Texas lawmakers thought they could help ease jail overcrowding when they passed legislation allowing police to write tickets for misdemeanor marijuana possession and a few other nonviolent crimes, instead of hauling suspects to the clink.

But the new law, which went into effect Sept. 1, is being used only in Travis County. Prosecutors in Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties never set up a system to process the misdemeanor citations and, they say, they have no plans to do so.

"I think the Legislature was very sensitive to the fact that there are so many jails that are overcrowded," said Terri Moore, Dallas County's first assistant district attorney. "This was a great idea, but it raises a lot more questions that we are not ready to answer."

The new law gives officers the option to arrest, as they have been doing, or write tickets for possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana. Some supporters of the law say these nonviolent offenders could be treated the same as drivers who get caught speeding and agree to go before a judge. But critics say these class A and B misdemeanors, although not violent crimes, could still result in jail time and require investigators to build a solid case for prosecution. As a result, the burden of making sure that suspects make it to court and no one is misidentified is higher. For Greg Davis, Collin County's first assistant district attorney, one of his qualms with the new law is the perception created by ticketing for a drug offense, instead of making an arrest.

"It may... lead some people to believe that drug use is no more serious than double parking," Mr. Davis said. "We don't want to send that message to potential drug users, particularly young people."

For Ms. Moore, writing citations for marijuana possession also raises questions about prosecuting those cases.

How do officers prove that the person ticketed is the same one who shows up for court? Digital cameras or fingerprinting could be used, but that would be more equipment for officers, Ms. Moore said.

In addition to helping with jail crowding, the law in theory helps keep officers on the streets instead of making runs to the jail for nonviolent offenses. In Dallas, jail overcrowding is a daily discussion, said Ron Stretcher, the county's director of criminal justice. The Dallas County Jail has a history of being understaffed and overcrowded, which has led in part to repeated failed state inspections.

As a result of the cramped jail conditions, county officials hold monthly meetings to discuss the jail population and possible solutions, including the idea of ticketing for some misdemeanor offenses. But they believe more research is necessary.

Mr. Stretcher said that just because Dallas County is not currently applying the new law does not mean that officials never would. But deciding whether to implement the edict is not simply based on county officials' desire to ease jail overcrowding.

"These are not just tickets. These are crimes that need to be appropriately dealt with," Mr. Stretcher said. "We want to make sure we get them back to court to stand trial. We want to make sure we don't miss folks who might have prior bad acts."

"It's not about emptying the jail. It's about making sure that we have room in the jail for the people who need to be there," he said. Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, who authored the legislation, said it's likely that some counties are taking a wait-and-see approach, looking for someone to lead the way.

The Travis County Sheriff's Department is the only law enforcement agency in the state known to be using the new law. The Travis County Sheriff's Department lobbied for it, in part, because of their problem with jail overcrowding. But it's also a way to work more efficiently, said Roger Wade, the sheriff's spokesman.

"We understand that there are times when it's just easier for everybody involved" to ticket, Mr. Wade said. "You still have that arrest stat. You still have the court date. It just saves time and resources [not] bringing someone all the way down to the jail."

Mr. Wade said officers there began writing citations for misdemeanor marijuana possession and other approved misdemeanors on Dec.1 and have encountered no problems. But he said it's too soon to determine how often officers are ticketing vs. arresting for these misdemeanor offenses. Unlike Dallas County, Travis County already had a direct filing system in place that made it possible to quickly implement the new law. When someone is arrested, the case is automatically assigned to a prosecutor and paperwork is filed with the county or district clerk's office, Mr. Wade said. With the high price of gasoline, Mr. Wade said, writing citations also saves money because officers don't have to drive into Austin from the county's outskirts to put a suspect in jail.

"There are folks that think we are being soft on crime because we are just giving tickets," Mr. Wade said. "We are still hard on crime. We believe if we can save resources and have the same affect on crime, then we should take advantage of this."

Copyright: 2007 The Dallas Morning News

Source: Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas

No, Cheech and Chong aren't on the payroll. Neither is the Weed Man. They don't have free samples, or the munchies. And their office Christmas party wasn't any wilder than yours was.

But as a small pharmaceutical firm working on a medicinal product derived from the same plant that's, um, high on the radar for recreational purposes, some ribbing is to be expected.

Luckily they take it all in stride at Toronto-based Cannasat Therapeutics Inc., one of a handful of companies in the world that is researching and developing medicines derived from cannabis plants ( yes, that would be marijuana ).

Their aim is something a lot more serious: to help people suffering with chronic and neuropathic pain, depression, anxiety and movement disorders using all the known benefits of cannabis - including being a pain reliever, a relaxant, an anti-nauseant and an appetite stimulant - minus the social stigma of smoking pot.

On top of that, their first product in testing, CAT-310, takes away the so-called "buzz" of marijuana that makes some terminally and chronically ill patients, particularly the elderly, uncomfortable and anxious. This medicine is aimed directly at the $4 billion neuropathic pain market that is mainly serviced by various opiates, anti-convulsants and anti-depressants.

Cannasat's pursuit is all perfectly legal and has the backing of Health Canada, including a narcotics licence, "and you have to be a pure-bred pharmaceutical company to get one," notes chief executive David Hill.

His mission since Cannasat was launched in 2004 is to educate investors about the benefits of what he refers to more scientifically as "cannabinoids," the naturally occuring molecules unique to the cannabis plant. The best known is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).

