Among the twelve states that have legalized the use and cultivation of medical cannabis, all but one (New Mexico) have experienced an overall decline in teen marijuana use since the enactment of their medi-pot laws. (Data was unavailable for New Mexico, which passed its law last year.) In seven of the twelve states, marijuana use among young people declined at rates that exceeded the national average.

“It’s a clear shield for commercial operations,” said Mike Sweeney, 60, a supporter of both medical marijuana and a local ballot measure on June 3 that called for new limits on the drug in Mendocino. “And we don’t want those here.”

The outcome of the ballot measure is not known, as votes are still being counted, but such community push-back is increasingly common across the state, even in the most liberal communities. In recent years, dozens of local governments have banned or restricted cannabis clubs, more formally known as dispensaries, that provide medical marijuana, in the face of public safety issues involved in its sale and cultivation, including crime and environmental damage.

The discussion table included invited representatives from police and sheriffs, prosecutors and the American Civil Liberties Union, a lone doctor, a medical-marijuana patient advocate, and the sponsor of the bill mandating a limit.

Although the health department sought public comment in an unusual set of workshops around the state before drafting a rule — which will start the clock on a set of formal hearings — Gov. Christine Gregoire directed it to seek more comment from law enforcement and the medical community, which were barely represented among the hundreds who spoke at the workshops.

California's medical marijuana patients are one step closer to being protected against work place discrimination after a bill made its way through the state Assembly this week.

Assembly Bill 2279, authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno and co-authored by Eureka's Assemblywoman Patty Berg, would make it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee because of their status as a medical marijuana patient or caregiver or for failing a drug test.

”Voters have said that marijuana has legitimate medical uses, and this bill says workers shouldn't be punished for having medical needs,” Berg said in a statement.

Two area men with serious, chronic medical conditions will join an assemblyman in Albany today to urge passage of a Senate bill allowing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

``We're hopeful,'' said Bruce Dunn, of Morris, from a hotel in Albany on Monday night.

He and Richard Williams, of Richmondville, will join other patients and Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried, D-Manhattan, who will announce a television advertising campaign seeking Senate approval of a bill before the lawmakers adjourn June 23. Later, patients will lobby their senators, according to a media advisory from Gottfried and the Marijuana Police Project in Washington, D.C.

[...]This was pretty scary to me, I had 5,000 patients on marijuana and I just didn't know I was harming them.

Now let's go to Methadone. This drug is highly recommended and prescribed to get morphine, oxycontin and heroin drug addicts off these drugs. It must be safe and good for those druggies because the FDA and the rest of the U.S. government bozos say it is good and safe. Whoa, there must be another side to this story.

Last week I picked up an interesting medical journal, The Ladies Home Journal, with an article about Methadone with information from the U.S. Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center stating that the number of Methadone deaths from 1992 to 2004 increased per year from 786 in 1999, to 3,849 in 2004.

The deaths were in the 15 to 24-year old age group.

They further report from the Drug Abuse Warning Network which compiles drug related ER visits reported in 2005 that there wee 598,542 drug incidents of which 46,316 were for Methadone.

The Dayton Daily News informs us that State Sen. Tom Roberts wants to legalize Marijuana for medicinal use.

"Our laws should reflect the latest in medical research, which has shown that medical cannabis has a variety of benefits for treating pain, nausea and other symptoms related to a wide range of disease," Roberts said in a prepared statement.

The plan would set up a state regulated system of care. The Health and Agriculture Departments would be authorized to set up an advisory board to:

• Consider granting medicinal use of cannabis in cases of debilitated medical conditions.

• Consider applications for and renewals of registry identification cards for qualified patients and primary caregivers.

• Provide recommendations for the safe use and efficient growing of medicinal cannabis.

Alright Ohio! Very progressive thinking you've got over there. I'm glad someone is recognizing the legit research being done on Marijuana and not the BS from the FDA.

The Stranger has news of yet another(story) liver transplant denied due to medical Marijuana use.

"People are following the law and they're getting screwed," says Lennon Garon, the son of liver patient Timothy Garon. "If alcohol was illegal and marijuana was legal, my dad would be alive."

According to statements from Virginia Mason and the UW, which won't discuss individual patients' cases, the main reason for denying transplants to marijuana smokers is the risk that the organ might be rejected. According to officials at both hospitals, a mold occasionally found in marijuana and tobacco, called aspergillus, could foster new infections in additional organs.

Because the hospitals treat medical marijuana as an addictive drug, they believe transplant patients may be unable to stop smoking pot after the transplant—allowing the harmful mold to destroy the new organ.

You have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! Mold?

Faced with a legislative mandate to spell out what constitutes a "60-day supply" by July 1, the department in February briefed Gov. Christine Gregoire's office on its recommendation: Patients or caregivers could possess up to 35 ounces of cultivated marijuana and be allowed a plant-growing area of 100 square feet.

Gregoire promptly directed Department of Health Secretary Mary Selecky to solicit more comment from law enforcement and medical providers. "I wouldn't say she was upset" by the amount, said Gregoire's spokesman, Pearse Edwards, but she believed input had been one-sided.

He praised a Fresno jury for convicting Ricardo Montes and Luke Scarmazzo on Thursday on federal drug trafficking charges, one of which carries a minimum sentence of 20 years.

"These were drug dealers selling marijuana. This case is that simple," Scott said.

The attorney took aim at Montes' and Scarmazzo's defense during their trial, in which their lawyers argued that their business was "aboveboard" and in compliance with state law.

Scott argued that Montes' and Scarmazzo's California Healthcare Collective flouted state law, too, because it turned a $9 million profit from 2004 to 2006. State law requires that medical marijuana dispensaries operate as nonprofit establishments.