JJ'S CORNER MEDICINAL MARIJUANA: PROCON (with JJ's 2-cents): Medical Marijuana Lawsuit Headed to Federal Court to Challenge Schedule I Status

Medical Marijuana Lawsuit Headed to Federal Court to Challenge Schedule I Status

Link to petition to Supreme Court: http://www.procon.org/files/Petition_Final_2002.pdf

Out of respect for the fine work of ProCon.org, I am going to adhere to their citation policy. Above is the brief submitted to the United States Federal Court.

In part:

The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has agreed to hear oral arguments on Oct. 16, 2012 in a lawsuit challenging the federal government's classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on July 8, 2011 denied an Oct. 9, 2002 petition by the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) to reschedule marijuana, prompting a lawsuit by Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a medical marijuana advocacy organization.

"Medical marijuana patients are finally getting their day in court," said ASA chief counsel Joe Elford. "This is a rare opportunity for patients to confront politically motivated decision-making with scientific evidence of marijuana's medical efficacy. What's at stake in this case is nothing less than our country's scientific integrity and the imminent needs of millions of patients."

ProCon: Off to Federal Court to have Medical Marijuana Re-classified from a Schedule I Narcotic

10 comments

Jennifer H Ford · Eastern Washington University

Yeah, now make it so I can freaking AFFORD my medication. I would need over $500/month minimum to control the pain and spasticity, the muscle and vascular spasms, the insomnia-and all of this goes on at the same time, all the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I am starting a FB page for patients like myself who are interested in using cannibis for RSD/CRPS (what Paula says she has) and those who have it can post photos of needless suffering. I am out of money, out of cannnibis, and back in pain-narcotics? I could ask for-and probably get andything I want: I choose NOT to use them; only exception being when the pain was so severe, not only did I have to be sedated with a narcotic but they had to do a SGB, aka, Stellate Ganglion Block. One needle at the base of my NECK (important nerves there, you know: I did study nursing) because the severity of the pain had me going into a form of shock specific to sudden and massive discharge of the Sympathetic Nervous System. Had I not gotten there within 10 minutes, I would have probably lost a blood pressure entirely. YEah, pain can be "that bad" and ask anyone who's got terminal cancer or any disease as far as I see it, that affects the Central Nervous System. I take 3 or 4 anticonvulsants with no effect. Honestly? I vaporize, as not to affect my animals, and I get relief from almost all the worst symptoms. But the stupid thing? Because it's weed? I pay; but the doctor could whip out the prescription pad, write for thousands of dollars in narcotics every month, which I decided after trying to manage with it briefly-people are right. Pain meds DO NOT work for nerve pain, sciatica, or any other neurogenic pain-ask any neurologist, or anyone who has it. I used to think the sciatica was bad. I hardly notice it now.

Reply · Like · Unfollow Post · 2 seconds ago
Ray Lakers · Top Commenter · Des Moines, Iowa

I testified at all four public hearings in 2009......Iowa - On Feb. 17, 2010, after reviewing testimony from four public hearings and reading through more than 10,000 pages of submitted material, members of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy unanimously voted to recommend that the Iowa legislature remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Iowa Controlled Substances Act.[51].

NATURE WILL WIN AGAIN.

Reply · 15 · Like · Follow Post · August 5 at 6:51am
Brad Forrester · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Local Program Director at Cheboygan County Norml

One more item worth mentioning:

U.S. Patent no. 6630507

On October 7, 2003, a U.S. patent number 6630507 entitled "Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants" was awarded to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, based on research done at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This patent claims that cannabinoids are "useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases such as ischemia, age-related, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's d

isease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia."[46][47].

On November 17, 2011, in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209(c)(1) and 37 CFR part 404.7(a)(1)(i), the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, published in the Federal Register, that it is contemplating the grant of an exclusive patent license to practice the invention embodied in U.S. Patent 6,630,507, entitled “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants” and PCT Application Serial No. PCT/US99/08769 and foreign equivalents thereof, entitled “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants” [HHS Ref. No. E-287-1997/2] to KannaLife Sciences Inc., which has offices in New York, U.S. This patent and its foreign counterparts have been assigned to the Government of the United States of America. The prospective exclusive license territory may be worldwide, and the field of use may be limited to: The development and sale of cannabinoid(s) and cannabidiol(s) based therapeutics as antioxidants and neuroprotectants for use and delivery in humans, for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy, as claimed in the Licensed Patent Rights.[48].

On June 12, 2012, KannaLife Sciences, Inc. signed an exclusive license agreement with National Institutes of Health – Office of Technology Transfer ("NIH-OTT") for the Commercialization of U.S. Patent 6,630,507, "Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants" (the "'507 Patent"). The '507 Patent includes among other things, claims directed to a method of treating diseases caused by oxidative stress by administering a therapeutically effective amount of a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that has substantially no binding to the NMDA receptor. Cannabinoids are any of a group of related compounds that include cannabinol and the active constituents of cannabis (marijuana).

