Americans For Safe Access - ASA National

A Judge’s Plea for Pot

Dee — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:41:34 +0000

By GUSTIN L. REICHBACH

Published: May 16, 2012

THREE and a half years ago, on my 62nd birthday, doctors discovered a mass on my pancreas. It turned out to be Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I was told I would be dead in four to six months. Today I am in that rare coterie of people who have survived this long with the disease. But I did not foresee that after having dedicated myself for 40 years to a life of the law, including more than two decades as a New York State judge, my quest for ameliorative and palliative care would lead me to marijuana.

My survival has demanded an enormous price, including months of chemotherapy, radiation hell and brutal surgery. For about a year, mycancer disappeared, only to return. About a month ago, I started a new and even more debilitating course of treatment. Every other week, after receiving an IV booster of chemotherapy drugs that takes three hours, I wear a pump that slowly injects more of the drugs over the next 48 hours.

Nausea and pain are constant companions. One struggles to eat enough to stave off the dramatic weight loss that is part of this disease. Eating, one of the great pleasures of life, has now become a daily battle, with each forkful a small victory. Every drug prescribed to treat one problem leads to one or two more drugs to offset its side effects. Pain medication leads to loss of appetite and constipation. Anti-nausea medication raises glucose levels, a serious problem for me with my pancreas so compromised. Sleep, which might bring respite from the miseries of the day, becomes increasingly elusive.

Inhaled marijuana is the only medicine that gives me some relief from nausea, stimulates my appetite, and makes it easier to fall asleep. The oral synthetic substitute, Marinol, prescribed by my doctors, was useless. Rather than watch the agony of my suffering, friends have chosen, at some personal risk, to provide the substance. I find a few puffs of marijuana before dinner gives me ammunition in the battle to eat. A few more puffs at bedtime permits desperately needed sleep.

This is not a law-and-order issue; it is a medical and a human rights issue. Being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I am receiving the absolute gold standard of medical care. But doctors cannot be expected to do what the law prohibits, even when they know it is in the best interests of their patients. When palliative care is understood as a fundamental human and medical right, marijuana for medical use should be beyond controversy.

Sixteen states already permit the legitimate clinical use of marijuana, including our neighbor New Jersey, and Connecticut is on the cusp of becoming No. 17. The New York State Legislature is now debating a bill to recognize marijuana as an effective and legitimate medicinal substance and establish a lawful framework for its use. The Assembly has passed such bills before, but they went nowhere in the State Senate. This year I hope that the outcome will be different. Cancer is a nonpartisan disease, so ubiquitous that it’s impossible to imagine that there are legislators whose families have not also been touched by this scourge. It is to help all who have been affected by cancer, and those who will come after, that I now speak.

Given my position as a sitting judge still hearing cases, well-meaning friends question the wisdom of my coming out on this issue. But I recognize that fellow cancer sufferers may be unable, for a host of reasons, to give voice to our plight. It is another heartbreaking aporia in the world of cancer that the one drug that gives relief without deleterious side effects remains classified as a narcotic with no medicinal value.

Because criminalizing an effective medical technique affects the fair administration of justice, I feel obliged to speak out as both a judge and a cancer patient suffering with a fatal disease. I implore the governor and the Legislature of New York, always considered a leader among states, to join the forward and humane thinking of 16 other states and pass the medical marijuana bill this year. Medical science has not yet found a cure, but it is barbaric to deny us access to one substance that has proved to ameliorate our suffering.

Gustin L. Reichbach is a justice of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn.

Marijuana’s Active Ingredient Shown to Inhibit Primary Marker of Alzheimer’s Disease

Dee — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:39:42 +0000

Discovery Could Lead to More Effective Treatments

LA JOLLA, CA, August 9, 2006 – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found that the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, inhibits the formation of amyloid plaque, the primary pathological marker for Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, the study said, THC is “a considerably superior inhibitor of [amyloid plaque] aggregation” to several currently approved drugs for treating the disease.

The study was published online August 9 in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, a publication of the American Chemical Society.

