cannabisnews.com: NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- July 10, 2003





NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- July 10, 2003
Posted by CN Staff on July 10, 2003 at 15:17:47 PT
Weekly Press Release
Source: NORML
American Nursing Association Backs Patient Access To Medicinal MarijuanaJuly 10, 2003 - Washington, DC, USAWashington, DC: The American Nursing Association (ANA) overwhelmingly adopted a resolution supporting the use of medical marijuana by qualified patients, and calling on Congress to reclassify the drug so that doctors may prescribe it. Delegates approved the resolution at the ANA's annual meeting in June.
The ANA resolution states that the association "support[s] the right of patients to have safe access to therapeutic marijuana/cannabis under appropriate prescriber supervision." It further resolves that the ANA "support[s] legislation to remove criminal penalties including arrest and imprisonment for bona fide patients and prescribers of therapeutic marijuana, [and] federal ... legislation to exclude marijuana/cannabis from classification as a schedule I [prohibited] drug."The ANA represents some 2.7 million Registered Nurses nationwide.By passing the resolution, the ANA joins more than a dozen national health organizations including the American Public Health Association and the National Nurses Society on Addiction that have taken similar positions in support of the medical use of marijuana. Eleven state nursing associations have also passed resolutions backing the therapeutic use of cannabis.For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-8751. A complete listing of state and national medical associations supportive of medicinal cannabis is available on NORML's website at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5106. Additional information is available from Patients Out of Time at: http://www.medicalcannabis.com/DL: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5701Canada Announces Plans To Sell Medicinal Pot To Qualified Patients -- Health Canada Claims They Have 370 Kilograms Of Medi-Pot Ready For Immediate SaleJuly 10, 2003 - Ottawa, ON, CanadaOttawa, Ontario: Health Canada announced yesterday that it will begin distributing medical marijuana to qualified patients in order to comply with a court order mandating the government to supply pot to patients who are federally authorized to use it. More than 580 Canadians are currently qualified to use and possess medical marijuana legally under federal law.Under the new plan, the agency will sell either seeds or dried marijuana to eligible patients at discounted prices $5 a gram for cannabis, and $20 per bag of 30 seeds. (Prices are in Canadian funds.)Health Canada signed a contract with a private firm several years ago to begin growing marijuana for medicinal and research purposes, but has repeatedly reneged on promises to make its pot publicly available. The agency now claims it has an estimated 370 kilograms of medical cannabis ready for distribution.The government-grown marijuana is reputed to average 10 percent THC.Health Minister Anne McLellan noted that the policy change could be short-lived because Ottawa is appealing the court decision that mandated it. In January, an Ontario Superior Court judge ordered Heath Canada to broaden access to medical marijuana after determining that the agency's existing regulations were unconstitutional because they failed to offer qualified patients a legal source for medicinal cannabis. Health Canada will likely cease selling medical marijuana if the ruling is overturned.Since becoming Health Minister, McLellan has been reluctant to move forward on promises made by her predecessor, Allan Rock, to make marijuana legally available. In addition, the agency has repeatedly refused to make the agency's pot supply available for federally approved clinical trials, claiming that its cannabis was of inconsistent quality.In March, the agency abruptly cut funding for one of only two ongoing clinical trials on the medical efficacy of marijuana. Health Canada gave no explanation for the decision, and McLellan has refused to sponsor any additional trials.For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500.DL: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5700Ottawa To Sell Marijuana To Patients http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16825.shtmlAccess To Pot Eases Pain and Worrieshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16821.shtmlPatients Seek Relief On Price of Medical Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16813.shtml Pot Ingredient Neuroprotective In Animals, Study SaysJuly 10, 2003 - Milan, ItalyMilan, Italy: Cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound in marijuana, is protective against brain injury in animals, according to a study published in this month's issue of Neuroscience Letters.Researchers in Italy reported that administration of CBD in gerbils prevented brain damage caused by ischemia (a reduction of blood flow to the brain that can cause cell death)."These findings suggest a potential therapeutic role of cannabidiol in cerebral ischemia, though the clear mechanism of action remains to be elucidated," authors concluded.Federal law prohibits the medical use of any cannabinoid other than synthetic THC.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 week, the Israeli pharmaceutical company Pharmos announced the commencement of the first ever Phase III US study on the effectiveness of the synthetic marijuana derivative Dexanabinol to treat brain damage resulting from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and/or stroke.For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, Senior Policy Analyst of the NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-8751. Full text of the study appears in the July 31, 2003 issue of Neuroscience Letters.DL: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5702Source: NORML Foundation (DC)Published: July 10, 2003Copyright: 2003 NORML Contact: norml norml.org Website: http://www.norml.org/NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- July 2, 2003http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16754.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- June 26, 2003 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16730.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- June 19, 2003 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16661.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by Trekkie on July 11, 2003 at 07:36:58 PT
Well, I HAD hope...
Timing is everything. Yesterday there was this news from the ANA backing MMJ, and today there is a story about George Stalin Bush and his cronies slapping a gag on the already blind lady-justice.The hope I had yesterday, is crushed today...Or, not. Doesn't this feel like a very desperate, and illegal (not like that would stop them) attempt from the most Machiavellian administration in recent memory?There have been other recent administrations that have been decietful, to be sure. But this one is has done all its vile acts "for our own good" (ala Homeland Security and such). Much like an abusive parent. If George Machiavelli Bush were our father, and we his offspring, we'd be in foster care due to neglect and mistreatment.
