Rally for DC Medical Marijuana Patients

The D.C. chapter of Americans for Safe Access (ASA) — which supports medical cannabis (marijuana) — held a rally on May 3 at the D.C. Department of Health (DOH). Activists implored the DOH to begin registering patients, as D.C.'s medical cannabis law requires.

Speakers at the rally included Kayley Whalen, head of Safe Access-D.C., Eric Sterling, head of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, Mike Liszewski from ASA, and Adam Eidinger, the co-founder of Capitol Hemp, whose two stores are closing following police raids that confiscated alleged "drug paraphernalia". Also attending was an ASA mascot Bismarck, the "Canines for Cannabis" Saint Bernard.

Background: In 1998, two years after California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana, D.C. held its own referendum — which passed 69-31, although Congress initially prevented the votes from being counted. Congress then blocked D.C. from taking any action until 2009, at which time the District Council began drafting legislation.

At a public hearing in February 2010, Dr. Pierre Vigilance, the head of DOH, testified that "there is documented evidence that demonstrates the drug's capacity to reduce nausea and vomiting, stimulate hunger in chemotherapy and AIDS patients, and, in general, to relieve pain." All together about 40 witnesses supported the bill and no one opposed it. The Council passed the law unanimously in May, 2010, albeit it in a very restrictive form that permits marijuana for only a short list of medical conditions.

In the last two months D.C. has announced locations for six of the 10 grow centers and four of the five dispensaries that the law allows. In addition, a weGrow store opened on Rhode Island Avenue to sell supplies for growing marijuana or other plants. But no patients have yet been registered, nor has the DOH begun outreach to inform D.C. physicians about the law.

Although the federal government does not recognize medical marijuana, numerous studies confirm its usefulness and it is supported by many medical groups, including the American College of Physicians, the American Nurses Association, and the American Public Health Association. It also has been legalized for medical use in 16 states and at least three foreign countries — Canada, Israel and the Netherlands.

For some people it is almost a miracle medicine. The distinguished Harvard scientist, Dr. Stephen J. Gould — who reluctantly tried marijuana, after other drugs failed to control his chemotherapy induced nausea — wrote, "It is beyond my comprehension that any humane person would withhold such a beneficial substance from people in such great need."