Is Medical Marijuana Legal Or Not?

WASHINGTON, D.C.—

President Obama`s Justice Department says medical marijuana dispensaries could face prosecution and that cannabis is a drug in the same class as heroin.

Recently, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote a policy memo to federal prosecutors that states: All marijuana use and commerce is illegal under the Controlled Substance Act even if they are following state laws. And 16 states are ok with medical marijuana.

What, so state laws don`t matter anymore?

Anyone remember what President Obama said during his campaign in 2008 regarding medical marijuana?

Just in case you forgot, he said that his Justice Department would not prioritize prosecution of medical marijuana facilities operating legally under state law.

“I have more of a practical view than anything else. I mean my attitude is if, if it`s an issue of doctors prescribing medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma or as a cancer treatment, I think that should be appropriate because there is really no difference between that and a doctor prescribing morphine or anything else,” said President Obama.

Even in February of 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated what the President had promised during his campaign.

“What he said during the campaign will and is American policy,” said Holder.

Why the about face?

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has ruled that marijuana has not accepted medical use and should therefore remain illegal under federal law, regardless of state legislation allowing medical marijuana.

Not only does this decision conflict with state laws, it also contradicts with a report by the Institute of Medicine which indicates.

The potential therapeutic values of medical marijuana, primarily THC, are for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation.

How about this…have someone in the Obama Administration put themselves in the shoes of a dying cancer patient going through rounds of chemotherapy, suddenly without a certain prescribed medication, and see if that will open their eyes.

The Marijuana Tipping Point Is Here

Graphic: NewsReview.com

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By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

The writer and social critic, Malcolm Gladwell, defines the ‘Tipping Point’ as the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point; the point at which the buildup of minor changes or incidents reaches a level that triggers a more significant change or makes someone do something they had formerly resisted.

Another way of saying it would be that point in time and space when everything changes and there’s no turning back.

Every day there are more encouraging headlines appearing in newspapers and on the Web from California to Maine supporting medical marijuana legislation suggesting the tide is turning.

Even when the cynics call medical marijuana a joke and claim the real goal of this smokescreen movement is legalization of pot, there are medi-jane supporters with valid and logical arguments to counter-balance any archaic rhetoric with which the anti-pot forces continue to misinform.

New Jersey passed one of the most restrictive medical marijuana rights and benefits program on the books so far. The state with a very conservative governor will soon have medical marijuana. Why? Because the people wanted it.

 It does seem like Time is marching on, but when is it gonna get there?

We’re zeroing in on something but when is the Tipping Point going to kick in fully regarding medical marijuana?

What possible signs do we need to see before we believe that it works?!

Here are some small recent events that may prove someday to have influenced the way we think, tipping the scales our way towards a bigger picture…

Photo: KSL.com

Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff opposed medical marijuana — then he got cancer.

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1) Okay, this guy never ever got high and he’s for Medical Marijuana!

June 12th: How much straighter do they have to come? 

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff approves of medical marijuana after battling cancer.

Shurtleff said he would support the legalization of medical marijuana after experiencing months of intensive cancer treatment.

Shurtleff said never used marijuana himself, but had talked to other patients who had traveled out-of-state to receive marijuana treatment.

Photo: 99Post

Miss USA Alyssa Campanella: “Medical marijuana is very important to help those who need it medically”

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2) Not innocent enough. Okay, as they say, from the mouth of babes…

June 26: Miss USA and medical marijuana

During the question-and-answer part of the competition, Miss California Alyssa Campanella was asked about her perspective on the medicinal cannabis.

“Well, I understand why that question would be asked, especially with today’s economy, but I also understand that medical marijuana is very important to help those who need it medically,” Alyssa said.

“I’m not sure if it should be legalized, if it would really affect, with the drug war,” she said. “I mean, it’s abused today, unfortunately, so that’s the only reason why I would kind of be a little bit against it, but medically it’s OK.”

She got Miss USA.

When’s the last time you had the crown on the line and you spoke the truth?

I actually can understand why someone could dismiss a beauty queen and a cancer patient as being not scientific enough. They’re just regular people.

​3) What about Big Business. They have scientists? They have economists? They understand the world…? Don’t they?

June 13: Good Weeds, Bad Weeds - High Hopes at Miracle-Gro In Medical Marijuana Field

Scott’s Miracle-Gro Company has long sold weed killer. Now, it’s hoping to help people grow killer weed.

In an unlikely move for the head of a major company, Scott’s Chief Executive Jim Hagedorn said he is exploring targeting medical marijuana as well as other niches to help boost sales at his lawn and garden company.

“I want to target the pot market,” Mr. Hagedorn said in an interview.

“There’s no good reason we haven’t.”

​4) We’ve heard from the People, Big Business, and now from across the aisle comes…

June 22: Ron Paul, Barney Frank to jointly offer bill to end war on weed

Congressmen Ron Paul, Barney Frank and others will introduce legislature Thursday that aims to end a major part of the war on drugs — namely the battle against marijuana.

Reps. Paul (R-Texas) and Frank (D-Mass.), though technically on opposite sides of the aisle, have often spoken out against the war on drugs and will propose a bill “tomorrow ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax, and control marijuana without federal interference,” according to a statement from the Marijuana Policy Project via Reason.

The bill would allow the individual states to decide how they want to deal with pot.

The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), is the first of its kind to be proposed in Congress that would end the 73-year-old federal marijuana prohibition that began with the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

…….

These four events that just transpired in the last month couldn’t be more current, more ‘now.’ What is it going to take in order for that cosmic plate to tilt to our side? And stay that way!

Entrepreneurs and forward thinkers are testing the waters of the medical marijuana Industry with venture capitalists abroad throwing dollars into edible research think-tanks and other esoteric ganja-related enterprises.

Politicians and law enforcement from all walks and talks of life are coming forward, decrying that the time is now to lose the campaigns that have never worked and to embrace a new way of thinking. To challenge the uncommon wisdom and to end the wars on law abiding citizens who because they ingest a specific weed, they could have their lives ruin because we, as a nation and a society refuse to change.

Sixteen states support medical marijuana. Every poll taken shows public support for medical marijuana. GW Pharma (Weed) and Novartis (Ritalin, Excedrin) have become partners in Sativex (medical marijuana spray) licensing pact overseas and now, in America.

“My professional view of cannabis as a substance is that it appears to be a remarkably safe substance in comparison to most medicines prescribed today,” said Dr. Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals. “The more I learn about this plant the more fascinated I become. It has through its various constituents multiple effects of therapeutic interest, many of which are now being validated by the enormous growth in basic cannabinoid research.”

What is it about marijuana that makes us afraid to go forward and embrace a new safer tomorrow? Pharmaceutical giants are moving forward with patents and marketing. You would think that the data from research geeks would be refutable, they’re the same people who give us our aspirin, for gosh sakes.

The data’s coming in like a Haboob through Phoenix. Unstoppable. Marijuana has applications that can help certain people. That’s it. It can’t be changed.

Marijuana does some good. It’s proven.

You can’t go backwards with that. Only thing you can do is not open your eyes to what’s in front of them.

Why aren’t we coming together as a nation over this issue when people with perspectives as different as those of Miss USA to the Mormon Attorney General of Utah support medical marijuana?

When law enforcement officials and Ex-President Jimmy Carter come forward to say the War on Drugs not only doesn’t work, it’s unwinnable. A waste of money.

Speaking of money, when Wall Street, Main Street and Home Depot all say the time is right to build the future fields of dreams of medical marijuana that only Weed-Gro can protect. What more do we need to hear?

Do we need Nancy Reagan in her Chanel housecoat to come forward to say she was wrong? Would that be the final straw? Would that be our national Tipping Point? To have someone other than ourselves say it is okay for us to have this weed? Mommy, please say its okay because in 1937, someone said it was bad.

