Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2007.8.30

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Weekly News in Audio

August 30, 2007

NORML Calls On Next Attorney General To End Medi-Pot Raids

Feds Slash Funding For Controversial Student Drug Testing Programs

Cannabinoids Associated With “More Restful Sleep,” Study Says

Washington, DC:
NORML Calls On Next Attorney General To End Medi-Pot Raids

America’s next Attorney General should stop using federal justice powers and spending taxpayers’ dollars to arrest and prosecute individuals who are in compliance with state medical marijuana laws, NORML Legal Counsel Keith Stroup said today.

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who announced his resignation on Monday, oversaw a record number of raids and federal prosecutions against state-authorized medical marijuana patients and providers. In July, federal agents raided more than a dozen locally authorized cannabis dispensaries in California and moved forward with separate federal prosecutions against several additional medi-pot providers.

"The resignation of Attorney General Gonzales provides the Bush Administration with an opportunity to rethink and revise their misguided policy against medical marijuana patients and providers in California and other states that have legalized the medical use of cannabis under state law," Stroup said.

He added: "Eighty percent of the American public now support the rights of patients to use marijuana as a medicine when a physician recommends it, and a total of 12 states have now adopted medical use laws. It is time for President Bush and his next attorney general to accept the will of the American public, and to stop harassing seriously ill patients who use medical marijuana and those who care for them."

Gonzales’ resignation will become effective September 17. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement will serve as acting attorney general until a successor is confirmed.

In contrast to Gonzales, all of the candidates for the Democratic nomination for President have pledged, if elected, to cease federal actions against state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries and cooperatives.

Nationally, total arrests for marijuana violations also rose dramatically under Gonzales’ tenure 窶� hitting a record high of 786,545 in 2005, the last year for which data is available.

Washington, DC:
Feds Slash Funding For Controversial Student Drug Testing Programs

Federal funding to pay for the establishment of random student drug testing programs has fallen dramatically in recent years 窶� from a high of $7.2 million in 2005 to less than $2 million for the 2007-2008 school year, according to figures released by the US Department of Education.

According to the agency, school districts in 15 counties in seven states will receive approximately $1.6 million in federal funding to establish new programs for the 2007-2008 school year. Twenty-one states received federal funding in 2005 to develop new drug testing programs.

Of the $1.6 million appropriated for the 2007-2008 school year, more than a third of the funding will go to schools in Texas.

According to federal guidelines, education funds may be provided to public schools to pay for the implementation of random drug testing programs for students who participate in competitive extra-curricular activities. Schools that adopt policies allowing for students to be randomly drug tested if they have their parents’ written consent may also apply for federal grant funding.

Earlier this year, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) sponsored a series of nationwide "summits" encouraging middle-school and high-school administrators to enact federally sponsored random student drug testing programs. The 2007 summits marked the fourth consecutive year that the White House funded the symposiums.

"Year after year the federal government wastes taxpayers’ dollars in their effort to persuade school administrators that they should adopt this failed policy, but each year there are fewer and fewer takers," NORML Senior Policy Analyst Paul Armentano said.

Armentano said that only federally approved evaluation assessing the impact of student drug testing on youth drug use determined, "Drug testing, as practiced in recent years in American secondary schools, does not prevent or inhibit student drug use."

Armentano added: "Random student drug testing is a humiliating, invasive, expensive practice that fails to achieve its stated goal of deterring student drug use. The Feds would do best to simply cease funding this failed policy altogether."

Salisbury, United Kingdom:
Cannabinoids Associated With “More Restful Sleep,” Study Says

The use of both natural cannabinoids and cannabis extracts are associated with improved sleep in patients with various debilitating illnesses, according to a review of clinical trial data published in the journal Chemistry & Biodiversity.

"Cannabis … has been utilized for [the] treatment of pain and sleep disorders since ancient times," authors wrote. "Modern clinical trials indicate that patients administered cannabis extracts report experiencing "more restful sleep, [an] increase [in] their daytime level of function, and [a] markedly improve[d] … quality of life."

According to available data, of the 2,000 subjects that have been administered cannabis extracts in clinical trials, most "demonstrate marked improvement in subjective sleep parameters."

Trial volunteers have not reported developing tolerance to the drug, even after using it for several years.

Currently, cannabis extracts are available by prescription in Canada under the trade name Sativex. Regulators in Great Britain and Spain have also granted limited regulatory approval for the drug.

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