With ‘marijuana’ already one of the most popular topics on the Internet, NORML proudly announces that the ‘Reefer Revolution’ has now found its way into the smart phone technology tsunami that is sweeping the world up into instant access and connectivity to important information and like-minded community.

Available for a .99 cent download from the iTunes webpage, the NORML app for iPhones now empowers NORML members and supporters to read the daily news, cannabis-related headlines and blogs; get educated on pending federal or state cannabis-related legislation and lobby their elected policymakers via pre-written email; listen to NORML’s popular daily podcast on-the-run; check out NORML’s active Twitter feed, Flicker photos and the organization’s YouTube channel of videos.

All of this from one application, located on one’s phone, for under $1 and in support of America’s oldest and largest pro-cannabis law reform organization!

Another NORML iPhone app is already in development that will feature the organization’s copyrighted list of state/federal cannabis laws, drug testing information, listing of criminal defense lawyers and NORML chapters nationwide. Additions to the current NORML app on iPhone, as well as creating similar programs for Google and Droid phones is currently underway.

NORML is also developing cannabis-centric games for mobile phone and Internet play.

I ascribe substantial credit for bringing about the rapid decrease in public support for cannabis prohibition to the advent and popularity of the Internet. Pre-Internet, both cannabis consumers and the general public had little-to-no access to verifiable and credible scientific or academic information regarding cannabis. Once NORML (and numerous other pro-reform organizations) could place large amounts of information online circa 1995, that anyone could read and download from the privacy of home, the opinion polls started to demonstrate a strong increase in the public’s discontent with cannabis prohibition laws.

Now that tens of thousands of scientific studies and medical reports can be read on mobile devices, pro-cannabis radio shows can be listened to on the bus or train and citizens fed up with prohibition laws can now contact their elected representatives anytime, from just about anywhere, smart phone technology is only going to 1) increase the number of citizen-advocates lobbying for cannabis law reforms, and 2) these ease-of-use mobile technologies also enhance the abilities of citizens to be more active in the ever-growing cannabis law reform movement, online community and commerce.

Many thanks to Red Aphid for their tireless efforts to code and work through the labyrinth of regulations and requirements at Apple to bring NORML’s first smart phone application to fruition.

When trying to answer inquiries from reporters, columnists, policymakers and medical cannabis patients regarding as to ‘why specifically has Bryan Epis been compelled to return to federal prison–at great taxpayer expense during a steep recession–when there are thousands of cannabusinesses operating at the retail level in states like California, Colorado and Montana?’, there are no satisfactory (or logical) answers to provide them.

Suffice of to say, Bryan Epis’ case is both a dinosaur of sorts as well as a badge of shame for the current, and somewhat medical cannabis-supportive Obama administration in that his was one of the first federal arrests in 1997, and after a hotly contested legal battle, Bryan was one of the first medical cannabis primary caregivers to be sentenced under federal law, to ten years. After serving 24 months in prison from 2002-2004, with the greater social and political acceptance of medical cannabis blossoming around Bryan’s prison cell, he was able to procure an appeal bond, leave prison, argue his case in the appeals court again, re-start his successful business, pay taxes, take care of his mother, be a parent to his child, develop a loving relationship–all with the notion that he’d unlikely have to return to federal prison.

What, in the era of 24/7 medical cannabis vending machines, law enforcement having to return back hundreds of pounds of seized medical cannabis to patient-growers and caregivers, insurance companies paying on medical cannabis crop failure and insuring  dispensaries with standard business liability coverage and President Obama implementing the first steps of recognizing medical cannabis’ safety, utility and need to change its legal status specifically-tailored for medical use?

Could the federal government be so arbitrary and capricious so as to seek his re-incarceration for eight more years to be served in prison, for the ‘crime’ of growing over one hundred medical cannabis plants?

Yes. On April 08, 2009, a three panel judge on the 9th Circuit ruled against Epis and ordered him back to prison.

Bryan may have been arrested under the Clinton administration, prosecuted and incarcerated under the Bush 2.0 administration, but the Obama administration’s Department of Justice can ‘do the right thing’: stop wasting taxpayer’s money, stop being subjective in the application of the law and reason, and stop making the average person seriously question the priorities of government institutions and bureaucracies by immediately reducing his sentence, freeing him from a cage, and allow him to return to his family–and the tax rolls.

Below is a communication from Bryan’s partner regarding the two primary things citizens can do to support Bryan and help end this kind of insanity in the war against cannabis consumers:

1) Sign and distribute the petition necessary to appeal to the federal government to reduce Bryan’s sentence;

2) When booking lodging online, please use a search engine called LodgingSite, which not only benefits its owner (Bryan Epis!), but the company will donate 10% of their profit to public interest groups like NORML.

