History of Medical Cannabis

          History of Medical    

            Cannabis

 

     Marijuana, Cannabis, weed, smoke, or Mary Jane. Whatever you call it, it is involved with controversery. It has been in use as medicine for 27,000 years, that we know so far, it’s non-thc cousin Hemp has been used in the making of durable cloth and excellent writing paper. Until the 1937 Marijuana Stamp Act of 1937, cannabis had been used to treat over 100 ailments listed in the US pharmacology.

     During their 1930’s America was coming out of the Great Depression and Prohibition (which was a failure then and we haven’t learned from the alcohol prohibition. PROHIBITION was and is still a failure and waste of taxpayer’s dollars.), and many men had lost their fortunes. Randolph Hurst, a huge timber and paper man, began to see that hemp was farmed on smaller plots, in many areas there were two crops per year, it was virtually self-sufficient needing nothing but the dirt and sunshine, it could be used for fuel oil, food, paper that was very durable, and cloth that was many times more rugged and longer lasting than cotton. Hurst was also the owner of several influential news publications which he used as leverage against many in Congress to get a bill that would ruin the hemp farmer. The bill passed by a large margarine and so came The Stamp Act of 1937. This act said that a farmer could grow hemp but he had to purchase a stamp (license) and it was always more than a farmer could hope to make.

     In 1973, US President Nixon signed into place the War on Drugs. Nixon created the DEA, under the flag of the FDA, and gave power to one man to overlook this agency. Elvis Pressley was a sworn agent….If I remember correctly, didn’t he die of a drug overdose in his bathroom?

     But what we are here to discuss is the history of the wonderful little plant that Mother Nature supplied to us for our own usage. The name is of course marijuana or Mary Jane. Whatever you call it, it was first used as a medication. Up until 2008, it was known to have been in use 10,000 years ago, thought to have been brought across the Bering Sea land bridge. The proof was discovered in a small village in Taiwan, in 1973. It was an amazing find of pottery shards with the markings of hemp cord, this gave proof that hemp had been in use since the ending of the ice age.

     Then, in 2008, archaeologists on a dig in Central Asia, found proof of the use of cannabis by an Asian medicine man. These remains date back to 25,000 BC, yes, that is 27,000 years ago. The Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, China have recently been excavated to reveal the 27,000-year-old grave of a Caucasoid shaman whose accoutrements included a large cache of about two pounds of cannabis. The cannabis was presumably employed by the Chinese culture as a medicinal or psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent, and contribute to the medical and archaeological record of this pre-Silk Road culture.

 

    The Chinese that inhabited Central and Eastern Asia called it “Ma” (Mother???? As in Mother Nature? Could be.). Ma is arguably the “Mother” of agricultural civilization, therefore, it can be argued to be the “Mother” of all civilization period. Ma proved to be a renewable foodstuff, which is necessary to have a civilized people. Ma proved to be rich in B vitamins, amino acids which are a must for life, and protein which fuels the body. This discovery of Ma set agricultural China ahead of the hunter-gatherer groups of Europe and Africa. Ma has even been found in the tombs of ancient Egypt, in the temples of ancient Egypt as early as the 16^th century BC. It has also been found in Ancient Hebrew ruins, with evidence of use as an aid in childbirth, long before the time of Christ. Ma usage has proven to be an invaluable resource in the continuous survival of Chinese culture from its origins in the distant past to the present day.

    In 2700 BC, according to Chinese legend, the emperor Shen Nung, also known as Chen Nung, considered the Father of Chinese medicine, discovered marijuana’s healing properties as well as two other mainstays of the Chinese herbal medicine, ginseng, and ephedra.

     The use of cannabis for purposes of healing predates recorded history. The earliest written reference is found in the 15^th century BC Chinese Pharmacopeia, the Rh-Ya.

      Holy anointing oil, as described in the original Hebrew version of the recipe in Exodus (30: 22-23), contained over six pounds of kaneh-bosem, a substance identified by respected etymologists, linguist, anthropologists, botanists and other researchers as cannabis, extracted into about six quarts of olive oil, along with a variety of other fragrant herbs. The ancient anointed ones were literally drenched in this potent mixture.

     Cannabis pollen was found on the mummified body of Ramesses II, who died in 1213 BC. Remedies made of cannabis in ancient Egypt include treatment for the eye (glaucoma), inflammation, and cooling the uterus, as well as administered through enemas.

     Bhang, a cannabis drink mixed with milk, was used as an anesthetic and anti-phlegmatic in India. Cannabis began to be used in India to treat a wide variety of human maladies. The Venidad, one of the volumes of Zend-Avesta, the ancient Persian religious text written around the 7^th century BC, heavily influenced by the Vedas, mentions bhang and lists cannabis as the most important of 10,000 medicinal plants.

     Cannabis was used in India in very early medical applications. People believed it could quicken the mind (I know it does quicken my mind), prolong life (I am still alive after all the years and sickness I have been through!), improve judgment, lower fevers, induce sleep, and cure dysentery. The first major work to lay out the uses of Cannabis in [Indian] medicine was the Ayurvedic [a system of Indian medicine] dissertation of Sushruta Samhita written in 600 BC…Within the Sushruta, cannabis is listed as an anti-phlegmatic and a cure for leprosy.

     Around 200 BC, the ancient Greeks used cannabis for an earache, edema, and inflammation. In a collection of drug recipes compiled in 1 AD [Pen Ts’ao Ching], based on traditions from the time of Shen Nung, marijuana is depicted is an ideogram [pictorial symbol] of plants drying in a shed. This ancient text…recommends marijuana for more than 100 ailments, including gout, rheumatism, malaria, and absentmindedness (sounds like a CURE for all of my sister’s ailments).

     In the Bible’s New Testament, Jesus…anointed [his disciples] with potent entheogenic [psychoactive substance] oil, sending out the 12 apostles to do the same [around 30 AD]…

     Likewise, after Jesus’ passing, James suggests that anyone of the Christian Community who was sick should call to the elders to anoint him with oil in the name of Jesus. I think the next thing that needs to be asked, Did Jesus use cannabis? I think He did (in the manner in which I have, not to get high but to get the medicinal aid). The word Christ does mean ‘the anointed one’ and Christ anointed with chrism, a cannabis based oil, which caused his spiritual visions. The ancient recipe for this oil, recorded in Exodus, included over 9 pounds of flowering tops of the cannabis plant (the mature buds! Known as kaneh-bosem in Hebrew), extracted into a hin (about 11? Pints) of olive oil, along with a variety of other herbs and spices. The mixture was used in anointing and fumigations that, significantly, allowed the priests and prophets to see and speak with Yahweh.

***I know some of my Christian friends are going to be offended by this but it is only a part of history and is a fact from the book of Exodus. In no means am I trying to say Jesus was a pothead or anything of that sort. Please do not be offended. I believe that the herb was put on this planet for many reasons including spiritual use. How can any government body criminalize a natural plant that plays such an important part in the anointing of Christians? Used as the MAIN ingredient in anointing oil. Used to communicate with the Lord.***

     Residue of cannabis, also, has been detected in vessels from Judea and Egypt in a context indicating its medicinal, as well as visionary, use. Jesus is described by the apostle Mark as casting out demons and healing by the use of this holy chrism. Earlier, from the time of Moses until later, Samuel, holy anointing oil was used by the shamanic Levite priesthood to receive the “revelations of the Lord.” The chosen ones were drenched in this potent cannabis oil.

