Canadian Man Heralded for Curing Cancer Seeks Asylum in Europe

Canadian authorities have still not laid charges ten days after the police action.

December 5, 2009 – (SALEM, Ore.) – There’s a man from Athol, Nova Scotia, Canada who has caused a stir around the world. About five years ago, he made the shocking claim to have cured cancer. As unbelievable as that sounds, there is viable evidence to support his claim.

You may not have heard of Rick Simpson, many people have not yet had the chance. He’s well known globally in the cannabis community, but the general public has been slow in receiving his whole story.

Simpson makes and distributes a medicinal cannabis extract popularly known as “hemp oil”. He does so without any profit motive. Many patients have claimed to be cured of their ailments, often terminal cancer, by this extract.

This pioneer for alternative health solutions was in Europe in November, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) took the opportunity to raid Simpson’s home in Canada. As his house, office, and garden were being trampled through by police, Simpson was accepting an International Freedom Fighter award, thousands of miles away.

“While he has been touring in Europe his residence was raided by the RCMP and rumor has it the DEA was involved as well,” explains friend Desmond Wynnd.

“The newest issue of “High Times” that came out a week or two ago has a lengthy article on his story and it’s felt by many this is what prompted the latest raid. He is now seeking political asylum in Europe.”

The 22nd Annual High Times Cannabis Cup is held in Amsterdam annually, and Rick Simpson received the acclaimed honor of “Freedom Fighter of the Year”. The special event came on the heels of a European tour Simpson had just completed.

For five years, Simpson has been diligently working on the behalf of saving lives, challenging the traditional remedies for skin cancer and other cancers, diabetes, as well as many chronic illnesses. He aspires to enlighten the medical community and bring the discussion of curing cancer to a new level. That discussion is widely believed to be more politically motivated than cure goal-oriented.

Though Rick Simpson has helped so many, there are forces that want to stop him, at any cost.

As of December 3rd, Canadian authorities had still not charged Simpson, ten days after the police action. Initially there were discrepancies in available information from the two involved agencies that carried out this police action.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police first claimed that such an action would have been undertaken by the Amherst Police Department, as Simpson’s home falls within their jurisdiction. Amherst PD denied that they incited this action when reached for comment, and deferred inquiry for detail to the RCMP.

Rick Simpson wrote, “If I return home, I will be arrested and put in jail without bail or medicine. I am not afraid of their jails but I cannot go without my medicine, the system has nothing that could help me with my conditions. So for me to return to Canada would be like committing suicide. I would be thrown in jail and denied my medicine and a short time later you would hear in the news that ‘Rick Simpson died of natural causes’.”

“It seems the goal is to keep me from returning home and they succeeded. But to what end? All hemp magazines on this planet are now telling their readers how to heal themselves with this wonderful medicine. If governments want to live in denial, it will be short-lived. We are gaining tens of thousands of followers every day. You cannot stop the truth.”

“For the time being, it seems I will be seeking asylum in Europe.”

The Canadian government’s lack of tolerance for marijuana has been building the last few years, a reaction, some believe, to America’s own drug war. Canadians are feeling the brunt. “They’re doing a great job directing hate toward Americans when it’s undeserved. I haven’t met a bad American yet. In the end, we have to take care of ourselves and each other,” Wynnd said.

One theory on limiting a person’s ability to share information is to incarcerate them. That’s a pretty easy solution. A fellow Canadian, Marc Emery, can vouch for that, out on bail for selling cannabis seeds. He is currently scheduled to be extradited to the United States for a sentence of five years in US federal prison.

Perpetrators of the incarceration strategy believe that eventually the subject may lose support of their advocates, the costs will mount up, and just getting through the drama of arrest, red tape and humiliation that follows will be enough to distract even the most passionate, motivated activists.

But Rick isn’t like “most” activists.

He’s been arrested twice in the past, and his medicinal Cannabis plants confiscated. Both times, he was able to reason with the judicial system and continue living freely. Where the maximum penalty has been 12 years imprisonment in one of these instances, the courts instead levied a $2,000 fine.

Most of us have been duped into completely and blindly accepting that there is no cure for cancer.
–Christian Laurette, producer

“Last time he was arrested, the judge wouldn’t send him to jail because the judge believed it would be a crime to lock up Rick Simpson, it’s all public record,” said Wynnd. “During his last trial he had doctors and patients lining up to testify for him. Even Narcotic officers have sent people to Rick so he could help them.”

“Mr. Simpson is in an unusual position, because unlike other people engaged in the drug trade, he was not engaged in trafficking for financial gain,” said Judge Carole Beaton. “He was engaged in an altruistic activity and was firm in his belief that he was helping others,” she said after Rick Simpson’s sentencing for his second offense in healing dying cancer patients with hemp oil.

Rick Simpson didn’t start out as a crusader to stamp out cancer. He started out as an average guy, first as a steel worker, then in maintenance at a hospital in the boiler room. In his early twenties, Simpson suffered through the loss of a cousin to cancer. That long, exasperating experience changed him forever. He heard some reports about hemp’s healing qualities, and wondered if things would have gone differently for his cousin, had hemp been an option.

For someone who had never even smoked marijuana, this was a very foreign, open-minded idea. The thought provoked some personal research though and later proved very beneficial.

After 25 years working at the hospital, Simpson was in a serious accident causing a temporary nervous-system shutdown, within hours he developed an unbearable ringing in his ears. The doctors tried to find a solution for over a year, and gave up. Not willing to accept his life sentence of daily drugs that altered his memory and other side effects, he asked about medical marijuana, to no avail. So, he began his own research, and experimented with making oil. What he discovered…worked.

To be clear, Rick Simpson’s Hemp Oil isn’t hemp oil in the truest sense. Hemp is the Cannabis (marijuana) plant, specifically the stalk and leaves raised mainly for industrial use, with extremely low THC. Rick Simpson’s oil is made exclusively from the Cannabis flowers, or buds. Not to be confused with hemp seed oil, a very different product, Rick Simpson’s hemp oil is a very pure cannabis extract made from high quality buds with a very high THC content.

In 2003, Simpson had three spots on his skin that his doctor believed to be skin cancer. The doctor removed and biopsied one, which then became infected and didn’t heal. Almost on a whim, Simpson applied hemp oil directly to that sore and the other two spots. In only four days, all three cancerous spots were gone. A miracle? Maybe so, but it isn’t a lone event.

Once he started sharing his success story with others, people lined up to try the hemp oil. Jack Herer is an avid supporter of Simpson’s, always ready to demonstrate his personal success as the oil healed many long-term diabetic lesions on his legs. Herer would be the first to say that Rick Simpson’s Hemp Oil is miraculous.

Rick Simpson has never charged a patient for the hemp oil he creates. He not only teaches people how to make the extract and provides it to the ailing folks who request it, but he also uses it for a variety of his own medical issues. He freely lists the recipe on his site.

What will happen next for Rick Simpson remains to be seen. One thing is for sure though, raiding and seizing his home does not make the police look like the good guys. This type of action only propogates further division in society, turning civilians and police away from one another.

“People are dying needlessly when there’s a cure we all can grow on our own, or have provided to us,” Desmond Wynnd said. “This is all a waste of energy, when we could be helping sick people. That’s all Rick is trying to do.” Source.

 

Cannabis and Lung Cancer

December 3, 2009 – I attended the 1st National Clinical Conference on Medical Marijuana in Iowa in 1998. Arguably the most learned man on the subject of the effects of smoke on the lungs is named Donald Tashkin, Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care, at UCLA. He spoke for almost an hour at the Conference, showing slides of smoke-browned lungs. He showed how marijuana smoke seems to push pollutants towards the outer lining of the lungs.

His presentation did not portray marijuana smoke as harmless, but there was no solid evidence of disease associated with the browning of the lungs’ outer lining. Donald Tashkin has conducted the most extensive research involving the largest number of long-term marijuana-only smokers, as well as multi-drug smokers–marijuana, tobacco, cocaine, and other substances, for several decades. His critique of marijuana smoke was completely non-committal. (Considering the government is his largest source of funding, there is little doubt why his lecture at the first medical cannabis conference was short and unsupportive.)

When Dr. Tashkin finished his speech, he did not wait to answer questions. He grabbed his materials and bolted for the door. I raced after him and stopped him on the steps outside the conference hall. I showed him the passages I had written about his research in The New Prescription. I stood there and watched him read everything I had written about his work. He agreed that my synopsis was correct. Then I asked him the $64,000 question. I said, “Do you know of any cases of marijuana-only smokers who had lung cancer?” He said “Yes, there is one.” Then he smiled, explaining, “He was sixteen years old.” We both smiled, knowing a teenager could not possibly have sufficient exposure to marijuana smoke to cause lung cancer–his cancer was clearly due to some other cause. By: Martin Martinez. Source.

 

Will Wisconsin legalize Medical Marijuana?

Wisconsin Senate and Assembly consider bill this month.

December 2, 2009 – Linda Moon felt crippled by medications prescribed for her by doctors.

“For three years, I laid in bed. I was almost comatose, and couldn’t move,” she said.

One day, the 50-year-old Fond du Lac woman threw away 25 different kinds of pills and turned to marijuana to treat chronic conditions that had left her disabled.

“I was able to get food in my system. I could get out of bed and I had a personality again,” Moon said.

She is among the supporters of a state medical marijuana bill co-sponsored by state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee. If the legislation passes and is signed into law, a person with a prescription from a doctor could obtain up to three ounces of marijuana from a licensed dispensary or grow up to 12 plants at home.

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act would cover people with cancer, AIDS, Crohn’s disease, Hepatitis C, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and other diseases that could be labeled serious medical conditions.

In October, the Obama administration announced that the federal government will not prosecute users or distributors of medicinal marijuana as long as they follow state laws. The announcement is the latest part of a trend that has seen several states, including Minnesota, take an increased interest in the issue.

Currently, 13 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal use.

Personal stories

Teresa Shepherd of Jackson chairs the community outreach committee for the new Milwaukee chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

A gymnast and martial artist, the 34-year-old suffers from fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease and arthritis.

“The medications I was given made me sicker than I was,” said Shepherd, mentioning Vicodin and Lyrica. “I have been unable to work for over a year now. I didn’t think there was any hope.”

Marijuana use put her back on her feet, with no side effects.

“The people coming forward — they aren’t just trying to get high,” Shepherd said. “These are intelligent people who do not want to live on disability.”

Shepherd said she goes through about an ounce and a half each month, obtained through people she most likely would not talk to otherwise in the black market.

“I’m coming forward for every fibromyalgia patient out there. I’m tired of the suffering,” she said.

Jeffrey Smith of Brillion was paralyzed from the chest down 20 years ago and lives in constant pain.

The drugs prescribed for him — Baclofen and Gabapentin — had ill effects and their dosages were life threatening, he said.

“The Gabapentin didn’t stop the pain so much as it gave me a ‘chemical lobotomy,’ made me too spaced out to speak. On the other hand, the use of cannabis hemp as a medicinal treatment has given me a greatly improved living quality. I can once again compose music, perform it and even write for two online magazines. It has given me a life that patented medication surely took away,” he said.

Pros and cons

Dr. Steve Harvey, anesthesiologist and board-certified pain physician with Aurora Health Care in Fond du Lac and Sheboygan, sees medical marijuana as playing a significant role in treating debilitating conditions caused by cancer and chronic pain.

“I think in the case of patients with nerve pain, shingles or post-shingle pain, with pain that radiates down the leg or arms, or herniated discs, it has a direct analgesic effect,” Harvey said.

Particularly useful, he said, is marijuana’s demonstrated anti-nausea effects on cancer patients.

“There are forms of cannabis available outside of smoking it. Any arrow in the quiver that is available to us can be very useful and I think that is being demonstrated in other parts of the country. Frankly, I don’t have a problem with it,” he said.

Marijuana opponent and Fond du Lac psychiatrist Dr. Darold Treffert says the push for medical marijuana is misdirected, unnecessary and holds great risk.

“I have treated patients with AODA problems, including marijuana, for over 40 years. And marijuana is not harmless. Whatever the benefits, if any, of making medical marijuana available by prescription are far outweighed by the risks of how easily in other states it has led to ‘sham clinics’ with mass diversion to street use,” he said.

In Michigan, which recently made medical marijuana available, there are 1,000 new applications per month from patients and growers, and a “cannabis college” has been established to teach students how to grow the plants most effectively. In dispensaries, the marijuana often has rather exotic, non-medicinal-sounding names.

“I sympathize, and do have compassion, for patients experiencing long term pain or other intractable problems. But the risks of diversion and all its attendant problems far outweigh the benefits of making medical marijuana (smoked) readily available, and there are other alternatives available for such circumstances without those risks,” Treffert said. “Research is under way to synthesize THC or other cannabinols that can be delivered in standardized doses in a conventional manner. I support that research. It is simply a more sensible and less dangerous way to proceed.”

Agnesian HealthCare was unable to provide a physician that would discuss the use of medical marijuana.

More views

State Rep. John Townsend said he opposes any marijuana use, and would vote against the bill.

