Nobody in the history of the world has overdosed from marijuana. Many people in America depend on medical marijuana for their medical conditions and symptoms such as glaucoma, cancer, multiple sclerosis, nausea, epilepsy, etc.
It's sad how people with chronic pain and deathly illness are deprived of the only medicine that will work for them.
Prescription medication can become very addicting, and cause death from building up a tolerance, requiring the patient to use more than prescribed.
The U.S. government has marijuana classified as a schedule I drug, which means it has a high rate for abuse and no accepted medical value. After 16 years of court battles, the DEA's chief administrative law judge, Francis L. Young, ruled: "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known."
The United States is the only industrialized country not growing industrial hemp. Farmers could grow hemp to feed all of the new ethanol production plants built in Indiana who cannot get enough corn from our farmers, which is raising the price of everything since corn byproducts like corn syrup is used in most of our foods, thereby raising food prices overall.
Paper could be made from hemp, solving our deforestation problem. Hemp can yield three to eight dry tons of fiber per acre. This is four times what the average forest can yield.
In the first year of legalization 18,000 new jobs could be brought to Indiana, from hemp paper mills to bio fuel plants.
In 2007 the United States imported about 500 tons of hemp from Canada. Manufacturing companies could save money from buying hemp grown in the United States, lowering overall costs of production.
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Indiana
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I'll admit to being one of the multitude of fans who have made shows like "NCIS" and "CSI" such hits. It isn't that I don't recognize how unrealistic they are; no publicly financed lab could afford such cutting-edge equipment even if someone invented it. But I love watching the search for hard evidence, and the characters' willingness to abide by what that evidence shows even when the result is to exonerate some really unattractive suspect.
Wouldn't it be nice if those we elect to make policy were similarly devoted to evidence-based decision-making?
In the real world, unlike the televised version, policymakers routinely disregard research that doesn't match their ideological preferences. I'm not talking about a couple of studies where the results are ambiguous, or subject to conflicting interpretation. I'm talking about policies where the evidence is copious and expert consensus compelling. Global climate change is one such area; our incredibly expensive drug war is another.
Some years ago, I got a call from a teacher in Northern Indiana who wanted to arrange a public forum on the pros and cons of our punitive drug policies. In private conversations, the chief of police, a local judge and the prosecutor had all told him that prohibition simply doesn't work. Not one of them, however, would repeat those sentiments in public. My students who are police officers consistently tell me that alcohol, which is regulated but legal, is a much greater problem than marijuana, because people are more aggressive when they are boozed up than when they are zoned out.
The fiscal consequences of our current policies are staggering. In 2005, an economics professor at Harvard reported that replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation similar to that used for alcohol would produce combined savings and tax revenues between $10 billion and $14 billion per year. Estimates from a variety of sources are that marijuana prohibition costs U.S. taxpayers nearly $42 billion dollars a year in criminal justice costs and lost tax revenues. This is just from marijuana prohibition -- not efforts to control harder drugs.
It's estimated that the money spent annually on the drug war would pay for a million additional teachers.
Then there are the opportunity costs. Indiana used to have a robust hemp industry. Hemp is an enormously versatile and useful product that cannot be smoked or used as a recreational drug, but our indiscriminate policies outlaw its growth. They also prohibit use of marijuana to alleviate the side effects of chemotherapy.
Other states have begun to rethink these policies. Fifteen states have legalized medical marijuana. Oakland, Calif., has begun assessing a sales tax on marijuana sold in marijuana dispensaries.
I recently had a call from a group hoping to convince the Indiana legislature to revisit policies on medical marijuana. The caller asked what the evidence showed.
I told him that the evidence conclusively demonstrated two things: that the drug war is costly and counterproductive, and that in politics -- unlike television -- evidence is irrelevant and ideology rules.
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Indiana
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The most surprising response to Attorney General Eric Holder's recent announcement that the federal government would cease raids or arrests in states where medical marijuana is permitted is the general lack of response.
Sure, Holder was simply making good on a pledge delivered by candidate Barrack Obama.
But on another level, the administration's announcement could change the entire balance, or some would say historic imbalance, where drug enforcement and punishments are concerned.
Politics in practice demands nothing less than a tough posture against crime.
And so it was that presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both of whom had admitted to once trying marijuana, were nonetheless expected to stand down any attempt to undermine national drug policy, even if that meant states approving laws outlining marijuana's legal use for medical ends.
That 13 states have now voted to legalize marijuana use for medical reasons -- principally to offset the nauseating side effects of cancer treatments -- did not deter the federal government under those previous administration from staging raids on property in states where medical marijuana had been approved by elected state legislators. Raids were similarly launched against dispensaries and co-ops where marijuana was being grown for distribution to patients and with the implied consent of state and/or local laws.
The Supreme Court in 2005 upheld those federal prosecutions, ruling that states lacked the power to trump federal drug laws.
So Holder's announcement does not alter that arrangement. The federal government still holds pre-eminent enforcement power over drug laws.
What it should do is permit the federal government to reorder priorities in a manner that will let federal drug agents and prosecutors focus limited resources on the hardest, most addictive drugs and the biggest cartels.
And what we hope it will additionally accomplish in the long turn is a change in the very dynamic of this long-time fight. Rather than more of the same get- tough approach that to date has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and imprisoned thousands of pushers and users, hard-drug addicts and casual marijuana users s alike, isn't it time to embrace a smarter drug policy that makes proper distinctions among drugs and drug laws?
We think so.
And without Holder's small but important first step, it may have been added years before the national conversation was properly redirected.
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Indiana
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WASHINGTON -- In an act of merciful sanity, the Obama administration has made good on its promise to stop interfering with states that allow the medical use of marijuana.
Clink-clink, hear-hear, salud, cheers, et cetera, et cetera.
The announcement from Attorney General Eric Holder surely comes as a relief to the many who rely on cannabis to ease suffering from various ailments. This new, relaxed approach doesn't let drug traffickers off the hook. It merely means that 14 states that now provide for some medical marijuana uses no longer need fear federal raids on dispensaries and users operating under state law.
It's a good move, long overdue. But is it enough? Not quite.
The debate over whether Americans ought to have the right to be stupid - -- or to make other people seem more interesting -- continues apace after 40 years of the ( failed ) "war on drugs."
Arguments for and against decriminalization of some or all drugs are familiar by now. Distilled to the basics, the drug war has empowered criminals while criminalizing otherwise law-abiding citizens and wasted billions that could have been better spent on education and rehabilitation.
By ever-greater numbers, Americans support decriminalizing at least marijuana, which millions admit to having used, including a couple of presidents and a Supreme Court justice. A recent Gallup poll found that 44 percent of Americans favor legalization for any purpose, not just medical, up from 31 percent in 2000.
The highest level of support, not surprisingly, is in the Western states and among self-described liberals, with 78 percent of liberals favoring decriminalization. But the shift toward a more-sensible national policy is no longer confined to the left. Nor is the long-haired stoner the face of the pro-pot lobby. Today's activist, more likely, doesn't have facial hair, but she does have kids.
Lately to the smallish conservative crowd, notably once led by anti-prohibitionist William F. Buckley, is Jessica Corry of Colorado, a married, pro-life Republican mom, soon to be "freedom fighter of the month" in High Times magazine.
Recent partakers undoubtedly will have to rub their eyes for a double take when they spot Corry, who spoke last month at a NORML conference ( National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws ) in San Francisco, wearing an American flag lapel pin, a triple strand of pearls and a gold marijuana leaf pin.
Another day, another stereotype in the dust bin.
In addition to writing and speaking to end marijuana prohibition, Corry, who does not smoke pot, is trying to organize Republican women around the cause. So far, she has commitments from 20 fellow Coloradoans, most of them lawyers, like Corry. Her husband, also an attorney, represents medical marijuana users.
Corry's arguments focus not only on the inhumanity of further punishing sick people who seek relief through pot, but also on protecting her own children should they decide to try marijuana someday. There's nothing like imagining one's own children as "criminals" to put irrational laws in perspective.
