Wow! Are you kidding me? This is the most fantasized assessment of Seattle's drug epidemic I've ever seen. In actuality, we are spiraling toward complete social meltdown here, and Nicholas Kristof thinks we've figured out how to end the war on drugs? As a three-decade resident of Seattle, I can tell you that from the sprawling homeless camps ringing the city, to the bedraggled hordes of dead-eyed addicts on Second Avenue, to the piles of human feces in Pioneer Square, there is no progress being made to end the heroin epidemic in this city. Whatever actions local governments are taking only make things worse. Seattle is becoming a wasteland of crime, refuse, excrement and addiction. It's disgusting to watch and it gets worse every year. Bryan Gruner Bellevue, Wash. [end]
Re "Ending the War on Drugs," by Nicholas Kristof (Sunday Review, Aug. 25): This article gives me hope that Seattle is finally doing something about the devastation of drug use on its streets. My son is a struggling heroin addict, and thank God is now a part of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, or LEAD, program. He completed treatment in jail through drug court, finished work release, is now in drug court housing and meets with his counselor at LEAD. I know firsthand how difficult it is for families. I've walked the streets of downtown Seattle looking for my son where drug users and dealers hang out. I've seen them passed out with a needle hanging out of an arm or leg. I'd ask myself, What is Seattle doing to fix this problem? Addicts need support. The LEAD program is good, but what about those addicts who haven't been arrested and directed to LEAD? Kathy Kier Seattle [end]
Police officers can often justify a search with six words: "I smelled an odor of marijuana." Courts in New York have long ruled if a car smells like marijuana smoke, the police can search it - and, according to some judges, even the occupants - without a warrant. But in late July, a judge in the Bronx said in a scathing opinion that officers claim to smell marijuana so often that it strains credulity, and she called on judges across the state to stop letting police officers get away with lying about it. [continues 1256 words]
CARPINTERIA, Calif.-On a recent sunny morning in this beach town near Santa Barbara, realtor Gary Goldberg ran into Das Williams on the street and raised a concern: A persistent skunky aroma had required him to knock $18,000 off the sale price of a condo. "It smelled like marijuana," said Mr. Goldberg, adding that buyers threatened to pull out because of the odor. Mr. Williams, a Santa Barbara County supervisor who helped craft regulations for large cannabis farms here, assured the realtor that he was doing everything he could to tamp down the smell. The argument over odor is part of an acrimonious debate over how to regulate the region's growing marijuana industry, pitting farmers against some residents. [continues 595 words]
"New Warning Against Use of Marijuana for 2 Groups" (news article, Aug. 30) is reminiscent of coverage of pregnant women and cocaine use that reported damage theories that were alarmist. Critical examination would reveal that the surgeon general's advisory focuses on associations and unspecified "risks." There's an enormous difference between things that pose potential risks, which are virtually everything a woman does, ingests or is exposed to during the course of pregnancy, and actual harm to the pregnant woman and fetus. [continues 96 words]
Since childhood, Rachael Petersen had lived with an unexplainable sense of grief that no drug or talk therapy could entirely ease. So in 2017 she volunteered for a small clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University that was testing psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, for chronic depression. "I was so depressed," Ms. Petersen, 29, said recently. "I felt that the world had abandoned me, that I'd lost the right to exist on this planet. Really, it was like my thoughts were so stuck, I felt isolated." [continues 1258 words]
The announcement on Wednesday that Johns Hopkins Medicine was starting a new center to study psychedelic drugs for mental disorders was the latest chapter in a decades-long push by health nonprofits and wealthy donors to shake up psychiatry from the outside, bypassing the usual channels. "Psychiatry is one of the most conservative specialties in medicine," said David Nichols, a medicinal chemist who founded the Heffter Research Institute in 1993 to fund psychedelic research. "We haven't really had new drugs for years, and the drug industry has quit the field because they don't have new targets" in the brain. "The field was basically stagnant, and we needed to try something different." [continues 1127 words]
DENVER - Once a politically dangerous subject, legal marijuana has become something of a de facto platform plank for the 2020 Democratic candidates: All support either legalizing or decriminalizing its use, and the differences lie in how far the candidates are willing to take it. Those differences - particularly former Vice President Joe Biden's reluctance to embrace full federal legalization and the lack of enthusiasm that increasingly organized young marijuana activists have for him - may play a role in determining who faces President Donald Trump next fall, experts said. "People from both parties are just thinking, 'Duh, we should be legalizing this at the federal level,' " said Rachel Gillette, a Denver-based cannabis activist and attorney. "It would be great if they could focus on this. It's time." [end]
