by Doug Fine

No Crystal Ball Needed: Ending the Drug War Is Field Tested

Best-selling author Doug spreads his Drug Peace ideals each week in the Drug Peace Bumblebee column. (Photo by Michael Bowman)

The key law of physics that keeps all pundits employed is “no one can time travel.” In a classic Bloom County cartoon from the ‘80s, one economist exclaims, “The key, of course, is the deficit,” to which the other forcefully retorts, “The deficit, my fanny.” It’s one or the other, but both fellows get paid.

The drug policy arena, into which I’ve been drawn as a pundit whenever a television producer Googles “Ending the Drug War,” would seem to be no exception. The last few taxpayer-funded Drug Warriors – people with so little concern about the facts, let alone America’s public health and economy, that they’re still willing to make a career of pushing a 40-year failed Just Say No argument – might go to sleep every night thanking physics for this “no one can be 100% sure about the future” loophole. Their whole mortgage payment depends on it.

But there’s a problem with the usual punditry gravy train model when it comes to drug policy. We do know what happens when the Drug War ends in America. I just wrote a book about it. What happens is the economy improves, cartels are hurt, and public safety takes an immediate turn for the better. The Drug Peace Era is quantifiably good for America and her families.

In fact, the “Zip-tie” program in Mendocino County, CA, under which cannabis farmers were certified by the county Sheriff’s Department and each plant wore a bright yellow necklace with its permit number, was an unmitigated and immediate success. That is, until federal harassment shut the program down at the end of the 2011 farming season.

Don’t take my word for it that the Drug Peace works. The one time Drug Warrior who administered the Mendocino program, Sergeant (now Captain) Randy Johnson, told me during a 2011 farm inspection that the Zip-tie program altered the entire social fabric of the community. This is a place that derives 80% of its economy from its famous Emerald Triangle cannabis harvest.

“After 27 years in law enforcement, for the first time I’m getting tips on domestic violence and home invasion. We have a safer community. That’s why the (Zip-tie) program is important.” In other words, when the Sheriff has permitted and inspected your garden, you’re not worried about getting raided for it. You’re a taxpaying member of society, like a grape farmer. It makes cops’ lives easier. They can focus on, ya know, crime.

I can confirm the home invasion effect. As long as federal prohibition exists, “Rippers” will exist. These are the specialized breed of criminal who plan cannabis crop robberies right at harvest time. One of the farmers I followed in Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution awoke to Rippers disturbing the local deer one morning in October, 2011. Guess what he did? He called the police. Guess what the rapidly responding deputy did? He chased off and nearly apprehended the Rippers, after getting their license plate number. He was protecting the local farmers.

Oh, and the Zip-tie program also raised $600,000 in permitting fees during its first full year of operation, saving seven deputy sheriff positions that had been slated for the budget chopping block. To join, the program cost farmers about $8,500 annually for inspections, fencing-related zoning requirements, and the physical Zip-ties (like what you repair your truck with). This for a crop that could plausibly gross half a million dollars for the not-for-profit cooperatives that formed the county business model.

Win-win-win. Cash-strapped local government, the region’s largest economic engine, and the overall community. Let’s not forget the collectives’ patients and the wider Californian taxpayer (the Golden State now generates $100 million annually in cannabis taxes).

And if all that didn’t convince you that the Drug Peace has broken out and it’s better than the Drug War for the law-abiding citizen, the cannabis organization-sponsored highway cleanup signs are already up in Mendocino, California, to remind you.

At the Mendocino food bank where I volunteered while researching Too High to Fail, the manager told me she welcomed the era when successful growers could donate with recognition instead of passing her wads of cash donations. “Not that we don’t appreciate it.”

When the unconscionable raids that I wrote about occurred in the fall of 2011, this good-for-America permitting program was in the process of expanding to surrounding counties. It would have raised millions in local revenue and increased public safety in California in 2012 and beyond.

Even the many multi-generational black market Emerald Triangle farmers I met in the course of my year-long research were paying attention. Without question, they were ready to come aboveground if it looked safe. They knew it was right, ethically. That wasn’t the issue. They knew it was time.

It was safe, locally, to announce yourself as a farmer of America’s number one crop in 2011. It worked for everyone except for regional Drug Enforcement Administration deciders and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for California’s Northern District.

Which, of course, leads to the conclusion reached by any journalist who’s spent a second researching the Drug War from the front lines: The United States must remove cannabis from the federal Controlled Substance Act and let states regulate it like alcohol.

I’ll pass lightly over how dysfunctionally and counterproductively the federal war is being fought, domestically and all over the world. Which is to say I’ll but quickly remind Americans to check out the Defense Authorization Act of 2013, which approved the use of drones on the Drug War’s domestic fronts. Ya know, on Americans. No, my plan is focus on the positive.

Here’s the positive. A Mendocino-like permitting model, expanded to a national level, combined with the inevitable federal policy decision to let states regulate cannabis, will create a $46.7 billion annual taxable economy, according to Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron. Another $41.3 billion will be pumped into the economy in saved enforcement and incarceration costs. And the Zip-tie program has provisions — including plant number limits — that benefit small farmers who grow sustainably.

It’s not like the U.S. will be going at this alone. Latin America is on board, as evidenced by a conclusion reached by the Organization of American States this week in a long awaited report which President Obama co-commissioned. What was the conclusion of the 190-page report? “Prohibition has failed…Decriminalization of drug use needs to be considered as a core element in any public health strategy.”

Add to this Colorado and Washington’s not-even-close Drug Peace votes in 2012, plus policy in Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark and other Drug War opt-out nations, and the conclusion is clear: the world is ready for the Drug Peace Era. As Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto put it after the Colorado and Washington votes, “It’s clear that this could bring us to rethinking the (Drug War) strategy.”

