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4 Americans get medical pot from the feds
Elvy Musikka, 72, who suffers from glaucoma, shows the canister holding marijuana cigarettes she regularly receives from the U.S. Government in Eugene, Ore., Sept. 27, 2011. / AP
EUGENE, Oregon - Sometime after midnight on a moonlit rural Oregon highway, a state trooper checking a car he had just pulled over found less than an ounce of pot on one passenger: A chatty 72-year-old woman blind in one eye.
She insisted the weed was legal and was approved by the U.S. government.
The trooper and his supervisor were doubtful. But after a series of calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Drug Enforcement Agency and her physician, the troopers handed her back the card — and her pot.
CBSNews.com special report: Marijuana Nation
For the past three decades, Uncle Sam has been providing a handful of patients with some of the highest grade marijuana around. The program grew out of a 1976 court settlement that created the country's first legal pot smoker.
Advocates for legalizing marijuana or treating it as a medicine say the program is a glaring contradiction in the nation's 40-year war on drugs — maintaining the federal ban on pot while at the same time supplying it.
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Government officials say there is no contradiction. The program is no longer accepting new patients, and public health authorities have concluded that there was no scientific value to it, Steven Gust of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse told The Associated Press.
At one point, 14 people were getting government pot. Now, there are four left.
The government has only continued to supply the marijuana "for compassionate reasons," Gust said.
One of the recipients is Elvy Musikka, the chatty Oregon woman. A vocal marijuana advocate, Musikka relies on the pot to keep her glaucoma under control. She entered the program in 1988, and said that her experience with marijuana is proof that it works as a medicine.
They "won't acknowledge the fact that I do not have even one aspirin in this house," she said, leaning back on her couch, glass bong cradled in her hand. "I have no pain."
Medical marijuana: 18 states that permit pot
Marijuana is getting a look from states around the country considering calls to repeal decades-old marijuana prohibition laws. There are 16 states that have medical marijuana programs. In the three West Coast states, advocates are readying tax-and-sell or other legalization programs.
Marijuana was legal for much of U.S. history and was recognized as a medicine in 1850. Opposition to it began to gather and, by 1936, 48 states had passed laws regulating pot, fearing it could lead to addiction.
Anti-marijuana literature and films, like the infamous "Reefer Madness," helped fan those fears. Eventually, pot was classified among the most harmful of drugs, meaning it had no usefulness and a high potential for addiction.
In 1976, a federal judge ruled that the Food and Drug Administration must provide Robert Randall of Washington, D.C. with marijuana because of his glaucoma — no other drug could effectively combat his condition. Randall became the nation's first legal pot smoker since the drug's prohibition.
Elvy Musikka smokes a marijuana cigarette, one of many she regularly receives from the U.S. Government, at her home in Eugene, Ore., Sept. 27, 2011.
/ APEventually, the government created its program as part of a compromise over Randall's care in 1978, long before a single state passed a medical marijuana law. What followed were a series of petitions from people like Musikka (seen at left) to join the program.
President George H.W. Bush's administration, getting tough on crime and drugs, stopped accepting new patients in 1992. Many of the patients who had qualified had AIDS, and they were dying.
The AP asked the agency that administers the program, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, for documents showing how much marijuana has been sent to patients since the first patient in 1976.
The agency supplied full data for 2005-2011, which showed that during that period the federal government distributed more than 100 pounds of high-grade marijuana to patients.
Agency officials said records related to the program before 2005 had been destroyed, but were able to provide scattered records for a couple of years in the early 2000s.
The four patients remaining in the program estimate they have received a total of 584 pounds from the federal government over the years. On the street, that would be worth more than $500,000.
All of the marijuana comes from the University of Mississippi, where it is grown, harvested and stored.
Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, who directs the operation, said the marijuana was a small part of the crop the university has been growing since 1968 for all cannabis research in the U.S. Among the studies are the pharmaceutical uses for synthetic mimics of pot's psychoactive ingredient, THC.
ElSohly said the four patients are getting pot with about 3 percent THC. He said 3 percent is about the range patients have preferred in blind tests.
The label on the side of Elvy Musikka's canister of government-issued marijuana cigarettes.
/ AP
The marijuana is then sent from Mississippi to a tightly controlled North Carolina lab, where they are rolled into cigarettes. And every month, steel tins with white labels are sent to Florida and Iowa. Packed inside each is a half-pound of marijuana rolled into 300 perfectly-wrapped joints.
With Musikka living in Oregon, she is entitled to more legal pot than anyone in the nation because she's also enrolled in the state's medical marijuana program. Neither Iowa nor Florida has approved marijuana as a medicine, so the federal pot is the only legal access to the drug for the other three patients.
The three other people in the program range in ages and doses of marijuana provided to them, but all consider themselves an endangered species that, once extinct, can be brushed aside by a federal government that pretends they don't exist.
All four have become crusaders for the marijuana-legalization movement. They're rock stars at pro-marijuana conferences, sought-after speakers and recognizable celebrities in the movement.
Irv Rosenfeld, a financial adviser in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has been in the program since November 1982. His condition produces painful bone tumors, but he said marijuana has replaced prescription painkillers.
Rosenfeld likes to tell this story: In the mid-1980s, the federal government asked his doctor for an update on how Rosenfeld was doing. It was an update the doctor didn't believe the government was truly interested in. He had earlier tried to get a copy of the previous update, and was told the government couldn't find it, Rosenfeld said.
So instead of filling out the form, the doctor responded with a simple sentence written in large, red letters: "It's working."
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How many pain killers are addicting with bad, bad, bad side affects.
Start focusing on this legalization issue. It is ridiculous that people are more informed about the Michael Jackson murder trial than their own civil liberties. This is on YOU CBS! The majority of people out there actually believe they're in the minority for marijuana regulation/legalization because the mainstream media depicts it as such. This is simply false [continue on for proof]. A majority of Americans want federal marijuana prohibition repealed and states to regulate the production/sale of the drug.
A message to the people that post about this stuff and the proof for CBS - you NEED to start reporting on this!
The ONLY points that need to be expressed about marijuana prohibition:
- Use, possession, and growing of marijuana are your [*civil liberties*](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jE1Qs0VhHg&)!
- There's a bill already submitted to repeal federal prohibition written by Barney Frank and Ron Paul (with many other co-sponsors) called *H.R. 2306 - The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011*. [**90% of nonpartisan POPVOX supports it**](http://pvox.co/CdiFqY) Once enough political pressure is exerted it will pass, leaving marijuana laws up to the states.
- There's a petition already written to "Tax and regulate Marijuana similar to alcohol" [**44,000+ signatures already**](http://wh.gov/gDQ).
- Realize this: If you are for the repeal of prohibition you are in the majority! If you don't believe or understand that you've been fooled into thinking otherwise.
Proof:
[**87% on AmericansElect**](http://p.twimg.com/AZP-wdCCIAAvvy8.jpg:large)
[**95% on CNN World**](http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/07/debate-legalize-marijuana-and-a-look-at-demand-side-policies-in-the-u-s-war-on-drugs/)
How much more proof does CBS News need to report on this?!
All other discussions / opinions re: likelihood, who stands to gain/lose, or conspiracy theories on why corporate America is preventing the repeal of prohibition are asinine. The only thing that matters is what YOU have done. If you've done nothing it's not growers, pharma, or the beer companies preventing H.R. 2306 from passing. Stating your opinion in forums is near useless - you're preaching to the choir (and maybe one or two trolls). Your government officials need to know how you feel. They're fooled too. Fix their perception like hopefully this post has fixed yours.
Legalize I don't understand the problem.
USPeople taxes pay for illegal drugs to be grown in other countries.
That's why they have to keep it legal outside the US but not in the US.
Then taxes pay to create a department to find people in other countries.
To agree to grow USCrops on their fields of drugs we will go to jail for having.
That's how it works USGov pays other countries to do things with them against us.
What part of the USPeople's deficit did that come from?
Right now they are adding on the street other drugs to marijuana so it can not be legal for street marijuana.
And at the same time they are talking about messing with medical marijuana's chemistry to stop forgetfulness.
Why do they always have to change things and then tell us to be happy with what we have.
They are never happy with what they have they always have to adjust things.
Marijuana was good enough in the 1300's and it is good enough now.
Stop playin games making life so dificult for people.
They cause depression and most of USPeople's problems.
I want a figure on how much USPeople's money has been spent in other countries on crops of any kind.
Did the USPeople know that the reason they don't have jobs is most of the jobs were taken out of this country.
When the G20 took all large industry out of the US and before that set up the youth of other countries with jobs.
I guess the USPeople were done raising industries for other countries and took them home.
Now we are starting over again with the youth of other countries living here taking jobs, benifits, ect...