     Pedanius Dioscorides (circa AD 40-90), a Greek physician, who was also a Roman army doctor, traveled widely on campaigns throughout the Roman Empire, he studied many plants, gathering all of  his knowledge into a book that he titled De Materia Medica (On Medicinal Matters). Published about AD 70, it became the most important medicinal book in the following 1500 years. Included in it was cannabis, both kannabis emeros and kannabis agria, the male and female respectively. Dioscorides stated that the plant, which was used in the making of rope, also produced a juice that was used to treat earache and suppress sexual longing. Pliny the Elder, an ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, and historian, author of Naturalis Historia (79 AD), [writes] that “The roots [of the cannabis plant] boiled in water ease[s] cramped joints, gout too and other similar violent pain.” (Yet, our government still sees no medicinal use. Big Pharma can’t get a patent on it, that sounds much more believable.)

     Chinese surgeon Hua T’o performed surgeries such as “organ grafts, re-sectioning of intestines, laparotomies (incisions into the loin), and thoracotomies (incisions into the chest)…. Rendered painless by means of  ma-yo, an anesthetic made from cannabis resin and wine (approximately 200 AD).”  Cannabis was used medicinally across the Arabic world during the Roman times, applied to a wide variety of ailments (from migraines to syphilis) and as an analgesic and anesthetic (around 800-900 AD). The great 9^th century Islamic physician Rhazes…prescribed it widely, the Arab physician Ibn Wahshiyah, warned of the potential effects of hashish which he wrote was a lethal poison(The birth of the hiding of true facts?).

      After the 1500’s, and following Islam’s spread to India, Moslem doctors used the Persian theories to guide their use of cannabis. Their applications tended to stress the late effects, rather than the early ones, so they used it, for instance, as a means of reducing sexuality rather than increasing it.

     During the Middle Ages, hemp was central to any herbalist’s medicine cabinet. William Turner, considered the first English botanist, praises it in his New Herball, published in 1538. A Chinese medical text (1578 AD) [Bencao Gangmu Materia Medica, by Li Shizhen] describes the use of cannabis to treat vomiting, parasitic infections, and hemorrhage. Marijuana continues to be used in China as a home remedy for diarrhea and dysentery and to stimulate the appetite.(Which I am in the need of, as I have lost over 50 lbs since May of this year.)

     The Jamestown, Virginia(Which my ancestors, the Churchwell’s, were settlers, in 1614.), brought the cannabis plant, actually the hemp plant, to North America in 1611, and throughout the entire colonial period. Hemp fiber was an important export. In 1762, Virginia awarded bounties for hemp culture and manufacture, and imposed penalties on those who did not produce hemp.The English Clergyman and Oxford scholar Robert Burton suggests cannabis as a treatment for depression (I for one can attest to its great effects against depression!) in his influential and still popular 1621 book The Anatomy of Melancholy. The great British herbalist, Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654), wrote in his [1652] The English Physitian (sic) that hemp extract “allayeth Inflamations in the Head…eases the pains of the Gout…Knots in the Joynts, [and] the pains of the Sinews and Hips’. Culpeper’s preparation probably had little psychoactivity as native cannabis grown in northern latitudes has relatively low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content.

     [George] Washington’s diary entries indicate he grew hemp at Mount Vernon, his plantation, for about 30 years [approximately 1745-1775]. According to his agriculture ledgers, he had a particular interest in the medicinal use of Cannabis, and several of his diary entries indicate that he was indeed growing Cannabis with a high THC content-marijuana.

     Thomas Jefferson did grow hemp [as noted in his farming diaries from 1774-1824], but there is no evidence to suggest that Jefferson was a habitual smoker of hemp, tobacco, or any other substance. Some have pointed to a supposed reference in Jefferson’s Farm Book to separating male and female plants as evidence that he was cultivating it for purposes of recreational smoking; no such reference exists in Jefferson’s Farm Book or any other document, although Washington did record such a thing in his own diary…

    When Napolean invaded Egypt, he had with him, forces that included a scientific expedition team. In addition to discovering the Rosetta Stone, the team brought back cannabis to France in 1799. It was experimented with for its pain relieving and sedative effects in Europe and it became more widely acceptable in western medicine.

      Cannabis was reintroduced into British medicine in 1842 by Dr. William O’Shaughnessy, an army surgeon who had served in India. In Victorian times it was widely used for a variety of ailments, including muscle spasms, menstrual cramps, rheumatism, and the convulsions of tetanus, rabies and epilepsy; it was also used to promote uterine contractions in childbirth, and as a sedative to induce sleep. It is said to have been used by Queen Victoria against period pains; there is no proof of this at all, but Sir Robert Russell, for many years her personal physician, wrote extensively on Cannabis, recommending it for use in dysmenorrhoea [menstrual cramps]. It was administered by mouth, not by smoking (the English commoners smoked cannabis as well as tobacco, they also made a great industry with hand-carved pipes and the BONG!), but usually in the form of a tincture (an extract in alcohol). Cannabis extracts were also incorporated in many different proprietary medicines.  

     In the 19^th century, marijuana emerged as a mainstream medicine in the West. Studies in the 1840’s by a French doctor, Jacques-Joseph Moreau [a French psychiatrist] found that marijuana relieved headaches, increased appetites, and aided in sleep. By 1850, marijuana had made its way into the United States Pharmacopeia [an official public standards-setting authority for all prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines], which listed marijuana as a  treatment for numerous afflictions, including: neuralgia, tetanus, typhus, cholera, rabies, dysentery, alcoholism, opiate addiction, anthrax, leprosy, incontinence, gout, convulsive disorders, tonsillitis, insanity, excessive menstrual bleeding, and uterine bleeding, among more than 100 other ailments. There were even patented marijuana tinctures being sold.

     In 1889, an article by Dr. E. A. Birch in The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, outlined the application of cannabis for the treatment of opium and chloral hydrate withdrawal symptoms: the mixture reduced the opium craving and acted as an anti-emetic. Concerns about cannabis as an intoxicant led the government of India to establish the Indian Hemp Commission of 1893-1894, to examine the question of cannabis use in India. The report mentions the use of cannabis as an “analgesic, a restorer of energy, a hemostat, an ecbolic [to induce contractions], and an antidiaretic. Cannabis is also mentioned as an aid in treating hay fever, cholera, dysentery, gonorrhea, diabetes, impotence, urinary incontinence, swelling of the testicles, granulation of open sores, and chronic ulcers. Other beneficial effects attributed to cannabis are prevention of insomnia, relief of anxiety, a protection against cholera, alleviation of hunger and as an aid to concentration.

     By 1900, cannabis was one of the top drugs in the Indian Materia Medica. It was, and still is, widely used in rural areas of the Indian sub-continent for asthma, bronchitis, and loss of appetite.

     On June 30, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act (which at that time period was needed. Manufacturers were putting all sorts of tobacco spit in liquids for coloring for instance), known simply as the Wiley Act…The basis of the law rested on the regulation of product labeling rather than pre-market approval. An Act for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for purposes…That for the purposes of this Act an article shall also be deemed to be misbranded…if the package fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or portion of any alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any derivative or preparation of any such substances contained therein.

     Bolstered by Progressive Era faith in big government (sounds a lot like our current era that we are all hoping to end), the 1910’s marked the high tide of prohibitionist sentiment in America. In 1914 and 1916, alcohol prohibition initiatives made the state. Meanwhile, the legislature was tackling such morals issues as prostitution, racetrack gambling, prizefighting, liquor, and oral sex. Amidst this profusion of vices, Indian hemp [aka cannabis] was but a minor afterthought…: It began with Massachusetts in 1911, declaring a new law prohibiting cannabis; followed by Maine, Wyoming, and Indiana in 1913; NYC in 1914; Utah and Vermont in 1915; Colorado and Nevada in 1917. As in California, these laws were passed not due to any widespread use or concern about cannabis, but as regulatory initiatives (to make some fat pockets from the use of timber. They knew the usefulness of cannabis/hemp but had their money tied up in the timber industry) to discourage future use.

