The Donkey Show

By Associated Press
Sunday, March 23, 2008 -
Rep. Barney Frank is defending a bill he plans to file this week decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, saying the federal law unfairly targets those using medical marijuana in California.

Frank, who filed a bill to decriminalize marijuana as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in the 1970s, said the decision whether to make possession of the drug illegal should be left up to the states.

He also said the federal government shouldn’t have a law on the books that is rarely enforced and which doesn’t make sense to large portions of the public.

“Do you really think people should be prosecuted for smoking marijuana? I don’t think most people agree with that. It’s one area where the public is ahead of the elected officials,” Frank said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It does not appear to me to be a law that society is serious about.”

Frank said he was particularly troubled by federal law enforcement agencies targeting those using marijuana as a legal medical treatment under California law.

“I don’t think smoking marijuana should be a federal case,” he said. “There’s no federal law against mugging.”

Marijuana use is illegal under U.S. law, which does not recognize the medical marijuana laws in California and 11 other states.

The Drug Enforcement Agency and other U.S. agencies have been shutting down major medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California in the last two years and charging their operators with felony distribution charges.

Frank first announced the bill on the HBO show “Real Time,” hosted by Bill Maher.

Frank’s comments come as pro-marijuana activists are pushing a ballot question that would decriminalize possession of an ounce or less of marijuana in Massachusetts.

Instead of facing a criminal record, those caught with a small amount of marijuana for personal use would instead pay a civil fine of $100 — much like a traffic ticket.

Supporters say the measure would save the state millions of dollars in law enforcement costs and spare thousands of state residents from the burden of a criminal record.

Critics, including the head of the anti-drug education group DARE-Massachusetts, say they oppose decriminalizing any amount of marijuana because it could send a signal to children that smoking pot is no big deal.

They say they while not everyone who smokes pot will end up shooting heroin, almost no heroin addicts begin with the more dangerous drug.

Activists pushing the initiative point to more than two dozen nonbinding referendum questions placed on local ballots in Massachusetts in the past six years. In each, a majority of voters supported the idea of decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana.

About a dozen states have already adopted similar laws.

Asked about the marijuana ballot initiative last December, Gov. Deval Patrick said he had to consult with his Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke and Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. JudyAnn Bigby before staking out a position.

“I think they are both skeptical,” he said at the time.

The ballot question isn’t the only effort under way to ease the state’s drug laws.

A bill working its way through the Statehouse would also decriminalize possession of an ounce or less of the drug, but set a higher fine of $250.

Forward to about 6 minutes in.

Tags: anti-drug education group, Barney Frank, Bill Maher, california, DARE, Deval Patrick, Drug Enforcement Agency, federal government, federal law, federal law enforcement agencies, Kevin Burke, law enforcement costs, massachusetts, Massachusetts Legislature, The Associated Press, USD

McCain Should Know The Truth About Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on October 06, 2007 at 08:51:31 PT
By Steve Chapman
Source: Chicago Tribune

USA — Through all his years in politics, despite the endless obligation to shake hands, smile for the cameras and coax money out of contributors, John McCain has somehow avoided becoming a complete phony—something that John Edwards and Mitt Romney managed to achieve within a week of entering politics. Annoy McCain, and you won’t have to wait long to find out.
Even a sickly, soft-spoken woman in a wheelchair gets no pass from him. The other day, at a meeting with voters in New Hampshire, Linda Macia mentioned her use of medical marijuana and politely asked his position on permitting it. Barely were the words out of her mouth before the Arizona senator spun on his heel, stalked away and heaped scorn on the idea.

“You may be one of the unique cases in America that only medical marijuana can relieve pain from,” he said, in a skeptical tone. “Every medical expert I know of, including the AMA (American Medical Association), says there are much more effective and much more, uh, better treatments for pain.” He also ridiculed the notion that police would arrest patients for using marijuana as medicine.

