cannabisnews.com: California Healthline Highlights Coverage of MMJ





California Healthline Highlights Coverage of MMJ
Posted by CN Staff on November 16, 2004 at 23:27:02 PT
Around California
Source: California Healthline 
The Los Angeles Times Magazine on Sunday examined a lawsuit filed against U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Asa Hutchinson, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, by chronic pain sufferer Angel Raich, two growers who supply her with marijuana and Diane Monson, another medical marijuana user. A three-judge panel in December 2003 ruled 2-1 that prosecuting people who use marijuana for medical purposes under the federal 1970 Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional in states where the drug's use is allowed under a physician's advice, provided that the marijuana is not sold, transported across state lines or used for nonmedical purposes. 
Both Raich and Monson received letters from their physicians authorizing them to use marijuana for medical purposes. The physicians' permission protected them under Proposition 215, a 1996 state ballot measure that legalized medical use of marijuana, from state and local prosecution. Raich's doctor said that other medications for pain and for side effects of therapies for a brain tumor, wasting syndrome, a seizure disorder and other conditions had been "useless or harmful" and that she might die without marijuana. Monson, who takes marijuana for severe chronic back pain and muscle spasms, had been subject to a federal raid in August 2002 during which six of her marijuana plants were seized and destroyed. To protect themselves from further federal interference with their treatment, Raich and Monson filed a lawsuit in October 2002 against Ashcroft and Hutchinson. A district judge in March 2002 ruled against Raich and Monson, and Raich appealed the case to the 9th Circuit Court. The appeals court reversed the decision in December 2003, ruling that states could adopt medical marijuana laws if the drug was not sold or transported across state lines or used for nonmedical purposes. The suit, which is scheduled to come before the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 29, asks for a court injunction to stop federal arrests and prosecutions of those who grow, possess or use marijuana for medical reasons in states allowing the practice. The Times reports that the decision will have "national implications" because nine other states also allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.State Marijuana Research Center Examined The Sacramento Bee on Monday examined research undertaken at the state Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, which the Legislature created in 1999 and for which it approved $9 million in funds over three years, "to find out whether marijuana makes good medicine." According to the Bee, researchers have reported few "definitive results" since the center was created.The center's three staff members, who operate in a 600 square-foot space in an office rental shared with a University of California-San Diego HIV research program, have taken "longer than expected" to begin studies, and data is being "collected and crunched," according to the Bee. Center scientists have published results from two studies suggesting cannabis or cannabinoids -- chemicals derived from, or similar to, the active ingredients in marijuana -- "could be good medicine," and the center "has established enough credibility to become a permanent entity," the Bee reports. The Legislature in 2003 approved a measure to make the center permanent, although the legislation did not include additional funding."Whatever happens, within a couple of years, we will have completed the largest group of therapeutic trials on smoked cannabis that's ever been done, and there ought to be some answers," Dr. Igor Grant, UCSD professor and director of the center, said. Opinion Piece Examines Medicinal Marijuana After 17 of 20 ballot initiatives nationwide to reduce restrictions on marijuana use passed on Nov. 2, politicians "should finally realize that the public is ready for a serious re-examination of marijuana laws that are too often based on ignorance and superstition," Robert Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project -- http://www.mpp.org/ -- wrote in a San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who has said he supports legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, should use his "considerable clout within the GOP" to press for further loosening of restrictions over the practice, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) -- "who's been missing in action on this issue" -- "should push to stop federal attacks on the sick and to bring sanity to federal marijuana laws," Kampia writes. Complete Title: California Healthline Highlights Recent Coverage of Medical Marijuana IssuesSource: California Healthline (CA)Published: November 16, 2004 Copyright: 2004 the Advisory Board CompanyWebsite: http://www.californiahealthline.org/Contact:  http://californiahealthline.org/index.cfm?Action=contactRelated Articles & Web Sites:Raich vs. Ashcroft http://www.angeljustice.org/Angel Raich v. Ashcroft Newshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/raich.htmMarijuana Research Hasn't Created a Buzzhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19824.shtmlFighting for The Right To Miracle Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19811.shtmlState Backs Medical Pot Case Before Court http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19640.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by siege on November 17, 2004 at 06:47:05 PT
from Senator Lamar Alexander 
 Im ask Him why we could not use the one we have here in Tn. it is the [natural gas] largest in the Nation. there is a pipe line thats natural gas that runs from TX. to NY. on my land, that runs right though it..NO DO IT THE HARD WAY!!  Dear Arthur,As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Energy and TVA Congressional Caucus Chairman, I have had a lot to say lately about the importance of using clean energy - like natural gas, nuclear power and coal gasification - so that we can have cleaner air. I have supported legislative proposals that go farther, faster than President Bush in restricting emissions from coal-fired power plants. I have urged stricter conservation measures.But, as Paul Harvey would say, here's the rest of the story. Our failure to produce an adequate supply of clean energy not only pollutes the air, it is shipping thousands of good jobs overseas.Last month I hosted a roundtable of Tennessee farmers and large employers to discuss one of the most severe of these supply problems: natural gas.During the last four years U.S. natural gas prices have gone from the lowest in the industrialized world to the highest. Our farms and large industries were built to operate on $2 to $3 mmBtu natural gas prices. Today's price of $6.75 shutters barns and ships chemical jobs overseas.For example, Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport has provided several thousand good paying jobs for three generations. Eastman uses natural gas for energy and as a raw material. It doesn't take a PhD in economics to see what happens at Eastman when natural gas prices triple. Last year, top managers took a 6 percent pay cut; workers took a 3 percent pay cut. Over 12,000 people work at Eastman, but there are one million jobs in the American chemical industry which could go overseas searching for reasonably priced natural gas.High natural gas prices forced PCS Nitrogen to close its Memphis operation last year. Tennessee farmers have seen fertilizer prices skyrocket -natural gas is also a raw material for making fertilizer.This is a classic supply/demand problem. Growing economies in China and India as well as the United States want more natural gas. Consumption has jumped 20 percent in 10 years and is expected to climb another 30 percent in the next 10.What has been Washington's response? To restrict access to natural gas supplies - as well as to other forms of domestic energy production.The United States has plenty of natural gas. We just can't get to it. Almost half of the nation's natural gas supply sits under federal lands - and much of them are closed to drilling, including the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Rockies.Many people don't like the idea of drilling for gas (or oil) in these federal lands. These same people often also object to nuclear power, another source of power that does not pollute the air. They suggest instead massive windmills, as tall as football fields are long and as noisy as freight trains, which to my way of thinking scar the landscape in the name of saving it - without producing much energy.This shortsighted thinking overlooks that we are relying on foreign sources for our natural gas (and oil), some of it from a dangerous part of the world where Americans are dying every day.There are rays of hope.Congress has approved a pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska (another place we have plenty of it) to the lower 48 states. Plenty of countries are happy to sell us Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) - but again these are foreign sources and there are environmental concerns about storing LNG in terminals on our coasts.The most promising solution to this dilemma is coal gasification, a process creating gas from coal. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal; we have a 500 year supply. The technology is proven; Eastman itself has been using coal gasification for more than 20 years. The obstacle, until lately, has been the high cost of coal gasification plants. Now, with high natural gas prices and our reluctance to use other energy supplies, the day of coal gasification may be arriving.There is the old story about the politician with friends on all sides of the issue who announced, "I stand with my friends." Some of my friends want stricter pollution controls. The friends I met with at the roundtable want more supply. Others want more conservation. I stand with my friends, because all three legs of the stool are necessary to any solution.One thing we do know for sure: Tennessee workers and farmers can't wait. President Dwight Eisenhower had a saying: "farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." The pencil pushers and ideologues in Washington need to understand that natural gas fuels our economy. By not increasing our supply quickly - through more drilling, new pipelines, approving LNG terminals, and coal gasification - our growing economic recovery will become recent history.
Senator Lamar Alexander * * * *
 
I also thought you’d be interested to see this article that ran in the Washington Post not long ago:
http://alexander.senate.gov/news/205934.htmlnatural gas 
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Comment #1 posted by global_warming on November 17, 2004 at 02:52:56 PT
Go Brazil
-"Lula is expected to sign an executive decree on November 24, taking drug enforcement responsibilities away from police agencies, and placing the problems of drug use under the jurisdiction of the Health Ministry, which will be charged with supporting the safe drug-use centers and make Harm Reduction - a policy to reduce the harms associated with drug use - the law of the land."Finally the voice of reason and compassion..
Docs Not Cops
Brazil's Lula to Sign Drug Decriminalization Decree on Nov. 24
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