gdp's Comments

KATU - Portland, OR : Blast at Newberg hotel forces evacuation, three hurt | Local & Regional | KATU.com - Portland News,

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:37:28 +0000

Please learn about butane hash oil: http://shar.es/HU9pY. Some people commenting here don't know what they are talking about. Butane is used as a solvent to extract cannabinoids. Too bad the guy said he was "cooking hash" because there is no cooking involved. It's as complicated as refilling a Zippo lighter. What happens is that heavy butane gas, if not ventilated or collected, pools on the floor until it finds a pilot light or electrical spark (or idiot smoking dropping a smoldering ash) and it explodes. The sad thing is this oil is real medicine and can be made safely - see Colorado's regulations of manufacturing concentrates (they even reclaim the butane to protect the environment), but now people are going to associate "cooking hash" with exploding meth labs.

KATU - Portland, OR : FAQs about Ore.\'s medical marijuana law | KATU.com - Portland News, Sports, Traffic Weather and Bre

Sun, 3 Oct 2010 21:55:28 +0000

I question the "65% using medical marijuana for pain" stat. There are 36,380 cards and 32,614 cards for which severe pain is one of the qualifying conditions (and one of those is Anna Song Canzano's card). That's 89.6% of all cardholders using cannabis for pain. What KATU did was sum all the conditions for which cards are issued, then divided that into the 32,614, to get 64.9%. That's inaccurate, since one card can be issued for multiple conditions (e.g., having cancer can give you pain and nausea as well). Now opponents would say, "See! 90% of cards are for severe pain!" with the implication that the vast majority must be frauds. What the 90% figure reveals, however, is the tip of the iceberg of under-treated and underreported chronic pain in America. -- A survey published by the Arthritis Foundation (2000) found that 42% of adults in the United States experience pain daily and 89% monthly. When extrapolated, data from the National Health Interview Survey (Lethbridge-Cejku & Vickerie, 2005) of the U.S. population suggest that in a 3-month period nearly one-third experience some type of pain. -- (http://www.ampainsoc.org/pub/bulletin/win06/pres1.htm) Meanwhile, we pop NSAIDs like Tylenol and aspirin like candy and the latest trend in drug abuse and addiction are powerful opioids like OxyContin and Vicodin. The FDA warns that we're killing our livers with these drugs. But if you want to try an effective non-toxic herb with 5,000 years of zero overdose deaths to manage your severe pain, you need to collect documentation from your doctor, present it to another doctor, fill out state paperwork, and be out probably $400 throughout the process. Even then, you're not allowed to go out and buy any - you have to grow it yourself or get a friend to grow it. Because we have to send the right message to the kids - if you want pain relief, you need to see a doctor and buy a marked-up prescription pill, and if you want to have a little social fun, you need to drink alcohol.

KATU - Portland, OR : Cannabis Cafe relocates to SE Portland | Southeast Portland News

Sun, 1 Aug 2010 16:38:11 +0000

Have either of you tried to get a medical marijuana card? This is not California, where a doctor can recommend for any condition he/she believes marijuana can help. In Oregon, as in all the other thirteen non-California medical marijuana states, there is a list of qualifying conditions that usually includes: * cancer * HIV/AIDS * glaucoma * Alzheimer's agitation * cachexia (wasting syndromes) * spasticity (like multiple sclerosis) * seizures (like epilepsy) * severe nausea * severe pain You can't just walk into an Oregon clinic and claim, "Ow, my back hurts, gimme a medical marijuana card." One of those nine conditions must be documented multiple times on official medical records from your primary care physician from within the last three years. Then, those records are usually reviewed by a second doctor (since your doctor might lose his job for recommending an "illegal drug") who verifies the condition in yet another exam before signing off on your state paperwork. By the way, the American Psychological Association claims that the rate of dependence among those who try marijuana is about 9%, not counting those who use medically. The rate for alcohol is 15% and tobacco is 32%. According to the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, the addictive power of cannabis, as rated on Reinforcement, Withdrawal, Dependence, Tolerance, and Intoxication, is far below alcohol and tobacco and very comparable to caffeine. So unless you're a teetotaling non-smoker who doesn't drink coffee and soda, you'd best not be throwing any stones from your glass tavern.

KATU - Portland, OR : Cannabis Cafe relocates to SE Portland | Southeast Portland News

Sun, 1 Aug 2010 16:27:30 +0000

Incorrect. While cannabis smoke does contain carcinogens (as does all burning vegetable matter), it has not been shown to be carcinogenic. Important distinction. Dr. Donald Tashkin, pulmonologist at the UCLA Medical School theorized, as do you, that all these carcinogens in cannabis smoke must mean that it is bad for the lungs. Armed with grants from NIDA (our gov't loves to dole out cash to scientists to prove how harmful pot is, but never how helpful it is) Dr. Tashkin embarked on lab research and 30 years worth of retrospective case study analysis. Guess what he found? Not only did cannabis smoking, even heavy long-term use, not seem to correlate to cancer, but that cannabis smokers had LESS incidence of head, neck, and lung cancer compared to non-smoking controls, and also no correlation to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema. A simpler debunking of the "pot causes cancer" myth is to simply ask, "where are the bodies?" Any one of us reading this can likely point to a friend or family member lost to lung cancer from tobacco smoking. We have pot smokers now from the Beat Generation who've been toking for sixty years and those from the Hippie Generation who've been toking for fifty years. Where are the cancer wards packed with jazz poets and Deadheads? Russ Belville NORML Outreach Coordinator

KATU - Portland, OR : Cannabis Cafe relocates to SE Portland | Southeast Portland News

Sun, 1 Aug 2010 16:19:31 +0000

Incorrect. Smoke is not smoke. Oregon law specifically references "tobacco smoke" in its ban on indoor smoking. The only ban on cannabis smoking is that it must be done "out of public view". The reason you cannot light up tobacco at Dotty's is because secondhand tobacco smoke has been shown in controlled studies to cause harm to non-smokers. The same is not true about cannabis.

KATU - Portland, OR : Cannabis Cafe relocates to SE Portland | Southeast Portland News

Sun, 1 Aug 2010 16:17:22 +0000

If so, they'd come away with nothing. No cash or medicine is ever stored on the premises.

KATU - Portland, OR : Cannabis Cafe relocates to SE Portland | Southeast Portland News

Sun, 1 Aug 2010 16:16:46 +0000

Funny how having debilitating pain, nausea, seizures, or spasticity can make it difficult to go to a gym.

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Sat, 22 May 2010 02:03:27 +0000

Shhh! I am secretly Commentman, the hero whose sole superpower is the ability to post multiple paragraphs in IntenseDebate chat forms. Don't blow my secret identity as a blogger and talk radio host for NORML!

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Sat, 22 May 2010 01:53:24 +0000

If anyone would like to hear the thirty extra minutes I dedicated to Anna Song's report on my daily talk radio show, the link is here: http://audio.norml.org/audio_stash/NORML_Daily_Au... You can catch my show on the internet live at 1pm Pacific athttp://live.norml.org - it's NORML SHOW LIVE, the Voice of the Marijuana Nation, with replays at 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, & 9pm, and downloadable from iTunes as the NORML Daily Audio Stash. Russ Belville NORML National Outreach Coordinator

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Sat, 22 May 2010 01:51:46 +0000

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Fri, 21 May 2010 19:56:19 +0000

No, I caught that and even mentioned it in my response. HIPPA violations and growers waiting outside for patients are problems I want to see addressed. But one bad clinic does not equal systemic abuse, especially when I know plenty who work in other clinics who are much more in compliance with the law. I'll say it again: Any "abuse" of medical marijuana is an indictment of prohibition of marijuana for healthy people.

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Fri, 21 May 2010 18:52:33 +0000

I don't know, but when we watched the report, my wife (a naturally busty gal) and I said, "back pain, eh?" I wouldn't think you'd surgically add extra weight to your chest if you suffered back pain from three car accidents and scoliosis... but working in TV might make you make all sorts of odd decisions...

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Fri, 21 May 2010 18:47:20 +0000

How do we regulate and tax tomatoes? You can grow them in your back yard. Yet if you get enough land and grow enough of them, suddenly you'll find yourself paying some taxes and following some regulations. Believe me, government will have no problem taxing anything. Even the home tomato grower could conceivably be required to purchase a "home tomato permit" and be fined if they were caught growing tomatoes without one. Saying we can't imagine how to tax it is a FAIL argument, especially against the backdrop of spending $60 million annually in Oregon to enforce marijuana laws.

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Fri, 21 May 2010 09:58:46 +0000

I'm not so naive as to believe nobody is exaggerating a pain condition to qualify for a medical marijuana card. But that is an indictment of the insane prohibition on the safest recreational substance in our society and the strong will of those who use it to not be branded "criminals". While there are 33,000 registered patients, there are ten times as many annual adult cannabis users in Oregon (at least who will admit breaking state and federal law to an anonymous pollster from the federal government). With medical marijuana laws we are presenting the 357,000 adult Oregonians who use cannabis the Hobson's choice of risking arrest and prison vs. exaggerating pain to get a medical card. Very few actually choose the latter, but what harm is done by those who do? They paid $100 to the state and gave the government their name and address and said, "I'll be smoking and storing and growing my cannabis right here!" They just saved the state any money that would've been spent investigating, arresting, trying, and incarcerating him for gardening and relaxing at home. Oh, what frightful "abuse"! Adults with only mild pain or no pain at all might be smoking a doobie right this moment! Imagine instead that those 357,000 Oregon adults who are already smoking pot right now are given an opportunity to pay the state $100 a year for a "cannabis license". Or maybe there is no license, but there's a steep tax that would net about $100 per user per year. That's about $35 million for the state right there. Immediately there's no more question of whether someone's in enough pain to justify not locking them up for inhaling from a smoldering herb. There's no more medical marijuana clinics, there's just "clinics". There's enormous business and job opportunities opened up in a state with the second-worst unemployment in America. There's no reason not to implement our state's industrial hemp law and get our farmers back to growing a profitable cash crop and our lumber mills re-fitting to process it for very eco-friendly building materials. Maybe most important, there's no more reason to divert precious tax dollars and police resources away from combating actual crime and no more reason for otherwise law-abiding citizens to fear calling police to report actual crime for fear of being caught with a cannabis plant. Prohibitionists would assert that there'd be skyrocketing cannabis use numbers, especially among kids, and the costs of stoned drivers and workplace accidents and health costs would far exceed the revenues from legal taxed cannabis and this new super pot is a gateway drug, yada yada yada, you've heard their rhetoric before many times on KATU... * When 1 in 8 Oregon adults use it now, it seems like everyone who wants to use it is now, tax free. * It's hard to imagine that the 80+% of high school seniors over the past twenty years who say it's easy to get marijuana now is going to increase much when the people who sell it will be required to be adults and to check IDs. * If there are stoned drivers (latest study shows no difference in driving abilities 30 minutes after smoking a jointhttp://bit.ly/d23YpK) and workplace accidents (they've declined to lowest levels ever since passing medical marijuanahttp://bit.ly/cfkWrr) due to marijuana, that's happening now and we're collecting no tax revenue to offset it. * If there are health costs for cannabis use (the Canadians figure it's about $20 per yearhttp://bit.ly/95kJVy), they're being paid now and we're getting no tax revenue in return. * If there are 33,000 medical patients now and 357,000 personal users now, why aren't there so many more hard drug addicts? Oregon was the pioneer as the first state to decriminalize cannabis in the 1970s. It has saved the state millions of dollars, led to thirteen other states following suit, and has not shown to cause any of dire predictions of the anti-cannabis side to come true (http://bit.ly/cRpwXz). We should be the trail blazers once again and end this ridiculous evaluation of who should be subjected to a violent SWAT invasion of their home, forfeiture of all their property, years behind bars and a lifetime criminal record because they're not sick or disabled enough to use the safest drug known to mankind. Oregon, when it comes to legalization for all adults, Just Do It. Every supposed problem or "abuse" of medical marijuana is because of marijuana prohibition. The question isn't whether or not we "allow" marijuana; marijuana is here now. The question is whether we keep its profits underground and untaxed and allow the market to be run without regulation and oversight.

