"We know that over 110,000 people who showed up voluntarily at treatment facilities in 2007 reported marijuana as their primary substance of abuse. Additionally, in 2008, marijuana was involved in 375,000 emergency visits nationwide."  - Gil Kerlikowske, ONDCP, March 4, 2010

Response to the Drug Czar’s address to the California Police Chiefs Association Conference – by Mary Lynn Mathre, Co-Founder, Patients Out of Time

Our new drug czar (former cop), Gil Kerlikowske begins his talk to police chiefs by stating that the President directed him to travel the country and hear every side of the drug abuse issue and then he notes that the biggest problem today is drug overdoses. He notes that drug overdoses outnumber gunshot deaths and are approaching motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of accidental death. Of course he was talking about prescription medications. First of all, he has never bothered to talk with Patients Out of Time, who for the past decade has hosted a biennial series of accredited national clinical conferences that bring together researchers from around the world to present the latest studies on cannabis and cannabinoids. Regarding medical marijuana (cannabis) Kerlikowske states, "…I believe that science should determine what a medicine is, not popular vote." We agree. The problem is, he is relying on old science. Kerlikowske and his advisors need to attend The Sixth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics that will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick, RI on April 15-17, 2010, where they can learn about the current research findings that support cannabis as a safe and effective medicine.

What is so disingenuous about his talk is that he presents drug overdoses as a major public health problem, but ignores the fact that there has never been a recorded overdose from cannabis. Cannabis is remarkably safe compared to illicit drugs used today as well as prescription and over the counter medications. Aspirin results in more than 100 deaths per year. Also in recent news was a story on deaths and adverse consequences from teens "huffing" inhalants. There are dangerous drugs available in the licit and illicit market and the public should be educated about the potential dangers from unsupervised use of drugs. But where is the logic in focusing on the one drug that will NOT result in death?

Cannabis – "The Medicine Plant”

by Al Byrne, co-founder, Patients Out of Time

It has been 80 years since an American medical school taught its students about the clinical applications of cannabis utilized to treat the ill. It will be 10 years in the spring of 2010 that Patients Out of Time has been re-establishing clinical cannabis knowledge in the medical and nursing communities.

Much is written these days of a need for more cannabis research. We are all for more work to be done to find unknown and exciting possibilities for cannabis treatment but we have enough science now to know beyond any line of credible doubt that cannabis is a medicine and a safe one. The research Patients Out of Time has assembled is world-wide in scope. It is an enormous collection of science from around the globe. An assemblage of medical cannabis science from the earliest research through that conducted up until 2002 can be found at www.drugscience.org. Here Dr. Jon Gettman and Patients Out of Time, with the assistance of other groups, have posted a copy of The Petition to Reschedule Cannabis.

The Petition, defined as a demand in this instance, asks the federal government to consider the submitted research and rule up or down if cannabis is medicine. After taking the full three years allowed by law the DEA finally passed the request to the Department of Health and Human Services. At present that institution is almost two years late by law in answering the petition's request. Patients Out of Time can only assume that HHS is unwilling to admit cannabis is medicine for political reasons. The Petition's authors await the new Surgeon General who is the responsible agent to answer this demand.

WAMM Settles with U. S. Department of Justice

In September, 2002, federal agents raided the grounds of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, located in Santa Cruz, CA, destroying a community garden belonging to chronically and terminally ill patients. WAMM, the City of Santa Cruz, and others sued the Justice Department (then headed by John Ashcroft), soon winning an injunction against further action by the government. On October 19, 2009 the Justice Department codified a policy shift announced last spring by the Obama Administration - that federal prosecutors in the legal medical marijuana states are not to prosecute individuals that are using medical cannabis "in clear and unambiguous compliance" with state laws.

Yesterday Santa Cruz and WAMM agreed to dismiss their lawsuit, with the stipulation that, if the government failed to abide by its new rules, the suit will be reinstated. Representing all the members of WAMM, Valerie and Mike Corral issued a statement to the court, reprinted here. Following the letter is a press release by the ACLU, one of several parties that represented WAMM in the lawsuit. Also, there are links to videos, including two times that Valerie Corral spoke to our Cannabis Therapeutics Conferences - in 2002 (before the raid), and again in 2004.