Legalizing Psychedelic Therapy

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Chronicle AM: Mexican Coca, Saudis Behead Another Trafficker, Feds Raid LA Fashion District, More (9/11/14)

from stopthedrugwar.org

by Phillip Smith, September 11, 2014, 03:03pm, (Issue #852)

Posted in: 

• 2014
• Alternatives to Incarceration
• Asset Forfeiture
• Busts & Seizures
• Coca
• Congress
• Death Penalty
• Marijuana -- Personal Use
• Marijuana Legalization
• Medical Marijuana
• Money Laundering
• News Brief
• Police Raids
• Politics Outside US
• Public Health
• State & Local Legislatures

A federal CBD medical marijuana bill picks up more sponsors, so does a federal asset forfeiture reform bill, Georgia advocates whole whole plant medical marijuana, Mexico's first coca patch is busted, Saudi Arabia beheads another drug offender, and more. Let's get to it:

Coca plant. Mexico has found its first plantation. (unodc.org)

Marijuana Policy

York, Maine, Selectmen Refuse to Put Legalization Initiative on Ballot, But… Town selectmen voted against putting the initiative from Citizens for a Safer Maine on the November ballot, but since petitioners have already gathered sufficient signatures to force the issue, they can get their petition notarized to be placed on the ballot. York will join Lewiston and South Portland in voting on initiatives this year; Portland approved one last year.

Medical Marijuana

Charlotte's Web Medical Hemp Act Picks Up More Sponsors. The Charlotte's Web Medical Hemp Act (HR 5226), which would exclude cannabidiol (CBD) from the definition of marijuana, has gained new sponsors. It now has 19 cosponsors -- 11 Democrats and eight Republicans. The latest are Reps. Ann Wagner (R-MO), Matthew Cartwright (D-PA), and Chris Stewart (R-UT).

Georgia Advocates Call for Whole Plant Medical Marijuana, Not Just CBD Oil. As legislative hearings in Macon continue to examine the use of CBD oil, medical marijuana advocates are calling for whole plant medical marijuana. "The cannabis plant contains many compounds that have proven to be effective in treating a variety of conditions," saidGeorgia C.A.R.E director James Bell. "We should not be determining who can and cannot benefit from this healing plant."

Asset Forfeiture

Civil Asset Forfeiture Act Picks Up New Sponsors. The bill, HR 5212, now has five cosponsors. The latest are Reps. Stevan Pearce (R-NM), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Reid Ribble (R-WI). All cosponsors so far are Republicans. The bill, filed by Rep. Tim Wahlberg (R-MI), would increase citizen protections against federal asset forfeiture actions.

Law Enforcement

Feds Raid LA Fashion District in Cartel Money Laundering Probe. More than a thousand law enforcement officers spread out across LA's fashion district Wednesday, raiding more than 60 warehouses, storefronts, and residences, arresting nine people and seizing $65 million in cash that they said was being laundered for Mexican drug trafficking organizations. The feds called the mass bust Operation Fashion Police.

International

OAS Head Claims Regional Consensus on Drug Reform. Speaking in front of the Inter-American Dialog in Washington, DC, Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said Wednesday that regional leaders have reached consensus on four drug policy reform issues: to emphasize a public health approach, to seek out alternatives to incarceration, to stay strong against organized crime, and to work on strengthening regional institutions. Insulza's remarks come ahead of an OAS Special General Assembly to be held in Guatemala next week.

Mexico's First Coca Plantation Discovered in Chiapas. Mexican soldiers have seized more than 1,600 coca plants being cultivated in southern Chiapas state, near the Guatemalan border. Mexican military and UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) officials said it was the first time coca planting had been discovered in the country. "It's a pretty troubling discovery," said UNODC Mexico representative Antonio Mazzitelli. It could amount to "a small-scale experiment to see if there is a possibility of replicating" coca production in Mexico. Coca is currently grown only in the Andes, although there is nothing stopping it from being cultivated elsewhere.

