New Jersey Lawmakers Talk Legalization

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has famously promised to stamp out marijuana legalization if he’s elected president. But he may soon have a fight over cannabis closer to home.

A state Senate panel held a hearing in November to discuss new legislation that would legalize marijuana for recreational use. New Jersey already allows medicinal cannabis, though Christie has tried to block that program in the past.

Lawmakers predicted a fight with the governor, who has taken a staunch anti-marijuana position during his beleaguered run for the GOP nomination. Christie, whose candidacy is likely headed for the dustbin, has promised to stop Colorado and other states from allowing legal cultivation, sale, and possession of the drug. It hasn’t done him much good on the campaign trail.

Bill to legalize and regulate marijuana

New Jersey Sen. Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat, introduced the bill that would legalize, regulate, and tax cannabis for adults over 21. His plan, he said, would kill the black market and create a new, legal, billion-dollar industry.

“I believe our state should lead the way,” Scutari said.

Christie’s predecessor, a Democrat, signed medical marijuana into law shortly before leaving office, and Christie tried repeatedly to kill the program. He has said he would never allow legalization in New Jersey while he’s governor and has threatened to use the White House to intervene in states that already allow legal cannabis.

“As a former federal prosecutor, I’ve been the most outspoken person in this race on this issue,” Christie said in a recent interview. “I am completely, 100 percent opposed to drug legalization. That’s different than being for treatment.”

Indeed, Christie has developed a reputation for compassion when it comes to addicts, and has repeatedly called for drug treatment rather than arrest and incarceration. A video of him speaking at a diner about his law school friend has gone viral; the friend died of a heroin overdose after a legal prescription for painkillers turned into a severe addiction.

Christie staunchly opposed to cannabis legalization

But his position is much less forgiving when it comes to legalizing cannabis. With the possible exception of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who likewise stands no chance of winning the nomination, Christie has taken the hardest anti-marijuana position of any candidate.

The state Senate hearing, held Nov. 16, included testimony from several pro-legalization advocates and civil liberties experts. Udi Ofer, executive director of the New Jersey branch of the ACLU, pointed to the viral video of Christie’s diner speech, noting a disconnect between the governor’s words on addiction and his actions on cannabis law.

“Here we have a governor who talks about how the war on drugs has failed,” Ofer said. “Yet we have seen arrests increase over time. There’s an inconsistency there.”

New Jersey Lawmakers Talk Legalization

Court Says Toking in Car Is "Public"

A Michigan appellate court ruled in November that medical marijuana patients may not legally consume the drug in their cars while parked on public property.

The opinion was handed down on a 2-1 vote by the justices of the state’s Court of Appeals. It held against a man who was busted two years ago after police said they caught him smoking cannabis in his car while parked at the Soaring Eagle Casino.

Robert Michael Carlton was arrested in August 2013 after security guards at the casino tipped police they had seen him smoking a joint in his car. They said they watched him over a closed camera security system.

The fact that Carlton was sitting in his car with the windows rolled up and the doors locked did not protect him from the statute that prohibits public consumption, the justices wrote. That’s because the car was parked in a parking lot that was open to the public, they wrote.

Carlton is a legitimate medical marijuana patient

Carlton faces a marijuana charge that police say stemmed from his public consumption violation. He is a registered medical marijuana patient, a fact his lawyers stressed before the court.

The attorneys argued that the charges should be dismissed because Carlton is a legitimate patient and because he was toking in a privately owned car with the windows and doors closed and locked. The car wasn’t open to the public, they argued, so his use shouldn’t be treated as a crime. The court, however, disagreed.

The justices sided with prosecutors, who contended that it didn’t matter whether Carlton was inside a privately owned car. The car was parked in a lot that is open to the public, prosecutors said, and that means he was smoking in public.

Case sent back for trial

Carlton had won before a trial judge, who dismissed the charges, and that decision was upheld by an intermediary appellate court. But the Court of Appeals voted to reverse the dismissal, sending the case back for trial.

“The electors chose to exclude patients who smoke medical marijuana in any public place from the protections of the act,” justices Michael J. Kelly and Christopher M. Murray wrote in the majority opinion.

The parking lot is accessible to anyone visiting the casino, the justices wrote, and the public is allowed to use it. While Carlton’s car is private property, they held, “the person is at the same time located in a public place.”

Justice Douglas Shapiro wrote a dissenting opinion, arguing that his colleagues were “too quick to ignore the common-sense privacy component of a personal vehicle.” Michigan’s medical marijuana statute “leaves open the possibility that in some circumstances, a private vehicle can constitute a ‘private place’ even though it is located in an area to which the public has access.”

Shapiro noted that security guards were the only people who witnessed Carlton’s toking, and they only saw it over a camera network. No one else was in the vicinity, and no one else could see or smell what he was doing.

“Under these circumstances, I see no reason why we are better suited to deciding the issue than a jury,” Shapiro wrote.

Court Says Toking in Car Is "Public"

Alaska Could Allow Marijuana Bars

Marijuana is already legal in Alaska, but it won’t go on sale in retail stores until next year. When it does, stoners may be in for a pleasant surprise: The state might let them use their favorite drug on the property.

The state’s Marijuana Control Board voted 3-2 in November to allow customers to use cannabis at the store that sells it to them. This would in effect open the door to the kind of pot bars tokers have pushed for elsewhere.

The vote is only a first step. Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, a Democrat, must approve it before it could take effect. But if it becomes policy, marijuana shops would be allowed to set aside designated toking areas and permit customers to smoke or otherwise consume the drug there.

Cannabis use limited to private property

No other state yet allows adults to smoke anywhere outside private property, a rule that limits most people to smoking at home. Marijuana advocates note that this encourages irresponsible consumption by forcing tokers to hide their use.

In Colorado and other states with legalization, many users – both tourists and residents – smoke in their cars, often while driving. This is not a good thing, for obvious reasons. Efforts to legalize commercial cannabis clubs in Colorado have so far come up short.

Of the board’s five members, two voted against on-site consumption rules, including the member who represents the public health sector and the member who represents the public safety industry (police). Doctors and cops have been among the slowest groups to get on board with legal reform.

The vote will send the new regulation to the state for a legal review before Mallott signs or rejects it. Until he does, the board has put off any detailed discussion of what Alaska’s marijuana shops should look like or how they would be regulated.

Marijuana social clubs remain illegal

Shops would still have to comply with bans on any kind of indoor smoking, so the designated areas would have to be outside – not a pleasant prospect in Alaska in the winter. Marijuana social clubs, which allow private members to bring their own cannabis, are still illegal, said board Director Cynthia Franklin.

These clubs sprang up in the years before legalization was passed at the polls in 2014. Their owners have argued that they’re legal because their membership is private, but the state has decided that the clubs are in fact open to the public and violate laws against public consumption.

The debate that preceded that decision often grew heated, as advocates pointed to the downsides of a rule against cannabis bars. In August the board sought to ban all such clubs, discussing proposed regulations that would have prevented any kind of public gathering spot for stoners. Local reaction was deeply negative.

Board members complained at the time that they lacked the authority to create a license type for on-site marijuana consumption. Only four licenses were created when voters legalized: retail, manufacturing, cultivation, and testing labs.

Under the new policy approved in November, the board adopted rules that would allow a retail license holder to set aside space for consumption. And it would redefine retail shops as private rather than public spaces.

Alaska Could Allow Marijuana Bars

Rihanna Says No to "MaRihanna"

If it seemed too sweet to be true, that’s because it was. Sadly, contrary to the celebrity gossip circuit, hip hop legend Rihanna will not be dipping her toes into the waters of legal marijuana anytime soon.

That word came from her people, who denied the hot rumor that the singer planned to open a first-of-its-kind celebrity cannabis business, based in Colorado. She was going to call it “MaRihanna by Rihanna,” according to the rumor.

