More progress being made in Palm Springs, California. Bravo.

Medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives will now be allowed in Palm Springs, following a vote Wednesday by City Council.

How many are allowed?

The approval means Palm Springs is the first city in Riverside County to allow these facilities.

The ordinance is expected to go into effect in 30 days following its second reading, officials said.

“This is an incredible first step,” Councilwoman Ginny Foat said.

The Palm Springs City Council voted 3-1, with Councilman Lee Weigel voting no and Mayor Pro Tem Chris Mills absent, in favor of the ordinance, which allows two collectives and/or cooperatives to operate within city limits.

However, seven already are in operation… why set the limit so low if there are already more existing medical marijuana cooperatives than would be allowed? The Mayor voted “absent” no doubt he is not a medical marijuana supporter, which is why he tries to portray the co-ops as illegal…

This means several of the estimated seven dispensaries now operating in the city Palm Springs illegally will have to close.

City Attorney Doug Holland said the city is close to filing lawsuits against two of the existing dispensaries and is still gathering evidence against five more.

“If they are illegal, they ought to be shut down as soon as possible,” Mayor Steve Pougnet said.

Patients need to be able to have safe access to their medication. Why are they trying to portray legal medical marijuana co-ops as “illegal?” Just because they changed the amount of allowed co-ops to two within city limits? That does not mean they are doing anything “illegal!”

Patients and medical marijuana advocates need to voice their support here.

State law allows medical marijuana its time for these city council members to stop trying to delay the process and portray legal medical marijuana co-ops as “illegal.”

Minnesota is moving closer to securing protection for medical marijuana patients.

“Medical Cannabis Bill Passes Senate Committee in Bipartisan Vote, 8-3″

One of those testifying was Joni Whiting of Jordan, a disabled Vietnam veteran who had strongly disapproved of marijuana use until her daughter was diagnosed with melanoma and began suffering unbearable nausea and pain from the treatments. “I was opposed to marijuana,” Whiting said, “but the nausea my daughter suffered from the chemotherapy was so bad she lost a lot of weight, and the pills the doctor prescribed didn’t help — including Marinol, the THC pill. Marijuana allowed her to eat and also helped ease her pain, and she looked better than I’d seen her in months. I would have rather spent the rest of my life in prison than have denied her the medicine that kept her pain at bay and allowed her to live 89 more days.”

This is exactly why medical marijuana needs to be approved. Even marinol pill does not work as effectively, and safely as the natural cannabis.

Minnesota’s medical marijuana bill, S.F. 97, cleared its first major hurdle this afternoon, passing the Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee in a bipartisan vote of 8 to 3. The committee received spoken and written testimony from a number of patients and family members describing the relief provided by medical marijuana when conventional treatments had failed.

“I believe this will be the year medical marijuana becomes law in Minnesota,” said Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing), a sponsor of the bill. “We’ve seen now from the experiences of 13 states — one-quarter of the country — that these laws work well, and that the dire warnings of opponents simply don’t come true. The voters understand that there is no reason to subject suffering patients to arrest and jail for using a doctor-recommended medicine.”

More and more law makers are choosing the side of compassion and reason…

“I’m pleased to co-author this important legislation that will empower doctors and patients while protecting sick and dying Minnesotans from the threat of criminal prosecution,” said Sen. Debbie Johnson (R-Ham Lake). “Most FDA-approved drugs assist in managing short-term pain. Chronically ill and terminal patients need alternatives. Medical marijuana is one of those alternatives.”

Even Republicans are behind the effort to legalize medical marijuana.

Thirteen states, including one-quarter of the U.S. population, now permit medical use of marijuana under state law. The newest such law was enacted by Michigan voters last November, passing with a record-setting 63 percent “yes” vote. Medical organizations which have recognized marijuana’s medical uses include the American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association, American Academy of HIV Medicine, and American College of Physicians, which noted “marijuana’s proven efficacy at treating certain symptoms and its relatively low toxicity,” in a statement issued last year.

The Assocaited Press reports today:

Civil liberties groups, medical marijuana supporters and a smattering of music festival-goers may have reason to rejoice: The Legislature is considering a proposal that would effectively decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

A bill proposed by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, would reduce the penalty for possessing marijuana in quantities of 1.4 ounces or less to a civil infraction carrying a $100 fine.

“Marijuana has been demonized and has been demonized in such an overboard manner,” Kohl-Welles said Tuesday.

Currently, possession of small amounts of the leafy drug is a misdemeanor offense, warranting arrest and carrying the possibility of punishment with fines and jail time.

If Kohl-Welles’ bill is approved, possession of marijuana would no longer be an offense subject to arrest. However, teenagers younger than 18 would still be subject to current law.

Civil liberties groups support the measure, saying law enforcement officers should focus on more serious crimes.

Possession of marijuana should not be subject to arrest, and law enforcement should focus on more serious crimes taking place in our cities.

Kohl-Welles said she has friends and family who have been seriously ill that have used the marijuana to ease suffering and rekindle appetites.

Washington has a medical marijuana law on the books, but Kohl-Welles said she thinks her bill could give medical marijuana users more protection from possible arrest.

Lawmakers at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee seemed confused over how great of a quantity 1.4 ounces of marijuana is.

“We’re talking dried stuff?” questioned Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood.

A man at the back of the hearing room used his hands to demonstrate the size of the quantity — about the size of a can of soda.

Americans should be allowed to possess at least 71 ounces of medical grade marijuana. This is equivalent to a three month supply of medicine, which is quite normal for people who need certain and specific types of medicine for their specific medical needs.

Most people who use medical marijuana do so not by “smoking the plant,” which can be bad for cancer patients, but by either using a vaporizer or by eating the plant in cooked form. Using a vaporizer or cooked form, a patient can use an ounce or more per day if daily dose is needed.

The law makers went on to joke about marijuana:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, joked that marijuana was in fact a gateway drug:

“My own experience shows that marijuana is. I used to grow my own dope and now I brew my own beer.”

The room erupted into laughter and clapping before Kline added: “Just kidding.”

Its good to see senators pushing forward with bills like this. And it is up to us to support those who have the courage to do it!

The pot possession bill is Senate Bill 5615.

These law makers need to be more informed about how much medical marijuana is needed for patients. We encourage their effort, but the amount you are allowed to possess should be much larger.

A plan to let seriously ill patients smoke pot is back at the Minnesota Legislature.

A plan to let seriously ill patients smoke pot is back at the Minnesota Legislature. The bill from DFL Senator Steve Murphy gets its first hearing of the session in a Senate health panel on Wednesday. The legislation would allow those with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and other debilitating conditions to use marijuana to control pain and other symptoms. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has stood against the proposal and has said it would make enforcing drug laws harder. Lawmakers have considered medical marijuana bills going back a decade, without signing off. However, two years ago, the full Senate passed the bill.

Its time to stop allowing politically motivated Governors to stop people in pain from getting medical marijuana.

wow, they have arrested eight people over the photo of Michael Phelps smoking cannabis through a glass “bong” or aka water pipe.

This is insane, and calls for an immediate look into the decriminalization of marijuana at the federal level.

A Columbia, S.C., television station reports that eight people have been arrested after a photograph surfaced of Olympic star Michael Phelps smoking what looks like a bong.

WIS-TV says seven people have been charged with drug possession and one person with distribution.

The television station also reports that police have confiscated the bong that Phelps allegedly used during a party at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia.

He should’ve used a vaporizer and brought up the healthy aspect of using a vaporizer over inhaling smoke!

It’s time for America to stop wasting millions of tax payer dollars arresting, prosecuting, and jailing millions of it’s own citizens who choose to use cannabis. It’s time to reschedule cannabis today!

As someone who is plagued by Migraine and the nausea surrounding them, I cannot help but get upset at this type of story.

Here is a musician, who instead of using a safe and effective medication to control nausea, was injected with a drug and had to have her arm amputated because of it.

How long will patients continue to suffer at the hands of the drug companies who want to not use natural substances to combat nausea?

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Vermont musician who lost her arm because of a botched drug injection is squaring off against a drug maker and the Bush administration in one of the most closely watched business cases of the Supreme Court’s term.

At issue is whether the federal government can limit lawsuits by consumers like Diana Levine who have been harmed by prescription medications.

The justices are hearing arguments in Levine’s case Monday, shortly after the court announces whether it will accept other cases for argument sometime next year.

The issue of limiting lawsuits arises in the heart-rending story of Levine, a guitarist and pianist who lost her right arm after an injection of the anti-nausea drug Phenergan, made by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

A Vermont jury awarded Levine $6.7 million, agreeing that Wyeth should have been clearer in its warning label about the risks of improperly administering the drug.

