Gallup released new polling data today that shows an overwhelming majority of Americans want marijuana to be legalized. According to their survey, 58% of Americans support legalizing marijuana, while only 39% are opposed. This is up significantly from the last time Gallup polled the question in 2012, when only 48% of Americans were in favor and 50% were opposed. For historical perspective, the first time they surveyed this question in 1969 a paltry 12% of Americans were in favor of legalization.
The support for marijuana legalization has seen unprecedented momentum in the past several years. Gallup observes, “Whatever the reasons for Americans’ greater acceptance of marijuana, it is likely that this momentum will spur further legalization efforts across the United States. Advocates of legalizing marijuana say taxing and regulating the drug could be financially beneficial to states and municipalities nationwide.”
“The American people have opened their eyes to the failure that is marijuana prohibition and there is no putting the genie back in the bottle. Following the successful passage of marijuana legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington in 2012, the people of this country see that a new approach to marijuana policy is both required and possible,” stated NORML Communications Director Erik Altieri, “The majority of Americans now agree that it is time to legalize and regulate. The issue can no longer be ignored or sidelined. Legalization is now the mainstream position and supporters of perpetuating our war on marijuana will continue to be further relegated to the fringe.”
The strongest support was coming from those ages 18-29 (67%), ages 30-49 (62%), Democrats (65%), and Independents (62%). The only major demographic groups lacking majority support are those 65+ (45%) and Republicans (35%).
Full poll results can be viewed here.
Never thought I would see if legal in my lifetime, guess I was wrong. . .makes me happy.
These numbers are great but are these numbers being sent to the house, senate or any other government officials or the president? Do they care how many lives can be made better? Do they care about all the sick people dieing who could be saved by this wonderful plant? God gave this plant to us to be healthy. Doctors know it helps in many many ways! The government is very wrong to keep us from this harmless plant! They are not doctors! What right for they have to keep people from medicine that cures? We the People should have the right to medical treatment! We the People should have the right to be listened to! The government should work for us not against us!
Any political party could seize this issue as an opportunity to expand its power base in the polls by making it a platform issue. They could and should it come to fruition, promptly screw it up as only government can. This issue needs responsible legislation by representatives that are forward thinking and truly concerned for what is good for the American people.
This is very exciting. I kind if feel like it’s less due to more people understanding that marijuana is not dangerous and has medicinal qualities that can immensely improve the quality of life in many , than it is due to the old people that were opposed to marijuana in 1969 due to government propaganda and lies are now dying off and the next generations are and always have been increasingly in favor of it. The younger generations are more in favor of it because they have tried it, due to its wide, non-age-restricted availability, and have found that they like it and are not afraid of it. The availability of it being due to the black market in which it has been sold only giving more evidence to the fact that the war on drugs has failed.
I wonder how much money we’ve spent to relearn the lesson of prohibition.
We have the information readily available on the internet for these polling numbers. In the past, before the internet, we had little choice but to take the Govt’s word for it that marijuana is an extremely dangerous substance. Most of us now know better!
One huge question is: Why hasn’t either the Democrats or Republicans capitalized on this issue since the one that does stands to win greatly?
For now, I am very much Independent and will absolutely NOT vote for anyone that wants to continue prohibition.
I live in VA and will definitely be voting for Independent candidate Sarvis for Governor!
It will even get HIGHER with no more political and social stereotyping citizens who want it legal.
This is the first time in history that you have a majority who have either smoked pot or know someone who has. The scare tactics the government has used in the past no longer work. ‘Marijuana Madness’ is considered a joke, not a warning.
@ Michael
I agree with much of what you say. While I believe the education of the people on the issue of MJ has certainly helped, as had the legalization of MMJ in many states, I also believe it is a case of changing demographics. The old-timers who grew up afraid of MJ, saturated as they were with propaganda, are dying off, and being replaced with young people who harbor no such fears.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–just a matter of time before the majority of the country has legalization. The parties and most of the politicians will fall in line as the polls continue to show more and more Americans favoring legalization. They’ll have no choice if they want to stay in office.
I don’t know why its illegal to begin with….so the pharmaceutical companies can make their billions
58% could be (just about) suppressed by those who still ignore the tide of public opinion. When it hits about 65 % I think you will have won.
Legalisation is now an accepted stance to hold on the issue of how to regulate cannabis – it is no longer a point of view that people will persecute you for. (even if they still feel the need to challenge it)
Great News !!
@Michael:
There’s also the people like myself, in the 30-49 demographic, who don’t actually use but know plenty of people who do, or who have in the past, and have learned that marijuana users are not detriments to society AND, by having so many consistent accounts of marijuana use that completely contradict the propaganda (and in some cases, have gone on to do their own research online to learn the facts) have come to the logical conclusion that marijuana is infinitely safer than any of the legal options, has many important medicinal uses, and that keeping it illegal is more of a detriment to our society than legalizing it, by an astronomical margin.
But yes, I do agree that the biggest factor is probably that every eighty year old who kicks the bucket means less support for the prohibitionists (as mean as that sounds, it’s also true). Not only do they have a minority on their side now, they have an ever-decreasing minority, because they’re never going to be able to propagandize this issue to the younger generation with the success they need. Like the article said, the genie’s out of the bottle.
GODS GIFT TO MAN…CANNABIS… Dont screw it up this time…millions have died and suffered so the rich could get richer!
I am shocked that Americans 65 and older are the only age group that still opposes legalizing marijuana (being this is the beat and hippie generation). Still, support among this group has jumped 14 percentage points since 2011. I will need to see a breakdown on that age group. I think it must be mostly the 70 years and older people that oppose it.
Wow, 39 percent still oppose legalization…. That’s a lot of people with their head up their ass.
i just saw the NBC newscast and bryan willians reported it as 52% in favor. i’d like a clarification in the exact percentage.
Just today my 86 year old ww2 veteran father who all my life preached the evils of marijuana and drug use. Stated that he wished that the government would legalize marijuana and that they have lied about marijuana since ww2.
What ever happened to hemp for victory? And that even Pat Robertson wants to legalize it.
Wow, how this man has mellowed!
For those who do not believe in cannabis as a medicine watch the documentary called Cannabis Rising: The key in the Lock. After seeing this video I can’t believe the US Goverment has sold out to profits instead of its people. This is a medicine and this comes from a police officer.
This is marijuana reform in a nutshell: Every new generation will bring with it their own system of social values and norms. Some of these will be in stark contrast to the beliefs of the previous generations. My favorite example is rock n’ roll music. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, the baby boomers spearheaded this new musical movement. Their parents thought rock n’ roll was pure evil and that anyone who listened to it was somehow ruining their life. Looking back, that all seems pretty silly. Rock n’ roll is simply one of many legitimate musical genres and you would be hard pressed to find anyone living in the United States who still sees it as the “evil” it was once labeled as. Flash forward 50 years, and marijuana is the new rock n’ roll. The future generations WILL accept it for what it is, a natural herb with extraordinary capabilities and potential. However, right now, we are in a transition period. If the older folks in our generation were able to realize this, it would make things much easier. We aren’t asking for their approval, but rather their recognition that marijuana belongs to our generation and the next. It is NORMAL for them to disagree, but they must know that it WILL be legal and accepted in due time. Why not make that time now? Rock on.