     Representative Francis B. Harrison (D-NY) (father of the anti-drug prohibitionist movement that still holds control over our right to put what we want into our bodies.) introduced three bills in 1913 to remedy the [drug] problem by controlling the domestic manufacture of opium and by regulating the international opium trade. According to these three bills, opium could be imported or exported only for medicinal purposes. Harrison also proposed that the government “…impose a special tax upon all persons who…sell, distribute, or give away opium or coca leaves…” President Woodrow Wilson signed all three of Harrison’s measures into law by January 1915. (This is just the beginning of BIG GOVERNMENT. From here it would grow larger with every succeeding president!) The Harrison Act, as the final proposal was known, required every physician who prescribed opium or any of its derivatives to put a serial number, that could only be obtained through the Internal Revenue Department (Woody found some extra tax money), on each prescription (the beginning of the controlled substance act)…Every doctor who wished to prescribe narcotics was required to register annually with the federal government.

     Although it did not apply to cannabis, The Harrison Act became the model for drug regulation on the federal level and is considered the basis for the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.

     In 1915 Utah passed a state anti-marijuana law….Other states quickly followed with marijuana prohibition laws, including Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), Iowa (1923), Nevada (1923), Oregon (1923), Washington (1923), Arkansas (1923), and Nebraska (1927)." The state of New York outlawed cannabis in 1927.  At the Second Opium Conference and the International Opium Convention, sponsored by the League of Nations (the original United Nations) and signed in Geneva on Feb. 19, 1925. Egypt proposed that hashish (cannabis resin) be added to the list of narcotics covered by the convention. The convention authorized the use of "Indian hemp" (cannabis) only for scientific and medical purposes. Restrictions on importing and exporting cannabis resin were put into place.

     This convention is the first multilateral treaty that deals with cannabis. Cannabis was added to the list of prohibited drugs in the UK's "Dangerous Drugs Act in 1928." Cocaine was added in 1920.

   

      As demand for marijuana-based medications accelerated, pharmaceutical firms attempted to produce consistently potent and reliable drugs from hemp. By the 1930s at least two American companies – Parke-Davis and Eli Lily – were selling standardized extracts of marijuana for use as an analgesic, an antispasmodic and sedative. Another manufacturer, Grimault & Company, marketed marijuana cigarettes as a remedy for asthma.

     Harry Anslinger emerged as the pivot around who marijuana legislation would swing. He represented the most extreme reaction against marihuana use... Anslinger joined the Treasury Department in 1926 and by 1929 was Assistant Commissioner of Prohibition... [He was promoted] to the head of the Narcotics Bureau in 1930..."

     "[I]n 1933, marijuana became the target of government control. Sensationalistic stories linked violent acts of crime  to cannabis use. Many of the most outlandish stories appeared in newspapers published by William Randolph Hearst. Hearst reportedly had financial interests in the lumber and paper industries. He had sought to eliminate competition from hemp (hemp made cheaper paper and stronger cloth, Hearst had to stop hemp growth or lose his fortune in the timber industry).

     "The first laws against cannabis in the United States were passed in border towns with Mexico. William Randolph Hearst was an up-and-coming newspaper tycoon, owning twenty-eight newspapers by the mid-1920s... Hearst then dropped the words cannabis and hemp from his newspapers and began a propaganda campaign against 'marijuana,' (following in Anslinger's footsteps)...”  "It is difficult to know precisely the extent of marihuana use in the 1930s. The Narcotics Bureau itself never provided any official estimate. The Bureau spoke only of 'widespread use...'  [Commissioner Harry] Anslinger maintained that all drug use was a plot of 'civic corruption,' a public enemy seeking to destroy the community. (figures he would come up with some bull manure being the chief of the original DEA)

      During 1936 the Bureau headlined the marijuana danger in its report ["Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs," 1936]. For the first time it urged federal controls and presented a description of the vice, describing dire mental and moral changes among users.

     "By the end of 1936 all 48 states had enacted laws to regulate marijuana. Its decline in medicine was hastened by the development of aspirin, morphine, and then other opium-derived drugs, all of which helped to replace marijuana in the treatment of pain and other medical conditions in Western medicine (but how wrong they were)."

      "Reefer Madness is a morality tale of how Reefer Addiction ruins the life of its young protagonist and gets a lot of other people killed, sexually compromised and committed to lunatic asylums. Reefer Madness began its cinematic life as a 1936 cautionary film entitled Tell Your Children. It was financed by a small church group, and was intended to scare the living hell out of every parent who viewed it. Soon after the film was shot, however, it was purchased by the notorious exploitation film maestro Dwain Esper (Narcotic, Marihuana, Maniac), who took the liberty of cutting in salacious insert shots and slapping on the sexier title of Reefer Madness, before distributing it on the exploitation circuit.

     Today, the film is a cult phenomenon dwarfed only by The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and 'Reefer Madness' is a bona fide catch phrase.""Hearings on the proposed taxation of marijuana were held before the Committee on Ways and Means between 27 April and 4 May 1937. The last witness to be heard was Dr. William C. Woodward, legislative counsel of the American Medical Association (AMA). He announced his opposition to the bill... [and] sought to dispel any impression that either the AMA or enlightened medical opinion sponsored this legislation. Marihuana, he argued, was largely an unknown plant, but might have important uses in medicine and psychology."

     "There is nothing in the medicinal use of Cannabis that has any relation to Cannabis addiction. I use the word 'Cannabis' in preference to the word 'marihuana', because Cannabis is the correct term for describing the plant and its products. The term 'marihuana' is a mongrel word that has crept into this country over the Mexican border and has no general meaning, except as it relates to the use of Cannabis preparations for smoking. To say, however, as has been proposed here, that the use of the drug should be prevented by a prohibitive tax, loses sight of the fact that future investigation may show that there are substantial medical uses for Cannabis."

     "Spurred by spectacular accounts of marijuana’s harmful effects on its users, by the drug's alleged connection to violent crime, and by a perception that state and local efforts to bring use of the drug under control were not working, Congress enacted the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Promoted by Harry Anslinger, Commissioner of the recently established Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the act imposed registration and reporting requirements and a tax on the growers, sellers, and buyers of marijuana. Although the act did not prohibit marijuana outright, its effect was the same (Because marijuana was not included in the Harrison Narcotics Act in 1914, the Marihuana Tax Act was the federal government’s first attempt to regulate marijuana.)."

     "By the time the federal government passed the Marihuana Tax Act in [Oct.] 1937, every state had already enacted laws criminalizing the possession and sale of marijuana. The federal law, which was structured in a fashion similar to the 1914 Harrison Act, maintained the right to use marijuana for medicinal purposes but required physicians and pharmacists who prescribed or dispensed marijuana to register with federal authorities and pay an annual tax or license fee. After the passage of the Act, prescriptions of marijuana declined because doctors generally decided it was easier not to prescribe marijuana than to deal with the extra work imposed by the new law."

     "On the day the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act was enacted -- Oct. 2, 1937 -- the FBI and Denver, Colo., police raided the Lexington Hotel and arrested Samuel R. Caldwell, 58, an unemployed labourer and Moses Baca, 26. On Oct. 5, Caldwell went into the history trivia books as the first marijuana seller convicted under U.S. federal law. His customer, Baca, was found guilty of possession.

