The Healing Power of Marijuana Has Barely Been Tapped

By Allan Badiner | Alternet

Medical marijuana is now legal in 18 states, but it's clear we've discovered a fraction of its potential for health.

 

There are now legal medical cannabis programs in 18 states plus Washington, DC, with pot fully legal for adults in two other states. Ironically, however, the actual healing power of the plant has barely been tapped. Smoking marijuana with THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), or better, vaporizing it (using a device to bake the plant material and inhale the active ingredients), has an indisputably palliative effect and can be medically useful for pain relief, calming and appetite stimulation. It already has confirmed benefits against glaucoma, epilepsy and other specific diseases and disorders. It also gets people high. THC triggers cannabinoid receptors in the brain and this produces the sensation of being stoned. These receptors are found in the parts of the brain linked to pleasure, memory, concentration, and time perception.

But, based mostly on research overseas there is an increasing consensus that the medicinal benefits of psychoactive THC pale in comparison to the non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD) from the leaves of the same plant--raw and unheated. Depending on the strain, some plants are high in CBD but also contain a lesser amount of THC which is said to enhance the healing potentiality. CBD does not make people feel “stoned” and actually counters some of the effects of THC (for example, suppressing the appetite vs. stimulating it). CBD is beginning to be recognized by researchers at mainstream medical institutions around the world as a potentially very powerful weapon against cancer.  

 

Researchers Sean D. McAllister and Pierre Desprez, who conducted studies of CBD's effect on cancer cells for California Pacific Medical Center, suggest that these non-psychoactive compounds from the cannabis plant might, in short order, render chemotherapy and radiation distant second and third options for cancer patients. Based on a more recent study, McAllister and Desprez feel that CBD's "could stop breast cancer from spreading."

 

Dr. Donald Abrams, a cancer specialist and professor of integrative medicine at UCSF, conducted early trials involving THC medical cannabis, and now he is excited about the powerful impacts of CBD on cancer cells. The National Cancer Institute was busy researching this in the 1970s, Abrams explains, but restrictions on the use of cannabis for research in the United States resulted in most of the research on this subject disappearing in the U.S., and being picked up in other countries, such as Israel, Spain and Italy. He says existing studies point to a remarkable ability of CBD to arrest cancer cell division, cell migration, metastasis, and invasiveness. 

 

Other studies point to CBD as having great promise as a defense against Alzheimer’s disease. In a 2006 study published in Molecular Pharmaceutics, a team of University of Connecticut researchers reported that cannabis “could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease than any currently approved prescription.” The research team predicted that cannabinoid-based medications "will be the new breakout medicine treatments of the near future.” 

 

Medical cannabis has a long history of use, starting in India, and then in China and the Middle East some 6,000 years ago. It came to the West in the 1800s, where it was listed in the U.S. Pharmacopeia until the 1930s. Used for over 100 ailments, cannabis was a favorite of our grandparents for cough remedies, analgesics, and tonics and was available over the counter at every local drugstore as well as companies such as Sears, Roebuck and Co. Banned in 1937 via the Marijuana Tax Act as part of a politically and racially driven prohibition craze, it was gradually removed from the pharmacopeia and research was discouraged and later prohibited via drug scheduling. The FBI linked the herb with insanity and claimed a direct correlation between cannabis and violence, and even death, especially when used by people of color.

Currently, science increasingly recognizes the role that cannabinoids play in almost every major life function in the human body. It wasn't until 1990 that endocannabinoids, produced by the human body, were discovered to act as a bio-regulatory mechanism for most human life processes and have receptors sites throughout the human body. CB2 receptors are found almost exclusively in the immune system, with the greatest density in the spleen. These CB2 receptors appear to be responsible for the anti-inflammatory and other newly recognized and very significant therapeutic effects of cannabis. 

 

Cannabis medicine has distinct advantages. CBD, as well as THC, can be given in massive doses with no side effects. In fact, it has performed very effectively as an anti-psychotic when given in high doses. CBD selectively targets and destroys tumor cells while leaving normal healthy cells unmolested. On the other hand, chemotherapy and radiation are highly toxic and indiscriminately injure healthy cells in the brain and the body. Industrial hemp is often high in healing CBD and very low in THC. Hemp CBD is a waste product -- it's thrown out by the ton every year when it could easily be harvested for tumor shrinking.  

 

Medical cannabis farm Tikun Olam in Israel has been developing a strain of cannabis that is high in CBD (15.8%) but very low in THC (1%). This new strain is called Avidekel and seems to have the highest CBD to THC ratio of any other variant strain. Zack Klein of Tikun Olam told Reuters: “Sometimes the high is not always what is needed. Sometimes it is an unwanted side effect. For some of the people it’s not even pleasant.”

 

The THC industry and its users worry that once CBD medicine grows in popularity, the medical badge might be torn from the sticky buds that makes being "stoned" possible. Aside from THC's significant medical benefits, surely its ability to make people feel happier and less stressed should not be considered without therapeutic value. More likely, all options will thrive, and 1,000 cannabis flowers will blossom: Indica, Sativa, CBD + THC, CBD Only, etc.

