By Press Release July 27, 2013


"Use of this performance-based technology better promotes responsible cannabis use and addresses public demands for alternative ways to discourage driving under the influence," says NORML's Paul Armentano


CheckPlusBalance provides a quick, private, accurate and objective measure of personal performance. It helps responsible people quickly, privately and accurately determine their impairment level prior to driving. CheckPlusBalance can help individuals assess their performance regardless of the cause of possible impairment, including marijuana, alcohol, medication, illness or fatigue.


CheckPlusBalance was developed specifically to help people who want to be confident that they can perform at a safe level after taking medication, alcohol, recreational drugs, or who have any reason to confirm their current level of functioning.

The underlying technology and application is the accumulation of 60 years combined technology and legal experience and study, including, thousands of federal and international peer-reviewed studies, thousands of court hearings, NASA/NHTSA/DOD research, medical device development and performance assessment experience. The founders have taught and published extensively.


The test takes about two minutes to complete and it provides an accurate snapshot of the subject’s memory, balance, reaction time and time perception. Individuals can create their own personal sober “baseline” when they feel “okay.” The baseline can be reset anytime and standard baselines are included.


Of particular importance is using CheckPlusBalance after the consumption of marijuana, which is now legal in two states and is allowed for medical purposes in many others. Although the use of cannabis alone is seldom associated with motor vehicle accidents, consumption of the substance can temporarily alter psychomotor performance — particularly in more naive consumers. Subjects can readily and privately assess their performance after ingesting cannabis against their sober baseline, empowering them to make safer decisions based upon established science and actual behavioral performance. Input from law enforcement as well as from NORML provided concrete design concepts, which were incorporated into CheckPlusBalance.


Says NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano, author of the peer-reviewed paper” Cannabis and Psychomotor Performance: A Rational Review of the Evidence“: “Use of this performance-based technology better promotes responsible cannabis use and addresses public demands for alternative ways to discourage driving under the influence.”


The app is currently available free as a public service to anyone who wants it, in support of a broader policy and public safety effort.


For further information, including a demonstration video, please visit our website: www.checkplusbalance.com.


You can go directly to the iTunes store and download the app at:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/checkplusbalance/id673248150?mt=8

We are putting an album together to support the legalization of cannabis in California. There is a producer and publisher on board. If you have a song about the legalization of marijuana or the plant in general but don't have a distribution plan contact me @Cannabration. We are also looking for visual artists and social networking volunteers.

Marijuana isn't going to legalize itself! Get involved today if you want to #JustLegalizeIt2014 #Cannabration #HempCanSaveThePlanet 

Unfortunately the cat is out of the bag in regards to concentrates. I had hoped that it would not get popular until we achieved legalization in the US. I think this not only complicates the issue, but opens up the opposition to new weapons to use against us. What we need to remember is that responsible cannabis use would include concentrates IF they are being used to regulate dosing. High concentrates of cannabis can allow the patient to smoke LESS since it's so highly concentrated and that is a good thing! ~Susan Soares
 

by Mark Kleiman

A friend who follows drug policy is puzzled by this line in a Reuters story about the semi-final rulemaking for Washington’s regulated cannabis market.

Responding to concerns of fueling a black market, the board also clarified that highly potent marijuana extracts,which have gained in popularity in recent years, may be legally sold so long as they are adulterated with at least trace amounts of an inert substance, such as vegetable oil.

Yes, it’s rather hard to figure out what that means, but the reporter – working within space constraints – can certainly be pardoned for not explicating fully. Here’s the story as I understand it:

The Liquor Board faced a legal question and a policy question.

The legal question is whether the initiative-passed statute the Board is supposed to implement, which permits the sale of ”useable marijuana” (defined as flowers) and of “marijuana-infused products,” does or does not allows the sale of concentrates such as hashish or “hash oil.” The lawyers for the Board decided that it didn’t. But – as I among others pointed out – that created a definitional puzzle. Clearly, a drop of butane hash oil in a gallon of olive oil would constitute a “marijuana-infused product.” But how about a drop of olive oil in a gallon of BHO? At what magical point does diluted BHO become infused olive oil?

The policy question, at first blush, was whether concentrates are more dangerous than the herbal form. My guess is that the answer will turn out to be “It depends,” – e.g., on the difference between controlled-dose vaporization and dabbing – but we don’t actually know much about either the relevant pharmacology or the relevant consumer behavior. We do know that the number of trips to the emergency room involving cannabis is up about 50% over the past decade, and now runs just under half a million visits a year, so the question of how to prevent cannabis-induced panic attacks does need some attention, and there’s reason to think that preparations and modes of administration that get more THC to the brain more quickly are associated with more risk.

But here again there was a complexity. The Board could ban the sale of concentrates in the stores it regulates, but not in the unregulated quasi-medical market or the purely illicit market. So a ban on concentrates might have slowed the migration of consumers into the taxed and regulated market without much reducing the actual use of concentrates.  (That’s the part of the story the reporter was trying to tell.)

Still more complexity: The law allows the sale and possession of up to an ounce at at time of “useable marijuana,” but up to 72 ounces of ”marijuana-infused products in liquid form.” That makes sense for, e.g., cannabis-laced root beer, which is mostly water. But 72 ounces of pure BHO could be $100,000 worth, in an easy-to-smuggle package. So if concentrates are indeed going to be sold, the quantity limit ought to be a fraction, rather than a multiple, of the quantity limit for herbal cannabis.

In the end, the Board decided to use the legal ambiguity to punt the policy question. The “one-drop” rule will apply, allowing concentrates to be sold as long as they have some admixture, no matter the how trivial, of something else. In January, the legislature will be asked to amend the law to explicitly allow what can’t be prevented, while imposing a reasonable quantity limit of perhaps five grams.

Footnote

If I sometimes seem just a tad impatient with those who are “for” or “against” something they call “marijuana legalization” based on abstract general principles, the concentrates story shows why. This sh*t is complicated, people!

I'm fixated on the Trayvon Martin murder trial. I've been watching it on HLN while I work around the apartment. But today something came up that forced me to blog about, impairment and nanograms of THC in your system.

The State tried to keep out the evidence that Trayvon had THC in his system because they said that it would be impossible to tell what effect that THC would have had.  The question is:

It was interesting for me to watch the state argue that it would be impossible to tell how #Trayvon would react to smoking pot. How would they be able to determine if it would make him more or less aggressive? My experience in court was pretty much the opposite. 

I had my doctor on the stand testifying that the strains that I was growing were selected because of the proper effect on my pain management. We conferred quite frequently about the different methods of ingestion, extracting the proper compounds of the cannabis I was growing, and which strains relieved which symptoms. At one point, the DA said "and I'm just going to call it #DOPE because that's what it it!" The court let the DA determine my medical needs over my doctor's opinion!! 

#Cannabration #TrayvonMartinMurderTrial #TrayvonTHC #Legalizeit2014 #CannabisLegalization #Dope