Wednesday, February 29, 2012
RECIPE: Cannabis Infused Butter & Oil
Making and Using Cannabis Infused Butter and Oil
Note: This is a very basic guideline to making cannabis infused butter and cooking oil. More detailed information can be found in The Cannabis Gourmet Cookbook by Cheri Sicard, available January, 2012 from your favorite bookseller or on this blog.
THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana is fat soluble, making butter and oil ideal ways to bond it to food. Likewise cannabis infused butter, margarine, or cooking oils are the backbone of many medicated foods. With these staples stored in your refrigerator or freezer you’re always ready to cook with cannabis.
You can cook with any kind of marijuana from trimmings to flowers. You will need to adjust the amount used depending on the potency of the plant and what parts of it you are using. Check out the Understanding Cannabis Dosages page for additional information and dose ranges.
I’ve listed the amounts I use to test the recipes for this blog as well as those in The Cannabis Gourmet Cookbook. You can and should alter the suggested amounts to meet your needs, but these will give you a starting guideline.
To Make About 1 Cup Cannabis Infused Butter or Margarine:
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter or margarine
1 ounce average to high quality trim or low quality dried bud; OR 1/2 ounce average quality dried bud
About 4 cups water
To Make About 1 Cup Cannabis Infused Oil
1 1/4 cups cooking oil: olive, vegetable, canola, corn, peanut or grapeseed. You can even infuse solid-at-room-temperature fats like coconut oil or vegetable shortening should you choose
1 ounce average to high quality trim or low quality dried bud; OR 1/2 ounce average quality dried bud
About 4 cups water
Why Water?
You might be wondering why I include water as an ingredient. Including water, especially when cooking on the stovetop, insures the cannabis will never reach a higher temperature than the boiling point or 212 degrees F. More importantly, the chlorophyll and terpenes – the parts of the plant that give it its flavor and color — are water soluble and most will likewise bind to water during the cooking process instead of infusing themselves into the fats along with the THC. In practical terms this means less herbal flavor and green color in the finished marijuana infused butter or oil.
That said, the butter or oil might still appear mighty green, even when cooked with water. The amount will vary from strain to strain with some coming out pale green or almost yellow, while others take on a deep forest green color. You can see the differences in the photo above where I used a different strain to make the 2 different butters and oils pictured. The visual difference is especially apparent in the butter, but keep in mind that color has nothing to do with potency.
Without water in the mix, the plant material tends absorbs too much of the butter and oil. This means usable product is going into the trash, a problem that’s reduced when adding water. The increased liquid volume also gives cooks the option to add more plant material in order to make more concentrated infusions if they wish.
How to Make Cannabis Infused Butter or Oil:
Slow Cooker Method: Add butter or oil, plant material, and water to the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 to 16 hours. I know some cooks who cook their butter for as much as 2 or 3 days in the slow cooker. Feel free to do so if you choose. It seems like overkill to me and after having tested longer cooking times, I found no improvement in quality or potency. In fact, I noticed a stronger herbal flavor and not much else.
OR
Stovetop Method: Place butter or oil, plant material, and water in a large lidded Dutch oven on the stove top. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to very low and simmer for 6 to 12 hours. Take care and monitor the liquid level often, adding water as necessary to always keep at least 3 cups in the pot. Simmering marijuana on the stovetop is very aromatic. If you’re worried about nosy neighbors, cook other strong smelling foods such as roasting garlic at the same time in order to help camouflage the smell. Better still, use a slow cooker.
Drain, Rinse, and Strain
The method of draining is the same for stovetop and slow cooker methods. Place a cheesecloth line strainer over a large pot or bowl and stain the liquid through this. Before discarding plant material, pour a large kettle full of boiling water over the full strainer in order to wash through any extra butter or oil clinging to the plant material. Allow to cool then squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Discard the plant material. Now chill the rest, water and oil or liquid butter. The fats will rise to the top.
Butter will harden into a solid when chilled making it easy for you to simply lift the piece off of the water below and discard the water. Rinse the butter chunk with cold, fresh water to wash off any of the canna-water or plant material left on the butter.
Oil will rise to the top of the water but often won’t solidify. No problem. You can use a spoon to skim the oil off the water. Even better is a kitchen gadget called a gravy separator that looks like a small pitcher with the spout originating on the bottom. This unique design allows the water to be poured out while retaining every drop of the oil floating at the top. During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, gravy separators are sold everywhere, otherwise find them at gourmet shops. You can also find extra large gravy separators year round at restaurant supply stores.
Now it’s time to strain one more time to remove as much sediment as possible. Place a double layer of cheesecloth over a strainer and pour the oil mixture through. To strain butter, melt it, strain, then chill again until solid.
Refrigerate infused butter or oil until ready to use or freeze for even longer storage. Fats can still go rancid in the freezer so try to use within 3 months.
RECIPE: Cannabis Infused Toffee Cookies
Buttery toffee adds an extra dimension to an already great chocolate chip cookie recipe.
By Cheri Sicard
Yield: 26 Cookies
Serving Size: 1 Cookie
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cannabis infused butter*
2 1/4 grams kief or finely ground dried hash
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
3/4 cup toffee chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 large baking sheets with vegetable shortening, or alternately line them with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
With an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the canna-butter, kief or ground hash, and brown and granulated sugars until well incorporated. Add the egg, and vanilla, and mix until just combined. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Stir in the chocolate and toffee chips and nuts, if using.
Scoop out about 2 tablespoons dough and press gently to form a flattened cookie. Repeat with remaining dough, placing cookies about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let set for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature. Baked cookies will stay fresh for about 4 days in an airtight container.
Freezer Friendly!
Form dough into cookies and place on a baking sheet and freeze before baking. When frozen you can transfer the unbaked cookies to a lidded container or plastic freezer storage bag. When ready to eat, place frozen cookies on a greased or parchment lined sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for about 18 minutes or until browned.
By Cheri Sicard
Yield: 26 Cookies
Serving Size: 1 Cookie
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cannabis infused butter*
2 1/4 grams kief or finely ground dried hash
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
3/4 cup toffee chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 large baking sheets with vegetable shortening, or alternately line them with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
With an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the canna-butter, kief or ground hash, and brown and granulated sugars until well incorporated. Add the egg, and vanilla, and mix until just combined. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Stir in the chocolate and toffee chips and nuts, if using.
Scoop out about 2 tablespoons dough and press gently to form a flattened cookie. Repeat with remaining dough, placing cookies about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let set for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature. Baked cookies will stay fresh for about 4 days in an airtight container.
Freezer Friendly!
Form dough into cookies and place on a baking sheet and freeze before baking. When frozen you can transfer the unbaked cookies to a lidded container or plastic freezer storage bag. When ready to eat, place frozen cookies on a greased or parchment lined sheet and bake at 375 degrees F for about 18 minutes or until browned.
ARTICLE: New Jersey patients are still waiting for medical marijuana
Two years later, New Jersey patients are still waiting for their medical marijuana. The Commissioner of the New Jersey Dept of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), the government body commissioned to oversee the Garden State’s long-delayed medicinal cannabis program, told The Wall Street Journal that legal pot won’t be available to patients until the end of 2012 – at the absolute earliest.
DHSS Commissioner Mary O’Dowd said that New Jersey has repeatedly delayed implementation of the medical marijuana program that has been law since January 2010 because they want to create sufficient safeguards to prevent their state from becoming like California's and Colorado's allegedly abused medical marijuana programs, such as reports of healthy individuals obtaining medical cannabis.
The first dispensary expected to operate is the Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, a town mostly situated on a ridge that’s part of northern New Jersey’s Watchung Mountain range. Greenleaf’s opening is still pending approval from the state; their president Joseph Stevens told The Journal he receives an average of 30 calls a day from pot-seeking patients, but for now all he can give them is a frustrating estimate of when they’ll possibly begin providing cannabis.
Another dispensary in Egg Harbor was approved locally and now awaits the green light from the state’s Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana program, part of the DHSS.
New Jersey’s high-profile Governor Chris Christie initially balked at implementing the medical pot program when he took office, but has since come around and now supports it, appointing 26-year State Police vet John O’Brien Jr. the new director of the program.
O'Brien told The Journal that they plan to closely monitor pot production and distribution down to the tenth of a gram by measuring everything that is harvested (buds/flower tops that contain the medicine) as well as everything that is disposed (seeds and stems). Additionally, the state medical marijuana program plans to announce in March the official registry of approved physicians from the applicant list of approximately 100 who will be permitted to recommend cannabis to patients with a “debilitating medical condition."
Meanwhile those same patients in New Jersey will sit on their hands and watch the calendar flip by until a dispensary finally opens its doors.
DHSS Commissioner Mary O’Dowd said that New Jersey has repeatedly delayed implementation of the medical marijuana program that has been law since January 2010 because they want to create sufficient safeguards to prevent their state from becoming like California's and Colorado's allegedly abused medical marijuana programs, such as reports of healthy individuals obtaining medical cannabis.
The first dispensary expected to operate is the Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, a town mostly situated on a ridge that’s part of northern New Jersey’s Watchung Mountain range. Greenleaf’s opening is still pending approval from the state; their president Joseph Stevens told The Journal he receives an average of 30 calls a day from pot-seeking patients, but for now all he can give them is a frustrating estimate of when they’ll possibly begin providing cannabis.
Another dispensary in Egg Harbor was approved locally and now awaits the green light from the state’s Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana program, part of the DHSS.
New Jersey’s high-profile Governor Chris Christie initially balked at implementing the medical pot program when he took office, but has since come around and now supports it, appointing 26-year State Police vet John O’Brien Jr. the new director of the program.
O'Brien told The Journal that they plan to closely monitor pot production and distribution down to the tenth of a gram by measuring everything that is harvested (buds/flower tops that contain the medicine) as well as everything that is disposed (seeds and stems). Additionally, the state medical marijuana program plans to announce in March the official registry of approved physicians from the applicant list of approximately 100 who will be permitted to recommend cannabis to patients with a “debilitating medical condition."
Meanwhile those same patients in New Jersey will sit on their hands and watch the calendar flip by until a dispensary finally opens its doors.
