Yet Again, the Feds Just Say No to a Clinical Trial Involving Marijuana by J.M. Smith When the feds last week blocked a University of Arizona doctor's attempt to launch the nation's first clinical trial of marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, they didn't end anything. They started it. "Hopefully, this is just the first round," said Dr. Sue Sisley, an assistant professor in telemedicine in Phoenix whose study was rejected by a federal panel despite Food and Drug Administration approval. [continues 655 words]
Austin Homicides Up; Everything Else Down Tracking the national average, violent crimes reported to Austin police in 2010 decreased by 6% from the previous year. It was the fourth year in a row that violent crime has decreased nationally. Property crimes in Austin - burglary, larceny, and auto theft - also decreased last year, by roughly 4.6%, outpacing the national decline of 2.7%. That said, Austin saw a big spike in murder in 2010 - from 22 in 2009 to 38 in 2010, a 72% increase. [continues 186 words]
This week we've got lots of news from the feds (none of it particularly good), new drug laws on the books in Texas, and the connection between Facebook and crack. Lets get to it. Among the hundreds of new Texas laws that went into effect Sept. 1 are the state's new drug crackdowns. Specifically, the ban of both not-pot - - the synthetic marijuana mimicker known as "K2" or "Spice" - and the powdery stimulant known as a "bath salts." Possession - or manufacture or sale - of either can now net you a hefty prison term: Indeed, possession of less than a gram can earn up to two years in a state jail; possession of up to four grams can turn up to 10 years in the pen; possession of between four and 400 grams can get you up to 20 years; more than 400 grams can net you life in the clink. [continues 1253 words]
Re: "Bring back the free crack pipes," Jeremy Klaszus, Opinion, Sept. 5. Jeremy Klaszus included only half of my statement in his column regarding Vancouver East's Insite, misrepresenting my position. I cannot, in good conscience, support initiatives like Insite that enable and encourage the habitual use of harmful and addictive substances. There are no peer-reviewed, scientifically sound studies that support claims that safe injection sites save lives and have significant success in helping their clients to become drug free. Further, up to 97 per cent of injections take place away from the Insite location, negating arguments that Insite limits the transmission of blood-borne diseases, including HIV/AIDS. [continues 78 words]
As part of the application for this job, the Tucson Weekly asked me to lay out my vision for this column. With a few shifts and nudges here and there, this is what I came up with. Good question, that. This is a cutting-edge area of media you are getting into. Yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition. I do it because I talk that way, and so do most folks. So I guess the first point I come to (quite inadvertently) is that I will make this column conversational. I have always wanted to write the way I talk, but the pigfuckers always prevented me. [continues 645 words]
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Some might argue that the U.S. Constitution delegates powers to the feds to arrest medical marijuana providers because of the schedule 1 status of cannabis in the Controlled Substance Act. However, the CSA's schedule 1 requirements are: "1) Schedule I. A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision." Clearly, cannabis doesn't qualify on B and C, and the Merck Medical Manual of Diagnosis and Treatment clearly states that cannabis is not physically addictive, so it doesn't meet criteria for A either. [continues 159 words]
Some Worry Pending Law Will Push Gardens into Denser Areas It was a sunny day in Forest Ranch, perfect for some outdoor gardening, and a crew of eight men was tending to a fenced-in piece of land about a third of an acre in size. A guy in his early 20s named Jack fired up a weed whacker and carefully set to manicuring the grass between several rows of raised-bed planters. "If I didn't have the co-op to get my medicine, I don't know how I'd get it. It's really unsafe trying to get it on the street. You can get busted doing that," he said. [continues 929 words]
When it comes to manners, parents will go to great lengths to teach their kids 'p's and q's'. Yet when it comes to drugs and alcohol, few parents are actually taking the time to educate their children. But in reality, most parents are more concerned about the potential for their kids to start using drugs and alcohol than whether or not they remember to say please or thank you. So why aren't they taking the time to educate them, asks Doug Rogers, substance abuse prevention counsellor within the schools. [continues 477 words]
Border Patrol Agent Loses Job After Stating the Obvious In April 2009, El Paso native and rookie Border Patrol Agent Bryan Gonzalez was working a stretch of the Mexican border near Deming, N.M. It was a relatively slow day, so when Gonzalez saw fellow Agent Shawn Montoya patrolling in the same area, the two men took a break, pulled their vehicles up next to each other, rolled down their windows, and began talking. When the conversation turned to the drug-related violence that was plaguing the border, Gonzalez "mentioned that he thought that legalization of marijuana would save a lot of lives across the border and over here," New Mexico ACLU spokesman Micah McCoy said during a recent interview. Gonzalez also mentioned that there's an organization of law enforcement officers and officials Law Enforce-ment Against Prohibition - that stands in opposition to the drug war. "The other guy didn't agree" with Gonzalez's views, McCoy said, but regardless, "it was a friendly conversation" between the two men. [continues 949 words]
An Okanagan researcher is among the contributing voices on a ground-breaking nationwide strategy for reducing substance abuse in children and youth that was released this week. Marvin Krank, professor of psychology and dean of the College of Graduate Studies at UBCO, acted as an academic voice in drafting the Portfolio of Canadian Standards for Youth Substance Abuse Prevention. The document is a one-of-a-kind guide for developing prevention programs and lays out the best practices one should follow to ensure a program succeeds in getting kids off substances and to stay away from their influence in the first place. [continues 362 words]
