A federal judge has done what Congress and the Obama administration have failed to do - open a discussion on whether marijuana should continue to be listed as a Schedule 1 drug, a classification that is supposed to be used only for the most dangerous, addictive drugs, such as heroin and LSD. As part of a criminal trial involving alleged marijuana growers in Northern California, U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller held a five-day hearing late last year to evaluate the current scientific research on marijuana use and to determine whether the Schedule 1 designation is unconstitutional, as the defendants contend. [continues 359 words]
HONOLULU (AP) - State lawmakers are beginning to introduce a series of bills that aim to make marijuana more freely available in the state. A bill to decriminalize marijuana is currently being drafted, said Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee. That bill would reduce punishment for using marijuana to a civil violation instead of a felony, he said. Under the proposal, getting caught with marijuana would be similar to getting a parking ticket, and like a parking ticket, violators could mail in their responses to the courts. The fine would not exceed $100, Espero said. [continues 256 words]
Money-hungry cops are angry about the forfeiture reform that Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Jan. 6, which suggests it's a move in the right direction. But contrary to initial press reports, the new policy represents a modest change to the rules governing civil forfeiture, which allows the government to take people's assets without accusing them of a crime. "Civil forfeiture is fundamentally at odds with our judicial system and notions of fairness," two former directors of the Justice Department's Asset Forfeiture Office observed in a Washington Post op-ed piece last fall. "Civil forfeiture laws presume someone's personal property to be tainted, placing the burden of proving it 'innocent' on the owner." [continues 563 words]
State Trying to Determine How to Provide Licensed Cannabis Patients With Their Medicine Nearly 14 years after the use of medical marijuana was legalized in Hawaii, medical marijuana patients may have a legal way to purchase it, rather than just grow it themselves, within the next few years. The 21-member group tasked with crafting guidelines for a state-monitored medical marijuana dispensary system is recommending that at least one dispensary be opened in four of the state's five counties by the start of 2017. [continues 962 words]
Harold Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, says a rider in the omnibus spending bill that Congress enacted last month stops the District of Columbia from legalizing marijuana. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's congressional delegate, disagrees. So do D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. Surprisingly, given the sway that Congress has over D.C., it looks like Rogers will lose this argument, and marijuana will soon be legal in the nation's capital. [continues 589 words]
Nearly 14 years after the use of medical marijuana was legalized in Hawaii, medical marijuana patients may have a legal way to purchase it, rather than just grow it themselves, within the next few years. The 21-member group tasked with crafting guidelines for a state-monitored medical marijuana dispensary system is recommending that at least one dispensary be opened in four of the state's five counties by the start of 2017. Members of the Hawaii Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force, which was created during the last legislative session and convened shortly afterward, also agreed that state Department of Health officials should offer at least 30 licenses for medical marijuana producers beginning on June 1, 2016. [continues 994 words]
KAILUA-KONA (AP) - Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force will recommend that licenses for marijuana production centers and dispensaries be offered in 2017, according to the state representative overseeing the group. Rep. Della Au Belatti said the task force finished its work this week. She is working on a bill for the House to consider when the Legislature convenes Jan. 21, West Hawaii Today reported. "The recommendations are really just a starting point," she said. "Some of the recommendations will be taken up, and some of them won't." [continues 199 words]
KAILUA-KONA (AP) - Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force will recommend that licenses for marijuana production centers and dispensaries be offered in 2017, according to the state representative overseeing the group. Rep. Della Au Belatti (D, Moiliili-Makiki-Tantalus) said the task force finished its work this week. She is working on a bill for the House to consider when the Legislature convenes Jan. 21, West Hawaii Today reported Thursday. "The recommendations are really just a starting point," she said. "Some of the recommendations will be taken up, and some of them won't." [continues 198 words]
For years, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has insisted that people who pay for sex and the intermediaries who facilitate that exchange are responsible for violence against women. Hence his Feb. 26 column celebrating the arrests of men who were guilty of nothing but negotiating terms with cops posing as hookers. In reality, it is prostitution prohibitionists such as Kristof who make the occupation unreasonably dangerous by creating a black market in which vendors are subject to theft and assault without legal recourse. [continues 594 words]
Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force Facilitator Hopes Patients Will Soon Have Easier Access to the Drug Susan Chandler says she had no particular opinions about medical marijuana before she agreed to be facilitator for Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task force - and as a formal matter she still is neutral when conducting the business of the legislatively created body. But being on the task force did make her aware of the many Hawaii residents who apparently benefit medically from the use of marijuana but have been having great difficulty obtaining it. [continues 2195 words]
Hawaii medical cannabis patients are at the end of their rope. For 14 years, they have not been able to access safe, efficacious medicine due to a hastily crafted state law that forces them to buy on the illegal market. Even more egregious, if a state dispensary bill is passed in 2015, it would be two to three years before administrative rules are adopted, exacerbating the stress and pain. Patients cannot wait more years. Lawmakers have already demonstrated their lack of compassion and caring for the sick and dying. [continues 67 words]
It's been almost 15 years since the law was enacted, and Hawaii still doesn't know what to do with its medical marijuana program. It's actually less of a program than a policy, and that policy is: Hawaii residents can get a prescription for the drug, but filling it is another matter. If the state had the concern that it should about maintaining the integrity of the program and quality control for the drug it provides, lawmakers would finally finish the work they started in 2000 by establishing a regulated dispensary system. The fact that it hasn't yet done so means that anyone enrolled in the program is on their own, with no reasonable way to ensure the effectiveness or safety of what they're using. [continues 527 words]
HONOLULU (AP) - Fourteen years after Hawaii legalized medical marijuana, there is still no legal way for patients to obtain pot without growing it themselves. The 2000 law also is silent on how the state's 13,000 patients can get the seeds for plants they are allowed to grow. Even as four states have legalized recreational use of marijuana through voter initiatives, Hawaii legislators remain focused on creating a statewide medical marijuana dispensary system, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported "I do expect that bills will be introduced on decriminalization and legalization, as always," said Democratic state Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee. "But Hawaii's not ready for legalization. The public is not clamoring for it. My colleagues are not knocking on my door saying, 'We have to have it. It is now on the radar and it is gaining momentum.' People are still waiting to see how things are handled in Colorado and Washington and other states." [continues 281 words]
Years After Hawaii's Landmark Medical Marijuana Law, Patients Still Struggle to Get the Drug Legally After allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes in 2000, Hawaii was widely envisioned to be the first state that would legalize marijuana in America. Instead, 14 years later, there's no legal way for patients to obtain marijuana without growing it themselves. The law is silent on how the state's 13,000 patients can get seeds for the seven plants they are allowed to grow. [continues 1192 words]
Of the three jurisdictions where voters approved marijuana legalization last week, Washington, D.C., is the smallest but the most symbolically potent. The prospect of legal marijuana in the nation's capital dramatically signals the ongoing collapse of the 77-yearold ban on a much-maligned plant. The passage of Initiative 71, which voters backed by a margin of more than 2 to 1, presents a challenge to the Republicans who will soon control both houses of Congress. Will they respect democracy and local control, or will they insist that Washingtonians toe a prohibitionist line that is steadily disappearing? [continues 587 words]
Medical marijuana advocates are applauding a new law that aims to improve housing protection by voiding provisions in state rental agreements that had allowed a tenant's eviction based on their status as a registered medical marijuana patient. Act 60, enacted by the Legislature and signed by the governor earlier this year, takes effect Saturday. Rafael Kennedy, executive director of the Medical Cannabis Coalition of Hawaii and Drug Policy Action Group, said it is encouraging to see the issue coming to light. [continues 149 words]
Aloha. I'm fresh out of 50 months in federal prison for operating The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry where we helped to prevent and treat pain, disease and spiritual disconnection. Just reporting, not complaining. What a great and unexpected education I received in prison. Now, it's time for me to make some lemonade. Please know that there are now multiple U.S. Patents for cannabinoids in the prevention and treatment of pain and disease including for cancer. Also, the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2012 was given to the study of the two main cannabinoid 'receptors' CB1 and CB2. [continues 147 words]
