Feds Keep Fooling Around With Medical Marijuana: Full Cannabis Legalization or Bust!

• Dear NORML Friends,

It’s getting ugly and NORML needs your help now more than ever to stand up for the rights of responsible adults cannabis consumers. The Administration that promised to base drug policy on science and respect state marijuana laws is ignoring medical facts, the needs of patients, and the economic benefits that regulated dispensaries bring to medical cannabis-friendly states.

There is no way to sugar coat the terrible past two weeks we’ve had at the hands of Prohibition-loving federal and state governments.

Last Friday, the four U.S. Attorneys from California–along with their respective counterparts here in Washington D.C. from the DEA and IRS–declared that a statewide crackdown against large-scale medical cannabis cultivators and sellers with national implications is currently underway. Question: Will U.S. Attorneys in the other fifteen states and D.C. with medical cannabis laws pursue similarly aggressive enforcement?

But wait! There’s more.

Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a long-awaited $2.5 million ruling against a major medical cannabis dispensary in California. Citing an obscure part of the US tax code meant to target drug cartels, the federal agency is barring dispensaries, even those licensed under state law, from taking any business-related tax deductions and is seeking millions in dollars in back taxes. This adverse ruling has the very real potential to stop the regulated sale of cannabis currently underway in California, Colorado, Maine and New Mexico; and planned in Arizona, Montana, Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) issued a heavy-handed one-page memo to every gun and ammunition dealer nationwide informing them that they must, by law, deny sales to lawful patients who possess a physician’s recommendation to use medical cannabis–many of whom posses state-issues medical cannabis ID cards–effectively denying their Second Amendment rights to have a gun to hunt or for personal safety.

Federal regulators cracked down on banks in Colorado, California and Michigan that had previously conduct business with medical cannabis dispensaries, forbidding these financial institutions from allowing cash deposits or processing credit/debit cards from state or locally approved canna-businesses.

U.S. Attorneys in California sent warnings to local dispensaries in San Francisco, San Diego, and elsewhere warning that locally compliant facilities still may be subject to federal prosecution for violating federal ‘drug free school zones’ legislation — leaving these facilities with no choice but to either move or close.

Federal attorneys in California have sent hundreds of legal warnings to the landlords of properties that rent to medical cannabis businesses (retail, delivery, cultivation and testing) warning that their properties and assets are subject to swift civil forfeiture proceedings, and that they themselves may be subject to decades in prison. Is it likely that federal attorneys do the same in Colorado, New Mexico and Maine; and to the numerous gray area dispensaries in Oregon and Washington?

Rhode Island’s governor Lincoln Chafee pulled the plug on the state’s nascent medical cannabis dispensary program, despite it having been previously approved 102 – 3 by the state legislature. Why? Governor Chafee cites recent memos from the Department of Justice threatening to federally prosecute employees involved in the state-licensed production or distribution of cannabis.

Michigan courts, the legislature and the state’s Attorney General are steadily dissembling the state’s medical cannabis program, despite the law having passed with 63 percent public approval.

Our generation must do our part to end our nation’s long-suffering Cannabis Prohibition.

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U.S. decrees that marijuana has no accepted medical use

• By John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times  July 9, 2011
  Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation’s capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision announced Friday the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin.The decision comes almost nine years after medical marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify cannabis to take into account a growing body of worldwide research that shows its effectiveness in treating certain diseases, such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis.
  Advocates for the medical use of the drug criticized the ruling but were elated that the Obama administration has finally acted, which allows them to appeal to the federal courts. The decision to deny the request was made by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and comes less than two months after advocates asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to force the administration to respond to their petition.”We have foiled the government’s strategy of delay, and we can now go head-to-head on the merits,” said Joe Elford, the chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access and the lead attorney on the lawsuit.Elford said he was not surprised by the decision, which comes after the Obama administration announced it would not tolerate large-scale commercial marijuana cultivation. “It is clearly motivated by a political decision that is anti-marijuana,” he said. He noted that studies demonstrate pot has beneficial effects, including appetite stimulation for people undergoing chemotherapy. “One of the things people say about marijuana is that it gives you the munchies and the truth is that it does, and for some people that’s a very positive thing.”In a June 21 letter to the organizations that filed the petition, DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said she rejected the request because marijuana “has a high potential for abuse,” “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” and “lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision.” The letter and 37 pages of supporting documents were published Friday in the Federal Register.This is the third time that petitions to reclassify marijuana have been spurned. The first was filed in 1972 and denied 17 years later. The second was filed in 1995 and denied six years later. Both decisions were appealed, but the courts sided with the federal government.The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis filed its petition in October 2002. In 2004, the DEA asked the Department of Health and Human Services to review the science. The department recommended in 2006 that marijuana remain classified as a dangerous drug. Four and a half years then elapsed before the current administration issued a final denial.

