Marijuana

[RedWine]

New Mexico doctors are allowed to prescribe marijuana to help some seriously ill patients manage symptoms including pain and nausea under a bill signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson on Monday.

"This law will provide much-needed relief for New Mexicans suffering from debilitating diseases," Richardson, a Democratic candidate for U.S. president in 2008, said at the signing ceremony. "It is the right thing to do."

The southwestern state is the 12th in the United States to endorse the use of marijuana for medical uses. New Mexico's state legislature is the fourth in the country to enact such a measure.

The law allows marijuana use by patients suffering from several conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis and epilepsy, according to Richardson's office.

U.S. states that have backed medical marijuana have, however, come into legal conflict with the 1970 federal Controlled Substances Act barring marijuana. Courts have said federal law trumps state law.

http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/images/marijuana.jpg

Just last month, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a California woman with an inoperable brain tumor may not smoke marijuana to ease her pain even though California voters approved its medicinal use in 1996.

In 1978, New Mexico began allowing very limited use of marijuana, or its active ingredient, THC, to help control cancer patients' nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy, but only when other nausea-control drugs failed.

The law creates a panel of eight expert physicians and other health care workers to supervise the program. Qualified patients must be under a doctor's care and supervision, the news release said.

"I would like to thank the governor for ... giving me another shot at life," said Essie DeBone, who suffers from advanced complications from HIV/AIDS.

[mike435]

everything in moderation is ok

if marajuana improves the atmosphere why not sometimes its ok

[RedWine]

The federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the weed in bulk from its official supplier, newly released documents show.

Critics say it's unconscionable to charge that high a markup to some of the country's sickest citizens, who have little income and are often cut off from their medical marijuana supply when they can't pay their government dope bills.

Records obtained under the Access to Information Act show that Health Canada pays $328.75 for each kilogram of bulk medical marijuana produced by Prairie Plant Systems Inc.

The company currently has a $10.3-million contract with Health Canada, which expires at the end of September, to grow standardized medical marijuana in an abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man.

Health Canada, in turn, sells the marijuana to a small group of authorized users for $150 - plus GST - for each 30-gram bag of ground-up flowering tops, with a strength of up to 14 per cent THC, the main active ingredient. That works out to $5,000 for each kilogram, or a markup of more than 1,500 per cent.

"It's impossible for a person on disability," said Ron Lawrence, 38, a burn victim in Windsor, Ont., who needs medical marijuana to control severe pain. "The sickest people are the ones that need it the most . . . they're the ones who don't work."

Adds Scott McCluskey, 48, in Westbank, B.C., who suffers spinal-cord pain that is eased by marijuana: "They're selling it for criminal street prices. . . . I don't think anybody, especially seriously ill people . . . should have to pay this type of money for medicine."

Health Canada has become a reluctant marijuana supplier, forced into the role by a series of court decisions that have accepted scientific research indicating cannabis can relieve pain when other medications fail. The courts have also said patients should not be forced into the black market to purchase their medicine.

Currently, 1,742 patients are authorized by Health Canada to possess dried marijuana as a medication. Of these, 1,040 are licensed to grow their own, and another 167 people are licensed to grow marijuana for the exclusive use of licensed patients.

But patients can also order marijuana through Health Canada's official supplier, Prairie Plant Systems, which typically delivers the product by Purolater courier.

Currently, 149 patients are officially in arrears - almost a third of the 514 patients who order government-certified dope - collectively owing Health Canada $143,611 in outstanding payments. Many have been cut off from their supplies, though Health Canada was not able to indicate the number.

"At a time when medical cannabis users all too often have to choose between buying groceries and their medicine, it is unconscionable that Health Canada . . . should be marking up this product 1,500 per cent," said Philippe Lucas of Victoria-based Canadians for Safe Access, which promotes ready access to medical marijuana.
A spokesman for the department, Jason Bouzanis, said the quoted price of $328.75 a kilogram for bulk marijuana does not include other Health Canada costs.

"The price for individuals authorized to possess marijuana for medical purposes is based on the actual cost of production and an estimate of costs associated with the distribution of the product," he said, "These costs are subject to change."

Contract records show Health Canada also pays the supplier a packaging fee of $9.06 for each 30-gram package, to cover labour and materials, as well as courier fees that are dependent on shipping volumes.

Although patients currently can grow it themselves or have someone else grow it for them, Health Canada plans to phase out these production licences sometime after 2007. That would force patients to order from Prairie Plant Systems, or take their chances with street dealers or so-called compassion clubs, which are technically illegal.

Street prices for marijuana are about $10 a gram for small quantities, or about twice Health Canada's price, though bulk street purchases with few middlemen can match or better the government price. Compassion clubs charge as low as $5 a gram, the same price as government dope.

Because medical marijuana is not a recognized drug, with its own drug identification number, insurance companies and government drug programs do not reimburse patients for costs, as they do for other pain medication.

Many patients say they are unhappy with the quality of the Prairie Plant System product.

"It's garbage," said Tom MacMullen, 43, of Prospect Bay, N.S., who uses marijuana for leg and back pain. "It's just so awful-tasting."

MacMullen has twice been cut off from his government supply, and currently owes $517 in arrears. With a disability pension of $653 a month and two children, he has few resources to buy dope and now relies on the charity of friends.

Bouzanis said Health Canada is tightening its rules beginning May 1, so that those who are 30 days or more in arrears can receive one more shipment before they are cut off. Previously, patients were given a 180-day grace period.

