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Medical cannabis growing at Oaksterdam via Chris Goldstein

11/2/2012 – John O’Brien, the director New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program (MMP), reported today that the state’s only cannabis provider was unaffected by Hurricane Sandy.  Greenleaf Compassion Center is the single, fully permitted Alternative Treatment Center. They operate a dispensary in Montclair, NJ and a growing facility at an undisclosed Northern New Jersey location.

O’Brien said via email this morning: “The Greenleaf cultivation facility didn’t miss a beat, no loss of power.  Their harvested product is good and the new cultivation is doing well.  Mr. Stevens [Greenleaf CEO] and company have assembled a secure and sustainable facility.  He deserves a lot of credit for his planning and forethought.”

Concern has turned to relief among registered and potentially qualifying NJ patients who wondered if the historic storm could have an impact on the nascent program.

Patients have started to receive their identification cards from the NJ Department of Health (DOH). Still, prior to the storm Greenleaf ATC had not started serving patients just yet.

O’Brien did not give a time-frame but said, “We continue to work with Joe towards an opening date.”

Advocates at The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey (CMMNJ) point out that severe weather is just one of the reasons why more medical cannabis ATCs must be opened in different regions of the state. NJ is the first state to pass a compassionate use law that does not include provisions for home cultivation by patients or caregivers. Governor Chris Christie and NJDOH regulators have also refused to allow the ATCs to deliver cannabis to homes; a common practice with pharmaceutical medication.

At the moment, any registered NJ medical marijuana patient or their registered caregiver must travel to Greenleaf ATC to purchase cannabis that is legal under the law. Montclair is in northern New Jersey, just outside New York City. Although the area is easily accessible via roads and public transit, MMP participants in southern NJ (such as Cape May County) face a 10-hour round-trip journey, under the best conditions.

NJ MMP website: http://www.state.nj.us/health/medicalmarijuana/index.shtml

Chris Goldstein is a respected marijuana reform advocate. As a writer and radio broadcaster he has been covering cannabis news for over a decade. Questions?  [email protected]

The Providence Journal reported today that Cuttino Mobley, a Philadelphia native who has played for the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, is hoping to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Rhode Island.

“You get it after a while,” Mobley said. “You know what you’re supposed to do.”

One of the things he wants to do now is start a wellness center in Warwick, one that will be allowed to dispense medical marijuana. He says he got interested in the field of wellness both through his own medical condition and those of other people close to him, and adds that the health field is one of the fastest growing in the country. Read full article at projo.com

Rhode Island is looking to license medical marijuana supply facilities.

Right now qualified patients or their caregivers must cultivate the cannabis on their own. Rhode Island does allow of collective gardens to be formed to help assure safe access.

Entrepreneurs, green with envy over the West Coast, are casting an emerald gaze at the domestic cannabis industry opening up back East.

Last year fifteen groups endured an intense application process in Rhode Island only to have them all be denied by the state.

This week, after a second round of applications, RI  again delayed the announcement if anyone will get a dispensary permit this year.

Cuttino Mobley was forced to leave his promising career in the NBA after doctors discovered that he has an enlarged heart.

The interview in The Providence Journal hints that Mobley is taking the right attitude into a business that needs to serve sick and dying residents.

It is refreshing to see a sports celebrity’s business venture be something more altruistic than a clothing line or body spray!

More information: http://ripatients.org

Chris Goldstein is a respected marijuana reform advocate. As a writer and radio broadcaster he has been covering cannabis news for over a decade.  He volunteers with local groups to change prohibition laws including PhillyNORML and The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey. He enjoys old school hip-hop, vintage airplanes and changing the world. Contact chris { at } freedomisgreen.com

Montel Williams at the 2011 NORML Conference in Denver – pic by kimsidwell.com

8/5/2011 – There was tough competition in New Jersey to run the first six Alternative Treatment Centers for medical marijuana. Freedomisgreen has now obtained all of the applications through Open Public Records Act requests. The process was the most expensive in the nation. High-rollers were willing to bet $20,000 on each submission.