  “The regulatory process is just a time-consuming one that usually takes years to go through,” said Barbara Carreno, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

  The DEA’s decision comes as researchers continue to identify beneficial effects. Dr. Igor Grant, a neuropsychiatrist who is the director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UC San Diego, said state-supported clinical trials show that marijuana helps with neuropathic pain and muscle spasticity. He said the federal government’s position discourages scientists from pursuing research needed to test the drug’s medical effectiveness. “We’re trapped in kind of a vicious cycle here,” he said. “It’s always a danger if the government acts on certain kinds of persuasions or beliefs rather than evidence.”

  Popular opinion has also swung behind medical marijuana. Americans overwhelmingly support it in national polls. When the petition was filed, eight states had approved medical marijuana. Now 16 states and the District of Columbia have done so. In 2009, the American Medical Assn. urged the government to review its classification of marijuana “with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods.”

  When Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, it listed marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the most restrictive of five categories. But some federal officials have questioned that decision. In 1972, a commission recommended that marijuana be decriminalized. And in 1988, a DEA administrative law judge concluded that “marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people.” The National Cancer Institute, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, notes that marijuana may help with nausea, loss of appetite, pain and insomnia.

  Nonetheless, the DEA concluded that marijuana has no accepted medical use, Leonhart wrote in her letter, because its chemistry is not known and adequate studies have not been done on its usefulness or safety. “At this time,” she said, “the known risks of marijuana use have not been shown to be outweighed by specific benefits in well-controlled clinical trials that scientifically evaluate safety and efficacy.”

  
  

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Holder Promises To Clarify Medical Pot Position

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder promised Thursday to clarify the Justice Department’s position on state medical marijuana laws after federal prosecutors warned they might prosecute everyone from licensed growers to regulators.

“We’re going to bring clarity so that people understand what this policy means and how this policy will be implemented,” Holder said during a visit to a Providence, R.I., institute that specializes in nonviolence.

Holder didn’t go into detail about plans for clarification. But he said the department was wary of medical marijuana dispensaries being seen as a form of de facto marijuana legalization.

Several U.S. states have started reassessing their medical marijuana laws after U.S. attorneys recently sent stern warnings that everyone from licensed medical marijuana growers to regulators could be subjected to prosecution. The cautions were sent to officials in California, Colorado, Montana and Rhode Island. Federal authorities also recently conducted a series of raids at grow operations in Montana and at dispensaries in Washington.

More than a dozen states have approved the medical use of marijuana, which is not legal under federal law. About half of those states regulate medical marijuana dispensaries.

In Rhode Island, Gov. Lincoln Chafee suspended plans last month to license three such dispensaries after U.S Attorney Peter Neronha sent him a letter warning that they could lead to prosecutions.

Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Author: Laura Crimaldi, Associated Press
Published: June 2, 2011
Copyright: 2011 The Associated Press

Medical Marijuana Advocates Sue Federal Government over Rescheduling Delay

Writ filed today in DC Circuit Court for unreasonable delay in answering 9-year-old petition

(WASHINGTON D.C.) – A Coalition of advocacy groups and patients filed suit in the DC Circuit Court today to compel the Obama administration to answer a 9-year-old petition to reclassify medical marijuana.

