Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2007.12.27

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Weekly News in Audio

December 27, 2007

December 27, 2007 - Washington, DC, USA
2007: The Year In Review 窶� NORML’s Top 10 Events That Shaped Marijuana Policy

#1: DEA Steps Up Attacks Against California Medi-Pot Patients, Dispensaries

Federal law enforcement officials took unprecedented steps in 2007 to quash California’s medi-pot patient community. DEA officials raided a record number of dispensaries and mailed hundreds of letters to California landlords threatening them with arrest and up to 20 years imprisonment, as well as the forfeiture of their building, if they rented to medicinal cannabis clubs. Since DEA officials began mailing warning letters this summer, numerous high profile clubs across the state have ceased operations.

#2: DEA Administrative Law Judge Rules Against US Government's Monopoly On Pot Production

DEA Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled in February that the private production of cannabis for research purposes is “in the public interest.”She found that the DEA had improperly rejected an application from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to manufacture cannabis for FDA-approved research. The agency has yet to affirm or set aside the ruling.

#3: Pot Compounds Inhibit Spread Of Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer

Compounds in marijuana reduce the spread and size of various cancers, including lung cancer and breast cancer, according to a pair of preclinical studies published in 2007. In the first, investigators at Harvard University reported that THC reduced lung tumor growth by as much as 50 percent compared to untreated controls. In the second trial, researchers at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute reported that CBD significantly limits the activity of a gene linked to the spread of breast cancer.

#4: Marijuana Arrests For Year 2005 Most Ever

Police arrested an estimated 829,625 persons for marijuana violations in 2006, the highest annual total ever recorded in the United States, according to statistics compiled in September by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An American is now arrested for violating marijuana laws every 38 seconds.

#5: New Mexico Becomes Twelfth State To Authorize Medical Cannabis Use

New Mexico lawmakers approved legislation in April approving the use of medicinal cannabis by authorized patients. New Mexico is the twelfth state since 1996 to enact legislation protecting medical cannabis patients from arrest and state criminal prosecution, though it is only the fourth to do so legislatively. Lawmakers in Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington amended their medical marijuana laws in 2007.

#6: Studies Find That Cannabis Has “Clear Medical Benefits” For HIV Patients

Inhaling cannabis significantly increases daily caloric intake and body weight in HIV-positive patients, is well tolerated, and does not impair subjects’ cognitive performance, according to aclinical trial published this year in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Additionally, in February, investigators at San Francisco General Hospital reported in the journal Neurology that inhaling cannabis significantly reduced HIV-associated neuropathy (nerve pain) compared to placebo.

#7: Smokeless Cannabis Delivery System Found “Safe And Effective”

Vaporization is a “safe and effective” cannabinoid delivery mode for patients who desire the rapid onset of action associated with inhalation while avoiding the respiratory risks of smoking, according to clinical trial data published earlier this year in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. “Vaporization of marijuana does not result in exposure to combustion gases, ... and … is an effective and apparently safe vehicle for THC delivery,” the study concluded.

#8: Cannabis Prohibition Costs Taxpayers More Than $40 Billion Per Year

Marijuana prohibition costs US taxpayers nearly $42 billion dollars per year in criminal justice costs and in lost tax revenues, according to an economic analysis released in October.

#9: Ninth Circuit: No “Fundamental” Right To Use Pot To Ease Suffering

The physician-approved use of cannabis to “preserve bodily integrity, avoid intolerable pain, and preserve life” is not a Constitutionally protected right, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in March. The Court opined: “[M]edical and conventional wisdom … recogniz[ing] the use of marijuana for medical purposes is gaining traction in the law. But that legal recognition has not yet reached the point where a conclusion can be drawn that the right to use medical marijuana is 'fundamental' and 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.'”

#10: FDA Advisory Panel Says Controversial Cannabinoid Blocker Not Safe For Human Consumption

An independent FDA advisory committee determined 14-0 in June that the controversial cannabinoid receptor antagonist Rimonabant is unsafe for human consumption in the United States. Panelists reported that patients prescribed Rimonabant experienced increased incidences of depression, nausea, vomiting, and suicidal tendencies. Rimonabant is currently marketed in Europe (under the trade name Acomplia) as a dietary aid.

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