Compassionate Care Meeting Jan. 31

Our next Compassionate Care meeting will take place on Jan. 31 from 1-3 pm at the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge (same place as last time) located at 4th Ave N and 17 st. This will be our last meeting before the legislative session starts so it is important that y'all be there with as many people as you can round up.

Pass this invite along to everyone you know and I hope to see you on Saturday Jan. 31.

If anyone needs further info I can be reached at 256-625-9599 or lorettanall@gmail.com

Best,
Loretta Nall

Medical Purpose Well Justified

My friend Sarah Wires had a letter about medical marijuana published in today's Montgomery Advertiser. Great Job Sarah!! Comments can be left on the Montgomery Advertiser site at the link above.

Medical purpose well justified
December 5, 2008

In response to "State should join marijuana list" by Loretta Nail, executive director of Alabama for Compassionate Care: Thank you for printing the letter and keeping this subject before the public.


For patients who are chronically and/or terminally ill, marijuana can mean the difference in a normal life for the time they have left and being asleep on the couch or in bed from other legal medicine that might relieve the symptoms but leaves one unable to truly function, live, be normal.

Alcohol is legal, cigarettes are legal, etc., for people to enjoy recreationally, at their own risk, and we know the health reports regarding both of those substances. However, patients, our fellow citizens that are ill, some of whom are dying, are having to beg for the right to use marijuana that was placed here naturally for their use.

Why is that? Why will people listen to and believe reports about everything else, but the same scientific studies regarding marijuana are not believed? Why are the ill being placed in our courts for trying to treat themselves? When did we lose the right to treat ourselves?

It is important that the citizens of Alabama not only help those in our state who need this medicine of choice by legalizing it medically, but at the same time help to strengthen the fight against the existing, unjust federal laws by joining the brave ranks of the other states.
Sarah Wires
Dora

Compassionate Care Meeting Nov. 20

Alabamians for Compassionate Care will be holding our monthly meeting on November 20 from 6 to 8 pm at the Libertarian Party HQ building located at 2330 Highland Ave. South. This Highland Ave. is on Southside BHAM and not in Leeds or Irondale. I will have this meeting catered so come hungry. Please bring your friends/family members if they are interested.

Take Action on Medical Marijuana in Alabama

Alabama’s medical marijuana bill needs our help. After the bill was introduced last month, it was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. Supporters all over Alabama asked the Committee to hold a hearing, but the Committee has yet to act.

HB 679, the Compassionate Care Act, has been languishing in the Judiciary Committee since March. It’s up to us to step up the pressure and make sure the Committee acts. Please ask the Judiciary Committee to bring this bill up for a vote.

Take action now.

The Compassionate Care Act was introduced by Representative Laura Hall. The bill would allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana when recommended by their physicians.

Legislators on the Judiciary Committee need to hear from you about Compassionate Care. They need to know that Alabamians support Compassionate Care and that they should bring this bill up for a vote in the Committee.

Last year, the Compassionate Care bill was brought up for a hearing in a sub-committee of the Judiciary Committee. Patients, family members and concerned citizens all testified in support of the bill, and press coverage was extremely positive. But the Committee tabled discussion of the bill, and it didn’t move any further.

Let’s not let that happen again. You can do three things right now to make sure this bill is brought up for a hearing in the Judiciary Committee:

1. Send a message to your legislator now, urging him or her to support medical marijuana.

2. Forward this action alert to five of your friends. Every time a legislator hears from someone about HB 679, it increases the likelihood that the bill will pass!

3. Help us get in contact with sympathetic doctors and patients. This is especially important. If you know of a doctor or patients who support Compassionate Care, please contact me at gsayegh@drugpolicy.org or call 212-613-8048.

With your support, we will pass HB 679 and win compassionate medical marijuana access in Alabama!

If you have any questions about medical marijuana in Alabama, contact me at gsayegh@drugpolicy.org.

Thanks for all you do.