“Under federal law, it is an illegal substance, and there may by some problems with that. Some state statutes allow medical marijuana, but my question is whether it is really being used for medical purposes — or is it recreational? And who is regulating this use? I’ve been in contact with the local medical community, and they are not in favor of it,” he said.

Disabled veteran Steve Passehl of Wittenberg broke three vertebrae during the Gulf War and has undergone 13 surgeries.

“Marijuana helps with spasms from my paralysis and neck injury. It helps me deal with chronic pain, fights my depression, and gets me to eat,” he said.

According to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, House and Senate Bills (AB 554 and SB 368) define how many people can be cared for and place caps on the amount of marijuana that can be available in compassion centers, as well as allowing production and distribution facilities.

Previous bills in Wisconsin relating to the topic failed despite occasional bi-partisan support.
By Sharon Roznik. Source.

Additional Facts
WHAT’S NEXT

# A hearing on the medical marijuana bill is set for Dec. 15 in front of the Senate and Assembly health committees. Written testimony can be e-mailed to Kelly.Johnson@legis.wisconsin.gov in state Sen. Jon Erpenbach’s office. The mailing address is Room 8 South, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882, Madison, WI 53707-7882. Erpenbach’s office will make all submitted written testimony available to all members of both committees.
# The complete bill can be read at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/AB-554.pdf.

 

“Medical Marijuana” Takes On New Meaning for Metastatic Breast Cancer

November 28, 2007 – If you have breast cancer, you may have considered the use of “medical marijuana” at some point during your chemo treatment. Smoking marijuana has provided some women with relief from the nausea and vomiting that can accompany chemo, relief that the range of normal side effect drugs weren’t able to give. Some states permit the legal use of medical marijuana; most don’t. Nevertheless, most women who want to try marijuana seem to be able to get it. Personally, I didn’t experience any severe problems with nausea. But I was astounded at the number of people who, prior to treatment, offered to get me a supply if I thought I needed it!

Now, doctors at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco have released a study, in the current issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, that may in the future open the door to a much more critical use of marijuana: stopping the spread of metastatic breast cancer. It seems that a compound found in cannabis (the scientific name for marijuana), CBD, has been shown (in the lab) to stop the human gene Id-1 from directing cancer cells to multiply and spread.

California Pacific Senior researcher Pierre-Yves Desprez, in an interview with HealthDay News, noted that the Id-1 genes “are very bad. They push the cells to behave like embryonic cells and grow. They go crazy, they proliferate, they migrate. We need to be able to turn them off.”

Desprez and fellow researcher Sean D. McAllister joined forces just two years ago. Desprez had been studying the Id-1 gene for 12 years; McAllister was a cannabis expert, but not involved in cancer research. Together they found that Id-1 is the “orchestra conductor” that directs breast cancer cells to grow and spread. And that CBD inhibits Id-1; it turns it off, puts it to sleep, pick your metaphor. Bottom line, it neutralizes it. And the cancer stops spreading.

Both researchers pointed out that CBD is non-toxic and non-psychoactive. In other words, patients wouldn’t get high taking it. And its non-toxicity is an important attribute; Desprez and McAllister predict that, to be effective, patients might have to take CBD for several years. They also cautioned that smoking marijuana isn’t going to cure metastatic breast cancer; the level of CBD necessary to inhibit Id-1 simply can’t be obtained that way.

While studies are still very much in the preliminary stages, it’s interesting to think that a plant that has been used medicinally for nearly 5,000 years may in the future be a key element in controlling cancer. As recently as 1937 (when it was outlawed in the U.S.), marijuana (“cannabis sativa”) was being touted as an analgesic, anti-emetic, narcotic, and sedative.

Parke-Davis, once America’s oldest and largest drug manufacturer (and now a division of drug giant Pfizer), offered “Fluid Extract Cannabis” via catalogs. Until the invention of aspirin in the mid-1800s, cannabis was the civilized world’s main pain reliever. Now it’s illegal. Here’s hoping that someday soon cannabis returns, this time as a successful treatment for metastatic breast cancer.

 

Cannabis and Cancer Cachexia

November 25, 2009 – One of the most frightening symptoms of advanced cancer is “cachexia”, or severe, unintentional weight-loss and wasting. It’s a terrible prognostic sign, and the only truly effective treatment is removal of the cancer. Treatment of this syndrome has the potential to improve quality of life in patients with advanced cancers. Various types of medications, including antidepressants, hormones, and cannabis derivatives have been tried with little effect. Treating the symptoms of incurable cancers is difficult and although we’re pretty good at it, we sometimes fail. Cannabis seems a plausible intervention, given the anecdotal and clinical data associating it with increased appetite, although appetite in normal, healthy individuals may be mediated by different pathways than the cachexia in cancer patients. Still, it’s worthy of investigation.

(As an aside, what a person with advanced cancer does to find relief is their own business. I hope that we don’t fail them so miserably that they have to resort to desperate measures. I once had an elderly patient who was shooting up heroin for his cancer pain because he didn’t understand the medical system well enough to seek proper help. He did fine on long-acting oxycodone.)

The Journal of Clinical Oncology published an interesting study in 2006 investigating the possible use of cannabis to treat cancer-related cachexia. Since self-administration of self-procured pot is rather inexact, the investigators compared whole marijuana extracts, purified THC, and placebo. The results were a disappointment for those looking for better treatment of advanced cancer.

While cannabis extract was well-tolerated, there was no difference between the groups, although all groups including placebo had some relief of symptoms. Appetite and quality of life saw similar changes in each group. It may be argued that the dose was insufficient, but the investigators chose the dose based on previous studies that showed too many adverse effects at higher doses.

As already mentioned, the failure could be due to a number of reasons, the most likely being that cannabis does not have a mechanism of action that acts on the same pathways as cachexia—the inflammatory cytokines present in cancer cachexia do not seem to be significantly modulated by cannabis. While cannabis may make some people feel better, there is no consistent evidence that it is any better than placebo in making patients with cancer wasting syndrome feel better. by PalMD. Source.

References

Strasser, F. (2006). Comparison of Orally Administered Cannabis Extract and Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in Treating Patients With Cancer-Related Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome: A Multicenter, Phase III, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial From the Cannabi Journal of Clinical Oncology, 24 (21), 3394-3400 DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2005.05.1847

 

California’s Medical Marijauna Patients Expanded To Include Teenagers

At the Peace in Medicine Healing Center in Sebastopol, the wares on display include dried marijuana — featuring brands like Kryptonite, Voodoo Daddy and Train Wreck — and medicinal cookies arrayed below a sign saying, “Keep Out of Reach of Your Mother.”