 

Meanwhile, it's useful to note that since 2003, the U.S. federal government has held a "medical patent" for the marketing of cannabinoids as antioxidants or neuroprotective agents. The patent states that cannabinoids are "useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases such as inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia."

 

However, stoners may have it all wrong, medically speaking. It is unlikely a person can get a sufficient level of cannabidiol (pronounced kan-nəbə-dī'-ˌȯl) from smoking the raw plant to impact diseases like cancer in a curative manner, says Desprez. The marijuana plant offers many uses, but it may come as a surprise to most users that you have to choose early in a plant's life if you want it to make you high or to heal you. Research suggests that cannabis is most beneficial when the whole spectrum of cannabinoids are represented, including some THC. It is the ratio of cannabinoids in a specific strain of cannabis that most determines its therapeutic potential. Juicing the cannabis leaves raw, along with some carrots or other green veggies, has proven very beneficial as it involves the ingestion of the acid form of cannabinoids, which are non-psychoactive (even the THC). Cannabis oil also has enthusiastic fans who claim it has cured their cancers.

 

In India there are still large numbers of people who partake in an ancient practice of having a fresh raw cannabis drink called "Thandai"  in which fresh cannabis leaves are made into a paste along with almonds, milk and sugar. This tasty drink is often consumed at religious festivals, and in some cities the government maintains distribution points for cannabis. A rolled sweet ball with similar ingredients is called "Bhang," familiar for over a century to many Western seekers walking the ghats of sacred Banaras.

 

Cannabis edibles in the West are emerging as one of the fastest growing new sectors of the food industry. Dispensaries in 18 states offer such goodies as ice cream, cough drops, peanut butter, honey, saliva tea, and myriad baked goods and savory snacks--all dosed with THC.  Given the huge potential market for non-psychoactive cannabis, the introduction of CBD-rich medicine at the dispensary level has been surprisingly sluggish. Owners have been reluctant to stock CBD-rich strains or edibles because their present customers are seeking —or are not adverse to— cannabis that provides euphoria or sedation. THC content is a known seller. Once the medical benefits of non-psychoactive cannabis become more widely known, one can only imagine the variety and volume of CBD-rich foods that will rush to market.

 

Smoking, as opposed to vaporization, may be the least effective method of using cannabis as a medicine. But many raw cannabis users are convinced that CBD is the source of medical miracles. Restrictions on research have impacted the accuracy with which we can prescribe cannabis and determine the most effective and least harmful ways to utilize its benefits. Perhaps in the very near future, instead of smoking cannabis to reduce nausea from chemotherapy, cancer patients will be consuming raw non-psychoactive cannabis, and be healed without having to suffer the additional damage of radiation and chemotherapy at all.

 

Medical Cannabis and Its Impact on Human Health

Big Pharma set to take over medical marijuana market

By David Edwards - RAW Story
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Just as the federal government is clamping down on medical marijuana dispensaries, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) may be set to give Big Pharma the clearance to take over the market.

In 2007, GW Pharmaceuticals announced that it partnered with Otsuka to bring "Sativex" -- or liquefied marijuana -- to the U.S. The companies recently completed Phase II efficacy and safety trials testing and began discussion with the FDA for Phase III testing. Phase III is generally thought to be the final step before the drug can be marketed in the U.S.

"GW Pharmaceuticals plc (AIM: GWP) today announces the initiation of the Phase III clinical trials programme of Sativex in the treatment of pain in patients with advanced cancer, who experience inadequate analgesia during optimized chronic opioid therapy," GW said in a statement. "This indication represents the initial target indication for Sativex in the United States."

Sativex is the brand name for a drug derived from cannabis sativa. It's an extract from the whole plant cannabis, not a synthetic compound. Even GW defines the drug (.pdf) as marijuana.

Yet as the FDA is poised to approve the drug for Big Pharma, state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries that provide relief for thousands of Americans are under attack by other federal agencies.

Lynette Shaw, the owner and founder of Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana (MAMM) in Fairfax, California, was stunned when the IRS audited her 2008 and 2009 tax returns and disallowed the foundation's business deductions, then demanded millions of dollars in back taxes.

The IRS pursued her under § 280E of the federal tax code, which states that no business deductions will be allowed for companies "trafficking in controlled substances".

Shaw is now suing the IRS to prevent them from destroying the entire medical marijuana industry.

Last week, the Justice Department even threatened to prosecute state employees who license medical marijuana dispensaries.

As a result, Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) said she would veto a bill that would have allowed the state to license growers.

In February, marijuana advocacy group NORML warned that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intended to legalize marijuana for Big Pharma only.

"The DEA's intent is to expand the federal government's schedule III listing to include pharmaceutical products containing naturally derived formations of THC while simultaneously maintain existing criminal prohibitions on the plant itself," Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), wrote at AlterNet.

