cannabisnews.com: NORML's Weekly News Bulletin - June 7, 2007





NORML's Weekly News Bulletin - June 7, 2007
Posted by CN Staff on June 07, 2007 at 13:58:51 PT
Weekly Press Release 
Source: NORML 
Marijuana "Worth Its Weight In Gold," US Government SaysJune 7, 2007 - Washington, DC, USAWashington, DC: Black market prices for pot rose steadily in the 1980s, declined during the 1990s, and are once again increasing, according to a federal report tracking the price and purity of controlled substances.
Authors of the report analyzed over 20 years of data collected from the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) System to Retrieve Information from Drug Evidence (STRIDE) database. According to the DEA’s data, "marijuana price trends are not highly correlated with trends in process of other drugs over time." For example, authors note that street prices for cocaine and heroin fell during the 1980s while the price of marijuana rose steadily, peaking in 1991. Authors report that the average price for pot fell in the 1990s, but began rising once again after 2000. "This recent price increase leaves current marijuana prices near their 20-year averages," the study concludes. "Marijuana is quite literally worth its weight in gold."The report did not analyze long-term trends in marijuana’s potency because STRIDE fails to document the drug’s purity. However, a 2006 report by the US National Drug Intelligence Center states that "most of the marijuana available in the domestic drug markets is lower potency commercial-grade marijuana."For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at: paul norml.org Full text of the White House report, "The Price and Purity of Illicit Drugs: 1981 Through the Second Quarter of 2003," is available online at: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/price_purity/DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7277Vermont Expands State Medi-Pot Law -- Legislatures In Connecticut, Rhode Island Also Endorse Medical CannabisJune 7, 2007 - Montpelier, VT, USAMontpelier, VT: Legislation to amend Vermont’s nearly three-year-old medical cannabis program became law last week after Democratic Gov. James Douglas allowed the measure to become law without his signature. It is the second time since 2004 that state lawmakers have approved medical cannabis legislation without the Governor’s backing. Under the amended law, which takes effect in July, patients with chronic debilitating conditions – not just life-threatening diseases – may use cannabis legally under the advice of their physician.† Senate Bill 7 also increases the number of plants that patients may legally cultivate under state law, and reduces the annual fee associated with the state's medical cannabis patient registry.Vermont’s medical marijuana program is generally considered to be the most restrictive in the nation. To date, fewer than 30 patients are registered with the state to use cannabis legally under state law. Dozens of additional patients are expected to register with the program once SB 7 takes effect this summer.Legislators in Connecticut also approved legislation last week that seeks to enact statewide legal protections for patients who use cannabis under a doctor’s supervision. House Bill 6715 now awaits action from Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell. If enacted, Connecticut will become the thirteenth state since 1996 to legalize the use of medical cannabis, and it will be the second state legislature to do so this year.In Rhode Island, Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri vetoed legislation this week that seeks to make the state’s one-year-old medical marijuana law permanent. More than 80 percent of state lawmakers had previously affirmed the measure. Under state law, support of three-fifths of the state's elected officials is necessary to override the Governor's veto.Unless amended by the legislature, Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law will expire at the end of the month. Currently, nearly 300 patients and caregivers are registered to possess cannabis under the law.Leadership in both the House and Senate chambers said that they expect to consider overriding the Governor’s veto before the adjournment of the 2007 session.For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at: paul norml.org To learn more about pending state legislation, please visit NORML’s Take Action Center at: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/?style=DDL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7276Hawaii: County Council Rejects Federal Funding For Pot Eradication EffortsJune 7, 2007 - Hilo, HI, USAHilo, HI: Hawaii County Council members unanimously voted last week to reject more than one-half million dollars in federal grant money earmarked to pay for helicopter-based marijuana eradication efforts. Council members elected to remove the funding from the county’s 2007-2008 budget, noting that the 30-year-old "Green Harvest" program – which utilizes low-flying helicopters to search for outdoor marijuana gardens – had elicited numerous complaints from Big Island citizens. Prior to the vote, nearly 70 members of the public told the Council that the aerial-based program upsets their livestock, disrupts local wildlife, and is highly disruptive to residents’ quality of life.The Council had previously rejected funding for the program in 2000, but elected to resume funding in 2001. Despite last week’s vote, police administrators are still expected to ask the Council for permission to accept the federal funding later this year.For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500.DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7278Source: NORML Foundation (DC)Published: June 7, 2007Copyright: 2007 NORML Contact: norml norml.org Website: http://www.norml.org/CannabisNews NORML Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/NORML.shtml 
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Comment #17 posted by whig on June 16, 2007 at 21:37:01 PT
Commonsense
I understand what you are saying. When cannabis is legal everyone will be able to buy or grow the best quality bud without having to spend too much.As for this area, cannabis is legal under state law and local ordinance for those having a physician's recommendation. There are many dispensaries with good quality.If it costs more to get higher quality medicine, I prefer to spend it if I can afford it, because it is medicine. But I wouldn't go out of my way to spend more for mediocre quality. An eighth probably lasts me two weeks at present.If I had more cannabis of lower quality, I would probably cook with it but would be less inclined to want to vaporize. While a vaporizer can improve the effective potency of lower quality cannabis, the taste is still what it is.Which, come to think of it, matters for cooking too.I'm not saying you should overpay. I'm not saying everyone has the choice of good medicine available. I'm just saying that when it is available, good is better.
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Comment #16 posted by Commonsense on June 15, 2007 at 00:38:53 PT
whig
There are a couple of good reasons why people around here all tend to buy Mexican. First off, it's dirt cheap. I'm in the South, in a state where per capita average incomes are low. People don't tend to have a lot of money around here. People like fancy indoor grown weed, and certainly wouldn't turn it down, but they don't have $100 or $120 or whatever it costs to pay for a quarter ounce, especially when they could get two ounces of Mexican for that much money, and if they have a good supplier that Mexican they buy will be maybe half the potency of the overpriced pot. It may not taste as good but if you can get half the potency for one eighth the cost it's kind of hard to justify buying Bluberry, Northern Lights or whatever, especially if you are a frequent smoker who will go through a lot more product than an occasional smoker. Lastly, indoor grown marijuana isn't particularly available in my area. Most people wouldn't have any idea where to get it if they could afford it. Mexican is everywhere. It's easy to get. A regular smoker is liable to have several sources for Mexican, and he can shop around and only buy the best quality product. If he finds some he really likes, he can easily get an ounce for less than the price of a quarter of the overpriced stuff, like I said maybe even two ounces for about what a quarter ounce of indoor grown product will cost, and he'll have plenty around to last until he comes across some more well above average Mexican. In an area where cheap Mexican totally dominates the market, a good shopper can always have good smoke on hand for a fraction of what he'd pay for indoor grown product. If you're stuck on smoking only the really expensive stuff in an area like this, you are quite likely to have only one source, who may be out when you are ready to buy or who may have substandard product on hand. Not all of the overpriced marijuana is just outstanding. Sometimes it's pretty medicore. It may look and smell great, but it's not necessarily going to be tremendously potent. In an area like this where Mexican totally dominates the market, if you are a "pot snob" who won't smoke anything but "name brand" indoor grown marijuana you're going to spend several times as much money on your smoke than everyone else and on average what you are smoking won't just be a whole lot better than what your frugal friends are smoking.Things are probably different where you live. Locally grown hydro weed may dominate your local market. You may know all sorts of people you could get it from and smart shoppers may be able to find quality product that is relatively cheap for indoor grown product. Mexican may cost a lot more where you live and it may be a lot harder to find any that's even worth buying. People probably make a lot more money there on average than they do here and thus have more disposable income to blow on really expensive marijuana. It's just not like that here. Indoor grown marijuana hasn't really caught on much because people just can't justify the cost. Most will smoke nothing but Mexican, except around harvest time when we'll have a lot of homegrown bud grown outdoors in hills around here. It tends to be pretty darned good and while it costs more than Mexican, it's still a lot cheaper than "hydro weed" which is something reserved mostly for people who have more money than sense.   
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Comment #15 posted by BGreen on June 14, 2007 at 19:51:08 PT
Dankhank
If you were able to grow your own, it wouldn't even begin to resemble any import. The taste would be so much better than commercial bricked import but that doesn't mean anybody is a snob.Everybody should be able to experience cannabis to it's fullest, but nobody thinks any less of you because you partake of whatever cannabis you choose.Around this area, if you have to buy cannabis, you pretty much buy whatever somebody has, and that's brown, bricked Mexican, but there is a lot of it being smoked every day.I still prefer locally grown kind bud, not because of how high I can get, but because the flavor and smell are so wonderful and satisfying that it always brings a smile to my face.It reminds me of being in Amsterdam, and that's always a good thing.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #14 posted by Dankhank on June 14, 2007 at 18:23:58 PT
schwag ...
Whig, your comments show how you slid so easily into the snobbery of the growers. It's like vintners smirking at the beer drinkers for not appreciating the grape.In much of the country the export from the south has satisfied many consumers for it's dependability and it's price.Many will gravitate to the cheaper variety, but would surely appreciate the opportunity to acquire some "kind bud" for special occasions.If a 'buy' is weaker than usual there is always the option to produce a more resinous and compact version using nothing more than a blender, ice, water, coffee filters and the manicured "schwag."Resins are an improvement, no matter what the starter material.The quality of the schwag is better all the time, and the price is right.This discussion is not new, here, and it always boils down to one question ...How high you wanna get?http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=how+to+make+hash&btnG=Google+SearchI remember when living in CA was an unknown for you, congrats on fully assimilating ...
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Comment #13 posted by whig on June 12, 2007 at 02:05:25 PT
Commonsense
Still, why would I want "brickweed" when I can get nicely manicured bud that smells and tastes wonderful?
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Comment #12 posted by Commonsense on June 09, 2007 at 19:37:38 PT
whig
It's not all "schwag." More and more of it smells and tastes great, has little or no seeds in it, and is pretty darned potent. I think a lot of the Mexican growers are catching on and getting better seeds and learning to cull their male plants. It's all still brickweed, but I think that's to make it easier to smuggle and to keep it fresh longer since a lot of it sits a good while before it reaches the end consumer. 
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Comment #11 posted by whig on June 08, 2007 at 23:42:54 PT
Commonsense
I don't think I would want to smoke Mexican schwag if I have access to better quality. When I lived in Pittsburgh, where I am at the moment and suffering from lack of cannabis, it wasn't easy to find anything nearly as good as the standard medical grades in California.I'm just visiting for a week, so don't worry 'bout me, no. I'll survive. It sucks, though.
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Comment #10 posted by Commonsense on June 08, 2007 at 23:10:31 PT
I call B.S. too
Standard commercial grade Mexican where I live in the South is going for $60 to $80 an ounce, $50 if you are well connected. Fancy indoor grown, your Blueberry, White Widow, etc., will run $100 a quarter or a little more, if you can find it, but it's not up there close to $700 an ounce like gold. Most everyone around here smokes the cheap stuff because it's everywhere and it's so, well, cheap. It's hard for people to justify paying as much for a quarter ounce of the expensive stuff as they would for two ounces of decent Mexican. You could get a pound of Mexican around here for a good bit less than what you'd pay for an ounce of gold. Prices haven't been going up, not for commercial grade pot at least. It's cheaper here than it was 20 years ago. That could be because we had such an explosion in our Hispanic population around here in the last ten years or so. 
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Comment #9 posted by dongenero on June 08, 2007 at 07:39:55 PT
GCW posts #2 and #3
Great posts GCW. I am glad to know the intelligent people are speaking up on the issue in those letters. Both of those letters give more sense of hope that there is at least an undercurrent of thoughtful, reasonable and honest people at work in our society at large.
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Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on June 07, 2007 at 20:59:36 PT
rising prices 
I'm sure the banking industry will be happy - more money to launder at exhorbitant rates, yippee!
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on June 07, 2007 at 20:02:02 PT
If gold was illegal...
If gold was illegal and only available on the black market, what would it cost per ounce?
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Comment #6 posted by potpal on June 07, 2007 at 19:47:42 PT
600-700
I believe some do pay that much. $20/g=$560 an ounce for kine bud. $350-400 is average. I'm sure in some locals, like Manhattan bud could reach 600/z. $25/g would put it over that. Crazy, it is. But not unheard of. Sad, really.
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on June 07, 2007 at 18:57:55 PT
Off topic,
Toxic testinghttp://www.boulderweekly.com/newsspin3.html
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Comment #4 posted by mayan on June 07, 2007 at 18:20:48 PT
Gold?
Gold can't feed you,clothe you, or house you. Cannabis can. Cannabis is worth far more than gold!Food,fuel,fiber,paper,plastics,building materials,medicine...If gold could do all that it would be illegal also. In unrelated events, some crazy sh*t is goin' down...Theft of Elaine Brown's Business Place Underway: 
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/june2007/070607_b_Theft.htmMany relative links here...http://prisonplanet.comTHE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...Christopher Bollyn Found Guilty:
http://www.rense.com/general76/boll.htm9/11 Truth Squads Bring Reality of Inside Job to Primary Campaigns - A "Macaca" Moment for Giuliani in the Bronx:
http://911blogger.com/node/9223Giuliani Denies WTC Collapse Warning:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/giuliani_denies_warning.htmlWhat did Rudy Giuliani say about the collapse of WTC? (video):
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/june2007/070607_b_Giuliani.htmInternet Absurdity: Bin Laden Listed at FOX Headquarters:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/internet_absurd.htmlHomeland Security: "Many More 9/11s Are Inevitable":
http://infowars.net/articles/june2007/070607Inevitable.htm9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB - OUR NATION IS IN PERIL:
http://www.911sharethetruth.com/
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on June 07, 2007 at 17:55:24 PT
US CO: O'Reilly's got his shorts in a knot 
http://www.boulderweekly.com/thedanishplan.htmlUS CO: O'Reilly's got his shorts in a knot by Paul Danish http://www.boulderweekly.com/thedanishplan.htmlPubdate: 7 June 2007 Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on June 07, 2007 at 17:52:13 PT
US CO: Teenage wasteland  
US CO: Teenage wasteland  Author: Stewart Sallo Viewed at: http://www.boulderweekly.com/stewsviews.htmlPubdate: 7 June 2007 Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
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Comment #1 posted by AOLBites on June 07, 2007 at 17:26:33 PT
I Call B.S.
Cannabis might have been trading in the same range as gold a few years ago ... but now? Please.gold is trading around $600-$700 an ounce. $$$$$$When has Anyone Imagined people paying that much for herb???they truly are insane.
Gold
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