The warning tells a story of its own: some of the center’s clients are too young to buy themselves a beer.

Several Bay Area doctors who recommend medical marijuana for their patients said in recent interviews that their client base had expanded to include teenagers with psychiatric conditions including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“It’s not everybody’s medicine, but for some, it can make a profound difference,” said Valerie Corral, a founder of the Wo/Men’s Alliance forMedical Marijuana, a patients’ collective in Santa Cruz that has two dozen minors as registered clients.

Because California does not require doctors to report cases involving medical marijuana, no reliable data exist for how many minors have been authorized to receive it. But Dr. Jean Talleyrand, who founded MediCann, a network in Oakland of 20 clinics who authorize patients to use the drug, said his staff members had treated as many as 50 patients ages 14 to 18 who had A.D.H.D. Bay Area doctors have been at the forefront of the fierce debate about medical marijuana , winning tolerance for people with grave illnesses like terminal cancer and AIDS. Yet as these doctors use their discretion more liberally, such support — even here — may be harder to muster, especially when it comes to using marijuana to treat adolescents with A.D.H.D.

“How many ways can one say ‘one of the worst ideas of all time?’ ” asked Stephen Hinshaw, the chairman of the psychology department at the University of California, Berkeley. He cited studies showing that tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, disrupts attention, memory and concentration — functions already compromised in people with the attention-deficit disorder.

Advocates are just as adamant, though they are in a distinct minority. “It’s safer than aspirin,” Dr. Talleyrand said. He and other marijuana advocates maintain that it is also safer than methylphenidate (Ritalin), the stimulant prescription drug most often used to treat A.D.H.D. That drug has documented potential side effects including insomnia, depression, facial tics and stunted growth.

In 1996, voters approved a ballot proposition making California the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Twelve other states have followed suit — allowing cannabis for several specified, serious conditions including cancer and AIDS — but only California adds the grab-bag phrase “for any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.”

This has left those doctors willing to “recommend” cannabis — in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of medical marijuana, they cannot legally prescribe it — with leeway that some use to a daring degree. “You can get it for a backache,” said Keith Stroup, the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Nonetheless, expanding its use among young people is controversial even among doctors who authorize medical marijuana.

Gene Schoenfeld, a doctor in Sausalito, said, “I wouldn’t do it for anyone under 21, unless they have a life-threatening problem such as cancer or AIDS.”

Dr. Schoenfeld added, “It’s detrimental to adolescents who chronically use it, and if it’s being used medically, that implies chronic use.”

Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said she was particularly worried about the risk of dependency — a risk she said was already high among adolescents and people with attention-deficit disorder.

Counterintuitive as it may seem, however, patients and doctors have been reporting that marijuana helps alleviate some of the symptoms, particularly the anxiety and anger that so often accompany A.D.H.D. The disorder has been diagnosed in more than 4.5 million children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers have linked the use of marijuana by adolescents to increased risk of psychosis and schizophrenia for people genetically predisposed to those illnesses. However, one 2008 report in the journal Schizophrenia Research suggested that the incidence of mental health problems among adolescents with the disorder who used marijuana was lower than that of nonusers.

Marijuana is “a godsend” for some people with A.D.H.D., said Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, a psychiatrist who has written several books on the disorder. However, Dr. Hallowell said he discourages his patients from using it, both because it is — mostly — illegal, and because his observations show that “it can lead to a syndrome in which all the person wants to do all day is get stoned, and they do nothing else.”

Until the age of 18, patients requesting medical marijuana must be accompanied to the doctor’s appointment and to the dispensaries by a parent or authorized caregiver. Some doctors interviewed said they suspected that in at least some cases, parents were accompanying their children primarily with the hope that medical authorization would allow the adolescents to avoid buying drugs on the street.

A recent University of Michigan study found that more than 40 percent of high school students had tried marijuana.

“I don’t have a problem with that, as long as we can have our medical conversation,” Dr. Talleyrand said, adding that patients must have medical records to be seen by his doctors.

The Medical Board of California began investigating Dr. Talleyrand in the spring, said a board spokeswoman, Candis Cohen, after a KGO-TV report detailed questionable practices at MediCann clinics, which, the report said, had grossed at least $10 million in five years.

Dr. Talleyrand and his staff members are not alone in being willing to recommend marijuana for minors. In Berkeley, Dr. Frank Lucido said he was questioned by the medical board but ultimately not disciplined after he authorized marijuana for a 16-year-old boy with A.D.H.D. who had tried Ritalin unsuccessfully and was racking up a record of minor arrests.

Within a year of the new treatment, he said, the boy was getting better grades and was even elected president of his special-education class. “He was telling his mother: ‘My brain works. I can think,’ ” Dr. Lucido said.

“With any medication, you weigh the benefits against the risks,” he added.

Even so, MediCann patients who receive the authorization must sign a form listing possible downsides of marijuana use, including “mental slowness,” memory problems, nervousness, confusion, “increased talkativeness,” rapid heartbeat, difficulty in completing complex tasks and hunger. “Some patients can become dependent on marijuana,” the form also warns.

The White House’s recent signals of more federal tolerance for state medical marijuana laws — which pointedly excluded sales to minors — reignited the debate over medical marijuana.

Some advocates, like Dr. Lester Grinspoon, an associate professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard University, suggest that medical marijuana’s stigma has less to do with questions of clinical efficacy and more to do with its association, in popular culture, with illicit pleasure and addiction.

Others, like Alberto Torrico of Fremont, the majority leader of the California Assembly, argue for more oversight in general. “The marijuana is a lot more powerful these days than when we were growing up, and too much is being dispensed for nonmedical reasons,” he said in an interview last week, bluntly adding, “Any children being givenmedical marijuana is unacceptable.”

As advocates of increased acceptance try to win support, they may find their serious arguments compromised by the dispensaries’ playful atmosphere.

OrganiCann, a dispensary in Santa Rosa, has a Web site advertisement listing the “medible of the week” — butterscotch rock candy — invitingly photographed in a gift box with a ribbon. OrganiCann also offers a 10 percent discount, every Friday, for customers with a valid student ID. Source.

 

How to Make Your Own Medicinal Hemp Oil

November 14, 2009 – The following comes from Rick Simpson’s website, Pheonix Tears. The procedure is outlined in detail below and he shows exactly how to produce Hemp Oil in this video ( about 2 minutes into the video)

“Properly made hemp medicine is the greatest healer on this planet bar none. Once you experience what this medication can do you will understand why history and I call hemp medicine a cure all.”