Isn’t the graph beautiful? Better access to internet, 40 years of busted lies and a failed health care system that has driven our retiring baby boomers to self medicate has contributed greatly to this epic epiphany in American society. It amazes me that the curriculum in medicine I was studying to work for NIH never even mentioned the endocannabinoid system. An entire organ-regulating neurological system affecting hormonal, microbial and homeostatic balance within the human body has only begun to break the confines of federally sanctioned research oppression, all thanks to a kind plant that contains medicine so powerful it has forgiven a nation of profiteering capitalists from its own prohibition…
Although the 58% should have me excited. Its been provided over and over again the elected officials in Washington could care less what the american people want. Cant believe that in these times and age. There are still people out there that believe the same old stories about marijuana. Its addicting, well im 56 and have smoked my whole life. Im on a job search and haven’t smoked for 2 months. I went threw no withdrawal at all. Again with the addiction. I suffer from back spasms it is fine in the governments standards that i was given 120 vikadins a month for 4 years. And yes became addicted. Went threw awful withdrawals. And hade two doctors tell me they didnt think i could be addicted from them. They wanted me to just lower my dose. Got to a point I couldnt get out of bed till i had a pill. I now control pain by smoking marijuana. I dont have pain every day. And wake up fealing great. But this is a crime. And the myth it leads to harder drugs. I have no desire for them. I have lost a sister to drinking. Witch is legal. I have never known or heard of anyone. Smoking thereself to death form marijuana. So why am I going through all this. Anyone on this page reading this. Knows everything I’m saying. So back to the 58 percent. As long as police officials and government use words like heroin and cocaine. In the same sentence as marijuana. I can’t see it meaning anything. I sure hope im wrong. Would love to see it
I was injured on the job in 1993.Low back blowout with 4 disks injured resulting in surgery a year after therapy and many different medications that did nothing.I tried smoking some cannabis and it worked.the pain was definitely not as bad and I could go back to work.Now that medical marijuana has come to Delaware maybe I wont have to break the law by bying it illegaly.After 17 years of self medicating can I get a medical card to buy it legally.
Now at the age of 57 I have severe arthritis in one shoulder and it is starting in the other shoulder.Cannabis also works better than anything I have tried to date
Im 51, i a firm believer in the medical properties of mj. been. smoking it for 35 yrs. I’ve had 9 abdominal surgeries, n a spinal fusion. i live n a state where its not legal for medical mj so i have been denied my meds. because i smoke. where’s the justice.
Sorry gave wrong e.mail. this one is correct
Growing up in a culture where the govt. prohibition efforts invade our children’s schools for slanting their perspectives and turning their innocent efforts into sweeping the leo needs for control towards the govts efforts to control their parents. No wonder their are more home schooled efforts growing nationally. It threatens the govt’s core attempts to enter the privacy of our home. The Fusion Centers are already online….The pendulum swings both directions.
President Obama has said if you want to get something done let the American
people vote on it. Understanding that would you be willing to put Marijuana to a
vote to allow it. Or would you agree by the polls 58% that it is the will of the people and remove Marijuana from being a class 1 drug. All we want is a vote just like you did let the whole United States be the vioce thay are.
now its not just Americans pushing for this-
http://gazette.com/colorado-marijuana-industry-on-display-at-drug-policy-talks/article/1508114
President Obama has said if you want to get something done let the American
people vote on it. Understanding that would you be willing to put Marijuana to a
vote to allow to the American people the chance ? Or remove it as a class one
drug . And let states decide.
It would be a blessing to have cannibas legalized.Both medicinal and recreational.Over the years I have had to put so much medicine in my body, You can only imagine the side affects I’ve had to deal with. Now I’m dealing with twice as many health issues and a brain tumor. Like I said it will be a blessing for me. Let’s do it, We need this.
There may be some excusable cause on the 65 and older including republicans, such as, the risk of loosing their retirement and their home because they are still being owned and threatened by the federal government or corporations that are run by their master who gets support from the federal government and various agencies that benefits from keeping cannabis illegal.
If you want cannabis legal in your state ,you need to turn your state BLUE 🙂
I guess we really have to relive the threats of a budget shutdown again when it comes time to raise the debt ceiling before a high enough number of the Congressional dummies in D.C. will remove the federal barriers so that we can get all the freakin’ money from legal cannabis.
Those b%stards will cut ever other program before they cut anything that calls off the federal dogs of cannabis prohibition.
Manufacture the event that creates critical mass for which Congress gives its consent to legalize cannabis. Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent.
Do it.
I hope that the supreme court will consider the will of the people. I have been in favor of legalization since I became aware of what marjuana is. I have never been able to drink and have tried because it is legal. I am one who would rejoice the legalization of marjuana because I have never gotten sick or had a hangover from even the highest potency marjuana. Legalization should be passed by all states and the federal government.
Make it so: believe it to be legal.
@ Melissa,
I’m sure the majority of those “65 and above” are the older bunch of that demographic, those 75 and above. Those who were in their 20s during the 1950s and before.
Of course, you have to remember that during the beat and hippy generations of the late ’50s and ’60s, not everyone was toking. For every person in their teens and twenties and thirties who was toking, there were probably two or three at least who weren’t.
And the conservatives and rednecks were a bit different back then. Today, even many conservatives and rednecks toke. Back then, most of them didn’t–liquor still being their main drug of choice. In fact, back then most conservatives mocked and hated stoners; considered them a bunch of liberal longhairs. The song, “Okie from Muskogee” summed up the attitudes pretty good. I’m glad things changed in that respect.
The Louisiana Public Broadcasting TV station is airing a special program to debate legalizing marijuana.
http://beta.lpb.org/index.php/publicsquare/topic/10_13_-_pot_or_not_the_decriminalization_debate/
The Red voters…
They turn blue, tomorrow…
And shinin cannabis…
All through my head…
The tiny islands….
Of hemp… sag downstream…
Covering footprints…
Dressed in Red…
And Marijuana…
it Cries,
…Legalize.
Will Marijuana ever remember?
The names it has blown in the past?
And with its buds, its old age, and its wisdom,
It whispers, “No,
This will be the last.”
And Mary Jane,
she cries,
Legalize…
@Pax
Colorado is a Red state
The epic Legalization received more votes than Obbummer got.
All Politicans are puppets that need to be reminded that come Election Day.
If the younger people would get out and vote we would change things in our favor. The older people in which the majority are against this movement are the ones more likely to make it to the polls.
Colorado voted for Obama during this last election; that would make it a blue state.
Sorry, this was me, Evening Bud, making the post to Weed the People, not WtP making a post to himself, LOL.