Believing that I could never agree with Nicholas Kristof about anything, I found myself gobsmacked that I agreed, writ large, with his profile of Seattle attempting to end the war on drugs. I don't agree with his emphasis on race and privilege, but it's about time to completely end the war on drugs - and I say this as a former narcotics prosecutor in Brooklyn during the golden age of crack. Only total legalization will work. But saying drugs should be legal is not saying that drugs are good. We, as a nation, need to approach this as adults, and stop doing something that hasn't ever worked well but has been doubled down on every decade. Michael G. Brautigam Cincinnati [end]
I want to thank Nicholas Kristof for bringing our attention to the successful way Seattle's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program is addressing the interplay of drug addiction and the law. I support his call for more "evidence-based public health interventions." At Exponents, we also invest in evidence-based practices that employ recovering individuals and those with the lived experience of addiction. Recovering addicts, especially those who have benefited from a particular treatment or process, have great value in engaging and helping an active addict. Medication-assisted treatments are effective, but the recovering community is an underutilized asset in our efforts to bring this opiate epidemic under control. Howard Josepher New York The writer is co-founder and chief clinical officer of Exponents, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of people affected by drug addiction, incarceration and H.I.V./AIDS. [end]
I thought that Nicholas Kristof's article was very good in showing the efforts of Seattle's prosecuting attorney, Dan Satterberg, to scale back on drug prosecutions and promote treatment alternatives. My one objection is his statement that "the war on drugs began in 1971 out of a legitimate alarm about narcotics both in the United States and among U.S. troops in Vietnam." My book "The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs" detailed how the media and politicians exaggerated the scope of drug abuse in Vietnam and created a false moral panic about drugs that drove forward the war on drugs. [continues 58 words]
It was 2012, and Ferrell Scott was watching television inside Pennsylvania's Allenwood federal penitentiary when he learned that the sale of marijuana, something he was given a life sentence for just four years earlier, was becoming legal in two states. Colorado had approved its recreational use, the inmate learned from the broadcast, and so had Washington. Scott had been struggling with depression since he was incarcerated in March 2008. But he felt a bit of hope as he watched the framework that had put people like him away without parole begin to crumble. [end]
Portugal's decriminalization of drugs reduced the number of heroin users from 100,000 to 25,000. Its drug mortality rate became the lowest in Western Europe. What's badly needed is to look at the real reason for criminalizing drugs. The first anti-cocaine laws in the early 1900s were aimed at black men in the South. The first anti-marijuana laws in the early 20th century targeted Mexican migrants and Mexican-Americans. The "war on drugs" was coined by President Richard Nixon. A top Nixon aide, John Ehrlichman, later admitted that it was aimed at Mr. Nixon's two major enemies, the antiwar left and black people: Criminalization meant that "we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." The war on drugs had little or nothing to do with health or safety. It was about political persecution. Roger Carasso Santa Fe, N.M. [end]
In the cloudy world of travel with marijuana, what gets dispensed in Vegas should probably get smoked in Vegas. Marijuana tourism is booming here, as it has in Colorado, Oregon and elsewhere. But what's allowed and what's legal at airports and hotels can feel like a confounding set of contradictions. Possessing limited quantities of recreational marijuana is legal in Denver and Las Vegas, but it's illegal at the airports in those cities. Not true in Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle, where possession at the airport is allowed up to certain limits. [continues 966 words]
Investment legend has it that the best money in the California gold rush was made selling picks and shovels. Fertilizer and real estate are equivalent bets on the volatile pot boom. Shareholders in cannabis stocks have lost money lately. Companies that "touch the plant"-those that cultivate and sell pot, such as Cronos Group and Green Thumb Industries-have shed up to 50% of their market value over the past six months, as worries grow about profitability in the sector and the resilience of black-market sellers in legalized states like California. Big corporate investors are among the casualties: Tobacco giant Altria MO -0.58% 's 45% stake in Cronos is now worth 10% less than the $1.8 billion the Marlboro maker paid for it last December. [continues 477 words]
Surgeon General Warns Pregnant Women and Teenagers Not to Smoke or Vape Marijuana Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general, said they may be unaware of the health hazards posed by new, professionally grown marijuana crops. The United States surgeon general on Thursday issued a public warning that smoking or vaping marijuana is dangerous for pregnant women and their developing babies. At a news conference with other top administration health officials, the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, said he was concerned that pregnant women, teenagers and others were unaware of the health hazards posed by new, professionally grown marijuana crops. [continues 333 words]
