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.

Another victory for medical marijuana.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t hear another challenge to California’s decade-old law permitting marijuana use for medical purposes.

The high court on Monday refused to hear appeals from San Diego and San Bernardino counties, which say the justices have never directly ruled on whether California’s law trumps the federal controlled substances laws.

Supporters say marijuana helps chronically ill patients relieve pain. Critics say the drug has no medical benefit and all use should be illegal.

San Diego supervisors had sued to overturn the state law after it was approved by voters in 1996, but lower courts have ruled against them.

San Diego and San Bernardino counties argued that issuing identification cards to eligible users, as required by the 1996 state law, would violate federal law, which does not recognize the state measure.

A state appeals court ruled that ID card laws “do not pose a significant impediment” to the federal Controlled Substances Act because that law is designed to “combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state’s medical practices.”

The cases are County of San Bernardino v. California, 08-897 and County of San Diego v. San Diego NORML, 08-887.

Read those quotes in bold a few times

More and more Americans are growing comfortable with the idea/concept of medical marijuana.

Are Americans really ready to consider legalizing marijuana? This week, California’s governor said it was time to debate the issue, and a new nationwide poll suggests a majority of voters favor decriminalizing the drug.

While legalization advocates say they’ve never seen such widespread public support for reforming marijuana laws, they still don’t expect drug policy to change overnight. But, they say, the country appears to be at tipping point in how it views recreational use of marijuana, which is now legal in 13 states for medically-approved use.

“We are actually talking about historic highs when it comes to public support of taxing and regulating marijuana for adult consumption,” says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). But, he adds, “the most difficult task is how you convert public sentiment into public policy.”

In Washington, Mr. Armentano says, politicians are still not ready to rethink US drug policy.

In a poll released Wednesday by Zogby International, 52 percent of voters said they would support legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana use.

The survey asked voters if they would “favor or oppose the government’s effort to legalize marijuana?”

Also, the poll surveyed 3,937 voters whose political identities followed the outcome of the last presidential election – 54 percent were President Obama supporters and 46 percent voted for Sen. John McCain. “This sample may be skewed in a pro-reform direction if, as seems plausible, left-leaning Americans were especially motivated to vote in the last presidential election, while conservatives were dispirited,” he wrote.

Nonetheless, “It’s in line with building support for marijuana legalization in other surveys,” Mr. Sullum acknowledged.

As more and more states allow the use of safe and effective medical grade cannabis, we will see more support and approval of medical marijuana grow.

The Zogby findings follow last month’s ABC News/Washington Post survey that found 46 percent support for decriminalizing marijuana. And a California Field Poll published April 30 said that 56 percent of state residents were OK with marijuana becoming a taxed and regulated commodity.

California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, (D) from San Francisco, has proposed legislation to begin treating marijuana like alcohol – giving anyone over 21 the right to use it but taxing it heavily. Taxing marijuana, supporters of Mr. Ammiano’s bill say, could bring the cash-strapped state $1.3 billion annually.

Already the state collects about $18 million annually from medical marijuana. Massachusetts state legislature is also set to consider a bill to tax and regulate the sale and trade of marijuana. Last year, voters there approved an initiative to reduce the punishment for possession of small amounts of marijuana to a $100 civil citation.

On Tuesday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was responding to a question about the potential statewide boon from taxing marijuana when he said: “It’s time for debate…. I’m always for an open debate on it.”

it is time to stop arresting sick patients and citizens and decriminalize marijuana with a federal rescheduling of cannabis.

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?

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.

More and more Americans are finding out the truth. Using cannabis as medicine is not only safe, but it is effective.

The rise in requests for medical marijuana has been dramatic of late. In various states where laws allow, dispensary owners recently admitted to an increase in 2009 requests for the pain reducer that ranges from 50 percent to as much as 300 percent. The high numbers seem to be implicitly linked to the stance of the Obama administration on the subject; the federal government will not interfere with state laws and patients who abide by them.

As people feel safer with the idea of medical cannabis and a President who supports the idea of “medical cannabis.” more states will follow and allow its citizens to become medical marijuana patients.

While some analysts insist the rise in medical marijuana requests pertains to the economic recession and subsequent growing number of Americans without health insurance, as they may turn to alternative and less expensive treatments for pain and disease, treatments like medical marijuana. However, most dispensary owners attribute the increase to the word from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that the Obama administration would not involve itself in state matters regarding medical marijuana.

The word first hit the medical marijuana community when the Obama for America campaign acknowledged its opposition to the Bush policy on the matter. A response letter to those inquiring on the subject read, in part: “Many states have laws that condone medical marijuana, but the Bush Administration is using federal drug enforcement agents to raid these facilities and arrest seriously ill people. Focusing scarce law enforcement resources on these patients who pose no threat while many violent and highly dangerous drug traffickers are at large makes no sense. Senator Obama will not continue the Bush policy when he is president.”

Every citizen in any state of America should be allowed to use medical cannabis.

Though Holder has not always held the same view, he has changed course since his appointment as the Attorney General. And despite Drug Enforcement Administration raids that happened as Obama took office in late 2008 as a continuation of the Bush policy, which stated that federal law overrode that of the states, those have since been ordered to an end. Holder stated in February of 2009, “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement… What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”

According to Colorado clinic numbers, applications for medical marijuana have risen significantly. As December 2008 came to a close, there were 4,720 applications on file, as compared to the 6,796 by February 28, 2009. While this certainly does not indicate that doctors are willing to authorize all of the new patients for marijuana use, the requests are difficult to ignore. And to accommodate, some dispensaries are paying doctors to be on staff and provide the oversight to patients whose own doctors are unwilling to sign off on the applications.

medical marijuana applications continue to rise, and it is time for other states who do not have medical marijuana programs to start them!

The push for medical marijuana is getting some attention in New York…

The movement to legalize medicinal marijuana is gaining momentum in New York, with a proposal to let some people grow their own or buy from a state-approved organization.

Sen. Thomas Duane of New York City is introducing the bill, which will have a matching version sponsored by Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried. The Democrat-led Assembly has passed similar measures in recent years, but the issue fizzled in the formerly Republican-led Senate.

Now Democrats have taken control the Senate and the issue could get some traction in that chamber. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith didn’t immediately comment.

Gov. David Paterson’s office also did not comment on the proposal Duane is set to release Tuesday.

Hopefully we see more and more medical marijuana bills introduced this year.