Federal agency recognizes marijuana for medical use

By David Ferguson - RAW Story
Sunday, March 27th, 2011

Medical marijuana dispensaries currently under fire from the IRS may have been handed a critical new weapon in their fight to stay open. The National Cancer Institute, one of the many federal agencies who make up the National Institute of Health, has ruled that marijuana does in fact have medical benefits, making it the first federal agency to do so.

The NCI has issued a statement that in clinical trials, cancer patients successfully treated nausea and vomiting, sleeplessness, pain, and loss of appetite using marijuana.  It stated that cannabis was being investigated as having not only a palliative effect on symptoms, but also a possible "direct antitumor effect".

The IRS has been citing § 280E of the federal tax code as a means of disallowing years of business deductions for marijuana dispensaries, which, if allowed, would effectively put many of them out of business. § 280E states that no business deductions will be allowed for businesses "trafficking in controlled substances".

From the Washington Independent:

The new NCI assessment could have an impact on the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the harshest possible drug classification, which has resulted in a prison population in which 1 in 8 prisoners in the U.S. is locked up for a marijuana-related offense. One of the principal criteria for a Schedule I determination is that there be “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.” The U.S. Justice Department may have a hard time maintaining that claim if challenged, considering a federal agency now recognizes marijuana’s medical use in cancer treatment.

The Independent also reports on a white paper (PDF) issued by the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) stating that because marijuana is not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, doctors should be censured for prescribing it in states where it is legal.  The report cites marijuana use as a health risk in that the drug's primary method of consumption is through smoking.

Marijuana advocates like Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for Marijuana Legalization (NORML) believe that the physician-directed ASAM has a vested interest in keeping marijuana illegal.  St. Pierre is quoted in the Independent as saying, "These doctors are making a fortune off of marijuana prohibition.  They have a financial, proprietary interest to maintain the status quo."

​ Feds Will Study Only 'Negative Consequences,' Not Medical Pot

By Steve Elliott | Monday, Feb. 21 2011

 

Nearly two years ago, the Obama Administration issued its heralded "Scientific Integrity" memorandum which said "Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration."

Coming, as pointed out by NORML's Paul Armentano at AlterNet, just months after the American Medical Association called for "facilitating ... clinical research and [the] development of cannabinoid-based medicines," the memorandum stoked the hopes of pot activists who want to see the commencement of long-overdue human studies into the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis.

But that was before cold gray reality, also known as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), weighed in. NIDA, which oversees 85 percent of the world's research on controlled substances, reaffirmed its longstanding policy of "no medical marijuana" to The New York Times. 

"As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequencs of marijuana use," a spokesperson told the Times in 2010. "We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana."

 

This is the federal government's marijuana mindset, in a nutshell: That any use of marijuana is by definition "abuse"; therefore, we'll study only "negative consequences" and not medical benefits. It's a circular and hollow argument, but it still holds a lot of sway.

A review of the U.S. National Institute of Health website, clinicaltrials.gov, shows that NIDA's ban of medical marijuana research continues. Though an online search of ongoing FDA-approved clinical trial using the keyword "cannabinoids" (the active components in marijuana) yielded Armentano 65 hits worldwide, only six studies involved subjects' use of actual cannabis.

The other 59 studies used synthetic cannabinoid agonists like dronabinol or nabilone, the commercial marketed marijuana extract Sativex, or the cannabinoid receptor blocking agent Rimonabant, which keeps you from getting high.

So much for the AMA's request for clinical cannabis research.

On the other hand, preclinical (animal) trials of cannabinoids are continuing at a record pace, Armentano points out. 

Many of these studies highlight the ability of cannabinoids to manage a wide range of symptoms. But even more intriguing, Armentano points out, are the results indicating the potential to halt the development of serious diseases including cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

"Nevertheless, without abrupt changes at the highest levels of government -- changes that do not appear to be forthcoming despite this administration's public demand for 'scientific integrity' -- scientists will indefinitely lack the human follow-up data necessary to adequately answer societal questions regarding cannabis safety, efficacy and proper dosage," Armentano writes.

Reefer Madness Forever

Califano Tries to Pin Tucson Shootings on Pot
By FRED GARDNER

"Marijuana's Role in the Tucson Shooting" was the extremely misleading headline on an article by Joe Califano that the Huffington Post ran Jan. 21. Why is that supposedly liberal site disseminating propaganda by a leading Drug Warrior? There is no evidence that marijuana had any "role" in the Tucson shooting. Readers who only glance at the story will assume otherwise.

Califano begins by blowing politic kisses towards Barack Obama and John Boehner. Then he changes tone to sneer at "the thousands of pundits, left and right, arguing about the meaning of the tragedy in Arizona," who missed a lesson "as important as any other lesson to come out of this tragedy. It's about the relationship of marijuana use to psychotic illness."

After another shot at commentators preoccupied with laws that allow automatic weapons and super-size ammo clips, Califano makes his pitch: "I haven't seen press reports or talking heads discuss their concern about how easy it has been for this mentally ill young man to get marijuana. And there has been no mention of the potential of marijuana to spark latent psychosis and exacerbate schizophrenia and other mental illnesses."

