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Policy Shift Good News for Medical Marijuana Advocates
Dozens of Dispensaries Raided Under Old Policy
SALINAS, Calif. - Attorney general Eric Holder announced Wednesday that federal agents will no longer go after marijuana distributors that comply with state law.
Medical marijuana is displayed in Los Angeles August 6, 2007. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters) Under the Bush administration, pot dispensaries in California were raided by DEA agents for breaking federal law even though they're legal in the state.
"We have tinctures, the medical form in the 30s," said Lisa Molyneux, Greenway Dispensary founder.
Molyneux owns the first licensed pot dispensary in California. She's also a thyroid cancer patient who said there's no substitute for medical marijuana.
"When I was first diagnosed and recommended to use medical cannabis, there were only seven clubs in California. It was very hush-hush," Molyneux said.
Now there are hundreds of buyers' clubs in California.
But, dozens of them were raided by DEA agents under the Bush administration for violating federal law, which lists marijuana as a "schedule one drug" -- along with heroin -- which means it cannot be prescribed as medication.
"I know it's a valuable medicine and I know all the people it helps," Molyneux said.
Under California Proposition 215, passed in 1996, any person with a doctor's recommendation can grow, use and transport medical marijuana.
Holder's announcement was good news for the Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana or WAMM. The organization was raided by the feds in September of 2002.
"What it does for us is it's a blessing," said Valerie Corral, with WAMM.
WAMM is not a buyer's club. It's made up of patients who grow and give away marijuana to other patients who can't afford it.
"The issues been so clouded, so much stigma, that it makes it difficult for people who are sick to access medicine. How many of my friends lost their lives whose illness and suffering was exacerbated by the absence of medicine," Coral said.
California was the first of now 13 total states legalize medical marijuana law.
There are about two dozen California medical marijuana cases pending in federal court. The attorney general did not clarify what will happen to those cases under this shift in federal policy.
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25 Comments so far
Show AllBig Pharma can't make $$ off it therefore it will not be legally avaialble to the peasants. Like universal health care, the corporations cannot allow anything as petty as the welfare or will of the people to stand in the way of thier profitability.
You speak the truth Define Freedom. Awesome job! Great show!
Thank you President Obama! Time to legalize ALL drugs. It worked in Portugal.
Really? I haven't heard any news about Portugal since...uh, I was born. How's that working out?
Glenn Greenwald wrote about it last week: "The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal" - http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/14/portugal/
[snip]
In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs, ... Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense.
[/snip]
Ah, thanks :-)
what about the rest of the country?
Legalizing this cash crop for use and taxation can only benefit the people and the government. The more awareness the better for this issue. The fact that voters are allowing medicinal use proves the tide is turning.
I am constantly infuriated by the "schedule 1" BS. Cannabis has been used as medicine for over 4700 YEARS, and was the basis for literally dozens of classes of medicines in this country up until the pill companies started. In fact, it was used as the main ingredient in CHILDREN'S cough medicines for at least 50 years.Everyone knew at the time that it would give you a buzz, but no one gave a damn about it. It worked, and it probably gave parents a respite while the kids slept it off.
Look up the congressional hearings in 1937, and you will find out that the AMA was one of two groups that found out about the hearings and went to testify AGAINST the bill. In fact, Doctors were arrested at a rate of 10,000 over the first three years of the prohibition, because they kept prescribing it for their patients and got busted for it. It wasn't until 1940 when the AMA said that they would remove it from their writings and recommendations if the feds would just STOP busting them that the arrests of doctors stopped. And now, something that has been used for nearly 5,000 years has NO medicinal value? That is a flat out bold faceed lie.
It's a shame that it takes a financial collapse to stop this stupidity and dishonesty, but if that is what it takes, then by all means, bring on the collapse. It's time.
Right On.
Obama, Yeah.
I grow medical marijuana. Killer too. A gift from God.
This move is an example of much good Obama will do, as he will also fail in many ways......But much good instead of a straight rape I'm Greatful for.
But tax it? Ha Ha. They tax the FoxFarm et al ENOUGH.
If we grow our own-which is the way, their ain't no taxation.
These dispensaries pay taxes though because they sell the pot, tons of it...anyone here wanna guess where it comes from?
Blues For Allah! Joe, The Cat's out of the bag and she gets high.
Hooray for President Obama!
The next conservative rule to remove is all federal prohibitions against pot and let the states handle it.
hey, can i hang with you guys, said the hate obama folks were overzealous on another thread (maybe not so kindly, admittedly) and got the posse after me.
I feel what the Obama administration did is a step in the right direction, but I would still like to see it legalized.
That would be awesome. If he got all the pot smokers to vote for him, I think he would be in good shape for re-election.
Screw pushing for medical marijuana. We need to be pushing textile hemp. Hell, that's the reason marijuana was made illegal in the first place...
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow"
I don't think that medical and industrial marijuana economies are mutually exclusive. However, you are correct that hemp provides many productive uses in addition to its medicinal purposes.
