Marijuana Blog

New Mexico naturopath and traditional curandera (healer) Esmerelda Martinez was 19 before she realized that her grandmother’s famous tinctures were cannabis based. “When I was a girl and we visited the family ranch down in Sinaloa (Mexico), I knew she was a healer: we’d see ranchers ride in from hundreds of miles in all directions for her medicine, which she cooked up in the kitchen. She just called her main tincture ingredient ‘la hierba buena‘: the good herb. Once I realized what it was and she saw that I was going to be a healer too, she began teaching me her recipes.”

 

Fast forward three decades, and now the 50-something Martinez, after studying modern herbalism in Santa Fe, finds herself helping patients – including “a lot of veterans” – navigate New Mexico’s medical cannabis program.

 

Welcome to herbal medicine at the beginning of the Drug Peace Era. “It is strange to be teaching how to deal with paperwork so that someone with PTSD, cancer, a war injury or severe arthritis can have access to a medicine that my grandmother used to make without electricity or running water,” Martinez told me when we met in a south central New Mexico enchilada joint.  ”She lived to be 89, by the way.”

 

New Mexico’s medical cannabis program, though an unmitigated success, does require more of a paper trail than some state programs. It also requires annual renewal via a doctor. “I start sending out reminders to my patients two months in advance,” she said.

 

After we usher in the Drug Peace Era, healers of all stripes will be able to improve more patients’ lives with various forms of cannabis tailored to their patients’ conditions.

 

Read more: http://www.theweedblog.com

After two years of study and discussion, the federal government has finalized new rules for medical marijuana and granted a reprieve to pharmacists who opposed the rules in their draft form.

 

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq rolled out the regulations today for formal publication in the Canada Gazette on Wednesday.

 

Under the new regime, the government will no longer produce or distribute medical pot and medical marijuana users will no longer be allowed to grow the product at home.

 

Health Canada said since the medical marijuana program was introduced in 2001, it has expanded to 30,000 people from the original 500 authorized to use the product.

 

"This rapid increase has had unintended consequences for public health, safety and security as a result of allowing individuals to produce marijuana in their homes," the department said in a news release.

 

"Under the new regulations, production will no longer take place in homes and municipal zoning laws will need to be respected, which will further enhance public safety."

 

Under the new regulations, the government will allow patients to buy prescribed amounts only from licensed growers who will be required to meet strict conditions.

 

Concerns from doctors, pharmacists

In previous versions of the regulations, pharmacies were to distribute the product just like other medications, provoking concern from pharmacists, who expressed concerns about dispensing a product without sufficient research. They also cited security concerns.

 

The final version removes the pharmacists from the loop, leaving patients to rely on mail order for their medical marijuana.

 

"While the courts have said that there must be reasonable access to a legal source of marijuana for medical purposes, we believe that this must be done in a controlled fashion in order to protect public safety," Aglukkaq said in a statement.

 

"These changes will strengthen the safety of Canadian communities while making sure patients can access what they need to treat serious illnesses."

 

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca

It could happen as early as 2014.

 

In the wake of ballot measures legalizing marijuana in Washington state and Colorado, it’s not at all out of the question that Oregon voters will have another shot at legalizing marijuana in this state.

 

Now, it’s true that Oregon voters just last November rejected another initiative, Ballot Measure 80, which would have legalized marijuana. But our sense is that voters were reluctant to ratify that particular measure because — well, because it was loony.

 

If there’s a pot-legalization measure on the Oregon ballot in 2014 — and if the measure appears to have been crafted with somewhat more care than went into Measure 80 — our hunch is that the measure will pass.

 

And Oregon state law on marijuana will lurch into head-on conflict with federal law.

 

The Obama administration hasn’t given much guidance on this matter to its federal attorneys in Washington state and Colorado after the marijuana votes in those states. In fact, Obama himself said that his administration had “bigger fish to fry” than figuring out strategies to help cut through the thicket of contradictions between state and federal drug laws.

 

Read more: http://www.statesmanjournal.com