Amid a bare-knuckle fight with the federal government
to keep his medical marijuana dispensary open, Steve DeAngelo had an
idea: if federal prosecutors wouldn’t allow his patients to come to him,
he would go to them.

"We decided to launch our delivery service because the federal
government is trying to seize our properties," DeAngelo explained.
DeAngelo’s dispensary, Harborside Health Center, is the largest of its
kind in the world. "We wanted to be able to continue serving our
patients, even if we have to close our doors."

Harborside’s delivery service is open to all card-carrying California
medical marijuana patients who become members of the collective and, in
many cases, offers free, same-day delivery to the entire San Francisco
Bay Area.

The shift from a brick-and-mortar model to one based on home delivery
is becoming increasingly common in California, where years of federal
crackdowns on dispensaries have made selling medical marijuana from a
physical storefront an increasingly risky proposition.

"I’ve definitely seen an increase in the number of delivery
services," said Dale Sky Jones, executive chancellor of the
Oakland-based medical marijuana trade school Oaksterdam University.
Years ago, Oaksterdam offered a class in how to run a delivery service,
but quickly cancelled it due to lack of interest. The university has now
brought the class back as more people are looking to start their own
door-to-door operations.

Though California voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996, there’s
long been tension between advocates and the approximately 200
municipalities that have banned pot clubs.

"If communities are not comfortable with a storefront service,
delivery may be the best way to ensure access to people who need it,"
said Jones, who noted that delivery services have the potential to serve
as a compromise between medical marijuana boosters and neighbors
concerned about the negative effects of living near physical
dispensaries — even though evidence suggests that pot clubs actually reduce crime in surrounding neighborhoods.

"A
storefront dispensary draws more attention than some guy driving around
with weed in his trunk," said Kris Hermes of the pro-pot group
Americans of Safe Access. "I think these services will be generally
permitted by local governments."

That hasn’t stopped some California cities from cracking down on
delivery services. While the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has threatened
delivery services in Southern California, most of the antagonism has come at the local level.

In the months after a San Luis Obispo civil grand jury released a report
saying that marijuana delivery services had created a "gray" market,
the city council in the nearby town of Arroyo Grande voted to block medical marijuana delivery services from operating within its boundaries.

That "gray area" is largely due to the lack of a statewide regulatory
body governing medical cannabis, the grand jury report said. While many
cities and counties have regulations governing dispensaries, only a few
have a specific permitting system for delivery services.

"If a delivery service wanted to open up in Los Angeles and do it all
by the book, they couldn’t get licensed, even if they wanted to,
because there’s no system in place for doing that," explained DeAngelo.

"I’ve heard expressions of concerns about the situation from law
enforcement and I think that’s pretty reasonable," DeAngelo added. Other
medical marijuana advocates also said more rules need to be put in
place to ensure these businesses don’t simply become cover for the black
market.

A bill currently making its way through the the California
legislature may do just that. Introduced by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano
(D-San Francisco), the bill would create a new regulatory body under the
aegis of the Alcoholic Beverage Commission overseeing the entire
medical marijuana supply chain from cultivation to point of sale.

The legislation, which supporters said may get a vote before the
state Assembly later this month, doesn’t specifically mention delivery
services, but it leaves open the possibility that the newly created
regulatory agency could take delivery operations under its purview if it
chooses.

Much as the explosion in pot delivery services is an outgrowth of
California’s internal fight over medical cannabis, DeAngelo said he sees
Harborside’s expansion into delivery as something largely driven by
external circumstances.

"If all our physical locations are forced to close, there’s no
question we’d go delivery-only, but I’d view that as a strategic
retreat," said DeAngelo. "There’s no way patients can get the level of
convenience or service with just delivery. There’s a need for both
options."

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner has injected himself into a
federal criminal case against the operator of a medical marijuana
dispensary, intensifying his standoff with federal prosecutors on
cannabis enforcement issues.

Timeline: Medicial Marijuana in San Diego

Filner’s urging jurors who’ll be
chosen for the trial to reject federal law in favor of state statutes
under a centuries-old legal concept known as

Los Angeles, which has so many
medical-marijuana shops that officials have lost count, is
asking voters to set limits and raise taxes on cannabis.

The measures on the ballot today include a city plan to
limit the number of clinics to about 135, and another offered by
the marijuana industry that would allow unlimited dispensaries.
A third has been abandoned by its industry backers.

Mayor Bob Filner took on the federal government once again Monday in the argument against medical marijuana.

