Reschedule Cannabis

I applaud the folks in New Hampshire for their efforts, however, by not allowing patients or caregivers to grow their own medicine you are essentially stripping patients and caregivers of their right to possess and grow a natural plant that can yield organic and safe medicine. Again, I applaud the effort but this provision will ruin the entire bill in my opinion.

The New Hampshire Legislature has passed legislation that would allow chronically ill patients to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s prescription.

Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, said he would study the bill before deciding whether to sign or veto it. He has raised concerns about preventing marijuana cultivation and distribution. The bill would prohibit users or caregivers from growing the plant, which would be dispensed in licensed “compassion centers.”

Patients on the medical marijuana program should in fact be allowed to grow their own, not be overcharged and taxed on medicine! Sure, dispensaries are needed for some, but the fact is, dispensaries are not cheap and in fact are quite costly. Patients who can grow their own, and caregivers who plan on growing for sick people, should be allowed to grow this plant.

How long until they use this as a way of stopping patients from getting medicine? What do I mean? Even in California, counties are fighting to keep dispensaries open, many people do not want dispensaries in their city. These politicians will just place these “compassion centers” out of reach for most and not allow them in most cities and districts! Forcing patients to continue buying marijuana on the street, you have to open your eyes.

Allow patients to grow, allow caregivers to grow.

You cannot expect the few “compassionate centers” the state will allow to handle the entire state’s patients, you must allow patients to grow their own, if not, you are denying many safe access to medicine. How many will open? Will folks from across the state have to drive miles and miles to get medicine from an overpriced dispensary taxing their medicine? Sick people should be allowed to either grow their own if they can, or have a compassionate caregiver provide their medicine, not be overly taxed and charged for a plant that anyone can grow!

If the law is enacted, the Granite State will become the 14th state allowing medical marijuana and the fourth state to license dispensaries.

Already in California we see counties trying to eliminate dispensares, and in some cases are being successful, despite Proposition 215 being a state law politicians will always use their districts to exert influence among constituents, especially when it comes to opening marijuana dispensaries in their cities.

By not allow patients and caregivers to grow cannabis for medicine, you keep the state in full control and force patients to pay extraordinary amounts for something that can grow in any backyard in America! FOR FREE!!! Don’t let them take away your rights to a plant that was founded in your birth and arrival on this Earth. No man can take away our medicine, no one who walks on legs can stop us from using this wonderful plant to achieve a better life.

New Hampshire license plate motto is “live free or die” well, not if you plan on growing your own medicine, this state wants to make as much money as they can off of the sick and dying. If you cannot even grow your own marijuana plant there, you are hardly a free people. You are not even compassionate enough to allow sick people to grow their own cannabis to use as medicine, far from free.

Portland has medical marijuana clinics, but before this, was the only place…

The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation in Portland has opened a permanent medical marijuana clinic in Grants Pass.

The clinic, at 558 N.E. F St., No. 1, in Colonial Plaza, is the first permanent medical marijuana clinic in Oregon outside Portland.

We need to thank those brave and compassionate souls who are supporting patients right to medical marijuana in Oregon.

Retired heart surgeon Dr. Thomas Orvald of Portland has been traveling to Grants Pass to see patients about three times a month in rented facilities, said Henrik Rode, the foundation’s regional director, who organizes satellite clinics and helps set up permanent clinics around the country.

The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation’s mission is to help patients with qualifying medical conditions obtain a permit to grow and use marijuana to treat their symptoms, Rode said. Another goal is to educate people about the medicinal, social and industrial uses for cannabis to increase hemp cultivation.

Rode said medical marijuana treats a wide range of symptoms such as nausea in cancer or AIDS patients, as well as the chronic pain people suffer from medical conditions or as a result of a serious accident.

Rode said the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation already runs permanent clinics in Bellevue, Wash., Riverside, Calif., Denver and Detroit. He expects to open additional permanent clinics in Bend, Eugene and Spokane, Wash., in coming months. The foundation also holds a traveling clinic in Brookings every few months.

Without people like this, patients would have even harder time getting safe access to medical cannabis.

I was reading, Marijuana Good For Seizures, and came across this.

Oregon has the MOST successful program in the U.S. with about 22 thousand patients using it successfully for every kind of disease they can think of

Sounds like Oregon has a successful medical marijuana program.

Their snide remarks about “JUST GETTING HIGH” no longer has any validity. Besides that 3000 doctors in Oregon are signing applications – marijuana works very well for seizures.

Over 3,000 doctors in Oregon are recommending cannabis as medicine. The article even mentioned using a vaporizer as opposed to harmful method of smoking with pipes or “bongs.”

Marijuana was discovered to be effective against seizures more than one hundred years ago and it doesn’t make victims feel stupid as do most anti-seizure drugs. One of the most important features of marijuana is that if the victim inhales the VAPOR or smoke the good effects are within seconds. This is very important.

What’s interesting about what this doctor says, is also similar to what I’ve experienced with Migraine’s.

If the patient is using or uses marijuana with the Aura, it is likely they will not have the rest of the seizure.

If you use a vaporizer just as you begin to feel the Migraine coming on, you can often mitigate much of the discomfort and pain. Although it never goes away fully for all, it can often be better than the dangerous medicines available, either for seizures or Migraine.

Stunned by the spread of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, the City Council moved Tuesday to close a loophole that had encouraged their rapid growth.

The council also rejected a dozen applications from dispensaries that sought permission to operate despite the city’s moratorium and prepared to extend the ban for six months beyond its expiration in September.

When people need access to medical marijuana, are you surprised when the public’s demand meets the growing number of suppliers? Sick people need to have access to their medicine, not have 1 or 2 places miles away that sell their medicine. The number of dispensaries popping up, means that people are buying what they need, their medicine. And legally doing so. Safely, and no longer on the black market, they are paying tax and being good citizens.

The number of stores in the city has tripled, to nearly 600, since the City Council imposed a moratorium on new outlets in 2007.

Why the concern? Are these guys worried about the amount of liquor stores on every corner in their city?

And a council committee unveiled a revamped proposal for a comprehensive ordinance to replace the moratorium.

“We know that time is passing. We’ll close the loopholes, plug these floodgates,” said Councilman Ed Reyes, who leads the committee that oversees medical marijuana.

When the city adopted the moratorium in 2007, it allowed 186 dispensaries to stay open. Now there are 600 or more.

Los Angeles should be worried more about its gang problems and meth labs in stead of medical marijuana dispensary loopholes, and stop trying to stop what is obviously supported by the public demand for medical marijuana. Only legal, card holing marijuana patients can buy from dispensaries, this is safe and effective medicine, not street drugs, stop treating it as if it is. This product is taxed, and while California is doing so terrible financially right now, its best if California would make profit from this natural plant and stop trying to stop people from getting medicine into the hands of sick people, or those who need medical marijuana.

It is a good thing that the number of medical marijuana dispensaries are increasing, this will help drive the price down and create a good market for those looking for safe access to cannabis.

So, it is with a smile, I relay this latest news to you.

From L.A.’s medical pot dispensary moratorium led to a boom instead

A ban meant to prevent new dispensaries from opening included a loophole that entrepreneurs have exploited. Where four years ago there were only a handful, now there may be 600 dispensaries.

With the amount of drug and alcohol (liquor) stores near schools and churches and parks, why should people be worried about actual medical facilities that serve sick patients with medicine? The demand for medical marijuana is great enough to support the amount of dispensaries opening and this shows the public support of medical marijuana!

Four years ago, when the Los Angeles City Council started to wrestle with how to control medical marijuana, there were just four known storefront dispensaries, one each in Hancock Park, Van Nuys, Rancho Park and Cheviot Hills.

Now, police say there are as many as 600. There may be more. No one really knows.

That exponential rise came despite a moratorium passed in 2007 that was supposed to prohibit new dispensaries from opening. An exception was made for 186 that were already in business and registered with the city.

“The city of L.A. has failed us on this issue,” said Michael Larsen, public safety director with the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council. “There’s a huge loophole. L.A. city’s not watching. L.A. city’s not enforcing.”

No other city in California has seen such uncontrolled growth in dispensaries. As signs featuring the easily recognized saw-toothed cannabis leaf multiplied on commercial strips, neighborhood activists like Larsen began to ask their council members why the city was not shutting down dispensaries that opened after the moratorium.

I wonder how many liquor stores L.A. has?

The moratorium includes a standard provision that allows dispensaries to appeal to the City Council for a hardship exemption to be allowed to operate. Some time last year, medical marijuana entrepreneurs discovered that the city attorney’s office was not prosecuting dispensaries that had filed hardship applications, saying the City Council needed to rule on them first. The council has not acted on any of the applications.

So far, 508 dispensaries have applied for exemptions.

It was months before anyone at City Hall realized what was happening.

Dispensaries have spread across the city. In some places, they are clustered two or three to a block, sometimes near schools, libraries and parks. When the council passed the moratorium, it did not include LAPD Chief William J. Bratton’s recommendation to keep dispensaries at least 1,000 feet from places that children frequent.

I can understand the concern for children being around medical marijuana facilities, but this is medicine folks. People are not sitting around smoking joints at these places, strict “no smoking” rules are in effect, and the idea that there are many cities and states with liquor stores and drug stores near schools is ironic, don’t you think? One serves a drunken public, the other serves sick patients seeking legal access to their medicine.

We can all agree regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries will most likely be necessary, however, we must remain logical and proceed with reason and compassion for the patients who need these dispensaries for safe access to their medicine. Many patients are too sick to even grow their own marijuana, much less drive across three hour traffic in Los Angeles to get to a dispensary. These are sick people and just like drug stores are in our neighborhoods offering our elderly their meds, we must accept that medical marijuana grow ops and dispensaries will undoubtedly become part of the American landscape.

Until we do, we can advance no further… it is time to look past “pot” and refer only to this plant, as “medicine.” Maybe then, and only then, will some stop and consider the pain and anguish many of us go through daily trying to self medicate with a natural and effective medicine, but risk being labeled and prosecuted as a criminal by doing so under current law.

If you can grow, you should be allow to. If you cannot, you should be allowed to drive to a nearest medical marijuana dispensary and purchase your “medicine.” laws already protect California drivers from prosecution of possession while driving. All patients should have access to their medicine, even if that medicine is marijuana.