Montana ranks ninth among the top 17 states for marijuana use among teens, which is predictable, according to local law enforcement officials who blame the state’s “goofy” and “convoluted” marijuana laws.

“This comes as no surprise,” said Billings Deputy Police Chief Tim O’Connell.  “We are definitely seeing an increase in the schools, and it’s definitely related to bad legislation.  We can thank the passage of legalizing marijuana.  The laws aren’t clear.”

O’Connell said school resource officers are keenly aware of the growing problem and are battling it through education and enforcement.

Kristin Lundgren, director of Impact, a United Way of Yellowstone County program that works to curb underage drinking, said there is no “crisis of increased youth drug and alcohol use.”

“We did see an increase in eighth-grade use as reported in 2010 surveys, and we also saw teens were saying that marijuana is less risky and not harmful to your health,” she said.  “We also have lots of anecdotal reports from School Resource Officers and school principals of increased incidents with marijuana in the schools.”

Montana voters approved medical marijuana by initiative in 2004.  The state, which in 2009 had fewer than 4,000 medical marijuana patients, now has 11,993 on the Montana Marijuana Program registry.  Of those, 1,778 are in Yellowstone County.  Growth and sale of the drug have become a burgeoning business in the state.  The law allows qualified patients and their caregivers to grow and/or possess a restricted number of marijuana plants.

The latest revelation about increased marijuana usage among Montana teens comes with the release of a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.  The study, which looked at a representative sample of 10,123 teens between ages 13 to 18, shows that by the time most teens reach late adolescence, most of them have consumed alcohol and abused illicit substances.

Researchers asked the teens in person about their drinking and drug habits.  The results showed that 78 percent of U.S.  teens had drank alcohol, and 47 percent said they had consumed 12 drinks or more in the past year.  When it came to drug use, 81 percent of teens said they had the opportunity to use illicit substances, with 42.5 percent saying they actually tried them.

In a twist not usually associated with risk-behavior studies, researchers compared teens’ current usage with lifetime estimates of alcohol and illicit substance abuse.  Fifteen percent of the teens met the criteria for lifetime alcohol abuse, and 16 percent could be categorized as drug abusers.

It’s the second time in about 16 months that the issue of marijuana use among teens has come to the forefront.  Last December, the rate of eighth-graders saying they had used an illicit drug jumped to 16 percent, up from 14.5 percent, with daily marijuana use up in all grades surveyed, according to the 2010 Monitoring of the Future Survey.

According to that survey, the decline in cigarette use accompanied by the increases in marijuana use put marijuana ahead of cigarette smoking.  In 2010, 21.4 percent of high school seniors had used marijuana in the past 30 days, while 19.2 percent smoked cigarettes.

Chris Simpson, a school resource officer at Skyview High, said at the time that marijuana use is a problem throughout the school district and the community.  The mixed message about the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes is a large part of the problem, he said.

Youths seeking a high will sometimes steal marijuana from those possessing a medical marijuana card.  Students have told school resource officers how much easier it is to obtain pot since the passing of the medical marijuana law.

The state Department of Public Health and Human Services has acknowledged that marijuana is making a strong comeback among high schoolers.

The 2010 Montana Prevention Needs Assessment suggests that marijuana use rises as the parental acceptability increases.  Perceived peer acceptability of marijuana use also plays a role.

“Availability and access to drugs, alcohol and marijuana, is the number-one way kids get substances,” said Vicki Turner, director of the DPHHS Prevention Resource Center.  “The more it is available, the more likely they are to use.  If family and friends use and the substance is available, youth are more likely to use, regardless of the substance.”

Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2012 The Billings Gazette
Contact: http://billingsgazette.com/app/contact/?contact=letter
Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Author: Cindy Uken

Medical marijuana advocates say they’ll take their “humanitarian” cause to the ballot if the Legislature won’t pass it, but top Bay State cops and prosecutors caution that using pot is not a victimless crime, and legalizing it could put Massachusetts at odds with the feds, who are still battling murderous drug cartels and growers.

The issue is expected to heat up the Gardner Auditorium tomorrow, when the Joint Committee on Public Health holds a hearing on the initiative spearheaded by Richard Elliott Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. “There’s no doubt about it: Either through the Legislature or a ballot initiative, there will be medical marijuana in Massachusetts,” vowed Doblin, 58, of Belmont, whose supporters gathered 80,710 certified voter signatures to make marijuana available as a painkiller to people with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other unspecified maladies.

“It raised a lot of questions about possible abuse,” Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr., president of the District Attorneys Association, said. “It suggests you could prescribe marijuana for a headache or an ankle sprain.”

