West Coast Leaf Vol 2 # 1, Spring 2009
Front Page • News Section • Calendar, Events, Reviews • West Coasterdam Report • Science and Gardening • Comment and Editorials • National and International Reports
Ending DEA Raids 'Now American Policy'In response to a reporter’s Feb. 25 question, Attorney General Eric Holder said the US Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal. His statement was the second time in a month that the Obama Administration indicated it would end the unpopular Bush-era policy of arresting cannabis patients and providers. Candidate Obama had said on the campaign trail last year that he would end the raids.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) forced the issue onto the agenda early when it raided a California dispensary on the day President Obama took office, then raided several dispensaries on the day Eric Holder took office.
Asked if such raids were going to continue, Holder said, “No.” “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”
In a statement a few weeks ago, a White House spokesperson said, “The President believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind.”
Medical cannabis raids intensified under former-President George W. Bush, with more than 100 paramilitary-style raids, new indictments, and letters threatening property owners who rent to medical cannabis facilities with prosecution and civil asset forfeiture.
Americans for Safe Access members and other cannabis advocates responded with thousands of phone calls to the White House, asking the President to fulfill his repeated campaign pledges not to use federal resources to interfere with state medical cannabis laws. ASA, the nation’s largest medical cannabis advocacy organization, sent policy recommendations aimed at harmonizing federal and state law and encouraging research to President Obama and Congress earlier this year.
“Within 24 hours of taking office, Obama signaled his administration would eliminate the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity and support federal funding for syringe exchange programs,” said Ethan Nadelmann executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Now his attorney general is saying the Administration will let states set their own cannabis policies. While certainly not a high priority, it seems clear that the President wants to treat drug use as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue.”
Transplant Season — With a new President, a new growing season, new calls for reform and two TV specials promoting the West Coast’s cannabis ‘gold rush,’ 2009 is shaping up to be an exciting year. For garden tips, see our story inside. West Coast Leaf photo
San Diego and San Bernardino stand on shaky legal ground in their appeal to the US Supreme Court to overturn repeated rulings they lost in both state and federal courts. The Court has not yet stated whether it will grant review.
The Court on Dec. 1, 2008, however, refused to consider a similar argument in the People v Kha wherein City of Garden Grove police said federal law prevented them from returning a patient’s lawful cannabis. This means the State Court rulings stand — local governments must obey state law, despite federal law. That move further weakened the San Diego v California claim that federal marijuana law prevents counties from having to comply with the voter initiative or issue state-mandated medical cannabis ID cards.
Winds of Change — (Left to right) Aaron Smith of Marijuana Policy Project, Dale Gieringer of California NORML, and Steve Gutwillig of the Drug Policy Alliance stand by as Assemblyman Tom Ammiano announced his bill to regulate cannabis sales. West Coast Leaf photo by Mikki Norris.
California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-SF) Feb. 23 announced the introduction of AB 390, a landmark bill to tax and regulate cannabis like alcohol and tobacco.
“With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense,” said Ammiano at a San Francisco press conference. “This legislation would generate much-needed revenue for the state, restrict access to only those over 21, end environmental damage to our public lands from illicit crops, and improve public safety by redirecting law enforcement efforts to more serious crimes.”
Ammiano’s bill would provide for licensed producers and distributors, who could sell to adults over 21. Producers would pay an excise tax of $50 per ounce, just under $1 per half-gram cigarette. Sales taxes would generate additional revenues, bringing total tax revenues to $1 billion. Additional economic benefits would be generated in the form of employment, business and payroll taxes and spin-off industries, like the wine industry, amounting to some $12 - $18 billion.
Last but not least, the bill would save hundreds of millions of dollars in costs for arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of cannabis offenders.
State Board of Equalization member Betty Yee spoke in support of AB 390, saying that it would save the state’s taxpayers some $1.3 billion. California NORML supplied economic analysis for the bill, provided the bill’s text from a draft donated by former State Senator John Vasconcellos, and also provides information about the bill at canorml.org.
Also endorsing the Ammiano bill are Oakland City Council member Rebecca Kaplan, Judge James Gray, San Francisco Sheriff Mike Hennessey, the Drug Policy Alliance and Marijuana Policy Project.
Assembly Bill 390 would not alter state medical marijuana laws. Patients and collectives could grow for their own supply without paying any excise tax. Non-medical growers would be allowed to grow up to ten plants for personal use.
Despite the increased taxes, the bill’s sponsors expect the price of cannabis would decline sharply due to decreased pressure from law enforcement.
This is the first legalization bill to be introduced since state outlawed cannabis or “Indian hemp” in 1913. Since then, millions of Californians have come to enjoy cannabis, despite some 2.4 million arrests.
Although support for legalization is growing, there is little expectation that Ammiano’s bill will be signed this year. Gov. Schwarzenegger has blindly vetoed bills opposed by law enforcement, which strongly supports the status quo. “The last thing our society needs is yet more legal intoxicants,” whined John Lovell, chief lobbyist for the Narcotics Officers’ Assn.
A major political obstacle to the bill is that it flies in the face of current federal law. Supporters hope this can be overcome. “The final architecture of the bill has yet to be defined,” said Ammiano in a Feb. 25 interview on CBC’s As It Happens. “Accommodation is possible. It’s possible that laws may not be the same in a year or two.”
Californians should contact their legislators to support AB 390; for info, see canorml.org.
A growing number of Americans — and a majority in the West — support legalizing marijuana, according to a January 29-31 poll of 1,053 likely voters by Zogby International, commissioned by California NORML and Oaksterdam University.
When asked: “Should marijuana be taxed and legally regulated like alcohol and cigarettes to help raise money for public services and to reduce law enforcement costs?” voters responded: 44 percent yes, 52 percent no, and 4 percent undecided.
Surprisingly high support was reported in the West, where voters favored legalization 58 to 36 percent. However, the significance of this margin is questionable due to the relatively small number of respondents (232). Easterners were nearly divided– 48 to 49 percent no — while other regions were strongly opposed.
A similar Zogby/NORML poll in 2006 found only 36 percent of Americans support legalization, with 55 percent opposed. Nationally, voters under 30 were particularly supportive, by a margin of 55 to 45 percent, suggesting that a majority could emerge in coming years. Of older groups, Baby Boomers aged 50-64 showed the strongest support, 48-48 percent.
Another Zogby poll question sponsored by NORML asked voters whether Obama should fulfill his election pledge to end DEA raids on medical marijuana providers in states where medical marijuana is legal.
Voters overwhelmingly said yes by 72 to 21 percent, with voters in all demographic groups agreeing.
The day after the poll results were released, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro announced the administration’s intentions to end the Federal DEA raids on cannabis patients and medical providers.
President Obama’s choice of Seattle WA Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the next ‘drug czar’ to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy looks at first like the same old beltway bull: Cops and prison time are the snake-oil cure for drugs. Like many Americans, the chief agrees that drugs should be illegal. Some change.
However, since Kerlikowske became SPD chief in 2000, he has been at the department’s helm while Seattle made some of the most aggressive reforms to drug enforcement in the country allowed under federal law. He never stood in the way. And now Kerlikowske is poised to become the most influential person in federal government to set new drug laws.
The needle-exchange test: The Obama administration has already identified this as its most pressing drug issue. Last week, Obama gave US negotiators to the UN orders to reverse Bush’s block on needle exchange. He wants to allow clean needles — in Europe and the US.
Seattle King County Public Health runs one of the nation’s first and largest needle-exchange programs. Seattle IV drug users have some of the lowest HIV-infection rates in the country, but met with initial antagonism. “Police would hang around the exchange site and watch who came and went,” said Kris Nyrop, former director of Street Outreach Services, a pioneering needle exchange group.
“Harassment like that happened routinely up until the mid ‘90s,” but under Kerlikowske, “It has been a laissez-faire thing and the police basically leave needle exchanges alone,” says Nyrop.
The cannabis test: Arrests have plummeted under Kerlikowske. When he took office in 2000, Seattle police arrested 332 people for misdemeanor cannabis possession; by 2006, it had dropped to 148. Some of that decline is due to Seattle voters, who passed Initiative 75 in 2003, which made cannabis the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority. Kerlikowske didn’t try to block it, and SPD told a City Marijuana Policy Review Panel that “officers [had] been verbally advised during their roll calls that investigation and arrest of adults for cannabis intended for personal use is to be their lowest priority.” At Hempfest — where tens of thousands of people smoke pot in unison — SPD sergeant Lou Eagle told a reporter, “We are not out there to enforce the marijuana laws.”
Cannabis patients who could still be arrested, despite the state’s medical-pot law, have found Kerlikowske fair. Had he chosen, SPD could have maintained or increased pot arrests. He didn’t. For Kerlikowske, pot was his lowest priority.
The replacing enforcement with public services test: On that issue, Kerlikowske has incubated a revolution. Seattle implemented two programs to get drug users off the street before they get arrested. City Council Member Nick Licata passed legislation to fund the project. “Gil could have stopped it from [getting funding], but he allowed it go forward,” he says. “He’s not saying we should do away with the Drug War, but I think he recognizes that it has not been a success and is open to other strategies.”
He could be the drug czar to lift the federal ban on funding needle exchange, end the medical pot raids in California, overhaul the nonsensical anti-drug commercials, and seek funding for drug-treatment.
The brilliance of Obama’s pick is not just finding someone who is open to new strategies, but one who holds undeniable credibility as a cop. Nobody can claim Kerlikowske doesn’t know the impact of drugs on the streets. But he understands the place for low priorities and public health — and he’s willing to step back where enforcement alone has failed.
slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/02/11/czar_struck_obama_s_brillia
A first-of-its-kind poll of people who eat hemp food shows that it is “a permanent part of people’s diets — more than half of respondents said they have been eating hemp foods for more than three years. Thirty-two percent said they eat hemp one to three times a week or more,” according to Hemp Industries Association (HIA) Executive Director Eric Steenstra.
The HIA released the results of an Internet survey of more than 1,550 people. “This is important data because 10 years ago there was not a single major hemp food brand and today there are at least a half a dozen multi-million dollar brands.”
The poll found that people are reassured that eating hemp nut or hemp oil products bearing the TestPledge seal will not cause confirmed positive workplace drug tests. It also dispels any concerns regarding body and skin care products.
The results were collected over a two-week period and can be viewed online at thehia.org/hempfoodsurvey. Not considered a scientific sampling, the poll sheds light on the quantities of hemp food people eat on a regular basis.
Authors of a report in the July/August 2008 Journal of Analytical Toxicology found that eating hemp foods “should not be considered as a realistic cause for a positive urine analysis result.”
The HIA estimated in November that the total retail value of hemp foods sold over the prior 12 months in North America grew from $20 million last year to approximately $33 million this year. Hemp oil offers two essential fatty acids in a perfect ratio, which doctors recommend as part of a healthy, balanced diet.
Learn more about the TestPledge program at TestPledge.com.
