Medical

Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana: Is Third Time The Charm For WAMM?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 20, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: WAMM

WAMM grows medical marijuana for terminally ill patients.

A case which could have far reaching implications in patient access to medical marijuana is coming back to court for a settlement hearing on Friday.

On January 22, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a collective which provides medical cannabis to the terminally and critically ill at no cost, will be in federal court in San Jose, California, for the hearing in WAMM’s joint lawsuit against the federal government.

Details of the settlement will be released following the court hearing.

San Diego Patient Gets Her Bongs Back From The Cops

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 20, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: Safe Access San Diego

Tiffani Kjeldergaard got her bongs and pipes back from the cops. Now her lawyer is filing a motion to get the pot back, too.

On January 19, a San Diego medical marijuana patient got her bongs back from the police, winning a seven-month battle after the bongs were seized in June 2009.

Tiffani Kjeldergaard was sentenced in January of 2009 to probation on a non-drug related offense. She continued to use her legal medication and tested positive for THC on drug tests conducted by the probation department until June, when her probation officer decided to stop by her house for a “safety check,” reports Safe Access San Diego.

Attorney To Health Dept.: Where Has All The Medical Marijuana Registration Money Gone?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 19, 2010 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: westword

Activist/attorney Rob Corry: “Serious questions are raised as to the allocation of the patients’ funds”

Activist/attorney Rob Corry, one of the most visible marijuana advocates on the Colorado scene, has sent an open records request to the Colorado Department of Health. Corry wants to know where the money has gone.

Via email, Corry writes that Colorado has received “conservatively $1.7 million… from suffering patients paying for the privilege of waiting four months for a paper card that doesn’t fit in normal wallets and falls apart in one wash,” reports Michael Roberts at Westword.

In the letter, Corry documents 19,691 patients who received marijuana registry cards between June 2001 and September 2009. With the health department recently receiving a record 1,650 applications in a single day, that number is clearly out of date.

L.A. City Council Set To Vote Tuesday On Marijuana Dispensary Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 19, 2010 Dispensaries, Medical

Photo: Damon D’Amato, WAMC

Medical marijuana supporters march on L.A. City Hall in 2007

After a delay of nearly three years resulting in hundreds of unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries opening in Los Angeles, the City Council there will try to pass an ordinance Tuesday to regulate the booming industry.

The council already resolved some key issues, reports the Los Angeles Daily News — including whether to cap the number of dispensaries citywide, and the size of buffer zones between dispensaries and homes — during sessions that began last year.

Now the council must decide whether dispensaries should be kept 500 or 1,000 feet away from “sensitive use” sites, including schools, hospitals, religious institutions and rehab centers.

Once that’s settled, the council could pass the ordinance on first reading — but only if at least 12 of its 15 members vote for the measure. Otherwise, there will be a second reading a week later, when only eight votes are required to pass.

It’s Official: New Jersey Becomes 14th Medical Marijuana State

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 18, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: salem-news.com

Monday was a day of celebration for patients and advocates as the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act was signed into law by outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine.

The new law provides patients protection from arrest and prosecution for possession and transportation of marijuana, and establishes state-regulated distribution of medicinal cannabis by “Alternative Treatment Centers.”

New Jersey is the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana, and the third largest in population, after California and Michigan.

Israel To Charge Patients For Marijuana As Demand Soars

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 18, 2010 Global, Medical

Photo: russiatoday.com

Patients who use medical marijuana in Israel will soon pay a monthly service charge of about $100 to cover costs, reports Josiah Daniel Ryan of The Jerusalem Post.

The charge is scheduled to begin in a few weeks, according to a source inside Tikkun Olam, the nonprofit organization that produces Israel’s medical marijuana. It will be about NIS 360 monthly, roughly equivalent to $97 American. (At current exchange rates, a shekel is worth about 27 cents American).

In addition, starting Sunday, patients are required to pay a one-time administrative fee of NIS 116 (about $31).

Until Sunday, patients had received free marijuana. But following a wave of publicity caused by media reports, Tikkun Olam has been deluged, with a nearly 500 percent increase in requests for medical cannabis, according to an anonymous source within the organization.

New Poll: 81 Percent Of Americans Support Legalizing Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 18, 2010 Culture, Medical, News

Graphic: ABC News/Washington Post

Support for medical marijuana, already high in 1997, his risen to even greater levels in the past dozen years.

More than eight in 10 Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to a new poll. Almost half favor decriminalizing the herb completely.

According to the new ABC News/Washington Post national poll, 81 percent support legalizing cannabis for medicinal use, up from already sizable 69 percent support in 1997.

Support for both medical marijuana and decriminalizing for all adults is far higher than it was a decade ago, reports poll analyst Gary Langer at ABC News.

Sheriff May Have To Buy Patient $40,000 Worth Of Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 15, 2010 Culture, Medical

Photo: Lewis County Herald

Enjoy your high, officers. Now, that’ll be $40,000. Cash or credit?

A California medical marijuana patient may soon be receiving almost $40,000 from the sheriff’s department for six pounds of unlawfully seized and destroyed cannabis.

Kimberley Marshall, 46, of Los Osos, Calif., has filed a claim for damages against Sheriff Patrick Hedges and the county, alleging the county unjustly seized and destroyed the medicinal pot, reports Matt Fountain of New Times.

If she prevails, Marshall could be the first medical marijuana patient in San Luis Obispo County to be paid for confiscated cannabis.

Marshall, a survivor of liver cancer and other afflictions, seeks $36,000 — $6,000 per pound of confiscated marijuana — plus attorney fees and damages, according to the claim, filed Dec. 23.

Colorado Legislators Await First Bill To Regulate Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 15, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Denver Chronicle

Medical marijuana supporters rally at the Capitol in Denver, Jan. 14, 2009

The first bill to regulate Colorado’s medical marijuana industry will come before the Legislature today, according to its sponsor.

The bill, from state Sen. Chris Romer, would create stricter requirements for the relationship between medical marijuana patients and the doctors recommending it for them, report John Ingold and Jessica Fender of The Denver Post.

Marijuana providers would be barred from paying doctors who recommend cannabis to patients. Marijuana-recommending doctors would be required to be in good standing, with no restrictions on their medical licenses, and the doctor and patient would have to have a “bona fide” relationship in which the doctor provides a full examination and follow-up care.

And The Bad News Is… Garden State’s Medical Marijuana Law Doesn’t Allow Homegrown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 13, 2010 Growing, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Hendrike

New Jersey medical marijuana patients won’t be seeing this anytime soon — at least, not without risking jail.

Almost lost in the euphoria surrounding yesterday’s triumph in the passage of a law legalizing medical marijuana in New Jersey was one bummer of a detail:

You can’t grow your own pot garden in the Garden State.

It doesn’t matter if you are a qualified patient with a doctor’s recommendation: Under the New Jersey medical marijuana law, residents cannot grow their own, reports Jeremy Olshan of the New York Post.

That could be a serious flaw in a law which aims to help seriously ill, and often financially insolvent, people. Sometimes, for some patients, growing a modest few plants is the only way they can afford to use marijuana at all.

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