BLOG: Cannabis activists are ready to say ‘no Obama’ Guest viewpoint
BY JIM GREIG
Appeared in print: Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012,
“...rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law,’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.” — Thomas Jefferson
A movement in drug policy circles is afoot in this election season that so far has flown under the media’s radar but holds the potential to be a game-changer.
The movement? A challenge to President Obama from millions of cannabis activists and consumers that simply states, “No change, no vote, no Obama!”
As a candidate, Barack Obama pledged that his administration would not interfere in the state’s medical marijuana policies. As president he said in a 2009 memorandum on scientific integrity, “The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions. Political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions. If scientific and technological information is developed and used by the federal government, it should ordinarily be made available to the public.”
The chasm between scientific integrity and U.S. drug policies is one that humbles the Grand Canyon. The president may be able to carry a tune, but he plays the fool in not moving toward the real science of cannabis.
As we know from recent raids in Southern Oregon, California, Montana and Colorado, the deeply entrenched federal drug war bureaucracy is doing its utmost to squash states’ medical cannabis programs.
In a news release last October the Drug Policy Alliance called Obama’s medical cannabis policies worse than the policies of the Bush and Clinton administrations. That’s saying something.
But the real crux has been in Obama’s condescending disregard for the dozens of marijuana legalization questions in online polls, White House “We the People” petitions and Twitter and YouTube townhall-type events.
In every case, the No. 1 question asked was on marijuana re-legalization. In every response but one, the president was at best dismissive.
In January of 2011 he did finally answer, responding to a YouTube question from MacKenzie Allen, a retired deputy sheriff, now a member of and speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. In his statement, the president said that drug legalization is “an entirely legitimate topic for debate.”
Well, Mr. President, here’s a fact your re-election staff hasn’t told you: The reason cannabis was the top vote winner over and over again is because it’s important to millions of people who are one-issue voters and highly motivated to vote. And we are eager for that debate.
In the presidential election years, turnout among young voters is high — a vote I am sure Obama would like to count on.
What he apparently doesn’t realize is that polling shows that two-thirds of voters between the ages of 18 and 25 support the legalization of cannabis.
Drug policy activists, especially us medical cannabis types, are angered by our president.
In Oregon the rising tide of dissatisfaction has led to the founding of six chapters of Students for Sensible Drug Policy on our college campuses, and state cannabis activists are having discussions on the formation of a statewide coalition specifically to deal with the constant assaults on the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.
Clearly, there is no doubt that cannabis has proper medical uses, just as there is no doubt about the science of medical marijuana. Unfortunately, since cannabis is still a Schedule I drug in the Controlled Substances Act (meaning it has no accepted medical use in the United States), and because of the power of the multi-billion-dollar drug war bureaucracy, the only studies allowed to be conducted in the United States are those seeking to find harm in cannabis use.
Every responsible American should be feeling the pain as cannabis patients, medical cannabis programs and the truth all try to survive under government edicts based not on science, but on plain old-fashioned lies.
We, the people, are the leaders on this issue, and we are fed up. We are ready to demonstrate our dissatisfaction in the voting booth. Candidate Obama promised change. President Obama has not changed a thing.
This will not be tolerated. We say no. No change, no vote, no Obama.
Jim Greig of Eugene is a member of the board of directors for the Voter Power Foundation, Oregon organizer for Americans for Safe Access and co-director of the Regulate Medical Marijuana Political Action Committee.
Friday, February 24, 2012
ARTICLE: Justice Dept.: 'no regrets' on medical pot stance Dan Freedman
2/24/12
Bloomberg: NYPD's monitoring of Muslims was legal 02.24.12
Doctors: Dutch prince suffered grave brain damage 02.24.12
Make the lieutenant governor position a real job 02.24.12
Washington --
Eight months after the Justice Department appeared to reverse course on its apparent hands-off policy on medical marijuana, officials there maintain a "no regrets" stance but acknowledge being out of their element in the face of blowback from marijuana supporters.
"As U.S. attorneys, it's not our job to go out there and engage in public debate," said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, whose district is based in Sacramento. "We let our cases do the talking."
Green light in 2009
A 2009 Justice Department directive to U.S. attorneys nationwide appeared to give the medical marijuana industry a green light, stating that federal law enforcement should not give priority to cases against individuals and caregivers acting in compliance with state medical marijuana laws.
But a get-tough memo issued in June left pot backers howling that prosecutors had pulled the rug out from under the burgeoning medical marijuana industry.
Justice public affairs officials declined to make the author of the 2011 memo, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, available for an interview for this story, but later agreed to answer written questions and offered an opportunity to interview Wagner.
In a telephone interview, Wagner said "conditions on the ground" changed between 2009 and 2011, not department policy.
"It wasn't a lack of good faith on our part," he said. "We were alarmed by explosive growth of these large commercial operations. These huge dispensaries are focused on profits, not helping sick people."
For the businesses to characterize themselves as caregivers "seemed disingenuous," he added.
Justice Department officials have always insisted the policy did not change, pointing to language in the 2009 memo stating that "commercial enterprises that unlawfully continue to market and sell marijuana for profit" remain a federal law enforcement priority.
But advocates and drug-policy experts continue to insist the Justice Department did an about-face.
Marijuana "users and operators went forward in good faith and felt burned" by the U.S. attorneys in California who announced a wave of tough enforcement actions on Oct. 7, said Craig Reinarman, a sociologist at UC Santa Cruz who closely follows the issue. "People are confused and bewildered."
Some of the misinterpretation of the 2009 policy was no accident, Wagner said.
"A lot of people had a financial interest in promoting marijuana and were probably quite deliberate in misreading it," he said.
Those words are likely to be of little comfort to medical marijuana advocates, one of whom was so convinced federal prosecutors had done a flip-flop that she even questioned President Obama about it.
Marsha Rosenbaum of San Francisco, former director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports marijuana use for medicinal purposes, attended a special dinner for Democratic donors in Washington last month and asked Obama whether he was aware that U.S. attorneys in California were undermining the 2009 memo.
'Not a fringe issue'
"He gave a nuanced, thoughtful answer," Rosenbaum said in a phone interview. "He acknowledged there's confusion, but he didn't get specific and he didn't mention California.
"This is not a fringe issue," added Rosenbaum, citing polls showing popular support for medical marijuana laws. Rosenbaum said she'd continue to raise funds for Obama's re-election bid.
Federal law enforcement officials insist they have no hidden agenda.
"It's not about a moral crusade," Wagner said. "A lot of people in this state may think prosecuting marijuana cases is the only thing we do."
Dan Freedman is national editor in the Hearst Newspapers Washington Bureau. dan@hearstdc.com
This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/23/MNL51NB4K6.DTL#ixzz1nJmgC0xn
Bloomberg: NYPD's monitoring of Muslims was legal 02.24.12
Doctors: Dutch prince suffered grave brain damage 02.24.12
Make the lieutenant governor position a real job 02.24.12
Washington --
Eight months after the Justice Department appeared to reverse course on its apparent hands-off policy on medical marijuana, officials there maintain a "no regrets" stance but acknowledge being out of their element in the face of blowback from marijuana supporters.
"As U.S. attorneys, it's not our job to go out there and engage in public debate," said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, whose district is based in Sacramento. "We let our cases do the talking."
Green light in 2009
A 2009 Justice Department directive to U.S. attorneys nationwide appeared to give the medical marijuana industry a green light, stating that federal law enforcement should not give priority to cases against individuals and caregivers acting in compliance with state medical marijuana laws.
But a get-tough memo issued in June left pot backers howling that prosecutors had pulled the rug out from under the burgeoning medical marijuana industry.
Justice public affairs officials declined to make the author of the 2011 memo, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, available for an interview for this story, but later agreed to answer written questions and offered an opportunity to interview Wagner.
In a telephone interview, Wagner said "conditions on the ground" changed between 2009 and 2011, not department policy.
"It wasn't a lack of good faith on our part," he said. "We were alarmed by explosive growth of these large commercial operations. These huge dispensaries are focused on profits, not helping sick people."
For the businesses to characterize themselves as caregivers "seemed disingenuous," he added.
Justice Department officials have always insisted the policy did not change, pointing to language in the 2009 memo stating that "commercial enterprises that unlawfully continue to market and sell marijuana for profit" remain a federal law enforcement priority.
But advocates and drug-policy experts continue to insist the Justice Department did an about-face.
Marijuana "users and operators went forward in good faith and felt burned" by the U.S. attorneys in California who announced a wave of tough enforcement actions on Oct. 7, said Craig Reinarman, a sociologist at UC Santa Cruz who closely follows the issue. "People are confused and bewildered."
Some of the misinterpretation of the 2009 policy was no accident, Wagner said.
"A lot of people had a financial interest in promoting marijuana and were probably quite deliberate in misreading it," he said.
Those words are likely to be of little comfort to medical marijuana advocates, one of whom was so convinced federal prosecutors had done a flip-flop that she even questioned President Obama about it.
Marsha Rosenbaum of San Francisco, former director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports marijuana use for medicinal purposes, attended a special dinner for Democratic donors in Washington last month and asked Obama whether he was aware that U.S. attorneys in California were undermining the 2009 memo.
'Not a fringe issue'
"He gave a nuanced, thoughtful answer," Rosenbaum said in a phone interview. "He acknowledged there's confusion, but he didn't get specific and he didn't mention California.
"This is not a fringe issue," added Rosenbaum, citing polls showing popular support for medical marijuana laws. Rosenbaum said she'd continue to raise funds for Obama's re-election bid.
Federal law enforcement officials insist they have no hidden agenda.
"It's not about a moral crusade," Wagner said. "A lot of people in this state may think prosecuting marijuana cases is the only thing we do."
Dan Freedman is national editor in the Hearst Newspapers Washington Bureau. dan@hearstdc.com
This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/23/MNL51NB4K6.DTL#ixzz1nJmgC0xn
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
DHSS trying to resuscitate Delaware's busted medical marijuana law
State agency trying to resuscitate Delaware's busted medical marijuana law
February 22, 2012
By Shirley Min
Rate This:
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(0 votes)
Ask a question
(AP Photo)
Poll:
Did Delaware make the right decision suspending its medical marijuana law?
