Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Sierra Riddle Stops Medical Marijuana Treatment, Returns To Chemo For Son's Cancer After Human Services Gets Involved

from huffpost




The Huffington Post  |  By  Posted: 
sierra riddle
A mother who stirred up a heated debate about parental rights when she chose medical marijuana over chemo to treat her 3-year-old son's cancer, has had to resume chemotherapy treatments after the state intervened.
Sierra Riddle made headlines recently for moving to Colorado, where medical and recreational marijuana is legal, to try and help her son Landon battle Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with a cannabis oil and a strain of medical marijuana called Charlotte's Web grown in the state.
Shortly after she began the medical marijuana treatment however, Riddle said a case worker with Human Services began investigating her when a local doctor reported her for refusing Landon's chemotherapy treatments.
“They are not only forcing me to do something against my will as a parent, they are forcing me to make my child sick,” Riddle told CBS4 News.
Landon's grandma Wendy Riddle maintains a Facebook page called "Offer Hope for Landon," where she and Landon's family can post updates about his treatment.
On Saturday, Wendy Riddle posted:
We have no choice. Without an oncologist to testify in court that there are other options to treat cancer besides chemo, we will lose. Our attorney stated it, other doctors have stated it, end of story. We have no choice but to put Landon through more chemo until we can find an oncologist that is brave enough to stand up for what is right for compassionate care for all children with cancer.
Chemo starts on Monday. To say that we are devastated is putting it lightly. To put a child through more chemo who is in remission is insane. It is child abuse. We just cannot believe it. We are all stunned. However, we have no choice. We just pray that the cannabis will protect him from further damage and side effects.
But as F. Scott McCown, director of the University of Texas' Children's Rights Clinictold The Colorado Springs Gazette, children have rights too.
"You have to understand that parents have rights with regard to their children, but that children also have rights," McCown told the Gazette. "Children aren't property of parents -- parents can't do as they wish with regard to a child. And so at some point, the state has to intervene."
After Landon was diagnosed with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at just 2-years-old last fall, he began an intensive regimen of chemotherapy and radiation but after nine months of treatment, Riddle said she watched as Landon grew violently ill.
Landon suffered nerve-damage in his legs, nausea that led to vomiting dozens of times a day, intense pain and at one point went 25 days without eating following the treatment, according to CNN.
"Around the clock, he was usually on liquid morphine, Ativan, Promethexane," Sierra told CNN back in July. "And it just really didn't seem to be helping."
Landon was originally given only a 10 percent chance of living through the first two days of treatment, but after watching him grow dependent on narcotic pain killers and struggling with the treatment, his family says they found the Realm of Caring.
The Realm of Caring is a nonprofit organization started by the Stanley brothers: Joel, Jesse, Jon, Jordan and Jared, who are sometimes called the "Robin Hoods of marijuana." The brothers grow marijuana strains high in CBD -- the non-toxic, non-psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant -- that are lower in THC, the psychoactive element that is responsible for the "high" sensation. CBD, or cannabidiol, has a property that has shown to be helpful with seizure control and was evenrecently approved by the FDA for clinical trials in children with epilepsy.
The Realm of Caring has already supplied Charlotte Figi, a 5-year-old diagnosed withDravet Syndrome -- a rare form of prolonged seizures that begin in infancy and can result in death -- with their CBD strain of marijuana successfully, and named their strain "Charlotte's Web" after her.
So too with Landon, on the Realm of Caring website Wendy Riddle says the effects "were almost immediate":
He finally began to sleep through the night, the nightmares and terrors went away, the pain vanished, he regained his appetite, he started eating, his energy started coming back, he was weaned of all narcotic pain medications, slowly but surely he started to regain all that chemo and cancer had robbed him of. I still find it amusing that Landon had a prescription for synthetic marijuana to increase his appetite, yet it was illegal for him to be given a prescription for the natural plan itself.
ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
Legal Marijuana Across The U.S.
1 of 23
  • Next
at No comments:

Monday, October 7, 2013

MURRIETA: Lawsuit seeks to overturn medical pot ban

from pe.com



  /FILE PHOTO
Environmental lawyer Ray Johnson has sued Murrieta over its marijuana dispensary ban, saying the city failed to take the California Environmental Quality Act into consideration when passing the ban. .
 0 0 7
 
A Text Size  
BY DAVID DOWNEY 
October 07, 2013; 06:07 PM 
Comments (0)
A prominent attorney is suing to overturn Murrieta’s ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in all zones, as well as mobile operators who make deliveries.
Temecula attorney Ray Johnson filed the suit Oct. 3 in Riverside County Superior Court on behalf of Compassionate Care Beneficiaries, a Temecula Valley group of medical marijuana users and their primary care givers. The suit says one group member is Johnson’s wife, Polly, who is battling cancer.
Johnson, who specializes in litigation against development projects, is invoking the same environmental law in challenging the medical marijuana ban. He acknowledged the case is somewhat personal. He said marijuana helped his wife tolerate severe pain and maintain her weight and will to fight the disease.
“She went from being curled up in a ball and giving up to being a fully functional person,” Johnson said by telephone Monday, Oct. 7.
In an earlier interview, he said, “I am convinced that medical marijuana saved my wife’s life.”
The action comes days after the Murrieta City Council on Oct. 1 gave final approval for the citywide ban in the community of 105,000.
The suit alleges Murrieta violated the California Environmental Quality Act. It says the city failed to evaluate air pollution and traffic impacts that will occur as a result of forcing residents who use marijuana legally for medicinal purposes to drive miles farther to obtain it.
Because there are numerous municipal bans, Johnson said medicinal users must drive to Palm Springs or Los Angeles to find a dispensary -- or pursue marijuana through illicit means.
“Why the city would try to force people to go out and deal with drug dealers makes no sense whatsoever,” he said.
Medicinal use by Californians suffering from such ailments as cancer, AIDS and chronic pain was authorized in 1996 with the passage of a statewide initiative.
But, in May, the California Supreme Court concluded cities didn’t have to provide places for dispensaries, in upholding a Riverside ban. Murrieta has since followed Riverside’s lead.
“In this particular case, an environmental lawsuit against the city of Murrieta for doing what the Supreme Court says we have every right to do is a bit of a stretch,” said Mayor Rick Gibbs.
Johnson countered that he isn’t contesting the city’s ability to ban dispensaries, but its failure to undertake an environmental study.
City Attorney Leslie Devaney said Murrieta properly handled the matter, and did not have to do a study.
Murrieta eliminated an existing ban under a section of city code that covers business licenses, and replaced it with a new ban under land-use rules – where Riverside’s law rests. The ban was broadened to include mobile dispensaries.
It is unclear if a court victory would force Murrieta, Riverside or other cities back to square one in their fight against dispensaries.
“Even if he (Johnson) were to win, the city would still have an effective ban,” Devaney said, saying the old rules would be reinstated.
Gibbs said Johnson was capitalizing on a state law that needs reform.
“Mr. Johnson is representative of a class of lawyers who, because of their expertise, are able to exploit holes in CEQA,” he said.
- See more at: http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/murrieta/murrieta-headlines-index/20131007-murrieta-lawsuit-seeks-to-overturn-medical-pot-ban1.ece#sthash.clklxoZ6.dpuf
at No comments:

Early LSD Experiment - at UCLA

from youtube.com

Experiment on LSD










at No comments:

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Romania Legalizes Medical Marijuana, Becomes 10th EU Country To Permit Theraputic Use

from huffpost

 The Huffington Post  |  By  Posted: 

Authorized medical patients in Romania may now use marijuana to allay their pain under new provisions in two of the country's narcotic laws. Romania legalized medical marijuana this week, becoming the 10th member of the European Union to do so, according to local reports.
Currently, possession of marijuana is outlawed throughout the country. Though recreational marijuana use is still be prohibited, derivatives of the plant can now be used to treat certain medical conditions, such as epilepsy, cancer and sclerosis.
Manufacturers will also be able to apply to the National Agency for Medicines for approval to market drugs that contain marijuana by-products like resins or plant fragments.
The Czech Republic, France and the Netherlands are among the countries in the European Union that have legalized the use of medical marijuana products.
Earlier this week, Switzerland relaxed its laws governing marijuana use by decriminalizing the drug. While marijuana is still not legal, authorities will not prosecute residents caught with 10 grams or less.
ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
Where Do Kids Smoke The Most Pot?
1 of 30
Getty Images
  • Next
    at No comments:

    Tuesday, October 1, 2013

    Breaking Bad, legalize drugs

    from stanford daily



    By Op Ed October 1, 2013
    Warning: spoiler alert!
    Walter White’s double life in “Breaking Bad” is recounted as a sort of Jekyll and Hyde story, acclaimed for forcing its fans to “re-construct… the lines between good and evil.” However, the show’s theme of guilt forces to the surface far deeper implications for morality, rights and the role of government, rising above any crude distinctions between good and evil.
    Following the meth-producing duo, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, we see two very different sets of values. Walt feels guilty for breaking the law, compounded by his wife and in-laws. Meanwhile, Jesse is haunted by the terrible things he has done to people to maintain the duo’s position in the market. Their perspectives provide a contrast that raises an interesting question: Is it wrong to sell drugs?
    It is a theme throughout the show that Walt should and does feel a responsibility for the fate of his customers. In the third season, Walt burns his drug money in a barbeque after learning of a plane crash caused by an air-traffic controller, who had recently lost his daughter to drug overdose. Among other incidents, this speaks to Walt’s underlying feelings of guilt for choosing to participate in the market.
    On the surface, the obvious answer is that the drug trade is highly immoral and so Walt’s family is correct that it is wrong to sell drugs. The black market is certainly full of human rights abuses– homicide, theft, threats and worse– and it tears apart families and communities through violence and addiction. But that description does not separate the transaction from the circumstances in which they are made, and that is a crucial distinction.
    At the core, drug dealing is a mutually beneficial exchange between two consenting adults, which does not violate anyone’s rights. If there were a question of whether or not the exchange is mutually beneficial, one need only to consider that the individuals involved– the dealer and the consumer– wouldn’t participate in the exchange if they didn’t think it would benefit them.
    Thus, there is no reason for this sort of exchange to be illegal. It is a personal choice to sell private property, and it is a personal choice to get high. Most importantly, it is personal responsibility to deal with the consequences of those choices. When a man high on bath salts chewed off the face of a poor homeless man last summer, it wasn’t the bath salt producer’s fault–it was the junkie’s fault.
    Ultimately, the responsibility of any actions made while on high a drug rests on the shoulders of the user himself, who took that drug in full knowledge of the risks to his or her perception and decision-making faculties.
    There is nothing inherently immoral about getting high, as it only directly affects the junkie. What is immoral is abuse of other individuals. Though these abuses may be encouraged by the drug flowing through the bloodstream, responsibility for actions always falls upon the shoulders of the offender.
    Saying that a drug dealer is responsible for the actions of his customers is the same thing as suggesting that Corona is responsible for its customers’ DUIs or that Benadryl manufacturers are responsible for a student sleeping through his 9 a.m. class.
    Taking a step back, we can see that it isn’t the transaction in and of itself which leads to abuse of human rights or even sleeping in too late. If an adult wants to spend his Friday night boozed out, stoned, or tweaking on his couch, power to him.
    It doesn’t hurt anyone but perhaps his own health, and liberty is the freedom to make bad choices as well as good ones. The issue lies in the way he allows his choices to affect others. If he spends all of his money on drugs instead of feeding his kids, that is child abuse. If he attacks a fast-food server because McDonald’s doesn’t serve McNuggets before 10:30 a.m., that is assault.
    Ultimately, these choices are made by the individual, not the drug dealer. As a drug dealer, Walt has no responsibility for the consequences of his customers’ choices. Rather, he should take Jesse’s view that what their customers do with their product is not their concern. It should not be illegal to sell drugs; it is not the role of government to help people make good life choices but rather to protect people’s rights from the self-interest of others.
    Devon Zuegel ’16 is executive editor of The Stanford Review.
    at No comments:
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)