User:Goonsquad LCpl Mulvaney/Legal and medical status of cannabis

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Worldwide laws on cannabis possession for medical purposes or cannabis-based medicine.

Australia

See also: Cannabis in Australia

After politicians in the Australian Capital Territory voted to allow doctors to determine when cannabis was appropriate for their patients, intense lobbying by the federal government resulted in the legislation being overturned. In May 2003 the then Premier of New South Wales, Mr Bob Carr, promised patients a four-year trial into the medical uses of cannabis – but little to no action was taken.

Low-potency cannabis grown agriculturally for use as industrial hemp is legal to grow, transport and process in all states and territories of Australia, provided one has the correct government licenses. Hemp products such as clothes and paper are legal to sell at a retail level without specific licenses. Using agricultural cannabis for drug purposes is illegal.

In Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia; non-industrial cannabis is criminalized, although prison sentences for small amounts are rare. More commonly in these regions, first or second-time offenders caught with small amounts will be offered treatment and can avoid any criminal sentence or a criminal record. Repeat offenders caught with small amounts are likely to be fined and forced into treatment rather than sent to jail, though they may still obtain a criminal record. South Australia has officially decriminalized personal use of non-industrial cannabis, although this is a poorly defined law. Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have also decriminalized small amounts of non-industrial cannabis, and small amounts of non-hydroponically grown plants. In all regions, offenders caught with large amounts are considered to be trafficking and are much more likely to have a jail sentence handed down.

There is no current law allowing the medical use of cannabis in Australia, and the federal law regarding drug use places marijuana in Schedule 9 (the most restrictive category, which also includes heroin), meaning it has no legal medical use and cannot be prescribed by a doctor. Drugs in the other schedules are considered to have medical uses (for instance cocaine, morphine and amphetamine) and can be prescribed. Cannabis users who claim to use the plant for medical purposes are treated the same as anyone else using non-industrial cannabis. Nevertheless, questions remain about the scope for defenses argued on the basis of necessitous medical use.

A media report on 16 May 2013 stated that a New South Wales parliamentary committee has recommended the use of medically-prescribed cannabis for terminally ill patients and has supported the legalization of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals on such grounds. As part of the recommendation, the committee has called upon the cooperation of the federal Australian government for a scheme that would allow patients to possess up to 15 grams of cannabis. Also, both the patients and their carers would be required to obtain a certificate from a specialist, registration with the Department of Health and a photo Identification card.

On the 17th of October 2015, the Federal Government announced that it would legalise the growing of cannabis for medicinal and scientific purposes.

Canada

See also: Cannabis in Canada

It is currently legal to possess, consume, and grow cannabis for medical patients in Canada. This right is ensured through the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations. It does however remain illegal for the general population.

Cannabis is currently only legally available for purchase through Health Canada's licensed producer model. However in the summer of 2015, the City of Vancouver established a municipal licensing system for medical dispensaries.

In November 2015, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won with a campaign promise to legalize cannabis for recreational use. It was announced that cannabis will be legal for recreational purchase in 2017.

United States

As a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970, marijuana (cannabis) is considered to have "no accepted medical use" and have a high potential for abuse and physical and/or emotional dependence. Cannabis use is illegal for any reason, with the exception of FDA-approved research programs. However, it is difficult to secure approval for these programs. Those wishing to conduct research must get permission granted by the DEA and acquire the supply of cannabis from the NIDA. The Controlled Substances Act allows mis-controlled substances to be reclassified by petition by any member of the public, but federal agencies have so far delayed for many years each such petition on behalf of cannabis, and then denied it. (See removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.)

A successful "medical necessity" defense by patient Robert Randall led the FDA to create a "Compassionate Investigational New Drug program", which provides medical cannabis grown under a NIDA contract at the Research Institute for Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Mississippi to a small number of patients since 1978. The program was closed to new patients in 1992 when many AIDS patients applied., public health authorities concluded there was no scientific value to it, and due to President George H.W. Bush administration's desire to "get tough on crime and drugs." Four living patients continue to receive federal marijuana, including, since 1983, Irvin Rosenfeld (for bone spurs), a 52-year-old stockbroker who has been featured in numerous print articles and on the Penn & Teller: Bullshit! cable television series; Elvy Musikka (for glaucoma); and George McMahon (who authored Prescription Pot, a book detailing the federal program). The marijuana is grown on a farm at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and each person receives 300 doses a month. These patients are required by the U.S. Government to smoke the marijuana through a "rolled paper tube" (not ingesting or using pipes or vaporizers). Patients and their doctors report significant medical benefits from their use of marijuana. Many have reduced the amount of pharmaceuticals in their medicine regimen. However, these patients have also experienced hardships due to legal confusions. One was detained in prison for a short time after he was found with his allowed dosages.

There is a split between the U.S. federal and many state governments over medical marijuana policy. On 6 June 2005, the Supreme Court, in Gonzales v. Raich, ruled in a 6–3 decision that Congress has the right to outlaw medicinal cannabis, thus subjecting all patients to federal prosecution even in states where the treatment is legalized. As of April 2015, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical cannabis or effectively decriminalized it: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington; Maryland allows for reduced or no penalties if cannabis use has a medical basis. Maryland's law does not legalize possession of medical cannabis, but rather makes it a non-incarcerable offense with a maximum penalty of a $100 fine. The case brought into tension two themes of the Rehnquist court: the limits it has imposed on the federal government and the latitude it has afforded law enforcement officers. Joining Justice John Paul Stevens's majority decision were Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote separately to say he agreed with the result, though not the majority's reasoning. Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas dissented.

DEA and NIDA opposition prevented any scientific studies of medical marijuana for more than a decade, but in the 1990s, activists and doctors were energized by seeing marijuana help dying AIDS patients. A study of smoked marijuana at the University of California, San Francisco, under Dr. Donald Abrams was approved after five years. Further research followed, particularly due to a ten million dollar research appropriation by the California legislature. The University of California coordinates this research. However, there are still significant barriers, unique among Schedule I substances, to conducting medical marijuana research in the US. Many years of work would remain before sufficient research could be approved and conducted to meet the FDA's standards for approving marijuana as a new prescription medicine.

A recent Gallup poll shows that in the past year (2012-2013), support for legalization of cannabis has shot up, with 58% of the US population now supporting the idea. While Congress has consistently rejected legislation to allow medical use of marijuana, 33 states and the District of Columbia have authorized it in some form. Most require that it be "prescribed", which is problematic when federal agencies control doctors' power to prescribe. Many states (listed above) have made laws which permit doctors to instead "recommend" marijuana, starting with California Proposition 215 (1996).

Even where medical marijuana is legal, some law enforcement agencies and individual officers continue to harass or arrest patients, or confiscate the drug. For example, the official position of the California Narcotics Officers Association is that medical marijuana activists "misled" the public which voted to change the law. Legal and social support groups such as Americans for Safe Access [1] have sprung up in defense.

Sale of medical marijuana is illegal or barely legal, even in states where patients have the right to grow or use it, due to public confusion between dispensaries and "drug dealers". However, medical marijuana dispensaries have been established in many locations, particularly in California, where they work openly with local government officials to resolve difficulties. Many offer social services, medical consultations, and support groups as well as medicine. The first such dispensary, known as the Cannabis Buyer's Club (CBC), was opened by Dennis Peron in February 1994. The club operated openly in San Francisco for years, even before medical marijuana was legalized. Local police and politicians did not want to be seen arresting suffering AIDS patients, or denying them any medicine that could help them. This gay community activism led directly to the "Compassionate Use Act" medical marijuana initiative, California Proposition 215 (1996), which voters approved.

In NYC, in 2001, local activist Kenny Toglia, known by some as "The Dog," achieved a significant victory for medical cannabis when charges against him were dropped in the "marijuana cookie case". He was arrested at "University of the Streets", a locally owned black community center on the corner of Tompkins Square at East 7th Street, with more than a pound of marijuana. Ultimately, all charges against him were dismissed following his complaint that the arresting officers had consumed a number of oatmeal cookies laced with marijuana which had been intended for use by patients with AIDS suffering from wasting syndrome. The events following his arrest led to the issue becoming important in the New York state gubernatorial campaign, and subsequently turned the statewide political tide in favor of the issue.

Although the DEA states that they "don't target sick and dying people", federal arrests of medical marijuana users and suppliers continue. Close to thirty federal criminal cases about medical marijuana are pending. Several jurisdictions, including Oakland, California and San Mateo County, California have announced plans to distribute medical marijuana to patients. Ed Rosenthal, author of dozens of books on marijuana cultivation, grew small "starter" plants for patients on behalf of the city government of Oakland. He was convicted in federal court of manufacturing marijuana, by a jury which was never told that his marijuana was for medical patients. Shortly after the trial, eight of the fourteen jurors (and alternates) who convicted him called a press conference and denounced their verdict, arguing that the trial was not fair because the evidence that Rosenthal was growing marijuana for medical use, working on behalf of the city, and was told by DEA agents and city officials that he was immune to prosecution, was all suppressed by the judge as "irrelevant under federal law". The jury discovered the real facts by reading newspapers, within hours after delivering their verdict. As a result of the intense public scrutiny, Rosenthal was given the most lenient possible sentence – a few days of time already served – since they had already found him guilty and could not change their verdict. He is appealing his felony conviction, and the federal government is appealing the short sentence.

The late Peter McWilliams, a vocal supporter of medical cannabis who was terminally ill with AIDS and cancer, was arrested by the DEA and convicted for violating federal marijuana laws. Even as he vomited repeatedly during court proceedings, McWilliams was not allowed by the federal judge to explain his condition or its connection to the charges against him. His mother's house had been used to collateralize the bond on which he was allowed to remain free pending sentencing, a condition of which was that he refrain from using cannabis. Prior to his death, McWilliams stated

The federal prosecutor personally called my mother to tell her that if I was found with even a trace of medical marijuana, her house would be taken away.

Richard Cowan and many other critics of U.S. drug policies have described his death as murder by the federal government, insofar as they denied him the use of the medical cannabis which might have prevented his death.

The federal government of the United States continues to argue that smoked cannabis has no recognized medical purpose (pointing to a definition of "medical purpose" published by the DEA, not the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, or the office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service) – many officials point to the difficulty of regulating dosage (a problem for treatment as well as research) despite the availability (in Canada and the U.K.) of dosage-controlled Sativex. The United States has also pressured other governments (especially Canada and Mexico, with which it shares long borders) to retain restrictions on marijuana.

The Health and Human Services Division of the federal government holds the patent US 6630507 for medical marijuana. The patent, "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants", issued October 2003