First cardholder meeting at our new location this Saturday. Doors open at 11:00am; meeting starts at noon at 322 SE 82nd Ave, Pdx 97216. Remember your proof of OMMP regis...

As a team, we are going to do the untimed one-mile walk. It starts at 8:00am on Sunday, September 19, 2010, and it has the least expensive registration fee. For the same fee, you can Sleep in for t...

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Hemp Headlines

1. NipItInTheBud2010.com news release warns of dangerous mold from marijuana grows
2. New endocannabinoid discovered: 2AG
3. Stupid Stoner Story: People getting busted for bringing pot to court

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Johnny Reeferseed & the High Rollers

• Irie Wednesday: Richie Spice – “Marijuana”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

1. How effective is vaporized cannabis for us in preparing extracts?
2. I want to know if that new fad Carbonite is actually good or not?
3. Will using more cannabinoids make one age slower, resulting in a longer healthier life?
4. Does Cannabis help Gout?
5. Any new studies on cannabis and ADHD?
6. How does cannabis affect fibromyalgia?
7. Can you ask Doc to comment on cannbis and colon cancer… and if edibles would be appropriate in a case where half of the colon has been removed?
8. Can you tell me how effective is cannabis for epilepsy and how long this has been used for the illness?
9. My girlfriend may find out she has Crohn’s disease at the doc’s later. Is there any info you can give me on cannabis being the safest way to treat the disease?

Radical Rant

• Robert Gibbs: The “Professional Left” is “crazy” and “ought to be drug tested”.

NORML Slightly Stoopid Video Contest
How could California use the $1.4 billion generated every year from taxing marijuana? From: NatlNORML Views: 1106 48 ratings Time: 03:52 More in Nonprofits & Activism

Richie Spice (Richell Bonner) was born on September 8, 1971 in Rock Hall, St. Andrew, Jamaica. He is one of the Bonner brothers all of whom are reggae artists, including Pliers and Spanner Banner.

Having gained popularity in the mid 90’s, Spice has performed at all major shows staged locally namely Reggae Sun Splash , White River Reggae Bash, Rebel Salute and many others. Spice has opened shows for the likes of Chaka Demus and Pliers, Spanner Banner and Rita Marley on extensive tours of Europe and the United States 1996-1997.

More recently, a remix of one of his more popular tracks, “Marijuana” by Digital Mystikz’s Coki, re-named “Burnin’” has focused more attention to him in the blossoming dubstep scene coming out of the UK. The original version of “Marijuana” also appears on the “These Are Serious Times” modern reggae compilation on XL Recordings.

Check out Richie Spice at www.myspace.com/inthestreetstoafrica and purchase his music on i-tunes Richie Spice

Download audio file (Richie Spice – Marijuana.mp3)

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The Fire Marshal came by for our final inspection, and we are good to go!  Capacity is no longer an issue at the Cannabis Cafe!  So, we hope to see you at the cardholders meeting this Saturday, August...

That "professional left" is what some might call "your base", Mr. President, and they think you should legalize marijuana.

Washington political news outlet The Hill reports on the recent “professional left” remarks made by the Obama White House’s press secretary Robert Gibbs.  Gibbs was expressing frustration at progressive activists who are complaining that the president hasn’t lived up campaign promises on a number of issues.

The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”

“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”

Over 850,000 of these people will likely be arrested this year and branded "criminal" for the rest of their lives.

I don’t disagree that comparing Obama to Bush is crazy; Bush could push the exact bill he wanted through Congress and Obama can pronounce “nuclear”.  It’s the “drug users are crazy” slur, the “drug test” variant of the “what have you been smoking?” that offends me.  It’s that joking about these drug tests that ruin thousands of lives is a response from an official addressing disappointment in the president.  Considering the vast majority of people who use “drugs” are using cannabis and the tests for “drugs” most often find cannabis metabolites, he’s talking about us, the 22 million* Americans who will use cannabis this year.

Full disclosure: I am one of the “professional left”** and attended that Netroots Nation conference Gibbs is obliquely referencing, representing NORML on a marijuana policy panel.

Republican, Democrat, we still get arrested. (We still have another year worth of George Bush data to collect.)

But NORML is a non-partisan organization, just as arresting marijuana consumers is a bi-partisan shame (4.9 million under Clinton, 6.2 million under Bush, but Clinton’s overall increase in the annual rate was +90% from beginning to end of his term while Bush’s was +17% between 2001 and 2008; we still await the 2009 final year arrest numbers which chronicle the marijuana arrests from the year before… think of the graph as “arrests up to 2009″, not “arrests up to and including 2009″.)

Gibbs said the professional left is not representative of the progressives who organized, campaigned, raised money and ultimately voted for Obama.

Legalization is actually pretty popular right now. More popular than the President and Congress.

Well, we know what President Obama and Robert Gibbs think of those of us who “ought to be drug tested”, especially us online activists in the “professional left” who helped get him elected.  We’re chuckled at when we suggest legalizing marijuana (see videos below), even as more than half of America on some polls – not just Left Blogsylvania – are beginning to think it is a damn good idea and California is voting on the issue this November.  Legalization is more popular than the Congress and the President – who once, like us, was just one bust away from being “Barry the Drug Criminal” for life – so maybe equating our criticisms of government to drug-induced psychosis isn’t the smartest political move.

This is not to ignore the millions of cannabis consumers who find themselves on the right side of the aisle, the Libertarians and true small government, personal responsibility, states rights Republicans, who we count as our ideological allies in ending adult marijuana prohibition.  There are 102 million of us who’ve tried cannabis, including the last three presidents and five of eight of the last major party candidates for president and vice president.***  Right now, our issue is the only thing on which members of the Tea Party and the Netroots Nation can agree on.  Somebody is going to get wise and start courting our votes.

* Remember these are numbers from a government-sponsored survey where an anonymous pollster surveys random strangers by telephone to ask whether they currently are violating state and federal law… so you might want to adjust upward a bit.  For comparison’s sake, there are more adults in America who will smoke pot this year than there are adult African-Americans in this country.

** And yes, I would be satisfied with Canadian health care, thank you very much!  My insurance premiums went up 24% this year!

*** The admitted marijuana users are italicized:

1992 Clinton / Gore vs. Bush / Quayle
1996 Clinton / Gore vs. Dole / Kemp
2000 Bush / Cheney vs. Gore / Lieberman
2004 Bush / Cheney vs. Kerry / Edwards
2008 Obama / Biden vs. McCain / Palin

That "professional left" is what some might call "your base", Mr. President, and they think you should legalize marijuana.

Washington political news outlet The Hill reports on the recent “professional left” remarks made by the Obama White House’s press secretary Robert Gibbs.  Gibbs was expressing frustration at progressive activists who are complaining that the president hasn’t lived up to campaign promises on a number of issues.

The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”

“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”

Over 850,000 of these people will likely be arrested this year and branded "criminal" for the rest of their lives.

I don’t disagree that comparing Obama to Bush is crazy; Bush could push the exact bill he wanted through Congress and Obama can pronounce “nuclear”.  It’s the “drug users are crazy” slur, the “drug test” variant of the “what have you been smoking?” that offends me.  It’s that joking about these drug tests that ruin thousands of lives is a response from an official addressing the disappointment in the president felt by the people who voted for him.  Considering the vast majority of people who use “drugs” are using cannabis and the tests for “drugs” most often find cannabis metabolites, he’s talking about us, the 22 million* Americans who will use cannabis this year.

Full disclosure: I am one of the “professional left”** and attended that Netroots Nation conference Gibbs is obliquely referencing, representing NORML on a marijuana policy panel.

Republican, Democrat, we still get arrested. (We still have another year worth of George Bush data to collect.)

But NORML is a non-partisan organization, just as arresting marijuana consumers is a bi-partisan shame (4.9 million under Clinton, 6.2 million under Bush, but Clinton’s overall increase in the annual rate was +90% from beginning to end of his term while Bush’s was +17% between 2001 and 2008; we still await the 2009 final year arrest numbers which chronicle the marijuana arrests from the year before… think of the graph as “arrests up to 2009″, not “arrests up to and including 2009″.)

Gibbs said the professional left is not representative of the progressives who organized, campaigned, raised money and ultimately voted for Obama.

Legalization is actually pretty popular right now. More popular than the President and Congress.

Well, we know what President Obama and Robert Gibbs think of those of us who “ought to be drug tested”, especially us online activists in the “professional left” who helped get him elected.  We’re chuckled at when we suggest legalizing marijuana (see videos below), even as more than half of America on some polls – not just Left Blogsylvania – are beginning to think it is a damn good idea and California is voting on the issue this November.

Legalization is more popular than the Congress and the President – who once, like us, was just one bust away from being “Barry the Drug Criminal” for life – so maybe equating our criticisms of government to drug-induced psychosis isn’t the smartest political move.

One marijuana arrest in their past would have indelibly altered the lives of 41% of America, including these three fellows.

This is not to ignore the millions of cannabis consumers who find themselves on the right side of the aisle, the Libertarians and true small government, personal responsibility, states rights Republicans, who we count as our ideological allies in ending adult marijuana prohibition.  There are 102 million of us who’ve tried cannabis, including the last three presidents and eight of fifteen of the last major party candidates for president and vice president.***  Right now, our issue is the only thing on which members of the Tea Party and the Netroots Nation can agree on.  Somebody is going to get wise and start courting our votes.

* Remember these are numbers from a government-sponsored survey where an anonymous pollster surveys random strangers by telephone to ask whether they currently are violating state and federal law… so you might want to adjust upward a bit.  For comparison’s sake, there are more adults in America who will smoke pot this year than there are adult African-Americans in this country.

** And yes, I would be satisfied with Canadian health care, thank you very much!  My insurance premiums went up 24% this year!

*** The admitted / strongly suspected (Danforth, we’re looking your way…) marijuana users are italicized:

1992 Clinton / Gore vs. Bush / Quayle
1996 Clinton / Gore vs. Dole / Kemp
2000 Bush / Cheney vs. Gore / Lieberman
2004 Bush / Cheney vs. Kerry / Edwards
2008 Obama / Biden vs. McCain / Palin

Formed in 1999, Digital Motion are a techno band from Southlake, Texas. Members RT and Kevin play live shows in and around Dallas as well as distribute their music exclusively online through indie label Blue Plastic Girl Music. Online distribution has not stopped the entertainment industry from taking notice — their music has been used in movie trailers for films such as Jet Li’s “War” and Will Ferrell’s “Land of the Lost” as well as television shows and commercials, video games, and other forms of media. Digital Motion have released four full-length CDs; after a recording hiatus of a few years, they are working on new music and videos again this year that they call “big beat.”

Don’t be fooled by the minimalistic bleepy intro of the unpronounceable 108_B2 (Dope Mix). The multi-layered electronica contains intense bass lines and solid breaks that lend themselves well to fluid movement and hookah use. This track is clearly influenced by Eastern (primarily subcontinental) music and instruments, including a hauntingly ethereal sample of a chanting woman. It may also include the rather surreal digitally enhanced sample of a duck.

Digital Motion can be found on MySpace.

A message from Sahra Kant: Next week we have a special Electric Tuesday: a live interview with Amber Ladd! Please be sure to listen to my first NORML Show Live interview on Tuesday August 17th at around 4:20pm!

