Medical Marijuana: A California Success Story

Oxycontin have been fined six hundred million dollars for lying that that it is not addicting. This is a surprise because every physician or pharmacist KNOWS that every morphine-like drug IS addicting.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - California was the first state which legalized marijuana for medical use in 1996 by way of an initiative legal process started by voters' petitioning, and has the most patients with 350,000.

Apparently the legislators were so shocked by the common people's effrontery they were paralyzed. No so the scotch drinking police and sheriffs - they howled like banshees, and have seemingly done everything they could think of to reduce or restrict their highly efficacious medicine.

The various cities and counties of California and almost list in a schizophrenic stand-off about what to do about legally sanctioned marijuana use and dispensaries, (currently there are about 200) where marijuana and even hashish, (a concentrate) can be purchased by patients having a letter from a physician giving them approval for its use. About half of the localities say its OK, others harass, close and confiscate medicine and money. The DEA and some local cops are going frenetic. They even raid legal grow sites. At the same time, the Mexican Mafia and others are farming it wherever they can, usually in remote national forest areas.

As this is written a plantation in northern Idaho was raided. It had 14,000 plants with a street value of $60 million. It is estimated the marijuana crop is the financially most important in the Unites States, and the cops are trying to stop it?

Government officials say the cannabis crop value is $35 million dollars which must be far too low!
The Oregon crop value is estimated at one billion dollars and the British Columbia crop between ten and twenty billion dollars.

In the meantime, the cops with General Barry McCaffrey were working with the boards of Medical Examiners to harass physicians who are writing approval letters for sick patients. Many of the prominent physicians have been charged with violating the Standards of Medical Practice Act, but no one knows what the standards are.

One of the worst examples was a DEA agents' raid at a Santa Cruz cannabis using hospice where elderly disabled patients were handcuffed to their beds while the agents devastated the gardens and patient's rooms.

The local mayor dispensed marijuana on city hall steps the next day, in protest.

Proposition 215 (HS 11362.5) was passed by
a 56% majority of California voters in
November 1996

Despite all this, there are about 30 California physicians who openly advertise their services and some have as many as 19,000 patients though most are in the low two thousands.

Thirty of these marijuana physicians were emailed a request regarding their experiences, and eighteen responded indicating that collectively, they had written about 150,000 approval letters for California's approximately 350,000 legal users.

This stands in sharp contrast to my state of Oregon, where we have about 15,000 medical marijuana patients whose applications were signed by 2,200 known physicians who had to register with the state. In Oregon, ten physicians have signed about ten thousand, or 70% of the applications. (Four of those doctors are in the same clinic.) It is known that around 800 physicians have signed only one application.

Eleven states have some semblance of legal medical marijuana but individual state's rules and regulations are as varied as the state's geography.

It appears that Oregon has the most successful program per capita, but the regulations appear to be the most rigorous because physician and patient records are absoou8tely legally protected, neither the Board of Medical Examiners nor the police or district attorneys can snoop. Apparently this is not the case in California where police pose as fake patients with fake medical records are incessantly harassing the known medical marijuana physicians.

It has turned into a big game but several physicians have been literally destroyed. One physician, Dr. David Bearman, was fined $115,000, another, Dr. Todd MiKuriya, was fined $75,000.

While writing this, May 11th, 2007, I am struck by two great news items, first, the makers of Oxycontin have been fined six hundred million dollars for lying that that it is not addicting. This is a surprise because every physician or pharmacist KNOWS that every morphine-like drug IS addicting.

Many California marijuana medical patients were given Oxycontin by previous doctors and furthermore, the Veteran's Administration doctors considered it to be a fine useful medicine.

Secondly, the headlines are that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are at an increased risk for suicide. This should not be a surprise as suicide is the ultimate symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it is certain the VA medical system is broke and dysfunctional, just like the entire war effort. The Associated Press reports over 30,000 veteran suicides since 2001. THE WORST IS YET TO COME. Been there, seen that!

In the meantime, more and more patients are getting more and more doctors to sign their applications in all medical marijuana states.

Other articles and video segments with Dr. Phillip Leveque on Salem-News.com:

Salem-News.com Marijuana Coverage

Where and How to Smoke Legal Marijuana without Fear of Arrest in the U.S.

Eulogy of a Great Warrior: Hoss Plourde

The Ripple Effect How Marijuana Laws Are Impacting Society

Audit the Audit

Welcome Home, Tom

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I LK3 February 20, 2008 8:46 am (Pacific time)

CHICKEN POT PI3Z

yur mom February 20, 2008 8:40 am (Pacific time)

LIK3z To0o0o PaRrTyY

samsung September 19, 2007 10:08 am (Pacific time)

SMOKE SUM MO POT OLD MAN!!! HELL YA!

Wahoo news! May 26, 2007 7:55 am (Pacific time)

Baking news!- steam herb and butter or oil medium in covered double boiler configuration, low to medium boil for 8 hrs.,constantly replenishing the water,(it will take around three liters to a gallon over an 8 hr. period),just enough to keep herb-oil mix container floating. Strain in a stout collander pressing out oil still in plant-oil mix with a smaller flat bottomed container., set remaining "greenmash" aside for later. The straind butter-oil medium cools to the original texture of oil, I prefer real butter but any edible oil will do. The main trick is ratio, so without giving too much away, try a 2:1 oil to plant (I do it by weight) and go from there. It depends entirely on the quality of herb used but even a mediocre strength plant can be rendered ino a nice batch of brownies or? The plant mix set aside earlier should be put in a collander and near boiling water poured over and thru it into a saucepan, to retrieve what would have been thrown away or used for tea,etc, I usually recover enuff for two or three cakes. When it cools to room temp it forms a crust on the top of the water for e-z extraction. from there you simply add it to your recipies like you would as called for ingrediant wise, dig?, pass out some chocolate chip cookies to a stressed out policeman or send Rosenberg a little "care package" to straighten him out. Bon Apatee!, P.S.- the remaining bong water can be sent to Bush's inbox in Crawford as a momento from the alternate constituancy.,speaking personally of course.

Raven May 25, 2007 11:16 am (Pacific time)

Dr. Leveque...can you tell me how to utilize marijuana in a form that can be baked into food?

Matt Johnson May 24, 2007 5:41 pm (Pacific time)

Thanks Dr. Leveque for sharing your insightful knowledge and experience with this unfortunately, complex subject. Can you outline a feasible plan for marijuana dispensing that you think would be effective?

S.LaMarche: May 23, 2007 7:25 pm (Pacific time)

Good!.,Great!.,sign me up!,eat your heart out Limbaugh!

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Medical Marijuana: A California Success Story

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