By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The feds announced this morning essentially they won’t get involved in newly legalized recreational marijuana for adults in Washington as long as the state is appropriately strict in regulating it.
Marijuana is illegal under federal law, but voters in November passed Initiative 502 that allows for persons over 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.
The U.S. Department of Justice today announced an update to its federal marijuana enforcement policy. Jenny A. Durkan, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, shared a statement.
“Based on assurances that Washington and Colorado will impose an appropriately strict regulatory system, the Department has informed the governors of both states that it is deferring its right to challenge their legalization laws at this time.”
Seattlepi.com reports federal authorities will however step in under certain conditions such as selling to minors, illegally using firearms in its cultivation or retail sale, growing it on federal lands or if evidence arises money from it is going to criminal enterprises or its being shipped out of state.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office reminds members of the public it remains against federal law to bring any amount of marijuana onto federal property, including all federal buildings, federal lands including national parks and forests, military installations, and courthouses. Individuals that do so will be subject to federal penalties.
Read more here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Citations found here: http://norml.org/library/item/cannabis-and-driving-a-scientific-and-rational-review
Policy debates regarding marijuana law reform invariably raise the question: “How does society address concerns regarding cannabis consumption and driving?”
The subject is worthy of serious discussion. NORML’s Board of Directors addressed this issue by ratifying a “no driving” clause to the organization’s “Principles of Responsible Cannabis Use”[1] stating, “Although cannabis is said by most experts to be safer with motorists than alcohol and many prescription drugs, responsible cannabis consumers never operate motor vehicles in an impaired condition.”
Marijuana is the most common illicit substance consumed by persons who report driving after drug use.[10] Epidemiological research also indicates that cannabis is the most prevalent illicit drug detected in fatally injured drivers and motor vehicle crash victims.[11]
Reasons for this fact are twofold. One, cannabis is by far the most widely used illicit drug among the US population, with nearly one out of two Americans admitting having tried it.[12] Two, marijuana is the most readily detectable illicit drug in toxicological tests. Marijuana’s primary psychoactive compound, THC, may accumulate and be detected in blood for several hours in occasional users; in some chronic users, THC may be present in blood for a period of days after past use,[13-15] long after any performance impairing effects have worn off.[16] In addition, non-psychoactive byproducts of cannabis, known as metabolites, may be detected in the urine of regular users for days or weeks after past use.[17] (Other common illicit substances, such as cocaine or methamphetamine, do not possess such long half-lives.)
Therefore, the substance’s prevalence in toxicological evaluations of US drivers does not necessarily indicate that it is a frequent or significant causal factor in auto accidents. In fact, states that have experienced a significant increase in the total number of authorized medical cannabis users have in general experienced no proportional corresponding rise in traffic fatalities, and most have experienced a decline in overall fatal accidents.[18]
Though the development of roadside cannabis-specific detection testing (similar to an alcohol breathalyzer test) is still in its infancy, an argument may be made for the provisional use of such tests by specially trained members of law enforcement. In addition, the development of point-of-collection cannabis-sensitive technology to rapidly identify the presence of THC in drivers, such as a roadside saliva test, would provide utility to law enforcement in their efforts to better identify suspected intoxicated drivers.
The development of such technology would also increase public support for the taxation and regulation of cannabis by helping to assuage concerns that liberalizing marijuana policies could potentially lead to an increase in incidences of drugged driving.[62]
Such concerns are a significant impediment to the enactment of marijuana law reform, and arguably must be sufficiently addressed before a majority of the public will embrace any public policy that proposes regulating adult cannabis use like alcohol.
The bottom line?
“Comptroller’s Office: Legalizing Marijuana In NYC Would Yield $431 Million Annually In Savings And Revenue” http://norml.org/news/2013/08/22/comptroller-s-office-legalizing-marijuana-in-nyc-would-yield-431-million-annually-in-savings-and-revenue
Who needs statistics when numbers rule!?!
All Causes 2,468,435
Major Cardiovascular [Heart] Diseases 780,213
Malignant Neoplasms [Cancer] 574,743
Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases 138,080
Accidents (Unintentional Injuries) [Total] 120,859
Motor Vehicle Accidents [subset of Total Accidents] 35,332
Diabetes 69,071
Drug-Induced Deaths1 40,393
Intentional Self-Harm (Suicide) 38,364
Septicemia 34,812
Chronic Liver Disease and Cirrhosis 31,903
Firearm Injuries 31,672
Alcohol-Induced Deaths 25,692
Homicide 16,259
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) 8,369
Viral hepatitis 7,564
All Illicit Drugs Combined (2000)2 17,0002
Cannabis (Marijuana) 0
You could add alcohol and tobacco to the list of “powerful, addictive and sometimes dangerous drugs,” for that matter. Both are responsible for a LOT of deaths of people. Or is something that can kill you through its prolonged use not dangerous?
“Start treating it like the powerful, addictive and sometimes dangerous drug that it is.”
What, like heroin? Like crack?
Zero deaths due to cannabis overdose.
Real danger there!!!! LMFAO!!!
While marijuana may well be appropriate for SOME medical conditions, it is being “approved” (not prescribed) for everything from a stubbed toe to a bloody nose.
If medical marijuana users want to find legitimacy – then become activists for marijuana to be a schedule II drug; allow doctors to PRESCRIBE it – with all the oversight and limitations that entails.
Everyone knows that morphine is a good drug – it is used throughout every hospital in the land, and it has relieved more pain than any other drug on the market. Heroin was the trade name used by the BAYER company to market morphine for coughs – especially in children. Today we think morphine is fairly good, and heroin is fairly bad – mostly because we recognize the need for physician oversight.
Want to be taken seriously? Then get the stoners out of the medical marijuana field. Stop putting ads on the internet advertising that “Green Cross just got in a shipment of the GOOD stuff…stop on by!” Start treating it like the powerful, addictive and sometimes dangerous drug that it is.
The Feds might not challenge the law, but we can rest assured that the crybaby mansfield will do his best to challenge, circumvent, and break the law!
Its not only young and unemployed who use it!!! Get facts on it. ITS a medication it works for most cancer patients for nausea
Well, I guess if you can’t fix the problems with the economy, might as well let the young and unemployed stay stoned so they don’t care.
Wow! That is surprising. This could lead other states to legalize pot. That is how prohibition was eventually overturned. States began legalizing alcohol and the Feds finally gave in. At least we have an answer. There was speculation that the Feds could have waited for all the shops to get set up and the raid them. They could also have withheld highway funds to the state. This is going to be very interesting over the next year or so.