The medical marijuana "Unity Bill" that sets up a basic legal framework for the implementation of State Question 788 will take effect Thursday. Nearly three dozen other new laws will also take effect this week. Here's a look at some of the new laws. 'Unity Bill' Also known as the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act, House Bill 2612 sets up a framework for regulating Oklahoma's medical marijuana industry. The lengthy bill that was a compromise between legislators and those in the medical marijuana industry sets guidelines for marijuana testing, tax collections, seed-to-sale product tracking, packaging, employment and more. [continues 325 words]
The legalization of marijuana as a medicine in 33 states, 11 of which allow its use as a recreational drug, has made weed a dynamic American industry, among the economy's fastest-growing sources of new jobs. California alone, with $3.1 billion in projected marijuana sales for this year, has a legal market as large as that of any country on the planet. Entrepreneurs grumble nonetheless. Not since Ronald Reagan ran for president have American newspapers been so full of anecdotes about heroic jobs-creating businessmen stymied by regulation. [continues 902 words]
Even as states across the country have legalized marijuana, potentially opening the door to a multibillion dollar industry, the impact of marijuana criminalization is still being felt by people - mostly black and Hispanic - whose records are marked by low-level convictions related to the drug. But on Wednesday, New York began the process of expunging many of those records, as part of a new state law to reduce penalties associated with marijuana-related crimes, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo confirmed. [continues 780 words]
The Centers for Disease Control and Protection warned Friday against the purchase of electronic cigarette cartridges containing THC or other cannabis or altered e-cigarette products that are sold "off the street." So far, 215 possible cases of vaping-related lung illness have been reported in 25 states, CDC and the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement, "and additional reports of pulmonary illness are under investigation." The Washington Post reported Thursday that state and federal investigators have 354 cases currently under review. [continues 52 words]
SEATTLE -- Five years after Washington launched its pioneering legal marijuana market, officials are proposing an overhaul of the state's industry rules, with plans for boosting minority ownership of pot businesses, paving the way for home deliveries of medical cannabis and letting the smallest growers increase the size of their operations to become more competitive. Liquor and Cannabis Board Director Rick Garza detailed the proposals -- part of what the board calls "Cannabis 2.0" -- in an interview with The Associated Press. It's an effort to picture what the legal marijuana market will look like over the next five years, after spending the past five years largely regulating by reaction as the difficulties of building an industry from infancy absorbed the agency's attention. [continues 818 words]
SEATTLE - On gritty streets where heroin, fentanyl and meth stride like Death Eaters, where for decades both drugs and the war on drugs have wrecked lives, the city of Seattle is pioneering a bold approach to narcotics that should be a model for America. Anyone caught here with a small amount of drugs - even heroin - isn't typically prosecuted. Instead, that person is steered toward social services to get help. This model is becoming the consensus preference among public health experts in the U.S. and abroad. Still, it shocks many Americans to see no criminal penalty for using drugs illegally, so it takes courage and vision to adopt this approach: a partial retreat in the war on drugs coupled with a stepped-up campaign against addiction. [continues 2455 words]
A group of Colorado researchers recently studied how cannabis use affects athletes and found a possible role between the plant and pain management. The study, "Cannabis use in active athletes: Behaviors related to subjective effects," looked at cannabis use patterns and its effects in a community-based sample of adult athletes. According to the study's authors, there had been no previous academic research done on cannabis use's subjective effects for adult athletes. "There was not a lot of research on how weed helps," explains Dr. Joanna Zeiger, one of the researchers who conducted the study for Canna Research Group. "Athletes typically don't sleep well and are anxious, so we wanted to see what percentage of them use cannabis, their patterns of use, and what the effects are." [continues 429 words]
A year after medical marijuana became legal in Oklahoma, state lawmakers and marijuana advocates seem to have found a balance in implementing State Question 788 and moving the industry forward into the near future. Sweeping legislation -- the result of a major compromise between legislators and cannabis advocates -- to regulate the medical marijuana industry will go into effect later this month. Meanwhile, there are whispers of an initiative petition to put the question of legalizing recreational marijuana to a statewide vote, which could shake up Oklahoma's fledgling marijuana industry and the new regulatory framework. [continues 795 words]