March 4, 2010

Dear Allen,

My name is Monica and I am writing you on behalf of Bryan Epis. As you know they recently took him back in to serve the remainder of a ten year prison sentence.  He wanted me to contact you in hope that you can help us. I have attached a printable petition. Our goal is to come up with 100k signatures within 4 months.  The lawyer he has is filing a 2255 to try to get his sentence reduced. Bryan is hoping you will put this petition on your website, anyone can print it. It holds 25 signatures per page, once a page is complete, at the bottom of the page is our address. We ask that they send them back to me and I will take them to his lawyer.

We have found a way to raise money for your non-profit organization as well as help Bryan.

We have a website called lodgingsite.com powered by Priceline.  It is a hotel reservation web site.  I would assume that all of your members, book at least one hotel a year, if they go to lodgingsite.com and book a hotel room under the “special rates” section.  We offer 10% cash back to any non profit organization of their choice (as long as when they get their confirmation info and send it to cashback@lodgingsite.com along with a designated non profit organization of their choice. They must include the name of the organization of their choice, plus their confirmation number, their name address, the hotel name and city). BTW, 10% equates to about $20 per reservation. If you multiply that by how many members and supporters NORML has it is potentially a lot of money NORML could get for the cause, as well as to help and promote Bryan’s defense.

If you have any questions please contact me at: monica@lodgingsite.com

Sincerely,
Monica Focht
(in care of Bryan Epis)

That’s right.

Despite the continued 73-year old federal prohibition against cannabis, with 90 million Americans currently living in 14 states and the District of Columbia that have legal protections for medical patients who use cannabis with a physician’s recommendation (and 120 million living in states where cannabis possession is decriminalized), 2,000 or more retail outlets or delivery services for medical cannabis (including 24/7 medical cannabis vending machines in California) and a federally subsidized cannabis farm that, among other projects, supplies five medical cannabis patients 300 pre-rolled ‘joints’ per month (which equates to about ten ounces per month!) for the rest of their lives in a closed, grandfathered program, the United Nation’s anti-drug agency ridiculously believes the world urgently needs to take great heed in the Canadian government’s eight-year old and largely uncontroversial medical cannabis program.

Why? Why does the United Nation’s anti-drug agency believe now is a good time to stick its unwanted nose in the national and local concerns of citizens–from The Netherlands to America to Canada to Mexico–who no longer support cannabis prohibition, most notably for medical purposes?

Cannabis policy reform advocates have been readily vexed by the United Nation’s extreme anti-cannabis advocacy and propaganda since the 1970s, and arguably after America’s original drug czar Harry J. Anslinger, in his last act as a life-long anti-cannabis zealot and 30-year plus federal drug czar, he watched President John F. Kennedy commit the world and then American-dominated United Nations to America’s Reefer Madness via the signing of the Single Convention Treaty in 1961.

Why would the United Nation’s attack Canada’s fairly limited medical cannabis program, where the federal government tightly controls production and distribution, yet some how not cast the same critical eye towards cannabis-tolerant America (and the near narco-state of Mexico to the south where the fields of cannabis are viewed by satellite and the federal government recently decriminalized small amounts of drugs)?

If Canada is getting grief from the blue helmet crowd, shouldn’t the governors of New Mexico, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Maine be receiving the same as their states sanction medical cannabis distribution?

One year after George Bush 2.0 left the White House, and with the general support and guidance provided by the Obama administration to move in a direction of greater governmental acceptance of medical cannabis, it seems unlikely that the US government is creating the institutional impetus that is encouraging the United Nations to sound like the ghost of Anslinger.

What is the source of Reefer Madness at the United Nations?

UN watchdog takes aim at Canada’s medical marijuana program

By Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service February 24, 2010

UNITED NATIONS — Justice Minister Robert Nicholson said Wednesday the government’s medical marijuana regulations are under review after the UN’s drugs watchdog warned Canada needs to tighten up the system.

The Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board said Canada is operating outside international treaty rules aimed at minimizing the risk criminals will get hold of cannabis grown under the program.

“The whole question of medical marijuana is being looked at by the minister of health with respect to the options that she has,” said Nicholson, whose ministry serves as the umbrella agency for the government’s anti-drug efforts.

The warning in the INCB’s annual report accompanies praise for the government’s National Anti-Drug Strategy, which the board said it notes “with appreciation.”

Nicholson said he took heart from that, adding it “plays very well” into the government’s efforts to push through a crime bill containing tougher drugs-offences sentencing provisions that has been held up in the Senate.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews also argued the report “provides further proof that Canada is recognized internationally as a leader in crime prevention.”

Canada increased the number of cannabis cultivation licences a person can hold last year after court decisions stated patients’ earlier access had been too restricted.

Currently, Health Canada has issued almost 4,900 permits allowing people to possess medical marijuana they get from more than 1,100 licensed growers, some of whom are growing it for their own use.

“Canada continues to be one of the few countries in the world that allows cannabis to be prescribed by doctors to patients with certain serious illnesses,” said the INCB report.

But the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics, which Canada has signed, says the government must be the sole distributor of the otherwise illegal substance, which patients use as a pain reliever.

The opportunity for misuse of the system is reflected in an RCMP review identifying 40 cases in which licensed growers were also trafficking marijuana for profit. The same review found violations in a total of 70 cases.

While the INCB report noted that Canada “intends to reassess” its access-to-cannabis program, it said the board “requests the government to respect the provisions” of the 1961 convention in conducting its review.

The sole company among the growers that Health Canada has contracted to supply some 28 per cent of the current permit holders signalled Wednesday it would welcome a more focused oversight.

“We get severe criticism from the armchair critics and those who feel threatened that we’re infringing on their rights to produce cannabis,” said Brent Zettl, president of Prairie Plant Systems Inc., of Saskatoon.

“But we’re already essentially conforming to the convention.”

Health Canada frequently inspects the company’s operations, and officially “owns” the cannabis it produces for shipment to clients.

Even some involved in helping patients acquire the possession permits agree that the current system is flawed.

“To Health Canada’s self-admittance, there are a lot of grey areas,” said Chad Clelland, director of online and community relations with medicalmarihuana.ca, an Internet-based support site. “But they are so slow to change.”

Still, Clelland said he does not believe that centralized government-run production is the answer.

Annually, over $30 billion in local, county, state and federal tax revenues don’t find their way to public tax coffers because the government continues to prohibit rather than tax cannabis-related businesses, products and services. To make matters worse, an estimated $300-$400 million is paid out annually by law enforcement to confidential informants and snitches.

Another Public Broadcast Corporation entity, the long-running documentary series Frontline, performed an important public service when it broadcast Snitch in 1999.

In a free society guided by a constitution that secures numerous rights and privilege to individuals–with checks and balances on government power–the over reliance of snitches by American law enforcement is yet another terrible outgrowth attributable to a 73-year old public policy, cannabis prohibition, that has failed to the point where even greater government atrocities are justified to maintain the failed policy.

Check out not one but two interesting National Public Radio programs that feature stories looking at aspects of cannabis prohibition:

Jorge Cervantes ‘comes out’ of his smokey closet on NPR’s Tell Me More. Jorge gives a frank and honest interview about his life as a best-selling cannabis cultivating author and traveling the world reseaching the cannabis plant.

Planet Money’s David Kestenbaum takes a second look at cannabis in a week (’Stoned Economist‘ was last week’s offering) when he tries to figure out ‘how can an ounce of pot cost $1,200?‘.

C-L-A-S-S-I-C media Reefer Madness!

Coroner’s report: Lewis had marijuana in system

Feb 04, 2010 1:21 PM
INSIDE 14WFIE.com

OWENSBORO, KY (WFIE) – USI basketball player Jeron Lewis died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy according to the final report issued by the Daviess County coroner.

Toxicology tests showed Lewis also had marijuana in his system when he collapsed in a game against Kentucky Wesleyan January 14.  There is no evidence the marijuana contributed to his death, however.

Lewis fell to the floor at the Owensboro Sportscenter late in the game.  He went into cardiac arrest and died on the way to the Owensboro Medical Health System emergency room.

Daviess County coroner Bob Howe conducted an autopsy the day after Lewis died and indicated that the senior from Ft. Wayne had an enlarged heart.

The final report, issued Thursday, confirmed that Lewis’ death came as a result of a previously unknown heart condition.

High Times breaks the story tonight here.

This of course makes no sense to have CBS reject a non-profit organization like NORML’s pro-cannabis law reform advertisement, when, during the Super Bowl on Sunday–the most watched TV event annually in the United States–CBS is scheduled to air a controversial anti-abortion television advertisement produced by the socially conservative non-profit group Focus on the Family (who, like apparently CBS, is anti-cannabis). Last year, CBS rejected an advertisement from the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org claiming it was too political as well.

The hypocrisy and double standard here is appalling. NORML and MoveOn.org ads are deemed ‘political’ and can’t be purchased and broadcast by CBS, but Focus on the Family can roll a political hand grenade in the form of an anti-abortion TV ad into American households on no less than Super Bowl Sunday for the full and desired effect of creating public discussion.

Worse, beyond the fact that CBS censors political speech, the company has no apparent problems making money off the general public’s strong interest in ‘marijuana’ as the network has established Marijuana Nation, an eye-ball sucking, archive-rich, comprehensive and well done webpage relating to cannabis found on the Internet (Ironically, CBS’ site competes with NORML and High Times’ general content for readers…).

There are numerous reasons why cannabis prohibition has lasted over 72-years, and when huge, mainstream media outlets (who control bill boards, radio and TV, etc…) pick and choose what organization’s free speech they support and those they don’t–recognizing that absent a vibrant and informed public discussion about needed public policy changes, like ending cannabis prohibition, those needed public policy changes take so much longer than they would organically absent the filter of mainstream, corporate-leaning mega media outlets.

Personally, I can only wonder what public discourse, with now even more corporate influence, is going to look like in America post the SCOTUS decision two weeks ago in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission.

RESEARCHERS FIND STUDY OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISCOURAGED
by Gardiner Harris
January 19, 2010
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Despite the Obama administration’s tacit support of more liberal state medical marijuana laws, the federal government still discourages research into the medicinal uses of smoked marijuana.  That may be one reason that — even though some patients swear by it – — there is no good scientific evidence that legalizing marijuana’s use provides any benefits over current therapies.

Lyle E.  Craker, a professor of plant sciences at the University of Massachusetts, has been trying to get permission from federal authorities for nearly nine years to grow a supply of the plant that he could study and provide to researchers for clinical trials.

But the Drug Enforcement Administration — more concerned about abuse than potential benefits — has refused, even after the agency’s own administrative law judge ruled in 2007 that Dr.  Craker’s application should be approved, and even after Attorney General Eric H.  Holder Jr.  in March ended the Bush administration’s policy of raiding dispensers of medical marijuana that comply with state laws.

“All I want to be able to do is grow it so that it can be tested,” Dr.  Craker said in comments echoed by other researchers.

Marijuana is the only major drug for which the federal government controls the only legal research supply and for which the government requires a special scientific review.

“The more it becomes clear to people that the federal government is blocking these studies, the more people are willing to defect by using politics instead of science to legalize medicinal uses at the state level,” said Rick Doblin, executive director of a nonprofit group dedicated to researching psychedelics for medical uses.

On Monday, his last full day in office, Gov.  Jon S.  Corzine of New Jersey signed a measure passed by the Legislature last week that made the state the 14th in the nation to legalize the use of marijuana to help with chronic illnesses.

The measure was pushed by a loose coalition of patients suffering from chronic illnesses like Lou Gehrig’s disease and multiple sclerosis who said marijuana eased their symptoms.

Studies have shown convincingly that marijuana can relieve nausea and improve appetite among cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.  Studies also prove that marijuana can alleviate the aching and numbness that patients with H.I.V.  and AIDS suffer.

There are strong hints that marijuana may ameliorate some of the neurological problems associated with such degenerative diseases as multiple sclerosis, said Dr.  Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego.

But there is no good evidence that legalizing the smoking of marijuana is needed to provide these effects.  The Food and Drug Administration in 1985 approved Marinol, a prescription pill of marijuana’s active ingredient, T.H.C.  Although a few small-scale studies done decades ago suggest that smoked marijuana may prove effective when Marinol does not, no conclusive research has confirmed this finding.

And Marinol is no panacea.  There are at least three medicines that in most patients provide better relief from nausea and vomiting than Marinol, studies show.

Buddy Coolen, 31, of Warwick, R.I., said he tried or continued to use some of those medicines.  “Smoking for me is as good as any medicine I have,” he said.

Eight years ago, Mr.  Coolen contracted gastroparesis and cyclic vomiting syndrome.  He lost 50 pounds and, despite being 5 foot 11, weighed 120 pounds.

His doctors gave him myriad anti-emetics, many of which he still takes.  They also prescribed Marinol, but it did not work for him, Mr.  Coolen said.

“My stepdad is old school and was really against marijuana, but then he saw what it did for me and totally changed his way of thinking,” Mr.  Coolen said.

Some doctors and law enforcement officials say such anecdotes should not drive public policy.  Dr.  Eric Braverman, medical director of a multispecialty clinic in Manhattan, said legalizing marijuana was unnecessary and dangerous since Marinol provided the medicinal effects of the plant.  “Our society will deteriorate,” he said.

Patients who call Dr.  Braverman’s clinic are, when put on hold, told that the clinic may prescribe supplements and other alternative treatments that have even less scientific justification than marijuana.  Dr.  Braverman said such alternatives rendered marijuana unnecessary, but his embrace of alternatives is a reminder that medicine has long been driven by more than science.

About 20 percent of drug prescriptions are written for uses that are not approved by federal drug regulators; about half of the nation’s adults regularly take supplements; herbal and homeopathic remedies are popular.

The nation’s growing embrace of medical marijuana has stemmed from these alternative traditions.

The University of Mississippi has the nation’s only federally approved marijuana plantation.  If they wish to investigate marijuana, researchers must apply to the National Institute on Drug Abuse to use the Mississippi marijuana and must get approvals from a special Public Health Service panel, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration.

But federal officials have repeatedly failed to act on marijuana research requests in a timely manner or have denied them, according to a 2007 ruling by an administrative law judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration.  While refusing to approve a second marijuana producer, the government allowed the University of Mississippi to supply Mallinckrodt, a drug maker, with enough marijuana to eventually produce a generic version of Marinol.

