Yesterday’s NORML blog post notwithstanding, a number of state legislatures continue to move forward in support of sensible marijuana law reform.
Here are some highlights and ways you can help.
Rhode Island: House members overwhelmingly approved legislation last week regulating the establishment of state-licensed ‘compassion centers’ to manufacture and provide medical marijuana to authorized patients. Rhode Island’s legislature is the first state on the east coast to move forward with such legislation, which was approved by a vote of 63 to 5 in the House and 35 to 2 in the Senate. The margins are large enough to override a veto from Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri, who has voiced opposition to the measure. If you live in Rhode Island and want to learn more about this effort, please visit: http://ripatients.org.
Illinois: On Wednesday members of the Illinois Senate passed SB 1381, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act. UPDATE! On Thursday, members of the House Human Services Committee also passed the bill, and the full House is expected to act on it imminently. If you live in Illinois, you can voice your support in favor this legislation by going here and here. UPDATE#2! The House convened for its summer session without taking a floor vote on SB 1381. House members may decide to take up the issue later this fall or next spring.
New Hampshire: As we reported yesterday, lawmakers are still trying to negotiate a compromise with Democrat Gov. John Lynch, who has threatened to veto medical marijuana legislation recently passed by the House and Senate. Our allies on the ground, NH Compassion, are encouraging voters to contact Gov. Lynch and urge him not to stand in the way of medical marijuana law reform. You can contact the governor by going here and here.
New Jersey: Members of the state assembly Health and Senior Services Committee are scheduled to hear testimony in favor of A 804, the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, on Thursday, June 4, at 10am. (Full details available online here.) A companion bill, S 119, has already been approved by the Senate, and Democrat Gov. John Corzine has promised to sign medical marijuana legislation into law if it reaches his desk. You can help support this campaign by going here and by contacting your member of the assembly here.
Delaware: Members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee are considering legislation, SB 94, to allow for patients with a debilitating medical condition to grow and possess cannabis. The proposal is the first marijuana law reform bill to be before lawmakers in recent memory. Proponents can contact their senate members in support of the measure here.
For information on additional state and federal marijuana law reform legislation, please visit NORML’s Take Action page here.
While were discussing drug legalization, how about we include INDUSTRIAL HEMP STALK in the discussion? It has no THC, and literally tens of thousands of products and materials that can be created from it. Despite this it is still illegal to grow in the USA.
We are still allowed to import hemp, but the US is the ONLY industrialized nation in the world that does not grow this eco-friendly, renewable energy resource. Combating decades of lies and outright propaganda with truth and factual information is central to reforming failed drug policy and ending the War on Drugs.
More info: Emperor of Hemp, Hemp Revolution, Emperor Wears No Clothes
yawn, prohibition. I’m gonna toke up with all my friends, legal or not. I’m just glad I don’t have to pay taxes on it, haha.
Mornin troops. Lemme run this by yall and see wat u think. Ok you notice how the homosexuals are gttin major air time? Bringing their plight to the attention of the public. We could learn from them. I propose we form an alliance with them. March with them. The Gay/Stoner Alliance. We both fight for freedom. We both do activties that are impeded by the government yet shood only have to answer to ourselves. Wolfman wat do u thnk?
Also to Cherokee Fred Jesus, I salute you friend. Your words ring true and charges my soul with great resolve.
All that come here and want to help go to change.org vote support the issues that appeal to you. This site is a good central rally point to combine our numbers and bring about positive change…
Cherokee Fred Jesus
When you sigh up send me a friend request we can keep each other informed
FOR PROFIT JAILS SHOULD TELL US WE ARE IN TROUBLE…
CORPORATIONS MAKING MONEY FROM PEOPLE IN JAIL IS A SAD SITUATION…
ALSO THE JUDGES THAT HAVE BEEN CAUGHT TAKING BRIBES IN THE MILLIONS TO INSURE THESE JAILS ARE KEEP FULL IS SAD..
PLEASE HELP ME FIGHT AGAINST FOR PROFIT JAILS AND VICTIMLESS CRIMES WE MUST TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK FROM THE CORPORATIONS THAT CONTROL OUR COUNTRY.
change.org VOTE HELP END THE TYRANNY IN OUR COUNTRY
Cherokee Fred Jesus
I am also state rep for MMM July 4th in Washington please plan to be there to let our so called reps know we are not happy and we will fight for change need help or need a ride let me know…
http://www.trm3-801.org/
Jake I like the gay stoner alliance…
CFJ
For prophet jails are a terrifying prospect. Insisdious on every level.
