Toke of the Town — Marijuana and Cannibis News

Medical Marijuana Study Bill Passes Maryland House

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 28, 2011 Legislation, Medical

HB 291 would create a panel which will make recommendations to the Maryland Legislature on how to safely and effectively implement a well-regulated medical marijuana program

Panel of Experts to Advise Legislature on State Medical Marijuana Policy

By an overwhelming vote of 105-29, the Maryland House of Delegates on Monday passed HB 291, a bill that would create an 18-member panel to advise the Legislature on the best way to create a medical marijuana program in 2012.

HB 291 was amended from an earlier version of the bill, which would have set up a comprehensive medical marijuana program, protecting state-registered patients from arrest and allowing state-regulated dispensaries to provide patients with medicinal cannabis.

The bill, sponsored by the only physician in the General Assembly, Del. Dan Morhaim, was amended after Health Secretary Josh Sharfstein advocated a “yellow light” approach to medical marijuana.

Medical Marijuana Patients To Start 5-Year Prison Term

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 25, 2011 Growing, Medical

Photo: Sharon Letts

Dr. Mollie Fry, pictured above, is about to begin a five-year federal prison term for medical marijuana. So is her husband, attorney Dale Schafer.

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

It’s a glaring misuse of our legal system against Dr. Marion “Mollie” Fry and her husband, civil attorney Dale Schafer. After more than half a decade of litigation and three years of appeals, the couple have been given until May 2 to turn themselves in to authorities to serve five years in a federal prison.

It started when the police raided their Sacramento home in 2001, finding 34 plants. Well below the 90-plant limit established by the local city ordinance for cardholders such as themselves, the couple thought they were on safe legal ground.

Dr. Fry, having gone through a radical mastectomy, decided to grow her own cannabis to offset the many complications she was experiencing from chemotherapy. Schafer suffers from hemophilia and a wrenched back, and is under constant care. He has also chosen to treat himself with medical marijuana.

Cities Shutter Dispensaries; Legislature Moves To Legalize Them

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 25, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Courtney Blethen Riffkin/The Seattle Times

Laura Healy, of Green Hope Patient Network in Shoreline, Washington, which lost its business license, said cities are in a bind: “They’re trying to force the Legislature to step up to the plate”

Cities across Washington have moved to shut down a combined 35 medical marijuana dispensaries since February. The crackdown is occurring even as the Legislature is moving the legalize the cannabis collectives.

The crackdown is driven, at least in part, by a little-noticed memo from a municipal insurance risk pool, reports Jonathan Martin at the Seattle Times. The memo emphatically states that dispensaries are illegal and not entitled to business licenses, and that opinion has prompted Shoreline, Tacoma and other Seattle-area cities to action.

Bogus Medical Marijuana Map Released By S.D. City Council

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 25, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: Stop the Ban

This is the REAL map showing just how restrictive San Diego’s proposed dispensary ordinance would actually be.

In advance of a San Diego City Council vote on an ordinance which would regulate medical marijuana dispensaries, the Council published a map which supposedly shows areas where a collective could be located in the city under the ordinance as written. But the map is so inaccurate as to be misinformation, according to a local patient advocacy group.

“While we contend that even this map reflects a seriously restrictive ordinance that harms patients and communities, we were distressed to learn that this map is largely inaccurate and misinforms the public as to what degree of access this ordinance would allow,” said a statement from the Stop the Ban campaign.

The City Council’s map, the PDF of which has since been removed from the web, shows various “sensitivity uses” such as schools, child care centers, and libraries. But under the ordinance, dispensaries must also be located 1,000 feet away from churches and youth-serving facilities — and no churches or youth-serving facilities are included on the map.

County’s First Medical Marijuana Trial Quickly Ends In Acquittal

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 25, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, News

Photo: Mark Morey/Yakima Herald-Republic

Valtino Hicks waits for the jury to enter the courtroom, Thursday, March 25, 2011 during his trial in Yakima County Superior Court. He was accused of running a marijuana growing operation in his home.

Yakima County, Washington’s first medical marijuana dispensary trial quickly ended in acquittal Thursday afternoon.

The Superior Court jury that heard the charges against Valtino Hicks of Yakima returned its verdict in less than 25 minutes, reports Mark Morey of the Yakima Herald-Republic.

