He was a friendless high school loner struggling with autism. So why did an undercover cop target him as a drug dealer? Jesse Snodgrass plodded around yet another stucco corner, searching for Room 254 in time for the second-period bell, only to find he was lost yet again. Jesse felt a familiar surge of panic. He was new to Chaparral High School and still hadn't figured out how to navigate the sprawling Southern California campus with its outdoor maze of identical courtyards studded with baby palm trees. [continues 6985 words]
Lawmakers Let Pot Legalization Bill Die In Committee Sooner or later, Oregon voters once again will decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes. If that time comes this fall, as is likely, state lawmakers will regret their decision to let die in committee a bill that would have asked voters if they want to legalize pot and leave the regulatory details to lawmakers in the 2015 session. It's long been evident that several legalization measures could be on the November ballot. Paul Stanford, head of the Oregon branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, is collecting signatures for two initiatives - one making possession of pot a constitutional right for adults, and the other laying out a program for producing, selling and possessing marijuana. Another organization, New Approach Oregon, which has national financial backing, also is gathering signatures to qualify legalization initiatives for the ballot. [continues 529 words]
And now into the haze. Washington took another concrete step toward legal sales of marijuana for recreational use last week, picking the first person to receive a license, but there's a lot about this new direction that's still hard to know. Decriminalizing marijuana sales and recreational use by adults was the right thing to do, but now the state has to deal with potential health and safety issues that can't be easily predicted. Will more young people get their hands on marijuana, and if they do, what effect will that have? Will users be more inclined to drive high than they are now, and what would that mean for safety? How fast will the illegal trade wither away? The questions go on and on, and the answers are rarely clear. [continues 558 words]
The number of patients on Colorado's medical marijuana registry rose ever so slightly in the first month of recreational store sales, according to new figures from state health officials. As of Jan. 31, a total of 111,030 people held active red cards allowing them to buy medical marijuana, 51 more than a month earlier. The true impact of the arrival of recreational stores on the state's medical marijuana registry, however, will not be felt until later this year as the market evolves and more patients decide whether to renew. [continues 295 words]
Re: "Police chiefs seek pot money; Group urges more money for marijuana enforcement," March 6 news story. Law enforcement authorities say they need more money for more training in order to spot people driving under the influence of marijuana. It's not difficult to spot somebody driving under the influence of alcohol. If law enforcement cannot identify stoned drivers, then it's probably because stoned drivers don't drive aggressively and instead quietly and legally follow our driving laws. Why do we need to spend more money to train police to ferret out people who are driving safely and within our speed limits? William Gum, Denver [end]
Legislation Would Regulate the Industry That Has Had Little Oversight Since 1996. San Francisco (AP) - A California lawmaker has introduced legislation to regulate the state's freewheeling medical marijuana industry - the farmers who grow the drug, the hundreds of storefront shops that sell it and especially the doctors who write recommendations allowing people to use it. The state in 1996was the first to authorize marijuana use for health purposes, but to this day no one knows how many dispensaries and patients California has orwhat conditions pot is being used to treat because the loosely worded law did not give government agencies a role in tracking the information. [continues 307 words]
Kristine Lessard's account of the tragic loss of her son to heroin ["This addiction doesn't follow any rules," Local Opinions, March 2] struck a deep chord with me, as my husband and I lost our son to a cocaine addiction several years ago. Subsequent letters to the editor have debated whether marijuana leads to more serious - and possibly fatal - drug addiction. I think the operative word is "addiction." Addiction is a disease, and when there is a family history of addiction, the stakes are higher. In addition to family history, there are other factors. Age is one. Frequency of use, another. Impact on daily life, still another. It is not an either-or question. We need to broaden the conversation to include these other factors, discussing them openly and honestly within our families and educating our children about all of them. Connie Maas, Silver Spring [end]
(AP) - The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on Friday approved a measure relegating marijuana possession to a civil offense. The committee has not voted on a proposal to eliminate all penalties for possessing marijuana in small amounts, as Colorado and Washington have done. Police chiefs have objected to the bill on the grounds that officers sometimes use the smell of marijuana as a pretext for stopping drivers and searching their vehicles, and sometimes they find weapons and huge amounts of drugs. Sen. Robert A. Zirkin, Baltimore County Democrat who introduced the bill, noted that possessing more than 10 ounces would remain a crime - - meaning it would remain a valid pretext for traffic stops. Parallel bills are pending in the House Judiciary Committee. [end]
