Merced County Man Faces a Three-Count Case in Federal Court. Testimony began Wednesday in Dustin Costa's trial, with prosecutors portraying the Merced marijuana activist as a drug dealer who violated federal law. Costa, 60, is facing a three-count indictment charging him with growing more than 100 marijuana plants with the intent to distribute. He also faces a charge of possession of a firearm "in furtherance of drug-trafficking crime." In opening statements in U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii's courtroom, prosecutor Karen Escobar told jurors Costa had a "relatively sophisticated marijuana operation" at his Merced County home. She said Costa was robbed 13 times, but never called police because he knew he was in violation of the law. [continues 481 words]
A jury has been selected and opening arguments will begin today in the federal trial of Merced marijuana activist Dustin Costa, but it is unlikely there will be any debate on the hotly disputed issue of the drug's medicinal value. Before his arrest, Costa was president of the Merced Patients Group, a private cannabis club that claimed 230 members. The club helped connect people with doctors who give recommendations for marijuana and those who supply the drug. Costa, 60, is facing a three-count indictment charging him with with growing more than 100 marijuana plants, equivalent to nearly 9 pounds, in February 2004 with the intent to distribute. Costa also faces a charge of possession of a firearm "in furtherance of drug trafficking crime." [continues 420 words]
Have you heard the news? There is now a low-cost drug proven to ease a cancer patient's suffering. Not only does this drug reduce the physical and psychological pain of cancer, but, more importantly, it restores a chemotherapy patient's appetite. The drug, of course, is marijuana. Unfortunately, in a 6-3 ruling last year, the U.S. Supreme Court turned thumbs down on the drug, overturning laws in 11 states which allowed doctors to prescribe the medication to their cancer patients. [continues 524 words]
Is "Medical" Image A Turn-Off? Every year the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) conducts a survey on Drug Use and Health (DUH) and releases reports on perceived trends. If the survey finds that drug use is down, government officials say "Our approach is working, give us more funding." If drug use is up, they say "We're in an epidemic, we need more funding." This year they get to make both pitches because drug use was found to be up in some age brackets and down in others. [continues 1050 words]
To the Editor: All three branches of the federal government ignore their Constitutionally mandated limits so frequently that when they step outside the bounds it's no longer news, and you have to search for coverage among the man-bites-dog stories to keep track of how individual rights and states rights continue to be infringed by the feds. Take, for example, the Supreme Court decision in Ashcroft v. Raich, which was recently announced. You probably didn't see it on the evening news, so allow me to report on it. [continues 209 words]
Eight days after accepting a systems administration job with Sacramento's RagingWire Telecommunications Inc. in 2001, Gary Ross was fired for testing positive for marijuana. The 43-year-old father of two admitted he smoked pot at home for back pain, but explained it was legally prescribed by his doctor under the state's Compassionate Use Act. His new bosses backed their decision, however, by citing federal law that still criminalizes marijuana. Five years later, the dispute shows no sign of losing steam as an employment discrimination suit filed by Ross awaits a full hearing by the California Supreme Court. Although oral arguments haven't been set, a host of high-powered amici curiae have already stoked expectations with hard-hitting briefs on both sides of the issue. [continues 772 words]
EL MONTE - In an effort to allow time for inconsistencies between state and federal laws to be reconciled, the City Council has extend a moratorium for a year on medical marijuana dispensaries. City Attorney Clarke Moseley said the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 is at the root of the city's decision to extend the moratorium, which will begin Saturday. "What we have known is there is a big disagreement between the federal and state governments over Proposition 215 and that's one reason for us to extend the moratorium," Moseley told the council Tuesday. [continues 194 words]
For 15 years, Joe Fortt has lived with the human immunodeficiency virus, staying healthy, he says, with a self-prescribed combination of garlic, walnut, wormwood, ginseng, ginko, aloe vera, multivitamins - and marijuana. Fortt, 43, has spent the last 11 months locked up in the Fresno County Jail, slowly dying from the ravages of the HIV virus, he said, because he has been denied his herbal treatment. "I can tell by the way I feel I'm not getting any better," he said in a jailhouse interview. "In another six months, I won't have an immune system left anymore." [continues 1126 words]
On the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision allowing the federal government to overrule state medical-marijuana laws, a new lobbying group is trying to persuade some of the House's most conservative members to protect the terminally ill's right to use the drug. Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a nonprofit group funded by patients, doctors and researchers who support exploring marijuana's therapeutic potential, opened its Washington office last month and completed its first grassroots lobbying visits yesterday. [continues 413 words]
The "therapeutic ratio" of a drug compares the amount required to produce harmful effects with the amount required to provide benefit. The therapeutic ratio of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is about 2:1 -and even lower if your liver has been compromised by hepatitis or alcohol. An Extra-Strength Tylenol contains 500 milligrams of acetaminophen. The recommended daily maximum is eight pills -4,000 mg, or four grams. A person taking twice that much can incur severe liver damage -and people in pain sometimes lose perspective and gulp a handful. "Seven to eight grams a day for three or four days can be fatal," according to William M. Lee, MD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. [continues 2036 words]
Has Medical Marijuana Burned Out? The Ouster Of A Popular Medical Marijuana Dispensary By Its San Francisco Neighbors Signals Growing Disillusionment With The Medical Marijuana Initiative. The unmistakable scent of burning marijuana lingered on the front steps of San Francisco's City Hall one cool night last September. Inside, more than 75 citizens murmured and jostled their way into the Board of Appeals chambers, there to decide the fate of the most popular medical marijuana dispensary in the city. At issue was the Green Cross-by all accounts a model pot club-which had operated for a little more than a year at the outer edge of the liberal, dog-and-stroller neighborhood of Noe Valley. Now, it appeared that the dispensary on 22nd Street had worn out its welcome. [continues 4600 words]
A Palm Desert medical marijuana dispensary is being required to turn clients' names over to authorities, and client advocates say that violates their privacy rights. Palm Desert city attorney David Erwin said the deal between the city and the CannaHelp dispensary on El Paseo, is merely meant to ensure that the dispensary is obeying state law. The agreement, negotiated by Erwin and James Warner of San Diego, a lawyer for the CannaHelp dispensary, requires the dispensary to turn over clients' names and state ID card numbers to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. [continues 1125 words]
No one laughed when Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers opened on April Fool's Day. But of course, it wasn't a joke. People are serious about their right to use medical marijuana, and with the opening of SLO County's first and only city-sanctioned cannabis dispensary, Morro Bay City Officials have unequivocally stated that they're not playing around. Yes, this is the same dispensary that was run out of Atascadero in February, shortly after owner Charles C. Lynch opened up shop there. This time, though, CCCC is being welcomed with (mostly) open arms. Is this a medical triumph or a terrible mistake? Some people may already have their minds made up about this, but it looks like the rest of us will just have to wait and see. [continues 4011 words]
Consistency Ordinance Would Effectively Outlaw Medical Marijuana Dispensaries UNION CITY -- With a yearlong moratorium to expire in July, city leaders are set to slam the door on medical marijuana dispensaries for the foreseeable future. Today, the City Council will consider a law that would require any permit, authorization or license issued by the city to "be consistent with both state and federal law." Because federal drug laws prohibit medical marijuana, the city ordinance effectively would outlaw dispensaries -- the most common way licensed marijuana users obtain the drug. [continues 373 words]
TABLE OF CONTENTS: * This Just In http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n443.html#sec1 (1) Mexico Criticises US Drug-War Efforts (2) Syndicates Shift Shabu Production (3) Life Sentences Upheld In Record LSD Case (4) Anti-Snitch Campaign Riles Police, Prosecutors * Weekly News in Review http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n443.html#sec2 Drug Policy (5) Anti-Snitch Campaign Riles Police, Prosecutors (6) Editorial: Tobacco Smoke Will Clear, Drugs Won't (7) Sewage Tested For Signs Of Cocaine [continues 259 words]
Drug Enforcement Administration narcos picked up where they left off just before Christmas, descending upon the small medi-pot growers collective run by Palm Desert, Calif., medi-mari patient Gary Silva in a March 14, early morning raid, seizing 80 pot plants and a cache of patient records, and sending Silva to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder. The feds reportedly burst through the door before Silva could get it open, knocking the medi-pot patient, who suffers from a degenerative disc disorder, tumbling to the ground. [continues 574 words]