“As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use,” said Shirley Simson, a spokeswoman for the drug abuse institute, known as NIDA.  “We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration said it was just following NIDA’s lead.  “D.E.A.  has never denied a research registration for marijuana and/or THC if NIDA approved the protocols for that individual entity,” a supervisory special agent, Gary Boggs, said by e-mail.

Researchers investigating LSD, Ecstasy and other illegal drugs can use any of a number of suppliers licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Dr.  Doblin said.  And if a researcher wants to use a variety of marijuana that the University of Mississippi does not grow – — and there are many with differing medicinal properties — they are out of luck, Dr.  Doblin said.

Law enforcement tends to emphasize the abuse potential of medicines without regard to their positive effects.  Bureaucratic battles between the D.E.A.  and the F.D.A.  over the availability of narcotics – — highly effective but addictive medicines — have gone on for decades.

So medical marijuana may never have good science underlying its use.  But for patients in desperate need, the ethics of providing access to the drug are clear, said Dr.  Richard Payne, a professor of medicine and divinity and director of the Institute for Care on the End of Life at Duke Divinity School.

“It’s not a great drug,” he said, “but what’s the harm?”

* * * * * * * * * * *

IS MARIJUANA A MEDICINE?
by Anna Wilde Mathews, (Source:Wall Street Journal)
19 Jan 2010
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United States
——-
Charlene DeGidio never smoked marijuana in the 1960s, or afterward.  But a year ago, after medications failed to relieve the pain in her legs and feet, a doctor suggested that the Adna, Wash., retiree try the drug.

Ms.  DeGidio, 69 years old, bought candy with marijuana mixed in.  It worked in easing her neuropathic pain, for which doctors haven’t been able to pinpoint a cause, she says.  Now, Ms.  DeGidio, who had previously tried without success other drugs including Neurontin and lidocaine patches, nibbles marijuana-laced peppermint bars before sleep, and keeps a bag in her refrigerator that she’s warned her grandchildren to avoid.

“It’s not like you’re out smoking pot for enjoyment or to get high,” says the former social worker, who won’t take the drug during the day because she doesn’t want to feel disoriented.  “It’s a medicine.”

For many patients like Ms.  DeGidio, it’s getting easier to access marijuana for medical use.  The U.S.  Department of Justice has said it will not generally prosecute ill people under doctors’ care whose use of the drug complies with state rules.  New Jersey will become the 14th state to allow therapeutic use of marijuana, and the number is likely to grow.  Illinois and New York, among others, are considering new laws.

As the legal landscape for patients clears somewhat, the medical one remains confusing, largely because of limited scientific studies.  A recent American Medical Association review found fewer than 20 randomized, controlled clinical trials of smoked marijuana for all possible uses.  These involved around 300 people in all–well short of the evidence typically required for a pharmaceutical to be marketed in the U.S.

Doctors say the studies that have been done suggest marijuana can benefit patients in the areas of managing neuropathic pain, which is caused by certain types of nerve injury, and in bolstering appetite and treating nausea, for instance in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.  “The evidence is mounting” for those uses, says Igor Grant, director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego.

But in a range of other conditions for which marijuana has been considered, such as epilepsy and immune diseases like lupus, there’s scant and inconclusive research to show the drug’s effectiveness.  Marijuana also has been tied to side effects including a racing heart and short-term memory loss and, in at least a few cases, anxiety and psychotic experiences such as hallucinations.  The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate marijuana, so the quality and potency of the product available in medical-marijuana dispensaries can vary.

Though states have been legalizing medical use of marijuana since 1996, when California passed a ballot initiative, the idea remains controversial.  Opponents say such laws can open a door to wider cultivation and use of the drug by people without serious medical conditions.  That concern is heightened, they say, when broadly written statutes, such as California’s, allow wide leeway for doctors to decide when to write marijuana recommendations.

But advocates of medical-marijuana laws say certain seriously ill patients can benefit from the drug and should be able to access it with a doctor’s permission.  They argue that some patients may get better results from marijuana than from available prescription drugs.

Glenn Osaki, 51, a technology consultant from Pleasanton, Calif., says he smokes marijuana to counter nausea and pain.  Diagnosed in 2005 with advanced colon cancer, he has had his entire colon removed, creating digestive problems, and suffers neuropathic pain in his hands and feet from a chemotherapy drug.  He says smoking marijuana was more effective and faster than prescription drugs he tried, including one that is a synthetic version of marijuana’s most active ingredient, known as THC.

The relatively limited research supporting medical marijuana poses practical challenges for doctors and patients who want to consider it as a therapeutic option.  It’s often unclear when, or whether, it might work better than traditional drugs for particular people.  Unlike prescription drugs it comes with no established dosing regimen.

