Search Results: obama (491)

Photo: intellectual vanities

Next time someone says “there’s no reliable research,” call BS. The results are in. Medical marijuana works.

​The evidence is in. In a landmark report to the Legislature, the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research announced that its studies have shown marijuana to have therapeutic value.

CMCR researchers, in a decade-long project, found “reasonable evidence that cannabis is a promising treatment” for some specific, pain-related medical conditions.
These long-awaited findings are the first results in 20 years from clinical trials of smoked cannabis in the United States.
“We focused on illnesses where current medical treatment does not provide adequate relief or coverage of symptoms,” said CMCR Director Igor Grant, M.D., executive vice-chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the UCSD School of Medicine.

9 News
Bartkowicz in the midst of giving the ill-advised interview which destroyed everything for which he had worked so hard

​A Colorado man accused of running an illegal marijuana grow operation in his basement will likely appear later this week in federal court after a raid took place at his Highlands Ranch home.

The case of Chris Bartkowicz has ignited a battle between medical marijuana advocates and the U.S. Justice Department, reports Valerie Castro of CBS 4 Denver.
Jeffrey Sweetin, special agent in charge of the Denver office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, oversaw the Friday raid of Bartkowicz’s home and subsequent arrest of the licensed medical marijuana provider after Bartkowicz bragged on television about his profitable grow op.


Photo: NIDA Marijuana Project at The University of Mississippi
The entire supply of marijuana for research in the United States is grown by the NIDA in Mississippi.

​One federal agency controls all the marijuana research done in the United States. And that agency has just admitted that it won’t fund research into the benefits of marijuana — only the supposed “negative consequences.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) told the New York Times last week that the agency “does not fund research focused on the potential medical benefits of marijuana.”

“As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use,” NIDA spokeswoman Shirley Simson told the Times.

Photo: WAMM
Valerie Corral, WAMM’s co-founder: “We are heartened by the federal government’s newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws”

​Seven years after Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a California medical marijuana farm, forcing patients out of bed at gunpoint, founders of the collective running the farm agreed to settle a lawsuit against the federal government.

The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) will continue helping terminally and critically ill patients under the settlement.
Valerie and Mike Corral, founders of WAMM, called the settlement a “draw.” “They didn’t win; we didn’t win,” Mike Corral told the San Jose Mercury News.
“We hope that over time the federal government will recognize its senseless position on medical marijuana and will formally codify protections for the sick, dying and marginalized patients who have the right to use whatever substances their physicians recommend to ease suffering,” said Valerie Corral in a statement read before U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel.
“We are nonetheless heartened by the federal government’s newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws and we are extraordinarily proud of our collective’s role in effecting this change in policy,” Corral said. “However, should our government break their word and again pursue this senseless assault on the sick and dying, we stand at the ready and we promise to hold them accountable in a court of law.”

Photo: WAMM
WAMM grows medical marijuana for terminally ill patients.

​A case which could have far reaching implications in patient access to medical marijuana is coming back to court for a settlement hearing on Friday.

On January 22, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a collective which provides medical cannabis to the terminally and critically ill at no cost, will be in federal court in San Jose, California, for the hearing in WAMM’s joint lawsuit against the federal government.

Details of the settlement will be released following the court hearing.

Photo: salem-news.com
An Oregon medical marijuana garden

​Medical marijuana advocates have turned in the first batch of signatures in a drive to place an initiative measure on Oregon’s November ballot to legalize cannabis dispensaries in the state.

Initiative 28 would create a system in which state-licensed cannabis growers would distribute their crops to dispensaries which would be regulated by the state health department, reports Brad Cain of The Associated Press.
Under I-28, medical marijuana patients with a doctor’s recommendation to use the herb could buy pot from the dispensaries, instead of having to find a personal grower/caretaker, figuring out how to grow pot themselves, or resorting to the black market.

Graphic: Reality Catcher

​A terminally ill woman in Michigan is being evicted from her apartment for legally using medical marijuana to treat the painful symptoms of her advanced brain cancer.

Lori Montroy, 49, of Elk Rapids, Mich., is facing eviction by the Gardner Group of Michigan, the company that manages her apartment complex.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan is coming to the aid of the woman. The ACLU wrote a letter Tuesday on behalf of Montroy.
“No one deserves to be put out in the cold for legally treating the crippling pain, nausea and weakness caused by brain cancer,” said Dan Korobkin, staff attorney for ACLU of Michigan. “We believe that the landlord’s decision was not motivated by malice but rather a misconception of the law.”

Photo: pavric
An opium poppy field in Afghanistan. Slit marks on the bulbs are where raw opium has been harvested.

​Thousands of additional Marines flooding into Afghanistan’s opium-growing interior won’t go after those growing the crops, the commander in the area said, according to Reuters.

“The reality we have to face right now is that the number one cash crop in this area is still the poppy,” said Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, who commands 10,000 Marines in opium center Helmand.
Nicholson said he didn’t want to “alienate” local farmers by targeting their opium poppies.

Photo: thanasim25 (Arthur Mouratidis)
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter: At this rate, by next week he’ll be an expert on nuclear physics.

​Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter said he’s “concerned” about the number of medical marijuana cards issued in the state recently, and his office is crafting legislation to deal with the issue, reports Dan Boniface at 9news.

Voters in 2000 approved legalizing medicinal pot in Colorado. Since the Obama Administration announced it wouldn’t be going after patients and providers in states where medical marijuana is legal, the number of cards in Colorado has skyrocketed.
The governor, who seems eager to start practicing medicine, said he wants to “define the relationship” between doctors and patients to ensure marijuana cards “aren’t just given to people who spend 20 minutes with a doctor.”
One of the main points of the governor’s proposed regulations seems to be second guessing medical doctors. “I have a sense that the number of cards that we’ve been seeing would indicate to me that there may be some group of physicians that are not being careful about how they’re prescribing it and to whom they’re prescribing it,” a dazzlingly hubristic Ritter said.
We’re still awaiting input from physicians on how they feel Ritter should do his job.
More on the governor’s amazing newfound medical expertise as the story develops.

theskunk.org
Congress respecting the will of the people? What’s next, democracy?

​Eleven years later, it’s about time: The U.S. Senate today passed historic legislation to end the decade long ban on implementation of the medical marijuana law Washington, D.C., voters passed with 69 percent of the vote in 1998.

“This marks the first time in history that Congress has changed a marijuana law for the better,” said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), based in D.C.
The “Barr Amendment,” a rider attached to appropriations for the District of Columbia, has forbidden D.C. from extending the legal protection of Initiative 59, the “Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1998,” to qualified medical marijuana patients.
The amendment has long been derided as an unconscionable intrusion by the federal government into the District’s affairs, according to MPP.
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