cannabisnews.com: City Pols vs. Feds Over Medical Pot





City Pols vs. Feds Over Medical Pot
Posted by CN Staff on December 26, 2005 at 07:12:40 PT
By Kenneth R. Bazinet, Washington Bureau
Source: New York Daily News 
Washington -- An unusual alliance that includes liberal New York congressmen and one of President Bush's most powerful conservative advisers is trying to bust a government monopoly on growing marijuana for research.Several medical groups, the United Methodist Church and 38 members of Congress, including Manhattan Democrats Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, are backing activist Rick Doblin's call for the feds to allow privately funded scientists to test medical marijuana.
Doblin argues that the sole lab growing weed for government research at the University of Mississippi is not looking into different strains and different potencies. And he's received important backing from Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a National Rifle Association board member, who is also urging licensing of the first privately funded program."The bipartisan support is important," said Doblin, head of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/citypols.htmSource: New York Daily News (NY)Author: Kenneth R. Bazinet, Daily News Washington BureauPublished: December 26, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Daily News, L.P.Website: http://www.nydailynews.com/Contact: voicers edit.nydailynews.comRelated Articles & Web Site:MAPShttp://www.maps.org/ Ole Miss Marijuana Monopoly Under Fire http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21392.shtmlProf. Questions Gov't Monopoly on Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21375.shtmlFederal Marijuana Monopoly Challengedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21372.shtml 
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Comment #20 posted by afterburner on December 27, 2005 at 20:50:40 PT
RE Comment #13 posted by runruff
Nice metaphor and hopeful evaluation
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Comment #19 posted by global_warming on December 26, 2005 at 15:27:31 PT
Girls
You are in this EternityEvery New BreathYou 'witnessIs a BreathThat brings 'usCloser to the Light
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on December 26, 2005 at 15:13:21 PT
Kaptinemo 
I don't know anything about the organizations you mentioned except I know the names and know they do good work in their area of concern. They would cover more then cannabis I would think. I really am geared towards reforming laws around Cannabis. Then I will be able to stop posting news and move on to what might be next which could become very interesting.
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Comment #17 posted by global_warming on December 26, 2005 at 15:04:52 PT
hey whig
At the grok,I listened to 'money,The Line that divides 'usOur spiritual connectionShall 'we march around that golden calf,Shall that Light of Everlasting KnowledgeBring our HandPress the button
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Comment #16 posted by kaptinemo on December 26, 2005 at 14:57:38 PT:
FoM, most of the remarks made came from a woman
Deborah Small, to be exact. FAMM, MAMM, the November Coalition, etc. largely run by women. It's not that they aren't there; it's that much of the *academics* are done by men. And unfortunately (and this may seem a stretch, coming from me) we need less talk-talk about facts and figures and more faces from the jails showing up in our presentations. That a huge number of those faces belong to women is why. Reminding the audience that this was someone's mother, daughter or sister who's in prison for holding or selling plant extracts...if they did that much. Some were the classic "wrong place, wrong time" scenarios. Damn few of any of them deserve to be treated the way they are. So, yes, we need more female participation in the movement...but let's also remember the ones already there...
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Comment #15 posted by whig on December 26, 2005 at 14:48:18 PT
Groklaw and its den mother PJ
FoM, in particular, but anyone else who is interested might like to check out Groklaw which is another piece of what I consider our larger organism, focusing on legal issues of free software. This is the economic underpinning of the future, and it is under attack, but it is winning. The person who has organized Groklaw is also a den mother called PJ.
Groklaw
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Comment #14 posted by global_warming on December 26, 2005 at 14:12:26 PT
That is Amazing RR
I wish that you were the president of these USIt is my understanding, that some people,Think that Nixon was a good President,Mostly Chinese and mexican, guess they are coming from some deeper slavery, but imagine right here on this soil, there are Americans that continue to subscribe, and vote for this same ignorant mentality.Never said, that I wish that 'Jake had a merry christmas, was hoping, that when they get tired of smashing faces, they could catch a glimpse of the Light that that will be a 'witness, as they throw the dirt on your body Jake.
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Comment #13 posted by runruff on December 26, 2005 at 13:46:56 PT:
The bitter root.