Rick Simpson
For those of you who have watched the documentary “Run from the Cure”, this should answer any questions about producing your own oil. I recommend that people grow their own hemp either in a small indoor grow system or outdoors. Growing it yourself will eliminate the high cost associated with buying hemp from drug dealers. The cost of hemp can vary greatly from dealer to dealer and so can the quality of the hemp. For anyone new to growing hemp a good book or video on the subject is a necessity. If you go to Cannabis Culture, the good people there should be able to point you in the right direction.

Caution:
Oils that drug dealers sell can have many contaminants and often little or no THC. From my experience, most hemp oil available on the street should be avoided for medicinal use. Make your own oil or have someone you trust produce the oil to assure a very pure, high quality oil is produced.

How much to make and take?
One pound (500g) of bone-dry hemp buds will usually produce about 2 ounces (55 – 60 mL) of high-grade oil. This amount of oil will cure most serious cancers; the average person can ingest this amount in about three months. This oil is very potent so one must begin treatment with small doses. A drop of oil about half the size of a grain of rice, two to four times a day is a good beginning. After four or five days, start increasing your daily dosage very gradually. As time goes on the body builds a tolerance to the oil and more and more can be taken. In cases where people are in a great deal of pain, I recommend that their dosage be quickly increased until it kills the pain. High quality hemp oil will stop pain even when morphine is not effective. The oil can be applied to external injuries for pain relief in minutes.

Will I get high?
Following the dosage previously described, many people can take the full treatment and never get high. In regards to hemp, getting “high” is a joke, even if a person does take too much oil the effect wears off quickly and no harm is done. No one has ever died from the use of hemp medicine.

Will I become addicted?
Hemp oil does not cause your body to crave more. It is non-addictive, harmless and effective for practically any medical condition.

Is this the same as hemp seed oil?
No! This is hemp oil, made from the bud and small leaves of the hemp plant. It is the essential oil of the hemp plant. Health food store sells oil made from hemp seed that is often mislabeled as hemp oil. Although seed oil is very beneficial, it does not contain enough THC to have any effect on cancer and other serious illnesses.

Are hemp and marijuana the same?
The word marijuana is one of over four hundred slang terms used worldwide to describe the cannabis and/or hemp plant.

Are all hemp plants the same?
When buying or growing hemp, procure a strain that has the highest possible THC content. To energize someone suffering from depression, I recommend a good Sativa strain. For most other medical conditions, I strongly suggest that Indica strains be used. Indicas relax a person and provide them with more rest and sleep.

How do I use it?
High quality hemp oil can be vapourized, ingested or used topically. Add the oil to creams and salves for external use.

Where can I get information about making the oil?
For someone new to making the oil I suggest that you go to “Run From The Cure”. There you can watch our documentary in seven segments. Segment #4 shows how the oil can be produced at home or one can go to Phoenix Tears Movie and download the full documentary. You will need a high-speed internet connection and there is no charge. The process in the video could only be described as crude at best, but the oil that is produced will cure cancer. In reality, this medicine should be produced in a controlled environment, using distilling equipment, etc. to reclaim the solvent and to purify the oil. Most people do not understand distilling and do not have access to the required equipment. This is the reason such a simple method is descried in the documentary, so if need be just about anyone can produce the oil. As in the video, again we stress that this process, if not done properly can be dangerous and we bear no responsibility if this educational information is misused.

Process for Making Medicinal Hemp Oil:

Starting material:
I generally work with a pound or more of good grade hemp starting material. You can use just one ounce. An ounce will usually produce 3 or 4 grams of oil. The amount of oil produced per ounce of hemp will vary from strain to strain, but it all has that wonderful healing power.

1 – Place the completely dry starting material in a plastic bucket.
2 – Dampen the material with the solvent you are using. Many solvents can be used. I like to use pure naphtha but it costs $500 for a 45-gallon drum. You can use 99% isopropyl alcohol, which you can find in your local drug stores. Alcohol absorbs more chlorophyll from the plant material than naphtha does. This gives oils made with alcohol a darker colour but does not diminish the potency of the oil to any noticeable degree. Ether, naphtha or butane and many other solvents can produce oils that are amber and transparent. Granted these clear oils do look better but dark oil can be just as potent. If the process is done properly, little or no solvent residue is left in the oil. I have been consuming oils produced using different solvents for eight years with no harmful effects. You will require about two gallons of solvent to strip the THC off one pound of dry starting material. 500 milliliters of solvent should be more than enough to strip the THC from one ounce of hemp starting material.
3 – Crush the plant material using a stick of clean untreated (chemical free) wood or some such device. Even though the starting material has been dampened with the solvent, you will find that the material can be readily crushed.
4 – Add solvent until the starting material is completely covered.
Use the stick to work the plant material. As you are doing this, the THC dissolves off the plant material into the solvent.
5 – Continue this process for about 3 minutes.
6 – Pour the solvent-oil mix off the plant material into another bucket. You have just stripped the plant material of about 80% of its THC.
7 – Second wash – again add solvent to the plant material and work it for another 3 minutes to get the other 20%.
8 – Pour this solvent-oil mix into the bucket containing the first mix that was poured off previously.
9 – Discard the twice-washed plant material.
10- Pour the solvent-oil mix through a coffee filter into a clean container.
11- Boil the solvent off. I have found that a rice cooker will do this boil off very nicely. The one I have has two heat settings – high and low – and will hold over a half gallon (2.5 liters) of solvent-oil mix.
12- Add solvent-oil mix to the rice cooker until it is about ¾ full.

Make sure you are in a very well ventilated area and set up a fan to carry the solvent fumes away. The fumes are very flammable. Be sure to stay away from red-hot elements, sparks, cigarettes etc. that could ignite the fumes.

13- Plug the rice cooker in and set it on high heat.
14- Continue adding solvent-oil mix as the level in the rice cooker decreases until it is all in the cooker.
15- Add a few drops of water to the solvent-oil mix as the level comes down for the last time. The amount of water added depends on how much starting material you had in the beginning. If I am producing oil from a pound of good bud, I usually add about ten drops of water.
16- When there is about one inch of solvent-oil-water mix left in the cooker, put on your oven mitts, pick the unit up and gently swirl the contents
17- Continue swirling until the solvent has been evaporated off. The few drops of water help release the solvent residue and protect the oil somewhat from too much heat. When the solvent has been boiled off, the cooker that I use automatically goes to low heat. This avoids any danger of overheating the oil. At no time should the temperature of the oil go over 290F degrees (140 C).
18- Put on your oven mitts and remove the pot containing the oil from the rice cooker.
19- Gently pour the oil into a small stainless steel container.
20- Place this container in a dehydrator or put in on a gentle heating device such as a coffee warmer. It may take a few hours but the water and volatile turpines will be evaporated from the oil. When there is no longer any activity on the surface of the oil the medicine is ready for use.
21- Pour the hot oil into a bottle; or as in the video suck it up into a plastic syringe. Putting the oil in a plastic syringe makes it very easy to dispense the medicine.

