| Ritalin, still more deadly than cannabis. |
Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital recently conducted a study to determine the correlation between the rise in the number of adults on prescription drugs, and the number of children who accidentally ingest them. Shocking nobody, the team found that as the sheer number of drug prescriptions goes up, so does the number of kids being poisoned by them.
| YouTube.com |
Jerry Duval has been through a lot in his 53 years. A farmer in Michigan, he’s seen his share of tough time economically. He’s also been through juvenile diabetes, kidney and pancreas transplants, and now suffers from coronary artery disease, glaucoma and neuropathy. But through medical cannabis, he’s found not only a way to improve his quality of life, but the quality of the lives of others by growing medical cannabis.
That is until federal agents raided his farm, found him guilty of manufacturing marijuana and “maintaining a drug premises” and sentenced him to ten years in prison in April 2012. Now Duval, and three other Michigan growers in similar situations, are left with no few options but to surrender and face their sentences.
| Israel Minister of Health Yael German. |
Facing increasing opposition from doctors and patients who support and depend on the use of medical marijuana, Israel’s Minister of Health, Yael German, has seen her Facebook page dominated by dissent, and a full-scale hunger protest form on her front lawn.
The protests spawned from a recent increase on the regulations that govern the country’s blooming medical marijuana program, specifically on what illnesses would be eligible for treatment with some Kosher Kush.
| New Hampshire state house. |
The New Hampshire Senate yesterday gave approval to House Bill 573, which will legalize the medical use of cannabis for patients with qualifying conditions.
But the question of whether medical marijuana patients should be allowed to grow their own medicine is still up for debate, though. The bill originally passed by the House back in March allowed for home cultivation, but thanks to pressure from Gov. Maggie Hassan, the Senate removed those provisions. The New Hampshire House and Senate will now have to iron out their differences before sending final language off to Hassan.
| San Diego mayor Bob Filner. |
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner is a friend of medical marijuana patients. Not only has the guy apologized for federal raids on dispensaries in his city, he’s now urging jurors in a local medical marijuana case to ignore federal marijuana laws and find a defendant not guilty for operating a medical marijuana dispensary.
Ronnie Chang was arrested by federal agents in 2009 and faces trial this fall. His attorneys argue that he was following California law allowing him to operate a medical marijuana center. But federal courts won’t allow those arguments to be heard since they don’t recognize medical marijuana at all.
Nearly 80 percent of Kentuckians approve of legalizing medical marijuana and roughly a quarter of the state would be open to outright legalization, according to a poll released last week.
How to go about that, though, seems to be up in the air.
The Illinois senate Friday approved House Bill 1, which would create a state-regulated medical marijuana patient program as well as authorize state-regulated medical marijuana dispensaries. Lawmakers say they have created one of the strictest programs in the nation.
But Governor Pat Quinn says he’s still considering the bill, though he told reporters earlier today that he remains “open minded” on the issue. Lt. Gov. Shelia Simon has publicly expressed her support for the bill.
It was an eventful week in medical marijuana news with groundbreaking discoveries happening in laboratories around the world.
In addition to finding out that cannabis can lower risks for bladder cancer and diabetes, scientists this week announced several other interesting findings regarding our favorite plant.
Marijuana advocates were abuzz last month — and by “abuzz” we mean excited, of course — when a bill to reduce penalties for marijuana possession was passed out the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. The bill had been watered down to apply only to people younger than 21, but the Texas chapter of NORML, the national pot-legalization organization, still called it an “amazing step for Texas.”
Also encouraging was progress on a medical marijuana bill that would make medical need a valid defense in pot possession cases. The measure, some version of which has been introduced in the past several sessions, got a hearing for the first time ever. Both those bills — the only pro-marijuana legislation to get any sort of traction this session — are now officially dead, which isn’t to say that marijuana activists are admitting defeat. Dallas Observer has more.