Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2008.6.11

Weekly News in Audio

June 11, 2008

"Radical" Russ Belville
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California: Attorney General To Appeal Kelly Decision

Scotland: Government Think-Tank Backs Taxing And Regulating Cannabis

Portable Oral-Fluid Tests Still Unreliable For Pot, Study Says

San Francisco, CA:
California: Attorney General To Appeal Kelly Decision

State Attorney General Jerry Brown announced last week that he will challenge a recent Court of Appeals decision that prohibits legislators from imposing limits on the amount of medical marijuana patients may legally possess under state law.

The decision (People v. Kelly) struck down a 2004 law that sought to amend the California's voter-approved initiative, Proposition 215, which legalized the possession, use, and cultivation of specified quantities of medical cannabis.

In 2003, the California Legislature approved guidelines establishing a statewide cap on the amount of cannabis patients may possess. Last month, the California Court of Appeals ruled that the legislature lacked the constitutional authority to amend a law that had been enacted by the voters.

The Court determined: "The Legislature's imposition of quantity limits in section 11362.77 … amends [Proposition 215.] Section 11362.77 imposes a numeric cap where [Proposition 215] imposed none. … [Proposition 215's failure to specify] reasonable and established quantity guidelines … may be a valid concern. Nevertheless, it is a concern that cannot be addressed by the Legislature acting without the voter's approval."

Brown said that the 1996 voter-approved initiative was ambiguous and that the Legislature's amendment was a reasonable effort to clarify it. "The proposition is not as clear as we would like," Brown told the Los Angeles Times. "You do not need an unlimited quantity of marijuana for medicine. But what is the quantity?"

Brown said that he supports the spirit of Proposition 215, but believes that limitations must be imposed by the legislature in order to curb potential abuses by drug traffickers and provide guidelines for law enforcement.

For more information, please contact Keith Stroup, NORML Legal Counsel, at (202) 483-5500.
Full text of the California Court of Appeals decision, People v. Kelly, is available online at: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B195624.PDF.

Edinburgh, Scotland:
Scotland: Government Think-Tank Backs Taxing And Regulating Cannabis

Taxing and regulating the sale of cannabis would reduce many of the social hazards associated with the use of pot and other illicit substances, according to a study released this week by the Scottish think-tank, Futures Forum.

“Sending people to prison for low-level alcohol and drug-related crime is unproductive and … unsustainable,” the report concluded. “There should be in place a new approach to regulation in Scotland and elsewhere, based on evidence, whereby regulation of all psychoactive substances - including currently illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco, prescribed medicines and other legal drugs - will be governed by a single framework, which takes into account their different levels of potential risk.”

The Forum recommended that this “new approach” should include a system for taxing and regulating cannabis sales - arguing that legalizing the drug would sever its association with other illicit substances.

The Forum's recommendations come just weeks after British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced plans to reclassify cannabis to a Class B 'hard' drug. Upgrading cannabis' classification would increase the penalties for minor pot possession from a verbal warning (under current law) to up to five years in jail.

The Futures Forum is a body of experts created by the Scottish Parliament to advise legislators on various public policy issues, including drug and alcohol abuse. A spokesperson for the Scottish government criticized the report's findings, saying that there is “no reasonable case” for legalizing cannabis.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.
Full text of the report, “Approaches to Alcohol and Drugs in Scotland: A Question of Architecture,” is available online at: http://www.scotlandfutureforum.org/assets/files/report.pdf.

Ghent, Belgium:
Portable Oral-Fluid Tests Still Unreliable For Pot, Study Says

Saliva testing is neither a "practical" nor a "reliable" way for detecting the past use of cannabis, according to a scientific review published in the journal Therapeutic Drug Monitoring.

"Reliable point-of-care drug testing is still problematic, especially for cannabinoids and benzodiazepines," authors determined. "To date, there is no device that allows both reliable and practical point-of-care testing."

A 2007 review of ten oral fluid devices reached a similar conclusion. Of the ten devices tested, six recorded either false negative or false positive test results for marijuana's primary psychoactive compound THC. Five devices also recorded false positive results for the presence of marijuana's primary inactive metabolite, carboxy-THC (THC-COOH).

Previous evaluations of onsite oral fluid tests have also determined the technology to be unreliable for detecting recent cannabis use, particularly when administered at roadside checkpoints.

Several European nations and a handful of US states are evaluating the use of such devices by law enforcement to identify motorists who may be driving under the influence of marijuana or other controlled substances.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.
Full text of the study, "Current developments in drug testing in oral fluid," appears in the April issue of Therapeutic Drug Monitor.

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