Questions continue on legal, medical issues concerning marijuana use

Editor--Oregon will institute a new policy in July 2015, allowing recreational use of marijuana.  At the same time Hawaii is allowing treating physicians to prescribe it for medical use.  Yet in spite of these changes questions remain on the legal medical issues concerning marijuana use.

The biggest issue is the fact that although the states are legalizing marijuana, for either medical use or both medical and personal use, the Federal government continues to be against it.

At the same the US is lacking in research on marijuana because of the fact that marijuana was illegal everywhere for so many years.

This is the foremost barrier in states implementing their laws.  One never knows, for example, when the Federal government will intervene after a law has been enacted and render a decision that makes application of the new law difficult.

In Hawaii, for example, marijuana has been a popular street drug with just about everyone, including President Obama in his youth.  Most of the time police turn aside from arresting anyone because it is so casually available.

And most of the time when people are caught with the drug, it is seldom they are asked to produce a card saying they have a legal right to use it.

Still despite the fact that Hawaii was one of the earlier states to allow medical marijuana use, it still has no legal distribution centers.

This means the underground trade is rampant, with everyone looking behind them to see whether or not when they distribute the drug, it will be confiscated and they, in turn, taken to the local police station.

Marijuana is available on the beaches, on lanais, in backyards and in Grandma's kitchen almost everywhere in Hawaii.  And the hypocrisy of allowing medical marijuana while disallowing its distribution is not lost on the average Hawaii citizen, as the notion comes up for discussion at virtually every session of the legislature, with the the issue continuing to be unresolved.

In the meantime Oregon happily has both distribution centers and very soon the ordinary citizen can buy it like candy, just for the price and the money they have.  It is also likely the prices will be reduced as well with increased competition.  And places like Hawaii will have people wondering when their State will catch up. 

In January 2010, New Jersey became the 14th state to enact a law allowing the sale of marijuana to ease the pain and suffering of chronically, seriously ill patients. The Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act was modeled after New Mexico's medical use statute which allows registered patients to purchase small amounts of marijuana (two ounces per month) to cope with debilitating illnesses. Both states also allow for state-licensed "alternative care centers" to sell marijuana. New Mexico currently has a number of distribution centers where people can legally buy pot.  Colorado's experience is highly touted for its relative successes in distributing the drug.

Folks are still confused, however, with how much marijuana is helpful and how it is dispensed.  There is information to the effect that smoking too much will create some of the same problems as cigarettes in terms of the impact on the lungs.  There are several ways of using the drug, but how will these develop within certain medical guidelines is a complex issue.  

Questions abound as to whether the law will leave people with serious medical conditions without relief, and whether the six centers initially licensed will be enough to meet demand. With many sick people unable to wait for the law to take effect in some states or for the health department to outline rules, advocates fear that people will turn to buying marijuana illegally, which would inevitably lead to superfluous possession charges. Also at issue is how purchases will be taxed. It took New Mexico two years to implement its law for medical marijuana.

These are the issues that continue to be debated on the use of medical marijuana even as the State of Oregon  prepares to legalize it for recreational use and as Hawaii lingers behind, with confusion the key word for marijuana's present status.

Fight brews over marijuana vending machine sales

Marijuana proponents seek vending machine sales like are found with newspapers and other machines

Carol Forsloff---In one of the unlikeliest of incidents, a marijuana clinic in Arizona is being sued for not paying the money it obtained from sales of marijuana from a vending machine. Even as the rest of the nation's 20 states that have legalized marijuana and are now grappling over methods of distribution, the inventor of the vending machine wants his fair share of the take from a self-activated device that offers a Heinz variety of marijuana goodies based upon prescription need.

It turns out Prescription Vending Machines et al. is suing the Non-Profit Patient Center and two of its officials in Maricopa County Court. The plaintiffs include Kind Clinics and Medicine Dispensing Systems who maintain that defendants David Pieser and Theodore Brinkofski owe money from their medical marijuana store located in a small town near Las Vegas, in Dolan Springs. The vending machine is said to be able to distribute 60 varieties of medical marijuana and is able to verify the identity of a patient by using biometric recognition.

In the meantime, the states where medical marijuana is legal continue to grapple how to serve users best. As it is, in many cases there are no distributors and no laws set up for distribution in many states, like Hawaii  that passed a law to do so that will not be in effect until January 2015, even as Oregon just passed this year a bill  to allow distributors officially to offer their medical marijuana in special centers and locations and will have a directory of the retailers. But so far there don't appear to be any vending machines in most of them.

States with legalized marijuana enact new regulations and expansions

[caption id="attachment_14051" align="alignleft" width="300"] Medical marijuana sign - wikimedia commons[/caption]

Marsha Hunt with Carol Forsloff---Whether it's a medical marijuana distribution center in the Portland, Oregon area, a commercial outlet in Washington or a small shop in Colorado, many people with medical problems celebrate the hands off policy of the Federal government, even as the issue about a drug of choice, and its controversies, stops boiling and allows service with a smile for those in need.