Right now President Obama has alienated the Ganja Nation with his reversal on leaving the medical marijuana community alone. More and more his obtrusive agenda is forcing the hand of medical marijuana to take a stand, one way or another in various localities. Howard Zinn said you can’t be neutral on a moving train.

Opinion is sliding to the side where the weed grows green and high. Mendocino County is aggressively constructing a platform that is workable for growers and law enforcement alike. Not perfect, but a start.

Growers are paying taxes in exchange for their right to grow medical marijuana. They pay just like anyone else.

The Tipping Point is already here. Embrace it.

No One Is Outside Federal Marijuana Laws, U.S. Says

A memo from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington says state laws allowing medical marijuana opened the door to abuses and calls for legally targeting “large-scale, privately operated industrial marijuana cultivation centers” as well as distribution operations known as dispensaries.

The memo — which arrived June 29 in the email inboxes of U.S. attorneys nationwide, — says that no patient or other user is shielded from federal prosecution by state laws. The memo comes after Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette unleashed a salvo last week, saying there was widespread lawbreaking linked to medical marijuana in Michigan.

The federal memo has medical marijuana advocates feeling betrayed by the Obama administration, which had been linked with hopes for leniency in the war on drugs.

“The $64,000 question is, are the U.S. district attorneys in offices across the country really going to go after these dispensaries and grow operations? We’ll have to see,” said Art Cotter, chairman of the medical marijuana committee for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.

U.S. pushes for strict pot law enforcement

Just when medical marijuana users are protesting plans for tighter restrictions on the drug in Michigan, a memo from federal authorities in Washington is asking for tougher enforcement.

The memo, sent from the U.S. Department of Justice to U.S. attorneys and being circulated this week among Michigan’s county prosecutors and sheriffs, is exactly what many in Michigan law enforcement said they were waiting for — a green light to stamp out what they say is proliferating drug abuse and lawbreaking under the cover of medical marijuana.

According to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, the memo shows that the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act — passed by 63 percent of voters in 2008 — is entirely pre-empted by federal drug law.

Defense attorneys, operators of medical marijuana facilities, such as compassion clubs, and medical marijuana users decried the memo as a step backward.

“This is an attack on the patient community,” said Kristen Ford, field director for the nonprofit Americans for Safe Access, based in Washington, D.C.

State law no shield

The Justice Department memo says, without naming specific states, that “planned facilities have revenue projections of millions of dollars, based on the cultivation of tens of thousands of cannabis plants.”

Such large-scale operators must be stopped, and even smaller-scale users and distributors are not shielded from federal prosecution, “even where those activities purport to comply with state law,” says the memo signed by U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Some say the memo makes clear that the Obama administration, contrary to the sense of a 2009 memo, opposes giving leniency to medical marijuana users.

“There was this feeling that the local police and prosecutors were on their own” for enforcing drug laws against people claiming a medical need for pot, Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith said Thursday.

“Now, I think we’re all going to see that the abuses have to stop at all levels. When this law passed in Michigan, every person who voted for it had good intentions. But what we’ve seen is that for every one person who uses medical marijuana responsibly, someone else is abusing it and profiting from it,” Smith said.

Federal authorities are not changing their policy but instead are trying to correct a misreading of their stance, Berrien County Prosecutor Art Cotter said. Law enforcers and marijuana users alike misinterpreted an October 2009 memo from the Justice Department that “seemed to suggest, ‘Don’t go after medical marijuana patients,’ ” Cotter said. He chairs the medical marijuana committee for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan.

“People read into that the idea that, as long as something complied with state law, the feds would not get involved. Now, this new memo is saying, no, dispensaries and large grow operations are not immune from our prosecution,” he said.

ABC-

Worth Repeating: Medical Cannabis May Treat PTSD

Graphic: Four Twenty Studios

​​​Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.

Worth Repeating

​By Ron Marczyk, R.N.

Health Education Teacher (Retired)

An Israeli study finds that the cannabinoids in cannabis provide reliefe from anxiety due to stress. This study suggests that a treatment to heal a hyper-alert “fear memory” in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients may exist.

Medical cannabis may also enhance PTSD behavior therapy treatments as an anti-anxiety agent that resets a damaged amygdala and may act as a superior psychiatric medicine to present-day antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

The study: Cannabinoid activation in the basolateral amygdala blocks the effects of stress on the conditioning and extinction of inhibitory avoidance. Published in The Journal of Neuroscience, September 2009 [PDF]

Graphic: Opposing Views

​Background Information

The endocannabinoid system has recently emerged as an important regulator of stress and anxiety in post-traumatic stress disorder, with supporting biological evidence in animal models starting to accumulate showing cause and effect.

All mammals are born with the same hardwired stress/fear pathway in their brains from birth. Its purpose is to help ensure survival by automatically triggering fight, flight or freeze behavior when faced with a threat to survival. This pathway is the common link upon which all anxiety disorders are based — overwhelming fear and anxiety.

The emotions present in anxiety disorders range from simple nervousness to bouts of terror. This automatic stress/fear body response is controlled by the four-part brain pathway called the “amygdala-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.”

The amygdala holds a special “fear memory” which is separate from all other memories. It is located in as part of the brain called the limbic system. The amygdala scans the environment through the senses for threats to your existence.

Importantly, it vividly remembers all fearful events from your past, starting from infancy, by remembering all the details of the environment when threatened. The amygdala also controls coping and adapting to the stress of all challenges in your environment.

The hypothalamus/pituitary gland is the next controlling link from your brain to all the body’s glands, but in terms of fear and threats, the adrenal gland, sitting on top of your kidneys, is the next link. It releases two stress hormones that activate your muscles and immune system to respond to challenges and danger. Adrenaline (also called epinephrine) is a very short-acting hormone to get you out of danger fast.

The second stress hormone is called cortisol, also produced by the adrenal gland. If epinephrine is used for short-term stress, cortisol is used for long-term stress — the kind that takes place over days and weeks. Constant, unrelieved release of these two substances damages and rapidly ages the body.

Epinephrine makes your red blood cells sticky so wounds from combat clot quickly; long term, this leads to clogged blood vessels. Constant release of cortisol damages your immune system by breaking down white blood cells to be used as muscle fuel.

Graphic: Esquire

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This whole system can be overwhelmed and damaged by terrifying life events, or by being in a very high-stress environment for extended periods of time. This could involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or threats to one’s own or someone else’s physical, sexual, or psychological integrity overwhelming the individual’s ability to cope, or by constant high levels of unrelieved stress over a prolonged period. About 30 percent of people develop PTSD after such events.

When this system is activated over and over with very strong electrical nerve signals, the amygdala doesn’t come back to baseline, because it becomes damaged by getting stuck in the hyper-alert state of fear, pumping out adrenaline and cortisol in large amounts when it is reminded of the original event.

Symptoms for PTSD include re-experiencing the original trauma(s) through flashbacks or nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and increased constant arousal — such as difficulty falling or staying asleep-, anger, and hyper-vigilance. Formal diagnostic criteria require that the symptoms last more than a month and cause “significant impairment” in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Presently, cognitive-behavioral therapy is used as treatment for PTSD. This treatment takes a long time, requiring many cue exposure sessions where sights, sounds, images and memories that triggered the original fear are presented to the person with increasing realism. Avoidance behavior of anything that reminds the person of the event is addressed with breathing and muscle relaxation techniques that are learned and practiced while being exposed to reenacted memories.

What these sessions aim for is a cognitive override of the fight or flight response. Psychologists use the term “extinction” to describe the state when the sights and sounds no longer produce the reaction. However, these sessions are very vulnerable to reversal when high levels of stress are experienced in life.

Even if you have medical insurance, companies are reluctant to pay for such long-term treatment and would rather treat individuals with psychiatric drugs, many of which give only minor relief with many side effects.

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog

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Excerpts From The Study

“The main finding of the present study is that cannabinoids receptor activation in the basolateral reverses the enhancing effects of the environmental stress on inhibitory avoidance and its impairing effects on extinction”

“Acute stress elevates corticosteroid levels, and CB1 receptor activation in the basolateral amygdala significantly reduces this stress-induced elevation“

“Indeed, pharmacological augmentation of cannabinoids reduces anxiety-related behavioral response”

“Manipulation of the endogenous cannabinoid system has become a major focus of current search for novel therapeutics to treat many common mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders, depression, and drug addiction”

The Experiment In Brief

(from Science Daily/Science News)

Using a synthetic form of marijuana which has similar properties to THC in natural plant form, this synthetic cannabinoid called WIN55,212-2 was delivered directly into the basolateral amygdala, which is the location of the fear memory for past traumatic life-threatening events. Drug delivery was conducted by surgically implanting a micro cannula into this area for exact cause and effect.

“The potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid is underscored by the dense expression of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor in regions known to be significant for anxiety and emotional learning, particularly the basolateral amygdala.”

The CB1 receptor into which THC fits is the fix, by resetting the damaged amygdala. The exact process is called “depolarization-induced suppression of inhibition.”

Graphic: PHX Worldwide Marijuana March

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“The first stage of the research examined how long it took for the rats to overcome a traumatic experience, without any intervention. A cell colored white on one side and black on the other was prepared. The rats were placed in the white area, and as soon as they moved over to the black area, which they prefer, they received a light electric shock. Each day they were brought to the cell and placed back in the white area. Immediately following exposure to the traumatic experience, the rats would not move to the black area voluntarily, but a few days later after not receiving further electric shocks in the black area, they learned that it is safe again and moved there without hesitation.”

Next, the researchers introduced an element of stress. A second group of rats were placed on a small, elevated platform after receiving the electric shock, which added stress to the traumatic experience. These rats abstained from returning to the black area in the cell for much longer, which shows that the exposure to additional stress does indeed hinder the process of overcoming trauma.

The third stage of the research examined yet another group of rats. These were exposed to the traumatic and additional stress events, but just before being elevated on the platform received an injection of synthetic marijuana in the amygdala area of the brain — a specific area known to be connected to emotive memory.

These rats agreed to enter the black area after the same amount of time as the first group — showing that the synthetic marijuana cancelled out the symptoms of stress. Refining the results of this study, the researchers then administered marijuana injections at different points in time on additional groups of rats, and found that regardless of when exactly the injection was administered, it prevented the surfacing of stress symptoms.

Photo: First5.com

​This is where cannabinoids make all the difference in the world, because they activate CB1 receptors found in great numbers in the amygdala!

Bottom line #1: The results of this study show that cannabinoids can play an important role in stress-related disorders. “The results of our research should encourage psychiatric investigation into the use of cannabinoids in post-traumatic stress patients.”

Bottom line #2: ”It is generally appreciated that the recreational use of cannabinoids is related to their positive modulatory effects on the brain-rewarding processes along with their ability to positively influence emotional states and remove stress responses to environmental stimuli.”

Watching the sad news from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, how many survivors will develop PTSD in the weeks and months to come?

How many more soldiers are going to come home from war with PTSD?

How many people suffer in silence from tragic events beyond their control in childhood?

So can medical cannabis repair the damaged fear memory in PTSD-affected brains? How about some human studies with volunteers, using real marijuana?

Imagine that! Here is a non-toxic plant that helps people survive the emotionally painful memories inflicted on them by child abuse, crime, rape, violence, war, and natural disasters.

Cannabis is the healing of the nations… Indeed.