It's certainly not the most common building material, but advocates of "hempcrete" are saying it makes plenty of sense for environmentally conscious homeowners. This substance, also known by the registered name of Hemcrete, is a bio-composite material. American Lime Technology, a joint venture of the Chicago-based U.S. Heritage Group Inc. and UK-based Lime Technology Ltd., says the material is made by combining the woody core of the industrial hemp plant, or "shiv," with a lime-based binder. The shiv has a high silica content, allowing it to bind well with the lime. [continues 472 words]
Boston - ( AP) Eleven medical marijuana dispensaries were cleared by state public health officials on Friday to move forward, but nine others that had initially been given the green light were rejected after a further state review. A company led by former U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, Medical Marijuana of Massachusetts Inc., and Good Chemistry of Massachusetts Inc., which had received provisional approval for dispensaries in Boston and Worcester, were among the firms turned aside. A law approved by state voters in 2012 allows for up to 35 outlets to sell marijuana to patients suffering from conditions including cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. But implementation of the law has sputtered, and no dispensaries have yet been licensed. [end]
Where Pot Has Been Legalized, Group Warns of Tactics Formerly Used by Big Tobacco New London - Calling on his audience to help "stop the next public health crisis from happening," Kevin Sabet, former senior drug policy adviser to the White House, said corporate interests are funding the push for legalization of marijuana, and that public misinformation and the assumption that there's no stopping the momentum for legalizing pot are playing into the quest by "Big Marijuana" to reap huge profits from this new market. [continues 1012 words]
In the last chapter, I covered how not to get high. In this one, I will cover how to get high. After my admission that I did a foolish thing in Denver-failing to realize that consuming a single square, about a quarter, of a pot candy bar was dicey for an edibles virgin - many in the pot industry upbraided me for doing a foolish thing. But some in Mary Jane world have contacted me to say that my dysphoria (i.e., bummer) is happening more and more in Colorado. [continues 790 words]
New London - Ledge Light Health District and seven substance abuse prevention coalitions throughout Connecticut will present, "Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths about Marijuana with Dr. Kevin Sabet," from 9 to 11 a.m. June 17. The forum will take place in the 1941 Room in the College Center at Crozier Williams at Connecticut College. The purpose is to inform state and local policymakers about this important public health issue. Sabet will discuss marijuana's impact on youth, the importance of preventing another "Big Tobacco," legal reform, as well as the latest data and experiences from Colorado and Washington. He is the co-founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana and past senior advisory for policy to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He started the movement to educate the community on medical marijuana and he is concerned with the national trend toward legalization. State and local policy makers are invited. Ledge Light is the public health agency that serves East Lyme, Groton, Ledyard, New London and Waterford. [end]
Marijuana Laws Loosened in State Five Months Ago Denver - Five months after Colorado became the first state to allow recreational marijuana sales, the battle over legalization is still raging. Law enforcement officers in Colorado and neighboring states, emergency room doctors and legalization opponents increasingly are highlighting a series of recent problems as cautionary lessons for other states flirting with loosening marijuana laws. There is the Denver man who, hours after buying a package of marijuana-infused Karma Kandy from one of Colorado's new recreational marijuana shops, began raving about the end of the world and then pulled a handgun from the family safe and killed his wife, the authorities say. Some hospital officials say they are treating growing numbers of children and adults sickened by potent doses of edible marijuana. Sheriffs in neighboring states complain about stoned drivers streaming out of Colorado and through their towns. [continues 860 words]
Marijuana use is again highlighted in the news via a report from the University of New Hampshire. Dr. Hans Brietner reports that teenagers who smoke marijuana once or twice per week can incur a lasting ill effect on their brains. He states that it affects motivation, emotion, causes apathy and lack of focus. I checked this assertion out by asking a prominent PhD friend from a nearby state and he confirmed he tried marijuana once and said "it left him nutty feeling for days." Brain experts say this new medical finding should be closely watched. [continues 94 words]
Addiction in Region Is Worse Than Ever, They Say After more than 20 years in psychiatry, Dr. Rajesh Parekh is witnessing a new and disturbing trend among patients who come for help with drug addiction. "Twenty years ago I would see an adolescent a few times a year," said Parekh, attending psychiatrist at the Care Plus outpatient program in Groton, part of Natchaug Hospital. "Now it's a few times a month." The reason? Too many teenagers are abusing prescription opiate painkillers like Percocet, getting addicted, then turning to heroin. [continues 729 words]
Painkiller Abusers Find a Cheap Option to Help Them Cope, Often With Lethal Consequences Just 10 years ago, heroin made up a small fraction of the drug-related arrests in Norwich. These days, Detective Lt. Mark Rankowitz and fellow officers can recite any number of stories about the drug's ever-increasing impact. There is the star high school athlete with national aspirations who injured her knee and became addicted to prescription painkillers before turning to the cheaper and more widely available alternative - heroin. [continues 1981 words]
