The following new items are included in this month's OPNews:

*TREATMENT-VS.-INCARCERATION BALLOT INITIATIVE COMING TO OHIO

*AMA IMPROVES MEDICAL MARIJUANA POSITION

*THERAPEUTIC CANNABIS IN AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NURSING

*LINDESMITH CENTER/DPF CONFERENCE A SUCCESS

*OPN CONTINUES TO GROW

The following items are included in every OPNews:

*YOU ARE INVITED TO OPN MEETINGS

*HOW TO GET YOUR INFORMATION IN OPNews

*HOW TO BE REMOVED FROM THE OPNews LIST

*HOW TO CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR

 

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TREATMENT-VS.-INCARCERATION BALLOT INITIATIVE COMING TO OHIO

A ballot initiative that advocates drug treatment over incarceration for people convicted of drug offences is currently being written for Ohio. OPN leaders are working with the initiative writers and sponsors to encourage them to include a clause in the bill that would provide a medical necessity defense for medical cannabis patients.

The possibility of a treatment-vs.-incarceration ballot initiative, funded by the financiers of California's successful Proposition 36, was reported in an extensive article by the Wall Street Journal http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n972/a06.html?87132 and was also covered in the Cleveland Plain Dealer http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n997/a05.html?81595.

A national poll indicated broad support for such an initiative. An ABCNEWS.com poll found that 69 percent of adults said they'd support a state law requiring drug treatment over jail time for first and second offenses,  while 25 percent opposed it.

This ABCNEWS.com survey was conducted by telephone May 16-20 among a random national sample of 1,024 adults. ABCNEWS.com polls can be found on the Internet at www.abcnews.com/sections/us/PollVault/PollVault.html. 

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AMA IMPROVES MEDICAL MARIJUANA POSITION

Source: Marijuana Policy Project (www.mpp.org), June 20, 2001

At this week's semi-annual meeting of the American Medical Association, the organization took on the issue of medical marijuana. Contrary to the impression created by some of the news stories, the group's official position on compassionate access to medical marijuana has gone from bad to neutral (rather than going from neutral to bad). In sum, AMA voted in 1997 to OPPOSE compassionate access to medical marijuana, but yesterday it repealed that bad position. And AMA also reaffirmed both of the good positions that it first passed in 1997. Unfortunately, AMA failed to follow the recommendation of its own Council on Scientific Affairs to explicitly SUPPORT compassionate access to medical marijuana. 

MPP has been working to influence AMA's position since mid-1997. This spring, MPP provided extensive information to AMA and -- this week -- brought two doctors and a patient to Chicago to testify. MPP's Chuck Thomas also attended the meeting and grilled an AMA spokesperson at the news conference afterwards, forcing him to state for the record that patients should not be jailed for taking their doctors' advice to use medical marijuana. As Reuters reported: "Our plea again is that no criminal sanctions (be applied to marijuana use), and to encourage our patients to discuss this freely with their doctors," said Dr. Herman Abromowitz, an AMA trustee.

*GOOD NEWS -- 1997 AMA position that was just *reaffirmed*: "AMA believes that effective patient care requires the free and unfettered exchange of information on treatment alternatives and that discussion of these alternatives between physicians and patients should not subject either party to criminal sanctions." [This appears in the medical marijuana section.] 

*GOOD NEWS -- 1997 AMA position that was just *reaffirmed*: "AMA urges the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to implement administrative procedures ... confirming that marijuana of various and consistent strengths and/or placebo will be supplied by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to investigators ... who are conducting bona fide clinical research studies that receive Food and Drug Administration approval, regardless of whether or not the NIH is the primary source of grant support."

*GOOD NEWS -- 1997 AMA position that was just *repealed*: "The AMA does not support reinstitution of the Single Patient Investigational New Drug program for smoked marijuana at this time, because the program likely would be unable to meet the needs of individual patients in a timely fashion, due to procurement difficulties associated with regulatory oversight and because this approach will not provide the scientific data needed to guide the public debate on the utility of medical marijuana."

*BAD NEWS -- Proposed new AMA position that was just *rejected*: "Until such time as rapid onset cannibinoid formulations are clinically available, our AMA affirms the appropriateness of compassionate use of marijuana and related cannabinoids in carefully controlled programs designed to provide symptomatic relief of nausea, vomiting, cachexia, anorexia, spasticity, acute or chronic pain, or other palliative effects. Such compassionate use is appropriate when other approved medications provide inadequate relief or are not tolerated, and the protocols provide for physician oversight and a mechanism to access treatment effectiveness."

Reuters articles (before and after AMA vote):

http://www.mpp.org/news/rts061901.html

http://www.mpp.org/news/rts061901b.html

Associated Press article:

http://www.mpp.org/news/ap062001.html

UPI article (quotes MPP's Chuck Thomas):

http://www.mpp.org/news/upi061901.html

MPP's news release:

http://www.mpp.org/releases/nr061901.html

 

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THERAPEUTIC CANNABIS IN AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NURSING

Would you like to read an article that summarizes and provides references to just about everything you'd ever want to know about therapeutic cannabis? 

Mary Lynn Mathre's article in the American Journal of Nursing (April 2001, Vol. 101, No. 4, p. 61-68) does just that. The article, which is entitled "Therapeutic Cannabis - A Patient Advocacy Issue," provides a complete examination of therapeutic cannabis, including a historic overview, clinical indications, potential risks, current access, and nursing's responsibility. 

In addition to an extensive reference list, the article provides web resources and a list of State Nurses Associations that support therapeutic cannabis.

Those of you who were at January's Medical Marijuana Conference in Columbus, Ohio will remember Mary Lynn Mathre's (MSN, RN, CARN) speech on behalf of Patient's Out of Time. Mary Lynn is an addictions consultation nurse at the University of Virginia Health System. 

View the April 2001 AJN article, along with other important reference articles, at http://www.medicalcannabis.com/medmj-ref/.

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LINDESMITH CENTER/DPF CONFERENCE A SUCCESS

By Mary Jane Borden

Before I left for the Lindesmith Center/Drug Policy Foundation (DPF) conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, held May 30 through June 2, the OPNews editor asked me to write a brief summary about it on my return. This will be tough because this trip embodied so many dimensions for me.

To set the stage, not only did I have the special privilege of speaking at this conference, but also for the first time, I personally met my colleagues at DrugSense/Media Awareness Project (MAP) with whom I worked over the Internet for the past year. The brochure I designed for them to unveil at the conference had gone to press without a proof (every designer's worst nightmare), and in addition, that same week was my son's birthday and my 25th wedding anniversary. Everything seemed to converge at once. It all turned out perfectly. I had the time of my life.

First of all, the oratory at the conference was superlative. Ethan Nadelman head of the Lindesmith Center, U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, and many others proved to be powerful and moving speakers.

Then, I met some of my heroes and (as Maxine Waters puts it) sheroes including Keith Stroup of NORML; Kevin Zeese of Common Sense for Drug Policy; Ann McCormick mother of federal medical marijuana prisoner, Todd McCormick; and Dan Forbes the notable journalist who broke the ONDCP payola scandal for Salon Magazine. Those who were once only names on my daily diet of MAP articles were now real colleagues and friends. 

The famous weren't the only ones who impressed and inspired me. I spoke with a pilot who flew 747s Transatlantic for 25 years; an Englishman who had seen the Beatles live in the pubs of Liverpool, England, long before they were cultural icons; a leader of the Maryland Republican Party; and of course, Medical Marijuana Barbie clad in hot pink from hair to toe. Lest you laugh, she holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Texas.  

Without a doubt, it was the people that made this conference so great. Clearly, the lion can lie down with the lamb to advance the humanitarian cause of drug policy reform. I looked around the room at one session and saw a middle aged Dockers-clad physician, sitting next to a black man with Rastafarian hair, sitting next to a twenty-something in polyester, sitting next to an elderly man sporting a string tie, sitting next to a patient in a

wheel chair. At n o other conference could you see this much diversity coming together for a common cause. These were the faces of America speaking out for justice and demonstrating tolerance by their presence.    

But as I said earlier, this trip to New Mexico embodied more than one dimension for me: it also served as a personal vacation and celebration. Those who just dropped in for the conference and then left missed something very special in New Mexico. It is a magical place. The words on its license plates, "Land of Enchantment," are apt and descriptive. If you tour New Mexico, you begin to understand why Governor Gary Johnson has taken his stance on drug policy.

In New Mexico, the architecture and the land blend together to become one. Closely interwoven are art and music. Drive down any desert highway and you'll see sculpture, not only nature's - and it is truly grand - but also works of man that meld with the land.

Surely, the rugged beauty of New Mexico, grounded in individualism, love of the land, and spiritualism, led Governor Johnson to see the contradiction of cannabis prohibition. If we're supposedly free, why can't we grow and use what we want? If we don't hurt anyone else, why is it anyone else's business what we put into our bodies, especially to heal and care for them? As he said at the closing session, "Wake-up America!"

Through my affiliation with DrugSense/MAP, my participation in this conference, and involvement with OPN, I have become convinced that real change is more possible now than ever before. The media is waking up and the public is waking up. Let's make it our mission to wake up one very special part of America, the State of Ohio. Join with us.

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OPN CONTINUES TO GROW

A great big welcome goes out to the newest Ohio Patient Network members. In addition to our steady growth through referrals, we gained many OPNews members during the June 2 Hempfest in Columbus. The current total of OPNews recipients is 86.

As OPNews members, you receive monthly news updates and occasional action alerts. However, the "OPNews" list is one-way, so if you have a message to share, you need to contact the editor (see "HOW TO GET YOUR INFORMATION IN OPNews" below) for possible publication the following month. 

If you would like to connect with other OPN members more regularly via a private email list, you are encouraged to sign up for the "OPN discussion list" (if you haven't already done so). In order to maintain security, you will be asked to answer a few simple questions and agree to a few reasonable rules.

Keep in mind that as a RECIPIENT of email messages, your identity is anonymous. When you RESPOND to an "OPN discussion list" message, your message and address go to all the OPN members on that private email list, a number that currently stands at 29.

Use the webform at http://ohiopatient.net/lists/index.htm to sign up for the OPN discussion list or to refer a friend to this OPNews list.