MidsMagazine

ALERT: Many Colorado communities will have public votes this November to ban dispensaries– and many others are considering enacting bans. Sensible Colorado is working with local activists in communities across Colorado to fight these restrictions on safe access. If you live in one of these communities, the time to begin fighting these bans is now!

Here is a list of communities which either have a November vote planned, have a current ban, or are discussing a ban.

**URGENT** Broomfield
Activists in Broomfield are currently gathering signatures to overturn their local ban. They have just a few weeks to collect almost 2000 signatures and need help gathering signatures today!
Contact: Pamela Gianola: 303 466 7420 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 303 466 7420 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Cities
Aurora, Loveland, Longmont, Windsor, Larkspur, Minturn, Grand Junction, Paonia, Broomfield

Counties
El Paso, Eagle, Larimer, Garfield, Granby, Fraiser, Douglas, Las Animas, Mesa, Ouray, Montrose

**If your community is being effected by a ban or you want to help fight these restrictions please contact us asap at info@sensiblecolorado.org or 720 890 4247 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 720 890 4247 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Rebecca DeKeuster doesn’t act like a woman who has just cornered much of Maine’s medical marijuana market.

The former high school English teacher is criss-crossing the state behind the wheel of a 1997 Chevy Cavalier. Her husband towed it from California behind a U-Haul moving truck, she said.

And when she finally pauses for a face-to-face newspaper interview, DeKeuster suggests the Augusta House of Pancakes, a favorite breakfast spot in her newly adopted hometown.

DeKeuster, 40, is the most powerful figure in Maine’s emerging dispensary business. She is the chief executive officer of Northeast Patients Group, which has been awarded state licenses to operate four of the Maine’s first eight medical marijuana dispensaries. Its licenses give Northeast exclusive dispensary rights, at least for now, to the state’s biggest markets — including Portland, Augusta and Bangor.

Just eight years ago, DeKeuster was teaching in a northern California high school and knew little about medical marijuana, she said.

“I was not a pot person.”

Then she got a call to come home to Missouri because her father was dying from lung cancer.

Friends suggested she take her father some marijuana to help with pain, nausea and depression, but she didn’t want to risk getting caught by airport security, DeKeuster said.

“I watched him die … knowing that if I just had the guts to do it, I could have helped him so much,” DeKeuster said, wiping tears from her eyes. “It shouldn’t be something that I’m afraid to tell you about. It shouldn’t be something that I’m afraid to fly with.”

Soon after that, she left teaching and took a $14-an-hour job as a salesperson at Berkeley Patients Group, a medical marijuana dispensary, and got to help other people, some with serious and terminal illnesses, she said. “It was an affirmation for me.”

DeKeuster eventually became general manager, a position that brought her to Maine last winter to meet with policy makers writing rules for the state’s new network of dispensaries.

“We’ve been very open about sharing our model,” she said.

She gave advice to the state’s task force, as well as other groups, and began to feel invested in the state’s new rules, she said. “It became harder and harder to leave.”

DeKeuster and her husband officially moved to Augusta in March and she became the sole officer of a new group, Northeast Patients Group. The group applied for five licenses, hoping to win one or two, she said.

DeKeuster has since been racking up the miles in her Cavalier, working to set up the new businesses and a central marijuana growing facility in Hermon.

DeKeuster would not say how much she was paid as Berkeley’s general manager, and said she does not yet know what Northeast’s salaries will be.

But she said she did not get rich in the medical marijuana business in California and won’t in Maine, either.

“There has always been an underlying plan to share our mission,” she said.

Seven Loveland medical marijuana dispensaries have joined to form the Loveland Association of Wellness and recently drafted a resolution outlining the group’s efforts to ensure their businesses are more acceptable to the community.

Additionally, the businesses plan to host open house events from 11 a.m. to noon Tuesday and Aug. 24.

Anthony Freitag, co-owner of Paradise City Caregivers, said he hopes the open houses bring residents into the dispensaries, allowing them to see what the businesses do.

The group’s resolution includes regulations that limit signs on and around medical marijuana centers and eliminates advertising that promotes the businesses and/or their products.

Loveland Association of Wellness, or LAW, members also promise to prohibit consumption of marijuana in retail space or common areas, limit medical marijuana sales to 2 ounces per person per 96 hours and attempt to confirm the legitimacy of incoming patients’ documents, according to the resolution.

This month, the Loveland City Council finalized ballot language to allow residents a final vote on whether medical marijuana dispensaries should operate in the community.
Source:http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100815/NEWS01/8150326/Loveland-dispensaries-join-forces

An internationally-respected hydroponics medical marijuana cultivation educator won Canada’s most prestigious medical marijuana quality award during a Toronto hydroponics expo competition…and he used a brand new type of hydroponics nutrients to do it.

Famous for his highly-ranked “Urban Grower” hydroponics how-to Internet show, licensed medical marijuana cultivation expert Remo used a scientific breakthrough hydroponics nutrients system to grow medical marijuana called “Bubba Kush.”

Remo entered his Kush in the Treating Yourself Cup competition, and won top prize. The competition’s connoisseur judges described his winning entry as ”exceptionally flavorful, aromatic, smooth, and potent.”

The hydroponics nutrients system Remo used for his award-winning Kush was created and manufactured by Advanced Nutrients, a North American and internationally-based company known for innovative hydroponics nutrients and equipment.

According to company co-founder Michael Straumietis, Remo used the company’s pH Perfect nutrients and Bigger Yields Flowering System to grow his winning medicine.

“Our nutrients system significantly changes and improves how hydroponics gardeners provide nutrients to their hydroponics crops,” Straumietis explains. “It eliminates several significant technical problems that frustrated growers for decades, while also sending a wider range of nutrients, enhancers and yield-boosters into crops faster and easier so hydroponics growers get way more quality and value.”

The judges at the Treating Yourself Cup affirmed how Remo’s entry was superior to all others, and Remo himself reveals that the latest Advanced Nutrients hydroponics system gives him performance superior to the already-excellent results he was getting previously.

“As a hydroponics consultant and grower with many years experience helping Canadians use only the best hydroponics techniques and technology, I note that the new Advanced Nutrients system is easier to work with, and produces a larger, more potent medical crop than anything I’ve ever seen or worked with,” Remo says.