Gabriel Sayegh
Director, State Organizing and Policy Project
Drug Policy Alliance

More Information

Alabama’s Compassionate Care Act, HB 679, would provide much-needed protections for patients suffering from debilitating diseases. The legislation allows for patients to use medical marijuana under a physician’s care and directions. For individuals living with cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and other serious conditions, doctors and patients need to have every option available to alleviate severe pain and suffering.


del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

What things were like before the federalization of local police

I had a doctor's appointment today with a doctor I have used off and on for many years. I haven't seen him much in recent years because I live in a different county. However, I have been unable to find a general practitioner that I feel comfortable using where I live and decided to go back to the familiar.

During the course of today's visit my line of work came up and we started discussing politics, which eventually led to the discussion of medical marijuana.

I asked, "What do you think about medical marijuana? Do you support it?"

The doctor smiled in an odd sort of way and said, "Back when I first opened my practice here one of my first patients had cancer. Nothing I prescribed for him helped with the nausea from chemo. So, I went up to the Sheriff's office and asked the Sheriff to give me some marijuana from the evidence room for my patient. He did."

I was almost too stunned to say anything!

Me: "So, you support it then?"

Doctor: "Yes. There is a pill form available though."

Me: "Marinol. Yes I know. Two of the patients I work with have had it prescribed for them. Neither of them found it very useful and Medicaid and Medicare won't cover it. Since it costs around $700 a month it is cost prohibitive for most people."

Doctor: "That's right they don't cover it. Tell me about the bill."

So, I discussed the ins and outs of the bill with him and told him if he had any patients that might benefit from the passage of this bill to let them know about the bill. I also asked him to contact his Rep. and ask for their support. I would've asked him to testify at the committee hearing, but I felt it best not to 'pile on' until more information is exchanged between us.

That story he told me about his cancer patient really threw me for a loop....a big one. It was about the last thing I expected. I know who was Sheriff at that time, too.

It is amazing to think of a time, not so long ago (less than 20 years), when the local small-town doctor could not only recommend marijuana to a patient, but could actually go down to the Sheriff's office and ask for some from the evidence locker and have his request granted. That's like total Mayberry stuff!

In less than 20 years we have gone from the compassion and common sense demonstrated in the story above to prosecuting wise and compassionate doctors, revoking their license and arresting and imprisoning people with cancer, HIV/AIDS, MS and a whole long list of other illnesses simply for recommending or using this NATURAL plant.

This is what the drug war has brought us. It will continue to bring us even worse things unless we stand up and say ENOUGH! It will only go as far as We The People allow it to. Please tell the House Judiciary committee YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH!




del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

Audio: Loretta Nall on Matt Murphy

Yesterday, I was a guest on the Matt Murphy Show where we talked about HB679 The Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act. If you missed yesterday's broadcast you can Listen Here.


del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

Loretta Nall on The Matt Murphy Show TODAY!

Folks,

I will be a guest on the Matt Murphy Show today at 5:30 p.m. where I will discuss HB679 Alabama's Compassionate Care Act and our activities surrounding it for the remainder of the legislative session.

You can tune in live at this link!



del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

Weigh Pros & Cons of Pot for Medical Purposes

Our friend and colleague Dr. Steve Rudd of Brookwood Hospital had a piece published about Michael Phillips and medical marijuana in today's BHAM News.

THANKS DR. RUDD YOU ARE A SAINT!!

Sunday, March 23, 2008
STEVE RUDD

I didn't know Michael Phillips, but I've had patients like him. Born with an inoperable brain tumor, he was prone to seizures. There were always doubts he'd live to see the next day. From the start, he never had much of a chance.

Some patients like that turn bitter. They give up hope. Others just make do, much like the rest of us. They go with what they've got, and they don't look back.

Then a few are like the young man everyone called Michael.

He took joy in life. Michael gave it, too. From his earliest days, he loved music. Whether it was singing in church or listening to his favorite bands, he savored a melody and he went with the beat. He liked songs that rocked.

Friends tell how Michael took his pastor's words to heart and went home and trashed his rock'n' roll CDs after he joined the church. He held on to the ones by Kiss, though. To Michael's way of thinking, they couldn't be all bad if they rocked like that.

He wanted to take a bigger part in his community, but his precarious condition held him back. The seizures didn't help, either. Call them grand mal or major-motor: By whatever tag, they hit him like a mugging and left him in a heap.

