The District Council of Washington D.C. has drafted legislation to legalize medical marijuana. The legislation is now with Washington D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty. Patients would be limited to two ounces of marijuana per month unless the cap was raised to four ounces by the Mayor. If the bill is signed by the Mayor, the U.S. Congress has 30 days to review before it becomes Law.
14 states have enacted laws that legalize medical marijuana (Date Legalized)
Alaska (1998)
California (1996)
Colorado (2004)
Hawaii (2000)
Maine (1999)
Michigan (2008)
Montana (2004)
Nevada (2000)
New Jersey (2010)
New Mexico (2007)
Oregon (1998)
Rhode Island (2006)
Vermont (2004)
Washington (1998)
The FDA recently voted in favor of pushing a new formulation of oxycodone hydrochloride for approval. The new OxyContin formula is more difficult to crush or dissolve which will hopefully make it harder to be used as a drug of abuse . The FDA recommended that Purdue Pharma's application for a new, resin-coated formulation should replace the original version, which has been on the market since 1996. Randall Flick, MD, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic who voted to recommend approval of the drug said, "Clearly the old formulation is worse than the new, although I think the difference is relatively small," Flick concluded, "Hardcore abusers are likely to devise new ways to break down the harder tablet or figure out which solvents will dissolve it fastest, within 'day or weeks' of the product's release on the market."