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Guest Editorial: Don’t Blame NORML

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By on Legislation, Medical

Natl NORML/flickr
NORML Board Member Norm Kent responds to criticism of Executive Director Allen St. Pierre’s recent statements about the medical marijuana industry

​Editor’s Note: Toke of the Town recently called to task Executive Director Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for statements regarding the medical marijuana industry.

In the interest of presenting both sides of the controversy, here is a response from NORML Board Member Norm Kent.
Don’t Blame NORML

By Norm Kent
“Of all the tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive...” ~ C.S. Lewis
It is time to responsibly address the issues raised by Allen St. Pierre in his controversial comments about the medical marijuana programs in California.
First, that requires putting aside those personal issues that have foolishly fractured the dialogue and emotionalized the discussion on the NLC list-serve.  Let’s excise those straightaway.
In short order, we know Mr. St. Pierre has always protected the reputation and stature of NORML, governing the organization with endless energy and managing it with integrity. In his capacity as Executive Director, he has worked tirelessly, sacrificed financially, and committed himself exhaustively to keep the organization alive and afloat. Allen has been a nationally recognized and responsible voice for marijuana law reform for decades. It is an affront for anyone on the Board of Directors or within the list-serve to suggest anything else. Those who have done so do a disservice to NORML and are being disingenuous and unfair to Allen. 
Having said that, let’s start the discussion by assuming the worst; that the statements Mr. St. Pierre made about medical marijuana were inappropriate politically and hurtful personally to many in California working for reform. Were they irreparably damaging or thoughtful and provoking? I suggest the latter. I submit his comments wisely and prudently pushed the needle- moving us in a new direction that may yet prove to be smarter.
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Pot Smoking Not Linked To Breathing Problems; May Help Lungs

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By on Medical, News

Healthy Lifestyle
Not only does it not reduce lung capacity. Smoking marijuana INCREASES lung capacity, according to a new study

​20-Year Study Finds No Decline In Lung Function For Occasional Cannabis Smokers; Lung Function Of Most Marijuana Smokers Improves Over Time

Often, when people hear about the studies which have shown that smoking marijuana doesn’t cause lung cancer, they’ll say something like, “Well, inhaling any smoke, cancer or not, is bound to cause some breathing problems.” Guess what? It doesn’t do that, either.
A report to be published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that — over a 20-year period — marijuana smokers generally did not experience a loss in lung function, reports Derek Abma at Postmedia News. In fact, many actually had enhanced lung capacity, which one researcher speculated might come from the practice of “deep-lunging” hits to maximize their intoxicating effects.
Whatever the cause, the fact remains that the study showed the lung function of most marijuana smokers actually improved slightly over time.
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Dispensary Closure Protesters To Feds: Cannabis Is Medicine

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By on Dispensaries, Medical, News

The Petrelis Files

​By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
An estimated crowd of 50-60 loyal medical marijuana supporters made their presence known at the Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue this morning in San Francisco to show their solidarity for the dispensary, Market Street Coop that is being forced to close at 7pm today.
Market Street Coop is the last of the dispensaries in the San Francisco/Marin County area that was served by the Justice Department with the so-called infamous, ‘Five Letters.’
Toke of the Town was able to “obtain” one of those letters.
The Five Letters refer to the documents sent out by U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, Melinda Haag, starting in October of last year to landlords of dispensaries, threatening asset forfeiture. All five dispensaries that received those letters have had to close.
Two of the dispensaries, Divinity Tree and Medithrive. have been able to make the lateral move to a delivery service as many pot shops have had to do in order not to lose everything. The Market Street Coop doesn’t have that kind of wiggle room.
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Arizona Tribe Seizing Cars Of Medical Marijuana Patients

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By on Medical, News

Mexico Unmasked

​A Native American tribe in Arizona says that the state’s medical marijuana cards don’t apply on tribal lands, and has apparently started seizing the vehicles of legal cannabis patients as they pass through.

Under Arizona law, the state’s 18,000 medical marijuana patients with state-issued cards are allowed to transport small amounts of cannabis in their vehicles — but not on tribal lands, reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times.
In the case of the Salt River Maricopa-Pima Indian Community, that includes a strip of the Loop 101 freeway — and it seems that every legal patient who drives down that particular stretch of freeway is not only putting his or her medicine at risk, but the vehicle they’re driving, as well.
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Hemp and Cannabis Patient Protection Initiative Filed In WA

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

CBS News
Medical marijuana patients are concerned about the DUI provision in legalization initiative I-502, which they say would effectively criminalize most driving by patients

Initiative Filed By Patients and Concerned Citizens’ Group
An initiative to the people of Washington state regarding cannabis for patients and hemp for farming was filed Friday at the State Elections Office. A group of patients and other concerned citizens filed the petition in response to concerns over I-502, a decriminalization initiative that threatens the driving privileges of every long-term cannabis user and fails to address hemp for farming.
Medical marijuana patients and advocates are concerned about the DUI provision in legalization initiative I-502, which they say would effectively criminalize most driving by patients. I-502 would include a five nanogram per milliliter (5 ng/ml) THC blood level as per se proof of driving under the influence of cannabis.
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Marijuana Improves Mental Sharpness In Middle-Aged Men: Study

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By on Medical, News

Aspen Daily News
Keith Stroup, who founded the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in 1970, takes a smoke break for mental sharpness at the NORML convention in Aspen, Colorado in 2008.

