cannabisnews.com: Voters Want Medical Marijuana Accessible





Voters Want Medical Marijuana Accessible
Posted by CN Staff on December 07, 2007 at 05:37:25 PT
By Robert J. Corry Jr. 
Source: Rocky Mountain News
Colorado -- Medical marijuana is legal in Colorado, but where do you get it? This is a question that Mabel (not her real name), a 64-year-old silver-haired grandmother, deals with every day. Mabel suffers from debilitating arthritis and chronic back pain. When her conditions flare up, she is barely able to turn the pages of a children's book with her 4- and 2-year-old grandchildren sitting on her lap.
After years of trying dozens of prescription medications, and screaming out in pain as she developed a tolerance to each of them, and vomiting up dozens of pills as her stomach, liver and kidneys were overtaxed, Mabel tried medical marijuana for the first time in her life at age 60.It worked. It helped her pain. She had her life back. She consulted with her doctor, who agreed that medical marijuana benefited Mabel, and recommended that she use it. In the 2000 election, Colorado voters decided that Mabel and others should have a safe and legal source for medical marijuana.For Mabel, access was far from easy. She couldn't go to the corner pharmacy for it. She didn't know any dealers. She has found herself alone, in bad neighborhoods, after dark, with wads of cash, trying to purchase low-quality street-grade marijuana. She has no idea of even how to start growing it herself, and cannot afford the high cost of indoor cultivation equipment. She lives in an apartment, so has no yard for outdoor cultivation.A year ago, Mabel found someone she calls her "lifesaver," a medical marijuana grower who has a strong passion to help suffering people. Mabel's caregiver consistently supplies her with high-quality medical-grade marijuana at a price below market rate.In July 2007, Mabel's "lifesaver" was helping more than five patients. In doing so, both he and Mabel risked arrest and prosecution because of a state health department policy arbitrarily limiting caregivers to five patients each.The Rocky Mountain News got it right in its editorial of Nov. 26, "Regulating caregivers/State should closely monitor those who assist medical pot patients," when it condemned this illegal backroom limitation, enacted in secret without any input from voters, scientists, physicians, experts, patients, caregivers and others.Court testimony from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment established that the number "five" was picked randomly by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents looming over the state agency. It's not like Granny Mabel had lots of choices of caregivers. How many medical marijuana cultivators do you know personally? They aren't exactly in the Yellow Pages, mainly because of the climate of fear created by prosecutors.The state's illegal DEA-spawned limit had a devastating effect on the health of sick people following their doctors' advice. A government that operates in secret will inevitably do evil, and hurt innocent people for no legal or scientific reason. This is why, in response to a lawsuit brought by medical marijuana patients and caregivers, Chief Denver District Court Judge Larry Naves enjoined this damaging policy in July, and threw it out permanently in November.The Rocky, however, missed the mark when it advocated increased government regulation of medical marijuana caregivers. The editorial ignored basic laws of logic, economics, science, and the Colorado Constitution itself. Patients should be allowed select their caregivers without government interference. If six patients select a particular caregiver, government should not stand in the way of this important relationship.Caregivers with multiple patients can provide the best medicine at a lower cost and more efficiently. They can develop plants with superior genetics. They benefit from economies of scale. Nobody advocates that the corner pharmacy - which carries far more addictive and dangerous substances than marijuana - be prohibited from providing medicine to more than five patients. And Colorado voters, in overwhelmingly legalizing medical marijuana, enacted no restrictions on the number of patients per caregiver, preferring patient choice.The voters wanted sick people like Mabel to obtain the highest quality medicine in the most efficient, safest way possible, instead of banishing them to wander alone on dark and dangerous streets.Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)Author: Robert J. Corry Jr. Published: Friday, December 7, 2007 Copyright: 2007 Denver Publishing Co.Contact: letters rockymountainnews.comWebsite: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Sensible Coloradohttp://www.sensiblecolorado.org/Regulating Caregivers http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23504.shtmlMedical Marijuana Access Easeshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23492.shtml
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on December 14, 2007 at 20:49:13 PT
CO: Charges Dismissed in Medical Marijuana Case
December 15, 2007CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- Criminal charges have been dismissed against a former Marine who argued that marijuana helps him deal with injuries suffered during Operation Desert Storm.Kevin Dickes of Aurora had pleaded not guilty in Arapahoe County District Court to marijuana cultivation after police seized 71 plants from his home on April 27.The county's district attorney dismissed the charges Friday against the 38-year-old Dickes, who is a state-certified medical marijuana patient.Dickes' attorney, Robert Corry Jr., said Dickes will file a motion for the return of the medical marijuana on Monday.Dickes said marijuana helps ease the pain in his right leg caused by a grenade explosion in 1991 while he was serving in Kuwait.Under Colorado's medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 2000, patients under a doctor's care who get a medical marijuana card may legally possess up to 2 ounces of pot or six plants. However, a provision in the law could allow for more plants.Corry had argued there is no limit to the number of plants a person may cultivate for use as long as they are ``medically necessary.''Dickes had faced up to six years in prison if convicted.``We commend the district attorney for doing the right thing and dismissing criminal charges,'' Corry said.Dickes is one of about 1,300 holders of medical marijuana cards in Colorado, according to the state.Copyright: 2007 The Associated PressURL: http://tinyurl.com/2p2xc4
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on December 07, 2007 at 10:49:34 PT
fight_4_freedom
I'm glad you liked it. Songs talk to me sometimes and this one is doing that for me. It is helping me more then I can say.
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Comment #8 posted by fight_4_freedom on December 07, 2007 at 10:28:37 PT:
Thanks for the song FoM
I always love hearing new music.
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Comment #7 posted by fight_4_freedom on December 07, 2007 at 10:11:41 PT:
Nuevo- I watched that last piece last night
And I'm going to have to start watching more of Keith's show after seeing that outburst. If President Bush was watching that I bet he ended up in the corner crying, rocking back and forth in the fetal position.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on December 07, 2007 at 10:10:35 PT
Off Topic: Cool Song by Wilco
There isn't a video with this song but it is beautiful and I keep playing it over and over again. I hope other's enjoy it too.Either Way By Wilcohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kzkXc_6_So
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Comment #5 posted by nuevo mexican on December 07, 2007 at 09:50:49 PT
Did anyone see KO's special comment last night?
OT:
Watch this video first, (when you have 10 minutes, though now would be good) then watch Keith, for maximum satisfaction, as this video poster and Keith Olberman are examples of Great Americans, like FOM here, the Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars.com, buzzflash etc, and are showing US what we ALL need to be doing NOW, speaking out on the Crimes of the Century, as we have been on Cannabis, we ALL know it is TIME!Thank you FOM, you are an example we should all follow, not that you are comfortable with such praise, people like you are what will save this country from certain 
self-destruction from a shadow cabal led by bush/cheney.Carl Levin on C-span now, raking bush....10:10AM
Let's see if he calls for impeachment!
No, he didn't.From the comments at the blog Dailykos:...watch this pissed off Dem's video I just got off YouTube:"A Warning to Democrats"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFXp4HwCfp8KO lands his KO punch on bush, and is leaving it up to us to do what we are bound to the Constitution to do!It is our DUTY to protect the Constitution, especially in view of the Democratic Opposition becoming the bush BASE!OMFG!Are we DONE with these guys yet?Is there such a thing as LAW in this country or is it just for the Elites to use over the peons, as there is no LAW for the ELITES! Anything GOES! And the Democrats ENABLE!We must STOP what we think we are doing and do something today that really matters, like get out from behind this keyboard.Anything we ask for, from Congress, we get the opposite, like Nancy Pelosi and Impeachment. Go Figure!Bush has the goods on Nancy, and Harry, and they know it, and we know it, so what do we do next?We must continue to become the media, and should focus on protesting and informing local and corporate news outlets, and news models/casters of their complicity, and those doing their jobs should be thanked and encouraged.Bush is now in the process of destroying the American Housing Market, on purpose, 1 million foreclosures this year, and his 'solution' today is said to make things worse, of course, that is the 'plan' remember, and we just keep on wondering when the