Health care professionals report America is suffering an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. What if a widely used substance could prevent and maybe "cure" diabetes? There is, and cannabis is that substance. In a new study published in the American Journal of Medicine, "The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance among U.S. Adults," researchers studied 579 current cannabis users and 1,975 past users. In multivariable adjusted models, current marijuana use was associated with 16% lower fasting insulin levels and 17% lower insulin resistance levels. Researchers also found significant associations between marijuana use and smaller waist circumferences. [continues 148 words]
A Weekly Feature on Proposed Changes to State and Local Law. in a Nutshell Under current law, a city, village, town or county can enact and enforce an ordinance prohibiting the possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana or the possession of a synthetic cannabinoid. A person who is charged with possession of more than 25 grams of marijuana or who is charged with possession of any amount of marijuana or a synthetic cannabinoid following a conviction for the possession of a controlled substance generally may not be prosecuted under the ordinance. [continues 580 words]
Regarding Monday's At Issue column on marijuana possession, Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt, R-Fond du Lac, should consider that organic marijuana and so-called synthetic marijuana are different things. Synthetic marijuana is an unintended side effect of the war on marijuana. Consumers are turning to potentially toxic drugs made in China and sold as research chemicals before being repackaged as legal incense. Expanding the drug war will only add to the highest incarceration rate in the world. Chinese chemists will tweak formulas to stay one step ahead of the law and two steps ahead of drug tests. New versions won't be safer. A better solution is to legalize organic marijuana. [continues 68 words]
DULUTH - Police have arrested 30 people in an alleged crack cocaine trafficking ring in Duluth and Superior, Wis.threatened The arrests came this week after a nine-month investigation dubbed "Operation Crackdown." Investigators say suspects were trading crack cocaine for government food-assistance debit cards at about half the face value of the cards. Investigators say they used decoy cards to conduct controlled buys of crack cocaine. Lt. Steve Stracek, commander of the Lake Superior Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, said alleged dealers would either go to the store with the buyer and buy groceries with the cards, or they would force the buyer to prove the card still had money, and then take the card. Authorities are seeking another 10 suspects. [end]
Regarding your Jan. 15 editorial, the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2010, there were 853,839 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not lower rates of use. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls distribution, marijuana consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition. Robert Sharpe Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy Arlington, Va. [end]
It should be self-evident that the $1 trillion war on drugs has failed to accomplish its goals. Although the creators and enforcers of American drug policy may have had good intentions, the consequences of this policy have not been so good. It is past time that the U.S. government reforms its federal drug policies. Furthermore, considering the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington, Wisconsin should join the movement of individual states legalizing recreational marijuana use. In its pursuit of marijuana prohibition, it would behoove the federal government to be consistent in its own logic and actions in order to convince the American public that this goal is worthwhile. [continues 718 words]
I found your (Jan. 15) editorial on marijuana completely close-minded and uninformed. When will we admit alcohol and cigarettes open up the flood gates for experimentation with harmful and illegal drugs. You believe there are safer drugs available for people that suffer from debilitating health problems. Can you name a few of these wonder drugs? Conventional medicines such as oxycontin, morphine, dilaudid, ect. are only marginally effective at relieving severe chronic pain. Marijuana has been proven to give significant relief for the same ailments. All of the drugs used to combat pain can be habit-forming, over-perscribed, misused, sold to addicts and even make their way into our schools. People that truly need relief from severe chronic pain and ailments typically dislike using these same drugs, but they have no choice. [continues 237 words]
Your (Jan. 15) editorial against legalizing cannabis (marijuana) was very disappointing because it missed an opportunity to advocate for ending one of the most wasteful government endeavors in modern history. Clearly the Herald Times Reporter would rather the taxpayers pick up the tab for another failed prohibition than allow adults in a free country to grow and consume a plant. I did not expect your paper to be in favor of big government in our personal lives and gardens, monitoring our activities to save us from Mother Nature. Colorado and Washington are leading the way by taxing and regulating the adult cannabis market. More states are likely to follow suit and end another prohibition and allow adults to buy, grow, smoke and eat this plant. The fact that we have made a plant illegal for over 75 years is beyond logic, goes against the bible and has imprisoned and disenfranchised more people than Jim Crow laws. [continues 135 words]
Hundreds of people will converge on Madison today in an attempt to convince lawmakers that marijuana should be legal in Wisconsin. Wisconsin should not follow the recent example of Washington and Colorado and make it legal to use marijuana, even for medical purposes. There is a reason pot is, at least under federal law, a controlled substance. It is, as police and mental health experts call it, a "gateway drug" that often leads to experimentation with more dangerous illegal drugs, particularly among young people. [continues 302 words]
Central Wisconsin political observers say the vote to legalize marijuana in two states could eventually affect Wisconsin. Lawmakers will be watching to see what happens in Colorado and Washington, where residents voted to lift long-standing bans on recreational marijuana use, said state Rep. Scott Krug, R-Rome, who represents Wisconsin's 72nd Assembly District, and changes in this state might be possible. Krug, who previously served as the Wood County Drug Court administrator, said Wisconsin should put more of a focus on drug addiction treatment than the current legal system does. [continues 490 words]