Straumietis explains that his company and its scientists dedicated years of research to overcoming pervasive deficiencies found in past generations of competitors’ hydroponics nutrients.

At the same time, Straumietis says, his researchers discovered specialized natural and synthetic nutrients and chelates, as well as proprietary manufacturing techniques, that give hydroponics growers total crop control that has never before been available.

”The science is truly amazing, and so is the plant,” Straumietis explains. “And when you give medical marijuana plants this kind of hydroponics feed program, you get the results Remo got…so you easily see the very positive differences in your crop yields and in increased convenience and efficiency of your hydroponics nutrients.”
Source:http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100812/International-cultivator-wins-Canadas-prestigious-medical-marijuana-quality-award.aspx

LONGMONT — The future of the Feiler family’s business is in the hands of the city and the state.

Loree Feiler — an attorney, mediator and former Florida criminal court judge — owns the Longmont and Boulder Nature’s Medicine shops. Her daughter, Allyson, who has a master’s degree in business entrepreneurship, takes care of much of the day-to-day operations.

Medical marijuana has been legal since 2000, but the constitutional amendment did not account for dispensaries. A law passed this year mandated licensing and regulation of the hundreds of dispensaries already open statewide.

Nature’s Medicine in Longmont met the Aug. 1 deadline to apply for state licensing and must meet a September deadline to ensure the business is producing 70 percent of the medical marijuana it dispenses.

That requirement meant the family had to find a location to cultivate the marijuana. They opted for a place in the county after looking at properties in and out of the city and working through zoning requirements.

Further, state regulators have to complete full investigations of each of the businesses — a reported 800 of them — that applied for licenses in the state, which Feiler said could take months.

For instance, the state is expected to complete criminal backgrounds on the owners and employees. Inspectors are also expected to audit the personal and business finances for each dispensary.

Even the state license application required extensive financial information.

But while the family has plenty of legal resources, Feiler said she doesn’t believe the volume of paperwork would deter anyone intent on preserving their business.

“The (Colorado) Department of Revenue have made themselves very available,” she said.

Given the family’s legal background, Feiler said she supports the state regulation both to legitimize the business and to protect patients. For instance, she said some dispensaries were using personal kitchens to make edible medical marijuana goods. The requirement for a commercial kitchen is a plus, she said.

The state also now tracks marijuana sales. So Nature’s Medicine is launching a point-of-sale and accounting system to help track the product and accurately report sales to the state.

Feiler also appreciates that the state law seems aimed at making sure the businesses aren’t funded with money from any criminal enterprise. No one with a previous drug felony or a felony conviction in the past five years may own a dispensary.

The family bought the business last fall from Craig Clerkin, who ran it as Ancient Alternatives.

The Longmont shop, at 1260 S. Hover St., is near a dentist’s office and used to house a chiropractor’s office. It has the feel of a small health-care operation, with a waiting room and rooms to meet with patients.

Feiler thinks the new regulations will benefit Nature’s Medicine, one of Longmont’s seven medical marijuana centers. That is, if it clears all of the state’s hurdles and the Longmont City Council doesn’t ban the dispensaries, which state law allows.

“I think it would be a shame to have all the people we see here in Longmont have to go to Boulder or Denver to get their medi-cine,” Loree Feiler said.

While Feiler talked about the business, her daughter worked constantly, helping patients or dealing with the office business.

Feiler said her daughter wanted to run her own business, and her husband, who also is an attorney, researched medical marijuana for years. She said the family works hard to keep the business open.

“It is not the cash cow people think it is,” she said.

Pierrette J. Shields can be reached at 303-684-5273 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 303-684-5273 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or pshields@times-call.com.

THOMAS TWP. — On Friday, a neon-green sign that said “Tri-City Compassion Club, park here” in stenciled block letters was posted in front of the lot and Thomas Township home owned by John F. Roberts.

Roberts, 49, whose home — where he lives with his fiancée Stephanie Whisman, 38 — was raided by DEA agents July 6, is the new location of the Tri-City Compassion Club.

Roberts, a state-registered grower, patient and a former leader of the Bay City-based compassion club — now the newly named Mid-Michigan Tri-City Compassion Club, which has more 300 members, according group President Kim M. Zimmer — left the Bay City group and was allowed to use its old name to begin a separate club.

Roberts said the purpose of the club is to educate prospective patients about getting started legally and to inform current patients about growing and processing methods.

Members also bring baked goods, oils and dried marijuana to sample, purchase and trade — provided they are certified medical marijuana patients, Roberts said.

He said the clubs offer a comfortable alternative for patients who don’t wish to purchase their medical marijuana on the black market.

None of the meeting attendees wished to speak publicly about their involvement with medical marijuana or reasons for attending the club meeting.

Zimmer said her club parted ways with Roberts after his home was raided in July. She declined to speak about specifics of the separation.

“There is no conflict,” Roberts said. “The person who owned the building wanted to go in a different direction than I wanted and that I could afford.”

He wouldn’t disclose the owner or location of the building the club calls home but said he had been paying the club’s building lease until he left and could no longer afford to.

Roberts’ club is in his backyard among wooded trails and fire pits.

Cars parked on the grass at the outskirts of Roberts’ property Friday.

About 15 medical marijuana patients, two children, caretakers and others who were curious exited their vehicles and crossed a length of freshly cut grass, walking toward a brownish-red wooden storage shed with two open doors.

Inside about four medical marijuana patients sat in chairs around a coffee table, upon which lay brownies and muffins baked with cannabis butter — they were donated by one of the group members — and on another table were two jars full of marijuana buds — each containing about an ounce of marijuana, Roberts said.

An empty container on the table said “donations for baby girl.”

The anticipated donation was marijuana, not money, Roberts said.

Roberts said he and others provide medicine, what he calls “Rick Simpson hemp oil,” to a state-registered 6-year-old girl suffering from a brain tumor — free of charge — and it takes 2 to 3 ounces of marijuana to make enough of the dark, tar-like extract, which he said lasts two weeks.

Mixed with peanut butter for ingestion, the oil helps the child to sleep and to eat regularly, Roberts said.

Roberts said he’ll continue to conduct compassion club meetings at his home each Friday and Monday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A company based in Washington state wants to open a medical marijuana facility in Trenton, according to the News-Herald.