When the oil cools off it has the consistency of thick grease. Some strains will produce very thick oil and you may have trouble squeezing it out of the syringe. If this happens, place the syringe in warm water a few minutes prior to use.

To anyone starting to use hemp oil as a medication, here are some simple facts.
Hemp oil will lower blood pressure and if you are on blood pressure medication, you may find that this medication is no longer needed. The same is true for diabetics. I have seen hemp oil control blood sugar to the extent that insulin was no longer needed.

I am not a doctor and I do not have the right to tell people what they should do. Personally, I would not consider taking any cancer treatments currently in use by our medical system, I do not recommend that hemp oil be taken along with chemotherapy. What would be the sense of making your own cure and then allowing the medical system to give you massive doses of poison?

From my experience with hemp medicine, I have found that most pharmaceutical medications are no longer needed once a person starts using hemp oil. Hemp oil seems to mix well with most natural medications but I have had a few reports from people trying to take hemp oil and pharmaceuticals who experienced stomach pain etc. All problems ceased when they stopped taking the prescription drugs.

To anyone who is going to act on this information to help a loved one, I welcome you to the world of real medicine. Again, I caution you to be very careful when boiling the solvent off. The fumes are very flammable. Be sure to stay away from red-hot elements, sparks, cigarettes etc. that could ignite the fumes.

Hemp Oil Dosage Information

It takes the average person about 90 days to ingest the full 60 gram treatment. I suggest that people start with 3 doses per day about half the size of a grain of dry rice. A dose such as this would equal about ¼ of a drop. After four days at this dosage, increase your doses every four days until you are at the point where you are ingesting about 1 gram in 24 hours, so each dose should equal 1/3 of a gram.

It takes the average person about 5 weeks to get to the point where they can ingest a gram per day. Once they reach this dosage they can continue at this rate until the cancer disappears. A gram is just slightly less than 1ml.

By using this method it allows the body to build up its tolerance slowly, in fact, I have many reports from people who took the oil treatment and never got ‘high’. We all have different tolerances for any medication. Your size and body weight have little to do with your tolerance for hemp oil.

Be aware when commencing treatment with hemp oil that it will lower your blood pressure, so if you are currently taking blood pressure medication, it is very likely that you will no longer need it.

When people are taking the oil, I like to see them stay within their comfort zone, but the truth is, the faster you take the oil the better the chance of surviving. At the end of their treatment most people continue taking the oil but at a much reduced rate. 6 to 12 grams a year would be a good maintenance dose. I do not like to see people overdosing on the oil, but an overdose does no harm. The main side effect of this medication is sleep and rest which plays an important role in the healing process. Usually, within an hour or so of taking a dose, the oil is telling you to lay down and relax. Don’t fight the sleepy feeling, just lay down and go with it. Usually within a month, the daytime tiredness associated with this treatment fades away but the patient continues to sleep very well at night. The only time I would recommend that people start out with larger doses would be to get off addictive and dangerous pain medications. When people who are using such medications begin the oil treatment, they usually cut their pain medications in half. The object is to take enough oil to take care of the pain and to help the patient get off these dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. Taking the oil makes it much easier for the patient to get off these addictive chemicals.

I simply tell people the oil will do one of two things; it will either cure your cancer or in cases where it is too late to affect a cure, the oil will ease their way out and they can at least die with dignity. Hemp oil has a very high success rate in the treatment of cancer, unfortunately many people who come to me have been badly damaged by the medical system with their chemo and radiation etc. The damage such treatments cause have a lasting effect and people who have suffered the effects of such treatments are the hardest to cure. It should also be mentioned that the oil rejuvenates vital organs like the pancreas. Many diabetics who have taken the oil find that after about six weeks on the oil that they no longer require insulin since their pancreas is again doing its job.

Properly made hemp medicine is the greatest healer on this planet bar none. Once you experience what this medication can do you will understand why history and I call hemp medicine a cure all.

Source.

 

Wellbeing Benefits Of Hemp Oil

November 12, 2009 – Hemp Oil has long been recognized as one of the most versatile and beneficial substances known to man. Derived from hemp seeds (a member of the achene family of fruits) it has been regarded as a superfood due to its high essential fatty acid content and the unique ratio of omega3 to omega6 and gamma linolenic acid (GLA) – 2:5:1.

It is this ratio that is believed to be optimal in terms of improving skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and acne. It has been reported that those using hemp oil as a supplement begin to experience noticeably softer skin, stronger nails and thicker, smoother hair after only a few weeks.

The oil is approximately 57% linoleic (LA) and 19% linolenic (LNA) acids, the EFAs known as omega6 and omega3 respectively. EFAs are the building blocks of the fatty acids known as eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) which are of course associated with the health benefits as noted above, alongside their benefits to almost every cell in the body and are widely accepted as beneficial in warding off and treating degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Hemp oil is also the only food oil that contains not only omega3, omega6, but also GLA. This GLA content means that hemp is a rival to Evening Primrose Oil as well as flax seed oil, as GLA is the chief EFA that is believed to relieve symptoms of pre-menstrual tension (PMT).

Hemp oil is also ideal for those who are concerned about taking fish supplements due to the reported contamination of fish with mercury and other toxins. This is particularly prevalent for pregnant women and nursing mothers who are looking to reduce their fish intake but still maintain a desired level of EFAs.

Seeds

EFAs can also be obtained from eating hemp seeds. These seeds also pack a significant protein punch, which rivals that of soy. Hemp seeds contain many essential amino acids, have high fibre content and are also high in Vitamin E, Vitamin C and chlorophyll.

The added benefit of hemp seeds is that there has been no known genetic modification of hemp plants, unlike with other sources of protein and antioxidants. Hemp also grows in such a way that no pesticides or chemicals are needed to grow the crops. The growing of hemp plants creates almost zero waste and the byproducts of these crops are also useful in other commercial applications.

Hemp Oil Preparation

As with all essential fatty acids, hemp oil must not be heated or fried and it is very susceptible to heat and light. The oil is extracted from the seed by a slowly rotating press. The pressure from this press squeezes the oil from the seed and leaves only the remaining ‘seed-cake’. This is always done in an oxygen-free environment, as exposure to oxygen can rapidly depreciate the value of the oil.

