(photo: O'Dea / wikimedia)

If a patient can’t get high from marijuana being used for medicinal purposes, does that marijuana still fall under the draconian federal drug laws? How might this new pot that won’t get you high change the debate in the USA?

Israeli researchers have developed a medicinal marijuana that can ease the symptoms of some ailments without producing the euphoric high of pot. For many this may seem like tasteless cake or non-alochoiic [sic] vodka, but the discovery could lead to some interesting legal and political issues.

The culprit (or appeal) in marijuana is Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Researchers believe that the benefits widely reported from medicial marijuana comes from Cannabidiol, or CBD, a substance that gives anti-inflammatory benefits.

Israeli grower, Tikun Olam, has developed Avidekel, containing 15.8 per cent CBD and less than 1 percent traces of THC.

Police might not be able to distinguish between pot-that-gets-you-high and “no-high” pot, so enforcement challenges remain. Of course, legalization of all pot would change that somewhat.

This could present an interesting problem if the marijuana is still smoked but without the high. Police would have a difficult time distinguishing the products if smoked — assuming non-high marijuana is declared legal. The basis for banning non-high marijuana would be dubious at best. However, if smoked, the government could require some additives to distinguish the smell.

One shudders to think what additives a still-rabid DEA might require in “no-high” pot to make it smell different in the bag.

By citing DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart’s own description of her agency’s “highest priority” — abuse of prescription drugs — and his own home state’s documented success weaning prescription drug addicts by the use of legal medical marijuana, Congressman Jared Polis actually got the Top Drug Cop to move off her “all drugs are bad, m’kay?” repetition to the more forthright and useful statement that “We will pursue any avenues to reduce drug addiction.”

This statement may cause a problem for her, since it is a lie. Unless orders go forth from her office to stop busting patients whose prescription drug addition is being treated by medical marijuana, she has misled Congress and misreported her agency’s behavior to date.

Getting Leonhart to modify her agency’s enforcement priorities so that patients in Colorado who are prescribed medical marijuana to treat their prescription drug addiction is another matter entirely. But surely Congressman Polis is aware that with the Roger Clemons prosecution having crashed and burned only this week, Eric Holder’s well-staffed Task Force on Lying to Congress is now untasked.

The next time Leonhart’s storm troopers raid a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary — only days away, given her agency’s blistering pace of crackdowns — Polis should recall her to testify immediately after a some prescription drug addicts’ treating physicians, who no longer have access to the reliable tool of medical marijuana. Leonhart’s lie that the DEA will pursue any available avenues to reduce drug addition is certainly worth a Congressional contempt citation, given her past and likely future enforcement action against recovering Oxycontin addicts finding success with a medical marijuana regime.

After all the votes are counted, it looks like patients in Arizona won their battle for medicine:

Arizona voters have approved Proposition 203, which legalizes marijuana for medicinal use.

The Secretary of State’s unofficial results indicate that the “yes” vote on the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act has won by a narrow margin of 4,341 votes, or 50.13 percent of more than 1.67 million votes counted.

This after Maricopa County officials finished counting about 11,000 outstanding ballots Saturday.

The “yes” and “no” votes remained neck-and-neck for more than a week since Election Night, with the “yes” vote trailing behind by at least 3,000 each day. But the “yes” vote picked up traction after election officials started counting provisional ballots and by Friday, it was leading by 4,421 for the first time.

Arizona would be the 15th state to legalize medical marijuana.

The general-election canvass will be held Nov. 29. The Arizona Department of Health Services has 120 days from that day to finalize all rules for implementation. The department is expected to begin reviewing dispensary and patient applications by April 2011.

This means that Just Say Now! wasn’t a total wipeout after all!

Hurray Arizona!

Despite Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement last week that dispensaries would only be prosecuted if they were violating state and federal law, the Drug Enforcement Agency raided a popular medical marijuana dispensary at 12th and Howard Streets in San Francisco yesterday Wednesday, while patients chanted: "Our medicine is marijuana! Listen to Barack Obama!"

Federal agents raided a medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco Wednesday, a week after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder signaled that the Obama administration would not prosecute distributors of pot used for medicinal purposes that operate under sanction of state law.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided Emmalyn’s California Cannabis Clinic at 1597 Howard St. in San Francisco’s South of Market district mid-afternoon.

They hauled out large plastic bins overflowing with marijuana plants and loaded several pickup trucks parked out front with grow lights and related equipment used to farm the plants indoors.

The dispensary had been operating with a temporary permit issued by the Department of Public Health.

San Franciscans are eager to find out from our elected officials if the local police department will protect our medical dispensaries from rogue federal agents operating without sanction of the United States Attorney General. Read the rest of this entry →