2011 International Drug Policy Reform Conference Taking Place This Week

Drug policy reform advocates from around the globe will be attending the Drug Policy Alliance‘s 2011 International Drug Policy Reform Conference this week. The bi-annual conference, co-hosted by NORML and various other drug law reform organizations, will take place from Wednesday, November 2 through Saturday, November 5, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

Representatives from NORML and the NORML Women’s Alliance — including NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano, NORML Advisory Board Member Rick Steves, California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer, and NWA west coast representative Kyndra Miller — will be speaking at this year’s conference, which will feature over 50 separate panels and round-table discussions.

On Thursday, November 3, conference participants will gather for mass public protest at the Levitt Pavilion in historic MacArthur Park to call for an end to America’s drug criminalization strategies.

Other participants at this year’s conference include DPA Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, former two-term Republican Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, and California NAACP director Alice Huffman.

Conference registration and agenda information is available online here.

White House response to NORML’s “We the People” marijuana legalization petition

The Obama White House has released its official response to the “We the People” online petition for marijuana legalization submitted by NORML.  The petition, which garnered 74,169 signatures, was by far the most popular petition submitted.  The government response (released late on a Friday to avoid news cycles, we’ll note) repeats the same tired lies and classic misdirections.  Most of all, it fails to answer NORML’s actual petition, which asked:

Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol.

We the people want to know when we can have our “perfectly legitimate” discussion on marijuana legalization. Marijuana prohibition has resulted in the arrest of over 20 million Americans since 1965, countless lives ruined and hundreds of billions of tax dollars squandered and yet this policy has still failed to achieve its stated goals of lowering use rates, limiting the drug’s access, and creating safer communities.

Isn’t it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol? If not, please explain why you feel that the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?

Following is the full official White House response, with NORML’s comments interspersed…

What We Have to Say About Legalizing Marijuana

By: Gil Kerlikowske

When the President took office, he directed all of his policymakers to develop policies based on science and research, not ideology or politics. So our concern about marijuana is based on what the science tells us about the drug’s effects.

Oh, good.  Then we’ll look forward to implementation the 1972 Shafer Commission Report or any of the other government and scientific studies that recommend the decriminalization of cannabis. (more…)

The annual scaremongering about marijuana-laced Halloween treats begins now

This weekend is Halloween, which means it is time for law enforcement to start scaring the hell out of parents about the wicked evil potheads lurking in their neighborhoods, waiting to dose their kids with pot candies!

Somehow, THC makes people want to drug strangers' kids on Halloween.

(KABC-TV) Halloween time is not all fun and games. Authorities are warning parents about marijuana-laced candy that could end up in their trick-or-treaters’ bags.

Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and narcotics officials displayed a variety of candy, soda, chocolate and other snack foods Friday containing concentrated amounts of marijuana that were recently seized from local marijuana dispensaries.

L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Glen Walsh said parents should definitely inspect the candy their children bring home after trick-or-treating.

Walsh said a pungent smell or an odd taste can serve as indicators on whether the food contains marijuana. As for the potency of the marijuana-laced prodcuts, Walsh said the level of THC, the chemical found in marijuana, can vary from zero to over 90 percent.

OK, so watch closely, parents.  You don’t want your kid getting a candy with 0% THC in it.  But if you find any of that 90% THC stuff, you can send it my way for proper disposal.

For some reason, pot-leaf shaped gummis are wrong for kids, but beer bottle cap candies are not.

How stupid is this?  First off, if there is a person out there who would intentionally hand THC-laden treats to children, they are a criminal.  They’d be just as likely to poison Halloween treats or put pins or razor blades in them.. which is an urban legend with no truth to it whatsoever.

Second, if you are a person who uses THC-laden treats for medical or recreational purposes, why are you handing out a $20 “Buddafinger” when you could pass out a 20-cent “Butterfinger”?  You want to be so sure some kid you don’t know and won’t see gets high that you’ll spend 100 times more on Halloween candy?

Sure, there's no psilocybin in these gummi mushrooms. There's something far more dangerous to your kids' health: high-fructose corn syrup.

Third, the stuff the cops displayed was seized from dispensaries where you have to show ID and recommendation and kids can’t get in.  They didn’t display stuff that was seized from the Halloween bags of trick-or-treaters last year, did they?

This weekend kids will be gorging on massive amounts of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.  Some of it is even shaped in the form of “Bottle Caps” and “Puckerooms” that resemble alcohol packaging and psilocybin mushrooms, respectively*.  (Interestingly, both made by Wonka… pure imagination, indeed!)  Parents need to worry about that much more than imaginary potheads who live for the thrill of overspending on Halloween so they can get kids high.

