ORGANIZATION NEWS:

1.  Be a Part of OPN History

STATE NEWS:

3.  Summit to Smoke Out Drugged Drivers

NATIONAL NEWS:

4. Ask Congress to Support New Medical Marijuana Bill

5. Medical Marijuana Update

6. MAP Archive Reaches 100,000 News Clippings

7. MPP Responds to Drug Czar's Newspaper Ads

8. Supreme Court Upholds California Three-Strikes Law

9. HEA Reform Legislation Re-filed, Needs Your Support

INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

10. The Vancouver Island Compassion Club Is Doing More Med-Pot Research Than Anyone Else in North America

11. Marijuana Extracts Greatly Improve Symptoms Associated With MS, Spinal Cord Injury, Study Says

12. Medical Marijuana to be in Dutch Pharmacies March 17

The following items are included in every OPNews:

* OPNews Disclaimer

* 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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1. BE A PART OF OPN HISTORY

Good news! We fully anticipate a sponsor stepping forward to introduce our medical marijuana bill in the weeks ahead.

As things are finalized, we'll send a special bulletin to let our members know the bill number and introduction date.

In the meantime, while our funding has increased, there remains so many things to do.  We'll need as much help from you, our members and supporters, as you can muster if we are to continue to educate our legislators and the public.  Please help us make legal access to medical cannabis a reality for those Ohioans who desperately need it.

A few members have stepped forward to volunteer their time and skills, but we still need more help. As you may be aware, we've taken on a great challenge and a handful of people just aren't enough to accomplish this task.

We'll be waging a media campaign and scheduling lectures and presentations with various health related organizations as well as other groups and clubs throughout Ohio. We need all the help we can get. (Please see the list below!)

If you can donate a little of your time and skills, (everyone has a skill) you can be a part of OPN history.  Send a short note to info@ohiopatient.net and let us know how you’d like to help.  We'll find a match for your talents and put you right to work.

We face one other pressing need, funding. If you can spare $5, $10, $20 or more to help make medical marijuana a reality in Ohio, then please visit our donation page at : http://www.ohiopatient.net/Donate.htm.  We accept credit cards, personal checks, and money orders.  Donations of any amount are always welcome!

If there is anything else that you think might be of use to the OPN or our cause, feel free to contact us at the address above.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Sincerely,

John Precup, President

Jim White, Vice President

Mary Jane Borden, APR, Treasurer

Deirdre Zoretic, Director of Patient Advocacy

Paula Mercer, RN-C, Director of Medical Affairs

Kenneth Schweickart, Director of Development

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HELP WANTED!

This is a partial list!

Secretary (OPN Board position)

Letter writers

Web research assistants

Information gatherers

Local activists

People to contact legislators and health professionals

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2.  OPN SPEAKERS BUREAU IS UP AND RUNNING

By Jean Taddie

The OPN Speakers Bureau is on the move.  The speaker orientation and training has started, and we have confirmed our first speaking event.

Speakers are polishing their skills now.

I volunteered to put together a web-based speaker training course because teaching speech is one of my “day jobs.”  You are welcome to look over the training links at http://ohiopatient.net/training/speakers/MainPage.htm.   During the training, speakers choose one of four sample events and prepare a speech.  The speech-building process is broken into five lessons, and we go through the process together, one week at a time. 

Right now, we’re working on week 2’s lesson.  Since the weekly time commitment is only about an hour, there’s still time to catch up if you would like to join us.  We’ve got a great group of speakers, but we’re always interested in meeting more.  Contact me at editor@ohiopatient.net if you’d like to join the training.

Speakers will use their skills next month.

The Speakers Bureau’s first official speaking engagement is at the 2003 AIDS Leadership Conference.  This event, which is sponsored by the Ohio AIDS Coalition and the Ohio Department of Health, will be held in Columbus on April 28 – 29.

Paula Mercer RN-C, Mary Jane Borden and Kenneth Schweickart will have more than an hour to present information about the medical use of cannabis.  Their presentation is titled “HIV and Cannabis: Historical Uses, Current Issues, and Future Trends.”

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3.  SUMMIT TO SMOKE OUT DRUGGED DRIVERS

Law Would Be First In Ohio To Specifically Target Such Motorists

Source: The Beacon Journal, 3/3/03.  Copyright: 2003 The Beacon Journal Publishing Co. http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/.  View the entire article at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n336/a09.html

By: Marilyn Miller

Ohio has no law requiring specific tests to identify drugged drivers the way it does drunken ones.

