Keep up with the latest news on the fight against marijuana in California and around the country.
A study of four medical marijuana outlets in California suggests that many of their customers don’t fit the profile expected for businesses focused on sick patients.Researchers found that some of the dispensaries attracted many customers outside of their immediate area and appeared to target specific ethnic, gender and/or age groups.
Read MoreProponents first extolled the “medical” benefits of marijuana. They convinced voters to bypass the Food and Drug Administration, substituting popular vote for research, clinical trials and science. They downplayed the harmful health effects and never mentioned that FDA-approved medical marijuana for cancer patients is already legally available in nabilone pills. Ads showing seniors toking to relieve the effects of chemotherapy tugged at heartstrings. Yet in Arizona, fewer than 3 percent of marijuana cardholders have cancer. Statistics suggest “medical” marijuana is a ruse for recreational pot: Cardholders are predominantly male, one-fourth are under 30 and 83 percent use it to relieve self-defined “chronic pain.”
Read MoreSan Diego County has banned pot dispensaries in its unincorporated areas, but the Sheriff's Department can't enforce the ban, because the locations that are shut down just re-open. Spring Valley has become the Wild West for illegal pot shops.
Read MoreGiven more options from which to choose, respondents’ support for legalization dropped by a third, from 60 percent to 40 percent. Apparently, some of the poll respondents who had previously expressed support for legalization assumed they were being asked about the legality of medical marijuana or of personal marijuana possession. The “60 percent support” was thus actually a mix of people who supported legalization and those who opposed it but wanted marijuana to be accessible to severely ill people, opposed criminal penalties for personal consumption, or both.
Read MoreIf Hickenlooper and Gardner cared to lead on this issue, they would tell the world about the rate of pot-involved traffic fatalities that began soaring in their state in direct correlation with the emergence of legal recreational pot and Big Marijuana. They would talk about Colorado's status as a national leader in the growth of homelessness, which all major homeless shelter operators attribute to commercialized, recreational pot.
Read MoreMany of those in prison for marijuana entered a guilty plea to a marijuana charge to avoid a more serious charge. In the US, just 1.6 percent of the state inmate population were held for offenses involving only marijuana, and less than one percent of all state prisoners (0.7 percent) were incarcerated with marijuana possession as the only charge.
Read MorePart of the legalization argument is that regulating and taxing marijuana could give California enforcement agencies the funds they need to eradicate illegal farms. But Gabriel thinks it will take years before enforcement can put a dent in the illegal grows that he estimates pop up by the hundreds every year. He points to Humboldt County, about five hours northwest of Calaveras, where authorities are combing through 2,300 applications for growers who want to start selling in California’s recreational market. But there are also an estimated 12,700 illegal farms in the county.
Read MoreAlthough supporters of recreational pot had the gall to argue that legalisation would lead to decreased use by teenagers, regular use of marijuana among children between 12 and 17 has been above the national average and is rising faster than the national average.
Nor did legalization reduce black market marijuana activity in Colorado. Last year the state’s Attorney General, Cynthia Coffman, told the media: “The criminals are still selling on the black market. ... We have plenty of cartel activity in Colorado (and) plenty of illegal activity that has not decreased at all.”
Homelessness has surged by 50 percent from the time recreational pot was legalized. Surveys at Denver shelters estimate that about 20 to 30 percent of newcomers have moved to Colorado so that they can have easy access to the drug.
Read MoreThe “medipot” industry has been lawless. Those willing to break the law are not likely to obey new, weak and unenforced regulations. Local law enforcement throughout the state, including our own Chief Zimmerman pled for banning commercial pot drug dealing operations. Most jurisdictions in the state have listened. Sadly several cities, including San Diego City, have not.
Read MoreLast week marked the fifth anniversary of Colorado's decision to sanction the world's first anything-goes commercial pot trade.
Five years later, we remain an embarrassing cautionary tale.
Read MoreThe pot industry has many lies and half truths that are recycled again and again. It is time to take them on point by point.
Read MoreCannabis users are more likely to commit violent crime, pioneering research has shown. It warned those who smoke the drug regularly run an increased risk of using violence against others. The project is the first to demonstrate that cannabis is not only linked with violent crime but is the cause.
Read MoreCannabis users more likely to commit violent crimes, research has shown
Study found there was a ‘more constant relationship’ between cannabis and violence than between alcohol or cocaine use and violence
More than 20 US states have legalised cannabis for medical purposes
With such overwhelming support, one could assume that legalization has clear benefits for everyone. That assumption is not only costly, it could prove to be dead wrong.
Read MoreWhen I graduated from pharmacy school, I voluntarily pledged to use my knowledge, experience, and skills to the best of my ability to ensure optimal drug therapy outcomes for the patients I serve, and to consider the welfare of humanity with the full realization of the responsibility entrusted by the public.
To me this means that we, as pharmacists, must step up and speak the truth when it comes to claims about “medical” marijuana.
Read More6 councilmembers ignored the police chief’s and mayors concerns. They ignored the facts and figures from Colorado showing the true cost of that state’s marijuana industry. They ignored the recommendation of their own city staff. Six councilmembers ignored their own constituents, the regular people from underserved communities who took the time off from their jobs and from their families to speak out at City Hall.
Read MoreThe midday explosion that convulsed a quiet North Portland neighborhood last month showered the street with glass and debris and hurled a 150-pound door into nearby Peninsula Park.
It blasted a 91-year-old home to pieces, scattering glass and scraps of the roof. The two men inside died. The sheer force of the blast suggested someone, maybe a contractor, nicked a natural gas line.
Read MoreThe number of drivers involved in fatal crashes in Colorado who tested positive for marijuana has risen sharply each year since 2013, more than doubling in that time, federal and state data show. A Denver Post analysis of the data and coroner reports provides the most comprehensive look yet into whether roads in the state have become more dangerous since the drug’s legalization.
Read MoreOur country is facing a drug epidemic. Legalizing recreational marijuana will do nothing that Senator Booker expects. We heard many of these same promises in 2012 when Colorado legalized recreational marijuana.
In the years since, Colorado has seen an increase in marijuana related traffic deaths, poison control calls, and emergency room visits. The marijuana black market has increased in Colorado, not decreased. And, numerous Colorado marijuana regulators have been indicted for corruption.
In 2012, we were promised funds from marijuana taxes would benefit our communities, particularly schools. Dr. Harry Bull, the Superintendent of Cherry Creek Schools, one of the largest school districts in the state, said, "So far, the only thing that the legalization of marijuana has brought to our schools has been marijuana."
Read MoreWEAVERVILLE, Calif. (Reuters) - Pollution from illegal marijuana farms deep in California's national forests is far worse than previously thought, and has turned thousands of acres into waste dumps so toxic that simply touching plants has landed law enforcement officers in the hospital.
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