WA Legislature allows more to OK medical marijuana
OLYMPIA, Wash. — More medical professionals will be allowed to authorize the use of medical marijuana for qualified patients under a measure approved by the Washington state Legislature.
On a 34-13 vote Thursday, the Senate approved the measure after concurring with some changes made in the House. The bill now heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire for her signature.
It adds physician assistants, naturopaths, advanced registered nurse practitioners and others to the list of those who can officially recommend marijuana for patients under the state’s medical marijuana law.
Under current law, only physicians are allowed to write the recommendation.
March 12, 2010
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Marijuana – The Wonder Drug
by Lester Grinspoon MD
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need “proof” of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.
The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy.
It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage to nerves afflicts people with many other illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Read the rest of this post »
March 12, 2010
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The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste
By: Russ Belville of NORML
I work this issue every day and am well aware of the racist nature of the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs. But even I wasn’t aware of the outrageous statistics comparing the Drug War to Jim Crow era. Michelle Alexander lays it all out in her new book, The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste:
- There are more African Americans under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.
- As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.
- A black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery. The recent disintegration of the African American family is due in large part to the mass imprisonment of black fathers.
- If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas have been labeled felons for life. (In the Chicago area, the figure is nearly 80%.) These men are part of a growing undercaste — not class, caste — permanently relegated, by law, to a second-class status. They can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits, much as their grandparents and great-grandparents were during the Jim Crow era.
The uncomfortable truth, however, is that crime rates do not explain the sudden and dramatic mass incarceration of African Americans during the past 30 years. Crime rates have fluctuated over the last few decades — they are currently are at historical lows — but imprisonment rates have consistently soared. Quintupled, in fact. And the vast majority of that increase is due to the War on Drugs. Drug offenses alone account for about two-thirds of the increase in the federal inmate population, and more than half of the increase in the state prison population. Read the rest of this post »
March 10, 2010
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Real World Ramifications of Cannabis Legalization and Decriminalization
By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
Last week Rhode Island became the fifth state this legislative session to introduce legislation seeking to legalize and regulate the adult use, possession, production, and distribution of non-medical marijuana. Also last week lawmakers in the Hawaii Senate approved legislation seeking to ‘decriminalize’ (replace criminal penalties with civil fines) marijuana possession offenses — a policy reform that now exists in thirteen states.
Opponents of such liberalization proposals inevitably argue that any efforts toward decriminalizing or legalizing cannabis will adversely impact the public’s use of marijuana and/or young people’s attitudes toward it. Yet regional data gleaned from around the word consistently demonstrates that the imposition and enforcement of harsh criminal marijuana penalties do not dissuade cannabis use, and moreover, that criminalization is an objectively ineffective public policy.
To better educate lawmakers, opinion leaders, and our own constituents of this consistent, comprehensive, and growing body of scientific literature, NORML has authored the following white paper, Real World Ramifications of Cannabis Legalization and Decriminalization. This paper reviews dozens studies that have examined this issue in regions that have either:
a) regulated marijuana use and sales for all adults;
b) decriminalized the possession of small quantities of marijuana for adults;
c) medicalized the use of marijuana to certain authorized individuals; or
d) deprioritized the enforcement of marijuana laws.
NORML’s paper also proposes general guidelines to govern marijuana use, production, and distribution in a legal, regulated manner.
Based on the multi-decade experiences of various states and nations that have enacted various versions of marijuana decriminalization and/or legalization, NORML maintains that:
1. Strict government legalization/regulation of marijuana is unlikely to increase the public’s use of marijuana or significantly influence attitudes.
2. Decriminalization is unlikely to increase the public’s use of marijuana or significantly influence attitudes.
3. Free market legalization of marijuana without strict government restrictions on commercialization and marketing is likely to increase marijuana use among the public; however, given that the United States already has the highest per capita marijuana use rates in the world, this increase is likely to be marginal relative to other nation’s experiences.
Read the paper http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=8110
March 9, 2010
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2010 High Times Doobie Awards in Austin March 21st
Are you ready to Rumble???
It’s happening sooner than you think! March 21st from Noon to 6 pm at Emo’s Outside River Stage, 603 Red River in Austin. We want to have a good representation from Waco there.
March 3, 2010
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Mississippi’s marijuana: Legal pot farm at Ole Miss
It’s the smell – pungent and slightly citrusy- that first greets visitors to Mahmoud ElSohly’s office on the University of Mississippi campus.
Next are pictures lining the hallways of the bright green plants ElSohly has researched for 35 years as chief cultivator in the nation’s only legal marijuana farm.
The University of Mississippi Marijuana Project provides marijuana by the bale to licensed researchers throughout the nation. They study the drug through a federal contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Marijuana is grown in a field, nurtured in an artificially lit “grow room,” analyzed in labs and stored in drums in two bank-style vaults.
“It’s a complicated plant,” ElSohly said.
It’s complicated not only in its chemical composition but also because of the political and cultural baggage it carries. Read More
February 26, 2010
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Marijuana use by seniors goes up as boomers age
In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.
Long a fixture among young people, use of the country’s most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and ’70s grows older.
The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.
Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.
Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging. Read More
February 22, 2010
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CBS Corporation Bars NORML From Advertising On Times Square Billboard
Washington, DC: Representatives from the CBS Corporation and Neutron Media Screen Marketing have rejected a paid advertisement from the NORML Foundation, the educational arm of the National Organization of Marijuana Laws (NORML), that was intended to appear on the CBS Super Screen billboard in New York City’s Times Square.
The fifteen-second ad, which asserts that taxing and regulating the adult use and sale of marijuana would raise ‘billions of dollars in national revenue, was scheduled to appear on CBS’s 42nd Street digital billboard beginning on Monday, February 1, 2010.
Representatives from Neutron Media approached NORML in mid-January about placing the ad, which was scheduled to air 18 times per day for a two-month period. The NORML Foundation entered into a contractual agreement with Neutron Media to air two separate NORML advertisements, and produced an initial ad exclusively for broadcast on the CBS digital billboard.
Days after NORML submitted the ad, the organization received the following e-mail, dated February 3, from a representative from Neutron Media stating: “I just received word from CBS and they will not approve your ad. If CBS changes their morals we will let you know.”
Commenting on CBS’ last minute rejection of the ad, NORML Foundation Executive Allen St. Pierre said, “Major media corporations like CBS have no problem airing programming that allows them to profit off the public’s interest in marijuana and marijuana law reform, such as Showtime’s hit series Weeds and the CBSnews.com online series ‘Marijuana Nation.’ Yet these same corporate entities balk at airing media that calls on reforming America’s criminal marijuana policies – policies that have led directly to the arrest of over 20 million Americans since 1965. How can advocates be expected to change these failed policies when those that control America’s airwaves refuse to allow them a public forum to voice their point of view?”
According to the results of a December 2009 Angus Reid survey, fifty-three percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana.
St. Pierre continued: “University studies show that regulating the adult use of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol would raise over $30 billion annually in new tax revenue, while saving an addition $15 billion per year in law enforcement costs. The content of NORML’s ad is based on sound, readily identifiable data. Moreover, the message of NORML’s advertisement is supported by a majority of the public. CBS’ denial of this ad spot is based on the company’s political and cultural bias and nothing more.”
Last summer NORML entered into negotiations with CBS to launch a live Saturday night radio broadcast on the corporation’s ChatAboutIt.com talk radio network. CBS representatives initially agreed to the programming, but then abruptly canceled the contract after NORML had raised the funding to produce its first show.
In 2009, the NORML Foundation launched the first-ever nationwide television ad campaign calling for the regulation of marijuana by adults. The Foundation purchased over 7,500 ad buys on prominent cable networks like CNBC, Fox News, G4, and FX. The ad campaign did not air on CBS-affiliated networks.
February 12, 2010
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Libertarian Gubenatorial Candidate to Speak at Next NORML Meeting
***Press Release***
WACO, TEXAS, FEBRUARY 13, 2010: The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws of Waco (www.normlwacoinc.org), will be holding its monthly meeting on Saturday, February 13th at La Fiesta Restaurant in Hewitt, Texas at 10 a.m. The guest speaker will be Mr. Jeff Daiell (www.jeffdaiell.com) of Houston, Texas. Mr. Daiell will speak at 10:30 a.m. following a brief general information meeting. The meeting is open to the public and everyone is welcome to attend and to enjoy the excellent food at the restaurant. For more information, please contact Mr. Clifford Deuval, Executive Director of NORML of Waco Inc. at (254) 640-1372 or Alan Caruthers, Assistant Director, Communications at (254) 420-2809.
NORML Waco Inc. is a non-profit, organization dedicated to changing local and national cannabis laws to provide safe access to everyone.
February 9, 2010
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HWY 164 Clean-Up Sunday Feburary 14Th Postponed
About our two mile stretch of Texas Hwy 164, that is due for a cleaning on the 14Th of Feb. While we need to do our civic duty, not only because it is a part of our mission statement , but our committment to TexDOT, Mother Nature and of course just about everyone wanting to be with their significant other on this Sunday, has made it clear that we need to postpone the clean-up. I will post another date on the site in the future, but don’t forget to make sure you contact matt@normlwacoinc.org to put your name on the volunteer list, for the new clean-up date.
Thank you for your help,
Take care and stay NORML, Clif Deuvall Founding Executive Director NORML of Waco Inc.
January 31, 2010
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