The stoner community is clamoring to say it: "Yes we cannabis!" Turns out, with several drug-war veterans close to the president-elect's ear, insiders think reform could come in Obama's second term -- or sooner.
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Famously, Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved the United States banking system during the first seven days of his first term.

And what did he do on the eighth day? "I think this would be a good time for beer," he said.

Congress had already repealed Prohibition, pending ratification from the states. But the people needed a lift, and legalizing beer would create a million jobs. And lo, booze was back. Two days after the bill passed, Milwaukee brewers hired six hundred people and paid their first $10 million in taxes. Soon the auto industry was tooling up the first $12 million worth of delivery trucks, and brewers were pouring tens of millions into new plants.

"Roosevelt's move to legalize beer had the effect he intended," says Adam Cohen, author of Nothing To Fear, a thrilling new history of FDR's first hundred days. "It was, one journalist observed, 'like a stick of dynamite into a log jam.'"

Many in the marijuana world are now hoping for something similar from Barack Obama. After all, the president-elect said in 2004 that the war on drugs had been "an utter failure" and that America should decriminalize pot:

In July, Obama told Rolling Stone that he believed in "shifting the paradigm" to a public-health approach: "I would start with nonviolent, first-time drug offenders. The notion that we are imposing felonies on them or sending them to prison, where they are getting advanced degrees in criminality, instead of thinking about ways like drug courts that can get them back on track in their lives -- it's expensive, it's counterproductive, and it doesn't make sense."

Meanwhile, economists have been making the beer argument. In a paper titled "Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," Dr. Jeffrey Miron of Harvard argues that legalized marijuana would generate between $10 and $14 billion in savings and taxes every year -- conclusions endorsed by 300 top economists, including Milton "Free Market" Friedman himself.

And two weeks ago, when the Obama team asked the public to vote on the top problems facing America, this was the public's No. 1 question: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"

But alas, the answer from Camp Obama was -- as it has been for years -- a flat one-liner: "President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana." And at least two of Obama's top people are drug-war supporters: Rahm Emanuel has been a long-time enemy of reform, and Joe Biden is a drug-war mainstay who helped create the position of "drug czar."

Meanwhile, in 2007, the last year for which statistics are available, 782,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana-related crimes (90 percent of them for possession), with approximately 60,000 to 85,000 of them serving sentences in jail or prison. It's the continuation of an unnecessary stream of suffering that now has taught generations of Americans just how capricious their government can be. The irony is that the preference for "decriminalization" over legalization actually supports the continued existence of criminal drug mafias.

Nevertheless, the marijuana community is guardedly optimistic. "Reformers will probably be disappointed that Obama is not going to go as far as they want, but we're probably not going to continue this mindless path of prohibition," NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre tells me.

Some of Obama's biggest financial donors are friends of the legalization movement, St. Pierre notes. "Frankly, George Soros, Peter Lewis, and John Sperling -- this triumvirate of billionaires -- if those three men, who put up $50 to $60 million to get Democrats and Obama elected, can't pick up the phone and actually get a one-to-one meeting on where this drug policy is going, then maybe it's true that when you give money, you don't expect favors."

Another member of that moneyed group: Marsha Rosenbaum, the former head of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance, who quit last year to become a fundraiser for Obama and "bundled" an impressive $204,000 for his campaign. She said that based on what she hears from inside the transition team, she expects Obama to play it very safe. "He said at one point that he's not going to use any political capital with this -- that's a concern," Rosenbaum tells me. And the Path to Change will probably have to pass through the Valley of Studies and Reports. "I'm hoping that what the administration will do," she says, "is something this country hasn't done since 1971, which is to undertake a presidential commission to look at drug policy, convene a group of blue-ribbon experts to look at the issue, and make recommendations."

But ultimately, Rosenbaum remains confident that those recommendations would call for an end to the drug war. "Once everything settles down in the second term, we have a shot at seeing some real reform."