Saudi Arabia Beheads Another Drug Offender. Authorities in Saudi Arabia Tuesday beheaded a Pakistani national convicted of smuggling "a large quantity of heroin." They have executed at least seven other drug traffickers in recent weeks, and 49 people overall so far this year. It's unclear how many of the 49 were drug offenders.

Coalition Urges Nations to Decriminalize Drugs and Drug Use

from nytimes


By SOMINI SENGUPTASEPT. 8, 2014

A coalition of political figures from around the world, including Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, and several former European and Latin American presidents, is urging governments to decriminalize a variety of illegal drugs and set up regulated drug markets within their own countries.

The proposal by the group, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, goes beyond its previous call to abandon the nearly half-century-old American-led war on drugs. As part of a report scheduled to be released on Tuesday, the group goes much further than its 2011 recommendation to legalize cannabis.

The former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a member of the commission, said the group was calling for the legal regulation of “as many of the drugs that are currently illegal as possible, with the understanding that some drugs may remain too dangerous to decriminalize.”

The proposal comes at a time when several countries pummeled by drug violence, particularly in Latin America, are rewriting their own drug laws, and when even the United States is allowing state legislatures to gingerly regulate cannabis use. The United Nations is scheduled to hold a summit meeting in 2016 to evaluate global drug laws.

The commission includes former presidents like Mr. Cardoso of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Ruth Dreifuss of Switzerland, along with George P. Shultz, a former secretary of state in the Reagan administration, among others.

The group stops short of calling on countries to legalize all drugs right away. It calls instead for countries to continue to pursue violent criminal gangs, to stop incarcerating users and to offer treatment for addicts.

Strong resistance is expected from world powers, including the United States and Russia, which favor maintaining strict criminal prohibitions. Several Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, impose the death penalty for drug smuggling.

Drug laws are being reconsidered by some countries around the world.Uruguay last year became the first country to establish a state-run market for marijuana. Colombia established a national commission to re-evaluate its own national policy. In Europe, some countries have long stopped making arrests for marijuana use and possession. President Obama has alsoquestioned the fairness of prosecuting marijuana users.

The global commission takes aim at criminalizing drug use and possession. “Punitive drug law enforcement fuels crime and maximizes the health risks associated with drug use, especially among the most vulnerable,” its report goes on to say.

John Walsh, drug policy analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy organization, said members of the commission “realize that even if the debate is now really open for first time in half a century, different countries are going to be able to proceed at different paces.”

A version of this article appears in print on September 9, 2014, on page A5 of the New York edition with the headline: Coalition Urges Nations to Decriminalize Drugs and Drug Use. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe

Finally, Some Hard Science on Medical Marijuana for Epilepsy Patients

from time

• Kate Pickert @katepickert
 

Sept. 3, 2014

A groundbreaking clinical trial may provide some answers to medical marijuana as a seizure treatment

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by Taboola

For years, some parents have turned to medical marijuana to treat their children’s debilitating epilepsy, crediting the drug with dramatically reducing seizure activity. 

A groundbreaking clinical trial about to begin recruiting test subjects may finally provide some science to back their claims.

In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Colorado, Denver will study the genes of those with a kind of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome who have been treated with a strain of medical marijuana known as Charlotte’s Web. The study will attempt to determine if specific genetic components can explain why some epilepsy patients see positive results from ingesting Charlotte’s Web, while others do not.

The plant, grown by five brothers in Colorado through a non-profit organization called Realm of Caring, is low in THC, the compound that produces marijuana’s psychoactive effects, and high in CBD, a compound believed to reduce seizures in those suffering from certain forms of epilepsy. It is administered to epilepsy patients, including many children, in the form of an oil. The plant is named after Charlotte Figi, a young girl who was the first epilepsy patient successfully treated with the strain.

While anecdotal evidence suggests Charlotte’s Web can be highly effective in treating such conditions, scientific investigation of the product has been stymied by federal drug laws that severely limit marijuana research. Edward Maa, the principal investigator of the Charlotte’s Web study, says the new trial could be a first step toward building a body of research on how and why medical marijuana can be used to treat epilepsy. “This is the first attempt to get the information people are interested in that is observational in nature,” says Maa, an assistant professor at UC Denver and chief of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Programs at Denver Health.

The new study will recruit epilepsy patients who have already taken Charlotte’s Web. The patients will be divided into two groups—those who have seen seizure activity reduced by at least 50 percent on Charlotte’s Web and those who have had less dramatic or no results from taking the marijuana oil. Genetic analysis of the patients in both groups will then be performed in hopes of discovering what genetic components may cause a patient to be responsive to medical marijuana. Interventional studies, in which patients would be given Charlotte’s Web to measure its efficacy, are far more difficult to conduct. “That would be the Holy Grail,” says Maa.

Still, researchers on the UC Denver team will collect data on dosages used by patients in the study, for example, which could allow for further research down the line. “The more data we are able to collect in a large sample, the closer to the truth we will get,” says Maa. He says the study could allow children with Dravet Syndrome to be genetically screened before taking Charlotte’s Web so parents could know ahead of time if their children would benefit. It’s possible to conduct the study in Colorado because Charlotte’s Web is grown there legally and is home to many families who have moved to the state to specifically to access the marijuana strain.

“Do you uproot and move your entire family to not have an effect? I think this could be very helpful to answer this question,” says Maa.

Recruiting for the new study will begin within a month and data will be collected until February 2016.

 

California city mandates free medical marijuana for low-income residents

from fox


Published September 04, 2014



Video

Weed welfare? 

That’s what the Berkeley City Council in California has unanimously approved, ordering medical marijuana dispensaries to donate 2 percent of their stash to patients making less than $32,000 a year. 

The new welfare program in the liberal-leaning city is set to launch in August 2015. 

The ordinance, which passed in August and is the first of its kind in the country, comes at a time when several states are debating how to handle a growing movement to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational use. 

But Berkeley's decision to effectively order weed redistribution is prompting a vocal backlash. 

Bishop Ron Allen, a former addict and head of the International Faith Based Coalition, told Fox News he doesn’t understand why the California city would want to dump pot on the impoverished.  

“It’s ludicrous, over-the-top madness,” Allen said. “Why would Berkeley City Council want to keep their poverty-stricken under-served high, in poverty and lethargic?”

John Lovell, a lobbyist for the California Narcotic Officers’ Association, agrees. 

“Instead of taking steps to help the most economically vulnerable residents get out of that state, the city has said, ‘Let’s just get everybody high,’” Lovell told The New York Times.

But others, like Mason Tvert, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project, say it’s a community program. 

Tvert told Fox News that the decision to provide the drug to some of its low-income residents is up to the community.

“So it’s a matter of the democratic process, people following the state’s laws, and this law appears to accommodate both of those,” he said.

California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana nearly 20 years ago.

California dispensaries are prohibited by law from turning a profit. But some places have been giving pot away to patients who couldn't pay for years.

One of Berkeley’s largest dispensaries, Berkeley Patients Group, has been doing it for a decade, The New York Times reports. One recipient, Arnie Passman, a poet and activist, said he’s couldn't remember exactly how long he had been given medical marijuana or why.

“It could be for my allergies, or my arthritis -- you know what happens to us folks: We forget,” Passman, 78, told the newspaper.

This is your federalism on drugs

from washingtonpost

By Jonathan H. Adler August 28 

In 2014, voters in Colorado and Washington state voted to legalize marijuana possession within their states.  This November, voters in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia will get the chance to follow suit.  Voters in Florida will also decide whether to join the approximately 20 states which allow marijuana possession and use for medicinal purposes.  Whatever these states decide, however, marijuana will remain illegal under federal law.

Conservative Republicans often talk about the need to constrain the power of the federal government. On everything from environmental regulation to education policy, Republican officeholders argue that individual states should be able to adopt their own policy priorities, free from federal interference.  Yet many of these same people are silent when the question turns to marijuana.

