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

* OPN PRESIDENT TO SPEAK IN COLUMBUS

* SUPREME COURT RULES ON CANNABIS BUYERS CLUBS

* SUPREME COURT RULING GETS MEDIA ATTENTION

* PATIENT REACTS TO SUPREME COURT RULING

* POLLS SHOW VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS FAVOR MARIJUANA AS MEDICINE

* BRITISH CANNABIS TESTS OFFER PAIN SUFFERERS NEW HOPE

* REVIEW OF "THE JOURNAL OF CANNABIS THERAPEUTICS"

* OMMA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

* FULL TEXT OF OMMA IS AVAILABLE ON LINE

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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OPN PRESIDENT TO SPEAK IN COLUMBUS

On Saturday June 2, OPN President John Precup will address the crowd at the 14th annual Hempfest, which will be held from 1:00 p.m. to midnight in Columbus at the Ohio State University South Oval. The event will provide an excellent opportunity to network with many cannabis law reform activists and gain more support for the Ohio Medical Marijuana Act.

This year's Hempfest emphasizes the Columbus ballot drive to decriminalize marijuana misdemeanors. This effort, if successful, would also protect Columbus patients who need medical marijuana.

The Hempfest features 14 bands and 11 DJ's on 3 stages. Organizer Ken Schweickart stated, "We will create a village of our own where we can openly discuss medical marijuana information and a wide range of therapeutic cannabis issues."

An OPN information table will be staffed throughout the day in order to answer questions and recruit OPN members. Contact info@ohiopatient.net if you are interested in volunteering for a table shift, or if you would like more information.

 

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SUPREME COURT RULES ON CANNABIS BUYERS CLUBS

By Kat DeBurgh (MPP Legislative Analyst)

On Monday, May 15, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an 8-0 ruling in favor of the federal government in U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative.

The Court held that because Congress has defined marijuana as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, individuals may not assert a "medical necessity" defense when charged with distribution of the drug in federal court.

The ruling in no way affects the ability of patients to grow, possess, and use medical marijuana under state law in California and the other seven states with effective medical marijuana laws. 

The Supreme Court decision should not discourage Ohio residents from supporting medical marijuana and urging their legislators to introduce the OMMA. In fact, with the federal government showing no compassion to patients, there is even more reason to work to change state law.

Please continue to encourage lawmakers and citizens to support medical marijuana. Visit the Marijuana Policy Project website at http://www.mpp.org/OH to learn more and to e-mail your state legislators. 

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SUPREME COURT RULING GETS MEDIA ATTENTION

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the cannabis buyers clubs caused some media interest in Ohio. OPN President John Precup was quoted in Akron Beacon Journal and Columbus Dispatch newspaper articles, which both ran May 16th (see the "News From Ohio" link at http://www.ohiopatient.net).

In addition, the NorthCoast NORML office was contacted by at least two Cuyahoga County AM radio stations for live interviews for top of the hour news segments (one was WTAM).

Channel 19 (WOIO) in Cleveland interviewed a Lakewood, Ohio medical patient named DeDe. The story also aired on channel 43 (WUAB), which is WOIO's sister station. The story by Rick Jackson showed DeDe telling her story at the NC NORML office and used filed video footage of John Precup smoking his medicine as well as Cleveland's 2000 Million Marijuana March. Channel 5 (WEWS), the local ABC affiliate, also aired a story about the Court's ruling.

Nationally, Allen St. Pierre, Director of the NORML Foundation, appeared on CNN.

 

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PATIENT REACTS TO SUPREME COURT RULING

Wisconsin patient and activist Jacki Rickert continues the fight for her medicine. Although approved in 1990 for the U.S. Government's Compassionate Use Investigative New Drug (I.N.D.) program, which provides government-grown cannabis to patients, the program was closed before she received any of her legal supply. As a result, Jacki continues to be an outspoken medical cannabis activist at the state and federal level.

In response to the recent Supreme Court ruling, a new page has been posted at Jacki's IMMLY (Is My Medicine Legal Yet) website (http://www.immly.org/supreme2001.htm. The web page, which is entitled "IMMLY reacts to Supreme Court decision," discusses IMMLY's reaction,

including statements by Jacki, links to the two articles that quoted Jacki, and other information regarding the case. 

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POLLS SHOW VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS FAVOR MARIJUANA AS MEDICINE

In response to the Supreme Court's ruling, Gallup News Service released the story "Americans Support Legalization of Marijuana for Medicinal Use:  Supreme Court ruling flies in face of public opinion," which indicated that 73% of Americans agree that Marijuana should be legally available for doctors to prescribe. The story, which is available at http://www.gallup.com/Poll/releases/pr010514d.asp, referenced the March, 1999 poll of 1,018 adults nationwide.

