CCJS 418 Exam 2
ACLU lawsuit (Dr. Craker)
-against the DEA for unreasonable delay in response to an application for a license to produce small amounts of cannabis
IOM study
-cannabinoids moderately well suited for some patients (typically those who do not respond well to other medications) -Chemotherapy and AIDS side effects
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
-At the turn of the 21st century, more than one-third of American adults reported using some form -Herbal and Botanical medicine was the most commonly used form of CAM
Deserving patients and undeserving potheads
"...neat divisions between medical and social users are unworkable"
Suzanne Pfeil quote
"I should have the right to relieve my suffering in the way that I choose" Should add to that - without harming other people
Chapkis Quote: (pg. 4)
"It is my hope that a sympathetic but not uncritical account of the medical use of marijuana-- and federal opposition to it-- will help clarify what is at stake in the medical marijuana debates for policy makers, the patients who have entrusted me with their stories"
Chapkis Quote: (pg. 2)
"My understanding of medical marijuana as a social issue relies heavily on the research strategy of participant observation, an approach that inevitably, and often usefully, troubles the line dividing researcher from researched"
Types/Styles of Participant Observation
(1) Complete Participation (2) Participant as observer (3) Observer as participant (4) Complete Observation
advantages of participant observation
(1) Direct connection to what is being studied (2) Fun, interesting, sometimes a hint of danger (3) A flexible way to investigate phenomena
field research includes
(1) Direct observation (2) Participant observation (3) Case Studies
Why marijuana isn't a medicine
(1) Is 'medical marijuana' a contradiction in terms? (2) What roles do subjective experience and anecdotal evidence play? (3) Should politics play a role in determining the value of marijuana as a medicine? No -- how about doctors, nurses, the patients themselves? (4) Is cannabis the modern day equivalent of 'snake oil'?
What should be considered the primary effect, and what are the side effects?
(1) Mechoulam regards the psychotropic effect as a side effect in a medical context (2) Becker reminds us: side effects are "not the effects desired by either the user or the person administering the drugs."
Sociological field research in the U.S. began at the University of Chicago, 3 principles emerged
(1) Study people in their natural settings (2) Study people by directly interacting with them (3) Gain an understanding of the social world and make theoretical statements based on the members perspectives
disadvantages of participant observation
(1) Takes time, money (2) Danger or "going native" (3) Ethical dilemmas (4) Yields non-quantitative data-- how do we handle this?
Demon drugs
-"Public discussion of drugs as a social problem thus, began, primarily, as a conversation about their medical-- not recreational-- use." -Intoxication a moral not medical problem Racial involvement in prohibition of drugs
Collective Contributions
-"What do you think 'collective' means"? -The stress of uneven participation -A kind of honor system, everyone supposed to pitch in
once Marinol developed
-(synthetic THC in sesame oil) -smoked cannabis was unnecessary -Marinol was approved for use in treating nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy
The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana
-2 days after California Proposition 215 passed the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana was incorporated as a non-profit organization -The marijuana never sold, provided free of charge, produced by member volunteers -More than 80% of members living with a life-threatening illness → literally "dying to get into WAMM"
Approximately how many Americans did not have health insurance in 2005
-45 million -health care is expensive -As many as 18,000 deaths each year as a direct result of that lack of coverage
Secret Garden
-A few miles north of Santa Cruz, WAMM's medical cannabis garden -The garden "evokes a profound sense of privacy and security, despite existing in violation of federal law"
Cannabis and Consciousness
-Are the consciousness-altering properties of cannabis an impediment to thinking of the drug as a medicine -Little evidence of harms associated with cannabis-- beyond the route of administration (smoking)
From Patient to Outlaw
