Los Angeles Marijuana Clinic Blog

It looks like the central coast is still on its right wing horse. The Hollister and Monterey City Council's have both approved different versions of an emergency moratorium…Monterey's city manager stated that its simply to give the city the time to develop a policy on medical marijuana collectives.

I'm not sure how many medical marijuana card patients their are on the central coast…but I'm sure its far more than the two marijuana collectives that currently exist and are now being closed could handle.

The state of California needs to get its act and together protect the medical marijuana patients rights…

References to the use of marijuana as a medical treatment date back nearly 5000 years. Western medicine began approved use of marijuana in the mid-1800's and continued to do so until 1941 when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act that severely limited physicians' ability to prescribe it. Interestingly enough, the American Medical Association (AMA) was one of the most active organizations against this ban

Medical marijuana use, under a doctors supervision, is legal in thirteen states with actual laws varying by state. These states are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Each state does have its own set of rules and it would be advisable to check them frequently as laws are subject to change at any time. It is important to note that in May 2001 the Supreme Court ruled that federal laws make no exception for distributing or growing marijuana by a third party. Simplified, it means users need to grow their own marijuana for medical use as it is illegal for it to be grown by someone else.

The effects of marijuana on the brain are due to the active ingredient, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. THC acts on cannabinoid receptors on nerve cells and influences the activity of those cells. Cannabinoid receptors are found in many parts of the brain that can influence memory, pleasure, thought, concentration and coordination.

Both anecdotal and scientific research evidence suggests that marijuana provides relief to chronic pain sufferers with a variety of ailments ranging from back pain, migraines, glaucoma, cancer and many more. Research by Vinciqeurra et al. found that 78% of patients tested who were resistant to regular drugs for nausea became symptom free with inhaled cannabis use. There are more than 17,000 papers published that deal with scientific clinical research of the therapeutic value of cannabinoids.

One of the most widely known medical uses for marijuana is in treatment for the side effects of chemotherapy. It is used for the reduction of nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. Another well known use is in the treatment of glaucoma. Many standard treatments have very adverse effects and little positive effect on end stage glaucoma. The use of cannabis lowers the intraocular pressure allowing patients to retain their sight and avoid the painful deterioration that leads to blindness.

Medical marijuana is being tested in its use for Multiple Sclerosis patients. At this time there is no known effective regular medical cure available. Cannabis has been found to have a significant effect on MS symptoms. Cannabis use has been found to reduce tremors, restore balance, stop muscle spasms and restore sight, speech and bladder control. Cannabis may even retard the progression of MS, according to the publication, Marijuana - The Forbidden Medicine.

Medical marijuana is also used for the treatment of other forms of pain. One subject suffered a major back injury and consequent surgery. The subject was offered opiate types of pain medication but found the simple use of marijuana was equally effective on the pain without the side effects of an opiate drug. Unfortunately this subject does not reside in a state that allows for the use of medical marijuana and will therefore not be quoted.

The short-term undesirable effects of marijuana include distorted perception, loss of coordination, difficulties with learning, problem solving and memory, and an increase in heart rate with a decrease in blood pressure. Some users may also experience fear, distrust or a feeling of panic. Most of the negative effects of tobacco smoking are also found in the smoking of marijuana. There is a possibility that frequent or prolonged use of marijuana may lead to significant impairment of the immune system and further studies should be part of any research, especially if marijuana is to be used by patients with compromised immune systems. Use of medical marijuana for reducing intraocular pressure in glaucoma can also cause an unwanted drop in blood pressure. The heart rate of the user can increase by 20 or more beats per minute and can cause an increased risk of heart attack.

Many studies and clinical trials are now ongoing, mostly in countries more in favor of the use and further research is needed to fully weigh the pros and cons of medical marijuana use.

