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Medical Marijuana Program Goes Forward In D.C.; Feds Watching

Photo: Medicinal DC

​The District of Columbia passed its first milestone in selecting who gets the much-coveted licenses for the city’s medical marijuana program, even as the federal government is taking a second look at its hands-off approach to those who legally grow and sell cannabis under laws allowing its medicinal use.

More than 80 individuals or businesses applied to cultivate or sell medical marijuana through letters of intent submitted to the Department of Health, reports Tom Howell Jr. at The Washington Times. The applicants range from entrepreneurial lawyers and gardeners in D.C., to medical marijuana professionals based in states like Colorado and Montana.

The city is expected to soon kick off its long-awaited program — put on hold by Congress 11 years ago — in earnest, joining 16 states in legalizing the medicinal use of marijuana for qualified patients.

Photo: The Georgetowner

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has approved final regulations for medical marijuana in the District of Columbia.

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Democratic Mayor Vincent S. Gray and other D.C. officials were particularly worried about federal interference in their medical marijuana plans, because the District’s laws are subject to Congressional approval and marijuana is still illegal for any purpose under federal law.

A 2009 memo, issued by U.S. Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, reminded federal prosecutors that “no state can authorize violations of federal law” while at the same time advising U.S. Attorneys not to target patients and caregivers acting in compliance “with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”

Federal prosecutors for the first two years of the Obama Administration mostly looked the other way in states that had legalized medical marijuana, but a letter from the Department of Justice to U.S. Attorneys across the country last week seemed to signal that law enforcement still plans to go after those who cultivate or sell cannabis, according to a D.C. government source.

The U.S. Attorney for D.C. has not issued any such threatening letters so far, and is “studying the issue to see what input we can provide on the subject,” said Bill Miller, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Ron Machen.

A Congressional rider known as the Barr Amendment had banned D.C. from implementing a medical marijuana program since 1998, when an overwhelming 69 percent of District voters approved legalizing medicinal cannabis there.

The Barr Amendment was finally lifted in 2009, clearing the way for medical marijuana in D.C.

The mayor issued rules in April requiring persons who want to cultivate or sell medical marijuana in the District to send notification by June 17 to the Health Regulation and Licensing Administration, a branch of the city’s health department, ahead of a more formal application.

A host of applicants is vying for the permits for 10 cultivation centers and five dispensaries.

A Freedom Of Information Act request response showed 82 separate applicants for the program, many of them asking for permits to both grow and sell marijuana.

A majority of them — 47 — listed mailing addresses in D.C. in their letters to the health department. Other applicants were from Maryland (18), Virginia (7), New York (3), New Jersey (2), and one each from California, Colorado and Montana.

A few of the out-of-state applicants boasted experience in medical marijuana in states where it is already legal. The health department could not be reached for comment on whether experienced growers and sellers from medical marijuana states would gain preference over applicants originating in D.C.

A panel of five members — one each from the Department of Health, Metropolitan Police Department, Office of the Attorney General, Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and a consumer or patient advocate — will score each of the eventual applications based on a 250-point scale examining criteria such as security and staffing at facilities, overall business plans and the opinions of local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.

Beyond community approval, marijuana cultivation centers will be tightly regulated on size, a strict 95-plant limit, staffing, lighting and buffer zones between growing centers and schools.

Applicants must be at least 21 years old and may not have been convicted of any felonies or misdemeanor drug crimes.

How To: Get A Medical Marijuana Card In Washington D.C.

Amendment Act B18-622 was approved in a unanimous vote by the Council of the District of Columbia on May 4,2010; the act, which went into effect on July 27, 2010, removed state-level criminal penalties on the use and possession of medical marijuana by qualifying patients. Eligible patients are required to register with the medical marijuana program to obtain a medical marijuana card. The DC law prohibits home cultivation of cannabis and patients are required to obtain their supplies from DC-monitored dispensaries.

However, there has to date been little progress in the establishment of a medical marijuana program in the District of Columbia and it is unlikely that medical marijuana will be available to eligible patients before 2012. We will, of course, keep you updated.

In the meantime, we summarise the important points below.

Washington DC Medical Marijuana – Eligible medical conditions

• HIV/AIDS
• Glaucoma
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Cancer
• Chronic renal failure

Any other condition, as determined by rulemaking, that is:

• Chronic or long-lasting
• Debilitating
• Interferes with basic functions of life
• Is a serious medical condition for which the use of medical marijuana is beneficial
• Cannot be effectively treated by any ordinary medical or surgical measure
• For which there is scientific evidence that the use of medical marijuana is likely to be significantly less addictive than the ordinary medical treatment for that condition

You may also qualify as a medical marijuana patient if you undergo any of the following treatments:

• Chemotherapy
• The use of azidothymidine or protease inhibitors
• Radiotherapy
• Any other treatment, as determined by rulemaking, whose side effects require treatment through the administration of medical marijuana in the same manner as a qualifying medical condition

Washington DC Medical Marijuana – How to Become a Medical Marijuana Patient (Eventually)

• To qualify as a medical marijuana patient in Washington DC, you must:
• Be a resident of Washington DC
• Have been diagnosed with a qualifying medical condition, or
• Be currently undergoing a qualifying medical treatment
• Obtain legitimate medical records or documentation from your primary care physician describing their diagnosis
• Obtain an authenticated written documentation from a Washington DC licensed physician stating that you might benefit from the use of medical marijuana
• Must have a bona fide relationship with the physician
• Register with the Washington DC medical marijuana program
• Obtain a Medical Marijuana card

Washington DC Medical Marijuana – Access to Marijuana and Allowed Amounts

When the program is finally up and running and you have obtained your card you will be required to purchase your cannabis from a District of Columbia registered dispensary. You will be allowed to possess up to two ounces of dried medical grade marijuana.

