Medical Marijuana Initiative Heads For California Ballot

Supporters were elated by the success of the signature-gathering drive and noted that a last week blitz of over 140,000 signatures virtually guaranteed that Californians will have an opportunity to vote on the issue this year. A final validation of the estimated 750,000 signatures is expected in five to eight weeks. The number of signatures required to qualify the initiative for the 1996 ballot is 433,269.

California's medical marijuana initiative came about in response to Governor Pete Wilson's decision to veto legislation passed by the California Legislature in 1995 that would have allowed for the controlled compassionate use of marijuana for those diagnosed by a physician to be suffering from the diseases of AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis. The 1996 initiative maintains that any patient who possesses a valid doctor's recommendation should be allowed to use marijuana as a therapeutic agent without fear or risk of prosecution. If the initiative is passed by California voters this fall, the measure will become law immediately and cannot be vetoed.

"The issue here is simple: sick people should not be arrested for using medicine that their physicians recommend to them," said California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer.

For more information, please contact either Dale Gieringer of California NORML at (415) 563-5858 or Dennis Peron of Californians for Compassionate Use at (415) 621-3986.

Rep. Fred Maslack (R-Poultney), a chief proponent of the legislation, told NORML that the House is going to take its time and "let things develop" before rushing to approve the amended legislation. Maslack stated that House backers are considering several options at this time, including trying to override Dean's expected veto of the bill and/or tacking the controversial legislation onto an economic development bill considered sacred to the governor. "It's not over 'til it's over," Maslack told the Associated Press.

Kathleen Keenan, chairwoman of the House Commerce Committee, told the AP that she sees hemp as an "economic development issue," but noted that "it has enough merit to stand alone." Keenan further added that she was uncertain how committed Dean was to the economic development bill and cautioned that he may, in fact, veto it with the hemp provision included.

Keenan's warning has little affect on the bill's proponents, however, who consider the latest round of political one-upmanship a "positive" note. The approval from the Senate was "one more step in the process," said Maslack. "[It's] not the first step [and it's certainly] not the last step," but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Evans was subpoenaed to testify before the Kenton County Grand Jury on April 19 and questioned about his involvement in the buyer's club. Evan's plead the Fifth Amendment and was later taken to Kenton County Jail. He was released on $5,000 bond and will be arraigned on Monday.

"I am sick of living in a country where I can't be free," Evans adamantly summarized at a press conference following the raid last February. "Give me liberty or give me death. We are going to have a cannabis buyer's club."

For more information, please contact Richard Evans of Americans for Compassionate Use at (606) 431-8719 or Attorney Gatewood Galbraith at (606) 281-6909.

"I know I'm only a pampered actor with no room to complain, ... but the fact is I care," Harrelson wrote in a two page proclamation. Previously Harrelson, who has commercial interests in a hemp clothing company, had pledged his support for the Colorado hemp bill by affirming that he "will personally guarantee that all hemp produced in Colorado will be purchased at fair market prices." The legislation was recently killed by the House Agriculture Committee by a 8-5 vote.

According to a story that ran in USA Today, Harrelson said that he's been quietly fighting on behalf of industrial hemp and other environmental causes for years. He even slipped president Clinton a letter regarding hemp cultivation while they both attended actor Ted Danson's wedding, the feature noted.

In response to Harrelson's action and to commemorate his efforts on behalf of the Colorado Hemp Production Act of 1996, the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project (CO-HIP) has declared July 23 to be Woody Harrelson Appreciation Day. "Mr. Harrelson has shown great courage and integrity in speaking out in the name of the [environment,] said CO-HIP's Laura Kriho. "As a well known and talented actor, his fame has brought media attention to issues like the salvage logging rider and the industrial hemp movement. ... We hope he continues to be a vocal supporter."

Body Count

"Numbers are in: Crime stabilizes" opens with a blood-curdling account of two April 1996 fatal knifings before the reporter apparently realizes her topic is 1995 crime statistics. Oops. Then she goes on to assert that "The statistics released by the state for Gresham, Troutdale, Sandy and mid-Multnomah County show that crime - except for forgeries, illegal drug use and rape - is not increasing significantly." The assertion that illegal drug use is increasing significantly is based on a graph (p. 6 3M-ME) showing the number of such arrests in 1995 increased to 508 in Gresham (from 331 in 1994, up from 181 in 1993); increased to 34 in Troutdale (up from 29 in 1994 and 18 in 1993); and doubled to 22 in Sandy (from 11 in 1994, but down from 16 in 1993). For the entire east Multnomah County area (population 221,766), drug arrests rose to 564 in 1995 from 371 in 1994 and from 215 in 1993. The "MetroEast Neighbors" article and its false conclusions were also summarized in similar crime stories that ran in other editions of the April 25 'Oregonian.'

Washington - the automobile, long considered the ticket to freedom in suburbia, is instead turning suburban life into a territory of destruction more dangerous than urban communities, according to a study being released today.

The study of the long-reaching impact of cars, trucks and suburban sprawl on the qualify of life in the Pacific Northwest found that the prevalence of automobiles and auto accidents has led to more deaths and injuries in suburbs than have guns and drugs in urban settings.

"People dramatically underestimate the risks of driving and overestimate the risks of crime," the study's author, Alen Thein During, said.

According to an Associated Press story titled "FDA will allow cancer patients to get new drugs faster," published in the March 30, 1996 Oregonian (p. A15):

Cancer patients will get quicker access to promising new drugs, much as AIDS patients already do, under a program announced Friday by President Clinton.
....
Since 1991, the FDA has offered special "accelerated approval" to drugs promising hope for treatment of any life-threatening disease. Instead of proving that a drug has prolonged life in hundreds of patients, medicines could be sold after studies of smaller groups of people showed they helped a vital symptom.
....
Only one cancer drug is in the group, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals' Casodex for advanced prostate cancer. Most makers of cancer drugs were afraid to try accelerated approval without specific FDA guidelines on what was acceptable, said Eli Lilly Vice President Homer Pearce.

So the FDA on Friday provided guidelines: Simply show in Phase II trials that the medicine makes a tumor shrink. Expensive final testing in many more patients still must prove the drug's long-term effectiveness, but those Phase III studies can run while the drug is being sold.

In fact, two studies cited below, sponsored by and then suppressed by the federal government, show that cannabis reduces the size of tumors. The ensuing information has not been collected in one place before:

Dr. Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar of Harvard Medical School write in their book, "Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine" (1993, Harvard University Press, available quick and cheap from FS Book Company, Sacramento, 1-800-635-8883 credit cards, 916-771-4203 customer service):

Antitumoral Effects

The relief of nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy is not the only proposed use of cannabis in cancer treatment. In the 1970s an experiment was conducted in which the lungs of mice were injected with cancer cells and delta-9-THC, delta-8-THC, or cannabinol was applied; the size of the tumors dropped 25 to 82 percent, depending on dose and duration of treatment, with a corresponding increase in survival time. (41) Other animal studies also suggest that some cannabinoids have tumor-reducing properties. Although there is no human and little other research in the field, cannabinoids may prove to be useful as adjuncts to other chemotherapeutic agents. (p. 132)

[footnote:]

41: L.S. Harris, A.E. Munson, and R.A. Carchman, "Antitumor Properties of Cannabinoids," in The Pharmacology of Marihuana, ed. M.C. Braude and S. Szara, 2 vols. (New York: Raven, 1976), 2:773-776.

In addition, Jack Herer writes in his book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," that:

Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia discovered that cannabis is an incredibly successful herb for reducing many types of tumors, both benign and malignant (cancerous).

The DEA and other federal agencies had ordered these tumor studies done after hearing of erroneous reports of possible immunicological problems associated with cannabis smoke. When, instead of health problems, an apparent medical breakthrough occurred in 1975 and successful tumor reductions were recorded, orders were handed down by the DEA and the National Institute of Health (NIH) to defund all further cannabis/tumor research and testing. (p. 37, 10th edition, 1995. Prove him wrong and collect $30,000. Cost: $19 from FS Book Company, ibid.)

