Source: Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Baby boomers, now well into middle age, are still turning on to illegal drugs, doubling the rates of illicit drug use for the older generation, according to U.S. government statistics released on Wednesday.

The rates of people aged 50 to 59 who admit to using illicit drugs in the past year nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are the same or decreasing, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.

“These findings show that many in the Woodstock generation continue to use illicit drugs as they age,” SAMHSA Acting Administrator Eric Broderick said in a statement.

“This continued use poses medical risks to these individuals and is likely to put further strains on the nation’s health care system — highlighting the value of preventing drug use from ever starting.”

Baby boomers are the post World War II generation born between 1946 and 1964.

The data used in the study came from various surveys including 16,656 men and women participating in the 2002 through 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health.

I question the comment on the strains on the healthcare system. I have no data to base that questioning on other than the many recent studies that marijuana reduces the risk of several cancers, side effect of radiation treatments and the alleviation of pain.

Perhaps the strain on the healthcare system is the reduction in profits for pharmaceutical companies, thus increased prices for everyone else?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Kigali — Pte Jean Bosco Butera who is attached to the special force based in Bigogwe sector was carrying the illicit drug in a military rucksack at the time of his arrest. Police officials in the area say that they arrested Butera Thursday evening after a tip off.

When contacted, military prosecutor in Rubavu, confirmed the arrest and said that the suspect was helping them with investigations.”We have Butera with us, and he is to be transferred to Kigali by military police for further investigations,” 2nd Lt. Sammy Gafishi, the military prosecutor said.

“Police found him carrying marijuana in the military bag which he carried saying he was coming from his leave,” Gafishi reiterated.

According to Gafishi, the suspect faces up to five years in jail if he is convicted.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

One Company Hopes a Marijuana Lozenge Will Garner FDA Approval – but Will It Work?

By COURTNEY HUTCHISON
ABC News Medical Unit
Aug. 3, 2009

When most people think of swine flu, they probably don’t think of marijuana. But then again, most people aren’t Robert Melamede.

He and his company, Cannabis Science, hope to one day make marijuana available nationwide to kids and teens — as well as adults — in the form of a medicinal throat lozenge.

While medical marijuana has garnered a great deal of attention lately in helping patients deal with chronic pain, Melamede has another application in mind; he believes it can curb death risk from the swine flu.

The approach relies on the principle that the chemicals in marijuana known as cannabinoids have a dampening effect on the immune system. Melamede said doctors may be able to take advantage of this effect to curb the risk of death from the immune system overdrive that resulted in many of the deaths of young adults during the 1918 influenza pandemic — a scenario that some worry could occur once more if swine flu were to become more virulent.

Related posts:

1. Medical Pot Dispensaries Thrive In Colo Source: Cannabis News Colorado Springs Facility Believed To Be The...
2. Sign The Petition for Medical Marijuana in Florida The People United for Medical Marijuana (PUFMM) are doing their...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

California may be the center of the marijuana trade and the controversies over its legalization. But Florida has surpassed it in one important category: the Sunshine State is now the country’s leader in indoor marijuana cultivation. It is a potent distinction because most of the marijuana grown this way is cultured hydroponically — that is, mostly without soil and with a carefully calibrated cocktail of chemicals and lighting — to create some of the highest level of highs on the market.

In 2006, Florida law enforcement here discovered 480 homes growing marijuana indoors. Last year, 1,022 grow houses were busted. “This isn’t your grandma’s marijuana,” quipped a Miami-Dade narcotics officer at one bust as he tossed garbage bags stuffed with confiscated marijuana into an unmarked police truck. Levels of THC — the agent in marijuana that produces feelings of euphoria, and in some users mild hallucinations and paranoia — have risen dramatically because of indoor techniques. Thirty years ago, most marijuana contained about 7% THC. Today, indoor growers boast THC levels of 25% or higher thanks to the additional care that indoor plants receive.

Indoors, high-powered lights that stimulate growth can remain on all day, their nourishing rays reflected off the metallic-coated paper covering walls. The chemical fertilizers used are just as powerful and nourishing, spawning fast-growing plants that produce more THC than those raised outdoors.

TIME accompanied undercover agents on a recent bust on a quiet street of a working-class Miami suburb. As soon as the agents enter the front door, they know they’ve acted on a good tip. The pungent smell of plant life fills the air. The ceiling of the master bedroom is a constellation of high-powered lightbulbs emitting a nourishing glow onto what officers estimate is more than 100 lb. of particularly potent marijuana plants with a street value upwards of $800,000.