      Caldwell was sentenced to four years of hard labor in Leavenworth Penitentiary, plus a $1,000 fine. Baca received 18 months incarceration. Both men served every day of their sentence. A year after Caldwell was released from prison, he died."

     "In 1938, Canada prohibited cannabis farming at all levels. The aim there was to prevent the leisure use of marijuana. Doctors were still permitted to prescribe tincture of cannabis, but the bureaucracy that came with every prescription discouraged many from offering it to patients." "Marijuana was removed from the US Pharmacopeia in 1942, thus losing its remaining mantle of therapeutic legitimacy."

      In 1938, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia requested that the New York Academy of Medicine conduct an investigation of marijuana. The 1944 report, titled "The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York," but commonly referred to as the "LaGuardia Report," concludes that many claims about the dangers of marijuana are exaggerated or untrue. “The practice of smoking marijuana does not lead to addiction in the medical sense of the word... The use of marihuana does not lead to morphine or heroin or cocaine addiction and no effort is made to create a market for these narcotics by stimulating the practice of marihuana smoking... Marihuana is not the determining factor in the commission of major crimes... The publicity concerning the catastrophic effects of marijuana smoking in New York City is unfounded."

     "In 1951, Congress established mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug crimes. Named for its sponsor, Representative Hale Boggs (D-La.), the Boggs Act imposed two-to-five year minimum sentences for first offenses, including simple possession. The Act made no distinction between drug users and drug traffickers for purposes of sentencing.

      The driving force behind the Boggs Act was a mistaken belief that drug addiction was a contagious and perhaps incurable disease and that those who are addicted should be quarantined and forced to undergo treatment."

     Congress included marijuana in the Narcotics Control Act of 1956, which resulted in tougher mandatory sentences for marijuana-related offenses. A first-offense marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2-10 years with a fine of up to $20,000.

    In the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, established was the following rule in Article 49: "The use of cannabis for other than medical and scientific purposes must be discontinued as soon as possible but in any case within twenty-five years. In 1961, the United Nations adopted the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the terms of which stated that each participating country could 'adopt such measures as may be necessary to prevent misuse of, and illicit traffic in, the leaves of the Cannabis plant.' Congress approved participation in the convention in 1967 and three years later passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which provided the basis for current federal prohibitions regarding marijuana use."

       In 1964 Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was the first to scientist to identify delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as the main psychoactive component of cannabis. He was also the first to synthesize THC (The birth of Marinol.).

       “Since about 1968 the University of Mississippi has held a registration from the DEA or its predecessor agency to cultivate marijuana for government use and research activities…[as] the only DEA-registered cultivator of marijuana. The University of Mississippi... supplies marijuana to researchers for studies ranging from chemical research to preclinical toxicology in animals to clinical work on humans."

     "The dramatic increase in the use of marihuana and other drugs during the latter 1960's was a matter of high public visibility. In response, Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1968. This reorganization was effective on April 8, 1968 and placed the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (of Treasury) and the Bureau of President Johnson offered Drug Abuse Control (of FDA) in the Department of Justice and designated it the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs." The Nov. 1, 1968 Wootton Report, written by the UK government's Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence, found that "the long term consumption of cannabis in moderate doses has no harmful effects... Cannabis is less dangerous than the opiates, amphetamines and barbiturates, and also less dangerous than alcohol...(But it still would mean hemp was harmless and Big Money isn’t going to allow that to happen without a fight, and by a fight I mean filling the legislator’s pockets)"

     The report's influence is seen in future British drug policies that reduce penalties for possession of marijuana by 50%.

     Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. This law established a "single system of control for both narcotic and psychotropic drugs for the first time in US history." The CSA created five schedules to classify substances. Marijuana is placed in Schedule I, which are drugs "classified as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision."

 

     "The Congress asked the Department of Health, Education and Welfare for their recommendation where marijuana should be placed in the Controlled Substances Act. The response, by letter of 8/14/70, of the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs [Roger O. Egeberg] is as follows:

     '...Some question has been raised whether the use of the plant itself produces "severe psychological or physical dependence" as required by a schedule I or even schedule II criterion. Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant and effects of the active drug contained in it, our recommendation is that marihuana be retained within schedule I at least until the completion of certain studies now underway to resolve the issue. If those studies* make it appropriate for the Attorney General to change the placement of marihuana to a different schedule, he may do so in accordance with the authority provided under section 201 of the bill..'"

    *"These studies" were concluded in the 1972 Schafer Commission report, which recommended removing marijuana from the scheduling system and decriminalizing it. President Nixon rejected their recommendation. NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, was founded in 1970 as a nonprofit public-interest advocacy group whose mission is to end marijuana prohibition.

       The 1971 UK Misuse of Drugs Act introduced a drug classification system and sentencing guidelines. Cannabis was put in Class B, the middle of three classes.

       In a televised news conference on May 1, 1971, responding to questions about the White House Conference on Youth, which had voted to legalize marijuana, President Nixon said:

      "As you know, there is a Commission that is supposed to make recommendations to me about this subject; in this instance, however, I have such strong views that I will express them. I am against legalizing marijuana. Even if the Commission does recommend that it be legalized, I will not follow that recommendation... I can see no social or moral justification whatever for legalizing marijuana. I think it would be exactly the wrong step. It would simply encourage more and more of our young people to start down the long, dismal road that leads to hard drugs and eventually self-destruction (all the while, his honorary deputy of Drug Enforcement, Elvis Presley, is eating opiates like he had a giant bag of Skittles)."

 

     At a June 17, 1971 press conference, President Nixon said:

     "America's public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive. I have asked the Congress to provide the legislative authority and the funds to fuel this kind of an offensive. This will be a worldwide offensive dealing with the problems of sources of supply, as well as Americans who may be stationed abroad, wherever they are in the world... I have brought Dr. [Jerome H.] Jaffe into the White House, directly reporting to me [as Special Consultant to the President for Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs], so that we have not only the responsibility, but the authority to see that we wage this offensive effectively and in a coordinated way.”

 

      "The bipartisan Shafer Commission [National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse], appointed by President Nixon at the direction of Congress [and chaired by former Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer], considered laws regarding marijuana and determined that personal use of marijuana should be decriminalized. Nixon rejected the recommendation, but over the course of the 1970s, eleven states decriminalized marijuana and most others reduced their penalties."

     "Possession of marihuana for personal use would no longer be an offense, but marihuana possessed in public would remain contraband subject to summary seizure and forfeiture. Casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration not involving profit would no longer be an offense."

     In 1972, NORML filed an administrative petition with the DEA. "NORML's petition called on the federal government to reclassify marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule II drug so that physicians could legally prescribe it. Federal authorities initially refused to accept the petition until mandated to do so by the US Court of Appeals in 1974, and then refused to properly process it until again ordered by the Court in 1982... Fourteen years after NORML's initial petition, in 1986, the DEA finally held public hearings on the issue before an administrative law judge. Two years later [on Sep. 6, 1998], Judge Francis Young ruled [in the matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition, Docket No. 86-22] that the therapeutic use of marijuana was recognized by a respected minority of the medical community, and that it met the standards of other legal medications."

     The final ruling in the case was made Feb. 18, 1994. The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNND) and the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE) are merged to form the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

     "Since its inception in 1974, NIDA [National Institute on Drug Abuse] has been the sole administrator of a contract to grow cannabis (marijuana) for research purposes and the only legal source for cannabis in the United States...