In a February, 2001 national poll, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates also found that 73% (+/- 3%) of the 1,513 adults who were surveyed nationwide agreed that doctors should be allowed to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Both of these scientific polls are referenced at http://www.pollingreport.com/health1.htm#Marijuana.

Additional surveys were conducted in response to the Supreme Court decision.

An on-line survey conducted by The Harris/Excite Poll (http://news.excite.com/news/poll/results?id=harris05152001.1) indicated that 69% of the 78,818 respondents disagreed with the Supreme Court's ruling against cannabis buyers clubs. Although this poll is voluntary, rather than scientifically sampled, the results do suggest overwhelming support for the medical use and legal distribution of marijuana.

In Ohio, the Toledo Blade conducted an on-line survey in May. Although the results are not available on-line after seven days, OPN Member Jim White spoke with the Blade's Web Editor, who reported the following results for the question "Do you support the use of marijuana as a medicine for certain types of disease?"

Yes: 672 (66.7%) 

No: 232 (23%)

Not sure: 78 (7.7%)

Don't care: 26 (2.6%)

As you can see, Toledo is no different than the rest of the country. 

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BRITISH CANNABIS TESTS OFFER PAIN SUFFERERS NEW HOPE

Source: ATT Daily News, Retrieved 5/2/01 (Posted 8:27 AM ET May 2, 2001 http://dailynews.att.net)

By Giles Elgood

LONDON (Reuters) - A British drug company said on Wednesday [5/2/01] it was a step closer to launching cannabis-based medicine for patients suffering from multiple sclerosis and other forms of severe pain.

GW Pharmaceuticals said it had obtained encouraging results from the latest phase of clinical trials and was now extending its program into Phase III trials, which involve a wider range of patients in new locations and is the last hurdle before approval is granted. 

The company said it had also obtained regulatory approval to start clinical trials in Canada. Sufferers from diseases such as multiple sclerosis, which attacks the central nervous system, have been calling for a pain-relieving cannabis medicine for years and many have broken the law by buying the drug from street dealers.

GW has invested 12 million pounds ($17 million) in its research and hopes to market its first prescription cannabis-based medicine in 2003. It will offer patients the pain-relieving benefits of cannabis without what the company calls "unwanted psychoactive side effects.''

Getting "high,'' as would happen if patients smoked marijuana, does not in itself offer medical benefits. These are derived from the drug's active ingredients known as cannabinoids.

GW's trials have involved patients taking cannabis-based medicine by spraying it under their tongues, which allows it to be absorbed rather than swallowed.

Dr. Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, said: ''Data from our four Phase II studies in approximately 70 subjects is positive and encouraging. Patients are clearly gaining benefit.

"We are seeing a significant improvement in quality of life for sufferers of a range of medical conditions and look forward to extending the trials program.''

Results appeared to show significant reduction in pain, muscle spasm and bladder dysfunction as well as improved neurological function. 

Guy said the company had received approval from Canadian health authorities allowing it to start trials in Canada.

GW Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a private company, set up in 1997, which operates under licenses issued by the British Home Office (interior ministry) to cultivate, possess and supply cannabis for medical research.

The company has been growing cannabis in secure, computer-controlled glasshouses in southern England.

The plants are the same as those grown for recreational use but trials are designed to maximize the drug's analgesic, or pain relieving, effect rather than to make subjects so high they do not care about the pain.

The company said that if health authorities issued a license for cannabis-based medicine, the government had indicated it would be willing to amend narcotics laws to allow it to be prescribed.

 

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REVIEW OF "THE JOURNAL OF CANNABIS THERAPEUTICS"

By Mary Jane Borden

We've all heard the rhetoric. In the best-case scenario, it is sympathetic. Sure we hate to see Multiple Sclerosis, AIDS, and a host of other patients suffer. Their stories about cannabis as medicine are so compelling, but still only anecdotal. In the worst-case scenario, stoners are perpetuating a cruel hoax, using hapless patients as pawns in a scheme to legalize dangerous drugs. In either case, the perceived lack of credible science lies at the core of marijuana's prohibition. This is about to change.

In March, Haworth Press published the first edition of The Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics: Studies in Endogenous, Herbal, and Synthetic Cannabinoids. They call it a "peer-reviewed journal for doctors, researchers, and other health professionals who want current information on the use of cannabis."