This particular urban legend apparently got its start at a High Times Cannabis Cup event in Negril, Jamaica, in November. Someone who claimed to be at the event tipped CelebStoner, a marijuana gossip website, that she had announced her plans to an audience there.

“MaRihanna by Rihanna is truly the first mainstream cannabis brand in the world and proud to be a pioneer,” Rihanna allegedly said. “Marihanna is blazing a trail for the industry.”

According to myth, the singer planned to open shop in Colorado by the first quarter of 2016. She was allegedly planning to sell three strains: Karibbean Kush, Haitian Haze and Jamaican High Grade, along with edibles and marijuana concentrates.

But Rihanna and her staff shot down the story immediately, saying it was “completely untrue” and noting that she had no plans to relocate to Colorado or open any business there. Rihanna is currently working on a joint venture with Samsung, ANTIdiaRY, which was launched while the rumor was still circulating.

It’s not a stretch to imagine Rihanna involved in the legal cannabis industry. She is outspoken about her use of the drug, weaving it into her songs and performances, and two years ago she posted a pic of her toking under the hashtag #legalizeit.

But there were a few big clues this was just another empty Internet rumor – and not an especially creative one, at that. The strain names may be the most obvious giveaway; Haiti isn’t exactly known for its bumper crop of THC, and “Jamaican High Grade” sounds like something out of a Cheech & Chong movie – way back in the late 1970s.

Rihanna Says No to "MaRihanna"

New Hampshire Patient Seeks MJ from Maine

Medical marijuana is on its way to the Granite State, but for at least one local woman, it literally may not get there fast enough.

Linda Horan suffers from terminal cancer and could die at any time. Now her lawyer says he believes she is eligible to get medicinal cannabis from dispensaries in Maine, even though MMJ is not yet available on the retail market in her home state. If she succeeds, it would mark the first time a state has allowed a patient to get a head start by buying from a neighboring state.

Linda Horan, who lives in Concord, N.H., has applied for a medical cannabis ID card before the first dispensaries open. Her lawyer, Paul Twomey, filed court papers Nov. 19 outlining her case.

Horan has asked a judge to force health authorities to issue her a card promptly so she can use it to buy medical marijuana in Maine. That state allows reciprocity arrangements, meaning some patients from out of state may buy and use medicinal cannabis there.

Lawyers for the state told the court Horan’s request would undercut the state’s program and its need to limit the drug’s distribution. They say Horan should have to wait like everyone else.

Horan would be covered under new MMJ law

But that is a luxury she may not have. After a hearing earlier in November, she said she could well be dead by the time the first dispensaries open in New Hampshire next year. Horan, a retired telephone worker and labor activist, suffers from terminal cancer, a condition that will be covered by MMJ once it takes effect.

The case was heard by Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Richard McNamara, but he didn’t say during the hearing whether he would rule in Horan’s favor. The hearing was an opportunity for lawyers on both sides to submit arguments and other paperwork.

Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Francis Fredericks said Horan is misrepresenting Maine’s reciprocity law. Maine, Fredericks said, only allows out-of-state students and vacationing tourists to use medical marijuana, not people who cross the state line only to buy or consume the drug. Federal law prohibits any interstate shipment of cannabis, so presumably Horan would be forced to use her medication in Maine.

Fredericks also noted that Granite State law doesn’t allow patients to get their marijuana from any source other than a state-licensed alternative treatment center (ATC).

“This system of checks and balances involving the distribution of a controlled substance to New Hampshire patients is deliberate and, until an ATC is operational, it is incomplete,” Fredericks wrote in court filings for the state.

Maine dispensary owners have shown support

At least two dispensary owners from Maine signed affidavits for Twomey testifying that they would provide Horan with cannabis once she has a New Hampshire ID card. Twomey told the court Horan has invitations from several Maine residents, including a state lawmaker who helped pass medical cannabis six years ago.

Lawmakers who helped enact medical marijuana in New Hampshire, meanwhile, said they were frustrated with the attempts to block Horan from getting her medicine. State Rep. Renny Kushing said health authorities were wasting time and money when they could be helping patients.

“People should have been going out of their way to treat her and every other patient with dignity and compassion rather than throwing up barriers,” Cushing said. “Virtually every lawmaker is shaking their heads in disbelief.”

New Hampshire Patient Seeks MJ from Maine

Cops Close Marijuana Dispensaries in Michigan

Police in Western Michigan raided three medical marijuana dispensaries in November, shuttering the business and seizing cannabis, cash, and other evidence.

The raids took place Nov. 18 in Kent County, which includes Grand Rapids. Police there said the shops were operating illegally, as Michigan does not currently allow dispensaries.

Officers with the area’s Metropolitan Enforcement Team and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department raided the shops at night. Police declined to say exactly why they targeted the stores, or what kind of charges might follow, but said they found marijuana, money, and other evidence inside the dispensaries.

At least one of the shops was new. The TPC dispensary, located in Rapids, opened in recent weeks. Neighbors of the shop said they were surprised by the busts, especially considering that the state allows medicinal cannabis.

“It kind of shocked me,” said Klayton Steffes, a nearby resident. “I saw all the squad cars and I was like wow, they are already getting raided. My mom uses medical marijuana as kind of a pain reliever. I know she comes over here. It’s nice. It’s convenient. It’s down the corner from my house.”

Police didn’t say whether they have any suspects, and they hadn’t made any arrests as of Nov. 19. Officers said the shops may have common ownership, but didn’t name the alleged owners. The investigation started with an anonymous tip, the sheriff’s department said.

MMJ legalized in 2008

Medical marijuana has been legal in Michigan since 2008, when it was approved at the ballot box by wide margins. A majority of voters supported MMJ in every county in the state, yet local law enforcement has tried repeatedly to stop patients from getting their medicine.

Police and prosecutors in Michigan have an especially hard time accepting that MMJ is law. An assistant prosecutor in the Upper Peninsula tanked a criminal trial last year after she went on a courtroom rant against legal medicinal cannabis.

Dispensaries have never been explicitly legal in Michigan. They weren’t covered by the 2008 ballot initiative, and the state Supreme Court ruled that police can use local nuisance laws to force unapproved shops to close.

Patients permitted to cultivate

Patients may still grow their own marijuana, or they may pay caregivers to grow for them under limited circumstances. But they have no way to buy the drug on the retail market, and that means that patients without green thumbs and without access to caregivers must buy from the black market.

That could soon change. The state House passed a bill in October that would legalize dispensaries across Michigan and create a state board to license the shops, growers, processors, shippers, and testing laboratories that make up the medicinal marijuana industry.

It remains unclear whether the bill can win a Senate majority or Gov. Rick Snyder’s signature. Snyder, a conservative Republican, hasn’t committed to the legislation, but its prospects are considered good.

Ironically, GOP dominance in Michigan state government could help the bill. Republicans tend to oppose marijuana reform more than Democrats, but MMJ is widely popular in Michigan, and lawmakers there may try to take advantage of that fact by pushing the dispensary legislation through the Senate.

In a politically divided state, this might prove more difficult, as both sides could find it impossible to negotiate laws that alleviate all their concerns. But in a one-party state such as Michigan, popular bills often makes its way to the governor’s desk faster.

Cops Close Marijuana Dispensaries in Michigan

Marijuana and Pregnancy: An Overreaction?

Pregnant women are well advised to stay away from alcohol, hard drugs, and cigarettes. The evidence on all of these substances is clear: They do real harm to fetuses, harm that can follow a baby into childhood and beyond.

Smoking while pregnant can result in birth defects, low birth weight, and even fatality: Babies born to mothers who smoke are at greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Drinking while pregnant causes fetal alcohol syndrome. And illegal drug use can lead to miscarriage, infant addiction, and fetal death.

But what about marijuana? Is it OK to toke while pregnant, or will you do more harm than good?

