Medical

Most CA Atty. Gen. Candidates Oppose Pot Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 1, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Most major candidates for California attorney general are lining up against the state’s marijuana legalization initiative, reports Seth Hemmelgarn at Bay Area Reporter.

Even supposedly liberal, but quite spineless, Democratic candidates disagree with those who say it’s time law enforcement got out of the marijuana business.

“As a career prosecutor, I believe that drug selling harms communities; it is not a ‘victimless crime,’ as some contend,” said San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who is running in the Democratic Primary for California attorney general.

Activist: Marijuana Patients Still Unprotected By Law In Washington

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 31, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Seattle Hempfest

Vivian McPeak: “Patients and providers have already shown we are evenhanded and responsible. Now all we want is to be protected by law.”

Marijuana activist Vivian McPeak, founder of Seattle Hempfest, has said that patients in the state of Washington are still unprotected by the state’s medical cannabis law, approved by voters in 1998.

“The law does not protect legal patients from home invasion and arrest by police,” McPeak wrote in a letter to the editor published in the March 30 edition of The Seattle Times.

“Flaws in the law make medical marijuana producers criminals,” McPeak said. “If the grower reports theft to police, that grower often gets treated as a criminal.”

Canada: Court Orders Nova Scotia To Pay For Woman’s Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 31, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Fresh Scent

Nova Scotia has been ordered to pay for the medical marijuana used by a woman who is on social assistance. In a decision released Wednesday afternoon, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia ordered the Department of Community Services to pay for Sally Campbell’s prescription pot, reports Beverley Ware of The Chronicle Herald.

Campbell suffers from numerous ailments, and has a certificate from Health Canada giving her permission to use cannabis to relieve her nausea and pain.

Sheriff: No Guns For Pot Activist After Home Invasion Shootout

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 30, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: Peter Dean Rickards/The Independent

A Washington state medical marijuana activist — who nearly killed an armed intruder in his home this month — has been barred from buying guns, even though he says he has no criminal record.

Steve Sarich of CannaCare said he tried to buy a shotgun and a pistol a few days after the March 15 shootout at his home, to replace guns that were seized by investigators, reports Gene Johnson of The Associated Press. But Sarich said he failed the background check.

Sarich got an email from the King County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday, attempting to explain the denial. It says Sarich showed law enforcement officers his paperwork as a medical marijuana patient — and those papers create a presumption that Sarich is an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance.

Sarich is a legal medical marijuana patient under Washington’s medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1998.

D.C. Medical Marijuana Bill Would Allow 2 Ounces

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 30, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Patients of D.C.

Washington, D.C., would allow patients to have up to two ounces of marijuana a month — enough for about two joints a day — for medical use under a bill that moved forward Tuesday.

Patients would not be allowed to grow their own cannabis under the bill, but a committee would study whether to allow home cultivation by patients and caregivers, and make a recommendation by 2012, reports Malin Berghult at WUSA9.

The bill, which was approved by two city government committees on Tuesday, still needs approval of the full City Council. That could come as early as May.

South Dakota Voters May Legalize Medical Marijuana In November

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 29, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: South Dakota Coalition for Compassion

Encouraged by their near miss four years ago, medical marijuana supporters say they have a better chance this year to persuade South Dakotans to legalize the plant for treating pain, nausea and other health problems.

A similar measured failed in 2006, getting about 48 percent of the vote. It was the only time in American history that medical marijuana lost a statewide popular election.

But a coalition of patients, doctors, nurses and others will campaign this summer, explaining how marijuana can help people with serious illnesses, said organizer Emmett Reistroffer, reports Chet Brokaw of The Associated Press.

“We feel like once people learn about the therapeutic uses, they will compassionately support the measure,” Reistroffer said. “If we help them understand marijuana is a medicine, we think we’ll gain their votes.”

Hawaii Governor Rails Against Marijuana Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 29, 2010 Dispensaries, Medical

Photo: Big Island Video News

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle: “Compassion centers” are an “insult,” because they are really “pot stores”

During a recent speech before the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle took a hardline stance against the recent legislative effort to legalize and establish medical marijuana dispensaries for the state’s patients.

Governor Lingle pointed to the situation in California, where she claimed marijuana dispensaries now “outnumber both McDonalds and Starbucks,” reports Baron Sekiya at Big Island Video News.

The hard-hearted governor said the term “compassion centers” given to these dispensaries is an “insult,” because in reality, she says, they are simply “pot stores.”

Lingle also claims that today’s marijuana, which she says is 26 percent THC, is far more potent than the herb which was around “when we were in college,” which she claimed ran 2 to 3 percent THC.

Medical Marijuana Comes To ‘South Park’ March 31

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 29, 2010 Culture, Medical

Graphic: SF Weekly

Medical marijuana is coming to South Park.

Cartman’s favorite restaurant has been shut down and a store selling medicinal marijuana moves in, on an all-new episode of South Park titled “Medicinal Fried Chicken,” premiering Wednesday, March 31 at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.

State law in Colorado says it’s legal to smoke weed if you have a doctor’s recommendation. Randy is the first in line to buy some, but he’s turned away because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him.

N.J. Lawmakers Urge Governor To Pardon Medical Pot Patient

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 26, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger

John Ray Wilson, a multiple sclerosis patient, is led out of Superior Court after being sentenced to five years in prison for marijuana.

Two New Jersey lawmakers called on Gov. Chris Christie Wednesday to pardon a man sentenced to five years in prison for growing marijuana to treat his multiple sclerosis.

Senators Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) and Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) asked the governor to commute John Ray Wilson’s sentence to probation, reports James Queally at The Star-Ledger.

The senators called the prison term facing Wilson as “cruel, unusual and unnecessary” in a letter written to the governor March 24. Wilson, 37, of Franklin Township, N.J., was sentenced to prison after he was found guilty of second-degree “marijuana manufacturing” and third-degree drug possession by a jury in December.

Mexico ‘Feels Offended’ By Medical Marijuana In U.S.

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 26, 2010 Global, Medical

Photo: Alejandro Bringas/Reuters

Mexican soldiers stand at attention, desperately trying to maintain a “military bearing” as the intoxicating smoke from bales of marijuana being burned billows over them

Here’s a role reversal for you. Mexico is irritated at the United States for undercutting the Drug War.

As more U.S. states legalize medical marijuana, Mexican Secretary of Interior Fernando Gómez Mont is whining that the American medical marijuana trend is “worrisome” and that it “complicates in a grave way” Mexico’s battle against violent drug cartels.

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week led a high-level U.S. delegation to Mexico to discuss strategies to counter drug trafficking, the issue came to a head, reports Tim Johnson in The Sacramento Bee.

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