cannabisnews.com: High Court Clouds Medical Marijuana Debate










  High Court Clouds Medical Marijuana Debate

Posted by CN Staff on June 28, 2005 at 08:45:04 PT
By Thomas D. Elias 
Source: Ventura County Star 

California -- So you thought the U.S. Supreme Court would at last bring some clarity to a medical marijuana scene where some district attorneys arrest medipot users and their suppliers and others don't, where federal agents shut down medical marijuana dispensaries and clubs but usually don't fool with users? Hah! By the time legal scholars and law enforcement officials finished reading the high court's august decision in Gonzales v. Raich, you'd have thought they and the justices all had been smoking or sniffing some kind of hallucinogen.
Start with Justice John Paul Stevens, long one of the court's leading civil libertarians. He wrote the decision that allows federal authorities to clamp down on medipot users, arresting them no matter how bad their physical condition. His rationale: Allowing growers to plant enough pot to meet the needs of medical users might encourage them to add plants to their plots and begin selling to recreational users. He also invoked the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, giving Congress the right to regulate anything traded over state lines. Of course, almost all medipot is grown locally and never crosses a state line. But it might if growers added enough plants to get seriously into street sales. So he and the court majority essentially say because something might be sold over state lines, Congress has the power to ban it regardless of what the states and their citizens say. That was enough to make some folks wonder what his young clerks -- folks just out of law school who certainly wrote at least a draft of the decision -- might have been smoking. Then there was California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who immediately opined that "The ruling does not change the state laws allowing for the legal use of medical marijuana ... state and federal laws are no different today than they were yesterday." Of course, yesterday there was utter confusion. Prosecutors in places like Orange and Kern counties routinely throw the book at medipot users and their suppliers, while those in other counties like Mendocino and San Francisco allow them to operate freely. Since the federal Drug Enforcement Administration lacks the personnel to arrest all the thousands of medipot users in California, chances are most will continue to use without problems. But those who get vocal about it will surely be prosecuted and convicted, as in the past. Unless juries begin to revolt and refuse to convict users regardless of the evidence. And some jurors in past medipot trials have indicated that's exactly what they would have done if they'd been fully informed of the conflicts between state and federal laws. There were also the users. We already know they're on a hallucinogen. Many use to alleviate pain and other symptoms of AIDS, cancer and other diseases. "I grow my own plants and I'm going to continue to do so no matter what," said one Sacramento AIDS patient who claims pot relieves side effects of his prescription drug regimen including nausea and stomach pain. That patient expects to be allowed to continue growing and using. Maybe it will work out that way, maybe not. There was also the likelihood the court majority was hallucinating when it suggested Congress should resolve the whole mess. Congress has known for nine years -- since Californians passed Proposition 215 with a 56 percent majority in 1996 -- that most citizens want medical marijuana treated like a prescription drug. But it does nothing to change the status of the weed, even though 11 other states followed California. Some of them are "blue" states that voted Democratic in the last two presidential elections, like Oregon, Washington and Hawaii; others are as Republican "red" as can be, like Montana, Alaska and Arizona. Not even senators and congressmen from states that voted for legalizing medipot ever advocate heavily for similar federal action. That includes delegations not just from California, but also from states like Arizona, where a 1996 referendum allowing medipot use with a doctor's recommendation passed with a 65 percent majority. This is exactly what Proposition 215 mandates for this state, but since former Attorney General John Ashcroft warned several years ago that he would seek to lift the licenses of doctors who make recommendations, few have been willing to do it regardless of how much their patients might benefit. If all this sounds hopelessly confused, it is. And the Supreme Court apparently has only bollixed things up still more with a decision that says federal law indeed pre-empts anything the states might have on the books, but still does not knock state laws out. Maybe the decision could be better understood if its readers all lit up reefers while considering the matter. Thomas D. Elias, of Santa Monica, is a columnist and author. Source: Ventura County Star (CA)Author:  Thomas D. EliasPublished: June 28, 2005Copyright: 2005 The E.W. Scripps Co.Contact: letters insidevc.comWebsite: http://www.staronline.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Medical Marijuana Information http://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmMarijuana Fight is Hypocriticalhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20868.shtmlFallout of Marijuana Verdicthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20800.shtmlMedical Marijuana Effort Loses at US High Court http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20772.shtml 

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Comment #11 posted by ekim on June 29, 2005 at 20:33:07 PT
FoM no word on Julie Falco -- anyone heard?
WHAT: Press conference to announce compassionate new drug program application for marijuana medicationWHERE: Kluczynski Federal Building, 230 S Dearborn St, Chicago, IL, front plazaWHEN: Wednesday, June 29, 11 a.m.WHY: Announce application for Compassionate New Drug program by MS patient and her doctor for legal medical marijuana spray so as to reduce risk of arrest, for the Illinois legislature to implement Illinois' medical marijuana program, and for the FDA to reschedule marijuana as medicine so that Sativex(r) can be made available to all Americans who need it.WHO: Julie Falco, MS patient; Dr. Bruce Doblin, MD, MPH, Medical Ethicist; Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access; Matthew Atwood, IDEAL Reform
http://www.leap.cc/events
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Comment #10 posted by afterburner on June 29, 2005 at 19:27:04 PT
link 2 gives error, but...
you can see the seal photo at link three 
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Comment #9 posted by afterburner on June 29, 2005 at 19:18:56 PT
"The Lost Liberty Hotel" Proposed
Justice Souter's House Under Eminent Domain Threat? 
http://www.freestarmedia.com/hotellostliberty2.htmlFree State Project: Liberty in Our Lifetime [seal]
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3967/624/1600/porc.jpg--Preceding links courtesy of the US Marijuana Party
http://usmjparty.blogspot.com/
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on June 29, 2005 at 09:20:18 PT
Supervisors Draft Pot Club Legislation
By Justin Jouvenal, Staff WriterPublished: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 
San Francisco's medical marijuana clubs would become the most heavily regulated in the state under comprehensive legislation unveiled Tuesday that requires permits and criminal background checks for owners and bans dispensaries in residential neighborhoods.It is the first step city officials have taken to impose a regulatory scheme on The City's more than 40 pot clubs since California voters legalized marijuana for medical purposes in 1996 by approving Proposition 215.The move comes a week after federal agents raided three city medical marijuana clubs for alleged money laundering and gang activity and amid rising concerns about the proliferation of dispensaries around San Francisco.Complete Article: http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/06/29/news/20050629_ne04_clubs.txt
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Comment #6 posted by ekim on June 28, 2005 at 19:07:13 PT

 Paul Peterson go to Kluczynski Federal Building
Paul Peterson please be at this event it was great talking to you.
Anyone going to this event in Chicago please read 
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20896.shtml
and go see Paul he needs help now.WHAT: Press conference to announce compassionate new drug program
application for marijuana medicationWHERE: Kluczynski Federal Building, 230 S Dearborn St, Chicago, IL, front
plazaWHEN: Wednesday, June 29, 11 a.m.WHY: Announce application for Compassionate New Drug program by MS patient
and her doctor for legal medical marijuana spray so as to reduce risk of
arrest, for the Illinois legislature to implement Illinois' medical
marijuana program, and for the FDA to reschedule marijuana as medicine so
that Sativex(r) can be made available to all Americans who need it.WHO: Julie Falco, MS patient; Dr. Bruce Doblin, MD, MPH, Medical Ethicist;
Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access; Matthew
Atwood, IDEAL ReformJack Herer author of the Emperor Wears No Clothes (www.jackherer.com)will be
at the Civic Center in Traverse City MI on July 23.
 tickets are 15$
along with(The Investigational New Drug program IND receiptant) Elvy
Musikka. call Laura 321-218-0204 for more info/Once again, for those who need it, here is the contact info for the two hotels which have agreed to provide lodging for the Compassionate Care Conference on July 23.
 
Mitchell Creek Inn
894 Munson Ave
Traverse City, MI 49686
(800)947-9330
(231)947-9330
boszllc chartermi.net
www.mitchellcreekinn.com
 
Shore Lane Motel
5368 US 31 North
Traverse City MI 49686
(231)938-2720
http://www.leap.cc/events
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Comment #5 posted by Toker00 on June 28, 2005 at 16:18:51 PT

The Supreme Court
is senile. That's the only reason they could be making such confusing and wacky decisions. That's gotta be it.END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!
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Comment #4 posted by runderwo on June 28, 2005 at 15:03:00 PT

cannabis the hallucinogen
Unfortunately, it's impossible to classify "cannabis" the plant under any one class of effects. Even the active ingredients pull in different directions. THC generally has a psychedelic, hypnotic, and anti-nausea effect, while CBD generally has a sedative and pain-killing effect. But the effects differ depending on whether they attach to CB1 or CB2 receptors, whether the weed is contaminated with other useless cannabinoids like CBN that tie up receptors, and on individual expectation and response. Saying that it's a hallucinogen just to choose a box to fit it in is hopelessly trivializing the various effects cannabis can provide.
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Comment #3 posted by jose melendez on June 28, 2005 at 10:14:56 PT

Yes, finally the tables are starting to turn
"Don't you know you're talking about a revolutionIt sounds like a whisperDon't you know they're talking about a revolutionIt sounds like a whisperWhile they're standing in the welfare linesCrying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvationWasting time in unemployment linesSitting around waiting for a promotionDon't you know you're talking about a revolutionIt sounds like a whisperPoor people are gonna rise upAnd get their sharePoor people are gonna rise upAnd take what's theirs . . . " - Tracy Chapman - - - FYI, today I registered International Hydrocarbon Corporation, already have two biofuel contracts, and am working on a third. Also, while eating breakfast in front of the beach in Daytona, I had a long phone chat with Paul Peterson.I've got to say, the man is onto something with his hormone free essential fatty acid product, and is a stirringly powerful communicator that deserves our respect and support.If you are in Chicago, call him, and join: 847-853-4200This guy will change your world, and does indeed carry hemp foods in his store for those of us who choose vegetarian lifestyles.Rev. Jose Juan Melendez, Jr.888 247-8183
International Hydrocarbon
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Comment #2 posted by Max Flowers on June 28, 2005 at 09:39:44 PT

This does not help
There were also the users. We already know they're on a hallucinogen. That is tantamount to spreading mis/disinformation. Cannabis is not a hallucinogen (like LSD, mescaline, etc). It is more properly classed as a mild euphoriant (like catnip or kratom). Prejudiced and erroneous comments like this, in my opinion, go a long way toward keeping cannabis down.
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Comment #1 posted by schmeff on June 28, 2005 at 09:35:30 PT

Thomas D. Elias Clouds MMJ Debate
Notice that there are three references to hallucinogens and hallucinating in this brief article.I guess the underlying message is that cannabis use makes the user unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy. No use trying to analyze his position, since I'm not even sure he's real.
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