The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) has never received an answer to its 2002 petition, despite a formal recommendation in 2006 from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the final arbiter in the rescheduling process.

As recently as July 2010, the DEA issued a 54-page “Position on Marijuana,”but failed to even mention the pending CRC petition. Plaintiffs in the case include the CRC, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Patients Out of Time, as well as individually named patients, one of whom is listed on the CRC petition but died in 2005.

“The federal government’s strategy has been delay, delay, delay,” said Joe Elford, Chief Counsel of ASA and lead counsel on the writ. “It is far past time for the government to answer our rescheduling petition, but unfortunately we’ve been forced to go to court in order to get resolution.”

The writ of mandamus filed today accuses the government of unreasonable delay in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. A previous cannabis (marijuana) rescheduling petition filed in 1972 went unanswered for 22 years before being denied.

The writ argues that cannabis is not a dangerous drug and that ample evidence of its therapeutic value exists based on scientific studies in the US and around the world.

“Despite numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies establishing that marijuana is effective” in treating numerous medical conditions, the government “continues to deprive seriously ill persons of this needed, and often life-saving therapy by maintaining marijuana as a Schedule I substance.”

The writ calls out the government for unlawfully failing to answer the petition despite an Inter-Agency Advisory issued by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 and “almost five years after receiving a 41-page memorandum from HHS stating its scientific evaluation and recommendations.”

The two largest physician groups in the country — the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians – have both called on the federal government to review marijuana’s status as a Schedule I substance with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

The National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health, added cannabis to its website earlier this year as a Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) and recognized that, “/Cannabis/ has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years prior to its current status as an illegal substance.”

Medical marijuana has now been decriminalized in 16 states and the District of Columbia, and has an 80% approval rating among Americans according to several polls.

In a 1988 ruling on a prior rescheduling petition, the DEA’s own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young recommended in favor of reclassification stating that, “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”

A formal rejection of the CRC petition would enable the group to challenge in court the government’s assertion that marijuana has no medical value. “Adhering to outdated public policy that ignores science has created a war zone for doctors and their patients who are seeking use cannabis therapeutics,” said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of ASA and a plaintiff in the writ.

Jon Gettman, who filed the rescheduling petition on behalf of the CRC added that, “The Obama Administration’s refusal to act on this petition is an irresponsible stalling tactic.”

A synthetic form of THC, the main chemical ingredient in the cannabis plant, is currently classified Schedule III for its use in a prescribed pill trademarked as Marinol®. The pill goes off-patent this year and companies vying to sell generic versions are petitioning the government to also reclassify the more economical, naturally-derived THC (from the plant) to Schedule III.

The rescheduling process involves federal agencies such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse, HHS, and DEA. On average, it takes 6 months from HHS review to final action, whereas it’s been nearly 5 years since HHS issued its recommendation on the CRC petition, more than twice as long as any other rescheduling petition reviewed since 2002.

*Further information:*

Writ filed today (5/24/11) ASA backgrounder on rescheduling CRC rescheduling petition 2006 HHS recommendation 2010 DEA Position on Marijuana

SOURCE: Press Release American for Safe Access (ASA)

Smoking Your Medicine – Not The Only Option

It seems with everything today;  time, progress and human ingenuity improve the products we demand. The traditional and most popular method of ingestion for medical marijuana patients is smoking. Opponents of medical marijuana have cited smoking as harmful and therefore discount the medicinal value based on that fact alone, even though a recent clinical study revealed smoked cannabis to be effective in treating chronic neuropathic pain and sleep improvement. Today, medical marijuana patients can now choose from a variety of ingestion methods.

Using a vaporizer to ingest cannabis is becoming more popular among many patients. Many physicians recommend vaporizers to cannabis patients to avoid the harmful effects of smoking. Vaporizers heat the dried flowers without combusting the plant material to create a vapor that can be easily inhaled. There are many models with various options and prices available to suit every budget. Many patients prefer vaporization and report enhanced effects for both duration and pain relief.

