Pubdate: Sun, 27 Oct 2013
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2013 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Authors: Adam Nagourney and Rick Lyman

FEW PROBLEMS WITH CANNABIS FOR CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES - In the heart of Northern California's marijuana growing 
region, the sheriff's office is inundated each fall with complaints 
about the stench of marijuana plots or the latest expropriation of 
public land by growers. Its tranquil communities have been altered by 
the emergence of a wealthy class of marijuana entrepreneurs, while 
nearly 500 miles away in Los Angeles, officials have struggled to 
regulate an explosion of medical marijuana shops.

But at a time when polls show widening public support for 
legalization - recreational marijuana is about to become legal in 
Colorado and Washington, and voter initiatives are in the pipeline in 
at least three other states - California's 17-year experience as the 
first state to legalize medical marijuana offers surprising lessons, 
experts say.

Warnings voiced against partial legalization - of civic disorder, 
increased lawlessness and a drastic rise in other drug use - have 
proved unfounded.

Instead, research suggests both that marijuana has become an alcohol 
substitute for younger people here and in other states that have 
legalized medical marijuana, and that while driving under the 
influence of any intoxicant is dangerous, driving after smoking 
marijuana is less dangerous than after drinking alcohol.

Although marijuana is legal here only for medical use, it is widely 
available. There is no evidence that its use by teenagers has risen 
since the 1996 legalization, though it is an open question whether 
outright legalization would make the drug that much easier for young 
people to get, and thus contribute to increased use.

And though Los Angeles has struggled to regulate marijuana 
dispensaries, with neighborhoods upset at their sheer number, the 
threat of unsavory street traffic and the stigma of marijuana shops 
on the corner, communities that imposed early and strict regulations 
on their operations have not experienced such disruption.

Imposing a local tax on medical marijuana, as Oakland, San Jose and 
other communities have done, has not pushed consumers to drug dealers 
as some analysts expected. Presumably that is because it is so easy 
to get reliable and high-quality marijuana legally.

Finally, for consumers, the era of legalized medical marijuana has 
meant an expanded market and often cheaper prices. Buyers here gaze 
over showcases offering a rich assortment of marijuana, promising 
different potencies and different kinds of highs. Cannabis sativa 
produces a pronounced psychological high, a "head buzz," while 
cannabis indica delivers a more relaxed, lethargic effect, a "body buzz."

Advocates for marijuana legalization see the moves in Colorado and 
Washington as the start of a wave. A Gallup poll released last week 
found that 58 percent of Americans think the drug should be made legal.

"There is definitely going to be a legalization here at some point, 
one way or another, like in Colorado and Washington," said Tom 
Ammiano, a Democratic state assemblyman from San Francisco who has 
pushed the Legislature to legalize recreational marijuana use.

Still, even as public opinion in support of legalizing marijuana has 
grown, opposition remains strong among many, including some law 
enforcement organizations, which warn that the use of the drug leads 
to marijuana dependence, endangers the health of users and encourages 
the use of other drugs.

"Unfortunately, many have been convinced that marijuana is harmless, 
and many in policing do not believe that is the case," Darrel W. 
Stephens, the executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs 
Association, wrote in an e-mail.

Craig T. Steckler, a former chief of the Police Department in 
Fremont, Calif., who is now the president of the International 
Association of Chiefs of Police, said the problems in Los Angeles and 
robberies of cash-rich marijuana farms in Northern California were 
just two of the reasons states should hesitate before legalizing the drug.

"If it's more readily accessible, if the parents and the siblings are 
doing it, then it becomes available to the younger kids - it's going 
to be in the house, it's going to be in the car," he said.

"Where does it stop?" Mr. Steckler asked. "You make all drugs legal? 
Or just marijuana for now and suffer for that? What happens when you 
find out this wasn't such a good idea?"

After California, medical marijuana was legalized in 19 states and 
the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of 
State Legislatures.

Although the law in California applies only to people who have a 
medical need for marijuana, like glaucoma or cancer, the requirements 
for getting the card to buy the drug are notoriously lax. Doctors can 
recommend its use for ailments as common as sleeplessness and 
headaches. And marijuana in California has become almost as 
culturally accepted, and in some parts of the state nearly as widely 
used, as alcohol.

"Marijuana users are much more representative of the overall adult 
population in California than medical marijuana populations in other 
states," said Amanda Reiman, the state policy director for the Drug 
Policy Alliance, an organization working toward the decriminalization 
of marijuana.

The percentage of California drivers with traces of marijuana in 
their systems, 14 percent, was found to be nearly double that of 
people with alcohol during a spot check last year, according to a 
report from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

In a broad study on the ramifications of legalizing recreational 
marijuana about to be published in The Journal of Policy Analysis and 
Management, two economics professors said a survey of evidence showed 
a correlation between increased marijuana use and less alcohol use 
for people ages 18 to 29.

The researchers, D. Mark Anderson of Montana State University and 
Daniel I. Rees of the University of Colorado, said that based on 
their study, they expected younger people in Colorado and Washington 
to use marijuana more and alcohol less.

"These states will experience a reduction in the social harms 
resulting from alcohol use: Reducing traffic injuries and fatalities 
is potentially one of the most important," the professors said.

Mark A. R. Kleiman, a professor at the University of California, Los 
Angeles, and an expert on marijuana policy who was the chief adviser 
to Washington on its marijuana law, said the connection between 
alcohol and marijuana use, if borne out, would be a powerful argument 
in favor of decriminalization.

"If it turns out that cannabis and alcohol are substitutes, then by 
my scoring system, legalizing cannabis is obviously a good idea," Mr. 
Kleiman said. "Alcohol is so much more of a problem than cannabis 
ever has been."

Still, he said, it will take time before long-term judgments can be made.

"Does it cause problems?" he said. "Certainly. Is it on balance a 
good or bad thing? Ask me 10 years from now."

Mr. Rees also said his study found no evidence of increased drug use 
among high school students in Los Angeles during the period when 
medical marijuana shops opened here, probably because dispensaries 
were vigilant about not risking their thriving ventures by selling to 
under-age consumers.

"The dispensary numbers went through the roof," he said. "But nothing 
happens to marijuana use among teenagers."

The marijuana cultivation business in Northern California has been an 
economic boon for many communities, creating tax revenues, an 
industry of ancillary industries, and local wealth, visible by 
expensive cars parked along once dusty streets.

"A lot of cottage industries have popped up that service the 
marijuana industry," said Scot Candell, a lawyer in San Rafael who 
specializes in medical marijuana clients. "Labs that do testing, 
hydroponic stores that provide growing equipment, software 
developers, insurance companies that specialize in dispensaries."

Steve DeAngelo, the founder of the Harborside Health Center in 
Oakland, one of the state's largest marijuana dispensaries, said his 
dispensary collected $1.2 million last year in marijuana sales tax 
for the city.

Medical marijuana, he said, has "created a whole new cast of people 
who have a vested interest in cannabis."

"What was inevitable is that the movement, at some point, would go 
into hyper-speed, and that is what's happening now," he said.

This has altered the economy of places like Mendocino County.

"I am not aware of any business in Mendocino County that doesn't 
consider marijuana as part of their business plan, and that can be 
good and bad," said Sheriff Thomas D. Allman.

Mr. Candell said that while regulation was important, overregulation 
could be counterproductive. In California, several communities 
outlawed all marijuana dispensaries, giving rise to delivery 
services, which are not subject to regulation.

In Mendocino the issue is not dispensaries, but cultivation. There 
has been a spectacular rise in the amount of marijuana being grown 
there because, under county law, individuals with medical marijuana 
cards can have up to 25 plants for personal use.

Sheriff Allman said he spent about 30 percent of his resources on 
medical marijuana cases, especially between April and October, the 
growing season. The No. 1 call to 911 in October is complaints about 
the overwhelming smell of a next-door plot.

In Los Angeles, repeated attempts to regulate the stores have failed, 
causing an uproar in quiet neighborhoods like Larchmont and Mar 
Vista. Yet there is a lesson here: San Francisco, Oakland and 
Berkeley, which imposed strict regulations on the shops from the 
start, have had few problems.

"Those cities really took charge in 1996, saying: 'We have to figure 
out how we are going to regulate this. We need to figure out how 
marijuana could be sold, how it will be regulated, what it will mean 
for tax revenue,' " Ms. Reiman said. "As a result, those three cities 
have seen little to no issues in terms of crime or public safety issues."

Consumers of marijuana are also benefiting. Competition among growers 
has resulted in powerful strains, raising the levels of THC, the 
active ingredient in marijuana, to as high as 25 percent. Previously, 
levels ranged from 6 percent to 9 percent.

And since cities have competing dispensaries, prices have tended to 
decrease or at least keep pace with street prices. At Harborside in 
Oakland, marijuana buds run anywhere from $240 to $360 an ounce, 
though patients tend to buy smaller amounts like an eighth or a 
quarter of an ounce.

The array of products has exploded, and now includes not only 
smokable buds but also hashish, marijuana-rich oils that are drunk or 
smoked, edible cakes and other food products, and topical ointments 
intended to ease skin or joint pain without providing a high.

California has learned a lot in its years of dealing with a legal 
form of marijuana, Mr. Candell said. "But there are a lot of states 
that are just now going through it, and there are things they need to know."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom