Medical Marijuana Patients Sue Federal Government

Source: SF Weekly

We all know that the wheels of government move slowly -- but nine years slowly? That pace is too lazy for Americans for Safe Access, which just wants answers. So it's going to court to force the federal government to get some response.

At issue is a petition filed Oct. 9, 2002, by the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis, a group of medical-marijuana patients and attorneys, which asked the Drug Enforcement Administration to drop marijuana from its list of most-dangerous illegal drugs, Schedule I. A Schedule I classification means a drug has zero medical value and a high potential for abuse.

Since the petition was filed, the DEA has taken no action and provided no response to the claimants, who had filed a federal Freedom of Information Act request to get a 2006 memo from the Department of Health and Human Services. That memo was written in response to a DEA inquiry asking if a rescheduling was appropriate That, in turn, led to today's filing in a District of Columbia federal court of appeals.

"The federal government's strategy has been delay, delay, delay," said attorney Joe Elford, chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access and the lead lawyer on the writ filed Monday.

Read more: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/05/americans_for_safe_access_sue_schedule_i_substance.php

They should also have to pay disability for those who get fired due to drug tests. How can one support themselves, and buy their meds if they have no job due to drug testing. I am only using disability as a basic fine for the state and feds for not exempting medical Marijuana patients. I prefer to work and sometimes it's hard to get a good job due to drug tests. Hopefully getting sued and rescheduling will end this war on Marijuana.

Cannabis is schedule I only because of politics, and obviously that is wrong. It is simply cruel.

We want answers. Now.

is the modern day equivalent of the spanish inquisition:smoke:

have and use for any adult, it is really that simple. in such it should be legal to conduct research into cannabis's medicinal properties.

the pot is there, it has impacts and yet science is blindfolded.

Thanks for the thread, Newsjock.

http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr3/n3_Marinol.html

--b/c of the semantic bullshit exercise in hypocrisy by the DEA in 1999 which allowed Marinol™ - pharmaceutical THC - to be rescheduled from I to III - but not the actual cannabis plant - which is far less concentrated in the one molecule the DEA loves to hate. (yeah...total unmitigated corrupt bullshit)


Dronabinal™ is also a synthetic - but it's not Marinol™ - so the company that produces it needs the DEA to reschedule so they can use it.

Nabilone™, like Dronabinal™, is also legal and available in the U.S. as Cesamet™ (It's manufactured in Canada so it's schedule II - or, who knows why it's schedule II or why cannabis is listed as a schedule I, II, or III substance in the U.S., depending on who you are - and, likely, how much money you give to the right pols.

Sativex™ is also made in Canada and is used there and in some nations in Europe as a legally prescribed medication for MS. However, unlike the substances made legal in the U.S., Sativex™ is made from the THC and cannabidiol - iow, in a form that is the exact identical to whole plant cannabis.

The U.S. has already gone through one phase of last phase trials with Sativex™ and the positive reports for its use have lead to the next phase of testing. GW Pharmaceuticals has gone into a partnership with a Japanese company to create a US version of Sativex - and, well, excuse me but if I were sick, I would rather have a medicine grown here than in Japan, considering the recent environmental horrors. But, of course, it's illegal to grow this yourself or have someone do it for you in the majority of states here. And even when it's legal, the Federal Govt refuses to honor those decisions on the part of voters in the states that have chosen to end prohibition - at least in the case of pain and suffering.

So, in 2006 the Supreme Court didn't even know that these people had made this petition when it refused to hear someone's case?

Well, hopefully someone has clued the Supreme Court into the reality of scheduling in this country over the last 4 years, just in case the DEA refuses these patients.

The DEA must really like pharmaceutical cos - b/c they certainly don't seem to like people who have cancer or MS or glaucoma or a host of other illnesses.

in regards to cannabis.

The hypocrisy is stunning.

While I certainly get the need to be able to provide a controlled dose that is possible via something like the Sativex spray, in the case of treatment for things like migraines or arthritis it is possible for patients to titrate their own medication without having to have a pharmaceutical co. be the one making money from it.

In addition, there is report after report in which patients opt for the plant-based medicine b/c its whole cannabinoid structure seems to be better medicine.

I couldn't believe it when I read up on this and found that the DEA is allowed to persecute states while giving pharmaceutical cos a green light for an inferior product.

But that seems to be the way things go in this nation at this time. The corruption is staggering.