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Autumn 2004
O'Shaughnessy's
Journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical
Group
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About the MMPU
By Pebbles Trippet
This issue of O’Shaughnessy’s was produced with support and input from the
Medical Marijuana Patients Union, a grassroots, locally-based statewide patients’ rights
organization.
The MMPU grew from a coalition started in 2000 by myself, Maurice Meikle, Michelle
Regala, Ken Hayes and 40 others to offset the disproportional emphasis being
placed on the interests of cannabis buyers’ clubs at the expense of patients’ needs
and interests.

Drivers heading into the Mendocino County town
of Elk on Highway 1 are greeted with signs declaring the MMPU's
commitment to civic responsibility. |
The MMPU guides people through the process of obtaining cannabis under California
law. We do medical and legal referrals, case assessments and patient and
doctor defense. We help patients know their rights under Prop 215, help them
keep their doctors’ paperwork in order, help them create caregiver-cultivator
contracts (a private transaction between the two people).
By not engaging in distribution we feel we face virtually no risk under First
Amendment protections of speech and association. Our intention is to help everyone
avoid arrest and confiscation of medicine by making them legal. We help people
know how they are protected and and under what standards and guidlines, and
how they differ from court to court, county to county, and state to state.
We are on the move. With two patients’ rights measures codified into California
law and several federal and state court ruling coming down on the side of justice
for cannabis patients and doctors —Mower, Raich, Conant, WAMM and SB420— the
big picture is encouraging.
Other MMPU activities incude:
• Promoting a change in marijuana’s classification from Schedule 1 to Schedule
3, consistent with synthetic THC (Marinol).
• Promoting model SB420 gardens —using “collective cooperative cultivation projects” wherever
possible under higher plant numbers and a minimum threshold of 100 square-foot
plant canopy. “Patients helping patients” is the theme.
• Encouraging people to become caregivers, growing for patients unable to grow
for themselves. Even a single plant for a single patient would make a difference
in the scheme of things and would provide some degree of protection for the grower.
• Promoting state and local ballot initiatives based on patients’ rights —the
California model— nationwide.
• Publishing “Eye of the Storm,” MMPU’s newsletter, and developing our website
www.mmpu.org
• Defending Prop 215 patients and doctors in court cases, publicizing and fund-raising.
• Holding annual 4/20 celebrations for peace and medical freedom.
• Holding conferences such as “Law & Medicine Working Together” to build
bridges and coalitions with agreed upon standards and guidelines for properly
implementing medical marijuana laws, thus honoring the will of the voters and
the spirit of the times.
The Medical Marijuana Patients Union can be contacted at 707-964-YESS or info<AT>mmpu.org.
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O'Shaughnessy's
is the journal of the CCRMG/SCC. Our primary goals are the same
as the stated goals of any
reputable scientific publication: to bring out findings that are
accurate, duplicable, and useful to the community at large. But in
order to do this, we have to pursue parallel goals such as removing
the impediments to clinical research created by Prohibition, and
educating our colleagues, co-workers and patients as we educate ourselves
about the medical uses of cannabis.
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The Society
of Cannabis Clinicians (SCC) was formed in the Autumn of 2004 by
the member physicians of CCRMG
to aid in the promulgation of voluntary standards for clinicians
engaged in the recommendation and approval of cannabis under California
law (HSC §11362.5).
As the collaborative effort continues to move closer to issueing
guidelines, this site serves as a public venue for airing and
discussing these guidelines.
Visit the SCC Site for more information.
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