Medical Marijuana

Our friends at NORML have run into a weird misunderstanding with the folks at PayPal. Apparently, the company has a vague drug policy and they've chosen to interpret it rather broadly:

Paypal, the well-known internet payment company has told California NORML that it will no longer accept payments to our “type of business” because we accept listing payments from cannabis-recommending physicians.

After years of offering free listings to physicians and collectives at our website http://www.canorml.org, CaNORML began charging a yearly listing fee to cover our costs last year.

PayPal froze CaNORML’s account in June, saying that by accepting listing fees from collectives, we were violating their Acceptable Use policy, which says, “you may not use PayPal in the purchase or sale of narcotics.”  

It's absurd on so many levels:

1. It's medical marijuana, not "narcotics." It's perfectly legal under state law and even the federal dept. of justice has agreed to respect state policies.

2. California NORML isn’t buying or selling medical marijuana. They're accepting donations and listing their sponsors. In no way does this violate the terms of PayPal's acceptable use policy.

3. Even after California NORML removed listings for collectives, PayPal maintained that there was a problem with listing physicians on its site. Physicians? They don't even provide medical marijuana, so now you start to get the idea that PayPal is just being nasty. Do they want NORML to stop mentioning marijuana altogether?

But here's the really unbelievably stupid thing about all this:

4.  You can buy alcohol on PayPal. You can straight-up order booze through PayPal and have it delivered to your door, but they have a problem with NORML merely taking donations from folks in the medical marijuana industry?

There is no excuse for this. PayPal is under no legal obligation whatsoever to behave this way and their hypocrisy must not be allowed to go unnoticed. This isn’t even a question of medical access. No marijuana was even being sold through their service. This is about the freedom of PayPal clients to associate with their patrons without being subjected to false and erroneous restrictions that reek of political prejudice.

If PayPal thinks it's bad business to be associated with the medical marijuana community, let's show them how wrong they are. You can contact PayPal here:

PayPal, 2211 N 1st St, San Jose 95131 (408) 376-7400

I recommend reading the whole story from NORML first, so that your correspondence is fully informed. As always, we make the best impression by being firm, but also polite.

Some people think that Drug War Chronicle should be called the "Bad News Chronicle" or the "Chronicle of Misfortunes" instead. Though it's been noted that there's a lot more good news these days than there used to be -- this week's issue does have some good news -- so be sure to read it! Two late-breaking items came in after we wrapped up the issue -- neither of them good:

Los Angeles County's district attorney says they're going to start prosecuting dispensaries -- starting with Organica. Their legal basis is a ruling last year by the state supreme court. And, indictments have started in San Diego, after the mass raids last month.

Regarding LA, I don't know a lot of the dispensary operators down there -- there are so many -- but Organica is one of the very few where I do happen to know some of the people involved. They are activists and stalwarts for the cause, and they deserve less than almost anyone for this to happen to them. The luck of the draw is coldly neutral, I guess -- not that I would wish a drug war prosecution on anyone. Let us continue to hope for the best...

Wow, if the drug czar was annoyed with The Washington Post last week, I wish I could see the look on his face when he reads this:

Cartels Face an Economic Battle
U.S. Marijuana Growers Cutting Into Profits of Mexican Traffickers

ARCATA, Calif. -- Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico. 

Medical marijuana laws have legitimized enough of the marijuana economy to begin vividly illustrating the long-term impact of regulated distribution. The hypothesis has been proven: people don't buy from drug cartels if they don’t have to.

This simple and obvious fact demolishes any attempt to argue that legalization won't work. It's already working. Just watch.

This story is the most perfect example possible of how not to behave if you want people to sympathize with our cause:

The battle to keep medical marijuana collectives from expanding in Mission Square on Bechelli Lane in Redding took a bizarre turn this week.

Moments before Wednesday's Mission Square property owners meeting, someone dressed in a green Grinch costume with a giant imitation penis attached stepped out of a limousine and walked into Giff's Steakburger - the site of the meeting.

The Grinch announced to Mission Square owners that a new cannabis shop - Hampton Collective - would open in the former Humor Shop space on the north side of the shopping center.
…

"I don't know, I was just trying to be funny. I guess it didn't work out," Bobby Martin, who dressed up as the Grinch, said by phone Thursday. [Redding.com]

I find the whole thing simultaneously hilarious and infuriating. But mostly infuriating. This kind of behavior makes a mockery of everything the medical marijuana movement has fought so hard to achieve.

Pete Guither responds brilliantly by making a point I've raised repeatedly in other contexts. To paraphrase: it's not about doing or saying what feels good to you, it's about impressing and persuading other people. Admittedly, it's often very difficult to fully understand what our opponents are thinking, but you have to at least try. You might not get it right every time, but you sure as hell won't show up in a Grinch costume with a dildo strapped between your legs.

Our goal is neither to shock nor intimidate our opposition. The goal is to change the minds of those who've previously opposed us. We'll win when we convince enough people that drug policy reform is in everyone's best interests not just our own.

I just read this USA Today article, Booming medical pot sales concern officials, and there's something missing. I get that there's lots of marijuana being sold in California and that the cops don’t like it, but so what? The article never actually explains why any of this is a bad thing. If the author thinks I can figure that out for myself, he screwed up, because the whole thing sounds great to me.

The last line quotes a cop complaining about people who look "very healthy" buying marijuana. I'm still trying to figure out what the problem is. Healthy people are a sign that the medicine works and everything is going well. Quit spying on healthy people and go help someone in need. This is ridiculous.

I like this post from Pete Guither about a small group of Californians plotting to fight back against the medical marijuana movement. The odds are stacked against them in that the public opposes them, they keep losing in court and they don’t have any money to fund their advocacy efforts.

I can't help but think that this is how drug policy reformers must have felt during the Reagan years. It's amazing that we've come so far now, our opponents are the ones bunkered down trying to figure out a way to stop the momentum of marijuana reform.

New York City is the marijuana arrest capital of the world, which makes it harsh terrain for seriously ill patients who rely on medical marijuana for relief. An effort is under way to legalize medical marijuana in New York and remove sick people from the drug war battlefield.

Unfortunately, three of the biggest TV stations in New York City don't want you to know about it. ABC, FOX, and CBS affiliates all refused to run ads in support of protecting medical marijuana patients. This is the message they don't want you to hear:




These are seriously ill patients fighting for compassion and equality. To silence them is an act of appalling cruelty and ignorance. Whatever petty political considerations might motivate these TV stations to censor the medical marijuana debate are trivial compared to the real human suffering that will continue if patients are denied the opportunity to speak up.

Medical marijuana is supported by 76% of New Yorkers, so to suggest that there's anything inherently offensive about airing that viewpoint is just pure fiction. According to MPP's Bruce Mirken, CBS stated that they rejected the ad because they're "concerned about viewer reaction." Really, CBS? Is there anything objectionable about the idea of not arresting people with auto-immune disease? The most likely "viewer reaction" is that people will agree to support legislation that protects patients from arrest.

Please help us show these TV stations that their censorship is what's offensive, not the effort to protect seriously ill patients. Click to contact ABC, FOX, and CBS and let them know that silencing patients is both politically and morally wrong.

This is so out-of-control, I just don't know where to begin. If you watch one video this year of a seriously ill medical marijuana patient getting tortured by idiots, make it this one:



Someone should remind these people they live in Canada. The guy gets his marijuana sent to him by the government. He's not some punk kid partying behind the dumpster.

As far as we've come in the fight for medical marijuana, there remain countless individual battles that must be overcome before patients who need this medicine can count on being treated with fairness, compassion, and equality. Anyone who would deny medicine to the sick is a monster, to be sure. But the responsibility for this doesn't end there. We've endured decades of deliberate lies and propaganda about marijuana spread by our own public servants and it's no surprise that many among us have had their humanity and common sense compromised. It will take just as long to correct it all and events like this, disturbing as they may be, are an important part of the process.

In the meantime, here's a Google page for the Brook Haven Care Centre in Kelowna, BC, where this incident took place. You can write them a review, send a letter, or even give them a call. The patient's name is Nyle Nagy and the manager who punished him is named Adrien Vaughan. Feel free to share your concerns. I'm sure Nyle would also appreciate receiving personal letters of support.

Update: This link offers a different perspective on the situation from someone claiming to a member of Nyle Nagy's family. If this additional information is true, and it sounds authentic to me, then the Brookhaven Care Home doesn't deserve as much criticism as they've received. If I had seen this prior to writing the post, I would have approached it differently.

Will Foster’s nightmarish saga continues. Foster, you may recall, is the medical marijuana patient who was sentenced to 93 years in prison for growing a few plants in 1997. Thanks in no small part to a publicity campaign by Stopthedrugwar.org, Foster’s sentence was eventually reduced to 20 years, and he was paroled to California. After three years on parole, California officials decided Foster no longer needed supervision, but Oklahoma officials disagreed. When Foster was arrested in California for driving on an Oklahoma drivers’ license, Oklahoma issued a parole violation extradition warrant, but Foster filed a successful writ of habeas corpus to quash that warrant. Then, last year, Foster was arrested on bogus marijuana cultivation charges--those California charges were dropped after he spent a year in jail--and Oklahoma again sought his extradition as a parole violator. Oklahoma officials took Foster from the Sonoma County Jail in California, and he is now residing in prison in Oklahoma until 2011--or 2015, as Oklahoma parole officials are now claiming. In Oklahoma, the governor ultimately decides on whether to revoke parole or not. Foster had an administrative hearing Tuesday, which unsurprisingly found he had indeed violated his parole (by refusing to sign paperwork agreeing that his sentence had been extended). An executive hearing will take place sometime in the next one to three months, then that decision goes to the governor for approval or rejection. Foster and his supporters are urging the public to write to the parole board to ask it to recommend pardoning him or commuting his sentence, and to write or call the governor asking for the same thing. Key points: * Foster is a non-violent medical marijuana patient seriously ill with rheumatoid arthritis; * Foster plans to return to California and never set foot in Oklahoma again; * The after-the-fact extension of his sentence from 2011 to 2015 is unfair and unwarranted; * It does not make fiscal or budgetary sense for the state of Oklahoma to spend thousands of scarce public dollars to incarcerate Foster again for this non-violent offense. I just spoke to the parole office in Oklahoma, and they don’t yet have the information in their system required to send letters to parole board members, so instead, fax your concise, respectful letters to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board at (405) 602-6437. Mention Foster’s full name, William Joseph Foster, and his prisoner number, ODOC #252271. Fax your letter to Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry at (405) 521-3353 or, better yet, call his office at (405) 521-2342. In either case, mention Foster’s full name and prisoner number, and be polite. Drug War Chronicle will continue following Foster’s saga. Look for a feature article on the latest twists and turns on Friday.

John English at The Examiner has penned an impressive archive of unhinged anti-drug angriness, and although there's a strong case to be made for ignoring him, his piece "The law and the end of medical marijuana" was just too cute to pass up. He really believes medical marijuana is going to go away:

Another issue is that physicians who recommend marijuana as "medicinal" have recently become at risk of lawsuits. This is the issue that will, no doubt, bring doctors' recommendation of "medical marijuana" to an end. It will come as "medical marijuana patients" understand that they have been injured due to marijuana use and seek out lawyers.

Isn't that precious? People "injured" by one of the safest drugs on the planet. I'm afraid if you want someone to get "injured" by medical marijuana and sue their doctor, you might have to do it yourself. In the process, you may inadvertently find a cure for obsessive drug war zealotry.

Medical marijuana makes people healthier and happier, as the massive and growing number of patients will eagerly attest. If it didn't work, they wouldn't use it. You see, medical marijuana laws don't mandate that sick people ingest potent cannabis against their will. The whole point here is that patients want this option and they've fought, sometimes literally from their deathbeds, to get it. The failure of medical marijuana's opponents to understand or care what patients want is their central fault and it explains perfectly why their arguments and calculations have served them so poorly.