Yes, Delaware lawmakers didn't have a choice if it couldn’t protect state employees.
No, the federal government is all bark and no bite.
The medical marijuana bill never should've been signed into law in the first place.
View Results »
Recent Polls »
More Info:
Delaware lawmaker urging governor to re-think medical marijuana stance
Download Audio File »
DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf explains why Delaware suspended its medical marijuana program, when other states have medical marijuana laws on their books.
With Delaware's recently passed medical marijuana law on pause, Delaware Health and Social Services says it's looking into "potential alternatives."
Signed into law last year, Gov. Jack Markell, D-Del, suspended the regulatory writing and licensing process for what would have been the state's three medical marijuana dispensaries--one in each county.
DHSS, the state agency in charge of the medical marijuana program, said the move came after the federal government changed its stance on medical marijuana. Under the new policy, state employees were no longer immune from prosecution or criminal charges.
Now, DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf and the bill's primary sponsor, state Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, are working closely together, trying to figure out how to move forward. Landgraf says the pair met last week, and she plans to meet with Sen. Henry and SB 17's other sponsors in the coming weeks to keep the discussion going about moving forward with licensing and regulation as the state works through this hiccup.
"What [Sen. Henry] wants to investigate is to remove the threat of criminal prosecution of state workers through a federal law that provides immunity to any duly authorized officer of a state or local government who is lawfully engaged in the enforcement of any law ordinance relating to controlled substances... Now that law typically would apply to law enforcement officers that take control of, or take possession of, controlled substance during an investigation, so she’s going to see if there’s something within that law that can be utilized that will allow us to proceed forward without any prosecution," said Secretary Landgraf. "The other thing that she and I also discussed is that the federal government does allow for research purposes medical marijuana... Could we expand that federal law to allow dispensaries and individuals with extreme illnesses to still have access?"
Before the fed drama, the governor's recommended FY 2013 budget allocated four full-time employees and $480,000 to get the medical marijuana program going.
Meantime, according to the original timeline, regulations are supposed to be drafted and put out for public comment by April 1, 2012.
What happened?
DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf says Gov. Jack Markell had no choice but to suspend the regulatory and licensing process.
The move came after the federal government changed its stance on medical marijuana. According to Landgraf, state lawmakers based Delaware's medical marijuana law on the U.S. Dept. of Justice's October 2009 medical marijuana policy.
"Even though it didn’t permit states to actually cultivate or distribute medical marijuana, it kind of left it in the states’ hands in a way that was non-threatening that states would be prosecuted," said DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf. "Then... we heard that the guidance was shifting."
A shift last summer that prompted the state to ask for guidance and an opinion on the Dept. of Justice's stance from U.S. Attorney Charles Oberly. In his letter to the state, he wrote, “State employees who conduct activities mandated by the Delaware Medical Marijuana Act are not immune from liability under the Controlled Substances Act.”
Other states have medical marijuana laws on their books, but Secretary Landgraf says because Delaware's dispensaries weren't operational yet and regulations hadn't been drafted, that actually put Delaware at more risk for prosecution and criminal charges.
February 22, 2012
By Shirley Min
Rate This:
1 2 3 4 5
(0 votes)
Ask a question
(AP Photo)
Poll:
Did Delaware make the right decision suspending its medical marijuana law?
Yes, Delaware lawmakers didn't have a choice if it couldn’t protect state employees.
No, the federal government is all bark and no bite.
The medical marijuana bill never should've been signed into law in the first place.
View Results »
Recent Polls »
More Info:
Delaware lawmaker urging governor to re-think medical marijuana stance
Download Audio File »
DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf explains why Delaware suspended its medical marijuana program, when other states have medical marijuana laws on their books.
With Delaware's recently passed medical marijuana law on pause, Delaware Health and Social Services says it's looking into "potential alternatives."
Signed into law last year, Gov. Jack Markell, D-Del, suspended the regulatory writing and licensing process for what would have been the state's three medical marijuana dispensaries--one in each county.
DHSS, the state agency in charge of the medical marijuana program, said the move came after the federal government changed its stance on medical marijuana. Under the new policy, state employees were no longer immune from prosecution or criminal charges.
Now, DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf and the bill's primary sponsor, state Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, are working closely together, trying to figure out how to move forward. Landgraf says the pair met last week, and she plans to meet with Sen. Henry and SB 17's other sponsors in the coming weeks to keep the discussion going about moving forward with licensing and regulation as the state works through this hiccup.
"What [Sen. Henry] wants to investigate is to remove the threat of criminal prosecution of state workers through a federal law that provides immunity to any duly authorized officer of a state or local government who is lawfully engaged in the enforcement of any law ordinance relating to controlled substances... Now that law typically would apply to law enforcement officers that take control of, or take possession of, controlled substance during an investigation, so she’s going to see if there’s something within that law that can be utilized that will allow us to proceed forward without any prosecution," said Secretary Landgraf. "The other thing that she and I also discussed is that the federal government does allow for research purposes medical marijuana... Could we expand that federal law to allow dispensaries and individuals with extreme illnesses to still have access?"
Before the fed drama, the governor's recommended FY 2013 budget allocated four full-time employees and $480,000 to get the medical marijuana program going.
Meantime, according to the original timeline, regulations are supposed to be drafted and put out for public comment by April 1, 2012.
What happened?
DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf says Gov. Jack Markell had no choice but to suspend the regulatory and licensing process.
The move came after the federal government changed its stance on medical marijuana. According to Landgraf, state lawmakers based Delaware's medical marijuana law on the U.S. Dept. of Justice's October 2009 medical marijuana policy.
"Even though it didn’t permit states to actually cultivate or distribute medical marijuana, it kind of left it in the states’ hands in a way that was non-threatening that states would be prosecuted," said DHSS Secretary Rita Landgraf. "Then... we heard that the guidance was shifting."
A shift last summer that prompted the state to ask for guidance and an opinion on the Dept. of Justice's stance from U.S. Attorney Charles Oberly. In his letter to the state, he wrote, “State employees who conduct activities mandated by the Delaware Medical Marijuana Act are not immune from liability under the Controlled Substances Act.”
Other states have medical marijuana laws on their books, but Secretary Landgraf says because Delaware's dispensaries weren't operational yet and regulations hadn't been drafted, that actually put Delaware at more risk for prosecution and criminal charges.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
ARTICLE: Equal Protection clause of the U S Constitution
theskunk.org
If one prominent attorney is right about the legal ramifications of the District of Columbia's marijuana law -- specifically, that it was approved by the U.S. Congress -- then it could be a game-changer nationwide.
D.C.'s medical marijuana law was the first time that the United States Congress had ever given its explicit assent to any state or local law that permits the medicinal use of marijuana -- and, according to a California attorney who specializes in health care compliance, that is enormously significant under the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
In 2009, noting that it was "allowing" the voters of Washington, D.C., to vote on and implement that city's Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment law, Congress approved medicinal cannabis in the federal District of Columbia, over which it has all governmental power.
Pappas Law Group
Matthew Pappas: "Congress has turned over the area of medical marijuana to state and local governments"
On December 2, 2011, in anticipation of the opening of medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers, the District's mayor released final rules for the program. Last month, the D.C. Council compromised on medical marijuana cultivation centers, a compromise agreement that limited the number of centers in each ward to six. The District of Columbia's medical marijuana program is now being implemented.
"States with medical marijuana programs should now be free from federal interference since Congress has allowed local control," attorney Matthew Pappas at Pappas Law Group, based in Long Beach, California, told Toke of the Town Monday afternoon. "Congress being the legislative branch of the federal sovereign and the only body that can change these laws has now done so by recognizing the voting rights of Washington, D.C., citizens."
Likewise, Californians and citizens of the 15 other states which have legalized medicinal cannabis are equally protected and have the same voting rights in respect to medical marijuana, according to Pappas Law Group.
"Congress has turned over the area of medical marijuana to state and local governments," said Pappas, speaking for the disabled plaintiffs in the California case Marla James v. the Cities of Costa Mesa and Lake Forest. "Through Congress's duty to equally protect everyone under the law, all patients in states with medical marijuana laws operating in full compliance with those laws should not, from now forward, be subject to previous long standing federal marijuana prohibitions."
"They're not going to be subject to the CSA [Controlled Substances Act]," Pappas confirmed to Toke of the Town in a telephone conversation. "In our country, when one group of voters has been given the right to vote on something, other voters, likewise, have the right to do so -- in this case, approve medical marijuana."
"In states where voters have not voted on it, for instance Nebraska, of course it's not going to be legal there," Pappas told us. "But patients and medical marijuana centers operating in full compliance with state laws -- through equal protection -- are not going to be subject to federal prohibition."
"Our traction in the courts is very strong on this issue," Pappas told us. "I'm very positive that at some point we're going to have a decision from the courts."
Pappas, who earned his J.D. from Western State University and was admitted to practice law in the State of California in 1994, is a member of the federal bars for the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the Central District of California, the Northern District of California, and the Southern District of California.
Focused in the area of health care regulatory compliance, he developed compliance systems for large health care providers including University Medical Center Southern Nevada, UNR Medical School, Pharmerica, Children's Hospital of Ohio, Banner Health System, and Molina Healthcare.
For more information, contact Sergio Sandoval, director of public relations at Pappas Law Group.
If one prominent attorney is right about the legal ramifications of the District of Columbia's marijuana law -- specifically, that it was approved by the U.S. Congress -- then it could be a game-changer nationwide.
D.C.'s medical marijuana law was the first time that the United States Congress had ever given its explicit assent to any state or local law that permits the medicinal use of marijuana -- and, according to a California attorney who specializes in health care compliance, that is enormously significant under the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
In 2009, noting that it was "allowing" the voters of Washington, D.C., to vote on and implement that city's Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment law, Congress approved medicinal cannabis in the federal District of Columbia, over which it has all governmental power.