First of all I dont exspect a country that has been lying to us since the beginning of time to tell us the truth of anything. So I will my research. First of all no hospitals will except you if you have a marijuana addition. Because they say it not additive and refuse you since the stste funding was stopped for it. And it is cures for 28 reasons and used to be medicine in the 1300's. Perscribed medicine. Congress called it more dangerous them heroine. That's how the Congress has it charted. To keep the money being made for them. And keep it illegal here and legal in other countries. So they can pay other countries with our money to grow it there that's why it has to stay legal in other countries but not this one. Except certain places. Noe if we have not taken it off of California then it should be legal in the US now. And not just for medical use. It cures you of blood disorders of all kinds from AID's to Lukemia weather a doctor is perscribing it or not. It would cure people better then doctors. And makes big money. That is the truth of why the Congress will not make it legal around the US. Every time a dealer makes money he is in a round about way making money for the Congress. It comes from other countries and into the distributers that brings it to the US to be sold. Paid for by our taxes but illegal for USPeople to have and grow. What a busisness. Whose deficit does this come from? We dont have terrorists in other countries we have drug growers for our politicians to make their money and kill to keep business going.Why are they allowed to use USPeoples Tax Paying money to pay other countries to grow and bring illegal drugs into this country for USPeople to go to jail for. Perhaps it was legal to make the people want it and then take it from them from the beginning. So who is the Terrorist?
Can you believe we are still having this conversation? I am embarrassed.
Eliminate or Reform Departments whose Officers are Required by Law to Lie to the American People.
http://wh.gov/gKN
This one isn't yet publicly visible or searchable at the site because it hasn't passed the 150 signature threshold. Only 26 more--it's almost there. Help out if you find it worthy of signing, and please spread the word.
This petition looks to pressure President Obama from another angle than "legalize marijuana." This one looks to inform people about the undue power the ONDCP has in trying to stymie any legalization efforts of a Schedule I substance, regardless of what science shows. That's just wrong.
Hopefully this petition will appeal to people who may not specifically support MJ legalization but are fed up with corrupt and arrogant government. The MJ legalization petitions are going heroic--this one aims to be their sidekick.
There are many other petitions there on varying subjects worthy of consideration. Please check them out, and be sure to visit the site every day--it takes only 5-10 minutes to catch up on new petitions. Some may be related to petitions you've already signed and need support.
Thanks for your time.
Dave Triplett (and others) have found cannabis oil to cure melanoma as he shows in his short movie about his own experience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tghUh4ubbg
Cannabis has been proven to kill cancer cells in lab tests without harming the healthy cells present. http://www.gsalternative.com/2010/05/cannabinoids-kill-cancer/
Many people have seen similar results personally, including a number of stage 4 cancer sufferers given 'hemp oil' by Rick Simpson in Canada, who were cured by ingesting it. (Rick said there was about a 70% recovery rate in those stage 4 folks; the rest died as their prognosis forecast.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0psJhQHk_GI
My petition asks the government to reveal what it knows about cannabis that is beneficial, since it has thus far only been releasing detrimental information.
You can view and sign the petition here:
http://wh.gov/4y0
Class 1 means no medical use. But now we are supplying medicine to 4 patients?
Marijuana needs to be moved to Class II schedule.
In addition to the measures of control applicable to all drugs in Schedule I, opium is subject to the
provisions of article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraph f), and of articles 21 bis, 23 and 24, the coca leaf to
those of articles 26 and 27 and cannabis to those of article 28.
The Convention requires that cannabis be placed in Schedule I, but also allows an "out" for government controlled cultivation - much like we see at the University of Mississippi, where these patients get their marijuana from.
We are also trying to use this same quirk to avoid preemption in passage of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012, which also relies on the language of the treaty. Article 28 spells out the appropriate way for a signatory to the treaty to cultivate cannabis and remain in compliance with the treaty - it refers back to Article 23, where opium production is also allowed in the same circumstances.
The treaty can be read here:
http://www.incb.org/pdf/e/conv/convention_1961_en.pdf
We could pull out of the treaty - but one could easily argue that the treaty is our doing, and we are unlikely to withdraw from it at this time. However, since there is this "out" built into the treaty, we can create a legal market for cannabis, without rescheduling cannabis...the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is predicated on being an experiment by the people to reduce the illicit traffic and misuse of cannabis by providing a legal market that is regulated on par with alcohol. Pretty simple, and we hope that when passed, it will "trump" federal law. :)
I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the People.
Will you sign it? http://wh.gov/gf3
We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama
Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets
enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.
How can the federal government supply a few people with marijuana and outlaw it for everyone else? That's 100% unconstitutional, it's covered in the "Equal Protection Clause" of the Constitution.
End the madness of marijuana PROHIBITION now! Take back your Constitutional rights and freedom and put the government in its place. Call your elected reps and DEMAND an end to this unconstitutional tyranny. No other policy in US history has been used as an excuse to trash the Constitution more than marijuana PROHIBITION.
The Constitutional right to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and others have been unjustly denied to tens of millions of Americans in the name of marijuana PROHIBITION.
No matter where you stand on the issue of legalizing marijuana everyone should read:
MARIJUANA AND HEMP THE UNTOLD STORY, Thomas J. Bouril,
WHY IS MARIJUANA ILLEGAL, Pete Guither
and the free online book:
THE EMPEROR WEARS NO CLOTHES, Jack Herer
The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and The Conspiracy Against Marijuana. (1985)
Click the links to those titles on this webpage:
Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html
If you think marijuana prohibition has anything to do with the imaginary, false, fabricated, alleged harms from using marijuana as a recreational drug, YOU HAVE BEEN DUPED!
This PROHIBITION is based in lies, greed and racism. It has NOTHING to do with keeping society safe! No one, of any age, in all of recorded history has ever died from consuming marijuana BUT MANY have died from its PROHIBITION. Marijuana PROHIBITION funds criminals gangsters terrorists and illegal aliens with about $113 Billion every year, TAX FREE. That money should be going into the pockets of legitimate business people that ask for ID and pay taxes. On top of that, the government wastes about $50 Billion tax dollars every year enforcing marijuana prohibition.
Virtually every bit of anti-marijuana propaganda is nothing but pure lies. Marijuana does not cause aggressive behavior. Marijuana does not cause dangerous driving. Marijuana does not cause cancer, brain damage or any serious health problems. Marijuana prohibition does not keep kids away from marijuana, illegal dealers don't ask for ID. Marijuana is not a "gateway drug", there is absolutely NOTHING about marijuana that causes people to use other drugs. Marijuana is not addictive. In fact marijuana is one of the safest substances known! Marijuana is SAFER than many foods we consume and give to our kids all the time! Exactly what good is this prohibition doing and who is benefiting from it?... Certainly NOT We The People!
The cops and the politicians know marijuana is no threat to society but they keep screaming their fear mongering marijuana lies at every opportunity. Did you ever wonder why? Do some research and learn the truth! If you think marijuana consumers are the only ones being harmed by this PROHIBITION you are 100% WRONG, we all pay taxes that are wasted on marijuana PROHIBITION and we all have lost Constitutional rights and liberty because of it. On top of that we are being denied the many benefits available from what may very well be the single most useful plant on earth... Simply because mega-corporations want to sell us inferior, harmful, sometimes deadly and often environmentally harmful products. Alcohol, pharmaceutical, tobacco, petroleum, cotton, timber and chemical companies, just to name a few, all see marijuana as unwanted competition because marijuana / hemp / cannabis produces superior more environmentally friendly products than the overpriced, harmful, toxic, often deadly products marijuana prohibition forces everyone to use.
This one plant produces over 50,000 green job creating products. Food, fuel, medicine, fabric, paper, building materials, a far SAFER so called "recreational drug" than alcohol or tobacco and much more are all produced by this remarkable plant.
Read the titles above and learn the truth about marijuana and marijuana PROHIBITION. Mega-corporations that fear competition from superior products made from marijuana / hemp lobby (buy) crooked politicians to keep marijuana illegal. Enough is enough! Someone is arrested needlessly about every 38 seconds on marijuana charges here in the USA (land of the free). Heavily armed government paid SWAT teams kick in the doors of between 150 and 200 private homes every 24 hours in the USA, often resulting in needless death at the hands of those sworn to "protect and serve", mostly over peaceful nonviolent people doing nothing more than consuming a nontoxic plant that has been used for thousands of years without harming anyone.
NOTHING in the USA is more powerful than We The People but WE have to take action or nothing will change. Call or email your federal, state and local reps at least once per month and DEMAND an end to this unjust tyranny. If you don't the tyranny of the drug war will only get worse.
Did you know marijuana has been LEGAL for ALL adults in Denver since 2005? Do some research and learn what We The People can accomplish when we put in a little effort. There is NOTHING stopping cities all over this Nation from re-legalizing marijuana and once enough cities and states re-legalize marijuana, the federal government will be forced to do the same. 10 states ended alcohol prohibition before the federal government did.
"The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution." -Thomas Jefferson
"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." ~Thomas Jefferson