Download audio file (Digital Motion – 108_B2 (Dope Mix).mp3)

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Hemp Headlines

1. Police bribing cannabis farmers in Morocco
2. Study shows more adolescents of more affluent and educated parents are more likely to use cannabis

Radical Rant

1. Tossed SALAD: Stoners Against Legalization Article of the Day

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Sahra Kant Photography

• Electric Tuesday: Digital Motion – “108_B2 (Dope Mix)”

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Joe Pep Harris, lead singer of “The Undisputed Truth” claims cannabis use cured his prostate cancer

Cannabis Community

• The stories of Matthew Zugsberger, challenging states to recognize his right to medical marijuana through the Constitution’s Full Faith & Credit clause

The video from my appearance at the Marijuana Policy and Politics at Netroots Nation in Las Vegas is now online.  Click the link to view… and don’t blame me that they didn’t focus on my awesome slideshow.  ;-)

It just doesn’t get more Roots than this with today’s toker-tune, a piece of musical history. Legendary Jazz musicians, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Dizzy Gillespie team up in one of the most influential jazz standards written. Dizzy Gillespie wrote the song, “Groovin’ High” and this performance features Charlie Parker playing with Gillespie’s band, Rebop Six. It also features well known bassist, Ray Brown and vibraphonist, Milt Jackson. This song is one of the best examples of Bebop, with the classic bebop combo of saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums and piano. “Groovin High” was one of Gillispie’s best know hits, and between them, Parker and Gillispie have at least 16 different albums or compilations named “Groovin’ High” after this iconic jazz standard. There are hundreds and hundreds of recordings of this song by other artists over the last  65 years. Another note; today’s toker tune was recorded in 1946 when both Parker and Gillispie were less than 30 years old.

Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie’s Rebop Six
“Groovin’ High” (mp3)
from “Bird in Time 1940 – 1947″
(ESP Disk)

More On This Album

Download audio file (Charlie Parker – Groovin High.mp3)

The New York Times Freakonomics blog had a great question and answer post comparing marijuana prohibition and lessons that could be learned from alcohol prohibition.  It’s worth reading the whole post (Henry ford conspiracy theorists, I’m lookin’ at you), but this one part underscores something I’ve been preaching for years: Women are critical to ending prohibition.

Q: It has been said that Prohibition in the U.S. would not have come about but for the efforts of the women’s movement, but how critical were women to the repeal of prohibition? — Seano

A: Absolutely essential. When the prominent socialite and Republican Party figure Pauline Morton Sabin came out against Prohibition in 1929, the repeal movement began to pick up support. Traveling to various cities with other socially prominent, wealthy women with whom she had formed the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform, Sabin drew huge female crowds. Her example established that it was respectable for women to oppose Prohibition.

Sabin was an extraordinary woman and probably my favorite character among all the people I write about in Last Call. She was honest, forthright, fearless and willing to change her mind – qualities all too absent in our public life today.

via What Prohibition Can Teach Us About Marijuana Legalization — and Other Tales From Last Call Author Daniel Okrent – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There is evidence that some severe and debilitating conditions respond well to marijuana, including the nausea that accompanies chemotherapy for cancer, or the loss of appetite and inability to keep food down that plagues HIV sufferers. Thats why Oregon voters — correctly, in our view — agreed to allow limited medical use of marijuana.

There is also evidence that some people licensed to grow marijuana for patients are making money on the side by selling it to those without medical marijuana cards. And, as The Oregonian pointed out, of the 36,380 Oregonians with cards, 32,614 checked “severe pain” as their reason for needing the drug.

Are the protesters who picketed us last week willing to swear that not one of those people was using the law as a way to use marijuana recreationally without fear of prosecution? We suspect not.

We note, however, that a news release announcing the protest carried the endorsement of the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. NORMLs mission, according to its website, is “to move public opinion sufficiently to achieve the repeal of marijuana prohibition so that the responsible use of cannabis by adults is no longer subject to penalty.”

via Editorial serves its purpose | MailTribune.com.