I don't know where you attended grammar school but I wonder if you remember the old history books which wouldn't even mention hemp when listing crops produced by verious nations. They were listed as "naval stores." Asking the teacher what that term meant never elicited a meaningful response.
q
The feds don't give a crap that marijuana is useful, and god forbid, pleasurable, they just see it as a source of more tax revenue to feed their insatiable gluttony.
They are not all like that but their bosses want us divided so we cant make a better society for everyone. Once the fear gets diluted then we can all have more compassion for each other.
Yes, fine. Now when can I have some to try, instead of the thousands of dollar a month wasted on opiates that have nasty side-effects? And educated people should know that the part of marijuana that gets people 'high' - THC - is NOT the ingredient - CBD - that has medicinal value, for the most part. In fact, they are almost mutually exclusive, since THC decreases as plants are bred to have higher CBD values. This has been tested in other countries that are not as regressive and backwards (and greedy) as the US. Taxing medicinal marijuana is unconsciounable - sick and injured people are 'paying' a high enough price for being disabled already. In fact, most of them are bankrupt - or impoverished - as a result of serious injury or illness. Time to stop all the Puritanical BS and get real about for-profit 'healthcare' - it doesn't care about anything but money. Growing your own medicine would put a lot of these parasites out of business - and any legislator who puts money before humanity needs to be booted out. There is no room for sociopaths in modern society.
Hemp is good for more sustainable pulp than timber=paper.
Hemp Paper is the oldest paper in existence.
The Constitution was drafted on Hemp Paper. Jefferson & Washington grew it. Under current Virginia State law they would be doing about 7 to 10 years.
Hemp Paper is perfect for writing Congresspeople, in fact, you can send them cigarettes, brownies and cookies wrapped in Hemp Paper too.
armybrat, to have some to try, come to California, get a prescription (easy) and you can get a whole heck of a lot to try. Because opiates do mostly suck. And pot kills pain like sunlight kills darkness.
*&%#@*joe
Why do we have to make up medical reasons to buy marijuana ?
The Dutch have no problem with it. As some of the best capitalist in the world throughout history, they profit from legalisation.
They also give each family an annual bicycle subsidy to buy bikes to use on an extensive network of bike paths. Most Dutch cycle - very few fat asses.
>>Big Pharma can't make $$ off it therefore it will not be legally avaialble to the peasants. Like universal health care, the corporations cannot allow anything as petty as the welfare or will of the people to stand in the way of thier profitability
Well the fact is, Big Pharma DOES sell a form of THC in a prescription form. Oddly this THC manufactured bt Big Pharma does not have any of those "Reefer madness" side effects of the natural version of THC. Now do not ask me the SCIENCE behind that but apparently the FDA and Big Pharma have inside information.
The Prescription medication MARINOL has as an active ingredient a form of THC. The Drug Company that manufactures it is real cutting edge. They did all manner of research to find that this drug treats any number of diseases and illnesses...such as for example...treating those undergoing chemotherapy for nausea!!
It only by the strangest of coincidences that the illnesses that Marinol prescribed for are the same ones people have LONG used marijuana to treat.
The Company spent many billions of dollars researching this drug and "discovering" it so can not have people gaining the same benefits off a weed that can grow most any place for next to nothing.
>>Synthetic THC is known as dronabinol. It is available as a prescription drug (under the trade name Marinol[46]) in several countries including the United States and Germany. In the United States, Marinol is a Schedule III drug, available by prescription, considered to be non-narcotic and to have a low risk of physical or mental dependence. Efforts to get cannabis rescheduled as analogous to Marinol have not succeeded thus far, though a 2002 petition has been accepted by the DEA. As a result of the rescheduling of Marinol from Schedule II to Schedule III, refills are now permitted for this substance. Marinol has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the treatment of anorexia in AIDS patients, as well as for refractory nausea and vomiting of patients undergoing chemotherapy, which has raised much controversy as to why natural THC is still a schedule I drug.[47]
>>An analog of dronabinol, nabilone, is available commercially in Canada under the trade name Cesamet, manufactured by Valeant. Cesamet has also received FDA approval and began marketing in the U.S. in 2006; it is a Schedule II drug.
>>In April 2005, Canadian authorities approved the marketing of Sativex, a mouth spray for multiple sclerosis patients, who can use it to alleviate neuropathic pain and spasticity. Sativex contains tetrahydrocannabinol together with cannabidiol. It is marketed in Canada by GW Pharmaceuticals, being the first cannabis-based prescription drug in the world
The facts are these . All these laws against "illegal drugs" have NOTHING to do with addictions or wanting to protect the health of the public. They are all about PROFITS for big pharma who want to repackage something Mother nature made and that man has been using for thousands of years, and call it their own discovery. Sort of like they "discovered" the new world thus allowing them to call it their own.
pk
let's roll!
I bet all the Naderites are happy.
It seems basic to the idea of democracy that when some practice reaches a certain level of acceptance it can no longer me against the law. That horrors to the contrary can be paraded does not dispose ofthis basic truth.