Search Results in search of good medicine

Search Results: in search of good medicine (132)

Ala. Patient Faces 10 Years For 1 Gram Of Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 23, 2010 Medical, News

Alabama marijuana activist Loretta Nall, left, and patient Michael Lapihuska, who faces 10 years in prison for one gram of medical cannabis.

A former Alabama resident who was back home for the holidays last December — and who is a legal medical marijuana patient in California — is facing 10 years in prison for one gram of cannabis.

Michael Lapihuska, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, grew up in Alabama, but left the state after serving 13 months for possessing five grams of marijuana in 2003, reports Phillip Smith at Stop The Drug War. He was arrested on marijuana possession charges again on December 15, 2009 in Anniston, Alabama, as he visited his family for Christmas.

Marijuana: Fight Back With The Facts

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 12, 2010 Culture

Photo: Buzzle.com

I’ve been smoking marijuana for 33 years — since I was 17.

Coming of age in Alabama in the 1970s as a cannabis user, I learned one thing very clearly by getting busted for pot five times by the time I was 25 years old:

I don’t like the laws against marijuana.

They’re dumb, they don’t work, they don’t keep anyone who wants cannabis from getting it, and they destroy people’s lives for no good reason.

I decided to fight back with the facts.

Study: Marijuana Makes Bipolar Patients Smarter

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 15, 2010 Medical, News

Graphic: Secrets Of Vancouver

Can marijuana actually make you smarter? Well, yeah, probably so, man. But if you’re bipolar, you now have some actual scientific research to back you up in that belief.

A recent study suggests that some patients with bipolar disorder who use marijuana actually performed better on certain tests involving cognitive functioning, reports Jessica Ward Jones, M.D., at PsychCentral.

Dr. Ole Andreassen of Oslo University Hospital in Norway studied 133 patients with bipolar disorder and 140 with schizophrenia. The patients were questioned about prior drug use; over the previous six months, 18 bipolar patients and 23 schizophrenia patients had used marijuana.

All of the participants then underwent several tests to assess neurocognitive function, including the logical memory test, the color-word interference set-shifting subset test, the digit span forward test, the verbal fluency test, and learning tests.

IL Law Enforcement On Medical Marijuana: ‘Like Taking Meth’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 10, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Chicago Reader

Rep. Lou Lang: “Ultimately, this is a health care bill. It’s not a bill about drugs. I’m here for people’s health and pain.”

Illinois residents with chronic health conditions which can be alleviated by marijuana are urging state lawmakers to let their state join 14 others, including Michigan and New Jersey, that have legalized cannabis use for medicinal purposes.

The Illinois House adjourned Friday before acting on legislation legalizing medical marijuana which has already passed the state Senate, reports Dean Olsen at The State Journal-Register. But advocates say they will continue to push for Senate Bill 1381, which they say safeguards against abuse of medical marijuana and criminal involvement in growing and distributing the herb.

The usual opponents, including, of course, law enforcement organizations, have lined up in opposition to the bill, citing the same, tired old arguments against medical marijuana.

“There’s a lot of stuff in marijuana that’s not good for you,” claimed Limey Nargelenas, a lobbyist for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

“It’s like people taking meth,” Nargelenas said in one of the most ridiculous statements ever made about medical pot. “People feel a lot better after ingesting methamphetamine.”

Alabama: House Committee Approves Medical Marijuana Bill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 7, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Loretta Nall

Loretta Nall: “We plan to keep fighting our way through the process”

An Alabama House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes in the Heart of Dixie.

This is the first time in Alabama history that a medical marijuana bill has advanced out of committee to the House floor.

Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham), who sponsors the bill, said it had no real chance of being approved by both the House and the Senate before this legislative session ends in five days, reports Scott Johnson of the Montgomery Advertiser.

The bill, known as the Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act, is named after a medical marijuana patient with a brain tumor who fought to make the herb legal for medicine in Alabama. Phillips died in 2007 at the age of 38.

Marijuana was the only thing that allowed Phillips to function normally, according to his mother, Jackie Phillips. Without it, she said, Michael had seven or eight seizures a day.

“I could see the difference in him when he smoked and when he didn’t,” Phillips said.

Decade-Long Scientific Studies: Medical Marijuana Works

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 17, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: intellectual vanities

Next time someone says “there’s no reliable research,” call BS. The results are in. Medical marijuana works.

The evidence is in. In a landmark report to the Legislature, the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research announced that its studies have shown marijuana to have therapeutic value.

CMCR researchers, in a decade-long project, found “reasonable evidence that cannabis is a promising treatment” for some specific, pain-related medical conditions.

These long-awaited findings are the first results in 20 years from clinical trials of smoked cannabis in the United States.

“We focused on illnesses where current medical treatment does not provide adequate relief or coverage of symptoms,” said CMCR Director Igor Grant, M.D., executive vice-chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the UCSD School of Medicine.

Iowa Pharmacy Board Opens Door To Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 17, 2010 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: Patients for Medical Cannabis

One of Iowa’s biggest crops may be headed towards becoming one of its best medicines

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to recommend that the Legislature reclassify marijuana in a way that would open the door to medical uses.

The board recommended that Iowa lawmakers move cannabis from Schedule I, for which there are no permitted uses, to Schedule II, which allows medical uses, reports Tony Leys at the Des Moines Register.

Also recommended by the board was the creation of a state task force, including patients, medical professionals and law enforcement officers, to devise a way to safely implement a medical marijuana program in Iowa.

San Diego Patient Gets Her Bongs Back From The Cops

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 20, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: Safe Access San Diego

Tiffani Kjeldergaard got her bongs and pipes back from the cops. Now her lawyer is filing a motion to get the pot back, too.

On January 19, a San Diego medical marijuana patient got her bongs back from the police, winning a seven-month battle after the bongs were seized in June 2009.

Tiffani Kjeldergaard was sentenced in January of 2009 to probation on a non-drug related offense. She continued to use her legal medication and tested positive for THC on drug tests conducted by the probation department until June, when her probation officer decided to stop by her house for a “safety check,” reports Safe Access San Diego.

Colorado Legislators Await First Bill To Regulate Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 15, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Denver Chronicle

Medical marijuana supporters rally at the Capitol in Denver, Jan. 14, 2009

The first bill to regulate Colorado’s medical marijuana industry will come before the Legislature today, according to its sponsor.

The bill, from state Sen. Chris Romer, would create stricter requirements for the relationship between medical marijuana patients and the doctors recommending it for them, report John Ingold and Jessica Fender of The Denver Post.

Marijuana providers would be barred from paying doctors who recommend cannabis to patients. Marijuana-recommending doctors would be required to be in good standing, with no restrictions on their medical licenses, and the doctor and patient would have to have a “bona fide” relationship in which the doctor provides a full examination and follow-up care.

Dispensary Death Watch #2: Latest Raids, Bans, And Moratoriums

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 18, 2009 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Artwork: Jim Wheeler

Safe access to marijuana remains a distant dream to many patients — even in states which have legalized medical use

One by one, the lights are winking out. In city after city, town after town, in states where medical marijuana is now legal, patients who had dared hope they would at last have safe access to the medicine recommended by their doctors are having those hopes dashed.

The problem? Political cowardice and the panicked reaction of the status quo.

Every week brings more news of freaked out city councils and county boards of supervisors who desperately want to appear to be “doing something” — anything — about the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries.

This phenomenon is so far mostly confined to California and to a lesser extent Colorado, but it’s unfortunately also starting to happen in Michigan, Montana and even Maine — where voters specifically approved dispensaries in November.

Rather than showing true leadership by showing genuine concern for patients and communities, too many local government officials are going for the easy, knee-jerk reaction. The level of disregard for the intentions of the voters — who clearly expressed their will by legalizing medical marijuana — is breathtaking.

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