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Why Do Clinics Deny Painkillers To Medical Marijuana Patients?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 12, 2012 Medical

Should health care facilities have the power to make lifestyle decisions for you — and punish you when your choices don’t measure up to their ideals? More and more hospitals are making exactly those kinds of decisions when it comes to people who choose to use marijuana — even legal patients in medical marijuana states. Apparently, these places don’t mind looking exactly as if they have more loyalty to their Big Pharma benefactors than they do to their own patients.

A new policy at one Alaska clinic — requiring patients taking painkilling medications to be marijuana free — serves to highlight the hypocrisy and cruelty of such rules, which are used at more and more health care facilities, particularly the big corporate chains (the clinic in question is a member of the Banner Health chain).

Tanana Valley Clinic, in Fairbanks, started handing out prepared statements to all chronic pain patients on Monday, said Corinne Leistikow, assistant medical director for family practice at TVC, reports Dorothy Chomicz at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Oklahoma Legislature Starts Medical Marijuana Study

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 11, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

TheLaw.tv

The Oklahoma Legislature is taking a first, tentative step towards the possible legalization of marijuana for medical purposes.

A Senate Interim Study to review and analyze medical marijuana has been approved, reports Fox 25; next, the Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee will decide if the issue will get a hearing.

Connie Johnson, the state senator behind the study said the study is just a first step for legislators to inform themselves about the issue. Senator Johnson said she planned to introduce a medical marijuana legalization bill in the Legislature this December.

Medical Marijuana Patients File Lawsuit Against Yuba County

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 11, 2012 Growing, Legislation, Medical

420 Magazine

A coalition of medical marijuana patients, caregivers and collectives has filed a lawsuit against Yuba County, California, to stop implementation of Ordinance 1518, which declares most medicinal cannabis cultivation to be a “public nuisance.”

Yuba County Supervisors on Tuesday formally suspended an ad hoc committee formed to discuss the issue with growers, signaling that the discussion is now moving from board rooms to court rooms, reports Ben van der Meer at Yuba Appeal-Democrat.

The coalition submitted amendments to Ordinance 1518 that they said would have given Yuba County the necessary tools to go after illegitimate marijuana growers and still protect safe access for medicinal cannabis patients in the county.

Nevada Lawmaker Wants To Legalize Marijuana Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 10, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

The Weed Blog

With the number of Nevada residents authorized to use medical marijuana now at 3,430, Assemblyman Tick Segerblom (D-Las Vegas) wants to change how marijuana is distributed in The Silver State. Last week Segerblom announced he will introduce a bill next year to license medical marijuana dispensaries and farms to provide cannabis to patients.

Under Segerblom’s plan, the state would tax marijuana sales to patients, reports Ed Vogel at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Nevada’s Health Division reported on Monday that the number of patients with medical marijuana authorizations has climbed by 1,143 in the past year.

Nevada medical marijuana patients currently have to grow their own, even though there is no legal way to even acquire seeds, and of course many of them aren’t good gardeners, or are too sick to cultivate. Authorized patients may possess up to an ounce of marijuana and three mature and four immature cannabis plants.

New Study, Leading Researcher: Federal Marijuana Classification Not Tenable

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 9, 2012 Medical, News

Potfessor.com

Director of cannabis research center says classification and political controversy are “obstacles to medical progress”

Dr. Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR), and two other investigators published a study in the most recent issue of The Open Neurology Journal, which concluded that the Schedule I classification of marijuana is “not tenable.” The study further concluded that, “it is not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that information on safety is lacking.”

The study urges additional research, but states that marijuana’s federal classification and its political controversy are “obstacles to medical progress in this area.” The federal classification of marijuana is based on the government’s position that it has “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

Hey, Israel: You Didn’t Invent THC-Free Weed, Nature Did

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 5, 2012 Medical, News

MSNBC

A flower of the Israeli THC-free, high-CBD cannabis strain “Avidekel” on display

From time to time, we hear about this group or that claiming to have “invented” a “new strain” of cannabis, one that offers the health benefits of marijuana without the high, seen by many researchers and some patients as an undesirable “side effect.” Whenever you hear such claims, try to remember that THC-free weed wasn’t invented or developed by any scientific team or cannabis breeder — it developed in nature itself.

While that contention itself is controversial — with many patients maintaining that the cannabis high itself is part of its therapeutic effects — recent research showing that cannabidiol (CBD) is responsible for some of marijuana’s healthy effects have led to speculation about the medicinal use of THC-free strains, those which don’t include tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive component of grass.

The dichotomy between the mainstream press and its, shall we say, somewhat uninformed views of marijuana, and the marijuana community’s own sources of information sometimes leads to amusing juxtapositions, revealing a bifurcation between “official reality” and scientific fact.

Exclusive: Assemblyman Ammiano Speaks On Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 5, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

SF Weekly

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano: “The voters spoke clearly in 1996”

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

When California Assembly Bill 2312 was pulled out of committee last week, local cannabis organizations and activists began a heated debate, theorizing why the bill was removed before having a chance to be voted on by the legislature. Toke of the Town was able to interview Assemblyman Tom Ammiano late Thursday afternoon.

We appreciate that Assemblyman Ammiano was able to talk to us during a very busy day. Some of the interview questions have been edited for clarity. All of Mr. Ammiano’s statements are verbatim.

Toke: Is there any truth to the rumor that Americans for Safe Access and other groups were strongly opposed to the clause in AB 2312 allowing Board of Supervisors or town council members of any California town to ban dispensaries in their towns if they felt compelled to instead of allowing the voters to decide? Is there any truth to the rumor that ASA convinced you to remove the bill or was it the other way around?

Ammiano: There has always been a clause in AB 2312 that permits local jurisdictions to opt-out of the state standard proposed in AB 2312, what changed coming out of the Assembly Appropriations committee is the threshold which was lowered from a vote of the people in that local jurisdiction, to an ordinance enacted by the local government. I understand that there are concerns regarding bans by local governments, and wish there would have been more opposition to AB 1300 which passed last year with me as the only “NO” vote on the floor. I support a vote threshold to enact bans, but AB 1300 allows local jurisdiction to enact ordinances without going to the voters, which is why I opposed it.

Lawmaker: Kentucky Could Legalize Medical Marijuana In 2013

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 5, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

Western Middle School

Kentucky State Senator Perry Clark: “The chances are that if the people get behind it and there’s a groundswell of support, it could happen”

A Kentucky state senator reintroduced legislation on Thursday that would legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes in the Bluegrass State, and said that the bill has a chance of passage next year if the people will get behind it.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Perry Clark (D-Louisville), would make marijuana a Schedule II drug in Kentucky, recognizing it as having legitimate medical uses, while still being tightly restricted, reports Kevin Willis at WKU.

Medical marijuana patient advocates point out that cannabis can help alleviate pain, stimulate appetite, and reduce nausea.

“It’s time to start the conversation,” Clark said when WKU Public Radio asked if he thought the bill stood a chance of passing next year.

Top Three Myths of the Medical Marijuana Patient

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 2, 2012 Culture, Dispensaries, Medical

Bangor Daily News

By Bryan Punyon

Special to Toke of the Town

It’s turned into a joke, you know.

I listen to standup comedians all the time, cracking jokes about how easy it is to get a cannabis medical authorization, how “anyone” can just waltz into a clinic and pay for a Green Card.

Sure, they usually go on to talk about how harmless pot is, and it makes for effective humor because it’s widely accepted at this point that cannabis isn’t as bad as some people and organizations have made it out to be. Even in rural towns in Tennessee that I’ve visited, when people hear about me being an MMJ patient, their reactions are more of curiosity and interest than treating me like a drug addict.

For the most part, one of the biggest victories for the legalization movement has been the public shift in mindset from cannabis being a horribly addictive substance used by pushers to hook kids into a life of crime and debauchery (thank you, Reefer Madness: The Musical), into a more constructive mindset where the majority of the public have realized that it has medicinal benefits and isn’t as bad as other drugs in recreational use.

One of the major causes for this shift has been the rise of more publicly available MMJ resources. As public awareness of dispensaries and authorization clinics has risen, so has public knowledge about qualifying conditions and acceptance of the medicinal use of cannabis.

This reduction of social stigma for all cannabis users, recreational and medicinal alike, has been a major boon for the cause, as some who were previously cautious now have an avenue to show support for the cause without automatically being labeled “counterculture” or “hippie,” and others, seeing the effects of medical marijuana on those they know and care about, begin to change their minds about the plant. If political progress on a cause means causing a cultural and perception shift in the minds of the public, then congratulations: the Pro-Cannabis team has largely won that battle.

New Hampshire Medical Marijuana Veto Upheld

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 27, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

Bad news from the Live Free Or Die state, where they won’t allow patients to live free, but seem to have no problem allowing them to die. The New Hampshire Legislature on Wednesday morning narrowly failed to overturn Gov. John Lynch’s veto of a proposed medical marijuana bill.

SB 409, which would have allowed people with certain qualifying medical conditions to grow and possess limited amounts of marijuana with doctors’ recommendations, was approved by the House and Senate earlier this month. That was the first time a Republican-led legislature sent a governor an effective medical marijuana bill.

Gov. Lynch vetoed the bill last Thursday, citing law enforcement concerns that advocates had previously amended the bill to address.

The veto came as no surprise. Lynch vetoed similar legislation in 2009, after which the House voted by more than two-thirds to override the veto, but support in the Senate fell two votes short of the necessary two-thirds.

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