“We’ve had several murders involving marijuana dealers being ripped off,” Early said, questioning how well the cultivation, transport and marketing of medical marijuana can be separated from criminal endeavors. Still, he said, “You have to have compassion. You can’t be labeled conservative, you can’t be labeled liberal on this when you’re talking about a cancer patient who can’t hold down food.”

A. Wayne Sampson of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association said his group also has concerns about the proposed legalization: “We don’t want to be put in the middle of a situation where the citizens vote to allow a law that the federal government says it will prosecute.”

Doblin counters that crime and cartels can be cut out by legalizing domestic suppliers. By forcing patients to turn to the black market to ease their pain, “we’re endorsing murder,” he said. “The more that you can create a domestic production market, the more you take away from the cartels.”

The Humanitarian Medical Use of Marijuana bill would protect registered patients, doctors, caregivers and prescription pot dispensers from local and state penalties, but not from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Patients could possess a 60-day supply of marijuana. Storage and cultivation would be restricted to designated nonprofit treatment centers.

Linda Brantley of the New England Coalition for Cancer Survivorship said, “For a lot of people who use (marijuana), it alleviates nausea, it alleviates pain symptoms. Why should people, when they’re in terrible pain and unable to eat and unable to sleep, be thrust into the position of doing something illegal?”

Sixteen states, including Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island, have legalized medical marijuana. If the Legislature rejects or fails to act on the measure by May 2, certified signatures of 11,485 voters are needed to place a binding question on the November ballot.

Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Author: Laurel J. Sweet
Published: Monday, April 9, 2012
Copyright: 2012 The Boston Herald, Inc.
Website: http://www.bostonherald.com/
Contact: letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com

The District has selected six companies to grow marijuana and supply medical cannabis to users — clearing the way for growers to start producing hundreds of plants in as little as a month.

The Health Department is expected to announce Friday that it has selected the winning bidders for cultivating plants that will feed the dispensaries city officials hope to approve by the summer. All the growers will be in Northeast, including a company partly owned by celebrity talk show host Montel Williams.

Combined, they will be tasked with producing thousands of plants annually, in possible violation of federal law.

Two years ago, the D.C. Council voted to establish as many as 10 cultivation centers, where up to 95 marijuana plants could be grown at a time at each location. Once harvested, the marijuana will be sent to five distribution centers for patients to buy.

Mohammad N. Akhter, director of the Health Department, said he and a task force evaluated dozens of bidders before selecting the six applicants. Akhter said they were chosen based on their ability to grow “quality” marijuana “in a safe environment” that includes heavy security.

Akhter said he also tried to ensure that the cultivation centers were not too tightly clustered in the same blocks.

“I have taken every single step that I could to make sure this is done in a safe environment in which we can have a quality product that can meet the needs of the patient in a way that the community is also satisfied,” he said in an interview. “These are the best people who can do the best job.”

Williams’s cultivation center, Abatin Wellness Center, has been approved for the 2100 block of Queens Chapel Road in Langdon, according to a city list obtained by The Washington Post.

The department also selected Montana Apothecary dba Alternative Solutions in the 2100 block of 24th Place NE in Langdon; District Growers in the 2400 block of Evarts Street NE in Langdon; Holistic Remedies in 1800 block of Fenwick Street NE in Ivy City; Phyto Management in the 3700 block of Benning Road NE in Benning; and Venture Forth dba Center City in the 2200 block of Channing Street NE in Langdon.

Before the applicants can open, however, Akhter said they must apply for their business license and building permits from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. He added that the permitting process may take less than two weeks, meaning the marijuana growers may be able to start production in less than a month.

But Helder Gil, a spokesman for DCRA, said it could take some providers longer to open if they plan to make major renovations, including additional electric or water supplies.

“If they are just doing minor stuff . . . they can get a building permit quickly and then come in and get the sign-off,” Gil said.

The Health Department does not expect to complete the approval process for dispensaries until June.

“It takes about 90 days to grow the plants and have them ready,” Akhter said. “By the time growers are ready with the plants, the dispensaries should be in operation.”

But the District could still face big challenges in the implementation of its medical marijuana program.

In recent weeks, some residents and community activists fought attempts to open the cultivation centers in their neighborhood.

In January, D.C. Council member Vincent B. Orange (D-At large) successfully pushed to limit the number of cultivation centers that could operate in Northeast. Last week, council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7) won approval of a bill barring cultivation centers from high-profile retail corridors — including the location Phyto Management wants to open on Benning Road.

It was not clear Thursday night how the bill would affect the company’s plans, but Alexander pledged to work with the group to find a new location.

The fight over the cultivation centers could pale in comparison with the community opposition that could surface as the Department of Health reviews the applicants to run the distribution centers. But under the law, they are not allowed 300 feet from a school, recreation center or a city park.

