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Medical Marijuana Patients Number 750,000 In California

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 31, 2011 Medical, News

Graphic: MJ Dispensaries of Southern California

Retail Market Is $1.5 Billion To $4.5 Billion Per Year

There are now more than 750,000 medical marijuana patients in California, representing two percent of the population according to the most recent data, estimates California NORML. At the high end, an estimate of more than 1,125,000 patients, or three percent of the population, is consistent with the data.

This represents a substantial increase from Cal NORML‘s earlier estimates of 300,000 in 2007, 150,000 in 2005, and 75,000 in 2004, but is in line with registration rates in other comparable states that enjoy similar wide access to medical cannabis clinics and dispensaries.

The exact number of patients in California is uncertain, because patients aren’t required to register in the Golden State. Under Prop 215, California’s medical marijuana law, patients need only a physician’s recommendation to be legal.

Government Forced NCI To Censor Medical Cannabis Facts

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 27, 2011 Medical, News

Graphic: NORML Stash Blog

Fuck censorship.

In March, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a component agency of the National Institutes of Health, acknowledged the medicinal benefits of marijuana in its online treatment database. But the information only stayed up a few days, before it was scrubbed from the site.

Now, newly obtained documents reveal not only how NCI database contributors arrived at their March 17 summary of marijuana’s medical uses, but also the furious politicking that went into quickly scrubbing that summary of information regarding the potential tumor-fighting effects of cannabis, reports Kyle Daly at the Washington Independent.

Phil Mocek, a civil liberties activist with the Seattle-based Cannabis Defense Coalition, obtained the documents as a result of a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request he filed in March after reading coverage of the NCI’s action. Mocek has made some of the hundreds of pages of at-times heated email exchanges and summary alterations available on MuckRock, a website devoted to FOIA requests and government documents.

Arizona Governor Can’t Stop Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 26, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Opposing Views

Jan Brewer was against Proposition 203 before it passed — and now that it’s law, she wants to ignore the voters.

Prosecutors will still be prohibited from convicting legal medical marijuana patients

The misguided efforts of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne to quash the state’s new medical marijuana won’t work, reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times.

Authorized patients can possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis legally in Arizona since the passage of Proposition 203 by voters — with or without “state approval,” New Times reports.

“That’s why Brewer and Horne, two Republicans who are putting politics above the wishes of the electorate, haven’t mentioned any plans to stop the state from handing out medical marijuana registration cards,” Stern writes. “The smartly written Arizona Medical Marijuana Act anticipated an anti-democratic reaction like the one we saw Tuesday and included a powerful work-around.”

Patient Advocates Back 3 Medical Marijuana Bills In Congress

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 26, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Rebels With Just Cause Award

Steph Sherer, ASA: “This kind of policy shift is a no-brainer and should garner the bipartisan support of Congress”

Three medical marijuana bills introduced in Congress on Wednesday have the support of patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA). The most significant of the bills is one introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), which reclassifies marijuana from its current federal status as a dangerous drug with no medical value.

Another bill, introduced by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), will allow banks and other financial institutions to provide services to medical marijuana businesses without being subject to “suspicious activity” reporting requirements.

The third bill, introduced by Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (D-CA), changes the federal tax code “to allow a deduction for expenses in connection with the trade or business of selling marijuana intended for patients for medical purposes pursuant to State law.”

Bills To Protect Marijuana Patients & Providers Intro’d In Congress

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 25, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: Students for Sensible Drug Policy

A bipartisan group of legislators introduced three bills in Congress on Wednesday which, for the first time in history, would federally protect and support medical marijuana patients and providers in states where the medicinal use of cannabis is legal.

The first of the bills, the “States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act,” would modify federal law so that individuals acting in compliance with state law are immune from federal prosecution. The other two bills, which address banking and tax issues faced by medical marijuana providers, are the first two bills in the history of Congress to protect and advance the interests of medical cannabis businesses.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) is the lead sponsor of the States bill, which has garnered bipartisan support in past sessions of Congress.

Montana Stops Issuing Medical Marijuana Cards

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 25, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: The Walrus Speaks

The Montana Department of Health and Human Services has stopped issuing new medical marijuana cards, a spokesman announced on Tuesday.

The agency is complying with a strict new medical marijuana law that requires the department to stop issuing the cards on May 14, according to spokesman Jon Ebelt, reports the Associated Press.

Ebelt had previously said the department would continue issuing the cards to patients because of confusion over the law.

Arizona Governor Sues To Stop Medical Marijuana Program

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 24, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: News Real Blog

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer will not defend her state’s medical marijuana law, approved by the voters last November. Instead this asswig is asking the feds for instructions on how to run her own state. Nice “leadership” there, Jan.

Redundant Lawsuit Supposedly Aims To Establish Federal Legality

In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne announced that they are filing a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the medical marijuana program established in Arizona by the passage of Proposition 203 last November.

Even though the law was passed by a majority of Arizona voters, the governor and attorney general will not defend the law and instead asked the courts to decide if it is illegal under federal law.

“We are deeply frustrated by this announcement,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “The law Governor Brewer wants enjoined established an extremely well thought-out and conservative medical marijuana system.”

Marijuana Advocates Sue Government Over Rescheduling Delay

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 23, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: MyMedicineTheBook.com

The federal government refuses to reclassify marijuana as medicine — despite the fact that it has sent Irv Rosenfeld and a handful of other patients hundreds of joints a month for close to 30 years.

A coalition of medical marijuana advocacy groups and patients filed suit Monday in D.C. Circuit Court to compel the Obama Administration to answer a nine-year-old petition to reclassify medical marijuana.

The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) has never received an answer to its 2002 petition, despite a formal recommendation in 2006 from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is unfortunately the final arbiter in the rescheduling process.

As recently as July 2010, the DEA issued a 54-page “Position on Marijuana,” but failed to even mention the pending CRC petition.

Plaintiffs in the case include the CRC, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Patients Out of Time, as well as individually named patients, one of whom is listed on the CRC petition but died in 2005.

Marijuana Advocates Take ‘CannaBus’ To Spokane; Join Protest

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 19, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Sensible Washington

Two volunteers from marijuana legalization group Sensible Washington have been driving an RV dubbed “the CannaBus” across the state this week to gather signatures and rally support for I-1149, a ballot initiative that would remove all criminal penalties for adult cannabis offenses.

From Thursday, May 19 through Sunday morning, May 22, volunteers Mimi Meiwes and Tricia Rogers, along with the CannaBus, will be in Spokane, where new raids this week by Spokane Police and federal agents have left even more medical cannabis patients without safe access to the medicine their doctors have authorized.

CT Senator Claims Cali Kids Openly Smoking Marijuana In Class

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 19, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Jesse Pearson

Dude! I knew it!

Connecticut state Senator Toni Boucher doesn’t like medical marijuana, and she seems proud of herself for trying to stop it in her state, according to a press release her office sent out on Thursday.

According to the breathless (and almost entirely brainless) release, Sen. Boucher “valiantly tried to stop a medical marijuana bill from getting out of the Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee.” See there? Trying to stop seriously ill patients from getting the only medicine that helps is “valiant” now, get it?

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