The son of reality star NeNe Leakes of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta” was arrested Sunday March 7, for possession of marijuana. Bryson Rashad Bryant was arrested by Gwinnett County Sherriff’s Department when he attempted to visit an inmate at the Gwinnett County Jail. Gwinnett is an affluent suburb of Atlanta.

According to WSB-TV jail authorities routinely run warrant checks on jail visitors. It was during such a check that Sherriff’s Deputies realized that Bryant had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in traffic court. During Bryant’s arrest a substance found to be Marijuana was found in his jacket pocket.

It obviously wasn’t a smart move to enter a jail with an illegal substance. Who does that? Bryant was charged with possession of less 1 oz. of marijuana and failure to appear. Bryant is the oldest son of Atlanta Housewife NeNe Leakes. In a statement Leakes said,

“Like any parent, I am disappointed with the actions and arrest of my son, Bryson. Certainly, my husband and I will deal with this family issue in a private manner. My son is not the first young adult to experiment with marijuana, and he certainly won’t be the last. Still, as parents, this is a chance for us to have an open dialogue with him about the dangers of any substance abuse. I realize as a parent that my job is never done. And as I’ve tweeted, tough love was in order. Still, I ask that you respect our privacy during this trying time.”

Leaks sent a message out on Twitter about the situation. Leaks tweeted,

“Morning! I know my parenting job is NEVER DONE but TOUGH LOVE is ordered by the JUDGE! The judge n this case is ME”

Bravo just announced that there will be a third season of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”. The cast will remain the same for season three. NeNe Leakes is scheduled to appear as a guest on Bravo’s late night talk show “Watch What Happens Live” hosted by Andy Cohen at Midnight on Thursday.

PROVIDENCE – They are on the front lines of the marijuana debate, the ones who decide who should be allowed to smoke, ingest or inhale what is still an illegal drug in Rhode Island without fear of arrest.

They include neurologists, oncologists, infectious disease specialists, more than one family clinic doctor, the medical director of a drug-abuse addiction center and a psychiatrist running for mayor of Providence who is a conservative on most other issues, but not the politics of marijuana for a patient prone to nausea, anxiety and panic attacks.

Altogether, 355 Rhode Island doctors have signed state forms asking the Department of Health to issue marijuana-use cards to at least one of their patients.

But twenty-one of those doctors account for more than a third of the 1,347 medical marijuana cards issued so far, according to the Department of Health.

Dr. Vladislav Zayas, an East Providence neurologist, tops the list, having signed off on the legal use of marijuana by 100 of his patients. The next closest doctor signed 54; the third signed 36.

Dr. Zayas has declined comment. But nine doctors talked openly in recent interviews about why they opened the door to legal marijuana use by their patients.

Some are more convinced than others of the medicinal value of the drug.

Providence mayoral candidate Daniel S. Harrop III acknowledges some discomfort in knowing that the one AIDs patient for whom he has approved marijuana use has to “sneak around the garage he goes to on the west side of Providence to buy this stuff…but I don’t ask about that.”

Dr. Debra Roberts, a family doctor in a community health center in Warwick, says she has become increasingly uncomfortable at being the final arbiter in what she views as a legal, political and ethical debate. “I feel like it’s a political issue that I don’t love being in the middle of,” says Roberts, who has signed 18 applications.

“I think people use it. I think it does help their pain,” she said. “I don’t like to be the one to allow people who may have other addictions the right to not get arrested for having this marijuana…I feel like they should just legalize marijuana then. Instead they have to come to me, and I legalize it for them.”

But several doctors said they signed the medical marijuana applications because their patients told them they were already using the drug and did not want to get arrested for doing something that eased their pain, and improved their “quality of life.”

Dr. Josiah Rich, a Brown University professor and infectious-disease doctor, who is an outspoken advocate for decriminalizing marijuana, says: “It’s absolutely crazy to incarcerate somebody for doing something they believe is good for their health.”

In a candid moment, however, another doctor acknowledged signing the paperwork for an inveterate drug-user because “his fiancé wants him not to break the law.”

In retrospect he rationalized his decision this way: “He has a construction job. He goes to work. He does his part. His life is a lot better when he is not chasing Vicodin, 20 to 30 pills a day.”

