cannabisnews.com: Anti-Reefer Madness Makes Victims Turn To Courts










  Anti-Reefer Madness Makes Victims Turn To Courts

Posted by CN Staff on January 07, 2005 at 09:32:48 PT
Editorial 
Source: RedNova.com  

Three decades before the current medicinal marijuana debate now before the U.S. Supreme Court, Illinois did the right thing. It passed a state law in 1978 making it legal for some sick people to seek medical relief by smoking a little doctor-prescribed weed. "We do have that law on the books. It is a dead letter, though," complains attorney David Stepanich, who represented a Lake County patient convicted in 2003 of growing marijuana that she said helped alleviate pain from a degenerative eye disease.
"Illinois never funded the program," explains Paul Arnentano, senior policy analyst for The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws -- http://www.norml.org/ "They never pulled the trigger on the program, and at this point, it is dormant."A new Illinois medical marijuana bill introduced this year died in committee but will be reintroduced in January, says Bryan Brickner, chair of Illinois NORML. For details, visit: http://www.idealreform.org/Surveys show that the majority of Americans think doctors should be able to prescribe marijuana to patients who may benefit from it, and 11 other states have new laws granting that freedom. But the Supreme Court may rule that the federal government's "zero tolerance" war against pot supersedes any of the states' "compassionate use" laws. Medicinal marijuana supporters looking to the court for permission shouldn't get their hopes up, Stepanich predicts. "It's not going to happen due to what politics has become ... and the continuation of this ridiculous drug war," Stepanich says. A government that spends billions fighting marijuana, imprisoning the people who use it, and, in some cases, confiscating their property and profiting off the drug war, doesn't want to surrender the medical front, Stepanich reasons. Neither, I suspect, do pharmaceutical companies that make a lot of money selling the antidepressant Zoloft, the painkiller OxyContin, the appetite- stimulator Marinol, the anti-nausea drug Dexamethasone, and other powerful pharmaceuticals that don't grow free and wild in people's back yards. Any politician who tries to inject common sense into the argument is branded "soft on crime," notes Jason Turuc, a 31-year- old Schaumburg photographer and Air Force veteran who is vice president of the Illinois Marijuana Party -- http://www.ilmjp.com/"If it was just the medical, the science talk, this thing would have been over," and medicinal marijuana would be legal in all states, Brickner says. "It has nothing to do with medicine," concurs Stepanich, a former prosecutor. "It's a political issue. They have a problem with it because of what marijuana symbolizes. I think it's the whole stigma with the counterculture from the late '60s. It's got political mileage."It's as if the powers that be believe that if the government caves on medicinal marijuana, then the hippies have won. (Disclaimer: While I think we should legalize, regulate and tax pot as we do beer, tobacco and many other drugs, I am among the minority of Americans who went to high school and college during the 1970s and never tried pot. I say this not out of pride or embarrassment, but to counter the stereotype that all "legalize pot" supporters are burned-out hippies who get high and listen to Joan Baez as they wile away the hours playing Hacky Sack in the Quad.) Like many legal drugs, marijuana has ruined lives, led to fatal accidents and caused untold heartbreaks. But it makes sense to give marijuana the same FDA "safety and efficacy" treatment that we use to justify the medicinal use of powerful and addictive narcotics such as morphine. Fears that medicinal marijuana will lead to an increase in recreational use of the drug by kids are irrational. A 2004 survey released by the California attorney general shows that adolescent marijuana use in that state is down nearly 50 percent since it legalized medicinal marijuana in 1996 - the law that now sits before the U.S. Supreme Court. Regardless of how the justices rule in this case, legislators need to take marijuana off the political stage and give it to the medical community.Complete Title: Anti-Reefer Madness Makes Drug War Victims Turn To CourtsSource: Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.Source: RedNova.com (TX)Published: Wednesday, January 5, 2005Copyright: 2004 RedNova.comWebsite: http://www.rednova.com/Contact: http://www.rednova.com/feedback/Related Articles:Medical Marijuana Goes on Trialhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19845.shtml Marijuana By Prescription Onlyhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18412.shtmlIllinois Representative Tests Pot Watershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18318.shtmlCould Marijuana Be Legal in Illinois?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15443.shtml

