cannabisnews.com: Swift Action Sought on Medical Marijuana
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Swift Action Sought on Medical Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on December 15, 2009 at 04:41:04 PT
By Tim Craig, Washington Post Staff Writer 
Source: Washington Post
Washington, D.C. -- D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) said Monday that he wants to move swiftly to establish regulations for distributing medical marijuana now that Congress has voted to lift restrictions on city drug policy.Gray said the council will use Initiative 59, which voters overwhelmingly approved in 1998, to begin crafting a policy that allows doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients with serious illnesses.
"We've waited 10 years. . . . I think the opportunity to send it is now," Gray said. "There is no reason to sit on it."But one day after Congress voted to lift the Barr amendment, there was widespread confusion across city government about how the policy might be implemented.Attorney General Peter Nickles said Monday that he has instructed his staff to review whether the council can use Initiative 59 to legalize medical marijuana or whether it is too dated to withstand legal scrutiny.Even if it is valid, Nickles said, under home rule the initiative would still have to survive a 30-day congressional review period because the original proposal was never sent to Capitol Hill.But Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who played a key role in having the amendment removed in the spending bill, said she doesn't think the measure needs to go back before Congress.In making its decision to remove the Barr amendment, Norton said Congress was under the assumption that the city would use administrative regulations to implement its medical-marijuana policy."Congress thought they were simply taking the ban off and the District would simply proceed or not proceed," Norton said. "After all we have gone through, I can tell you, the Congress is not anxious to see this issue here again. It's taken me 10 years."Norton said she cannot guarantee that Congress would not try to block medical marijuana if the issue appeared before it without being entangled in a massive government spending bill.But Gray said he doubts the House and Senate would intervene if the issue lands before them. He noted that Congress has passed only three disapproval resolutions on council bills since home rule began in 1973.During the congressional review period, Gray said that city health and public safety officials would begin establishing regulations on how the marijuana should be prescribed and distributed.The biggest question facing city leaders is whether the city or another organization should get into the business of growing and distributing marijuana.Thirteen states allow for medical marijuana. But Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said many of those state laws call for patients to grow their own marijuana, or to designate someone to legally grow it for them, to avoid government involvement in the cultivation of an illegal substance.But Mirken noted that California, New Mexico and, beginning next year, Rhode Island and Maine have embraced policies that allow for the creation of government-sanctioned distribution centers.Mirken says that strategy -- made easier by the Obama administration's pledge not to use federal law to arrest medical marijuana distributors -- makes more sense for the District."The grow-your-own provisions simply don't work for everybody, particularly in urban areas," Mirken said. "We think a regulated system of dispensaries is ideal, but there needs to be rules. It shouldn't just be a free-for-all."On Monday, the medical community was also scrambling to examine the ramifications of legalizing medical marijuana in the District.The Whitman-Walker Clinic, which specializes in treating and preventing HIV/AIDS, was a key sponsor of putting Initiative 59 on the ballot.But clinic spokesman Chip Lewis said Whitman-Walker would still have to undertake an extensive study of medical marijuana before it could recommend that any of its patients use the drug."Whitman-Walker believes people living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic medical conditions should have access to any legal medication under physician treatment," Lewis said. "But we would have to do some careful planning and thought . . . around the issues of care before we could implement anything."Marijuana growers are also following events at city hall closely.Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said he has received more than two dozen e-mails or phone calls since late last week from marijuana growers or distributors who want to do business in the nation's capital."There are probably at least 20 of these cannabis shop owners on the West Coast that have a dead-eye target on the District," St. Pierre said. "Over the weekend, we must have gotten 20 to 30 e-mails or phone messages from people I would say are entrepreneurs."Source: Washington Post (DC)Author: Tim Craig, Washington Post Staff Writer Published: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Copyright: 2009 Washington Post Contact: letters washpost.com Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/WlgdsUvTCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on December 15, 2009 at 17:42:10 PT
charmed quark 
I was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and my family moved to Baltimore, MD where we lived until I was 4. Then we moved to eastern, Pa and I was kidded for saying Warshington too. LOL! 
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Comment #12 posted by kaptinemo on December 15, 2009 at 17:40:20 PT:
I call it that for another reason
And not just because I was born there and lived just outside of it for years.I call it Warshington because war seems to be the main occupation of the place. If not warring on someone outside of the country, those who run it war on those inside it. War, war, war, 24/7/365 on somebody or something. It's a wonder seismologists don't record tremors at Mt. Vernon where poor ol' George must be spinning in his grave, mad as hell that the capitol city bearing his name has come to mean imperialism abroad and fascism at home.
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Comment #11 posted by ekim on December 15, 2009 at 17:37:52 PT
today on C-Span Sen. Byron Dorgan
A woman called in to say how terrible it is that Rep. Barney Frank has sponsered two bills about marijuana.
She went on to say that Mr.Frank was asked to debate the issue but would not.I do not know who the woman is or represents but would like to know if Mr Frank knows about this.Please Rep Frank hold hearings and have this woman attend.http://c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/12/15/WJE/A/27259/Sen+Byron+Dorgan+DND.aspx
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Comment #10 posted by charmed quark on December 15, 2009 at 17:19:27 PT
Warsh
I'm from the midsouth and I pronounce it Warshington. People here in NJ make fun of me.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on December 15, 2009 at 17:02:05 PT
Sam
Warshington is how I say Washington. Do other people pronounce it that way too? 
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Comment #8 posted by charmed quark on December 15, 2009 at 16:24:59 PT
DC was forbidden to count vote
I don't know if any of you remember, but DC was forbidden by Congress to even count the vote to see what the results was. The most anti-democratic thing I've ever seen in this country. I was absolutely shocked by this at the time. It wasn't until a Federal judge ruled that Congress couldn't control things like voting counting that that was done.So it's a great day.
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Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on December 15, 2009 at 11:51:49 PT
Warshington DC!
So true - we've always been told that cannabis is tough sell in DC because "Warshington" is a Southern city.It will be particularly satisfying when it comes time for the federal propagandists to rail against medical MJ in California and - even better - other countries! They'll have to walk by the dispensaries on their way to "work" in the morning!Can you imagine - well Canada, you're not allowed to decriminalize! Yes, we have states that just decriminalized and cannabis cafes on the ground floors of our office buildings! But pay no attention to that!
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on December 15, 2009 at 10:47:41 PT:
I can't think of a more bitter pill
for the professional DrugWarriors to swallow than to have an MMJ dispensary right smack in the middle of 'their' turf. Their Headquarters, so to speak. Right in Prohib Central. And maybe, after a year, Virginia and Maryland will have some. (Chuckling) I can hardly wait.
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Comment #5 posted by Sam Adams on December 15, 2009 at 10:44:49 PT
 we know
"The grow-your-own provisions simply don't work for everybody, particularly in urban areas," Mirken said. "We think a regulated system of dispensaries is ideal, but there needs to be rules. It shouldn't just be a free-for-all."Yes, we know how you feel because your new referendum in Arizona won't allow patient growing.I'm not sure how patient growing in a city is any different that the country, especially since MPP's referendum also mandate indoor-only cultivationHello $400 per ounce!
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on December 15, 2009 at 09:58:21 PT
Comment 3
:0)Sorry.
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Comment #3 posted by runruff on December 15, 2009 at 09:44:54 PT
Hope!
You startled my cat!
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on December 15, 2009 at 06:49:47 PT
Yes Yes Yes
Stomp Stomp ClapStomp Stomp ClapStomp Stomp Clap
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on December 15, 2009 at 04:55:13 PT
It's Time
It's time to get this done. We've been waiting for way too many years.
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