-August 1992, helicopter flyover notices 5 marijuana plants - Corral arrested -Before medical cannabis was introduced in California -Couldn't accept diversion - the marijuana helped control her seizures -diversion= no jail time, mandatory rehab (would not be able to use marijuana) -Her trial right before Measure A, a medical marijuana initiative (before Prop 215) -Another arrest for cultivation - from the personal to the public
pure pharmaceuticals and crude botanicals
-Cannabis not especially dangerous, few develop dependence -Most findings ignored by federal policy makers -Diversity of chemicals in cannabis not really a problem -The issue of medical purity and "belief based" vs "science based" medicine -Reality: that which when you stop believing it, it doesn't go away
The rise of "Regular" medicine and the Battle against Botanicals
-Cannabis used as a medicine from ancient times -"The most striking difference between marijuana and 'real medicine' is not the physical but the social effects the plant has on users and heathers alike." -History of 'Regulars' vs. 'Eclectics'
Marijuana and Modern Moral Panic
-Marijuana 'proclaimed' to be dangerous -Use by racial minorities and political radicals -Use by white, middle class youth in the 60s -Tobacco-- gateway to cannabis use. The cigarette; a psychoactive drug delivery system
Not Your Father's Marijuana
-Do high levels of THC make cannabis more dangerous? NOT REALLY-- some plants have higher percentages-- patients can adjust their intake accordingly -THC does not cause physiological damage to organs or tissues -Primary risk of harm from smoking marijuana is respiratory damage -In 1999, mold attacked the plants; more than ⅓ of the crop was lost before harvest
Taking it to heart
-Due to the Supreme Court decision, WAMM was no longer protected from federal prison -In June 2005 WAMM members gathered in downtown Santa Cruz to protect the decision holding RIP placards with the names and pictures of over 150 members who had died since 1996 -Also in 2005, Mike Corral moved off his land and divorced Valerie
Labor of Love
-Each spring, on March 12, Mike Corral plants hundreds of marijuana seeds from plants he has bred himself -Harvest occurs between early October and mid-November -Cannabis sativa is better at preventing nausea and better at stimulating appetite -Cannabis Indica works better to relieve pain
Productivity and Amotivational Syndrome
-Enhanced functioning... or undermined productivity -Suzanne Pfeil "Marijuana actually gets me moving." -Marijuana is its own category because of the cannabinoid system
Stoned Realizations
-Facing difficult emotional issues with diminished anxiety -Increased introspection a welcome side effect -The absence of pain, and also a 'pleasure factor'
Farm or Pharm
-If marijuana is a legitimate medicine, the 'War on Drugs' is threatened Medical marijuana is also a symbolic challenge to the pharmaceutical industry's monopoly on drug production and provision -Drug manufacturers are already involved in the development of several cannabinoid medications (Marinol, Cesamet, Sativex, and others) -The criminalization of medical cannabis is necessary too so that cannabinoid pharmaceuticals can compete with the botanical. Is it all about protecting corporate profit?
Objectivity in Research-- How to maintain this?
-If the people being studied find out you are studying them they might modify their behavior by: (1) Expelling you from the group or setting (2) Changing their speech/behavior toward social norms (3) Changing the overall social process itself
Commerce v. Compassion
-In 2004 the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, now named Gonzales v. Raich (different attorney general) -In June 2005, the court ruled in favor of the federal government
Tolerance
-Intensive medicinal use of any substance may create some measure of tolerance and diminished effect -Many WAMM members report that early euphoric effects diminish or disappear over time -For members with a history of drug abuse and recovery, establishing a clear distinction between 'recreational' and medicinal use is a priority -Profound differences in effects when used medically or recreationally. "Partying and medicating are different"
escape from reality
-Is the 'high' just a distortion of or an escape from reality? -If you are trying to avoid things or keep your life on track → distraction (will mess with your senses) -Maybe people with such serious medical problems need to 'escape' them for a while -The psychological dimensions of serious and life-threatening illnesses can be as important to treat as the physical symptoms
Muffin Man
-John Paul Taylor was known as the 'Muffin Man' -He used dried cannabis leaf to make his muffins -While he rarely used his muffins himself, he found "pleasure and purpose in the weekly ritual of baking for others..."
