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© 2011 Americans For Safe Access Arizona
by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez
The Arizona Department of Health Services will accept applications for medical-marijuana dispensaries today through 5 p.m. May 25.
Under the voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, the state can have 126 medical-marijuana dispensaries, but the application process had been stalled because of lawsuits and rule making.
Would-be marijuana-dispensary operators must pay a $5,000 fee. If they are not selected, the state will return $1,000, state health officials said. Applicants must be at least 21 years old and cannot be a law-enforcement officer or a physician who is currently writing certifications for patients. Applicants also cannot have certain felony convictions within the last 10 years. Applicants can operate up to five dispensaries.
The law limits the number of dispensaries that can operate geographically throughout the state, and if there are too many applications in any one area, health officials will award dispensary certifications through a lottery system.
State health officials expect to award dispensary certificates this summer.
If selected, the dispensaries can grow medical marijuana and acquire it from other registered non-profit dispensaries or from registered patients or caregivers.
Arizona Department of Health Services Director Will Humble expects to award fewer than 110 applications, based on public interest so far, and likely between 70 or 80. He doesn’t expect Native American tribes to apply for dispensary certificates, based on demographic data the state has collected showing little or no interest in the program.
That same data show that people of all ages and backgrounds — including the elderly, Baby Boomers and 20- to 30-somethings — use medical marijuana.
More than 22,200 people have received permission to smoke, eat or otherwise ingest marijuana to ease their ailments. Of those, nearly three-quarters are men, and nearly 85 percent of all patients have requested to grow their own.
Sunny Singh, owner of WeGrow Phoenix, helps medical-marijuana patients and caregivers grow marijuana to target certain ailments. Recently, he’s been working with patients and caregivers to help them design grow rooms. He hopes to expand his business and contract with dispensaries.
“We want to change our focus to target the dispensary sites, but there’s really been nowhere for us to go” since the dispensary-application process stalled, Singh said. “Being that there can be 126 dispensaries in Arizona, we think we’ll be very successful.”
Later this month, the Arizona Dept of Health Services will hold a hearing as part of the effort to permit patients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), migraines, depression, and general anxiety disorder to also legally use medical marijuana.
Prop 203, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, legalized the drug after voters approved it in November 2010, but the number of maladies the law allows to be treated with medicinal cannabis is limited. Nonetheless, medical marijuana has been demonstrated in numerous studies, and by physician recommendations in other medical pot states, to be efficacious for many conditions, including PTSD.
The Arizona Daily Sun reports that state Health Director Will Humble has received petitions from interested groups seeking to augment the list of afflictions for which medical pot can be used. However, Humble has already expressed concerns that the petitions are lacking double-blind peer-reviewed clinical studies, which he says are required to add new disorders and conditions to Prop 203.
The medical pot law allows any Arizona resident to petition Health Services to add a medical condition. And, as Humble noted to Capitol Media Services, he’s received “meaningful and helpful” anecdotal and personal pleas from patients asking that they be allowed to use medical marijuana for their unlisted conditions and that such testimony will be considered, even though it doesn’t have the same decision-making impact as a placebo-based study on the subject published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Humble is of the opinion that limited information could allow cannabis to bypass a more effective means of treating a condition, though if a patient prefers natural marijuana over a pharmaceutical drug, it seems he/she should be allowed to use legal cannabis.
Humble acknowledged that Prop 203 allows for the widely interpreted “severe and chronic pain” to be treated with pot, which theoretically could include migraines, with the decision to recommend medicinal marijuana for that affliction ultimately up to a given patient’s physician. But that does not officially add migraines or other conditions to the Prop 203 list.
To initiate that process, the Dept of Health Services will host the hearing on Friday, May 25 at the agency’s auditorium in the laboratory building. Adding PTSD specifically to Prop 203 will be discussed from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., with the issue of migraines, depression, and anxiety for the next 90 minutes until 4 p.m.
by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez
Medical-marjiuana dispensaries will have to employ a medical director at their operations, as state health officials require, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge has ruled. The non-profits could begin opening this summer.
Judge Richard Gama’s May 1 decision is an important one because it could prevent abuse of medical marijuana, said Will Humble, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
“This is a really important component of the program because without it, over time, it would’ve evolved into each dispensary just moving product,” Humble said.
“But if you have a medical director, you have someone who’s invested time and money in that license, they’ve got that license to protect, and they need to act in an ethical way and make sure their organization works ethically.”
Dispensary medical directors must train dispensary agents at least once a year, develop guidelines for informing patients about the risks, benefits and side effects of medical marijuana, and know how to recognize signs and symptoms of substance abuse.
Would-be dispensary owner Gerald Gaines sued last year over the state’s dispensary regulations and the governor’s failure to fully implement the program. In January, Gama ruled in favor of Gaines, saying the state cannot restrict who runs medical-marijuana dispensaries based on where they live or their financial history.
The state is moving ahead with implementing the program and later this month will begin to accept applications for dispensaries. Also, state officials will hold a public hearing on May 25 to consider whether to add post-traumatic stress disorder, migraines, depression and anxiety as conditions that qualify for medical-marijuana certification.
Gaines filed an amended complaint to challenge the state’s requirement on the medical-director requirement, saying they were unnecessary. “It’s not the exact ruling we wanted,” Gaines said Tuesday, saying he may again challenge the requirement.
Under the voter-approved law, state workers issue special ID cards to people with certain medical conditions, authorizing patients to use marijuana. Proposition 203 also allows the state health department to issue permits for up to 126 marijuana dispensaries across the state. State officials set up the rules for the program.
Health officials will begin accepting dispensary applications Monday through May 25.
More than 22,200 people have received permission to smoke, eat or otherwise ingest medical marijuana to ease their ailments.
Pushing for the legalization of recreational marijuana is a waste of time.
The Tucson Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws held its annual protest on April 20. About 50 protesters made their way to Cheba Hut for the seventh annual protest, where they held up signs to flash at traffic about legalizing marijuana. It’s sad how badly those people want recreational marijuana legalized. Medical marijuana helps people, but recreational marijuana can be dangerous.
Marijuana is the most common illegal drug found in “impaired drivers and crash victims involved in ‘drugged driving’ accidents,” according to the Alcohol Drug Abuse Help & Resource Center website. The drug interferes with the cerebellum, which is the part of the brain that controls coordination, according to the center’s website. Legalizing this drug will do nothing more then increase the number of DUIs and fatal car accidents, as if Arizona needs higher numbers in that department.
A lot of people assume that marijuana does nothing bad for them. But the THC in marijuana — the reason for its effects — can interfere with the hippocampus, according to the center’s website. The hippocampus is one of the most important parts of the brain, as it controls memory, judgment and learning.
In chronic users, the impact on memory and learning can last days or weeks after marijuana’s effects seem to fade, according to a 2001 study in the medical journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
Studies have shown that frequent use of the drug can actually lead to more anxiety and higher rates of mental illness like depression.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the National Institutes of Health, notes that schizophrenia in particular seems to have a link to marijuana use, as a 2007 study found. This may be due to the fact that frequent use of marijuana case can cause a dire psychotic reaction in susceptible people, according to the NIDA, making it a possible factor in the onset or relapse of schizophrenia.
A 2006 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 84 percent of employers drug test new hires, and 39 percent will randomly test employees after they are hired. (Usually, those who meet the criteria for being able to have medical marijuana are excused.)
Most employers want mature, intelligent and dedicated employees who do not abuse drugs. Some employers, such as hospitals, are even starting to look at whether or not their applicants smoke cigarettes, not just marijuana or other controlled substances.
Smoking, marijuana or cigarettes, does not make one more appealing in any way, shape or form to a handful of careers or to other people. It’s time for people to grow up, and figure out how to live life without depending on marijuana.
If even California of all states would not pass a bill legalizing weed for those 21 and older, it’s clear that protesting Arizonans are fighting a hopeless cause. Arizonans should spend their time more wisely than trying to get something as pointless as recreational pot to happen.
The outcomes of keeping recreational marijuana use illegal will save Arizona from the increase of drug-related fatal car accidents, and protect the mental health of residents. Smoking weed recreationally should remain against the law.
— Danielle Carpenter is a pre-journalism freshman. She can be reached atletters@wildcat.arizona.edu or on Twitter via @WildcatOpinions .
With a focus on the emerging science of the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS), this educational conference hosted by Patients Out of Time brings together healthcare professionals from around the world to present their research and educate their peers. Medical marijuana resource Doobons.com will tweet highlights from the event on Twitter.
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 14, 2012
Co-sponsored by University of Arizona’s College of Nursing and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, Patients Out of Time will host its seventh educational conference on the medical benefits of therapeutic cannabis from April 26-28 in Tucson, Arizona. Medical marijuana resource Doobons.com will host an exhibit at the event and tweet event highlights on Twitter (@DOOBONS).
This conference will focus on the emerging science of the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS). Patients Out of Time has identified the current cannabis research being conducted around the world and invited scientists and health care clinicians involved to present their findings at this accredited educational forum.
