cannabisnews.com: Relief, Not Reefer, is Reason for Bill

cannabisnews.com: Relief, Not Reefer, is Reason for Bill
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Relief, Not Reefer, is Reason for Bill
Posted by CN Staff on November 20, 2009 at 04:59:51 PT
By Jim Stingl
Source: Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin -- It's nothing more than coincidence that Cheech and Chong are coming to Wisconsin next week just as a bill to legalize medical marijuana begins to make its way through the Legislature.The comedians' "Light Up America" tour celebrates the party-down use of the psychoactive plant. That's definitely not what the bill he authored is about, Sen. John Erpenbach, a Democrat from Waunakee, told me Thursday.
It's time to stop slapping a criminal label on seriously ill people who benefit from puffing pot as medicine with the blessing of their doctors."I think people are saying that medical marijuana being against the law is kind of ridiculous now," Erpenbach said.Thirteen states and several other countries have said so. Last year in Michigan, the law passed in every county, and in the first six months, the state issued about 5,000 certificates to qualified medical users, the Detroit Free Press reported.Gov. Jim Doyle has said he supports the change, and the Justice Department under President Barack Obama announced it will stop chasing suppliers and users of state-approved medical marijuana.That still leaves plenty of people for the police to lock up in the interminable and expensive war on weed. Erpenbach said he's increasingly urged by Wisconsinites to go ahead and legalize marijuana for adult use. He knows this is the slippery slope that opponents of medical marijuana fear.For now, all he's talking about is medicinal use."We're not talking about everybody here, first of all. Second, we're talking that you have to get a doctor's note, and the condition you're dealing with has to qualify," he said.So far that includes cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, Crohn's disease, hepatitis C, Alzheimer's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and others.Nonprofit dispensaries known as compassion centers would sell up to 3 ounces of marijuana to qualifying patients, or the patients could grow up to 12 plants of their own.This has gotten a little crazy in Los Angeles and Denver, where dispensaries have sprung up in large numbers, and sometimes with neon pot leaves in the front windows. Erpenbach said sellers here would be licensed and regulated by the state, and buyers would have to register."It's not like you're going to be walking down State Street in Madison or walking in downtown Milwaukee and there's going to be compassion centers or dispensaries every other door. I just don't think that's going to happen," he said.The state may want to keep an eye on the reefer marketplace. Some doctors in California have developed a reputation as an easy yes, handing out prescriptions to people with any pain, anxiety or difficulty sleeping.Medical marijuana is sold under catchy names like Space Queen, Blue Dream, Purple Urkel and Train Wreck, and health-conscious users are gravitating toward vaporizers rather than smoking.It will seem strange at first to have marijuana sold in storefronts rather than alleys. But the product is more likely to be pure and safe, Erpenbach said. Doctors already can approve much stronger drugs, and this would be another form of medicine.The law prohibits users from driving or operating heavy machinery, and from smoking at their jobs, on public transportation and at schools, jails or youth centers, among other locations.It's a waste of precious jail space to lock up any pot smokers, especially when you consider that predatory swim coach Daniel Acker was somehow allowed to be tanning in Florida while he awaits sentencing for molesting children. Let's keep our focus on the real criminals.I know, I know: People with a marijuana orientation threaten the sanctity of the marriage of humans and alcohol. But it's cruel to make sick people sneak around to get the relief from pain, nausea and other symptoms when the solution eagerly sprouts from the earth.A hearing on the bill, which was introduced with 17 legislative co-sponsors, is scheduled for Dec. 15 in front of the Senate and Assembly health committees. Erpenback refrained from calling it a joint hearing.Policy-makers, he said, are trying to catch up with the high level of public approval for this change.Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)Author: Jim StinglPublished: November 20, 2009Copyright: 2009 Milwaukee Journal SentinelContact: jsedit onwis.comWebsite: http://www.jsonline.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/T94jHlZgCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #37 posted by paulpeterson on November 21, 2009 at 08:40:26 PT:
Do you have a fax number? I'll fax the survey
Storm Lake, Iowa, Pilot Tribune, published the local survey results, 11/12/09, showing 31.8% favor total legalization, only mm got another 17.3%, arrest only sellers added 3.6%, minor offense, like traffic ticket, got another 4.5%, marijuana is abuse and should be enforced to maximun of current law got 31.8%.Doesn't matters got 1.3%, not important move to other issues got 3.6%, I'm too hight to fill out poll got 3.6%.Totals were 97.5%, meaning their probably was another category not reported, ie: "increase penalties" or "bust Pauly for talking about marijuana" (just some thoughts there).THIS MEANS IN LITTLE SLEEPY STORM LAKE, IOWA, some 62.1% wanted radical change in marijuana policy. Now the county attorney has set forth the criteria for a "prosecutorial discretion policy" (in his letter REFUSING TO INVESTIGATE OR PROSECUTE POLICE EVIDENCE CRIMES dated 11/17/09).Local police are now confiscating marijuana (without any arrests or even citations!). This means they are accumulating illegally gained marijuana