media is going to come to the rescue.....or when will the People wake up from their slumber and take appropriate action to change the course of this country.Or we are all GUILTY of the same passivity we saw in Germany before and after the Reichstag Fire, and we know what happened after that. Millions more died, were tortured, exiled, injured, and WE Americans are now apparently COMPLICIT in the deaths of a MILLION Iraqis over the last 5 years, no bad karma generated there eh?Nothing is funny anymore, the joke is on us, we are laughing at our own demise, and the world looks on, in a state of shock, by bushes design, ask Naomi Klein, and no one is talking about coming to the rescue of the American people.Interesting that in the U.S., so few seem to care, whether it's true or not, I don't really know, but why should they, we bush-tolerating Americans don't appear to be that outraged over anything bush has done, (at least to the outside world), and it is WE that are responsible for how the World views us, so THANK YOU all for ALL you HAVE already done, though I think our greatest work is still ahead of us. The masses are waking, the media IS now coveringDi the fact that bush lied, now we have to ratchet up the pressure!This is a good sign, let's keep the spotlight on!CIA destroys 911 tapes, We WILL prosecute them won't we?Yes, we must, so we will, right folks!It is NOT a matter of IF anymore, it is now a matter of WHEN!Got it? WHEN folks, not if anymore, these guys are going down, and our work IS paying off!I want my country back dammit!Listen to Independent Bernie Sanders on Thom Hartman
www.airamerica.comWe have a Jeffersonian paradigm here, where we have a Constitutional Crisis, and this must now be addressed, no more OJ, Paris, and Brittney and Barry Bond BS! Cancel your cable, if you must, we are funding the 'ERROR-IST' (trademark)media!The media that says' oh, we made a mistake, duh......MEDIA: Do your job as the Fourth Estate, or we will see that JUSTICE is done, as complicity is a crime!There will be trials, there will be testimony, there will be truth told, there will be an accounting, there will be justice! And ALL will be KNOWN! bush/cheney/nsa have all the tapes, they are self-condemned, thank you GCW!It's really beautiful in an ugly, sordid kind of way, as Nixon did the same thing, and these guys thought?Yeah, that's it! (well just destroy them all if we get caught, like the CIA did yesterday with their tapes.Are you reading this post lurking reporters, journalists, authors, writers, editors, communicators, Educators?Watch Keith and come up with your own version of the Truth that is out there, and get it out there, as the MSM will not do the job for us, (Keith is it, oh, Amy Goodman, And Randy Rhodes, gee, that's encouraging, where did all of the great reporters go?)thus, it is our job to be the journalists, instead of having people like Chris Matthews blather on about how great Mitt Romneys' speech was. And his hair...There are more REAL journalists posting here at C-NEWS it seems than there are at the New York Times, and why is that?Because, just like the Democrats, the press, has caved, likely due to the knowledge that all of our emails and conversations have been monitored, recorded, and they KNOW bush will get them, he got Larry Craig, (great hypocrite, Larry Flynt, spill ALL of the beans on ALL of these sexual predator/Sinators please) and they ALL have something on them, except for Dennis Kucinich. Who also just won another poll of Democrats?: Dennis Kucinich 40% to Obama, 26%! The Big Three just don't get it like Dennis does! And the people know it, and big media knows it, and are very AFRAID, VERY AFRAID of DENNIS the true Menace to the Corporate Imposed version of Reality. The one where we have no rights, no liberties, no protections, no Constitution, no justice, no illusion of justice and no hope of justice, just a dark future of hopelessness, torture, pain, and permanent ignorance.Here's your reward for reading all that! LOL!Keith Olbermans' Knock Out:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/6/18155/5422
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on December 07, 2007 at 07:46:37 PT
fight_4_freedom 
That was funny.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on December 07, 2007 at 07:37:19 PT
Thank you Fight 4 Freedom.
Things are not going all that well here... but that made me laugh. That was funny. Thanks.
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Comment #2 posted by Dankhank on December 07, 2007 at 07:33:52 PT
Dewey ...
asked questions, got sensible answers and went for it ...pretty much how it goes every day, I surmise ...funny link ... thanx ...
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Comment #1 posted by fight_4_freedom on December 07, 2007 at 07:09:53 PT:
I thought it was funny
This is a little clip I came across this morning. It's from the upcoming comedy, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
check it out
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