“Patients Out of Time is committed to ongoing scientific research and education on cannabis therapeutics and its effectiveness for treating serious medical conditions,” said John, founder of Doobons. “I started Doobons.com to give seriously ill patients approachable access to cannabis resources after I witnessed a terminally ill loved one recover after starting a cannabis regiment.”
The first full day of the conference, Friday, April 27, will commence with an overview of the endocannabinoid system in the morning. Distinguished healthcare professionals and patients will take the podium for the rest of the day to address the audience on their clinical work with cannabis therapeutics and its impact on medical conditions like glaucoma, neuropathic pain, stress disorder, chemical addiction and Schizophrenia.
For those who cannot attend the conference in person, the event will be available via Pay-Per-View for $9.99/ day. For more details in regards to Pay-Per-View please visit. www.ustream.tv/channel/patients-out-of-time
On Saturday, April 28, the conference will focus on cannabinoids and their effectiveness in treating cancer, including breast cancer and glioma cell cancer (which most often occurs in the brain and spine), and skin cancer. Speakers will also discuss their work using cannabis therapeutics to treat post traumatic stress (PTS(d)) and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and how it may prevent Alzheimer’s Disease.
Founded by Mary Lynn Mathre, RN and her husband Al Byrne in 1995, Patients Out of Time organized its first of a series of biennial conferences in 2000 to educate health care professionals and the public about the health benefits of therapeutic cannabis. This year’s gathering will mark the organization’s seventh conference.
“The need is great,” said Mathre. “Although leading health care organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA) have expressed a need for more research and education involving the health benefits of therapeutic cannabis centered on evidence-based practice, there has been no formal education on therapeutic cannabis applications since the late 1930s.”
Accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, healthcare professionals can receive continuing education credit for attending the conference. UCSF designates this educational activity for a maximum of 12.75 AMA PRA Category 1 credits.
The distinguished healthcare professionals scheduled to address the audience include:
- Dr. Donald Abrams (UCSF)
- Brian Becker, MD
- Al Byrne, COO and Co-founder of Patients Out of Time
- William Courtney, MD
- Vincenzo DiMarzo, PhD
- Melanie Dreher, RN, PhD
- Christopher Fichtner, MD
- Greg Gerdeman, PhD
- Mathew Hill PhD
- Dr. Andrea Hohman, PhD
- Julie Holland, MD
- Melanie Kelly, PhD
- Mary Koithan, PhD, RN
- Bryan Krumm, RN, CNP
- Martin A. Lee
- Mordechai Mashiah, MD
- Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, MSN Co-founder of Patients Out of Time
- John McPartland, DO
- Robert Melamede, PhD
- Amanda Reiman, PhD, MSW
- Cristina Sanchez, PhD
- Sue Sisley, MD
- Mark Ware, MD
- Andrew Weil MD
- Gary Wenk, PhD
“The CBDs in cannabis are good medicine for a variety of health issues, and every healthcare professional can benefit from this educational experience,” said John. “Doobons is proud to be a supporter.”
Doobons.com was designed to be convenient and to appeal to everyone, including those who are new to the world of medical cannabis. While most of today’s online medical cannabis directories are designed for patients who already know at least something about using medical cannabis, Doobons.com is designed to be user friendly for patients of all ages and experience levels.
Doobons.com is more than just another online medical marijuana directory. The site’s News, Resource, and Blog pages provide valuable information and advice for patients and caregivers. The information posted helps new patients learn about the ins and outs of the world of medical cannabis, and existing patients stay abreast of developments.
The five-star-rated Doobons marijuana app is now available for free on the iTunes app store for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad that runs on iOS 4.3 or later.
About Doobons.com
Doobons.com is an online medical marijuana resource for prospective and current patients, caregivers and medicinal cannabis industry professionals. The medical cannabis resource site is designed be a comprehensive source of information for everyone from novice medical cannabis users to experienced industry professionals. Doobons.com is discreet, safe and professional.
About Patients Out of Time
Patients Out of Time’s mission is to educate health care professionals and the public about the therapeutic use of cannabis and the emerging science on the endocannabinoid system.
For more information about Doobons.com, call (415) 524-8099 or go to Doobons.com online. The best way to stay informed about developments on Doobons.com is to “like” them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/DOOBONSCOM/211376972233726 and “follow” them on Twitter @DOOBONS.