To number 52 D Bag. Ya i can appreciate yor approach to pot. I smoke a shitload myelf tho its illegal. But it aint about taxes or even just the issue of pot alone. O no brother its all about the once limited government somehow evolving into strong armed controlling facist dictators. The way of this country lies in th will of a select powerful few. Not much unlike those we currently make war against. Closing a blind eye to even the smallest of freedoms denied quikly evolves into outright tyranny. Remeber who said give me liberty or give me death?
O come on, why did it take so long for IL Senate to bring SB 1381 to a floor vote. Sen. Haine said he had the votes a month ago. IL has to wait another year(next spring) before the House might bring it back ? This really sucks.
– LINE-BY-LINE Rebuttals and refutations to recent news-OPED
against proposed Illinois Medi-Cann legislation:
This OPED article has more holes than Swiss-Cheese:
Rebuttals to Mr. Biffany’s OPED are in BOLD Italics!!!
(John Biffany’s FAULTY, insensitive…)
LOGIC ELIMINATES MEDICAL MARIJUANA
by John Biffany, (Source:Journal Standard)
Regional News
22 May 2009
Illinois
——-
JB:
Two bills have been introduced in the Illinois Legislature
intending to make legal the medicinal use of smoked marijuana.
RE:
– Smoking is NOT the only means of ingesting Medical-Cannabis.
Please get up-to-date, sir…
JB:
The companion bills,
entitled the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act,
have been filed in both the Illinois House and Senate and
are supported by a surprisingly large percentage of the Democratic caucuses in both chambers.
RE:
Praise the God-of-Creation for this!!!
JB:
Legislative members,
however, have been misinformed by supporters
regarding both the impact the bills will have upon Illinois and
the long term motivations of the bill’s supporters.
RE:
Who are you to say
“Legislative members…have been misinformed ”
Just because they’re not in line with
your woefully-insufficient knowledge???
JB:
Lobbyists are making no attempt to conceal
their long range goal
for Illinois:
cannabis legalization.
RE:
– What is wrong with that?
(“cannabis legalization”)
– There is no good and valid reason
for cannabis to remain illegal any longer!
-The policy of banning certain plants is of a
very “14th century” witch-hunt mentality.
THIS MUST END NOW!!!
JB:
The Illinois bill is similar to one that passed in California several years ago.
RE:
– Is that really so???
Have you compared,
(word-for-word),
actual texts from BOTH state’s bills???
– My own observation is that
the Illinois bill is far stricter than California’s
from the very onset.
JB:
– In Northern California,
marijuana has become the most lucrative agricultural commodity in the region
( surpassing wine ),
and is known in California as the “cash crop.”
– California is fast overtaking Mexico as the exporter of the marijuana
being smuggled into the Midwestern and Eastern United States.
RE:
Mr. Biffany,
You’re confusing THE DRAWBACKS OF
the illicit, undergroud markets,
(under the FILTHY-LUCRATIVE policy of Cannabis-Prohibition)
with those of legit caregivers and medi-cann patients!!!
JB:
During the past year,
more cannabis loads were interdicted along Interstate 80 in Illinois
originating from California than from Mexico.
Is Illinois poised to become the next supplier of marijuana to the East Coast?
RE:
Did you know ???
CANNABIS is,
in actuality,
an AGRICULTRAL-PRODUCT!!!
– What more appropo place to grow it,
than from within the nation’s “bread-basket”!!!
(By the way, cannabis requires minimal-fertilizers,
no pesticides!!!)
JB:
The law is nominally intended for terminally ill patients.
In California, 40 percent of medical marijuana patients are
between 21 and 30 years of age, and not terminally ill.
As the current legislation is written,
anyone complaining of chronic pain is eligible to obtain a license.
RE:
– Who are you to NOT consider chronic pain as a valid reason???
If WHOLE-cannabis ITSELF is the safest and most efficacious medicine for
a person’s pain-alleviation, then who are you to deny us?
(MAY YOU EXPERIENCE OUR unalleviated PAIN THREE-FOLD!!!
No…make that TENFOLD!!!)
JB:
-Proponents of the bill claim that compounds in cannabis
have medicinal properties that ease the pain and suffering of certain terminally ill patients.
If so, then those chemical compounds should be isolated and researched.
RE:
– Whole-cannabis is STILL SAFER
and more efficacious than single,
isolated, synthetic cannabinoids…
AND
less expensive than anything
churned-out by a pharmaceutical company…
– Just ask any medi-cann patient who has
had the opportunity to try both Marinol,
(a single, isolated synthetic cannabinoid),
and whole cannabis-herb.
