my mmj-ourney

COLORADO

Colorado voters approved medical marijuana in 2000, but dispensaries did not begin opening in large numbers until 2009, after which legislators passed measures to regulate marijuana’s cultivation and production.

The state currently has one of the most extensive systems in the United States for regulating medical pot, and it is the only state where officials explicitly allow for-profit sales.

Voters will decide in November whether to legalize recreational use of the drug, giving adults 21 and older the right to possess up to an ounce of pot or six plants for cultivation. Colorado voters rejected a measure to legalize small amounts of cannabis in 2006.

(Source: vision.org)

posted by BRENDAN KILEY on TUE, APR 17, 2012 at 12:32 PM

(Source: slog.thestranger.com)

you should have offered a snack, they probably had the munchies too

Physicians who prescribe opioid drugs to patients with neuropathy (nerve pain) ought to consider recommending cannabis as an alternative therapy, according to a peer-reviewed paper published online this week in the Harm Reduction Journal.

“There is sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy for the use of (cannabis/cannabinoids) in the treatment of nerve pain relative to opioids,” the commentary states. “In states where medicinal cannabis is legal, physicians who treat neuropathic pain with opioids should evaluate their patients for a trial of cannabis and prescribe it when appropriate prior to using opioids. … Prescribing cannabis in place of opioids for neuropathic pain may reduce the morbidity and mortality rates associated with prescription pain medications and may be an effective harm reduction strategy.”

The author notes that between the years 1999 and 2006, “approximately 65,000 people died from opioid analgesic overdose.” By contrast, he writes “[N]o one has ever died from an overdose of cannabis.”

In clinical trials, inhaled cannabis has been consistently shown to reduce neuropathic pain of diverse causes in subjects unresponsive to standard pain therapies.

In November, clinical investigators at the University of California, San Francisco reported that vaporized cannabis augments the analgesic effects of opiates in subjects prescribed morphine or oxycodone. Authors of the study surmised that cannabis-specific interventions “may allow for opioid treatment at lower doses with fewer [patient] side effects.”

Neuropathy affects between five percent and 10 percent of the US population. The condition is often unresponsive to conventional analgesic medications such as opiates and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

(Source: opposingviews.com)

 The Union of Medical Marijuana Patients Unionmmp.org 

The Dirty Dozen Myths about Medical Marijuana Associations 

The great debate that has raged in the City of Los Angeles about the regulation of medical marijuana collectives (we refer to them as medical marijuana patient associations, or “PAs”), has been heavy on speculation, rhetoric and assumptions and light on facts. The confusion has only grown with the recent Second District decision in Pack v. City of Long Beach. Here are the twelve most common misconceptions and the real facts about them: 

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Massachusetts could soon become the newest state to allow patients to legally use medical marijuana. The Massachusetts Secretary of State recently certified four citizen initiative petitions, including a medical marijuana one. The medical marijuana initiative would allow patients with debilitating medical conditions and doctor’s certification to possess up to a 60-day supply of medical marijuana. The initiative would also allow for the creation of some non-profit medical marijuana care centers which could grow marijuana to provide to certified patients.

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