While most of the marijuana is freshly cut and drying on a clothesline stretched across the room, pots of smaller plants still months away from maturing line the walls. An irrigation system supplies water and chemical fertilizers to the plants via a hose that runs into the adjacent bathroom, where the toxic brew used to accelerate plants’ growth is dumped down a drain.

On the Florida market, a pound of indoor grown marijuana goes for upwards of $4,000. But in the Northeast, the best market for Florida growers, the same marijuana goes for about $8,000 a pound. Unlike their closest regional rivals, Florida growers can produce up to four crops annually.

“These operations are mushrooming all over the state of Florida,” says State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle for Miami-Dade County, the de facto capital of the state’s indoor pot industry. Taking these operations down is dangerous work. Some growers stockpile automatic weapons to protect themselves — and to fend off thieves who are after the valuable crop.

Miami Police Major Charles Nanney says informants played a crucial role in the success of a statewide crackdown in June that resulted in the seizure of 6,828 marijuana plants and 120 residential marijuana labs over the course of a few days. Among the best tipsters, they say, are electricians paid big money by growers to wire the sophisticated network of lights and air conditioners used to cool plants and subject them to round-the-clock illumination. The energy-chugging networks require an expert’s touch to bypass the electric meter and tap straight into the grid. A sharp increase in electricity used to be a telltale sign of a grow house. Some growers have caught on, however, and are learning to mask their energy profile.

Money-laundering is an attendant crime. But so is trafficking in undocumented migrant workers. A single marijuana growing operation can consist of a dozen homes or more, requiring many hands to tend to the plants. And when arrests are made, those taken in are often neither the homeowner nor the person named on the lease. The actual operators usually elude capture. Still, workers are lured by the promise of a piece of the profits and rent-free living, sometimes raising children among the deadly high-voltage lights and other potential life-threatening apparatuses associated with indoor marijuana.

The state’s real estate catastrophe contributes to the problem as well. Captain Joe Mendez from the South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), says operators flush with cash are attracted to the abundance of cheap homes in Florida, particularly in Miami-Dade, which leads the state in foreclosures. While Florida’s legitimate economy continues to flail, the HIDTA captain says indoor marijuana is thriving even though law enforcement is arresting more people every year. Says Mendez: “If the economic downturn remains as it is, I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.”

Related posts:

1. Sign The Petition for Medical Marijuana in Florida The People United for Medical Marijuana (PUFMM) are doing their...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

(CBS)  So with college costs skyrocketing and the nation in the throes of a deep recession, what’s a kid to do if he can’t afford school?

California student Andrew Squire has an idea – use pot.

Okay, not technically use pot. More like use the idea of reforming marijuana laws as a way to raise some cash for college.

As reported by CBS station WOVR in Sacramento, Squire has started a Website called stonerdollars.com to solicit donations to pay for college in San Diego. The kick for donors? Seventy-five cents of every dollar will go to marijuana reform groups.

So far, the action’s been slow. Really slow. The site launched about a month ago and as of this story’s publication, Squire has brought in just $10.66. What’s worse – he only gets to keep around $2.67.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

California voters may soon get a chance to weigh in on whether marijuana should be legalized and taxed by the state. If enacted, this may help the state’s budget by providing revenue from a brand new source, while also freeing up money that previously went to enforcement efforts against marijuana growing. Of course, marijuana would still be illegal under federal law, but this may be a turning point in the legalization movement — the point where politicians desperate for tax revenues see dollar signs instead of prison bars when looking at the cannabis plant.

And make no mistake — this is not medical marijuana we are talking about. From the wire service report:

A proposed ballot measure filed with the California attorney general’s office would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of pot. Homeowners could grow marijuana for personal use on garden plots up to 25 square feet.

Now, 25 square feet sounds like a lot, but it’s really only a plot five feet by five feet. Assumably, this was written into the ballot measure so marijuana (at least initially) wouldn’t be sown by agribusinesses in 1,000-acre fields. But even with the land-use restriction, the initiative is remarkable for the lack of other restrictions. No mention is made of “medical” or “medicine” or any of that — just “adults.”

There are even two ballot measures to choose from. The second one is even less restrictive:

The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010 would set no specific limits on the amount of pot adults could possess or grow for personal use. The measure would repeal all local and state marijuana laws and clear the criminal record of anyone convicted of a pot-related offense.

