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Parents Press Arizona Officials on Marijuana Act
Posted by CN Staff on October 29, 2013 at 05:32:54 PT
By Fernanda Santos
Source: New York Times
Phoenix -- Arguing that medical marijuana has been the most effective treatment for their son’s seizure disorder, the parents of a 5-year-old boy filed a lawsuit here on Monday to force state officials to include marijuana extracts — oil-like resins with very low levels of the psychoactive ingredient THC — as a legal product under the state’s medical marijuana act. As it stands, the act, approved by voters in 2010, allows patients to use “any mixture or preparation” made with dried marijuana flowers, like brownies. The boy’s parents, Jacob and Jennifer Welton, have been crushing the flowers and mixing them into applesauce, which they say has become difficult for the boy to ingest after brain surgery last year compromised his ability to eat. They do not want to buy the extract, found on the black market, for fear of being arrested.
“We’re not criminals,” Ms. Welton, 30, an enrollment adviser at the University of Phoenix, said in an interview. “We just want what’s best for our son.” The Weltons’ legal action opens a new front on the fight over legalizing marijuana for medicinal use across the country, focusing on very sick children to highlight its potential benefits. Arizona’s statute has no age restrictions; patients under 18 can use medical marijuana as long as a parent or legal guardian is told of its potential risks and is in charge of buying and administering it, among other requirements. But the Maricopa County attorney, Bill Montgomery, has said that patients can be criminally prosecuted for using extracts and other products that do not meet the definition of “cannabis” under the state’s criminal code, which treats resin extracted from marijuana as an illegal narcotic. The couple lists Mr. Montgomery, Gov. Jan Brewer and Will Humble, the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, as defendants in its lawsuit. “We’re taking a proactive measure,” said Emma A. Andersson of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Criminal Law Reform Project and the Weltons’ lead lawyer. “Rather than waiting for these parents to be criminally prosecuted, we’re asking the courts to clarify what the medical marijuana law is.” The Weltons’ approach has already scored victories and forged alliances in unlikely corners. In August, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, which has one of the nation’s strictest marijuana statutes, allowed dispensaries to provide edible products made with marijuana leaves or extract to children. On Monday in Michigan, State Representative Mike Shirkey, a Republican, introduced legislation that would add edible products and extracts to the list of products deemed “usable” under the state’s medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 2008. Utah does not have a medical marijuana program, but a Republican legislator there, State Representative Gage Froerer, plans to propose a bill allowing the use of extracts to treat children. In an interview, Mr. Froerer said, “With these low THC levels and the research I found coming from Colorado” and other states where the extracts are legal, “you ask yourself, if this was one of your kids, would you want this product available?” Through representatives, the defendants declined to comment while litigation was pending. Still, in a recent blog post, Mr. Humble talked about the confusion caused by the different definitions of marijuana and cannabis in the state’s medical marijuana law and criminal code, saying that patients who use medical marijuana and the dispensaries that sell to them “may be exposed to criminal prosecution” if they have “resin extracted from any part” of a marijuana plant. Mr. Montgomery, in a wide-ranging news conference last month, said one of his concerns was that the medical marijuana law sets limits only on dispensing dried marijuana — 2.5 ounces per patient every 14 days — making it hard to regulate the sale of resins and oils. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration approved the country’s first studies on the marijuana compound cannabidiol, a nonpsychoactive marijuana component, as an antiseizure medication. Some scientists believe the compound quiets the electrical and chemical activities in the brain that trigger seizures. Extracts are often heavy on cannabidiol, with a negligible amount of THC. The parents of Zander, the 5-year-old boy here, decided to request medical marijuana for him after watching a CNN documentary featuring the story of a girl from Colorado whose seizures fell to a handful over eight months from about 300 per week. At that time, Zander, who has cortical dysplasia, a genetic defect, was facing the prospect of a third brain surgery. His daily seizures, which started when he was 9 months old, had made him unresponsive to emotional and physical prompts, Ms. Welton said. He was first given medical marijuana seven weeks ago, and since then he has been able to stand straighter, stack blocks and walk backward for the first time. Ms. Welton said extracts, in addition to being easier to ingest, can be taken in more precise doses than the plant. “We tried so many other regular pharmaceutical medications. They don’t have the same stigma, but they didn’t help him and sometimes they made him worse,” said Ms. Welton, who has two other children. “I wouldn’t want any of my other kids using marijuana. But this is Zander’s medication, and for the first time, I feel like there’s hope for him.” A version of this article appears in print on October 29, 2013, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: With Suit, Parents of Boy With Seizures Press Arizona Officials on Marijuana Act.Source: New York Times (NY)Author: Fernanda SantosPublished: October 28, 2013Copyright: 2013 The New York Times CompanyContact: letters nytimes.comWebsite: http://www.nytimes.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/w7QI9HrjCannabisNews  Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on October 30, 2013 at 11:18:18 PT
Comment 2 The GCW
That's striking a note of sanity and commonsense, which is always good. Prohibitionists are so afraid of cannabis that it is truly alarming. And they try to scare everyone else with exaggerations and none sense. They are so afraid about something... their authority over others... diminishing, or disappearing, perhaps... or something... they try to spread fear and cowardice in the American people. Prohibitionists are scary and they are the problem. They have always been the problem. They are willing to kill to keep a substance that people enjoy and obviously, sometimes benefit greatly from... away from them. They have the audacity to prohibit it from being used by other human beings. It's more like coffee, tea, energy drinks than alcohol. Kill. They have been and are willing to kill, or die, over cannabis. They will kill, imprison, rob and humiliate hundreds, thousands, of real people to save or protect one imaginary child from a lifetime of "Addiction".It's the damnedest thing I've seen in my lifetime, except segregation.
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on October 29, 2013 at 19:11:13 PT
FoM,
Some of the previous proposals were a "Hancock." It is better. A little better, every day.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on October 29, 2013 at 18:54:27 PT
The GCW
That's good news!
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on October 29, 2013 at 18:22:16 PT
Denver update
Denver scales back proposed pot rules, would allow back yard smokinghttp://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24412660/denver-scales-back-proposed-pot-rules-would-allow
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Comment #1 posted by museman on October 29, 2013 at 12:35:36 PT
the more one looks
the more one sees.None of the so-called 'experts' on the 'law' or 'medicine' ever bothered to really look at cannabis as it really is, without 'reefer-madness' syndrome, or 'Fear of Fed' disease. The fact that they use the word cannabis in quotes one time, then it's 'marijuana, marijuana, marijuana' about what can be done with it, speaks volumes of the undercurrent of lies that have been shoved down the people's throats by all those supposed experts for over 70 years. Whole generations have come and gone without the legal benefit of cannabis. Many, many children have suffered and died. Countless thousands of adults have had to suffer the barbaric practices of medical institutions whose bottom line is federal funding and 'ability to pay.' Whose 'expertise' has always reflected those values and not the values of healing and truth.And here we struggle at the bottom of the political food chain, have struggled for most of our lives -some of us- just to get a little bit of common sense included in the sham that is politics.Great inroads have been made, yet every single one of the so-called "representatives" that we thought our 'vote' worthy of have betrayed the people they are supposed to be representing simply for a larger bank account and a vast array of STUFF!The government ilk that serve the corporate Lords of Mammon are in fact the scum that has risen to the "top" of this corrupted society, and sit like bloated toads on the various thrones of false authority created by what can accurately be described -if a bit archaic- as Satanic!
 
No amount of tweaking a lie can make it a truth. And this is exactly what is being done politically to address the situation of cannabis liberty. It has taken decades of resistance (to the government -because they are the problem, not the solution) to force minor compromises and capitulations that ultimately allow them to continue their false reign from this band of liars and thieves posing as something else. And I have watched even the so-called "liberal" politicians hedge, and drag their political feet like common sense and truth would be the death of them (and that is probably true).The time has past come for americans to grow up and tell big brother to take a hike. Those who have resisted the most have suffered the most. And we suffer because the rest of you will not get off your mammon sled and stand with us as sovereign, free human beings, subject only to the statutes of love and the ethics of honor and truth.Can't have that and your SUV too (or any of the rest of your toys that you feel more important than the comfort and joy of yourself and your neighbors.)The time has come. Get on the boat or learn to swim. And then you will be swimming towards the boats that the wise have built while watching their fellows sink in denial, and rage because their masters betrayed them all.I'm sorry, but there truly is no moving forward until a significant number have freed themselves from the yokes of ignorance and denial.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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