More Diseases Marijuana May Alleviate
April 16th, 2009 by Tracii
A medical advisory board in New Mexico wants to add eight more diseases to the list of conditions eligible for treatment with medical marijuana.
The state’s medical marijuana program — which currently has all of 284 patients — already allows its use for 14 chronic illnesses, and among them are cancer, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. Like other medical marijuana states, New Mexico’s program protects patients from state prosecution.
While off-label uses for prescription drugs are commonplace in western medicine, cannabis is restricted to treating a short list of specific diseases when it’s been shown to alleviate the symptoms of many more. That list should include symptoms treatable by marijuana regardless of their cause, especially considering its low toxicity profile compared to many drugs on the market today.
Still, this is a step in the right direction for New Mexico. If the advisory committee has its way, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic muscle inflammation, post-polio syndrome, severe chronic pain, and three types of arthritis will be added to the current list of conditions legally treatable with marijuana.
States like Oklahoma and Alabama, take note. You could learn a thing or two about compassion and common sense from your brother New Mexico.
Former MLB Player Drops Ball, Rolls Truck
April 13th, 2009 by Rick
Back in December of 2008, an icy, slippery freeway sealed Gilberto Reyes’s fate. His truck, loaded with furniture, lost control and overturned and after the spill, 42 cellophane wrapped bricks of marijuana, an estimated $250,000, could be seen scattered in the snow.
At one time, a catcher for Major League Baseball teams L.A. Dodgers and Montreal Expos, Gilberto Reyes has been sitting in jail, not even being able to pay his $10,000 bond. Reyes still maintains his innocence, saying that he had met a man he only knew as “Garcia” in a pool hall in Douglas, Arizona. After hanging out for 5 months, Garcia asked Reyes to deliver some furniture and paid him $1000.
In February, Reyes’s trial ended with a hung jury, 8 – 4, leaning towards an acquittal. A retrial was then scheduled for July. He has already denied a plea bargain after 15 months in jail, wanting to protect his good name.
Reyes said:
To be honest, they had a good case. The D.A. was very good. He was just doing his job. He can’t let me go free. That was his case. He had to prove I knew something about it.
Then in a surprising move, the San Miguel County District Attorney Richard Flores, dropped the case. On March 10, Gilberto Reyes was released and immediately seized by immigration and Customs Enforcement because his visa had expired while he was in jail. He has been held without bond in an ICE processing center in El Paso, Texas waiting to be deported back to the Dominican Republic.
The sad thing in all of this is that Reyes placed himself in this position when he chose to wait for the police that snowy morning.
Reyes said:
I sat and waited for the police. It’s true I could have grabbed one of those marijuana bundles, stopped the next passing car and said, ‘Hey, drive me to Albuquerque.’
Even at a Las Vegas hospital, Reyes had a chance to flee when he was left unattended for 20 minutes. He didn’t because he was innocent.
Reyes said:
I’m really happy I rolled the truck. I didn’t know there were drugs in there. But I’m happy it happened because those drugs never made it to drug dealers on the street.
There’s a phrase that comes to mind when I hear about stories like this… ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt.’
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New President, Same Old DEA Raids
January 27th, 2009 by Perry
The DEA raided a dispensary on Jan. 22, the first such act by federal law enforcement since Obama’s inauguration earlier this week.
The raid flies in the face of campaign promises made by Obama, who said he would rein in this type of behavior from federal agencies. Holistic Solutions is was the name of the dispensary, and while cash and marijuana were seized, no arrests were made.
Senator Obama said in an August 2007 statement:
I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It’s not a good use of our resources.
I’m not quite sure if kicking down the doors of an unoccupied, state-sanctioned medical facility is the biggest waste of federal tax dollars (see: Bridge to Nowhere), but it has to be up there.
According to a statement on the Americans for Safe Access Web site, the raid is just one of more than 100 in California in the last two years (roughly two per week for those without a calculator). No surprise, since CA has received an overwhelming share of federal scrutiny for its pioneering of federally-outlawed efforts at medical marijuana.
New Mexico, which recently adopted a MMJ card program, was threatened by the DEA for its plan, according to the same release.
New Mexico Makes MMJ Program Official
January 26th, 2009 by Perry
After more than a year of legal wrangling, New Mexico’s Department of Health formalized rules concerning medical marijuana. The state approved use with a physician’s permission back in 2007, but lawmakers dragged their feet on a registration system for a number of reasons.
One of the political loopholes was reaching a consensus on which diseases would qualify a patient for an MMJ prescription. Currently the Health Department authorized use for cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, spinal cord damage, HIV/AIDS and any patient in hospice care.
A state panel is also looking at allowing broader qualifications, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and nerve damage.
New Mexico Finalizes Pot Rules
January 19th, 2009 by Perry
Roughly a year after a 2007 law went into effect legalizing medical marijuana, New Mexico has finally created a system whereby patients have a regulated program for acquiring medical marijuana.
A year. And they say that potheads procrastinate…
Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil said:
Now patients now can get medical cannabis for their chronic health conditions in a way that is safe and legal under state law.
A spokeswoman for the state department responsible for the regulations said there was an extensive list of qualifications which had to be determined before it could grant access for the 207 patients who applied for licenses.
The delay was to ensure patients received quality MMJ that was safe, but it also left several dispensaries who were acting in good faith with New Mexico law, subject to arrests and seizures. The law was to be enacted sooner, but public comments caused lawmakers to revise the legislation to allow the waiving of license fees if a grower’s income is low, to allow for the possession of more than 6 ounces if a doctor explains the need for larger doses, and the option to petition to add new medical conditions to the established list that marijuana can give relief from.
Currently, the applicable conditions list looks like this:
- HIV/AIDS
- Cancer
- Epilepsy
- Glaucoma
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Spinal Cord Damage with Intractable Spasticity
Get the details and see the fine print at New Mexico’s own cannabis program page.
New Mexico Approves Medical Marijuana
April 3rd, 2007 by Alex
Today is a good day to live in New Mexico.
The Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, otherwise known as Senate Bill 523, was signed into law on Monday, April 2nd.
This will positively affect the lives of thousands of sufferers who can use medicinal marijuana to improve their day-to-day lives. I know that NORML has been lobbying hard for this one, and they finally got the reward.
This bill not only legislates a medical marijuana program, which will be run by the state Department of Health, but also “protects medical cannabis patients from arrest and state criminal prosecution.”
Although this bill does not allow patients to grow their own medical marijuana, it is a positive step no matter how you look at it.
Get the full breakdown over at NORML, and if you’re in New Mexico make sure to thank Governor Bill Richardson for his unwavering support.
US Customs Bust 60 Year Old Lady
November 16th, 2006 by Alex
On Tuesday, damn early in the morning, Carmen Franco and her son Ramon Franco entered the Columbus, New Mexico entry port. Officers decided to give her car some face-to-face time and discovered a hidden compartment in the bumper. Ouch. Stuffed in the bumper was 198 pounds of weed. That’s a cool $200k in South-of-the-border cheeba. Someone back in Mexico is going to be really pissed off about that. They even found a small bonus bag filled with 83 grams of cocaine.
Customs agents showed up after the bust to arrest Carmen and her son. They were charged with, “importation of a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.”
Another day, another failed attempt at getting drugs into the US.
