Courtesy of the Media Awareness Project. Commentary after the jump.

"Washington Post, 26 Oct 2009 - Has the Justice Department Taken a First Step Toward Decriminalization of Marijuana? THE JUSTICE Department announced last week that it would not prosecute patients who legally obtain marijuana from licensed dispensaries in the 13 states that allow medicinal use. The decision is both sensible and potentially problematic. ... "

Smokkr link

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This editorial references the US DoJ's recent change in stance regarding medical cannabis. While some naysayers at the Obama mouthpiece Change.org argue that this is "by no means a gradual step towards legalization from the administration," how can it be seen as anything but? With California less than a year away from a referendum on the topic, this move by the Obama administration signals that they're willing to comply with decisions made by any state with balls big enough to try it.

It doesn't hurt that, according to a Gallup poll referenced at the above Change.org article, national support for marijuana legalization is at an all time high, with 44% in favour. Furthermore, this number goes as high as 53% in favour of legalization in the western states. With numbers like that, to not believe we're at the cusp of drug policy liberalization in the U.S. is pure solipsism.

Today's link brings up several major issues. First is that of the efficacy of smoked cannabis. It's likely a detriment to perceptions of medicinal cannabis that its primary method of ingestion is technically similar to an addictive and harmful drug — tobacco — which has been at the epicenter of a massive public education campaign over the last few decades. Regardless, the fact that such criticisms fail to address the fact that cannabis is quite often consumed through vaporization in a medicinal setting, which removes the majority of carcinogens from smoke and greatly increases the efficiency of cannabis, resulting in less being consumed.

Second thing worth noting is that it finishes by mentioning Sativex, an inhaled spray composed of non-psychedelic cannabinoids found in marijuana. Often this product is used by media as a way to argue against the medicinal lobby, insinuating that if patients were serious about using cannabis medicinally, they would do it without the harm of smoking or the negative stigma attached to the psychedelic component of cannabis. Yet, some preliminary studies have shown that smoked cannabis has significantly higher medicial efficacy than sprays such as Sativex. "The Sativex" argument in this case once again negates the right of patients to choose effective treatment in exchange for social acceptability.

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Ændrew Rininsland