JB:
– In the United States,
there is a process for creating and vetting medicines
that should not be averted with this particular chemical compound.
Several plant based substances have been converted to medicines
( aspirin and morphine, for example ), including Opium plants.
RE:
White-willow,
(the botanical-origin of aspirin),
is not a villified, ‘illegal plant’,
nor
should opium-poppies or cannabis be, either!
They’re simply plants!!!
FYI,
– THC is only ONE OF THE MANY
medicinally-useful compounds
found in whole-cannabis.
– The folly of Marinol is that it only contains ONE,
isolated synthetic cannabinoid, not counter-balanced,
nor interacting synergistly
with other cannabinoids normally present in whole-cannabis.
JB:
– In no medicinal prescription
has smoking been determined to be the best delivery system of the drug.
The American Medical Association also
opposes smoking as a viable delivery system.
RE:
Mr. Biffany,
– Smoking is NOT the only means of
ingesting / utilizing Medical-Cannabis.
(PLEASE, enlighten yourself to the
whole truth about medical-cannabis).
– Have you ever heard of tinctures, ointments,
edibles or low-temperature aromative-vaporization?!?
JB:
Dr. Rafael Meshulam from Hebrew University has been
conducting brain injury research for over 20 years.
He has isolated compounds from the cannabis sativa plant
that experimentation has shown has some promising medicinal qualities for trauma patients.
He has patented those medicines with injectable delivery systems,
and a large Israeli pharmaceutical company is working toward commercializing the products.
RE:
– Is this merely for Big-Pharma profits,
(i.e. bio-piracy of Nature),
or for use alongside natural, botanical sources?
– And, why only injectable delivery-systems?
(as opposed to NON-INVASIVE
nebulizer / aspirator delivery-systems).
JB:
– Featured in a National Geographic Explorer episode entitled
“Marijuana Nation,” Dr. Meshulam questions the
smoking of cannabis as a crude medical delivery system.
RE:
– AGAIN, Mr. Biffany,
Smoking is NOT the
only means of administering whole medical-cannabis…
AND…
– If Dr. Meshulam is truly unaware of the
ADVANCED smokeless-technologies,
(AROMATICIZERS, NEBULIZERS, VAPORIZERS),
for utilizing medical-cannabis,
then they need to do further
research on the inherent safety and effectiveness of
these emergent medical-technologies.
JB:
– On the program,
he wonders aloud how a doctor prescribing
smokable cannabis can be sure of what dosage any particular patient is receiving.
RE:
Mr. Biffany,
I understand your concern.
– Have you ever heard of
the U.S. Pharmacopia’s guide for producing
standardized botanical-extracts???
(A turn-of-the-20th-century methodology for
creating herbal-extracts of known potency and concentration).
– Please,
if truly concerned, do familiarize yourself.
JB:
When doctors prescribe any other drug,
the dosage recommendation is extremely specific.
There is a substantial difference, for example,
between giving a patient 30 milligrams or 10 grams of a particular drug.
RE:
Cannabis / cannabinoids has / have a very high therapeutic-index,
(in other words, very low risk of toxicity / lethality,
comparative to most presently available medications…
Cannabis is safer than aspirin, in terms of LD-50).
JB:
Marijuana, on the other hand,
can range by as much a 3 percent to over 30 percent THC content.
Is this a controlled medical drug?
RE:
Medi-cann patients are,
(AMAZINGLY),
able to titrate their dosage-intake…
(Consuming only the amounts which they need, then stopping…),
regardless of initial cannabis ‘potency’.
– Besides,
cannabis-cultivars and hybrids, cannabis extracts can be analysed for
medicinal-component levels / cannabinoid-fraction percentages,
and labled accordingly, as whole-cannabis medications.
(THC is only ONE of the MANY
medicinally-USEFUL compounds found in whole-cannabis).
JB:
Beyond the murky medicinal link,
RE:
Only ‘Murky’, because the ‘facts’ you rely upon and present
are likewise so.
there are several other potential community impacts that are contained in the bill.
The bill allows each license holder to grow up to seven plants.
RE:
So…!?!
JB:
Given that each plant yields an average of
one-half pound of smokable marijuana,
and each half pound of marijuana equates
to 454 cigarettes,
how could each patient consume 454 joints produced by each plant?
RE:
Why are you only thinking in terms of “joints” ???
– If a medi-cann patient is utilizing non-smokable forms of whole-cannabis,
then “number-of-joints” assertions become ENTIRELY IRRELEVENT!!!
JB:
Coincidentally, each patient is also allowed a care giver who can also grow 7 plants,
making the yield for the patient actually 3,178 joints.
