To the Editor: Re "When Capitalism Meets Cannabis" (June 27), about the medical marijuana business: While components of the cannabis plant can have useful medical effects, its recreational use still produces problems, including addiction and impaired driving. Adolescents are especially at risk. Compassion for the very sick shouldn't blind us to the risks of cannabis abuse. If marijuana were legalized and taxed, the increased revenue would pale in comparison to the increases in health care and other social costs. The federal government, with the help of the pharmaceutical industry, should embark on a crash program to develop medically useful compounds from cannabis. As for recreational use of marijuana, national referendums should decide whether we want an alcohol model -- with strict enforcement on under-age use, potency controls and all the potential risks. What is not desirable is the "Wild West" situation in California and Colorado. Manhattan, June 28 The writer is a professor of psychiatry and director of the Division on Substance Abuse at Columbia University. [end]
To the Editor: I find it tragically ironic that after so many years of cannabis prohibition - with the last 40 or so being especially intense - governments have decided to try to recoup some of their wasted billions on that effort via various regulatory schemes involving legalized medical marijuana. Government once vilified and hunted down users of marijuana as if they were dogs. Now it is trying to make money off of the same plant, with a perverse twist on the old saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Daniel Williams Bonita Springs, Fla. [end]
President Obama did the right thing in December when he repealed the 21-year-old ban on federal financing for programs that give drug users access to clean needles. Almost nothing has happened since because the Department of Health and Human Services still has not issued the new rules that states and localities need before they can use any federal money to expand existing exchange programs or start new ones. Administration officials say the rules will be issued soon. They must be written in a way that broadens access to needle exchanges, rather than restricts it. [continues 267 words]
Regardless of how one feels about marijuana in general or medical marijuana in particular, it is clear that the current bill pending in the New York Legislature, to allow medicinal uses of marijuana, has too many problems to move forward in its current form. Given the potential for abuse associated with marijuana, it is important that any bill proposed includes proper measures to ensure that the use of smokeable marijuana for "medicinal purposes" does not lead to further abuse. Strong legislation in this area should include mechanisms to prevent easy access to marijuana by people who are trying to circumvent current laws, and that the dispensing mechanisms are controlled enough that neighborhoods are not adversely impacted. [continues 216 words]
ALBANY -- Former talk-show host Montel Williams visited the Capitol to support a medical marijuana bill moving through the Legislature. Williams discussed his own experience since he began grappling with multiple sclerosis a decade ago, joined by Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a prime sponsor of the state measure. Medical marijuana "changed my life -- it allowed me to have my life back," said Williams, who shows few visible signs of the degenerative condition except for a slight wobble in his stride. He said that many days use of marijuana suppresses his pain enough to allow him to "get out of bed, go to work and pay my taxes." [continues 316 words]
Bills in the state Senate and Assembly to legalize medical marijuana are set for a major, last-minute push. If they are passed, New Yorkers are in for serious financial and health problems. Common sense dictates before the Legislature moves forward with such a high-risk program, thorough hearings must be held. Marijuana is not a safe drug. Over time, damage to users' lungs and brains are measurable and significant. Marijuana is widely regarded as a "gateway drug" that introduces children to the drug culture. Most kids who become addicts move on to other more potent drugs. Although most who experiment with marijuana do not become addicted, young people who avoid it altogether tend not to become drug addicts of any kind. [continues 412 words]
Re "Legalizing medical marijuana remains on the table in N.Y. budget talks," June 22 article: The above article on medical marijuana raised some serious concerns with the legislation currently pending in New York state. We should learn from the experiences of other states before we institute a system that will create more problems than it solves. As currently written, the legislation leaves loopholes that will make it easy to obtain a significant amount of marijuana. The bill allows people over 18 to obtain enough marijuana for 150 to 300 joints if they have a variety of conditions, including "dysphoria" which is a mood disorder characterized by anxiety, depression or restlessness. Are these really the conditions that we want to see treated with smokeable marijuana? [continues 101 words]
The Pharmacists Society of the State of New York has become the latest professional health organization to endorse the medical marijuana bill under consideration in Albany. As medical professionals who believe in palliative care, responsible oversight, and -- most important -- relieving the suffering of ill patients whenever possible, we strongly support this legislation. It will establish a controlled and orderly system, based on established medical practice, for providing seriously ill patients with access to a medicine that has been demonstrated to relieve intractable pain and suffering. [continues 392 words]
Young Republicans Embrace Low Taxes, but Reject Moral Issues You know something is changing in American mores when the supposed leader of the culture wars from the right, Sarah Palin, declares that smoking pot is "a minimal problem" and that "if somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in." Like many other pointless wars, the culture conflict has mainly resulted in exhaustion. Now the troops are laying down their arms and going home. [continues 777 words]
The empty glassine packets can be found in Manhattan, Brooklyn and beyond, scattered on streets and sidewalks with only obscure slogans or graphic images to suggest their former use. At one time they contained heroin and the markings stamped on the packets were meant to differentiate strains of varying purity or provenance. To some they are crime evidence. Addicts may see them mainly as a vehicle to fulfill a dangerous urge. For a group of artists who have been collecting them they are cultural artifacts that are equally unsettling and compelling. [continues 880 words]