Yesterday the Human Collective folks in Portland, Oregon had a bright, open atmosphere, as people arrived quietly and with their usual decorum to a place that reflects the calm and competent way the owner-manager and others operate a business that those with medical marijuana needs find exemplary and applaud.

Washington State has already moved along after the announcement by Eric Holder that the Federal government would look the other way with those states who have legalized marijuana. The prohibitions about driving and the reference to meticulous record-keeping offers hopeful answers for medication that has benefited many.

Scientific facts may be relatively sparse, in relationship to other medications, however they support benefit to people with numerous medical conditions, including diabetic neuropathy, chronic pain, glaucoma and a host of other ailments.

Oregon has not passed a law allowing recreational use, although its close relative on the border, Washington State, has done so, even as distribution centers awaited the decision on just how the ordinary citizen could purchase marijuana.

Washington State has made the decision to license 334 pot stores, including at least 21 in Seattle and 61 in King County. Revised state rules have developed for a recreational marijuana system, with the total pot production capped at 40 metric tons each year., which the state estimates 25 percent of the total state market for legal creational, medical and illicit-market marijuana.

Grandma changes her mind on weed

[caption id="attachment_9428" align="alignleft" width="300"] Herbal healing[/caption]

Carol Forsloff --If Sanjay Gupta can change his mind on weed, so can Grandma.  As a matter of fact many Grandmas already have, as some have found that some of those multiple pill boxes can go in the trash since medical marijuana can help with a number of ailments.

Diabetes is becoming almost fashionable these days, in that those who don't have it yet are in the line waiting to get it, epidemic-style as it is.  Burning feet can cause great misery, and those who have tried a cookie or two before bed have found the pain can ease a good bit, to virtually nothing at all.  Marijuana has been found useful for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy, a painful condition that can be devastating at times and expensive to treat with prescriptions that cause significant side effects.  But a marijuana cookie or salve on the feet can surely help.

Eyesight a problem?  One of the main benefits medically is the lowering of eye pressure.  Many eye specialists would agree, even if it is sometimes just temporary.

Pain reduction is a valuable use for medical marijuana.  Arthritis ailments can get Grandma and many of her friends down to the point of virtual inactivity.  But marijuana has been found useful for pain control, lowering the need for the hardcore medicine that one can't get for prolonged use.  Marijuana users can be abusers, like anything can be abused.  Still if discretion is the better part of courage, as we have learned at one time, then it means that just saying no for just having fun and having it for medication means not indulging just to indulge.

If most evidence on marijuana is anecdotal, that's because the government has run interference so much that research has not been a priority.  But given the clash between Federal and State laws, with the former saying no to it all and 20 of the states saying yes at least to marijuana's medical use, it seems to time to listen to the voices of experience.

And some of them are grandmothers.  As one clinic in Portland observes, "Most of our patients are over 50.  They are getting aches and pains and at the age where they find marijuana helpful.  Some of those baby boomers who smoked it in their youth at least aren't afraid of it and willing to try it for medicinal uses."

So if Sanjay Gupta is making a change, Grandma can be right behind, leaving the idea of growing old and disabled not among the worries of most, as things change and so will the concerns and the minds of seniors.

Medical marijuana users hide in plain sight

Reporter interviews office personnel at the Human Collective in Portland, Oregon

Carol Forsloff-----20 states have passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use,  with Illinois the most recent; yet marijuana users often voluntarily hide in plain sight as they remain part of the collateral damage from the war on drugs.

Nancy Reagan’s good-intentioned “let’s say no” reinforced the notion that anyone who uses marijuana is doing harm to their bodies and violating the law.  Crime stories abounded with tales of people using marijuana as they counted their money in the smoke-filled back rooms with pipes and paraphernalia that spoke of errant ways and defiance against authority.  With this backdrop, the marijuana user often hides in plain sight in order to avoid the stigmas associated with marijuana in any form for any reason.

Whereas the news media reports the states as they adopt new laws on marijuana use,  many do not highlight the conflicts that take place between the states and the federal regulations on marijuana use.  Growers, distributors and users find themselves dodging the proverbial bullet, when clinics are raided by heavy booted, armed folks who can arrive at any time, reinforcing marijuana use as a crime, when 20 states have declared the drug to be a medication worthy of regulation, distribution and use by people who need it for medical reasons.

Most of the people who obtain their marijuana medication at Human Collective II, a distribution center in the greater Portland, Oregon area, are over the age of 50.  Many of these people have chronic pain conditions, and whereas they are familiar with marijuana use, sometimes in those young days of pot smoking, folk singing and protesting, they still recall it as something done by subterfuge and viewed as snubbing one’s nose at authority.  Now those stereotypes haunt the new user who looks for relief with a known substance but still retains the prejudices that came with marijuana years ago and that continue to linger in the minds of many,  according to Donald Morse, assistant manager of the Human Collective clinic.

