LA-Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation’s capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision announced Friday the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a dangerous drug like heroin.
The decision comes almost nine years after medical marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify cannabis to take into account a growing body of worldwide research that shows its effectiveness in treating certain diseases, such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis.
Advocates for the medical use of the drug criticized the ruling but were elated that the Obama administration had finally acted, which allows them to appeal to the federal courts, where they believe they can get a fairer hearing. The decision to deny the request was made by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and comes less than two months after advocates asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to force the administration to respond to their petition.
“We have foiled the government’s strategy of delay, and we can now go head-to-head on the merits, that marijuana really does have therapeutic value,” said Joe Elford, the chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access and the lead counsel on the recently filed lawsuit. Elford said he was not surprised by the decision, which comes just after the Obama administration announced it would not tolerate large-scale commercial marijuana cultivation. “It is clearly motivated by a political decision that is anti-marijuana,” he said. He noted that studies demonstrate pot has beneficial effects, including appetite stimulation for people undergoing chemotherapy. “One of the things people say about marijuana is that it gives you the munchies and the truth is that it does, and for some people that’s a very positive thing.”
DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart sent a letter dated June 21 to the organizations that filed a petition for the change. The letter and the documentation that she used to back up her decision were published Friday in the Federal Register. Leonhart said she rejected the request because marijuana “has a high potential for abuse,” “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” and “lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision.”
This is the third time that petitions to reclassify marijuana have been spurned. The first was filed in 1972 and denied 17 years later. The second was filed in 1995 and denied in 2001. Both decisions were appealed, but the courts sided with the federal government.
CO- In his Coloradoan July 2 Soapbox, Ray Martinez made many disparaging claims about medical marijuana centers in order to bolster his attempt to ban MMCs from Fort Collins. Too bad that none of his assertions are supported by facts.
Acting police Chief Jerry Schiager reported no medical marijuana business “surge in crime,” and no increase in 911 calls (1). The ordinance regulating MMCs, passed by Fort Collins’ City Council, is stricter than the state requires (2) In fact, state regulators track every gram of medicine produced by MMCs “from seed to sale” preventing any diversion to “the new black market” (3) as Martinez claims.
Proponents of the ban would also like us to believe, based on anecdotal “evidence,” that marijuana use is up among teens and MMCs are the cause.
Wrong again.
Two studies released this week show the opposite. The National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse reports that from 1999 to 2010, teen marijuana use dropped 22 percent (4). And a separate nationwide study shows that there is no causal relationship between medical marijuana and an increase in teen marijuana use (5).
MMCs are clearly not the boogey man that Martinez and company would have us believe.
Instead of fear-mongering and fantasy, we need a discussion based on reality.
The people of this state voted to make medical marijuana legal in 2000. Lacking any regulatory framework, Colorado’s state Legislature passed HB1284 in 2010. As a result, Colorado’s licensed MMCs are the most heavily regulated and taxed among all 16 states that allow for medical marijuana use.
Criminals are out. Standards are in place. Taxes are collected. And law enforcement keeps a 24/7 watch to ensure compliance. While this is tedious and expensive for center owners, we know that our customers and community members feel more secure because of the tight restrictions and security.
Reality check:
More than 8,500 people hold valid licenses to purchase medical marijuana in Larimer County. That averages out to more than 16,000 transactions a month, or 200,000 every year.
Let’s imagine for a moment that Martinez gets his way and MMCs disappear. What then?
Patients will lose out. Treatment protocols will be interrupted when the products, services and specialists patients rely upon and trust disappear. This will result in negative health outcomes for patients.
Our economy will suffer. One half-million dollars in sales taxes will go uncollected every year. More than 200 people will lose their jobs. Dozens of commercial leases will be abandoned. Millions of dollars in business investments will be lost. Bankruptcies will soar.
Our neighborhoods will become less safe. Currently, medical marijuana businesses are licensed, regulated, secured, and taxed. If we ban these businesses, medical marijuana sales will be pushed into our neighborhoods where they will be unlicensed, unregulated, unsecured, and untaxed, and increase the risk of illegal sales, fires, and home invasions.
Assuming home growers follow the rules and serve only five patients each, 1,500 homes are needed to serve Larimer County’s 8,500 registered patients. That’s 200,000 sales taking place in 1,500 private homes! Home invasions, electrical fires and chemicals dumped unmonitored into our sewers will become common.
This will be a disaster.
medical marijuana centers are the safest way to ensure that legal patients have access while protecting our community.
Please act to keep MMCs legal in Fort Collins.