“I don’t know what to recommend to patients about what to use, how much to use, where to get it,” says Scott Fishman, chief of pain medicine at the University of California, Davis medical school, who says he rarely writes marijuana recommendations, typically only at a patient’s request.

Researchers say it’s difficult to get funding and federal approval for marijuana research.  In November, the AMA urged the federal government to review marijuana’s position in the most-restricted category of drugs, so it could be studied more easily.

Gregory T.  Carter, a University of Washington professor of rehabilitation medicine, says he’s developed his own procedures for recommending marijuana, which he does for some patients with serious neuromuscular conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, to treat pain and other symptoms.  He typically urges those who haven’t tried it before to start with a few puffs using a vaporizer, which heats the marijuana to release its active chemicals, then wait 10 minutes.  He warns them to have family nearby and to avoid driving, and he checks back with them after a few days.  Many are “surprised at how mild” the drug’s psychotropic effects are, he says.

States’ rules on growing and dispensing medical marijuana vary.  Some states license specialized dispensaries.  These can range from small storefronts to bigger operations that feel more like pharmacies.  Typically, they have security procedures to limit walk-in visitors.

At least a few dispensaries say they inspect their suppliers and use labs to check the potency of their product, though states don’t generally require such measures.  “It’s difficult to understand how we can call it medicine if we don’t know what’s in it,” says Stephen DeAngelo, executive director of the Harborside Health Center, a medical-marijuana dispensary in Oakland, Calif.

Some of the strongest research results support the idea of using marijuana to relieve neuropathic pain.  For example, a trial of 50 AIDS patients published in the journal Neurology in 2007 found that 52% of those who smoked marijuana reported a 30% or greater reduction in pain.  Just 24% of those who got placebo cigarettes reported the same lessening of pain.

Marijuana has also been shown to affect nausea and appetite.  The AMA review said three controlled studies with 43 total participants showed a “modest” anti-nausea effect of smoked marijuana in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.  Studies of HIV-positive patients have suggested that smoked marijuana can improve appetite and trigger weight gain.

Donald Abrams, a doctor and professor at the University of California, San Francisco who has studied marijuana, says he recommends it to some cancer patients, including those who haven’t found standard anti-nausea drugs effective and some with loss of appetite.

Side effects can be a problem for some people.  Thea Sagen, 62, an advanced neuroendocrine cancer patient in Seaside, Calif., says she expected something like a pharmacy when she went to a marijuana dispensary mentioned by her oncologist.  She says she was disappointed to find that the staffers couldn’t say which of the products, with names like Pot ‘o Gold and Blockbuster, might boost her flagging appetite or soothe her anxiety.  “They said, ‘it’s trial and error,’ “she says.  “I was in there flying blind, looking at all this stuff.”

Ms.  Sagen says she bought several items and tried one-eighth teaspoon of marijuana-infused honey.  After a few hours, she was hallucinating , too dizzy and confused to dress herself for a doctor’s appointment.  Then came vomiting far worse than her stomach upset before she took the drug.  When she reported the side effects to her oncologist’s nurse and her primary-care physician, she got no guidance.  She doesn’t take the drug now.  But with advice from a nutritionist, her appetite and food intake have improved, she says.

Other marijuana users may experience the well-known reduction in ability to concentrate.  At least a few users suffer troubling short-term psychiatric side effects, which can include anxiety and panic.  More controversially, an analysis published in the journal Lancet in 2007 tied marijuana use to a higher rate of psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia.  But the analysis noted that such a link doesn’t necessarily show marijuana is a cause of the conditions.

Long-term marijuana use can lead to physical dependence, though it is not as addictive as nicotine or alcohol, says Margaret Haney, a professor at Columbia University’s medical school.  Smoked marijuana may also risk lung irritation, but a large 2006 study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, found no tie to lung cancer.

It is hard to know which is worse, ignorance or dishonesty? I can’t ascribe either specifically when it comes to the agitprop of Florida’s so-called drug czar Bruce Grant, but his anti-medical cannabis rant published recently in the Orlando Sentinel wins the distinction of being the first in an ingoing series entitled NORML’s Reefer Madness Du Jour, which serve as 1) peeks into and observations of those who still support the practice of arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating cannabis consumers; 2) trying to understand and expose the motivations of those who seek to deny sick, dying and sense-threatened medical patients who possess a physician’s recommendation to use cannabis; 3) shedding light on those who deny American farmers the ability to cultivate and prosper from the cultivation of industrial hemp, just like hemp farmers from Canada, France, China, Russia, etc…

It is no surprise to any casual observer of cannabis law reform that the politically-appointed position of ‘Director of Drug Control Policy’, largely a symbolic government job, in the current epoch of modern American politics, notably in red state-leaning Florida, will be against ‘drugs’ (interestingly, these so-called drug czars rarely rail against the three most deadly and addicting ‘drugs’: alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals).