The winners were announced in March 2011 and their applications were released soon after. But there was little information on the groups who did not make the cut, until now.

Television host Montel Williams applied for a center in North Jersey based out of Somerset.  Williams has since invested on the West Coast and owns a dispensary in Sacramento, CA.

The New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals offered a plan that would incorporate fingerprint ID lockboxes and engage some of the state’s top-dollar medical institutions.  They would have used their existing network of doctors and an impressive list of grant funding contacts.

The big names weren’t the only ones looking to spend some significant coin to get into the non-profit marijuana business.

The Farmacy Inc. was a group of South Jersey pharmacists who work mainly at local CVS branches. But their big contact was Ryan Barna, who appears instrumental to their application. Barna is an active board member at the American Pharmacist Association and the NJ Pharmacists Association, two of the more powerful drug distribution lobbying groups…well, ever.

The Institute for Health Research was a group of vitamin enthusiasts and holistic medicine practitioners. They planned to operate from the Abunda Life Center in Asbury Park, a rather well-known entity in the local area.

Some of the NJ applicants looked outside the state for experience. A group of investment bankers, gaming professionals and finance specialists teamed up with a cannabis entrepreneur in Colorado. The NJ Relief Initiative Inc had Oleg Rutman on the board and boasts that he started the largest patient collective in CO. Garden State Medical Marijuana Associates retained expert consultants including Steve D’Angelo the owner of Harborside Health Services and the new reality star of Discovery Network’s “Weed Wars.”

Here are the organization names, name of the executive director and the proposed location(s). Some of these groups won an ATC contract with separate submissions.

Abatin Wellness Center- Montel Williams – Northern NJ, Somerset

Grow Well – Bonnie Johnson – Southern NJ, Egg Harbor

Institute of Health Research – Ralph Fucetola – Central NJ, Asbury Park

New Jersey Healthy Choice – Daniel Kane – Northern NJ, Bayonne

New Jersey Relief Initiative  – Joseph Coffey  – Northern NJ, Moonachie

Alternative Medical Concepts – Christopher Camal – Central NJ, Kenilworth – Northern NJ, Edison, Carlstadt and Clifton – Southern NJ Westville and Pennsauken

Compassion Collective of Camden County – J. Peter Rosenfeld – Southern NJ, Pennsauken

Compassionate Care Foundation  – William Thomas – Southern NJ and Central NJ

Farmacy Inc – Mark Makhinson – Southern NJ, Lumberton

Garden State Alternative Solutions – Hugo Bartell – Northern NJ, Newark

Gold Leaf – Jabrai Golden – Northern NJ, East Brunswick

New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals – J. Richard Goldstein MD – Central, NJ and Southern NJ

New Jersey Medicines – Ray Smith – Central NJ, Shrewsbury

Compassionate Care Centers of America – David Weisser – Northern NJ, Secaucus

Compassionate Marijuana Alliance – Ibere Peter Calvo – Northern NJ,  Newark

Patient Wellness Center – Alfred Lombardi – Northern NJ, Paterson

Garden State Medical Marijuana Associates –  Ron Simoncini – Northern NJ, Secaucus

Compassionate Sciences Inc – Richard Taney – Central NJ and Northern NJ

Most of the prospective Garden State cannabis dispensaries had multi-million dollar funding supplied by their Boards of Trustees. But even the groups that had start-up expenses below $350,000 were projecting over $1 million in cannabis sales by the end of their second year.

Freedomisgreen will make the full applications available via Scribd.com over the weekend. The documents were redacted by the NJ Department of Health and Human Services before release.

The six applications that were accepted are online already: http://www.scribd.com/NJcannabisDocs

Chris Goldstein is a respected marijuana reform advocate. As a writer and radio broadcaster he has been covering cannabis news for over a decade. Questions?  [email protected]

On March 29th The Dr. Oz Show aired a full-length program discussing medical marijuana that included Montel Williams. But one of the segments that ended up on the cutting room floor featured Sandy Faiola of Asbury Park, New Jersey. Like Montel, Sandy lives with Multiple Sclerosis and uses cannabis to treat her condition. Because the compassionate use law is not yet working in the Garden State she must continue to risk arrest to access her medication. She has testified on many occasions before the state Legislature in Trenton and has appeared in demonstrations for other MS patients. Yesterday Dr. Oz posted the two-part video with Sandy online.

Links are below:

5/26/2011 – State Senator Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden) introduced SCR 120 today, a resolution that “Urges the Governor to support and advocate for passage of federal ‘Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act.’” The move in Trenton comes just one day after the federal legislation was re-introduced in Congress.

The bi-partisan co-sponsors of the federal bill issued a press release on May 25th describing the intent:

The States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, authored by Frank and co-sponsored by Stark, Polis and Rohrabacher, would make individuals and entities immune to federal prosecution when acting in compliance with state medical marijuana laws. It would also direct the administration to initiate the process of rescheduling marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act so that it is placed in a schedule other than Schedules I or II.

“The time has come for the federal government to stop preempting states’ medical marijuana laws,” Frank said. “For the federal government to come in and supersede state law is a real mistake for those in pain for whom nothing else seems to work. This bill would block the federal prosecution of those patients who reside in those states that allow medical marijuana”

If passed, the federal legislation would directly benefit New Jersey’s residents who are still waiting for the stalled medical marijuana program to get running. The state is currently waiting for clarification from the US Department of Justice.

SCR 120 has been referred to the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee.

Individual citizens can support the federal bill by sending emails here.

Chris Goldstein is a respected marijuana reform advocate. As a writer and radio broadcaster he has been covering cannabis news for over a decade. Questions?  [email protected]

Medical Cannabis helps ALS patient outlive her own doctors

Last month, Cathy Jordan sat on a panel at the Cannabis Therapeutics Conference in Arizona.  Before taking the stage, she discussed the medical use of cannabis for ALS with Jahan Marcu, the Science Editor at Freedom is Green.

Cathy Jordan first noticed something was wrong in summer of 1985 when she couldn’t pick things up. Her muscles weren’t responding. In 1986, she was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is characterized by the death of motor neurons leading to loss of limb control, breathing, swallowing, speech and widespread cellular dysfunction. Most cases of ALS are sporadic; it is not a viral or autoimmune disease.

“Most people start using a feeding tube because they are afraid of choking to death”, says Cathy.

In 1986, she was given 3 – 5 years to live according to her neurologi st. Nearly 3 decades later, she is still alive and living with ALS.

“All my docs are retiring or dead. I’ve outlived 5 support groups and 4 neurologists,” said Cathy. This actually posed a problem for Cathy who lost her social security benefits because she lived passed her expiration date. The state of Florida said her ID and regular documentation wasn’t good enough to prove she was alive and to continue to receive benefits. She had to ask her neurologist to fill out paperwork to prove she was still alive.

Mrs. Jordan began using Cannabis from a Florida grower to treat her ALS in the late 80’s. “Donny Clark provided my medicine, grown in the Myakka River Valley…he was busted and sentenced to life in prison, and that strain of Cannabis was lost.

“You know, they say the fountain of youth is in Florida. Maybe it was something in the soil that made this plant helps me…and I don’t understand why doctors wouldn’t study me. But I still would like to know why this is helping me.”

At first, doctors wouldn’t accept Cathy’s that marijuana could be responsible for her extended life span. Other doctors thought that smoking anything would impair her lung function and even threatened to have this paralyzed women committed, simply based on the fact that she thought Cannabis was actually helping her.

“I visited a neurologist at Duke University. When I told him that I was smoking Cannabis, he didn’t know what to do with me. He was afraid. He wouldn’t even take my blood pressure because I was using an illegal drug.”

Cathy adds:

“I asked my docs if they would take a drug if it was neuroprotective, an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory. They say ‘yes’ and ask me if I know of one. Cannabis, I tell them.”

Nearly three decades later, the science has caught up with this miracle patient. Scientists created a mouse with ALS, which was very exciting for Cathy. Research has shown that THC and other cannabinoids can benefit mice with ALS. The mounting evidence of cannabinoids halting the progression of ALS has started to change the attitudes of doctors and prominent researchers have recently called for ALS clinical trials with Cannabis or cannabinoids.