But Summit County could become the first in the state to come up with its own method.

County Councilman Paul Gallagher, D-at large, will introduce legislation today (March 3) to test for driving under the influence of drugs, specifically cocaine or marijuana.

[snip]

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4. ASK CONGRESS TO SUPPORT NEW MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL

Source:  Marijuana Policy Project Update (http://www.mpp.org), 3/25/03

The new medical marijuana affirmative defense bill in Congress is a reality! On Friday, March 21, three members of the California delegation -- Democratic Reps. Sam Farr and Lynn Woolsey and Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher -- sent a letter to all U.S. House members, informing them about the new bill and asking them to cosponsor it.

If you have not yet sent a fax to your U.S. representative urging him or her to protect states' rights to medical marijuana and to remove the "gag" that the federal government is placing on medical marijuana defendants in court, now is the time. To take action, go to http://www.mpp.org/USA/action.html....

The purpose of the bill -- which will be known as the Patients' and Providers' Truth in Trials Act or, simply, the Truth in Trials Act -- is to correct the most fundamental injustice associated with medical marijuana today: the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of patients and providers by the federal government. It accomplishes this by providing defendants with an affirmative defense to marijuana charges. By raising this affirmative defense, any defendant who is found to have been acting in compliance with state medical marijuana law could not be sent to federal prison.

[snip]

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5. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE:  Bills Killed in Arkansas, Wyoming But Moving Forward in Maryland, Vermont; Bad Bill Introduced in Oregon

Source:  The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #279 – 3/21/03  http://www.drcnet.org/wol/279.html#medmjupdate

As the spring legislative season at state capitols around the country begins to wind down, the record on medical marijuana at the statehouse this year is decidedly mixed. In the latest voting, legislators in Arkansas and Wyoming killed medical marijuana bills, but solons in Maryland and Vermont, where the issue has been in play for several sessions, have kept legislation alive and moving forward. Meanwhile, in Oregon, where voters passed a medical marijuana initiative in 1998, activists are mobilizing to defeat a bill that would place new restrictions on the existing program.

[snip]

To read the Oregon bill online, go to: http://pub.das.state.or.us/LEG_BILLS/PDFs/HB2939.pdf

To read the Vermont bill online, go to:

http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2004/bills/senate/S-076.HTM.  See the MPP’s March 13 press release at: http://www.mpp.org/releases/nr031303vt.html.

To read the Maryland bill online, go to: http://mlis.state.md.us/2003rs/billfile/HB0702.htm

NEW DEVELOPMENTS:  See the MPP’s March 26 press release “MPP Defeats White House Drug Czar in Maryland: Senate Passes Limited Protection for Medical Marijuana Patients” at http://www.mpp.org/releases/nr032603.html.

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6. MAP ARCHIVE REACHES 100,000 NEWS CLIPPINGS

Source:  Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n438/a06.html

By Richard Lake

At about 6:40 p.m. Pacific today, Sunday, 23 March 2003, the 100,000th DrugNews clipping was archived.

While it is a significant milestone, the accomplishment is viewed in the light of the growth of what was a small project six years ago into so much more - as everyone who remembers our start and reviews our current site map knows. 

Over the years we have reached out in every way our talent has allowed to support the entire drug policy reform community - as well as we can on our shoestring budget.

We know that over a quarter million folks from about 125 countries used the MAP archives during last month.  Though this undoubtedly included various folks who oppose reform, most of whom feed at the public trough, the large majority we believe support reform.  Yet less than a thousand very kind people have actually donated. 

So our greatest strength has been in our volunteers, thousands doing a wide range of activities in support of our efforts.  Enabling activists - giving good folks an ability to plug in from their homes - anywhere in the world - is very much what we are really all about....

Many kind people, many representing various reform organizations, have sent us private notes, and Letters to MAP which we are posted at http://www.mapinc.org/source/Letters.  Our volunteers appreciate knowing that so many care about their efforts!

Oh, the 100,000th clipping was "US TX: Officer's Credibility Attacked In Tulia Case" http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n437/a08.html

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7. MPP RESPONDS TO DRUG CZAR'S NEWSPAPER ADS

Source:  Marijuana Policy Project Update (http://www.mpp.org), 3/10/03.

On Friday [March 7], the Marijuana Policy Project received word that the White House drug czar's office would be running misleading anti-marijuana ads in 300 newspapers nationwide. We immediately crafted our own response ad, news release, and video news release (for TV stations to download for free to include in their news programs).

Drug Czar John Walters is spending $150 million of taxpayer money this year to run ads that are intended to scare the American people into supporting marijuana prohibition, playing on parents' fears about teenage marijuana use.

MPP's response is this: Marijuana is bad for teens, but marijuana prohibition is worse. As our newspaper ad asks, "How can you talk to a kid who's in jail?"

Please see http://www.mpp.org/WarOnDrugCzar/ads for details....  At http://www.mpp.org/USA/letters_6.html you will find several sample letters-to-the-editor. Please select one and submit it to your local newspaper as your own. Let's show the American people that the public is fed up with the Bush administration's use of taxpayer money to scare the American people into supporting marijuana prohibition.

NOTE:  For more details, see the MPP’s 3/8/03 press release: http://www.mpp.org/releases/nr030803.html

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8. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS CALIFORNIA THREE-STRIKES LAW

50 Years for Stealing Videotapes? No Problem, Say Justices

Source:  The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #277, 3/7/03 http://www.drcnet.org/wol/277.html#courtstrikesout

A closely divided Supreme Court Wednesday [March 5] upheld California's draconian three-strikes law, letting stand a 25-year sentence without parole for a man who stole golf clubs and a 50-year sentence without parole for a man convicting of stealing videotapes from a Kmart. In a 5-4 vote, the high court held that the sentences did not constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" or run afoul of its notion of "disproportionality."

[snip]

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9. HEA REFORM LEGISLATION RE-FILED, NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

Source:  The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #278 -- March 14, 2003

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/278.html#raiseyourvoice

With the 108th Congress upon us and Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act being worked on now, we at the Drug Reform Coordination Network are writing to ask you to help turn up the heat on the student-led campaign to repeal the Higher Education Act's drug provision (http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com).

During the 2001-2002 school year, more than 47,700 students were denied access to federal college aid because of drug convictions, loans, grants, even work-study programs. This number doesn't account for people who didn't bother applying because they assumed they would be ineligible. The current academic year, the third in which the drug provision is in force and the second in which it is being fully enforced, is expected to see just as many young people forced out of school or they or their families plunged into financial hardship because of the HEA drug provision.

In February of 2003, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) reintroduced his legislation to repeal the drug provision in full. Last year, the bill had garnered 67 cosponsors, and 10 members of Congress spoke at a press conference at the US Capitol organized by the DRCNet-sponsored Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform. Already, the new Frank bill, H.R. 685, has picked up 40 cosponsors, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy now stretches across more than 200 campuses, with hundreds more in the works, a formidable force organized to repeal the measure. Your help is needed to meet and exceed the support the bill had last year and to go on to get the drug provision repealed. The most likely opportunity for that is the Higher Education Act reauthorization process.

Please visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com to write Congress, learn about the issue and download our newly-updated activist packet.

[snip]

NOTE:  Find out about Ohio State University’s SSDP chapter at:  http://www.service.ohio-state.edu/students/ssdp/

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10. THE VANCOUVER ISLAND COMPASSION CLUB IS DOING MORE MED-POT RESEARCH THAN ANYONE ELSE IN NORTH AMERICA 

Source: Cannabis Culture (Web), 3/21/03 http://www.cannabisculture.com/.  The entire article is archived at:  http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n446/a06.html.

Author: Bianca Sind

Philippe Lucas, founder of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (http://www.thevics.com/), is working on some exciting research into the effects of medicinal cannabis.

In an exclusive interview with Cannabis Culture, Lucas explained that most studies into medical cannabis have been limited to research in test-tubes and on animals. Lucas is working with medical cannabis clubs across Canada to find out more about the effects of marijuana, specifically looking to find how different strains of cannabis affect various ailments.

"It has long been known that certain strains are more effective in alleviating certain symptoms," explained Lucas. "A general rule of thumb is that Indicas, because of their more narcotic effect, are typically better at alleviating generalized pain than Sativas, which appear to be more effective in treating dystonic movement disorders such as MS or epilepsy."

These different medical effects are due to the varying cannabinoid profiles of different strains. "Studies have shown that CBD is an effective anti-convulsant and anti-spasmatic," explained Lucas.  "Therefore it has been suggested that true Sativas may typically be higher in CBD than their Indica cousins."

The specific medical effects of a cannabis strain depend on more than just whether it is an Indica or Sativa. "There are numerous strains that appear particularly effective at treating certain symptoms," explained Lucas. "The White family, such as White Widow and White Rhino, are generally considered to be very good pain killers."

[snip]

NOTE: On March 6, Philippe Lucas shared his insights at OPN’s Patient Forum.

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11. MARIJUANA EXTRACTS GREATLY IMPROVE SYMPTOMS ASSOCIATED WITH MS, SPINAL CORD INJURY, STUDY SAYS

Source:  NORML News, 3/8/03 http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5573

(Oxford, U.K.)  Marijuana extracts alleviate pain and other neurogenic symptoms unresponsive to standard treatment in patients suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and spinal cord injury, according to clinical trial data published in the current issue of Clinical Rehabilitation.

Twenty-four patients participated in the Phase II placebo-controlled trial. Volunteers were administered randomized extracts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive compound in marijuana, cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound in marijuana, and a mixture of both compounds. Patients self-administered the extracts and/or placebo via a sublingual spray.

Authors wrote, "Pain relief associated with both THC and CBD was significantly superior to placebo." In addition, researchers found that "impaired bladder control, muscle spasms and spasticity were improved by CME (cannabis medicinal extracts) in some patients with these symptoms." Unwanted side effects were "predictable and generally well tolerated," the study concluded.

Data from follow up Phase III trails by GW Pharmaceuticals demonstrate similar results, but have yet to be published. The company is now in the process of submitting its regulatory application to Britain's Medicines Control Agency (MCA). Subject to regulatory approval, GW aims to launch its first medicinal marijuana products in the UK by the end of this year....

Abstracts of the Clinical Rehabilitation article, "A preliminary controlled study to determine whether whole-plant cannabis extracts can improve intractable neurogenic symptoms," are available online via the PubMed search engine at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

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12. MEDICAL MARIJUANA TO BE IN DUTCH PHARMACIES MARCH 17

Doctors Can Prescribe Immediately; Government Preparing to License Growers

Source: Marijuana Policy Project 3/14/03 press release:  http://www.mpp.org/releases/nr031403.html

Under a groundbreaking new law effective March 17, physicians in the Netherlands will be able to prescribe medical marijuana and pharmacies will dispense it to patients as they do other prescription medications. This will make the Netherlands the first country to treat marijuana in the same manner it treats other prescription drugs.

In order to establish a stable, quality-controlled supply of the medicine, the Dutch government will shortly begin contracting with medical marijuana growers, who will be required to meet specific standards covering product quality, as well as security rules designed to prevent diversion into the illegal market. Spokesman Bas Kuik of the Dutch government's Office of Medicinal Cannabis said that he expects the first contract to be signed "somewhere near the end of March," with the first crop reaching pharmacies in September. Once this system is in place, pharmacies will be required to dispense only medical marijuana from these government-licensed providers. Until then, they will be permitted to obtain the medicine from producers of their own choosing.

[snip]

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The following items are included in every OPNews:

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OPNews DISCLAIMER

OPNews, a publication of Ohio Patient Network (OPN), provides medical cannabis news that affects Ohio patients, caregivers, and health professionals.

All articles are intended for educational purposes and do not reflect an official position, either positive or negative, by the OPN or its Board of Directors.

Ohio Patient Network does not endorse any candidates running for office. The reports of campaign-related activities are for educational purposes only.

For more information, contact Jean Taddie, Editor (editor@ohiopatient.net).

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YOU ARE INVITED TO OPN MEETINGS

The OPN Board of Directors invites you to participate in the OPN planning meetings. Electronic voice/text meetings are held at the OPN chatroom in PalTalk.

To receive PalTalk and meeting room instructions, as well as date and time information, contact info@ohiopatient.net.

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HOW TO GET YOUR INFORMATION IN OPNews

OPNews is published monthly. To have your information considered for publication, submit your story to editor@ohiopatient.net.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND ATTACHMENTS. Please do not boldface or italicize text. Include a contact name with a phone number and/or e-mail address with submissions.

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HOW TO BE REMOVED FROM THE OPNews LIST

You may sign off this list at any time by using the webform at www.ohiopatient.net.

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HOW TO CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR 

Find your Representative in the Ohio House at http://www.house.state.oh.us/jsps/Representatives.jsp

Find your Ohio Senator at http://www.senate.state.oh.us/senators/

Write to your officials care of their district office, or send your letter to their Columbus office at:

The Honorable (name)

Ohio House of Representatives

77 South High Street

Columbus, Ohio 43266-0603

-or-

The Honorable (name)

Ohio Senate Building

Columbus, Ohio 43215

Telephone calls and emails are also persuasive, especially when the constituent contacts the district office.