The California farmer whose crop and livelihood were saved from Rippers by local deputies at harvest time 2011, Tomas Balogh, recounted the incident to me with head shaking wonder. “It’s a huge change for cannabis in America. The sheriff works for all of the citizens of the county. All of them.” Including the cancer patients to whom Balogh was able to deliver his medicine – I came along on one delivery.

Though Balogh made it back safely from the Drug War’s final front, the same could not be said of all of his would-be taxpaying farmer neighbors. I followed one farming family and chamber of commerce member all season whose organic locavore medicinal cannabis delivery cooperative farm was raided at machine-gunpoint by DEA agents days before harvest, care of your tax dollars. The senseless paramilitary seizure (no charges were filed) deprived 3,300 patients of medicine and the local community of a dozen jobs.

Whether or not Mendocino County’s landmark Zip-tie program was generated by local backwoods loyalty or the demands of “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” it worked for all Americans. And will, again, when the exorbitant travesty of the Drug War ends.

So, sorry pundits who would like to continue running with the Brains on Drugs scare tactics. The facts on the ground are clear. Even your last refuge, the “who will think of the children?” screed, falls flat in the face of real world facts. As a father, it greatly interests me that youth use rates are lower than ours in two Drug Peace nations, Portugal and the Netherlands.

It’s time for you Drug Warrior pundits to find another job. Like segregationists and Vietnam War hawks, you’ve come to the crossroads of public opinion beyond which you’re just making your failed cause look even sillier. Think of your legacy. We build monuments to our MLKs, not our Harry Anslingers. Stop bullying Americans whose only “crime” is continuing humanity’s Millennia-long use of an herb that’s far safer than alcohol.

Americans of all ages and political inclinations are on to the drug policy truths, guys. You might want to follow D.A.R.E’s recent example and give up preaching against cannabis. If you want help with educating folks about alcohol and prescription pill abuse, our real epidemics, I’m available to help.

Somehow I fear you might find these less profitable. Like the alcohol prohibition banner wavers who quickly disappeared from punditry after December fifth, 1933, you’ll creep back to the faculty lounge, grateful for tenure if not for the Zip-tie program.

Monthly Use of Marijuana by Age Group, NSDUH 2009

The bombings that took place in Boston were a heinous crime carried out by the Tsarnaev Brothers that killed and maimed American citizens.  It seems the older brother had become radicalized in his hatred of US foreign policy and his younger brother, called Jahar, seemed to be along for the ride.  How anyone could wreak such havoc and destruction is beyond the ability of most Americans to comprehend.

Unless you’re Robert L. DuPont, one of the principles in the firm Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, which is a major purveyor of drug testing management in America.  Then the reason for the terror is clear: marijuana.  Writing for U-T San Diego, DuPont explains how marijuana turned a bright young student into a terrorist.

One of the most striking and consistent observations about Dzhokhar, or Jahar as he was commonly known to his friends, was that he was a normal college kid. Evidence of his normality was his heavy marijuana use as a party boy.

Less recognized among his friends was the academic trajectory of Jahar in college, including receiving failing grades over three consecutive semesters.

While Jahar’s marijuana use did not directly make him a terrorist, it closed the door to his dreams of being an engineer or physician and it opened the door to his suicidal violence.

DuPont laments the “endemic” use of marijuana in America’s colleges and the inflated rates of drop-out in America’s high schools (actual tables available at RadicalRuss.com).  I thought it might be fun to look those figures up and compare:

So it would seem that we had the most teens dropping out of school in 1991, the same year we had the least proportion of teens smoking pot regularly.  Now that pot smoking is at less than half what it was in 1979, we have the fewest kids dropping out of school.  And while the Dept. of Education didn’t have much for me on undergraduate degree completion, it does look like pot smoking among college kids increased from 12.8% to 17.2%, and the graduation rate increased by three points.

Naturally, DuPont has the solution to preventing the next marijuana-dropout-terrorist…

What if Jahar had been required to take drug tests to obtain and maintain a driver’s license? Might he have changed his behavior if faced with real and immediate certain consequences for his drug use? What about the tens of thousands of kids nationwide who are caught in similar drug-induced downward spirals? New technologies make minimally intrusive drug testing part of a practical approach to preventing and identifying drug problems early. Can our society afford to ignore the measures that are available to encourage young people to find positive drug-free directions for their lives?

By John Payne

Thanks to hundreds of constituent phone calls, numerous visits to the state capitol, and persistence on the part of some key legislators, House Bill 512 will get a hearing this session!

Shortly after this email is sent out today (Friday), the Downsizing State Government Committee will hold a hearing on House Bill 512, which would decriminalize the possession of under 35 grams of cannabis. Representatives from Show-Me Cannabis Regulation intend to testify at the hearing, including Board Chair and criminal defense attorney Dan Viets, police sergeant and lobbyist Gary Wiegert, and myself.

Unfortunately, Friday is also the last day of the 2013 legislative session, so there is no possibility that the full House of Representatives will vote on the bill this year. However, receiving a hearing lends greater credibility to the bill and will likely make more legislators receptive to the idea next year.

Political progress often feels almost interminably slow, but make no mistake, we are moving steadily forward. We plan to work over the summer and fall to build grassroots support for legislative reforms such as decriminalization, industrial hemp, and medical marijuana. (Our ultimate goal is to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol, but that will require an initiative petition, as the odds that the Missouri legislature will take that step are effectively nil.)

To that end, we would like to organize a number of town hall meetings on the subject that will engage citizens on all sides of this issue along with their legislators. The first such event is scheduled for 6:30 P.M. Monday, June 3 at the Rock Road Branch of the Saint Louis County Library, located at 10267 Saint Charles Rock Road in Saint Ann, 63074. Click here to join the Facebook Event!

So far, the only confirmed speakers are Sgt. Wiegert and myself, but I plan to invite others, including outspoken members of our opposition, so I believe we will have an interesting and informative discussion for all interested parties. I will keep you updated as the event develops.

