David Downs —

California’s $14 billion a year cannabis economy has created all-star marijuana strains with as much cachet as marquee athletes. A combination of genetics, local variation, effects in the field, and marketing have promoted ten such California hits to such great heights, they have their own baseball cards.
Technically they’re Berkeley Patients Care Center Collective “trading cards”: a shimmering, 10-piece set spanning OG Kush to Blue Dream, featuring luscious close-ups, and an intercontinental tale of a flowering industry.

• Not scratch and sniff – yet.

Cannabis breaks down into two, broad species, sativa and indica, says dispensary general manager of eight years David Bowers, but growers seek maximum power, and inimitable style through a mind-boggling array of strains.
“It’s survival of the fittest, really,” he says.
The reigning Southern and Northern California all-star and #1 trading card ‘OG Kush’ came from a powerful Colorado varietal called ‘chemdawg’ several years ago, says Bowers. Strains emerge through deliberate and accidental genetic variation. Hit strains are then cloned and sold from seed at international seed banks.
When plants travel, genetic expression can vary. On the East Coast, chemdawg became Diesel, while on the West Coast, starting in Los Angeles, it became OG Kush. Bowers says OG Kush can be grown inside or outside, but it’s finicky like Barry Bonds, requiring precise moisture, temperature, and nutrients. Pound for pound and in its prime, though, OG Kush is some of the strongest on the market. Those seeking pain or nausea relief, or even multiple sclerosis suffers have benefited from OG Kush, he says.

• Care of CO.

“Extremely psychoactive … can be almost too strong for some patients,” notes the trading card. “Very distinctive tangy lemon with a pine forest aroma that sticks to back of your nose. Extremely skunky and pungent. Long lasting after taste.”
The nine year-old BPCC is known for its elitism. It doesn’t dispense mid-grade or low-grade product and rigorously id’s product. The card line began in Spring 2010 as a way to educate forgetful patients on what they had just bought.
“Consumers want to get rid of physical pain, restore appetite, or find mental relaxation and different strains help,” Bowers says.
Identification is a dark art at best, though. Half“Quite a bit” of the growers for BPCC incorrectly identify the strain they’ve grown. To date, no California dispensaries perform expensive, time-consuming genetic analysis on medicine. Dispensary buyers don’t necessarily get a degree. Bowers read up on the popular literature and web sites, like the Cannabible and Sensi Seeds, and relies on experience.
“A lot of the literature is conflicting,” he says. “It’s more an art than a science.”

• Complicated pasts.

The industry is heading toward more empiricism, though. Harborside Health Center in Oakland determines potency at the molecular level with flame ionization. Medical Marijuana Inc. vice president David Tobias in Orange County says medical cannabis will get to the point where people can take exactly what’s right for them, instead of something that leaves them either zonked out, or unable to sleep.
“I know a lot of dispensary owners and they’ll suggest different things that are not good for me,” Tobias says.
Strains also rise and fall over years, Bowers recalls. Recently, Oakland’s Grand Daddy Purple took over the market until “everyone was growing the same strain at the same time”, gridlocking the supply chain.

• Oakland got grapes.

What was once the reign of Champagne and Old Blueberry has become the market of Blue Dream and Romulan. Blue Dream is a hybrid that smells “sweet and refreshing like fresh baked blueberry doughnuts.” It’s “strong and long lasting medication for day or night”.

• A close encounter with Romulan

If BPCC can educate people just a little, the cards are worth it, Bowers says. A second line of ten is underway and Bowers intimates a breakthrough in weed technology on the horizon.
“We’re trying to make them scratch and sniff.”
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/LegalizationNation/archives/2010/08/17/california-cannabis-goes-pro-with-baseball-cards

