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Grand jury returns indictment against another Medical Marijuana Patient

Mount Vernon,Ohio  - A grand jury released an indictment against 45 year old medical marijuana patient Addie J Cyrus.   On February 13th, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, without a warrant, seized marijuana plants weighing 813 grams from Cyrus' residence in Gambier, Ohio.  Cyrus  is charged with illegal cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana. Her husband, James B. Cyrus, 46, is also charged with possession of marijuana.

Knox county prosecutor, Thatcher, indicated he intends to prosecute Cyrus to the fullest extent of the law.  Addie Cyrus is a military veteran and has never even had a traffic ticket.  She now suffers some health issues and uses marijuana with her doctors knowledge to help maintain her quality of life.

Her husband, James Cyrus, owns a trucking company and is in danger of losing the family business they have operated for 20 years due to Ohio's law that takes away your drivers license if convicted of any drug possession.

Last year, the Ohio Patient Network introduced a medical compassion bill that would have protected patients like Addie Cyrus from a prosecutor like Mr. Thatcher, who wants to put non-violent citizens like Cyrus in jail.  Addie Cyrus faces at least a year in jail, where the state will have to provide medical care.

Ohio Patient Network is once again working for a Medical Marijuana bill.  In the last year's State Senate hearing on SB343,  even Senator Seitz voiced support for the legislation.  Senator Seitz from Hamilton County is one of the most conservative and respected State Senators in the Ohio Senate.

Addie Cyrus has retained the legal services of defense attorney Dennis Day.  Day is a notable marijuana defense attorney and serves on the NORML Legal Committee.  NORML is the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

 

Former Drug Free America Director Endorses Medical Marijuana

David E. Krahl, former Deputy Director of Drug Free America Foundation, has endorsed medical marijuana this week (March 26th 2009).  “Being away from the Drug Free America Foundation allowed me an opportunity to take a fresh look at the issue,” Krahl said. Krahl, a graduate of the University of Akron, now teaches courses in criminal justice. Below is an article he wrote for Medical Marijuana Therapeutics/Research.

Ushering in a new level of optimism in Washington, DC and around the country, the Obama Administration recently signaled a sea change in drug enforcement policy. Last month, Attorney General Eric Holder affirmed an earlier commitment by the President to end federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries. Despite the country’s woes, from a worsening economy to a war on several fronts, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has found the time, energy, and resources to continue its nonsensical effort to undermine the duly enacted medical marijuana laws of California and other states. That was, until the Attorney General announced a new approach to the failed war on medical marijuana.

Contrary to scientific opinion, the U.S. government still posits that marijuana has no medical value. Not only has the government used this position to harmfully intrude in the lives of our most vulnerable citizens, it has done so with scorn for the voters and legislatures that enacted state medical marijuana laws. Even though the White House had earlier indicated its intent to end federal raids in medical marijuana states, the yet still-seated Bush Administration officials continued a policy of rabid enforcement based on expediency. For example, even after President Obama took office on January 20, six licensed medical marijuana dispensaries were raided by the DEA.

There was a point in my professional career as Deputy Director of the Drug Free America Foundation when I supported the prohibition of marijuana as medicine. But then, I experienced a change of heart, if you will; a moment of clarity, an epiphany. After seriously investigating the issue, and getting beyond the rhetorical arguments of both sides, I began to realize that the prohibitionist viewpoint against the use of marijuana as medicine largely ignored three things, which are so embedded in the fabric of American society and reflective of our cultural values that their truth is almost self-evident.
See the remainder of this article in OpposingViews  where you can comment and see the opposing viewpoint by Barrett Duke.  Barrett Duke is Vice President for public policy and research for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
 

Federal Government to Respect State Medical Marijuana Laws

Attorney General Holder confirmed an earlier statement that the United States is changing federal policy regarding medical marijuana to respect state medical marijuana laws.  The Justice department (DEA) will no longer be prosecuting individuals if they are following state laws.  In a question-and-answer session on Wednesday, March 18th, with reporters at the Justice Department, Attorney General Holder said, "The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law."  During the presidential campaign, Barrack Obama said he would not use federal resources to go after medical marijuana like the Bush and Clinton administration did.

Now medical marijuana supporters in Ohio need to re-double their efforts to bring Ohio into the ranks of other medical marijuana states.  Contact your state senator and representative and tell them you support a medical marijuana law and now they should make it happen.  The fear of the federal government has been erased with this policy shift from Washington.  Now is the time to change Ohio laws.

See the Associated Press news article where the "Attorney general signals shift in marijuana policy" written by Devlin Barrett.
Read more...
 

New Mexico Department of Health Approves First Producer for Medical Cannabis

On March 19th The New Mexico Department of Health has approved the first nonprofit in New Mexico to produce medical cannabis for patients in the Department’s Medical Cannabis Program. Nonprofits are allowed to produce up to 95 mature plants and seedlings as well as a usable inventory of medical cannabis to meet the needs of patients in the program.

“We are proud that we have accomplished the last and most challenging phase of our program and now New Mexico patients who are suffering from chronic, debilitating conditions can legally access medical cannabis under State law,” said Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil, MD.

The Department is reviewing another producer application from a nonprofit. The Health Secretary will consider the health needs of qualified patients and the public safety in determining the number and location of licenses that the Department approves. Patients in the Medical Cannabis Program can also apply to produce up to 4 mature plants and 12 seedlings for their personal use. So far, the Department has approved 23 patients to be their own producers.

Read more...
 

Congresswoman suggest legalized marijuana pilot program

On March 12th Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, Chairwoman of the Committee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism, suggest that we may want to consider a pilot program for legalized marijuana.  Sanchez was in a CNN interview talking about the violence in Mexico. The reporter raised the recent Economist magazine call for legalizing drugs as a way to cut the violence. 

Congresswoman Sanchez recalling the political sucess at the ballot box in her state on the issues of marijuana said in a very straightforward manner that we may want to consider a pilot program where marijuana is legalized. The video can be found in the link to the Briefing Room Blog.

 
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AMA question marijuana’s federal  classification of as a deadly, addictive drug with no medical use.

COLUMBUS, OHIO — At the November American Medical Association conference the AMA reversed it's position on marijuana as a schedule I drug and urges that “marijuana’s status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid based medicines.”  This is a reversal of the AMA position, which has equated marijuana in the same class as heroin.

Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug by Ohio and the federal government.  A achedule I drug is defined as a substance with high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and a lack of accepted safety standards for its use under medical supervision.  Schedule I drug can not be prescibed by doctors, but the federal government for 40 years has been supply in 300 joints a month to a small group of citiizens.

The AMA now appears to be ready to join other medical organization such as American College of Physicians, American Nurses Association, and others in questioning the federal classification as a deadly addictive drug with no accepted medical use.  Ohio classifies marijuana similarly.

The American College of Physicians, a large organization representing internal medicine doctors, made a similar statement as the AMA. The ACP "supports programs and funding for rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and the publication of such findings”.

"The American Nurses Association (ANA) recognizes that patients should have safe access to therapeutic marijuana/cannabis. Cannabis or marijuana has been used medicinally for centuries. It has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of symptoms and conditions." {Providing Patients Safe Access to Therapeutic Marijuana/Cannabis," American Nurses Association (ANA) website, Mar. 19, 2004}

Ohio and the federal government is going to find it increasingly difficult to support their claims that cannabis (aka marijuana) as having no medical value.  A majority of Ohio citizens supports medical marijuana as evidenced by the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research recent poll results.

Ohio Patients are working to change Ohio laws concerning medical marijuana.