By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ in
Legislation, Medical
Wednesday, Aug. 25 2010 @ 2:11PM
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| Photo: Nick Wolcott/Bozeman Daily Chronicle |
| Dean Folda sits among the marijuana plants he grows at his home in Bozeman, Montana, to treat chronic pain. Getting medical authorization to use cannabis for chronic pain could get a lot more difficult under the tightened rules proposed by a legislative committee on Tuesday. |
Medical marijuana patients and growers warned that the proposal contains some unnecessary restrictions on patients and suppliers of cannabis, which has taken off as a booming business in Montana over the past year, reports Mike Dennison of the Missoulian.
"If we the people pass a law, then how could a legislative body who we elect, completely carve that law up, do whatever they want with it because they put together a committee?" asked Jason Christ, owner of the Montana Caregivers Network, reports Matt Leach of NBC Montana.
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By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ in
Legislation, Medical
Tuesday, Aug. 24 2010 @ 5:38PM
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| Photo: Anti/LAist |
A committee of Montana lawmakers discussed on Monday plans to make it much tougher to get a medical marijuana card in the state.
The proposals would "clarify" the list of eligible diseases and "make it easier for authorities to track and regulate the industry," according to Christian Hauser at NBC Montana.
After a summer's worth of work, the legislators describe the proposed bill as "tightening up and cracking down," reports Marnee Banks of KXLH-Helena, all in a misguided response to the state's rapidly growing medical marijuana community.
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| Photo: al.com |
| Jacob Jordan, 32, died in the Baldwin County jail due to inadequate medical treatment after being arrested for marijuana. |
Jacob Ashley Jordan was found dead in his cell at the Baldwin County Corrections Center at about 1 a.m. July 9, according to the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, reports Connie Baggett at the Mobile Press-Register.
Jordan had a "pre-existing medical condition," according to Sheriff's spokesman Maj. Anthony Lowery, and had been moved into the jail's medical wing. Lowery claimed that the inmate had received medical treatment from nurses.
Jordan, who lived in Eight Mile, Ala., was found dead in his cell, according to Lowery.
The officer refused to give details, citing privacy laws that protect medical information, but did say there was "no evidence of any physical injury."
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| Photo: The Scores Report |
| Percy Harvin of the Minnesota Vikings has to go to the hospital now when he has a migraine headache -- because he's not allowed to use medical marijuana. |
Sadly, as pointed out by Kevin Hoffman at our Village Voice Media sister blog CityPages, "the incident could have been prevented with the use of a freely available plant that he had previously relied on to control his long-standing health problem."
Problem is, that useful plant is marijuana, and the NFL doesn't allow its use by players.
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| Photo: AP |
| Chris Bartkowicz faces up to life in prison on federal charges for growing medical marijuana. |
U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer on Thursday morning was asked by federal prosecutors to block the medical marijuana defense in their case against Chris Bartkowicz of Denver, reports The Associated Press.
"The provisions of state law cited in the Government's brief demonstrate the quagmire of Colorado state law and its medical marijuana provisions, and further demonstrates that none of those provisions have relevance to the federal prosecution of the Defendant," said a motion filed Tuesday by prosecutors, reports Felisa Cardona at The Denver Post.
Prosecutors contended that Bartkowicz should not be allowed to use Colorado's medical marijuana laws as a defense, or try to argue that he was singled out or didn't know he would be subject to prosecution.
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| Photo: The Local |
Doctors could write prescriptions for cannabis and pharmacies would be authorized to sell the plant once the law had been changed, a member of the junior coalition party, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) said Monday, reports The Local.
, April 27, 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-thumb-400x300.jpeg) |
| Photo: daylife |
| Michele Leonhart, deputy administrator of the DEA, is a Bush-era drug warrior who has overseen raids of legal medical marijuana dispensaries -- yet Obama wants to keep her on. |
A number of progressive groups released a letter last month accusing Leonhart, a deputy administrator appointed by President George W. Bush and the acting administrator since Karen P. Tandy's resignation in 2007, of ignoring a Justice Department directive that raiding dispensaries and growers operating legally in medical marijuana states is a "poor use of resources."
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| Photo: Michael Lapihuska |
| In happier days: Michael Lapihuska was arrested for taking his doctor-recommended medical marijuana on a trip back home to Alabama |
Michael Lapihuska, a former resident of Anniston, Ala., was arrested December 15, 2009, when a police officer stopped him for hitchhiking, reports Laura Camper at The Anniston Star. The cop searched him, found a prescription bottle of marijuana in his pocket, and asked Lapihuska to take it out.
When the man complied, he was arrested for marijuana possession despite the doctor's recommendation he presented to the officer.
By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ in
Dispensaries, Medical
Monday, Aug. 16 2010 @ 6:43PM
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| Photo: San Diego City Beat |
| San Diego County D.A. Bonnie Dumanis: Despite a pledge to respect California's medical marijuana laws, she has waged an urelenting war against cannabis patients and providers |
However, for the second trial Dumanis is trying to deny Jackson, former operator of the Answerdam Alternative Care Collective (AACC), a medical marijuana defense based on the claim that "sales" are illegal under California law.
Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a medical marijuana patient advocacy group, filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in support of Jackson's defense, refuting the D.A.'s allegations.
"To deny a medical marijuana provider the ability to defend himself in court based on an argument that what he did was illegal, not only ignores relevant medical marijuana law, but also smacks of circular logic," said Joe Elford, ASA chief counsel and author of the amicus brief filed on Monday.
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| Photo: Examiner.com |
| GOP Senate candidate Dino Rossi captured in a rare moment without his head up his ass |
You'd expect a politician to promote medical research being done at local universities. But Republican Senatorial candidate Dino Rossi of Washington on Thursday tried to gain some traction in his political campaign by attacking a local research project which studies the use of marijuana cannabinoids to control pain.
Rossi thought it would make an easy target, after all: Talk about "wasteful" federal stimulus spending to rile up the Tea Party faithful, and then drag in a tired old stoner stereotype for good measure.
"This is one of those boondoggle projects that forces you to set aside the serious economic consequences of this so-called stimulus for a moment and just laugh at how out of touch Washington, D.C., really is," Rossi said. "Washington state taxpayers are tired of their money going up in smoke. This bill isn't going to stimulate anything other than sales of Cheetos."
It's time for a diversion, Rossi seems to believe, to distract voters from inconvenient little things like, well, the fact that he was recently named to a list of the 11 Most Crooked Candidates in the United States(!) by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
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