READ THE REST



del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

Take Action on Compassionate Care TODAY!

Last week, a medical marijuana access bill was introduced in the Alabama Legislature. Our bill, HB 679, has been assigned to the Judiciary Committee, and now needs to get called for a hearing. Can you take two minutes to ask the Judiciary Committee to bring this bill up for a vote?

HB 679, the Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act, was introduced by Representative Laura Hall. The bill would allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana as recommended by their physicians. You can read the legislation here.

Judiciary Committee members need to hear from you. They need to know that Alabamians support Compassionate Care.

Last year, our Compassionate Care bill made it to a Judiciary Committee hearing. Patients, family members and concerned citizens all testified in support of the bill, and the press coverage we got was extremely positive. But the committee tabled discussion of the bill, and it didn’t move any further.

Let’s get this bill all the way through the legislature this year. There are three things you can do right now to help make sure this bill is brought up in the Judiciary Committee for a hearing:

1. Send a message to your legislator now, urging them to support medical marijuana for the seriously ill.
   
2. Forward this action alert to five of your friends. Every time someone contacts his or her legislator about HB 679, it increases the likelihood that the bill will pass!
   
3. Help us get in contact with sympathetic doctors and patients. This is especially important. If you know of a doctor or patient who supports Compassionate Care, please contact me at lorettanall@gmail.com or 256-625-9599.

With your support, we will pass HB 679 and win compassionate medical marijuana legislation in Alabama!

del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

NORML: Take Action on Medical Marijuana

Our friends at NORML have created a fast and easy way for Alabamains who support Compassionate Care to contact their elected officials.

Please visit this link to send your member of the Alabama State House a letter asking for their support on HB679.

Thanks NORML!



del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

Medical Marijuana at the Statehouse: 2008

From DRCNet

A dozen years after California voters ushered in the age of legal medical marijuana by supporting Proposition 215, the legal use of the herb for medicinal purposes has spread to 11 other states -- Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington -- but in recent years, progress has been excruciatingly slow.

The last statewide initiative to go to voters failed in 2006 in South Dakota -- the only state where voters have rejected an initiative legalizing medical marijuana -- and last year, it took Herculean efforts by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) to revive and rescue the medical marijuana bill there, making the Land of Enchantment the only state to be added to the list of medical marijuana states in 2007. (Rhode Island legislators, who had passed a sunsetted bill in 2006, made it permanent last year.)

This year, serious efforts to pass medical marijuana laws at the state house are underway in several more states, with most of the efforts being run by local groups backed by either the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) or the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). Here's a look at the states where there has been or will be action at the state house on medical marijuana:

Alabama: A medical marijuana bill was introduced last week by Rep. Laura Hall (D), but has yet to be assigned a bill number. This will mark the second year in a row that Alabama legislators have had a medical marijuana bill before them. There will be hearings this year, said Loretta Nall, executive director of Alabamians for Compassionate Care, the local group coordinating the effort to pass the bill.

One of those who will testify is Jacki Phillips, whose son, Michael Phillips, had testified in support of medical marijuana in the past. Michael Phillips, who throughout his life suffered from seizures related to brain tumors, died last December in a New Orleans hotel room during the DPA conference.

"I'm going to tell those lawmakers that the system killed my son," said Phillips. "I truly believe that if he could have gotten the marijuana and it had been regulated like other seizure medicines, he would be alive today. I'm not asking them to legalize it for potheads," she said, "I'm a Southern Baptist and I believe God gave you a brain to use, but using marijuana for medical purposes would help a lot of people."

Marijuana didn't stop Michael Phillips' seizures, his mother said, "but it gave him the chance to function on a normal level for a period of time." When he smoked marijuana, she said, he would still have seizures, but their frequency and intensity was greatly reduced.

Read the rest


del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

Compassionate Care Meeting Thursday, Feb. 21

Alabamians for Compassionate Care will conduct a meeting/training session Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 at

Two Pesos Mexican Grill
201 Southgate Dr
Pelham, AL 35124
(205) 987-3800

The meeting will begin at 5:00 p.m. and last until 7:00 p.m. We will be discussing this years bill, our strategy for getting it passed out of committee, recruiting new patients and medical professionals who are interested in supporting this bill, discuss the documentary film about to be made about our group and talk about who will be giving testimony this year.

