Reeferfront Times

30

REEFERFRONT TIMES

[WEED LAWS]

High Time

Missouri lawmakers must take action to legalize marijuana

Written by JEFF MIZANSKEY

This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.

In 1984, I was arrested for felony possession of marijuana for a half pound of marijuana, for which I served five years of probation.

In 1991, I was arrested for possession of two ounces of marijuana, for which I served 60 days in county prison.

Finally, in 1993, I was arrested as an accessory in a deal for seven pounds of marijuana, and although I had no intention of possession or distribution, a jury convicted me and a circuit court judge sentenced me to life in prison under Missouri’s now-repealed prior and persistent offender statute.

During the next 22 years, American voters came to the realization that marijuana was a very beneficial medicine with a low risk profile, and state by state began passing medical marijuana laws or outright legalization.

Ultimately, then-Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon commuted my sentence after state Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, filed legislation to require parole for marijuana offenders serving life sentences. My case was also supported by a national coalition of people and organizations who were shocked by the harshness of my sentence.

In 2018, Missouri voters passed a medical marijuana proposal at the ballot, which now allows people to obtain a physician’s recommendation for marijuana and has created a legal market for production and sales. The only controversy over legal medical marijuana has been over the restrictions on commercial licensing — 85 percent of the over 2,200 applicants for marijuana business licenses were rejected in a process widely seen as arbitrary and unfair.

Now, two different ballot initiative campaigns, backed by different groups claiming to represent the marijuana industry, are competing to again change the Missouri Constitution to legalize recreational marijuana. But both of these proposals have significant flaws. Most significantly, both proposals create limits on personal marijuana possession and allow civil and criminal charges, including felonies, for possession of more than twice the possession limits.

Coupled with tight restrictions on commercial marijuana licensing, Missouri might continue to see a two-tiered system of justice and economic opportunity, where a privileged wealthy few are allowed to profit from legal marijuana sales while poor and politically weak Missourians continue to be sanctioned for the proposed crime of possessing too much marijuana. By contrast, there is no other item of legal personal property that Missouri law creates a possession limit for, and I’ll point out specifically alcohol, our most dangerous drug, for which there are over 16,000 licenses for on and off premise sales registered in our state and no possession limits for individuals. In January, the Missouri General Assembly will reconvene, and only the elected representatives of the people have the ability and the political will to consider these issues and take in input from all stakeholders. It is important that our elected officials consider what path may be best and ultimately fulfill the increasing demand from voters for greater liberty and freedom in our state.

Je Mizanskey served decades in prison for marijuana before his sentence was commuted. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

[SC-HIGH-ENCE]

Sleeper Hit

Marijuana use might negatively a ect sleep, study suggests

Written by RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

If you toke up before bed to get a restful night’s sleep, we ain’t mad at you. The general consensus among cannabis users is that including weed in your nighttime ritual is beneficial for some quality Zs. A new study published last week in the British Medical Journal is claiming, however, that regular weed consumption can actually be harmful to sleep. Leave it to science to be a total buzzkill.

The study found that adults who used weed twenty or more days in a month were 64 percent more likely to sleep less than six hours a night and 76 percent more likely to sleep longer than nine hours a night. People who used cannabis less than twenty days in a month were 47 percent more likely to snooze nine or more hours a night. Respondents who used cannabis within the last 30 days also were more likely to say they had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.

Researchers at the University of Toronto analyzed marijuana use for sleep among 21,729 adults between the ages of 20 and 59. The data was gathered by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which represents over 146 million Americans.

While some national news outlets have framed these new “findings” as marijuana “making sleep worse,” the study really just tells us that some potheads were more likely to sleep for longer than nine hours. This doesn’t exactly seem like groundbreaking scientific research to anyone who’s been knocked out cold by an indica-heavy edible or a cup of Sleepytime tea laced with a few drops of CBN oil.

It also doesn’t prove an exact link between trouble sleeping and cannabis, as there could be other factors affecting sleep that make people want to partake in the first place, including depression and anxiety. A study from 2018 linked smartphone and tablet use to people sleeping less because of blue light from electronic devices interfering with our natural circadian rhythm. Sleep disorders were also on the rise in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither of those have anything to do with cannabis use.

One of the study’s lead authors, Calvin Diep, who is an anesthesia resident at the University of Toronto, even told CNN that “the problem with our study is that we can’t really say that it’s causal, meaning we can’t know for sure whether this was simply individuals who were having difficulty sleeping, and that’s why they use the cannabis, or the cannabis caused it.” See, reading comprehension is key.

Meanwhile, many marijuana dispensaries cater to clientele looking for a strain that will put them in a hazy dream state as they enter the sleep realm. Some cannabis products, particularly edibles, are even explicitly marketed as sleep aids, and insomnia is one of the most common ailments people come into dispensaries to treat.

The thing is, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers seven to nine hours a night as “optimal” for adults, and oversleeping can have negative effects like headaches, diabetes and obesity. And sure, we can see how raiding the fridge for late-night snacks after the munchies hit and then passing out for ten hours could lead to obesity. There have also been studies that find cognitive performance peaks with around seven hours of sleep, and drops with more or less sleep.

Still, none of that has convinced us to stop taking cannabis gummies before bed. But hey, the more you know.