On July 18, 2005, in a press release entitled "California Resumes Medical Marijuana ID Card Program," the California State Department of Health Services announced:
"California has re-started its Medical Marijuana ID Card program, State Health Director Sandra Shewry announced today. After receiving legal advice from the State Attorney General that said that operating the pilot program would not aid and abet marijuana users in committing a federal crime, Shewry today directed staff of the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) to resume operations that were suspended on July 8."
background of this announcement
On June 6, 2005, in
Gonzales v. Raich, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that "Congress' Commerce Clause authority includes the power to prohibit the local cultivation and use of marijuana in compliance with California law."
To view the text of
Gonzales v. Raich, click
here.
On July 8, 2005, the California Department of Health Services
suspended its medical marijuana identification card program and asked Bill Lockyer, California's Attorney General, "to review whether continued operation of the program would, under federal law, aid and abet individuals in committing a federal crime."
On July 12, 2005,
California Politics Today and
Podmedia Reports spoke with Ken August, California Department of Health Services spokesperson, about that decision.
You can listen to that conversation, in its entirety, by clicking
here.
another opinion from the California Attorney General about medical marijuana ID cards
On June 23, 2005, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued another opinion about medical marijuana cards. You can access that opinion, which came in response to questions about medical marijuana ID cards from California State Senator
Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), by clicking
here.
medical marijuana in Santa Cruz County, California
Santa Cruz County, California, recently raised to three pounds the amount of medical marijuana that a qualified medical marijuana user was allowed to possess for medical use.
You can read about this modification of the pre-existing limits on marijuana possession by medical marijuana patients in Santa Cruz County in an October 23, 2004,
California Politics Today article by clicking
here.
You can listen to an October 12, 2004, audio interview with Santa Cruz County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt talking about the decision by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to raise the allowable limit of medical marijuana that registered users may possess by clicking
here.
You can listen to a more recent, June 8, 2005, audio interview with Supervisor Wormhoudt, in which she calls the federal arrest of medical marijuana patients, as allowed under the terms of the U.S. Supreme Court's
Gonzalez v. Raich decision, "the most bizarre and ridiculous priority," by clicking
here.
medical marijuana in Rhode Island
According to a June 29, 2005,
New York Times article entitled
"Medical Marijuana? Rhode Island Says Yes,":
"The Rhode Island legislature passed a bill yesterday allowing the use of medical marijuana, three weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that federal authorities could prosecute those who use the drug for medicinal purposes, even in states with laws allowing it."
You can listen to a June 30, 2005, audio interview with Rhode Island State Representative
Thomas C. Slater, principal author of Rhode Island's medical marijuana legislation, by clicking
here.
You can listen to another June 30, 2005, audio interview with Representative Slater, in which he talks about the Rhode Island Senate's 28-6 override of
Governor Donald L. Carcieri's veto of that state's medical marijuana bill, by clicking
here.
Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senator from California calls for reform of marijuana laws
You can read about Judge Jim Gray, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate in the 2004 election, and his call to "treat marijuana like alcohol and control and tax it," by clicking
here.
associate professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Lester Grinspoon's take on marijuana
Most discussion of the medical uses of marijuana focuses on its use to treat conditions such as
"HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, Aging, Arthritis, Gastro-Intestinal Disorders, Movement Disorders, Cancer and Chronic Pain".
For a discussion of marijuana's utility in treating these and other medical conditions, click on the title of
"Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine," by
Lester Grinspoon, Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School.
For a discussion of the use of marijuana outside the medical context, also by Dr. Grinspoon, click
here.
Dr. Grinspoon introduces the "Learn" section of this site by writing:
"You and I are among the more than 70 million Americans who have used cannabis -- and possibly among the more than ten million who use it regularly. We know that people smoke marijuana not because they are driven by uncontrollable "Reefer Madness" craving, as some propaganda would lead us to believe, but because they have learned its value from experience. Yet almost all of the research, writing, political activity, and legislation devoted to marijuana has been concerned only with the question of whether it is harmful and how much harm it does. The only exception is the growing medical marijuana movement, but as encouraging as that movement is, it represents only one category of marijuana use. The rest are sometimes grouped under the general heading of "recreational", but that is hardly an adequate description of, say, marijuana's capacity to catalyze ideas and insights, heighten the appreciation of music and art, or deepen emotional and sexual intimacy.
"These kinds of marijuana experiences, which I like to call "enhancement", are often misunderstood and under-appreciated -- not only by non-users, but even by some users, especially young people who are interested mainly in promoting sociability and fun."
To access a 1997 interview of Dr. Grinspoon by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, click
here.
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