References:

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

U.S. National Institutes of Health

http://www.ukcia.org/research/ TherapeuticPotentialMedicalUse s.php

http://www.concept420.com/marijuana_medical_med_uses.htm

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Clinical depression is a very serious illness. People with this condition have long-term, often debilitating feelings of sadness and low self-esteem. Depression makes ordinary tasks such as going to work, cooking, cleaning, even personal hygiene, very difficult. Researchers have found that low doses of medical marijuana increased serotonin levels in the brain, which helps to improve mood.

When I was speaking with my doctor about the different medication that were available to me (and I asked him for a marijuana recommendation) he had suggested that I speak with Marijuana Medicine Evaluation Centers to see if their doctor might be able to help.

They were… and my quality of life has improved dramatically since I found my local marijuana collective on Weed Maps.

One of the most controversial problems in our modern society is what to do with cannabis. Many people use the flowering tops of cannabis, called marijuana, to get to an intoxicated state. In our society there is a taboo against cannabis use and the users are considered criminals and terrorists. But is this really true? Are cannabis users really bad people, or are the people working against the use of cannabis really the bad ones? In this article I will discuss most the uses of the cannabis plant, most the harmful effects, and will try to do this without a bias for either side.

The use of cannabis dates all the way back to pre-history when primitive humans used the plant to make rope, and as a source of food. Unlike many crops, hemp can be grown in most locations and climates with only moderate water and fertilizer requirements. Industrial hemp can be used to make many products that are all eco friendly, and safe. These include organic pesticides that are harmless to humans, paper, glue, textiles, building materials, food, paint, detergent, varnish, oil, ink, biodegradable plastics and fuel. Marijuana grade cannabis is also useful for making medicine, paper, and pesticides. The pesticides are made from the cannabinoids of the plant, which are used as a hormone in the plant and as a natural pesticide. It is also important to know that the paper that is processed from cannabis does not need to be bleached using chlorine, and hydrogen peroxide, which is more eco friendly, can be used instead. Also the plastics refined from the oils of the seeds are biodegradable, and also can be metabolized out of the body. This solves the problem of petroleum based plastics causing sterility. Yet another great thing about cannabis is the ability to make a special kind of lumber made by compacting long hemp fibers with cellulose glue, also made from hemp, into a strong flexible lumber. This lumber is water resistant, fire resistant, drought resistant, bug resistant, and also earthquake resistant. This lumber also does not warp as badly as conventional lumber and lasts much longer. I also want to talk about how harmful marijuana actually is. Is marijuana addictive? Can marijuana kill a person on its own?

Will it cause major permanent brain damage? Will it cause cancer? The answer to all those questions is no not really. Marijuana is about as addictive as ones favorite food. Probably less addictive than pure sugar, and more addictive than say sardines. In fact most of the legal drugs in America are much more addictive than marijuana. Also the cannabinoid receptors that cannabinoids bond to are not located on most the cardiovascular centers of the brain, making a marijuana overdose theoretically impossible. Many studies have shown that although marijuana does affect the short term memory of the user it is not permanent and it may increase the vividness of long term memory in heavy users. Lastly there are multiple studies to show that the cannabinoids in marijuana might be useful in fighting cancer. In a research study done in Madrid, rats with Cancerous brain tumors were injected with large amounts of THC, and they found that some rats had increase longevity and some were cured of their tumors. They also used a synthetic form of THC with near identical results. All control rats died. Marijuana has also been used to treat many illnesses such as glacouma, rheumatoid arthritis, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, dystonic state, Huntington's chorea, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), neuritis, multiple sclerosis, nausea and pain associated with cancer and chemotherapy, and Aids. After reading this article I hope you look at cannabis in a new way. Although there are a few harmful effects from smoking cannabis, users can always eat or vaporize the drug, and the harmful effects from smoking pot are limited.

