Tag: Medical Marijuana

Medical marijuana, in virtually every state where it is legal, operates under a set of rules not applied to such drugs as Oxycontin and Percocet. You can get fired from your job if you test positive for marijuana regardless of your medical status. You may not be allowed to use or possess marijuana if you are on probation. You'll pay taxes on your legal purchase of this legal medicine. In other words, most states seem to take a wink-wink approach to marijuana as medicine, implying that while it is legal it really isn't medicine and won't be treated as such.

The Farmington Daily-Times reports that four people have been arrested after an Aug. 8 pot bust, executed with assistance from the U.S. Marshals, of two licensed medical marijuana producers.

Montana is a hotbed of contradiction, especially when it comes to medical marijuana. Voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana in 2004, but in 2011 the state legislature voted to dramatically restrict access to medical marijuana. Now, Montana PBS has produced an exemplary documentary, focusing on the medical uses of marijuana, with interviews with patients, doctors, scientists and medical marijuana critics.

One of the lead researchers on the Human Genome Project has turned his talents in another direction, taking just two months to sequence a cannabis genome. Kevin McKernan, founder of the Massachusetts firm Medicinal Genomics did it not to help stoners get stonier but as a leading effort to begin separating the medicinal qualities of marijuana from those elements that get people high.

Friday, the Colorado Department of Transportation launched an anti-drugged driving campaign aimed at educating people about the dangers--and illegality--of driving while on drugs.

Congressman Jared Polis and drug-policy reform advocate Ethan Nadelmann argued Wednesday night in Vail that one of the most compelling reasons to legalize marijuana in the United States is to eliminate a major funding source for deadly Mexican drug cartels. Both Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and recently retired DEA agent Anthony Coulson sharply disagreed.

Appearing in Minnesota yesterday, President Obama was asked about legalizing medical marijuana. His answer was beyond vague and not entirely supportive.

Colorado is used to boom and bust cycles, and it wasn't hard to see this one coming. Nederland over the past few years has been the poster child for medical marijuana, at one point with a dispensary for every 100 residents. Today Nederland is down to about one dispensary per 500 residents and the city's tax base has gone the same direction.

Chaz Moore--known as 'Bill Smith' to many--a high school student in Colorado Springs who uses medical marijuana to control a rare neurological disorder, has become something of a celebrity, with a web site, T-shirts and regular gigs as a public speaker. Unfortunately his condition has worsened, forcing him to finish high school with online classes.

A study of medical marijuana users in California, conducted by The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, has found that medical marijuana users are in some ways just as stereotype would suggest: young men using marijuana for pain relief. In other ways, however, the study reached some startling conclusions, namely that medical marijuana users are less likely to use alcohol, cocaine or prescription drugs than the population as a whole.