STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

I had lunch with my new pal Elmer yesterday. The weather was perfect for enjoying our meal at the outside tables of the deli and today, despite the impending hurricane, promises to be the same. Won't have too many more of these left, I'm afraid. Elmer had a great story to tell about Ben Masel (of Weedstock in Wisconsin fame).

Ben was on a train when some law enforcement types boarded and started asking people at random if they could search their bags. They were mostly targeting people of color. Now Ben probably would not have even been noticed if he had just sat there, but he stood up and informed the passengers in a thunderous voice that they were not legally obligated to assent to any searches. He was ultimately arrested for POP, a phrase Elmer coined meaning Pissing Off Police. You have to admire Ben's courage in his relentess drive to bring justice back to civilized society.

Ben checked in recently by the way. He didn't make to Canadian version of his own event as he had broken his ankle while breaking down staging at the Seattle Hempfest. The good news however, is that the county did not appeal the favorable decision in his Wisconsin case. Here's hoping this means Weedstock will rise again on his farm next year.

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BAD SCIENCE

Just about a year ago, a Johns Hopkins University research study headed by Dr. George Ricaurte reported extreme and frightening findings about the effects of the popular dance culture drug ecstasy (MDMA) on the human brain. This study was used to promote and foster The Rave Act's passage.

You remember that amendment don't you? It's one Joe Biden sleazily tacked onto to the Amber bill that was supposed to protect our youth from succumbing to the permanent damage detailed in the study. The same Act that was subsequently used by the DEA to shut down a legitimate political event in Montana where ecstacy was not even likely to be consumed. This was a pro-legalization of marijuana event, not a rave and the scheduled entertainment was to be rock and roll, not techno trance hip-hop.

Now, I've never tried ecstacy myself, but I know many young people who use it and I had not seen these horrifying effects manifest in them. Well oops, it's probably because the study was flawed, leaving the venerable John Hopkins team and Science magazine, the publisher of the work, with enough egg on their faces to make omelets. They used the wrong drug in conducting the experiments.

Turns out there was an apparent mislabling error and the study was using methamphetamine instead of ecstacy. The scientific community had raised questions on the unusual results of this study almost immediately, only to be dismissed by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) who apparently liked the results just the way they were. Ricaurte, a rabidly biased prohibition warrior, is a long time beneficiary of many NIDA grants.

After the John Hopkins team retracted their study, there was much speculation in the scientific community about a cover-up and questions were raised about the whereabouts of the remaining 8.5 grams of meth the researchers had not used up. Well asked as a another retraction was issued for a second study tainted by the mislabelled drug and it appears more may follow. For complete coverage of this debacle, click here.

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NIDA was implicated in another unreported scandal back in February when it was supplying a major clinical study in Canada with alleged research grade marijuana. It turns out the marijuana was not only schwag but had also been modified to remove many cannabinoids and alter its medicinal effects.

Matthew Johnson, a graduate student studying behavioral pharmacology at a NIDA-funded research lab, at the Department of Psychology and Human Behavioral Pharmacology Lab, University of Vermont broke this story in a letter to Pot-TV.

"I teach a college class in psychopharmacology" wrote Johnson, "and I tell my students that every drug supplied by NIDA is pharmaceutical-grade and top potency, but that is the opposite case for cannabis – a very strange situation."

Johnson went on to reveal some startling information about NIDA's "research grade" buds. "At a 2001 conference I had the occasion to chat with a rather well-known and respected NIDA-funded researcher whose present study involved smoked marijuana administration. I asked her how the potency was ‘standardized' and she said that the NIDA marijuana had the THC extracted and then artificially added. She didn't mention other cannabinoids."

Johnson explained that natural cannabis has a number of therapeutically active compounds aside from THC, and that these cannabinoids interact with THC and each other and lock into different receptors.

"We are still in our infancy in terms of understanding how this complex system works," explained Johnson." Given this lack of knowledge, it doesn't make any sense to study anything but the quality bud which has been found to be helpful from the folks who know."

And they wonder why their message is not reaching the youth of America. Kids know a lie when they see one and you lie to them once, they never believe you again. This sort of revelation not only fails to prevent drug use but undermines efforts to help kids who become caught up in addicition.

It's this kind of arrogant conduct by the prohibitionists and their transparent sabotage of legitimate research that inspired me to come out of my comfortable anonymity and start fighting back. They are spending billions of dollars on these failed tactics. It's time to find a better solution.

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YES WE CANN

Three days to go before the 14th Annual MassCann/NORML Freedom Rally on the Boston Common. It looks like it may a damp day but Hurricane Isabel appears to be headed westerly and should not impact the event. Hope to see you all there.

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