|
We Update
Daily!
Custom Search
Chris S. Kenoyer. Owner
MMJ Patient,
Medical Activist,
Online Patients Advocate,
Online News Journalist
My
Personal Medical Bio
Follow Us Now On Twitter
@MedicalMMJMan
Email Us Here
olpwebs@yahoo.com
Or Email Me 100% Securely Below
MedicalMMJMan@countermail.com
NEW 100% Encrypted Email Server
For
TV,
News, Press, Contact Info
Is CBD? A Possible
Cure For
Breast Cancer..?
And All The Other
Many
Forms & Types
Of Cancer..?
Learn
More About " CBD" Here
Cancer Cured..? A Cannabis Story
********************************
Advertise Here
On OnlinePot
Rates As Low As $50 a Year
24/7 - 365 Days A Year
Of Sales!
*******************************************
Website Navigational Links
Main
Start Page 2
*******************************************
Parody's
Cartoons US
Government Grown Pot,
Term Papers,
School
Reports, & Thesis's On
Marijuana & Cannabis
*******************************************
Amsterdam
A to Z
*******************************************
Canadian
Marijuana
Websites
*******************************************
Church's
& Pot Cannabis
*******************************************
Co-Ops, Clinics, Dispensary's
*********************************************
Marijuana
Doctors & Clinics
*******************************************
Pot
Cooking Recipes
*******************************************
Drug
Testing A To Z
*******************************************
Pot Games
*********************************************
Pot
Songs
*******************************************
100's
Of Grow Guides
*******************************************
Latest
Marijuana News Reports
*******************************************
Hash A- Z
*******************************************
Cannabis
Legal Info, Drug
Lawyers, State, Federal Laws,
State
& Supreme Court Rulings
*******************************************
POW's
Of The MMJ
War!
*******************************************
Other
Marijuana Websites
Websites
Link
Exchange!
*******************************************
Medical
Marijuana
Studies,
Research
Report's, Medical
Cannabis Clinic Study's
*******************************************
Avoiding Online MOM
Scammers
Newly
Re-Updated Info!
*******************************************
The Politics Of
Contraband
Medical Marijuana In The Mail?
*******************************************
The
Hall Of Shame Section
The Online MOM Scammers
*******************************************
Online
MOM Providers Ads
*******************************************
Politicians
&
Voters Rights
*******************************************
Medical
Marijuana, Strains
*******************************************
The OG
Marijuana Strain Guide
*******************************************
800+
FAQ Growing Questions
*******************************************
Patients
Spiritual
Guidance,
Free Online
Crisis Help Center
*******************************************
Online
Marijuana Seed Banks
*******************************************
Maximum Security
Section
Just Updated!
*******************************************
Traveling
Tips, Guides, B & B's
*******************************************
Vaporizers
A To Z
*******************************************
Online Pot Video's & Movies
*******************************************
Please
Visit Our Sister Website!
Reefer Madness Teaching
Museum.org
Listen Right Here Online!
To Original 1930-1950's
Reefer Madness Propaganda
Radio
Shows And Programs
Before TV There Were
"Radio Stars"
*********************************
OnlinePot Free Newsletter
The
Latest In MMJ News
Legal
Disclaimer
Guest Book
Translate Text or Web Page Go To:
Language Tools
Google
Translations
Article
Submissions & News
Reports
Are Always
Gladly
Accepted Here.
1999-2012 Copyright ©
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this site maybe used or
reproduced in whole or in part
without
the written consent of the
Copyright
Owner Chris Kenoyer
www.onlinepot.org
OnlinePot assumes no legal
liability
for
any products, or
information or
news
posted, services
offered,
Or
any contests or give away's offered.
| |
VITAL SIGNS: Medical Marijuana Reaches
Legal, Clinical Crossroads
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Phillip Alden credits
marijuana with
stimulating his appetite and suppressing what he describes as
debilitating foot pain that comes from an AIDS-related condition
known as
peripheral neuropathy.
Return
To OnlinePot's Legal Section Main Page
By Kristen Gerencher From Dow
Jones
The Redwood City, Calif., man who once relied on a cane
has returned to active living, thanks to modern AIDS drugs and the pain relief
he gets from pipe- smoking two or three hits of marijuana nearly every night, he
said. "Today I hike, I go for walks, I Rollerblade, I work out regularly. I
do everything your normal, active healthy person who doesn't have AIDS
does."