Still, a certain paranoia prevails. Rumors about Obama's choice for drug czar have lingered on Republican Congressman Jim Ramstad. "He's been a standard anti-drug warrior for the whole time he's been in Congress," says St. Pierre. Another possibility is Atlanta police chief Richard Pennington, who raises fears in the legalization community of more of the same law-enforcement model. Another prospect stirring the bong waters is Dr. Don Vereen, the chief drug policy thinker on the transition team. "He's really a believer in prohibition and he can excite an audience," says Rosenbaum, who says a friend on the transition team refused to hint at final contenders for the drug czar pick. "I'm joking with him, 'I'm going to have to open up the New York Times for this, aren't I?'" His answer: "We're going to send out smoke signals."

By Nick Madigan | nick.madigan@baltsun.com
1:02 PM EST, December 10, 2008
A 62-year-old ecologist, Christmas-tree merchant and former Bel Air town commissioner pleaded guilty today in Baltimore County Circuit Court to growing marijuana and possessing psychedelic mushrooms on his 7-acre Harford County farm.

Robert C. Chance, who children buying Christmas trees know as "Santa Bob," was arrested in May during a raid on his farm, where detectives and investigators from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration found 19 marijuana plants growing, more than a pound and a half of packaged marijuana in freezers, and about 33 grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Chance had been charged with five counts, including possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Under an arrangement with prosecutors, he was able to plead guilty to two of the lesser charges in exchange for a recommendation that he serve no more than six months in prison.

Had he been convicted of all five charges, Chance faced a maximum of 20 years in prison.




Robert C. Chance This morning, Judge John G. Turnbull II -- to whose courtroom in Towson the case was transferred after Harford County judges recused themselves because they are acquainted with the defendant -- agreed that he would give Chance no more than six months in jail, but postponed sentencing until March 9 so that he can consider a pre-sentencing report.

Standing before the judge in a trim goatee, reading glasses and black blazer, Chance firmly answered, "Yes, sir," to a series of questions from Turnbull as to whether he understood, among other things, that he was waiving his right to a trial by jury. Asked what his level of education was, Chance replied, "Two master's degrees."

"So you understand the English language," the judge responded.

Capitol Weekly: The Newpaper of California Government and Politics
By Malcolm Maclachlan
Thursday, November 20, 2008

In this year’s presidential election, medical marijuana advocates in California were pretty clear on which candidate they were rooting for. On multiple occasions, Democrat Barack Obama has pledged to end the federal raids that have bedeviled the state’s dispensaries for years under the Bush administration.

But some of their relief has turned into concern as the incoming president has begun to consider appointments to key posts. Obama will reportedly appoint two men who have been fierce critics of medical marijuana: Eric Holder, rumored to be Obama’s pick for attorney general, and Donald Vereen as transitional co-chair of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

If confirmed to run the Justice Department, Holder would have wide authority to set policy and priorities for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Under President George W. Bush, the DEA has conducted dozens of high profile raids on medical marijuana dispensaries that are allowed to operate openly under California law. Officials have frequently referred to their operators as “criminals” and “drug dealers.”

Holder has a long history of past positions that appear to be closer to current policy than to Obama’s campaign pledge. According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, he proposed stiffening federal marijuana penalties in 1997 while serving as Deputy Attorney General under President Bill Clinton.

He was criticized by NORML again the next year for failing to take action against the Washington State Lieutenant Governor’s office for using federal funds earmarked for drug enforcement to create a website about the “dangers” of medical marijuana while voters of that state were deciding on a medical marijuana initiative. Holder has been acceptable enough to conservatives that he was nominated to a Washington, D.C., judgeship by Ronald Reagan, widely considered the biggest proponent of the drug war among U.S. presidents.

“He certainly does not appear to have the best drug policy stances,” Kris Hermes, media relations at Americans for Safe Access, said of Holder. “But it’s fairly difficult to tell what positions he will take if confirmed.”

Vereen appears to have taken even stronger anti-medical marijuana positions. He served as the deputy director of ONDCP from 1998 to 2001. In the April, 1999 issues of Psychiatric News, the Journal of the American Psychiatric Association, he called doctors who prescribed marijuana “irresponsible” and advocated arresting medical marijuana patients.

He has also frequently gone on record essentially claiming that marijuana can’t be thought of as a treatment because it’s usually smoked and because dosages are difficult to control. This position has just as frequently been mocked by advocates, who note that there is not a single documented case of a person dying from a marijuana overdose.

Of most concern to advocates may be Vereen’s opposition to a medical marijuana initiative which passed in Michigan this year. Speaking in his role as the director of Community Based Public Health at the University of Michigan, he said the initiative “puts young people at risk.”

But Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, noted that public opinion polls and votes are trending his group’s way.

“In Michigan, I can’t help but notice that medical marijuana outpolled Obama by six points,” Mirken said.

Obama got 57 percent of the vote in the key Midwestern swing state. But Proposal 1, which will allow patients or caregivers to possess up to 12 plants and 2.5 ounces of dried marijuana, got 63 percent. Pre-election polls suggested the outcome was never really in doubt.

Mirken went on to note that the three western states Obama flipped to the blue column from 2004—Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico—are all medical marijuana states. There are now 13 such states, the others being Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont. These states cover one-quarter of the US population, and represent 124 of Obama 365 electoral votes.

Both Hermes and Mirken said that any relaxation of federal enforcement is likely to be a done without much fanfare, at least in the short term. Obama is unlikely to step into the kind of public relations scandals that plagued the first two years of the Clinton administration, such as the gays in the military brouhaha.

But Hermes said his group will be using medical marijuana’s growing clout to make sure “Obama keeps his word.” A pair of other early presidential candidates—Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Dennis Kucinich—have been very supportive of medical marijuana, he said, and even Hillary Clinton took more liberal positions than Obama on the issue.

Hermes went on to say his group will participate in a “grassroots campaign” to break the federal government’s “monopoly” on medical marijuana research and push for a national policy on the issue.

“We’ll certainly be holding his feet to the fire,” Hermes said.

Mirken said federal pressure has really prevented most medical marijuana states from fully implementing laws approved by voters—a situation that is particularly notable with California’s Prop. 215, passed with 56 percent of the vote in 1996. California has been Ground Zero, he said, “because we have these openly-operating dispensaries that present ready targets for federal enforcement.”

Other states have sidestepped this problem largely by not being directly involved in the administration of policies.

“It’s hard to set up a system when any information you collect is potentially evidence in a federal trial,” Mirken said. “There really isn’t anyone in charge.”

Holder and Vereen are not the only appointees of concern to advocates. Vice President-elect Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of the war on drugs in the Senate. While he also opposes federal raids on dispensaries, at a May campaign stop in Connecticut he said of pain management that “There’s got to be a better answer than marijuana.”

“He’s been a prominent figure in the war on drugs for several years,” said Zack Risner, media relations for the Cannabis Club Network, of Biden. “That doesn’t mean it’s going to be a direct relation to Obama’s policies.”

Obama’s new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and another ONDCP appointee, Christopher Putala, have also been openly critical of medical marijuana. But Mirken said that is would be difficult for Obama not be an improvement over Bush.

“The way the Bush administration has operated, they just made stuff up,” Mirken said. “It will be nice, if it happens, to have the federal government re-enter the reality-based community.”

Tim King Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - I am not surprised that the number one thing Americans are asking President-elect Barack Obama is whether or not he is going to legalize marijuana. Generations are changing and evolving and the taboos around cannabis are slowly falling away.

American industries can harness the power of this multi-billion dollar, still mostly black market business. The attitude of people in this country is in a mode of great anticipation and change. Barack Obama is already on the record saying he does not want to use the Justice Department to bust state operated medical marijuana dispensaries.

People submitting questions in this Online event seem to identify the legalization of medical marijuana and marijuana overall, as a top priority.

I included the top ten and a link to the page that allows you to see all of the other questions that people seek to have answered by Barack Obama.

Other hot topics are Wall Street, Stem Cell Research, and for a lack of better terms, retribution against the Bush Administration for things like illegal wiretapping and the authorization of torture.

Since its launch Wednesday, the "Open for Questions" tool processed over 600,000 votes from more than 10,000 people on more than 7,300 questions.

Voting came to a close Friday, December 12th, at 12:00 AM Eastern Time, so that the team can prepare answers to some of the most popular questions.

Pilot projects like "Open for Questions" depend on feedback from users to better understand how to make participation intuitive and productive.



Obama's team stated, "Participation in Open for Questions outpaced our expectations, and we're looking forward to rolling it out again next week. We're tremendously excited about the promise of tools like this that offer Americans a level of access that has historically been hard to come by."

By voting questions up, users have been able to convey to the team which major issues -- including the auto industry, health care, ethical standards, and others -- are the most important to this community.

As one of the only essentially mainstream news organizations Online that covers legal medical marijuana seriously, Salem-News.com has earned a worldwide and national reputation as the only Website that offers an experienced doctor who is an expert on the subject, for question and answer interviews based on visitor's questions.

Dr. Phillip Leveque is a World War Two veteran and his education, background and experience in multiple specialties, places him among the most qualified doctors in the nation. He writes from the perspective of an Osteopath, Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.

I am glad to see the value of this natural herb gaining acceptance for its potential value as a legal and taxable commodity, and we do not consider this as any kind of an underground or taboo subject when we report about it. Medical marijuana is legal in Oregon and many other places, and the patients have very few places to turn. We are glad to fill that void.

Over the next few days, some of the most popular questions selected by the Change.gov community will be answered by the Transition team, and their responses will be posted on their site.

The Questions Americans are Asking Barack Obama

Currently in the lead: "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"
- S. Man, Denton

Second place question: "What will you do as President to restore the Constitutional protections that have been subverted by the Bush Administration and how will you ensure that our system of checks and balances is renewed?"
- Kari, Seattle

Third place question: "What will you do to establish transparency and safeguards against waste with the rest of the Wall Street bailout money?"
- Diane, New Jersy

Sixth place question: "Will you lift the ban on Stem Cell research in your first 100 days in office?"
- James_M, Nashville, TN

Fifth place question: "What will you do to promote science and mathematics education to Elementary and Middle School students?"
- JasonWyatt, Raleigh, NC

Sixth place question: "Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"
- Bob Fertik, New York City

Seventh place question: "13 states have compassionate use programs for medial Marijuana, yet the federal gov't continues to prosecute sick and dying people. Isn't it time for the federal gov't to step out of the way and let doctors and families decide what is appropriate?"
- Greg, Minnesota

Eighth place question: "What do you plan to do to our food industry to make it more sustainable? Will there be changes to our farming policies?"
- Jentry, Lincoln, NE

Ninth place question: "What will you do to end the use of mercenary forces (ie Blackwater) by our military?"
- Betsie, Mtn Home, AR

Tenth place question: "What will you do first to reduce pollution/waste and incentivize greener behavior across the country?"
- Diane, Boston, MA

To learn what others are asking Obama, visit the Website "Open for Questions" and read many more inquiries for President-elect Barack Obama. That Website can be found at: change.gov/page/content/20081211_openforquestions

OTTAWA – Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.

The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage.

Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old.

The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.

"This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible," Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.

"It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied."

The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man's high social standing.

Russo is a full-time consultant with GW Pharmaceuticals, which makes Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada for pain linked to multiple sclerosis and cancer.

The company operates a cannabis-testing laboratory at a secret location in southern England to monitor crop quality for producing Sativex, and allowed Russo use of the facility for tests on 11 grams of the tomb cannabis.

Researchers needed about 10 months to cut red tape barring the transfer of the cannabis to England from China, Russo said.

The inter-disciplinary study was published this week by the British-based botany journal, which uses independent reviewers to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of all submitted papers.

The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said.

"It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years."

Russo, who had a neurology practice for 20 years, has previously published studies examining the history of cannabis.

"I hope we can avoid some of the political liabilities of the issue," he said, referring to his latest paper.

The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.