Meanwhile, the Victoria-based Vancouver Island Compassion Society is planning a constitutional challenge to the federal medical cannabis program, set to be heard in the British Columbia Supreme Court May 9-18.

[zubin]

faghat nazar va ettelatat:

ye cheez ke khayliha nemeedunan eene ke Ibne Sina medical marijuana ro elmi emtehan va mashhoor kard. alan makhsusan baraye stress zyadi (masalan baraye kesi ke zyadi zeere feshare ya Aids dare) estefade meeshe.

faghat bekhatere ghodrate siasi mojaz neest. ejtema shenasi ham neshun dade ke agar mojaz bashe (mesle tu holand) eteyad nemeeyare. be adamayi ke az zur goftan va heeri veeriye emruze badeshun meeyad aramesh va azadi meede.

az nazare koshtane cellule maghz... bayad begam ke een harfe zyadi shode. cellul maghz hamash dar hale mordan va bevujud amadane bedune marijuana. va andazeye cellulha mohem neest, mohem juriye ke cellulha estefade meeshe. Vali mogheye zayman be ehtemale zyad mozere baraye bacheye ayande chon maghz khodesh mavade sheemeye marijuan (THC) ro meesaze va mogheye bozorg shodane bache estefade meeshe. Kheyli ha az nazare "evolution" meegan ke momkene ham cheen cheezi ro adamaye avvalleye estefade meekardan ke behtar cheez ekhtera konan va be een daleele ke adam "receptor"e THC tu maghz dare! (vali adam che bedune!)

een ham yek azmayesh ke neshun meede baaziha ba hushtar ham meeshan ba marijuana. neshun meede ke bar aksi ke fekr meekonan marijuana baraye hafeze khube. be ehtemale zyad dade vaghti ke adam khodesh havas part bashe!


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.%2020051014.wxcanna1014/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/

Study turns pot wisdom on head

Lab rats given drug 100 times as strong as pot
DAWN WALTON

From Friday's Globe and Mail

Calgary — Forget the stereotype about dopey potheads. It seems marijuana could be good for your brain.

While other studies have shown that periodic use of marijuana can cause memory loss and impair learning and a host of other health problems down the road, new research suggests the drug could have some benefits when administered regularly in a highly potent form.

Most "drugs of abuse" such as alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine suppress growth of new brain cells. However, researchers found that cannabinoids promoted generation of new neurons in rats' hippocampuses.

Hippocampuses are the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, and the study held true for either plant-derived or the synthetic version of cannabinoids.

"This is quite a surprise," said Xia Zhang, an associate professor with the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

"Chronic use of marijuana may actually improve learning memory when the new neurons in the hippocampus can mature in two or three months," he added.

The research by Dr. Zhang and a team of international researchers is to be published in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, but their findings are on-line now.

The scientists also noticed that cannabinoids curbed depression and anxiety, which Dr. Zhang says, suggests a correlation between neurogenesis and mood swings. (Or, it at least partly explains the feelings of relaxation and euphoria of a pot-induced high.)

Other scientists have suggested that depression is triggered when too few new brain cells are created in the hippocampus. One researcher of neuropharmacology said he was "puzzled" by the findings.

As enthusiastic as Dr. Zhang is about the potential health benefits, he warns against running out for a toke in a bid to beef up brain power or calm nerves.

The team injected laboratory rats with a synthetic substance called HU-210, which is similar, but 100 times as potent as THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the compound responsible for giving marijuana users a high.

They found that the rats treated regularly with a high dose of HU-210 -- twice a day for 10 days -- showed growth of neurons in the hippocampus. The researchers don't know if pot, which isn't as pure as the lab-produced version, would have the same effect.

"There's a big gap between rats and humans," Dr. Zhang points out.

But there is a lot of interest -- and controversy -- around the use of cannabinoids to improve human health.

Cannabinoids, such as marijuana and hashish, have been used to address pain, nausea, vomiting, seizures caused by epilepsy, ischemic stroke, cerebral trauma, tumours, multiple sclerosis and a host of other maladies.

There are herbal cannabinoids, which come from the cannabis plant, and the bodies of humans and animals produce endogenous cannabinoids. The substance can also be designed in the lab.

Cannabinoids can trigger the body's two cannabinoid receptors, which control the activity of various cells in the body.

One receptor, known as CB1, is found primarily in the brain. The other receptor, CB2, was thought to be found only in the immune system.

However, in a separate study to be published today in the journal Science, a group of international researchers have located the CB2 receptor in the brain stems of rats, mice and ferrets.

The brain stem is responsible for basic body function such as breathing and the gastrointestinal tract. If stimulated in a certain way, CB2 could be harnessed to eliminate the nausea and vomiting associated with post-operative analgesics or cancer and AIDS treatments, according to the researchers.

"Ultimately, new therapies could be developed as a result of these findings," said Keith Sharkey, a gastrointestinal neuroscientist at the University of Calgary, lead author of the study.

(Scientists are trying to find ways to block CB1 as a way to decrease food cravings and limit dependence on tobacco.)

When asked whether his findings explain why some swear by pot as a way to avoid the queasy feeling of a hangover, Dr. Sharkey paused and replied: "It does not explain the effects of smoked or inhaled or ingested substances."

[abadani69]

Marijuana is the best!

[shazz]

mibinam Hame Bache Ha JooJ KeShan..Hehe...