Judges' Questions Hint They Won't Protect Medicinal Use. PASADENA - A frail medicinal pot user from Oakland took the federal government to court again Monday but left with little encouragement. Judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who had ruled in favor of Angel Raich in an earlier phase of the same case, sounded skeptical this time. They questioned repeatedly why she was seeking their protection when she's never been prosecuted for using marijuana, which her doctor swears she needs to stay alive. [continues 548 words]
Less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against her, Oakland medical marijuana patient and advocate Angel Raich will go back before a federal appeals court today with a different legal argument. Her lawyers will try to persuade a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Pasadena, that keeping her from using marijuana as medicine unduly burdens her fundamental rights to life and freedom from pain, as protected by the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause and the Ninth Amendment. [continues 659 words]
Oakland Cancer Patient Who Lost Last Year to Try Again With New Argument Less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against her, Oakland medical marijuana patient and advocate Angel Raich will go back before a federal appeals court Monday with a different legal argument. Her lawyers will try to persuade a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in Pasadena, that keeping her from using marijuana as medicine unduly burdens her fundamental rights to life and freedom from pain, as protected by the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause and the Ninth Amendment. [continues 652 words]
Feds Arrest 12, Seize Marijuana Plants, Cash And Weapons From Massive East Bay Operation OAKLAND - It looks like candy, but check the label on the Keef Kat or the Pot Tarts: "This product contains cannabis and is for medical purposes only." Hundreds of boxes of such pot-laced candy, treats and soda pop - all with labels mimicking name-brand products - plus thousands of marijuana plants, $150,000 in cash and several weapons were seized Thursday in five simultaneous Drug Enforcement Administration raids in Oakland, Emeryville and Lafayette. Authorities called it the largest West Coast manufacturing and distribution operation of its type. Twelve people were arrested without incident, DEA Special Agent Javier Pena said as he displayed samples of the candy and sodas in DEA offices in the federal building in downtown Oakland. Suspect Kenneth Affolter, 39, of Lafayette was identified as the head of the candy-making operation. All 12 suspects will be arraigned today in San Francisco federal court on charges of distribution of marijuana. [continues 414 words]
Drug Agents Fear Candies Appeal to Kids - Medical Marijuana Users Insist They're Legal They had colorful labels and names such as Trippy, Stoney Rancher, Toka-Cola, Pot Tart and Budtella. To federal drug agents, they were dangerous marijuana-laced concoctions that could fall into the hands of children. But to sick patients who rely on cannabis to ease their symptoms, they were just tasty ways to get their medicine -- and legal under California law. Federal agents who converged on several of what they called "marijuana candy factories" in the East Bay on Thursday seized hundreds of sodas and candies laced with marijuana in what they said was the largest bust of its kind on the West Coast. [continues 641 words]
Last week C-Notes described the unmitigated gratitude with which pro-marijuana activists greeted an anti-prohibition op-ed by George Melloan in the Wall St. Journal. I questioned Melloan's motives and his decency, quoting a subsequent op-ed in which he made light of the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by the U.S. bombing and embargo of Iraq between 1991 and 2003. I did not anticipate that knocking George Melloan in the Anderson Valley Advertiser would annoy "progressive" activists back East, but it did, thanks to the Internet. A participant in the Alliance of Reform Organizations' chatroom forwarded this sigh of contempt from Doug McVay, Director of Research, Common Sense for Drug Policy, and Editor/Webmaster, Drug War Facts: [continues 1654 words]
Recently, local news outlets have reported that Rawlins-area radio stations KIQZ-FM and KRAL-AM banned public service announcements dealing with medical marijuana from their airwaves after complaints from, among others, Rawlins Chief of Police Mike Reed. Censorship of information about medical marijuana helps no one. The three PSAs were produced by my organization, the Marijuana Policy Project. They do not advocate use of marijuana or any drug. They simply offer information, and present three individuals talking about personal experiences with medical marijuana: Talk show host Montel Williams, who suffers from multiple sclerosis; recent U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff Angel Raich, who suffers from a brain tumor and several other painful conditions; and novelist Tom Robbins, whose mother went blind from glaucoma. [continues 528 words]