Technically, all a doctor need do is check off one of the boxes on a patient’s application for a medical marijuana card that broadly describes the patient’s qualifying condition, such as cancer, glaucoma or AIDS. The patient then takes the paperwork to the Department of Health which has taken the position it cannot second-guess or even question a doctor-signed application. More than two-thirds of the cards the Department of Health has issued so far went to people whose doctors checked off: “chronic or debilitating disease or condition.”

Here is what some of the doctors with the highest number of patients using marijuana legally had to say

Dr. Syed A. Rizvi is near the top of the list with 36 patients approved for marijuana use. He is a neurologist, specializing in the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis.

Rizvi says he does not recommend marijuana to his patients. “They would ask me if they could use it.” Even then, he said, he would only sign the application if he had been seeing the patient for years, and the patient had “fairly advanced disease.”

Dr. Rizvi said he tells his patients “there is no good study supporting the use” of marijuana by people with multiple sclerosis, except perhaps to help alleviate leg spasms, while “there may be studies suggesting that it can worsen your cognitive function.

But “these patients, like I said, are doing it anyway,” he said. “They want more security by having a form signed. That’s all they want.”

Asked whether he believed the drug had medicinal value, he said: “It’s a strange answer.”

“All the patients that take it like it,” he said. But, “if you are [taking] a drug which has certain effects which are euphoric…and people who don’t have MS taking it [also] say — ‘Oh, I feel good’ — I don’t know what that means. Does it help MS patients? Well, individually, these patients feel better…They’ll say all kinds of symptoms are better….[But] you really can’t make any judgment unless you have a controlled trial.”

Rizvi, 43, said he has nonetheless signed applications for patients “who are extremely disabled. At that point, their quality of life is probably the biggest thing.”

As an internist and medical director for a methadone clinic known as the Discovery House, Dr. John S. Straus says: “We are in the harm reduction business.”

“When someone isn’t using IV drugs and committing crimes and ending up in emergency rooms overdosing and ending up with HIV and Hepatitis C, they are successful…,” he said. “And so while marijuana philosophically is a drug and it has potential to do harm, relatively speaking, it’s in the minor leagues.

“I mean people don’t get HIV from marijuana.”

Dr. Straus said the 12 patients he helped get medical marijuana cards have a variety of “pain syndromes” resulting from osteoarthritis, for example, or fibromyalgia. But he said: “Some people find it highly effective for anxiety as well.”

He said it is a juggling act, knowing which drugs to prescribe to reduce a patient’s dependence on or craving for more potent drugs, including methadone. “In my private practice, I am into doing what is effective…If there is no other effective treatment and there is no harm with the marijuana in terms of the person’s functional status, then I see nothing wrong with it.”

On the other hand, he said he doesn’t always say yes and has “doubts about decriminalizing it…because you can let the genie too much out of the bottle. There has to be some constraint on drug use.”

He told about a patient he saw just the other day who has been taking a prescribed alternative to methadone, called Suboxone, who “wanted marijuana for his anxiety. But I feel like he is not doing his part to help his anxiety. Like he is doing nothing and I said I can’t write it for you. You have to exercise. You have to see a counselor. You have to do your part.”

Dr. Dennis Mikolich is an infectious disease doctor who has helped 54 patients get medical marijuana cards.

With the second-highest caseload of legal marijuana users, Mikolich did not shy away from talking about the decisions that he said he made on behalf of patients with chronic and debilitating conditions, such as HIV and Hepatitis C.

But he acknowledged a concern about having his name in the newspaper and half-jokingly asked if “instead of using my name, you could refer to me as an ID ( infectious disease) physician with an office in Cranston with a Slavic sounding … name?”

He is also uncomfortable because he believes “the public still isn’t entirely convinced it is a good thing…I think there are some negative connotations associated with it.”

“It is not a good position to be in, but it is one I put myself in because the patients I treat …seem to respond to the medical marijuana,” he said. He also stressed that he only approved applications from patients with whom he had an established relationship.

He said “most of my patients who opt to use [medical marijuana] are either severely debilitated from chronic infections… associated cancers… [or] treatments using anti-viral medications or chemotherapy , and this is an act of compassion.”

“Many cannot drive, and if I suspect potential for abuse or danger then one is not given access by myself for a license.”

