Puerto Rico Adopts Medical Marijuana Regulations

By R.Robles

Caption:LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 19: Dave Warden, a bud tender at Private Organic Therapy (P.O.T.), a non-profit co-operative medical marijuana dispensary, displays various types of marijuana available to patients on October 19, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Attorney General Eric Holder announced new guidelines today for federal prosecutors in states where the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is allowed under state law. Federal prosecutors will no longer trump the state with raids on the southern California dispensaries as they had been doing, but Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley recently began a crackdown campaign that will include raids against the facilities. Cooley maintains that virtually all marijuana dispensaries are in violation of the law because they profit from their product. The city of LA has been slow to come to agreement on how to regulate its 800 to 1,000 dispensaries. Californians voted to allow sick people with referrals from doctors to consume cannabis with the passage of state ballot Proposition 215 in 1996 and a total of 14 states now allow the medicinal use of marijuana. (Photo : David McNew/Getty Images) 

Puerto Rico is now among the many states in the Latin America which have adopted the use of marijuana in medicine.
 
According to Puerto Rico's Public Affairs Secretary Jesus Manuel Ortiz, as per Fox News Latino, the whole system is slated to be implemented by the end of this year. The country's health department announced Thursday that it will be implementing a "seed-to-sale inventory tracking system."

Moreover, the ministry of health will also grant licenses to doctors as well as to private businesses and organizations that are looking to cultivate and manufacture marijuana for medicinal purposes. Samples must, however, be sent to independent labs for testing in order to ensure that they contain the correct amounts of THC and are free of contaminants.

The new decree will oversee the cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of medical marijuana in the country.

Furthermore, the new regulation allows the use of marijuana for the following: pills, creams, patches and oral drops. Apart from that, the same report noted that smoking cannabis and planting and growing it for personal use is still illegal.

 

 There are studies, however, that reveal facts about medical and recreational pot users that may prove or disprove the rationale of pot regulators. SFGATE, in a report, presents the reality behind marijuana regulation.

Researchers hailing from the RAND Drug Policy Research Center have released the results of a new study in the Addiction journal. The study compares medical and recreational marijuana users in states that have legalized the said drug.

A total of 1,994 respondents were surveyed for the study to represent "household populations" of Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.
Here are the five findings from the study, as per SFGATE.
1) Prohibition, apparently, did not work.
In spite of government control, 41% of the respondents were reported to have used the drug recreationally at least once in their lifetime.
2) Doctors and dispensaries are crucial.
Around 7% of the respondents have admitted to using marijuana for medical purposes. However, more than 50% of those who did admitted that they did not have a physician's recommendation when they took the drug.
3) Best Medicine Ever?
There are about 86% of those surveyed who made use of marijuana as medicine also admitted to exploiting the drug for personal purposes.
4) There is a problem of "standard."
It was found that those who use cannabis for medical purposes users consumed more of the drug daily than those who use the drug for recreation. (1.1 grams per day versus 0.35 gram).
5) Not Served With Alcohol
The study found that "medical-only" users of marijuana did not take the drug concurrently with alcohol.
"The rate of simultaneous use of alcohol and marijuana was lower than researchers expected," Rosalie Pacula, the study's lead author and a senior economist, said as per SFGATE.
Pacula furthers that public health officials should pay closer attention to the risks of simultaneous use of alcohol and marijuana. Moreover, authorities should monitor those who use the drug only for recreational purposes.

High hopes: Legalized pot is on the way

As marijuana producers gear up to sell to the masses, the feds have some hurdles to clear

Laura Payton

(Blair Gable/Reuters)

Walking into the lobby of Tweed Marijuana Inc. in Smiths Falls, Ont., is like entering a sleek but bare-bones start-up, all polished concrete floors and white walls: visitors are greeted by a vintage-looking cabinet displaying jars of the company’s wares on shelves above faded hardcover books, as well as a trendy wall of old candy ads—homage to the building’s previous life as a Hershey factory.

Men in sneakers with well-groomed beards wander in and out. But this isn’t some hipster PR firm—Tweed is at the vanguard of Canada’s medical marijuana industry, readying itself for the multi-billion-dollar market for legal marijuana expected to take root under the newly elected Liberal government.

But first things first. Moving from illicit to licit requires regulations that allow enough of a legal market to dry out the black one—ideally, while bringing in much-needed tax revenue—and a blend of stiff penalties for rule-breakers and funding for education and addiction treatment.

The Liberals named Scarborough Southwest MP and former Toronto police chief Bill Blair to lead the way.

As parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, he’s charged with coordinating with Health Canada, Public Safety and each of the provinces. Blair won’t be pinned down to a specific deadline, pointing out he’s new to Parliament and its processes. But he allows he’s encouraged by recent opposition support for regulation as the best way to protect communities. “I’m also hoping that this will be an effort that all of us can get behind and work together on to make sure we do it right,” he said in an interview with Maclean’s. “We want to do it right.”

The pending green rush has producers eager to help him with that task. Tweed recently turned to a high-powered lobbying firm to make the case for a simple expansion of the existing medical marijuana model. That would mean allowing already licensed producers to sell online and send the product by mail—rather than in liquor stores, as some premiers propose. Tweed argues that using the medical marijuana model is the most straightforward way to ensure product quality and consistency, as well as being speedy to implement.

“There’s a lot of things to work out,” said Tweed president Mark Zekulin, who estimates it could take years for each province to set up its own distribution model. Were Canada to use the existing system, “I think you could see that within a year,” he said.

Meanwhile, the illegal dispensary system—private pot retailers who sell a product that isn’t inspected for potency or purity—continues to thrive. Vancouver, which has about 100 dispensaries, has moved to license and regulate them rather than have no rules at all. Even interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose, who has previously suggested the Liberals wanted to make it easier for kids to buy marijuana, now says the government needs to move to regulate dispensaries.

Currently, the only way to buy marijuana legally is to have a doctor’s authorization (Health Canada doesn’t use the term prescription because pot doesn’t go through its drug review process) and order through one of 27 licensed producers—including Tweed. Those producers require a licence to grow, as well as a licence to sell, for which they undergo regular inspections by Health Canada.

Conforming to Health Canada rules can be overwhelmingly expensive, requiring high security like biometrics to limit access to plants and heavy-duty vaults to store the product, as well as extensive protocols to track plants from seed to shipping. Start-up costs can range from $5 million to $10 million. No wonder that, of 1,284 production applications received by Health Canada as of last March, almost 75 per cent were rejected or withdrawn. The vast majority were deemed incomplete.

The result of a successful application, however, is a sight to behold. Built in a cavernous warehouse, Tweed’s facility features spotless rooms filled with rows of bright green plants, labelled and tagged for tracking. The company keeps 12 flowering rooms and has space to expand by an additional 18. Each flowering room has 500 plants bathed in the kind of bright yellow light that bursts from the door like some kind of heavenly glow.

The scent of marijuana, surprisingly, is no stronger than if you were to catch a whiff of someone puffing on a joint as they walked past. That could be due to the ventilation system chugging away overhead, making yelling the easiest way to communicate.

Given what Blair calls the “onerous” regulations imposed on licensed producers, legal producers sometimes portray the dispensaries in comparison as irresponsible sellers dealing in pesticide or mould-tainted weed.

But many dispensaries have fought for regulations, including the B.C. Compassion Club Society, says spokeswoman Jamie Shaw, who is also president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries. Shaw says some dispensaries have their marijuana tested, but it’s hard to prove, as the labs do it off the books and won’t provide paperwork.

The Liberals say regulation would let them test for additives, as well as require labels telling consumers how strong the marijuana is. It would also allow advertising and packaging rules, similar to restricting marketing for tobacco. Andrew Freedman, director of marijuana coordination in Colorado, where pot was legalized two years ago, says he is watching to see how his state’s licensees start marketing their products.

“Roughly 20 per cent of the [marijuana] users use 80 per cent of the product, so when licensees a few years down the road get sophisticated enough to really advertise and commercialize their brand, we are going to have to worry about what commercialization does to potentially drastically increase the number of users,” he told Maclean’s.

Freedman says there are a few things he wishes Colorado had done differently, including starting its public education campaigns sooner to avoid the lag between easier access to pot and increased public awareness of the potential harm. The state is also likely to reduce the initial tax rate of 10 per cent for recreational weed (15 per cent on wholesale purchases), which is on track to put US$100 million in its coffers this year. Too high a tax drives up the price and can mean users would rather go to an illegal dealer than a legitimate seller.

Too low a tax could mean there’s profit to be made in selling it illegally outside the state. “We have to find this very sweet spot [where] the price is just at the right place where people don’t want to ship it out in pounds, but not so high as to allow the black market to thrive,” Freedman said, calling it a guessing game.

“It’s a complicated enough issue that I would leave myself breathing room to come back and change things down the road.”

For his part, Blair is looking closely at a report by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, noting pot is harmful to teens and people with mental illness, as well as to heavy users. CAMH recommends banning pot marketing, advertising and event sponsorship, as well as maintaining a government monopoly on sales. The former police chief hopes to have more to say publicly in the next few weeks about the initial steps toward legalization.

If the 2015 election was at least in part about whether to legalize marijuana, with the Conservatives staunchly opposed and the Liberals resolutely in favour, the next debate will focus on how best to make that happen.

It’s clear from Tweed’s forest of marijuana plants and high-tech facility just how much has been invested beyond the halls of power. The stakes are high—in more ways than one.

Rauner administration again rejects new marijuana conditions

CARLA K. JOHNSON

CHICAGO — For the second time in five months, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signaled his distaste for broadening the state’s new medical marijuana program, declining to add chronic pain and seven other health conditions to the list of diseases that can be treated with the drug.

The Department of Public Health announced the decision Friday, spurning recommendations of an expert advisory board largely appointed by the governor’s predecessor, Democrat Pat Quinn.

The expert panel reviewed medical evidence and listened to patient testimony before recommending the eight conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, which affects many military veterans. Other conditions recommended but rejected Friday were autism, irritable bowel syndrome, osteoarthritis and four pain syndromes.

New conditions would have meant adding more customers to a faltering industry: Regulated medical marijuana sales began Nov. 9 in Illinois, but just 4,000 patients have state approval to buy the drug at licensed dispensaries.

Supporters hoped that after nearly three months of regulated sales, Rauner would have looked more kindly at the program. Industry groups and patient advocates had used a social media campaign to urge people to telephone the governor’s office in support of the eight conditions, and some delivered thousands of signatures to Springfield this week and held a rally.

In September, the governor vetoed legislation that would have added PTSD and his administration rejected 11 medical conditions recommended by the panel. At the time, he said in a veto message that it would be “premature to expand the pilot program — before any patient has been served and before we have had the chance to evaluate it.”

Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold echoed that Friday in an email, saying the program was still in an early stage: “At this time, it is premature to expand the pilot program before there is the ability to evaluate it under the current statutory requirements.”

Dr. Nirav Shah, the state’s public health chief and a Rauner appointee, thanked the medical cannabis advisory board for its work.

“Twice in a row, this is getting to be insulting, especially for our patients who are suffering,” said board chair Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, who said she would meet with Shah next week to get his feedback. “The expertise of the board, the patient testimonies and evidence presented, as well as other states’ precedents, made our recommendations reasonable.”

Gold-standard research on medical marijuana’s efficacy has been blocked by federal barriers, though evidence that the drug is effective for chronic pain is fairly strong.

Rauner’s stance is being challenged in court. Five Illinois residents filed lawsuits seeking to expand the program to cover health conditions rejected in September.

Lisa Arquilla’s lawsuit seeks to add polycystic kidney disease. Three others filed lawsuits as anonymous “John Does,” looking to use marijuana for chronic post-operative pain, irritable bowel syndrome and migraines.

Military veteran Daniel Paul Jabbs, 34, has PTSD following service in Iraq. His lawsuit seeks to get his condition added to the list.

“I’m flabbergasted,” Jabbs said Friday. “I think (Rauner) is intentionally stalling the program. … He’s putting politics before people.”

The Illinois medical marijuana law, enacted before Rauner’s election, authorizes a four-year pilot program that expires at the end of 2017.

The law lists 39 conditions and diseases that can qualify a patient to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s signature, including cancer, glaucoma, HIV, hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis.

The creed includes weed for these Colorado Christians

“I didn’t love my fellow man until I got high,” says Deb Button, right, at Stoner Jesus Bible Study with Mia Williams, a member. (David Kelly / For the Times)

 

By David Kelly

 

As snow began to fall outside, Deb Button snuggled up on her couch, fired up a joint and spoke of the nature of Christ.

"Even if Jesus didn't smoke weed, he'd still be a stoner," she said, exhaling a white cloud.
Her kitten sniffed the air curiously.

"Jesus was peaceful and loving. He went from house to house and was always accepted," she explained. "Only a stoner could do that."

Theologians might dispute that, but this was the Stoner Jesus Bible Study, where the divine is liberally interpreted through a haze of pot.

Button, a self-described fortysomething soccer mom with two teenage sons, started the group last May. Disenchanted with her church, she was using marijuana to relieve migraines when something peculiar happened.

"One night I got high and had the most incredible spiritual experience of my life," she said. "I'm sitting in my living room and the cannabis was kicking in at a higher dose, and I could literally feel God. I was filled with love, an indwelling of love."

Delightfully stoned, she hopped on a bike and pedaled around her suburban neighborhood.
"I loved everyone I saw. I said, 'Thank you, God. That was the feeling I always wanted in church!'" she recalled.

But religions are conflicted about pot. Its legalization in many parts of the country has not only posed a challenge to law enforcement, banking and regulators; it has also exposed spiritual rifts. Many mainstream denominations have made allowances for medical use but won't accept recreational pot.

Even Button, an ardent conservative, voted against legalization in Colorado before trying it herself. She has now fully embraced weed, turning her home into a "Bud & Breakfast" where she serves up cannabis-infused pastries and pot leaf smoothies every morning.

