause of certain disease conditions — including migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and other functional conditions alleviated by clinical cannabis — may be an underlying endocannabinoid deficiency.

Now, much to my pleasant surprise, Fox News Health columnist Chris Kilham has weighed in on this important theory.

Are You Cannabis Deficient?
via Fox News

If the idea of having a marijuana deficiency sounds laughable to you, a growing body of science points at exactly such a possibility.

… [Endocannabinoids] also play a role in proper appetite, feelings of pleasure and well-being, and memory. Interestingly, cannabis also affects these same functions. Cannabis has been used successfully to treat migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and glaucoma. So here is the seventy-four thousand dollar question. Does cannabis simply relieve these diseases to varying degrees, or is cannabis actually a medical replacement in cases of deficient [endocannabinoids]?

… The idea of clinical cannabinoid deficiency opens the door to cannabis consumption as an effective medical approach to relief of various types of pain, restoration of appetite in cases in which appetite is compromised, improved visual health in cases of glaucoma, and improved sense of well being among patients suffering from a broad variety of mood disorders. As state and local laws mutate and change in favor of greater tolerance, perhaps cannabis will find it’s proper place in the home medicine chest.

Perhaps. Or maybe at the very least society will stop misclassifying cannabis as a ‘toxic’ substance when its more appropriate role would appear to be that of a supplement.

Why Students Hold The Key To Ending Marijuana Prohibition

The following speech was given by NORML’s Deputy Director before nearly 500 attendees on Saturday, March 13, at the opening plenary of Students for Sensible Drug Policy‘s 11th International Conference, at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. To read full coverage of the conference, please see DRCNet’s report here.

My name is Paul Armentano and I’m the Deputy Director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and I’m the co-author of the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? Max, Amber, Stacia and the many good folks at SSDP invited me to come here today to talk to you about how and why students have a vital role to play in ending marijuana prohibition.

First let’s talk about the “why”: self-preservation. The federal government has declared war on you.

Since 1965 law enforcement in this country have arrested over 20 million people for marijuana offenses.  But when you take a closer look at who is actually arrested you find that, for the most part, it isn’t the folks sitting on this panel; it’s all of you sitting out there – it’s young people.

In short – the so-called ‘war’ on marijuana is really a war on youth.

According to a 2005 study commissioned by the NORML Foundation, 74 percent of the 800,000 or so Americans busted for pot each year are under age 30, and one out of four are age 18 or younger.  That’s nearly half a million young people at risk of losing their school loans, or being saddled with a lifelong criminal record at a time when they are just entering the workforce.   We’re talking about an entire generation – and that’s you out there – that has been alienated to believe that the police and their civic leaders are instruments of their oppression rather than their protection.

And the sad fact is: you’re right!

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

If we’re going to finally end this 70+ year failed public policy known as marijuana prohibition, then we need students to play a lead role.  Obviously those of you in this room have already taken a critical first step in leading this charge by joining SSDP and attending this conference.  But there’s a lot more to be done and there’s a lot more that you can do.

I believe that it was Ghandi who demanded that those who are oppressed be a part of there own liberation, and marijuana prohibition is no different.  I want you to look around you because it’s you all who will ultimately bring about an end to prohibition.

(more…)

FoxNews.com: Are U.S. Pot Laws The Root Cause Of Mexican Drug Violence?

UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!! Want to make sure that your members of Congress get the message that the U.S. drug war fuels Mexican violence? Then check out my commentary today in The Hill — Congress’ insider newspaper and website. Read my commentary here, and please leave feedback on their board. Your members of Congress will see it, I promise.

It was less than one year ago when acting U.S. DEA administrator Michelle Leonhart publicly declared that the escalating violence on the U.S./Mexico border should be viewed as a sign of the “success” of America’s drug war strategies.

“Our view is that the violence we have been seeing is a signpost of the success our very courageous Mexican counterparts are having,” said Michele Leonhart, who was recently nominated by President Obama to be the agency’s full time director. “The cartels are acting out like caged animals, because they are caged animals.”

Well, if the DEA’s chief talking head thought that some 6,300 drug cartel-related murders in 2008 was an indication of progress, one can only imagine that she believes that this weekend’s south-of-the-border killing spree — which included the murder of a pregnant U.S. official and members of her family — must be downright victorious.

To rest of us, however, these acts are nothing short of a senseless tragedy — a tragedy made all that much more heart-wrenching because it is U.S. policy that is helping to fuel this violence.

As I wrote last year in the commentary, “How to End Mexico’s Deadly Drug War”:

Wire-service reports estimate that Mexico’s drug lords employ over 100,000 soldiers — approximately as many as the Mexican army — and that the cartels’ wealth, intimidation, and influence extend to the highest echelons of law enforcement and government. Where do the cartels get their unprecedented wealth and power? By trafficking in illicit drugs — primarily marijuana — over the border into the United States.

The U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy …  says that more than 60 percent of the profits reaped by Mexican drug lords are derived from the exportation and sale of cannabis to the American market. … (By comparison, only about 28 percent of their profits are derived from the distribution of cocaine, and less than 1 percent comes from trafficking methamphetamine.) … Government officials estimate that approximately half the marijuana consumed in the United States originates from outside its borders, and they have identified Mexico as far and away America’s largest pot provider.

If the Obama administration wishes to once and for all reduce this unprecedented wave of Mexican drug-gang violence, then it needs to remove the drug lord’s primary source of income — and that’s marijuana trafficking.

Despite 70+ years of criminal prohibition in the United States (and countless billions of dollars spent attempting to interdict marijuana at our southern border), America remains the primary destination for Mexican pot. Why? Because like it or not, Americans consume cannabis; in fact, Americans lead the world in their consumption of pot.

According to a 2007 economic assessment, U.S. citizens spend $113 billion dollars annually to consume an estimated 31.1 million pounds of pot. According to the federal government, over 100 million Americans have used marijuana; over one in ten Americans do so regularly. In short, criminal marijuana prohibition does not, and will not, reduce demand. So then it’s time to regulate the supply.

It is time to remove the production and distribution of marijuana out of the hands of violent criminal enterprises and into the hands of licensed businesses, and the only way to do that is through legalization.

Or, I suppose, we could just keep on doing what we’ve been doing.

On Monday I joined Judge Andrew Napolitano on FoxNews.com to discuss how marijuana legalization — not increasing levels of government prohibition — would quell the violence surrounding the trafficking of Mexican marijuana. You can watch the video here.

The Judge ‘gets it;’ let’s hope that the administration will one day ‘get it’ too.

NORML’s Weekly Legislative Update

Lawmakers around the country are debating a record number of marijuana law reform bills in 2010. NORML’s Weekly Legislative Round Up is your one-stop guide to pending marijuana law reform legislation around the country, along with tips for influencing the policies of your state.

** To first time readers: NORML can not introduce legislation in your state. Nor can any other non-profit advocacy organization. Only your state representatives, or in some cases an individual constituent (by way of their representative; this is known as introducing legislation ‘by request’) can do so. NORML can — and does — work closely with like-minded politicians and citizens to reform marijuana laws, and lobbies on behalf of these efforts. But ultimately the most effective way — and the only way — to successfully achieve statewide marijuana law reform is for local stakeholders and citizens to become involved in the political process and make the changes they want to see. We can’t do it without you.

Washington: House and Senate lawmakers gave final approval last week to legislation expanding the state’s medical marijuana law. Senate Bill 5798 will allow additional health care professionals – including naturopaths, physician’s assistants, osteopathic physicians, osteopathic physicians assistants, and advanced registered nurse practitioners – to legally recommend marijuana therapy to their patients. Under present law, only licensed physicians may legally recommend medicinal cannabis. Washington lawmakers are the first legislators to codify these expanded recommendation rights into law. The measure now goes before Democrat Governor Christine Gregoire for final approval. Contact information for Gov. Gregoire is available from NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here.

New Hampshire: House lawmakers voted 214 to 137 last week in favor of House Bill 1653, which would amend penalties for possession of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil infraction. The vote prompted Democrat Gov. John Lynch to threaten to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk. New Hampshire residents are encouraged to contact their members of the Senator and the Governor in support of this measure by visiting NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here.

Hawaii: Members of the House Public Safety Committee and the Public Health Committee last week approved Senate Bill 2213, which would allow for the establishment of licensed ‘compassion centers’ to engage in the controlled production and distribution of cannabis to state-authorized patients. The Senate had previously approved the measure by a 20 to 1 vote. The bill now awaits action from the House Judiciary Committee. You can read NORML’s testimony in favor of the bill here. Senate lawmakers previously approved a separate marijuana decriminalization proposal, SB 2450, which also awaits action from the House.

Kansas: Members of the House Committee on Health and Human Services will hold an informational hearing tomorrow on House Bill 2610, which seeks to legalize the medical use of marijuana to authorized patients. NORML representatives will be testifying at tomorrow’s hearing and have also provided written testimony to the Committee.

Tennessee: State lawmakers will be holding a pair of hearings this week and next week regarding the Safe Access to Medical Cannabis Act. NORML has retained a state lobbyist to represent the interests of our statewide affiliates, and will be taking a lead role in the upcoming hearings.

For information on additional state and federal marijuana law reform legislation, please visit NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here.

Save-the-date: NORML’s 39th National Annual Conference Convenes In Portland, Oregon

Dear NORML Supporters,

At the busiest and most productive time in the cannabis law reform movement’s history, there has never been a better time to attend a national NORML conference!

The 39th annual national NORML conference will be held September 9-11, 2010 at the historic landmark Governor Hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon.

This year’s annual conference is expected to be a quick sell-out because there are a limited number of rooms at the host hotel and conference registrations available than previous national conferences in San Francisco, Berkeley and Los Angeles.

The conference registration, list of speakers and agenda will not be released for a few weeks, but if you really want to attend this year’s conference in Portland I suggest doing the two following items ASAP:

• Save the dates on your calendar
• Reserve your room(s) at the beautiful and centrally located Governor Hotel (all rooms have balconies or windows, and allow medical marijuana smoking)

NORML has negotiated excellent room rates at this historic registry hotel:

• Superior Room ($147/night)
• Deluxe Double or King Size bed ($157/night)
• Junior Parlor Suite ($166/night)

Reserve your room right now for NORML 2010 in Portland by calling 503-802-5802, and please indicate ‘NORML 2010 Annual Conference’ to receive the discount.

Procrastination will not pay! If you snooze, you lose! First come, first served!

Thanks again for all your help and support reforming America’s antiquated cannabis laws, and NORML’s staff and I look forward to seeing longtime supporters, along with new ones, at the organization’s 39th annual national conference in beautiful, progressive and cannabis-friendly Portland, Oregon this September.*

Kind regards!

-Allen St. Pierre

Executive Director

NORML/NORML Foundation

Washington, D.C.

director@norml.org

*Double Bonus: Hempstalk, the largest pro-cannabis rally in Oregon, which is held at a beautiful state park at the confluence of the mighty Columbia and Willamette Rivers, is the same weekend as NORML’s national conference!