cannabisnews.com: Activists Assemble for Cannabis Conference





Activists Assemble for Cannabis Conference
Posted by CN Staff on April 07, 2006 at 14:55:11 PT
By Ryan Grandov, Staff Writer
Source: Daily Nexus 
California -- Doctors, health care professionals and a famous talk-show host will gather in Santa Barbara this weekend in an attempt to smoke out the truth about medicinal marijuana use. The Fourth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics, hosted by Santa Barbara City College, began on April 6 and runs through April 8. The conference meets from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. everyday and will feature lectures from doctors, health care researchers and patients, such as talk show-host and medical marijuana advocate Montel Williams.
Allan Byrne, co-founder of the nonprofit organization Patients Out of Time, said the main goal of the event is to educate health care professionals on the medical benefits of cannabis and lend scientific validity to the use of medical marijuana.Byrne said Patients Out of Time, the organization coordinating the conference, advocates the legalization of medical marijuana in order to help the terminally ill patients who need it.“These patients aren’t hippies; they could be your uncle or dad,” Byrne said. “They use marijuana medically because they need it. They’re not using it recreationally just to get stoned.”The conference opened yesterday with a kickoff dinner hosted by UCSB’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort and Hotel. During the 7:30 p.m. dinner, NORML gave an award to Dr. Todd Mikuriya for his work advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana. This weekend, the conference will feature nine guest speakers from seven countries where research on marijuana is being conducted, Byrne said.“We’re having lectures from doctors from Israel, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, the UK - anywhere you can think of,” Byrne said. “The United States is so woefully behind the curve in research that we need to look internationally for education.”Rick Doblin, Founder of the Florida-based Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, will speak at the conference as well. Doblin said he will discuss the government’s monopoly on the production of marijuana for research. He said he was unable to receive marijuana for his research, even after the Food and Drug Administration approved his proposed studies.“We’re probably the only people in America that can’t buy 10 grams,” Doblin said. “Scientists can obtain LSD and MDMA for research, but we can’t get any marijuana.”Byrne said the conference will link anecdotal evidence from patients such as Williams with scientific research to show that marijuana serves a valid, medicinal purpose. “We’re accredited and blessed by the American Medical Association, [so] how could [marijuana] not be a medicine?” Byrne said.Registration information and a schedule of lectures and events for the conference is available: http://medicalcannabis.com/conference Source: Daily Nexus (CA Edu)Author: Ryan Grandov, Staff WriterPublished: Friday April 7, 2006 Copyright: 2006 Daily Nexus Contact: opinion dailynexus.comWebsite: http://www.ucsbdailynexus.com/MAPShttp://www.maps.org/NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Patients Out of Timehttp://www.medicalcannabis.com/  CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #26 posted by afterburner on April 11, 2006 at 17:42:57 PT
Worth Considering: 'Grist for the Mill' (Ram Dass)
India: A New Generation of Pilgrims Hits India's Hippie Trail
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n448/a10.htmlUK: Web: The Trip of a Lifetime
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n448/a09.htmlUS NY: Column: 'Controlled' Substances?
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n448/a08.html
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on April 10, 2006 at 06:49:46 PT
Related Article from The Huffington Post
WALK A PAINFUL MILE IN THEIR SHOES...Mocking Medical Marijuana a Crime ***(Lords of Loud, 4/10) Nothing reveals the damage the broadcast Lords of Loud inflict than actually seeing the faces of those their blather stings most...the victims. Distancing themselves from the affect of their words doesn't make their culpability any less. Same goes for legislators who vote without first looking at the inhumanity their decisions will cause -- or sometimes worse -- what good their decisions deny.Probably no better example is their kneejerk scare tactic attacks on anything or anyone close to Universal Healthcare. When they call it "socialism" (which it isn't) or that we'll lose choice (which we won't), they simply devalue the lives of millions of men, women and children who cannot afford life-saving treatment, let alone preventive medical care.Bloviators are at their worse when they condemn hope through demonization of the victim. HIV/AIDS funding comes to mind. But those in chronic pain or battling debilitating disease cannot be so easily dismissed. This past weekend I partook in the Fourth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics on the, ironically designated, non-smoking campus of Santa Barbara City College. Amongst the thousand or so in attendance I may have been the only attendee who did not actually partake. And while second hand cigarette smoke might kill, the ocean breezes didn't allow the cannabis clouds to hang around long enough for a contact buzz I might plead "blameless" at the next NA meeting. Packed into the SBCC cafeteria (how munchie appropriate) were people with terminal illness, debilitating disease and/or Incessant pain that fends off all known legal relief while ignoring no race, party or station. Multiple-sclerosis sufferers, David "Squiggy" Lander and Montel Williams, made appearances; not for show or pay, but to share their stories of suffering and search for relief; stories so familiar to the other attendees. They were all there to hear what nearly all of them already knew. Marijuana was helping them survive. Not only survive, but actually live something close to a normal life. No matter how many stoner/pot jokes flew, the conference dealt with an all too serious issue: the benefits of marijuana were too vital for it not to be deemed wholly legal and assessable for medicinal purposes. Yet just last year the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that the federal government can prosecute medical marijuana patients, even in states where medical marijuana is legal. Doctor after doctor, researcher after researcher, victim after victim, stepped up to detail what even federal research has confirmed over and over: medical marijuana works where nothing else will. Of course, the stigma of recreational use or its severely questionable standing as a "gateway drug," makes cannabis an easy target for those who choose not to investigate further.To be perfectly honest, there are a few talkers, even on the Right, who Libertarianly profess a belief in drug legalization or an end to a failed "War on Drugs" that makes Iraq look like a triumphant walkover. But even then, it's a economic or constitutional posture more than a healthcare conviction.But pain is not political. And it's not about being a stoner, a hippie, a left coast wacko. It's about making the pain bearable. Unfortunately, those who choose to blare disdain for the victims, may never see or understand what the faces are suffering through until they're looking back at it in the mirror. Short of actual compassion, perhaps the only way for critics to understand the pain no "legal" medication can relieve is too feel it themselves. A shame it is that when we speak of walking in other's shoes we never get past the ankles. Tough to know the futility when the pain is read of but not felt. I think I've come up with a solution. I've seen reporters jump out of planes or be on the target side of a police tazer. Several newsfolk who go through some personal affliction bring their audiences in on their firsthand struggle with pain and anguish. Katie Couric brought her Today Show audience along to (and through) her colonosopy - a response to her late husband's terminal bout with colon cancer. Couric's face (and other body accouterments ) fixed to the issue brought massive awareness to the preventive efficacy of the procedure. I say that, from now on, every Congressman, Senator, Supreme Court Justice or Attorney General who wants to outlaw or prosecute medical marijuana use; every talk show host or any other opinion monger who decides to shortchange or mock something that people profess to be a life-giving necessity, must be made to feel the same pain and hopelessness the sufferer does; for as long as they feel it and for as many times. Then, just for good measure, they must have their child or parent or spouse, suffer the same torment while our pundit is forced to look on at their loved-one's agony helplessly. Perhaps then they might forsake political and opportunistic partisanship for a truly empathetic judgement. 'Course, that might be considered torture. Then again, what do you call keeping agonizing pain relief kept away from those who are truly suffering?For more information you might want to check out Patients Out Of Time at:
http://www.medicalcannabis.comSteve Young is an author, comedy writer, columnist, LA talk show host and author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful."(www.greatfailure.com/). More at americanpolitics.com and albionmonitor.net. You can also check out the satirical side of Steve every Sunday in the LA Daily News . Copyright: 2006 HuffingtonPost.com, LLChttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-young/walk-a-painful-mile-in-th_b_18812.html
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Comment #24 posted by gloovins on April 09, 2006 at 22:17:57 PT
a look   drugwarrant.com
Scary folks...Drug War WeaponsI have a guest post (in collaboration with Hypatia) over at Glenn Greenwald's Unqualified Offerings: Using the Drug 'War' to Expand Government Power. Check it out.Welcome Glenn Greenwald readers. Naturally, the post just got up today, and already I have more news to add regarding seizure and no-knock searches...Via TalkLeft comes the outrageous story of prosecutors and ATF agents attempting to seize the gold-capped teeth of a couple of drug defendants being held in jail. The agents had gotten a warrant and were on their way to taking the defendants to a dentist before the defense attorneys found out and were able to get a judge to intervene."I've been doing this for over 30 years and I have never heard of anything like this," said Richard Troberman, past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and an expert on forfeiture law. "It sounds like Nazi Germany when they were removing the gold teeth from the bodies, but at least then they waited until they were dead."Jeralyn at TalkLeft has read the court papers and reacts.The warrant did not authorize the defendants to be removed from the FDC and transported to a dentist. This must have been done by the agents executing the warrant, on their own. No one has explained yet how these defendants were removed from the FDC. An agent can't simply take someone out without proper authorization. This is a mystery.To make this even worse, I'm told by someone with knowledge about the case that at least one of the defendants had the grill placed in his mouth years ago when he was in the Navy, long before he was ever involved in drug trafficking.Radley Balko has, as usual, an outstanding article about no-knock searches. In this particular article, he analyzes the case of Hudon vs. Michigan, which is being considered at the Supreme Court.At issue is whether or not police who used an illegal "no-knock" raid to enter a defendant's home can use the drugs they seized inside against the defendant at trial.This will have some important Fourth Amendment impact. If the Supreme Court rules that drugs seized during an illegal no-knock raid can be admissible, then we'll never be safe in our homes. As it is, legal no-knock searches are authorized. for the flimsiest of excuses. What we really need is a tightening of the definition of exigent circumstances for no-knock searches.WOW - people our liberties erode daily ... sigh ...
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Comment #23 posted by Hope on April 08, 2006 at 07:46:46 PT
Weedsters....
Why do so many want to harm them and wish them ill?More people need to stand up for sanity, respect, and freedom, and less for death, destruction, punishment, and persecution.An horrendous lot of money is spent and earned in this country to punish people. Food earned from the wages of punishing people should taste bitter.
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Comment #22 posted by afterburner on April 07, 2006 at 23:50:36 PT
RE Harper's Stand on Crime and Punishment
CN BC: PUB LTE: Real Crime Statistics Just Get In The Way
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n431/a10.html
Thu, 06 Apr 2006.
Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
 
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Comment #21 posted by afterburner on April 07, 2006 at 23:12:49 PT
'Weeds sure grows on a person.' 
Amen, sister.Step by step, inch by inch, more people are getting the 'message'!
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Comment #20 posted by BGreen on April 07, 2006 at 22:44:17 PT
It's not easy being Green, Toker00
but it's a badge I wear with honor.The Reverend Bud (Hippy) Green
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on April 07, 2006 at 22:07:14 PT
Dankhank
I am watching Huff now. I never saw it before. We maybe want to ge one that we can convert VHS to DVD. I have so many tapes and it would be nice to be able to put them on a DVD. My recorder didn't work right from the beginning. I thought it was something I was doing wrong but I did a search for the model on Google and read many people had the same problem as I had. It was out of warranty until I figured it out.
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Comment #18 posted by Dankhank on April 07, 2006 at 21:59:59 PT
DVD ...
You can get a recorder at Wallyworld/Target, whatever for under 100 smackers I think, record just like a VCR while you watch.Huff is pretty good, too ...
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on April 07, 2006 at 21:40:24 PT
Dankhank 
I like Andy now too. Weeds sure grows on a person. I haven't seen it since it was on Showtime. My DVD player doesn't record anymore. We are talking about getting another one this summer.
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Comment #16 posted by Dankhank on April 07, 2006 at 21:37:25 PT
Weeds .........
yea, i got em recorded but still watch them when they are on ...some stories are better than others, but all are greeaaaat!I notice that I greet andy's arrival better now that I know him...In the beginning he was not so likeable ...
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on April 07, 2006 at 21:23:41 PT
Heads Up: Weeds on Showtime Now
They are showing a couple episodes of WEEDS from the first season.
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Comment #14 posted by whig on April 07, 2006 at 20:47:14 PT
ekim
Odd that he called Glenn's site "Unqualified Offerings." The actual name of the blog is "Unclaimed Territory."
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Comment #13 posted by ekim on April 07, 2006 at 20:33:13 PT
Montel please take your cameras and film this!
 Friday, April 7, 2006 Drug War WeaponsI have a guest post (in collaboration with Hypatia) over at Glenn Greenwald's Unqualified Offerings: Using the Drug 'War' to Expand Government Power. Check it out.
Welcome Glenn Greenwald readers. Naturally, the post just got up today, and already I have more news to add regarding seizure and no-knock searches... Via TalkLeft comes the outrageous story of prosecutors and ATF agents attempting to seize the gold-capped teeth of a couple of drug defendants being held in jail. The agents had gotten a warrant and were on their way to taking the defendants to a dentist before the defense attorneys found out and were able to get a judge to intervene. 
http://www.drugwarrant.com
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on April 07, 2006 at 19:38:08 PT
Related Article from KSBY 6
Cannabis Conference Kicks Off in Santa Barbara***Friday, April 7, 2006By Matt Cota
 Doctors, patients and one famous talk show host gather in Santa Barbara on Friday to talk about medical marijuana.The Clinical Conference on Cannabis is being held at Santa Barbara City College. The three-day event hopes to bolster the therapeutic use of marijuana.Irv Rosenfeld from Florida is a successful stockbroker, and he smokes pot."Here is my prescription right here," he says.Rosenfeld, who has 200 tumors throughout his body, is one of seven people in a now-disbanded federal medical marijuana program.He has been smoking 12 joints a day, everyday since 1982. Now he is in Santa Barbara to talk about how marijuana saved his life."I am living proof. Without it I wouldn't be alive today," Rosenfeld says.Joining Rosenfeld at the Cannabis conference is day-time talk show host Montel Williams.Williams, who is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, brought a camera crew along for a future show advocating medical marijuana use."He's definitely my hero," says one spectator who came all the way from Ohio to hear the latest scientific research about medical marijuana."People are seeing that it is scientist and doctors not just the hippies in the tie-dye shirts trying to get high," says medical marijuana patient George McMahan.The conference not only focused on the therapeutic benefits of marijuana, but the legal and political battles faced by those who support its use."There is a big misconception that this stuff is bad for you, but a lot of us are living because it is good for us," says McMahan.Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum, and former Mayor Harriet Miller support medical marijuana, and were at the Cannabis conference Friday morning. Other Central Coast cities are not as welcoming. Grover Beach, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Solvang, Pismo Beach and Buellton recently enacted bans on new medical marijuana dispensaries.The Cannabis conference continues through the weekend at Santa Barbara City College.Copyright: 2006 Local Solutions Networkhttp://www.ksby.com/home/headlines/2598916.html
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Comment #11 posted by whig on April 07, 2006 at 18:43:02 PT
OT: Drug war thread on Unclaimed Territory
http://tinyurl.com/hqleu
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Comment #10 posted by Toker00 on April 07, 2006 at 18:15:37 PT
Hey Johnny Pee 
"It's a GREEN thang. You wouldn't understand." LOL.Toke.
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Comment #9 posted by Toker00 on April 07, 2006 at 18:14:29 PT
I meant to say "I'm proud to BE Green!"
Right BGreen?Marcom X. (Marc Emery) Rosa Reich (Angel Reich) Please forgive my spelling. Cacius Clay Weedman (NJ Weedman) They beat the Black, Brown, and Green races down so they won't or can't rise up financially to compete in their weird little world. Well, I say we need to break dance on the CSA!Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW! 
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on April 07, 2006 at 18:13:39 PT
Toker00 & Knowhemp
I agree with both of your comments.
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Comment #7 posted by Toker00 on April 07, 2006 at 17:56:21 PT
We are a new race, FoM.
Cannabist-Americans. The Green folk. I'm proud to Green! Green Power! We demand the right to honor our Green Heritage! Green History Month! Once you go Green...never mind...You can just kiss my Green A**! Look at that. A Green man with a White woman! Hippers to the back of the bus! God bless that Green woman who wouldn't give up her seat on that bus!See where I'm coming from? Green is Beautiful!Wage peace on war. END THE SLAVERY OF GREEN PEOPLE NOW! 
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Comment #6 posted by knowhemp on April 07, 2006 at 17:55:45 PT
hippie
if you say things like 'Mother Earth', 'Environment', have long hair, do yoga, smoke cannabis, avoid meat or eat things like tofu and cous cous without being asian or middle eastern...you're pretty much a hippie by today's standards.Actually if you care enough about anything at all you're at risk of being called a hippie - so why does it have negative conotations? Programming, ooooo it's so subtle!!
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 07, 2006 at 17:17:14 PT
Toker00 
That hurt my feelings too. I don't know why they do it. It's like they call people Hippies no matter if it is a young person or a person who is a real Hippie if anyone actually knows what a real Hippie is. It is so individualistic in interpretation. Hippie seems to be a term for non medical users it seems sometimes.
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Comment #4 posted by Toker00 on April 07, 2006 at 17:06:58 PT
There's the "H" word.
“These patients aren’t HIPPIES; they could be your uncle or dad,” Byrne said. “They use marijuana medically because they need it. They’re not using it recreationally just to get stoned.”Of course when they legalize medically, the "H" word people will still be demonized. The Drug war was started because of hatred for Black and Brown people, and it continues with the sixties addition of the Green People. The HIPPERS. Just like the "N" word for black people. Hippa, please! I may not know what it feels like to be Black or Brown, but I know what it feels like to be Green. We get stopped for Driving While Green! We display our proud heritage of the cannabis plant, and suddenly we're Gangsters!Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!
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Comment #3 posted by global_warming on April 07, 2006 at 16:38:50 PT
too old I Am
to ever be witnessin that daywhen Cannabis Users can be "Free Human Beings"I have used Cannabis,I do not use Heroin,I am not a violent person,Yet I am a wanted man,I have read the scriptures,Just can't understandMy place on this Earth,What sin have "I" committed,What is "my" crime?
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Comment #2 posted by lombar on April 07, 2006 at 15:50:32 PT
Truth is VERBOTEN!
"“We’re accredited and blessed by the American Medical Association, [so] how could [marijuana] not be a medicine?” Byrne said."Schedule I LIE. That is why. The whole kit and kaboodle hangs on a deception, a flat out lie that that US taxpayer is paying the ONDCP and assorted minions to continually defend against the citizens demanding their God given rights. They deny accredited organisations the ability to study the medicinal uses of cannabis in order to preserve the falsehood.I guess if you scratch out truth and justice you are left with the american way. Not that we are any better mind you... follow the money, all about the profits.I really have had enough of my government lying to me about drugs, it certainly leaves me with no faith in the institution, only the realization that they maintain prohibtition by fear, intimidation, enforce it with might bereft of any moral right to do so. Hence it really is all BS piled upon BS being carried by the victims. Prohibition is EVIL and its NEVER going to get better as long as ignorance, stubborness, or pride of the police, puritan politicians, vested interests, or short-sighted parents rule this debate. So until they start talking repeal, everything else they say is GARBAGE and not worthy of my time... other than to oppose.
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Comment #1 posted by global_warming on April 07, 2006 at 15:42:32 PT
"..they could be your uncle or dad,.."
"..“We’re probably the only people in America that can’t buy 10 grams,” Doblin said. “Scientists can obtain LSD and MDMA for research, but we can’t get any marijuana.”Just when you thought the Taliban was bad, I languish here in America, wondering what is the difference?The Taliban cuts off your head, yet rotting in cage is somehow more humane, more civilized.
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