“The drug still carries the stigma,” Morse maintains.  “It’s all about the money.  And as it took decades to get rid of the prejudices towards gays, it will take time for people to truly accept marijuana as a viable option for treating health complaints.”  Morse is one of those distributors who face Federal authorities in a case going to trial later this year, having been indicted for distributing marijuana to users who have the legal right to use it and to select the grower of it as well.  And Human Collective has been seen as a model clinic for others in the State of Oregon because of its professional manner and methods of providing medical marijuana.  These are the concerns facing those who use medical marijuana and those who provide it for them, as the war on drugs continues to create wounds and casualties, even as it appears to be on its way to resolution, at least within the several states.

Humanitarian deficit exists in application of marijuana education and laws

Medical Marijuana

Carol Forsloff----In Oregon if you have a state card authorizing you to be able to take medical marijuana according to state law, what are the risks under Federal regulations?  Worse yet, what are the humanitarian concerns with respect to those who work within state law and guidelines as providers for marijuana patients?

The hypocrisies that exist between state and federal regulations concerning marijuana bring questions that go to the heart of American justice, as it takes away from patients rights to have medication that might work.  It also removes from many doctors the additional item in the arsenal of treating glaucoma, diabetic neuropathy, chronic pain and a host of other conditions.  Many diseases, like glaucoma, and eye condition that can lead to blindness, are said to be treated well with marijuana, with the science of this going back to the 1970's.

Recentlys there have been raids by Federal authorities and closures of hundreds of  medical marijuana clinics in the State of California and other states where the laws allow the use of medical marijuana.  At the same time, the Department of Justice and state authorities several times weekly, on respective websites and in press releases, the authorities underline how crime doesn’t pay but the recitation of crime events specifically with transporting marijuana from place to place along the United States corridors.  As growing marijuana is a crime under Federal law, despite a number of states passing legislation to allow the drug for medical purposes, the drug is associated in crime stories with cocaine and heroin when crime and drugs are discussed.

And as the Federal and State laws conflict, the increase in suppliers going underground and becoming part of that world where violence and other crimes occur, the solutions to reduce crime, provide a humane approach to legislation, waver unsolved because of the lack of humanity in the regulation of marijuana.

Jennifer Southby, who asked her real name not be used for this article,  is a patient of one of the doctors who fills prescriptions for marijuana in Portland, Oregon.  Her scars tell the story of physical pain, pain she observes often required large doses of addicting painkillers.   Sciatica can be very painful, and Southby said, “I tried everything, and nothing seemed to work.    One day someone gave me heroin, telling me it was no different than marijuana, which I had never tried.  Besides I was told that it was just as safe and would help me more with the pain.  That led to me becoming a junkie.  I could have avoided that had medical marijuana been legal at the time.  As it is, you can see the tracks in my arm that offer evidence of the addiction that took my years to break.”

So is marijuana a gateway drug?  Not if Southby is right, for she lacked the medical information that had the moral authority to help her with her pain with medication that has been observed to be non-addictive and that is legal in the State where she lives.  But like many people she thought marijuana and cocaine were comparable.

In fact some researchers maintain that marijuana is a reverse gateway drug, causing people to seek prescribed, addictive painkillers because of marijuana's status as an illegal drug.  And whereas some researchers maintain there is new research substantiating marijuana to be addictive, the study on your people did not look at other behaviors surrounding the use of marijuana and the legal or illegality of the drug with respect to personal, not medical use.  Marijuana was found to be associated with other drugs such as nicotine and alcohol, but again without differentiating between adolescent behaviors outside of drug use nor does it prove that marijuana causes addiction to other drugs, which would go against the scientific notions that because two things are associated does not mean one causes the other.

It is the lack of education and fairness to those who dispense medications of marijuana to patient, and the contradictions that take place between Federal and State laws, that makes many people question the motivations of those who continue to create more and more barriers for medications that some people find helpful and maintain they would suffer without.

College offers education for growing, cultivating, delivery medicalmarijuana

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Carol Forsloff - In California folks continue to be enterprising with a college for marijuana growers and users to develop the drug for medicinal use.  Is this potentially good business?

In Shasta Lake, California, according to a recent press release, there will be a 2-day event  featuring how to grow marijuana legally.

The goal is to demonstrate that this can be a good business for farmers and cultivators.  The college takes place July 16 and 17 at Red Lion Inn in the high mountains of Lake Shasta.

College Business Director, George Boyardiian of 402 College says, "It's not hard or as expensive to comply with the law as people think.  We focus on simple steps that a medical marijuana collective, delivery service or member farm need to take to get up and running, legally. We cover best practices for cultivation and testing, as well. Two days and the cost of the seminar are a lot less then the price we've seen others pay for ignoring cultivation guidelines, or by following someone's advice that's mis-informed about the law."

The press release goes on to say that featured speakers at the college will include people from the medical marijuana industry who have years of practical experience to share about how to start and run a marijuana business right down to the details of growing and delivering the goods.   Folks can register online at this address.

There is a growing underground industry in marijuana, but there are federal laws against it.   Still California, like other states where medical marijuana is legal, has its own set of regulations.  Those codes can be found here under “compassionate use” legislation.

There is even a YouTube video that gives folks information on the laws referencing growing and cultivating marijuana in California,  that will give potential students at the 402 college some introductory information in advance.  It appears there is sufficient business potential with the growing number of states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes for training in how to be successful in the drug business.