*Yeah, sure, there are normal edible mushrooms and soft drinks in bottles with caps.  But c’mon, how many kids crave mushrooms and how long has it been since they’ve bought a soft drink in a non-plastic bottle?

Facts On Medical Marijuana Are Stubborn Things

“In the words of John Adams, ‘facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.’”

So began the ironically titled op/ed, “Facts on medical marijuana are stubborn things, too,” by Joseph Summerill — general counsel for the Major County Sheriffs’ Association — which appeared in print in the Washington Examiner newspaper on Sunday.

Yet as far as ‘facts’ were concerned, Summerill’s propaganda piece was altogether devoid of them.

My colleague Russ Belville properly eviscerated Summerill’s tripe on the NORML blog here. My own rebuttal appears today in the Examiner here.

Medical marijuana reduces pain

Re: “Facts on medical marijuana are stubborn things, too,” Oct. 24

Author Joseph Summerill is correct to assert that “facts … are stubborn things.” So stubborn, in fact, that he chooses to ignore them completely.

Summerill alleges, “The undisputable facts, however, are that there are no sound scientific data supporting the medical value of marijuana.” The website PubMed Central, the U.S. government repository for peer-reviewed scientific research, disagrees. In fact, a simple word search on PubMed using the keyword “marijuana” reveals more than 2,100 published papers in peer-reviewed journals just this year alone.

Of course, not every one of these papers pertain to the substance’s therapeutic potential. But many do.

For example, the results of a series of randomized, placebo-controlled Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trials performed by regional branches of the University of California demonstrated that inhaled cannabis holds therapeutic value that is comparable to or better than conventional medications, particularly in the treatment of multiple sclerosis and neuropathic pain. These findings were publicly presented to the California legislature, and also appear online here: http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/images/pdfs/CMCR_REPORT_FEB17.pdf. Further, the UC findings paralleled those previously reported by no less than the American Medical Association’s Council on Science and Public Health, which declared, “Results of short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis.”

Those are the facts, Mr. Summerill. It’s time to stop denying them.

This Week in Weed: October 23rd – 29th

The latest installment of “This Week in Weed” is now streaming on NORMLtv.

This week: politicians in California speak out against the federal crackdown and a new study looks at impairment levels in casual and heavy cannabis consumers.

Be sure to tune in to NORMLtv each Thursday afternoon to catch up on the latest marijuana news. Subscribe to NORMLtv or follow us on Twitter to be notified as soon as new content is added.

Online Debate — US News & World Report: “Should federal authorities be able to close medical marijuana dispensaries in California?”

US News & World Report‘s ‘Debate Club’ is hosting an online forum right now regarding the question: “Should federal authorities be able to close medical marijuana dispensaries in California?”

The forum includes rational commentaries from various drug policy reformers, including myself and MPP‘s Morgan Fox. Predictably, the debate also features several irrational essays from professional drug warriors such as Kevin Sabet, Peter Bensinger, and John Redman — who make claims like “We have seen that dispensaries have increased drug use and crime, and they are linked to numerous robberies, muggings, and murders” and “Marijuana, with 468 different chemicals and more cancer-causing agents and tar than tobacco cigarettes, is also a dangerous highway and workplace hazard.”

Fortunately, visitors can not only respond to these allegations on the US News & World Report website here, but they can also vote ‘down’ the commentaries that they disagree with. (Not surprisingly, the present point total of the Sabet/Bensinger/Redman essays is a combined total of -1031.) Conversely, ‘Debate Club’ visitors can vote ‘up’ the viewpoints they support.

To join the debate, click here.

An excerpt of my commentary appears below.

Obama Should Keep Promise on Medical Marijuana

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama stated, “The basic concept of using medical marijuana … [is] entirely appropriate,” and pledged, “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try and circumvent state laws on this issue.”

As president, Obama promised, “Science and the scientific process must inform and guide [the] decisions of my administration.”

Yet recent actions of the administration belie these assurances.

… If the federal government is truly concerned about the diversion of medical marijuana or its potential abuse in California then it would be better served to encourage–rather than to discourage–local and statewide efforts to regulate this industry accordingly. The Obama administration’s proposed actions in California will only result in limiting patients’ regulated, safe access to medicine. It will also cost California jobs and needed tax revenue.

Legislating medical marijuana operations and prosecuting those who act in a manner that is inconsistent with California law and voters’ sentiment should be a responsibility left to the state, not the federal government. It is time for this administration to fulfill the assurances it gave to the medical cannabis community and to respect the decisions of voters and lawmakers in states that recognize its therapeutic efficacy.

Week in Weed: October 9th-22nd

There was a slight delay due to the website relaunch, but the latest episode of “This Week in Weed” is now streaming on NORMLtv.

