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Cannabis Spray Helps Cancer Pain: BBC News

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 14, 2009 Global, Medical

cannabis.net

Sativex, which contains cannabinoids THC and CBD, is effective in reducing cancer pain.

Cancer patients who used a cannabis mouth spray had their level of pain reduced by 30 percent, a study has shown, according to BBC.

The cannabis based spray, administered like a breath freshener, was tried on 177 patients by researchers from Edinburgh University in Scotland.

Patients in the study had not been helped by morphine or other conventional medications.

The spray was developed so that it did not affect the mental state of the patients in the way that using cannabis would, BBC reports.

The researchers were quick to hedge on their findings, reported in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, saying that the study didn’t justify smoking marijuana “as this could increase the risk of cancer.”

They evidently had spent so much time conducting their own study, they didn’t read the available literature. Multiple studies have shown that cannabis in fact contains anti-cancer agents.

Wisconsin To Hold Public Hearing On Medical Marijuana Bill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 14, 2009 Legislation, Medical

Photo: NORML Foundation

From left, Ken Wolski, Jacki Rickert, and Jim Miller at October’s rally at the Wisconsin State Capitol.

The Wisconsin Legislature will hold a public hearing Tuesday to debate SB 368, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, which would allow seriously ill patients to use cannabis without fear of arrest if their doctor recommends it.

The hearing will be at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 15, at the State Capitol, Room 412 East, Madison, Wis.

Qualifying patients with doctors’ notes could grow their own marijuana or obtain it from “compassion centers” around the state if the bill becomes law.

Wisconsin is working to become the 14th state to allow medical marijuana. Legislation is in the works in at least 14 other states, according to Mike Meno, assistant director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

The bill is the namesake of Jacki Rickert, a 58-year-old grandmother from Mondovi who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and advanced reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and who founded medical marijuana advocacy organization Is My Medicine Legal Yet? (IMMLY) in 1992.

Let’s Tell The Truth About Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 11, 2009 Culture

Federal Art Project

“A weed is a flower, too, once you get to know it.” ~ Eeyore from “Winnie The Pooh”

After 72 years of the debate being controlled by those who’ve made it taboo to even talk honestly on the subject, it’s time to tell the truth about marijuana.

The deck remains stacked, of course, in favor of cannabis prohibition. The reason? Folks who know that marijuana should be legal are often too intimidated to say so — because, until now, speaking cannabis truth has sometimes carried a heavy price.

For years, a few brave medical doctors such as Lester Grinspoon of Harvard have been voices in the wilderness of marijuana prohibition. Their repeated calls for an open and honest debate on the subject have largely fallen on deaf ears.

Until now, when it comes to marijuana, those who know won’t say, and those who say don’t know.

Czech Republic Decriminalizes Cultivation Of Marijuana Starting Jan. 1

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2009 Global, Growing, Legislation

Photo: Psychonaught

Five of these? Yes, please. (Super Silver Haze sativa/indica hybrid)

The government of the Czech Republic in eastern Europe will allow ordinary citizens to grow up to five marijuana plants starting Jan. 1, 2010.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Jan Fischer defined “personal use” amounts of cannabis and other drugs, clarifying the nation’s new penal code that will decriminalize cultivation and possession of pot.

While marijuana will remain technically illegal, possession will be punished only with fines comparable to those imposed for parking tickets, Sean Carney at the Wall Street Journal reports.

What constituted “small amounts” for personal use was previously undefined. Police and the courts loosely interpreted the laws on a case by case basis, often resulting in home marijuana growers being jailed.

Barack Obama ‘Ecstasy’ Hits The Streets — But It’s Fake

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2009 Culture, News

AP Photo

They wanted to make a Palin version, but it stopped working halfway through the trip.

Police in Palmview, Texas last week seized a batch of reputed Ecstasy pills made in the image of President Barack Obama, Ryan Smith reports on CBS’ Crimesider blog.

A stash of the orange tablets was found last Monday during a south Texas traffic stop.

