Pubdate: Thu, 06 Nov 2014
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Column: The Week in Weed
Copyright: 2014 North Coast Journal
Contact:  http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Grant Scott-Goforth

HIGH TAXES

IRS regulations are making it difficult for legal pot businesses in 
Colorado and Washington to make a profit, which some say is a way for 
the federal government to continue its war on drugs.

Tax code adopted in the early 1980s holds people accountable for 
income taxes whether the money they make is legal or not. But, 
despite marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado (and 
potentially several other states following this week's elections), 
pot shop owners are not allowed to write off business deductions 
under the law. One Colorado business owner, who sold medical 
marijuana before recreational weed went legit, said he paid nearly 
$20,000 to the IRS last year and didn't earn a profit.

"If (the federal government) can't put them out of business legally 
when voters are mandating these businesses to move forward, it's very 
easy to put them out of business financially," Denver accountant 
Jordan Cornelius told USA Today.

A researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Center for 
Addiction Medicine is finding that marijuana use in young people 
could restructure the brain's pleasure center. Moderate use by adults 
poses little risk, according to a New York Times article, but "young 
people who smoke early and often are more likely to have learning and 
mental health problems."

Some fear existing studies are outdated. The average THC content of 
modern marijuana is much higher than that used in the older studies 
that provide the basis for current understanding of marijuana's 
effect on the developing brain. With increased potency comes 
potential differences in the way young users' brains develop and the 
probability of addiction.

Another study reinforces theories that early pot use reshapes the 
nucleus accumbens, which is at "the core of motivation, the core of 
pleasure and pain, and every decision that you make," according to 
the NYT. "Similar changes affected the amygdala, which is fundamental 
in processing emotions, memories and fear responses."

A federal judge has ceased Lake County's warrantless medical 
marijuana raid program, saying the voter-approved ordinance that 
spurred the practice could harm patients.

In June, Lake County residents voted to "prohibit growing marijuana 
plants on vacant land or on privately owned outdoor parcels of 1 acre 
or less," according to SFGate, and to "limit growth on larger parcels 
to six mature or 12 immature plants, and in indoor growing areas to 
100 square feet."

That led to at least seven property-damaging searches of private 
property without warrants, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of 
medical growers who were subjects of the raids.

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson wrote that denying the 
injunction against the Lake County Sheriff's Office "would leave 
numerous medical marijuana patients in Lake County vulnerable to 
future warrantless seizures of their medicine, which could lead to 
significant pain and suffering."

A San Diego TV news station reported last week that an undercover cop 
is under investigation for a T-shirt he wore during an Imperial Beach 
marijuana raid.

The shirt, worn by a narcotics officer during a raid of a grow that 
the owner claims is legal, read, "Fuck the growers ... Marijuana is 
still illegal."

"We got the runaround trying to find out who wore the T-shirt with 
the F word on it," explained one of the news team's investigative 
journalists, and the grow operator said the officer refused to pose 
with him for a picture.

The sheriff's department quickly came out against the shirt's 
vulgarity, but perhaps administrators should be more worried about 
their officers' undercover efficacy.

That shirt's a narc signal, dude. Inspector Clouseau, move over.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom