Jeebus, aNOTHer pot thread?

[Velokid1]

I just thought this made for an interesting image. Arizona will be the 15th state (or 16th if South Dakota passes their med marijuana bill the same day) come November 2nd.

This map doesn't include any of the non-Western U.S., of course.

[albumimg]3049[/albumimg]

[glasseye]

Doggone Idaho.

[MeyerII]

Doggone Idaho.

They're weird enough over there without it!

 

[Velokid1]

Some people could use a little ganja to *get normal*.

[skin daddio]

i'm praying for utah.

[DjEep]

Can I use this opportunity to say I can't stand life-stylers?

Pot is great, but t'ain't a reason to live.

And while I avidly support Medical Marijuana, I am also an ardent opponent of "Medical" Marijuana.

So many people I know hide behind the medical laws, and smile and wink and nod their way through the day.

"Hey, want some 'medicine'?" wink, wink....

Stinks to me. I prefer honesty.

[JLT]

I just thought this made for an interesting image. Arizona will be the 15th state (or 16th if South Dakota passes their med marijuana bill the same day) come November 2nd.

But the weird thing about this situation is that while these states have medical marijuana laws, they aren't reciprocal (except for, I believe, California and Montana). In other words, you can be busted for pot possesion in Oregon even if you have a California doctor's prescription for pot. And your Oregon prescription won't cut any ice in California. And forget about getting your prescription filled when you're traveling out of state.

I'm glad that saner heads (no pun intended) are beginning to prevail, but the laws are still very crazy-quilt. And the status of put under Federal law isn't making the issue any clearer.

[Robert Berglund]

Door to door delivery is available for those too lazy/sick/wasted/fat/busy/ to go down to the club for their own medicine.

Last week in Richmond California a driver was held up and the guy lost $1000.00 cash and a LB of Humbolt.

Scuttlebut is the "workers" are going Union. They are negotiating with the Hotel/Hospitality/Servers Union.

Dont smoke but sure like how it smells.

[ruckman101]

All that winkin' jeopordizes the entire program. Selfish bastids gonna ruin it for folks that need it.


neal

[JLT]

I just thought this made for an interesting image. Arizona will be the 15th state (or 16th if South Dakota passes their med marijuana bill the same day) come November 2nd.

But the weird thing about this situation is that while these states have medical marijuana laws, they aren't reciprocal (except for, I believe, California and Montana). In other words, you can be busted for pot possession in Oregon even if you have a California doctor's prescription for pot. And your Oregon prescription won't cut any ice in California. And forget about getting your prescription filled when you're traveling out of state.

I'm glad that saner heads (no pun intended) are beginning to prevail, but the laws are still very crazy-quilt. And the status of put under Federal law isn't making the issue any clearer.

[Velokid1]

But the weird thing about this situation is that while these states have medical marijuana laws, they aren't reciprocal (except for, I believe, California and Montana). In other words, you can be busted for pot possesion in Oregon even if you have a California doctor's prescription for pot. And your Oregon prescription won't cut any ice in California. And forget about getting your prescription filled when you're traveling out of state.

I'm glad that saner heads (no pun intended) are beginning to prevail, but the laws are still very crazy-quilt. And the status of put under Federal law isn't making the issue any clearer.

The potential for reciprocal laws is what I'm getting at here with my "Green Belt" map. Arizona is a big ol' glaring gap in what would otherwise be a string of thousands of miles of states with shared borders. I see reciprocal laws for people who hold cards, and I also see over the next 5-10 years, interstate commerce. In other words, you grow on an acre in Arizona and are permitted to sell to dispensaries in New Mexico or California.

Along with that, I also see an ounce of cannabis costing $75. $25 to the grower, $25 to the retailer, and $25 to the government in taxes. The black market will cease to exist in states with med laws. The bible thumpers who lag behind in their states will become the culprit for the continued black market in their states.

As for the rest, there are thousands of sick people who are helped by marijuana in profound ways. I mean that literally... profound. There are two dozen ailments for which pharmaceutical companies do not have a drug that stands up to marijuana. Now, some of those ailments are very serious... cancer, wasting, muscle spasms, severe pain, nerve damage, Crohn's disease, Hepatitis. But some of those ailments are far more common and less severe... headaches, muscle pain, menstrual cramps, morning sickness, motion sickness, anxiety.

If I want a med card because I get severe nausea 2x per year from the flu or food poisoning, I'm going to get a card. And I'm justified in doing so. If I get headaches 2x per week, same thing. If I get motion sickness when I drive or fly, same thing.

Now, the fact is that most people don't realize marijuana eases those minor, common ailments. If they did, I bet you more and more people would find welcome relief. And it would rightly be considered medical.

Those people don't realize marijuana is so broadly helpful and still... they vote for med marijuana laws, even though they know/think they're secretly voting for "medical" marijuana, i.e. regulation of recreational use. Voters aren't being misled, they just realize that this is the only way to bring down Prohibition. Most of them realize what they're voting for.

[turk]

Now you're telling me Jesus was a POTHEAD? I'm sorry but that's crossing the lines I'm reading between.

[Velokid1]

Now you're telling me Jesus was a POTHEAD? I'm sorry but that's crossing the lines I'm reading between.

LOL Everyone knows that Jesus was a car painter.

[glasseye]

The Burning Bush was a cannabis plant.

[bretski]

Thought y'all might find this interesting...just heard it on NPR a few minutes ago:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =127542758

Marijuana's Black Market: Will It Stay Or Will It Go?

In the last nine months, about 65,000 people signed up for Colorado's medical marijuana registry. And many have started shopping at the state's growing number of dispensaries.

The booming industry is creating headaches for state regulators, law enforcement and for one other group — Colorado's drug dealers.

A Pot Dealer's Worst Nightmare

To find out what's going on in the marijuana market, you could talk to economics professors ... or law enforcement ... or defense attorneys. But where better to look for experts than a jam-band concert — like a recent show featuring the Disco Biscuits in Boulder, Colo. A group of girls was trying to score tickets, and talking about scoring pot from "the clubs," or dispensaries.

"I haven't bought weed from anyone besides the clubs since I got my [medical marijuana] card a month and a half ago," one says.

Andreana, Rebecca, and Libby might be a pot dealer's worst nightmare — college girls with disposable incomes and medical marijuana cards. (These students, and others quoted in this story, didn't want their last names used.)

"It's just way safer, it's better quality, and ... I don't know, it's just way easier," one of the students says.

"I don't think I've dealt with, like, a drug dealer in, like, months," says another.

So Why Buy From The Black Market?

A year ago, Colorado only had a handful of dispensaries. Today there are hundreds. And the rules of economics usually dictate that as people move into the above-ground market, the underground shrinks. Patrons in Colorado seem to back up that idea. Dealers complain about a bad economy, about losing customers.

But some people are still buying illegally. And they have their reasons: They're comfortable with a dealer, or they don't like the idea of putting their name on a government registry, even one that's supposed to be confidential. And then there are those like a young man who flew in from the East Coast for the Disco Biscuits show and spent the afternoon price-shopping marijuana.

"We found that if you go to a dispensary, it's more expensive," he says. "You go through a buddy, least expensive. Speaks for itself."

There's no consumer price index for pot in Denver, but police commander Jerry Peters has a pretty good idea of the cost. He heads a drug task force in the metro area.

"An ounce of marijuana goes anywhere between $270, $280 to about $400 an ounce... that we're seeing in the different dispensaries," Peters says. "In the black market, though, when ... we buy an ounce of marijuana, it's about 150 bucks."

That's a 100 percent-plus mark-up just to go legit.

Challenges For Dealers

With a difference like that, Peters thinks there will always be enough price-sensitive pot smokers out there to keep some kind of black market afloat. But the dealers who have stayed underground may soon be seeing a bit more competition.

Until this week, Colorado had no statewide regulations for marijuana dispensaries or growers. And that led to a gold rush of entrepreneurs trying to stake their claim on the market. On Monday, legislators made it harder to get a doctor's recommendation. And the state is outlawing people with felony drug convictions from working in the industry. That could force some dispensary owners back into the black market.

"I've heard this from at least a half-a-dozen people in the past two or three days," says Denver attorney Rob Corry, who specializes in medical marijuana law. "They say, 'I'm easily accustomed to doing it underground, I've done it underground for 10 years and I'll just go right back to it.' "

If Colorado succeeds in closing some of the loopholes in its medical marijuana law, it could be a mixed blessing for the state's dealers. They might regain some market share, but they may also have to fight harder for their piece of it.