cannabisnews.com: Aiming High





Aiming High
Posted by CN Staff on November 14, 2007 at 05:54:22 PT
By Carly Nairn 
Source: Daily Vanguard
Oregon -- A drafter of Oregon's marijuana law visited Portland State yesterday, advocating law changes, including increased rights to possess the drug as well as its limited legalization, which could be presented to the state legislature this session.Leland Berger, who helped draft the state law for medical marijuana, presented an initiative on behalf of the pro-marijuana group Voter Power that would give legal rights as well as cost reimbursements to patients who privately grow the drug for medical use. The initiative also calls for the creation of a regulated and licensed dispensary system and the legalization of the drug for adults.
Berger talked with students at PSU on Tuesday about these initiatives, as well as options that will be presented to the state legislature by the pro-marijuana group in the upcoming session.The group's plan, called Initiative 124, would provide safe access, choice and reimbursement to growers, patients and nonprofit organizations, according to the group's campaign literature.Berger said he understands marijuana can be a medical necessity for patients, particularly for pain relief."It isn't like 'I would rather have this medicine,' but more like 'I have to have the medicine because it treats my aliments,'" Berger said.In 2003, a poll was taken by Voter Power, and 90 percent of the Oregonians polled were aware of the state law, and 90 percent approved of its existence, Berger said."This proves that the people are ahead of their government," he said.Anthony Johnson, the political director of the group, said he sees the importance of these initiatives outside the scope of marijuana."I see it as important because it has to do with civil rights, and it's a personal freedom and personal choice issue," he said.Currently, there are three clinics in Portland where people can have physicians prescribe the drug based on medical conditions, one of which is operated by the group, Berger said.There are also over 2,000 private physicians in the state that have prescribed medical marijuana to their patients, he said.In opposition to the group is Kevin Mannix, a former state gubernatorial candidate and chairman of the Oregon Republican Party.Mannix, currently a defense attorney, is trying to re-criminalize medical marijuana by repealing the state's current law on the drug.If passed, Mannix's counter-initiative could ban patients currently under the protection of the state's medical marijuana law from being able to grow or use the drug starting March 31, 2009, making prescribed patients use synthetic THC pills such as Marinol. THC is the main chemical compound present in marijuana.Lissa Kaufman, director of PSU's Student Legal and Mediation Services, said knowing the laws about marijuana use and possession are important to students because it could affect their student aid.Any drug conviction can suspend financial aid if the student was convicted while receiving aid, according to the federal Higher Education Act. Inability to obtain aid after that is suspended for up to a year."It is part of the mission of legal and mediation services to present topical legal issues that affect the student body," said Kaufman.For more information, visit: http://www.voterpower.orgNote: Changes to state marijuana law could expand drug growth, possession rights.Source: Daily Vanguard (Portland State, OR Edu)Author: Carly Nairn Published: November 14, 2007Copyright: 2007 Daily VanguardContact:  opinion dailyvanguard.comWebsite: http://www.dailyvanguard.com/Related Articles: Medical Marijuana Is On The Oregonian Hit Listhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23426.shtmlA Few People Get Uncle Sam's Weed http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23425.shtml Marijuana Advocates Defend Law http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23282.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on November 20, 2007 at 16:53:00 PT
Video Oregon: Special Report: Highly Legal
By Thom Jensen and KATU Web StaffNovember 20, 2007  
 
 
  URL: http://www.katu.com/news/11651506.html 
  
 Copyright: 2007 KATU-TV.
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Comment #2 posted by museman on November 14, 2007 at 11:14:02 PT
G.O.P. G.O.B.s
Republican, born again nazis, good-ol-boy loggers and brain-dead alcoholics. These people are the real criminals, they tweak the constitution to benefit their various clubs, ..the masons, lions club, shriners .. to mention a few of the surface ones, and their clandestine behind-door-meetings in the county commissioners office, plus the insidious lawyer cults that flourish in our 'acclaimed' universities. They write ordinances and laws to support their tweaks, so they won't have to work very hard to rape their constituency.They are full of hatred, condemnation, and their attitude and actual spirits are responsible for all the atrocities ever committed against man by man.Their words are ALL lies. They have invested their lives and souls into this false, extemporaneous illusion called 'civilisation' and 'society,' like demons who have sold their souls and have no choice but to uphold their status quo until they are destroyed.The first rule of American Liberty; "Never, ever trust a cop."The second rule; "Never, ever trust a lawyer."The third rule; "The amount of justice that one recieves in the hands of the American 'justice' system, is equal to the amount of grease applied to the wheels. Money, and power, but mostly money. They are all about the business of 'making money' and that is their bottom line.Not that there aren't some few estranged souls attempting to do good works from within the system, I had a judge once that showed me truth was still respected by some few. I have known a handfull of cops that actually had no problem letting their hummanity show. Over-all though they are the problem, and the perpetuators of the problems, as well as inventors of new problems.Theirs is a tapestry of lies that is woven across not only state lines but international. They are the 1,000 pound gorilla and they know it. To succeed in this life you have to give tribute and tithing to their orders, lick their boots and/or kiss their posterior. If you are ruthless and cunning enough, you can pile up the wealth and power on top of the bodies so it looks like you're a hero.They are all wasted space, abuse of life, and nothing but millstones around the collective neck of mans necessary spiritual evolution, and they need to be cast off.Freedom and liberty are a state of mind, resolution, being, and action, and have absolutely nothing to do with contemporary law, or the special interest groups that regulate and attempt to market these very 'inalienable rights' left so ambiguously defined by the founding bankers who are sometimes referred to as 'our founding fathers.'The question is; are you free, or are you enslaved. The next question after you honestly answer, is whether or not you wish to remain enslaved. I believe in the power of Faith and belief to the extent (based on my own life expereince and not stories and myths) that even the bullet from the cops gun may disappear before it strikes the bone. I know that the five-sense imperical perception of reality is held as the 'most valid' peception of reality by left-brain indoctrination, and fear limitation beat into our skulls by the church, our parents, and the 'education' system, and that serves the status quo quite well in maintaining the illusion...but that perception is backward and mightily flawed.Each and every one of us is a Sovereign Being. No other single one, or group of us has any real authority (other than war) to rule over another. The culpabilty of the ignorant masses is used quite efficiently to establish and maintain the 'ruling class' because that ignorance gives them their excuse for being lazy and irresponsible, thereby
justifying their abdication of their sovereignty to their 'betters.'I am free. I owe no allegences to false governments, false religions, and faulty systems. My freedom may seem conceptual, however when I have stood up in my sovereignty before these pretenders who have accused me of violating their illegal, unconstitutional, and immoral 'laws,' I have watched the unfettered truth destroy their game. If that is done enough times in front of witnesses, the holes in their ragged clothes will come more and more apparent to the world, and their orders, clubs, associations, committes, and all the BS that surrounds them WILL GO AWAY! As long as the majority just keep slaving away to provide the actual real energy for war, destruction, suffering, and death, the small but powerfull stands being made by socially inconsequential people will serve those with the guts to make a stand, but the rest of the masses will still have no idea they have this kind of sovereign power.
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Comment #1 posted by Runruff on November 14, 2007 at 09:50:32 PT:
Kevin Mannix.
I guess if you've been through the justice system you may have a little different outlook on attorneys. Mine sold me out like a bag of potatos. The DEA came onto my property and searched it while I was in LA having eye surgery. They knew details about my life and health and location they could have known only by tapping my phone. They aquired an illegal search warrent based on an illegal search. I talked to someone in Oakland an, attorney advocate, who assured me that the search was illegal. My attorney got on the phone and threatened this guy with a law suit against him for interfearing with his case. I know now he had cut a deal with the prosecutor. In the prison library Dennis my good friend and the best jailhouse lawyer in the system went over my case and said that I should have gotten off with a motion to suppress. A slam dunk if ever he saw one in his thirty years of lawyering. He personally spent 70 hours writing a pettion of hebeas corpus for me because he believed so stronly in my case. This is an abrieveated version of events of course but it illustrares what kind of people are out there ready to sell us out for profit. So on to this Kevin Maddix. He understands the importance of the war on cannabis to his entire profession. I'm guessing half those bums would have to go out and get real jobs or join the ranks of the unemployed if not for this idiotic prohibition. I wonder who you would find lurking in this guys closet if we could have a peek. Feds maybe? 
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