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Camp offers helping hand to military families
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Veterans still fighting – for health care
How much is the cost of living?
Docs cringe at the thought of painkillers taken off the market
Hello, Soto
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A different kind of green economy gaining popularity
by Jen Thomas
April 15, 2009
States and marijuana laws
Thirteen states have enacted medical marijuana laws since 1996. They are Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Mexico and Michigan.
Other states considering medical marijuana legislation this year are:
New Hampshire - The New Hampshire House passed a bill that would allow seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana if their doctor recommends it. It now must move to the Senate. Four similar bills died in the House in the past.
Illinois- The Illinois bill has been approved by the Senate Public Health Committee. A companion bill in the House gained Health and Human Services Committee approval in March.
Minnesota- The House Public Safety Policy and Oversight Committee approved the House version of Minnesota's medical marijuana bill.
New Jersey – Sen. Nicholas Scutari introduced a bill in January that would permit medical use of marijuana.
Tennessee– Recently, Sen. Beverly Marrero, D-Memphis, and Rep. Jeanne Richardson, D-Memphis, introduced companion medical marijuana bills.This legislation would allow terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana pursuant to a physician's recommendation. Registered patients or their caregivers would be allowed to possess up to eight ounces of dried marijuana and six mature or 12 immature marijuana plants.
Iowa – The bill was introduced in March.
Missouri– Past attempts at medical marijuana legislation failed to get out of committee.
Florida - Floridians could vote for the first time next year to allow marijuana for medical use. A petition drive, started last week by an Orlando woman whose father has Parkinson's disease, would make the drug legal for any condition as prescribed by a doctor.
That’s how much some economists and activists say stands to be made if marijuana is legalized, regulated and taxed like alcohol or tobacco. While President Barack Obama laughed away the prospect of boosting the economy through the legalization of marijuana at his virtual town hall meeting last month, California and Massachusetts have introduced legislation to do just that.
“There’s been a fairly dramatic shift in the last few months. A number of threads have come together to put [marijuana reform] on the mainstream radar,” said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy and lobbying group that supports legal marijuana use.
Not the least of those threads is the troubled economy. In California, marijuana is the biggest cash crop, pulling in approximately $14 billion annually, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A report by Harvard University economics lecturer Jeffrey A. Miron said that legalizing marijuana would save the estimated $7.7 billion per year spent on enforcing prohibition.
Following the publication of Miron’s report, more than 500 economists signed a letter calling for open debate on repealing marijuana prohibition.
“We’re in a severe recession, and we are the only Americans jumping up and down, with our hands in the air, saying please, please, please tax us,” said Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
St. Pierre has been pushing marijuana reform for nearly 20 years, but has seen interest in marijuana reform skyrocket in the last few months. As April 20 – “International Cannabis Day” in marijuana subculture – approaches, St. Pierre is prepared to ramp up the publicity with the help of some of the movement’s biggest supporters – young people.
“It’s pretty clear there’s something afoot here, and I think 4/20 is an 18- to 22-year-old endeavor that speaks to the failure of the government ban,” he said.
At the University of Colorado at Boulder, thousands gather on the quad each year to advocate changing marijuana laws. This year, more than 15,000 supporters are expected to participate.
“Marijuana is a hot topic because it’s so prevalent among youth, almost as prevalent as alcohol. And youth are starting to realize the dangers of alcohol are far more serious than the ramifications of smoking weed. That’s the message we’re trying to get out,” said sophomore Andrew Orr, 19, who is helping to organize the National Marijuana Forum, a weekend of speakers and panels in the run-up to 4/20 events.
The Marijuana Policy Project’s Mirken called young people “a large and important demographic” that could be the driving force behind real reform.
“The polling has been pretty consistent for some time that young people are more open to changing marijuana laws,” he said. “Enough time has gone by that a large portion of the American public either has direct experience with marijuana or knows someone who has, and that has influenced public opinion.”
A CBS News poll released in February showed that 49 percent of adults under 45 approve of legalizing marijuana use compared with 45 percent opposing. But only 31 percent of adults over age 45 approve of it.
However, a March CBS News poll showed that 58 percent of Americans opposed legializing marijuana, even if it could be taxed. A spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy could not comment on specific questions, but did say that the agency follows the president’s stance. Obama has said he does not support legalizing marijuana to grow the economy.
Massachusetts, however, has introduced an act to regulate and tax the cannabis industry. California legislators are considering a similar bill, which would regulate marijuana like alcohol, allowing people over 21 to grow, buy, sell and possess marijuana. Meanwhile, at least eight other states are looking at medical marijuana legislation.
David Eddie, a Columbia University student and president of the school’s chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, has worked with drug addicts, including people who suffer from marijuana dependency. Marijuana legalization could result in fewer addicts down the road, he said.
“If you’re having to go to a drug dealer to score marijuana, I feel like you’re putting yourself in the firing line. It’s just that much easier to get harder drugs,” said Eddie, 32, who also noted that drug users with marijuana dependency are “a tiny percentage compared to people who regularly smoke.”
Some experts say that anti-drug campaigns that demonize marijuana users backfired and created a generation that is instead more accepting of marijuana use.
“When I was growing up, all these messages and all the outside information told me that marijuana was pretty much death,” said Alex Douglas, a 21-year-old at the University of Colorado.
“But young people are using their intellect and really starting to think about marijuana. And they’re thinking, ‘Hey, it should be legalized. If I’m extremely high, the worst thing I’m going to do is fall asleep,’” Douglas said.
Douglas pointed to the popularity of such recent movies as Pineapple Express as evidence of youth’s acceptance of the drug. Michael Phelps’ recent pot controversy shows that the lazy stoner stereotype isn’t completely accurate.
“If this guy can win 14 gold medals and be a marijuana consumer, maybe some of the things that many of us grew up being told by our government are not accurate about marijuana,” said St. Pierre.
But some opponents say the costs of marijuana reform far outweigh the savings.
“They leave out the negatives. They leave out the costs in terms of lost jobs, lost productivity, broken homes, people that do use marijuana as a gateway drug to other things,” said Ernest Istook, a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and a former congressman.
Istook said that reform advocates use medical marijuana as an excuse for its legalization, but their arguments come up short.
“People want to legalize marijuana for drug use, not medical purposes,” Istook said.
Experts are not optimistic about legalization bills being passed his year. California’s legislation has failed to attract a co-sponsor and, at the earliest, wouldn’t be voted on until next year.
