Your Intelligent Marijuana Gateway

This third installment of the Marijuana Media Minutes covers three stories from California: marijuana vending machines, Oaksterdam University, and the effective banning of medical marijuana dispensaries in one California county. Enjoy!

Check this link on the truly fabulous VideoJug site where our colleague Aaron Houston of the Marijuana Policy Project takes on a multitude of questions regarding various aspects of the medical marijuana debate. Pretty cool.

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Last week a few news sources picked up on a story that indicated U.S. drug use was funding Mexican drug cartels, and in turn, the violence associated with them. The stories reported that US marijuana use contributes about $8.5 billion dollars annually to Mexican drug traffickers. Of course, our current drug czar, John Walters, had plenty to say on the issue:

“The ability to have people purchase arms, corrupt institutions and pay assassins is fueled by the dollars of marijuana users in the United States, which is a huge, huge part of the detonator of crime and terror you’re seeing across Mexico, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border”

and

“While the criminal organizations that are a threat to both of our countries make a lot of money off of heroin and cocaine and methamphetamine, the vast majority of their money to buy guns, bribe, corrupt and destroy lives is from marijuana.”

Walters’ solution is, of course, to crack down on this trade with more money and equipment, as well as by encouraging harsher penalties in US marijuana cases. Basically, more of the same.

But there is another option: tax and regulate marijuana here in the U.S.

A well-structured tax and regulate (T&R) scheme could:

• dramatically reduce the money being funneled to drug cartels, leading to a reduction in cartel violence;
• reduce our own spending on marijuana enforcement, freeing up resources for more pressing matters;
• help keep more than 800,000 Americans from being arrested for something 100 million of us have used;
• put $113 billion dollars into our dwindling economy (generating tax revenues on the order of $42 billion dollars).

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sensible reasons for taxing and regulating marijuana. Of course all of these arguments have been espoused previously in some form, but they’re all still valid and true and need to be reiterated from time to time to remind people that there are other options. Very little in life is black-and-white, regardless of what John Walters may want us to believe.

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The intellectual father of modern American conservatism and strong marijuana reform supporter William F. Buckley has died at the age of 82. Buckley founded the influential National Review magazine and occasionally used that platform to advocate for marijuana reform to the conservative movement.

“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.” —William F. Buckley, Jr., New York Post, February 27, 1999

R.I.P.

1925-2008

Here are a couple notable articles by Mr. Buckley on marijuana and on medical marijuana.

“Marijuana is not harmless, and its use should be discouraged, but in the same way, say, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day should be discouraged. The criminal justice system should stay out of it. Twelve states have decriminalized marijuana to varying degrees, fining instead of arresting people for possessing small amounts. They recognize that — as the authors of a new study for the conservative American Enterprise Institute argue — ‘the case for imposing criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of marijuana is weak.’ ”—Rich Lowry, editor, National Review, May 2005

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Welcome to the second episode of the Marijuana Media Minute for 2008. In this show, we take an irreverent look at some news stories from the recent past, including the cost of marijuana laws, a possible change in federal raiding policies in California, and a new Office of National Drug Control Policy media campaign. Enjoy and drop us a line to let us know what you think!

Going back in the time machine a bit: On April 20, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a press release claiming that “no sound scientific studies” support the medical use of marijuana. The statement — which was issued in response to pressure from U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, who has demanded that the FDA’s acting commissioner denounce medical marijuana — contained no mention of new research or analysis that led to the agency’s pronouncement. Rather, the statement was simply a rehash of the federal government’s longstanding position.

After the jump, is MPP’s summary of editorials and op-eds from around the country in response to the FDA’s disingenuous claims.

[Read more →]

The American College of Physicians, one of the country’s most elite and prestigious physician organizations — with a membership of 124,000 internists, the second largest physician group and the largest medical specialty organization in the U.S. — just threw its support behind medical marijuana access. To date, this is the most significant organizational endorsement of medical marijuana access in the field of medicine and science. In its landmark report — which now comprises the organization’s official position — the group calls for (1) full legal protection for medical marijuana patients, (2) changing marijuana’s federal classification as a Schedule I drug (which currently puts it in the same category as heroin and LSD), and (3) increased funding for medical marijuana research.

You can see the Marijuana Policy Project’s summary of the report or read the full ACP report.

For the story that broke the news, check out the article from the LA Times, “Physicians group urges easing of ban on medical marijuana.”

MPP’s very own Bruce Mirken went beyond the media hysteria and the all-too-typical fear-mongering headlines about marijuana use to see just how solid the science is behind some recent studies. Needless to say, reefer madness is still alive and well. Check it out.

So let me get this straight, the United Nations thinks it should be getting involved in medical marijuana vending machines that exist in Los Angeles? I’m sure our friends on the right who fret about American sovereignty being sacrificed to the United Nations would agree that this is a severe overstep on the part of this board to involve themselves in this domestic matter. Personally, I’d much prefer to see this kind of decisive action from the U.N. in that little matter in Darfur where genocide is going on.

Here it is, the first video in our Short Cuts Documentary series, Why is Marijuana Illegal? Click, watch, & learn. Think the video was cool? Think it blew? Think you’ve got a better idea? Whatever you thoughts, send us an email or leave us a comment so we can help deliver the content you want to watch.

Without further ado…

If you’re interested in reading more about why marijuana is illegal, be sure to check out Pete Guither’s great piece on it over at Drug War Rant.