Government Forced NCI To Censor Medical Cannabis Facts

Graphic: NORML Stash Blog

Fuck censorship.

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In March, the National Cancer Agency (NCI), a component agency of the National Institutes of Health, acknowledged the medicinal benefits of marijuana in its online treatment database. But the information only stayed up a few days, before it was scrubbed from the site.

Now, newly obtained documents reveal not only how NCI database contributors arrived at their March 17 summary of marijuana’s medical uses, but also the furious politicking that went into quickly scrubbing that summary of information regarding the potential tumor-fighting effects of cannabis, reports Kyle Daly at the Washington Independent.

Phil Mocek, a civil liberties activist with the Seattle-based Cannabis Defense Coalition, obtained the documents as a result of a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request he filed in March after reading coverage of the NCI’s action. Mocek has made some of the hundreds of pages of at-times heated email exchanges and summary alterations available on MuckRock, a website devoted to FOIA requests and government documents.

The treatment database on NCI’s website is called the Physician Data Query (PDQ). The PDQ entry on cannabis and cannabinoids is maintained by the Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Editorial Board. The lead reviewer on the marijuana summary statement is CAM board member Donald Abrams, director of integrative oncology at the University of California-San Francisco cancer center.

Abrams advocates the use of cannabis in cancer treatment, and his wish to accurately portray its medical applications becomes clear early in the documents.

On March 24, just a week after the finished summary had gone online, Susan Weiss — chief of the Office of Science Policy and Communications within the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) — sent NCI officials an email saying her agency had just become aware of the summary. Weiss told them the NIDA wanted the summary changed to acknowledge that the FDA hasn’t approved marijuana; to take away any implication that it was recommending prescribing marijuana; to highlight the supposed “addiction potential” of marijuana; and to link to the NIDA’s own page on the supposed “adverse effects of marijuana.”

The NCI balked at the last two requests: ”I am unaware of any convincing evidence indicating that marijuana is addictive,” communications officer Rick Manrow of the the NCI reasonably said.

But the agency agreed the first two requests were fair. The CAM board grappled for days with how to cooperate with the NIDA without compromising its independence or editorial integrity. Meanwhile, yet more federal agencies offered their two cents’ worth.

“[A press officer with the FDA] contacted me this morning because he has been getting calls from FDA staff, as well as at least one high-profile reporter, asking about NCI’s ‘endorsement of medical marijuana.’ I provided him with the background I had,” wrote Brooke Hardison, NCI media relations analyst. “He needs to provide information for staff at the FDA, and they are trying to figure out how to respond to this issue. I suggested that it might be good for him to have a conversation with those more closely involved in this issue.”

Meanwhile, national attention to the story continued to grow, and NIDA, notoriously anti-pot, was worried about this whole “marijuana treats cancer” thing.

On learning that Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance had tweeted about the summary, the NIDA’s Weiss wrote to NCI, “We will be contacting our colleagues at ONDCP [Office of National Drug Control Policy] just to give them a heads up about it.”

Weiss also wrote to her NIDA colleagues, saying “We think that ONDCP needs to be informed.”

The ONDCP, of course, is the office of the Drug Czar. Current czar Gil Kerlikowske, as with all drug czars, is bound by law to oppose marijuana legalization for any purpose, even to save cancer patients.

In any event, the NCI caved to the NIDA’s demands by removing any implied support for prescribing marijuana — noting that the FDA hasn’t approved cannabis as as prescription drug — and, much to the consternation of lead reviewer Abrams, removing a reference to marijuana’s anti-tumor properties.

“You know, the epidemiological data from Kaiser and Tashkin do possibly support an anti-tumor effect in humans,” Abrams wrote. “After reflecting for a few hours, I am not happy that NIDA has been able to impose their agenda on us. The text was vetted by the whole Board. I would ask that we [involve] the whole Editorial Board in the discussion before being bulldogged.

“I am considering resigning from the Board if we allow politics to trump science!” Abrams wrote.

All the relevant CAM board members eventually agreed to the version that went up on March 29 and 30. That last day was when Phil Mocek submitted his FOIA request and is thus the last day that appears in the records given to him.

It is interesting to note that, toward the end of the correspondence record, NCI and NIDA officials were discussing the latter agency providing further information on the supposed “adverse effects of marijuana” so that the CAM Board could “take it into consideration” during its May 6 meeting. Several NCI and CAM members said any “convincing evidence” could result in larger changes to the entry.

NIDA prepared a list of anti-marijuana talking points, including the claim that nine percent of cannabis users “become addicted to the drug” and a completely undocumented claim that marijuana use leads to permanent cognitive impairment, in the hopes of causing just such changes in the NCI’s entry.

But, the Independent reports, May 6 came and went without any additional changes being made to the database.

One can only imagine the kinds of behind-the-scenes wrangling that continues as we speak.

Graphic: NORML Stash Blog

“NCI apparently got a talking to from someone” ~ Radical Russ Belville, NORML. Turns out Radical Russ was right, and NIDA was doing the talking.

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