Cannabis Study House - ＵＳＡ・ヘンプ・ミュージアム、ヘンプの医療と健康、医療ヘンプ条例

医療ヘンプ条例

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The people of California passed Proposition 215 in November of 1996, authorizing in law the use of Cannabis sativa [marijuana] for medical purposes ( CA Health & Safety Code 11362.5). Two years later despite one purpose of the act being, "to encourage state and federal governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana," governments have failed to act.

In the recent general elections (1998), five more states have passed laws allowing the use of the plant Cannabis sativa [marijuana] as medicine using various criteria. They will be joining the struggle to get Cannabis to needy patients. The purpose of this packet is to provide some information, guidance, forms, and supporting information for using legal marijuana in the void left by the inaction of governments.

Section 11362.5, CA Health & Safety Code was added to law by the CA initiative process by the people of California. Below is that complete code addition:

California Health and Safety Code

I.
This section shall be known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

II.
The people to the State of California hereby find and declare that the purposes of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 are as follows:

(A) To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person's health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.

(B) To ensure that patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes upon the recommendation of a physician are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction.

(C) To encourage the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede legislation from engaging in conduct that endangers others, nor to condone the diversion of marijuana for nonmedical purposes.

III.
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.

IV.
Section 11357, relating to the possession of marijuana and Section 11358, relating to the cultivation of marijuana, shall not apply to a patient, or to a patient's primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician.

V.
For the purposes of this section, "primary caregiver" means the individual designated by the person exempted under this section who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of that person. (end)

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For both doctors and patients it might be helpful to attempt to answer the question why try Cannabis [marijuana] for any ailment? I will attempt to answer the question in three parts, dealing with history, safety, and efficacy (does it work).

A. SAFETY:

Francis L. Young, Admin. Law Judge, D.E.A. Docket # 86-22, 1988.

In 1980, a culmination of 8 years of lawsuits by National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), led the United States Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit to direct the Drug Enforcement Administration to hold hearing on the rescheduling of marijuana to allow its use as medicine. For six years this process drug on and in 1986 the DEA requested their own Judge Francis L. Young to commence these hearings which lasted two years.

In addition to hearing arguments on the proposed rescheduling of marijuana, it was agreed he would determine: "Whether there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the marijuana plant under medical supervision." His report on safety "shows the following facts to be uncontroverted (unchallenged)." Excerpts from the record include:

3. The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the possibility of lethal effects. Can the drug cause death?

4. Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects, but marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.

5. This is a remarkable statement. First, the record on marijuana encompasses 5,000 years of human experience. Second, marijuana is now used daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world. Estimates suggest that from twenty million to fifty million Americans routinely, albeit illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of direct medical supervision. Yet, despite this long history of use and the extraordinarily high numbers of social smokers, there are simply no credible medical reports to suggest that consuming marijuana has caused a single death.

6. By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter medicine, causes hundreds of deaths each year.

7. Drugs used in medicine are routinely given what is called an LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage fifty percent of test animals receiving a drug will die as a result of drug induced toxicity. A number of researchers have attempted to determine marijuana=s LD-50 rating in test animals, without success. Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death.

8. At present it is "estimated" that marijuana's LD-50 is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately 0.9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.

9. In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity.

14. ...marijuana's therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50, is impossible to quantify because it is so high.

16. Marijuana, in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis, marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care.

B. EFFICACY:

"In determining whether a medical procedure utilized by a doctor is actionable as malpractice the courts have adopted the rule that it is acceptable for a doctor to employ a method of treatment supported by a respectable minority of physicians

...A respectable minority of physicians have accepted marijuana as having a medical use in treatment in the United States...for nausea and vomiting resulting from chemotherapy treatments in some cancer patients...for spasticity resulting from multiple sclerosis and other causes." (DEA Docket #86-22).

C. HISTORY:

This 1997 Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers' Club CERTIFIED CARE-GROWER certificate was offered for sale at a local flea market.

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