If you are interested in scheduling a similar event in your area, email me, and I will be happy to guide you through the process. I cannot guarantee that we can arrange speakers for every part of the state, but we want to get the message into as many legislative districts as possible between now and the start of the 2014 legislative session next January.

Of course, hosting these meetings requires money. We need to print fliers and distribute them throughout the community. If the events require travel for speakers, we must reimburse those expenses. And although reserving rooms at local libraries is not particularly expensive, it’s also rarely free. Please contribute now to take our message to those who need to hear it most!

The Risks You Still Take If You Legally Use An Ancient Plant

Best-selling author Doug spreads his Drug Peace ideals each week in the Drug Peace Bumblebee column. (Photo by Michael Bowman)

In September, 2011, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms banned state law-abiding medical cannabis patients from owning firearms. A bureaucratic decider simply swiped away hundreds of thousands of Americans’ Second Amendment rights by way of an added item on a pre-sale questionnaire.

Using an ancient herb as recommended by your doctor, one that any law enforcer will tell you makes people less aggressive? Sorry. Whacked on Oxycontin? Fire away.

My friend Carl, a Vietnam veteran, concealed handgun permit holder, political conservative of the John Wayne school and New Mexico medical cannabis patient, is apoplectic about the policy. “I can’t believe I lose my rights because I’m receiving treatment. I defended this country’s freedoms.”

This is just one example of key ancillary details that need to be fixed as America’s Longest War limps to its federal demise. Another is arbitrary limits on or zero tolerance of bloodstream THC when driving, even by locally-Kosher cannabis fans: if you legally used cannabis three weeks ago at the Ziggy Marley concert in Washington, you can, absurdly, be found to be impaired today.

In addition to the mining of the harbor that such unacceptably policy represents among those sore losers, the retreating Drug Warriors, this again shows the risk that any cannabis enjoyer faces. These unscientific THC policies must be squashed in courts and state houses, and fast.

The risk list continues. On my January flight in Honolulu to testify in support of pending industrial and social cannabis legalization in the Aloha State, the grey haired 59-year-old local fellow sitting next to me, Jeb, a construction site manager, had a sadly common story for me when he found out where I was heading that day.

“Tell the folks at the statehouse that I just lost my job after 23 years because THC showed in my system,” Jeb told me. “I had smoked at home on a Saturday night two weeks earlier. I don’t drink. I’ve never come to work impaired. Never even had a sick day. My work record was so impeccable that my supervisor apologized to me. He said, ‘we work for a company that will fire its best employee for pot, first time.’ I might lose my house. I’m flying to Oahu to meet with my lawyer but he told me that if it’s the policy it’s the policy.”

Not in my America. The America that resides on what I deeply believe to be on the healthier, safer side of history. The America of the Bill of Rights.

The bottom line: responsible adult cannabis users should no longer have to hide any more than responsible alcohol users do. As if to hammer home this point, when our flight landed, Jeb had some parting words for me. “Tell (the legislative committee) how deeply cannabis is embedded in Hawaiian culture. Tell them this is the only law I break. I don’t even drive over the speed limit.”

I did. I told the state’s House Judiciary Committee about Jeb during my testimony. Social legalization, incidentally, had a lot of momentum in Hawaii last session. The speaker of the house, Joe Souki (D), told me he thinks it’ll happen next session. From Florida to Maui, everyone knows the Drug War is ending. There’s no reason America’s 100 million cannabis users should be dealing with the life-upending administrative nonsense.

And yet they are. Even without a drug testing company fraud scandal emerging in San Diego this week, even without the revelation that some of the former DEA chiefs who are lobbying so hard against the Drug Peace in fact profit from their roles in drug testing companies, the Sniff Your Pee era is simply misguided – it’s unnecessary, intrusive and downright un-American. Work is about performance. Cannabis isn’t keeping America from being competitive. In fact, it’s probably helping return us to competitiveness, in the creative fields of the Digital Age. But my research into the role of practical cannabis use in Silicon Valley is a whole other column.

The point is, because some initial court decisions have supported a company’s ability to fire anyone with THC in their system even without any other cause (most famously in the recent case of paralyzed Colorado Dish Network employee Brandon Coats), we can’t allow it to become established policy. We’re talking about the core principles of American civil liberties. Ending the federal drug war is the key, as the justices in Coats’ case cited federal drug law in their decision.

And so this week’s Drug Peace Bumblebee column is dedicated to open (and especially vocal) medical cannabis patients, and folks who are public cannabis aficionados in general. That millions of Americans are coming out of the shadows and beginning to wear this unabashed “I’m a productive citizen who likes (or medically needs) cannabis” badge is a key step toward fully and finally relegating the Drug War to the history books. That’s because mainstream public acceptance of a cannabis-friendly America is what really will end sneaky administrative discrimination that essentially keeps underground the use of a plant that is not only a medical lifeline to so many thousands of Americans, but a health maintenance tool for millions more and a far safer social lubricant that alcohol.

I tip my cowboy hat in particular to people like Californian Diane Fortier, whose debilitating arthritis was being quite well mitigated by locally grown, outdoor organic cannabis provided by an farming cooperative called Northstone, whose farmer grew all of its members’ medicine. Why do I tip my hat to Fortier (in addition to her bravery in letting me use her name)?

Because she paid with her credit card. In this simple act, Fortier showed that there is a lot less to be embarrassed about in publicly medicating with cannabis than with the ineffective pharmaceuticals that not just drained her pocketbook but, in her words, “zonked” her out. When cannabis is no longer a back alley cash business, the American taxpayer wins and the cartels lose. Just as the end of alcohol prohibition put the bootlegger out of business. California already collects $100 million in cannabis-related tax each year.

Of the 2011 federal raids that cut off her tax-generating, cartel-hurting providers at the not-for-profit Northstone Organics Cooperative, the 61-year-old Fortier told me, “Imagine if you went to the pharmacy not knowing if your prescription could be filled. Finally there’s a safe source and the government is taking it away? It’s causing mayhem in my life. I would do just about anything to get Northstone back on its feet, because we’re vulnerable. Now I have to go to sources I worry about. Living in pain is not something I’d wish on anyone.”

As such unconscionable raids on local Chamber of Commerce members in California’s multibillion-dollar Emerald Triangle cannabis economy show, these last mop-up battles of the Drug War also affect producers. The Mendocino County farmers I followed in my recent book Too High to Fail, licensed and inspected by their County’s Sheriff’s Department, couldn’t get bank accounts.

This is a problem all over the country. Even with full adult cannabis legalization in the Rocky Mountain State, one Colorado provider, Aaron Bluse of Altitude Organic Medicine, told me, “My lawyer told me to get a shovel and store our money off-site. I’m not sure he was totally kidding. I’m a taxpayer trying to be aboveboard, and the absurdity of prohibition is turning mine into a cash-only business. That helps no one.”

So, American voters, as the Drug Peace Era begins, don’t allow discrimination against any form of responsible cannabis user or provider. Erase THC bloodstream maximums or zero THC tolerance laws. To do this, work for state laws that institute a new mode of impairment testing. One not based on a blood test, but one that will help remove America’s really dangerous drivers from the road – the drunks and prescription pill abusers. Law enforcers must be trained to ascertain true impairment, regardless of what’s causing it, from Vicodin to a poorly selected Rush Limbaugh broadcast.

When federal prohibition ends, too, American must make sure that the ATF reverses its horrifyingly unconstitutional policy on cannabis and gun ownership. Get on the horn with your local, state and federal representatives and demand that America end not just the Drug War, but also the ridiculous ancillary penalties that linger alongside it like unexploded ordnance on an abandoned battleground. No pilot, teacher or politician should fear a THC test if she comes to work unimpaired.

Being vocal on a civil liberties issue is no easy trick in the Patriot Act Era. This became clear when I heard the soon-to-be-raided founder of Northstone Organics Cooperative, Matt Cohen, tell the fellow members of his Emerald Growers Association trade group, “Don’t even joke in your emails – assume they’re being read.”

I laughed when I heard that, not because I thought it was paranoid (it proved not to be for Cohen), but because my sweetheart had recently sent me a text with a farmers market reminder to “please get a bunch of sweet pot. and garlic.” She meant “sweet potatoes.”

But it’s not funny for people like Cohen and Fortier. Whether they’re aware of it or not, they are practicing civil disobedience simply by trying to be healthy or helping others get healthy. Let’s make sure those days are numbered. As Cohen told me before he was raided, “We’re not fighting the man anymore. We are the man.” Only we still have to alert our federal representatives about that (as well as some of our state and local ones).

This is what representative democracy is about, and the rapidity with which the Drug War is collapsing is restoring my faith in ours. For her part, Fortier isn’t trying to be some kind of medical Rosa Parks in paying for her medicine with a credit card. She calls it “getting my life back.”

By John Payne

As you probably recall, last summer we helped activists in Springfield gather signatures to put an initiative petition before the Springfield City Council that reduced penalties on possession of less than 35 grams of cannabis. The council was supposed to have two options: Either vote for the measure and make it law, or vote against it and send it to the city’s voters in November. Instead, the council invented a third option: Vote for the measure, simply to repeal it at their next meeting for the express purpose of keeping the voters from having their say.

It has been a long time since I have updated you about this issue, but that is not because we gave up — quite the opposite. Soon after the council repealed the ordinance, we began searching for a law firm to represent the activists in Springfield — including Show-Me Cannabis Regulation board member Maranda Reynolds and tireless SMCR volunteers Trish and Daryl Bertrand — whose rights the council had violated. Since then, we have worked behind the scenes with those attorneys to either find an acceptable compromise with the Springfield City Council, or, if a compromise cannot be found, help the local activists sue the City in federal court.

On Monday, the council held a public hearing on a revised version of the ordinance that they adopted and repealed last fall. Seven people spoke in favor of the proposal, including a doctor, three lawyers, and two people who work in drug treatment. No one spoke against it. The local media covered the meeting extensively, and you can also view the entire proceeding online at Springfield’s City View (discussion of this issue starts at roughly the 25:30 mark).

The council will be voting on the idea in two weeks, and I believe they want to reach a compromise that will spare all parties the time and expense of a lawsuit. However, they are also extremely reluctant to lead on this issue, so they want to punt and place it on the ballot during a special election this August. Turnout at special elections is extremely low, and a large chunk of Springfield’s student population would still be out of town for the summer, making the proposed ballot a particularly poor representation of all Springfield voters.

If you live in Springfield, please write your City Council members now using our advocacy page and urge them to pass the compromise proposal before them, instead of putting it up for a vote at a low-turnout election!

No matter where you reside, please contribute to help us pay the legal fees for these devoted Springfield activists. The American Victory Coalition, our primary institutional supporter, has footed most of the (substantial) legal bill thus far, but we need your financial support to finally bring these negotiations to an agreeable conclusion. Contribute now!

Verizon Wireless Amphitheater Shuts Us Out of Pointfest

By John Payne

On Monday, a representative from The Point (KPNT 105.7 FM) informed me that Verizon Wireless Amphitheater had refused our vendor application for Pointfest this Sunday, May 12. Since then, I have tried to resolve the issue with the venue but to no avail.

The initial reason offered for the rejection of our vendor registration was that the venue’s management believed the Maryland Heights Police Department would shut the booth down for advocating illegal activity. Calls from both The Point and myself to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater seeking clarification were not returned on either Monday or Tuesday.

On Wednesday, I called the Maryland Heights Police Department and spoke to Chief of Police, Colonel William Carson. Carson told me that, to his knowledge, no one from the amphitheater had contacted his department about the question. Carson also acknowledged that we have a First Amendment right to advocate for reforms to Missouri’s marijuana laws.

