Recent Public Policy Polling shows that a significant majority of Texans would support ending the prohibition on marijuana for both medicinal and recreational use.
In the poll, 58 percent of respondents replied “support” when asked, “Do you support or oppose changing the law in Texas to allow seriously and terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana for a limited number of conditions if their doctors recommend it?” Only 31 percent replied “oppose,” and 11 percent were “not sure.”
Perhaps not surprisingly given the recent developments in Colorado and Washington, the same number of respondents agreed with legalizing marijuana for recreational use. When asked, “The voters in Colorado and Washington changed their laws to allow marijuana to be regulated similarly to alcohol for adults age 21 and older. Would you support or oppose changing Texas law to regulate and tax marijuana similarly to alcohol, where stores would be licensed to sell marijuana to adults 21 and older?” Forty-one percent replied “strongly support,” 17 percent replied “somewhat support” and the rest were either opposed or unsure.
Democrats showed stronger support than Republicans for legalizing marijuana. 53 percent of Dems strongly supports legalizing the drug for recreational use while just 33 percent of Republicans feel the same way. However, that still represents one-third of the conservative base, a significant portion.
Currently, Texas has some of the toughest marijuana laws in the nation; owning even a small amount of the drug can earn offenders up to year in jail and $2,000 in fines.
“Marijuana prohibition has been just as big a failure as alcohol prohibition,” said Marijuana Policy Project executive director Rob Kampia, who lives in Texas part-time. “Most Texans agree that marijuana sales should be conducted by legitimate businesses instead of drug cartels in the underground market.”
Kampia also said, “No adult should face potentially life-altering criminal penalties for using a product that is significantly less harmful than alcohol.”
Everything is bigger in Texas, as the saying goes, and with a majority of individuals in support of changing the current laws surrounding marijuana, we could see a big change in the lone star state.
In the wake of Attorney General Eric Holder’s address to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, medical marijuana advocates were split in their reaction to the content of the speech. The speech addressed the failed policy of a five decades long “War on Drugs,” and called for a reduction of mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent drug offenders (many of whom picked up minor possession charges). Though this sounds like a step in the right direction, medical marijuana advocates are reluctant to start celebrating. The Obama Administration has made similar statements in the past with regard to states where marijuana has been legalized in some capacity, saying “we have bigger fish to fry.” Since the President made that statement, hundreds of marijuana related businesses and individuals who use or grow marijuana legally according to state law have been subject to federal raids, costing millions in tax payer dollars, as well as putting thousands of people off the job market and into the criminal justice system. What stung medical marijuana patients most about the speech, was the AG’s complete lack of any mention of medical marijuana. Not once did he address this unjustly persecuted community. This angered many medical marijuana patients whose businesses have been closed, medicine confiscated, licenses suspended and court costs thrust upon.
Members of the Medical Marijuana Community have seen the results assuring words from the President have gotten them, and it seems that this speech will do little to impact the reality of what medical marijuana users and advocates face each day. Until we view prison as an actual place to deter violent crime; a place to rehabilitate and reform individuals, and not as places of profit; we will continue to see an aggressive “arrest first” approach to the war on drugs.
Though it costs tax payers roughly $80 billion to house our nation’s 2.2 million inmates (more than anywhere else in the world), private investors and companies are jockeying to open up more prisons and are eager to fill them up with casual drug users and other non-violent criminals in order to buy that second home Up North. If we are to see real change in the U.S. drug policy, we will see a ban of for profit prisons, the legalization of cannabis, and an end to the bullying of other nations to push our misguided drug agenda. Until then the medical marijuana community would settle for AG Holder or President Obama specifically telling the 94 Attorney Generals in the U.S. to STOP ARRESTING PATIENTS.
Could medical marijuana users finally get a break from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)? It’s not yet clear-cut, but it seems that this federal agency may have relaxed their response to travelers with prescription cannabis.
TSA security officers do not search for marijuana or other drugs. In the event a substance that appears to be marijuana is observed during security screening, TSA will refer the matter to a law enforcement officer.
Whether or not marijuana is considered “medical marijuana” under local law is not relevant to TSA screening because TSA is governed by federal law and federal law provides no basis to treat medical marijuana any differently than non-medical marijuana.