​Not only does smoking marijuana not “burn you out,” but it’s downright good for your brain. Yet more scientific evidence — this time, that it actually appears to improve cognitive functioning among middle-aged men — is now available, thanks to a new medical study.

Researchers looked at a large sample of 8,992 men who “used drugs,” mostly cannabis, at age 42 and then again at age 50, reports Dennis Romero at LA Weekly. The men were tested to measure their level of brain functioning.
Surprise, surprise — the Brits who had used illegal drugs did just as well — or slightly better! — than the chaps who had never “used drugs” at all.
When current and past drug users were lumped together as one group, their scores tended to be better than those of non-users. That advantage was small, researchers said, and might be due to the fact that people who have tried drugs tend to be better educated than those who haven’t.
“A positive association was observed between ever (past or current) illicit drug use and cognitive functioning,” the study’s authors concluded in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

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Maryland Could Give Green Light To Medical Marijuana

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Medical Marijuana Blog

​A medical marijuana bill, House Bill 15, has been filed in the Maryland General Assembly, and would establish cannabis dispensaries for the seriously ill. But a state panel charged with making recommendations on medical marijuana last month failed to find consensus, instead presenting two divergent plans.

Their report, released in December, outlines competing plans to implement Maryland’s medical marijuana law, which was passed last April and does not take the step of actually legalizing cannabis outright. The Legislature will be left to decide which of the two plans — if either — will be chosen for the distribution of medicinal cannabis in the state, reports Erin Cox at Hometown Annapolis.
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‘Dope King’? THCF’s Stanford Responds To AP Hit Piece

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By on Medical, News, Products

Torsten Kjellstrand/The Oregonian
Paul Stanford has dedicated his life to advocating for medical marijuana. A medical marijuana cardholder, he and others involved with THCF grow marijuana for themselves and others. There is usually a surplus from this Portland garden, and most of it goes to patients who can’t grow their own or afford to buy it from others.

​Medical marijuana advocate and businessman Paul Stanford, in an exclusive interview with Toke of the Town, has responded to a negative article by The Associated Press which on Sunday described his life as one “of error, missteps and regrets, one laden with betrayals and failure.”

Portland-based AP reporter Nigel Duara called Stanford and The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF) “the nation’s leading gateway to the drug,” even going so far as to label him a “Dope King” in the headline and to refer to his supporters as “dope enthusiasts” who regard Stanford as “something of a savior.”
So, how did we get back to 1970s or even 1960s style “evil weed” journalism in the blink of an eye? Wasn’t yesterday supposed to be the start of a new year? Aren’t we in the second decade of the 21st Century?
Apparently, only some of us are. 
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Smoked Marijuana IS Medicine: Feds Still Distributing Rolled Joints

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By on Medical, News

The Weed Blog
U.S. federal government joints come ready-rolled in tins of 300, as pictured above.

Despite the continued denials from the U.S. federal government — and its absurdly erroneous classification of cannabis as a Schedule I substance, meaning it by definition has a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical uses — the feds themselves have been giving out free marijuana to a limited group of patients for 30 years.
The program had grown to close to 30 patients at its height, but in 1992 stopped accepting any new participants, during the George H.W. Bush Administration.
Activists speculated that happened because of the advent of the HIV/AIDS crisis; with the widespread need of such patients for medicinal cannabis, pot’s medical usefulness could have become uncomfortably obvious to the public at large once hundreds or thousands of people had permission to use it.
Despite the program not having accepted any new patients for more than 20 years, the four surviving federal medical marijuana patients still get their 300 (stale, low-quality) joints a month, and will until they die. Never mind that it’s only 3.5 percent THC (maybe that’s why the federal government recommends its patients use 10 “marijuana cigarettes” a day!) plus being 10 years old and stale as shit by the time the patients receive it.
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R.I. House Speaker To Ask Feds For Marijuana Guidance

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Steven Senne/AP
Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon D. Fox: “I think it’s been too long and there have been too many people waiting”

​Rhode Island’s Legislature legalized medical marijuana back in 2006. Three years later, in 2009, the Legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto to allow medicinal cannabis dispensaries in the state with an overwhelming 68-0 vote in the House and 35-3 in the Senate.

That certainly seems clear enough, and it’s been a couple of years now. Haven’t they had time to get that program up and running for seriously ill patients? But, well, you know how silly the federal government can be, when it comes to that oh-so-dangerous boogie bear “marijuana.” It’s still against federal law, doncha know? So please don’t get any wacky ideas about the people trying to run things.
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