Marijuana Blog

Public schools are underfunded across America. That is a well known fact. So when schools get an infusion of new revenue to hire more staff, it’s a big deal. In Colorado, tax revenues that were generated by legal marijuana sales are being used to hire more school nurses. Per the Huffington Post:

 

The state awarded nearly a million dollars’ worth of grants to schools throughout the state this week, reports The Denver Post. The grant money will be used by schools to hire health professionals such as nurses, psychologists and counselors and it’s composed of funds from marijuana tax revenue.

 

The more than $975,000 of grants handed out this week is part of a larger fund of $2.5 million created by the state legislature for schools to hire health professionals, says the outlet. The window for schools to apply for the rest of the funds closed last week.

 

Overall, a great deal of tax revenue generated by marijuana sales will help public schools in the state. In August, Education Week reported that more than $1 million of pot revenue is being used to help schools fund construction projects.

 

I would love to hear a marijuana opponent’s reasoning as to how this is a bad thing. I doubt they will ever take on the story head on, and instead will keep focusing on their tired, unfounded arguments about the harms of marijuana and how it’s a plague on our society. In Colorado, that couldn’t be further from the case. Marijuana is helping the public school system in Colorado, not hurting it, proven by every new person that is hired into the public school system as a result of marijuana tax revenues. I can’t wait until this starts happening in Oregon, where marijuana taxes will go to schools, law enforcement, and substance abuse treatment programs. Why isn’t every state doing this?

 

Source: http://www.theweedblog.com/marijuana-taxes-used-to-hire-more-school-nurses-in-colorado/

There are celebrities, like Cheech and Chong, that have been smoking weed for years. Nothing terrible seems to have happened to them. While other famous people have overdosed on other drugs like heroin and cocaine, the stoner duo remains standing. Along with many others, Cheech and Chong are somewhat of living proof that weed doesn’t cause issues if you’ve been smoking it for years. But a new study from the University of Texas at Dallas is saying that heavy, long term marijuana use is linked to smaller volume in the orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain where decision making takes place. This part of the mind also deals with addiction.

 

 

The research shows that when an individual starts using marijuana earlier on in life, the more pronounced the brain abnormalities. Additionally though, the same research shows that the brains of heavy marijuana users have greater connectivity in this part of the brain as compared to those who don’t use pot. But even with the enhanced connectivity, the research says that this key part of the brain loses this ability over time. The abnormalities aren’t known to cause any mental illness of emotional deficits yet.

 

 

Dr. Francesca Filbey was the leader of the study. She is the director of the university’s Center for BrainHealth and an associate professor in the university’s School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. The study consisted of 48 adults who smoked marijuana three times a day for ten years, on average and 62 users who didn’t consume cannabis. Filbey and her team used MRI scanners to compare the brains of the two group. Their findings, while provocative, are acknowledged even by them, aren’t concrete evidence of cannabis contributing directly to the brain changes. Dr. Asaf Keller, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine wasn’t involved with the study but was asked by the Huffington Post to comment on the new data. 

 

 

“As this is a retrospective study - not a prospective one - it is impossible to determine whether individual differences in brain anatomy are related to genetic or environmental factors other than marijuana use. In sum, there is not indication that the anatomical difference in the brains of marijuana users are caused by marijuana use,” Dr. Keller told HuffPost Science. These results will have to be duplicated in similar studies for the data to be concrete. For now, cannabis users can still rest easy in thinking that cannabis has absolutely no negative long term effects.

New York has had many issues with cannabis since the 1990s and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be getting better with the recent report that the NYPD won’t be arresting people for small possession of the plant. Even though the cops are saying that they will no longer arrest people for having small amounts of the plant on them, people are skeptical. This isn’t the first time the police have made this statement, the first time being in 1977. Legislature in New York passed a law stipulating that small amounts of pot ket hidden from public view could not trigger an arrest. But as said above, since the 90s, the NYPD has targeted marijuana possession much more adamantly, issuing misdemeanors rather than tickets. There are tens of thousands of New Yorkers that are arrested every year for possession of marijuana, most of which don’t have a prior record.

 

New York especially has been the subject of the idea of extreme racial profiling when it comes to marijuana arrests. Within the first eight months of this year, 86% of those arrested for cannabis possession in New York were black or Latino. In a 2010 census, they made up just over 60% of the population in New York. Not only that but with such high arrest rates in the city, most of the people arrested for cannabis have no prior record and have their names tarnished by a ridiculous arrest charge for having a plant.

 

Joanna Naughton, a former NYPD officer and a member of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition says that this won’t be decriminalization. “People will be summoned into criminal court to answer criminal charges,” she said. If the people summoned to court don’t appear, then warrants can be issued for their arrests. The idea of a court summons without an arrest would also cause issues, says Kenneth P. Thompson, the Brooklyn District Attorney. A summons without an arrest warrant doesn’t get prosecutorial review and those who need to appear in court may not automatically be appointed a lawyer. “These cases will move forward even when due process violations might have occurred,” Thompson stated. 

 

So if you’re a current resident of New York, it’s a good idea to keep that bud hidden. With such a problem between the laws and what the police enforce, plus the discrimination aspect, it’s easy to see that the road to full cannabis acceptance is a rocky one. While New York may be making small steps, they definitely aren’t big enough for such a tough journey.