Veterans Medical Marijuana

– Hemp for Victory and Veterans. Here is my thought; if we as disabled vets formed a consortium to investigate and report on the medical value of the by-products of Hemp and the industrial production of “usable products” we could get a ground floor hold on a contract to supply the entire VA system with medical high-grade marijuana (when the Federal Laws that inhibit are changed). –
My name is Richard Fournier; I am rated by VA at 100% T & P.  My award came after battling the adjudication system since first filing of 1967 with the award granted in April – 2000 {retro back to 1980].
Today I serve my fellow Veteran as Founder/Chairman of the Board for the 501 (c) 3 “H.I.S. of America Inc [Head Injured Survivor’s].
With the current controversy over Medical Marijuana; I have come up with a marvelous idea which could produce a Veteran Operated $multi-million operation in this Field . I’m sure you are aware their is conflict between the Fed’s (DEA) and the VA and of the horror stories of Vets whose pain meds were cut off because of the T.H.C. found in their blood.
Here is my thought; if we as disabled vets formed a consortium to investigate and report on the medical value of the by-products of Hemp and the industrial production of “usable products” we could get a ground floor hold on a contract to supply the entire VA system with medical high grade marijuana (when the Federal Laws that inhibit are changed).
First off we would get rid of the use of the words “Medical Marijuana” replace it with “Medical Hemp” with a full report generated by our own Laboratory in conjunction with the benefits of  Hemp Seed Oil {essential fatty acids) which research has shown can prevent and reverse type II Diabetes … this is but an “overview” of what I know can be accomplished … it takes money, double blind studies, a research lab & a Bakery to produce an alternative method of delivery of the THC over smoking {which I believe is dangerous to the aging population of Veteran’s.
Please give me a call at 313 969-9786 to discuss future develops of this Plan.
My home state of Michigan passed a Medical Marijuana Law … I have a Link to the Ford Land Development Co to resurrect the George Washington Carver Nutrition Laboratory in the City of Dearborn.  The Nutrition Lab was given to Mr. Carver in 1942 by Henry Ford.  Currently a Local Hospital is occupying the site of the old Nutrition Center.  This is Good Press and if properly developed can set the Stage for a Government contract to provide the entire Nations Veterans Administration HealthCare System not only with High Quality Marijuana but also alternative methods of delivery to the system through ingestion of cookies cakes, sucker’s & teas all tested at our lab and given a stamp of approval from the FDA.
PS:  I entered into the Political scene in 1994 when as a disgruntled Veteran; I challenged (as a Republican) for the 14th Congressional Seat held by the Incumbent…the Honorable John Conyers…as soon as this current election year is over; my affidavits are ready to file for the 2012 Election where I will enter to win that seat for “We the People.”
“Service to America’s Veteran’s is the best work of life”
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/08/17/change-law-to-allow-vets-to-form-org-supplying-va-system-with-medical-hemp/

The political atmosphere around marijuana has changed. It used to be a slam dunk to make fun of marijuana users — even medical marijuana patients — but a recent drama which played out in Washington state showed how much that has changed. A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate has been forced to “clarify” a series of tasteless jokes he made at the expense of medical marijuana research and patients.

Dispensaries here will be modeled after California’s finest, but with tighter regulations to avoid excess and abuse.

By John Richardson
Staff Writer
BERKELEY, Calif. – It’s 9 a.m. and as soon as the uniformed guard pulls open the black iron gate in front of the Berkeley Patients Group, a small line forms inside the city’s oldest and busiest marijuana dispensary.

Emily Scarbrough smokes a joint at the Berkeley Patients Group clinic in Berkeley, Calif.
John Patriquin/Staff Photographer
Grey, a clerk who asked that her last name not be used, helps patient Sara Romano select some marijuana at the Berkeley Patients Group clinic in Berkeley, Calif.
John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