Everyone knows about marijuana brownies but the edibles of today are simply amazing. Traditional baked goods such as  brownies, cookies and cakes are readily available at your local dispensary where you’re also likely to find delicious candy bars, sodas, smoothies and ice cream. Not in the mood for sweets? Not a problem, how about a pizza or cook up your own dish using  cannabutter or cannaoliveoil.

If edibles aren’t for you, THC pills / capsules are now found on dispensary shelves. Some patients find THC tinctures administered sublingually under the tongue or mixed with a soothing tea to be their method of choice. THC infused lotions and creams can be used topically to provide relief to joints and muscles.

Just as the cannabis plant has evolved to be the most studied plant on the planet,  so to have the various ingestion methods. Vaporizes will continue to improve with more options and lower prices as competition heats up in the marketplace. Edibles and other ingestion options will also improve as new extraction techniques and recipes are introduced to patients via old fashion human ingenuity. I think back when I first began smoking… ingenuity was using an orange or apple to make a pipe!

Orange County Medical Marijuana Patients – Learn to Grow Your Own

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, allowing seriously ill patients the right to use, possess, transport, and cultivate medical marijuana. Proposition 215 and SB420 provide the guidelines that allow qualified patients with a doctor’s approval to cultivate medical marijuana for their personal use. Many patients that grow their own medicine do so for a variety of reasons including cost, quality, and therapeutic value. If you want to learn to grow your own medicine, there are numerous resources available to get you started from internet videos to classroom seminars.

The high cost of medical marijuana is often a reason patients seek to learn the necessary skills to produce their own medical cannabis. Local dispensaries generally require donations of $20+ per gram for premium quality medical marijuana. That equates to $560 for an ounce. Yes, you can get an ounce at many dispensaries for considerably less,but you will still most likely pay $350 or more for top shelf flowers. In today’s economy, many patients find learning to grow their own medicine a great way to reduce expenses while maintaining their own quality control.

Reducing their cost is not always the main concern for many patients. Many patients are fearful cannabis grown and treated with harmful chemicals and pesticides infiltrates local dispensaries. Drug cartels growing cannabis in our National Forests and Parks are notorious for using toxic chemicals and pesticides to produce their crops. Dispensaries will give you assurance their medicine meets all quality standards, but ultimately growing your own medical marijuana is the only way to know only organic methods were utilized in the garden.

Gardening has proven to be therapeutic and a wonderful hobby for millions of Americans. Cannabis gardeners share their joy and pleasure in growing this magnificent plant via chat rooms, websites and social media. Every passionate cannabis gardener has a story to share, whether it be their first grow or current grow, the passion, intimacy and enthusiasm their garden brings to them is unmistakable. Time in the garden is not viewed as work, but rather another opportunity to be at one with their passion, to learn and digest every intimate detail and find new and improved ways to produce excellence.

If you want to reduce your costs, have organically grown medicine, and find an inner peace and satisfaction, learn to grow your own medicine. If you have the ability to learn via watching videos, there are hundreds of YouTube growing videos available. If you need a helping hand, there are websites filled with a community of avid growers waiting to share their knowledge and expertise. Text book learners will find stacks of books authored by renowned growers like, Jose Cervantes, Ed Rosenthal and Greg Green. For those that need classroom style learning, local grow classes,workshops, and seminars are readily available. Whatever your learning style or need, it is out there and easy to obtain. With a little persistence, passion and a desire to learn the skills, you too can learn to grow your own medicine!

How to get your Medical Marijuana Recommendation

Many Californians are finding relief from their ailments using medical marijuana. But just how to get your medical marijuana recommendation is still unclear for many. The process is quite simple and really no different from consulting with your doctor for treatment of any ailment.

To qualify, you must be 18+ years old,  a resident of California and have a medical condition that cannabis may provide a cure or relief.  Lastly you must consult with a licensed MD, medical doctor, or DO, doctor of osteopathy, that will approve or recommend the use of cannabis for your ailment or condition.

