Marijuana lobbyists hired

Taking their cues from big tobacco and alcohol, marijuana organizations are hiring staff to lobby the Liquor Control Board as they develop our state's commercial marijuana system.

From the Washington State Wire:

Veteran lobbyists . . .will represent one of perhaps four separate groups lining up to impact the regulatory process of the Washington State Liquor Control Board as it develops the state’s, and the nation’s first recreational cannabis users’ retail business platform. 

. . . The two lobbyists will register on behalf what appears to be the first state association or coalition of the state’s larger, more business savvy medical marijuana producers. Hilary Bricken said the two will register with the PDC to “monitor and provide input on any legislation or regulation pertaining to the production, processing, wholesaling and retailing of cannabis.”

“We’ve (also) started a trade organization called The Cannabis Business Group that plans to advocate for itself and its interests in Olympia with our lobbyists,” Bricken added in an email.

Is anyone hiring lobbyists for youth substance abuse prevention?

Join WASAVP at Prevention Policy Day!

Liquor Control Board starts marijuana rulemaking process & seeks public input

Yesterday, the Liquor Control Board released a fact sheet about the implementation of I-502.  Earlier this week, they announced that they have begun rulemaking regarding marijuana producers and are seeking public input.

Here's their announcement:

Marijuana Producer Rulemaking Underway
December 5, 2012

Today the Washington State Liquor Control Board filed a CR-101 (pre-proposal filing) to enter into the initial stage of rule-making on the “marijuana producer” license created by Initiative 502.

Marijuana Producer Only
This rule making is for the “marijuana producer” license only. During this stage of the rule-making process the Board is seeking public comment and input on how the public thinks the license should work and what type of regulations should come with it.

Board staff will review the written input as it formulates draft rules. Once the draft rule is prepared, the Board will again seek comment on draft producer rules (CR 102), including at least one public hearing. It is likely that the Board will hold public hearings on the west and east sides of Washington State. Dates and times for those meetings will be posted on the LCB website as soon as they become available. Notices will also be sent via the I-502 Listserv maintained by the Liquor Control Board.

Tentative Timeline
Note: The below timeline is tentative. We will use the I-502 Listserv and website for notifications and updates as they are available. You can also follow us on twitter (WSLCB).

• December 5, 2012 
  Board files CR 101 to initiate marijuana producer rulemaking

• February 10, 2013  
  Last day for Board to accept initial public input
   
• March 6, 2013
  Board files CR 102 that includes a draft marijuana producer rule
   
• April 10, 2013
  1 of 2 public hearings. The second’s hearing is still to be determined.
   
• April 17, 2013
  Board adopts marijuana producer rules
   
• May 18, 2013
  Marijuana rules become effective.

Public Comment
Please forward your initial comments to the Liquor Control Board by mail, e-mail, or fax by Feb. 10, 2013

By mail:
Rules Coordinator
Liquor Control Board
P.O. Box 43080
Olympia, WA 98504-3080

By e-mail: rules@liq.wa.gov

By fax: 360-664-9689

Processor and Retailer Rulemaking
Similar CRs will be filed at a later date for the proposed “processor” and “retailer” licenses created by I-502.

Legal adult marijuana use, restrictions included

Tomorrow, part of Initiative 502 goes into affect.  Possession of small amounts of marijuana and marijuana-infused foods/beverages will no longer be illegal in Washington.  However, restrictions on use come hand-in-hand with this new legal status.

From the Seattle Weekly Blog:

Although it becomes legal this week to possess one pound of "marijuana-infused product" or 72 ounces of marijuana-infused liquid, officials say Initiative-502 doesn't open the door for restaurants to plate up pot.

. . . But the clearest prohibition may be located in the state's food code, which bars commercial food producers from using any ingredients which aren't approved for human consumption, such as marijuana. "It doesn't appear that's going to change," Moyer says. Although the rules committee could recommend adjusting the code, it might be difficult to square those changes with food safety concerns: Since marijuana remains illegal under federal law, there are no plans for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to inspect or approve marijuana-infused products.

"Marijuana in food products is not legal," Moyer emphasizes. "That includes what's already being sold in 'dispensaries,' which of course, aren't legal."

From FOX 12 in Oregon:

. . . Flatt (a marijuana user) planned to rent out a space at the Clark County Convention Center on New Year's Eve and then invite (marijuana) smokers and supporters to attend.

But the county health department soon put a stop to Flatt's pot party. County health officials said the party would be against the law and the convention center denied his application.

Justin Kobluk, a spokesman for the Clark County Events Center, said the events center must abide by Measure 901, passed in 2005, which says "no person may smoke in a public place or in any place of employment."

"The issue wasn't the cannabis or the substance at all," Kobluk said. "The issue was it is just not legal to smoke in a public place," he said.

From the Bellingham Herald:

. . . In a Monday, Dec. 3, committee vote, the City Council approved ordinance amendments bringing Bellingham's municipal code into conformance with state law as changed by voters via Initiative 502.

The initiative allows people 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana, with similar legal limits on various kinds of "marijuana-infused products." But the initiative also treats pot the way that current law treats alcohol: Using it in public, or even having an open container, subjects the offender to a "civil infraction," which amounts to a ticket and a small fine, but not arrest or jail.

More marijuana legalization questions posed by the News Tribune

The News Tribune editorial board recently presented more questions that jurisdictions will need to consider as I-502 is implemented:


At this point, though, it’s not obvious that the rules will be honored. Will legal selling actually replace illegal selling? One test will be whether Seattle and Tacoma shut down “medical” marijuana dispensaries, which operate outside the law and typically cater to recreational users – including people under the age of 21.

Or does Washington get licensed and supervised retail marijuana stores – and unlicensed and unsupervised dispensaries?

Will city councils and prosecutors enforce I-502’s attempt to separate young people from marijuana? Possession by anyone under the age of 21 remains illegal under the law. Will charges be pressed against those who provide marijuana to young people? 

For that matter, will cities and counties continue to prosecute small-time illegal dealers? Will they now tolerate smoking in public? 

Or will the passage of I-502 become a pretext for ignoring the measure’s own rules?

The questions begin: Where should marijuana be grown? How much security is needed?

The Liquor Control Board launched a webpage dedicated to providing information about the implementation of Initiative 502.  They have a little more than one year to develop a brand new regulatory system as Washington establishes a marijuana industry. 

In an interview with KPLU, the Liquor Control Board Chairperson notes that since marijuana has never been legalized anywhere before, they have a lot of work ahead of them.

She says Washington’s law now goes farther than any other state has gone on legalizing marijuana.

“We are in new territory.”


As chair of the board, she’s the regulator in chief of state-run marijuana…Safety is paramount, she says.


Figuring out how the plants would be grown and protected will be the agency’s first order of business.

“Do people want just greenhouses, or do people want to go to the expense of having security around their growing area?”


Having armed guards around pot fields might also attract too much attention, since the law envisioned growers just blending into the landscape.

Public health and safety advocates can have their voices heard during this process of setting rules and regulations for the new industry.  Advocates can play a significant role in determining  issues like if marijuana should be grown in greenhouses or farms or both.  Local zoning laws can be established to control where marijuana growing operations, producers, and stores are located.  Some local jurisdictions may choose to put a moratorium on businesses that grow, produce, and sell marijuana until the Liquor Control Board has regulations in place or the response from the federal government is known.  Security requirements can be established so that armed robbery and theft of marijuana plants and products can be minimized.

For instance, the Seattle City Council is in the process of proposing changes to zoning laws so that large marijuana farms, producers, and retailers are limited to non-neighborhood commercial zones.  Other jurisdictions around the state have banned medical marijuana dispensaries while others established moratoriums to give them time to sort out zoning and public safety issues.

Marijuana #1 reason youth enter substance abuse treatment

While alcohol is the drug of choice among high school students who use, marijuana is, by far, the primary reason kids enter substance abuse treatment.  Below are charts from King County and Washington of publicly-funded youth substance abuse treatment admissions over the past several years.

King County

 Washington

Youth substance abuse treatment admissions are different from adult admissions -- alcohol is, by far, the primary reason adults enter treatment.

When I show people these charts, they often ask me if these high rates of youth treatment for marijuana are because they were referred to treatment by the courts.  While the juvenile justice system does play a role in these numbers, they are not the primary original referral source -- schools are.

In most school districts, if a student is caught with drugs/alcohol at school, he/she is referred to a community agency for a substance abuse assessment.  The assessment agency then usually recommends either drug/alcohol education or treatment.  Most students are referred to an educational program.  The same process is true for the courts.

A third psychoactive drug should not be legalized

One of the questions I often get when discussing marijuana legalization is about the harms of alcohol use versus the harms of marijuana use.  I think the American Academy of Pediatrics summed up my thoughts on this matter best:

That alcohol and tobacco cause far more harm in our society than marijuana is undeniable, but it does not follow logically that yet a third addictive psychoactive drug (marijuana) should be legalized.  Many of the harms associated with alcohol and tobacco use stem from the widespread acceptability, availability, and use of these substances.  Still other harms result from lax enforcement of current laws regulating their use or sale, especially to underage youth.

Veteran political observer takes stand against marijuana legalization

Over at Crosscut, they discuss the initiatives facing Washington voters, including I-502.  Here is part of what is written:

On this one I am hopelessly old school. Marijuana dulls the brain, leads to overeating, causes inattentive behavior, and reduces sex drive. There are those who love it but I fail to see the social benefits that would derive from I-502. It no doubt would generate tax revenues but so, no doubt, would cocaine legalization. Medical marijuana use is legal here. Possession laws are not enforced unless you are carrying the product in bails. Yes, I know alcohol does more harm than marijuana. But that does not mean marijuana should be easily grown, sold, obtained, and used. Society has to set limits somewhere; I'd leave marijuana in its present in-between status. If you want it, you know you can get it. But don't promote its widened use. I voted No.

Marijuana is "the dream tobacco companies have"

Over at The Reality-Based Community blog, they discuss the eagerness of big tobacco to gain a new market: marijuana.  Here's an excerpt:

I dug through the internal documents that the government forced big tobacco to release and found evidence of the industry’s longstanding interest in selling pot . . . 

This is the dream tobacco companies have had since at least the 1970s, when consultants issued a secret report to Brown & Williamson touting a future product line in marijuana. “The use of marijuana today by 13 million Americans is socially the equivalent of the use of alcohol by some 100 million Americans,” said the report, found among millions of documents turned over to plaintiffs during the tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s. “It is the recreational drug; the choice of a significant minority of the population. The trend in liberalization of drug laws reflects the overall change in our value system. It also has important implications for the tobacco industry in terms of an alternative product line.”

The tobacco companies, the report concluded, “have the land to grow it, the machines to roll it and package it, the distribution to market it. In fact, some firms have registered trademarks, which are taken directly from marijuana street jargon. These trade names are used currently on little-known legal products, but could be switched if and when marijuana is legalized. Estimates indicate that the market in legalized marijuana might be as high as $10 billion annually.

The report was a long time ago, and no doubt the industry has more modern ideas for selling marijuana today. Maybe that’s why, during the run up to the 2010 election in which marijuana legalization was on the ballot in California, Altria took control of the web domain names AltriaMarijuana.com and AltriaCannabis.com. For those not in the know, Altria is the parent company of Phillip Morris, the manufacturer of Marlboro, Players, Benson & Hedges and many other popular brands of tobacco cigarettes.

Plenty of money for drug and alcohol initiatives

Last year, Costco spent a record $22 million in support of Initiative 1883 which was approved by voters.  Though not as much has been spent this year in support of Initiative 502, "backers of I-502, the marijuana legalization initiative, have spent $5.7 million, with opponents spending only $18,000" according to KING 5.


KING 5 reports, "Spending to influence Washington voters on initiatives on the 2012 ballot has topped $30 million, according to filings with the state Public Disclosure Commission."

Yakima Herald: Legalize pot? We don't need to go there.

In  their editorial, "Legalize pot? We don't need to go there", the Yakima Herald says:

The public safety side, including Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, opposes the measure for fear of increased drug use, compromised traffic safety and involvement by organized crime. Gov. Chris Gregoire is against it, as are gubernatorial candidates Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee, with all noting that marijuana-related activities would remain a federal crime.

. . . Critics from both sides believe that in tight budget times, legislators will be tempted to "sweep" dedicated public-health funds into the general fund, and recent history supports that view.

We stand on the public-safety side, and proponents don’t offer a rejoinder about federal illegality except to say that if enough states take steps to legalize it, the federal government eventually will come around. That leap of faith attempts to cover too much of the middle ground for our tastes. We would also like to see the Legislature clarify provisions of Washington’s hazy medical marijuana laws, approved by voter initiative in 1998, before we try to take any steps toward legalization.

We also have a hard time with the argument that by regulating and taxing pot, the drug cartels will lose their economic incentive and move on somewhere else. The crop is too lucrative for cartels to simply walk away from their large, untaxed illegal grows in Eastern Washington if marijuana is legalized.

There will be enforcement costs associated with the measure, as well as to police use by people under 21 and those who may toke and drive. We are also swayed by arguments that making an intoxicating substance more available increases the prospects for drug abuse and its resulting health and law-enforcement problems.

Initiative 502 simply takes us a bit too far; the safest ground lies with a "no" vote.

Marijuana snacks and beverages: a growth industry

Anyone who believes that legal marijuana would not turn into a large industry just like big tobacco and alcohol should watch this report from 60 Minutes that highlights how Colorado's medical marijuana industry has attracted entrepreneurs, at least one of whom plans to launch products in other states in the coming years.

No tax revenue from marijuana grown in corn fields or in homes

According to a recent story about a group of people who were arrested for growing marijuana in a corn field near Yakima, "the suspects reportedly told the agents they had medical marijuana cards, but card holders are limited to only 1½ pounds of marijuana . . ."

Initiative 502 allows individuals to buy up to one ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana infused products in solid form, or 72 ounces of marijuana infused product in liquid form.  What if people who use marijuana decide that this is not enough?

Many people who support I-502 say it will bring in much needed tax revenue.  But to gain that revenue, users must be willing to buy marijuana in stores.  Taxes cannot be collected on marijuana grown in homes or in corn fields not licensed by the Liquor Control Board.  Marijuana is cheap and easy to grow and it is unclear how the law against home grows and non-licensed farms will be enforced if I-502 is approved.  

Marijuana infused beer sold to minors

Serving as a preview for what is in store for our state if I-502 is approved, the seizure of marijuana infused beer highlights that regulating marijuana is more complicated than the "treat it like alcohol" slogan.  

Last week, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) served a search warrant at a medical marijuana cooperative in Tacoma for alleged sales of alcohol without a license and sales of alcohol to a minor. The Hashford Compassion Club is a medicinal marijuana outlet and does not have a liquor license. The WSLCB seized an indeterminate number of cases of beer.

The WSLCB acted on a complaint that a minor was sold alcohol. The beer (pictured)  was in a re-purposed Corona Light bottle with a label that read “Northern Light,” and advertised as “Cannabis Enriched Honey Beer.”  While the beer is apparently enriched with marijuana, the WSLCB is acting on the liquor sales violation only.

“This is a public safety concern, “said Chief of WSLCB Enforcement and Education Justin Nordhorn. “Selling alcohol to minors without a license is the equivalent of selling alcohol out of the trunk of a car.” 

This story highlights the many questions that will need to be answered if I-502 is approved.  Is marijuana infused beer an alcohol product or a marijuana product?  Will grocery stores be able to sell marijuana infused alcohol?  And what about marijuana infused foods?  Are they food products (and therefore exempt from sales taxes) or are they drug products?  If they are food products, will the Liquor Control Board still have regulatory authority over them?

Several proponents of I-502 and state legislators acknowledge that I-502 is not perfect and that it will need to be tweaked by the legislature.  The issue about marijuana infused products is just one of the imperfections that will need to be tweaked.  If I-502 is approved, Washingtonians can expect the next several legislative sessions to be filled with contentious debates about how to actually implement the initiative.  Meanwhile, with or without the tweaks, marijuana would be fully legal one year from December.  

The Liquor Control Board's role in marijuana legalization

Considering that the Liquor Control Board (LCB) is still working to establish regulations for the implementation of I-1183, the initiative that privatized and deregulated the sale of spirits/hard alcohol in the state, Initiative 502 has a tall order in store for them if it is approved next month.  At least there was an already established alcohol industry for the LCB to build upon.  I-502 will create a whole new industry that has never been established anywhere before.  

Initiative 502 states that by December 1, 2013 the LCB will have to establish a regulatory system that includes, but is not limited to :

•       Licensing growers, manufacturers, and retailers.

•       Determining retail outlet density.

•       How much marijuana a business can keep on premises.

•       Security and safety requirements.

•       “The provision of adequate access to licensed sources of marijuana . . . to discourage purchases from the illegal market.”

•       “Economies of scale and their impact on a licensees’ ability to both comply with regulatory requirements and undercut illegal market prices.”

•       What marijuana containers should look like and include on the label.

•       Establish “classes” of marijuana and marijuana-infused products.

•       Advertising restrictions.

•       The time and method for the transport and delivery of marijuana within the state.

•       Accreditation for labs to determine if marijuana businesses are following standards.

•       Procedures for eliminating marijuana not up to standards.

Who is in prison for marijuana?

According to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, prison inmates sentenced for "marijuana possession only" account for 0.7% of state prisoners and 0.8% of federal prisoners.

As the graphic below from True Compassion shows, many prisoners who are in jail for marijuana "pled down from more serious charges and . . . the true incarceration rate for simple marijuana possession is negligible."

More national experts weigh in against marijuana legalization

"Legalizing and normalizing marijuana will be a public health disaster," according to John Walter, Former Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"Marijuana use has been linked to mental illness and violence.  Its use also interferes with the cognitive development in adolescents.  Marijuana use has significant impacts on our school scores and drop-out rates, accidents and vehicle fatality rates, employment productivity, healthcare and treatment costs, and the potential escalation of further illicit drug use.  In fact, more young people are in treatment for marijuana than any other drug," says Calvina Fay, Executive Director of the Drug Free America Foundation.

Marijuana legalization "would reduce productivity of a significant segment of our workforce"

Yesterday, the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace released a statement opposing the ballot initiatives in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon that would legalize marijuana.  According to their press release:

• "Those who engage in illicit drug use are one-third less productive according to a Department of Health and Human Services report."

• "With the economy the #1 issue facing our country and the #1 issue in this election, enacting laws that would reduce productivity of a significant segment of our workforce by one-third would further undermine our economy and impede recovery." 

• "Legalization would mean more use, and more use would mean a greater detrimental impact on the workplace, less productivity, and a less safe working environment for millions of American workers."

•  . . . those who engage in illicit drug use are 3.6 times more likely to be involved in a workplace accident that injures themselves and/or another person or people."  

Alcohol marketed to youth . . . is marijuana next?

What is the difference between these three products?

The first picture (above left) shows two pouches containing alcopops.

The second product (above right) is a juice pouch.

The set of bottles (left) contain marijuana-infused beverages.  Potpops?

In 2006, 30 people arrested in Seattle for marijuana only

Below are two charts from the Final Report of the Marijuana Policy Review Panel on the Implementation of Initiative 75 which made the enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for Seattle Police.

Table 1 shows that in 2006, there were 125 "total marijuana cases filed" by the Seattle Police Department.  Of those, 30 (24%) were "marijuana only" charges.

Table 7 shows that 0.8% of all misdemeanor filings in Seattle were for marijuana in 2006.

Here is another link to the report.

Watch the KYVE discussion about marijuana legalization

Check out David Rolfe from Safe Yakima Valley discussing marijuana legalization on KYVE: http://kcts9.org/insiders-roundtable/i-502-marijuana-law-reform.

Easy access to marijuana and alcohol

Okay, I am getting tired of the media spin about teen access to marijuana.  Here is what the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey tells us.

In 2010, when Washington 10th grade students were asked how easy it would be to get alcohol and how easy would it be to get marijuana,

• 56% said it would be easy to get alcohol
• 54% said it would be easy to get marijuana.

Now let's look at use rates:

• 28% report using alcohol within the last 30 days
• 20% report using marijuana within the last 30 days.

In other words, though Washington 10th graders say alcohol and marijuana are easy to get, they use legal and regulated alcohol at higher rates.  And that's what really matters -- how much kids are actually using.  The data is easily available at www.AskHYS.net.

I kept writing "Washington high school students" above because national data tells a different story.  Nationwide, teenagers find it easier to get legal and regulated alcohol and tobacco than illegal marijuana.

Another nationwide study shows that even when teenagers know of a peer who sells marijuana, they still use legal and regulated drugs at higher rates.  

Child psychiatrist's top ten reasons not to legalize marijuana

When it comes to marijuana policy, Colorado and Washington seem to be fairly similar.  Both states have legal medical marijuana industries and both states will vote on full marijuana legalization next month.  Therefore, I think a video of Dr. Christian Thurstone, from the University of Colorado at Denver, providing his "Top Ten Reasons Not to Legalize Marijuana" to the Colorado Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Society is pertinent to Washingtonians, as well.

Unfortunately, the video ends just as Dr. Thurstone starts talking about marketing marijuana to youth.

According to the Colorado Child and Adolescent Psychiatry website:

Recently, Colorado has seen staggering increases in adolescent marijuana use. Many parents, teens and teachers are confused about marijuana as both medicine and drug of abuse. Here is a link to materials written by our president, Dr. Thurstone, and the Colorado Department of Education called Understand the Big Deal: How Marijuana Harms Youth. This resource includes a one-page info sheet, a brochure and a slide set. Feel free to make copies and distribute.

Recent I-502 debates

With a month to go before the elections, debates about I-502 are heating up.  Check out two of the latest ones to appear in Seattle media:

Seattle Times Live chat about legalizing marijuana in Washington

KCTS-9 Initiative 502 Debate.

Yesterday, an op-ed appeared in the Seattle Times: Don't legalize marijuana.  It's addictive.

Racial disparities in advertising

As I have blogged about before, if approved Initiative 502 would create a marijuana industry similar to the alcohol and tobacco industries.  I-502 contains restrictions on marijuana advertising that are similar to alcohol advertising restrictions -- it does not ban advertising in mass media (television, radio, newspapers, magazine, the Internet) and it does not ban marketing to youth.

While there are multiple studies that prove that alcohol and tobacco companies market to youth, a recent report highlights how alcohol ads target African American youth.  According to the report,  African-American youth ages 12-20 see more advertisements for alcohol in magazines and on TV compared with all youth ages 12-20.

Alcohol is the most widely used drug among African-American youth. At least 14 studies have found that the more young people are exposed to alcohol advertising and marketing, the more likely they are to drink, or if they are already drinking, to drink more.

“The report’s central finding—that African-American youth are being over-exposed to alcohol advertising—is a result of two key phenomena,” said author David Jernigan, PhD, the director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing & Youth. “First, brands are specifically targeting African-American audiences and, secondly, African-American media habits make them more vulnerable to alcohol advertising in general because of higher levels of media consumption. As a result, there should be a commitment from alcohol marketers to cut exposure to this high-risk population.”

A marijuana industry would act no differently than the alcohol and tobacco industries.  If marijuana is legalized, it will only be a matter of time before African American and all youth are exposed to advertising messages created just for them.

Teens don't use marijuana because . . .

Check out this new movie theater slide developed by Safe Yakima Valley and ESD 105!

Drug policy myth-busting

"Although some drug reform advocates talk about prisons overflowing with otherwise innocent first-time drug users, that is a myth; over 90 percent of those in prison for drug-law violations admit involvement in drug distribution, albeit often in very minor roles," according to the non-partisan RAND Drug Policy Research Center in their recently released paper: The U.S. Drug Policy Landscape - Insights and Opportunities for Improving the View.

While the paper highlights problems associated with supply reduction activities, the authors highlight one positive outcome:  ". . . supply control is not futile" because enforcing drug laws imposes costs on the drug supply network, and "those costs are presumably passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices.  Contrary to a once-prevalent myth, higher prices really do reduce drug use and initiation, and they also encourage cessation."

Legal, regulated drugs continue to be trafficked

Legalizing marijuana will not rid our state of drug trafficking and related criminal organizations.  Just check out what's going on in Virginia with legal and regulated cigarettes:

What kind of illegal smuggling has the highest profit margin for criminals? Moving heroin? Cocaine? Guns?

No. It's cigarettes.  

Cigarette trafficking has become so lucrative that it is attracting organized crime and former drug smugglers . . . 

. . . the profit margin on illegally trafficked cigarettes is now higher than on cocaine, heroin, marijuana or guns. 

. . . cigarette smuggling has existed for years. But as the discrepancy among states' tax rates has widened in recent years, the problem has worsened.

"We see data in the field that just in the last year it is blooming in the commonwealth . . . because Virginia has the second-lowest cigarette tax in the nation, at 30 cents a pack (2010 figures give Missouri's tax as the lowest, at 17 cents). Every state to the north has a higher tax, and by the time you reach New York state, the tax is $4.35 a pack."

Marijuana snow cones?

A few days ago, I wrote about I-502 opening the door for the development of a marijuana-infused food industry in our state.  Such businesses already exist for medical marijuana.

A reporter from KPLU recently attended the "Medical Cannabis Cup" in Seattle and wrote about the marijuana-infused food that was offered in the "outdoor medicating section".  Cotton candy and snow cones were among the medications.  Here is a photo published with KPLU's story:

Credit Ashley Gross / KPLU

Snow cones were just one of the options for ingesting marijuana at the Medical Cannabis Cup

News Tribune: marijuana legalization bad for juveniles

Earlier this week, the News Tribune published an editorial about I-502: Juvenile marijuana use: the fatal flaw of Initiative 502.  Here are a few excerpts:

. . . Legalization would likely produce a surge of dope smoking among teenagers who now avoid it simply because it is stigmatized as illegal.

Kids notice what adults consider acceptable, and not all of them are hell-bent on rebellion. Federal data suggest that most adolescents either avoid alcohol and drugs, or only experiment with them.

. . . Some of that difference can be explained by perceptions of what is legal among their elders. Legality will inevitably make marijuana more attractive to youth. Mere advertising campaigns aren’t likely to counteract that effect – especially since marijuana marketers will be doing their own advertising under I-502.

The initiative also wouldn’t shut down the black market or the drug cartels, as its supporters hope. For example, sales would still be forbidden to those under 21 – but does anyone believe that dealers will stop selling to them?

There may be ways to legalize or decriminalize marijuana for adults without creating a wider snare for juveniles. It would be nice if I-502 could do that. It’s likely to have just the opposite effect.

"Legalization of more drugs, such as marijuana, will lead to more addiction"

Earlier today, I posted an excerpt from the Reality-Based Community blog about the high-potency marijuana that would dominate a legal market.  In their post, they include a link to an article called, "The changing face of American addictions".  The article includes an interview with Psychologist and addictions researcher Keith Humphreys, PhD.  He expresses concern that legalizing more drugs, including marijuana, will increase drug addiction rates in our country.  Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Q: In your view, are some addictions more harmful than others, and what are they?

A: In terms of damage to population health, the deadliest addictions are to alcohol and tobacco, because they are legal, and therefore, easy to access, inexpensive, skillfully marketed and widely available.

Children and adolescents are the group that suffers the most from addictive drugs, for two reasons. First, because their brains are still developing, they are particularly likely to become addicted when they use. You hardly ever, for example, meet an addicted smoker who didn't start smoking as a teenager. Second, unlike someone with an addicted boyfriend or sibling or friend, children don't have the power to escape an addicted parent. They may therefore endure years of coping with the addiction and with the emotional and physical abuse that their addicted parent dishes out.

Q: What measures would help reduce addictive behavior in the U.S.?

A: Higher taxes on alcohol, increased restrictions on the advertising of tobacco products, more careful prescribing of pain medication by doctors, and greater availability of addiction treatment would all be helpful. Some progress has been made on all these fronts, but the basic political problem is that when a drug is legal (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, prescription pain medication), it is hard to regulate. Industries that sell the products make large campaign contributions and hire armies of lobbyists which keep taxes and regulation on their products as minimal as possible. That's a key reason why the legalization of more drugs, such as marijuana, will lead to more addiction.

Legal marijuana = high potency marijuana

Over at the Reality-Based Community blog, they discuss how high-potency pot would dominate a legal marijuana market.  Here's an excerpt:

With marijuana, as with so many other things, where one sits influences where one stands. Relative to the U.S. population as a whole, people who write about public policy regarding marijuana (e.g., college professors, newspaper editors, drug policy analysts, Internet users and drug legalization activists) are disproportionately college educated and middle to upper-middle class. They therefore are prone to assume that the type of marijuana — specifically potent sinsemilla (THC content 10-18%) — that is popular with better-heeled users is more commonly consumed than it is.

As Caulkins, Hawken, Kilmer and Kleiman’s book Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know makes clear, sinsemilla is in fact a small part of the marijuana market. About eighty percent of the market is “commercial grade” cannabis, which has a THC content of about 5% and sells for $70 to $230 per ounce, depending on how far a buyer is from the producing farm and in what amount he or she buys. If that level of potency and price surprises you, you are probably an observer or participant in the small, nationally unrepresentative marijuana “upmarket“.

The reason for the current dominance of commercial grade pot is simple: It’s an inexpensive product for a price-sensitive population. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the marijuana market had an upmarket skew, but no longer. Today, Caulkins and colleagues estimate that college-educated people only account for about a 1/7 of all marijuana smoked in the U.S., and they overwhelming smoke sinsemilla. The vast bulk of marijuana consumption in the U.S. today is accounted for by working class and poor people who are heavy users. If you make $75,000 a year and smoke pot once a month, springing for high-potency sinsimilla is easy. But if you make $18,000 a year and smoke several joints every day, commercial grade pot is all you can afford.

However, as Caulkins et al. show, the only reason marijuana is expensive is because it is illegal: After all, it’s just a plant. Indeed they project that the post-legalization cost of sinsemella joints would be so low that businesses could give them away, much as bars now give away peanuts . . . 

. . . What difference would this make? . . . parents would be displeased that their children could now easily afford high-potency marijuana, which even in secondary black market sales would be extremely cheap.

Legalizing marijuana candy & cookies

Marijuana-infused products provide a perfect example of why marijuana policy is more complicated than the "regulate it like alcohol" slogan.  If marijuana is legalized, all marijuana products -- not just smoked marijuana -- will be manufactured and sold.  Products likely would include candy, cookies, and beverages that appeal to youth.

Below are just a few marijuana-infused products that are already produced.

Year in and year out, youth substance abuse prevention advocates run into stiff opposition when advocating for the tight regulation of tobacco and alcohol products that appeal to youth.  When advocates are successful, manufactures often find ways to skirt new policies.  Legalizing another drug that is harmful to youth would establish a whole new industry that will need to be constantly monitored.  A whole new industry that will act no differently than the tobacco and alcohol industries and market products to youth.

"Anticipated public health costs of marijuana legalization are significant"

Over at Join Together, a commentary by Dr. Stuart Gitlow, a member of the American Medical Association's Council on Science & Public Health and Acting President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, has this to say about marijuana legalization:


With Election Day just around the corner, voters in multiple locations will again be confronted with cannabis-related questions . . . 

In each case, there is a less-than-subtle approach to licensing and regulation, with excise taxes, fees and other revenue generating components representing a critical argument used in favor of passage . . . The legislatures in each state appear to have ignored the many associated costs which will quickly swallow the revenue described. This includes increased utilization of the drug at younger ages with associated addictive and physical illness, diminished productivity caused by cognitive abnormalities, and increased drugged driving and associated morbidity/mortality.

In July, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) considered the question of marijuana legalization, concluding:

1)  That physicians lead efforts to oppose legislative or ballot initiatives that would result in the legalization of marijuana production, distribution, marketing, possession and use by the general public, and that all physicians incorporate screening and intervention for risky substance use, including marijuana use, as well as diagnosis, treatment and disease management for addiction into their routine medical practice;

2)   That public education campaigns be undertaken to inform the public that addiction associated with cannabinoids is a significant public health threat, and that marijuana is not a safe product to use, especially, but not only, by smoking;

3)   That parents be informed that the marijuana their children are exposed to today is of much higher potency than the marijuana that was widely available in the 1960s through the 1980s, and that the potential for the development of addiction and for the development and progression of psychotic conditions are enhanced when high-potency marijuana products are used by adolescents because of the unique vulnerability of the adolescent brain;

4)   That when cases of marijuana-related substance use disorders are identified and the diagnosis confirmed by professional assessment, carefully monitored treatment to establish abstinence be offered to afflicted persons and such treatment and insurance coverage for it be readily available;

5)   That drugged driving associated with marijuana use be subject to additional epidemiological research and research on the treatment needs of drivers. Increased efforts are needed to prevent its occurrence which should include substantial legal consequences at the level of the consequences for drunk driving;

6)   That, given the significant role the criminal justice system plays in discouraging marijuana use, states promote programs that enhance linkages between the criminal justice system and the addiction treatment system, using models such as Drug Courts and HOPE Probation.

ASAM asserts that the anticipated public health costs of marijuana legalization are significant and are not sufficiently appreciated by the general public or by public policymakers. Physicians and other health professionals must become more aware of the anticipated undesirable outcomes of marijuana legalization and encourage public education on these facts.

Loopholes weaken drug regulations

Much of the current debate around drug policy includes the notion that regulations keep legal drugs -- alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs -- out of the hands of teenagers.  Regulations certainly can keep drugs out of the hands of youth and WASAVP often advocates on behalf of stronger regulations and higher taxes on drugs.  However, regulations often fall short -- sometimes because drug industries finds loopholes in regulations.  The tobacco industry provides a perfect example.  From Sunday's New York Times:

Give the tobacco industry credit for ingenuity. Just when it looked as if federal regulators could block their ability to addict children and young adults, several companies that make cigars and pipe tobacco have sidestepped the barriers by taking advantage of loopholes in federal law. 

One loophole involves a law enacted in 2009 that raised the federal tax on cigarettes, small cigars and roll-your-own tobacco, partly to deter smoking among young people and partly to help pay for a children’s health insurance program. Larger cigars and pipe tobacco, however, were taxed at a much lower rate.

Some manufacturers then relabeled “roll-your-own tobacco” as “pipe tobacco” to qualify for lower taxes. Similarly, some cigar makers made their small cigars slightly heavier to qualify for the lower rate. With just a small increase in weight, a small cigar can qualify as a large cigar, for tax purposes, even though it more nearly resembles a typical cigarette and can cost as little as seven cents a cigar.

It seems clear that the regulatory steps designed to keep tobacco products out of the hands of young people are not working as well as they could. This is no accident. A report issued on Aug. 27 by Representative Henry Waxman . . . cited internal documents from several manufacturers that revealed deliberate plans to manipulate existing products and create new ones to evade taxes and flavor bans.

As we continue our conversation about marijuana legalization, the strength of regulations should be considered.  Not the theory of regulations, but the realities of how regulations are implemented and enforced.  A legal and regulated marijuana industry would be no different than the current legal and regulated drug industries. 

Yakima Rotary listens to both sides of the marijuana legalization debate

The Yakima Downtown Rotary Club recently hosted two guest speakers who provided information about Initiative 502 and marijuana legalization.  The meeting was broadcast on KYVE 47, Yakima's public television station, and may be viewed at: http://kcts9.org/yakima-downtown-rotary-meetings/meeting-august-23-2012.

Despite ease of access, teenagers use legal and regulated drugs at higher rates than illegal drugs

Results from the annual survey on teen substance abuse conducted by CASA Columbia provide an interesting look at youth access to and use of marijuana.  

Marijuana is the primary drug sold by students.  According to this national survey, 44% of high school students know of a student who sells drugs.  Overwhelmingly, the drug being sold by fellow students is marijuana.  

Though marijuana is sold by peers, alcohol is used more. What's interesting is that of the students who can identify a classmate who sells drugs, 55% use alcohol and 35% use marijuana.

In schools where drugs are easy to get, alcohol is the drug of choice.  Of students who report that drugs are used, kept, or sold on school grounds (drug-infected schools), 40% report using alcohol and 24% use marijuana.

Legal drugs are easier to get than illegal drugs.  Students in "drug-infected schools" report that within an hour they can get alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription drugs more easily than marijuana.

Previous studies have indicated that the majority of teenagers who do not use marijuana report that they don't because it is illegal.  (Johnston, L. D., et al,. Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 2010. Volume I: Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan.)

This data adds to the evidence that treating marijuana like alcohol by making it legal and regulated would increase youth access to and use of it.