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November 23, 2009
A Disputed Idea’s Erratic Progress
Earlier this month, a news item that- twelve years ago- would have been literally inconceivable, created barely a ripple of interest when an AMA committee timidly endorsed the idea that cannabis (“marijuana”) may have some medicinal value and recommended that “research” be done. This was the same idea Richard Nixon had summarily rejected when it was presented to him in March 1972 by his own blue ribbon committee. Although he was soon driven from the Oval Office by Watergate, Nixon’s rejection, nearly unnoticed by the press at the time, has allowed the “war” on drugs to evolve from its genesis in the 1970 Controlled Substances Act into a policy that would eventually quadruple America’s prison population, produce over twelve million felony marijuana arrests, and provide price support for several other illegal agents then barely known to Americans by name, or even discovered.Thirteen years ago, the dispute over pot’s medical value produced a victorious California initiative, despite near-unanimous opposition from state and federal officials, 57 of 58 DAs and all its law enforcement organizations. By the end of 2001, after a threat from the federal drug czar that would have stymied implementation was stayed by the Ninth Circuit, the idea had overcome law enforcement hostility to the extent that there was a customer base for cannabis products estimated at about 20,000, mostly in the Bay Area.
By the second half of 2003, an unexplained increase in the number of Californians with the required recommendations from “pot docs,” had fueled a corresponding increase in retail outlets openly selling cannabis products. That number has continued to grow, especially in the LA basin and previously pot free locales, despite organized campaigns by local law enforcement agencies against business licenses for “clubs” (now known as “dispensaries”) DEA raids (often with local police help) and- despite a Raich Decision in 2005 that has generated increased federal prosecution of growers and distributors despite their apparent compliance with state law.
Last week in LA, as counterpoint to the timid AMA endorsement emanating from Houston, an improbable and very public battle between LA's City Council and its District Attorney points up the political confusion that is still being generated by the notion Nixon summarily rejected over 37 years ago.
Despite the now-sustained interest in "marijuana" California's initiative is producing, two related questions are almost never asked by "experts" on both sides of the issue: just how big is pot's illegal market and why is "weed" still so popular after all these years?
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at November 23, 2009 05:05 PM