Steve Ackerman is a longtime Fort Collins resident and business owner. He is president of the Fort Collins Medical Cannabis Association (FCMCA) and owner of Organic Alternatives. He may be reached at 214-1152. Sources: 1: Schiager, Jerry. Statement to Council. City Council Adjourned Meeting & Work Session, Feb. 22. 2: Agenda Item Summary Feb. 22, Item 3. (n.d.). Agenda Item Summary, Issues Relating to Medical marijuana Businesses, (p. 2). Fort Collins.Fort Collins; 3: (2011). Colorado Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division Rules. Denver: State of Colorado Department of Revenue; 4: National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, (June 29, 2011). Adolescent Substance Use: America’s #1 Public Health Problem (pg. 28). New York: CASA Columbia; 5: O’Keefe, K. E. a. (June 2011). Marijuana Use by Young People: The Impact of State Laws. Washington D.C.: Marijuana Policy Project.
Why drug reformers are worried about a new pot policy issued by the Obama administration
CRACKDOWN-Drug-policy reformers are worried about a new Obama administration memo instructing federal prosecutors on how to deal with the growing number of medical marijuana dispensaries.
The Justice Department memo, sent to U.S. attorneys around the nation, addresses a central problem with the growing number of states that have legalized medical marijuana: The drug remains illegal under federal law, whether used for medical purposes or not. The new guidance memo reiterates the illegality of medical marijuana and appears to encourage prosecutors to go after some marijuana dispensaries, particularly the large operations.
President Obama suggested during the campaign in 2007-08 that his Justice Department would not prioritize going after medical marijuana. To find out more about the new medical marijuana memo, and for an update on the broader drug war, I spoke to Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which lobbies for alternatives to the drug war.
Can you give an overview of the legal status of medical marijuana around the country?
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana either through the ballot initiative process or a state legislative process. The federal law remains that it is all illegal. Strictly speaking, marijuana remains a Schedule 1 substance. The DEA just issued an announcement Friday confirming that it still regards marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance with no legitimate medical uses and no margin of safety in its use — which is sort of an absurdity on its face. Marijuana remains entirely illegal under federal law.
And “Schedule 1″ means what?
Well, back in 1970, when Congress unified all the drug laws in the Controlled Substances Act, they divided drugs into a variety of schedules. Schedule 1 refers to drugs that supposedly have no legitimate medical use and have no margin of safety in their use. So heroin, LSD, and marijuana are in that category. Schedule 2 are drugs that have some substantial risk but also have some legitimate medical uses. So for example cocaine, opiates and stimulant drugs are in that category.
So medical marijuana is illegal in the eyes of the federal government. But what has the actual enforcement policy of the Obama administration been up till this week?
During the presidential campaign in 2008, Obama made a number of commitments, one of which was that federal law enforcement would not prioritize prosecution of medical marijuana facilities operating legally under state law. Then in summer 2009, the Justice Department issued a memo called the Ogden memo, which basically affirmed much of Obama’s promise. It affirmed the idea that marijuana is illegal under federal law, but then said that federal prosecutors should not prioritize the prosecution of medical marijuana facilities operating legally under state law. Drug policy reform advovates felt quite optimistic about that 2009 memo, even though it was a qualified statement. What followed was a proliferation of dispensaries in places like Colorado, and California, and Montana. There were growing concerns that this was going too far. I think the Justice Department was hearing from local federal prosecutors and others who did not like these developments.
So what does the new memo sent out to U.S. attorneys say?
It’s called the Cole memo. It reiterates that all marijuana is illegal under federal law. They say that clearly federal resources should not be used to go after patients and their caregivers. They also say that any very large-scale operations — multimillion-dollar operations — will be prosecuted even if they are operating legally under state law. So that represents a modest change in policy. What they are not clear on is what will happen with the midlevel dispensaries. They’re not multimillion-dollar operations, they’re operating legally under state law, and they seem to be serving a population that has medical marijuana recommendations from their physicians. With those operations we’re in a kind of wait-and-see mode as to what prosecutors will do state by state.
The language of the Cole memo is quite aggressive in saying to everybody, “You better watch out, because any one of you could be prosecuted.” On the other hand there are some other messages being sent saying, “Watch what we do, not what we say.” So the real test cases will be whether or not the feds decide to go after medical marijuana dispensaries that are operating legally under state law and are being responsibly regulated by state authorities. If they do that, then we’ll know they really seriously backtracked on the president’s commitment.
So from the beginning of the administration to the present, have they actually gone after dispensaries?
There was a proliferation of dispensaries in states like Colorado and California. So there have in fact been more raids under the Obama administration than there were under the Bush administration. It’s hard to say whether that’s a reflection of the proliferation of dispensaries or whether that’s a real change in policy. What’s also not clear is whether the feds are only targeting those facilities that are not clearly operating legally under state law. So the feds have really created a growing sense of confusion in the medical marijuana community about where the line is between what will be permitted and what won’t.
