News

THE Queensland Premier says he has an open mind about legalising marijuana for medical purposes but will rely on the advice of national health experts.

Blacks were disproportionately cited by Seattle police for consuming pot in public in the first six months of 2014.

Fires a Business Setback Evacuations, Road Closures Hinder Product Delivery Columbia River Cannabis in Douglas County was finally close to getting a marijuana-producer license after nine months.

Libs Soften Stance on Medicinal Cannabis THE State Government has signalled it could step back from its ban on a medicinal cannabis trial under pressure to grow the hemp industry in Tasmania.

Opinions

Anyone arguing that the constitutional amendment to allow medical marijuana in Florida is inherently flawed because it leaves broad authority to the state Department of Health should look to SB1030 to see what happens when the department is not given such broad authority to do its job.

Dear Stoner: My dad lives in Aurora, and we're coming out for his 75th birthday party. My wife has never smoked pot (or anything, not even cigarettes) but suffers from chronic migraines. She wants to try a pot edible, but I heard that pot can only be purchased by non-residents in smokable form. Can non-residents buy edibles?

Pot testing offered The handful of cannabis-testing laboratories in Colorado may be flush with business, but because of a rule implemented earlier this year by the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, it's only coming from industry growers and retail centers. Individuals wanting specific information about their weed have been left out.

HOOKED ON LEGALIZATION Three or four nights a week in San Francisco, a group of people shuffle into an anonymous meeting hall. The bitter scent of freshly stamped-out cigarettes follows them inside where, sitting on function-hall furniture with cups of cheap coffee in hand, they tell their war stories. Getting stoned and missing work. Or getting stoned and being thrown out of school, and losing their grip on life, thanks to the world's most common drug.

Letters

Re "Hemp in our future" (Greenways, by David Downs, July 17): It would be a lot quicker for a potential hemp farmer to get into federal court in a declaratory judgment lawsuit and have the court declare the federal classification of marijuana as a controlled substance is arbitrary, unreasonable and unnecessary use of police power and is unconstitutional. To declare the use of police power to threaten to deprive hemp farmers' fundamental rights is not justified by a compelling state interest. Declaring the use of police power is not protecting the rights of others. Declaring the proscription of hemp is property discrimination and the use of police power is unreasonable deprivation of plaintiff's fundamental rights to liberty, to property, to privacy, to be secure against unreasonable government intrusion contravening Amendments IV and V of the Constitution of the United States.

"Communities look to regulate e-cigarettes," July 22 news story. "You can vaporize cocaine, you can vaporize marijuana, you can vaporize methamphetamine. You do not know what's in those vaporizers, " says Golden Police Chief Bill Kilpatrick. Let's explore the chief's logic:

Re "Cannabis lessons" (SN&R Editorial, July 17): Regarding your thoughtful July 17 Editorial, California needs to catch up with Colorado and Washington. California already has de facto legalization, but some California legislators want to restrict medical-marijuana access. This would be a backward move. Marijuana prohibition provides no societal benefit whatsoever. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply-and-demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees.

Re: Lots of buzz over first pot licences, July 8 (and related stories) Now that neighbouring Washington state and Colorado have legalized marijuana, Ottawa can no longer claim Canada must maintain marijuana prohibition to maintain good U.S. relations. The Canadian Senate in 2002 offered a common-sense alternative to marijuana prohibition when the special committee on illegal drugs concluded marijuana is relatively benign, prohibition contributes to organized crime, and law enforcement efforts have little impact on patterns of use.

Your editorial ("Free medicinal pot - only in Berkeley," July 20) makes the assertion: "Reality check II: Regular pot can take a toll on motivation, judgment and attention to detail." That point should be rebutted by the likes of Michael Phelps, Steve Jobs, Barack Obama and Carl Sagan. I've done OK with a lifetime of cannabis use, starting five decades ago.

Let us accept these children from Central America with grace (July 17). The hellish circumstances they came from are caused, in good part, by our own drug use. It's these drugs that feed the drug cartels and gang culture these kids are running away from to come to the U.S. We are the well from whom these children draw their misery. So let's bite the bullet ... and be generous.

I am very glad the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the will of Massachusetts voters by ruling that the smell of unburnt marijuana can no longer justify searches ("Court marijuana ruling can't pass sniff test, police say," July 10). But I was disappointed in the fearmongering by critics of the ruling.