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Browsing: Medical

Montana House Votes Again To Repeal Medical Marijuana Law

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: News Junkie Post
Speaker of the House Mike Milburn (R-Cascade) preens as he prepares to accept his nomination as Speaker in the Montana Legislature. One of Milburn’s first acts as Speaker was to call for the repeal of Montana’s medical marijuana law, which would end safe access for patients.

​On an almost entirely party-line vote with Republicans in favor, the Montana House voted again on Saturday to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 2004, after a House panel supposedly looked at the repeal measure’s fiscal impacts.

House Bill 161, sponsored by Speaker Mike Milburn (R-Cascade), now faces a final house vote, probably on Monday, before heading to the Montana Senate, reports Charles S. Johnson at the Missoulian.

The House once again voted 63-37 to pass HB 161, with all 63 votes in favor coming from Republicans. All 32 House Democrats and five Republicans voted against repeal.
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Feds Will Study Only ‘Negative Consequences,’ Not Medical Pot

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By on Medical, News

Graphic: New York Medical Marijuana Society
The National Institute on Drug Abuse: “Our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use. We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana”

​Nearly two years ago, the Obama Administration issued its heralded “Scientific Integrity” memorandum which said “Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration.”

Coming, as pointed out by NORML’s Paul Armentano at AlterNet, just months after the American Medical Association called for “facilitating … clinical research and [the]development of cannabinoid-based medicines,” the memorandum stoked the hopes of pot activists who want to see the commencement of long-overdue human studies into the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis.
But that was before cold gray reality, also known as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), weighed in. NIDA, which oversees 85 percent of the world’s research on controlled substances, reaffirmed its longstanding policy of “no medical marijuana” to The New York Times. 
“As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequencs of marijuana use,” a spokesperson told the Times in 2010. “We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”
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Medical Marijuana Bill Introduced In Kansas

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Kansas Medical Cannabis Network

​Lawmakers on Monday introduced the Kansas Compassion and Care Act, which would make growing, selling, buying and smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes legal under state law.

“Legalizing medical marijuana in the state will not only allow those with debilitating conditions an alternative to pharmaceutical drugs, but will also help lower the amount of people that have to turn to the black market to obtain their medicine,” said Kyle Norton, director of Johnson County NORML.

House Bill 2330 has been referred to the House Committee on Health and Human Services for consideration and debate. Under this measure, patients with certain debilitating conditions would be able to use medical cannabis without fear of reprisal under state law, reports JoCo NORML.
The bill would also protect patients’ rights as employees, tenants, and parents. A patient registry system would be established, along with nonprofit care centers and a board to oversee the entire program.
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Medical Marijuana Repeal Would Hurt Montana’s Economy

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: KTVQ

​House Bill 161, Montana’s medical marijuana repeal bill, has only been approved by the House of Representatives. It hasn’t cleared the Senate, nor has it been signed by the governor. But dispensaries in Missoula are concerned about possible negative economic effects if the law is repealed.

Thousands of jobs could be lost, cities would lose revenue from business taxes, and many more people would be relying on food stamps if repeal passes, according to Dave Stephens, owner of Better Life Montana in Missoula.
“It’s a bad idea all the way around,” Stephens told Paige Huntoon of the Montana Kaimin, the student daily at the University of Montana at Missoula.
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MI: 2 Years Later, Medical Marijuana Still Has Huge Support

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog
A huge majority of Michigan voters still approves the medical marijuana law they passed (by, you guessed it, a huge majority) in 2008.

​Two years after legalizing it statewide, Michigan voters still support the state’s medical marijuana law by almost the same margin by which it was adopted in the 2008 election, according to a new poll.

The poll found that 61 percent of voters said they would vote yes again or would be likely to vote yes. Support for 2008’s Proposal 1, legalizing the possession and use of marijuana for medical reasons, was 62.6 percent statewide, reports Dawson Bell at the Detroit Free Press.
Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said they would vote no or lean no if the medical marijuana issue was before voters again, also about the same as in 2008.
Only one percent said they were undecided about medical marijuana.
The poll “proves that a strong majority of Michigan voters stand firmly behind the compassionate medical marijuana law they enacted two years ago,” according to a spokeswoman for the Marijuana Policy Project, which helped organize and finance the successful ballot proposal in 2008.
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MD Amendment Would Allow Marijuana Injection, Prohibit Smoking

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Daylife
Delegate Mike McDermott (R-Worcester) would allow patients to inject — but not smoke — marijuana.

​“No man’s life, liberty or happiness are safe while Congress is in session,” Mark Twain once famously said, and much the same could be said of the Maryland Legislature. A Republican delegate has now filed an amendment to Maryland’s proposed medical marijuana law which would allow patients to inject — but not to smoke — cannabis.