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Well it looks like there will be a thinning of the heard regarding the medical marijuana collectives in L.A. County…1/19/2010 the L.A. City Council has just voted to give preliminary approval to shut down hundreds of legal marijuana collectives in L.A. County. The upside is that while there may be fewer places to go get your medicine, at least if you have your medical marijuana card you will to still have 70 places to choose from in L.A. County

The Controversial Medical Marijuana Topic
Medical Marijuana continues to rear its head in the political arena. It’s an emotionally charged issue on both sides, and among some people, “them’s fightin’ words”. Of course, there are also the people who don’t seem to really care one way or the other. The ones who figure it doesn’t affect them, so why should they waste time thinking about it? Maybe you’re one of them.

Pay Attention, Big Brother is Talking
Something that fascinates me is that many of the people most vehemently opposed to it have no experience with a chronic or terminal illness, or marijuana. They often think they have all the facts about marijuana, but what they usually have is something from the government’s anti-marijuana propaganda.  

I am a leukemia survivor who did two years of chemotherapy as a medical marijuana practitioner. I’m not looking to debate or argue, just to share my experience in hopes that people might pause to reconsider their stance, maybe even change their minds.  

Come Walk in My Shoes?
Leukemia is cancer of the blood. In addition to the chemotherapy, I also had nearly three weeks of brain radiation. There are no words to adequately express how it felt. I had no idea a human being could be so miserable. Once, I vomited for nearly six hours. Of course, I emptied out quickly and most of that time was spent dry heaving. Unless you have experienced this, you don’t know how bad it hurts. I was gulping water between heaves, hoping that having something to bring up might ease the pain. It didn’t.

Brain radiation sucks all your strength. By the end of the treatments, I wasn’t able to be on my feet and moving more than an hour a day. And that’s a total of the five minutes here and five minutes there involved in getting to the next radiation treatment, getting water, and getting to the restroom.

Chemotherapy is an “umbrella” word that covers a wide variety of anti-cancer medications. Depending on the medication, chemo may be administered orally (through the mouth), intravenously (through the vein), intrathecally (through the spine, to make sure it gets to your brain), subcutaneously (injected into the skin), and in a few situations, as a topical (on the surface of the skin) cream.

You have no idea how your body will react and it can be different each time. The methotrexate that made you swell up and vomit for six hours the last time you took it, might just give you seizures today. In fact, why don’t we take a look at some of the side effects for methotrexate?

• Thinned or brittle hair
• Loss of appetite or weight
• Mouth blisters
• Fatigue
• Painful urination
• Red urine
• Black, tarry stools
• Unusual bleeding or bruising
• Congestion
• Fever
• Dizziness
• Chills
• Shortness of breath
• Sore throat
• Swelling of the feet or ankles
• Vomiting
• Pain in the joints
• Seizures
• Severe skin rash
• Dry cough
• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Stomach pain
• Weakness
• Yellowness of skin or eyes
• Enlargement of the lymph nodes
• Decreased number of blood cells in the bone marrow
• Cancerous Lymphomas
• Severe damage to the liver, kidney, lungs and gastrointestinal tract (sometimes fatal)

If I may be so bold as to quote myself from another article I wrote on this topic:

“I think they should just make a generic label for chemo meds, something like the warning on cigarette packages: A warning from the Surgeon General: We have no idea what the hell will happen to you when you take these pills. Best wishes and good luck.”

One of the most common arguments against medical use of marijuana is the “potential side effects”. That seems kind of a joke next to the side effects from chemotherapy. I suppose it’s because chemotherapy is legal. Does that make sense to you? 

What are the side effects of marijuana anyway? 

1. Drowsiness/sleepiness
Trust me, with the insomnia induced from brain radiation, chemotherapy drugs, and the stress of wondering if you’ll survive the chemo, never mind the cancer, you will come to appreciate the drowsiness it offers.

2. Temporary problems with short-term memory
“Short-term memory? What’s that?” asked the woman who had her brain microwaved for three weeks. Someone did suggest to me that I drown my miseries in alcohol, but the more I thought about it, the less sense it made.

