Warns of 'Next Tobacco Industry' HARTFORD - A national anti-marijuana organization announced Monday it would join forces with a state group, and warned legalization efforts are poised to create a public health crisis in the form of the "next Big Tobacco." Smart Approaches to Marijuana, founded in January 2013 by former U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, D-R.I., and Kevin A. Sabet, a former White House policy adviser, announced at a press conference it would work with the Connecticut Association of Prevention Practitioners. [continues 496 words]
Given the Food and Drug Administration's job to safeguard society, it needs to say something about the marketing of marijuana for "medical" and "recreational" use. Inhalation of burning marijuana subjects the user to essentially intravenous doses of unknown quantities of mixtures of unknown purity; potent agents with diverse pharmacologic effects. I say intravenous because the materialis drawn into the deepest passages of the lungs, the alveoli, highly vascularized small sacs which allow the easy rapid transfer of oxygen into the blood. [continues 148 words]
Twenty states plus the District of Columbia now allow sales of medicinal marijuana, allowing pot prescriptions to treat pretty much any malady, from a headache to a hangnail. Why should Holder decide which federal statutes to enforce and which to ignore? Colorado and Washington have legalized the drug for recreational use, too. Yet federal law still prohibits the possession, use and sale of marijuana for any reason. This dichotomy explains why some banks are reluctant to accept the large amounts of cash that pot purveyors generate - even if the cash is legal under state law. [continues 322 words]
Twenty states plus the District of Columbia now allow sales of medicinal marijuana, allowing pot prescriptions to treat pretty much any malady, from a headache to a hangnail. Colorado and Washington have legalized the drug for recreational use, too. Yet federal law still prohibits the possession, use and sale of marijuana for any reason. This dichotomy explains why some banks are reluctant to accept the large amounts of cash that pot purveyors generate - even if the cash is legal under state law. [continues 436 words]
Portland Owners Putting Emphasis on Research PORTLAND - An East Hampton witch hazel distiller and a Northford organic farmer will join industry experts from across the country to build one of the first four medical marijuana production facilities in the state. The state Department of Consumer Protection last week announced that Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions, LLC, will receive one of four licenses to become a medical marijuana producer. Thomas Schultz, the president of CPS and vice president of East Hampton-based American Distilling, said the prospector will set up shop at 47 Main St. in Portland, a piece of private land zoned for manufacturing. [continues 567 words]
Towns are grappling with the decision last year to legalize the manufacture and sale of medical marijuana. Change can be difficult for Connecticut's 169 municipalities. It's especially challenging for local planning and zoning commissions to wade into uncharted waters. And nothing is more uncharted than a medical marijuana dispensary. Towns are grappling with the General Assembly's decision last year to legalize the manufacture and sale of medical marijuana. To say that towns are unprepared to regulate such enterprises is quite an understatement. Since there was never any need to address them, marijuana dispensaries have gone unmentioned in local zoning codes for as long as zoning has been around. [continues 638 words]
Regarding Alejandro Hope's op-ed, "Legal marijuana won't bring peace to Mexico," (Jan. 26), if the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize Mexican drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. This country can no longer afford to subsidize the prejudices of culture warriors. Not just in Washington and Colorado but throughout the nation, it's time to stop the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana. Robert Sharpe Editor's note: The writer is a policy analyst for the organization Common Sense for Drug Policy. [end]
Malloy: Facilities to Bring 100 Jobs; West Haven, Portland, Simsbury, Watertown Selected WESTHAVEN - State officials Tuesday announced the sites of four medical marijuana-growing facilities, which they say will serve patients who cannot find relief from other treatments. The companies picked were Advanced Grow Labs in West Haven; Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions in Portland; Curaleaf in Simsbury; and Theraplant in Watertown. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner William Rubenstein made the announcement Tuesday morning. They said the next step would be to license possibly five dispensaries, which would be located separately from the growing sites, and that medical marijuana would be available for patients by this summer. [continues 645 words]
Since Jan. 1, Colorado has had a legal marijuana market. The same will soon be true in Washington State, once retail licenses are issued. Other states, such as California and Oregon, will likely follow suit over the next three years. So does this creeping legalization of marijuana in the United States spell doom for the Mexican drug cartels? Not quite. The illegal marijuana trade provides Mexican organized crime with about $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year. That's not chump change, but according to a number of estimates, it represents no more than a third of gross drug export revenue. Cocaine is still the cartels' biggest money-maker and the revenue accruing from heroin and methamphetamine aren't trivial. Moreover, Mexican gangs also obtain income from extortion, kidnapping, theft and various other types of illegal trafficking. [continues 498 words]
Marijuana was legal in Connecticut until the 1930s, its fall from favor less attributable to health concerns than suppressing bootleg and legal liquor sales. Marijuana is no more a "gateway drug" than abused prescriptions, alcohol, nicotine and a long lists of other chemical cravings, including caffeine. Caveats for legalized marijuana should involve the same restrictions imposed on alcohol, Oxycontin and Vicodin -- don't operate machinery, perform brain surgery, or drive a car. Aside from impaired judgment, statistics suggest occasional, smokeless marijuana use is significantly healthier than chronic consumption of animal fats, processed meats and derivative byproducts. Marijuana alleviates glaucoma, mellows demeanors and boosts "munchies," Jimi Hendrix and strobe light sales -- not diabetes, cancers, heart disease and hypertension. [continues 268 words]