Asked how he would describe the benefits, he said: “Many patients I treat feel the immediate benefit of having this license psychologically, as they are already using [marijuana] and are afraid of legal consequences if found to be in possession of it, and not licensed.”

In fact, he said the majority told him they were already using it and are getting positive results: weight gain, a “better quality of life during the day,” and relief from side effects of their medical conditions, “including nausea, vomiting, different pains, depression, mood irritability.”

“My life is dedicated to helping patients, and improving quality of life,” he wrote in a follow up e-mail. “If it is legal and helps relieve whatever malady, then if I think it is safe and doesn’t jeopardize one’s well being, a form is signed.”

Like most of the doctors interviewed for this story, he said, he doesn’t know where his patients get the drug, but his staff provides his patients with the phone number of someone he knows only as “Reefer Jane” who “directs people to people who can grow it for them.”

A familiar face at the State House, Dr. Josiah D. Rich is a physician at Miriam Hospital and Brown Medical School who visits the Adult Correctional Institutions each week to give medical care to inmates. He is also an activist in drug abuse treatment.

He does not recommend legalizing the use of marijuana, because he doesn’t want to “encourage people to do harmful things.” But, he “doesn’t think anybody should go to jail for smoking marijuana.”

Over the last four years, he has helped 11 patients get medical marijuana cards.

He said he told each he “would not strongly recommend marijuana because of the potential damage to [their] lungs,” but recognizes that if “somebody is taking a life-saving medication [which they] can only tolerate by taking a small toke of a joint,” the marijuana may indirectly be saving their life.

One of the handful of doctors who acknowledged trying marijuana during his younger years, Rich said he “didn’t like what it was doing to my thought processes. It seemed to be clouding my memory.”

But he said the same “could be true for any mind-altering substance…even though they are of pharmacy grade.”

A family physician in West Warwick, Dr. Frank W. Lafazia has signed marijuana card applications for 31 patients over the last four years.

He seemed surprised by the number, but said the patients in this group have multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, or are dependent on drugs such as Vicodin or Oxycontin for pain control.

“I treat a lot of low income people,” he said, and “there seems to be some correlation between socioeconomics and people getting addicted to narcotics.”

“What I try to do is wean them off the narcotics,” he said. “People will steal to get narcotics…If they get addicted, they will do terrible things in their families. Marijauna doesn’t seem to cause that. Nobody is going to go out and rob your house…(or) rob a store because they need money to buy marijuana.”

“This isn’t the majority of my practice. I am not a pot doctor. I practice real medicine,” said Dr. Todd E. Handel, 37, who has signed 31 applications.

As a physiatrist with a sub-specialty in interventional pain medicine, he oversees the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of people with sports injuries, and other causes of back and neck pain including spinal cord injuries and herniated discs.

Once the law allowed the medical use of marijuana, Handel said signing marijuana-card applications was not hard. “If my state legislature has said to me patients with these types of conditions should be allowed to have access to this medicine…my view is, I have been asked by the state legislature to provide this.”

Conversely, “am I violating the law by not signing it?” he asks.

He said he counsels his patients that marijuana might help their pain, but is also a psychotropic that could “affect their executive levels of function,” such as their decision-making and ability to drive.

From his own anecdotal observations, he said, the drug helps control his patients’ pain and muscle spasms, and in at least one case, “decreased the amount of opiates he is needing.” He said the majority of those for whom he has approved marijuana use “are able to decrease the amount of pain medication they are taking with medicinal cannabis.”

“Is it safer for a 21-year-old to be drinking alcohol and intoxicated versus [smoking] marijuana?

“I am not qualified to address that,” Dr. Handel said, but “an obvious opinion would be that the consumption of alcohol in this country is a much bigger problem, and the illicit use of narcotics…Vicodin… Percocet…Oxycontin …in this country is a much bigger problem.”

SANTA MARIA – Under Assembly Bill 390, marijuana producers would pay an excise tax of $50 an ounce, distributors and users would pay additional sales tax that would generate annual state revenues of $1 billion or more.

Democrat Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who introduced AB 390, says his bill would also save the state close to $200 million a year in costs for arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of marijuana offenders.

