by Debby Goldsberry

Jack Herer
 
Citizens of Colorado and Washington States voted to legalize cannabis on Nov. 6, 2012, surprising the nation and its leadership. But, for a small group of dedicated advocates, this was the culmination of 40 plus years of determined, hard work. Their ultimate goal: to end the War on Cannabis, and to legalize its use for food, fuel, fiber, and medicine.
 
Cannabis Prohibition launched in 1937, when Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act, and the historic efforts to change this law began immediately. The American Medical Association testified in Congress to stop the loss of this important medicine, as did birdseed manufacturers, who feared that “birds would not sing” without cannabis hemp seeds in their food. The bird fans got an exception to the law, for denatured cannabis hemp products, but the doctors lost the fight to prescribe cannabis medicines, despite the fact that cocaine, morphine, and other dangerous drugs were widely available for use.
Counterculture hero Timothy Leary successfully challenged the Marihuana Tax Act in 1969, and the United States Supreme Court revoked it. But, Congress spared no time creating even worse laws, including the Controlled Substances Act, part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, and several supplementary treaties to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
President Nixon declared “War on Drugs,” in 1971, and by the mid-70’s nearly half a million Americans were being arrested for cannabis each year. It was time for advocates to get organized and fight back.
People forget that in the early 70′s possession of any amount of marijuana, even just a seed in your pocket, was a felony with a minimum sentence of a year in prison. The California Marijuana Initiative of 1972 failed to pass, but we regarded 1/3 of the vote a huge victory. “It convinced the State Legislature to reduce the penalty to a citable misdemeanor in 1975,” says longtime activist Michelle Aldrich.
 
Full Article:
http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2012/11/15/marijuana-legalization-seeds-planted-long-ago-finally-flower/
 

(image/Miss Libertine)
 
MONTREAL, QB — The enactment of state laws allowing for the limited legal use of cannabis by qualified patients has little to no causal effect on broader marijuana use, according to data published online in the journal Annals of Epidemiology.
Investigators at McGill University in Montreal obtained state-level estimates of marijuana use from the 2002 through 2009 US National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Researchers used difference-in-differences regression models to estimate the causal effect of medical cannabis laws on marijuana use, and simulations to account for measurement error.
Authors reported: “Difference-in-differences estimates suggested that passing MMLs (medical marijuana laws) decreased past-month use among adolescents … and had no discernible effect on the perceived riskiness of monthly use. … [These] estimates suggest that reported adolescent marijuana use may actually decrease following the passing of medical marijuana laws.”
They concluded, “We find limited evidence of causal effects of medical marijuana laws on measures of reported marijuana use.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2012/8860/medical-marijuana-laws-have-no-discernible-adverse-impact-on-adolescents-use-study-says/

By Steve Elliott

 
President Obama, you now have to make a decision with regard to how the federal government will answer the groundswell of support nationwide not only for medical use of cannabis, but also for outright legalization.

Submitted by Melissa Luck, Executive News Producer

 
His life was a battle against an evil force. For so much of his four years and five months on earth, Cash Michael Hyde fought a brain tumor that wouldn’t quit. By medical standards, Cashy probably should not have survived the initial tumor that hit when he was barely more than a year old. But, he did. And, he kept fighting. And, tonight at 10:13 pm in his hometown of Missoula, Montana, that tumor finally won.
I met Cashy in early April 2011. I had heard about his story from mutual friends in Montana and knew I had to share it. Cashy had just beat Stage 4 brain cancer – and, mid-way through his treatment, his parents began giving him cannabis oil to ease the side effects of the treatment. They called it a miracle drug and it was easy to see why. Cannabis helped give them back their son. I knew it was a good story to tell, especially in light of the medical marijuana debate that was raging in Washington at the time (the feds raided medical marijuana dispensaries the same day our story aired.) I didn’t know I would fall in love with the little boy.
 
Full Article:
http://downtownspokane.kxly.com/news/community-spirit/85432-rest-peace-little-man-fight-over

By Eric W. Dolan

 
 

Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA) on Thursday called for the Obama administration to respect state marijuana laws, as California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) did on Sunday.
Voters in Colorado and Washington state both approved referenda legalizing the limited recreational use of marijuana. However, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration still classifies marijuana as a schedule I drug: the most restrictive classification, reserved drugs with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medicinal value.
“We urge you to respect the wishes of the voters of Colorado and Washington and refrain from federal prosecution of the inhabitants of those states who will be following their states’ laws with regard to the use of marijuana,” Paul and Frank told the President in a letter (PDF).
Full Article:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/14/ron-paul-and-barney-frank-tell-obama-respect-state-marijuana-laws/
 

By ROB W. ANDERSON
 
Leon Briggs pointed to a study ordered by a former president as reason why marijuana should be legalized for medical treatments.
“The public needs to be aware of the Virginia study in 1974 ordered by President [Richard] Nixon,” he said. “In that study, researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institutes of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice – lung, breast cancer and virus-induced leukemia.
The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research, according to Jack Herer, who reported on the events in his book ‘The Emperor Wears No Clothes.’”
 
