MEDICAL MARIJUANA: Lockyer Convenes Task Force
Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) convened a medical marijuana task force yesterday at the Justice Department's Sacramento office to examine ways to implement Proposition 215. The panel included "about 35 law enforcement, health and elected officials and advocates for medical marijuana" led by state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose) and Santa Clara County District Attorney George Kennedy. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Lockyer spokesperson Hilary McLean said the new attorney general wants "to get sick people the medicine they need and still work within the confines of current law. If current law needs to be changed, find out what needs to be changed." San Mateo County Supervisor Mike Nevin, a task force member, said, "He has open arms. Lockyer himself was a proponent of Proposition 215. That makes a lot of difference."
Let's Find Out
Nevin said that officials in San Mateo County have proposed to federal regulators a clinical study of the medical benefits of marijuana. Unlike another study underway at San Francisco General Hospital, the proposed study "would include cancer patients, not just those with HIV." Nevin said the study could "determine whether developing an inhaler, similar to ones used by asthma patients, would 'impact the immediate nausea' caused by some cancer treatments." Lockyer's group has divided into subcommittees to examine various legal implications of proposition 215, and intends to reconvene next month (Wilson, 2/3). Click here for past CHL coverage of medical marijuana.