Brenda Heidinger, executive director of the Mahoning County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board, will be presenting "Marijuana 101 What Ohio's Proposed Marijuana Legislation Means for Our Communities" at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Brookfield High School auditorium, 614 Bedford Road, Brookfield. The presentation looks at how passage of this legislation will affect schools, businesses and Ohio taxpayers. Medical marijuana advocates in Ohio are currently circulating petitions and must gather more than 300,000 signatures to get the effort in front of voters. If voters approve the Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment, it would not only legalize medical marijuana, but would also establish a commission to regulate it. States that have approved medical marijuana use: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and District of Columbia. [end]
Comcast Says No to Marijuana Commercial The first medical marijuana commercial slated to run on television in Massachusetts next month has vaporized - at least when it comes to airing through Comcast. The ad failed to make its debut this past week in New Jersey because Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast, rejected the ad as unsuitable. "All commercials are subject to final review by Comcast Spotlight prior to airing and during that process it was determined that the spot did not meet our guidelines," Comcast spokesman Steven Restivo said yesterday. [continues 301 words]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Sacramento's Canna Care dispensary, an evangelical medical-marijuana provider renowned for doling out buds with Bibles, is waging a public fight with the Internal Revenue Service over an $873,167 tax penalty sought under a tax code aimed at illegal drug traffickers. In February, the U.S. Tax Court in San Francisco heard Canna Care's challenge over whether the IRS can impose the hefty tax demand under a 1982 law intended to close a loophole that allowed a Minneapolis cocaine and methamphetamine dealer to claim tax deductions for a scale, his apartment rent and telephone expenses. [continues 642 words]
Many Countries Now Emboldened to Rethink Stance in War on Drugs. (AP) - In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a brand new plan to let stores sell the drug. [continues 1298 words]
Smoke Shop Owner Takes Steps to Weed Out Minors, Appease Residents A Winnipeg head shop has vowed to keep minors out of its stores in a deal that will likely prevent future police raids. The Winnipeg Police Service raided The Joint on St. Mary's Road and Hemp Haven during a January crackdown, since some of the stores' products can be used to consume marijuana. WPS says the action followed complaints from 10 nearby schools. But during a Monday meeting of police, The Joint, school officials and a city councillor, the store committed to take several measures to ensure those concerns are addressed. [continues 381 words]
Easing Law Would Give Police Some Discretion OTTAWA - The Conservative government is considering looser marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said before a Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would ... allow police to ticket those types of offences." [continues 254 words]
Potheads could soon be ticketed for indulging their vice rather than be criminally charged, after Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday the feds are looking to take a page from the police chiefs' book. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay told reporters. "What we are talking about is very much in line with what the chiefs of police have proposed." The debate over pot laws got louder last summer when Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said a Liberal government would legalize the drug. [continues 208 words]
MacKay May Move to Let Police Ticket Possession OTTAWA * The Conservative government is seriously considering more lenient marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," Mr. MacKay said following the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would ... allow police to ticket those types of offences." Prime Minister Stephen Harper is open to such an approach, he added. [continues 485 words]
Move Comes After Tories Mock Trudeau's Stance on Issue The Conservative government is seriously considering more lenient marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said following the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would . . . allow police to ticket those types of offences." [continues 447 words]
OTTAWA (The Canadian Press) - The Conservative government is seriously considering looser marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said prior to the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would ... allow police to ticket those types of offences." [continues 139 words]
Ticketing Could Become an Option for Police OTTAWA - The Conservative government is considering looser marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said before a Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would ... allow police to ticket those types of offences." [continues 255 words]
OTTAWA - The Conservative government is considering looser marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said before a Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would ... allow police to ticket those types of offences." Prime Minister Stephen Harper is open to such an approach. [continues 101 words]
Proving someone is drunk behind the wheel is far easier to prove than if someone is high while driving. "Impaired by alcohol is very easy to prove," said Cons. Dave Murphy of the Smiths Falls Police Service, during a talk at the Lanark County and Town of Smiths Falls municipal drug strategy committee networking day, Friday, Feb. 28, held in the Beckwith Township council chambers in Blacks Corners. Murphy is a "breath tech" officer, meaning he is trained to look for certain symptoms to identify if someone is drunk and impaired behind the wheel. [continues 1233 words]
ST. PAUL --There's no one view among doctors about whether Minnesota should legalize medical marijuana. In one camp, there are physicians like Dr. Jacob Mirman, a primary care doctor in St. Louis Park who says a few patients have told him they use marijuana to cope with medical conditions. Mirman hasn't personally recommended that patients use it, and doesn't take a position on the specifics of a bill currently advancing at the Capitol. But he supports the idea of making medical marijuana legal - in part because the risks seem small compared to those with some prescription painkillers. [continues 1216 words]
Let Colorado have legal pot. Kansas can sit back and watch how this experiment goes and wait for more science on the health and societal impact of marijuana use. I attended a public awareness meeting about marijuana in Hutchinson on Tuesday night. Even though The Hutchinson News was a sponsor, I thought I might confirm my past support for legalizing pot. It must have been an effective program, as I walked away instead in support of the people who are fighting pot usage, especially at the youth level. I have too much respect for those people to marginalize pot. Downplaying the effects of pot is exactly why it is a problem with our youth and in our schools. [continues 630 words]
Legislature 2014 Reduction of Legal Amounts, Limited Growing Cooperatives OLYMPIA - A measure to overhaul the state's medical marijuana system cleared the Senate on Saturday as the state moves to merge that largely unregulated market with the still-developing legal recreational market. Senate Bill 5887 passed 34-15 and now heads to the House, which passed a similar measure last month. Both chambers will now negotiate a final bill to reconcile the medical market with the recreational market approved by voters in 2012. [continues 675 words]
With No Standard for Testing, Buyers Can't Trust Items' Potency. As one of the largest producers of marijuana-infused edibles in Colorado, Dr. J's Hash Infusion makes chocolates, caramels and candies. But many of the company's products contain only a minute fraction of the THC promised on Dr. J's labels, according to independent tests organized by The Denver Post. One Dr. J's milk chocolate Star Barz labeled for 100 milligrams of THC had 0.37 milligrams of the valued psychoactive component, according to three tests conducted by Steep Hill Halent of Colorado, a state-licensed marijuana testing facility. Another popular Dr. J's chocolate bar, the 100-milligram Winter Mint flavor, tested similarly in two experiments, showing 0.28 milligrams of THC. [continues 2023 words]
Polarization and gridlock create the impression of a nation stuck, but beneath the frozen political machinery cultural and demographic currents are shifting dramatically. The most obvious is the speed with which the nation is changing its mind about same-sex marriage. The next big sea change may be in attitudes about legalizing marijuana. Opposition to easing laws on marijuana has gone up in smoke in Colorado and Washington state. Last week, the Washington, D.C. city council voted to decriminalize small quantities of pot, joining 17 states. Since California voters approved the medical use of marijuana in 1996, 19 more states have followed. More than a dozen states are weighing doing the same this year. [continues 680 words]
Re: VPD to feds: We won't enforce new pot law, March 5 I'm pleased the Vancouver police will refuse to enforce the new pot law by allowing medical-marijuana dispensaries to continue operating. A truly absurd aspect of the federal Conservatives' "free market" scheme is that the product only be delivered by "secure courier." This single option by a government claiming to address consumer demand seems designed to fail by making the underground market more convenient. Peter Lipskis Vancouver [end]
OTTAWA - The Conservative government is seriously considering more lenient marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, says Justice Minister Peter MacKay. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said Wednesday. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would give police the ability, much like the treatment of open liquor ... to ticket those types of offences." Prime Minister Stephen Harper is open to such an approach, he added. The Justice Department is examining it and could present draft legislation. [continues 268 words]
Tickets Possible Instead of Charges OTTAWA The Conservative government is seriously considering more lenient marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay says. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said Wednesday after the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would give police the ability, much like the treatment of open liquor ... to ticket those types of offences," he said. [continues 351 words]
By one small step the federal Conservatives are showing a willingness to advance beyond reefer madness mentality. Justice Minister Peter MacKay indicated Wednesday that the government is considering relaxing the laws against marijuana, allowing police to ticket people caught with small amounts rather than laying charges. The MP for Central Nova also noted this would not be a move to legalize or decriminalize pot. The Conservatives would need to make that clear to distinguish their stance on a controversial topic, since Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau recently expressed support for outright legalization and regulating sale of marijuana. He argues that would be the better approach to keeping the drug away from minors, rather than a set of laws that hand sales over to the criminal element. [continues 218 words]
OTTAWA - The Conservative government is seriously considering more lenient marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said following the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would give police the ability, much like the treatment of open liquor ... to ticket those types of offences," he said. [continues 266 words]
