Grow Love

Monday, November 27, 2006

Ed's Birthday

Ed Rosenthal's Birthday Party Fundraiser


Saturday, December 2 2006 8:30pm - 12:00am

Come join us for a birthday party and fundraiser for Ed Rosenthal of Green Aid for an evening of revelries, friends and festivities including Matt Venuti and his cosmic Bluegrass Ensemble. In case you haven't heard, the Feds were not pleased that the Appeals Court overturned his conviction and will be retrying Ed early 2007. I'm putting on a party at our home to celebrate an unrelenting defender of marijuana rights. www.green-aid.com


$50 suggested donation

"Tenacious Ed" had his conviction on three federal marijuana felony charges overturned, but prosecutors have now decided to not only charge him again -- even though the jury repudiated their own verdict, and the judge gave him only a day in jail--this time they've expanded the charges. But Ed's going to fight again. He needs your help to stand up for patients everywhere.

In the event that you cannot come, you can still show your support. Please forward the invitation to a few select friends that would like to spend an evening partying with Ed.

Donations can be made online at www.green-aid.com or mailed to Green Aid, 484 Lake Park Ave. #172, Oakland, CA 94610. Green Aid is a marijuana legal defense fund with 501 (c)(3) charitable corporation status so donations are tax deductible.

Ed disgraced the federal government at his last trial. This was due to financial support from the community. Let's make sure he has the war chest to take on the Feds again.


Contact: RSVP Jane for address & directions at jkleinr@aol.com 510-420-0488

Sunday, November 19, 2006

http://www.medicalcupbenefit.com/


Tickets are available at D and M Compassion Center,

phone 707-994-1320

or

Medical Cup Benefit Hotline,

phone 707-367-6946

Saturday, December 2nd, 4:20 p.m. through Sunday, December 3rd, 10:00 a.m.

Powered by: D & M Compassion Center, Clearlake, California

Travel by: Apothecary Travel, Willits, California

Theme: “For the Greater Good.”


Mission

To conduct a quality-of-life activity for chronically and terminally ill patients.

To establish a respite and retreat program.

To provide a time, place and opportunity for healing and fun.

To honor Patient Advocate, Linda Senti, for her tireless efforts in guiding and educating medical patients in self healing.

To support our mission against HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

To contribute to World AIDS Day, 2006.


VIP Celebrities

Jack Herer - Author “The Emperor Wears No Clothes”

Eddy Lepp - Activist, Upper Lake, California

Commissioner Richard Eastman - High Times, October 2006

Brett Bogue - High Times, October 2006

Howard Dover, Producer, Director, Medical Marijuana Comedy Show

Hollywood Comedians

Joe Rogan - Host: Fear Factor, Comedy Store

Ngaio Bealum - MTV, Comedy Central, High Times, Comedy Store

Mary Jane - High Times Cover Girl, Comedy Store

Roland A. Duby the Big Fat Pot Head

Musical Entertainment

Wadada & Company - International Renowned Reggae Artist

Robin the Hammer (Cannabis Cup Maker) and Five Points Band

Chuckaluphagus

Music by: D.J. Uhuru (Freedom)

VIP Judge's Pass Includes the Following:

* 7 flowers to judge

* Vaporizer Room

* Concentrated Flowers

* Heart Lodge Entry

* Live Music and Entertainment

* Hollywood Style Comedy Show

* Dinner and Beverages

* Samples/Giveaways

* Edibles

* VIP Celebrities

* Vendor Booths

and more!!!

Judge's pass $200
Lakesterdam cabin $50 per person
Motel room $75 per person
Vendor's space $350

Lakesterdam

(Blue Lakes Region near Upper Lake, California)

A 5,200 sq ft main lodge and beautiful 2,200 sq ft multi-purpose Heart Lodge.

A supportive and professional staff to help you feel at home during your stay.

Large swimming pool and 16' X 8' hot pool.

Stone Labyrinth and numerous hiking trails..

Medical Notes, California I.D. required

(IAW Prop. 215 and S.B. 420)

Contact Us by Email

Visit us on MySpace

Enea Motaung is the Executive Director of the oldest HIV/AIDS Program in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Township AIDS Project was founded in 1989. Our mission is to provide comprehensive HIV/AIDS services amongst the illiterate and poor. The Government saw AIDS as a "gay man's disease" or "white man's disease" and believed black people could not become infected. They simply disavowed themselves of all responsibility through benign neglect.

* * *

Nelson Mandela's decision to announce that his son died of AIDS will send out a strong message in a country where stigma and denial still surround the virus.

More than 600 people are thought to die every day in South Africa of AIDS related illnesses and millions are HIV positive.

"Let us give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it."

Nelson Mandela - January 10, 2005

Coming soon!

3rd Annual IMCC Medical Cup Benefit
Saturday & Sunday, June 16 and 17, 2007

4:20 p.m.
Hollywood, California
Honoring Paul J. Scott, Founder and Director

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

great pictures



The Body of Medical Literature on Cannabis Medicine

Our authority here is the 'Body of Literature,' starting with ancient materia medicae; Chinese and Hindu pharmacopoeia and Near Eastern cuneiform tablets, and continuing all the way into this century, including the 1966-76 U.S. renaissance of cannabis studies - some 10,000 separate studies on medicines and effects from the hemp plant. Comprehensive compendia of these works are designated as the prime sources for this medical chapter, as well as ongoing interviews with many researchers.

Affordable, Available Herbal Health Care

For more than 3,500 years, cannabis/hemp/marijuana has been, depending on the culture or nation, either the most used or one of the most widely used plants for medicines. This includes: China, India, the Middle and Near East, Africa, and pre-Roman Catholic Europe (prior to 476 A.D.).

Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, NORML, High Times and Omni magazines (September 1982) all indicate that if marijuana were legal it would immediately replace 10-20% of all pharmaceutical prescription medicines (based on research through 1976). And probably, Mechoulam estimates, 40-50% of all medicines, including patent medicines, could contain some extract from the cannabis plant when fully researched.

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(Read the U.S. government-sponsored research as outlined by Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, 1976; Roffman, Roger, Marijuana as Medicine, 1980; Mikuriya, Tod, M.D., Marijuana Medical Papers, 1972; Also, the work of Dr. Norman Zinberg; Dr. Andrew Weil; Dr. Lester Grinspoon; and the U.S. Government's Presidential Commission reports [Shafer Commission] from 1972; Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Tel Aviv/Jerusalem Univ. 1964-97; W.B. O'Shaunessy monograph, 1839; and the long term Jamaican studies I & II, 1968-74; Costa Rican studies through 1982; U.S. Coptic studies, 1981; Ungerlieder; U.S. military studies since the 1950s and '60s.)


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Superstar of the 19th Century

Marijuana was America's number one analgesic for 60 years before the rediscovery of aspirin around 1900. From 1842 to 1900 cannabis made up half of all medicine sold, with virtually no fear of its high.


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The 1839 report on the uses of cannabis by Dr. W.B. O'Shaugnessy, one of the most respected members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, was just as important to mid-19th Century Western medicine as the discoveries of antibiotics (like penicillin and Terramycin) were to mid-20th Century medicine.

In fact, the Committee on Cannabis Indica for the Ohio State Medical Society concluded that "High Biblical commentators [scholars]" believe "that the gall and vinegar, or myrrhed wine, offered to our Saviour immediately before his crucifixion was in all probability, a preparation of Indian hemp."

(Transcripts, Ohio State Medical Society 15th annual meeting June 12-14, 1860, pg. 75-100.)

From 1850 to 1937, the U.S. Pharmacopoeia listed cannabis as the primary medicine for more than 100 separate illnesses or diseases.
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During all this time (pre-1000 B.C. to 1940s A.D., researchers, doctors and drug manufacturers (Eli Lilly, Parke-David, Squibb, etc.) had no idea what the active ingredients of cannabis were until Dr. Mechoulam discovered THC in 1964.

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20th Century Research

As outlined in the previous chapters, the American Medical Association (AMA) and drug companies testified against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act because cannabis was known to have so much medical potential and had never caused any observable addictions or death by overdose.

The possibility existed, they argued, that once the active ingredients in cannabis (such as THC Delta-9) were isolated and correct dosages established, cannabis could become a miracle drug.
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Twenty-nine years would pass, however, before American scientists could begin to even look into cannabis medicine again.

THC Delta-9 was isolated by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam at the University of Tel Aviv in 1964. His work confirmed that of Professor Taylor of Princeton, who had lead the research and identification of natural THC Delta-9 precursors in the 1930s. Kahn, Adams and Loewe also worked with the structure of cannabis' active ingredients in 1944.

