This press release originally appeared on CALMca.org. The AAA has brought to light the issue of DUI of marijuana. CALM is an all volunteer Political Action Committee dedicated to defeating all efforts to legalize marijuana. With the AAA study it’s clear we must prevent full scale legalization at all costs. Continue reading Scrap Unscientific Laws On Marijuana And Driving, Says AAA
The Take Back America Campaign (TBAC), and Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana (CALM) have filed formal complaints with the US Attorney, DEA and Attorney General Kamala Harris regarding Desert Hot Springs actions and intentions to become Marijuana Mecca.
“Marijuana is a federally banned substance because it inflicts harms on humans and increases the social and economic costs borne by all Americans,” explains Roger Morgan, Chairman of the Take Back America Campaign.
The two organizations took this action to register their concern that the California market for marijuana is already saturated with over 50,000 illegal outdoor cultivation sites growing pot under the guise of medicine. CALM and Take Back America report that currently California illegally serves 60% of the entire US market for pot, according to recent statements by our own state legislators. “The Desert Hot Springs move to participate, places them in the same category as the Mexican cartels this nation has battled for decades,” says Morgan.
Based on the known facts about today’s high-THC pot, Morgan believes, “this is an assault on all Americans.” Marijuana is an addictive substance which causes permanent brain damage to any user under age 25, can trigger psychosis, mental illness, birth defects, traffic deaths and directly contributes to elevated levels of crime and academic failure.
Scott Chipman of CALM says, “Public health and safety is the most important responsibility of all elected officials. Aside from the fact that marijuana is a dangerous drug in its own right, almost all of the 129 Americans who die every day started their drug journey with pot. Nothing inflicts more death, destruction or economic cost on this nation.”
Carla Lowe of CALM adds, “America’s number one enemy consists of marijuana and other drugs. Driven by the greed of people who care only about money, little or no concern is being shown about the harm the drug inflicts on others. We are devolving rapidly into a Narco Nation.”
The TBAC and CALM are asking state and federal officials to enforce the law. The plan on the drawing board for Desert Hot Springs would eventually allow for 3 million square feet of grow space, which according to Morgan’s calculations is enough to supply the entire country with the drug. Should the next President choose to enforce the law, the entire plan for Desert Hot Springs would be subject to enforcement actions, including forfeiture of land and facilities, according to a letter written by Morgan to Desert Hot Springs Mayor Scott Matas apprising him of the filing of the complaints.
Last week the California Medical Association, a lobbying group representing more than 40,000 members statewide, officially threw its support behind a proposed November ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. Around the same time, Governor Bruce Rauner of Illinois vetoed 8 new conditions for medical marijuana under that state’s experimental program which started in November. Illinois, in contrast to California, requires the patient and the physician to have a bona fide physician-patient relationship. It also requires record keeping, which California does not require for “medical” pot. (Illinois’ medical marijuana industry is worried because only 4,000 patients have been approved.)
Why would the California Medical Association (CMA) support something that every other state and national medical group opposes? In a statement released by the California legalization campaign, the CMA stressed they do not encourage marijuana use and discourage smoking. They gave two reasons. First, under a legal market, cannabis could be monitored, researched, regulated and mitigated to protect the public health. Secondly, improper diversion by healthy patients into the medical marijuana system could be reduced. The second condition gives a hint at how poorly medical marijuana in California really works, contrary to the way for which it was intended.
Three citizens’ groups have introduced The Safe and Drug Free Communities Act, now called the MEDICAL MARIJUANA. INITIATIVE STATUTE, to roll back the widespread abuses created by California’s medical marijuana program. Scott Chipman is co-chairman of Californians Against the Legalization of Marijuana (CALM) and a sponsor of the Safe and Drug-Free Communities Act. Chipman explained how he sees the position of the CMA: “This is passing the buck for their own convenience and ignoring their primary responsibilities – first, ‘to do no harm’ and also to educate patients regarding sound health care practices.”
“Less than half of California doctors belong to the CMA. This endorsement of a just-to-get-high marijuana initiative is more of a union leadership ideology… not a medical, public safety position and not likely supported by the membership generally.
“Ironically, one of the biggest problems contributing to the back-door legalization is the medical malpractice of issuing of marijuana recommendations for any ailment with no examination by doctors who are accomplices in criminal drug dealing.
“I have 3 pot recommendations and have never seen a doctor for any of the recommendations.
“We need doctors to help close down the back door legalization drug dealing that is occurring in California, not give into it. Nearly every major medical association, including American Medical Association, have taken positions against legalization as well as using botanical marijuana inappropriately for medical purposes.”
The approved medical conditions in California are limitless and anyone age 18 and over can get a card. Today tens of thousands of 18-20-year-olds in California are getting recreational pot this way. Legalization will not stop this problem, and in fact will intensify the problem by making it more available to younger children. The Safe and Drug Free Communities Act would roll back on medical marijuana, limit it to one state grow site and keep it in the hands of county health departments.
Just last week, the American College of Physicians issued a report in the rise in marijuana-related hospital admissions. A hospital in Olympia, Washington, where marijuana is legal for recreational purposes, reported 1-2 cases of emergency treatment for marijuana-induced psychosis each day. A cynical view would see this move by California’s physician lobbying arm as the desire to have more people in need of physicians’ services, particularly for the psychiatrists.
When asked about the rescheduling of marijuana for research, Chipman explained: “Scheduling of marijuana as a schedule I drug is not precluding studies. There have been at least 12,000 studies. Some of those studies were suspended after exposing participants to harm.” Major court decisions have come down against the rescheduling of marijuana, and President Obama made it clear that loosening restrictions on marijuana is not on his agenda for this year.
While some physicians’ groups support the rescheduling of marijuana, basically all national physicians’ groups are opposed to marijuana legalization. Many of these groups are very skeptical of “medical” marijuana.
Unfortunately, recent action in the California state legislature suggests that politicians listen to the marijuana industry more than they care about the will of the people and local jurisdictions.
