Despite the glamorization on the hit Showtime series ‘Weeds’, flashy documentaries on CNBC delving into the business side of California’s multi-billion dollar annual cannabis industry derived from Californian’s unprecedented 13-year old legal access to medical cannabis products—qualifying patients in the state (and there are hundreds of thousands of them currently) can access high-quality medical cannabis via 24/7 vending machines in cities like Los Angeles—is Rhode Island the little state that is saying ‘yes we cannabis’ the loudest via their legislature?

‘Californication’ Of Cannabis
While California is clearly at the vanguard of implementing major legal and policy changes in seeming conflict with the federal government’s 72-year old cannabis prohibition laws, in fact little ol’ Rhode Island is on the precipice of effectively breaking the federal government’s ban on the cultivation and sale of cannabis by joining New Mexico as the only states favoring medical cannabis laws to have state-sanctioned medical cannabis cultivators and retail outlets for qualifying medical patients.

While there are an estimated 1,800-2,000 medical cannabis dispensaries (or in the new post Mentch parlance, cannabis wellness centers) in California alone, few of them are genuinely, legally sanctioned under state laws to sell cannabis in a retail environment. However, this blooming of cannabis wellness centers in California has happened under the full view of law enforcement, state policy makers and the public health community. Californians have ‘Main Street’ access to cannabis in many parts of the Golden State, which has evolved entirely organically—in other words, the mores and values of most Californians largely accept cannabis use, whether for recreational or medicinal purposes.

A recent Field poll of California voters affirms this with 56% support for outright legalization.

In Rhode Island, there is no highly refined ‘cannabis culture’, or longstanding public cannabis law reform efforts to speak of—unlike Californians that have publicly debated ‘legalizing’ cannabis on numerous statewide ballot initiatives and legislative proposals going back to the early 1970s—yet, Rhode Island’s legislators, from both parties and chambers, in opposition to the Governor and numerous federal government’s anti-drug bureaucracies (i.e., DEA, ONDCP, NIDA, DOJ, FBI, etc…) first passed a ‘self-preservation’ medical cannabis law two years ago [a ‘self-preservation’ medical cannabis model is defined as a qualified patient, for which a severely limited number of medical ailments qualify for cannabis use (i.e., Cancer, AIDS, Glaucoma, Epilepsy and MS), can legally possess or grow a small amount of cannabis; there is no legal retail access to cannabis, seeds or plant cuttings (clones)].

The Little State That Says To Washington: ‘Yes We Cannabis!’
However, Rhode Island legislators, only two years after passage of the original medical cannabis laws, recognized that a self-preservation model is inadequate to serve the needs of sick, dying or sense-threatened patients who need whole-smoked cannabis and edibles. Again, in full opposition to the Governor and federal agencies, overrode their second veto to establish Rhode Island as the first bona fide state to legally sanction and license third parties to cultivate and sell cannabis (in the case of Rhode Island, the recent medical cannabis legislation has provided initial approval to three medical cannabis wellness centers for the entire state).

While New Mexico may have officially been the first state to pass legislation in 2007 that allows for the state-sanctioned distribution of medical cannabis to qualified patients, the medical cannabis program has been very slow to get-off-the-ground, and to date has issued a single permit, and no medical cannabis is expected to be lawfully sold in New Mexico for at least another 6 months to a year. Rhode Island, at its current breakneck speed of passing pro-medical cannabis law reforms, will very likely be the first state out of the gate to effectively end the federal government’s complete prohibition against cannabis distribution by cultivating and harvesting a crop of medical cannabis by early fall.

The Major Legal and Policy Implications Sparked By Rhode Island
If past serves as prologue, under the prior four presidential administrations (Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush), their Departments of Justice most certainly would have raced to federal court and sought to have any state law that allowed medical cannabis to be cultivated and distributed found to be in clear violation of the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, The Single Convention Treaty of 1961 (the international treaty that effectively made cannabis illegal throughout the world) and stare decisis.

Even numerous full-throated law reformers would concede the strong position the federal government had attained after eight decades of zealous enforcement of anti-cannabis laws.

However, Rhode Island’s challenge to the federal government’s cannabis prohibition becomes increasingly interesting to political observers and policy wonks in light of President Obama’s decidedly different take on the latitude he is comfortable providing states to craft their own medical cannabis laws.

To wit, 1) Attorney General Holder indicated in February that the DEA is no longer going to target and harass state compliant medical cannabis providers in states that adopt medical cannabis laws, and 2) In May, the executive branch issued a memorandum, interestingly entitled, ‘Preemption’ to all federal agency heads, in effect instructing them to no longer oppose states (or their voters) seeking greater autonomy to pass laws that may possibly be in conflict with federal laws (i.e., medical cannabis laws, etc…), and to only oppose them if there is a positive conflict with federal laws resulting in genuine risks to national security.

While it is hard to swing a dead cat in the Los Angeles-area these days without hitting the cued up patrons of medical cannabis wellness centers, Rhode Island looks to be the very first state to officially end cannabis prohibition, and the feds appear ready to stand down.

Now, if you’re a cannabis consumer or lover of liberty, this is ‘change’ one can believe in!

Allen St. Pierre is a native of Chatham and the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in Washington, D.C.

To date, a dozen other states (HI, AK, WA, OR, CA, NV, NM, CO, MT, MI, RI and VT) have enacted similar laws.  However, only in Maine are patients without the guidance of a state registry.

A recent attempt to pass amending legislation failed to advance in the recent legislative session that would have allowed authorized patients to be issued state-issued identification cards notifying law enforcement officials of their legal status.  This is a common-sense measure that would save law enforcement officials time and effort, and likely reduce potential abuse under the law.

Further, the legislation sought to issue guidelines for the distribution of medicinal cannabis by state-approved non-profit entities.  Other states, like New Mexico, have approved similar regulations, and recently U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder pledged that such facilities would not be targeted by federal law enforcement.

As introduced, the proposal sought to amend the state's decade-old medical cannabis law by establishing a confidential patient registry and allowing for state-licensed nonprofit dispensaries to assist in the distribution of medical cannabis to qualified patients.

Because of the legislative punt on LD 975, voters in Maine will have an opportunity to vote on a similarly worded initiative this fall.

Also, with little to no prodding from advocacy groups like NORML, the Maine legislature recently passed an amendment to the state’s nearly 30-year old cannabis ‘decriminalization’ laws for possession (LD 250).

As approved by the legislature, possession of over 1.25 ounces but less than two and one-half ounces of marijuana will also be defined as a civil offense, punishable by a fine of $700 to $1,000 dollars. (Civil fines for the possession of less than 1.25 ounces of marijuana will remain the same at $350-$600.) The measure also removes the inference that possession of quantities of marijuana above 1.25 ounces but less than 2.5 ounces are presumed to be for sale.

The proposal awaits action by Governor John Baldacci.

Are these cannabis reforms in Maine necessarily bold or aberrational? Hardly.

Thirteen states, including reflecting over one-third of the US population, have inconsequentially had cannabis decriminalization laws on the books since the 1970s. Some decriminalized states, such as Ohio, adult cannabis consumers can possess up to 3.5 ounces of cannabis; Alaskan adults who possess one ounce or below of cannabis face no penalty what so ever and zero fine.

Further, in states with medical cannabis patient protection laws, such as California and Colorado, patients in compliance with state laws can lawfully access their medical cannabis products from twenty-four seven vending machines.

From a New England perspective, Rhode Island is poised to be the next state to provide medical cannabis patients genuine access to cannabis products via state-run or certified non-profit organizations. Lastly, New Hampshire's legislature just passed a medical cannabis bill, leaving Masschusetts and Connecticut as the only New England states without legal protections for sick, dying or sense-threatened medical patients who use cannabis.

With all of these positive reforms curently underway in states like Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, one has to seriously wonder why a minority of law enforcement officials and their political overseers in Massachusetts have resisted the will of 65% of the state's voters who opted for cannabis decriminalization this past November.

What are they thinking?

For information about Maine’s medical cannabis initiative, contact Maine Citizens for Patients Rights, 207-333-6985, info@mainecommonsense.org.

Allen St. Pierre is a native of Chatham and the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in Washington, D.C.

As some Massachusetts politicians and law enforcement officials just 'don't get it' regarding the general public's desire for cannabis law reforms, they can now watch the ever peaceful  'reefer revolution' on their favorite cable show...

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation (NORML Foundation) a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, established in 1997, is purchasing advertising time on selective cable outlets to underscore the urgency of decriminalizing cannabis.

The NORML Foundation launched this pro-marijuana ad campaign to create further political pressure on the federal government to recognize 1) the ever-increasing support of Americans who favor cannabis legalization, 2) the clear sea change of cannabis laws that’s been happening at the state level since Californians voted in favor of medicinal access to cannabis in 1996, and 3) to rally cannabis consumers and anti-prohibitionists on April 20, a date on the calendar that has organically become a national day to both publicly celebrate cannabis as well as protest 70 years of prohibition.

The featured ad is the winner of NORML’s recent user-generated-content contest that asks NORML supporters: ‘What would you say to President Obama about legalizing marijuana?’
 
New Jersey college student and up and coming filmmaker Jason Druss created the winning submission and is the recipient of the contest's $3,500 cash grand prize after 6500 votes were cast on NORML's webpage. "It's time for President Obama to endorse cannabis law reform where it is legally controlled and taxed like alcohol and tobacco products," stated Jason Druss. "It's shocking that students can lose out from federal student loans for possessing a few joints, when pot's been part of the college culture for decades.'

Marijuana, By the Numbers…
Thirteen states (with a population base of 115 million Americans) have decriminalized cannabis possession; thirteen states (with a population base of 75 million Americans) now have medical cannabis laws. Additionally, more states than ever before are debating cannabis law reform, including California and Massachusetts where legalization legislation have been introduced.

Since 1965, over 20 million Americans have been arrested on cannabis-related charges—90% for possession-only; over 900,000 cannabis arrests are expected again this year. According to numerous survey and polls, approximately 75% of Americans support medical access to cannabis; 73% favor decriminalizing cannabis possession for adults and 42% of Americans support legalizing cannabis.

7,700 NORML Foundation ads are appearing on cable outlets nationwide (with a strong media buy in Ohio) on CNN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, Fuse, FX Networks, G4, MSNBC, CNN’s Headline News and Spike TV.

NORML's ad campaign and '4/20' related events at the first collegiate National Marijuana Forum at the University of Colorado were covered in the New York Times.

I hope you enjoy the ads on Cape Cod as many donations from the region made the ad buys possible. Many Thanks!
 

However, what group of citizens in America are standing before the government and media, jumping up and down, effectively begging to be taxed?

The estimated 35-40 million cannabis  consumers, joined by non-consuming anti-prohibitionists, are calling on the government this Wednesday, Tax Day,  to end 70-years of a failed prohibition, and replace it with logical alternatives to prohibition--such as actually controlling cannabis production, sales and use via taxation.

In Massachusetts, how does the commonwealth 'control' deadly, addictive and dangerous products like alcohol and tobacco? Last I checked they employ a decidedly low tech, low cost and effective solution: a tax stamp

Found on the bottom of the cellophane packaging on every pack of 'coffin nails' lawfully sold at the retail level in Massachusetts is what? A little tax stamp.

When a bottle of liquor is lawfully purchased in Massachusetts, what does the adult consumer have to do to access the dangerous drug? They have to physically break the state-issued and coded tax stamp to take the cap off the bottle.

Who says state and federal government can't actually control 'drugs'? Ever heard of the division of the US Treasury called BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms)?

At 8:00 AM on Wednesday, April 15, Tax Day, representatives from NORML, including myself, will convene a press conference in New York City, at the steps of the main Post Office in Manhattan, where we will present a check for $14 billion to the US Treasury, which represents the annual costs of cannabis prohibition conservatively arrived at by Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Miron.