Please join us if you are able, pass this invitation along to everyone you know and bring along some friends. Appetizers will be on the house. Any additional food or drinks will be dutch treat.

For more information please email Loretta Nall at lorettanall@gtmail.com or Christie O'Brien at reederchristie@yahoo.com

Hope to see you there!

Loretta Nall
Executive Director
Alabamians for Compassionate Care
http://www.compassionate-care.org (website)
http://compassionate-care.blogspot.com/ (blog)




del.icio.us
Google
Yahoo

Medical Marijuana in the Montgomery Advertiser

There is a great letter in today's opinion section of the Montgomery Advertiser entitled, Relax Medical Marijuana Laws and there is a great discussion as well. Please pop on over and join in.

Compassionate Care Public Hearing This Wednesday!!!!!!

UPDATE: After much confusion today over whether or not the COmpassionate Care Act would get a public hearing this Wednesday I have just learned that a public hearing will definitely take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday in rm 123 of the Alabama State House. Please be there with bells on around 8 am to ensure you get a seat.


All,

I have just gotten word that the Compassionate Care Act is tentatively slated to come up for a public hearing this Wednesday, May 23 at 9 a.m. in room 123 of the Alabama State House located at 11 South Union St. in Montgomery.

What makes this complicated is that the Senate is still stalled and the House is not wanting to take up any controversial bills for the remainder of this session especially since the Senate is expected to continue to stall and a special session will be called. However, if the judiciary cmte calls for a public hearing on Wed., as I am hearing they will, then I will be there with all my folks and I would like for everyone reading this message to try and make it as well. We need to pack the room so be there around 8 a.m. to ensure that you get a seat.

Please RSVP and let me know whether or not you are coming on Wed. If anything changes....like the bill isn't coming up for a hearing, then I will let everyone know.

Hope to see you on Wednesday.

Loretta Nall

Let Doctors Treat Their Patients

Anna Alldredge is a member of Alabamians for Compassionate Care and her letter was published in today's Birmingnham News. Way to go Anna!!!

Let doctors treat their patients:
I write in response to the patient for whom the only effective seizure prevention is cannabis. How did we come to demonize a plant?

We trust a doctor to prescribe morphine but not marijuana. This is ridiculous and represents special interests at work. The drug, liquor and tobacco interests lobbied the government to call their substances OK (which they are not) and cannabis to be evil and destructive.

And then there is the issue of job security for drug interdiction workers at all levels.

It is high time we let doctors treat these pitiful people without government interference.

Anna Alldredge

Crestline Gardens

Medical Marijuana in the News

Yesterday and today the The Birmingham News published letters from two of the members of Alabamians for Compassionate Care regading medical marijuana. Many thanks to the BHAM News for publishing these letters. If you are an Alabama reader I urge you to write a response to these letters and to call y our elected officials and ask them to vote yes on HB206.

Also, MANY THANKS to Michael Phillips, Sara King and Dawn Plamer who has had letters published in the BHAM News rearding medical marijuana and drug prohibition in general. Y'all rock and I love you!

MEDICAL MARIJUANA:

Remove patients from war on drugs

I am a 36-year-old man with an inoperable brain tumor, which causes multiple seizures a day. I have been a patient at Children's Hospital and the Kirklin Clinic since the age of 8. I have had four unsuccessful brain surgeries. I have been on every seizure medication known to mankind, as well as some that never received Food and Drug Administration approval.

A few years ago, I saw a program on marijuana being used as a seizure deterrent. I decided to try marijuana as a medicine, and I have had better results using marijuana in its natural form than from any other treatment in my life. My seizures have decreased from six to eight per day to one seizure every six to eight weeks. My neurologists have documented this in my medical records.