According to the new Scripps Research study, which used both computer modeling and biochemical assays, THC inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which acts as a “molecular chaperone” to accelerate the formation of amyloid plaque in the brains of Alzheimer victims. Although experts disagree on whether the presence of beta-amyloid plaques in those areas critical to memory and cognition is a symptom or cause, it remains a significant hallmark of the disease. With its strong inhibitory abilities, the study said, THC “may provide an improved therapeutic for Alzheimer’s disease” that would treat “both the symptoms and progression” of the disease.

“While we are certainly not advocating the use of illegal drugs, these findings offer convincing evidence that THC possesses remarkable inhibitory qualities, especially when compared to AChE inhibitors currently available to patients,” said Kim Janda, Ph.D., who is Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research, a member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, and director of the Worm Institute of Research and Medicine. “In a test against propidium, one of the most effective inhibitors reported to date, THC blocked AChE-induced aggregation completely, while the propidium did not. Although our study is far from final, it does show that there is a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which THC may directly affect the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.”

As the new study points out, any new treatment that could halt or even slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease would have a major impact on the quality of life for patients, as well as reducing the staggering health care costs associated with the disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia among the elderly, and the numbers are growing. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates 4.5 million Americans have the disease, a figure that could reach as high as 16 million by 2050. A survey by the National Center for Health Statistics noted that half of all nursing home residents have Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder. The costs of caring for Alzheimer’s patients are at least $100 billion annually, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Over the last two decades, the causes of Alzheimer’s disease have been clarified through extensive biochemical and neurobiological studies, leading to an assortment of possible therapeutic strategies including interference with beta amyloid metabolism, the focus of the Scripps Research study.

The cholinergic system – the nerve cell system in the brain that uses acetylcholine (Ach) as a neurotransmitter – is the most dramatic of the neurotransmitter systems affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Levels of acetylcholine, which was first identified in 1914, are abnormally low in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Currently, there are four FDA-approved drugs that treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease by inhibiting the active site of acetylcholinesterase, the enzyme responsible for the degradation of acetylcholine.

“When we investigated the power of THC to inhibit the aggregation of beta-amyloid,” Janda said, “we found that THC was a very effective inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase. In addition to propidium, we also found that THC was considerably more effective than two of the approved drugs for Alzheimer’s disease treatment, donepezil (Aricept ®) and tacrine (Cognex ®), which reduced amyloid aggregation by only 22 percent and 7 percent, respectively, at twice the concentration used in our studies. Our results are conclusive enough to warrant further investigation.”

Other authors of the study, titled “A Molecular Link Between the Active Component of Marijuana and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology,” include Lisa M. Eubanks, Claude J. Rogers, and Tobin J. Dickerson of The Scripps Research Institute, the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, and the Worm Institute for Research and Medicine; and Albert E. Beuscher IV, George F. Koob, and Arthur J. Olson of The Scripps Research Institute.

The study was supported by the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at Scripps Research and the National Institutes of Health.

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute is one of the world’s largest independent, non-profit biomedical research organizations, at the forefront of basic biomedical science that seeks to comprehend the most fundamental processes of life. Scripps Research is internationally recognized for its discoveries in immunology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, neurosciences, autoimmune, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases, and synthetic vaccine development. Established in its current configuration in 1961, it employs approximately 3,000 scientists, postdoctoral fellows, scientific and other technicians, doctoral degree graduate students, and administrative and technical support personnel. Scripps Research is headquartered in La Jolla, California. It also includes Scripps Florida, whose researchers focus on basic biomedical science, drug discovery, and technology development. Currently operating from temporary facilities in Jupiter, Scripps Florida will move to its permanent campus in 2009.

For more information contact:
Office of Communications
10550 North Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, California 92037
press@scripps.edu

The Anti-Science Streak in Federal Marijuana Policy

Dee — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:27:40 +0000

The classification of cannabis as a schedule one narcotic is among the least defensible aspects of prohibition.

Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at UC San Diego, recently helped run a study that provided multiple sclerosis patients with either a marijuana joint or a placebo that looked, smelled, and tasted like marijuana. After smoking whichever substance they were given, patients were tested to see if it reduced their muscle spasticity — an affliction, common to MS patients, that causes painful, uncontrollable spasms of the extremities. Spasticity was unaffected among the placebo patients but dropped 30 percent on average among the patients given real marijuana. The side effects? “Smoking caused fatigue and dizziness in some users,” says Reuters, “and slowed down people’s mental skills soon after they used marijuana.”