Even if an item is generally permitted, it may be subject to additional screening or not allowed through the checkpoint if it triggers an alarm during the screening process, appears to have been tampered with, or poses other security concerns. The final decision rests with TSA on whether to allow any items on the plane.
What does this mean for the typical, state-law compliant Michigan medical marijuana patient? The answer isn’t clear, but it is promising.
There is a groundswell of positive momentum for the medical marijuana community. As of this article’s date, 20 states have legalized medical marijuana while both Colorado and Washington have made recreational cannabis use legal. Despite these momentous steps forward, the TSA’s adherence to federal law makes for an unclear and somewhat difficult situation at airports for medical marijuana users.
Whether the marijuana in question will be turned over to local law enforcement is at the discretion of the TSA, and historically responses have varied on a case-by-case basis. Many attorneys say bringing marijuana onboard airlines for some domestic travel shouldn’t necessarily raise any red flags.
The question will generally turn on the traveler’s point of entry and exit, and whether that patient is legally entitled to possess marijuana in both states.
“I hear reports from people flying from one medical use site to another or flying from one part of California to another and they generally report that if they carry their authorization, they simply show the letter and are sent on their way and are allowed to keep their medicine,” National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) attorney and founder Keith Stroup said. “The same policy should apply Colorado to Washington or Washington to Colorado.”
Last year residents in those states voted to make marijuana legal for recreational use, even if a doctor’s note isn’t obtained. The Department of Justice hasn’t exactly endorsed those state laws, but in August Attorney General Eric Holder said that the federal government will not seek to pre-empt local legislation.
“We received good news this morning when Attorney General Eric Holder told the governor the federal government would not pre-empt Washington and Colorado as the states implement a highly regulated legalized market for marijuana,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement two months ago.
NORML’s attorney Keith Stroup believes that the TSA has so far been reluctant to enforce federal law in areas where state legislation has legalized marijuana.
“I’m delighted to hear that because I think it shows that TSA primarily is acting as it was intended when it was established, to protect all of us when we travel on the airlines and to thwart terrorists. It is not supposed to be an anti-drug agency,” Stroup said. “What nobody feels 100 percent comfortable with is it’s a grey zone you’re going through. It’s technically still illegal even though they aren’t enforcing it very strongly.”
The bottom line is that there are no true guidelines for medical marijuana users, setting safe airline travel parameters. Anytime you fly, even if it’s from one “safe zone” to another, you will be taking a risk. Remember: until the federal law is changed, the wrong TSA agent on the wrong day may choose to refer the matter to law enforcement, as they have the final decision.
Patients and advocates of the medical marijuana program in Washington are up in arms upon learning the proposed provisions to the current medical marijuana system. The three state agencies and the governor’s office that make up the state’s med marijuana administrative agency have created the I-502 Initiative, which is tasked with cleaning up the conflicts between having medical and recreational marijuana programs. The state Liquor Control Board is in charge of implementing the I-502, while the DOH and the Department of Revenue would allow state-registered patients to purchase tax exempt marijuana from one of 334 stores statewide, but would decrease the amount a patient is legally allowed to possess from 24 ounces to three ounces. It would also require doctors to register their patients with the state, remove the affirmative defense for medical marijuana patients and end the right to petition for new qualifying medical conditions to be added to the current list.
The provisions would also eliminate a patient’s right to grow their own either individually or collectively. Existing dispensaries must comply with the I-502 Initiative’s guidelines, while those that fail to do so will be shut down.
While many medical marijuana advocates welcomed the new tolerance that the state governments of Colorado and Washington developed toward cannabis, the provisions proposed by Washington are ignorant of the unique needs of the medical population. It’s like saying a farmer can only purchase three pounds of fertilizer for his 100 acre field at a time because every citizen is allowed to buy fertilizer.
Washington must recognize that they can’t use a bull dozer to trim the orchid that is the conflict between legal medical and recreational marijuana.
Michigan republicans are fighting to get marijuana reclassified as a schedule 2 drug and distributed by pharmacies. A special committee has already passed a bill for a Senate vote. It outlines a new system for distributing medical cannabis to run parallel to the current one. This new process could not be implemented unless the federal government reclassified marijuana, but that possibility is beginning to look conceivable. Behind the push to centralize marijuana production is Prairie Plant Systems (PPS), a Canadian based horticulture company. If the bill is passed and implemented, it is possible that PPS would become the exclusive provider of pharmaceutical grade cannabis in Michigan.
Health Canada, the agency in charge of overseeing Canada’s Medical Marijuana Program, has given the first licenses to produce cannabis under the new regulations which will take effect in April 2014 to Prairie Plant Systems (PPS). PPS has been heavily criticized in the past for its production of cannabis that is contaminated with heavy metals, irradiated, and whose quality is best described as awful. PPS and its subsidiary, CanniMed Ltd., will be the sole provider of cannabis to the country’s projected 58,000 Medical Marijuana Patients in 2014. As of April 2104, individuals will no longer be permitted to grow either for themselves or for other patients, and will be forced to obtain their medicine by mail-order from state approved lessees, of which PPS and CanniMed Ltd are the only two at this time.
Brent Zettl is the CEO of PPS, which has provided medical cannabis to Health Canada for the past 13 years. In a recent press release, Zettl said, ”Patient safety is our primary focus, which means that patients and their healthcare professionals can trust our consistent and reliable product every time. We have a quality control process with 281 points of control, ensuring that there is no variability, giving patient’s confidence in dose consistency.” These are nice words, but PPS’s track record tells a very different tale.
Prairie Plant Systems was founded in 1988 and is a privately-held plant biotechnology company that develops “Prairie hardy fruit trees and seed potatoes” as well as plant-based pharmaceuticals. In 2001, it signed a $5.7 million cultivation contract with the Canadian government, the first and only such contract ever signed between the government and a private company with the sole purpose of cultivating cannabis for distribution to the public. This is where things begin to get a bit shady.
Instead of growing outdoors or in the vastness of the Canadian landscape, PPS started a joint venture with the Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting Company to cultivate cannabis in a Flin Flon, Manitoba mine over a thousand feet below the ground. It doesn’t take an expert to recognize the potential hazards to health that growing a plant for consumption in an old mine might present.
After securing the contract with the government and the mining company, PPS set to work on growing cannabis. Despite the company’s claim that it was growing top-quality cannabis that had a THC content of at least 10%, Health Canada repeatedly delayed the distribution of the finished product.
When that finished product began arriving at patients’ doors, the news got worse for PPS. Patients were complaining that the cannabis was “weak” and “disgusting,” and that the finished product was little more than a ground-up mix of buds, leaves, and stems.
Two years later, Canadians for Safe Access (CSA) acquired samples of PPS’s cannabis and started testing. The findings were shocking. The group published an open letter which detailed their findings. In the letter, CSA states that, ”upon initial physical examination, it became apparent that claims by PPS and Health Canada that the PPS cannabis was 10% THC seemed overly optimistic.” “The product was of very fine grind with visible stalk and stems peppered throughout and very little detectable trichome development. When put under flame, it produced a dark smoke with an unpleasant taste and odor. The cannabis burned very poorly and left a thick black residual ash, immediately suggesting inadequate nutrient flushing. This was later confirmed by an examination of tests conducted by Norwest labs for PPS, which show unusually high levels of phosphorous, calcium, and magnesium all of which are ‘flowering’ fertilizers used at the end of growth cycle, and are typically to blame for the poor combustion and acrid taste of inferior quality black-market cannabis.”
Some patients refused to accept the low quality, with 30% of those who ordered the cannabis between 2003 and 2004 physically returning the product to Health Canada. The tests also showed that the cannabis had THC levels of only 3%-5%, well below the company’s claims of 10%.
Marijuana Mining
This wasn’t the worst of PPS’s problems. PPS was about to find out why growing cannabis in an old Zinc and Copper mine might not be the ideal spot to set up shop. ”As a result of over 80 years of mining and smelting,” the CSA wrote, “a number of official Conservation Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Environment Canada reports suggest that Flin Flon and the surrounding region is one of the most environmentally contaminated areas in North America.”
Furthermore, according to a MiningWatch Canada report released in 2001, “the sheer size of the contaminated area in Flin Flon makes it impossible to remediate. In particular, there is a large volume of tailings that blow in the wind, and the metal content (copper, cadmium and lead) makes it difficult for vegetation to establish. Community concerns have historically not been adequately addressed, and much information, including that collected by Health Canada (e. g., toxic metal levels in blueberries) has not been made available to the residents of Flin Flon…”
Canadians for Safe Access had the PPS marijuana tested for heavy metals by a lab certified by the EPA and CAEAL certified in 2003. The results of the tests showed that the marijuana had high levels of both lead and arsenic.
