Paths toward medical marijuana: Legislative action versus voter initiative

Of 25 states that have legalized medical marijuana in the United States, 14 of them have done so by legislative action and 11 have done so by voter-led ballot initiative.

In a new analysis of state medical cannabis program data, New Frontier, a leading cannabis industry data and analysis company, finds states that legalized through the legislative process have more restrictive medical cannabis programs than states that legalized through voter-led ballot initiatives.

Someday you or someone you love may need safe, legal access to medical marijuana. You, or they, may have cancer, epilepsy, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, or Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s, breast cancer, a recent heart attack, or may be a veteran or emergency worker with post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2004, 64 percent of Montana voters passed a law creating a medical marijuana program, but access for patients seeking relief will soon disappear because of political nonsense in the 2011 Legislature. With these draconian, nonsensical laws, you and your loved ones aren’t going to get what you need for pain, symptom relief or a cure.

Schools in Colorado will be required to allow medical marijuana after Gov. John Hickenlooper signed “Jack’s Law” on Monday.

The law allows marijuana in schools for medical use with strict conditions.

Jack Splitt loves school so when his school confiscated the only medicine that treats his debilitating muscle spasms by stating “cannabis is a controlled substance,” Jack and his mom Stacey Linn took their fight to the state Capitol.

Last year, they helped pass a law that allows caregivers to administer cannabis at school to children who need it.

Rep. Jonathan Singer carried the legislation and thought the problem was solved. But schools found a loophole in the process.

Cannabis users seeking treatment often have an expertise about the drug which is leaving those trying to help them lagging behind, a conference has been told.

A group of national experts was told about the "inverted expertise" seen in users at a meeting at York University to exchange ideas on effective treatment.

The conference was told that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people seeking treatment, with research showing there has been a 64% increase between 2005 and 2015 in England.

And cannabis has now overtaken heroin as the drug most likely to prompt calls for help.

But the increase in requests for treatment contrasts with the steady decline in the population's use of the drug, delegates were told.

In 2011, a now 76-year old disabled veteran named Lee Carroll Brooker was arrested for growing three dozen marijuana plants in his home. Under Alabama state law, Brooker received a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole, and the Supreme Court last month refused to hear an appeal arguing the sentence was cruel and unusual.

Brooker’s case attracted advocates clamoring for a change in sentencing laws, but perhaps the worst part about this case is it is by no means unusual.

12-year-old in provincial care denied permission to try medical marijuana to treat severe epilepsy.

Parents of a girl with severe epilepsy want to try treating their daughter with medicinal cannabis, but because she's living in a provincial care home, Nova Scotia's Department of Community Services won't allow it.

Morgan Oulton was born with multiple brain abnormalities and suffers from various forms of epilepsy. The 12-year-old has also been diagnosed with a variety of behaviour disorders, cognitive impairment, as well as autism.

Since she was three-years-old, Morgan has been on a series of medications to control her conditions. The drugs have had various rates of success, but also side effects. 

Raising seed funding for a medical cannabis start-up is just half the battle.

Entrepreneurs are jostling for position in the nascent but lucrative medical cannabis industry, even as political and legal traction is proving difficult.

Take Chris Nasr, founder of LeafCann, who represents the contemporary face of the medical cannabis industry.

A 24-year-old electrician from a conservative Arabic family, Nasr is hard to dismiss as law-flouting drug user.

Fibromyalgia - a disorder that causes full-body pain, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating - is still not that well understood by the medical community and by the public at large. What patients themselves don't fully understand yet is that there's growing evidence to suggest that medical marijuana could provide some relief from fibromyalgia. According to a 2015 article in Whaxy, "cannabis treats not only the pain" associated with the syndrome, "but other symptoms of the condition as well, including insomnia, fatigue, restless legs syndrome, depression, and anxiety."

Researchers in the US say that marijuana use has no negative effect on health, aside from a link with gum disease. Christopher Ingraham considers what this means for the legalisation of pot.

Long-term marijuana use is not associated with a raft of physical health problems, according to a new study, with one surprising exception: gum disease.

Researchers led by Madeline H Meier of Arizona State University tracked the marijuana habits of 1,037 New Zealanders from birth to middle age to see what effect those habits have on some common measures of physical health, including lung function, systemic inflammation, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body weight, blood sugar and dental health.

I am a huge fan of Baltimore Ravens player Eugene Monroe. That’s not because of what he does on the field, although he is an amazing athlete and I plan on rooting for him this upcoming season. The real reason why I’m such a big fan of Mr. Monroe’s is because of his advocacy and courage. He has been a powerful voice for cannabis reform in the NFL, and has risked his entire career to push for a removal of cannabis from the NFL’s banned substance list.