Trenton city officials have placed a six-month moratorium on medical marijuana businesses while they consider ordinances to help regulate the industry within city limits, according to the paper. City Attorney Wallace Long said the city isn’t trying to ban the production facility from coming to town.

Communities around metro Detroit are dealing with medical marijuana facility proposals that have been growing since a 2008 ballot proposal legalized the use of medical marijuana in Michigan.

The Royal Oak City Commission voted unanimously last week against a local businessman that wanted to turn his vacant warehouse into the state’s largest medical marijuana growth facility. More than 20 other marijuana-related businesses have expressed interest in setting up shop in the city.
Source:http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/08/trenton_considers_proposal_for.html

Weed Wars: Walnut Creek builders see green in household marijuana rooms
Posted at 09:37 AM on Monday, Aug. 16, 2010
By Peter Hecht – phecht@sacbee.com

* Pot poll finds weed has grown on California
Pot poll finds weed has grown on California

John Wade, 43, a San Francisco commercial lighting specialist, takes a quick hit from a marijuana cigarette on the golf course to steady himself before putting.

Sarika Simmons, 35, of San Diego County, sometimes unwinds after the kids are asleep with tokes from a fruit-flavored cigar filled with pot.

And retiree Robert Girvetz, 78, of San Juan Capistrano, recently started anew — replacing his occasional martini with marijuana.
* Medical pot sellers cash in with direct deliveries
Medical pot sellers cash in with direct deliveries

Undeterred by laws that have closed storefront dispensaries, medical marijuana sellers across the state are flourishing — by delivering pot directly to homes and offices.

Hundreds of these unregulated delivery businesses have sprung up in recent months — a sign of how quickly California’s fabled pot industry is moving from the shadows and into uncharted legal territory.

In Fresno, some dispensaries have moved to unincorporated areas since the city began forcing storefronts to close. Some of them deliver marijuana to Fresno residents, and the city attorney concedes the city has little authority to stop them.
* Prop. 19 raises thorny pot issue, drug czar says
Prop. 19 raises thorny pot issue, drug czar says

Proposition 19, a November ballot initiative, would legalize recreational marijuana use for California residents over 21 and allow small residential cultivation — but also would put the state in conflict with federal law that says the drug is illegal.

“The [Obama] administration opposes legalization of any drugs, including marijuana,” Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an interview Thursday.

Kerlikowske was in Fresno to announce the results of an ongoing crackdown on marijuana-growing operations known as Operation Trident. It is focused on pot farms on public lands in the foothills and mountain areas of Tulare, Fresno and Madera counties.
* Calif Chamber: Pot law would allow smoking at work
Calif Chamber: Pot law would allow smoking at work

Supporters and opponents of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in California are dueling over the law’s possible effects on employers and the workplace.

The California Chamber of Commerce claimed in a legal analysis released Thursday that Proposition 19 would lead to more workplace accidents by forcing employers to let workers smoke pot on the job.

The analysis also contends the law would make California companies ineligible for federal contracts because employers could not guarantee a drug-free workplace.
* Calif Chamber: Pot law would allow smoking at work
Calif Chamber: Pot law would allow smoking at work

Supporters and opponents of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in California are dueling over the law’s possible effects on employers and the workplace.

The California Chamber of Commerce claimed in a legal analysis released Thursday that Proposition 19 would lead to more workplace accidents by forcing employers to let workers smoke pot on the job.

The analysis also contends the law would make California companies ineligible for federal contracts because employers could not guarantee a drug-free workplace.

construction[1].JPGThe glossy brochure for the Good Green Builders Construction brims with photographs of home growing rooms featuring tomatoes, bell peppers and lettuce in a spectrum of leafy colors.

“We love what we do. And we are discrete,” says the leaflet for the Walnut Creek firm founded by Brett McCormick, 25, and William McKenzie, 26, two agribusiness graduates from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The discretion the duo is promising isn’t for home-grown arugula. McCormick and McKenzie have built a successful general contracting firm by working with Californians wanting to set up safe – and discreet – residential grow rooms for cultivating pot.

McCormick says Good Green Builders works only with certified medical marijuana users and checks their physician’s recommendations to ensure they have have a legal right to grow for themselves or others.

California law permits people with physician’s recommendations for marijuana to cultivate up to 6 mature or 12 immature plants. Growers can legally cultivate for multiple medical users. And some cities and counties allow substantially higher growing limits – 72 plants, for example, in Oakland or 100-square feet in Humboldt County.

“We basically make sure they’re legal,” McCormick says. “We check their recommendations and don’t set them up with something outside of their limits.”

But Good Green Builders – and like-minded builders – may be poised for a boom if California voters in November approve Proposition 19 to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults over 21. The initiative would permit all California households to maintain a 25-square foot – or 5 by 5 – growing space for pot.

“Typically, we’re doing bigger (growing) settings than 5 by 5,” McCormick says. “We can definitely cater to that. There are going to be a lot of people who can grow their own.”

With stories of at-home growing causing house fires from faulty wiring or otherwise overwhelming household infrastructure, Good Green Builders says it subcontracts with licensed electricians, plumbers, heating and ventilation specialists and other professionals depending on the job demands.

McCormick say the firm’s specialty is doing “custom build-outs” of garages as people covert indoor parking to pot cultivation. The firm has also built basement grow-rooms with subterranean retaining walls and moisture barriers, created bedroom growing systems and a range of residential green houses.

“A lot of our customers are first-time growers,” he says. “We cater to that. We definitely make it as easy as possible.”

Pictured: McCormick with Good Green Builders residential designs for at-home cultivation. Peter Hecht/phecht@sacbee.com

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/16/2043141/weed-wars-walnut-creek-builders.html#ixzz0wrzr8c4U

Prosecutors portrayed Fredrick Wayne Dagit in court Thursday as a drug dealer who allowed more than 150 pounds of marijuana to be stored in his home.

But the attorney for the 60-year-old owner of Williamstown Township’s Green Leaf Smokers Club painted him as a compassionate caregiver who was operating within the spirit of the state’s medical marijuana law.

The case, Dagit’s attorney James White told a judge, “involves a bunch of old guys smoking marijuana.”

Dagit has been in jail on a $500,000 bond ever since police raided the club as well as his house in Okemos two months ago. According to court documents, police seized more than 225 pounds of marijuana – all of which was provided to Dagit by a confidential informant – as well as about 40 marijuana plants.

At Thursday’s hearing in 55th District Court, during which prosecutors amended the charges and reduced the maximum sentence Dagit faces from 15 to seven years, Judge Donald Allen agreed to release Dagit on an electronic tether.

He is expected to be released within days.

After the hearing, White called the initial bond “outrageous,” adding that it was “further indication that this was a political issue regarding the marijuana statute.”

The charges

Dagit, who has a medical marijuana card, faces the following charges: Two counts of possession with intent to deliver between 11 and 99 pounds of marijuana; growing 20 or more marijuana plants; maintaining a drug house; and possession of marijuana.

A preliminary hearing, which determines if the case advances to trial, had been scheduled for Thursday, but was delayed until Aug. 12.

Assistant Prosecutor Bill Crino laid out some of the case against Dagit in court Thursday in arguing a motion about whether he could present certain testimony at the preliminary hearing. Allen ruled that he would allow the testimony.

A confidential informant told police that he had been providing Dagit with marijuana since March. Dagit began operating the club in February. Court documents say Dagit paid as much as $35,000 for about 14 pounds of marijuana, although Dagit paid for some and the informant allowed him to buy some on credit.

Police then used the informant to arrange to sale of more than 100 pounds of marijuana to Dagit.

According to court documents: On May 26, the informant met Dagit at his home on Hillcrest Avenue, and put three duffel bags containing about 154 pounds of marijuana in a basement closet to store it there. Dagit gave the informant a key to his house and told the informant he could buy his own lock for the closet.

Dagit and the informant agreed that 50 pounds of the marijuana was reserved exclusively for Dagit, according to the documents.

Later that same day, the informant delivered about 70 pounds of marijuana to the club. They agreed the total price would be $56,950 and Dagit gave the informant $10,000 in cash as an initial payment.

Soon after, officers from the Tri-County Metro Narcotics Squad raided the club with guns drawn. They also searched Dagit’s home.
‘Overzealous’ team

White called it “a classic case of entrapment” by “an overzealous law enforcement team, who weren’t satisfied after being turned away.”

He said Dagit sometime earlier threw an undercover police officer out of the club after the officer tried to buy marijuana, but didn’t have a medical marijuana card.

“All of the marijuana that is alleged to have been the source of this crime can be accounted for by patients and/or caregivers that were members of the (club),” White said.

Source: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100730/NEWS01/7300330/1002/NEWS01

Michigan – There’s a budding attraction in Genesee County: a Medical Marijuana University.

Patients in need of medical marijuana can now learn more about the new law that just went into effect this year and their options at Oaksterdam University.

University officials say this weekend people from all across the country will be learning how to grow and handle medical marijuana.

The Genesee County Compassion Club, a medical marijuana advocates group, is setting up for their fifth weekend operating Oaksterdam University in Genesee Township.

This is the first and only Oaksterdam campus outside of California to host seminars on medical marijuana.

“It’s truly fantastic to finally be able to educate people freely, openly, about this as a medicine,” said Jeremy Rupinski, director of the Genesee County Compassion Club.

Classes are given to patients, caregivers and the general public on the medical law and how to grow the plant efficiently indoors.

“We don’t limit it to just cardholders,” Rupinski said. “We have people from out of state coming. In fact about 40 percent of our students are out-of-state students.”

Dispelling ignorance about medical marijuana is what class facilitators say is one of the best parts of the seminar.

This weekend’s Oaksterdam University seminar costs $250 to attend.

Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=7584315

R.I. – Boston man plans to start a medical marijuana school in Rhode Island that he said will be the first of its kind in New England.

“It will teach folks items such as safety, legal compliance, as well as of course medical marijuana cultivation,” Luis Hernandez told NBC 10 IN a phone interview.

Hernandez said the first class will be held on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 in Barrington. He estimated that it will cost about $200 for two days of training.

“Depending on what our costs are, that will be adjusted. So that’s not a number that’s written in stone,” Hernandez said.

Several groups in Rhode Island already offer free medical marijuana training.

“We take care of whatever a patient needs. If a patient needs to learn how to grow, we’ll teach them how to grow. If a patient needs a caregiver, we’ll provide them with a caregiver,” said George DesRoches of Help Is On The Way.

DesRoches founded Help Is On The Way, a Providence-based charity that works with marijuana patients. He’s also a licensed marijuana patient himself.

“Patients shouldn’t have to go pay to learn how to grow. There are services provided by organizations in the state of Rhode Island,” he said.

“Over half the patients who have licenses are on SSI or SSDI. That means they’re living on about $700 a month,” said JoAnne Leppanen of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Center.

RIPAC also runs seminars for patients and caregivers free of charge.

“If someone’s going to teach you how to grow, what are their credentials? Are they licensed?” Leppanen said.

Hernandez said his class won’t use any actual marijuana because he’s not licensed in Rhode Island. But he said he’s passionate about teaching the class.

“I think that there’s a whole range of options of how to learn, and there’s a place for all of them. As well as for what we offer to the market.”

Hernandez said he’ll check to make sure people who take the class have marijuana licenses.

He said two people have confirmed they’ll attend, but he said he expects more to sign up.

Source: http://www2.turnto10.com/news/2010/jul/30/pot-101-man-teach-marijuana-class-ri-ar-171990/

As an increasing number of states enact, or are considering enacting, medical-marijuana legislation, employers are being forced to ponder what responsibilities they may have with respect to medical-marijuana users in their workforces, and the individuals who work side-by-side with them.

The confusion among employers in these states increased last fall when the U.S. Department of Justice issued guidelines announcing that the Justice Department, for the time being, will not enforce the Controlled Substances Act that classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance and criminalizes its use.

The DOJ’s guidelines were immediately hailed by medical-marijuana users, activists and civil libertarians as a welcome relief from the Bush administration’s policy of zero tolerance for medical use of marijuana. Despite the federal government’s change in policy, however, employers in states with medical-marijuana laws must continue to exercise caution in addressing employment issues that arise in connection with medical-marijuana users in the workforce.

The DOJ’s decision to refrain from criminal prosecution of such use does not necessarily relieve employers from their obligations to address the potential dangers that may be associated with use of medical marijuana by their employees.

First, it must be understood that rather than granting medical-marijuana users, including those in the workforce, carte blanche to engage in the medical use of marijuana, the DOJ guidelines can be read as simply aimed at addressing the shortfall of resources that are available to the federal government in its War on Drugs.

The guidelines provide that the DOJ “should not focus federal resources … on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” According to the guidelines, “prosecution of individuals … who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law … is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources.”

However, despite advising that medical-marijuana users in states that have legalized marijuana’s medical use will not be sought out for prosecution, the DOJ guidelines do not go so far as to decriminalize its use under federal law.

To the contrary, the guidelines emphasize that they do “not alter in any way the Department’s authority to enforce federal law, including laws prohibiting the manufacture, production, distribution, possession, or use of marijuana on federal property.”

Further, the DOJ guidance explicitly states that it “does not ‘legalize’ marijuana or provide a legal defense to a violation of federal law, nor is it intended to create any privileges, benefits, or rights … enforceable by any individual … in any administrative, civil, or criminal matter.”

The guidance further warns that even “clear and unambiguous compliance with state law” does not “create a legal defense to a violation of the Controlled Substances Act.” Instead, the guideline “is intended solely as a guide to the exercise of investigative and prosecutorial discretion.”

Accordingly, there is nothing in the DOJ’s recent policy pronouncement that requires employers to turn a blind eye to medical-marijuana use by members of their workforce. Indeed, despite what some might consider a softening of the federal government’s position toward medical-marijuana use, a number of federal laws and regulations limiting the unchecked use of marijuana in the workplace are still on the books and should be carefully considered by employers in states that have enacted medical-marijuana laws.

For example, U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, pursuant to the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, require transportation-industry employers that have employees in “safety-sensitive” positions, such as pilots, school-bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft-maintenance personnel, armed transit-security personnel and others, to have drug-free workplace programs that include both drug and alcohol testing.

These regulations are unaffected by the DOJ guidelines.

Indeed, the DOT issued its own policy statement on Oct. 22, 2009, regarding medical use of marijuana in response to numerous inquiries it received following the DOJ’s guidelines on criminal federal prosecutions. In the DOT’s statement , the agency made it abundantly “clear that the DOJ guidelines will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program.”

According to the DOT’s policy statement, DOT regulations do “not authorize ‘medical-marijuana’ under a state law to be a valid medical explanation for a transportation employee’s positive drug-test result.” The DOT further emphasized that “[i]t remains unacceptable for any safety-sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana.”

Employers must also consider their obligations under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, which imposes a general duty to maintain a safe workplace. This duty, which is set forth in what is commonly referred to as the Act’s General Duty Clause, provides that each employer covered by the Act must “furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration website reports that “between 10 and 20 percent of the nation’s workers who die on the job test positive for alcohol or other drugs” and that “impairment by drug or alcohol use can constitute an avoidable workplace hazard.”

It is the position of OSHA that “drug-free workplace programs can help improve worker safety and health” and are “natural compliments to other initiatives that help ensure safe and healthy workplaces.”

Although not mandated by law, OSHA “strongly supports comprehensive drug-free workforce programs, especially within certain workplace environments, such as those involving safety-sensitive duties like operating machinery.” (1998 OSHA Advisory Letter, Enforcement Programs)

While OSHA supports workplace drug and alcohol programs, however, it does not currently maintain a standard applicable to such programs.

Nevertheless, failure to maintain such programs could be found to constitute a violation of OSHA’s General Duty Clause where the following four factors are found to exist: (1) the employer failed to keep its workplace free of a “hazard;” (2) the hazard was “recognized” either by the employer or by the employer’s industry generally; (3) the recognized hazard was causing or was likely to cause death or serious physical harm; and (4) there was a feasible means available that would eliminate or materially reduce the hazard.

Employers should also be mindful of potential obligations under the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988, which requires some federal contractors and all federal grantees to agree to provide drug-free workplaces as a precondition of receiving a contract or grant from a federal agency.

While the Act does not require drug testing, a number of federal agencies (including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and National Aeronautics and Space Administration) have issued regulations that require federal contractors, grantees and licensees to maintain fitness-for-duty requirements or drug-free workplace programs that do include drug testing.

For the time-being, at least, federal laws and regulations governing drug-free workplaces and drug-testing will likely take precedence over any rights under state laws permitting possession or use of medical-marijuana, especially to the extent that safety-sensitive positions within the workplace are impacted.

Any employer operating in a state that has enacted legislation legalizing the possession and use of medical-marijuana should therefore consider not only the state’s law, but also the many federal laws, regulations and policy statements in determining the best course of action when presented with an employee or applicant who claims the right to use medical marijuana under the state’s medical-marijuana statute.

Source: http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=488193341

A new version of medical marijuana is creating a buzz, just not with patients. By manipulating a specific chemical, growers and drug companies are creating a generation of cannabis products designed to treat pain, without giving users a high.

The labels on the medical marijuana at one Oakland dispensary include some familiar initials like THC — the active ingredient that gives users a high. But alongside is another set of initials most people are not familiar with — CBD, short for cannabidiol.

“In the past few years, numbers of breakthroughs have been made about the chemical compounds in cannabis plant. One of the most important discoveries is of a compound called CBD. CBD is medically very effective, but has no psychoactive effect,” Steve DeAngelo said.

DeAngleo runs the Harborside Health Center medical marijuana dispensary. He says a small, but growing number of scientists are exploring the uses of non-psychoactive CBD.

Some early research suggests the molecule could have benefits for fighting inflammation and muscle pain.

If CBD has flown under the radar, it may be because growers were not looking for it.

“Unfortunately, all of the CBD has been removed from the cannabis supply in California,” DeAngelo said. “The reason for that is in underground market, psychoactivity was the most desirable trait, anything not psychoactive was selected out by breeders.”

Now growers for Harborside have begun identifying and cultivating marijuana strains that are high in CBD, and in many cases, low in THC.

“So it offers an option to patients who are really looking for the medical effect of cannabis and don’t desire any of the psychoactivity,” DeAngelo said.

The idea of medical marijuana without the kick has also caught the eye of the pharmaceutical industry.

A British pharmaceutical company has just been given the go-ahead to market a cannabis spray in England called Sativex, based on a formula heavy in CBD.

“So it takes the whole plant it removes the active components, then there’s some of manipulation of the ratio of CBD to delta-9 THC, which makes it more pharmacologic,” Dr. Donald Abrams said.

Abrams is head of Hematology-Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and a long time cannabis researcher at UCSF. He says while promising, CBD-based therapy by itself is still unproven.

“I don’t think we know because clinical trials have not really been done looking at CBD alone,” Abrams said.

Still, interest in less potent forms of medical marijuana is growing, along with the drug’s expanding use in treatment.

In blinded clinical trials at UC Davis, Dr. Barth Wilsey compared marijuana containing lower amounts of THC (the compound that produces the high) to samples with higher amounts. He found both, when inhaled through a vaporizer, were similarly effective at treating chronic pain in certain categories of patients.

“We’re trying to find the lowest dose, so that it’s not diverted to the recreational user,” Wilsey said.

At the Harborside dispensary in Oakland, DeAngelo believes locally grown, low dose products can successfully compete with versions under development by pharmaceutical companies.

“We have all the expertise that’s required to deliver this product to patients in a good way,” DeAngelo said.

Source:  http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=7583306http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/health&id=7583306

Greg Schoepp knows what it’s like to be disabled — the owner of Crown Lock and Hardware on Balboa Street has been in a wheelchair for almost 30 years since he was shot by a home invader.

Schoepp also knows what it’s like to get in and out of a property he’s renting at 2139 Taraval Street: Disability access is pretty easy. There’s no bad slope, and though the sidewalk isn’t quite level, it’s nothing he can’t handle. But there’s a problem: Schoepp wants to operate a medical cannabis dispensary at 2139 Taraval Street, and while Schoepp appears to have no issue with disability access at the location, city leaders are another matter entirely.

Schoepp’s permit to operate is stalled at the Mayor’s Office of Disability, which — thanks to legislation altered by Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, also a wheelchair user — forces medical cannabis dispensaries to adhere to the strictest disability access requirements seen in San Francisco.

And right now, the MOD is telling Schoepp he needs to build a seven foot long level plane in his entrance way — essentially a “tunnel,” he says — from the sidewalk to his front door in order for him to pass their standards. That’s no small task for a small San Francisco storefront.

“They’re telling a guy in a wheelchair that I could somehow possibly tip over on my way through the door,” Schoepp says. The slope in his doorway is less than three degrees, according to Gordon Atkinson, Schoepp’s project architect, and the notion that a wheelchair-bound person could tip over on such a small grade is “ludicrous,” Atkinson says.

“They already want me to redesign half of Taraval Street (MCD owners must also deal with any inclines on the sidewalks in front of their businesses),” he says, “and now they want the doorway to be in seven feet in from the front of the building?”

Schoepp’s property used to be a chiropractor’s office. In that iteration, it passed the access test given by the Department of Building Inspection. But since he wants to open a pot club, he must go through MOD. Only medical cannabis dispensaries go through MOD; all other privately funded buildings’ disability access is screened — less onerously — by the Department of Building Inspection.

Schoepp applied for his business permit in November. After a contentious process and a marathon 12-hour hearing, the Planning Commission approved his permits in May. It’s now nearly August, and the Mayor’s Office of Disability is the final hurdle Schoepp needs to clear… before a 15-day window to appeal his permit opens up, and there are at least two neighbors on Taraval Street who will file appeals, according to the office of Supervisor Carmen Chu, who represents the area.

That means it could be well over a year from the time Schoepp filed his permit to when he can open his door — and said door figures to be located well inside what he planned to be his waiting room.

Susan Mizner, the Mayor’s Office on Disability’s Director, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. As of now, Schoepp and Atkinson have appealed the MOD’s latest decision, the seven-foot tunnel/entryway. If the MOD relents, the would-be dispensary operators will be able to move forward with a more reasonable design; if not, a tunnel they will build. And meanwhile, Schoepp pays rent on 2139 Taraval.

It doesn’t sound fair, and it doesn’t seem to jibe with the notion of “equal and safe access” to medical marijuana, codified by the voters in Proposition 215. But it is what it is, Atkinson said, waxing philosophical.

“[The MOD] won’t bend the law just because someone is in a wheelchair themselves,” Atkinson observed. “Though it is ironic.

“And it is very onerous to get approval for [cannabis dispensaries],” he adds. “It doesn’t seem to be fair to the people who are trying to get a business going.”

Source http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/07/pot_dispensary_handicapped.php

It’s now legal to grow and sell marijuana here in Michigan, if you’re licensed and are doing it for medicinal purposes. As more people try to make ends meet in this tough economy, the thought of making money by growing cannabis to help someone with a health problem is gaining popularity.

Nick Tennant opened Med Grow Cannabis College in Southfield about a year ago. Since then he says he’s watched nearly one thousand students go through the program. It’s a diverse group, including people who really need an income.

Nick told us, “You have laid off autoworkers that have come in looking for a new means of viability for their career path. There are people from age 21 to 81 learning to grow medical marijuana.”

Nick himself used to work in the auto industry. But when opportunities started drying up he saw growth potential as a legalized marijuana supplier and educator. “It was a new industry, something Michigan had never seen.”

At Med Grow Cannabis College, potential suppliers attend six weeks of classes. For a fee of $475 they learn how to start a medical marijuana business.

They’re taught how to use proper nutrients, special lights and fans to maximize growth potential.

Michigan allows a caregiver who is certified to grow 12 plants per patient. They can grow for five other patients as well as themselves, if they are certified to use medical marijuana. That means they can grow a maximum of 72 plants.

Nick says a caregiver can make six figures the way the Michigan law is written.

Earlier this year we introduced you to Mathew Watkins who is battling a deadly brain cancer. For him, medical marijuana relieves his excruciating pain and allows him to gain weight. Before the law he was throwing up all the time.

Matt’s dad buys his medical marijuana from a licensed caregiver… who grows a special concoction for Matt.

In his case they triple the THC. So he’s getting a cocktail of different plants.

But that can run $700 a month.

People who grow medical marijuana aren’t just making money, they’re spending it too.

Mike, the owner of Ultra Green Hydroponics in Redford told us you can spend $5000 on a garden. But for $1000 you can get started in the business.

Mike used to be a skilled machinist. But he saw work in his field dwindling, so he decided to get into a different field.

Dr. William Gonte of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Center in Southfield examines patients to determine if they qualify for medical marijuana. He thinks the growing of medicinal quality pot may soon be taken over by big business.

“I think the state of Michigan is looking at their options. Probably tobacco companies will be the companies that set up and form these facilities where you can buy medical marijuana in packages.”

And Nick hopes getting in on the ground floor of this new medical marijuana wave will take him to new heights.

“I know we’re on the verge of a big, new industry.”

Len Goodman can’t grow enough marijuana to keep up with demand.

He is one of just 11 growers approved by New Mexico to produce pot for all of the state’s 2,000 registered medical marijuana patients, and his customers routinely wipe out his supply. Once a strain of marijuana is harvested, dried and cured, he sends an announcement that patients can place orders, and the pot is usually gone in 24 hours.

New Mexico has been so cautious in licensing and regulating growers under its 3-year-old medical marijuana law that the small number of providers can’t grow enough, creating a shortage that has forced some patients to the street to buy illegal drugs.

The dilemma in New Mexico could have ramifications elsewhere because the state’s program has been held up as a national model, with other states looking to replicate its strong regulatory structure to avoid the chaos that has prevailed in places like California.

Prospective pot growers are subjected to a painstaking screening process before being granted a license. Once that happens, they are limited to 95 plants and seedlings and an inventory “that reflects current qualified patient needs.”

The providers’ identities and locations are kept secret, avoiding the kind of storefront dispensaries that have flourished in Colorado and California.

State Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil says he must balance patients’ needs against preventing so much legal pot from being grown that it ends up in the illegal market. He said the program is being expanded methodically to ensure sufficient oversight and to get to know producers and how they operate.

He also opposes having hundreds of producers and many thousands of patients, which he said “absolutely takes it out of the arena of use for in-state patients and into the arena of defacto legalization.”

Medical marijuana patient Larry Love sees New Mexico as an example of what not to do. He contends the department approves new growers much too slowly.

Love, who runs a radio blog and has been highly critical of Vigil, got his medical marijuana card in June 2009 but said it was November before he could get a supply from an authorized grower. He said that drove him and other patients to the illegal market, despite the risks.

Goodman’s Santa Fe County business, NewMexicann, has 650 registered patients — five times the number of patients he said he can supply. Other producers are in similar shape, he said.

As a result, he has to ration pot to patients who are chronically ill.

“Sometimes they don’t have enough so they use it when it’s really severe, which is not good,” he said. “It’s like seniors cutting down on their meds because they can’t afford it.”

The situation in New Mexico is being closely watched by other states as medical marijuana becomes increasingly popular nationwide.

New Jersey, Iowa, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Colorado, Washington, D.C., and some California municipalities have called about New Mexico’s law, Health Department spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer said. They have been asking how the state manages producers and how it’s kept some control over legal pot while avoiding problems with federal agencies, since marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

New Jersey and Rhode Island have laws that are closer to New Mexico’s system than California’s much more freewheeling one.

New Mexico passed its medical marijuana law in 2007 with a groundbreaking provision to license production and distribution.

The Health Department spent more than a year crafting regulations, electing to go with a state-licensed system of nonprofits that places strict restrictions on how much pot they can grow.

Patients can get licenses to grow their own, but most turn to the state-sanctioned growers. The first producer wasn’t approved until March 2009. The health Department OK’d four more in November, then six more last week. It takes five to six months for a grower to ramp up to production.

In the meantime, patient rolls have grown to about 2,000. New Mexico approved 200 patients in the program’s first year; now it’s approving about 200 a month.

While Love praised the approval of the new producers, he said New Mexico still will have only about half the supply it needs for current patients. He claims the state needs at least 10 more producers by the end of the year to keep up.

FROM ANOTHER VIEW: Medical marijuana should be legalized
Photos
Grizzoffi.Victoria.jpg
Joe Tamborello / The Journal-Standard
Victoria Grizzoffi, Democratic candidate for 89th district state representative.

Y

By Victoria F. Grizzoffi
The Journal-Standard
Posted Jul 16, 2010 @ 05:34 PM
Last update Jul 16, 2010 @ 05:35 PM
State of Illinois —

I’m glad to read that I’m in such good company with so many optimists.

I have my ups and downs just like everyone else. If I can’t solve a problem myself I reach out to others and work together to find the best solutions.

I would support Senate Bill 1381. If a terminally ill person can benefit from marijuana, I don’t see why not. It must be regulated and under the strict guidelines from a physician. I have personally experienced the death of family members from cancer and frankly, there comes a point where there isn’t anything you wouldn’t do to make a loved one as comfortable as possible.

There are also situations where marijuana helps a person receiving treatments cope with the side effects better. I would trust marijuana before the countless synthetic drugs that come and go off the market. They advertise drugs on T.V. and the side effects are worse than the ailment you have. We’ve all heard them, “may cause death.”

Marijuana has been around forever and demonized. I have never seen or heard of anyone turn into the crazed maniac portrayed in the 1936 movie Reefer Madness. That was pure Hollywood, before my time, and I have seen the movie.

If anything is a “gateway” drug it starts with cigarettes and alcohol. Yet there are many people who smoke and drink and are not criminals and addicts. And just like cigarettes, alcohol, prescription drugs, weapons and even a driver’s license, comes personal responsibility.

Once again I must stress here that it must be regulated and a person must have a prescription just like any other narcotic. I am not endorsing or condoning general use and a free for all.

I see regulating it to be the biggest obstacle because here comes the patent wars. The drug companies will worry because this is something that can be grown by anyone. And the problem always is, money and greed.

There is also industrial hemp used for rope, clothing, oils and many other uses that has less than 1 percent THC levels in it. During WWII our country grew hemp to help the war effort. Farmers in North Dakota are fighting to change legislation so they can grow it. Imagine the entrepreneurism, economic growth, and revenue that could be generated by a new textile industry. I know there is space available at Mill Race.

Recent DEA raids in California are once again raising questions about the Obama Administration’s commitment to respecting state laws:

San Diego, CA — Federal agents raided at least three San Diego-area medical marijuana dispensaries [Friday] in the early morning hours. Sources say that Green Kross, Unified Collective and Kush Lounge were all served federal search warrants and were subjected to aggressive SWAT-style raids which resulted in the arrest of as many as 12 people and the seizure of money, medical marijuana and patient records. These raids come as the City of San Diego is deliberating an ordinance to regulate the local distribution of medical marijuana. [Americans for Safe Access]

It’s possible, of course, that there were violations of state law taking place here, in which case the DEA’s involvement would be consistent with Obama’s policy. But it remains unclear why California police would need federal assistance enforcing their own laws. The cynical interpretation would be that the tendency of local juries to acquit medical marijuana defendants has led San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to have the feds do her dirty work.

Meanwhile in Mendocino:

A marijuana activist group on Friday protested a federal law enforcement raid on a Mendocino County pot farm, saying it was protected by the county’s new medical marijuana cultivation ordinance.
…
The Covelo farm owned by Joy Greenfield, 68, was registered with Mendocino County authorities under an ordinance that allows medical marijuana collectives to grow up to 99 plants.
…
Federal agents removed 99 plants and took a computer and cash, the group said. Greenfield wasn’t there at the time.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman confirmed Friday that the property owner had the proper paperwork and the marijuana was legal in the eyes of the county. [Press Democrat]

Once again, there could be more to the story, but it sure sounds like classic DEA craziness. The grower’s relationship with local law-enforcement casts doubt on the possibility of impropriety, so we’re left wondering what the hell is going on here.

Events like these are inevitable under a vague federal policy left to the whims of the DEA’s bullying cowboy mentality. Only a change in federal law will bring an end to this, but for the time being, the Obama Administration would do well to eliminate all apparent departures from the well-received hands-off approach they’ve promised the American people. I don’t see what’s so hard about that. If circumstances emerge that absolutely necessitate DEA activity involving medical marijuana, then it shouldn’t be too hard to provide an explanation for why federal resources were needed. That’s the very least you can do.

Obama’s pledge to respect medical marijuana laws enjoys broader public support than almost anything else he’s done since taking office. Screwing that up would be stupid, cruel and pointless.

Source: http://www.stopthedrugwar.com/chronicle_blog/2010/jul/12/medical_marijuana_raids_continue

An Orange County Superior Court judge has firmed up her tentative ruling throwing out a woman’s case against Dana Point in which Malinda Traudt sought to prevent the city from closing Beach Cities Collective, a pot dispensary that her family says is her lifeline.

Her attorney has promised an appeal. Traudt, 29, of San Clemente, who was born with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and blindness, had sued Dana Point in May to keep open the dispensary from which her family obtains marijuana to manage her pain.

Traudt claimed in legal documents that the city’s ban unconstitutionally interferes with her fundamental rights to life and safety, under the California Constitution.

In her ruling, Orange County Superior Court Judge Nomoto Schumann cited cases and said that:

•There is no constitutional right to obtain medical marijuana.

•The Compassionate Use Act and the Medical Marijuana Program Act do not preempt the city’s ability to regulate or ban medical marijuana collectives or dispensaries.

•There is no authority that a patient has a fundamental constitutional right to obtain any particular controlled substance.

The Compassionate Use Act, also known as Proposition 215, which was approved by voters in 1996, allows for the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Patients can legally use marijuana with permission from doctors under that law. However, federal law still forbids marijuana possession in most cases, which officials and lawyers say creates conflicts.
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/news/marijuana-257658-use-dana.html

A poll released Wednesday by the Cornell University Survey Research Institute found that nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers favor legalizing marijuana for medical use.

A higher percentage of upstate residents support it than people who live downstate (which includes New York City, the northern suburbs and Long Island) — 67 percent versus 62 percent.

“It pretty much said what we’ve seen in polls across the state and across the country for many years, which is that people strongly support medical marijuana,” said Vince Marrone, a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, which favors the legalization of medical marijuana.

There is a marked difference in attitude between Democrats and unaffiliated voters on one side and Republicans on the other, according to the poll. Sixty-six percent of Democrats and 68 percent of unaffiliated voters support legalization for medical use, while a plurality of Republicans — 48 percent — said they are against it.

Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long said there is no evidence that marijuana helps with any medical conditions, and the party opposes legalization for medical use.

“There have been some leaders who … have pushed to have us change our position, but the majority of the leadership rejects the thought process that in some way shape or form it helps people,” he said.

The poll found that 79 percent of people who consider themselves ideologically liberal support medical marijuana, compared to 63 percent for self-identified moderates and 49 percent for conservatives.

More men are in favor of medical marijuana than women — 67 percent versus 61 percent, the poll said. The higher the household income, the more likely the support for legalization — 53 percent for people with household incomes below $30,000 compared to 73 percent for those with incomes of $100,000 or more, the Survey Research Institute said.

The 2010 Empire State Poll surveyed New Yorkers on a number of issues facing their community and the state. More than 800 telephone interviews were conducted in February and March.

Legislation to legalize medical marijuana didn’t get through the Senate or Assembly this year. It would have allowed patients registered with the state Department of Health to have up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana on hand at any one time. It could not be smoked in public places. The state would register organizations that would acquire, manufacture, sell, deliver, transport and distribute marijuana for medical use.

Bills on the topic have been introduced for more than a dozen years. The Assembly has passed legislation twice before. Neither house brought the bill to the floor for a vote this year.

“We don’t consider it over with yet,” Marrone said. “There’s still a lot of interest in both houses and the governor’s office to do this.”

Fourteen other states allow the use of marijuana for patients who have serious or life-threatening medical conditions, such as HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Users have said it relieves nausea and reduces chronic pain and muscle spasms.

Cornell’s Survey Research Institute has been conducting an annual Empire State Poll since 2003. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percent.

In a February Quinnipiac University poll, 71 percent of New York voters said legalizing marijuana for medical use was a good idea and 25 percent said it was not. The political breakdown of those supporting it was 78 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of independents.

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20100714/NEWS01/7140361/Poll-Medical-marijuana-gets-strong-support-upstate