Since 1964, more than 400 separate compounds have been isolated in cannabis from over a thousand suspected compounds. At least 60 of the isolated compounds are therapeutic. The United States, however, forbade this type of research through the bureaucratic authority of Harry Anslinger util 1962, when he was forced to retire. (Omni Magazine, Sept. 1982)
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Growing Acceptance

By 1966, millions of young Americans had begun using marijuana. Concerned parents and government, wanting to know the dangers their children were risking, started funding dozens and later hundreds of marijuana health studies.

Entrenched in the older generation's minds were 30 years of Anslinger/Hearst scare stories of murder, atrocity, rape, and even zombie pacifism.

Federally sponsored research results began to ease Americans' fears of cannabis causing violence or zombie pacifism, and hundreds of new studies suggested that hidden inside the hemp plant's chemistry lay a medicinal array of incredible therapeutic potential. The government funded more and more studies.

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Soon, legions of American researchers had positive indications using cannabis, anorexia, tumors and epilepsy, as well as for a general use antibiotic. Cumulative findings showed evidence of favorable results occurring in cases of Parkinson's disease, anorexia, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy; plus thousands of anecdotal stories all merited further clinical study.

Prior to 1976, reports of positive effects and new therapeutic indications for cannabis were almost a weekly occurrence in medical journals and the national press.

National Conference Praised Cannabis Therapy Potential

In November 1975, virtually all of America's leading researchers on marijuana met at Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California. Seminars were sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to address a compendium of studies from their earliest to most recent findings.

When the seminars were over, practically all the scientists concluded that the federal government, with the hard evidence collected so far on the therapeutic potential of marijuana, should be rushing to invest tax money into more research.

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They felt the taxpayers should be informed that there was every legitimate reason for the field of public health to continue large scale research on cannabis medicine and therapies. All the participants, it seems, believed this. Many of them (such as Mechoulam) believed that cannabis would be one of the world's major medicines by the mid-1980s. In March 1997, Mechoulam, in a speech at the Bio-Fach in Frankfort, Germany, still believed that cannabis is the world's best overall medicine.

Marijuana Research Banned

However, in 1976, just as multi-disciplined marijuana research should have been going into its second, third, and fourth generation studies (see Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana and NORML federal files), a "surprise" United States government policy again forbade all promising federal research into marijuana's therapeutic effects.

This time, the research ban was accomplished when American pharmaceutical companies successfully petitioned the federal government to be allowed to finance and judge 100% of the research.

The previous ten years of research had indicated a tremendous promise for the therapeutic uses of natural cannabis, and this potential was quietly turned over to corporate hands - not for the benefit of the public, but to suppress the medical information.

This plan, the drug manufacturers petitioned, would allow our private drug companies time to come up with patentable synthetics of the cannabis molecules at no cost to the federal government, and a promise of "no highs."

In 1976, the Ford Administration, NIDA and the DEA said in effect, no American independent (read: university) research or federal health program would be allowed to again investigate natural cannabis derivatives for medicine. This agreement was made without any safeguards guaranteeing integrity on the part of the pharmaceutical companies; they were allowed to regulate themselves.

Private pharmaceutical corporations were allowed to do some "no high" research, but it would be only Delta-9 THC research, not any of the 400 other potentially therapeutic isomers in cannabis.

Why did the drug companies conspire to take over marijuana research? Because U.S. government research (1966-76) had indicated or confirmed through hundreds of studies that even "natural" crude cannabis was the "best and safest medicine of choice" for many serious health problems.

1988: DEA Judge Rules that Cannabis has Medical Value

The DEA's own conservative administrative law judge, Francis Young, after taking medical testimony for 15 days and reviewing hundreds of DEA/NIDA documents positioned against the evidence introduced by marijuana reform activists, concluded in September 1988 that "marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."

But despite this preponderance of evidence, then DEA Director John Lawn ordered on December 30, 1989 that cannabis remain listed as a Schedule I narcotic - having no known medical use. His successor, Robert Bonner, who was appointed by Bush and kept in office by Clinton, was even more draconian in his approach to hemp/marijuana as medicine. Clinton's current DEA administrator; Thomas Constantine (appointed 1993), upholds policies for worse even than Bonner's.

So. . . if all this has been known since 1975, what is our government waiting for?