“Certainly that money could be used for more effective drug prevention programs, particularly education for our young people”, Ammiano says, “treatment of addictions would be a benefit.”

Opponents of legalization say marijuana is a dangerously addictive “gateway drug” that leads to more serious drug abuse particularly among young people.

“We already have a problem in schools, where kids are dropping out, grades are going down, attendance is reduced, all directly connected to their marijuana use”, says Frank Warren who runs prevention programs for San Luis Obispo County’s Drug and Alcohol Services Department, “we’re seeing a lot of young people with marijuana disorders and its effecting their life in a negative way, there’s a connection between marijuana and depression and suicide, its certainly not something that we take lightly.”

An analysis of AB 390 by the State Board of Equalization indicates about 16 million ounces of marijuana are consumed in California each year.

Its estimated consumption of marijuana would increase by about 40 percent if the bill becomes law, something Ammiano concedes.

“It’s a reality I suppose”, Ammiano says, “you know people who were intimidated in the past by being thrown in jail and so forth may then want to experiment with it, I don’t think it’s necessarily bad if there’s not abuse of it.”

Assembly Bill 390 is scheduled to be heard next month in the Assembly Health Committee.

GRAND JUNCTION – Authorities say the strange odor seeping into a western Colorado Census Bureau office came from marijuana plants growing next door.

Grand Junction census workers say the smell was coming through the vents. Police got a search warrant Tuesday and found the plants next door in the same building.

Police say the building owner told them he was growing the plants for medical marijuana patients. Officers found state registration cards for medical marijuana users and are reviewing them.

No one has been arrested.

State law permits medical marijuana use but federal law does not. Last month, federal agents raided the home of a suburban Denver man who said he was a medical marijuana provider and found 224 pot plants. He’s been charged with possession.

It sounds like a dream sequence out of a Cheech and Chong movie. When a Monroe Township, N.J. police officer smelled something funny in the air, it led to a real-life record pot bust netting over $10 million dollars in growing plants and harvested bud.

On Feb. 17 police officer Thomas Lucasiewicz caught the smell of marijuana wafting from the chimney of a home last month in the Middlesex County community, about 40 miles north of Newark, Lucasiewicz told a press conference Wednesday.

Monroe Township Police patrol officer Tom Lucasiewicz, 23, who made the intitial bust.(AP/ Mel Evans) When he knocked on the door of the home he found 44-year-old Thu N. Nguyen burning unusable parts of pot plants in the fireplace. Police went in and found 1,064 pot plants growing in the basement and master bedroom.

But that was only the beginning.

Over the span of three days, police unraveled an intricate web, and that bust led to search warrants for five more rented houses in four other towns – Millstone, Old Bridge, Manalapan and Manahawkin – that were being used to grow marijuana. One of the suspects lived in a sixth home where police seized $60,000 cash and vacuum bags used to package pot.

Police found holes drilled in floors to vent heat from the high-wattage lamps used for artificial sunlight, according to New Jersey’s Star Ledger. One home had 74 lights of 1,000 watts each, authorities said. The suspects also bypassed electrical meters to conceal how much power the homes were concealing and steal electricity.

Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington, D.C., said outdoor farms still produce the bulk of marijuana grown in the United States, but that indoor cultivation has become more popular because they can grow year round, according to the Star Ledger.

In addition, plummeting real estate values in places like Florida and California have made it easier for criminals to obtain homes, Payne said.

“These criminal groups will buy or rent a house on a middle class, quiet street,” he said. “They’ll draw their blinds so no one knows what’s going on inside.”

All six suspects named are of Vietnamese descent. The three who were arrested – Nguyen, 44, a Canadian citizen; Tuan A. Dang, 35, of Port Monmouth; and Ngoc H. Bui, 35, of Old Bridge – were charged with maintaining a marijuana cultivation facility and drug possession with intent to distribute, crimes that each carry sentences of up to 20 years. They were also charged with theft of services for bypassing electrical meters at four homes to steal thousands of dollars worth of electricity and conceal the high amount of energy used to power growing lamps.

Police believe suspects Minh Bui and Quynh Bui fled to Thailand, and Nhung Thach is on the run.

Cannabis as a Cure for Anxiety

Just as with the article looking at cannabis as a cause of anxiety, I have found compelling evidence that marijuana can cure anxiety very difficult to find, although the anecdotal evidence that it does abounds.

