MA: Hub Goes To Pot

By Kimberly Atkins
Source: Boston Herald

Massachusetts -- Boston may be at sea level on the maps, but its residents are the highest in the country, a federal drug-abuse report says.

More than 12 percent of people over the age of 12 admitted to having used pot within the past month when recently surveyed, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported yesterday.

Behind Boston, which ranked No. 1 in the country, five of the top 15 regions with the highest rates of marijuana use were in Massachusetts.

``It's not a surprise to see Boston and other places in Massachusetts ranking so high,'' said Michael Botticelli, assistant commissioner for substance abuse services at the state Department of Public Health, noting the more than 200,000 college students in Boston.

``While I certainly think college use is a factor, I don't think that diminishes our concern,'' he said.

But don't blame college kids entirely.

The researchers whose findings were released yesterday steered clear of dorms.

Botticelli said increased pot use in the state has already caught the attention of Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and state lawmakers, leading to legislation boosting funding for substance abuse services by $20 million in the past year, including initiatives targeting college students.

But Boston University spokesman Colin Riley said school administrators have had little indication chronic marijuana use is a major problem on their campus.

``The number of kids that come to our attention more than once is extremely small,'' Riley said.

Many local residents said they were surprised at Boston's ranking as the top pot-smoking region, but admitted they knew many people who use the drug recreationally - including many in high school and even younger.

``I know a lot of people who use it,'' said 16-year-old Boston College High School student Chris Hallet. ``But I am surprised that Boston is No. 1.''

Michael Cutler, an attorney for NORML, a pro-marijuana legalization group, said the study ``shows that prohibition doesn't make a difference.'' But Suffolk District Attorney's Office spokesman David Procopio disagrees.

``We stand firm in believing that marijuana use needs to remain a criminal infraction,'' Procopio said, adding that heroin, cocaine and OxyContin - not marijuana - are still the most prevalent street level drugs, according to detectives. ``But that doesn't mean that marijuana is not a problem.''

Anti-drug groups said the numbers belie a bigger issue of self-medication, which is symptomatic of other problems like depression.

``Some use marijuana to make them feel good, but some use it to make them feel better,'' said David Rosenbloom, director of Join Together, a Boston-based substance abuse resource center.

The Hub edged out Boulder, Colo., where 10.3 percent of those surveyed admitted recent pot use. Regions with the lowest rates of pot use are northern Iowa and southern Texas, where less than 3 percent of those surveyed reported recent use.

Newshawk: Sam Adams
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Author: Kimberly Atkins
Published: Friday, June 17, 2005
Copyright: 2005 The Boston Herald, Inc.
Website: http://www.bostonherald.com/
Contact: letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20876.shtml

 

Editorial
Source: Metrowest Daily News

Massachusetts -- A recent report that Boston leads the nation in marijuana use seemed to be greeted more with laughter than concern. "Hub goes to pot," the Boston Herald's front-page headline screamed, "We are the highest city in the U.S!"

Other media outlets reacted with a similar mix of bemusement and civic pride at the news from a federal agency that 12 percent of Massachusetts adults had smoked marijuana within the last month. The reaction is perhaps unsurprising, given the numbers. If that many residents are regular users of an illegal drug, it's hard to paint it as a serious threat.

The problem is that the law takes it seriously indeed. According to the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, more than 2,100 people are arrested each year in Massachusetts for marijuana possession, costing taxpayers some $24 million. The idea that people don't go to jail for marijuana is a myth: Across the country there are thousands of people serving time for getting caught doing what 12 percent of metro Boston residents did in the last month.

As a general rule, when a law is that commonly violated, there's a problem with the law. State legislators, typically too afraid of being called "soft on drugs" to even entertain reform of marijuana laws, should take a lesson from the rate of marijuana use and the less-than-alarmed response to it. Arresting, trying and locking up people for possession of a drug used safely by millions of people is no laughing matter.

There is serious discussion to be had about the topic treated so lightly when the federal report came out. The debate over medical marijuana rages. Emboldened by a recent Supreme Court ruling, federal agents this week raided three California cannabis clubs that for years have been giving seriously ill people the medication they need.

The abuse of marijuana by teenagers is also serious business. There is ample evidence that pot isn't good for brains that are still developing. Local middle- and high-school students report that it's easier for them to get hold of marijuana than alcohol, which should provoke a discussion over which is more effective at protecting children, prohibition or regulation. Marijuana is no joke, and serious leaders shouldn't treat it like one. The Legislature's Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse will hold a hearing Monday on legislation making adult possession of marijuana a civil violation instead of a criminal act. That's a good place to start a serious discussion.

Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Published: Saturday, June 25, 2005
Copyright: 2005 MetroWest Daily News
Contact: mdnletters@cnc.com
Website: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20901.shtml

 

By Jon Brodkin, Daily News Staff
Source: Milford Daily News

Massachusetts -- Lawmakers on Beacon Hill today will debate a proposal to decriminalize possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, a measure advocates say would save the state at least $24 million a year and prevent pot smokers from losing government student loans and scholarships.

The bill, filed in the Senate, would make marijuana possession a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine.

"As far as public opinion is concerned, this should pass," said Whitney Taylor, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts. "Voters are way ahead of the politicians on this."

Voters in six legislative districts approved nonbinding measures in favor of marijuana decriminalization last November, according to the Drug Policy Forum. Since 2000, there have been 36 ballot questions regarding decriminalization, medical marijuana and marijuana taxation and regulation, and voters approved every one, the group said.

But the bill being debated today has been around six years without being implemented, and lawmakers are reluctant to pass it.

"I haven't signed on as a cosponsor of that bill," said state Rep. Deborah Blumer, D-Framingham. "The problem that I have is that we are having significant problems with the abuse of substances and drugs and alcohol and cigarettes, and I'm not prepared to take steps to change the laws on marijuana right now."

A recent federal study found that Boston has the highest rates of pot smoking in the country. Today's debate, taking place during an 11 a.m. State House hearing in front of the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse, comes quickly on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing federal prosecution of people who use marijuana medically, even in states that legalized medicinal use of the drug.

Eleven states, including California, Maine, New York, Colorado and Mississippi, have passed decriminalization measures similar to the one on Beacon Hill without seeing measurable increases in marijuana use, Taylor said. But Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, a former lawyer, said the Supreme Court decision could put state decriminalization laws on shaky legal ground.

"I am uncertain the state can take it out of the criminal system if the U.S. Supreme Court has stated this is a federal criminal offense and the states don't have the choice over medicinal use of marijuana, which is a stronger argument, even," Spilka said. "I think states are going to be really wary of making changes until more comes out about this decision."

Between 1995 and 2002, there were 70,794 Massachusetts residents arrested for simple marijuana possession, Taylor said. Research that will be presented today indicates the state would save at least $24.3 million in annual law enforcement and court costs by decriminalizing weed, she said.

Though possession of marijuana for personal use usually doesn't lead to jail time, those convicted can lose government student loans and scholarships and become ineligible for many forms of military service and private and public sector jobs, according to the Drug Policy Forum. They also may be at risk of losing driver's and professional licenses and custody of their children, the group said.

"Although many people don't go to prison for simple possession of drugs, a felony conviction is very harmful," Taylor said. "People think, 'Oh, they're not going to jail.' But it really does affect you."

Source: Milford Daily News, The (MA)
Author: Jon Brodkin, Daily News Staff
Published: Monday, June 27, 2005
Copyright: 2005 The Milford Daily News
Contact: milford@cnc.com
Website: http://www.milforddailynews.com
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20906.shtml

 

By Sheela Raman, Globe Correspondent
Source: Boston Globe

Boston, MA -- Wendy Campbell smokes marijuana almost every day and says it should be legal to do so. The 23-year-old Millis resident is neither the stereotypical stoner nor a patient suffering from a painful illness. She works 70 hours a week, holding down a data-entry job and a waitressing job in New Bedford. She is an ambitious college graduate who plans on having a successful career and a family.

''When I smoke pot I'm a lot less stressed," she says. ''It's a bad habit for some people because they don't know when to stop. I really only smoke a bowl a day." She says she will stop smoking marijuana when she has children and a more stable life.

Such a relaxed attitude toward the drug is not surprising, given the recent findings by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that people who live in the Boston area have the country's highest rate of marijuana use -- more than 12 percent of youths and adults here reported smoking it in the previous 30 days. We already knew that Massachusetts was the most liberal state in the nation. Now we learn that it's also the pothead capital of the United States.

The Globe spent the past few weeks interviewing local adults and found all sorts of circumstances under which they are smoking pot. Twentysomethings are smoking after work and on the weekends, at concerts and in their apartments. Parents are smoking after their kids go to bed. Baby boomers are smoking with their adult children. Some say they smoke pot every night after work instead of having a glass of wine.

(Many of those interviewed were, for obvious reasons, uncomfortable with having their names published in the newspaper.)

Several share Campbell's post-college attitude toward marijuana. They may not fit the image of the scruffy, tie-dye-wearing, jam-band-loving college pot smoker, but they say they smoke it almost every day -- or at least know other professionals who do the same. They lead busy, often stressful lives, and they have laid-back attitudes about the risks of using the drug.

Josh Evans, who graduated from Harvard University last year and now lives with his parents in Brookline, says he knows more people who smoke marijuana now that he's finished college. ''You'd think that it was mostly the college crowd," he says. But at Harvard, few people he knew smoked marijuana regularly. ''Harvard kids are a little too uptight, too focused."

Evans, who says he does not smoke marijuana, now plays in a band, and he says his bandmates use the drug almost every day, as do their friends. ''It's a bunch of people who maybe didn't go to college and are working long hours, or who went to school and are trying to make an artistic career."

A 22-year-old New Bedford man named Andrew says that when he would come home from school as a child, his house would stink of marijuana because his parents lit up regularly. ''They would just be hanging out, watching a movie they rented in the living room," he says. ''They weren't like, 'Hey kids, let's pass the joint around the Thanksgiving dinner table.' " But he says the first joint he tried came from his parents' closet.

Andrew's father is a business executive, and his mother is a stay-at-home mom who did, Andrew says, an excellent job raising the family. ''They're your everyday, normal parents in their 50s," he says. ''They just do it to unwind, instead of having a drink." Andrew says he doesn't smoke marijuana because it makes his heart beat too fast.

Opinions about whether marijuana is harmful differ depending on which experts you talk to.

Dr. Harrison Pope, director of the biological psychiatry laboratory at McLean Hospital in Belmont, has conducted more than 20 studies on marijuana use. He says research has proved that both alcohol and marijuana impair motor skills, and there has been no conclusive evidence showing that one substance is safer than the other. But he says that, according to his research, marijuana causes less permanent damage to the long-term memory of heavy users who have quit than alcohol does.

Dr. Lester Grinspoon, a Harvard Medical School associate professor emeritus of psychiatry and a marijuana smoker since 1973, says alcohol is far more dangerous than marijuana. ''There have been practically no cases of death due to marijuana, compared to alcohol and cigarettes," he says. ''To overdose on marijuana you'd probably have to smoke a trailer truck's worth."

Grinspoon says he smokes marijuana in the same way Andrew's parents do -- in place of a glass of Scotch as an evening relaxant. ''I couldn't do anything after a glass of Scotch, but after one-third of a joint I'm still useful to do some thinking and come up with ideas," Grinspoon says. ''I can even sit down to write."

Grinspoon, 77, who has written two books on the beneficial aspects of smoking pot, says he does not find it disturbing that the study ranked the Boston area number one in marijuana use. He says he knows many people on the Harvard faculty who use marijuana to relax and that they have told him the drug works better to lift their spirits than antidepressants.

Ray DeSimone, 50, a refrigeration mechanic from Johnston, R.I., says he has been smoking marijuana all of his adult life and smokes regularly with his three children, who are in their early 20s. All are in college or have graduated from college.

''I would way rather see my kids smoke a joint than go to the bar and have seven drinks," he says. ''After seven drinks you could go out on the road and kill somebody. But with pot I'm not worried."

Such a low perception of risk among marijuana users is dangerous, says Dr. John R. Knight, director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Boston's Children's Hospital. Marijuana is as addictive as alcohol, he says, but people do not see this because it causes fewer physical symptoms. Knight says marijuana addiction is challenging to treat because patients generally show a greater degree of denial than other types of drug addicts.

''It's now considered to be normal behavior to smoke marijuana," he says. ''No one thinks it's bad for them, because all their friends are using it, too."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Author: Sheela Raman, Globe Correspondent
Published: July 18, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: letter@globe.com
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20971.shtml