According to the American Chronic Pain Association, one in three Americans lives in persistent pain. For many of these people, pain relief is a wish and not reality. It’s time for Congress to grant these patients legal access to a non-toxic alternative that can help them alleviate their pain and suffering.

According to a disturbing new study by the Associated Press, Americans in 2005 consumed over 90,000 kilograms of powerful narcotic painkillers – primarily hydrocodone, codeine, and morphine, but also meperidine (Demerol) and oxycodone. In many cases, these drugs can be habit-forming. In some cases, their use can be deadly. (According to a separate AP report, the number prescription-drug fatalities has tripled from 1998 to 2005, with oxycodone being one of the drugs most often linked to drug deaths.) But what if there was a safer, cheaper, and potentially more effective alternative available for pain management – one that greatly reduced the user’s risk of dependency, and one that was incapable of causing a lethal overdose? For a handful of Americans there is. That medicine is cannabis.

In twelve states, patients may now use cannabis therapeutically under state law. Many of these patients use cannabis for pain relief. Recent clinical trials show why. Most recently, investigators at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California’s Pain Clinical Research Center assessed the efficacy of inhaled cannabis as a treatment for HIV-associated sensory neuropathy. (Neuropathic pain – colloquially known as "nerve pain" – affects an estimated one percent of the world’s population and is typically unresponsive to both opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications.) Researchers reported that patients who smoked low-grade cannabis three times daily experienced, on average, a 34 percent reduction in pain.

Previous studies assessing the use of cannabinoids as analgesics have demonstrated that they can also alleviate the neuropathy associated with multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, Canadian health regulators just approved the use of an oral cannabis spray for the treatment of cancer pain.

Survey data from numerous studies also indicates that medicinal pot users typically require fewer pharmaceutical drugs than their non-using counterparts. For example, in June investigators at Columbia University in New York reported that HIV patients who used cannabis therapeutically made fewer requests for over-the-counter medications, such as pain relievers and anti-nausea drugs, than subjects administered a placebo.

Evidence also demonstrates that cannabis has an adequate safety profile, particularly when compared to other pain medications. For instance, long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs – such as ibuprofen and naproxen – is one of the leading causes of stomach ulcers and stomach bleeding, with some reports estimating that their use contributes to over 100,000 hospitalizations and 16,500 deaths annually in the United States.

The use of narcotic painkillers like oxycodone (OxyContin) to treat chronic pain also poses serious health risks – including death by overdose and addiction. Recently, a federal judge in Virginia ordered OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma L.P. and three of its executives to pay over $634 million in fines for misleading the public about the drug’s risk of addiction. By contrast, few users of cannabis – less than ten percent, according to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine – ever become dependent on the drug, and no human case of fatal overdose has ever been attributed to pot.

Finally, cannabis is far less expensive to the consumer than most prescription painkillers. For example, Americans spent $4.7 billion dollars on OxyContin between 2002 and 2004. By comparison, pain management with medical cannabis may cost patients as little as $40 per month – perhaps even less if they choose to grow their medicine at home. In states like California, many medical cannabis patients have the option to participate in locally sanctioned not-for-profit organizations, which provide patients’ access to medicine on a sliding scale based on what they can (or can’t) afford.

From: Could Cannabis Quell Americans Addiction to Pain Meds?

After enjoying years of relatively hassle-free business, Santa Barbara's medical marijuana scene is feeling the heat this week, with a distinctly ganja-scented cloud of uncertainty hanging over its future in the wake of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) letter-writing campaign.

In recent days, more than a dozen local property owners have received word from the DEA that they could face the potential seizure of their property and assets if they continue to rent space to cannabis companies — a threat that has dispensary operators and building owners alike waiting to exhale. Feeling the fallout from the letters, at least two of the City of Santa Barbara's 10 dispensaries are facing eviction notices, while many others are working overtime with their landlords to prevent a similar fate from befalling their storefronts. "Make no mistake about it: The DEA has officially come to Santa Barbara," said Jennifer Nelson, the head of Santa Barbara's chapter of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a national nonprofit dedicated to protecting the rights of medical marijuana patients.

Though no actual litigation has yet resulted, the DEA has in the past month sent out at least 150 similar letters to property owners throughout the state — the bulk of them to addresses in Southern California, said Kris Hermes, an ASA spokesperson. "Basically, for no more than the cost of postage, [the DEA] gets to shut down as many dispensaries as possible," Hermes said. In his estimation, the letters are "no more than scare tactics," given the fact that in the 11 years since Proposition 215 was implemented in California, the federal government has been successful only twice in seizing a building or house related to a medical marijuana dispensary raid. That being said, Hermes admits the letter campaign is a huge setback for dispensaries, as it works to scare away both current and potential landlords. "Without a doubt, this makes it more difficult to operate facilities in Santa Barbara and throughout California, for that matter."

An informal survey of Santa Barbara’s 10 dispensaries on Tuesday morning showed business as usual for club owners and employees, though all universally expressed a certain degree of worry about eviction or — even worse — a federal raid. "If nothing else, this is a reality check for us," said one of Santa Barbara’s longtime operators. "It is a reminder of the serious risks we and our landlords take … Let's just hope it isn't a sign of things to come." Another club owner, who had already been told he was going to be evicted in coming weeks, commented, "As a businessman, I can't say I blame them. Unfortunately, this makes it up to the landlords from now on and whether they personally want to take a stand or not." (Both dispensary operators asked that their names not be used.)

Adding a serious wrinkle to the DEA development, the Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously this week to place a moratorium on medical cannabis clubs within city limits. Retroactive to August 14, the decision — which was supported by a coalition of club owners — was meant to stop the perceived proliferation of dispensaries pending the development of a set of universal rules and regulations governing everything from zoning to hours of operation for the clubs. While an unknown number of businesses are grandfathered in under this legislation and therefore exempt from the moratorium, it remains to be seen whether clubs evicted in the coming weeks will lose their grandfathered status, given that their current business licenses are based upon addresses that might become inaccurate if their businesses were to be evicted.

From The Santa Barbara Independent Feds Target S.B. Medical Marijuana Shops

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