"Health & Medical News"

Patients with a prescription to use marijuana for medical purposes can now get the drugs from vending machines in California, the BBC reported Jan. 28.

A handful of the vending machines have now been installed, including at a herbal nutrition store in Los Angeles. Medical-marijuana patients who have a prescription and agree to be fingerprinted and photographed are issued a special ID card that they can use to access the machines.

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A bill under consideration in Kansas wouldn’t make medical marijuana legal, but could provide some legal protection to users facing charges of marijuana possession, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported Jan. 29.

The measure would allow judges to consider medical use as a defense if marijuana users presented documentation from a doctor about the drug’s medical benefits. It would not decriminalize or legalize marijuana possession, however.

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Medical-marijuana users can be fired for violating workplace drug policies in California, despite the fact that use of the drug is legal for medical purposes under state law, the California Supreme Court has ruled.

The Associated Press reported Jan. 24 that the court upheld the firing of medical-marijuana user Gary Ross, who failed a company-ordered drug test. Ross said the fact that he was an authorized medical-marijuana user should have protected him from being fired, but the employer said that the firing was justified because marijuana is illegal under federal law.

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The government of British Columbia, Canada is distributing free crack-pipe mouthpieces in an attempt to prevent transmission of hepatitis C among drug users who pass around the pipes, The Province reported Jan. 3.

“People who smoke crack often burn their lips and have sores on their lips, and that sore can have blood in it,” explained Perry Kendall, chief medical health officer for the province. “A well-run [mouthpiece] program offers a lot of promise to reduce blood-borne diseases and to introduce people to health care and addiction treatment services as well.”

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People who take opioid-based drugs to treat chronic pain can drive about as well as others on the road, according to researchers from Rush University in Chicago.

The New York Times reported Dec. 4 that researchers used a driving simulator to compare the reaction times, weaving and accident rates of subjects taking oral morphine for pain to a control group that was not taking pain medication.

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Voters in Denver appear to have approved a ballot question that would require police to make enforcement of marijuana-possession laws their lowest priority, the Rocky Mountain News reported Nov. 7.

Question 100, backed by the group Safe Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), was being approved by a 5-to-4 margin, election observers said, although balloting was incomplete.

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