Sara Romano leans over a glass case and checks out the day’s selection. She lifts a couple of samples to her nose and sniffs before handing over $300 cash for an ounce of Space Queen, a favorite remedy for anxiety and depression, she says.
The 39-year-old software saleswoman tucks the marijuana buds into a small brown paper bag, along with $60 worth of “baking marijuana” to put in brownies and crisped rice treats for some older women she cares for.
“Edibles are kind of a lot less scary for people who are just getting introduced to the weed world,” she said.
Maine is about to get its own introduction to world of medical marijuana, California-style.
Approved by voters last fall, eight medical marijuana dispensaries are due to open around the state over the next six months. Portland, Bangor, Augusta and Thomaston could have theirs by the end of the year.
Maine has some of the nation’s tightest rules about who can operate dispensaries and who can buy the marijuana, a clear attempt to avoid excesses and abuses that earned California a reputation as the Wild West of cannabis.
California has an estimated 400 dispensaries, but no one keeps count. There are said to be more dispensaries than Starbucks in Los Angeles.
Maine’s dispensaries, however, will be modeled after what are considered northern California’s largest and most well-run dispensaries, including the Berkeley Patients Group here and Harborside Treatment Center in nearby Oakland, Calif..
Rebecca DeKeuster, the chief executive officer of the group that will operate four Maine dispensaries, is the former general manager for the Berkeley Patients Group.
PART PHARMACY, PART BOUTIQUE
A look inside the bustling storefronts in California reveals an operation that’s part pharmacy, part boutique, part social club, and entirely unlike anything Maine has seen before.
“The best business in town. They’re busy from the time they open until the time they close,” said Roger Ramirez, owner of the Berkeley Auto Service a few doors down San Pablo Avenue.
About 700 or more people each day file into the Berkeley Patients Group, which is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., every day of the week. It’s been in operation since 1999.
Some visit weekly or monthly to stock up. Others come back every day to relax, socialize and smoke their medicine. In California, patients can buy as much as 2 ounces per week. (Maine plans to limit purchases to 2.5 ounces every two weeks.)
Brad Senesac, marketing director for Berkeley Patients Group, would not say how much the dispensary generates in sales, although it is clearly many millions a year. Most of that is paid to growers, who effectively get wholesale prices.
But, Senesac said, Berkeley operates as a not-for-profit, which means its net revenues go into services for patients and donations to community organizations. It donated about $250,000 last year to organizations such as a nearby pre-school and health clinic, he said.
California does not require dispensaries to file any accounting of their revenue, expenses or charitable donations. Maine is requiring dispensaries to incorporate as non-profits, but there are no rules — so far — that require them to report revenues and expenses. Financial reporting rules may be added to Maine’s annual licensing standards, officials say.
The Berkeley dispensary employs 65 people. Entry-level workers earn $15 an hour, along with health and dental coverage, Senesac said. He would not say what the top officers and directors earn, except that it’s consistent with other non-profits.
SECURITY IS HEAVY
The first thing a newcomer sees is the security outside the building, a former used-car showroom with a circular glass facade behind a tall iron gate. The security staff uses 32 cameras to watch over the dispensary, inside and out; two unarmed guards also patrol the lot at all times.
Each visitor has to show identification and a medical marijuana registration card, proving they have a signed recommendation from a doctor. First-timers typically get a friendly introduction from the staff.
Then they enter the lounge, a bright room where they can smoke their marijuana or inhale the drug smokelessly using a special vaporizer. There’s free coffee, tea and snacks, and jazz playing in the background.
Richard Lahrson shuffles into the lounge, sets down his cane and settles at a small table. He’s not buying today, but came to the dispensary because it’s a safe and friendly place to smoke his medicine.
“It’s a great place,” said Lahrson, who didn’t want to talk about his illness. He packs marijuana into one of the dispensary’s bongs, or water pipes. He lights up and inhales as a woman at the next table rolls and lights a marijuana cigarette.
Not all of California’s dispensaries — often called marijuana clubs here — allow patients to smoke on-site, and it’s not clear if any of Maine’s will. Maine rules say only that the marijuana cannot be smoked in public and that employees can’t smoke at work. But state officials may revisit the issue to more expressly say that smoking on-site by patients won’t be allowed, said Catherine Cobb, head of licensing for the Department of Health and Human Services.
On one side of the Berkeley lounge is a room where, on different days of the week, patients might talk to a counselor, get a massage or have an acupuncture session.
And, on the other side is the store, where patients can buy pipes or bongs, cannabis lotions and balms, marijuana cook-books and ‘clones’ — six-inch tall marijuana plants grown from cuttings that sell for $12 apiece. The dispensary accepts cash and credit cards.
Ross DeGregory buys three ‘kush’ clones for his home marijuana garden. The 22-year-old, who helps runs a family painting business, said he relies on the drug to help with insomnia and to ease pain from a back injury that got him addicted to prescription painkillers years ago.
“I don’t think I could have gotten clean and sober without marijuana,” he said. “It probably saved my life.”
Before leaving, DeGregory also buys an ounce of processed buds that he plans to share with family members, including his grandmother. She is a registered medical marijuana patient, too, he said.
The heart of the operation is the actual dispensary, an open room with chairs along the back wall and a long glass case in front with samples of all the buds in stock, as well as edibles such as pot brownies and lozenges. Overhead, a color-coded electronic sign  shows the available varieties, including Super Silver Hazer and Purple Afgoo. Prices depend on quality, and range from $20 to $55 for an eighth of an ounce, or as much as $440 for an ounce.
Patients queue up as if waiting for a bank teller. Alan Clark, one of four employees behind the counter, explains some of the choices to a first-time visitor. Each variety of plant has different medical effects, such as relieving pain or increasing appetites, he said. And the effects also can vary from person to person.
Clark and other employees get training, and many of them also are medical marijuana patients who can speak from personal experience.
“I smoke for anxiety,” Clark said. “A lot of people here love the kushes. But, for me, they send me straight to nap time and I get nothing done.”
He usually recommends All Star Jack Frost for anxiety. “It gives you a heady, euphoric high and a sense of well-being. And you’re not all cloudy headed like you’re smoking a granddaddy or something.”
His pick for insomnia is Purple Afgoo. “That will give you some quality time with your couch.”
Relieving pain or muscle spasms could require a stronger blend, Clark said. “If you cross a purple with a train wreck, you’re likely to get something very heavy.”
For Sara Romano, Space Queen is the best medicine for managing anxiety, stress and depression.
“I’ve gone the (traditional) medical route with these things, and I’ve tried different pills. They may help on one level but they do bad things to your body,” Romano said.
She quit the pills and now sticks to weed, along with therapy, she said. “The depression is under control. Anxiety is non-existent.”
Having a safe, reliable – and legal – place to get her medicine has also been good for her health, she said.
LIKE CALIFORNIA, ONLY SMALLER
Maine’s dispensaries will be modeled after California’s biggest operations, but they clearly will be smaller.
Operators say they expect to start with a handful of employees at each site and that they expect to serve dozens of people a day instead of hundreds. Most project sales of $1 million to $2 million in the first full year of operation.
Along with a smaller population, Maine has far tighter limits than California on who can buy medical marijuana. Anxiety and insomnia, for example, are not among the short list of conditions, such as AIDS and cancer, that qualify a patient to legally use the drug in Maine. A state commission can add new qualifying conditions over time, but access in Maine is expected to expand much more slowly than it has in California.
California’s access rules are so open now that dispensary employees know they are selling some pot to perfectly healthy recreational users.
But, just as at a pharmacy counter, it’s impossible to tell just from looking who is really sick and who is not, said Clark. If a patient has a doctor’s recommendation, that’s good enough for him, he said.
Like Berkeley Patients Group and Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif., Maine’s dispensaries will blend into their neighborhoods and have plenty of security, operators said.
At the same time, the operators also say they plan to tailor the new dispensaries to fit Maine’s rules and its more conservative culture.
“We are looking to be as good as Berkeley Patients Group and Harborside or better, and that’s the cream of the crop in California,” said Tim Smale, who is working to open a dispensary called Remedy Compassion Center in the Auburn area.

UNCC researchers create a formula for recycling old bottles into new building materials

A UNC Charlotte researcher with a passion for sustainability is creating a new building material out of recycled plastic bottles and an ancient grass.
Dr. Na Lu, an assistant professor at UNCC’s Department of Engineering Technology, has created a material she believes may outperform composite lumber and wood lumber in many uses, and which has potential to be used in the residential and light commercial building industry.
In her lab at UNCC, Luna, as she prefers to be called, holds a dog bone-shaped sample of her creation: a beige plastic woven with threads of what looks like horsehair. “Hemp,” Luna says, and points to a fluffy pile of the fibers on the table.
Unlike much present-day composite lumber, Luna’s product substitutes hemp fibers for more typical chipped wood often mixed with virgin plastic. And unlike pressure-treated wood, the hemp material contains no toxic heavy metals.
Wood fiber is structured like a bundle of straws, she said, but hemp’s crystalline structure gives it greater mechanical strength. She demonstrates by holding out a handful of hemp fibers to pull.
“This (hemp composite) material performs up to 4,000 to 6,000 psi (pounds per square inch),” Luna said. “That’s as strong as medium-strength concrete.”
At the same time, the hemp-recycled plastic material is lighter than regular composite lumber, she said.
Hemp may be a promising building material, but the stuff Luna uses isn’t going to get anyone arrested. It’s industrial hemp, with an extremely low content of THC, the psychoactive substance for which marijuana is known.
Hemp is just one key to the new material; the other is recycled plastic bottles. In the United States, about 20 billion plastic bottles are used annually, and just 18 percent of those get recycled, Luna said. “The niche of what we do here is … we used HDPE recycled plastic, as opposed to resin epoxy,” she said.
Where things get wet
Unlike regular lumber, the experimental material is moisture- and insect-resistant, and hemp grows a lot faster than wood. Hemp fiber polymers are being used in the automotive industry in Europe for car interiors, Luna said, but she sees a future for the material in buildings, particularly in places where wood rot is a problem.
“The first application I really would like to see is any point where there is water contact in a civil application – a retaining wall, decking, bridges,” she said.
While it would cost more to produce the material today than it does to produce wood lumber, the life cycle cost would be cheaper and, over time, with a greater scale of production, she believes the cost to the consumer would fall.
For Luna, an interest in accomplishing conventional goals through unconventional means came early. Born in China, she said she saw firsthand the difficulty of a heavily populated nation struggling with high energy costs. After moving to the States, Luna earned her doctorate from Clemson University. In the process, she worked with a professor in Arizona in constructing a school from straw bales coated with cement.
Testing, testing
To prepare hemp composite samples for testing, Luna and her student assistant, John Larson, first extrude pellets of recycled plastic. Larson, a rising sophomore from Stanley majoring in construction management, treats the hemp fiber to remove its oil and odor. He points out a tensile testing machine used to pull the fibers and take pictures with a high-speed camera of how the material reacts and deforms in each moment.
Larson and Luna sandwich the strands between layers of plastic, and test the finished sample under a static load and a dynamic load (a moving load, such as that produced by wind or water) for changes in strength at various temperatures and humidity levels.
“We tried chopping them up,” Larson said of one of many experiments with the fibers. That didn’t prove strong enough, so now they’re turning out samples with longer hemp strands.
“It’s tedious,” Luna said of the yearlong process of trial and error. “But once you see the material improve … you love it.”
Listening to Mother Nature
In designing materials for building, it makes sense to take cues from nature, Luna said. “Mother Nature is much smarter than us,” she said. “I really respect nature and how things are designed.”
In the lab, Luna and Larson demonstrate the testing of a sample of the hemp composite. The “dog bone” slides into a vise-like apparatus on a strength-testing machine and, as Luna watches a glowing computer screen, the machine pulls the sample until at last it snaps, at 5,692 psi.
“Wow!” Luna says, surprised. Larson peers at the computer with her and they marvel at the test results, which were achieved at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 35 percent humidity – variables, Luna says, which are important because a material’s performance changes with moisture and heat.
The next challenge will be making the material more fireproof. But already a lumber company and an architectural firm have expressed interest in it, Luna said.
In addition to exploring hemp and recycled plastic as a lumber substitute, Luna is looking at combining recycled plastic with bamboo fibers. She’s also working on a new class of thermoelectric materials to harvest waste heat energy and convert it into electrical energy without moving parts.

Frugal Foodie Friday: At long last, my CSA fruit share has graduated from apricots to peaches … not that I don’t have a freezer full of frozen apricots, but I thought I would shake things up by enjoying some peaches in my smoothies too. And I have to admit, I think I like peaches even better!
This is a simple smoothie recipe that uses vanilla hemp milk and vanilla hemp protein for that little something extra in the flavor and health departments. I was going for a balanced smoothie (some added protein and healthy Omega fats) with optimal taste, not a protein shake, which is why I opted to use a modest amount of hemp protein powder … but feel free to up it if you so desire.
I’m definitely liking hemp protein powders better than the other options, the only bummer is the green tinge takes away that beautiful peachy hue. But, I guess I will have to warm up to green as a lovely beverage color since the flavor is still wonderful …
Oh, and for those of you worried about the hemp “grit,” I have had good luck with Manitoba Harvest products. The HempPro 70 is the smoothest (nice powder actually), but these flavored varieties blend in nicely with a good 30 second or more whiz in the blender. No complaints here! In fact, my husband says he greatly prefers it to rice protein powder.
Just Peachy Vanilla-Hemp Smoothie
This recipe is Vegan, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free, and Refined Sugar-Free.

• 5 Ounces Frozen Peaches (1 overflowing cup)
• 3/4 to 1 Cup Vanilla Hemp Milk (I used Vanilla Hemp Bliss)
• 1/8 to 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Date or Stevia to taste (can sub you favorite sweetener to taste)
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Hemp Protein Powder (optional – I used Manitoba Harvest Organic Vanilla Hemp Protein)

Add all ingredients, starting with 3/4 cup hemp milk to your blender. I usually pulse it several times first, and then blend until smooth. Add in additional hemp milk to your desired consistency.
Ginger Love: When the ginger cravings strike, I blend in two chunks of crystalized ginger for a special treat (I buy the inexpensive version at Trader Joe’s). For a lower sugar option, feel free to grate in some fresh ginger. Ginger powder just doesn’t cut it though – trust me, I’ve tried it.
Yields 1 peachy serving

THOMAS TWP. — On Friday, a neon-green sign that said “Tri-City Compassion Club, park here” in stenciled block letters was posted in front of the lot and Thomas Township home owned by John F. Roberts.
Roberts, 49, whose home — where he lives with his fiancée Stephanie Whisman, 38 — was raided by DEA agents July 6, is the new location of the Tri-City Compassion Club.
Roberts, a state-registered grower, patient and a former leader of the Bay City-based compassion club — now the newly named Mid-Michigan Tri-City Compassion Club, which has more 300 members, according group President Kim M. Zimmer — left the Bay City group and was allowed to use its old name to begin a separate club.
Roberts said the purpose of the club is to educate prospective patients about getting started legally and to inform current patients about growing and processing methods.
Members also bring baked goods, oils and dried marijuana to sample, purchase and trade  — provided they are certified medical marijuana patients, Roberts said.
He said the clubs offer a comfortable alternative for patients who don’t wish to purchase their medical marijuana on the black market.
None of the meeting attendees wished to speak publicly about their involvement with medical marijuana or reasons for attending the club meeting.
Zimmer said her club parted ways with Roberts after his home was raided in July. She declined to speak about specifics of the separation.
“There is no conflict,” Roberts said. “The person who owned the building wanted to go in a different direction than I wanted and that I could afford.”
He wouldn’t disclose the owner or location of the building the club calls home but said he had been paying the club’s building lease until he left and could no longer afford to.
Roberts’ club is in his backyard among wooded trails and fire pits.
Cars parked on the grass at the outskirts of Roberts’ property Friday.
About 15 medical marijuana patients, two children, caretakers and others who were curious exited their vehicles and crossed a length of freshly cut grass, walking toward a brownish-red wooden storage shed with two open doors.
Inside about four medical marijuana patients sat in chairs around a coffee table, upon which lay brownies and muffins baked with cannabis butter — they were donated by one of the group members — and on another table were two jars full of marijuana buds — each containing about an ounce of marijuana, Roberts said.
An empty container on the table said “donations for baby girl.”
The anticipated donation was marijuana, not money, Roberts said.
Roberts said he and others provide medicine, what he calls “Rick Simpson hemp oil,” to a state-registered 6-year-old girl suffering from a brain tumor — free of charge — and it takes 2 to 3 ounces of marijuana to make enough of the dark, tar-like extract, which he said lasts two weeks.
Mixed with peanut butter for ingestion, the oil helps the child to sleep and to eat regularly, Roberts said.
Roberts said he’ll continue to conduct compassion club meetings at his home each Friday and Monday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Germany/USA: Three quarters of citizens in the USA and Germany support the medical use of cannabis

