Medical Marijuana Info

Mofilms presents "Regarding Medical Marijuana v2"

This film is a hard hitting look at Medical Marijuana in the modern day, particularly relating to the California front line battle to distribute and buy a medicine that under state law is legal, yet under federal law is still a Schedule 1 narcotic. This 30 minute movie features interviews with people from both sides of the struggle surrounding this issue, featuring appearances by Dennis Peron (Prop. 215), George H.W. Bush, Michael Moore, Ed Rosenthal, John Walters (National Drug Control Policy) and others. A powerful documentary, it was the winner of the People's Choice Award at the Compassionate Use Film Festival in February 2004. Go to Mo' Flms!

Subject: US Appeals Raich-Monson & WAMM Injunctions

San Francisco, Jun 22nd - The U.S. Government filed a notice of appeal of the injunction protecting medical cannabis patients Angel Raich and Diane Monson. It likewise filed a notice of appeal and request for stay of the WAMM injunction. The appeals will now be heard in the 9th Circuit, where they face likely rejection in light of the Raich-Monson decision. Further appeals to the Supreme Court seem likely.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is expected to announce imminently whether to grant cert to the government's previous appeal of the Raich-Monson ruling. If the Court takes up Raich-Monson, it will not
be heard until next year's session. In the meantime, the Court could tip its hand earlier by ruling on whether to stay the WAMM injunction. This decision could come as soon as six weeks.

- D. Gieringer, Cal NORML

Oakland Cannabis Initiative Makes Ballot

OAKLAND, CA Jun 29th - The Oakland Cannabis Regulation and Revenue Initiative has qualified for this November's ballot, according to the registrar of voters. The initiative would put the city officially on record in favor of legally taxed and regulated cannabis for adult use, and make adult private cannabis offenses lowest enforcement priority. "This marks a new frontier in the campaign to end cannabis prohibition," said California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer of the Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance, sponsor of the initiative, "We believe Oakland voters will recognize that a legally regulated market can keep cannabis off the streets and away from kids, reduce crime, and raise tax revenues for the city," Details of the initiative may be found at www.taxandregulate.org

Oaksterdam is on its deathbed.

Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer 
SF Chronicle

Tuesday, June 15, 2004
 
Oaksterdam is on its deathbed.

Oakland's once-bustling downtown enclave of medical marijuana clubs is about to disappear -- less than a year after it earned its nickname -- after city officials refused last week to issue permits to several popular establishments.

"All that you see around us will be gone,'' Jeff Jones, executive director of Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, said Monday. "They're shutting almost everyone down, and I don't think that's good for the patients. I'm glad the city is involved in regulation, but it's also driving away businesses that could be paying revenue" to the city.

Most of about a dozen cannabis enterprises in the city, including four in the 1700 block of Telegraph Avenue, are being forced to close or stay open as cafes -- without selling marijuana -- or risk the wrath of Oakland police. The closures began June 1 when a new ordinance took effect.

In February, the Oakland City Council adopted an ordinance allowing the city to regulate marijuana clubs and limited their number to four. The ordinance requires that no marijuana dispensary be located within 1,000 feet of another.

Club operators, customers and advocates of medical cannabis had hoped the city would allow more of Oaksterdam's clubs to remain open.

"It's been very confusing,'' said Richard Lee, who owned two cannabis clubs in downtown Oakland -- the SR71 Cafe on 17th Street and the Bulldog Coffee Shop at 1739 Broadway.

Lee said city officials told him on May 29 that he would receive a permit to keep selling marijuana at the Bulldog but not at SR71. Then last week, he found out he could only sell medical marijuana at the smaller cafe, SR71.

"I've operated the Bulldog for five years, and I think we've provided a good service for people,'' Lee said.

Oaksterdam was born, medical marijuana advocates say, as a result of government's mixed response to voter approval of Proposition 215 in 1996. While local governments have supported medical marijuana in concept, the advocates say, they have done little to regulate how patients get their medication -- which is still illegal under federal law.

After the measure was passed, Jones opened the cooperative in the 1700 block of Broadway to provide patients with medicinal marijuana. A federal injunction forced him to shut in 1998. Since then, his group has aided patients by issuing city-sanctioned ID cards and making referrals to pot clubs that filled the void.

By last fall, 10 to 12 clubs were operating in a stretch of downtown from 14th

Street to Grand Avenue.

City officials grew concerned that the northern edge of downtown, which is a redevelopment area where major projects are planned, was becoming dominated by marijuana clubs. The council also agreed the city needed to regulate the medicinal sale of marijuana.

Some clubs, such as the Bulldog and Lemon Drop cafes, are visible from the street and cater to marijuana users and non-patients. Others, like the Compassionate Healing Center, are low-profile and unknown to anyone but their clients.

The three surviving clubs will have to pay the city about $20,000 in fees and permit costs to remain open. They are:

 -- Compassionate Healing Center at 578 West Grand Ave.

 -- SR71 Cafe on 17th Street near Franklin Street.

 -- California Access Relief Exchange (CARE) at 1900 Telegraph Ave.

The city is authorized to issue four permits, although city officials were not available Monday to discuss whether they would issue the final permit.

"I'm looking to revisit this,'' said Councilwoman Nancy Nadel, a supporter of the ordinance whose district includes Oaksterdam. "I'd like to see if we can issue permits to allow more clubs to stay open."

Medical marijuana advocates said that by forcing Oaksterdam to split up, the city is destroying a unique culture that brought visitors and money to benefit Oakland's often derided downtown.

"There are a half dozen clubs within a short walk of the 19th Street BART (Station), and that's great for patients,'' said Dale Gieringer, California coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "The city has a great thing and doesn't appreciate it. They are forcing thriving businesses to close."

Medical pot smokers sway City Council

Patients say policy has them arrested before questioning.

By Jason Gewirtz
Staff writer

LONG BEACH — Hearing impassioned pleas from medical marijuana patients and advocates, the City Council on Tuesday asked the Police Department to change a policy that essentially requires officers who see marijuana to arrest patients first and ask questions later.

The council asked the police to return by Sept. 14 with a proposed new policy to eliminate what several residents said was unfair and inhumane treatment of medical marijuana patients.

The city's police policy calls for officers who come across someone with marijuana to seize any evidence and arrest or cite the person as appropriate. Medical marijuana patients can then prove their cases in court.

Proposition 215, passed by voters in 1996, makes it legal for patients to possess or cultivate marijuana for medical use.

"We have not been following the law," said Councilman Dan Baker, who called for the review with Councilman Val Lerch.

Since 2000, five medical marijuana patients have been arrested in Long Beach.

Baker and Lerch called for the review after the council's Public Safety Advisory Commission asked the council to get involved. The advisory board heard months of testimony from residents who said the police policy was at odds with the state law.

Council members heard emotional testimony from residents, including several who have been arrested for possession or cultivation.

David Zink, the first Long Beach medical marijuana patient to be arrested after Prop 215 took effect, said he was not satisfied with the time frame for the new review. Zink's case for possession and cultivation was eventually dismissed. But, he said, he spent about $15,000 in legal fees, he said.

"I feel like this is another delay," he said. "They've had eight years to come up with a reasonable policy."

Michael Barbee, who helped the San Diego City Council recently change that city's similar police policy, said Long Beach needed to follow suit. After studying the issue, San Diego settled on a policy to require identification cards for residents taking marijuana for medical purposes.

"We have police officers making medical decisions," Barbee said of Long Beach's policy.

But police officials said that changing the policy isn't as easy as it might appear.

Deputy Chief Robert Luna said the department would need to consult with the Los Angeles district attorney's office as well as the Long Beach city attorney and prosecutor to account for any liability a policy change could bring.

In addition, he said, marijuana use has been the cause of property crimes, violent crime and gang activity, making it difficult for officers to differentiate between who has the right to use marijuana legally. Although there have been five arrests for medical marijuana since 2000, he said, there have been about 5,000 other marijuana-related arrests over the same period.

"The police officer on the street is dealing with a lot of serious issues," he said.

The request for a new policy passed on an 8-0 vote with Lerch abstaining.

