The Arizona Republic published a TKO of its editorial board this weekend, after the writers declared that the state’s voter-approved medical-marijuana program was “one of the biggest cons around.”
Dr. Gina Mecagni, a local emergency physician, simply annihilated the Republic’s assertion that most medical-pot patients probably are fakers, echoing arguments we’ve also made here at Toke of the Town. Check out Dr. Mecagni’s response over at the Phoenix New Times.
Browsing: Medical
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Smoke it if you’ve got a recommendation. That’s what the vast majority of Floridians say about marijuana. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that 82 percent of Floridians support the use of medical marijuana.
But only 48 percent support decriminalization of small amounts of pot for recreational use, which, hey, is still almost 50 percent. Miami New Times has the rest of the story.
Santa Ana’s city attorney has apparently sent warning letters to all medical marijuana collectives currently operating in the city. The letters reportedly state that any storefront dispensary must close its doors within 15 days of Nov. 15–basically the end of the month–or else face misdemeanor charges and fines of $1000 per day.
Nick Schou with the OC Weekly has more.
After spending their summer recess learning about how other states have done it, West Virginia lawmakers may be ready to consider legalizing medical cannabis.
A state Joint Health Committee (no pun intended) were given copies of the 50-page plan last night in advance of the 2014 legislative session.
| Wikimedia commons/Michael Plasmeier. |
A bipartisan pair of Pennsylvania state senators introduced legislation this week legalizing medical marijuana in that state. Sort of.
Senate Bill 1182 would legalize the production, possession and use of CBD-rich plants oils, tinctures, but otherwise leaves all other cannabinoids basically illegal. Still, the state governor says it won’t happen while he’s in office.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Sick medical marijuana patients in New Mexico are finding it harder and harder to get access to medical cannabis, according to a newly released information from a survey conducted by the New Mexico Department of Health. Medical marijuana producers have also begun rationing to the patients they do serve.
The Albuquerque Journal, which first received the report after filing a records request with the state, says that some patients have been turning back to non-medical and less-legal cannabis providers.
An Arizona judge yesterday ruled that medical marijuana patients in that state essentially do not have the right to grow their own medicine anymore.
Judge Katherine Cooper in Maricopa County (yes, that Maricopa County) made the decision yesterday in response to two men filed a challenge to rules in the 2010 medical marijuana laws saying that patients could only grow their own if they lived more than 25 miles from a dispensary.
Fifteen years ago, voters in the state of Washington passed into law one of the nation’s first state-level medical marijuana programs. While certainly flawed, as most of those early laws were, the pioneering program has produced a robust network of doctors, growers, dispensaries, and patients in the Pacific Northwest.
Last year, in the 2012 elections, Washington joined Colorado as the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults, enjoying an easy 55-45 victory at the polls. More recently, a memo was sent out by Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Department of Justice, essentially giving the two states the feds’ blessing to move ahead with their experiments with legal weed. It’s all good in Washington, then, right? Unfortunately, no.
| Michigan state capitol. |
As we told you earlier this month, a number of Republican Michigan state lawmakers have begun drumming up support for a bill that would allow medical marijuana to be sold through licensed pharmacies. All of that is dependent on the long shot that feds would reschedule cannabis. We called the bill a “load of crap” since it would force patients to give up their right to cultivate cannabis at home and said the whole thing reeks of big, corporate lobbying from pharmaceutical companies wanting to cash in on cannabis in a state that recently banned dispensaries.
Physicians in Utah, including one of the leading child neurologists in the state, have urged officials in that state to pass legislation that would allow access to high-CBD oils for Utah children. High CBD oil has gained a lot of attention and momentum lately for the way it curbs the seizures associated with certain conditions like Dravet syndrome.