Law enforcement is prohibitions’ greatest ally. Don’t vote for ex-attorney generals, prosecutors, etc. into higher offices, lest you want to live in a police state. These people LOVE f’n up your life. All over a plant. Find something you like, know you’ll come back for more, and then make it illegal. Gotta keep the Justice system busy, lest we don’t need them. Anheuser-Busch has it right….Grab some buds! And vape them up! Support NORML and we’ll end this injustice!
Here’s your Republican Response from Texas:
Dear Mr. (pro-cannabis guy):
Thank you for contacting me regarding proposals to decriminalize hemp cultivation in the United States. I appreciate having the benefit of your views on this matter.
While I recognize that hemp varieties were once common in American agriculture, and that imported hemp fiber and by-products still serve a number of legitimate commercial purposes, I share the concern of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that decriminalizing hemp farming could increase the incidence of illicit marijuana cultivation and complicate federal surveillance and enforcement measures. However, you may be certain that I will keep your views in mind should relevant legislation be considered during the 113th Congress.
I appreciate the opportunity to represent Texas in the United States Senate. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.
Sincerely,
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator
517 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-2934
Fax: (202) 228-2856
http://www.cornyn.senate.gov
I’m telling you, we gotta organize the Democratic Party in Texas if we want cannabis legalized. Here is Senator Cornyn; our blantant serving of denial.
@Julian.
You are woefully uninformed if you think the Texas democratic party is going to stand behind this issue either. I have contacted both sides and got like response.Specifically Henry Cuellar. I would sooner vote for a socialist than I would a dem anyway, same difference I guess? LOL!
What a dimwit bozo this John Cornyn guy is, “I share the concern of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that decriminalizing hemp farming could increase the incidence of illicit marijuana cultivation and complicate federal surveillance and enforcement measures.”
Translation: I don’t give a crap that the US continues to spend billions of our tax dollars enforcing the long lost War On Drugs and further infringing on Americans right to privacy and to choose what is best for themselves.
I wonder who else’s payroll he’s on.
Get out the vote people!!!
do it ,it will save my life.. I need it now’ tired of these dam pills, they are kill me;; let it get legalize
U.S. Senator John Cornyn is most likely to be voted out. His supporter were the wealthy and the naïve, and they are both declining in numbers.
@ Don Devine,
Hope you never use Social Security or Medicare . . . that would make you a . . . egads, Socialist! Anyway, the demographics of Texas are changing like they are everywhere else . . . sooner or later Texas gonna be blue, then it’ll legalize pot.
As the older generations who are influenced by reefer madness die off, newer generations are understanding of marijuana. That’s why the majority are favoring marijuana and it will grow higher and higher through time.
@Dunkerella: I think we all know who’s payroll they’re on, and it’s the same payroll the mayor of Denver is on, to go against the will of the overwhelming majority to try and re-criminalize MJ in Colorado.
1. Drug testing industry
2. Drug rehab facilities
3. Private prisons
And at this point, I wouldn’t put it past the diabetes and cancer industries (that is, the industries that make billions off of treating currently “incurable” diseases and have an interest in eighty-sixing an herb that shows strong promise not only as an inexpensive treatment but a potential cure and/or prevention for those diseases.)
Anyone have any more enemies to add to this list? I think, what with us now having not only the majority on our side but a momentum capable of advancing us a full ten points in a single year, when it took forty-three years to go from 12% to 48%, it might be good to start making our sh$t list–companies to actively oppose, companies to actively boycott, and such. We could really shake things up if, for example, we started giving most of our business to stores that don’t drug test their employees (already my standard policy, and believe me, they’re there, you just need to look–I live in a state that has only decriminalized but is nowhere near legalizing yet, and I somehow manage to do all my shopping at non-testing stores, so it’s not impossible). We could make more of an impact if we started writing letters to those companies that test to let them know they are not winning any PR points from us, and that we would be more likely to shop there if they changed that policy.
Imagine how much less money the testing industry would have to lobby our politicians and buy them off if they lost a lot of corporate customers because we made it more costly for them to test than the government tax kickbacks could give them. Plus, PR is important, and a major reason most companies test. If we started making corporate America aware that we are not impressed with their testing programs and actually disapprove of them, they might reconsider violating their employees.
Given that we have the majority now and it seems to be exponentially increasing, I think we could do that and a whole lot more to promote legalization, end drug testing, and eliminate the failed Drug War.
I think if everyone in America (minus those over 70 years of age and those profiting from prohibition) could vote on whether or not marijuana should be legal and regulated like alcohol (nevermind the fact that marijuana is about 100 times safer…) that the percentage voting in favor of legalization would probably be close to 90%.
It’s disgraceful and shameful that our country continues this fierce predjudice towards a non-toxic plant that so many of us love!
Pay Attention – Do Not vote for anyone who wants to continue prohibition; or is not for ending prohibition! We have got to get rid of these parasites that are keeping America from living up to it’s potential. Locking up good Americans by the hundreds of thousands each years because of idiotic marijuana laws hurts us all more than most people would ever imagine!
The NYC mayoral election could be used as THE Jerico event that makes the walls of cannabis prohibition crumble. If you get a pro-cannabis mayor who allows cannabis sales for medical and recreational purposes, not dissimilar to Amsterdam-style coffeeshops, barring a ballot or legislation that gets voted on to legalize cannabis regardless of New York state law. All Governor Cuomo has to say then is he’s not going to waste state resources to enforce prohibition where the public clearly doesn’t want cannabis prohibition enforced in the city. That puts even more pressure on the feds to enforce their own prohibition on cannabis, something they are ever increasingly understaffed and underfunded to do all by themselves. Feds are used to relying on state and local law enforcement to do their bidding.
Wall Street should actually welcome the savings and income stream coming into the legal economy from the underground economy.
NYC ought to have a really great selection of types of cannabis products, not only for the residents but also for the tourists. Another great reason to visit. Looks like Alec Baldwin on MSNBC is the Big Apple guy, having interviewed DeBlasio already.
NYC needs to go for the money grab from legal cananbis so they don’t have to wind up like Detroit or some of these other cities that keep kicking their problems down the road to future adminstrations.
Its just like a republicant to do all kinds of evil greedy things and then to turn around with a straight face and blame the democrats! Socialists? Try republicans comitting espionage trying to default and shut down gov cause theyre childish and lost. Bad move. Damage is done… To them! On another note
Weed should at least be legal for scientific purposes so we can see if its really bad or good for EVERYONE! Not smoking for a while cause I have school. God bless
You don’t need 58% nationwide, you only need 5% in Ohio and Florida.
i really hope that it is made legal worldwide
if you support prohibition then you support organized crime
Polling is not an exact science. The actual number of Americans and American residents who want cannabis legalized is likely much higher.
Some have resigned themselves to total secrecy after observing what the police have learned is “proper procedure” regarding an essentially harmless medicine when compared to anything less.
Let’s see, some unknown person calls you for a poll and asks you if you approve of a fraudulent scheduling of drugs that has kept cannabis from legalization, and that is used to rationalize imprisonment, forfeiture, or killing, without any sound reasoning or justification.
How likely will people be to say “yes I approve getting rid of that law” when they’ve had lies and appeals to fear forced on them through social engineering and conditioning that has created a knee-jerk reaction of associating “cannabis” and “bad” together in an incoherent, unquestioned reaction in the mind. Someone said it’s impossible to hold two contradicting thoughts simultaneously in the mind, but social engineering has proved that false, since “bad” is something that law enforcement does TO you for your own choices.
There are more factors involved. 58% is very high, considering there were likely respondents who would even lie and say “no” even though it’s not in their hearts. In a police state that denies reason, sincerely and honestly good reasons for some policy or contrived “law” still exist, who the hell will say they support going against big brother? to a stranger who calls?
The percentage for legalization is without doubt, larger than the figure realized.
@Dunkerella, google this Senator with keywords like “tobacco”, “cigarette” etc. to check how much campaign money he received from a predatory empire with “collateral damage” of 6,000,000 premature deaths a year. Republican candidates have been getting almost twice as much tobacco money as Democrat through recent years. Legal cannabis will make one-hitters and vaporizers unambiguously legal, eliminating any excuse for Hot Burning Overdose Monoxide “joint” or $igarette format, causing tobacco industry profits to crash.
Isn’t it sad and ironic that in a supposedly democratic and free country that our leaders at the highest levels of our Govt are still not paying any attention to this issue. Oh, I’m sure they know about it but as far as actually doing what is clearly the will of the people, they continue to either bury their heads in the sand or to fund only studies looking for potential dangers of our favorite herb since they have been paid for by one or more organizations to keep prohibition in place.
They disgust me and I wish to God that every voter out there would take note and get rid of these people as soon as they get the chance!
The worldwide legalization of cannabis needs to give the U.S. more geopolitical hegemony if the political elite and power elite are to let it happen.
1. Cannabis will be traded in U.S. dollars on international commodity markets and stock exchanges.
2. Areas of cannabis production and trade will be open to both U.S. government and its asset corporations and NGOs, and will provide information and intelligence in new regions, hopefully more reliable intelligence.
Norht Korea, Middle East, South America, Latin America, wherever cannabis is produced and traded they can make it legal and the poor dirt farmers, campesinos, don’t have to fear the drug lords because it will be legal and everyone will have a legal recourse.
3. Legal cannabis can provide legal, taxable businesses and JOBS!
Unfortunately this country is becoming more and more about what the corporations want and less about what the American citizen wants.
@Jeb – My experience has proven that your words about people being reluctant to admit their true wishes regarding marijuana. Almost everyone I know who uses marijuana is also employed and would lose their job if their employer found out. Others fear their children could be taken from them. The, there’s also the fear of incarceration… I’m pretty sure that a large number of our Senators and Congressmen believe that marijuana should be legal but keep silent out of fear.
IF we could have a nationwide vote to let the people decide whether or not to legalize marijuana in this country, I’m about 99% sure it would pass.
IF our senate and congress could have a hidden vote it would probably pass. As it is, when they vote it goes on their record and, out of fear, most of them choose what they believe to be the safe answer; i.e. to continue prohibiton.
Indeed, out of everyone I know who consumes marijuana (and I have known many in my lifetime), I am the only one who is doing anything to try to help change the law or who makes any donations to marijuana related organizations like NORML.
It is really sad and utterly ridiculous that America must endure this idiocy and to live in fear of law enforcement. This could once again be a great country if we could get past this great stain on our country and start working together again – users and non-users.
Factoid – every single non-user I’ve debated the prohibition issue with has agreed that it should be legal; 100%!!! (That would be approximately 50 people over the years…)
One more thing – I find it very difficult to believe that President Obama truly believes that prohibition should continue. He is one of us in that he too speaks and votes out of fear rather than doing what is truly in our hearts and what is truly the right thing to do. At least he has come a great deal closer to doing the right thing than any president since Jimmy Carter; who in my opinion is the greatest president to have served during my lifetime.
Cannabis legalization has been stagnating in committe in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, yet there is a strong need for it to move forward. Our politicians needed to be shamed into legalizing cannabis, at the very least for medical reasons, because if they don’t they might as well make a media announcement saying they don’t give a shit about this girl or whether she lives or dies.
Item: Article from 10/28/2013 Lancaster Newspaper
Mother of daughter with epilepsy makes case for medical marijuanaIntelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Updated Oct 28, 2013 10:13
Originally Published Oct 28, 2013 00:09
By TOM KNAPP
Staff Writer
tknapp@lnpnews.com
Dana Ulrich is seeing her daughter disappear.
“Lorelei used to play and laugh and do what kids do,” Ulrich says of her 6-year-old blond-haired girl.
“I see that Lorelei fading day by day. She rarely smiles, she rarely plays. She barely eats. She’s fading away before my eyes, and these are side effects of the medicines she’s forced to take every day.”
Lorelei, her mother explains, has epilepsy.
“It is intractable in nature. That means that, over the last four years, she hasn’t had any successful treatments,” Ulrich says.
Medical marijuana might help. In fact, recent trials have shown great success in treating children with similar conditions, Ulrich says.
“I’ve been researching alternative options for almost a year now, looking online mostly, researching everything I can. That’s the thing that kept popping up,” she says.
“Initially, I disregarded it.”
Then, in August, CNN aired a documentary, “Weed,” that featured a medical marijuana success.
In the program, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reversed his opposition to medical marijuana.
“It is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana,” Gupta said.
“We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.”
Charlotte — the young girl featured in the documentary — saw a decrease from 300-plus seizures per week to just one or two, Ulrich says.
“Marijuana has been proven to significantly decrease or stop altogether seizure activity,” she says.
The problem for Lorelei is that marijuana — even when used solely for medical reasons — is still illegal in Pennsylvania.
Ulrich, who lives on the Berks County side of Reinholds, is trying to change that.
“She actually broke my heart the other night,” Ulrich says. “I have been very forthright with her about her condition — you know, she doesn’t really understand her condition because she’s had it since before she was 2 years old, so it’s normal for her.
“But she asked me, ‘Why won’t those people let me have my cannabis medicine? If they know it will help me get better, why can’t I have it?’ She doesn’t understand why she can’t have it, and I can’t really give her a good explanation.”
***
Specifically, Ulrich says, Lorelei has “primary generalized epilepsy — that’s a trash can diagnosis when they don’t have a more specific name to put on it.”
What it means, though, is Lorelei has seizures.
“Our best estimate is about 400 seizures a day. That’s down — she was having 1,400 a day. That’s about a seizure a minute,” her mom says.
They’re not the convulsive seizures typically associated with epilepsy, Ulrich explains.
“She’s unconscious for just a few seconds at a time. Her speech will slur off. If she’s walking, she might continue to walk … but she’s not aware what’s going on around her.”
A teacher might not even notice Lorelei is experiencing a seizure, Ulrich says. And that, she worries, is impacting the girl’s ability to learn.
Lorelei is now in first grade at Whitfield Elementary School in Wilson School District. She spends part of her day in a life-skills program and the rest in a mainstream classroom, her mother says.
Developmentally, she says, Lorelei is closer to 4 years old than 6.
“She started having seizures about two months before her second birthday,” Ulrich recalls. “She was developing normally, hitting all of her milestones. She was doing great.”
It took four or five months before she was diagnosed, she says.
Initially, doctors thought Lorelei had childhood absence epilepsy, a variety of the disorder that is more easily treatable and is often outgrown with puberty.
Then, they changed their diagnosis to something more serious — and almost certainly permanent. Epilepsy can in some cases be controlled, but not cured.
So far, Ulrich says, attempts to manage Lorelei’s epilepsy have failed.
“She’s been on at least 10 different medications, and various combinations of those medicines,” she says. “She also was on a ketogenic diet” — a special eating plan that tries to trick the patient’s body into thinking it’s starving — “for four months — and that was also a failure.”
It all brings Ulrich back to the marijuana issue.
The medical form of the plant that Lorelei needs is administered without smoking — the medicinal parts are extracted, Ulrich explains, so there is no potential for a “high” from using it.
“These kids would not be smoking it. They would not get high. Most of the legislators I’ve talked to didn’t know that.”
Lorelei’s doctors “are very much on board,” she adds. “If it could be legalized in Pennsylvania, they would administer it.”
But Harrisburg stands in their way.
Ulrich, along with other parents in the state who are in similar positions, have been taking their case to state senators and representatives, as well as to the governor’s office and to Washington, D.C.
“We are getting a lot of resistance from, particularly, the GOP. We kind of expected that,” she says.
Currently, she says, House Bill 1181 and Senate Bill 770 are being discussed; both bills would legalize marijuana for medical use only.
“Right now, those bills are just sitting on the lawmakers’ desks. We’re trying to get them to vote on them,” Ulrich says.
Another roadblock is Gov. Tom Corbett, who has said he’ll veto any legalization bill.
“If Tom Corbett gets re-elected, it will be a very long time before we get relief,” Ulrich says.
She and other parents will rally for support at the capitol rotunda beginning at 9 a.m. Nov. 18.
“The GOP is worried that people will take advantage of the system,” Ulrich says — that people will be able to get marijuana who don’t have a medical need for it.
“We get a lot of sympathy,” she says. “But they’re worried — what if it gets out of control?”
She adds, “If you really look at the war on drugs, that war has been lost. It’s already in the wrong hands. If it was legalized and regulated, we might have more control.”
Ulrich promotes her cause online at “Legalize for Lorelei,” a Facebook group, and operates a blog — with petitions — at mmj4l.com.
***
In August, the Landover, Md.-based Epilepsy Foundation noted on its website the apparent success of treating Dravet syndrome — a rare form of epilepsy with uncontrollable seizures — using marijuana.
After CNN aired its documentary, the organization in turn gave a guarded endorsement of the medical option.
“The Epilepsy Foundation is open and committed to exploring and advocating for all potential treatment options for epilepsy — assuming they are proven safe and effective. This includes medical marijuana (cannabis),” the statement reads.
“However, research into medical marijuana and seizure control is not complete. We are in favor of research that evaluates cannabis’s effectiveness so as to better inform and help the millions of individuals who live with epilepsy.”
The foundation links to an article on the medical use of marijuana in cases of epilepsy at epilepsy.com. The article, dated September 2011 and revised in September 2013, is equally cautious in its endorsement.
“Evidence from laboratory studies, anecdotal reports, and a small clinical study from a number of years ago suggests that cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound of cannabis, could potentially be helpful in controlling seizures,” it states. “However, there are conflicting reports in the literature. So far, no clear, definitive, solid evidence exists to show marijuana helps seizures.”
Public opinion seems to be on Ulrich’s side.
According to poll results on Gallup.com, a majority of Americans for the first time favor legalization of marijuana — not for medical use, specifically, but for recreation.
The recent poll says support for legalization surged 10 points over the past year, to 58 percent. The first time Gallup asked the question — in 1969 — only 12 percent of respondents favored legalization.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/911113_Mother-of-daughter-with-epilepsy-makes-case-for-medical-marijuana.html#ixzz2j3GCkFnY
Mother of daughter with epilepsy makes case for medical marijuanaIntelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Updated Oct 28, 2013 10:13
Reinholds
Lorelei Ulrich
Lorelei gets a hug from her father, Jason Ulrich, after he…
Lorelei with her brother, Lucas.
Six-year-old Lorelei Ulrich and her mother, Dana Ulrich, r…
Lorelei Ulrich, left, plays with her sister, Jolan.
Lorelei Ulrich, 6, in the middle, poses with her family: b…
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Originally Published Oct 28, 2013 00:09
By TOM KNAPP
Staff Writer
tknapp@lnpnews.com
Dana Ulrich is seeing her daughter disappear.
“Lorelei used to play and laugh and do what kids do,” Ulrich says of her 6-year-old blond-haired girl.
“I see that Lorelei fading day by day. She rarely smiles, she rarely plays. She barely eats. She’s fading away before my eyes, and these are side effects of the medicines she’s forced to take every day.”
Lorelei, her mother explains, has epilepsy.
“It is intractable in nature. That means that, over the last four years, she hasn’t had any successful treatments,” Ulrich says.
Medical marijuana might help. In fact, recent trials have shown great success in treating children with similar conditions, Ulrich says.
“I’ve been researching alternative options for almost a year now, looking online mostly, researching everything I can. That’s the thing that kept popping up,” she says.
“Initially, I disregarded it.”
Then, in August, CNN aired a documentary, “Weed,” that featured a medical marijuana success.
In the program, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reversed his opposition to medical marijuana.
“It is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana,” Gupta said.
“We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.”
Charlotte — the young girl featured in the documentary — saw a decrease from 300-plus seizures per week to just one or two, Ulrich says.
“Marijuana has been proven to significantly decrease or stop altogether seizure activity,” she says.
The problem for Lorelei is that marijuana — even when used solely for medical reasons — is still illegal in Pennsylvania.
Ulrich, who lives on the Berks County side of Reinholds, is trying to change that.
“She actually broke my heart the other night,” Ulrich says. “I have been very forthright with her about her condition — you know, she doesn’t really understand her condition because she’s had it since before she was 2 years old, so it’s normal for her.
“But she asked me, ‘Why won’t those people let me have my cannabis medicine? If they know it will help me get better, why can’t I have it?’ She doesn’t understand why she can’t have it, and I can’t really give her a good explanation.”
***
Specifically, Ulrich says, Lorelei has “primary generalized epilepsy — that’s a trash can diagnosis when they don’t have a more specific name to put on it.”
What it means, though, is Lorelei has seizures.
“Our best estimate is about 400 seizures a day. That’s down — she was having 1,400 a day. That’s about a seizure a minute,” her mom says.
They’re not the convulsive seizures typically associated with epilepsy, Ulrich explains.