Protecting Pharmaceutical Companies' Profits

NORML, High Times, and Omni (September 1982) indicate that Eli Lilly, Abbott Labs, Pfizer, Smith, Kline & French, and others would lose hundreds of millions, to billions of dollars annually, and lose even more billions in Third World countries, if marijuana were legal in the U.S.* 6

* Remember, in 1976, the last year of the Ford Administration, these drug companies, through their own persistence (specifically intense lobbying) got the federal government to cease all positive research into medical marijuana.

Putting the Fox into the Health Care Chicken Coop

The drug companies took over all research and financing into analogs of synthetic THC, CBD, CBN, etc., promising "no high" before allowing the products on the market. Eli Lilly came out with Nabilone and later Marinol, synthetic second cousins of THC Delta-9, and promised the government great results.

Omni Magazine, in 1982, stated that after nine years, Nabilone was still considered virtually useless when compared with real, home-grown THC-rich cannabis buds; and Marinol works as well as marijuana in only 13% of patients.

Marijuana users mostly agree, they do not like the effects of Lilly's Nabilone or Marinol. Why? You have to get three or four times as high on Marinol to sometimes get the same benefits as smoking good cannabis bud.

Omni also stated in 1982 (and it's still true in 1999), that after tens of millions of dollars and nine years of research on medical marijuana synthetics, "these drug companies are totally successful," even though raw, organic cannabis is a "superior medicine" which works so well naturally, on so many different illnesses.

Omni also suggested the drug companies petition the government to allow "crude drug extracts" on the market in the real interest of public health. The government and the drug companies, to date, have not responded. Or rather, they have responded by ignoring it. However, the Reagan/Bush/Clinton administrations absolutely refused to allow resumption of real (university) cannabis research, except under synthetic pharmaceutical studies.

Omni suggests, and NORML and High Times concur, the reason the drug companies and Reagan/Bush/Clinton wanted only synthetic THC legal is that simple extractions of the hundreds of ingredients from the cannabis crude drug would be enjoyed without pharmaceutical company patents which generate windfall monopolized profits.

Undermining the Natural Medicines' Competition

Eli Lilly, Pfizer and others stand to lose at least a third of their entire, highly profitable, patent monopoly on such drugs as Darvon, Tuinal, Seconal, and Prozac (as well as other patented medications ranging from muscle ointments to burn ointments, to thousands of other products) because of a plant anyone can grow: cannabis hemp. Isn't it curious that American drug companies and pharmacist groups* supply almost half the funding for the 4,000 "Families Against Marijuana" type organizations in America? The other half is supplied by Action (a federal VISA agency) and by tobacco companies like Philip Morris, and by liquor and beer makers like Anheuser Busch, Coors, etc., or as a "public service" by the ad agencies who represent them.

* Pharmacists Against Drug Abuse, etc. See appendices.

Poisoning the Third World

Columbia's largest newspaper, Periodical el Tiempo (Bogota), reported in 1983 that these same anti-marijuana crusading American pharmaceutical companies are guilty of a practice known as "product dumping," wherein they "sell on the over-the-counter markets of Columbia, Mexico, Panama, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, over 150 different illegal, dangerous drugs." This report has not been disputed by the U.S. government or American pharmaceutical companies and the practice continues in 1998.

Some of these drugs have been forbidden by the FDA for sale or use in the U.S. or its counterparts in Europe because they are known to cause malnutrition, deformities and cancer. Yet they are sold over-the-counter to unsuspecting illiterates!

The World Health Organization backs up this story with a conservative estimate: they say that some 500,000 people are poisoned each year in Third World countries by items (drugs, pesticides, etc.) sold by American companies but which are banned from sale in the U.S.*

* Mother Jones magazine, 1979, "Unbroken Circle" June, 1989; The Progressive, April 1991, et al.

Destroying the Public Record

Some 10,000 studies have been done on cannabis, 4,000 in the U.S., and only about a dozen have shown any negative results and these have never been replicated. The Reagan/Bush Administration put a soft "feeler" out in September of 1983 for all American universities and researchers to destroy all 1966-76 cannabis research work, including compendiums in libraries.

Scientists and doctors so ridiculed this unparalleled censorship move that the plans were dropped. . . for the moment.

