cannabisnews.com: NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- July 24, 2003





NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- July 24, 2003
Posted by CN Staff on July 24, 2003 at 15:05:33 PT
Weekly Press Release
Source: NORML
Historic House Vote -- More Than 150 Members Of Congress Stand Up For The Medical Use Of MarijuanaJuly 24, 2003 - Washington, DC, USA"The federal government should use its power to help terminally ill citizens, not arrest them!"
Washington, DC: Fifteen Republicans joined a record 136 Democrats (and one Independent) on Wednesday to vote in favor of a bi-partisan amendment to the House Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary Appropriations bill that sought to bar the Justice Department from prosecuting patients who use medical marijuana in compliance with state laws. Although the amendment was eventually defeated by a 273 to 152 vote, the number of Congressmen on record in support of the physician-supervised use of medicinal marijuana was the largest ever recorded in Congress."This vote represents real progress in our efforts to amend federal law to permit the medicinal use of marijuana," NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup said, noting that fewer than 100 members of Congress supported the use of medical pot when the issue was last voted on in 1998. "Most promising is that more than two-thirds of House Democrats supported this amendment. Our next priority is to get these same members to sign on as co-sponsors of House Bill 2233, the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, and mandate Congress to schedule legislative hearings on this vital legislation."The proposed amendment - introduced by Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) - would have prevented federal law enforcement from "arresting, prosecuting, suing, or otherwise discouraging doctors, patients, and distributors ... from following their state laws with regard to medical marijuana."Since 2001, the Bush administration has ordered more than 40 federal raids of medicinal marijuana patients and providers in California, despite a state law permitting the use and cultivation of pot by qualified patients. (Similar laws eliminating criminal penalties on the use of medicinal marijuana have been enacted in eight other states.) The administration is also asking the Supreme Court to overturn a unanimous Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the rights of physicians to discuss the medical use of marijuana with their patients.Representatives Hinchey and Rohrabacher - along with Reps. Sam Farr (D-CA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ron Paul (R-TX) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) - spoke in favor of the amendment, noting that the provision supported "states' rights" and "reaffirm[ed] the power of citizen democracy and state and local government.""This is about compassion," said Dennis Kucinich, one of nine Democrat candidates for President. "The federal government should use its power to help terminally ill citizens, not arrest them. And states deserve to have the right to make their own decisions regarding the use of medical marijuana."Representative Rohrabacher argued that the federal government's interference with states' medical marijuana policies "is totally contrary to our way of life. It is a travesty for the federal government to send police into my state (California) and arrest people and throw them in a cage, in jail, for doing something that the vast majority of people ... voted to make a legal practice."Rohrabacher said that his mother could have likely benefited from the medical use of marijuana as an appetite stimulant shortly before her death, and that he "could not look at [himself] in the face" if he backed the administration's position outlawing the drug's use.Representatives Michael Burgess (R-TX), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Mark Souder (R-IN) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) spoke out against the amendment, maintaining that "state medical marijuana laws are a sham," and that the use of marijuana as a medicine "has taken the culture in the wrong direction."For more information, please contact Keith Stroup of NORML at (202) 483-5500. A transcript of the House debate is available online at: http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads/HincheyAmendmentTrans2003.pdfA breakdown of the House vote is available from NORML's website at: http://capwiz.com/norml2/home/DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5713Bill To Protect Medicinal Pot Users Falls Short http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16936.shtmlInsurers Spurning Medicinal Pot Usehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16935.shtmlParts 1 & 2: Hinchey - Rohrabacher Amendmenthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16934.shtmlParts 3 & 4: Hinchey - Rohrabacher Amendmenthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16933.shtmlGrowing Outrage - Jacob Sullumhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16931.shtml Ingestion Of Legal Hemp Oils Not Likely To Trigger Positive Drug Test, Study SaysJuly 24, 2003 - Baltimore, MD, USABaltimore, MD: Daily ingestion of legal hemp oil products will not likely trigger a positive drug test result for marijuana, according to findings published in the July 1, 2003 issue of Clinical Chemistry."At the federally mandated cannabinoid cutoffs, it is possible but unlikely for a urine specimen to test positive after ingestion of manufacturer-recommended doses of low-THC hemp oils," authors concluded.Researchers reported that daily ingestion of hemp oil at low doses produced measurable metabolite concentrations ranging from 5.4 to 38.2 micrograms/L - well below the federal threshold of 50 micrograms/L. In contrast, authors noted that ingestion of the prescription drug Marinol (synthetic THC) produced metabolite concentrations as high as 436 micrograms/L.Authors wrote that the growing use of hemp foodstuffs and cannabis-based therapeutics could call into question the accuracy and reliability of certain drug testing policies.Previous studies conducted in the mid-1990s examining the impact of hemp oil ingestion on urinalysis found that regular use of the products could trigger a positive drug test result. However, those studies were performed before hemp food manufacturers imposed industry-wide standards (so-called "Test Pledge" standards) reducing the trace amounts of THC detectable in their products.Most recently, a 2001 study published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology reported that the daily ingestion of hemp oil would not produce measurable metabolite levels above 15 micrograms/L.For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of the NORML Foundation, at (202) 483-8751. Abstracts of the study, entitled "Urinary Cannabinoid Detection Times after Controlled Oral Administration of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol to Humans," are available online at: http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/short/49/7/1114DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5714Hemp Good To Eat, Toohttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16375.shtmlTaste Tests To Offer Hemp Foods http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16024.shtmlCannabisNews Hemp Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/hemp.shtmlSource: NORML Foundation (DC)Published: July 24, 2003Copyright: 2003 NORML Contact: norml norml.org Website: http://www.norml.org/NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- July 17, 2003http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16887.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- July 10, 2003http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16826.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- July 2, 2003http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16754.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by ekim on July 25, 2003 at 15:25:13 PT
Virgil i am in MI but no trips in future
It sounds like a great opportunity landscaping a old growth forest. i feel that you will do everything possible to leaave few footprints. maybe even using a bandsaw for lumber for building homes with. one wonders what you will name the place. Yes it would be nice to get a report from the front. maybe someone will let us know how the Stones went. 
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Comment #4 posted by Virgil on July 25, 2003 at 10:27:02 PT
Thanks Ekim
Things are tight but I am going to sell some timber and turn what has been a forest for millions of years into human habitat. I am still for not consuming/spending in an effort to resist the fascists even if I am the only ant doing so. Yesterday I bought a 99cent 2 liter Pepsi and they charged me 7 cents sales tax where they are only supposed to charge 2. It reinvigorated to resist the sales tax purchases. From now on I will go to Wal-Mart and buy the 58 cent drinks.Well, I digress again. Ekim, don't you live in Masillon, Ohio? What gets me is that no one has reported on crossing the border in Niagara Falls or into Windsor for that matter. What would help is if you could cross the Cannabis Curtain and give us a report. Here we have the opportunity that 2 generations ahead of us did not have and we are not exploiting it.Here we have the excellent chance to exchange information and we have no information. We need a pioneer. We all need to go to the cannabis Mecca that is Canada. We need to send a message and we need to deprive the American tourist traps of their monetary lifelines. You are just a few hours away. What we need is a scouting report. I am going to be looking for a forum in Detroit. That is my next thing.
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Comment #3 posted by ekim on July 24, 2003 at 22:30:18 PT
Virgil i would like to help you go to Rainbow
please let me know where i can send a donation, be the movie.
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Comment #2 posted by ekim on July 24, 2003 at 20:19:22 PT
i hope we can be better informed in the Future
with all the news on the net i wish i could have watched this event on C-Span. it just seemed to happen with not much pryer warning. seems that both Norml and MPP would have posted alerts here last week on the bill. 
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on July 24, 2003 at 15:27:52 PT
Before and after pictures using herbal remedy
http://taxdog.info/portal.php
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