Washington Residents Favor Medical Marijuana

The CBS 48 Hours program which aired last Thursday evening was factually inaccurate, misrepresented the efforts by so many to help thousands of seriously ill people and was an ill deserved character assassination of Dennis Peron, the acknowledged leader of a grass roots movement. Finally, the 48 Hours segment was a journalistically dishonest and unfair view of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club.

This program aired in California just days before a deadline for gathering signatures which would place the issue of medical marijuana on the November ballot. A flood of calls from our supporters across California suggest the numerous distortions and the effort to present what is basically propaganda against the initiative is no accident. A significant number of people appear to believe the decision by CBS to air the show at this time is a very specific attempt to sabotage the signature gathering effort for this initiative.

The program was journalistically dishonest for several reasons:

1. The program reports San Francisco Proposition P, a resolution supporting medical marijuana failed. That is false. It passed with 80% of the vote. The method of presenting this false information created a perception that Mr. Peron operates without the blessing, support and encouragement of the surrounding community. When anyone or anything gets 80% of the vote, they have support.

3. In the attempt to smear Mr. Peron, his incredible leadership of a six year effort to gain passage of legislation at the state level was not mentioned. Instead, the choice was made to create the image of Mr. Peron as a self-centered profiteer. That distortion was cruel, mean spirited and unfair.

4. The fact that the Cannabis Buyer's Club provides effective medicine at one seventh the month cost of ineffective pharmaceutical alternatives, a key reason this projects exists, was not deemed important to the producers of the segment. We believe any fair portrayal of the financial implications of the medical marijuana problem would, in our opinion, include such a comparison.

5. CBS chose not to give focus to the fact that doctors prescribe it, patients use it and grow it, and clinics, Co-Ops and Cannabis Buyer's Club distribute it.

6. CBS ignored the simple conclusion that now only one question is remaining. That is how to provide legal, safe and affordable prescriptive medical access to marijuana with the least possibility of diversion for non-medical purposes.

In summary, we believe it is a tragedy CBS chose not to track the genesis of the buyer's clubs, the principles on which they are founded or the doctrine of law that provides for their activities. Instead CBS chose to focus on gossip, spite and scandal.

We want America to know the Cannabis Buyers Clubs are not a perfect system. Nobody ever wrote a book on how to provide medical marijuana to over 8,000 seriously ill people in the midst of an absolute prohibition. We've had to make it up as we go along and there have been plenty of mistakes. We've tried our best to confront them honestly and directly, learn from them, make the needed modifications, and move on.

Dutch Dilemma - Drugs 'R' Us?

MEXICO CITY - It's no secret that Mexico is the preeminent pipeline for hundreds of tons of US.-bound cocaine every year. And drug agents have known for years that some traffickers launder their dirty cash in Mexico.

But when Thomas Constantine, chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration, spoke openly about the subject at an international conference earlier this week, the Mexican news media blasted him with both barrels.

How dare an American antidrug official suggest that drug money is laundered in Mexico, indignant reporters asked. And how dare he say that Mexico ought to capture some of the country's fugitive cocaine barons?

Mexican diplomats quickly joined the fray, calling the DEA chiefs comments "offensive." Banking and finance officials protested. The controversy snowballed. And by midweek, Mexico City's Excelsior newspaper was claiming the incredible: That Mr. Constantine had engineered the capture - some Mexicans called it a kidnapping - of a Mexican doctor then believed to have been involved in the 1985 murder and former of DEA agent Enrique Camarena in Guadalajara.

It didn't seem to matter that Mr. Constantine, a former New York state police superintendent, wasn't even pointed DEA chief until January 1994. The feeding frenzy was on, and Mr. Constantine and the DEA were the targets.

[Rest of article omitted]