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  MMJ Cards Do Not Offer Legal Exemption 

Posted by CN Staff on August 10, 2010 at 16:07:40 PT
By David Morrill, Contra Costa Times 
Source: Contra Costa Times 

California -- If Robert Bendula had his way, he would be working within the Department of Justice, but that's easier said then done.After a work accident in 1994, Bendula, of Tracy is now one of about 400,000 Californians who have a medical marijuana cards. For Bendula, he smokes between 3 and 5 grams of pot a day to help alleviate his pain. It doesn't, however, change the difficulty of finding a job where drug tests and screenings are required.
The California State Supreme Court has ruled that employers have the right to fire potential or current employees, regardless if they're medical-marijuana patients. Without this ruling, employers would risk violating the Americans with Disabilities Act."I want those jobs," said Bendula, who is currently unemployed. "But I can't have them."The ruling involved Gary Ross, of Sacramento, against his former employer Ragingwire which fired him after a drug test found marijuana in his system."The (stigma) is if you use marijuana, you're a worthless person or a second-class citizen who has no value," Ross said. "If I was taking morphine to alleviate the pain, no one would worry. It was that I was smoking a joint."Ross was able to get a job with a company that didn't have drug tests, but he said after the publicity of his case surfaced, his new employer told him, "Had I known before I hired you that you were smoking pot, I would not have hired you."A bill that would have allowed people to be hired if they had medical marijuana cards made it through the state Legislature, but was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008. Hope for future changes may rest on who will reside in the governor's mansion next year."If we have Jerry Brown as the next governor, I'm sure the issue will be brought to the table again," said Baldwin Lee, of Walnut Creek, who heads law firm Allen Matkins' employment law group in Northern California. "If it's Meg Whitman, she would likely take the same action as Schwarzenegger."If the legislation had passed before Ross' court case, it's likely the courts would have sided with Ross, said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Oakland-based American for Safe Access.In November, California voters will vote on the legalization of marijuana, but here, too, there is no protection. Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, is a state proposition which will be on the Nov. 2 ballot. While it might make the drug more accepted statewide, it won't change the employers rights to fire medical marijuana patients.Typically the way the drug-testing process works is that after an interview, a job applicant is asked to go to a lab to give a urine sample to a third-party administrator for drug testing.Once the tests come back, the specimens are sent out to an independent Medical Review Officer for analysis. If there are questions regarding the collections, including traces of marijuana, the officer contacts the candidate for hire and asks relevant questions.Even though a doctor might recommend marijuana to treat a medical condition, an employer is not required to differentiate the reasons why the drug is present. As long as an employer is in a state that allows marijuana use as a reason not to hire, a patient will be at risk of being denied work.Hermes says that on a daily basis Americans for Safe Access gets calls from people asking what they can do if they're denied employment, even though they have a medical marijuana card."Unfortunately, under the current law the options are very few, and unfortunately we're often telling patients they have little recourse right now as to what they can do," Hermes said.He says the best option is for people to find businesses that do not give drug tests, which shows the company indirectly "has a tolerant policy towards drug use."Amie Machado owns a bakery, called Auntie's Edibles, that specializes in products that contain medical cannabis. During the day, she works full time in the banking industry.Machado said. "For certain positions, I understand the need for drug tests," Machado said. "But as long as I can do my job like everyone else, I think it doesn't matter."Lee says that he's heard from a lot of employers asking how to deal with the dilemma in regards to medical marijuana."It's tough when you have employers who want to do the right thing for an employee, but they also want to protect the rest of the employees if someone is smoking marijuana and driving a forklift," he said.Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)Author: David Morrill, Contra Costa TimesPublished: August 10, 2010Copyright: 2010 Bay Area News GroupContact: letters cctimes.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/pTShNFr7Website: http://www.contracostatimes.com/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml

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Comment #31 posted by rchandar on August 14, 2010 at 09:28:02 PT:
FoM
Gosh, that must've been said about twenty years ago. That's nothing new--I checked the dispensary sites and found one blogger advertising "Green Crack."Most of these type of associations identify dependence with high-grade MJ. It's very questionable, simply when we figure in dosage into dependence-like characteristics. You'd have to smoke a lot more pot versus snorting coke to have those symptoms. The psychiatric effects of coke are much more harmful and immediate, too.But, Try and tell that to the pols.--rchandar
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Comment #30 posted by FoM on August 14, 2010 at 05:01:41 PT
Greenmed
You're very welcome. I'm really glad MDMA helped you.
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Comment #29 posted by greenmed on August 14, 2010 at 00:10:56 PT
Hope
So eloquent. I agree absolutely, except about the frog spit.I've heard it makes one hallucinate a handsome prince! LOL.
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Comment #28 posted by greenmed on August 14, 2010 at 00:05:07 PT
FoM
FoM, thank you for letting me go off-topic on the MDMA research update. It can be a helpful drug. I know from experience. It brought me out of a dark place in my life brought on by years of high-dose steroids. Have you ever read "Dark Night of the Soul" by Saint John of the Cross? That was my 'light reading material.'During the window between general availability and banning of MDMA, I was fortunate enough to be offered a dose by a friend who knew my state of mind at the time. Taking the capsule with a sitter I had only good thoughts... how beautiful the world and the universe and especially people are, inside and out. No fear, just love. Not a bad thought could possibly have dwelt in my head.The next day the good feelings and thoughts continued, even though the drug had left my system. I was more sociable than I'd been in years. After processing the experience over a period of several weeks, I realized the dark thoughts were irrelevant and they had just withered away.That was my one MDMA experience.From what I've read, PTSD is difficult to treat with conventional therapy, primarily because of the defenses built up as self-protection against the bad memories. I have some experience with "minor" PTSD also--I've had night sweats and nightmares, thoughts that come out of nowhere as all muscles tense up, and out-of-control emotions. Fortunately, cannabis has helped much, lessening my need for other meds.Sadly, many people living with PTSD are undertreated, including most recently veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. I believe the V.A. does the best they can to treat PTSD, but it's only so much, given the aversion to reliving troubling and often violent incidents. MDMA can help in accessing and reliving those memories in a safe, fear-free and objective fashion.I believe MDMA-assisted treatment would be most amenable to group sessions.
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Comment #27 posted by FoM on August 13, 2010 at 04:46:02 PT
greenmed
It seems like MDMA must be a helpful drug then. 
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on August 12, 2010 at 20:51:03 PT
MDMA, psilocybin, frog spit, whatever as medicine.
It's very controversial. Of course. Very. Obviously even the herb, cannabis, is extraordinarily controversial, still.But the rational mind considers it and considers it's value. I would think. Can a life be saved? Is permanent traumatization a good way to live? With some people isn't it like a gaping wound in it's way? Wouldn't fixing it be like sewing up a gaping wound? Would we refuse to close a gaping wound... even if we had to staple, sew, and glue it shut?Medically, it might be useful. It's a strong medicine. Strong medicines shouldn't be used willy nilly. But why not try it if it could help? There's lots of strong drugs out there.... dangerous drugs... most of them, if not all of them... except, apparently, cannabis, but they can still be good medicine for the right need and circumstance.Is there an irresponsible amount of risk taking to use this controversial idea in a qualifying case of need in an effort to help? Can it be calculated?It's just like anything else. And to not consider it's usefulness because some people have used it for fun and even to their detriment seems irrational.
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Comment #25 posted by greenmed on August 12, 2010 at 20:35:08 PT
FoM
Meth is quite addictive and can lead to a downward spiral. On the other hand, MDMA seems not to be. The day following an MDMA experience, there is not a craving for more, but a mellow relaxed feeling with a little fatigue. Also, it takes a while to integrate the experience, and that seems to take precedence over re-dosing. Less is more.
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Comment #24 posted by FoM on August 12, 2010 at 20:06:48 PT

greenmed
That is interesting to know. I never had MDMA only Amphetamines like I mentioned. Meth was also available but that was more extreme and you couldn't take it for a long time or a person would just burn out. 
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Comment #23 posted by greenmed on August 12, 2010 at 19:53:49 PT

FoM
I remember that well. Amphetamines were popular for studying all night or writing that last-minute paper, and weight loss as a bonus! Methamphetamine is a completely different beast, but has the closest structural similarity of the amphetamines to MDMA. The speed-like effects of MDMA are generally present, but muted after the initial 1/2 hour or so. After that, MDMA's effects become the more pronounced.Toggling between two browser tabs:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamineshows the molecules' structures.The extra ring with two oxygen atoms seems to make all the difference: MDMA is able to bind to the serotonin receptor subtype 5-HT1A, that other amphetamines cannot fit. Like a key opening a lock.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA#Pharmacology
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on August 12, 2010 at 17:52:53 PT

greenmed
Isn't MDMA an amphetamine type drug? I ask because back in the 60s and 70s amphetamine based diet pills were available and everyone took them. I took them for one year in high school and I actually did the best I ever did in high school that year. I could focus instead of having my mind jump from thought to thought and I lost weight too! LOL!
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Comment #21 posted by greenmed on August 12, 2010 at 17:21:56 PT

Hope
It has always amazed me that Nature holds such bounty for our needs. Whether it be cannabis, the oldest cultivated plant known, or chemicals in plants, fungi or even sealife. Safrole from the sassafras tree needs just a little alchemical tweaking to become MDMA, which holds such potential for healing.Cannabis is good treatment for PTSD, but there will be people beyond the healing reach of the herbal remedy. My hope is that someone at NIH will notice the results of Dr. Mithoefer's research and take steps to make MDMA available to our veterans living with undertreated PTSD (or PTS as I read recently - "it's not a disorder, it's a natural response").To ignore new therapies because of prejudicial attitudes has been and would be cruelly irrational and regressive.
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Comment #20 posted by Paint with light on August 12, 2010 at 12:56:57 PT

comment #18
When the biggest retailer (W~M), goes from the slogan "Buy American" to "buy wherever it is the cheapest", it becomes a major source of lost jobs, income, and prosperity for US small and large manufacturers.The price America paid for cheaper, less durable goods was huge job losses and a crippled economy.Renew American industry.Legalize Cannabis.Legal like alcohol.
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on August 12, 2010 at 11:32:46 PT

dongenero
I also agree with you.
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Comment #18 posted by dongenero on August 12, 2010 at 11:00:34 PT

kapn' # 11
And don't forget the off shoring of jobs, pushed by Republicans and the PAC organizations like "Americans for Prosperity" (how ironic), with the goal of breaking organized labor. This goal, aided by corporate lobbyist $$$ and complicit political conservatives legislating tax loopholes to facilitate off shoring of jobs and profits.Ooops, it worked! Now what? We've given away our manufacturing base to foreign nations and turned our economy into a service and consumer based economy. How many of those can you think of that are thriving?Is this the benevolent business culture that Ayn Rand fantasized about? More like the end of American economic superiority. Ah, Republican conservatives, what patriots!
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on August 12, 2010 at 10:36:55 PT

Greenmed Comment 2
Fascinating. "What MDMA does, according to the research, is to provide at least a brief experience of what life feels like without the aftermath of trauma. In this state, learning can occur." A move towards sanity and peace of mind...for everyone. Even the deluded, the permanently terrified, the confused, and the ill, of all sorts of maladies, and the still stable, balanced, and strong, too. Actually looking at the benefits of all sorts of things available to mankind. Some of them extraordinarily beneficial. That's being a good caretaker and participant of humanity and the earth and all that is. We have hardly begun to delve and discover what there is on this planet and what there is that's good and helpful that's yet to come out of the minds of people. For civilization to behave, not like a bunch of busybody, superstitious, punishing, purposely cruel, foolish, fearful, hateful, authoritarian, arrogant, and self righteous dimwits, but infinitely more sanely and rationally than that. 

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Comment #16 posted by FoM on August 12, 2010 at 10:28:06 PT

Storm Crow
I remember a terrible sinking feeling when marijuana was brought into the same light as cocaine. It broke my heart.
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Comment #15 posted by Storm Crow on August 12, 2010 at 09:21:47 PT

I hear you on that, FoM!
Things went very well until the harder drugs came in! 
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on August 12, 2010 at 04:40:35 PT

Paint with light
I agree with you too. I was never even exposed to marijuana or LSD until 1972. I was 25. We moved to Ohio which had very harsh laws and then they changed them to some of the most lenient. I thought the laws everywhere would be changed. Then cocaine and crack entered the picture and my hopes for changed disappeared. 
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Comment #13 posted by Paint with light on August 11, 2010 at 21:17:02 PT

changes
Around 1970 is when 'they' first started locking up people I personally knew for cannabis.Mostly they came after the 'hippies'.Which to them was anyone with long hair or a counterculture appearance.Before that it was mostly people of color that were persecuted.Then came the first of what was to become a pattern that exists all the way to the present.They sent in an undercover person and turned a recently busted individual into a snitch.I think there were 20 something people in that first "round-up".Thus began 40 years of lies, ruined lives, corruption, wasted resources, and death.The truth has been there all along but not enough people wanted to question authority.They were afraid of losing their jobs, their family and their possessions to the thieving criminal justice system.Not only are we questioning authority now, but we are also demanding an answer.Legal like alcohol solves the majority of the problems. 
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on August 11, 2010 at 19:35:10 PT

kaptinemo
I said to Stick today it's time to go back to when Mother Earth News was a popular magazine and think how we allowed ourselves to become so dependent on the system instead of ourselves. The idealism of my generation was not wrong about trying to move away from how they saw the world becoming.
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Comment #11 posted by kaptinemo on August 11, 2010 at 19:10:01 PT:

FoM, I just see it as a matter of balance
A lot of things in this country have swung so far to the extreme political Right that a balancing is long overdue. And cannabis re-legalization will be sign that that re-alignment is in progress.Things come in cycles, an we're long overdue for a swing of the social pendulum back to the kind of country we had, before we allowed the super-rich, via their hypocritical neocon cat's-paws, take over. I'm old enough to recall the economic and social mess the country was in after Viet Nam ended, but I also recall how things were changing, how cannabis prohibition was weakening in the face of popular referenda and legislation, and pols were not afraid to speak openly of (re)legalization.Back then, the super-rich were sharpening their knives, and pouring sweet words into the public's ears about what the wonders of 'deregulation' would bring, about 'Laffer curves', about "A rising tide lifts all boats", about 'fiscal conservatism', and 'running government like a business."What we actually got was a generation's worth of crony capitalism, a huge National Debt that could never be fully repaid, massive public debt, lowered standards of living, exporting of jobs placing the American worker in competition with those around the world working for less money, families having to have both parents working twice as hard to equal what our grandparents enjoyed, while 'latch-key kids' went from peculiarities to the norm, etc.The time has come for that pendulum to swing back to the center, not the 'center-right'. Time to move that Overton Window back where it was before. And cannabis relegalization will be the hallmark of that. 
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on August 11, 2010 at 17:59:52 PT

kaptinemo
You deserve a Bravo on that one.
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Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on August 11, 2010 at 16:38:15 PT:

The pressure for changing employment law 
...will increase after 19 passes. It will have to., with hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people using overtly. And that's why many employers are sweating bullets at the prospect of re-legalized cannabis. Partly because cannabists, as a rule, tend to question authority, as they've seen authority lie for decades and have lost respect for it. And partly for this reason:The forces of neo (as opposed to the real thing) conservatism have always, as Vincent so aptly put it, attempted to "..."cleanse" the populace of people that think differently from Conservatives." The process has a name: 'social engineering'. Such a bland term for all the murder, mayhem and general misery it's caused via the DrugWar. Such authoritarian forces have been behind the use of drug laws to enable the ever-increasing encroachments upon rights and liberties once thought inviolable...such as being able to ingest any damn thing you please, as it was your body, not The State's property. But they had the outright gall to claim they were the 'protectors' of freedom.Re-legalized cannabis would eventually mean the dismantling of the crypto-fascist police state that has arisen in the US, where cops taser the unarmed at will for non-compliance with their (often unConstitutional) demands. Without cannabis prohibition, drug prohibition in general would wither on the vine and die off...as would the need for the present number of police in this country. A fact which the forces of neoconservatism fear very greatly, for how can you impose your view of 'righteousness' upon an unwilling populace that disagrees with your definition of it without the taser, the truncheon and the sidearm? Even more importantly, without that overly large police presence, how can you defend yourself from the people you've so grievously harmed by trying to manifest your neocon wet-dream into reality, who, after drug prohibition is over,just might be intent upon 'settling old accounts'?Oh yes, behind the prohib's brave noises are shaking knees, for millions have had their lives ruined 'for the best of reasons'. Some of them are beyond reason in their desire for revenge. And having been 'collateral damage' in this 'war', I don't blame them one little bit.
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Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on August 11, 2010 at 10:18:44 PT

oops
I meant the elite want a huge pool of UNEMPLOYED people to keep wages down.Real wages have been dropping steadily over the last 25 years. That's why both parents must now work. You have to understand something else, employers always want to fire employees ASAP once they become sick or injured. In the United State a cancer diagnosis is often followed by a pink slip for workers.Of course this is all the reality that the corporate elite don't want you to know and don't want you thinking about.Employers would LOVE the legal right to review every employee's medical records all the time so they can immediately fire anyone that becomes sick. Retaining the right to fire for cannabis gives them a small measure of this power over workers.
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Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on August 11, 2010 at 10:15:41 PT

Vincent well said
Vincent is spot-on - what most business owners and corporate elite want is a huge pool of poor employed people at all times. This will exert downward pressure on wages. This is why both Dems and Repubs love to talk about "illegals" but never actually pass anything that would reform immigration.The more controls and power an employer has over employees, the better it is. This is why slavery has to be banned, it is the absolute best situation for employers.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 11, 2010 at 08:33:24 PT

Afterburner
I missed the video. I love it and I absolutely love Canada. If only we were like you in the great wise north.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjiwBwBL4Qo
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Comment #5 posted by afterburner on August 11, 2010 at 07:46:13 PT

FoM
Did you see this one?
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread25454.shtml#33
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 11, 2010 at 07:35:19 PT

Medical Marijuana Supporters Hold Statehouse Rally
 August 11, 2010 Columbus, Ohio -- The push to make medical marijuana legal in Ohio continues with a rally at the Statehouse Wednesday.House Bill 478 would legalize the use of physician-supervised medical marijuana.URL: http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/aug/11/2/medical-marijuana-supporters-hold-statehouse-rally-ar-187778/
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on August 11, 2010 at 05:17:41 PT

Just a Note
I hope everyone is enjoying this slow time and will get all fired up when we move into the Fall. This election year will be very busy. It is very hot around here. Stay cool.
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Comment #2 posted by greenmed on August 11, 2010 at 00:42:19 PT

Off Topic, but important research
for those who value evidence-based drug policy."Psychedelic Medicine: Using Ecstasy to Treat PTSD"by Craig K. ComstockURL: http://tinyurl.com/2ua2axsURL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-k-comstock/psychedelic-medicine-usin_b_651280.htmland the journal abstract with link to the full article:URL: http://tinyurl.com/299rj6zURL: http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/07/14/0269881110378371.abstract
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Comment #1 posted by vincent on August 10, 2010 at 17:15:40 PT:

Baloney
"It's tough when you have employers who want to do the right thing for an employee, but they also want to protect the rest of the employees if someone is smoking marijuana and driving a forklift"This statement is such BULL that it gets me sick to my stomach every time I hear it. The employer is not concerned about the "safety" of his employees...most of them don't give a damn. The fact is that most of these employers are Republicans and, as such, are truly brainwashed about Marijuana, so they wish to punish those who choose to indulge in its use. The reason that drug-testing was instituted was to "cleanse" the populace of people that think differently from Conservatives.
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