Capsules
-Known as "mari-caps" , they are produced twice a month by the "Happy Cappers." -The capsules contain a mixture of ground leaf and butter, cooked slowly at low temperatures
Liniment
-Known as "rub-a-dub", it is produced by gathering pounds and pounds of leaf stems and fragments in a 5 gallon jar and mixing in rubbing alcohol, then letting it sit for a month of more -Topical
Taking it to the Streets
-Less than 2 weeks after the raid WAMM distributed medical marijuana at Santa Cruz City Hall -A field poll was conducted 2 years after the raid-- 74% of Californians favored legal protections for medical marijuana patients; up almost 20 points since Prop. 215 passed in 1996
-WAMM members have developed a variety of innovative methods of creating non-smoked forms of cannabis
-Low-cost, low tech production techniques -Members involvement increases their sense of patient powerpoint
Dying in the Embrace of Friends
-Majority of members living with a life-threatening illness -A 'place for the sick and dying' -The 'common experience of mortality helps unite an otherwise very disparate group of individuals' -WAMM's model an alternative, like hospice care for the terminally ill
Tincture
-Mildest (least psychoactive) of the orally administered non-smokables -Made with ground leaf and 151-proof alcohol stored for at least 2 weeks, if possible -Mild sedative effect, rather than pronounced "high" -Easy to use in public
Therapeutic Horticulture
-More than a garden, a "healing space" -Gardening can help restore physical and mental health to people suffering from a variety of ailments -Passive enjoyment of healing gardens exerts a restorative influence on cognitive functioning and on emotional centers in the limbic system of the brain -Therapeutic gardening provides participants with a "flow experience", a harmonization between demands and possibilities
Smoking is hazardous to your health
-Most common and best established risk of sustained marijunaa use OF botanical marijuana are from the most popular route of administration = effects of smoking, not use of plant -In a published editorial in 2004, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders mentioned edibles and vaporizers
Natural "Cures"
-Much interest in alternative approaches to health care -The discovery of "wonder drugs" has fallen off a bit
Limitations of this study
-Much of the material in this book is based on a single organization (case study), one that has achieved an unusual degree of prominence within the medical marijuana movement (Santa Cruz) -Furthermore, it is located in a very specific cultural context in a community highly supportive of medical marijuana use. -The story of this organization and the accounts of its members may not be broadly generalizable
Turning point
-No charges were filed against the Corrals or WAMM-- WERE NOT ARRESTED**** Question on exam -DEA agents chopped down all the plants-- the collective's entire annual crop -Mike Corral notes that after the raid, "we were propelled into political overdrive"
What makes the High a Side Effect?
-Numerous prescription drugs also have psychoactive properties -Both "main effects" and "side effects" as categories "are socially constructed and subject to change"
Court Case timeline
-October 2002, Raich v. Ashcroft → Denied in district court -August 2003, Santa Cruz v. Ashcroft → denied in district court (Judge Fogel) -October 2003, Raich v. Ashcroft → district court ruling reversed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, injunction granted -June 2004, Judge Fogel grants WAMM injunction -June 2005 Supreme Court hears Gonzales v. Raich, ruling in favor of the federal government
DEA on the Doorstep
-On September 5, 2002, federal DEA agents raided the WAMM garden; 20-30 police, 8 SUVs, and 2 high moving vans -WAMM members were called and informed, they arrived at the garden with the local television crews
Accidental activist
-Personal history of Valerie Leveroni (Corral) -Medical problem of seizures -Article about marijuana helping control seizures
From Isolation and Standardization to Complexity and Synergy
-Real medicine vs. botanical remedies -Judge Young "Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man" -Regulating dosage through titration -Synthetic drugs are not necessarily better in terms of compliance with physician recommendations, side effects from use, etc.
Dependence and Self-Regulation
-Reducing dependence on more dangerous pharmaceuticals -Dependence on marijuana? Self-regulation through taking responsibility -Not sure what would constitute dependence on marijuana? -WAMM members helping themselves and others -The psychoactive effects of cannabis are experienced as both compelling and therapeutic by many patients but disturbing and unwelcoming by others; medical cannabis is not for everyone!
