Blazing cannabis, US states eye tourism surge

Cannabis users in Colorado and Washington are counting down the hours before the western US states become the first to legalize recreational pot shops on January 1.

Blazing a trail they hope will be followed in other parts of the United States, cannabis growers and others are also rubbing their hands, while tax collectors are eyeing the revenue the newly-legalized trade will generate.

Enterprising companies are even offering marijuana tours to cash in on tourists expected to be attracted to a Netherlands-style pot culture — including in Colorado’s famous ski resorts.

“Just the novelty alone is bringing people from everywhere,” said Adam Raleigh of cannabis supplier Telluride Bud Co.

“I have people driving in from Texas, Arizona, Utah... to be a part of history.

“Over the last month I have received somewhere between four to six emails a day and five to 10 phone calls a day asking all about the law and when should people plan their ski trip to go along with cannabis,” he added.

Medical marijuana is already legal and regulated in 19 US states, and has been allowed in some cases for the past 20 years.

And in most of them, private consumption of cannabis is not classified as a crime.

But Colorado and Washington are creating a recreational market in which local authorities will oversee growing, distribution and marketing — all of it legal — for people to get high just for the fun of it.

The market is huge: from $1.4 billion in medical marijuana in 2013 it will grow by 64% to $2.34 billion in 2014 with recreational pot added in Colorado and Washington, according to Arcview Market Research, which tracks and publishes data on the cannabis industry.

Both states legalized recreational consumption of marijuana in referendums in November last year, but new rules coming into force on January 1 allow cannabis shops.

In Colorado, famous for its Rocky Mountain ski resorts, officials this week issued 348 retail marijuana licenses including for small shops which from January 1 can sell up to 28 grams of pot to people aged 21 or older.

Washington state authorities have received applications for 3,746 marijuana business licenses, including 867 retail licenses, according to The Seattle Times newspaper, which urged caution in an editorial.

“Legalization of marijuana (is) a seismic change in drug-control policy, perhaps the biggest since the end of alcohol prohibition.

Supporters and skeptics need to take a deep breath,” it said.

Colorado’s branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) said everyone will benefit.

“It will mean jobs, tax revenue for the state and local jurisdictions, increased tourism, and a developing progressive new industry in Colorado,” NORML attorney Rachel Gillette told AFP.

“It will also have an impact in that marijuana sales will be brought out of the shadows and the black market,” she added.

Michael Elliott, head of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, noted that Colorado has licensed medical marijuana businesses since 2010, but said the influx of tourists for recreational use of pot could lead to shortages.

“It’s tough to know whether supply will meet demand, mainly because it’s tough to know the impact of tourism on this new market,” he said.

“It looks like demand will exceed supply, so I anticipate that prices in Colorado will go up ... But as time goes on, more businesses will open meaning there will be more supply,” he added.

Telluride Bud Co’s Raleigh compared decriminalizing pot shops to legalizing same-sex weddings, which are now allowed in more than a third of US states.

“Give it six months, and when other states see that the sky didn’t fall and the revenue we are producing, I believe this will spread just like gay marriage,” he said. “You just can’t stop the will of the people.”

- Timeslive

Cannabis advocates hail ‘major step’

Washington - In a move marijuana advocates hailed as a historic shift, the Obama administration on Thursday began giving US states wide leeway to experiment with pot legalisation, and started by letting Colorado and Washington carry out new laws permitting recreational use.

The Justice Department said it would refocus marijuana enforcement nationwide by bringing criminal charges only in eight defined areas - such as distribution to minors - and giving breathing room to users, growers and related businesses that have feared prosecution.

The decisions end nearly a year of deliberation inside President Barack Obama's administration about how to react to the growing movement for relaxed US marijuana laws.

Advocates for legalisation welcomed the announcement as a major step toward ending what they called “marijuana prohibition”.

“Today's announcement demonstrates the sort of political vision and foresight from the White House we've been seeking for a long time,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group.

“I must admit, I was expecting a yellow light from the White House,” he said in a statement. “But this light looks a lot more green-ish than I had hoped. The White House is basically saying to Washington and Colorado: Proceed with caution.”

Marijuana remains illegal and tightly controlled under federal law, even as about 20 states, plus the District of Columbia, allow the use of medical marijuana. Voters in Colorado and Washington legalised recreational use in groundbreaking ballot measures in November 2012.

Obama had signalled he did not want a new crackdown, telling ABC News in December: “It does not make sense, from a prioritisation point of view, for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that's legal.”

The leeway for the states will go only so far, though, if Colorado, Washington or other states show they are unable to control the drug, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Forty-two percent of Americans age 12 or older have used marijuana at some point, according to a 2011 survey by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Obama has said he used marijuana when he was young.

One opponent of marijuana legalisation said his group would redouble efforts to spread word of the negative effects the drug can have on adolescents.

“This is going to really quicken the realisation among folks that more marijuana in our communities is not a good thing,” said Kevin Sabet, a co-founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

US Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Obama administration should not decline to enforce laws that it finds inconvenient or that it does not like.

“This sends the wrong message to both law enforcement and violators of federal law. Apprehending and prosecuting illegal drug traffickers should always be a priority for the Department of Justice,” Grassley said in a statement.

The Justice Department could have sued to block the Colorado and Washington laws from taking effect under the theory that they conflict with the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, the primary US anti-drug law.

Coupled with the decision not to sue, the Justice Department sent a four-page memorandum to federal prosecutors nationwide outlining eight priority areas for marijuana enforcement.

While department officials said they are committed to enforcing federal restrictions on marijuana, prosecutors have now been told not to expend effort on cases unless they fall in one of the eight areas.

The areas include distribution to minors, situations when marijuana revenue is going to other criminal enterprises, trafficking across state lines and growing on public land.

The criteria mean, for example, that federal prosecutors will not charge a marijuana dispensary simply because it is large or profitable, said a Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But the criteria also stop short of guaranteeing immunity for anyone, leaving business and individuals open to prosecution if the case fits one of the eight areas, the official said.

Colorado and Washington will need to have regulatory systems to protect against those types of crimes, or else risk giving up the whole experiment, the department said in a statement.

Attorney General Eric Holder had a phone call on Thursday with the governors of Colorado and Washington to inform them of the decisions and told them there would be a “trust but verify” relationship between the Justice Department and the states, said the department official.

State officials said they shared Holder's concerns.

“This reflects a balanced approach by the federal government that respects the states' interests in implementing these laws and recognises the federal government's role in fighting illegal drugs and criminal activity,” Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson, both of whom are Democrats, said in a statement. - Reuters

Legalising drugs in the spotlight

Should drugs be decriminalised?

Cape Town - South Africa’s advisory body on substance abuse will look into whether or not drugs should be decriminalised or controlled, says a member of the body.

“We do, as the Central Drug Authority, need to keep an open mind,” Peter Ucko, an executive committee member, told the Cape Times yesterday.

The Central Drug Authority formulated the National Drug Master Plan for 2013 to 2017 - the country’s blueprint on substance abuse that was approved by cabinet about a month ago and implemented with immediate effect.

When it came to decriminalising dagga, the master plan said an in-depth probe was needed to look into whether or not this was needed in South Africa.

On Monday the Cape Times published an article in which a crime researcher and criminologist said decriminalising drugs would result in gangs significantly weakening as their main source of income would be ruined.

The idea, rejected by some authorities, including Community Safety MEC Dan Plato, resulted in heated debate on the Cape Times Facebook page.

On Tuesday Ucko said there was a “strong movement” in South Africa and other countries leaning towards decriminalising dagga.

“The Central Drug Authority would be remiss if it did not consider all meaningful scientific options which can be applied and implemented in the real world,” he said.

Ucko said the authority’s stance on implementing any strategy was that the strategy needed to be evidence-based.

“Whatever we do must be evidence-based. We want science. We want research,” he said.

“In South Africa and around the world we have a war on drugs.”

Ucko said “if you remove the war by making drugs legal” it did not mean the authority would stop acting and focusing on what it was meant to.

He explained the master plan focused on reducing the supply of and demand for drugs, as well as the harm caused by using them.

Ucko said investigating drug policies, one of several things the Central Drug Authority needed to do when looking at controlling drugs, was ongoing.

He said drug policy models that other countries, including Holland and Portugal, were following would be looked at.

According to a Netherlands government website, “soft drugs” including dagga could be sold from coffee shops there “under strict conditions”.

The website said the idea behind this was so that dagga users did not need to buy dagga from illegally operating dealers as this would increase their chances of coming into contact with hard drugs.

About 12 years ago the Portuguese government decriminalised all drug use. Ucko said aside from legislative models used elsewhere, research from those countries would be looked at to gauge the results, implications and effectiveness of the models.

- Cape Times

SA plan calls for study on legalising dagga

Cape Town - The National Drug Master Plan, the country’s blueprint on substance abuse, has called for an in-depth probe into whether the decriminalisation or legalisation of dagga is needed in South Africa.

The 2013-17 master plan, formulated by the Central Drug Authority, a state advisory body on substance abuse, was approved by the cabinet about a month ago and implemented with immediate effect.

On Monday the Cape Times quoted Gareth Newham, the head of the Institute for Security Studies’ crime and justice programme, and criminologist Liza Grobler as saying decriminalising drugs would weaken gangs as their main source of power and income would be ruined.

Newham said if dagga were decriminalised, police could focus their resources and clamp down on harder drugs.

Authorities, including Community Safety MEC Dan Plato, were against decriminalising the use of drugs.

The authors of the master plan said when it came to substance abuse, a balanced approach was needed to deal with the problem.

“In the field of substance abuse it is generally accepted that no single approach such as criminalising or decriminalising substances or abusers would solve the problem of substance abuse,” it said.

When it came to dagga, the master plan said it was “well known” that dagga was the second-most used “dependence-forming” substance in South Africa. It said that nine years ago, preparations for a position paper on dagga started and three years ago this paper was presented to parties for consultation.

But the master plan said the stance towards dagga, in South Africa and other countries, had since changed and further research become necessary.

“There is a need for an in-depth investigation of the dynamics of (dagga) use and related harm in South Africa, as well as the relevance of current international/local policies regarding (dagga) use, including measures such as legalisation and/or decriminalisation,” the master plan said.

“The results of this investigation should then be used to develop government policies, legislation, protocols and practices related to (dagga) use.”

The authors said little attention had been given to the problem of driving under the influence of dagga.

A resolution passed at the 54th session of the Commission for Narcotic Drugs, held two years ago in Vienna, requested that a response be developed to “drug-affected driving”.

The master plan said the response would involve collecting data on drug-affected driving and developing a way to test this at the roadside.

In terms of addressing substance abuse, the master plan said it would look at:

* Focusing on a specific community, instead of a national solution, and devising a strategy for that community.

* Applying and developing evidence-based solutions.

* Introducing “a monitoring and evaluation approach” for formulating results. This would include looking at targets and the outcomes of a strategy.

- Cape Times

Infographic - Cannabis in South Africa

Cannabis in South Africa

Uruguay votes yes to legalising Cannabis

Uruguay's parliament voted to be the world's first country to license and regulate production, distribution and sale of dagga for adult consumers.

The unprecedented plan to create a legal marijuana market was approved by 50 of the 96 lawmakers present in the lower house of Congress just before midnight Wednesday after more than 13 hours of passionate debate. It now needs to pass through the Senate.

Legislators in the ruling coalition said legalising marijuana would help fight organised crime. They said putting the government at the center of a legal marijuana industry was worth trying because the global war on drugs had been a costly and bloody failure, and displacing illegal dealers through licensed sales could save money and lives.

They also hope to eliminate a legal contradiction in Uruguay, where it has been legal to use dagga but against the law to sell it, buy it, produce it or possess even one marijuana plant.

President Jose Mujica had postponed voting for six months to give supporters more time to rally public opinion. However, recent polls said two-thirds of Uruguayans remained opposed despite a "responsible regulation" campaign for the bill.

National party deputy Gerardo Amarilla said the government was underestimating the risk of marijuana, which he called a "gateway drug" for other chemical addictions that foster violent crimes.

"Ninety-eight percent of those who are today destroying themselves with base cocaine began with marijuana," Amarilla said. "I believe that we're risking too much. I have the sensation that we're playing with fire."

Activists

Dozens of pro-marijuana activists followed the debate from balconies overlooking the house floor, while others outside held signs and danced to reggae music.

"This law consecrates a reality that already exists: The marijuana sales market has existed for a long time, but illegally, buying it from traffickers, and in having plants in your house for which you can be thrown in jail," said Camilo Collazo, a 25-year-old anthropology student. "We want to put an end to this, to clean up and normalise the situation."

Mujica, for his part, said he never consumed marijuana, but that the regulations are necessary because many other people do. "Never in my life did I try it, nor do I have any idea what it is," he told the local radio station Carve.

The heavy toll, costs and questionable results of military responses to illegal drugs have motivated marijuana legalisation initiatives in the US states of Colorado and Washington, and inspired many world leaders to re-think drug laws.

The secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Inzulza, told Mujica last week that his members had no objections. Pope Francis, however, said during his visit to Brazil that the "liberalisation of drugs, which is being discussed in several Latin American countries, is not what will reduce the spread of chemical substances."

New legislation

Under the legislation, Uruguay's government would license growers, sellers and consumers, and update a confidential registry to keep people from buying more than 40 grams a month.

Carrying, growing or selling dagga without a license could bring prison terms, but licensed consumers could grow up to six plants at a time at home.

Growing clubs with up to 45 members each would be encouraged, fostering enough marijuana production to drive out unlicensed dealers and draw a line between dagga smokers and users of harder drugs.

The latest proposal "has some adjustments, aimed at strengthening the educational issue and prohibiting driving under the effects of cannabis," ruling coalition deputy Sebastian Sabini said. "There will be self-growing clubs, and it will also be possible to buy marijuana in pharmacies" that is mass-produced by private companies.

An Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis would be created, with the power to grant licenses for all aspects of a legal industry to produce marijuana for recreational, medicinal or industrial use. –  Sapa-AP

Time to legalize marijuana in Mexico City

A growing number of Mexicans are asking logical questions: Why should their leaders follow a path that provokes violence, generates human rights violations, erodes the country’s image abroad and costs a fortune?

Last year, voters in the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington approved initiatives legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. While the details are being worked out, those watching the developments are in not only the United States. Mexico, too, is taking note, having paid an enormous price waging a costly – and, to a certain degree, futile – years-long crusade against drugs in consonance with the international community’s punitive approach.

A growing number of Mexicans are asking logical questions: Why should their leaders follow a path that provokes violence, generates human rights violations, erodes the country’s image abroad and costs a fortune – mainly to stem the northern flow of drugs? Why spray and uproot marijuana fields in the hills of Oaxaca, search for tunnels in Tijuana and incarcerate “weed” traffickers in Monterrey if consumption is made legal in parts of the United States? Why deploy such an enormous effort to deter drug trafficking if Washington does virtually nothing to stop the flow of firearms to Mexico – and has concluded that it can, and should, prevent migrants from Mexico and Central America from entering the United States? If Congress can “secure” the border against people, using walls and drones, why can’t it do the same against drugs or guns and, in the process, respect Mexico’s right to design its own policies?

These sentiments are part of the reason for a change in Mexican attitudes toward drugs in general and marijuana in particular. Two former presidents – Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox, who both vigorously fought drug trafficking and consumption while in office – have concluded that this approach is doomed and that a better policy would include decriminalizing marijuana use and commerce. Then-President Felipe Calderón called on the U.N. General Assembly last year to change its focus, eliminating the perverse incentives that strengthen transnational organized crime and gravely affect the rule of law and democracy in some countries.

Mexico is a highly conservative country whose population remains largely opposed to legalizing marijuana. But an increasing number of business, political and academic leaders are shifting their views. The city council of Mexico City, which has authority to legislate health and law enforcement issues, is contemplating a measure that would, in effect, allow the regulated possession and use of marijuana. Already, Mexicans can legally possess five grams of marijuana, an amount much smaller than what is commonly sold, bought or shared. Effectively decriminalizing marijuana would be in line with liberal attitudes in the capital and laws that rest on the firm belief that the right to privacy includes certain personal choices, even – or especially – when not shared by the majority.

We and other former cabinet secretaries – Pedro Aspe, finance minister to Carlos Salinas, and Juan Ramón de la Fuente, health minister to Zedillo – have joined with Mexico’s leading public intellectual and a prominent social activist to push for legalization in Mexico City. The four of us occupied senior posts directly related to the drug issue in Mexico’s previous four administrations. Along with Héctor Aguilar Camín, editor of the monthly Nexos, and María Elena Morera, founder of Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia (Mexicans United Against Crime), we are encouraging Mexico City authorities to proceed promptly.

For practical and political reasons, our effort is limited to decriminalizing the use of marijuana in the federal district, though some believe that the same case can be easily made for other drugs in the whole country. A reform that restrains its effects to marijuana is achievable; going further does not seem feasible today. Another reason for moving slowly, though firmly, is the impact this decision would have on the relationship between Mexico and the United States.

President Enrique Peña Nieto opposes legalization but seems open to a broad debate and to whatever consensus would emerge – locally, nationally or regionally. He may accept Mexico City’s decision even if he doesn’t like it, much as U.S. President Barack Obama seems to have resigned himself to the Colorado and Washington legislation. Mexico has ratified treaties banning illicit substances, but these international agreements allow governments to set their own policies within certain limits; consider Dutch and Portuguese leniency. The United States should support its neighbor as it seeks leeway for its own stance, even if that conflicts with U.S. policy.

Mexicans have paid a high cost in the struggle against drugs. We know that this war cannot be won. This fight should be waged by physicians rather than armed forces. Decriminalization of marijuana is not a silver bullet, but it would be a major step away from a failed approach. Mexico City is the place to start, thanks to the example set in Colorado and Washington state.

Fernando Gómez Mont was Mexico’s interior minister in the administration of Felipe Calderón. Jorge G. Castañeda was minister of foreign affairs in the administration of Vicente Fox.

Tico Times - The Washington Post

DA gga

Government Funded Study on Cannabis, Proves Government Wrong

A recent study conducted by the University of California, Center for Medicinal Cannabis, sheds light on government prohibition of marijuana and its ridiculous implications. The irony here is that this study, published in The Open Neurology Journal, was sponsored by government.

The hypocrisy of marijuana remaining a Schedule 1 drug, “No Medical Use Whatsoever,” seems criminal when considering that pharmaceutical companies reproduce a chemical version of THC and are able to market and sell it as such. Marinol is a pharmaceutical chemical drug produced by Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. It contains the exact molecular structure of the THC molecule and has the same effects of marijuana. However you cannot grow Marinol in your backyard. You cannot make obscene profits from the patent of a plant, because luckily, the state has not granted their mega –corporations the ability to patent nature, yet. The contradiction here is that you can make nature illegal, and then recreate nature in a lab using chemicals, put that illegal part of nature, available for profit, into a pill and make millions.

The government funded study, appropriately titled, Medical Marijuana: Clearing Away the Smoke, concludes: “Based on evidence currently available the Schedule I classification is not tenable; it is not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that information on safety is lacking…. The continuing conflict between scientific evidence and political ideology will hopefully be reconciled in a judicious manner.”

Read more at realfarmacy

I puff the weed, says AbaThembu king

Self-confessed dagga-smoking AbaThembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo said on Wednesday he is not perturbed by being constantly associated with the illegal smoke.

“ (Smoking) dagga is a cultural behaviour. I am a Rastafarian by nature,” he told reporters at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

“That (association with dagga) should not surprise you.”

The outspoken king said former president Nelson Mandela was “looking good”.

He visited the anti-apartheid icon at the Medi-Clinic Heart hospital in Pretoria on Tuesday.

“The visit was brilliant. Madiba is looking good. He hasn’t been talking but I got some good gestures from him. He hasn’t been able to smile, I got that little smile from his face which I appreciated very much.

“It was a blessing to me,” he said.

Dalindyebo said “so much was being done to keep Madiba alive”.

The 94-year-old former president was admitted to the hospital on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.

On Wednesday, New York University students paid a visit to the hospital.

“His influence and what he stands for has touched all of us,” said Curtis Outlaw.

The students are in the country for a month to study education and social reforms. They lit candles near the wall filled with messages and well wishes for Mandela.

The anti-apartheid icon was spending his 33rd day in hospital.

Outlaw said he was inspired by Mandela and all he had accomplished.

“I look at him as an inspirational individual. From him I have learned that with perseverance, anything can be accomplished,” he said.

Crystal Soto said it was very important for them, as social welfare students, to visit the hospital and see what the country had been saying about Mandela.

“As educators, it is also important to study who he is and what he has accomplished as a person,” she said.

The students said it was significant for them to show respect for the sacrifices Mandela had made, to ensure peace and unity in the country. - Sapa

Researchers hope to test cancer fighting cannabis compound

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Medical marijuana and its psychoactive ingredient THC already provide relief, and often an accompanying buzz, for thousands of patients fighting cancer.

But more than five years ago, researchers at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco began focusing their attention on a far tamer compound in the marijuana plant, an ingredient called cannabidiol.

"Cannabidiol is a non-toxic agent from cannabis that is not psychoactive," says Sean McAllister, Ph.D., a lead researcher in the group's recent study.

McAllister and colleague Pierre Desprez, Ph.D., now believe they are ready for human trials, using the compound to treat metastatic cancer. The pair has produced a synthetic version of cannabidiol, also known as CBD, which they say targets a specific gene in the body related to the spread of cancer.

"We found this one compound, CBD, had a specific effect on metastatic cancer cells, very aggressive tumor cells. The bad cancer cells, the ones that spread throughout the body," said Desprez.

In their recently published study the team documented that effect on brain cancer in a large scale animal trial. They say brain scans revealed the disruption of the tumor cells after the cannabidiol was used to switch off a specific gene regulator.

"We find when you treat with CBD, you down regulate the expression of this protein, and that inhibits the disease process," explains McAllister.

Desprez believes the effect may have to do with a natural defense mechanism in the plant, which he says protects it from insects by retarding their development.

"So maybe the plant is making these compounds to combat the development of insects and we can use the compound to target cancer cells that act like embryonic cells," Desperz theorizes.

The team believes the current results, coupled with the non-toxic nature of CBD, is now encouraging enough to warrant human trials, which they hope to secure funding for in the upcoming months. In anticipation, the team has designed two trial models, one for brain cancer and the other for breast cancer.

- abc