I would like to start my new blog by saying hello to my friends. That includes my old friends (from a very interesting 50 or so years spent in the world of cannabis technology and activism), and what I hope will turn out to be a substantial bunch of new friends.
I will be reporting regularly in this forum. Not every day … way too busy … but I will try to keep my friends up on what is going on with all aspects of Berkeley Bio, and Dr. Apel’s and my work.
Here’s a few words on how our recent merger came about: I had been following all the public MMJ companies for quite some time. I was convinced that the next big step in the world of MMJ would involve publicly traded corporations. I will admit that I was not all that thrilled with what I saw as the direction MMJ was headed.
The engine that drove the movement since its inception was individuals and groups of activists working day and night to bring this medicine to the people, risking their freedom and bank accounts, working selflessly for a cause in which they believed. Very much the opposite of the typical corporate structure where management’s main responsibility is to create revenues for the stockholders.
What I found in SK3 was a group of corporate businessmen with hearts … and a company with a soul. Certainly the job is to create a strong and powerful company, but these guys were committed to doing it in a respectful and compassionate manner, much in tune with how the medical cannabis movement came into existence and flourished.
Having been deeply involved in the medicinal cannabis movement since long before it was first legalized in California in 1996, I have spent much time contemplating the future over the last decade and a half, as medicinal cannabis made its way into society. Soon after medicinal legalization in California in 1996, it became apparent that cannabis was about to enter the world of medicine as scientists, researchers, and clinicians began to discover, test, and validate the wonderful healing properties of the kind herb.
Let me describe how cannabis actually became medicine. In my opinion, the birth of cannabis as a medicine is a wonderful story, even though it came from tragedy. (Actually, the word rebirth is far more appropriate. Cannabis has been one of the most popular medicines used the world over for millennia, until it was shunned and stigmatized in modern times.)
San Francisco is the birthplace of the modern rediscovery of medical marijuana. It was also one of the first places to be hit hard by the AIDS epidemic of the 1990s, and it is from the tragedy of AIDS that we began to learn anew the healing properties of marijuana.
Here’s how it all began: Doctors and researchers were completely baffled when AIDS first hit the gay community in San Francisco in the late 1980s. San Francisco General Hospital treated many patients, and the doctors treating the patients on the AIDS floor soon realized they were dealing with a repetitive and seemingly never-ending pattern. Patients with advanced AIDS would check into the ward, rapidly lose weight due to AIDS wasting syndrome, and die. Just like clockwork. The doctors could pretty much name the date when the bed would again become available at the time that the new patient checked in.
Then an amazing thing happened. Logjam! Patients who came into the advanced AIDS ward as living cadavers suddenly began gaining weight – a previously unheard-of event – and they stopped dying on schedule, as they had been doing. And not just one patient, but many of the patients, and all at the same time.
The Docs were amazed. They knew something was happening, but they didn’t know what. They went through all the medicine and procedure changes and could find nothing. Finally, one of the patients fessed up. A kindly old lady named Mary Rathbun (now forever memorialized as Brownie Mary) had been making up batches of marijuana brownies and bringing them to the patients in the AIDS ward when she made her regular visits, approximately every week or so.
The patients shared the brownies, and Brownie Mary devoted all of her time, energy, and income to making sure that these patients had a steady supply of the medicine that was keeping them alive.
Soon after the Docs realized what was going on, they quietly embraced the results, and looked the other way when Mary came in with her picnic basket. They also greatly relaxed their smoking policy, and allowed the patients to self-medicate as they saw fit with smoked marijuana.
San Francisco was in a crisis mode at the time, and everyone was hungry for some good news in the battle against AIDS. The word soon got out that Mary’s brownies had dramatically changed the assembly-line of death that the SF General AIDS ward had become. The doctors told the politicians what was happening, and soon the San Francisco supervisors decided to investigate this lead further; it was about the only medicinal treatment at the time that showed much promise.
Dennis Peron had a suggestion for the city fathers. If they would create an ordinance approving marijuana use on the recommendation of a doctor, Dennis would openly sell medicine to the patients. San Francisco passed an official city ordinance, and Dennis opened the first Cannabis Buyers Club. This was about 1990, five or six years before Californians passed Prop. 215.
California had a Republican governor and Attorney General at the time who took offense to what Dennis was doing, and raided him twice. Dennis worked in close concert with San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, another true hero of the movement. Terence immediately saw the good that Dennis was doing, allowed Dennis to remain open by refusing to use city police to close him down, and by doing all his office could do make certain that San Francisco residents had access to doctor recommended medicine.
After the state raided the CBC the second time, Dennis, with his partner John Entwhistle, wrote the language for Prop. 215, organized a signature drive, convinced billionaire George Soros to provide the funding necessary to collect signatures in a professional manner, and soon celebrated the passage of Prop. 215 with 56% of the vote.
Dennis reopened the CBC on January 2, 1996, legal under state law for the first time. I’m proud to say that I was in the line that day. About five months later I opened the first new San Francisco dispensary after Prop. 215, in the historic old Warfield Building on Market Street. Never was a qualified patient sent away without medicine, even if the patient had no money.
Dharma Producers Group worked closely with District Attorney Hallinan (still a good friend and attorney for Dharma Care and Hospice Program) and with California Attorney General Bill Lockyear. The dispensary remained open for about a year, until closed by a federal lawsuit against all six of the dispensaries operating in California at that time.
The medicinal cannabis movement grew over the next 17 years into what it has become today. Thousands of brave activists have risked their freedom to bring the healing benefits of the kind herb to the people who can benefit by its use. As the cannabinoid-based medicines make their way back into general use by physicians, those who benefit from them will owe a measure of thanks to the activists who made medical marijuana a reality.
Next blog, we will discuss how it all works by describing the discovery of the human endocannabinoid system. But I would like to ask everyone to check out the wonderful article here on the Facebook page which describes how Michelle Aldrich beat cancer with cannabinoids. And yesterday, ABC and Fox News reported on Tommy Chong’s successful battle against prostrate cancer by using Simpson oil at night …
-D. Gold
Disclaimer
The legal analysis and opinions offered on this blog are those of the authors individually and are not reflective or indicative of the opinions and positions of the authors’ employer. Nothing on this blog is to be construed as legal advice and is never meant to be so. If you have legal problems, please hire an attorney and consult with him/her. Please do not e-mail us with legal questions. If you would like to discuss a legal issue, that’s fine. We cannot give advice. Do not rely on anything written in this blog for legal advice. Everything written here is our own opinion. Our opinions may be based on incorrect information and we may be completely and utterly wrong. For all anyone knows, one of us might be a trained chimpanzee typing random words. If you disagree with any of our posts or opinions, please feel free to leave a comment. Intelligent discourse is always welcome.
