Hemp // Current

We’ve Cut Cigarette Smoking By Half and We Didnt Have To Arrest 20 Million Americans To Do It

November 17th, 2008

According to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control, fewer Americans are smoking cigarettes than at any time in modern history.

The number of U.S. adults who smoke has dropped below 20 percent for the first time on record, Reuters reported. This is less than half the percentage (42 percent) of Americans who smoked cigarettes during the 1960s.

Imagine that; in the past 40 years tens of millions of Americans have voluntarily quit smoking a legal, yet highly addictive intoxicant. Millions of others have refused to initiate the habit. And they’ve all made this decision without ever once being threatened with criminal prosecution and arrest, imprisonment, probation, and drug testing.

By contrast, during this same period of time, state and local police have arrested some 20 million Americans for pot law violations ‹ primarily for violations no greater than simple possession. And yet marijuana use among the public has skyrocketed from an annual rate of 0.6 million new users in 1965 to some 2.5 annual new users today.

There’s a lesson to be learned here, of course. Tobacco, though harmful to health, is a legally regulated commodity. Sellers are licensed and held accountable by federal and state laws. Users are restricted by age. Advertising and access is limited by state and federal governments. And health warnings regarding the drug’s use are based upon credible science.

By contrast, marijuana remains an unregulated black market commodity. Sellers are typically criminal entrepreneurs who, for the most part, operate undetected from law enforcement and are free to sell their product to any person of any person. Unlike tobacco, marijuana’s packaging carries no warning label, and government ‘education’ campaign’s regarding pot’s use are based almost explicitly upon hyperbole, propaganda, and laughable stereotypes.

Is it any wonder why use of one drug is going down at the same time that use of the other is rising?

If federal lawmakers truly wished to address marijuana use, they would take a page from their successful campaign to reduce the use of cigarettes. This would include taxing and regulating cannabis with the drug’s sale and use restricted to specific markets and consumers.

While such an alternative may not entirely eliminate the black market demand for pot, it would certainly be preferable to today’s blanket, though thoroughly ineffective, expensive and impotent criminal prohibition.

Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of NORML and the NORML Foundation in Washington, DC. He may be contact by e-mail at: paul@norml.org.November 17th, 2008 According to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control, fewer Americans are smoking... more

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The Real Million Marijuana March on DC - July 4th 2009

There are plans for a Million Marijuana March on DC for July 4th 2009.

I've been talking with the organizer who had some interesting things to say about support he has gotten. This could be a pretty big deal if he pulls it off!

Here's what he said about the initial plans and who's involved:

"Ask Larry Lippert of American Cannabis, or Richard Rawlings from Norml, Or Casper from Time for Hemp, all people I have associated with and are collaborating with me on this.

... I am willing to give up my freedom, even my life, so that others can be free, that I was able to confidently coin myself in the phrase and context of a civil rights leader... Fear cannot drive freedom. Only spur on tyranny. So be not afraid brother. There is no greater an action in a man's life then to be a martyr of freedom, and many have sacrificed to do so, I am not afraid to sacrifice.

Also me and my counter-parts in NORML, American Cannabis, The Marijuana Policy Project, and artists like the Individuals and DJ Slim are currently contacting Willie Nelson, Cheech and Chong, Cypress Hill, ZZ Top and Woody Harrelson personally, to help us promote the march. The Million Man March only had Snoop Dog as they're main artist helping them promote, and they acquired nearly 750 THOUSAND marchers. Imagine what we can do with the artists we are acquiring.

There is nothing to fear but fear itself. Be brave my brother, the world needs you too."

-Tom D. (TRM3)

We need more freedom fighters like Tom. The media won't cover it unless it's impossible to ignore it. A million people in DC would certainly draw some attention. Especially with headliners like DJ Slim, Willie Nelson, Cheech and Chong, Cypress Hill, ZZ Top and Woody Harrelson!

Here's the TRM3 mission statement:

WHAT IS TRM3 THE REAL MILLION MARIJUANA MARCH: TRM3 The Real Million Marijuana March is a grass-roots organization based out of Salt Lake City Utah, who's aim is to gather one Million protesters in D.C. July 4th of 2009 for the worlds largest sit-in and protest of marijuana being illegal!!! Being as it is the worlds largest sit-in, it is a great act of civil-disobedience, and though we may get permits for our routes there and to arrive there, there is no permit issued by the U.S. government for a sit-in with no end date. We want a million activists to gather and STAY in D.C. until the United States government legalizes marijuana. This massive act of civil disobedience will cause the United States government to react in one of three ways: They will ignore us (which is highly doubtful) or; They will remove us (probably by force which will most likely end in rioting and martyr our cause further like the civil rights riots of African Americans in the past) or; Legalize it. These are the only options we give our government if we can accomplish one million people in D.C. next year. So help spread the news, help spread the word, and those that believe in personal freedom and the right for everyone to choose for themselves, I ask for a dedication to be there and protest with us in non-violence. Thank you! -Tom D. (TRM3)
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Research into medicinal marijuana grows up.

This summer, British and Italian researchers found that in a laboratory plate, molecules in marijuana can slay the superbug methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, which recently infected seven babies and four employees in a Yonkers, N.Y., maternity ward, heightening fears of outbreaks in schools and locker rooms, as well as in its more familiar breeding grounds, hospitals and nursing homes. In theory, compounds derived from the cannabis plant could someday serve in topical creams for patients with MRSA or other antibiotic-resistant infections.

This isn't the first time marijuana has tantalized the world as a possible wonder drug. In recent years, compounds in cannabis or related molecules have been shown to slow the growth of lung tumors in mice, decrease hardening of the arteries in rats, and boost the egg-binding capability of tobacco smokers' sperm. Research on the receptors that THC and other cannabis compounds attach to—and the nitty-gritty mechanisms by which they exert their effects—has been booming. So has work on native molecules, called endocannabinoids, that bind to the same sites. These molecular interactions affect a wide range of functions, from appetite to inflammation to the perception of pain.

The onslaught of basic science has helped to separate cannabis from an association with hippies and recreational pot smokers. It has also spurred hopes that these molecules (or similar ones) might prove therapeutic for traumatic brain injury, inflammatory bowel disease, allergic contact dermatitis, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease, among others. For all the razzle-dazzle, though, potential treatments frequently seem stuck in perpetual adolescence. Research on traumatic brain injury seemed promising but got mixed results in human clinical trials, while most of the others simply haven't gotten very far in the experimental process.

Still, a few prospects show signs of inching toward adulthood. The most enticing are aimed at lessening pain associated with nerve damage and improving some symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Between 2007 and this summer, several randomized clinical trials have found that smoking marijuana can relieve pain in patients with nerve degeneration caused by HIV or other disorders. Compounds in cannabis also seem to reduce nerve pain and possibly decrease spastic movements in people with MS. A drug called Sativex—which delivers two cannabis compounds in a spray under the tongue—is now in late-stage clinical trials in Europe for MS patients. Much as we've heard the hype before, these findings deserve some notice even from the jaded.

Studying the upside of marijuana can be a bureaucratic nightmare. In 1970, Congress deemed it a Schedule 1 drug, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse and "no currently accepted medical use"—making research on possible benefits a tough sell. In the 1980s, the Food and Drug Administration approved Marinol, an oral formulation of THC, the most psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, to treat nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. Later, it also approved Marinol to boost the appetites of people with AIDS. But Marinol was never fully accepted by patients, says Donald Abrams, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California-San Francisco. It took effect more slowly than smoked marijuana and was also more psychoactive. (When THC enters the bloodstream from the digestive tract, it is broken down by the liver into even more psychoactive molecules.) Nor has Marinol been approved in the United States to treat pain. Those who wished to push research further—whether by studying smoked marijuana, developing better formulations, or testing cannabis for other conditions—got no love from the federal government.

moreThis summer, British and Italian researchers found that in a laboratory plate, molecules in marijuana can slay the superbug... more