Browsing: Medical

Photo: AP
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard: “This is Michigan, not some Cheech and Chong movie”

​Following a protest Wednesday by more than 150 people at the Oakland County, Michigan courthouse, medical marijuana advocates said they plan to gather Monday in Pontiac and Lapeer for more protests against the arrests of patients and raids on cannabis dispensaries.

“The idea that it’s acceptable for law enforcement to beat down doors, hold weapons at patients’ heads, discuss killing family pets in front of children — all that has to stop,” said Southfield attorney Michael Komorn, who helped organize the protests.

Photo: KTNV

​Nevada’s debate over medical marijuana is heating up after recent raids on local dispensaries. No arrests were made, but federal agents did seize boxes of documents, patient records and “other evidence.” Now, patients who rely on medical marijuana are joining forces to fight back, reports KTNV.

Dozens of people showed up for a meeting to discuss how to change state law. In Nevada, people authorized to use medical marijuana are allowed to have one ounce on them at all times. But there’s no legal way to actually get it, besides growing it themselves.
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided several medical marijuana dispensaries for, they claimed, selling cannabis to patients. The clinics are only licensed to consult with patients, according to the DEA, and advise them on how to grow and use marijuana. They’re not specifically allowed by the language of Nevada’s medical marijuana law to provide cannabis.

ABC 6
Landlord Melodye Broadley put up this sheet announcing her tenant is growing medical marijuana because she was upset about it.

​A Rhode Island landlord claims she’s worried about a medical marijuana-growing tenant’s garden being a fire hazard — although it passed a fire department inspection. And she claims to be worried about a robbery — so she put up signs announcing the presence of marijuana in the building.

Landlord Melodye Broadley’s dispute with a marijuana-growing tenant in her building went public for a few hours Thursday, when she papered the Pawtucket property with signs complaining about Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law.

Broadley claimed she supported the idea of the state allowing the use of marijuana to treat certain medical conditions, reports John Hill of The Providence Journal. But she claims the act that established the medical marijuana program “tramples” on the rights of building owners where the cannabis is grown.

Graphic: Help End Marijuana Prohibition

​Ireland’s Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has said she is open to legalizing cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Harney has sought legal advice on the effectiveness of marijuana for the treatment of such conditions as multiple sclerosis and certain forms of cancer, reports Ronan McGreevy at the Irish Times.
The Department of Health and Children, in a statement, said it would contact relevant experts in the field with a view to making a recommendation to the Minister by the end of the year.
Harney said in a parliamentary question last year that she did not propose a change in the law that would allow cannabis to be used for medicinal purposes.
The department stressed there was “no question” of the Minister completely legalizing cannabis itself.
Medicinal cannabis campaigner Gordon McArdle met with Minister for Community Affairs Pat Carey on Thursday evening to discuss the issue.

Photo: Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian
Spc. Richelle Golden got a doctor’s authorization to legally use medical marijuana — and her caregiver was her former Guard commander. But, apparently in a cynical attempt to deny her retirement benefits, she faces a court-martial anyway.

Spc. Richelle Golden of the Oregon Army National Guard suffers from two incredibly painful autoimmune diseases. ​When she got to Madigan Army Medical Center in Washington state back in February, she arrived in a wheelchair, expecting to stay a few weeks and be medically retired from service. She immediately reported that she legally used cannabis to combat pain and nausea, and produced her Oregon medical marijuana card.

Now it’s five months later, and Golden is still at Joint Base Lewis-McChord facing court-martial, caught between the laws of her home state, which allow medicinal marijuana use with a doctor’s authorization, and the U.S. Army, which forbids it under any circumstances, reports Julie Sullivan at The Oregonian.

Photo: The Oakland Press
Sal Agro looks at what was left of his medical marijuana garden after cops raided his home. Agro, 67, didn’t get to live his final days in peace. Police officers ripped the place apart and seized his plants a week before he died.

​Remember Sal Agro!

