“If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
– President Thomas Jefferson, who was a hemp farmer
Every year the Hollywood Foreign Press Association holds its Golden Globe Awards ceremony to hand out statuettes to TV and film talent. At the 64th annual ceremony that was held January 15, 2007, there was a bit of a seating problem that got taken care of before the guests were seated. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton and his wife were to be seated at the same table as the cast of the Showtime cable TV show Weeds, a comedy starring actress Mary-Louise Parker as a single soccer mom selling cannabis in the suburbs to make ends meet. The show organizers also made sure that the Beverly Hills Police Chief and the Los Angeles County Sheriff were seated away from the cast of Weeds.
In the news the same day of the ceremony was Bratton’s plan to place limits on where the medical marijuana dispensaries (pharmacies) could be located in the city. At the time there were 98 of the dispensaries providing cannabis to anyone with a medical marijuana prescription as allowed by a state law passed by the 1996 Proposition 215 Compassionate Use Act and the 2004 state Senate Bill 420. Together, Prop 215 and SB 420 legalized possession and cultivation of cannabis for qualified medical patients.
In a report to the Police Commission, Bratton called for a moratorium on new facilities until rules could be established clarifying where the facilities could be located. The report included over 40 recommendations for regulating dispensaries. It called for banning dispensaries from within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, parks, and childcare facilities. It also called for the dispensary owner to keep an area of within 100 feet of the dispensary free from litter. It seems that 94 of the facilities had opened in the previous year, 2006. Bratton was concerned about some facilities that had opened near schools, and some that had been aggressively marketing their presence by placing flyers on neighborhood cars. He pledged to cooperate with the DEA in prosecuting dispensaries that break the laws.
While writing this I thought about how more than 100,000 Americans die every year from pharmaceutical prescription drugs commonly sold at drug stores that spend enormous amounts on advertising and marketing. But those are legal drugs that are often covered by private and government insurance programs, and that are feely available to anyone with a prescription issued by a doctor who carries a federal drug license. Nobody dies from an overdose of marijuana. But that little fact doesn’t seem to be a concern of the DEA, so having a few thousand prescription drug stores in every city and more in every suburb and town is okay with them. But a safe medication that a person can’t overdose and that provides relief to ailing patients – that, the DEA doesn’t like.
By some estimates, Los Angles has one prescription drug pharmacy for every 4,000 residents. Across America there was more than one new corporate chain pharmacy opening every single day during 2006. On January 15, 2007, Los Angeles had one marijuana dispensary for every 39,200 people, but many of the people who obtain medical marijuana from dispensaries within Los Angeles travel from other counties where dispensaries are not permitted.
On January 17, 2007, Los Angeles County had 11 fewer marijuana dispensaries in operation than the day before. That is because armed DEA agents wearing bulletproof vests, gloves, sunglasses, and dust masks raided 11 of the dispensaries located in five cities. (Dust masks? Yes, dust masks.)
Included in the raids was the Farmacy in West Hollywood. That dispensary was considered to be one of the best run of all the dispensaries in L.A. It limited patients to an ounce of medical cannabis when by law patients are allowed to have up to eight ounces. It provided the medication in the form of tinctures as well as baked goods so that patients could avoid smoking it, which would prevent respiratory issues. The Farmacy didn’t allow patients to take their medication on the premises. It detained anyone found to be presenting a forged medical marijuana prescription or other documents. It provided medical marijuana for many AIDS, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and cancer patients. Some of these patients often deal with a loss of appetite, which is brought back by taking medical marijuana, preventing weight loss and helping the patients to maintain their health.
“The government is just rattling their swords [by] taking down these dispensaries. Do they think they are going to stop the need for medical marijuana in California and other states? I don't think so, but by shutting down these safe access locations patients are going to have to turn to the black market.”
– Attorney Bruce Margolin of Los Angeles, NORML Legal Committee member
Perhaps the DEA doesn’t care about AIDS and cancer patients.
The DEA arrived with cardboard boxes printed with the words “DEA Evidence” in blue letters. They used the boxes to gather up the marijuana plants, dried marijuana, baked goods, ice cream bars, and other edible items the dispensaries sold. They also took cash and records, and detained 20 people.
Local officials in West Hollywood said they learned of the raids only as they were happening. Just the day before, the West Hollywood City Council had unanimously voted to cap the number of dispensaries in the city at four while approving an ordinance establishing permanent guidelines for the dispensaries.
The city of West Hollywood was well aware of the DEA tactics in dealing with marijuana dispensaries. The city had loaned more than $300,000 to the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center to purchase a building that was raided by the DEA in 2001. The DEA seized the building and effectively closed the dispensary that was meant to provide medicinal marijuana to people with AIDS, cancer, and other health afflictions.
“We’ve been fighting to support the access to medicinal marijuana for many, many years and there’s just a great disconnect between the federal government and communities like West Hollywood. Medicinal marijuana provides comfort and relief to people who are seriously ill and seemingly they [the DEA] view those people as drug addicts who belong in jail as opposed to people who deserve compassion and assistance.”
– West Hollywood California Councilman Jeffrey Prang, in response to DEA raids on medicinal marijuana dispensaries in West Hollywood; January 17, 2007
“There are hundreds of thousands of patients in California who need safe and reliable access to a medication that their doctors recommend they use and these raids are an example of the federal government going out of its way to interfere with the lives of patients.”
– Steph Sherer, founder of Americans for Safe Access; January 17, 2007
“The DEA has failed to significantly reduce marijuana consumption despite breathtaking increases in arrests and incarcerations. And its recent efforts aimed at keeping medicine from patients are shamefully transparent attempts to go after an easy target: Marijuana dispensaries operate openly, and cancer patients are limited in their ability to evade law enforcement.
The arcane classification of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act persists despite the government’s own actions and date to the contrary. In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration approved Marinol pills, which use the active ingredient in marijuana (THC) to treat nausea and vomiting. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that ‘the evidence is relatively strong for the [marijuana] treatment of pain and, intriguing although less well established, for movement disorders.”
– Attorney Manuel S. Klausner, founder of the Reason Foundation. Sick and need pot? The Feds don’t care: We need to rewrite outdated marijuana laws, not raid medical facilities, Los Angeles Times, January 26, 2007
It is likely a good thing to put some regulations on where a medical cannabis dispensary can locate, and on the hours that it conducts its business, but it is hardly necessary for the DEA to spend their time and resources on raiding dispensaries when the towns and cities where the dispensaries are located are quite capable of handling any problems that may occur in relation to the dispensaries. If the people have voted to allow the dispensaries, then the government should respect and represent the people. There are many other responsible ways to use tax dollars than to harass ailing people and to close down dispensaries providing a needed medicine to people who benefit from it.
During the second week of June 2007 DEA special agent Timothy J. Landrum sent a two-page letter to more than 150 Los Angeles commercial building landlords warming that they risk arrest and the loss of their properties if they continue allowing cannabis pharmacies to operate out of the buildings.
“By renting their property to individuals violating federal drug laws, they are in and of themselves violating federal law. These [letters of warming] are definitely meant to serve as a notice. What might happen as to the continuing investigations, we’ll just have to see.”
– Sarah Pollen, Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson, July 2007
In July 2007 there were more than 400 cannabis pharmacies in operation inside Los Angeles city borders. Within days of the DEA warning landlords were notifying the dispensaries to close shop and move out.
On July 17, 2007 the DEA announced a set of indictments alleging that the Compassionate Caregivers chain-store dispensary operators were profiteering from illegally selling marijuana. The chain owns dispensaries in several California cities, including Bakersfield, Oakland, San Francisco, San Leanardo, Ukiah, and West Hollywood. The DEA accused the owners, James Carberry and Larry R. Kristich, of doing more than $95 million in business and purchasing expensive items including cars and Costa Rican real estate. Other dispensary owners in Corona, Morro Bay, and San Louis Obispo were also indicted.
One doctor, Armand T. Tollette Jr., was indicted and accused of writing prescriptions for minors, not conducting physical examinations, and paying finder fees for client referrals.
“These dispensary operators are no different than any other drug trafficer: They prey on people in our communities to make a profit.”
– Timothy J. Landrum, DEA special agent in Los Angeles announcing the indictments against nearly a dozen California medical marijuana dispensaries, July 17, 2007.
When is the DEA going to bust regular pharmaceutical drug company owners and regular chain drug store pharmacies from profiteering on the backs of ailing people, on the backs of the elderly, and for spending money on mansions, expensive cars, vacations, vacation homes, and on country club memberships? This is not a question people may consider when they hear that the DEA is indicting chain medical marijuana pharmacy owners with profiteering. But when it is taken into consideration that the medical marijuana dispensaries are distributing a medicine that is much safer than many of the drugs sold at common chain pharmacies, it is an interesting concept to explore.
Many viewed this tactic of the DEA as a way to clamp down on the number of cannabis pharmacies that the city of Los Angeles was working to regulate. It also was viewed as a threat to safe access for those who do benefit from the medicinal use of marijuana. It would drive people back to obtaining their marijuana the old fashioned way, through street dealers and organized marijuana distributors – which puts them at risk of arrest.
On July 25, 2007 federal DEA agents again raided ten medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. This happened at the same time the City Council was holding a press conference announcing a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries for at lease one year while the city works out guidelines of where and how the dispensaries can operate within city borders.
Teams of DEA agents showed up at the dispensaries wearing M-16 rifles and some were dressed in riot gear, including bulletproof shields. Dozens of officers with the Los Angeles Police Department were used to provide “perimeter defense” at the raids. There were also undercover officers who helped stage the raids. Some of the police officers were those who were “cross-deputized” as DEA agents. During the raids agents removed marijuana in the form of the raw dried plant and pot cookies, candy and other edibles. Outside there were crowds gathering and some protesters sat in front of police cars. Some of the protesters were forcibly removed, handcuffed, carried away, body searched, and detained. The badass behavior of the DEA played out as theatre on the local nightly news.
Although DEA spokesperson Sarah Pullen said that the DEA had “been planning this for some time,” the timing of the July 25 raids seemed to at least be less than coincidental. Los Angeles City Councilmembers were busy holding a news conference announcing that they had sent a letter to DEA administrator Karen Tandy to request that the DEA cease threatening medical marijuana dispensaries that supply medicine to the city’s medical patients. Some of the people who run the medical dispensaries being raided were attending the conference at City Hall. One of the City Councilmembers, Dennise Zine, is a former police officer who supports patient access to medical marijuana. Dozens of people showed up to support the moratorium.
Under the atmosphere created by the raids on the medical marijuana dispensaries some patients have avoided the dispensaries and have instead turned to purchasing marijuana off the streets or through home dealers. Each choice carries its own set of risks placing ailing people in an unfair position.
Also unfair is that people who have been arrested for using marijuana for medical reasons have been denied the use of Marinol in prison. The doctors are saying the patients need the drug for a medical problem, but the government is saying the patients can’t have it. Who would you rather have controlling your access to medications that may benefit your health, a doctor or someone involved with law enforcement?
“The role of physicians was not that clearly explained [in California’s 1996 medical marijuana law], although it was left to physicians to be the ones, in their informed opinion, to determine whether a patient would benefit from marijuana.”
– David Thornton, executive director of the California Medical Board, November 2006
Eleven states have passed laws legalizing medical marijuana. But the federal government continues to enforce the federal laws holding that marijuana is illegal and of no medicinal value.
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no physician in this state shall be punished, or denied any right or privilege, for having recommended marijuana to a patient for medical purposes.”
– Compassionate Use Act of 1996: Proposition 215: California Medical Use of Marijuana Initiative Statute
Doctors who have been prescribing marijuana to patients have found themselves hounded by legal issues. Even though the California state law states that doctors in that state should not be “punished” for recommending marijuana, the reality is that most, if not all, of them have experienced some level of being investigated by the state medical board. They have also been dealing with the federal government laws against cannabis and those who enforce those laws. Even though a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration cannot target doctors on the basis of their recommending marijuana to patients, it appears that is exactly what is going on.
Dr. Mollie Fry is one who had her life disrupted by the federal laws. Her office and home have been raided by federal drug agents. In 2005 she was indicted by a grand jury on felony charges of conspiring to distribute marijuana.
“I assumed the fact that I had ‘M.D.’ at the end of my name gave me the right to make judgments about people’s health.
… What did I take an oath to do? To do no harm and to alleviate pain and suffering.
… I’m going to be true to my oath, and I’m even willing to go to prison for it.”
– Dr. Mollie Fry, of Cool, California; November 2006
Doctors who have been prescribing marijuana to their patients suffering from such conditions as AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and other ailments with symptoms that clearly are relieved through marijuana, have been accused of being quacks. The doctors recommending marijuana are also accused of neglecting to prescribe synthetic chemical drugs that may relieve the same symptoms that marijuana may relieve.
Chemical prescription drugs are often accompanied by a long list of known and risky side effects such as ulcers, stroke, heart attack, bloody stool, kidney failure, addiction, and cancers, including leukemia. Marijuana exists often as a much safer medicine. It is very common for patients to express symptom relief from marijuana not experienced from the synthetic prescription drugs. The medicine given to the patient should be a matter between the doctor and the patient.
Doctors recommending marijuana have also been accused of not conducting significantly thorough exams of patients before recommending marijuana to a patient. That may be true in many cases, but neglecting to conduct thorough exams is not something limited to doctors prescribing marijuana. How many billions of prescription pills of all varieties are being taken by patients who barely spent more than a minute or less with a doctor before that doctor prescribed a drug, and often a drug that carries serious risks?
It has been very well documented that doctors often prescribe medications of all varieties without sufficient information on patient health, and without knowing what other drugs a patient may be taking that could counteract the prescription drug, or that may interact with another drug the patient is taking, which might cause the patient to suffer grave consequences.
The doctors who recommend marijuana are often put under great scrutiny and face charges of unprofessional conduct not applicable to other doctors who neglectfully prescribe much more dangerous drugs and unnecessary and risky surgeries.
When a person goes to a pharmacy to have a prescription filled, the person they may be dealing with at many chain drug store outlets may be an employee with no formal medical training and who may be as young as 16. There have been a rash of misfiled prescriptions resulting in patient injuries, including comas, strokes, and death. Additionally, many prescription drugs carry serious risks even when taken as directed.
I know a little bit about medical malpractice. I wrote a book (Surgery Electives) that largely focused on the widespread medical misconduct and bad medicine that plagues America through its hospitals, insurance companies, medical training, and the marketing of surgery and drugs. Thousands of patients die or suffer horrible consequences after being misdiagnosed, or after taking harmful drugs that are often misprescribed. Many more die or are left disabled by surgeries that should never have taken place.
It is likely that there are many patients who have been recommended marijuana after a doctor did not conduct the best sort of exam. But it would be better to improve doctor education and practices rather than to prosecute doctors and deny medicine to those patients who may benefit from it.
If the so-called authorities want to improve the state of medicine, perhaps they should consider the amount of money being spent by pharmaceutical companies to romance doctors into prescribing toxic synthetic chemical drugs. They should consider the number of patients who are undergoing dangerous surgeries when the patient could have experienced better long-term health with some other form of attention and/or a dietary and/or lifestyle change. They should consider the number of patients who are taking prescribed drugs that harm health. They should consider the number of patients who have experienced the terrible consequences of taking two or more drugs that interact with each other. They should consider the billions of dollars being spent by the government to support the pharmaceutical drug industry, the hospital industry, and the insurance industry. They should consider what doctors are actually learning in school, and how allopathic medical schools often function as facilities to teach student doctors how to prescribe lucrative drugs and surgery rather than how to actually improve patient health through what causes most health problems: bad diet, lack of exercise, stress, and environmental toxins. They should improve the situation of the poor who often neglect their health because they cannot afford to see a doctor and who are one paycheck away from financial ruin if they experience illness or disability.
“As to the message we are sending to kids, NORML hopes the message we are sending is that we would not deny any effective medication to the seriously ill and dying. We routinely permit cancer patients to self-administer morphine in cancer wards all across the country; we allow physicians to prescribe amphetamines for weight loss and to use cocaine in nose and throat operations. Each of these drugs can be abused on the street, yet no one is suggesting we are sending the wrong message to kids by permitting their medical use.”
– National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML.org
“Marijuana is not a cure, but it can help cancer patients. Most have severe reactions to the disease and chemotherapy – commonly, severe nausea and vomiting. One in three patients discontinues treatment despite a 50 percent chance of improvement. When standard anti-nausea drugs fail, marijuana often eases patients’ nausea and permits continued treatment. It can be either smoked or baked into foods.
… When one in five Americans will have cancer, and 20 million may develop glaucoma, shouldn’t our government let physicians prescribe any medicine capable of relieving suffering?
… The federal government stopped supplying marijuana to patients in 1991 [actually, it stopped accepting new patients into the FDA’s Compassionate Investigative New Drug Program, allowing approved patients access to government-grown marijuana from the University of Mississippi]. Now it tells patients to take Marinol, a synthetic substitute for marijuana that can cost $30,000 a year and is often less reliable and less effective.
… Marijuana is not magic. But often it is the only way to get relief. A Harvard University survey found that almost one-half of cancer doctors surveyed would prescribe marijuana to some of their patients if it were legal.
… Today, physicians are allowed to prescribe powerful drugs like morphine and codeine. It doesn’t make sense that they cannot prescribe marijuana, too.
– Richard J. Cohen, M.D., Consulting Medical Oncologist (cancer specialist), California-Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco; Ivan Silverberg, M.D., Medical Oncologist (cancer specialist), San Francisco; Anna T. Boyce, registered nurse, Orange County; Argument in Favor of Proposition 215, the medical marijuana bill that is now law in California
It is outrageous that people who are suffering from terminal health conditions cannot get access to a simple medication contained in a plant. What crime are they committing by relieving their symptoms?
Currently those patients who can benefit most from the therapeutic effects of marijuana must purchase the medication illegally. Because many of them are too ill to be mobile, they rely on friends and relatives to purchase the marijuana. This places these individuals in what might be uncomfortable and dangerous situations.
The laws that attempt to prohibit the use of marijuana were not based on any scientific studies. Instead, they were based on lies and without considering the needs of ailing or dying people. They are arcane, antiquated, and draconian laws that should never have been created.
In 1937 representatives of the American Medical Association urged Congress to keep marijuana available as a medication that doctors could prescribe. The AMA was unprepared to present their findings because they found out about the hearings to overtax marijuana just two days before the hearings occurred. The AMA was ignored by these politicians who were being manipulated by William Randolph Hearst, Du Pont, Anslinger, Andrew Mellon’s interests, the paper companies, and others who benefited financially when hemp and marijuana became illegal.
“Some physicians will have the courage to challenge the continued proscription of marijuana for the sick. Eventually, their actions will force the courts to adjudicate between the rights of those at death’s door and the absolute power of bureaucrats whose decisions are based more on reflexive ideology and political correctness than on compassion.”
– Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D., editor, New England Journal of Medicine, January 30, 1997
“Cannabis should be made available even if only a few patients could get relief from it, because the risks would be so small. For example, as I mentioned, many patients with multiple sclerosis find that cannabis reduces their muscle spasms and pain. A physician may not be sure that such a patient will get more relief from marihuana than from the standard drugs baclofen, dantrolene, and diazepam – all of which are potentially dangerous or addictive – but it is almost certain that a serious toxic reaction to marihuana will not occur. Therefore the potential benefit is much greater than any potential risk.”
– Dr. Lester Grinspoon, formal testimony before the Crime Subcommittee, Judiciary Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, October 1, 1997
“Marihuana worked like a charm. I disliked the ‘side effect’ of mental blurring (the ‘main effect’ for recreational users), but the sheer bliss of not experiencing nausea – and then not having to fear it for all the days intervening between treatments – was the greatest boost I received in all my year of treatment, and surely had a most important effect upon my eventual cure. It is beyond my comprehension – and I fancy I am able to comprehend a lot, including much nonsense – that any humane person would withhold such a beneficial substance from people in such great need simply because others use it for different purposes.”
– from Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine, by the late Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist. He used marijuana to prevent nausea during his treatment for abdominal mesothelioma. StephenJayGould.org
The control of a substance that provides benefits to ailing people should be in the hands of the health community, and not in the hands of the politicians and law enforcement officials. Even drugs such as cocaine and morphine, which are illegal on the streets, are often used for pain relief in medical facilities.
The U.S. government needs to reclassify cannabis from a Schedule 1 drug to a Schedule 2 drug – the same classification as morphine, cocaine, and other common medical drugs. This will allow doctors to legally prescribe cannabis to their patients who can benefit from it.
For more on marijuana, read the book Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence, by Mitch Earleywine. More information is listed in the Marijuana section in the back of this book.