President Obama Needs To Keep His Campaign Promises

by David Borden

In March 2008, candidate Obama promised not to use Dept. of Justice resources to block state medical marijuana laws. But President Obama has broken that promise:

• The Obama DOJ is raiding marijuana dispensaries at twice the rate the Bush DOJ did.
• US Attorneys have sent misleading, threatening letters to state legislatures considering dispensary laws.
• A DOJ memo sent late last month, claiming to “clarify” an earlier memo that supported states rights to medical marijuana, in fact backtracked on it. While the federal government is not targeting patients themselves, they are making it more difficult for them to obtain marijuana legally and safely.

Please write to President Obama to express your concern and disappointment over his broken promise. The future of medical marijuana depends on people like you across the country speaking up and putting pressure on the president to keep his promise to respect state medical marijuana laws – so please use our web site to send President Obama a letter today. When you’re done, please use our tell-a-friend form to spread the word. You can call the White House Comment Line on the phone too, at (202) 456-1111, to make an even greater impact.

Thank you for taking a stand. Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org for news and commentary about all aspects of the drug war. Click here for our medical marijuana archive page, or here for our medical marijuana RSS feed.

Artilcle From StoptheDrugWar.org – Creative Commons Licensing

Annual Causes of Death in the USA

This advertisement appeared in the National Review, the New Republic, the Weekly Standard, The Nation, Reason Magazine and The Progressive. 

		Annual Causes of Death in the United States Tobacco 430,7001 Source:(1996): “Smoking-Attributable Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control, 1997), May 23, 1997, Vol. 46, No. 20, p. 449. Alcohol 110,6402 Source: “Number of deaths and age-adjusted death rates per 100,000 population for categories of alcohol-related (A-R) mortality, United States and States, 1979-96,” National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, from the web at http://http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/databases/armort01.txt, last accessed Feb. 12, 2001, citing Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System, Daadatmand, F., Stinson, FS, Grant, BF, and Dufour, MC, “Surveillance Report #52: Liver Mortality in the United States, 1970-96″ (Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Division of Biometry and Epidemiology, December 1999). Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,0003 Source: Lazarou, J, Pomeranz, BH, Corey, PN, “Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies,” Journal of the American Medical Association (Chicago, IL: American Medical Association, 1998), 1998;279:1200-1205, also letters column, “Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients,” JAMA (Chicago, IL: AMA, 1998), Nov. 25, 1998, Vol. 280, No. 20, from the web at http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v280n20/ffull/jlt1125-1.html, last accessed Feb. 12, 2001. Suicide 30,5754 Source: Murphy, Sheila L., “Deaths: Final Data for 1998,” National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, July 24, 2000), Table 10, p. 53, from the web at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvs48_11.pdf . Homicide 18,2725 Source: Murphy, Sheila L., “Deaths: Final Data for 1998,” National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, July 24, 2000), Table 10, p. 53, from the web at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvs48_11.pdf . All Licit & Illicit Drug-Induced Deaths 16,9266 Source:  Murphy, Sheila L., Centers for Disease Control, “Deaths: Final Data for 1998,”, National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, July 24, 2000), pp. 1, 10, from the web at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvs48_11.pdf . Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin 7,6007 Source: Robyn Tamblyn, PhD; Laeora Berkson, MD, MHPE, FRCPC; W. Dale Jauphinee, MD, FRCPC; David Gayton, MD, PhD, FRCPC; Roland Grad, MD, MSc; Allen Huang, MD, FRCPC; Lisa Isaac, PhD; Peter McLeod, MD, FRCPC; and Linda Snell, MD, MHPE, FRCPC, “Unnecessary Prescribing of NSAIDs and the Management of NSAID-Related Gastropathy in Medical Practice,” Annals of Internal Medicine (Washington, DC: American College of Physicians, 1997), September 15, 1997, 127:429-438, from the web at http://www.acponline.org/journals/annals/15sep97/nsaid.htm, last accessed Feb. 14, 2001, citing Fries, JF, “Assessing and understanding patient risk,” Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology Supplement, 1992;92:21-4. Marijuana 08 Source: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), available on the web at http://www.samhsa.gov/; also see Janet E. Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and John A. Benson, Jr., “Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base,” Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999), available on the web at http://www.nap.edu/html/marimed/; and US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, “In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition” (Docket #86-22), September 6, 1988, p. 57.

Congressional Candidate Disappointed With Latest DOJ Medical Marijuana Memo

Roger Goodman: Dear Department of Justice: Please Try Again

Yet another disappointment! I’ve just read carefully through the new Cole Memo from the DOJ. It supposedly “clarifies” federal policy on state-regulated medical marijuana, but if anything it leaves us more confused and uncertain (which is probably how folks at DOJ are feeling, too).

With the Ogden Memo in 2009 the Administration staked out new territory that gave some comfort to the drug policy reform community.  The latest statement from DOJ says federal policy has not changed – but the social and cultural change continues as public opinion sways in our favor.  The situation on the ground is clearly straining federal policy.

If we can count on federal policy not changing, as the Cole Memo asserts, than any activity “unambiguously complying with state law” should not be prosecuted, as the Ogden Memo originally stated. The increasing scope of state-sanctioned, state-regulated activity related to medical marijuana shouldn’t trigger any federal enforcement.

Unfortunately, the disturbing raids here in Washington State and elsewhere prove otherwise. Patients right now are feeling vulnerable and afraid because of this new spectre of federal prosecutions.

The original Odgen Memo and the new Cole Memo are political statements more than legal opinions. We must remember that marijuana is absolutely prohibited under federal law for any purpose whatsoever. Until recently this Administration had wisely implemented a selective enforcement policy more respectful to state laws and to public opinion. We need more sensitive leadership like that.

Let us call on the Administration to come out clearly in support of responsible state-regulated medical marijuana programs across the country – what’s best for patients and for public health and safety.

Sorry DOJ – Please give it another try.

 

Rep. Roger Goodman (D-WA)

Candidate for U.S. Congress 2012

Federal DOJ Memo Sends A Chilling Message To Medical Marijuana Programs

DOJ memo sends a chilling message

By: Don Duncan, Americans for Safe Access

In a move that impacts hundreds of thousands of medical cannabis patients nationwide, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a chilling message tonight to state and local officials who are seeking to implement medical cannabis laws and to those trying to provide legal medicine: You may be prosecuted.  In a memo to US Attorneys nationwide, US Deputy Attorney General James Cole said that

“Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities… are subject to federal enforcement action, including potential prosecution. State laws or local ordinances are not a defense to civil or criminal enforcement of federal law… Those who engage in transactions involving the proceeds of such activity may also be in violation of federal money laundering statutes and other federal financial laws”.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is calling on members and supporters to get ready for a large-scale national response to the DOJ threats that could stymie implementation of state and local laws and make getting medicine harder. We have to let President Obama know that federal interference and intimidation hurts patients – and we expect him to do better!

Preventing state and local governments from regulating medical cannabis activity is counterproductive and harmful to legal patients, most of whom cannot or will not grow their own medicine. Without anywhere to obtain their doctor-approved medicine, hundreds of thousands of legal patients are left to fend for themselves and are pushed into the unregulated illicit market. That is not what voters and lawmakers intended when they adopted medical cannabis laws in seventeen states and the District of Columbia.

The threat of using money laundering and other federal financial crimes is particularly onerous in the current political landscape. Under pressured federal pressure, many banks are denying services to medical cannabis providers; and the IRS is auditing providers in California and Colorado using antiquated codes designed to penalize drug cartels. Fanning these flames only makes meaningful regulation harder. Why not let legislation sponsored by US Representatives Jared Polis (D-CO) and Pete Stark (D-CA) address these issues without intimidating lawmakers, regulators, tax collectors, providers, and others?

This long-awaited clarification from the DOJ upholds the recent status quo of aggressive enforcement against state and local medical cannabis laws, in direct contradiction to Obama’s comment on the campaign trail that he was “not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws.” Until states and localities have the ability to adopt and enforce their own laws regarding the production and distribution of medical cannabis, federal interference and intimidation will continue to undermine the rights of the very patients the DOJ purports to recognize.

We can do better than the same old federal posture. President Obama should end the criminal prosecution of medical cannabis providers who are obeying state law and cooperate with state and local officials trying to implement rational, compassionate policies. A good first step would be to respond to the nine-year old rescheduling petition that seeks to remove medical cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The President could also support legislative efforts to harmonize federal law with the laws of the states where medical cannabis is legal. Support for US Representative Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 1983 would go a long way towards bridging the federal divide and reassuring state and local officials that it is OK to implement the law. It may also help persuade legal patients and providers that it is OK to obey it.

Obama Administration Goes Back On MMJ Pledge

Obama Administration Goes Back On Medical Marijuana Pledge

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ in Medical, News

Thursday, June 30, 2011, at 6:20 pm

 http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/06/obama_administration_goes_back_on_medical_marijuan.php

Photo: The Washington Examiner

Deputy Atty. Gen. James M. Cole: “The Ogden Memorandum was never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law”

​ A troubling new memo has been released which seems to show that the Obama Administration is abandoning its policy of leaving medical marijuana enforcement to the states in states which have legalized it.

The U.S. Department of Justice remains committed to prosecuting “large-scale” cultivation, sale and distribution of marijuana, even in states which have enacted legislation permitting the use of cannabis for medical uses, according to a Justice Department memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

“The Ogden Memorandum was never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law,” reads the new memo, authored by Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole.

“Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law,” the memo reads. “Consistent with resource constraints and the discretion you may exercise in your district, such persons are subject to federal enforcement action, including potential prosecution.”

“State laws or local ordinances are not a defense to civil and criminal enforcement of federal law with respect to such conduct, including enforcement of the CSA,” the memo reads. “The Department of Justice is tasked with enforcing existing federal criminal laws in all states, and enforcement of the CSA has long been and remains a core priority.”

“Previously, the Obama administration wanted the public to believe they were going to respect how states decided to handle medical marijuana legalization and regulation,” Tom Angell of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) told Toke of the Town Thursday afternoon.

“But a new memo released to the public today confirms that this president is simply continuing the harassment and interference policies of the Bush administration when it comes to actually providing patients with their doctor-recommended medicine,” Angell said.

“With 80 percent of the public supporting medical marijuana, this doesn’t seem like a very smart re-election strategy.”

The new memo follows, in its entirety:

June 29, 2011

MEMORANDUM FOR UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS

FROM:    James M. Cole Deputy Attorney General

SUBJECT:    Guidance Regarding the Ogden Memo in Jurisdictions Seeking to Authorize Marijuana for Medical Use

Over the last several months some of you have requested the Department’s assistance in responding to inquiries from State and local governments seeking guidance about the Department’s position on enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in jurisdictions that have under consideration, or have implemented, legislation that would sanction and regulate the commercial cultivation and distribution of marijuana purportedly for medical use. Some ofthese jurisdictions have considered approving the cultivation of large quantities of marijuana, or broadening the regulation and taxation of the substance. You may have seen letters responding to these inquiries by several United States Attorneys. Those letters are entirely consistent with the October 2009 memorandum issued by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden to federal prosecutors in States that have enacted laws authorizing the medical use o f marijuana (the “Ogden Memo”).

The Department of Justice is committed to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act in all States. Congress has determined that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that the illegal distribution and sale o f marijuana is a serious crime that provides a significant source o f revenue to large scale criminal enterprises, gangs, and cartels. The Ogden Memorandum provides guidance to you in deploying your resources to enforce the CSA as part of the exercise of the broad discretion you are given to address federal criminal matters within your districts.

A number of states have enacted some form of legislation relating to the medical use of marijuana. Accordingly,the Ogden Memo reiterated to you that prosecution of significant traffickers of illegal drugs, including marijuana, remains a core priority, but advised that it is likely not an efficient use of federal resources to focus enforcement efforts on individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or their caregivers. The term “caregiver” as used in the memorandum meant just that: individuals providing care to individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses, not commercial operations cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana.

The Department’s view of the efficient use of limited federal resources as articulated in the Ogden Memorandum has not changed. There has, however, been an increase in the scope of commercial cultivation, sale, distribution and use ofmarijuana for purported medical purposes. For example, within the past 12 months, several jurisdictions have considered or enacted legislation to authorize multiple large-scale, privately-operated industrial marijuana cultivation centers. Some of these planned facilities have revenue projections of millions of dollars based on the planned cultivation of tens of thousands of cannabis plants.