A Michigan man who spoke out last week about police tactics after an August 25 medical marijuana raid at his home died on Thursday.

Sal Agro, 67, died due to a heart attack, according to family members. He recently had hip surgery, reports Carol Hopkins of The Oakland Press.
After the raids, Agro, a retired GM worker and beloved Lake Orion sports coach, walked through areas of his home to show where police had ripped apart beds and clothing, looking for marijuana.
Several marijuana plants he was growing for medical use were torn out and confiscated by police.

Photo: Fox 2

​A district judge in Ferndale, Michigan said Thursday he would allow state-approved medical marijuana defendants to keep using cannabis while out on bond — in sharp contrast to a Waterford judge’s statement Tuesday that said pot use by defendants in a parallel case would be a bond violation.

“They have every right to use whatever medications” their physicians authorize, Ferndale District Judge Joseph Longo said.

The contrast in treatment for those arrested in metro Detroit’s first major medical marijuana raids showed just how differently judges can interpret the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, according to Wayne State University law school professor Bob Sedler, reports Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press.

Photo: NORML Stash Blog
Your tax dollars were used to pay for this dumb-ass billboard just outside of Portland, Oregon.

​The widespread belief that marijuana users will eventually and inevitably move on to harder drugs has yet more evidence against it with the release of a new study from the University of New Hampshire.

Whether teenagers who smoked pot will use other illegal drugs as young adults has a lot more to do with factors such as employment status and stress, according to the new research, reports Science News. In fact, the strongest predictor of whether someone will use hard drugs is their race/ethnicity, not whether they ever used marijuana.
“In light of these findings, we urge U.S. drug control policymakers to consider stress and life-course approaches in their pursuit of solutions to the ‘drug problem,’ ” wrote UNH associate professors of sociology Karen Van Gundy and Cesar Rebellon.

Photo: billymax85
Rock Island County Assistant State’s Attorney Norma Kauzlarich: “Medical marijuana is a misnomer. No such thing exists.”

​Medical marijuana is a hot topic in Illinois, which could become the next state to legalize medicinal use of the herb. But the seeming inevitability of loosening laws surrounding cannabis means that the usual suspects, i.e., law-enforcement types, are saying some really dumb things in public. And it also unfortunately means that some lazy reporters are letting them get away with it.

“Medical marijuana is a misnomer. No such thing exists,” said Norma Kauzlarich, who prosecutes drug cases as an assistant state’s attorney in Rock Island County, Ill.
“It’s marijuana — simply, plain — just marijuana,” Kauzlarich helpfully informs us, reports John David of WQAD, who could really use some brushing up on his “both sides of the story” skills.
It seems that no matter how dumb a statement reporter David’s interview subjects utter, it isn’t sufficient to kick in his repertorial instincts to ask the obvious follow-up question or to make a challenge that practically begs to be made.
Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement Group Director Chris Endress warned about the “problems generated in states like Colorado and California.”
“These pot clubs bring crime and violence,” said Endress. “We just don’t need it. It’s just not worth it.”

Photo: Susan Montoya Bryan
Sarah Palin, right, greets Susana Martinez, her pick for New Mexico governor. Martinez wants to end N.M.’s medical marijuana program and take away safe access for patients.

​Sarah Palin’s pick for Governor of New Mexico, Republican Susana Martinez, vows she will work to repeal New Mexico’s medical marijuana program if she’s elected.

“I do not support distributing marijuana for any purposes, which is in violation of federal law,” Martinez told The Daily Lobo, the University of New Mexico’s student paper, last week.
“There are many other treatments for patients in need that do not break federal law,” Martinez said. Yeah, too bad those don’t work, eh, Susana?
But the Palin endorsee may not get her way. Undoing the state’s three-year-old medicinal cannabis law would not be easy, either through the Legislature or through voter referendum.
Collecting enough votes among state lawmakers to overturn the state’s medical marijuana law is a long shot, reports Trip Jennings at the New Mexico Independent.
1 163 164 165 166 167 203