For more information about Patients Out of Time, call Al Byrne or Mary Lynn Mathre, RN (434) 263-4484 or go to MedicalCannabis.com online. The best way to stay informed about developments on Patients Out of Time is to “like” them on Facebook at Patients Out of Time and “follow” them on Twitter @PatientsOutTime.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebMedical-Marijuana/Conference/prweb9401631.htm
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/14/prweb9401631.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1steg5CcQ
By The Associated Press
Arizona’s health department announced it will begin taking applications for medical marijuana dispensaries after the attorney general’s office signed off on the program.
Health Services Department Director Will Humble says up to 126 dispensary certificates should be issued by Aug. 7. Applications will be accepted between May 14 and May 25.
The Arizona Republic reports the certificates will allow prospective providers to begin building their dispensaries in August. A second application for an operating license will be issued after an inspector from the department determines the dispensary is up to operating standards.
Humble doesn’t expect a rush for the applications.
Arizona voters approved the use of medical marijuana and dispensaries in 2010, but the state balked until a judge ordered them to proceed.
PHOENIX – In November 2010, Arizona voters chose to make medical marijuana legal by passing Prop 203, but Governor Jan Brewer halted the portion allowing dispensaries.
Now the Arizona Department of Health Services has announced that it will soon accept applications for medical marijuana dispensaries.
Many medical marijuana shops opened as caregiver collectives, meaning they connected marijuana providers with five cardholding patients.
Turns out many of them were zoned as dispensaries in hopes that the law would soon change. On Wednesday, they found out they can turn in their applications starting May 14.
“It couldn’t make me happier because I see miracles with the patients everyday,” said Jane Fix.
Fix quit her career as an elementary school teacher to enter the medical marijuana field so she could help people in pain. Now she’s a manager at Elements Caregiver Collective in Phoenix. The place of work she hopes soon becomes a dispensary.
“Patients that are truly sick and need medicine will have better access to that and I believe the stigma will go away. I believe there a lot of people waiting to apply for medical marijuana cards when the dispensaries open,” she said.
Currently, patients at caregiver collectives must pay for memberships and be assigned to a provider, but at a dispensary, a state issued patient card can receive medical marijuana.
The Arizona Department of Health Services divided the state into 126 community health analysis areas. They’ll only approve one applicant per region. Fortunately for Elements, they don’t have any competition in this region.
“I can’t see being denied…we have proven that we are compliant with the law as it stands now and we will continue to be compliant with the law,” said Fix.
People come from Safford and Sedona. Now she says they’ll be able to get medicine near their homes.
Elements hopes to open 11 dispensary locations in the future from Florence to Sedona.
Arizona Medical Marijuana Program
www.azdhs.gov/prop203/index.htm
by Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive DirectorApril 11, 2012
From the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines
IACM-Bulletin of 8 April 2012
World: Increasing numbers of patients use cannabis for medicinal purposes
An increasing number of patients in the world are using cannabis for therapeutic reasons, with available data from countries, which have installed programs for their citizens. Good data are available for Israel, Canada, the Netherlands and many states of the US with medicinal cannabis laws and registries. In several more countries only a few patients are allowed to use cannabis for medicinal purposes, including Germany, Norway, Finland and Italy. In many other countries such as Spain and some states of the US without a registry such as California the number of medicinal users is estimated to be high, but no detailed data are available.
The numbers in California with hundreds of cannabis dispensaries and clinics that issue medical cannabis recommendations are unclear, since the state does not require residents to register as patients (see below**)
Most of the 16 states that allow the medicinal use of cannabis require a registration. Recently the press agency Associated Press published data on registered patients in different states of the USA based on state agencies responsible for maintaining patient registries:
State: Number of registered patients (per 1,000 of the whole population) –
Colorado: 82,089 (16.3)
Oregon: 57,386 (15.0)
Montana: 14,364 (14.5)
Michigan: 131,483 (13.3)
Hawaii: 11,695 (8.6)
Rhode Island: 4,466 (4.2)
Arizona: 22,037 (3.5)
New Mexico: 4,310 (2.1)
Maine: 2,708 (2.0)
Nevada: 3,388 (1.3)
Vermont: 505 (0.8)
Alaska: 538 (0.8)
Patient registration is mandatory in Delaware, New Jersey and the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.), but their registries are not yet up and running. Washington State has neither voluntary nor mandatory registration.
Data from Israel show that in August 2011 6,000 patients got medicinal cannabis (0.8 patients in 1,000). It is estimated that the number increases to 40,000 in 2016 (5.2 patients in 1,000 citizens).
In Canada 12,116 patients were allowed to use cannabis on 30 September 2011 (0.35 patients in 1,000 citizens).
Numbers of patients using cannabis from the pharmacies in the Netherlands were estimated to be 1,300 in 2010 (0.08 patients in 1,000 citizens). However, many patients in the Netherlands use cannabis from the coffee shops or grow their own.
