NORML Weekly News Bulletin -- September 21, 2006 |
Posted by CN Staff on September 21, 2006 at 15:16:53 PT Weekly Press Release Source: NORML Arkansas: Municipal Pot Initiative Certified For November Ballot September 21, 2006 - Eureka Springs, AR, USA Eureka Springs, AR: Eureka Springs city election officials confirmed this week that a municipal initiative that seeks to decriminalize minor marijuana possession offenses has been certified to appear on the November 2006 ballot. Sponsored by the Fayetteville/University of Arkansas chapter of NORML, the proposal direct local law enforcement to issue a summons in lieu of a criminal arrest for adults found to be in possession of up to one ounce of cannabis and or marijuana paraphernalia. Several municipalities - including most notably Ann Arbor, Michigan and Madison, Wisconsin - have enacted local decriminalization laws. Voters in Columbia, Missouri passed a similar ballot initiative in 2004 amending the city criminal code to depenalize the possession of marijuana and/or paraphernalia to a fine-only offense. Voters in several cities - including Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica, California, as well as Missoula, Montana - will also decide on municipal ballot measures to liberalize marijuana possession laws this fall. A summary of this November's 'pot-friendly' state and local ballot initiatives is available at: http://www.norml.org/ DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7047 Deterrent Effect Of Workplace Drug Testing Overstated, Study Says September 21, 2006 - Irvine, CA, USA Irvine, CA: Claims that workplace drug testing programs can dramatically reduce employee drug use are overstated, according to the findings of a study to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Health Services Research. "Previous studies have interpreted the large negative correlation between workplace drug testing and employee substance use as representing a causal deterrent effect of drug testing," the study says. "Our results using more comprehensive data suggest that these estimates have been slightly overstated due to omitted variable bias" such as failure to account for other workplace programs (e.g., employee assistance programs) and/or whether employees who do not consume illicit drugs are more likely to work in environments that mandate drug testing. Though the study did report a negative correlation between workplace drug testing and self reported monthly use of marijuana, the study did not conclude that workplace drug testing was necessarily associated with increased employee productivity or decreased accidents. The study reported that US businesses spend an estimated $6 billion per year on employee drug testing programs. For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, or Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the study, "Workplace drug testing and worker drug use," will appear in Health Services Research. Additional information on the costs of workplace drug testing is available online at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3406. DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7048 Experts Call For Legal Cannabis To Treat Hep C Virus September 21, 2006 - Toronto, Ontario Toronto, Ontario: Patients afflicted with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) should be legally permitted to use cannabis to combat treatment-related side effects of the disease, advises an international team of investigators writing in the October issue of the European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. The researchers issued their recommendation following the results of an observational study by the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) that found that HCV patients who used cannabis were significantly more likely to adhere to their treatment regimen than patients who didn't use it. Patients on HCV therapy medications typically report numerous adverse side effects - including fatigue, headaches, nausea, anorexia, depression, and insomnia that cause many of them to prematurely discontinue treatment. Commenting on the study, investigators from Canada and Germany wrote that cannabis' "potential benefits of a higher likelihood of treatment success [for HCV patients] appear to outweigh [its] risks. ... Even before such effects are conclusively established, HCV treatment patients ... desiring to aid their treatment adherence by cannabis use should be legally permitted in doing so." Though survey data indicates that many HCV patients use cannabis therapeutically to treat both symptoms of the disease as well as the side effects of HCV therapy, no clinical studies have been performed to assess the safety or efficacy of cannabinoids for hepatitis C treatment. In addition, a 2005 retrospective study of untreated HCV patients reported that daily cannabis smoking was associated with hepatic fibrosis. However, UCSF investigators found "no significant difference in liver fibrosis" between moderate cannabis smokers and non-users in their observational study. For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500. Full text of studies, "Treatment for hepatitis C virus and cannabis use in illicit drug user patients: implications and questions" and "Cannabis use improves retention and virological outcomes in patients treated for hepatitis C," are available in the October issue of the European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. Additional information on cannabinoids and hepatitis C is available in NORML's new report, "Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis," online at: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7002 DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7046 Marijuana Arrests For Year 2005 -- 786,545 Tops Record High... Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every 40 Seconds September 18, 2006 - Washington, DC, USA Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 786,545 persons for marijuana violations in 2005, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised 42.6 percent of all drug arrests in the United States. "These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 40 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism." Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 88 percent some 696,074 Americans were charged with possession only. The remaining 90,471 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. In past years, roughly 30 percent of those arrested were age 19 or younger. "Present policies have done little if anything to decrease marijuana's availability or dissuade youth from trying it," St. Pierre said, noting young people in the U.S. now frequently report that they have easier access to pot than alcohol or tobacco. The total number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. for 2005 far exceeded the total number of arrests in the U.S. for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Annual marijuana arrests have more than doubled since the early 1990s. "Arresting hundreds of thousands of Americans who smoke marijuana responsibly needlessly destroys the lives of otherwise law abiding citizens," St. Pierre said, adding that over 8 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges in the past decade. During this same time, arrests for cocaine and heroin have declined sharply, implying that increased enforcement of marijuana laws is being achieved at the expense of enforcing laws against the possession and trafficking of more dangerous drugs. St. Pierre concluded: "Enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers between $10 billion and $12 billion annually and has led to the arrest of nearly 18 million Americans. Nevertheless, some 94 million Americans acknowledge having used marijuana during their lives. It makes no sense to continue to treat nearly half of all Americans as criminals for their use of a substance that poses no greater - and arguably far fewer - health risks than alcohol or tobacco. A better and more sensible solution would be to tax and regulate cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco." YEAR -- MARIJUANA ARRESTS 2005 -- 786,545 For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500. For a comprehensive breakdown and analysis of US marijuana arrests, please see NORML's report: "Crimes of Indiscretion: Marijuana Arrests in the United States," at: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6411 DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7040 Source: NORML Foundation (DC) CannabisNews NORML Archives Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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