‘The New Marijuana’: Where Do We Blow From Here? : NPR.
In less than a generation, marijuana has gone from a forbidden drug in America to a readily available commodity. It started when California legalized medical marijuana in 1996, launching a trend that’s now spread across more than a dozen states.
Today, as a result, pot has never been easier to get — and without the risk of relying on some shady street-corner dealer.
Los Angeles, for example, is infamous for having more medical marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks coffee shops. These are the storefronts that sell medicinal pot, typically offering an assortment of designer varieties with names such as Super Bubba Kush, Granddaddy Purple and Hollywood OG. At Venice Beach, one dispensary has become something of a tourist attraction by using carnival-style pitchmen to lure in customers.
You can’t legally buy medicinal pot in California without a note from a doctor, called a recommendation. But anyone suffering as much as a hangnail can find a physician who’ll say yes. It means that virtually any adult Californian who wants weed can get it. And while Los Angeles is moving to drastically reduce the number of dispensaries there, no one imagines that medical marijuana will suddenly become scarce after the crackdown.
From The Series
On Morning Edition: When California voters decide this fall whether to legalize marijuana for everyone 21 or older, it’ll be largely because of the money and efforts of a 47-year old Oakland businessman named Richard Lee. He made a fortune in the medical marijuana business and invested more than $1 million to bankroll the petition drive that got the pot issue on California’s November ballot.
On All Things Considered: Fourteen states and the District of Columbia allow people to use marijuana to treat a wide variety of ailments. Each law is different, but if you look at them in chronological order, a pattern emerges: The laws are becoming stricter. The states passing laws today include more regulation than the early adopters did.
What impact is this new accessibility having on public policy, law enforcement and marijuana consumption? And as California now prepares for a statewide ballot referendum that could make recreational pot legal for anyone 21 or older, are we seeing the start of another movement that could sweep the country?
These are some of the questions we explore in an extensive collaboration between NPR News, Youth Radio and an assortment of member station journalists in our weeklong series, The New Marijuana.
Many states have tough standards for deciding who gets to buy, sell and grow medical marijuana. But in California, the place where the national movement started, the law is so ambiguous that cities and counties are left to set their own guidelines. In Los Angeles, the lack of a coherent and sustainable policy led to the unfettered rush of marijuana dispensaries that only now is being brought under control.
But while some cities see the expanding marijuana industry as a threat, Oakland looks at medicinal pot and sees dollar signs. City officials there licensed four dispensaries that gladly tax their products and pass along the revenue to Oakland.
Richard Lee, 47, the most prominent entrepreneur in the city’s “Oaksterdam” neighborhood, is now the driving force behind a new effort to legalize recreational pot in California. Lee bankrolled the petition drive that got the marijuana issue on the state’s November ballot, even though the measure most likely would violate existing federal law. He’s counting on pragmatism to prevail at a time when California faces an unprecedented fiscal crisis. It’s forcing officials to take a meat cleaver to their budgets for public schools and universities, social welfare programs and state parks.
Lee touts the fact that making marijuana a legal, taxable product could add a billion dollars a year in revenue to the state’s bottom line. Not a cure for what ails California, but no drop in the bucket, either.
What happens in the Golden State this year could have a big impact on the rest of the country. If California decides to make all marijuana legal and starts reaping tax revenue, other states may be tempted to follow, as they have before.
But then, what will the federal government do? Pot remains an illegal drug under federal law. The Justice Department, under the Obama administration, in most cases has no desire to go after medical marijuana. But it’s highly doubtful that recreational pot will get the same free pass from the feds.
Group Pushing For Legalized Marijuana In Pa.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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1 of 1 - There is a bill in the Pennsylvania House and another in the state Senate that would legalize medical marijuana.CBS
- Medical Marijuana Facing A Backlash
(5/22/2010) - 4/20 Marijuana Rallies Fire Up Across West Coast
(4/21/2010) - Pot Enthusiasts Gather At Calif. Cannabis Expo
(4/19/2010) - FBI: Unruly Passenger Blames Pot For Plane Attack
(2/3/2010) - N.J. Legislature Passes Medical Marijuana Bill
(1/12/2010) - Nation’s 1st Cannabis Cafe Opens In Portland
(11/14/2009)
A growing number of states have legalized medical marijuana
and Pennsylvania lawmakers are now considering doing the same.
Supporters call medical marijuana humane, but opponents say it’s just a stepping stone to legalizing the drug entirely.
“I’ve been using medical marijuana and I haven’t had any seizures for two years,” Robert said.
When Robert suffered a head injury and developed blackout seizures, prescribed medications either didn’t help or left him with debilitating side effects.
That all changed when he began purchasing and smoking medical marijuana.
“There would be security at the door, they’d look at your card and buzz you in,” he explained.
In Washington state, where medical marijuana is legal and where Robert lived until recently, he had a medical prescription card and could buy marijuana from any of a number of so-called compassion centers.
But since moving to southwestern Pennsylvania, Robert, a husband and father of two, must get his pot illegally.
“It’s making me to break the law and I’m not a law breaker,” he said. “Now, you go through the black market and you’re supporting a drug dealer who is turning around and selling it to children or you don’t know what’s going on.”
The state legislature is now seriously considering making marijuana a prescription drug for people like Robert with specific medical conditions, but opponents say it will make pot more available to everyone.
“In many ways it’s a joke. Almost anyone who wants marijuana can get it under the umbrella of medical use,” Dr. Neil Capretto of Gateway Rehabilitation Institute, said.
He says despite a widely-held belief to the contrary, marijuana is an addictive and potentially dangerous drug that should be controlled. But he says the legalization of medical marijuana has opened up the floodgates in states like California.
“In California, one of the top reasons — if not the top reason — people are prescribed marijuana is for stress,” Capretto said. “Almost everyone qualifies for that diagnosis.”
Medical marijuana is now legal in 14 states, but unlike California where marijuana businesses have been popping up like taco stands, many of those states report success in keeping the drug regulated.
Pittsburgh attorney Patrick Nightingale heads the local chapter of N.O.R.M.L., the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which wants to make pot legal for all citizens of age, but has taken a lead role in the support of medical marijuana.
“We have been told time and time again from medicinal users in Pittsburgh, Butler County, Beaver County and Washington County that they derive significant relief for Multiple Sclerosis, AIDS, nausea associated with chemo therapy — people who are not interested in sitting in the park, smoking a joint and throwing a frisbee — people who believe they derive significant medical benefit,” Nightingale said.
Robert, for one, opposes the blanket legalization of marijuana, but says he and others with medical conditions should not be denied.
“I mean, I don’t break the laws,” he said. “I’m forced to do this to get my medication.”
There are two medical marijuana bills in front of the legislature, one before the House and the other before the Senate and according to polls, they do have the support of a majority of Pennsylvanians.
