cannabisnews.com: Suit Over Pot's 'Benefit' Stumbles





Suit Over Pot's 'Benefit' Stumbles
Posted by CN Staff on July 28, 2007 at 06:56:13 PT
By Matthew Hirsch, The Recorder
Source: Recorder
California -- An Oakland, Calif. based nonprofit can't put the federal government on trial for saying that marijuana has no medical use -- but it might get to challenge the government for blowing deadlines, a federal judge in California ruled last week. Americans for Safe Access sued in February after two federal agencies refused to alter government-published statements saying marijuana has "no currently accepted medical use in the United States."
In an eight-page ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup agreed with Justice Department lawyers that the federal Information Quality Act provides for only administrative, not judicial, review for people to challenge the "quality, objectivity, utility and integrity" of information disseminated by federal agencies. Alsup's ruling didn't address the government's claim that ASA lacked standing because it failed to identify members who suffered harm from the disputed statements or to show how the issue was germane to ASA's organizational purpose. Though Alsup rejected ASA's bid to revise those statements, he hinted the plaintiff might be able to at least force the government to address its assertion within a 60-day period provided by law. "Conceivably," Alsup wrote, "a district court may order an agency to act on the merits of an information-correction petition within a specific time frame." The Northern District judge dismissed the complaint in ASA v. Department of Health and Human Services, 07-01049, with leave to amend. Source: Recorder, The (CA)Author: Matthew Hirsch, The RecorderPublished: July 30, 2007Copyright: 2007 ALM Properties, Inc.Contact: http://tinyurl.com/yua3l5Website: http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/index.jspRelated Articles & Web Site:Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/ U.S. Is Sued Over Position on Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22675.shtmlGroup Sues Feds Over Medical Marijuana Claimshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22671.shtml
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Comment #26 posted by FoM on July 29, 2007 at 07:44:21 PT
John Tyler 
I agree with you. It is amazing to me how the republican spin machine can make whatever they want seem to happen by what they plant in the media. I don't pay attention to articles that I know are just not true.
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Comment #25 posted by John Tyler on July 29, 2007 at 07:33:54 PT
re #22
That is how the propaganda machine works. A public relations department or group gets a “junk science” report published that supports some point of view. It gets reprinted and reported on, yes even planted, in the news etc. Then it becomes a “legitimate” source for others that support that premise to take an even more extreme position and so on. Then that becomes news in the “friendly” media and that can now be commented on and supported or maybe toned down a little but not much (to show how reasonable they are). Now there is a news cycle building. Politicians get to comment on this and are asked what they are going to do, etc. They get to thump their chest and take “leadership” in this choreographed bit of political theater. It is all so absurd and cynical.Don’t believe me? Reflect back on how the Bush II administration orchestrated the public acceptance of the start of the Iraq war. 
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Comment #24 posted by Hope on July 29, 2007 at 07:05:17 PT
I'm glad no one was killed.
Crowd attacks drug search policehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6921000.stm
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Comment #23 posted by Hope on July 29, 2007 at 06:58:41 PT
CANNABIS SMOKERS NEED TO BE LOCKED UP
The murderous creeps need to keep up their vile and deranged comments about how they'd like to hurt and kill people over their use of substances.Everyone hears them and everyone is beginning to realize how really totally nuts (psychotic)the killer-prohibs really are.Keep it up guys! You're freaking nuts and the whole world is finally beginning to recognize it!
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Comment #22 posted by Wayne on July 29, 2007 at 06:10:40 PT
check out this article from NORML
Apparently the UK has their share of prohib nutcases too...Notice the title, "CANNABIS SMOKERS NEED TO BE LOCKED UP", but he never says WHY. He also says "the Chinese way, of taking out convicted drug dealers and shooting them, has something to commend it." What might that something be, sir?
CANNABIS SMOKERS NEED TO BE LOCKED UP
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Comment #21 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 22:41:54 PT
Applause! Applause!
Christen-Mitchell!Wonderful! Wonderful!Thank you!
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Comment #20 posted by Christen-Mitchell on July 28, 2007 at 21:59:00 PT:
Keep The Mercedes
I'd like to sing a song, of social and political import...
It goes something like this...........Oh Lord, won't you buy me a legalized joint!
They say it's a bad thing, I don't see their point.
You made it to bless us, Please, may we anoint?
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a legalized joint?Oh Lord, won't you help them get medical use,
For people that need it it's never abuse.
Arthritis to glaucoma, a fountain of youth.
Oh Lord won't you help us to get medical use?Lord. Will you help us free brave men like Joe,
And Tom Brown and Michael,you know we miss them so.
They put them in prison, you said we should grow,
So Lord won't you help us free brave men like Joe.And Lord, when will they learn the Drug War's a lie?
That all men are equal under your eye,
You judge them on character not if they get high.
