Finally, A Good Idea! MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION BILL FILED BY REPUBLICAN IN TEXAS LEGISLATURE!

 

FROM NATIONAL NORML

CLICK THIS LINK TO GO TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE AND SEND LETTER TO TEXAS LAWMAKERS!
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51046/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15834

Texas: Lawmaker Files Legislation To Strike Marijuana-Related Offenses From the Criminal Code

Republican David Simpson has pre-filed legislation, House Bill 2165, to remove marijuana-related offenses from the Texas criminal code.
“Nearly a century ago, the Texas legislature made a mistake in judgment based on misinformation and unfortunate motivations," Rep. Simpson said in letter to lawmakers urging them to co-sponsor his legislation. “Due to this mistake a relatively benign plant was made illegal to grow, possess, and sell in Texas.”
Passage of Rep. Simpson’s bill would end each of these marijuana-related prosecutions in the Lone Star State. “Repealing prohibition of the plant will result in savings of millions of dollars currently being spent in the name of the war on drugs,” Simpson said. “[It] will end the destruction and disruption of thousands of lives caused by the heavy penalties for those who use the plant, and will restore freedom and dignity to all Texans.”
While passage of HB 2165 is unlikely, its intended purpose is arguably to stimulate a discussion among Texas lawmakers. The conversation is long overdue. A review of state-by-state marijuana possession arrest data by the ACLU reports that some 75,000 Texans are arrested annually for pot violations – the second highest total of any state in the nation.
Enter your zip code below to contact your state Representative and urge them to support marijuana law reform. You can also voice your support for separate legislation seeking to decriminalize marijuana possession penalties here.
Additional information on these and other pending efforts is available from NORML’s Texas chapter network. Find your local chapter here.

Rep. Borris Miles

District: SH-TX146

Phone:(512) 463-0518

Fax:(512) 463-0941

Email:borris.miles@house.state.tx.us

The Green Association for Sustainability

SHOULD CANNABIS SEEDS BE ILLEGAL?

QUESTION:  Should Cannabis/Hemp Seeds be illegal/highly regulated/prohibited, regardless of the legal or medical status of cannabis?

Cannabis seeds contain zero levels of cannabinoids.  However, the bractlets which surround the seeds contain the plants' Highest concentration of cannabinoids (see picture). Even washing with an organic solvent can leave trace amounts of cannabinoids on the seeds. 
Interestingly, even after germination and the presence of the two "seed" leaves (cotyledons), the sprouting plant has no measurable cannabinoids. 
It is not until the first pair of true leaves appear that a measurable amount of cannabis can be determined.
SOURCE:   Starks, Michael (1990) Marijuana Chemistry. Ronin Pub: Oakland.
Archive photo from Bing Search.

Are Compassionate Use laws moot?

Have Compassionate Use and Marijuana Medicalization laws become moot?

After passing two unenforcable Compassionate Use laws in the 90's, and full cannabis medicalization in 2010, Arizona has failed to open dispensaries, and created extraordinary requirements (such as submitting three years of Arizona Tax Returns, and other irrelevant and illegal financial requirements that would disenfrancise the patient population deriving the most benefit from dispensaries).
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/01/judge_to_arizona_gov_open_the_marijuana_dispensari.php 

In New Jersey, another state with Medicalization and Compassionate Use laws, an M.S. patient appealed his arrest for growing cannabis to the state's Supreme Court, which summarily sentenced him to five years in prison.
http://www.politickernj.com/54244/nj-supreme-court-5-years-prison-ms-patient-growing-marijuana#.Tx7tP3_Bq1g.facebook

Even after Compassionate Use laws have been passed, Medical Marijuana patients are still being arrested and imprisoned with the judicial rational that State administered dispensaries have not been implemented.

