Medical Marijuana in the News: 12/6

Medical Marijuana in the News: 12/6/07
ASA’s Weekly Media Summary

* ASA ACTION: Police Ordered to Return Patient’s Marijuana
* COLORADO: Marijuana Returned But Unusable
* FLORIDA: Patient to Argue Medical Necessity
* NEW MEXICO: Details of New Program Being Negotiated
* HIV/AIDS: Cannabis a Key Treatment
* CANADA: Patients Want Access to Cannabis Choices
* FEDERAL: Forfeiture Threat Hangs Over Patients, Landlords
* FEDERAL: Anniversary for Patient Who Gets Government Cannabis
* DISPENSARIES: Localities Testing Law’s Limits
* OPINION: Debating Pros and Cons
* CAMPAIGN ’08: Money Where Candidates’ Mouths Are
* ASA BLOG: Comments from ASA Staff and Guests
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ASA ACTION: Police Ordered to Return Patient’s Marijuana
The victory ASA’s legal team won in California appellate court last week has
helped clarify the responsibility of local law enforcement to respect the
rights of medical marijuana patients. The Los Angeles Times has weighed in with
an approving editorial, which has also been the occasion for them to chronicle
the history of their published opinions on the broader issue of marijuana laws,
a history that shows how greater understanding can change perceptions.

Wacky tabacky case
EDITORIAL, Los Angeles Times
There's no denying that it sounds wacky: The California Court of Appeal has
upheld a lower court decision ordering the police to give back the marijuana
seized from a driver during a routine traffic stop. This is likely to generate
a wave of "Only in California" jokes, but just because it's wacky doesn't mean
it's wrong.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5315

Gone with the weed
by Cold Copy, Los Angeles Times
It took decades for the Los Angeles Times to come to its current position on
marijuana, supporting its medical use and advocating lenient enforcement and
penalties for small-scale possession. Barring a 1914 editorial suggesting the
legalization of opium to reap tariff revenue, The Times' editorial board acted
as an unrelenting drug warrior, even using war terminology before "war on
drugs" rhetoric ramped up in the 1970s and 1980s.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5316

Medical marijuana wins the day in court
News-Medical Net
Police in California have been ordered by a court to return a man's marijuana
to him.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5307
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COLORADO: Marijuana Returned But Unusable
A Colorado court last week ordered property returned to a caregiver couple who
lost 39 plants and other property to an illegal search and seizure. The
cannabis was returned this week, but in an unusable condition. The couple wants
compensation, as they would be entitled to in any other instance of wrongful
seizure resulting in the destruction of property. Pursuing the matter on their
behalf is Brian Vicente, director of the Colorado Campaign for Safe Access, a
joint project of Sensible Colorado and Americans for Safe Access.

Court orders pot returned
CNN
A Colorado couple gets marijuana back, but the plants are dead. KUSA's Ward
Lucas reports.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5327

Couple: Police Killed Our Pot Plants
Associated Press
A couple whose medical-marijuana plants were seized are threatening to sue
authorities because the plants were returned dead.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5325

Colorado hands back seized medical pot
United Press International
The return of 39 dead pot plants to a Colorado couple this week is being seen
by some as a milestone in the debate over medical marijuana.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5320

Medical Marijuana Growers Payback
by Emil Steiner, Columnist, Washington Post
A Colorado couple is threatening to sue local law enforcement to get its bongs
back -- as well as its marijuana plants, which they say they grew for medical
purposes.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5300

Ill couple seek recourse after police killed marijuana plants
by Howard Pankratz , Denver Post
More than three dozen marijuana plants seized by authorities from a Fort
Collins couple were returned to them dead Monday by police. The couple, James
and Lisa Masters, along with their attorneys, said they will take legal action
against the Fort Collins police and the Larimer County district attorney's
office, who they said by law had to return the plants undamaged.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5324

Compensation sought for dead pot plants
by Sara Reed, The Coloradoan
It took 16 months, but a Fort Collins couple Monday finally retrieved the
medical marijuana seized from their home in August 2006. But the battle is far
from over.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5323

Owner wants police held responsible for destroyed medical marijuana
by David Edwards and Adam Doster, The Raw Story
The return of marijuana plants to a Colorado couple is being interpreted by
some as a milestone in the debate over medical marijuana.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5303

Police return 39 pot plants to couple
KJCT Channel 8 (CO)
Police in Fort Collins have returned marijuana plants to a couple wrongly
arrested.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5322

Couple reclaim marijuana
by Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News (CO)
James and Lisa Masters pulled a broken 2-foot glass bong, large sacks of moldy
marijuana - a total of 39 dead plants - and a small, usable quantity of the
drug from the back of a white minivan.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5306

Dude, we got our pot back - but it's moldy
by Julie Poppen, RockyTalk Live, Rocky Mountain News (CO)
A Fort Collins couple, busted last year for growing marijuana in their home,
got their pot back after a judge ruled the couple had fulfilled the definition
of being medical marijuana caregivers.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5321

Medical marijuana returned to Fort Collins couple mostly ruined
by Cara O’Brien, Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald (CO)
Monday may have been the first day in Colorado history that someone got their
marijuana back from the police.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5305
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FLORIDA: Patient to Argue Medical Necessity
The state may not have a medical marijuana law, but Florida juries have still
acquitted patients on the basis of medical necessity. They will get another
chance in the case of a man who uses cannabis to help fight AIDS. Since even
the federal government’s own commissioned report from the Institute of Medicine
found medical marijuana to be effective for treating HIV/AIDS, there should not
be much to argue about at trial.

Local bust highlights medical marijuana debate
Express Gay News (FL)
It was Jan. 9, 2007 when police came to Robin Redman’s apartment. Police had
received complaints that Redman was dealing narcotics. For almost 20 years,
Redman, 48, has been using marijuana to alleviate symptoms related to AIDS.
Caren Woodson, director of Americans for Safe Access, a pro-medical marijuana
organization, said that as many as one in four people with HIV use marijuana
therapeutically.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5310

Seal Beach council to discuss pot dispensaries ban
by Jorge Barrientos, Orange County Register (CA)
The City Council on Monday will honor centenarian Frances W. Hood from Leisure
World, elect a new mayor and mayor pro tem and hold a public hearing on
prohibiting the establishment of marijuana dispensaries in the city.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5317
____________________________________
NEW MEXICO: Details of New Program Being Negotiated
The latest state to implement a medical marijuana program is working on
establishing regulations. The New Mexico law, championed by governor and
presidential hopeful Bill Richardson, calls for establishing a state-run
distribution program. Until that is operational, the health department is
letting individual patients and caregivers cultivate.

Health Department asks for comment on medical marijuana regs
by Associated Press, Las Cruces Sun-News (NM)
Patients, caregivers or private entities could get licenses from the state
Department of Health to provide marijuana under New Mexico's medical marijuana
program, according to proposed regulations released by the department.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5304
____________________________________
HIV/AIDS: Cannabis a Key Treatment
Cannabis first became a critical part of the treatment regimen for people with
AIDS as a way of staving off deadly wasting syndrome. Now many people with AIDS
use cannabis as a way of managing the excruciating side effects of
anti-retroviral medications, as well as to stave off nausea, enhance appetite
and fight painful peripheral neuropathies.

Why World AIDS Day Should Highlight the Need For Medical Cannabis
by Richard Cowan, OpEd, Windy City Times (IL)
In the United States and throughout the Western world, patients with HIV and
AIDS have been the driving forces behind the effort to legalize the therapeutic
use of cannabis.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5319
____________________________________
CANADA: Patients Want Access to Cannabis Choices
Health Canada has been providing cannabis to patients for the past few years,
but many are unhappy with the quality and concerned about contaminants. They
would like to be able to use private collectives to obtain better medicine.

Government-grown medical marijuana can't meet needs of patients: lawyer
by Jered Stuffco, Canadian News
Lawyers for Canadian users of medical marijuana who want Ottawa to ease
restrictions on where they get their pot wrapped up their case Wednesday by
telling a Federal Court judge that government-approved marijuana doesn't
compare to higher-quality strains available on the street.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5301
____________________________________
FEDERAL: Forfeiture Threat Hangs Over Patients, Landlords
Instead of challenging state medical marijuana laws, federal authorities have
gone after patients and providers, sending many to jail. Now the DEA has
started using asset forfeiture as a way of intimidating Californians. The
number of seizures have been few but the threats have been many, including
literally hundreds of letters to landlords who rent space to patient
collectives in the Los Angeles, Sacramento, and now San Francisco areas.

Medical marijuana grower's sentence cut, loses house
by Terry Vau Dell, Oroville Mercury-Register (CA)
When a Paradise woman began growing and selling medical marijuana as part of a
"collective" involving more than 50 other local patients, she never thought she
could end up losing her home. Documents show that after being contacted by
Butte County sheriff's officers, federal prosecutors obtained a lien against
Patricia Hatton's two-bedroom residence under a separate asset-forfeiture
action in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5311
DEA moves to pull pot out from under San Francisco landlords
by Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross, Columnists, San Francisco Chronicle
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is pushing to close San Francisco's
cannabis clubs by turning its guns on their landlords - warning them that
renting to pot dispensaries could cost them their buildings.
____________________________________
FEDERAL: Anniversary for Patient Who Gets Government Cannabis
Despite the federal government’s continuing insistence that “there is no such
ting as medical marijuana” and that “no studies have shown the safety or
efficacy of marijuana for medical use,” federal tax dollars pay to provide free
cannabis to a handful of remaining patients in what is called a compassionate
Investigational New Drug program. A physician review of the more than dozen
patients who received federal cannabis after proving in court that it was
medically necessary found that cannabis was extremely effective in all cases
with no significant adverse effects.

Whatever happened to ... Medical pot recipient from Portsmouth?
by Tony Germanotta, Virginian-Pilot
On November 20, Portsmouth native Irvin Rosenfeld marked a bittersweet
milestone. Rosenfeld, 54, opened a tin from his pharmacist and lit up a
government-issued marijuana cigarette. It was his 25th year in a rare
"compassionate use" program ostensibly studying the efficacy of pot as
medicine.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5308
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DISPENSARIES: Localities Testing Law’s Limits
The California legislature has tried to provide some direction to local
officials on how to implement safe access, but much has been left to
interpretation, particularly the operation of patient collectives or
dispensaries. A case underway in southern California alleges illegal profit,
but those operating such dispensaries are legally entitled to compensation for
their work. ASA’s study of local implementation found that communities with
regulations for dispensary operations had positive experiences. Read about it
at http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/dispensaries.

Will dispensary owner stand trial?
by Amy Blaisdell, City News Service, Desert Sun (CA)
A Riverside County judge will decide on Friday whether three men accused of
profiting from a former Palm Desert medical marijuana dispensary will stand
trial on felony charges.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5318

Pot Dispensaries Face City Rules, Federal Crackdown
by Nick Welsh, Santa Barbara Independent
As the operators of Santa Barbara’s remaining medical marijuana dispensaries
braced themselves for possible federal raids, the ordinance committee of the
Santa Barbara City Council met on Tuesday to grapple with how best to regulate
the operation of such facilities—legal under state law but federally
prohibited—throughout the city.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5309
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OPINION: Debating Pros and Cons
The myths and misinformation that surround the medical use of cannabis are so
pervasive that even well-educated physicians may not be fully informed.
Specialists in cannabis therapeutics have emerged in part because understanding
the potential therapeutic applications of cannabis requires extensive education
not currently provided by medical schools. Doctors who deal with people with
cancer and HIV/AIDS are more likely to know about the important benefits
cannabis offers their patients. But others, such as the author of one of the
OpEds below, may be influenced by mistaken information (as when he says that a
spray form of Marinol, or synthetic THC, is being tested when it is actually a
whole-plant compound).

The argument to reassign pot's drug classification
by Wesley J. Smith , OpEd, San Francisco Chronicle
The United States is a nation governed by law at the federal, state and local
levels. Sometimes these laws differ with each other. That's where the great
principle of federalism comes in. Federalism permits state laws to be in
conflict with each other, and even with the federal government. But that's OK.
The sometimes messy business of federalism permits different locales to try
different solutions to vexing problems, allowing the states to act as the "test
tubes of democracy."
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5313

Physicians unlikely to embrace marijuana as medicine
by Keith Humphreys, OpEd, San Francisco Chronicle
It wasn't just women with breast cancer who were excited last month when
scientists at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute showed that
a compound found in marijuana may be able to block the growth of aggressive
tumors. This finding also cheered activists who hope that mainstream medicine
will soon embrace marijuana as a treatment. For a range of reasons, that's
extremely unlikely.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5312
____________________________________
CAMPAIGN ’08: Money Where Candidates’ Mouths Are
Ten grand is on the line for the Presidential candidates who have said medical
marijuana is too dangerous or unproven to support. All they have to do is prove
it, and the money is theirs. But this New York Times science columnist is not
the only one betting against their ability to do so.

A Science Challenge for G.O.P. Candidates
by John Tierney, Columnist, New York Times
Some of the Republican presidential candidates have dismissed medical marijuana
as unnecessary or “too dangerous.” Now they’re being offered $10,000 to come up
with the scientific evidence.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=5314
____________________________________
ASA BLOG: Comments from ASA Staff and Guests
ASA's blog is helping keep activists informed on the issues and events
affecting medical marijuana patients and providers.

Court of Appeals Orders Police to Return Medical Marijuana
by Joe Elford
For years there has been harassment against medical marijuana patients through
the confiscation of their medicine, and, until now, there had been no clear
statement on this by the appellate courts. On Wednesday, this changed.
http://safeaccessnow.org/blog/?p=46

ASA Applauds Gov. Richardson’s Inclusion of Medical Marijuana in HIV/AIDS
Platform
by Caren Woodson
On Saturday, December 1, to commemorate Worlds AIDS Day, Democratic
Presidential Candidate, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson unveiled his
HIV/AIDS policy platform. In addition to recognizing the need for a National
AIDS Strategy, the Governor’s plan includes a provision that would permit the
use of medicinal marijuana to help people living with HIV/AIDS improve pain and
symptom management.
http://safeaccessnow.org/blog/?p=45

California Weekly Round Up
by Sonnet Seeborg Gabbard
http://safeaccessnow.org/blog/?p=44

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MORE ABOUT AMERICANS FOR SAFE ACCESS
Find out about ASA at http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org. More medical
marijuana news summaries can be seen at
http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/News.