The Judge’s ruling….
A Judge’s Plea for Pot
By GUSTIN L. REICHBACH
Published: May 16, 2012 nytimes.com
THREE and a half years ago, on my 62nd birthday, doctors discovered a mass on my pancreas. It turned out to be Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I was told I would be dead in four to six months. Today I am in that rare coterie of people who have survived this long with the disease. But I did not foresee that after having dedicated myself for 40 years to a life of the law, including more than two decades as a New York State judge, my quest for ameliorative and palliative care would lead me to marijuana.
My survival has demanded an enormous price, including months of chemotherapy, radiation hell and brutal surgery. For about a year, my cancer disappeared, only to return. About a month ago, I started a new and even more debilitating course of treatment. Every other week, after receiving an IV booster of chemotherapy drugs that takes three hours, I wear a pump that slowly injects more of the drugs over the next 48 hours.
Nausea and pain are constant companions. One struggles to eat enough to stave off the dramatic weight loss that is part of this disease. Eating, one of the great pleasures of life, has now become a daily battle, with each forkful a small victory. Every drug prescribed to treat one problem leads to one or two more drugs to offset its side effects. Pain medication leads to loss of appetite and constipation. Anti-nausea medication raises glucose levels, a serious problem for me with my pancreas so compromised. Sleep, which might bring respite from the miseries of the day, becomes increasingly elusive.
Inhaled marijuana is the only medicine that gives me some relief from nausea, stimulates my appetite, and makes it easier to fall asleep. The oral synthetic substitute, Marinol, prescribed by my doctors, was useless. Rather than watch the agony of my suffering, friends have chosen, at some personal risk, to provide the substance. I find a few puffs of marijuana before dinner gives me ammunition in the battle to eat. A few more puffs at bedtime permits desperately needed sleep.
This is not a law-and-order issue; it is a medical and a human rights issue. Being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I am receiving the absolute gold standard of medical care. But doctors cannot be expected to do what the law prohibits, even when they know it is in the best interests of their patients. When palliative care is understood as a fundamental human and medical right, marijuana for medical use should be beyond controversy.
Sixteen states already permit the legitimate clinical use of marijuana, including our neighbor New Jersey, and Connecticut is on the cusp of becoming No. 17. The New York State Legislature is now debating a bill to recognize marijuana as an effective and legitimate medicinal substance and establish a lawful framework for its use. The Assembly has passed such bills before, but they went nowhere in the State Senate. This year I hope that the outcome will be different. Cancer is a nonpartisan disease, so ubiquitous that it’s impossible to imagine that there are legislators whose families have not also been touched by this scourge. It is to help all who have been affected by cancer, and those who will come after, that I now speak.
Given my position as a sitting judge still hearing cases, well-meaning friends question the wisdom of my coming out on this issue. But I recognize that fellow cancer sufferers may be unable, for a host of reasons, to give voice to our plight. It is another heartbreaking aporia in the world of cancer that the one drug that gives relief without deleterious side effects remains classified as a narcotic with no medicinal value.
Because criminalizing an effective medical technique affects the fair administration of justice, I feel obliged to speak out as both a judge and a cancer patient suffering with a fatal disease. I implore the governor and the Legislature of New York, always considered a leader among states, to join the forward and humane thinking of 16 other states and pass the medical marijuana bill this year. Medical science has not yet found a cure, but it is barbaric to deny us access to one substance that has proved to ameliorate our suffering.
Gustin L. Reichbach is a justice of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.
Waiting on the Gov…..
RI lawmakers approve medical marijuana plan
PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island House endorsed compromise legislation Wednesday that supporters say should allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open without the fear of federal prosecution.
The measure now heads to Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who is expected to sign it into law. Once that happens dispensaries could be open within several months.
Under the bill, dispensaries would be allowed to possess up to 1,500 ounces of marijuana. The proposal would also allow law enforcement to inspect dispensaries and give the state police a seat on the board overseeing the facilities. All three provisions were added to assuage the concerns of federal authorities.
“This is a work in progress,” said the bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Scott Slater, D-Providence. “There are caps in place. ... I think once people see these compassion centers up and running and helping so many people, they’ll be proud.”
The House voted 64-7 Wednesday to pass its version of the legislation. It then approved the Senate version, too, sending the proposal to Chafee’s desk.
