Patients Seek To Add Their Conditions To Medical Marijuana List

by Christine Stuart

Hertz Nazaire – CHRISTINE STUART PHOTO
 
Hertz Nazaire, 41, lives with sickle cell disease and while he says he’s never tried marijuana to ease his chronic pain, he hates the narcotics he because they make him dizzy and nauseous. He said he would like medical marijuana to be an option.
“The pain is as strong as any other disease you have on that list,” Nazaire told the state physicians board Wednesday during a public hearing.
Nazaire wants the board to add sickle cell disease to the list of 11 conditions that qualify a patient to receive medical marijuana in Connecticut.
“My pain is not being addressed in a legal means,” Nazaire said. “I’m sitting here today just to ask that patients like myself be given a choice.”
He said his pain usually goes untreated because he is viewed by the medical community as someone who is seeking treatment to “get high” because the most common treatment for the pain is addictive narcotics.
“I deal with strong pain, insomnia, and nausea from my prescribed medications,” Nazaire told the four member board.
Dr. John Roberts of Yale University, who has cared for adults with sickle cell disease for more than 20 years, said the “hallmark of sickle cell disease is pain.”
He said many people with sickle cell disease take many medications and he believes medical marijuana could help ease the pain.
But as long as marijuana is illegal, it’s difficult to study its effects on sickle cell disease.
 
Full Article:
http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/patients_seek_to_add_their_conditions_to_medical_marijuana_list
 

New bill would allow the VA to recommend medical marijuana for patients

By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux – The Washington Post
v
 
 
WASHINGTON — Arguing that medical marijuana may help wounded warriors with anxiety and stress disorders to “survive and thrive,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., have introduced legislation that would allow Department of Veterans Affairs’ doctors to recommend the drug for some patients.
The Veterans Equal Access Act and would challenge the VA’s policy that forbids doctors from consulting about medical pot use. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported about the issue.
“We should be allowing these wounded warriors access to the medicine that will help them survive and thrive, including medical marijuana, not treating them like criminals and forcing them into the shadows,” said Blumenauer in a statement.
 
Full Article:
http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/new-bill-would-allow-the-va-to-recommend-medical-marijuana-for-patients-1.315976

In Chile, mothers give epileptic kids covertly grown marijuana

The Japan Times
 
Seven-year-old epilepsy sufferer Javiera Canales holds a watering can on Nov. 16 amid pots of cannabis plants grown for their oil. Her mother, Paulina Bobadilla, knows cultivation is illegal, but says a few drops a day lessens Javiera's seizures. | AP
 
Paulina Bobadilla was beyond desperate. The drugs no longer stopped her daughter’s epileptic seizures and the little girl had become so numb to pain, she would tear off her own fingernails and leave her small fingers bleeding.
Bobadilla was driving on a mountain road with Javiera, intent on ending it all by steering their car off a cliff.
“All I wanted to do was to die along with her,” the 34-year-old mother recalled of that day in April 2013. “I told her: ‘This is it.’ But then she said, ‘Mommy, I love you.’ I looked at her and I knew I had to continue fighting.”
Bobadilla’s desperation to ease her daughter’s condition is an emotion familiar to other Chilean parents who say medical marijuana can help their children and who, rather than wait for Congress to act, have taken matters into their own hands.
 
Full Article:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/11/25/world/science-health-world/in-chile-mothers-give-epileptic-kids-covertly-grown-marijuana/#.VHUrCtLF_Yp

Calculating the Enormous Potential of the Hemp Industry



Sean Gallup/Getty Images
 
“The crop right now is sellable,” Colorado hemp farmer Jim Denny told NPR reporters earlier this year. “I’ve already had people contact me on my website saying, ‘We know you’re growing stuff and we want to buy it from you already.’ And we haven’t even put it in the ground.”
What Denny is experiencing is called demand, and it’s one half of the most basic blocks of modern economics. The other, supply, is what he is trying to generate. And he’s not alone. The fact is, industrial hemp — which is a cousin of the marijuana plant, sans the psychoactive compound THC — is a potential gold mine for the agricultural industry. The problem is that so far, it’s been lumped together with marijuana and made out to be dangerous, when it is in fact no more dangerous than cotton or wood.
Full Article:
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/business/calculating-the-enormous-potential-of-the-hemp-industry.html/?a=viewall