Always ensure that your oils are prepared in such a way (i.e. without excessive heat, light and oxygen) and always store hemp oil in the refrigerator, use quickly, and never heat.

Is it Illegal?

In short, no. The Latin name Cannabis sativa actually translates as ‘useful hemp’!

The confusion and concern frequently arises due to the fact that hemp seed/oil is derived from the plant Cannabis sativa, which is often incorrectly linked to the psychoactive substance, marijuana. The psychoactive ingredient of marijuana is the chemical THC, however the quantities of THC in hemp oil are so small that they are regarded as insignificant. In fact, for commercial hemp oil products to comply with Government regulations, they must contain less than 10ppm THC, which is very, very little. However, in the majority of products absolutely none can be detected. It would be almost impossible for this level of THC intake to measure even close to illegal levels during a drug urine test.

Although the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced a worldwide ban on the sale of all hemp based foods and oils in 2001, this decision was condemned as illegal in 2004 following a successful appeal to the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Source.

 

Patients Flock to California Doctors Practicing Pot Medicine

November 8, 2009 – In Mississippi, where Dr. David Allen worked as a heart surgeon, authorities seized his home and ranch this year after finding $800 worth of marijuana and $1,000 in hashish. A grand jury is to consider a cultivation charge that could net him 30 years in prison under Mississippi’s drug laws.

In Sacramento, where he now lives, Allen is a legal, licensed member of a community of physicians that enables hundreds of thousands of Californians to lawfully consume or grow marijuana for personal use.

His recently opened cannabis evaluations clinic on Auburn Boulevard is a newcomer in an increasingly robust medical industry. Born with California’s Proposition 215 in 1996, the profession is newly energized by the federal government’s recent decision to relax enforcement policies for 14 states that have legalized medicinal use of marijuana.

Voters approved California’s Compassionate Use Act amid stories of AIDS patients needing marijuana to boost appetites and cancer patients needing it to counter nausea and other side effects of chemotherapy.

These days pot physicians, touting marijuana as a healthier alternative to pharmaceuticals, are writing medical cannabis recommendations for a far wider range of ills, from restless leg syndrome to psoriasis, from sleep apnea to menopause.

The widely available doctor’s “recommendations” – they’re not formal prescriptions – stir intense debate in the medical community, even among cannabis doctors.

Doctors argue over whether the recommendations, costing anywhere from $50 to $250 each, go to patients who truly need medical marijuana or help facilitate recreational drug users and provide hefty profits for the doctors writing the notes.

Doctors are barred by state law from giving out marijuana or instructing patients where to get it. But cannabis recommendations are necessary for patients to make their purchases at the pot dispensaries now sprouting like Starbucks in some communities.

The dispensaries must operate as nonprofits. The doctors are under no such constraints.

170,000 patients seen

Already, a lucrative medical industry is taking shape with pot evaluation networks such as MediCann, a “health and wellness service” started with one San Francisco clinic. It now operates 20 offices in California – including sites in Sacramento, Elk Grove and North Highlands – and has overseen the care of 170,000 cannabis patients since 2004.

“The growth has been steady. We open up a new clinic every few months,” said Matthew Desanto, MediCann’s marketing director. “Honestly, it’s just that patients need to use cannabis as medicine.”

In the past year, another group, Marijuana Medicine Evaluation Centers, opened clinics in 10 California cities. It advertises on “WeedMaps,” an Internet service for patients seeking doctors, dispensaries and other pot services.

The newfound visibility of the medical marijuana trade is pronounced on the eclectic boardwalk of Venice Beach in Los Angeles.

Along the boardwalk’s short span, greeters work the crowd in front of three oceanfront clinics, pitching the benefits of medical pot. One large beachfront house holds the Medical Kush Doctor physician’s office and the Kush Clubhouse dispensary. Another doctor’s walk-in clinic is next door to a dispensary entrance, where a woman shouts out: “Free hash bar – patients welcome!”

In his Sacramento office, where medical diplomas are displayed with a news article on a rare beating heart bypass surgery he performed in Mississippi, Dr. Allen is bullish on his career change to full-time pot doc.

Allen was living in California last February when his Mississippi ranch was raided. He denies participation in any illegal marijuana activities.

Jackson County, Miss., Sheriff’s Lt. Curtis Speirs said Allen is being investigated for felony cultivation and distribution.

“In the state of Mississippi,” Speirs said, “whether you think it’s for medicinal use or not, it’s against the law.”

In California, Allen charges $150 for medical evaluations and exults over his work with pot patients.

“Cannabis is a miracle drug that works so well for so many reasons, for so many people, that millions are willing to risk jail and property seizures to use the medicine,” he said.

He said he is dedicated to serving the people who tell him that cannabis “is better for my migraines, for my asthma, for my menstrual cramps” than traditional treatments. “How can you deny these patients?”

Construction worker Brent Bomia, 36, who said he had back surgery after a work-related fall, showed up with his medical records and got a recommendation from Allen.

“I’m happy he is here,” said Bomia. “I believe as a community this is a steppingstone to more people realizing medical marijuana really helps.”

Prop. 215 applied broadly

Under Proposition 215, physicians can recommend cannabis for cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraines or “any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.”

Clinical support for pot’s potential health benefits comes from the likes of Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Abrams conducted state and federally funded research that showed marijuana to be beneficial for patients with HIV and for pain from nerve damage.

“I see cancer patients every day who suffer from loss of appetite, weight loss, pain, anxiety, depression, insomnia and nausea,” he said. “With cannabis, I can recommend one medicine instead of writing prescriptions for six or seven.”

But Dr. Lee Snook, a Sacramento pain physician who serves on the public policy committee for the California Society of Addiction Medicine, is alarmed over the burgeoning use of medical cannabis.

Snook, who heads Metropolitan Pain Management Consultants Inc., said he encounters many patients with marijuana recommendations who don’t need them or are better served by other treatments.

“People go into an outpatient clinic, say, ‘I have chronic pain,’ pay $100 for a card,” Snook said. “That’s it. I see it as a business. I don’t see it as practicing medicine at all.”

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws – which advocates easing marijuana restrictions – lists more than 160 California doctors and clinics as “medical cannabis specialists.” Their work, as with all doctors, falls under the scrutiny of the California Medical Board.

Since 1996, the board has investigated 81 complaints against doctors who recommended pot to patients.

Regulators revoked licenses for 10 physicians for violating guidelines published to ensure they conduct in-person “good faith” examinations and review patients’ health and medical histories when recommending cannabis. Some were sanctioned for failing to detect overt, drug-seeking behaviors.

Medical Board records indicate some pot doctors attracted attention after other physicians or psychiatrists complained. Other complaints came from undercover police who said they got cannabis recommendations with little or no medical exam.