Albany, N. Y. (AP) - New York is inching toward legalizing some form of medical marijuana as support grows in the state Legislature and is likely to become one of a handful of issues taken up when lawmakers return later this month. But it remains unclear where the drug would come from for either Gov. Andrew Cuomo's limited research program or broader, legalized use under a proposed medical marijuana bill. Marijuana for clinical trials comes from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has a contract with the University of Mississippi to grow marijuana for studies, a Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said. [continues 144 words]
Los Angeles - California voters strongly favor legalizing marijuana. The state Democratic Party adopted a platform last month urging California to follow Colorado and Washington in ending marijuana prohibition. The state's lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom, has called for legalizing the drug. But not Gov. Jerry Brown. "I think we ought to kind of watch and see how things go in Colorado," Brown, a Democrat, said curtly when asked the question as he was presenting his state budget this year. At a time of rapidly evolving attitudes toward marijuana legalization - - a slight majority of Americans now support legalizing the drug - Democratic governors across the country, Brown among them, find themselves uncomfortably at odds with their own base. [continues 796 words]
"Some feel it's not an appropriate issue for an election year, and others want to wait and see what happens in Colorado. But a lot of other people are very anxious to take the revenue part of this very seriously." A little over a year after Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana, more than half the states, including some in the conservative South, are considering decriminalizing the drug or legalizing it for medical or recreational use. That has set up a watershed year in the battle over whether marijuana should be as acceptable as alcohol. [continues 849 words]
White House Clears Way, but Financial Officials Are Hesitant Washington (AP) - The Obama administration on Friday gave banks a road map for conducting transactions with legal marijuana sellers so these new businesses can stash away savings, make payroll and pay taxes like any other enterprise. It's not clear banks will get on board. Guidance issued by the Justice and Treasury departments is the latest step by the federal government toward enabling a legalized marijuana industry to operate in states that approve it. The intent is to make banks feel more comfortable working with marijuana businesses that are licensed and regulated. [continues 887 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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
First U.S. State to Permit Recreational Purchases Will Be a Testing Ground Denver- A gleaming white Apple store of weed is how Andy Williams sees his new Denver marijuana dispensary. Two floors of pot-growing rooms will have windows showing the shopping public howthe mind-altering plant is grown. Shoppers will be able to peruse drying marijuana buds and see pot trimmers at work separating the valuable flowers from the less-prized stems and leaves. "It's going to be all white and beautiful," the 45- year old ex- industrial engineer explains, excitedly gesturing around what just a few weeks ago was an empty warehouse space that will eventually house 40,000 square feet of cannabis strains. [continues 1167 words]
"Measures to legalize marijuana win approval," (Nov. 7), tells us, "In Colorado, voters backed a heavy tax on recreational marijuana that was made legal here last year," giving a whole new meaning to the term "Rocky Mountain High." Similar to same-sex marriage, these are issues that have been held back too long, whose time has come, with marijuana legalization a plausible way for state governments to close budget gaps, capturing some of the revenue that would otherwise flow underground to the shadow economy. The 21st Amendment abandoned total prohibition of alcohol in 1933 when the government finally chose to tax questionable habits rather than forbid them. Recreational or medicinal, bringing marijuana out from the shadows is past due, recognizing that legislating undesirable habits is an inferior way to confront a potential positive in terms of control and revenue generation. Jay Lustgarten Stonington [end]
Regarding Dave Collins' Oct. 13 column, "Medical marijuana a growth industry," not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children. Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. [continues 69 words]
Here is a short list of things that, according to Gallup, are less popular with Americans than the idea of legalizing pot: Congress; the U. S. Supreme Court; the president. In a sweeping cultural shift, comparable perhaps to Americans' quickening support of same-sex marriage, a majority of Americans now favor legalizing marijuana use, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. The survey showed that 58 percent of 1,028 respondents supported legalization, with 39 percent against. That's a drop for the naysayers from three years ago, when 50 percent of respondents opposed legalization - a number already riding a long plummet from a high of 73 percent in the 1990s. [continues 105 words]
I might say at the outset that I can be counted out if people around here develop a Not in My Backyard mindset in regards to medical marijuana. I am fine with it if someone wants to set up a growing facility in my neighborhood for medical marijuana. After all, by license from the state, the facility must be indoors, in a secure facility and can't be too close to schools or churches. It has to be run by creditworthy people of good character, who will have to undergo background checks. [continues 572 words]
