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Tag: medical marijuana patients

  • Video: Police Search Cancer Patient’s Room For Marijuana

    Video: Police Search Cancer Patient’s Room For Marijuana

    The patient’s partner said that the incident shows how important it is for marijuana laws to protect patients who use it to ease their suffering. 

    A Facebook Live video of police searching the room of a stage IV cancer patient for marijuana has gone viral and sparked a conversation about the rights of terminally ill patients to use cannabis. 

    Nolan Sousley posted the video, which now has more than 9,000 shares. 

    Police were called to the hospital after a security guard reported smelling marijuana from Sousley’s room. Sousley admitted that he took THC capsules in the parking lot, but insisted he had no marijuana in the room. 

    “I had some capsules that had some THC oil in them. I took them outside, in the parking lot. I want to know why it’s a big deal,” Sousley said in the video. 

    He pressed the officers, saying that medical marijuana is going to be legal soon in Missouri, which is rolling out a medical marijuana program that won’t take patients until June. 

    “But then it’s still illegal,” an officer said. 

    “I don’t have time to wait for that,” Sousley said. “What would you do?”

    He asks the officer if he would do anything to save his life.  “Marijuana saved your life?” the officer responds skeptically.&nbsp

    In the video, police searched bags in the room, but Sousley refused to let officers search one bag. 

    “It has my final day things in there, and nobody’s going to dig in it,” Sousley said. “It’s my stuff, it’s my final hour stuff is in that bag. It’s my right to have my final—I’m not digging it down here in front of everybody.” 

    However, after the video ended, one of the police officers went through that bag with Sousley’s permission and did not find any marijuana, according to the Springfield News Leader.

    Sousley’s partner, Amber Kidwell, said that the incident shows how important it is for marijuana laws to protect patients who are using marijuana products to ease their suffering. 

    “It’s huge for us, because it’s a medical thing,” she told WRAL. “It’s a medical cannabis to help him with his life. A better quality of life. Why do we not get that opportunity to give him a better quality of life?”

    Kidwell said that it’s hard enough fighting cancer, without law enforcement rifling through the hospital room. However, she also said that the incident lead to a lot of support. 

    “We’ve had an outpouring of people reaching out for support and love, and through this we’ve had a lot of people reach out… a lot of people have reached out who have cancer also, and hearing their stories has been really important for us. When you get an outreach and outpouring of people telling you their story also… for us, this is a terminally ill patient who should have the right to choose (their own treatment).”

    Sousley said he didn’t want to argue. 

    “Terminal lives matter,” he said. “Love thy neighbor. Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. Give everybody a hug.”

    The police department did not comment, other than to say it had received threats after the video went viral. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Medical Marijuana Participation Drastically Drops In Oregon

    Medical Marijuana Participation Drastically Drops In Oregon

    Experts have a number of theories as to why the state’s medical marijuana program has experienced a 40% drop in participation.

    The number of people participating in the medical marijuana program in Oregon has dropped by about 40% this year, as more people opt to get their cannabis from recreational outlets rather than navigate the complex medical marijuana system.

    “Marijuana is legal in Oregon,” Oregon Health Authority spokesman Jonathan Modie told the Sun Herald. “You don’t need a medical card. We’re not surprised we’ve seen a drop.” 

    Medical marijuana patients don’t need to pay the same taxes as recreational users, who are taxed at about 20%. However, medical patients need to pay a $200 annual registration fee to renew their license and are subject to tight restrictions. 

    Diana Calvert of River City Retail marijuana dispensary says she repeatedly heard from customers who have left the medical marijuana system. 

    “They say, ‘I let my medical card expire. It’s too expensive to renew. I’ll just pay the taxes.’”

    At the same time, growers are opting to switch to recreational sales rather than learning a complex new tracking system that the state requires for medical sales or exchanges.

    “I think a lot of people say, ‘Let’s cut my overhead and go to the rec side,’” Republican State Rep. Carl Wilson said. 