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Comment #5 posted by paulpeterson on July 11, 2003 at 07:23:22 PT
BRAIN RESEARCH
Please keep in mind that in September & December, 2001, Holland rats proved that pot products can protect brain cells from excitotoxins, (they used an alkaloid similar to cocaine called "Ouabain") and when they dosed rats with pot first, 2/3 of the at-risk brain cells were spared. They even found they could save some 1/3 of the damage when they WAITED 7 DAYS BEFORE GIVING THE POT (after the injection of the poison!) Hey, that must be why pot ALWAYS stops an alcohol hangover, like a morning after pill (please, just don't wait 7 days, ok?Last fall a guy in Madrid, Spain proved that Amyloid Beta particles (known to buildup in the brains of Alzheimer's patients) actually do kill brain cells in a lab setting. Then when he mixed in cannabis products-NO MORE BRAIN CELL DEATH FROM THE A-B's.Last week I saw an article suggesting that when people have a heart attack, the best way to avoid brain inflammation & damage is to "cool" the brain. We all know, of course, that the best anti-inflammatory medication in the world is cannabis-need I say more?Pharmos is also involved in a major, 100,000 bed study to see if cannabis products can avoid "Mild Cognitive Impairment" that 1/3 of open heart surgery patients get from "pump brain" (the use of artificial circulation). Of course, we all know that this stuff "chills" so well, well, you get the point.German mice proved that when they take away the "hippy" brain cells the mice NEVER CAN FORGET PAINFUL MEMORIES ie: they proved just why pot causes short-term memory deficits-Anandamide (our own stash, that is) is SUPPOSED to allow us to jettison extraneous data so we can move on with life unimpeded by PTSD or anxiety.The IM 99 proved that pot is not the gateway, with mild-shorterm "withdrawal" symptoms (if at all), and good for anxiety.Now with these foreign drug companies invading our shores, the cat will get out of the bag. The tide has turned, and thanks to Bush for bumbling the Irag "peace" mission so well, to finally get freedom fighters and talkers to start talking and taking up the gauntlet of freedom? Paul
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Comment #4 posted by E_Johnson on July 10, 2003 at 17:08:08 PT
We will win because it really works
My doctor told me that he believes there will be a Nobel Prize awarded some day for cannabinoid science, once they get it all understood.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on July 10, 2003 at 17:04:11 PT
Richard
You ask about Med Pot here in the USA. I can only sigh. We are so backwards in the states. Scared of change and know how to avoid issues like no other country it seems. Fear of the unknown must stop soon. I hope that adults start to question more about our laws. If we don't become involved in important issues I think we can be consumed by their negative effects. We are a culture of people born somewhere back in the summer of love. We deserve to be acknowledge as good people. I'm not better then anyone but I'm very tired of being made to feel like a lesser human being.
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Comment #2 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on July 10, 2003 at 16:44:51 PT:
WHAT ABOUT MEDPOT IN THE U.S.??!!!
There is a medical pot Bill in the New York State Assembly, A. 5796, but it may not pass.There is the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Bill, sponsored by U.S. Representatives Barney Frank and Ron Paul, pending in the United States House of Representatives.There is H.R. 1717, The Truth In Trials Act, which includes medical cannabis decriminalization.One member of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health, is U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. He has sent me at least two identical letters stating that Cannabis has been used in medicine and that he will keep my thoughts in mind if such legislation comes up for a vote. Unfortunately, his "legislative office" is located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where Johnson & Johnson is, and I am concerned he would only vote for medical pot Bill if the pharmeceutical industry stands to make money on it, that instead of representing the American people, as the oath of office implies, he instead is a representative of Big Corporations! Not only these, Representative Pallone recently replied to one of my e-mails that his Frank.Pallone mail.house.gov address is being discontinued due to a large volume of "junk mail" and that we must henceforth e-mail him from the United States House of Representatives Web site. Hmmmm??!! I have been forwarding him e-mails from www.cannabisnews.com, www.cannabisculture.com, and my own, asking him to legalize Cannabis. You don't suppose he was referring to my e-mails as "junk mail"? Do you?This is why I only vote for Libertarian Party or Green Party candidates, unless it is Henry Waxman, a Democrat, or Dennis Perrone, awho ran for Governor of California as a Democrat.You gotta look at the history of the Cannabis laws:
Shadow of the Swastika, www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html
The Emperor Wears No Clothes, www.jackherer.com;
www.hempcar.org; www.hemptrivia.com.Richard Paul Zuckerman, Box 159, Metuchen, N.J., 08840-0159, (Cell telephone)(908) 403-6990, www.norml.org; www.normlnj.org; www.cannabisculture.com; www.hightimes.com; Diploma in Paralegal, New York University, 2003; B.A. in Political Science, Kean College of New Jersey, 1987.
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Comment #1 posted by Trekkie on July 10, 2003 at 15:44:35 PT
Big wheel keep on turnin',
Proud Mary keep on burnin'...Is it just me, or does it seem like the snowball is picking up speed; rolling downhill, growing larger and larger...This and the doings in Cananda are good signs, indeed!
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