VIDEO: http://youtu.be/lvzX8aNwxgM
The UC San Diego study is just the latest to suggest that marijuana has some medical benefits. Sixteen states, thousands of doctors, and tens of thousands of sick people concur in that judgment. It is dramatized by the personal testimony of sick people who are offered much more powerful drugs, but nevertheless insist that consuming marijuana was most effective at helping them. (Don’t miss the video at the top of this post, as powerful a testimonial for medical marijuana as you’ll find.)

Marijuana is nevertheless classified under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule One drug. Under the law, drugs placed in that category must meet all of the following criteria (emphasis added):

The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

Critics of the Obama Administration’s drug policy, myself included, have focused on the president’s broken promise about federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in jurisdictions where they’re legal. But an even less defensible aspect of Obama’s drug policy is how marijuana is scheduled.

As John Walker points out, the Controlled Substances Act gives the executive branch the power to unilaterally change a drug’s classification:

Obama can instruct the relevant agencies under him to take an honest look at the research and reschedule marijuana so it qualifies as having legitimate medical uses. The Obama administration could easily and justifiably move marijuana to, say, schedule III, which happens to be the same schedule that synthetic THC is in, making medical marijuana legal under federal law.

There would be nothing unusual, extraordinary or legally suspect about Obama doing this. The executive branch has often moved certain drugs to lower or higher schedules based on new data without Congressional involvement. In fact, multiple sitting governors have petitioned the Obama administration asking him to move marijuana to a lower schedule, so he should be aware of the flexible authority he has. Obama is not some hapless victim whose actions on this issue are constrained by congressional law. The truth is pretty much the exact opposite. Under current law Obama effectively has the power to unilaterally make medical marijuana legal.

His failure to do so is frustrating and to his discredit because it’s what the language of a law duly passed by a bygone Congress and signed by a past president demands. There just are accepted medical uses of marijuana today. Pretending otherwise is every bit as much an affront to science and empiricism as the most ill-informed denial of evolution or climate change.

Yet here is how the Obama White House touts its drug policy:

Congress also bears substantial responsibility for the anti-scientific, anti-empirical aspects of American drug policy. If Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are able to define the terms of the upcoming presidential election, this issue won’t come up. But voters have consistently shown interest in the subject when permitted to directly question politicians, and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee, is eager to challenge Obama and Romney on this issue given the chance. When opportunities for these challenges arise, the classification of marijuana is one of the most vulnerable parts of the status quo to attack.12 states have pending medical marijuana legislation.

Supporter of Oregon Medical Pot Law Wins

Dee — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:20:52 +0000

Oregon — In a primary election race for Oregon’s top law enforcement post, the candidate who pledged to protect medical marijuana patients scored a decisive victory Tuesday night over a rival who led a cannabis crackdown last year.

Retired judge Ellen Rosenblum, strongly backed by proponents of liberalized marijuana laws, captured 63 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary for state attorney general, trailed by former U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton with 36 percent, according to early returns.

Because no Republicans sought their party’s nomination for attorney general, the Democratic primary victor, Rosenblum, becomes the presumptive winner in November’s general election, making her the first woman to claim that office.

With Rosenblum and Holton taking similar stances on issues such as consumer protection, civil rights and the environment, their diametrically opposed views on medical marijuana emerged as a key point of contention in the race, so much so that the campaign was seen largely as a referendum on drug policy generally.

“As attorney general, I will make marijuana enforcement a low priority, and protect the rights of medical marijuana patients,” Rosenblum said on her website before the election.

By contrast, Holton called Oregon’s medical marijuana law, which has left distribution and cultivation of pot largely unregulated, a “trainwreck” that was putting pot “in the hands of kids” and others who are using it for purposes other than pain management.

In a brief victory statement issued shortly after election officials began to tally the ballots, Rosenblum said she was “honored to have been selected by the voters of Oregon as their choice for the Democratic nominee (for) Attorney General of Oregon.”

She made no mention of marijuana or any other specific issues. Nor did Holton, who in his concession statement thanked, among others, the coalition of organized labor groups that backed his candidacy.

But medical marijuana advocates seized on Rosenblum’s win as a sign that voters were at odds with the federal government’s recent crackdown on storefront cannabis shops in states that have legalized personal use, possession and cultivation of pot for healthcare reasons.

As Oregon’s chief federal prosecutor last year, Holton was in the vanguard of that crackdown, sending letters to owners, operators and landlords of storefront pot outlets warning they faced prosecution and civil enforcement actions for involvement in the sale of cannabis.

While medical marijuana is legal in Oregon, the sale for profit of cannabis to any of the state’s 55,000 registered cannabis patients is considered illegal, although growers can be reimbursed for supplies and utilities.

Even so, some medical marijuana “cafes” have sprung up in the state, drawing the ire of groups opposed to drug use.

The primary contest unfolded as two groups in Oregon are racing to collect enough signatures for two separate ballot initiatives seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use in the state.

If their efforts are successful, Oregon voters will join those in Colorado and Washington state who will decide on the matter in November. A total of 16 states, plus the District of Columbia, allow medical marijuana, though cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law.

Some experts predicted a Rosenblum triumph could resonate well outside of Oregon’s largely Democratic-registered electorate.

“A victory for Rosenblum could have symbolic power which would reach beyond the state into the national debate,” said University of Oregon political science professor Joe Lowndes.

Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker

Source: Reuters (Wire)
Author: Teresa Carson
Published: May 16, 2012
Copyright: 2012 Thomson Reuters

Breaking: Clinical Trial Data Yet Again Affirms Cannabis’ Efficacy

Dee — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:39:11 +0000

by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director

Is it any wonder that the US government fights tooth-and-nail tohinder researchers’ attempts to conduct clinical trials assessing the therapeutic utility of cannabis as a medicine? After all, each and every time the federal government begrudgingly allows for such studies they’re faced with credibility-shattering results like this:

Marijuana relieves muscles tightness, pain of multiple sclerosis: Study
via the Toronto Star

Smoking marijuana can relieve muscle tightness, spasticity (contractions) and pain often experienced by those with multiple sclerosis, says research out of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

The findings, just published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, included a controlled trial with 30 participants to understand whether inhaled cannabis would help complicated cases where existing pharmaceuticals are ineffective or trigger adverse side effects.

MS is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord.

The disease attacks the myelin, the protective covering wrapped around the nerves of the central nervous system, and — among other symptoms — can cause loss of balance, impaired speech, extreme fatigue, double vision and paralysis.

The average age of the research participants was 50 years with 63 per cent of the study population female.

More than half the participants needed walking aids and 20 per cent used wheelchairs.

Rather than rely on self-reporting by patients regarding their muscle spasticity — a subjective measure — health professionals rated each patient’s joints on the modified Ashworth scale, a common objective tool to evaluate intensity of muscle tone.

The researchers found that the individuals in the group that smoked cannabis experienced an almost one-third decrease on the Ashworth scale — 2.74 points from a baseline score of 9.3 — meaning spasticity improved, compared to the placebo group.

As well, pain scores decreased by about 50 per cent.

“We saw a beneficial effect of smoked cannabis on treatment-resistant spasticity and pain associated with multiple sclerosis among our participants,” says Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom of the university’s department of neuroscience.

To those familiar with medicinal cannabis research, the results are hardly surprising. After all, Sativex — an oral spray containing plant cannabis extracts — is already legal by prescription to treat MS-related symptoms in over a dozen countries, including Canada, Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Spain. Further, long-term assessments of the drug indicate that in addition to symptom management, cannabinoids may also play a role in halting the course of the disease.

Nevertheless, the National MS Society — like the US government — shares little enthusiasm for cannabis medicine, stating, “Studies completed thus far have not provided convincing evidence that marijuana or its derivatives provide substantiated benefits for symptoms of MS.”

Patient advocacy organizations, like the MS Society, have a responsibility to represent the interests of their constituents and to advise practitioners regarding best treatment practices. Why then does this responsibility not extend to patients who use cannabis as an alternative treatment therapy or to those that might one day potentially benefit from its use?

Maurice Hinchey Vows To Fight Medical Marijuana Raids After House Defeats Defunding Bill

Dee — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:30:50 +0000

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) vowed to continue to fight federal raids on medical marijuana after a bipartisan measure he introduced along with Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Sam Farr (D-Calif.) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) went down to defeat in the House of Representatives last week.

“The federal government needs to once and for all put an end to these senseless raids and prosecutions of medical marijuana patients, doctors, and suppliers who are in complete compliance with their own state’s laws concerning the drug,” Hinchey told News Channel 34 in a statement.

“It is incomprehensible that the DEA would think that it’s a good use of its resources to arrest and prosecute an American who is using medical marijuana in accordance with state law to relieve their pain and suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis or glaucoma. I’m pleased to see so many of my colleagues vote in support of this amendment to protect states’ rights, but obviously it was not enough,” he continued. “The fight goes on.”

The legislation, which would have eliminated funding for federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they’re legal, was part of the appropriations bill to fund the Department of Justice for fiscal 2013. It failed 262-163.

Of the 190 Democrats in the House, 134 (more than 70 percent) voted in favor of the bill. Only 29 of the 242 House Republicans (less than 12 percent) did.

The statement comes as the Obama administration has unleashed an inter-agency crackdown on the cannabis industry, with raids on pot dispensaries, many in California operating in full compliance with state law. Since October 2009, the Justice Department has conducted more than 170 aggressive SWAT-style raids in nine states that allow medical marijuana, resulting in at least 61 federal indictments, according to data compiled by Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group.

While medical marijuana is legal in 17 states and the District of Columbia, federal law says any use of marijuana is illegal.

5 Special Interest Groups That Help Keep Marijuana Illegal

Dee — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:01:22 +0000

There are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep our broken drug laws on the books.

By Lee Fang

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on Republic Report.

Last year, over 850,000 people in America were arrested for marijuana-related crimes. Despite public opinion, the medical community, and human rights experts all moving in favor of relaxing marijuana prohibition laws, little has changed in terms of policy.

There have been many great books and articles detailing the history of the drug war. Part of America’s fixation with keeping the leafy green plant illegal is rooted in cultural and political clashes from the past.

However, we at Republic Report think it’s worth showing that there are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep our broken drug laws on the books:

1.) Police Unions: Police departments across the country have become dependent on federal drug war grants to finance their budget. In March, we published a story revealing that a police union lobbyist in California coordinated the effort to defeat Prop 19, a ballot measure in 2010 to legalize marijuana, while helping his police department clients collect tens of millions in federal marijuana-eradication grants. And it’s not just in California. Federal lobbying disclosures show that other police union lobbyists have pushed for stiffer penalties for marijuana-related crimes nationwide.

2.) Private Prisons Corporations: Private prison corporations make millions by incarcerating people who have been imprisoned for drug crimes, including marijuana. As Republic Report’s Matt Stoller noted last year, Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies, revealed in a regulatory filing that continuing the drug war is part in parcel to their business strategy. Prison companies have spent millions bankrolling pro-drug war politicians and have used secretive front groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass harsh sentencing requirements for drug crimes.

3.) Alcohol and Beer Companies: Fearing competition for the dollars Americans spend on leisure, alcohol and tobacco interests have lobbied to keep marijuana out of reach. For instance, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors contributed campaign contributions to a committee set up to prevent marijuana from being legalized and taxed.

4.) Pharmaceutical Corporations: Like the sin industries listed above, pharmaceutical interests would like to keep marijuana illegal so American don’t have the option of cheap medical alternatives to their products. Howard Wooldridge, a retired police officer who now lobbies the government to relax marijuana prohibition laws, told Republic Report that next to police unions, the “second biggest opponent on Capitol Hill is big PhRMA” because marijuana can replace “everything from Advil to Vicodin and other expensive pills.”

5.) Prison Guard Unions: Prison guard unions have a vested interest in keeping people behind bars just like for-profit prison companies. In 2008, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association spent a whopping $1 million to defeat a measure that would have “reduced sentences and parole times for nonviolent drug offenders while emphasizing drug treatment over prison.”

Applications for medical-marijuana sites open

Dee — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:51:30 +0000

by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

The Arizona Department of Health Services will accept applications for medical-marijuana dispensaries today through 5 p.m. May 25.

Under the voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, the state can have 126 medical-marijuana dispensaries, but the application process had been stalled because of lawsuits and rule making.

Would-be marijuana-dispensary operators must pay a $5,000 fee. If they are not selected, the state will return $1,000, state health officials said. Applicants must be at least 21 years old and cannot be a law-enforcement officer or a physician who is currently writing certifications for patients. Applicants also cannot have certain felony convictions within the last 10 years. Applicants can operate up to five dispensaries.

The law limits the number of dispensaries that can operate geographically throughout the state, and if there are too many applications in any one area, health officials will award dispensary certifications through a lottery system.

State health officials expect to award dispensary certificates this summer.

If selected, the dispensaries can grow medical marijuana and acquire it from other registered non-profit dispensaries or from registered patients or caregivers.

Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble expects to award fewer than 110 applications, based on public interest so far, and likely between 70 or 80. He doesn’t expect Native American tribes to apply for dispensary certificates, based on demographic data the state has collected showing little or no interest in the program.

That same data show that people of all ages and backgrounds — including the elderly, Baby Boomers and 20- to 30-somethings — use medical marijuana.

More than 22,200 people have received permission to smoke, eat or otherwise ingest marijuana to ease their ailments. Of those, nearly three-quarters are men, and nearly 85 percent of all patients have requested to grow their own.

Sunny Singh, owner of WeGrow Phoenix, helps medical-marijuana patients and caregivers grow marijuana to target certain ailments. Recently, he’s been working with patients and caregivers to help them design grow rooms. He hopes to expand his business and contract with dispensaries.

“We want to change our focus to target the dispensary sites, but there’s really been nowhere for us to go” since the dispensary-application process stalled, Singh said. “Being that there can be 126 dispensaries in Arizona, we think we’ll be very successful.”

Symposium addresses marijuana legalization

Dee — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:22:11 +0000

Policymakers, doctors and professors from across New England debated the merits and pitfalls of legalizing medical marijuana at the eighth annual Dartmouth Symposium on Substance Abuse, held on Friday in Collis Common Ground. The conference — “Medical Marijuana: Compassionate Care or Oxymoron?” — examined the controversial issue of medical marijuana in the context of a current bill facing the New Hampshire legislature.

The symposium aimed to provide an informed, scientific discussion of the topic and sought to eliminate politicized arguments, according to Seddon Savage, director of the Dartmouth Center on Addiction, Recovery and Education and the event organizer.

“I think it’s very important for scientists to be in discussion to bring to light different arguments,” she said. “Often, public debate is based on observations and people’s own personal experiences.”

Organizers chose speakers based on their local and regional involvement in the issue and their ability to engage in balanced dialogue, Savage said.

“I think we heard equally from both sides,” she said. “But it’s very hard to find scientists who will say unequivocally that marijuana is great.”

Where it is legalized, medical marijuana is most often recommended for patients suffering from chronic pain and nausea as a result of cancer treatment, glaucoma and HIV/AIDS, Columbia University psychiatry professor Herbert Kleber said.

Some patients do not respond to treatments for pain or “intractable nausea,” making other approaches necessary, Savage said.

However, a dearth of scientific studies on the efficacy and risks of medical marijuana has made it difficult for organizations to establish clinical policies for recommending the drug to patients.

“People don’t know, patients don’t know and doctors can’t tell them,” Tom Reid, deputy county attorney of Rockingham County, N.H., said.

In places where medical marijuana has been legalized, existing delivery systems such as dispensaries often provide little to no guidance to patients on the type, potency and dosage, Reid said. Doctors who advertise their willingness to write prescriptions may abuse the system, he said.

As the drug becomes more socially acceptable, recreational use becomes more prevalent among youth.

“It’s very hard to craft a system that makes it only available to patients who need it,” Savage said.

“The political context and timing of the conference was wonderful because that bill is before the New Hampshire legislature right now,” Savage said.

New Hampshire may become the 18th state to legalize medical marijuana, according to Savage. Senate Bill 409, sponsored by Sen. Jim Forsythe, R-Strafford, and Rep. Evalyn Merrick, D-Lancaster, would allow the use of medical marijuana by patients with a “debilitating medical condition,” according to the New Hampshire General Court website.

Speakers throughout the day’s events referenced the current deliberations of the state government on the proposed legality of medical marijuana.