Three state-authorized dispensaries were planning to open last year when Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha warned they could face criminal prosecution for violating federal drug laws. Chafee halted the process, and then worked with lawmakers this year on the compromise.
While supporters are optimistic, there’s no guarantee the new rules will satisfy federal authorities.
After the Senate approved its version of the bill last week, Neronha issued a statement indicating that the U.S. Justice Department remains concerned about “large-scale commercial cultivation and distribution” of marijuana. Neronha warned last year that while patients wouldn’t face prosecution, dispensary operators might.
More than 4,400 Rhode Islanders are now enrolled in the state’s medical marijuana program.
State law allows patients to legally possess small amounts of marijuana to treat conditions including chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures and multiple sclerosis.
In 2009, lawmakers passed legislation to set up compassion centers where patients could obtain marijuana in a state-regulated environment.
NY 4 MMJ
New Yorkers Support Medical Marijuana Use
A strong majority of New Yorkers support legalizing the use of medical marijuana, according to a state-wide poll by the Siena College Research Institute.
Researchers say 57 percent support legalizing pot for medical use.
"Over two-thirds of voters are paying attention to the debate over legalizing medical marijuana in New York State," said Dr. Don Levy, Siena College Research Institute Director.
Poll results show that Democrats and independents strongly support legalization. Other demographics agree, except Republicans and self-described conservatives, who are divided on the issue.
Among the 68 percent following the issue closely, support is running high at 62 percent.
Other results in the poll:
- Synthetic Marijuana: New Yorkers are fairly closely divided on whether to make the possession and sale of synthetic marijuana a crime. Forty-one percent are in favor and 38 percent are opposed.
- Hydrofracking: 37 percent support allowing the controversial method of extracting natural gas from shale, while 36 percent are opposed.
- Mixed Martial Arts (MMA): 32 percent support legalizing MMA in the state, while 26 percent are opposed. Thirty-eight percent say they need more information before deciding. Interestingly, only a quarter of those polled are following the issue.
Apples and oranges
Colorado House Passes Bill on Marijuana DUIs
abcnews.go.com
A long-debated Colorado bill setting a marijuana limit for drivers faces an uncertain fate in the state Senate after it was passed Tuesday in the House.
The bill setting a blood standard for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, will be debated later in the day in the Senate, where a Republican senator who changed her vote to support the measure earlier this year was absent. A vote was likely Wednesday.
The missing vote could mean another defeat for the proposal to make Colorado the third state with a blood-level limit for marijuana, much as the nation has a blood-alcohol limit of .08.
Seventeen states have some sort of blood limit for drugged driving convictions, including drugs other than marijuana.
The proposal before Colorado lawmakers would limit THC to 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood. Driving under the influence of marijuana is already illegal, but convictions rely on officer observation as well as a blood test.
Colorado's so-called "D-U-High" bill would make it simpler to convict drivers with a blood THC level at 5 nanograms or higher.
"Quite frankly, we are at a doped driving epidemic," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Steve King, R-Mesa County. He has argued that the proliferation of medical marijuana has led to a dangerous increase in drugged driving.
Marijuana activists are fighting the proposal because they say blood THC tests are an unfair gauge of impairment. Because the body processes marijuana differently than alcohol, they say, a clear blood limit could endanger marijuana patients who aren't impaired.
Marijuana activists also argue that marijuana-related convictions are up in Colorado because more police officers are trained to look for stoned drivers, not because there's an epidemic.
Colorado lawmakers have considered marijuana DUI bills before but failed to agree.
A similar bill failed last year by a single vote in the Senate, and another version died last week when the regular session concluded.
Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper added drugged driving to a list of measures he asked lawmakers to consider in the special legislative session expected to end Wednesday.
Voters in Washington state will consider a 5 nanogram THC driving limit this fall on a ballot measure about marijuana legalization.
warning: CORPORATE ADGENDA
'Heavy' Marijuana Use Up 80 Percent Among Teens
One possible factor for elevated rates of use by teens in California could be marijuana dispensaries, said Steve Pasierb, president of Drugfree.org.
Classic! An article written based on speculation, and guess who sponsored the study? METLIFE! -UA
It’s not just the numbers of teens using marijuana that are increasing, it’s all also the amount they’re using, according to a nationwide survey on The Partnership Drugfree.org.
Findings from the 23rd annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) indicate that heavy usage of marijuana by adolescents has risen by about 80 percent in the last four years, following a 10-year decrease that lasted from1998 to 2008, said Steve Pasierb, Drugfree.org’s president, in a statement.
Based on surveys of 3,322 teens in grades 9-12 and 821 parents, the study displays a national trend of more frequent marijuana use. The number of teens reportedly using the illicit drug within the past month is up by 42 percent, according to PATS, while use within the past year is up by 26 percent.
Increased use is elevated slightly more among boys and minorities, with half of Hispanic teens admitting to using marijuana within the past year, compared to 40 percent of African Americans and 35 percent of Caucasians.
Overall, 10 percent of teenagers across the country said they had smoked around 20 times within the last month, putting the total figure of heavy teen users at 1.5 million.
"Ninety percent of all adult addicts started drug use in their teen years,".Pasierb said in a statement, emphasizing the danger of marijuana as a gateway to more dangerous substances and the important role parents play in teen drug prevention.
"Kids who learn at home (of the dangers of drug use) are half as likely to use," he said in a statement.
He warned parents not to tolerate what many consider to be a safer alternative to street drugs like crystal meth and heroin, or pharmaceuticals such as OxyContin, the use of which has been likened to an epidemic in the past. Abuse of OxyContin and other pain prescriptions such as Vicodin, however, stayed at 10 percent based on the PATS’s data.
While the survey was conducted nationally, Pasierb said that medical marijuana dispensaries could be a possible factor for elevated rates of use by teens in California, and that before selling to patients dispensaries should “make certain there is a medical reason.”
Medical marijuana patients in California are required to see a physician for an evaluation and to get a prescription prior to visiting a dispensary.
PATS was sponsored by MetLife Foundation and has a plus or minus 3-3.4 percent margin of error.
Block this
U.S. Appeals Court To Hear Oral Arguments In Case Challenging DEA's Denial Of License For Medical Marijuana Production Facility
marketwatch.com
BOSTON, May 10, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The following is being released by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS):
On Friday, May 11, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, Mass., will hear oral arguments in a federal lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration for denying University of Massachusetts-Amherst Prof. Lyle Craker a license to grow marijuana for privately funded medical research. The arguments are the culmination of nearly 11 years of legal and administrative proceedings seeking to end the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) monopoly on the supply of marijuana for research.
The lawsuit is a response to an August 15, 2011, final order issued by the DEA rejecting a DEA Administrative Law Judge's 2007 recommendation that it would be in the public interest to grant Craker the license. A laboratory at the University of Mississippi funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse is currently the only facility in the U.S. permitted to grow marijuana for research.
Craker is represented in the case by Washington, D.C., law firm Covington & Burling LLP and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Craker first applied in June 2001 for a DEA license to start a marijuana production facility at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst under contract to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a non-profit research and educational organization whose mission includes developing marijuana into an FDA-approved prescription medicine. Prior to Craker's application, NIDA had refused to sell marijuana to two FDA-approved MAPS-sponsored protocols, preventing them from taking place.
In September 2011, NIDA refused to sell marijuana to a third FDA-approved MAPS-sponsored protocol, this one of 50 U.S. veterans with chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), preventing it from taking place. MAPS and Craker are working to open the door for privately funded drug development studies conducted under FDA regulations.
Despite increasingly widespread recognition of marijuana's therapeutic benefits and formal policies in 17 states and the District of Columbia, the federal government still insists that marijuana is a dangerous drug with no medical value. Even if MAPS and Craker's efforts to open the door for privately funded, federally regulated non-profit medical marijuana research are successful, it will likely take a decade for marijuana to become an FDA-approved prescription medicine. In the meantime, getting PTSD patients access to the treatments they need will depend on the continuing success of state-based medical marijuana policy reform.
DOCKET TO BE CALLED FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012 AT 9:30 A.M
COURT OF APPEALS PANEL COURTROOM, 7TH FLOOR
BEFORE JUDGES: Torruella, Lipez, Howard09-1220 Lyle E. Craker v. Drug Enforcement AdministrationAppellant 15 min. Appellee 15 min.
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational organization that works with government regulatory agencies to develop whole-plant marijuana into an FDA-approved prescription medicine.
More information is available at www.maps.org/research/mmj .