After a decidedly negative installment last week, we bring you good news! Our stories this week include a new Gallup poll that shows over 50% of Americans support marijuana legalization for the first time ever and one of the largest physicians’ groups in the country calls to legalize and regulate cannabis.

Be sure to tune in to NORMLtv each Thursday afternoon to catch up on the latest marijuana news. Subscribe to NORMLtv or follow us on Twitter to be notified as soon as new content is added.

5 Favorite Law Enforcement Lies About Marijuana

Gallup Polls Support and Opposition to Marijuana Legalization 1969-2011

As 50% of Americans now support marijuana legalization, the prohibitionists are coming out in full force with hysterical propaganda to once again terrorize voters about cannabis.  We intended to scour multiple sources to compile the five most common scare tactics they use, but Joseph Summerill, director of the Summerill Group LLC, a Washington, D.C.- based law enforcement think tank and general counsel for the Major County Sheriffs’ Association, made our job easy by using all five in one op-ed piece published today in the Washington Examiner entitled, “Facts on medical marijuana are stubborn things, too“.

Lie #1) Marijuana’s not really medical.  The government says so!

[M]arijuana is a Schedule I drug… a high potential for abuse or dependency… no accepted medical value… unsafe to use, even under medical supervision.  [M]arijuana has not passed the rigid scrutiny of medicine proposed by the FDA.

The Truth

• National Institutes of Drug Abuse (NIDA) puts the lifetime dependence rate on cannabis at 9%, same as caffeine.  Alcohol has a 15% rate of abuse and Tobacco’s is 32%.
• One third of federal jurisdictions (16 states and DC) accept the medical value of cannabis.
• The federal government is supplying four Americans with this “unsafe” medicine with no medical supervision.
• Cannabis has been used medically for 5,000 years without a single human death – a far greater safety standard than an FDA that approved phen-fen and Vioxx.

(more…)

Coming Soon: A New NORML.org

NORML is getting a new website makeover! We have been working hard on developing a more modern, user-friendly internet destination that will integrate all of the information presently stored on norml.org, our two popular blogs, and our all-important membership and online donation platforms.

We will be gradually rolling out this new platform over the next month, starting first with the brand new norml.org informational website and donation system, and then integrating all of our blogs into a unified blogging platform. With the site relaunch visitors will be able to readily find the nearest NORML chapters and legal committee members in your area with geo-targeting, conveniently find any state’s current marijuana laws, browse NORML’s immense research library, and check out the revamped NORMLshop (the brand new documentary film “A NORML Life” will be available to purchase when the page launches).

If you have any questions about this transition, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Keep your eyes on norml.org in the coming days to see what new things we have in store.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell: “I Really Don’t Know How [Prohibitionists] Sleep at Night…Without the Booze.”

Tuesday night, on his program “The Last Word,” Lawrence O’Donnell took an impassioned stance against marijuana prohibition while reporting on the recently released Gallup legalization poll.

O’Donnell, who formerly served as Staff Director of the Senate Finance Committee, notes the disconnect between the public opinion on this issue and policy coming from elected officials.

“In a democracy,” he stated, “we should expect such a dramatic shift in public opinion to be reflected in our public officials, but support for marijuana legalization in the United States Senate…has gone from 0% in 1968 to 0% in 2011.”

O’Donnell then rightfully attacked the Obama Administration’s insistence on keeping marijuana a schedule I substance.

“Now we know that no one in the Obama Administration is stupid enough to actually think [marijuana is as dangerous as heroin], but we also know politicians have no intention of facing reality anytime soon when it comes to marijuana. Politicians will continue to allow young lives to be ruined for mere possession of marijuana; politicians will continue to allow people to be arrested. [They will] allow people to go to jail, allow people to be arrested, allow people to get criminal records, get kicked out of school, be turned down for jobs just because they’ve used marijuana, something more than one president has done and gotten away with.”

In the conclusion to his segment, he unabashedly calls out our country’s elected officials for their hypocrisy on the issue, as many of them have no hesitation to indulge in the legal, more dangerous alternative.

“Senators, members of Congress, presidents, vice presidents, and Supreme Court justices are going to continue to get high, many of them every day and every night. Many of them will do it publicly, and loudly, and legally at restaurants and campaign fundraisers and at state dinners,” O’Donnell said, “They will raise their glasses and get high and they will continue to put people in jail for using a harmless, non-liquid way of getting high like marijuana. Such hypocrisy carries an even stronger stench than the alcohol-drenched breath of those politicians and judges and prosecutors and DEA officials. I really don’t know how they can sleep at night…without the booze.”

If more mainstream media journalists begin embracing the issue with the same intensity and comprehension as Lawrence O’Donnell displayed on his program last night, the end of the war on cannabis might be closer than we think.

You can view the segment in its entirety below:

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