Under the proposed law, state-registered patients or caregivers could cultivate up to four mature cannabis plants and 12 seedlings in an enclosed, locked location, and patients would be allowed to possess six ounces of marijuana or less. The bill also prohibits the use of medical marijuana in public, at a workplace or when driving and imposes criminal sanctions on those who violate the proposed law.

The bill passed in the State House of Representatives with a veto-proof majority but only passed in the Senate by a vote of 13 to 11, which is insufficient to override a promised veto by Gov. John Lynch’s, D-N.H., according to Savage. The final vote will take place within the next two weeks, she said.

Friday morning’s programming focused on the medical and botanical aspects of the issue. Harvard Medical School psychobiology professor Bertha Madras opened the conference with a discussion of the history and acceptability of marijuana as medicine.

Edgar Romero-Sandoval, an assistant professor of anesthesiology and toxicology at the Geisel School of Medicine, presented research on the pharmacological impacts of cannabinoids. Gilbert Fanciullo, an anesthesiology professor at the Geisel School, and New York University Medical School professor Nicholas Pace discussed the clinical issues surrounding marijuana used for therapeutic purposes.

The Parliamentary Debate Team also addressed the issue in a debate format at noon in an example of the potential for student contribution, Savage said.

“Psychoactive substances are ubiquitous in our culture,” Savage said in an email to The Dartmouth. “Students need to be informed about their properties not only to make personal decisions about their use, but to intelligently guide others and help shape policies.”

Afternoon speakers tackled the subject from the policy angle, exploring historical trends of marijuana use and the policies of national organizations and the government.

Director of Addiction Services at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and psychiatry professor Benjamin Nordstrom Med ’01 presented addictive medications’ trends of recreational use.

The day concluded with a panel discussion and audience question and answer session debating medical marijuana policy in New England. The panel included John Thiele, the director of Maine’s medical marijuana program, and Bobby Sand, county attorney from Windsor, Vt.

The Dartmouth Center on Addiction, Recovery and Education holds two conferences each year, with a fall meeting intended for general practitioners and a spring symposium examining a controversial topic, Savage said. The programming is funded by the center’s operating budget, which is provided by the Provost’s Office and amounts to between $8,000 and $10,000.

The center aims to prevent “substance and addiction problems as personal and public health issues” by facilitating communication, policy implementation and education about substance use in the Dartmouth community, according to its website.

Colorado Legalize Pot Campaign Runs Mother’s Day Ad

Dee — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:10:58 +0000

In times past, most people didn’t associate marijuana with the wholesome all-American holiday of Mother’s Day, annually celebrated on the second Sunday in May. But the advocates of Yes on 64, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, are challenging that notion by running a subtle yet effective TV ad today entitled “Dear Mom.”

In the 30-second spot, a woman in her mid- to late-twenties is seen in a park typing on her laptop, composing a letter to her mother. Using both voiceover and printed graphics, we hear and read the “letter” the woman writes to her mom. In it, the young woman confesses while in college she used to drink a lot – “it was kind of crazy” she admits. But now that she is older, she prefers to use marijuana.

The 20-something woman then lists the benefits of using pot over booze, noting it’s less harmful to her body, it doesn’t give her hangovers, and that she frankly feels safer around marijuana users. The latter comment being particularly insightful and impressive that it was included in a TV commercial, given that it’s a less discussed issue even among pot smokers – that violent, or at least unpredictable behavior is much more likely to break out among those who’ve been excessively drinking compared to those who’ve gotten too stoned.

In concluding, the daughter writes: “I hope this makes sense. If not, let’s talk.” Here we see the daughter demonstrating her willingness to engage in an open and honest dialogue with her mother as to why she favors marijuana over socially acceptable alcohol.

The ad is understated, rather than over the top, which is the right strategy to reach more mainstream voters who may be on the fence when it comes to Yes on 64, especially in light of the ad being aired on NBC’s long-running Today and on the popular talk show Ellen, both mainstream programs reaching a cross-section of viewers.

In a prepared statement, Betty Aldworth, advocacy director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said: “Our goal with this ad is to start a conversation – and encourage others to start their own conversations – about marijuana.”

And to all the moms out there who read and support HIGH TIMES, thank you as always and have a Happy Mother’s Day!

More @ www.huffingtonpost.com

Watch the Commercial: