For cannabis activists and entrepreneurs, medical marijuana users, and all Americans, the impending Trump administration took a nightmarish turn with the selection of cannabigot Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. No other choice could have been worse. Each and every one of Trump’s new cabinet is a hardliner cannabis prohibitionist.

Cannabigotry, prejudice against marijuana and those who consume it, echoed crystal clear in one of the former Alabama prosecutors most famous quotations,

Good people don’t smoke marijuana.

Sessions is not just a cannabigot. Decades of incidents show Sessions to be also a racist bigot. Perhaps the most bizarre expression of Sessions corrupt attitudes on both race and cannabis were chronicled by Eric Levitz in New York Magazine:

Alabama senator Jeff Sessions hates marijuana almost as much as he loves his Confederate heritage: The former prosecutor once “joked” to an African-American colleague that he was fine with the Ku Klux Klan “until I found out they smoked pot.”

So, Jeff Sessions was OK with the KKK until he heard they smoked MJ.

When Donald Trump was talking about “draining the swamp,” he must have meant the Everglades. All his appointees for cabinet and other keys posts are authoritarian, right-wing, reactionaries. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, mentioned for Secretary of Defense (shudder), in addition to being to the right of Dick Cheney on use of the military, is a total prohibitionist He has voted against any drug policy or criminal justice reform. Stunningly, he believes the USA, land of mass incarceration, jails too few of its citizens.

With marijuana a Schedule I drug, any possession is a serious federal penalty. Activities now common in legalized states, such as the growing, processing, and transport of large amounts of cannabis would warrant decades of prison time if arrested and convicted federally. Expect asset forfeiture to ramp up as newly aggressive US attorneys are rewarded for the seizure of citizen assets. Expect no rescheduling, no improvement in banking access, nor change in the ruinous 280 IRS regulation.

The protective Cole Memo will soon be a fond memory for the nascent cannabis industry. Only the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendments blocking federal prosecution in medically legal states. But this may well not be renewed by a newly marijuana-hating Trump administration, especially when opposed by the Attorney General and the entire cabinet.

Expect cannabis tyranny as the new cabinet takes office in January.

Doubtless, Sessions will have a major role in filling DEA Administrator and drug czar head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Which prohibitionist zealots will be chosen to fill those powerful roles?  When will the federal dogs of drug war again ramp up the war on marijuana?

Hillary Clinton and the democrats are searching for reasons for their devastating loss. Was it FBI Director James Comey they ask? Was it the steady drip of WikiLeaks they wonder?

It just may be that Hillary’s non-committal and suspicious views and statements about marijuana doomed her. Had she come out for full support of legalization she would have gained support in several voting blocks. Instead, she offered vague statements about supporting research but was not for legalization. Her attitude was hands-off, wait-and-see, far less encouraging than the early promises of Barack Obama, who ending up doing virtually nothing about cannabis.

The most telling signal of Hillary’s opposition to marijuana law reform came from one of the WikiLeaks of campaign chairman John Podesta’s email. When speaking to behind the closed doors of Wall Street, Clinton Told Wall St. She Is 100% Against Legalizing Cannabis. That was a losing attitude in the 2016 election environment.

Legalized cannabis, medical or full adult-use won almost everywhere; Hillary and the Democrats won almost nowhere.

Hillary needed only a few more thousand votes in a few states but was plagued by low turnout. Things could have been different. Considered a fringe, minor issue by professionals in both political parties, the legalization of cannabis is a vital freedom concern to millions of Americans. For many, it is the decisive voting factor. This is especially true with the voter’s Hillary desperately needed, but failed to motivate:

• Millennials – This group overwhelming supports legalized cannabis. Hillary never did excite these younger voters. She could have gained much good will and many votes with these 20-somethings, had she come out strongly to support ending marijuana prohibition.
• Bernie Sanders Supporters – One of Bernie’s main attraction for million was his clear policy on ending cannabis prohibition. Hillary could have done far better with this group had she supported Bernie’s vision for legalizing marijuana.
• Gary Johnson Voters – Over four million votes went to the Johnson/Weld Libertarian ticket, which expressly called for the end of marijuana prohibition.
• Independents – This group, generally supportive of cannabis law reform, went for Trump in a big way.
• Non-voters – Forty-three million people did not bother to vote. None have ever had the opportunity to vote for a major party candidate who supported legalizing marijuana, because no Democrat or Republican candidate ever has. Many would have voted had they been given that opportunity.

On the important issue of ending marijuana prohibition, the Democratic Party now lag decades behind the American electorate. For millions of voters, this is a key pocketbook, personal health, and individual liberty concern. Should the Democratic party wish to regain the presidency, the DNC will need to field a candidate clear in his or her commitment to end the idiotic 80-year experiment of prohibiting and demonizing marijuana.

Photo credit: DonkeyHotey via Flickr

President-Elect Donald Trump has surrounded himself with hard-liner, cannabis-hating ex-prosecutors. They present a clear and present danger to state marijuana legalizations across the USA and to the millions of Americans benefitting from medical marijuana and from the booming economies of legalized states.

Actually, prosecutors don’t hate marijuana, they love it, at least as long as it is illegal. Felony marijuana has been a huge boondoggle for prosecutors, one of the big Ps of Big Prohibition. The relative bulkiness and smelliness of cannabis, along with it unceasing popularity made marijuana prosecutions easy as shooting fish in a barrel. With conspiracy provisions included in harsh new drug war laws, marijuana did not even have to be present to secure a conviction, talking about selling it was sufficient to end up in a federal prison cage.

The decades of prison time inflicted upon those falling to draconian marijuana laws also served as feathers in the caps of prosecutors. The long years of incarceration afforded by their easy drug prosecutions looked good on the resumes of prosecutors jailing their fellow citizens. And asset forfeiture presented another huge prosecutor benefit to harsh marijuana laws; government lawyers can simply grab the money and possessions of those suspected of marijuana “crimes,” with conviction, or even charge, against those being looted not even necessary. Marijuana laws have been very, very good to the prosecutor class, and these lawyers will not give them up willingly. In the Trump administration, they may not have to worry.

Trump’s inner circle seems overly represented by ex-prosecutors, and is a true prohibitionist dream team:

Chris Christie, ex-prosecutor. For those interested in cannabis law reform, the specter of an Attorney General Chris Christie has perhaps been the scariest outcome of a Trump presidency. See President Trump’s Attorney General Chris Christie?

Before becoming the scandal-ridden governor of New Jersey, this portly prohibitionist was appointed by George W. Bush as United States Attorney for New Jersey. Except for his in with the president-elect, Christie has little going for him now. His underlings have been convicted in the Bridgegate scandal and few believe he was not involved. His current approval rating as New Jersey governor stands at an abysmal 20%.

Still, Christie’s early support and endorsement of Trump will earn him a place of federal power, bad news for cannabis liberation. See Chris Christie Calls Marijuana Users “Diseased,” Pledges to Cure Them With Law Enforcement. During his (short) 2012 presidential run he warned about state marijuana legalization,

If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it. As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws.