So Lord, when will they see the Drug War's a lie!Thank You, Thank You Very Much
Hemptopia
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Comment #19 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 17:15:47 PT
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
A Psalm of LifeTell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead.
Act, -- act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait. 
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 17:14:24 PT
Longfellow?
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?A Psalm of Lifehttp://washingtonmo.com/words/01-06-15.htm
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 17:09:03 PT
Allow me, please
To wax poeticIn a throe of sorrow.Who here among usDoes not know what despair and dismay are?Is there one here among us who does not understand what David meant when he spoke of being "Like a wineskin...turning in the smoke"?Who here has not had "that dark night of sorrow"...some way...some how...to some degree?Who among us has never been "Overwhelmed by sorrow"?A sad, sad poem.Yet, we live. We put one foot in front of the other. We try to do the right thing.We remember the words of poets..."Be not dumb, driven cattle..."Robert Louis Stevenson?A Psalm of Life?It's not an easy thing...
To rise up out of despair. But we must do it And we must search for light and truth and We must not allow ourselves to remain "Overwhelmed by sorrow".If not a poem, I'm giving myself a good talking to.
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on July 28, 2007 at 12:10:20 PT
Hope
I'm glad the smoking issue is going fine. I am also happy that your son's friend has a little more hope now. I believe that what edifies will always surface in the right time. I don't know anything about american history because I wasn't really taught about anything but God's law in parochial school. I look for God's law and don't pay attention to much else because of my upbringing I suppose.
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 11:41:52 PT
Again...comment 12
My precious friend. Regardless of what so many tell us...the persecution will eventually end. Remember that politician that just a few years before the end of prohibition of alcohol ended, said something to the effect "That a hummingbird will fly to the moon with the empire state building tied to it's tail before prohibition of alcohol will end!":0)I take a great deal of heart in his words.
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 11:35:00 PT
Comment 12
Why DO the pricks kick against us?(Sorry. Couldn't resist it.)
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 11:30:31 PT
Smoking issue
It's going well.Of course, I'll have to get off the pharmaceutically produced nicotine gum next. But I seem to have gotten through the more emotional first few days. Maaaaaaan...I enjoyed smoking, even more than I thought I did. I "loved" it like it was a fluffy, sweet bunny ... that I loved! I didn't want to not ever have my "fluffy sweet bunny" again! I know...it was very likely really a little Tasmanian devil disguising himself as a bunny. But I still liked it.It's getting easier. The gum will be easier to give up. I think. Very good news about my son's dear friend who was told he had cancer and that it was, indeed, incurable. He's had an amazing reversal at this point. The doctors didn't expect it at all. They just thought chemotherapy might help him breathe a little easier for the time he had left. It was his choice to pursue it or not. The chemotherapy is working astoundingly well for him. It's looks very much like he's going to be with us quite a bit longer than was first expected.Of course...I still have to quit. I heard the grief and fear in my son's voice.Years ago, I heard an old preacher say, "Don't ever tell anyone they're going to Hell, unless you have tears in your eyes."So, if you really believed such a thing...you should be dreadfully sorry and fearful for the person...or it's better you didn't speak at all. I heard the dread and sorrow and tears in my son's voice over the telephone. What else can I do? You can't ignore that or discount it. I can't, anyway.
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on July 28, 2007 at 11:22:17 PT
Just a Comment
I turned off the tv news and am listening and watching a DVD and this song always gives me hope when I feel we have been kicked hard. Reality is painful particularly when I finally understood what I didn't believe was true before. I believe in miracles and nothing much else these days.The Tide is Turning - Roger Watershttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzIVAuhWxDY
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on July 28, 2007 at 10:58:42 PT
Hope
I believe we do have some people who really care about the people in the USA. That keeps me going. I am always reminded when Abraham asked God about not destroying the cities if there was any good men left. We still have a few luckily.
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 10:51:36 PT
Another...
A true union of the true people.Everybody supporting each other in a stand down, walk out, and picket line, to get the attention of the industrial boards and owners. That would, probably, be even harder than trying to elect people of true integrity to political offices of power.But it's not like there's absolutely nothing that can possibly be done. There's the outlandish possibility, maybe, that there are quite a few people left in this country that aren't completely spineless.
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 10:44:05 PT
One thing we CAN do....
We can try to get true leaders who will stand against them...they may have to take the industry money first, to be able to purchase the spotlight...but that, after they are in the position of says so, will stand against the culprits and make it illegal for industries to contribute one dime to campaigns and lobbying. Lobbying should be reserved to the people and grassroots groups they might form...without funding from industry.That's it.That's what has to be done.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on July 28, 2007 at 09:47:25 PT
Hope
I wanted you to know I hope you are doing ok with the smoking issue. As far as how I feel we have been highjacked by corporations and they are what run the country. The stock market has been in a free fall this week and I don't know if it's over yet or it might go down more. I find it odd how they were trying to make it not seem bad on the news. It isn't bad for those at the top of the pyramid but anyone on down the ladder could be hurt. The corporations will always win and that is sad. I wish that all non profit organizations would be required to disclose who gives to them so people can see who has clout. We need some truth badly. 
