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Cuomo Won’t Allow Medical Marijuana
Democrat Andrew Cuomo is not a fan of medical marijuana.
Heading into the final week of his campaign for governor, Cuomo told reporters on Sunday that he does not want to see New York follow California’s example and legalize pot for medical purposes.
“The dangers of medical marijuana outweigh the benefits,” said Cuomo, who has admitted using marijuana in his youth. “I don’t think the bill passes.”
Told that pot’s legalization could generate revenues for the state, he said, “A lot of things could raise revenues. Legalizing prostitution could raise revenues. I’m against that, too.”
Cuomo’s opponent, Republican Carl Paladino, recently said he wanted the issue put to a referendum.
Cuomo spoke to reporters after he addressed worshipers at Kingdom Baptist Church in Yonkers and warned that Paladino favors an “extremist agenda” that, among other things, favors racial profiling and sending families to “work camps” at retrofitted prisons.
“The more the opposition talks, the better we look,” Cuomo told the largely black congregation, receiving an “Amen” in response.
“Progress can be rolled back in one day – Election Day,” Cuomo added.
Paladino spokesman Michael Caputo rejected Cuomo’s attack as “just another Cuomo lie.”
“Andrew Cuomo has no plan to help New York’s jobless skilled and unskilled workers and his sophomoric understanding of Carl’s ‘Dignity Corps’ shows he wouldn’t know an unemployed New Yorker if they asked him for a dollar on Park Avenue,” Caputo said.
The “Dignity Corps” proposal, unveiled this year, would convert empty and underutilized prisons into centers where those on welfare and unemployment insurance could receive job training, state-sponsored work, housing and lessons in “personal hygiene.”
Paladino, meanwhile, returned to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Sunday for a closed-door meeting with Hasidic Jewish leaders. His previous meeting with Jewish leaders ignited a firestorm when he was quoted making anti-gay remarks. Paladino did not speak to reporters after the meeting.
The Buffalo bomb-thrower also received a blow from his hometown newspaper on Sunday, which endorsed Cuomo.
Paladino “doesn’t have the temperamental balance to actually serve as governor,” The Buffalo News wrote in its endorsement of Cuomo, citing, among other things, Paladino’s anti-gay remarks.
“Anger, alone, won’t cut it,” the newspaper wrote.
Cuomo received a warm reception from churchgoers yesterday, despite the fact that Baptist ministers have expressed opposition to his support for gay marriage.
“I just came back from a meeting of our state social action committee,” the Rev. James Hassell told the Daily News before the Sunday morning service.
“We are very concerned about his stance on same-sex marriage. Biblically, we cannot condone same-sex marriage,” Hassell said. “We understand the political pressures on him – but we don’t support it.”
Legalized Marijuana ‘Unnecessary,’ Christians Say
Medical marijuana is “unnecessary” and legalizing it will worsen drug problems, lead to increased adolescent usage, and increase family problems, says Christian Medical Association CEO David Stevens and religious freedom legal defense group Pacific Justice Institute.
Despite endorsements from billionaire investor George Soros, Reggie singer Ziggy Marley and even talk TV personality Montel Williams, PJI Advisory Board Chairman Edwin Meese III says, “Legalizing marijuana would serve little purpose other than to worsen the [California]’s drug problems [of] addiction, violence, disorder and death.”
Meese and PJI attorneys are urging California voters to vote “no” on Proposition 19, a state ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.
Stevens, of the CMA, also says Christians – the moral compass for society – should stand up against the drug’s legalization.
“We should be talking; we should be speaking out,” he said. “We should be good citizens; we should be standing up for the greater good and marijuana is not the great good.”
Stevens says legalized marijuana will mean increased usage among adolescents. Adolescents using marijuana, he says, suffer a number of side effects such as decreased focus, isolation and even psychological dysfunction.
“We know adolescents who use marijuana regularly experience higher rates of depression,” noted Stevens. He also says marijuana is a “gateway” drug, meaning it may lead to use of other more potent drugs.
Proponents dispute the drug image of marijuana by toting its medicinal qualities.
“People who have illnesses like mine … we don’t get the same euphoria as people don’t have it,” Williams said in a CNN interview. “I don’t get the same euphoria that other people do. I get neuropathic pain lessening.”
Williams, an Emmy-award winning talk show host, suffers from multiple sclerosis, one of the diseases marijuana is prescribed to treat. Marijuana is also prescribed to terminal cancer and AIDS patients to increase appetite, boost weight gain and relieve pain.
However, Stevens stresses that “medical marijuana is useless” because there are several prescriptions, such as Marinol, that have similar chemical compounds and produce the same results.
Stevens also dismisses assertions that legalizing and taxing marijuana will lessen California economic woes. Proposition 19, if approved by voters, will allow local governments in California to regulate the growth, sale and distribution of marijuana and impose fees and taxes.
He says that argument preys upon citizens’ fears to “put money in the pot.”
“The more marijuana that is out there, the more families issues there are going to be,” he pointed out. ”It will end up costing Californians billions in increased social costs.”
Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, will appear on ballots statewide on Nov. 2. On Tuesday, Soros, a financier, gave $1 million to the campaign for legalizing marijuana, saying the act’s passage, was “inevitable.” An October poll of the Public Policy Institute of California, however, shows that support for the proposition is dropping. Now, 44 percent of California voters approve of the proposition compared to 52 percent in September.
Attorneys protest ban of medical marijuana defense
OLYMPIA – Defense attorneys are refusing to participate in a pot-growing case in protest of a judge’s ruling that they cannot present a medicinal marijuana defense.
William Kurtz, 58, was arrested in March after the Thurston County Narcotics Force found 42 marijuana plants at his home in the 11800 block of Champion Drive Southwest. Kurtz said outside court Tuesday that he grew the marijuana but did not sell it.
Kurtz, who appeared in court in a wheelchair Tuesday, and had slurred speech when responding to a reporter’s questions, has “hereditary spastic paraplegia,” according to a letter from his Olympia physician, Peter Taylor.
“He has had progressive loss of function related to this familial neurologic condition which has left him wheelchair-bound and with severe tremors,” read’s Taylor’s letter, which was presented to Thurston County Superior Court Judge Carol Murphy but not allowed into evidence, according to Kurtz’s attorneys. “Unfortunately, there is no treatment to prevent or cure this condition, and we are left to manage his symptoms, including chronic daily pain which is severe.”
Under Washington State law, the medical use of marijuana can benefit patients diagnosed with several medical conditions, including “spasticity disorders.” Kurtz said he takes marijuana to help manage his constant pain.
Kurtz’s attorneys, David Lousteau and Douglas Hiatt, did not make an opening statement Tuesday in Kurtz’s trial for unlawful manufacture of marijuana and unlawful possession of marijuana. When Murphy asked whether they had any objection to prosecution exhibits, Lousteau said, “No response, your honor.” They also did not cross-examine three prosecution witnesses.
Hiatt said he objected to Murphy’s ruling Monday that they could not present a medicinal marijuana defense or a medical necessity defense.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott Jackson had asked that they be barred from presenting the defenses because Kurtz does not qualify for the defense under the state’s medicinal marijuana statute. Murphy granted the motion.
Kurtz did not have valid documentation that he qualified for medicinal marijuana when detectives went to his home March 1 on a “knock and talk” operation, and found marijuana on Kurtz. He admitted to the detectives that he grew marijuana, and they later found 42 marijuana plants and more than 700 grams of marijuana inside his home.
Jackson’s motion to bar a medicinal marijuana defense also argued that the amount of marijuana found in the home exceeds the 60-day supply granted by the state’s medicinal marijuana statute.
Jackson declined to comment on the case outside court Tuesday because the trial is ongoing.
But Hiatt said outside court that he believes the Washington State Supreme Court ruled in January that a defendant can move forward with a medicinal marijuana defense if the defendant can “present a written authorization from a Washington-licensed physician stating that the defendant has a qualifying condition.”
Hiatt said it does not matter whether the physician’s written authorization is produced after criminal charges are filed against the defendant, as in Kurtz’s case.
Kurtz’s documentation from a second doctor stating he is authorized to engage in the medical use of marijuana in Washington is dated Oct. 21, 2010.
“We are not participating in a farce,” Hiatt said outside court.
“I think it was an unfair ruling to the defense procedurally,” Lousteau said.
Lousteau and Hiatt said they might try to put Kurtz on the witness stand to testify to his medical condition. If Kurtz is convicted, they will appeal to a higher court, they said.
Hiatt said outside court that the defense should have been able to argue to the jury that Kurtz should not be found guilty because he is a qualifying medicinal marijuana patient with a debilitating illness.
Hiatt added that after Jackson presented his motion Monday to bar Kurtz from making a medicinal marijuana defense, he and Lousteau should have been given more time to prepare a response. Instead, Murphy ruled in favor of Jackson’s ruling that day, Hiatt said.
Jurors are expected to hear closing arguments in Kurtz’s trial today.
Medical Marijuana Inc Prepares for Legalization in California
FOOTHILL RANCH, CA, Oct 27, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Medical Marijuana Inc (pinksheets:MJNA) announces its preparation for the Prop 19 vote in California regarding the legalization of marijuana.
President Don Steinberg stated, “We have nearly 6,000 agents signed into The Hemp Network www.thehempnetwork.com which is our marketing division. We have the infrastructure in place, the people and the talent to make a major difference in the marketplace when marijuana becomes legal in any state in America — either this November 2nd in California — or any other state later on. Regardless of how the vote goes, we are continuing to execute our business plan with The Hemp Network.”
CEO Bruce Perlowin continued, “This vote will have a massive effect on the growth of all sectors of the marijuana industry. The medical marijuana, recreational marijuana and the hemp industries extend way beyond the estimated $14 billion dollar industry in California for marijuana alone.
“There are all the peripheral businesses that are involved in this industry, like the medical marijuana magazines, TV shows, radio shows, glassware, vaporizers, doctors, insurance companies, security companies, POS systems, merchant account providers, accounting services, consultant companies, legal compliance services, industry schools, universities, classes, seminars, course materials and expos springing up all over America at an extraordinary fast rate. There’s innovative software like our tax remittance card and inventory control and tracking software we are developing. There are testing services, testing equipment companies, industry books, movies, documentaries, DVDs of all kinds, and the list goes on and on. Just the industrial hemp plastics industry has the potential to dwarf the entire marijuana industry — and Medical Marijuana Inc (MJNA) has divisions of our company actively in or planning to move into many of these areas.”
ABOUT THE HEMP NETWORK
The Hemp Network(R) was established to provide hemp and wellness related products to a wide marketplace with the use of network marketing to create massive distribution www.thehempnetwork.com.
President Don Steinberg and CEO Bruce Perlowin have in the past created two of the world’s largest network marketing companies in the telecommunications industry. They bring that experience along with Dianna Kaplan heading up the products division with a formidable team of advisors and associates that include immunologists, formulators, Doctors, marketing teams, and software engineers.
ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA INC
Medical Marijuana Inc recognizes the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding hemp and medical marijuana industries. The scientific recognition of cannabis has brought legalized marijuana use to the forefront of mainstream discussion, thus opening the door for safe and lucrative investment opportunities
SOLUTIONS
Medical Marijuana Inc has developed a suite of solutions to deliver an efficient and secure infrastructure for the Medical Marijuana Industry which provides the tools to industry operators to effectively manage their business with the confidence that they are in full compliance.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA INC’S TURNKEY COLLECTIVE SOLUTION
Medical Marijuana Inc’s Turnkey Collective Solution ensures that collectives operate within the guidelines of all laws and regulations regarding the tracking of the cannabis from grow cycle to final distribution. By employing Medical Marijuana Inc’s closed loop, patent pending, tracking system, it can be shown to authorities and collectives alike that the source of their supply was an active member of the collective.
TAX COLLECTION
MJNA’s Stored Value Platform System provides verifiable solutions to manage the difficult task of revenue and taxation collection. The customers of the dispensary are issued a plastic debit card or medical revenue card. The ease of access to certifiably secure transactions lessens the risk of loss at each level of the transaction.
STAY TUNED
To learn more about The Hemp Network(R) and to participate in daily conference calls which discuss the pay plan, products, upcoming events and exchange of ideas, call 323-843-0075 PIN: 339284#, 6:00 PM (PST) Monday is product overview, Tuesday is business overview, Wednesday is the leadership call, and Saturday 10:00 AM (PST) is the getting started call. You can also listen to the pre-recorded calls 24/7 at: 951-262-3496 and go to: www.thehempnetwork.com.
