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People suffering from cancer, AIDS and other diseases could turn to marijuana for pain relief under a plan approved Wednesday by an Illinois House committee despite claims that it would be a step toward legalizing pot. Under the legislation, people with a doctor's permission would be eligible for a state registry card allowing up to seven marijuana plants in their homes and 2 ounces of "usable cannabis." The measure is written to expire after three years. Advocates say marijuana eases pain without the side effects of heavier drugs and reduces nausea from chemotherapy. "There is needless suffering going on out...

Medical marijuana advocates were celebrating Thursday night. The U.S. Attorney General has announced plans to end raids on medical marijuana dispensaries that are legal under state law.

Supporters of programs to provide legal marijuana to patients with painful medical conditions are celebrating Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement this week that the Drug Enforcement Administration would end its raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries. Federal raids on medical marijuana distributors continued at least into the second week of Barack Obama’s presidency, when federal agents shut down at least two dispensaries in California on Feb. 3. Holder was asked about those raids Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif., at a news conference that was called to announce the arrests of 755 people in a nationwide crackdown on the U.S. operations of...

In the slide show I narrated about the late William F. Buckley, Jr., I didn’t have room to get into a couple of issues we’ve been debating here at the Lab: the Drug Enforcement Administration’s campaigns against medical marijuana and against doctors who treat chronic-pain patients. Mr. Buckley was worried about the D.E.A. well before the OxyContin scare inspired the agency’s Operation Cotton Candy and led to doctors like William Hurwitz and Bernard Rottschaefer being sent to prison. In 1995, after criticizing presidents and members of Congress for pursuing a war on drugs he considered futile, Mr. Buckley wrote: But...

In testimony before Congress last week, former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said that the Bush administration has an adversarial relationship with science. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Carmona said. "The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds." This is a common criticism of the Bush administration, made most thoroughly in journalist Chris Mooney's 2005 book, "The Republican War...

Offenders got more than token citations in Denver On Oct. 2, 1937, in the somewhat shady Lexington Apartments at 1200 California St. in Denver, Samuel R. Caldwell became the first person in the United States to be arrested on a marijuana charge. Caldwell, a 58-year-old unemployed laborer moonlighting as a dealer, was nailed by the FBI and Denver police for peddling two marijuana cigarettes to one Moses Baca, 26. If you're wondering why it took the U.S. government so long to bust a pot dealer, it's because until the Marijuana Stamp Act was passed - on you guessed it, Oct....

TORONTO (Reuters) - Comedian Tommy Chong has spent almost three decades wringing laughs from cigar-sized joints and smoke-filled vans but now a nine-month jail term has turned him serious and revitalized his flagging career. Promoting his documentary "a/k/a Tommy Chong" at the Toronto International Film Festival, he hopes the film will expose what he says is the U.S. government's heavy-handed dealing with marijuana offenders in the post-September 11 era. "The United States is under martial law, it's under dictatorship," the 67-year-old father of four said in an interview. The film chronicles the Canadian-born comedian's 2003 arrest and imprisonment for selling...

Quote: First hand account from Knick of Evol Intent... Last night, I was booked to play an event about an hour outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. The hype behind this show was huge, they presold 700 tickets and they expected up to 3,000 people total. The promoters did an amazing job with the show.. they even made slipmats with the flyers on them to promote in local shops. So, we got to the show around 11:15 or so and it was really cool. It was all outdoors, in a valley surrounded by huge mountains. They had an amazing light...

The months of recalls and warnings surrounding popular prescription painkillers have done more than frighten consumers, batter drug makers' bottom lines and raise questions about the procedures and criteria by which the Food and Drug Administration approves medications. The fact that so many legal drugs pose serious health risks is also reigniting a debate over the medicinal value of other substances — illegal drugs, particularly marijuana — and what critics believe is the government's continuing resistance to studying their possible benefits. Frustrated researchers say the question is not whether marijuana could serve legitimate medical purposes. Marijuana has been looked at...

After years of false starts, state lawmakers voted Tuesday evening to reduce the steep mandatory prison sentences given to people convicted of drug crimes in New York State, sanctions considered among the most severe in the nation. The push to soften the so-called Rockefeller drug laws came after a nearly decade-long campaign to ease the drug penalties instituted in the 1970's that put some low-level first-time drug offenders behind bars for sentences ranging from 15 years to life. Under the changes passed yesterday, which Gov. George E. Pataki said he would sign, the sentence for those same offenders would be...