The Ogden Memorandum was never intended to shield such activities from federal enforcement action and prosecution, even where those activities purport to comply with state law. Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law. Consistent with resource constraints and the discretion you may exercise in your district, such persons are subject to federal enforcement action, including potential prosecution. State laws or local ordinances are not a defense to civil or criminal enforcement of federal law with respect to such conduct, including enforcement of the CSA. Those who engage in transactions involving the proceeds of such activity may also be in violation of federal money laundering statutes and other federal financial laws.

The Department of Justice is tasked with enforcing existing federal criminal laws in all states, and enforcement of the CSA has long been and remains a core priority.

cc: Lanny A. Breuer Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division

B. Todd Jones United States Attorney District of Minnesota Chair, AGAC

Michele M. Leonhart Administrator Drug Enforcement Administration

H. Marshall Jarrett Director Executive Office for United States Attorneys

Kevin L. Perkins Assistant Director Criminal Investigative Division Federal Bureau of Investigations

http://drugsense.org/temp/guidance_regarding_medical_mariju.pdf

Feds Locking In On California’s Marijuana Industry

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by Michael Montgomery, California Report

With demand for medical marijuana surging around the country, some cities and states are looking to license commercial growing, including in California. Local officials say regulating the industry protects public safety and is a good source of tax revenue. But now the Obama administration is pushing back.

Last October business and city leaders gathered with medical marijuana growers and activists in a gritty industrial compound in east Oakland.

With DJs on hand, the crowd was inaugurating a super-store for pot growing supplies — and celebrating plans to open four industrial-scale medical pot farms under a new city ordinance.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan spoke at the event, welcoming the potential tax windfall.

“When these cultivation facilities come online, we’re estimating in the first few years five to eight million dollars. Now that’s a sizeable chunk of change and it’s going to be an important part of this city’s economy,” said Quan.

Eight months later, Oakland’s plans are in tatters following stern warnings from the U.S. Justice Department that licensing of commercial marijuana growing, even for medical use, violates federal law.

At a large industrial park just off the Oakland’s 880 Freeway, developer Jeff Wilcox walks into a giant concrete and glass warehouse. It’s empty.

“This building was dubbed the football field of cannabis during our heyday. We were going to have 380 employees, and the average pay was about $52,000 [a year] per person,” said Wilcox.

Wilcox thought the facility would be safe from the feds as long as the operation closely complied with the city’s regulations and state laws. But today he sees things differently.

“The industry is scared that there’s a big push back coming against us,” said Wilcox.

The push back isn’t just against Oakland. Recently, the Justice Department warned officials in eight other states that they would be violating federal law if they allowed commercial production of medical marijuana.

“That, in very simple terms, is what drug traffickers do. That is drug trafficking period,” said Tommy LaNier, director of the National Marijuana Initiative, a program funded by the White House Office on Drug Control Policy.

LaNier says the tripwire for the Feds’ tough new posture came last year after Californians narrowly rejected Proposition 19, a measure to legalize recreational pot use. He says officials then zeroed in on local medical marijuana schemes like Oakland’s, and decided to threaten prosecution.

“They’re not going to go after someone who’s standing on the corner or in their home using marijuana. This is going to be targeting those individuals who are facilitating production, trafficking, engaged in the distribution,” La Nier said.

LaNier says the Justice Department letters state pointedly that even local officials could face criminal charges. But Jay Rorty, an ACLU attorney, says those warnings violate previous assurances from the Feds.

“It’s important that the DOJ makes clear that people who are complying with valid state law do not fear federal prosecution,” Rorty said.

Rorty and others insist that was the promise made in a 2009 Justice Department memo, which essentially stated: comply with state law and the feds won’t prosecute you. But Justice Department officials are saying the exemption only applies to seriously-ill people, not commercial growers and not medical marijuana distribution outlets.

Benjamin Wagner, the US Attorney for California’s Eastern District, says the Justice Department will enforce federal law.

“We’ve met with the DEA in this regard. People from Washington have been out to California to coordinate a statewide enforcement strategy,” Wagner said.

It’s unclear whether the Feds will target the state’s most established medical marijuana operators, like Harborside Health Center in Oakland.

On a recent afternoon at Harborside, dozens of customers were eagerly inspecting gleaming glass cases displaying well-manicured marijuana buds. Despite a grueling audit battle with the IRS, owner Steve Deangelo says Harborside is turning over millions of dollars in sales each month. Still, he says, medical marijuana remains a risky business.

“Until federal law changes, this is not an industry, it’s a movement. And anybody who gets involved in distributing medical cannabis has to be prepared to be arrested and have a monumental challenge on your hands,” said Deangelo.

Oakland city officials say they haven’t given up on plans to license marijuana cultivation. But for his part, developer Jeff Wilcox says the Feds’ warnings have scared off people who wanted to invest in a legitimately regulated business.

“You want to try to start an industry and then you have the IRS working against you, the federal government working against you — you’ve got a real problem,” said Wilcox. “So the problem is if you don’t grow this industry what happens is that it remains a black-market industry, and it’s always going to be that way.”

Medical-marijuana supporters are calling on the Obama administration to clarify the recent warnings. Sources close to the Justice Department say Attorney General Eric Holder is planning to do just that, in a letter that will be released soon.

Reps. Frank, Polis to DOJ; Leave Medical Marijuana To States!

Photo: Just Out

According to Reps. Jared Polis (left) and Barney Frank, the Obama Administration should lay off medical marijuana patients and providers in states where medicinal cannabis is legal.

​Two Democratic Congressmen want to know exactly where the federal government stands on medical cannabis. Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) are urging the Obama Administration this week to repeat earlier vows to leave the enforcement of medical marijuana laws up to the states.

The Congressmen want Attorney General Eric Holder to renew his commitment to a 2009 Department of Justice (DOJ) memorandum — known as the Ogden Memo — which said the agency wouldn’t target medical marijuana patients and providers who are in compliance with their state laws, reports Mike Lillis at The Hill.

“Recent actions by United States Attorneys across the country have prompted states to deny patients safe and reliable access to their medicine,” Frank and Polis wrote in a June 20 letter to Holder.

The letter was a result of the lawmakers’ concerns that recent communications from the DOJ and from state and local attorneys indicate the agency is backtracking on the Ogden Memo in the face of conservative criticism that the Obama Administration has somehow been “too lenient” in the “War On Drugs” by allowing sick people to use the medicine recommended by their doctors.

For instance, in a February letter to the city attorney of Oakland, California, the DOJ vowed it “will enforce the [Controlled Substances Act] vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”

Letters from U.S. Attorneys have already resulted in several states killing of delaying implementation of medical marijuana laws

One such letter resulted in the governor of Washington almost entirely vetoing a bill which would have legalized marijuana dispensaries in that state, leaving many patients without safe access. Meanwhile, states including Arizona and Rhode Island reacted to threatening letters from their U.S. Attorneys be delaying implementation of state-licensed medical cannabis dispensaries.

There are two primary reasons why the DOJ should leave the medical marijuana issue to states, according to Frank and Polis: First, the agency has limited resources, which they argue should go toward prosecuting more serious crimes (the same argument the DOJ offered in the Ogden Memo); and second, targeting the medical marijuana industry “harms the people whose major goal is to seek relief from pain wholly caused by illness.”

“There are now hundreds of thousands of medical marijuana patients in states where the medication is legal,” Frank and Polis wrote. “These patients will either purchase medical marijuana safely at state-regulated entities or seek it through unregulated channels: in the criminal market or by growing it themselves.”

Earlier this month, Holder announced that he’ll “soon” be “clarifying” the federal agency’s position on medical marijuana.

11 Things Holder Could Say About Pot That Would Make Me Happy

Photo: The Troubled Patriot

​​​

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he will “work with states” to clarify the Department of Justice’s position on medical marijuana. This is what I’d like him to say…

11. Marijuana is no longer a Schedule I drug.

The Good News: Marijuana will finally be reclassified as having medical value.

Bad News: Big Pharma doesn’t like to share…

​10. Everyone can grow!

For states that have Medical Marijuana, patients will be allowed to grow six plants each. Why not?

Most everyone is doing it already. That way, the Man (and Woman) can’t control our stash.

9. Arizona, you have medical marijuana, get over it!

It would be great if the highest attorney in the land, Eric Holder reaffirmed that if the highest voters passed medical marijuana, they have spoken. This goes for any state that doesn’t like democracy and the right of voters.

I’m also looking at you, Big Sky.

8. We’re only busting deals over 50 pounds.

Until legalization happens, commerce shall continue. Fifty elbows can be divvied up pretty quick, especially if it’s the amazing Purps or some of that Solar Diesel making the rounds.

I think 50 pounds and under is a fair amount that one should be able to travel with for commercial purposes, within state lines of course.

​7. There won’t be any lists of medical marijuana patients or growers recorded anywhere.

Doctors don’t give the State or the Feds lists of their patients who are on Viagra or Ritalin, (and who wouldn’t want to know who gets a little sketchy if they’re not on their meds?)

Why should they give the medi-jane patients up? In the Time of Grey Markets, we’ll come out, but don’t make us tell you where we live.

6. States need to get their acts together.

There are 58 counties and a whole lot of unincorporated towns (think Deadwood) in California. Unless two adjoining counties have the same laws, ordinances and restrictions, you’re going to have graft, corruption and more of the same.

We need consistent and common-sense regulations within the states, left up to each state what that would be, but for the love of all that is sane, let’s have cultivation, commerce and transportation laws that make sense and work.

5. Amsterdam is over.

The Dutch no longer want the sounds of the Grateful Dead gracing their canals. For some crazy reason (actually, the Flemish blew it for everyone) foreigners will not be allowed entry into the hash bars without a visitor’s permit.

This is the United States’ chance for a big toe into the lucrative world of the ganja-turistas. For Las Vegas whose fountains suck the blood of a vanishing economy everyday and then spit it out in a multicolor symmetry five times a day to a couple of tourists dressed in cut-offs, and other destination cities that are having hard times. Here’s your chance!

It’s time for these sinkholes to reinvest in the American Dream and open our own hash bars. Once Las Vegas discovers marijuana, munchies, and cotton-mouth, food and beverage directors everywhere will have a new lease on life. This model could be replicated everywhere.

=

​4. If you’re in jail because of cannabis, pack your bags…

It is just time to stop. As correctional officials nationally figure out ways to release the least violent and aggressive inmates into our society. Why are non-violent, first-time marijuana offenders going to prison at all?

Because somebody says it is illegal.

3. Users are immune from federal prosecution. 

From this point on, it will be left up to the state you’re in for the rules and regulations governing marijuana. One of the reasons it is easy to get a job in Oklahoma City is because people are leaving there because of draconian weed laws. You took a chance on gambling and casinos, alcohol and guns.

Trust me, after all of that, you’re going to love marijuana. We’re a lot less hard to handle.

​2. Movies are better when you’re stoned.

I don’t know, I just think it would be cool if the Attorney General of the United States came out and said, “You know, I saw Ghostbusters straight the first time, then I saw it high.

“Man, it’s a lot funnier when you’re baked. I’ll take your questions now if you have any.”

1. I am sorry.

These last few weeks have been very tense for many of us in the medical marijuana movement. Dispensaries have been threatened with closures. Banks that do business with the cannabis industry have been told to open their drawers. Proposition 19 in 2010 had a pretty good chance of passing until Eric Holder came out the week before the vote and said, “no matter what happens with the vote, the Feds will still bust pot smokers.”

In fact, Eric Holder and then candidate Obama pledged to back off medical marijuana patients and make marijuana a low priority in terms of prosecution. At a time when Big Pharma seems to be making strides and advancements, patients and medical marijuana doctors are being deterred, harassed and even jailed.

Some days it is like a bad game of ganja musical chairs. We’re never sure where to sit.

It would be nice to hear someone say, “Sorry for the inconvenience. We hear you. We won’t smile nor smirk when asked if marijuana has medicinal value. We will take medical marijuana patients and their input seriously, realizing that they’ve been the only true governing body that has driven the medical marijuana movement since it started.

“I am sorry.”

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.