cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Clinic President Pleads Guilty





Medical Marijuana Clinic President Pleads Guilty
Posted by CN Staff on July 16, 2003 at 07:55:47 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Los Angeles -- The head of a medical marijuana clinic pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges of maintaining a drug establishment, becoming the second clinic employee to agree to a plea bargain in the case.Scott Imler, president of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison but is expected to receive less time under federal sentencing guidelines. He could be fined up to $500,000.
U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz scheduled Imler's sentencing for Nov. 24.Federal agents raided the clinic in October 2001, seizing computers, financial documents, 400 marijuana plants, and medical records of some 3,000 current and former patients.The center, which opened in 1996, was providing marijuana to about 900 patients suffering from AIDS, epilepsy, glaucoma, cancer and other serious illnesses when it was shut down, Imler said.To receive the marijuana, patients had to be referred by their physicians and undergo a screening process.Imler, an activist and cancer patient himself, said he did not have "any hard feelings," adding, "In some ways we're proud of what we did. We think we did a good job."Jeffrey Farrington, the center's vice president, pleaded guilty in May to the same charge and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.Complete Title: West Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Clinic President Pleads Guilty Source: Associated PressPublished: Wednesday, July 16, 2003Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Related Articles & Web Site:LACRC http://www.lacbc.org/LACRC Members Go on Hunger Strikehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13102.shtmlFeds Move To Seize LA Cannabis Resources Center http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13081.shtmlCannabis Center Members Try To Carry On http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12854.shtml 
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Comment #14 posted by Rev Jonathan Adler on July 18, 2003 at 16:07:55 PT:
Scott Imler Did His Best!
Aloha, From Big Island. Until you are right there facing the music (90 years in my case) you cannot say how hard it is to stay true to your convictions. In my case I appealed the first decision and it still remains unheard at our state Supreme court after one year, but the second case where the police designed the crime and commited it; I had to plead guilty to being legal. I was in jail for the first six months straight time.I am out now and attempting to be more of a benefit. Scott did his best to work with the agencies that eventually busted him. His staff was very professional and they somehow survived the mean streets of Hollywood and remained a steady supporter of the cancer patient population in L.A. Somehow the Feds should look at the real connection that exists between the legal religious use of cannabis for healing and the medical practice of using it for accepted medical conditions. A research project or religious supply mechanism has promise. Let's be open minded for once.
Peace, Rev. Jonathan Adler/ Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute (Good Luck at sentencing Scott!)
Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute
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Comment #13 posted by paulpeterson on July 17, 2003 at 07:37:26 PT
E JOHNSON-nice work
"behavioral dispair" is just the cat's meow. You are right-Anslinger got miffed precisely because of what pot can do to a black man: not to be ruled by fear! Those mice with their tails taped proves it finally.Two years ago, in fact, I told that very fact to my first chief of police, that's just the point: pot allows people to overcome fear, that is all!That is, of course, the first plank of a repressive regime-rule by fear! That is why and how the 911 debackle happened in the first place. (Even if Bush didn't plan the whole thing, he certainly has come out fighting to milk the fear and anxiety to the hilt!).Now, of course, that the cat is outta the bag, let's see how long the "majority" stays there (in fear and denial, of course). PAUL
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Comment #12 posted by E_Johnson on July 16, 2003 at 13:14:46 PT
Musty and Deyo deserve a prize
Their research sounds rather minor on the face of it -- so cannabis makes mice wriggle about when confined, so what? But when you put it together with the history of cannabis use and cannabis prohibition, it sounds like a crucial piece of research that gives us an important clue about why there has been so much political conflict over this valuable and useful and beneficial substance.There are all of these suggestive bits of research that when put together suggest that cannabis is a soothing balm for the mental and physical ills of belonging to the underclass.Many mental and physical problems stem from the chronic stress of belonging to a group that is for some reason socially powerless and subject to phsycal and mental abuse.Louis Armsrong remembers cannabis as a medicine. He belonged to a group that was during his lifetime subjected to horrific organized violence that was largely socially accepted by mainstream society.Anslinger believed that reefer makes a black man no longer afraid to look a white man in the eye, and that fear of black people looking white people in the eye compelled him to pursue cannabis prohibition as a career.Something that overly empowers the underclass is eventually going to perceived as a threat by those among us who think their role in life is to rule over the underclass.I think Musty and Deyo have hit upon the whole reason for cannabis prohibition and also the reason why cannabis eventually will prevail over any attempt to get rid of it.I hope this scientific thread they have started is followed beyond the deveopment of some new product. This is a very interesting topic for some interdisciplinary research.
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Comment #11 posted by E_Johnson on July 16, 2003 at 12:50:17 PT
I'm not knocking Musty
Really, I'm not.I'm merely drawing a political parallel between medical marijuana patients and lab mice.We've all got out little tails taped to someone's bar and we're all struggling to get free.Even on a spiritual basis -- this is a very potent metaphor!We humans have our spiritual tails taped to the bar of pragmatic materialism. Perhaps cannabis makes us struggle against spiritual confinement as well as material confinement.
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Comment #10 posted by goneposthole on July 16, 2003 at 11:28:58 PT
experimental mice
9,000 US servicemen in Iraq have had their tails taped to the bar. Their tails are taped to the Iraqi bar indefinitely. A true horror story in the making, some are on suicide watch. May seem off topic, but I don't think so. Those neocons have their ways. 'and away we go'http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs04/bugle/bugle2.html
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Comment #9 posted by E_Johnson on July 16, 2003 at 10:52:50 PT
Harry Anslinger had a clue
Reefer makes a black man look a white man in the eye. That's what Anslinger believed, right? Maybe his belief could have been scientifically proven back in the Jazz Age. Reefer was a treatment for black behavioral despair. And the record companies still make money from Louis Armstrong, who was a mouse would got his tail free from the bar and then freed other mice.Maybe Harry Anslinger was the smartest prohibitionist of all. He knew he couldn't keep the black tails taped to the bar when the black mice were high on reefer.
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Comment #8 posted by Ethan Russo MD on July 16, 2003 at 10:51:53 PT:
For What It's Worth
I know Rik Musty, and he is a dedicated and compassionate man. He does not pursue research to torture mice, but rather to pursue useful information that will place this medicine in the hands of patients that require it.I could tell you true horror stories, however, of the excesses of animal testing in service of the Drug War.I'd like to see more of the trials in humans, but sometimes the increments have to be baby steps to appease the powers that be.
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Comment #7 posted by E_Johnson on July 16, 2003 at 10:42:41 PT
Behavioral despair
Interesting term isn't it? They tape their little tails to a bar and frighten the poor things half to death. A little mouse who can't run away is no doubt feeling like an easy target for the next hawk or house cat that might just happen by. Poor little mouse. What's a poor little mouse to do? Those giant all-powerful humans can't make up their minds about whose tails to tape to what bar, so they have to fighten poor little mice half to death while they study the question.Cannabis shown to defeat behavioral despair.Think of the role played by "behavioral despair" in history and the political and social and religious impact of the struggle against "behavioral despair".Human history is filled with the stories of little mice struggling against having their tails taped to some big bar.It's all becoming clear now, the link between cannabis and cannabis prohibition.
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Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on July 16, 2003 at 10:24:40 PT
Scientists find reason why marijuana is illegal
 Psychologists Richard A. Deyo ( Winona State University in Minnesota ) and Richard E. Musty ( University of Vermont, Burlington ) assessed the anti-depressant potential of a GW extract rich in cannabichromene ( CBC ). They worked with mice whose tails were taped to a bar to induce "behavioral despair." Anti-depressant effect was adduced from the extent to which the mice struggled. And sure enough, mice administered CBC put up high-amplitude resistance. "The present data suggest that CBC may induce anti-depressive effects," the authors concluded. High amplitude resistance to having their tails taped to a bar.Joyce, are you out there watching this?Sweetie darling -- this is why you and your kind want marijuana to stay illegal.So that we don't thrash about as hard when our tails are taped to your bar.
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Comment #5 posted by fivepounder on July 16, 2003 at 08:32:21 PT
he is not an Ed
He wants to avoid the 20 year sentence. La is not SF. He may well be doing the right thing
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Comment #4 posted by Jose Melendez on July 16, 2003 at 08:32:06 PT
drug war proven fraudulent
From: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1069/a08.html?397Two papers and a poster presented at the recent International Cannabinoid Research Society meeting in Cornwall, Ontario described successful tests of whole-plant cannabis extracts developed by G.W. Pharmaceuticals in the U.K. Steve McKerral of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Middlesex, reported on a study involving 48 patients ( 46 men, average age 38.5 ) who had suffered an extremely painful tearing away of nerves from the spinal cord ( brachial-plexus avulsions ). Treatments such as opioids, anticonvulsants and antipressants are partially effective at best... Patients in McKerral's study were allowed to keep using their other drugs. They were given three different sublingual sprays over three two-week stretches: a placebo, a high-THC extract, and a THC-CBD mix. Neither they nor the staff conducting the study knew who was getting what. Subjects' pain levels and sleep quality were assessed by questionnaire. "Both the THC and THC:CBD extracts decreased pain and improved sleep," McKerral et al concluded. "The medications were well tolerated.... Patients' ability to self-titrate allowed them to take higher doses to promote sleep, and to avoid dosing if they needed to drive... Given the refractory nature of this central neuropathic pain, this study shows that cannabis based medicinal extracts ( CBMEs ) may represent a significant advance in treatment." Ciaran Brady of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, tested GW's CBMEs on 21 multiple sclerosis patients with lower urinary tract symptoms. He concluded, "The number of incontinence episodes, nocturia episodes [getting up in the night to pee], and daytime urinary frequency all decreased significantly. The incidence of urinary urgency decreased significantly and the number of 'planned or normal' voids increased significantly... This open-label study of self-titrated CBME, in a select group of such patients, demonstrated amelioration of these problems with few troublesome side effects, suggesting that CBME may prove to be a safe and effective additional treatment." Psychologists Richard A. Deyo ( Winona State University in Minnesota ) and Richard E. Musty ( University of Vermont, Burlington ) assessed the anti-depressant potential of a GW extract rich in cannabichromene ( CBC ). They worked with mice whose tails were taped to a bar to induce "behavioral despair." Anti-depressant effect was adduced from the extent to which the mice struggled. And sure enough, mice administered CBC put up high-amplitude resistance. "The present data suggest that CBC may induce anti-depressive effects," the authors concluded. 
Revenge of the Narcs 
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Comment #3 posted by paulpeterson on July 16, 2003 at 08:31:36 PT
SCOTT IMLER PLEA
Mr. Imler is a religious man (Methodist). He wants to tell the truth, meaning that he does not consider the trial right, or even necessary (I'm guessing). Further, of course, with the judiciary getting more and more angry over the sentencing "guidelines" they are stuck with, a guilty plea might just get some leniency (sort of like Ed got from the judge-a day or so).His admission of guilt, then, only proves how this matter is progressing nicely towards the end of the drug war.Each case that gets reported in this current climate only brings these issues more to the fore.Just keep up hope, Scott. There are others to carry on your brave attempts at justice. PAUL (somewhere in the heartland).
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on July 16, 2003 at 08:30:13 PT
200 channels and no show on jury nullification
Jury nullification is one of the cornerstones of what used to be our democracy/republic. Of course these people could not count on a fully informed jury and could not risk the rest of their lives in jail. They are soldiers in freedom and we all need to work to clear their record and remove their sentences. Full correction of the situation for Canada was in the Senate Report. It would hold true here.From http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5017398.html -Support for legalising cannabis has trebled 
 
SCOTS are becoming more liberal towards cannabis use, a new survey reveals today.
 
Support to legalise the drug has more than trebled in the last 20 years in the UK.
 
Around 41% Britons now back the move compared to 12% in 1983, and 86% believe that doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for medical purposes.
 
Half of all 18 to 34-year-olds have tried the drug and 66% have a friend or relative who has taken illegal drugs.
 
The findings, from the National Centre for Social Research, show that although more people support legalising cannabis, 90% believe that heroin and ecstasy should remain illegal. 
Scots believe heroin, cocaine, tobacco and alcohol cause most damage to regular users, and few back the regular use of prescription drugs. Researcher Nina Stratford said: "People are becoming more tolerant to the use of cannabis, but there are still clear limits to what is acceptable in the area of illegal drug taking." SCOTS are becoming more liberal towards cannabis use, a new survey reveals today.
 
Support to legalise the drug has more than trebled in the last 20 years in the UK. Around 41% Britons now back the move compared to 12% in 1983, and 86% believe that doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for medical purposes.Americans too are at 41% for regulating cannabis like T&A. Push the snowball and lets get that 50%. If we don't change something soon we will no longer say "Remember the Alamo." We will say "Remember the rain forest."- Of course with mercury levels rising in seafood and the ground water from the coal-powered electrical plants people might just be saying "Remember what?"People seem to already forget the failure of prohibition that the country could only stand for 9 years on a real demon substance. We have now had an insanity hidden as a hoax for almost 66 years on a beneficial plant. The soundbites will soon be of concerned citizens demonizing the stupid politicians that dare to support cannabis prohibition and the WOD. Walters can no longer even speak to an open audience. Soon no politician will try it.Leave no prohibitionist in office. Leave every newspaper in the rack. Why pay people to secret the truth from you? Make the upside down right again and convert an ignorant prohibitionist.Show some zero tolerance and a justified righteos indignation and maybe channel some of the patriotism to the ideals of a more perfect union and the public good. It is time to march across the Rainbow Bridge and see Niagara Falls, Ontario.
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Comment #1 posted by 13th step on July 16, 2003 at 08:16:22 PT:
Ugh
>Imler, an activist and cancer patient himself, said he did >not have "any hard feelings," adding, "In some ways we're >proud of what we did. We think we did a good job."Why did he plead guilty? Why no fight?
He should be very proud of what he did.Compassion, and caring for your fellow man should not be a crime.It should also not be ridiculed, or looked down upon.(sarcasm on)Boy, I really feel safe now that those damn cancer and aids and ms patients aren't getting any relief from their symptoms. Why, they should all get locked up with all the fags and niggers and spics and muslims and hippies.When you cage a sick person for the type of relief they use, you are the sickest.It will crumble...eventually.
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