Drug War Creates Distrust Between Cops and Communities

The 40-year-old "war on drugs" and the criminalization of addiction have placed communities at odds with law enforcement, prosecutors and courts -- to the detriment of justice and respect for the rule of law. The violence driven by the astronomical profits of the illicit drug market and the life-long collateral consequences for those snared by drug laws will continue to exile generations from the mainstream.

It might be surprising to hear this from a cop like me, but the solution to our current human rights crisis will ultimately require the legalization and regulation of current illicit drugs.

I retired from a rewarding career with the Maryland State Police in 2007, and since then have had the honor of working as a lawyer and educator in Baltimore, largely in communities composed of people of color. One of the most heartbreaking things to witness - as both a law enforcement officer and a legal educator -- is a "contempt of cop" culture held by many people living in poor and blighted communities. As a police officer I understood that some people dislike the police. As a lawyer I have witnessed a generational feedback loop within communities of color that perpetuates fear, distrust and hatred for the police officers charged with protecting their communities and maintaining order.

This contempt is grounded in the failure of criminal justice system leaders to effectively screen and manage cases to ensure the fair enforcement of laws and distribution of police services in all neighborhoods -- regardless of the socioeconomic and racial demographics. It is also informed by our nation's long history of racial tension and violence between police and minority communities.

But nowhere is the racial disparity more glaring than in the enforcement of drug laws. The rates of illicit drug usage in America by race and zip code do not reflect the criminal engagement and prosecution rates. In fact, black and brown people in this country are being disproportionately impacted by our criminal drug laws and what has evolved into an incarceration and penal model of social control. Meanwhile, affluent whites are afforded the privilege of handling substance abuse as a family and health issue, often covered by insurance.

On the other end of this disconnect between the police and the community is an equally troubling "contempt of community" culture emanating from law enforcement. Police, as a group, have become increasingly jaded about the prospects of effective policing in impoverished communities riddled with the violence and disorder associated with the business of the illicit drug trade.

The violence surrounding the enforcement of drug laws leaves community members and law enforcement fearful for their personal safety. It is natural for officers working on the front lines of the drug war to be impacted by the fact that the colleagues they work with oftentimes becomearbitrary casualties. The trauma and fear associated with that reality reverberates through every relationship, every conversation and every decision the police make.

The laws, policies and procedures driving the unjust and uneven enforcement of our drug laws must be challenged and reformed. The drug laws the police and prosecutors are sworn to uphold are immoral and have eroded fairness in the justice system and undermined the rule of law.

The "contempt of community" and "contempt of cop" speak volumes about the abject failure of our contemporary justice system to deal with drugs and the illicit drug economy. If you have not observed court dockets in action and you care about access to justice issues, go and watch. The court system, particularly in the metro areas, is completely overwhelmed, and no one is getting real justice. Not the victims. Not the government. Not the community. Not the accused.

The question our society now faces is how to end prohibition and the criminal enforcement scheme without causing more harm. A logical frame is to pilot a legal drug enclave within a bounded jurisdiction where business and religious leaders, police, prosecutors, defenders, courts, community, youth and private and public health officials work collaboratively with addicts to create both time, place and manner restrictions and effective education and prevention campaigns. Simultaneously, social pacts will have to be formed with drug cartels, local gangs and the federal government to support the overarching goal of drug legalization, which is violence reduction.

The legalization of drugs, reinvestment in pillaged communities and implementation of a thoughtful regulatory scheme for the manufacture, delivery and distribution of all currently illicit drugs will remove the profit, the violence and the systemic racism inherently linked to our criminal drug laws. The time to act is now. Justice and respect for human rights demand transformative change.

The author is a retired captain with the Maryland State Police, a professor with the University of Maryland, School of Law and executive board member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com).

Webster!

Cannabliss 6/18/2011

Webster from Grower #2

Genetics: Sativa dominant hybrid approximately 70%/30%.
Grade: A

Personal Note: Effect is after one pipe bowl, taking about four to five hits total. I will designate a number value based on a zero out of ten scale. Zero being no effect and ten being an up enough high that I wanted to get up and clean or go for a walk. I will also do a number scale for my personal pain relief, stating pain level before and after.

Appearance: Beautiful dense sugar coated light green nugs with a few burnt orange hairs.

Production Characteristics: Well trimmed, no nutritional anomalies noted. Was a little dry when I first brought it home, but thirty minutes in a pint jar with a small reusable disk humidifier solved that issue.

Smell: Fresh citrus pine is the first thing I notice then it transitions to a dank hash smell if you continue to shove your nose in the jar as I did!

Taste: As with the smell, the first flavor notes to hit you are a sweet pine forest followed by a nice strong hash aftertaste.

Effects: A strong “up” body high which had me on my feet and doing some work that needed done but I hadn’t been able to physically get to. This sativa has enough indica traits that it provides great pain relief as well as anti-nausea properties. This would NOT make a good nighttime medication for those suffering insomnia. It does clear my head out nicely and allows me to let go of all the junk running through my mind but it also causes a wonderful sort of buzzing feeling in all my nerve endings. This is a pleasant electrifying feeling but would, in my opinion, impede good deep sleep.

Type: Sativa dominant hybrid

Overall High: 7/10

Pain level before medicating: 8/10

Pain level after medicating: 3/10

Pain relief lasted: 2 hours

Side Effects: No cottonmouth, appetite stimulation or paranoia noted. I felt slightly jittery at the very end of the high but this could also be because I was up doing a lot of stuff, which usually my pain precludes me from participating in. After I sat down for about five minutes and drank some water, I felt better.

Disclaimer:

All information contained in this blog is my opinion unless otherwise stated. Medical Marijuana is not legal in all States therefore this blog is to be used for informational purposes only. I am a registered nurse, However I am not your nurse. Consult your own health care provider before making any medical decisions. Information posted here is the property of OregonMedPotRN and may be used only with permission. All names and titles have been changed to protect the rights of all involved. All rights reserved.

Seniors' medical pot collective stirs up trouble

LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. —

Joe Schwartz is a 90-year-old great-grandfather of three who enjoys a few puffs of pot each night before he crawls into bed in the Southern California retirement community he calls home.

The World War II veteran and stroke sufferer smokes the drug to alleviate debilitating nausea and is one of about 150 senior citizens on this sprawling, 18,000-person gated campus who belongs to a thriving - and controversial - medical marijuana collective operating in the middle of one of the largest retirement communities in the United States.

The fledgling collective mirrors a nationwide trend as more and more senior citizens turn to marijuana, legal or not, to ease the aches and pains of aging. But in Laguna Woods Village, tucked in the heart of one of the most conservative and wealthiest counties in California, these ganja-smoking grandparents have stirred up a heated debate with their collective, attracting a crackdown from within the self-governed community.

Many members of the 2-year-old collective keep a low profile, but others grow seedlings on their patios and set up workshops to show other seniors how to turn the marijuana leaves into tea, milk and a vapor that can be inhaled for relief from everything from chemotherapy-related nausea to multiple sclerosis to arthritis.

The most recent project involves getting collective members to plant 40 seeds from experimental varieties of marijuana that are high in a compound said to have anti-inflammatory properties best suited for elderly ailments. The tiny plastic vials, each containing 10 seeds, are stamped with names like "Sour Tsunami."

Under California law, people with a variety of conditions, from migraines to cancer, can get a medical marijuana card with a doctor's recommendation and join a pot collective to get what they need. All the members of Laguna Woods Village's collective have medical marijuana cards and are legal users under state law, but the drug is still banned under federal law.

Lonnie Painter, the collective's president and perhaps most activist member, worries daily about his high-profile position within the tiny community of pot users. The 65-year-old grandfather supplements regular painkillers with marijuana tea for osteoarthritis and keeps stacks of marijuana collective applications on a desk in the living room, just a few feet from the Lego bricks his 7-year-old grandson plays with on his frequent visits.

"We've got people who don't like it here, they don't like marijuana and they still have that `communism' and `perversion' and `killer weed' attitude," said Painter, who has shoulder-length gray hair, a white goatee and wears several gold necklaces. "What I get more worried about is myself getting put in jail. If you were just a patient you'd be safe, but if you are active and involved in any way in making it available for others, the federal government can come and scoop you up."

In the first two years of the collective's life, however, Painter and other members have had more trouble from their fellow residents than from the government.

When things first got under way, Painter and three others were growing about two dozen plants with names like Super Silver Haze in the Laguna Woods Village community garden. Photos show his 800-square-foot plot overflowing with marijuana plants taller than a grown man butting up against the staked tomatoes and purple flowering clematis of other gardeners.

But the Golden Rain Foundation, the all-volunteer board that governs the community, cracked down and prohibited the cultivation of marijuana on all Laguna Woods Village property. The vote followed the report of the theft of two marijuana plants, tangerines and a rake and shovel from the community garden, according to meeting minutes of the Community Activities Committee's Garden Center Advisory Group.

The foundation, which maintains the 3-square-mile community's 153 acres of golf courses, seven clubhouses and other amenities, adopted the policy late last year after a lengthy legal review.

"We thought that it was not proper. It sets a precedent. Our gardens are for flowers and vegetables, and that's all, and it's been that way since 1964 or 1965 when this was started," said Howard Feichtmann, who was chairman of the Garden Advisory Group. "We thought that's what it should remain and not get involved with medical marijuana or anything else that is considered on the fringe."

Those with medical marijuana cards can still grow the state limit of six mature plants per person in their private residences.

Susan Margolis, who sat on the Garden Center Advisory Group, said the debate has divided people along generational lines in a community where the average age is 78 but new residents can move in at 55. She estimated that up to 10 of her younger neighbors take medical pot for ailments but said many older residents are fiercely opposed.

"This did stir up a lot of feelings," said Margolis, 67, who said those opposed the public pot plots had valid safety concerns. "There are a lot of people that have never used marijuana and there are younger people who have used marijuana who say, `Come on now, this is just ridiculous.'"

After the vote, the collective had to rip its plants out and has struggled to produce the pot it needs for its members.

At first, the senior citizens tried to run their own grow site by creating a greenhouse in a rented facility off-site, but they lost thousands of dollars of crop when someone plugged a grow light into the wrong outlet, giving the plants 24 hours of light a day during the critical flowering period instead of 12 hours. Then, they gave seedlings to a grower operating a greenhouse in Los Angeles, but that ended just as badly: The place was busted by police, and all the plants were confiscated and destroyed.

Now, a fellow Laguna Woods Village resident and collective member recently started growing for the group in two off-site greenhouses whose location Painter and others declined to provide. The all-organic supply is distributed to members on a sliding scale, from $35 an ounce to about $200 an ounce based on ability to pay and need. Many members also grow their legal limit of six seedlings on private patios or in space-age looking indoor tents designed to coddle the growing weed.

The collective's website, which includes three albums of photos of the pot plants growing alongside regular produce, dresses down the community's board members for the collective's rocky path, calling them "ill-informed, intolerant tyrants" who have violated members' rights.

"It's just so difficult and it shouldn't be because it makes me feel like I'm doing something criminal but I'm not," said Barbara Ayala, a Laguna Woods Village resident and collective member who says she received nasty emails when she organized a daylong medical marijuana workshop. "I'm only trying to provide people with medicine ... that is the best quality that we can provide."

Mystery Blue

OMMProviders March 2011

Mystery Blue-Unknown Grower

Genetics: Unknown
Grade: C

Personal Note: Effect is after one pipe bowl, taking about four to five hits total. I will designate a number value based on a zero out of ten scale. Zero being no effect and ten being strong enough to put me to sleep. I will also do a number scale for my personal pain relief, stating pain level before and after.

Appearance: Fluffy airy green buds, no blue or purple hues. Minimal trichome content with very few burnt orange hairs. This strain was one that did not look very good, I would best describe it as scraggly but the high made up for the poor visual appearance. Overly dried out, I had to put in a reusable humidifier disk before I was able to sample it.

Production Characteristics: Poor trimming with many small leaves left in place even though they did not have any trichomes visible. Appeared to be someone’s halfhearted attempt at growing or was done on a large production scale, no pride in workmanship was shown.

Smell: Not much of a smell what there is just tasted green. Not necessarily a bad smell just a plain old plant smell.

Taste: The taste was similar to the smell; there was not much there just a green leafy plant taste. Similar I suppose with how fresh lettuce smells.

Effects: This is where I was surprised! With how it looked, smelled, and tasted I figured that it would not provide much pain relief or produce a very strong high, but I was wrong. I experienced a very mellow calming high with good pain control that lasted only about an hour. This strain comes on quick but unfortunately leaves you quickly as well, so if you are the type that likes to only smoke a small bowl here or there this would not be an ideal strain for you. Now if you do not mind smoking three or four bowls over the course of a few hours you could stay pleasantly medicated with mystery blue.

Type: 

Overall High: 5/10

Pain level before medicating: 6/10

Pain level after medicating: 3/10

Pain relief lasted: 1 hour

Side Effects: Cottonmouth and increased appetite were not a problem; however, it did cause some lung irritation with subsequent coughing fits. Would probably best be used in medicated food or vaporized. Some anxiety experienced but nothing too extreme.

I was not able to get a photo of this strain I apologize for any inconvenience. 

Disclaimer:

All information contained in this blog is my opinion unless otherwise stated. Medical Marijuana is not legal in all States therefore this blog is to be used for informational purposes only. I am a registered nurse, However I am not your nurse. Consult your own health care provider before making any medical decisions. Information posted here is the property of OregonMedPotRN and may be used only with permission. All names and titles have been changed to protect the rights of all involved. All rights reserved. 

Cannabidiol (CBD)

This link provides is an in-depth description and definition of Cannabidiol (CBD) and how it effects our bodies.

Cannabidiol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia.com