Oh Canada

By The Gainsville Sun Editorial Board

Via The Associated Press. The following editorial was published in the The Gainesville Sun, April 23, 2017:

State constitutional amendments aren’t suggestions. When at least 60 percent of voters feel strongly enough about an issue that they approve putting it into the Florida Constitution, they expect state lawmakers to implement the measure without revisions.

Attempts by Republicans in the Florida Legislature to rewrite recently passed constitutional amendments are an insult to the people they’re supposed to serve. From amendments dealing with redistricting to land conservation to medical marijuana, state lawmakers have time and again put their own political beliefs over the priorities of voters.

Florida’s medical-marijuana amendment was approved in November by more than 71 percent of voters. It was supposed to provide access to medical marijuana to individuals with debilitating medical conditions such as AIDS, cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

The state’s role should be setting up a system to help sick individuals get medical marijuana, not putting roadblocks in their way. Yet lawmakers are considering restrictions such as requiring patients to have a 90-day relationship with a doctor to get marijuana and banning smoking marijuana and other methods of its use.

The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee bureau reported that many of these restrictions were suggested by the St. Petersburg-based Drug Free America Foundation and its lobbying arm. The group’s founders spent $1 million to try defeat the amendment and are now being allowed to determine how it should be implemented.

The Legislature is playing games with people’s lives in doing so. That was illustrated last week during a state Senate hearing on medical marijuana legislation, when a epileptic man suffered a seizure in the middle of the debate. He had come to speak about marijuana’s effectiveness in treating his condition.

Some lawmakers pushing excessive limits on medical marijuana say they’re trying to avoid the problems that lead to an opioid crisis, but they’re really just worsening that crisis. Medical marijuana provides an alternative to prescription painkillers that are responsible for addictions and overdoses.

Medical marijuana is now legal in 29 states, with seven states allowing marijuana’s recreational use. Two former Florida state lawmakers now serving in Congress — Matt Gaetz, a Republican, and Darren Soto, a Democrat — have introduced legislation to move marijuana from a classification alongside heroin to a more proper classification allowing for medical access and research.

Florida, with its huge retiree population, should be at the forefront of studying medical marijuana’s effectiveness. State lawmakers should focus on promoting such research rather than trying to rewrite an amendment that already passed.

Unfortunately the Legislature has a lousy track record in following the will of voters. Lawmakers have repeatedly failed to fund land conservation, despite a voter-passed mandate to do so, and are considering rules on solar installations that conflict with another amendment recently approved by voters.

They tried to ignore an amendment putting rules on redistricting until the Florida Supreme Court stepped in. Such obstinance goes back even further, with lawmakers repeatedly trying to circumvent an amendment limiting class sizes and using money from the voter-approved Lottery to replace state education funding and not supplement it.

Lawmakers should simply follow the state Constitution in implementing voter-approved amendments, not try for after-the-fact rewrites. The medical-marijuana amendment will provide another test showing whether lawmakers will again defy the will of the people.

In the end, it is up to voters to hold the Legislature accountable. We’re to blame if we keep approving these amendments, only to also elect people who don’t respect us enough to implement them as written.

By Ashley Halsey III, The Washington Post

For the first time, statistics show that drivers killed in crashes are more likely to be on drugs than drunk.

Forty-three percent of drivers tested in fatal crashes in 2015 had used a legal or illegal drug, eclipsing the 37 percent who tested above the legal limit for alcohol, according to a report released Wednesday by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility.

Of the drivers who tested positive for drugs, more than a third had used marijuana and more than 9 percent had taken amphetamines.

“As drunken driving has declined, drugged driving has increased dramatically, and many of today’s impaired drivers are combining two or more substances,” said Ralph S. Blackman, president of the foundation, a nonprofit founded and funded by a group of distillers.

The report is narrowly focused on fatal crashes. It shows that among fatally injured drivers with known test results, 2015 was the first time that drug use was more prevalent than alcohol use.

Beyond that, however, it draws on other studies and statistics that create a complicated portrait of legal and illegal drug use nationwide. Every state bans driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The opioid epidemic – heroin use and the abuse of prescription drugs – is well established. In 2015, more than 33,000 people fatally overdosed on opioids, almost equal to the 35,095 people killed that year in all traffic crashes.

The number of drivers who tested positive for drugs after dying in a crash rose from almost 28 percent in 2005 to 43 percent in 2015, the latest year for which data is available.

Though the dates when each state passed a law vary, that period coincided with more-permissive laws covering the use of marijuana.

Medical use of the drug is now allowed in 29 states and the District of Columbia; 17 states permit its use in some medical circumstances; use has been decriminalized in 21 states; and recreational use is allowed in eight states and the District.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has promised to reinvigorate the war on drugs, reversing an Obama administration policy that reduced prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.

Although the liberalization of marijuana laws and increase in drug-use fatalities might lead to an easy conclusion, the report cites European studies that found marijuana use slightly increased the risk of a crash, while opioids, amphetamines and mixing alcohol with drugs greatly increased the risk of a crash.

Counterbalancing that assessment of crash risk is this stark statistic: In Colorado, marijuana-related traffic deaths increased by 48 percent after the state legalized recreational use of the drug.

“Drugged driving is a complicated issue,” said Jim Hedlund, a former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official who wrote the GHSA report. “The more we can synthesize the latest research and share what’s going on around the country to address drug-impaired driving, the better positioned states will be to prevent it.”

Unlike the blood alcohol standard of 0.08, which often can be established at the scene of a crash, testing for drug use is more complex, usually requiring a blood test, and the effect of drug use can vary substantially among users.

Surveys of regular marijuana users in Colorado and Washington state, which also has legalized recreational use, found that almost none of them thought marijuana use impaired their driving, while they believed drinking alcohol did.

The challenge to police in attempting to enforce laws against drug-using drivers is compounded because many officers lack training to identify those under the influence of drugs, and delays in testing may allow the drug to metabolize so the results do not accurately measure the concentration in the driver’s system at the time of the incident.

“As states across the country continue to struggle with drug-impaired driving, it’s critical that we help them understand the current landscape and provide examples of best practices so they can craft the most effective countermeasures,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of GHSA.

By Susan Squibb, The Cannabist Staff

Activism runs deep in my soul. I moved to Colorado 20 years ago, an idealistic college student searching for community. I found a meaningful opportunity to make a difference as a cannabis advocate when I first built a hemp food company as a 20-something entrepreneur and publicly advocated for marijuana and hemp law reform.

The state’s progression from voter-approved medical marijuana in 2000 to voter-approved recreational marijuana a decade later happened in large part because of concerted efforts from dedicated citizens working together, and it has been gratifying to take part. The yearly gatherings around 4/20 and their history as events of civil disobedience always make me think of my early involvement in cannabis advocacy.

Related: Here’s how Jeff Sessions has disrupted marijuana legalization with words alone

Over the past 20 years, I have worked as a volunteer and had an occasional gig as a paid canvasser on five political campaigns that changed cannabis laws in Colorado. In 2006, my advocacy led me to participate in a raucous protest on the steps of the state Capitol that I will never forget.

But before I get too far, a little background on the campaigns.

For years, politicians didn’t take marijuana reform seriously. Marijuana was the butt of contemptuous jokes and policy reform was swept aside for lack of political persuasion and motivation. Few representatives would listen, let alone publicly support changing laws prohibiting cannabis. The norm was to be tough on drugs. The political climate was frustrating to me, to say the least. Although public opinion was changing, politicians were not willing to stand with the people without an incentive to listen.

Fortunately, the democratic process in Colorado forced their hand.

Voters approved Amendment 20, allowing medical marijuana in 2000. The ballot initiative campaign to amend the state constitution had a shoestring budget and a staff of one paid employee and a dozen or so volunteers, most whom were medical patients. It  felt like a do-it-yourself campaign. With a partner, I screen-printed a small run of campaign yard signs revamping Colorado’s green mountain license plate with references to Amendment 20 and 4:20. The license plates read: “Vote 4 20” and “For 20.”

Susan Squibb stands near the Denver Capitol in January 2010 with a sign she had made 10 years earlier in support of Amendment 20, a state ballot measure that legalized medical marijuana. (Photo by Todd Razor Arroyo, courtesy of Susan Squibb)

But our work had just begun.

In 2005, local campaign efforts were organized by Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, a pilot program of the national advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project. SAFER spread the message that “marijuana is safer than alcohol” and spearheaded local and state ballot initiatives.

That year Denver voters approved Initiated Question 100, which called for city ordinances to be amended to remove all criminal penalties for possession of up to one ounce by adults 21 and older.

In 2006, the statewide Amendment 44, which mirrored the language of the Denver initiative, was rejected by voters.

Then, a marijuana-related 2007 Denver ballot measure also called Initiated Question 100 passed, which led to the creation of a Denver ordinance designating adult marijuana possession as the city’s lowest law enforcement priority.

In 2012, one of the state’s most well-known ballot initiative campaigns, led by a coalition of policy and nonprofit groups, was history-making Amendment 64, which opened the door for a regulated cannabis sales for adults 21 and over and legalized limited possession and home cultivation.

In 2011, Susan Squibb visited the offices of Colorado lawmakers at the state Capitol to distribute a book titled “Marijuana Is Safer” as part of the Women’s Marijuana Movement press conference. (Courtesy of Susan Squibb)

Throughout the campaigns, I collected petition signatures at grocery stores, farmers’ markets, street festivals and Red Rocks tail-gate parties. I distributed my yard signs throughout mountain towns, Denver and other Front Range cities. I passed out flyers everywhere I went. I waved campaign signs and banners on busy street intersections and highways during morning and afternoon rush hours. While spending time spreading the word via phone, I talked to voters and left many persuasive answering machine messages. As a canvasser, I knocked on doors in Denver and Boulder neighborhoods, to speak with voters and hand out literature.

Amid all these enlightening experiences, one of the most memorable was a counter-protest to a 2006 news conference during the Amendment 44 campaign.

A week before the election, then-Gov. Bill Owens held a news conference on the steps of the state Capitol, with a lineup of state and local attorneys and law enforcement officials. They were encouraging a “no” vote on Amendment 44 and had prepared statements on the harms and dangers of marijuana to children and society. SAFER organized a counter-protest to disrupt the event, but no one predicted what was to come.

At the beginning of the conference, one heckler set the tone by yelling at the officials, “Start lying now!” We were a small but vocal group of 30 volunteers — we outnumbered the officials and press at least two to one — interrupting the presser, shouting down the officials as they made their remarks.

In his introduction, Gov. Owens criticized the protesters for their slow response time to his prohibitionist comments. Then Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener was jeered at and then booed during his speech. Several more speakers faced the hostile crowd and were peppered with boos. By the time state Attorney General John Suthers (now mayor of Colorado Springs) took the microphone, the crowd was chanting a boisterous call-and-response — “Hey, hey, ho, ho / You say drink, we say no!” — as Suthers recited his lengthy statement.

I was shouting between spells of silent shock. The protest chants reached a heightened pitch. Shouting over us into the microphone, Owens declared it a sad day in Colorado and then framed the press conference as a legitimate political debate shut down by rude protesters.

The counter-protest was outrageous and the media coverage was successfully shifted to the protest instead of the prohibitionist message.

My years of political advocacy have instilled in me a sense of patriotism and voter power. I am proud that my efforts and the combined work of many dedicated people led to democratic change involving the state’s marijuana laws.

We the people can do this — just ask all of those who never thought they’d see legalization in their lifetime. This is the beginning of what can be substantial and significant policy changes. And with only eight recreational states out of 50 and new uncertainty about how federal marijuana prohibition will be enforced under the Trump administration, we have a long way to go.

2012 protest: Susan Squibb and Dennis L. Blewitt, a.k.a. “Dr. Gonzo,” went to their alma mater, the University of Colorado at Boulder on April 20, 2012. Squibb holds a bag of Blewitt’s legal “gonzo joints,” — handrolled weed-free cigarettes. This was during the years that CU officials closed the campus’ Norlin Quad on 4/20 in efforts to quash what had become an annual gathering of marijuana enthusiasts. (Courtesy of Susan Squibb)