Califano cites a study in "the British Medical Journal Lancet [The M and the J should be lower case, since he's referring to a piece in the Lancet. Califano or the staffer who writes his stuff must have vaguely remembered a publication called the British Medical Journal and conflated the two] and two other studies suggesting that using cannabis leads to psychotic breaks. Califano does not allow that these studies are considered inconclusive at best by many psychiatrists, including Lester Grinspoon, whose textbook on Schizophrenia has been the standard text.

Califano quotes reports that Loughner once used marijuana; but he ignores other reports that Loughner quit three years ago and that his drug of choice was Salvia Divinorum. Califano wants the question settled: "If the police have any of the hair shaved from Loughner's head, they can easily find out if marijuana was in his system at the time of the shooting. They may even be able to do so from hair that grows back in."

It seems like an easy test to rig if one were so inclined. And we know Joe Califano of old, he has few qualms about manipulating the facts. The following is from O'Shaughnessy's report on the Prop 215 campaign (the ballot initiative by which California voters legalized the medical use of marijuana on November 4, 1996):

In the final weeks of the campaign some leading drug warriors from Back East -stunned that the people of California were on the verge of rejecting a lifetime of their propaganda-decided to step in. Joseph Califano, president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, flew out to Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct. 28 to warn Californians that they did not understand the open-endedness of Prop 215. Califano had hired two pollsters to query 800 residents over the weekend. He must have been very confident of the outcome because arrangements for his press conference were made before the questions had been asked. "It was a push-pull," explains Paul Maslin, a San Francisco pollster. This is a type of survey in which the questioner, after getting an initial response, provides additional information and then asks again, evoking a changed response. Califano announced at his press conference that 46 percent of the respondents supported Prop 215 when first asked, but only 36 percent after its inherent looseness had been pointed out to them. Califano's goal in commissioning the poll, according to Maslin was to make voters think that the "no" side still had a realistic chance on Election Day and to minimize any bandwagon effect that would magnify the "yes" vote.

Flash-forward to the Huffington Post, Jan. 21. Califano concludes: "we should be asking this question: Is Jared Loughner an individual whose psychosis was prompted or exacerbated by the use of marijuana? Whether or not he is, it is important for the press and parents to see this horrendous incident not only as a teaching moment about the easy availability and dangerous potential of automatic weapons, but also as a teaching moment about the easy availability and dangerous potential of marijuana to spark and exacerbate psychosis and schizophrenia in individuals with latent mental illnesses.

"The missing story line in existing news reports and television chatter shows is about the terrible trinity of easy availability of guns, easy availability of marijuana and mental illness. The question for all of us, especially parents of teenagers, to ask is this: Is the media's failure to acknowledge this tragic trinity due to its tendency to overlook or underplay the dangers of marijuana use?

"Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Founder and Chair of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, was Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Carter Administration, and served from 1965 to 1969 as chief domestic affairs assistant to president Lyndon B. Johnson."

At which time one of his top aides, a Harvard honors grad and future corporate CEO, used to roll amazingly perfect joints with hospital corners. Califano never thought his aide was impaired at work because he wasn't.

Outgrow CBD Opportunism

It's very tempting for those of us who are talking up the medical potential of Cannabidiol to emphasize the absence of psychoactive effects in such a way as to imply that CBD is the good cannabinoid, as opposed to THC, the bad cannabinoid. That is a shortcut to acceptance that we consider opportunistic at best, unethical at worst. Countless scientists have spent countless millions of U.S. taxpayers' dollars trying to establish the harmful effects of high-THC marijuana, and they heaviest they could come up with is bronchial irritation.

To explain what we mean by "CBD opportunism" we quote from an article in the New Scientist by Lady Amanda Neidpath of the Beckley Foundation, a British charitable trust "that promotes the investigation of consciousness and its modulation," and Paul Morrison, a researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.

It's lack of balance that makes skunk cannabis do harm. The effects of cannabis on mental health have attracted much attention over the years. As far back as the 19th century it was recognised that cannabis could induce a transient psychosis which mimics the symptoms of schizophrenia. Despite this, until the last decade or so, most psychiatrists regarded cannabis as essentially benign.

This is the reverse of the truth. "Most psychiatrists" in the UK and the US are Prozac purshers who have accepted cannabis Prohibition without a peep.

...The type of cannabis taken is an important factor. Street cannabis has indeed changed over the years. So-called "skunk" does contain higher than normal concentrations of the main psychoactive compound, a molecule called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). What is less well known is that another constituent, cannabidiol (CBD), has been eliminated from skunk through selective breeding to increase the THC content.

CBD has been bred down to trace amounts not just in skunk but in virtually all strains grown for psychoactivity.

The elimination of CBD may play a key role in the development of psychosis. Laboratory studies have shown that pure, synthetic THC causes transient psychosis in 40 to 50 per cent of healthy people.

At what doses? Which studies? This is Reefer Madness 2011.

In stark contrast to THC, CBD appears to have an anti-psychotic effect, at least in animals. Studies in humans, though few in number, have produced similar findings.

