medical marijuana

By. CBC News

 

Smoking marijuana might ease some types of pain, as a new scientific study has found, but that's only if you can manage to get some of it.

 

Simonne LeBlanc, executive director of AIDS Calgary, said that while a number of her clients find marijuana to be an effective treatment for the pain and nausea associated with HIV, it's tough to come by legally in Alberta.

 

"It's really difficult to find a physician that will prescribe it," LeBlanc told CBC News on Tuesday. Read more »

By. Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian

 

Peter Lewis, the billionaire chairman of Progressive Auto Insurance, is back dabbling in Oregon politics. He recently gave $12,800 for the November ballot measure allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon.

 

Given his past enthusiasm for pro-marijuana causes, it wouldn't be surprising if this isn't a down-payment for the Measure 74 campaign. Lewis and two of his fellow billionaires - currency trader George Soros and Phoenix University founder John Sterling - bankrolled the 1998 ballot measure allowing medicinal marijuana use.

 

In fact, that was just one of four medical marijuana measures passed that year thanks to the financial backing from the trio through their group, Americans for Medical Rights.

 

Lewis was also a big supporter of the Marijuana Policy Project, which sought to legalize the drug. If you can believe celebstoner.com (I confess a lack of familiarity with this segment of the news media), Lewis contributed some $40 million to the group over the course of a decade before having a falling-out with the organization earlier this year. Read more »

By Trip Jennings, New Mexico Independent

 

Republican Susana Martinez has said she would work to repeal New Mexico’s medical marijuana program if she’s elected governor. But undoing the state’s three-year-old medical marijuana law would represent a major undertaking. There are only two routes — through the Legislature or voter referendum — and neither would be easy.

 

Repealing the law through the Legislature is unlikely

 

Collecting enough votes among state lawmakers to overturn the law is a long shot. The New Mexico State Senate approved the 2007 bill by a vote of 32- 3. And although state Sen. Vernon Asbill, R-Carlsbad, one of those three “no” votes, said Monday he’d vote for repeal, he also said it didn’t seem likely to happen. Read more »

By Matthew Keys, Fox 40 News

 

Sacramento's FOX affiliate KTXL "FOX40" has been known for delivering many firsts to the Sacramento area. The station was first with a satellite news truck, first on social media websites Twitter and Facebook, and first with local, national and global breaking news. Monday morning will see another first -- the first paid advertisement for a medical marijuana dispensary, thought to be the first time an ad for marijuana has ever aired on mainstream television.

 

The thirty-second ad, paid for by Sacramento-based "CannaCare" and produced by KTXL, shows various people delivering testimonials on the benefits of marijuana when used for medicinal purposes. Text at the bottom of the advertisement indicates that marijuana can be used in the relief of many diseases and illnesses, including diabetes, HIV, Hepatitis C and hypertension among others. Read more »

By. Steve Elliot, Toke of the Town

 

The New Mexico Department of Health is asking for public input on proposals for changing the state's state-licensed medical marijuana program, including ways to make the program pay for itself and to make it more "tightly regulated."

 

One of the proposals would levy a 7 percent tax on annual gross receipts of the nonprofit organizations that cultivate medical marijuana in the state, reports Marjorie Childress at the The New Mexico Independent. The reason the producers don't already pass gross receipts tax is because they are, by law, operated as nonprofits. Read more »

By. CBC News

 

Patients seeking to use medical marijuana are being forced to wait as long as six months by Health Canada because a backlog of permit applications, a B.C. doctor says.

 

Dr. Gwyllyn Goddard says patients are told that getting a permit to use medical marijuana should take about 60 days. Each year, however, they're waiting longer for Health Canada to approve their applications — from two months to three months, and now six months.

 

Because of the delays many patients ended up buying pot illegally while they wait for the official government permit, says Goddard. Read more »

By. Heather Donahue, Huffington Post

 

Marijuana brings an estimated $14 billion a year to California. That number is enough to inspire awe, drool even, when thinking of the slice that could be devoured by the state's hungry coffers. Add to that number the money saved on enforcing prohibition. In this context, Prop 19, California's initiative to tax and regulate marijuana for recreational use, sounds like a no-brainer. However, if it passes, the RAND Drug Policy Research Center projects an 80% price drop. In that case, projected tax revenues will be pipe dreams, and only those who produce mass quantities will be able to stay in business. Most of the cannabis small business owners I talked to at the recent Hemp Con in San Jose are just that, small business owners of the sort who are supposed to be rebuilding our economy. Read more »

By. CBC News

 

Smoking marijuana a few times daily can help ease a type of chronic pain, a Canadian study suggests.

 

Researchers in Montreal conducted a randomized controlled trial -- the gold standard of medical research -- of inhaled cannabis in 21 adults with chronic neuropathic pain, a condition caused by damage to nerves that don't repair.

 

The research team found that smoking higher-potency marijuana significantly reduced average pain intensity and helped improve sleep quality.

 

Although the CBC News.ca article was about research into marijuana's possible health benefits, many readers engaged in a spirited debate in the comments section over whether cannabis use in Canada should be legalized. Read more »

By. Anne-Marie Tobin The Canadian Press

 

Smoking pot can make some of the pain go away, without the patient getting high.

 

The finding comes from what researchers in Montreal believe to be the first outpatient clinical trial of smoked cannabis, involving 21 people with chronic neuropathic pain.

 

The results, which included improvements in mood and sleep, were published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Read more »

By Anne-Marie Tobin, The Canadian Press

 

TORONTO - Smoking pot can make some of the pain go away, without the patient getting high.

 

The finding comes from what researchers in Montreal believe to be the first outpatient clinical trial of smoked cannabis, involving 21 people with chronic neuropathic pain.

The results, which included improvements in mood and sleep, were published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Read more »