U.S. to yield marijuana jurisdiction to states

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama - who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana - will end raids on pot dispensaries in California.

Asked at a Washington news conference Wednesday about Drug Enforcement Administration raids in California since Obama took office last month, Holder said the administration has changed its policy.

"What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement," he said. "What he said during the campaign is now American policy."

Bill Piper, national affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a marijuana advocacy group, said the statement is encouraging.

"I think it definitely signals that Obama is moving in a new direction, that it means what he said on the campaign trail that marijuana should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue," he said.

Piper said Obama has also indicated he will drop the federal government's long-standing opposition to health officials' needle-exchange programs for drug users.

During one campaign appearance, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He told an interviewer in March that it was "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors."

After the federal Drug Enforcement Agency raided a marijuana dispensary at South Lake Tahoe on Jan. 22, two days after Obama's inauguration, and four others in the Los Angeles area on Feb. 2, White House spokesman Nick Schapiro responded to advocacy groups' protests by noting that Obama had not yet appointed his drug policy team.

"The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws" and expects his appointees to follow that policy, Schapiro said.

The federal government has fought state medicinal pot laws since Californians voted in 1996 to repeal criminal penalties for medical use of marijuana.

President Bill Clinton's administration won a Supreme Court case, originating in Oakland, that allowed federal authorities to shut down nonprofit organizations that supplied medical marijuana to their members. Clinton's Justice Department was thwarted by federal courts in an attempt to punish California doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients.

President George W. Bush's administration went further, raiding medical marijuana growers and clinics, prosecuting suppliers under federal drug laws after winning another Supreme Court case and pressuring commercial property owners to evict marijuana dispensaries by threatening legal action.

The Bush administration also blocked a University of Massachusetts researcher's attempt to grow marijuana for studies of its medical properties. Piper, of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he hopes Obama will reverse that position.

"If you removed the obstacles to research," he said, "in 10 to 15 years, marijuana will be available in pharmacies."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../MN2016651R.DTL

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

NIDA InfoFacts: Marijuana

What Other Adverse Effect Does Marijuana Have on Health?

Effects on the Heart

One study found that an abuser’s risk of heart attack more than quadruples in the first hour after smoking marijuana.⁷ The researchers suggest that such an outcome might occur from marijuana’s effects on blood pressure and heart rate (it increases both) and reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.

Effects on the Lungs

Numerous studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke. Marijuana users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which further increases the lungs’ exposure to carcinogenic smoke. Marijuana smokers show dysregulated growth of epithelial cells in their lung tissue, which could lead to cancer;⁸ however, a recent case-controlled study found no positive associations between marijuana use and lung, upper respiratory, or upper digestive tract cancers.⁹ Thus, the link between marijuana smoking and these cancers remains unsubstantiated at this time.

Nonetheless, marijuana smokers can have many of the same respiratory problems as tobacco smokers, such as daily cough and phlegm production, more frequent acute chest illness, a heightened risk of lung infections, and a greater tendency toward obstructed airways. A study of 450 individuals found that people who smoke marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health problems and miss more days of work than nonsmokers.¹⁰ Many of the extra sick days among the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses.

Effects on Daily Life

Research clearly demonstrates that marijuana has the potential to cause problems in daily life or make a person’s existing problems worse. In one study, heavy marijuana abusers reported that the drug impaired several important measures of life achievement including physical and mental health, cognitive abilities, social life, and career status.¹¹ Several studies associate workers’ marijuana smoking with increased absences, tardiness, accidents, workers’ compensation claims, and job turnover.

http://www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Alcohol and tobacco are far worse. But I really don't care what someone does to their own body. Not my business.

[dalegg 143]

Sell it and tax it. Tax the hell out of it. This is the answer to our economic woes. Marijuana is like the cheapest product to make. All of the costs paid right now are for security so you take that out of the equation and you could impose a 100% tax on the product and it would still be half the cost of what you have to pay now.

[Ban Hammer 13,643]

ah cool, legalize pot and watch all the hippies die off.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I just want to say thank you Boston for saying you are friendly. I will be applying to all 52 colleges for my Masters Degree. You are the mecca of higher education!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

ah cool, legalize pot and watch all the hippies die off.

I'm watching the 'squares' die off from cigarettes and Jack Daniels as we speak.

[tmma 467]

Legalize it.

Same with prostitution.

[Nagishkaw 510]

ah cool, legalize pot and watch all the hippies die off.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Sell it and tax it. Tax the hell out of it. This is the answer to our economic woes. Marijuana is like the cheapest product to make. All of the costs paid right now are for security so you take that out of the equation and you could impose a 100% tax on the product and it would still be half the cost of what you have to pay now.

[I'm Gone 60]

Shut down the DEA. War on drugs another war that has failed and wasted billions

[Yoink 7]

many people will be up in smoke if marijuanna is legalized

[Peikko 1,575]

many people will be up in smoke if marijuanna is legalized

Marijuana causes spontaneous combustion?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

many people will be up in smoke if marijuanna is legalized

Marijuana causes spontaneous combustion?

Spontaneous combustion has been debunked.

[sj5 4]

many people will be up in smoke if marijuanna is legalized

Not me, even they pay me to smoke marijuana.