(CBS) Does legalizing marijuana for medicinal use turn young people into pot fiends? New data from Rhode Island – which legalized medical marijuana in 2006 – suggest it doesn’t.

PICTURES – Medical marijuana: Which 16 states permit pot?

The data, presented Wednesday at a meeting of the American Public Health Association, were based on a survey of 32,570 students from Rhode Island and neighboring Massachusetts between 1997 and 2009.

The data showed that while pot use was widespread in the states during the time period, there were no significant differences in rates of marijuana use between the states in any given year.

Sixteen states (including Rhode Island) currently permit the use of medical marijuana, but Massachusetts isn’t one of them.

Read More

The study’s lead author, Dr. Esther Choo, an emergency room physician at Rhode Island Hospital, told Time that the population of people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes is small – and not the sort of people teens are eager to emulate.

“Whether they are taking it for pain or for vomiting control or appetite, this is not a group we think of as super-inspiring for young people,” she said.

What do other experts say?

Proponents of medical marijuana say the weed can help curb symptoms of cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and other conditions, according to ProCon.org. Opponents question pot’s effectiveness and say the stuff is dangerous and can serve as a “gateway” to other, more dangerous substances.

The American Medical Association has called for marijuana laws to be reviewed to facilitate research and promote development of drugs based on the “cannabinoid” compounds in pot – but adds in its most recent policy statement on pot that “this should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product.”

What do you think? Should medical marijuana be legal everywhere? Or would that put kids at risk?

Gingrich on Saturday told Yahoo! News’ Chris Moody that California showed medical marijuana was a “joke.” He introduced legislation to legalize the use of medicinal cannabis in 1981, but has since changed his mind about it, reports Eric W. Dolan at The Raw Story.

“What has changed was the number of parents I met with who said they did not want their children to get the signal from the government that it was acceptable behavior and that they were prepared to say as a matter of value that it was better to send a clear signal on no drug use at the risk of inconveniencing some people, than it was to be compassionate toward a small group at the risk of telling a much larger group that it was OK to use the drug,” Gingrich claimed.

The fact that Gingrich admitted in a 1995 New York Magazine interview that he had smoked pot as a young man — “That was a sign we were alive and in graduate school in that era” — forced him to do some fancy footwork a year later when asked why he supports arresting people for something for which he wasn’t punished.

Rockford Register Star
“My general belief is that we should be much more aggressive about drug policy”
​”See, when I smoked pot it was illegal, but not immoral,” Gingrich “explained” to journalist Hilary Stout in 1996, according to 2012 Republican Candidates. “Now, it is illegal AND immoral. The law didn’t change, only the morality … That’s why you get to go to jail and I don’t.” Got that, stoner?

That was the same year Gingrich introduced H.R. 4170 (the Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996) to the House of Representatives, which sought to “provide a sentence of death for certain importations of significant quantities of controlled substances.”

The Georgia Republican didn’t bother to explain why he considers using a natural herb like cannabis to be “immoral drug use,” yet apparently has no problem with the vast amount of dangerous, often deadly, chemicals being produced by Big Pharma and freely, even recklessly, prescribed by doctors whose education costs were often paid by — you guessed it — the guys who make the pills. That’s not “drug use,” apparently, in Newt’s sad little, head-up-his-ass world.

Medical marijuana legalization does not increase its use among teenagers, according to a report presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Exposition. What’s more, the death toll from legal prescription drug overdoses has more than tripled in the past decade, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — while there has never been a single documented overdose fatality from cannabis.

“My general belief is we ought to be much more aggressive about drug policy,” Gingrich said, showing just how far out of touch he is with the 80 percent of Americans who support legalizing cannabis for medicinal use as recommended by a physician.

Gingrich called for harsher economic penalties for “illegal drug use” and more drug testing, including mandatory drug testing for anyone who receives unemployment compensation or food stamps.

Florida and Missouri have already passed laws requiring mandatory piss tests for applicants to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program; Republican lawmakers in other states have also proposed similar laws this year. GOP blowhards have continued with their calls for the mandatory tests despite the fact that Florida’s new law, as predicted by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, costs the taxpayers and the state of Florida much more money than it saves.

But, as we mentioned, Gingrich doesn’t stop at just forcing piss tests on desperate poor people. He also wants to kill drug dealers.

Newt supports the death penalty for “high-level drug smugglers,” admiring the “successful” and “draconian” policies of Singapore, a nation which regularly hangs people for marijuana. Anyone caught with more than 500 grams or cannabis, or 200 grams of hashish, is killed.

Apparently trying to talk out of both sides of his mouth at once, Gingrich also said while he is “very serious” in his desire to “minimize drug use in America,” he did not think throwing people in prison was the right approach. He claimed he favored medical help and drug addiction treatment (I guess that only applies if he doesn’t decide to kill you first for being a “drug dealer”).

Three of Gingrich’s rivals for the GOP nomination, businessman Herman Cain, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, have endorsed allowing states to legalize medical marijuana without interference from the federal government — a position once taken, then heartily abandoned, by the Obama Administration.

http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/11/presidential_hopeful_gingrich_calls_medical_mariju.php

It’s usually not a good idea to whip out your medical marijuana while going through a Transportation Security Administration airport checkpoint, but sometimes, in some airports, in some medical marijuana states, it turns out ok.

Case in point: Mike Schaef of Tacoma, Washington, who operates North End Club 420, a medical marijuana patient collective garden.

When going through security at SeaTac airport just south of Seattle Friday morning at about 10:15, Mike put about two grams of cannabis in the scanner bowl and showed his CannaPath medical cannabis authorization in the TSA line.

​”They grabbed it,” Mike’s friend Todd Dearinger told Toke of the Town. “After a few minutes with the feds and locals they gave him back his meds and let him go on his way.”

Schaef shared the photo on Facebook this morning, with the caption:

“This is what happens when u put your meds in the scanner bowl at seatac….they let me go and gave it back…said have a nice flight….”

Original story taken from Toke of the town.

SEATTLE — Federal agents raided almost a dozen medical marijuana dispensaries around the Puget Sound area Tuesday.

Dispensaries in King, Pierce and Thurston counties were shut down, suspected of breaking Washington’s medical marijuana laws. Authorities report multiple people were arrested.

Investigators said the businesses were targeted for everything from possessing too much marijuana to selling it to people without a medical marijuana card.

SkyKING flew over three businesses that were raided, including the G.A.M.E. Lounge in White Center, and The Herbal Connection and Evergreen Medicinal, both in Puyallup.

In Thurston County alone, 17 suspects were arrested in raids at five businesses: The Healing Center, Olympia Patient Resource Center, Lacey Cross, Cannabis Outreach Services and Triple D’s. The suspects range in age from 18 to 50-years-old. Each was booked for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.

Tacoma Police confirmed three dispensaries were raided in that city.

Dispensaries in Graham, Parkland, and Spanaway were also raided, according to Pierce County Sheriff spokesperson Detective Ed Troyer.

Arrest totals from King and Pierce counties have not been made available yet.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents from the Seattle office issued a statement regarding the raids:

“The DEA will exercise its investigative authority to pursue criminal actions for any violation of federal law, when warranted. This includes investigating organizations or individuals that grow, manufacture or distribute any illegal drug to include marijuana, and those who rent or maintain a property to facilitate drug trafficking.”

Whether a specific tip or information launched the highly orchestrated raids is not clear yet.

This article is being continuously updated with today’s developments.

Voters in Tacoma, Washington, just south of Seattle, sent a powerful message Tuesday to law enforcement and to state legislators in Olympia by joining Seattle in officially declaring marijuana possession laws the city’s “lowest law enforcement priority.”

Organizers Don Muridan and Sherry Bockwinkel, cosponsors of Tacoma Initiative No. 1, CannbisReformAct.org, gathered the necessary signatures and the voters of Tacoma resoundingly agreed, passing with measure with 65 percent approval.

The measure overwhelmingly passed by an almost 2:1 margin, despite being voted on in an off-year election. Modeled after Seattle’s 2003 initiative, Tacoma Initiative No. 1 makes adult marijuana possession offenses the lowest priority for law enforcement.

This is not just a squeaky little win, this is a supermajority here,” said Bockwinkel, a medical marijuana patient, reports Lewis Kamb at the Tacoma News Tribune.

Tacoma law enforcement officials grumpily claimed they already don’t target pot offenses and the measure “likely won’t change that.” They pointed to statistics they claimed showed that pot is already low priority, despite the fact that 463 marijuana cases were prosecuted in Tacoma last year.

Original article – Toke of the town

Well if you haven’t noticed yet, our home page has gotten a facelift. Among some of the new features are this niffty blog, and now verification is even easier as we have it listed right on the front page.

CannaPath has revolutionized the medical cannabis authorization process for Washington state patients. The friendly and knowledgeable staff at our conveniently located clinics, strive to personalize each appointment to accommodate the needs of each patient.

Often standard treatment is to prescribe strong and addictive opiates for patients enduring intractable pain. At CannaPath we understand that this is not the right path for everyone, that is why we help you to find an appropriate pain management alternative(s) that works for you.

CannaPath is dedicated to making the application process for medical cannabis as simple and hassle free as possible. Our main concern, is the well being of our patients.

Apart from offering premium services, CannaPath also maintains accommodating pricing. We feel that patients should have access to affordable treatment options including medical cannabis authorizations.

CannaPath mandates all authorizations, regardless of length have a structured plan to effectively monitor a patients response to treatment as implied by RCW 5073.

With patient permission, those without current medical records, can appoint our medical provider to assume the role as their primary care provider in order to document medical history regarding their qualifying condition.

Medical Cannabis Law

Fifty-nine percent of voters approved Initiative 692 on November 3, 1998. Initiative 692 created Chapter 69.51A RCW, which allows patients with terminal illnesses and persons with some chronic diseases described in the law to use and possess cannabis once they’ve received appropriate documentation from their physician. The law protects the physicians and primary caregivers of these patients against criminal prosecution and/or penalizing administrative actions by the state of Washington. Law only gives an affirmative defense at trial, not a protection from arrest.

Qualifying Conditions

Cancer, HIV/Aids, Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy/Seizures, Chronic Pain, Spasticity Disorder(s), Cramping/Muscle Spasms, Migraine Headaches, Hepatitis C, Crohn’s Disease, Glaucoma, Arthritis, Nausea, Anorexia, and Asthma.

Some patients are hesitant to apply for a medical cannabis authorization because they are not sure of the rules or think it will be to complicated. Canna Path is dedicated to making the application process as simple and hassle-free as possible. Our main concern is for the patient. We are here to help you, and to make the medical cannabis approval process as easy as possible for those who qualify and will help you through the entire process.

Watch our promotional video

CannaPath Pain Management Alternatives from Dave and Mike Show on Vimeo.

CannaPath offers the quickest and most reliable 24 hour online patient verification system. Patients will never be denied access to their medicine due to the inability to verify their authorization status. Each patient is assigned a unique 9 digit id number recorded in our database as well as printed on the bottom of the authorization. Any ‘Access Point’ can use this number for 24/7 online verification.

Get verified right now by using our verification system located in the side bar on the right side. We want to make the verification process as simple as possible for our patients.

Recent blog post