RE:
Your assumption,
(“number of pounds / number of joints of smokable marijuana per-plant”),
is very-inaccurate, NOT valid…
BECAUSE:
1) Some medi-cann patients will opt for smokeless means,
which requires more cannabis than if they were merely smoking it.
BECAUSE:
2) You’re quoting maximum plant-yields,
under best, ideal conditions,
by an expert-grower.
– How many medical-cannabis licensees,
(caregivers or patients),
would be THAT successful???
JB:
– In the proposed legislation,
there are no restrictions for who may be licensed patients.
Police officers, day care workers, bus drivers, pilots, teachers,
elected officials, surgeons, paramedics, fire fighters, and air traffic
controllers can all be medical marijuana consumers under the law
( they just cannot be impaired while flying a plane or driving a bus ).
However, there is no objective definition of “impairment.”
RE:
“Performance-testing”,
irrespective of inactive cannabinoid-metabolite levels,
ought to be the criteria-of-evalution…
– The impairment-hazards of medi-cann
fall WITHIN THE RANGE of currently-available OTC meds.
(Even though most OTC-Meds are far more lethal than cannabis).
JB:
-The law also gives landlords and property owners
no way to restrict or prevent licensed patients from
growing cannabis inside their buildings.
-The odor, mold and chemical residue issues that
police find after raiding these indoor facilities make the buildings
uninhabitable and will be expensive for property owners to mitigate.
RE:
Mr. Biffany,
the indoor grow-hazards
you’ve mentioned are
only true for illicit,
for-profit grow-ops
under current-policy of Prohibition 2.
JB:
Residential properties are ill-suited to commercial agricultural operations of any of any type.
RE:
Mr. Biffany,
How does a 7 plant medi-cann / caregiver-grow equate to being a
“commercial agricultural operation” ???
(Especially if the cannbis is being grown for private, individual. medical-use).
– WOULD “commercial agricultural operation”
also include OUTDOOR vegetable-gardens,
or INDOOR food-crop starter-seedlings?
(At one’s own residence,
for own consumption of said edible-produce).
JB:
Fifty-percent of residential fires in California now originate from grows gone bad.
RE:
You’re CONFUSING / CONFLATING hazards of underground,
opportunistic, profiteering, Prohibition-Borne indoor-grows,
(with low concern for building-property-maintanence,
proper, non-evasive electrical-usage, responsible-growing-practices),
with those OF genuine, LICENSED,
INDOOR medical cultivation…
(Of which, in practice, would be done responsibly
if given guidelines on how to do so,
for reduction of excessive moisture,
mold, circuit-overloading and plant-borne odors).
JB:
This is not a road that Illinois wants to travel down.
RE:
– Not the in the way your OPED has portrayed it…
(If given the right spin / slant, people would ALSO
be convinced to outlaw water!!!).
JB:
If there are therapeutic benefits to compounds within the cannabis plant,
let them be extracted and delivered safely like every other medicine.
RE:
Mr. Biffany,
– The best medical-cannabis experts in California
and Europe have developed
the safest delivery-mechanisms, extraction-methods for
whole medical-cannabis,
INCLUDING…
Tinctures, edibles, ointments / topical creams,
low-temperature herbal aromatization / vaporization,
(Vaporization, for effective therapeutic-immediacy of smoking,
minus the hazards thereof).
http://opengov.ideascale.com/
just type the word Marijuana in the search box and then click the search botton, and all kinds of questions come up for ya to vote on
What happened in New Jersey? The meeting was 10:00 am this morning. Was Medical Marijuana passed?
#61 NeuroGenesis1:29
Nice job on the rebutle to that propoganda piece. I saw that article on Norml News and almost wrote one my self. We cant let stuff like this go unanswered anylonger, so thank you sir.
#64 Da Vinci Says:
June 5th, 2009 at 1:27 am
RE:
Da Vinci,
– Make it a daily-practice to dissect
their spurious arguments.
– Copy news-article(s) to a word-processor,
save, then preface each section with initials
(and appropo text-modifying HTML-TAGS,
for bolding and italics),
when posting to NORML-Blog.
EXAMPLES,
(Replace left and right brackets with
less-than / greater-than symbols):
[b] bold [/b]
[i] italics [/i]
– Firefox BBCode Add-On is also very helpful
for easily-creating text-emphasis.
thank you for your dedicated work. and thank you for this informational site…the truth shall prevail..hypocrites, corrupt officials and enforcers…bandits..corporate terrorists..beware…karma will be at your door step..let freedom ring!