Medical Marijuana

In an opinion released just this morning, a unanimous three-judge panel of a state appellate court said the local ordinance adopted by the city of Wyoming, MI that banned medical marijuana cultivation and use was clearly pre-empted by the medical marijuana state law, and that local governments could not use the federal prohibition on marijuana as an excuse to ban it.

The ruling is great news for medical cannabis patients in Michigan. Advocates say towns and cities across the state have been trying to thwart the state’s medical marijuana law, which was approved by voters in 2008.

“The entire medical marijuana community is elated by this decision,” said Tim Beck, one of the leaders in the successful ballot proposal in ‘08, “It confirms our belief that states have a right to regulate their own affairs.”

This leads us to a very important sentence from the court about federal and state law. “Congress can criminalize all uses of medical marijuana, (but) it cannot require the state to do the same,” the courts said. In other words, simply relying on federal law doesn’t exempt you from following the laws of your state if you are a city or town.

If more states adopt this position, it will certainly cut down on discrimination on medical marijuana patients. And the more resistance that the feds feel from states on the issue of medical marijuana, the harder it will be for the Department of Justice to continue its crackdown. And the harder it becomes for the DOJ, the sooner they will rethink their course of action.

The feds count on many states just giving up their medical marijuana programs without a fight. For the sake of medical marijuana patients everywhere, let’s hope they are not right.

Source: http://www.freep.com

What do you prefer?

Medical marijuana patients across the country are going to get their voice heard in court this fall when the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit hears oral arguments in Americans for Safe Access (http://americansforsafeaccess.org) vs. Drug Enforcement Administration, a lawsuit challenging marijuana’s place among other Schedule I drugs under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The hearing comes ten years after the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) filed its petition, the courts will finally review the scientific evidence regarding the medical value of marijuana.

"Medical marijuana patients are finally getting their day in court," said Joe Elford, Chief Counsel with Americans for Safe Access, the country's leading medical marijuana advocacy group. "This is a rare opportunity for patients to confront politically motivated decision-making with scientific evidence of marijuana's medical efficacy," continued Elford. "What's at stake in this case is nothing less than our country's scientific integrity and the imminent needs of millions of patients."

ASA filed its lawsuit in January, challenging the July 2011 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) denial of the CRC petition, which was filed in 2002. Hopefully this will be what finally breaks the DEA’s hold over marijuana and allows a sensible scheduling of the cannabis plant at the very least.

This announcement of oral arguments comes just weeks after a study was published in The Open Neurology Journal by Dr. Igor Grant, one of the leading U.S. medical marijuana researchers, claiming that marijuana's Schedule I classification is "not tenable." Dr. Grant and his fellow researchers concluded it was "not accurate that cannabis has no medical value, or that information on safety is lacking." The study urged additional research, and stated that marijuana's federal classification and its political controversy are "obstacles to medical progress in this area." Marijuana's classification as a Schedule I substance - along with heroin and morphine - is based on the federal government's position that it has "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States."

Source: http://www.enewspf.com

Last week medical marijuana patients and advocates gathered in front of City Hall in Oakland to rally for medical cannabis and protest recent threats to shut down Harborside Health Center, which serves over 100,000 patients and follows all local and state laws and is not near a school.

But because it is big, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag assumes they have to be doing something nefarious, and therefore has moved to shut them down.

“SF City Watch presentation of Pot Talk TV producer Tony De Renzo crosses the bay bridge and captures Harborside Health Center's Medical Marijuana March in Oakland California,” says the description of the video below.  ‘Steve DeAngelo, from Weed Wars, speaks on behalf of the voters and patients in all of the medical marijuana states. It's time to end these raids on lawful dispensaries and respect state rights.”

Steve DeAngelo is also the Executive Director of Harborside. He is now at the forefront of a storm that could very well direct the future course of the battle between the states and the federal government over medical marijuana.

If Harborside is forced to shut down, it will be a demoralizing blow to the movement nationwide.