Canadians don't much care about marijuana - or that's what pollster Andre Turcotte told the Manning Networking Conference last weekend, anyway. As part of his annual "barometer" poll, he compared the priority issues of conservatives and Canadians in general in search of areas of congruence and incongruence. Conservatives and other Canadians are united in not prioritizing such issues as abortion, "creating high quality jobs in [the] energy sector" and legalizing marijuana, he reported. To the extent people vote on the issues, you might think this was bad news for Justin Trudeau. Politicians generally avoid talking up things people don't care about. Tomorrow morning Mr. Trudeau could launch a flat tax plan and commit a Liberal government to colonizing the moon, and the Conservatives would probably still portray him as mainly interested in helping your kids score weed - as the fretful mother in a current Tory radio ad suspects. [continues 609 words]
Options may include ticketing only for those with small amounts OTTAWA - The Conservative government is seriously considering more lenient marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said following the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would ... allow police to ticket those types of offences." [continues 275 words]
Pot smokers could soon be ticketed for indulging their vice rather than be criminally charged, after Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday the feds are looking to take a page from the police chiefs' book. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay told reporters. "What we are talking about is very much in line with what the chiefs of police have proposed." The debate over pot laws got louder last summer when Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said a Liberal government would legalize the drug. [continues 51 words]
OTTAWA - The Conservative government is seriously considering more lenient marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said following the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would ... allow police to ticket those types of offences." Prime Minister Stephen Harper is open to such an approach, he added. [continues 56 words]
During this short session of the Minnesota Legislature there is one bill citizens of the state should be urging their senators and representatives to approve: The legalization of medical marijuana. What we are talking about is a marijuana plant from which the beneficial chemicals within the plant can be harvested and synthesized into pill or liquid form to be given to people suffering from a variety of debilitating diseases or conditions. One of those people who would benefit from passage of the law is Greta Botker. She's a smiley little seven-year-old girl suffering from a rare condition that for most of her life have caused her to have 12 to 15 seizures a day. Multiple drug regimens and a frightening brain surgery have done little to change her condition, her mother Maria (Boone) Botker says. Then news began to spread of a drug called "Charlotte's Web", which was derived from a specially designed marijuana plant. [continues 882 words]
Re: Rob Ford defends his record as mayor on Jimmy Kimmel's TV show, March 4 A B.C. woman named Jess Goldstein was denied entry into the U. S and barred for life, for admitting to the customs officials she had smoked marijuana in the past. Her car was searched, she was questioned for six hours and told she could never enter the U. S. again. She owns a cabin in Washington state and her father is American so she used to cross quite often. Now she can cross the border only because she was granted an official waiver, which cost her almost $ 600, and has to be renewed again each year. [continues 80 words]
Groups are proceeding with initiatives that would put questions on the November ballot about ending the state's control over the liquor business and legalizing recreational use of marijuana. Since the end of Prohibition, just 18 states, mostly in the Northwest and mid-Atlantic, chose to control liquor sales within their borders. In 2011, Washington became the first of those states to privatize its liquor sales after voters there approved an initiative backed by grocers and Costco Wholesale Corp. Grocery chains such as Fred Meyer and Safeway have now set their sights on privatizing liquor sales in Oregon, where only state-regulated liquor stores are currently permitted to sell distilled spirits. [continues 448 words]
OTTAWA The Conservative government is seriously considering more lenient marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket, not charge, people caught with small amounts of the drug, says Justice Minister Peter MacKay. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," he said Wednesday on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would give police the ability, much like the treatment of open liquor =C2=85 to ticket those types of offences," he sa id. [continues 346 words]
Justice minister considering the option of tickets for marijuana possession OTTAWA- The Conservative government is seriously considering looser marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said prior to the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would . . . allow police to ticket those types of offences." [continues 168 words]
By one small step the federal Conservatives are showing a willingness to advance beyond reefer madness mentality. Justice Minister Peter MacKay indicated Wednesday that the government is considering relaxing the laws against marijuana, allowing police to ticket people caught with small amounts rather than laying charges. The MP for Central Nova also noted this would not be a move to legalize or decriminalize pot. The Conservatives would need to make that clear to distinguish their stance on a controversial topic, since Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau recently expressed support for outright legalization and regulating sale of marijuana. He argues that would be the better approach to keeping the drug away from minors, rather than a set of laws that hand sales over to the criminal element. [continues 217 words]