President Obama got it just about right when asked recently about marijuana and its use, saying "I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol," and that it is also "a bad idea, a waste of time." Having "been there and done that" myself, I can strongly second the president's opinions, although I would add "colossal" to "waste of time." Like alcohol, marijuana can be detrimental, and dangerous, particularly if it is ill-used by young people. Equally, as the president also says, "let's be clear." Marijuana can be an innocent recreation, open interesting psycho-active parts of our brain and consciousness, and it can also be a soul-sucking source of addiction, dissolution and stupidity. It is all about how, and who is using it, and how much. Does it belong, as the DEA now classifies it, in the same category as heroin, LSD or ecstasy? No. Can it be dangerous? Absolutely. [continues 574 words]
Parents who have convinced their children that alcohol and tobacco are bad for them are likely struggling next with how to talk with their teens about marijuana - especially as it has become legal for adults to use recreationally in Colorado. The perceptions many teens - and often, their parents - have about pot are not only wrong, they can be dangerous, say medical and treatment professionals. An ongoing study of the behaviors and attitudes of teens and young adults has found that while teens aren't necessarily reporting higher use of marijuana, they're less likely to consider it "risky." The 2013 Monitoring the Future survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that from 2005 to 2013, the percentage of high school students seeing great risk from being a regular marijuana user has fallen among eighthgraders from 74 percent to 61 percent, and among 12th-graders from 58 percent to 40 percent. This concerns members of the medical community who say that pot is bad for developing brains. [continues 1139 words]
Hope and change are yesterday's buzz words. Today, Democrats are turning straight to drugs to generate buzz. "Legalization of marijuana is going to become an issue," said veteran Democratic strategist Tad Devine. "I believe it's an issue that will absolutely activate a voter base, of young people in particular." Maybe it will energize the party's liberal base-if those voters aren't too stoned to get to the polls. But whether it's aimed at the 2014 midterm elections, or at 2016, there's something desperate-looking about the Democrats' latest smoke signals. [continues 600 words]
It seemed like a good idea at the time: The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 allowed Californians to use marijuana with a doctor's permission to alleviate pain. The act was put on the ballot and California voters passed it 56% to 44%, making California the first state to legalize weed for medicinal reasons. Almost immediately, thousands of pot "clinics" opened across the Golden State. In San Francisco, things got so out of control that then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, a very liberal guy, had to shutter many of the "clinics" because drug addicts were clustering around them, causing fear among city residents. [continues 476 words]
Stiffer Penalties for Those With Drugs Within 1,500 Feet of a School, Day Care Center or Public Housing Unfairly Targets Those in Urban Areas, Where Spaces Are Far Tighter Than in the Suburbs. Back in the 1980s, many state legislatures passed laws establishing "drug free" zones around schools on the theory they would protect children from being preyed upon by people selling marijuana, heroin and cocaine. It seemed like a good idea at the time but then facts intervened and the drug free law turned out to be nothing more than a "feel good" action that provided the illusion of fighting the war on drugs without actually accomplishing much beyond filling prisons. [continues 685 words]
Letter to the editor I was happy to read that the Connecticut Sentencing Commission unanimously recommended shrinking drug-free zones from 1,500 to 200 feet from public school property [Dec. 20, Page 1, "Drug-Free School Zones Could Shrink"]. When I was student body president at UConn, I saw the impact of our current laws first-hand. Since E.O. Smith High School is right next to campus, its drug-free zone includes many UConn dorms and apartments. If caught with drugs, the more than 2,700 students living in the zone were at risk of astronomically higher penalties than their peers living right across the street. [continues 132 words]
Protective Zones Around Schools Raise Questions Do crime-free zones around schools and other places where children gather actually protect children? The question will be aired in the next session of the General Assembly because of two proposals, one that seeks to reduce the size of drug-free zones around schools and another that would create zones around schools where sex offenders couldn't live. The Connecticut Sentencing Commission has unanimously approved a recommendation to scale back the state's drug-free zone from 1,500 feet to 200 feet of school property. Meanwhile, two legislators are proposing a bill that would prohibit registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school or day-care center. [continues 554 words]
Letter to the editor I think it's a good idea to give drug users and their suppliers a break and allow them to do their thing closer to schools [Dec. 20, Page 1, "Drug-Free School Zones Could Shrink"]. Let's face it, these fine men and women of our society have been cheated out of selling their drugs closer to school properties. Plus, do you have any idea how much money in drug revenues has been lost due to these restrictions? I agree with the scholars, let's scale back these restrictions. It's not fair to these people. Why give them more jail time for something so stupid like selling crack and herion so close to a school? John N. Michaels, Newington [end]
Inside Connecticut