I have also been arrested twice for possession of marijuana. It caused me great hardship both on a psychological level and a monetary level. I wondered then, as I do now, why people in 12 states are treated like patients and allowed access to medical marijuana, but here in Alabama I am treated like a criminal for trying to treat my illness. Are people in other states somehow more deserving of treatment options than Alabamians?

There is a bill, HB 206, before the House Judiciary Committee called the Compassionate Care Act, which would protect physicians who recommend marijuana to their patients for certain illnesses like cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV and seizures. It also would protect the patients, like me, who use marijuana as medicine from being prosecuted under state law. Please call your elected officials and tell them to vote yes on the Compassionate Care Act.

If we must have a war on drugs, can we at least remove the patients from the battlefield first?

Michael Phillips

Millbrook


Bill supports effective treatment:

Have you or someone you love been a cancer patient and undergone radiation or chemotherapies? Maybe you or a loved one contracted HIV or suffer from multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, arthritis, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, anorexia or seizures. There is a pure, natural, harmless treatment relief available for the misery of these and other chronic, debilitating conditions: medical marijuana.

A group of Alabama citizens is working to change our current state laws, which would allow suffering patients access to this safe and effective treatment. There is a bill coming before the House Judiciary Committee to protect patients and their physicians in Alabama. Please call your elected officials and tell them to vote yes on HB 206, the Compassionate Care Act. Learn more about us and medical marijuana by visiting www.compassionate-care.org.

Sara King

Riverchase

Compassionate Care House Party Sunday in Pelham

On Sunday, May 6, 2007 from 2-6 p.m. Alabamians for Compassionate Care will be holding a meet & greet at Two Pesos Mexican Cafe in Pelham, AL.

In just a few short weeks the Compassionate Care Act, a bill that would protect doctors who recommend medical marijuana and patients who use it with their doctors approval from being proecuted under state law, will come before the House Judiciary Committee and be called for a public hearing. We want to spend some time on Sunday meeting anyone and everyone who believes that medical treatment should be left to the doctor and patient and not used as a political football by the government.

Every year tens of thousands of Alabamians are stricken with painful and debilitating illnesses for which medical marijuana has been proven effective in treating and helping to manage the pain. Join us on Sunday and help us tell the Alabama governing body to keep the FEDS out of our medicine cabinets. Bring your friends and family and please repost this widely.

Click here for maps and directions.

A Medical Marijuana Patient gets Published

Tuscaloosa News

Dear Editor: I am a 36-year-old man with an inoperable brain tumor, which causes multiple grand mal seizures a day. I have been a patient at Children’s Hospital and the Kirklin Clinic since the age of 8. I have had four unsuccessful brain surgeries.

I have been on every seizure medication known to mankind, as well as some that never received the Federal Drug Administration’s approval. A few years ago, I saw a program on marijuana being used as a seizure deterrent. I decided to try marijuana as a medicine, and I have had better results using marijuana in its natural form than from any other treatment in my life. My seizures have decreased from six to eight per day to one every six to eight weeks. My neurologists have documented this in my medical records.

I have also been arrested twice for possession of marijuana. It caused me great hardship both on a psychological level and a monetary level. I wondered then, as I do now, why people in 12 U.S. states are treated like patients and allowed access to medical marijuana, but here in Alabama I am treated like a criminal for trying to treat my illness?

There is a bill before the House Judiciary Committee to protect physicians who recommend marijuana to their patients for certain illnesses like cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and seizures, and the patients, like me, who use it as medicine from being prosecuted under state law. Please call your elected officials and tell them to vote yes on HB206 the Compassionate Care Act.
-----------------

I worked with one of the patients who is working with us at Compassionate Care to write this letter last week. Congratulations Michael!!! You did it!!

Compassionate Care Meeting Sat. April 7

Alabamians for Compassionate Care will be holding our weekly meeting this Saturday, April 7 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the following location

1902 Waterford Place (condos)
Hoover, AL 35244
click here for map and directions

This weeks meetiing will mostly focus on media training and testimonial training before the legislative body.

Refreshments will be provided. Please join us and bring a friend or two.

Loretta Nall on the NORML Podcast

Dear All,

After yesterday's committee meeting the good folks at NORML called me up for an interview for their podcast. You can listen to that interview here.