Jeff Sessions, ex-prosecutor. This Alabama senator has been a hard-liner drug warrior for his decades in the Senate, building upon his professional prosecutor career as US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and then Alabama Attorney General. A senator since 1996, he has legislated from the far-right and has been a major champion of a harsh war on drugs, mandatory minimums, and asset forfeiture. During hearings for Barack Obama’s (idiotic and tragic) choice of anti-marijuana zealot Michele Leonhart as DEA head, Sessions specifically coached her for hostility to medical marijuana. Some of his Session’s remarks and questions to Leonhart at confirmation hearings:

“I’m a big fan of the DEA,” said Sessions, before asking Leonhart point blank if she would fight medical marijuana legalization.

“I have seen what marijuana use has done to young people, I have seen the abuse, I have seen what it’s done to families. It’s bad,” Leonhart said. “If confirmed as administrator, we would continue to enforce the federal drug laws.”

“These legalization efforts sound good to people,” Sessions quipped. “They say, ‘We could just end the problem of drugs if we could just make it legal.’ But any country that’s tried that, Alaska and other places have tried it, have failed. It does not work,” Sessions said.

“We need people who are willing to say that. Are you willing to say that?” Sessions asked Leonhart.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/18/michele-leonhart-one-step-closer-to-officially-heading-up-the-dea/#ixzz4Pj6pFAlr

Rudy Giuliani, ex-prosecutor. His consistent support of Trump has allowed this has-been former prosecutor and New York City mayor to remain relevant and in the public eye. Now, he will be nauseatingly present in our lives for the next four years. Hopefully, he will not be in a position to endanger state legalizations, but that might be too much to ask. Certainly, he will be given a position of power within the Trump administration. Giuliani opposes even medical marijuana. When running for president in 2007 he said,

“I checked with the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]. The FDA says marijuana has no additive medical benefit of any kind, that the illegal trafficking of marijuana is so great that it makes much more sense to keep it illegal. I will keep it illegal.”

Pamela Jo Bondi, prosecutor and current Florida Attorney General. Now on the Trump transition team, Pam Bondi has long opposed medical marijuana in her state. Referring to Florida’s 2014 medical marijuana initiative, she stated,

“Whether the Amendment passes or not, the medical use of marijuana is a federal criminal offense.”

Refreshingly, she did not oppose the 2016 Florida medical marijuana initiative that just passed in a landslide victory.

Any of these prosecutors might be the next Attorney General of the United States. Even if not, each will be in a position to slow, maybe even crush marijuana legalization across the country and the planet.

Mike Pence, our next vice-president, was not a prosecutor but a conservative talk show host. As the far-right governor of Indiana, his attitudes and actions on marijuana and the drug war were deplorable. He reinstated mandatory minimum for Indiana drug offenses. See  Mike Pence: Wrong On Marijuana, Wrong On Tobacco, Wrong For America. In questioning a proposed reduction in the severity of Indiana marijuana laws he stated,

I think we need to focus on reducing crime, not reducing penalties. I think this legislation, as it moves forward, should still seek to continue to send a way strong message to the people of Indiana and particularly to those who would come into our state to deal drugs, that we are tough and we’re going to stay tough on narcotics in this state.

No matter the cabinet or administrative positions that will be filled by these cannabis reactionaries, their collective advice to Donald Trump about cannabis legalization and medical marijuana will certainly be negative and dangerous to the lives, liberty, and health of tens of millions of Americans.  With adult-use cannabis now becoming legal in California, the federal/state divide becomes a chasm. President Barack Obama describes the situation as “untenable,” a damning statement from the man who had the power to fix the problem, yet did nothing. See Obama Leaves Behind a Marijuana Nightmare.

If they choose, the feds have all the laws and tools they need to smash cannabis legalization in the USA. Federally, possession of marijuana ranks as one of the nation’s most severe crimes. Huge penalties and mandatory minimum sentences for federal possession, sale, and conspiracy charges are already in place, calling for decades of imprisonment for activities now common in legal states. And asset forfeiture allows the feds to financially gut cannabis entrepreneurs without even arresting them. The protective Cole Memo would soon become toilet paper in the next Attorney General’s plush federal bathroom.

Woe to the USA should Trump’s anti-cannabis zealots unleash the federal dogs of drug war upon the medical users and entrepreneurs across the country.

Photo credit: DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Oregon tax revenues from adult use marijuana sales have exceeded projections. Oregon collected $40.2 million in first nine months 2016, putting the first-year total at about $55 million dollars. This fortune far surpasses the estimates early estimates of backers of Proposition 91, the voter initiative that legalized Oregon adult use in 2014. Year 2017 figures may soar far higher.

While this bonanza from bud will be useful in paying for essential Oregon services, such as education, much of it is now set to be misspent. For no good reason, law enforcement will take over a third of the revenue. Worse yet, not a dollar of this marijuana money will be spent on researching the remarkable medical and commercial properties of cannabis. Oregon has the opportunity to be a national, even global, leader in exploiting this plant’s remarkable medical and commercial potential. Yet the funds available for financing this health-care and industrial leadership position are instead be squandered on already pampered bureaucracies.

These tax trends point to a boondoggle for Oregon law enforcement, suckling from the tax fund at a rate of 35%, nearly the 40% funding Oregon education. Colorado, by contrast, has funded schools to the tune of $138 million while only 2.8 million has gone to the Department of Law. So Oregon schools get slightly more than the cops; Colorado schools receive nearly fifty times the marijuana tax receipts than go to the police! As Anthony Johnson reports at Weed News,  the Colorado taxes are funding an ambitious school building program, with millions more for innovative student health and anti-bullying initiatives.

Based on a $55 million Oregon 2016 tax figure, a number I think will be low (and far lower than next year), this year’s adult use marijuana tax will generously fund all aspects of law enforcement:

• Oregon State Police will get 15%, or over 8 million dollars.
• County Sheriffs will receive 10%, over $5 million dollars.
• Local police get another 10%, over $5 million dollars. (One good aspect of Oregon’s measure is that counties and cities that opt out of legalization with local prohibitions will also forfeit this tax revenue.)

Bloated police bureaucracies are left with bundles of marijuana tax lucre to spend in ways that may damage the lives and liberty of the very Oregonians who legalized the plant by voting Yes on Proposition 91 in 2014.

To what uses, we should ask, will all these funds be spent? Marijuana tax dollars should not be funding anti-cannabis police activities that prosecute Oregonians for non-existent problems. But how else will this money be spent? Law enforcement costs were predicted to rise by hand wringers because of problems associated with legalization. In fact, as proven in other legal states and now in Oregon, legalization causes few problems. Predicted plagues of traffic accidents have not happened. Use by youth has not increased. So far, Oregon’s primary problem with legalization is its inability to collect fast enough the huge tax revenues pouring in from across the state.

So there are few problems that need police attention, much less the massive enforcement that these funds may create. For example, Colorado has a rational 50 to 1 mix of education over law enforcement funding. However, The Cannabist reports that in next year’s budget, Governor Hickenlooper “also set aside $16 million in marijuana taxes for a forthcoming initiative to control the illegal pot trade operating in the shadows of the state’s legal industry.” This sounds like the makings of a major marijuana drug war against Coloradans in their own legal state. The war on marijuana needs to be ended, not sustained by the taxes of Colorado (or Oregon or California) cannabis consumers.

Another dicey recipient of this cannabis consumer-paid tax is for drug treatment. While honest drug treatment for actual drug problems can be useful, the industry maintains an outdated, unscientific approach particularly hostile to cannabis. Marijuana demonization has been highly profitable for this sometimes sleazy industry. Many who make their livings as drug counselors misclassify any marijuana use to be abuse, and totally fail to recognize the huge medical benefits this mild drug can provide. Indeed, cannabis may act as an exit drug, a safe way to help opioid users avoid addiction and overdose death.

By not providing resources and direction for studying cannabis, Oregon forfeits what could be a leadership position in some of the great industrial and health-care discoveries of the century.

Early in 2016 an Oregon senate task force released a powerful proposal for an Oregon Cannabis Research Institute. The document SB 844 Task Force Report:Researching the medical and public health properties of cannabis, is a remarkable read. The report discloses the staggering potential of medical cannabis to hugely help humankind against dozens of maladies. The list is so impressive it is nearly an embarrassment of health riches.

An Oregon Cannabis Research Institute could absolutely put the state in the catbird’s seat to what may well become a cannabis-based healthcare revolution. The Big Pharma “healthcare” model is sputtering, researching products that provide long-term use, not cures, e.g. toenail fungus or  drugs that attempt to alleviate the side-effects of other pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, research on cannabis and it marvel molecules THC, CBD, THCV and others with their antioxidant, anti-tumor, anti-epileptic, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties offer fundamental new findings and new medical knowledge.

Important commercial innovations also need research and development, roles perfect for Oregon state institutions, if only funded. In addition to its medically useful cannabinoids, cannabis may be produced into thousands of carbon-neutral products fulfilling important needs. The use of hemp in highly nutritious food, innovative fibers and building materials, fuel, and a huge number of other ways helpful to humankind and to the environment should be major courses of study in the state’s universities and community colleges.

Tragically, the OCRI seems to by dying on the vine, in good part due to zero funding. Were Oregon adult use marijuana tax dollars pumping millions of dollars yearly into the institute, it could become a spark plug for cannabis research and innovations across the state. Instead of the current cannabis tax allocation going to schools at 40%, law enforcement at 35%, and cannabis research at 0%, a more rational and productive mix would be funding for schools at 40%, law enforcement at 5%, and cannabis research at 30%.

Instead of financing new marijuana drug wars against Oregonians, let Oregon adult use tax dollars fund leadership in outstanding cannabis health, commercial, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Marijuana-hating casino magnate Sheldon Adelson may be richest of the Big Prohibitionists. Long a deep-pocket donor to anti-cannabis causes, his latest handout gives a million dollars each towards defeating medical marijuana in Massachusetts and adult-use legalization in Nevada.

With a fortune of around $30 billion dollars, Sheldon Adelson is the 21st richest person on the planet. The entrepreneur has created over 50 businesses in his lifetime. Most of this great wealth has come from his gambling empire, with major properties in Las Vegas, Macau, and Singapore.

Perhaps because of the tragic opioid overdose death of his son Mitchell, Adelson is passionately anti-drug, with cannabis lumped in because he wrongly believes it is a gateway drug. Paradoxically, it now appears that the very medical cannabis that he so zealously opposes may well be the best preventive and treatment for opioid addiction and for avoiding overdose deaths.

Adelson is influenced by long-time drug warrior, Floridian Mel Sembler. This Florida developer and addictions recovery operator has been an anti-marijuana fanatic for decades. As reported by Lee Fang in VICE, his wife Betty was made an honorary DEA agent. Additionally, Adelson’s wife Miriam is a physician with ties to the recovery industry. Regarding his opposition to medical cannabis, Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Vice-President Andy Abboud, stated:

Pro marijuana folks have awoken a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson

Adelson’s prohibitionist philanthropy has been extensive:

• In Florida Adelson contributed over four million dollars to Mel Sembler’s Drug-Free Florida group working for the defeat of the 2014 medical marijuana initiative. Although the initiative got 58% YES votes, it was still defeated by at 60% requirement. Apparently, Adelson has contributed only one million to the 2016 medical marijuana initiative, which this time looks like it will pass.
• In Nevada, he bought the newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Formerly supportive of medical marijuana in Nevada, the paper’s editorial view swung distinctly anti-cannabis after its purchase by the casino king. Additionally, as Tom Angell reports at Marijuana.com, he has contributed a million dollars to defeating Question 2, Nevada’s legalization initiative. See Adelson and Casinos Fund Nevada Legal Marijuana Opposition.
• The million dollars to help defeat Massachusetts adult-use marijuana is his latest prohibitionist payout.

Adelson’s political contributions are not limited to anti-cannabis bureaucracies. He is also a major contributor to the Republican Party. Comically, he was an early and big supporter of Fred Thompson in 2008. After failing miserably to secure the presidency, Thompson went on to an alternate career touting reverse mortgages in late night TV ads. In 2012, Adelson went in big for Newt Gingrich for president and spent $100 million on Republicans in total. In 2016 he supports Trump for President.

We can only hope that Adelson’s prohibitionist propaganda will be no more effective than his feeble political accomplishments!

Several countries are now ending legal prohibition of marijuana. Uruguay has already legalized cannabis; Jamaica and Canada are soon to follow. As they do so, they violate restrictive treaties signed with other UN members. At least three UN treaties demand cannabis prohibition worldwide:

• 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
• 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
• 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances

These treaties, in most part the result of US initiatives and pressure, have been signed by nearly all the planet’s countries. Essentially, they internationalize America’s war on drugs.  Supposedly, signatories such as Canada and the US no longer have the sovereign power to change their drug policies. The UN conventions are enthusiastically enforced by UN anti-drug bureaucracies, especially United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In addition to the UNOCD, the organization sports yet another drug war bureaucracy, the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which monitors compliance with the conventions. They call for zero use of cannabis and forbid any production. The conventions encourage countries to punish drug crimes harshly and specifically call for prison time.

The conventions disallow the use and sale of a wide range of natural medicines and entheogens, substances used for religious, shamanic, or spiritual purposes. Potentially beneficial mood drugs such as MMDA, mescaline, and San Pedro Cactus are forbidden. At the same time, the conventions totally ignore the truly dangerous drugs of tobacco cigarettes and alcohol. To be clear, cigarettes kill around six million people yearly; cannabis kills zero, yet UNODC and its conventions demonize cannabis (and even cactus) while giving addictive and deadly cigarettes a free pass.