What role should physicians have in defining the purposes of their profession -- the functions that medicine should and should not serve? Many observers hold that medicine's aims are for doctors and patients to decide, without interference from the state. But in fact, government limits medicine's purposes in many ways. Doctors cannot prescribe mind-altering substances for recreational use or anabolic steroids to enhance athletic performance. Physicians were once barred from terminating pregnancies, and today, in 49 states, they are not allowed to assist the terminally ill in ending their lives. [continues 1632 words]
The Palm Desert City Council has taken a first step toward revoking the business license for CannaHelp, the medical marijuana dispensary on El Paseo. Owner Stacy Hochanadel confirmed Monday that he had received a notice Friday from the city advising him that the council will vote on the possible revocation at its next meeting, 4 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 23. The notice left CannaHelp's 440 clients "kind of confused and frustrated," Hochanadel said. One of them, Alan Layton of La Quinta, said, "If (the council) recognizes the law as law is written, they have no choice but to comply and provide some kind of vehicle that can provide this service (medical marijuana). [continues 918 words]
In 1991 the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that Joe Hutchins, a Navy veteran with life-threatening scleroderma, could not use medical necessity as a defense to a marijuana cultivation charge, even if his marijuana use kept him alive. Within months the Legislature, led by members whose families faced similar health emergencies, became a national leader in trying to protect patients for whom cannabis has therapeutic value. That law unfortunately provides no comfort to patients. It requires the state Department of Public Health (DPH) to provide the medicine to patients from a source approved by the federal government. The Clinton and Bush administrations refuse DPH's requests for a supply. [continues 616 words]
North County Times columnist Jim Trageser's Jan. 26 column "Term limits likely to be voter's response to pot lawsuit" misses the point. The county of San Diego's lawsuit is intended to have a federal court render judgment on the state mandating the county to do something that violates federal law. The state has ordered us to issue identification cards that let people buy and use marijuana. That violates federal drug laws and opens residents of San Diego County to arrest. The Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Raich ruled the federal government has the power to arrest and prosecute patients and their suppliers, even if marijuana use is permitted under state law. [continues 100 words]
SANTA FE -- Senate President pro tem Ben Altamirano, D-Silver City, said Tuesday that if he or a member of his family were critically ill and needed marijuana to ease their suffering, he would find whatever he could on the illegal market. "If I was suffering and needed some help tomorrow, I would go out and make every effort to get marijuana to help me and members of my family," he said. Under a bill passed Tuesday by the Senate, he wouldn't have to. On a 34-6 vote, the Senate approved a bill that would allow for the use of marijuana by those suffering from critical illnesses, if approved by a qualified practitioner. [continues 821 words]
An area medical marijuana cooperative should be free from harassment by federal agents as should the city's recently enacted ordinance that would establish a compassionate use office for the drug, an amended federal court complaint filed this week contends. Attorneys for the city and county of Santa Cruz and the Wo/men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana filed the amended complaint in U.S. District Court in San Jose. It is basically an updated version of a lawsuit filed in 2003. [continues 420 words]
By allowing Oregon's assisted-suicide law to stand, the U.S. Supreme Court says a person with a terminal illness may make a deeply personal decision about his or her life. We support such a law. The ruling would have been better, however, had it also helped define the constitutional limit of federal power. Oregon's law allows a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of pain-killing drugs if certain conditions are met. First, the patient must want to die. Second, the doctor has to certify that the patient is sick, can't be cured and has fewer than six months to live. Third, a second doctor has to agree. Finally, the prescribing doctor cannot administer the drugs. The law affects only a tiny group. Under it, 37 patients were assisted in ending their lives in 2004. That is 10 in a million. We have heard no outcry against this from the people of Oregon, who voted for this measure twice. Clearly, this is a law they want. [continues 192 words]
