# Classes start at Orange County medical marijuana school



## FruityBud (Mar 13, 2010)

Orange County residents now have a place to go to learn how to cook, smoke and buy medical marijuana.

Cannabis State opened Friday in Sunset Beach and on Sunday will be holding its first class: an introduction to medical marijuana. The school's founders hope local seniors will be among their first students.

Jason Scoby, Steve Roberts, Robert Calkin and Mike Clark, who are all patients of medical marijuana and have a background working in the field, said they are running a trial period to try and get seniors in the area on board with what they call "medicating," or taking cannabis to heal a variety of ailments.

The group has put ads in the Seal Beach Leisure World newspaper to solicit seniors to take their classes.

"(Some seniors) are taking a lot of pharmaceuticals and they need to be replaced or augmented with medical marijuana," Calkin said. "A huge percentage of the elderly are going to be 'newbies'. They don't know anything about it."

The group decided to open the school at 14th Street and Pacific Coast Highway in part because the county-run community does not have any laws banning dispensaries. Sunset Beach's neighboring cities Seal Beach and Huntington Beach both do not allow dispensaries.

"The community just has this small-town warm feel to it," Scoby said. "There is also a dispensary here. When people become a patient, they'll have access to a well-run, legitimate dispensary."

Of the nearly 700 patients at the West Coast Patient Collective Association in Sunset Beach, nearly 50 percent are age 50 and up, said John Trestle, who works at the dispensary.

Cannibis State will offer classes at $99 a piece; some will focus on general information on how to get medical marijuana and where to go while others will offer instructions on how to bake marijuana edibles such as brownies or cookies.

The focus is on education and being a resource for patients new to medical marijuana, the founders say. Local doctors will also be on hand after each class to answer questions or administer evaluations for students. The school will not be a place for patients to medicate, Roberts said.

"We're not going to be smoking with people or giving away edibles or selling cannabis," he said. "We want to introduce people to the product."

Medical marijuana can be used for AIDS or cancer patients undergoing intensive treatment, to lessen the pain associated with arthritis or heal digestive and sleep problems, among other uses, Scoby said.

While advocates for the plant credit marijuana for its healing properties, federal officials contend there are no facts to prove any benefits exist.

"Smoked marijuana has not withstood the rigors of science  it is not medicine and it is not safe," according to the Drug Enforcement Agency's Web site. "

But the DEA also reported its enforcement focus is on drug traffickers not "the sick or the dying", the Web site says.

Scoby pushed to open the school while he was working for a medical marijuana collective in Santa Ana, where he worked in delivery and patient education.

"We found the lack of education is the one thing that hurts this industry the most," he said. "There can be serious complications if it's not handled correctly or intelligently."

Scoby said is it up to the patient to decide whether or not cannabis treatment, with a doctor's recommendation, might be the right fit.

"All you can do is inform them and they make their own choice,'' he said.

The school will also teach about various products, some of which do not have THC, the chemical in marijuana that provides the "high" that's usually a side effect of smoking cannabis. Patients can use topical creams, mouth sprays and baked goods to reap the benefits of the plant, Scoby said.

Some cities have been fighting medical marijuana dispensaries. Federal law allows marijuana for medical use but state law prohibits it, which has been a conflict for many Orange County cities.

City officials in Costa Mesa on March 5 issued a cease-and-desist for its three medical marijuana dispensaries alleging some operators were illegally selling marijuana to people who did not have a doctor's recommendation.

The owner of Lake Forest-based 215 Agenda, a medical marijuana dispensary, was arrested Wednesday for suspicion of illegally selling marijuana and laundering the money through banks.

Trestle said these recent incidents give dispensaries an unwarranted black eye for those following state rules.

"When something like this happens people automatically assume it's the entire industry," he said.

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