CANNABIS CULTURE - Watch Cannabis Culture News LIVE for the latest news and views on pot politics and the marijuana community. In this episode: CC Editor Jeremiah Vandermeer talks about his trip to visit Marc Emery in a federal prison in Yazoo, Mississippi.

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Of course, what is most troubling about these arrest figures is that under state law they largely shouldn’t be occurring at all. Since 1977, New York State law has categorized the possession of 25 grams of marijuana or less as a violation, not a misdemeanor crime. So then how are NYPD making so many misdemeanor pot arrests? By violating the spirit of the law, if not the law itself.

Rather than ticketing low level marijuana offenders, City police for over a decade have been taking advantage of a separate statute, NY State Penal Law 221.10, which makes it a criminal misdemeanor to possess pot if it is ‘open to public view.’ According to an investigation last year by New York City public radio station WNYC, it was determined that City cops routinely conduct warrantless ‘stop-and-frisk’ searches of civilians, find marijuana hidden on their persons, and then falsely charge them with possessing pot ‘open to public view.’

And what has been the result of these illegal ‘stop and frisks?’ A press advisory issued yesterday by the Drug Policy Alliance lists the grim details.

– The NYPD has made more than 100,000 marijuana possession arrests for the last two years; nearly 150,000 marijuana possession arrests in the last three years; and more than 227,000 marijuana possession arrests in the last five years.

– New York City spent at least $150 million in the last two years and has spent at least $340 million in the last five years making marijuana possession arrests.

– In the last decade since Michael Bloomberg became mayor, the NYPD has made 400,038 lowest level marijuana possession arrests at a cost to taxpayers of $600 million dollars.

– Nearly 350,000 of the marijuana possession arrests made under Bloomberg are of overwhelmingly young Black and Latino men, despite the fact that young whites use marijuana at higher rates than young Blacks and Latinos.

– In the last five years, the NYPD under Bloomberg has made more marijuana arrests (2007 to 2011 = 227,093) than in the 24 years from 1978 through 2001 under Mayor Giuliani, Mayor Dinkins, and Mayor Koch combined (1978 to 2001 = 226,861).

Commissioner Kelly’s 2011 memorandum explicitly directed officers to stop charging defendants with criminal misdemeanors in instances where the contraband ‘was disclosed to public view at an officer’s direction.’ Nevertheless, the record number of low level pot arrests appears to be continuing unabated. Most likely, it will take an act of law to stop this practice.

Fortunately, bipartisan legislation is pending in both the New York State Assembly and Senate to stop this disgusting, ongoing practice. Assembly Bill 7620 and Senate Bill 5187 reduce marijuana penalties involving cases where where marijuana was either consumed or allegedly possessed in public from a criminal misdemeanor to a non-criminal violation. Passage of SB 5187 and AB 7620 will save taxpayer dollars, protect New York City’s citizens against illegal searches, and reduce unwarranted racial disparities in arrests by clarifying the law and standardizing penalties for marijuana possession offenses.

If you reside in New York and want to end the City’s dubious distinction of being the ‘marijuana arrest capital of the world,’ then please contact your state elected officials today and urge them to support SB 5187 and AB 7620. You can do so via NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here.

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Some two-thirds of Israeli cancer patients authorized to use cannabis report long-term, symptomatic improvement from the plant, according to clinical data presented in late January at a conference of the Israeli Oncologists Union and reported this week in several international media outlets.

Investigators at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, in conjunction with the Israeli Cancer Association, assessed the efficacy of cannabis therapy over the course of one year in 264 patients with cancer. Israeli media reported the findings:

“Some 61 percent of the respondents reported a significant improvement in their quality of life as a result of the medical marijuana, while 56 percent noted an improvement in their ability to manage pain. In general, 67 percent were in favor of the treatment, while 65 percent said they would recommend it to other patients.”

The study concluded that cannabis is an “effective” treatment for certain symptoms of the disease cancer and recommended, “The treatment should be offered to the patients in earlier stages of cancer.”

In the trial, the most common types of cancer for which medical marijuana was authorized was lung cancer (21 percent ), breast cancer (12 percent ) and pancreatic cancer (10 percent ).