All 10 license revocations were stayed and the doctors allowed to continue practicing under supervised probation.

In July, the Medical Board sanctioned Dr. Robert Cohen of Santa Monica for recommending cannabis without a physical exam or patient records for a board investigator who said she was a mother of five and needed pot to relax.

In August, the board found that El Dorado County doctor Marion Fry improperly recommended marijuana to a patient with chronic paranoid schizophrenia despite warnings from Merced County health officials that pot exacerbated his condition.

The board put Fry’s medical license on probationary status for three years. That action came two years after she and her husband were sentenced to federal prison for conspiring to grow and distribute marijuana. A trial revealed that her medical pot recommendations netted between $750,000 and $1 million over a 26-month period.

Even some pot doctors question whether the expanding industry has sufficiently established standards and oversight.

Dr. Frank Lucido, a Berkeley family physician and leader in the medical marijuana movement, worries about a proliferation of “quick-in, quick-out mills that pretty much give out cannabis recommendations to anyone 18 or over that has money.”

“It gives the industry a bad name,” he said.

Lucido said he pre-screens patients in a telephone interview, conducts 45-minute examinations and requires medical records documenting serious health issues.

Then, there is Venice Beach.

On an oceanfront featuring four new pot clinics, one employee drew in passers-by by handing out fliers adorned with a cannabis leaf and a list of medical conditions.

“Do you have any of these?” he asked. “We can get you a recommendation. It will only take a few minutes.”

Gilbert, a 42-year-old Los Angeles man who didn’t want his last name used, was in and out of the doctor’s office next to the hash bar. He got a cannabis recommendation minutes after a brief exam and blood pressure check.

“He asked me what medications I was on and what do I think marijuana would do,” said Gilbert, who said he smokes pot to alleviate pain and high blood pressure.

“Pot smokers are going to be pot smokers. If this is going to make them feel better, then so be it.” Source.

 

Michigan Man Pleads For Cannabis To Ease Cancer

November 2, 2009 – Carroll Fisher does not regularly use marijuana. But he’d like to. The retired 67-year-old Niles factory worker has never smoked a joint — except for trying one in his 20s — until July. That was three months after he was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. He took a trip to Canada to visit friends and had the occasion, as he describes it, to smoke marijuana. Twice a day.

Feeling better
“I slept better. It gave me an appetite where as the chemotherapy takes it away,” he said about the drug, which is illegal in Canada. “It helped me with the pain,” he added.
When he returned to Michigan, where voters a year ago approved medicinal marijuana, he asked his cancer physician in Niles, Dr. Chil Kang, to sign the state form authorizing Fisher to use medicinal marijuana. “He won’t do it,” Fisher said. Nor will his eye doctor or his family practitioner, Dr. Douglas Tacket. “I can’t get anyone to sign it,” Fisher said.

Michigan’s law requires a licensed state physician to sign a certification form, authorizing the patient to grow up to 12 plants to use for medical purposes. The form is necessary for Fisher to obtain a registry card allowing him to use the drug. Greg Francisco, executive director of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, is not surprised by Fisher’s problem. “Access to doctors (who will certify the form) is limited in Southwestern Michigan,” Francisco said.
“They’ve closed ranks and agreed behind closed doors not to write them,” he said.
That’s what Fisher has discovered.

Kang declined to be interviewed for this story. Tacket could not be reached for comment.
Francisco, of Paw Paw, Mich., said there are a few doctors in southwestern Michigan who will write the recommendation for their longtime patients who they have treated for years.
“But they are doing it quietly, and they aren’t taking new patients,” Francisco said.
Dr. Frank Lucido, a California physician with a practice in Berkeley, said it will take time before Michigan doctors will begin to embrace the new law. California approved marijuana for medicinal purposes more than a decade ago.

“They won’t feel comfortable with it because they don’t know the law. And they don’t know the value of cannabis,” he said. Lucido, who graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School, recently opened an office in East Lansing and he has a Web site — called drlucido.com — to help patients and doctors navigate medicinal marijuana uses and laws.

Fisher said he’s heard from other cancer patients that many doctors in Detroit will certify the state form, but Fisher said he would need to spend about $300 for a doctor’s visit and travel costs to drive to Detroit. “I shouldn’t have to do that,” he said.

Traveling doctors
There may be a remedy, said Francisco, but Fisher will have to wait. Since Michigan’s law was passed by a referendum on Nov. 4, 2008, a handful of traveling doctors have cropped up to help sign up patients. “They do an assessment. It’s not guaranteed,” said Francisco.
The cannabis clinics have stopped in St. Joseph. The last time Dr. Robert Kenewell of the Clinic for Compassionate Care was in St. Joseph was about two weeks ago, Francisco said.The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation, with Dr. Eric Eisenbud based in Southfield, Mich., also makes regional visits.

“I’ve been after them (the clinics) to do one in Niles,” Francisco added, because demand is high.
Francisco suggested Fisher go to the Web site MediJuana.com to find out where the doctors will be stopping next. Fisher said he is not trying to get on the marijuana bandwagon as an excuse to use the illicit drug. For him, marijuana improved his health, he said.

He went to Canada again for two weeks around Labor Day and smoked marijuana daily.
Fisher said his health improved radically. Each time Fisher has returned home he has gained back a few of the 26 pounds he has lost during 34 rounds of radiation and weeks of chemotherapy.
“I got my strength back. and my weight back. I was almost feeling normal,” said Fisher, who is 6 feet tall, when he returned home in September. He has since dropped down to about 166 pounds.

Daily doses
Every day Fisher takes about seven different drugs.
One helps his appetite, one minimizes pain, another helps him sleep, another helps him swallow, another reduces nausea. He said when he smoked marijuana, he didn’t need many of the medications he has been prescribed. “I wouldn’t have to take half of that,” he said, pointing to an assembly of pill containers lined up on his kitchen table. Fisher’s wife died two years ago and he has two grown daughters. “I am not a druggie,” he said about his desire to use marijuana as part of his treatment plan. “My daughter was worried about that,” he said.

She also has, he said, been worried that if he does obtain a registry card to grow marijuana, his home may be a target for desperate drug users. But Fisher said he’s not worried about that.
He sleeps with a shotgun near his bed. His biggest concern is getting through the next four weeks, when he visits Dr. Kang for weekly chemotherapy sessions. The drug leaves him feeling weak and sick. But now he has even another concern. He’s worried that since he has spoken to The Tribune, his doctors may treat him differently. He looks down to hide his tears.
“I’m sorry,” he said, as he reaches for a tissue.