The Petitioner's Reply Brief in Lyle E. Craker v. Drug Enforcement Administration is available at www.maps.org/mmj/dealawsuit/2012.05.04_Craker_Reply.pdf .
BYOC!
Bring your own weed
Chicagotribune.com
With a business license from the city of Ashland in hand, a marijuana restaurant has re-opened this week under a bring-your-own-marijuana model.
Earth Dragon Edibles Restaurant & Lounge at 1662 Siskiyou Blvd. originally opened on April 27 and served medical marijuana cardholders Mongolian barbecue meals laced with cannabis-infused grapeseed oil that was provided by the restaurant.
However, the city of Ashland concluded the operation was illegal and rejected the restaurant's business license application, said City Attorney David Lohman.
"The city has an ordinance that says we can't issue a business license if an activity is not legal," Lohman said.
The restaurant then submitted a new application stating it would not sell food with cannabis, he said.
Based on that information, the city of Ashland then approved the business license, Lohman said.
Restaurant Co-owner and President Michael Shea picked up the business license on Monday.
After a brief closure on Monday to rearrange the shop and move drug paraphernalia, Earth Dragon reopened this week.
Restaurant Co-owner and Vice President Kevin Wallace said the restaurant will no longer put medical marijuana in customers' food.
State medical marijuana cardholders may bring their own marijuana to the restaurant and discretely add it to their food, Wallace said.
"They can medicate their own food," he said.
The restaurant will offer a service of taking patients' medical marijuana and infusing it into oil, Wallace said.
The restaurant no longer offers an indoor marijuana smoking bar, he said.
Previously, Wallace said the restaurant would allow only medical marijuana cardholders inside.
Now, the restaurant is open to everybody, he said.
"Before, we were turning away 10 customers a day who were non-cardholders," Wallace said.
Shea added, "People without cards have said they will come in and support us."
Shea said the new bring-your-own-marijuana model gives the restaurant an option to keep going.
"We're not going away," he said.
Whether the new model is legal under Oregon law remains an open question.
"It's a fairly complex issue, actually," Lohman said. "Police officers around the state are trying to figure out that situation."
Lohman said Oregon law forbids ingesting cannabis in a public setting, but it's not clear if the restaurant qualifies as a public setting.
Marijuana use is illegal under federal law.
"Jurisdictions everywhere are struggling with what to do," Lohman said. "There's the added complication that federal law is quite different than state law and appears to be partially enforced. Everyone is struggling with what to do."
Cannabis cafes have been opening around the state since 2009. Some have been targeted by law enforcement agencies.
Non-issue?
Mitt Romney Scolds Reporter Over Marijuana Question: ‘Aren’t There Issues Of Significance?’
by Andrew Kirel mediaite.com
Mitt Romney became angry during an interview with Denver’s CBS affiliate Wednesday, chiding the reporter for asking questions about gay marriage and medical marijuana, blasting those issues as being insignificant.
The reporter, Shaun Boyd, asked the presumptive GOP nominee questions about same-sex marriage. Romney became visibly annoyed as Boyd pressed him with multiple questions for his distinctions between same-sex marriage and civil unions.
After a quick question on immigration, Boyd then asked Romney whether marijuana should be legalized for medical use and taxed.
A visibly agitated Romney cut the reporter off: “Aren’t there issues of significance that you’d like to talk about?”
“This is a significant issue in Colorado,” Boyd replied.
“The economy, the economy, the economy. The growth of jobs. The need to put people back to work. The challenges of Iran,” Romney scolded her. “We’ve got enormous issues that we face, but you want talk about, go ahead, you want to talk about marijuana?”
Watch the full interview here, via CBS Denver:
Go talk to the who?
Meet The World’s Biggest Marijuana Expert…An Elderly Jewish Grandfather
inquisitr.com
When you think about medical marijuana, or pot in any way, you typically picture Cheech and Chong, not an elderly Yiddish speaking grandfather. However, according to the Jerusalem Post, Rafael Mechoulam, a geriatric research scientist from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, known as the “Marijauna Maven,” is the go to guy when it comes to issues of medical pot.
As a research scientist in the 1960s, Mechoulam was tasked with cracking pot, determining its active chemical ingredients by the American National Institute of Health (NIH), after the agency received a mandate to look into the drug.