Warning labels on cannabis products

As it turns out, this is a hotly debated issue right now. In November, the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest group of doctors, proposed a warning label for cannabis products: “Marijuana use during pregnancy and breastfeeding poses potential harms.”

Contrast that with one of the warnings required on every tobacco product: “Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight.” Note the cigarette warning is much more specific than the proposed cannabis label.

The reason for the distinction is that we have a lot more evidence that tobacco hinders fetal development than we do that marijuana is harmful in pregnancy. The same is true of alcohol and drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Lack of research on marijuana’s effect on pregnancy

It’s not an academic issue. In October, an Ohio couple temporarily lost custody of their newborn daughter after hospital blood tests returned a positive result for non-psychoactive metabolites of THC. The tests did not provide evidence the fetus had been exposed to THC or its psychoactive effects; in other words, it never got high.

Hollie Sanford acknowledged she used a marijuana tea to treat her morning sickness and to alleviate chronic pain caused by a pinched sciatic nerve. She said she researched the drug and determined it was much safer than prescription pain pills. Statistically speaking, she was right.

But a judge didn’t see it that way, and took the child from Hollie and her husband. The girl was returned after several days following a higher court ruling. But Hollie was forced to promise not to use cannabis, even though it’s safer than the alternatives.

Cannabis is safer than opiate alternatives

Why the fuss if there’s no evidence cannabis harms fetuses? More than anything, it’s probably an attempt by doctors, lawmakers, and regulators to mitigate the inevitability of marijuana reform.

Legalization is coming, and many physicians are unhappy about it. They insist cannabis should be evaluated by the FDA before patients may use it – a political and practical impossibility – and often discourage patients from toking even if it helps them.

The AMA may be issuing its proposal in hopes it can at least limit the public’s exposure to marijuana. And by doing so, the nation’s doctors may end up sending patients like Holly straight into the arms of notoriously addictive opiate painkillers – and those really do hurt babies.

Marijuana and Pregnancy: An Overreaction?

New Jersey Teen Can Use Marijuana at School

A New Jersey schoolgirl with autism and severe epilepsy will be able to return to classes after the state’s governor signed a law granting her the right to use medical marijuana at school.

Gov. Chris Christie’s signature came after months of legal wrangling over Genny Barbour’s rights to medication. Hers was one of the first cases in the country to raise the question of whether students may use the drug on school campuses.

Almost every school in the United States – possibly all of them – are designated “drug free school zones.” Penalties for any kind of drug possession are even harsher than they are under other circumstances. And these designations make it impossible for school officials to allow MMJ use.

Second state to allow CBD oil at school

New Jersey is now the second state, after Colorado, to enact laws that create an exception for non-intoxicating medicinal cannabis. This preparation, known as CBD oil, is what Barbour uses to treat her seizures and autism.

“We never thought that it would happen,” Lora Barbour, Genny’s mother, told People magazine. “It was Governor Christie who passed this bill. We thought we would have to battle everything through the court system.”

The governor’s support came as something of a surprise, given his long record opposing medical marijuana reforms. Christie is running for president and has carved out a (small) niche as the candidate most strongly opposed to legalization of any kind.

Surprising support from Gov. Christie

But the governor is also a passionate supporter of treatment rather than jail time for addicts. He has spoken about the issue convincingly on the campaign trail, and a video of one such speech quickly went viral.

The law he signed was inspired by Genny, 16, and her struggle to take MMJ at school. Her symptoms wax and wane throughout the day, based on her cannabis intake. That meant her afternoons were especially hard to manage because she couldn’t take the drug on campus. Now that shouldn’t be a problem.

Genny was attending schools in half-day increments because she had to return home in the afternoons for her medicine. She is now able to return to a full-day schedule, her mother said.

New law bars involvement of school nurses

Following the law, Genny’s school, the Larc School of Bellmawr, adopted a new policy that lets her use her medication between classes. She must administer the drug with her mother’s help, since the policy bars school nurses from taking part. She is limited to non-intoxicating cannabis oil.

School officials touted their new policy as the first of its kind, but Colorado lawmakers voted in May to adopt similar rules statewide. It is unclear how many students have taken advantage of that law, but it was inspired by at least one teenager who fought for access to MMJ.

Lora Barbour said she’s still upset that the state failed to allow help from a school nurse. Officials still aren’t treating her daughter’s medicine as medicine, she said.

“It’s frustrating, because is it a medicine or is it not a medicine?” Lora Barbour said. “What parent has the time to go into the school every day to do it?”

New Jersey Teen Can Use Marijuana at School

Pittsburgh Could Decriminalize

Pittsburgh could soon join a growing movement to decriminalize marijuana in America, one city at a time.

A Pittsburgh City Council member is pushing a new bill that would remove criminal penalties for simple possession of cannabis. He already has the votes of four other council members, all but ensuring the ordinance will pass and reach the desk of Mayor William Peduto.

The council has nine members, and the bill’s author, Council Member R. Daniel Lavelle, said he has the five votes he needs for a majority. Like Peduto, Lavelle and the rest of the council members are all Democrats, and that makes it more likely decriminalization will ultimately take effect.

Penalty reduced to a civil fine

Lavelle’s bill, which he introduced Nov. 17, would eliminate incarceration as a penalty for possession and would replace it with a simple $25 civil fine, similar to a minor traffic ticket. The plan is modeled after a decriminalization ordinance in Philadelphia, which imposes the same $25 fine. Both cities would punish public consumption with $100 tickets.

Besides Lavelle, the bill’s supporters include Council President Bruce and council members Ricky Burgess, Dan Gilman, and Corey O’Connor. Two other council members, Theresa Kail-Smith and Deb Gross, declined to commit to the idea, saying they needed more information first. The remaining two members, Darlene Harris and Natalia Rudiak, weren’t immediately available for comment.

Ending incarceration for minor drug offenses

Lavelle and his backers said decriminalization would end a needless system of incarceration for minor marijuana offenses. Aside from jail time and fines, a criminal record can make it difficult to find work, secure housing, or apply for government benefits.

“Anybody who has that on their record, they can’t get hired,” O’Connor said. “A kid who makes a mistake in high school shouldn’t be punished for the rest of their life.”

The bill wouldn’t actually change cannabis laws anywhere in Pennsylvania. The state would still treat simple possession as a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and $500 in fines. Local police would still be allowed to enforce those laws.

Decriminalization leads to reduced arrests

But at a practical level, decriminalization tends to dramatically cut marijuana arrests in major cities. Police typically choose to ignore cannabis offenses when the voters they protect have asked them to look the other way.

Council members were quick to insist that they don’t want to legalize and have no intent to encourage marijuana use. Burgess, a local minister, pointed out that there are addicts in his family. But backers of the bill said they want to fix the damage caused by years of overzealous arrests and prosecutions.

“We are not legalizing it, we are changing the penalty,” Burgess said. “Those who are addicted need rehabilitation and services, but not incarceration.”

Criminal penalties for marijuana hit young black men the hardest, according to recent studies, pinning them with the bigger part of the burden for the failed war on drugs, Gilman said. Lavelle’s decriminalization ordinance would help “reform what has been a failed policy of this country and this city for years.”

Pittsburgh Could Decriminalize

Study Shows Tokers Are Healthier

The logic seems pretty simple: Marijuana makes you hungry. When you’re hungry, you eat more. When you overeat, you gain weight. And when you gain weight, you put yourself at risk of something called metabolic syndrome.

This is not a disease, exactly. Rather it’s a cluster of risk factors associated with obesity and poor health. They include high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar levels, excessive cholesterol, and belly fat. These factors substantially increase the risk of heart attacks, type 2 diabetes, and other serious health concerns.

That’s the logic. But it turns out common sense may not be so simple. A new study in The American Journal of Medicine finds that cannabis users are much less likely than other people to develop metabolic syndrome, despite their increased food intake.