Bet that would save a few dollars on prisons. And even if these ballot measures fail, state legislators are introducing bills to do exactly the same thing. So, while it should not in any way be seen as inevitable, it now appears possible that California may soon legalize and tax marijuana, used for recreational purposes.

While the concept of taxing marijuana is a new one for most people to consider, it actually has a long history. The very first federal law dealing with (pun intended) marijuana was the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Earlier laws outlawing “narcotics” had left out marijuana (or, in the spelling more common at the time, “marihuana”), so this was a more specific law dealing only with cannabis (and hemp). It ostensibly levied a tax on marijuana, which was widely used in medical products of the day. The tax was pretty low (the base rate for a doctor was one dollar for a tax stamp, per year), but the penalties for not paying the tax were the real purpose of the law. The law did not make marijuana illegal, so what the feds would clap you in prison for was not ponying up the tax. This had to be softened during World War II, when hemp was necessary for military supplies (hemp ropes, before nylon became widespread) and the planting of hemp was actually encouraged by the federal government (as in the “Hemp for Victory” movie put out by the feds in 1942).

Later, in the 1950s, marijuana was flat-out made illegal at the federal level. And then, at the beginning of the 1970s, the Controlled Substances Act codified all illegal drugs, and superceded the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.

But taxing illegal drugs, including marijuana, didn’t end there. The next iteration of taxing marijuana came as a result of individual states being annoyed at the federal government. I believe the first of these was Arizona, which (in the late 1970s and early 1980s) had to watch as the feds made a lot of money off the drug traffickers moving through their (border) state. In the 1980s, the big weapon used in the Drug War was property confiscation. So the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) would catch a semi truck full of bales of weed on an Arizona highway, and they would impound the truck. Later, they’d sell the truck in a government auction, and the DEA got to keep the money. Arizona was annoyed at being cut out of the profits, so they instituted a state tax on marijuana and other illegal drugs. This way, when the semi was auctioned, they could claim “unpaid taxes” on the cargo, and get their cut of the money raised. Many other states followed suit, and passed their own drug taxes for the same purpose — forcing the feds to share the spoils. They all sold (and some still sell) drug tax stamps for this purpose (Nebraska’s stamp unquestionably has the most creative design).

So, once again, the purpose of the tax was disingenuous. The states had no interest in making drugs legal, they just wanted a cut from any busts the feds made in their state. But now, for the first time, California seems to be seriously considering both legalization and taxation simultaneously — in other words, they are interested in the tax revenues themselves, rather than a back-door method of gaining windfall taxes from federal busts.

But I would caution the state lawmakers — and the people advocating for the new laws — to be conservative in estimating the revenue gained from these taxes. This is a by-product of the 100-year history of the Drug War itself. When you read in a newspaper that “$6 million worth of drugs captured” this dollar amount is often vastly overstated. And, even taking such estimates seriously, there’s a factor that most people don’t even take into consideration, which shouldn’t be ignored.

Say you want to estimate how much money California would make off a new marijuana tax. You come up with an estimate of how much pot is sold in the state (let’s call it $100 million, just for argument’s sake — since I have no idea what the actual figure is). You then estimate how much the market will grow, due to it now being legal. But then you’ve got to subtract anyone who grows their own at home, since they won’t be selling it to anyone (the tax is usually levied on point of sale, but I guess if it was a production tax they’d theoretically tax peoples’ back gardens as well). Finally, you come up with a figure.

But the big factor most people will miss is that the price of something which was previously illegal will go down if it is made legal. The price of moonshine during Prohibition was about ten times what hard alcohol sold for afterwards. Meaning, overnight, that “$100 million” market becomes “$10 million.” When something is illegal, most of the price is for the risk involved in producing it and getting it to the customer. Remove the risk, the price always drops. Always. Especially if a law passes without a “25 square foot” restriction, because then farmers out in California’s Central Valley will start growing massive amounts of marijuana (and as every economist knows, when the supply goes up, the price goes down).

So California should be careful when estimating what effect a (legal) marijuana tax would have on the state’s coffers. An easy way to avoid some of this problem would be to design the tax on “weight” rather than as a sales tax (percent of purchase price, in other words). Then the projections for anticipated revenue might be a little easier to make, because the price per ounce to the customer wouldn’t really matter, as the state would be guaranteed a certain dollar amount no matter how low it went.