Going back to my church going days I want to say I think 
I might have picked up a few grains of wisdom here and there. For example, I remember Yeshoa teaching about the bitter root that produces bitter fruit. That is how I view the CSA. Without this "bitter root" the DEA has no authority. It is the corruption of our constitution and our bill of rights that gives the Feds the police powers they now have. That is why the CSA was created by Nixon. He even said so. He said he wanted to be remembered as the law and order president and was frustrated to see so much rebellion taking place in America during his time as president. At that time Fed law severely limited police authority in the various states. One of his advisors remarked to him at the time, "if you could pass a federal ban on narcotics, that would solve your problem. You could then create a federal narco-police and place a police presence in evey precinct across the country." Thus spoken the DEA was born. The CSA was introduced to congress and was passed without it even being read. Government has never met a law they didn't like. It's only a matter of whether or not they can pass it without starting an uprising. Now-a-days you can't build a fire under people for any reason. 
I call it the Bread and Games Syndrome. It worked for Rome number one why not for Rome number two. Anyway, my point is: kill the root or pull up the root and the fruit will die on the vine. We need an all-out assault on the CSA. It is poorly written, unconstitutional, and has been a cancer to our bill of rights since it's inseption. It is the legacy of Cheif Justice Reinquist who was a sell-out to the American people. He wrote the damn thing while serving as a young lawyer in Nixon's administration. So long as he lived he never let the vile thing die. He saw it as his legacy. Now that he is gone perhapes we can drive a stake through the heart of this vampire that is sucking dry our rights and freedoms.Are you "Fed up" yet?
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Comment #12 posted by global_warming on December 26, 2005 at 13:46:18 PT
But if I should lose your love,
Psa 23:1 A Davidic psalm. The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. Psa 23:2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. Psa 23:3 He renews my life; He leads me along the right paths for His name's sake. Psa 23:4 Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff--they comfort me. Psa 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Psa 23:6 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD as long as I live. 
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Comment #11 posted by global_warming on December 26, 2005 at 13:33:34 PT
The Boomers Are Coming
There's a new world somewhere
They call The Promised Land
And I'll be there some day
If you will hold my hand
I still need you there beside me
No matter what I do
For I know I'll never find another youThere is always someone
For each of us they say
And you'll be my someone
For ever and a day
I could search the whole world over
Until my life is through
But I know I'll never find another youIt's a long, long journey
So stay by my side
When I walk through the storm
You'll be my guide
Be my guideIf they gave me a fortune
My pleasure would be small
I could lose it all tomorrow
And never mind at all
But if I should lose your love, dear
I don't know what I'd do
For I know I'll never find another youBut if I should lose your love, dear
I don't know what I'd do
For I know I'll never find another you
Another you
Another you
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gary.hart/lyricss/seekers.html
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on December 26, 2005 at 12:52:45 PT
whig 
I didn't believe at first that women should be apart of drug issues but someone said to me one time that women are very important. Men are more matter of fact or something like that. Women feel how they think and it's hard to argue with a women. We are strong willed and bull headed and usually win an argument with a man. That's not putting a man down it's just we think differently then men and act accordingly. Thanks so much for understanding.
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Comment #9 posted by whig on December 26, 2005 at 12:43:31 PT
FoM
I was talking with my wife at lunch today about this, every movement really needs women at the core in order to civilize the social construct. This was actually my point to her, she thought I was maybe generalizing too much. My point though, came down to this. Men are culturally prohibited from expressing love for one another, women do not have this same barrier. Place a man at the center of a social organization, and we can work together as friends, but we cannot be a true family. Place a woman at the center and we are a caring community.I thanked you yesterday for being our den mother, and I meant it. You are knitting together the entire cannabis family right now, don't ever doubt how much you do for us.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on December 26, 2005 at 12:21:43 PT
Just one More Short Comment
Over the holidays I was able to hear different views on how to look at how we are now and why we are the way we are. Soon those older then the 60s Generation, since I don't like the name boomers, will be the ones who will be leading this country. We are stuck right now with people like Bush who turned his back on our culture but he is only one person and there are many more of us. I have a hope that soon the 60s culture will help change the course of the war against marijuana since so many remember the way it was going to be until we were pushed aside and made to feel we don't have a voice. We have a voice now.Happy New Year 2006 a little early!
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on December 26, 2005 at 11:37:29 PT
Kaptinemo 
I checked out the link you posted and I feel like I don't understand what people want as far as drug policy reform goes. I don't see a woman's perspective represented in many of articles about the drug issue. It's almost like it's a guy only thing. Maybe there are active woman involved in drug policy issues but I really never see the influence. It seems to be more political then practical which most woman look at.
