New Report Claims ‘New England’ Region Has Highest Rate Of Marijuana Consumption

The northeastern part of the United States possesses the highest rates of self-reported marijuana consumption, according to a new federal government report.

As a region, New England states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont) rank in the top percentile for marijuana use in virtually every category surveyed — including ‘marijuana use in the past year among youths age 12 to 17,’ ‘marijuana use in the past year among persons age 18 to 25,’ ‘marijuana use in the past year among persons aged 12 and older,’ and ‘marijuana use in the past month among persons age 26 or older.’

Other states that consistently ranked in the top percentile of marijuana use in the United States are Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, and Oregon.

Nationally, the study reported “no increases in current illicit drug use occurred in any state” among those aged 12 to 17 between the years 2002-2003 and 2008-2009. The finding rebuffs claims recently made by the Drug Czar and other federal officials that the implementation of statewide medical marijuana laws – most of which were enacted between the years 1998 and 2004 — is encouraging increased use of cannabis and other illicit substances by young people.

A separate study published in June by the Marijuana Policy Project also reported, “[O]f the 13 states with available data, teen use rates have stayed the same or decreased since enacting medical marijuana laws.”

The state-by-state consumption data was compiled from the federal government’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which interviewed approximately 138,000 Americans age 12 and over in 2008-2009 on their use of licit and illicit substances.

Full text of the study, “State Estimates of Substance Use and Mental Disorders from the 2008-2009 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health,” is available online from the US Department of Health and Services.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500, or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.

CT Senate Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession

Afer five hours of debate, on Tuesday Connecticut became the 13th state in the Union to decriminalize marijuana. The state’s House of Representatives passed new legislation and Governor Dan Malloy is expected to sign off on it.

The House voted 90 to 57 in favor of SB 1014.

According to the new rules first-time offenders caught in possession of less than a half-ounce of pot will be hit with a 150 ticket; repeat offenders would get at least $200 but a maximum of 500 per offense. If you’re under 21, you’ll get a two-month suspension of your driver’s license.

“Final approval of this legislation accepts the reality that the current law does more harm than good — both in the impact it has on people’s lives and the burden it places on police, prosecutors and probation officers of the criminal justice system,” Malloy said in the statement.

State Sen. Toni Boucher (R-Wilton) in a statement on her website said that decriminalization sends the wrong message to the state’s youth about the risks of marijuana use.

“What kind of message does this send to our children?” Senator Boucher said in the statement. “This law undermines a fundamental lesson that our schools, social service programs and parents teach our children: that taking drugs is bad for you.”

Connecticut’s non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis however estimates the bill will save the state nearly $1 million in court costs and attorney salaries and net upwards of $1.4 million in new fines and fees.

read more: http://www.thcfinder.com/marijuana-blog/legalization/2011/06/ct-senate-decriminalizes-marijuana-possession#ixzz1Ou3YnfIL

CT Senator Claims Cali Kids Openly Smoking Marijuana In Class

Photo: Jesse Pearson

Dude! I knew it!

Connecticut state Senator Toni Boucher doesn’t like medical marijuana, and she seems proud of herself for trying to stop it in her state, according to a press release her office sent out on Thursday.

According to the breathless (and almost entirely brainless) release, Sen. Boucher “valiantly tried to stop a medical marijuana bill from getting out of the Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee.” See there? Trying to stop seriously ill patients from getting the only medicine that helps is “valiant” now, get it?

Toni tried to stop and/or sabotage Connecticut’s medical marijuana bill any way she could, including by slapping a tax on medicinal cannabis.

Photo: CT4th Hotsheet

Connecticut State Senator Toni Boucher: Clueless or lying? My money’s on both.

​ “Senator Boucher offered a number of amendments including one that would expand a current state law that taxes marijuana seized by local authorities during drug busts,” her office trumpets. “The amendment included medical marijuana grow by those granted the right to do so by the state.”

But Toni’s little plan to treat medical marijuana the same as black market pot was voted down, 19 in favor, 21 against. Predictably, she was fuming.

“You can tax over the counter pain medication, cigarettes, alcohol and gas in our new state budget signed by Governor Daniel Malloy yet we fail to pass a tax on medical marijuana?” Boucher sputtered. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“We are in a financial crisis and are raising taxes at an historic level on everything from income, sales, real estate, inheritance, yoga to dog grooming, yet when we are being forced to approve a cash crop, legislators don’t have the will to tax it,” Boucher bitched.

Toni’s tax would have levied $5 on each ounce of marijuana and $2 on every cannabis plant. She wanted the revenue from the tax to go toward anti-drug education programs.

SB 1015 would allow people with cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis damage to the spinal cord, epilepsy, cachexia (emaciation often caused by cancer or cardiac diseases), or wasting syndrome to grow up to four plants, each (oddly) having a maximum height of four feet.

Photo: Anthony Buzzeo/The Daily Wilton

“And then I’ll tell them that passing a medical marijuana law means kids get to smoke in class! Yeah, that’s it.

​ Boucher claims those four plants, each limited by law to four feet tall, would produce five pounds of marijuana apiece. Perhaps Toni would care to share her cultivation methods with the rest of us.

She also claims that the once ounce of usable marijuana which would be allowed by the proposed Connecticut medical cannabis law would yield up to 120 joints — so remind me not to put Toni in charge of rolling at my next pot party. (I hate pin joints!)

Boucher isn’t above quoting some bogus “research” which resurrects the tired old claim that “In fact, smoking one cannabis joint is as harmful to a person’s lungs as having up to five cigarettes,” in fact claiming that the research was “published on Tuesday” by the British Lung Foundation.

Toni apparently isn’t very attached to the truth, because the study to which she refers was published nine years ago, in 2002, and has been largely discredited by subsequent research.

“We are not showing compassion for the terminally ill,” Senator Boucher claimed, without bothering to check with the terminally ill first. “We are opening up a myriad of problems by passing this bill out of committee.”

The bill requires patients and their caregivers to register with the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) and authorizes a $25 registration fee and other fees. Registry information is available for law enforcement purposes, but is otherwise confidential and not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

The bill says physicians, patients, and caregivers should not be arrested, prosecuted or punished for certifying, using, or possessing medical marijuana and requires law enforcement agencies to return the pot and other property seized during any investigation.

Boucher pulled out all the stops in her hysteria-mongering attempt to stop medical marijuana in Connecticut, darkly mentioning to fellow committee members that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) “recently announced in a letter to the Governor of Washington STate that it will be prosecuting those who possess, manufacture and traffic controlled substances.”

Toni even mentioned rising marijuana use among teenagers as a supposed reason to not support medical marijuana — even though research shows that rates of teen cannabis use drops in medical marijuana states.

Boucher, after telling fibs throughout her tawdry little press release, apparently got bored with the little fibs and decided to end with a great big lie:

According to officials from the Grossmont Union High School district in California, students have been seen “openly smoking medical marijuana” in class under the protection of California’s medical marijuana laws.

There are no students “openly smoking medical marijuana in class,” in California or elsewhere. And if they did so, it definitely wouldn’t be “under the protection” of “medical marijuana laws,” NONE of which allow such activity.

The fact that Senator Toni Boucher would stupidly repeat such asinine misinformation is a good indicator of how seriously we should take anything coming out of her lying, mean-spirited little Republican mouth.

Editor’s note: If you’d like to read the actual Connecticut medical marijuana bill, rather than Senator Toni Boucher’s insane spewing, you can find the complete text of the bill, as well as analysis, testimony and other documents associated with the bill here.