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Comment #13 posted by Hope on January 07, 2005 at 18:29:25 PT
Very interesting, Ron.
""Like many legal drugs, marijuana has ruined lives, led to fatal accidents and caused untold heartbreaks."It's the persecution that's caused two of the three negatives here. The third one is an urban myth."
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on January 07, 2005 at 18:24:25 PT
ron
You're welcome. I love computers but they sure can be frustrating. This new computer has been great. I told my husband today that this computer has everything I ever wanted in one but this is the first time one was within my price range with all the bells and whistles. Hopefully it will keep working fine and I hope yours does too.
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Comment #11 posted by ron on January 07, 2005 at 17:59:37 PT
Thanks FoM and Rev
I brought up the main page - 6 comments. Hit refresh - eight comments. Clicked Read More and found seven comments (one deleted). Refreshed and there was the Rev's 9th comment.Tedious and distracting from the article. Sorry to get you all hung up in geeksville (not that there's anything wrong with that place).Like many legal drugs, marijuana has ruined lives, led to fatal accidents and caused untold heartbreaks.It's the persecution that's caused two of the three negatives here. The third one is an urban myth.Hope this gets us back on track.
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on January 07, 2005 at 17:46:06 PT
BGreen
Thank you. That happens to me with IE too. I'm glad Microsoft is coming out with a free anti-virus and spyware program next week. I won't need to buy Norton when it expires. I got 3 months of Norton Anti-Virus free with the new computer. ron I found your e-mail and sent you a note.
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Comment #9 posted by BGreen on January 07, 2005 at 17:38:27 PT
ron
I use Opera, too, and I think you just loaded a page out of your cache or your ISP's cache.I have to hit "reload" to refresh the page and get the new info to come up. Try that the next time something isn't showing up in Opera.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on January 07, 2005 at 17:28:38 PT
ron
If I had your email I could e-mail you. Posting e-mails is someting most of us are concerned about. Maybe I can find it in the registration. I'll look and if I find it I'll send you an e-mail.
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Comment #7 posted by ron on January 07, 2005 at 17:09:05 PT
I think it's my Opera browser 
Checked it out on internet explorer and everything was as it should be. Sorry for the confusion.Hope this isn't another crosspost.
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Comment #6 posted by ron on January 07, 2005 at 17:00:26 PT
Is it my computer, your site or the DEA gremlin
that's screwing up my posts?I posted comment #3 on this topic about 3:30. When I checked again about 4:30 there were only two comments, Sam's and yours.Since mine was so short, and my short term memory is still intact, I reposted  -  and saw duplicate comments #3 and #4.Rechecking again I find there are still only the first two comments on the article.Do you have any idea what's going on FoM?Also, is there a way of writing you privately about technical hitches like this so they don't distract from the topic at hand?
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on January 07, 2005 at 16:53:22 PT
Ron
I went ahead and removed your extra post. It happens to me too sometimes. I don't know why most times though.
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Comment #3 posted by ron on January 07, 2005 at 15:35:27 PT

If they really care about the children...
Fears that medicinal marijuana will lead to an increase in recreational use of the drug by kids are irrational.I always thought the spectre of palliative seniors puffing joints would be the greatest disincentive possible for teenagers.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 07, 2005 at 09:58:06 PT

Sam
It's fascinating to me too. Cannabis makes a person think outside the box and they don't like thinking americans.
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on January 07, 2005 at 09:50:15 PT

Culture war
I think the whole "culture war" thing is fascinating.  I guess the hippies would be on one side, the religious right on the other. Who won?  The ONDCP says the right wing won - "the bums lost" in the 60's, according to their spokesperson. With 750,000 people per year being locked up for marijuana, this seems true enough.But....did the conservatives really "win"? More that half of high school kids ADMIT in government surveys that they've smoked marijuana by age 18, the real rate is likely more like 70 or 80%. The last several presidential candidates have all used it, without negative consequence. Estimates for pro athletes range from 25% to 75% regular smokers. It's widely available.No, I suggest that the ONLY winner in this culture war is the political class and government. They're the only ones who got what they always want - more of working people's money, more power over civilians. I think most of today's "issues" are just a big smokescreen for the real story, a near complete takeover of personal freedom by the government, in particular a takeover of the U.S. by the federal government.
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