Medical Marijuana Browsing with Anderson Cooper
June 17th, 2009 by RussCNN’s Anderson Cooper looked like the proverbial middle-aged stiff in a candy store this week when he took his CNN audience on a tour of a Los Angeles weed dispensary.
Trying to project the maximum level of sobriety and imparitality in the weed haven know as the Farmacy, Cooper monotonously rattled off different weed strains to a bemused audience:
So there’s like… Bubba Joe, Mendo Purple, Princess, Third Eye, Air Force One
To be fair, the spot did a decent job of serving as a first-timer’s tutorial of marijuana lingo, explaining the separation between Indica and Sativa breeds, and the various methods of ingesting beyond smoking the stuff.
Cooper even threw his blaze-friendly camera crew a nod, when he mentioned (to their chagrin) that there was no in-store sampling of the product.
CNN Rehashes the THC Potency Debate
May 19th, 2009 by RickIn an ongoing attempt to cover the explosive marijuana issue and the seemingly demise of the war on drugs, CNN’s Anderson Cooper talks about the supposed new THC potency, showing interview clips of Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project and John Walters, dinosaur former drug czar.
John Walters starts it off:
You have more people getting in trouble because there is a wolf in sheep’s clothing here.
This is probably the first honest answer that’s come out of this man’s mouth in a long time — although some people will keep it in the context of him referring to the higher potency of weed and others will know exactly what I am talking about when it comes to drug crusaders that need to take a long walk off a short pier.
The study that all this new information is originating from is through a Mississippi University that tested thousands of strains and have claimed that the THC level has risen to an all time 30 percent within marijuana. Just last year the THC level was supposedly 10.1 percent.
Bruce Mirken sees the new THC potency issue as more rhetoric from the government and opposition:
They’ve used these sorts statistics every year going back twenty or thirty years as an attempt to scare people. Oh my God, it’s a whole new marijuana, it’s way more potent, be afraid. It’s nonsense then and it’s nonsense now.
Mirken believes that if the claims were true, then a more potent marijuana would be a good thing:
THC is essentially non-toxic, so in some ways a higher potency marijuana is actually healthier because the main heath risk associated with marijuana is the respiratory harms of smoking and when it’s more potent people smoke less.
Walters, disagrees:
There’s no evidence of that, if anything the higher potency creates a greater risk of dependency.
Walters goes as far as saying that more and more people are winding up in the emergency rooms and that users may lose control, have trouble concentrating and sleeping — teenagers especially may feel suicidal. This, of course, is all bullshit, as the next day at the MPP website, Mirken commented on his interview at CNN and showed that Walters is a liar.
In a study entitled Vaporization as a Smokeless Cannabis Delivery System: A Pilot Study, published in the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, researchers at University of California, used marijuana with THC levels of 1.7%, 3.4% and 6.8%. The study was to compare smoking and vaporization so the participants were taken through a “standardized puff procedure.”
Mirken writes:
Although the high-strength marijuana was four times as potent as the weakest, it produced a peak plasma THC level only about 20% higher, smoked or vaporized. This, the researchers wrote, suggests that either less is absorbed at the higher potency levels or there is “self-titration of THC intake,” meaning that “smokers adapt their smoking behavior to obtain desired levels of THC.”
Final note, Mirken brings another example to light of the mainstream news not telling the whole story:
I was disappointed that perhaps the most important thing I said to the interviewer didn’t get on the air. If potency is a concern, there is an obvious solution: Regulate marijuana as we do alcoholic beverages, and require the cannabinoid levels to be listed on the label. If consumers know what they’re getting — as they do now with beer, wine, or Bacardi 151 — they can adjust their behavior to avoid unpleasant surprises.
THC Level in Pot Rises, Per CNN
May 14th, 2009 by RickCNN American Morning reported on the issue of marijuana being the most abused drug in America and the fact that it is also more potent than ever.
CNN Homeland Security corespondent, Jeanne Meserve, visited the University of Mississippi and became privy to the only federal government sanctioned and licensed grow operation/storage area in the United States. Not only do the scientists there have barrels upon barrels of high grade dried marijuana in a vault but they also have an indoor cultivation area that produces large quantities of marijuana used for research.
Thousands of samples of marijuana confiscated in seizures across the country are sent to this department every year. The marijuana is put through a siv, to clean out the seeds and stems, the weed is then weighed, put in a solution and analyzed chemically.
The result of the studies is today’s announcement that the THC level within marijuana has risen for the first time in years to a little over ten percent. Some samples were even found to contain a thirty percent level of the psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Mahmoud Elsohly, part of the Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project had this to say about inexperienced users:
They’ll get paranoid, they’ll get irritable and that’s just the opposite of what they were looking for.
CNN goes on to say that because of the higher potency, more people are going to emergency rooms and seeking drug treatment. What? If anyone is going to the emergency room, I strongly doubt it would be from overdose or direct effects from smoking pot.
As usual, they bring in the argument about the kids and them having access to the drug and with it being more potent if it will sway their minds from using it. I’m sure that marijuana, even with it’s ten percent level of THC is better and safer and far less addictive than that ten milli-Percocet or thirty milli-Vicodin, easily found in their parents’ medicine cabinet or even the fifth of Jack stored in the cupboard.
Researchers say that after years of decline, there has been a recent surge in marijuana use. Scientists at the project predict that the THC potency will go up another five percent within five to ten years as marijuana growers learn more sophisticated techniques to cultivating marijuana.
CNN Legalization Debate Redux
May 13th, 2009 by RussThough somewhat discouraged by its recent aborted attempt to have an intelligent discussion about weed, CNN put its ‘A’ team together to see if it could vault to the cable news network lead by presenting a single coherent thought. Led by the glamorous grey-maned Anderson Cooper, the tete-a-tete featured a mismatch for the ages:
Harvard Econ Professor Jeffrey Miron versus Bush-appointed drug czar, John Walters. The exchange resembled something like a debate between Martin Luther King’s unblemished soul, and a moldy sack of russet potatoes. To paraphrase a few of the highlights:
Miron:
Though drinkers have access to very potent types of alcohol, the vast majority drink mild forms and do so responsibly, and that is exactly what we should expect of marijuana users.
Walters:
You just ran a study about students who were killed in an elementary school in Chicago… Marijuana!
Cooper:
Are you implying that marijuana was the cause of these killings that we reported in a completely unrelated and unlinked segment?
Walters:
Listen, it’s very simple. I’ll free associate for a moment: Rape, murder, marijuana. Did you see that? The word marijuana just came out of my mouth right after murder.
Miron:
There’s not a shred of evidence that says that legalizing marijuana would increase violence. It’s prohibition, not marijuana creating the violence. It’s preposterous to say otherwise.
Walters: (drools on self)
Disjointed CNN Panel Almost Debates Legalization
May 12th, 2009 by RussCNN Anchor (and aptly named) Don Lemon ‘moderated’ a two-man panel this week that was set to theoretically debate the merits of legalization. Instead, the panel decided to debate the merits of having three people speak simultaneously at no one in particular.
The debate was sparked by a Governor Schwarzenegger speech that favored a serious look at the benefits of legalization. Former Presidential Drug Policy Advisor, Kevin Sabet, preferred to play semantics, arguing that Schwarzenegger simply wanted to ’study’ the effects, and had not taken an official position.
And so, while Mr. Lemon futilely replayed the clip over and over in the hopes that the Governator had actually endorsed a position, NORML head, Allen St. Pierre delved into his own diatribe about the general popularity of weed.
Meanwhile, Sabet attempted to sneak in the company line straw-man arguments about the ‘dangers’ of weed. Not that he gave any evidence or examples, mind you. Luckily for him, no one interested in having an actual debate was present at the time.
Former Drug Smuggler Interviewed on CNN
April 24th, 2009 by RickCNN American Morning’s Drug Nation held an interesting interview with Brian O’Dea, former drug smuggler, turned author. In the 1980s, Brian O’Dea was responsible for bringing in at least 75 tons of marijuana into the country from South East Asia. While serving 10 years in prison he decided to put his collective experiences into a book called, High.
O’Dea believes that marijuana needs to be legalized and regulated so that the addicts can be helped. He also believes that drugs are a medical issue and that all drugs need to be legalized. The anchor continues to push the issue that if drugs were legalized and made readily available, then people would partake in them and become addicted.
O’Dea says that he had never met anybody that did not do drugs, solely because they were illegal. He makes a good point that drug use ranges from the wealthiest to the poorest. He goes on to say that if drugs were legalized then there would be less distribution of them and that the people that were addicted could be educated and rehabilitated.
CNN’s D.L. Hughley Airs Final Show on 4/20
March 31st, 2009 by RickD.L. Hughley’s final show on CNN will air on April 20th in which he talks about the legalization of marijuana and the current state of medical marijuana in California.
Hughley himself is a medical marijuana patient, suffering from chronic back pain. The show however, has been edited by CNN and will not include Hughley purchasing medical marijuana from the Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland. In fact, a lot of other footage didn’t make it to the cutting room floor as CNN forced Hughley’s producers to edit it out.
Hughley sits down in an interview with a spokesperson from the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). Hughley says that marijuana has an image problem, showing movie examples like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Cheech & Chong: Nice Dreams, and the recent Pineapple Express. The MPP Spokesperson says that various politicians have smoked marijuana in the past including the last three Presidents: Clinton, Bush and Obama, as well as New York Mayor Bloomberg and California Governor, Arnold Schwarzeneggar.
The MPP spokesperson jokes:
A friend of mine recently said that marijuana seems to be a gateway drug that leads to becoming President.
Hughley visits the Harborside Health Center in Oakland. Instantly after he steps in, he’s greeted by various strains of marijuana like White Rhino, Purple Cotton Candy, O.G. Kush. The facility claims the recession hasn’t affected them yet. In fact, business is so booming, that they pay $100,000 a month to the state of California. Towards the end, Hughley interviews a few medical marijuana patients that claim that marijuana has helped them cope with their pain or sickness.
$77 Billion Generated by Legalizing Drugs
March 30th, 2009 by RickHarvard Economics Professor Jeffrey Miron was a guest on a CNN show, hosted by Rick Sanchez. Miron claims that a $77 billion revenue would be created by legalizing drugs. Miron breaks it down by saying $44 billion will be saved by not spending the money on police for arrests, judges and prosecutors for all the trials and prisons and prison guards for the incarceration. Another $33 billion would be obtained by tax revenue of legal drugs, like how cigarettes and alcohol are regulated. Miron even says that legalizing and ending the prohibition will reduce the violence crossing the boarder from Mexico.
Sanchez brings up the point that the economy depends on the prisons and the prison system. He asks what would happen to all their jobs and the DEA. Miron then says that jobs shouldn’t be created by forbidding something.
Really? That’s what you’re worried about, the jobs of prison guards and DEA agents? They work in the law enforcement field, they can create programs that transfer those people to work in other government agencies dealing with law enforcement. As far as prison guards losing their jobs, there will still be murders, robberies and all the evil that men do — so prisons will still be needed to incarcerate those individuals committing those acts.
Miron’s viewpoint centers around the fact that if drugs were made into legal goods, then that would shift their underground market appeal. The negative aspects of prohibition like organized crime that create corruption and violence would diminish like it had done when the prohibition on alcohol was lifted.
At the end, Sanchez asks what Miron’s colleagues think of his ideas and wouldn’t people think that he was a stoner. Miron goes on to say that a lot of economists see the unattended consequences of it and realize that a lot of the negative aspects of drugs have come from the drug prohibition.
I’m not sure about legalizing all drugs, but legalizing marijuana would be a step in the right direction and despite what Obama believes, it may just have a chance to ahem… “grow the economy.”
