CUTTINGS FROM CANNABIS CLASSICS

by Chuck Ream

Second in a series exploring the most important books about cannabis.

 This month we check out “The Pot Book, A Complete Guide to Cannabis, its Role in Medicine, Politics, Science, and Culture” edited by Julie Holland M.D. This 500 page treasure trove is a selection of 42 short essays about cannabis, each a crystallized gem by the expert in their subject.

Dr. Lester Grinspoon , a retired professor of Psychiatry at Harvard, argues in the “Foreward”  that medical marijuana can never be fully utilized as long as pot is illegal, since patients are constantly harassed by police. He says “the only way out is to cut the knot by giving marijuana the same status as alcohol”.

SAVE THE CHILDREN

If there is one thing that almost every citizen can agree on is that they don’t want children using marijuana. It would be safe to assume that most people also wouldn’t want children using alcohol or prescription drugs. As far as hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth, etc, we can assume the public would frown upon offering them to children as well. It would also be hard to argue that marijuana is the most dangerous of the aforementioned drugs.  So why is it that anti marijuana ads have been increasingly taking over the airwaves? Here are a few headlines for the NEW REEFER MADNESS.

FREE THE WEED 27

A Column by John Sinclair

I’m completing my five-month residency in New Orleans working with Dave Brinks & Jimmy Cass to help establish the N.O. Institute for the Imagination, but I made a quick trip to Michigan last weekend to join MMMR publisher Ben Horner for a little series of three visits to medical marijuana sites in Flint, Ann Arbor and Detroit and to take part in the opening of the late Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD).

COMMON SENSE DECISION ALLOWS MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS TO DRIVE AGAIN

by Ted Heitor
Finally some good news came from the Michigan Supreme Court that allows medical marijuana patients to operate a motor vehicle with marijuana in their system. As we all know, marijuana can show up on a blood test thirty days or more after using it.  Washington, Nevada, Ohio, and Colorado have set specific legal driving limits of a certain number of nanograms of THC in a driver's blood, and the court recommended that Michigan do the same before long. As for now, an officer will have to prove that you are impaired by administering roadside field sobriety tests before taking you in to get your blood drawn.  Police will also have to show proof that the driver was “under the influence” of marijuana for charges to stick.

Inside Thoughts

by: Adam Brook
Let me start by addressing an issue that was in March issue. My good friend, and MMMR contributor John Sinclair took the HASH BASH to task. Knowing John as I do, I know that while he was “cheesed off”, he was not as offended as I was. As John mentioned he has had a “voluntary commitment to the event". For that I can not thank him enough. He has been a good friend of mine for the last 15 or so years. I only hope that the actions of a few knuckleheads can be made right. John wrote that I had "tight but benevolent control” of HASH BASH.

Medical Cannabis Charity Accepted for Southeastern Michigan Area Combined Federated Campaign

May 17, 2013, Royal Oak, MI – The Officers and Board of Directors of Michigan Compassion are pleased to announce their successful application to participate in the Southeastern Michigan Area Combined Federal Campaign (CFC.) The CFC is the nation’s largest workplace charitable giving program made-up of all State and federal agencies in a 9 county region including the Metropolitan Detroit counties. Michigan Compassion is one of 2,500 other public charities accepted to participate in the program in the Southeastern Michigan Region but the first Medical Cannabis charity to be accepted in any of the 200 nationwide regions.

DRUG WAR MEANS LESS REAL CRIMES ARE SOLVED!

By Chuck Ream

Police are not solving crimes like they used to, and now we can prove it.  Law enforcement dollars would be better spent protecting our safety or finding criminals than on persecuting potheads.

The urgency of spending local law enforcement dollars wisely is illustrated by what currently happens in Michigan following a rape. Thousands of “rape kits” in Michigan have not been processed, yet huge sums are spent on cannabis law enforcement. These priorities are wrong.

It is relatively unknown that law enforcement has been continually less effective at finding real criminals since it began to focus on Drug War.  Murderers, rapists and robbers are apprehended far less often in 2009 than they were when Drug War began in earnest in 1971.