This guest post is contributed by Amy S. Cook, who writes on the topic of LVN to RN . Amy welcomes your comments: amy11s.cook [at] gmail [dot] com.

There’s white, there’s black, and then there are varying shades of gray. But it is human nature to see the black first and longest because it is the most striking of the lot. So it is with medical marijuana — people fail to see its potential as a therapeutic drug that helps relieve pain and other symptoms of diseases and instead perceive it as a drug that is and could be abused for personal pleasure. This is why there are laws against using this drug even for therapeutic reasons. But those in the medical community, especially nurses, approve of medical marijuana (more…)

Assm. Buchanan

UPDATE May 19:  Reacting to fears of litigation costs, the Assembly Committee on Appropriations placed AB 2650 in suspense today – a status for bills which may have a significant fiscal impact. The committee could hear the bill again, along with other suspense bills, next week. The staff report published by committee staff referred to litigation by ASA in Los Angeles as an example of fiscal impact of the bill.

I testified that AB 2650 was unnecessary and did nothing to protect public safety. I urged the committee to leave local land use decision with cities and counties where they belong. Aaron smith from Marijuana Policy Project and a patient from a Sacramento collective also spoke in opposition to the bill. The bill’s author, law enforcement lobbyists, and Republicans on the committee argued that collectives “targeted” children with flyers promoting medical cannabis and were opening near schools.

Original post:

On Tuesday, the California Assembly Committee on Public Health will discuss AB 2650, bill that would require that medical cannabis collectives, cooperatives, and growers be located at least 1,000 feet away from a laundry list of “sensitive uses” everywhere in the state. The bill was introduced unexpectedly this week by Assembly Member Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo). AB 2650 is sponsored by the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORCA), a law enforcement lobby organization that opposes medical cannabis, and mirrors a controversial ordinance recently adopted in the City of Los Angeles.

ASA opposes AB 2650, and we are calling on our members in California to tell their Assembly representatives on the committee to vote no. Find out if your Assembly representative is on the Public Health Committee, and tell him or her to oppose AB 2650!

(more…)

Medical marijuana in the Deep South could be more than a thought gone with the wind!

ASA sends kudos and our sincere congratulations to Alabamians for Compassionate Care and our friends, allies and supporters in Alabama for successfully organizing to advance HB642, The Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act.

Here’s an excerpt from Loretta Nall’s reflections on the hearing:

Yesterday’s YES vote on HB642 by the Alabama House Judiciary Committee was historic. It was the first time a medical marijuana bill has passed the first hurdle toward becoming law in the state of Alabama. What makes it even more historic and astounding is that this is an election year in Alabama. the entire house and senate are up for re-election. To even take this bill up, much less pass it, shows that attitudes are changing in Alabama. We are also the only Southern state to have a medical marijuana bill in committee right now and hopefully we will be the first Southern state to have a medical marijuana law. Imagine that…Alabama first at something…well…progressive and compassionate and right!

Read her full blog for more information including a video of the hearing proceedings.

Last week, US Secretary of State, Hilary Rodham Clinton, led an extraordinary delegation of senior US officials to Mexico to engage in high level talks with Mexican officials about rising death tolls and border violence stemming from President Calderón’s 2006 declaration of war on the drug cartels.

Curiously, Mexican officials used the opportunity to express frustration about the growing number of US states adopting compassionate use laws and implementing safe access provisions (all of which require cultivation occur within the the borders of the state).

Sec. Clinton’s response?

“We have not changed our laws, and we do not see this as a major contributor to the continuing flow of marijuana, the vast, vast majority of which is used for recreational purposes,”