Medical Marijuana Hearings Scheduled in PA

Philadelphia- Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana (PA4MMJ) is pleased to announce that the PA House of Representatives Health and Human Services Committee will have hearings on HB 1393, The Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

PA4MMJ and Rep. Mark Cohen at the candlight vigil for medical marijuana in front of Philadelphia's Independence Hall

On April 29, 2009 Rep. Mark B. Cohen, the Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, introduced the bill to legalize medical marijuana with Chris Goldstein of PA4MMJ. HB1393, is solid legislation that would allow registered patients to grow six plants or purchase cannabis through Compassion Centers. A provision in the bill allows these medical cannabis sales to be taxed.

Representative Cohen has taken on the issue with courage, drive and a real understanding of patients needs.  At a press conference at the bill’s introduction Cohen said, “It’s time to create a new, honest image for marijuana. One as a form of treatment that when prescribed by responsible doctors could help thousands of patients across this commonwealth.”

Three newspaper Editorial Boards endorsed the bill immediately after it was introduced: The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Pocono Record and the Daily Review of Towanda.

The topic of medical marijuana has been well covered this year by local media. Rep. Cohen and spokespeople from PA4MMJ have appeared in television programs on the radio and in newspaper articles covering the issue.

The December 2^nd hearings will feature PA patients who have the tremendous courage to tell their legislators about their personal experiences finding benefits from cannabis therapy. Medical professionals and other experts have contacted PA4MMJ and expressed their commitment to testifying at every stage of the legislation.

Volunteer advocates Derek Rosenzweig, Ed Pane and Chris Goldstein have been interacting with legislators including Representative Frank Oliver who chairs the twenty-six-member HHS committee. Overall reaction to the bill by elected officials has been positive and filled with curiosity.

PA4MMJ hosts a website that includes a detailed look at the legislation, medical marijuana information and action points for volunteers. The group is actively seeking those patients and professionals who wish to testify.

PA4MMJ hosted a series of medical marijuana information seminars over the summer and held a candlelight vigil was held in front of Independence Hall on July 11^th. Awareness and fundraising events are planned throughout the winter. Please visit www.pa4mmj.org to get involved today!

OK, maybe it’s not an overt lie, just a failure to update their website in lieu of last week’s reversal by the American Medical Association of their position on medical marijuana:

(DEA) Exposing the Myth of Smoked Medical Marijuana

Q. Does marijuana have any medical value?

…The American Medical Association recommends that marijuana remain a Schedule I controlled substance.

In case the DEA didn’t read it:

“short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis.” Furthermore, the report urges that “the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods.”

Our friends at LEAP have an action alert for Attorney General Holder to direct the DEA to clean up the FAQ sheet. Go there now!

After the groundbreaking announcement on Tuesday about the Pennsylvania HHS deciding that medical marijuana “has merit” we’re now given inside information about the opportunity present in PA and how best to capitalize on it. Tuesday’s announcement can be found here.

Thanks to Dev Meyers who announced the PA HHS decision on Examiner.com we’re now given these details:

Hi – It’s Dev Meyers -Cannabis Revolution Examiner.com – I am the one who telephoned Stanley Mitchel at Oliver’s office. I had telephoned Mark Cohen. who sponsored the bill. I have been speaking with him every couple weeks. You can look through the articles on my site. Cohen told me now that PA HB1393 has moved into the hearing phase it is an important step forward. Everyone needs to testify. Stanley wants to hear more from groups. So it is important to channel your testimony if you have one through a group. PAMMJ or Medical Movement and so forth.

I will try to get more details about the hearings but everyone should go and let them know there is support for this – the perception is that there is not enough support to pass the bill in Pennsylvania. The politicians think that Pennsylvanians are too conservative to vote for the bill. [sounds like a challenge to me! lol] Everyone of them has told me that. Also the doctors are afraid to go on record because of their employers – for example mine wouldn’t go on the record because he is employed by UPMC. So the problem is that everyone is afraid to speak up.

It is really important to support this hearing because these politicians – Cohen, Mitchel, all of them down the line have been absolutely flabbergasted to find their phones ringing off the hook on this issue. Cohen’s right hand advisor had tried to steer him away from sponsoring the bill. Now the two of them joke – “Why didn’t we do this 10 years ago.” Cohen told me he never expected this much interest or activity when he introduced the bill in April.

If you want to visit Cannabis Revolution Examiner you can see a list of my recent articles and the text of this weeks AMA ruling.

So everybody in PA, this is YOUR opportunity!!

And to clarify the names used in the article – Stanley Mitchel is Rep. Frank Oliver’s Chief Legal Counsel.  Rep. Oliver is the Chairman of Health and Human Services. And Rep. Mark Cohen introduced HB1393.

Courtesy of our friends at LEAP:

As soon as this Thursday, November 5, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee could vote on an amendment that will legally prevent some of the government’s top advisers from even discussing the idea of legalizing or decriminalizing drugs as a solution to the failed “war on drugs.”

Yes, you read that right. The Senate just might censor its own policy advisers from giving science-based advice.

The censorship amendment’s author, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), is trying to attach the speech prohibition onto an otherwise positive bill that will create a blue ribbon commission to study our nation’s failed criminal justice and drug policies. The commission is supposed to make recommendations for ways to improve the system, but how can they do that with the blindfold that Sen. Grassley wants to put on them? Please take action below and tell your senators to oppose the censorship amendment!

Visit the LEAP site today to send your letter of protest against this amendment to your own Senator.  Read past collections of Sen. Grassley’s dementia sativa here and here.

In an underhanded move, the Colorado Board of Health will be voting to weaken the medical marijuana law at an “emergency” meeting on Tuesday, November 3 at 10:30am in Denver. At this stealth meeting the Board will be voting to redefine what a “caregiver” is to require such individuals to provide supplementary– and often unnecessary– services beyond simply providing sick patients with medical marijuana.

“This is like requiring my pharmacist to give me a massage or make me a sandwich,” said Dan Pope, muscular dystrophy patient and medical card holder. “I can do those activities myself. I need a caregiver to give me medicine. End of story.”

This meeting, which was announced in a late afternoon email to a small handful of patient advocates, is another example of the state engaging in underhanded tactics in their effort to undermine the medical marijuana law and the will of the Colorado voters. Please help hold them accountable.

Here’s How You Can Help:

(1) Attend the Meeting. This meeting will occur at 10:30am on Tuesday, November 3 in the Snow Room, 1st Floor Building A of the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, 4300 Cherry Creek Dr. South, Denver CO.

(2) Call-in to the Meeting. While we strongly prefer that you attend in person, you can also call-in at 1-866-899-5399, conference code *3529725*

(3) Spread the Word. Please tell friends and family to attend the meeting and forward this alert widely!

Voters in Breckenridge, Colorado are deciding whether to decriminalize personal possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults. The editorial board of the local Summit Daily News has already come out in favor of this Measure 2F:

(Summit Daily News) …Breckenridge residents this Election Day will decide whether possessing less than an ounce of the intoxicating weed should be decriminalized.

…While police blotters and courts are filled with an extraordinary amount of problems directly related to alcohol abuse, it’s rare to ever find pot at the bottom of things like domestic abuse, bar fights, car crashes and the like.

…What the Breckenridge code change would do is one thing: decriminalize less than an ounce for adults. It will not make it more available to minors, won’t make it legal to smoke it on the street, won’t get you out of trouble if you’re stoned behind the wheel. What it says is that if you, as an adult, choose to possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use, you won’t be busted for it. It’s still a much more stringent law than those that apply to alcohol — a substance you can own as much as you want of and consume in public.One last item remains, though: As the recent pot busts at Arapahoe Basin show, consumption of marijuana can have a greater potential “footprint” than, say, drinking a beer. No one wants to have to walk with their children through a parking lot full of cars emitting clouds of pot smoke, and we’re behind the Summit County Sheriff for cracking down on these folks. Eventually, it seems these small possession busts will be a thing of the past state-wide, which makes us conclude some kind of “nuisance pot smoke” ordinance needs to take their place — roughly analogous to public intoxication statutes. Sure, smoke your weed, but don’t blow it in our faces.

Ah yes, decriminalize the marijuana possession, but make the public use of marijuana an arrestable offense.  If it’s in your baggie, it’s OK, but if it’s in your pipe, it is not.  If I may paraphrase the late Johnny Cochran, “If the joint’s not lit, you must acquit!”

For our readers in Maine, don’t forget to get out and vote tomorrow on Question 5.  Here’s a summary from Maine Citizens for Patient Rights:

Current law allows a person who has been diagnosed by a physician as suffering from certain medical conditions to possess marijuana for medical use. This initiated bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services to issue registry identification cards to patients who qualify to possess marijuana for medical use and to their designated primary caregivers. It sets limits on the amount of marijuana that may be possessed by qualifying patients and their designated primary caregivers. It allows the establishment of nonprofit dispensaries to provide marijuana to qualifying patients and directs the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a registration certificate to a nonprofit dispensary that meets certain criteria. It changes the description of the medical conditions for which the medical use of marijuana is permitted. It directs the Department of Health and Human Services to establish application and renewal fees sufficient to pay the expenses of implementing and administering the provisions of the initiated bill.

Advocates of reforming marijuana laws will convene in Columbia Nov. 7, according to a news release from organizers Dan Viets and Sean Randall.

The conference of Missouri NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) seeks to educate attendees about the negative effects of marijuana prohibition and to increase public awareness and support of medical marijuana legislation in Missouri, the news release said.

Rep. Kate Meniners of Kansas City will introduce The Missouri Medical Marijuana Bill in the upcoming legislative session, the release said. If approved, it would protect patients from criminal arrest and prosecution who use medical marijuana with recommendations of their physician, the news release said.

Presentations throughout the day will address a variety of topics, including community organizing, firsthand stories of people using marijuana for medical purposes. Paul Armentano, deputy director of national NORML, will be the keynote speaker. He will speak about the safety and effectiveness of medical marijuana in comparison to other prescription and over-the-counter medications at 6 p.m.

The conference takes place at the Ellis Library Auditorium on the University of Missouri campus. It is free and open to the public. For more information, including a schedule, go to www.joplin-norml.org.

Hello from Sharon McNary in the KPCC newsroom of Southern California Public Radio.

We’re gathering sources and information for coverage of medical marijuana issues — dispensary permits in the city of Los Angeles, enforcement or non-enforcement of medical marijuana laws in California and the federal government.

We’re also open to hearing stories that aren’t on the mainstream media radar.

So we’re circulating some questions about the medical marijuana experience and hoping to reach people who have interesting personal stories to tell us.

I would appreciate any help you can provide to get our questions before a large number of medical marijuana users. Here’s the link to respond to our online questions: http://www.scpr.org/in/questions/Marijuana/

All responses are confidential to our newsroom, and seen only by journalists. Nothing shared is aired or published without your prior permission.

I hope that you can help get our questions out to the people in your network.

Thanks in advance, and please call with any questions or concerns.

Sharon McNary
Public Insight Journalism at KPCC
smcnary@kpcc.org
213-621-4671

Georgine DiMaria speaks at the NORML Freedom Forum 2009

NORML-NJ Asks Jay Leno for Apology

On the Oct 22 episode of the Jay Leno Show the iconic host mentions NORML-NJ Board member Georgine DiMaria in the opening monologue.

Jay Leno- “Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker reports this week that the 2006 Miss NJ winner Georgine DiMaria – Miss New Jersey- She uses medical marijuana to treat asthma. Smoking to treat asthma really? Isn’t that like eating at Taco Bell to control your diarrhea? Let me tell you something, you know If Miss New Jersey wants to help her breathing Move out of New Jersey.”

WATCH http://www.thejaylenoshow.com/video/episodes/#vid=1169189

Georgine DiMaria is Miss New Jersey 2006 and serves on the Board of Directors at NORML-NJ, the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

In April of this year, Georgi revealed for the first time publicly her personal experience with medical cannabis to treat asthma though vaporization.

Washington post columnist Kathleen Parker mentions that fact in her article this week: A woman’s crusade to legalize marijuana READ HERE

While pleased at the mention in the Jay Leno Show there were a number of inaccuracies contained in the short joke. NORML-NJ is asking that an apology be issued to Ms. DiMaria by NBC Universal, the Jay Leno Show and Mr. Leno himself.

Georgine issued a full statement today. “Even though Mr. Leno’s remarks were misinformed about my personal use and took a tiresome shot at New Jersey’s air quality it’s another indication of just how mainstream medical cannabis has become. The whole reason I originally went public with my medical marijuana experience is to advocate for the compassionate use of marijuana and our rights, as patients, to feel healthy.” READ FULL STATEMENT

Georgine does not advocate personally for the smoking medical cannabis. She has found that the most beneficial and effective way to ingest medical marijuana is through vaporization, which has served as her method of treatment.

Frederic DiMaria, Jr., Esq., Chairman of NORML-NJ said today, “As a practicing criminal defense attorney, every day I am forced to witness the arrest, vicious prosecution and jailing of countless sick and dying New Jerseans for doing nothing more egregious than turning to the enormous medicinal benefits of natural marijuana for relief. Unfortunately, not even Jay can make that fact funny.”

NORML’s national office in Washington DC issued the following statements about Leno’s remarks.

NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano, “To the uninformed and the non-afflicted the medicinal use of marijuana as a bronchodilator may sound humorous, but to those stricken with asthma the issue is no laughing matter. Even a cursory reference of the scientific literature will reveal that marijuana inhalation has historically been used as an asthma remedy, as the compounds in cannabis open the airways rather than constrict them. This effect is just the opposite of that experienced by those who inhale tobacco. A key word search on the site Pubmed using the terms “marijuana” and “asthma” reveals over 60 references in the scientific literature on the subject, among them: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1099949

Effects of smoked marijuana in experimentally induced asthma:
After methacholine-induced bronchospasm, placebo marijuana and saline inhalation produced minimal changes in specific airway conductance and thoracic gas volume, whereas 2.0 per cent marijuana and isoproterenol each caused a prompt correction of the bronchospasm and associated hyperinflation.

Jay Leno should stick to the subject he knows best: comedy, and leave the medical discussions to the experts — physicians and their patients.”

NORML’s National Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said, “Ironically, the use of medical cannabis for asthma, and other respiratory conditions, are some of the oldest reported uses of the drug for medicinal purposes, and the subject of numerous scientific papers going back to the late 1880s.”

NORML-NJ Executive Director Chris Goldstein welcomed the attention to the medical marijuana legislation moving ahead in New Jersey. “Medical cannabis is a serious issue and patients may soon have legal protections for their use of cannabis therapy. We need to pass our bill this year.”

More about NORML-NJ at www.normlnj.org

More about medical marijuana in NJ at www.cmmnj.org

CONTACT: Chris Goldstein director (at) normlnj.org