Emily Allingham would like to see more health care dollars spent on crack pipe mouth pieces. Samantha Brown believes safe needle exchange is a health care service. And Megan Cox doesn't believe in lost causes, she believes in harm reduction. With these thought-provoking messages, the three young UBC Okanagan student nurses are trying to catch the attention of the public. Sporting T-shirts with attention-grabbing slogans, the girls will set up at the Village Green Mall throughout the day Wednesday, Dec. 1. [continues 466 words]
Re: "VicPD demands silence," March 4-10 A few months ago, Jamie Graham came to my local seniors' centre for a meet-and-greet. I expected Victoria's chief constable to be dressed in a suit, reflective of his desk job. Instead, I was surprised to find him all uniformed-up from boots to cap, including a large handgun on his hip. While in uniform, and on the clock (my tax dollars at work), this "man in blue" spoke out strongly against the harm-reduction model for dealing with drug addiction. Among other questionable "facts," he stated that pot smoking led to hard drugs and crime. [continues 103 words]
There is a medical marijuana bill in committee in the Wisconsin Legislature. We need the people's help to get it passed by calling their politicians in Madison. It's being held there by representatives who are good people but under-informed. What we are asking for in not a pot-smokers' law. Many of us vaporize it or eat it, which gives us the cannibnoids that help fight obesity, cancers, fibromyalgia, phantom pains and muscle spasms from paraplegia and other neuromuscular ailments. [continues 93 words]
Ingham Voters Clearly Favor 'Insane' Law Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth appeared in a Feb. 23 segment on WLNS about a medical marijuana club in Williamstown Township. As part of this piece, Wriggelsworth was asked his take on the club's existence. He called the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act an, "insane law." I think the sheriff needs to understand that the people who put him in office are the same people who passed this law. The law passed with more than 66 percent of Ingham County voters in favor. The sheriff garnered less than 4 percent more support than this law did in Ingham County. [continues 342 words]
Time To Throw Tomatoes? Obama's Drug Program Highlights President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2011 national drug control budget seeks $15.5 billion - a 3.5% increase over the 2010 budget - to combat drug use and its consequences. The funding would go toward the five major functions listed above. In announcing the release of the proposed federal drug control budget for 2011, Pres-id-ent Barack Obama's drug czar, former Seat-tle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, declared that the new budget "demonstrates the ... Administration's commitment to a balanced and comprehensive drug strategy." The budget is Obama's first with Kerlikowske at the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "In a time of tight budgets and fiscal restraint," continued Kerlikow-ske, "these new investments are targeted at reducing Americans' drug use and the substantial costs associated with the health and social consequences of drug abuse." [continues 885 words]
VINELAND -- New Jersey farmers, including some in this area, see a chance to add an important new crop now that the state has legalized medical marijuana. "We would all like to grow it because we think it would be a good cash crop -- literally," Fairfield nurseryman Roger Ruske said. The New Jersey Farm Bureau, a trade group for agriculture, has looked into the issue in depth and found good news and problems with the idea. New Jersey last month adopted a law allowing medical use of marijuana. [continues 575 words]
1) Patients Free to Inhale Keeping a presidential campaign promise, President Barack Obama's Department of Justice sent out an official memo to federal prosecutors in October advising them to end raids on patients using medi-pot in compliance with state law. 2) Some Like it Pot A home movie of Marilyn Monroe that purports to show the blond bombshell toking a joint while lounging on the couch hit the Internet this fall. Suffice to say, the sleepy-eyed actress can even make sniffing an armpit look sexy. [continues 663 words]
This past week 18 residents of Stephens County were given an opportunity to exercise the greatest power they will ever know as citizens of this county. These residents, of course, were those persons of the Grand Jury which reviewed the evidence of the killing of pastor Jonathan Ayers. Unfortunately these persons let this great moment pass them by. As a result, the only persons who will ever factually know what was or were not discussed behind the closed doors of this preceding are the Grand Jurors themselves, the District Attorney and any witnesses which may have been called. [continues 784 words]
Dear Editor: I'm writing in support of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act. There will be public hearings on Dec. 15 by both the Assembly and Senate health committees. I strongly recommend that the bill be passed to the floor for debate and possible passage into law with the governor's signature. I am a paraplegic. With my particular condition, the pharmacy drugs I should take for muscle spasms and nerve pains would have killed me from kidney failure. Cannabis hemp has been the most effective agent in relieving both symptoms of this ailment. It has proven far safer than any pharmacological product or chemical preparations such as Marinol, which can cause death. [continues 78 words]
Whether originally destined for the United States or to be smoked in Kelowna's backyard, some 2,050 pounds of mary-jane wound its way into police lock-up in the last Kelowna Green Team exercise. It took seven officers five weeks to accomplish the task, which included arresting a medical marijuana provider who grossly exceeded her permit. "The permits are specific in the amount you are allowed to possess and grow," said Sgt. Ann Morrison. Permitted for 15 plants and caught with 67 extra, the officers confirmed the woman will face charges, along with the others arrested, as they executed the 21 warrants involved in this latest sweep. [continues 192 words]