Stepping back from medical marijuana, has there been much of a shift from the Bush to Obama administrations with “drug war” policy more broadly?
I was pleasantly surprised by the first 18 months of the administration. Obama made three explicit promises during the campaign. He said the feds would not go after medical marijuana facilities operating legally under state law, and he appeared to make good on that. He said the crack-powder laws needed to be rolled back, and they got a major reform of that law last year. Third, he said he would support federal funding for needle exchange, and they did support the efforts in Congress on that. Since that time, it looks more and more like the drug czar’s office has been captured by the drug warriors and the anti-drug fanatics who dominated policy-making in the Clinton and Bush administrations. The rhetoric coming out of the drug czar’s office is almost indistinguishable from the rhetoric of past administrations. The personnel they’ve been hiring, and the people they talk to, are overwhelmingly those who have been associated with the failed drug war policies of the past. And meanwhile the Justice Department seems to be getting more and more engaged in enforcement of marijuana laws in ways that really make no sense as a matter of [the] responsible [use] of resources.
CANNABIS CULTURE – Watch Cannabis Culture News LIVE for the latest news and views on pot politics and the marijuana community. On today’s show: The cannabis model vs. the wine model. Activist David Malmo-Levine joins the show LIVE today at 4PM Pacific to discuss his new study comparing and contrasting the two in preparation for The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012 in California.
Read Malmo-Levine’s new white paper – Crystal Clear Glasses and Unbleached Rollies – A comprehensive comparison and contrasting of the California wine and California cannabis industries.
Also on the show: Princess of Pot Jodie Emery will join us in-studio to discuss the latest on her imprisoned husband Marc Emery, and announce the countdown to his 3-year prison release date.
Pot-TV Network editor Marijuana Man will also join the show to talk about the Vancouver Cannabis Day celebration on July 1, where 6,000 of our closest friends gathered for music, speeches, an open-to-all Cannabis Farmers Market and a massive smoke session.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A man has been sentenced in a federal court in Ohio to four years in prison and must pay a $10,000 fine for his role in a scheme to fly thousands of pounds of marijuana from California to Ohio in suitcases.
Six people have either pleaded guilty or indicated they’ll plead guilty since authorities broke up the $3 million operation last year.
Thirty-three-year-old Christopher Cash was sentenced Friday. Cash was from Los Angeles at the time of his arrest and later living in Louisville, Ky. He pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana.Awaiting a July 29 sentencing is 44-year-old Frank Edwards of Hacienda, Calif. He previously pleaded guilty to drug charges
HEMP-While hemp can be used for food, textiles, paper, fabric, and fuel oil, the misunderstood crop breeds fear amongst politicians in the United States and has led to the crop being illegal to grow without a DEA permit, which is pretty hard to get. But growing hemp is legal in Canada. Canadian company Motive Industries has taken advantage of this, and have been working on an electric car made of hemp plastic. Touted as Canada’s first bio composite electric car, the Motive Kestrel’s top speed is 135 km/h, with a range of 160 km. The ultralight car is a 3 door 4 passenger electric vehicle, and packs 16 kWh of lithium battery juice to keep the car going 160 kilometers per charge.
Now Motive has announced that bio composite materials derived from hemp and flax fibre will also be used in the car’s interior. They will be used to create the headliner, door panels, door trim, floor tub and center tunnel, instrument panel and the center console panel. The prototype should be coming out sometime this year, with a production goal of 2012.
The advantages of using bio composites over traditional materials include reducing dependence on fossil fuels, reducing waste, cost, and being able to produce the materials right in Canada. The materials are made from hemp mats produced by Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures (AITF), from hemp stock grown in Vegreville, Alberta. AITF is technically owned by the Government of Alberta. Considering the US government has a major fear of hemp, this could give Canada a leg up in the automotive industry.
Energy audit [Economist articles in description - Ron Paul mentioned in one] A video consisting of an US Government history lesson about hemp which leads into an argument for hemp and then Ron Paul’s Hemp legislation. Hemp has the potential to be a huge boon for American farmers and the US economy all while helping the environment and improving US security by lowering our reliance on foreign oil…and Ron Paul is the only candidate in favor of legislation to allow American Farmers to grow it. Music Artist – The Whitest Boy Alive Song – Golden Cage (Economist – 6/23/07) Nowadays farmers are banned from growing hemp without a permit from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which usually refuses to grant one. So many hemp products in America—food, lotions, clothing, paper and so forth—are imported from China or Canada, where farmers have been allowed to grow hemp commercially since 1998. Hemp grows so easily that few pesticides or even fertilisers are needed. “Feral” hemp is said to grow by the roadside in Iowa and Nebraska. Barbara Filippone, owner of a hemp fabric company called Enviro Textiles, says demand has rocketed—sales are growing by 35% a year. Nutiva, a California-based hemp company that sells hemp bars, shakes and oils, saw sales rise from under $1m three years ago to $4.5m last year. “Hemp is the next soy,” predicts John Roulac, Nutiva’s founder. American farmers would love to grow hemp. North Dakota, which in 1999 became the first state to allow industrial hemp …energy saving
The hemp plant is of foremost importance to protecting the environment. It is simultaneously the most useful and the most underutilized plant of anything we have access to. The environmental implications of hemp are wide reaching and extremely powerful.
