medical marijuana

Dying Over Drug Politics
Past time to resolve conflict

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The conflict over state and federal medical marijuana laws must be resolved.

California and 12 other states now allow the use of medical marijuana, yet the federal government does not.

That means sick people with authorization from their doctors to use marijuana are still in legal jeopardy, that California employers can fire workers who use marijuana recommended by a physician, and that people in need of an organ transplant can be barred from organ-transplant waiting lists.

Too bad there is not a common-sense transplant.

Democratic candidates more willing to consider marijuana issue
By Muriel Kane - http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=1023

According to CBS News, politicians today no longer dodge questions about marijuana and are increasingly willing to consider the benefits of medical marijuana.

Bill Clinton aroused a storm of controversy when he claimed in 1992 that ‘I experimented with marijuana a time or two and I didn’t like it and didn’t inhale and never tried it again.”

In contrast, Barack Obama has freely admitted, “I inhaled — frequently. That was the point.” Senators Kerry and Edwards both said “yes” when asked in 2003 if they had ever tried marijuana.

“I think it’s clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it – safely and easily,” says The Price Is Right and Power of 10 host Drew Carey in a new Reason.tv video examining medical marijuana and the war on drugs.

Romney turns back on patient who asks about medical marijuana

by David Edwards and Muriel Kane, The Raw Story
October 9th, 2007

At a campaign stop in Dover, NH, Mitt Romney was asked about medical marijuana by Clayton Holton, who has muscular dystrophy. "I have the support of five of my doctors saying I am living proof that medical marijuana works," Holton told Romney.

Monday, September 17, 2007

IS MY MEDICINE LEGAL YET?: JACKI RICKERT MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACT TO BE
INTRODUCED SEPT. 18

Drug bust sparks questions about N.M. medical marijuana law

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Las Cruces Sun-News
08/29/2007

The Associated Press

MALAGA, N.M. — Agents with a regional drug task force raided Leonard French's home in southeastern New Mexico and seized several marijuana plants, sparking the latest debate over the state's new medical marijuana law.

Wheelchair-bound and suffering from chronic pain and muscle spasms, French says he's certified by the state Health Department to possess and smoke marijuana. The 44-year-old lost the use of his legs following a motorcycle crash about 20 years ago.

'Guru of Ganja' wants new trial

Ed Rosenthal was convicted last month for growing marijuana
Wrongly prohibited him from telling jurors his goal was helping the sick, not selling drugs.
by Henry K. Lee,
San Francisco Chronicle
June 26th, 2007

Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja" convicted for a second time last month of violating federal drug laws by growing marijuana for medical patients, wants a new trial.

The 62-year-old cannabis cultivation expert, former High Times magazine columnist and steadfast advocate for legalizing marijuana claims U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco wrongly prohibited him from telling jurors his goal was helping the sick, not selling drugs.

Medicinal MarijuanaFederal officials should allow competition in growing the drug for needed studies on its medical use.
May 31, 2007

Discussion OF medical marijuana has always been heavy on rhetoric, elisions and grandiose claims. What it has lacked is reliable research that might bring some of the discussion into line with reality. This is because access to the government's monopoly supply of research-grade marijuana is so restricted that the necessary research is effectively impossible.