cannabisnews.com: Lawmakers Need To Fix The Medical Marijuana Mess
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Lawmakers Need To Fix The Medical Marijuana Mess
Posted by CN Staff on June 06, 2011 at 05:51:00 PT
Editorial
Source: Olympian
Washington State -- This state’s medicinal marijuana law is a wreck. Attempts to clarify the voter-approved law during the 2011 legislative session imploded when the governor vetoed large portions of the measure aimed at legalizing cannabis dispensaries. Between them, lawmakers and Gov. Chris Gregoire have created quite a mess, increased uncertainty and left patients and suppliers totally confused about their legal status. Add in federal raids on marijuana dispensaries in Spokane and the people of this state are left with a jumbled mess that merits legislative action.
Now that lawmakers have completed their work for the year and adopted a balanced 2011-13 state operating budget, it’s time for medicinal cannabis supporters like Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, to draw the players together to see where compromises can be found and clarity added to state law. If consensus can be reached, a bill should be ready to run early in the 2012 session. If the issue cannot wait until then and the feds continue their raids, a special one-day legislative session can be held to clarify the law and clean up the mess from the governor’s veto.This is one of those issues where there’s no doubt where voters stand. After a feisty campaign in 1998, Washington voters made it clear that they wanted cancer patients to be able to use marijuana to combat nausea caused by chemotherapy. More than 1.1 million Washington voters approved Initiative 692 – 58.97 percent favorable vote – to authorize the use of medicinal marijuana for cancer and other patients.Ever since, users and growers have been caught in a legal limbo – caught between the voter-approved initiative and federal drug laws that make no exception for the medicinal use of cannabis. This should be a states’ rights issue and the feds should bow out. They certainly have a terrible record in combating illegal drug trafficking.Washington state’s original initiative didn’t say explicitly that dispensaries are legal or illegal. Snipped   Complete Article: http://drugsense.org/url/1u5nfkOnSource: Olympian, The (WA) Published: June 5, 2011Copyright: 2011 The OlympianWebsite: http://www.theolympian.com/Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/51PidAHvCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by runruff on June 07, 2011 at 07:22:04 PT
Support the cause!
Dear jerry,Members of Congress recently introduced three new bills that would protect people who grow, sell and use medical marijuana from federal arrest and prosecution.Now it is up to us to rally support for these crucial bills. Urge Rep. DeFazio to co-sponsor bills protecting medical marijuana today.In the past few months, powerful opponents who are bent on shutting down medical marijuana programs have been taking alarming actions. The DEA has been raiding dispensaries and federal government lawyers have sent threatening letters attempting to scare state officials into denying patients the medicine they need.We're fighting back. With the help of DPA supporters like you, we've sent over 25,000 letters to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to stop the federal government's threats and to respect patients' needs. And on June 2, international leaders came together to denounce the war on drugs and call for new policies based on science, health and human rights.Now, these bills would provide an iron-clad way to protect state programs and move toward more sensible drug policy in the U.S.There is no time to lose! Please urge Rep. DeFazio to protect medical marijuana patients from federal prosecution and arrest.Without a change in federal law, medical marijuana patients will be forced to continue to put up with the whims of whoever is in power. We've already seen the Obama Administration do an about-face on the issue of medical marijuana – after Obama promised not to waste federal funds on raids against legal state medical marijuana programs.This new legislation would protect medical marijuana programs – for good. Take action now! Write your representative and show there is widespread support for medical marijuana programs.Thank you again for all your support.Sincerely,Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director 
Drug Policy Alliance
 
 
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Comment #3 posted by John Tyler on June 06, 2011 at 20:29:35 PT
policy changes?
I read on another web site that the patient is ending for Marinol. Several other pharmaceutical companies are interested in coming up with a generic version or versions. They will be growing their own farm full of cannabis to make plant extracts. How can this be when care givers are now being threatened by the Fed? Not a problem, the pharmas are just going to tell the DEA that cannabis is now OK, now that they are making money at it, and it will be OK now to change it from a schedule I to a schedule III. Stuff is much easier to get done when money and power is behind it. Politicians that were against something have a change of heart, policies shift. This could just be a rumor but keep an eye out to see if any policy changes are coming.  
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Comment #2 posted by dongenero on June 06, 2011 at 13:20:36 PT
Your Gov't, the drug lab
Taxpayer Money Created 'Legal Marijuana' Used By Teenshttp://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/taxpayer-money-created-legal-marijuana-teens/story?id=13772490"The U.S. government might not be scrambling to ban "Spice," the "legal marijuana" that's sending teens to emergency rooms across the country, if it hadn't helped invent the drug in the first place." I'll add, if they hadn't been desperately trying to invent synthetic (controllable via patents and pharmacies vs by the people) cannabis medicine to "kill off" the medical marijuana movement. Anything to avoid whole plant!!!!!!!!!! And what they really end up with, is the very safe, whole plant remaining more popular than ever, but now with the addition of the obviously quite dangerous, new synthetic drugs available to teens in convenience marts. Even if they ban the substance, it will now be extremely popular in the black market. Applause, DEA, NIDA???? Appears they've been funding cannabis research all along, just the wrong kind. 
(Unless of course their goal was to create deadly synthetic drugs out of naturally occurring medicines that otherwise have no lethal dosage or serious side effects.)Figure it out Feds. You're so tricky and sly, you just shot yourself in the foot and created a new drug scourge. Hey, job security....maybe they do have a functioning plan....more dangerous drugs to keep kids off of!
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on June 06, 2011 at 06:44:48 PT
Still, the CSA breathes!
"They certainly have a terrible record in combating illegal drug trafficking".They have a near perfect record in the category of "terrible" in about everything they do. The failed war on drugs in not "the" problem it is a symptom of the greater more disastrous failure of the fed to govern wisely, with compassion and skill. The fed is void of any of these qualities and the state of the Union as well as our current status in the world will attest to this. 
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