Your proof of residency must be done via a government issued photo ID. The most common of which is your driver’s license or state ID card. A passport will work but you must also provide proof or current residency. A current utility bill, car or voter registration are some common ways for proof of residency in lieu of a driver’s license or sate ID card.

There are many conditions and ailments that cannabis may provide a cure or relief. The most common and widely known are for HIV / Aids patients, chemotherapy patients for nausea relief, and appetite stimulation for patients afflicted with anorexia. Cannabis has been proven effective for a multitude of other aliments including chronic pain, MS, glaucoma, PTSD, and a host of other age related ailments.

Consulting with a MD or DO is the final step to obtaining an approval. This final step can be somewhat tricky depending on your particular situation. Your primary care physician is the most logical choice, but often times he or she is not familiar with the California Medical Marijuana Program and therefore unable and unwilling to provide you the necessary support or documentation to gain legal and safe access to the medicine. More often than not, you will most likely consult with a doctor that specializes in providing cannabis approvals. These doctors are familiar with the state medical board requirements for approving medical cannabis and can provide you with the necessary documents and verification systems to access medicinal cannabis from a local collective, cooperative, dispensary and/or delivery service.

It has been almost 14 years since the voters of California passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, allowing seriously ill patients the right to safe access to medical marijuana. How to get your medical marijuana recommendation by now should be common knowledge. Hopefully with increasing scientific study and research, cannabis will regain acceptance in the medical community as it once was before prohibition.

Marijuana initiative gains backing of state’s largest labor union

As reported in the LA Times,  a much needed boost to the pro Proposition 19 campaign.

September 20, 2010 | 10:01 pm

The campaign for Proposition 19, the initiative on the November ballot that seeks to legalize marijuana, plans to announce Tuesday that it has won the endorsement of the state council of the Service Employees International Union, the largest labor union in California.

The endorsement could bring a boost to the campaign, which has not been able to raise enough money for television advertisements and is relying on grass-roots outreach.

The SEIU, which says it has more than 700,000 members in California, is a significant political force in state politics, although it is not clear how much money or muscle it will put toward passage of the measure.

In a letter to the campaign, union President Bill A. Lloyd wrote: “As you know, our primary objective in the 2010 election is targeting the top of the ticket. The lion’s share of our focus and resources are targeted at electing Jerry Brown as our next governor, but we look forward to joining you in any way we can to help pass Proposition 19.”

Lloyd said the union decided to back the initiative because it could help raise revenue to avoid cuts to healthcare, home care, education and services for children, families, the elderly and people with disabilities.

The initiative, which allows people 21 and older to grow and possess marijuana, authorizes no taxes but allows cities and counties to approve the sale of marijuana and tax it.

“These new revenues will help the state and local governments protect and invest in jobs we need to provide for our families,” Lloyd wrote.

The pro-legalization campaign has made labor a key component of its election strategy. Dan Rush, a politically connected official from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 has been working closely with the campaign.

“I think that this is going to encourage major donors and show everyone that Proposition 19’s campaign is a viable campaign,” he said. “We are building an element of credibility and momentum for the campaign that is historic.”

Besides Rush’s local, the initiative has won support from the council that oversees political activities for the UFCW in California and four other states. The Northern California council of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, Communications Workers of America Local 9415 and Sign Displays & Allied Crafts Local 510 also signed on.

And Rush expects to add more. “I’m confident that other major labor unions are going to be weighing in,” he said.

The SEIU has 15 locals in California that represent workers in healthcare, long-term care, building services, and state and local government. Rush said he hopes the SEIU and the other endorsing unions will contribute money and workers to operate phone banks and walk precincts.

– John Hoeffel

Should Cannabis Have a Place in Custody Disputes?

Another frightening and very real threat to medical marijuana patients is the possibility of losing their children.  Take a read…

August 26, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ — The use of medical marijuana, legal in 14 states, is at issue in heated custody battles around the country. Parents and guardians seeking custody argue that since possessing, growing or using cannabis or any derivative thereof is still illegal under federal law, it should be considered by the court. Many family law judges (even those in states like Washington, whose medical marijuana law – section 69.51A of the Revised Code of Washington – specifically bars patients from being “penalized in any manner or denied any right or privilege”) are being forced to factor in medically supervised marijuana use and its possible effects on the children when making child custody and visitation decisions.
Many parents and medicinal marijuana activists (like the California-based Americans for Safe Access, and Washington, D.C.’s Marijuana Policy Project) argue that no parent should be punished for using a legal, doctor-recommended treatment for a medical ailment. They equate the use of medical marijuana with the use of prescription medications to treat other conditions, and they even argue that it is much less “intoxicating” than many medicines, particularly opiates and muscle relaxants.

Arbiters, social service agencies and guardians ad litem tend to support parents who oppose having their children exposed to marijuana, medicinal or otherwise. Based upon the prevailing public opinion, many family court judges seem to agree. Even though every child custody case must be decided upon its merits and with the ultimate goal being to protect the child’s best interests, it seems that some cases are hinging upon this issue, particularly when other factors weigh equally in favor of both parents.

The effect of medical marijuana on custody proceedings has become common enough that a precedent-setting verdict in the state of Colorado now means that legally using the drug does not, by itself, mandate restricting a parent’s access to his or her child. Michigan and Maine have gone so far as to pass laws that protect the parental rights of medical marijuana patients, making a party wishing to limit the amount of time the patient/parent spends with a child shoulder the burden of proving that the marijuana use is endangering the child and/or is directly contrary to the child’s interests.

Only time will tell what ultimate effects medical marijuana use will have upon divorce, child custody and child support proceedings. In the meantime, if you are in the midst of a custody, visitation or support disagreement (whether or not medicinal marijuana is a relevant issue), seeking the advice of an experienced family law attorney can be an invaluable step toward protecting your rights and learning more about your legal options.

Article provided by Engel Law Group
Visit us at www.engelatlaw.com

VA OKs Medical marijuana for Washington vets

HOPE YEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Patients treated at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics will be able to use medical marijuana in Washington and 13 states where it’s legal, according to new federal guidelines.

The directive from the Veterans Affairs Department in the coming week is intended to clarify current policy that says veterans can be denied pain medication if they use illegal drugs. Veterans groups have complained for years that this could bar veterans from VA benefits if they were caught using medical marijuana.

The new guidance does not authorize VA doctors to begin prescribing medical marijuana, which is considered an illegal drug under federal law. But it will now make clear that in the 14 states where state and federal law are in conflict, VA clinics generally will allow the use of medical marijuana for veterans already taking it under other clinicians.

“For years, there have been veterans coming back from the Iraq war who needed medical marijuana and had to decide whether they were willing to cut down on their VA medications,” John Targowski, a legal adviser to the group Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, which worked with the VA on the issue.

Targowski in an interview Saturday said that confusion over the government’s policy might have led some veterans to distrust their doctors or avoid the VA system.

Dr. Robert A. Petzel, the VA’s undersecretary for health, sent a letter to Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access this month that spells out the department’s policy. The guidelines will be distributed to the VA’s 900 care facilities around the country in the next week.

Petzel makes clear that a VA doctor could reserve the right to modify a veteran’s treatment plan if there were risks of a bad interaction with other drugs.

“If a veteran obtains and uses medical marijuana in a manner consistent with state law, testing positive for marijuana would not preclude the veteran from receiving opioids for pain management” in a VA facility, Petzel wrote. “The discretion to prescribe, or not prescribe, opioids in conjunction with medical marijuana, should be determined on clinical grounds.”

Opioids are narcotic painkillers, and include morphine, oxycodone and methadone.

Under the previous policy, local VA clinics in some of the 14 states, such as Michigan, had opted to allow the use of medical marijuana because there no rule explicitly prohibiting them from doing so.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are 14 states and the District of Columbia with medical marijuana laws. They are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. New Jersey also recently passed a medical marijuana law, which is scheduled to be implemented next January.