Claire Alcindor's fourth pregnancy last year was the hardest. The only way she could keep food down was by smoking marijuana, which also helped with her depression. She was living in Maryland, in a location where marijuana is legal, but still worried "people would think I'm a bad mom" - or worse. Friends warned Child Protective Services might start investigating her. But it seemed worth the risk, especially given the reported effects of some prescription nausea and depression drugs. "I needed to eat, I needed to stay alive and survive this pregnancy," says Alcindor, who now lives in Las Vegas. [continues 1527 words]
New York has decriminalised the use of marijuana - becoming the 16th US state to do so. The move, which would make possession of a small amount of the drug a violation rather than a felony, was signed into law by governor Andrew Cuomo. The measure also demands that criminal records of offences linked to low-level marijuana cases either be marked as expunged, or destroyed - an apparent reflection that in the past communities of colour suffered unduly from different application of the law. [continues 231 words]
Mark A. R. Kleiman, a prominent drug policy apostate who favored what he viewed as a sensible middle ground on marijuana - eliminate criminal sanctions for selling and using it but preclude full-blown commercial legalization - died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 68. Kelly Kleiman, his sister and only immediate survivor, said the cause was lymphoma and complications of a kidney transplant he received from her in April. Author, blogger, adviser to government and a teacher at New York University and the University of California, Los Angeles, Professor Kleiman considered himself a "policy entrepreneur." [continues 1140 words]
No doubt there is such a thing as ideological drift in politics, especially in primaries. Candidates often become unmoored and move right or left in a search for their party's most ardent activists. But sometimes this drift isn't ideological. It's generational. Last week, Teresa Tomlinson rolled out a package of policies she would pursue if she succeeds in her quest to replace U.S. Sen. David Perdue next year. One of them was something of a surprise. "It is time we address at the federal level the decriminalization, legalization, and regulation of marijuana as a medicinal and recreational substance," the Democrat posted on her website. [end]
Smoking pot cost Kimberly Cue her job. Ms. Cue, a 44-year-old chemical engineer from Silicon Valley, received an offer this year from a medical device manufacturer only to have it rescinded when the company found out that she smoked prescription marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. "My email was set up with the company," she said. "My business cards were printed." But after a pre-employment drug test came back positive for marijuana, a human resources representative told her the job was no longer hers. [continues 1413 words]
Two major universities are creating the first career paths for young people interested in the business of marijuana. The University of Maryland announced in June that its School of Pharmacy will offer a master's degree in medical cannabis, and a new course is also being added this fall at Cornell University's School of Integrative Plant Science called "Cannabis: Biology, Society and Industry." "I advise a lot of students in a lot of majors and they're all like, this is going to be cool," said Antonio DiTommaso, program director for agricultural sciences at Cornell. "I think some of it is just a novelty, but it's really going to be based on the cropping, the agronomics, the medicinal aspect, the chemistry, consumer attitudes and policy." [continues 915 words]
Southern California immigrant with DACA status travels to Mexico so he can become a legal permanent resident. But instead of getting the OK for a green card, he's prevented from re-entering U.S. Jose Palomar packed only a small suitcase because he thought his trip to Mexico would be brief. Seeking legal permanent residency, he had no choice but to go. But now, nearly two months later, he's still in Mexico and barred from returning to his home in the United States. [continues 1567 words]
Marijuana's role in the health care universe has grown exponentially over the past few years. Currently, 33 U.S. states have legalized the use of medical marijuana, and more and more states are considering making it legal for recreational purposes as well. As cannabis becomes more accessible, many people are turning to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) products to treat health issues like rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease (the aches and pains of arthritis). Unfortunately, because cannabis remains illegal and classified as a Schedule 1 drug under federal law (defined as being of no medical use), there has been a troubling lack of scientific and medical research on the effectiveness of cannabis treatments. This dearth of evidence-based data has left many health care providers unable to counsel their patients on everything from whether a cannabis treatment could be effective for their condition, to what dosages are appropriate, to how cannabis might interact with their other medications or health conditions. [continues 112 words]
Creation of a Cannabis Commission to regulate medical marijuana in the state was approved by the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Thursday night with no votes to spare. House Bill 3468, by Rep. John Jordan, R-Yukon, sets up an independent commission that would be activated if voters approve State Question 788 on June 26. That question would legalize medical uses of medical marijuana, although opponents say its broad construction would essentially make policing recreational use impossible. "If you're for full-on recreational marijuana, this is not your bill," Jordan said in explaining the bill. [end]
It's been about three years since one DeKalb County city made history with the most liberal marijuana enforcement policy in the state. Since then, several more municipalities have followed suit, eliminating the possibility of jail time and severely reducing the fine for possessing one ounce or less of weed. Months after the state Legislature passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana sales, the push toward recreational decriminalization on the local level is continuing; the city of Chamblee is currently considering a measure that echoes the rules in Clarkston, which passed its marijuana ordinance in July 2016. [continues 79 words]
Authorities from seven states, the District of Columbia and some major U.S. cities are backing a Philadelphia effort to open a supervised drug-injection site, which the federal government is trying to stop in court. Safehouse, a nonprofit in Philadelphia, seeks to open a site where people can use drugs in a safe and sanitary environment with help to avoid overdose fatalities. Federal prosecutors sued the nonprofit in February, arguing it would violate federal law by creating a place for people to use illegal drugs such as heroin and bootleg fentanyl. [continues 415 words]
A law that took effect July 1 legalized hemp and CBD products containing traces of THC, the compound in marijuana that gets you high. But field tests and crime labs haven't caught up. Texas hemp enterpreneur Zachary Miller, interviewed here by a television reporter, was arrested in Okaloosa County after products found in his car tested positive for THC. THC is illegal in Florida unless prescribed by a doctor for medical use but trace amounts are allowed in now-legal hemp products. [Courtesy of Zachary Miller] [continues 1525 words]
The waiting room at NiaMedic Healthcare & Research Services looked just like every other doctor's office at the Saddleback Medical Center in California's Laguna Hills: unflattering overhead lighting, landscape paintings and a smiling person in scrubs behind the reception desk. It was the ideal location to attract NiaMedic's target demographic: seniors. Saddleback is nestled in the rolling hills of a region surrounded by at least 15 retirement communities, including the over 18,000-resident Laguna Woods Village. But the patients who come through NiaMedic's doors generally start with the same question: Can marijuana help? [continues 1971 words]
Humphrey Bogart had a way with life's little vices. When he bought you a drink, the critic Kenneth Tynan recalled, he wouldn't just pass it across - "he'd take me by the wrist and screw the glass into my hand as if it was a lamp socket." Bogart's manner with a cigarette was so vivid that his surname became an admonishing hippie-era verb: "Don't bogart that joint." I've tried repeatedly, over the course of my life, to become a druggie. It's never taken. But even I know what it means to bogart something: to hoard it, to refuse to share. It wasn't until I read Lizzie Post's helpful and inquisitive new book, "Higher Etiquette: A Guide to the World of Cannabis, From Dispensaries to Dinner Parties," however, that I fully understood the term's provenance. [continues 953 words]
Kush. Bud. Herb. Who knows what to call marijuana these days? Born of the need for secrecy, slang has long dominated pot culture. But as entrepreneurs seek to capitalize on new laws legalizing recreational and medical marijuana, they too are grappling with what to call it. Heading to the dispensary to buy a few nugs or dabs? Marketers seeking to exploit the $10 billion market would prefer that you just called it cannabis. Shirley Halperin, an author of 2007's "Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life," has seen the shift in recent years. Not long ago, she met with an executive to talk about his company's products. "He physically winced when I said the word 'pot,'" she recalled. "Businesses don't want to call it 'weed.'" [continues 1123 words]
Alex Berenson's allegation that public support for marijuana law reform is waning ("Marijuana Activists Pass Their High Point," op-ed, June 26) is nothing short of a pipe dream. Nearly one in four Americans reside in a jurisdiction where the adult use of cannabis is legal, and 33 states regulate medical marijuana access by statute. No state has ever repealed a marijuana legalization law, and two-thirds of adults-including majorities of self-identified Democrats, Republicans and independents-endorse making the plant legal, according to the latest Gallup poll. As more states amend their cannabis laws, public support for legalization continues to rise. [continues 190 words]
DENVER - Serenity Christensen, 14, is too young to set foot in one of Colorado's many marijuana shops, but she was able to spot a business opportunity in legal weed. She is a Girl Scout, and this year, she and her mother decided to sell their cookies outside a dispensary. "Good business," Serenity said. But on the other side of Denver, legalization has turned another high school student, David Perez, against the warehouselike marijuana cultivations now clustered around his neighborhood. He said their skunky aroma often smacks him in the face when he walks out his front door. [continues 2319 words]
It is wise to know where your cannabis comes from. Intoxicated by bullish demand forecasts, pot investors aren't paying nearly enough attention to supply. U.S. states currently decide whether to legalize cannabis within their own borders, even though the drug remains illegal at the federal level. It is a misnomer to speak of a single U.S. pot industry, considering the patchwork of self-contained cannabis economies across the country. Pot can't cross state lines today, even between two states where the drug is allowed. Should federal laws change, high-cost growers and areas with less favorable climates for cannabis growing will be undercut. [continues 518 words]
