Drug-Free Schools Coalition Wrong a 2nd Time w/ phone number

[Biscanna]

A post was made here (source: Grand Rapids Press) that says Drug-Free Schools Coalition claims that 28,000 joints can be obtained from one plant each year. I responded with math. They responded by saying that they never made the claim despite this article: Editorial: Medical marijuana proposal needs more safeguards - Grand Rapids Opinion (For the full article, see the next post below)

They responded to me with a new claim, that is STILL wrong. There are multiple holes in their claim, the major one being that they assume that leaves are a product of equal quality to bud, hence the 5lbs avg. plant. More disinformation from "intelligent parents" (that use AOL) :

By the way, you can reverse lookup the phone number for an address and then go to Google Images. The place is a Mansion/Estate. Seems like they would want to put that money into Drug-Free Schools programs instead of their own image and extravagant lifestyle. Be sure to give this guy a call and let him know that using leaves in a calculation demonstrates significant ignorance and misleads the public a la REEFER MADNESS.

Also note how his references contradict one another, and look at the range of numbers he reports - 'one plant can produce 960 to 9,600 joints'. Ignorance makes me sad.
_____________________________________________
DrugFreeSC@aol.com
David Evans - tell him the truth

908-284-5080

["We have not claimed that a marijuana plant can make 28,000 joints per year. Who says we have made that claim? Please send me the citation.

How much pot can a plant produce?

The typical marijuana plant produces 1 to 5 pounds of smokeable materials (leaves and buds). Maybe more if grown indoors under the right conditions. [FN1]

How many joints are in 1 to 5 pounds of pot?

According to NORML, a typical marijuana joint is estimated to weigh about 0.4 grams. If a standard joint is 0.4 grams of average-quality 6% marijuana buds, an ounce of "standard pot" equals more than 60 joints. An ounce of more potent 12% sinsemilla is 120 joints. Thus an ounce is from 60 to 120 joints. There are 16 ounces in a pound. A pound of marijuana can thus produce from 960 to 1,920 joints. [FN2]

A plant can produce 1 to 5 pounds. Thus, at a minimum, a plant will produce approximately 960 to 1,920 joints up to 4,800 to 9,600 joints per year.

These are the calculations we have used for quite a while. They seem to be in the ranges mentioned below.

David Evans
908-284-5080

References

[FN1] Drug Identification Bible, third edition, page 606, Tim Marnell editor, Denver, CO, 800-772-2539 (a book for law enforcement, parents and educators)

[FN2] Economics of cannabis legalization, written by Dale Gieringer, Ph.D., coordinator, California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). Reprinted from Ed Rosenthal, ed., Hemp Today pp. 311-24. (Quick American Archives, Oakland, CA 1994)]"


.........

 

[Jim Finnel]

Editorial: Medical marijuana proposal needs more safeguards
by The Grand Rapids Press Editorial Board
Sunday October 19, 2008, 9:00 AM

Should Michigan residents approve the medical marijuana proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot? We say NO. Not because we are unconvinced about the medical benefits the drug could provide some sick and dying people. There is a growing body of research and patient testimonials about marijuana's medical properties, despite federal drug laws that say it has no accepted medical use. Our concern is that there are not enough safeguards in the ballot proposal to ensure proper regulation and controlled distribution of personally grown pot.

Proposal 1 would allow people with debilitating medical conditions to grow and use marijuana to relieve pain and suffering -- if they have a doctor's approval. The Department of Community Health would set up a medical marijuana registry and issue ID cards to approved users and growers after receiving written confirmation from patients' doctors. Authorized users could grow up to a dozen plants and possess up to 2.5 ounces for personal use.

Medical marijuana has been used by cancer patients on chemotherapy to control severe nausea; to restore the appetites of AIDS patients and others with wasting diseases; and to improve muscle control for people with multiple sclerosis. Twelve states have laws that permit the use of marijuana as a pain reliever, if recommended by a physician.

Opponents of the Michigan measure, particularly law enforcement officials, say letting people grow and use marijuana is not only against the law, but could increase accessibility to teenagers and increase the number of people driving under the influence. Those are legitimate concerns.

Figures from the Drug Free Schools Coalition indicate that one marijuana plant can yield
28,000 joints in one year. More than 300,000 joints could be made from 12 plants. The potential for a lot more of the drug circulating in the state is real, especially when up to 50,000 residents could qualify for medical marijuana. That would be one-half of one percent of Michigan's population. That is the percentage of Oregon's population approved to use medical marijuana since that state passed legislation in 1998.

Law officials may be concerned about legal issues, but there are other issues, such as the quality and potency of individual crops. Medicine should be regulated for dosage and strength to make sure people are not over- or under-medicating. Furthermore, sick people should not have to manufacture their own medicine. If marijuana is going to be the used for medical purposes in Michigan, we should figure out a better way to produce and distribute it safely. A proposal introduced in Minnesota did not allow patients to grow their own marijuana. They had to buy it from a registered non-profit outlet.

Drugs such as morphine, steroids, Valium and others are illegal without a doctor's prescription, and their production and use are regulated by the government. Medical marijuana should get the same treatment.

The National Marijuana Policy Project provided the funds to get Proposal 1 on the ballot in Michigan. Helping sick people feel better is an admirable goal. But this measure doesn't have adequate safeguards that would keep medical marijuana in the hands of the intended users -- and out of the hands of those who shouldn't have it.


News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Michigan Live
Copyright: 2008 Michigan Live
Contact: About Us - MLive.com
Website: https://www.mlive.com/grpress/opinion/index.ssf/2008/10/editorial_medical_marijuana_pr.html

 

[michiganrules]

man theres more pill heads around my area than there are pot heads .its actually easier to get almost any kind of pill up here than it is to get dope.just because its regulated doesent mean it dosent get distributed to none prescribed people thats just fact up here

 

[pvphoenix]

Yea I know what you mean man, this is bull shit.

I wish one plant made 10s of thousands of joints fuck! That would be amazing.

 

[StuntmanMike]

maybe whoever wrote the article wrongly quoted the coalition? I've done some brief searching and can't find ANYTHING about the damn coalition other than these bogus claims. I also find plenty of articles quoting the numbers in the "Drug Id Bible." The issue lies not with small, insignificant coalitions, but with this book that is seen as the authoritative book on drugs. It's this book that claims 1-5lbs of "smokeable materials" can be had from a single plant (and "maybe more if grown indoors").

Also, I found this article on NORML, with at least 3 references contesting the DEA-claimed 1lb/plant number.
NORML Report on U.S. Domestic Marijuana Production - NORML
"It should be noted that law enforcement's model when estimating marijuana's weight and value differs from the above paradigm. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials have long argued that a typical marijuana plant grown to harvest yields one pound (454 grams) of marijuana. However, most experts argue that this estimate is highly unrealistic. For example, data gathered by the United States Sentencing Commission supported the conclusion that the actual average yield of marijuana plants is 100 grams. [1] Government-sponsored studies conducted at the University of Mississippi calculated the amount of dry, smokable material at a maximum of 177 grams for an indoor marijuana plant and 412 grams for an outdoor plant. [2] The ten ounce estimate used by The NORML Foundation in this report reflects this data as well as the premise that most U.S. marijuana is densely grown in gardens of nine square feet or less. Under such conditions, DEA publications admit that one marijuana plant will likely yield approximately 224 grams of marijuana. [3] Had the authors accepted the standard one pound per plant model, 1997's national marijuana crop would have been worth $26.3 billion to growers and $43.8 billion at street market prices. Using these figures, marijuana's approximate street value ranks as almost twice the value of America's leading legal cash crop, corn."

1. "The one plant = 100 grams of marihuana equivalency used by the Commission for offenses involving fewer than 50 marihuana plants was selected as a reasonable approximation of the actual yield of marihuana plants taking into account (1) studies reporting the actual yield of marihuana plants ... (2) that all plants regardless of size are counted for guideline purposes while, in actuality, not all plants will produce useable marihuana ...; and (3) that male plants, which are counted for guideline purposes, are frequently culled because they do not produce the same quality of marihuana as do female plants." Federal Register 60 (May 10, 1995): 25078

2. Research conducted by James E. Urbanek, B.B.A., Research Professor and Assistant Director, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi. Studies cited in the written statement of attorney Jaralyn E. Merritt on behalf of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) before the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, March 6, 1996.

3. 1992 Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program Report, Washington, D.C.: Drug Enforcement Administration (1993).

The references are just as old as the references used by the coalition. If we use the 224g #, we get 224 grams per plant x .4g per joint = 560 joints per plant.

Bis where do you find this address and mansion?