Public Hearing Scheduled For April 13 As medical marijuana proponents nationwide hold their breath in anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling, the city of Ukiah is plunging ahead with a groundbreaking marijuana ordinance. The Ukiah Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing on the proposed ordinance for April 13. That will bring renewed attention and scrutiny to the multifaceted law. Local lawmakers want to nudge pot growers into parts of the city specifically zoned for commercial activity. If the ordinance passes, backyard and other outdoor residential marijuana gardens would be illegal. [continues 575 words]
Despite warnings that lawsuits would ensue, the Ukiah City Council on Wednesday passed a sweeping new marijuana ordinance. The council gave unanimous consent, although the 4-0 vote reflected the absence of Council member Doug Crane. Crane had said previously he didn't like the wording of any of the draft ordinances he'd seen. Even if Crane had been there Wednesday to dissent, though, it was clear almost from the outset of the discussion that the council had enough votes for passage. [continues 539 words]
Kerr Files Civil Suit in County Court A Redwood Valley man is telling his marijuana-growing neighbors to put their money where his nose is. James Kerr decided the smell of James and Nancy Matthews's pot plants was too much, so on Friday, Kerr filed a civil suit in Mendocino County Superior Court. "People can do something about the stench of marijuana gardens in their neighborhood," Kerr said. "It doesn't matter whether growing medical marijuana is legal or not. All you have to do is convince a judge or jury that the smell is offensive and interferes with your enjoyment of life or property, and you can be awarded monetary damages." [continues 313 words]
On June 4, Federal District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco sentenced Ed Rosenthal to just one day in prison on marijuana-growing charges. This was a surprise, since the sentence could have been up to 80 years. Judge Breyer had presided over the trial and conviction of Rosenthal, during which no mention was allowed of Rosenthal having grown the medicinal marijuana for patients of the Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative as an approved agent of the Oakland City Council. After the trial ended, the jurors were angered when they learned they had been misled into convicting Rosenthal on federal marijuana charges even though he was in compliance with the California medical marijuana law -- Proposition 215. [continues 124 words]
Hurray! We've broken the back of the Canadian drug trade. Is the final victory in the drug war just around the corner? In an operation that began in January 2000, we have squandered manpower -- over 300 U.S. and Canadian officers from the FBI, DEA, customs, border patrol and Mounties who could have been chasing terrorists -- in order to nab a few measly tons of marijuana and a couple of millions in cash in Quebec and British Columbia. Forty-seven people were arrested. Basically we just created 47 new job opportunities for the hundreds of people waiting to fill their shoes. [continues 145 words]
Achtung! Not content with harassing sick California medicinal marijuana patients, the new Fuhrer of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa (Adolf) Hutchinson, has just snuck past Congress and the American people a ruling that makes anyone who possesses or ingests hemp seed oil (no matter how infinitesimal the trace amount of THC, marijuana's psychoactive ingredient) a felon subject to up to one year in the pokey, and even more prison time for selling or distributing the oil. In short, these are the same penalties dished out to someone caught with an intoxicating marijuana joint. [continues 158 words]
Kind Madam/Sir : On 25 October 2001, 30 Drug Enforcement Administration (D.E.A.) agents raided and shut down the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center which provides medicinal marijuana for roughly 1000 physician-approved seriously ill patients, most of whom have A.I.D.S. Predictably, the Olympian (which gives banner headlines to any report about adverse effects of marijuana, no matter how trivial) omitted to run the story. As a physician I wonder why the Bush administration would waste law enforcement manpower on depriving patients of access to their medicine which is protected by California's medicinal marijuana law. Especially so since law enforcement manpower is so desperately needed to protect us from terrorism at airports, borders, and post offices, and for tracking down suspects. [continues 93 words]
Kind Madam/Sir: Today’s headline blares, “Private prisons turn profit caring for the sick.” The article quotes a deputy corrections director who was enthusiastic about the prison medical center which will provide services for $460/day per prisoner (vs. $2,000/day in a regular hospital.) “It was wonderful..... security loved it, and I loved it.” This is in response to “3 strikes-you’re out”, and mandatory minimum sentences (mostly for non-violent drug related offenses) which start to fill our overloaded prisons with aging, sick inmates. [continues 113 words]