     Because of international treaty agreements (Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961) which prohibit entities other than the Federal Government from legally supplying cannabis, NIDA has remained its only legal source..." The University of Mississippi is contracted by NIDA to grow either 1.5 or 6.5 acres of cannabis, or to not grow any at all, depending on research demand. The Research Triangle Institute (RTI) has a contract to manufacture and distribute cannabis cigarettes (joints). “In 1976, the Netherlands adopted de facto decriminalization [of cannabis]. Under Dutch law, possession remains a crime, but the national policy of the Ministry of Justice is to not enforce that law. After 1980, a system of 'coffee shops' evolved in which the purchase of small quantities of cannabis by adults was informally tolerated and was then formally permitted in shops that were licensed."

    “In November, 1976, a Washington, DC man [Robert Randall], aflicted by glaucoma employed the little-used Common Law Doctrine of Necessity to defend himself against criminal charges of marijuana cultivation (US v. Randall). On November 24, 1976, federal Judge James Washington ruled Randall's use of marijuana constituted a 'medical necessity...'
     Judge Washington dismissed criminal charges against Randall.          Concurrent with this judicial determination, federal agencies   responding to a May, 1976 petition filed by Randall, began providing this patient with licit, FDA-approved access to government supplies of medical marijuana. Randall was the first American to receive marijuana for the treatment of a medical disorder."

     "NIDA also supplies cannabis to seven patients under single patient  so-called 'compassionate use' Investigational New Drug Applications (IND). In 1978, as part of a lawsuit settlement by the Department of Health and Human Services, NIDA began supplying cannabis to patients whose physicians applied for and received such an USID from the FDA."

"In 1978, New Mexico passed the first state law recognizing the medical value of marijuana [Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act]. Over the next few years, more than 30 states passed similar legislation."

     “In 1980, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) began experimental distribution of a new drug called Marinol, an oral form of THC (the primary active ingredient in marijuana), to cancer patients in San Francisco. Simultaneously, six states conducted studies comparing smoked marijuana to oral THC in cancer patients who had not responded to traditional anti-vomiting medication. These state-sponsored studies revealed that thousands of patients found marijuana safer and more effective than synthetic THC. Meanwhile, the NCI experiments showed that some patients responded well to Marinol... Confronted with two different medical recommendations, the government chose to dismiss the state studies and give Marinol the green light."

     "In 1981, Bob [Randall, the first legal medical marijuana patient under the IND program] and Alice [O'Leary, his wife] formed an organization called the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics or ACT. The goal was to help other patients and their doctors file Compassionate Care Protocols, and to guide them through the government maze.”

      "Made by Unimed, Marinol is the trade name for dronabinol, a synthetic form of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), one of the principal psychoactive components of botanical marijuana. It was approved in May 1985 for nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy in patients who fail to respond to conventional antiemetic treatments. In December 1992, it was approved by FDA for the treatment of anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with AIDS. Marketed as a capsule, Marinol was originally placed in Schedule II."

     President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, instituting mandatory sentences for drug-related crimes. In conjunction with the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the new law raised federal penalties for simple marijuana possession and dealing, basing the penalties on the amount of the drug involved. Possession of 100 marijuana plants received the same penalty as possession of 100 grams of heroin. A later amendment to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act established a "three strikes and you're out" policy, requiring life sentences for repeat drug offenders, and providing for the death penalty for "drug kingpins."

     "Administrative law judge Francis Young was asked by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1988 to comment on the merits of rescheduling marijuana [in response to NORML's 1972 petition]. Young suggested that marijuana be rescheduled [from schedule I to schedule II] for nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy. He also concluded that the evidence was insufficient to warrant the use of crude marijuana for glaucoma or pain."

     Senior Investigator at the National Institute of Mental Health, Miles Herkenham, and his research team discovered the cannabinoid receptor system in 1990. The discovery helps scientists understand the pharmacological effects of cannabinoids, which occur when the THC in marijuana binds with the cannabinoid receptors in the brain.

      "A federal program that has provided free marijuana to the seriously ill is being phased out by Health and Human Services officials who have concluded it undercuts official Bush administration policy against the use of illegal drugs, according to HHS officials. While a small number of patients already receiving marijuana will continue to do so, new applicants will be encouraged to try synthetic forms of delta-9-THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, rather than the weed itself, according to a new policy directive signed by James O. Mason, chief of the Public Health Service... 'If it's perceived that the Public Health Service is going around giving marijuana to folks, there would be a perception that this stuff can't be so bad,' said Mason. 'It gives a bad signal.'

     While only six people had received marijuana under the program, the FDA has received 28 applications in the past year, and was concerned that it would be swamped with hundreds more in coming months, officials said. The Compassionate IND Program for medical marijuana was suspended [in June 1991] after the number of applications surge in response to the AIDS epidemic."

     

   "The first medical marijuana initiative appeared in the city of San Francisco as Proposition P, which passed with an overwhelming 79% of the vote on Nov. 5, 1991. Proposition P called on the State of California and the California Medical Association to 'restore hemp medical preparations to the list of available medicines in California,' and not to penalize physicians 'from prescribing hemp preparations for medical purposes.'"

     Twenty-eight years after discovering THC, in 1992, Dr. Mechoulam, along with Dr. William Devane and Dr. Lumir Hanus, identified the brain's first endocannabinoid - the brain's natural version of THC -which they called 'anandamide.' Exercise stimulates the release of anandamide, and the sense of euphoric well-being that comes with a healthy workout is due to elevated levels of endocannabinoids. The endocannabinoid system in the brain, is  believed to help mediate emotions, consolidate memory, and coordinate movement. In March 1992, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services decided that NIDA would not provide marijuana for single-patient INDs except to those patients who were receiving marijuana at the time. When the program was terminated, 27 additional single-patient INDs that had received FDA approval were canceled and the patients were not supplied with marijuana. The thirteen patients receiving medical Cannabis from the Feds would be 'grandfathered in.’ ending the Compassionate Care INDs, HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan signed on March 19, 1992.   

      

     A 1972 petition to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs  to reschedule marijuana to Schedule II, allowing legal physician prescription. A series of court battles ensued pertaining to this petition for the next 22 years. A final decision was not rendered until February 18, 1994, by the US Court of Appeals (DC Circuit), the DEA's decision to keep marijuana in Schedule I was upheld. The petition failed, but it created an uncertainty regarding the potential federal scheduling of marijuana.

       Jon Gettman, former National Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), files a legal challenge to marijuana's Schedule I prohibited status with the support of High Times Magazine. The 275-page petition is filed with the DEA and requests that they remove marijuana and THC from schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act because neither has the high potential for abuse required under the law for this prohibited status.

      The voters in the state of California passed Proposition 215, in 1996. The Proposition allows patients and primary caregivers, with a doctor' s recommendation, to possess and grow for treating AIDS, cancer, MS, migraine headaches, and several other disorders; it also protects them from arrest if they recommend marijuana to a patient. In Feb., 1997, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) "convened an Ad Hoc Group of Experts, which concluded that scientific evidence was insufficient to definitively assess marijuana's therapeutic potential and advised that the traditional scientific process should be allowed to evaluate the drug's use for certain disorders."

    

      In a separate amendment to the same act, Congress prevented the District of Columbia government from counting ballots of a 1998 voter-approved initiative that would have allowed the medical use of marijuana... The amendment [known as the Barr Amendment for its sponsor Bob Barr of Georgia] was challenged and overturned in District Court, ballots were counted and the measure passed 69% to 31%. Yet, despite more court challenges, Congress continued to prohibit implementation of the initiative.