Connecticut has devised a sensible policy for the use of medical marijuana, and it's time for federal law to fall in line with state attitudes. Connecticut is pursuing a measured and prudent approach to the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. The process continued this week when the General Assembly's Regulations Review Committee approved the rules covering production, dispensing and the purchasing of medical marijuana. Connecticut is putting safeguards in place to prevent the loosely regulated approach seen in other states, California among them, which comes close to de facto legalization. In California doctors have been able to prescribe pot to treat most anything and its 2,100 dispensaries face little control in the way they do business or obtain the drug. [continues 293 words]
Legislative Panel Oks Rules on Sale for Medical Use Hartford- The General Assembly's Regulations Review Committee approved regulations Tuesday covering who produces, dispenses and purchases medical marijuana. Shouts and cheers rose from the audience as Sen. Andres Ayala, D-Bridgeport, announced that the regulations had been approved after a voice vote. Tracey Gamer- Fanning of West Hartford, who suffers from brain cancer and turned 43 Tuesday, said this was the best birthday present ever. "I am not a criminal. I have a card that says I am allowed to use medical marijuana and I have wanted people to understand what this meant," Gamer-Fanning said. She said she is a mom and had a career and never thought she would get brain cancer at age 36. [continues 904 words]
Hartford ( AP) - A special legislative committee must decide on Tuesday whether to approve proposed regulations that spell out the details of Connecticut's medical marijuana program. The General Assembly's Regulation Review Committee is scheduled to vote on the wide-ranging regulations, which include the quantity of active ingredients in a product, background checks for caregivers of patients and other rules. Lawmakers passed legislation in 2012 that created the medical marijuana program. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy then signed it into law. [continues 211 words]
I appreciate The Day for publishing the thoughtful editorial from the Seattle Times: "Easing the drug war" (Aug. 17). I submit that there should no punishment at all for any so-called drug crime. In a drug transaction, there are willing buyers and willing sellers. Presumably, both will walk away happy unless one or both are arrested. Our government cannot protect adult citizens from themselves, and our government shouldn't attempt to do so. A so-called free country should be a truly free country with adult citizens taking responsibility for their own behavior, whether it is wise or foolish. Of course, the drug war cheerleaders will claim that legalizing our now illegal drugs will be giving into the drug dealers and drug lords. When we re-legalized alcohol in 1933 did we give into the alcohol cartels? No. We put them out of business. [continues 64 words]
This is in response to the guest editorial, "Easing The Drug War," (Aug. 17). The drug war is part of the problem. Illegal drug users are reluctant to seek medical attention in the event of an overdose for fear of being charged with a crime. Attempting to save the life of a friend could result in a murder charge. Overzealous drug war enforcement results in preventable deaths. Rehabilitation is confounded. It's safe to say that turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would be rather low if alcoholism were a crime pursued with zero-tolerance zeal. Eliminating the penalties associated with illicit drug use would encourage the type of honest discussion necessary to facilitate rehabilitation and save lives. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, DC [end]
Denver (AP) - Want to be in the legal pot industry in Colorado? Open your checkbook. Colorado's pot regulators opened three days of hearings Tuesday to lay out licensing specifics before retail sales begin in January. The proposed rules require would-be "ganjapreneurs" to pay up to $5,000 just to apply to be in the recreational pot business. Operational licenses cost another $2,750 to $14,000. Successful applicants must also pass a gauntlet of criminal background checks and residency requirements. [continues 363 words]
Attorney General Eric Holder's speech to the American Bar Association in San Francisco was a bit like hearing from a stockbroker after trading has closed. "Well, of course the market went down." Well, of course the United States needs to rethink drug laws and enforcement. Decades after America righteously declared a zero-tolerance policy toward all drug crimes and nonviolent crimes involving drugs, Holder and others want to stop the abuses. Seize the belated insights whenever they come along. Support for being "Smart on Crime," in the AG's words, is aimed at undoing laws that maintain "a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration" that "traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities." [continues 239 words]
(AP) - Middletown's Common Council has approved the use of a city-owned building for growing medical marijuana. The Middletown Press reports the council voted 6-3 Monday, with one abstention, to allow Greenbelt Management to lease space on the second floor of the 15,000-square foot building on Johnson Street for its factory. The move comes two weeks after West Haven officials approved plans for a similar facility with a different grower in that town. A year ago Connecticut adopted legislation to allow medical marijuana, and regulations are still being drafted. The Department of Consumer Protection has said it plans to certify between three and 10 secured marijuana growing facilities. Growers must pay a $25,000 licensing fee. [end]