Full Article:
http://tahlequahdailypress.com/local/x62718132/Many-say-pot-smoking-should-be-legal

Ronna Benjamin

SPECIAL FROM BetterAfter50
 
Finally, there is relief for Massachusetts cancer patients, those in chronic pain, those suffering from HIV-AIDS, severe arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Glaucoma and so many other debilitating diseases. With the passage of Question 3 on the November 6 ballot, the Massachusetts voters legalized the use of medical marijuana, “smoking” that question by a two-to-one margin. And it’s about time.
I think I’m starting to feel a headache coming on. It may be a migraine. Did I mention to you that I have a bad back? And everyone knows I am so anxious I don’t sleep very well. Honest. I’m really not faking.
So now that Massachusetts is one of eighteen states (plus the District of Columbia) that have legalized medical marijuana, will we learn how to get a doctor’s prescription from states that have had some experience? In many of those states, doctors prescribe cannabis for such conditions as anxiety, headache, premenstrual syndrome and trouble sleeping. I am told you can even get medical marijuana in California for writers block. HA! I’m so down with that.
Is a new (and perhaps hazier) dawn about to rise over Boston Harbor? Is the Age of Aquarius for Massholes about to begin? Is the home of the Brahmins and the Red Sox, about to become… just a little bit cooler?
Unstuff those shirts, Bostonians, because medical marijuana is coming to a town near you! I am a little disheartened by the thought of how long the summertime lines will be at JP Licks in Newton Center next summer, but otherwise, I’m ready.
I’m ready for Bostonians to cool it up. I’m ready for us to give our Sperry’s to our nieces and nephews in New Hampshire and buy a pair of Birkenstocks. I’m ready to have everyone I know who owns a pair of brown wide-wale cords, a massive LV bag or a headband donate them to their favorite charity and invest in some hemp.
Pretty soon, Boston, it’s going to be all about the pipe and a pizza.
Think of it: Massachusetts in all its glory, but a little more chill. So many things will be just a little bit better. Even driving! I don’t condone driving while high, of course, but just imagine how fun rotaries would be. Can you imagine anyone in Massachusetts saying, “Please sir, pull ahead of me. Take that left — I’m in no hurry.”? And I am quite sure the people who made the road signs calling 128 South AND 95 North the same thing — well, they must have gotten their prescriptions extra early.
I’m ready for drivers to point me in the right direction with their pointer fingers.
I’m ready for Republican and Democratic leaders to smoke some weed and do some meaningful soul searching.
Everything will be better when medical marijuana comes to town. Imagine standing on Comm Ave and watching the Boston Marathon for five hours… Stoned. It wouldn’t be nearly as boring.
Imagine not minding so much when the Yankees beat the crap out of us.
 
Full Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronna-benjamin/medical-marijuana_b_2125623.html

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — The home county of the University of Colorado is the latest to drop pending marijuana possession cases in the wake of a public vote to legalize the drug.
Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett told the Daily Camera newspaper Wednesday his office would drop possession cases under an ounce for adults (http://bit.ly/X8NnEf). He said the effect would be minimal because his office already considers marijuana a low priority.
Garnett said overwhelming support in Boulder County for Colorado’s Amendment 64 would make it highly unlikely a jury would ever reach a guilty verdict in any of those cases.
“You’ve seen an end to mere possession cases in Boulder County under my office,” Garnett said.
Full Article:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/crime/article/Boulder-Co-Colo-prosecutor-dropping-pot-cases-4037638.php

Source: Reuters // Reuters
 
* Ruling party presents bill to legalize marijuana sales
* Government to control the market if law passes
By Malena Castaldi
MONTEVIDEO, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Uruguayans will be able to grow marijuana at home or in clubs, but the state will be in charge of the trade from cultivation to sale under a government-led legalization bill presented in Congress on Wednesday.
The use of cannabis and other drugs is already legal in Uruguay, one of Latin America’s safest countries and a trailblazer on liberal lawmaking, but the sale and cultivation of drugs is not.
President Jose Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla fighter, says the proposed law will help undermine smuggling gangs and fight petty crime in a region hit by drugs-related violence. Critics say it risks luring more Uruguayans to harder drugs.
“The idea is to grant licenses for production, distribution, storage and for retail. We haven’t said whether that will be done by the private or public sector, the government will decide that,” said Sebastian Sabini, a ruling party lawmaker who heads a congressional committee on drugs and addiction.
The bill, which the government hopes will become law early next year, says the state will be responsible for managing and regulating the marijuana trade from cultivation to distribution.
Mujica’s allies control both houses of Congress so the bill is expected to pass despite resistance from opposition legislators. It would give Uruguay some of the world’s most permissive legislation on drugs.
 
Full Article:
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/new-law-would-let-uruguayans-grow-marijuana-at-home-in-clubs