e premte, 15 qershor 2007

Medical Marijuana: New York Bill Passes General Assembly, But Now Senate Balks

from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #490, 6/15/07

A bill that would legalize the use of medical marijuana in New York state passed the General Assembly Wednesday night on a 92-52 vote, but now the Republican-dominated Senate is balking. Although Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) sounded agreeable at a Wednesday morning news conference, just hours later he was criticizing the bill as unworkable and vowing to introduce competing legislation.

With the clock ticking toward adjournment of the legislature next week, the move could kill the legislation this year. Even if the Senate passed its own bill, there is little time left reconcile differences, and the lawmakers face other pressing matters.

Sponsored by Rep. Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), who has fought for a decade to advance it, the bill, A04867, would allow patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, and other severe illnesses or their designated caregivers to possess up to 2 ½ ounces of usable marijuana and up to 12 plants. Patients must be certified annually by a physician and register with the state Health Department.

Gov. Elliot Spitzer (D), who last year had opposed medical marijuana, signaled this week that he was willing to sign a carefully crafted bill, but any elation on the part of the bill's proponents, which include the Marijuana Policy Project, was tempered by Sen. Bruno's contradictory pronouncements Wednesday.

During a morning news conference, Bruno said a colleague would introduce a companion bill this week and predicted "the chances are better than not that it will go to the governor." But by that afternoon, Bruno had changed his tune. The Assembly bill is, he said, "too broad and we think it just lets too many things happen that may be inappropriate... We're going to do our own bill."

The Empire State is potentially one vote away from enacting a medical marijuana law, but the Republican Senate leadership appears determined to use a procedural trick to derail it.

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Train Crash Raises Cannabis Query

Train Crash Raises Cannabis Query

Inspector Rob Jones says Police haven't yet ascertained the cause of the crash at a Bay of Plenty rail crossing which killed driver Keeley Jamieson, aged 20 and her brother Ryan Jamieson, aged 22.

Witnesses say warning bells rang while the train driver blasted his horn frantically before he slammed into the victim's car, as it crept slowly over the crossing.

Candor Trust Educator Urs Tiaho says that given the scenario of this day-time disaster two main possibilities must spring to mind.



The first one would be driver impairment given the age group of the driver and the possible inattention factor.

"If that was the cause, the most likely substance we'd suspect as a cause of driver impairment at that time of the day (afternoon), is cannabis".

It is more typical for coronial inquests to youthful road deaths in NZ to find use of cannabis was a factor than drunkenness in deceased NZ drivers of 20 or under.

Alcohol over legal limits only features in thirteen percent (latest Ministry of transport figures).

Cannabis use is 3 times more common in deceased young drivers per early findings from the ongoing ESR drug driving study.

"The twenty dollar tinny is our youth's answer to the youth alcohol limit, which goes a long wa to explain why their toll is hoigh and stable".

The second possibility which must come through as a front runner is brake failure, at the critical time, though vehicle factors are a very rare cause of fatalities in NZ.

An electrical contractor working on a power pole just by the crossing said he had heard the bells and then a bang. He said the driver had slowed for the crossing but obviously not seen the train despite it's bright spotlight and horn sounding.

Toll has been campaigning to reduce rail crossing accidents and cricketer Chris Cairns has used his profile to reinforce the safety message. Cairns encourages drivers to take "far greater responsibility" at level rail crossings.

The Chris Cairns Foundation works with a number of stake holders in the rail industry to prevent such events. A major campaign will be launched in time for Australasian Rail Safety Week, which starts on July 23.

Candor Trust is hopeful an awareness of drug intoxicated driving will be part and parcel of the Rail Safety Week program, given it's epidemic proportions in New Zealand.

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Should Governments Legalize and Tax Marijuana?

The war on drugs is an expensive battle, as a great deal of resources go into catching those who buy or sell illegal drugs on the black market, prosecuting them in court, and housing them in jail. These costs seem particularly exorbitant when dealing with the drug marijuana, as it is widely used, and is likely no more harmful than currently legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. There's another cost to the war on drugs, however, which is the revenue lost by governments who cannot collect taxes on illegal drugs. In a recent study for the Fraser Institute, Economist Stephen T. Easton attempted to calculate how much tax revenue the Canadian government could gain by legalizing marijuana.

The study estimates that the average price of 0.5 grams (a unit) of marijuana sold for $8.60 on the street, while its cost of production was only $1.70. In a free market, a $6.90 profit for a unit of marijuana would not last for long. Entrepreneurs noticing the great profits to be made in the marijuana market would start their own grow operations, increasing the supply of marijuana on the street, which would cause the street price of the drug to fall to a level much closer to the cost of production. Of course, this doesn't happen because the product is illegal; the prospect of jail time deters many entrepreneurs and the occasional drug bust ensures that the supply stays relatively low. We can consider much of this $6.90 per unit of marijuana profit a risk-premium for participating in the underground economy. Unfortunately, this risk premium is making a lot of criminals, many of whom have ties to organized crime, very wealthy.

Stephen T. Easton argues that if marijuana was legalized, we could transfer these excess profits caused by the risk-premium from these grow operations to the government:

    If we substitute a tax on marijuana cigarettes equal to the difference between the local production cost and the street price people currently pay--that is, transfer the revenue from the current producers and marketers (many of whom work with organized crime) to the government, leaving all other marketing and transportation issues aside we would have revenue of (say) $7 per [unit]. If you could collect on every cigarette and ignore the transportation, marketing, and advertising costs, this comes to over $2 billion on Canadian sales and substantially more from an export tax, and you forego the costs of enforcement and deploy your policing assets elsewhere.
One interesting thing to note from such a scheme is that the street price of marijuana stays exactly the same, so the quantity demanded should remain the same as the price is unchanged. However, it's quite likely that the demand for marijuana would change from legalization. We saw that there was a risk in selling marijuana, but since drug laws often target both the buyer and the seller, there is also a risk (albeit smaller) to the consumer interested in buying marijuana. Legalization would eliminate this risk, causing the demand to rise. This is a mixed bag from a public policy standpoint: Increased marijuana use can have ill effects on the health of the population but the increased sales bring in more revenue for the government. However, if legalized, governments can control how much marijuana is consumed by increasing or decreasing the taxes on the product. There is a limit to this, however, as setting taxes too high will cause marijuana growers to sell on the black market to avoid excessive taxation.

When considering legalizing marijuana, there are many economic, health, and social issues we must analyze. One economic study will not be the basis of Canada's public policy decisions, but Easton's research does conclusively show that there are economic benefits in the legalization of marijuana. With governments scrambling to find new sources of revenue to pay for important social objectives such as health care and education expect to see the idea raised in Parliament sooner rather than later.

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