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Browsing: Medical

Denver Narc Claims Marijuana Seizures Up 380 Percent

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By on Growing, Medical

Photo: The Record

​A Denver narc claims that illegal marijuana seizures are “up 380 percent from 2009,” and believes “surplus medical marijuana” is to blame.
Commander Jerry Peters of the North Metro Task Force, who has long maintained that “drug dealers” are “taking advantage” of the medical marijuana industry, isn’t sure that tightening Colorado’s medical marijuana law would even help.
“I don’t necessarily like the law the way it is anyway,” he said. “I think this effect will be there no matter what happens.”
For some good reading from our sister blog in the Village Voice Media empire, check out the rest of the story by Michael Roberts at Westword:

D.C. To Discount Medical Marijuana For Poor Patients

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By on Medical, News

Graphic: sitfu.com

​If you’re a medical marijuana patient in Washington D.C., you may never be too broke to buy cannabis again, starting next year.

The District of Columbia, with one of the highest poverty levels in the country, has become the first place to pass a law discounting medical marijuana for low-income patients.
“The D.C. proposal to subsidize the cost of medical marijuana for low income patients is especially appropriate, and something that the other medical use states should consider,” said Keith Stroup, legal counsel for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
“With the cost of medical marijuana anywhere from $200 to $600 per ounce (and even higher at some dispensaries in California), there are many patients who simply cannot afford their medicine,” Stroup told Toke of the Town Thursday afternoon.
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Group Works To Bring Medical Marijuana Dispensaries To Texas

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By on Dispensaries, Medical

Graphic: Disinformation

​With its recognition by the state of Texas as a nonprofit, the Medicinal Marijuana Advocates Group (MMAG) says the fight to bring medical cannabis legislation to Texas is getting closer to reality.

MMAG, recently founded to advocate “peaceful protest for pharmaceutical research,” brings motivation and passion to the struggle, according to Alexander Young, president and founder of the group.
“We expect strong opposition from disbelievers,” Young said. “It’s inevitable in such a conservative atmosphere. We knew this when we started and we’re ready for a struggle. But it’s time to end needless suffering.”
“It’s time to bring centralization and a single, clear, professional voice to the medicinal cannabis community,” said Tim DaGiau, public relations director for MMAG.
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Red-Faced Governor Claims Growing Pot Was Rutgers’ Idea

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By on Growing, Medical

Photo: NY Post
Gov. Chris Christie’s hare-brained equivocation and incompetence have resulted in New Jersey patients waiting another six months for the only medicine that works.

​Butt-hurt and embarrassed that they turned down his idea to grow medical marijuana, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Friday took Rutgers University to the woodshed.

The governor claimed that he was “surprised” Rutgers refused his offer to become the lone grower of the state’s medical marijuana supply — because the whole thing was the school’s idea.

“They absolutely came to us,” Christie claimed. “I wouldn’t have even thought about it.”
The governor added that he was “disappointed” when he heard university leaders say the plan was unworkable, reports Beth DeFalco at the Courier Post Online.
“Their handling of it, candidly, was disjointed,” Gov. Christie said. (Hehehe. The governor said “disjointed” while talking about marijuana).
“And it doesn’t give me great confidence in the way decisions are being made over there,” the governor said.
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Opposition To DEA Pot Raids Spreads Across Political Spectrum

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By on Medical, News

Photo: Politico
Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake on DEA medical marijuana raids: “What part of ‘not a priority’ does Michele Leonhart not understand?”

​Two ideologically diverse advocates on Wednesday echoed an earlier call by a coalition of drug-policy reform groups by condemning a series of recent raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration on medical marijuana collectives operating legally under state law.

The Tenth Amendment Center, a group that advocates for states’ rights, and Jane Hamsher, the publisher of Firedoglake.com, called on the DEA to respect duly adopted state medical marijuana laws and immediately end those raids.
“The federal government is only authorized to exercise those powers that ‘We The People’ delegated to it in the Constitution,” said Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center. “It is especially egregious when these laws are used to justify raids in states where the use and distribution of cannabis is expressly allowed by law.”
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Your Dream Job: Denver Pot Reviewer Gets Paid To Get High

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By on Culture, Dispensaries, Medical

WBAL
Marijuana critic William Breathes at work

​A Denver man gets paid to smoke cannabis and write about it as one of the first professional medical marijuana critics in the country.

Denver’s Westword alternative newspaper has hired the man, who goes by the name “William Breathes,” to review marijuana dispensaries and the quality of the cannabis they sell, reports WBAL TV.
“He has his journalism degree,” said a Westword editor. “He was a good writer, and he could punctuate and he could spell, which was very different than a lot of people who applied for the job.”
Breathes said he has been smoking marijuana for 15 years to ease chronic stomach pains. Now he smokes pot to pay the mortgage.
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First Marijuana School To Open In New England

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By on Growing, Medical

Graphic: NESAHS
The New England School of Alternative Horticultural Studies says it will be the first marijuana training facility in the Northeast.

​California and Colorado, move over. Higher learning is coming to the American Northeast.

The New England School of Alternative Horticultural Studies, a Rhode Island-based medical marijuana training center, announced on Thursday the September launch of its basic medical marijuana training class in Warwick, R.I., which it said is the first professional medical marijuana training class in the northeastern United States.
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Challenge To Federal Medical Pot Policy Helped By V.A. Change

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: LA Progressive

​Medical marijuana patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) filed an important legal brief on Wednesday to correct statements made by the federal government that “marijuana has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

The ASA legal filing points to a policy directive issued last week by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), recognizing medical marijuana and distinguishing it from other illegal controlled substances.
In its brief, ASA says that the VHA directive bolsters advocates’ arguments that marijuana does indeed have medical value.
“Recognition of marijuana’s therapeutic benefits by a federal agency makes it more difficult for the government to argue against marijuana’s medical value,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who filed the notice with the court.
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County Will Pay For Marijuana Plants Stolen From Patient

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By on Growing, Medical

Photo: Hats Radio
A Washington medical marijuana patient will be paid for his 15 cannabis plants after they were stolen, then recovered and taken into evidence by deputies.

​A Washington medical marijuana patient whose pot plants were stolen on Sunday will probably get money — but not his plants — back from the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

The plants, which are now being held as evidence in the criminal case against a pair accused of stealing them, may be needed in court, and will likely spoil before they can be returned to their rightful owner, according to Kitsap County Sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson, reports Josh Farley at the Kitsap Sun.
“We don’t want to provide something back that could cause illness,” Wilson said.
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D.C. Patients Can Expect To Buy Legal Marijuana In Early 2011

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By on Dispensaries, Medical

Graphic: NotionsCapital

​According to political leaders in the District of Columbia, it will be months before D.C. begins allowing the sale of medical marijuana from licensed dispensaries, even though the law authorizing up to eight of the pot shops took effect Tuesday after the Democratic-controlled Congress declined to intervene.

The delay is caused by a lack of detail about how the city will operate the program, which includes a very cool, first-in-the-nation provision requiring dispensaries to price their marijuana on a sliding scale so the city’s poorest patients can get their medicinal cannabis for free, reports Tim Craig at The Washington Post.
​Council member David A. Catania, chairman of the Health Committee, said he doesn’t expect the first dispensaries to open until early next year, and that would be a best-case scenario.
“I know people are eager for this to go forward, but I think we have to do this judiciously and slowly and carefully,” Catania said.
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