It’s refreshing that McCain is willing to state his position with such unvarnished candor. It would be even better if he knew what he was talking about.

Apparently he missed the news that federal agents recently raided the home of Leonard French, a paraplegic who had been authorized under New Mexico law to use cannabis for his condition. He now faces possible federal charges, not to mention that he was deprived of the medicine recommended by his doctor.

As for medical experts, McCain could easily find plenty who testify to the therapeutic value of pot. The American Academy of HIV Medicine says that “when appropriately prescribed and monitored, marijuana/cannabis can provide immeasurable benefits for the health and well-being of our patients.”

The New England Journal of Medicine has called the federal ban on medical marijuana “misguided, heavy-handed, and inhumane.” A 1999 report by the federal Institute of Medicine concluded, “Scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation.”

It’s true that actual arrests of patients are rare. But that’s often little consolation. Consider the case of Angel Raich, a California cancer victim whose marijuana was confiscated in a federal drug raid.

When she challenged the federal law, an appeals court ruled against her. But the court also had to acknowledge, “Raich’s physician presented uncontroverted evidence that Raich ‘cannot be without cannabis as medicine’ because she would quickly suffer ‘precipitous medical deterioration’ and ‘could very well die.’ ” Said the court, “All medical evidence in the record suggests that, if Raich were to stop using marijuana, the acute chronic pain and wasting disorders would immediatelyresume.”

But none of that mattered. In the end, the government and the courts gave Raich a choice: obey federal law, or risk jail by using the only treatment that helped her.

Bush administration officials often insist there are no definitive studies proving the curative powers of marijuana. What they omit is that the federal government has done everything in its power to prevent such research.

That effort has not entirely succeeded, though. Recently, the journal Neurology published the results of one clinical trial of HIV patients. It showed that pot “effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy,” with no adverse side effects.

The mystery is not why anyone believes cannabis can be safe and effective therapy. The mystery is why so many politicians, particularly Republican presidential candidates—Ron Paul, a physician, being the heroic exception—are unwilling to consider the possibility, or to leave the matter up to the states. It’s not even clear their hard-line stance is smart politics in their own party.

Wherever you look, public opinion supports medical marijuana. In Texas, a 2004 Scripps-Howard poll found that 75 percent of the people favor allowing it—including 67 percent of Republicans. Such red states as Alaska, Colorado, Montana and Nevada are among the 12 that have legalized medical marijuana.

This is not a dispute between Republican voters and Democratic voters. It’s a dispute between Republican politicians and everyone else.

What McCain ought to say is that he would rather ignore medical opinion, and inflict needless pain on people whose doctors say they could be helped by marijuana, than admit the federal ban is a mistake. Now that would be real candor.

Complete Title: McCain Should Know The Truth About Medical Marijuana

Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Author: Steve Chapman
Published: October 7, 2007
Copyright: 2007 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: ctc-TribLetter@Tribune.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Tags: Alaska, America, American Academy of HIV Medicine, American Medical Association, Angel Raich, Arizona, Bush Administration, california, Colorado, federal government, federal law, Institute of Medicine, John Edwards, John McCain, Leonard French, Linda Macia, Mitt Romney, Montana, Nevada, New England Journal, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ron Paul, Steve Chapman Source, Texas

Potheads Help To Build a Better America

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Potheads Help To Build a Better America
Posted by CN Staff on October 02, 2007 at 06:51:07 PT
By Jeff Ackerman
Source: Union

California — So one guy is dead and another is in a hospital with bullet holes after a reported weekend shoot-out near North San Juan over some pot. You know … the green, leafy substance one out of every 10 doctors says will ease your pain faster than a pill-popping Rush Limbaugh could shout, “Liberal Potheads!”
Enough of the reefer madness already. I know a friend-of-a-friend’s-friend who smoked pot once or a thousand times, and he never once put a cat in a microwave or shot heroin into his big toe.

In fact, the only way you’d ever know he enjoys his pot is if you looked in his pantry and saw the 1,000 packs of Oreos and 500 jars of Costco jumbo peanut butter.

My pot-smoking (sometimes he eats it with milk and cookies) friend-of-a-friend’s-friend doesn’t look like someone the FBI would bother pursuing.

Not with Osama bin Laden still on the loose and federal agents still wondering what happened to the guy who jumped out of a jet plane with millions of dollars and a parachute. The pothead I know is semi-retired, has snow-white hair and goes to bed by 9 p.m., mostly, I suspect, because he eats too much pot and gets tired.

Just so you know, there is a BIG difference between pot and … say … crank. All you need do is compare the user profiles.

A typical pothead is generally:

1. Mellow.
2. Not an early riser.
3. Casual dresser (buttons can be problematic).
4. Romantic (hence the late mornings).
5. Weight-challenged (there is no Oreo/peanutbutter diet).

A typical crankhead, by comparison, is generally:

1. Hyper (they can vacuum an entire block in one hour).
2. An early riser (mostly because they never sleep in the first place).
3. Romantic (at least until their teeth fall out).
4. Casual dresser (they eventually sell their wardrobe to pay for the crank).
5. Weight-challenged (they sell all of their Oreos and Peanutbutter to the potheads and get very skinny).

And before any of you start suggesting that a pothead eventually becomes a crankhead, stop. It’s not true. Lots of potheads have never tried crank and lots of crankheads have never tried pot. The government wants us to believe that because it allows them to continue to trade pot for oil. That’s right, Americans.

My friend’s-friend’s-friend says he heard about the government plot from a guy he buys Oreos from at WalMart. He says that all that pot the DEA guys take from the farms around North San Juan goes straight to Washington, D.C., where they grind it up into a boatload of brownies and ship it to Saudi in exchange for a few barrels of oil. As you know, it’s hard to grow pot in the desert, even with all the heat, and those sheiks like to kick back on those giant floor pillows listening to Michael Jackson’s greatest hits.

How else can you possibly explain why the federal government keeps putting heat on the potheads and their crops that could, if taxed properly, fund parks, roads, schools and a gigantic crankhead rehab center? That’s right, Americans, potheads helping crankheads, in cooperation with the FBI and Internal Revenue Service.

And if we can finally decriminalize pot we won’t need to keep building prisons to house potheads and their suppliers. Last time I checked, they were stacking inmates six high at San Quentin and paying the guards $100,000 per year, with medical benefits and an unlimited supply of rubber gloves.

According to one estimate, the state spends $160 million per year to arrest, prosecute and imprison marijuana offenders. Our prisons house around 173,000 people today, and seven of every 10 of them we release eventually wind up behind bars again. Yet the state is about to spend another $7 billion or so to build new prisons and add new beds. This at a time when our schools could use some money and our medical-care costs are out of reach for many families. What’s wrong with this picture?

They also estimate that taxes from pot sales could generate as much as $3 billion per year.

“Yes … but won’t that lead to more pot use?” you ask once again. I don’t think so. Why would every single Californian start smoking pot when they have pain pills, booze and Viagra? Besides, half the fun is breaking the law.

One thing I’m fairly certain of is this: If pot were legal today, one guy would probably still be alive and another would probably not be in a hospital with bullet holes in his skin.

Jeff Ackerman is the publisher of The Union. His column appears on Tuesdays.

Source: Union, The (Grass Valley, CA)
Author: Jeff Ackerman
Published: October 2, 2007
Copyright: 2007 The Union
Contact: letters@theunion.com
Website: http://www.theunion.com/

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Tags: california, Costco, DC, Federal Bureau of Investigation, federal government, Internal Revenue Service, Jeff Ackerman Source, Jeff Ackerman, Michael Jackson, microwave, oil, Oreos, Osama bin Laden, rubber gloves, San Juan, USD, Washington