Filner
held a press conference in support of Ronnie Chang, a medical marijuana
patient who was operating state sanctioned dispensaries.  Supporters of
Change claim he was wrongfully arrested and persecuted in federal raids
back in 2009.

A comprehensive report on drug policy in the Americas released Friday by a consortium of nations suggests that the legalization of marijuana, but not other illicit drugs, be considered among a range of ideas to reassess how the drug war is carried out.

The report, released by the Organization of American States walked a careful line in not recommending any single approach to the drug problem and encouraging “flexibility.”

Prompted by President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia at the Summit of the Americas last year to answer growing dissatisfaction and calls for new strategies in the drug war, the report’s 400 pages mainly summarize and distill previous research and debate on the subject.

But the fact that it gave weight to exploring legalizing or de-penalizing marijuana was seized on by advocates of more liberal drug use laws as a landmark and a potential catalyst for less restrictive laws in a number of countries.

“This takes the debate to a whole other level,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates more liberal drug use laws. “It effectively breaks the taboo on considering alternatives to the current prohibitionist approach.”

The report said “the drug problem requires a flexible approach,” and “it would be worthwhile to assess existing signals and trends that lean toward the decriminalization or legalization of the production, sale and use of marijuana.

“Sooner or later decisions in this area will need to be taken,” it said. “On the other hand, our report finds no significant support, in any country, for the decriminalization or legalization of the trafficking of other illicit drugs.”

Some analysts interpreted the inclusion of decriminalization as a thumb in the eye to the United States, the country with the heaviest drug consumption and one that has spent several billion dollars on drug interdiction in the Americas, only to find that marijuana and cocaine continue to flow heavily and that violence has surged in Mexico and Central America as the drugs move north.

The report comes two weeks before an O.A.S. meeting in Guatemala, whose president has been open to legalizing marijuana and where the central topic is drug policy in the hemisphere. Uruguay’s president has put forward a plan for the government to legalize and regulate the sale of marijuana.

“The region’s leaders expressed their frustration with the limits and exorbitant costs of current policies and their hunger for a fuller, more creative debate,” said John Walsh, a drug policy analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.

But the United States has so far rejected legalization as a solution to drug violence.

A State Department spokesman, William Ostick, said the report would be carefully reviewed and discussed with fellow O.A.S. members in Guatemala.

“We look forward to sharing our latest research and experiences on drug prevention and treatment, and to strengthening operational law enforcement cooperation with our partners around the globe in support of our common and shared responsibility for the world drug problem,” he said. “We know other leaders will similarly bring their own data, and anticipate a productive and useful dialogue.”

Kevin Sabet, director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida, said advocates of drug liberalization were overplaying the significance of the report, which he said contained a lot the Obama administration would agree with.

He said a discussion of legalization was only natural, particularly since two American states, Washington and Colorado, have moved in that direction.

But the report, he said, also suggested that countries in the hemisphere needed to redouble their efforts to fight the impunity of drug gangs, something often overlooked or played down in the debate on the war on drugs. The report notes that drug organizations have atomized into a range of gangs carrying out kidnapping, extortion and other crimes.

“Institutions in the drug-producing nations are going to have to change the way they do business,” Mr. Sabet said. “You cannot only rely on reducing demand and ignore deep-seated institutional problems.”

Mr. Santos, in accepting the report in Bogota, said more study was needed. “Let it be clear that no one here is defending any position, neither legalization, nor regulation, nor war at any cost,” he said. “What we have to do is use serious and well-considered studies like the one the O.A.S. has presented us with today to seek better solutions.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 18, 2013, on page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: Americas Coalition Suggests Marijuana Laws Be Relaxed.

Source: New York Times (NY)
Author: Randal C. Archibold
Published: May 18, 2013
Copyright: 2013 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/

In a test of public support
for medical marijuana, Los Angeles voters will have three different
options Tuesday to regulate pot dispensaries, including proposals that
limit their numbers and impose new taxes on their sales.

Or they can vote against all three, sending a signal that – depending
on whom you ask – either means they don’t want any dispensaries at all,
or, alternately that they want lots of them without limits or caps.

Supporters of medical marijuana see the vote as critical not just to
the future of the dispensaries in Los Angeles, but also in the rest of
California, now that the state Supreme Court has ruled local
jurisdictions can prohibit the facilities.

Kris Hermes, spokesman for the pro-marijuana Americans for Safe
Access, said voting to regulate dispensaries will help their future in
Los Angeles.

"Regulations would not only help benefit and bring greater safety to
the people of Los Angeles, but deliver much-needed revenue to the
city," Hermes said. "Patients have been waiting several years for
dispensary regulations in Los Angeles. It is truly an idea whose time
has come."

While there are three marijuana measures on the ballot – Proposition
D, Ordinance E and Ordinance F – there are only two active campaigns
now, as the main supporters of E decided to throw their backing behind
D.

Prop. D would cap the number of dispensaries at 135, the ones that were open and registered
with the city before a moratorium was created in 2007. It would impose a
6 percent tax on sales of marijuana. The current rate is 5 percent. D
was crafted by the City Council to allow a finite number of dispensaries
after its effort to have an outright ban on the clinics was challenged
with an initiative.

Ordinance F has no cap and is backed by clinics that would be
excluded under D. It also requires testing of the marijuana dispensed at
the facilities, background checks on employees and auditing of their
operations. It also places a tax of 6 percent on marijuana sold.

Ordinance E caps the number at 135, but has no tax increase and fewer other restrictions.

Voters have a fourth option, Councilman Bernard Parks said. They can
reject all three proposals and allow the City Council to decide the
issue.

But some supporters of medical marijuana think that, rather than
allow them to operate unchecked, it would spell bad news for their
future.

"If all the measures are defeated, it will be viewed, I think, as
giving the City Council a free hand to do what they have shown they
already want to do – just ban all dispensaries outright," said political
consultant Garry South, who is handling the F campaign.

South also argued that passage of Proposition D, with its strict
requirements and cap, would lead to a "slow death" for medical marijuana
clinics.

"Individual council members will be able to close down all the dispensaries in their district," South said.

But Kerry Townsend Jacob, spokeswoman for D, argued that the measure
would best stand up to future attempts to modify rules on dispensaries.

"While we don’t think the City Council will try to have an outright
ban again, if Proposition D passes, the council would need to repeal the
measure and that would require another vote of the people," Jacob said.

Dispensaries providing marijuana to doctor-approved patients operate
in a number of states, but they are under assault by the federal
government. SWAT-style raids by the DEA and finger-wagging press
conferences by grim-faced federal prosecutors may garner greater
attention, but the assault on medical marijuana providers extends to
other branches of the government as well, and moves by the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) to eliminate dispensaries

The Senate today approved legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to patients with serious illnesses, sending the measure to Gov. Pat Quinn. The issue pitted supporters arguing for compassion for those suffering from pain they say only cannabis can ease against opponents who contend the legislation would undermine public safety.

Sponsoring Sen. Bill Haine, D-Alton, argued the measure is one of the toughest in the nation. Haine said his bill does not reflect other states that have “sloppily” instituted medical marijuana laws.

“This bill is filled with walls to keep this limited,” said Haine, a former Madison County state’s attorney.

Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, raised concerns about lawmakers endorsing a product that classified as a controlled substance by the federal government, arguing marijuana is a gateway drug that could lead users to harder substances.

“For every touching story we have heard about the benefits to those in pain, I remind you today that there are a thousand time more parents who will never be relieved from the pain of losing a child due to addiction which in many cases started with the very illegal, FDA-unapproved addiction-forming drug that you are asking us to now make a normal part of our communities,” McCarter said.

The proposal would create a four-year trial program in which doctors could prescribe patients no more than 2.5 ounces of marijuana every two weeks. To qualify, patients must have one of 33 serious or chronic conditions — including cancer, multiple sclerosis or HIV — and an established relationship with a doctor.

Patients would undergo fingerprinting and a criminal background check and would be banned from using marijuana in public and around minors. Patients also could not legally grow marijuana, and they would have to buy it from one of 60 dispensing centers across Illinois. The state would license 22 growers.

The measure drew strong opposition from the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, which sent a letter to the governor and lawmakers warning the proposal would not stop medical marijuana card holders from driving while under the influence. They suggested blood and urine testing be included in the legislation to allow police to determine whether card holders had marijuana in their system while driving.

Haine argued the law has safeguards to prevent that, including designating on a driver’s license whether they use medical marijuana.

The Senate vote was 35-21, with 30 needed to pass the bill. It goes to Quinn, who has not indicated whether he will sign it. The Democratic governor recently said he is open minded to the legislation.

Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Author: Monique Garcia Clout Street
Published: May 17, 2013
Copyright: 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Like many of her peers, Zoe Helene, 48, smoked marijuana in her early 20s but gave it up as her career in the digital world took off in the 1990s. Today the multidisciplinary artist and environmental activist lives in Amherst, Mass., and is building a global network of trailblazers called Cosmic Sister. Since she married an ethnobotanist in 2007, she has returned to using cannabis occasionally — “as a tool for evolving and expanding my psyche.”

Helene is among a group of women that Marie Claire magazine has dubbed “Stiletto Stoners — card-carrying, type-A workaholics who just happen to prefer kicking back with a blunt instead of a bottle.” She’s also one of a growing legion of boomers who are returning to marijuana now that the stigma and judgment (and laws) surrounding its use are becoming more lax.

Massachusetts, which decriminalized pot in 2008, became the 18th state to legalize medical marijuana, last year. In the 2012 presidential election, which New York Times columnist Timothy Egan called America’s “cannabis spring,” Colorado and Washington voters legalized recreational use, launching weed into the national spotlight and spawning a flurry of marijuana initiatives. Since then, decriminalization bills have been introduced in 10 additional states, and legalization is being considered in 11 states and Puerto Rico.

This trend, along with decriminalization in cities like Chicago, Boston, New York and Denver, has removed a major “barrier to entry” for law-abiding citizens who would use cannabis as medicine or a substitute for alcohol. No longer worried about breaking the law or having their kids discovering their “dirty little secret,” many boomers are returning to a substance they once enjoyed. Others, who never stopped smoking, are coming out of the closet (or the garage) about their use.

The Return of Reefer

While boomers looking for stress relief turn to exercise, yoga, meditation or religion, plenty relax with alcohol or pharmaceuticals. For those who don’t drink (or can’t anymore for health reasons) or take prescription drugs but still want to unwind at the end of the day, laxer laws and attitudes have made marijuana acceptable.

Many respected doctors, homeopaths and naturopaths tout cannabis as natural medicine for a range of conditions, both physical and mental — especially when it’s ingested by means other than smoking. And with the rise of medical marijuana and legal dispensaries, adults don’t have to resort to clandestine meetings on street corners with black market strangers. They can with a prescription walk into a legitimate business establishment and choose from a variety of strains with the help of a “bud tender.”

‘Everybody Smokes Dope After Work’

Clearly there’s been a sea change. In 1969, 84% of all Americans opposed legalizing marijuana. In April 2013, Pew Research found that for the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, more Americans than not (52%) want marijuana to be legal. And that’s not just college kids: Among boomers the number is only slightly lower (50%).

A segment of the boomer generation never stopped smoking pot, but many did. In the 1980s, while starting families and building careers, they were influenced by the zeitgeist: Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, known as DARE, in their kids’ schools. People didn’t want to be associated with the stoner caricatures they saw depicted in movies, like Sean Penn’s iconic Jeff Spicoli inFast Times at Ridgemont High.

President Bill Clinton’s confession that he had smoked marijuana once but “didn’t inhale” did little to encourage open use. Contrast that with President Barack Obama’s statement that not only did that he inhale frequently but “that was the point.”

Legalized marijuana is gathering increasingly high-profile support. Last year chef, author and TV personalityAnthony Bourdain told The New York Times that “everybody smokes dope after work.” And a host of respected public figures — including Paul Volcker, Deepak Chopra, Michael Pollan and PBS’s Rick Steves — have been vocal advocates for legalization.

Another sign of the changing times is the proliferation of marijuana lifestyle stories in the media. In February, The New York Times Style section ran an article on marijuana etiquette, soliciting “an Emily Post to hack a pathway through this fuggy thicket, particularly given pot’s increased presence in the mainstream.”

The Cannabis Closet: Firsthand Accounts of the Marijuana Mainstream, published in 2010 by The Dish, surprised a lot of people with its candid testimonials from pot-smoking corporate executives, government officials and responsible parents.

Pot Prescriptions

Not all the rebudding boomers are coming back for recreational purposes. A large segment isn’t after the buzz but is using marijuana for a panoply of health issues. In the 19 states (plus the District of Columbia) where medical marijuana is legal, it’s being prescribed to alleviate symptoms associated with cancer, glaucoma, gastrointestinal disorders, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, AIDS, migraines and chronic pain and countless other maladies. Some studies show that it might even help prevent Alzheimer’s disease and fight tumors.

Steve DeAngelo, 55, executive director of Harborside Health Center, which operates dispensaries in Oakland and San Jose, believes marijuana can be “part of a more holistic approach” to health care. Many of his clients suffering from insomnia, anxiety or lowered libido are using cannabis as an alternative to “pharmaceuticals that come with a list of side effects reading like something out of a Stephen King novel,” he says.

Medical marijuana entered the national consciousness in 1991, when San Francisco physicians were first allowed to prescribe it. Five years later California voters approved the first statewide medical marijuana laws. (Interestingly, marijuana was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia from 1850 until 1942 and wasn’t illegaluntil the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. The U.S. government categorized it a Schedule 1 substance without medicinal value in 1970.)

Like a slow train gathering steam, other states followed California’s lead. The train took off like a bullet in 2009 when Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would essentially look the other way if state-approved dispensaries complied with local laws.

Today medical marijuana is a highly profitable industry. Precise customer numbers are elusive, but as acceptance spreads, the head count grows. To obtain a medical marijuana card, patients have to be diagnosed with an approved condition by a licensed physician and register with the state.

Once their doctor writes a prescription, users can enter a marijuana emporium, offering a dizzying array of cannabis strains as well as new delivery systems, including electronic vaporizers, capsules, tinctures, teas, honeys, drinks and oils. Marijuana-infused food products, aka “medibles,” have expanded way beyond pot brownies to include pizza, pasta sauce, popcorn, ice cream, soda and even salad dressing.

This booming business, which was the subject of a recent Fortune cover story, is estimated to generate annual revenues of $36 billion — and that number is expected to double over the next five years.

Targeting the Boomer Market

This expanding market segment isn’t lost on marijuana cultivators, who are hybridizing varieties with particular appeal to users more interested in preventive health care and pain maintenance than catching a buzz. These strains are higher in the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD, which has anti-inflammatory properties and provides pain relief but doesn’t affect thinking and productivity.

Established players are using their business acumen to shape the industry. Former Microsoft manager Jamen Shively (aka “the Bill Gates of Cannabis”) recently took things in a new direction when he opened Diego Pellicer, which bills itself as “the first legal retail brand in the United States focused exclusively on legal, premium marijuana for pleasure and creative pursuits.” Shively has said that he’s specifically appealing to “baby boomers with disposable incomes who smoked during college years but took a 30-year break to raise a family.”

Private equity firms are getting in on the action by strategically investing in the legal cannabis industry — and they’re targeting boomers. Michael Blue, co-founder of Privateer Holdings, says that midlifers represent about 40 percent of the visitors to his company’s first acquisition, Leafly.com, where “discerning connoisseurs who select cannabis strains like they select fine wines” can rate and compare marijuana.

A prime target: Zoe Helene, whose casual use is part of her holistic vegetarian lifestyle. She occasionally eats her husband’s “marjoons” (marijuana macaroons) to heighten her creativity, loosen up her body for dance and yoga, and help her grow spiritually.

“I’m not a pothead,” the boomer says. “For me, cannabis is a loving plant spirit that helps me understand myself. It heightens my senses and reminds me of higher levels of consciousness I can attain. And then I attain them, without it.”

Boulder, Colorado–based writer Robyn Griggs Lawrence is working with a group of professional chefs on a cookbook that will help people safely and responsibly make and eat haute cannabis cuisine.

Source: Forbes Magazine (US)
Author: Robyn Griggs Lawrence, Next Avenue Contributor
Published: May 16, 2013
Copyright: 2013 Forbes Inc.
Contact: readers@forbes.com
Website: http://www.forbes.com/

After “only” 10 years of lobbying in Springfield, MPP has finally succeeded at persuading the Illinois Legislature to legalize medical marijuana. The Senate approved the measure 35-21 Friday, and it received approval from the House of Representatives by a vote of 61-57 on April 17.

If Gov. Pat Quinn (D) signs the bill, Illinois will become the 19th or 20th state to legalize medical marijuana. (New Hampshire is also on the verge of passing MPP’s medical marijuana legislation, so it’s a race to see which state will be first!)

The Associated Press reports:

“We are hopeful that Gov. Quinn will join legislators and the vast majority of Illinois voters in supporting this proposal,” [MPP’s Dan] Riffle said. “Marijuana has proven medical benefits, regulating it works, and there is broad public and legislative support for doing it. This is a no-brainer.”

If the Illinois bill becomes law, as many as 60 retail establishments will be licensed to sell medical marijuana to patients with cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and other serious illnesses.

Gov. Quinn has made some positive comments about our bill, but we still don’t know whether he’ll sign it. Over the next few months, we must focus on ensuring that the governor sides with the forces of compassion and fiscal prudence, rather than the forces of fear and fiscal waste.