Travesties such as this may be expected in the yahoo states that have yet to pass compassionate use laws; but they have become much too common in states who's citizenry has approved and supported the medical use of cannabis. The fact that state-level medical marijuana administrations have failed in developing dispensaries should have no bearing on the impementation of the law, and acceptance of the law by the judicial system.

Advocacy and activist efforts would do well to define and promote medicalization and compassionate use plans that give more than lip service to the voters' wishes.  Voters should be encouraged to deny passage of propositions and plans that rely heavily on government organization, are full of loop-holes to stall implementation, that have restrictive and irrelevant application requirements, and (especially) forbid patients to grow their own plants.  Medical marijuana laws must be fair, accessible, and consistent, but most of all, they should be implementable. 

The Green Association for Sustainability

ELECT GARY JOHNSON and LEGALIZE IT????

New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson's third party Libertarian candidacy has been quietly brewing beneath the Republican primary that is, quite literally, stranger than fiction and very loud. 

His platform?  LEGALIZE MARIJUANA.  Now, before you run out and put a Libertarian in the White House, you may want to find out what Libertarianism is about, and then you know WHY he wants to legalize marijuana. Libertarians want to eliminate the prohibition not because they believe that cannabis has true value, but because they don't believe in government administration.
Gov Gary Johnson Election Platform: It's Time to End the Drug War
At least two MANY issues about this candidates election promises bother me, but I will address just two:
1.  Gary Johnson:  Does he REALLY think that as Prez, he would have that much power to overturn one hundred years of government deception, to open the can on a century of the federal government's "War on Drugs", and to pull back the covers to reveal the true cost of human life and suffering that the prohibition of Marijuana has wrought.   Too many high power people are making too much money by maintaining the drug war status quo, to allow a President to thwart them.

2.  Would you be willing to give your NAME, ADDRESS, DATE OF BIRTH, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, LICENSE NUMBER, MOTHERS MAIDEN NAME, and FINGERPRINTS to obtain a "permit" to purchase marijuana from the Government, or government regulated pharmaceutical?  No one who really thinks about it says yes.

I won't waste your time with info you already know, or personal experiences we've all had.  I believe that human beings are intended to ingest cannabis, having been created/evolved with Cannabinoid receptors in our human biology, The health, emotional, and social benefits of cannabis could be a positive forward move for humanity, but the benefits have been eliminated by prohibition.  Yet, I also believe that LEGALIZATION will play into the hands of the Prohibitionists.  Legalization allows for taxation, and taxation allows for regulation...and we already know how Federal Administrations work/don't work.  The answer is in MEDICALIZATION and DECRIMINALIZATION.  I promise that Federal legalization will NOT allow you to "grow your own", just as you cannot have your own alcohol still. Read "The Case Against Legalization" at http://sustainablygreen.blogspot.com/2010/07/case-against-legalization.html

The Green Association for Sustainability

WHAT HAPPENED TO HB 1491?

In May of this year, House Bill 1491 was sent by the Texas Legislature into the Public Health Committee for review. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Elliott Naishtat, would sanction the physician’s recommendation of medical cannabis to patients without any reprisal or condemnation from the legal or medical communities. Even more importantly, HB1491 allows for the prescribed medical use of Cannabis as an Affirmative Defense against marijuana possession charges.


This is very similar to the Arizona law that protected me from fear of prosecution or arrest while living in Arizona with responsible medical use and a letter from my doctor.

While the law may begin by simply stating a person can present an affirmative defense, if properly supported by a Judiciary that will uphold this defense, positive changes will be affected through fewer bodies incarcerated, especially the sick ones. When the D.A. realizes that the Judges will not jail a person for medically recommended treatment, s/he should follow that it is not in their interest to prosecute such cases, and subsequently refuse to file charges. When law enforcement realizes that the D.A. will not file charges on a medical defense, they will stop wasting their time and further endangering the health of the patients, by arresting them.

While this is NOT medicalization in the “California” sense, it is a GIANT LEAP in the right direction.

