cannabisnews.com: Dutch in Need Can Buy Their Pot at the Drug Store Dutch in Need Can Buy Their Pot at the Drug Store Posted by CN Staff on February 10, 2004 at 22:37:29 PT Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post Foreign Service Source: Washington Post Groningen, Netherlands -- With a lever controlled by his left arm -- the only part of his body he can still move -- Peter Boonman maneuvers his motorized wheelchair across the floor of his spacious apartment to a table where he keeps a vaporizing pipe and small plastic pharmaceutical containers of pungent marijuana. He packs the pipe with a small amount of the grass, steams it with a heat lamp and captures the highly concentrated THC vapor in a large plastic bag. He takes a hit from a short plastic tube attached to the bag and covers the top of the tube to keep the precious vapors from escaping. Then he settles back in his wheelchair and waits for the high to kick in. Getting high makes Boonman's life bearable these days. Since he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the end of the 1980s, his robust body has slowly deteriorated. At 52 years old, he is almost entirely paralyzed and is confined to his wheelchair or bed. "The MS makes me tired," he said. "The marijuana gives me strength and energy." Boonman smokes about three grams of marijuana each day. When he runs low, he picks up the phone and calls a pharmacy here in Groningen, a city in the northern Netherlands. A pharmacist delivers the pot in small plastic jars -- usually 20 bottles, enough to last him a month. Eighty percent of the cost is covered by national health insurance. Last March, the Netherlands passed a law allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients suffering from a variety of ailments, including multiple sclerosis, AIDS and cancer. The Dutch government then contracted with two growers to produce the medicinal marijuana under strict guidelines to ensure quality and cleanliness. By September, the world's first large-scale government-contracted supplies of pot reached pharmacy shelves. Snipped: Complete Article: http://freedomtoexhale.com/drugstore.htmSource: Washington Post (DC)Author: Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post Foreign ServicePublished: Wednesday, February 11, 2004; Page A22 Copyright: 2004 Washington Post Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.com Related Articles & Web Site:Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmDutch Approve Cannabis as Prescription Drughttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17203.shtmlMedical Marijuana Sold in the Netherlandshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17201.shtmlMedical Marijuana Goes on Sale in Pharmacieshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17198.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #11 posted by FoM on February 11, 2004 at 14:49:20 PT Thanks Dr. Russo! Here They Are! Pot Proponent Just Says No: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18332.shtmlDr. Dope's Connection: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18331.shtmlPipe Dream?: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18329.shtmlThe Cannabis Conundrum: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18285.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by Ethan Russo MD on February 11, 2004 at 14:40:30 PT More from Bill Breen at Fast Company Bill Breen has published more great material from Lester Grinspoon, David Watson, and Rick Doblin at this page:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/under "Web Exclusives and Extras"If you like the coverage, please leave comments to reflect this so that the magazine will continue to publish on the topic. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by ekim on February 11, 2004 at 08:23:51 PT time for Montel to do his show in Netherlands I see that Conan is doing his show from Toronto this week.Virg thanks for hu on There will be a debate this Sunday at Marquette at 6:30 on MSNBC. That is in Milwaulkee, Wisconsin. I wonder what Gary and IMMLY will be doing. Out side of Ann Arbor --Maddison is the oldest city that has a ticket for Cannabis. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by goneposthole on February 11, 2004 at 07:12:27 PT some sunshine peeks through the dark, ominous, oppressive cloud of prohibition."He hadn't anything personal against me, except that I was opposed to the political war, and he said I was a traitor and didn't go to fight in the Philippines. That doesn't prove anything. That doesn't prove a man is a traitor. Where's the evidence? There are seventy-five millions of us working our patriotism. He did the same thing himself. It would be an entirely different question if the country's life was in danger, its existence at stake; then -- that is one kind of patriotism -- we would all come forward and stand by the flag, and stop thinking about whether the nation was right or wrong; but when there is no question that the nation is in any way in danger, but only some little war away off, then it may be that on the question of politics the nation is divided, half-patriots and half-traitors, and no man can tell which from which"- Mark Twainhttp://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/essays/uncensored020114d.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on February 11, 2004 at 06:41:49 PT: Unrelated: The Bin Laden Family's flight from US at the time after the attacks, when all other civilian aircraft were still grounded...and why they were not interrogated:Congressman asks for probe of flights of bin Laden kin By Klaus Marre http://thehill.com/news/021104/waxman.aspx Henry Waxman may turn out to be a sort of 21st century Tom Paine, asking the hard, uncomfortable questions and supplying answers scathingly destructive of 'common knowledge' forwarded by those with VERY much to hide. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on February 11, 2004 at 05:35:28 PT: I'm stunned...and that's saying something This was in *The Washington Post*? The (expletive deleted) Washington Post?After the Janet Cooke debacle of 1980 (see http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/day/04_17_2001.html) I gave up on them. They haven't done much to earn any resumption of trust on my part since then. To my mind, they have pandered to the local Federal worker's interests at the expense of all others living in the surrounding States and District and been little more than a mouthpiece of govenment.But this? I'm in shock. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Virgil on February 11, 2004 at 00:23:00 PT The Washington Post wants to get real? If it were not so late I would do a word count. I guess nobody wants to have to try and defend a Schedule 1 classification when it is a Schedule 5. Is the Post trying to break back into the news business? Do they think they can turn a profit when their subsidiary profits dry up from the testing in schools bonanza? This is as big a deal as the hemp article in the LA Times last month. Did reality tv lesson the Post into a reality mode? I am mortified and stupefied. They must know the Brits will soon be recruiting an army of testimony to bring to American shores. The British are coming. This could signify a true realignment in Washington. The jig is up. It could be a signal of big changes as this story would have been seen by officialdom for their approval. There will be a debate this Sunday at Marquette at 6:30 on MSNBC. That is in Milwaulkee, Wisconsin. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by E_Johnson on February 11, 2004 at 00:16:36 PT And all the vaporizer coverage That's really amazing -- Dutch vaporizers in the Washington Post.Oh I remember back to the days when the Washington Post was so prohibitionist, they misrepresented the IOM report on the day it came out.They forgot to mention that the conclusion was positive. Oh it was amazing. They kissed McCaffrey's behind.They had a completely erroneous biased story on the front page the first day, and then a more accurate story appeared the day after, perhaps in response to complaints from the IOM.They were willing to shill for Clinton but not for Bush it appears.Hooray for us! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on February 10, 2004 at 23:21:34 PT That Would Be Great I thought that too EJ! Are you my long lost sister or something? LOL! [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on February 10, 2004 at 23:11:32 PT Wow, the Washington Post! Maybe Kerry will see it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on February 10, 2004 at 22:39:10 PT After Very Little News Today This Is Nice Maybe someday this will happen here too. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment