Riverside Dispensary Information

Pro: Dispensaries could generate taxes, help the sick

Lanny Swerdlow, R.N. • Special to The Desert Sun • August 4,
2009

Americans are finally seeing through all the lies and distortions
perpetuated by government prohibition agencies that have made illegal a
medicine that has for 5,000 years effectively and safely treated a
cornucopia of debilitating ailments. The most egregious offenders are
law enforcement agencies who vehemently oppose the laws in the 13 states
that made medical marijuana legal. They fear that medical marijuana is
the proverbial camel's nose under the tent of marijuana legalization,
which would end their taxpayer-funded annual $20 billion orgy arresting
over 875,000 American for marijuana law prohibition violations.

A recent California Police Chiefs Association White Paper falsely
asserts that medical marijuana collectives are responsible for
neighborhood crime, omitting the inconvenient truth that the ubiquitous
convenience store is responsible for way more criminal activity than
collectives.

For over two years, Palm Springs has understood the needs of patients
and turned a blind eye to two collectives operating in violation of the
city's zoning ordinances. One collective was practically next door to
the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce. I truly doubt that the chamber
would have been silent as the neighborhood around them descended into
the cesspool of crime and violence predicted by the California Police
Chiefs Association.

Other than a patient growing their own or having a primary caregiver
grow for them, medical marijuana collectives are the only legal way
under California law for patients to obtain their medicine. Without
access to local collectives, many patients drive halfway across the
state to obtain their medicine. Most patients continue to obtain their
marijuana the old-fashioned way — they buy it from criminals. This
has the double negative effect of enriching criminals and denying local
governments sorely needed tax revenue as collectives must pay state
sales taxes.

In addition to the sales tax, Oakland has enacted a special business tax
on collectives, and Los Angeles is proposing a similar tax. Instead of
going untaxed into the pockets of criminals, these taxes, estimated to
run into the millions of dollars for these two municipalities alone,
will preserve essential city services that are being cut or drastically
curtailed.

Rather than being castigated, the Palm Springs City Council should be
lionized for enacting an ordinance that has made Palm Springs the first
city in the Inland Empire to follow state law and provide for
collectives. Although I believe the ordinance is conspicuously
constraining with needless zoning restrictions, bans on selling
vaporizers and even blue laws, the ferocious opposition by Riverside
County law enforcement necessitated that Palm Springs move very
guardedly.
Advertisement

Peer reviewed, evidence-based research demonstrates that marijuana
delays the onset age related illnesses like cancer and cardiovascular
disease along with its legendary uses to ease pain, facilitate sleep,
ameliorate depression, and effectively treat drug and alcohol
dependence. Medical marijuana collectives are an important part of a
community's health care facilities and should be allowed to operate with
and alongside hospitals, doctors' offices and pharmacies.

Lanny Swerdlow, R.N., is director of the Marijuana Anti-Prohibition
Project, an Inland Empire medical marijuana patient support group and
law reform organization. He can be reached at (760) 799-2055 and at
lanny@marijuananews .org.

http://www.mydesert .com/article/ 20090804/ COLUMNS26/ 908040305/ 1026/news12

------------ --------- ----

Con: Collectives will bring expensive legal battles

Lee Weigel • Special to The Desert Sun • August 4, 2009

A majority of the Palm Springs City Council recently voted to amend the
city's zoning ordinance to allow medical marijuana collectives in Palm
Springs. This shoots the city into the bullseye of the medical marijuana
debate: State and federal laws clash. The ensuing lawsuits wind through
courts. And cities struggle with the unintended consequences of the
laws, including illegal operations, impacts on public safety and
increased bureaucracy during tight economic times.

Central to this debate in Riverside County and its cities is the
sanctioning of collectives that could become the primary modality for
the distribution of marijuana to "qualified patients." Next
comes the struggle to find the ways and means to prevent the inevitable
related abuses.

The original intent of Proposition 215 was to remove criminal penalties
for personal use possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who
obtain a physician's recommendation. In other words, if you grew
marijuana, used it at home and consulted a doctor who recommended
marijuana for your condition, you would have a defense for possession
and use. The law did not legalize marijuana or make it a medicine.

The proposition was expanded further under Senate Bill 420. It included
"those who associate within the State of California in order
collectively or collaboratively to cultivate marijuana for medical
purposes " Although we may agree there are legitimate qualified
users of "medical" marijuana, these laws do not allow for-profit
sale of marijuana for medical or any other use. They also don't require
local government to be the gatekeeper.

Allowing collectives in Palm Springs creates a legal, moral and ethical
quagmire. How many? Who runs them? Are the recipients properly screened?
Will the city be forced to defend lawsuits over the ordinance? How much
are we willing to spend on this?

Such local laws deter from high-priority crime control. I believe it is
unwise for cities to independently sanction, monitor and regulate these
activities. It adds unnecessary labor-intense regulation from the
permitting process to the added regulations to the extra law enforcement
requirements. That adds up to time and money the city cannot afford.

http://www.mydesert .com/article/ 20090804/ COLUMNS26/ 908040304/ 1026/news12\
/Con--Collectives- will-bring- expensive- legal-battles

New Roadside Testing Device for Marijuana!

Device Offers a Roadside Dope Test

The system uses magnetic nanoparticles to detect traces of cocaine,
heroin, cannabis, and methamphetamine.

By Alexander Gelfand

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

----------Photo- ---------

Photo: http://www.technolo gyreview. com/files/ 31942/biodetect_ x220.jpg

Photo Caption: Quick fix: Philips' drug tester uses a cartridge
containing magnetic nanoparticles and a handheld analyzer. Frustrated
total internal reflection (FTIR) is used to detect five major
recreational drugs in 90 seconds.
Credit: Philips Research

------------ --------- ----

Later this year, Philips will introduce a handheld electronic device
that uses magnetic nanoparticles to screen for five major recreational
drugs.

The device is intended for roadside use by law enforcement agencies and
includes a disposable plastic cartridge and a handheld analyzer. The
cartridge has two components: a sample collector for gathering saliva
and a measurement chamber containing magnetic nanoparticles. The
particles are coated with ligands that bind to one of five different
drug groups: cocaine, heroin, cannabis, amphetamine, and
methamphetamine.

Philips began investigating the possibility of building a magnetic
biodetector in 2001, two years after a team of researchers at the Naval
Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC, first used magnetic sensors
similar to those employed in hard drives to sniff out certain biowarfare
agents. The NRL scientists labeled biological molecules designed to bind
to target agents with magnetic microbeads, and then scanned for the
tagged targets optically and magnetically. The latter approach used the
same giant magnetoresistant (GMR) sensors that read the bits on an
iPod's hard drive. They quickly developed a shoebox-sized prototype
capable of detecting toxins, including ricin and anthrax.

Philips initially developed both a GMR sensor and an optical one that
relies on frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR)--the same
phenomenon that underlies fingerprint scanners and multitouch screens.
The company decided to go the FTIR route in order to exploit its
expertise in building optical sensors for consumer electronics devices,
says Jeroen Nieuwenhuis, technical director of Philips Handheld
Immunoassays, the division responsible for commercializing the biosensor
technology, which goes by the trade name Magnotech.

Moving to an optical detection method also allowed Philips to simplify
the test cartridges that the device employs, making them easier to
mass-produce, says Nieuwenhuis. With the current FTIR-based system, "we
can make simpler cartridges in larger quantities more easily," he adds.

Once the device's sample collector has absorbed enough saliva, it
automatically changes color and can then be snapped into the measurement
chamber, where the saliva and nanoparticles mix. An electromagnet speeds
the nanoparticles to the sensor surface, different portions of which
have been pretreated with one of the five target-drug molecules. If
traces of any of the five drugs are present in the sample, the
nanoparticles will bind to them. If the sample is drug free, the
nanoparticles will bind to the drug-coated sensor surface instead.

The orientation of the magnetic field that first drew the nanoparticles
to the sensor is then reversed, pulling away any nano-labeled drug
molecules that may accidentally have stuck to the sensor surface but
leaving legitimately bound ones in place. This last magnetic trick
promises to reduce what Larry Kricka, a clinical chemist at the
University of Pennsylvania who recently co-authored an article in
Clinical Chemistry on the use of magnetism in point-of-care testing,
calls "a major restraint in such assays": the unintentional capture of
molecular labels on the test surface, a leading cause of both false
positives and false negatives. Kricka is not involved with Philips but
does serve as a consultant to T2 Biosciences, a Cambridge, MA, firm that
promotes a magnetic biosensor based on MRI technology.

During the analysis phase, a beam of light is bounced off the sensor.
Any nanoparticles bound to the surface will change its refractive index,
thereby altering the intensity of the reflected light and indicating the
concentration of drugs in the sample. By immobilizing different drug
molecules on different portions on the sensor surface, the analyzer is
able to identify the drug traces in question. An electronic screen
displays instructions and a simple color-coded readout of the results.

The test takes less than 90 seconds and can detect drugs at
concentrations measured in parts-per-billion using a single microliter
of saliva. The sensor is capable of even greater sensitivity- -it has
been used to detect cardiac troponin, a commonly used indicator of heart
attack, at concentrations 1,000 times lower.

Philips plans ultimately to enter the healthcare market. It is working
on a platform capable of testing blood as well as saliva and is seeking
partners that can help expand its testing menu by providing it with
additional biomarkers.

Other researchers have built experimental devices to magnetically detect
a wide range of biomolecules in minuscule samples of blood or saliva at
extremely low concentrations. Often this involves using microfluidic or
magnetic forces to quickly shepherd the magnetically labeled molecules
through scanners--though a group at the University of Utah has even
built a prototype in which a sample-laden stick is swiped across a GMR
sensor, like a credit-card through a reader.

The combination of high sensitivity, low sample volumes,
miniaturization, speed, and ease of use has raised hopes for a handheld
biosensor that could perform sophisticated tests with high accuracy.

"Everyone's trying to get there," says Kricka. "The question is who's
going to win?" With Philips set to introduce its drug tester in Europe
by the end of the year in partnership with the British diagnostics firm
Cozart, the consumer electronics maker appears poised to take the prize.

http://www.technolo gyreview. com/biomedicine/ 23111/

Medical Marijuana in Iowa

Medical marijuana advocates optimistic of legalization

By Charlotte Eby
Journal Des Moines Bureau | Posted: Sunday, August 02, 2009

DES MOINES -- Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, 53-year-old Barbara
Douglass can no longer walk and uses a scooter.

But she has found one way to cope with a condition she calls "ungodly
and terrible" and to steady her shaking hands -- smoking marijuana.

"It doesn't make it better, but it makes it easier," said Douglass, who
also is legally blind.

Douglass, of Lakeside, is one of two Iowans who are part of federal
program that allows them to smoke marijuana legally for their medical
conditions. Each month, Douglass gets a can of pre-rolled marijuana
cigarettes from her doctor. She finds she is more active after smoking
it.

Douglass has a message for Iowa policymakers who are about to start
analyzing the issue: marijuana is medicine.

Advocates of legalizing the medical use of marijuana are optimistic that
a series of public hearings on the issue could open the door to Iowa
becoming the 14th state to effectively allow it.

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy is holding four hearings beginning this month
on the pros and cons of the medical use of marijuana and could decide to
make a recommendation to state lawmakers based on their findings.

Carl Olsen of Iowans for Medical Marijuana said he has been working
since about 1990 to get the state of Iowa to recognize the potential
medical benefits of the drug.

Olsen unsuccessfully petitioned the pharmacy board to recognize that
marijuana has accepted medical uses and remove it from Schedule I, the
most restrictive class of drugs. He is planning to appeal the decision
and is organizing supporters of a medical marijuana law to turn out at
the board's hearings, which begin Aug. 19 in Des Moines.

"I want to nail this thing now while I've got the momentum on my side,"
Olsen said.

The pharmacy board will accept comments from the public at the hearings
but is especially looking for scientific evidence on the use of
marijuana for medical purposes.

Ultimately, the decision will be in the hands of Iowa lawmakers.

Any change in Iowa's classification of marijuana would have to be made
by the Legislature, said Scott Galenbeck, an assistant Iowa attorney
general who handles legal matters for the pharmacy board.

Legislature will be key

An attempt to make marijuana legal for medical use could face an uphill
battle in the Iowa Legislature. A bill that would have allowed the use
of medical marijuana stalled in the Iowa Senate last session.

Sen. Merlin Bartz, a Republican from Grafton, said under that bill
considered last session "even a veterinarian could have prescribed
medical marijuana."

Bartz had reservations about that particular piece of legislation, but
is open to allowing marijuana for medical purposes if it is prescribed
by a doctor and has scientifically proven benefits. He believes
lawmakers should take a look at the pharmacy board's findings even if
for some legislators it is a "political hot potato."

"I've always said that good public policy is good politics, but this
frankly may be one of those where people don't want to let the facts
confuse them," Bartz said.

Despite supporting medical marijuana, Bartz said some of its advocates
appear to be "a little disingenuous" and simply want to legalize
marijuana, an idea Bartz opposes.

One lawmaker staunchly against allowing medical marijuana use is Rep.
Clel Baudler, a Republican and retired state trooper from Greenfield.

"I would fight that totally," Baudler said.

Baudler fears allowing the medical use of marijuana would mean a step
toward legalizing marijuana in Iowa, pointing to legalization efforts in
California.

"It's just another step in ruining our society as we know it, and
ruining our nation. I will never, ever support this," Baudler said.

State laws at odds with federal

Even if Iowa were to change its law allowing for the medical use of
marijuana, it is still illegal under federal law.

Dan Bernath, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said the 13
states that have medical marijuana laws have protected most patients
from the threat of arrest.

He said federal policy has changed to be even more tolerant of states'
medical marijuana laws.

"The truth is most that most states have written their laws so even the
federal government at its most hostile hasn't had any reason to want to
go in and interfere with those medical marijuana laws," Bernath said.

States that effectively allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes:
California, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Maine, Nevada, Colorado, Hawaii,
Vermont, Montana, Rhode Island, New Mexico and Michigan.

What Iowa's doing: The Iowa Pharmacy Board has scheduled four public
hearings in the coming months to gather scientific data and comments
about medical marijuana.

Information board is seeking: Current scientific knowledge of marijuana,
marijuana's abuse or potential for abuse, pharmacological effect, risk
to the public health from moving marijuana to a different controlled
substance schedule and other factors.

Upcoming hearings:

Aug. 19, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Iowa State Historical Building, Des
Moines;

Sept. 2, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Music Man Square Reunion Hall, Mason
City;

Oct. 7, noon to 7 p.m. at the Bowen Science Building, Iowa City;

Nov. 4, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Harrah's Council Bluffs, Ballroom 1, Council
Bluffs.

Court Support in Pomona

Court Support for Bryn Anderson and Paul Shaw

When: Thursday August 6, 2009
Time: 8:30 AM
Place: Pomona Courthouse South
Department F 3rd Floor
400 Civic Center Plaza
Pomona, CA 91766

Please note: The case will be assigned out to another courtroom at the
morning call, most likely to Judge Horan in Department M in room 502. We
will put a notice on the bulletin board outside Department F if we move.

Bryn and Paul were placed on probation after a trial court refused to
consider any evidence that that their grow was a medical cannabis
garden.

The case which resulted in probation being imposed is now being readied
for the California Supreme Court.

Bryn and Paul were swept up in a dawn raid and are now in jail awaiting
a probation violation hearing.

The same judge who refused to consider evidence that their garden was
medical, will now be making the decision about whether to revoke their
probation and send them to state prison.

Please come out and support Bryn and Paul.

Octagenarian Gets Month Long Sentences for Compassionate Cannabis USE

Pot grower, 81, will serve 30 days in jail

Police found more than 500 plants, guns and $44,000 in cash

By John Burnett
Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Posted on: Monday, August 3, 2009

HILO, Hawai'i — An 81-year-old Ka'u man was sentenced last week to
30 days in jail for growing marijuana.

Under terms of a plea agreement, Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura also
sentenced Leovegildo Mercado of Pahala, to 60 days of home electronic
monitoring and five years' probation.

Mercado pleaded no contest June 5 to second-degree commercial promotion
of marijuana. Prosecutors reduced a first-degree commercial promotion
charge, and dropped two other commercial promotion charges, one count of
promoting a detrimental drug and six firearms offenses in exchange for
Mercado's plea.

Mercado was arrested Sept. 11 after police searched his Pakalana Street
home. A search warrant was issued following aerial surveillance of the
area. Officers found 506 marijuana plants, 4.9 pounds of dried
marijuana, two rifles, a handgun and ammunition.

Deputy Prosecutor Jefferson Malate argued for the jail term.

"The significant amount of marijuana found indicates that the defendant
was engaged not only in the use, but in the distribution of it," Malate
said. "He has injected marijuana into the community."

Mercado's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Michael Ebesugawa, argued
that Mercado "indicated he was using marijuana for medicinal purposes."
He said that the lack of packaging materials found in Mercado's home,
such as zipper-lock plastic bags and vacuum sealers, is evidence that
Mercado was not selling the drug.

In asking for probation without jail time, or that any jail term be
suspended or stayed, Ebesugawa cited Mercado's age and limited criminal
record. He said that Mercado forfeited bail on a cruelty to animals
charge in 1959, was convicted of cruelty to animals in 1975, and was
allowed a deferred plea acceptance on a marijuana charge in 1982, which
means it is not a part of his permanent criminal record.

"Mr. Mercado is a valued member of the community," Ebesugawa said. "He
is not someone you would consider a danger to the community, but is a
constant in the Pahala community."

Police also seized almost $44,000 in cash for forfeiture in Mercado's
residence. Ebesugawa said he has advised Mercado not to talk about it,
since he is contesting the state's effort to confiscate the money. He
said that the money, plus a scale found in Mercado's home, were there
because Mercado was selling homemade smoked meat and Portuguese sausage.

Mercado, who was born in the Philippines, appeared in court with Ilocano
interpreter Antonia Lambayan, and requested a hearing-impaired headset.

"If possible, I would like no jail," he told the judge. "I will follow
the rules. I will obey the law. This will never happen again."

When Ebesugawa told Mercado that he had received a 30-day jail sentence,
Mercado dropped his headset on the defense table and his knees visibly
buckled.

Mercado, who was described by Ebesugawa as a "lifelong pig hunter,"
won't be allowed to own, possess or use firearms or ammunition, a
standard condition of probation.

Nakamura allowed Mercado to remain free until this morning, so he can
make arrangements for care of his animals.

After sentencing, Mercado laughed and bantered with family members and
Lambayan outside the courtroom.

"Only 30 days," he said, flashing a grin.

http://www.honolulu advertiser. com/article/ 20090803/ NEWS0101/ 908030328/ Po\
t+grower++81+ +will+serve+ 30+days+in+ jail

Marijuana Tax Revenue Potential in California

Pot Tax Has $1.4B Potential in California

Proponents, Including Medical Marijuana Users, Say Untaxed Marijuana
Means Needed Revenue Is Going Up in Smoke


LOS ANGELES, August 2, 2009

By John Blackstone

Play CBS Video Video Medical Marijuana Debacle (2:17) -
http://www.cbsnews. com/video/ watch/?id= 5205364n& tag=related; photovideo

It's estimated that 14 Billion dollars worth of marijuana is sold
illegally in the state of California. However, making it legal would
bring in approximately 1.4 billion dollars a year. John Blackstone
reports.

(CBS) There is talk in California of what you could call a radical idea
for the cash-poor state to raise money. It's controversial, but
proponents say the plan could smoke out more than a billion dollars for
the state, as CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports.

It is an unusual commercial: taxpayers demanding a new tax. It's an
offer by marijuana users to help the state's battered budget.

"We're marijuana consumers. We want to pay our fair share."

It's estimated that $14 billion worth of marijuana is sold illegally in
the state. Making it legal and taxing it at $50 dollars an ounce would
bring in approximately $1.4 billion a year. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has
been pushing the idea.

"I thought it was high time - no pun intended - that this was on the
table," he said.

As many see it, marijuana is already virtually legal in California where
state law allows it for medical use.

At one Los Angeles dispensary, The Farmacy, the cannabis comes in buds
so you can smoke it of course, but you don't have to. There's also
cookies and candy bars, also drinks with cannabis as the active
ingredient, and gelato - so you can take your medicine like ice cream or
lollipops.

One dispensary gave out free pot to anyone with a valid prescription.
The line was out the door.

While many doctors say marijuana has valid medical uses, like treating
nausea in chemotherapy patients, critics say California's medical
marijuana dispensaries sell the drug to almost anyone.

"That system is a sham," said Bernard Melekian of the California Police
Chiefs Association. "98 percent of the people who are acquiring
marijuana at these dispensaries do not appear to have the conditions for
which the law was intended to apply."

At a dispensary in L.A., users claim a wide array of ailments - chronic
neck pain, an ankle injury that required 10 screws and a metal plate,
and so forth.

In Oakland, a patient named Charles says marijuana is good for his
mental health. "It relieves my anxiety and allows me to cope," he said.

Users in Oakland now pay a special city tax on medical marijuana - a
first in the state, but maybe not the last. Marijuana tax promoters say
a lot of potential revenue is just going up in smoke.

http://www.cbsnews. com/stories/ 2009/08/02/ eveningnews/ main5205369. shtml

Can Cannabis Help Curb Swine Flu?

Company Tables Medical Marijuana for Swine Flu

One Company Hopes a Marijuana Lozenge Will Garner FDA Approval - but
Will It Work?

By COURTNEY HUTCHISON
ABC News Medical Unit

Aug. 3, 2009—

When most people think of swine flu, they probably don't think of
marijuana. But then again, most people aren't Robert Melamede.

He and his company, Cannabis Science, hope to one day make marijuana
available nationwide to kids and teens -- as well as adults -- in the
form of a medicinal throat lozenge.

While medical marijuana has garnered a great deal of attention lately in
helping patients deal with chronic pain, Melamede has another
application in mind; he believes it can curb death risk from the swine
flu.

The approach relies on the principle that the chemicals in marijuana
known as cannabinoids have a dampening effect on the immune system.
Melamede said doctors may be able to take advantage of this effect to
curb the risk of death from the immune system overdrive that resulted in
many of the deaths of young adults during the 1918 influenza pandemic --
a scenario that some worry could occur once more if swine flu were to
become more virulent.

It's a controversial approach -- and few infectious disease experts
believe health officials will be quick to approve marijuana
prescriptions for sick kids. Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at
Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, is one expert who is troubled by
the implications of "giving out THC like water."

"I don't think many parents would want their kids 'on drugs' for a mild,
flu-like illness," he said, "and it's sure to raise hackles with the
anti-drug people."

Still, Cannabis Science, an emerging pharmaceutical cannabis company of
which Melamede is president and CEO, is working on an edible form of
medicinal marijuana that its officials think will help treat many
infectious diseases, swine flu included. Last month, the company
announced its intention to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration' s fast track approval process in the hope of making its
anti-flu lozenge available for a possible second wave of swine flu.

Melamede said he has already tried the approach himself. In February,
when he contracted a nasty flu -- a bout he suspects was related to the
H1N1 swine flu virus -- he said he took medicinal marijuana to help his
body fight it off.

Can Cannabis Help Swine Flu Sufferers?

The concentrated cannabis lozenge was an idea pioneered by Steve Kubby,
who, up until two weeks ago, was himself the president and CEO of
Cannabis Science. He, too, said he has self-tested his lozenge.

"Within half an hour of taking it, my runny nose, aching muscles and
throat congestion are all significantly relieved," Kubby said, adding
that users of the lozenge will not get the "high" or "stoned" effects
that come with smoking marijuana.

Though Kubby and the company parted ways over "financial differences, "
new CEO Melamede is pushing forward on this idea with even more vigor.

"Contemporary antiviral medical technology is currently inadequate to
meet the world's immediate challenges," Melamede said in a press release
issued last week. "We believe that cannabis extract-based medicines can
reduce influenza deaths."

Getting Your Immune System to 'Chill Out'

The fact that smoking marijuana suppresses your immune system has been
known for years, but it wasn't until recently that researchers began to
realize that this suppression could be a good thing.

When you catch the flu, your immune system launches a massive attack on
the virus that causes excessive inflammation. This is where the runny
nose, sore throat and achiness come from.

While it is necessary for fighting off the virus, this overwhelming
inflammation can start to kill your own cells and, if it gets out of
hand, it can lead to organ failure and death.

When inflammation goes off the handle, the body releases
endocannabinoids, which are natural chemicals that suppress the immune
system, taking down the inflammation before it does more harm than good.
This endocannabinoid system, as it's called, is one of the many systems
responsible for maintaining balance and health in the body.

In more severe strains of the flu, like avian flu, the endocannabinoid
system can't always keep up. When this happens, the organs, particularly
the lungs, fail.

"They die not from the virus itself but from their own immune response,"
Melamede said.

Curbing Immune Response With Cannabis

This is where, according to Cannabis Science, marijuana comes in.
Because the marijuana plant contains natural, plant-based cannabinoids,
called phytocannabinoids, giving cannabis to someone with the flu
supplements their body's endocannabinoid system and helps take down the
inflammation.

But could it work for swine flu? Though the current and ex-CEO might not
meet eye to eye on many things right now, both feel that the potential
for using marijuana for serious strains of the flu, like H1N1, is
enormous.

"It's such a changeable virus that vaccines might not work," Kubby said.
"But changing the way our bodies respond to the virus [with cannabis]
does work."

Marijuana for Flu Puts Experts Out of Joint

While marijuana's anti-inflammatory properties are widely accepted as a
treatment for glaucoma or arthritis, its use as an antiviral raises
eyebrows even among pot-friendly physicians.

"Though it may have some antiviral effects, these have not been proven
scientifically, " says Dr. David Allen, a chest surgeon and cannabinoid
research scientist from California.

Even if suppressing the immune system were the key to fighting off the
ravages of swine flu, Horovitz points out, "there are many other immune
modulators already on the market that are not derived from illegal
substances."

Dr. Peter Katona, a member of the FDA's advisory committee on new
antibiotics, shares the apprehension, saying, "I must be skeptical until
there is more data".

And given that parents, not to mention the federal government's war on
drugs, are trying to get kids to "just say no" to marijuana, Melamede's
company could face an uphill climb. To get the FDA on board with giving
an illicit substance to kids, Cannabis Science will likely be forced to
put forth a pretty compelling case for the drug's potential.

Coming to a Pharmacy Near You?

Still, since Steve Kubby left the company two weeks ago, Cannabis
Science has gone into marketing overdrive, publicizing its "talks" with
the FDA and broadcasting the company as a hope for the shaky future of
the swine flu pandemic.

When asked about this publicity, Kubby said he finds it "damaging to the
mission" and feels that Cannabis Science is "not playing by the rules."

Mary Ruwart, who also recently left the company, thinks that Cannabis
Science might be putting the cart before the horse. The preliminary
studies required to apply for FDA clinical trials take months to
complete, she said, and "since these studies were not even on the
drawing board when I left three weeks ago, they cannot have been
completed."

Kubby plans to continue his work on the lozenge, which he claimed he has
the exclusive rights to.

"It's a mystery to me how they think they are going to use this
technology," he said.

Melamede maintained that the rights are the property of the company and
hence are his to develop. Either way, both men will move forward with
the technology in the coming months, but it will be a couple years -- if
at all -- before edible products like the cannabis lozenge make it
through the FDA's clinical trials.

Whether marijuana will make the shift from being smoked in the parking
lot of the corner drugstore to gracing its shelves remains unknown.

Kubby noted that the lozenge is a special formulation that acts
differently in the body than inhaled marijuana.

One thing, however, is clear: Smoking marijuana likely will do much more
harm than good if you happen to have a respiratory infection -- not to
mention that smoking anything is damaging to someone with flu-related
respiratory ills.

As Horovitz put it, "No doctor in his right mind would tell a flu
patient to go smoke a joint."

http://abcnews. go.com/Health/ SwineFluNews/ story?id= 8214468&page= 1