A recent poll showed that 56% of California voters already approve of the concept of legalizing and taxing marijuana for personal, recreational use. Meaning that a ballot initiative has a fairly good chance of passing. I would just caution everyone to be realistic when making estimates as to how much tax revenue would be raised by doing so. California has such massive budget problems right now that a marijuana tax certainly couldn’t hurt the state’s cash flow. And, with the voters apparently ready to approve such a scheme, it looks entirely possible that it could happen. But overestimating the revenues expected could actually undermine the case for doing so. The advocates for legalization and taxation should be careful when drawing up their estimates, and keep their promises of tax revenue realistic, to better convince voters of the practicality of the idea.

Related posts:

1. Calif. Pot Activists File Ballot Measure Source: TIME (SAN FRANCISCO) — Oakland pot activists, fresh off...
2. Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Likely To Decide Whether To Eliminate Pot Possession Penalties Source: NORML Breckenridge, CO: City voters will likely decide this...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Breckenridge, CO: City voters will likely decide this November whether to eliminate all criminal and civil penalties that prohibit the adult possession of marijuana.

Proponents of the measure, Sensible Breckenridge, gathered 1,400 signatures from registered voters to place the measure on the municipal ballot. The total was nearly three times the number of signatures needed to bring the issue before a public vote.

If enacted, the measure would remove all citywide penalties – including fines – for the adult possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. The initiative would also eliminate local penalties prohibiting the possession of cannabis paraphernalia by those age 21 or older.

The Breckenridge Town Council has the opportunity to enact the proposed ordinance at its next meeting on August 11. If council members fail to act on the measure then it will go before local voters on November 3.

Denver voters supported a similar measure in 2005.

In 2006, over 70 percent of Breckenridge voters endorsed Amendment 44, an unsuccessful statewide ballot initiative that sought to eliminate certain marijuana.

Related posts:

1. Calif. Pot Activists File Ballot Measure Source: TIME (SAN FRANCISCO) — Oakland pot activists, fresh off...
2. Taxing Marijuana Source: Chris Weigant California voters may soon get a chance...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

By PHIL DEVITT
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
July 29, 2009 6:00 AM

WESTPORT — Money might not grow on trees, but marijuana does.

At least it did, until police seized plants from a Holly tree in Westport Harbor earlier this month.

A River Road resident with a sharp eye called police July 15 after he noticed three burlap sacks dangling about 30 feet in the air from a tree. He told police he didn’t know how the bags got there and he refused to touch them because he feared they contained “some sort of illegal material,” police spokesman Detective Jeff Majewski said.

Two officers who arrived on scene spotted the bags instantly, but were at a loss to figure out what they contained, as the contents were hidden under the tree’s branches and leaves. They used a thermal imager to determine that heat was coming off the bags, but even binoculars couldn’t help them solve the mystery.

That’s when the Highway Department was called in to give police a boost with a hydraulic lift bucket truck. After being hoisted into the tree, an officer realized the bags were stuffed with marijuana plants in different stages of growth.

The bags were packed with potting soil and tied together with a rope. The plants — the largest of which was 5 feet tall — were still growing, Majewski said, adding that the plants only have value as a drug when they produce buds.

Officers and residents alike were surprised by the find, and especially where they found it.

“In 20 years (in law enforcement), I haven’t seen anything like that,” Majewski said.

Police confiscated three plants from the tree and searched the neighborhood for more, but found nothing. Majewski said police were not able to determine who was responsible for the plants.

Word of the unusual find spread quickly through the Holly Trail area of the harbor, a summer hot spot that typically does not see much crime. When officers arrived on scene, six or seven neighbors were outside, glaring up at the tree in curiosity, Majewski said.

“I think this kind of thing would have drawn a crowd no matter where it was located,” he said.

Related posts:

1. Nearly 10,000 marijuana plants found in Teanaway Mountains Source: Yakima Herald-Republic ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Kittitas County Sheriff’s deputies...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Colorado Springs Facility Believed To Be The State’s Largest With 1,400 Patients.

BOULDER – Boulder County Caregivers offers 16 glass jars of marijuana with names like Skinny Pineapple and Early Pearl Maui, priced at $375 to $420 an ounce.  There are marijuana capsules and snacks made with cannabis butter, such as rice crispy treats.

Co-owner Jill Leigh urges customers to try a syrupy tincture she calls “the Advil of medical marijuana.” A drop under the tongue gives less of a high but the same pain relief as smoking, she says.

Leigh’s sales are legal – and taxed – under Colorado’s voter-approved medical marijuana law.  Her marijuana dispensary and nearly 60 others serve a rapidly growing number of users with little oversight.  Critics of the system say it’s prone to abuse and point to a growing number of younger patients.  But a recent state effort to impose more controls failed.

