• ASA IN THE NEWS: Drew Carey Video Features ASA Executive Director
• FEDERAL: Hayward DEA Raid Leads to Arrests
• DOCTORS: Cannabis Specialists Provide Insights
• MONTANA: Suicide of Patient-Activist Draws Recriminations
• OREGON: Patient’s Case to Test Law’s Limits
• DISPENSARIES: Land Use Planning the Question for California
• ASA BLOG: Comments from ASA Staff and Guests

ASA IN THE NEWS: Drew Carey Video Features ASA Executive Director

In addition to speaking with a Los Angeles police officer and a Vietnam veteran who uses medical cannabis, comedian, actor and now game-show-host Drew Carey interviews ASA Executive Director Steph Sherer, who tells Carey how federal raids on medical cannabis collectives in the San Francisco Bay Area led to the founding of Americans for Safe Access. To view this episode of the Drew Carey Project, please visit www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/DrewCarey.

Drew Carey defends medical marijuana in new online video
by Sandy Cohen, Associated Press
Bob Barker famously closed each episode of "The Price Is Right" with a pitch to spay and neuter pets. His successor is taking a stand on a more controversial subject: marijuana. Drew Carey won't tout toking up on "Price," but he defends the use of medical marijuana in a video posted online Thursday on Reason.tv.

Drew Carey Defends Medical Marijuana
eMax Health
"I think it's clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it -- safely and easily," says The Price Is Right and Power of 10 host Drew Carey in a new Reason.tv video examining medical marijuana and the war on drugs.

FEDERAL: Hayward DEA Raid Leads to Arrests

DEA spokespeople have made much of the revenues they claim a Hayward medical cannabis collective enjoyed. They fail to note that the reason for an increase in revenue has been the systematic closing of the other dispensaries in the area, forcing the county’s many patients to one location. The increased revenue reflects an increased volume of patients more than profiteering. ASA's rapid response program again meant that the media was alerted immediately, helping ensure full coverage, and patients and activists were notified by text messages and emails so they could protest at the main dispensary location.

Feds raid seven East Bay medical pot sites
Bay Area News Group
Federal officials raided seven locations in the East Bay this morning that were connected to a medical marijuana dispensary in Hayward, officials said.

Medical-pot brothers held on drug charges
by Henry K. Lee, San Francisco Chronicle
Two East Bay brothers were arrested Tuesday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they ran a large-scale drug operation from a Hayward medical marijuana club from which proceeds were delivered to a bank by armored car, authorities said.

Two brothers arrested, accused of drug dealing
by Jason Sweeney, Paul Thissen and Scott Marshall, Mercury News (San Jose)
Federal agents arrested two brothers early Tuesday and seized a Lafayette house after they were indicted on charges that they ran a multimillion-dollar drug operation out of a Hayward-area medical-marijuana collective.

DOCTORS: Cannabis Specialists Provide Insights

While doctors generally acknowledge that there are conditions and patients for whom cannabis can be effective, many prefer to refer their patients to cannabis specialists who have the education to counsel patients properly on the indications for appropriate treatment. Critics attempt to characterize those specialists as capitalizing on legal loopholes, but the reality of doctors such as those profiled here is that they provide a crucial service to patients who would otherwise be vulnerable to arrest for using cannabis therapeutically.

Doctor calls pot good medicine
by Jason Kotowski, Bakersfield Californian
Doctors who recommend medical marijuana say it helps treat everything from nausea caused by cancer treatment to spinal pain. Multiple sclerosis. Anorexia. Anxiety. Muscle spasms. Insomnia.

I-Team Investigation: Who Is Doc 420?
by Dan Noyes, KGO TV - ABC News (San Francisco)
California voters approved medical marijuana in 1996. It was meant for patients with serious illnesses, such as AIDS, cancer or glaucoma. However, there are new questions whether medical marijuana is too easily available, especially for people who aren't even sick.

MONTANA: Suicide of Patient-Activist Draws Recriminations

The tragic death of a Montana medical marijuana patient has been the subject of heartache and anger for many: heartache over the suffering that led her to take her own life, anger at the federal authorities who effectively cut off her supply to the one pain-control medication that worked.

Protected to Death
by Jacob Sullum, Reason Online
Last March, when the Drug Enforcement Administration seized less than half an ounce of cannabis that Robin Prosser, a Missoula lupus patient and medical marijuana activist, had been sent by her caregiver, the special agent in charge of the DEA's Rocky Mountain Field Division said it was "protecting people from their own state laws." Last week, unable to find a reliable supply of the only drug that relieved her pain without causing unacceptable side effects, Prosser killed herself. Although the use of medical marijuana is legal in Montana, friends say suppliers were spooked by the DEA. Writing in the Helena Independent Record, activist Tom Daubert calls Prosser's death "a direct result of DEA actions."

A tragic casualty in federal war on medical marijuana
by Tom Daubert, OpEd, Helena Independent Record (MT)
The nation's Drug Enforcement Administration agents can sleep a little easier tonight. They now have one less medical-marijuana patient to worry about policing. That's because Montana's leading medical marijuana patient-activist took her own life two weeks ago, a direct result of DEA actions earlier this year.

OREGON: Patient’s Case to Test Law’s Limits

Two factors have made the case of an Oregon patient a lightening rod for the state’s medical marijuana law: the proximity of the patient’s home garden to a high school and his processing of the cannabis to make a more potent extract. At least the second issue should be easily dealt with. Extracts of the cannabis plant such as hash and tinctures entail no chemical alterations, merely a concentration of the active ingredients, meaning it’s no different than growing strains that have more or less THC content.

Keizer Medical Marijuana Case Ignores Oregon Law
by Neal Feldman, Salem News (OR)
Anthony Wyatt Beasley probably did not wake up Friday, October 19th 2007 thinking he would be a lightning rod and a focal point in a legal dispute, but that is what he has become. A standard bearer, willing or not, for the medical marijuana law of Oregon and the thousands of card holders in the state.

Thoughts on Keizer's Controversial Medical Marijuana Case
by Tim King, Salem News (OR)
The Keizer medical marijuana case against Anthony Beasely has been a hot topic in the local community. Salem-News.com's Neal Feldman wrote a commentary this week (Keizer Medical Marijuana Case Ignores Oregon Law) that lays blame on the city of Keizer for not upholding the rules authorized by the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.

DISPENSARIES: Land Use Planning the Question for California

As medical cannabis dispensing collectives have proliferated around the state, more and more patients have come to rely on them for the consistency and safety of the access they provide, as well as social support services. And for patients who are unfamiliar with strains of cannabis or methods of delivery – vaporizing, edibles, tinctures, etc. – dispensaries provide information. Communities that have enacted regulatory ordinances report success in both serving those patient needs and assuaging community concerns. For more, see ASA’s report at AmericansForSafeAccess.org/DispensaryReport.

County has options on medical pot shops
KGET NBC TV (Bakersfield)
The county has a lot of options when it comes to medical marijuana dispensaries, and County Supervisors will get a chance to choose one Tuesday.

County Planning Commission debates medical marijuana dispensary in Templeton
by Stacy Daniel, KSBY - NBC TV 6 (San Luis Obispo)
The San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission weighs the pros and cons of having a medical marijuana dispensary in Templeton.

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.

California Round Up
by Sonnet Seeborg Gabbard
ASA and Orange County Medical Marijuana Activists Achieve a Victory for Safe Access; DEA Strikes East Bay Collective and Facilities; DEA Raids Orange County Collective and Operator’s Home

DEA Raids Hayward Dispensaries, but Activists Don’t Stand Down
by Justin Alan Ryan
Beginning early in the morning, October 30, 2007, the DEA raided several locations connected to Compassionate Patients’ Cooperative of California (CPCC).

Steph Sherer Shares Her Story with Drew Carey
by Rebecca Saltzman
If you’re familiar with ASA’s work, you’ve probably heard about our executive director, Steph Sherer. What you might not know is that she is a medical marijuana patient. Drew Carey recently interviewed Steph as part of The Drew Carey Project.

A Sad Day in Montana, and across the Country - In Remembrance of Robin Prosser
by Kris Hermes
It is a sad day for the people of Montana, medical marijuana advocates, and people anywhere who are sympathetic to the plight of the sick and dying. Robin Prosser, a Missoula, Montana medical marijuana patient, and a powerful activist fighting for the rights of patients, took her life on October 18.

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.