Former Presidents Ford, Carter, and Bush released a statement that urged voters to reject state medical marijuana initiatives because they circumvented the standard process by which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tests medicines for safety and effectiveness.

 

     Fifty-eight percent of voters in Alaska approved Measure 8 on November 3, 1998. The law took effect on March 4, 1999. It removes state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physician advising that they 'might benefit from the medical use of marijuana...'

      Fifty-five percent of voters in Oregon, approved Measure 67 on November 3, 1998. The law took effect on December 3, 1998. It removes state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess a signed recommendation from their physician stating that marijuana "may mitigate" his or her debilitating symptoms.

     Fifty-nine percent of voters in Washington approved Measure 692 on November 3, 1998. The law took effect on that day. It removes state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess 'valid documentation" from their physician affirming that he or she suffers from a debilitating condition and that the "potential benefits of the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the health risks.'"

   

     Maine was the fifth state to legalize medical marijuana when Question 2 was passed with 61% of the vote on Nov. 2, 1999. The law "provides a simple defense, which means the burden is on the state to prove that a patient’s medical use or possession was not authorized by statute."

      Hawaii became the first state to enact a law to remove criminal penalties for medical marijuana users via a state legislature. Hawaii's governor submitted the original bill and signed the final measure into law in 2000. Senate Bill 862 was passed by a vote of 32-18 in the House and 13-12 Senate, making Hawaii the sixth state to legalize medical marijuana.

       Fifty-four percent in Colorado approved Amendment 20 on November 7, 2000, which amends the state’s constitution to recognize the medical use of marijuana. The law took effect on June 1, 2001. It removes state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physician. The law establishes a “confidential” state-run patient registry that issues identification cards to qualifying patients (now they are raiding all the dispencaries, how long until they use this “confidential” registry to get warrants to enter those homes?).

     Sixty-five percent in Nevada voted in Question 9 on November 7, 2000, which amends the states' constitution to recognize the medical use of marijuana. The law removes state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who have 'written documentation' from their physician. The law establishes a confidential state-run patient registry that issues identification cards to qualifying patients (there is that registry again, I don’t like that).  

     On May 14, 2001, the US Supreme Court rules 8-0 that "there is no medical necessity exception to the Controlled Substances Act's prohibitions on manufacturing and distributing marijuana."

     Nevada creates a state registry for patients whose physicians recommend medical marijuana and tasks the Department of Motor Vehicles with issuing identification cards. According to Assembly Bill 453, no state money will be used for the program, which will be funded entirely by donations.

       Proposed legislation to allow marijuana for medical purposes was blocked in Washington, DC. In September of 2002, a federal appeals court overturned a previous court ruling that had cleared the way for a medical marijuana initiative to be considered by voters in an election. This was the second time that the measure had been blocked in DC. In 1998, voters approved a medical marijuana initiative by a vote of 69% to 31%, but Congress prevented the law from going into effect.

     After California legalized medical marijuana in 1996, the US government threatened to take away the medical licenses of physicians who recommended the use of marijuana. On Oct. 29, 2002, a US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit 3-0 ruling in the case Conant v. Walters prohibited "the federal government from either revoking a physician's license to prescribe controlled substances or conducting an investigation of a physician that might lead to such revocation, where the basis for the government's action is solely the physician's professional 'recommendation' of the use of medical marijuana." The US Supreme Court denied an appeal, so physicians maintained the right to discuss marijuana with their patients.

      "Today [July 23, 2003] the House of Representatives rejected an amendment aimed at stopping federal raids on patients who use marijuana and people who provide it to them in states that recognize the drug as a medicine. Sponsored by Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.), the amendment would have forbidden the Justice Department (which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration) from spending money to tear up plants, close down clubs, or arrest patients or providers.

      The amendment was defeated by a vote of 273 to 152, which is a lot closer than one might have expected. The vote in favor of a 1998 House resolution condemning state medical marijuana laws was 310 to 93." This is why WE THE PEOPLE need to fire Congress by voting out all incumbent Congressmen. It’s the only way to rid the system of those who are getting kickbacks from Big Pharma.

 

     On Aug. 26, 2003, Canadian HIV-patient Jari Dvorak, age 62, becomes the first Canadian patient to receive government-grown marijuana. The program is in response to an Ontario court order for the Canadian government to make a legal supply of marijuana available to authorized patients.

     He is "one of several hundred Canadians authorized to use medical marijuana for pain, nausea and other symptoms of catastrophic or chronic illness." Qualified patients are approved through Health Canada, and the marijuana is distributed through the patients' physicians.

     More than 2,000 pharmacies in the Netherlands are legally obliged from Sep. 1, 2003 to stock medical cannabis and dispense advice to users on the merits of brewing the mixture of dried parts of the hemp plant as a tea. They are also expected to provide instruction on how to become high by using it in combination with an inhaler.

     The US Department of Health and Human Services received a patent, US 6,630,507 B1, for the therapeutic use of "cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants."

      In the abstract it states that: Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants... in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease."

     In 2004, UK Home Secretary David Blunkett approved the reclassification of cannabis from Class B, where it had been classified since the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, to Class C, where marijuana, thusly,  carries lower penalties for possession.

 

     California's medical marijuana law has been amended by the  Senate Bill 420. The bill requires the State Department of Health Services to "establish and maintain a voluntary program for the issuance of identification cards to qualified patients." It creates possession limits of "no more than eight ounces of dried marijuana per qualified patient" and "no more than six mature or 12 immature marijuana plants per qualified patient."

     Senate Bill 420 also states that qualified patients and caregivers "who associate within the State of California in order collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes, shall not solely on the basis of that fact be subject to state criminal sanctions."

     The DEA sent a request to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to conduct a scientific and medical evaluation of marijuana as part of a reassessment of its scheduling under the federal Controlled Substances Act in response to an administrative petition filed by a coalition of health and drug law reform organizations in October 2002 to reclassify marijuana so that doctors may legally prescribe it for medicinal purposes."

      In Montana, 62 % approved Initiative 148, on November 2, 2004, which took effect the same day. It removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physicians authorizing the medical use of marijuana. The law established a confidential state-run patient registry that issues identification cards to qualifying patients (There is that state registry again, that really scares me, as it gives the state a list and address of a citizen that will be in possession when the DEA decides that they will stop raiding dispenceries and raid the citizenry).

    

  The 1996 medical marijuana law that was passed in California, clashed with the federal marijuana laws. After the DEA seized doctor-prescribed marijuana from a patient's home, a group of medical marijuana users sued the DEA and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in federal district court. Gonzalez v. Raich.

      The medical marijuana users argued the Controlled Substances Act - which Congress passed using its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce - exceeded Congress' commerce clause power. The district court ruled against the group. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and ruled the CSA unconstitutional. The Ninth Circuit ruled using medical marijuana did not 'substantially affect' interstate commerce and therefore could not be regulated by Congress. In a 6-3 opinion delivered by Justice John Paul Stevens, on June 6, 2005, the Court held that the commerce clause gave Congress authority to prohibit the local cultivation and use of marijuana, despite state law to the contrary. The majority did argue that Congress could ban local marijuana use.

    On June 5, 2005, California suspended its medical marijuana ID card program, following a US Supreme Court ruling that the possession and cultivation of marijuana is a punishable federal offense in the case of Angel v. Raich. They re-instated the ID card program ten days later after a review by the state attorney general found that state employees could not be prosecuted for aiding or abetting the violation of a crime by issuing the ID cards.