The idea is to mimic smoked cannabis through the invention of a new drug delivery technology that can be absorbed on the tongue, like a thin wafer. It doesn't get digested by the stomach and processed by the liver before reaching the brain, so it's similar to inhaling cannabis.

There are other products on the market using THC, including capsules and an oral spray, but anything that lands in the stomach and is processed by the liver increases the high, he explains.

"What we're trying to do is we've created a sublingual tablet so it goes into the mouth, into the bloodstream and then into the brain. What's compelling is when you take oral THC, it's five times more psycho-active. When it goes through your stomach and metabolizes, it's getting you high.

"So it's losing its efficacy and it's making you more stoned. So we're trying to take clinically proven molecules and reducing the high," Hill says.

One of the pluses is that THC is known to be an effective treatment for neuropathic pain and nausea.

"Most people who are sick don't want to get high. And what doctors are reluctant to do is prescribe medications that get you high," such as opiates, which can also be toxic, make you nauseas and constipated.

"Cannabinoids are safe. They're virtually non-toxic. We all remember from high school that if we drank too much we got sick. But if you smoke too much pot the worst thing that would happen to you is you fell asleep. And when you woke up the next day you might have been a tad groggy, but really there's no hangover.

"We know from recreational data that when some people take ( smoke ) too much THC it can cause paranoia, it can cause anxiety. Some people love it to death. They think it's just wonderful. But for some people it causes anxiety," says Hill.

Opiates such as Oxycontin and codeine can help with pain relief but they've been proven to be highly addictive. THC is much less so, he says.

"The biggest problem with oral dosage forms of THC today, the spray and the capsule, is that THC is a very thick, oily substance.

"Our solution is we have a nano-encapsulation technology. It takes that oily substance and turns it into a powder, so that powder will now dissolve in the saliva," and you don't have to swallow it, he explains.

"We know this works. If we can create a more elegant delivery system, I think we have a very marketable pharmaceutical product," Hill says.

One person who is excited about the medicine's potential is Sara Lee Irwin, Cannasat's director of public relations. When she was 32 years old she was diagnosed with cancer in her pelvis and hip. Today at 50, she walks with a cane and still suffers from chronic pain.

She's taken every powerful painkiller out there from Percodan to Oxycontin but found she couldn't function normally in her daily life because of the high, the constipation and the lack of appetite. She's taken THC in oral capsules but she's never found it as effective as smoking herbal cannabis.

Because of her condition, Irwin is one of the 2,000 people in Canada legally allowed to purchase and use medical marijuana, which she smokes three or four times daily to ease her suffering.

"I've switched over completely. It moves the pain off-centre and I have a ravenous appetite," she notes.

When it comes to her company's mission: "I feel really good about what we're doing, and I have a great interest in this," Irwin adds.

Recently Cannasat reached a milestone they hope will get them closer to their goal of bringing a safe and effective product to market.

Earlier this month Cannasat successfully completed Phase I clinical trials, the first key study in humans that now provides them with important safety and medical data to launch them on to further product development.

"It's an important first step for us. It keeps us on track to move CAT-310 to Phase II testing by the end of 2008," he says.

It's at that point that the big pharmaceutical companies take notice and could sign on as a partner to market and distribute the product. They're already in preliminary talks with some, he says. They estimate revenue potential of $500 million-plus.

"We're not doing this to be a little, wee company. We see huge potential here," Hill says.

Cannasat went public last year on the TSX Venture Exchange and continues to trade at or around its 52-week low of 17 % a share. Its market captialization is about $14 million.

Companies getting into Phase II of clinical trials, as they will be next fall, are trading north of $100 million in market cap, he says.

"We have great potential to be a big company with institutional money and move the research along further," Hill notes, adding their next products will be aimed at treating mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, and with localized pain.

But what about the public perception about pot?

"Now that we've established ourselves as a pharmaceutical company, I don't see that stigma. It certainly hasn't held us back in Canada. We've had a lot of support from Health Canada," offers Hill.

"I think the only stigma we have is that the average person, when they hear about it, their first reaction is cannabis is somehow a back alley drug. And I'm trying to show that (opiates) are a back alley drug too.

"I'm not some closet pot smoker or anything. I got into this because the company approached me with a business opportunity and I wanted to do something that I could be really passionate about.

"I realized there's an enormous business opportunity here that could really help people."

Copyright: 2007 Toronto Star

Source: TheStar.com

One of the newest uses of Cannabis is in construction materials. Cannabis can be used in the manufacture of "press board" or "composite board". This involves gluing fibrous Cannabis stalks together under pressure to produce a board which is many times more elastic and durable than hardwood. Because Cannabis produces a long, tough fiber it is the perfect source for press-board. Another interesting application of Cannabis in industry is making plastic. Many plastics can be made from the high-cellulose hemp hurd. Cannabis seed oil has a multitude of uses in products such as varnishes and lubricants.

Using Cannabis to build is by no means a new idea. French archeologists have discovered bridges built with a process that mineralizes hemp stalks into a long-lasting cement. The process involves no synthetic chemicals and produces a material which works as a filler in building construction. Called Isochanvre, it is gaining popularity in France. Isochanvre can be used as drywall, insulates against heat and noise, and is very long lasting.

"Bio-plastics" are not a new idea, either - way back in the 1930's Henry Ford had already made a whole car body out of them - but the processes for making them do need more research and development. Bio-plastics can be made without much pollution. Unfortunately, companies are not likely to explore bio-plastics if they have to either import the raw materials or break the law. (Not to mention compete with the already established petrochemical products).