InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/tag/medical-marijuana/)
Left unresolved were whether to require rear-facing car seats for children up to two years old and whether to limit the number of purchases qualifying out-of-staters could make from state cannabis dispensaries in a year.
A bill intended to make cannabis use in a vehicle a violation similar to an open alcohol container ran into a buzz saw of opposition Wednesday.
UPDATE: The attorney general appealed a judge’s decision ordering the state to issue a medical marijuana ID card to Linda Horan – who has since died – after issuing them to Horan and other qualifying patients.
“Our hope in filing this lawsuit is that it will cause the State to do what is morally, ethically, medically , and legally proper. We hope that the State will do what the law passed by the Legislature mandates, and stop denying critically ill and dying people medicine that has been deemed appropriate by their treating physicians,” Attorney Paul Twomey said. He will sue HHS today on behalf of labor activist Linda Horan, who is dying from stage 4 lung cancer. See full lawsuit inside.
News Release: Terminal cancer patient Linda Horan of Alstead wants a New Hampshire medical marijuana ID card, which would allow her to obtain medical marijuana legally in Maine and protect her from arrest and prosecution in New Hampshire.
Research on marijuana’s potential for medicinal use has been hampered for years by federal restrictions, even though nearly half of the states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana in some form. An analysis by News21 shows that $1.1 billion of the $1.4 billion that the National Institute of Health spent on marijuana research from 2008 to 2014 went toward research on marijuana abuse and addiction. Only $297 million was spent on its effects on the brain and potential medical benefits for those suffering from conditions like chronic pain. “We don’t have new things to treat for pain,” Dr. Todd Vanderah, chief of pharmacology at the University of Arizona, said. “We’re still dealing with narcotics that have been around for thousands of years, and it’s led to this issue of people abusing drugs and the rise of heroin.”
Some parents with children suffering from seizures want to try medical marijuana to treat their children more effectively than current medicine has been able to, but the Food and Drug Administration has not approved any marijuana-based medicines for seizures.
New Hampshire’s medical marijuana law went into effect in July 2013. Between January and November 2014, officials with the Therapeutic Cannabis Program, under the direction of the state Department of Health and Human Services, drafted and enacted administrative rules governing the medical marijuana registry and the rules governing the treatment centers.