Last month, the Marijuana Policy Project asked readers for their take on laws that require welfare recipients to take and pass a drug test in order to receive benefits. It was a hot topic, generating more comments than any blog posting since the U.S. attorney crackdown in California. They also set up a survey, which over 700 readers responded to.
So, what were the results? The vast majority of readers, about 74%, were opposed to drug testing aid recipients altogether. The rest of you split roughly evenly between support for testing recipients for all drugs and support for testing for “hard drugs,” but not marijuana. The survey results skewed along the same lines as the views of our respondents, most of whom were opposed to testing altogether. Here’s a sampling of some other thoughts from our respondents:
Respondent Justin wants to look past ideology and focus on results:
Of course we would all likely prefer people receiving government assistance not use that aid to purchase anything besides the bare essentials. And if there were any indication that drug testing prevents drug use I would fully endorse its use. But the reality is every indication points to drug testing as being a very poor deterrent to drug use, in other words it simply doesn’t work
Reader David says if you’re going to drug test, do it consistently and equally:
I think anybody who receives government money, this includes all politicians and elected officials, should be subjected to random drug screens. What’s fair is fair.
Many of you agreed with Patrick in singling out companies that conduct testing:
… the real beneficiary of drug testing welfare recipients is the dirty drug testing industry who I personally would love to see destroyed … We all know that the drug testing industry lobbies hard to maintain marijuana prohibition as they have a vested interest in doing so.
Thanks to all of you for responding to the survey and to those of you who took extra time to leave your thoughts in the comments section. As an organization focused on optimizing policy with respect to marijuana, we agree with the overwhelming majority of our members that drug testing aid recipients is intrusive, ineffective, and wasteful, and we will continue advocating against bills that require testing as a condition for receiving benefits.
28 December, 2011
#1 NORML Sues to Halt Government’s Prosecution of Medical Cannabis Providers
In October, the United States Deputy Attorney General, along with the four US Attorneys from California, announced their intentions to escalate federal efforts targeting the state’s medical cannabis dispensaries and providers. In response, members of the NORML Legal Committee filed suit in November against the federal government arguing that its actions were in violation of the Ninth, Tenth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution. Plaintiffs further argued, using the theory of judicial estoppel, that the Justice Department had previously affirmed in federal court that it would no longer use federal resources to prosecute cannabis patients or providers who are compliant with state law. NORML’s lawsuit remains pending. Read the full story here.
#2 Members of Congress Introduce First Bill Since 1937 to Legalize Cannabis
House lawmakers introduced legislation in Congress in June to end the federal criminalization of the personal use of marijuana. The bipartisan measure – HR 2306, the ‘Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011′ – prohibits the federal government from prosecuting adults who use or possess cannabis by removing the plant and its primary psychoactive constituent, THC, from the five schedules of the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The bill awaits Congressional action. Read the full story here.
#3 Gallup: Majority of Americans Support Legalizing Cannabis
A record 50 percent of Americans now believe that marijuana ought to be legalized for adult use, according to a nationwide Gallup poll of 1,005 adults published in October. The 2011 survey results mark the first time ever that Gallup has reported that more Americans support legalizing cannabis (50 percent) than oppose it (46 percent). Read the full story here.
#4 Over One Million Americans Now Use Cannabis Legally Under State Law
Between one million to one-and-a-half million US citizens are legally authorized by the laws of their state to use marijuana, according to data compiled in May by NORML from state medical marijuana registries and patient estimates. Read the full story here.
#5 Marijuana Prosecutions For 2010 Near Record High
Police made 853,838 arrests in 2010 for marijuana-related offenses according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Uniform Crime Report, released in September. The annual arrest total is among the highest ever reported by the agency. Marijuana arrests now comprise more than one-half (52 percent) of all drug arrests in the United States. Read the full story here.
#6 Largest State Doctors Association Calls For Legalizing Cannabis
The California Medical Association in October called for the “legalization and regulation” of cannabis for adults. The association, which represents some 35,000 physicians, recommends that cannabis be taxed and regulated “in a manner similar to alcohol.” Read the full story here.
#7 Connecticut Decriminalizes Cannabis Possession Offenses
Statewide legislation took effect in July reducing the penalties for the adult possession of up to one-half ounce of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor (formerly punishable by one year in jail and a $1,000 fine) to a non-criminal infraction, punishable by a $150 fine, no arrest or jail time, and no criminal record. Read the full story here.
#8 Vaporized Cannabis Augments Analgesic Effect of Opiates in Humans
Vaporized cannabis significantly augments the analgesic effects of opiates in patients with chronic pain, according to clinical trial data published online in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics in November. Investigators surmised that cannabis-specific interventions “may allow for opioid treatment at lower doses with fewer [patient] side effects.” Read the full story here.
#9 State Governors Call on Obama Administration to Reclassify Cannabis
In December, governors from Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington formally requested the Obama administration to reclassify cannabis under federal law in a manner that would allow states to regulate its therapeutic use without federal interference. The administration in July had previously rejected a nine-year-old petition calling on the agency to initiate hearings to reassess the present classification of marijuana as a schedule I controlled substance without any ‘accepted medical use in treatment.’ Read the full story here.
#10 Delaware Becomes 16th State to Legalize Limited Medical Use of Marijuana
State lawmakers in May approved legislation to allow patients with a qualifying illness may legally possess up to six ounces of cannabis, provided the cannabis is obtained from a state-licensed, not-for-profit ‘compassion center.’ The law is anticipated to be implemented in 2012. Read the full story here.
29 December, 2011
NORML
Opposing Views
There are few entities that can publicly boast that they grow 20 tonnes of cannabis a year with government approval. GW Pharmaceuticals, however, is one of them.
The crop’s Home Office-approved location is shrouded in mystery, with the only hint from GW being that it is “somewhere in the south” of the UK.
From a plant better known for its illicit use, the British biotech group created the drug Sativex, an oral spray medication used to ease spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients, which is available on prescription in New Zealand, Canada, Spain and the UK, and has recently been approved in Sweden.
Sativex, launched in the UK in June, is the only cannabis-based medicine to receive approval from medical authorities for use as a prescription drug, and has been the driving force behind Aim-traded GW.
However, Justin Gover, managing director, believes that the drug is only the first of several that the company will bring to the market.
“We have done this for Sativex and there is no reason why we can’t do it for three or four more,” he says in an interview with the Financial Times. “All our medicines are cousins – they all come from the same plant and are therefore very similar.”
Mr Gover believes that the active molecules found in cannabis, known as cannabinoids, can be used to treat conditions including diabetes, high cholesterol, liver problems and even cancer itself.
The group has spent £5m of its own cash in developing treatments for what Mr Gover calls “metabolic syndrome” – or the effects of modern diets and lifestyles on our health.
“It is part of taking the company from being a young drug development company with a focus on a lead product to expand into other areas,” he says.
“We have two major ambitions for us. The first is to maximise the opportunities of Sativex itself . . . and the second is to realise value from the use of cannabinoid’s across multiple therapeutic areas. And that’s our competitive and strategic position in the industry.”
GW’s trials of an oral capsule to treat type two diabetes is in the second stage of clinical trials. It has signed two deals worth a total of $21m with Otsuka, the Japanese drug group, on pre-clinical testing of cannabinoid’s to treat epilepsy, as well as various cancers including prostate, breast and glioma (brain cancer).
The company is also working with Otsuka to test Sativex for relief of pain caused by illnesses including cancer, in a market that is estimated to be worth $1.7bn (£1bn) a year in the US alone.
Earlier this year, GW signed a £20.7m distribution deal for Sativex with Novartis for some emerging markets – a deal that includes milestone payments for GW of $34m, conditional on winning regulatory approval and other hurdles, and double-digit royalties – to complement existing alliances with Almirall and Bayer.
“This is the next opportunity for us – to take the same drug and get it approved for a different use,” Mr Gover says.
As GW’s medicines come from cannabis – a natural product – instead of a synthetic compound, intellectual property rights on the drug are limited, extracting the cannabinoids in the manufacturing process is complex, and Home Office regulatory approval is difficult.
However, the complexity of creating its drugs is also a deterrent to possible generic rivals, Mr Gover says. “Our area requires a new expertise for generic drug companies to reproduce these medicines, so we’re not overly concerned with them.”
The approval of Sativex and GW’s expansion into other drugs comes after a lean spell that it endured from 2004-07, when its shares dropped from above 200p to below 30p, after a spate of trials failed to show convincingly that cannabis-based products could relieve pain. The shares stood at 81.50p in late trading on Wednesday.
However, the eventual launch of Sativex and its financial boost to GW has enabled the company to further investigate the medical possibilities for cannabis, Mr Gover says.
“If we can continue to demonstrate that cannabinoid’s – these fascinating molecules that sit within the cannabis plant – have these range of applications and opportunities, we can harness our position in the industry to stay as leaders in this field.”
28 December, 2011
By Mark Wembridge
Financial Times
