Medical

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Oregon Court Rules Medical Marijuana Patients Can Have Guns

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

Cynthia Willis shows off her medical marijuana card, a Walther P22 pistol and her concealed handgun permit at a firing range in White City, Oregon, March 25, 2011.

The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that just because retired bus driver Cynthia Willis has medical marijuana doesn’t mean she can’t have a concealed handgun, too.

The court ruled on Thursday morning that a federal law prohibiting “criminals and drug addicts” from buying firearms does not mean sheriffs can’t issue concealed weapons permits to people who qualify, including medical marijuana patients, reports Jeff Barnard of The Associated Press.

Willis said she feels “like a big girl now” that the court found medical marijuana patients should be treated like everyone else.

Oregon in 1998 legalized medical marijuana, part of the first wave along with California (1996) and Washington (1998) authorizing patients to use cannabis to treat certain medical conditions after voters approved a ballot initiative.

Sixteen states nationwide have now passed medical marijuana laws.

More than 30,000 Oregonians now hold medical marijuana patient cards.

King County, Seattle Officials Ask State To Fix Medical Pot Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 18, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: Cannabis Defense Coalition

The top prosecutors and officials in both King County, Washington and the city of Seattle are asking the Legislature to quickly untangle the mess left by Governor Christine Gregoire’s gutting of a medical marijuana bill. The bill was supposed to have legalized dispensaries and provided arrest protection for patients, but after Gregoire got through with it, patients were worse off than they started.

In a letter to the four top leaders in the Washington Legislature, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, county executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said the medical marijuana law in its current state leaves them with “few good options” to control and regulate dispensaries, reports Jonathan Martin at the Seattle Times.

“In the absence of new legislation, we at the local level will have to choose between closing down dispensaries and prosecuting the owners and workers, or allowing them to continue to multiply in an unclear regulatory environment,” they wrote in a letter [PDF] dated Wednesday, May 18.

Patient Gets Two Years In Prison For Sharing Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 18, 2011 Medical, News

Graphic: The Pencil Method

A Montana man will spend two years in prison for the offense of sharing three grams of his medical marijuana with friends last November.

District Judge Dusty Deschamps called it a “Mickey Mouse” offense, but in sentencing Matthew Otto, 27, on Tuesday, the judge said he took into account Otto’s “extensive criminal history” as supposed justification for the harsh sentence, reports Jenna Cederberg of The Missoulian.

Deschamps sentenced Otto to 20 years in prison after a jury convicted him in March on one count of “criminal distribution of dangerous drugs” (they’ve got to be kidding). Two years will be served at the Montana State Prison and will run concurrently with a previous sentence. The judge suspended the other 18 years of the sentence, which will be served on parole under Department of Corrections supervision.

Arizona Medical Marijuana Patients Start Cultivating At Home

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 18, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, Medical

Photo: Growing Marijuana

Arizona’s medical marijuana laws are going into effect, but dispensaries are still don’t know exactly when they’ll be opening their doors. Meanwhile, some patients aren’t waiting for them.

Patients who have already received their medical marijuana cards have already started cultivating their own medicine at home, reports Sonu Wasu at KOLD News 13. Under Arizona’s law, patients who don’t have an operating dispensary within 25 miles are eligible to cultivate — and right now, since no dispensaries are yet open, that includes every patient in the state.

Corey Miller, who applied for a medical marijuana card and checked the box asking whether he intended to cultivate plants for personal use, has already received his card and started the process.

Medical Marijuana Under Attack: Here’s How You Can Fight Back

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Drug Reporter

Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance: “These lawyers are playing politics with the lives of patients who need medical marijuana to cope with debilitating pain and nausea”

Medical marijuana patients across the country are under attack, according to Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

“Despite the Obama Administration’s promise to respect state laws, lawyers in the federal government are now threatening to arrest and prosecute people who are legally licensed to grow medical marijuana under state law,” Nadelmann said.

“These ideologues are trying to block sensible regulation — and they’ve already succeeded in Washington State,” Nadelmann said. “We must stop them from erasing all the progress we’ve made and from leaving patients out in the cold.”

Nadelmann is urging all supporters of medical marijuana to write U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to demand that the federal government keep its promise to respect state medical marijuana laws.

Is Rural Arizona Freaking Out Over Medical Marijuana?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: SWOP-USA

Apparently somehow unaware that marijuana is already easily available to practically any young person in America who wants it, one volunteer police officer in Kingman, Arizona, is pulling all kinds of drama-king moves over the coming of legal, medicinal cannabis to his town.

Harley Pettit of Kingman, Arizona says he’s seen young people get in trouble for everything from drugs and alcohol to vandalism. And Harley says that in a small community “with not a lot to do,” the last thing young people need is another way to get into trouble, reports Alyson Zepeda of Cronkite News Service.

And, of course, Harley is worried that’s what this newfangled medical marijuana stuff is going to give them. Well, news flash, Harley — for those of us who aren’t stuck in some king-hell 1950s time warp, young people are already smoking marijuana, they have been for 40 years, and they don’t have to buy it from medical marijuana dispensaries.

Cannabinophobia: The Timing Makes You Wonder

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 13, 2011 Culture, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Loopy Lettuce

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Schedule I: A category of drugs not considered legitimate for medical use. Included are heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and marijuana.

April 14th 1937

Whose bright idea was it to tax it? Is the option still open?

Marihuana Tax Act of 1937

The Act levied a tax equaling roughly one dollar on anyone who dealt commercially in cannabis, hemp, or marijuana. The Act did not itself criminalize the possession or usage of hemp, marijuana, or cannabis. It did include penalty and enforcement provisions to which marijuana, cannabis, or hemp handlers were subject. Violation of these procedures could result in a fine of up to $2,000 and five years’ imprisonment.

Washington Legislator Introduces Medical Cannabis Fixer Bill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 13, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Pete Kuhns/Seattle Weekly

Washington state Rep. Roger Goodman shows off a stash of his drug of choice: chocolate. Goodman is sponsoring an attempt to fix Washington state’s badly flawed medical marijuana law.

State Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) on Friday introduced a medical cannabis bill in the Washington House of Representatives that would address many of the patient access problems remaining after Governor Christine Gregoire two weeks ago vetoed most of S.B. 5073, which would have legalized dispensaries and provided arrest protection for patients.

Goodman’s bill includes protections for patients and providers, including language giving arrest protection to patients with authorizing paperwork and language decriminalizing medical cannabis dispensaries.

Delaware Governor Signs Medical Marijuana Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 13, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: markell.org

Governor Jack Markell of Delaware on Friday signed into law a measure legalizing medical marijuana in the state.

Governor Jack Markell on Friday signed SB 17 into law, making it legal for Delaware residents with certain serious medical conditions to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

The bill had bipartisan sponsors and support in the Legislature. This makes Delaware the 16th state, along with the District of Columbia, to pass an effective medical marijuana law.

The law goes into effect on July 1 and will permit people diagnosed with cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, decompensated cirrhosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), agitation of Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), intractable nausea, severe seizures, severe and persistent muscle spasms, wasting syndrome, and severe debilitating pain that has not responded to other treatments, or for which treatments produced serious side effects, to possess up to six ounces of marijuana without fear of arrest.

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