WanaCaps Makes Proprietary Delivery Options Available to Medical Marijuana Industry in Other States

Many states who have legalized medical marijuana are limiting smoking and edibles as inappropriate for medical patients. Delivery options such as the recently launched WanaCaps_XR offer a palatable alternative for states that have legalized cannabis for medical purposes, but will only allow it in non-smokeable forms such as capsules or oils. WanaCaps is the world’s first extended release cannabis capsules offering a proprietary formulation that provides medical marijuana benefits to patients for up to 12 hours. WanaCaps launched last month and is now available in every region of Colorado with plans to expand into key medical marijuana markets, including Florida, Georgia, New York, Illinois, Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona, through licensing agreements.

How Could Olympia Stoop So Low? by Michael “Buffalo” Mazzetti

Why does the Washington State Legislature (WSL) want to undermine medical cannabis? Alison Holcomb and Peter Holmes with Initiative 502 clearly stated that if passed, it would have no effect on medical cannabis laws. Reassuring voters that “I-502 won't harm patients”.

Senate Bill SB 5052 is an effort by the WSL that could doom our medical cannabis patient rights. This bill could bring harm and even death to many medical cannabis patients. Why would the WSL do this? Immediately, three reasons grab my attention: knowledge deficit, power, and greed. Let’s examine this.

Knowledge deficit: The WSL is way behind the leading edge of medical cannabis study. Amazing anecdotal stories of healing are coming to the public's attention daily. Legislative bills presented in this session don’t recognize the unique organism of each individual human nor our specific medical condition. New and promising cannabis plant varieties and delivery systems are being developed as we speak. They would limit the number of plants a patient could grow to less than half the current amount-severely limiting the patient’s right and ability to find out if a high CBD plant serves them better than a THC plant, not to mention CBG, CBN or a variety of terpines.

Greed: I- 502 created a huge lobby of 502 growers, processors and retail store owners in Olympia. Many members know nothing about the exciting miracle of medical cannabis. They want to sell recreational pot. SB 5052 would force patients to purchase their medicine from recreational stores under the guidance of the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB). Growers following the guidelines of the WSLCB can produce cannabis heavily laden with non-organic chemicals (248 pesticides are approved for use). Medical patients lose again, by being forced to smoke, ingest or topically use medicine grown with chemicals known to exacerbate their conditions. The WSLCB have held secret meetings to end medical cannabis.¹

Power: Campaign contributions put and keep our Legislators in office. Public records show that the prime sponsor of SB 5052, Senator Ann Rivers-(R) 18th District, has received substantial contributions from large pharmaceutical corporations. Pfizer, Abbott and Eli Lilly have all contributed heavily to her last campaign. Big Pharma has always been opposed to medical cannabis because this natural remedy will cut deeply into their billion $ profits.

It is up to the public to hold the WSL accountable. SB 5052 has not passed the House. Please call your representative today and tell them SB 5052 is not acceptable. The legislature needs to work with cannabis patients groups to work out an acceptable way to provide safe access to quality medicine.

If these efforts fail to convince the WSL that we need medical cannabis, the public must once again take the initiative.

Citizens Initiative-1372 will strengthen and protect medical use of cannabis. You can find petitions at: www.cppwa.org. Please download a copy, sign it, get your friends to sign it and send it to the address on the petitions by June 27, 2015. This may be the only way to bring common sense regarding medical cannabis to the WSL. I-1372 creates a board made up of the state and the community to govern over all aspects of the medical cannabis market with a separate revenue to remain revenue neutral. This is something that the WSL will not do.

Still Hope For Medical Cannabis Patients In Washington State

Representatives in Olympia continue with politics as usually listening special interests and agencies that treat medical cannabis as if it has no medicinal properties. They are going against the voters by further restricting patients, and taking away their rights approved by them including proposing to drop patient limits once again, and breaking HIPPA laws by having a registy in the process with SB 5052.

The reason a person can not overdose on cannabis is because when there are high doses of THC in one's system, the brain produces pregnenolone that inhibits it.¹ The recreational user benefits from the use of cannabis because their depleted endocannabinoid system is being nourished with all the cannabinoids in the cannabis plant.²

Recreational use is “for profit”while medical use is “not-for-profit”. The Liquor Control Board is not a health care agency, and regulates “for profit” products. The LCB paid for a study to figure out the supply and demand numbers for the recreational use market³. In a presentation last December, the LCB said that at their current proposed expanded canopy of 8.5 million they expect to capture 44% of the recreational market. With such little of the recreational market captured, the LCB is not ready to handle the 17 year old medical cannabis market in this state. Besides the fact that the LCB has court cases against them for ethics charges and the implementation of 502, there are 4,000 public released pages that show how they held private meetings to end medical cannabis.⁴

The hope for patients in this state is with Initiative Measure No. 1372. I-1372 being filed on January 6^th while SB 5052 was prefiled on the 11^th gives it precedent over any law they may pass and sign into law.

I-1372 would create the first cannabis for medical use board that would be made up of the state and the community that is totally transparent with a separate revenue from the state to remain revenue neutral. It also adds in other protections for patients that would not be done in the normal political process, like preventing the use of federal drug money against those compliant with the state law.

A grassroots movement is behind I-1372 that comes from a 2011 partially vetoed SB 5073, work done in the community, as well as input from patients. Described as a well balanced and fair piece of legislation, it is also what American for Safe Access call their “perfect legislative bill with its own board, own revenue and revenue neutral.” The 20 signature and 5 signature mail-in petitions are at the web site www.cppwa.org.

Everyone is encouraged to contact their Representatives to share their thoughts and feelings about the current bill from State Senator Ann River, SB 5052. If you have already shared with your Representatives, remind them of you position. Be respective to them and their legislative assistances, your message will be better received as well as more possible to get positive results. http://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/.

I-1372, Gathers Signatures To Protect & Strengthen Medical Cannabis

Initiative Measure No. 1372 filed January 6, 2015, will protect and strengthen the medical cannabis law, RCW 69.51A, by offering compassion, clarity and consistency through the following changes:

• Bringing Washington state law into compliance with stated federal policy


• Allowing business owners to obtain licenses for producing, processing or dispensing cannabis in a commercial manner. Using the language from ESSB 5073, specifying cannabis for medical use licensing, allowing producers and processors to deliver cannabis to any cannabis for medical use licensee, and allowing the botanical herb tax exemption on cannabis for medical use.


• Creating and empowering the cannabis for medical use board, made up of the state and the community, to govern all aspects of the market. Through licensing and regulation fees, revenue is generated for the board to regulate the not-for-profit cannabis for medical use market while remaining revenue neutral.


• Maintaining small, private residential gardens and patient cooperatives that do not violate the spirit or intent of law. As well as protecting existing cannabis farmer's markets serving qualifying patients.


• Restoring reciprocity for non-residents and other protections passed by the Legislature in ESSB 5073.


• Removing any instances of partially vetoed language. Reinstating essential definitions including cannabis, cannabis products, plant, etc., and correcting the spelling error of “useable”.


• Adding Post-Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury to the list of qualifying conditions, as well as addresses suitability of organ transplants to ensure that medical use of cannabis can no longer be the sole disqualification for treatment.


• Extending the same criminal and civil protections to qualifying patients that prescription drug patients receive.


• Limiting housing discrimination for the medical use of cannabis.


• Restricting employment-related cannabis testing for qualifying patients.


• Requiring video proof of impairment for qualifying patients.


• Adding in protection to qualifying patients under 18 years of age, patients, legal guardians, and their designated providers.


• Expanding the tetrahydrocannabinoidols control substance exemption to health care professionals, qualifying patients, designated providers, collective gardens, cannabis for medical use licensees, licensed testing facilities.


• Limiting cooperation with federal investigations of authorized medical use of cannabis activities.

Signatures are being gathered to qualify for this November ballot. The deadline for gathering the 246,372 signatures from register voters required to qualify is July 2, 2015. There are probably that many qualifying patients who are registered to vote. If they all make sure to sign a petition once, it will qualify for the ballot. If all the registered voters in Seattle signed a petition once, it would qualify for the ballot. Petitions are at the website: www.cppwa.org

In 1998, Washingtonians overwhelming approved I-692 creating cannabis for medical use for qualifying patients. Since then the legislature and state agencies have not shown compassion, illustrating poor judgment and lack of leadership with our medical cannabis law. In the 1999 legislative session the Legislators and the Governor needed to remove cannabis from the state controlled substance schedule one list with the new law.

The legislature directed the department of health to define what a “60-day supply” meant. In 2008, they came back with 100 square foot of grow space and 35 ounces of usable cannabis. The law enforcement community dissatisfied with the amount influenced the change to the current 15 plants and 24 ounces.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2008224424_medpot03m0.html

www.scribd.com/doc/208654452/DOH-6032-Limits-Draft

In April 2011, a letter from the police enforcement union to Governor Gregorie telling which sections to veto removed regulation for the medical use of cannabis, and definitions from RCW 69.51A.

www.scribd.com/doc/151838457/WASPC-2011-Letter-to-Governor-on-Medical-Cannabis-veto

In 2014, bills proposed unwarranted searches of home gardens, reducing qualifying patients amounts again, and making it difficult for veterans to get medical cannabis. These legislative bills would have also violated monopoly, HIPPA, FDA, and DOJ laws by having a registry and combing the medical use of cannabis with an alcohol control board.

The current bills proposed for the current legislative session continue to do the same thing while violate the same laws, as well as take away patients rights like eliminating private, non-commercial, patient collective gardens and ending authorizations for the medical use of cannabis. Only one, HB 1020, writes the law not using the racial slur "marijuana".