User:AutumnFore/National Marijuana Initiative

= National Marijuana Initiative =

The Organization
The National Marijuana Initiative (NMI) provides general educational presentations, specialized presentations by experts, and training courses with the purpose of enabling policymakers and their representative populations to make an informed decision about marijuana use and its risks. The Office of National Drug Control Policy established this initiative under the Federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program (HIDTA) in order to engage on a regional and national level with national drug threats. With the emphasis on educational outreach to citizens, the National Marijuana Initiative website encourages the public to call at (305) 715-7600.

Their vision statement, “The National Marijuana Initiative advances factual knowledge on marijuana and the impacts of its legalization,” emphasizes unbiased information about the impact of usage as well as legalization for business enterprise.

By reaching out to community groups and substance abuse coalitions, legislators, and law enforcement, the NMI advocates for making educated decisions while informing the public of the consequences of policy change. It works in tandem with the 32 High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program to enact the National Drug Control Strategy.

Interviews


With the main purpose being outreach, the speakers of the National Marijuana Initiative participate in interviews.

On June 2016, Ed Shemelya, national coordinator of NMI, appeared on “Great Day Houston,” to discuss multiple topics such as hospital admissions, implications of rising THC levels, and the medicalization of the plant. The KHOU staff released a segment titled “Not Your Father’s Marijuana.

Western States Marijuana Summit
The main objective of the NMI is to spread awareness to the public through the cultivation of empirical presentations by its speakers. Here are links to each of the presentations offered at the Western States Marijuana Summit on November 11, 2019:

The Legalization of Marijuana

Overview of the Adolescent Brain

Marijuana and Addiction: A Disorder of the Learning and Memory System

Props 64 and Its Promises

The National Progression of Vaping to Marijuana to Opiate Abuse:A Recipe for Disaster

Marijuana Use Among the Arrestee Population in San Diego County

Using Local Control to Push Back on the Marijuana Industry

Traffic Safety

[https://thenmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1445-Wengert-Marijuana-Cultivation.pdf Are We Out of the Woods Yet? Trends of Environmental Threats from Marijuana Cultivation in our Public Forests]

Relaunching the Parent Movement

Education and Lobbying: Where's the Line?

Education
Marijuana has economic capacity but is not thoroughly understood genetically and medically. For this reason the NMI promotes information on the impact of cultivation and the effect on the human body. Information in this section revolves around the articles provided on the website which could differ from the specialized presentations previously mentioned.

Economic Impact
NMI provides advice for people thinking about getting into the cannabis industry. Some information provided, Colorado and Oregon anyway, is that one must live in-state for at minimum two years before being allowed to apply for the appropriate business licenses. One must live in the applied-for state and may not live outside the state nor country. However, in Washington one only needs to live in-state for three months, so long as the company is formed in that state. They also inform that the transport of cannabis between state lines, even to another legalized state, is a federal offense of drug trafficking; with more states legalizing, law enforcement has become more alert to the risk of drug trafficking in the country.

NMI dedicated a page on their website to show the likelihood of people to go to jail for marijuana related crimes, stated in their article "Who's Really in Prison for Marijuana" According to NMI it’s unlikely for people to be imprisoned solely for possession charges; the target individual applied to this is any person who is a non-violent and first time offender with cannabis in small amounts on their person, intended for personal use. NMI suggests many people who are imprisoned with marijuana related crimes are imprisoned for the other crimes committed, rather than just possession. This is re-enforced by NCJRS’s Jeffery Robinson's article in 2005 also titled "Who's Really in Prison for Marijuana?" which reports that 1.6 percent of inmates were imprisoned for singular marijuana related crimes, with less than 1 percent being simple possession charges and 0.3 percent being first time offenders. However on a federal level, 186 people were sentenced for simple possession, averaging 2.3 percent.

Environmental Impact
NMI posted a link to a segment created by National Geographic by Elizabeth Flock and Mark Scialla that you can watch here about the environmental impacts that illegal grow operations have had on the environment in Northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Many concerns stem from the toxic, sometimes illegal, chemicals that illegitimate growers use to protect their plants from insects, which spreads to the surrounding areas of the park. The NMI posted another video, ”Can’t See the Forest for the Weed,” which explains the environmental effects in detail with the help of ecologists and law enforcement. Topics discussed in detail with links to further resources are: dangers of pesticides, trouble with endangering animals, illicit water use, erosion, and excessive energy use.

The NMI report on the harm of illicit water use goes over the harmful effect that many illegal grow operations have on local water supplies and the dwelling wildlife. Many of these illegal farms have led to literal droughts in California, causing historically low water levels in what were once some of their largest rivers. Los Angeles Time's Scott Bauer discusses this in detail here. These statistics were re-enforced by Mother Jone's report on the average water consumption per plant per day which is a whopping 6 gallons. Also used as a reinforcement, Hunter Wilson's "The Growers Network Report" estimates that 5 million pounds of Legal cannabis are produced in the United States per year.

It’s common for illegal cannabis farms to place their growing operations inside forests, often public and state owned lands in order to hide their crops and make it harder for law enforcement to find their farms, however many farms, according to another NMI report, will clear trees away from the area and remove the underbrush from large sites in order to accommodate their operation. This sadly leads to increased soil erosion due to a lack of plant life holding the soil in place, making many sites more susceptible to landslides and pushing animal life from their natural habitats. This report also suggests that the total land used in Northern California to grow cannabis illegally has doubled in the last five years. Some of these illicit operations have been found to be several acres and even several square miles in size.

Health Impact
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy ultimately works to promote a healthier population through the United States Drug Policy. The Surgeon General's advisory on the matter of marijuana can be found here.

The NMI in this section of their website focuses on the effect of THC on the brain, stating that it impairs judgement, academic performance, driving performance, while risking addiction, particularly for those with still-developing brains. The NMI explains that for those who begin using marijuana in adolescence, IQ is diminished with no return upon quitting. Other effects that the substance has on the brain includes increased appetite, impaired learning, disordered thinking, relaxation, and decreased motor control, and paranoia. Other impacts on the brain include increased anxiety and depression overtime, potentially influenced by the fact that the brain processes joy differently for users versus nonusers. Emphasizing the effect on mental health, the NMI urges people to be mindful that marijuana use can kick start or exacerbate symptoms of mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. For more detailed information, the NMI offers this link on cognitive dysfunction linked to use.

The NMI does not just emphasize mental health; physical health is effected through use as well. The NMI linked The University of Edinburgh's article on bone density. This article states that bone density is directly impacted in smokers, to the point that they are twice as likely to experience fractures than nonusers. The NMI also shares that smoking while pregnant can lead to complications during childbirth as well as irregular behavior in children and adolescents exposed to second hand smoke ; paternal use in the year prior to the child's birth can also cause the possibility of a tumor in the fetus. Another area of the body targeted is the lungs; regular users experience shortness of breath and wheezing, as well as increased risk of infection due to less overall resistance as well as possibly ingested chemicals and mold.

There are also posted articles on the NMI website about marijuana use being connected to Opiod addiction. This contrasts Peter Grinspoon's Educational Blog on Harvard's Health Board.

Legislation and Reform
Since 2012 when Washington and Colorado became the first states to support legalization initiatives, momentum for marijuana movements have increased, with people anticipating up to 16 states introduced to initiatives in 2020. This includes more than just New Mexico, with states like Arizona trying to implement multifaceted initiatives like Smart & Safe Arizona.

Even with obstacles to full legalization, medical marijuana appeals are becoming increasingly popular; Mississippi, although notoriously conservative, has a campaign to put medical legalization on the ballot. The state secretary has confirmed this, leading the state Board of Health to release a statement on the harms of cannabis products like accidents and addiction. This consistent flux between legalization efforts and concerns from various institutions serves as a basis for the use and spread of empirical data offered by the National Marijuana Initiative.

With increasing changes in state laws, pressure is placed on Congress to act in marijuana reform, leaving appropriate legal action on the part of law enforcement ambiguous. As of 2020 many states could be legalizing medical and recreational marijuana ; New Mexico is a big contender, as governor Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico established a task force to create a plan for full legalization in 2019. Regardless, even when House Bill 160, which legalized all use for adults over 21 years old, was passed by the House, the Senate blocked the decision.

This is not to say that Congress has terminated every bill; in fact, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which would protect on a federal level the banks working for cannabis businesses, passed the House Financial Service Committee in March of 2019. It also passed the House of Representatives, making it the first "standalone" marijuana reform bill ever advanced beyond this level. However, as of September 2019, the Senate has only read and sent it to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. You can watch the House debate here.