After this information was relayed to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, General Manager D.J. Lindfors called me Wednesday afternoon. Lindfors stated that he was not worried that the police would shut the booth down, but he was concerned that allowing a booth advocating marijuana legalization would strain the amphitheater’s relationship with the city and its police force, many of whom the venue employs as part time security. He was very friendly about this and said that he personally favored reforming our cannabis laws. Nevertheless, when he called me again on Thursday he reported that, even after further consideration, the amphitheater was sticking with its decision to exclude us from Pointfest.

This situation demonstrates the extent to which our prohibitionist cannabis policies stifle free speech. I think Verizon Wireless Amphitheater’s fears are mostly unjustified. However, the mere fact that a major corporation is afraid to even allow a discussion about marijuana policy on its premises for fear of both government and social persecution speaks volumes.

The whole thing is incredibly disappointing, but I sent out a press release about it Thursday afternoon and have already received some media calls. They may be able to keep us out of their venue, but they can’t keep our message out of the press!

Also, as frustrating as this experience has been, more individuals and organizations are interested in considering cannabis law reform than ever before, so the problem is — slowly — getting better. That said, I would still encourage you to call General Manager D.J. Lindfors at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (314-298-9944) and politely tell him that you do not support his company’s decision to marginalize this issue.

Good News and Media Coverage From Saint Louis

By John Payne

If you did not catch my correction email on Monday, you may have missed that Saint Louis Mayor Francis Slay signed the local decriminalization bill into law a couple weeks ago. If so, you would not be alone in that. Mayor Slay signed the measure very quietly, without so much as a tweet about it, so neither I nor the bill’s sponsor, Alderman Shane Cohn, even knew about it until last Friday. Regardless, now that Mayor Slay has signed the bill, it will become law in the City of Saint Louis on June 1!

Fox 2 also ran a good story profiling Ken Wells, a medical marijuana patient and great activist in the Saint Louis area, that also featured some footage of our April 13 conference and comments from Show-Me Cannabis Regulation Board Chair Dan Viets. You can watch the story online and vote in their poll on cannabis policy. As of this writing, nearly 90 percent of respondents said that cannabis should be legal for both medical and recreational purposes, with another six percent saying it should be legal for medical reasons only! That’s not a scientfiic poll, obviously, but it’s nice to see that viewers are responding positively to our message.

If you would like to help us spread that message to an even wider audience, invest with Show-Me Cannabis now!

In Colorado, the governor is poised to sign a bill creating a 5ng/ml limit that has failed to pass in six previous attempts.  This would set a permissible inference of guilt on a DUI charge.

To my fellow supporters of marijuana legalization, I’m reminded of the saying, “Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.”

Before I explain that, let’s make sure everyone reading is familiar with the concepts:

• These limits in Colorado and Washington refer to active THC in the blood, not the inactive metabolites you get busted for on a workplace pee test, sometimes days or weeks after cannabis use.
• A per se limit means you’re automatically guilty and have no defense.  You could be driving absolutely perfectly and still be guilty of a DUI if your blood is >5ng/ml.
• A permissible inference means that you’re presumed to be guilty, but you can defend yourself if you can prove you weren’t driving impaired, even if your blood is >5ng/ml.

Now, back to our wishes.  For years now, we have been lobbying for marijuana legalization with frames like “treat marijuana like alcohol” and “tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol” and “marijuana is safer than alcohol”.  It’s not a bad strategy, obviously, because it’s brought us two legalized marijuana states.  However, setting marijuana in a frame alongside alcohol has molded the public’s understanding of the drugs to think of them similarly.

Is this supposed to be some kind of a bribe?

So now they want to know: where’s the marijuana breathalyzer?  What’s the magic number that tells us someone’s too stoned to drive, like the magic .08 BAC number that enables us to nab drunk drivers?

It’s at this point when one of us pipes up with “impairment!”  The marijuana limits don’t test for impairment.  Many people, like medical marijuana patients, can be above 5ng/ml and be completely unimpaired.  We need to test for impairment.

Yes.  And this is a case where being right isn’t going to win the argument.

Part of the problem is that we’re seen as being hypocritical.  If we really believe that blood chemistry doesn’t determine impairment, why aren’t we rallying to repeal alcohol per se limits?  Yes, there is quite a difference between alcohol and marijuana in the blood and there is a much more reliable dose-dependent relationship between alcohol and impairment than THC and impairment.  However, I know plenty of people who drink regularly who can drive in a satisfactory manner at >0.08 BAC.  So, we end up saying people who use pot all the time can develop a tolerance and drive fine over the limit… but alcoholics can’t?

The majority of the problem, however, is a critical misunderstanding of what DUI is to the public.  The “DUI” doesn’t stand for “driving under impairment“; it stands for “driving under the influence“.

C+? I’d be a better driver than you on heroin! (Danica Patrick wallpaper by CarAddicts.com)

In our society, we’re not punishing people based on their impairment.  We’re punishing them based on their irresponsibility.  Imagine this: we take Danica Patrick, me, and a random elderly grandmother and test our driving ability while sober.  On a letter-grading system, let’s say Danica gets an A+, I get a B, and Granny, whose reflexes are slow and can barely see over the steering wheel, gets a C-.  In other words, Danica is a pro driver, I’m a decent driver, and Granny barely passes.

Then, we get Danica drunk (yay!) and I smoke a joint.  Danica’s at .08 BAC, my THC is at 35ng/ml, and Granny’s still sober.  Danica drives again and tests out at a C.  I test out and get a C+.  Granny’s still at a C-.  But despite the fact that both of us drive better than Granny even when buzzed, Danica and I are going to get DUIs, legally because we are “under the influence”, but culturally because we irresponsibly chose to drive after reducing our ability to drive as safely as possible.  That’s what the public supports in punishing >.08 BAC drivers and that’s why they want a magic number for THC.  Granny, despite her inability to merge on the freeway, her forever left-turn blinker, and tendency to drive 20MPH too slow, is still driving at the best of her ability and not irresponsibly reducing that ability.