Marders' Attorney Says Government Action 'Excessive' Waterford- Seth and Beth Marder are looking for a new place to live nowthat a federal judge has affirmed the government's intention to seize the couple's colonial-style home at 5 Reynolds Lane, where they were cultivating marijuana, they say, for their own medicinal use. "The War on Drugs is a joke," said Seth Marder, 51, who suffers from mental and physical health conditions and claims marijuana is the only drug that makes him feel right. [continues 913 words]
Washington - It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of "Reefer Madness" to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of "Just Say No." The next 25 years took the nation from Bill Clinton, who famously "didn't inhale," to Barack Obama, who most emphatically did. Now, in just a few short years, public opinion has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug-for medical use and just for fun. [continues 1172 words]
It's a new chapter in the War on Drugs. Police, courts and the state forensic laboratory say they are dealing with more cases involving synthetic cannabinoids and other designer drugs since the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection passed regulations banning fake marijuana, bath salts and salvia last year. The case of Souhail S. Elkhoury, owner of Corey's Petroleum convenience stores in Groton and East Lyme, is one of the first synthetic marijuana cases on the New London Superior Court's major crime docket. [continues 1300 words]
Providence- Rhode Island is reducing the penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana and preparing to open its first medical pot dispensaries as states around the nation reassess their stance on the country's most popular illicit drug. A new law decriminalizing the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana will take effect Monday. Instead of the threat of jail time or a $500 fine, those caught with marijuana will receive a $150 civil fine. The offender will have to forfeit the marijuana and appear in traffic court, but the incident won't appear on their criminal records. [continues 326 words]
Providence ( AP) - State lawmakers this week will review legislation to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana and other proposals that would crack down on some lesser known substances. The legalization bill would allow those 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, and would impose alcohol-style regulations and taxes on the sale of the drug. The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Edith Ajello, D- Providence, argues that society's views on recreational marijuana use are changing and that prohibition has failed to keep the drug out of the hands of minors. [continues 141 words]
As states move toward legalization, Congress sees commercial pot and hemp as a high potential tax source. Seattle- An effort is building in Congress to change U.S. marijuana laws, including moves to legalize the industrial production of hemp and establish a hefty federal pot tax. While pass a get his year could be a long shot, lawmakers from both parties have been quietly working on several bills, the first of which Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jared Polis of Colorado plan to introduce Tuesday, Blumenauer told The Associated Press. [continues 614 words]
New London - A city couple want the return of more than $10,000 in cash that police seized during a drug raid in November 2012 that yielded no illegal narcotics. Prosecutor Paul J. Narducci is attempting to prove the cash seized from Catrice Williams and Tyrone Santiago, who are both in their late 20s and have prior drug convictions, is the proceeds of drug transactions and is therefore subject to forfeiture. Williams and Santiago are exercising their right to an asset forfeiture hearing, which is a civil court proceeding at which the state must present clear and convincing evidence that the money was derived from drug sales. [continues 290 words]
But Distribution System Still Needs to Be Worked Out Connecticut on Monday became the 17th state to legalize marijuana for medical use, but patients with any of the 11 conditions allowed to use it under the new law won't get state-sanctioned access to the drug for at least several more months. William Rubenstein, commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection, said Monday that a system for supply and distribution won't be set up until sometime next year. [continues 696 words]
Montevideo, Uruguay - The government in Uruguay may soon get its hands dirty with marijuana as part of a rising movement in Latin American nations to create alternatives to the U. S.- led war on drugs. Uruguay President Jose Mujica first called for "regulated and controlled legalization of marijuana" in a security plan unveiled last month. U.N. officials say no other country has seriously considered creating a completely legal state-managed monopoly for marijuana or any other substance prohibited by the 1961 U. N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. [continues 365 words]
Hartford - As anticipated, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday signed into law a bill that legalizes medical marijuana starting Oct. 1 for adult patients who suffer from certain debilitating conditions. The state Department of Consumer Protection will oversee the new, strict regulatory framework for dispensing the drug. Qualified patients must obtain a doctor's prescription for a one-month supply of marijuana. Only licensed pharmacists can give it out from a set number of approved "dispensaries," and only licensed, in-state producers can grow the weed. [continues 171 words]
For years, advocates for the legalization of medical marijuana - many of them individuals suffering from various health problems - have appeared before legislative committees. Their stories were the same - only the use of marijuana provided relief from their debilitating conditions without the unbearable side effects of prescribed drugs. It is good to see a majority of lawmakers have listened to them, approving a bill that will make Connecticut the 17th state to legalize marijuana as a palliative for the chronically ill. Unlike his predecessor, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who vetoed a medical marijuana bill in 2007, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy plans to sign the measure into law. [continues 433 words]
