DOCTOR SEES CANNABIS AS LEGITIMATE MEDICINE

While the benefits of medical marijuana are a subject of debate, one
medical doctor who has strong feelings on the subject claims to have
thousands of patients in Siskiyou County.

Dr. Philip Denney, who has practices in Sacramento and Redding, says
there is no question that cannabis is medicine, and he recommends it
for patients suffering from a variety of ailments, including chronic
pain, muscle conditions such as muscle spasms, depression,
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Bipolar Affective Disorder.

He said about 50 percent of his recommendations are for chronic pain,
including patients with spinal surgeries, degenerative bone loss and
accident victims.

California and numerous other states have passed laws allowing
cannabis to be recommended by doctors, but the federal government does
not recognize any legitimate use for marijuana and denies the right of
states to supercede federal law.

Dr. Denney says of his patients, "They are your friends and neighbors,
they are fixing your tires, working in your banks and they are your
police officers. People have used cannabis as medicine for 10,000
years. It has an extremely long history of successful use as a medicine."

The 58 year old Denney has been practicing medicine for 30 years after
graduating from the University of Southern California.

"It's rewarding as a physician to hear patients who have used opiates
that cannabis has relieved their pain and turned their lives around,"
Denney said. "Cannabis safer than aspirin and antidepressants. There
has never been case of an overdose or death from cannabis."

The use of cannabis for medical applications is currently mired in
controversy in California. Proposition 215 legalized without
specifying amounts, while Senate Bill 420 amended 215, setting limits
on how many plants patients could grow and how much processed leaf
they could have in their possession. also says that patients may over
the limits on a doctor's recommendation.

Whether SB 420 is constitutional is at issue as the California state
constitution says a proposition may not be amended without a vote of
the people.

For Denney, the answer is that the people have spoken with Proposition
215 and prescribing cannabis is a medical issue which the police
should not interfere.

"Proposition 215 is the controlling law and cannot be changed without
a vote of the people," he said. "Prop 215 says nothing about amounts,
only what is based on need. The need determined by the doctor, not the
police. The voters' intention was to leave it up to the doctors, which
is how medicine has always been done," Denney said. "The lawyers,
politicians, judges and courts aren't licensed to practice medicine.
The police are practicing practicing medicine without a license."

Denney acknowledges that cannabis is a drug, but seriously questions
the federal government's decision to place cannabis at the top of its
danger list as a Schedule I, along with heroin and opiates, above
cocaine and methamphetamines.

"Absolutely not is it a Schedule I drug," Denney said. "If they were
rational, it would be on Schedule III, where I could phone it in to a
pharmacy."

Noting that other counties allow far more leeway in numbers of plants
and processed ounces, Denney says Siskiyou County's guidelines on six
plants and eight processed ounces isn't fair, legal or realistic.

"Eighty percent of my patients use an ounce or less of cannabis a
week, with most of my patients using one half ounce a week, but some
need more," Denney said. "For the police to say you can only have six
plants and eight ounces is wrong. They are making this up. Proposition
215 is very clear. It does not specify an amount. Even under SB 420,
the physician can recommend more."

Another cannabis issue Denney says is a "tragedy," is taking children
away from medical cannabis users.

"Taking children away from medical cannabis patients is an egregious
abuse of power," he said. "There is no evidence to support such an
action. They don't take children away for secondary tobacco smoke and
we know that is dangerous."