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on December 26, 2005 at 10:46:40 PT:
I'd be pessimistic too, save for a few things
Budsnax, I'm only too aware of what happened last time the DEA was allowed to judge itself. But some things have changed, and changed mightily.A bad habit Americans have is short-attention span. A fact which our own government exploits with ease. But a number of things are happenning that are causing this issue to be taken more seriously than it has previously. The most important of which I've already mentioned: the aging of the Boomers. Even those DEA Agents who engaged in the wanton sadism of attacking the dispensaries before the Holidays are feeling Father Time leaning on them, and none too gently. Age - a force as real as (and all too often is allied with) gravity - is slowly forcing the leading edge of this issue in between the cracks of what used to be a smooth featureless Gub'mint stonewall. In 10 years almost a quarter of the country has California style MMJ laws, and more are considering them. Study after study after study after study - shamefacedly, the majority being from other countries - are showing what we here have always known: the cannabis plant is a botanical Swiss Army Knife, whose full usefulness has YET to be catalogued. Facts which the enforced silence of Gub'mint prohibition sought to forever bury are being dug up. Ever since 1996 and the Propositions 200 and 215, the antis have had to redouble their efforts, but like definition says about true fanatics, have forgotten their original goal...which was racist to the core. THEY HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS. It's like an unexploded bomb that was dropped during some forgotten war, that when dug up blows up the finders...who in this case dropped the damn thing to begin with. This above all remains their Achille's Heel...one which is being rediscoverd, as it becomes clear from the statements of those who attended the conference in Seattle recently: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/414/kcbaconf.shtml When enough minorites become engaged in the reform effort, it's all over but the shouting. It's been only 16 years since the Berlin Wall fell, but I remember that it began by brave West Berliners taking a hammer & chisel to the Wall. Their efforts weren't very effective, but more came, with power tools, and finally with jackhammers and cranes and the Wall was down within days. We must have that kind of perseverence. We've come far; we can go further. And we will, if only to save ourselves.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 26, 2005 at 09:59:49 PT
BUDSNAXZ 
Happy Holidays to you too. I know that the the fight will go on if they say no. That's the bounce back ability of the reform movement concerning Cannabis and the laws. After all these years don't they understand that we really believe what we say? Cannabis has helped enhance many people's lives. We have beautiful art and music that has been inspired by using Cannabis. How can they not see? Making criminals out of those who think a little differently about life shouldn't be a crime and I know they know that by now. Stubborn selfish people might not get it but many do.
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Comment #4 posted by BUDSNAXZ on December 26, 2005 at 09:17:54 PT
The Outcome I predict
Happy holidays all,
I hope the outcome in this goes in our favor, God only knows medical cannabis is favored by a vast majority of Americans. Unfortunately you have to look at who we are dealing with (prohibtionists). The last sentance in the article gives me a bad feeling about how it will end. It reads: 
"The DEA will decide in the next several months whether to grant a license to grow research pot" Not a good omen to me. I think they will play it out as long as possible and finally deny the licences. Then it's back to step one again as usual. I hate to be pessemistic about this, but with their track record so far. I think they will vote to save their idiotic way of living.
Peace all
Mac
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Comment #3 posted by ekim on December 26, 2005 at 08:21:41 PT
"the safest therapeutic agent known to mankind&quo
http://www.medicalcannabis.com/rebuttal.htm
The efficacy and safety of cannabis is well known to the federal government and especially the DEA. In 1986 the DEA ordered their Chief Administrative Law Judge, to study therapeutic cannabis potential and report on the action the DEA should undertake. After over 5,000 pages of testimony and almost two years of investigation Judge Francis L. Young, ruled that, "The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefit of this substance in this record." Judge Young further stated that cannabis was "the safest therapeutic agent known to mankind". Consider the source. THC has been approved as medicine already (Marinol) and has been placed in schedule three, which means it can be prescribed by a physician for any valid medical condition, so it is meaningless to state that they support more research on THC. The DEA continues to block efforts to study whole cannabis.  http://www.medicalcannabis.com/conference.htm
The Fourth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics - Santa Barbara, CA - April 6-8, 2006Agenda | Faculty 
Thursday, April 6 7:00pm Reception at Montecito Mansion, Exhibits, MusicFriday, April 77:30 Registration – Continental Breakfast
8:00 Opening Remarks; D. Abrams MD, D. Bearman MD, M. Blum JD 
8:30 Cannabis Therapeutics in Perspective; M. Miller
9:00 Holistic Biochemistry: 600 Million Years of Cannabinoids; R. Melamede, PhD 
9:40 Cannabis: Synthetic vs. Natural; D. Piomelli, PhD
10:00 Break
10:20 Efficacy of Smoked Cannabis on Human Experimental Pain; M. Wallace, MD 
10:40 Patients Experience Treating MS with Cannabis; B. Douglass and M. Williams 
11:00 UK Experience With New Cannabis Medicines; S. Ratcliffe, MD
11:30 A Report on Cannabis Research in Israel; Natalya Kogan, PhD
12:00 Lunch Buffet: DEA/NIDA and the Obstruction of Privately Funded Research; R. Doblin, PhD
1:30 The Therapeutic Use of a Cannabis Project in Catalonia Spain: 
    Information, Prescription and Research; Marta Duran Delmas, MD
2:00 Canadian Pain and Cannabis; M. Ware, MSC, MRCP
2:30 Pharmacy Grade Cannabis in The Netherlands; M. van de Velde, PharmD
2:50 Break 
3:10 Federal Patients, Are They Healthy?; B. Douglass, I. Rosenfeld, G. McMahon, E. Musikka, 
    M.L. Mathre, RN, MSN, CARN
3:50 Cannabis Spouses Speak; D. Rosenfeld, N. Cavanaugh, RN, A. O’Leary, LPN, J. Dangerfield
4:30 Adjourn6:30 POT Benefit Dinner – Robert Randall Tribute -Auction- Live Band- ComedySaturday, April 87:30 Registration - Continental Breakfast
8:00 Opening Remarks: A. Byrne, H. Miller, CA Nurses RN
8:30 Cannabis in Pain and Palliative Care; D. Abrams, MD
9:00 Cannabis Use and Pregnancy; M. Dreher, RN, PhD, FAAN
9:20 AIDS and Cannabis; S. Hosea, MD
9:40 
10:00 Break
10:20 Marijuana and Mental Health; M. Earleywine, PhD
10:40 Clinical Implications of the Endocannabinoid System: PTSD, ADD and Beyond; D. Bearman, MD
11:00 PTSD Panel; E. Hildebrandt, A. Byrne, C. Largen
11:40 Oregon Survey of Cannabis Applications; E. Glick, RN 
12:00 Lunch Buffet: Patient Empowerment; W. Britt, R. Peterson, R. Solinas 
1:30 California Cannabis; Practicing Physician, Berkeley, F. Lucido, MD; HIV Specialist, HIV Clinic, San Jose, 
    A. Leff, MD; E. Schulman, MD 
2:15 Break
2:30 Medical Cannabis and the Public Policy Process; J. Gettman, PhD
3:00 Q&A Session, All Presenters; M.L. Mathre, RN.
4:30 Adjourn 6:00 Faculty Party, Hope Ranch  
  
 
  
  
top  
  
Press and journalist contact: Al Byrne
ph (434) 263-4484 fax (434) 263-6753
Al medicalcannabis.com
 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on December 26, 2005 at 08:00:05 PT
Kaptinemo 
I understand why a researcher isn't interested in the legalization movement and that is ok with me. I believe Cannabis is good medicine but many people don't even realize why they like to smoke Cannabis and want to think it is to have fun. If Cannabis makes a person feel better it is no different then a mood elevating drug that are prescribed. I wonder how many people aren't feeling very well today. Hangovers are really nasty. Cannabis doesn't give a person a hangover and the day after is just as fine as the day of consuming some cannabis. PS: I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. 
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on December 26, 2005 at 07:37:39 PT:
Notice something about this article?
Read it all the way through, and you'll be struck by something. It might take you a bit but you'll feel yourself thinking, "Now, what is it I'm missing? There's something missing and I can't put my finger on it." You'll go all the way to the end of it and it still might not register for a few minutes.Still don't see it? Ok, here it is: No giggle factor. No "yuk, yuk, yuk, look at the cute, hopeless stoners 'pushing' (the media loves that one a lot) to make pot legal (unsaid addition: "...AGAIN")." It's been said here many times before that when the media 'discovers' just how serious cannabis law reform is, the tone of their reportage will change from wise-ass to treating the matter with the gravity it deserves. Editors in newsrooms are beginning to realize just how far reaching this issue will go, with Boomers entering middle age and bringing their social mores with them. Those social mores are largely at odds with the Puritanical and racist *modus operandi* of the DrugWar itself. This latest article is (seemingly obliquely but nontheless related) amongst many regarding this issue which is forcing that change. One more indictaor of our progress. A nice Christmas gift, indeed. (And I hope Santa was kind to all of our compatriots.)
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