The Cannabis Cafe, which opened this month in Portland, Oregon is the first marijuana cafe of its kind in the country. Although it doesn’t sell marijuana on the premises, the Cannabis Café allows any of Portlands estimated 21,000 licensed medical-marijuana users a space to consume marijuana in a social setting. We speak with Madeline Martinez, executive-Director of the Oregon chapter of NORML—The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws—which runs the Cannabis Café.
This is the story of Sam, a 10 year old boy with Autism. After many tries with various medications, his family decided to give medicinal marijuana a try. You be the judge.
by Bryan Cohen from Reader.com
There was a whiff of hypocrisy inside Conference Room A at Harrah’s Casino in Council Bluffs, where the Iowa Board of Pharmacy held its last medical marijuana hearing. While there have been no deaths and few, if any, serious addictions linked directly to use of marijuana, the board held its public meeting in a building filled with cigarette smoke, drinking, and gambling — all highly addictive, potentially fatal and absolutely legal.
While Iowa is a latecomer in the fight for medical marijuana, users and advocates come fully loaded with experiences, good and bad. Carl Olsen of Des Moines is one of those people who had good reason to testify at the Nov. 4 hearing: He was responsible for it.
In 1978 Olsen was arrested in Iowa for possession of marijuana. A member of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, Olsen said he was using marijuana for religious purposes. The church gained notoriety in the 1970s when members at a Miami compound repeatedly staved off arrests and investigations despite their open use of marijuana and importation of the plant from other countries. Church members maintain ganja is a religious sacrament — an argument that was upheld by the Florida Supreme Court.
Olsen said he never considered going to the IBP to seek justice until 1996, when California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana. The IBP has a statutory obligation to make periodic recommendations on the rescheduling of drugs in the state.
“At the time I didn’t see the Iowa Board of Pharmacy as the source of my problems, but they really are,” he said. “The courts won’t overturn these laws, but the IBP could (recommend it).”
In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act. It’s the primary source for classifying drugs based on toxicity and addictive qualities and sets rules for production, possession, use, and penalties. Substances are divided into five Schedules, with Schedule I representing the most harmful drugs such as heroin, LSD and methamphetamines. Since 1970, marijuana has been listed among these drugs, as a substance with the highest potential for abuse and no medical benefits. Soon after the CSA passed, many states adopted nearly identical versions. The Iowa controlled substances act, which mimics the federal version, is reviewed annually by the IBP.
Olsen first petitioned the IBP in May 2008 when he discovered marijuana was listed as both a Schedule I and Schedule II drug in Iowa. The only difference between the two is Schedule I drugs lack “accepted medical use in the United States.” Since 13 states had legalized medical marijuana, Olsen reasoned there was an accepted medical use in the U.S., negating Iowa’s Schedule I classification.
The IBP said Olsen’s request was based on a legal question (the wording of what constitutes Schedule I) and that there was not enough medical evidence to warrant a recommendation to reschedule. Olsen took the issue to court, and despite a ruling that the board must answer Olsen’s questions, he never got a satisfactory answer.
However, Olsen’s petition did spark IBP’s recent medical marijuana hearings, according to board members. Olsen said it was about time.
“The fact that 13 states have legalized medical marijuana use and the IBP hadn’t even looked at it, it made them look stupid,” he said. “But I think they did a good job and I think their heart was in it.”
The IBP’s series of four public hearings across the state, meant to gauge the risks and benefits of medical marijuana, drew over 40 hours of testimony and stacks of materials overwhelmingly in support of patient’s rights. Board members told The Reader it’s unusual to hold public hearings on drug rescheduling; most rescheduling is done automatically to match recommendations from the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Susan Fry, one of two pharmacy board members at the Bluffs hearing, said the board had no preconceived views on medical marijuana going into the investigation.
“We’re basically starting at square one,” she said. “We want to hear from both sides, from all sides. We’re just here to listen.”
“It’s premature to say how medical marijuana would be administered” if the legislature were to reschedule the drug, Fry said. The board is expected to make a recommendation to the state Legislature by January. Fry said the recommendation would be limited to whether marijuana should continue to be a Schedule I drug in Iowa; anything beyond that recommendation would be considered comment.
Some recent movement at the national level may have given the board a few nods in support of rescheduling. Earlier this month the American Medical Association, the nations largest organizations of doctors, urged the federal government to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II to allow for more testing. The AMA had a long-standing position against rescheduling marijuana.
Last month the U.S. Department of Justice recommended federal prosecutors stop going after medical marijuana patients and dispensaries that were complying with state laws. After a flurry of stories and rumors that suggested the move heralded a major shift in marijuana law, President Obama’s drug policy tzar, Gil Kerlikowske, said legalization was absolutely off the table and that the administration still did not support state referendums allowing the use of medical marijuana.
“Regarding state ballot initiatives concerning medical marijuana, I believe that medical questions are best decided not by popular vote, but by science,” Kerlikowske said. But medical marijuana advocates say that position only reinforces the IBP’s efforts to consider rescheduling and going through the legislature, as opposed to a state referendum.
“It’s an odd, slow, but possibly sure way to move the body politic to accept this, where other states have really struggled,” said Allen St. Pierre, spokesperson for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Out of this process, law enforcement officials will be so much more willing to comply with the law.”
Iowa is often seen as a bellwether state in U.S. politics; legalization of medical marijuana could be politically groundbreaking. An IBP recommendation followed by legislative rescheduling would also skirt many of the political and legal hurdles states like California have faced. Instead of dealing with claims that out-of-state interests rammed a referendum through Iowa, the current procedure would pair a respected state pharmaceutical board decision with the normal lawmaking process.
That is, of course, somewhat wishful thinking for marijuana advocates. Most state legislators who were questioned say that movement on the issue is unlikely. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is also an outspoken foe of medical marijuana. He sharply criticized the Obama Administration for its hands-off policy on state sanctioned medical marijuana.
In the meantime, Iowa remains a “zero-tolerance” state on marijuana possession and continues to push patients like Patterson to go elsewhere. A former Iowa resident who now lives in California, Patterson testified at the Bluffs hearing. She suffers from cerebral palsy which has caused her to speak with a severe stutter; a stutter Patterson says is drastically reduced by only a few drags of marijuana.
“I have been on many prescription medications, those did not assist me in controlling my stutter nearly as effectively as cannabis,” she said at the hearing. “Nobody deserves to lose custody over their children because of the medication they use. Nobody deserves to feel like a criminal.”
To see “before and after” video of Jacqueline, check out the documentary In Pot We Trust.
[Editor's note: Here is a clip from In Pot We Trust featuring Jacqueline]
(Source) It is time to re-examine whether marijuana should be legally categorized as a schedule I drug, the AMA House of Delegates said at its Interim Meeting.
The goal of such a review is to facilitate “the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines and alternate delivery methods,” says the newly adopted house policy.
The current scheduling “limits the access to cannabinols for even research — it is very difficult,” said AMA Board of Trustees member Edward L. Langston, MD, a Lafayette, Ind., family physician. “We believe there should be a scientific review of cannabinols in the treatment of pain and other issues. We support research on the use of cannabinols for medical use.”
Scientists researching marijuana’s medical properties must get the Drug Enforcement Administration’s approval every step of the way, and the sole legal national source of cannabis for scientific purposes is the National Institute on Drug Abuse. A number of bureaucratic hurdles apply to cannabis research that do not impede other drug investigations, said a report from the AMA Council on Science and Public Health.
Previously, the AMA called for more medical research on marijuana but balked at questioning its placement in the DEA schedule. The science council originally recommended retaining marijuana’s schedule I status, but delegates objected in reference committee testimony.
“Cannabinoids are useful drugs,” says Melvyn Sterling, MD, a California palliative care physician.
“Schedule I is very appropriate for heroin and other noxious substances that have no place in medicine, but cannabinoids are useful drugs,” said Melvyn Sterling, MD, a palliative care doctor and California Medical Assn. delegate who spoke on his own behalf. “There is compelling research that cannabinoids are helpful in treating the spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis and in persistent nausea associated with chemotherapy, and they may have other uses yet undiscovered. Why are they undiscovered? Because it’s a schedule I drug.”
Though delegates called for reviewing whether marijuana fits into schedule I, the house’s new policy said the recommendation “should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug.”
Last year, the American College of Physicians adopted policy supporting a review of marijuana’s schedule I classification. By this article’s deadline, the DEA had not responded to American Medical News inquiries on the AMA’s action. The Food and Drug Administration cited an interagency memo reflecting policy of the DEA, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the FDA stating that the agencies “do not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes.”
The print version of this content appeared in the Nov 30, 2009 issue of American Medical News.
(Source) Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer has become the first hospital in Israel to administer marijuana to patients for medical purposes. Over the last six months, as part of a pilot project, 20 patients have been treated with the drug.
The first was a 24-year-old cancer patient, who recently died. She was hospitalized about six months ago in the hematology ward and suffered severe pain and nausea. According to Ora Shamai, the head nurse for Sheba’s pain management program, “the patient had a permit from the Health Ministry, and she had joints, but the ward wouldn’t let her smoke them,” due to the presence of specialized equipment in the ward that could be disrupted by opening a window.
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How Marijuana Became Legal for more on Irvin Rosenfeld
(Source) Nov 20, 2009 – Irvin Rosenfeld, a 56-year-old stockbroker from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. will smoke his 115,000th marijuana cigarette Friday, a possible world record, and he can thank the U.S. government for his supply.
“Yep, provided by Uncle Sam,” Rosenfeld told NBC “They grow it for me, I find that quite ironic.”
Since 1982, Rosenfeld has been a patient in the Federal Drug Administration’s Investigational New Drug Program.
He suffers from a rare bone disorder called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses. To alleviate the pain associated with the disorder he was prescribed marijuana.
The marijuana is grown on a farm on the campus of the University of Mississippi and is delivered to a pharmacy where Rosenfeld picks up a tin of 300 federally grown and rolled cigarettes that have been sent for him. He said he smokes between 10 and 12 marijuana joints per day.
“The first thing I do every morning is smoke two joints as I watch my business shows,” Rosenfeld said. “Then another on my drive to work.”
According to Fortune magazine Rosenfeld is one of four people in the United States whom the federal government supplies with medical marijuana.
His marijuana use has led to comical moments at his office. Marijuana “has a distinct smell,” said an executive that works with Rosenfeld to USA Today . “The mailman or someone coming into the building will stop and notice.”
NBCMiami.com. reported that Rosenfeld is writing a book on his experiences as the nation’s longest-running legal pot-smoker, tentatively called “Potluck.” He hopes to have it published in the spring. But he expects Friday, Nov. 20, he will set a world record for marijuana consumption when when he lights up No. 115,000.
Earlier this month, the American Medical Association moved closer to supporting medical marijuana, adopting a measure urging a federal review of marijuana’s status as a controlled substance, reported The Associated Press. The group said its position doesn’t mean it supports legalizing marijuana.
Mike O’Sullivan reports on the changing attitudes, the ongoing debate, and the thriving industry in medical marijuana in California.
Tuesday, the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest organization of physicians, called for a review of the U.S. government’s classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical uses. Without endorsing clinical use of the drug, the group called for more research into its possible benefits. Fourteen U.S. states allow the use of marijuana for medical reasons. It remains illegal under federal law, but the Obama administration recently said it will not prosecute marijuana dispensaries that follow state laws.
By Gregory L. Gerdeman and Juan Sanchez-Ramos for St. Petersburg Times
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Samuel Bagdorf of San Francisco, who suffers from anxiety disorders, exhales after smoking his marijuana pipe last month at the San Francisco Medical Cannabis Clinic.
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[Associated Press]
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Medicinal use of cannabis is being discussed more actively than ever. Although prior to its prohibition in 1937 cannabis was used widely in pharmacies, there was little debate about its usefulness to treat various symptoms such as inflammatory pain. Cannabis remedies were well known, publicly advertised and widely prescribed.
“Marijuana,” on the other hand, was virtually unknown Mexican jargon before becoming the “assassin of youth” in propaganda films. Such depictions led to an unceremonious vote by Congress to effectively criminalize Cannabis sativa in all of its forms. The strongest opposition came not from the public (which did not equate the new “scourge” with cannabis remedies) but from the American Medical Association, whose congressional liaison decried the legislation as speciously motivated by “indirect hearsay evidence.”
Over the next 72 years, the image of the American cannabis user morphed from the immigrant madman and criminal deviant of the ’40s, to the counter-culture crowd of the ’60s to the unmotivated slacker of the ’80s. In the ’90s, a “new” image arose: the medical marijuana patient, who is driven not to get high but to get well. It is linguistically ironic that “medical marijuana” may usher in a new chapter in the ancient relationship between human society and the cannabis plant.
Now the American Medical Association has turned heads by again weighing in on cannabis policy. After extensive review of scientific and clinical evidence regarding the harms and benefits of cannabinoids (molecules found in cannabis) as well as recent legal precedence regarding medical marijuana, the AMA announced that the federal Schedule I status of marijuana (most prohibited) should be reconsidered in order to advance clinical research with botanical cannabinoid medicines. The AMA report furthermore expresses that “physicians who comply with their ethical obligations to ‘first do no harm’ and to ‘relieve pain and suffering’ should be protected in their endeavors, including advising and counseling their patients on the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes.”
The emphasis on research is important. There is a future for botanical cannabis-based medicines, but patients and physicians should be empowered to base health care decisions on real evidence rather than hyperbolic claims of marijuana’s dangers or virtues. Not surprisingly, the AMA does not support legalizing medical marijuana through state ballot initiatives, such as the one Floridians could vote on next year if a petition by the group People United for Medical Marijuana gains traction. Cannabis is a plant and modern standards for purity, packaging and delivery of drugs play an important part in assuring reliable predictability. Also at play is the arena of pharmaceutical development — new drugs are being pioneered to enhance the body’s THC-like “endocannabinoid system,” intended to achieve therapeutic effect with improved specificity and minimal psychoactivity. Research is clearly needed to ensure efficacy and safety of these new drugs.
Nonetheless, the perceived promise of such drugs highlights a need for greater maturity in social discussion of medical use for cannabis and/or its constituent molecules. Whatever else might be said about the apparent sea change of public opinion about cannabis, the oft-repeated claims by federal drug czars that medical marijuana is a “smoke screen” or lacks even a “shred of evidence” must be laid to rest as a relic of socially juvenile, 20th century reefer madness. Public policy should be based on sound scientific evidence — not a roadblock to it. Cannabis has been used safely as a folkloric remedy for thousands of years, but in modern America inappropriate Schedule I listing of marijuana has obstructed research to find promising therapies for debilitating human conditions. This is a paramount reason why the scheduling should be changed.
Gregory L. Gerdeman, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of biology at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. Juan Sanchez-Ramos, Ph.D./M.D., is the Helen Ellis Professor of Neurology and chair for Parkinson’s Disease Research at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa.
Sanchez-Ramos was a physician involved in the “Compassionate Use Protocol for Marijuana” sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. In this study, marijuana was prepared and shipped by NIDA to patients with various medical conditions. His patient suffered from muscle spasms and pain caused by a rare disease, successfully treated with cannabis.
MPP Director of Government Relations Aaron Houston appears on Fox Freedom Watch to talk about the advances in marijuana policy and the failure of the drug war with Judge Andrew Napolitano. 11/09/2009
“Run From the Cure” the Rick Simpson Story
watch the full movie here: Run From The Cure
this is part 1