The elimination of cannabidiol from skunk may play a key role in the development of psychosis. In one human study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology (DOI: 10.1038/npp.2009.184), Sagnik Bhattacharya and colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry in London used functional MRI brain scanning to study the effects of THC and CBD on the brains of healthy volunteers. They found that THC and CBD acted in opposition; in brain regions where THC increased neural activity from a baseline, CBD decreased it, and vice-versa.

In a further experiment, a group including one of us (Morrison), in collaboration with the Beckley Foundation, compared the effects of a mixture of synthetic THC and CBD (to mimic traditional cannabis) with THC on its own (to mimic skunk). The aim was to find out if CBD offered protection against the psychotic effects of THC. Healthy volunteers were given the molecules intravenously for two sessions.

Two synthetic molecules don't "mimic traditional cannabis," and people don't shoot cannabis. What does this experiment have to do with the real world? Niedpath and Morrison conclude,

The evidence supports the idea that nature knows best, and that the reintroduction of CBD would be beneficial. Two molecules are better than one.

But the whole plant is better by far.

Cannabis Once Again Shown To Halt Cancer Growth

So Why Aren’t We Studying It In Humans?
August 4th, 2010 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director

[Editor's note: This post is excerpted from this week's forthcoming NORMLweekly media advisory. To have NORML's media advisories delivered straight to your in-box, sign up for NORML's free e-zine here.]


The administration of THC reduces the tumor growth of metastatic breast cancer and “might constitute a new therapeutic tool for the treatment” of cancerous tumors, according to preclinical data published online in the journal Molecular Cancer.

Investigators from Complutense University in Madrid assessed the anti-tumor potential of THC and JWH-133, a non-psychotropic CB2 receptor-selective agonist, in the treatment of ErbB2-positive breast tumors – a highly aggressive form of breast cancer that is typically unresponsive to standard therapies.

Researchers reported, “[B]oth Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol … and JWH-133 …reduce tumor growth [and] tumor number [in mice]. … [T]hese results provide a strong preclinical evidence for the use of cannabinoid-based therapies for the management of ErbB2-positive breast cancer.”

In 2007, investigators at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute reported that the administration of the nonpsychoactive cannabinoid CBD limited breast cancer metastasis in a manner that was superior to comparable synthesized agents.

Previous preclinical studies assessing the anticancer properties of cannabinoids have shown that they inhibit the proliferation of a wide range of cancers, including  brain cancer, prostate cancer, oral cancers, lung cancer, skin cancer, pancreatic cancer, biliary tract cancers, andlymphoma.


Full text of the study, “Cannabinoids reduce ErbB2-driven breast cancer progression through Akt inhibition,” is available online here.

Texas Medical Marijuana Advocates Try Again With Limited Bill

by Julian Aguilar | August 5, 2010 |

Medicinal marijuana advocates, despite being spurned by the Texas Legislature for the better part of a decade, will be back at it in 2011.

Stephen Betzen’s life changed the morning he found a gift from a stranger on the steps of his house. At the time, his wife, Rachel was reeling from a combination of Lyme disease and injuries from a car wreck. If the opiates prescribed by her doctors eased her pain, they left her nearly comatose, Betzen says. If they didn’t, he awoke to her screams.

The gift was a bag of marijuana.

“We had hit rock bottom, and here is this medicine on our porch — and we were actually having to think about [using] it,” he says. The next day, he says. he heard the most beautiful sound: “The sound of silence when my wife wasn’t in tears.”

Betzen is now the executive director of Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care, a Dallas-based nonprofit that, alongside Texas NORML and Medcan University, is lobbying legislators in hopes of reforming Texas’ marijuana laws. The organizations don't agree on strategy, however, with the TCCC pushing only for a limited law allowing medical use as a defense against criminal charges, and the others seeking broader legalization that would include permitting and regulating sales outlets.

If past is prologue, their battles will be anything but downhill. Legislators already are fighting to ban a substance called K2, which is said to be similar to marijuana and is legal — for now. State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, has said she intends to seek a ban on K2. "You can get it ... in gas stations, hooka lounges, tobacco stores. They're selling it everywhere," she told Fox News.

Other politicians continue to see any legalization effort as poisonous. The recently elected chair of the Republican Party of Texas, Steve Munisteri, recently “liked” the TCCC on Facebook but promptly “unliked” it when a reporter called to ask whether he supported medical marijuana. (He never responded.) State Sen. Bob Duell, R-Greenville, a doctor, also removed his Facebook association with the group; an aide says it was all a mistake.

Advocates can count on the Texas Medical Association, however. In 2005, the organization adopted the position that doctors should be able to consider prescribing marijuana for their patients without fear of regulatory or criminal action and to freely study its medical effectiveness.

Betzen believes the proposal he favors could pass next session because it's more conservative than previously rejected legislation. He’s pushing an “affirmative defense” bill that would neither legalize nor decriminalize marijuana and would not sanction the kind of dope dispensaries that have cropped up all over California or official ID cards for approved users. In fact, Betzen says, his limited law wouldn’t affect current penalties for possession at all. It would only allow a judge or jury to hear that a defendant used marijuana on a doctor’s recommendation.

“If we are not going to get all the protection that we absolutely need, then we are going to take the protections that they are willing to give,” he says. “It’s a compromise to get protections on the table to patients as soon as possible.”

Compromise may not be enough. State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, who plans to file an affirmative defense bill next session, has tried before and failed. Dorothy Browne, Naishtat's chief of staff, says the bill failed even to get a hearing in committee in 2009. The same thing happened in 2007. In 2001, former state Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, the former Travis County sheriff, filed a similar bill, which languished in committee. In 2005, the bill received a hearing and was left pending.

Those previous efforts failed, Betzen believes, because they lacked clarity. His proposal specifies limits on the amounts users could possess and better details the requirements of legal use.

“When everybody knows how to comply with the law, it makes everybody in the process safer,” he says. “You have to understand the process."

Different strokes

Texas NORML — the state chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws — doesn't oppose TCCC’s approach but isn't particularly excited about the compromise, either. The same goes for Medcan University, says Dante Picazo, its chief executive officer. Medcan lobbies for loosening restrictions on marijuana and runs a company that teaches classes to potential cultivators and retailers on how to profit from legal pot.

Picazo and Josh Schimberg, the executive director of Texas NORML, believe an affirmative defense doesn’t go far enough because it doesn’t prevent arrests for medical marijuana use. “What we’d like to see here in Texas is something along the lines of what New Mexico has, where patients who have a doctor’s recommendation can get registered with the state department of health and have an ID card,” Schimberg says. Additionally, he says, growers and distributors should be registered and regulated by the state and identified as the only possible source for registered patients. That would ease lawmakers’ worries about the legislation enriching criminal elements, he says.

“One of the first questions that always comes up is, ‘How are you going to ensure that patients aren’t going to the black market to get product from drug gangs?’” he says.

Such a law would also generate billions for the state, says Picazo, who has drafted a bill called the Texas State Medical Use of Marijuana Act. He envisions a system governed by an agency similar to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

“If we are talking about a drug, then I compare it to alcohol. Why don’t we patrol it and police it and regulate it the way we do our nightclubs in the state of Texas?” Picazo asks. “If it’s medication, then it’s a totally different set of values and a totally different story. Then it should be in the hands of CVS, Walgreens or medical dispensaries so that it’s totally and legitimately done as an enterprise.”

Pot for PTSD

Like Schimberg, Betzen points to New Mexico to bolster his argument for legalization. There, he says, about a quarter of medical marijuana users suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. “Roughly 25 percent of the patients in New Mexico are on the program for PTSD, and I would be willing to bet that most of those patients are veterans coming home from war,” he says. “This definitely represents a large constituency.”

Last month the Veterans Administration clarified its position on returning soldiers who test positive for marijuana use. Previously, veterans who tested positive for illegal drugs faced the possibility of being denied their prescription medication. The new directive gave discretion to doctors in such cases. A spokeswoman at the VA's regional office in Dallas says she's unaware of how often or on what schedule veterans in Texas are tested.

That some doctors believe marijuana can help veterans with PTSD or other ailments is one of Betzen’s main selling points. He acknowledges that illegal marijuana fuels violence south of the border, but he doesn’t seem concerned with lawmakers or citizens making a correlation between medicinal use and smuggling. “I think they can see that there is a difference there," he says. "Would they do the same thing if it was morphine crossing the border?”

Though they are pursuing different strategies, Betzen, Picazo and Schimberg have similar goals and have been busily meeting with lawmakers for weeks. They won’t say which lawmakers, however, as some still view any connection to the legalization movement as a political liability. But they cite a poll that found a majority of Texans support legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll conducted in May showed a similar finding, with the majority of Texans favoring one or more methods of legalization: 42 percent of Texans were open to the idea of legalizing marijuana, 28 percent say possession of small amounts should be legal, and 14 percent said any amount should be legal. Twenty-seven percent said it should be legal for medical purposes only, and another 27 percent said it should be illegal under any circumstances.

“If [those numbers] hold even close, then this isn’t really a political liability with the voting public,” Schimberg says. “It’s just a mental block with the representatives and the senators.”

Obama Wants a Bush Crony Appointed as a Top Drug Enforcer

Reformers Push Hard to Change His Mind 
Under Michele Leonhart's administration, the DEA has raided a number of legal medical marijuana growers and dispensaries.
By Eric W. Dolan, Raw Story, July 27, 2010

A number of medical marijuana advocacy organizations are urging President Obama to withdraw his nomination of Michele Leonhart to serve as the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

Leonhart was nominated to be the Deputy Administrator by President Bush in 2003 and confirmed by the Senate in 2004. She has been the acting Administrator of the DEA since the former Administrator, Karen P. Tandy, resigned in November of 2007.

After the resignation of Tandy, President Bush nominated Leonhart to be the next Administrator, but the Senate Judiciary Committee did not hold any hearings on the nomination and, after the adjournment of the 110th Congress in January of 2009, the nomination was returned to President Obama.

On February 2nd, 2010, President Obama officially nominated Leonhart. The nomination is currently awaiting hearings and confirmation from the Senate.

The Drug Policy Alliance, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Marijuana Policy Project, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and Students for Sensible Drug Policy are among the groups calling on the President Obama to withdraw his nomination.

According to a joint press release issued on Wednesday, these groups claim Leonhart "has not demonstrated that she is capable of leading the agency in a thoughtful manner at a time when 14 states have enacted medical marijuana laws and science is increasingly confirming the therapeutic benefits of the substance."

Of concern to these groups, under Leonhart's administration, the DEA has raided a number of legal medical marijuana growers and dispensaries. In one case, the DEA raided the very first person to register for a medical marijuana cultivation permit, a sixty-nine year old woman from Mendocino County in California, even though her personal marijuana garden had been inspected and approved by the local sheriff.

As reported by The Press Democrat, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff, the medical marijuana grower had the proper paperwork and the marijuana was legal in the eyes of the county.

"Michele Leonhart continues to wage war on sick people and their caregivers, undermining the Obama Administration's otherwise compassionate medical marijuana policy," said Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Obama needs to withdraw her nomination and nominate someone who will follow the stated policies of his administration."

As reported by The New York Times in 2008, Attorney General Eric Holder has claimed that the Obama administration would end the Bush administration's policy of raiding medical marijuana dispensaries and restrict itself to only raiding drug traffickers who “use medical marijuana laws as a shield.”

In addition, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden told federal agents in an 2009 memo to not target people in "clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

The coalition of marijuana advocacy groups also believe Leonhart should not be nominated because she has disrupted marijuana research in the past. In 2009, she refused to issue a license to the University of Massachusetts to cultivate marijuana for a FDA-approved study.

"With Leonhart’s nomination pending, one would expect her to be more -- not less -- respectful of the Department of Justice and the rights of individuals in medical marijuana states," noted Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project. "Such behavior is an ominous sign for the future of the DEA under her leadership."

‘Politics of pot’ endangering state medical marijuana laws

By Stephen Janis
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Mark Zeitlin manages Harmony House, a medical marijuana dispensary in North Hollywood, California.

His product is popular and his services — providing medicinal marijuana — are in demand. But Mark has a problem. L.A. County prosecutors want to put him out of business. “I have AIDS patients, cancer patients, people with all sorts of illness to treat, but the government is trying to shut me down,” he told Raw Story.

439 facilities ordered to be shuttered last week by the L.A. County prosecutors as part of a crackdown on medical marijuana, Zeitlin said the booming business of medicinal healing through cannabis is under siege.

“Unofficially I think there are over 1,200 dispensaries in L.A. County, now I think they're saying they want it down to like 150,” he said.“It’s politics," he averred. "I think someone is trying to get elected, but there are people that need us and we’re being threatened with a $2500-a-day fine and imprisonment. It’s not constitutional.”

Zeitlin's constitutional argument may be uncertain, but he may be right about the politics of pot.

Current L.A. County Prosecutor Steve Cooley is the Republican nominee for the statewide office of attorney general. The crackdown by his office on medicinal marijuana dispensaries came shortly after he won the Republican primary for the state’s attorney general job.

On the eve of a potentially tough election race in a Democratic state, the highly publicized get-tough stance on dispensaries garnered the veteran prosecutor local, state and even national headlines.

But just as California led the way in the battle to loosen restrictions on the use of medicinal marijuana in 1996, workers in the medicinal marijuana business like Zeitlin are worried that the backlash in Los Angeles could be trend in a politically motivated government crackdown against the medical use of the natural herb.

“Do I think it’s a trend? Yeah,” he said.

A comprehensive review by Raw Story of recent steps taken by state and local governments to stall, limit or ban medical marijuana shows a pattern of tightening restrictions across the country in many of the states that have passed medical marijuana laws, a shift that comes after the Obama administration pledged the Justice Department would no longer pursue medical marijuana growers.

And in some case, like Los Angeles and New Jersey, the crackdown either precedes or comes after a tight election in a politically divided state.

- In Los Angeles, prosecutors released a list last week of 439 medical marijuana dispensaries that must either shut down or face fines of up to $2500 day and criminal charges, part of a citywide effort to crack down on the proliferation of medical marijuana facilities. Prosecutors estimate more than 2500 that have sprung up across the city since medical marijuana was legalized and said a loophole in city law that allowed over the counter purchases was being abused.

- Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed into law an ordinance that allows local communities to shutter or ban medical marijuana dispensaries altogether. The ban allows municipalities to opt out of the state medical marijuana law by either referendum or statute. Ritter, a Democrat, has exited the governor’s race, but his party faces a stiff battle in the fall, with a recent Rassmussen poll showing Republican Scott McInnis continuing to hold a slight lead over Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper.

- The election of Chris Christie, Republican governor in New Jersey has stalled the state’s recently-passed medical marijuana bill. The newly elected Governor persuaded the legislature this month to push back the effective date of the new law nearly a year. The governor says he needs more time to implement regulations for the bill signed by Democratic Governor Jim Corzine who was defeated last November by Christie in a tight race. Critics said the newly-elected governor is simply stalling until he builds support for the repeal of the state’s medical marijuana law.

– The New Jersey medical marijuana law and similar ordinance approved in Washington D.C are the first to preclude licensed patients from growing their own marijuana. The provision leaves patients with few options if government officials close down or limit the number of legal dispensaries.

- Residents of New Mexico who approved a state constitutional amendment to allow medical use in 2007 say state officials are dragging their feet in approving the vendors where medical marijuana can be purchased. Since 2007 only 5 dispensaries have been authorized to serve patients. Also, it's taken up to seven months for a single application to be approved, leaving many people who are eligible to use medical marijuana unable to obtain it.

- On the local level the Aurora, Colorado city council has approved a November ballot measure that would place a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits. Aurora is one of the first Colorado cities to take advantage of the more restrictive recently enacted state law.

Marijuana advocates who have been at the forefront of the battle to legalize it concede that opportunism can still drive the politics of pot, even when it goes against voter-approved laws. But they stop short of saying the tightening of laws is a trend.

“In some cases you have someone like Cooley who thinks it is politically expedient to crackdown on dispensaries, I don’t know why,” said Ethan Nadelmann, the Executive Director of the Drug Policy Institute, in an interview with Raw Story.

A major player in drafting medical marijuana legislation in states like California and Colorado, Nadelmann thinks some of the backlash against medical pot is simply a reaction to poor planning.

“When you have responsible laws like in Northern California, you don’t have a problem,” he said.

“It’s part of a cultural struggle too. Some people think, if you bring it above ground you give it legitimacy, but the truth is if you push it underground you force the people who have legal access to use the black market.”

Aurora councilman says most registered pot use is recreational
But in states like Colorado, there is also suspicion the medicinal value of pot may not be driving demand.

“I think 80 percent of the people who have registered for it want it for recreational use and 20 percent for legitimate purposes,” Aurora City Councilman Robert Broom explained in an interview with Raw Story.

In Colorado, nearly 65,000 people signed up for medical marijuana cards in the past several years as the state began to grant more licenses for marijuana dispensaries. The onslaught of applicants prompted the Colorado Department of Public Health to stop offering assistance to new applicants.

“Due to high volume of applications, the office of vital records will no longer review applications,” the health department’s website says.

Broom has been a supporter of Aurora’s moratorium on dispensaries that will be up for a voter referendum this fall.

“I understand that marijuana does have health benefits. But these dispensaries can be a magnet for crime, they have both money and drugs which makes them attractive targets for criminals,” he said.

“There’s also the issue can the town allow something that on a Federal level is illegal?”

Efforts to push back against the growing widespread use of medical marijuana doesn’t shock addiction specialist Dr. Michael Hayes, who has spent his entire career in the middle of this country’s love-hate relationship with psychotropic substances.

“I’m not surprised," Hayes said. "I’m actually more surprised at how much progress has been made towards decriminalization.”

For over four decades, Hayes has been at the forefront of dealing with a myriad of addictions as director of the Center for Addiction Treatment at Maryland General Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

With a front-row seat on what he says is the destructive and often misguided emphasis on criminalizing drugs, Hayes has been a lifelong advocate of decriminalization for a variety of substances.

“It just delays the process of people starting treatment if they need it,” he says.

And that is why he is worried about the current trends.

“It’s the politics that messes everything up,” he said. “The easiest way to get elected is to criminalize a drug or crack down on people’s use of a drug.”

“All the studies on the decriminalization show that the crime, higher uses, all the so-called bad things that were predicted to happen, just did not happen.”

In his own practice treating people with opiate addictions, marijuana has been a useful, albeit unofficial tool. But Hayes said the politics have made it difficult for him too look the other way.

“We have people at my methadone clinic whose only problem is they smoke a little weed, and we ignored it because they were doing well,” he said.

“But a few years ago the state required us to test for it, and it breaks my heart that I can’t give people the freedom from the clinic they deserve.

“It’s really a shame,” he said.

Part of the problem, Hayes and advocates say, is the slippery slope of criminalization that opens the door for more government intervention, which usually means putting addicts in jail.

“A great deal of the times it’s the Feds that drive this,” he said. "And it doesn't help to imprison people for using drugs."

Growing, selling, and even smoking marijuana was legal in the U.S. until 1937 when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act. The law placed strict regulations on personal use and growing of pot and hemp, guidelines that eventually became the basis for a national prohibition that prompted 750,000 arrests in 2008 for simple possession alone.
Since then, only fourteen states and the District of Columbia have mustered support to pass laws relaxing criminal penalties associated with the use of marijuana, all under the guise of medical use.

“It’s the lesser of many evils; if I had a choice between alcohol and marijuana, I’d take marijuana,” Hayes said.

That’s why Zeitlin says Harmony House is fighting back.

Bolstered by a legal theory that the shuttering of his business is unconstitutional because some dispensaries are being allowed to stay open, Zeitlin says a LA circuit court judge has granted his business a temporary stay of closure while the owner appeals the order to shut down.

“We have people to take care of,” he said. “We’re going to fight.”