Bob Jones may not write silly columns, but he sure makes a habit of writing thoughtless ones. As usual, he uses ad hominem attacks followed by non sequiturs in trying to dismiss Froma Harrop's sound arguments for drug legalization and regulation. First, he inexplicably calls her a liberal, then equates her arguments with libertarianism. Ms. Harrop correctly argues that the war on drugs has completely failed in its attempt to stop drug use and abuse. It has been spectacularly successful in creating a huge prison/legal/police/gang industrial complex, and is more responsible for the militarization of our "protect and serve" police forces than the 9/11 attacks. [continues 104 words]
What exactly is the purpose of the marijuana prohibition? We know, based on the evidence, that the marijuana prohibition does not reduce marijuana use in any way, shape or form and has, in fact, only increased marijuana use among all age groups. We know that it does not discourage teenagers from using and may, in fact, actually promote marijuana use. We know that in Amsterdam, for example, where marijuana is freely available, they have a lower rate of cannabis use than in America. We know that in Colorado pot use is down among teenagers despite full legalization. We know that traffic fatalities and violent crimes are down as well. We know that our government has spent billions on this pointless prohibition with absolutely zero accomplishments to date. [continues 84 words]
Thirty years ago, a college kid in Kentucky was caught growing marijuana plants in his closet. That turned him into a convicted felon, and though he's been on the right side of the law ever since, he still can't vote. On any job application, he must check the box next to "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" All this misery for growing a plant whose leaves the past three presidents admit having smoked. We know this story because Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky keeps telling it. That a Southern Republican probably running for president is condemning such prosecutions as unfair speaks volumes on the collapsing support for the war on marijuana - part of the larger war on drugs. [continues 499 words]
Kevin Sabet just doesn't get it ("If you think Big Tobacco was bad, wait until you see Big Marijuana," StarAdvertiser, Insight, Sept. 24). Big Marijuana already exists in the form of Mexican drug cartels. These are ruthless people who cut off heads to resolve business disputes, sell drugs to anyone regardless of age, and have a vested financial interest in providing cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin to consumers. Like it or not, marijuana is here to stay. We can collect taxes on legal marijuana or we can subsidize drug cartels. Punitive laws have little, if any, deterrent value. Despite the dire predictions of drug warriors, the sky is not falling in Colorado. [continues 59 words]
Saying changes need to be made to reduce their pain and inconvenience, patients and caregivers testified Wednesday evening in favor of establishing statewide medical marijuana dispensaries. But at least a few residents, including a physician, advised that the dispensaries should be centralized and that marijuana in its various forms should be kept out of the hands of children and put in child-proof containers, in view of some research that shows its early use can hamper brain development. More than 70 people attended the public meeting held by the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force at the state Capitol auditorium. [continues 334 words]
Proponents of legalization and other drug policy reforms make some important points. It is true that most people who try drugs do not get addicted - they stop after using a few times. It is also true - and regrettable - that America's incarceration rate is embarrassingly high and that blacks and Latinos bear the brunt of harsh arrest policies. And, finally, despite our best efforts, fully eradicating drug use and its consequences remains a distant dream. But placing faith that legalization will help any of these issues is misguided. In fact, legalization threatens to further contribute to disproportionate health outcomes among minorities, all the while creating a massive new industry - Big Tobacco 2.0 - intent on addicting the most vulnerable in society. [continues 861 words]
Research Focuses on Marijuana's Harm, and Ignores Its Medical Benefits Is America's scientific research biased to focus on the harmful effects of drugs? That was one of the questions at the heart of a congressional hearing this summer seeking to understand more comprehensively the scientific evidence related to marijuana. And it was how Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found herself being grilled by Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va. "Dr. Volkow, your testimony seems to completely disregard lots of other data," he accused. [continues 872 words]
Legal Medically, but Difficult to Obtain, Lawmakers to See If Loophole Can Be Fixed This is the first in a two-part series looking at a loophole in the medical marijuana industry that allows patients to possess and use the substance, but not obtain it unless they grow it themselves. Part two will be published in Monday's TGI. LIHUE - It has been just over 14 years since Hawaii made history. At the time, the 50th state became the first in the nation to establish a medical marijuana program through legislation rather than ballot initiative. [continues 1020 words]
The state has agreed to eliminate a rule requiring permits for protests at the Capitol and other state properties. In a settlement reached in federal court earlier this month, the state said it will repeal a requirement for groups of 25 or more to obtain a permit to demonstrate on state property. The permit had to be requested 14 business days in advance and required the applicant to get insurance to protect the state from possible damages. The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii sued the state in March, claiming the administrative rule violated the First Amendment by stifling spontaneous demonstrations. The lawsuit also said state officials would sometimes waive the permit requirement without outlining the guidelines for waivers, which allowed officials to approve demonstrations based on their message. [continues 288 words]
Marijuana ministry advocate Roger Christie has finally been released after four years in federal custody to a halfway house, and, boy, he said upon his release, would he like to once again consume some of his favorite plant. He added wisely, though, that would be only "when I'm legally allowed to do so." But, not even counting his four years of probation, that might be never - unless he moves to Washington state or Colorado, where marijuana is legal, and assuming Hawaii doesn't follow those states down that road. Here in Hawaii, Christie could try to qualify as a medical marijuana patient - his effort to secure a religious exemption obviously didn't succeed - but otherwise his greatest joy might be to just breathe the fresh air of freedom, such as it is. [end]
Roger Christie Enters a Halfway House As His Term Ends, and He Plans a Federal Appeal Marijuana ministry advocate Roger Christie emerged from four years in federal custody Thursday and said he's looking forward to his first hit of marijuana - "when I'm legally allowed to do so." "I want to juice it, I want to eat it, I want to wear it," Christie said in a brief interview before checking into an Iwilei halfway house called Mahoney Hale, where he will stay until his Nov. 14 "expiration of sentence date." Then Christie will be on four years of federal probation and supervised release. [continues 604 words]
Big Island Resident Roger Christie Has Been in a Federal Detention Center Since 2010 Hawaii island cannabis advocate Roger Christie, who pleaded guilty in September 2013 to federal charges of marijuana trafficking and failing to file tax returns, is being released to a halfway house. Christie is considered an icon among some marijuana supporters and has been in custody in Honolulu's Federal Detention Center since his arrest in July 2010 on the trafficking indictment. State Sen. Will Espero had planned to visit him but was told that Christie was to be released Thursday, Espero said. Jeff Davis, a Christie friend and Libertarian candidate for Hawaii governor, also said Christie is being released Thursday. [continues 307 words]
Meetings on How to Address Hawaii's Regulations Are Set for Oahu and the Big Island Any system of medical marijuana distribution centers in Hawaii would likely incorporate policies and programs that have proved successful in other states, but also accommodate the unique needs of the state's roughly 13,000 medicinal cannabis patients, officials say. Those concerns include consideration of the fact that all interisland transport of marijuana is now illegal and that the product can be grown outdoors in Hawaii year-round, unlike in some other states where weather will not permit open-air cultivation, said Peter Whiticar, a branch chief with the state Department of Health and a member of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force. [continues 425 words]
Fourteen years after Hawaii legalized the use of medical marijuana, the state still lacks a dispensary system allowing eligible patients to obtain the drug easily and lawfully. Patients are left to grow pot themselves, or buy it on the black market. A new report by the Legislative Reference Bureau highlights the challenges patients face in Hawaii, and describes how medical-marijuana programs operate in the other 22 states that have them. We've said it before, but we'll say it again: Hawaii needs a dispensary system to match the 2000 law. We hope this latest report will be the springboard to establishing one. [end]
A young couple recently visited me at my stall in the Hilo Farmers' Market. The man was on disability from service in Afghanistan, with a marijuana medical card from California. As I sketched their portraits, we chatted. He said he needed some medicine, and was dumbstruck to find that there were no certified dispensaries on the island where they were spending two weeks. "What kind of thinking is that?" he asked me. I grew embarrassed because no logical answer was available to me. This situation is not uncommon in this day and age. One would think the tourism agencies would want to rectify this situation without bureaucratic harassment of such visitors. Tomas Belsky Hilo [end]
A Report to the Legislature Details Obstacles to Care Caused by the Lack of Dispensaries Despite being among the first states to approve the use of medical marijuana, certified patients in Hawaii still face challenges tied to access and transporting the drug in the isles, according to a new report to the state Legislature. The Legislative Reference Bureau report is to be presented Tuesday at a meeting of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary System Task Force, a working group convened by the Legislature to make recommendations for establishing a dispensary system for marijuana in Hawaii. [continues 538 words]
I read the Aug. 26 article, "Medical marijuana could help counter painkiller deaths," with great interest, especially the last sentence about how people "may never start opioid medication use if they are able to get pain relief from medical marijuana." I remember the days of Green Harvest, the federal marijuana eradication program that was highly successful in Hawaii. People went to jail, lost their homes and switched from smoking pot to snorting and/or shooting up crystal methamphetamine. We traded mellow, stoned-out hippies for sick, psychotic thieves and murderers who might never have begun using meth if they had retained their access to marijuana. John Wythe White Haleiwa [end]
Contrary to what you may have heard, the armored vehicles that appeared on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., during the unrest that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown did not come from the Pentagon. "Most of the stuff you are seeing in video coming out of Ferguson is not military," Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Defense Department's press secretary, told reporters last week. "The military is not the only source of tactical gear in this country." In other words: Don't blame the military for militarizing the police. [continues 587 words]
In 1996, when he was the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Eric Holder urged the D.C. Council to reinstate mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, which it had abolished in 1994. Two decades later, as an attorney general who has repeatedly criticized "draconian" mandatory minimums and sought to limit their use, he faces resistance from the federal prosecutors he oversees. Holder alluded to that resistance in a speech to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on July 31, saying, "Any suggestion that defendant cooperation is somehow dependent on mandatory minimums is plainly inconsistent with the facts and with history." [continues 571 words]
In 2003, a Nebraska state trooper stopped Emiliano Gonzolez for speeding on Interstate 80 and found $124,700 inside a cooler on the back seat of the rented Ford Taurus he was driving. Gonzolez said the money was intended to buy a refrigerated truck for a produce business, but the cops figured all that cash must have something to do with illegal drugs. Although there was not much evidence to support that theory, under federal forfeiture law the government managed to keep Gonzolez's money based on little more than a hunch. A bill introduced last week by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., would make that sort of highway robbery harder to pull off. [continues 563 words]
I have worked in the addiction field in Hawaii for 35 years and facilitated the Family Program at Hina Mauka Recovery Center in Kaneohe for 12 years. I know well the impact that addiction has on the family and the suffering that families experience while their addicted family member is focusing on their drug of choice. So I read with interest last month's article, "Epidemic Coming," by Rob Perez (Star-Advertiser, June 22). Whether an epidemic is coming or is already here, I certainly agree that drug addiction and drug abuse are very serious public health problems. [continues 472 words]
As thousands of children fleeing violence in Central America seek refuge in the United States, some commentators are blaming American drug users. "If there weren't a lot of Americans seeking marijuana and heroin and cocaine," says former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, "there would not be a drug war." Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady seems to agree. "This crisis was born of American self-indulgence," she writes. If so, it was not the self-indulgence of people who consume arbitrarily proscribed intoxicants. It was the selfindulgence of prohibitionists who insist on exporting their disastrous policy to other countries. [continues 581 words]
Hawaii was a vanguard state in the medical-marijuana movement, but soon dropped behind others in the development of drug dispensaries. That may have been a lucky break, in that Hawaii can now capitalize on the lessons learned in other jurisdictions. Hawaii is one of 22 states, in addition to Washington, D.C., to launch medical marijuana programs. Nineteen of those states have set up dispensary systems; Connecticut and Delaware are about to open their first dispensaries later this year. But the time has finally come for Hawaii to take that leap, with the state exploring its entry into a new regulatory responsibility: seeing that a product of reliable quality and fair price gets delivered to those authorized to purchase. [continues 403 words]
In states where medical and recreational cannabis sales are allowed, disquieting new trends and statistics are proving its unique dangers for those most vulnerable to its effects: children. One such statistic is a spike in calls to poison control centers. According to the National Poison Data System, calls about accidental ingestion of marijuana in children 9 and younger more than tripled in states that decriminalized marijuana before 2005. In states that enacted legalization from 2005 to 2011, calls increased nearly 11.5 percent per year. Over the same period in states without decriminalization laws, the call rate stayed the same. In the decriminalized states, such calls were also more likely to result in critical-care admissions. Neurological effects were the most common. [continues 688 words]