Another challenge could come from law enforcement officials because, under federal law, the sale or possession of medical marijuana is illegal. Federal authorities have declined to publicly sanction the program, which restricts patients to no more than 2 ounces of marijuana per month.

But Akhter said he remains optimistic that the city’s program will withstand legal scrutiny, citing his view on the medical benefits of marijuana.

Under the city regulations, patients suffering from cancer, HIV-AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma qualify for the program.

“I know one thing for sure, there are a lot more dangerous drugs that we prescribe,” said Akhter, a former senior associate dean for public and international health at Howard University College of Medicine. “We made this program exactly like for other drugs we prescribe for other purposes.”

Although medical marijuana patients will not be able to grow their own marijuana, the District’s first purveyor of medical pot supplies plans to open on Rhode Island Avenue NE on Friday.

WeGrow, a company billing itself as the “Wal-Mart of Weed,” will sell materials needed to cultivate and care for the plants, but not the plants or seeds themselves.

Staff writers Mike DeBonis and Katie Rodgers contributed to this report.

Source: Washington Post (DC)
Author: Tim Craig
Published: March 30, 2012
Copyright: 2012 Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

A bill that would allow people in New Hampshire with chronic health problems to use marijuana received the backing of the Republican Senate this week, but with the proposal gaining momentum in Concord, local police chiefs worry it would strengthen efforts to legalize the drug in the Granite State.

Gov. John Lynch has indicated he will veto the Senate bill, which passed on a 13-11 vote late Wednesday night.

It would allow patients with “debilitating medical conditions” or their designated caretakers to possess up to 6 ounces of marijuana, four mature plants and 12 seedlings at a single, registered “cultivation location.” They could also avoid penalties for possessing up to two ounces of marijuana elsewhere.

In an email, Dover Police Chief Anthony Colarusso said he worries the bill is a “proverbial ‘foot in the door’” for efforts to legalize marijuana. He also fears marijuana grown for medicinal purposes will be diverted into the illegal drug trade, something that occurs now with prescription drugs.

Allowing medical marijuana use would also send youths the wrong message, and give “one more justification for a young person to try marijuana,” Colarusso wrote.

“When something is legalized, it is also legitimized,” he wrote.

The N.H. Association of Police Chiefs doesn’t support the bill, and Durham Police Chief Dave Kurz added his voice to the opposition Wednesday, saying the legislation will erode marijuana prohibitions down the road.

“If you want to legalize, let’s have the discussion, but I believe this is sort of a back-door entry into legalization,” he said.

Kurz said the legislation stands to make policing more difficult, since officers will need to be trained about the medical marijuana cultivation regulations, and then exercise discretion in the field. He also pointed out that marijuana cultivation is still illegal under federal law.

Supporters say the bill’s home cultivation approach would reduce the risk of abuse or federal prosecution. Caretakers would be volunteers — most likely family members, they say. The law permits compensation for actual costs like electricity, but not labor, which supporters say eliminates the business aspect.

Patients would need a registry identification card, which would require written certification from their doctor that medical use of marijuana would help treat a “debilitating medical condition.”

Qualifying conditions include cancer, HIV, AIDS and post-traumatic stress disorder. Some symptoms or treatment results such as severe pain or severe nausea would also qualify.

Patients with a qualifying condition visiting from out of state could also possess marijuana without a card, but not cultivate it. Caretakers would need a card as well and would be subject to a background check.

The bill passed on a narrow 13-11 vote Wednesday, after Senators adopted one last amendment by Sen. Jim Forsythe, the Strafford Republican sponsoring the bill, which reduced the number of plants patients are allowed to grow from six to four, with a maximum canopy of 100 square feet.

The bill would not legalize marijuana possession for anyone beyond registry identification card holders or visiting qualifying patients. Card holders who provide marijuana to anyone not allowed to have it would have their cards revoked and face a Class B felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison.

Additional penalties for illegal marijuana sale would also apply.

The proposed law also would expire after three years unless lawmakers acted to renew it.

Colarusso said a recent youth survey found marijuana is now more widely used by Dover teens than tobacco. He said the drop in youth tobacco use suggests antismoking campaigns have been successful, and the Senate bill could have the opposite effect for marijuana use.

“I have been in law enforcement for 27 years, and I cannot remember a time when drug use and crime related to drug use is as prevalent as it is now,” he wrote. “The illegal use of legal drugs is currently the biggest problem. We need fewer options for those who abuse drugs, not more of them.”

Staff Writer Jim Haddadin contributed to this report.

Source: Foster’s Daily Democrat (NH)
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2012
Copyright: 2012 Geo. J. Foster Co.
Contact: letters@fosters.com
Website: http://www.fosters.com/