After her religious awakening, Button placed an ad on Craigslist seeking kindred spirits. Calls trickled in from those who shared her affinity for getting high and reading Scripture. They soon grew to more than 30 members meeting weekly at Button's home or a Denver coffee shop.

On this wintry evening, members shook off the cold while Button laid out a Mason jar full of joints, a lighter and a stack of Bibles.

Mia Williams and Kim Garcia, both college students, helped themselves.

"People are very judgmental in many churches," said Williams, taking a long drag. "We are not saying this is the only way, but this is the way we worship God."

A smiling Button scanned the room.

"I just read they found cannabis residue in ancient jars in Israel," she said.

"Where did you read that?" Williams asked.

"High Times."

A nervous-looking woman wandered in. She asked not to be identified for fear of losing her job. Marijuana may be legal here, but employees can still be fired for flunking a drug test. And many feel stigmatized for using cannabis.

"I used to cry and beg God to please take this away, but without it I had these deep depressions I couldn't escape," she said. "When it finally became legalized I just wept and thanked God."

Button flipped to Colossians, Chapter 2, in the New Testament and read it aloud. Verse after verse talked about how Christians should stop paying heed to dietary restrictions and customs of other faiths: "Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: 'Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!'?"

Knowing glances were exchanged.

"That was deep," Williams said.

"What messages resonated with you?" Button asked.

Williams said the chapter showed God "made all of this stuff for you, and you don't have to listen to what others think."

Another woman interpreted it as a divine stamp of approval on weed.

"If using marijuana causes people to have a peacefulness that pours into others, how can that be anything but pleasing to Christ?" she asked.

That depends.

Pope Francis, known for his progressive stance on gay rights and income inequality, has denounced legalized pot, while ultraconservative televangelist Pat Robertson supports it.

The United Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches approve of medical marijuana in keeping with Matthew 25:35, in which Jesus talks about relieving suffering. Opponents, including many evangelicals, cite Bible passages telling believers not to engage in drunkenness, which they say includes intoxicants like pot.

The argument isn't new. Hallucinogenic and narcotic plants, including cannabis, have played a central role in religious ceremonies for thousands of years. But Christianity has generally frowned on them, with the exception of alcohol, which is used widely in both the New and Old Testaments, said Father Thomas Reese, a senior analyst at the National Catholic Reporter.

"One of the problems of using drugs in spirituality is you can confuse an emotional high with a spiritual experience, and that can be very dangerous," Reese said. "Spirituality is more than being mellow and feeling good about yourself. A spiritual experience is supposed to help you get closer to God. You should become closer with your brothers and sisters and realize your responsibility for loving your neighbor as yourself."

That had proved difficult for Button.

"People who go to church don't have a problem loving God, but they do have a problem loving you," she said. "I didn't love my fellow man until I got high."

Every group member said cannabis strengthened a faith that was calcifying. And they have paid a price.

Button said she's been called a "witch" and a "blasphemer" for linking pot with Christianity.

Greg Giesbrecht, 57, said his evangelical church expelled him after learning he used medical marijuana.
"They called and told me I wasn't welcome," he said.

He's now developing a 146-acre cannabis-friendly retreat in rural Colorado where people can camp, get married and worship without judgment.

As the Bible study drew to a close, Button and Williams shared a final toke.

"If weed were more welcome in church, you would see a spiritual revolution," Button predicted.

"Talk about people flooding in," Williams said.

They looked at each other and giggled.

"Oh, man, I am so high," Button said.

Mother of severely-disabled girl illegally uses cannabis oil to lessen child's pain; rallies for medical marijuana legalisation

By Ritwik Roy

 

 

A child wearing a marijuana leaf hat poses during a rally in support of cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes in Chile, Santiago March 18, 2015. Several families gathered in front of the government palace in support of the use of the cannabis oil to their children sick with epilepsy, according to the organizers. Reuters/Ivan Alvarado 

 

Sarah Ellett, a 43-year-old Utah single mum, gives two drops of cannabis oil a day to her three-year-old daughter Remie Ellett. According to Ellett, these two drops of cannabis oil keeps her daughter walking and free of the side-effects from the numerous illnesses she suffers.

Severely-disabled and ill Remie suffers from respiratory problems, thyroid and digestive problems. She even requires a feeding tube. However, her mother is afraid to lose custody of her daughter as using cannabis oil on children is illegal and may lead to criminal punishment.

Sarah believes that she would have to move out of the state in order to prolong her daughter’s life until and unless medical marijuana is made legal.

According to People, Ellett believes that someone had tipped off the authorities about her cannabis oil treatment as caseworkers from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services visited her on Monday. Sarah puts small droplets of cannabis oil under her daughter Remie’s tongue with a toothpick.

According to her, cannabis oil significantly improved Remie's panhypopituitarism symptoms.

Panhypopituitarism reduces and sometimes destroys the function of the pituitary gland, causing low blood sugar, blurred vision, vomiting and stunted growth.

“The cannabis oil is a miracle – it's what is giving her a good quality of life,” Sarah told People.

Even though growth hormones and thyroid and hydrocortisone medications helped, cannabis oil made Remie walk on her own the very day she had it. Sarah even said that cannabis helped in balancing Remie’s blood sugar, enabled her to move her jaw, controlled her nausea and allowed her to chew and swallow.

Since witnessing a dramatic turnaround in her daughter Remie’s health after treating her with cannabis oil, Sarah has rallied with other patients and parents to get a bill passed in Utah for legalising medical marijuana.

She also rallied with Enedina Stanger, the disabled mother of two who was arrested in 2015 for smoking pot to ease her symptoms.

“Once again, we see Utah state agencies enforcing outdated and ignorant cannabis policy, and again the outcome is unjust and cruel at best,” said Republican state representative Mark Madsen, who is sponsoring the bill that would legalise whole plant marijuana for Utah patients.

Utah DCFS officials did not comment on Ellett's situation.

Study: Medical Marijuana Patients Often Over Age 40

By Paul Armentano

BALTIMORE, MD — Patients who are registered to use medicinal cannabis in compliance with state law are often over the age of 40, according to a demographic assessment published online ahead of print in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

An investigator with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health assessed age demographics for medical marijuana participants in eight states with mandatory patient registries.

“Among adults, medical marijuana participants tend to be in their 40s and 50s,” the study found. “In several states, individuals in their 50s represented the largest age group of participants.”

For example, more than 50 percent of cannabis patients in Alaska are 50 years or older. In Nevada, 58 percent of patients are over 45. In Vermont, just under half of all registrants are over 55 years of age. In Oregon, 44 percent of patients are over the age of 50.

By contrast, less than one percent of medical marijuana registrants are minors, the report found.

The findings conflict with the claims of critics who have argued that most medical cannabis patients are individuals in their late 20s or early 30s.

Nationwide, an estimated 650,000 Americans are now using cannabis in compliance with the laws of their state, the study concludes.
 

Canada to reap billions in taxes from legal marijuana

By AFP 

 

While Canada has a legal market for medical marijuana, Justin Trudeau's promise to legalise its recreational usage could generate millions in taxes for federal and provincial governments. PHOTO: AFP

MONTREAL: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to legalise marijuana for recreational use could generate up to Can$5 billion (US$3.6 billion) in taxes for Canada’s federal and provincial governments, a study says.

CIBC World Markets said its assessment is not comprehensive, but that with Ottawa and provincial governments facing revenue crunches in the wake of falling commodity prices, it was worthwhile exploring how much new revenue could be generated from legal marijuana.

 

The study ignored broader health, social policy and criminal justice issues.

In it, analyst Avery Shenfeld put forth various scenarios to try to pinpoint the size of the Canadian market for cannabis, using Statistics Canada surveys and a study in the International Journal of Drug Policy on the estimated number of pot smokers in this country, as well as Colorado’s experience.

“Given that marijuana has to this point been illegal for recreational use, hard data for Canada is lacking,” Shenfeld commented.

Extrapolating from the International Journal of Drug Policy research, total Canadian spending on marijuana would be Can$3 billion, he said.

“If so, dividing that pie among governments and producers would not appear to leave a lot of room for a fiscal boost unless prices were raised substantially,” Shenfeld said.

But he noted that in Colorado the size of the market had been underestimated, and if the same is true here, the market for cannabis in Canada could be worth as much as Can$10 billion.

Other reports have pegged the size of the market at half that, noting that other US states did not see a similar bump in cannabis usage post-legalisation. Shenfeld suggests tourists may have been behind the higher Colorado figures.

If marijuana is taxed at the same rate as other economic activities, the governments’ combined take would be about 30 percent, or up to Can$3 billion. If it is taxed at the same higher rate as cigarettes and alcohol, however, the amount would rise to Can$5 billion.

Trudeau has appointed former Toronto police chief Bill Blair to sort out new regulations for the distribution of marijuana post-legalisation.

No timeline has been provided, but when Canada moves to legalise the drug it will have been the first G7 nation to do so.

 

Mays Landing man gets 8 year prison term for growing 17 marijuana plants in Pinelands

(Image: Wikipedia.org)

by Justin Auciello

An Ocean County judge Friday sentenced an Atlantic County man to eight years in state prison for growing marijuana in the Pine Barrens.

Jon Peditto, 54, of Mays Landing maintained throughout his October 2015 trial in Toms River that he grew the 17 marijuana plants found by police in Tuckerton in 2012, according to a NJ.com report. 

Authorities also found more than three pounds of marijuana in his home, APP.com reported.

Peditto was charged with maintaining a drug production facility, possession of marijuana and two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He was ultimately convicted of operating a marijuana production facility and marijuana possession but acquitted of intent to distribute marijuana.

Judge James Blaney sentenced Peditto, who represented himself during the trial, under second-degree offense guidelines and not first-degree stipulations that called for a sentence of up to 20 years, according to an NJ.com report. 

The judge commented that Peditto's outbursts during the trial appeared to be from the effects long-term marijuana use had on his cognitive functions, the report said. 

In a video of the sentencing posted by APP.com, Louis Esposito, Peditto's attorney during the sentencing, said that Peditto likely smoked more than he sold "by a long shot," adding that his client was "toked up during the whole trial."

During the sentencing, Peditto said marijuana smokers are peaceful.

"All of you need to learn a lot more about marijuana, because the laws certainly do not reflect the reality of the country you live in where tens of millions of people as we speak now are doing it freely and peacefully in this country without any interference from judges, prosecutors, law enforcement of any kind," he said, adding that "we are the most peaceful people in this country and that will never change regardless of the sentence I get."

Blaney called Peditto's defense "short-sighted, inept, reckless, and fool-hearted."

Peditto must serve one-third of the eight year prison term prior to parole eligibility. 

During his trial, Peditto said prosecutors were making him out to be a pot tycoon but really he's just a gardener trying to cultivate a better strain. He said the marijuana was for his own use and that he would occasionally sell it to family and friends in order to supplement his income. 

He sought a jury nullification defense in the hopes that the jury would acquit him on the basis that he should not be punished for the act, despite admitting growing marijuana, because the law is immoral or wrongly applied. 

"How can they put this guy in prison knowing others are making money and being treated with it!" said marijuana activist Edward Forchion, better known as "NJ Weedman," in October. 

Don't Get Lost in the Weeds: Medical Marijuana is Now Legal in New York

by

Pamela S.C. Reynolds, Trent Sutton

 

On January 6, 2016, the Commissioner of Health of the State of New York certified that the medical marijuana program established by New York’s Compassionate Care Act could be implemented in accordance with public health and safety interests.  The next day, the first dispensaries offering medical marijuana in New York opened.

Compassionate Care Act
The Compassionate Care Act, which was signed into law in July 2014, legalizes and regulates the manufacture, sale and use of medical marijuana in New York.  The Act sets forth specific conditions under which a patient may obtain medical marijuana.

• The patient must suffer from a “severe, debilitating or life threatening condition” that is accompanied by an associated or complicating condition.”  The Act specifically lists 10 qualifying conditions and five qualifying associated or complicating conditions in order to be a certified patient.¹
• The patient must be certified as having the required “condition” by a physician who is registered with the New York Department of Health to certify patients under the Act.
• A certified patient must obtain the medical marijuana from a licensed New York “medical marijuana dispensary.” 

The Act does not authorize the use of the marijuana plant, but only liquids manufactured by certified laboratories that are subject to quality control.  At least one of the forms of marijuana that can be prescribed through the state contains only low amounts of THC, the psychoactive component for which most employer drug-free workplace programs test.

Employment Protections for Medical Marijuana Use
Like medical marijuana legislation in some other states, the Compassionate Care Act establishes employment protections for medical marijuana use.  Specifically, it provides that certified patients shall not be subjected to “disciplinary action by a business” for exercising their rights to use medical marijuana.  It also contains a nondiscrimination provision, which states that being a patient for whom a doctor in New York State has prescribed medical marijuana is a “disability” under the New York State Human Rights Law (“NYSHRL”).

As a result, employers in New York State with four or more employees are prohibited from firing or refusing to hire an individual, and from discriminating against an individual in compensation or in the terms and conditions of employment, based on the individual’s status as a patient who is certified under state law to use medical marijuana.  Additionally, businesses in New York with four or more employees must provide reasonable accommodations to employees or prospective employees who are certified to use medical marijuana.

Significantly, though, the nondiscrimination provision of the Compassionate Care Act sets forth two exceptions:  (1) it “shall not bar enforcement of a policy prohibiting an employee from performing his or her employment duties while impaired by a controlled substance;” and (2) it “shall not require any person or entity to do any act that would put the person or entity in violation of federal law or cause it to lose a federal contract or funding.” 

Accordingly, New York employers will still be able to maintain a safe workplace by restricting employees from performing their duties while under the influence of marijuana.  For example, employers may still adopt and maintain reasonable policies or procedures – including drug testing – to ensure that an individual is not working while under the influence of a controlled substance (including marijuana) or engaging in the illegal use of drugs.  Substance abuse prevention policies should notify employees that the use of controlled substances (including medical marijuana) is prohibited during work hours and that disciplinary action will be taken against anyone who violates that policy.

One difficulty for employers in implementing such policies is that the regulations do not define “under the influence.”  Unlike alcohol, the effects of medical marijuana may not be as readily apparent through observation alone and are likely to persist long-term.  Such uncertainty raises the risks of litigation for employers as they try to establish objective standards on which to base an adverse employment action.

Warning:  Inconsistent with Federal Law
Employers who are subject to federal regulations that require certain testing or safety precautions related to marijuana use must still abide by these regulations and may do so without violating New York law.  For example, the Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and/or federal grants or contracts have regulations that impact marijuana use. 

New York’s Compassionate Care Act does not require an employer to take any act that would put the employer in violation of such laws or cause it to lose a federal contract or funding, so employers would not, for example, have to employ a medical marijuana user in a role that prohibited such use as a matter of law.

In the wake of legislation passed in other states legalizing the use of marijuana for medical use, the U.S. Department of Justice has made clear that marijuana remains an illegal drug under the Controlled Substances Act and that federal prosecutors will continue to aggressively enforce that statute.

Accommodation
Under the NYSHRL, employers have an obligation to accommodate individuals with disabilities.  Accordingly, employers will need to be mindful of legal obligations to engage in an interactive dialogue with employees who are certified patients under the Act and, where possible, reasonably accommodate employees with respect to underlying medical conditions. 

The accommodation strategies will need to include considerations of an employer’s obligation to maintain a safe work environment.  Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, permitting the use of a drug made illegal under federal law is not a reasonable accommodation, but New York’s law appears to reach further.  Bear in mind that New York law does not require an employer to accommodate a medical marijuana user by allowing the user to carry marijuana onto work property or to use it on work premises.  An employer should be careful not to implement accommodations that are affirmatively illegal as a matter of federal law.  Stated otherwise, accommodating the user, but not the use, is advised. 

Nevertheless, it may be difficult to navigate between federal and state law, particularly as to employees who hold safety-sensitive jobs but who are not subject to federal bars on marijuana use.  For these reasons, some employers may wish to continue to reject medical marijuana as an excuse for a positive test result.  If they choose to take this position, however, they may become the subject of a “test case” seeking to clarify the limits of the Compassionate Care Act where inconsistent with federal law.

Next Steps
New York employers concerned about compliance with the Compassionate Care Act should be proactive.  We recommend the following:

• Get (and stay) informed of an employer’s obligations with regard to medical marijuana.
• Evaluate the issues raised by this law in context of your workplace and the obligations your company has in light of other federal regulations and contracts.
• Educate managers on their obligations.
• Implement, revise, and/or update your drug free workplace policy.

¹ The law identifies the following conditions:  Cancer; HIV infection or AIDS; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease; Parkinson’s disease;  Multiple sclerosis; Spinal cord injury with spasticity; Epilepsy; Inflammatory bowel disease; Neuropathy; and Huntington’s disease.  The associated or complicating conditions are: Cachexia or wasting syndrome; Severe or chronic pain; Severe nausea; Seizures; or Severe or persistent muscle spasms.

 

Obama says marijuana reform is not on his agenda for 2016

By Christopher Ingraham

  

President Obama speaks at the House Democratic Issues Conference in Baltimore on Thursday. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

 

Marijuana advocates hoping for a substantial shift in federal marijuana policy in the last year of the Obama administration are likely to be disappointed.

At a briefing Friday, White House press secretary John Earnest said any progress on marijuana reform would need to come through Congress. President Obama had signaled his position a day earlier at the House Democratic retreat in Baltimore, saying marijuana reform is not on his list of end-of-term priorities, according to Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).

Cohen said he asked the president whether he wanted to "reschedule" marijuana. The federal government considers marijuana a Schedule 1 controlled substance, "the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence." Many lawmakers want to see it moved to Schedule 2, which acknowledges the plant's medical potential. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wants to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances altogether.

But Obama's answer on the rescheduling was "disappointing," Cohen said in an interview. "On marijuana, he gave the same answer as when I asked him seven years ago: 'If you get me a bill, and get it on my desk, I'll probably sign it,' " Cohen said (emphasis his).

At the briefing, Earnest clarified further: "There are some in the Democratic Party who have urged the president to take this kind of action. The president's response was, 'If you feel so strongly about it, and you believe there is so much public support for what it is that you're advocating, then why don't you pass legislation about it and we'll see what happens.' "

Obama's approach to the issue has long frustrated activists. "This isn't the first time President Obama has unnecessarily tried to pass the buck on marijuana rescheduling to Congress," Tom Angell of the pro-marijuana group Marijuana Majority said in an email. "It's unacceptable and frankly embarrassing for a president who has so nonchalantly acknowledged his own marijuana use to allow the federal government to continue classifying cannabis in such an inappropriate category."

There is an administrative process in place for the Drug Enforcement Agency to reschedule or deschedule a drug. But as the Brookings Institution has noted, the DEA has historically not been eager to take action on this front. "Four petitions that have been initiated to reschedule marijuana or remove it from the schedules entirely have been denied or stalled by DEA with disposition times ranging from five to more than 20 years," its report found.

The DEA is reviewing another petition to reschedule pot, but given the history, most observers are skeptical that anything will change this time around.

"I don't think they're doing anything," Cohen said. "They've slow-walked it for all these years." He'd like to see the White House be more vocal about the process. "The president could just tell them to get it done," he said.

The latest public opinion polls show broad support not just for marijuana reform, but also outright legalization: Fifty-eight percent of Americans want to see marijuana use fully legalized, according to the latest Gallup polling on the issue. And a 2015 CBS news poll found that 84 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use.

Moving marijuana to Schedule 2 of the Controlled Substances Act is a more modest step than full legalization or legalization for medical purposes. It would simply remove some of the barriers to research on uses of marijuana, barriers that the Brookings Institution recently said were "stifling" medical research.

Among people who study the issue, there is near universal agreement that marijuana doesn't belong in the same category of substances as heroin, as even the DEA has finally acknowledged. The consensus among researchers is that it's a lot less dangerous than alcohol, too.

A federal classification that stands in such stark opposition to expert consensus "breeds contempt for the government," Cohen said. But if this week's remarks are any indication, addressing that contempt is not high on the White House priority list for 2016.

Drake: Medical marijuana will improve quality of life

By Kerry Drake,

It’s not legal to toke up in Wyoming yet, but the day is coming sooner than many might think.

When it does, residents of the Equality State won’t suddenly develop “reefer madness” despite the fears of some conservatives. In the case of medical marijuana, the quality of life for people who suffer from a variety of diseases or other debilitating medical conditions will greatly improve.

How do I know this? Because that’s what has happened in the 23 states that already have approved medical marijuana. Almost 40 percent of Americans live in jurisdictions with compassionate medical marijuana laws. Why isn’t Wyoming one of them?

Positive results

When recreational use of marijuana becomes as common as buying alcohol and cigarettes, studies point to some positive changes for adults that don’t occur with those legal substances. I’ll get to those shortly.

The war on marijuana, which always has been a costly failure, is over. The federal Justice Department no longer considers busting pot smokers as a priority. The effect of improperly classifying marijuana as a Schedule I drug like heroin has resulted in full prisons, ruined young lives and prosperous drug cartels.

It’s also helped some politicians score points with voters by peddling such phony claims as marijuana being a “gateway” to harmful drugs. Their claims are propaganda, not facts, and they don’t make us safer or healthier.

Times are changing in Wyoming. The war on marijuana here is being fought on two fronts: by some lawmakers who are ahead of many of their colleagues, and by citizens who are uniting to change the laws themselves Polls have been consistent in recent years, showing about 72 percent support medical marijuana.

Even in this conservative state, lawmakers who refuse to do what three-fourths of the public demands eventually will find themselves out of office. The only question is how long it will take.

Rep. James Byrd, D-Cheyenne, is bringing back his proposal to lower the state’s penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana. House Bill 3 would make having less than half an ounce subject to a civil fine of $50. The penalty would be more appropriately the equivalent of a speeding ticket.

Will HB 3 pass this year? No. Last year the Wyoming House voted 38-22 against a similar bill. And during the month-long budget session beginning Feb. 8, a measure will need two-thirds support just to be introduced. To reach that level would require 18 opponents to change their minds, and that’s not remotely possible.

But it will provide another chance to show the people why it is in the state’s best interest to decriminalize marijuana possession. Mr. Byrd’s fines won’t be a huge moneymaker for any locality, but the shift would keep people from needless felony records and jail time and ruined employment and educational prospects.

Second bill

Mr. Byrd is also sponsoring HB 7, a companion bill that would allow people from other states with prescriptions for medical marijuana to legally possess the substance in Wyoming. With medical marijuana legal in neighboring Colorado and Montana, it makes sense to allow tourists to come into the state without the fear of being arrested.

In the meantime, supporters of medical marijuana are waging their own campaign to get the issue on the election ballot. They are already off to a good start.

The Wyoming chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has collected 10,000 signatures on its petition in only five months. A total of 25,673 signatures must be garnered in the next 13 months, which shouldn’t be hard to obtain at the rate the group is going.

This grassroots campaign should gain momentum as it literally heats up during the summer and more people are outside available to be approached.

NORML Wyoming spokeswoman Carrie Satterwhite said the group has the fewest number of volunteer petition circulators in the conservative northeast part of the state, but that region will be targeted in the upcoming months.

Ms. Satterwhite said Wyoming NORML is encouraging people to write letters to the editor in support of HB 3. Like many state residents, she believes decriminalization is necessary.

“Why are we going after kids with two grams of marijuana when we have a terrible heroin and meth problem that’s out of control?” she asked.

Helping addicts

Ms. Satterwhite noted a recent documentary showed how the use of marijuana is actually helping heroin and meth addicts clean up in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

“The drug cartels are losing money, so they’re shipping heroin that is purer than they had been before to get kids hooked on hard drugs,” she said. “It’s really sad. Fourteen hundred kids have died of heroin overdoses. There have also been many suicides.”

The NORML spokeswoman noted that in 2015 the Legislature passed a bill that legalized the possession of cannabidiol. But people can’t get it because it can’t be manufactured in the state.

Cannabidiol oil, or CBD, does not contain THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that gets users high.

Scientists discovered it can be used to treat people with epileptic seizures. It may also have antipsychotic effects.

“There are hundreds of people literally crying that I’ve run into while circulating these petitions,” Ms. Satterwhite said. “They’re saying, ‘Just tell us where to get the CBD.’ But I can’t help them because I don’t know where they can get it either. … Legislators threw us a bone, but you can’t produce any CBD in Wyoming and you can’t take it across state lines without breaking federal law.”

Business Insider points to 23 health benefits of using medical marijuana, including treatment of glaucoma, reducing some of the pain and nausea from chemotherapy and stimulating the appetite of cancer patients.

Pot also has been shown to decrease anxiety, slow the progression of Alzheimer’ disease and ease the pain of multiple sclerosis.

Medical marijuana lessens side effects from treating hepatitis C and increases treatment effectiveness, helps reverse the carcinogenic effects of tobacco and improve lung health, treats inflammatory bowel diseases and soothes tremors for people with Parkinson’s disease.

It also helps veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, protects the brain after a stroke and relieves arthritis discomfort.

If any other drug provided even a fraction of the benefits that medical marijuana does, it would already be legal in Wyoming and the other 26 states where it is now banned.

Several generations of Americans have been taught to equate using weed with encouraging the use of harder drugs and ignore the myriad medical benefits.

It’s difficult to undo the decades of fear related to using marijuana, and some people will continue refusing to make marijuana legal despite the fact it has scientifically been proven to be a beneficial medical resource.

Eventually, Wyoming will embrace the medical marijuana laws that are now helping reduce the symptoms of thousands of sick people in other states.

Reason and compassion will prevail, but it will take more time for lawmakers to see the light and do what’s right to help constituents who needlessly suffer.

Survey: Fewer students see risk in marijuana use

RE-1 focused on educating students

By Callie Jones

Over the past 10 years the percent of students seeing a great risk in regular marijuana use has fallen, according to a Monitoring the Future survey.

MTF tracks trends in substance use by surveying over 40,000 eighth, 10th and 12th grade students each year located in about 400 public and private secondary schools across the contiguous 48 states. Now in its 41st year, MTF is conducted by a team of research professors at the University of Michigan and is sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

According to the 2015 survey, which was released in December, over the past 10 years the percent seeing a great risk in regular marijuana use has fallen among eighth graders from 74 percent to 58 percent, among 10th graders from 66 percent to 43 percent and among 12th graders from 58 percent to 32 percent.

While marijuana use is illegal in Colorado for those under the age of 21, the survey found that 12 percent of eighth graders, 25 percent of 10th graders and 35 percent of 12th graders reported using marijuana at least once in the prior 12 months and 1.1 percent of eighth graders, 3.0 percent of 10th graders and 6.0 percent of 12th graders reported smoking marijuana on 20 or more occasions in the past 30 days.

However, the 2014 survey results showed that 56.7 percent of high school seniors disapproved of adults smoking marijuana occasionally and 73.4 percent disapproved of adults smoking it regularly.

Concern about the growing marijuana use among students was among the topics discussed at a Safe Schools Summit conference attended by around 350 school officials, teachers and law enforcement officials last fall. The conference, which was sponsored by the Colorado School Safety Resource Center, included a presentation focusing on the concern around edible marijuana products, which are filled with high amounts of THC.

Wally Beardsley, principal at Sterling High School, said he can't say if the school has noticed any more or less issues with it since Colorado's legalization of marijuana in 2012. However, he did say it seems to be a little more acceptable and accepted now.

RE-1 Valley School District as a whole is trying to tackle marijuana use in a number of ways. Last school year, they hosted a free educational program on marijuana for parents put on by the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. The program, sponsored by the Logan County Interagency Oversight Group, addressed the different methods of using marijuana, the dangers marijuana use poses to the developing brain and how parents can educate their children about marijuana use.

Sterling Police Department also gave a presentation to Campbell Elementary students last year regarding marijuana awareness and Glock, the department's K9 officer, and they visited Sterling Middle School last semester to give "Strong Kids, Safe Kids, Smart Kids" assemblies, with information on Glock and the High On Life program.

The district is also using its new character education program, Random Acts of Kindness, to try to educate students on making good choices.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, research has shown that marijuana's negative effects on attention, memory, and learning can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off, depending on the user's history with the drug. It also reports that considerable evidence suggests that students who smoke marijuana have poorer educational outcomes that their nonsmoking peers (i.e. lower graduation rates).

A "How Marijuana Harms Youth" brochure on the Colorado Department of Education's website, www.cde.state.co.us, notes long-term, regular users who started smoking the drug before the age of 18 often cause changes in their brain's structure and functioning that result in permanent cognitive deficits.

Essentially, they can create for themselves a level of "normal" performance that is lower functioning than the level of normal performance they may have achieved had they not used marijuana.

The brochure states that if teens didn't use marijuana before age 18 there would be 17 percent less high school dropouts, 5 percent less college non-attendance and 3 percent less college dropouts. It also points out that marijuana is addictive, and one in six people who try it before the age of 18 develop a clinical diagnosis of marijuana abuse or dependence.

At SHS, Beardsley said he's trying to get the message out that, "I don't want drugs here."

The school doesn't have any specific programs geared toward marijuana use — "We're dealing with it like we do everything else," the principal said. Marijuana use, along with alcohol and other drug use, is addressed in health classes. The school tries to educate students on some of the positives and negatives and let them know the legalities of it.

SHS does use SPD's canine officer to do random searches, not only for drugs but weapons as well, a practice that has been in place for many years "to make sure our students, our staff and our school is safe," Beardsley said.

He noted the school's main focus is to educate students on some of the choices they may have to make as young adults and to get them thinking about, "What is the reputation you want to have? How do you want to be viewed yourself? How do you want other students in the building to view you?"

Pesticides use in marijuana grows addressed in Colorado Legislature

Bill would create a list of acceptable products for growers to use

By Peter Marcus

JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald file photo On Thursday, lawmakers in the Colorado General Assembly began debate on a bill that would address allowable pesticides for use in the state’s legal marijuana industry.

DENVER – Colorado lawmakers on Thursday began addressing a growing marijuana pesticides problem, with legislation that would identify acceptable products to use.

The issue became a public concern in March 2015 after more than 100,000 plants were quarantined by the city of Denver because of pesticide concerns. Since then, the issue has proliferated, much like the budding industry itself.

Lawmakers equate the issue to “growing pains,” suggesting that there is still much to address in terms of the unintended results of legalization, which voters approved in 2012.

Mitch Yergert, the director of the Division of Plant Industry, part of the Department of Agriculture, pointed out that there are more than 12,000 pesticides registered in Colorado, yet only 200 have been identified for use with marijuana.

“It’s better for everyone, including the industry, to be able to use the list, just to identify and develop the criteria for those pesticides in rule, and put it on our website so the industry can go there and determine what can be used,” Yergert said.

Senate Bill 15 would require the state to enact rules to identify pesticides that can be used in the cultivation of marijuana. The measure passed unanimously Thursday through the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee. It now heads to the Senate floor for debate, before it can move to the House for consideration.

In the meantime, a list of acceptable products is available to growers. The legislation would simply allow for official rule-making on the subject.

Other cannabis pesticide bills are expected this legislative session, including a measure that would create a state program to help consumers easily identify marijuana that has been grown and processed without pesticides. Product labels would include a pesticide-free notification, similar to a federal program that allows for “organic” labeling.

Legalized marijuana could be $10 billion industry for Canada, says report

By Lauren Sundstrom

Image: Marijuana Plant / Shutterstock

Legalizing marijuana in Canada could create a $10 billion a year industry, according to a new report released by CIBC World Markets.

While hard data on marijuana use is hard to come by, Statistics Canada surveys suggest that 12% of Canadians admit to smoking pot. Here in B.C. pot consumption is estimated at a $400 million industry, and based on those figures, total Canadian spending would only hover around $3 billion, reads the report.

However, using Colorado’s legalization experience as a model, experts predict that the market could be much larger than that. Spending in that state alone for 2014 totalled $700 million, which yielded sales tax and licensing revenues of $75 million. Fast forward to 2016 and Colorado’s pot sales are on track to reach $1 billion, and with those figures adjusted to Canadian dollars, implies the marijuana market could be as large as $10 billion here.

Colorado’s data maybe skewed by tourist buyers – that is, people who come to Colorado specifically to purchase marijuana legally.

The report says of the potential $10 billion made in the pot market, the Canadian government could easily garner a share of 50% or more if there was a hefty “sin tax” laid on it, as is the case with alcohol and tobacco products.

It’s also worth noting these revenues would only exist if underground sales are effectively extinguished. Only 30% of all marijuana grown in Canada is sold domestically, meaning 70% of it wouldn’t be taxable.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to legalize and regulate marijuana. The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union and the B.C. Private Liquor Store Association recently banded together saying they would want to see recreational marijuana sold in provincial liquor stores.

Lawmakers push for home cultivation of marijuana

Author: Brittany Paris,

SPOKANE, Wash. -
You might soon be able to grow your own recreational marijuana at home if a new bill is passed.

Rep. Brian Blake is sponsoring House Bill 2629, The Adult Home Grow & Criminal Reduction Bill. It would allow adults to grow a limited number of marijuana plants for personal use.

“This bill is about consistency, congruency and especially, freedom,” Blake said in a press release. “Adults in our state can brew their own beer and make their own wine for personal consumption. Just like alcohol, marijuana can be used safely and responsibly, so it makes sense to allow adults to home grow their own if they want to.”

The bill would allow people to give away small amounts of marijuana as long as they don’t accept any money for it. It would legalize the cultivation of up to six cannabis plants per household, regardless of the number of people living there. You’d be able to harvest up to 24 oz. of marijuana from the home grown plants. The bill would also make the possession of up to three times the current legal limit for cannabis a civil infraction rather than a felony offense.

Under current Washington State law, growing any amount of marijuana is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Local recreational marijuana shops said home grow is part of the future of the industry. Satori’s general manager, Daniel Wendling, said it could provide more opportunities for his store.

“I feel like most folks that shop with us probably aren’t going to have the time or ability to grow cannabis at home because it’s not all that super simple to do,” Wendling said. “I do feel there’s always openings for the future for us. Maybe if they do allow this, maybe in the future, we could sell seeds or clones, something like that that might honestly be an added sale thing for us.”

If passed, the bill would put Washington in line with Oregon and Colorado, which allow cultivating cannabis for personal use.

Weed is making the beer industry paranoid

The goal of marijuana industry is to displace alcohol as a safer and healthier alternative. 

Chase Purdy

The beer industry is keeping close tabs on the growth of legalized marijuana in the US, and for good reason: The cannabis industry is gunning to displace alcohol as a safer and healthier alternative.

Beer already competes with wine and liquor for what some analysts cutely refer to as “share of buzz,” but with recreational use of marijuana legalized in four US states—and as many as six voting in 2016 on whether to join them—competition stands to toughen.

Marijuana sales have been on the rise, though are still dwarfed by beer, which brings in more than $101 billion annually. In 2014, marijuana sales clocked in at $2.7 billion, a 74% increase from 2013. By 2019, sales are estimated to increase to $10.8 billion, according to Nomura.

Analysts with Nomura attended the Beer Industry Summit this week (Jan. 25 and 26) in New Orleans, and report that the rise of marijuana was among the major talking points there. They predict that the beer industry will lose at least some of its share of buzz to marijuana.

There’s still a lot of data to collect before we know whether people in legalized markets are indeed substituting marijuana for beer, or whether one is definitively a healthier—or at least less unhealthy—option than the other. Still, many are already making the case for marijuana.

“If people are replacing some amount of alcohol with cannabis consumption, it is a net positive for public health,” says Taylor West, of the National Cannabis Industry Association.

Should her argument pan out, it would be good news for the cannabis industry, which could use any evidence showing health benefits as an extra arrow in its quiver when making the case for legalization. Still, it’ll probably be a long time before the beer industry has to seriously worry about people skipping pints for joints.

“Given the relative sizes of the two markets,” West says, “I don’t see cannabis taking over beer anytime soon.”

Can Marijuana Kill You? What You Should Know About Weed and Its Health Risks

By Miles Surrey

What is the worst-case scenario from smoking too much weed — something minor, like an insatiable appetite from the munchies, or something much, much worse? Horror stories of marijuana that lead to someone's death have played out in the media from time to time, which can naturally lead to some concern.

However, what are the actual ramifications of smoking weed? 

Source: Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images

Can it damage lungs? One of the biggest claims for marijuana's risks is the correlation between smoking weed and the various pulmonary diseases that could result from it. However, there is little evidence to suggest that smoking pot has intense, adverse effects to someone's lungs, especially when compared to smoking tobacco. 

In fact, a 2012 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, which followed 5,115 young adults for two decades, found that "occasional and low cumulative marijuana use was not associated with adverse effects on pulmonary function."

Conversely, tobacco has been proven in many studies to have much greater effects on the lungs, with higher death rates. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, more than 120,000 Americans are killed by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease per year. In an additional report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the deaths were almost always caused by cigarette smoking, estimating roughly eight of 10 COPD deaths are caused by it. In contrast, there isn't even a mention of marijuana in the report.

Long-term effects: Additionally, the long-term side effects have been, thus far, hard to gauge. In a 2003 editorial published in the British Medical Journal, the article detailed a Swedish study of more than 45,000 males, which showed no increase in the mortality rate of pot smokers within a 15-year time frame compared to non-smokers. 

Even relative to other drugs, it is considerably more harmless. According to the American Scientist, while marijuana is likely more risky to smoke than consume, a user would have to go to great lengths to put their life in danger — anywhere from 100 to 1,000 times the dose that would get someone high. "My surmise is that smoking marijuana is more risky than eating it but it is still safer than getting drunk," Robert S. Gable — professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University — wrote for the American Scientist.

It can lower your IQ — depending on your age: Cognitively, marijuana can make an impact on young adults and teens, according to several studies. "It disrupts the development of circuits," Dr. Paula Riggs — professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado — said in an interview with ABC News. "The latest study shows that regular use when you're an adolescent is associated with a 6-to-8 point reduction in IQ."

It can be linked to car accidents: It's not always the act of smoking that can be harmful, but rather, what someone does when they're high. According to a 2013 study from the American Journal of Epidemiology (h/t the Week) , reported by the Week, car accidents that were linked to marijuana have tripled in the last decade, while weed accounts for roughly one-third of all traffic fatalities.

We'll know more over time: Clearly, the longstanding effects of marijuana use will shed more light as studies continue to come out, and the drug continues to be legalized to some extent across the country.

10 things Italians should know about cannabis

by Roberta Lunghini

1. Growing cannabis sativa in Italy is completely legal;

2. Almost 1,500 hectares are cultivated in Italy;

3. France is the undisputed leader in Europe, with 11,000 hectares of the 20,000 in the whole of Europe;

4. Cannabis sativa is an annual, wild plant that adapts to almost any type of soil;

5. Hemp is environmentally friendly: it’s perfect for growing with natural methods;

6. Hemp seeds are one of the most valuable foods for the body;

7. One of the most recent uses is as a green building material;

8. Therapeutic cannabis has an analgesic effect for neurological chronic pain or pain linked to diseases such as multiple sclerosis;

9. Uruguay, led by José “Pepe” Mujica (president until March 2015), is the first country in the world to approve the total legalisation of the production, sale and use of cannabis;

10. Since 2007, medical marijuana has been legal throughout Italy.

These are just some of the curious facts you can discover reading ‘Il filo di canapa‘, the most complete and updated handbook that offers “instructions for use” for this plant: from cooking it to using it in textiles, from building materials to green cosmetics.

It also shines light on the current laws and those being discussed, including the proposals to legalise the drug, considering that about one-third of Italian inmates are detained for drug-related offences, 50% of which are related to cannabis.

Florida Likely To Legalize Medical Marijuana Use In 2016

By Steven Russell

In what comes as a major boost for the medical marijuana industry, a special ballot to be held in November 2016 will decide the fate of allowing the drug in Florida. A constitutional amendment for allowing medical marijuana in the state was passed Wednesday to cure patients prescribe the drug to fight cancer, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.

Florida is lagging behind in the race of states legalizing usage of marijuana for medicinal purposes while the law has been passed in 23 states and Washington D.C.

A statement by John Morgan, who is a lawyer in Orlando and Chairman of United for Care, confirmed the news and stated that the legalization of the drug is bound to happen for Florida this November offering the patients prescribed the drug some relief. He said that the public stood united to get the order passed and they had gathered enough signatures to take the petition forward.

A Positive Move
The hope for legalizing medical marijuana in Florida gained some fuel in 2014 but the move failed because of shortage of 2% votes. Morgan was confident that this year was different as the people in support of legalization of drugs were more now.

The election supervisors handed over 692,981 signed petitions that are more than the required 683,149 signatures in support of the drug, which was enough to make it qualify for a state ballot. The Florida government passed a law in 2014 allowing some patients to use the cannabis drug but the usage was limited.

There are still patients with terminal diseases who need the drug and so the legalization will allow them to get benefit.

Floridians Back Legalization
The latest survey demonstrates that more than 70% of Floridians back the legitimization of medicinal usage of the drug. Research proves that those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, tumor, chemotherapy, numerous sclerosis, epilepsy and many other ailments find that medicinal pot gives alleviation from side effects.

With the present condition of agony that numerous Florida inhabitants are compelled to face because of being denied access to pharmaceutical solutions and controlled substances that have been endorsed by their authorized doctors, this is great news.