A landmark battle in the war on drugs ended Tuesday, and a new approach to address racial inequities began, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker acted to legalize marijuana in Illinois effective Jan. 1, 2020. Sponsors called the change "historic" as Pritzker signed into law a bill that will allow Illinois residents 21 and over to possess up to 30 grams of cannabis flower, 5 grams of concentrate and 500 milligrams of THC infused in edibles and other products. Out-of-state visitors may have up to half those amounts. [continues 1023 words]
Marking a historic moment in an expanding national movement, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed legislation that makes recreational marijuana legal in Illinois. After debate in Springfield earlier this year - during which one lawmaker even cracked eggs into a frying pan to depict the "brain on drugs" - the bill allowing possession and sales to begin on Jan. 1 was approved by the House and Senate. Illinois became the 11th state to legalize cannabis and the first state in which a legislature approved commercial sales. Vermont lawmakers legalized possession, but not yet commercial sales. Approval in other states came via referendum. [continues 609 words]
This was supposed to be the year full cannabis legalization in the U.S. moved much closer to being a reality. Instead it has been a disaster for advocates. Although Illinois legalized recreational use on the final day of its legislative schedule, a half-dozen other deep-blue states that were expected to legalize failed to follow-including New York. Advocates want to believe legalization on their terms, with few restrictions on marketing and age limits potentially as low as 18, remains inevitable. Polls show that between 62% and 66% of Americans support legalization. But cannabis supporters are wrong, and the pushback against marijuana has only begun. [continues 778 words]
The two young women see themselves in Rue, the stumbling, manipulative teenage drug addict that Zendaya plays in "Euphoria," the new HBO show. They see themselves in Rue when she coughs and flushes the toilet so her mom won't hear her rummaging through the medicine cabinet for Xanax. They see themselves when Rue cops clean urine from a high school friend to pass a drug test. They see themselves when Rue convinces a new friend that getting high first thing in the morning is a good idea; when she threatens her mother with a piece of broken glass; when she aspirates her own vomit after overdosing. They see themselves in Rue's pain, her messiness, her unslakable need to obliterate all the bad feelings, no matter the cost. [continues 1290 words]
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Illinois' new governor delivered on a top campaign promise Tuesday by signing legislation making the state the 11th to approve marijuana for recreational use in a program offering legal remedies and economic benefits to minorities whose lives critics say were damaged by a wayward war on drugs. Legalization in Illinois also means that nearly 800,000 people with criminal records for purchasing or possessing 30 grams of marijuana or less may have those records expunged, a provision minority lawmakers and interest groups demanded. It also gives cannabis-vendor preference to minority owners and promises 25% of tax revenue from marijuana sales to redevelop impoverished communities. [continues 742 words]
Recent efforts to legalize marijuana in New York and New Jersey have been stalled - but not killed - by disputes over how exactly to divvy up the revenues from marijuana sales and by worries about drugged driving. Those are both important issues. But another concern should be at the center of this debate: the medical implications of legalizing marijuana, particularly for young people. It's tempting to think marijuana is a harmless substance that poses no threat to teens and young adults. The medical facts, however, reveal a different reality. [continues 495 words]
In the next few weeks, Nicholas DiPatrizio's lab at UC Riverside will receive a shipment of marijuana. DiPatrizio, a professor of biomedical sciences, then will begin giving mice precise doses of cannabis oil to see how marijuana impacts their weight and a host of serious health conditions often linked to obesity. The study marks the first time UC Riverside has received federal approval to conduct research on marijuana -- or any other substance in the Drug Enforcement Administration's strict Schedule I category. It also marks the school's first cannabis-related grant, with $744,000 from tobacco taxes being used to finance this three-year research project on how marijuana affects metabolic health. [continues 1049 words]
Re "Marijuana Damages Young Brains," by Kenneth L. Davis and Mary Jeanne Kreek (Op-Ed, June 17): No one is advocating that young people either consume or have ready access to cannabis. In fact, it is precisely because marijuana use may pose potential risks to certain consumers - for example, adolescents or people with a family history of psychiatric illness - that NORML believes that lawmakers should regulate it accordingly. These regulations should include age restrictions, prohibitions on the unlicensed commercial production or retail sale of the plant and rational limits with regard to product marketing. [continues 90 words]
Inside United States