Now’s the time when another one of us pipes up with studies and anecdotes.  William Breathes tested at 15ng after a night’s sleep.  KIRO filmed “all-day Addy” driving just fine at seven times the limit.  Pot smokers tend to adjust their driving, drive slower, more distance between cars, etc.  And all the public can hear when you say that is, “we should be able to smoke pot and then get behind the wheel.”

As each state ponders marijuana legalization, you can bet the “stoned driver” issue will be at the forefront.  If we are going to successfully deal with this issue and avoid Washington and Colorado’s 5ng/ml becoming the standard, we need to adjust our tactics.  Every indication shows the trend will be toward more scientific testing of drivers, with saliva swabs and drug breathalyzers already developed and being tested in Europe.  Here are some angles I suggest:

1. Accept that there will be a limit and work to make it reasonable.  The people don’t fear a little intoxication on the road.  The .08 BAC leaves plenty of room for someone to have a margarita with dinner or a beer at the game and still be OK to drive home.  Emphasize that the 5ng/ml limit is just way too low – like setting BAC down to .02 (which is actually the limit in some European countries).  People want to catch the irresponsible user who just consumed and is way too messed up to drive.  Show them that THC in blood spikes over 100ng shortly after consuming.  Find the level at which nobody could possibly be unless they were recently consuming (35ng? 5ong?) and set it there.  This would address the public’s concern over driving immediately after smoking and being too impaired while sparing those who drive hours after smoking who aren’t impaired.
   
2. Make the limit a permissible inference that gives the marijuana user a chance to prove his or her driving wasn’t impaired.  Combined with a reasonable limit, this should give all but the actually-too-stoned-to-drive drivers a fair day in court.
3. Give a little to get a little.  Since what people fear is people blazing up and then driving, use the existing “treat marijuana like alcohol” frame to offer the public the marijuana equivalent of the “open container”.  Any usable marijuana in an unlocked container or used paraphernalia / smoldering joints within the driving compartment is treated like an open container of alcohol.  I believe offering this kind of compromise could go a long way toward getting reasonable, permissible inference limits.

I know these suggestions will be controversial.  Some will suggest that we’ve had DUI laws against toking and driving forever and they require that police prove impairment.  Yes, indeed, but we’re talking about public and lawmaker perceptions, not courtroom reality.  In their minds, the way we keep stoners off the road is when we pull them over and smell weed, we can arrest them for having weed.  Now that we propose taking that option away from police, the public feels like there will be no way to keep stoners off the road.  As illogical as it is, to the public’s mind, legalization introduces a brand new drug to society and we’re seen as opposing for marijuana the same policies that keep drunk drivers in check.

If you can get marijuana legalization in your state without any sort of THC in blood limit, more power to you.  I believe the political realities won’t make that possible.  Colorado did it, only to see its legislature hammer away at a 5ng limit until it seems now likely to become law.  If the choice is legalization that will pass with limits or continuing to arrest and imprison marijuana smokers, the smart thing to do would be to lobby for fairer limits.

It is sad that Drug War profiteers are okay with armed invasions and the incarceration of nonviolent citizens, just to make a buck.

In Texas Monthly, there is a great article on the subject of “trace cases” that quotes Former DA Pat Lykos’ presentation at the Baker Institute that I was a part of in 2012:

To help explain her reasoning, at an appearance at Rice University’s Baker Institute, she held up a package of Splenda, which weighs approximately one gram. She and her predecessors had been prosecuting people for less than 1/100th of that amount. “Sometimes they had a little flake extruding from their nose, a little flake [on a shirt collar] or on a crack pipe. We had thousands of cases clogging up our dockets, and that meant thousands of people overcrowding the jail.”

Beyond that, she argued that the policy helped police make better use of their time “When someone is arrested for a trace case, that officer is out of service for two to three hours,” she said. “That neighborhood is unprotected for two to three hours. Officers are getting time-and-a-half to fight the drug war, and this is their drug-war arrest, time-and-a-half to go to court. So the union bosses are not happy with me.”

But it’s the naked fiscal honestly revealed by the law enforcement community that is the shocker of this article.  When asked why there is such opposition to a Texas bill to make small-time personal marijuana possession a non-arrestable offense, they explain that they can’t afford not to arrest pot smokers:

Rep. Harold Dutton’s HB 184 would reduce penalties for use of marijuana and synthetic cannabinoids (perhaps a portent, the hearing began at almost exactly 4:20, the traditional time for an afternoon toke), and Rep. Senfronia Thompson’s HB 2914 would set 0.02 grams as the minimum amount of a controlled substance necessary to cause an arrest; though the amount involved is still tiny, the bill would prevent most trace-case prosecutions.

For more than two hours, a stream of supporters pieced together a compelling mosaic of arguments for ending the prohibition of marijuana. Bryan-College Station Judge John Delaney reported that probation officers in Brazos County had told him that passage of the bill, with its removal of incarceration and therefore of probation, would devastate their offices. Why? Because almost half of the county’s misdemeanor probationers have been convicted of possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. “We live off our under-two-ounce misdemeanor guys. They pay the rent.”

We’re Almost There And We’re Just Starting: The Drug Peace Bumblebee’s Message To His Media Colleagues

“Smells like the art teacher’s room.” –Lisa Simpson

Best-selling author Doug Fine pollinates us with his Drug Peace ideals each week in The Drug Peace Bumblebee column. (Photo by Michael Bowman)

Stigma, the final front in the Drug War, was on my mind as I addressed my colleagues at the Society of Professional Journalists’ Southwest Regional Conference in Santa Fe on a recent brisk spring afternoon. I assumed, since 80% of Americans want the Drug War to end, that I was of like mind with the news anchors, radio hosts and newspaper editors who had traveled to the conference from Wyoming to the Mexican Border. After all, everywhere I go to speak, young and old, left and right, and men and women alike seem to nearly universally recognize that the United States’ longest and most expensive war soon will finally end on the federal level.

So there in America’s oldest capital, I gave my usual humor-infused Drug Peace talk, based on my recent book Too High to Fail, which follows the journey of one locally legal cannabis flower from a Mendocino County, California farm to a liver cancer patient. There at the headquarters of the Santa Fe New Mexican where the conference was being held, I ad libbed with regional references as I always do, presuming that my audience, any audience, by this point knows that 4:20 is something associated with cannabis.

I really hammered home the issue of lingering cannabis stigma in what you might call society’s more formal strata. “Unless you’re underage or from Utah,” I recall needling my colleagues of the press from up and down the Rockies. “You’re probably gonna tip a beer at the after party following the conference.” I delivered this zinger confidently. I was, after all, speaking to journalists, who as a profession could single-handedly keep Milwaukee in business. “No problem doing that in public at a Santa Fe tavern. Yet if cannabis is your after-work social lubricant, you’ve still got to hide in your hotel room like Louie Armstrong in 1954.”

At a reception shortly thereafter, the event’s hostess reminded me that a solid 20% of those in attendance were in fact from Utah, this being the Southwest (Region 9) SPJ conference. Also, she pointed out good-naturedly, there was a whole category of events and awards for college media, meaning another 10% of my audience that day wasn’t of drinking age.

That information was useful to me as a comedian, in addition to as a journalist. No wonder the beer vs. cannabis anecdote had earned such sparse and nervous laughter: I was in fact dealing with at least a partial audience for whom 4:20 meant only a safe time to slip away from the cubicle for the kid’s piano recital.

If I’m clueless about my local professional organization’s demographics, it’s because I’m just a goat rancher from five hours away in the Land of Enchantment desert. Some of my Colorado colleagues in attendance might have traveled less to get to the event. Me, I had chicken eggs to collect the next day. As a performer at a heartland journalist conference, it turns out, I was like Tracy Morgan entertaining the NRA Convention. An interesting but not necessarily misguided choice. Good thing the booker was in a position of authority at her own news organization. Which actually says a lot about the torch-passing that has gone done vis a vis drug policy in the past two or three years.

I had no idea about any of this as I ploughed through my Drug Peace anecdotes and slides, tracking the journey of the locally developed, organically-grown California cannabis plant I followed through the helicopters and powdery mildew dangers of the 2011 domestic farming season. I pulled from my usual basket of inside references, including the wonderfully ironic moment I was pulled over during the research of my cannabis book under an Anheuser-Busch billboard reading “Grab Some Buds.”

No, it wasn’t until the question and answer session that followed the talk that I got the memo: many of my colleagues, whether from Denver or Cheyenne, are just starting their drug policy education. In an encouragingly open-minded and supportive way, I should say, based on the very kind response Too High to Fail has received from the New York Times to Conan. And heck, this is why I had been invited to speak to Utahans.

The attitude I was sensing there in Santa Fe that day was refreshingly free of Drug War rhetoric and the brain frying myths on which I was raised in the 1980s suburbs. Other than the visiting Japanese reporter who stormed out five minutes into my talk (and might have had to do with the restroom needs of her accompanying toddler), my audience was simply professional newsmakers wanting to know the truth — from all kinds of angles: business, public health, even sports.

One of my colleagues at the conference — and keep in mind the room was full of real life Kent Brockmans and super intense young go-getters — asked me to defend why I even thought drug policy was important enough topic to cover in a busy news landscape.

“Do you really think it’s as important an issue as poverty, marriage equality and immigration?” he challenged, right at the top of the Q and A session.

“Interesting that you give those examples,” I said. “Because I think drug policy is deeply embedded in all three.”

I proceeded to connect the rather glaring dots that anyone reading a column called The Drug Peace Bumblebee no doubt already knows – how policies like Stop and Frisk in New York fill jails with poor kids while leaving cartels untouched, for example. That’s the reality that converted people like televangelist Pat Robertson and Reagan Secretary of State George Shultz to the Drug Peace camp. I concluded on a massive “it’s the economy, stupid” note, hammering home the imperative of encouraging America to transform the clever but self-parasitic Prison Inc. business model into a $40 billion per year, local farmer-supporting utilization of her number one crop in the aboveground economy.

“OK, then how should we cover marijuana?” one Utah-based news producer flat-out asked me.

“For a start, avoid stoner jokes in the headline or intro,” I advised. “Avoid the easy jokes. They’ve been done. A hundred million Americans have used this herb, including the past three Presidents, and, while anything can be addictive, it’s far less dangerous than alcohol and much less of a public health issue than prescription pill abuse. It actually has public health and safety benefits including cartel-hurting and a decrease in youth use rates.”

“Is it weed, dope, marijuana?” someone called out to me at one point in the day. “What do we call it?”

“Call the plant cannabis,” I advised. “It covers all of its uses from medicinal to industrial to social to nutritive.”

Another hand shot up. “What about as an economic story?” a business columnist from Denver asked (he later very generously made the highest bid on the copy of Too High to Fail I had donated for a silent fundraising auction for the SPJ). “What do you think are the main angles?”

“Cover it like you cover any other multi-billion-dollar business,” I suggested. “Get to know the key players. Where is their money coming from? Why are they in it? What are they after? And you might want to look into tourism — the farmers I followed in the Emerald Triangle are planning to make it the next Napa. Oh, and also my personal issue is sustainability: looks like Colorado is trying to encourage an indoor-based, energy demanding model for its cannabis industry. That’d be a big mistake for the economy and the planet.”

At this point in the Q & A, I was still a bit shocked by what you might call the Drug Policy 101 level of the questions, but also thrilled at what had clearly turned into a professional workshop. I eventually got to the rub, which is the public service my colleagues will be performing by covering the normalcy of cannabis in aboveground American life.

I inveighed, “Given the incontrovertible evidence showing that ending the War on Cannabis is good for both America’s economy and her public health and safety, I think a series of stories about responsible adults in positions of authority who are cannabis-friendly is a great idea.”

I nodded toward the fellow in the audience who’d referenced marriage equality. I was trying to convey that this is a time of coming out for millions of law-abiding folks who don’t drink alcohol, take prescription medication or smoke cigarettes, but who are unembarrassed that cannabis is an herb with which they have a positive relationship. I get approached by such people all the time. When that is looked upon by media gatekeepers as no more surprising than someone who enjoys a glass of wine with dinner after a hard day’s hedge funding or solar panel assembling, then the Drug War is really over.

This “tell positive cannabis stories” thought had occurred to me earlier in the day as I walked the awesome five century-old stretch of adobe from my hotel to the conference’s location on the other side of the Santa Fe Plaza. We can craft our societal mores any way we like. In Japan at such professional gatherings as the one I was about to keynote, it’s considered perfectly acceptable, even admirable, to be the guy who passes out from one too many vodka shots after singing the company song in his underwear atop the bar. To me, it’s not such a leap for newsmakers, religious leaders, and other people who, for better or for worse, are our society’s moral barometers, to invite cannabis to the party for responsible adults for whom alcohol isn’t the drug of choice.

I’m talking about a fairly unprecedented reversal of the stigma once associated with cannabis use. The Drug War would have been stillborn in 1937 without the demonization of the cannabis aficionado. It might be unprecedented, but I think it’s likely. In fact I think it’s well underway. “No one cares if you smoke a joint,” Arnold Schwarzenegger said to Jay Leno upon signing the decriminalization of cannabis into law in California in 2010. Let us hope that statement was truly prophetic. It’s already resulted in tens of thousands of fewer cannabis arrests in California.

During the research for Too High to Fail, I recall what struck me as a profound statement made by the terrific Mendocino County Sheriff, Tom Allman. This twice-elected Republican was spearheading the successful cannabis farmer permitting program about which I wrote. In the midst of one of our many interviews in his office, surrounded by the Emerald Hills of Mendocino, Allman told me, “We have problems in this county. Domestic violence. Poverty. Meth. Cannabis isn’t even in the top ten. My dream is to get it off the front pages.”

What an awesome image to conjure at a journalism conference: a conservative law enforcer who has evolved from a classic Drug Warrior — complete with the helicopters and the infrared goggles – to a public servant so dedicated to the Drug Peace Dividend that he unilaterally implemented a tax-generating cannabis program, immoral federal law be darned. Pretty brave, in my view. All to stop the county’s number one industry from taking up so much of his deputy’s time. Needless to say, Allman has the support – no, the adoration – of the local $6 billion cannabis industry.

That’s what I want, too: I’d like cannabis use to be a non-issue — or no more of an issue than having a beer. The brainwashing of the Just Say No Era is deservedly sick, but it must die. If alcohol is going to stay legal, a responsible adult should have nothing to be embarrassed about if her favorite health maintenance herb is cannabis. And as a father, I firmly believe honesty and accurate education is the way to decrease youth use rates as well.

So this was and is my message for my colleagues: as the Drug Peace Era begins, let’s make sure it’s a conceptual one, as well as a legal one. Treat cannabis at least as fairly as you do alcohol: as something it is perfectly fine for a responsible adult to openly use in moderation in social, spiritual or medicinal situations.

Americans should be able to hold positions of authority without cannabis being an issue: elected posts, PTA presidents, doctors, teachers, pilots. The operative word here is “openly.” Sure those hundred million Americans have used cannabis, but when they attend their professional gatherings, it’s either beer or a hotel room with a towel stuffed under the door. How 1983.

National Cannabis Coalition volunteers joined the Global Cannabis March in downtown Portland, Oregon.

The SWAT raid of the Harte family is just one of the very few reasons that we still march for our civil rights. We are not only standing up for the cannabis community, but for the rights of all citizens. An unwinnable war is being waged against nonviolent, amazing people. Family and great friends of mine. And also people like Adlynn and Robert Harte, two former CIA employees who served the government faithfully.

The Harte’s had to endure an armed invasion of their home because they were growing tomatoes and melons.  Family dogs have been unnecessarily shot and killed with children present.  Not even politicians are safe. Innocent people could have died like Kathryn Johnston, an elderly woman in Atlanta, because of a system that rewards criminals to become informants and their false information has life and death consequences. Raids like this are far too common. Radley Balko has been doing amazing work documenting these dangerous failures.

Despite the many injustices, I see hope and progress across the country and across the globe. The tide has turned and truth is slowly, but surely, setting us all free.  May the Fourth be with us all ;)

Million Marijuana March, Madrid, Spain, 2004

This Saturday, May the 4th (or “Star Wars Day”) advocates for ending adult marijuana prohibition will march in hundreds of cities worldwide.  The Global Cannabis March (or “Million Marijuana March”, “Cannabis Liberation Day”, “J Day”, etc.) was founded by Cures Not Wars’ Dana Beal in 1999 in New York City.  A fantastic wiki has been set up to coordinate all the cities that will be participating.  Find yours by visiting http://rad-r.us/MJMarch - the link takes you to the United States’ listings, but you can scroll up and down for the worldwide listings.  Most marches have their own Facebook page as well, which you can find on the wiki as well.

It was eight years ago that I attended my first Global Cannabis March in Portland.  That march changed my life as I was introduced to other local activists and opportunities I could never have found behind a computer screen.  Visit http://rad-r.us/MJMarch now and make your plans to stand up for your rights tomorrow.  I strongly encourage all readers to attend their march if possible.  There is nothing more galvanizing as an activist than to stand toe-to-toe with like-minded citizens and visibly protest for an end to prohibition.  Bring signs and friends and your love of the First Amendment (in America and your right to protest in your country).  Now that Colorado and Washington have opened the door, we need to blow it wide open for all cannabis consumers.