Medical Marijuana Website Resources
- Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM)
Collective of seriously ill patients working to educate the general public regarding the medical benefits of marijuana.
www.wamm.org - WeedMaps.com
Directory of medical marijuana dispensaries for U.S. geographic regions where medical marijuana is legal. Includes free and paid listings. Offers a community where patients can review dispensaries and cooperatives and contribute blogs, photos, videos, and other content.
legalmarijuanadispensary.com - Science of Medical Marijuana, The
Compilation of scientific research and informed commentary on the subject. From Americans for Medical Rights.
www.medmjscience.org - Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine
April 2006 statement by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration reasserting marijuana’s status as a Schedule 1 substance and stating that voter referenda (or legislative actions) concerning medical marijuana are inconsistent with U.S. policy.
www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01362.html - Factbook: Medical Marijuana
Collection of references to the potential use of marjiuana as a medical agent taken from government sources, government-sponsored sources, peer reviewed journals, and more.
www.drugwarfacts.org/medicalm.htm - Economist.com: Reefer Madness
April 2006 article contrasting recent research into the efficacy of medical marijuana with the stance taken by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6849915 - Erowid.org: Medical Marijuana
Presents history, FAQs, and links to various sites and articles published about the medical uses of this cannabis.
www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_medical.shtml - MAPS: Medical Marijuana Research
Supporting serious drug development research aimed at proving to the satisfaction of the FDA that marijuana is safe and efficacious for specific medical uses and should become a legal, FDA-approved prescription medicine.
www.maps.org/mmj - Medical MaryJane
Resource and information on the medical use of marijuana.
www.medicalmaryjane.com - Research Findings on Medicinal Properties of Marijuana
1999 report summarizing research into the medical uses of marijuana. From Common Sense for Drug Policy.
www.csdp.org/kz/mmj2.htm - Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR)
Coordinates scientific studies to assess the safety and efficacy of cannabis and cannabis compounds for treating medical conditions. Located at the University of California San Diego.
cmcr.ucsd.edu - Pain Management of Colorado
Offers patients the highest grade medical marijuana along with a caring staff of doctors and caregivers.
www.painmanagementofcolorado.com - Medical Marijuana Magazine
Provides information, opinion, and analysis on medical marijuana and the political, intellectual, medical, and social contexts in which it is debated.
www.drugsense.org/mcwilliams/www.marijuanamagazine.com
Featured Post: Mapping The Legal Marijuana Industry
If a November proposition passes, plenty of moneymakers will want in.
OAKLAND, CALIF. — Welcome to Oaksterdam, California’s newest, least orthodox tourist attraction. Welcome, possibly, to the future of a multibillion-dollar business around legal marijuana.
Spread over an eight-block area of formerly disused downtown Oakland, the self-described Oaksterdam district neighborhood includes clinics and dispensaries for medical marijuana, coffee shops catering to cannabis patient, pot-themed souvenir shops, specialist law offices and Oaksterdam University, an education center for growing and dispensing marijuana. There are Segway tours, tourists and film crews.
There is also a busy office where a mostly young and energetic staff work to pass Proposition 19, a California ballot initiative that would allow people over 21 to grow, possess and transport marijuana for personal use, subject to local regulation and taxation. They foresee a day when licit marijuana use is widespread, tax revenues reach $1.6 billion despite collapsing prices for the product, and perhaps 100,000 union jobs are created in the legal dope industry.
In Pictures: Jobs In The Legal Marijuana Industry
It is difficult to say what the proposition’s chances are in the Nov. 2 vote. The ballot-betting website Intrade puts the odds at about 60-40 against, but that is on relatively small volume. In opinion polls the race is much tighter, though still against it, if a person is asking the question. In automated polls the measure passes overwhelmingly, leading organizers to conclude that the winning swing vote is people who say one thing in public, and vote another way when alone in the ballot booth.
Oaksterdam University’s founder, Richard Lee, is one of Prop 19′s original proponents. He thinks it will pass, and that legal pot will be an industry “like vintners or brewers… that’s why we started a trade school.” Oaksterdam’s classes involve issues in growing and preparing marijuana, as well as legal and business issues. Lee says 12,000 people have taken classes there over the past three years.
Germany plans to legalize medical marijuana
The German health ministry has announced plans to legalize medical use of marijuana, prompting praise from advocates for patients with chronic pain and terminal illnesses.
Top policy makers in the German government have agreed on plans to allow prescriptions for medical marijuana for seriously ill patients, according to an announcement by the German health ministry.
Speaking to reporters in Berlin on Tuesday, Health Minister Philipp Roesler said the plan could be carried out by a simple change in the ministry’s policy, and that no change in German law was necessary.
He added that because many other European countries already allow medical cannibis, the process in Germany could go “quickly in comparison.”
Many health professionals consider marijuana useful for the relief of nausea and the stimulation of appetite in chemotherapy or AIDS patients, and for general pain relief. But medical marijuana has been effectively illegal in Germany, with only 40 patients in the entire country having obtained cannabis prescriptions.
Praise from medical community
Health professionals and advocates for the seriously ill welcomed the change, with Eugen Brysch of the German Hospice Foundation saying cannabis can play “an important role” in the treatment of the critically ill.
Marijuana in prescription bottleBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Many other European countries already allow medicinal marijuana
“Because it is disproportionately difficult to obtain cannabis as medicine, many patients with chronic pain are currently forced into illegality,” he said.
Gerhard Mueller-Schwefe, president of the German Society for Pain Therapy, said that the policy change would open up new drug therapy options for patients with chronic pain diseases like multiple sclerosis, and that “it’s time to bring cannabis out from the shadows.”
The change in policy is also to allow hospices and specialized ambulances to use certain high-strength anesthetics like morphine, and to store surplus supplies for emergencies.
This “will legalize a practice that pain therapists and palliative health professionals have long administered out of necessity,” Mueller-Schwefe said. “It would always happen that doctors needed to order opioids for patients on the weekend, when pharmacies didn’t have any in stock.”
VA to allow veterans to use medical marijuana at clinics in the 14 states where it’s legal
WASHINGTON – Patients treated at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics will be able to use medical marijuana in the 14 states where it’s legal, according to new federal guidelines.
The directive from the Veterans Affairs Department in the coming week is intended to clarify current policy that says veterans can be denied pain medication if they use illegal drugs. Veterans groups have complained for years that this could bar veterans from VA benefits if they were caught using medical marijuana.
The new guidance does not authorize VA doctors to begin prescribing medical marijuana, which is considered an illegal drug under federal law. But it will now make clear that in the 14 states where state and federal law are in conflict, VA clinics generally will allow the use of medical marijuana for veterans already taking it under other clinicians.
“For years, there have been veterans coming back from the Iraq war who needed medical marijuana and had to decide whether they were willing to cut down on their VA medications,” John Targowski, a legal adviser to the group Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, which worked with the VA on the issue.
Targowski in an interview Saturday said that confusion over the government’s policy might have led some veterans to distrust their doctors or avoid the VA system.
Dr. Robert A. Petzel, the VA’s undersecretary for health, sent a letter to Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access this month that spells out the department’s policy. The guidelines will be distributed to the VA’s 900 care facilities around the country in the next week.
Petzel makes clear that a VA doctor could reserve the right to modify a veteran’s treatment plan if there were risks of a bad interaction with other drugs.
“If a veteran obtains and uses medical marijuana in a manner consistent with state law, testing positive for marijuana would not preclude the veteran from receiving opioids for pain management” in a VA facility, Petzel wrote. “The discretion to prescribe, or not prescribe, opioids in conjunction with medical marijuana, should be determined on clinical grounds.”
