• ASA IN THE NEWS: PBS Examines the California Quandary
• VERMONT: Program a Success Despite Scare Tactics
• CALIFORNIA: Implementation a Local Matter
• OREGON: Bad Alternatives Drive Many Advocates
• OREGON: Medical Marijuana Cultivation Rules Under Discussion
• RESEARCH: Recent Findings Show Promise of Marijuana-based Therapies
• ASA BLOG: Comments from ASA Staff and Guests

ASA IN THE NEWS: PBS Examines the California Quandary

The award-winning Public Broadcasting Service news program, the News Hour, did a segment looking at the policy contradictions around marijuana law enforcement in California. In addition to law enforcement officers, the program interviewed the acting Southern California Coordinator for Americans for Safe Access, Don Duncan, who highlighted the problems created for patients by the refusal of federal officials to work with California on protecting the health and safety of some of the state’s most seriously ill and injured citizens.

California Grapples with Polices on Marijuana
by Jeffrey Kaye, PBS NewsHour
Don Duncan, Americans for Safe Access: Right now, we have a situation in California and in Los Angeles where medical cannabis is legal. Collectives like this one are legal and tolerated. And yet, under federal law, all of that conduct is illegal. And it's very, very important that we harmonize the federal laws with the laws in the states that allow for medical marijuana so patients and providers and facilities like this can be safe.

VERMONT: Program a Success Despite Scare Tactics

As happened in California when the initiative came before voters, many in Vermont’s law enforcement community predicted disaster if medical marijuana were made legal. But in practice, the state has discovered that medical marijuana is in many respects no different from any number of other drugs available with a doctor’s prescription: diversion is not a substantial problem and police have little difficulty distinguishing between qualified patients and drug abusers.

Pot Fears Unfounded
by Brian Joyce, WCAX TV (Burlington, VT)
A little more than three years ago Vermont became the thirteenth state to enact a medical marijuana law despite strong opposition from law enforcement. The police predicted the law that permits physicians to prescribe pot as a pain-killer was just a pretext to legalize marijuana for everyone. Today a top cop acknowledged those predictions have been wrong.

CALIFORNIA: Implementation a Local Matter

The voters had their say on medical marijuana in 1996, telling officials to find ways to make it safely and legally accessible to everyone whose doctor recommends it. The legislature add its two cents in 2003, directing counties to help protect patients and caregivers from arrest by accepting minimum amounts they can grow and possess. Now it’s up to local communities to work out the land use rules for cultivation and distribution.

Council fine-tunes role of marijuana task force
by Cerena Johnson, Eureka Reporter
The Arcata City Council approved the creation of a working group Tuesday to identify guidelines for land-use regulations of marijuana grow houses and clinics.

OREGON: Bad Alternatives Drive Many Advocates

As much as opponents of medical marijuana try to dismiss it as people looking for an excuse to get high, the reality of patients who have undergone extensive drug therapies before turning to medical marijuana as an alternative is compelling. Not only does cannabis lack the unpleasant and often debilitating side effects of many prescription drugs, but its broad-spectrum therapeutic potential means many patients who turn to it can replace or reduce their use of multiple prescriptions. And the unique chemical profile of cannabis makes it far less likely to produce dangerous interactions with other drugs.

Group lights up in favor of medical marijuana
by Katie Wilson, Oregon Daily Emerald
Everyday people are destroying their bodies with perfectly legal and easily accessible drugs, says Sandee Burbank, executive director for Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse. MAMA advocates the Medical Marijuana Program primarily because it has seen people destroyed by pain when the medicine prescribed by doctors didn't work. Often, it made things worse.

OREGON: Medical Marijuana Cultivation Rules Under Discussion

How patients are to get the medical marijuana to which they are legally entitled is a problem for states that have passed laws removing criminal penalties. Oregon is not only trying to set cultivation and possession limits, but now the case of a theft from a backyard medical marijuana garden is raising questions about proximity to schools. One advantage of moving toward a system like California’s is that regulation and security for community dispensaries are more manageable than for widespread home growing.

Theft from medical marijuana grow near McNary High raises questions
by Jason Cox, Keizer Times (OR)
While still prohibited under U.S. law, an Oregon state ballot measure passed in 1998 allows people suffering from certain medical conditions to grow and smoke marijuana legally. Likewise, state law provides enhanced penalties for cultivating, distributing or possessing illegal drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. So what happens when statutes seemingly collide, such as a recent case where a certified marijuana patient was growing his crop mere yards from McNary High School?

Marijuana near school stirs former Keizer councilor action
by Ruth Liao, Salem Statesman-Journal
Former Keizer city councilor Chuck Lee has requested that city officials look into creating an ordinance that would ban Oregon medical marijuana providers from growing near schools.

OPINION

Keizer May Intervene With Oregon Voter Passed Law
by Neal Feldman, OpEd, Salem News (OR)
Chuck Lee of Keizer, Oregon needs to mind his own business! This ex Keizer city councilman is all up in arms because a homeowner with a fence that borders McNary High School property is a fully legal grower for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) and was victimized by a burglar who stole some of his entirely legal property... harvest from the marijuana plants he grows for four program participants.

RESEARCH: Recent Findings Show Promise of Marijuana-based Therapies

The US government continues to effectively block American research efforts into the therapeutic potential of medical marijuana, but scientific advances elsewhere indicate that cannabis and drugs derived from it may have enormous potential for treating an astonishing spectrum of our most difficult and debilitating diseases.

Research Leaves No Cloud In Medical Pot Debate
by Paul Armentano, Hawaii Reporter
As the author of the recent publication, “Emerging Clinical Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids: A Review of the Scientific Literature,” I take umbrage with those politicians and law enforcement officials who argue, "Smoked marijuana is not medicine." This allegation -- most recently asserted on the DEA's new website - http://www.JustThinkTwice.com -- is false, plain and simple.

ASA BLOG: Comments from ASA Staff and Guests

ASA's blog is helping keep activists informed on the issues and events affecting medical marijuana patients and providers.

Patients Rally, Police Raid
by Don Duncan
On Thursday, October 11th, 300 medical cannabis patients and advocates rallied in front of the Governor’s office in downtown Los Angeles demanding that he stand up for patients’ rights and the will of California voters and lawmakers. Later that night night, the DEA and LAPD staged yet another raid on one of Los Angeles’ most respected collectives, the Arts District Healing Center (ADHC). Dozens of protesters turned out again.

California Weekly Round Up
by Sonnet Seeborg Gabbard
Arcata City Council and Local Activists Reach a Working Compromise for Safe Access. Landlord Letters Come to Orange County.

MORE ABOUT AMERICANS FOR SAFE ACCESS

Find out more about ASA at AmericansForSafeAccess.org. More medical marijuana news summaries can be seen at AmericansForSafeAccess.org/News