CSA then ordered copies of every heavy metal test conducted by PPS and Health Canada, and while these test results showed lower levels of lead and arsenic, they revealed elevated levels of manganese and phosphorous in the PPS marijuana which could be a health concern when inhaled into the lungs.
When CSA confronted Health Canada with their findings, Health Canada called the tests, “totally unsatisfactory.” One Health Canada spokesperson, Jirina Vlk, said the government’s tests of the PPS marijuana showed similar levels of heavy metal content to that of Canadian tobacco, and that these levels were “well within allowable limits.” When she was pressed to reveal what those levels were, she admitted that there are currently no legal limits to heavy metal content in either cannabis or tobacco in Canada.
Other Impurities and Gamma Radiation
If a mixture of stems, leaves, buds, arsenic, lead, phosphorous, and manganese wasn’t bad enough, the same tests that showed high levels of heavy metals in PPS marijuana showed high levels of biological impurities prior to gamma radiation. Aerobic bacteria was found in concentrations more than 1000 times than that of organic cannabis which had undergone the same tests. The tests also showed extremely high levels of molds, including penicillium and aspergillus, which the CSA stated, “HIV/AIDS, Hep-C, and cancer sufferers may be particularly vulnerable to.”
The solution that PPS came up with to kill all the hazardous bacteria was to nuke it with gamma radiation. Health Canada’s website, “The product has been irradiated by gamma irradiation to reduce to undetectable levels, potentially harmful bacteria and microbial load which may cause spoilage of product. The lowest dose required is utilized for the irradiation process (i.e. 10 kilogray – standard level for herbs and spices), ensuring that the chemical characteristics of the marihuana product are not altered.” CSA noted that the effects of smoking gamma radiation treated cannabis have never been studied or documented, and that relying on using gamma radiation to decontaminate the product shows a lack of care or reliability in the production, processing, and/or handling process. CSA further noted that One of the bi-products of gamma irradiation is the production of Unique Radiolytic Products, which are a new class of chemicals resulting from irradiations that are not otherwise found in nature. Of significance in the gamma irradiation of whole plant cannabis is the potential production of cyclobutanones, which are toxic, carcinogenic chemicals that form when fats are subjected to gamma irradiation, and which have been directly linked to the development of colon cancer in rats. In addition, gamma irradiation has been shown to destroy terpenes like myrcene and linalool, which have known therapeutic properties and are found in high concentrations in some strains of whole-plant cannabis.”
Will PPS Marijuana be the Only Marijuana available to Patients?
Currently, Prairie Plant Systems and its subsidiary CanniMed are the sole companies licensed to provide medical marijuana to Canadian patients when the new ordinance takes effect in 2014.
Republican Senator Roger Kahn of Saginaw Township is leading the charge to make marijuana available at pharmacies across Michigan. The bill, which was approved last week by a Senate Committee, aims to classify marijuana as a schedule 2 drug. The change would move marijuana’s status from the ranks of heroin and LSD to that of other potentially harmful but medically beneficial substances such as cocaine and morphine.
The new system would not replace the existing law but would be run parallel to it. Doctors would be permitted to issue enhanced marijuana cards which would allow patients access to pharmaceutical grade marijuana. A patient would be required to surrender any previously issued marijuana cards under the current system. They could not have been convicted of any previous drug related offenses and would have to be at least 18 years old.
If passed, Michigan would be the first state to attempt to reschedule marijuana. While the Federal government has actively turned a blind eye towards Colorado and Washington’s legalization measures it is unclear how they would respond to a reclassification effort. It is also difficult to predict how pharmacies would react to such new and potentially contentious laws.
Critics of the bill are concerned that the new system will undermine the current program which allows registered caregivers across the state grow marijuana for over 120,000 patients throughout Michigan.
At the heart of this unprecedented move is a controversial Canadian agricultural company. Prairie Plant Systems Inc. has been the Canadian government’s sole marijuana provider for the last 13 years. They have been criticized for producing a low grade and heavily contaminated product. They are currently lobbying for Michigan to reschedule marijuana in hopes of expanding their market.
Proponents of the Bill argue that a centralized growing operation would provide a more consistent and easily regulated product. The bill appears to have broad republican support and could potentially make its way to Gov. Snyder’s desk with a simple Senate majority.