Each article in the academic journal contains an abstract, keyword list, and bibliography. "Methods," "Results," and "Conclusion" sections are included in articles about clinical studies.

The first issue not only covered the molecular pharmacology of cannabis, but also addressed the history of marijuana from its use in eighth century Arabic medicine to its current prohibition as a result of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

All articles are fascinating. For example, did you know that, clinical trials conducted in six different states concluded that, "patients who smoked marijuana experienced 70-100% relief from nausea and vomiting, while those who used the THC capsule experienced 76-88% relief?" Cancer patients must be responding, "I told you so!"

Another article written in 1857 by one of the earliest pioneers of modern psychopharmacology, Jacques-Joseph Moreau (de Tours), chronicled the remarkable recovery of a psychiatric patient who had intractable lypemania, a type of severe depression. Through the regular administration of hashish, the patient overcame anxiety and delusions that had rendered him mute and anorexic. Dr. Moreau concluded that hashish achieved this cure by "effectively combating the fixed ideas of depressives, disrupting the chain of their ideas, of unfocusing their attention on such and such a subject." 

Along with depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders, possible therapeutic indications for marijuana include antineoplastic (cancer), bronchodilator (asthma), anticonvulsant (epilepsy), and opiate/alcohol withdrawal. Those that show the most promise are antiemetic (nausea and vomiting from cancer chemotherapy), appetite stimulation (AIDS and cancer-related anorexia), antispasmotic (spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis), and analgesia (arthritis).

The Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics will be published three times per year. The second issue is scheduled to cover the uses of cannabis in medieval Azerbaijan, a discussion of marijuana and music, and an exhaustive review of cannabis and headache treatment. The December 2001 issue will focus on HIV/AIDS and Harm Reduction.

The annual subscription price for an individual is $115.20. Rates are also available for institutions and libraries. Haworth Press has a web site for the journal at http://www.HaworthPress.com. On a final note and returning to the rhetoric that has polarized the debate about cannabis, Dr. Ethan Russo, M.D., journal editor and a professor at both the University of Washington and University of Montana, calls marijuana "a remarkable herb (that) provides us with insights and challenges as to what constitutes medicine." Recent research on the plant, he notes, is leading us to a better understanding of our own biochemical make-up.

Regrettably, this renewable resource for fiber, food, and healthful essential fatty acids has been made a political pariah. Dr. Russo concludes, "That this occurred on the basis of a political agenda, rather than on actual danger or clinical deficiencies, is an error that history and the scientific method demand be rectified."

 

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OMMA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

OPN leaders visited the offices of more than a dozen Ohio State Representatives on Wednesday, April 25 to gain support for the Ohio Medical Marijuana Act. Although no sponsors were confirmed, OPN leaders educated the representatives by providing them a copy of the OMMA, a Medical Marijuana Fact Sheet, and other medical marijuana information.

OPN leaders met personally with: 

-Majority Floor Leader Rep. Patricia Clancy (R - 35th District, Cincinnati area, who stated "I THOUGHT WE CLOSED THIS LOOPHOLE BACK IN '97!")

-Rep. Kevin DeWine, (R - 76th District, Greene county)

-Rep. Shawn Webster, (R - 60th District, Butler and Preble counties)

-Rep. Dean DePiero, (D - 20th District, Parma area of Cuyahoga county, who said he had received contacts from his constituents about the bill).

Another follow up visit was also held with Rep. Bill Hartnett of Mansfield. In addition to these personal visits, OPN leaders met with the aides of:

-Rep. Dennis Stapleton (R - 88th District, SE Ohio - Fayette, Pike, etc.)

-Rep. Bill Seitz (R - 34th District, Cincinnati area)

-Rep. James Hoops (R - 83rd District, Northwest Ohio)

-Rep. Keith Faber (R - 84th District)

-Rep. Twyla Roman (R - 48th District)

-Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Charles Wilson, Jr. (D - 99th District, Eastern counties near Wheeling)

-Rep. Shirley Smith (D - 8th District, east side of Cleveland, Bratenahl, etc.)

-Rep. Jeanine Perry (D - 50th District, Toledo area)

-Rep. Joseph Sulzer (D - 91st District, Chillicothe area).

Constituent contact (and lack thereof) is consistently noted by the representatives. Please contact your state representatives, asking them to sponsor and support the OMMA.

 

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FULL TEXT OF OMMA IS AVAILABLE ON LINE

The Ohio Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA) has been added to the OPN website. To view or print the act, go to http://www.ohiopatient.net/OMMA.htm.