Top 10 Marijuana Highlights From 2011

The Marijuana Policy Project released its top ten positive developments on the marijuana front for 2011.  I’ll try to summarize or you can find the entire article here: The Huffington Post: Top 10 Marijuana Highlights from 2011.

1. Obama and Congress did away with Clinton’s National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.
2. A bill allowing states to determine their own marijuana policies (not just medical) was introduced in Congress. Twenty-one House members currently support this bill.
3. Public support for the legalization of marijuana has reached an all-time high, finally reaching 50 percent.
4. Delaware legalized medical marijuana.
5. Maryland and Vermont improved their medical marijuana laws.
6. Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico and D.C. implemented and/or expanded their medical marijuana laws.
7. Arkansas and Connecticut lowered their penalties for possession of marijuana.
8. World leaders, including Kofi Annan, George Schulz and President Carter, spoke out in favor of decriminalization of marijuana.
9. Republican Congressman Ron Paul, running for presidential nomination, continually attacked the US war on drugs.
10. Governors asked the feds to reschedule marijuana — to make it a Schedule II drug, meaning it has medicinal value.

 

Pot Not as Bad as Tobacco … Duh.

Nice to finally see in the news what pretty much every stoner has known at least as long as I’ve smoked pot. ABC News published an article today entitled “Marijuana Smoke Not As Damaging As Tobacco, Says Study.” Here are some excerpts from the article that I found interesting:

Occasionally puffing the magic dragon does not appear to have long-term adverse effects on lung function, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Measuring participants’ lung function for air flow and lung volume five times throughout the study period, the researchers found that cigarette smokers saw lung function worsen throughout the 20-year period, but marijuana smokers did not. Only the heaviest pot smokers (more than 20 joints per month) showed decreased lung function throughout the study.

…researchers actually saw a slight increase in lung function among marijuana users…

While an adult male blows out about 4 liters of air in one second, those who occasionally smoked weed could blow out those 4 liters, plus another 50 milliliters…

“I think what is most striking about the results is that we are so accustomed to studies emphasizing, and sometimes exaggerating, how dangerous marijuana is for users’ health,” said MacCoun. “So this study is a cautionary note that we still have a lot to learn about this complex psychoactive plant.”

Yes, please continue to learn about it! The more the medical industry and the government learn about marijuana…THE TRUTH, NOT THE USUAL SKEWED STATISTICS…the closer we come to legalization.

New Jersey’s Medical Marijuana Program Should Be “Fully Functional” Next Year

Snippets:

Nearly two years after it was legalized in New Jersey, lawmakers announced last week that the state’s medical marijuana program, the most restrictive in the country, would be fully functional sometime in 2012…

…Gov. Chris Christie had issued a surprise announcement in July that the state would move forward with its then-stalled medical marijuana program. But since then, federal prosecutors have done something even more surprising: They raided and seized property from medical marijuana growers and dispensaries in California, despite the Obama administration’s indications that they would not crack down on such facilities…

…even though 86 percent of New Jersey voters support medical marijuana, Christie put the program on hold while he awaited word from federal officials that New Jersey marijuana workers and doctors would not be prosecuted…

…New Jersey limits prescriptions to patients with terminal illnesses or illnesses where conventional pain medication has failed, such as glaucoma and epilepsy. Furthermore, a doctor can only prescribe marijuana to a patient they’ve been seeing for over a year…

…This is a big one: New Jersey’s non-profit dispensaries are all licensed by the state, unlike in California, where they are not required to obtain a state license specifically to sell marijuana. “They’ve [federal prosecutors] never interfered with a dispensary licensed by a state,” said Roseanne Scotti, New Jersey state director of Drug Policy Alliance.

Full Article: N.J. Green-Lights Medical Marijuana Program as Calif.’s Goes Up in Smoke