Sacramento Bee
By Denny Walsh -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Friday, February 28, 2003

Medical Pot Use Backer Gets Jail
A judge was angered over criticism of a
fellow magistrate's drug case conduct.

Angry that a medical marijuana activist blames a fellow judge for disrupting a major pot trial in Sacramento federal court, a magistrate judge sent the activist to prison for three months Thursday.

Jeff Jones, a nationally known champion of medical marijuana, was found guilty at a non-jury trial in December of attempting to influence the trial of fellow medical pot advocate Bryan Epis.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski ordered Jones, 38, to pay restitution of $3,925, the cost of bringing the first prospective jurors to court for the Epis trial. All 42 were disqualified and a second panel convened by U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr., who was convinced that material handed out by Jones and other protesters to members of the first group as they walked toward the courthouse contaminated the entire pool.

Jones' attorney, Michael Bigelow, set off Nowinski and caused him to reconsider his inclination to impose straight probation by arguing that it was not necessary to dismiss the jury pool.

Damrell acted out of "pique, rather than reason," Bigelow wrote in objecting to nearly $4,000 in restitution.

"Had it been the defense complaining of potential bias instead of the government, the court would have questioned the prospective jurors and picked a jury from among those who had not been exposed to the material," Bigelow argued Thursday in court.

"That would have benefited only Mr. Jones," Nowinski retorted. "There is no acceptance of responsibility here. He is virtually thumbing his nose at the system."

Jones, who has no prior criminal record, was the only one charged among a number of protesters and pickets drawn to the federal courthouse last year for Epis' trial.

Jones is an icon of the medical marijuana movement, having headed for a number of years the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, which took the cause to the U.S. Supreme Court but lost. The high court ruled that medical necessity is no defense to a federal drug charge.

In a memorandum signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Spangler, the government conceded "there was other activity occurring outside the courthouse on the date in question," but argued that "Mr. Jones' conduct was egregious. He stood on the courthouse steps distributing pamphlets specifically targeting" prospective jurors.

Outraged by Bigelow's argument that Damrell acted precipitously, Nowinski directed that Jones be taken into custody immediately. He then relented, and ordered him to surrender Monday.

Every time Bigelow said the words "medical marijuana," Nowinski cut him off.

"This case isn't about medical marijuana," he told the defense attorney. "It's about the integrity of the jury system."

Thursday's stormy proceedings are just the latest misery left in the wake of the Epis prosecution.

Epis, 35 and the father of an 8-year-old daughter, was the moving force behind a cannabis buyers club in Chico. He was found guilty by a jury in July of growing marijuana, and Damrell sentenced him to a mandatory minimum 10 years in prison. The conviction is on appeal.

The case became a rallying point for medical marijuana proponents nationwide, who view it as the ultimate injustice to come from the chasm between California's Compassionate Use Act, mandated by the voters' passage of a 1996 ballot initiative, and the federal government's zero-tolerance stand.

---

About the Writer
The Bee's Denny Walsh can be reached at (916) 321-1189 or dwalsh@sacbee.com

Canada: OPED: Smoke Out The Politicians
Pubdate: Mon, 26 Aug 2002
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Author: Marni Jackson
Note: Marni Jackson is the author of Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign.

SMOKE OUT THE POLITICIANS

Last week, the same day that Health Minister Anne McLellan suggested shelving medical marijuana, I was at the World Pain Congress in San Diego, Calif., listening to the first plenary session on pain and cannabinoids (the molecules that count in cannabis). There were about 5,000 pain scientists in one very large room, most of whom were familiar with the evidence that cannabis can relieve pain. Old news.

But what I also learned might shock our squabbling politicians. When it comes to the cannabinoids, we are already growing our own - inside the body. How do we regulate that?

The same substance in cannabis that can help people with multiple sclerosis deal with muscle spasms, or cancer patients deal with nausea, is also present in human breast milk. Endogeneous cannabinoids, as they're known, are part of the body's own pain-killing resources - cousins to more familiar ones, such as endorphins. Receptors for cannabinoids, in the brain, spine and peripheral nerves, have just been discovered in the past decade.

This is the science end of things. But we have a tendency to think about drugs superstitiously, dividing them into "natural" versus "synthetic," or heroic (anticancer drugs) versus sinister (narcotics and cannabis). The fact is that most drugs, regardless of the reassuring bubble packs we buy them in, are synthesized from plants or pods or pretty flowers. Drugs are not alien invaders; they often mimic or amplify perfectly natural mechanisms in the body. And the reason that opiates and marijuana work against pain (in quite distinct ways) is that they match substances that the body already creates. Strictly speaking, we all use dope.

