Reschedule Cannabis

People think only California has medical marijuana and this is simply not true.

I as talking to a relative from Colorado yesterday about medical marijuana and their response to my comments about medical marijuana programs was “well thats only in California.”

They were shocked to find out that their state had a medical marijuana program and it is actually growing exponentially and doing great!

As the hearing of a proposed Colorado medical marijuana ammendment kicked off this morning, Ron Hyman, registrar for the Colorado Department of Vital Statistics gave some insightful information about the state’s medical marijuana program. The rate of growth of the program is turning out to be more than the department can handle.

Currently, there are just over 9,000 registered medical marijuana patients in Colorado. The program has been growing at an average rate of 1,000 new patients per month. However, June showed a drastic increase to 2,000 patients. The registry receives up to 200 pieces of mail per day, and is scrambling to stay on top of all requests for information by phone, mail, and e-mail.

Such clear growth in the program seems to indicate incredible demand. Ron Hyman said about keeping up with the growth of the program, “we do have concerns about the future.” Some speculation about the growth is being related to the growth of other medical marijuana programs around the nation, the reputation of the program, and finally with political climate change on a federal level, according to Ron Hyman.

People must be informed about medical marijuana and its availability to citizens of states that maintain the program. California is far from the only place where medical marijuana is not only showing progress but doing so without increasing crime, addiction stats, or anything negative. Patients should be allowed to grow and buy medical marijuana, and programs like this prove that it can be done professionally and with compassion.

When asked how long the trend will continue to grow, Hyman indicated the tapering off of the program is not predicted to happen anytime soon. Hyman compared Colorado to Oregon in population, and then stated Oregon has over 30,000 registered medical marijuana patients.

With this information why would anyone think it is a good idea to limit the number of patients a caregiver can give provide for? If the demand for medicine continues to grow at the predicted level, who is going to provide this medicine? Imposing such extreme limitations will either create more crime, or create a society of caregivers.

Growing marijuana in the homes of sick people is not safer than having people who know what they are doing grow the medicine. In fact, expecting someone to care for a sick person and learn how to grow the medicine that person requires is a little much to ask from most people. If you cared for your sick parent or grandparent, would you want the responsibility of providing the only medicine that gives them relief? Talk about burdening the caregiver!

This is the number one reason we need dispensaries and collectives so patients who are too sick to grow their own can find it when they need it (marijuana) and not be forced to black market.

Forcing patients to buy marijuana from criminals is not the best way to go about this. Let patients grow and allow more medical marijuaan dispensaries.

California is always leading the way in regards to medical marijuana and trying to get the public to stand up to the tyrants opposing safe and effective use of cannabis as medicine.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A pro-marijuana group is launching another television bid to legalize pot in California — this time with the pitch that legalizing and taxing the drug could help solve the state’s massive budget deficit.

The 30-second spot, airing Wednesday and paid for by the Marijuana Policy Project, features a retired 58-year-old state worker who says state leaders “are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes.”

“We’re marijuana consumers,” says Nadene Herndon of Fair Oaks, who says she began using marijuana after suffering multiple strokes three years ago. “Instead of being treated like criminals for using a substance safer than alcohol, we want to pay our fair share.”

State lawmakers are bitterly debating how to close a $26.3 billion budget deficit that likely means cuts to state services.
In February, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Bill supporters estimate the state’s pot industry could bring in more than $1 billion in taxes.

Some stations have refused to air the ad, which could lead to some legal issues…

The ad will air on several cable news channels and network broadcast affiliates in Los Angeles, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
The group said in a statement that three California stations — KABC-TV in Los Angeles, KGO-TV of San Francisco and KNTV-TV in San Jose — refused to air the ad.

Representatives from the three stations did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
In an e-mail to the group, a KNTV account executive said the station’s standards department had rejected the ad.
Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken said the ad was meant to promote conversation about the issues, not to encourage pot use.

“It was consciously unsensational,” Mirken said. “It’s time to talk about this, and we feel very frustrated that some of these stations have taken it upon themselves to stifle the discussion.”

Boycott these stations if you are a medical cannabis supporter or marijuana user!!!! Tune out and tune in to those who are on your side, not those who are trying to decide what medicine you should take and what is best for you.

When 58 year old people have the guts to stand up, it is the rest of our duty to stand along side her, not only in her defense and support, but to be counted and speak the truth on this issue with open minds, passionate heartfelt drive to promote the truth and end the tyranny and illegality of cannabis as medicine.

In a phone interview, Herndon said that before filming the ad, she had not told very many people about her marijuana use. But she said her concern over the state’s fiscal crisis and her support of medical marijuana led her to go public.

“I came out of the closet with this ad,” she said.
Herndon said she worked as a policy analyst for several state social services departments during a 38-year career.

I applaud her courage and stand beside her and all others with the courage to do so. Stand up, and be counted. Do not let tv stations decide whether the public deserves the right to hear open discussion about this topic!! Chances are its only because of their ties to alcohol ads and nothing to do with the commercial at all!

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.

Isn’t it funny how different things can be state to state? Not all Americans are lucky enough to live in a state that allows the use of medical marijuana, but some are.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Following the lead of Mayor Kitty Piercy from Eugene, who recently declared Medical Marijuana Awareness Week, Portland, Oregon Mayor Samuel Adams has proclaimed May to be Medical Marijuana Awareness Month.

At the urging of medical marijuana program participants and members of the Board of Directors of Oregon NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), Tom Miller, Chief of Staff for Mayor Adams said, “I’ve discussed this with the mayor. He’s pleased to make the proclamation.”

This is why we need rescheduling of cannabis at the federal level, so all Americans can enjoy medical grade cannabis.

The proclamation was delivered by hand to Madeline Martinez, Executive Director of Oregon NORML on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 during the week following the tenth anniversary of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP).

Multnomah County is home to the largest number of OMMP patients in the entire state of Oregon.

It is a tribute to its success that Mayor Adams has honored the OMMP by recognizing the need to raise awareness.

Why will some citizens be able to experience the safe and effective use of cannabis as medicine, while others will continue to be arrested and jailed for simply trying to relieve their pain?

While he may not come out and say it, at least Arnold Schwarzenegger is open to debate about marijuana. Progress is only made when discussion takes place.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday he welcomes a public debate on proposals to legalize and tax marijuana, which some suggest could provide a lucrative new revenue source for the cash-strapped state.

The Republican governor, whose term in office expires at the end of next year, was asked about the idea of treating pot like alcohol at an appearance in northern California to promote wildfire preparedness.

“No, I don’t think it’s time for that, but I think it’s time for a debate,” he said. “And I think we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana and other drugs, what affect it had on those countries, and are they happy with that decision.”

Overwhelming majority of people in California would approve of legalizing marijuana.

The former Hollywood actor, who has admitted smoking marijuana in the past, cited his native Austria as a country where “they want to roll back some of the decisions that were made in European countries.”

He said a decision to legalize marijuana, which has been outlawed in the United States since 1937, should not be made on the basis of raising revenues alone.

Schwarzenegger’s comments come days after a statewide Field Poll found that 56 percent of California voters support the idea of legalizing cannabis for recreational use and taxing its proceeds.

A bill introduced in the state Legislature by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a Democrat from San Francisco, would do just that — permitting taxed sales of marijuana to adults while barring sales to or possession by anyone under age 21. A similar regulatory structure already exists for alcoholic beverages.

Ammiano said his proposal would generate up to $1.3 billion in revenue for the state, which faces another multibillion-dollar budget shortfall just weeks after a landmark deal closing a $42 billion deficit.

He and others who support legalizing pot say such a move also would improve public safety by redirecting law enforcement efforts to more serious crimes and would end environmental damage to public lands used for illicit cannabis cultivation.

But in 2004, Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have eased rules on how much medical marijuana patients can possess in California.

Voters in California, the nation’s most populous state, became the first to approve the use of marijuana for medical purposes in 1996, putting the state at odds with federal law.

Under the Bush administration federal agents stepped up raids against medical marijuana dispensaries in California and other states that have passed similar laws.

But U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in March that the Justice Department under President Barack Obama has no plans to prosecute such dispensaries in those states in the future. However, Obama, who also has acknowledged smoking pot in his younger days, recently dismissed the idea of legalizing marijuana on a national level.

Any debate at the state level regarding the legalization of marijuana should be embraced and welcomed. We encourage the discussion and hopefully people realize the benefits of legalization over continuing to arrest and jail people for cannabis.

Who cannot agree with this?

Post gazette writes in: State to consider medical marijuana use HARRISBURG — A state legislator from Philadelphia said today it’s time to get rid of the decades-old negative image surrounding marijuana and replace it with “a new, honest image.”

How? By legalizing the use of small amounts of marijuana for medicinal purposes, such as reducing pain for sufferers of cancer or multiple sclerosis, helping people with glaucoma and assist with insomnia and mental disorders such as manic depression, said Democratic Rep. Mark Cohen.

There are so many uses for medical grade cannabis, including Migraine nausea and relief.

He introduced House Bill 1393, which would put Pennsylvania in a league with 13 other states that permit a person, with a doctor’s recommendation, to apply to the state Department of Health for a “registry card” that would allow the patient to purchase or grow one ounce of marijuana at a time.

“The only thing blocking this bill’s passage is the old image that marijuana has from the 1930s,” Mr. Cohen said. “It’s time to create a new image, as a form of treatment that, when prescribed by responsible doctors, could help thousands of patients in Pennsylvania.”

People with state-issued registry cards could either grow up to six marijuana plants at their home or buy it at yet-to-be-created “compassion centers,” legal dispensaries of medical marijuana. The sale of marijuana would be subject to the state’s 6 percent sales tax, and Mr. Cohen claimed that the state could get up to $25 million a year in new revenue.

Patients should be able to grow more than six plants, and should be allowed to grow as much as needed to treat their condition. The amount of medicine one can harvest from one plant differs so much, it is not hard to imagine that some people can grow plants better than others and some people will not be able to grow enough medicine with just six plants. Sometimes plants get sick and more than six is needed to grow enough for one patient to be able to use regularly.

He appeared at a news conference today with Chris Goldstein, an advocate with Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana, and Chuck Homan, a 58-year-old roofer from York County who was arrested last year for growing marijuana plants on his property. He uses marijuana to allow him one or two hours of sleep a night.

Without it, he said, he can’t even sleep that long. He attributed his insomnia to suffering from depression. His legal case is still pending, he said, but now he has joined the effort to legalize medical uses for marijuana.

Mr. Cohen said he has six co-sponsors for his bill, far short of the 102 votes he needs in the House. The Senate, controlled by Republicans, many of them social conservatives, will likely be even tougher.

And then we get to what is holding back progress… instead of the patients and citizens being allowed safe and effective medicine they can grow themselves, the politicians sit back and vote against medical marijuana while the people suffer pain.

Here is further proof that once you set up legal, safe medicinal marijuana programs, citizens will in fact sign up!

In the past 16 days, almost 500 residents statewide have applied for Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Program.

According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, 483 people have applied for the program, however no cards have been issued thus far.

“(This) week we are going to issue our first set of licenses,” said MDCH Spokesman James McCurtis Jr. “And I don’t suspect we are going to have any problems.”

That’s almost 500 people in 16 days, standing up for their patient rights, and rights as any American should be afforded. The freedom to self medicate with a natural, safe, and effective form of organic medicine. Marijuana.

McCurtis said as of April 14, the number of applicants was 252, but there was a spike in applicants at the end of the week and the department has not run into any problems yet.

“We have all the information posted on the Web site telling people what to do, how to do it,” he said. “And basically if they follow those basic instructions then they shouldn’t have any problem either.”

According to MDCH’s Web site, michigan.gov/mmp, to register, all an applicant must do is complete the form and procedures on the MDCH’s Web site, have a physician certify them as a “qualifying patient” and pay an application fee of $100, or $25 if enrolled in a Medicaid health plan or receiving Supplemental Security Income.

Under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, a qualifying patient is “a person who has been diagnosed by a physician as having a debilitating medical condition.”

According to the act, MDCH has 15 days to verify the applicants’ information and if approved has five days to issue the identification card.

“I was expecting maybe we would hear some people receiving them today,” said attorney Matthew Abel on April 17, who is a criminal defense attorney for marijuana cases.

Abel said he spoke with a doctor who has written some recommendations for patients and MDCH had not contacted him to confirm his approval.

“They certainly have the right to contact the physicians, we thought they would be, but I don’t want to say anything negative,” the Central Michigan University alumnus said. “There’s no reason to expect they are dragging their feet, we just haven’t seen anything one way or the other.”

The problem is, as more and more states implement medical marijuana programs, it still leaves citizens in other states vulnerable for prosecution and/or jail time for using medical marijuana. We need a federal rescheduling of cannabis to protect all medical marijuana users in this country, not just a select few or those lucky enough to live in a state that can see past the War on Drugs.

We need a new way of thinking in this country in regards to medical marijuana. America accepts it, and welcomes it, it is time for law makers and police to step aside and allow patients access to this medicine. Medical grade cannabis.