The UN had the perfect opportunity to interject change and confront new cannabis realities in its recent General Assembly meeting addressing the issue, UNGASS 2016. It did almost nothing, seemingly frozen in place.

Many countries are now moving towards cannabis legalization in spite of UNODC and INCB objections and treaty obligations. This is probably the only way the conventions and UN drug bureaucracies will change, essentially by being ignored.

Uruguay – This small South American country’s legalization came unexpectedly and has been implemented quickly. This legalization was quickly declared by the United Nation’s UNODC as “incompatible with what is stipulated in the 1961 Convention.” Uruguay’s legalization has proceeded unapologetically. Indeed, Uruguayans challenged the UN, and its stifling bureaucracies and treaties. Said Uruguay’s “Drug Czar” Secretary Milton Romani in the PanAm Post, the country’s goal was not to slavishly obey the conventions,

“but rather about upholding the ultimate goals of these treaties, which explicitly say they seek to improve humankind’s health and well-being.”

Jamaica – This island country returns to celebrating the ganga it has so long repressed. Under US and UN domination, Jamaica repressed cannabis along with the islanders who used it. Jamaican Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson-Smith told the UN General Assembly,

We contend that the classification of cannabis under the Single Convention is an anomaly and that the medical value of a substance must be determined by science and evidence-based analysis, above other considerations. Cannabis has been traditionally used as a folk medicine, as well as a religious sacrament by adherences to our indigenous faith, Rastafari.

Canada – With Justin Trudeau’s ascendency to power in Ottawa, marijuana will soon be legal in Canada. As reported by Catherine Cullen in CBC News, Canada can deal with its upcoming violation of its UN treaties in one of two ways:

On the one hand, Canada could take a “principled stand” in favour of the international legalization of pot.

The other, quieter approach, would be to withdraw from the treaties and attempt to re-enter with a special exemption for legalized marijuana.

Withdrawing from the treaties would be the correct step, but forget about attempting to reenter them. To do so would validate the UN’s bogus scheduling, which includes harmless but useful entheogens as Schedule I drugs, classifying them as highly dangerous with no medical value. It would also legitimize the war on drugs.

Canada should take the principled stand and refuse to kow tow to these cruel and counterproductive conventions, as should all the UN member countries.

US States -American voters have legalized medical marijuana in half of American states, and given the go ahead for full adult use in several other of the United States. The UN bureaucracies are unhappy about such American freedoms. Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), was quoted by Reuters,

“I don’t see how (the new laws) can be compatible with existing conventions.”

The UN’s oppressive drug policies, bureaucracies, and conventions must end. Long past due is the day when the UN needs to promote humanitarian and harm-reduction policies, not foisting off more failed, harm-maximization drug war policies on the countries and people of the world.

Voter-mandated legalizations in American states, and cannabis prohibitions falling in countries around the globe may yet force real harm-reduction change at the United Nations.

Startled by high numbers of American deaths from opioids, the Obama administration’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch has again declared an offensive. Her plan of action: alert the 94 federal prosecutors to gear up for more of the same war on drugs. This time, physicians who oversubscribe opioids (in the DEA’s suspicions at least), are prime targets. Yet again, no thought was given to harnessing  medical cannabis as a far safer alternative.
The epidemic of opioid addiction and death should be resetting the war on drugs. The statistics are harsh: from the year 2000 to the present, opioids deaths have quadrupled, to over 28,000 per year. Deaths (usually suffocation) from opioids now outnumber automobile fatalities. Americans opioid users are so numerous, they now have their own new pharmaceutical drug for counteracting an opioid side effect. Read about it in MarijuanaPolictics.com, at “Opioid-Induced Constipation”: Big Pharma More Interested in Treating Your Bowel Movements Than Saving Your Life.
Regarding the drug war in general, the supremely ludicrous truth is that now drug overdose deaths are at an all-time high. Is this an acceptable outcome for a 45 year, trillion-dollar war on drugs? For this colossal failure, the DEA should be bum-rushed out the door.  Instead, we are now essentially offered more of the same war on drugs by an oblivious Department of Justice and Obama administration.

Especially in the context of the opioid crisis, marijuana is a medicine that is saving lives. Cannabis can help prevent, weaken, and even end opioid addictions. Cannabis-based solutions to the opioid problem are becoming more and more obvious to everyone except the drug warriors. Increasingly, headline shout the connection:

• Lower Opioid Overdose Death Rates Associated with State Medical Marijuana Laws.

• Rejecting opioids, pain patients find relief with marijuana leads in The Boston Globe.

• Combination Of Medical Marijuana, Opioids Does Not Increase Substance Abuse Risk, Study Finds reported in Forbes. Lead study author Dr. Brian Perron is quoted, “In states where medical marijuana is legal, physicians should be aware that medical marijuana is a potentially safer and more effective treatment approach than opioids.”

• Is medical marijuana the answer to America’s prescription painkiller epidemic? asked Jason Millman at The Washington Post.

• Cannabis as the “exit gateway” drug. I wrote this back in 2013 and quoted from the Harm Reduction Journal from a study, Prescribing cannabis for harm reduction, on the adverse effects of opioids which include:

Respiratory depression, sedation, sleep disturbance, cognitive and psychomotor impairment, delirium, hallucinations, seizures, hyperalgesia, constipation, nausea, and vomiting.

(The respiratory depression referred to is the reduction and often cessation of breathing. All too frequently the overdosed opioid user stops breathing, resulting in another death. Cannabis, on the other hand, cannot stop breathing, has no serious overdose, and has caused zero medical deaths in the thousands of years of its use.)

• The cannabis solution to the opioid problem motivated Senator Elizabeth Warren in February to request the CDC to consider this approach, of preventing, substituting and treating opioid addiction with safe medical cannabis.
• In the same news cycle as the disclosure of the new drug war opioid enforcement actions, Christopher Ingraham reports in the Washington Post:

New study finds that medical marijuana may be helping to curb the opioid epidemic

Sure enough, in medical marijuana states, researchers found a drop in opioids in fatal car crashes. This harm reduction is in line with a host of opioid reduction benefits emerging in medical marijuana legal states, including lower traffic fatalities, fewer Medicare Part D opioid pain prescriptions, less teen use of marijuana, and booming economies.

Even former prosecutor and anti-marijuana Attorney General hopeful,  Chris Christie, seems to have seen a little light, enough at least to allow him to sign a New Jersey bill giving access to medical marijuana to those suffering from PTSD from the 911 attacks.

Regarding the bogus Schedule I classification for both marijuana and heroin, the irony is compelling; the falsely scheduled cannabis can save the lives of those afflicted by an actual Schedule I drug, heroin. That is a powerful medical use right there for cannabis, belying the Schedule I criterion, “with no medical use.”

With this avalanche of insight that medical cannabis is a viable solution to opioid addiction and death, it is puzzling that Obama’s initiatives have ignored this resource. But yet again the president gives the justice department the lead role in intervening in what is basically a public health problem. Joining the prosecutors were representatives of addiction recovery services, a group notoriously dishonest about cannabis.

Nowhere to be seen nor heard were advocates of medical cannabis as preventatives and far safer pain relief alternatives to addictive and death-inducing opioids. Apparently, the administration finds it politically incorrect to even consider medical marijuana as a solution for anything. Just as in the case of Joe Biden’s moonshot cancer initiative, where, in spite of powerful evidence showing the tumor fighting properties of cannabis, no mention or thought was given to medical marijuana.

The Obama administration’s strict politically correct anti-marijuana line is blatantly anti-science and wounding to public health. And it is no longer even politically correct. A majority of Americans now believe marijuana should be legal for all adults; an overwhelming majority feel cannabis should legal medically. The Obama administration, most of the congress, and self-serving bureaucracies such as the DEA are decades behind the American public. Their obsolete and dishonest approach will lead to more American lives lost to opioid addiction and death.

At the twilight of his presidency, Barack Obama leaves unmet the huge need to change federal cannabis law.

President Barack Obama will soon leave office. Although he will re-enter private life as one of America’s better presidents, he has failed to address the calamitous war on drugs, especially the eight-decade crusade against marijuana.

The laws against cannabis are clearly some of America’s most unjust, inflicting upon our country dozens of legal, social, and medical evils. The absurd and tragic legal status of marijuana desperately needed a fix during his administration. Instead, President Obama let a historic opportunity to slip through his hands, as he allowed his DEA to recently decide to maintain the idiotic and cruel Schedule I.

Obama’s inaction on rescheduling leaves terrifyingly vulnerable liberty’s small victories, such as the 2011 Cole Memo to US attorneys. The Cole Memo gave guidance to federal prosecutors and has allowed state-regulated marijuana systems to flourish, but will Cole retired and President Obama exiting the White House, the slim protections for cannabis possession and sale in legalized states afforded by the memo are subject to the whims and prejudices of the next president and justice department. Even Obama’s Supreme Court nominee has already ruled for continued cannabis prohibition.

Thankfully, some protections now exist beyond the Cole memo, namely the Rohrabacher – Farr congressional amendments that prevent the Department of Justice from prosecuting state legal medical operations. But these desperately needed protections were brought about by freedom fighters in Congress, not by President Obama. They were in fact opposed by Obama’s justice Department and continually violated by federal prosecutors after becoming law. Fortunately, recent court rulings have helped restrain rogue prosecutors. Existing only as a budgetary amendment, legislative provisions stripping the federal government from prosecuting cannabis industry participants following state law must be renewed yearly.

The draconian Schedule I status of cannabis, set 45 years ago by the black and hippie-obsessed President Richard Nixon, turned America’s drug laws into a nightmarish, Orwellian system of harshness and cruelty as over 20 million fellow citizens have been arrested and punished for marijuana. Successive Presidents, from both parties, played “the marijuana card” from paraquat spraying, to “Zero Tolerance,” to “Just Say No” campaigns, cranking up penalties and prosecutions. Finally, with the election of Barack Obama, those millions of Americans opposed to marijuana prohibition and against the federal war on drugs thought they had a “Yes We Can” ally in the White House.  Instead, the motto seemed to have switched to “No I won’t” as President Obama refused to lift a finger to end this toxic war on science, health, and freedom. There has been some small incremental changes, but that really isn’t the change that we signed up for.

Beyond the Cole memo, along with some amnesties granted to a few hundred drug “criminals,” Barack Obama has done little to challenge the great damages still being done by the war on drugs, particularly to communities of color. In the case of cannabis most of his actions reinforced prohibition. President Obama:

• Reappointed rabid anti-marijuana zealot and George W. Bush appointee Michele Leonhart to head the DEA. Here she spent years persecuting cannabis. Finally, she was forced to resign in disgrace.
• Chose long-term, hardline drug warrior Joe Biden as his vice-president. Biden’s many drug war shames include creating the office of drug czar with its mandate to oppose medical marijuana, the Rave Act, and supporting the notoriously cruel 1994 Crime Bill that has driven up our incarceration rate.
• Hired anti-marijuana lobbyist Kevin Sabet into his office of Drug Czar, ONDCP.
• Allowed his Justice Department, during his first term, to wage a war on medical marijuana and dispensaries, beyond even the attacks of the preceding Republican administration.
• At public Q & As, he ridiculed every question he received on marijuana, and used the opportunity to declare himself against legalization.
• Continually raised drug war budgets.

The marijuana nightmare Obama leaves behinds has categories of horrors. Continued Schedule I status for cannabis is a:

• Medical nightmare. Millions of Americans are now enjoying medical benefit from state legal cannabis, from neuropathic pain sufferers relieved from agony, to cancer fighters freed from nausea, and those with glaucoma spared blindness. But millions more fellow citizens are denied access and even knowledge of these and other powerful health benefits. Still “medical marijuana refugees” must give up house and home to move to more compassionate states where their toddlers can be saved from life-threatening seizures. Obama’s inaction sentences his fellow citizens to suffer needlessly from dozens of medical afflictions.
• Research nightmare. Because Schedule I defines marijuana as having no medical value, research for medical benefit in the USA is extremely difficult. This situation is improving slightly, and additional sources of research cannabis are becoming available. Still, marijuana remains one of the most burdensome of all substance to study, needlessly obstructing the medical research on marijuana’s anti-inflammatory, antitumor, pain and nausea-relieving properties.
• Police nightmare. Asset forfeiture and other drug war financial incentives have warped American policing from “protect and serve” to “exploit and profit.” The war on drugs and marijuana specifically are central problems with the American justice system, and policing. Still, more Americans are arrested for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined.
• Banking nightmare. Cannabis entrepreneurs, such as dispensary owners, have to do business cash only, with no access to the banking system. This ridiculously cumbersome system puts business people in this thriving industry into personal danger and professional disadvantage.
• Tax nightmare. IRS provision 280E is a grotesque trap for dispensary owners and other cannabis business people trying their best to pay their taxes. Normal business deductions are disallowed. Actually paying taxes often involves carrying cash to the tax office.
• Freedom nightmare. Possession of any amount of marijuana is a major federal crime. Growing and selling cannabis, even small amounts, are serious felonies. Only the flimsy Cole memo, which can be overturned by the next administration, stands between enterprising Americans and a cold government cage. Cannabigotry is allowed to flourish when legal fictions such as “no medical value” persist against overwhelming medical evidence. Prejudiced city councilors and county commissioners can correctly cite federal law when they attack voter-mandated statewide legalizations with local prohibitions.
• Veteran’s Nightmare. Cannabis is perhaps the best medicine for calming PTSD, yet is declared off limits for the veterans who supposedly served in the cause of freedom.
• Opioid Addiction Nightmare. Pharmaceutical opioids served as gateway drugs to the current heroin epidemic, and nightmare of overdose deaths. Marijuana may just be the best “exit drug” for helping addicts end their life-endangering habits.