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors' decision to sue the state of California in an attempt to overturn Proposition 215, the state's medical marijuana law, is wrong in every possible sense: legally, morally and politically. The American Civil Liberties Union intends to immediately intervene in federal court to protect the many patients who legally use medical marijuana and to uphold the will of California voters who approved Proposition 215. The supervisors are wrong morally because there is simply no doubt that medical marijuana benefits many terribly ill patients 'Ai patients who would suffer, and sometimes die, without it. Research has shown unequivocally that marijuana relieves nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy and harsh anti-HIV drugs used to treat AIDS. It stimulates appetite. It relieves certain kinds of pain that do not respond well to conventional drugs, including the excruciating neuropathic pain commonly suffered by those with multiple sclerosis. [continues 601 words]
Supreme Court watchers can be forgiven if they thought they were in a Twilight Zone episode yesterday as they read the 6-3 opinion upholding Oregon's assisted-suicide law against attempted federal encroachment. The High Court's liberal wing, joined by Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, has suddenly discovered the Constitutional virtues of federalism. Meanwhile, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, along with Chief Justice John Roberts, argue in favor of the broad grant of federal power that the Attorney General was seeking in Gonzales v. Oregon. Count us with the federalists in this one, even if they are of the born-again variety. The case concerned the Bush Administration's attempt to use the 1970 Controlled Substances Act to invalidate an Oregon statute passed in the 1990s that has allowed about 200 state residents to kill themselves with a doctor-assisted barbiturate cocktail. [continues 634 words]
1) Don't Bogart My Closeup: The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and its fearless leader, drug czar John Walters, got slapped by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office in January when the GAO reported that Walters' band of merry narcos had violated a government ban on "covert propaganda" with its release of prepackaged video news stories, ready to air on broadcast news programs, that failed to identify the ONDCP as the source of the "news." 2) Man-Min Madness ... : In a 5-4 decision delivered Jan. 12, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the federal mandatory-minimum sentencing schemes enacted by Congress in the mid-Eighties in reaction to an increase in drug crimes, opining that, as currently applied, man-mins violate the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. [continues 799 words]
Rhode Island Follows Through on Medical Marijuana When it comes to the legalization of medical marijuana in Rhode Island, the question has generally been when -- not if -- it would happen. Sure, Republican governor Donald L. Carcieri, whose vetoes have withstood the Democratic-controlled General Assembly in the past, could cite a litany of concerns, from distribution to the fear that legalizing medical marijuana will make it far more available to children. But by resoundingly overriding Carcieri's veto in a 59-13 vote, the Rhode Island House of Representatives on Tuesday embraced the compassionate theme long sounded by proponents. [continues 597 words]
Local Dispensary Alleges Officers Harassing Clients PALM DESERT - Medical marijuana patients and advocates are calling it harassment. The Palm Desert Police Department says it's just doing its job. And Mayor Jim Ferguson is trying to get both sides to talk to each other today. In the past two weeks, Palm Desert police have stopped a handful of people coming out of CannaHelp, the city's only licensed medical marijuana dispensary, on El Paseo and confiscated both their medical marijuana and the doctors' letters they were carrying to prove they have valid medical conditions for buying the drug. [continues 1342 words]
California Pot Raids Cast Doubt On Local Laws It's something of a mystery why federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided HopeNet, a medical cannabis dispensary said to serve about 30 patients a day in San Francisco, on Dec. 20. It followed a series of raids in San Diego on Dec. 12 that closed 13 cannabis dispensaries. No arrests were made in any of the raids, but some patients are concerned that these raids are a prelude to a major effort to close down cannabis clubs statewide. [continues 483 words]
It is something of a mystery why federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided HopeNet, a medical cannabis dispensary said to serve about 30 patients a day in San Francisco, on Dec. 20. It followed a series of raids in San Diego on Dec. 12 that closed 13 cannabis dispensaries. No arrests were made in any of the raids, but some patients are concerned that these raids are a prelude to a major effort to close down cannabis clubs statewide. But we could wait quite a while for another shoe to drop. [continues 396 words]
DEA agents have been doing their very best impression of the Grinch this month by carrying out a string of raids at medi-pot dispensaries in San Diego and San Francisco, Calif. On Dec. 12, a contingent of agents simultaneously executed 13 warrants in San Diego County, seizing dozens of pounds of marijuana, computer equipment, and patient files from the store front operations that provide sick and dying medi-mari patients who use the drug in accordance with the state's Compassionate Use Act. Then, on Dec. 20, agents struck again, in an early-morning raid at the San Francisco home of Steve and Cathy Smith who run the HopeNet medi-pot dispensary, which, in part, subsidizes the cost of medi-pot for low-income patients. [continues 1119 words]
San Diego County Goes on the Warpath Against Popular Medical Marijuana. In an all-out assault on patients who use state-legalized medical marijuana, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday, December 6, to challenge Proposition 215, the 1996 Compassionate Use Act. Only days later, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency methodically raided every medi-pot dispensary in the county. The supervisors have an historic antipathy to the dispensaries, having gone on record in November that they would fight SB 420, the 2004 state Senate bill that ordered counties to provide ID cards to medical-marijuana patients. Now they intend to challenge the legality of the Compassionate Use Act, a voter-approved initiative that says chronically ill people with a doctor's recommendation can use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Prop. 215 won by a 12-point margin statewide and even garnered majority support in traditionally conservative San Diego County. [continues 1119 words]
The judge who sentenced Bryan Epis to 10 years in federal prison now realizes that Epis was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct, according to Brenda Grantland, the lawyer handling Epis's appeal. Epis, 38, was convicted in 2002 of conspiracy to cultivate more than 1,000 cannabis plants. He was granted bail in August 2004, after serving more than 25 months. The government is intent on sending him back to prison. Grantland charges that at Epis's trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Wong misled the jury and U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell about a crucial piece of evidence -a spreadsheet Epis had drafted in early 1997 when he briefly contemplated opening a dispensary in Silicon Valley. Epis's 16-page business plan for the Silicon Valley dispensary was on the computer that DEA agents confiscated in June, '97, along with 485 plants, when they raided the 15'-by-15' grow-site Epis maintained in his basement in Chico. Epis said he had been growing for himself and four other documented medical users, and providing a small surplus (for which he was never remunerated) to a dispensary called Chico Medical Marijuana Caregivers (CMMC). [continues 2233 words]
A Look at the County's Assault on California's Medical-Marijuana Law San Diego, CA -- A month ago, it was only going to be SB 420, the 2004 state Senate bill that ordered counties to provide ID cards to medical-marijuana patients. What a difference a few weeks makes. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to step up their attack on the Senate bill with a concurrent legal challenge that seeks to overturn Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act, a 1996, voter-approved initiative that says chronically ill people with a doctor's recommendation can use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Prop. 215 won by a 12-point margin statewide and even garnered majority support in traditionally conservative San Diego County. [continues 1142 words]
Six medical marijuana clubs are competing for three permits to sell cannabis in unincorporated parts of Alameda County. Six months ago, Alameda County supervisors passed a law limiting the number of dispensaries and establishing a selection process. The six clubs all applied for permits before the Wednesday deadline. Meanwhile, two of the clubs are contesting Sheriff Charles Plummer's orders to close because they are too close to a school and a drug recovery facility. One of those club owners, Jack Norton of the Health Center, said he will fight the shutdown while moving his operation to either San Lorenzo or Castro Valley because the competition for a permit isn't as stiff in those areas. [continues 383 words]
Attorneys for an Oakland woman filed a new brief Wednesday with a federal appeals court seeking sanction for her use of marijuana to treat her pain and illness. Angel Raich, who suffers from numerous ailments including a brain tumor, severe weight loss and chronic pain, sued in 2002, challenging the federal government's constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce as it extends to locally grown marijuana, supplied without charge to patients whose use is permitted by state law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Raich in June but sent the case back for consideration of various issues to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The appeals court had ruled in Raich's favor on the broader question in 2003. [continues 140 words]
Woman Seeking Medicinal Use An Oakland woman whose landmark medicinal marijuana case was rebuffed five months ago by the U.S. Supreme Court renewed her legal fight Wednesday by filing papers in a federal appeals court. Lawyers for Angel Raich, 40, filed a brief in the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that federal efforts to restrict medicinal marijuana violate her rights to take the only medication that allows her to avoid intolerable pain and death. The brief thus marks a new legal strategy for Raich, who previously had argued that federal drug laws traditionally focus on interstate commerce and thus did not apply to Raich's use of locally grown marijuana. [continues 166 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - A 40-year-old Oakland woman who lost her medical marijuana case before the U.S. Supreme Court in June asked a lower federal court Wednesday to revive her request to be able to use marijuana without threat or fear of prosecution. Angel Raich, 40, smokes marijuana every few hours to ease pain from a host of ailments that includes scoliosis, a brain tumor and chronic nausea. Two years ago, she sued the government, arguing that federal drug laws making marijuana illegal did not apply in California and nine other states that have adopted medical marijuana laws. The Supreme Court, ruling 6-3, concluded that state laws don't make medical marijuana patients immune from the federal ban on the drug. [continues 121 words]
OAKLAND - An Oakland woman whose landmark medical marijuana case was rebuffed five months ago by the U.S. Supreme Court renewed her legal fight Wednesday by filing papers in a federal appeals court. Lawyers for Angel Raich, 40, filed a brief in the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that federal efforts to restrict medical marijuana violate her rights to take the only medication that allows her to avoid intolerable pain and death. The brief thus marks a new legal strategy for Raich, who previously had argued that federal drug laws traditionally focus on interstate commerce and thus did not apply to Raich's use of locally grown marijuana. [continues 277 words]
Jews Lead The Charge For Medical Pot Irvin Rosenfeld smokes marijuana. A lot of it. Every day. He also buys and sells stocks. A lot of them. Every day. And he's very up-front about this with everyone, most of all his 500 clients. "I handle millions and millions of dollars on a daily basis, and all of my clients know I use marijuana. I don't want them to see me on TV and say, 'Hey, that's my stockbroker!'" says the Jewish activist with a laugh. [continues 2818 words]
If Passed, the Measure Would Remove All Local Penalties for Sick People Who Have Doctor's Order. FERNDALE -- Police say nothing will change if a controversial medical marijuana measure passes in Tuesday's election, since marijuana use remains illegal under state and federal laws. But that won't stop people such as Melissa Hohauser-Thatcher from voting yes. The 38-year-old fund-raiser for Detroit's Loyola High School has a friend who suffered from colon cancer and smoked pot to deal with nausea after chemotherapy. [continues 417 words]
Recent research and public opinion make a strong case for the legalization of medicinal and recreational hemp, or marijuana. Denver residents voted 54 percent in favor of an ordinance decriminalizing city hemp laws, letting citizens possess up to one ounce, according to The Associated Press. This is the latest in a hard-fought battle for changes in federal hemp policy, particularly the Angel Raich case over medical marijuana. Her case went to the Supreme Court in June, back-firing, with the high court saying local and state laws do not trump federal laws. [continues 537 words]
Denver, Colo. made headlines this Tuesday when they became the first American city to legalize the possession of marijuana. Approximately, 56,001 voters, 54 percent of total voters in Denver, voted to allow a resident over the age of 21 to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. The law is entitled "The Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative" and is the first act taken to draw comparisons between the effects of alcohol and marijuana. The campaign for the initiative focused on reports showing alcohol relating to violent crimes and a high overdose death rate, compared to marijuana which, according to the initiative, has no connection to violent crimes or any overdose related deaths. [continues 536 words]