Some scientists even believe that cannabis could be more useful for certain difficult kinds of neurological pain than opiates. This was the opinion of Andrew Rice, senior lecturer in pain research from Imperial College in London, England, when he gave his plenary address in San Diego.

Dr. Rice began by pointing out that cannabis has been used for pain relief for centuries. Evidence of smoked marijuana was found beside the body of a woman who died in childbirth more than two centuries ago. Queen Victoria used cannabis for her menstrual cramps (she was a big fan of ether for childbirth, too). In studies that use synthetic cannabinoids, very small doses have been shown to offer pain relief. Dr. Rice reported that "We are just beginning to discover the importance of the endocannabinoids [the home-grown stuff]."

The aim now is to develop a synthetic version that would divorce the analgesia from the high, because not everybody in pain wants that - it tends to increase the Dorito intake, for one thing; besides, inhaling smoke has its health risks too.

Dr. Rice concluded that although there was lots of laboratory data to support the use of cannabis for pain relief, its clinical use was premature. Why? "This is probably much more of a political question than a medical matter," he said.

It's a question of access, in other words.

When Ms. McLellan says Canada should shelve the use of medical marijuana until further studies, she is depriving science of one very good avenue of research - the experience of people in pain who are already using marijuana and benefiting from it.

Mark Ware, associate professor of anesthesia at McGill University and a pain physician, has done work on the therapeutic potential of cannabis. In a study presented at the congress (one of 16 papers on the subject), Prof. Ware followed a group of chronic pain patients who used marijuana. They all reported decreased pain, and most found it helped them relax and get to sleep. "What was interesting was how effective a low dose of marijuana could be," he pointed out. "The doses were variable but some got relief from as little as two or three puffs a day."

The amount of cannabis useful for pain relief, in other words, doesn't resemble the Cheech and Chong quantities that its opponents imagine. Nor does everyone want the high; their aim is to reduce suffering and get on with life.

Because these drugs are so promising in terms of health and economic benefits, it's important not to slow down research on them. Besides, cannabis can even lead to decreased drug use in patients. "One great advantage of using cannabinoids for pain relief," says Dr. Jim Henry, director of the Canadian Pain Consortium and another researcher in this area, "is that when you combine them with opiates, patients can lower their dosage of these drugs."

So why has Ms. McLellan chickened out on the marijuana front? Dr. Harold Merskey, an internationally recognized pain researcher in London, Ont., told me: "I suspect our politicians don't want to be ahead of America in this matter, because it raises a sensitive border issue." Namely, the fear of Americans flocking across the border to avail themselves of high-grade, government-issue cannabis.

But if Canada puts this sort of fear ahead of the therapeutic potential to ease suffering, we will be headed toward a mini-version of America's War on Drugs - a campaign that has been a ruinous and costly failure in addressing the serious issue of addiction and drug abuse.

It's ironic: Canada has the legal framework in place, lots of impressive research on hand - but we're going to sit on it. Meanwhile, people with cancer, AIDS, MS, or severe arthritis, who could benefit from a puff or two a day, and who may not have the luxury of worrying about long-term effects, have been deprived of a cheap painkiller that has not caused a single fatality (unlike anti-inflammatories, which were linked with 20,000 deaths in the United States last year). Marijuana also looks quite nice growing in a window box.

Cannabis has risks, as all drugs do. We don't yet know its long-term effects on memory or the immune system. But hormone-replacement therapy has its proven dangers too, and the government hasn't bestirred itself to shelve premarin.

So let's do the clinical trials to measure long-term consequences. And by all means, let's develop a cannabinoid that cleanly targets pain without the high. (How Canadian: a drug that makes you feel normal.)

Canadian cannabis has a nice brand-ish ring to it. If the maple leaf went on a diet, it might even resemble the leaf in question.

But in the meantime, let's not deprive ourselves of the one population that could offer us crucial evidence about the pros and cons of its use - namely, the roughly 400,000 Canadians who already use marijuana for pain relief. For them, the main pain now is access.

US CA: Scientists Weigh Merits Of Pot As Pain Reliever
Pubdate: Wed, 21 Aug 2002
Source: North County Times (CA)
Contact: editor@nctimes.com
Copyright: 2002 North County Times
Website: http://www.nctimes.com
Author: Randy Dotinga

SCIENTISTS WEIGH MERITS
OF POT AS PAIN RELIEVER

SAN DIEGO -- Can you inhale your way past the pain and nausea of diseases such as cancer and AIDS? Plenty of marijuana advocates say you can, but scientific evidence has been nearly nonexistent.