The 22-year-old driver had a drug collection of Hunter S. Thompson-esque proportions. Found in the car were black tar heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, along with the supposed Obama Ecstasy. He’s expected to face multiple felony drug possession charges.

Washington State Bar Association Board Solidly Backs Marijuana Decrim

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 5, 2009 Legislation, News

Photo: Joe Mabel

A massive representation of a joint in a “rolling paper” evoking the American flag, 2008 Summer Solstice Parade, Fremont Fair, Seattle, WA.

Marijuana decriminalization in Washington state just won some important allies.

This morning, the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors (BOG) voted to support the decrim bill, SB 5615, in the upcoming session of the Legislature.

The BOG voted 9 in favor, 0 opposed, and 2 abstaining to support the bill, Alison Holcomb, drug policy director at the ACLU of Washington, has told Toke of the Town.

DEA Arrests Dispensary Owner In L.A.; First Since Obama Ordered Feds To Back Off

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 3, 2009 Dispensaries, News

Graphic: Cooljuno411

It’s an unhappy day in Southern California: The DEA has arrested a dispensary owner in L.A.

A Los Angeles marijuana dispensary owner was arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) because they say he tried to open two pot shops while awaiting sentencing on a drug charge, which had been forbidden by a judge in the case.

Dennis Romero at L.A. Weekly reports that 42-year-old Virgil Grant III was arrested at an L.A. dispensary, as confirmed by DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen. According to terms set by the judge, Grant wasn’t supposed to be around dispensaries before his sentencing next month.

Pullen said Grant is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon to explain why he was trying to open two dispensaries while on bond.

Judge Orders Cops To Give Man Back 11 Pounds Of Pot, A Little At The Time

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 27, 2009 Medical, News

Photo: Pablo-flores, Wikimedia Commons

Washington judge gives the green light to medical pot patient

An interesting thing is happening in states which have legalized medical marijuana. There’s an ongoing culture war between cops who hate all marijuana, period, and patients who take the law at its word when it says they can use pot legally. From time to time, the patients win big.

Such is the case in Kent, Washington, where King County Judge Mary Roberts ordered the police department to give 11 pounds of seized marijuana back to Matthew Zugsberger, who holds a valid California medical marijuana card.

After police (with the aid of a trusty drug dog) found the stash in the trunk of Zugsberger’s car last February in the parking lot of a pharmacy in Kent, they arrested the Californian and his girlfriend and seized the weed.

Zugsberger says the cops accused him of importing marijuana from Canada (which does happen a lot in this area, being not far from the B.C. border). “Why the hell would I buy pot from Canada if I have a field of it in my back yard?”, Zugsberger reasonably asked, according to the Seattle P.I.

The California man said he began using marijuana medicinally in 2007 to manage nausea caused by a severe injury sustained while working as a underwater welder in the Gulf of Mexico. After the accident, he was prescribed opiate painkillers; Zugsberger said the drugs gave him liver problems, and he was concerned about becoming addicted to them.

Zugsberger pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession and was sentenced to three months’ probation. But defense attorney Aaron Pelley wasn’t done with the case. Pelley, who is active with Seattle-based medical marijuana advocacy organization Cannabis Defense Coalition, filed a petition in August seeking the return of the marijuana to his client, since Zugsberger is a legal medical pot patient.

Marijuana For Autism: Mother, Doctors Say It’s Effective

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 25, 2009 Medical, News

Photo: Antoinel, Wikimedia Commons

Could marijuana brownies be the key to treating autism?

Should parents be allowed to use medical marijuana to treat autistic children if they believe it is more effective than the chemicals offered by pharmaceutical corporations? More and more doctors, and members of the general public, are saying “Yes.”

After Mieko Hester-Perez appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America this week, telling how she believes doctor-recommended medical marijuana brownies saved her son’s life, she received an outpouring of support from TV viewers and commenters on ABC News’ website.

Mieko’s 10-year-old son, Joey, weighed only 46 pounds due to his unwillingness to eat. “You could see the bones in his chest,” she said. “He was going to die.”

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