Head Shop Canada

Payment For Med MJ

ganjagreeneyez — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:25:11 +0000

Medical Marijuana Costs Covered.

Source: Vancouver Sun June 22, 2011

Man awarded $30,000 for medical marijuana costs

By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun June 22, 2011

A Maple Ridge man should receive $30,000 to cover the cost of seven joints of marijuana a day because of botched back surgery, the B.C. Supreme Court has said in a potentially landmark decision.

Michael Joinson, a 43-year-old father of five teenagers who has a federal exemption to use the prohibited drug, estimated he consumed 20 grams of medicinal cannabis daily after lower-back surgery in 2007.

He had asked the court to order payment for “a lifetime supply,” which he calculated would cost $822,000.

But Justice Neill Brown would only approve payment “based on a maximum of five grams per day,” he wrote, Health Canada’s stipulated “safe” dosage.

Also, he said, the cost of Joinson’s recreational use (about half his consumption) should not be covered, and the total had to be reduced to account for the benefits of a chronic-pain program.

Head of the non-profit Always Growing Green Society, which operates the year-old TAGGS Medical Cannabis Dispensary in the South Haney neighbourhood, Joinson received a total of $310,000 in damages -including lost earnings and medical expenses -as a result of negligent lower-back surgery by Dr. Navraj Heran.

Joinson said Tuesday he was glad the decision will set a precedent for medicinal-cannabis users but was disappointed in the global award.

“It was supposed to be for the rest of my life,” he noted.

“What I go home with [after paying bills] is $110,000 or so for not being able to do the things I could do for the rest of my life. That’s a drag. But of course, it’s a huge win for all medicinal-marijuana patients across Canada. The justice recognized the benefits of medicinal cannabis and included it as future-care cost.”

The court accepted the evidence that Joinson reduced his reliance on morphine by managing his pain with cannabis.

“Without use of medical marihuana [the legal spelling of the plant's name] or a synthetic substitute, Mr. Joinson would have to increase his use of morphine, which is detrimental, particularly to his functioning: he does not function as well, physically or mentally, without use of medical marihuana,” Justice Brown wrote. “His treating physicians endorsed this treatment option, supporting him in his use of medical marihuana. Other physicians may disagree, but his family physician and psychiatrist see him on a regular basis and, in this particular instance, are in the best place to consider what is medically necessary.”

Joinson had been suffering with lower back and left leg pain when he went in for surgery, but three operations since 2007 left him with chronic back pain and other discomforts.

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

Read the judgment at http: //bit.ly/lIR2aw

Buds Backin’ Buds

ganjagreeneyez — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:48:26 +0000

Sask Gardeners on the Grow!

Still Trippin’ #2

ganjagreeneyez — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:07:38 +0000

Still Trippin’ Trailer #2.

Traveling across Canada to help liberate the world’s most promising plant. A MUST SEE!

Become a Part of the Revolution!

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Still Trippin’ #1

ganjagreeneyez — Mon, 30 May 2011 23:53:31 +0000

Still Trippin’ Trailer #1.

Traveling across Canada to help liberate the world’s most promising plant- Marijuana. A MUST SEE!

Become a part of the revolution!

Licenses Abused?

ganjagreeneyez — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:26:02 +0000

Police suspect that med licenses are being used to sell marijuana.

According to a recently published article in the Regina Leader Post, police suspect that citizens are abusing the medical marijuana licensing program by using it to produce marijuana and selling it on the black market. The police are concerned that people with criminal records are obtaining these licenses and that it is encouraging the criminal behavior to repeat.

To obtain a license to grow marijuana however, a criminal record check is mandatory unless you are growing the marijuana for yourself.

Many criminal charges root from marijuana possession or trafficking, but it is often the result of not obtaining the license in due time.

For example, citizens who suffer from severe back pain often use marijuana for years before they are even aware that they can be using the herb legally. This means years of illegally purchasing and possessing it for a completely legitimate reason. Many of these people weren’t be lucky enough to get through those years without at least one confrontation with police, often leading to a drug conviction. One possession charge can redirect the path of their life dramatically, be it through lost job opportunities or traveling opportunities. It also prevents them from legally growing marijuana for at least 10 years, even for a fellow citizen who has been prescribed it.

When someone gets sick, their right to good health should not be jeopardized by past drug convictions. If they have been prescribed marijuana by their physician, they should also have the right to produce their own medicine, despite potential past history of possessing what may now be considered their medicine.

