MPP Update #34

by Dan Bernath, Mon May 5, 2008

By Dan Bernath

We all know we have a long way to go before we end the government's war on marijuana users, but it's just possible we'll look back on 2008 as one of the major turning points in that difficult, inevitable journey.

We're constantly inundated with nonsense, hysteria and outright lies when marijuana is discussed in the public, so it's easy to miss the progress. But if you squint just right, you can see signs that policy, public opinion and the political landscape may slowly be edging toward sanity.

Medical marijuana probably gives us the clearest view of changing attitudes. Legislatures in just about every part of the country are taking up bills to protect many of the most vulnerable …READ MORE

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MPP Update #32

by Dan Bernath, Tue Jan 22, 2008

By Dan Bernath

It's too early to guess who our next president will be, but the odds have never been better that whoever it is will have spoken out publicly against federal raids in medical marijuana states.

In fact, every single Democratic candidate has pledged to end DEA raids on medical marijuana patients and providers in states that have laws protecting them, as did three Republican candidates, though only Congressman Ron Paul remains in the race.

Considering that public opinion polls consistently indicate as much as 80 percent approval for medical marijuana access for seriously ill patients, getting candidates to take a compassionate stance shouldn't be a big deal. But this is politics.

Still, medical marijuana advocates have come a long way in a short time to force the issue into the national spotlight in the first place, and even further to coax sensible policy statements from candidates.

It was only four …READ MORE

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MPP Update #31

by Dan Bernath, Wed Dec 5, 2007

By Dan Bernath

This is a story about a Nov. 13 meeting in which advocates and opponents testified before the Tennessee House Health and Human Services Committee about a bill to legally protect patients who use medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

This is also a story about how such a seemingly straightforward event can get mangled by biased media coverage.

Opponents – including Family Action Council of Tennessee's David Fowler, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's David Murray, Nashville oncologist Dr. Kent Shih and anti-marijuana activist Steve Steiner – argued that medical marijuana was unproven as a medicine, would lead to increases in drug abuse among youths, and would serve as a stepping stone for those who would legalize marijuana for all.

Those favoring HB 0486, sponsored by Rep. Sherry Jones (D-Nashville), included Maury County epidemiologist and patient Bernie Ellis, NORML …READ MORE

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MPP Update #30

by Dan Bernath, Tue Oct 23, 2007

By Dan Bernath

Chalk it up to chance, changing seasons, or the law of averages finally catching up, but every once in a while our elected leaders in Congress surprise us and do something sensible.

Give credit to Sen. Jim Webb, the freshman Democrat from Virginia who conducted a hearing with the Joint Economic Committee Oct. 4 to examine the costs of mass incarceration.

With the United States comprising only 5 percent of the world's population but nearly a quarter of the world's prisoners, it should never have taken this long for our nation's leaders to turn their attention to this financial, social and humanitarian crisis. But better late than never.

What's more, several committee members agreed with Webb that the Nixonian "public policy experiment" of mass incarceration – during which the U.S. prison population has exploded from 300,000 in 1970 to more than 2 million this year – has never received the political …READ MORE

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MPP Update #29

by Dan Bernath, Mon Sep 10, 2007

By Dan Bernath

Automatic weapons. Check. Helicopters. Check. Dogs. Check. Bulletproof vests. Check.

You may not buy the government's characterization of its campaign against medical marijuana patients as a "war on drugs," but increasingly violent, militaristic tactics in recent months offer a troubling glimpse into the federal law enforcement community's mentality: To them, this is war.

Raids on medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California July 17 by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents, often with local law enforcement officers in tow, seemed designed to send a clear signal that the feds were deliberately escalating their war on medical marijuana patients.

The enemy, then, are people like Ronnie Naulls, a Riverside medical marijuana patient who owned two of the dispensaries raided that day.

A church-going family man who used medical marijuana to ease chronic pain from injuries sustained in a …READ MORE

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MPP Update #28

by Dan Bernath, Fri Jun 22, 2007

By Dan Bernath

A medical marijuana bill is signed into law in New Mexico. In Minnesota, the Senate passes a medical marijuana bill. An Illinois legislative chamber votes on medical marijuana for the first time. A similar bill reaches the governor's desk in Connecticut for the first time, only to have her veto it with a flimsy excuse. New York's governor renounces his previous opposition to medical marijuana as legislation passes the state's Assembly. Rhode Island's legislature overwhelmingly overrides a gubernatorial veto to make that state's medical marijuana law permanent. In Vermont, a bipartisan coalition of legislators enacts an expansion of the state's medical marijuana program to cover more patients and medical conditions.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, an amendment that would forbid the Justice Department – including the DEA – from using taxpayer dollars to interfere in states that have medical marijuana laws should soon receive …READ MORE

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MPP Update #27

by Dan Bernath, Tue May 22, 2007

By Dan Bernath

"Doctors: Pot Triggers Psychotic Symptoms," Associated Press, April 30

"Cannabis Chemical Curbs Psychotic Symptoms, Study Finds," The Guardian, May 1

It's hard to believe, but the two headlines above refer to the same event, a conference in Britain featuring research about marijuana and mental illness. What gives?