Scientists at the University of Miami’s Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine examined how marijuana affects metabolic syndrome, drawing on data from a five-year study of 8,500 adults. The subjects were aged 20 to 59, and they were tested for five symptoms: high blood sugar levels, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and increased waistline. Any three are enough to diagnose metabolic syndrome.

Tokers less likely to have metabolic syndrome

Participants were divided into three groups, including those who had never tried marijuana, those who currently used it, and those who had tried it but no longer used it. Of those with no history of cannabis consumption, 19.5 percent met the criteria for metabolic syndrome. The same was true of 17.5 percent of former tokers, while just 13.8 percent of current users qualified.

What’s more, the study found marijuana smokers have much lower mean fasting blood sugar levels, the yardstick for diagnosing type 2 diabetes. Waist circumference was also much lower in people who smoke than in those who don’t.

Cannabis use leads to lower mean weight

“Among emerging adults, current marijuana users were 54 percent less likely than never users to present with metabolic syndrome,” the researchers wrote. “These findings have important implications for the nation as marijuana use becomes more accepted and we simultaneously face multiple epidemics of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.”

This isn’t the first evidence showing smoking cannabis can lead to better weight outcomes despite its tendency to produce the munchies. A study from 2013 found that toking tends to result in slimmer waistlines and can protect against diabetes by lowering insulin levels and limiting insulin resistance in the body.

A study from 2011 likewise concluded that regular users are much less likely than non-users to be obese. That study found that tokers were just 33 percent as likely as non-users to be overweight.

Study Shows Tokers Are Healthier

Which Diseases Does MMJ Treat?

Thirty years ago, scientists in Siberia discovered the mummy of a woman who had been buried with leavings of cannabis pollen. They concluded that she died of breast cancer, and that she used the weed to treat it. Their find proved humans have been consuming medical pot for at least 2,500 years.

A lot has changed in the meantime, including our understanding of marijuana and its role in treating disease. But what exactly do we know about MMJ? Which conditions does it treat best? Here is a completely non-exclusive list of diseases that are known to respond to cannabis.

HIV/AIDS

HIV is much more survivable than it used to be. In the early years of the AIDS crisis, a diagnosis was a death sentence. Now, patients routinely live full lives on a complex regimen of medications, including weed. Among its benefits, it increases appetite (the “munchies”) and fights the wasting often associated with this disease.

Cancer

Doctors have been using pot to alleviate the side effects of cancer therapies for decades. Radiation and chemotherapy frequently cause intense nausea, vomiting, and pain, all treatable with marijuana. But we now also know that weed may kill off tumor cells, meaning it could play a key role in defeating some forms of cancer entirely.

Multiple Sclerosis

MS is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease, and though there is no cure, cannabis is one of several medications that can make a critical difference in reducing symptoms. The drug helps ease the pain and muscle spasms that define the disorder, and is covered by MMJ in most states that allow the drug.

Seizure Disorders

Medicinal cannabis has a strong track record in treating certain forms of intractable epilepsy. For reasons that still aren’t clear, a chemical in marijuana known as CBD can dramatically reduce the number and severity of convulsions patients experience. It’s especially useful for children with treatment-resistant epilepsy, a fact that has spurred medical weed laws in more than a dozen states.

Chronic Pain

Pain is the No. 1 reason Americans use pot as medicine. There’s still plenty of debate over just how effective this form of treatment is, but millions of patients swear by it. States have been slow to add chronic pain to their lists of qualifying conditions, but the science behind pot as a painkiller is growing stronger.

Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes discomfort, pain, and digestive problems. For some patients these symptoms can be disabling. Researchers have established that marijuana is effective in improving appetite, fighting insomnia, and even sending Crohn’s into remission. What’s more, it does this with only limited side effects.

Tourette’s Syndrome

Several mental illnesses are thought to respond to MMJ, including anxiety, mood disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But the drug is particularly helpful in treating Tourette’s syndrome, a neuropsychiatric disease typified by physical tics and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Repeated studes have shown weed can reduce these symptoms without serious adverse effects.

Which Diseases Does MMJ Treat?

Some Bosses Allow MMJ on the Job

Medical marijuana is no longer an experimental idea embraced by a handful of state governments. It’s commonplace now, found to some degree in 37 states. And with commonplace access come commonplace problems.

One of the biggest dilemmas facing the world of legal cannabis pits employers concerned about workplace safety against workers who need medical marijuana to treat diseases. Should employees be allowed to use cannabis as medicine even when their bosses want to maintain “drug-free” work zones?

The Colorado Supreme Court recently ruled that they shouldn’t. The decision was taken as a sign that patients who use MMJ will be out of luck when it comes to employment, forcing them to choose one or the other. Advocates saw it as a major defeat.

But that may not be the end of the story. As Business Insurance magazine reports, a small but growing number of companies are tackling the issue head on, granting their workers the right not only to use medical marijuana, but to use it on the job.

1 in 5 SMEs would allow MMJ at work

A study released in November concluded that one in five small businesses would let workers use prescribed medical cannabis while on the job, according to Business Insurance. The study was produced by EMPLOYERS, a Nevada company that provides workers’ comp. insurance services, and it found 19 percent of business owners would allow cannabis use by workers with valid prescriptions, while 62 percent would not and 17 percent said they were unsure.

“We encourage all small businesses to maintain drug-free workplaces because employees who are under the influence of illicit substances, or misuse or abuse prescription drugs, can put themselves, other employees or customers at risk of injury or other harm,” said Dwight Robertson, EMOLOYERS’ medical director. “The most important step employers can take is to have a clearly documented workplace safety policy that specifically addresses drug use in the workplace.”

EMPLOYERS favors complete prohibition of cannabis use at work, but the study suggests that view is far from universal. Fully 42 percent of small business owners said they have no written policy to prevent workers from using on the job, while 74 percent have no drug test requirement.

Medical marijuana now widely available

A large majority, 81 percent, said they don’t worry that workers will show up to work high, even following legalization in four states and the District of Columbia. Intoxicating forms of the drug are allowed for medicinal use in those states plus another 22, while a non-intoxicating marijuana oil is legal in another 11 states.

Only 10 percent of the businesses surveyed said they do notice workers showing up under the influence of marijuana, alcohol, opiate painkillers, or other intoxicants. The study included telephone interviews with the owners of 501 small businesses in the United States that employ fewer than 100 people. It was conducted in May.

Some Bosses Allow MMJ on the Job

Where Is Marijuana Legal?

Marijuana law in the United State changes almost by the day. But at least until November 2016, the drug will be legal for personal use in just five places: Oregon, Colorado, Washington State, Alaska, and the District of Columbia.

Each of those places, plus another 33 states, allow medical cannabis use. And marijuana has been decriminalized in 15 states, meaning jail time and other criminal penalties have been replaced with small civil fines.

As a general matter, there are three broad types of cannabis reform: full legalization, decriminalization, and medical marijuana.

In places that legalize, adults may grow cannabis and possess it for personal use. These places typically license the businesses that cultivate and sell on the retail market. But legalization only applies at the state level, since the federal government still bans the drug for any use.

Colorado and Washington voters legalized in 2012

Voters in Washington State and Colorado legalized at the ballot box in 2012. The first legal retail cannabis went on sale in Colorado Jan. 1, 2014, while Washington started selling it later that year.

Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., followed suit in 2014

In November 2014, Oregon and Alaska also legalized. Oregon’s first marijuana stores opened last month, while Alaska is still finalizing its regulations before issuing licenses. Oregon was able to act faster because it allowed existing medical cannabis dispensaries to sell for recreation.7

Washington, D.C., also voted to allow legal marijuana in 2014. That program is off to a much rockier start, as Republicans in Congress have tried to block it, but officials still hope to license stores in the near future.