So, even though anxiety can be a common side effect for some users, for many people the opposite is true. Joan Bello, author of the Benefits of Marijuana, says:

“With the expansiveness that occurs with marijuana, the subject may begin to notice infinite possibilities to raise the quality of his/her life that would otherwise have remained hidden from normal, defensive consciousness. And feelings of health and happiness naturally lead to hope, which of itself can be curative.”  Ms Bello interviewed over 400 people for her book who suffered from all types of disease, including, MS, Glaucoma, Epilepsy, Migraines, Asthma, Depression, Pain, Anxiety, Digestive Disorders, among many other stress-related diseases.

What Bello goes on to say is, I believe, the crux of the marijuana as cause or cure debate:

“When it first became popular in the West, marijuana was imported mainly from tropical zones, where the sativa strain of cannabis is indigenous. This type of marijuana is known for its “cerebral high,” having little noticeable body participation. No studies concerning the different effects of sativa vs. indica have been done, but from the lack of physical sensation, it is reasonable to assume more Sympathetic or stimulant qualities in sativa than indica (a cooler climate type). This is compatible with the notion that in hotter climates, less calming is desirable from a recreational substance, since hot climates in themselves cause lethargy. Many connoisseurs of marijuana prefer the sativa high, although in the last decade it has become very scarce due to domestic cultivation of strains that thrive in temperate zones (and indoors). “Cerebral highs” are experienced as lightness of thought beyond usual concern with self esteem. In relationships, a cerebral high attunes the participants to a less separate sense of themselves. Conversation is animated and a general feeling of camaraderie is in the air.”

My belief is that a person’s reaction to marijuana is dependent upon the interaction between his or her natural disposition and the strain of cannabis used.  Surely, if a depressive character uses a calming indica strain the result would be even more lethargy and apathy, leading to a deeper depression.  If that person, however, used stimulating sativa instead, doesn’t it follow that the depression would be lightened?  Of course, the opposite would be true for a person suffering from anxiety.

There is so much anecdotal evidence supporting the anxiety relieving effects of cannabis that it has to be true!  For that reason, we are suggesting that the following strains might help anxiety disorders:

• AK-47
• Big Bang
• Blueberry
• Blue Moonshine
• Blue Satellite
• Bog Sour Bubble
• Bubblegum
• Burmese kush
• C99 x Great White Shark)
• Fieldale Haze
• Firecracker
• Ganesh
• Hashberry
• Jack Herer
• Juicy Fruit
• Kalichakra
• LSD
• Mango x Northern Lights # 5
• Northern Lights
• Northern Light Special
• Northern Lights #5
• Romulan
• Shiskaberry x Dutch Treat)
• Shiskaberry x Hash Plant
• Speed Queen
• Strawberry Cough
• Strawberry Haze
• Super Impact
• Trainwreck
• Wakeford
• White Satin

More information on the various marijuana strains can be found at How to grow marijuana

Now, here’s a contentious one – cannabis and anxiety; contentious because is some cases cannabis has been associated with actually causing anxiety.  For this reason, we’ve broken this particular topic into two parts:

Cannabis as a cause of anxiety

Cannabis as a cure for anxiety

Cannabis as a Cause of Anxiety

As a supporter of the use of medical marijuana, this topic really throws a spanner in the works – a member of my own family was made dreadfully ill by the recreational use of cannabis (yet other members of my family have been using the stuff for years with no ill effect).

When my son – we’ll call him Jack for the purposes of this piece – was 15 years old he came to me one morning in a dreadful state.  I’ll never forget his words. ‘Mum, I’ve done something really stupid and I think I might be dying.’  As you can imagine I was scared to say the least, and although he wasn’t dying I was right to be scared because that conversation was the beginning of two years from hell.

Jack, who had always been the most tranquil of my children, had developed severe hypochondria and anxiety.  At that time I was working in a general hospital as a health professional and each day I would receive at least 5 calls from Jack, who was convinced his heart had stopped beating.  Yes, it sounds funny now but at the time it was tragic; so tragic in fact that many of my colleagues would break down in tears as they overheard the conversations with my very troubled son.

But that wasn’t all.  Jack suffered severe panic attacks, so severe that he soiled his pants on several occasions.  And he had become so fixated on the idea that his heart might stop beating that I often mislaid my stethoscope, only to find it hidden under his pillow or mattress.  School became impossible and Jack missed all his exams, ending up with no qualifications at all, despite being of above average intelligence.

Cognitive therapy didn’t help and we had very limited success with hypnosis; eventually, after two years, anti-anxiety meds from the family doctor did help.  Today, Jack is 23 years old and happy in his work as the manager of a rather classy hotel but, just occasionally, he still experiences mild panic attacks.

So, how does cannabis lead to anxiety and panic attacks?

Well, although I found plenty of papers confirming that cannabis can cause psychotic experiences such as hallucinations, fantasies, depersonalisation and derealisation (feeling out of touch with yourself or your surroundings), feeling a loss of control, fear of dying, irrational panic and paranoid ideas, I couldn’t find anything that explained exactly why this might be.

What did become very clear in my research is that cannabis alone does not cause psychosis; however, it may contribute to its development.

In theory, cannabis may cause a psychotic reaction in the following ways:

• Taking a high dose may cause a psychotic reaction with hallucinations or confusion, which goes away after the drug is stopped.
• It may lead to a long-term psychosis that does not go away when the drug is stopped.
• Long-term use may induce psychosis that gets a bit better if the drug is stopped.
• Cannabis may be a trigger for serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia (Johns A, 2001, ‘Psychiatric effects of cannabis’, British Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 178, pp.116-122.)

Here are some research findings, along with the relevant references:

• Research in young people suggests that using cannabis as a teenager increases the likelihood of experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia in adulthood, and early cannabis use (by age 15) confers greater risk than using it later on (by age 18). This research suggests that, although the majority of adolescents are not harmed by using cannabis, a small minority are.

(Arsenault L, Cannon M, Poulton R, Murray R, Caspi A, and Moffit TE, 2002, ‘Cannabis use in adolescence and risk for adult psychosis: longitudinal prospective study’, British Medical Journal vol. 325, pp. 1212-1213.)

• Results of a Swedish study suggest that cannabis increases the risk of schizophrenia by 30 per cent. However, this does not appear to be reflected in the figures for schizophrenia in the population in general, which have remained constant over a long period. This study also concludes that cannabis has few harmful effects overall, but that there is a potentially serious risk to the mental health of people who use cannabis, particularly in the presence of other risk factors for schizophrenia.

(Zammit S, Allebeck P, Andreasson S, Lundberg I, Lewis G, 2002, ‘Self reported cannabis use as a risk factor for schizophrenia in Swedish conscripts of 1969: historical cohort study’, British Medical Journal vol. 325, pp. 1199-1201.)

• Researchers who examined further published evidence on cannabis and psychosis in 2004 came to the conclusion that, for any individual, using cannabis doubles the risk of developing schizophrenia in later life, and, for the population as a whole, elimination of cannabis use would reduce the incidence of schizophrenia by about 8 per cent, if you assume that it has a causal effect. Cannabis use alone does not cause psychosis, but it is one of the things that may contribute to its development; therefore, using cannabis increases the risk, and some cases of psychosis could be prevented by discouraging cannabis use among vulnerable young people.

(Arseneault L, Cannon M, Witton J, and Murray R, 2004, ‘Causal association between cannabis and psychosis: examination of the evidence’, British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 184, pp 110-117).

• A response to this report further suggested that adolescents may be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of cannabis than are adults because their brains are still developing.

(Dervaux A, Goldberger C, Laqueille X, and Krebs M-O, 2004, ‘Cannabis and psychosis’, letter, British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 185, p 352.)

• A further study concluded that cannabis use increases the risk of psychotic symptoms in young people, but has a much stronger effect in those with evidence of a predisposition for psychosis (such as a family history of mental illness).

(Henquet C, Krabbendam L, Spauwen J, Kaplan C, Lieb R, Wittchen H-U, and van Os J, 2005, ‘Prospective cohort study of cannabis use, predisposition for psychosis, and psychotic symptoms in young people’, British Medical Journal, vol 330, 1 Jan, pp 11-13)

So, is this uncomfortable reading for a pro-marijuana board? Yes and no.  All the evidence suggests that it is not cannabis per se that causes the problems; rather, it is when cannabis is used by those who are already vulnerable to emotional instability.  However, having seen the effects at first hand, I am uncomfortable at the polarization of the pro and anti-marijuana camps.  With both sides entrenched in their respective positions the problem is unlikely to be sorted soon.  We have to accept that, just sometimes, bad things can happen – hence the uncomfortable post; the ‘opposition’  have to accept that, rather more frequently, positive things can happen too.

In Denver, CO, four state lawmakers have sent a request to the Attorney General, Eric H. Holder Jr, asking that he stop raids on medical marijuana operations.  The lawmakers say the raids are discouraging dispensary operators and medical marijuana patients and growers from working with them on proposed regulations. The letter was sent by Senators Chris Romer and Nancy Spence and Representatives Tom Massey and Beth McCann.

The letter was emailed to Holder yesterday and a copy was sent to President Barack Obama plus officials at the US DEA.  A spokeswoman from the Justice Department declined to comment, although she did say the department would review the letter.

Last month, a suburban Denver man who said he was a medical marijuana provider was charged with drug possession in federal court after DEA agents raided his home and found 224 pot plants. Agents became suspicious about the size of the man’s Highlands Ranch operation after he told a Denver television station he expected to make up to 0,000 a year.

Agents also raided two Colorado laboratories that test medical marijuana for pesticides and potency after they applied for licenses from the DEA. The operator of one said he was raided on the day he showed up at the state Capitol to testify on some of the proposed medical marijuana regulations.

Democratic Sen. Chris Romer of Denver, one of four lawmakers to sign the letter, said he’s most troubled by the laboratory raids since the labs appeared to be in compliance with Colorado marijuana law. He said the Highlands Ranch case is less clear-cut.

Romer wants to pass regulations that require dispensaries to grow their marijuana in rural or industrial areas – eliminating neighborhood grows – and have the state keep a confidential database of their location. He said he’s facing resistance because growers fear that the DEA could use the database to crack down on them.

“It’s kind of hard to build trust in the environment that’s been created by these raids,” Romer said.

Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, said the federal government shouldn’t be getting involved in any possible violations of Colorado’s medical marijuana law

This piece contains the last interview of Dr. Tod Mikuriya. 9/20/33 – 5/20/07. R.I.P. The piece also contains some of the big players in Prop. 215 movement. NORML being one!

A group of medical marijuana patients Thursday held a press conference in Boston to ask lawmakers to support legalizing medical marijuana in Massachusetts.The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health is currently considering a bill that would make Massachusetts the 15th state in the U.S. to give seriously ill patients safe and legal access to medical cannabis.Patients called for the bill to receive a committee vote before a deadline on March 18, after which passage out of committee becomes much more difficult.”Watching my 29-year-old son struggle with the side effects of brutal chemotherapy treatments was heart wrenching,” said Lorraine Kerz of Greenfield, Mass., who said her son benefited from medical marijuana.

CannaMed, which bills itself as Colorado’s largest medical marijuana evaluation company, is facing scrutiny for selling patient information to dispensaries and grow facilities so that those operations can show they are caring for enough patients to account for the cannabis they have on hand.While CannaMed’s owner insists that he’s not doing anything wrong, his company could be greatly impacted by legislation now making its way through the State Capitol, reports Joel Warner at Denver Westworld.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives Wednesday voted, as it did in 2008, to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. House Bill 1653, which would reduce the penalty for possessing one-quarter ounce or less of cannabis, passed by an overwhelming 214-137 vote. That’s almost 61 percent of the House voting in favor of decrim.Previously, the bill had been recommended “out to pass” in a 16-2 vote by the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on February 11.”This makes three years in a row that the House has passed a bill attempting to reform New Hampshire’s archaic marijuana policies,” said Matt Simon, executive director for the New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy.

All the mushers participating in the famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will be tested for alcohol and illegal drugs on the trail for the first time ever this year — a change defending three-time champion and medical marijuana user Lance Mackey believes is directed at him.”I know for a fact,” said the three-time winner, reports The Associated Press.Mackey said he would abstain for purposes of this year’s race. “I’m going to pee in their little cup, and laugh in their face,” Mackey said.