News media reports about marijuana sometimes resemble that parable about the three blind men who argue about what an elephant looks like. One man feels only the elephant's leg and concludes that elephants look like trees. Another feels only the tail and concludes elephants look like rope. The third feels only the trunk and concludes elephants look like snakes.

They all get it wrong, because no one is seeing the big picture.

To some degree, these problems are built into the way the news media work. Coming up with a headline – or even an entire story …READ MORE

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MPP on the 420 Campaign

by Dan Bernath, Fri Apr 20, 2007

By Dan Bernath

Who knows what drives prohibitionists to block sensible marijuana policy reform with such fervor?

If you're reading this, then you've got your own theories. Maybe it's culture war residue from paranoid Nixonians who believed aversion to war was marijuana's most dangerous side effect. Maybe it's the net effect of 70 years of wild-eyed, race-tinged anti-marijuana propaganda. Maybe it's all those drug warriors who depend on the marijuana war for their livelihoods.

It doesn't really matter, because the solution is the same: marijuana policy reform, ultimately at the federal level.

April 20 is as good a day as any to step back and assess our progress so far.

The most egregious element of the federal government's war on marijuana users – criminalizing seriously ill patients who rely on marijuana as part of the treatment regimen they developed with their doctors – is crumbling fast.

READ MORE

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MPP Update #25

by Dan Bernath, Thu Mar 15, 2007

By Dan Bernath

This month – March 22nd, to be exact – the anniversary of a little-known government report will quietly pass, most likely receiving about as little attention from policymakers and the media as it first did 35 years ago.

That's when the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse delivered the results of its exhaustive, yearlong study to President Nixon and outlined recommendations for a marijuana policy that eschews myth and fear in favor of reality-based harm reduction.

There's no evidence to suggest the president ever read the report he commissioned, "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding." But it's safe to say - given the course this country has followed ever since - that he favored the myth-and-fear-based approach to marijuana policy.

It's not as if the commission was stacked with progressives or people inclined to be hostile to the president's policies. Nixon handpicked this largely …READ MORE

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MPP Update #24

by Dan Bernath, Mon Feb 12, 2007

By Dan Bernath

Anyone still doubting the Bush Administration's ability to insulate itself from reality has never considered the White House's pathological denial of marijuana's medical value despite mountains of scientific research proving its worth.

Such resolve would be impressive if it weren't so dangerously misinformed. Or dishonest. Or both.

Whatever the reason, given that in 2003 the administration could contradict more than 70 government and academic studies with a statement saying, "research has not demonstrated that smoked marijuana is safe and effective medicine," it's doubtful they could be swayed by any amount of evidence.

We'll soon find out. A research team led by Dr. Donald Abrams of the University of California, San Francisco, has just published a study offering some of the most conclusive proof yet of marijuana's potential to help the sick and dying.

The report, which appears in the Feb. 13 …READ MORE

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MPP Update #23

by Dan Bernath, Tue Jan 9, 2007

By Dan Bernath

To understand drug warriors’ reluctance to face even the most blatant signs of marijuana prohibition’s folly, consider government officials’ reactions to two studies released last month – one eagerly anticipated, and one they’d rather everyone forgot.

First, the one they consider good news – the 2006 Monitoring the Future report. Sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and conducted by the University of Michigan, this annual survey has taken the pulse of teen drug use trends for 32 years.

It’s a comprehensive, nuanced study, but you wouldn’t get that from talking to Drug Czar John Walters. He hailed a 23% decline in overall teen drug use and a 25% drop in teen marijuana use since 2001 as a “substance abuse sea change among American teens.” Fewer kids using drugs is certainly good news, but these numbers represent a modest improvement compared with much …READ MORE

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MPP Update #22

by Dan Bernath, Mon Dec 4, 2006

By Dan Bernath

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman’s death November 16 at age 94 inspired a deluge of articles and commentaries – largely from conservative circles – celebrating his many achievements, which included helping shape economic policy for both the Nixon and Reagan administrations.

Many stories framed Friedman’s support for regulating marijuana, when it was mentioned at all, as a sort of eccentric departure from his otherwise conservative ideology.

But the idea that Friedman, a lifetime dues-paying MPP member, should have raised any eyebrows by his outspoken criticism of prohibition reveals a misunderstanding of marijuana policy reform as strictly a liberal – or simply hedonist – cause.

To Friedman, political affiliation had nothing to do with it; marijuana policy was a problem in need of an effective, humane solution. And no objective analysis of the social and …READ MORE

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MPP Update #21

by Dan Bernath, Fri Nov 10, 2006

By Dan Bernath

Local and state marijuana-related ballot initiatives across the country yielded mixed results on election night, but showed signs of increasing support for effective, humane marijuana laws.

First, the bad news: Despite a strong campaign that garnered support across the state - including endorsements from three of the state’s six major newspapers - MPP's initiative to end marijuana prohibition in Nevada was defeated, 44%-56%. However, the results tied Alaska for the all-time highest vote to end marijuana prohibition ever received in a statewide election and were a significant increase from a similar initiative in the state in 2002.

A proposal in Colorado that would have removed criminal penalties for adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana also fell short, with 40% of voters supporting the initiative. And a ballot initiative that would have made South Dakota the 12th state to protect seriously ill patients …READ MORE

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