“She’s unconscious for just a few seconds at a time. Her speech will slur off. If she’s walking, she might continue to walk … but she’s not aware what’s going on around her.”
A teacher might not even notice Lorelei is experiencing a seizure, Ulrich says. And that, she worries, is impacting the girl’s ability to learn.
Lorelei is now in first grade at Whitfield Elementary School in Wilson School District. She spends part of her day in a life-skills program and the rest in a mainstream classroom, her mother says.
Developmentally, she says, Lorelei is closer to 4 years old than 6.
“She started having seizures about two months before her second birthday,” Ulrich recalls. “She was developing normally, hitting all of her milestones. She was doing great.”
It took four or five months before she was diagnosed, she says.
Initially, doctors thought Lorelei had childhood absence epilepsy, a variety of the disorder that is more easily treatable and is often outgrown with puberty.
Then, they changed their diagnosis to something more serious — and almost certainly permanent. Epilepsy can in some cases be controlled, but not cured.
So far, Ulrich says, attempts to manage Lorelei’s epilepsy have failed.
“She’s been on at least 10 different medications, and various combinations of those medicines,” she says. “She also was on a ketogenic diet” — a special eating plan that tries to trick the patient’s body into thinking it’s starving — “for four months — and that was also a failure.”
It all brings Ulrich back to the marijuana issue.
The medical form of the plant that Lorelei needs is administered without smoking — the medicinal parts are extracted, Ulrich explains, so there is no potential for a “high” from using it.
“These kids would not be smoking it. They would not get high. Most of the legislators I’ve talked to didn’t know that.”
Lorelei’s doctors “are very much on board,” she adds. “If it could be legalized in Pennsylvania, they would administer it.”
But Harrisburg stands in their way.
Ulrich, along with other parents in the state who are in similar positions, have been taking their case to state senators and representatives, as well as to the governor’s office and to Washington, D.C.
“We are getting a lot of resistance from, particularly, the GOP. We kind of expected that,” she says.
Currently, she says, House Bill 1181 and Senate Bill 770 are being discussed; both bills would legalize marijuana for medical use only.
“Right now, those bills are just sitting on the lawmakers’ desks. We’re trying to get them to vote on them,” Ulrich says.
Another roadblock is Gov. Tom Corbett, who has said he’ll veto any legalization bill.
“If Tom Corbett gets re-elected, it will be a very long time before we get relief,” Ulrich says.
She and other parents will rally for support at the capitol rotunda beginning at 9 a.m. Nov. 18.
“The GOP is worried that people will take advantage of the system,” Ulrich says — that people will be able to get marijuana who don’t have a medical need for it.
“We get a lot of sympathy,” she says. “But they’re worried — what if it gets out of control?”
She adds, “If you really look at the war on drugs, that war has been lost. It’s already in the wrong hands. If it was legalized and regulated, we might have more control.”
Ulrich promotes her cause online at “Legalize for Lorelei,” a Facebook group, and operates a blog — with petitions — at mmj4l.com.
***
In August, the Landover, Md.-based Epilepsy Foundation noted on its website the apparent success of treating Dravet syndrome — a rare form of epilepsy with uncontrollable seizures — using marijuana.
After CNN aired its documentary, the organization in turn gave a guarded endorsement of the medical option.
“The Epilepsy Foundation is open and committed to exploring and advocating for all potential treatment options for epilepsy — assuming they are proven safe and effective. This includes medical marijuana (cannabis),” the statement reads.
“However, research into medical marijuana and seizure control is not complete. We are in favor of research that evaluates cannabis’s effectiveness so as to better inform and help the millions of individuals who live with epilepsy.”
The foundation links to an article on the medical use of marijuana in cases of epilepsy at epilepsy.com. The article, dated September 2011 and revised in September 2013, is equally cautious in its endorsement.
“Evidence from laboratory studies, anecdotal reports, and a small clinical study from a number of years ago suggests that cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound of cannabis, could potentially be helpful in controlling seizures,” it states. “However, there are conflicting reports in the literature. So far, no clear, definitive, solid evidence exists to show marijuana helps seizures.”
Public opinion seems to be on Ulrich’s side.
According to poll results on Gallup.com, a majority of Americans for the first time favor legalization of marijuana — not for medical use, specifically, but for recreation.
The recent poll says support for legalization surged 10 points over the past year, to 58 percent. The first time Gallup asked the question — in 1969 — only 12 percent of respondents favored legalization.
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/911113_Mother-of-daughter-with-epilepsy-makes-case-for-medical-marijuana.html
Something needs to happen in Pennsylvania. The legislation is stagnating in committe in Harrisburg. Our politicians might as well come right out in a media appearance and say they don’t give a shit about this girl or whether she lives or dies. They’re mostly Republicans, and as one politician from Florida termed their view on health care, it’s die quickly. Well, I don’t want this girl or anyone else to have to continue suffering when cannabis can help them. I don’t want anyone who wants to relax with cannabis for adult recreation purposes to be forced to drink alcoholic beverages either.
Mother of daughter with epilepsy makes case for medical marijuana
Originally Published Oct 28, 2013 00:09
By TOM KNAPP
Staff Writer
tknapp@lnpnews.com
Dana Ulrich is seeing her daughter disappear.
“Lorelei used to play and laugh and do what kids do,” Ulrich says of her 6-year-old blond-haired girl.
“I see that Lorelei fading day by day. She rarely smiles, she rarely plays. She barely eats. She’s fading away before my eyes, and these are side effects of the medicines she’s forced to take every day.”
Lorelei, her mother explains, has epilepsy.
“It is intractable in nature. That means that, over the last four years, she hasn’t had any successful treatments,” Ulrich says.
Medical marijuana might help. In fact, recent trials have shown great success in treating children with similar conditions, Ulrich says.
“I’ve been researching alternative options for almost a year now, looking online mostly, researching everything I can. That’s the thing that kept popping up,” she says.
“Initially, I disregarded it.”
Then, in August, CNN aired a documentary, “Weed,” that featured a medical marijuana success.
In the program, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reversed his opposition to medical marijuana.
“It is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana,” Gupta said.
“We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.”
Charlotte — the young girl featured in the documentary — saw a decrease from 300-plus seizures per week to just one or two, Ulrich says.
“Marijuana has been proven to significantly decrease or stop altogether seizure activity,” she says.
The problem for Lorelei is that marijuana — even when used solely for medical reasons — is still illegal in Pennsylvania.
Ulrich, who lives on the Berks County side of Reinholds, is trying to change that.
“She actually broke my heart the other night,” Ulrich says. “I have been very forthright with her about her condition — you know, she doesn’t really understand her condition because she’s had it since before she was 2 years old, so it’s normal for her.
“But she asked me, ‘Why won’t those people let me have my cannabis medicine? If they know it will help me get better, why can’t I have it?’ She doesn’t understand why she can’t have it, and I can’t really give her a good explanation.”
***
Specifically, Ulrich says, Lorelei has “primary generalized epilepsy — that’s a trash can diagnosis when they don’t have a more specific name to put on it.”
