RETIREMENT LIVING TV ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

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SPECIAL REPORT ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA
http://www.rl.tv/OurShows/Viewpoint/tabid/598/Default.aspx

Viewpoint investigates the relationship between seniors living with chronic pain and their choice to use medical marijuana to alleviate their constant discomfort.

We hear from voices on all sides of this issue - seniors who smoke marijuana to ease their pain; a medical marijuana dispensary in California; the White House office of drug control policy; and a prominent member of Congress - all of whom agree that when it comes to the issue of medical marijuana, there are no easy answers.

 

UPDATES:

August 7, 2007

Poll update. After one week, 65 people have responded to our poll. Of those 65 people, only one did not support the legalization of medical marijuana.

July 30, 2007

Don, the operator of the legal California medical marijuana dispensary profiled by Viewpoint, has been forced to close his facility. You can see pictures of the raid here.

Click here for full story

 
senior healthViewpoint is hosted by Lea Thompson.
Lea Thompson was most recently Dateline NBC's Chief Consumer Correspondent and one of NBC's main investigative reporters. At NBC, Thompson did hundreds of stories on seniors involving their health, wealth and safety. There are few schemes, scams and rip-offs Thompson has not investigated.
senior health
Discover what leading federal agencies and medical organizations have to say about medical marijuana use:
The AMA is the nation's largest association of Medical Doctors. Read the AMA official policy on medical marijuana.
The The FDA is a U.S. federal agency which regulates food, drugs, and other medical products. Read what the FDA thinks of medical marijuana.
The DEA is the primary agency for enforcement of federal drug laws in the United States. Read the DEA's official stand on medical marijuana.
The NEI is one of the National Institutes of Health, the official medical research agency of the United States. Read a statement from the NEI regarding marijuana and glaucoma.
ASA is an organization of medical professionals, patients, scientists and citizens working to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research. Read the ASA's mission statement on medical marijuana.
An internationally renowned medical center, in 2007 the Mayo Clinic was designated as the one of the top hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. Click above to read an advisory about the use of medical marijuana.

RETIREMENT LIVING TV ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA


http://www.rl.tv/OurShows/Viewpoint/
MedicalMarijuanaKeyFacts/tabid/609/Default.aspx

  • is a green, brown, or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa). Cannabis is a term that refers to marijuana and other drugs made from the same plant. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States.
  • One of the active chemicals in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). THC is the main component responsible for marijuana's mind-altering effect. For decades, scientists have been studying THC’s potential medical uses to determine its validity and found that it may help treat a variety of conditions including nausea, glaucoma, pain and multiple sclerosis.
  • Medical marijuana advocates argue that marijuana provides medical benefits for cancer and AIDS patients by increasing appetite and decreasing nausea and it has been shown to assist some glaucoma, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis patients.
  • According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and opponents to medical marijuana, marijuana use results in problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, loss of coordination, increased heart rate, and anxiety. Also, chronic use of marijuana may increase the risk of psychotic symptoms in people with a past history of schizophrenia.
  • Twelve states have compassionate use laws: Alaska, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, Montana, Washington. In these states, patients with a doctor’s note are protected from state prosecution. Anyone who uses marijuana for any reason is vulnerable to Federal anti-drug laws, arrest and prosecution.
  • According to Americans for Safe Access, several state legislatures are currently considering medical marijuana, including: Illinois, New York, Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota and Massachusetts.
  • The California Compassionate Use Act provides that certain criminal statutes prohibiting the possession and cultivation of marijuana shall not apply to a patient (or caregiver) "who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician."
  • By Federal statute, doctors are presently permitted to prescribe opiate painkillers derived from poppy seeds such as Codeine and Demerol and narcotic drugs such as morphine, but not marijuana. Source: The Controlled Substances Act of 1970, 21 U.S.C. §§ 801 et seq
  • Controlled Substances Act of 1970 established five categories for all prescription and illicit drugs. Marijuana was placed in Schedule I, which defines the substance as having: a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.
  • According to information dated March 30, 2007, from the Colorado patient registry system, the average age of patients registered in the Medical Marijuana program for the state is 43 and patients range in age from 17-80 years old.
  • The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has stated that marijuana has a high potential for abuse and can incur addiction and serve as a gateway to other drugs. Frequent use of marijuana leads to tolerance to the psychoactive effects and smokers compensate by smoking more often or seeking higher potency marijuana.
  • According to the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 97.5 million Americans aged 12 or older tried marijuana at least once in their lifetimes, representing 40.1% of the U.S. population in that age group. The number of past year marijuana users in 2005 was approximately 25.4 million (10.4% of the population aged 12 or older) and the number of past month marijuana users was 14.6 million (6.0%). Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings, September 2006
  • The Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base was neither a blanket endorsement nor a dismissal of the medical marijuana use concluding “[C]annabis and its derivatives have shown promise in the treatment of a variety of disorders.” The report said that the active ingredients in marijuana were useful in controlling pain, nausea and lack of appetite in very seriously ill patients. The experts called for further research and development of "safer" pills and inhalers based on chemicals found in marijuana cautioning that marijuana smoke delivers harmful substances found in tobacco smoke. It called for further research to conclusively determine whether habitual marijuana smoking causes cancer.