The banking and tax nightmares would not end if cannabis were to be downgraded to Schedule II, the goal of the languishing CARERS Act. Only downgrading to Schedule III (like Marinol) would help with these issues. Actually, while any down scheduling is better than Schedule I, any schedule in the Controlled Substance Act, even Schedule 5, would leave huge problems.

Federal prohibition needs to end with the total removal of cannabis from the CSA. As only Bernie Sanders has proposed, it would be far better if cannabis were treated like alcohol and tobacco under federal law, even though it is far safer than either of those deadly drugs.

President Obama had the power to do great good, instead he failed to end the caustic, cruel, and counterproductive federal prohibition of cannabis. We got a little change, but we could have, and should have, gotten more.

AUMA, California’s Adult Use of Marijuana Act, now designated as Proposition 64, will be decided November 8. If voters pass Prop. 64, legalization will soon begin in this bellwether state, the nation’s largest and most influential. Massive momentum, perhaps unstoppable, will then help end federal prohibition. Should AUMA fail though, federal legalization may be set back years.

In the words of anti-marijuana zealot Kevin Sabet,

“If there is one thing we agree on with legalization advocates, it’s that California is important.”

Sabet is backing his words with money. Smart About Marijuana (SAM), the anti-legalization lobbying group Sabet started with George W. Bush’s neocon adviser David Frum and marijuana prohibitionist Patrick Kennedy, announced major funding going into defeating AUMA and legalization efforts in other states. The previously outspent opposition now has millions help to stop Prop. 64.

“Professional neo-prohibitionist” Kevin Sabet likes to invoke the bogeyman of “Big Marijuana,” implying that legalization will somehow create all powerful big businesses, poisoning the public as did “Big Tobacco.” There is zero evidence of such a thing; in legalized states like Colorado, cannabis business of all sizes and types are prospering. The harms prohibitionists warned of before legalization have not occurred.

In reality, “Big Prohibition” is the villain here. This nefarious group consists of all those profiting from the illegality of marijuana. Strangely, most of these groups start with “P,” and includes politicians, police, prosecutors, private prisons, prison guards, and pharmaceutical companies. Alcohol vendors and addiction services peddlers also oppose for self-serving reasons. Anti-marijuana lobbying groups like SAM stand ready to turn prohibitionist’s money into political action, such as opposing and stalling state legalizations.

The Investigative Fund’s Lee Fang showed in 2104 some of these incestuous pot prohibitionist operate in his article “The Anti-Pot Lobby’s Big Bankroll”.  He quotes freedom fighting Congressman Steve Cohen:

Prohibition provides “an incentive for these interest groups to keep seeking federal money to continue the ‘war on drugs’ [and] their own salaries,” says Representative Steve Cohen, one of the most outspoken proponents of legalization in Congress. Cohen adds that some of the most vociferous opponents of reform appear to be influenced by the money flowing from pot prohibition. “It’s a vicious cycle.”

Fang documents the efforts of Perdue Pharma, makers of Oxycontin, the gateway drug to the current epidemic of heroin and pharmaceutical deaths, to support SAM’s Patrick Kennedy and organizations such as Partnership for a Drug-Free America (now for Drug-Free Kids). And sure enough, these organizations are tough on marijuana while giving addictive and lethal pharmaceuticals a free pass.

So far in California, supporters of legalization have contributed far more money. High tech billionaire Sean Parker has now donated $2.5 million and other contributions take the total in support to over 7.0 million.

SAM is contributing over $2.0 million to defeat AUMA and adult use legalizations in Nevada, Massachusetts, Maine, and Arizona. Although and those groups listed below are still being outspent, they will stage a massive and misleading propaganda program up through November 8.

Californians voting against AUMA will vote with prohibitionists. On the morning of November 9, if AUMA fails, “no” voters can high five with marijuana haters Senator Dianne Feinstein, Kevin Sabet and Patrick Kennedy.

Should Prop. 64 go down in flames, similar celebrations will take place among the following prohibition players and supporters of AUMA defeat:

• Coalition for Responsible Drug Policies
• California District Attorneys Assn
• California Assn. of Highway Patrolmen
• California Police Chiefs Association
• Riverside Sheriffs’ Association
• Los Angeles Police Protective League’s Issues PAC
• California Correctional Supervisor’s Organization
• California Teamsters Union
• Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Californians, don’t wake up November 9 to post-election regret. Don’t let Big Prohibition steal this opportunity to finally legalize cannabis in this great state.

Support and work for AUMA, California’s historic and influential adult use legalization of marijuana!

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“Are you experienced?” Jimi Hendrix

For the first time in decades, the next US President will have no personal experience with marijuana. Neither Hillary nor The Donald have known the relaxing, yet stimulating, sensation of a cannabis “high.” Or so they say. If so, they are poorer for the lack of it and less fit to set federal marijuana policy.

Personal experience with marijuana is useful, even necessary, in helping dispel decades of DEA dogma.  With prohibitionist propaganda, from Reefer Madness to Just Say No to Zero Tolerance to Gateway Drug, Americans have been systematically lied to by their government. Users of cannabis know from their own experience that marijuana’s bliss is a mild experience compared to other drugs or getting drunk. They know it is safe, far safer especially than alcohol, which actually might be the most dangerous drug. Marijuana users know that there is no lethal dose, as cannabis cannot stop breathing, as far to often do the opiates and most drugs when mixed with too much alcohol.

But both Republican and Democratic candidates have no such personal experience with cannabis.

Donald Trump claims to have never smoked a cigarette, drank any alcohol or “used drugs.” He does not even drink coffee. His liquor abstinence is not religious, but stems from a warning from his alcohol-addicted older brother, now deceased.

Hillary Clinton too claims to have never used cannabis. She told CNN,

I didn’t do it when I was young. I’m not going to start now.

Too bad. If she had personal experience she might not have erroneously called it a “gateway drug.” She might have known that medical marijuana is appropriate for far more than the “extreme medical conditions” she considers allowing. She might not have said that research is “only in the beginning,” and wants to “wait and see” implying little will be done during her presidency. No Hillary, we need to be at the end of the federal war on marijuana, not just the beginning of the end. We need not wait and see another day to end federal idiocy and cruelty on cannabis.

Sadly though, even personal experience with the relatively safe and blissful effects of marijuana seemed to have done nothing to temper the politically expedient of clinging to prohibition by the last three marijuana-experienced presidents.  They seemed to be unable to NOT support the federal war on marijuana, even though they all knew better:

• President Bill Clinton, marijuana user (non-inhaling of course) gave us (with Joe Biden) the draconian 1994 crime bill which turned demonization of marijuana into outright persecution, with mandatory minimums, asset seizures, and $11 billion for more jails. Some provisions even allowed execution for certain marijuana “crimes,” drug war hysteria at its worst.
• President George W. Bush, marijuana user, gave us anti-marijuana zealot John Walters as Drug Czar, cannabis criminalizing Attorney General John Ashcroft, and a huge drug war rise in prison population.
• President Barack Obama, marijuana user, gave us cannabigot Michelle Leonhart as head of DEA. He ridiculed questions about marijuana, and refused any down-schedule from “unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious” Schedule I.

Hopefully the next president will do better. As reported by MarijuanaPolitics.com Russ Belville, the Democratic platform is quite positive for marijuana and drug law reform. Thanks to Bernie Sanders and his supporters, a plank, for the first time in either major party, calls for rescheduling cannabis and a path to legalization.

The Republican platform, not so much. The GOP failed to support even medical marijuana. This, even though more Republicans themselves support than oppose full adult use. Donald Trump, apparently blindsided by his lack of knowledge of the platform, is more supportive of at least medical marijuana. He has made some positive statements from a state’s rights perspective. His probable Attorney General Chris Christie, though, would do his best to persecute cannabis and repress legalizations across the country.

Regarding personal use of cannabis, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is decidedly experienced and remains a fan. He is, however, abstaining during the campaign. Gary has climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest, and a half a dozen other major peaks. No amotivational syndrome here; just the opposite! The hugely successful two term governor of New Mexico, would, if elected, free cannabis from its federal shackles.

To gain some of the vital personal knowledge he or she will need to set wise marijuana policy, maybe on inauguration night the next president (and marijuana virgin) should blaze up a bowl of bad-ass Oregon sun grown “for the very first time.”

Devisive Debbie Wasserman Schultz has finally resigned as Democratic National Committee chief. Followers of MarijuanaPolitics.com may have read this writer’s several posts criticizing Schultz as unfit for DNC chief or as a Democratic Representative to Congress. Her resignation will go a long ways in helping to unify the Democratic Party for the upcoming election.

The emails that proved Schultz’s unfair and preferential treatment of Hillary Clinton‘s campaign supported Bernie Sander’s long contention. But this is one of many issues. Her stewardship of the 2014 election was a disaster for Democrats. Now she has also dampened Democratic turnout throughout the primaries. Debbie also does malice by supporting the parasitic payday loans industry, being a shill for alcohol companies, funding the war on drugs and the prison industries they support, and denying the benefits of medical marijuana to fellow Floridians and other Americans.

Now she must be defeated in the upcoming Florida August 30 primary. If progressive Tim Canova, endorsed by Bernie Sanders, is able to defeat Schultz, the House of Representatives will lose an ardent marijuana prohibitionist and America will gain a vital cannabis advocate and strong opponent of the failed war on drugs.

Please donate to Tim Canova to take this important congressional seat and send Debbie packing!

Hillary Clinton’s disdain for marijuana law reform is apparent in her choice for Vice President, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. Just like Barack Obama’s marijuana-hating Joe Biden, she has chosen a cannabis prohibitionist for second in command.

For many MarijuanaPolitics.com readers, a politician’s votes and actions on cannabis legislation, medical use and personal liberty, especially the freedom to medicate with cannabis, are keys to our votes. Although cannabis is not the only criteria many of us consider in casting votes and providing political support, it is probably the most important. After all, marijuana policy is so telling of the candidate’s views on personal freedom, medical choice, legislating by science not dogma, and general sense of justice. If they are not opposed to the idiocy of America’s war on marijuana, then they forfeit our votes.

Tim Kaine’s regressive and repressive views and votes on marijuana recently earned him into a “hall of shame” over at StopTheDrugWar.com. Just last month, they consolidated NORML’s congressional scorecard, and displayed the names of 26 current US senators to whom they have given an “F” rating on marijuana prohibition. Unsurprisingly, only four were Democrats; unfortunately, one of those four prohibitionists is Tim Kaine. He recently said:

I wouldn’t vote for a law at the federal or state level that would decriminalize marijuana.

Now both Republican and Democratic parties will have only prohibitionists at the VP position, as Tim Kaine joins with Donald Trump’s VP choice Mike Pence in hating on marijuana. By contrast, Libertarian Gary Johnson’s VP choice, Bill Weld espouses an excellent cannabis policy, and supports ending the “vastly counterproductive” war on drugs.

The entire sorry NORML list of “F grade” Senators from StopTheDrugWar.com is posted below. Note especially the Democrat turncoats, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), and of course, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). Even arch-prohibitionist Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) only got a “D!”

“One Out of Four US Senators Is a Marijuana Prohibitionist — Is Yours One of Them?”

• Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
• Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)
• Sen. John Boozman (R-AR)
• Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)
• Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE)
• Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
• Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID)
• Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL)
• Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN)
• Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN)
• Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA)
• Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
• Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
• Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE)
• Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
• Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH)
• Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
• Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)
• Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA)
• Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)
• Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD)
• Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
• Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)
• Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-TX)
• Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA)
• Sen. John Barasso (R-WY)

Photo: Flickr.com

Donald Trump’s chosen running mate, Mike Pence, would make a disastrous Vice-President.

The Republican Governor of Indiana is an arch-conservative zealot of the most regressive type, badly out of touch, wrong on nearly every key issue for the 2016 election.

Of particular interest to MarijuanaPolitics.com readers are Pence’s particular views on marijuana.  In short, they are are ridiculous, actual “reefer madness” silliness with hideous consequences. His state of Indiana is a hold out in the war on marijuana, still inflicting severe penalties on users and discouraging medical use.

Oregonians and other American adults in four other states can enter a shop an buy marijuana buds, extracts and edibles. In 20 other states, those in medical need of cannabis’ profound healing and helping powers can likewise get the medical marijuana they need. In Indiana, they have no such medical freedom. Any possession of marijuana is still treated — and punished — as a serious crime.

Pence is an enthusiastic supporter of the war on drugs, especially marijuana. His views could not be more incorrect on the benefits and dangers of cannabis. And, incredibly, while he demonizes marijuana, he is an apologist and denier for Big Tobacco. He actually claims that cigarettes do not cause cancer, and are not a major health hazard. He has discouraged tobacco control and cigarette smoking cessation programs in his state. In the year 2000, 36 years after the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, Pense claimed,

Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill.

Cigarettes are indeed hugely harmful to health and prematurely kill over 1,000 Americans each day. But, the remarkable reduction in cigarette use by Americans in the last generation is a huge win for public health. Little known and lesser celebrated, cigarette consumption by Americans has dropped precipitously. American cigarette smoking has “declined to an all time low,” all without arresting or jailing one person. This hugely successful public health, harm-reduction approach worked, just as the draconian, zero-tolerance, prosecution, and incarceration attempts to reduce marijuana use have all failed utterly.

Yet Mike Pence would quash the successful anti-cigarette strategies while doubling down on the authoritarian prosecution of the failed war on (some) drugs, particularly marijuana. The lawyer and former talk show host is been handsomely compensated by tobacco companies, the apparent source of his bizarre views on cigarette smoking and health.

MarijuanaPolitics.com readers know that a candidate’s policy on marijuana, hugely important in its own right, also tells much about said candidate’s policies on many issues. America’s disastrous war against marijuana is a key issue of government overreach. Mike Pence’s hard-line on marijuana is echoed by his severe stances on women’s right to choose, marriage equality, separation of church and state, and his parochial, anti-science views on the teaching of evolution and denial of climate change.

Another ominous fact: with Trump giving the Vice Presidential slot to Pense, chances are if elected he will award the Attorney General position to Chris Christie.  As reported here, the portly ex-prosecutor desperately needs a job (beyond fetching Trump’s laundry) and would relish the power of Attorney General. A top Christie goal, one that would be shared by Vice-President Mike Pence, is to reassert federal authority over marijuana and smash state legalizations.

Image: Mike_Pence_by_Gage_Skidmore

The raw beneficial power of medical marijuana is actually lowering Medicare prescription use of opioids and antidepressants! In states where cannabis has become legal and available for medical use, Medicare users are choosing this safer substitute. So says a new study reported in Health Affairs, “Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Prescription Medication Use In Medicare Part D.” Prescriptions for conditions where marijuana also provides treatment have actually dropped in medically legal states!

This dramatic harm reduction and cost reduction once again forcefully belies marijuana’s Schedule I definition of “no medical use.”

Instead, cannabis is perhaps the most medically useful of all drugs. It is certainly the safest, being perhaps the only drug that cannot actually kill. Any switch from medically unnecessary and dangerous pharmaceuticals to non-toxic cannabis reduces harm, provided of course, it solves the medical problem. It does indeed seem to aid in solving the problem of pain, and helps reduce, and in some cases even end, use of  the most dangerous drugs, the — opioids — with the substitution of safe medical marijuana.

Both money and lives are being saved. An NPR report on the study noted reduced use of opioids, anti-anxiety, pharmaceutical drugs in general. Prescriptions did not drop for conditions not helped by cannabis.

This study shows the healing power of cannabis to revolutionize the medical care system.

Yet some legal states still have only grudgingly approached medical cannabis, mandating that it be only the last option, its use restricted only to those with severe medical conditions. For example, Florida’s upcoming medical marijuana ballot is entitled with the restrictive “Use of Marijuana for Debilitating Medical Conditions.”

In reality, cannabis should, in many cases, be the first choice of medication for a wide range of conditions, debilitating to trivial, across a broad swath of patients. Only if cannabis does not help, then should riskier pharmaceutical drugs be added or substituted. Life-endangering opioids, for example, should not be the first choice for some types of pain, but used or augmented in the event pain relief with cannabis is inadequate. The same goes for anxiety, anti-depressant, and sleep medications. Such an approach could revolutionize America’s health care system, dramatically cutting costs and harms while providing patients with a remarkably safe, inexpensive, and beneficial medicine.

A partial list of conditions cannabis does seem to help:

• Nausea; Chemotherapy
• Chronic Pain
• Spasms and Tics; Multiple Sclerosis; Spinal Cord Injuries; Tourette’s Syndrome
• Appetite Stimulation; Wasting Syndrome; Anorexia
• Glaucoma. (The study showed no reduction in prescriptions for glaucoma medication.)
• Anxiety Disorders; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD
• Intestinal Dysfunction
• Epilepsy
• Hepatitis C
• Sleep
• Diabetes
• Cancer
  • Breast, Prostate, Lung, Skin, Pancreatic, Bone, Glioma, Lymphoma, Oral, Head and Neck, Thyroid
• Inflammation, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Ulcerative Colitis,  Crohn’s Disease
• Neuroprotection, Alzheimer’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Parkinson Disease
• BMI and Waist Circumference

Such an approach to health care, or even the Medicare data results reported in this study, make for powerful enemies in the pharmaceutical industry. The medical benefits of cannabis jeopardize some of the hundreds of billions spent on pharmaceutical drugs. Traditional medical training, which still seldom includes any mention of medical marijuana is also threatened.

Medical legalization of marijuana has, in most cases, been mandated into law by the voting public in initiatives, with state legislators and the medical community only slowly coming on board. Now though, state legalization programs are thriving as “laboratories of democracy.”

These states are proving, even in Medicare data, the healing and harm-reducing benefits of safe and inexpensive medical marijuana.

In upcoming elections, Florida contests for US senator, US Representative, and a medical marijuana initiative will help decide the legal future of cannabis both statewide and nationwide.

Senate Race

He’s baaaack! “Little” Mario Rubio will be running for senate reelection after all. This prohibitionist Republican used his first Senate term as little more than a springboard for his presidential run. He was often absent, seldom voted, and refused to run for a second term. Rubio figured he would be president, but now he has “changed his mind,” and will seek senate reelection. This is unfortunate for cannabis reform, as Rubio is opposed to marijuana and to changes in it laws. His chances for reelection are good; the failed presidential candidate is ahead in the polls and can expect massive contributions from prohibitionist billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

Rubio will face either Democrat Patrick Murphy or Alan Grayson in the November elections. The Florida State Primary Election Day is August 30.

House Race

Also to be decided August 30 is whether Democratic House Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz will prevail in her first primary challenge. Debbie is an ardent prohibitionist, opposed even to medical marijuana for Floridians. Her freedom fighting primary challenger, Tim Canova, is just the opposite; he opposes the war on drugs, especially marijuana, and favors criminal justice and incarceration reform.

Schulz will be difficult to overthrow. The four-term congresswoman has the support of the presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton. Even President Barack Obama, whom Debbie has back-stabbed repeatedly, for some reason has her back. Plus she can count on huge donations from liquor companies and payday loan outfits, both major contributors to her campaign. To help turn this important congressional seat from prohibitionist to progressive, please contribute to Tim Canova’s upstart primary campaign.

Medical Marijuana Initiative

The Florida Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative, is also known as Amendment 2. According to Ballotpedia, “it is an initiated constitutional amendment on the Florida ballot on November 8, 2016.”  It is also known as the awkwardly titled, “Use of Marijuana for Debilitating Medical Conditions.” This is the second try for the initiative in Florida. The first failed in 2014 after receiving a “yes” majority but failing to attain the 60% high bar. It was opposed with huge contributions from anti-marijuana gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson and attacked by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, both of whom are expected to opposed the 2016 version. Worse yet, David Downs reports in Legalization Nation that “billionaire drug war profiteer Mel Sembler vowed to raise $10 million to defeat Measure 2.”

Despite these deep prohibitionist pockets, the initiative recently polled with 69% voting for passage. It is backed by Florida spark plug attorney John Morgan, along with the Florida Democratic Party.

Floridians should do all they can to rid Congress of marijuana prohibitionists Marco Rubio and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and then pass this medical marijuana initiative!