for a major STING OPERATION. The Iowa Supreme Court recently banned the use of bust weed for stings-IT MUST BE DESTROYED UNDER THE LAW.That is why cops are accumulating a stash to STING local advocates (that would be me, eh?)THAT ALSO MEANS THE PROSECUTOR CANNOT LET THEM BREAK THE LAW WITHOUT evenly applying this to others.I have already advised the FBI of the sting in the making, and told them to watch officer DAVE DOEBEL, who shook down one guy 4 times for his weed, without any arrest (also skimmed 2 grams of cocaine from the 6 grams confiscated, meaning they want to make me look like a coke head, to sweeten the negative publicity on a known advocate of change here).Meanwhile, I am awaiting a new Democratic US ATTORNEY, Stephany Rose, to ride into town.I will update you with any further developments.Give me your fax number and I will send you the published survey results-the local newspaper (Storm Lake Pilot Tribune) probably doesn't post that online-they are being cagey about this, methinks-like maybe they are IN ON THE STING SETUP?PAUL PETERSON, 712-732-2620 (being listened to, of course).
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Comment #36 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 18:07:11 PT
Instant blinding migraine
It's incomprehensible.
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Comment #35 posted by ekim on November 20, 2009 at 17:41:58 PT
many good thoughts and hopes for runruff
http://www.michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/node/12268
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Comment #34 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 17:32:14 PT
You dear sweet soul!
If I was in any deeper the bovine excrement would cover my eyes!
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Comment #33 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 17:28:22 PT
Wasting fuel... getting you out in a storm...
Being forced to do it by agents of the government. Over fear of a plant.Something needs reforming... and it isn't Runruff.
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Comment #32 posted by FoM on November 20, 2009 at 17:28:02 PT
runruff
I hope you don't get in trouble.
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Comment #31 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 17:27:41 PT
Ja!
Dey hab der veys, ja?
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Comment #30 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 17:24:24 PT
Comment 29
Oh my gosh.I'm so sorry, Runruff.
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Comment #29 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 17:10:27 PT
Hi kids!
I did leave and I just got back.I gave urine on Monday and today.It was storming all the way over and all the way back.It took a quarter tank of gas, about $18.00 and foru hours!
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Comment #28 posted by FoM on November 20, 2009 at 14:24:24 PT
Hope
Thank you. I thought he had to go today. That's scary. Marc Emery is out for a few days I read.
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Comment #27 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 14:17:47 PT
Also
I'd like to know what that creepy judge might still be having to do with it.
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 14:13:05 PT
keystroke spy thing
I was in Conspiracy City.
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Comment #25 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 14:11:58 PT
Runruff
I thought he meant right now, today, too. Until I read or reread the Monday part.I thought. Oh hell! What could have done that? Then I looked at this thread and started wondering if they had one of those keystroke spy things on him.Runruff is a dangerous subversive?
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Comment #24 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 14:08:57 PT
Runruff
Runruff?
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on November 20, 2009 at 12:26:45 PT
runruff
You must go today?
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Comment #22 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 12:19:27 PT
Comment 20
That is so wrong to do that to people.I cannot understand the mind that cannot see that that is wrong.
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Comment #21 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 12:16:46 PT
Just think..
someone is poring over Runruff's pee to see if he smoked cannabis instead of took the pharmaceutical synthesized version for his glaucoma... so that they can, they hope, apparently, put him in a prison cell again.
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Comment #20 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 12:13:19 PT
Pee collection center!
It is at a halfway house 90 miles from here. You go in. You are told to wash your hands vigorously for at least 20 seconds.You are told to sigh in and stand in front of the commode.Then you raise your shirt up to your armpits and turnaround.Then you are told to drop you pants around your ankles and turn around.They hand you a cup and stand in front of you and watch while you urinate.I know exactly how the American black slave felt under Jim Crow!
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Comment #19 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 12:04:40 PT
Runruff
What's that the number to?
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Comment #18 posted by dongenero on November 20, 2009 at 12:01:53 PT
runruff
I think the comments from your PO certainly indicate the animosity he holds for you. Apparently it's personal with such goons.Power to you.
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Comment #17 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 11:55:54 PT
Call this toll free number!
1-866-248-4718If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'!
