Tag: medical marijuana

Oregon has a law allowing assisted suicides. Yesterday, the Register-Guard conducted an interview with Hillary and asked her views on the topic;

Q: What’s your attitude toward Oregon’s assisted suicide law?

A: I believe it’s within the province of the states to make that decision. I commend Oregon on this count, as well, because whether I agree with it or not or think it’s a good idea or not, the fact that Oregon is breaking new ground and providing valuable information as to what does and doesn’t work when it comes to end-of-life questions, I think, is very beneficial.

Q: Would you have voted for it if you were a resident of the state?

A: I don’t know the answer to that. I have a great deal of sympathy for people who are in difficult end-of-life situations. I’ve gone to friends who have been in great pain and suffering at the end of their lives. I’ve never been personally confronted with it but I know it’s a terribly difficult decision that should never be forced upon anyone. So with appropriate safeguards and informed decision-making, I think it’s an appropriate right to have.

In March, the Medford Mail-Tribune asked Obama his views: (More...)

The 124,000 members of the American College of Physicians, the largest organization of internal medicine physicians in the country, are calling on the feds to ease the ban on medical marijuana by reclassifying it and also to engage in more research to prove its benefits.

The American College of Physicians, the nation's largest organization of doctors of internal medicine, with 124,000 members, contends that the long and rancorous debate over marijuana legalization has obscured good science that has demonstrated the benefits and medicinal promise of cannabis.

In a 13-page position paper approved by the college's governing board of regents and posted today on the group's website, the group calls on the government to drop marijuana from Schedule I, a classification it shares with illegal drugs such as heroin and LSD that are considered to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse.

Pot is now a Schedule I controlled substance, same as heroin.

The American College of Physicians' position paper calls for protection of both doctors and patients from criminal and civil penalties in states that have adopted medical-marijuana laws.

More...

Just back from Bill Clinton's appearance at the historic Stock Pavilion on the University of Wisconsin Campus. When Gary Storck and I approached, we were directed across the street by the most polite pair of Secret Service agents I've ever dealt with, but, as it's a narrow street, not an unreasonable "Free Speech Zone."

Our signs referred to Bill's encounter, as a Candidate, with Jacki Rickert of Mondovi, Wisconsin in 1992. Jacki had been approved for the federal medical marijuana program, but not yet admitted when Bush I closed the program to new admissions in 1989. She caught up with Bill in Osseo on his post-Convention Mississippi River bus tour. After she explained her odyssey through the federal bureaucracy, Bill "I feel your pain" promised "When I'm President, you'll get your medicine."

Come the Inaugural, Jacki sent letters, made calls seeking fulfillment of that commitment, but got back only form letters. "If drugs were legal, my brother Roger would be dead."

California now has vending machines that dispense medical marijuana to users, 24/7, just like an ATM.

Check out this AP video.

The DEA wants to shut them down, even though they are legal under state law.

Another good thing about our Democratic candidates: All support ending the federal raids on medical marijuana clinics. Granite Staters has report cards for both the Democratic and Republican candidates. Here's where they were in 2003 and 2004.

Watch Mitt Romney turn away from a medical marijuana user in a wheelchair.

Here's the Granite Stater's Scorecard on the candidates. Hillary and Obama both get "A"'s. John Edwards gets an A- and Bill Richardson gets an A+.

• Hillary Clinton
• Barack Obama
• John Edwards
• Bill Richardson

John McCain, Rudy, Huckabee and Romney get "F's. [Hat tip Crooks and Liars.]

After a Fort Collins, Colorado judge last week ordered the police to return 39 plants to two medical marijuana caregivers, the police department has complied: by returning dead plants.

James and Lisa Masters, the former defendants and owners of the plants, will sue. Their lawyer puts the value of the plants at $100,000.

The Judge ordered the plants and the grow system returned after ruling the search was illegal. The D.A. says there was no obligation to preserve the plants because the Masters weren't on the registry at the time of the search. (They couldn't afford it and with help from others, were placed on the registry several days later.)

Larimer County, Colorado District Court Judge James Hiatt ordered the cops to return 39 seized marijuana plants and a grow system to a couple who grew the plants as caregivers for themselves and a few other patients.

Brian Vincente, lawyer for the couple, hopes authorities have taken care of the plants as provided by the state's medical marijuana law, which was approved by voters in 2000.

"If they've allowed these plants to die, they've broken the law," said Vincente, executive director of Sensible Colorado, a non-profit advocacy group of medical marijuana patients. He described the ruling as the largest return of medical marijuana to a grower since the law went into effect.

If the plants were destroyed, Vincente said his clients will seek compensation for the plants, which he estimated to be about $100,000.

The prosecution is deciding whether to appeal the judge's order. [More...]

Barack Obama is not a supporter of medical marijuana. He is a supporter of more research to determine if it helps reduce pain.

When a voter asked Obama if he was for the legalization of medical marijuana, Obama said that he wasn't in favor of legalization without scientific evidence and tight controls.

..."My attitude is if the science and the doctors suggest that the best palliative care and the way to relieve pain and suffering is medical marijuana then that's something I'm open to ..... (my emphasis).....He added that he was concerned that the reasons for the use of marijuana would grow and create a "slippery slope."

There is a plethora of research showing that medicinal pot reduces pain and relieves disease symptoms.[More....]

Drug War Rant and Hit and Run pick up on John McCain's recent statements on a blogger conference call about medical marijuana. The question posed was:

"Should federal law supersede the will of the people in a given state when it comes to medical marijuana?"

McCain's answer:

McCain started chuckling. "The will of the people, my friend, is that medical marijuana is not something that the quote 'people' want," he responded. "Certain people feel strongly about this issue, and they show up at most town hall meetings, obviously feel very strongly about it. There is no convincing evidence...there's evidence, but no convincing evidence to me that medical marijuana relief of pain and suffering cannot be accomplished by prescriptions from doctors... So, when you're talking about the will of the people, you're going to have to show me the will of the people besides the will of a small number of people who feel very strongly about the issue, as obviously you do."

More...

Drug War Rant reports Bill Richardson refuses to be bullied by the D.E.A. and has been actively trying to implement New Mexico's medical marijuana law. (Background here.)

He's directed state officials to continue to work toward finding a way to implement the law, and has written a letter to the President urging him to end the "White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's misguided priority and wasted resources spent to intimidate states trying to implement medical marijuana programs."

From Richardson's letter to Bush, which he posted on his website.

I am writing to raise my deep concern about the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's misguided priority and wasted resources spent to intimidate states trying to implement medical marijuana programs that provide relief to citizens suffering from the pain of severe illness or injury.

"At a time when the scourge of meth is coming across the border, and cocaine and heroin use continues to ravage our communities, the federal government should be cracking down on real criminals---not people who are trying to help those in pain."

Via Stop the Drug War, an employee of the San Francisco Health Department has sent a letter to a marijuana dispensary warning them not to skimp on the amount pot it places in its ounce baggies.

Seems like the dispensary was rounding out an ounce to 28 grams when it's really 28.35 grams. From the letter:

It has come to my attention that some MCD's [medical cannabis dispensaries] are using the incorrect equivalent conversion between grams and ounces. You must use 28.35 grams/ounce, not 28 grams/ounce for all cannabis sold by weight. The law behind this is in the State Business and Professions Code, which is typically enforced by Weights and Measures (State Dept of Agriculture). As they currently are not addressing weights and measures issues regarding cannabis clubs, the City's MCD Inspection Program will enforce this requirement.

Please feel free to share this with any club operator (I do not have email for most operators).

Bottom line: More bud for the buck.

Many states now have laws allowing medical use of marijuana. New Mexico's law, passed a few months ago, has a new twist. It is the first law that requires the state to produce its own pot.

The law, effective Sunday, not only protects medical marijuana users from prosecution _ as 11 other states do _ but requires New Mexico to oversee a production and distribution system for the drug.

"The long-term goal is that the patients will have a safe, secure supply that doesn't mean drug dealers, that doesn't mean growing their own," said Reena Szczepanski, director of Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico.

The state Department of Health must issue rules by Oct. 1 for the licensing of marijuana producers and in-state, secured facilities, and for developing a distribution system.

The other states with medical marijuana laws:

Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Maryland's law doesn't protect patients from arrest, but it keeps defendants out of jail if they can convince judges they needed marijuana for medical reasons.

Back in the 90's, when I used to debate New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, then in private practice, on cable news shows, he was unequivocally opposed to all use of marijuana.

He's changed his mind.

"On many issues, hopefully you learn, you study, you evolve,” the governor said. “This is one where I had, as a prosecutor, a presumption against the use of any narcotic which wasn’t designed purely for medicinal and medical effect, and now there are ways that have persuaded me that it can be done properly.”

New York is almost ready to legalize medical use of marijuana. The hang-up is not whether it should be legal, but how users will acquire it.

More...

The operator of a Pacific Northwest medical marijuana clinic has defied the gag order accompanying a subpoena for records of patients assisted in complying with the pre-requisites of State laws governing access to medical marijuana,  

No link, via email.

Acknowledging it's risky to support medical marijuana in an election year in which he's running for President, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said yesterday, "So what if it's risky? It's the right thing to do."

Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, poised to sign a bill making New Mexico the 12th state to legalize medical marijuana, said Thursday he realizes his action could become an issue in the presidential race. "So what if it's risky? It's the right thing to do," said Richardson, one of the candidates in the crowded 2008 field. "What we're talking about is 160 people in deep pain. It only affects them." The legislation would create a program under which some patients — with a doctor's recommendation — could use marijuana provided by the state health department.

New Mexico lawmakers have approved the bill and Richardson will sign it into law within the next few weeks.