Opioids are narcotic painkillers, and include morphine, oxycodone and methadone.
Under the previous policy, local VA clinics in some of the 14 states, such as Michigan, had opted to allow the use of medical marijuana because there no rule explicitly prohibiting them from doing so.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are 14 states and the District of Columbia with medical marijuana laws. They are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. New Jersey also recently passed a medical marijuana law, which is scheduled to be implemented next January.
Medical marijuana is facing a backlash; civic leaders complain of an overdose of pot shops
HELENA, Mont. – HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The vandals struck in the middle of the night, hurling Molotov cocktails through the windows of two medical marijuana businesses and spray-painting “NOT IN OUR TOWN” just before the Billings City Council was supposed to take up a ban on any new pot shops.
Montana and other states that have legalized medical marijuana are seeing a backlash, with public anger rising and politicians passing laws to slow the proliferation of pot shops and bring order to what has become a wide-open, Wild West sort of industry.
They are looking to avoid what happened in California, which allowed the pot industry to grow so out of control that at one point Los Angeles had more medical marijuana shops than Starbucks — about 1,000 by one count.
“Yeah, it’s out of control — and it needs control, if not extinction,” Montana Sen. Jim Shockley said Friday. “There’s no control over distribution. There’s no control over who’s growing it. There’s no control in dosage.”
Fourteen states have legalized medical marijuana, beginning with California in 1996, and the District of Columbia followed suit this month. The laws allow chronically ill people to buy marijuana with permission from a doctor.
But many of these states passed their laws without working out the details. And they weren’t ready for the boom in pot shops that occurred this past year after the Obama administration announced it wouldn’t prosecute medical marijuana users.
In some places, law enforcement officials and civic leaders are complaining that there are too many marijuana dispensaries, that buyers and sellers are falling victim to robberies and break-ins, that driving-under-the-influence arrests are on the rise, and that the pot is being sold indiscriminately and winding up on the black market.
Some state and local governments are now rushing to put regulations in place.
Colorado lawmakers passed sweeping rules this month for pot growers and the estimated 1,100 shops selling marijuana, creating a new state bureaucracy led by auditors and criminal investigators who would monitor the industry to make sure, for example, that the drug is being sold only to patients who have a doctor’s recommendation.
Regulators expect only about half of the state’s dispensaries to continue operating under the stricter rules.
The Billings City Council approved a six-month moratorium on new medical marijuana businesses in May after the violence against pot businesses the previous two nights. On Thursday, the city of about 90,000 people ordered 25 of Billings’ 81 pot businesses to shut down after discovering they were not properly registered with the state.
“I was hoping this would be a more civil discussion,” City Councilman Denis Pitman said after the firebombings. “I wish it wouldn’t have gotten to this level.”
Los Angeles officials recently took steps to shut down hundreds of dispensaries and ensure that the remaining ones meet stringent new guidelines. Owners must undergo a background check, their stores must be 1,000 feet from schools, parks and other gathering sites, and their pot must be tested at an independent laboratory.
Montana’s medical board is considering curbing mass screenings and teleconferences that make it easy for people to get a marijuana card. Montana in recent days has seen “cannabis caravans,” mobile operations that pass through town, charging people $100 to $150 for a doctor’s recommendation to smoke pot.
The push for tighter regulation has infuriated medical marijuana users.
“They are creating ordinances and moratoriums that are blatantly against the law,” said Jason Christ, founder of the Montana Caregivers Network, the group that organizes the cannabis caravans. “They do not serve to protect the welfare of our citizens, and they do no good.”
In Colorado earlier this month, veterans in wheelchairs, college students and dispensary owners packed legislative hearings to speak out against the regulations. The hearings lasted eight hours and reached a fever pitch when several people had to be removed for shouting at lawmakers.
Medical marijuana has been around for more than five years in Montana, but the boom came this past year. The number of registered users in Montana, a state with a population of just under 1 million, has gone from 2,923 last June to about 15,000 today. The number of registered suppliers has increased from 919 to about 5,000.
DUI arrests involving marijuana have skyrocketed, as have traffic fatalities where marijuana was found in the system of one of the drivers, Montana narcotics chief Mark Long told a legislative committee last month.
Also, Montana confidentiality laws prevent law enforcement from knowing where most medical marijuana businesses are, and civic leaders complain they don’t know whether the shops are up to city and fire codes or close to churches, schools or parks.
During Colorado’s legislative debate, state Sen. Chris Romer quoted the Grateful Dead as he contemplated the spectacle of lawmakers actually passing regulations for the legal sale of marijuana: “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”
Colorado pot shops face closure as tough state rules take effect
DENVER – Nearly a fifth of Colorado’s medical marijuana dispensary operators could be forced out of business in coming weeks because of new state rules barring some convicted felons from the pot business, federal drug authorities say.
The Drug Enforcement Administration reviewed requirements under a new state law to see how many felons could be forced out of business. The DEA estimates that up to 18 percent of current dispensaries may be shuttered by the no-felon rule.
After years of leaving marijuana rules mostly to local officials, the Colorado Legislature this year required medical marijuana centers to apply for state licenses by Sunday, an effort to bring some regulation to the state’s anything-goes medical marijuana industry.
To get a license, dispensary owners have to pay hefty fees ranging from $7,500 to $18,000 and show that they haven’t been convicted of felonies in the last five years. Owners with felony drug convictions face a lifetime ban from the business.
The felony figures, first reported by KUSA-TV, bear out officials’ fears that former drug dealers and drug users have flocked to Colorado’s nascent medical marijuana industry, made legal under a 2000 amendment to the state constitution. Including less serious crimes, the DEA says about 28 percent of pot shop owners have criminal records for drug offenses.
“There’s people who are in the marijuana business strictly to make a profit and not what was portrayed to the voters, which was care for very sick and imminently dying people,” said Kevin Merrill, assistant special agent in charge for the Denver field division of the DEA.
Marijuana advocates say the no-felony rule will likely just drive affected pot sellers back to the black market.
“I’m sure there are places that are going to close their doors, and what’s sad is that a lot of people are just going to go back to the underground market, and that means no taxes to the state, no quality control over the marijuana product,” said Danyel Joffe, a Denver lawyer who represents medical marijuana growers and sellers.
Medical marijuana was cleared by Colorado voters more than a decade ago, but the industry took off last year when the federal government signaled that it wouldn’t seek prosecution against marijuana sellers who follow state medical marijuana rules. Coupled with a state decision not to regulate how many patients a caregiver could provide pot for, the federal signal gave rise to more 1,000 dispensaries statewide.
The proliferation prompted state lawmakers to adopt the state’s first pot-shop licensing plan last session.