Dr. Oz Show Nov. 24: Natural Immunity Booster and Energy Reboot

ozpumpkin
Hemp Seeds contain both protein and fiber. Oz says using these during the day by sprinkling them on fruit or adding them to a smoothie will keep your energy levels up all day long. Oz warns that the nutrients in Hemp are lost when they are heated so it is important to eat them “raw.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.current-movie-reviews.com/44032/dr-oz-show-nov-24-natural-immunity-booster-and-energy-reboot/
 

Merry marijuana: Pot sellers woo holiday shoppers

By KRISTEN WYATT

 
From new marijuana strains for the holidays to gift sets and pot-and-pumpkin pies, the burgeoning marijuana industry in Colorado is scrambling to get a piece of the holiday shopping dollar. Dispensaries in many states have been offering holiday specials for medical customers for years — but this first season of open-to-all-adults marijuana sales in some states means pot shops are using more of the tricks used by traditional retailers to attract holiday shoppers.
 
Full Article:
https://news.yahoo.com/merry-marijuana-pot-sellers-woo-holiday-shoppers-061334047.html

City Zoning Panel Approves Six Chicago Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

Jon Graef
2012_6_15_medweed.jpg
Photo Credit: Laughing Squid
 
On Friday, the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals Panel was set to decide on 13 applications for licenses to “establish a medical cannabis dispensary.” [If you’ll recall, there was fervent demand for applications for such dispensary licenses back in September.]
The Chicago Tribune reports that, of the 13 applications heard Friday, the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals Panel approved six, rejected one, and delayed decisions on the other six.
 
Full Article:
http://chicagoist.com/2014/11/22/city_zoning_panel_approves_six_chic.php

Amsterdam Cannabis Cup shut down on Day One

By , The Cannabist Staff

 
As this year’s Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam was supposed to open its doors for five days of weed worship on Nov. 23 … it didn’t open its doors.
Amsterdam Cannabis Cup attendees were being turned away by High Times officials and venue staff at the Melkweg on Sunday morning because the mayor’s office had issues with the event and was threatening to arrest those ignoring its warning, organizers said.
 
Full Article:
http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/11/23/amsterdam-cannabis-cup-shut-down/23797/

Colorado Approves Credit Union for Pot Stores

Tom Huddleston, Jr.
Comet Probe Philae Runs Out Of Power
America’s rapidly-expanding marijuana industry faces a major quandary: large, national banks are afraid to do business with cannabis businesses for fear of running afoul of strict federal regulations.
That could change with the creation of the first financial institution dedicated solely to serving the cannabis industry. This week, the Colorado Division of Financial Services issued a charter to The Fourth Corner Credit Union, which could be doing business and serving the local cannabis community as soon as January, a spokeswoman for the state’s regulatory agencies confirmed.
 
Full Article:
http://time.com/3600778/colorado-credit-union-pot-stores/

Nevada reciprocity: Have an MMJ card? You can buy pot in Vegas in 2015

Marijuana activists are already planning the 2016 campaign to regulate and legalize the sale of recreational pot in Nevada, home to Las Vegas, one of the world’s biggest tourism destinations.
But some tourists won’t have to wait that long to legally buy weed in Las Vegas thanks to the most liberal reciprocity law in the U.S.
Medical marijuana cardholders throughout the U.S. will be able to purchase pot in Nevada starting in 2015. All they’ll have to do is show their medical marijuana license, show a government ID proving they’re 21 or older and sign an affidavit — and they’ll have access to that shop (but no others) for their stay in Nevada.
 
Full Article:
http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/11/20/nevada-reciprocity-marijuana-las-vegas/23625/