Pappas Law Group
Matthew Pappas: "Congress has turned over the area of medical marijuana to state and local governments"
On December 2, 2011, in anticipation of the opening of medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers, the District's mayor released final rules for the program. Last month, the D.C. Council compromised on medical marijuana cultivation centers, a compromise agreement that limited the number of centers in each ward to six. The District of Columbia's medical marijuana program is now being implemented.
"States with medical marijuana programs should now be free from federal interference since Congress has allowed local control," attorney Matthew Pappas at Pappas Law Group, based in Long Beach, California, told Toke of the Town Monday afternoon. "Congress being the legislative branch of the federal sovereign and the only body that can change these laws has now done so by recognizing the voting rights of Washington, D.C., citizens."
Likewise, Californians and citizens of the 15 other states which have legalized medicinal cannabis are equally protected and have the same voting rights in respect to medical marijuana, according to Pappas Law Group.
"Congress has turned over the area of medical marijuana to state and local governments," said Pappas, speaking for the disabled plaintiffs in the California case Marla James v. the Cities of Costa Mesa and Lake Forest. "Through Congress's duty to equally protect everyone under the law, all patients in states with medical marijuana laws operating in full compliance with those laws should not, from now forward, be subject to previous long standing federal marijuana prohibitions."
"They're not going to be subject to the CSA [Controlled Substances Act]," Pappas confirmed to Toke of the Town in a telephone conversation. "In our country, when one group of voters has been given the right to vote on something, other voters, likewise, have the right to do so -- in this case, approve medical marijuana."
"In states where voters have not voted on it, for instance Nebraska, of course it's not going to be legal there," Pappas told us. "But patients and medical marijuana centers operating in full compliance with state laws -- through equal protection -- are not going to be subject to federal prohibition."
"Our traction in the courts is very strong on this issue," Pappas told us. "I'm very positive that at some point we're going to have a decision from the courts."
Pappas, who earned his J.D. from Western State University and was admitted to practice law in the State of California in 1994, is a member of the federal bars for the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the Central District of California, the Northern District of California, and the Southern District of California.
Focused in the area of health care regulatory compliance, he developed compliance systems for large health care providers including University Medical Center Southern Nevada, UNR Medical School, Pharmerica, Children's Hospital of Ohio, Banner Health System, and Molina Healthcare.
For more information, contact Sergio Sandoval, director of public relations at Pappas Law Group.
ARTICLE: Henry urges Markell to resume medical marijuana program
Chad Livengood
Feb 16, 2012
Nearly a week after Gov. Jack Markell put the brakes on implementing Delaware’s medical marijuana law, the sponsor of the legislation is urging him to reconsider.
In a statement released Thursday afternoon, state Sen. Margaret Rose Henry said the regulation-writing and licensing of dispensaries should continue, despite veiled threats of prosecution against state workers by U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III.
“I urge the Governor to allow the regulatory process to continue while the discussion continues in search of a solution to what has become a national issue,” Henry said.
Late last Friday, Markell and Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf decided to halt implementation of the nine-month-old law, which decriminalized the cultivation, distribution, sale and possession of marijuana for limited medicinal purposes.
“In light of this guidance and recent federal enforcement actions in other medical marijuana states, the Governor and I are not comfortable proceeding with state regulation and licensure of medical marijuana compassion centers that appear to be a federal prosecution priority,” Landgraf wrote Saturday in a letter to Henry and state Rep. Helene Keeley.
Henry sponsored Senate Bill 17, the medical marijuana law, and Keeley was the prime House co-sponsor.
Markell has said he would not put state employees charged with regulating medical marijuana dispensaries in legal jeopardy of federal prosecution.
“Those employees, by undertaking the duties required by the Medical Marijuana Act, may be exposing themselves to federal prosecution as persons involved in or knowingly facilitating marijuana distribution,” Landgraf wrote.
The governor’s office blamed its decision to stop implementing the law on a recent change in attitude toward state marijuana laws by President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice.
Terminally ill Delawareans who had hoped to get marijuana legally have criticized Markell this week for so quickly caving to Oberly’s opinion that state workers and dispensary operators could face prosecution under federal drug and money laundering laws.
Here is Henry’s entire statement:
While implementation of Delaware’s medical marijuana law has been suspended by the Governor, I can appreciate his concern for State employees although I am not convinced of the underlying legal issue. I believe it would be unfair to put state employees at risk of prosecution on federal drug charges for providing chronically ill Delawareans with the help they need to ease their suffering. At the same time, it is time to respond to the needs of Delaware patients.
I urge the Governor to allow the regulatory process to continue while the discussion continues in search of a solution to what has become a national issue. Delaware did not act alone, there are several states with operational medical marijuana programs that have not experienced Federal intervention.
This is a challenging issue. States are responding to patients who are looking for relief from a failed Federal system that refuses to recognize and respond to the emerging body of evidence that supports legitimate medical use of marijuana. While marijuana has been illegal for any use, it is no different than other medical tools such as morphine – an opiate derivative. At one time, all opiate use was illegal. Over time, the medical application became apparent and the government responded by approving the medical use of some forms of opiates while maintaining as illegal the use of others. It was a very common sense approach.
Delaware and other states have taken action to provide their citizens with a way to access this needed medicinal use of marijuana. This is an issue that needs national attention and I will communicate this to the Obama administration.
The new Delaware law is organized as a tightly regulated system of growing and distributing marijuana for several reasons. First and foremost, the legislature wanted to provide for the safety of patients from several perspectives. The Delaware model requires the marijuana would have been grown in secured facilities. In addition, security was mandated for compassion centers that would have made patients or their caregivers feel safe – the same as patients feel when obtaining other medicinal therapies.
The Delaware program used what has been learned from the mistakes of other states to develop one of the nation’s most restrictive medical marijuana laws.
In the meantime, I will explore all the options that are open to us to ensure that people who need medical marijuana to alleviate their pain and suffering may receive the medication they need as safely as possible and without fear of criminal prosecution and act on those which meet those key tests.
Feb 16, 2012
Nearly a week after Gov. Jack Markell put the brakes on implementing Delaware’s medical marijuana law, the sponsor of the legislation is urging him to reconsider.
In a statement released Thursday afternoon, state Sen. Margaret Rose Henry said the regulation-writing and licensing of dispensaries should continue, despite veiled threats of prosecution against state workers by U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III.
“I urge the Governor to allow the regulatory process to continue while the discussion continues in search of a solution to what has become a national issue,” Henry said.
Late last Friday, Markell and Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf decided to halt implementation of the nine-month-old law, which decriminalized the cultivation, distribution, sale and possession of marijuana for limited medicinal purposes.
“In light of this guidance and recent federal enforcement actions in other medical marijuana states, the Governor and I are not comfortable proceeding with state regulation and licensure of medical marijuana compassion centers that appear to be a federal prosecution priority,” Landgraf wrote Saturday in a letter to Henry and state Rep. Helene Keeley.
Henry sponsored Senate Bill 17, the medical marijuana law, and Keeley was the prime House co-sponsor.
Markell has said he would not put state employees charged with regulating medical marijuana dispensaries in legal jeopardy of federal prosecution.
“Those employees, by undertaking the duties required by the Medical Marijuana Act, may be exposing themselves to federal prosecution as persons involved in or knowingly facilitating marijuana distribution,” Landgraf wrote.
The governor’s office blamed its decision to stop implementing the law on a recent change in attitude toward state marijuana laws by President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice.
Terminally ill Delawareans who had hoped to get marijuana legally have criticized Markell this week for so quickly caving to Oberly’s opinion that state workers and dispensary operators could face prosecution under federal drug and money laundering laws.
Here is Henry’s entire statement:
While implementation of Delaware’s medical marijuana law has been suspended by the Governor, I can appreciate his concern for State employees although I am not convinced of the underlying legal issue. I believe it would be unfair to put state employees at risk of prosecution on federal drug charges for providing chronically ill Delawareans with the help they need to ease their suffering. At the same time, it is time to respond to the needs of Delaware patients.
I urge the Governor to allow the regulatory process to continue while the discussion continues in search of a solution to what has become a national issue. Delaware did not act alone, there are several states with operational medical marijuana programs that have not experienced Federal intervention.
This is a challenging issue. States are responding to patients who are looking for relief from a failed Federal system that refuses to recognize and respond to the emerging body of evidence that supports legitimate medical use of marijuana. While marijuana has been illegal for any use, it is no different than other medical tools such as morphine – an opiate derivative. At one time, all opiate use was illegal. Over time, the medical application became apparent and the government responded by approving the medical use of some forms of opiates while maintaining as illegal the use of others. It was a very common sense approach.
Delaware and other states have taken action to provide their citizens with a way to access this needed medicinal use of marijuana. This is an issue that needs national attention and I will communicate this to the Obama administration.
The new Delaware law is organized as a tightly regulated system of growing and distributing marijuana for several reasons. First and foremost, the legislature wanted to provide for the safety of patients from several perspectives. The Delaware model requires the marijuana would have been grown in secured facilities. In addition, security was mandated for compassion centers that would have made patients or their caregivers feel safe – the same as patients feel when obtaining other medicinal therapies.
The Delaware program used what has been learned from the mistakes of other states to develop one of the nation’s most restrictive medical marijuana laws.
In the meantime, I will explore all the options that are open to us to ensure that people who need medical marijuana to alleviate their pain and suffering may receive the medication they need as safely as possible and without fear of criminal prosecution and act on those which meet those key tests.
ARTICLE: Obama's war on pot
Politics: Obama's War on Pot
BY TIM DICKINSON
FEBRUARY 16, 2012 | 9:55AM
Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. "I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration's high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multi-agency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush's record for medical-marijuana busts. "There's no question that Obama's the worst president on medical marijuana," says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "He's gone from first to worst."
The federal crackdown imperils the medical care of the estimated 730,000 patients nationwide – many of them seriously ill or dying – who rely on state-sanctioned marijuana recommended by their doctors. In addition, drug experts warn, the White House's war on law-abiding providers of medical marijuana will only drum up business for real criminals. "The administration is going after legal dispensaries and state and local authorities in ways that are going to push this stuff back underground again," says Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a former Republican senator who has urged the DEA to legalize medical marijuana, pulls no punches in describing the state of affairs produced by Obama's efforts to circumvent state law: "Utter chaos."
