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Guns or Marijuana? A New Choice for Many

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Photo Credit: Svadilfari

Photo Credit: Svadilfari

Among the many problems that the federal/state marijuana-standoff is now causing: access to constitutional rights.

Federal law dictates that Americans buying firearms from licensed dealers are required to fill in a form — Form 4473 – which asks the following question: “(11E) Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant or narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” For many Americans, this is now a difficult inquiry to answer. In Washington and Colorado it is no longer unlawful to use marijuana for any reason; and, in a bunch of other states, medical patients are permitted to do so under strict regulation. Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, however, all of these people are breaking the law. This has led to something of an impasse.

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White House Drug Czar Contradicts Obama on Impact of Marijuana Use

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Photo Credit: Washington Times

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama’s latest claims about marijuana are contradicted by research and official positions of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is part of the White House. And Mr. Obama’s words have anti-drug leaders worried about negative repercussions among youth.

Mr. Obama claimed to The New Yorker magazine that marijuana is no worse than cigarettes or alcohol and he promoted state efforts by Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law.

The National Drug Control Policy’s official stance, posted on the whitehouse.gov website, says the opposite of Mr. Obama on all counts.

For example, as documented in agency reports, marijuana smoke has significantly more carcinogens than tobacco smoke.

And as reported by the government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, adolescent use of marijuana does something that alcohol does not; it causes permanent brain damage, including lowering of I.Q.

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Obama on Pot: ‘I Don’t Think It Is More Dangerous Than Alcohol’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”

“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” the president said an interview with “The New Yorker” magazine.

Smoking marijuana is “not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy,” Obama said.

Obama’s administration has given states permission to experiment with marijuana regulation, and laws recently passed in Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana recently went into effect. The president said it was important for the legalization of marijuana to go forward in those states to avoid a situation in which only a few are punished while a large portion of people have broken the law at one time or another.

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High Prices for Getting High Expected as Colorado Opens Legal Pot Shops

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Photo Credit: US News

Photo Credit: US News

On Jan. 1, the first legal recreational marijuana outlets will open in Colorado. And with the rise of the new legal marijuana industry comes the question of what newly legal recreational weed should cost.

As it turns out, new users might be best advised to wait a few months before buying their weed. Some experts and store-owners say that getting high in the mile high state will likely be expensive at first, with prices easing off as the supply of weed catches up to the demand from Americans hoping for their first chance to buy recreational marijuana legally.

“I do expect the price to go up at least for the first few months,” says Rachel Gilette, an attorney at Colorado’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “That’s only because the supply is going to be very limited and the demand has just jumped massively.”

Medical marijuana is already legal in Colorado, and many of the new shops will be medical dispensaries that have also obtained retail licenses. In some of those stores, retailers will set aside marijuana for medical patients, separate from that for casual users.

“I did talk to a retailer yesterday who had just set his price points, and they were about double of what you have been able to get medical on the market for the last year,” says Gilette. “So it is going to be more expensive at least for the foreseeable future.”

Read more about Colorado’s legal pot shops HERE.

After 20 Years of Denial, Clinton Admits Pot Smoking, Thinks it’s ‘Funny’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP/Steve HelberMore than 20 years after saying he “didn’t inhale,” Bill Clinton is setting the record straight about his youthful pot smoking.

“I didn’t say I was holier than thou, I said I tried. I never denied that I used marijuana,” Clinton told Fusion TV’s Jorge Ramos in an interview aired Tuesday night.

Back in 1992, in the midst of his first presidential campaign, Clinton famously equivocated when asked about his drug use, saying that during his days as a Rhodes Scholar in England, “I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale, and never tried it again.”

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Man Charged In Connection With 14 Bags Of Marijuana Found In 3-Year-Old’s Backpack

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Photo Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty

Photo Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty

New York City police said a 3-year-old girl was found in school Friday with more than a dozen bags of marijuana in her backpack.

Police said an employee of the New LIFE School in Harlem smelled marijuana on the girl at about 1 p.m. Friday.

They said the employee called police, who discovered 14 bags of the drug in the girl’s backpack.

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Bill Maher Confesses: ‘Selling Pot Allowed Me to Get Through College’

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Photo Credit: Mediaite

Photo Credit: Mediaite

In an infographic from this week’s edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Bill Maher admits to having been a pot dealer as a means to paying for college and start up his career in comedy.

bill maher confession

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Justice Department Won’t Sue States Over Pro-Pot Laws

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Justice Department on Thursday said it won’t stop Colorado and Washington from implementing laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use, paving the way for states nationwide to enact pro-pot measures.

The move was part of a sweeping national policy statement issued by the agency that outlines its top priorities for marijuana enforcement. Those priorities include preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors, preventing sales revenue from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels, and preventing the diversion of marijuana outside of states where it is legal under state law.

But as long as states maintain strict rules regarding distribution of the drug, the Justice Department suggested it won’t challenge state laws that allow for small-scale personal marijuana use.

“Outside of those enforcement priorities, the federal government has traditionally relied on states and local law enforcement agencies to address marijuana activity through enforcement of their own laws,” said a Justice Department memo to U.S. attorneys in all 50 states.

“The department’s guidance [to states] rests on its expectation that states and local governments that have enacted laws authorizing marijuana-related conduct will implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems that will address the threat those state laws cld pose to public safety.”

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Report: Colorado Now a Major Exporter of Illegal Marijuana

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Photo Credit: KDVRThe amount of illegal marijuana from Colorado and seized elsewhere quadrupled in the past few years, according to a report by a network of law enforcement organizations.

The report found that in 2012, there were 274 seizures where the marijuana was destined for other states. In 2005, the number was 54.

The most common destinations for the marijuana were Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Texas.

The size of the seizures also increased. From 2005 to 2008, the total average number of pounds seized was 2,220. From 2009 to 2012, it increased to 3,937.

Most of the marijuana came from Denver, Boulder and El Paso counties, the report found.

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Federal Agents Raid Marijuana Dispensaries in Washington

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Photo Credit: APFederal agents have raided a number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the Puget Sound region.

Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Jodie Underwood said Wednesday afternoon the operation ended Wednesday evening, but she declined to provide any specifics of the operation.

Washington state legalized adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana last fall, but marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

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