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Software Pioneer Leaves Millions To Drug Policy Reform

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 30, 2012 News

Includes Largest Gift Ever to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

This year, five leading nonprofits at the forefront of health and drug policy reform will benefit from a generous bequest of approximately $10 million from the estate of software pioneer Ashawna (Shawn) Hailey. The gift will dramatically increase these organizations’ ability to reform government policies and public attitudes about health and drug policy.

Half of the total bequest — approximately $5 million — will benefit the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a non-profit research and educational organization working with the FDA and international regulatory agencies to develop psychedelics and marijuana into prescription treatments for patients with unmet medical needs.

Marijuana Use Associated With Lower Mortality In Schizophrenics

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 30, 2012 Medical, News

We Love The Herb

The use of marijuana is associated with lower mortality risk in patients with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, according to a new study to be published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Investigators from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and South Korea’s Inje University studied the effects of lifetime substance use on mortality in 762 patients with schizophrenia or related conditions, reports Paul Armentano at the NORML Blog.

“[W]e observed a lower mortality risk-adjusted variable in cannabis users compared to cannabis non-users despite subjects having similar symptoms and anti-psychotic treatments,” researchers reported.

The association between marijuana use and lessened mortality risk could be because “cannabis users may (be) higher functioning” and because “cannabis itself may have some health benefits,” the reports authors said.

Upstart Congressional Candidate Beats Drug War Supporter

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 30, 2012 Legislation, News

MySAPolitics

O’Rourke Made Name For Himself By Supporting Marijuana Legalization and By Calling for Open Debate on Drug Legalization to Address Mexico Drug War Violence

On Heels of Stunning Oregon Attorney General Upset, Drug Policy Reform Movement Demonstrates Burgeoning Political Clout

Marijuana legalization supporter Beto O’Rourke defeated eight-term Congressman Sylvestre Reyes in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Texas’s 16th Congressional district. O’Rourke is virtually assured of being the next Congressman from the heavily Democratic district.

In early 2009, as an El Paso city councilman, O’Rourke championed a resolution calling for a national debate on the legal regulation of currently illicit drugs. The resolution was prompted by the out-of-control violence in El Paso’s neighbor across the border, Ciudad Juarez, which has the highest murder rate of any city in the world.

Pro-Legalization Challenger Beats Incumbent In Congressional Primary

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 30, 2012 Legislation, News

StoptheDrugWar.org

Former El Paso city councilman Beto O’Rourke has defeated U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary for the seat Reyes had held since 1996

Marijuana legalization supporter Beto O’Rourke has defeated prohibitionist eight-term Congressman Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary for Texas’s 16th Congressional district.

O’Rourke vocally supports marijuana legalization, while former Border Patrol official Reyes built his career on the War On Drugs.

O’Rourke got 51.3 percent of the vote to Reyes’ 41.3 percent, according to election results from the Texas Secretary of State’s office early Wednesday morning, reports Phillip Smith at StoptheDrugWar.org.

In early 2009, when he was an El Paso city councilman, O’Rourke championed a council resolution calling for a national conversation on legalizing and regulating drugs as a possible solution to the drug cartel violence just over El Paso’s border in Mexico. The mayor vetoed the unanimously-passed resolution and the council was set to override the veto until Congressman Reyes butted in to the debate and threatened that the city would lose federal funding if it insisted on pushing the legalization conversation.

R.I. Senate, House Judiciary Committees Back Marijuana Decrim

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 29, 2012 Legislation, News

Reality Catcher

Bills Would Replace Criminal Penalties for Possession of Small Amounts of Marijuana with a Fine

The Rhode Island House and Senate Judiciary Committees on Tuesday voted in favor of two bills that would reduce the penalty for possession of marijuana to a $150 civil fine for most offenses.

H 7092 and its companion bill, S 2253, would make possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a civil infraction, similar to a parking ticket, and would remove the criminal penalties that currently exist. Marijuana possession is now punishable in Rhode Island by up to a $500 fine and up to a year in jail.

The bills will now go to their respective floors for a full vote.

THC Capsules Fail To Slow Progress Of MS: Clinical Trial

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 29, 2012 Medical, News

examiner.com

Cannabis capsules do not slow the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), a large clinical trial has concluded. But while researchers were disappointed by the results, the findings could well be due to the fact that only one cannabinoid — tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — was used in the capsules, rather than the complex symphony of at least 60 cannabinoids found in natural marijuana.

Particularly disappointing is the fact that the researchers failed to include cannabidiol (CBD) in the capsules, since it is one of the most medically promising cannabinoids found in marijuana. It’s especially heartbreaking that now, in the minds of many members of both the scientific community and the general public, “marijuana doesn’t work for MS” may become conventional wisdom due to a flawed study.

White House To PTSD Veterans: No Medical Marijuana For You

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 29, 2012 Medical, News

AllGov

“First, President Obama’s administration ejected medical marijuana patients from the workplace then he threw them out of public housing then took away their ability to buy a gun then closed down their dispensaries and now he has apparently set his sights on veterans,” said Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access (VMCA).

Thousands of veterans asked the Obama Administration to at look into the science showing how cannabis works to alleviate suffering and save lives of veterans with brain injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and to then make appropriate changes in policy. “Allow United States Disabled Military veterans access to medical marijuana to treat their PTSD,” the petition simply requested.

But the White House response to the veterans’ petition was very disappointing. “We asked for a change in policy,” Krawitz said. “To have our petition answered by the drug czar, an ex policeman, is most inappropriate given the drug czar is bound by law to ONLY discuss current law and has no power to discuss policy change with the public.

Deputies Storm Wrong House In Botched Raid; Cause Fire

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 28, 2012 News

10News

Deputies ignored the pleas of the family, allowing their kitchen to catch afire

Some members of a Southern California family narrowly escaped with their lives after a house fire was caused by a botched raid by the San Diego Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies thought they’d found the bad guy when they surrounded a Spring Valley house and ordered everyone out at gunpoint. But the suspect they were looking for — a gunman who had robbed a medical marijuana delivery service — wasn’t there. Instead, they interrupted a family having dinner, and caused a kitchen fire when they wouldn’t allow the housewife to go back inside and turn off the stove.

NORML Backs Survey On Marijuana And Autism

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 28, 2012 Medical, News

Montana Connect

Joey and Mieko Hester Perez. Mieko founded the Unconventional Foundation for Autism (UF4A) after seeing how useful cannabis is in treating her son’s condition

With more and more anecdotal media reports appearing regarding the use of marijuana to help autistic children and adults, the need to perform proper scientific research to possibly develop cannabinoid-based treatments for autism has become obvious.

The response from parents around the country to the touching stories of two brave mothers — one on the East Coast and one on the West — has been overwhelming, according to National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) Executive Director Allen St. Pierre.

Marie Myung-Ok Lee wrote about her experience in Rhode Island, a state which allows medical marijuana, in 2009. Soon after, inspired by Marie’s bravery, Mieko Hester Perez and her son also had a positive experience with treating his autism in California.

L.A. To Consider Complete Dispensary Ban At Tuesday Meeting

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 28, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Where’s Weed?

Here we go again. A marijuana dispensary ban will be considered at Los Angeles City Hall tomorrow, Tuesday, May 29. The L.A. City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) committee will look at the proposed ban.

“A complete obliteration of Los Angeles’ famous and numerous pot shops is on the table,” writes Dennis Romero at the LA Weekly.

The committee will consider two options:

• A “gentle ban” proposed by Councilman Paul Koretz, who claims its a “more reasonable” approach through which L.A. proceeds with a ban on dispensaries, but uses “prosecutorial discretion” to abstain from enforcement actions against dispensaries deemed not to be in violation of a set of City Council-imposed “restrictions.”

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