Never mind that marijuana’s not water soluble, and never mind that smoking — while not an ideal form of administration — is a LOT safer than injecting. That’s the kind of silliness you get when you have politicians writing rules for medicine.
Delegate Mike McDermott’s amendment, if added, would require anyone with an medical marijuana authorization from a doctor to consume it through vaporization, ingestion or injection — but smoking it would still be against the law.
“With the amendment, it becomes a medical issue entirely, but I can’t vote for it in the present form,” the clueless McDermott said, reports Jennifer Shutt at Delmarva Now.
The bill, with or without McDermott’s amendment, is deeply flawed. It would make marijuana a Schedule II controlled substance and allow it to be prescribed by doctors in certain cases — but since it only changes that rule at the state level, any doctor prescribing marijuana would be subject to losing his license, since cannabis is still considered Schedule I (no medical value and high potential for abuse) at the federal level.
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Colorado Bill Targets Cannabis Tinctures And Ointments

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Denver Relief
Cannabis tinctures and ointments would become illegal under a bill currently before the Colorado Legislature. Why, exactly? Apparently they threaten “public peace, health and safety.”

​A new bill that attempts to create more restrictions on the medical marijuana industry in Colorado by banning cannabis tinctures and ointments was released last Wednesday.

House Bill 11-1250 was written to “prohibit marijuana-infused consumable food and beverage product manufacturing and sale.” After an outcry from the medical marijuana community, the bill was amended to apply only to ointments and tinctures, not food or beverage products, reports Chelsea Long at Boulder Weekly.
Ryan Hartman, owner of Boulder Wellness Center, said he was worried about the bill’s impact on his dispensary.
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Delaware Lawmakers Submit Medical Marijuana Bill Again

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Robert Craig/The News Journal
Sen. Margaret Rose Henry: “Delaware legislators have been listening to patients and families in community meetings and the stories they’ve heard changed minds and hearts”

​Medical marijuana backers have filed another bill in the Delaware Legislature to legalize medicinal use of cannabis.

This is the third straight year that Senate Major Whip Margaret Rose Henry has introduced medical marijuana legislation, reports The Associated Press. Henry said she is optimistic for the bill’s chances this year.
“Delaware legislators have been listening to patients and families in community meetings and the stories they’ve heard changed minds and hearts,” Sen. Henry said. “Legislators have begun to understand the very real need for legislative action to allow this treatment option without in any way undermining law enforcement or the prosecution of those engaged in the recreational use of marijuana.”
Rep. Helene Keeley, the House co-sponsor, said that unlike California and 13 other medical marijuana states — but like neighboring New Jersey — the bill would not permit patients to grow their own marijuana. This is a disturbing trend with recent marijuana laws — it’s as if there is some sort of competition to see which state can make a medical marijuana law the least friendly and useful to patients.
Senate Minority Leader Gary Simpson (R-Milford) said he is undecided about SB 17, the medical marijuana bill, and claimed he is “concerned” that marijuana is a “gateway drug” that “leads to the use of more dangerous drugs.” I think we can pretty much give up on hearing anything intelligent on from that guy on the subject of cannabis.,
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Big Medical Marijuana Win In Washington: 133 Plants, Not Guilty

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By on Growing, Medical, News

Graphic: Reality Catcher

​In a huge win for medical marijuana advocates, a southwest Washington man who grew cannabis for a dying cancer patient has been acquitted of drug charges.

Mark Hensley of Vancouver, Wash., was arrested last year with 133 marijuana plants, many of them small clones between 1.5 to 2 inches tall, attorney Douglas Hiatt told Toke of the Town Friday afternoon.
Hensley was growing the plants to produce cannabis oil for his former tenant, William Britten, who died of esophogeal cancer last August.
Clark County Superior Court Judge Rich Melnick found Hensley not guilty on Friday, Hiatt told us.
His client, Hensley, was allowed to grow more than the Washington’s medical marijuana law’s presumptive limit of 15 plants because it takes lots of cannabis to produce the oil, Hiatt said. “Mr. Britten used a significant amount of cannabis for appetite and nausea and to control the pain, obviously. He was very, very sick.”
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Judge Upholds Walmart’s Firing Of Medical Marijuana Patient

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By on Medical, News

Photo: Katy Batdorff/The Grand Rapids Press
Cancer patient Joseph Casias was Walmart’s Employee of the Year — but they fired him after learning he uses medical marijuana with a doctor’s authorization.

​Walmart’s former Employee of the Year won’t be going back to work there. A federal judge on Friday ruled that Michigan’s medical marijuana law protects legal users from arrest, but doesn’t protect them from employers’ policies which ban pot use.

Joseph Casias, who has an inoperable brain tumor, was fired by the Battle Creek Walmart after he failed a routine drug test following a workplace injury, reports John Agar at The Grand Rapids Press.
“The fundamental problem with (Casias’) case is that the (medical marijuana law) does not regulate private employment,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker wrote in his 20-page opinion.
“Rather, the Act provides a potential defense to criminal prosecution or other adverse action by the state… All the (law) does is give some people limited protection from prosecution by the state, or from other adverse state action in carefully limited medical marijuana situations,” the federal judge ruled.
According to Judge Jonker, the law “says nothing about private employment rights. Nowhere does the (law) state that the statue regulates private employment, that private employees are protected from disciplinary action should they use medical marijuana, or that private employers must accommodate the use of medical marijuana outside the workplace.”
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