Providence (AP)- Legislation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Rhode Island is heading to a hearing in the state Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hear from both sides of the legalization debate Tuesday at the Statehouse. The proposal would lift the ban on possessing marijuana for anyone over the age of 21 and impose taxes and fees on the production and sale of marijuana. The committee also plans to review legislation to decriminalize marijuana. That proposal would replace criminal penalties for the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a $150 fine. Similar legislation is pending in the House. The proposals were also introduced last year but did not receive a vote. [end]
It would be foolish and arguably inhumane to discount the steady stream of witnesses who come before the Connecticut legislature every year and testify, at some legal risk, that for them only the use of marijuana provides relief from various debilitating diseases without the unbearable side effects of medically prescribed drugs. The Connecticut State Medical Society sees things differently. It continues to oppose state legalization for medical use. This naturally-growing plant lacks the research and federal approval that pharmaceutical-company drugs receive only after extensive clinical trials to determine efficacy and side effects. Marijuana does not have, in medical verbiage, "a reliable and reproducible dose." [continues 291 words]
New London - The city fired a police officer Friday for his role in the beating of a man outside of a drug and alcohol detoxification center and placed another officer on administrative leave while allegations that he planted drugs during an arrest are investigated. Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said Officer Joshua Bergeson was fired following an administrative hearing Friday afternoon to review his role in the Dec. 14 beating of Reuben Miller outside the Southeastern Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency facility on Coit Street. [continues 932 words]
Tobacco Down, But Officials See Upward Trend For Marijuana Ledyard - Results from the 2011 youth drug and alcohol survey, which show that tobacco use among the town's seventh-through 12th-graders is down but alcohol and marijuana use is trending upward, were presented to members of the Board of Education last week. "The survey asks some really good questions about alcohol, drugs and tobacco use and gives us a baseline to determine if there are any trends of concern," Superintendent of Schools Michael Graner said Wednesday. "Overall, tobacco use is way down which is a good thing, but the two areas of concern that I know the youth survey has looked at throughout the region are marijuana use and alcohol use." [continues 513 words]
This is in response to the Dec. 16 letter, "Mayor's drug attitude sends wrong message," concerning Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio's policies on marijuana use. Our government, backed by the DuPont Paper Company, engaged in a campaign of misinformation and blatant lies in the 1920s to sway public opinion towards marijuana prohibition. We were told smoking it makes people violent, causes massive surges in crime, and is a gateway to harder, more harmful drugs. Not only is all of this untrue, the gateway theory has been thoroughly disproved. The crime associated with marijuana use is a direct result of it being illegal, and users being forced to obtain it on the black market. I am not saying, however, that using marijuana will not cause you to use other drugs. But, in the grand scheme, alcohol and tobacco are infinitely more dangerous and harmful than marijuana, and cause tens of thousands of deaths a year, while marijuana use has never been solely attributed to a single death. [continues 52 words]
House follows Senate in backing decriminalization Hartford - Connecticut is set to become the 14th state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana after a bill to downgrade the penalties cleared the state House Tuesday on a 90-57 vote. The measure passed the Senate Saturday, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said he will sign it into law. The bill does not affect the legality of marijuana, which remains illegal for nonmedical use in all 50 states. The bill reduces the penalty for possessing less than a half-ounce of marijuana from a crime with a potential prison sentence to a $150 violation on the first offense. Second and subsequent offenses carry a $200-$500 fine, and third-time offenders must enroll in a drug education program at their own expense. [continues 786 words]
Hartford - A bill that would decriminalize but not legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana passed the state Senate Saturday afternoon by the thinnest of margins and is headed to the House. Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, a Democrat, broke an 18-18 vote tie. The bill sets a $150 fine for a first offense of possessing a half-ounce or less of marijuana. Second-time offenders would be fined between $200 and $500 and required to enroll in a drug education program at their own expense. [continues 106 words]
The editorial titled "Victimless crime? Tell that to Cordova family," published Dec. 27, made the common mistake of confusing drug-related crime with prohibition-related crime. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs, while demand remains constant, only increases the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs such as heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin. While U.S. politicians ignore the drug war's historical precedent, European countries are embracing harm reduction, a public health alternative based on the principle that both drug abuse and prohibition potentially cause harm. [continues 91 words]
