Monoclonal antibody against tetrahydrocannabinolic acid distinguishes Cannabis sativa samples from different plant species

The cross-reaction of anti-delta 1-THCA MAb against other cannabinoids was very wide. However, other naturally occurring and synthetic phenolics including opium alkaloids did not react to the MAb. Using this ELISA, this paper reports application of the competitive ELISA for detection of marijuana samples. The ELISA described here was very sensitive to the ether extracts of marijuana samples when compared to those of other plants. The assay provided a sensitive method useful for the judge of marijuana samples.     

Ontario court affirms that medical marijuana regulations are unconstitutional

On 7 October 2003, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision in Hitzig, which found that the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) represented an unconstitutional barrier to accessing a legal supply of marijuana for persons with a recognized medical need. The Court of Appeal tailored its remedial order by striking down the second specialist test required for certain applicants, and eliminating the unconstitutional eligibility and supply provisions, rather than declaring unconstitutional the entire MMAR as the lower court had done. The court's declaration was made effective immediately, in order to maintain the prohibition for non-medicinal possession of marijuana under section 4 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), and to constitutionalize the medical exemption for marijuana possession created under the MMAR.     

Medical Marijuana Registries: A Painful Choice?

Though the medical use of marijuana is legal in thirty-three states, it remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act. Any marijuana use can subject individuals to severe criminal and civil penalties under federal law. States that condition patient access and treatment on registration in a state database impose real risks on their citizens. Although many scholars have written about the tension between federal and state treatment of marijuana, this is the first article to examine marijuana patient registry privacy and fundamental rights issues. This article first reviews the relationship between marijuana use and patient treatment, with a focus on health-care and privacy rights under state and federal law. The article then explains how marijuana registries compare to broader patient registries, such as contagious disease and other medical condition patient registries, and the unique issues presented by marijuana patient registries. It then discusses the elevated risk to constitutional, privacy, and fundamental rights that may result if states do not carefully construct marijuana registries. The article concludes by proposing principles for how both states and dispensaries should approach marijuana registries in order to provide health benefits and avoid harm to patients.     

A Block-Level Analysis of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries and Crime in the City of Los Angeles

The liberalization of marijuana laws may have implications for neighborhood crime insofar as the distribution of marijuana through a dispensary system may provide additional opportunities for criminal behavior to take place. This project fills an important gap in the scant literature on medical marijuana dispensaries and neighborhood crime rates by integrating perspectives from environmental criminology and social organization theories in investigating the dispensary-crime nexus through interaction models and flexibly assessing dispensaries’ relationship to crime at different spatial scales. This study found the placement of a medical marijuana dispensary in the previous year to be associated with crime rate change, in both the block and the surrounding area, over and above predictor variables drawn from social organization theory. And, this study’s interaction models suggest that marijuana dispensaries may increase crime rates on socially organized blocks, with such blocks potentially experiencing a slight perturbation in their ecological continuity from a dispensary’s establishment.     

The Devil's Lettuce: Primary Caregivers have the Constitutional Right to Distribute Medicinal Marijuana to Their Terminally Ill Child

Pediatric cancer is a tragedy that affects many American families. Despite the effectiveness of pediatric cancer treatments, patients experience adverse side effects that can be relieved by medical marijuana. However, medicinal marijuana is only lawful in twenty‐eight states, including the District of Columbia. This Note proposes that all fifty states enact compassionate‐use statutes permitting parents to lawfully possess and distribute the herb to their terminally ill child (between the ages of five to fourteen) to alleviate the effects of cancer treatments. Medicinal marijuana use provides pediatric cancer patients with better‐quality lives and the determination to win the war against cancer.     

Good cop, bad cop: federal prosecution of state-legalized medical marijuana use after United States v. Lopez

The Supreme Court's recent decisions in United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison articulate a vision of federalism under which Congress's regulatory authority under the Commerce Clause is severely limited in favor of returning traditional areas of state concern, particularly criminal law enforcement, to local or state control. The Court's decisions in these cases coincide with ballot initiatives legalizing the medical use of marijuana garnering a majority of the vote in California, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Maine, and Washington D.C. Those who use marijuana for medical purposes under sanction of state law, however, still face the threat of federal prosecution under the Controlled Substances Act. Medical marijuana proponents have traditionally, and unsuccessfully, contested federal prosecution using individual rights arguments under theories of equal protection or substantive due process. This Comment argues that after Lopez and Morrison, the federal government's authority to regulate intrastate use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is not the foregone conclusion it once was. The author suggests that proponents of medical marijuana use should invoke the federalism arguments of Lopez and Morrison and argue for state legislative independence from the federal government on this issue.     

Clinical trial on medicinal use of marijuana cancelled

Despite concerns expressed about the lack of scientific data on the safety and efficacy of marijuana, no clinical trials on the medical uses of marijuana have been completed in Canada.     

Troubled times for Canada's medical marijuana program

Health Canada finally produces a good marijuana crop, but its medical marijuana program is in a state of upheaval as it faces internal dissent regarding a crucial aspect of its mandate, as well as fundamental challenges from the courts. Meanwhile, the Justice Minister said that the government will introduce legislation to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.     

Health Canada considers dispensing medical marijuana through pharmacies

Health Canada may be poised to emulate the Netherlands' system of distributing marijuana to HIV/AIDS and other patients through pharmacies. Meanwhile, revisions to the much-criticized medical marijuana regulatory system are under development.     

Recent court rulings on medical and non-medical marijuana

The last several months saw important victories but also disappointments in litigation over criminal prohibitions of marijuana in Canada. Four cases are summarized below--two deal with claims regarding medical marijuana, the other two with recreational use.     

Cannabis Regulatory Confusion and Its Impact on Consumer Adoption

The regulation of cannabis in the United States is inconsistent and contradictory, to put it mildly. While marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I substance under the federal Controlled Substance Act—in the same category as heroin and morphine, with accompanying criminal penalties up to and including life imprisonment for its production, distribution, and possession—as of the end of 2020, eleven states and the District of Columbia had legalized recreational marijuana use and thirty-six states and the District of Columbia had decriminalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Despite the trend toward legalization, however, marijuana is a stigmatized product. Stigmatized products are those toward which a significant portion of consumers hold negative attitudes and beliefs, whereas the concept of legitimacy is defined as a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions. This article addresses how current legislation and regulations influence consumer perceptions of a product category, and how conflicting regulations (or the lack of regulations) influence the adoption of a stigmatized product such as cannabis (i.e., marijuana and cannabidiol products)     

Supreme Court upholds criminal prohibitions on possession of marijuana for recreational use

In two recent decisions, R v Malmo-Levine and R v Caine (decided together) and R v Clay, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the criminal prohibition on marijuana possession, in the absence of a regulatory exemption for medical purposes, is constitutional.     

Canadian news. Physicians dislike new medical marijuana regulations

Associations representing physicians are concerned about the medical declaration physicians are required to complete under new Health Canada regulations relating to applications for the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Some physicians are refusing to complete parts of the declaration.     

Health Canada makes marijuana available for medical use

Health Canada has finally (but reluctantly) begun to distribute marijuana for medical use, but concerns have been expressed about the quality of the product. In response to a court order, Health Canada has also made some changes to the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), but the changes do not fully incorporate the direction provided by the court.     

Marijuana medicalization and motor vehicle fatalities: a synthetic control group approach

Journal of Experimental Criminology - This paper reports a quasi-experimental evaluation of California’s 1996 medical marijuana law (MML), known as Proposition 215, on statewide motor vehicle...     

医疗侵权过错司法鉴定之缺陷与改革

我国医疗侵权诉讼中,要件事实涉及医学专业知识,法官通常委托司法鉴定人进行侵权“过错”与“因果关系”鉴定。然而,司法权之公权性决定了在诉讼中法官垄断案件的事实认定权和法律适用权。法官只能将部分医学专业事实委托司法鉴定人进行事实判断,司法鉴定人绝无权认定属于法律事项的当事人的“过错”,唯有法官有权进行“过错”认定。因此,在医疗侵权民事诉讼中,法官的法律适用权与司法鉴定人之医学专业事实判断权应当协同进行“过错”认定。     

Health Canada unveils plan to distribute marijuana for medical use

Under pressure from the courts, Health Canada reluctantly comes up with a distribution plan to provide dried cannabis and seeds to patients using medical marijuana. The plan has been greeted with considerable criticism     

Minister reaffirms commitment to provide medical marijuana, but delays continue

Amid ongoing doubts about the federal government's commitment to provide marijuana for medical use, the first Canadian clinical trial of smoked cannabis has been launched, and a Senate committee has released its controversial and much-anticipated report.     

Court dismisses constitutional challenge to ban on assisted suicide

On 6 February 2001, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a constitutional challenge by Jim Wakeford, a Toronto man with HIV/AIDS and an advocate for access to medical marijuana, to the sections of the Criminal Code that outlaw assisted suicide in Canada.     

A survey of drug use and attitudes toward drugs among male law students and police trainees in Queensland,Australia: A research note

During first semester 1980, 96 first and last year male police students and 166 law students were surveyed about their drug use patterns and attitudes towards alcohol. Of these students, 69.3 percent drank at least once a month, 80.7 percent used coffee or tea, 23.6 percent analgesics, 3 percent antihistamines and marijuana and less than 1 percent sedatives, tranquilizers, stimulants, hallucinogens, cocaine or opiates once a month or more. Law students used caffeine and marijuana significantly more frequently than police students. On the whole, there were more similarities than differences between the two groups in terms of drug consumption. In terms of attitudes, police students felt significantly more than law students that alcoholism was caused by moral weakness and medical illness as shown in the Attitude Towards Alcoholism questionnaire. But significantly more police students (82 percent) than law students (37 percent) felt that it was important to have drug and alcohol education as part of their course of study. Also significantly more police students (58 percent) than law students (24 percent) felt that they were prepared to manage drug or alcohol problems professionally.