The study focused primarily on the use of cannabis to relieve various symptoms of cancer or cancer treatment, such as pain and nausea, but did not evaluate whether marijuana therapy could potentially suppress the proliferation of the disease. In preclinical trials, various cannabinoids – including THC and CBD (cannabidiol) – have been shown to selectively target and eliminate malignant cells and cancerous tumors.

To date, some 6,000 Israelis possess government authorization to use cannabis therapeutically. Patients authorized by the federal program may either cultivate cannabis at home or they may obtain marijuana from one of the nation’s 12 licensed cannabis farms.

Last summer, the Israeli Health Ministry formally acknowledged the therapeutic utility of cannabis and announced newly amended guidelines to more effectively govern the state-sponsored production and distribution of medical marijuana. The Ministry estimates that as many as 40,000 patients will eventually have access to medicinal cannabis once the Israeli program is fully implemented.

NORML’s literature review of the anti-cancer properties of cannabis and cannabinoids is available here.

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Peggy Nash, the NDP MP and candidate for Leader of the NDP will be in British Columbia in the coming days, and we'd like to invite you to attend her events! Peggy has been the most progressive NDP leadership candidate on marijuana and medical marijuana policy. Peggy supports the end of marijuana prohibition and the institution of a legal regulatory framework for recreational marijuana. She also believes major reforms to the medical marijuana program are necessary so medical marijuana is readily available to those who need it.

Come down, meet Peggy, and get involved in her campaign to become the next leader of the NDP and the Official Opposition!

Peggy will be hosting events in Vancouver, Coquitlam and Surrey:

Vancouver Town Hall with Peggy Nash
Orpheum Annex, doors at 6:30, event from 7:00 - 9:00 pm
823 Seymour Street, 2nd floor, Vancouver
http://www.facebook.com/events/256984934374438/

Meet and Greet in Coquitlam
Roo’s Pub and Grill, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
2962 Christmas Way, Coquitlam
http://www.facebook.com/events/160329080745128/

Meet and Greet in Surrey
Bear Creek Pub, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
101-13588 88th Ave, Surrey
http://www.facebook.com/events/307413255975753/

For more information on Peggy and the other NDP Leadership candidates, check out the survey put together by “End Prohibition: NDP Against the Drug War”:
http://www.endprohibition.ca/2012leadershipsurveyresponses

For more information about Peggy Nash, check out:
http://peggynash.ca

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It is immensely disappointing that, yet again, the administration has declined the opportunity to discuss the very serious issue of ending marijuana prohibition in this country. For the ninth time, the White House has solicited the American people for direct input on the issues they cared about, and then, when the resulting answers called overwhelmingly for marijuana law reform, President Obama ignored the will of the American. Over half of the country now supports regulating and taxing marijuana; we can only hope that during the general election the issue is addressed with the respect and urgency it demands. (Alternet)

You can read more details here.

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This seemed to be a logical opportunity to ask the administration about marijuana legalization. Last Tuesday, I posted NORML’s question to the White House YouTube page for consideration. We asked, “With over 850,000 Americans arrested in 2010, on marijuana charges alone, and tens of billions of tax dollars being spent locking up marijuana users, isn’t it time to regulate and tax marijuana?”

The reception was overwhelmingly positive, in just several hours the question received over 4,000 “thumbs up” votes and was one of, if not the, most popular question on the service. Then a peculiar thing happened, the question was removed. After becoming the most positively voted upon question in less than a day, the White House removed the question, deeming it “inappropriate.”

We informed our audience of the censorship and encouraged them to engage the White House on their own, using our question or a one of their own choosing. Over the next several days the program was inundated with marijuana law reform questions. At first, many met the same fate as our original question and were removed from the site. It seems our persistence ended up paying off and the page administrator finally gave up trying to censor the incoming questions and most marijuana inquiries have remained up since.

Voting closed last night at midnight and I made some rough calculations of the final results to see how we performed. Of the top 160 questions asked, marijuana reform questions accounted for 105 of them. Reposts of our question brought in an estimated 17,524 up-votes in addition to the 4,028 the original received before being removed. Combined, that is over 21,000 votes for one question, which is 5 times as many votes as any other question on the page. The 105 marijuana reform questions in the top 160 brought in over 74,000 votes, dwarfing any other topic. Our friends at LEAP posted a question as well and it ended as one of the top rated questions. You can read their coverage here.

Now, we wait. “Your Interview With the President” is scheduled to take place tomorrow, January 30th. Considering this is the same individual who previously stated that, “we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws” and that legalization is a “perfectly legitimate topic for debate,” maybe he will take this opportunity to address the issue seriously for once. In an election year, this could go a long way towards winning back those who feel disenfranchised with the administration over a perceived lack of progress on the issue and amped up raids on medical programs in states such as California and Colorado.

The American people are ready for our debate Mr. President, are you?

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Topic of the day: Teaching senior citizens about the safety, utility, effectiveness, cost savings and politics of medical cannabis.

Featured speakers include Irvin Rosenfeld (one of the five federal medical cannabis patients who receive 300 pre-rolled ‘joints’ monthly from a special and closed-to-the-public medical cannabis research project) and former NORML board member and longtime cannabis medical researcher Mary Lynn Mathre, RN (from Patients Out of Time) and NORML Legal Committee member attorney Michael Minardi.

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	CannabisCureTV: Cannabis & Epilepsy - Medical Marijuana Success. High Times Hash Vernon Phillips Cannabis & Epilepsy - A Medical Marijuana Success: Vernon Phillips In September 2011 whilst touring the west coast of America with TGA Genetics Dioxide & Earl we stopped in to visit a friend and California Hash King, Vernon Phillips or Phillips RX to pick up a high CBD strain for breeding new medical strains. This is the story of his Epilepsy. Vern has been in constant pain since he was 15 years old. In his late 20's he developed a brain tumor and to cope with the pain smoked large amounts of potent cannabis. He recalls rolling blunts with 7g of pressed bubble hash for the wrap filled with only the legally available Medical Marijuana in California. Californians are able to use cannabis and even grow up to 99 plants for medical purposes and have seen some amazing success stories, Vernon's is just one of them and I had to bring it to you. After his brain tumor was removed he continued to use cannabis to treat the pain and epilepsy during recovery. He now uses NO pharmaceutical drugs and has been given back his driving license due to the fact that cannabis stops him having seizures and fits. He has won 3 High Times Medical Cannabis Cups in California. and is a true icon for our movement to be proud of. Thanks for having CannabisCureUK and TGA Genetics round for some fine hash dabbins and the great medicine!	From: CannabisCureTV Views: 1457 111 ratings
	Time: 11:19	More in People & Blogs

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If you haven’t taken a moment to check out The NORML Network, you’re missing out on the internet’s only source of 24-hour live streaming news, education, and entertainment for the cannabis community.  Visit our Audio/Video department or click the graphic above to see the complete schedule.

Our network is anchored by NORML SHOW LIVE, weekdays at 7pm Eastern, the official podcast of NORML.  You’ll get today’s headlines from Cannabis Karri, a new Daily Toker Tune from a different genre every day, an interview with one of the top names in marijuana, and opinion and analysis from “Radical” Russ in the Radical Rant.  We follow that up with Toker Talk Radio, our live call-in hour and roundtable discussion.

In the afternoon, weekdays from 1pm-6pm Eastern, you’ll catch our Afternoon Video Block, featuring cultivation instruction from Jorge Cervantes TV, international activism with Cannabis Cure TV, videos from NORML and NORML Chapters in NORML’s Video Lunch, a replay of yesterday’s NORML SHOW LIVE, and clips from LEAP, SSDP, and Jodie Emery in our Marijuana Activism Show.

At night, weekdays at 9pm and 10pm Eastern, we bring you the best activist podcasts from all around the world.  Mondays feature Drug Truth Network and CannaTruth’s Reefer Rhetoric, two podcasts originating from Texas.  Tuesdays we present Marijuana Compassion & Common Sense from Inland Empire, California, and Cannabis Cure UK Podcast from England.  Wednesdays we premiere the latest HIGH TIMES Presents: Free Weed from Danny Danko out of Brooklyn, New York, and The Libra Lounge from Iowa.  Thursdays include Hot Box Podcast from Kalispell, Montana, and Hollywood Hemptress Hour from Hollywood, California.  Fridays conclude the week with Hemp Radio from Orange County, California, and THC The High Cast from Chicago, Illinois.

Late night, weekdays at 11pm Eastern, we present more live shows.  On Mondays, A Different View features a women’s roundtable on marijuana issues.  Tuesdays we get more grow tips from Weed Nerd with Subcool.  Wednesdays we jam to The Irie Island Hour‘s mix of reggae tunes.  Thursdays we turn off all the filters on The Ganja Jon Show.  We finish up Friday with NORML Rocks! with Urb Thrasher for two hours of hard-hitting rock.

You can always catch music at the top and bottom of the clock – at 6am, Noon, 6pm, and Midnight Eastern we present Daily Toker Tunes, a one-hour random mix of our best music.  These include Roots Monday (blues, jazz, folk, country), Electric Tuesday (electronic, disco, pop, new age), Irie Wednesday (reggae, ska, Latin, world), Groovin’ Thursday (rap, hip-hop, soul, funk), and Rockin’ Friday (metal, punk, jam, alt-country).

Lineups repeat overnight and into the morning.  Weekends feature replays of all the weekday’s previous shows.  For more information, check out our schedule online.  Click any show for more information, including website, downloads, and podcast subscription information.

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A coalition representing local sex trade workers is urging Ottawa police to stop cracking down on prostitutes in monthly sting operations.

The group's open letter to police was sent in response to the warning Chief Vern White issued in December, saying investigators had detected a pattern in the deaths of a number of sex trade workers. The police also issued a safety advisory, advising sex workers to work in teams and to avoid isolated areas.

But the coalition, which is made up of six local groups, says this advice only exposes sex workers as obvious targets for arrest. They're especially afraid of being caught in a street sweep, an undercover operation where officers start conversations with prostitutes, only to arrest them once an offer of sex for money is made.

"I don't think that the police sweeps protect women at all," said Karin Galldin of Galldin LLP, a feminist legal firm that is representing the groups. "And given that there's an identified threat of a predator who has taken six lives ... it's not enough for the police to say, 'Hey look, we're going to continue to criminalize you, we're not going to change our operational plan.'"

Frederique 'Fred' Chabot, a member of Prostitutes Ottawa-Gatineau Work, Educate and Resist, said street sweeps are a form of "proactive policing," as they purposely go after sex workers who make their living by working on the streets. Chabot's group was one of the six that drafted the letter.

She said sweeps just create an environment where sex trade workers are afraid to go to the police, even if they are assaulted. Chabot added that sex workers have identified police as their No. 1 challenge, ahead of clients, financial need and community violence.

Galldin said another problem is that police seem to prioritize communities over sex workers. She said community residents have complained about sex workers in their areas, leading police to put the residents' needs ahead of sex workers' lives. Galldin said she finds that unacceptable.

"We want a commitment from the police to say, 'We have received in the past complaints from the community around nuisance, around garbage on the street, but guess what, women are dying. And we're going to prioritize the lives of those women ...'" she said. In the letter, the groups also hinted at the possibility of legal action against the police if more sex workers are harmed, saying the police could be considered "negligent" in their responsibility to protect them. They asked the police for a response by Jan. 27. Neither Galldin nor Chabot could confirm whether going to court would be their next step, but Chabot said they were "exploring the options."

Chief White, interviewed before the Police Services Board Monday night, said he would sit down and talk with the group.

"We'll be arranging meetings with the group," he said. "It will be a good discussion. I look forward to the meeting with them. I need to do more research on what they are saying could happen. But realistically, we had a very open dialogue after Dec. 9 with the representatives and those meetings will continue. But I certainly won't negotiate it through the media."

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The bad news?  See for yourself:

“The submission has been removed because people believe it is inappropriate.”  Hmm, well, who are these people?  The question got 241 “thumbs down” votes from viewers, was that it?  I notice that of the 615 questions submitted that asked about “With over 850,000 Americans arrested in 2010″ in the text, some still remain with 28 “thumbs down” and others are removed with as few as three, so it doesn’t seem like “people” refers to viewers or the public, does it?

Who are these people, President Obama?  They’re not the people out here who keep making marijuana legalization the number one topic of these online forums.  They’re not the millions whose lives are impacted by a marijuana arrest; the tokers and their families who lose jobs, houses, kids, freedom, assets, respect, security, and peace of mind because of marijuana prohibition.

Sadly, I think these people are actually just one person… a guy who smoked weed (and snorted coke) back in the day as a teenager in Hawaii and was damn lucky he didn’t get caught or today he’d be Barry the Drug Criminal.

In 2010, these were the Top 100 questions for President Obama, and they ALL dealt with marijuana legalization

(YouTube.com/WhiteHouse) On Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. ET, President Obama will speak to the nation in his annual State of the Union address.Starting today, you can ask President Obama the questions that are on your mind about the direction of the country and vote on others that you think should be asked. He’ll answer several of your top-voted questions during a special interview, which will take place on January 30, live from the White House. A selection of people who submit questions will also be invited to join a Google+ Hangout live with the President during the interview.

The deadline to submit is January 28 at midnight ET so submit your question now.

Here we go again.  How many times will President Obama ask the American people for their questions on national policy, how many times will we resoundingly call for marijuana legalization, and how will he diminish, mock, or ignore our concerns this time?

1. We petitioned him to legalize marijuana in September 2011, the number one petition;
2. We Twittered him to legalize marijuana in July 2011, making up one out of eight questions asked;
3. We asked him via YouTube video in January 2011, with LEAP’s question the number one video;
4. We asked him via Ideas for Change in March 2010, with legalization again the number one question;
5. We lobbied him via Citizen’s Briefing Book in May 2009, with the number one idea being legalization;
6. We asked him via Open for Questions II in March 2009, where he mocked the number one idea of legalization helping the economy;
7. We asked him via Open for Questions I in January 2009, where legalization topped most categories of questions;
8. We asked him via Change.gov in December 2008, where legalization was again number one and a dozen of the top fifty questions.

Maybe the ninth time is the charm?  Once again in this “ask the people” exercise the most popular questions deal with legalization of marijuana*.

Here’s the official National NORML question:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s my entry:

Click here to view the embedded video.

* Though this time, we may get beaten by SOPA, PIPA, and NDAA questions… which wouldn’t bother me a bit.  A free and open internet, threatened by SOPA and PIPA, is crucial to spreading the message of marijuana law reform.  NDAA is an abomination that allows the president to declare citizens “enemy combatants” and lock them up indefinitely without charge, without trial, and without rights.  We’re big fans of the First and Fourth Amendments here and these acts are counter to the spirit and Constitution of America.

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	Canadian Gov't Wants to Eliminate Personal Medical Marijuana Grow-Ops The Conservative government of Canada is pushing for new medical marijuana regulations that would eliminate person cultivation and stop sick and dying Canadians from growing their medicine at home. www.torontosun.com	From: cannabisculturemag Views: 227 14 ratings
	Time: 02:14	More in News & Politics

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Investigators at the University of Naples assessed the effect of CBD on colon carcinogenesis in mice. Researchers reported that CBD administration was associated with cancerous tumor reduction and reduced cell proliferation.

Authors wrote: “Although cannabidiol has been shown to kill glioma cells, to inhibit cancer cell invasion and to reduce the growth of breast carcinoma and lung metastases in rodents, its effect on colon carcinogenesis has not been evaluated to date. This is an important omission, since colon cancer affects millions of individuals in Western countries. In the present study, we have shown that cannabidiol exerts (1) protective effects in an experimental model of colon cancer and (2) antiproliferative actions in colorectal carcinoma cells.”

Authors also acknowledged that CBD possesses “an extremely safe profile in humans.” They concluded, “[O]ur findings suggest that cannabidiol might be worthy of clinical consideration in colon cancer prevention.”

Clinical review data published in the scientific journal Current Drug Safety in December concluded that CBD is “non-toxic” to healthy cells and is “well tolerated” in humans. Nevertheless, cannabidiol is presently classified under federal law as a schedule I prohibited substance. Such substances are required by law to possess “a high potential for abuse,” “a lack of accepted safety … under medical supervision,” and “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

Separate preclinical trails evaluating the anti-cancer activities of cannabinoids and endocannabinoids show that their administration can inhibit the proliferation of a variety of cancerous cell lines, including breast carcinoma, prostate carcinoma, gastric adenocarcinoma, skin carcinoma, leukemia cells, neuroblastoma, lung carcinoma, uterus carcinoma, thyroid epithelioma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma, cervical carcinoma, oral cancer, biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), and lymphoma. NORML provides summaries and links to these studies here.

Full text of this latest study, “Chemopreventive effect of the non-psychotropic phytocannabinoid cannabidiol on experimental colon cancer,” appears in the Journal of Molecular Medicine.

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Judge Barry LaBarbera on Tuesday dismissed the cases against Christopher and Amy Austin of Paso Robles, as well as David and Valerie Hosking, Steven Gordon and Thomas Sandercock, all of Pismo Beach.

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	Snoop Nominates Wiz for HIGH TIMES Stoner of the Year Who will be the HIGH TIMES Stoner of the Year? Snoop Dogg - who won the prestigious award in 2002 - thinks Wiz Khalifa has earned the high honor. During a HIGH TIMES photo shoot in Hollywood, California Snoop made a spontaneous announcement, nominating Wiz for Stoner of the Year. Do you agree with Snoop? Should Wiz take home the famous bong throphy? Find out who will win Stoner of the Year at the HIGH TIMES Medical Cannabis Cup in Los Angeles, California -- February 11-12, 2012. For tickets, go to medcancup.com Don't miss the exclusive HIGH TIMES interview with Snoop and Wiz in the April issue of HT (on newsstands February 14). And, look for Snoop and Wiz in their new movie Mac & Devin Go to High School in theaters this February.	From: HIGHTIMESPresents Views: 15993 169 ratings
	Time: 01:56	More in Education

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CANNABIS CULTURE - Watch Cannabis Culture News LIVE for the latest news and views on pot politics and the marijuana community. In this episode: Marius Soska, assistant editor of Cannabis Culture, gets high and reviews the marijuana news highlights.

Marius reviews the news while CC Editor Jeremiah Vandermeer is away at the Canadian University Press national conference.

Go to the Pot TV Livestream page to join the chat or use the box below.

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OTTAWA — Don't fear the reefer. That's the message to the Conservative government from a group that fights to legalize pot.

The Beyond Prohibition Foundation says weed could be a real cash crop for Canada.

"We're talking about $400 million (that) is spent every year arresting just about 50,000 (people) -- plus or minus a few thousand people, depending on the year -- and that's just for possession," said Jacob Hunter, the Vancouver-based group's policy director.

"It goes up to 80,000 when you factor in trafficking and production. So we're talking about $400 million in savings on the possession side and then about $2 billion in revenue, assuming a whole number of variables.

"It gets a little complicated on the revenue side, because you have to figure out what the usage rate is, what the tax rate is, etc., etc. But it's a net gain for the government of about $2.4 billion."

Delegates at the Liberal convention on the weekend backed a resolution from the party's youth wing calling for the legalization and regulation of marijuana.

However, the resolution is not binding and there's no guarantee the party will ever actually campaign on legalizing pot, even though interim leader Bob Rae endorsed the position in principle.

The idea has no chance of ever becoming law under Stephen Harper's Conservative government, which has taken a hard line on drug use.

But pretend for a moment that Canada legalized marijuana so people could buy government-regulated weed in stores much like they now do with liquor.

Some argue government coffers would see a windfall.

The Fraser Institute, a conservative research group, did its own study in 2004 on potential revenues arising from legal marijuana and, like Hunter's group, came up with a $2-billion-a-year estimate.

"If we treat marijuana like any other commodity, we can tax it, regulate it, and use the resources the industry generates rather than continue a war against consumption and production that has long since been lost," Stephen Easton, an economics professor at Simon Fraser University and the study's author, said in a release at the time.

Statistics Canada says roughly half of the 108,600 police-reported drug crimes in Canada in 2010 were for possession of marijuana.

The agency notes that the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse has pegged the cost of illegal drug use -- which includes expenses for police, courts and correctional services -- at about $2 billion each year.

A glance across the Atlantic offers an interesting case study in decriminalizing pot.

Portugal decriminalized simple possession of all drugs in 2001. A study published 10 years later in the British Journal of Criminology found fewer teens using drugs, fewer cases of HIV and AIDS and more drugs seized by police from big traffickers.

However, it's worth noting that Portugal already had one of the lowest drug-use rates in the European Union before it decriminalized possession.

Still, Hunter argues legalizing marijuana would actually cut down on crime in Canada.

"Any country that has liberalized its marijuana policy has actually seen a decrease in marijuana use," he said.

"I think what this really comes down to is it gets rid of the coolness factor for kids and teenagers."

He adds it would also take organized crime out of the picture and allow the government to sell weed in a controlled environment.

But what about long lineups clogging the border as American pot-lovers rush to Canada for a legal toke?

That was former American ambassador Paul Cellucci's great concern when Paul Martin's Liberal government drafted legislation calling for modest fines for people caught with small amounts of marijuana.

Hunter doubts the Americans would do anything drastic.

"I don't think the U.S. would do anything other than huff and puff," he said.

More than a dozen states have already decriminalized the drug.

Last year, Connecticut became the 13th state to do so. The Hartford Courant newspaper reported the state could save $885,000 every year in court costs and attorney salaries, and make as much as $1.4 million in fines and fees.

However, marijuana remains illegal under U.S. federal law. In Canada, the drug has been illegal since 1923.

Jean Chretien's Liberal government also tried to pass a law that would fine people instead of criminally charging them for being caught in possession of small amounts of marijuana. The legislation died on the House of Commons order paper.

Harper's Conservative government scrapped the idea entirely when it came to power in 2006 and the Tories show no signs of changing their tune.

"No, it will not happen under our government," Harper said in Vancouver last fall.

"We're very concerned about the spread of drugs in the country and the damage it's doing and as you know we have legislation before the House to crack down."

The Conservatives have yet to pass their omnibus crime bill.

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A brief history: In November 2010 Arizona voters narrowly decided in favor of ballot measure 203, which removes state-level criminal penalties for the use and possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana by patients who have written certification from their physician indicating that cannabis may alleviate their condition. The measure also mandated the state to adopt rules to govern the establishment of up to 125 nonprofit cannabis dispensaries, which would be legally authorized to produce and dispense marijuana to authorized patients on a not-for-profit basis.

In April 2011, the Arizona Department of Health Services formalized rules regarding an online ID-card registration for qualified patients. (More than 16,000 Arizona residents are now registered with the state to legally possess cannabis.) The Department also announced at that time that it would begin accepting applications from would-be dispensary operators by June 1. That deadline came and went, however, when Gov. Brewer — who had opposed the passage of AMMA — filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that her administration’s compliance with the law’s state-licensing provisions would put state employees in danger of federal prosecution.

Earlier this month, a federal judge rejected Gov. Brewer’ challenge, asserting “[T]he Complaint does not detail any history of prosecution of state employees for participation in state medical marijuana licensing schemes. [and] fails to establish that Plaintiffs are subject to a genuine threat of imminent prosecution and consequently, the Complaint does not meet the constitutional requirements for ripeness. Therefore, Plaintiffs’ claims are unripe and must be dismissed.”

So, has Gov. Brewer finally gotten the message? Apparently so.

Today, Brewer’s office stated for the record that they would no longer challenge the state’s nascent law in court and instead will cooperate to see that the voters’ demands are once and for all fully enacted. Said the Governor in a press release:

“The State of Arizona will not re-file in federal court a lawsuit that sought clarification that State employees would not be subject to federal criminal prosecution simply for implementing the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. Instead, I have directed the Arizona Department of Health Services to begin accepting and processing dispensary applications, and issuing licenses for those facilities once a (separate) pending legal challenge to the Department’s medical marijuana rules is resolved. … With our request for clarification rebuffed on procedural grounds by the federal court, I believe the best course of action now is to complete the implementation of Proposition 203 in accordance with the law.”

According to the website of the Arizona Department of Health, the department hopes to begin accepting applications for dispensaries this summer. To date, only three states — Colorado, Maine, and New Mexico — have granted licenses to allow for the state-sanctioned production and distribution of cannabis. (Several other states, including Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont, have enacted licensing legislation but to date have refused to issue any actual dispensary licenses.)

Under Arizona law, qualified patients may cultivate their own cannabis at home if they do not reside within 25 miles of an operating cannabis dispensary.

Additional information regarding Arizona’s medicinal cannabis program is available from the Arizona Department of Health Services here.

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	Medical Marijuana Crackdown By Feds In Colorado A federal crackdown on some medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado is discussed by Ana Kasparian and Jayar Jackson on The Young Turks. www.huffingtonpost.com Subscribe to The Young Turks: bit.ly Find out how to watch The Young Turks on Current by clicking here: www.current.com The Largest Online New Show in the World. Google+: www.gplus.to Facebook: www.facebook.com Twitter: twitter.com	From: TheYoungTurks Views: 20295 705 ratings
	Time: 03:36	More in News & Politics

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