Forgive us if we find the Conservatives' attitude toward marijuana is getting a little hazy. This week we learned that some in the party say they are ready to discuss issuing fines for simple possession, rather than criminal charges. But starting April 1, the thousands of sick Canadians who have earned certification from Health Canada to grow their own medicinal pot will become criminals if their plants are not destroyed. Those who didn't have the wherewithal to grow their own could buy from licensed dispensaries, but those too have been scrapped in favour of a system of delivery by mail from a handful of big companies. Medicinal marijuana users and their advocates have warned this is going to price many sick people out of access to what is often the only symptom relief they can find. [continues 125 words]
Regional District of North Okanagan politicians are heading back to the drawing board when it comes to medicinal marijuana. Third reading of a bylaw outlining where facilities growing and processing medicinal marijuana can be located in the electoral areas was postponed Wednesday so possible changes can be made to the document. "We need a bylaw that's not overly onerous," said director Bob Fleming. The postponement came after a public hearing in which operators of medicinal marijuana facilities protested the bylaw stipulating that operations in the rural zone would only be allowed on properties eight hectares (19.77 acres) in size. [continues 278 words]
Marijuana ads on television? The possibility used to be a pipe dream for some folks. Suddenly, it's a reality. The first marijuana ad to appear in a national TV campaign, viewable on various websites, doesn't talk about weed right away. It talks about something truly fishy. "Yo, you want sushi?" says an actor playing a seedy looking street dealer in a coat lined with little strips of raw fish. "Ain't nobody sellin' but me." A female voiceover interrupts. "You wouldn't buy your sushi from this guy," she says, "so why would you buy your marijuana from him?" [continues 595 words]
My great-grandparents gifted my Grandpa with a tavern, at Church & Chapel Streets in New Haven, when Gramps graduated from NYU. The year was 1924. The extensive array of liquor covered the walls of the back bar, behind the restaurant, in vintage photographs. Fats Waller frequently hung out, there - and the marijuana that they smoked was perfectly legal. The tavern closed, with the repeal of prohibition. I like to imagine that we'd still have had our New Haven tavern, if alcohol hadn't been repealed. Yet, just as repeal was the right thing to do, then, abolishing marijuana prohibition is of utmost importance today. Unlike with alcohol, America was founded using industrial marijuana products such as canvas, hemp paper, soaps, paints, and so on. The prohibition of cannabis, under the mandated pejorative, "marihuana" (FDR, 1937) is utterly more offensive to American history than alcohol prohibition was. - - Matthew Stover Philadelphia, Pa. [end]
Two Lawsuits Claim Stops Unconstitutional RENO, Nev. - A rural Nevada sheriff's deputy is accused of stopping travelers on a lonely stretch of U.S. Interstate 80 and confiscating tens of thousands of dollars for the county without bringing charges, according to two federal lawsuits. Two men who were traveling alone through northern Nevada's high desert last year offer strikingly similar accounts of their stops by the same Humboldt County deputy near the town of Winnemucca, about 165 miles east of Reno. [continues 669 words]
THE EDITOR, Sir: Marijuana is a gateway drug. Its use has side effects that affect the structure and function of the brain. Yes, marijuana can damage the brain! Dr Daniel Amen has done SPECT brain scans on persons who have abused substances, including marijuana. In one study, he looked at a 57-year-old physician who had abused cannabis for 30 years. This doctor was unable to stop using it because of feelings of anger, irritability, agitation and anxiety when he tried to quit. [continues 282 words]
Now that a medical marijuana referendum will be on the November ballot in Florida, it seems that a lot of state legislators are trying to save face by creating bills of their own for medical marijuana. One of those bills would legalize the low THC strain of marijuana called "Charlotte's Web," which is used to treat children who suffer from seizures. A lot of parents are disgusted by this bill because it may help their children but will not help others. These parents are more in favor of flat-out legalizing medical marijuana, which is backed by attorney John Morgan. [continues 51 words]
Marijuana misleads when they says it helps the sick, as they don't have to smoke pot. Positive medical components in marijuana can be obtained as prescription pills called Cannabidiol. People don't need to smoke marijuana leaves for medical reasons. Most smokers can't seriously say they smoke it because they are sick. It is obvious that most people only want to get high. The bad side of marijuana is established. It may not be as dangerous for some, but it is a threat to many. About 1 out of 6 young, consistent pot smokers have addictive problems. [continues 58 words]
Reading The Pueblo Chieftain, Feb. 26, I noticed in the local news section the article, "Growing concern, county may consider cultivation tax soon." Isn't recreational marijuana already taxed enough? I'm sure as soon as the law for recreational marijuana was approved, our elected overlords had dollar signs in their eyes because they already could see the cash cow coming their way for new tax revenue. Will this not set a precedent for other counties or states to follow? The landowners already pay taxes on their land. Is the county going to have a cultivation tax on other crops? Or is this a double standard only for the growing of marijuana? [continues 78 words]
