Jack Daniel

‘1-in-11 get addicted to pot’ stat debunked

By Jack Daniel on February 3, 2014 Legalize It, News, Say what?

Toke of the Town

You may have heard the sarcastic saying that “95% of statistics are made up on the spot”. It is beginning to look like that may be the case for the decades-old study on addiction rates by the National Institute on Drug Abuse(NIDA) that both pro- and anti-cannabis supporters cite when they say that roughly 9% of marijuana users will become addicted.
The same NIDA study, released in a trade journal named Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology in 1994, actually places pot near the bottom of the list, if that 9-10% figure is to be believed. Marijuana advocates can point to the study and show that addiction rates, according to the study, are much higher in substances like heroin (23-25%), cocaine (15-20%), or even tobacco (20-30%) and alcohol (15%), but progressive thinkers on the topic feel that even 9% is way off on weed, and that the number is truly much lower.

Senate Judiciary Committee easily approves drug sentencing reform act with broad support

By Jack Daniel on February 3, 2014 Follow that story, Legislation, News

Though he spared exactly zero words regarding cannabis, drug policy, or criminal justice reform in his 2014 State of the Union address, President Obama and his administration have been increasingly more vocal on these issues as he settles into his second, and final, term in office.
Both the President and Attorney General Eric Holder in the Department of Justice have earned few friends and little trust in the cannabis community, but both wings of the Executive Branch have vowed to address the undeniable fact that when it comes to victimless, drug-related crimes, our criminal justice system is broken. This past Thursday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee took an historic step to begin the long overdue reform process.

Massachusetts approves first 20 medical marijuana dispensary licenses

By Jack Daniel on February 1, 2014 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Brandon Marshall/Westword

In the November elections of 2012, 63% of the voters in Massachusetts approved Question 3, the state’s newly proposed medical marijuana law, making the Bay State the 18th state in the nation to legalize ganja use for medicinal purposes. With Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island already respecting patients’ rights, and New Hampshire looking to follow in Colorado and Washington’s footsteps, all of New England will soon enjoy safe access.
Back in Massachusetts, in accordance with the regulations set forth in the Question 3 medical marijuana law, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health sparked the process this past Friday by granting the first 20 official licenses for prospective storefront medical marijuana dispensaries.

64-year-old PA grandmother charged for a second time for pot sales

By Jack Daniel on January 29, 2014 News, Say what?

Pink-haired ladies.

One day last October, just after 4:20pm, Candace Delaven Kelly answered a knock on her door to find state police and task force agents from the attorney general’s office “requesting permission” to enter and search her home, located in rural Buffalo Township , PA, where the biggest grass problems usually revolve around whose turn it is to mow it.
Ms. Kelly really isn’t all that different than most 64-year-old ladies. Locks of gray hair pulled back in a simple braid, a gentle smile, a modest mobile home in Pennsylvania, five grandkids, 64 pounds of dank hydro expertly sealed and packaged , and just shy of $400,000 in cash stashed in duffel bags under the bed. Still, she let the officers in that day, and they reported being “overwhelmed” by the powerful aroma of weed that blasted them when they walked through the door.

Uruguay looks to lead in cannabis research, Paraguay still in the dark ages

By Jack Daniel on January 28, 2014 Global, Legalize It, News

With marijuana still sitting unjustly on Schedule I of the controlled substances list here in the U.S., official in-depth studies on the specific effects that differing strains of weed can elicit have been limited, both in number and in scope.
Fortunately, the South American nation of Uruguay has recently legalized marijuana use on a national level, opening the door for a very willing and eager community of scientists and researchers to set up shop and begin to give ganja a long overdue honest lab-grade analysis.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is no friend to marijuana

By Jack Daniel on January 23, 2014 Legalize It, Medical, Opinion

After New Jersey Governor Chris Christie caught his breath from the walk to the podium to give his 2nd-term inauguration speech on Tuesday, he made a lot of headlines by vowing to “end the failed war on drugs”.
His plan, an inevitable failure in its own right like so many others’ before him, is to treat “addiction” with treatment, rather than incarceration. Of course, he makes no mention of those already unfairly incarcerated in New Jersey on trumped up drug charges, and how to…ahem… balance those scales. As Jacob Sullum writes for Forbes, why should otherwise law-abiding citizens be forced into a situation where they may be forced to decide between rehabilitation and incarceration?

Foreign drug cartels sure to feel financial pinch from recreational cannabis sales

By Jack Daniel on January 14, 2014 Global, News

You have probably heard by now that the state of Colorado harvested over five million dollars in the first five days of legal recreational marijuana sales. The 25% tax imposed on those sky-high sales figures will surely be welcomed by all as the funds begin to flow back into their communities.
The implementation of this much needed cannabis reform seems to have opened a lot of eyes, and gained a lot of support from everyone, it seems, except for out-of-touch politicians and “fat and lazy” pundits. Oh, and Mexican narcoterrorist drug cartels.

Canadian teen permitted to toke on campus helps set precedent for real reform

By Jack Daniel on January 7, 2014 Global, Medical, News

TokeoftheTown.com

The teenage years are an awkward time for everybody. High school can be especially tough, just trying to fit in, particularly if you have any sort of disability. 15-year-old Noah Kirkman, a 10th-grade student at Western Canada High School knows about these pressures all too well, growing up with attention-deficit disorder and Tourette syndrome.
While he is far from the first high school student to have to deal with such issues, he appears to be one of the first students to have been granted permission by his school to use medical marijuana, while on campus, to treat his ailments. That’s right, three times a day the young man walks right past the Principal’s office, and into the Vice Principal’s office for a quick rip, or two or three, off of his handheld herbal vaporizer.

California Governor Jerry Brown delivers 127 pardons for the holidays, set sights on weed-related crimes

By Jack Daniel on January 2, 2014 News

California Governor Jerry Brown, apparently feeling the holiday spirit, spent a good part of Christmas Eve this year flexing an Executive power reserved only for state Governors, and the President of the United States himself – the power to pardon individuals of past crimes. While a pardon does not completely erase a crime from a person’s record, it does re-grant them certain rights, such as voting, serving on a jury, or in some cases even owning a firearm.
Governor Brown handed out a respectable 127 pardons this year, 93 of which pertained to drug-related crimes, many of those weed-related. The most notable from that array of individuals was 65 year old Robert Akers, convicted in 1968 of selling pot.

58-year-old U.S. citizen dies in border patrol holding cell on Christmas over marijuana

By Jack Daniel on December 31, 2013 News, Say what?

flickr.com/mrthomas

Something is going terribly wrong with regards to the War on Weed currently being waged in San Diego, California. Being accused of marijuana possession, or any type of possession, certainly does not carry the penalty of torture, or worse, death.
Unless, that is, you are unlucky enough to be detained by a federal agency in America’s Finest City.

Author Jack Daniel