chers---
scott imler’s interview is the cornerstone for an inflammatory report about medical cannabis in the los angeles/west hollywood area that cbs is broadcasting tonight at 7pm on 60 minutes. interviews are also expected with Don Duncan from ASA, and patient William Leahy, currently working at the “farmacy”™ but not so employed at the time of the interview.
we are hoping for comments from at least 100 patients from our community. that means you. Please watch the program, sign up and post a comment tonight. notes and suggestions follow.
namasté
---richard kearns
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/20/60minutes/main3281715.shtml
The Debate On California's Pot Shops
Sept. 20, 2007(CBS) The idea was a noble one: pass a law to make marijuana legal for cancer and AIDS sufferers whose pain and nausea the drug is known to relieve. But the law the Rev. Scott Imler thought would one day put the drug in pharmacies has instead created "pot dealers in storefronts" who sell to anyone with doctors' notes that are fairly easy to obtain.
60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer speaks to Imler and others for a report on medical marijuana, this Sunday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Imler admits the noble idea turned out to be a pipe dream. "I think there's a lot of [people just buying the drug to get high]," he tells Safer. "A lot of what we have now is basically pot dealers in storefronts."
Imler lives in California, one of 12 states to pass a medical marijuana bill. To pass California's Proposition 215, Imler says many more types of patients besides cancer and AIDS sufferers had to be included. "They all have their lobbies. The kidney patient and the heart patient," says Imler.
That led to a blanket law covering anyone with pain, setting the stage for the easy-to-get doctor's notes and hundreds of storefront marijuana "clubs." "It's just ridiculous the amount of money going through these cannabis clubs," Imler tells Safer.
Don Duncan, an owner of three medical marijuana clubs in California, says abuse is to be expected as it occurs with prescription drugs as well. "There's bound to be abuse in the system," says Duncan. "What we really need right now are regulations that address those issues."
The "clubs" are supposed to be comprised of patients who grow marijuana for the sole reason of distributing it to fellow members, but Imler says, "Most of these cannabis centers are buying their marijuana off the black market. They're dumping millions of dollars into the criminal black market."
This has not escaped the notice of federal officials, for whom the drug is still illegal under federal law. One of Duncan's clubs was raided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Shutting down the clubs solves one problem, but could affect the quality of life for people like William Leahy, who suffers from vascular degeneration. "I have a deformity here," he says, pointing to his hip, "and a great deal of pain and discomfort. [The clubs] help me with that," says Leahy.
Imler says it's time for the federal government to step up for people like Leahy. "We only saw the local cannabis programs as a stopgap measure on the way to the federal government rescheduling it and making [marijuana] available in the pharmacy like regular medicines are. Until that happens, we're going to have what we have now, which is chaos."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/20/60minutes/main3281715.shtml
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Comments [ + Post Your Own ]
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/20/60minutes/main3281715.shtml#Post
rk’s list of things you might comment about (pick one):
1) talk about your experience with medical cannabis.
2) talk about what safe access means to you
3) talk about your experience with the regulatory process in los angeles. did you offer testimony? do you have confidence in the working committee? what has your experience been in west hollywood? can you talk about working with local government to come up with a plan?
4) talk about your experience with stigma & cannabis
5) if all marijuana is black market, according to the dea, then what does imler mean when he says the clinics purchase from black market sources? and how is the black market different from the “criminal” black market (into which the regular black market is “dumping millions of dollars.” how does imler know this? or does he just suppose it to be true? his speech isused in a circular attemt to stigmatize us with word games.
6) imler has a rep in the community of cooperating with the dea. the problem here is is his credibility --- focus on his credibility.
7) cbs should be providing fair an balanced coverage of this issue. how does this fit that bill?
8) talk about going to your doctor to get a letter of recommendation, and how the clinics verify it.
9) note that other persons posting may be putting up lies (and may also be from anti-drug orgs). when you see another commentor assert something that isn’t true, take issue with the comment. for instance:
Take it from someone who spent the last 24 years watching this problem grow first hand.
1 Who ever smokes pot gets all the same poisons as a person that smokes cigarettes.
2 Mendocino County CA alone profits over $45 Billions a year from pot.
3 More than half of the pot sold in this country is sold to students under the age of 18.
4 There has been the THC pill ( marinol ) around for the last 35 years. We don’’t need pot.
5 These drug dealers took advantage of our sympathy for people in pain.
6 The pot growers care about nothing but money, and they make tons of it. Mostly from our kids.
We need to turn this around. We don’’’’t need to legalize pot and start collecting kids lunch money through taxation.
We need to stop the lie of med pot and stop the poisoning of kids now.
10) in one of the sidebar stories backing up the report tonight, marijuana is listed as a narcotic with the following properties (none of which is backed up with references, so it must be god’s truth). do you think it reveals a bias in the coverage?
Marijuana
Street Names: pot, herb, weed, boom, Mary Jane, gangster, and chronic
Marijuana is a green or gray mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves of the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. It is usually smoked as a cigarette (called a joint or a nail) or in a pipe or bong. In recent years, marijuana has appeared in blunts, which are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and refilled with marijuana, often in combination with another drug, such as crack. Some users also mix marijuana into foods or use it to brew tea.
Main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). The short term effects of marijuana use include problems with memory and learning; distorted perception; difficulty in thinking and problem-solving; loss of coordination; and increased heart rate, anxiety, and panic attacks.
Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems as tobacco smokers. These individuals may have daily cough and phlegm, symptoms of chronic bronchitis, and more frequent chest colds. Continuing to smoke marijuana can lead to abnormal functioning of lung tissue injured or destroyed by marijuana smoke.
Marijuana is addictive because it causes compulsive, often uncontrollable drug craving, seeking, and use, even in the face of negative health and social consequences.
from comments posted already
Page 1 of 3 | First | 1 2 3 | Last
Casey, I don''t want to look like a pot smoking radical (that happens to have a condition that marijuana helps with). I couldn''t post my thoughts all in one comment so after writing it I had to break up my comment into separate posts, with my comments reading backwards. I do believe that our country''s current view on marijuana is greatly skewed in many ways. An interesting thing is I earned my Eagle Scout by the age of 17. So you would think my feelings would be more to the right wing, like my fathers were until he saw first hand how marijuana relieve my nausea and vomiting.
Posted by dbuck1075 at 03:56 PM : Sep 22, 2007
snidegrass: there may be millions of drunks on the road, so perhaps you should start preaching about the ban of alcohol.
there is a very simple reason why marijuana was made illegal: corporations cant control it as a product; it occurs in nature and what you need you can grow in your backyard. one way or another: its all about $$$
which is why hard grains (vodka, gin) are legal but moonshine is not. think about it.
alcohol is more debilitating and more addictive, as is gambling but they are legal. Hmmmmm. I wish you would just be honest and admit that it is all about $$$ run by the friends of politicians.
Posted by hewhispers at 03:32 PM : Sep 22, 2007
As a Maryland medicinal marijuana patient/advocate I hope your episode doesn''t go too far in labeling people as just another pot smoker trying to get high when it comes to pain. I run a political blog called Casey''s Dream on which I ask people to send me their stories. I want to make sure that every person under the care of a doctor for chronic pain has as an option to use cannabis to relieve their pain. I personally am a polio survivor. I now have Post Polio Syndrome. Due to the changes in my muscular/skeletal system I have multiple compressed or herniated discs. I have osteoarthritis, who doesn''t at 54. The thing is my osteoarthritis was diagnosed when I was in high school. It now affects my hands and knees, as well as the cervical and lumbar regions of my spine. Add to this the muscle pain from fatigue I endure everyday and did so from my early twenties to my late forties without significant drug therapy you might understand my frustrations. I currently take a combination of five medicines, or 12 pills a day just to be able to have some sort of normal functionality in my life. I testified before committees of the Maryland legislature last year and plan on doing so again this year. Mr. Safer, I know you remember the summers of polio scares and telethons for the little children in braces. Well we grew up and we''re in pain please don''t help America now turn its back on us now. http://caseysdream.blogspot.com
Posted by Caseys_Dream at 11:25 AM : Sep 22, 2007
If you go to my first post a few below this one and read my post up from there it will flow right.
Posted by dbuck1075 at 06:51 AM : Sep 22, 2007
Tobacco was once America''s cash crop, and alcohol used to be illegal under prohibition, though times have changed. Society''s antiquated associations with marijuana hinder America''s development of health care and our symbiotic relationship with each other and nature.
People of the modern age prefer prohibiting a healthy substance that anyone can grow in a window. To men in white coats designing drugs that cost a fortune and are synthesized from god only knows what.
It''s time for change.
Posted by dbuck1075 at 05:39 AM : Sep 22, 2007
Now step aside... don''t just think of marijuana as a medicine, but rather as a recreational substance. Perhaps "Bud" could be accepted as something like tobacco and alcohol. Pot could be a commodity that is taxed, regulated, voted on, and governed by the states.
Law enforcement has been wasting time locking up and busting people for possession and distribution of this stigmatized plant. Tax payers waste money prosecuting citizens who in turn spend money defending themselves from harsh marijuana laws.
However, if the herb was legalized and taxed the government''s problems with funding education could be subsidized. Optimist believe all education and law enforcement could be funded with the legalization and taxation of marijuana.
Imagine the government generating revenue from marijuana: growers, employers, employees, and customers of hash bars/smoke shops could all be taxed on different levels. Enterprising Americans can see the potential in marijuana being a new facet of commerce.
Posted by dbuck1075 at 05:35 AM : Sep 22, 2007
Thank god I live in Oregon, a state that accepts marijuana as medicine. If a doctor suggests Marijuana could help a patient''s condition, the patient can pay a fee to OMMP and register a grow site.
Being able to grow and use my own medicine has worked better than anything I''ve been prescribed. In monetary terms this medicinal plant has saved me, and the government thousands of dollars.
When I medicate with herbs I don''t have to fill my prescription for Marinol, suppositories, or Valiums all of which hardly work, and cost a fortune. Also I''m not Valiumed out or so doped up to where I can hardly keep my tongue in my mouth.
Posted by dbuck1075 at 05:34 AM : Sep 22, 2007
Almost on a daily basis I suffer from chronic nausea and vomiting caused from Diabetic Gastropasesis. Diabetic Gastroparesis is severe nerve damage in the stomach, an affliction I''ve suffered with for over seven years.
Following a doctors prescription I have tried different types of Valiums, these knock me out, if it even stays down. I''ve used various suppositories; they''re not much fun to use, and they help about like a Valium. I have also used Marinol. When I don''t vomit it up Marinol can take anywhere from half an hour or more to do anything (and often times it helps none at all). Marinol can costs up to 10 dollars a pill, or more, which is more expensive than marijuana harvested from a home garden.
Often when I smoke marijuana while experiencing an episode of nausea or vomiting. My stomach pain ebbs and the nausea often subsides or ends all together, occasionally instantly. Sometimes without marijuana these episodes of nausea and vomiting have lasted for days. This herb helps in keeping these episode''s shorter, fewer in number, and when I do have a serious episode out of the hospital from dehydration; by helping me hold down enough fluids to stay hydrated.
Posted by dbuck1075 at 05:24 AM : Sep 22, 2007
According to the growing tide of research, the analgesic, anti-inflammatory and potentially curative effects of cannabis continues to support that marijuana is a safe, effective part of therapeutic treatment. Twelve states legally recognize the medicinal use of marijuana, and eighty percent of Americans support medical cannabis, according to a 2002 CNN/Time poll. Get involved in the movement for safe and legal access to medical cannabis today. Our power comes from our collective action. Whether it''s calling Congress, attending rallies, organizing a local ASA chapter, signing an online petition, or supporting federal defendants, take action today! When your elected officials hear from you %u2013 and often %u2013 they are more likely to support our calls for safe and legal access to medical cannabis!
http://americansforsafeaccess.org/
Posted by tonebowles at 05:11 PM : Sep 21, 2007
I am sure that the majority Americans agree that people with serious and terminal medical conditions should be allowed to obtain and use a limited amount of marijuana if recommended by their physician.
Logic says that doctors can prescribe far more dangerous and addicting drugs than marijuana. Common sense says that this issue ought to be decided for the good of the patient, in the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship. Compassion says that no patient should suffer needlessly, and no patient should go to prison for following a doctor''s advice. Science says that marijuana has great potential to safely relieve pain and other symptoms associated with a wide range of medical conditions.
Registered nurses have taken a leadership position on this issue because so many of us have seen first hand how marijuana can safely and effectively relieve patient suffering. It is our duty, as patient advocates, to speak out. For more information, visit www.medicalcannabis.com/, the web site of Patients Out of Time. Patients Out of Time''s 5th National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics is scheduled for April 4 - 5, 2008 in Pacific Grove, California.
Ken Wolski, RN, MPA
Executive Director, Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc., (www.cmmnj.org )
844 Spruce St.
Trenton, NJ 08648
609.394.2137 ohamkrw@aol.com
THC has been available in pill form for the last 35 years. It''s called Marinol and it doesn''t have all the carcinogens that come with smoking anything.
Posted by marcpcbs at 09:36 PM : Sep 20, 2007
Take it from someone who spent the last 24 years watching this problem grow first hand.
1 Who ever smokes pot gets all the same poisons as a person that smokes cigarettes.
2 Mendocino County CA alone profits over $45 Billions a year from pot.
3 More than half of the pot sold in this country is sold to students under the age of 18.
4 There has been the THC pill ( marinol ) around for the last 35 years. We don''t need pot.
5 These drug dealers took advantage of our sympathy for people in pain.
6 The pot growers care about nothing but money, and they make tons of it. Mostly from our kids.
We need to turn this around. We don''''t need to legalize pot and start collecting kids lunch money through taxation.
We need to stop the lie of med pot and stop the poisoning of kids now.
Posted by marcpcbs at 09:32 PM : Sep 20, 2007
Take it from someone who spent the lasy 24 years watching this problem grow first hand.
1 Who ever smokes pot gets all the same poisons as a person that smokes sigarettes.
2 Mendocino County CA alone profits over $45 Billions a year from pot.
3 More than half of the pot sold in this country is sold to students under the age of 18.
4 There has been the THC pill ( marinol ) around for the last 35 years. We dont need pot.
5 These drug deakers took advantage of our simpathy for people in pain.
6 The pot growers care about nothing but money, and they make tons of it. Mostly from our kids.
We need to turn this around. We don''t need to legalize pot and start collecting kids lunch money through taxation.
We need to stop the lie of med pot and stop the poisoning of kids now.
Posted by marcpcbs at 09:28 PM : Sep 20, 2007
Greetings Brethren,
Scott Imlar is a narc. He informed on peter Mc Williams and others in LA for his own profit. Nothing said by him should be given any credence - as he has none outside such credible sources as Morley Safer.
By the Way, the first intimations of Prop 215 came when Peter Gorman, editor of High times magazine, hosted Dennis Peron and our own Rev. Sam Smith of Our Church in his hotel room at the Norml convention in Washington DC in 1992 or 3. Sam met with Dennis to broach the subject, they worked out the details over seveal hours, and Dennis went back to San Francisco to write and organize the petition drive that resulted in the Initiative 215 being passed. Jack Herer attempted to mount a seperate initiative for hemp legalization that failed to get on the ballot as I recall. I have a picture of Dennis and Jack, united together on election nite 1996 in San Francisco, smoking the Peace Herb to their mutual delight. This has been verified to me as reported by Peter Gorman, by Dennis and Jack.
Again, give Scott Imlar a wide berth. He has no honor, nor respect amongst those who actually did the work. He has the blood of Peter McWilliams on his hands.
One Love revtombrown.
Posted by Revtombrown at 08:14 PM : Sep 20, 2007
Imler admits the noble idea turned out to be a pipe dream. "I think there''s a lot of people just buying the drug to get high,"
WOW, REALLY?
Minister or not. Just another liberal idiot who can''t see past his nose, much less long term consequences.
Posted by bizzzz at 06:51 PM : Sep 20, 2007
HAHA My back hurts, I''m movin to California!
Posted by linfinster at 06:39 PM : Sep 20, 2007
No, prohibition will never work. The biggest problem is that marijuana is considered a drug. That in itself is ridiculous. It''''s a plant that grows in the ground, and has many uses. Law enforcement should concentrate their efforts elsewhere
Posted by rematenaj
LOLOLOL...cocaine is also derived from a natural plant...doesn''t make it harmless.
Posted by sbbm at 06:02 PM : Sep 20, 2007
Just tax it, and that should relieve any angst the FED has about its'' distribution. Case in point: isn''t that why the killer of millions known as tobacco is still on the market?
Posted by thee0racle at 04:57 PM : Sep 20, 2007
No, prohibition will never work. The biggest problem is that marijuana is considered a drug. That in itself is ridiculous. It''s a plant that grows in the ground, and has many uses. Law enforcement should concentrate their efforts elsewhere!
Posted by rematenaj at 04:48 PM : Sep 20, 2007
Marijuana has been illegal for over 70 years and today it is America''s #1 cash crop.
Prohibition will never work.
Cops say legalize and regulate marijuana.
FIGHT CRIME AND VIOLENCE!
www.leap.cc
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 04:35 PM : Sep 20, 2007
Just tax it, and that should relieve any angst the FED has about its'' distribution. Case in point: isn''t that why the killer of millions known as tobacco is still on the market?
Posted by thee0racle at 04:57 PM : Sep 20, 2007
No, prohibition will never work. The biggest problem is that marijuana is considered a drug. That in itself is ridiculous. It''s a plant that grows in the ground, and has many uses. Law enforcement should concentrate their efforts elsewhere!
Posted by rematenaj at 04:48 PM : Sep 20, 2007
Marijuana has been illegal for over 70 years and today it is America''s #1 cash crop.
Prohibition will never work.
Cops say legalize and regulate marijuana.
FIGHT CRIME AND VIOLENCE!
www.leap.cc
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 04:35 PM : Sep 20, 2007