Most importantly, it loudly overplays the propagandist rhetoric demonizing cannabis as an illegal street drug that is destroying our “youth”.

And while the most favored arguments against any cannabis use are invented under the inauthentic auspices of protecting the nation’s children, no medicalization effort of yet has included the service to children.

Forbidden fruit always tastes better

From my experience and studies of addiction, communications and human behavior, I would claim that exactly the opposite behavior would be predicted from children raised in a culture where cannabis is medicalized and socially accepted. It is human nature to want what is forbidden; what is not allowed is especially exciting to the developing and curious brain of a child or teen. Medicalization and the unrestricted media, transparency, and advertisement that would come with it, may instead have the effect of desensitization rather than increased curiosity.

Texas HB 1491 appears to be lost in committee. It’s time to wake them up and remind them! Follow the link to the members of the Public Health Committee. Take time to stay on them, stay with this issue.
Follow this link to the Texas Legislature, and another list of links directly to the Public Health Committee Members.  
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/Committees/MembershipCmte.aspx?LegSess=82R&CmteCode=C410
If you need another reason or reminder of why this is so very important in Texas, take a look back at my blog entry “The Five Worst States to Get Busted With Pot”, here’s a link so you don’t have to search for it: http://sustainablygreen.blogspot.com/2011/05/norml-five-worst-states-to-get-busted.html

Stay posted, stay involved…

Stop the Mexican Schwag War:  Buy American!
The Green Association for Sustainability

DEPENDENCE vs ADDICTION in Cannabis Users

Is Pot Addictive?
The answer to this question has eluded mankind for nearly one hundred years!

Prior to that, marijuana was not illegal, nor considered an addictive or harmful substance; at least, not by the U.S. government’s standards. Alcohol was the bane of society in the early 1900’s as prohibitionists marched in the streets, many of them quietly addicted to Opioid Tonics freely available from the corner druggist.

As with anything, the answer to the question depends on the presumed definition.

Addiction is a psychological state in which the object of addiction can be any number of drugs, actions, or substances. Calling cannabis addicting in this context is NOT telling the truth, but is a trick of semantics in a society where food has become the most common and dangerous addiction.

Dependence is a physical state in which the object of dependence causes enough physical distress as to make the user continue their addiction even through obvious deleterious consequences. Nicotine has been cited as causing the greatest dependence in humans.

Cannabis does not cause physical addiction or create a physical dependence. There are no dependency-causing chemicals in Cannabis. Any physical discomfort felt by a cannabis user on cessation is psychological.

Although Cannabis can cause psychological addiction, so can any substance or human action: Prohibiting marijuana for a psychological addiction is like criminalizing dice for gambling disorders.

Unlike opiates (Heroin, Morphine), cocaine (Crack), benzos (Xanax), nicotine, and alcohol, Cannabis carries no risk of physical addiction, and has no substances that create a physical addiction. A psychologically addicted user may report anxiety upon "withdrawal"; any "withdrawal" symptoms are purely psychological. Although many studies have proved this, the argument of addiction is one of semantics and medical terminology, as well as ICD-9/10 (Diagnosis) coding.

Cannabis cannot create the condition of "drug dependence"; however, cannabis can create "drug abuse", as can a can of hairspray and a package of bath salts.

Prohibition has not stopped the use, recreational or medical, of marijuana. Cannabis is freely trafficked into the United States from Mexico by violent, dangerous and warring cartels. Although billions have been spent, US Federal forces such as the DEA, INS, and ICE have been unsuccessful in stopping the influx of low-grade cannabis into the United States. This “Schwag” has no medicinal value, and is cheap and widely available and easy to get, especially for the young. Even IF the Feds got their way, and all of the progress in medical cannabis was reversed, the cartels will assure that their brand of blood stained pot is on American streets. Wouldn’t it be better if the sick, suffering, and dying had access to clean, quality Cannabis, safely and transparently available, and prescribed specific to symptomology?

 
 
The Green Association for Sustainability
K. Rojas,
BLS, MLS, CPC

MEDICALIZATION IN ARIZONA: Medicinal Marijuana - No Easy High

According to a local newspaper in Pinal County, Arizona, securing medicalization was only part of the battle to bring medical marijuana to Arizona.  There are still physicians who are resistant to writing prescriptions for medical marijuana, although the article mentions that physicians can and probably will write for Marinol, the pharmaceutically available THC.  Not in any way a substitute for whole plant cannabis, Marinol can be effective for nausea; however as with other oral nausea pharmaceuticals, the difficult task remains of having to ingest medication while vomiting intractably.

Another issue in the Arizona medicalization law, as well as ALL medicalization laws, is the restriction on growing and harvesting personal use plants.  Delaware's medicalization this month saw a complete restriction on private grows, forcing patients into clinics or other state or Big Pharma regulated and run organization.  Last year, four other states medicalized without the right to grow in order to pass a medicalization bill.  Arizona's law states that a medical marijuana patient can only grow 12 plants IF THEY LIVE MORE THAN 25 MILES FROM THE NEAREST DISPENSARY.   Although I understand that some restrictions on growing may be necessary in large urban areas to avoid crime or other undesireable sequelea, such restrictions should be specific and definitively defined so that those who are able to grow safely and securely, can do so.  How far they are from a dispensary should be less important than where the grow area is located, i.e., in a school zone or a business district may not be such a good idea. In Rural areas, and those who live on and own larger lots, for example, should have the right to grow.

The issue of growing is an important issue and right that should not be denied.  Voters who are over-eager to pass medical marijuana bills are agreeing to let the state control their ability to grow the plant, giving up an inalienable right, and giving control to the government and big Pharma. 

A small ray of understanding emerged in the article when it was reported that one interviewed physician, Dr. Hill, admits that because of the existance of cannabis receptors in humans, it is probable that humans evolved with the cannabis plant, and have been using it for thousands of years.  Still, Dr. Hill, an oncologist, states he will not prescribe cannabis to his patients, even though he knows through experience that it does help cancer patients, citing possible Federal retribution, and reflecting the fear factor that the Federal Government can retaliate. 
Although reformers are frustrated at physician's fear and refusal to prescribe, the doctors have good reason to be afraid:  This is not the first time that the government has tricked them when it comes to cannabis.  In 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act allowed physicians to prescribe cannabis to their patients, provided they submitted the proper tax fees and paperwork.  In practice, the requirements were extremely precise and difficult, and even the smallest error would result in large fees, loss of license, and even incarceration.  The American Medical Association recommended then that physicians do not prescribe Cannabis, and claiming loudly there after that cannabis was considered to have "no medicinal benefit."  They have been perpetuating this lie for nearly 75 years. 

To read the article in full go here:
http://www.mapinc.org/newsnorml/v11/n264/a02.html

Kimmarie

"...the rport of my death was an exaggeration."   --  Mark Twain

NORML: The Five Worst States to Get Busted With Pot

One more reason to, RIGHT NOW, send a letter to your state representative regarding Texas HB 548  and HB 1491! 

TEXAS LANDED AS NUMBER TWO on Paul Armentano's latest list of the top five worst states to get busted in.  Oklahoma was number one, probably because of the laws that allow for life sentences for simple possession.  Texas takes the number two spot due to the fact that the state arrests more of it's citizens on drug charges than any other state. 

Add to that the insult that 97% of these arrests are for possession only, and we have some of our best citizens locked up for no good reason...and I know for a fact that the Houston Police have much better things to do than arrest people for a gram of Kind or a dime-bag of schwag...like having group target practice on the lone "he-was-armed" robber.   

For the full article by Mr. Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML, click here:
Bookmark: http://blog.norml.org/2011/05/16/alternet-the-five-worst-states-to-get-busted-with-pot/

And while you're there, check out what's happening in Texas Legislative Session  82 
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=82R&Bill=HB1491
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=82R&Bill=HB548

LIFT ON SEP PROGRAM FUNDING BAN

See also:  http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0419.html and 1000 Feet

ADVOCACY AND ACTIVISM DO WORK:  The Media Awareness Project, Drug Policy Alliance, and other advocacy groups can claim success in their recent campaign that disclosed the restrictive fine print in the original spending bill to appropriate federal funds to needle exchanges, including a letter writing campaign.

StoptheDrugWar.org posted breaking news just after 2:00 today that in a Saturday morning Subcommittee vote, the Senate Committee endorsed a spending appropriates bill that would lift a 21-year old ban on federal funding of Needle Exchange Programs, WITHOUT the restrictive language preventing SEP's within 1000 feet of "just about anywhere" --see Drug Policy Alliance news release ; See Dave Borden's take here.

In a second major victory, Congress also lifted their restriction on a medical marijuana bill that was passed by D.C. voters 10 years ago, but held from becoming law by Congress.  This is a two-fold victory, in that it also sets a precedent for Congress to ease on the "micromanagement" of the District residents.   After a long wait, DC residents will finally have access to medical marijuana.

“RECENTLY, I DID SOME CLINICAL WORK AT A METHADONE CLINIC”

This comment was a response to a posted blog in the Addictions Recovery Professionals group at Linked In (http://www.linkedin.com/). The original blogger is an addictions counselor discussing working at Methadone clinics. Please review the many comments at: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=862107&discussionID=4887361&goback=%2Eanh_862107


Mr. Jenkins, others,

Thank you for concisely and clearly stating the facts regarding the unique physiology of opiate addiction. Pure science dictates the intractability of opiate addiction in the malfunction of opiate receptors. It has nothing to do with “will power”, but rather with changes that occur in the brain and neurological synapses.

For many years I advocated for medicated recovery, specifically Methadone, and was deeply involved and invested in the passage and implementation of the Drug Abuse and Treatment Act of 2001 (DATA). In addition to changing methadone rules, this Act allowed for the private physician use of Suboxone for opiate withdrawal and maintenance. In my research and advocacy since then, I have come to believe that Suboxone/ Buprenorphine/Naltrexone may be a better choice in many circumstances. Methadone is very effective for long term treatment of heroin addiction. Still, it has many drawbacks, specifically, the difficulty in withdrawal; however, the stigma of Methadone also cannot be underestimated in its effects on the clients social wellness. As such, Methadone should be used as a last resort, only after other avenues have failed, including abstinence programs.

True stabilization and reorientation into a non-drug seeking lifestyle can take many years, and even then, it is not unusual for heroin addicts to relapse, often after many years of abstinence. True, intractable heroin addiction may best be treated with life-long Methadone, in terms of the client’s well being and social harm reduction. Too many times, though, clients are accepted into Methadone clinics before other treatments have been attempted. Often, these patients may be opiate naïve in comparison to long-term heroin addicts seeking methadone maintenance. The methadone may get them off of their “drug of choice”, but only addicted to one that is even more difficult to overcome. In these cases, if abstinence is not an option, then Suboxone should be used. Using methadone in anything but the most severe cases, i.e., the patient is at risk of IV related disease and social degradation, is like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer.

I also agree that your “Counselors-in-relapse” is a valid paradigm, and one seen much too often in recovery. While some addicts in treatment may prefer to have a counselor that is also a recovering addict, the value of learning the pathology and physiology underlying opiate addiction an educated cannot be understated, nor can the value of certification. The best of both worlds, of course, would be ideal, and fortunately many recovering addicts have gone on to receive certification and/or college graduation. When I hear of recovering counselors who have been clean for less than two years working in methadone clinics, I worry that they are not only ineffective, still fighting their own battles, but they are also putting their own recovery at risk by being in a drug-centered environment before they have had a chance to put that environment behind them, and think themselves “well”.

