Thursday, July 26, 2012

ARTICLE: Marijuana Proponents Hold Their Breath on Medical Pot and Legalization

July 25, 2012
By Tara Nurin, NJSpotlight.com

After years of bureaucratic delays, the first medical marijuana dispensary could open its doors in the Garden State within a month

As New Jerseyans wait to learn whether the state Senate will follow its peers in the Assembly to pass a bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, the first medical marijuana dispensary within New Jersey's borders may be little more than a month away from opening. More than two years after former Gov. Jon Corzine signed the bill legalizing medical pot, the Greenleaf Compassion Center is preparing to open in Montclair in early September and is already growing the maximum three strains of grass in preparation for opening day.

“Being a funeral director for 15 years, I would hear from families whose loved one had been dying over time and used marijuana for relief. But they all felt like criminals,” said Joe Stevens, Greenleaf’s president and CEO. “It gave their loved one quality of life at the end rather than being on morphine, which would put them in a drug-induced coma, unable to have dinner with the family or talk with their loved ones.”

After years of bureaucratic delays that compelled pro-pot Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Trenton) to call for legislative hearings with Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, Greenleaf is the first of six non-profit organizations to receive permission from the Department of Health to begin growing marijuana to sell at its dispensary. Once Stevens finalizes his security systems, ensures his employees pass mandatory drug tests and background checks, and completes construction on his retail facility, which will have an atmosphere he likens to a comfortable medical clinic, he’ll be ready to invite in the state for final licensing.

Despite this, Stevens fears he’ll be missing one critical component when he opens his doors: customers.

Behind Schedule

The department is two years behind schedule to take its online patient registry live, and though it’s registered 140 physicians so far, a department spokesperson says it will be another month before debilitatingly sick patients can begin to obtain clearance through a process that requires them to procure an official recommendation from a participating doctor, then apply for an ID card and pay the two-year registration fee -- $200 each for patients plus $200 more for their registered caregivers, or $20 per person for those who prove financial hardship. The ongoing delays trouble the program’s advocates.

“The patients are very disappointed,” said Roseanne Scotti, New Jersey State Director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), a national lobbying organization dedicated to reforming drug policy. “They worked for years to get this passed so they would have legal access and still they’re continuing to put themselves at risk by going to the black market.”

An Uncertain Future

Stevens says the Compassionate Care Medicinal Marijuana Program (MMP) -- which faced an uncertain future when Gov. Christie took office and considered canceling it before it began -- finally picked up momentum in November when the health department hired a director to oversee it. Director John O’Brien, a retired state police lieutenant, explained the challenges facing his nascent program this way in an email: “The Department built a brand-new program from the ground up and the long-term success of this program depends on carefully taking our first steps and seriously considering the complex issues that are involved. Secure systems are needed to grow, package, test, inspect, transport, dispense, and dispose of a substance that is considered a Schedule 1 drug under federal law.”

While O’Brien and his staff attend to lingering details, five additional state-approved alternative treatment centers (ATC’s) lag behind Greenleaf: Compassionate Care Foundation Inc. has secured a location in Egg Harbor Township but the other four, which will be spread evenly throughout the northern, central, and southern parts of the state, have encountered tough resistance from communities formally and informally approached for siting. Upper Freehold Township denied approval to one applicant then, as an added measure, passed an ordinance prohibiting facilities that violate federal law. (Although medicinal marijuana is illegal at the national level, President Obama has directed the Justice Department not to prosecute reputable dispensaries.) Zoning boards in Maple Shade and Camden denied applications from other ATC’s and Mt. Laurel’s municipal council tabled a vote in June to study the issue. As municipalities weigh the costs and benefits of housing what some consider a stigmatized business, the state’s populace has weighed in on medical marijuana, and the scales tip heavily in its favor. Several newspapers have positively editorialized about MMP and a Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics poll conducted last November found that 86 percent of respondents support these types of programs.

Part of the public’s backing may stem from the fact that New Jersey’s program -- the 19th in the U.S. -- is considered the strictest in the country. Background checks for operators are the same as those for entrepreneurs seeking a gaming license: they take approximately four months and delve into more than 25 years’ worth of legal records, bank statements, tax returns, and personal and professional relationships. When it comes to patients, New Jersey maintains a narrow list of qualifying diseases and unlike many states does not certify patients claiming chronic pain or anxiety as the basis for their need. Patients must maintain an ongoing relationship with their recommending doctor; they can’t smoke on-premise or buy the drug baked into food or smell or otherwise use their senses to evaluate the products; and they can select from only three strains of pot at each dispensary, with none containing a THC level higher than ten percent.

The DPA considers this a “moderate” strength that’s lower than the average 12 percent to 15 percent allowed elsewhere.

“Why the arbitrary cap?” wonders Scotti. “If it doesn’t work at that level people will go to the black market. And it won’t stop anyone from getting a higher level of THC from smoking more, thus causing them to use more, which will cost them more money, and they could more quickly reach their monthly limit of two ounces.”

Stevens says in trying to imbue his program with as much legitimacy as possible, he’s structuring his clinic to provide an experience that will in some ways -- but not others -- resemble a visit to the doctor.

“First you swipe your card to get in and show two forms of ID to the security guard,” he said. “You inform the receptionist you’re there and wait in the lobby while you fill out paperwork. When it’s your turn, you’ll get called to the back, passing through two locked doors, where you’ll reach the dispensing area.” Once in the dispensing room, patients and their caregivers -- the only members of the public allowed to enter the facilities other than doctors – consult with an attendant to discuss the efficacy of their treatment plan and then receive pre-filled prescription bottles to take home.



Saturday, July 14, 2012

Info: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES FINALIZES ID CARD REGULATIONS



The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services has finalized regulations for the medical marijuana program and has begun accepting applications for the medical marijuana ID cards. Visit the medical marijuana program's website or call them at (302) 744-4749 to receive application forms. MPP submitted comments on the draft regulations advocating on behalf of patients and potential providers in the First State. Some, but not all, of our recommendations were reflected in the final regulations.

Although we are disappointed that the draft regulations do not contain specific rules for the dispensary program, it is encouraging that the department left space in the regulations for them to be drafted in the future, considering that Gov. Jack Markell (D) has suspended implementation of the state’s dispensary program in light of a letter he received from United States Attorney for Delaware, Charles M. Oberly, III. The letter details enforcement action that the federal government could take against those who comply with the state’s new medical marijuana law. Please email the governor today, and ask that he rethink and reverse this decision by implementing state laws to protect seriously and terminally ill Delawareans instead of enforcing the cruel federal policy.

Delaware patients still enjoy a limited affirmative defense that went into effect on July 1, 2011. If proven in court, the affirmative defense should prevent qualifying patients from being convicted for medical marijuana possession if they are abiding by the new law. It will not protect against arrests or prosecution and does not include cultivation. The defense will be consistently available to patients from now until September 15, 2012. After that date, only individuals who have submitted their application materials but have yet to hear back from the department will be allowed to claim a medical use defense. Although dispensary regulation has been placed on hold for now, you can check out our more detailed information sheet and this summary of the law.

Friday, July 6, 2012

US Government Hypocrites

BLOG: Our federal government has patented the medical utility of cannabis and still tells you it is not medicine.

As if that weren’t hypocritical enough, the US government maintains a pot farm at the University of Mississippi.

This is the one legal weed grow in America, expressly allowed under the 1961 UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs for the production of cannabis for research purposes. In 1975, a glaucoma sufferer named Robert Randall sued for the right to use marijuana, lest he go blind, and won. This decision led to the development of the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program that produced and delivered medical marijuana for Randall.

Shortly thereafter, more patients sued to get access to medical marijuana, expanding to a few more federal medical marijuana patients. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, AIDS activists began marshaling thousands of applications for HIV+ gay men who found marijuana to help combat the symptoms of their disease. So rather than expand the compassion to thousands who would have benefited, the Bush Administration in 1992 closed the program to new applicants and the Clinton Administration in 1999 declared it would not be reopened.

However, the program was not closed to the patients who had already been approved. Today there are four remaining federal medical marijuana patients who receive a tin of eight or more ounces of pre-rolled federal medical marijuana from the federal medical marijuana farm every month. But, federally speaking, there is no such thing as medical marijuana.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

ARTICLE: A win for all medical marijuana patients!

From The Colorado Independent's Scot Kersgaard:
It’s been 14 months since the police swarmed Bob Crouse‘s Colorado Springs House, confiscated his personal medical marijuana garden and brought a felony charge against him for possession with intent to distribute. Friday an El Paso County jury found the leukemia patient not guilty.
Crouse swore to his innocence all along, saying he had a fairly major grow operation only because he needed as many as 75 plants in order to ensure a steady supply of phoenix tears, which are created by boiling about a pound of marijuana at a time, turning it into about an ounce of slushy oil, which is then taken in doses of about a gram a day. Many cancer patients swear by the process, but the only way most can afford a steady supply is by growing their own.
“Buying it was not an option,” Crouse told The Colorado Independent last year.
“I was just trying to grow the quantity of medicine I needed to medicate myself. I never had any intent to distribute,” Crouse said then. “They think I was part of an underground network, but I think I was within my rights. They thought I was a criminal. I tell you it was real intimidating when they showed up with eight or 10 agents. I’m a 63-year-old leukemia patient fighting for the right to fight for my life.”
State law allows medical marijuana patients to possess up to two ounces of marijuana or three mature plants, but also says a person may possess as much marijuana as is medically necessary.
Since Crouse possessed substantially more marijuana than two ounces or three plants, he exercised what is called an “affirmative defense,” essentially saying that while he possessed more marijuana than statute allows, he did not possess more than is medically necessary and therefore did not possess more than is allowed under the constitution.
He said prosecutors did not want to allow him to use the affirmative defense, but that the judge ruled in his favor on that point. “Throughout the trial, the judge (Timothy Schultz) was fighting for my right to defend myself. He said I had the ability to run my affirmative defense and I am grateful that the jury was able to follow along through the maze of laws,” he said.
After his acquittal, Crouse got more good news — he was able to move back into his Green Mountain Falls home, from which he had been evacuated as a precaution because of nearby wildfires.
“I’m an innocent man, and I’m no longer homeless. The fire was very unsettling. I am so grateful for how the community has come together. Everyone has done such an outstanding job,” he said of firefighters and community members who helped each other during a difficult time. Crouse added that the emotions he was feeling about the fire and about being able to go home trumped the emotions of winning his trial.
When his plants were confiscated in May 2011, Crouse said it was also his therapy that was taken from him, his peace of mind.
“You can lose yourself in a little garden. When I was in there working with my plants I would forget all about what was going on inside my body,” he recalls.
“I was beating it,” he says of the cancer. “The effect medical marijuana had on me, on my life, was huge. I felt like I was being healed. I could feel it working in my body.
“A cancer patient has to hope if he is going to make it,” Crouse says. “The medical marijuana gave me hope. Stress makes cancer worse. Everyday I try to eliminate stress from my life. I am fortunate to have a relationship with God. I am a man of faith. I have a strong faith in my creator. I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning without that faith.
“This is a journey I didn’t choose,” Crouse said. “If I wasn’t sick I wouldn’t be using marijuana and I wouldn’t be facing incarceration,” he said before the acquittal.
Bob Melamede, Ph.D, president of Cannabis Science testified at the trial that cannabis can cure some cancers.
Crouse said he was thrilled that Melamede was able to testify about the healing properties of marijuana.
Timothy Tipton, who is certified as a cannabis expert in several Colorado jurisdictions testified in this trial as an expert witness. He said after the trial that Colorado district attorneys need to show a little more respect to medical marijuana patients.
“Once again a jury has recognized that Colorado’s constitution guarantees patients the right to possess as much medicine as they need,” he said.
Noting that both prosecuting attorneys and defense attorneys were paid with tax dollars, he said DAs need to “stop wasting time and money on cases like this. We are very disappointed that (El Paso County DA) Dan May didn’t take a different approach.”
As it has been more than a year since Crouse’s plants were confiscated by police, Tipton said returning them to Crouse would be pointless but that Crouse could consider civil litigation in order to receive compensation for his lost medicine.
Crouse said he would, in fact, seek payment from the county. “Not only are my plants probably dead but my medicine has probably been ruined. If they can’t give me back my medicine, they need to give me the value of my medicine.” He estimated the value of his lost plants to be “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
He said he hopes his acquittal will give May and other prosecutors pause before they file charges against other patients.
“I hope it makes a difference in how patients are treated,” he said. “They need to understand that they were wrong. We need to know as patients that we are not going to have bombs thrown at us. I see the fear in patients’ eyes,” he said.