When someone is looking to be a designated grower, but has countless drug trafficking charges and convictions, it seems the license could be a “home-free” card to continue the illegal trade. These people however, are denied the ability to grow for someone else for at least 10 years after the last drug charge because the likelihood of repeating black market trade is high, especially because they don’t personally need the product they are growing. The mandatory criminal record check is then exercised and unless these citizens are growing for themselves, they are in a “10-year time-out” of the marijuana grow game.

With every government program, there are bound to be people who abuse it. There ability to abuse it is reflected by the structure of the program. Because the medical marijuana program is a grey area in itself, many are tempted to push the boundaries. Marijuana is sought out on the black market and in the medical community, drawing a fine line between it being legal and illegal. This makes it very difficult to control or distinguish who can legally possess it and who can’t , and the constant demand from the medical community and the black market makes distribution almost effortless for those seeking to sell.

The drug laws revolving around marijuana has torn up many families, friends and even communities through break and entries, house raids, drug charges, arrests and prison sentences. The herb itself has proven to have medical benefits for countless conditions and has never directly killed anyone. Despite the concern of illegal distribution by those abusing the medical marijuana program, the potential that the herb has to harm most people is very small, and is without a doubt far less harmful than legal products sold everyday across the country such as alcohol and cigarettes, which appear to have little to no medical benefits at all.

Despite concern for citizens abusing the medical marijuana program, the harm rooted from this theory remains minute. Designated growers must be free of drug related charges for at least 10 years before they acquire their license and someone growing for their own quality of life has that human right.

Law enforcement would undoubtedly benefit from educating citizens while they are young in regards to marijuana use and the medical marijuana program to prevent unnecessary drug charges from happening in the first place. Those with interest in growing would be given the proper avenues to do it legally and legitimately, providing medical users an avenue for acquiring safe access to legal cannabis.

The medical marijuana program has potential to discourage criminal activity by allowing people to legally grow marijuana and others to legitimately possess and use it. It encourages people to get legal with their medications and is overall a very positive thing for our country.

Focusing on the few citizens who may abuse the program and blaming the program is like focusing on the crooked policeman for abusing his power and blaming it on the police force as a whole. One rotten apple does not mean the apple tree is a bad thing, but instead perhaps that the bad apples sometimes get mixed up in the bunch and need to be filtered out with time.

The program as a whole, helps citizens improve their quality of life. The potential for criminal activity is through the result of the mixing of the legal and illegal aspects of marijuana.

Instead of re-considering the program’s role in supporting black market trade, perhaps marijuana’s role in our drug laws and society could be reconsidered, as the re-scheduling of it could potentially benefit more citizens than it’s classification currently does.

It is time to recognize the black market trades as symptoms of a bigger problem and to begin treating the real roots of the problems, instead of these symptoms.

Read Full Story

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Court Rules Pot laws Unconstitutional

Fresh Greens

ganjagreeneyez — Tue, 24 May 2011 20:03:31 +0000

Marijuana & MRSA

ganjagreeneyez — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:03:57 +0000

Marijuana & Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA/ “Super bug”).

Source: NORML(National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)

Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA)

Many bacterial infections possess multi-drug resistance. Arguably the most significant of these bacteria is methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus, more commonly known as MRSA or ‘the superbug.’ This bacterium is resistant to standard antibiotics, including penicillin. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, MRSA is responsible for nearly 20,000 hospital-stay related deaths annually in the United States.[1]

Published data demonstrates that cannabinoids possess strong antibacterial properties. In 2008, investigators at Italy’s Universita del Piemonte Orientale and Britain’s University of London, School of Pharmacy assessed the germ-fighting properties of five separate cannabinoids against various strains of multidrug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA. They reported that all of the compounds tested showed “potent antibacterial activity” and that cannabinoids were “exceptional” at halting the spread of MRSA.[2]

A second study published that same year reported that non-cannabinoid constituents in the plant also possess antibacterial properties against MRSA and malaria.[3]

Clinical trials regarding the use of cannabinoids for MRSA have been recommended, with some experts stating, “Cannabis sativa … represents an interesting source of antibacterial agents to address the problem of multidrug resistance in MRSA and other pathogenic bacteria.“[4]

REFERENCES

[1] Klevens et al. 2007. Invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections in the United States. Journal of the American Medical Association 298: 1763-1771.

[2] Appendino et al. 2008. Antibacterial cannabinoids from cannabis sativa: a structure study. Journal of Natural Products 71: 1427-1430.

[3] Radwan et al. 2008. Non-cannabinoid constituents from a high potency cannabis sativa variety. Phytochemistry 69: 26727-2633.

[4]Appendino et al. 2008. op. cit.

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MJ & Tourette’s

ganjagreeneyez — Thu, 19 May 2011 19:53:13 +0000

Marijuana & Tourette’s Syndrome.

Source: NORML(National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)

Tourette’s Syndrome

Tourette’s syndrome (TS) is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder of unknown etiology that is characterized by involuntary vocal tics. Severity of this condition varies widely among patients. Though there is no cure for Tourette’s syndrome, the condition often improves with age. Experts estimate that 100,000 Americans are afflicted with TS.

A review of the scientific literature reveals several clinical trials investigating the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of TS. Writing in the March 1999 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, investigators at Germany’s Medical School of Hanover, Department of Clinical Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, reported successful treatment of Tourette’s syndrome with a single dose of 10 mg of delta-9-THC in a 25-year-old male patient in an uncontrolled open clinical trial.[1] Investigators reported that the subject’s total tic severity score fell from 41 to 7 within two hours following cannabinoid therapy, and that improvement was observed for a total of seven hours. “For the first time, patients’ subjective experiences when smoking marijuana were confirmed by using a valid and reliable rating scale,” authors concluded.

Investigators again confirmed these preliminary results in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover, single dose trial of THC in 12 adult TS patients. Researchers reported a “significant improvement of tics and obsessive-compulsive behavior (OCB) after treatment with delta-9-THC compared to placebo.”[2] Investigators reported no cognitive impairment in subjects following THC administration [3] and concluded, “THC is effective and safe in treating tics and OCB in TS.”[4]

Investigators confirmed these results in a second randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 24 patients administered daily doses of up to 10 mg of THC over a six-week period. Researchers reported that subjects experienced a significant reduction in tics following long-term cannabinoid treatment,[5] and suffered no detrimental effects on learning, recall or verbal memory.[6] A trend toward significant improvement of verbal memory span during and after therapy was also observed.

Summarizing their findings in the October 2003 issue of the journal Expert Opinions in Pharmacotherapy, investigators concluded that in adult TS patients, “Therapy with delta-9-THC should be tried … if well established drugs either fail to improve tics or cause significant adverse effects.”[7]

REFERENCES

[1] Muller-Vahl et al. 1999. Treatment of Tourette’s syndrome with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. American Journal of Psychiatry 156: 495.

[2] Muller-Vahl et al. 2002. Treatment of Tourette’s syndrome with Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC): a randomized crossover trial. Pharmacopsychiatry 35: 57-61.

[3] Muller-Vahl et al. 2001. Influence of treatment of Tourette syndrome with delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta9-THC) on neuropsychological performance. Pharmacopsychiatry 34: 19-24.

[4] Muller-Vahl et al. 2002. op. cit.

[5] Muller-Vahl et al. 2003. Delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is effective in the treatment of tics in Tourette syndrome: a 6-week randomized trial. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 64: 459-65.

[6] Muller-Vahl et al. 2003. Treatment of Tourette syndrome with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta 9-THC): no influence on neuropsychological performance. Neuropsychopharmacology 28: 384-8.

[7] Kirsten Muller-Vahl. 2003. Cannabinoids reduce symptoms of Tourette’s syndrome. Expert Opinions in Pharmacotherapy 4: 1717-25.

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MJ & Sleep Apnea

ganjagreeneyez — Thu, 19 May 2011 19:44:17 +0000

Marijuana & Sleep Apnea.

Source: NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)

Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a medical disorder characterized by frequent interruptions in breathing of up to ten seconds or more during sleep. The condition is associated with numerous physiological disorders, including fatigue, headaches, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, heart attack and stroke. Though sleep apnea often goes undiagnosed, it is estimated that approximately four percent of men and two percent of women ages 30 to 60 years old suffer from the disease.

One preclinical study is cited in the scientific literature investigating the role of cannabinoids on sleep-related apnea. Writing in the June 2002 issue of the journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, researchers at the University of Illinois (at Chicago) Department of Medicine reported “potent suppression” of sleep-related apnea in rats administered either exogenous or endogenous cannabinoids.[1] Investigators reported that doses of delta-9-THC and the endocannabinoid oleamide each stabilized respiration during sleep and blocked serotonin-induced exacerbation of sleep apnea in a statistically significant manner. No follow up investigations have taken place assessing the use of cannabinoids to treat this indication. However, several recent preclinical and clinical trials have reported on the use of THC, natural cannabis extracts and endocannabinoids to induce sleep [2-3] and/or improve sleep quality.[4]

REFERENCES

[1] Carley et al. 2002. Functional role for cannabinoids in respiratory stability during sleep. Sleep 25: 399-400.

[2] Murillo-Rodriguez et al. 2003. Anandamide enhances extracellular levels of adenosine and induces sleep: an in vivo microdialysis study. Sleep 26: 943-947.

[3] Nicholson et al. 2004. Effect of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol on nocturnal sleep and early-morning behavior in young adults. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 24: 305-313.

[4] Christine Perras. 2005. Sativex for the management of multiple sclerosis symptoms. Issues in Emerging Health Technologies 72: 1-4

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MJ & Arthritis

ganjagreeneyez — Thu, 19 May 2011 19:35:46 +0000

Marijuana & Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Source: NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory disease of the joints characterized by pain, stiffness, and swelling, as well as an eventual loss of limb function. Rheumatoid arthritis is estimated to affect about one percent of the population, primarily women.

Use of cannabis to treat symptoms of RA is commonly self-reported by patients with the disease. In a 2005 anonymous questionnaire survey of medicinal cannabis patients in Australia, 25 percent reported using cannabinoids to treat RA.[1] A survey of British medical cannabis patients found that more than 20 percent of respondents reported using cannabis for symptoms of arthritis.[2] Nevertheless, few clinical trials investigating the use of cannabis for RA appear in the scientific literature.

In January 2006, investigators at the British Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Disease reported successful treatment of arthritis with cannabinoids in the first-ever controlled trial assessing the efficacy of natural cannabis extracts on RA.[3] Investigators reported that administration of cannabis extracts over a five week period produced statistically significant improvements in pain on movement, pain at rest, quality of sleep, inflammation and intensity of pain compared to placebo. No serious adverse effects were observed. Similar results had been reported in smaller Phase II trials investigating the use of orally administered cannabis extracts on symptoms of RA.[4]

Preclinical data also indicates that cannabinoids can moderate the progression of RA. Writing in the August 2000 issue of the Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigators at London’s Kennedy Institute for Rheumatology reported that cannabidiol (CBD) administration suppressed progression of arthritis in vitro and in animals.[5] Administration of CBD after the onset of clinical symptoms protected joints against severe damage and “effectively blocked [the] progression of arthritis,” investigators concluded. Daily administration of the synthetic cannabinoid agonist HU-320 has also been reported to protect joints from damage and to ameliorate arthritis in animals.[6]

Summarizing the available literature in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Neuroimmunology, researchers at Tokyo’s National Institute for Neuroscience concluded, “Cannabinoid therapy of RA could provide symptomatic relief of joint pain and swelling as well as suppressing joint destruction and disease progression.”[7]

REFERENCES

[1] Swift et al. 2005. Survey of Australians using cannabis for medical purposes. Harm Reduction Journal 4: 2-18.

[2] Ware et al. 2005. The medicinal use of cannabis in the UK: results of a nationwide survey. International Journal of Clinical Practice 59: 291-295.

[3] Blake et al. 2006. Preliminary assessment of the efficacy, tolerability and safety of a cannabis medicine (Sativex) in the treatment of pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology 45: 50-52.

[4] No author. 2003. Cannabis-based medicines. Drugs in Research and Development 4: 306-309.

[5] Malfait et al. 2000. The nonpsychoactive cannabis constituent cannabidiol is an oral anti-arthritic therapeutic in murine. Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97: 9561-9566.

[6] Sumariwalla et al. 2004. A novel synthetic, nonpsychoactive cannabinoid acid (HU-320) with anti-inflammatory properties in murine collagen-induced arthritis. Arthritis & Rheumatism 50: 985-998.

[7] Croxford and Yamamura. 2005. Cannabinoids and the immune system: potential for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Journal of Neuroimmunology 166: 3-18.

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