He had initially been told that the United States was not interesting in his research into pot. However, he soon received a call back from the Feds, telling him they wanted to sponsor his research.
“I asked them what had happened,” Mechoulam told the Jerusalem Post, “and it turned out that the son of somebody who was important, a senator or somebody else [like that], had called NIH and asked, what do you know about cannabis? His son had been caught smoking pot and he wanted to know whether his brain was being damaged. They didn’t know anything about it because nobody was doing any research on cannabis in the US.”
After discovering and synthesizing THC, the active ingredient responsible for your high when you toke up, Mechoulam continued his research, eventually becoming known as the world’s foremost expert on pot.
A staunch advocate for medical marijuana use, Mechoulam seems happy with the progress that Israel has made in this field. While every prescription for pot has to be approved by the Ministry of Health in Jerusalem, cannabis use for medicinal purposes is expanding in Israel, where it is legal, if highly regulated.
During an experiment, in which children undergoing chemotherapy for cancer were being given THC extracted from marijuana plants to help with their nausea, he said, one of his colleagues told him that he could no longer, in good conscience, prevent the control group from using pot, as it was just so effective in calming the negative side effects of their treatment.
All this just goes to show that you can’t judge by appearances, and that the elderly man hobbling down the street next to you might just be a little bit coller than you thought.
check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T26dYtXO9l4&feature=player_embedded
The wheels on the bus….
Medical Marijuana Vote Set for Today
Dan McGowan, GoLocalProv News Editor
Members of the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare today are expected to vote on legislation that would allow medical marijuana compassion centers to open Rhode Island.
The House bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Scott Slater (D-Dist. 10, Providence) and the Senate version is sponsored by Sen. Rhoda Perry (D-Dist. 3, Providence). The bills amend “The Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act.”
The General Assembly first approved legislation to create compassion centers in 2009, but Governor Chafee ordered a temporary halt to the licensing process last year when the federal government suggested it might begin targeting the centers or patients using their services.
But as a result of an agreement reached earlier this year between legislative leaders and the governor, Slater and Perry were given the green light to continue to move compassion centers forward. The bill would clear the way to allow three compassion centers to open while protecting them from being shut down or raided by federal agents.
Chafee Will Sign Bill
Governor Chafee, who faced criticism from those in the medical marijuana community for deferring to the federal government, has indicated he will sign Slater and Perry's legislation into law if it is approved by the General Assembly.
“Since the Rhode Island medical marijuana law invited federal action, I have been working with advocates on a remedy,” Chafee said earlier this year. “I applaud Senator Perry and Representative Slater for their work and I look forward to passage of a bill that will avoid federal intervention and bring needed medicinal relief to those who stand to benefit.”
Bill Regulates Limits on Growing Amount
The legislation will allow the Department of Health to regulate limits on the amount of marijuana that a compassion center may grow and possess, since the magnitude of the marijuana and the resulting income it generates for privately run compassion centers appears to be a key element of concern for federal officials. It also allows registered patients or caregivers who grow up to their allotted maximums, but do not need the entire amount for themselves or their patients, to sell the excess to a compassion center, as long as the limits of the grower and the purchasing center are not exceeded. That provision is designed to address concerns about the illegal sale of excess marijuana.
“This is a good compromise that strengthens the safety of compassion centers," Slater said earlier this year "We just want patients to get some relief, soon. While we believe the existing law is good, this change will make it better by making our centers less of an issue for the federal government. Nobody in Rhode Island would want to see patients get caught up in some federal raid or lose access to their medicine, and if these changes further minimize that issue, they are positive for patients."
The three centers that were already approved by the Department of Health after a public bidding process to be licensed will be able to operate under the new limits, so it is expected the centers will be able to open quickly upon passage and enactment of the legislation.
“Our main concern is getting compassion centers up and running for the many suffering patients who still have no legal way to obtain their prescription medicine,” said Senator Perry. “It’s been three years now since we approved compassion centers. That’s a long time for patients to wait for relief from pain and illness. We already have three legitimate organizations that have been approved and are ready and willing to serve Rhode Island’s patients and the quicker we move on these amendments, the less time Rhode Island’s sick and dying will spend suffering."
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- The Judge’s ruling….
- Waiting on the Gov…..
- NY 4 MMJ
- Apples and oranges
- warning: CORPORATE ADGENDA
- Block this
- BYOC!
- Non-issue?
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