Corry is hardly alone and, in fact, may be part of a "toking point." ( Is there a drug yet for "Tipping Point Fatigue"? ) In its October issue, Marie Claire magazine featured "Stiletto Stoners" about accomplished career women who prefer to relax with pot. A September Fortune cover story, "Is Pot Already Legal?" examined the issue. In April, former ( 2006 ) Miss New Jersey, Georgine DiMaria, outed herself as a stealth marijuana user to treat her asthma.
States' rights and conservatism are old friends -- except when they're not. While many Republicans nurse a libertarian streak, the party has been selective in its support of federalist principles. The George W. Bush administration refused to honor states authorizing medical uses of cannabis, for instance, but aimed to return abortion and marriage issues to state jurisdictions.
In a column for the Colorado Daily, Corry argued that conservative principles of smaller government are in direct conflict with laws that try to control what we put into our bodies. Alcohol and cigarettes -- not to mention 700-calorie cheeseburgers -- are inarguably more harmful than a little reefer, she wrote.
The decision not to raid dispensaries or punish people who benefit from marijuana use, though commendable, falls short of what's needed. At the very least, when jobs and cash are in short supply, legalizing marijuana would seem both prudent and profitable.
In 1929, the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform led the movement to end alcohol prohibition. Might women lead the next revolution in personal autonomy?
Keep those flutes and snifters ( and bongs? ) handy.
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Indiana
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Niles Man's Marijuana Use, While Legal, May Cost Him His Home.
NILES - On a scale of 1 to 10, says Steve Allain, his pain is somewhere between 4 and 5.
On a good day.
"When my Crohn's flares up, it's like a saber-toothed badger trying to eat its way out," he said.
The 54-year-old Niles man, a victim not only of Crohn's disease but hepatitis C and acute depression, has run the gamut of medications. Just a few months ago, he hit upon a viable alternative: marijuana.
"I was approached by an MS patient. She finds relief by using marijuana medicinally," he said. "She thought it would help me, too. And it has."
Sure, he said, he could take other drugs that would provide the same benefit. But it wouldn't make good sense, or cents.
"With conventional medication, it's $10,000 for one month's supply. So it's $300 a month versus $10,000 a month," he said. "You do the math."
Until now, Allain has obtained his marijuana from, as he puts it, street vendors. But soon he'll legally be growing his own, thanks to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.
For Allain, voter approval of the controversial legislation was a blessing and, potentially, a curse. The latter stems from his residence in one of Niles' scattered public housing sites, which fall under the guidelines of the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
So while Allain's cultivation and use of marijuana would not violate state law, it's likely to cost him his home if HUD takes the stance its housing is no place for what in most places would be an illegal drug.
The Rev. Bryant Bacon, interim executive director for the Niles Housing Commission, said he contacted a HUD official about a month ago regarding Allain's situation and has yet to receive an answer. Allain, a resident of public housing in Niles for eight years - he lived in the Hi Rise on Cass Street before he and his teenage son moved into their current home three years ago - is hoping for the best but said he'd understand if he's ousted.
"I can't fault what they're doing," he said.
He didn't fault either the Niles City Council after he approached the panel Monday night regarding the city's ordinance regulating aspects of the state Medical Marijuana Act. The ordinance requires that marijuana be grown inside and prohibits caregivers - those who provide marijuana to patients - from growing it within 1,000 feet of drug-free school zones.
Allain said he went to the meeting with bad information about the law's specifics.
"I was the south end of a horse facing north," he said.
As far as his illnesses, the former truck driver and Waste Management employee said he can only guess how he developed hepatitis C. All he knows for certain is that it and Crohn's disease cost him 18 inches of small intestine and resulted in a 30-pound weight loss.
"I've been dealing with those issues ever since," said Allain, who gets by on disability benefits.
With marijuana, he doesn't have side effects like the night sweats and night terrors - essentially, panic attacks while sleeping - he experienced with other anti-depressants, he said. So he'll continue to smoke pot and, once he receives the OK from the state, grow it as well.
He just hopes he's not uprooted in the process.
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Indiana
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More than a dozen teens gathered in front of the Logan Tabernacle on Monday evening to rally for the legalization of marijuana.
It's 4/20, and where this is national marijuana day and we want to legalize marijuana ( we came to rally )," said Jamie Gurinch, 15, of Logan.
Internationally, April 20 typically motivates a series of rallies and special events among those who favor the legalization of marijuana.
Dylan Lofthouse, a 14-year-old who goes to Willow Valley Middle School in Wellsville, attended with his two brothers, ages 13 and 15. He said both his mom and his step-mom would agree with the cause as well.
* Everybody talks about legalizing it," he said, "but they never do anything; we thought we'd do something."
The ages of those in attendance ranged from 13 to 20. Their homes span the valley from Wellsville to Lewiston, and they attend a sprinkling of different middle schools and high schools.
We hang out every day," said Logan resident William Mohan, a 17-year-old who attends Cache High School.
Mohan said at about 6 p.m. that the group of friends had been there for two hours. It was his first rally.
We were just all hanging out and we thought we should go protest on 4/20," Mohan said. "We're pretty much standing for what we believe in."
Mohan said legalizing pot is their solution to getting the nation out of the recession, as the sales could stir the economy.
Teenage boys in sleeveless shirts screamed while holding signs that depicted their viewpoints.
One sign read: "The plant heals," while another said: "God made it."
Say no to man-made drugs," one yelled.
A plant's no crime," said another.
A few repeatedly chanted together, "Legalize Marijuana."
Richmond resident Kassy Sanders, a 17-year-old student at Fast Forward High, talked to a friend about one of their buddies they'd visited who was in jail for marijuana use.
We're supporting the kids who got locked up," she said, while emphasizing that the more important reason for the rally was much bigger than that.
Some of those who drove by honked and cheered, while other drivers pointed their heads straight ahead and kept quiet. A few muttered insults, such as "Get a life."
Mohan said police officers visited the group by earlier in the afternoon. Even though his group had not applied for a permit to protest, Mohan said an official said it was OK, as long as they stayed off the street.
Later in the evening, Logan Police Chief Russ Roper came by to make sure the rules were being kept.
I thought it was pretty cool," Mohan said. "It's pretty nice they're just going to let us keep doing it."
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Indiana
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The Illinois House committee gave the go-ahead for a plan that would legalize medical marijuana in the state.
As you could assume, some people aren't too happy about this decision. However, we think Illinois is thinking along the right lines.
Relieving the pain of cancer, AIDS and other diseases motivated lawmakers. By legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, people suffering ailments of all sorts will be able to use this drug for relief.
We think citizens who have a doctor's permission to use medical marijuana should be able to do so. People unnecessarily endure pain and suffering from diseases every day, and medical marijuana could help. For example, marijuana has been shown to help chemotherapy patients quell their nausea. It helps curb pains without some of the side effects heavier drugs tend to have.
If this plan is passed, patients who are registered to use medical marijuana would be allowed up to seven plants in their homes along with two ounces of medically usable marijuana.
This isn't the first time the question of medical marijuana's legalization has come to Illinois.
In 1978, the state actually authorized the use of medical marijuana. The only problem was they left it up to the Public Health Department to implement the policy.
And since there is clearly no medical marijuana in Illinois yet, we can see how well they did.
Just because the House committee said "OK" doesn't mean the plan is clear yet. It has yet to see a vote on the House floor.
Patricia Bellock is a Republican representative from Hinsdale, Ill., who isn't sold on the idea at this point. According to the Chicago Tribune, she doesn't disagree with using marijuana for medical purposes, but she does believe the plan is too lenient and that people will take advantage of the system.
So while some in Illinois aren't convinced that the benefits of legalizing medical marijuana use will outweigh its costs, we think the legislation is a model for progressive thinking.
We hope to see marijuana's medical legalization in the near future.
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