Support for legalizing Marijuana hits all-time high

50 percent of Americans favor the legalization of marijuana, up from 46 percent last year, according to a new Gallup poll.

It was the first time in the survey that the number of people favoring legalization was higher than those opposed.

The support for legalized marijuana use has continued to climb since Gallup first began asking questions about it in 1969. Then, only 12 percent of Americans supported legalization, with 84 percent opposed.

Throughout the late 1970s into the 1990s support for legalization of marijuana remained in the mid 20-percent range, with it passing 30 percent in 2000 and 40 percent in 2009.
The latest poll shows that support for legalized pot is highest in the West (55 percent), among liberals (69 percent), younger Americans (62 percent), and men (55 percent).

Dr. Christopher Glenn Fichtner, author of "Cannibanomics,'" appeared Monday on The Dylan Ratigan show, where he spoke about the potential benefits of legalizing marijuana. He endorsed the California Medical Association’s decision last week to call for legalization of the drug, but with regulations similar to alcohol and tobacco.

"There are numerous products on the market that have risk," Fichtner said, citing alcohol as one example.

"It’s very hard to argue on a medical basis that herbal cannabis or marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol," he said. "The idea is that regulation offers the opportunity to improve the safety and reliability of access to specific products."

He also blames marijuana prohibition for "playing a major role in the initial criminalization, the initiation into the criminal justice system for a very large number of ordinary American citizens."

The Gallup survey was based on telephone interviews conducted Oct. 6-9, 2011, with a random sample of 1,005 adults.

Marijuana is the most commonly abused illegal drug in the United States, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A 2009 federal survey on drug use found that 16.7 million Americans aged 12 or older had used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed, an increase over the rates reported in all years between 2002 and 2008.

Pot is legal for people with doctors’ recommendations in 16 states, though it remains illegal under federal law. Last week, the federal government vowed to crack down on dispensaries selling marijuana in California, where thousands of outlets have sprung up.

A Gallup survey last year showed that 70 percent of Americans favored making it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana in order to reduce pain and suffering.

(Source)

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DEA denies request: Marijuana stuck at schedule 1

The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis submitted its request to the Drug Enforcement Administration to reschedule marijuana nine years ago.

"They felt as though there was some sort of evidence, there was some sort of scientific evidence, that suggested that marijuana could be used as medicine," says Dawn Dearden, DEA Spokesperson.

At the end of last month, the DEA denied this request-leaving marijuana in the same drug category as heroin. DEA listed marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning it's not considered legitimate for medical use and has high potential for abuse.

"There's like eight factors that we look at, when we look at scheduling a drug. Its potential for abuse, the scientific evidence of any sort of pharmacological affects that it might have, any sort of scientific knowledge regarding whether the drug can be used safely for any sort of medicine or anything like that. The history and pattern of abuse-I mean there's a whole litany of [the factors DEA looks at]," Dearden said.

So in this case, DEA studied marijuana and found it didn't have any medicinal use. The Food and Drug Administration also studied it and determined the same thing.

"There is a high potential for abuse for marijuana. We know that the science isn't there to back it up-that marijuana can be used as medicine. We know that, the FDA has said that and as far as we're concerned, nothing really has changed regarding marijuana's potential for abuse-either before this petition was filed or after it. It's still a Schedule I drug, it's still illegal under federal law," Dearden said.

Montana: New Montana Medical Marijuana Guidelines

The odious smelling and overtly threatening letters that were sent by the U.S. Attorney in recent weeks to many of the medical marijuana states have left the governor of Montana wringing his hands when he announced he would allow senate bill SB 423 to become law minus his “John Hancock”. Senate bill 423 will majorly inhibit Montana’s blooming medical cannabis industry, closing down approximately 4800 medicinal marijuana collectives and providers, throwing potentially thousands of legally employed people into the dark abyss of unemployment.

In Montana starting July 1 2011, SB 423 will go into effect compelling medical cannabis patients to provide more substantive evidence of qualifying ailment in order to receive a medical cannabis recommendation from a Physician. Once a qualifying patient has been approved and has received a medical cannabis recommendation a patient can cultivate their own medicine or recruit the caregiver who can cultivate for up to three medical marijuana patients and in return must then supply the medicinal cannabis back to the patients at no cost.

New Things to Know and Consider!

Patients:

Your existing card is still valid until it expires; you’ll renew under the new rules. The same medical conditions will continue to qualify you, but if your diagnosis is “severe chronic pain”, the new law is much more strict. The pain must be persistent and of severe intensity, and objectively proven by an X-ray or MRI, or a second physician must confirm the diagnosis after a physical exam.

You must be a Montana resident.

Once you have your card, if you do not choose a provider, you’ll be able to possess 12 seedlings, 4 mature flowering plants, and 1 ounce of usable marijuana.

By choosing a provider, you give up your right to grow for yourself.

Failure to notify the state of a change of address within 10 days voids your card.

You must carry your medical marijuana card with you at all times.

Parents wishing to register their minor children need a second doctor’s recommendation, must submit fingerprints for an FBI background check, and agree that the minor will never smoke marijuana, only use infused products.

People under department of corrections supervision are not eligible.

Gardens may not be combined and shared, unless you are relatives by blood or marriage.

Drivers may be compelled via search warrant to provide a blood sample. 5ng/ml is cause for a DUI charge.
If your drivers license is revoked for DUI, your medical marijuana card must be surrendered.

Caregivers:

A new “provider” registration process is supposed to be available by June 1st, 2011. Anyone who wishes to grow marijuana for someone else will be subject to a fingerprint background check by the FBI, as well as a financial background check (unpaid taxes, student loans, child support).

If you do not get one of the new cards in June, you must bring in all your plants and product to local law enforcement for destruction before July 1st.

You may choose to register as a “marijuana-infused products manufacturer” instead of, or in addition to, registering as a “provider” (grower).

If approved, providers will be allowed to grow 4 mature plants and 12 seedlings each for up to 3 patients.
Nobody can sell anything to anyone. No money, nothing of value may be exchanged for marijuana, except that the patient may reimburse the provider for the state application fee.

Infused product manufacturers must use separate cookware from that which they prepare “normal” food, and are subject to local health department food preparation rules.

You must carry your provider card with you at all times.

Law enforcement will be automatically notified of the location of your garden. You may have only one. Law enforcement can conduct unannounced inspections during business hours.

Gardens cannot be combined or shared.

Must keep a complete set of records showing all transactions with cardholders (by name and ID number), open for inspection by law enforcement at any time during business hours.

Advertising of any kind is prohibited, including via electronic media (websites, email). This provision is effective upon passage — mid-May.

Doctors:
Must describe in writing the medical condition, why it is debilitating, and the extent to which it is debilitating.

Must confirm that they have assumed primary responsibility for caring for the patient.

Must describe the range of other medications and treatments used to treat the condition.

Must confirm that they have reviewed all other medications and supplements and considered their possible interaction with marijuana.

Must confirm they have explained the potential risks of marijuana.

May not affiliate in any way with providers or infused products manufacturers.

May not examine patients where marijuana is being grown.

May not offer a discount or incentive to a patient for choosing a particular provider.

Will be reported to the Board of Medical Examiners if they recommend for more than 25 patients in a year. This will trigger a formal review of the physician’s practices, for which the physician will be responsible for the costs.

Telemedicine recommendations will constitute “unprofessional conduct” under 37-1-316.

Finally, there will be a “hotline” for people to report suspected abuses of the medical marijuana law by anyone, and local governments may ban providers and infused products manufacturers from operating within their boundaries.

If the governor doesn’t veto SB 423, that’s what we have to look forward to.

Don’t Like It?

Contact the governor before May 10th and urge him to veto SB 423:

Click here: www.montanadrugpolicy.org/alert/46
Click here: http://governor.mt.gov/contact/commentsform.asp
Call: (406) 444-3111 and urge the governor to veto SB 423 and regulate medical marijuana via administrative rules.

With all of the Ca. Marijuana Smokers... Why Did P 19 Fail?

With all of the love that surrounds the medical marijuana community, how did Prop 19 fail to pass in California. While the proponents of Prop 19 tried to mislead the California voters into voting for a title and summary, the voters proved that the details of an initiative does matter. Proponents said Prop 19 would tax, regulate and control marijuana, when in fact those claims turned out to be less than accurate. As Harvard lecturer and CATO Institute senior fellow Jeffrey Miron pointed out. "The budgetary benefits, while not insignificant, would have been small compared with California's fiscal mess. As for the Mexican drug violence it seems to be mainly associated with the cocaine and metha mphetamine trades, as well as from marijuana traffic to other states."




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