In Washington, regulators are considering dismantling their medical marijuana regulations to enable taxing patients under the new recreational use tax scheme being devised.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

In Washington, regulators are considering dismantling their medical marijuana regulations to enable taxing patients under the new recreational use tax scheme being devised.

Reefer madness grips bureaucrats

Rady Ananda
Activist Post

To hell with populist will, bureaucrats in Colorado and Washington are dragging their feet or outright banning the sale of recreational cannabis in select cities.

Following the passage of permitted recreational marijuana use in both states last year, a flurry of local ordinances hit the books banning sales inside city limits, or putting a moratorium on allowing it. Over 100 Colorado cities have done this – nine of the most populous ten in the state.

In Washington, regulators are considering dismantling their medical marijuana regulations to enable taxing patients under the new recreational use tax scheme being devised. That’s not at all what voters intended, but accountants won’t ignore the revenue that can be generated from dying people using a plant that’s been around tens of millions of years longer than hominids.

Not only has marijuana been shown to cut tumor growth in cancer patients, improve mood in depressives, reduce nausea and provide safe pain relief, it’s also believed to reduce cocaine cravings in addicts and acts as a neuroprotectant with therapeutic value in treating Alzheimer’s and psychosis.

The British biotech firm GW Pharmaceuticals provides US cannabis patients with Sativex, and recently gained FDA approval to provide researchers with a cannabis concoction aimed at stopping seizures in epileptic children. The new formula, GWP42006 (to be marketed as Epidiolex), excludes all THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid favored by recreational users.

Sanjay Gupta’s CNN documentary, Weed, highlighted the story of 6-year-old Charlotte Fiji, who suffered 300 seizures a week. Finally, her mother administered a liquid form of marijuana high in CBD and low in THC. The effects were immediate and dramatic. Charlotte didn’t suffer a seizure that night and now only suffers a few a week.

Three different Investigational New Drug studies have been approved using GW’s blend, but all must pass muster with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which has a history of blocking FDA-approved cannabis studies.

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