Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson adds a clear and sensible alternative to the 2016 election. Should he qualify for the the Presidential Debates, he will bring cannabis reform to the national stage. Governor Johnson will argue for winding down the drug war, ending marijuana prohibition, achieving smaller government, and pursuing a far less counterproductive foreign policy.

If the former New Mexican governor can poll at 15% (he already attains about 10%), he will qualify for the Presidential Debates taking place in the fall. Not only would this promote on the national stage issues important to many MarijuanaPolitics.com readers, it would also give the Gary Johnson/Bill Weld ticket a real shot at the Presidency. For those of us waiting frustrating decades for excruciatingly slow progress on federal drug law and cannabis reform, a Gary Johnson Presidency would immediately change everything.

Gary Johnson intends to win the presidency. He will be on the ballot in all 50 states. Featured in an excellent Washington Post article by David Weigel, Johnson comes off as an extremely reasonable alternative to Trump and Clinton, the two most disliked candidates in modern history. Quiet talking, the man has climbed Mt. Everest. His next extraordinary feat may well be to achieve the presidency. And ex-governor Bill Weld personifies a solid vice-presidential choice.

Gary is sane and sensible, refreshing qualities in the 2016 race so far. He claims his moderate policies reflect those of most Americans. He would not abolish the EPA, for example, but he would work for smaller government as he did successfully in his home state. He would end the prohibition of cannabis and undertake a major move towards harm reduction as American drug policy, steps favored by a majority of Americans. His foreign policy will be far less aggressive than his predecessor presidents. Like Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, unlike Hillary Clinton, he opposed the Iraq War, linchpin to the current ISIS threat.

Like the Great Solar Eclipse set to sweep across the USA in August 2017, a unique alignment of disliked candidates, Trump’s political gaffs, wide distrust of Hillary, and the possible surge of two moderate, thoughtful, and articulate Libertarians may for the first time allow a third party to eclipse the others and to triumph in November 2016. As President Gary Johnson, he would begin his term with a relieved congress, an appreciative electorate, and a mandate to, among other changes, end federal marijuana prohibition. Gary did a  great job as chief executive of New Mexico during his two terms as popular governor;  he would do the same for the country.

Some voters are leery of casting third party ballots out of fear of “wasting” their vote and allowing the worst alternative to prevail.

Should he not win the presidency, it is difficult to say how a vote for Johnson affects the contest between Republican Trump and Democrat Clinton. Presumably a voter’s choice of Johnson would take away a vote for one of the other candidates. A Johnson voter, however, may have simply not voted at all, or have not cast a presidential choice. Johnson’s approach to governing does provide a sharp contrast to both the better known candidates, and could take votes from either.

Much of Bernie Sander’s appeal, especially to youth, came from his positions on criminal justice reform and marijuana legalization. These same voters will likely appreciate Gary Johnson’s positions on these issues as the are quite similar to those championed by Bernie. It is possible that some Democrats in this group might choose to support Gary Johnson over Hillary Clinton. On the other hand, some of Bernie’s economics diverge sharply from the much more liaise-fair policies of the former Republican governor.

Clinton’s role in the disastrous 1994 Crime Bill, her ties to private prison industries, and her lack-luster, halting stance on marijuana law reform make Gary Johnson seem like a breath of fresh air and a valid alternative for young voters. Her reluctance to join the majority of Americans who believe marijuana should be legalized may cost her votes when given the alternative of Gary Johnson and his freedom-based, harm-reduction approach to cannabis, and to the failed war on drugs.

As far a Johnson vote detracting from the Trump vote, now even Republicans as mainstream as 2012 candidate Mitt Romney suggests he may vote the Libertarian ticket. Such a remarkable defection could lead to major hemorrhage of Republicans repudiating Trump while voting for a low-tax, small-government, and personal-liberty protecting candidate Gary Johnson. To be sure, neocon Romney’s views on cannabis prohibition and in supporting aggressive foreign policy are nearly the opposite of those expressed by Gary Johnson.

Johnson’s reasonable immigration policies put him at odds with most Republicans, especially Trump supporters, but may well endear him to the enormous Hispanic vote. Gary Johnson’s highly successful two-term governorship of the border state, New Mexico, puts him at sharp contrast to Donald Trump, who has never held any office. As a private entrepreneur he bootstrapped his own election, and won easy reelection as a Republican in a blue state. As Gary says in a CNN editorial,

America may finally be ready for a presidential candidate who believes in the free market, but rejects crony capitalism. They may be ready for a candidate who actually governed a border state…and DOESN’T believe that a Great Wall is a substitute for immigration reform that today’s politicians cannot summon the courage to enact.

What does the Johnson/Weld ticket need to succeed in November?

• The Presidential Debates. Attaining a place at the four events is crucial. The ticket need to poll at only 15%, highly doable, to put Gary Johnson at these debate stages with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

• Date	Time	Event
  Sep 26	TBD	First presidential debate @ Dayton, OH
  Oct 4	TBD	Vice presidential debate @ Farmville, VA
  Oct 9	TBD	Second presidential debate @ St. Louis, MO
  Oct 19	TBD	Third presidential debate @ Las Vegas, NV

• Campaign Money. Although money has played a lesser role so far in 2016 than many anticipated after the floodgates opened by Citizens United, still a third party Presidential candidate must introduce himself and become known. You can donate to Johnson-Weld 2016 here. Help Gary get to 15%.
• Billionaire Benefactors. Gary could use a huge infusion of cash to try to begin to compare to the Clinton Wall Street campaign machine or Donald Trump’s reported $100 million backing by prohibitionist gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Seemingly Gary Johnson could stimulate a gargantuan gift of this size by freedom fighting billionaire George Soros, who has decades fought for drug law and criminal justice reform. Or perhaps a Silicon Valley billionaire such as Sean Parker or Mark Zuckerberg, appalled by Trump and distrusting of Clinton, might wish to level the playing field for fellow entrepreneur Gary Johnson with $100 million or so.
• Continued Gaffs by Trump.  Since becoming the probable Republican candidate, Trump has continued to shoot himself in the foot. Polling very poorly with women and Hispanics, while on a campaign visit to Albuquerque he attacked New Mexican Governor, Republican Latina Susana Martinez.  Then, of course, he claimed an Indiana-born judge was not fit to preside over a lawsuit again shuttered Trump University because he was “Mexican,” a slur that cost him many Republican allies. These are crazy dumb blunders; they may well convert many Republican voters into Johnson/Weld supporters.
• Deepening Distrust of Hillary Clinton. Hillary’s skeleton in the closet may turn out to be her email server in the closet. This was a serious breach of common sense and, quite likely, a violation of federal law. Should she be indicted, Gary Johnson becomes an even more necessary alternative to a President Donald Trump.

Gary Johnson, entrepreneur, adventurer, climber of the highest peaks on seven continents, successful governor, is the most qualified of the three presidential candidates to next lead the USA. Help him get into the debates, and then into the White House.   Check out his video, “Why I am Running for President.”

Gary Johnson for President 2016!

President Obama has a rare opportunity to make history by rescheduling marijuana.

As it so happens, the DEA is currently deciding on a five-year-old petition to reschedule marijuana, supposedly in the first half of 2016. This decision coincides with some of the final months of the Obama administration. This coincidence makes it easy for the President to accomplish a major, desperately needed reform of federal marijuana law.

Marijuana has been mislabeled and demonized as a Schedule I drug for nearly half a century. In 1970 Richard Nixon wanted marijuana laws he could use to “tear the ass out” of hippies and anti Vietnam war protesters. He easily got what he wanted, when congress “temporarily” classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the worst of the worst, along with heroin. Cannabis was (and is) defined by Schedule I as having no medical value and being highly dangerous and addictive, and subject the the very harshest federal penalties.

Nixon successfully made fellow Americans criminals and enemies of the state. Like a dead hand, Nixon’s signature over 45 years ago has since overseen the marijuana arrests of nearly 20 million Americans. The broken relationships, torn families, destroyed careers, harsh jail sentences, and plain human misery caused by this massive persecution of its own citizens by the US government is a national shame. The fact that decade after decade go by with no change in this most corrupt of all federal laws is inexcusable.

Forty years later, cannabis activists, people interested in medical marijuana, and believers of personal freedom had high hopes for cannabis policy change during the Obama administration. And while the President jokes about his personal use and correctly states that marijuana is safer than alcohol, Obama has done very little to actual change cruel and idiotic policies.

Obama’s inaction on rescheduling leaves terrifyingly vulnerable small victories, such as the 2011 Cole Memo to US attorneys. James M. Cole was Deputy Attorney General (retired 2015) to the previous Attorney General, and soon, to the previous President. The slim protections for cannabis possession and sale in legalized states afforded by this 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. If the next Attorney General is Chris Christie, for example, the memo would be soon renounced and revoked.

Now though, the DEA has announced that an old petition requesting rescheduling marijuana to Schedule II will be decided upon in “the first half of 2016.” Since 1972 activists have sought to change this ridiculous and damaging status. The DEA has responded by stalling, is one case for 22 years, before deciding (on its own) to maintain Schedule I. The current petition to reschedule was raised in 2011 by two governors dealing with state legalization, so this time the DEA has stalled five years. If it follows the pattern of all previous petitions, the answer will be no change.

When President Obama has been asked about rescheduling he acts powerless, saying that congress makes that decision.  But actually the DEA, an agency in the Justice Department, has been given the power to schedule drugs. For example, Marinol, which is 100% pure synthetic THC, is a Schedule III drug, having been down-scheduled from Schedule I by the DEA itself. And now the imminent rescheduling decision is again being made by the DEA.  Surely, as the ultimate boss of the Attorney General and the entire Justice Department, Barack Obama, could certainly be “the decider” and instruct the DEA to grant the petition.

The rescheduling of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule II would be historic and would decrease some major harms. It would make research far easier, and soften criminal penalties for marijuana “crimes,” such as possession and sale. But a change from Schedule I to II would classify marijuana as only a slightly less dangerous drug with some medical uses. Schedule II would equate it with cocaine, instead of the current Schedule I heroin. Schedule II would NOT help with IRS 280e rule, and probably not solve banking problems suffered by cannabis entrepreneurs. And Schedule II might replace the jack boot of the DEA with stringent FDA regulations that could strangle current medical cannabis entrepreneurs and disrupt access to their medicine by patients. It is debatable whether Schedule II is all that preferable to Schedule I, as long as the Cole Memo is in place.

Even at Schedule V, marijuana would still be classified as a drug in the Controlled Substances Act. Cannabis should be removed entirely from the CSA. This is what is proposed in Bernie Sander’s Senate Bill 2237: Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015.  Although cannabis is far safer than alcohol or tobacco, the two deadliest drugs, classifying cannabis as a regulated consumer product like these two drugs may be the best option.

Even though the current rescheduling petition asks that cannabis only be moved to Schedule II, it is likely, at least at the President’s insistence, that it could be placed lower. After all, if the DEA can reclassify Marinol, at 100% THC as Schedule III, certainly it could do the same with cannabis.

The opportunity to reschedule cannabis has been handed to President Obama on a silver platter. Mr. President, do your duty and down schedule marijuana now.

Bernie Sanders has endorsed Tim Canova over Debbie Wasserman Schultz for US Representative in the August 30 Florida Democratic primary vote.

The primary election offers the chance to replace anti-cannabis prohibitionist Schultz with drug law reformer Tim Canova.  Debbie, of course, is also the Chair of the Democratic National Committee, a role from which Bernie vowed to fire her. This blog has offered several examples of her incompetence and mismanagement in both her powerful roles.

As a Congresswoman in the US House of Representatives Debbie’s record is dismal:

• DWS accepted hefty donations from the alcohol industry. Her campaign is Fueled by Booze PACs While She Blasts Legal Pot.
• Quite incredibly, she sided with Republicans, and against Elizabeth Warren, in seeking to ease enforcement in the exploitative payday loans industry.
• In the 2014 Florida medical marijuana initiative, she back-stabbed state Democrats and joined arch-Conservative Republican billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, in narrowly defeating medical cannabis legalization.
• Democrat Chair Doubles Down On Marijuana Prohibition
• Debbie Does Malice: DNC Chairwoman is a Drug War Disaster

• Debbie Wasserman Schultz: on the Wrong Side of…

As Head of the Democratic National Committee, Schultz has demonstrated favoritism and incompetence:

• She oversaw the Democratic debacle of the 2014 election, including loss of the Senate, and dismal youth voter turnout.
• DNC’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Damaging Vital Democratic Turnout
• With a heavy hand she has micromanaged  the 2016 Democratic primary, even alienating vice-chair Tulsi Gabbard until she quit.
• DSW showed blatant favoritism for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

Of course if she does lose her House seat there is the danger of her being awarded a big role in a Clinton administration, if Hillary wins the nomination and presidency. It is possible she may be more dangerous as a Clinton appointee than as a US Representative, but such speculation cannot over ride the need to defeat her in the primary, and to add Tim’s vibrant new voice to cannabis reform and to other progressive ideals in the US Congress.

This is the first time that DWS has had a primary challenger for her 12 year reign in Florida’s 23rd District. Check out Bernie Sander’s choice for Democrat in the contest, Tim Canova. Tim could use your contribution to help him have a chance against Debbie’s lucre from alcohol and pay day loan industries.

By contributing to Tim Canova’s campaign you help drug law reform, carry out Bernie’s legacy, return democracy to the Democratic Party, and just maybe elect a great new freedom fighting congressman!

After two previous attempts, Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer succeeds in a victory for America’s veterans, for medical marijuana, and for compassion and common sense!

The great news is “House Passes Blumenauer Amendment to Remove Restrictions Preventing VA Doctors from Recommending Medical Marijuana.” The Oregon freedom fighter’s amendment is to the gigantic FY 2017 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, and will likely become the law of the land next year.

The amendment passed by 233-189 with bipartisan support. It was co-sponsored by Representatives Joe Heck (R-NV), Sam Farr (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Tom Reed (R-NY), Dina Titus (D-NV), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and Jared Polis (D-CO). Not all Oregonians get such great representation in the House of Representatives. This Oregon writer’s congressman is Greg Walden, a neocon, prohibitionist Republican. Yet even Greg Walden voted this excellent amendment, one of 57 Republicans. After the vote Congressman Blumenauer noted,

This is an historic moment and further proof there is real movement and bipartisan support in reforming outdated federal marijuana policies. There is more to be done, and I will build on today’s momentum and continue my efforts in catching federal policy up to reflect the views held by a majority of Americans.

Shamefully, until this law takes place next year, it remains illegal for VA doctors to recommend medical cannabis to help wounded veterans, even it states with medical exemptions. “Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) specifically prohibits its medical providers from completing forms allowing a qualified veteran to participate in a state medical marijuana program.”

This irony of this failed policy is painfully obvious: Supposedly our wounded vets sacrificed in the cause of freedom, and yet upon return to the USA they have zero freedom to use what may be the medicine for their physical and psychological wounds. Two and a half million Americans served in this country’s longest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a third are on disability from conditions like PTSD and traumatic brain injury, TBI.

In a post-vote interview reported in Huffington Post, Blumenauer stated,

A lot of them are suffering from PTSD, chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, and these are all conditions that have been shown to respond to medical marijuana. The notion that the VA would not allow its doctors to consult with and work with veterans regarding medical marijuana in states where it’s legal I thought was outrageous.

Representative Earl Blumenauer has been among congress’ staunchest advocates of medical, personal, and entrepreneurial freedom regarding marijuana. He has even petitioned the president to end federal cannabis prohibition.

Marijuana prohibitionists, especially those in congress, can’t handle the truth about cannabis as a major solution to the current opioid crisis.

In a bizarre action, the US House Of Representatives Rules Committee prevented the research of cannabis as a partial solution in a huge new bill, H.R. 4641, shoveling $600 million dollars at the opioid problem. This massive spending is supposed “To provide for the establishment of an inter-agency task force to review, modify, and update best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication, and for other purposes.”

Ironically, the bill seeks to “update best practices,” except that the committee willfully ignored and rejected any study of what may well be the very best practice, managing pain, reducing addiction, and saving lives with cannabis and cannabinoids.

Cannabis can be the opioid exit drug, helping to free people from hard drug addiction.

Despite being a heresy in the addiction recovery business, it turns out the using cannabis can serve as a stress buffer and safe substitute to avoid addiction and to help Americans get off dangerous opioids. Among its many benefits:

• Safety – Zero people have died from marijuana overdose in the 8,000 years or so of its use. Opioids, especially when mixed with other drugs, can stop breathing; cannabis does not, and may well be the safest of all drugs.
• Withdrawal – Just as using cannabis provides great palliative relief from those suffering from the effects of cancer and chemotherapy, these pain relieving and anti-nausea properties can ease the discomforts of withdrawal, increasing success in kicking an opioid habit.
• Addiction – An aspect of addiction itself may stem from a cannabinoid deficiency syndrome. A system deficient of receptors or natural cannabinoids can, from a human standpoint, feel raw and incomplete. Plant cannabinoids in marijuana can relieve this deficiency, and provide needed stress reduction and bliss.
• Pain – Cannabis relieves pain itself, making it a great substitute for opioids for some types of pain. For neuropathic pain, often long-term, cannabinoids are very beneficial.  Opioids, not so much. WEBMD reports on the great relief provided to sufferers of nerve pain by three puffs of pot per day!
• Adjunct Pain Relief – For other types of pain requiring opioids, marijuana also works in conjunction with pharmaceuticals to provide more pain reduction with less quantity of the opioid drugs.

The current opioid crisis demonstrates the total failure of the war on drugs.

After 45 years and a trillion dollars wasted, drug deaths are at an all time high. Prohibitionist have always relied on the absurd arguments that “marijuana is a gateway drug” to hard drugs. As it turned out, heroin did have a gateway drug, but it was an array of pharmaceutical opioids such as oxycodone and fentanyl. The arrest and prosecution war on marijuana damaged millions of careers, crushed families, and depopulated communities while setting up the conditions for this oxycodone and heroin epidemic. Internationally, an $8.6 billion dollar war on drugs in Afghanistan totally failed, and has resulted in an all time peak in opium production, fueling the habits of Americans switching from expensive oxycodone to cheap heroin.

Now that the addictions and deaths are among their voters and their children, legislators are falling over themselves to show that they are acting. They are doing so in the way congress knows best; squandering vast sums of money while seeking only conventional wisdom. Although nearly everyone now realizes that the old, tired war on drugs model causes huge harms and does very little good, still the police, prosecution, and addiction experts are the first to benefit from this new torrent of federal money. New answers and solutions will not emerge from these stale standbys, only more of the same that has caused the opioid crisis.

The House Rules Committee is dominated by Republicans who clung to the old prohibitionist mindset and refused to fund any cannabis research solutions to the opioid crisis. But not all congresspersons — and not all Republicans — voted to ignore cannabis research. Indeed, it was freedom-fighting Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher from California who, along with Colorado Democrat Jared Polis, submitted the ill-fated amendment to study cannabis solutions.

Fearing the truth, marijuana prohibitionists have sought to stifle research on the medical benefits of cannabis for decades, and have been nearly totally successful because of the plant’s Schedule I control status which defines it as having no medical value. Still, in 2016 in the midst of a true drug crisis, it is shocking that America’s congress, ignoring science and spurning compassion, can again reject even considering cannabis solutions to this black tide of opioid addiction and death.

With Donald Trump’s likely Republican nomination, odds increase that Chris Christie will become America’s next Attorney General.

To those of us fighting for liberation of the cannabis plant and for freedom of its consumers, the very thought of Attorney General Chris Christie evokes the gag reflex, especially when already queasy from the image of President Trump.

Of course, there is a good chance Donald Trump will not win the presidency. But if he does, he certainly owes Chris Christie for his early support, bizarre photo ops, and various assorted humiliations. Oh yeah, and for picking up his laundry. Trump has to throw a bone to the former prosecutor. The office of Attorney General would perfectly fit Christie’s penchants for bullying and punishing. And it would let him directly attack marijuana legalization, as he is so eager to do.

As a presidential candidate, the oversized New Jersey governor bragged that he would end the adult use market in legal states, such as Colorado: Chris Christie Calls Marijuana Users “Diseased,” Pledges to Cure Them With Law Enforcement. Interviewed by conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, Christie was quoted at CNN about state legalization:

I will crack down and not permit it. We need to send very clear leadership from the White House on down through the federal law enforcement. Marijuana is an illegal drug under federal law. And the states should not be permitted to sell it and profit from it.

In addition for his scorn of legal adult cannabis use, Christie also attacks medical use. MarijuanaPolitics.com’s Anthony Johnson recent posted about how Chris Christie Will Enforce Federal Marijuana Laws, Doesn’t Matter if Sick Kids Will Benefit. The post features the pathetic video of the New Jersey father whose daughter was afflicted by constant seizures, begging the gruff governor for medical marijuana help in saving his daughter’s life, only to have his pleas rejected by the portly former prosecutor.

The good news is that the Christie’s presidential bid was a short-lived total failure. The bad news is that as Attorney General he would have the resources of the entire Justice Department to carry out his marijuana threats.

President Obama leaves office with only perilously thin protections in place for adult and medical marijuana use and industries. Because of his refusal to reschedule marijuana’s draconian Schedule I status, cannabis can still be treated as the most dangerous of drugs, warranting the most vigorous enforcement and the harshest penalties.

The Cole Memo, which has given moderate protection to state cannabis legalizations and industries during the second part of the Obama administration is unlikely to last. This memo was written by a former assistant Attorney General to the previous Attorney General to the soon-to-be previous president. The document provides no protection past the Obama administration, and would likely be used as toilet paper by Attorney General Chris Christie.

What Chris Christie could do, and likely would do, to destroy the new cannabis freedoms Americans have voted in over the last decades.

Because of cannabis’ harsh Schedule I status, the draconian laws, statues, and penalties for a new federal cannabis witch hunt and inquisition are already in place.

• Under Schedule I, every marijuana user is a federal criminal.
• Possession of just a few cannabis plants by anyone, anywhere in the USA, is among the most serious federal felonies.
• Schedule I for cannabis makes easy asset forfeiture, where the federal government seizes citizen money and property.
• Schedule I asserts that marijuana has no medical value, no medical use immunity, and has no medical research purpose.
• Minimum prison time is mandated for many Schedule I drug crimes, including possession of certain amounts of cannabis.

The DEA and federal prosecutors are chomping at the bit for a revitalized war on marijuana. Bigger budgets, fatter pensions, asset seizures, and easy prosecutions await only for Attorney General Chris Christie to unleash the dogs of (drug) war.

What Chris Christie could not do.

Even though President Obama leaves office with nearly zero protection for cannabis consumers and entrepreneurs, some recent acts of congress are beginning to provide some real protection. So even with the Cole Memo is flushed down the Attorney General’s toilet,  several important constraints now hamper the Justice Department’s ability to persecute cannabis users and the medical marijuana industry.

Arguing for state’s rights, individual liberty, personal freedom and just plain common sense, several freedom fighting congressmen have pioneered legislation forcing a federal hand’s off in legal cannabis states. California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher is in the forefront. The Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment prohibits the feds from spending federal money to prosecute state legal marijuana enterprises and activities.

Recent court actions have enforced this excellent legislation. Lynnette Shaw’s recent win in he United States District Court for the Northern District of California court prohibited further prosecution of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana. Judge Breyer agreed that the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment indeed prohibits such prosecutions in state legal operations. Thus ended long years of persecution of MAMM and Shaw by US Attorney Melinda Haag. And not long after this ruling, the feds dropped their persistent prosecution and harassment of Harborside Health Center.

Still, with entire resources of the Justice Department, the DEA and IRS, at his disposal, Chris Christie could cause massive harm to the emerging cannabis industries, reverse research and treatments helping people with severe medical problems, and put his foot on the neck of personal liberty in the USA.

With our votes and political actions, let’s make sure there never becomes a President Trump, nor an Attorney General Chris Christie.

The White House just met with Washington DC marijuana activists Adam Eidinger and Nikolas Schiller. The pair presented the case for descheduling cannabis. The meeting with the marijuana minds, previously billed as a “bud summit,” did not live up to the billing.

Activists Eidinger and Schiller are cofounders of DCMJ, the group that played a key role in passing cannabis legalization in Washington DC in the 2014 election. They recently organized a smoke-in at the gates of the White House, featuring a 50 foot inflatable joint reading “OBAMA DESCHEDULE CANNABIS NOW!” Significantly, the stunts seem to have gotten them the meeting, for which many requests had been previously ignored.

What took place, however, was fairly pathetic, as has been most of Barack Obama’s responses to cannabis questions and issues. As reported in the Washington Post, instead of a meeting with the President in the White House, the activist met in an adjacent office building, with two junior staffers from the office of the Drug Czar.

Bizarrely, because the Office Of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) legally cannot discuss marijuana legalization, staffers could only listen and take notes. Eidinger was encouraged by their body language, but the activists were back on the street in just half an hour.

To their credit, the DC activists did focus on descheduling, not rescheduling. Marijuana has languished in the Schedule I category for 45 years. While it is true that removal to any lower category would be helpful for enabling cannabis research and reducing federal penalties, all the other schedules, especially Schedule II, still present significant problems.

The more solid reform goal is descheduling marijuana by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act and treating it as an adult use substance like cigarettes and alcohol. Of course, neither descheduling or even rescheduling is receiving support from the president.

The lack of respect given by the White House to the major criminal justice and health topic of cannabis descheduling continues the pattern he has set for his entire presidency. From his earliest days as president, Barack Obama has treated frequent inquiries about cannabis policies with condescension and scorn. This meeting was more of the same.

The United Nations General Assembly is running a Special Session, UNGASS 2016 in April.

The purpose is to examine (hopefully) the institution’s drug policies. Sir Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Bernie Sanders, and 1,000 other leaders have pleaded for needed change in a powerful letter to the U.N.

The UN’s positions on drugs for the last half century have been dangerously draconian. Its conventions on drugs, much like those in the USA, did not come from rational analysis of possible threats and treatments of various drugs, but were enacted simply by cynical political and bureaucratic motivations.

UN conventions and bureaucrats demonize beneficial plants like cannabis while giving a free ride to dangerously addictive substances like tobacco cigarettes. The conventions needlessly criminalize great swaths of the global population. They are used by several hardline member countries to actually execute people for non-violent drug “crimes.” The same countries meanwhile strictly oppose harm reduction reforms increasingly demanded by other countries and groups.

Such injustices coming from this supposedly beneficial international institution caused British entrepreneur and adventurer, Sir Richard Branson, and 1,000 other luminaries to address UNGASS2016 by letter. They asked for sane drug policies, not more of the same harm maximization approaches. The letter states:

The drug control regime that emerged during the last century has proven disastrous for global health, security and human rights. Focused overwhelmingly on criminalization and punishment, it created a vast illicit market that has enriched criminal organizations, corrupted governments, triggered explosive violence, distorted economic markets and undermined basic moral values.

The reform-minded signers criticized especially the criminalization built into the UN drug conventions, and into the mindset of UN drug officials themselves:

The role of criminalization and criminal justice must be limited to the extent truly required to protect health and safety.  Leadership must come from those who recognize that psychoactive drug use is first and foremost a matter of health.  Drug control efforts must never do more harm than good, or cause more harm than drug misuse itself.

The letter continues:

Humankind cannot afford a 21 st century drug policy as ineffective and counter-productive as the last century’s.  A new global response to drugs is needed, grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.

The list of leaders that signed on to this eminently common-sense document is impressive. Sir Richard Branson is one of the smartest, richest, and certainly one of the coolest people on the planet. The billionaire British entrepreneur has long fought the injustices and stupidity of the war on drugs. Sir Richard was joined by fellow philanthropist Warren Buffet, and presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders. Oregon was well represented in the letter. Among the signatures of six senators is that of Jeff Merkley. Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer is one of 27 from the House of Representatives. At the state level, Representative Ann Lininger is a signatory.

So with all this great advice from esteemed world leaders is drug policy reform a given at UNGASS 2016? Not at all. In fact, the deck is stacked by the same repressive UN offices and officials that have stifled change for decades. The UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based in Geneva, is headed by Russian bureaucrat and prohibitionist Yury Fedotov.  See UN Conventions Against Cannabis Are Crimes Against Humanity.  Another hardline UN office, also based in Geneva,  is the  International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). See UN Bureaucrats Promote Drug War Tyranny.

The UNOCD’s Fedotov, essentially the UN’s drug czar, is infuriated by cannabis legalizations in states in the USA, calling them incompatible with the UN drug conventions. Americans and others may ask why is a Stalinist Russian enforcing a draconian drug policy for the rest of the planet? Perhaps instead of being based in an ivory tower in Switzerland, the office might be better served located in Sinaloa, Mexico, near drug war damage ground zero.

Countries favoring continued repressive drug war policies include such beacons of humans rights as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, China, and Indonesia. Saudi Arabia recently beheaded hashish carrying brothers, while Iran and Indonesia hangs hashish couriers. Russia demonizes cannabis as it poisons itself with vodka.

Unfortunately, the repressive, criminalizing policies of these hardline countries and bureaucrats, led by Fedotov, may have the upper hand and are well positioned to crush desperately needed drug policy reform at UNGASS 2016. Preparatory proceedings seemed designed to hold the line against reform, but we will see. The proceedings will probably be ignored by main stream media, so watch MarijuanaPolitics.com for more coverage.

The American government has wasted around a trillion dollars in its decades of failure in the war on drugs. The end result of this endless waste of money, liberty, and lives is our current raging heroin epidemic.  Yet in spite of such clear tragic failure, the US Congress continues to throw good money after bad down the drug war rat hole.

The organization, Citizens Against Government Waste, each year complies a Congressional Pig Book listing congressional earmarks that it judges to as qualifying as pork barrel spending. By this criteria, a “‘pork’ project is a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures. To qualify as pork, a project must meet one of seven criteria that were developed in 1991 by CAGW and the Congressional Porkbusters Coalition.” The seven criteria are:

• Requested by only one chamber of Congress;
• Not specifically authorized;
• Not competitively awarded;
• Not requested by the President;
• Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding;
• Not the subject of congressional hearings; or
• Serves only a local or special interest.

Drug war spending boondoggles have been the norm for decades. This treacherous tradition continues in 2016, with several provisions attached to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act. This year, the group reports:

$125,000,000 for two earmarks for the National Guard Counter-Drug Program. Formerly earmarked to individual states and congressional districts, the program, which allows for the use of military personnel in domestic drug enforcement operations, is now funded in one bundle as a work-around to the earmark moratorium.

Wait, what? Does not the Posse Comitatus Act prevent the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement? Apparently not, writes the US ARMY publication STAND-TO! because,

Since 1989, the National Guard, working with law enforcement agencies and community based organizations, has performed interdiction and anti-drug activities in the fight against illicit drugs. Approximately 2,500 Soldiers and Airmen support more than 5,000 agencies at the local, state, and federal levels preventing illicit drugs from being imported, manufactured and distributed.

As the mission continues to expand, the nexus between drugs and terrorism has become more evident. The unique training and specialized equipment, and the corresponding capabilities, make the National Guard Counterdrug program an increasingly important part of the overall homeland defense and security missions.

This conflating of “the nexus between drugs and terrorism” is predictable, dishonest, and highly dangerous. Once drugs become terrorism, then the nexus between police and military becomes forever blurred. Militarized police and police-tasked military become one in the same, to the grave peril of American democracy.

As the CAGW points out, the DEA already gets 2.1 billion each year in taxpayer funds to interdict drugs. This $125 million earmark for 2016 is only the of 66 over the last 15 years funding the National Guard Counter-Drug Program, wasting a total of nearly a half billion dollars. Meanwhile, all medical cannabis research in the USA limps along on a few million dollars a year.

In Financial Services, there was only one earmark, but it was huge:

$56,600,000 for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program (HIDTA) at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Originally intended for border states, members of Congress have used earmarks to expand HIDTA to non-border states. Since FY 1997, 30 earmarks costing taxpayers $269.8 million have been provided for HIDTA programs; 16 of the earmarks were directed to programs in 10 states, only two of which, Arizona and New Mexico, are border states. The other eight states that received HIDTA earmarks were Alabama, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

These HIDTA grants are typically wasted on the worst sort of law enforcement abuses by making war upon the citizenry for purposes of reaping financial rewards, such as asset forfeiture.

Such enormous waste is only a tiny part of the tens of billions yearly showered onto drug war bureaucrats. The war on drugs has failed miserably and wounded America in the process. It should be discontinued and defunded and replaced by true drug programs, emphasizing harm reduction.

If only such massive government spending could be directed into medical cannabis research, important new treatments could soon protect people from our most dreaded diseases.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley just held a wildly bogus marijuana hearing challenging the plant’s recent legalization in several states.

The result was pure prohibitionist propaganda, harken back to the “Just Say No” and “Zero Tolerance” of hysterical 1980s American drug policy. Chuck Grassley is (gag) Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is the single person, more than any other, who gets to choose American cannabis policy. Unfortunately he is just about the last person who should actually have that power. His opinions on cannabis reek of ignorance and cannabigotry.

Joining in the sham hearings were prohibitionist Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, and drug war Democrat Dianne Feinstein.

A former prosecutor (like Chris Christie) Senator Sessions’ testimony was straight out of the 1980s. He lamented that the federal government no longer sends the message that “good people don’t smoke marijuana,” and actually pined away for the days of “Just Say No.”

Ludicrously, the “hearing” heard testimony from only prohibitionist, pro-drug war groups observed Molly Reilly, writing in The Huffington Post. Check her post for the motley collection of drug war zealots the committee brought in to tell it what it wanted to hear.

This hearing, essentially an attack upon the Cole Memo, is in place of the hearing Grassley did not have, the one needed to advance the ground breaking CARERS Act. This act, supported by over a dozen cosigners, would finally break out of the Schedule I prison in which cannabis research has languished for decades. Alas, the legislation can not proceed, because it will not be given a hearing by Senator Grassley.

The Cole Memo is the thin restraint holding back massive federal bureaucracies like the DEA from using federal felonies to smash the voter-mandated legalizations in many US states. Cole, now retired from the Justice Department, was the Assistant Attorney General to the former Attorney General to the president who will soon be out of office.

In addition to the CARERS ACT, the real focus of Grassley’s hearing should have been the recently released testimony on the obscenely racist roots of marijuana and drug criminalization during the Richard Nixon administration.

How can it be that in 2016 the American people are again fed 1984 propaganda by our Senate Judiciary Committee?

Why are we so poorly served by ‘our’ Senate on such a key issue of liberty, justice, and health?

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz could be dumped in the August 30 primary!

Schultz’s failings as a Democratic congressperson are huge. Supposedly a progressive, she instead opposes medical marijuana and joins corporate Republicans to support the predatory payday loan industry. Her neo-con, prohibitionist, and money grubbing politics belie her “progressive” posturing. She does not deserve another term as a Democrat in the House of Representatives (or as DNC chair.)

The 23rd District Florida Congresswoman has some huge reelection advantages, but she is also acutely distrusted and disliked by an increasing number in her party. For the first time, she faces a primary opponent, a very strong candidate. Just as Bernie Sanders has triumphed in the west over Hillary Clinton, true progressive Tim Canova (pictured above with DWS)  could crush Debbie Wasserman Schultz, especially if Sanders takes the presidential nomination.

Unfortunately, DWS’s campaign has many advantages:

• She is firmly entrenched after six terms in office.
• She has huge donors, including the prison, alcohol, and payday loan industries.
• Shamefully, Barack Obama endorsed her reelection in the primary, despite the fact that she undercut the president on several occasions.

Despite these election strengths, she has major vulnerabilities caused by her own arrogance and incompetence. Many people, especially former allies, deeply dislike her.  For example, Glenn Greenwald in The Intercept:

In general, Wasserman Schultz is the living, breathing embodiment of everything rotted and corrupt about the Democratic Party.

Bill Moyers said:

As for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she embodies the tactics that have eroded the ability of Democrats to once again be the party of the working class. As Democratic National Committee chair she has opened the floodgates for Big Money, brought lobbyists into the inner circle and oiled all the moving parts of the revolving door that twirls between government service and cushy jobs in the world of corporate influence.

Or as the Washington Post put it:

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s list of enemies just keeps growing.

Congresswoman Schultz’ incompetence as DNC chair is clear: She oversaw the 2014 election debacle, has generated disastrously low Democratic turnout during the 2016 primaries,  clearly paid favorite to Hillary Clinton, and frustrated DNC vice-chair  Tusli Gabbard into resigning.

Shultz has never faced an opponent in any of her six previous primaries. Her worthy primary challenger, Tim Canova, is just the type of candidate Democrats need and the type of congressman America needs.

A law professor, he has worked with former New Mexico Governor, and current Libertarian presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, on prison reform. On incarceration, indeed on many issues, he echoes the wisdom of Bernie Sanders. Regarding Debbie’s recent outrageous alliance with Republicans to nullify recent regulations, achieved by Senator Elizabeth Warren to reign in payday loan sharks, please read Canova’s criticism in his own words: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Shouldn’t Be Welcoming Loan Sharks Into the Democratic Party.

Criticism of the failed war on drugs is a key Tim Canova position!

As congressman he would bring the good fight to the Hill, a new reform ally joining Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Rep. Steve Cohn, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and other patriots in congress fighting the tyrannical drug war. He states:

Public opinion surveys show that people across the country, and particularly in South Florida, want to end this misguided drug war.  Unfortunately, powerful industries continue to lobby for the drug war – including the same pharmaceutical, alcohol, and private prison companies from which my opponent readily takes large amounts of money.  It is time to take corporate money out of politics, end the drug war, and provide legal and healthy alternatives for everyone.  People should have the freedom to decide with their doctors whether to use medical marijuana, and to decide for themselves whether to use marijuana recreationally.  We don’t need more prisons.  We need more jobs and more educational opportunities as alternatives to drug dealing and chronic drug use.

For  drug war reformers, and American patriots in general, the defeat of Debbie Wasserman Schultz would be at least a double win; one less prohibitionist drug warrior, one more  freedom fighter passionately opposed to the war on drugs.

Quite probably, the nomination from the Democratic National Convention will determine the outcome of the Florida primary a month later. If Hillary Clinton is the nominee, she will doubtless lead her ally Debbie to victory. But if Bernie Sanders wins the nomination, Debbie will have a difficult time holding either job, DNC chair or Florida congresswoman. She deserves neither position.

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

Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee, Merrick Garland, has already shown himself to be a naïve and cruel cannabis prohibitionist.  He has ruled against even the slightest rescheduling of cannabis for recognition of its medical value and for retaining research prohibitions.

Since its thoughtless and bigoted classification as a Schedule I drug without medical value over 40 years ago, the DEA has successfully resisted attempts at rescheduling. The DEA waits years, sometimes decades, to finally reject petitions for reclassification.

The last time this happened was 2011, and then the petitioners appealed the DEA’s rejection to the Federal Appeals Court of DC, where Garland and two others ruled. This appeal differed from those before in that it included actually medical marijuana patients from Americans for Safe Access, ably represented by Joe Elford, chief counsel.

As FREDERIC J. FROMMER wrote after the 2013 ruling:

In his majority opinion Tuesday, Judge Harry T. Edwards wrote that the question wasn’t whether marijuana could have some medical benefits, but rather whether the DEA’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious.” The court concluded that the DEA action survived a review under that standard.

Essentially the appeals court, Judge Garland included, took the DEA line. Actually hook, line, and sinker. They somehow rejected the seminal 1999 Institute of Health Marijuana And Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. This study debunked (again) the “gateway drug” lie about marijuana and did assert medical uses.

The DEA’s refusal to reschedule cannabis as “arbitrary and capricious” was proven way back in 1988 by its own law judge, Francis Young. In his call for rescheduling he ruled:

• The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision.
• It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record. (emphasis mine)

The court, though, decided that because the (arch-prohibitionist) Department of Health and Human Services agreed that cannabis has no medical uses, the DEA’s decision to refuse rescheduling stands. Thanks to Judge Garland, marijuana remains, by federal law, a Schedule I drug, without medical value, with nearly total restrictions on research, and subject to harsh penalties for possession.

The lack of reasoning and compassion by Garland and the rest of his court is astounding and appalling. Certainly, placing this blind faith in obviously compromised federal bureaucracies is beyond naivety. Is it not cannabigotry to deny the medical benefits of cannabis to the court’s medical petitioners and millions of other patients across the country?

Many of us voted for Barack Obama in hopes that his policies and, especially Supreme Court appointments, would favor freeing cannabis from its federal clutches. Yet again the president has proven a major disappointment.

From the aspect of cannabis law reform, Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of a former federal prosecutor and proven prohibitionist is the worse possible choice. Garland’s outlandishly naïve and cruel ruling against rescheduling should disqualify him. We can now only hope that this unfortunate appointment is voted down in the Senate, provided he even gets the hearing his nomination deserves.

Humankind has benefitted from using cannabis as medicine and for basic provisions for at least 6,000 years; for less than one percent of that time, the United Nations has declared such uses illegal.

The UN’s rigidity in clinging to patently false dogma and denying humanity use of this beneficent plant is a true crime against the humanity the agency is supposed to serve.

Cannabis first become illegal across the planet in on March 31, 1961, when the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was signed at the UN building in New York City. This convention was followed with another in 1970, mainly to include psychedelics, and then again in 1988 to promote shared asset freezing and forfeiture.

This international prohibition of cannabis, like the American laws of 1935 banning the plant, were the product not of careful analysis and scientific consideration, but stem solely from cannabigotry and bureaucracy.

Regarding the cannabigotry, the UN convention relied on input from the likes of the Bureau of Narcotics Henry Anslinger, the evil propagandist who used false horror stories about marijuana use by minorities to successfully promote marijuana prohibition. An example:

This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others. …the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.

Another major contributor to the Single Convention was Pablo Osvaldo Wolff.  Cannabis, Wolff had written that cannabis “changes thousands of persons into nothing more than human scum.”

This dishonest and bigoted scheduling of cannabis, both in the USA and across the globe, robbed the planet’s citizens of one of nature’s best resources for increasing human health and well-being.

• The UN conventions deny humankind the medical use of cannabis.
• These same UN rules deny humans the use of cannabis for food, fuel, and fiber.
• The UN conventions underlie draconian and brutal drug control policies across the planet, including some signatories that behead peasants for cannabis “crimes.”

Humans have always used cannabis, particularly for its powers as a natural medicine. For pain relief alone, cannabis sativa became one of ancient people’s favorite plants. Combined with the fact that the plant’s seeds and oil are perhaps nature’s most nutritious food, marijuana has been exploited by most societies at most times in human history.

What right does the UN have to deny the planet’s people with this long used source of basic needs?

Beyond denying resources for personal sustenance, the UN’s restrictions on hemp and cannabis economic activity are economically and environmentally immoral.  Three billion people shared the planet when cannabis was made illegal; now over twice as many crowd the earth.  Humanity desperately needs the carbon-neutral gift of cannabis as a perfect food, as a source for fuel, as clothing and building materials. Cannabis presents humankind with literally tens of thousands of beneficial uses.

Your rights as an American (or citizen of another of the 180 sig natories) to medical cannabis and to a rational public policy on marijuana are directly challenged by these ancient UN conventions, and by UN bureaucrats. Nowhere in the US Constitution does it say that as an American citizens, your health care choices should be decided by foreign bureaucrats, but that is precisely what is happening.

The United Nations’ main drug office is named, tellingly, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Thus drugs are lumped with crime in the very title of the UNODC.   The agency’s executive director, Russian Yury Fedotov (pictured above) oversees a tyrannical, regressive drug control policy. Rejecting harm reduction, he rigorously fends off calls for changing the office’s hard line policies. Indeed, his office is charged with discouraging signatories’ activities that deviate from this prohibitionist stance; legalization efforts, such as in the United States are discouraged and called in violation of international treaties.

Cannabis can help feed, heal, fuel, and clothe the world. The United Nations should be trying to help the planet’s people better use this basic resource. The bigoted, bureaucratic conventions against cannabis do just the opposite. They should be radically changed. Opportunities for such changes are coming up soon:

UNGASS 2016 is the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem, runs from April 19-21, 2016.

Groups like Sir Richard Branson’s Global Commission on Drug Policy hope the special sessions provokes a swing into a science-based, harm-reduction oriented United Nations. Let the UN end its cannabis crimes against humanity!

The Democratic National Committee chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz is responsible for getting out the Democratic vote; she is failing terribly.

Voter turnout in the 2016 elections will be key. So far in the primaries, Republican turnout has been huge; Democratic turnout has been hideous. See, “Here’s Just How Massive Republicans’ Super Tuesday Turnout Was” at NPR. Terrifyingly, ABC News reports that on Super Tuesday, three million more voters cast Republican ballots. Contrast this to 2012 when three million more Democrats than Republicans voted in the same contests.

Voter turnout may well determine if Donald Trump becomes our next president. Perhaps more important for cannabis reform than who will be next commander-in-chief is who becomes next Attorney General.

In light of his recent endorsement of Trump, the 2016 election could bring bellicose ex-prosecutor Chris Christie to the head of the Justice Department. An Attorney General Chris Christie (gag reflex) could, and likely would, smash the booming recreational cannabis industries in legalized state. Medical cannabis users across the country could lose access to their medicine and what little research is being done could be stopped. The anti-marijuana New Jersey governor spews cannabigotry and vowed, as presidential candidate, to eradicate recreational use in legalized states. As Attorney General he would have the power to do so. See, Chris Christie Calls Marijuana Users “Diseased,” Pledges to Cure Them With Law Enforcement.

Turnout determines much more than the presidential decision; recall the massive Democratic losses in 2014, when the Republicans took the Senate, added dozens of congressional seats, and won hundreds of state and local contests.

In 2014, younger voter participation plunged to 13% from 19% two years earlier, when voters 18-29 came out to vote for Barack Obama. These absent voters would have most likely to vote democratic. Their votes may have been able to stem the Republican tsunami.

DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz had no clue how to get out the 2014 Democratic vote, and still does not, as she proves again with dismal Democrat turnout in the 2016 primaries.

Voter turnout has huge implications for marijuana legalization initiatives.

In 2016, California will decide whether to pass the Adult Use Marijuana Act of 2016. Or not. The exact voters democrats did so poorly with in 2014 are those who could pass AUMA. If they vote.

Ironically, Debbie Schultz opposes marijuana, including medical marijuana in her home state of Florida. As a US Representative, she recently voted against allowing US veterans access to medical cannabis. A low democratic voter turnout would achieve her anti-legalization, anti-marijuana agenda.

Rising Democratic star Tulsi Gabbard locked horns many time with Debbie as a vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee. Representative (from Hawaii) Gabbard challenged Schultz’s handling of the primaries, including the debates, which pulled in far few viewers than did the GOP events. Finally, Gabbard resigned her DNC post to support Bernie Sanders.

The latest action of Congresswoman Schultz left those calling themselves progressives scratching their heads in disgust that she is the DNC chairperson. She has joined with Republicans trying to delay new rules for reigning in parasitic pay day loans, crippling recent action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Debbie Wasserman Shultz’s incompetence and divisiveness cost the Democrat’s turnout terribly in 2014; in 2016 she may well cost them them presidency, the Justice Department and, for reformers, key legalization contests.

(Photo credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Oregon may soon be home to a world-class Oregon Cannabis Research Institute!

This spectacularly good idea today emerged from a study commissioned by the Oregon senate.  Noelle Crombie of The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the study by Oregon physicians and researchers recommends strongly that the state fund (from adult-use marijuana sales) an institute for cannabis research.  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, seemingly too good to be true.

But it is true that medical cannabis provides promise, if not far more, to at least these conditions from the report:

• Nausea; Chemotherapy
• Chronic Pain
• Spasms and Tics; Multiple Sclerosis; Spinal Cord Injuries; Tourette’s Syndrome
• Appetite Stimulation; Wasting Syndrome; Anorexia
• Glaucoma
• 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

This list is by no means complete, but does suggest that the institute, surrounded by Oregon’s large population of medical users, will not want for research topics.

A perfect research subject for the institute would be the promising use of cannabis in preventing and treating CTE brain damage in football players.

The report also suggests researching the public health properties of cannabis. Based upon the experience of other state and countries, public health researchers might expect to find:

• Less alcohol use, and with it tremendous social and health benefits
• Less domestic violence and less crime in general
• Less pharmaceutical use
• Less cigarette smoking
• Less heroin use
• Less homicide
• Less suicide

Beyond the treatment of diseases and injuries, cannabis is a wellness drug, enhancing the lives of many millions around the planet. The sullen fact is that cannabis has not been studied medically in the USA, primarily because of its idiotic placement into Schedule I, over 40 long years ago. This lack of research and clinging to Schedule I to exclude such a medically marvelous substance is a crime against humanity.

Perhaps, though, right here in Oregon, a huge correction can take place with a first-class cannabis research institute.

Such an institute would currently still be nearly ham-strung by the scandalous Schedule I situation. In a state brimming with cannabis, the institute might have to jump through DEA and NIDA hoops just to get cannabis to study. Ridiculously, the institute, instead of growing its own medical marijuana as the task force report envisions, might have to acquire cannabis from the federal farm in Mississippi. And keep it locked in a safe at night.

On the other hand, Oregon’s two powerful senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have become rather first-rate on the issue of cannabis. They could be expected to provide powerful political cover for the institute. Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer has sterling credentials to help the institute from the House of Representatives. Congressman Blumenauer has been able to work across the aisle with Republicans such as Dana Rohrabacher, potentially providing some bipartisan political cover and support. I will do my best to ask Congressmen Blumenauer and Rohrabacher about the potential for an Oregon Cannabis Research Institute during their bipartisan panel at the International Cannabis Business Conference this weekend.

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.

For at least 7,000 years, humans have used cannabis medically, and illegally for only about 70 years. Cannabis offers a medical bounty for humankind, just waiting to be unleashed. The benefits of medical cannabis are so revolutionary, the entire bloated health care system may well be fundamentally changed for the better, if its medical properties could be fully researched. Oregon can play a leading role in this medical revolution and benefit enormously in the process.

Let it be so at the Oregon Cannabis Research Institute!