“They all agree today that I should smoke Cannabis,” says Cathy. Twenty six years later, my original neurologist fought [successfully] to make sure Cannabis is legal for patients in Delaware.”

Researchers think Cannabis may help ALS patients relieving pain, spasticity, drooling, appetite loss and has minimal drug-drug interactions and toxicity.

“There are ALS patients associations that fight for the right of patients to die with dignity. But what about my right to life?” asks Cathy. “Keeping my medicine illegal removes my right to life.”

Video: Tucson AZ – The Use of Cannabis for ALS – Jahan Marcu & Cathy Jordan

Jahan Marcu is currently investigating the pharmacology of cannabinoid receptors. He was working at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute when exciting discoveries were made showing enhanced anti-cancer effects with THC and CBD from the Cannabis plant. The findings were published in the Journal of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. In 2009 he received the Billy Martin Award from the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS). Jahan is currently the vice-chair the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board at Americans for Safe Access (ASA). Questions?   Contact   [email protected]

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent any University, business or affiliates. While the information provided in this blog is from published scientific studies it is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.

2/16/2012 – Activists are preparing to gather at the Federal building in Trenton today to destroy a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ruling as part of a national medical marijuana protest. Members of NORML-NJ and The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey will shred a copy of The Federal Register Vol. 76 No.131 dated July 8, 2011. The document contains the DEA’s most recent denial of a petition to reschedule marijuana.

Thursday’s protest is organized by Americans for Safe Access and is taking place in cities across the country. Portland, Maine is another East Coast city participating in the “Rally for Safe Access.”

The Schedule I status under the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 is the reason that marijuana is prohibited. Schedule I drugs are described as having “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States;” and lack “accepted safety for use under medical supervision;” and, have “a high potential for abuse.”

In the past 40 years voluminous criminal code has since been created at the federal and state level to enforce the Schedule I prohibition of cannabis. Suffering the worst part of this continued effort are seriously ill Americans. They live in fear of losing their lives not just to their disease, but to prison because they find relief from a medication that remains illegal.

Advocacy groups including NORML and MAPS petitioned the DEA for many years seeking to move cannabis to another schedule. The most recent denial last summer culminated a process that the DEA under several presidents, obfuscated for more than a decade.

There are two important factors in the re-scheduling debate. The first is a 1972 report entitled “Marijuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding.” Commissioned by President Nixon and Congress it was crafted by former Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer who lead a group that spent almost two years on the issue. Their final recommendation was that cannabis should not be regulated under the CSA or prohibited with criminal laws.

“The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only ‘with the greatest reluctance.”

The second important factor is a ruling from an Administrative Law Judge within the DEA. In 1986 Francis L. Young said that “Marijuana is one of “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. (T)he provisions of the (Controlled Substances) Act permit and require the transfer of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II.”

In ’72 and again in ’86 the Executive Branch tossed aside serious and well-thought recommendations about cannabis policy. Instead of considering solid information millions of Americans have been arrested, trillions of tax dollars spent and untold lives lost or ruined.

Modern science that investigates the natural plant and its component cannabinoids continues to re-verify the tremendous medical benefits of cannabis. The reality is that marijuana is used as a medicine every day by millions of seriously ill Americans – legal or not. That’s why medical marijuana activists say the DEA ruling is good for nothing but shredding and recycling.

More on the ASA rally locations: http://americansforsafeaccess.org/article.php?id=7062

More the CMMNJ Trenton action: http://cmmnj.blogspot.com

Chris Goldstein is a respected marijuana reform advocate. As a writer and radio broadcaster he has been covering cannabis news for over a decade. Questions?  [email protected]

A bill to legalize the use of marijuana for qualifying medical patients and create a system of “Compassion Centers” has been introduced in the Keystone State. Senate Bill 1003 was brought forward on April 25th by Senator Daylin Leach with Senators Larry Farnese, James Ferlo and Wayne Fontana as the initial co-sponsors. The bill has been referred to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.  READ SB 1003

The language is essentially a re-introduction of legislation from 2009-10 that was active in both houses of the General Assembly. The bill includes provisions for home cultivation and collects the state sales tax on medical cannabis. Last year the issue saw impressive public hearings in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh before the House Health and Human Services Committee.  Seriously ill residents, religious leaders, cannabis advocates, doctors and nurses spoke in favor of the measure but the the bill never got a vote.