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 09:42:17 PT
And yes...
Sadly.We have all become accustomed, too accustomed to way too much bondage to the state and by the state. The enforcers of these overreaching rules and laws finally couldn't keep enough metal handcuffs on hand to do all the bondage they needed to do and had to resort to super strength plastic hand ties to be purchased in mass quantities.In Texas, we've criminalized and incarcerated so many people...we have something like twenty five hundred felonies, alone, on our list of state laws, that we actually can't afford to hire guards to guard them. And yet...there are those among our prostituted leadership, who want more prisons and harsher penalties and more criminalization. How in the world can that be considered sane and sound thinking? 
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 09:29:16 PT
Situation Analysis 
It seems to me, we, a people longing to see the persecutions, injustices, horrors and lies of prohibition, of cannabis, in particular, end, need a real, capital M, Miracle to deal with the power these industries and prostituted leaders have over us, our neighbors, our children, and their futures.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on July 28, 2007 at 09:18:43 PT
What they mean
 "no currently accepted medical use in the United States."That means, THEY, prohibs, of every and whatever shade, don't "accept" it. Even if it's obviously true... THEY don't "accept" it. They refuse to. Therefore, obviously...in their particular "reality"...it's not "accepted".They, prohibitionists and their supporters, are, rather more than a little, psychotic, you understand. Pot makes them get all psychotic and and want to "punish" those who dare to disobey them and use the plant anyway. Some of the more thoroughly demented psychos among them even want to "line them up and shoot them.." ala Darryl Gates and the "I wanna be a Chinese...or Taiwanese, and kill more of these people who dare to mess with drugs or pot." folks. You know...the "Kill em, that'll teach em to do what we say" crowd?The "currently" is in there, because they know that it was once a very much "accepted" and appreciated medicine...before the pharmaceutical industry started running our lives for profit...extreme profit, and put so called leaders in places of power...via money and influence... to carry out their purpose.It's so damned freaky and scary that so many people in positions of power and leadership in this country are so easily purchased, prostituted, and used by these mega industry conglomerates. Industries have pulled a virtual coup on the freedom and liberties and rights of the citizens of this country. It happened slowly... but they did it. They own us. Our "Leaders" truly and actually, "sold" us out to the highest bidder and they seem to be doing their damnedest to keep us sold out. Thankfully, a few more people are seeing it each day. We, the people, are really in a ugly, ugly "trap". They "own" us.For now. 
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on July 28, 2007 at 09:01:08 PT
More Health Canada Foot-Dragging Revealed
CN ON: Don't Get Too High on Pot Ruling, NOW Magazine, (26 Jul 2007) http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v07/n903/a07.html?176
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Comment #3 posted by LaGuardia on July 28, 2007 at 08:51:57 PT
Just a Bump in the Road
Has the Judge's opinion been posted online anywhere?I am interested in reading it because the federal Administrative Procedure Act allows for judicial review of just about any final agency decision, although there can be exceptions. I am hoping that the opinion will say, or at least provide a citation.If the general rule for reviewability applies to the Data Quality Act (a/k/a the Information Quality Act) then ASA can likely go back to court once the agency completes its administrative ruling. The agency has probably been dragging its feet on ruling on ASA's DQA complaint just so that ASA cannot challenge the agency's arbitrary and capricious action in court. DEA has still not ruled on UMass's application to grow research grade cannabis, after over 6 years, for the same reason: Once they deny the request, then the matter can go to court, but they avoid judicial review if they never make any decision.Welcome to the Kafkaesque and Orwellian world of the federal government. Most of the federal agencies behave this way; it is not just the anti-drug agencies that act like they are totally unaccountable. For example, the Freedom of Information Act has a 20 business day deadline for federal agencies to release documents upon request, but you are lucky if you get anything within three years. The general attitude is "if you don't like it, sue us, but we have deeper pockets than you, so good luck and have fun paying your lawyers."I would consider this ruling to be a small victory because the judge is essentially saying that the agency has to hurry up and make a final ruling, which will allow ASA to proceed with its case eventually so long as the Administrative Procedure Act's judicial review provisions apply to the DQA.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 28, 2007 at 07:53:16 PT
Related Article
Backers of Medical Marijuana Protest RaidsJuly 27, 2007http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_D_pot28.3ef194b.html
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 28, 2007 at 07:51:48 PT
Related Article
Medical Marijuana Supporters Demonstrate at City HallJuly 27, 2007http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=26659
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