HB-164 Assigned to Public Health Committee
Hello cannabis consumer,
If you’ve been paying much attention, you know that HB 164 is a very exciting new bill that will provide much needed legal protection for doctors who recommend and patients in need of medical cannabis in Texas.
Similar bills have been introduced in years past, with no success. This has been primarily because the bills have never made it out of committee. Perhaps the bill’s luck will “change” this year.
Committees have been assigned for the 81st Texas Legislature, and HB-164 has been assigned to the Public Health Committee. Cannabis consuming Texans need to ensure that this bill gets the attention it needs by contacting the members of this committee to discuss HB-164.
Below are the members of the Public Health Committee:
| Position | Member |
| Chair: | Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst |
| Vice Chair: | Rep. Elliott Naishtat |
| Members: | Rep. Garnet Coleman |
| Rep. John Davis | |
| Rep. Veronica Gonzales | |
| Rep. Chuck Hopson | |
| Rep. Susan King | |
| Rep. Jodie Laubenberg | |
| Rep. Jim McReynolds | |
| Rep. Vicki Truitt | |
| Rep. John Zerwas |
The names above are links. Please take a moment to contact one or more of these individuals.
-Texas NORML
[Originally Posted on February 16th, 2009]
I’d love to be able to easily share this post on my own blog… but you don’t have any sharing options available.
My teenage daughter has anaplastic large (or T) cell lymphoma. She was diagnosed this past October 29 and has been undergoing chemo since nov. 1, 2008. We just found out that the CHOP regimen wasn’t working – which explained the intractable pain and nausea she has endured since the beginning. I was amazed at the effect that smoking a bowl has on her entire quality of life! Her outlook improves as her worries become quieted. Her appetite, almost always non-existent, returns… in spades! (And she needs to eat – she has lost 40 pounds since this nightmare began.) Her pain is lessened and her nausea eased as the gentle effects of pot mildly enhance her meds. She also smiles more easily – something that is VERY important as any parent of a cancer patient can tell you! Her father and brothers agree – medical marijuana should be a RIGHT of any seriously ill patient!
And yes, this is indeed for real. I get a lot of people asking me if I’m serious… unfortunately, I am. I wish I wasn’t. Check http://www.brutaladvantage.com/christiana if you doubt. Contact me if you have questions. And please, consider implementing a social bookmarking or other such option. At the very least, it would be great if you could enable sharing to blogs, MySpace, etc.
Thanks much,
Melinda Robinson
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Christie’s World
http://brutaladvantage.com/christiana
Brutal Advantage
http://brutaladvantage.com
Melinda, I just read your website and I am so sorry for what you are all going through. Kristie is a beautiful young lady and tell her I said to keep up the fight!
Have you ever heard of Rick Simpson? This guy lives in Ottawa Canada and claims to have created a cure/treatment for cancer that has helped over 300 people. Here is a link to a youtube video. It is in 7 parts, I suggest you watch it.
Run From the Cure, The Rick Simpson Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhT9282-Tw
Rick Simpson website:
http://www.phoenixtears.ca/
My sister is fighting Crohn’s disease and has had 2/3 of her colon removed. She asked me to do research on this issue and I found many stories on the web saying marijuana can fight cancer if the THC dose is high enough. I was doubtful and began to research it and it seems to be really true!
Please check out the following link as well. (search terms: autophagy, glioma cells, THC oil)
The Journal of Clinical Investigation
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37948/pdf
Then I discovered that Crohn’s Disease has been linked to mutating cells (just like cancer?). I was on to something.
Disabled intestinal cells caused by gene mutation are linked to Crohn’s disease
http://blog.silive.com/health/2009/01/disabled_intestinal_cells_caus.html
High doses of THC not only causes mutated cell death (the cancer cells eat their own cell walls, in effect they get the munchies and go into a process called autophagy, killing themselves. It also switches off the mechanism that causes the cells to mutate in the first place, effectively curing the cancer. Could this have helped my sister? I have not found any good articles yet on this subject.
Now, the added benefit is that non-mutated cells are not affected! THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol ) the active ingredient in marijuana has never caused a single death, it is only harmful to mutated cells, the bad ones. This cannot be said for Chemo and radiation.
According to Rick Simpson, one pound of Marijuana makes 1 to 2 ounces of THC oil. This oil is ingested (not smoked!) several times a day. At current illegal prices of around $600.00 a pound, 2 ounces of oil would last a month, so that is the cost factor. Also, since this is illegal in Texas, you would have to travel to Ottawa?
The cannabis genus is made up of three species, they are Cannabis indica, Cannabis ruderalis, and Cannabis sativa. He recommends the Sativa strain.
I was doubtful at first but the more I have learned, the more I have become convinced there is real research needed in this area. Do your own reading, youtube.com has many videos pertaining to this subject, and make up your own mind. I am not a scientist or doctor so can only relate what I have read and watched on the web.
Good Luck
G
What is Sativex?
Sativex is a natural marijuana extract developed by a British company, GW Pharmaceuticals. It is a liquid that is sprayed into the mouth. Made from marijuana plants bred for specific levels of various active components, called cannabinoids, Sativex is similar to marijuana-based extracts and tinctures that were legally available in the United States until 1937. (Such products were manufactured by major drug companies and sold through pharmacies until the federal government banned marijuana in 1937.)
Sativex is an oromucosal (mouth) spray developed by the UK company GW Pharmaceuticals for multiple sclerosis patients, who can use it to alleviate neuropathic pain and spasticity, also Sativex is being prescribed to alleviate pain due to cancer, research is being made on Sativex to cure cancer and other diseases that involve mutant cells.
Is Sativex like Marinol®, the prescription THC pill?
No. Marinol contains only a synthetic version of THC, which is just one of marijuana’s approximately 60 active components, called cannabinoids. Sativex contains THC and other cannabinoids, as well as other compounds contained in the marijuana plant, which scientists believe contribute to marijuana’s therapeutic benefits.
So Sativex is a lot like natural marijuana?
Yes. Sativex is, for all practical purposes, liquid medical marijuana. In essence, Sativex is to marijuana as a cup of coffee is to coffee beans.
Is it true that, unlike marijuana, Sativex doesn’t produce a “high”?
Sativex and marijuana are nearly identical in this regard: Most medical marijuana users obtain relief without becoming intoxicated, and the same is true of Sativex. While both contain THC, the component that produces marijuana’s “high,” both also contain other natural plant components which moderate its effects, and both allow users to adjust their dose as needed to obtain relief without intoxication.
What conditions has Sativex been tested for?
Most testing thus far has been done on patients suffering from multiple sclerosis and various types of chronic pain, including cancer pain. These studies have shown Sativex to have strong benefits and mild side effects, and patients do not develop a tolerance to it (meaning they do not have to increase the dosage to continue receiving the same therapeutic benefits). Further tests are planned for other conditions, but Sativex research has already provided definitive proof of marijuana’s medical safety and efficacy-confirming that virtually everything the U.S. government has told us about marijuana is wrong.
Why wasn’t Sativex developed in the U.S.?
The federal government has done everything in its power to prevent effective research on the therapeutic benefits of marijuana from proceeding in the United States. For example, in December 2004, after a three-and-a-half-year delay, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration turned down a proposal by the University of Massachusetts to establish a facility to manufacture marijuana. Such a facility would be needed in order for a company located in this country to develop a product like Sativex, made from specially-developed strains of natural marijuana.
Will Americans be able to purchase Sativex in Canada and bring it into the U.S.?
No. Because marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug under federal law, doing so would be a felony. Indeed, importing less than 50 kilograms of marijuana-even a small amount of marijuana for medical use-is punishable by up to five years in federal prison.
Will Sativex be available in U.S pharmacies?
Not in the foreseeable future. U.S. testing hasn’t begun, and the federal government has given no indication that it will even allow such testing to proceed. Because of this, approval by the FDA is most likely years away and may never occur.
Will Sativex eliminate the need for medical marijuana?
No. Sativex acts far more slowly than marijuana that is inhaled (as through a vaporizer). According to the company’s official product information, peak blood levels aren’t reached for more than an hour and a half — about as slowly as Marinol, which many doctors and patients consider unacceptably slow. Sativex is also expensive — about $3 Canadian per spray, or about $15 per day at the average dose. In addition, patients have found that different strains of marijuana provide the best relief for different conditions, so Sativex is unlikely to benefit every patient who currently benefits (or could benefit) from whole marijuana. Sativex is simply another form of medical marijuana, and patients and doctors should be able to choose what works best for each patient’s particular situation. If, after years of research, the FDA were to approve Sativex as a prescription medicine in the U.S., arresting and jailing patients for using herbal marijuana would make no more sense than allowing people to drink coffee while jailing them for possessing coffee beans.
So, Sativex may become legal sometime in the future but marijuana has no medical benefit?
You decide.
Do you work for a GW Pharmaceuticals? This medical marijuana movement in Texas is for a lot of reasons other than people being able to smoke pot. The state pays private prisons to hold people, we build more prisons in texas than schools and these companys let rapists and child molesters walk free to make room for minor maijuana offenses. These companys like the Geo group aka Wackenhut stock goes up, the more prisoners they hold, so of course they dont want legalization. The three major groups fighting marijuana legalization are Pharmaceutical companys. Why buy their drugs when you can grow it? The DEA would lose 60% of their funding plus, they cant confiscate your house, money, or car and auction it off, and finally you guessed it, the Drug Cartels cause they would lose 60% of their sales. Save our state dont be worried about your THC spray, you can use that when we legalize it!