Wyeth and the administration, however, are asking the court to rule that drug makers may not make changes to labels without the approval of the Food and Drug Administration and that people cannot sue under state law for harm caused by an FDA-approved drug.

In recent years, the administration and business groups have aggressively pushed limits on lawsuits through the doctrine of pre-emption — asserting the primacy of federal regulation over rules that might differ from state to state.

Obviously, if you notice, the article does not even discusss the topic I am reaching into. Instead the article talks only of limiting her capacity to actually sue the doctor who did this to her!

Imagine if you went to the doctor for a shot, and then had to have your arm cut off after it, would you want to sue them?

Well, President Bush and the hospitals, not only want you to stay away from safe medical marijuana, they want to inject you with toxic chemicals and when your body reacts to it, they don’t want you to be able to sue for compensation.

This is a terrible policy towards sick people, and until more people open their eyes it will continue.

Educate yourself about medical cannabis and how the drug makers are keeping it out of your reach.

Here is a sick woman, who has now been evicted from her home because of her medicine.

SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) – A handicapped woman says the manager of her apartment complex told her to move in three days after discovering the woman has marijuana for medical use.

Bobbie Wooten says she got an eviction notice Tuesday after a surprise inspection by a management representative for Silver Cliffs apartments who spotted her two marijuana plants.

A spokesman for the Arizona realty company that manages the complex says the eviction is within the terms of the lease, which calls for a drug-free environment.

Wooten, who uses a wheelchair, was paralyzed from the waist down in a car crash several years ago and suffers severe spasms.

She joined the state’s medical marijuana program when it went into effect last year.

State Health Department spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer confirmed she’s in the program.

A “drug free” environment? I am willing to bet these apartments are filled with people on prescription narcotics, chain smoking cigarettes, and no doubt consuming alcohol. Prescription meds, alcohol, nicotine, are drugs and are found in many of the homes there. Why is this crealy burdened and sick woman being targeted because of her medical marijuana? She is part of the state approved medical marijuana program and this should be a lawyer’s dream case.

Sue. Sue Sue Sue.

Could someone be kicked out of her home because of her Vicodin prescription? No. Would the apartment complex and Sheriff be sued if they evicted and elderly woman for taking blood pressure medicine? yes, they would be.

I say this woman needs to find a good lawyer and stand up for her rights. She is part of the State medical marijuana program and laws need to be enacted to protect patients in this sort of situation.

New Mexico has a legal, state approved medical marijuana program. This sounds like the beginning of legislation, or a lawsuit.

The latest from California regarding medical marijuana.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

The state Supreme Court turned back a challenge to California’s medical marijuana law Thursday from two counties that said they were being forced to condone federal drug-law violations by state-approved pot users.

San Diego and San Bernardino county officials had sued to overturn Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative that legalized medical marijuana, and a more recent law that required them to issue identification cards to users who had a doctor’s recommendation.

The justices unanimously denied review of an appellate decision in July that concluded California was free to decide whether to punish drug users under its own laws, despite the federal ban on marijuana.

The decision is “a momentous victory for countless seriously ill patients,” said Adam Wolf, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who defended the state law in the appeals court. He said the counties should stop wasting money “in a doomed effort to undermine the will of California voters.”

But Thomas Bunton, a deputy San Diego County counsel, said the county would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

The California law “authorizes people to engage in conduct that’s forbidden by federal law,” Bunton said.

Hurray for state’s rights. The people of California voted, and ultimately supported, compassionate use and safe access to medical marijuana. These people need to stop trying to go against the voters, and wasting tax payer’s money trying to change the state law allowing medical cannabis in California.

He said San Diego and San Bernardino counties particularly objected to the follow-up statute on identification cards that the Legislature passed in 2003. The cards, issued by the counties, protect their holders from arrest by state or local police for possessing small amounts of medical marijuana.

The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed federal authorities to rely on U.S. drug laws to prosecute medical marijuana patients and their suppliers, and to shut dispensaries in California and the 11 other states with laws similar to Prop. 215. But the court has not prevented the states from deciding which drugs to prohibit under their own laws.

In a separate case, the city of Garden Grove (Orange County) has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a California appellate ruling requiring police to return a patient’s medical marijuana after state charges were dismissed. That case also involves a potential conflict between federal and state law.

In the counties’ lawsuit, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego ruled July 31 that federal law doesn’t require states to impose criminal penalties for marijuana possession. The purpose of the federal law, the court said, is “to combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state’s medical practices.”

Why are they wasting tax dollars on this?

In keeping up with the latest news on drug companies and their pain killers, here is the latest on Pfizer.

(Bloomberg) — Pfizer Inc. will pay $894 million to resolve most legal claims that its painkillers Celebrex and Bextra caused heart attacks and strokes.

Pfizer will pay $745 million to settle 90 percent of the suits claiming injuries from the products. The remainder will go to end class-action consumer fraud lawsuits and charges of inappropriate marketing by 33 states and the District of Columbia, New York-based Pfizer said today in a statement.

Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, was being sued over allegations that Celebrex and Bextra increased the risk of heart attacks or strokes after a similar pill, Merck & Co.’s Vioxx, was pulled from the market over the same side effects in 2004. Celebrex is still sold, generating $2.3 billion for Pfizer last year, while Bextra was recalled over a rare skin condition in 2005. Pfizer will book the settlement amount in its third-quarter earnings scheduled to be reported Oct. 21.

“Anytime that you have an opportunity to resolve litigation, which is inevitably something that creates uncertainty, in terms that make sense for the people and corporation, it is a good thing to do,” Amy Schulman, Pfizer’s general counsel, said in a telephone interview. “Given the stage we were at and events that have transpired, this seemed like an appropriate time to reach a resolution of the various matters.”

The reason this is important to medical marijuana patients or advocates, or caregiver, is that cannabis has often been used as a pain killer, and it does not have these types of side effects. One has every right to question the safety of these drug companies.

The article goes on to say…

Pfizer acquired Celebrex and Bextra as part of its more than $60 billion acquisition of Pharmacia Corp. in 2003. Bextra, Celebrex, and Vioxx are part of a class of medicines called non- steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which also include ibuprofen and naproxen. U.S. regulators have warned that these drugs may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Pfizer said there is no evidence that Celebrex, when taken at lower doses, poses a risk to the heart. Patients taking the biggest Celebrex dose of 400 milligrams twice a day tripled their chance of a heart attack or stroke, compared with people taking a placebo, according to a study presented in March at the American College of Cardiology meeting.

A more definitive assessment of Celebrex risks won’t come until 2010 or 2011, when a $100 million study of 20,000 patients comparing Celebrex with the pain pills ibuprofen and naproxen is expected to be completed by the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

Pfizer said the settlements include $60 million to 33 states and Washington, D.C., over alleged illegal promotion of Bextra and $89 million for consumer fraud lawsuits.

I hope people educate themselves on the safety of the “medicine” they are taking, to find out if it may affect their own health. When we see lawsuits like this being settled, one has to wonder, what is going on?

We need to start thinking more clearly on medical marijuana, and promoting the safe medicinal use of cannabis.

It looks like the fight continues in California. Garden Grove, famous from the Sublime song of the same name, has decided to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. Not too cool, man.

GARDEN GROVE, Calif.—Medical marijuana dispensaries won’t be allowed in the northern Orange County city of Garden Grove.

The City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to ban the pot stores. The ordinance takes effect in 30 days.

Councilman Mark Rosen cast the lone dissenting vote, saying the ban is “mired in mid-20th-century thinking.”

He noted the Unit-D dispensary, which has a conditional-use permit, has been operating for seven months without problems.

Councilman Steve Jones says he does not want the city to become exposed to liability for poor-quality pot.

California’s Compassionate Use Act permits marijuana use for medical reasons.

This goes against every reason why patients need safe access, not make it more difficult for people to acquire the much needed medicine. With gas prices the way they are, people need to be able to drive there or have someone drive them to local dispensaries. If you make people have to drive hundreds of miles to acquire their prescribed medicine, how will that help them?

California’s Compassionate Use Act allows patients access, it’s time to stop with these types of bans on dispensaries. The taxes paid by them benefits the city, and from what we’ve seen elsewhere in California, it does not encourage any more crime in the area. In fact, it cuts down the black market drug trade in the city, people with safe access, no longer have a need to buy drugs on the street. They can drive to the local medical marijuana dispensary and pick up their prescription like any patient. Help stop the drug deals on the street by fighting for your local medical marijuana dispensary.