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Comment #16 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 11:54:52 PT
You're a trouble maker...
for some kind of zealous regime... of religious zeal.They want to crucify you!It's what it looks like.
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Comment #15 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 11:48:42 PT
comment 12
That's the rumor!
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 11:47:15 PT
Comment 12
Can that be?
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 11:45:57 PT
Runruff
What's going on?Who is so afraid of you?
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Comment #12 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 11:45:37 PT
Notorius!
They all knew me by name and deed before I was busted!Even in prison the other seasoned prisoners said that they have it in for me. They hate activist!My prosecuting attorney saw my video and heard me on the radio many times, He said!
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 11:40:35 PT
What the hell, Runruff?
Why do they want you in prison so badly?
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on November 20, 2009 at 11:39:36 PT
runruff
Oh No. You really worry me.
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Comment #9 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 11:29:23 PT
After I wrote that last post, "test cost"
I called in to check I my color was up today? It is up. It is Green. This means I will leave now on the spur of the moment, drive 180 miles round trip, for a spontaneous pee test!UNBELEIVABLE!
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Comment #8 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 11:22:11 PT
test cost?
In the clinical laboratory world, urinalysis is big business. But according to Dr. Andrew Lorincz, professor emeritusat the University of Alabama in Birmingham, the traditional procedure is not necessarily cost-efficient. Every year more than 300 million routine urinalyses are performed in the US alone. The cost to the patient usually starts at $25 to $35 but might increase an additional $100 to $300 by the time a culture and sensitivity are run.
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Comment #7 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 11:19:55 PT
Last Monday was USA day!
Urine Sample Analysis day.They now make me drive 180 miles round trip to a humane wast collection center. Now that I have a Marinol prescription they want to analyze my urine in a lab. That is the three hundred dollar treatment shown here I believe?I told my Po I was using for my glaucoma in accordance with my doctors recommendations and in strict accordance with state law. His response was to order me to the pee station where they can further analyze my urine content? Even though I tell them I am using they still want my pee?I am waiting to hear back from my PO now. He says this will be settled in court. I may end up in a halfway house or doing more time? we'll see?
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on November 20, 2009 at 10:00:27 PT
Had Enough
You made me think of a song.Bob Marley - Get Up, Stand Up (Live)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zTxUxFjLB0
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Comment #5 posted by Had Enough on November 20, 2009 at 09:56:12 PT
Revolution...
Saw this in the movie Siege...with Tommy Lee Jones and Martin Segal...***This is not about anything from the 60’s movement...this is a Revolution.A movement starts in one place and ends in another.This is a revolution; it keeps coming around, back in your face.***This was in the part where Tommy Lee Jones had just hijacked a battleship, and was on the phone with a CIA spook after the spook had asked him if this was about a 60’s hippy movement.It’s been a while since I watched it, but the wording should be real close...
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on November 20, 2009 at 07:42:29 PT
Very interesting, Runruff.
A glut?Where the heck is interstate commerce when you need it?
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on November 20, 2009 at 07:16:02 PT
runruff
Nothing you have ever said is off topic.
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 07:13:48 PT
A turn left in the mind!
Sometimes I see the world raining, sometimes the sun shines. My feelings are along these same lines. Yesterday I was feeling melancholy [self pitying]. Today? Not so much?I am thinking this morning about what a unique community I live in. In the early 70s "hippies" moved here from California to grow herbs under Oregon's new legalization laws. The influx of counter culture population rose rapidly and boy how we clashed with the loggers and miners! To them it appeared that we just sat at home getting high and growing pot while we were making more money than they were making by the sweat of their brow!Logging is about 90% gone now and the biggest crop in the state of Oregon is Cannabis!Cannabis will out last every industry over the test of time just as it always has.As a group the loggers were known to be big beer drinkers and meth users. They were rough and violent. We often heard of loggers beating up hippies.We now enjoy a softer more peaceful environment under the new boon for green gold! I talked to a very good friend of mine and my wife's two days ago. She is a very sweet natured and a caring sort of person. She was telling us how the glut of herb has affected the farmers ability to move it out of the area and therefore many are stuck without income. She says what she sees happening is those who are able to move there produce are supporting and loaning funds to others who are having to wait. This was the same mindset of the early Americans who helped each other out, throughout the greatest event in human history!I know this is OT in a strict sense but I feel I am reporting a side of this issue many would never be privy to otherwise.
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on November 20, 2009 at 05:33:00 PT
Revolution!
Revolution is an idea who's time has come!Revolutions are fought and won in the hearts and minds of the people!Wars are fought to subdue the proletariat or to throw off the authority of tyrants who refuse to change with the times!-WOD Make no mistake, we are involved in a major revolution!
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