MAINE (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – U.S. Rep. Barney Frank spoke at Maine’s first Medical Marijuana Expo on Saturday and said that the current laws against marijuana use should be revoked.

“People who make a personal decision to smoke marijuana should not be subject to prosecution,” said Frank. “This is the kind of fight that’s worth making. It’s winnable.”

In October of last year, Frank was present during a marijuana arrest at James Ready’s home in Ogunquit, Maine. Ready is well-known for his relationship with Congressman Frank.

Congressman Frank told FOX25 that he was surprised and disappointed with what police found. He also tells us that he wouldn’t recognize a marijuana plant if he saw one because he is, “not a great outdoorsman,” and ,”wouldn’t recognize most plants.” ( Read more on this here .)

The event, which was put together by Charlie Wynott of the nonprofit Maine Medical Marijuana Resource Center , include grow suppliers, medical marijuana caregivers, dispensary operators, consultants and a medical marijuana attorney.

Maine approved the use of medical marijuana in 1999, and in 2009 voters approved legalizing dispensaries as a way of giving patients access to the drug.

Doctors in the field, State representatives, retired law enforcement and civil libertarians also addressed the group of about 100.

According to a report from Kennebec Journal , Frank said he

Article source: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/barney-frank-speaks-at-medical-marijuana-expo-20110228

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank was honored by pot enthusiasts in Maine Saturday for his advocacy of medical marijuana and an end to the war on weed.

The Newton Democrat was the keynote speaker and the recipient of the first-ever Patients’ Choice Award — a glass trophy in the shape of a marijuana leaf.

“It’s a fight that’s worth fighting, and it’s a fight that is very winnable. Most American people think it’s sensible, and are for it,” an impassioned Frank told a standing-room only crowd at the first Expo Cannabis in Portland on Saturday, according to a recording of the speech obtained by the Herald.

Frank, who is the ranking Democrat on the House’s powerful Financial Services Committee, was feted by the Maine Medical Marijuana Patients Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that’s spent nearly two decades convincing the government that terminally ill people should be allowed to grow, or purchase, medicinal marijuana.

Maine has allowed medical marijuana for 12 years, and the state is now in the process of licensing eight dispensaries.

Center founder Charles Wynott said the group is also working to reduce, and perhaps abolish, penalties for marijuana possession. Wynott presented Frank with the herb-shaped Patient’s Choice Award.

“I just like the man a lot,” Wynott told the Herald. “He’s very straight-forward, and very New England, and he’s the perfect guy to have on our side.”

Visitors to Frank’s offices on Capitol Hill and in the district hoping to see the weed award in the future may be disappointed, however.

“This trophy will stay in

Article source: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2011_0228barneys_frank_talk_about_pot/srvc=home&position=also

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Medical marijuana advocates held the first Maine Medical Marijuana Expo.

The expo hosted medical marijuana advocacy groups, as well as resources for caregivers, growers, and patients. In 2009 Maine voters passed a referendum legalizing medical marijuana dispensaries. The law also created a state registration system for patients. Some vendors at the expo say the law has helped people who use medical marijuana.

“it’s good because there’s a lot more media, a lot more information out in the public, and I think the public itself is learning more and realizing we’re not just a bunch of hippy pot-smokers,” Linda Kennedy of The Patient Handbook said. “This is medicine, it does help people, they don’t have to take manufactured drugs that are going to hurt them.”

Others say the law makes medical marijuana more difficult to buy

“The idea that a citizen of the state of Maine has to go to the government and pay a fee to get a plant medicine is not right,” Steve Ruhl of the Business Allaiance For Commerce and Hemp said. “We’re making medicine more expensive for people in a time when we’re talking about healthcare costs spinning out of control.”

Saturday, Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts spoke at the expo. He said current laws against marijuana use should be reprealed.

NEWS CENTER

Article source: http://www.wlbz2.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=149596&catid=3

FORT KENT, Maine — Safe Alternatives, Aroostook County’s first state-approved medical marijuana growing facility, is up and running in Frenchville with a contact list of close to a dozen people with conditions ranging from terminal cancer to multiple sclerosis requesting the herbal drug.

What is lacking, according to Leo Trudel, the business’s co-founders and spokesman, is a municipally approved dispensary for their product.

Since August, Trudel, a business professor at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, has been working with Frenchville municipal officials to open a medical marijuana dispensary on property he currently owns in that town.

Early this month residents voted down an ordinance governing dispensing and cultivating medical marijuana within town limits and imposed an additional 180-day moratorium on the issue.

The move marked the second time voters went for the 180-day moratorium which was initially approved in November.

“Frenchville [officials] originally issued Safe Alternatives a building permit to renovate the property knowing full well what our intent was,” Trudel said this past week from his UMFK office. “I was totally upfront and transparent on what Safe Alternatives was planning to do.”

Safe Alternatives is one of eight medical marijuana dispensaries approved by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services last June and the only one in Aroostook County.

Frenchville’s proposed ordinance is based on one approved by the city of Caribou and, as Trudel said, “tweaked” by Frenchville’s select board.

As presented by that committee, the ordinance has several provisions that target Safe Alternatives’ ability to conduct business, according to Trudel.