Lerch, whose wife suffers from multiple sclerosis, said he was too emotionally attached to the issue to vote with an open mind.

"My wife will probably not use marijuana," he said. "But damn it, she should have the right to do so."

Article Published: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 10:19:35 PM PST
Long Beach Press Telegram

Hooked On Pot Lies

Opinion ( SF Bay Guardian, May 19th 2004 )

by bruce mirken

Hooked on pot lies

ON MAY 5 newspapers and news broadcasts around the country carried alarming stories about a new study of marijuana, published in that day's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Stronger marijuana makes more addicted," screamed the Los Angeles Daily News. "Abuse and dependence rise as pot becomes more potent," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer headlined. Rising marijuana potency, the stories claimed, was leading more Americans to become addicted to the devil weed.

Small problem: the theory that more potent pot is getting people hooked is almost certainly wrong. But none of the newspaper stories gave the slightest hint that might be the case.

The government-funded study on which the stories were based, "Prevalence of Marijuana Use Disorders in the United States," was conducted by scientists from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It compared survey data from 1991 through 1992, and 2001 through 2002, indicating an increase in marijuana "abuse" or "dependence," as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the American Psychiatric Association's official diagnostic manual. The study's authors hypothesized that the most likely cause for this increase is "increased marijuana potency." As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution story, picked up by the Daily News, put it, "it's not your parents' marijuana." Wire stories used by most other papers took roughly the same line, though in less shrill language.

None of these stories chose to mention a salient fact: the "potent pot" hypothesis is pure speculation. As Mitch Earleywine, University of Southern California associate professor of psychology and author of Understanding Marijuana (Oxford University Press, 2002), notes, there's no scientific evidence that more potent marijuana leads to greater levels of dependence. Indeed the JAMA article makes no claim that any such evidence exists.

Second, as the JAMA article notes, under the manual's criteria, people can be classified as marijuana "abusers" if they experience "legal problems related to marijuana use." The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports arrest tabulations show that marijuana arrests skyrocketed from about 300,000 in 1991 to well over 700,000 in 2001. What may be simply the results of shifting law enforcement priorities were presented in both the study and in news reports as the dire effects of "potent pot." Strikingly, the JAMA article fails to identify which abuse-dependence criteria increased and by how much.

That alone should have led an inquisitive reporter or two to ask if there might be an alternative explanation to the "potent pot" theory. But the journalists covering the story failed to ask this most basic question even though the study contained a giant red flag: the increased "abuse" occurred almost entirely among young blacks and Hispanics. There was no similar increase among whites in the same age group.

Young blacks and Hispanics have no special access to high-potency marijuana, and there's no evidence that THC affects black and Hispanic brains differently than those of whites. But people of color are well documented to be at disproportionate risk for arrest for drug crimes.

None of this was discussed in the Journal-Constitution story, or in the AP, Reuters, and Scripps-Howard wire stories that were reprinted across the country. Indeed, what's striking about all these stories is their similarity to the National Institute on Drug Abuse's press release. None of these esteemed newspapers or wire services chose to quote even a single expert or advocate skeptical of the government line. None of them seems to have considered the possibility that our government might spin the data in order to match its drug war policies.

That's not journalism – it's stenography.

Bruce Mirken is a recovering journalist who, after years of covering health issues for Men's Health, AIDS Treatment News, and the Bay Guardian, now serves as communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project (www.mpp.org).

Family remedy

Family remedy

Shelly Arnold's home-grown answer to her son's pain tests the acceptance of medical marijuana

By Will Evans -- Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Sunday, March 28, 2004

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 For the first 13 years of his life, Mike Arnold's parents obsessed over three questions: What did "Mikey" have to eat, did he keep it down, and does he have a migraine.

 The migraines hit several times a week with daggerlike pain. He'd writhe on the bathroom floor and go into dry heaves, his skin turning white and his fingers numb. Facing medical problems since birth, his parents say, he developed an eating disorder and never seemed to have a full meal.

 Then one day he came home from the skateboard park, scarfed down pork chops and mashed potatoes, ate seconds and asked for dessert. His flabbergasted parents looked into his eyes.

 He was stoned.



 Now just turned 18, young Arnold's routine is to take regular doses of marijuana to stimulate his appetite and moderate his migraines. He has a doctor's recommendation for the drug.

 His mother has gone from simply Shelly Arnold to the "Green Goddess," a South Lake Tahoe medical-marijuana caregiver.

 The Arnolds nurture dozens of leafy cannabis plants in a grow-light-bright cubbyhole of a room in their home. The processed product turns into medication for the family's aches and pains, and for a handful of local medical marijuana patients who depend on Shelly Arnold for free pot.

 Her caregiver role is outlined in state law, and there are thousands like her throughout the state, according to Dale Gieringer of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. But Arnold stands out.

 "If you looked at someone who was the definition of a true caregiver, it would be Shelly Arnold," says Christopher Elliott, task force commander of SLEDNET, the South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County & Douglas County Narcotic Enforcement Team, overseen by the California Department of Justice. "She's probably the only true caregiver we've run across."

 Medical marijuana proponents such as the Arnolds have relied on Proposition 215, which passed in 1996 and legalized its use - though the the federal government has never recognized the state rules. Recent legal developments, though, provide a cushion and clarity for caregivers and patients.

 On Jan. 1, a new state law, SB 420, went into effect, creating a more-structured medical marijuana system. It defines a caregiver, sets limits on the amount of marijuana one may grow and calls for a voluntary identification card program.

 In December, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of two patients, saying that because they either grew their own marijuana or obtained it free from caregivers without interstate commerce, the federal government was without jurisdiction to interfere.

 The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which is reviewing the court decision, maintains that marijuana is a dangerous, addictive drug and that any use or possession is illegal.

Continuing debate

 In a potent concoction of science and politics, the debate continues over whether marijuana has medicinal value. Studies show therapeutic effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive substance in the plant, but the federal government puts cannabis in a class of drugs with no accepted medical use. Scientific organizations urge more research.

 It's not the job of local or state authorities such as Elliott to question medical validity, but law enforcement prosecutes those who call themselves caregivers "as a smoke screen to sell marijuana," as Elliott says.

 SLEDNET inspected Arnold's garden last April and found it in compliance. "She fits the intent of the law," he says.

 The intent is to provide for patients such as Richard, who was infected with HIV in 1991 and diagnosed with AIDS two years later. Living on Social Security disability payments because his illness prevents him from working, Richard, 39, relies on free cannabis from Arnold.

 Richard, who did not want his last name used, suffers from wasting, an extreme form of weight loss associated with HIV that can lead to death, says Patricia Bucher, a family nurse practitioner at Stateline Medical Center.

 She says AIDS medications only make it worse, causing nausea. The large orange pills Richard takes twice a day make him so sick he needs to sit down for up to an hour for the stomach pain to pass, he says.

 Marijuana, Bucher says, helps him eat. A report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies found THC to be a promising treatment for AIDS patients.

 "Without the cannabis, I wouldn't be here today. Without Shelly and having the access, I wouldn't be here today," Richard says.

 Several years ago, he was hospitalized with pneumonia and "was very close to dying," Bucher says. "We didn't have a whole bunch of hope that he was going to pull out of it."

 The hospital even summoned a priest to read his last rites.

 Yet Richard hung on. Released from the hospital, he contacted Shelly Arnold after reading about her in the local newspaper.

 The Arnolds were skittish because the doctor who gave them medical marijuana recommendations, Marion "Mollie" Fry, had recently been the subject of a raid by federal officials, who confiscated patient files. But when Richard showed up at the Arnolds' door with a cane, looking like "walking death," as Shelly's husband, John Arnold, recalls, all they could do was shower him with marijuana.

 "It helped him to regain his appetite and he was able to regain his strength," Bucher says.

 Now, though still thin, he smiles with a boyish face, laughing off doomsaying doctors with a nasally chuckle: "You can't just say 'Go'! I don't want to go!"

 Richard doesn't let on, but Camille McSeveney, his caseworker at Sierra Foothills AIDS Foundation, says he has "a really difficult time." Marijuana helps him cope, she says.

Lifelong caregiver

 Arnold took her caregiver role so seriously she became a certified nursing assistant. She feels she's been a caregiver all her life, from baby-sitting her younger siblings as a child to coping with her son's medical problems.

 Mike Arnold had problems with his airway and was fed with a tube as an infant, his father says. That developed into an aversion to eating, he says.

 Now Mike wears a T-shirt with a pot-leaf motif and the words "I Gained 20 lbs. Ask Me How."

 For his migraines, the Arnolds had tried other pain medications, but he'd vomit the pills.

 "It just stabs you in the top of your head, it feels like," Mike Arnold says. "I can feel my spine jabbing my head."

 Now, he says, the cannabis shortens the duration of his migraines and cuts the nausea.

 California law lists anorexia, migraines and severe nausea - as well as other medical problems such as cancer, arthritis, muscle spasms and chronic pain - as illnesses where a doctor's recommendation may be appropriate. Some scientists, however, say the evidence supporting the use of THC in many such cases is thin.

 At first wary about Mike Arnold's drug use, his parents sought to educate themselves in the world of medical marijuana, gobbling up a mini-library of books.

'A full-on mission'

 As Shelly Arnold learned more, she became politicized, traveling with activists to pro-marijuana festivals and protests, attending trials of local patients and doctors who were arrested.

 "It started off as a family situation that turned into a full-on mission," she says.

 She's on the board of the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis, which holds meetings in Garden Valley that run from 2:15 to 4:20 p.m. (in honor of Proposition 215 and SB 420). Before, after and during a break in the meeting, many of the advocates light up joints and pipes outside.

 Arnold also participates in meetings with El Dorado County Sheriff Jeff Neves to come up with county guidelines regarding medical marijuana.

 Though the DEA insists marijuana is illegal, period, "we don't target small-scale distributors," says Richard Meyer, special agent with the San Francisco field division.

 Still, he says, the driving force of providers is profit, and patients aren't being helped.

 "In my opinion, these people not only have a very serious illness, such as cancer and AIDS, but on top of that they're becoming addicted or they're already addicted to marijuana. And the people in the marijuana lobby don't think twice about using them to fulfill their own agenda," he says.

 Shelly Arnold and the DEA can probably agree that smoking anything isn't the best activity for the body. She and her husband don't like Mike to smoke, so they started making pot-laced rice cereal treats for him.

 Now he also uses a vaporizer, which heats the marijuana into a vapor to inhale.

 "The trick to medicine is you have to make it taste appealing," Shelly Arnold says.

 Her husband mixes the kid cereal with melted marshmallows and a tiny tub of almost fluorescent-green pot butter, patting the goo into a brownie pan.

 But the sugary snacks irritate some patients' stomachs - so there are more menu options.

 In her slow cooker, Shelly Arnold brews together olive oil, oregano, basil and chunks of garlic, along with the special ingredient. She pours a little in a dish with some balsamic vinegar, dipping bread as if in a fine Italian restaurant.

 Arnold also makes marijuana solutions with grain alcohol, which a patient can squirt, by eyedropper, into tea.

 And her husband makes "bubble hash," a concentrated form of marijuana to smoke.

Home, where the hash is

 On a recent afternoon, it's a surreal blend of Americana and marijuana. Shelly is in the kitchen, cannabis and other ingredients displayed on the counter like a cooking show. Husband John - jeans, flannel, cap - is out back making hash in a bucket. Mike, in big red dog slippers, is making Top Ramen.

 Past the kitchen window, adorned with frilly curtains, fall fat snowflakes. Everything smells like marijuana.

 The Arnolds decided to home-school their son for high school, since he was getting in trouble at school for marijuana and because they wanted to keep their eye on him.

 Now he blows glass in the garage, making pipes with swirling colors, and wants to start his own business.

 The Arnolds say they don't want their 19-year-old daughter, Melanie, to use marijuana. She is not a patient with a doctor's recommendation. While they'd like to see marijuana decriminalized, neither parent supports the use or legalization of other illicit drugs.

 John Arnold, 52, a Navy veteran with a slight Georgian drawl, knows about substance abuse. He is a bartender, but since fighting his own alcoholism he hasn't had a drink in 22 years, he says.

 Mike eggs on his dad by grabbing a bottle of grain alcohol and tilting it as if he's going to drink the dregs. "What would you do if I did?" he goads.

 "I'd be bummed 'cause I don't want you drinking alcohol," says his dad, grabbing it away.

Easing the pains

 Now John Arnold says he uses marijuana for a bad back, shoulder and hip; his wife says she has back problems, chronic pain, muscle spasms and an irritating skin disorder that justify her use.

 The family "medicates" throughout the day.

 Their bodies are so accustomed to marijuana they say they benefit from it, but they don't get stoned. The elder Arnolds and Richard, taking a marijuana break after lunch, talk and act the same as they did before lighting up.

 The Arnolds keep an eye on Richard, calling if they don't hear from him for a while, and checking in to make sure he has enough marijuana before they go out of town.

 "I know that she doesn't have to do this. I still don't know why she does this," he says, sitting in his South Lake Tahoe home, where he lives with a partner and a protective miniature pinscher.

 "If it wasn't for her ..." He starts to tear up. "A little kindness goes a long way."

Scientific debate still rages on marijuana's therapeutic effects

 The science question persists: Does marijuana have medicinal properties, and if so, do they outweigh risks?

 The federal government classifies cannabis in a group of the most dangerous drugs, with no recognized medical use. Authorities call it an addictive "gateway" drug, which leads to abuse of other drugs.

 State law, on the other hand, designates a broad range of conditions - from cancer to chronic pain - under which recommending marijuana may be acceptable.

 Science falls somewhere between.

 Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, "is established as having properties that can relieve certain symptoms," says Janet Joy, study director of a 1999 Institute of Medicine of the National Academies report that reviewed research on the subject.

 It doesn't actually cure anything, Joy says, except for helping AIDS patients put on weight. The federal Food and Drug Administration approved Marinol, synthetic THC, for chemotherapy and AIDS patients. The federal government keeps cannabis in a category of drugs without medicinal value partly for political reasons, Joy says.

 Still, the evidence for most medical uses of marijuana is lacking.

 "You're dealing with a huge body of anecdotal evidence ... and there isn't a matching body of scientific evidence," says Heather Bentley, project manager for the state-funded Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, through the University of California.

 Rigorous studies are rare because of federal red tape and restrictions, scientists say.

 The American Medical Association recommends keeping the federal government's designation of marijuana, while encouraging further research. The California Medical Association urges moving marijuana to a less-restrictive class of drugs, together with cocaine and morphine, to allow for easier studies.

 Research has not shown whether or not marijuana is a gateway drug, Joy says. It has found that some people become dependent on marijuana, with withdrawal symptoms similar to those of caffeine addiction, Joy says. She notes that accepted drugs such as morphine also are addictive.

 Smoking marijuana can be as bad for you as smoking tobacco, Joy says. Along with the THC, a smoker inhales many other substances, which also makes the science messy, she says. For a terminally ill patient, the risk may be worth it, but the field of medicine would prefer to develop an alternative form of administering THC, such as an inhaler, she says. The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research recently received approval for a study involving vaporizers.

States follow California's lead

 California led the way for medical marijuana when voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996. Now eight states have legalized medical marijuana:

 Alaska
 California
 Colorado
 Hawaii
 Maine
 Nevada
 Oregon
 Washington

 Two states have medical marijuana laws that either aren't functional or don't fully legalize it:

 Arizona
 Maryland

Source: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

Expert: Terri Ziem, fitness director, Arden Hills Country Club & Spa, and author of the book "Kids in Motion"

A bill to move the state's medicinal marijuana program from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health stalls in the House.