Medical marijuana now commonly available

Medical marijuana, meanwhile, is common in the United States, and becoming more so. Fifteen states permit only CBD oil, a limited, non-intoxicating form of cannabis used for a short list of conditions, especially pediatric seizure disorders. Eighteen allow medical use of marijuana containing the psychoactive ingredient THC.

Washington, D.C., has passed a full medical cannabis law, as have two U.S. territories, Guam in the Pacific and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.

Congress has passed a series of federal laws designed to protect medical marijuana patients in states where it is legal. The most important of these prevent the Department of Justice and its agencies from impeding the provision of MMJ, though the department has insisted it doesn’t fall under the law (a federal judge recently ruled otherwise).

Who’s up next?

More reforms are likely in the future. A dozen other states are in line to vote on the issue within the next few years, including California, New York, and Massachusetts. One presidential candidate has promised to support legalization, while others have edged closer to serious reform.

Even so, federal statutes still prohibit any use of marijuana, medical, recreational, or otherwise. Penalties are stiff, though federal agencies typically target dealers and dispensaries rather than individual patients – with some notable exceptions.

Further federal reform is probably on the way. Former Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is running for the Democratic nomination, said he wants to reschedule marijuana, removing it from its current restraints and making national legalization easier.

For now, legalization is limited to the American West and Washington, D.C. But expect that to change, rapidly. It will likely reach the East Coast next year, and could land in the Midwest by 2020. Even the Deep South may fall in a matter of years.

Where Is Marijuana Legal?

California man attempting to block new medical marijuana regulations

A California man is trying to block new medical marijuana regulations

SAN JOSE, CA — California’s Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, signed into law this month to regulate the state’s medical marijuana industry, violates the state’s constitution, a medical marijuana collective operator claims in court.

Governor Jerry Brown signed the law on Oct. 9, to establish a comprehensive legislative framework for the production, transportation and sale of medical marijuana in California.

The bipartisan group of legislators who drafted the laws says they will provide a licensing structure for the industry, establish security, worker and safety standards and protect patient access, under a combination of state and local control.

Is voter approval required?

But David Armstrong claims the law violates the California Constitution because it amended a voter initiative- the 1996 Compassionate Use Act, which legalized doctor-recommended medical marijuana – without voter approval.

The Oct. 21 complaint also says federal law pre-empts the act in prohibiting possession of marijuana for any purpose. Armstrong made that claim, seemingly at odds with his job, to prevent federal complications should the state law stand, his attorney said.

Armstrong objects to the act’s restrictions on the amount of marijuana a person can grow for medical purposes, the amount of marijuana a patient’s primary caregiver can grow for medical use, and restrictions on the number of patients to whom a physician can recommend marijuana for medical use, among other things.

Conflicting with the CSA

He also says the federal Controlled Substances Act conflicts with and pre-empts the act.

Armstrong’s attorney Nicholas Emanuel said in an interview that the full effects of the new legislation on medical marijuana dispensary operators are not yet clear, but his client thought it best to go ahead and file suit to “get a jump on things.”

“The law essentially changes everything [the operators] do,” Armstrong said. “It’s going to require the state government’s OK to participate in this activity at all, and it’s going to be up to the state’s discretion to determine who’s allowed to distribute.”

Emanuel said his client is not anti-regulation – in fact, he favors it – but he believes the act is “not the most effective way to do things,” since the act is “completely illegal under federal law.”

“To develop a coherent and realistic policy we need to have all levels of government working together, rather than this sort of patchwork regulation that we have now,” Armstrong said.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta, one of the act’s primary authors, was traveling Friday and not available for comment, but his spokesman said he would be able to soon.

Armstrong seeks declaratory judgment that the law violates the California Constitution and its Business and Profession Code, that it is pre-empted by federal law, and attorney’s fees.

California man attempting to block new medical marijuana regulations

MJ Reform Isn"t Dead in Ohio

It’s been a bad month for marijuana reformers in Ohio. Election Day saw a major legalization effort go down to defeat, big time, even as an opposing plan won at the ballot box. The loss for cannabis advocates was so bad it had some of their foes claiming permanent victory.

Don’t believe it. Ohio is likely to legalize cannabis, whether for medicine or for recreation, at some point in the near future. Even the state’s Republican attorney general, who opposed the legalization initiative, admits some reform is inevitable.

“I think medical marijuana is coming,” said Attorney General Mike DeWine. “Most Ohioans, when they look at this issue, you know, have great sympathy for people who might be helped by medical marijuana.”

Strong public support for reform

The state is ripe for reform. Public backing for MMJ is very strong, mirroring levels elsewhere in the country. And while support for full legalization is weaker, it still charts above 50 percent.

Those numbers gave the people at ResponsibleOhio hope that their legalization plan might pass. The group, which organized the petition drive and raised money to gin up support for it at the ballot box, pushed a proposal that would have granted 10 companies monopoly rights over a complex legal cannabis industry.

It didn’t work. Even longtime observers in the marijuana community pointed to ResponsibleOhio as an example of how not to approach legalization. Under the proposal, the state would have purchased cultivation sites from the group’s biggest donors.

That sweetheart deal gave voters every excuse they needed to reject legalization this time around. Many who support legalization voted against it because they saw the initiative as a thinly veiled money grab.

A competing ballot initiative passed

Indeed, opposition was so fierce it led to a competing ballot initiative, one that would have blocked legalization from ever taking effect by prohibiting any kind of business monopoly in Ohio. That proposal passed, but because legalization failed, its effect will be minimal.

DeWine pointed to a series of clinical studies, in and outside of Ohio, as a sign medical marijuana is coming. One such trial, in Columbus, Ohio, is examining whether a cannabis preparation made in the United Kingdom can treat pediatric seizure disorders. Results should be available within a year, he said, and the FDA could act after that.

DeWine also said he has talked to state leaders about the issue, including the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.

“The Ohio Legislature is going to start looking at the issue of medical marijuana, and I think they’re going to start doing this very quickly,” he said. “What I told the speaker is that our office has been working on this for the last few months. We’ve seen what other states have done. And so I think we’ve got kind of a menu, so to speak, to present to the state Legislature that the Legislature can pick and choose from about which way they want to go with regard to medical marijuana.”

MJ Reform Isn"t Dead in Ohio

Indian Tribe Backs Away from Legal MJ

Plans to open the world’s first marijuana nightclub on a South Dakota Indian reservation have run into trouble.

Leaders of the Flandreau Sioux Tribe said in November that they were putting their legal cannabis project on hold and burning the crop they planted to supply it. The decision came as the tribe seeks clarification on legal matters from the federal government.

Seth Peerman, the tribe’s attorney, said once the tribe gets answers from the Department of Justice, “it will be better suited to proceed.” The decision doesn’t mean the Flandreau are backing out of legal marijuana, Peerman said in a statement.

“The tribe will continue to consult with the federal and state government and hopes to be granted parity with states that have legalized marijuana,” he said.

Complaints from state officials

The move comes amid complaints from state officials that legal cannabis on the reservation will inundate local communities with impaired drivers and drug runners. South Dakota has little legal control over the reservation, but opposition from state officials could put up practical obstacles.

South Dakota’s attorney general, Marty Jackley, called the crop burning a “positive” development.

“The decision by the Flandreau Tribe to not move forward at this time with marijuana growth in South Dakota is positive and is in the best interest of both tribal and non-tribal members,” Jackley said. “I understand that this has been a divisive matter and that this decision by tribal authorities has not been easy.”

Jackley said Flandreau leaders acted after meetings with state officials. Both sides talked about the tribe’s plans as they proceeded, he said.

“Good, positive discussions”

“We haven’t always agreed, but we’ve had good, positive discussions,” he said. “I will do whatever I can as South Dakota’s attorney general to assist Flandreau in the decision and as I have done throughout this process, make myself available to tribal leadership for further discussions.”

The DOJ announced last year that American Indian tribes are within their rights to legalize marijuana for any use, medical or recreational. The Flandreau were the first to take advantage of the new policy, though others have discussed the possibility.

The nightclub was to have included live music, games, gambling, food, and drinks. The tribe planned to impose strict limits on how much marijuana each customer could buy at a time, reducing the likelihood of smuggling.

Concerns of impaired driving

But state and local leaders hinted that visitors to the reservation – also the site of a casino – could face a swarm of police upon leaving. A blood sample that tests positive for any amount of THC, active or inactive, counts as criminal possession under South Dakota law, meaning a tourist who gets high, stays overnight at the reservation hotel, and leaves the next morning could still be busted.

Rep. Matthew Wollmann, a Republican who represents the white community of Flandreau, S.D., said the decision caught him off guard. He toured the tribe’s cannabis site in October and said he expected them to continue.

“They’ve invested a lot of money into the facilities,” Wollmann said.

But even with the pause, the Flandreau could again come into conflict with the state over marijuana. The drug is illegal in South Dakota for any use.

Indian Tribe Backs Away from Legal MJ

Hillary Clinton Proposes MJ Rescheduling

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said in November that she wants to reschedule marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.

Clinton’s remarks came at a rally in South Carolina Nov. 7. Her chief competitor for the nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, has already gone on record calling for rescheduling and has authored legislation to make it happen.

Clinton spoke just days after Sanders announced his bill, and her comments were an apparent attempt to flank him on marijuana reform. But she didn’t go quite as far as his call for full legalization of cannabis; she still refuses to endorse that idea.

Even so, her support of rescheduling could pave the way for legal marijuana. The drug is currently listed in schedule 1 of the CSA, a law that categorizes drugs under the control of the DEA. Schedule 1 includes drugs the federal government considers especially dangerous, especially addictive, and medically useless, including heroin, LSD, and synthetic cannabis.

Schedule 1 listing limits research on medical marijuana

Inclusion on schedule 1 means a drug can’t be used by anyone for any purpose, including research. That greatly hampers science into marijuana’s benefits and makes full legalization a practical impossibility.

Activists have been pushing for many years to remove cannabis from schedule 1, an effort that was fruitless until this campaign season. Now that two major candidates support rescheduling, it’s becoming a distinct possibility.

Clinton said she wants to move marijuana from schedule 1 to schedule 2, a category the government believes has “less abuse potential.” It includes cocaine, methamphetamine, and PCP, all drugs that are tightly controlled yet have limited medicinal uses. Moving cannabis there would make it easier for scientists to study how it works as medicine.

We must learn more about marijuana

“What I do want is for us to support research into medical marijuana, because a lot more states have passed medical marijuana than have legalized marijuana, so we’ve got two different experiences or even experiments going on right now,” she said at a town hall gathering. “And the problem with medical marijuana is there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence about how well it works for certain conditions, but we haven’t done any research. Why? Because it’s considered what’s called a schedule 1 drug, and you can’t even do research in it.”

Clinton has said before that she opposes recreational legalization but strongly supports medical marijuana. A move to schedule 2 would lift the most restrictive rules on cannabis, rules that make it impossible for researchers to study the plant’s medical benefits.

“If we’re going to have a lot of states setting up marijuana dispensaries so that people who have some kind of medical need are getting marijuana, we need know what’s the quality of it, how much should you take, what should you avoid if you’re taking other medications,” she said.

A means to criminal justice reform

Despite her opposition to legal cannabis, Clinton has said she sees decriminalization as a key part of criminal justice reform. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have joined forces in an effort to end harsh sentencing laws and free inmates serving time for non-violent drug crimes.

“We have got to stop imprisoning people who use marijuana,” Clinton said during the October debate between Democratic candidates.

During the same debate, Sanders said he would vote “yes” on legalization if he had the chance to cast a ballot in Nevada next year. The state is considered a good bet to join Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Colorado, states where marijuana is now legal for recreational use.

Later, Sanders proposed a rescheduling and introduced the legislation to carry it out. Including Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who holds a distant third place to Sanders and Clinton, every major Democratic candidate has come out in favor of moving cannabis from schedule 1.

Clinton’s plan reflects the input of groups that support medical marijuana research. Earlier this year, for example, the American Academy of Pediatrics petitioned the DEA to reschedule the drug so it could be used in research.

Hillary Clinton Proposes MJ Rescheduling

Cops Rank MJ at Bottom of Threat List

Police officers in the United States overwhelmingly say they don’t see cannabis as a major threat to the communities they protect, according to a poll released in November.

The survey, part of the DEA’s “2015 National Drug Threat Assessment Summary,” asked more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies what their officers view as the biggest threats. Marijuana charted at the bottom of the list, with just 6 percent of respondents naming it as the worst.

That number has been dropping steadily over the last decade, even as more states adopted medical cannabis and four legalized recreational use. Other drugs, meanwhile, are increasingly seen as major threats.

Heroin and meth topped the list

At the top of the list are heroin and meth, with nearly 75 percent of police departments saying it’s the biggest threat in 2015. Working class communities across the Eastern United States are currently suffering through the worst and deadliest surge of opiate addiction in the nation’s history.

But officers are less worried about prescription drug abuse than they used to be. That problem surged up the list between 2007 and 2013, then began to recede in 2014 and 2015. This is troubling, as most heroin addictions now start with legitimate opiate prescriptions – painkillers such as Percocet and Vicodin. This trend has snared countless innocent users who started with no inclination to abuse drugs and ended up losing everything, often including their lives.

It’s not surprising police don’t see marijuana as a big threat. The evidence is all around them: Meth users break the law to get more; cannabis users don’t. Alcoholics mow down pedestrians; stoners never make it to the driveway. Cocaine addicts scare people; tokers set a relaxing mood that tends to discourage violence.

The only surprise is that police agencies are willing to admit as much. These departments typically survive off the proceeds of their marijuana busts, and losing those busts could mean a significant financial hit. Some agencies might even go belly up should cannabis become legal.

Hopefully the poll will light a fire under the DEA, which adamantly opposes any and all use of marijuana, anywhere. But don’t hold your breath.

Poll found marijuana does not drive crime

The poll, which surveyed state and local police, found that they don’t believe cannabis is a significant factor behind crime trends. Six percent said the drug was the biggest driver of violent crime in 2015, while 5 percent said the same of property crime. Many top law enforcement officials insist marijuana really does drive up crime rates, but the study contradicts those statements.

None of this is likely to stop the onslaught of petty marijuana arrests. Police will continue to arrest low-level users in large numbers for the simple reason that they’re easy to catch. There are far more stoners than there are heroin or cocaine users, so the opportunities for arrest and conviction are greater.

Cops Rank MJ at Bottom of Threat List

Flakka Reaches New York, Brings Trouble

“Flakka” is not a household word, even in circles where exotic drug use is common. But that is starting to change, and observers say a nightmare is brewing.

Drug-related hysteria comes and goes, so it’s not clear yet how dangerous flakka really is, or even how it works, exactly. But scientists know it’s made in laboratories, evades drug tests, and causes bizarre, aggressive behavior, possibly even death. They also know its use is spreading.

The flakka scare started in Florida, as most drug trends do. But it has now leaped out of the state, landing in New York and points elsewhere. Officials in that state say they’re bracing for an onslaught.

Flakka is a synthetic drug, similar in some ways to Spice and other forms of synthetic cannabis. It’s made to produce a powerful high that can leave users disoriented, delusional, and potentially dangerous.

Cheap and widely available

At $5 a high, it costs next to nothing, and in places like Florida and New York, it is becoming increasingly easy to get. Like synthetic marijuana, flakka is most popular among youths and homeless people because it’s cheap and hard to detect. Children often have an easier time finding it than cannabis or other recreational drugs.

“This is poison,” said James Hunt, special agent in charge of the DEA’s New York field office. “No different than taking rat poison.”

The DEA is not known for its rational approach to drug problems, but doctors and other health experts say flakka is nothing to laugh at. Made almost exclusively in China, India, and Pakistan, it’s sold online and easily smuggled to users. It’s unclear whether drug dogs can sniff out flakka, but it’s a new drug, so it’s unlikely many K9s have been trained to detect it.

Highly addictive

Similar to so-called “bath salts,” flakka is designed to produce an intense euphoria. For that reason it can be highly addictive, according to police and health officials. But it also typically produces powerful negative effects.

“It’s an agitated state, causes heart attacks, paranoia,” Hunt said. No deaths have been reported, but experts say they fear it’s only a matter of time.

Flakka remains relatively rare as recreational chemicals go, but its spread has New York officials worried. Many users don’t realize what they’re buying, and may not even be getting the drug they’re paying for. Tainted samples can be deadly, and there’s no way to know what each hit really contains.

The DEA says the drug can now be found in Buffalo, Syracuse, and other parts of Upstate New York. There are few if any reports that it has reached New York City, but it’s likely on its way.

Reports of flakka use are increasing

Horror stories about flakka use are growing. In one case, an intoxicated man tried to break down the door of a Florida police station because he believed he was being chased by a deranged motorist; he was caught on camera, alone.

The drug causes “crazy strength,” Hunt said. “It would take four police officers to restrain you.”

It’s worth being skeptical of any claims that drugs trigger superhuman abilities – not even PCP does that. But there are other stories, equally troubling.

Another Florida man, for example, impaled himself on a fence while breaking into the same police station to escape hallucinations of violent pursuers. And earlier this year, a third man – also a Florida resident – stripped naked and tried to have sex with a tree while on flakka.

This scare comes amid an explosion of addiction and death stemming from heroin and synthetic drugs. New York City is already dealing with an epidemic of Spice use, itself potentially fatal, and the flakka trend appears close behind. The Bronx and East Harlem, both low-income areas, have been hit hardest, and roughly 150 patients are treated each week for overdose symptoms.

Flakka Reaches New York, Brings Trouble

Drug Warriors Give Sanders and Paul "D-"

In a move that will probably backfire, a group that opposes marijuana reform issued a report card of presidential candidates in October. Not surprisingly, the candidates who support new approaches to cannabis scored the worst grades.

Former Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democrat

That would be former Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Paul, a Republican, and Sanders, a leading Democratic contender, both received grades of “D-” thanks to promises to reform the nation’s arcane drug laws.

Neither man is especially likely to be president, but the report card could serve as a handy election guide for Americans who support legalization and other reforms. Voting for the candidates with the poorest grades is probably the surest way for voters to ensure those changes happen.

The rankings come from Project SAM, an ominously named group that fights legalization across the country. SAM is led by two inveterate drug warriors, lobbyist Kevin Sabet and former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy. Its members staunchly favor a punitive approach to drug use and insist marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol and other drugs.

Candidates from both parties were evaluated based on their “opposition to marijuana legalization for recreational purposes . . . support for prevention, intervention , and treatment of marijuana use,” and their promises to follow the “regulated, FDA-approved approach to the legitimate medical use of marijuana components.”

Sanders and Paul received the lowest grade given by SAM. Paul’s campaign is already on life support, and while Sanders has a strong following, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is still considered the Democratic front-runner. Even if one of these men were elected, he probably wouldn’t be able to orchestrate seamless change, as any attempt at nationwide legalization is likely to hit strong political turbulence.

Sanders said during the Democratic Party debate in October that he would vote “yes” if asked to support legalization in Nevada, the site of the debate. Later that month, he announced his plans to reschedule cannabis, removing it from schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act so it could be legalized at the federal level. That schedule contains the most hazardous, the most addictive, and the least medically useful drugs, including heroin and LSD.

Paul, meanwhile, has said he would leave legalization to the states. That position fits with his strong libertarian leanings, though he didn’t go so far as to support federal legalization.

SAM didn’t treat other candidates so harshly. Three Republicans, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and surgeon Ben Carson, won A grades for vowing to stamp out legalization and, in Carson’s words, “intensify” the war on drugs.

GOP businesswoman Carly Fiorina, whose fortunes have see-sawed since the first Republican debate earlier this year, scored only a B, despite taking a firm stance against legal cannabis. Sabet and Kennedy docked her because she has acknowledged that marijuana might have medicinal value.

Finally, Clinton, who leads both the Democratic Party and the race for the general election, got a B-, mostly because she has said she’ll keep an open mind about legalizing cannabis for recreation. She has repeatedly said she favors medical marijuana but has refused to go any further until the country has had more time to see how legalization plays out at the state level.

Drug Warriors Give Sanders and Paul "D-"

Arizona Billboard Campaign Targets Fear of MJ

If the War on Drugs has a fuel, it is fear. From Harry Anslinger and Reefer Madness to mandatory minimums and the DEA, almost every key development in the century-old movement to banish marijuana was born of terror.

One of the nation’s largest pro-marijuana groups, the Marijuana Policy Project, is playing off that fact in a campaign to convince voters legalization is right for them. MPP’s message: The only reason to vote against legal cannabis is irrational fear.

The group has paid to put up a billboard in Phoenix, above Seventh and Lincoln streets. Arizona voters could decide to legalize marijuana for any use in the 2016 election, and MPP is trying to encourage support for the idea. Activists are gathering signatures to put the issue on next year’s ballot.

Cannabis is legal in the District of Columbia and four states: Oregon, Alaska, Washington, and Colorado. It is allowed for some degree of medical use in another 33 states, including Arizona.

Legalization likely in Arizona

Legalization is a fairly good bet in the state, if not in 2016 then within a few years of that. Neighboring California has one of the nation’s most liberal cannabis systems, and Arizona has a strong libertarian tilt that lends itself to cannabis reform.

But there is also a staunch law-and-order streak to the state’s politics. Maricopa County, for instance, is home to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, arguably the most controversial law enforcement official in the United States. And that means opponents of reform have a considerable platform.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk serves as vice chairwoman of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, an anti-marijuana group made up of police and prosecutors. She has launched an effort to defeat legalization even before it makes the ballot. As MPP notes, her crusade is based on thinly veiled fear mongering.

Mocking drug war scare tactics

And that’s where the billboard comes in. The idea behind the ad was to make fun of the drug war scare tactics and fight them with humor.

“Marijuana is illegal thanks to decades of anti-marijuana propaganda and fear mongering,” J.P. Holyoak, chairman of the billboard campaign, said in a press release. “Once people find out it is actually safer than alcohol, they tend to agree it should not be a crime for adults to use it responsibly.”

Anyone who has paid attention to the history of cannabis knows this undercurrent of fear has run strong for at least a century. Marijuana was banned in 1937 after an intense campaign to scare the daylights out of ill-informed Americans and turn them against the drug. It culminated with Reefer Madness, possibly the most offensively hysterical movie ever made.

Perceptions are shifting

But times are changing. Young voters in particular no longer see anything to fear in marijuana. They’ve used the drug, they’ve seen their friends use it, even their families, and they know it rarely hurts anyone. These are the voters MPP is reaching for, in part by playing off the lurid posters that once advertised the notorious film.

“Over the next 12 months, our opponents are going to do everything they can to scare Arizonans into keeping marijuana illegal,” Holyoak said. “We just want voters to remember that we’re talking about a substance that is proven to be less harmful than alcohol.”

Arizona Billboard Campaign Targets Fear of MJ

Who Will Legalize First, Canada or Mexico?

Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana, and that makes the United States the first country in the world to offer fully legal cannabis. But the club is about to get a lot bigger.

Each of our neighbors, to the north and to the south, is looking at possible legalization within a matter of months or a few years. But which is going to get there first, Canada or Mexico? And could the United States beat them to the punch?

