MJ News for 04/16/2014

hMPp://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/04/15/casual-marijuana-use-creates-brain-changes-new-report-shows/X1cN8A7h5pOVJkeYkXTXlJ/story.html

Study finds brain changes in young marijuana users​

Young adults who occasionally smoke marijuana show abnormalities in two key areas of their brain related to emotion, motivation, and decision making, raising concerns that they could be damaging their developing minds at a critical time, according to a new study by Boston researchers.

Other studies have revealed brain changes among heavy marijuana users, but this research is believed to be the first to demonstrate such abnormalities in young, casual smokers.


The Boston scientists also found that the degree of brain changes appeared to be directly related to the amount participants smoked per week.

Researchers did not study whether those changes were linked to corresponding declines in brain function, but lead author Jodi Gilman, a psychology instructor at Harvard Medical School and a brain scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, said such abnormalities in young brains are reason for concern.

“This is when you are making major decisions in your life, when you are choosing a major, starting a career, making long-lasting friendships and relationships,” Gilman said.

The findings, published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience, come amid an increased debate about the long-term effects of marijuana, as a growing number of states legalize the drug for medicinal and recreational use.

Forty Boston-area young adults aged 18 to 25, many from Boston University, were selected for the study. Researchers used scans to measure the volume, shape, and density of two regions of the brain — the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala.


Half of the group said they used marijuana at least once a week, and the other 20 had not used the drug in the past year, and reported using it less than five times in their life.

Among the group that did smoke, the median use was about six joints per week.

Scans revealed that the nucleus accumbens was larger in marijuana users, compared with nonusers, and its alteration was directly related to how much the person smoked. The nucleus accumbens is a hub in the brain that is involved with decision making and motivation. Structural changes were also seen in the amygdala, which is involved with emotional behavior.

These changes, Gilman said, may be evidence that the brain is forming new connections that encourage further drug use, “a sort of drug learning process.” The study did not address whether the brain changes are permanent.

The results are similar to animal studies that show when rats are given THC, the mind-altering ingredient in marijuana, their brains also form new connections, indicating an adaptation to the unnatural level of reward and stimulation from marijuana.

Other scientists not involved in the study say its small size makes it hard to extrapolate to the general population. But they also said the findings may help explain what happened to the brains of participants in other marijuana studies that demonstrated behavioral and functional changes, but did not use scans to identify potential brain abnormalities.

“Anything that underscores that there may be structural changes in the brain [from marijuana use] is important,” said Dr. Staci Gruber, an associate psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School and a director of brain imaging at McLean Hospital.

Gruber’s studies of marijuana smokers have focused on those with longer, more chronic use and have found that those who started smoking at earlier ages, while still in their teens, are less able to perform certain reasoning and decision-making tasks, compared with those who started later in life.

Stuart Gitlow, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said the Mass. General study provides much-needed “hard evidence” of brain changes that appear to match the changes in cognitive skills — thinking and reasoning — that other researchers have demonstrated in marijuana studies.

“We’ve known that people who use marijuana when they’re younger tend to have cognitive abnormalities, but this gives us direct evidence,” he said.

“It’s fairly reasonable to draw the conclusion now that marijuana does alter the structure of the brain, as demonstrated in this study,” Gitlow said, “and that structural alteration is responsible, at least to some degree, for the cognitive changes we have seen in other studies.”

Earlier research has shown different brain changes linked to alcohol or other drug use, such as cocaine.

Dr. Hans Breiter, a coauthor of the Mass. General study, said there are still many unanswered questions about the potential long-term effects of these various chemicals, especially if people use more than one drug. One of his earlier studies, for instance, showed that the amygdala region of the brain shrank with cocaine use, while the new marijuana study suggests an increase.

“Most drug users use more than one drug,” said Breiter, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“Cocaine users use opiates, and most marijuana users also drink,” he said.

hMPp://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25570437/colorado-moves-shut-down-raided-medical-marijuana-businesses

Colorado moves to shut down raided medical marijuana businesses​

In October 2012, a state investigator discovered multiple illegal, after-hours sales of medical marijuana at VIP Cannabis in Denver.

Further inspections a month later and the following spring found more problems, from incomplete record-keeping to failures to track inventory and high plant counts that lacked documentation.

But it wasn't until last week — in the aftermath of high-profile federal raids on VIP and related marijuana businesses in November — that state regulators moved to shut down the business, sending notices of denial to VIP and three related medical marijuana operations.

The businesses also were ordered not to sell or transfer marijuana in their possession and control. VIP Cannabis promoted a marijuana-infused cookie sale on its Facebook page during the weekend and was open Tuesday, which a state official said would be investigated.

"With all situations, our primary focus is always going to be public safety," said the official, Julie Postlethwait, spokeswoman with the state Marijuana Enforcement Division. "If we see a situation that is really egregious and very concerning, we can always take immediate action. But as with every regulated industry, there is an administrative process."

That means giving businesses opportunities to make fixes, and appeal.

The businesses have 60 days to request a hearing to challenge the denials.

If the state prevails — or the businesses withdraw their applications — the companies' marijuana must be destroyed in the presence of state officials or the state will seize it, Postlethwait said.

The findings against VIP are outlined in a notice of denial that The Denver Post obtained in an open-records request.

On Nov. 21, federal agents executed search warrants on 14 businesses, including VIP, and two homes in the largest raid on Colorado's medical marijuana industry. Sources have told The Post that federal investigators are looking at possible connections to Colombian drug cartels, which the targeted individuals have denied. None of the 10 named subjects has been charged.

The recent denials were part of a final batch of pending state license applications that date as far back as summer 2010.

The businesses were allowed to operate while the state processed their licenses, and only recently have officials cleared the backlog.

As of Monday, only eight businesses were operating without licenses.

The recent denials all involve businesses that share ownership or association with VIP Cannabis:

• VIP Cannabis at 2949 W. Alameda Ave. in Denver, three related grow warehouses and the license of owner Carlos Solano.

• Grateful Meds in Nederland, one related grow and licenses of owners David Furtado and Robert Gimenez.

• Kushism, at 2527 Federal Blvd. in Denver, and an associated grow.

• Highlands Cannabis Company at 3355 W. 38th Ave. in Denver, a related grow and the license of owner John Esmeral.

Records connect those businesses to additional owners and individuals.

Postlethwait said other investigations are ongoing.

The violations in the denial letter overwhelmingly come from inspections conducted before the Nov. 21 federal raids. They include shortcomings involving record-keeping, video surveillance, inventory tracking, product labeling and waste disposal.

Two of the dispensaries, Kushism and Highlands Cannabis Company, have been closed since the raids. The Nederland dispensary closed when its lease expired last month, Furtado said.

The denial notices — sent last week — included "administrative holds" that prohibit the businesses from selling or transferring marijuana in their possession or control.

Denver lawyer Sean McAllister represents Gerardo Uribe, one of the raid targets associated with VIP Cannabis.

McAllister said VIP has not sought a court order that would allow it to remain open. He suggested the administrative hold does not cover additional marijuana purchased from a wholesaler, a path VIP took to reopen after the raids.

McAllister declined to comment on the case involving VIP but said in general the state is making "broad-brush, vague allegations" that are impossible for owners to address. He said the state has shifted from working with the industry to moving to shut down dispensaries.

"The agency is going through a sham process without due process," McAllister said.

VIP's owners have expressed a willingness to get out of the business, including selling, he said.

Furtado said he is trying to sell Grateful Meds and is considering requesting a hearing or withdrawing his application. He said some violations were either fixed or minor. The denial notice cited failure to get a permit for changing locations or maintaining surveillance footage, among other items.

"If they can nitpick on stuff like this, they can deny every shop in the state," Furtado said. "Nobody is trying to commit any crimes here."

hMPp://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/medical_marijuana_in_oregon_po.html

Medical marijuana in Oregon: Pot growers form political action committee​

A group of Oregon medical marijuana growers last month formed a political action committee and plan to lobby for regulation and legal protections in the 2015 session of the Oregon Legislature.


The Oregon Cannabis Growers PAC registered in March with the Oregon Secretary of State. The group, which represents about 20 marijuana growers, has hired a lobbyist, Geoff Sugerman, who helped draft House Bill 3460, the state's medical marijuana registry law.

Establishing a political action committee is another sign of just how far the Oregon medical marijuana program has evolved. The original law, approved by voters in 1998, envisioned a system where patients link up with growers who produce cannabis for them. In exchange, growers are reimbursed for the basic costs of growing marijuana.

Now that the Oregon Legislature has sanctioned retail medical marijuana sales, cannabis growers are stepping out of the shadows to lobby for their own set of regulation and protection from law enforcement, said Amy Margolis, a Portland criminal defense lawyer who advises medical marijuana businesses and growers.

“If you want a safe well-regulated, responsible system, you need to have a licensing process,” she said. “You need to have a compliance process. There are a lot of growers who are ready for that to happen.”

She said the group represents growers in Willamette Valley and in northern Oregon; she said the committee plans to reach out to growers in southern Oregon, who tend to focus on outdoor growing.

Meghan Walstatter, who with her husband owns Pure Green, a Northeast Portland medical marijuana dispensary, said growers are ready for state oversight. Walstatter grows medical marijuana and is a member of the political action committee.

“It’s really about coming out of the gray market and the black market and getting into the light and getting regulated and being able to pay taxes and being a valuable part of society just like any other grower of any other crop,” said Walstatter.

hMPp://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2014/04/15/pot-accessories-remain-criminal-offense-under-new-marijuana-law/

Law Enforcement Agencies Review New Marijuana Policies​

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — Now that a new marijuana law is taking effect, law enforcement agencies are looking at how they’ll change their ways.
Political reporter Pat Warren says each jurisdiction will answer for itself.

As with any new law, there’s some training in enforcement procedures to be expected.

Law enforcement agencies statewide are reviewing the state’s new policy on penalties for possession of marijuana.

“This new law is clearly a work in progress,” said Rob Weinhold, Crisis and Issues Management.

Under new law, possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana is no longer a criminal offense with jail time; it’s a civil violation with a fine.

But there are questions. For example, there may be less than 10 grams of weed in the bowl but the pipe, papers and other paraphernalia are still a criminal offense. So will the officer write a citation for the pot but arrest you for the paraphernalia?

Law enforcement anticipates questions on issues like probably cause and paraphernalia.

“There will be ongoing conference with the attorney general’s office, with the state’s attorney and then police departments across the state will have to figure out how to best educate and train the officers who are on the street so they can enforce the law in a proper manner,” Weinhold said.

Maryland State police tell WJZ, “Troopers will continue to use discretion. Instruction and training will be provided” and “This is not expected to be a significant change for our troopers.”

Baltimore City police are “…still reviewing the bill and the impact on enforcement moving forward.”

Anne Arundel County police will “seek guidance from International Association of Chiefs of Police for best practices…this will have a minimal if not non-existent effect” on policing strategies in Anne Arundel.

“I don’t think it will materially change the way officers approach their job.

They’re still gonna look for people with pot, they’re still gonna engage those people and whether it is criminal or civil will depend on how much someone has,” Weinhold said.

Lawmakers have already said they’ll be looking at other aspects of decriminalizing, including drug paraphernalia, next year.

The law takes effect October 1.

hMPp://helenair.com/news/local/lawyer-wants-restrictive-parts-of-medical-marijuana-law-voided-permanently/article_dc0339c4-c527-11e3-85d7-001a4bcf887a.html

Lawyer wants restrictive parts of medical marijuana law voided permanently​

Montana’s medical marijuana law was back in court Tuesday, as an attorney for the drug’s users and the industry argued that restrictive parts of the 2011 rewrite of marijuana rules should be permanently voided.

James Goetz, a Bozeman lawyer, said those provisions have been blocked by a court for almost three years, and yet the law is still curbing pre-2011 abuses that the Legislature wanted to address.

“We have kind of an experiment, we have actual evidence that certain features of the (law) were not necessary to accomplish its goals,” he told District Judge James Reynolds of Helena. “The state’s own witnesses have conceded that things are not only better, but much better.”

The number of medical marijuana users has fallen from pre-law highs of 30,000 to just 8,300 as of last month, he noted.

Lawyers for the state, however, said those parts of the law — a ban on commercial sales of marijuana, a limit of three patients per marijuana provider, and others — should be upheld and reinstated.

The state needs only to show a “rational basis” for the law’s new restrictions, and the rationale is that marijuana is still illegal under federal law, said J. Stuart Segrest, an assistant attorney general for the state.

Segrest said the state is allowing cultivation of a product that the federal government considers illegal, and the 2011 Legislature wanted to protect those who need medical marijuana from prosecution, but still allow them a way to obtain it, by growing their own or getting it from someone else, for free.

“You’ve got to give the Legislature the benefit of the doubt,” he said. “If it’s rational for them to speculate that to limit commercial sales, addresses the abuses that they saw … then that law passes a rational-basis (test).”

Reynolds, who often played the devil’s advocate with both sides during the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, said he would rule later on the issue, and determine whether a trial needs to be held sometime this summer or fall to settle the case.

Tuesday’s hearing was the latest installment in the long-running legal battle over a 2011 law that imposed new restrictions on medical marijuana in Montana, in the wake of an explosion of medical-marijuana usage the previous two years.

Montana voters approved medical marijuana with a 2004 ballot measure and the number of patients grew slowly and steadily until mid-2009.

In the next two years, patient numbers ballooned from about 2,000 to more than 30,000, as marijuana purveyors traveled the state, offering quick approval of medical-marijuana cards at makeshift clinics.

The 2011 Legislature passed a law imposing multiple restrictions, banning the sale for profit of marijuana and essentially telling patients that they had to grow their own marijuana.

The marijuana industry sued to invalidate the law, arguing that it imposed unconstitutional restrictions on a product that the state had declared as legal.

Reynolds temporarily blocked many of the law’s most restrictive provisions — an order that remains in place now — and initially ruled in favor of the industry, striking down portions of the law.

But the Montana Supreme Court overruled him, saying he had improperly applied “strict scrutiny” to the provisions, when the lower standard of “rational basis” was all that was needed.

It sent the case back to Reynolds to rule, using the less stringent standard.

Goetz argued Tuesday that the restrictive provisions should still be stricken, even under the rational-basis standard, because they prevent people who need medical marijuana from getting a product the state has said is legal.

He also said the provisions obviously aren’t needed, since the number of users has fallen from 30,000 to 8,000, even without them.

Segrest said just because things have improved doesn’t mean the Legislature’s concerns aren’t still valid — and that maybe it expected the full restrictions to reduce use even further.