According to a poll conducted by Emnid Institute there is a broad support in Germany when it comes to the medical use of cannabis. Of 1,001 interviewees asked by phone 76 per cent said that the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes should be allowed while only 18 per cent disagreed and 6 per cent had no opinion on this issue. The poll consisting of two questions was ordered by the German Association for Cannabis as Medicine (ACM). According to the answers to the second question 65 per cent of Germans think that a treatment with the cannabis compound dronabinol (THC) should be paid by the health insurances, which currently is usually not the case.
Support for the medical use of cannabis was highest among highly educated people, men, people between 50 and 60 years of age, and partisans of the small political parties, Greens (90 per cent), Liberals (85 per cent) and the Left (85 per cent). More than three quarters of the large parties Social Democrats (83 per cent) and Christian Democrats (77 per cent) also supported the medical use of cannabis. The lowest support was observed among non-voters (72 per cent). These results are in agreement with a recent Rasmussen poll in the USA showing that 75 per cent of Americans support the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes if prescribed by a physician.

One of protagonists of the modern marijuana movement in California charges that the burgeoning dispensary trade has become a cash cow aloof from the people it is meant to serve.
Valerie Corral filed the state’s first known “medical necessity” defense when she challenged her arrest for cultivating five marijuana plants, arguing she had a right to use cannabis to treat seizures resulting from a car accident.
After prosecutors threw out the charges in 1993, Corral co-founded the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a Santa Cruz pot-growing collective renowned for serving the terminally ill. She later worked to pass the California’s Proposition 215 Compassionate Use Act legalizing medical use.
But these days, she is fed up with the growth of California’s contemporary marijuana “collectives” – namely pot-distributing dispensaries with thousands of registered members and millions of dollars in annual marijuana transactions.
“Something has happened to our movement, something that is dark and denigrates the issue,” Corral said recently at the HempCon medical marijuana convention in San Jose. “It (the movement) did not happen so people can get rich.”
Dispensaries under California law must operate as non-profits. But Corral decried an evolution of a massive medical marijuana industry she says is characterized by generous salaries and an entrepreneurial spirit that overshadows the core purpose of helping and comforting people in need.
WAMM members, including AIDS and cancer patients, directly cultivate and share medical marijuana rather than ringing up cash register transactions at a pot shop. Members hold Tuesday night meetings to distribute the marijuana based on medical needs and ability to pay.
After Prop 215’s passage in 1996, Corral hoped the WAMM model – with small groups of growers and medical users working together — would become the standard.
“I thought the WAMM consciousness would take off,” she said. “It didn’t. The dispensaries did.”
Yet WAMM remains a cultural icon in the marijuana movement. In 2002, federal agents stirred a political backlash by raiding the marijuana garden, confiscating the crop and arresting Corral and her husband, WAMM co-founder Mike Corral.
The city and county of Santa Cruz joined in lawsuits against the federal government. In 2004, A U.S. District Judge, Jeremy Fogel, issued an injunction barring future raids of the WAMM site. Last year, U.S. Attorney Eric Holder announced he won’t target medical marijuana in states where it is legal.
Since the WAMM was founded in 1993, 223 members of the collective have died. Seventeen are buried near its marijuana garden. Others are commemorated on painted stones.
“It’s difficult to watch your friends die,” Corral said. “It’s difficult to watch people suffer. It can be very unnerving and put us face to face with our own mortality.”
California voters are to decide in November whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use for adults over 21. Corral says she supports Proposition 19 as a civil libertarian and because she hopes it will drive the price of marijuana far below what is currently being charged in most dispensaries.
Regardless of the outcome, she said WAMM will continue operating as a purely medical collective.
“I’m in this for the liberty. I’m in it for the social justice,” Corral said. “I’m in it not only for the healing but for the profundity of the healing.”