November 30, 2011 in News

Change federal marijuana rules, Gregoire says

Joins R.I. governor to allow medical use

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OLYMPIA — Governors from Washington and Rhode Island asked the federal government Wednesday to reclassify marijuana so it can be used for medical use.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee petitioned the Drug Enforcement Administration to take off Schedule I, which is reserved for drugs like heroin and peyote that have no medicinal use and thus are illegal under all circumstances.

It should be moved to Schedule 2, which is for drugs like morphine and codeine, which are illegal under many circumstances but can be prescribed by a doctor and filled by a pharmacist for certain conditions.

“It’s time to show compassion and it’s time to show common sense,” Gregoire said. “There’s no evidence to suggest any medical marijuana patient has died from an overdose.”

She’s a Democrat and Chafee a Republican. They called it a “bipartisan, bicoastal” effort, adding they expect governors from other states that also have medical marijuana laws on their books, to join.

The petition was filed Wednesday, and will be turned over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They’ve requested public hearings.

The request is prompted in part by recent federal crackdowns in Washington and other states against a growing number of medical marijuana “dispensaries”, where patients with physician approval for marijuana for diagnosed medical problems have purchased their supplies.

“Our intent is to ask for an expedited petition,” Gregoire said after acknowledging the last request to reclassify marijuana took about nine years, and was ultimately rejected by the Obama administration. Since that time there have been new studies on the value of marijuana to treat some medical conditions, and its legalization for medical use has been supported by the American Medical Association.

The result of the clash between federal drug laws and individual state initiatives – some like Washington’s passed by voters – has been “chaos,” the governors said.

Under the governors’ proposal, certified medical marijuana patients would get their supply from a pharmacy. Asked if that would put the current dispensaries out of business, Gregoire replied: “If dispensaries want to become pharmacies, great. If not, patients would go to pharmacies.”

The request seems unlikely to stop federal raids of businesses that sell medical marijuana. “I can’t ask them to stand down from law enforcement,” Gregoire said of the U.S. Department of Justice crack down.

Nine comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  DHF on November 30 at 5:53 p.m.

  As a former nurse there are more types of med’s that can be prescribed legally to treat everything including the seven year itch so why do you need marijuana. It is that these head shops want a piece of the action. To set up shop and sell to legal prescribed use as a front to deal out the back door to the illegal. Its all about big profit and getting by without being caught. Gregoire has her head where the sun does not shine. We have enough drugs without these stoner’s wanting more If she has so much time on her hands why not deal with the economic mess that her and the liberal democrat lib’s created.

• 

  misjustice on November 30 at 6:18 p.m.

  The Feds are not going to give up their cash cow; they can take all of your stuff if you get caught with a “felony” amount of weed. Take your car, your house, your bank account, your land, your jewelry, and even your kids.

  Kill someone and you get to keep your car, your house, your bank account, your land, your jewelry, and even your kids.

  As long as the Feds and Local coppers can take all of your stuff they will keep up the insane “war on weed”. It’s extremely profitable for them to do so.

• 

  oneanddone on November 30 at 6:54 p.m.

  There’s no reason to legalize MJ under the cover of medicinal use. If it’s to be used medically then, as any other controlled drug, sell it via a pharmacy. Vicodin isn’t sold off of someone’s front porch and neither should MJ. The whole concept of selling it in shops is a farce.

• 

  gmorton on November 30 at 7:04 p.m.

  You nailed that one, misj. Many local yokels profit from that scam too.

  Has proved to be a great cash cow for statists:

  Step 1: Outlaw some harmless substance that is in great demand, thereby creating a black market.

  Step 2: Raise taxes to pay for the extra cops, judges, and jails needed to lock up all the “offenders.”

  Step 3: Seize the property of anyone *accused* of being in possession of the contraband. No conviction necessary!

  Step 4: Hand a nice chunk of the seized booty over to the cops, thereby assuring plenty of incentive on their part to enforce this brilliant law.

  Your gummint at work!

• 

  Sadbuttrue on November 30 at 8:32 p.m.

  Cops will fight tooth and nail to keep weed illegal. It’s a number’s game: You can make 50 or 60 felony arrests for weed in the same amount of time and effort it takes to solve one burglary case and maybe make one felony arrest.

  Which is precisely why the Spokane Police Department no longer takes reports or investigates property crimes.

  A man has to have his priorities.

• 

  Ed Byrnes on November 30 at 10:49 p.m.

  I am with MisJ, gmorton and Sadbuttrue on prohibition being a racket. This issue cuts across traditional political boundaries when rationalism is applied to the question of cannabis prohibition.

  I have always been an advocate of legalizing, taxing and regulating cannabis in the same way as alcohol.

  Over the past few years I have offered plenty of evidence to support my position on legalization, essentially declassifying cannabis rather than reclassifying it, though I consider reclassifying as a step in the right direction because it actually considers empirical evidence for the first time since federal prohibition began in the 1930s.

  Reclassifying cannabis also removes the justification for the extensive overreach of the federal government that is currently underway.

  We can anticipate strong resistance to any modifying of the prohibition status quo by the usual suspects: Law enforcement because of the profit motive inherent in the seizure and forfeiture laws; Public and private corrections for essentially job security reasons; The “treatment” industry because of coerced treatment being profitable (SAMHSA, an administration within the US Dept of Health and Human Services released data two years ago demonstrating that of people in “treatment” exclusively for cannabis 75% were court ordered); The drug testing industry because of reduced volume and profits; The alcohol industry because of competition.

  No government has any business persecuting people for slightly altering their own consciousness with a relatively benign natural substance.

  I have in the past and can presently, empirically and readily take on the straw man arguments about cannabis being a “gateway drug” or “addictive” that I expect to hear from prohibition advocates since empirical generalities derived from science refute these arguments.

  The thing is that people are waking up to the policy disaster that prohibition is and the fallacy of the prohibitionists arguments. Survey data consistently demonstrate a trend toward people being favorable toward legalization so the question is no longer if, but rather when, we will abandoned this misguided and failed policy in favor of empiricism and liberty.

  Ed Byrnes

• 

  malcolmkyle on December 01 at 12:39 a.m.

  OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 1):

  Federal researchers implanted several types of cancer, including leukemia and lung cancers, in mice, then treated them with cannabinoids (unique, active components found in marijuana). THC and other cannabinoids shrank tumors and increased the mice’s lifespans. Munson, AE et al. Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Sept. 1975. p. 597-602.

  OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER, (PART 2):

  In a 1994 study the government tried to suppress, federal researchers gave mice and rats massive doses of THC, looking for cancers or other signs of toxicity. The rodents given THC lived longer and had fewer cancers, “in a dose-dependent manner” (i.e. the more THC they got, the fewer tumors). NTP Technical Report On The Toxicology And Carcinogenesis Studies Of 1-Trans- Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, CAS No. 1972-08-3, In F344/N Rats And B6C3F Mice, Gavage Studies. See also, “Medical Marijuana: Unpublished Federal Study Found THC-Treated Rats Lived Longer, Had Less Cancer,” AIDS Treatment News no. 263, Jan. 17, 1997.

  OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 3):

  Researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, funded by NIDA, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. Tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. Marijuana smokers who didn’t also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. In fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. Sidney, S. et al. Marijuana Use and Cancer Incidence (California, United States). Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 8. Sept. 1997, p. 722-728.

  OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 4):

  Donald Tashkin, a UCLA researcher whose work is funded by NIDA, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. Even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased Lung Cancer risk). Tashkin D. Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study. American Thoracic Society International Conference. May 23, 2006.

• 

  thumbtac on December 01 at 4:17 a.m.

  the benefits to smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes has always by far outweighed any negative effects that marijuana could impose although none have been found yet. i can personally give credit to the healing of my MRSA that i got from a simple ear infection. which took traditional doctors with their pharmacy drugs 3 years and 6 surgeries and many chunks of my skull chiseled out later to even get a small grip on the major skull infection that continued to rapidly progress from lack of traditional medications and treatments working . after almost dying from allergic reactions and my kidneys shutting down from the poison they were pumping me with and the lack of those medications in effectively controlling my infection i finally said enough was enough i stopped all physician treatment and pharmacy drugs smoked 6 grams of pot a day and did 2 O8 treatments and now 2 years later i am healthy and well again oh and MRSA free. to DHF please dont tell me as a former nurse that you truly beleive that your pharmacy has enough drugs without adding marijuana to it, until you open your eyes to the synthetic chemicals those so-called medications are poisoning you with and realize it would better benefit us all if we got rid of those harmful synthetic poisons/chemicals and replaced them with natural remedies such as marijuana. my marijuana smoking effects no one but me tell me especially not you, please tell me how you feel you have the right to know whats best for everyone?maybe you just need to mind your own business since it obviously doesnt pertain to you or your medical needs.

• 

  Sadbuttrue on December 01 at 5:18 a.m.

  Hilariously, the Federals commissioned a study a few years ago where they tested drivers (who were driving in traffic!) and the study concluded that:

  a). Marijuana had about as much effect on motor skills and reaction times as ibuprofen;

  b). Marijuana caused the drivers to overreact and OVERCOMPENSATE for the drug and to slow down and drive much much SAFER;

  Of course, the solution to this study was to bury it and never contract with the company again for government-sponsored research. And then last year the cops had “Spice” banned through an emergency executive edict, thereby providing a massive shot in the arm to the bloated prison/industrial/cop complex.

  The “gateway drug” hysteria has also been sharply disproved by another disfavored government study. Actually (and my own personal experience as well as the experience of 100’s of millions of college graduates supports this conclusion) marijuana turns out to be a “shut door” drug. In that people (like me again) try it a few times to be polite and conclude: “WTF?” “What’s the point of this?” “It does nothing.” And then get permanently turned off to the prospect of trying any other illegal drug.

  So really the whole prohibition of weed rests upon a series of interlocking lies and only benefits the law enforcement and prison industries.