New Field Poll shows 48 percent oppose Prop. 19

 Legalization, Marijuana News
Jul 092010
 

Most Californians know that voters will decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use come November, but they’re not so sure they’ll be voting yes, according to Field Poll results released today. More than 75 percent of likely voters surveyed had heard of Proposition 19, the Sacramento Bee reports, but 48 percent said they were likely to vote no. Forty-four percent said they would support the ballot measure, which would also allow pot to be regulated and taxed. It was backed by Democrats, white voters and voters under 25 and held a significant advantage in [...]

RAND study: Legalization will drop pot prices; taxes the big question

 Legalization, Marijuana News
Jul 082010
 

Legalizing pot may drop the price of a marijuana cigarette to as little as $1.50 in California, but taxing weed may create a whole new black market, according to a new RAND Corp. study. The six-month study, released Wednesday by the renowned Santa Monica-based think tank, provides fuel for both sides of the debate over whether California should legalize marijuana for recreational use, the Sacramento Bee reports. The study said legalizing marijuana in California would drop the price of pot by more than 80 percent and increase consumption. It also said California could generate annual [...]

Interactive map shows county-by-county marijuana arrests

 Law Enforcement, Marijuana Law, Marijuana News
Jul 032010
 

Later this year, California residents will vote on an initiative that would legalize marijuana in the state. Meanwhile, law enforcement officers continue to arrest tens of thousands of residents on pot charges, the Merced Sun-Star reports, and some counties bust a much higher proportion of their residents than others. Click the link above to check out the Sun-Star’s interactive map of marijuana arrests, freshly updated with the most recent available data from the California Department of Justice.

Study finds link between teen pot use, relationship problems

 Pot-pourri
Jun 032010
 

Being young involves quite a bit of exciting change. There’s the end of high-school, the start of college and some measure of independence, and a whole slew of new experiences. A recent study conducted by Judith Brooks at NYU School of Medicine has revealed that one of those experiences, smoking marijuana (weed) may be associated with more relationship conflict later in life, Adi Jaffe writes in his Psychology Today blog. What’s amazing about this study is that the drug use here occurred earlier in life for most of the 534 participants, while the relationship trouble [...]

Research shows plenty of promise, concerns about marijuana use

 Government, Medical marijuana
May 182010
 

Rickey Yuhre didn’t need an $8.7 million California medical marijuana study to tell him that pot eased his suffering. The 53-year-old former diesel truck mechanic and welder has pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic and debilitating disease of the lungs. He has fused vertebrae in his neck due to severe nerve damage, “Weed Wars” blogger/reporter Peter Hecht writes in the Sacramento Bee. Pain meds and relaxants – Oxycontin, Vicodin, Neurontin, Valium – only turned his insides out with nausea. And so he started using a special “vapor box” to medicate with marijuana without smoking. “It brought things [...]

Synthetic marijuana product starting to gain notice in California

 Business, Law Enforcement, Pot-pourri
May 032010
 

Sitting behind a glass case on the counter of Less Smoke Shop on Eureka Way in Redding is a marijuana alternative that is potent, won’t show up on drug tests and is perfectly legal. It’s called Black Mamba. Sold in round, quarter-ounce, clear plastic containers, the substance looks similar to the dried herbs Aunt Molly would stir into her spaghetti sauce, Amanda Winters reports in the Redding Record-Searchlight. But officials say the herbal blend has the power to increase blood pressure, cause paranoia, agitation, hallucinations and get users very, very high. In the Midwest, where [...]

Psychedelics conference attendees urge more research of medical uses

 Pot-pourri
Apr 192010
 

One speaker introduced his mom. Another thanked his wife and kids. And at the closing ceremony of the Psychedelic Science conference in San Jose, the crowd of 1,000 stood up and applauded in appreciation of each other. The “tune in, turn on” bacchanalian generation has matured into a gentler “take care, take notes” cadre of therapists, nurses, social workers and spiritual explorers, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The sold-out conference, the largest gathering on psychedelic science in four decades, was a forum to exchange news about small, preliminary and still inconclusive studies to treat [...]

Study finds link between teen pot use, lack of sleep

 Pot-pourri
Mar 312010
 

Teenagers short of sleep are more likely to become marijuana users, according to a recent study led by a researcher from UC San Diego. The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Aging and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, mapped the social interactions of 8,349 adolescents in grades 7 through 12. It concluded that drug use among teens increased by 19 percent among those who sleep less than seven hours a night, the Sacramento Bee’s “Weed Wars” blog reports. It also noted that sleep behaviors of teens [...]

A few caveats about research linking psychosis, cannabis

 Medical marijuana, Pot-pourri
Mar 032010
 

I’m sorta glad that I delayed posting anything sooner about new research showing long-term cannabis use in youth can be linked to psychosis later in life. This well-written article arrives courtesy of L.A. Times Health and Science Editor Tami Dennis; careful reading is recommended. ================ Early, and then continued, use of marijuana does seem to be associated with an increased risk of psychosis and hallucinations, but allow us to quell some incipient panic. Caveats, after all, are our specialty. Previous studies had found a link (not necessarily a cause or effect) between cannabis use and [...]

Press-Democrat editorial: Research offers useful tool to tighten medipot rules

 Business, Cultivation, Dispensaries, Government, Medical marijuana, Opinion
Feb 252010
 

The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat urges tighter regulation of medipot in this editorial, but its proposed solutions are every bit as vague as the law itself. Strangely absent is any mention of legalization, perhaps the most useful tool available to cure what ails the medipot industry. Guess I’ll have to write my own editorial… ==================== Anecdotal evidence of marijuana’s medicinal value is nothing new. People with debilitating diseases including AIDS, cancer, glaucoma have long said that marijuana relieves pain and eases other symptoms in ways that conventional drugs don’t. Their stories moved voters in 1996 when [...]

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