With marijuana, you sometimes forget what you went to the other room to grab. With alcohol, you sometimes forget where you live, what color car you own and where you left it, and that you are married.

3. Increased appetite
Nausea and loss of appetite are two of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. In addition to the increased appetite, marijuana controls nausea. It’s a double whammy bonus that can make the critical difference in how your treatment goes. If you don’t eat, you have no strength, if you force yourself to eat but then throw it up, you still have no strength.

This may very well be the greatest benefit of marijuana during chemotherapy. You need to be taking in enough calories for your body to do its normal functions, to fight the cancer, and to perpetually heal itself from the side effects of the chemotherapy. It’s a downhill domino effect, unless you can find a way to hold down food. Marijuana provides that way.

4. A calming effect
Well, you’re in the hospital, on your deathbed, putting toxic waste in your body to fight the cancer that’s trying to kill you. Your whole life is on hold, your kids are in someone else’s hands, you are too weak to even move yourself, and the crazy treatments that you are taking are just as likely (or more likely) to kill you than the cancer is. What’s there to be freaked out about?

Sure, I could have asked for a Valium or something, but why should I have to take another laboratory-created chemical pill when I can use a natural herb that addresses not only the nerve issues, but most of the other side effects as well? Before the horrible Leukemia adventure, I didn’t even take aspirin.

In the final analysis, isn’t it my body? Shouldn’t I have the right to choose what I want to put in it? How I want to cope with my own personal pain? Why should a natural herbal choice cause so much commotion? Does anyone lobby against the herbal teas that claim to put you to sleep?

More Pot Propaganda
Right about now conventional anti-marijuana wisdom will step up to say that it’s not regulated, and therefore I may possibly harm myself with an overdose. No person in history has ever died of a marijuana overdose. Not one. You can’t kill yourself with marijuana, even if you try really, really hard. The most that will happen to you is that you’ll fall asleep after eating one more cookie that you didn’t really need.

It’s not like alcohol and the often fatal alcohol-poisoning that comes from legally overdosing on that at the local bar. Of course, not all alcohol overdose ends in death for the drinker, there are also all those cases of the ones who make it out of the bar and onto the road, where they cross over the double line and kill innocent people who on their way home from the grocery store. 

Smoking is Bad for You! 
This is a true statement.  But it should be noted that tobacco cigarettes are far more dangerous than marijuana cigarettes, have no medicinal value whatsoever, on the contrary, they are responsible directly or indirectly for the majority of deaths in the United States, yet they are completely legal.  But that's a conversation for another day.

It is not necessary to smoke marijuana to reap its benefits.  Marijuana is an herb, and like most other herbs that you have ever heard of, it's edible.  There are lots of marijuana recipes out there, but people seem to be familiar with the marijuana brownie.  Those work, and work well.  

I have a friend who was fading away from lung cancer.  He was ready to give up, tired of living weak and defeated.  He had heard about marijuana helping with chemo, but didn't know there was a way around smoking it.  His wife learned how to make marijuana cookies and everything turned around.  He experienced the appetite increase, ate better than he had in months, and got stronger everyday.  And he felt a lot better. These positive changes encouraged him to keep fighting; suddenly the battle didn't seem quite over.  Last time I saw him, he looked more like a triathlete than a cancer patient.

It’s Against the Law!
This is also a true statement; it is indeed against federal law to use marijuana for any purpose at all, including medical. At one point in time, it was against the law for a woman or person of color to vote, or for a person with a dark skin to drink from the same water fountain as a person with fair skin. Just because a law is in place, does not mean it is a just law.

Before the prohibition, there was no law against alcohol. Then the prohibition became a law. Then after organized crime found their place in the world—thanks to the prohibition, the prohibition law was repealed. Laws can be changed, and it is obvious that many should be.

Why Should You Care?
When discussing the legalities of marijuana as medicine, it is important to remember that we are not talking about some abstract legislation that affects people who want a permit  to go duck hunting in their bare feet on volcano peaks. We are talking about the government telling you what you can and cannot do to deal with the potentially fatal illness that you are dealing with. We are talking about the government wanting to lock sick people in jail for wanting relief from their sufferings. We are talking about the government threatening to arrest and jail your doctor if he suggests that marijuana, an herb (like chamomile) that you can grow for free (pharmaceutical companies don’t like that) in your backyard, might help you to feel better.

Maybe you are still thinking, so what? It’s not my problem, I don’t have cancer. It’s very easy to be apathetic about something that you don’t think affects you, but statistics say that one in three people will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. That’s a big percentage of the population.

If you are one of the lucky ones who fall in the other two-thirds, consider the fact that you will definitely be the spouse, child, sibling, parent, other family member, co-worker, or friend of a cancer patient. Sometimes I think it might be worse to have to watch someone you love suffer.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not asking anyone to mandate that every sick person use marijuana. I’m not asking you to take marijuana. All I’m saying is that when it’s you or someone you love going through it, you are going to want all options open. It’s all about options and personal choice. It’s about the government not poking their nose in your medical records and harassing you while you are dying.

So it is about you. And you. And you. And me. We’re all in this together. And we’ve only covered the benefits for chemotherapy patients. We haven’t even got a chance to hear from all the others. I’ll have to step down off my soapbox now and clear the way for one of them. I know what I’ve heard, but I haven’t had glaucoma, or anorexia, or…

If you’re one of those people who feel that I ought to be in jail for surviving leukemia with a little herbal assistance, please think about your position. Don’t wait until it’s too late to see that the grass really is greener on the other side. The side that cares about your right to dignity, relief, and freedom while you are ill. No one should have to fight cancer and their own government at the same time.

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With Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito both beginning their lifelong appointments to the Supreme Court, liberals and left-leaning moderates throughout the country are rushing to prepare their Canadian citizenship applications. However justified liberals' fear may be, there is at least one silver lining to an overtly conservative court: it may just be a step forward for the medical marijuana movement, an issue that has really only taken ground in blue states. 

Perhaps this may be a pipe-dream (excuse the pun), but let me explain. Conservative jurists tend to value states' rights and generally disagree with the overuse of the Commerce Clause, which is the part of the Constitution that gives Congress the broad power to make federal regulations. The Commerce Clause allows Congress to regulate virtually anything in the United States that affects inter-state, commercial activity. In 1970, Congress used this authority to pass the Controlled Substance Act and it placed marijuana into the most prohibitive classification, Schedule One. Schedule One basically states that the substance has no medical value and is unacceptably dangerous and addictive (though cocaine and PCP are both Schedule Two drugs because they have certain medical applications). Until this law is changed, the federal government will not recognize medical marijuana, even in states like California that have passed laws in favor of it. In fact, federal agents regularly arrest terminally ill patients who reside in such states, a policy that famously contributed to the death of writer Peter McWilliams in 2000.

The last big medical marijuana case, Gonzales v. Raich, contested the federal government's ability to override state laws regarding medical marijuana. Specifically, Angela Raich, a terminally ill resident of California, argued that the federal government had no right to regulate her use of marijuana since her plants were grown and consumed wholly within California and there was no commercial exchange. In other words, if commerce had not been involved, then the Commerce Clause could not reasonably be applied. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court voted her down, 6-3. The court held that the federal government has a legitimate interest in preventing illegal drug use and that the Controlled Substance Act clearly prohibits the medical use of marijuana. Surprisingly, the three dissenting judges were some of the most conservative judges on the court! That's right, the dissenting judges were William Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O'Connor; Scalia sided with the federal government on this one. 

Justice O'Connor described the decision as, “…tantamount to removing meaningful limits on the Commerce Clause.” Justice Thomas' dissent was more surprising, considering that he is a pro-life conservative who was appointed to the court by Bush the Elder. Yet, Justice Thomas was scathing in his dissent:

The majority is not interpreting the Commerce Clause, but rewriting it…. To evade even the modest restriction on federal power, the majority defines economic activity in the broadest  possible terms as the “production, distribution, and consumption of commodities.” This carves out a vast swath of activities that are subject to regulation. If the majority is to be taken seriously,  the federal government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives, and potluck suppers throughout the 50 States.

To which Thomas adds:

One searches the Court's opinion in vain for any hint of what aspect of American life is reserved to the States.

It is rather interesting that in Gonzalez v. Raich, the most sensible voices on this matter - one that is typically associated with hippies and tree-hugging leftists - were actually some of the most conservative judges on the bench. More liberal judges on the Court argued for the status quo, claiming that, “…by characterizing marijuana as a Schedule I drug, Congress expressly found that the drug has no acceptable medical uses.” Except, there are accepted medical uses in twelve states (Rhode Island most recently enacted legislation protecting patients' rights) and I find it hard to believe that all of the people who use pot medicinally are actually using a placebo. 

It is worth noting that the Drug Enforcement Agency also actively rejects any applications to study the drug in private, unbiased, scientific environments. Professor Lyle Craker of the University of Massachusetts, with help from the ACLU, is currently challenging this matter in the Supreme Court. In a personal interview, Prof. Craker was very frank with me about his research: “Why don't we just study and if it works, we can help people. If it doesn't, we can drop the issue and move on.” The DEA's stated problem with Craker's research was the security of his facilities: if someone hypothetically broke into the laboratory, “there would be marijuana all over the streets of Amherst.” This is obviously a somewhat dubious claim.

Interestingly, established medicinal uses of marijuana frequently align with common stereotypes of the drug's effects on its users. For example, many people are aware of “the munchies,” a state of insatiable hunger that results from smoking marijuana. Well, individuals who have lost the ability to eat either from a disease or medical treatment, use marijuana to stimulate their appetites, diminish nausea, and gain weight. And the stereotype of forgetfulness among pot smokers? Recent studies have suggested that cannabinoids (the active ingredients) could be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder as well as other anxiety conditions by blunting one's memory faculties. The drug offers many other therapeutic benefits, from pain relief to reducing intraocular pressure for glaucoma patients. Queen Victoria is said to have used cannabis to relieve menstrual cramps. Regarding the plant's general safety, it is “less toxic than many foods that we commonly consume.” 

In other words, the majority decision ignored a great deal of medical and anthropological evidence that suggests that there are indeed legitimate uses for marijuana. Why, then, does the Court maintain such myopic opposition to the concept of medical marijuana? After all, Congress is not a medical body, nor is it infallible. Legislation is at times incorrect, immoral or improper. That is precisely why we have a third branch of unelected legal umpires who, to use John Roberts' analogy, “calls balls and strikes.” Congress may be a body of elected officials who supposedly carry out the will of the people, but occasionally people vote for things that are not in their best interest, like a police state that fuels itself with drug money. 

Despite what many on the left have come to believe, an increasingly conservative Supreme Court is probably not the end of American liberties. Rather, it is an opportunity to further certain blue-state initiatives by chipping away at the paternalistic elements of the federal government. This has already been demonstrated by the recent decision regarding Oregon's “Death with Dignity” law. So, now we have a curious set of circumstances in which physicians in Oregon can prescribe lethal doses of barbiturates to terminally ill individuals, but those same patients cannot obtain any amount of marijuana for personal relief. That might be a bad message to kids, or a “slippery slope” as we are led to believe. Well, that is a losing argument. As a term, “states' rights” used to be clouded with racist overtones, but now with issues such as gay marriage, physician-assisted suicide and drug policy reform, the term has taken on a new meaning for liberals. Medical marijuana will eventually be the first victory in the grander scope of reforming drug policy; the public is already behind this commonsense policy. In fact, decriminalizing marijuana in general is a position supported by the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Bar Association, and the National Council of Churches. Ironically, it may just take a more conservative court to get it done.

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