Tag: marijuana

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New York’s Pot Arrests Haven’t Slowed Down and Are As Racist as Ever [VIDEO]

New York is on track to arrest 28,600 people for pot possession this year, most of them minorities. New York’s new Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio ran a significant portion of his election campaign on his promise to end the racialized policing practices of his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. Law enforcement practices under Bloomberg, and Rudolph Giuliani before him, disproportionately targeted poor communities of color and led to the arrests of tens of thousands of people per year for carrying tiny amounts of marijuana. Sadly, the city is currently on track to hit 28,600 marijuana possession arrests under the new de Blasio administration—on par with the average arrests during the Giuliani years. And similar to stats from Bloomberg’s time in office, minorities account for 86 percent of […] Read More

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You Can Have Your Kids Taken Away for Smoking Legal Pot

Marijuana may be legal in Colorado, yet harsh drug war laws still penalize society’s most marginalized women. The following story first appeared on RH Reality Check.  It is no secret that marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington ushered in internationally unprecedented progressive drug policy in the United States. What is lesser understood, however, is that these new “experimental” reforms do not necessarily peel back all of the many, punitive layers of drug war enforcement. Despite the prevailing notion that the consequences of marijuana prohibition are determined in criminal courts for crimes like possession and sale, some of the harshest punishments are steeped in ever-complicated family law and Child Protective Services (CPS). Well-intentioned marijuana policy reform thus often leaves women, who are more likely to be […] Read More

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Florida Moves to Legalize Low-THC Medical Marijuana, Is Recreational Pot Next?

Those with cancer and other severe ailments can keep small amounts of low-THC medical pot. Floridians are poised to legalize medical marijuana for some patients, but there’s wide support to legalize it for recreational use as well. If medical marijuana is legalized, it would make Florida the first southern state allow it. Currently, only Colorado and Washington allow recreational use of marijuana. A Quinnipiac University poll shows that 88% of Florida voters said they approve of marijuana for medical use, with only 10% opposing legalization. Moreover, those who responded to the poll said that they would support laws that would allow people to keep small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. Some 53% were in favor, while only 42% were opposed. Among younger voters, legalized recreational […] Read More

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As Marijuana Refugees Flock to Colorado, Will Medical Community Force Rewriting of U.S. Drug Laws?

20 states and the District of Columbia have approved, and regulate in some capacity, marijuana for medical purposes. The following first appeared on Democracy Now!:  Currently 20 states and the District of Columbia have approved, and regulate in some capacity, marijuana for medical purposes. However, insurance companies do not cover the costs of such prescriptions. Federally, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug, making it against the law to possess. But the debate over marijuana is growing. We speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dave Philipps of the Colorado Springs Gazette. His most recent article is “As success stories of kids fighting seizures with cannabis oil mount, legal landscape is changing.” We also speak to the pioneering medical marijuana doctor Dr. Margaret Gedde and a mother who […] Read More

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Here’s How Marijuana Works Better Than Opiates To Control Pain

It’s all in the way human brains are hardwired. The following article first appeared in Cannabis Now:  One compelling argument for the legalization of medical marijuana is its ability to ameliorate intense pain. Currently available technologies have helped us gain understanding of cannabis, as well as its more-commonly-accepted opioid counterparts, and the affects they have on pain. In 2010, as an attempt to gain insight on pain’s function in the brain, Oxford University conducted a study using fMRI machines and the standard tricks of psychology. Volunteers were monitored during zaps of pain to their feet. Some areas, they were told, had the potential to be unsafe. In those spots, the volunteers reported their pain levels as being higher. In reality, all of it was safe. Interestingly, in the fMRI […] Read More

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12 of the Biggest Myths About Marijuana Debunked

The arguments against legalization simply don’t hold up. For decades, cannabis opponents controlled the messaging around the popular plant and cultivated any number of lies about its effects. This built up a powerful stigma against marijuana, the effects of which have not worn off. The racist, expensive and failed U.S. war on drugs continues to rage on. The criminalization of cannabis users and distributors remains a top priority in that war. The government stubbornly classifies it as a dangerous Schedule I substance with no medical value, despite stacks of evidence to the contrary. While many acknowledge the truth about cannabis—that it is healthier than alcohol and more effective than pharmaceutical drugs in treating a number of illnesses—and more than half of all Americans want it legalized, […] Read More

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2014: Medical Marijuana Patients Are Forced Back into Hiding in California

Bans on dispensaries and home cultivation are sweeping the Golden State. The following article first appeared in the East Bay Express:  The pain started for Randy Barrett when he was thirteen years old. He was whipping a three-wheeled motorcycle around the hills of Martinez, California. Back then, riding ATVs was “just part of life,” he said. “This was the Seventies and Eighties. We had dirt bikes; we had three-wheelers — the ones with a big old front rubber tire. I was driving around in the dirt and hit a patch of concrete in the road that caught the front tire and shot me forward.” Barrett’s chest bent around the handlebar and he “flew off and flipped and landed in someone’s front yard,” he said. He […] Read More

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Uruguay Unveils Details for World’s First National Legal Marijuana Market

It is refreshing to see a small, trailblazing country pave the way for more intelligent, coherent and humane drug policies. On Friday, Uruguay released its long-anticipated regulations accompanying the law that was signed into effect last December, which made Uruguay the first country in the world to legally regulate the production, sale and consumption of marijuana for adults. Drug prohibition has devastating effects on people’s lives around the globe, from the 650,000 marijuana possession arrests per year in the United States to the 100,000 drug war deaths in Mexico in the past 7 years. Amidst growing consensus among political leaders in Latin America that the war on drugs isn’t working, Uruguaymade this bold move in an effort to regulate an existing marijuana market currently controlled by illicit drug traffickers and to generate public […] Read More

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2014: Marijuana Treats on the Go

Just step up to the window and buy a marijuana-laced sandwich or cup of soup. A food truck out of Seattle is giving new meaning to the foodie phrase “classics with a twist.” The truck is dishing up items like grilled three-cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and truffle popcorn. The twist? They’re made with marijuana. MagicalButter.com is the purveyor of a nifty gadget for cannabis edibles lovers—the MB2, a fully automated extractor that transfers the active ingredients from the plant into butter, cooking oils, alcohol (for tinctures) or lotions. With the 2012 legalization of marijuana in their company’s home state of Washington and in Colorado (where they debuted their food truck at the Cannabis Cup in Denver on April 19 and 20), MagicalButter.com saw an opportunity […] Read More

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The Surprising Truth About Driving While High

The human body does not process cannabis the way it processes alcohol. The following article first appeared in Cannabis Now Magazine:  As more and more states adopt medical and recreational marijuana policies, it seems the most feared outcome of legalization is that with the passage of laws that permit any sort of marijuana use, more impaired drivers will end up on the roads. In fact, during the Denver 4/20 celebrations last weekend, tourists learned just how easy it was to get a ticket for smoking cannabis in public because of these concerns. Under Amendment 64, establishments designed for cannabis consumption (akin to a bar or lounge where alcohol is served) are prohibited. Although loopholes have allowed some such clubs to exist (by charging a cover fee but not actually […] Read More