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Fri, 21 May 2010 09:51:22 +0000

Thank you. By the way, to your comment above, keep in mind Stanford (not a doctor as far as I'm aware, even the Ph.D. or honorary type) claims to clear $5 million from his clinics, plural, operating in now ten states. 33,000 patients, if every single one went to his Oregon clinics (not even close) and paid $200, would gross $6.6 million. Then there are mortgages to pay, loan interests, insurance, salaries, payroll... I'd bet the eventual net is a low six-figure number, maybe. Regardless, so what? Anyone hazard a guess on how much your standard, oh, I don't know, massage therapy clinic makes in a year? It's no crime to provide people medical care in exchange for money in America. When that medical care also brings you the scrutiny of local big business and law enforcement as well as an entire federal drug war bureaucracy doing unsavory things like demanding the private patient information of your clients (over which Stanford fought the DEA in court and won), maybe it's even more admirable. Sure, there's money to be made in an Oregon medical marijuana clinic, for the reasons of scarcity and demand I outlined in my response (many people want it, few doctors can/will sign for it). But missing from most of these reports in local news is the money the state of Oregon makes off of patients. Every year a medical marijuana patient must pay $100 "protection money" to the state, the fee that runs the program and gets them their medical marijuana card (that some county sheriffs think is just "advice" anyway). Part of that involves going back to your doctor (or the clinic) to re-confirm the diagnosis and recommendation for medical marijuana. The paralyzed vet in a wheelchair can get his handicapped placard and the DMV only requires him to reapply for that every eight years, but that same vet has to pay to see a doctor ($200 at least) every year to verify he's still in pain in a wheelchair and could benefit from cannabis, and every year has to pay the state $100 for the privilege of not being hauled off in handcuffs for using his medicine. The medical marijuana program that is run from this $100 per patient per year fee could generate as much as $3.3 million from those 33,000 patients, though it is considerably less because SSI/OHP qualifiers get a reduced rate of $20. Still, the program has always run at a surplus and the state has siphoned off that surplus (one year to the tune of $920,000) to fill shortfalls in other DHS budgets.

KATU - Portland, OR : Reporter finds it’s easy to get a medical marijuana card | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, T

Fri, 21 May 2010 07:21:32 +0000

Yes, Anna Song, if you legally qualify for a medical marijuana card, it is easy to get one. You've been in three car accidents, have severe chronic pain, and scoliosis - as you point out, you didn't lie, and since the clinic rightfully followed the law, you qualified. Medical science and Oregon law recognize your right to treat that chronic pain with what a DEA Administrative Law judge called "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." (NORML v. DEA, 1988) What this report suffers from is the "medicine of the last resort" bias against cannabis, the safest medicine known to man. You mention that you successfully treat your pain with massage therapy, as if some other successful pain treatment means you shouldn't qualify for medical cannabis. Do massage therapists enter their notes in your medical records that you turned in to the clinic's doctor? How do you know whether the cannabis would be equally as effective as your massage therapy, or perhaps more effective as an addition to your massage therapy? What do you say to patients on fixed incomes who, unlike you, don't have the money and insurance for regular massage therapy appointments, but might have a friend who could grow them some cannabis? Pain is under-treated in this country and those who suffer are often stigmatized as "drug seeking" when they try to find relief. A survey by the Arthritis Foundation found that 42% of adults suffer some kind of pain daily and 89% suffer pain monthly, with a mean prevalence of chronic pain at 35.5% of the adult population (Harstall, 2003). So when you flash the big bold 29,500 patients of 33,000 getting cannabis for pain, I can only think that with 2.9 million adults in Oregon, 1 million with chronic pain, 29,500 is far too few patients using cannabis to treat pain. For what other remedies do these one million Oregonians have? Last year the FDA called for (http://bit.ly/by1lON) even stricter controls and tighter warnings on prescription and over-the-counter acetaminophen (Tylenol) and NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen) because of "unintentional and intentional overdoses leading to severe hepatotoxicity (liver failure)". More serious painkillers of the opioid variety (oxycontin, vicodin, darvocet, etc.) are also hepatotoxic, as well as physically addictive and very mind-, mood-, and reaction-altering. Also, you flash the 29,500 number in big digits, while quickly dispatching the muscle spasms and nausea as "distant second and third", followed by the remaining conditions. But any third grader checking the numbers would notice they add up to much more than 33,000, which means that many of these pain patients are indicating it as a secondary condition to their cancer, AIDS, nausea, muscle spasms, and so forth. This report is nothing more than a paean to the demagoguery of medical marijuana opponents who want to paint a picture of "rampant abuse" where there is none. Every year, according to the states' OSCaR database, there are 17,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed. Estimates from the orgs that specialize in these disorders tell us there are over 125,000 cases of HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, glaucoma, epilepsy, and chronic nausea in Oregon. If anything, 33,000 medical marijuana patients is far too few patients and an indictment of the demonization of cannabis that prevents all but the most desperate patients seeking it and keeps all but the bravest doctors from recommending it. Speaking of whom, Dr. Camacho-Otero, who has signed for more cards than any other doctor, is unfairly implied to be unprofessional or money-grubbing for doing so. It is no more surprising for Dr. Camacho-Otero to sign for a large amount of cards here than it is unusual for a single abortion provider to provide the majority of abortions in Wichita, Kansas. What every report on the "Top Ten Pot Docs" always fails to mention is that thousands of Oregon doctors are very accepting of medical cannabis and would love to recommend it to their patients, but are prevented by their hospital, clinic, HMO, VA, or federal ties from making recommendations. So we've created a system where most doctors can't recommend, some of the rest won't for fear of being labeled a "pot doc", and the few that are brave enough to treat their patients with a non-toxic effective legal herb are pilloried for trying to help people in pain get relief. If there is any scandal to be reported on here, it is not the too few patients that are getting medical marijuana to deal with pain. It is the gross violations of HIPPA and medical privacy regulations demonstrated by the receptionist at the clinic. It is the lack of a dispensary system that leaves patients to be preyed upon by shady growers hanging out in front of clinics overhearing private medical information. It is a reporter disposing of medicine "in a responsible way" instead of giving it away (which is legal) to a fellow patient who could have used it for real medical purposes rather than a prop for a medical marijuana hit piece that could have been written by Dan Harmon. Russ Belville NORML National Outreach Coordinator Oregon NORML Lifetime Member and past Associate Director

KVAL - Eugene, OR : Should state grow and sell medical pot? | KVAL CBS 13 - News, Weather and Sports - Eugene, OR - Euge

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:58:36 +0000

According to government surveys, 100 million Americans have tried pot, yet there are only 2 million monthly cocaine (powder and crack) and 153,000 monthly heroin users (http://tinyurl.com/d4eoxj). I have worked with scores of medical marijuana patients who were able to reduce their need for pharmaceutical opioids with cannabis and Lichtmann notes in the Journal of Pharmacology that cannabis may be an effective treatment for narcotics dependence (http://tinyurl.com/ccpxk5)

KVAL - Eugene, OR : Should state grow and sell medical pot? | KVAL CBS 13 - News, Weather and Sports - Eugene, OR - Euge

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:51:21 +0000

Again with the maturity judgments. First of all, as I noted earlier, I have plenty of jobs. Second, in three recent polls, 41%-44% of Americans want to see marijuana legalized, yet only 8% of Americans admit to government surveys that they've used marijuana in the past month (http://tinyurl.com/d4mura). Now, as for addiction, I watched my father kick alcohol (the legal drug) and speed (an illegal one) cold turkey for three weeks locked alone inside a single-wide trailer. When you can show me a marijuana user going through that same hell, I'll accept your notions of marijuana "addiction".

KVAL - Eugene, OR : Should state grow and sell medical pot? | KVAL CBS 13 - News, Weather and Sports - Eugene, OR - Euge

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:47:02 +0000

"Grew out of it", huh? So you judge someone's maturity level by their choice of recreational intoxicant? Do you drink beer or smoke cigarettes, sir? Eat much fast food? Quit avoiding the questions. How come I can buy beer in the grocery store, but I have to go to the liquor store for Bacardi 151? How come I can get Tylenol at the grocery store, but I have to go to a doctor and a pharmacist to get Oxycontin?

KVAL - Eugene, OR : Should state grow and sell medical pot? | KVAL CBS 13 - News, Weather and Sports - Eugene, OR - Euge

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:45:27 +0000

Shout much? Tell this to the 68-year-old man killed by police in Mulino recently, Tell this to the 20-year-old student in Michigan shot in the chest last week by an officer during a five-man SWAT raid of his college apartment, with police claiming no confrontation with the man, no weapon, and no marijuana found. Tell this to 92-year Kathryn Johnson, killed by SWAT police when they raided the wrong house in Atlanta.