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives voted to cut off Drug Enforcement Administration funding for raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal.  The measure passed with the support of 49 Republicans.  This is a significant increaseover the last time such a limitation on the DEA had been proposed, when only 28 Republicans supported respecting state choices on medical marijuana, but it still represents less than one-quarter of the GOP caucus.  So many Republicans who believe it’s federal overreach when federal law regulates health insurance or power plant emissions think its just fine when the federal government prohibits the possession of a plant, even where authorized under state law.

Some prospective Republican presidential candidates appear to be more supportive of state prerogatives over marijuana policy than are Republican members of Congress.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry opposes outright legalization of marijuana (although he supports partial decriminalization of some possession). Nonetheless, he has endorsed the right of each state to make this decision for itself.  As Jacob Sullum notes, this could make Perry more “liberal” on marijuana that President Obama.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush also opposes legalization, and has come out against the Florida medical marijuana initiative.  Yet he has also made comments suggesting that this should be a state issue. Though he has some concern about potential spillover effects — i.e. what happens to neighboring states if marijuana is legal next door — he seems to recognize the virtue of federalism when it comes to marijuana.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), while running for vice president, also expressed support for letting states decide whether to legalize medical marijuana, at least temporarily. He told a Colorado television station that he believed Washington should “let the states decide what they want to do with these things.”  Within days, however, the campaign claimed that Ryan supported Mitt Romney’s position and opposed any legalization of marijuana.

While some Republicans oppose state marijuana policy reforms out of a knee-jerk opposition to drugs of any sort, others (such as Jeb Bush) appear to have legitimate concerns about the effects legalization in one state could have on other states’ ability to maintain marijuana prohibition.  These are non-trivial concerns, though I think they can be addressed.  When alcohol prohibition was repealed, states retained the ability to prohibit or regulate alcohol and the federal government focused on supporting state-level preferences by prohibiting interstate shipment of alcohol in violation of applicable state laws.  There’s no clear reason why a similar approach to marijuana would be less effective.

Some of the more difficult legal questions confronting state efforts to legalize marijuana involve the intersection between state law and the existing federal prohibition.  Even if the federal government decides to scale back marijuana law enforcement in non-prohibition states, federal law remains federal law and it continues to have an effect.  Banks, attorneys and others are bound to respect federal law even in the absence of conforming state laws, and the legalization of a product at the state law does not eliminate the federal prohibition.

Last December, I moderated a panel on “Marijuana and the States,” co-sponsored by CWRU’s Center for Business Law and Regulation and the Federalism Society that explored some of the tensions between state and federal law on marijuana, particularly in the area of law enforcement.  The Obama administration claims it wants to respect state choices, but the laws against marijuana remain on the books.  So those who possess marijuana — or facilitate the production and sale of marijuana — are still violating federal law, and there’s not much the Justice Department, acting on its own, can do about that.

To further explore the legal and policy questions raised by state-level marijuana policy reforms, the Center for Business Law and Regulation will be hosting a day-long conference on  September 12: Marijuana, Federal Policy, and the States.  Presenters will include Ernest Young (Duke), Angela Hawken (Pepperdine), Robert Mikos (Vanderbilt), Julie Hill (Alabama) Doug Berman (OSU), Mark Kleiman (UCLA), Alex Kreit (TJSL), Brannon Denning (Cumberland), John Hudak (Brookings) and the VC’s own Will Baude (Chicago).  The papers will consider a range of questions from the scope of federal power and range of state autonomy to the control of spillover effects and the intersection of marijuana prohibition and banking law.  Registration and webcast information may be found here.

The hope for the conference, like the December panel, is to spur greater discussion on the federalism issues presented by state-level marijuana policy reform.  It seems pretty clear that multiple states want no part in marijuana prohibition.  The question, then, is whether the federal government will let states go their own way and, if so, how the federal government an accomplish that end.

Jonathan H. Adler teaches courses in constitutional, administrative, and environmental law at the Case Western University School of Law, where he is the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation.