Tag: marijuana

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Mexico Considering legalizing Marijuana To Weaken Drug Cartels

Later this month, the supreme court of Mexico will review the country’s current prohibition of marijuana, as well as the possibility of legalizing the plant for medical and recreational use. Medical marijuana is currently legal in Mexico, but the black market drug trade in the country continues to cause widespread violence, drug cartel, and gang activity, just as it does in America. Marijuana legalization has traditionally been a very popular concept in Mexico, where people understand the real-life consequences of the drug war and prohibition. However, the United Nations has forced many countries around the world, including Mexico, to comply with the drug prohibition policy the United States government has championed. Now, with many U.S. states choosing to legalize the plant, Mexico is seeing a […] Read More

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Meet the Brave Doctor Still Researching Marijuana Even After Getting Fired for It

Dr. Sue Sisely is not letting bureaucratic obstacles or political retribution stop her. And veterans suffering PTSD thank her for it. Without warning last July, Sue Sisley — a physician specializing in internal medicine and psychiatry — was asked to leave her position as a member of the faculty in excellent standing at her alma mater, the University of Arizona. She was never given any semblance of due process or any reason why she was being let go. She was simply stripped of the three contracts she held with the university — the same university where she received her M.D.., was honored with the Leo B. Hart Humanitarian award and was a generous donor — and asked to leave. But the likely reasons behind Dr. […] Read More

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The Unbearable Whiteness of the Marijuana Industry

Blacks got hit hardest under marijuana prohibition, but it’s mainly white guys dominating the legal weed scene in Colorado. Wanda James is the only black legal cannabis dispensary owner in the state of Colorado and she has held that distinction for a long time. While being black makes her the exception in the nation’s most robust legal cannabis economy, James is beyond exceptional for any industry—she is a former Navy Lieutenant who was appointed to work on President Obama’s National Finance Committee as well as Colorado Governor Hickenlooper’s Amendment 64 Task Force. She and her husband have owned popular restaurants in the Los Angeles and Denver areas for nearly two decades and she has headed a handful of successful ventures in the cannabis industry. “Unfortunately […] Read More

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5 Myths About Marijuana Debunked

Owen Poindexter, AlterNet Waking Times The more research is released, the more legalization makes sense. Back in the 1930s, the arguments to criminalize cannabis were bizarre and openly racist. The anti-pot crusader Harry Anslinger made all sorts of over-the-top claims, such as, “Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters.” Nowadays more than 100 million Americans say they’ve smoke pot, millions use cannabis regularly to treat illnesses and it is as legal as alcohol in two U.S. states. However, it remains illegal under federal law largely due to scare tactics ingrained in our society, which date back even prior to Anslinger. Today, pot […] Read More

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National Marijuana Arrests Have Tripled Since 1991

This disturbing trend does not reflect the growing national acceptance of pot. While the national call to legalize marijuana—both medical and recreational—is higher than ever before (and includes more than half of American voters), you wouldn’t know it by looking at the issue from a law enforcement perspective. The number of marijuana arrests have more than doubled since 1991, and as a percentage of arrests, they have more than tripled. As Christopher Ingraham pointed out in a recent Washington Post article, this makes for a somewhat confused climate as far as the status of marijuana. On one hand the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy is trending toward a more tolerant attitude in handling drug use. (On the ONRCP’s website you can read […] Read More

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Marijuana Use Down Among Teens In Colorado After Legalisation

Marijuana use among teens in Colorado has declined by at least 2% in the past 2 years. According to the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey released by the Department of Public Health and Environment, Marijuana use among teens in Colorado has been declining over the past two years. According to the statistics, habitual marijuana use fell from 22 percent in 2011 to 20 percent in 2013, and lifetime use declined from 39 percent to 37 during the same time period. Additionally, there has been a 5 percent drop in teen use since the medical marijuana dispensaries entered the state 3 years ago. Advocates of legalisation say that bringing the substance onto the legal market actually doesn’t make it more attractive for children as many politicians and […] Read More

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Here’s Why California Still Hasn’t Legalized Pot

California has the oldest, most established cannabis industry in the US, so what gives? The following article first appeared in Cannabis Now:  California boasts the world’s eighth largest economy, larger than even Russia. San Francisco Weekly’s Chris Roberts recently estimated the demand for legalized marijuana in California to be $2.1 billion. The estimate, initially reported at $2.1 trillion, was based on the numbers coming out of Colorado scaled to fit the Golden State. California supplies the nation with food, wine, technology and entertainment, and its politics have controlled it thusly. This year alone billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper has financed a ballot initiative that would split the state into six smaller states, creating the wealthiest state in the nation — Silicon Valley. Californians have even elected two entertainers to the […] Read More

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The NY Times’ Hypocritical Employee Drug Tests, Like Marijuana Prohibition, Need to End

Workplace drug testing is unjust and ruins lives. The following article first appeared on Substance.com:  Unless you’ve been in hiding, you’ll know that the New York Times made history last Sunday, July 27, when it launched a series of editorials calling for an end to marijuana prohibition. The first piece, “Repeal Prohibition, Again,” was a complete reversal of the Grey Lady’s hitherto cautious—some would say conservative—position on the drug war: “It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit […] Read More

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No, Teens Don’t Smoke More Pot In Medical Marijuana States

A new national report dispels the common prohibitionist argument. The U.S. federal government stubbornly continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule I substance with no known medical uses. While our government blocks all research on the potential benefits of marijuana, clinical studies in Israel, Spain and elsewhere confirm what patients in the 23 U.S. states with medical marijuana programs already know: it’s a miraculous treatment option for many known diseases, with the potential to mitigate, and sometimes reverse, ailments ranging from cancer, PTSD and epilepsy to arthritis, skin abrasions, and chronic pain. Since so many of the arguments against cannabis medicine are crumbling, marijuana prohibitionists are resorting to fear-mongering about the “safety of the children” to defend their position. They insist that allowing marijuana in any form will give kids […] Read More

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Why Are Law Enforcement Officials Making More Marijuana Arrests Than Ever?

This uptick in arrests comes even though pot remains widely used, available, and perceived of as safe by most Americans. The following first appeared on the NORML Blog:  Law enforcement in many states are making a greater number of marijuana arrests than ever before despite polling data showing that the majority of Americans believe that the adult use of the plant ought to be legal. According to a just published report, “Marijuana in the States 2012: Analysis and Detailed Data on Marijuana Use and Arrests,” which appears on the newly launched RegulatingCannabis.com website, police made an estimated 750,000 arrests for marijuana violations in 2012 – a 110 percent increase in annual arrests since 1991. Yet, despite this doubling in annual marijuana arrests over the past two decades, there has not been any […] Read More