What it means, though, is Lorelei has seizures.
“Our best estimate is about 400 seizures a day. That’s down — she was having 1,400 a day. That’s about a seizure a minute,” her mom says.
They’re not the convulsive seizures typically associated with epilepsy, Ulrich explains.
“She’s unconscious for just a few seconds at a time. Her speech will slur off. If she’s walking, she might continue to walk … but she’s not aware what’s going on around her.”
A teacher might not even notice Lorelei is experiencing a seizure, Ulrich says. And that, she worries, is impacting the girl’s ability to learn.
Lorelei is now in first grade at Whitfield Elementary School in Wilson School District. She spends part of her day in a life-skills program and the rest in a mainstream classroom, her mother says.
Developmentally, she says, Lorelei is closer to 4 years old than 6.
“She started having seizures about two months before her second birthday,” Ulrich recalls. “She was developing normally, hitting all of her milestones. She was doing great.”
It took four or five months before she was diagnosed, she says.
Initially, doctors thought Lorelei had childhood absence epilepsy, a variety of the disorder that is more easily treatable and is often outgrown with puberty.
Then, they changed their diagnosis to something more serious — and almost certainly permanent. Epilepsy can in some cases be controlled, but not cured.
So far, Ulrich says, attempts to manage Lorelei’s epilepsy have failed.
“She’s been on at least 10 different medications, and various combinations of those medicines,” she says. “She also was on a ketogenic diet” — a special eating plan that tries to trick the patient’s body into thinking it’s starving — “for four months — and that was also a failure.”
It all brings Ulrich back to the marijuana issue.
The medical form of the plant that Lorelei needs is administered without smoking — the medicinal parts are extracted, Ulrich explains, so there is no potential for a “high” from using it.
“These kids would not be smoking it. They would not get high. Most of the legislators I’ve talked to didn’t know that.”
Lorelei’s doctors “are very much on board,” she adds. “If it could be legalized in Pennsylvania, they would administer it.”
But Harrisburg stands in their way.
Ulrich, along with other parents in the state who are in similar positions, have been taking their case to state senators and representatives, as well as to the governor’s office and to Washington, D.C.
“We are getting a lot of resistance from, particularly, the GOP. We kind of expected that,” she says.
Currently, she says, House Bill 1181 and Senate Bill 770 are being discussed; both bills would legalize marijuana for medical use only.
“Right now, those bills are just sitting on the lawmakers’ desks. We’re trying to get them to vote on them,” Ulrich says.
Another roadblock is Gov. Tom Corbett, who has said he’ll veto any legalization bill.
“If Tom Corbett gets re-elected, it will be a very long time before we get relief,” Ulrich says.
She and other parents will rally for support at the capitol rotunda beginning at 9 a.m. Nov. 18.
“The GOP is worried that people will take advantage of the system,” Ulrich says — that people will be able to get marijuana who don’t have a medical need for it.
“We get a lot of sympathy,” she says. “But they’re worried — what if it gets out of control?”
She adds, “If you really look at the war on drugs, that war has been lost. It’s already in the wrong hands. If it was legalized and regulated, we might have more control.”
Ulrich promotes her cause online at “Legalize for Lorelei,” a Facebook group, and operates a blog — with petitions — at mmj4l.com.
***
In August, the Landover, Md.-based Epilepsy Foundation noted on its website the apparent success of treating Dravet syndrome — a rare form of epilepsy with uncontrollable seizures — using marijuana.
After CNN aired its documentary, the organization in turn gave a guarded endorsement of the medical option.
“The Epilepsy Foundation is open and committed to exploring and advocating for all potential treatment options for epilepsy — assuming they are proven safe and effective. This includes medical marijuana (cannabis),” the statement reads.
“However, research into medical marijuana and seizure control is not complete. We are in favor of research that evaluates cannabis’s effectiveness so as to better inform and help the millions of individuals who live with epilepsy.”
The foundation links to an article on the medical use of marijuana in cases of epilepsy at epilepsy.com. The article, dated September 2011 and revised in September 2013, is equally cautious in its endorsement.
“Evidence from laboratory studies, anecdotal reports, and a small clinical study from a number of years ago suggests that cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound of cannabis, could potentially be helpful in controlling seizures,” it states. “However, there are conflicting reports in the literature. So far, no clear, definitive, solid evidence exists to show marijuana helps seizures.”
Public opinion seems to be on Ulrich’s side.
According to poll results on Gallup.com, a majority of Americans for the first time favor legalization of marijuana — not for medical use, specifically, but for recreation.
The recent poll says support for legalization surged 10 points over the past year, to 58 percent. The first time Gallup asked the question — in 1969 — only 12 percent of respondents favored legalization.
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/911113_Mother-of-daughter-with-epilepsy-makes-case-for-medical-marijuana.html
@Evening Bud, FYI, SS and Medicare are not socialist programs. You have to have worked 10 full years and paid ss taxes for 40 quarters to qualify for any benefits. It’s your money with interest, not the governments’ handout. Anyway, like your thinking and handle. Keep up the good posts.
They say a nation wide vote huh? No one asked me or anyone that I know, that number is sure to be higher! No pun intended. Got my vote!!
The ignorance in the article below speaks for itself. These politicians may not realize it, but as far as I am concerned their stance against medical marijuana is just another media exposure for politicians who are making fools of themselves to the public. I’l really like to know who the medical community is of whom they speak, and cite as a reason why they are not for legalizing MMJ to help this girl and many others.
Hell, they might as well come right out and say they know better than Dr. Gupta and the kid’s doctors; they don’t truly give a shit about the little girl; and they’ll go up against the feds and shut down the government because of their opposition to ObamaCare but they won’t go to bat against the feds on pot which can really, factually help people like this kid, for example, right here, right now. Who believes this shit about prescription medicines not being taxes so it can’t be legalized because MMJ is a medine? So legalize MMJ in Pennsylvania without taxing it aready!
****
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Medical marijuana (4)
Dana Ulrich (2)
Originally Published Oct 30, 2013 17:34
By TOM KNAPP
Staff Writer
tknapp@lnpnews.com
If the Lancaster County legislative delegation in Harrisburg has its way, medical marijuana is unlikely to become legally available to ailing Pennsylvanians.
“I don’t believe the majority of my constituents would support this legislation,” state Rep. David Hickernell, a Republican representing the 98th District, said in an email Tuesday.
“If the bill comes before the House, I would vote no.”
House Bill 1181 and Senate Bill 770 would both legalize marijuana for medical use.
Neither bill is expected to come to the floor for a vote any time soon. If they did, approval is unlikely.
“I am opposed and will remain opposed to … HB 1181 until the medical community makes the case that this is a medical necessity,” said Rep. Ryan Aument, a Republican who represents the 41st District.
“To date, this case simply has not been made,” he said. “There is not broad agreement, nor support, within the medical community for the approach taken in HB 1181.”
Aument said there are “numerous federal restrictions in place that stand in the way of effective implementation of a medical marijuana program.”
Roadblocks include federal guidelines on insurance coverage and research, he said, as well as the legal right to deny jobs to patients using marijuana in any form.
A proposal to tax medical-use marijuana is problematic since other prescription medications are not taxed, he added.
Any action by state lawmakers may be moot unless there’s a change at the top. Gov. Tom Corbett, also a Republican, has said he’ll veto any bill legalizing any form of marijuana.
Dana Ulrich of Reinholds, whose daughter Lorelei, 6, suffers from epilepsy, has raised the issue.
Treatment with various medicines has failed to budge the disorder, Ulrich said. She believes — armed with a recent CNN documentary — that a form of medical marijuana can ease Lorelei’s condition.
The girl suffers some 400 seizures each day, her mother said. Ulrich said Lorelei might gain relief from a marijuana extract that is ingested, not smoked, and has no psychoactive effects.
Even so, state Rep. Keith Greiner, a Republican representing the 43rd District, said he’s against legalizing medical marijuana here.
“If it would come up for a vote, I would vote no,” he said.
“I really don’t believe that there is clear-cut evidence that medical marijuana would help solve that little girl’s problem,” he said Monday. “So, at this point, definitely a no.”
However, he didn’t slam the door on the possibility of changing his mind.
“If there’s convincing evidence, maybe I’d give it a second thought,” Greiner said.
Rep. Mindy Fee, a Republican representing the 37th District, said Lorelei’s story “is tragic.”
“I absolutely grieve for that family,” Fee said Monday. However, she said, “there are a lot of other tragedies out there where families lost their children to drug abuse.”
That’s the bottom line for Fee when addressing the question of legalizing medical marijuana.
“I am opposed to it,” she said. “I am going to stay opposed to it. … It puts our families, our children and our communities at risk.”
Rep. Bryan Cutler, a Republican representing the 100th District, said debate at the state level is premature.
“While several states have loosened their laws relating to medical marijuana, the substance is still illegal under federal law,” Cutler wrote in an email Tuesday, “and the federal government has consistently asserted … its authority to prosecute anyone found in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act.”
He said, for instance, that the feds can seize inventory from medical marijuana dispensaries.
“As a parent I sympathize with seeking medical treatment for your children and understand the desire to find anything that would help your kids,” Cutler said.
However, medical trials are, at this time, “the only viable option for patients or their families seeking medical marijuana as a treatment,” he said. Ongoing clinical trials will “help shape the debate” if the federal government opts in the future to allow the use of medical marijuana.
Rep. Steven Mentzer, a Republican from the 97th District, touted the use of Marinol — an FDA-approved synthetic cannabinoid marketed as a legal alternative to natural cannabis — as an option for the Ulrichs and other patients to consider.
“There’s a lot of research yet to be done on cannabis,” he said.
Before he can support a law like HB 1181, Mentzer said, he wants the FDA “to say aye or nay about this.”
“If research shows that there are no harmful effects, I think we should do anything we can for people who are suffering from diseases like that,” he said.
Rep. Gordon Denlinger, a Republican from the 99th District, said he’s open to further research.
“I’m very open to medical research on non-smokable uses of cannabis and will be watching the development as research moves forward,” he said Wednesday.
“I am somewhat concerned about recreational-use advocates who are riding this issue, riding the medical marijuana issue to try and push through recreational use and legalization,” Denlinger added. “Clearly some individuals are using the hardship of others to gain recreational-use legalization.”
State Rep. Mike Sturla, who represents the 96th District, said Monday he’s “generally supportive of the concept, but as they always say, the devil’s in the details.
“I can’t imagine it coming up in the House in the near future,” he added. “For those people who believe they can get some relief from it, that’s not good news.”
Sturla, the county’s lone Democrat in the Legislature, said Pennsylvania is a socially conservative state, and he expects most lawmakers will wait to see how legalization for medical use goes in other states first.
But the state House isn’t likely to bend, he said.
“It looks like there’s going to be a huge hole in next year’s budget,” Sturla said. The Republican Party is interested in expanding gaming to fill the hole, he said.
“Maybe if they could figure out a way to make money off of medical marijuana, they would,” he said. “That’s the only thing I can think of that would entice them.”
Ulrich and other supporters may have an ally in the state Senate, however.
Sen. Mike Folmer, a Republican representing the 48th District, said doctors are best able to make decisions regarding drug use.
Folmer said medical marijuana could be handled in the same way as narcotic painkillers such as Oxycontin, Vicodin and Percocet.
“Under the same strict supervision of my medical professional, why would I not be able to have medical marijuana prescribed?” he asked. “If it can help pain and suffering, why not?”
He blamed widespread opposition on misinformation.
“Everyone seems to think that medical marijuana means they’ll be sitting around smoking a doobie,” he said.
One reason Sen. Lloyd Smucker opposes Senate Bill 770 is a clause allowing patients, with a medical card provided by a doctor, “to have in their possession up to six plants, which I presume to mean they could grow it and use it as they see fit.”
Like with narcotics, Smucker — a Republican representing the 13th District — said, any consideration of medical marijuana should include strong controls of its availability.
“We have doctors that prescribe drugs that are more potent than marijuana,” he said. “However, marijuana has not been approved by the FDA, so it hasn’t gone through that rigorous review.”
Smucker also noted that doctors in the area don’t seem to be lining up to prescribe marijuana to their patients.
“I haven’t heard from doctors in my area that it is a drug that they’d like to prescribe,” he said. “Quite the opposite, in fact.”
Sen. Michael Brubaker, a Republican from the 36th District, did not immediately return calls Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ulrich — who runs a blog at mmj4l.com — and other supporters will rally to support medical-use marijuana at the capitol rotunda in Harrisburg at 9 a.m. Nov. 18.
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/912327_County-legislators-oppose-legalization-of-medical-marijuana.html
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/912327_County-legislators-oppose-legalization-of-medical-marijuana.html#ixzz2jKiJmerX
@Growyourown
Thanks for the kind words. My friend, not everyone has the same definition of socialist. Seems that some on the right (tea party far right) consider ANYTHING to do with govt to be socialist. (These people often refer to themselves as libertarian, but they are actually closer to being anarchists.) I agree with you that we pay into SS and Medicare; but I believe that they are social/economic programs, and a sign of an intelligent and evolved society.
Oracle, you’d think it was still 1995 in PA…
I would like to reply to comments that removing marijuana testing from drug tests will somehow break the drug testing industry.
There will be absolute minimal effect. The only instance that I can even think of is the do-it-yourself test kits that you buy at Walmart, etc that test ONLY for marijuana. Yes they may lose sales but employers and concerned parents will still continue about their business testing for actual narcotics.
Fifty-one percent of Americans say they think the issue is more about women’s health and their rights than about religious freedom, while 37 percent say the opposite. Among those who say the issue is about women’s health and rights, a strong majority (76 percent) say all employers should cover birth control. Among those who said the coverage issue was more about religious freedoms, a slim majority (53 percent) say all employers should be able to opt out.