Marijuana.com

Zilos

JUNEAU--A bill by Gov. Frank Murkowski to recriminalize small amounts of marijuana use in the home has developed into a forum in the Legislature for debate on the potency of today's pot and the severity of its harmful effects.

"The marijuana of Cheech and Chong had a THC content of 1 to 5 percent; today's Alaska marijuana is 14 to 18 percent," said John Bobo, a U.S. Department of Transportation official summoned by the Murkowski administration to talk to legislators about the dangerous effects of driving or operating machinery under the influence of modern marijuana.

"This stuff messes you up, and you have an inability to operate safely," he said.

In debate on Senate Bill 74, which seeks to reverse recent state court decisions reaffirming adults' right to possess personal-use amounts of marijuana in their home, advocates from both sides of the issue have presented experts to make their case to legislators.

The bill cleared its first hurdle Friday with approval from the Senate Health, Education and Social Services Committee.

However, the measure still has multiple steps to clear before it passes the Legislature, and the chairman of the HESS Committee said he has not made a decision on whether to ultimately endorse all of the administration's claims about pot in the 21st century.

The administration contends that today's marijuana is much more potent and harmful than in 1975, when the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in the Ravin v. State case that the risks of pot were not great enough to override constitutional privacy protections. The Ravin decision held that adults can legally possess personal-use amounts of pot in their home.

Although state voters passed an initiative in 1990 banning all amounts of marijuana possession, the Court of Appeals ruled in 2003 in the case of a North Pole man that the initiative was invalid and that the Ravin decision still allows adults to legally possess as much as 4 ounces of marijuana in their home.

The Murkowski administration has tried unsuccessfully to fight that decision and others that have resulted from the case. Senate Bill 74 would make all marijuana possession illegal and contains several "legislative findings," or statements designed to provide the state with ammunition should the bill be enacted and challenged in court based on the decisions related to the Ravin case.

Many of the bill's findings focus on the administration's contention that marijuana is now much stronger and harmful than at the time of the Ravin case, when the opinion called marijuana "innocuous" compared to alcohol and other substances.

The 19 proposed findings in the bill are the greatest cause of dispute, considering the statements would probably be relied on in the strong likelihood the bill would be challenged in court should it pass.

Critics of the bill, led by proponents of a failed ballot initiative last year to completely decriminalize marijuana and allow it to be regulated like alcohol, argue that the administration's claims in the bill are exaggerated, misleading or inaccurate.

One proposed finding states in part, "The increasing potency of marijuana corresponds to an increase in the number of persons seeking emergency medical care for marijuana-related incidents."

Other contested statements in the bill include marijuana containing addictive properties similar to heroin and other like drugs and that marijuana use by children is associated with an increased risk of attempted suicide.

Lester Grinspoon, a Harvard University medical doctor and author of two books on marijuana, told the Senate HESS Committee the Murkowski administration is disingenuous in its claims about today's pot.

"Marijuana is no more harmful than it was in 1975, when I testified in the Ravin case," Grinspoon said.

Grinspoon and others said while marijuana may in fact have a higher THC content, the increased potency translates into people smoking less, taking smaller hits and holding it in their lungs for a shorter period.

Unlike alcohol, which people continue to drink well after they're intoxicated, marijuana produces a saturation point at which people tend to stop smoking because they're as high as they want to be, they said.

"To me, that seems like a good thing, because you have to put less smoke in your lungs," said Jim Welch, an Eagle River resident who said he smoked marijuana for a period of time to relieve multiple sclerosis symptoms.

HESS committee members were presented with a voluminous set of research and literature on marijuana from both sides of the issue.

The administration's viewpoint has been presented by the Department of Law, while the chief opposition to the bill has come from Alaskans for Marijuana Regulation and Control and the Alaska Civil Liberties Union.

Committee Chairman Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, said he plans to review as much of the research presented by both sides as possible to determine whether the legislative findings in Senate Bill 74 are accurate.

Although his HESS Committee voted 3-1 to approve the bill, most of the committee members will have another chance to consider the bill because they are also on another Senate panel scheduled to hear the proposal.

The only no vote Friday came from Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau, who said he had questions about the claims made by the administration in support of its findings.

"In the battle of competing experts, I'm finding those who are pro using this approach are using more anecdotal information than scientific information," said Elton, who also expressed concerns that prosecuting marijuana possession could divert state resources away from other more pressing social problems.

Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli said he was bothered by critics of the bill not focusing on one of the administration's chief reasons for pursuing the bill: Increased marijuana use by younger and younger children and higher rates of use among Alaska Natives.

"Part of it is the media doesn't want to acknowledge that there is a problem," Guaneli said. "The evidence has shown that there is a problem."

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reggie_the_dog

"Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli said he was bothered by critics of the bill not focusing on one of the administration's chief reasons for pursuing the bill: Increased marijuana use by younger and younger children and higher rates of use among Alaska Natives."


Don't native American communities often have problems with alcoholism?

If more and more natives are smoking cannabis this would probably suggest that they are drinking less alcohol.

As for the kids starting to smoke cannabis at younger and youger ages all I can say there is that this is the case WITH PROHIBITION OF SALES. IF CANNABIS SALES WERE REGULATED LIKE ALCOHOL OR TOBACCO IT WOULD BE HARDER FOR KIDS TO GET CANNABIS THAN IT IS NOW. POLICE COULD ALSO FOCUS THEIR EFFORTS SOLELY TO FINDING PEOPLE SELLING CANNABIS TO KIDS IF IT WAS LEGAL TO SELL IT TO ADULTS.

gob

Just more Refer Madness

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End Prohibition

killer12382

Don't you just love the way the drug warriors have attempted to make cannabis look like it's changed from the sixties and seventies. Why are they doing this? Because the baby boomers are taking over now and they know that the marijuana they smoked wasn't dangerous at all. So the drug warriors have to convey the idea that this is not the same stuff they smoked. Do you know what the problem with that line of thinking is? Its BS. The cops in the sixties tested low quality ditch weed and poor Mexican and with that little bit of knowledge came to the conclusion that this is the standard for marijuana. However, those of us who grew up and got high back then, knew you had several "grades" of marijuana....ditchweed to Hawiian (sp). Since the higher quality marijuana brought the better prices one can only assume the growers went with the better quality to increase their profits. So..has marijuana "changed"?. NO but the drug warriors will keep saying the same lies over and over again until people believe them.

Buzzby

To what are you referring?

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smoking_joe_lee

I guess to make the comparison, Mr. Bobo will get into the "wayback" machine with Mr. Peabody so as to pick up a little pot, vintage 1975! What will happen is they will test current bud and CLAIM it is X times more potent than an untested "Cheech and Chong" herb.

Speaking of C&C, I hear a new movie is in the works!!!

Buzzby

It's called "The Passion of Cheech & Chong", directed by Mel Gibson.

castklear

The British police have tested and kept potency records since the early 1950's. And they have tested the THC Level and registered the level of each sample tested after an arrest of Marijuana. They have proof that there is no increase in actual potency over the years.

What has changed is the quality and the and freshness of the delivered product as we went from crushing it into bricks while it sat in a closet until sold or was so dry it crumbles from Mexico or Columbia. Then Hawaii gave us fresh "Green bud".

The Police don't realize you use less the more potent it seems.....they think you use more and get zonked harder which is bogus since you stop smoking when you reach a point of saturated tolerence.

More lies ....more disinformation.....I'd say there is a lot of LOW-Potency marijuana being grown by novice growers that have NO IDEA WHAT GOOD POT IS. Until they legalize, then, will we be able to clear out the lies.

Mamabudz

no way dude....

I heard it was going to be called GRUMPY OLD STONERS

And kudos for the Mr. Peabody reference

frolic

This grumpy old stoner tends to smoke less at a time. The organic outdoor oz i growz lasts longer; I smoke less. Two years ago I quit smoking tobacco, my health has improved.