Los Angeles city officials announced Wednesday that only 41 medical marijuana dispensaries are eligible to stay in business under the city’s restrictive ordinance, a number so low that the city will suspend the winnowing process and ask a judge to rule that it is legal.
“It was a surprise,” said Jane Usher, a special assistant city attorney who worked closely with the City Council to draft the complex law and is defending it in court.
Rather than move ahead with a selection process that would clearly trigger a spate of lawsuits by disqualified dispensaries, the city attorney’s office decided to sue them first and ask a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge to determine that the city’s process was appropriate. Read more »
The shootout left four people dead, but that was just the beginning. As dust began to settle on a ranch in north-eastern Mexico, thought to have been owned by one of the world's most powerful drug cartels, the battle-hardened Marines stumbled upon their first decomposing corpse.
Minutes later, they found a second, then a third. By the time troops had finished searching the remote property, roughly 90 miles from the US border, a total of 72 contorted bodies had been laid out in rows beneath the summer sunshine. The 54 men and 18 women had all been recently murdered. Read more »
John Ammirati needs marijuana to ease the symptoms of his terminal illness, he says, but whether it will be available by January, as outlined by state law, remains unclear.
Health officials must complete a multistep process before the controversial law can be implemented and aren’t committing to any deadline. They have less than five months to get a system up and running that will allow marijuana use for medicinal purposes, yet two definitive questions loom: Who will grow the marijuana? And where will it be dispensed? Read more »
Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, began his administration in 2000 with a popular festival. Felipe Calderón, who took over in 2006, began his with a show of military force. His affinity for uniforms, army brass bands and public events with the armed forces makes an overt connection between the military and the executive that was unusual in Mexican politics before his presidency.
In January 2007 in Apatzingán, Calderón had his picture taken in military uniform, with a five-star cap and the national emblem. In May, again in Apatzingán, another photo op: officers with armoured vehicles and grenade launchers confronted alleged drug traffickers. But this great publicity stunt worried some – drugs are supposed to be under police, not military, jurisdiction. Read more »
Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn spent 27 years teaching the Torah in shuls from central New Jersey to southern Australia. Lately, he’s been talking a lot about a passage from Leviticus, the part about not standing idle while your neighbor bleeds.
“This really is an important religious issue,” says the silver-haired 58-year-old, his wide smile punctuated by crescent-shaped dimples. “Especially because of how people have been suffering and the ways that drug laws have been used against Americans and especially against minorities...I think scripture is very clear that when we have the opportunity to help people, we must do it.”
Not to mention that bit about seed-bearing plants that God declared good and gave to all humanity.
The rabbi and his wife, Stephanie Kahn , 55, are competing to establish the District’s first city-sanctioned medical-marijuana operation. Call it Kosher Kush. It’s the culmination of a sort of mid-life crisis for the couple: After packing up their prior lives and making a pilgrimage to Israel, the store represents their unlikely next step—a mom ‘n’ pop pot shop. “We wanted to do something different,” says Stephanie Kahn, a nurse who made her career in hospital administration, “but still within the framework of trying to help people.” Read more »
As his wife was slowly dying from cancer, Craig, Neb., farmer DeJay Monson turned to something that had helped him overcome seizures and migraine headaches arising from a childhood school-bus accident.
Feeding his wife, Dana, marijuana, baked in foods or infused in liquids, returned some function to her life, Monson said Monday, fighting back tears.
The pot was much more effective than morphine and other drugs she was given for the pain, he said. According to Monson, the growth of the massive tumors in his wife's chest slowed considerably, allowing her to live longer and enjoy her five children before she died this spring.
“It didn't take her pain away, but it took her away from the pain,” Monson said. “I pray you don't need to have a spouse get sick to find that out.” Read more »
Look at other states and use the best model to get New Jersey's program running this year.
In January, New Jersey became the 14th state to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. It was an affirmation of what thousands of sufferers of cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions already know -- that marijuana is one of the few substances, for some, the only substance, that can take away their daily pain and mask some of their symptoms.
New Jersey's law is restrictive, probably more so than all other states that have legalized medical marijuana. Patients certified by a doctor and registered with the state won't be allowed to grow the plant themselves. Rather, they'll have to purchase marijuana from one of a handful of dispensaries around New Jersey that will be created to provide small, strictly governed amounts of marijuana.
The dispensation of medical marijuana to patients was supposed to begin in October, but now the Christie administration wants a delay to fine tune the rules and parameters of the program. One thing Christie's Health and Senior Services commissioner is looking to do is create a single site for growing all the marijuana that would be available to patients who qualify to use medical marijuana. Read more »
The U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) recently adopted a policy prohibiting VA physicians from recommending medical marijuana to their patients, even if marijuana is the safest and most effective medicine to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other service-related conditions.
No doubt the policy stems, in part, from the VA's efforts to address the serious problem of drug abuse among returning veterans. Veterans' advocates and organizations like the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) certainly share this concern; last fall, DPA issued a report calling for immediate policy changes to improve veterans' substance abuse and mental health treatment.
Yet seen from the larger perspective of helping veterans adjust to civilian life, the VA's stance on medical marijuana is counterproductive and harmful. The ban means that--despite their service to our country--veterans who reside in the 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana are denied the same rights as every other resident of these states. Read more »
Would you break the law if you thought it would reduce the pain and suffering of someone you loved?
It's a risk some Minnesotans are willing to take, including Kathy Rippentrop.
“If my children or grand children had a disease that they needed that, I would be blowing it in my grand children's face,” Kathy told the Northlands NewsCenter.
Kids and marijuana? Not exactly what you would expect from a law abiding retiree with solid Minnesota values.
When Rippentrop's mother was diagnosed with colon cancer she was given a year to live. She says marijuana helped extend Jane Schmidt’s quality of life for four and a half years. Read more »
Multiple sclerosis patient Sarah Martin believes cannabis is the best way to liberate herself from the daily pain she endures.
She says just half a teaspoon in a hot drink will keep her pain-free and spasm-free for about three hours. She also uses a vaporizer to ingest the drug.
But by obtaining the much sought after relief which enables her to walk a little more easily once her muscles have "freed up", she becomes a criminal.
She chooses not to take any regular - and legal - medication, maintaining it would give her side effects such as high blood pressure, ulcers and even the risk of heart failure and psychosis.
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By. Joel Hoeffel, LA Times
By Guy Adams in Los Angeles
By. Barbara Williams
By. Luis Hernandez Navarro, Guardian.co.uk
By Chris Shott, Washington City Paper
By Paul Hammel
By. New Jersey Courier Post
By. Bob Kerrey and Jason Flom
By Michelle Lee
By. BBC News