Pilot Programs Only Delay Establishment of a Viable System, One Patient Argues With 13,000 people registered for the state medical marijuana program - - among the first in the nation when formed 14 years ago - the time for pilot projects and studies has long passed, said Karl Malivuk, a registered patient. "It's time that we have a dispensary system, not a pilot," Malivuk told fellow members of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force. "A pilot project, to us, is: 'Let's kick the can down the road.'" [continues 524 words]
Nonfatal Overdose Cases in Hawaii Have Jumped Among Adults and Youths First, he started smoking pot because his friends did. Then he turned to prescription pills - mainly powerful painkillers, initially prescribed by his doctor or dentist after he broke a bone or had dental work done. Jeff Nash liked the buzz so much that he soon began raiding family medicine cabinets or exaggerating his health problems to dupe physicians into prescribing more. By the time Nash graduated from high school, he was a full-blown addict, taking pills and shooting heroin. Even when he spent time in a Honolulu hospital for an addiction-related problem, Nash several times a day secretly injected heroin, using an intravenous line that was supposed to be for his prescribed medication. [continues 1264 words]
HILO (AP) - Five Puna residents are suing Hawaii County and the police to get their confiscated marijuana plants back. Two lawsuits seek the return of dozens of marijuana plants or more than $250,000 in compensation. The plaintiffs say police seized the plants during a 2012 raid at the Fern Acres subdivision in Mountain View, even though the plaintiffs had valid medical marijuana cards and permission to grow the plants. One lawsuit filed last month involves 28 plants; another filed last week involves 24. Both ask for the plants to be returned, or for $5,000 per plant. [continues 131 words]
Hawaii's alarming increase in fatal prescription-drug overdoses reflects a national trend that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has described as an epidemic. The dispensing of powerful narcotic painkillers has skyrocketed over the past decade or so, and misuse of these drugs has likewise grown. Opioid analgesic painkillers such as fentanyl, oxycodone and hydrocodone have an important place in the management of chronic pain. But as the rising death rate illustrates, some legitimate patients misuse the drugs, which also are abused by recreational users who have no medical reason to be taking them. Factor in the reality that some doctors overprescribe the painkillers and that young people in particular consider prescription drugs less dangerous than illegal ones and you've got the recipe for our current public health crisis - one that demands a multi-faceted approach to solve. [continues 430 words]
When Alecia Phonesavanh heard her 19-month-old son, Bounkham, screaming, she thought he was simply frightened by the armed men who had burst into the house in the middle of the night. Then she saw the charred remains of the portable playpen where the toddler had been sleeping, and she knew something horrible had happened. Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh, who is in a medically induced coma at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, may never wake up. But the appalling injuries he suffered during a police raid in Habersham County, Ga., last week should awaken the country to the moral obscenity that is the war on drugs. [continues 567 words]
The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out. [continues 812 words]
A Hawaii lawmaker hopes U.S. Customs won't stop the shipment of hemp seeds from China that will launch a research project in Hawaii after a hold was put on seeds headed to Kentucky this week. Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill into law last month that authorizes a two-year industrial hemp research project led by the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Lawmakers leery of supporting hemp had their worries put to rest in February when President Barack Obama signed farm legislation that in part permits state agriculture departments and universities to grow hemp for research purposes. [continues 264 words]
The legalized marijuana debate rages on with the inevitable justification of increased tax revenue. Yet should the government's purpose be to seek profit? Imagine the pitfalls of government where individual rights are subjugated to the purpose of profit. One of the few true roles of government is protection from the criminal behavior of others. In Washington state and Colorado, people are overdosing on THC through their pot candies and dying or hallucinating. The ability of THC in higher doses to create hallucinations (a break with reality equaling the legal criteria of temporary insanity) was the reason it was made illegal. Watch these two experiments and learn from their mistakes before rushing to duplicate them. Joseph Ronin McCully [end]
However you come down on the case of Roger Christie - the Hawaii island "cannabis minister" just sentenced for marijuana distribution - a natural response is to breathe a sigh of relief that this part of the saga at least has come to an end. Although appeals in his case and that of his wife likely will follow, the detention and trial simply took far too long. To underscore that point: Christie's very nearly already served his five-year sentence. Also, in the intervening four years since the defendant began detention, the legal stance on marijuana has relaxed in various states. In addition to the two states that have made it wholly legal, there has been an increased acceptance of decriminalization and legal medical use of cannabis. The protracted court fight over Christie seems almost quaint. [end]
Inside Hawaii
