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[edit] United States
[edit] History
The United States has had a long history of producing and using cannabis.
Under federal law, it is illegal to possess, use, buy, sell, or cultivate marijuana anywhere in the United States. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, Federal law in the United States preempts conflicting state and local laws. Nevertheless, some states and local governments have established laws attempting to decriminalize cannabis, which has reduced the number of "simple possession" offenders sent to jail, since federal enforcement agents rarely target individuals directly for such relatively minor offenses. Other state and local governments ask law enforcement agencies to limit enforcement of drug laws with respect to cannabis.
The National Center for Natural Products Research in Oxford, Mississippi is the only facility in the United States that is federally licensed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to cultivate cannabis for scientific research. The Center is part of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi.
[edit] Decriminalization
12 US states have passed by majority vote of the citizenry, laws allowing some degree of medical use, while a further 6 states have taken steps to decriminalize it to some degree. This movement seeks to make simple possession of cannabis punishable by only confiscation or a fine, rather than prison. In the past several years, the movement has started to have some successes. These include Denver, Colorado legalizing possession of up to an ounce of cannabis,[1] a broad coalition of political parties in Amsterdam, Netherlands unveiling a pilot program to allow farmers to grow it legally,[2] and Massachusetts voting in favor of a bill to decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce of cannabis.[3] These laws passed by states and cities to decriminalize marijuana do not result in marijuana being legal, however. The Federal Government has the power to regulate marijuana because of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Additionally, under the Supremacy Clause, any state law in conflict with federal law is not valid. These issues were addressed squarely by the United States Supreme Court in Raich v. Ashcroft, 352 F. 3d 1222.
In Alaska, cannabis was decided legal for in-home, personal use under the Ravin vs. State ruling in 1975. This ruling allowed up to four ounces of cannabis for these purposes. A 1991 voter ballot initiative recriminalized marijuana possession, but when that law was eventually challenged in 2004, the Alaska court's upheld the Ravin ruling, saying the popular vote could not trump the state constitution. In response to former Governor Frank Murkowski's successive attempt to re-criminalize cannabis, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the state. On July 17, 2006, Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins awarded the Case Summary judgment to the ACLU. In her ruling, she said "No specific argument has been advanced in this case that possession of more than 1 ounce of cannabis, even within the privacy of the home, is constitutionally protected conduct under Ravin or that any plaintiff or ACLU of Alaska member actually possesses more than 1 ounce of cannabis in their homes." This does not mean that the legal possession threshold has been reduced to one ounce, as this was a mere case summary review filed by the ACLU, not a full case. Reinforcing Ravin, Collins wrote "A lower court cannot reverse the State Supreme Court's 1975 decision in Ravin v. State" and "Unless and until the Supreme Court directs otherwise, Ravin is the law in this state and this court is duty bound to follow that law". The law regarding possession of cannabis has not changed in Alaska, and the Supreme Court has declined to review the case, therefore the law still stands at 4 ounces.[citation needed]
In 2002, Nevada voters defeated a ballot question which would legalize up to 3 ounces for adults 21 and older by 39% to 61%. In 2006, a similar Nevada ballot initiative, which would have legalized and regulated the cultivation, distribution, and possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older, was defeated by 44% to 56%.
[edit] Crime
There have been over eight million cannabis arrests in the United States since 1993, including 786,545 arrests in 2005. Cannabis users have been arrested at the rate of 1 every 40 seconds. About 88% of all marijuana arrests are for possession - not manufacture or distribution. (FBI Uniform Crimes Report)
The US Office of National Drug Control Policy points out in Who's Really in Prison for Marijuana? that these convictions are in correlation with other crimes, including cultivation, and crimes not specifically dealing with marijuana.[citation needed]
Large-scale marijuana growing operations are frequently targeted by police in raids to attack the supply side and discourage the spread and marketing of the drug, though the great majority of those in prison for cannabis are either there for simple possession or small scale dealing.[citation needed]
[edit] United States
- See also: Decriminalization of cannabis in the United States
- See also: Legal history of marijuana in the United States
Currently, seven people receive medical cannabis shipments from the U. S. Federal Government [1] as part of the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, including Irvin Rosenfeld, a 52-year-old stockbroker who has been featured in numerous print articles and on the Penn & Teller: Bullshit! cable television series. Rosenfeld has been receiving the federal marijuana since 1983. The marijuana is grown on a farm at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and each person receives 300 joints a month.
There is a split between the U. S. federal and many state governments over medical marijuana policy. On June 6, 2005, the Supreme Court, in Gonzales v. Raich, ruled in a 6-3 decision that Congress has the right to outlaw medicinal cannabis, thus subjecting all patients to federal prosecution even in states where the treatment is legalized. Currently, there are twelve states with effective medical marijuana laws on the books: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland[2], Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. It should be noted that Maryland's law does not legalize possession of medical cannabis, but rather makes it a non-incarcerable offense with a maximum penalty of a $100 fine.
The case brought into tension two themes of the Rehnquist court: the limits it has imposed on the federal government and the latitude it has afforded law enforcement officers. Those issues produced an unusual breakdown among the nine justices.
Joining Justice John Paul Stevens's majority decision were Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote separately to say he agreed with the result, though not the majority's reasoning. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas dissented.
As a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970, marijuana (cannabis) is considered to have "no accepted medical use" and is illegal for any reason, with the notable exception of FDA-approved research programs. The Act allows mis-controlled substances to be reclassified by petition by any member of the public, but federal agencies whose power and budgets depend on the illegal status of marijuana have denied each such petition (another, by Jon Gettman, is pending). See cannabis rescheduling in the United States.
A successful "medical necessity" defense by patient Robert Randall led the FDA to create an "Investigational New Drug Program", which provides medical cannabis grown under a NIDA contract at the Research Institute for Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Mississippi to a small number of patients since 1978. The program was closed to new patients in 1992 when many AIDS patients applied. Six living patients continue to receive federal marijuana, including Irvin Rosenfeld [3] (for bone spurs), Elvy Musikka (for glaucoma), and George McMahon (who authored Prescription Pot, a book detailing the federal program, which contains the only existing medical study performed on the legal patients). These patients are required by the U. S. Government to smoke the marijuana through a "rolled paper tube" (they are not allowed to eat it or use pipes or vaporizers). All the patients and their doctors report significant medical benefits from their use of marijuana.
DEA and NIDA opposition prevented any scientific studies of medical marijuana for more than a decade, but in the 1990s, activists and doctors were energized by seeing marijuana help dying AIDS patients. A study of smoked marijuana at the University of California, San Francisco, under Dr. Donald Abrams was approved after five years of bureaucracy. Further research followed, particularly due to a ten million dollar research appropriation by the California legislature. The University of California coordinates this research. [4]. However, there are still significant barriers, unique among Schedule I substances, to conducting medical marijuana research in the US[4]. Many years of work remain before sufficient research could be approved and conducted to meet the FDA's standards for approving marijuana as a new prescription medicine.
Public opinion surveys find most Americans support legalization of medical marijuana, even as they reject broader legalization of the drug. A November 2003 Gallup survey found 75% said they would favor use of marijuana under a doctor's prescription, but nearly two-thirds rejected full legalization. [5][6] While Congress has consistently rejected legislation to allow medical use of marijuana, 33 states and the District of Columbia have authorized it in some form. [7] Most require that it be "prescribed", which is problematic when federal agencies control doctors' power to prescribe. Twelve states have made laws which permit doctors to instead "recommend" marijuana, starting with California Proposition 215 (1996). The most recent such state was Rhode Island on January 3, 2006, when its state legislature overturned a gubernatorial veto of a bill legalizing medical marijuana. In 2004, Montana legalized medical marijuana by a statewide referendum. Hawaii, Maine and Maryland have legalized medical marijuana by legislative action, and the California legislature expanded patient protections in 2003. District of Columbia voters also passed several modern medical marijuana initiatives, but Congress first denied the funds to count the vote, then when that was declared unconstitutional, voted to overturn the initiative. Even in the best states, law enforcement agencies and individual officers frequently violate the law and the rights of patients, by stealing or destroying medical marijuana, and/or arresting the patients. For example, the official position of the California Narcotics Officers Association is that medical marijuana activists "misled" the public which voted to change the law [8]. Legal and social support groups such as Americans for Safe Access [9] have sprung up in defense.
Sale of medical marijuana is illegal or barely legal, even in states where patients have the right to grow or use it, due to public confusion between dispensaries and "drug dealers". However, medical marijuana dispensaries have been established in many locations, particularly in California, where they work openly with local government officials to resolve any difficulties. Many offer social services, medical consultations, and support groups as well as medicine. The first such dispensary, known as the Cannabis Buyer's Club (CBC), was opened by Dennis Peron in February, 1994. The club operated openly in San Francisco for years, even before medical marijuana was legalized. Thousands of otherwise healthy and well-behaved local gay men had died, before scientists could be persuaded to begin researching their disease. Local police and politicians did not want to be seen arresting suffering AIDS patients, or denying them any medicine that could help them. This gay community activism led directly to the "Compassionate Use Act" medical marijuana initiative, California Proposition 215 (1996), which voters approved.
Washington state Initiative 692, passed by the voters in 1998, also authorizes the medical use of marijuana. On November 2, 2004, the voters of Ann Arbor, Michigan passed a similar resolution with 74% approval. In early 2005, Rhode Island's legislature was the first to legalize medical marijuana. Such an act was not sent to the voters.
In NYC, in 2001, well known local activist Kenny Toglia achieved a significant victory for medical cannabis when charges against him were dropped in the infamous "marijuana cookie case". Kenny Toglia in 2001 was involved in a historic drug policy case involving medical marijuana in NYS. He was arrested at "University of the Streets", a locally owned black community center on the corner of Tompkins Square at East 7th Street, with more than a pound of marijuana. Ultimately, all charges against him were dismissed following his complaint that the arresting officers had consumed a number of oatmeal cookies laced with marijuana which had been intended for use by patients with AIDS suffering from wasting syndrome. The events following his arrest led to the issue becoming important in the NYS gubernatorial campaign, and subsequently turned the statewide political tide in favor of the issue. reference: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0049,friedman,20413,5.html
Despite the DEA's repeated false claims that they "don't target sick and dying people" [10], federal arrests of medical marijuana users and suppliers continue. Close to thirty federal criminal cases about medical marijuana are pending. Several jurisdictions, including Oakland, California and San Mateo County, California have announced plans to distribute medical marijuana to patients. Ed Rosenthal, author of dozens of books on marijuana cultivation, grew small "starter" plants for patients on behalf of the city government of Oakland. He was convicted in federal court of manufacturing marijuana, by a jury which was never told that his marijuana was for medical patients. Shortly after the trial, eight of the fourteen jurors (and alternates) who convicted him called a press conference and denounced their verdict, arguing that the trial was not fair because the evidence that Rosenthal was growing marijuana for medical use, working on behalf of the city, and was told by DEA agents and city officials that he was immune to prosecution, was all suppressed by the judge as "irrelevant under federal law". The jury discovered the real facts by reading newspapers, within hours after delivering their verdict. As a result of the intense public scrutiny, Rosenthal was given the most lenient possible sentence - only one day - since they had already found him guilty and could not change their verdict. He is appealing his felony conviction, and the federal government is appealing the short sentence.
The late Peter McWilliams, a vocal supporter of medical cannabis due to being terminally ill with AIDS and cancer, was arrested by the DEA and convicted for violating federal marijuana laws. Even as he vomited repeatedly during court proceedings, McWilliams was not allowed by the federal judge to explain his condition or its connection to the charges against him. His mother's house had been used to collateralize the bond on which he was allowed to remain free pending sentencing, a condition of which was that he refrain from using cannabis. Prior to his death, McWilliams stated
The federal prosecutor personally called my mother to tell her that if I was found with even a trace of medical marijuana, her house would be taken away. [11]
He choked to death on his own vomit when he was forced to switch from cannabis to Marinol.
Richard Cowan and many other critics of U. S. drug policies have described his death as murder by the federal government, insofar as they denied him the use of the medical cannabis which might have prevented his death.
The federal government of the United States continues to argue that smoked cannabis has no recognized medical purpose (pointing to a definition of "medical purpose" published by the DEA, not the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, or the office of the U. S. Surgeon General and the U. S. Public Health Service) -- many officials point to the difficulty of regulating dosage (a problem for treatment as well as research) despite the availability (in Canada and the U. K.) of dosage-controlled Sativex. The United States has also pressured other governments (especially Canada, with which it shares a largely open border) to retain restrictions on marijuana.