Not only is hemp great for the Earth’s environment, but it is the most nutritious resource for the human body’s internal environment.
While hemp’s benefits require pages upon pages to describe completely, I’d like to give a brief overview of everything this one plant is capable of.
Growing Hemp
The act of simply growing hemp is great for the environment. The roots are incredibly long, and break up the soil to make it easier for other crops to grow in. This also brings up nutrients from deep down for future crops, including more hemp.
One report from Kentucky stated that a batch of hemp was grown on the same land for 14 consecutive years, without any reduced yields or soil depletion. This is pretty incredible, considering that hemp can yield four times as much pulp per acre as trees, and three times as much fiber as cotton.
One ton of carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere for every two tons of hemp grown, and since hemp can produce as much as twelve tons per acre, the carbon dioxide removed adds up fast.
Hemp Products
Hemp can be used to make all kinds of environmentally friendly products, and is a great way to help us use much less petroleum.
Hemp can be used as a clean biofuel which releases no sulphur oxides when burned, and as a biodegradable alternative to petroleum plastics.
Hemp paper is stronger than wood pulp paper, can be recycled up to 8 times (compared to 3 with regular paper), and does not require dangerous bleaching agents.
The list goes on and on, but what is perhaps most important is the power of hemp nutrition.
Hemp Food
Seed from the hemp plant is the most nutritious food in the world. It contains 11 grams of protein per 3 tablespoons, but the quantity is not as important as the quality. Hemp protein is 100% complete, with all the essential amino acids, but an even better characteristic of hemp protein is its bioavailability. It is 65% globulin edestin, a simple type of plant protein that is very easy to digest. This is the highest in all the plant kingdom and it makes hemp protein the best protein in the world.
As if that wasn’t good enough, hemp protein has the perfect balance of Omega-6 and Omega-3 essential fatty acids, along with Omega-9 fatty acid. These acids are critical for the body to efficiently perform life sustaining chemical processes, and having high quantities of good fatty acids will reduce the risk of all types of diseases.
Further still, hemp seed has lots of fiber (10% soluble, 90% insoluble), minerals (magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, zinc, calcium, and more), antioxidants, and chlorophyll.
Why is this especially important?
Hemp seed can be baked into bread and used as a staple food. If this were the staple of the world, there would be no malnutrition at all, and that goes for developed and undeveloped countries. The power of hemp needs to be utilized by the world, for the sake of the environment’s health and our health!
This article was written by Justin Kander from Versativa, an innovative new company which produces raw hemp food and a powerful type of hemp seed concentrate. Dozens of people with little raw food or hemp experience have used these products to change their lives and experience the benefits of hemp for themselves. If you want highly detailed information about the company, products, and dozens of testimonials, check out the Versativa Superfoodspage.
The federal government has maintained for decades, even over the objections of its own Administrative Law Judges, that marijuana (cannabis) is a dangerous drug with no medical value. However, something happened in March to draw attention not only to evidence of marijuana’s beneficial effect on people living with cancer, but also to the government’s glaring hypocrisy around the issue of medical marijuana. In fact, this hypocrisy reveals to Americans the struggle between politics and science, and makes the federal government’s contradictory policies on medical marijuana that much more tenuous.
In March, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), one of 11 federal agencies under the National Institutes of Health, changed its website to include Cannabis as a Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM), with possible benefits for people living with cancer. Specifically, the website read:
The potential benefits of medicinal Cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep. In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal Cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect.
NCI further stated that:
Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years prior to its current status as an illegal substance.
Quite an admission for an agency that answers to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which for years has steadfastly maintained that cannabis “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.” Perhaps it was this stark contradiction that compelled NCI to recently alter its web page on medical cannabis.
Synthesized THC is known as dronabinol. It is available as a prescription drug (under Marinol[71]) 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.[72]
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 (in modern times). In addition, Sativex received European regulatory approval in 2010.
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LA-Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation’s capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision announced Friday the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a dangerous drug like heroin.