     On Dec. 12, 2005 Federal and local law enforcement officers conducted what activists called the most widespread raid on medical marijuana dispensaries anywhere in California. DEA   agents and two area police agencies raided 11 marijuana dispensaries in San Diego and two in San Marcos, California, questioning employees and customers and carting off documents. The agents also seized an unknown quantity of marijuana. There were no arrests made. The authorities said the investigation was aimed at determining how much marijuana was being sold and who was supplying it.

     On Jan. 1, 2006, Senate Bill 1085 took effect in Oregon as an amendment to the state's medical marijuana law. Qualified patients who possess cannabis in amounts exceeding the state guidelines of 24 ounces of usable marijuana and 24 plants (18 immature, 6 mature) will no longer retain the ability to argue an "affirmative defense" of medical necessity at trial. Patients who fail to register with the state, but who possess medical cannabis in amounts compliant with state law, still retain the ability to raise an "affirmative defense" at trial.

     On Jan. 3, 2006, Rhode Island Senate Bill 0710, the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act, took effect immediately upon passage. The law removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess "written certification" from their physician and established a mandatory, confidential state-run patient registry that issues identification cards to qualifying patients. The bill was passed by the House 52-10 on June 24, 2005, and by the Senate 33-1 on June 28, 2005. On June 29, 2005, Gov. Carcieri vetoed the bill. The Senate overrode the veto on June 30, 2005 (28-6) and the House overrode the veto on Jan. 3, 2006 (59-13), at which point the law took effect.

      On Apr. 20, 2006, the FDA releases a statement titled "Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine." The FDA states that "there is currently sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful. A past evaluation by several Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies... concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States FDA, as the federal agency responsible for reviewing the safety and efficacy of drugs, DEA as the federal agency charged with enforcing the CSA, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, as the federal coordinator of drug control policy, do not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes."

     On June 21, 2006, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to support access to medical marijuana for people who have a doctor's recommendation. This resolution declares support for the medicinal use of cannabis sativa and directs the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to actively urge the Federal government to amend and adopt such laws as will allow the benefits of marijuana treatment for such diseases as cancer, AIDS, and muscular dystrophy.

     Mary Ellen Bittner, a DEA Administrative Law Judge, issues a non-binding Feb. 12, 2007 ruling that Lyle E. Craker, PhD should be allowed to grow marijuana for medical research at the University of Massachusetts. The ruling states that "there is currently an inadequate supply of marijuana available for research purposes.I recommend that Respondent's application be granted."

     New Mexico's Senate Bill 523 "The Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act" is approved by the House with a vote of 36-31 and the Senate with a vote of 32-3, on Mar. 13, 2007, and took effect on July 1, 2007. The act removed state-level criminal penalties on the use and possession of marijuana by patients in a regulated system for alleviating symptoms caused by debilitating medical conditions and their medical treatments. The New Mexico Department of Health was selected to administer the program and register patients, caregivers, and providers (Another registry).

   

    On Feb. 15, 2008, the American College of Physicians (ACP) stated its support for the use of non-smoked forms of THC, research on the benefits of medical marijuana, review of the federal scheduling of marijuana, and exemption from criminal prosecution.

     The ACP said, in part:

"Position 1: ACP supports programs and funding for rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and the publication of such findings.
Position 1a: ACP supports increased research for conditions where the efficacy of marijuana has been established to determine optimal dosage and route of delivery.
Position 1b: Medical marijuana research should not only focus on determining drug efficacy and safety but also on determining efficacy in comparison with other available treatments.

Position 2: ACP encourages the use of non-smoked forms of THC that have proven therapeutic value.

Position 3: ACP supports the current process for obtaining federal research-grade cannabis.

Position 4: ACP urges review of marijuana’s status as a schedule I controlled substance and its reclassification into a more appropriate schedule, given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana’s safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions.

Position 5: ACP strongly supports exemption from federal criminal prosecution; civil liability; or professional sanctioning, such as loss of licensure or credentialing, for physicians who prescribe or dispense medical marijuana in accordance with state law. Similarly, ACP strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws."

     In May 2008, the UK government announced the reclassification of cannabis from Class C to its original Class B. Penalties for possession of Class B drugs include up to five years in prison, higher than the two-year penalty for Class C drugs. The reclassification goes counter to the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

    On May 22, 2008, the Second District of California Court of Appeals ruled, 3-0, that the state limits on medical marijuana possession and cultivation established under state law SB 420 are unconstitutional. In People v. Patrick Kelly, the court overturned defendant's conviction for possessing 12 ounces of dried marijuana plants on the grounds that the prosecutor had improperly argued that the defendant was guilty because he possessed more than the 8-ounce limit established in Health & Safety Code Sec. 11362.77 and did not have a doctor's recommendation authorizing more. The Attorney General's office announced that it would appeal the Kelly ruling.

     California Attorney General Jerry Brown, on Aug. 25, 2008, issued guidelines for law enforcement and medical marijuana patients to clarify the state's laws. The 11-page document states, "In light of California’s decision to remove the use and cultivation of physician recommended marijuana from the scope of the state’s drug laws, this Office recommends that state and local law enforcement officers not arrest individuals or seize marijuana under federal law when the officer determines from the facts available that the cultivation, possession, or transportation is permitted under California’s medical marijuana laws."

    

      63% of voters approved Proposal 1 on November 4, 2008. The law took effect on December 4, 2008. It removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physicians authorizing the medical use of marijuana. On December 4, 2008, it removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physicians authorizing the medical use of marijuana.

     Supporters celebrated Attorney General Eric Holder's statement, on Feb. 25, 2009, that the Drug Enforcement Administration would end its raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries. The new policy represented a significant turnabout for the federal government. During the Bush administration, DEA agents shut down 30 to 40 marijuana dispensaries. (The celebrating didn’t last too long, as Eric Holder and his DEA have been on a rampage through California, in 2012.)

     On Oct. 19, 2009 the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memo, known as the Ogden memo, to "provide clarification and guidance to federal prosecutors in States that have enacted laws that authorized the medical use of marijuana." In an effort to make the most efficient use of limited resources, the DOJ announced that prosecutorial priorities should not target "individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." Individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use medical marijuana and the caregivers who provide the medical marijuana in accordance with state law should not be the focus of federal prosecution. The memo clarified that "prosecution of commercial enterprises that unlawfully market and sell marijuana for profit continues to be an enforcement priority." It also stated that the memo "does not 'legalize' marijuana or provide a legal defense to a violation of federal law."

     Maine has allowed prescribing, and limited possession, of medical marijuana since 1999 but the law lacked any distribution mechanism and questions arose of noncompliance with federal law and of how patients could legally obtain the prescribed marijuana. On November 3, 2009, Maine voters approved, which enacted the citizen-initiated bill, "An act to establish the Maine Medical Marijuana Act". Maine was the fifth state to provide for dispensaries of medical grade marijuana for persons with debilitating and chronic medical conditions. These not-for-profit dispensaries would be licensed and regulated by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

     The American Medical Association softened its position on medical marijuana in a policy statement released Nov. 10, 2009. The statement reads in part: "Our AMA 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, and alternate delivery methods. This should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product."

       Federal drug approval is achieved after appropriate scientific and regulatory review to establish safety and efficacy. The limited nature of rigorous scientific studies on the medicinal use of cannabis is insufficient to satisfy the current standards for a prescription drug product.

      

     The New Jersey Legislature approved a measure on Jan. 11, 2011, that would make the state the 14th in the nation to legalize the use of marijuana to help patients with chronic illnesses. The measure allowed for patients diagnosed with severe illnesses like cancer, AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis to have access to marijuana grown and distributed through state-monitored dispensaries; passed by the General Assembly and State Senate on the final day of the legislative session.