Among them

Article source: http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/02/26/health/frenchville-residents-turn-down-medical-marijuana-ordinance/

Lincolnville — An arrest or summons does not constitute a finding of guilt. An individual charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

Lincolnville police reported the following activity for the period ending Feb. 22:

Feb. 10

Chief Ron Young responded to Belfast Road for a welfare check. The subject was determined to be fine.

Feb. 14

Young responded to welfare check complaint on Atlantic Highway. No contact was made with the person in question at that time but Young was able to make contact with the subject upon returning to the residence a second time. The person was fine.

Feb. 15

Young responded to a medical assist on Slab City Road. Young remained with a female until Camden First Aid arrived at the residence.

Young received a reported complaint of a juvenile problem on Dyer Drive. After conferring with a parent no action was taken at that time.

Young responded to a traffic hazard complaint on Camden Road. Pieces of wood reported to have been in the road had been cleared from the roadway prior to Young’s arrival.

Young responded to a welfare check complaint on Atlantic Highway. Young made contact with the resident who was fine.

Feb. 17

Young responded to an alarm activation on Atlantic Highway. While en route to the location, the complaint was determined unfounded.

Young received a complaint of an ongoing noise disturbance on Millertown Drive. The complaint remains under investigation.

Officer Curt Andrick conducted a radar detail on Hope Road.

Article source: http://waldo.villagesoup.com/news/story/lincolnville-police-blotter/382368

Posted: February 27
Updated: Today at 10:45 PM

Barney Frank backs repeal of laws at state’s first Medical Marijuana Expo

By David Hench dhench@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND — U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. told the state’s first Maine Medical Marijuana Expo on Saturday that current laws against marijuana use are expensive, are applied unevenly and ought to be repealed.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Maine Sunday Telegram photo by Tim Greenway

“People who make a personal decision to smoke marijuana should not be subject to prosecution,” said Frank, noting that the movement has allies in the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. “This is the kind of fight that’s worth making. It’s winnable.”

The message was well received by an enthusiastic audience of about 100 people, including many vendors set up for the day-long exposition at the Fireside Inn Suites on Riverside Street.

The event included vendors exhibiting the latest in equipment for growing marijuana. Earlier in the day, prominent doctors in the field discussed the therapeutic use of marijuana for a range of debilitating conditions.

State representatives, retired law enforcement and civil libertarians also addressed the group.

Maine approved the use of medical marijuana in 1999, and in 2009 voters approved legalizing dispensaries as one system for giving

Article source: http://www.kjonline.com/news/barney-frank-backs-repeal-of-laws-at-states-first-medical-marijuana-expo_2011-02-26.html

Nicholas Stanley, 32, of Farmington is a quadriplegic due to spinal muscular atrophy, a condition brought on by a congenital defect known as a tethered spinal cord. He has been ingesting medical marijuana since 2003 to relieve his pain, anxiety and depression. Patricia Soderholm, right, his longtime caregiver, has become frustrated over Stanley’s difficulty in obtaining a certificate for medical marijuana under the state’s new system.

Husband and wife Jennifer and Timothy Smale plan to open Auburn’s medicinal marijuana dispensary, Remedy Compassion Center, this spring at

Article source: http://www.sunjournal.com/state/story/991389

BIDDEFORD — Bill Harnden’s life has been one of almost constant pain. He was born with degenerative disc disease and has chronic, intractable back pain from the five fused discs along his spine. He also had a non-malignant tumor on his brain stem removed, which has caused significant pain in his neck. Although the 60-year-old man from Auburn had worked in financial management, he had to give up his job in 2007 because of his condition.

To manager his pain, Harnden was taking eight doses of the painkiller Tramadol every day, which left him feeling sedated most of the time.

That was until June, when Harnden began using marijuana to ease his pain.

“It worked, nothing short of miraculously,” said Harnden. “It’s given me a new lease on life. Thanks to the medical marijuana, I’m more energetic. I lost 55 pounds.”

Harnden has also cut down his dosage to one pain pill a day and eventually plans to cut out Tramadol completely.

“I encourage those, if they think it could help, to give it a try,” he said of medical marijuana.

Harnden said he became interested in the drug from the publicity surrounding setting up new dispensary system in Maine after voters approved a referendum in November 2009.

Marijuana for medical use has been legal in Maine since 1999, but it had been an informal delivery system and patients wanting to use the drug found it difficult in a number of ways.

Under the new system, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, the

Article source: http://www.journaltribune.com/articles/2011/02/26/features/doc4d685c413933c480777296.txt

Hundreds of people are expected to attend and 20 to 30 exhibitors will be on hand at this weekend’s Maine Medical Marijuana Expo 2011.

The show is being held Saturday and Sunday at Portland’s Fireside Inn. Exhibitors include grow suppliers, medical marijuana caregivers, dispensary operators, consultants and a medical marijuana attorney. The expo is billed as an educational and informational event for medical marijuana patients and others with an interest in medical marijuana.

Charlie Wynott of the nonprofit Maine Medical Marijuana Resource Center, which is putting on the event, says there will also be a number of speakers, including U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who will be speaking Saturday night.

Wynott said hundreds if not thousands of people are expected.

Article source: http://www.wgme.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.me/36df4850-www.wgme.com.shtml