Now, scientists are stepping up their research into the painkilling properties of marijuana and drugs derived from it. Several research projects are underway at UC San Diego, which is home to the two-year-old Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research.

However, pain experts from around the globe learned Tuesday that a variety of obstacles may keep marijuana pills out of medicine cabinets for some time.

"We've got a long way to go," said Dr. Andrew Rice, a senior lecturer in pain research at Imperial College in London, in a session before thousands of attendees at the 10th World Pain Congress at the San Diego Convention Center.

The conference, sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Pain, is held every three years in a different country and will last through Thursday. Several scientists are presenting their research into how marijuana works and whether it could be a useful painkiller.

The drug itself has been around for thousands of years, Rice said. Humans first began to cultivate marijuana about 8000 B.C., and Chinese and Indian people used it to treat pain as early as 2800 and 2000 B.C. The drug experienced a rebirth in the 19th century when even Queen Victoria used it, although reports differ as to whether she smoked it or took it in her tea.

But while scientists know plenty about the workings of powerful painkillers like morphine, researchers have largely stayed away from marijuana because it's a dicey subject politically.

"The existing evidence ( about medical marijuana ) is too insufficient in quality to allow any kind of informed debate," Rice said.

That's changing, however. Six years ago, California became the first of eight states to allow ill people to smoke marijuana to relieve their symptoms. And in 1999, the state Legislature allowed three years of medical marijuana research to begin at UC San Diego and UC San Francisco.

While researchers must go through several hoops to get their research projects approved, they can bypass federal laws that prevent citizens from growing marijuana for sale to sick people. In fact, the marijuana for research projects actually comes from the federal government, which grows it.

In one UCSD study, scientists are stinging the arms of four test subjects with capsaicin, the active ingredient in red chili peppers, and comparing their responses to those after they've smoked some marijuana. More than a dozen subjects will be enrolled later.

In another UCSD study that hasn't begun yet, researchers plan to enroll 40 cancer patients and test whether they get relief from severe pain by smoking marijuana.

According to the center, other studies will look at the effects of marijuana use upon multiple sclerosis patients -- doctors think the drug may reduce muscle spasms -- and AIDS patients who suffer from nerve pain.

While doctors can choose from a wide variety of painkillers, from simple aspirin to Oxycontin, many kinds of persistent pain remain immune to treatment, said experts at the conference.

"We need clinical studies on the medicinal use of marijuana so we can settle once and for all whether it is a useful medicine for the treatment of various ailments such a pain, nausea and vomiting," said Dr. Mark Wallace, chief of the Center for Pain and Palliative Medicine at UCSD.

It will take about two years to complete the capsaicin study, and three years for the cancer study, he said.

Meanwhile, Rice told conferees researchers are trying to find ways around the down sides of marijuana -- its tendency to make people get stoned and its failure to work when swallowed in a pill form.

Researchers are currently looking at a variety of ways to "deliver" the active ingredient of marijuana to patients without making them high. Among other things, they are considering inhalers, suppositories and tablets that you place under your tongue like a heart drug, Rice said.

Considering the early state of research, it's too early to predict when the public will get a marijuana medicine by prescription, he said.

But UCSD's Wallace says he thinks the day will come. "I don't think it's going to be a cure-all. That's not going to happen," he said in the interview. "But it will be another option for us."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

marijuana cannabis pot mary jane medical medicinal AIDS aids HIV hiv pain MS spasm marijuana cannabis sex chat xxx sexual dysfunctions seeds pot seeds XXX growing garden hydroponic Holland Amsterdam drug war drug information drugs epilepsy warts wasting syndrome cachexia playboy pain muscle netscape software nude porno games porn weather penthouse pornography pussy persian kitty maps marijuana cannabis music adult chat rooms erotica microsoft jokes shareware magazines pictures employment jobs marijuana cannabis erotic gay netscape bondage lingerie hardcore hustler espn supermodels disney star wars girls Marijuana Cannabis movies star trek mirc genealogy screen savers japan soccer tits nude celebrities nudity mpeg nudes mtv las vegas nasa travel metallica real estate stock quotes golf sex stories lesbian cnn sports quake hewlett packard irc simpsons gay sex nirvana x-files madonna sex pictures horoscope football map java midi anal sex cars usa today recipes education mexico airlines html free sex days of our lives australia nfl india babes wrestling history