Well, allow me to retort:

Your defense of the Oregonian editorial turns out to be as moralistic and incorrect as the original.

“There is evidence that some severe and debilitating conditions respond well to marijuana,” true enough, but there is as much evidence that general health responds well to cannabis. For example, those who smoke cannabis-only have lower incidence of head, neck, and lung cancers, and no greater risk of emphysema or COPD.

“36,380 Oregonians with cards, 32,614 checked “severe pain”". Indeed, but patients can choose more than one condition. When you have cancer, you have pain. HIV/AIDS, pain. MS, epilepsy, glaucoma… pain. Over 17,000 patients have registered for conditions other than pain.

But you strike the moralist tone that some people in pain are faking it, or that pain isn’t “severe and terminal” enough. “Unresponsive to conventional medication,” casting cannabis as “unconventional” when the law states it “shall be treated like other medicines”. As if cannabis (whose worst side effects are giggling, red eyes, dry mouth, and munchies) should be the medicine of last resort only if the pills that destroy your liver, stop up your bowels, get you hooked, put you in a stupor, and can potentially kill you aren’t effective.

That we have ONLY 36,000 registered patients shows how effective the prohibition of cannabis is in demonizing what should be the medicine of first resort for so many people.

“Using the law as a way to use marijuana recreationally without fear of prosecution?” Well, if so, that “recreational pot smoker” just gave the state $100, all his identification and the address where he will be storing and growing marijuana. This after fooling a doctor through multiple examinations and then a medical records review staff and another doctor at a medical marijuana clinic, injecting money into the economy and creating jobs along the way in one of the few growth businesses in Oregon. I can understand how the rare fraud in benefits programs hurts society; I can’t understand how the rare fraud in medical marijuana is any worse for the state than that “pot smoker” and his money remaining underground, or if caught, costing taxpayers to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate him.

Which leads me to my biggest complaint: the idea that “endorsement of the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws” invalidates the protest against mis-characterization of medical marijuana. At NORML, we believe all adults 21 and over should be able to responsibly use cannabis for any reason… so how could we possibly NOT support sick and disabled adults legally using cannabis for medical reasons? It is possible for both realities of cannabis to be true: cannabis is an amazing medicine that can help sick people AND cannabis is a wonderful relaxant that can help healthy people. Believing in the latter does not make the former untrue.

RUSS BELVILLE
NORML OUTREACH COORDINATOR

For Rockin’ Friday this week, I’ve got I remix of a toker tune favorite. “Smoke a Little Pot” by Hannah’s Field.  It was originally featured on the Stash Blog back in 2008, and has been getting regular play in our Toker Tunes rotation ever since.  What you may not have known is that they had also done an awesome funk remix of the song.  It even won a 2008 Marijuana Music Award.  Yet somehow though it slipped the cracks and was never on the Stash, until now that is.

This “Gypsy Reggae” duo started their music career in Portland, Oregon, but recently they moved clear across the country to Collinsville, Connecticut to, as they like to call it, “spread the seed” and help get cannabis legal on the east coast of America.  They are currently on tour, in support of the latest album “Warriors of Love”, that is described on their website as “a 13 song tapestry that takes you on a trip. It breaks through pop and surface to what lies deep within us all.”

If you want to find tour dates and more about Hannah’s Field go to hannahsgroove.com.

To find more Hannah’s Field and thousands more toker tunes checkout the recently upgraded MarijuanaMusic.net.

Download audio file (Hannah’s Field – Smoke A Little Pot (Funk Remix).mp3)

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2010-08-09.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Montana’s bid to restrict medical marijuana cardholders to residents only backfires, Montana now accepts applications from anywhere
2. Hawaiian judge denies man his use of medical marijuana unless a new doctor will testify he needs cannabis and no other remedy will work
3. Washington DC turns over control of medical marijuana dispensaries to the Alcohol Control Board.

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Roots Monday: Charlie “Bird” Parker – “Groovin’ High”

Cannabis Conversations

• John Kelly, drug testing expert and author of the report “False Positives Equal False Justice”

Breaking News

• John Doe Radio reports on tonight’s first reading of new Denver zoning ordinance that would severely curtail medical marijuana caregivers’ rights

Huge new Oregon NORML sign greets 16,000+ drivers per day (click for full size version of photo)

It’s been a hectic first week at the Oregon NORML World Famous Cannabis Café. Last Saturday, the grand re-opening featured a barbecue out in the sun in the parking lot.  Dozens turned out over the afternoon and evening to consume cannabis and socialize out on the shielded outdoor patio and downstairs in the 4,000 square foot café / lounge.

As word spread throughout the week about our new location, we saw the return of many of our old friends, customers from our previous location. They are agog at the magnificent new setting. The clean, classy, and huge interior was the main comment of praise I heard, followed by those folks excited to play free pool, shuffleboard, and air hockey. We haven’t even finished outfitting the back game room with the two big screens for simultaneous Xbox and Wii play.

I volunteered there all week; it’s hard to stay away when the place is a ten-minute walk away from my studios. I hooked up a dual band wireless network, with a 2.4GHz channel dedicated to the café patrons for free wi-fi and a 5GHz channel dedicated to the Xbox and Wii for live network gaming and to the café big screen for streaming Netflix and internet video.

About the only bad situation that arose was when we tried to do our live show from the café on Friday. Our studio laptop picked that day to have issues with Flash encoder, our sound board couldn’t route the Skype interview line without an echo, and the cell reception was too poor for us to make do with our Skype Plan B. We had to abort the show midway through and were unable to save any portion of it. However, we stayed late and gave exclusive tours to the audience throughout the evening with our remote laptop, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Next mission: getting College Football Gamecast so I can watch my beloved Boise State Broncos roll to another undefeated season and a first-ever I-A FBS National Championship.

Video Contest: NORML Teams With Slightly Stoopid & Cypress Hill For Internet Contest In Support of Proposition 19

August 9th, 2010 New York, NY – The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a Washington DC-based marijuana advocacy group, has partnered with jam-based dub rock heavyweights Slightly Stoopid and hip-hop juggernauts Cypress Hill on the Legalize It 2010 tour for a YouTube based video contest to raise awareness for California’s Prop 19, the initiative to regulate and tax marijuana. The initiative will be on the California ballot November 2nd, 2010 and its passage would be a historic step forward in the fight to end marijuana prohibition and legalize marijuana nationwide.

NORML, Slightly Stoopid, and Cypress Hill invite US residents to create 30-60 second videos of themselves answering the question, “What could California do with the revenue generated from taxing marijuana?” Participants are to upload their entries to YouTube with the tag “YesOnProp19.” Members of both bands and representatives from NORML will personally pick one grand prize winner and two runner-ups from a selection of the most viewed, rated, and commented upon videos.

Prizes include a personal phone call from B-Real, a limited edition Slightly Stoopid vaporizer, a framed autographed tour poster, a free one-year membership to NORML, plus more. Winners’ videos will be shared on all the partners’ social network profiles. For official contest rules visit here.

Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, will give local governments the ability to tax the sale of up to one ounce of marijuana for recreational purposes to adults age 21 and older. According to the Board of Equalization (BOE), California’s tax regulator, controlling and taxing marijuana in California could generate $1.4 billion in much needed revenue each year. These funds could go towards jobs, public safety, health care, parks, transportation, education and more.

According to research conducted by the California chapter of NORML, the sale of marijuana could save over $200 million in law enforcement costs, generate $12-18 billion annually from spin-off industries (similar to the CA wine industry) and create between 60,000 and 110,000 new jobs, generating $2.5 -3.5 billion in wages for workers each year. NORML also reports numerous public safety benefits such as putting drug cartels out of business and refocusing police efforts on violent crime. Says Miles from Slightly Stoopid, “I think the whole negative outlook [on pot] is silly. You can go to the store and buy as much booze as you want, and it gets taxed. I think that’s way worse than marijuana. If they passed that bill and taxed (marijuana), it would generate a lot of money for the state and help cut into the deficit faced by the state of California. If I was a politician or a judge running California, I would have passed this a long, long time ago.”

Slightly Stoopid and Cypress Hill, along with Collie Buddz are currently on a nationwide 22 date tour called Legalize It 2010. Local NORML chapters have booths set up at stops along the tour, where interested parties can learn more about their mission, the contest and how to get involved in marijuana law reform.

###

NORML, also known as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, is a Washington DC based non-profit founded in 1970, serves as the oldest and largest marijuana law reform organization in the US. With 135 state and local chapters and a legal committee consisting of over 500 lawyers, the organization has a large, volunteer-based grassroots network supporting victims and activists nationwide. NORML advocates for the right of adults to consume marijuana responsibly, both for medical and recreational purposes and supports the elimination of all penalties associated with its possession or use. NORML also supports establishing a legally regulated market where consumers can buy marijuana in a safe and secure environment. NORML’s sister organization, the NORML Foundation is a not for profit 501(c)3 foundation established in 1997 to better educate the public about marijuana and marijuana policy options, and to assist victims of the current laws. NORML holds an annual national conference and two annual CLE-accredited legal seminars.

Our California NORML Coordinator, Dale Gieringer, has penned an informative viewpoint for the Sacramento Bee, addressing the one of the only two arguments against legalization of marijuana that still have any traction with the people: “Marijuana Mayhem on the Freeways!” (the other being: “My God! What About the Children!?!”)

As usual, the prohibitionists’ stark warnings about the peril of stoned drivers after legalization only makes sense if you believe nobody is smoking pot now.

Studies on marijuana and driving safety are remarkably consistent, though greatly under-publicized because they fail to support the government’s anti-pot line. Eleven different studies of more than 50,000 fatal accidents have found that drivers with marijuana-only in their system are on average no more likely to cause accidents than those with low, legal levels of alcohol below the threshold for DUI.

The major exception is when marijuana is combined with alcohol, which tends to be highly dangerous.

Several studies have failed to detect any increased accident risk from marijuana at all. The reason for pot’s relative safety appears to be that it tends to make users drive more slowly, while alcohol makes them speed up.

Thus legalization could actually reduce accidents if more drivers used marijuana instead of alcohol, but it could also increase them if there were more combined use of the two.

Nobody is saying “toke up and get behind the wheel”; our Principles of Responsible Use firmly states “The responsible cannabis consumer does not operate a motor vehicle or other dangerous machinery while impaired by cannabis”. However, it would be naive to think every cannabis consumer uses responsibly.

Geiringer addresses this by pointing out that California, the state with the easiest access to medical marijuana, has only the 14th-highest rating of states with marijuana-related accidents, while states like Indiana and South Carolina, some of the most hostile states with respect to marijuana, have far more marijuana-related accidents.  Within California, two of the most liberal cities for pot access, San Francisco and Santa Cruz, had zero marijuana-related accidents in the past year of record.

US accident rates in general have been declining steadily since the 1960s, even as marijuana use reached its greatest rates in the late 1970s.  Even in the 1980s when marijuana legalization was at its lowest levels of support and throughout the 1990s and 2000s as medical marijuana spread from state to state, the highway accident rates have continued their steady decline.  It seems that whether marijuana is popular and legal or not, it makes no difference in roadway safety.

Besides, driving under the influence of marijuana is illegal in California now and Prop 19 does nothing to undo that.  Californians can and have been arrested for drugged driving over the past fourteen years, even with legal medical marijuana.  Whatever cops are doing now to arrest pot-smoking drivers for DUID will still be done after Prop 19 passes.