Pubdate: Thu, 13 Nov 2014
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Copyright: 2014 North Coast Journal
Contact:  http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Authors: Thadeus Greenson and Grant Scott-Goforth

LEGALIZED IT

Head north from Humboldt County and, after about two hours, you're 
now pretty much able to spark up all the way to the North Pole.

Voters chose on Nov. 4 to legalize marijuana in Oregon, Alaska and 
the District of Columbia, joining Colorado and Washington in the 
inevitable swing toward decriminalization.

In Oregon and Alaska, ganja lovers will be allowed to grow, possess 
and purchase pot under regulatory framework similar to that in 
Washington and Colorado, which collect taxes on the sale of 
marijuana, though retail shops in Oregon will not be allowed for a 
couple years until a permitting process is in place.

By some predictions, Oregon's marijuana will be significantly cheaper 
than Washington's because of the Beaver State's already burgeoning 
medical marijuana industry and significantly lower taxes.

Alaska - like Washington - had no dispensary framework, so 
legalization there will be a bit more complicated as entrepreneurs, 
municipalities and users seek to establish an industry from scratch.

In Washington, D.C., people will be allowed to possess up to 2 ounces 
of pot, but retail sales will remain illegal. That could be 
interesting in a city where the nation's now-Republican-held Congress 
and Senate work, though Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the 
Drug Policy Alliance, called the national marijuana victories 
"extraordinary" in a Los Angeles Times article.

"Reform of marijuana and criminal justice policies is no longer just 
a liberal cause but a conservative and bipartisan one as well," 
Adelman said. "On these issues at least, the nation is at last coming 
to its senses."

Florida, one of the last bastions of common sense, voted against 
medical marijuana, though constitutional measures there require 60 
percent approval in the state.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that momentum is 
growing to legalize marijuana in California with a measure on the 
2016 ballot. The aim is to align the measure with the presidential 
election, which proponents expect to "deliver younger voters to the 
polls who tend to be more supportive of pot." Counting on the youth 
vote - what could go wrong?

If there is budding support in the golden state, it flies in the face 
of the national trend, according to a recent Gallup poll. According 
to a report in the Huffington Post, the poll found legalization 
support has vaporized over the past year, with the number of 
Americans supporting it dropping from 58 percent down to 51 percent. 
But national legalization proponents appear undaunted. "I would take 
passage of laws in two states and our nation's capitol over some 
jumpy poll's results any day," Marijuana Policy Project 
Communications Director Mason Tvert told the Post. "If Gallup finds 
49 percent support in 2016 after five more states vote to end 
marijuana prohibition, I could live with that."

If Tvert's quote left marijuana smokers feeling high and mighty, a 
recent report in the journal of the Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences might harsh their vibe a bit. As reported in the 
New York Times, the study found that "chronic" pot smokers (those who 
toke up at least four times a week) have, on average, less gray 
matter in their orbital frontal cortex, "a region that is a key node 
in the brain's reward, motivation, decision-making and addictive 
behaviors network." Interestingly, however, the study found that 
region of pot smokers' brains to be better connected than those of 
non-users, which the study hypothesizes might be the brain's way of 
compensating for its "under-performing" gray matter. The study - 
which compared 48 users with 62 non-using control subjects - also 
noted that the average IQ of the pot smokers was "significantly 
lower" than that of non-users. That tidbit was "not a finding of the 
study, but an incidental factor that might be indirectly linked to 
marijuana use." We're not positive - cough, cough - but it sure 
sounds like the researchers just called pot smokers dumb.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom