News

Jamen Shively , a 45-year-old former Microsoft manager, wants to build a cannabis empire in Washington state, where pot was legalized last fall, saying he was tired of waiting for a green light from the Obama administration, which still hasn't said how it will respond to the legalization of recreational pot in Washington and Colorado. Shively vowed to quickly raise $10 million and eventually build his company, Diego Pellicer, into an international pot powerhouse.

WHITMAN - Residents and town officials alike are considering the possibility of a medical marijuana manufacturing plant sprouting up in town.

SEATTLE (AP)- For the activists who led the effort to legalize recreational marijuana in Washington state last fall, Jamen Shively was one of their biggest fears: an aspiring pot profiteer whose unabashed dreams of building a cannabis empire might attract unwanted attention from the federal government or a backlash that could slow the marijuana reform movement across the country.

NEW HAVEN - On the 42nd anniversary of President Richard Nixon declaring the start of the war on drugs, about 30 people gathered near the steps of city hall Monday to protest what they consider to be a failed war.

Opinions

Are Americans becoming more libertarian on cultural issues? I see evidence that they are, in poll findings and election results on three unrelated issues - marijuana legalization, same-sex marriage and gun rights.

There is the stereotype that someone who wants to take pot for pain relief of their medical condition must have another agenda, must want the government to endorse a pre-existing habit, must want to make money selling the excess on the street, must be someone trying to trick the system when there's perfectly good pain medication on the market and so on.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA NOT FOR TEENS An increasingly available option for medical patients suffering chronic pain -- medical marijuana -- should be avoided by teens, Mayo Clinic researchers say in an upcoming publication.

LET'S WORK WITH NEW LAWS OK'D BY VOTERS Gov. John Hickenlooper recently signed into law a number of bills creating a comprehensive regulatory framework for adult marijuana sales in Colorado. As a psychologist and mother, I applaud the governor for moving us closer to a well-regulated system that gets marijuana off the streets and away from our youth.

Letters

Editor: The New England Journal of Medicine did a poll recently where they asked doctors worldwide if they would prescribe medical marijuana to an elderly woman with cancer.

This is in response to the new rules as presented by Health Canada, which is "getting out of the pot business."

The comprehensive June 12 op-ed by Howard Simon of the ACLU on the drug war debacle exposes the ugly truth of this issue.

Dr. Chris Nevin-Woods' article on marijuana in the (Pueblo Chieftain, June 2) is inaccurate. Marijuana has little if any physical withdrawal symptoms associated with addictive drugs such as alcohol, narcotics, sedative-hypnotics drugs and amphetamines. A few studies have shown that some people smoking marijuana daily for 70 months or more had some mild symptoms (anxiety and insomnia).

Re: "Do stoned salmon suffer memory loss?" June 9 Rich Tosches column. What on Earthwas the point of publishing Rich Tosches' June 9 column? Is this really the best commentary you can get on the important issue of legalizing and regulating marijuana? Unlike Tosches, I recognize that this issue is not a joke-if this is done properly, Colorado has the chance to be a national and world leader in moving to a better model of dealing with drug use and abuse. If done without proper foresight, we will be a laughingstock. To suggest that it is just stoners who want a sane drug policy is insulting. Tosches' rehashing of jokes that were tired in the 1970s offers nothing productive to the discussion, and I am shocked you would waste the column space to publish it.

Marijuana has become the drug of choice for police departments nationwide n a trend that is playing out with serious consequences here in Wyoming.

Your June 10 story "Arrested for legal pot, man claims" is really just the tip of the iceberg. As a medical marijuana licensee myself and a retired Winnipeg Police staff sergeant, I know that such actions by the police, where citizens produce evidence of lawful possession, then are handcuffed, detained and their product seized, is tantamount to unlawful arrest and seizure.