Marijuana

Those searching for answers to the question " Is medical marijuana good medicine? " will find few in Dr. David Sack's Times Op-Ed article.   On the one hand, Sack concedes, "Marijuana can effectively treat neuropathic pain, and it has been shown to improve appetite and reduce nausea," an acknowledgment substantiating the plant's therapeutic utility. However, he later warns that cannabis' ability to provide relief for certain other conditions, such as lupus and anxiety, remains unproven.

A ballot measure to cap the number of medical marijuana shops in Los Angeles won in last month's election with support from nearly every corner of the city, according to a Times analysis of election returns. Proposition D received majority support in virtually all of the hundreds of city precincts, including areas represented by outspoken opponents to the measure on the City Council. In the final tally released last Friday by the city clerk, Proposition D passed with support from 62.4% of the 376,000 city residents who voted on the measure.

Santa Clara county authorities are on the lookout for a pot farmer who recycles. Workers at a San Jose recycling center found a large trash bag filled with marijuana plants last week. San Jose police say the plants could have come from anywhere in Santa Clara County. Because marijuana cultivation is illegal under federal law, the plants are evidence and won't be sent to a composting bin, authorities say.

The words “marijuana” and “brain damage” usually go in that order in medical literature. An Israeli researcher has flipped them around, finding that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, may arrest some forms of brain damage in mice. The loco weed already is favored by those who suffer from chronic diseases, not to mention fans of Cypress Hill, Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead. But pharmacologist Josef Sarne of Tel Aviv University found that a minuscule amount of tetrahydrocannabinol may protect the brain after injuries from seizures, toxic drug exposure or a lack of oxygen.

A medical malpractice lawsuit filed by the family of an Orange County girl who was revived after doctors allegedly declared her dead went to trial Monday. Mackayla Jespersen was 20 months old when she fell into a swimming pool at her Fullerton home on Nov. 7, 2003. The lawsuit alleges that the girl, now 6, suffered permanent brain damage after doctors at Anaheim Memorial Medical Center wrongly pronounced her dead and disconnected her breathing tube. More than an hour later, a police detective conducting a routine investigation noticed that her chest was moving and summoned doctors, who were able to revive the child.

A government test has determined that a red dye used in many lipsticks is a powerful herbicide capable of killing marijuana plants, prompting some Bush Administration officials to propose using the dye in an airborne offensive against domestic marijuana cultivation.

Education has long been preached as a way to keep kids away from drugs. It's the walk to school that has Supt. Tom Barnett worried. This hardscrabble Northern California town has become a hotbed for medical marijuana farming. Kids stroll much of the year past pungent plants flourishing in gardens and alleys. The red-and-black-clad Timberjacks football team moved its halftime huddle on a recent Friday night to avoid the odor of marijuana smoke wafting over the gridiron from nearby houses.

For seven years, Scott Stokes conducted his own reckless inquiries into the physiological effects of pot. "I woke up to get high, and I got high to go to bed," recalled the 19-year-old from El Toro, who broke his marijuana habit only after he was arrested two years ago for burglarizing a head shop. "If I didn't have it, I would . . . start sweating, and when I'd breathe deep I'd get into these weird breathing patterns. "People say that marijuana is not addictive, but it's extremely addictive."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says marijuana is not a drug, a British magazine reported Monday. But his spokesman said the governor was joking. Schwarzenegger told the British edition of GQ magazine that he had not taken drugs, even though the former bodybuilder and Hollywood star has acknowledged using marijuana in the 1970s and was shown smoking a joint in the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron." "That is not a drug. It's a leaf," he told GQ. "My drug was pumping iron, trust me."

A drug smuggling case in Ohio has captured the attention of South Koreans because of the defendant's claim that she is the estranged granddaughter of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull. Lisette Lee, 28, of Beverly Hills was arrested in June for allegedly using a private jet to move suitcases packed with marijuana from Van Nuys to Ohio on a dozen occasions between November 2009 and June 2010. She later told federal officials that she is the heiress to the South Korean electronics fortune.

As legalized marijuana appears in an increasing number of American homes, so too does evidence of a dark side: accidental ingestion of pot and pot-infused food by young children. The results can be frightening to such children, who often suffer anxiety attacks when they start to feel unexpected symptoms of being high: hallucinations, dizziness, altered perception and impaired thinking. And the trend should prompt equal concern among adult caregivers and public health authorities, since ingestion of highly potent marijuana by young children can suppress respiration and even induce coma, according to a study published online this week in JAMA Pediatrics.

Los Angeles voters took regulation of the city's medical marijuana shops into their own hands Tuesday, embracing a ballot measure to sharply reduce the number of dispensaries in the city. But as in all things related to pot policy, the future of the new law is hazy. Under the measure, only 135 dispensaries - those that were operating before a failed moratorium in 2007 - will be allowed to stay open. But enforcement could prove a monumental challenge as backers of a rival measure threaten lawsuits and city lawyers begin the long process of identifying all of the city's dispensaries and bringing them into compliance.

Operators of medical marijuana dispensaries are welcoming action Monday by state lawmakers that would block prosecutions for illegal drug sales by cooperatives and collectives under certain conditions. The state Senate on Monday approved legislation saying that a medical marijuana cooperative, collective or other business entity is not subject to prosecution for drug sales as long as the compensation they receive is reasonable and they follow security guidelines set by the state attorney general in 2008.

Re "The marijuana measures," Editorial, May 10 Your editorial supporting Measure D mentions medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma patients. In my 25 years as a glaucoma sufferer, I have never been prescribed marijuana. In fact, research suggests that the side-effects of smoking pot outweigh any therapeutic benefits. Medical marijuana should not be used as an excuse to pass Measure D. John Choy Torrance ALSO: Letters: Jolie's choice Letters: The next dog Letters: It's UC, not McDonald's

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies responding to a burglary call in a Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood stumbled upon a $1-million marijuana-growing operation, authorities said. About 2:30 p.m. Thursday, deputies were dispatched to the neighborhood, where they surrounded a home, believing a burglary suspect could be inside, authorities said. A man, Tom Kim, 37, emerged from the house and was detained. After clearing the house, the deputies found an “elaborate marijuana grow operation,” according to authorities.

Illinois has come within a signature of becoming the 19th state to allow marijuana use for medical purposes. On Friday, the state Senate voted 35-21 to approve a medical marijuana measure, which now will head for Gov. Pat Quinn's desk. The governor has not said whether he will sign it. Democratic Sen. Bill Haine, one of the bill's sponsors, told the Los Angeles Times that House Bill 1 has a very narrow scope and was crafted with law enforcement officials at the table to avoid the mistakes and pitfalls of medical marijuana programs in other states.

Go figure! The voters in our state have spoken and now we want to ban cigarettes and legalize marijuana. Only in California. JOE WERTZBERGER Yorba Linda

Way at the bottom of Tuesday's ballot are three confusing propositions -- Measures D, E and F -- that have to do with medical marijuana. Voters can't be blamed if they feel frustrated and unsure of what to do when confronted by three alternative approaches to the same issue (two of which seem extremely similar). The Times' editorial board has offered its opinion on the choice among the three . But just to make things complicated, the landscape has changed somewhat since the measures qualified for the ballot.

Police found a marijuana growing operation during their search for a pack of pit bulls that mauled a woman to death in the Antelope Valley, authorities said. A 29-year-old man  was arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana at a home near 115th Street East and Avenue S in the community of Littlerock after police conducted a search of the property related to the  mauling of a 63-year-old woman Thursday morning. Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker said detectives with a warrant working with animal control took eight dogs, including six pit bulls.