Monthly Archives: March, 2011

Photo: Courtney Blethen Riffkin/The Seattle Times
Laura Healy, of Green Hope Patient Network in Shoreline, Washington, which lost its business license, said cities are in a bind: “They’re trying to force the Legislature to step up to the plate”

​​​Cities across Washington have moved to shut down a combined 35 medical marijuana dispensaries since February. The crackdown is occurring even as the Legislature is moving the legalize the cannabis collectives.

The crackdown is driven, at least in part, by a little-noticed memo from a municipal insurance risk pool, reports Jonathan Martin at the Seattle Times. The memo emphatically states that dispensaries are illegal and not entitled to business licenses, and that opinion has prompted Shoreline, Tacoma and other Seattle-area cities to action.

Graphic: Stop the Ban
This is the REAL map showing just how restrictive San Diego’s proposed dispensary ordinance would actually be.

​In advance of a San Diego City Council vote on an ordinance which would regulate medical marijuana dispensaries, the Council published a map which supposedly shows areas where a collective could be located in the city under the ordinance as written. But the map is so inaccurate as to be misinformation, according to a local patient advocacy group.

“While we contend that even this map reflects a seriously restrictive ordinance that harms patients and communities, we were distressed to learn that this map is largely inaccurate and misinforms the public as to what degree of access this ordinance would allow,” said a statement from the Stop the Ban campaign.
The City Council’s map, the PDF of which has since been removed from the web, shows various “sensitivity uses” such as schools, child care centers, and libraries. But under the ordinance, dispensaries must also be located 1,000 feet away from churches and youth-serving facilities — and no churches or youth-serving facilities are included on the map.

Photo: Mark Morey/Yakima Herald-Republic
Valtino Hicks waits for the jury to enter the courtroom, Thursday, March 25, 2011 during his trial in Yakima County Superior Court. He was accused of running a marijuana growing operation in his home.

​Yakima County, Washington’s first medical marijuana dispensary trial quickly ended in acquittal Thursday afternoon.

The Superior Court jury that heard the charges against Valtino Hicks of Yakima returned its verdict in less than 25 minutes, reports Mark Morey of the Yakima Herald-Republic.
At least two other local medical marijuana cases are pending, and the issue remains controversial across the state. King County, home of Seattle, has declined to prosecute marijuana dispensaries, and a bill advanced this week in the Legislature which would create a legal framework for licensed dispensaries.

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Markets

​It’s no secret that medical marijuana has become a big business in the United States. Medicinal cannabis sales this year are projected to reach $1.7 billion, according to an “investment-grade report on the business of medical marijuana” released this week.

What that means is that marijuana is hard on the heels of Viagra, another of America’s favorite medications. Viagra, the anti-impotence drug, has sales of $1.9 billion a year.
The $1.7 billion figure represents estimated sales of marijuana through dispensaries in states with medical marijuana laws.
The Sea Change Strategy LLC report, “The State of the Medical Marijuana Markets 2011,” adds new levels of meaning to the term “Green Rush.” It predicts that the number of states where medical marijuana is sold will double in the next five years.
The demand for cannabis in states which already have medical marijuana will also grow, according to the report.

Photo: Hello Beautiful
Whoopi Goldberg: “Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits”

​Comedian Whoopi Goldberg has admitted she smoked marijuana just before the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony, and said she was quite high when she gave her acceptance speech for winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie Ghost.


“Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits,” the current host of The View explained in footage obtained by TMZ on Thursday. “And I thought, ‘I’ve got to relax,’ So I smoked a joint, my homegrown,” to calm down before the Oscars.
She then described the shock be being announced as the winner and said she remembers trying hard to focus “to just get to the stage,” reports the New York Post.
“When he [presenter Denzel Washington]said my name and I popped up, I thought, ‘Oh, fuck’ … OK, up the stairs … around to the podium … there’s millions of people, get the statue, pick up the statue,” Goldberg said.
This isn’t the first time Whoopi’s talked about pot in public. Back in 2009 she came to Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps’ defense after the infamous photo swept the Internet of Phelps hitting a bong.

Graphic: Four Twenty Studios

​​​Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.


Worth Repeating
By Ron Marczyk, R.N.
Health Education Teacher (Retired)

An Israeli study finds that the cannabinoids in cannabis provide relief from anxiety due to stress. This study suggests that a treatment to heal a hyper-alert “fear memory” in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients may exist.

Medical cannabis may also enhance PTSD behavior therapy treatments as an anti-anxiety agent that resets a damaged amygdala and may act as a superior psychiatric medicine to present-day antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

Photo: Reality Catcher
Although dispensaries are neither specifically allowed nor banned by Washington’s current medical marijuana law, more than 120 have opened.

​​The latest version of a plan to license medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington state and provide arrest protection for patients is headed for a vote in the state House after narrowly passing a committee on Wednesday.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Washington since voters approved Initiative 692 in 1998, but the law left confusion around how patients who qualify to use medical marijuana can legally get it.

The heavily amended Senate Bill 5073 would allow the state Health Department to decide how many dispensaries could be located in each county, and would set up a lottery to obtain a license, reports Jim Camden of the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

Graphic: ASAM
Never mind what all those silly patients and physicians say. The American Society of Addiction Medicine says marijuana isn’t “medical,” and that’s apparently supposed to settle it.

​If you enjoy bullshit, you can certainly have a hell of a time with the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s white paper on medicinal cannabis. That becomes clear from the moment you see those quote marks on the cover: The Role of the Physician in “Medical” Marijuana.

Touting the supposed dangers of marijuana, the reputed lack of clinical research “on a controlled substance with a high potential for abuse,” and the physician’s oath to “first, do no harm,” ASAM on Wednesday released a white paper [PDF] prepared last fall which recommends a halt to using cannabis as medicine, even in states where it has been declared legal.

The organization — for what it’s worth, considered the nation’s leading professional society of physicians involved in addiction prevention and treatment — supported federal regulatory standards for drug approval and distribution, and discouraged what it called “state interference” in the “federal medication-approval process,” reports Yahoo! News.

Photo: Westword
Dave Crook and Amy DiIullo of Urban Cannabis with donated food items

​’Cans For Cones’ Turns To Controversy
 
A Denver medical marijuana dispensary says it is literally trading a ton of joints for a ton of food. But one local charity turned down the food donation offered by Urban Cannabis because of its connection to marijuana.
Urban Cannabis said it is giving out free pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes to qualified medical marijuana patients who bring in four or more (8-ounce) canned food items. Monday marked a high point for the food drive, according to the dispensary, which said it collected 250 pounds of food in eight hours.
 

Photo: DEA
No, it’s still not legal, even in the Marshall Islands.

Cokeheads briefly thought on Wednesday that there was a place where their drug of choice is legal. 

But the Republic of the Marshall Islands said it hasn’t legalized cocaine, nor has it created a no-visa entry program allowing unrestricted access to the Pacific islands nation, reports Erin Thompson of Pacific Daily News.
“We do not, have not, and don’t intend to legalize any substance,” said Soye Brown, acting attorney general for the Marshall Islands.
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