I say conservative because I've seen credible estimates that $14 billion of cannabis is consumed annually in California alone.

In these tough, seriously recessionary times in our economy--just as with the ending of alcohol prohibition brought on by the Great Depression--elected policy makers need to look for untapped revenue sources and to reduce government expenses, and there are millions of Americans ready and able to help reduce the burden on taxpayers and cut ineffective government spending by replacing cannabis prohibition with cannabis control.

Check out NORML's webpage on Tax Day for updates and media interviews.

Allen St. Pierre is a native of Chatham and the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in Washington, D.C.

When I say that a continuation of cannabis prohibition is ‘killing us’ and that cannabis consumers and the general public can no longer passively sit by, I think it hardly hyperbole when one considers some of these brief examples from the past few months:

*Because of both our country’s ever-increasing zeal for incarceration and private industry performing traditional government functions, a tragedy of justice against youthful offenders is made possible daily as exampled recently in Pennsylvania where two corrupt judges received kickbacks from builders and owners of private prison facilities. The judges pleaded guilty to receiving $2.6 million in kickbacks in return for sentencing youth to prison for minor crimes—notably cannabis offenses.

*Three former Atlanta cops pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges of planting baggies of cannabis on 92-year old Kathryn Johnston after they killed her in a barrage of bullets in the service of the highly questionable law enforcement practice of conducting a ‘no-knock’ warrant searching for ‘drugs’. The Atlanta cops received federal sentences ranging from 5 to 10 years.

*A young man was found dead after hanging himself in a Spokane County jail cell. How did this come to be for a 24-year old world-class mountain biker and trail architect who’d never run afoul of the law before? Looking to participate in the hyper-quick profits provided by cannabis prohibition, Sam got popped by the federal government’s DEA in a bold 430-pound cannabis smuggling case involving flying a helicopter from Canada to Washington State, and when confronted by his public defender in jail awaiting trial that the feds were looking for a mandatory 10 years to life sentence, he tragically ended his life.

Had Sam Lindsay-Brown been caught on the Canadian side of the border with weight, or in most any country in Europe, he’d likely had faced a multi-month sentence, not a 10-years to life sentence!

Lastly, even in an America with Obama as president, a relaxation of medical marijuana laws and the highest percentage ever recorded of Americans who support cannabis law reforms, a Michigan college student like Derek Copp can still be ‘chillin’ at home, when, the next thing one knows there is a knock at the door, police scream, gunfire ensues, and persons are hurt or killed; for no more than possessing a few grams of dried vegetable matter with mild psychoactive properties (and, ironically, terrific untapped therapeutic effects and industrial uses).

Tired of cannabis prohibition after seventy years? Ready to come out of your smoke-filled closet? Ever want to attend a huge, fun and informative conference with like-minded cannabis consumers? Make plans to attend the 38th annual NORML conference this September in San Francisco so that America, in our lifetimes, will stop shooting peaceful, pot-smoking college students; trying to frame little ol’ ladies as being a ‘drug dealer’ as an excuse for killing them; and tolerating corrupt judges sending our youth to private, for-profit prisons for minor cannabis offenses.

Allen St. Pierre is the Executive Director of NORML. Details about NORML’s 2009 national conference in San Francisco will soon be posted at www.norml.org.

President Obama, what could possibly elicit laughter about a cannabis-related arrest occurring every 38 seconds (872,000 annual cannabis arrests; 90% for possession only), 20 million arrests since 1965, approximately 85,000 cannabis-only incarcerations that costs taxpayers tens of billions a year; thousands of medical patients are denied access to a safe/non-toxic medicine and the American farmer alone in the world not cultivating non-psychoactive cannabis (historically known as hemp) for industrial purposes?

I’m keen to give deference to a new President who has, just to name a few items, two unpopular and expensive wars on his hands, along with possibly the worse economy since the early 1930s. But I know that millions of Americans shared my disbelief and tinge of anger when, after soliciting the American people for their top economic concerns to be posted to a government webpage, President Obama provided a left-handed acknowledgement that the topic of marijuana legalization was a very popular one among Internet users (it was in fact the #1 economic concern expressed by Americans), and then chuckled that he ‘didn’t think that legalization was a good idea or a way to help grow the economy’. (See the Obama video below on right.)

The national headlines and blowback by the ‘Netroots’ were both immediate and critical
Columnists from The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan to The Boston Herald's Margery Eagan opine about how Obama should not have been so dismissive, especially in the face of what currently appears to be very strong public support for cannabis law reform, to the point of legalization, which is being debated in the legislatures of California and Massachusetts.

I’ve just read a brand new survey released from California indicating that 54% of citizens support legalizing cannabis; almost 60% believe the regulations should be the same or less than those for alcohol.

Mr. President, when California, the 8th largest economy in the world (and most influential state in the Union), and your largest base of financial, cultural and political support is moving towards adopting practical, cost-effective alternatives to cannabis prohibition, you can’t laugh that off.
Allen St. Pierre is a native of Chatham and the executive director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in Washington, D.C.

Maybe it is a matter of pride and tolerance, mixed in with a dash of frugality, but if I'm not mistaken Massachusetts has finally awaken from decades of passively watching the west coast of America move the country away from 70-years of a taxpayer-funded, feckless cannabis prohibition.

Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 100 million Americans.

The clear pro-reform mandate delivered by the voters of the Commonwealth last November in favor of formalizing the state's cannabis decriminalization law enforcement practices, 65% of voters-voting in favor of reform in the majority sans for all but three Bay State municipalities-places the state in the pantheon of pro-pot states that have effectively decriminalized cannabis, from west to east: Alaska, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Maine and, as of 2009, Massachusetts.

Now over 115 million citizens live in the 13 states where cannabis decriminalization has occurred-equaling over one-third America's population.

What will bring the Bay State up to par with pretty much all of the west coast and Rocky Mountain region? Medical access to cannabis and a genuine public debate about the state legally controlling cannabis, and taxing it, in a similar manner to alcohol and tobacco products (California's legislature will debating a pro-legalization bill in the coming days that has really caught the attention of the national media).

Read my Op Ed piece "Cops have to obey the law too" here.

The former will occur in the form of a 2010 ballot initiative in Massachusetts, when citizens will likely pass a binding measure that allows qualifying medical patients lawful access to whole-smoked cannabis products at supportive levels similar to Massachusetts' new decriminalization law, the latter was introduced on Friday in the form of comprehensive cannabis legalization legislation by Amherst-area state senator Stanley Rosenberg.

A medical cannabis access bill has also been dropped into the legislative hopper by state representative Frank Smizik (though, I personally think the 2010 ballot initiative will eventually deliver some form of patient protections and access to medical cannabis rather than Rep. Smizik's bill).

Just say "NO" to pols who ignore the voter's wishes

From here in Washington, DC it looks like there will be more than just pine pollen in the air this year in New England.

In addition, Senator Scott Brown has introduced a bill to effectively nullify the voters' want for decriminalization by making it a $1,000 fine to possess cannabis in an automobile. What nonsense! If dangerous and addictive drugs like alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals can be possessed in an automobile, why shouldn't cannabis if the voters chose to stop these kinds of expensive and constitutional twisting encounters with citizens?

Massachusetts is not the only New England state looking to ‘westernize' their cannabis laws as Connecticut is looking at both decriminalization and medical bills; Rhode Island seeks to join New Mexico in passing legislation that allows the state to license the production and sales of medical cannabis to qualified patients; New Hampshire's legislature is debating a medical access bill; Vermont is looking to go beyond medical cannabis and formally adopt decriminalization for possession amounts and Maine legislators are reviewing a proposal to expand the states thirty-year old decriminalization laws.

From here in Washington, DC it looks like there will be more than just pine pollen in the air this year in New England.

• 13 states with cannabis decriminalization:
• Medical legislation in MA:
• Legalization legislation in MA:
• Penalize Cannabis In An Auto Legislation in MA: