Medical Cannabis educational video project

Click here to donate

Education is needed

I am Arthur Livermore and I have been working to educate people about the medical uses of marijuana for more than 30 years. This campaign will produce educational videos about how marijuana is used in the treatment of various medical conditions.

The Impact

Many people have heard that marijuana can be good medicine, but they don't know what is is useful for. These educational videos will be professional quality with medical cannabis experts and patients describing how they use marijuana to treat their condition.

What We Need & What You Get

We need to raise at least $20,000 to get this project started. We will have to invest in video production equipment and pay for travel expenses to interview medical cannabis experts and patients. As a contributor of $1000 to this campaign, you will receive a copy of the finished educational video about the medical condition of your choice.

Other Ways You Can Help

In addition to helping us with your contribution, we would like you to reach out to people who don't understand that marijuana is medicine. Please share this campaign with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. and your local community members.

Click here to donate

Cannabis smoking does not impair lung function

Science: Cannabis smoking does not impair lung function according

large long-term study

Cannabis does not impair lung function - at least not in the doses

inhaled by the majority of users, according to the largest and

longest study ever to consider the issue, which was published in the

Journal of the American Medical Association. US researchers conducted

a longitudinal study collecting repeated measurements of pulmonary

function and smoking over 20 years from 1985 to 2006 in 5115 men and

women. "Occasional and low cumulative marijuana use was not

associated with adverse effects on pulmonary function," authors

summarized the results. Lifetime exposure to cannabis cigarettes was

expressed in joint-years, with 1 joint-year of exposure equivalent to

smoking 365 joints (cannabis cigarettes) or filled pipe bowls.

Researchers found that measures of lung function - forced expiratory

volume in the first second of expiration and forced vital capacity -

actually improved slightly as young people reported using more

cannabis - at least up to 7 joint-years or 2,555 joints. "There's no

doubt marijuana triggers a cough," said Dr. Stefan Kertesz, from the

University of Alabama at Birmingham, who worked on the new study. But

questions have remained about the drug's longer-term effect on lung

functioning. Not surprisingly tobacco use was associated with

decreased lung function. But at least at moderate levels of cannabis

smoking, that didn't seem to be the case - in fact, the trend was

reversed. Lung volume and air flow rates both increased with each

joint-year in moderate users. "It's a very real increase (...) but

it's so small that I don't think that a person would feel a benefit

in terms of their breathing," Kertesz said. At the highest levels of

cannabis smoking lung function seemed to decline again, but the

researchers noted that there weren't enough heavy cannabis users in

their study population to be sure of that.

It is unlikely that cannabis puts users at risk of chronic

obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, as smoking tobacco does, says

Dr. Donald Tashkin, professor at the University of California in Los

Angeles, who studies the effects of cannabis on the lungs for decades

but wasn't involved in the new study. When it comes to diminished

lung function, "This particular potential complication of marijuana

smoking doesn't appear to be an important risk," he told the press

agency Reuters. "Therefore, people who are using marijuana for

medicinal purposes or recreationally at least could be reassured that

they're not harming their lungs in this way."

More at:

In English

- http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/us-pot-health-idUSTRE8092BC20120111

- http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/10/study-smoking-marijuana-not-linked-with-lung-damage/#ixzz1jLnFDX5J

 

In Spanish

- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/news/fullstory_120727.html

- http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2012/01/11/111624097-consumo-ocasional-de-marihuana-no-afecta-los-pulmones-estudio

 

In German

- http://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/48717

- http://www.welt.de/gesundheit/article13811166/Kiffen-ist-besser-fuer-die-Lunge-als-Rauchen.html

(Source: Pletcher MJ, Vittinghoff E, Kalhan R, Richman J, Safford M,

Sidney S, Lin F, Kertesz S. Association between marijuana exposure

and pulmonary function over 20 years. JAMA 2012;307(2):173-81.)

Medical Marijuana: The Patient's View

On Nov 23, Rafael Lemaitre, Associate Director for Public Affairs of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), stated that "the Food and Drug Administration has not found smoked marijuana to be either safe or effective medicine for any condition". Medical Marijuana: The Government's View

The FDA does not need to determine the medical efficacy of herbal marijuana. Hundreds of thousands of patients have used and are using the marijuana plant to safely treat their illness. Federal marijuana policy is clearly political. Keeping marijuana illegal under federal law is not helping anyone. Removing marijuana from the federal prohibited substances list is the solution.

Why are we wasting precious federal resources trying to subvert state laws? Patients in 16 states and the District of Columbia can use marijuana without breaking state law. It's time to change federal law.

Ideology has driven marijuana policy for decades. The ONDCP claim that public health and safety are protected by marijuana prohibition is an insult not only to patients; it is an insult to all Americans.

Arthur Livermore, National Director
American Alliance for Medical Cannabis

AAMC Holiday Raffle

The American Alliance for Medical Cannabis is having a Holiday Raffle. Please help us raise funds to continue our work educating decision makers about the medicinal uses of marijuana by entering our Holiday Raffle. You can win a vacation to the Oregon Coast as well as books or videos about medical marijuana.

Click here to buy raffle tickets:

https://secure.piryx.com/donate/XPvlkkUC/American-Alliance-for-Medical-Cannabis/raffle10

If you would like to donate a prize for the AAMC Holiday Raffle please send an email to raffle@letfreedomgrow.com.

Thank you for your support!

'How Marijuana Cures Cancer' by Joan Bello

How Marijuana Cures Cancer by Joan Bello examines the root cause of the dreaded disease as dysfunction in the main balancing system of the organism which derives from habitual restriction in the breathing process. Specific problems in respiration are unique to each person, life-long yet hardly realized as of prime significance to health, mostly invisible and nearly impossible to alter by will or pill. Nevertheless, the immediate Marijuana Effect is full, deep, regular and effortless breathing from which cascades dissolution of all signs of the Cancer Biopathy.

How Marijuana Cures Cancer is divided into Four Sections that can be read independently.

Part I is a general, holistic, scientific yet simple explanation of exactly what Cancer is and how the benefits of Marijuana Therapy return the organism to health.

Section II translates the science of The Cannabinoid System of the Human body for the lay audience and documents its amazing kinship with marijuana molecules.

Section III is a compilation of scientific studies that proves the compounds from marijuana or their synthetic copies, without a doubt, stop the progression of cancer at various observable cellular stages, all of which are documented.

Section IV examines the Pharmaceutical Industry goal of Research and Development to replicate the healing benefits from marijuana compounds (over 400) in an artificially developed one directional drug for profit and explains why the effort has failed despite billions of dollars in research.

Buy 'How Marijuana Cures Cancer' at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/146633049X?tag=oregoncoastnews-20&linkCode=sb1&camp=212353&creative=380553

Congressional letter to Obama criticizing MMJ Crackdown

Washington, DC Oct 28th -  Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) and several 

colleagues have sent a letter to President Obama expressing their 

concern about the recent DOJ crackdown on MMJ and calling for 

rescheduling or legislation to change federal policy.  The letter is 

co-signed by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Bob Filner (D-CA), Lynn 

Woolsey (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Pete Stark (D-

CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Mike Thompson (D-CA)

 

The letter concludes, "Medical cannabis has been and continues to 

be recommended by physicians to alleviate a  number of serious 

illnesses and medical conditions.. .During your presidential campaign, 

you repeatedly pledged to end federal raids against the individuals 

and collectives authorized by state law to use or provide medical 

cannabis, giving hope to patients who legitimately use medical 

cannabis to treat their conditions that their long struggle to safely 

access their medicine was finally over.  By pursuing the same harsh 

policies that have been in place for years, we fear the federal 

government will push legitimate patients back into the uncertainty and 

danger of the illicit market.

 

"For these reasons, it is more urgent now than ever to reschedule 

marijuana as a legitimate controlled substance for medical purposes.  

Classifying marijuana as a Schedule II or III drug will have the 

effect of harmonizing federal law with the laws for several states, 

such as California.  No longer should the federal government's laws 

supersede the wishes of local citizens who have decided that their 

fellow neighbors ought to have the right to legitimately use medical 

marijuana...

 

"We respectfully request that your administration reschedule 

marijuana as a Schedule II or III drug administratively, or publicly 

support the adoption of legislation that would change federal statues 

to achieve this same goal.  One such proposal, HR 1983, the States' 

Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, which was introduced by 

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) earlier this year, would do just 

this.  Changing federal marijuana policy through legitimate 

administrative channels or Congressional action will give countless 

patients and their physicians the respect they deserve and will clear 

up any ambiguity as what the legitimate role of the federal government 

in this arena."

"We Are Not Winning" - Former Deputy Chief Stephen Downing's Open Letter to California Police

The one bright light came from the people of California when they took the first step toward regulation. They passed Prop 215, the medical marijuana law, in 1996. And after 15 years of regulated sales to those under doctors' supervision, we find the sky has not fallen and society has not suffered. In fact, not only has cannabis been more fully researched as a medicine, but crime has decreased in the areas that have allowed medical marijuana dispensaries, legal job opportunities have increased dramatically and tax dollars have gone into our treasuries.

This experience of the advantages of regulation of cannabis sales in California, though not perfect, has mirrored the experience in Holland, where drug policy experts have concluded that closing down safe, regulated, supervised points of marijuana sales would shift to the streets and that young people would become dependent on the criminal underworld for the purchase of drugs.

And yet, regardless of the successes, on October 6, 2011 U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy delivered Obama's declaration of war against the sovereignty of the people of California when she declared on his behalf that: “Under United States law, a dispensary's operations involving sales and distribution of marijuana are illegal and subject to criminal prosecution and civil enforcement actions. Real and personal property involved in such operations are subject to seizure by and forfeiture to the United States...regardless of the purported purpose of the dispensary.”

Obama's weapons had already been fired. The IRS launched a devastating attack on tax-paying dispensaries by denying standard business expense deductions. The Department of Treasury has brow beaten banks into closing accounts of medical marijuana collectives. The ATF has warned firearms dealers not to sell firearms to medical marijuana users. The DEA has blocked a nine-year-old petition to reschedule marijuana for medical use, ignoring extensive scientific evidence of its medical efficacy. NIDA has blocked proposed research on medical marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder for our veterans and - - in order to once again invade our communities with mass arrests, prosecutions and jailing of our citizens - - they have resorted to their tried and true strategy of buying you off - - this time with $72 million designed to divert 192 of your peace officers to drug warrior duty, once again, in order to carry out their assault on the sovereignty of the people of the State of California.