But what makes czar Grant’s full-throated rant against medical cannabis standout is the vacuousness in his effort to mislead the citizens of Florida.

OK…where to begin?

First, right out of the gate, the threat of medical cannabis being foisted onto the unknowing and easily manipulated citizens of Florida by crazed cannabis activists.

Second, medical cannabis is a mean-spirited ruse for legalization.

Threat #2…Grant implies cannabis places citizens into drug addiction centers and hospitals. Is this true? Doesn’t alcohol, pills and tobacco products put consumers in some jeopardy for the need of addiction or medical treatments. Maybe czar Grant has never visited an emergency room on Saturday nights after midnight…

Despite the fact that 14 states recognize cannabis as a medicine (where 90 million Americans reside), and arguably now so does the federal government under the Obama administration post a well-publicized DOJ memo this past October, and that there are thousands of supportive and affirming scientific studies published indicating cannabis’ safety and utility as a medicine, czar Grant (who is not a medical doctor, rather a career military and anti-drug officer) flatly declares: There is no such thing as medical cannabis. Period.

One wonders if Alice in Wonderland is czar Grant’s favorite book and inspiration for informed policy-making?

Czar Grant seeks a fig leaf to hide behind when claiming that the FDA has not approved medical cannabis. Has the FDA actually tested medical cannabis? No. Has the FDA been abused by anti-cannabis politicians to produce position papers against cannabis? Yes. Ironically released by the ONDCP and Bush 2.0 administration in conjunction with NORML’s 36th annual national conference.

In short, inhaling toxic chemicals and carcinogens from the burning of a crude weed is not recommended by any reputable medical authority.

These are possibilities for the future, but right now neither the AMA nor any competent medical authority in this country has yet endorsed marijuana as medicine.

Czar grant just outright lies when he asserts that no reputable medical organization supports patient access to whole-smoked cannabis when there are hundreds of reputable medical organizations that do, including the American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, AIDS Action Council, American Academy of Family Physicians and The British Medical Association, etc…robbed of their historic, institutional opposition to cannabis, czar Grant even has to soft pedal the American Medical Association’s new direction on medical cannabis’ medical utility.

Czar Grant dangles the false promise (and proven marketplace loser) of 100% pure THC pills like Marinol being superior to natural cannabis.

A favorite prohibitionist canard to employ, as Grant does, is the one that asserts ‘in a world where deadly and addicting drugs like alcohol and tobacco are legal, me-oh-my, why would we want to legalize another drug like cannabis?’

The simple retorts are:

-The failure of cannabis prohibition for 73-years does nothing to actually control the use of the drug;

-Cannabis is already so popular it is not clear at all that taxing it will increase the use of it. In states that have medical cannabis laws and/or decriminalized cannabis there has been no discernible increase in the use of the herb by children or adults;

-Cannabis, despite it’s long illegality is a top five cash crop in America, the drug is readily purchased on most any street and children in government surveys acknowledge greater access to untaxed/unregulated cannabis than taxed and controlled drugs like alcohol and tobacco products.

Czar Grant then goes on to commit a damning blood libel by labeling all medical cannabis consumers in California as frauds. His proof: He cites a recent anti-medical cannabis white paper created by the California Chiefs Of Police Association, which was written and published for the purpose of propagandizing for anti-cannabis activists, law enforcement and opinion-makers in the media.

If one employed Grant’s prohibitionistic thinking, if a youth illegally purchased a bottle of beer or  prescription pills, then the government should ban alcohol and pharmaceuticals and criminalize the behavior.

The fact is that tens of millions of citizens–in states like CA, CO, OR, NM, WA–safely and responsibly use medical cannabis everyday with their physician’s recommendation with little-to-no-harm to the individual patient, their city, state and society.

Czar Grant may want to take note that states like NM, RI, ME and now NJ (and the District of Columbia) are issuing state licenses to medical cannabis cultivators and distributors, therefore it can be stated that cannabis is a safe medicine, that is why the states are allowing its use and sales.

If cannabis was the problem and health threat czar Grant claims, why would every single candidate from the Democratic party in the 2008 presidential election, including now President Obama, support lawful access to medical cannabis?

If cannabis truly were deadly and dangerous why would voters massively favor reform in the voting booth and state legislators pass and governors sign these measures into law? Because they favor their own deaths and illness? Do the politicians who support medical access to cannabis want to sow death, disease and drug addiction to their very own voting constituents?

How logical and based in reality is czar Grant’s mentality regarding cannabis?

Lastly….

We support medical progress and relieving pain in the sick and dying, but allowing medical marijuana would cost us all more than we can pay.

I don’t know who the ‘we‘ is in czar Grant’s absurd claim as a vast majority of Americans do in fact support medical access to cannabis. When given the opportunity to directly vote on the matter of medical access to cannabis, only once since 1992 have cannabis law reformers not prevailed at the ballot box (South Dakota, 2006, where reformers lost 51%-48%; prevailing in AK, WA, OR, CA, AZ, NV, CO, MT, MI and ME).

If Grant and other prohibitionist really care about the health and welfare of their fellow Floridians, they should do the two following things:

-Read NORML’s Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids – A Review of the Recent Scientific Literature, 2000 — 2009;

-Get into a car, head Ft. Lauderdale way and look up stockbroker and one of five federally-licensed medical cannabis patients in the United States Irvin Rosenfeld. Irv receives over 300 complimentary pre-rolled cannabis ‘joints’ every month grown at NIDA’s University of Mississippi cannabis farm, rolled en mass at a secret facility at the Research Triangle Institute in NC and escorted by US Marshals to a DEA-certified pharmacy. The man smokes about 10-12 large joints a day, is a successful stockbroker, sailboat racer, community volunteer and high taxpayer.

I guess in czar Grant’s world Mr. Rosenfeld should suffer in silence and not be an active, productive, fully-engaged-in-life medical patient who consumes cannabis prescribed by his physician.

Of course, anti-cannabis guest columns have been penned in the mainstream media by dozens of political appointees against any modicum of cannabis law reforms since the early 1990s.

How has that worked so far for them?

Does Grant believe the results will be any different in Florida regardless of his shallow and ill-informed cry of wolf?

Vic was one of dozens of major musicians who volunteered and lent their talent to creating Hempilation I and II (benefit compilation albums), two separate CDs of great cannabis-related music. Vic Chesnutt had been confined to a wheelchair as a partial quadriplegic since a 1983 car accident. He suffered terribly at times from never-ending chronic pain, infections, failed surgeries and bouts with pain medication addiction. He was a regular user of medical cannabis to help control his chronic pain, spasticity and inability to sleep through a night.

Vic’s contribution to Hempilation II was a little pro-medical cannabis diddy called ‘Weed To The Rescue‘.

The reason why I say that I’m disappointed and upset with Vic taking his own life is that, by many accounts from his friends, co-collaborators and his last CD (released late this past fall), he’d finally gotten over his dark desire to prematurely end his life. Many of the songs on At The Cut, including the haunting ‘Flirting With You All My Life‘, seemed to strongly signal that Vic wanted to live, more than he wanted to die.

In my view, one the best interviewers in the media is WHYY’s Terri Gross, host of the NPR-carried show ‘Fresh Air’. I was fortunate enough to catch her interview with Vic in early December, talking in detail with him about his difficult life, muses, multiple suicide attempts and the redemptive nature of his latest album, notably the amazingly personal song X.

After listening to the interview, I was happy to hear what I thought was the resolution in Vic’s voice that any more suicide attempts were things of a difficult past that he had finally gotten beyond the day in/day out pain of his physically limited existence.

When I received the email from Steve indicating that Vic tried suicide again, and it unfortunately took this time, again, I became confused, disappointed and even a bit angry with Vic. I was not sure that I wanted to publicly acknowledge his passing.

But, then I listened on Thursday to Terri Gross’s ‘tribute’ show to Vic, featuring many of his fellow collaborators, and like me, they’re still equally confused and stinging from Vic’s death.

The last time I saw Vic was at a performance in Washington, DC a few years ago. He’d called me a few hours before the show and asked if I wanted to ‘hang out’ (our code for smoking a couple of joints before he went on stage to perform). When I arrived at the venue’s VIP dressing room area, Vic fired up a joint that smelled like burning human hair and ‘harshed’ my throat seriously. I suggested we try one of mine…after Vic’s first inhalation he coughed like he was going to collapse a lung…then he looked up at me, with his eyes watering and a huge grin creeping up his elfish face, he exclaimed “Holy shit…that must be NORML executive director-quality weed!”

After the warm-up act ended the venue’s staff came into the haze to inform Vic that he was up next, but they’d arranged for him to sit in a chair to perform on stage, rather than bring him up there in his more comfortable wheelchair. He asked me if I could pick him up and bring up on stage.

I’m not a terribly strong person, and I wondered whether I could actually lift him out of the wheelchair and bring him up onstage. I was amazed at how light he was and as I started to put him down into the chair at center stage and I said something to him like “Man, you weigh next to nothing!’

A roadie handed him his little guitar, and as he plugged into the sound system and pedals he looked up at me, smiling, and said “I guess I’m only made of blood, sweat, tears…and THC.’ Then, this little, totally frail, meek body started to create a wall of noise, sounds and electronic distortion that filled the entire concert hall.

I always marveled at how much life and enthusiasm seem to explode from Vic’s voice and guitar, considering his severe physical limitations, and it always gave me a strong degree of hope regarding the resilience of the human spirit.

I still believe in the power of one’s own existence to touch the lives of others in positive ways, but Vic’s death presents for me a new and challenging way to view life.