However, we know that large amounts of information have since disappeared, including the original copy of the USDA's own pro-marijuana film Hemp for Victory. Worse yet, even the merest mention of the film was removed from the official record back to 1958, and has had to be painstakingly reestablished as part of our national archives. Many archival and resource copies of USDA Bulletin 404 have disappeared. How many other such priceless historical documents have already been lost?

In late 1995 and early 1996, Dennis Peron, founder of the Cannabis Buyers' Club in San Francisco, gave California voters Proposition 215, a statewide initiative to make cannabis legal as medicine. The medical marijuana initiative collected 750,000 signatures, made the California ballot and it passed by 56% of the vote in November 1996. Now, in 1998, hundreds of thousands of Californians are growing medical marijuana legally. Nonetheless, the federal government, in clear opposition to the people's mandate, has found ways to harass and close down most of the cannabis buyers'/cultivators' clubs including Peron's.

Interestingly, in 1996, more voters in California voted for medical marijuana than voted for Bill Clinton.

In August of 1997, almost one full year after the passage of Proposition 215 by the majority vote, an L.A. Times poll found that more than 67% of Californians would now vote for it - an increase of 11% in the first year.

Ninety-six percent (nearly 25,000) of the people responding to an ongoing CNN Internet poll, in March of 1998, said they "support the use of marijuana for medical purposes." By contrast, only 4% of respondents (less than 1,000 voters overall) said they opposed the use of cannabis by seriously ill patients.

Californians taking advantage of the new medical marijuana law include police officers, district attorneys and mayors. Some of the same people who formerly arrested and prosecuted citizens for marijuana, medical or otherwise, are now using it themselves or for their families in ever increasing numbers.

Upon reentering the United States from Canada, in March of 1998, California resident Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the highest scoring professional basketball player in history, was busted for possession of a small amount of marijuana. He paid a $500 fine to U.S. Customs and explained to the press that, as a California citizen, he had a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana.

Professional and collegiate athletes who live in California and have a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana theoretically do not have to undergo urine testing for cannabis.

Among the thousands of California actors, musicians and writers who legally use medical marijuana was famed author Peter McWilliams, who suffered from AIDS and cancer. He said, "If it weren't for the illegal pot dealers (before Proposition 215), there would have been no marijuana and I wouldn't be alive today. Marijuana eases nausea and makes it possible for me to keep down food and the pills I must take to combat my diseases. Fuck the federal government. Use it if you need it."

An Unfair Rap for Hemp

After 20 years of study, the California Research Advisory Panel (RAP) in 1989 broke with the state Attorney General's office (AG), under which it works, and called for the relegalization of cannabis.

"There is no point to continuing unmodified, much less intensified, the policies and laws that have so obviously failed to control the individual and societal damages associated with drug use," summarized Vice Chairman Frederick Meyers, M.D., in a letter released with the group's recommendations after the attorney general had suppressed the report and panel members elected to publish it at their own expense.

This was a complete turnaround from the RAP's long history of suppressing medical usage. The long-term impact of this shift remains to be seen.

Chairman Edward P. O'Brien, Jr. appointed by the AG, who dissented from the panel's conclusions, had for years dominated this group, rigidly controlling what research could be performed - and limiting those applications to control of nausea and vomiting that is secondary to cancer chemotherapy.

Under O'Brien, the panel systematically welshed on its mandate to provide compassionate medicinal access to cannabis. Any applications for using cannabis including the control of pain, spastic neurological disorders, etc., have been rejected. Cannabis used to be the treatment of choice for vascular or migraine headache. (Osler, 1916; O'Shaugnessey, 1839)

Cannabis has the unique characteristic of affecting the vascular circulation of the covering of the brain - the meninges. The reddened eyes of the marijuana user are a reflection of this action.

Unlike other drugs, however, cannabis has no apparent affect on the vascular system in general, except for a slight speeding up of the heart during the onset of the effects of the drug.

RAP has discouraged the use of smoking cannabis in favor of synthetic Delta-THC capsules, despite crude cannabis' favorable comparative results reported to the Food and Drug Administration.

This has been frankly misrepresented in their reports to the legislature and testimony in the NORML vs. DEA case. Additionally, these memoranda favorably comparing smoked marijuana to oral THC have been buried in appendices to their reports - available in only four locations in the entire state of California!

On September 30, 1989, the medical marijuana program quietly expired, based on the staff's assessment that no enough people had been treated to justify its extension. - Tod Mikuriya, M.D. Berkeley, CA 1990

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Fred Gardener article

FROM: Dale Gieringer canorml@igc.org


Sat, Nov 11, 2006 at 11:46 AM


To: dpfca@drugsense.org



Marijuana, The Anti-Drug


by Fred Gardner for Counterpunch


The extent to which medical cannabis users discontinue or reduce their use of pharmaceutical and over-the-counter drugs is a recurring theme in a recent survey of pro-cannabis (PC) California doctors. The drug-reduction phenomenon has obvious scientific implications.


Medicating with cannabis enables people to lay off stimulants as well as sedatives -suggesting that the herb's active ingredients restore homeostasis to various bodily systems. (Lab studies confirm that cannabinoids normalize the tempo of many other neurotransmission systems.)


The political implications are equally obvious. Legalizing herbal cannabis would devastate the pharmaceutical manufacturers and allied corporations in the chemicals, oil, "food," and banking sectors. Put simply, the synthetic drug makers stand to lose half their sales if and when the American people get legal access to cannabis.


In the 10 years since Proposition 215 made it legal for California doctors to approve cannabis use by patients, the PC docs did not adopt a common intake questionnaire, and, with one exception, did not collect systematic data on which pharmaceutical drugs their patients had chosen to stop taking. However, the consistency with which the doctors describe this phenomenon has a force as impressive as any slickly presented "hard" data.


This summer I surveyed 19 PC doctors who, between them, had approved and monitored cannabis use by more than 140,000 patients. Herewith some replies to a question about patients reporting reduced reliance on pharmaceuticals.


Frank Lucido, MD: "Chronic pain patients report reduced use of opioids, NSAIDs, muscle relaxants, sleeping pills. Psychiatric and insomnia patients reduce use of tranquilizers, SSRI antidepressants, and sleeping pills.
Neurologic patients reduce use of opioids, muscle relaxants, NSAIDS, triptans and other migraine headache remedies."


Marian Fry, MD: "Medications discontinued or reduced include Oxycontin, Norco, Percoset, Vicodin, Flexerol, Soma, Valium, SSRI antidepressants, and blood-pressure medications Norvasic and Hydrochlorothiazide. Approximately 1% of my patients report reduced reliance or discontinuation of seizure medication by substituting Cannabis for Dilantin and remaining seizure free. Many of my Glaucoma patients no longer require their Timoptic drops and are able to maintain normal pressures with the use of Cannabis. Many of my patients who have lost hope in conventional pharmaceutical treatments report enhanced health, decreased pain, decrease depression and an overall sense of well being despite chronic illness."


Helen Nunberg, MD is medical director of MediCann, a statewide chain of clinics through which 53,000 patients have received approvals. Nunberg reviewed records of 1,800 patients seen at nine clinics. "Prescription drug substitution is very significant," she writes. "51% of the 1,800 patients report using cannabis as a substitute for prescription medications; 48% report using cannabis to prevent prescription medication side effects; 67% report using cannabis to reduce dosage of prescription medication; 49% of patients using cannabis for chronic pain were previously prescribed an opioid (such as hydrocodone) by their personal physician."

Philip Denney, MD: "Cannabis allows significant decreased use or elimination of many prescription medications, particularly narcotics. Patients usually report decreases of 50% or better."


Tom O'Connell, MD: "Vicodin and other opioids; lithium; Klonopin; various sleep aids; and the whole gamut of psychotropic medications from Prozac to Xanax. I don't tell patients to stop taking anything, but I will suggest they discuss it with the prescribing doctor. I have the feeling that most don't."


Robert Sullivan, MD: "Opiates, muscle relaxants, antidepressants, hypnotics (for sleep), anxiolytics, neurontin, anti-inflammatories, anti-migraine drugs, GI meds, prednisone (for asthma, arthritis)."


William Eidelman, MD: "Opioids, sleeping pills, anxiolytics, SSRI anti-depressants."


Hanya Barth, MD: "Approximately 90% of my patients have at one time or another tried traditional medications for their symptoms and found that they produced significant side effects. With cannabis most patients report either being able to manage their symptoms without any other medications, or using less than they would ordinarily have to. It is not unusual to have patients come for a recommendation, bringing a whole bag of medications that they are taking. They might then return the following year saying that they no longer needed many of them and had cut back on many others.

"It is also true that most patients who were using alcohol to manage their symptoms or who were abusing alcohol or speed or opiates, etc. find that they can stop these drugs when they have marijuana. Many also report that they were using those drugs to manage certain symptoms such as pain or anxiety and then became addicted. This is especially true of certain populations, mainly the homeless and the mentally ill. Even cigarette smokers often state that they can substitute cannabis for nicotine.


"What amazes me overall is the efficacy and lack of side effects. It is not that the pain stops but that the mind doesn't fixate on the pain in the same way. In addition, the muscles that become tense around an area of pain can cause secondary symptoms, which then are relieved with cannabis. If someone is in pain and/or anxious, he or she often has a hard time sleeping. With cannabis, patients report that they are able to sleep better, wake up more refreshed, have less secondary depression and are able to function more efficiently the following day. Many hypnotics can only be taken at a certain time (not at 4 a.m., for example).


However, having a puff of cannabis at that time will help them fall back asleep without a morning hangover."


Dr. A: "Narcotics, including heavy narcotics such as Fentanyl."


William Courtney, MD: "While the percentage of patients in my practice using cannabis for management of ADHD is small, those who have discovered its benefits are pleased that they can achieve control without having to continue to use Ritalin, etc."


Tod Mikuriya, MD: "Opioids, sedatives, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, and SSRI anti-depressants are commonly used in smaller amounts or discontinued. These are all drugs with serious adverse effects."


Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD: "A cannabis specialist soon becomes aware of two remarkable facts. The range of conditions that patients are treating successfully with cannabis is extremely wide; and patients get relief with the use of cannabis that they cannot achieve with any other pharmaceuticals.


"The testimonies that I hear on a daily
basis from people with serious medical conditions are moving and illuminating. From many people with cancer and AIDS come reports that cannabis has saved their lives by giving them an appetite, the ability to keep down their medications, and mental ease.


"No other drug works like cannabis to reduce or eliminate pain without significant adverse effects. It evidently works on parts of the brain involving short-term memory and pain centers, enabling the patient to stop dwelling on pain.


Cannabis helps with muscle relaxation, and it has an anti-inflammatory action.


Patients with rheumatoid arthritis stabilize with fewer and less destructive flare-ups with the regular use of cannabis.


"Other rheumatic diseases similarly show remissions. Spasticity cannot be treated any more quickly or efficiently than with cannabis, and, again, without significant adverse effects.


"Patients who suffer from migraines can reduce or omit conventional medications as their headaches become less frequent and less severe.


"About half of the patients with mood disorders find that they are adequately treated with cannabis alone while others reduce their need for other pharmaceuticals. In my opinion, there is no better drug for the treatment of anxiety disorders, brain trauma and post-concussion syndrome, ADD and ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.


"Patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are stabilized, usually with comfort and weight gain, while most are able to avoid use of steroids and other potent immunomodulator drugs.


"People who were formerly dependent on alcohol, opiates, amphetamines and other addictive drugs have had their lives changed when substituting with cannabis.


"Patients with end-stage renal disease on dialysis and those with transplanted kidneys show mental ease, comfort, and lack of significant graft-versus-host incompatibility reactions in my small series.


"Diabetics report slightly lower and easier-to-control blood sugar levels, yet to be studied and explained.


"Sleep patterns are typically improved, with longer and deeper sleep without any hangover or significant adverse effects.


"Many patients with multiple sclerosis report that their condition has not worsened for many years while they have been using cannabis regularly. MS and other neurodegenerative diseases share the common benefits of reduced pain and muscle spasms, improved appetite, improved mood and fewer incontinence problems. Many patients with epilepsy are adequately treated with or without the use of other anticonvulsants.


"Patients with skin conditions associated with systemic disease such as psoriasis, lupus, dermatitis herpetiformis, and eczema all report easement and less itching when using cannabis regularly.


"Airway diseases such as asthma, sleep apnea, COPD, and chronic sinusitis deserve special mention because I encourage the use of cannabis vapor or ingested forms rather than smoking to reduce airway irritation."


All these clinical reports jibe perfectly with lab studies showing that synthetic THC enables rodents to achieve pain relief with half the amount of opioids. (Under the rules of evidence established by corporate Science, rodents are considered more trustworthy witnesses than we, the people, are.)