In Germany about 60 patients are currently allowed to use cannabis for medicinal purposes.
(Sources: Associated Press of 24 March 2012, website of the Israeli Prime Minister of 7 August 2011, UPI of 31 October 2011, Pharmaceutisch Weekblad No. 20, 2011)
**[Editor's note: CA NORML published a white paper last May estimating that California has 750,000 - 1,125,000 citizens who possess a physician's recommendation to use cannabis medicinally.]
Posted: 03/20/2012
- By: ABC15.com staff, wire reports
PHOENIX – The federal government reiterated to Arizona that it will prosecute state workers for implementing the medical-marijuana program.
In a Feb. 16 letter to Gov. Jan Brewer, Acting U.S. Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel said her office will continue to “vigorously enforce” federal laws against those who operate and facilitate large marijuana production facilities and marijuana production facilities involved in the selling of marijuana for medical use.
Scheel said that state employees who participate in the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act “are not immune from liability” under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
However, Scheel wrote that seriously ill patients and caregivers who use pot as medically recommended treatment “will likely not be the focus of the (U.S. Attorney’s Office’s) limited prosecutorial resources.”
Brewer spokesman Matt Benson told The Arizona Republic the governor will not change course and will allow the state’s medical marijuana program to move forward.
“This doesn’t change anything for us,” Benson said, adding that the letter “leaves most of the governor’s questions unanswered” partly because it doesn’t address whether state employees face imminent prosecution for participating in the program.
Arizona’s medical-marijuana program was created in 2010 after voters passed a law that allows people with certain debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana.
Patients must register with the state, which issues identification cards to qualified patients and caregivers. Under the law, the state will set up and regulate up to 126 dispensaries.
Arizona and 15 other states have medical-marijuana laws that conflict with federal law, which outlaws the cultivation, sale or use of marijuana. Mounting federal pressure in California, Washington and other states has led to dispensary raids and crackdowns on landlords who lease property to dispensaries.
Will Humble, director of the state Department of Health Services, said the state is in a difficult position when it comes to implementing the medical marijuana program.
On one hand, federal authorities warning there is no “safe harbor or immunity” from federal prosecution, but on the other hand a state judge has ordered them to move forward with the program.
“We’re caught between a rock and a hard place — we’re stuck,” Humble said.
No state health employees will be allowed to “volunteer” to work on the medical-pot program and no one will be forced to work on it, either, he said.
Workers will go through a series of training in how to act responsibly and safely when working on the program, Humble said.
In January, a federal judge dismissed Brewer’s lawsuit asking for a ruling on whether the state can implement its medical marijuana law when the drug remains prohibited under federal law.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton said the case wasn’t legally eligible for court consideration because the state hasn’t established a genuine threat of prosecution of state employees for administering the law, as Brewer had claimed.
Bolton’s order allowed the lawsuit to be refiled within 30 days if Brewer could prove a real threat of prosecution.
Brewer said she wouldn’t refile a federal lawsuit and the state would start accepting and processing applications for dispensaries once a legal challenge to the state’s rules is resolved. That case is pending in state court.
The judge’s order dismissing the suit granted motions filed by the federal government and supporters of the medical marijuana law.
Associated Press
Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/state/feds-warn-arizona-over-medical-marijuana#ixzz1priHypVn
While legal medical marijuana has brought relief to thousands of patients in Arizona since 2010, it has also brought about an increase in the number of cannabis-related DUI’S in the state.
Statistics from this past holiday season reveal that the majority of DUI’s – 56 percent – were for drugs (including other legal and illegal substances besides pot) compared to just 16 percent of drug DUI’s in 2002. In all, 1,700 people were arrested in 2011 in Mesa for drug DUI’s, which constituted 52 percent of all DUI arrests for the year.
Arizona pot patients are not permitted to drive while medicated and Mesa P.D. Sergeant David Miecke told the East Valley Tribune that drivers ranging from seniors to teenagers have been busted for drug DUI’s. He predicted the number of pot DUI’s will increase dramatically this summer once the state-approved dispensaries open to provide medicine to even more patients.
Sgt. Miecke also made the claim that pot use can impair one’s driving for a day or more. There is, however, absolutely no evidence to back up that statement.
Nonetheless, a warning is in order for pot patients in the Valley of the Sun; don’t drive while medicating – or already medicated – because law enforcement is obviously out there looking any excuse to portray the nascent medicinal cannabis scene in Arizona as being abused and out of control. Don’t give them the opportunity.
More @ msnbc.msn.com