At least two other local medical marijuana cases are pending, and the issue remains controversial across the state. King County, home of Seattle, has declined to prosecute marijuana dispensaries, and a bill advanced this week in the Legislature which would create a legal framework for licensed dispensaries.

Medical Marijuana Hard On The Heels Of Viagra Sales

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 24, 2011 Medical, News

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Markets

It’s no secret that medical marijuana has become a big business in the United States. Medicinal cannabis sales this year are projected to reach $1.7 billion, according to an “investment-grade report on the business of medical marijuana” released this week.

What that means is that marijuana is hard on the heels of Viagra, another of America’s favorite medications. Viagra, the anti-impotence drug, has sales of $1.9 billion a year.

The $1.7 billion figure represents estimated sales of marijuana through dispensaries in states with medical marijuana laws.

The Sea Change Strategy LLC report, “The State of the Medical Marijuana Markets 2011,” adds new levels of meaning to the term “Green Rush.” It predicts that the number of states where medical marijuana is sold will double in the next five years.

The demand for cannabis in states which already have medical marijuana will also grow, according to the report.

Whoopi Admits She Smoked Pot Before 1991 Oscar Speech

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 24, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: Hello Beautiful

Whoopi Goldberg: “Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits”

Comedian Whoopi Goldberg has admitted she smoked marijuana just before the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony, and said she was quite high when she gave her acceptance speech for winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie Ghost.

“Smoking cigarettes and pot every now and then are my habits,” the current host of The View explained in footage obtained by TMZ on Thursday. “And I thought, ‘I’ve got to relax,’ So I smoked a joint, my homegrown,” to calm down before the Oscars.

She then described the shock be being announced as the winner and said she remembers trying hard to focus “to just get to the stage,” reports the New York Post.

“When he [presenter Denzel Washington]said my name and I popped up, I thought, ‘Oh, fuck’ … OK, up the stairs … around to the podium … there’s millions of people, get the statue, pick up the statue,” Goldberg said.

This isn’t the first time Whoopi’s talked about pot in public. Back in 2009 she came to Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps’ defense after the infamous photo swept the Internet of Phelps hitting a bong.

Worth Repeating: Medical Cannabis May Treat PTSD

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 24, 2011 Medical

Graphic: Four Twenty Studios

Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.

Worth Repeating

By Ron Marczyk, R.N.

Health Education Teacher (Retired)

An Israeli study finds that the cannabinoids in cannabis provide relief from anxiety due to stress. This study suggests that a treatment to heal a hyper-alert “fear memory” in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients may exist.

Medical cannabis may also enhance PTSD behavior therapy treatments as an anti-anxiety agent that resets a damaged amygdala and may act as a superior psychiatric medicine to present-day antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

Medical Marijuana Dispensary Bill Heads To WA House

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 24, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Reality Catcher

Although dispensaries are neither specifically allowed nor banned by Washington’s current medical marijuana law, more than 120 have opened.

The latest version of a plan to license medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington state and provide arrest protection for patients is headed for a vote in the state House after narrowly passing a committee on Wednesday.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Washington since voters approved Initiative 692 in 1998, but the law left confusion around how patients who qualify to use medical marijuana can legally get it.

The heavily amended Senate Bill 5073 would allow the state Health Department to decide how many dispensaries could be located in each county, and would set up a lottery to obtain a license, reports Jim Camden of the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

Society of Addiction Medicine Blasts Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 24, 2011 Medical, News

Graphic: ASAM

Never mind what all those silly patients and physicians say. The American Society of Addiction Medicine says marijuana isn’t “medical,” and that’s apparently supposed to settle it.

If you enjoy bullshit, you can certainly have a hell of a time with the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s white paper on medicinal cannabis. That becomes clear from the moment you see those quote marks on the cover: The Role of the Physician in “Medical” Marijuana.

Touting the supposed dangers of marijuana, the reputed lack of clinical research “on a controlled substance with a high potential for abuse,” and the physician’s oath to “first, do no harm,” ASAM on Wednesday released a white paper [PDF] prepared last fall which recommends a halt to using cannabis as medicine, even in states where it has been declared legal.

The organization — for what it’s worth, considered the nation’s leading professional society of physicians involved in addiction prevention and treatment — supported federal regulatory standards for drug approval and distribution, and discouraged what it called “state interference” in the “federal medication-approval process,” reports Yahoo! News.

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