--

----

California NORML (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.org 2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Election results from NORML

CA Cities Vote to Make Marijuana "Lowest Enforcement Priority"
Nov. 7th, 2006: Marijuana supporters scored victories in local elections in California, as voters in Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz all approved measures to make marijuana enforcement lowest enforcement priority.
Santa Monica approved Measure P by 65-35%, Santa Barbara approved Measure K 64-36%, and Santa Cruz approved a somewhat stronger initiative, Measure K, which calls on the state to "tax and regulate" marijuana for adult use, by 64-36% (initiatives' text at http://www.taxandregulate.org). The California city initiatives were modeled on Oakland's Measure Z, which passed with 65% of the vote in 2004. In the East Bay city of Albany, voters approved an advisory measure to allow a medical marijuana dispensary by 53 - 47%. (Measure D).
California NORML called the initiatives a popular mandate for reducing marijuana penalties. "With our prisons overflowing, the time has come to end felony prison sentences for minor marijuana offenses" commented Dale Gieringer, California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer.
Elsewhere, voters in Missoula county, Montana, approved a "lowest priority" measure by 53-47%, and voters in Eureka Springs, Arkanasa, voted 62-38% to decriminalize possession of one ounce or less to a misdemeanor.
In other states, voters rejected more ambitious initiatives to legalize adult use of marijuana. In Nevada, Question 7, which would have attempted to establish a full-scale legal distribution system, won 44% of the vote, the highest ever for a legalization initiative. In Colorado, Amendment 44, which would have legalized adult possession, lost 40 - 60%.
South Dakota became the first state ever to reject a medical marijuana initiative, by the narrow margin of 48-52%.
Results posted at http://www.mpp.org/site/c.glKZLeMQIsG/b.2180535/k.3A5B/2006_Elections.htm
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California NORML (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114

Thursday, November 02, 2006

10th anniversay of prop 215

10th Anniversary of Prop. 215
Celebration at SF Gay Community Center, Nov. 4th. 7-10 pm; more events in Sonoma Co., Santa Barbara

This weekend marks the tenth anniversary of California's landmark medical marijuana initiative, Prop. 215, approved by 56% of the voters on Nov. 5th, 1996 (the same day marks the 15th anniversary of the nation's first medical marijuana initiative, San Francisco's Prop P). The past decade has seen remarkable progress in cannabis medicine both in California and worldwide. While opposition from the federal government has frustrated 215's stated goal of implementing a fully legal, "safe and affordable" distribution system, a growing network of dispensaries, clinics, and patients groups have made medical marijuana increasingly available to Californians.....
(Full text at http://www.canorml.org/news/10thAnniversaryProp215.htm)
.... After 10 years, the shockwave of Prop. 215 is still spreading. It remains to be seen how far it will go before the federal ban on medical marijuana is finally lifted. If marijuana is eventually made available in licensed pharmacies like other prescription pharmaceuticals, the dispensaries and clubs may become obsolete. On the other hand, the dispensaries may well prove to be a stepping stone to a wider regime of legal adult access.
Given its uncommon pharmaceutical safety, a strong case can be made for making marijuana available as an over-the-counter drug for all adults. This November 7th, three California cities - Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Santa Monica - will be voting on initiatives like Oakland's Measure Z, aimed at eliminating penalties against adult use of cannabis. In addition, two states, Nevada and Colorado, will be voting on proposals to legalize adult marijuana use entirely. Ten years after Prop 215, a second marijuana reform shockwave may be in the making.
- Dale Gieringer, co-sponsor, Prop. 215 & Oakland Measure Z

On Saturday, November 4th, there will be a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Prop. 215 at the San Francisco Gay Community Center, 1800 Market St, from 7 pm to 10 pm, with Prop. 215 author Dennis Peron and other sponsors, including: Terence Hallinan, Dale Gieringer, and Dr. Tod Mikuriya. Free entertainment & refreshments.

November 4th also marks the Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana's 8th Annual Cannabis Harvest Dance at the Sebastopol Community Center from 7 pm to midnight. Tickets $20 at the door.
November 4th is also the date of the 8th Annual Santa Barbara Hemp Festival in Isla Vista at Anisq'oyo' Park (Embarcadero del Mar) 10 am to 5 pm.


VOTE FOR CHANGE NOVEMBER 7th - California Election Guide on Marijuana and Drug Reform issues http://drugsense.org/dpfca/ElectionGuide2006_11.pdf


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California NORML (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114