cannabisnews.com: NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- May 26, 2004





NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- May 26, 2004
Posted by CN Staff on May 26, 2004 at 14:17:09 PT
Weekly Press Release
Source: NORML
NORML Organizes Local Demonstrations To Highlight Pending Congressional Medi-Pot VoteMay 26, 2004 - Washington, DC, USAWashington, DC: Marijuana law reformers will hold demonstrations outside 110 local Congressional district offices on Friday, June 4, in a national day of action coordinated by NORML, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), and the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
The demonstrations will target members of Congress who last year voted against an amendment introduced by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) that sought to bar the Justice Department from prosecuting patients who use medical cannabis in compliance with state laws. Congress defeated the provision by a vote of 273 to 152.More than 30 NORML chapters will participate in next week's demonstrations, which are intended to pressure members of Congress to vote in favor of the 2004 Hinchey amendment. That vote is expected to take place later this June.For more information, please contact Kris Krane, NORML Associate Director, at (202) 483-5500.DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6114Cannabinoids May Inhibit Neurodegeneration, Slow Onset Of Disease, Experts Announce At Clinical ConferenceMay 26, 2004 - Charlottesville, VA, USACharlottesville, VA: Compounds in marijuana may provide symptomatic relief and slow the progression of certain types of chronic illnesses including Multiple Sclerosis, according to clinical research presented last week at the Third National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics."Cannabinoids are useful therapeutic agents for movement disorders and have potential as neuroprotective agents to slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases," such as Parkinson's disease and Tourette's syndrome, said Juan Sanchez-Ramos, Director of Movement Disorders at the University of South Florida in Miami.Geoffrey Guy, Executive Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals in Britain, said that human trials examining the efficacy of whole-cannabis extracts in patients with MS indicate that cannabinoids may limit disease progression, not just treat symptoms. Guy noted that patients in GW's trials who have used cannabinoid extracts long-term continue to experience relief from the disease without significantly increasing their intake of cannabinoids. Multiple Sclerosis is a progressively debilitating disease and these results would be unlikely unless cannabinoids are modifying the course of the disease, Guy speculated.Denis Petro, a consulting neurologist and drug researcher who formerly served at Maryland's Malcolm Grow Medical Center, said that other clinical trials on cannabinoids and MS reveal similar results. He noted that a 2003 human trial published in the journal The Lancet found "evidence of inhibition of disease progression" in MS patients given oral THC. Petro also summarized the findings of a clinical trial published last year in the journal Brain that demonstrated cannabinoids to be neuroprotective in an animal model of MS. "Therefore, in addition to symptom management, cannabis may also slow down the neurodegenerative processes that ultimately lead to chronic disability in multiple sclerosis and probably other diseases," the study concluded.Approximately 150 people attended the conference, which was co-sponsored by the Office of Continuing Medical Education at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the patient advocacy organization Patients Out of Time.For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, Senior Policy Analyst of the NORML Foundation at (202) 483-5500. An agenda and speaker list for the conference is available online at: http://www.medicalcannabis.com/DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6113Medical-Marijuana Advocates Meethttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18892.shtmlConference To Question Medical Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18835.shtml"Smell" Of Pot Inadequate For Cops To Justify Probable Cause, Study Says May 26, 2004 - Philadelphia, PA, USAPhiladelphia, PA: Marijuana's odor is seldom discernible enough to justify probable cause by law enforcement officers, according to empirical data published in the journal Law and Human Behavior."Although law enforcement officials routinely rely solely on the sense of smell to justify probable cause when entering vehicles and dwellings to search for illicit drugs, the accuracy of their perception in this regard has rarely been questioned and, to our knowledge, never tested," authors at the Smell and Taste Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine wrote. Researchers evaluated data from two empirical studies based upon actual legal cases in which police relied on the odor of marijuana as probable cause for a search. In the first, they simulated a situation in which, during a routine traffic stop, the odor of packaged marijuana located in the trunk of an automobile was said to be detected through the driver's window. In the second, researchers investigated a report that marijuana's odor was discernible from a considerable distance from the chimney effluence of diesel exhaust emanating from an illicit grow room.Six of the nine participants in the first trial were unable to detect the odor of marijuana. In the second trial, none of the participants could reliably detect the marijuana odor embedded in the diesel fumes."Our findings suggest that the odor of marijuana was not reliably discernible by persons with an excellent sense of smell in either case," authors concluded. They further noted that odors emanating from immature female plants are much less intense on average than those of mature females, and that no marijuana-like odor could be discerned in most immature plants."The present findings throw into question, in two specific instances, the validity of observations made by law enforcement officers using the sense of smell to discern the presence of marijuana," authors wrote. "Although these instances reflect a very small set of studies with very specific constraints, they do suggest that a blanket acceptance of testimony based upon reported detection of odors for probable cause is questionable and that empirical data to support or refute such testimony in specific cases is sorely needed."For more information, please contact Keith Stroup, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the study, "Marijuana Odor Perception: Studies Modeled From Probable Cause Cases," appears is the April issue of Law and Human Behaviors. It is available online at: http://www.kluweronline.com/article.asp?PIPS=484203DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6112Source: NORML Foundation (DC)Published: May 26, 2004Copyright: 2004 NORML Contact: norml norml.org Website: http://www.norml.org/NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- May 20, 2004http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18882.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- May 13, 2004http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18855.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- May 06, 2004http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18815.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on May 26, 2004 at 17:46:03 PT
How can you say anything bigger than that?
Geoffrey Guy, Executive Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals in Britain, said that human trials examining the efficacy of whole-cannabis extracts in patients with MS indicate that cannabinoids may limit disease progression, not just treat symptoms. Guy noted that patients in GW's trials who have used cannabinoid extracts long-term continue to experience relief from the disease without significantly increasing their intake of cannabinoids. Multiple Sclerosis is a progressively debilitating disease and these results would be unlikely unless cannabinoids are modifying the course of the disease, Guy speculatedWhat if you had MS and read this statement. Wouldn't you be mad as hell and not take it any more? Well, that is the way I am now and soon there will be billions saying the same thing. Nixon canceled his war on cancer to continue the prohibition of Miracleplant. Half of all epileptics do not know they are epileptic, just like half of all people do not know they are diabetic. It is John Turmel's strategy to advance the right to life argument in his case and the story line he dogs is for epileptics like Terry Parker. Still there will be a 100,000 people in Illinois alone that will be diagnosed with glaucoma and will risk blindness just like the diabetics. Even with Alzehemer's, if it just prolongs the onset, death may come before dehabilitation.We are being lied into subsurvience to the wealthy, where they would lock people up and take away their house and charge them for their stay in prison, because a person is excercising their unalienable rights to life.Miracleplant cures death. What goddamned more do you want as if it is relevant. You know why I use Miracleplant where no others do? It is mainly because it starts with an M. If NORML or MPP were my baby, I sure would not use the word marijuana, when Miracleplant is available. For some reason I have not been able to log onto marijuana.com and this was the one point I wanted to add to the discussion when the prohibitionists launched their upside downness on the subject. One of the chants of the prohibitionist is that the reformers and a wealthy trio want to use MMJ to legalize marijuana. Actually it is the prohibitionist that are using not granting any ground and are using their total prohibition to prevent MMJ. This is a point that needs to be known and is another example of reformers getting their words and lines together.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on May 26, 2004 at 14:28:27 PT
I Love Harmony!
Reading that these fine organizations are working together to bring change makes me so happy. ***Washington, DC: Marijuana law reformers will hold demonstrations outside 110 local Congressional district offices on Friday, June 4, in a national day of action coordinated by NORML, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), and the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). 
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