Medical

PTSD Proposed For Oregon Medical Marijuana List

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 27, 2012 Medical, News

Medical marijuana advocates in Oregon want to add post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the official list of conditions that qualify patients to use medicinal cannabis.

Many people with PTSD are already in Oregon’s medical marijuana program because they have other medical conditions that allow them to legally use marijuana, according to advocates, reports The Associated Press.

Medical cannabis activists said that it’s particularly important PTSD be included on the list as more and more battle-weary military veterans return home, reports Noelle Crombie at The Oregonian.

Medical Marijuana Officially Qualifies For Arkansas Ballot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 22, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

Arkansans for Compassionate Care

Arkansas has become the first state in the Deep South to qualify a medical marijuana initiative for the ballot.

Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin on Wednesday certified the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act has enough signatures to be on the November 6 General Election ballot. The proposal needed a minimum of 62,507 signatures from registered voters to qualify.

“Compassionate Care is an important issue for thousands of Arkansans and their families,” said Melissa Fults, treasurer for Arkansans for Compassionate Care. “This is something the people of Arkansas want to discuss. We’ve always been a leader in the South and now we’re the first one to put medical marijuana on the ballot and have a real discussion about it.”

Michigan Medical Marijuana Patients Fight Back With PSA

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 22, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

Michigan medical marijuana patients are in a fight for their lives.
Despite the fact that an overwhelming 63 percent of voters approved their medical marijuana law in 2008 — winning every county in the state — lawmakers have unaccountably decided to ignore the will of the people who elected them.
Now circulating in the Michigan Legislature is badly written legislation which would, in effect, gut the law approved by the people four years ago. Things are so bad that activist Joe Cain, CEO of the National Medical Marijuana Association, is calling it the the “Last Stand of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.”
“The politicians are claiming that patients and caregivers have approved the bills,” Cain told Toke of the Town on Wednesday. “Nothing could be farther from the truth.”

N.M. State Employee Fired For Legally Using Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 20, 2012 Medical, News

THC Finder

A state employee in New Mexico — where medical marijuana is legal — says she was fired after a drug test showed she had been using cannabis, under a doctor’s orders, to treat post traumatic stress disorder.

The woman told reporters she had never reported for work impaired, and “was just looking for relief,” reports Stephen C. Webster at The Raw Story.

“I just wanted to be able to get up and live my life the way I used to,” she said.

Infant Drug Tests For Marijuana Are Unreliable: Researchers

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 16, 2012 Medical, News

The Daily Caller

Women in many states have gotten in deep legal trouble — including losing custody of their kids — after showing up positive for marijuana on hospital drug tests. But the most commonly used methods for detecting cannabis exposure are unreliable when used on infants, and “should not be reported” without more tests and followup by hospital staff and social workers, according to a new study recently published in the journal Clinical Chemistry.

While infant drug tests are commonly used across the United States, it’s often done only in cases where the mother has some history of substance use, reports Stephen C. Webster at The Raw Story. Positive results for marijuana on the immunoassay drug test are often followed by a more targeted THC test to confirm the results.

Medical Marijuana Headed For November Ballot In Arkansas

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 10, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

Arkansans for Compassionate Care

By Angela Bacca

Arkansans for Compassionate Care (ACC)

The Facebook page for Arkansas for Compassionate Care (ACC) has been alluding to big news all week. “If you have your ear to the ground in just the right place, you know the good news is coming. Arkansas get ready, greatness is upon you!”

The group has reason to celebrate. At 2 p.m. EST on Monday they will travel to Little Rock to submit approximately 130,000 signatures, more than double the 62,000 needed to qualify, putting medical marijuana up for a vote in November.

If the Arkansas initiative passes, its supporters are confident that it will represent the dawn of a sea change in federal marijuana policy. They believe that by becoming the first Southern state to pass such a bill, the Federal government will be forced to address prohibition at a national level.

German Study: Cannabis-Based Medications Relieve Pain

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 8, 2012 Medical, News

io9

Many Cannabis Patients Can Drive Motor Vehicles Safely While Medicated, According To Study

Cannabis-based medications have been demonstrated to relieve pain, and can be useful for patients whose symptoms aren’t adequately alleviated by conventional treatment, according to a paper in a peer-reviewed German medical journal.

The symptoms shown to have been alleviated by marijuana-based medicines include muscle spasms, nausea and vomiting resulting from chemotherapy, loss of appetite in HIV/AIDS patients, and neuropathic pain, according to the paper, published in Issue 29-30 of Deutsches Arzteblatt International, the German Medical Association’s official international peer-reviewed science journal, reports Science Daily.

“Medications based on cannabis have been used for therapeutic purposes in many cultures for centuries,” the paper notes. “In Europe, they were used at the end of the 19th century to treat pain, spasms, asthma, sleep disorders, depression, and loss of appetite.”

N.J. Medical Marijuana Program Open To Patients

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 8, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical, News

ImageShack

Doctors Able to Register Patients and Patients Will Receive ID Cards

State Website Updated With Comprehensive Information Including Interactive Map for Finding Doctors

Patients, Families and Advocates Celebrate Long-Awaited Milestone

It’s been a long wait — too long, for many patients who never lived to see the day — but legal medical marijuana is coming to New Jersey.

The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act reached will reach a major milestone on Thursday when the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services opens the patient registration process. Doctors who are treating qualifying patients will then be able to enter those patients into the patient registration system.

Marijuana and the Two Faces of American Justice

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 7, 2012 Culture, Medical

rakontur

Robert Platshorn spreads the truth about cannabis through The Silver Tour, even as he battles cancer. Now the federal government has moved to silence him, and has forbidden him to use the only medicine that helps

Sunlight Into Darkness

By Robert Platshorn

The Silver Tour

After spending almost 30 years in prison for importing marijuana, I met Tony, who was to be my parole officer for the next three-plus years. A big, strong guy in his late 40s, he looked like the kind of fed I had hoped never to see again.

For the first year, it was touch and go. Tony was trying to convince me he was a decent human being and me confident that he was just waiting for a chance to put the Tuna back in the can.

Dr. Lucido’s Berkeley Office Celebrating 33 Years In Practice

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 7, 2012 Culture, Medical

Medical Marijuana 411

Dr. Frank Lucido: “It’s a great privilege to be a part of someone’s life on that level, from delivering healthy babies, to holding their hand when they are dying”

This year, Dr. Frank Lucido, M.D., celebrates his 33rd year of providing family health care in Berkeley, California, He began practicing at his current location in 1979.

Dr. Lucido has been in the forefront of the medical cannabis movement since the passage of the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996, Proposition 215.

“Wow, how to summarize these 33 years,” Dr. Lucido told Toke of the Town. “Family medicine has given me a chance to see people in all stages of life, health, and illness.”

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