Psychotic symptoms more likely with cannabis 16:58 01 December 04 NewScientist.com news service Using marijuana in adolescence and early adulthood can cause psychotic symptoms later in life, a new study suggests. The risk of developing these symptoms is “moderate”, say researchers, though is higher in people with a pre-disposition to psychosis. Up to a third of people develop signs of psychosis at some point during their lives and several studies have already linked cannabis use with psychotic symptoms. But it is often difficult to decipher whether cannabis really triggers psychotic symptoms - such as hearing voices and paranoia - or...

They’re criticized by their parents because they stay up too late and can’t get up for school. They’re considered lazy by co-workers and supervisors who watch them stumble in late for work. Called “night owls” for their unusual wake and sleep patterns, these individuals either adjust by finding jobs with flexible hours, or they become depressed and at odds with family members. According to sleep expert Daniel Kripke, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, night owls can’t help it. They suffer from a lifelong biochemical malfunction within their body’s...

Second Coast Guard Member Asks For Transfer From Westport November 11, 2004 By Bryan Johnson The Samoan woman is claiming racial discrimination; others say it's part of a larger problem there. WESTPORT - For the second time in 13 months, a member of the Coast Guard has asked for a transfer from the Grays Harbor Coast Guard station at Westport. This time, it's a Samoan woman, who is claiming racial discrimination. She says she fears for the safety of her family. Thirteen months ago, an African-American Coast Guardsman also cited racial prejudice in requesting a transfer from the Grays Harbor...

A CHANGE IN MARIJUANA PROSECUTION EYED Chicago Considers Bid To Issue Fines In Certain Cases CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard M. Daley has endorsed a proposal to issue fines for possession of small amounts of marijuana rather than clog the courts with cases that tend to be thrown out by judges. Daley said the volume of marijuana cases that are tossed out by local courts -- upwards of 90 percent, according to one recent study -- mean minor possession is virtually decriminalized in Chicago now. "If 99 percent of the cases are thrown out, when is there a credible arrest for...

Few Americans typically give much thought to the $200 million hemp industry: a $200 million market that includes such wide-ranging products as bread, clothing and soap. But this week hemp producers are getting a powerful marketing boost from an unlikely source—the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Nearly two and a half years ago, the put a chill into the hemp marketplace by interpreting the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act to include hemp food products. Their logic was that ingestible hemp contained THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and therefore was a Schedule 1 controlled substance, just like marijuana. Never mind that hemp...

SALEM, Ore. -- A measure on Oregon's Nov. 2 ballot to expand the medical use of marijuana is drawing fire from state district attorneys and the White House drug czar, who says it would turn the state into a "safe haven for drug trafficking."Measure 33 would make it easier for ailing people to obtain marijuana and allow them to possess more of it -- up to a pound at a time. It also requires that indigent patients be given free marijuana.But White House drug czar John Walters, echoing criticism by Oregon's district attorneys, calls Measure 33 a fraud on Oregon...

Washington, DC: Three out of four illicit drug users in the United States are marijuana smokers, according to survey data released today by the Department of Health and Human Services.According to the department's annual "National Survey on Drug Use and Health," an estimated 19.5 million Americans currently use illicit drugs (as defined as use within the past month). Of these, 14.6 million - or 75 percent - self-identify as marijuana smokers.By comparison, only 2.3 million Americans reported using cocaine, approximately one million reported using LSD, and fewer than 120,000 said that they currently use heroin. In addition, an estimated 97...

From the AP: Marijuana Advocates Forget to File for Ballot LAS VEGAS (AP) - An initiative to legalize pot in Nevada might go up in smoke after organizers forgot to file 6,000 petition signatures by a June 15 deadline. Clark County (search) Registrar Larry Lomax said Billy Rogers, president of the political consulting firm seeking to qualify the petition, is pleading for him to accept the 6,000 names. "Unfortunately, the state law says they have to turn it all in by June 15," Lomax said.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Ever since prescription painkillers such as OxyContin became the drugs of choice among dealers and addicts in Appalachia, the days of small-town pharmacists dispensing medicines from behind an ordinary counter have become a quaint memory.Now, many pharmacies have turned into virtual fortresses. Some now have bars over the windows. The most sought-after drugs are stored in vaults. The pharmacists often work behind safety glass, and some have even armed themselves. Surveillance cameras and alarm systems monitor every spot.Pharmaceutical companies have also adopted practices from the banking industry, delivering prescription pills in armored trucks protected by armed...

Doctor Who Recommended Medical Pot Gets Restraining Order vs. Ashcroft A federal judge awarded a West Slope doctor who recommends medical marijuana a temporary restraining order against Attorney General John Ashcroft. Mollie Fry, whose clinic in Cool was raided by federal agents three years ago, will appear in a San Francisco court next week to hear whether a judge will make the order permanent. "I feel beaten and I'm asking him to stop beating me," Fry said. The temporary restraining order, approved by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, elated Fry. "We need to continue to struggle against those who...