Dr. Harry Swidler, an Emergency Medicine physician said at the hearings: “Marijuana is non-addicting. There is no physical dependence or physical withdrawal associated with its use. It is, from a practical standpoint, non-toxic. Marijuana is safer by some measures than any other drug. There is simply no known quantity of marijuana capable of killing a person.”

WATCH VIDEO OF TESTIMONY HERE

Advocates at Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana PA4MMJ (this author sits on the Board at PA4MMJ) are pushing for several changes to the bill when it gets to committee this session. These include re-naming the bill to The Governor Raymond P. Shafer Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

In 1970, just after stepping down as governor in Pennsylvania, Shafer chaired a blue-ribbon commission for President Nixon that recommended two main points: 1) Marijuana should not be placed in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act 2) Marijuana possession should be decriminalized at the federal level. Nixon ignored those suggestions and ever since the federal government has aggressively enforced the Schedule I classification that describes cannabis as having “…no currently accepted medical use in treatment …” This is the reason that states independently legalize marijuana for medical uses.

Polling conducted by Franklin&Marshall  in 2010 showed that a striking 80 percent of residents support passing a medical marijuana law in Pennsylvania.

Visit www.pa4mmj.org to contact state officials.

Delaware and Maryland recently introduced medical cannabis bills that follow some of limitations in New Jersey’s compassionate use law. The DE/MD bills offer potential medical marijuana patients low amounts of cannabis per month, restricted strains and no provisions for home cultivation. Still, in a refreshing move, the DE bill outlines some of it’s own shortcomings right in the synopsis:

Patients would be allowed to possess up to 6 ounces for their medical use. Six ounces is less than the federal government has determined is a one-month supply for patients in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program. READ FULL

New Jersey’s law offers minimal access to cannabis. A short list of very serious medical conditions qualifies like MS, AIDS and Crohn’s Disease. NJ Patients are allowed just two (2) ounces of marijuana each month.Governor Chris Christie has delayed the implementation of the law several times. Christie’s administration has offered regulations that would limit cultivation to three strains of marijuana all less than 10% THC.This has caused a fight with the NJ Legislature who passed resolutions last month to invalidate the proposed regulations. So far no medical marijuana has been grown (legally) for any New Jersey residents.The efforts in Delaware and Maryland recently got a big boost with the support of the Marijuana Policy Project and celebrity Montel Williams. A multiple sclerosis patient, Montel traveled to both states to share his personal story of using therapeutic marijuana at the bill’s introductions.

A San Francisco clinic states what many women already know: pot is quite effective in treating cramps, PMS and other menstrual issues as well as helping women with eating disorders:

Many women come to Greenway Medical Marijuana Physician Evaluations seeking help with ailments that only or primarily affect women, such as eating disorders, menstrual cramps, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), mood swings and menopause. The San Francisco medical marijuana doctors at Greenway Medical Marijuana Physicians Evaluations know that properly administered medical marijuana can provide relief, and they are seeing an increase in female patients.

Women who have developed eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa may find relief in the use of certain medicinal cannabis strains that aid relaxation, alleviate anxiety and stimulate the appetite. The naturally occurring marijuana compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is known for improving desire for food and thereby helping patients gain weight. Strains high in THC are more likely to stimulate the appetite.

For many women, monthly menstrual cycles include cramping, and they can also include nausea and backaches. Cannabis is prescribed for cancer patients specifically because it helps target pain and nausea, so it follows that it would also be a good herbal remedy for cramps. Medicinal marijuana also has many secondary, non-psychological effects on the body, including the relaxation of smooth muscles that may be causing the cramps. Indica strains would be beneficial both prior and during the cycle.

Read more at SF Gate.