More than 9,000 people are registered in Colorado to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation – up 2,000 in the past month.

The total is expected to rise to 15,000 by year’s end, according to the state health department, which blames the rapid increase on patient confidentiality guarantees and federal plans to stop raiding medical marijuana operations, which the U.S.  government considers illegal.

Since December, the average patient age in Colorado has dropped from 42 to 24, raising more questions about abuses.

Last week, the state health board rejected a proposal to limit suppliers to five patients.  Dispensary owners said the plan would force many to close.  Others, including Leigh, say Colorado should better regulate its dispensaries to deter abuses.  But Chief Medical Officer Ned Calonge said he simply doesn’t have that authority under the 2000 law.

Some towns are stepping in.  Today, Breckenridge will consider rules to keep dispensaries away from schools and restrict their hours to prevent thefts.  Police Chief Rick Holman said the ideas came from Cannabis Therapeutics, a Colorado Springs dispensary believed to be the state’s largest with 1,400 patients.

The Denver suburb of Commerce City also is drafting its own rules.  In Boulder, police have reached out to dispensaries after thieves stole two 20-gallon barrels of marijuana from one business in June.

Leigh’s waiting room could be found in a dentist’s office, save for coffee-table reading material that includes a copy of High Times and a Timothy Leary book.  Spice jars feature samples of marijuana available for sale.  All sales are by appointment only, and Leigh’s business collects about $10,000 in sales tax a month.

Leigh’s patients are mainly middle-aged women with multiple sclerosis and men coping with hepatitis C.  One employee said he takes tincture drops to help prevent seizures.  A customer, a jiujitsu coach, said he uses it to treat pain from four surgeries and regular fights.

Leigh said she and her husband, who uses marijuana to cope with degenerative disc disease, started selling marijuana he was growing to avoid running up against the law.

Patients can only possess up to two ounces of usable marijuana under Colorado law.  But a patient or his designated caregiver can grow six marijuana plants – but only three can flower at any time.

Today Leigh, a self-described soccer and karate mom, has seven employees, offers health insurance and plans to add 401( k ) benefits.  She worries federal agents might raid her business, even though the Obama administration says the government will stop targeting medical marijuana operations that are in line with state law.

For luck, Leigh hangs Tibetan prayer flags in her offices and has a statue of the elephant-headed Hindu god of Ganesh.  She says a California dispensary that had both items was spared in a recent federal raid.

Related posts:

1. Company Tables Medical Marijuana for Swine Flu Source: abc News One Company Hopes a Marijuana Lozenge Will...
2. Sign The Petition for Medical Marijuana in Florida The People United for Medical Marijuana (PUFMM) are doing their...
3. Calif. Pot Activists File Ballot Measure Source: TIME (SAN FRANCISCO) — Oakland pot activists, fresh off...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

(SAN FRANCISCO) — Oakland pot activists, fresh off a victory at local polls on the taxing of medical marijuana, took their first official step Tuesday toward asking California voters to legalize pot.

A proposed ballot measure filed with the California attorney general’s office would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of pot. Homeowners could grow marijuana for personal use on garden plots up to 25 square feet.

The measure’s main backer is Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee, who helped push a first-of-its-kind tax on city medical marijuana dispensaries that passed with 80 percent of the vote last week.

The statewide measure needs nearly 434,000 signatures to make the November 2010 ballot. “It’s one more pretty amazing element in the momentum toward ending statewide prohibition,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California director of the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance.

His group would rather wait until 2012 to build more support for a ballot initiative but would be happy with an earlier victory, he said. A similar but less restrictive pot legalization initiative was filed two weeks ago by a group of Northern California criminal defense lawyers.

The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010 would set no specific limits on the amount of pot adults could possess or grow for personal use. The measure would repeal all local and state marijuana laws and clear the criminal record of anyone convicted of a pot-related offense.

Both ballot measures would be competing with a bill introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol.

The San Francisco Democrat is pushing legalization as a way to generate revenue for the cash-starved state from California’s massive marijuana industry. He plans to hold hearings on the legislation this fall.

Related posts:

1. Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Likely To Decide Whether To Eliminate Pot Possession Penalties Source: NORML Breckenridge, CO: City voters will likely decide this...
2. Taxing Marijuana Source: Chris Weigant California voters may soon get a chance...
3. Sign The Petition for Medical Marijuana in Florida The People United for Medical Marijuana (PUFMM) are doing their...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.