Monday, July 26, 2010
Medical Marijuana V.A. to allow veterans access to MMJ
Posted by Bryce Crawford on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 9:48 AM
Update, 4:35 p.m.: Colorado Springs-based Cannabis Science has released a statement, supporting the V.A.'s decision:
"We see this announcement as a validation of our strategy of focusing on helping disabled vets suffering from PTSD, chronic pain, and other problems," says CEO Dr. Robert Melamede. "Nonetheless, it is shocking to think that disabled veterans in states without medical marijuana laws can still be denied 'access to prescribed pain medications in a Veterans Affairs facility.' That is tantamount to torture and good medicine and basic human decency do not change from state to state."
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The New York Times is reporting that the Department of Veterans Affairs will allow patients being treated in its facilities to use medicinal cannabis, if it's legal in that state.
The policy, expected to take effect this week, will not allow department doctors to prescribe the drug, but will protect using veterans, who otherwise risk losing access to prescribed medication, from doing so.
Under department rules, veterans can be denied pain medications if they are found to be using illegal drugs. Until now, the department had no written exception for medical marijuana.This has led many patients to distrust their doctors, veterans say. With doctors and patients pressing the veterans department for formal guidance, agency officials began drafting a policy last fall.
“When states start legalizing marijuana we are put in a bit of a unique position because as a federal agency, we are beholden to federal law,” said Dr. Robert Jesse, the principal deputy under secretary for health in the veterans department.
At the same time, Dr. Jesse said, “We didn’t want patients who were legally using marijuana to be administratively denied access to pain management programs.”
Below is a 2007 video from ex-Marine Drew Carey advocating for marijuana as medication for veterans. He tools around California, showing the inside of some medical marijuana centers, and interviews Americans for Safe Access executive director Steph Sherer.
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It's really good to see that the VA is allowing our injured heroes this option. There are MANY reports of injured vets and other Americans being able to reduce their use of narcotic pain killers and other dangerous drugs simply by using the natural remedy, marijuana. Thank you, VA, and a job well done!
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Posted by Conservative Christian
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High Country Caregiver commends the Veterans Affairs office for being the first United States federal office to recognize cannabis as medicine:
http://mypot.co
Posted by High Country Caregiver
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Reparations are long past due:
Millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens are falsely arrested on the basis of this claim in US law: "Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance, based on its high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use, and no accepted safety for use in medically supervised treatment".
But dozens of references were used by the US Department of Health and Human Services in it's April 21, 1999 application for 2003 US Patent No. 6630507, entitled, "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants".
see: http://tinyurl.com/classactionlawsuit
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Google Marc Emery. Free us all.
Posted by Historicus
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Let’s tell our Senators and Congresspersons how much we appreciate their decision to allow ordinary Americans living in Washington DC to have access to medical marijuana. We can find our Congressperson and our two Senators by going to the following links and clicking/entering our state (you’ll see how easy it is). It took me less than 15 minutes to contact all three of them, including the time it took to put together the message below (feel free to use it as a starting point for your own message!).
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_St…
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_info…
Dear Senator / or Congresswoman / or Congressman XXXXXXXXXXX:
Thank you so much for permitting the citizens of Washington DC to choose for themselves the option of using medical marijuana, for those citizens who can benefit from this product. I understand that for several years, Congress had prevented the citizens of DC from implementing their earlier vote on this matter, and I appreciate that you and your colleagues have had the courage to allow them to take this important step. It would have been easy for Congress to prevent this in order to "look tough on drugs," and I am really pleased that you and your colleagues have chosen to allow ordinary Americans to have access to this helpful herbal remedy.
Thank you also for all that you do to keep us safe and strong. I will remember in November!
Sincerely,
Name
Posted by Conservative Christian
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Okay, I got caught up in writing about the other marijuana news, that Congress chose to not prevent Washington DC from implementing its medical mj program. What I meant to say on this story was:
Be sure to write the President. Every politician in America is watching to see the public reaction to the VA medical mj decision. It takes two minutes; here's the link:
www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Posted by Conservative Christian
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