    The changes could reflect that some people on the medical marijuana program were just trying to access the drug legally, said Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties.

    “Those that were getting an [medical marijuana] card as a ruse to get marijuana for recreational purposes … no longer need to continue the ruse after we legalized recreational marijuana,” he said. 

    The medical system in Oregon was legalized in 1998, and allows registered participants to grow their own cannabis or obtain it from someone who grows it for them.

    However, a new tracking system has made exchanging marijuana on the medical market more complex, so that many people who previously grew cannabis for medical patients have stopped doing so. 

    “Many patients are just unable to find a grower to supply them. Previously I think it was relatively easy for a patient who didn’t know anyone, in relatively short order, to find a grower to provide free or low-cost cannabis,” said Cedar Grey, a grower and member of the Oregon Cannabis Commission, a state advisory body. “With the changes they’ve made [to the medical marijuana program], it’s much more difficult to care for other patients. Therefore, the number of growers willing to do that has dropped significantly.”

    Recreational use of marijuana was legalized in 2014, allowing people to grow their own plants or obtain cannabis from licensed growers and dispensaries. 

    Despite the fact that it’s arguably easier than ever to obtain pot, Pete Gendron, president of the Oregon SunGrowers Guild, an association of growers, said that the breakdown of the medical market could affect low income people particularly hard. 

    “They don’t have the money to go to the corner dispensary,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Medical Marijuana Patients Forced To Choose Between Housing Or Pain Relief

    Medical Marijuana Patients Forced To Choose Between Housing Or Pain Relief

    The government’s stance on medical marijuana is leaving some low-income patients in a major bind. 

    Some medical marijuana patients across the country are having to choose between having a place to live or effective pain relief.

    People who apply for, or already receive, federal housing assistance may face discrimination if they use cannabis—even if it is for medical use, even if it is legal in their state.

    That’s because the federal government’s stance has not changed along with the policies of individual states, the majority of whom have legalized cannabis in some form. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says federal housing policy will continue to prohibit cannabis use until the federal government officially changes its stance on it.

    Currently cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug, in the same category as heroin and LSD. Drugs in this category are defined as having no medical value and a high potential for abuse.

    Lily Fisher, 55, is a medical cannabis patient under Montana’s medical cannabis program. Fisher, who has a prosthetic foot as a result of developing blood clots while being treated for breast cancer, relies on cannabis for pain relief.

    Fisher previously tried both hydromorphone and oxycodone for her pain, but ultimately preferred cannabis over taking opioids because it gave her fewer side effects.

    While applying for federal housing assistance, Fisher learned that her status as a medical marijuana patient would disqualify her from the process.

    In August, she was notified that she had been removed from the Section 8 waiting list because the state “recently received information from our field office that [she had] engaged in illegal use of a drug.” She would have to reapply.

    “It never even crossed my mind in a million years that that would be an issue,” she said, according to the Billings Gazette. “I started getting shook up and nervous because I’m about to be homeless.”

    Another woman, 66-year-old Mary Cease of Pennsylvania, was also denied access to a Section 8 housing voucher. Cease is a disabled veteran who also prefers cannabis over opioids. “It’s a crazy thing to do to an old woman who has no criminal background, and who owes nobody anything, and is living in a place where you cannot expand your mind,” she said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

    In June, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a representative from Washington, D.C., introduced a bill that would allow the use of cannabis in federally subsidized housing in states where it is legal. “Individuals who live in states where medical and/or recreational marijuana is legal, but live in federally-assisted housing, should have the same access to treatment as their neighbors,” Norton said.

    If such legislation should pass, it would represent a huge victory for medical marijuana patients who fear discrimination in not just public housing, but in the workplace too.

    “No one should have to choose between staying off opioids and a roof over their head,” said Mary Cease’s lawyer, Judith Cassel.

    View the original article at thefix.com