Reply · 12 · Like · Follow Post · August 3 at 10:14am
Jeremy Ziskind · UCLA

Thank you Brad. We have a page describing the federal patent on CBD and other cannabinoids here: http://

medicalmarijuana.procon.org
/view.answers.php?questionID=001656

That page also has responses from HHS and the DEA on the con side.

Reply · 5 · Like · August 3 at 3:37pm

Rol Henault

Best of luck to all pursuing this cause. This rediculous debate has been going on too long. The fact that there are those in our government who continue to maintain the position that marijuana should be maintained as a schedule I substance in spite of all the reasearch throughout the years only supports the theory that there are more sinister forces at work here. It is one thing to ruin millions of lives in the name of laws that should never have been written but to use such laws to deny any person access to medical treatment in my opinion is a crime that goes against the very fabric of what we as a country are supposed to represent.

Reply · 10 · Like · Follow Post · August 5 at 7:33am

Faye Medlock

Time to clean house of all those in the government that want to continue stuffing their pockets with all the big pharma and black market monies to keep it illegal, not caring what it is doing to the patrons that put them in the offices that they now hold. I say vote them all out and get a new breed of folk in that are * for the people by the people* and will see that it is our choice for our medicine.

Reply · 5 · Like · August 7 at 4:42pm
Rol Henault

Our current president has recently demonstrated that he does not respect states rights to legalization of medical marijuana by allowing multiple raids on dispensaries. And candidate Mitt Romney has publically stated that he is against the use of medical marijuana.

Reply · Like · August 11 at 5:01pm

Rick Steeb · Top Commenter

Is there anyone on Earth who seriously believes Cannabis belongs in the schedules at all, much less Schedule I?
Can you name anything closer to a literal panacea? ["Storm Crow's List"].
Keeping it illegal as a non-toxic alternative to tobacco or beer would be murderously stupid.
Withholding its medical benefits from the ill is an atrocity that shall NOT stand.

Reply · 9 · Like · Follow Post · August 4 at 8:48am

Michael Anderson · Princeton High School

to have marijuana listed as a sch I is absurd a waste of tax payers money on locking up weed smokers and growers put your tax on it and let us be free like these politicians campaigning say we are so if this is freedom I would hate to see anything else.

Reply · 3 · Like · Follow Post · August 9 at 7:26am

Jon Cook · Top Commenter · Student Worker at Laney College, Oakland, CA

EACH YEAR I LOSE 1.2 MILLION FROM KONA. tHIS MONEY COULD BE BUYING A BUILDING AND PUTTING PEOPLE TO WORK! WAKE UP CORN FARMERS IN IOWA`.

Reply · 2 · Like · Follow Post · August 5 at 7:52am

Jon Cook · Top Commenter · Student Worker at Laney College, Oakland, CA

MARINOLS LEGAL. POT IS NOT. NO SENSE, JUST TREAT IT LIKE BEER AND WINE, WHERE IS MY PRODUCTION PERMIT, TAX MONEY AND BUROCRAT.

Reply · 2 · Like · Follow Post · August 5 at 7:49am

Robert M Chamberlin · Southfield High School

What with the new study indicating that Chemotherapy may CAUSE the promotion of cancer growth, what is left to the cancer patient? We know that Hemp is also the best source for ethanol and bio-diesel, fabric, strand board, and hempcrete. We also know that nobody has ever died of an overdose of Cannabis, and we also know that every one of us has an endocannabinoid system - which is the master controller of the human body. Other facts are known and have been published in PUBMED as well as many medical journals. This is pretty profound considering the plant was used for over 6,000 years as medicine, and only prohibited because of propaganda over 70 years ago. Propaganda should NEVER trump science.

Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · August 11 at 12:36pm

Frank Levine · Subscribe

since when have we ever allowed FACTS to influence our decisions?

Reply · 2 · Like · August 11 at 12:38pm
Rol Henault

"What is left to the cancer patient?" The choice between further suffering, death from the likely return of cancer or becoming a criminal.

Pretty good considering that we live in a country that prides itself on being free, and champions of human rights. "...life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..."

There is a reason why I chose a picture of a flag flying upside down. It is not meant as disrsepct to what our nation is supposed to represent but to represent a nation in distress.

Reply · Like · August 11 at 4:57pm

Rachi Pie

I'm concerned that when marijuana is federally legalized, the pharmaceutical companies will first get their hands on it; producing a synthesized version which will be promoted instead of the plant itself.

Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · August 10 at 11:29am

Rol Henault

I will see if I can find a video and also some other research I have read about Marinol. It is supposed to be a synthetic form of THC but is marginally effective.

Reply · Like · August 11 at 4:49pm