TheBongPlace: The Marijuana Blog

As California faces a $1 billion budget shortfall, the marijuana industry offers a commonsense solution to the state’s fiscal problems:

August 6 — A coalition of California marijuana growers and dealers has offered Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger one billion dollars to solve the current state budget crisis. The group, calling itself Let Us Pay Taxes makes the offer through its web site LetUsPayTaxes.com. The offer comes at a time when the California legislature is deadlocked on a new budget and California has stopped issuing checks for vitally needed social services. Legislators are currently arguing over which programs will be cut in order to balance the budget. [link]

This effort is the brainchild of drug policy expert/activist Cliff Shaffer, who has hit the nail square on its head. The failure of prohibitionists to grasp the inherent economic lunacy of the drug war has always been particularly startling to me. I grudgingly accept that drug war supporters feel no sympathy for the victims of harsh laws, and even that they clumsily attribute the harmful effects of prohibition to the drugs themselves. Yet, tragic and irrational as these beliefs may be, they do not explain the willingness of government to cast aside billions in taxable commerce.

Marijuana is, after all, the #1 cash crop in the nation. This fact cleanly illustrates the failure of prohibition, while vividly depicting the massive windfall available to any state with the wisdom to pursue regulation. And all this is to say nothing of the incalculable value of discontinuing our current marijuana policy, which is as wasteful and ineffective as can be.

Gov. Schwarzenegger is unlikely to be impressed with this offer, unfortunately, having vetoed California’s hemp bill over concerns regarding conflict with federal law. Yet, as Shaffer points out, there is truly nothing the DEA can do to prevent state level regulation of marijuana. The vastly smaller medical marijuana industry has already overwhelmed the agency’s enforcement capacity. Ongoing DEA raids are merely a face-saving gesture, designed to confuse legislators in prospective medical marijuana states. The full-scale regulation of the marijuana economy in any state would reveal DEA’s genuine impotence, permanently burying the myth that conflict with federal law ensures some sort of brutal showdown.

Having failed to get the point across in so many ways, it’s about time to start offering people a billion dollars.

via stop the drug war

WASHINGTON — The White House won’t say it explicitly. Neither will the Drug Enforcement Administration. Yet there is a whiff in the air that U.S. policy is about to change when it comes to medical marijuana.

The message is clear, said UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, a former Justice Department official and an expert on crime and drug policy.

“It is no longer federal policy to beat up on hippies,” said Kleiman.

Tell that to the DEA.

In California this past week, agents raided four dispensaries in Los Angeles and seized 500 pounds of pot.

“It’s a little bit surprising, because I think current DEA management didn’t get the message,” said Kleiman. “The message is, this is no longer drug warrior time. We are not on a cultural crusade against pot-smoking.”

California law permits the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, though it is still against federal law.

Thirteen states have laws permitting medicinal use of marijuana. California is unique among them for the presence of dispensaries, businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services. Legal under California law, such dispensaries are still illegal under federal law.
“Anyone possessing, distributing or cultivating marijuana for any reason is in violation of federal law,” Sarah Pullen, a DEA spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said Thursday.

That may be the law, but it contradicts the medical marijuana position of the new president.

“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,” said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro, repeating past statements.

So on Friday, DEA officials in Washington declined to comment at all on the subject.

As a presidential candidate, Obama repeatedly promised a change in federal drug policy in situations where state laws allow use of medical marijuana.

“I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that’s entirely appropriate,” Obama told the Mail Tribune of Medford, Ore., in March.

A year earlier at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Obama said: “I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users.”

At age 47, Obama is part of a generation that had plenty of exposure to pot.

In his memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” he described time spent as a youth struggling with questions about his race and identity, and turning to drugs _ including marijuana and cocaine _ to “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”

The new president is unlikely to make any official change in policy before he has a new DEA chief and drug czar in place.

Yet experts believe it is already clear the Obama administration will change the strategy, if not the law, on medical marijuana.

Philip Heymann, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration who is now a Harvard professor, said it’s time for the agency to put more effort into fighting drugs more dangerous than marijuana.

“I do expect him to appoint an administrator who takes marijuana less seriously than is traditional for the DEA, as I think most Americans do,” said Heymann.

Heymann said he expects the Obama administration will eventually instruct the DEA to emphatically scale back raids on dispensaries, and conduct such raids only in instances where investigators believe a business is abusing the dispensary system as a cover for other criminal behavior.

So last week’s raids in California may be the last of their kind.

“The DEA’s not likely to want to confront a new president,” said Heymann. “It may simply be that they’re behaving as they have traditionally, and they haven’t anticipated the change Obama and his spokesman are signaling.”

____

Associated Press writer Michael Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Author: Top 10 Kid

The DEA raided a dispensary on Jan. 22, the first such act by federal law enforcement since Obama’s inauguration earlier this week.

The raid flies in the face of campaign promises made by Obama, who said he would rein in this type of behavior from federal agencies. Holistic Solutions is was the name of the dispensary, and while cash and marijuana were seized, no arrests were made.

Senator Obama said in an August 2007 statement:

I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It’s not a good use of our resources.

I’m not quite sure if kicking down the doors of an unoccupied, state-sanctioned medical facility is the biggest waste of federal tax dollars (see: Bridge to Nowhere), but it has to be up there.

According to a statement on the Americans for Safe Access Web site, the raid is just one of more than 100 in California in the last two years (roughly two per week for those without a calculator). No surprise, since CA has received an overwhelming share of federal scrutiny for its pioneering of federally-outlawed efforts at medical marijuana.

New Mexico, which recently adopted a MMJ card program, was threatened by the DEA for its plan, according to the same release.

Although marijuana has some medical values but due to its addictive nature its consumption is considered illegal. There are several blogs, forums where you will find people sharing their good and bad experiences with marijuana and many of them have even stated for and against the legalization of marijuana. There are several terms related to marijuana and they are taken as joint, blunt, bong or pipe. All of these are the ways that people would like to take. When a cigarette is rolled with marijuana it is called a joint and when a cigar rolled with marijuana is called a blunt. Marijuana can also be smoked through a pipe or a bong. Marijuana is also known as cannabis, ganja, grass, Mary Jane, pot, skunk, smoke, weed, etc.? The chemical THC that is known as Tetrahydrocannabinol present in the weed is known to be very active that causes pleasurable sensations as described by those who take marijuana. There are several tell tales symptoms that will help to determine that the person is high on marijuana. The symptoms are odor on breath and clothing, sleepiness, loud talking, laughing unnecessarily, irritated eyes, carrying drug stuff, unclear sense of time intervals and forgetfulness. There are some who do not take to weed often but there are some who are addicted and the sign of addiction are that they frequently focused on the drug at all times and have uncontrollable urge to use the drug continuously despite the physical, emotional, mental and social cost associated with it.? Among the different losses associated with drug use in the workplace the decreased productivity, workers compensation claims, insurance claims and onsite accidents are really bothersome as these directly hits the reputation of the company. To prevent such mishaps and ill reputation employers of their respected company makes drug testing mandatory to remain on the safe side. THC drug testing is highly beneficial for the employers, as it helps to maintain a safe working environment for employees and keeps productivity up.? ? Marijuana drug testing can keep jobsite healthy and ensure that employees are safe, healthy and working to the best of their ability. It is easy to perform and also laboratory perfect in most cases. You will come across different types of marijuana drug test kits and they are hair drug tests, urine drug tests, saliva drug tests and spray drug tests all of which have their own pros and cons Among these marijuana drug test kits, the urine drug test is the most popular for marijuana drug testing both at home and in the workplace. The dipstick, or other testing device is subjected to the collected urine sample and the results is displayed within few minutes. Easy to use drug testing kits helps the worried families wrap up whether or not their child is abusing drugs and take the necessary and judicious actions and help them to beat their drug compulsion.

Author: John Smart

Much has been said about drugs like cocaine and marijuana and how theyre being abused by people of all ages. Although these drugs have legitimate medical uses, theyre mainly dealt with in the black market and on the streets and advertised as mood elevators. Addiction sets in and theres no going back from the vicious whirlpool of craving and depravation that youre dragged into.

But if you thought that the drug problem began and ended with the use and abuse of illegal substances, youre sadly mistaken. A greater market for abuse lies in legal drugs, both the ones that are prescribed for certain medical conditions and the ones that are available over the counter. Painkillers like Percodan, Vicodin, Oxycontin and Percocet are some of the most commonly abused drugs, followed by cough syrups that contain codeine and dextromethorphan, both of which are psychoactive narcotics that are extremely addictive. Sedatives like Seconal and Amytal and tranquilizers like Ativan, Valium and Librium prescribed for those with insomnia are also available easily and are used without valid prescriptions or beyond the time period set by physicians.

While pot and coke were the scourge of the hippie age and alcohol and nicotine followed all through the 80s and 90s, the new generation is hooked on drugs that are legal and available through prescriptions. Unlike the trafficking industry which can be controlled through rules and regulations to some extent, legal drugs must be made available for those who really need them. So the only way to stop them being misused is through a campaign that educates and increases awareness of the dangers of legal drug abuse.

Negative advertising have helped to control smoking and consumption of alcohol to an extent “ with the price of cigarettes becoming dearer and the adverse effects of too much alcohol and tobacco in ones system “ liver failure and cancer to start with “ have made people, especially teens, aware of the dangers of addiction to these substances.

The same tactic must be used to address the abuse of legal drugs “ the situation of misuse has come about as a result of not enough awareness and education on the subject. People must be told of the negative effects on the system if they use painkillers, sedatives and tranquilizers without any medical reason whatsoever. While the change may not happen overnight, people, if they are smart enough and want to make a positive difference in their lives, will be willing to effect the change.

Author: Sarah Scrafford