Acceptance of marijuana as an effective medicine for easing pain from numerous diseases is increasing, but Hawaii remains the only state where the program facilitating its medicinal use is directed by a law enforcement agency. The state Senate has approved a bill to move its administration to the Department of Health, where it belongs, and the change should be embraced by the House and the Lingle administration.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is fiercely opposed to medicinal marijuana, but his arguments have been rejected at every turn. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused in the past six months to overturn two rulings by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Hawaii, that protect doctors who recommend marijuana and their patients from prosecution for violation of federal drug laws.

Marijuana has been shown to be effective in easing pain for sufferers of AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses. Hawaii is among eight states that allow use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The programs are administered by health departments in six of the states, by the agriculture department in Nevada and by the Narcotics Enforcement Division in Hawaii's Department of Public Safety.

"It's terribly intimidating," says Pamela Lichty, president of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii. "The mandate of the Narcotics Enforcement Division is to enforce the narcotics law and to prevent people from obtaining and using schedule (illegal) substances."

Rep. Ken Ito, chairman of the House Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee, says he has no plans to hold a hearing on the Senate-passed bill because of opposition by the Lingle administration, through the directors of the affected departments. Ito said the Department of Public Safety feels "they're better equipped and qualified to enforce it," and the Department of Health lacks the funds or enforcement powers, so Gov. Lingle probably would veto the bill.

Such opposition is simplistic. In other states, departments of health "work in conjunction with their departments of public safety, allowing access to the patient registry if verification becomes necessary," the Senate Ways and Means Committee noted. Nothing is complicated about a patient showing a certificate from the Department of Health to a police officer to justify possession of marijuana.

The Senate-passed bill also would require that the doctor who recommends medicinal marijuana has examined and assessed the patient's medical history. Current law allows a doctor to simply examine medical records before certifying that the patient has a debilitating condition warranting medical use of marijuana.

The judgment about whether a physician has met even the current requirement is in the hands of a narcotics enforcer rather than a health expert. That anomaly should be enough to make clear that administration of the program belongs in the Department of Health.

Note: The Issue: A bill to move the state's medicinal marijuana program from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health stalls in the House.

Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)

Pot Compound Increases Cell Survival, Study Says

Pot Compound Increases Cell Survival, Study Says

March 25, 2004 - Naples, Italy

Naples, Italy: Administration of cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive compound in marijuana, increased survival in cultured rat cells, according to clinical trial data to be published in the April issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry.

"Treatment of the cells with cannabidiol ... significantly elevated cell survival," researchers at the University of Naples concluded. "Our results indicate that cannabidiol exerts a combination of neuroprotective, anti-oxidative and anti-apoptotic effects (effects associated with the programmed cell death of malignant cells) against [induced] toxicity. Authors further speculated that CBD's anti-oxidative effects may play a potential role in combating Alzheimer's disease.

A 1998 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that CBD protected rat brain cells from injury better than standard anti-oxidants. A 1999 report by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that marijuana's neuroprotective qualities are the "most prominent" of its potential therapeutic applications.

Last year, researchers at the University of Milan reported that the administration of CBD in gerbils prevented brain damage caused by ischemia (a reduction of blood flow to the brain that can cause cell death).

Earlier this week, the Israeli pharmaceutical company Pharmos announced that it had completed patient enrollment in a multi-country Phase III study of the effectiveness of the synthetic marijuana derivative Dexanabinol to treat brain damage resulting from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and/or stroke. Study results are expected by the end of 2004.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, senior policy analyst of the NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-5500.

Western Australia: Pot Reclasification Plan Now Law

Western Australia: Pot Reclasification Plan Now Law

March 25, 2004 - Perth, Australia

Perth, Australia: Legal reforms downgrading penalties on the possession and cultivation of marijuana for personal use to a non-criminal, fine-only offense took effect this week.

Under the new statewide law, those who possess up to 30 grams of pot (approximately one ounce) and/or cultivate up to two marijuana plants will no longer face criminal charges.

The law expressly forbids cultivating marijuana hydroponically.

Since 1998, law enforcement officials in Western Australia have been "cautioning" minor marijuana offenders. The new law ratifies that long-standing policy.

In recent years, a number of Australian states have adopted versions of marijuana decriminalization, including the Australian Capitol Territory, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of the NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-5500.