Kind Madam/Sir : It was heartening to see a rare show of harmony and sanity in today's Olympian with regard to an often controversial subject. Both David Boze and Walt Bowen, writing columns respectively for the "Right" and "Left", concurred in support of Initiative-692 which would allow medicinal use of marijuana by seriously ill patients. This really emphasizes that this is a narrowly focused Initiative deserving of bi-partisan support. It is all about compassion for a narrow range of suffering patients under physician supervision, and has nothing to do with the war on recreational use of drugs. Even such politically disparate legislators as conservative Republican Senator Bob McCaslin of Spokane and liberal Democratic Senator Jeanne Kohl of Seattle agree on the issue. We hope that the Olympian will follow the lead of the Seattle Post- Intelligencer in endorsing this revised, long overdue humanitarian Initiative. Sincerely, David L. Edwards, M.D. 2715 Schirm Loop, N.W. Olympia, Washington, 98502 (360) 866-7165 - --- Checked-by: Mike Gogulski [end]
When over 1/2 million voters (41%) can endorse a flawed and overreaching initiative, it indicates a need to continue the dialog to see if the Legislature can craft a more acceptable measure to achieve the narrow goal of making a safe, effective and inexpensive medicine available to suffering patients, and also assuring the means of its proper distribution. Last year the State Legislature approved appropriations to study methods of distribution of medicinal marijuana. Unfortunately the researchers at Washington State University ignored the mandate and did not address the issue as directed. Perhaps having the State take over operation of outlets like Green Cross, which to date have been the safest and most reliable sources of medicinal marijuana might be a good starting point. [continues 72 words]
Let's do the balancing of cost, risk and benefits that she rightly cites as a requisite for responsible prescribing of marijuana for treatment of nausea and vomiting due to cancer chemotherapy. Benefits: Smoked marijuana relieves nausea and vomiting in 60 to 90 percent of chemotherapy patients in whom conventional anti nausea medications had failed to do so. (Studies carried out in six states: N. M., N. Y., Cal., Ga., Tenn., and Mich. in the 1980's, see "Marijuana, Medicine and the Law" Series, R.C. Randall, Ed., Galen Press, 1990). This allows patients to continue potentially life-saving anticancer therapy. And once the nausea has started, Marinol (synthetic THC) pills are vomited up well within the one hour it takes to produce results. Smoked marijuana, on the other hand, by-passes the upset stomach and goes directly to the blood stream, producing nausea relief within minutes. The proper dosage is achieved when the patient starts to feel the "high." [continues 252 words]
Dr. Tremblay reports that the British Medical Association, while endorsing medicinal marijuana for a wide list of disorders (as has the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine), noted that there were few scientific studies supporting its effectiveness. The dearth of studies is hardly surprising, since the Drug Enforcement Agency and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) consistently block such studies. For years, Dr. Donald Abrams of U.C. San Francisco has been denied access to marijuana from NIDA to carry out his FDA approved study in AIDS patients comparing weight gain and nausea control of smoked marijuana vs. synthetic THC (Marinol). NIDA willingly provides marijuana to studies attempting to demonstrate inconsequential harmful effects. In short, drug war rhetoric cites the lack of studies while drug war politics blocks the very studies that could prove marijuana effective. [continues 495 words]
MARIJUANA MEETS NEEDS OF PATIENTS, by David L. Edwards, M.D. I feel impelled to dispute some of Dr. Richard E. Tremblay's assertions in his July 29 column entitled "More Study Needed on Marijuana." Dr. Tremblay reports that the British Medical Association, while endorsing medicinal marijuana for a wide list of disorders (as has the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine), noted that there were few scientific studies supporting its effectiveness. The dearth of studies is hardly surprising, since the Drug Enforcement Agency and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) consistently block such studies. For years, Dr. Donald Abrams of U.C. San Francisco has been denied access to marijuana from NIDA to carry out his FDA approved study in AIDS patients comparing weight gain and nausea control of smoked marijuana vs. synthetic THC (Marinol). NIDA willingly provides marijuana to studies attempting to demonstrate inconsequential harmful effects. In short, drug war rhetoric cites the lack of studies while drug war politics blocks the very studies that could prove marijuana effective. [continues 491 words]
The proposal to convert the unused hulk of the abandoned Satsop nuclear power plant into jail facilities strikes me as another measure of the absurdity of the failed Drug War. The desperate need for more jail cells, mostly to warehouse drug Prisoners Of War calls into question the efficacy of our combat strategy which has quadrupled our jail population since 1970 while drugs are, if anything, more plentiful than ever. The notion of a " Drug-free America' is as remote as ever, even if one excepts the very addictive and harmful drugs - alcohol and tobacco - which are " OK " and somehow don't send bad messages to kids. [continues 230 words]
One of the prime reasons that the Drug Enforcement Agency and its fellow drug warrior organizations are striving so desperately to block the approval of medicinal marijuana is that if marijuana does become accepted as a valid medicine it will have to be reclassified from Schedule I (too dangerous for physicians to prescribe) to Schedule II (available for doctors to prescribe). It would then be possible for any physician or medical institution to do the unbiased, objective research that has been blocked so effectively by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the DEA for all these years. [continues 101 words]