In its first two years, the Obama administration took a refreshingly sane approach to medical marijuana. Shortly after Obama took office, a senior drug-enforcement official pledged to Rolling Stone that the question of whether marijuana is medicine would now be determined by science, "not ideology." In March 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder emphasized that the Justice Department would only target medical-marijuana providers "who violate both federal and state law." The next morning, a headline in The New York Times read OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO STOP RAIDS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSERS. While all forms of marijuana would remain strictly illegal under federal law – the DEA ranks cannabis as a Schedule I drug, on par with heroin – the feds would respect state protections for providers of medical pot. Framing the Obama administration's new approach, drug czar Gil Kerlikowske famously declared, "We're not at war with people in this country."
That original hands-off policy was codified in a Justice Department memo written in October 2009 by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. The so-called "Ogden memo" advised federal law-enforcement officials that the "rational use of its limited investigative and prosecutorial resources" meant that medical-marijuana patients and their "caregivers" who operate in "clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law" could be left alone.
At the same time, Ogden was concerned that the feds not "be made a fool of" by illegal drug traffickers. In that vein, his memo advised U.S. attorneys to focus on going after pot dispensaries that posed as medicinal but were actively engaged in criminal acts, such as selling to minors, possession of illegal firearms or money-laundering. The idea, as Holder put it, was to raid only those hardcore traffickers who "use medical-marijuana laws as a shield."
The Ogden memo sent a clear message to the states: The feds will only intervene if you allow pot dispensaries to operate as a front for criminal activity. States from New Mexico to Maine moved quickly to license and regulate dispensaries through their state health departments – giving medical marijuana unprecedented legitimacy. In California, which had allowed "caregivers" to operate dispensaries, medical pot blossomed into a $1.3 billion enterprise – shielded from federal blowback by the Ogden memo.
The administration's recognition of medical cannabis reached its high-water mark in July 2010, when the Department of Veterans Affairs validated it as a legitimate course of treatment for soldiers returning from the front lines. But it didn't take long for the fragile federal detente to begin to collapse. The reversal began at the Drug Enforcement Agency with Michele Leonhart, a holdover from the Bush administration who was renominated by Obama to head the DEA. An anti-medical-marijuana hard-liner, Leonhart had been rebuked in 2008 by House Judiciary chairman John Conyers for targeting dispensaries with tactics "typically reserved for the worst drug traffickers and kingpins." Her views on the larger drug war are so perverse, in fact, that last year she cited the slaughter of nearly 1,000 Mexican children by the drug cartels as a counterintuitive "sign of success in the fight against drugs."
In January 2011, weeks after Leonhart was confirmed, her agency updated a paper called "The DEA Position on Marijuana." With subject headings like THE FALLACY OF MARIJUANA FOR MEDICINAL USE and SMOKED MARIJUANA IS NOT MEDICINE, the paper simply regurgitated the Bush administration's ideological stance, in an attempt to walk back the Ogden memo. Sounding like Glenn Beck, the DEA even blamed "George Soros" and "a few billionaires, not broad grassroots support" for sustaining the medical-marijuana movement – even though polls show that 70 percent of Americans approve of medical pot.
Almost immediately, federal prosecutors went on the attack. Their first target: the city of Oakland, where local officials had moved to raise millions in taxes by licensing high-tech indoor facilities for growing medical marijuana. A month after the DEA issued its hard-line position, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag warned the city that the feds were weighing "criminal prosecution" against the proposed pot operations. Abandoning the Ogden memo's protections for state-sanctioned "caregivers," Haag effectively re-declared war on medical pot. "We will enforce the Controlled Substances Act vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana," she wrote, "even if such activities are permitted under state law." Haag's warning shot had the desired effect: Oakland quickly scuttled its plans, even though the taxes provided by the indoor grows could have single-handedly wiped out the city's $31 million deficit.
Two months later, federal prosecutors in Washington state went even further, threatening state employees responsible for implementing new regulations for pot dispensaries. U.S. attorneys sent a letter to Gov. Christine Gregoire, warning that state employees "would not be immune from liability under the Controlled Substances Act." Shocked by the threat – "It subjected Washington state employees to felony criminal prosecution!" – Gregoire vetoed the new rules. A similar federal threat in Rhode Island forced Chafee to follow suit, putting an indefinite hold on the planned opening of three state-licensed "compassion centers" to distribute marijuana to seriously ill patients.
In isolation, such moves might be seen as the work of overzealous U.S. attorneys, who operate with considerable autonomy. But last June, the Justice Department effectively declared that it was returning to the Bush administration's hard-line stance on medical marijuana. James Cole, who had replaced Ogden as deputy attorney general, wrote a memo revoking his predecessor's deference to states on the definition of "caregiver." The term, Cole insisted, applied only to "individuals providing care to individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses, not commercial operations cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana." Pot dispensaries, in short, were once again prime federal targets, even if they were following state law to the letter. "The Cole memo basically adopted the Bush policy," says Kampia, "which was only that the Justice Department will not go after individual patients."
In reality, however, the Obama administration has also put patients in the cross hairs. Last September, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms moved to deprive Americans who use medical marijuana of their gun rights. In an open letter to gun sellers, the ATF warned that it is unlawful to sell "any firearm or ammunition" to "any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her state has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use for me dicinal purposes." If your doctor advises you to use medicinal pot, in other words, you can no longer legally own a gun. Hunting advocates were outraged. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, wrote a furious letter calling on the Justice Department to reassess its "chilling" policy, declaring it "unacceptable that law-abiding citizens would be stripped of their Second Amendment rights."
Since the federal crackdown began last year, the DEA has raided dozens of medical-cannabis dispensaries from Michigan to Montana. Haag, the U.S. attorney for Northern California, claims the federal action is necessary because the state's legalized pot dispensaries have been "hijacked by profiteers" who are nothing more than criminals.
It's true that California has no shortage of illegal pot dealers. Nonmedical marijuana is the state's largest cash crop, raking in an estimated $14 billion a year. And demand is growing, in part because former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger thwarted a ballot measure aimed at full legalization in 2010 by removing criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of pot. But instead of focusing limited federal resources on off-the-grid growers in places like Humboldt County, who are often armed and violent, Haag targeted Matthew Cohen, a medical-marijuana farmer in Mendocino who was growing 99 plants under the direct supervision of the county sheriff. As part of a pioneering collaboration with local law enforcement, Cohen marked each of his plants with county-supplied tags, had his secured facility inspected and distributed the mari-juana he grew directly to patients in his nonprofit collective.
Cohen appeared to be precisely the kind of caregiver that the Ogden memo advised should be given safe harbor for operating in "clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law." But last October, DEA agents stormed Cohen's farm in the middle of the night and cut down his crop. Sheriff Tom Allman, who learned of the raid on his turf only an hour before it was executed, was outraged. "Matt Cohen was not in violation of any state or local ordinances when federal agents arrived at his location," Allman says. In January, Haag took the fight to the next level, threatening county officials like Allman with federal sanctions. Three weeks later, county supervisors voted to abandon the program to license and monitor Mendocino's legal growers. "This is a huge step backward," says Allman.
Haag's treatment of urban dispensaries has been equally ham-handed. She recently shuttered one of the oldest dispensaries in the state, a nonprofit that serves a high percentage of female patients in Marin County, which has the nation's highest rate of breast cancer. She has threatened to seize the properties that landlords rent to legal pot dispensaries. And in San Francisco, she targeted Divinity Tree, a cooperative run by a quadriplegic who himself relies on prescribed cannabis for relief from near-constant muscle spasms. At a time of high unemployment and huge budget deficits, the move killed more than a dozen jobs and deprived the state of $180,000 in annual tax revenue. In San Diego alone, the feds have shut down nearly two-thirds of the county's dispensaries. Statewide, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union estimates, the federal crackdown has destroyed some 2,500 jobs in California. It also sent street prices soaring by at least 20 percent, putting more money in the hands of actual criminals.
In addition, the federal war on medical marijuana has locked pot dispensaries out of the banking system – especially in Colorado, home to the nation's second-largest market for medicinal cannabis. Top banks – including Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America – are refusing to do business with state-licensed dispensaries, for fear of federal prosecution for money-laundering and other federal drug crimes. In a House hearing in December, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado warned Attorney General Holder that strong-arming banks will actually raise the likelihood of crime. If pot dispensaries have to work outside the normal financial system, Polis told Holder, "it makes the industry harder for the state to track, to tax, to regulate them, and in fact makes it prone to robberies, because it becomes a cash business."
The IRS has also joined in the administration's assault on pot dispensaries, seeking to deny them standard tax deductions enjoyed by all other businesses. Invoking an obscure provision of the tax code meant to trip up drug kingpins, the IRS now maintains that pot dispensaries can deduct only one expense – ironically, the cost of the marijuana itself. All other normal costs of doing business – including employee salaries and benefits, rent, equipment, electricity and water – have been denied.
The agency has used the provision to go after Harborside Health Center, one of the largest and most respected providers of medical cannabis in California. Its Oakland branch, serving 83,000 patients in conforming with state law, paid more than $1 million in city taxes last year – placing it in the top 10 percent of local businesses. "It's incredibly tightly run and very, very professional," says Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance. "But it's also big – and it may be that big is bad as far as the feds are concerned." Slapped with an IRS bill for $2.5 million in back taxes, Harborside now faces bankruptcy. "It's profoundly inaccurate to characterize us as a 'drug-trafficking' organization," says Harborside president Steve DeAngelo. "We are a nonprofit community-service organization that helps sick and suffering people get the medicine they need to be well. This is not an attempt to tax us – it's an attempt to tax us out of existence."
Supporters of medical mari-juana are baffled by Obama's abrupt about-face on the issue. Some blame the federal crackdown not on the president, but on career drug warriors determined to go after medical pot. "I don't think the federal onslaught is being driven by the highest levels of the White House," says Nadelmann. "What we need is a clear statement from the White House that federal authorities will defer to responsible local regulation."
The White House, for its part, insists that its position on medical pot has been "clear and consistent." Asked for comment, a senior administration official points out that the Ogden memo was never meant to protect "such things as large-scale, privately owned industrial marijuana cultivation centers" like the one in Oakland. But the official makes no attempt to explain why the administration has permitted a host of federal agencies to revive the Bush-era policy of targeting state-approved dispensaries. "Somewhere in the administration, a decision was made that it would be better to close down legal, regulated systems of access for patients and send them back to the street, back to criminals," says DeAngelo. "That's what's really at stake."
The administration's retreat on medical pot is certainly consistent with its broader election-year strategy of seeking to outflank Republicans on everything from free trade to offshore drilling. Obama's advisers may be betting that a tough-on-pot stance will shore up the president's support among seniors in November, as well as voters in Southern swing states like Virginia and North Carolina that are less favorable to drug reform. But the president could pay a steep price for his anti-pot crackdown this fall, particularly if it winds up alienating young voters in swing states like Colorado, where two-thirds of residents support medical mari-juana. In November, Colorado voters will likely consider a referendum to legalize all pot use for adults – and undercutting enthusiasm for the issue will only dampen turnout that could benefit the president. "Medical marijuana is twice as popular as Obama," notes Kampia. "It doesn't make any political sense."
The sharpest and most surprising rebuke to the administration has come from centrist governors who are fed up with the war on medicinal pot. In November, Gregoire and Chafee issued a bipartisan petition to the DEA, asking the agency to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug, the same as cocaine and meth – one with a recognized medicinal value, despite its high potential for abuse. "It's time to show compassion, and it's time to show common sense," says Gregoire. "We call on the federal government to end the confusion and the unsafe burden on patients."
A petition by two sitting governors is historic – but it's unlikely to shift federal policy. Last June, after a nine-year delay, the Obama administration denied a similar petition. An official at the Department of Health and Human Services left little hope for reclassification, reiterating the Bush-era position that there is "no accepted medical use for marijuana in the United States."
For law-enforcement officials who handle marijuana on the front lines, such attitudes highlight how out of touch the administration has become. "Whether you call it medical or recreational, the marijuana genie is out of the bottle, and there's no one who's going to put it back in," insists Sheriff Allman of Mendocino, whose department had been targeted by federal prosecutors for its attempts to regulate medical pot. "For federal officials who plug their ears and say, 'No, it's not true, it's not true,' I have some words for them: You need to get over it."
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This story is from the March 1, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.
BY TIM DICKINSON
FEBRUARY 16, 2012 | 9:55AM
Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. "I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration's high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multi-agency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush's record for medical-marijuana busts. "There's no question that Obama's the worst president on medical marijuana," says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "He's gone from first to worst."
The federal crackdown imperils the medical care of the estimated 730,000 patients nationwide – many of them seriously ill or dying – who rely on state-sanctioned marijuana recommended by their doctors. In addition, drug experts warn, the White House's war on law-abiding providers of medical marijuana will only drum up business for real criminals. "The administration is going after legal dispensaries and state and local authorities in ways that are going to push this stuff back underground again," says Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a former Republican senator who has urged the DEA to legalize medical marijuana, pulls no punches in describing the state of affairs produced by Obama's efforts to circumvent state law: "Utter chaos."
In its first two years, the Obama administration took a refreshingly sane approach to medical marijuana. Shortly after Obama took office, a senior drug-enforcement official pledged to Rolling Stone that the question of whether marijuana is medicine would now be determined by science, "not ideology." In March 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder emphasized that the Justice Department would only target medical-marijuana providers "who violate both federal and state law." The next morning, a headline in The New York Times read OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO STOP RAIDS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSERS. While all forms of marijuana would remain strictly illegal under federal law – the DEA ranks cannabis as a Schedule I drug, on par with heroin – the feds would respect state protections for providers of medical pot. Framing the Obama administration's new approach, drug czar Gil Kerlikowske famously declared, "We're not at war with people in this country."
That original hands-off policy was codified in a Justice Department memo written in October 2009 by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. The so-called "Ogden memo" advised federal law-enforcement officials that the "rational use of its limited investigative and prosecutorial resources" meant that medical-marijuana patients and their "caregivers" who operate in "clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law" could be left alone.
At the same time, Ogden was concerned that the feds not "be made a fool of" by illegal drug traffickers. In that vein, his memo advised U.S. attorneys to focus on going after pot dispensaries that posed as medicinal but were actively engaged in criminal acts, such as selling to minors, possession of illegal firearms or money-laundering. The idea, as Holder put it, was to raid only those hardcore traffickers who "use medical-marijuana laws as a shield."
The Ogden memo sent a clear message to the states: The feds will only intervene if you allow pot dispensaries to operate as a front for criminal activity. States from New Mexico to Maine moved quickly to license and regulate dispensaries through their state health departments – giving medical marijuana unprecedented legitimacy. In California, which had allowed "caregivers" to operate dispensaries, medical pot blossomed into a $1.3 billion enterprise – shielded from federal blowback by the Ogden memo.
The administration's recognition of medical cannabis reached its high-water mark in July 2010, when the Department of Veterans Affairs validated it as a legitimate course of treatment for soldiers returning from the front lines. But it didn't take long for the fragile federal detente to begin to collapse. The reversal began at the Drug Enforcement Agency with Michele Leonhart, a holdover from the Bush administration who was renominated by Obama to head the DEA. An anti-medical-marijuana hard-liner, Leonhart had been rebuked in 2008 by House Judiciary chairman John Conyers for targeting dispensaries with tactics "typically reserved for the worst drug traffickers and kingpins." Her views on the larger drug war are so perverse, in fact, that last year she cited the slaughter of nearly 1,000 Mexican children by the drug cartels as a counterintuitive "sign of success in the fight against drugs."
In January 2011, weeks after Leonhart was confirmed, her agency updated a paper called "The DEA Position on Marijuana." With subject headings like THE FALLACY OF MARIJUANA FOR MEDICINAL USE and SMOKED MARIJUANA IS NOT MEDICINE, the paper simply regurgitated the Bush administration's ideological stance, in an attempt to walk back the Ogden memo. Sounding like Glenn Beck, the DEA even blamed "George Soros" and "a few billionaires, not broad grassroots support" for sustaining the medical-marijuana movement – even though polls show that 70 percent of Americans approve of medical pot.
Almost immediately, federal prosecutors went on the attack. Their first target: the city of Oakland, where local officials had moved to raise millions in taxes by licensing high-tech indoor facilities for growing medical marijuana. A month after the DEA issued its hard-line position, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag warned the city that the feds were weighing "criminal prosecution" against the proposed pot operations. Abandoning the Ogden memo's protections for state-sanctioned "caregivers," Haag effectively re-declared war on medical pot. "We will enforce the Controlled Substances Act vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana," she wrote, "even if such activities are permitted under state law." Haag's warning shot had the desired effect: Oakland quickly scuttled its plans, even though the taxes provided by the indoor grows could have single-handedly wiped out the city's $31 million deficit.
Two months later, federal prosecutors in Washington state went even further, threatening state employees responsible for implementing new regulations for pot dispensaries. U.S. attorneys sent a letter to Gov. Christine Gregoire, warning that state employees "would not be immune from liability under the Controlled Substances Act." Shocked by the threat – "It subjected Washington state employees to felony criminal prosecution!" – Gregoire vetoed the new rules. A similar federal threat in Rhode Island forced Chafee to follow suit, putting an indefinite hold on the planned opening of three state-licensed "compassion centers" to distribute marijuana to seriously ill patients.
In isolation, such moves might be seen as the work of overzealous U.S. attorneys, who operate with considerable autonomy. But last June, the Justice Department effectively declared that it was returning to the Bush administration's hard-line stance on medical marijuana. James Cole, who had replaced Ogden as deputy attorney general, wrote a memo revoking his predecessor's deference to states on the definition of "caregiver." The term, Cole insisted, applied only to "individuals providing care to individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses, not commercial operations cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana." Pot dispensaries, in short, were once again prime federal targets, even if they were following state law to the letter. "The Cole memo basically adopted the Bush policy," says Kampia, "which was only that the Justice Department will not go after individual patients."
In reality, however, the Obama administration has also put patients in the cross hairs. Last September, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms moved to deprive Americans who use medical marijuana of their gun rights. In an open letter to gun sellers, the ATF warned that it is unlawful to sell "any firearm or ammunition" to "any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her state has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use for me dicinal purposes." If your doctor advises you to use medicinal pot, in other words, you can no longer legally own a gun. Hunting advocates were outraged. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, wrote a furious letter calling on the Justice Department to reassess its "chilling" policy, declaring it "unacceptable that law-abiding citizens would be stripped of their Second Amendment rights."
Since the federal crackdown began last year, the DEA has raided dozens of medical-cannabis dispensaries from Michigan to Montana. Haag, the U.S. attorney for Northern California, claims the federal action is necessary because the state's legalized pot dispensaries have been "hijacked by profiteers" who are nothing more than criminals.
It's true that California has no shortage of illegal pot dealers. Nonmedical marijuana is the state's largest cash crop, raking in an estimated $14 billion a year. And demand is growing, in part because former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger thwarted a ballot measure aimed at full legalization in 2010 by removing criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of pot. But instead of focusing limited federal resources on off-the-grid growers in places like Humboldt County, who are often armed and violent, Haag targeted Matthew Cohen, a medical-marijuana farmer in Mendocino who was growing 99 plants under the direct supervision of the county sheriff. As part of a pioneering collaboration with local law enforcement, Cohen marked each of his plants with county-supplied tags, had his secured facility inspected and distributed the mari-juana he grew directly to patients in his nonprofit collective.
Cohen appeared to be precisely the kind of caregiver that the Ogden memo advised should be given safe harbor for operating in "clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law." But last October, DEA agents stormed Cohen's farm in the middle of the night and cut down his crop. Sheriff Tom Allman, who learned of the raid on his turf only an hour before it was executed, was outraged. "Matt Cohen was not in violation of any state or local ordinances when federal agents arrived at his location," Allman says. In January, Haag took the fight to the next level, threatening county officials like Allman with federal sanctions. Three weeks later, county supervisors voted to abandon the program to license and monitor Mendocino's legal growers. "This is a huge step backward," says Allman.
Haag's treatment of urban dispensaries has been equally ham-handed. She recently shuttered one of the oldest dispensaries in the state, a nonprofit that serves a high percentage of female patients in Marin County, which has the nation's highest rate of breast cancer. She has threatened to seize the properties that landlords rent to legal pot dispensaries. And in San Francisco, she targeted Divinity Tree, a cooperative run by a quadriplegic who himself relies on prescribed cannabis for relief from near-constant muscle spasms. At a time of high unemployment and huge budget deficits, the move killed more than a dozen jobs and deprived the state of $180,000 in annual tax revenue. In San Diego alone, the feds have shut down nearly two-thirds of the county's dispensaries. Statewide, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union estimates, the federal crackdown has destroyed some 2,500 jobs in California. It also sent street prices soaring by at least 20 percent, putting more money in the hands of actual criminals.
In addition, the federal war on medical marijuana has locked pot dispensaries out of the banking system – especially in Colorado, home to the nation's second-largest market for medicinal cannabis. Top banks – including Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America – are refusing to do business with state-licensed dispensaries, for fear of federal prosecution for money-laundering and other federal drug crimes. In a House hearing in December, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado warned Attorney General Holder that strong-arming banks will actually raise the likelihood of crime. If pot dispensaries have to work outside the normal financial system, Polis told Holder, "it makes the industry harder for the state to track, to tax, to regulate them, and in fact makes it prone to robberies, because it becomes a cash business."
The IRS has also joined in the administration's assault on pot dispensaries, seeking to deny them standard tax deductions enjoyed by all other businesses. Invoking an obscure provision of the tax code meant to trip up drug kingpins, the IRS now maintains that pot dispensaries can deduct only one expense – ironically, the cost of the marijuana itself. All other normal costs of doing business – including employee salaries and benefits, rent, equipment, electricity and water – have been denied.
The agency has used the provision to go after Harborside Health Center, one of the largest and most respected providers of medical cannabis in California. Its Oakland branch, serving 83,000 patients in conforming with state law, paid more than $1 million in city taxes last year – placing it in the top 10 percent of local businesses. "It's incredibly tightly run and very, very professional," says Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance. "But it's also big – and it may be that big is bad as far as the feds are concerned." Slapped with an IRS bill for $2.5 million in back taxes, Harborside now faces bankruptcy. "It's profoundly inaccurate to characterize us as a 'drug-trafficking' organization," says Harborside president Steve DeAngelo. "We are a nonprofit community-service organization that helps sick and suffering people get the medicine they need to be well. This is not an attempt to tax us – it's an attempt to tax us out of existence."
Supporters of medical mari-juana are baffled by Obama's abrupt about-face on the issue. Some blame the federal crackdown not on the president, but on career drug warriors determined to go after medical pot. "I don't think the federal onslaught is being driven by the highest levels of the White House," says Nadelmann. "What we need is a clear statement from the White House that federal authorities will defer to responsible local regulation."
The White House, for its part, insists that its position on medical pot has been "clear and consistent." Asked for comment, a senior administration official points out that the Ogden memo was never meant to protect "such things as large-scale, privately owned industrial marijuana cultivation centers" like the one in Oakland. But the official makes no attempt to explain why the administration has permitted a host of federal agencies to revive the Bush-era policy of targeting state-approved dispensaries. "Somewhere in the administration, a decision was made that it would be better to close down legal, regulated systems of access for patients and send them back to the street, back to criminals," says DeAngelo. "That's what's really at stake."
The administration's retreat on medical pot is certainly consistent with its broader election-year strategy of seeking to outflank Republicans on everything from free trade to offshore drilling. Obama's advisers may be betting that a tough-on-pot stance will shore up the president's support among seniors in November, as well as voters in Southern swing states like Virginia and North Carolina that are less favorable to drug reform. But the president could pay a steep price for his anti-pot crackdown this fall, particularly if it winds up alienating young voters in swing states like Colorado, where two-thirds of residents support medical mari-juana. In November, Colorado voters will likely consider a referendum to legalize all pot use for adults – and undercutting enthusiasm for the issue will only dampen turnout that could benefit the president. "Medical marijuana is twice as popular as Obama," notes Kampia. "It doesn't make any political sense."
The sharpest and most surprising rebuke to the administration has come from centrist governors who are fed up with the war on medicinal pot. In November, Gregoire and Chafee issued a bipartisan petition to the DEA, asking the agency to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug, the same as cocaine and meth – one with a recognized medicinal value, despite its high potential for abuse. "It's time to show compassion, and it's time to show common sense," says Gregoire. "We call on the federal government to end the confusion and the unsafe burden on patients."
A petition by two sitting governors is historic – but it's unlikely to shift federal policy. Last June, after a nine-year delay, the Obama administration denied a similar petition. An official at the Department of Health and Human Services left little hope for reclassification, reiterating the Bush-era position that there is "no accepted medical use for marijuana in the United States."
For law-enforcement officials who handle marijuana on the front lines, such attitudes highlight how out of touch the administration has become. "Whether you call it medical or recreational, the marijuana genie is out of the bottle, and there's no one who's going to put it back in," insists Sheriff Allman of Mendocino, whose department had been targeted by federal prosecutors for its attempts to regulate medical pot. "For federal officials who plug their ears and say, 'No, it's not true, it's not true,' I have some words for them: You need to get over it."
Related
MarijuanAmerica
The Great California Weed Rush
Where Does Obama Stand on the Medical Marijuana Crackdown?
Feds Crack Down on Medical Marijuana in California
The State of Marijuana Reform in America
Marijuana By The Numbers
Barely Legal: The Politics of Pot in America
This story is from the March 1, 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
ARTICLE: Delaware Markell U-turn on medical marijuana disappoints patients
Markell U-turn on medical marijuana disappoints patients
Governor stops implementing law that legalizes, regulates use
1:13 AM, Feb. 14, 2012
Cancer patient uses marijuana to help with chemo s...: Cervical cancer patient Diane Jump illegally obtains marijuana to help with the side-effects of chemo. She says she is an advocate for its medical use, but does not like having to obtain it illegally. (2/13/12)
Written by
CHAD LIVENGOOD
and DOUG DENISON
FILED UNDER
Local
Government & Politics
Jack Markell
Cancer patient Diane Jump smokes marijuana daily to help her with side effects of chemo treatments. What she does remains illegal, after a decision by Delaware Gov. Jack Markell. / THE NEWS JOURNAL/GINGER WALL
Diane Jump's daily regimen of cervical cancer medication includes packing a small pipe with marijuana, flicking her lighter and inhaling the smoke.
The 50-year-old Pike Creek woman gets relief from the nausea and nerve pain caused by her chemotherapy treatments and other medicines.
"I don't smoke because I want to get high," Jump said. "I smoke because it works. It's the only thing that works. ... It's my medication."
Jump's elation from Delaware's legalization of medical marijuana faded Sunday after The News Journal first reported that Gov. Jack Markell has halted implementation of the nine-month-old law. The governor cited concerns that state workers could face federal prosecution for inspecting and collecting licensing fees from nonprofit medical-marijuana distribution centers.
Terminally ill Delawareans who lobbied hard for passage of the law reacted with anger and disappointment Monday to Markell's decision to abandon the regulation-writing and dispensary licensing. Delaware's law does not allow for home-growing of marijuana so possession by people like Jump remains illegal.
Some believe Markell too quickly caved under veiled threats of potential prosecution by U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III.
"Delaware has the strictest law in the country for medical marijuana and that's one reason why Governor Markell shouldn't bat an eye," said Chris McNeely, 48, of Dagsboro. "For him to even bat his eyes and not try to implement it is ridiculous. He should be fighting for us. Not stopping us."
McNeely was hoping to obtain legal marijuana to give him an appetite to treat his failing digestive system, which has degraded after years of taking opium-based painkillers for a broken neck and back injury.
"I can't take those for pain anymore because of my stomach," McNeely said.
A change in approach toward large-scale medical-marijuana growing operations by the U.S. Department of Justice caused the Democratic governor to halt the program, Markell spokesman Brian Selander said.
"The governor is not going to put state employees actively in the way of legal jeopardy," Selander said
Contact Chad Livengood at 324-2832, on Twitter @ChadLivengood or clivengood@delawareonline.com.
Contact Doug Denison at 678-4271, on Twitter @DoverDelDenison on at ddenison@delawareonline.com.
Governor stops implementing law that legalizes, regulates use
1:13 AM, Feb. 14, 2012
Cancer patient uses marijuana to help with chemo s...: Cervical cancer patient Diane Jump illegally obtains marijuana to help with the side-effects of chemo. She says she is an advocate for its medical use, but does not like having to obtain it illegally. (2/13/12)
Written by
CHAD LIVENGOOD
and DOUG DENISON
FILED UNDER
Local
Government & Politics
Jack Markell
Cancer patient Diane Jump smokes marijuana daily to help her with side effects of chemo treatments. What she does remains illegal, after a decision by Delaware Gov. Jack Markell. / THE NEWS JOURNAL/GINGER WALL
Diane Jump's daily regimen of cervical cancer medication includes packing a small pipe with marijuana, flicking her lighter and inhaling the smoke.
The 50-year-old Pike Creek woman gets relief from the nausea and nerve pain caused by her chemotherapy treatments and other medicines.
"I don't smoke because I want to get high," Jump said. "I smoke because it works. It's the only thing that works. ... It's my medication."
Jump's elation from Delaware's legalization of medical marijuana faded Sunday after The News Journal first reported that Gov. Jack Markell has halted implementation of the nine-month-old law. The governor cited concerns that state workers could face federal prosecution for inspecting and collecting licensing fees from nonprofit medical-marijuana distribution centers.
Terminally ill Delawareans who lobbied hard for passage of the law reacted with anger and disappointment Monday to Markell's decision to abandon the regulation-writing and dispensary licensing. Delaware's law does not allow for home-growing of marijuana so possession by people like Jump remains illegal.
Some believe Markell too quickly caved under veiled threats of potential prosecution by U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III.
"Delaware has the strictest law in the country for medical marijuana and that's one reason why Governor Markell shouldn't bat an eye," said Chris McNeely, 48, of Dagsboro. "For him to even bat his eyes and not try to implement it is ridiculous. He should be fighting for us. Not stopping us."
McNeely was hoping to obtain legal marijuana to give him an appetite to treat his failing digestive system, which has degraded after years of taking opium-based painkillers for a broken neck and back injury.
"I can't take those for pain anymore because of my stomach," McNeely said.
A change in approach toward large-scale medical-marijuana growing operations by the U.S. Department of Justice caused the Democratic governor to halt the program, Markell spokesman Brian Selander said.
"The governor is not going to put state employees actively in the way of legal jeopardy," Selander said
Contact Chad Livengood at 324-2832, on Twitter @ChadLivengood or clivengood@delawareonline.com.
Contact Doug Denison at 678-4271, on Twitter @DoverDelDenison on at ddenison@delawareonline.com.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
BLOG: Chemo Round 4 - Treatment #1
Feb Friday -HELEN GRAHAM 10am arrival time, Karen greeted me, Linda was there and the room was busy. I look for my favorite chair, it's occupied. I settle in go the chair by the bathroom (a strategic move) for the next four hours. All the pre-chemo festivities begin, some blood work, Benedryl and then finally part one of my blended cocktail. Everything went as usual, except now the emend is administered through the IV instead of taking it pill form. Things finished up on time, I'm wide awake and tired, I'm in pain and it's time to go home.
I climb in my bed and I stay there. .. I have to rest up for this weekend. Friday night I sleep a bit then wake up then I sleep a bit then I wake up. Pain, nausea, loss of appetite and mouth sores are what my days and nights consist of.
Sunday Feb 12, 2012~ Happy Birthday to my darling sister Darby. Huck went to work for me @ Deerfield. I gathered all of my energy, took my meds, got dressed and went to work. Its important for me to work when I am scheduled. Besides, it's Valentines Brunch! I walked around in a daze, made a few drinks, greeted and served our guest. After five hours I was exhausted and headed for home.
I landed in bed and stayed there.
Monday Feb 13, Im sick, in bed and miserable. I received word from Chad Livengood about the recent Delaware Medical Marijuana Dispensary Halt. We talked and agreed on an interview. I spoke about how and why I use medical marijuana. I spoke about the therapeutic value and pain relief it provides me. It was an emotional hour and physically draining. I needed to go back to bed but instead I went to see my darling Maddox. Seeing the beautiful baby takes away the pain if only for a little while. I came home and spent the night in bed.
Valentines Day 2012 I'm so so sick, I miss walking Elle in the morning and I hurt. I receive a message in the morning of the News Journal article. I read it while in bed. I hope that it presents well. I hope it views well. I hope the Fed Gov and Delaware find the answers that allow medical marijuana as an option to patients who receive therapeutic and palliative benefits from it.
FEB 15, 2012~ as difficult this day is..and as much as I want to go back to bed, I refuse! I got up today, did my morning meds, grabbed a shower, drank a fresh fruit smoothie and went to visit Maddox. There is nothing that makes me feel better than holding him. I spent the day with Katie, Marie, & Maddox. Just laying on the couch in the same room with him makes my day better. We had lunch and took a nap together. I got to see Mike & Rob before I came home. I walked Elle and landed in bed about 7pm. I am trying to rest, take care of myself. The side effects from this round of chemo are hard. My head aches, it is so sensitive to light, sound. My hair hurts, my skin hurts, my body hurts. I have this sort of vibrating pain that makes me so nauseous. It's inside me, in my back, in my butt, down my legs. I am taking my meds and smoking to help with pain, nausea and eating. I'm hoping this all fades away and I can get back to normal.
I climb in my bed and I stay there. .. I have to rest up for this weekend. Friday night I sleep a bit then wake up then I sleep a bit then I wake up. Pain, nausea, loss of appetite and mouth sores are what my days and nights consist of.
Sunday Feb 12, 2012~ Happy Birthday to my darling sister Darby. Huck went to work for me @ Deerfield. I gathered all of my energy, took my meds, got dressed and went to work. Its important for me to work when I am scheduled. Besides, it's Valentines Brunch! I walked around in a daze, made a few drinks, greeted and served our guest. After five hours I was exhausted and headed for home.
I landed in bed and stayed there.
Monday Feb 13, Im sick, in bed and miserable. I received word from Chad Livengood about the recent Delaware Medical Marijuana Dispensary Halt. We talked and agreed on an interview. I spoke about how and why I use medical marijuana. I spoke about the therapeutic value and pain relief it provides me. It was an emotional hour and physically draining. I needed to go back to bed but instead I went to see my darling Maddox. Seeing the beautiful baby takes away the pain if only for a little while. I came home and spent the night in bed.
Valentines Day 2012 I'm so so sick, I miss walking Elle in the morning and I hurt. I receive a message in the morning of the News Journal article. I read it while in bed. I hope that it presents well. I hope it views well. I hope the Fed Gov and Delaware find the answers that allow medical marijuana as an option to patients who receive therapeutic and palliative benefits from it.
FEB 15, 2012~ as difficult this day is..and as much as I want to go back to bed, I refuse! I got up today, did my morning meds, grabbed a shower, drank a fresh fruit smoothie and went to visit Maddox. There is nothing that makes me feel better than holding him. I spent the day with Katie, Marie, & Maddox. Just laying on the couch in the same room with him makes my day better. We had lunch and took a nap together. I got to see Mike & Rob before I came home. I walked Elle and landed in bed about 7pm. I am trying to rest, take care of myself. The side effects from this round of chemo are hard. My head aches, it is so sensitive to light, sound. My hair hurts, my skin hurts, my body hurts. I have this sort of vibrating pain that makes me so nauseous. It's inside me, in my back, in my butt, down my legs. I am taking my meds and smoking to help with pain, nausea and eating. I'm hoping this all fades away and I can get back to normal.
Medical Marijuana Bills introduced in Maryland
A pair of bills were introduced yesterday in the Maryland House and Senate that would allow patients with certain qualifying conditions to use medical marijuana with doctors’ recommendations. The bills, HB 1024 and HB 1148, are based on the recommendations of a study panel created by the legislature in 2011 and were introduced in the House by Del. Dan Morhaim. Senator Jamie Raskin is expected to sponsor similar legislation in the Senate. One version of the legislation, championed by state legislators on the work group, allows doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients who could then purchase it from licensed dispensaries, all of which would be overseen by an independent commission. The second version, put forward by Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Joshua Sharfstein, tasks academic institutions with distribution of marijuana. Both bills would protect licensed patients from arrest and prosecution. Currently, patients are only afforded an affirmative defense in court, but are still subject to arrest even if they’re subsequently able to demonstrate medical necessity.
Del. Cheryl Glenn has already introduced another medical marijuana bill that would allow patients to cultivate limited amounts of marijuana, in addition to establishing a dispensary system. Both work group models would restrict cultivation to state-registered growers.
"There are some differences in these two plans when it comes to how medical marijuana is cultivated and distributed, but the bottom line is that both reports support changes to the status quo,” said Del. Morhaim, the only physician in the Maryland House. “Physicians, law enforcement officials, academics, and DHMH officials – we all agree that something needs to be done. Remember that the charge of the work group from the Governor and the Legislature was to "facilitate patient access to marijuana for medical purposes.” It's now our job as legislators to look at these proposals and enact workable solutions that for many patients can dramatically improve their quality of life."
Senate sponsor Jamie Raskin echoed Morhaim’s stance. "Last session the General Assembly decided that it is not a crime for very ill people in the State of Maryland to use marijuana for palliative purposes in accordance with medical advice,” Raskin said. “What we left open was how such people can safely and legally access the drug. I'm determined that this session we come up with an effective mechanism for making medical marijuana available for the sick and suffering Marylanders who need it."
If any of the bills pass, Maryland would become the 17th state, along with the District of Columbia, to allow seriously ill people to treat their conditions with medical marijuana. There are 17 other states considering similar legislation this year. A recent Gonzales Research poll showed that 64% of Marylanders support allowing medical marijuana in their state.
The Marijuana Policy Project, the largest marijuana-policy-reform organization in the United States, is responsible for changing most state-level marijuana laws since 2000. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The National Patients Rights Association (also known as NPRA), a new medical marijuana alliance,
The National Patients Rights Association (also known as NPRA), a new medical marijuana alliance, has been established by several major medical marijuana supporters all over the United States in order to protect the rights of patients. NPRA will persuade local governments, prosecutors, and legislators to completely respect voters’ decision that passed laws to make medical marijuana legal in the capital of the United States, as well as in 16 different states. Michigan, whose MMMA (Michigan Medical marijuana Act) passed by almost 63% (approximately two-thirds) in 2008, will be one of the primary states aimed at the efforts of NPRA.
The National Patients Rights Association is supported by patients, businesses, caregivers, and several other advocates. As a group, the alliance will operate in order to widen awareness, get in touch with legislators in an intended way, and aid mobilize caregivers and patients who are involved in such laws. The alliance’s primary goal is an urge towards definitive law when it comes to standardization – including security and storage necessities, privacy, document management conditions, and general industry procedures and standards.
As said by the National Patients Rights Association, Bill Schuette, Michigan’s Attorney General, shouldn’t undermine or circumvent state regulations for personal principles and need to respect Michigan voters’ preference by helping make medical marijuana law’s implementation clearer for every affected groups.
The National Patients Rights Association is supported by patients, businesses, caregivers, and several other advocates. As a group, the alliance will operate in order to widen awareness, get in touch with legislators in an intended way, and aid mobilize caregivers and patients who are involved in such laws. The alliance’s primary goal is an urge towards definitive law when it comes to standardization – including security and storage necessities, privacy, document management conditions, and general industry procedures and standards.
As said by the National Patients Rights Association, Bill Schuette, Michigan’s Attorney General, shouldn’t undermine or circumvent state regulations for personal principles and need to respect Michigan voters’ preference by helping make medical marijuana law’s implementation clearer for every affected groups.
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