An even bigger blow to many existing pot shops could take effect Sept. 1, when medical marijuana dispensaries will be required to produce 70 percent of all the pot they sell.
That means that marijuana businesses won’t be able to outsource production to large-scale growing greenhouses — something small pot shops often have to do because of the time and expense involved with growing pot. State authorities say the grow-your-own requirement will likely mean the end for small-time operations.
“People are already closing their doors,” said Jake Browne, general manager of The Releaf Center, a Denver medical marijuana center. The Releaf Center has 2,600 patients and is prepared to grow enough marijuana to stay in business, but Browne said many dispensaries won’t be able to meet the requirement.
“You have a lot of people who got into business thinking, ‘Hey, I’m going to run a store,’ and now they’re going to have to run a store and a growing operation, and they’re not prepared for that,” Browne said.
One pot grower getting out of the business is Mark Rose, who opened Grateful Meds in Nederland, Colo., in 2009 but has had to turn over ownership because of a 2000 felony conviction for pot possession.
“There’s a mass exodus,” said Rose, 50, who gave his pot shop to a business partner with a clean criminal record and plans to become a consultant. “They’re treated us worse than they do Mafia folks.”
It’s unclear how long it’ll take for the state to start closing pot shops that don’t meet the new requirements. Matt Cook, who will lead enforcement of Colorado’s new pot licenses for the state Department of Revenue, says he anticipates 2,200 applications for state licenses to sell medical marijuana. But he said he has no idea how long it’ll take to process the applications because he only has three employees and no supplies to process them.
Asked how long it would take to start rejecting applications, Cook said with a sigh, “There really is no way of knowing.”
Cook said that rejected pot sellers could ask for administrative hearings to challenge their rejections.
But Joffe warned that Colorado’s licensing rules could backfire. She said that many so-called “ganjapreneuers” are still skittish about disclosing information that could land them in federal prison.
Although the federal Department of Justice has indicated it won’t pursue federal drug charges against marijuana sellers following state medical marijuana laws, Joffe said many in the marijuana business aren’t eager to see what happens if the federal agency’s position changes.
In DC, no such thing as too poor for medical pot; City is first to give discounts to the needy
WASHINGTON – No one should be too poor to buy pot if they live in Washington, at least if the marijuana is for a medical condition. That’s the conclusion of a new medical marijuana law enacted in the nation’s capital.
The District of Columbia passed a law earlier this year that allows residents to legally obtain the drug for medical reasons. But it also includes a provision unlike the 14 other states with medical marijuana laws, requiring the drug to be provided at a discount to poor residents who qualify. Who will get the reduced-price marijuana and how much it will cost, however, is still being worked out.
“Obviously because there’s no roadmap on how to do this, it may require some tweaking over time,” said David Catania, a D.C. councilman and the chairman of the city health committee that drafted the law. “We may, in fact, set an example for other states.”
The first round of regulations implementing the law is expected to be released Friday. It may answer some questions about how low-income residents will be treated, but the regulations will also be revised over several months, and patients aren’t expected to be able to purchase medical marijuana in the city until 2011.
Right now the law says that patients “unable to afford a sufficient supply of medical marijuana” will be able to purchase it “on a sliding scale.” Low-income patients will also get a discount on a required city registration fee. Dispensaries, meanwhile, will have to devote some revenue to providing marijuana to needy patients.
The range of what the drug will ultimately cost low-income residents is anyone’s guess. On the illegal market, an ounce of marijuana can range from about $100-$140, according recent police estimates. City officials have estimated that an ounce from a dispensary will cost about $350 and that the average user will purchase about that much a month, though up to two ounces would be permitted. While one city report suggests 300 people would buy marijuana in the first year — a number some consider low — no one knows yet how many would qualify for a reduced rate. One guess is 30 percent, about the same as the percentage of the district’s population that is on Medicaid.
Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for the legalization of marijuana, said the city will have to be careful that dispensary prices aren’t too different from what it costs to buy marijuana illegally, a price he estimated ranges from $200 to $500 an ounce. If buying marijuana at a dispensary costs more, some people — poor patients in particular — may just keep buying illegally.
No other states require dispensaries to provide the drug at a discount, though in November residents in Berkeley, Calif., will vote on a ballot measure that could require dispensaries there to provide free marijuana to poor patients. A number of California dispensaries already voluntarily do that for patients who can prove hardship.
“I think that ethic of taking care of people who can’t take care of themselves has been part of the medical cannabis movement from the beginning,” said Steve DeAngelo, the executive director of Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif., which until recently had a program that gave out free weekly “care packages” to about 600 patients on unemployment or pensions.
For Washington residents, qualifying for a reduced rate may also be tied to the federal poverty level. The city has among the highest poverty rates in the nation — only Mississippi is substantially higher — and more than 1 in 3 residents get some form of health care assistance.
Teresa Skipper, an HIV-positive resident who uses marijuana to stop frequent nausea and help her eat, said she hopes the new law will make getting the drug easier for her since she is a Medicaid patient. She would like to get the drug legally, but she says she can’t and won’t pay more than the $50 an ounce she pays on the illegal market.
“People under the poverty level and below shouldn’t have to pay anything,” said Skipper, who uses about an ounce a week. She’s waiting to see what officials will decide, but she said it may not change much for her.
“Marijuana is like gas and food to me. It’s in the budget,” she said.
Montana health officials say loophole allows out-of-state residents to get medical marijuana
HELENA, Mont. – A person doesn’t have to live in Montana to receive a medical marijuana card from the state, health officials said Friday.
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services discovered what it calls a loophole in state law after reviewing plans to require medical marijuana applicants to have a Montana driver’s license or state-issued identification, said department spokesman Chuck Council.
The new driver’s license policy was to begin on Monday, but the legal review has halted those plans.
“The law is mute on the subject of legal residency and there is no recourse for the Department of Public Health and Human Services but to keep the situation as it stands,” Council said. “On Monday, we will be moving forward, status quo, on the processing of out-of-state applications.”
The state health department maintains the medical marijuana patient registry, which stood at about 23,500 patients at the end of July. That’s an increase of nearly 4,000 people in just a month, a continuation of the medical pot boom that in the first six months of 2010 has seen more than 12,300 registered users added to the state registry.
Health officials decided to tighten the residency requirements after discovering several people whose permanent residences were outside Montana, such as college students and snowbirds, had applied for medical marijuana cards. It is unclear just how many such applications were received.
But unless the Legislature fixes the state law, health officials have no choice but to accept out-of-state applications, Council said.
State lawmakers are back in session in January, and an interim legislative committee is drafting changes meant to strengthen the law. The current law was passed by voter initiative in 2004, but the registration boom over the past year has exposed gray areas that police and municipal officials say have made oversight and enforcement difficult.
The founder of the Montana Caregivers Network, an advocacy group that has helped sign up thousands of medical marijuana patients, said Friday that the health department’s announcement is good news for patients.
“This was a clear violation,” Jason Christ said of the plan to require driver’s licenses. “I feel like they probably had a lot of calls by people about that.”
He has said that any qualifying patient should be able to get a medical marijuana
card from Montana, and that he is skeptical the Legislature will act to restrict that access to Montana residents.
“A lot of people have anticipated that the Legislature’s going to do a lot of things. They never have,” Christ said. “Intentions are great, but you can’t take intentions to the bank.”
Toronto marijuana clinic raided
A downtown Toronto clinic that provided medical marijuana remained closed Thursday after the second police raid in four months.
Neev Tapiero, owner of the CALM Compassion Club at 106 Queen St. E., was arrested later at his home Wednesday, Const. Tony Vella said.
Officers from 51 Division investigated a “community complaint,” and seized an allegedly larger-than-permitted stock of pot, plus hashish and hash oil, he said.
Several people in the storefront near Jarvis St. were detained briefly, Vella said.
Nine people, including Tapiero, were arrested there on drug charges in late March.
A supportive website quoted lawyer Ron Marzel condemning the raid and Health Canada’s “dysfunctional medical marijuana program.”
The Toronto Hash Mob vowed to support Tapiero, 38, who founded Cannabis As a Living Medicine (CALM), and ran as a Marijuana Party candidate in the 2000 federal election in Toronto-Rosedale.
He faces 12 drug-related charges, including possession for trafficking purposes plus possessing crime proceeds.
Marijuana legalization receiving fewer contributions than previous drug-related propositions – California
Many big-money donors, such as George Soros, played a major role in the state’s pathbreaking 1996 medical marijuana initiative. But this year, Proposition 19 has attracted few large donations.
Two years ago, when Californians were voting on an initiative that would have trimmed prison time for nonviolent drug offenders, Bob Wilson, a wealthy New York City investor, spent $2.8 million on the ultimately unsuccessful campaign to get it passed.
Wilson would seem a likely sugar daddy for Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot. He has been giving away much of his fortune, more than $500 million so far, and he believes that pot, which he tried but didn’t much like, ought to be legal.
“There’s no intellectual argument whatever for not legalizing it,” Wilson said. “People who get stoned do much less damage to themselves and others than people who get drunk.”
Wilson has kept an eye on the initiative, but he doesn’t plan to send a check. The polls, he said, don’t look good. He thinksRichard Lee, the sponsor, should have waited until 2012. And, after Proposition 5 was trounced in 2008, he no longer trusts the state’s voters to be progressive trendsetters.
“I’m going to let Californians stew in their own juice,” he said.
Wilson is not alone in holding back. Despite the measure’s potential to inspire copycat initiatives, it has attracted few big-money supporters. This contrasts sharply with previous drug-related initiatives, which began the election year with major contributions. Notably missing is George Soros, the hedge-fund multibillionaire who has invested about $3 million to liberalize California’s drug laws.
“I think they are just waiting,” said Lee, who acknowledged that the poll numbers may have made them wary. “I’ve got to do a better job of showing them this is different.”
Lee remains by far the campaign’s biggest donor. He gave $1.5 million of the $1.9 million raised through June, according to the most recent finance reports. Lee, who has joked that he’s no longer a millionaire, donated $45,000 in the three months ending in June. Fundraising from other sources is picking up, but not at the pace Lee needs to reach the $10 million needed for a significant television campaign.
Lee and his allies remain hopeful that six-figure checks will roll in, but they also have plans to run a less expensive grassroots campaign. They believe they can win by persuading the narrow slice of undecided voters, primarily mothers with school-aged children, and turning out pro-legalization young voters. Lee also notes the initiative is getting extensive free nationwide media coverage.
But when Proposition 215, the pathbreaking medical marijuana initiative, was on the ballot in 1996, wealthy supporters, mostly from out of state, gave early and often. Midway through the election year, Soros; Peter Lewis, head of an Ohio-based insurance company; John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix; and George Zimmer, founder and chief executive officer of Men’s Wearhouse, had already donated and loaned a total of almost $1 million.
Four years later, Soros, Lewis and Sperling split a $1 million contribution to kick off Proposition 36, which replaced prison time with drug treatment for some nonviolent crimes.
The campaign for Proposition 5, a drug-sentencing reform measure, had raised $3.4 million by June 2008 from Soros; Sperling; Wilson; Jacob Goldfield, a New York investor; and Irwin Mark Jacobs, a founder of Qualcomm, the San Diego-based telecommuncations giant.
Only Zimmer has donated to Proposition 19. A spokesman said he would not discuss his $20,500 contribution. Soros, Lewis and Sperling could not be reached. Goldfield declined to comment.
Jacobs, who said he has never used illegal drugs, said he has been too busy to look at Proposition 19 but believes marijuana should be decriminalized. “I have certainly not opted out,” he said. “We’ve taken one approach for years and years, and it just hasn’t worked.”
The initiative’s opponents are not yet a financial threat, but “no” campaigns typically start slowly. By June, the campaign had raised $41,100 from five donors. “We just started,” said Andrew Acosta, a spokesman, “so I would assume that the more groups we talk to, things are going to start looking up for us.”
Opposition campaigns have attracted few big donors — except Proposition 5, which drew $1 million from the prison guards’ union and $250,000 each from A. Jerrold Perenchio, the former head ofUnivision, and Meg Whitman, the former Ebay executive who is now bankrolling a multimillion-dollar race for governor.
Soros and most other major donors to the California initiatives are supporters of the Drug Policy Alliance, a prominent advocacy group and a force behind the previous measures. Like the other pro-legalization groups, the alliance wanted to aim an initiative for 2012, when the presidential election would draw more liberal voters. That would also have given its donors four years to recover from a dispiriting loss.
“They didn’t give money in 2008 with the understanding that they would be funding another statewide campaign two years later,” said Stephen Gutwillig, the alliance’s California director.
Lee, however, brushed aside the pressure to wait. Doug Linney, Lee’s top political consultant, acknowledged these donors were not involved in the key decisions.
“Richard felt like the time was right and wanted to go out with this, and so we put it together a different way,” he said.
Wilson said that he admired Lee’s passion, but that he was on his own.
“I think the people who got this going this year ahead of when the drug people wanted to do it, it’s their ball and they’ve got to run it,” he said.
Linney and Lee think the deep-pocket donors, faced with a historic initiative, will not watch from the sidelines. “We’ve got one of the more juicier kind of things in town these days,” Linney said.
Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and the executive director of the decade-old Drug Policy Alliance, has cultivated Soros and other donors for years and is the main conduit to them. His role could be decisive.
“A victory for Prop. 19 would be a major breakthrough,” Nadelmann said, “so I am doing everything I can to help it, including trying to raise significant funds, but it’s difficult when the polling is 50-50.”
The biggest donor to Proposition 19 besides Lee is Philip D. Harvey, another Drug Policy Alliance backer. Harvey, who started one of the largest retailers of sex toys and pornography, gave $100,000 to the alliance’s committee, which will run an independent campaign for the initiative.
“The war on drugs is one of the most destructive, foolish and wasteful government efforts that we have ever come up with,” said Harvey, who now runs a foundation that promotes birth control in impoverished countries. “We put hundreds of thousands of perfectly peaceful people behind bars. I think it’s obscene.”
Harvey, who said he was almost sorry to say he didn’t get much out of smoking marijuana, said he was thrilled to see a legalization initiative on the ballot and was not dissuaded by the polls.
“It’s going to be close,” he said. “I understand that.”
Oakland votes to permit large pot farms
Oakland votes to permit large pot farms
By EVELYN NIEVES (AP) – Jul 21, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — The Oakland City Council has approved a plan to license four production plants where marijuana would be grown, packaged and processed, moving Oakland closer to becoming the first city in the nation to authorize wholesale pot cultivation.
The council voted 5-2 with one abstention late Tuesday in favor of the plan. The measure will go before the council one more time for a final vote, but the outcome is not expected to change.
The vote came after more than two hours of public comment, with speakers seemingly evenly divided between those who opposed the measure — largely on the grounds that it would put small medical marijuana growers out of business — and those who said it would generate millions of dollars for Oakland in taxes and sales and create hundreds of jobs.
The plants would not be limited in size — one potential applicant for a license wants to open a plant that would produce over 21,000 pounds of pot a year — but they would be heavily taxed and regulated.
Those vying for one of the four licenses would have to pay $211,000 in annual permit fees, carry $2 million worth of liability insurance and be prepared to devote up to 8 percent of gross sales to taxes.
Proponents of the measure also touted the possibility of Oakland becoming the nation’s cannabis capital, especially if California voters approve the legalization of recreational marijuana in November.
“Do you want to be the “Silicon Valley of Cannabis?” said Jeff Wilcox, a local businessman who wants to build “AgraMed,” a 7.4-acre plant with a bakery, a lab and 100,000 square feet of cultivation space.
But Stephen DeAngelo, executive director of Harborside Health Center, the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the world, said small growers were coming to him terrified that the ordinance would mean the end of their livelihoods.
One of the co-sponsors of the ordinance, Rebecca Kaplan, said the ordinance would not take effect until January, giving the council time to come up with a plan for medium-sized growers.
Councilwoman Nancy Nadel said she worried about quality of the product, wanted environmental protections and questioned why the council was voting on the measure now if it wasn’t going to take effect until January.
Calif. NAACP endorses legalizing marijuana
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The California chapter of the NAACP is endorsing Proposition 19, the ballot initiative that seeks to make marijuana possession legal in the state.
The state’s chapter of the civil rights group said blacks are unfairly targeted for marijuana-related offenses.
“It is time for them to stop using my community to populate the prison system on such minor offenses as having a joint,” said Alice Huffman, president of the California chapter of the NAACP.
Huffman said because of that inequity, her organization is supporting Prop. 19.
That declaration is not sitting well with leaders of the African American community. Some say it unfairly portrays blacks as heavy marijuana users.
“Marijuana is the drug of choice for every stoner in the valley,” said Joe Hicks, vice president of Community Advocates, a civil rights think tank in Los Angeles.
He criticizes the California chapter of the NAACP for making poor decisions. This latest endorsement, Hicks said, sends the wrong message to the African American community.
“If you just did a random poll of black folks on the street and said, are these the things that you would like to see this organization address itself to, I don’t think you would see the decriminalization of marijuana anywhere in the list of 100 things,” Hicks said.
On the streets, there was little support for the NAACP’s decision.
“I think they should leave it alone,” said B.J. Hill. “It’s not their problem.”
Michael Murrel said that if the law passed, his children might be more influenced to use marijuana.
“I have two children. I wouldn’t want them to be exposed to the marijuana or being exposed that they can easily have access to it,” Murrell said.
The NAACP’s endorsement of Prop. 19 doesn’t necessarily guarantee it any votes.
While the NAACP stood against Prop. 8, the same sex marriage band, African Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of it.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The California chapter of the NAACP is endorsing Proposition 19, the ballot initiative that seeks to make marijuana possession legal in the state.
The state’s chapter of the civil rights group said blacks are unfairly targeted for marijuana-related offenses.
“It is time for them to stop using my community to populate the prison system on such minor offenses as having a joint,” said Alice Huffman, president of the California chapter of the NAACP.
Huffman said because of that inequity, her organization is supporting Prop. 19.
That declaration is not sitting well with leaders of the African American community. Some say it unfairly portrays blacks as heavy marijuana users.
“Marijuana is the drug of choice for every stoner in the valley,” said Joe Hicks, vice president of Community Advocates, a civil rights think tank in Los Angeles.
He criticizes the California chapter of the NAACP for making poor decisions. This latest endorsement, Hicks said, sends the wrong message to the African American community.
“If you just did a random poll of black folks on the street and said, are these the things that you would like to see this organization address itself to, I don’t think you would see the decriminalization of marijuana anywhere in the list of 100 things,” Hicks said.
On the streets, there was little support for the NAACP’s decision.
“I think they should leave it alone,” said B.J. Hill. “It’s not their problem.”
Michael Murrel said that if the law passed, his children might be more influenced to use marijuana.
“I have two children. I wouldn’t want them to be exposed to the marijuana or being exposed that they can easily have access to it,” Murrell said.
The NAACP’s endorsement of Prop. 19 doesn’t necessarily guarantee it any votes.
While the NAACP stood against Prop. 8, the same sex marriage band, African Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of it.
Montel Williams Lobbies Albany To Legalize Med Marijuana
Montel Williams, the former talk show host who now suffers from multiple sclerosis, is making the rounds here at the State Capitol today in hopes of encouraging the legalization of medical marijuana in New York.
Williams, who uses marijuana to ease the effects of his condition, noted 14 states and the District of Columbia have passed MM laws, and many other state legislatures are now considering it.
It’s questionable whether the New York measure will make it through, and officials including Mayor Bloomberg have issued strenuous objections to its passage.
I had a chance to chat briefly with Williams, who says he’s not giving up hope.
Watch:
Weed Control Part 1: MS sufferer finds relief with medical marijuana
Matt Young used to bust kids for smoking pot as a security officer in Calgary, but now it’s Young who’s trying to find a way to smoke marijuana in peace.
That search almost cost him his life.
Young, now living in Saskatchewan, is a former private security manager and amateur bodybuilder who wanted to be a police officer. He’s watched all that disappear as his multiple sclerosis advanced since his diagnosis at age 14.
The 28-year-old has tried every drug suggested to him by doctors in three provinces, but he said marijuana, which he only tried once or twice in high school, is the only drug that stops his spasms and lets him eat and sleep at night.
“Marijuana still doesn’t eliminate the problems, but it reduces them so I can get out of bed and play with my boy,” Young said, referring to his seven-year-old stepson.
At the end of May, Health Canada sent Young the card that allows him to legally smoke marijuana. He’s one of 100 Saskatchewan residents and 4,029 Canadians who can legally possess cannabis, according to Health Canada.
“I wish it could have been something else that helped me,” Young said, sitting beside his childhood friend and now partner, Tina Mauro, in their home north of Saskatoon. “But I’ve tried everything else.”
To legally smoke pot, one has to find a doctor willing to sign a prescription for the drug. Health Canada approves the possession licence and the prescription is filled by growing a small supply of marijuana, finding a designated holder (also licensed by the government) or buying from Health Canada.
Legal access to medical marijuana in Saskatchewan is not easily obtained, say several users and proponents of medicinal pot.
Earlier this year, the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws blasted the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan for deterring doctors from prescribing pot. Health Canada counts 59 Saskatchewan doctors who support medical marijuana.
Young had a difficult time finding a Saskatchewan doctor to prescribe marijuana before Health Canada sent him his licence.
“A lot of damage has been done to our lives,” Young said. “If somebody reads this, maybe it’ll provide them a glimmer of hope.”
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Young grew up in Saskatchewan, but found himself in Calgary where he ran security for an office complex.
He applied to be an officer with the Calgary Police Service, but was told he was ineligible because of his multiple sclerosis, a disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
Eventually, the MS symptoms escalated and Young sought treatment. He tried a barrage of drugs prescribed by doctors. The medication didn’t work and, in 2005, after getting approval from Health Canada, he tried marijuana as an alternative.
“I got better,” Young said, while sitting in his two-bedroom bungalow in a small town north of Saskatoon.
He smoked for a year. He felt so good that he stopped smoking. He had a severe relapse and he soon found himself moving back to Saskatchewan in 2008 to live with Mauro at her suggestion. They were engaged in September 2009.
But in Saskatchewan, Young couldn’t find a doctor to prescribe marijuana. They pushed more pharmaceuticals on him, he said, but nothing worked and the drugs often made Young more ill.
“He’s the one in 100 that the drugs didn’t work for,” said Mauro, a former pharmacy technician who now works at a bank.
Young pleaded with his doctors to write him a prescription for marijuana. He’s not a man to mingle with drug dealers and Health Canada sells pot at half the price of its street value.
In January, frustrated and depressed with refusals from doctors, Young set out to kill himself. He overdosed on prescription pills at his home while his family was away.
“When I walked in the door, he stopped breathing,” Mauro said. Their son was screaming for Young to wake up while Mauro called paramedics. Young was taken to Shellbrook Hospital before a transfer to Saskatoon where he spent several days in a coma.
“The doctors didn’t think he was going to make it,” Mauro said. “He was in a coma on a Monday and on Tuesday I walked into the hospital room and he turned over and looked at me and we both started crying.”
- – -
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan warns doctors about prescribing medical marijuana. The treatment has plenty of anecdotal evidence but little else to back up health claims, say medical experts.
“In time, I think we’ll have a greater level of consensus, but we need more evidence,” said Dr. Peter Butt, a Saskatoon family physician and addictions specialist. “We’re in the early of days of medical marijuana and the story has yet to unfold.
“There’s limited evidence about its efficacy. We have a product being smoked, so there’s a health problem with that. Just as tobacco companies are being sued, some physicians might be reluctant to prescribe something that will also cause harm.”
There are other problems: Criminal involvement in marijuana trade and the contamination of street drugs, addiction and the trouble of measuring dosage for different patients.
But there are cases in which marijuana has helped people, especially those who are HIV positive, receiving chemotherapy or diagnosed with MS, said Butt, also an assistant professor with the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine.
There is some evidence that marijuana can help patients regain their appetite and ease nausea and chronic pain, he said.
“It can help in select cases, but that doesn’t mean it’s a panacea for all chronic pain,” Butt said.
To make marijuana use safer for patients, researchers must develop a better delivery system to avoid the health problems associated with smoking, Butt said.
“How many medications are dispensed in leaf form?” Butt said.
Some medical marijuana proponents and users believe current alternatives — sprays and pills with concentrated THC — don’t work as well as smoking.
The MS Society doesn’t recommend MS patients use marijuana, but does say that there is anecdotal evidence to support its benefits, said Laurie Murphy, the charity’s client services co-ordinator in Saskatoon.
“It can help with spasticity and pain,” she said. “But we can’t advocate for any treatment that doesn’t have the research to back it up.”
The society directs curious patients to Health Canada if they feel like marijuana is the last resort, Murphy said.
“I don’t know of many doctors in Saskatchewan who support it and many won’t even talk about it,” she said. “It’s sad they can’t access (marijuana) if they benefit from it.”
- – -
A neurologist gave Young a prescription in February and Health Canada mailed Young his licence four months later.
Young can only pay for some of his prescription, which allows him 3.5 grams of marijuana per day. Health Canada charges Young about $600 per month to fill his prescription, half of the street value for the same amount, he said.
He’d like governments to subsidize marijuana, like provinces do for other prescriptions, for low-income people. He and Mauro are a single-income family and they run a cake decorating business on the side. The couple is trying to keep their home as they fight financial problems, Young said.
Despite the discount, Young only bought one ounce for his first purchase this year. He smoked it all by the middle of June and he can’t order more until the end of the month.
“He scrapes and conserves if there’s any residue left,” Mauro said.
Young said marijuana “is supposed to heal, but waiting for it feels like torture.”
In an email, a Health Canada spokesperson suggested licensed users grow their marijuana — it charges $20 for a packet of 30 seeds — to keep expenses low.
Young doesn’t want to grow his marijuana, although it’d be easy to do with Health Canada’s approval. He lives with a young family in a small town and fears how even a couple of marijuana plants could jeopardize his family’s security.
“I hope to fall asleep before the spasms start,” he said. Without the marijuana, Young said, his body is wracked by insomnia, spasms, nausea and eating troubles. “I feel like I’m literally losing my mind. I have a digital recorder I rely on because I’m constantly forgetting things.”
Once Young inhales the marijuana smoke, the changes are instant, Mauro said.
“The depression is gone. His thoughts are clear, concise,” she said. “He loves to write again and the appetite is there.”
“The only thing that makes it better is the marijuana,” Young said.