LAKEWOOD, Wis. - The silence of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is broken only by the sound of Jeff Seefeldt's boots as he walks toward a clearing in the deep woods. Seefeldt, a district ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, points out the trees and brushes that were cut down to make room for an illicit crop and piled into a makeshift fence meant to keep animals and human intruders out. He gestures toward the creek from which water was hauled to keep thousands of marijuana plants growing. [continues 277 words]
Gary Storck has been working for marijuana legalization for a long time. The 57-year-old Madison resident started to use it as a medication for glaucoma when he was 17 years old, and it worked. "I smoked some and went to see my eye doctor and my eye pressures were normal," he says. "They were usually very elevated when I went in without using cannabis." Born with a condition called Noonan syndrome, which causes heart problems, joint pain and a variety of other health issues, he found that marijuana - he prefers the term cannabis - relieved a lot of pain from those ailments as well. [continues 1217 words]
There are sensible and compelling reasons why marijuana use, including medical marijuana, is not legal in Wisconsin ("Time for a blunt conversation," Crossroads, Dec. 2). We need to keep it that way for those same reasons. My vantage point is as a doctor in adolescent treatment programs who has seen many young, and older, lives ruined by cannabis use. And I speak also as having been a member or chair of the Controlled Substances Board in Wisconsin for more than 15 years. [continues 190 words]
On Nov. 6, voters in Colorado and Washington approved ballot initiatives to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana, while a similar initiative in Oregon failed. The possession and sale of marijuana is still a violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act, and it remains to be seen whether the Justice Department will modify its enforcement priorities in response to these initiatives. Colorado and Washington will now attempt to regulate and tax cannabis in a manner similar to the regulation and taxation of tobacco and alcohol. Advocates of these initiatives claimed that marijuana legalization will lead to increased revenue for the states and decreased drug-related crime, among other "benefits." A closer look at the issue, though, shows that the opposite is true and that the real social costs will dramatically outweigh any elusive benefits. [continues 458 words]
Traditionally, the truism about marijuana legalization is that if you think it's ever going to happen, you've almost certainly just sampled some yourself. But with Colorado and Washington having recently legalized marijuana for recreational use, it might be time to re-examine our relationship with the drug and whether the federal government should be dictating marijuana policy to the states where citizens support legalization. It's difficult to see exactly how different the world would be if states were allowed to dictate their own marijuana policy; it's not like the nation would be overrun by the guy from your dorm who played his guitar at 3 a.m. Currently, marijuana policy represents a facsimile of a world that we'd like to see, not the one that currently exists. [continues 618 words]
Wisconsin should legalize recreational use of marijuana - or at the very least lessen the penalties for minor cannabis possession. Don't let my dreadlocks fool you. My conclusion was not an easy one, but everything in life should not automatically lend itself to a criminal justice solution. Just because I favor the recreational use of marijuana doesn't mean that I believe it's good for you. It's not, but neither is smoking, drinking or overeating and a number of the other ills that society doesn't have a problem with until someone is hurt. [continues 766 words]
With the "fiscal cliff" looming, Congress finds itself contemplating many unpleasant and politically unpopular options including increasing taxes and cutting Social Security and Medicare. President Barack Obama is working to build public support for his proposals. Recent votes in Colorado and Washington State legalizing marijuana offer the president and Congress a route to both increasing revenues and saving billions now spent enforcing marijuana prohibition. Full national legalization of cannabis/hemp will provide millions of jobs and create multiple new green industries that will bring a new era of prosperity. A majority of Americans now support legal pot. Even the chief of the Indiana State Police recently opined that legalization makes sense. Ending cannabis prohibition is just the ticket for a soft landing off the fiscal cliff. Gary Storck Co-founder Madison [end]
It was good to read about the WISDOM group and bipartisan support for alternatives to incarceration for people charged with drug crimes. Marijuana being the most commonly used illegal substance, state lawmakers should take note of changing attitudes toward it. Colorado and Washington voters passed initiatives repealing marijuana prohibition at the state level. Massachusetts voters made that state the 18th plus Washington D.C. to legalize the medical use of cannabis. Meanwhile, Wisconsin has some of the most punitive, backward marijuana laws in the nation. It has a patchwork of local ordinances and state law with wide disparities in penalties, and it mandates a felony for second offense for possession of any amount of cannabis. These antiquated laws consume criminal justice resources for nonviolent, victimless activities. [continues 59 words]
Dear Editor: While President Obama's re-election was huge, the successful marijuana initiatives in Colorado and Washington state were arguably more significant. As someone who first tried cannabis four decades ago and, like millions of Americans, never stopped, I've been waiting my entire adult life for some common sense on pot laws. In the 1970s even President Jimmy Carter said cannabis should be legal and it seemed like it was at times. Madison voters favored legalization in a November 1976 advisory referendum and passed a local ordinance decriminalizing pot in April 1977 that remains on the books today. Then came the Ronald Reagan years, when the federal war on pot began to snowball with the adoption of more and more punitive and harmful policies. Studies documenting medical uses were buried. Reagan's successors, along with Congress and state legislatures, kept the drug war pork flowing. [continues 163 words]
Inside Wisconsin