First, as a practical matter, no, the American government will probably not legalize marijuana until long after the drug is allowed in Mexico and Canada. Those countries are poised to act soon; legalization in the United States is likely to continue state by state, and that could take a long time.

Canada’s new Liberal government offers hope for reform

Hope for reform is strongest north of the border, where Canadian voters recently swept a new government into power. Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau is the country’s new prime minister, and he promised during the campaign that he would push for full legalization.

It’s not clear when Trudeau plans to act on that promise, but expectations are high. Support for legal cannabis is strong, and medical marijuana is already widely popular. The switch to full legalization shouldn’t be a big leap for Canada, even though Conservative politicians have fought it for years.

The elections were seen as a blunt rejection of the Conservative Party and its leader, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Conservatives were known for their American-style right-wing politics, including their opposition to MMJ and any other type of drug reform.

Does cannabis prohibition violate the Mexican national constitution?

At the other end of the continent, a legal case currently pending in the Mexican court system offers hope in that country. The Mexican Supreme Court is considering whether cannabis prohibition violates the national constitution, specifically a clause that protects the right to free development of the individual personality.

A determination by the court that cannabis is protected doesn’t necessarily mean the drug would be legalized, at least not right away. That would require an act of the Mexican Congress, though a judicial decision would increase the likelihood of such a law.

No one has cast solid odds on how that case will play out, but medical cannabis is already technically legal (if not easily obtained), and some districts have moved to decriminalize the drug, including Mexico City.

Mexico has suffered from the illegal drug trade

The motives for reform in Mexico are obvious. The country and its people have suffered more than any other from the violent side effects of the illegal drug trade. Massive criminal cartels are still common across the country, though violence along the U.S. border has declined rapidly in recent months.

Over the last eight years, since President Felipe Calderon kicked off a massive anti-drug campaign across Mexico, roughly 100,000 people have died and another 25,000 have disappeared, presumably killed by cartels.

Legalizing marijuana would remove the drug from cartels’ control. This alone could cripple much of the illegal drug flow in Mexico. And it would take a massive financial bounty from criminals and give it to the public and their government instead.

Who Will Legalize First, Canada or Mexico?

Clinton: End Sentencing Disparity for Crack vs. Cocaine

Powdered cocaine and crack are essentially the same drug. They come from the same plant, they contain the same chemical, and they work on the brain in similar ways.

Even so, the government has long taken a much more punitive approach to people who use crack than it does to people who use cocaine hydrochloride, the powdered form of the drug. At least one presidential candidate has promised to end that disparity, a lingering holdover of 1990s anti-drug laws.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a rally in October that she would stop imposing harsher prison sentences on crack users than on powdered cocaine users. The announcement came as Clinton unrolls an ambitious plan to reform the troubled criminal justice system.

Clinton is still widely considered the front-runner for the Democratic nomination next year, though former Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has made it a competitive race. Both candidates have promised to change harsh sentences for marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs.

Clinton planned to outline her “extensive agenda” for criminal justice reform throughout the fall. Her proposals include changes to sentencing laws and a bill banning racial profiling by police. She announced her plan to reform cocaine sentences during a speech Oct. 30 in Atlanta, where she launched an “African Americans for Hillary” campaign.

Clinton used the event to unveil her criminal justice proposals, including changes to policing, incarceration, rehabilitation, and re-assimilation of released inmates into society. She had scheduled another speech on the subject in South Carolina in November, to be hosted by the local NAACP.

Her reform campaign is designed to end what she calls the “era of mass incarceration” in America, an era that has disproportionately affected African Americans. Part of the plan will include the push to end cocaine sentencing disparities, which also hit blacks harder than any other group. And she has called for legislation to prevent law enforcement from using race or ethnicity as grounds to launch routine investigations.

The disparity between crack sentences and sentences for powdered cocaine has existed since the Reagan era, when the United States experienced a supposed “epidemic” of crack addiction (an epidemic that was exaggerated by the media). Congress passed a law in 2010 that cut the disparity from a ratio of 100:1 to a ratio of 18:1, and Clinton said she plans to go further.

Still, the disparity continues to ruin lives across the country, usually the lives of low-level, non-violent offenders who neither make nor sell drugs.

Crack and powdered cocaine are both extracted from the leaves of the coca plant, which grows almost exclusively in South and Central America. Crack is a hard, rock-like cocaine paste also known as “base” or “freebase.” Smoked, it produces an incredibly intense euphoria sometimes described as a full-body orgasm.

Cocaine hydrochloride, on the other hand, is made by processing base further, turning it into a fine white powder that is usually snorted. Both forms of cocaine produce a powerful high, though crack is known to be stronger. In each case, intoxication fades rapidly, leading to a cycle of repeated use that can end in addiction.

During its heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, crack was especially popular in low-income neighborhoods and communities, in part because it is cheaper and in part because it is more potent. According to government data, almost 80 percent of Americans convicted of crack-related crimes in 2009 were black.

“Crack and powder cocaine are two forms of the same drug, and continuing to treat them differently disproportionately hurts black Americans,” Clinton’s campaign said in a background memo.

Clinton: End Sentencing Disparity for Crack vs. Cocaine

Canadian Elections: Good News for MJ

If you missed the recent elections in Canada, you aren’t alone. It was the longest campaign season in the nation’s history, yet Americans paid it scant attention.

That’s probably in part because “the longest campaign season” translated to just 78 days, almost nothing by the standard of America’s two-year election process. But it’s also because the United States tends to view politics north of the border as unimportant.

They’re not – not this time around, anyway. The October elections did more than put a new, dramatically more progressive government in power. They also opened the door to legal marijuana nationwide.

Conservative PM ousted

On Canadian Election Day, Oct. 19, voters ousted the decade-old government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The outcome was widely viewed as further evidence of a liberal wave sweeping North America’s political institutions.

The new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is a dyed-in-the-wool Canadian progressive and son of another famously progressive prime minister. Trudeau led the Liberal Party to a surprisingly strong victory, taking a majority of the seats in Parliament.

Canadians don’t elect prime ministers directly. All government ministers are appointed to office by the party with the most seats in Parliament, or by a coalition of parties that together hold a majority of seats. The prime minister is typically also the leader of his or her party.

Trudeau promised to push for legalization

Trudeau made waves in recent months by promising to push for legalization of marijuana once in office. It remains to be seen whether he will make good on that promise, but all indications are that legalization is on its way.

If that happens, Canada will join Uruguay as one of the only countries where the recreational use of marijuana is legal. Cannabis has been legalized in four U.S. states and the District of Columbia, but it remains prohibited under federal law.

Expectations are high among Canada’s stoners. Trudeau has positioned himself as a decided radical, a reformer who will use deficit spending, lift restrictions on immigrants, and legalize marijuana from coast to coast.

Harper staunchly opposed all these things, to the point that he was viewed as a racist obstructionist by many on the left. Election Day was a stinging defeat for Conservatives, who had managed to hold power for a decade by exploiting divisions among liberals.

Improved chances of marijuana legalization

The strong Liberal showing means marijuana legalization is all the more likely. Observers had predicted that neither of the three main parties (the other is the ultra-liberal NDP) would win a majority of Parliament. Had the Liberals come in first with less than 50 percent of seats, they likely would have been forced to form a coalition government with the NDP.

Instead, the Liberals will have total control of the national government. What’s more, support for cannabis reform is very high in Canada, with a growing segment of society complaining that the Conservatives were blocking progress.

Canada, like the United States, has moved sharply to the left in recent years. The country is famously liberal, yet the Conservatives managed to install a right-wing government. The outcome of Election Day means the leftward trend is likely to continue for some time.

And that is good news for reformers, marijuana smokers, and civil libertarians everywhere. The ball is rolling downhill now, and it doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon.

Canadian Elections: Good News for MJ