Golden Bullets
-The "Widespread popular support for medical marijuana at the turn of the 21st century is less a reflection of changing views on drug prohibition than it is of changing attitudes toward medicine"
the invention of "Marijuana"
-The Anslinger era and Marijuana Tax Act -The Laguardia report Research impeded
Transplanting the WAMM Model
-The DEA's actions have proved "remarkably ineffective" in stopping the progression of medical marijuana, and lately also the legalization for adult use -Marijuana still a Schedule 1 Substance
Medical Necessity and Compassionate Access
-The Randall case in 1976; a federal 'medical necessity' case Marijuana reduces intraocular pressure → treatment for glaucoma -Beginning (and end) of the IND (Compassionate Investigational New Drug program) Suspended in 1992 -Proposition 215 passes in 1996 → Beginning of Modern Era of Medical Marijuana
Sativex
-The first prescription drug made of botanical cannabis -already approved in Canada, on the 'fast track in the U.S. as of 2014
A sense of Violation and Fear
-The raid was a shock, yet not entirely unexpected, they had begun to actively prepare for such an event -Some dropped out of WAMM afterwards, as some members experienced a lingering sense of fear and defiance
Just Say Know
-Threatening physicians -- the Conant vs. McCaffrey case -"In short, since the early 20th century, the U.S. federal govt.-- sometimes working in consort with organized medicine and sometimes challenging its authority-- effectively stigmatized most cannabis use"
Obstructing science
-Through the late 90s and early 2000s, US Supreme Court ruled in favor of federal authority over cultivation and possession of marijuana - even for medical use -The government agencies involved included the DEA and (National Institute on Drug Abuse) NIDA - blocking even carefully designed research From 1986-1998 → not a single new patient in the United States received cannabis in an FDA-approved study
only one source of marijuana
-University of Mississippi -Scientists are only allowed to request cannabis cultivated at this NIDA-licensed facility -Not necessarily comparable to marijuana produced in dispensaries
Servant Leaders
-Valerie's 'loving and charismatic persona positions her somewhere between selfless organizer and celebrated diva' -A respected advocate and foremost authority on medical marijuana -The garden is on the Corral's property - they are the ones at risk
Grassroot Alternatives to Smoking
-WAMM member themselves produce a range of non-smoked products (i.e.) Baked goods, soy milk based beverage, and tinctures -Both eating and smoking cannabis from therapeutic purposes requires a process of learning how to consume the plant-based medicine and how to recognize an effective (but not overpowering does) -"Start low and go slow" -While buds are reserved for smoking, every other part of the plant is utilized in non-smokable alternatives
Taking it to the Courts: Santa Cruz v. Ashcroft
-WAMM sought an injunction against the Attorney General and the DEA -August 28, 2003, District Court ruled against WAMM, denying their injunction -In a similar court case, Angel Raich and Diance Monson had filed suit against the DEA and the U.S. attorney general in 2002. (Raich v. Ashcroft) Their motion for injunction was also denied in district court -In October 2003, Raich and Monson submitted their case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court reversed the district court's ruling, the judge provided a preliminary injunction protecting them from federal interference -Within a few weeks, WAMM filed a motion for reconsideration of their injunction. In June 2004, citing the Raich v. Ashcroft reversal. Judge Fogel barred the U.S. attorney general and the DEA from interfering with the Corrals, WAMM patients, or the collective's garden
A Sense of Wellness
-Whether called a "high" or "euphoria" or simply "psychological benefits," "the psychoactive effects of marijuan are a frequently commented-on aspect of the drugs medicinal value in interviews with patients" -"Jon" "Marijuana lifts me up... and creates this sense of wellness and well-being" -Suzanne Pfeil "Marijuana never fails to lift my mood."
Creating Community
-With the question of whether marijuana is a legitimate medicine, provider organizations may be understood too
Dispensing with Intimacy
-not a group people choose on basis of liking each other -Is it the medicine or the meeting? → both! medicine and how it effects and meeting -Interaction effect between medicine and meeting that will drive whether it is successful or not -Medicine → treating ailment; would be foolish to ignore the social aspects of this
What is the most natural form of data collection employed by social scientists?
-the direct observation of social phenomena in natural settings. -We do this all the time in our own lives!
free rider problem
-when a person doesn't contribute enough to the collective -Some members in disagreement on what they need or want -Unequal contributions → elicit different feelings among the members
what % of Americans now take at least 1 prescription drug?
44% of all Americans
Winona LaDuke
Academics must address the question of "how will your research benefit the people you study?"
what academic research began in the late 19th century?
Anthropology
Medical marijuana users
Those who never used marijuana before Pretenders who have a social relationship with marijuana Medical AND social users
what part of the marijuana plant is the most potent
buds
T/F marijuana is smoked at WAMM meetings
false -90 minutes spent on community building -Such meetings: "frustrating" AND "essential and life affirming" -Not everybody was in the mood or health for socializing
case studies
in depth, qualitative studies of one or a few illustrative cases
Social Movement Spillover
many of the features of WAMM actually mirror the vision of earlier health and social justice movements
from 1986-1998
not a single new patient in the United States received cannabis in an FDA-approved study
"going native"
over identifying with the group being studied
Mother's Milk
soy and cannabis beverage that these days only few members produce
Santa Cruz
the success and survival of WAMM depends in part on its social setting and cultural/political mindset of the people of Santa Cruz, CA
(T/F) Mandatory attendance in order to pick up medicine
true
T/F: it is impossible to ingest a fatal overdose of marijuana
true