ALBANY -- Legalizing marijuana for medical use, which would produce millions of dollars in revenue for New York, continues to be part of negotiations on the state budget, which is now more than 80 days late, officials said Monday. "To me the reason for enacting it is treating patients with serious conditions fairly, but the revenue is certainly a reason to make it part of the budget. So, all of those issues are very much up in the air," said Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, who is sponsoring the bill. [continues 656 words]
For many Democrats in Albany, it was a landmark achievement: the long-sought overhaul of New York's strict Rockefeller-era drug laws, repealing mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders that critics said disproportionately and unfairly fell on blacks and Latinos. But that legislative victory last year has emerged as a litmus test in the increasingly bitter five-way Democratic primary battle for attorney general. One candidate, Kathleen A. Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, who many believe is the favored candidate of Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, the Democratic candidate for governor, says she has always supported the drug law overhaul. Two other candidates, Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky of Westchester County and State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, who represents parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, have assailed her in recent weeks, saying that Ms. Rice had opposed the overhaul last year and had changed her views only recently, after she decided to run for higher office. [continues 1068 words]
John Monte (letter, June 16) claims that he can't get an answer to his question of what is the treatment for a drug dealer. I have an answer: legalization. If drugs were legalized, taxed and regulated, the black market where drug dealers operate would be eliminated. Unfortunately, so would Mr. Monte's police career of arresting and filling our jails with low-level drug dealers. Maybe he can explain how these drug dealers are so quickly replaced when he puts one of them away. [continues 137 words]
The Obama administration shares Buffalo News columnist Doug Turner's belief that drug use and its consequences pose a serious threat to public health and public safety ("Someone tell Obama, the war on drugs is real," June 7), and President Obama has been unwavering in his support for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In my first interview after accepting the job of director of National Drug Control Policy, I told the Wall Street Journal that it was time to retire the phrase "war on drugs." I said then, and continue to believe, that a continual war footing unnecessarily limits the tools we have available to confront this complex issue, and given the prevalence of addiction in the United States, feeds perceptions that the country is at war with its own citizens. [continues 295 words]
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you: Out-of-control marijuana sales authorized by state lawmakers - key among them Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and state Sen. Tom Duane. These two have engineered a supposed medical marijuana law that would, in fact, be a license for legalized pot-dealing, potentially in thousands of storefronts across the city. Under their bill, even podiatrists and midwives could prescribe dope to practically any patient with virtually any health complaint - who would then be able to stop by the local storefront joint joint without fear of arrest. [continues 438 words]
First published in print: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 The Drug Policy Alliance lacks credibility and its arguments don't stand the test of reason ("Substance abuse is a health issue," letter, June 5). I have for the last several years questioned this organization and the tenets of its position. I have never received an answer to this fundamental question: What is the treatment for a drug dealer? No one argues that a drug user should receive treatment and not incarceration, not the cops, district attorneys, defense lawyers or medical professionals. The question remains: What do we do with the drug dealers, who are a drug addict's worst enemy, who prey on these afflicted people and often use treatment centers as locations to distribute their product? Yet, the Drug Policy Alliance continues to support drug dealers, often stating that the so-called war on drugs is a failure, because drugs are still being sold. Which begs to ask if we should give up the war on murder, robbery and rape as these crimes are still being committed as well? I would rather call the war on drugs, simply, fighting crime. That's what selling drugs is. Why would a group that allegedly advocates for drug users also advocate for their worst enemy? John Monte Albany The writer is an Albany detective. [end]
Equity is an elusive legal concept that occasionally allows some leeway in applying the rules of the law and is often unappreciated by judges who insist the law means only what it says. That was clear in 2008 when the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit refused to allow federal courts to consider a death-penalty conviction of Albert Holland because his lawyer had inexcusably let the filing deadline pass. Fortunately, seven members of the Supreme Court proved less rigid in their thinking on Monday and reversed that blinkered decision. [continues 386 words]
NORWICH - Last week the New York Court of Appeals ruled that police can not subject a person or their vehicle to a canine drug search unless the officer develops a "founded suspicion" that criminal activity is taking place. "New York State has a long history of restricting police authority and power compared to other states or the federal government," said Norwich Police Chief Joseph Angelino, whose department added a canine officer last year. "It used to be that the air was 'free' and the dogs were free to sniff it and free to follow it. But that's no longer the case as New York has now taken even federal mandates one step further in saying police need to have a suspicion of criminal activity prior to letting police canines sniff the air." [continues 230 words]
ON March 19, 1928, eight years into the reign of constitutional Prohibition, Pierre S. du Pont wrote a letter to William P. Smith, one of the very few people he ever addressed by first name. Du Pont was among the wealthiest men in the world, chairman of both his family's chemical colossus and the du Pont-controlled General Motors Corporation. Smith worked for a less well-known enterprise that Pierre du Pont also dominated: the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment. [continues 1245 words]
Inside New York