      On Jan. 21, 2010, the California Supreme Court affirms 7-0 the May 22, 2008, District Court of Appeals ruling in People v. Kelly. The original ruling was that the possession limits set by SB 420 violate the California constitution because the voter-approved Prop. 215 can only be amended by the voters.

        The Iowa Board of Pharmacy issued a recommendation that the Iowa Legislature reclassify marijuana from Schedule I of the Iowa Controlled Substances Act into Schedule II of the Act. A Schedule II drug includes narcotic drugs with a high potential for abuse but with currently accepted medical use in treatment. More medical professionals will be allowed to authorize the use of medical marijuana for qualified patients under a measure signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire. It added physician assistants, naturopaths, advanced registered nurse practitioners and others to the list of those who can officially recommend marijuana for patients under the state's medical marijuana law. Under previous law, only physicians were allowed to write the recommendation.

       A Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, James C. Chalfant cleared the way for the ordinance to take effect by denying more than a dozen requests for a temporary restraining order to bar the city from enforcing the law, which would force more than 400 shops to shutter their doors.

    

     The House Bill 1284 provides a regulatory framework for dispensaries, including giving local communities the ability to ban or place sensible and much-needed controls on the operation, location and ownership of these establishments (This has come back to bite them in the butt.) Senate Bill 109 helped prevent fraud and abuse, ensuring that physicians who authorized medical marijuana for their patients actually perform a physical exam, do not have a DEA flag on their medical license and do not have a financial relationship with a dispensary.

     The US Department of Veterans Affairs releases a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) on July 22, 2010 saying that veterans who participate in legal state medical marijuana programs will no longer be disqualified from "substance abuse programs, pain control programs, or other clinical programs."

      Medical marijuana is now legal as of July 27, 2010, in the District after the Democrat-controlled Congress declined to overrule a D.C. Council bill that allows the city to set up as many as eight dispensaries where chronically ill patients can purchase the drug. The law allows patients with cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS and other chronic ailments can possess up to four ounces of marijuana

     Nov. 2, 2010, the voters in South Dakota rejected Measure 13, which sought to legalize medical marijuana for people suffering from debilitating medical conditions, 63 percent to 37 percent. Four years earlier a similar measure was voted down by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.

     Arizona became the 15th state to legalize medical marijuana when Proposition 203, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act was passed, Nov. 2, 2010. The law allows registered qualified patients to obtain marijuana from a registered nonprofit dispensary, and to possess and use medical marijuana to treat the condition.

 

     Delaware became the 16th state to legalize medical marijuana, when Governor Jack Markell (D), signed Senate Bill 17 into law on May 13, 2011. The law allows adults in Delaware with certain debilitating conditions to possess up to six ounces of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

      In 2011 the DOJ sent letters to officials in Arizona on Mar. 23 and May 2, Colorado on Apr. 26, to Montana on Apr. 20, Rhode Island on Apr. 29, to Vermont on May 3, to Hawaii Apr. 12, New Hampshire on May 10, to Maine on May 16, and then to Washington on Apr. 14 threatening to prosecute those who implemented cultivation and distribution programs.

 

     The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ruled on Friday, July 8, 2011, that marijuana has "no accepted medical use" and should therefore remain illegal under federal law — regardless of conflicting state legislation allowing medical marijuana and despite hundreds of studies and centuries of medical practice attesting to the drug's benefits.

     The judgment came in response to a 2002 petition by supporters of medical marijuana, which called on the government to reclassify cannabis, which is currently a Schedule I drug, illegal for all uses, and to place it in Schedule III, IV or V, which would allow for common medical uses. The government had long delayed making a judgment on the petition, but now that it has, it makes it possible for advocates to appeal it in federal court. A June 21, 2011, letter from DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said marijuana 'has a high potential for abuse,' 'has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States' and 'lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision.' The letter was officially published in the Federal Register on July 8, 2011.

 

      The Israeli Cabinet approved arrangements and supervision regarding the supply of cannabis for medical and research use, on Aug. 7, 2011. This is in recognition that the medical use of cannabis is necessary in certain cases. The Health Ministry – in coordination with the Israel Police and the Israel Anti-Drug Authority – will  oversee the foregoing and will also be responsible for supplies from imports and local cultivation.

     Comparing traffic deaths over time in states with and without medical marijuana law changes, researchers have found that fatal car wrecks dropped by 9% in states that legalized medical use — which was largely attributable to a decline in drunk driving. The research also found that in states that legalized medical use, there was no increase in marijuana smoking by teenagers — a finding seen in other studies as well. But, in many cases, the laws were linked with an increase in marijuana smoking among adults in their 20s; this rise was accompanied by a reduction in alcohol use by college age youth, suggesting that they were smoking weed instead.    The governors of Washington and Rhode Island petitioned the US DEA to reclassify marijuana from the most restrictive Schedule I category to a Schedule II substance, which if approved, could lead to pharmacies dispensing marijuana, the 106-page petition filed Nov. 30, 2011, by Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire of Washington and independent Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, declares that the Schedule I classification of cannabis is "fundamentally wrong and should be changed."

      When federal prosecutors in California announced a crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries last fall, pot suppliers and their advocates claimed in a series of lawsuits that the Obama administration broke a promise to leave them alone if they complied with state law.

      A Federal judge in Sacramento has become the first to dismiss one of them, saying the Justice Department remains free to enforce federal drug laws.

     The suits were filed in November,2011, by marijuana suppliers and patients in each of the state's four federal judicial districts. They relied on the Justice Department's October 2009 memo to federal prosecutors, known as the Ogden Memo that said they should concentrate on drug trafficking networks, and 'should not focus federal resources' on individuals who followed their state's medical marijuana law.

     But US District Judge Garland Burrell of Sacramento said the Justice Department memo was a statement of priorities, not a binding commitment, and did not exempt dispensaries from the federal laws against marijuana cultivation and distribution.

     The Ogden Memo does not contain a promise not to enforce the Controlled Substances Act Defendants’, the Justice Department, enforcement of the CSA is not inconsistent with the enforcement policy stated in the Ogden Memo.

    

     Connecticut became the 17th state to legalize medical marijuana when Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed House Bill 5389 into law. The law "allows licensed physicians to certify an adult patient's use of medicinal marijuana after determining that the patient has a specified debilitating disease or medical conditions and could benefit from its regulated treatment." Patients with a written certification who register with the Department of Consumer Protection "may obtain marijuana from certified pharmacists at licensed dispensaries, who will obtain it from licensed producers (Another registry).

          The Los Angeles City Council voted 14-0, July 24, 2012, to ban pot shops. Under the ban, each of the 762 dispensaries that have registered with the city will be sent a letter ordering them to shut down immediately. Those that don’t comply may face legal action from the city. (And they have declared war against the shops in L. A.)

     In a seemingly contradictory move, the council also voted to instruct city staff to draw up an ordinance that would allow a group of about 170 dispensaries that registered with the city several years ago to remain open. After Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the ordinance and pot shops were given 30 days to shut down.

       900 dispensaries are affected by the new ordinance, but it's unclear what will happen if they disobey the order. Legal questions remain unanswered by the state's highest court. The ban allows hospices and home health agencies to provide medical pot. Letters were sent to the dispensaries advising them of the ban.

     Los Angeles passed an ordinance two years ago that was supposed to shutter hundreds of pot dispensaries while capping the number in operation at 70. But legal challenges from collectives and that ordinance's expiration last month led to another surge of pot shops.

     City officials said 762 collectives have registered with the city and as many as 200 more could exist.

 

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