METHADONE LIFE

METHADONE LIFE
One of the properties of methadone that make it ideal for heroin addiction recovery is that is has a half-life of 24 hours, and can last as long as 36-48 hours in stabilized patients. Yet methadone can be a fickle lover, and there are many things that can cause an early detox, or aberrant metabolization. Too much coffee, extreme stress, not enough sleep, certain medications…the list is as individual as the person. This is one methadone client’s post of a “sleepless methadone night”.

“The plaintiff stood nervously at her lectern, shuffling papers, smacking her lips to smooth her lipstick after combating her nervous dry mouth with a sip of water. The well dressed young woman came before this court to recover a cell phone debt incurred by the defendant, a flamboyant Hollywood boy-toy dressed in a colorful poncho and carrying a designer alligator bag, or brief case, or whatever you want to call it. But the braggart placed it on the table next to his lectern and microphone with a sly and better than thou attitude, shifting his weight from one hip to the other, in that very L.A. metro-sexual way of saying, “oh honey, let’s just get this over with!”
And I heard, “…but the defendant says that she was riding his coattails to the best bars, and normally he wouldn’t have even bothered with someone with only one broken Gucci bag, but he felt sorry for her.”
Huh? Suddenly my attention was piqued for one unbelieving moment and I immediately became disgusted and the phoney wannabe-ness of this ignorantly and narcissistically damaged person (of male persuasion). The plaintiff, smiled in her sweetness in a ‘what can I say?’ sorta way. And for the brief moment it takes to regain consciousness from a restful sleep, I forgot that it was just three o’clock in the morning and that I had only passed one half hour of this endless night.
I try to go back to sleep…sometimes if I close my eyes, when I open them again, an hour or so may have gone by without my knowledge while in this predetoxification state. It is a feeling that I have gotten used to, but that I will never be able to accept. I start to kick my legs as they cramp up on me, and a horrible feeling like a wash of chemicals runs through my esophagus and I can FEEL the taste and smell of the drug that is in every functioning cell of my body.
Getting up and moving around gets rid of that dope sick feeling for a time, and I take advantage of this fact to keep the promise I made myself when I first started this journey on Methadone: I would never dose before 4:30 a.m. An arbitrary time, an arbitrary rule, kind of like many of the clinic rules: just something to keep me in control of these insidious orange disks.



Stop the War: Begin the Healing

The Definition of War

The War on Drugs:

The war on drugs has been propagandized by the media as an actual war – depicted with violence, death, guns -- as if it was any other war in any other time.

Prohibitionist propaganda has insidiously seeped into the deepest level of the American Democratic Experiment, which was built on war…Revolutionary, Civil, and World. The war on drugs has no country of origin, no solitary leader, and is against no particular peoples, but rather is a war against intangibles. Defining War as combat against concepts such as "drug abuse" and "terrorism" is a slippery slope that could lead to rationalization of War to include ethereal concepts, including such basic rights as freedom of religion and association.

The issue often forgotten by the media yet important to note is that the victims of this war, as in any war, are human beings of flesh and blood. What was once a silent war has recently erupted into a full scale military battle just south of the U.S. border. The War on Drugs has now become explicit in its casualties. We see the tanks and the gunfire and we hear about it on the news daily. Rather than the under-cover raids and arrests we are used to learning about on the evening news, the military surge is blatant in its intrusion into our televisions, our homes, our lives. No longer is this a concern of the impoverished or the criminal. It is relevant to our middle-class lives, and as the government continues to wage this War internationally, we fall even deeper into the false notion that a War on Drugs is valid concept.

The American Government has convinced the world that international drug compacts are necessary, and that such an ideal as war against an inanimate object is legitimate. Is it?

What is the definition of WAR?

Do you think the war on drugs has had a positive or negative impact on the use of drugs in the US? Globally?