What sets him apart is his medication regimen, which
includes cannabis (any of the preparations or chemicals derived from the
marijuana plant), as well as opiate painkillers and a lidocaine patch to sooth
nerve pain in his back caused by an injury.
"There is nothing better that works for peripheral
neuropathy than medical marijuana," said Alden, 43, who was diagnosed with
AIDS in 1994 and began using cannabis three years later.
Early scientific studies suggest his experience is more
than psychosomatic. A study of 50 HIV patients published in the Feb. 13 edition
of the journal Neurology found that patients who smoked cannabis had a 34%
reduction in HIV- related intense foot pain compared with patients who smoked a
placebo.
The medical and legal systems are just catching up with
what some patients say is a critical last resort for pain management. Despite
being at odds with federal drug policy, a growing number of states are willing
to protect patients like Alden from the threat of arrest or criminal prosecution
when they use marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Two weeks ago, New Mexico joined the ranks of 11 other
states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon,
Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington -- in shielding patients with a range of
serious conditions who use medical marijuana with their doctors' approval. It is
sometimes used to treat conditions such as AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and
glaucoma that cause symptoms including pain, nausea and spasms.
There's just one hitch: the federal government says its
law takes precedence over state laws, and the Drug Enforcement Administration
can and does seize evidence and make arrests that can lead to jail time. Unless
Congress changes the law, which now classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug --
meaning it's highly addictive and has no medicinal value -- the agency's
marching orders are clear.
"The federal law, which affects all the states
equally, says marijuana is an illegal substance," said Steve Robertson,
special agent at DEA headquarters in Washington. "It's a dangerous drug.
Whether you use it, sell it, grow it, under federal law you're in
violation."
Camilla Norman Field, deputy director of the Drug Policy
Alliance, an advocacy organization, said: "It's a situation where policies
and science are nowhere near aligned with each other, as with most issues that
have a moral edge to them."
Life in legal crosshairs
Two recent court cases illuminate the precarious position
patients are in as they light up at the intersection of conflicting laws.
Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that an Oakland,
Calif., woman with an inoperable brain tumor and other painful ailments who
challenged U.S. law on cannabis can face federal prosecution on drug charges,
overriding California's law. Still, should she be arrested, the court left open
the possibility that the patient, Angel Raich, could use medical necessity as a
defense, said Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access, an
Oakland group that advocates legalizing medical marijuana.
Another case brought by authorities against marijuana
activist Ed Rosenthal led to U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's dismissal last
month of the Justice Department's additional charges of filing false tax returns
and money laundering, which the judge termed "vindictive" prosecution.
In March, the judge gave prosecutors a month to determine
whether to continue the case against the "Guru of Ganja," whose 2003
conviction of felony pot- growing was overturned. On Friday, prosecutors
announced they will retry Rosenthal on marijuana cultivation charges but won't
appeal the dismissal of money laundering and tax charges.
"These prosecutors wield an awful lot of discretion,
and we would like to see them use it in a way that doesn't go after sick and
dying persons," said Elford, who has represented Rosenthal in the past.
Since Rosenthal's case began five years ago, the DEA
generally hasn't conducted a raid without local law enforcement's consent, he
said. "There's been some measure of restraint exercised by the federal
government."
Still, more than 100 California defendants are facing
trial on medical- marijuana charges, Elford said. Most of them are suppliers and
not patients.
The cases exemplify the mutual mistrust between proponents
and opponents of medical marijuana. Critics of the medical-cannabis movement
accuse advocacy groups of exploiting patients to advance an agenda of making
marijuana legal for general recreational use. Proponents say the federal
government and conservative groups are pushing their multibillion-dollar war on
drugs into an arena that unfairly punishes desperate, vulnerable people and
their caregivers.
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America didn't return
repeated calls for comment.
Regulating California's businesses
California has become a lightning rod as it grapples with
how to appease cannabis clubs' supporters and opponents. In 1996, state voters
approved Proposition 215, which granted seriously ill adults the right to
medical cannabis on their doctors' recommendation. It also laid the groundwork
for what is now a network of more than 200 cannabis dispensaries statewide.
"California is the only state where there's a
significant above-ground business in marijuana," said Bruce Mirken, San
Francisco communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, which
recently attracted former Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Barr from Georgia as a
lobbyist.
With visibility comes scrutiny. DEA agents raided San
Francisco's HopeNet Coop dispensary in late 2005, taking marijuana plants,
finished products and $15,000 in cash, co-owner Cathy Smith said. "What
they didn't take they broke," she said.
Though she lives in fear of being arrested, she said she
wants to continue helping the roughly 50 patients a day who count on her
service. "We don't do much differently because we feel we were doing
everything right to begin with, because we're following state law," Smith
said. The lounge area in the three- room apartment she rents for the business is
under construction to add city- mandated ventilation ducts and she's already
widened doors to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
An older, wheelchair-bound HopeNet patron named Clay said
he visits about three times a week from Marin County because the price and
product quality are superior to other clubs. Price is a major concern, because
private health insurers typically don't cover medical cannabis. And California
dispensaries are expected to tax sales.
The 20 to 25 daily pills Clay takes to control AIDS
symptoms make him vomit unless he smokes cannabis regularly, he said. He knows
because he tried stopping the marijuana routine and the vomiting resumed, making
him miserable and unable to know if his body had absorbed his many medicines.
"If I have myself to a level where I don't get queasy
I've conquered it," said Clay. "That's how important cannabis
medication is to me. It stops that one major problem right there, and I'm not
alone."
Keeping close watch
The threat of raids by federal investigators keeps many
clubs on edge. But it's not just the federal-state legal tension that drives
some to close. NIMBYism also plays a role. Some neighborhoods complain that the
clubs create disturbances, disrupt traffic, attract crime, expose youth to
marijuana and lead to secondary street sales.
San Francisco's Board of Supervisors tightened regulation
in 2005, with a deadline for meeting new standards later this year. For example,
new clubs have to be at least 1,000 feet from schools and recreational centers
to get a permit from the public health department. Existing clubs within that
distance aren't permitted to have on-site smoking. All dispensaries must be
handicapped- accessible by July 1.
San Francisco's 32 distribution centers are mostly
storefront operations, though one former storefront owner, Kevin Reed, turned
his outfit into a mobile delivery business this year.See video interview.
In February, after the Neurology study on peripheral
neuropathy was released, the Office of National Drug Policy reiterated its
stance against medical marijuana. Its "Reality Check" fact sheets
warned, "The delicate immune systems of seriously ill patients may become
compromised by the smoking of marijuana. Additionally, the daily use of
marijuana compromises lung function and increases the risk for respiratory
diseases, similar to those associated with smoking nicotine cigarettes."
Research moves forward
But scientific inquiry presses on. The study that appeared
in Neurology was just one of 11 that the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research
at the University of California-San Diego, established in 2000, has completed.
Two more are now under review.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society also is sponsoring
a clinical trial of medical marijuana, said Nick LaRocca, associate vice
president of health-care delivery and policy research for the nonprofit advocacy
and research group in New York.
"What we're trying to do is to sponsor research to
find out, comparatively speaking, the extent to which marijuana is safe and
effective, the same approach we'd use with any other treatment that's
proposed," LaRocca said. "We're open to the concept of marijuana as a
treatment, but like any treatment it really has to be demonstrated through
rigorous research. Marijuana isn't the only thing that people have reported to
be beneficial."
There are some prescription-drug alternatives that are
made from cannabis extracts or artificial ingredients. Approved in the U.S. for
nausea and vomiting for cancer chemotherapy and appetite loss in patients with
HIV/AIDS, Solvay Pharmaceutical's Marinol is a synthetic version of the
psychoactive chemical THC and is available in capsule form.
GW Pharmaceuticals, a U.K. company, manufactures Sativex,
a cannabis-derived spray that Canada approved in 2005 for the treatment of
neuropathic pain in multiple sclerosis. GW and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. are
researching and developing Sativex in hopes of earning Food and Drug
Administration approval to treat cancer pain in the U.S.
Accounting for abuse
Alden, the AIDS patient, doesn't deny that some people
abuse their access to medical marijuana.
"There are people who buy marijuana and supply it to
people who don't have a card," he said. "However, what's the
difference between that and people who abuse the prescription drug system?"
Dispensaries offer advantages to buying from street
dealers, including price and stability, Alden said. The cannabis club he's
frequented for the last five years not only has a stable address and set hours,
but operates carefully, requiring patrons to show valid state-issued patient ID
cards and keep the activity indoors, he said.
"I would rather not have to start seeking out street
dealers again," Alden said of the possibility of having his club raided or
shut down. "Street dealers tend to charge a pretty exorbitant price for the
medicine. I get a pretty good price from the club."
|
Button
Ads!
