California State Medical Marijuana Patient Identification

California electorate is divided over an initiative on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana for recreational use.The Public Policy Institute of Ca. poll out Wed (05/19/2010) found t 49 percent of likely voters would support legalization of cannabis, while 48 percent oppose it. The poll has a margin of inaccuracy of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The state of California already allows medicinal use of cannabis, but would become the first state to legalize recreational use if voters approve the initiative.The poll found that Democrats and independents are far more likely to support the initiative than Republicans. Not overly surprising. Support also is higher in the Bay Area, while L.A. and the Central Valley remain divided.The survey found that men are more likely to favor legalization than women.

In 2001, Canada became the first country in North America to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. The federal government sanctions marijuana farms for medical purposes. The government of B.C. for example, keeps tabs on these farms and limits the size of the crops. Citizens must have a license to legally obtain marijuana for health purposes. Some citizens grow a small crop in their homes providing they have the license to do so and the government has inspected that it is not big enough to be considered grown for commercial use.

The legal potency of this drug must be 20% and no stronger. There are various potencies of the cannabis and law accepts the “red roaster” potency.

Many people who grow these plants in the home for medicinal purposes grow hydroponics plants meaning they do not need soil or dirt to grow. These indoor plants are started from seeds, or a cut from a marijuana plant called a clone. They need food (nutrients) and light to grow. The plant will root and then flower. The whole growing process will take about four months.

These plants are usually very potent because they are use for medicine purposes. Marijuana has proven effective in regulating pain. The plants can be smoked like a cigarette, or placed in a bag, or put in various foods. For example, one licensed domestic grower in Quebec makes marijuana butter.

Cannabis was used for over 4,000 years as a pain reliever in China. It was also in wide spread use around the world until the 19th century and the invention of aspirin. The USA banned the use of Marijuana for pain relief in 1937.

The California Medicinal Marijuana Law, 1996, allows for medicinal use of marijuana for such illnesses as HIV/Aids, chronic pain, cancer, and mood disorders. The State leaves the actual regulation of growing the drug with each respect county.

Doctor Don Abrams is a cancer specialist operating at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion in San Francisco. He uses marijuana as a treatment for his cancer and HIV/Aids patients. His clients gain back their appetite, and report that they are no longer experiencing nausea and vomiting.

Studies have also been conducted showing the reduction of pain experienced by individuals afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Raphael Mechoulam of Jerusalem's Hebrew University is a leader in the research of cannabis for medicinal purposes. He recommends that marijuana be prescribed just as freely as any other drug. He states that the THC chemical in Cannabis could help the brain forget unwanted memories so vital for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The endocannabinoid system (marijuana receptors in the brain) may also help regulate other neurological disorders such as Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's. Researchers at the Hadassah University Hospital also found that cannabinoid plants slowed down the onset of diabetes in genetically predisposed mice.

Many centers in Oakland California gave out Marijuana to their clients. The State of California has marijuana dispensaries everywhere you look. The city of Oakland just levied a tax of the sale of marijuana at the dispensaries.

Richard Lee owns a marijuana dispensary and has started a cooking school for marijuana, which he calls Oaksterdam. The curriculum of the school includes political and historical information, botany, and differentiation of the male and female plants.

However, even though it is legal at the California State level, the use of Marijuana as medication is not legal at the federal level and many clinics have been forced to shut down. The Federal Law to ban Marijuana use as a medicinal drug not only aims to shut down the California marijuana clinics, which has legalized dispensaries to sell the drug, but slows down the use in the other states which have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. These states are: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregan, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

California electorate is divided over an initiative on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana for recreational use.The Public Policy Institute of Ca. poll out Wed (05/19/2010) found t 49 percent of likely voters would support legalization of cannabis, while 48 percent oppose it. The poll has a margin of inaccuracy of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The state of California already allows medicinal use of cannabis, but would become the first state to legalize recreational use if voters approve the initiative.The poll found that Democrats and independents are far more likely to support the initiative than Republicans. Not overly surprising. Support also is higher in the Bay Area, while L.A. and the Central Valley remain divided.The survey found that men are more likely to favor legalization than women.

When I hear the name of President Reagen I think about the hard nosed fool who brought the unconstitutional war on drugs on the American people. Billions of dollars are spent each year hunting down, arresting, persecuting (not prosecuting) drug “criminals”, and locking them up. Giant government agencies were formed sucking up vast amounts of taxpayer money and all for nothing.

First off, what someone does to their own body is their own problem. If someone wants to shoot heroin, or smoke marijuana then let them. Freedom of Choice. Government should have no decision in the matter. Take a look at the prohibition on alcohol and what problems that solved. None at all, it just created problems. Al Capone and his hoodlums made tons of money off of bootleg booze and violence erupted because of it. The same is true for the drug trade today and has been for the last 30 years. Crack cocaine and crystal meth never would have been invented if there was no drug prohibition. People couldn't afford the good expensive cocaine and thus had to learn to cut it and mix with household chemicals, same with meth. The government effectively drove up prices and created cheap, highly addictive, highly volatile new drugs.

With that aside, all drugs don't even need to be legal, but they all should be. If marijuana alone was made legal, many of the US economic woes would be solved. This plant should be hailed and glorified not banned. The buds can be used for medicine. The stems/stalks are used to make clothes, paper, oils, lotions, and much more. This plant has never directly killed anyone. It is less intoxicating than alcohol. Why is it illegal?

How would marijuana solve the economic woes of the country you ask? First, it would get rid of all the non-violent marijuana “criminals” behind bars. Second, it would stop the paying of federal agencies to hunt down innocent civilians. Third, it could be grown as a crop creating many more jobs in the farming sector. Fourth, it would create jobs in the pulp/paper industry. New businesses would crop up to create marijuana processing machines. Operators would be employed to run these machines. Distributors would sell and market the items. Fifth, new industries would be created for legal hemp lotions, oils, clothes, wallets, handbags, flags, etc. Sixth, medical marijuana would be used for a great variety of ailments including insomnia, glucoma, pain. This would free up doctors, because patients would self medicate. All of these things would be taxable, meaning instead of money being spent by the government, money would be coming in to the government. Most importantly this plant grows in 30-60 days and can be grown year round indoor or outdoor making it renewable.

The most important thing though is that it would get rid of the violence that stems from the illegal drug trade of marijuana, effectively cutting off the money supply of drug dealers. If it was regulated and taxed like cigarettes or alcohol, the country would be much richer and the people much happier.