News Brief

A bill that would set up provisions for growing industrial hemp in the Golden State passed the state Senate Tuesday on a unanimous vote. It now heads to the state Assembly.

Is the sun about to rise on California hemp? (votehemp.org)

The current bill, Senate Bill 566, was written to assuage the concerns Brown expressed in his 2011 veto message. It will not take effect until hemp production is authorized under federal law.

"The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act will create new jobs and economic opportunities for many farmers and manufacturers across California," said sponsor Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). "Hundreds of consumer products containing hemp are made in the Golden State, but the manufacturers of these goods are forced to import hemp seed, oil, and fiber from growers in Canada, Europe, and China. This new bill is carefully crafted to eliminate conflicts with federal law and has the support of the California State Sheriffs' Association."

"The prospects for SB 566 are very good. Unlike past industrial hemp bills, this session's version does not go into effect until it is authorized by federal law," said Patrick Goggin, California legal counsel for the industry group Vote Hemp. "We feel confident that California will finally have an industrial hemp law later this year ensuring that California farmers are ready and able to cultivate hemp upon federal approval."

Domestic retail sales of hemp food and body care products reached $156 million last year, and the Hemp Industries Association estimates that all hemp products sales, including clothing, auto parts, and building materials, totaled at least $500 million.

Companies that use hemp in their products, such as Escondido-based Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, currently have to import it because of the federal ban on hemp production.

"Dr. Bronner's currently purchases twenty tons of hemp oil each year from Canada. We look forward to the day that we can meet our supply needs from hemp produced right here in our home state," said company president David Bronner.

Now, Bronner and other hemp entrepreneurs are one step closer to that day.

A bill to create a tightly-regulated medical marijuana program passed the New York Assembly Monday on a 95-38 vote. The bill now goes to the Senate, where three previous medical marijuana bills approved by the Assembly have died.

"This is a medication, far safer than many of the medications we already use, that has been proven effective for chronic and neuropathic pain, appetite stimulation, and nausea," said Dr. Howard Grossman, a New York City-based physician and chair of NY Physicians for Compassionate Care. "As doctors, we want to do what's best for our patients and that includes recommending medical marijuana for some patients. We urge the Senate to do the sensible and humane thing and pass the Compassionate Care Act now."

"New Yorkers living with cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses have waited long enough," said Gabriel Sayegh, state director of the Drug Policy Alliance New York Policy Office. "This is a simple matter of compassion. This is the fourth time the State Assembly has passed a medical marijuana bill. Now it's long past time for the State Senate to act. The science is clear. The moral and ethical needs are obvious. The only thing holding this up is the Senate. Listen to the science, to healthcare practitioners, and to the vast majority of New Yorkers who support this proposal.  It’s time for the Senate to pass the Compassionate Care Act."

The Compassionate Care Act (Assembly Bill 6357) would allow practitioners to certify patients with serious, debilitating illnesses to be able to use medical marijuana to relieve their symptoms. Patients or their caregivers could possess up to 2 ½ ounces. Medical marijuana would be available through state-registered organizations.

The vote came just days after New York City Mayor (and former pot-smoker) Michael Bloomberg spoke out against medical marijuana, calling it "one of the greatest hoaxes of all time."

That opinion is not shared by New York residents, 82% of whom supported medical marijuana in a recent Siena poll, including 81% of both Republicans and Democrats. Nor is it shared by more than 600 Empire State physicians who agreed with NY Physicians for Compassionate Care that New Yorkers should be able to use medical marijuana. They announced their support for the bill last Thursday, a day before Bloomberg commented.

The bill has the support of hundreds of patients and providers and dozens of organizations across the state, as well as wide support from healthcare providers and organizations, such as the New York State Nurses Association, the Collaborative for Palliative Care, GMHC, New York State Pharmacists Society, NY Physicians for Compassionate Care, and the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York.

"We applaud the Assembly for taking this step and passing the Compassionate Care Act. The New York State Nurses Association supports this legislation because it creates a carefully controlled system allowing seriously ill New Yorkers access to the therapeutic and palliative benefits of medical marijuana under the supervision of their healthcare provider," said Jill Furillo, the association's executive director.

Now, all eyes are on the state Senate.

[For extensive information about the medical marijuana debate, presented in a neutral format, visit MedicalMarijuana.ProCon.org.]

A Forth Worth, Texas, man died after being subjected to electric shocks by police executing a drug search warrant earlier this month. Jarmaine Darden, 34, becomes the 14th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

Jarmaine Darden (family photo)

A police report said Darden resisted arrest -- although it is unclear what he was being arrested for, given that no drugs were found on him -- and was shocked at least twice by a taser. He then stopped breathing and died. Two other people present in the home were arrested for drug offenses, but both just for possession -- one for marijuana, another for an unidentified "controlled dangerous substance."

Family members who were present disputed the police account.

"They physically pulled him off the couch because, like I said, he was asleep. They pulled him off the couch and they tried to put him on his stomach. He can't breathe on his stomach. He don't even lie on the bed on his stomach," said Donna Randle, the mother of the victim. "He had his hands behind his back the whole time. But me and about five other people were hollering the whole time, 'He cannot breathe like that. Please handcuff him on his side,'" said Randle.

According to Eric Darden, the victim's brother, a police officer warned Jarmaine that if he didn't get on his stomach, they would tase him, and they did.

"I'm not even accepting the fact that he's gone. I'm waiting for him to drive up any minute. It's just not believable," said Randle, adding that he left behind two teenage sons.

Fort Worth police have yet to publicly comment on the death, but community leaders said Police Chief Jeff Halstead has promised to keep them informed as the department investigates.

Some people aren't waiting for the police. A Justice for Jarmaine Darden online petition asks that Fort Worth police be better trained in the use of tasers "to prevent serious injury and death." As of this writing, there are only 22 signatures on that petition. [Update: As of Wednesday, June 5, there are now 12,993 signatures.]

France's first supervised injection site (SIJ) for hard drug users will open in Paris by this fall, local officials announced Thursday. It will be located near the Gare du Nord train station, an area of open hard drug use and sales and petty crime.

injecting at a supervised injection site in Vancouver (vch.ca)

The project is "aimed at reducing the number of people taking drugs in the street, in common areas of apartment buildings and other areas such as car parks," added deputy mayor Myriam El Khomri. The area would be given a boosted police presence, she added, to prevent dealers from selling their wares in the proximity.

While supervised injection sites are a proven harm reduction measure, local officials were downplaying that aspect and instead highlighting the public order and safety effects. That could be a bid to blunt opposition and hostility from local residents' associations, who have said they fear the SIJ would further degrade the area, described as "an open air drug market."

While this will be the first SIJ in the City of Light, Paris already has a needle exchange program. It handed out more than 300,000 syringes last year, half of them in the Gare du Nord.

SIJs already operate in a number of European countries, include Germany and Switzerland, as well as Australia and Canada.