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The Huffington Post reports that the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to close roughly 800 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city by passing the first reading of an ordinance which would also require 75% of remaining dispensaries to relocate.

The vote, to be confirmed in a second reading of the ordinance next Tuesday, will radically change the landscape of medical marijuana distribution in Los Angeles, which has been largely unregulated since dispensaries were first authorized by state law in 1996.

In the United States twelfth graders’ perceived risk of harm from regular marijuana use has declined in recent years, according to data from the national Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey.




This process is a well-known “fact”. When the risk of using marijuana is presented and perceived as low, perception of harm as well as use increase. However, this does not make marijuana any less dangerous.

In a college town like Boulder, Colorado fake ID's are nothing new. But this is: people using fake documents to get medical marijuana, according to Fox News.

Poverty and violence are usually portrayed as the biggest challenges confronting Afghanistan. But ask the Afghans themselves, and you get a different answer: corruption is their biggest worry. A new UNODC survey reveals that an overwhelming 59 per cent of Afghans view public dishonesty as a bigger concern than insecurity (54 per cent) and unemployment (52 per cent).

Corruption in Afghanistan: Bribery as Reported by Victims is based on interviews with 7,600 people in 12 provincial capitals and more than 1,600 villages around Afghanistan. It records the real experiences (rather than just perceptions) of urban as well as rural residents, men and women, between autumn 2008 and autumn 2009.

In 2009, Afghan citizens had to pay approximately US$ 2,490 million in bribes, which is equivalent to 23 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to the report. By coincidence, this is similar to the revenue accrued by the opium trade in 2009 (which UNODC estimates at US$ 2.8 billion).

Drugs and bribes are the two largest income generators in Afghanistan: together they correspond to about half the country's (licit) GDP, said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa as he released the report in London.

The report shows that graft is part of everyday life in Afghanistan. During the survey period, one Afghan out of two had to pay at least one kickback to a public official. In more than half the cases (56 per cent), the request for illicit payment was an explicit demand by the service provider. In three quarters of the cases, baksheesh (bribes) were paid in cash. The average bribe is US$ 160, in a country where GDP per capita is a mere US$ 425 per year.

“Is marijuana a medicine” is the headline of an article in Wall Street Journal on January 18.

The article states, As the legal landscape for patients clears somewhat, the medical one remains confusing, largely because of limited scientific studies. A recent American Medical Association review found fewer than 20 randomized, controlled clinical trials of smoked marijuana for all possible uses. These involved around 300 people in all—well short of the evidence typically required for a pharmaceutical to be marketed in the U.S.

It is worth noting that so called “medicinal” marijuana is not approved as a medicine by FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the United States, and nowhere else either.

It might be interesting to know that Professor Raphael Mechoulam in Israel has been involved in cannabis related research during the past 40 years. You will find an interview with him here.

After the article in Wall Street Journal, Calvina Fay, Executive Director of the Drug Free America Foundation, Inc. has sent the following letter to the editor.

January 19, 2010

Dear Editor:

There are many issues surrounding so-called medical marijuana. Ms. Mathews tried to wrap them all up in a little neat box when she wrote “Is Marijuana a Medicine?” published in The Wall Street Journal.  Unfortunately, the topic is not that simple.  As a drug policy expert, I recommend breaking the issue down into the science, the patients, the distribution and the propaganda to better understand it.

First, the scientific research just isn’t there yet for smoked marijuana to be approved as a legitimate medicine by the Food and Drug Administration.  Some components of marijuana have indeed shown medicinal benefit; however, dosage of those cannabinoids cannot be delivered consistently to consumers by smoking, making the drug extremely unpredictable. 

Next is the patient. Who is really smoking marijuana as a medicine? I can tell you that the majority of people with legitimate diseases go to legitimate doctors and take legitimate medications.  In fact, studies show that in cities like San Diego where this issue has been closely examined, only 2% of those smoking marijuana under the guise of medicine have serious conditions such as AIDS, glaucoma or cancer. A full 98% are ‘treating’ conditions such as back and neck pain, anxiety, muscle spasms, insomnia, headaches and other less significant conditions. But even more troubling is that 12% of the users are under 21!

Marijuana dispensaries, or pot-shops, have nothing to do with whether marijuana is a medicine or not.  Pot shops are not even remotely similar to pharmacies. Many pot shop employees have criminal records and no medical backgrounds. The storefronts clearly promote a toxic weed, utilizing elaborate neon signs and other propaganda such as the “pot” candy mentioned in this article. This type of deceptive marketing seems as though it would certainly appeal more to young people than the sick and dying.

The propaganda surrounding this entire issue seriously jeopardizes consumer protection. More importantly, determining medicine by popular vote is not appropriate scientific methodology and is frankly very dangerous to society at large.

Finally, to answer the question in the title - marijuana in its FDA approved pill form, dronabinol, is a medicine. However, smoked marijuana being recommended to people by snake oil salesmen in fourteen states across the country is not.

Sincerely,

Calvina Fay

Executive Director

Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.

5999 Central Ave. Ste. 301

St. Petersburg, FL  33710

727-828-0211

Excerpts from the press conference

You and/or your organisation is welcome to become a Member of WFAD (World Federation Against Drugs) headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

You will find further information here.

According to a leaked House of Commons report, cited by News of the World, the former chair of the British ACMD (Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs), David Nutt, got up to £30,000 a year from firms such as Glaxo Smith Kline and John Wyeth.

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug worldwide and individuals and some organizations actively promote decriminalization and/or legalization. There are even proposals that legalization of marijuana would help save economies on the verge of bankruptcy. However, legalization is no panacea to solve drug related problems.

Alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs. Did that solve alcohol problems or tobacco related problems? The answer is no.

There is no evidence that a more tolerant policy on drugs would alleviate the problems and/or reduce the number of drug addicts.

The EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction) has published a cannabis reader in two volumes. The monograph is divided into two volumes. The first volume centres on political, legislative, commercial and social developments relating to cannabis. Its core audience thus comprises policymakers, sociologists, historians, journalists and those involved in enforcement. The second volume is targeted at drugs professionals working in the fields of treatment, prevention and healthcare.

Multilingual summaries of the monographs are available here.

Free downloads of the Cannabis Reader:
Volume 1 
Volume 2
Full version

David Nutt, who was force to leave the position as chair of ACMD (Advisory Council n the Misuse of Drugs) in Britain is now starting up a new committee, ISCD (Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs), to further the his agenda about a different classification on drugs.

The new committee is reported to have received £450 000 to cover the costs for three years from 32-year-old hedge fund manager Toby Jackson.

Further reading

Sacked drugs adviser David Nutt launches rival committee

Sacked government adviser David Nutt gets £450 000 to set up drugs committee

Government ‘scientific advisers’: who needs these nuts in white coats?