cannabisnews.com: House Panel May Snuff Pot Bill House Panel May Snuff Pot Bill Posted by CN Staff on April 09, 2008 at 05:14:00 PT By Cynthia Needham, Journal State House Bureau Source: Providence Journal Providence, RI -- Acknowledging that a proposal to create medical marijuana dispensary centers will face a tough road in the House, sponsor Thomas C. Slater said he would be satisfied if the Assembly instead establishes a commission to study the possibility, with an eye toward passing the legislation next year. His comments came after House Health, Education and Welfare Committee Chairman Joseph McNamara, D-Warwick, said he “didn’t see a lot of general support for this legislation at this time” and did not anticipate that the bill would win passage by the committee, despite widespread empathy for patients who use medical marijuana, but cannot legally and safely purchase it. Slater, D-Providence, said he will continue to push for such approval, even if it takes time. “We had overwhelming passage of the marijuana bill itself, but I think when it comes to dispensaries, there are a lot more law-and-order people out there who say ‘oh no, you can’t do that,’ ” Slater said. “… If I can’t get a commitment from the committee to pass the bill, I think it would be a good idea to form a commission to study it.”McNamara agreed that a formal study of the issue would provide a good compromise. “I think there’s general support for a commission to look into this problem [of dispensaries] and see specifically what other states have done and what problems they are having with it,” he said. Slater’s proposal and an identical one in the Senate call for expanding last year’s permanent medical marijuana legislation to create licensed marijuana dispensaries, or “compassion centers,” that would legally grow and sell the drug at affordable prices to the 359 patients in the state’s program. The centers would be regulated by the Health Department and would also offer education services to eligible patients and their caregivers. The idea is to relieve Rhode Island’s patients of a tough choice: growing their own drug or buying it on the street. At least 12 states nationwide have laws allowing use of medical marijuana. But policies governing dispensaries are more fractured and several states have stumbled in trying to pass legislation for distribution centers.Part of the problem is that federal law still bans marijuana usage, even for medical purposes. Dozens of dispensaries in California (one of two states that allows them) have been raided by the federal government, something medical marijuana supporters say they don’t want to see happen here.“Medical marijuana is a controversial issue,” said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, a California-based medical marijuana advocacy group. Nationwide, he said “lawmakers are cautious and there are reasons for that caution; law enforcement is still stuck in a drug war mentality.”Still, Hermes and Jesse Stout, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, say the creation of dispensaries will prove important to the ongoing success of medical marijuana programs here and across the country. In a Health, Education and Welfare Committee hearing yesterday, committee members listened as Rhode Island medical marijuana patients shared stories of how they were forced onto the streets to purchase the drug they need to help ease the chronic pain that accompanies their cancer, AIDS and other illnesses. The members also asked tough questions about how the centers would function and who will run them. The legislation has gotten an easier ride in a Senate Health and Human Services Committee, where members were expected to approve the measure at a hearing this afternoon. It will then go to the Senate floor for a full vote. Slater said he will wait to see what happens in the Senate before proposing any formal changes to his bill.Source: Providence Journal, The (RI)Author: Cynthia Needham, Journal State House Bureau Published: Wednesday, April 9, 2008Copyright: 2008 The Providence Journal CompanyContact: letters projo.comWebsite: http://www.projo.com/Related Articles and Web Site:Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/ R.I. Lawmakers Consider Allowing MMJ Storeshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23811.shtmlBill Would Create Marijuana Dispensarieshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23798.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #21 posted by museman on April 10, 2008 at 07:16:52 PT Had Enough The truth is definitely hard to swallow for a lot of folks, they are so used to lies and deceit, most are without enough substantial representation of the actual truth to make a comparatively informed decision.Unfortunately too many people have come to associate the 'truth' with statistical documentation, and this society, it's schools and other institutions of 'learning' does everything it can to deny our most valuable tool in understanding truth -our intutition.The faculties that we have, the ones that make us human and 'divine' at the same time aren't as some would purport, the faculties of mind, but the faculties of heart.The numerical quantification of reality -rounding it down to lists and 'laws' is probably one of our rulers favorite devices to deceive.The value that is placed on this kind of thinking is errantly prioritized. Heartless mentalities rise to the top like scum on a pond, and the truly innovative thought -represented through intutitive faculties directly connected to the-way-we-feel is apparent at this time, only through the creative arts, and open-minded (or un-minded) philosophical interchange.The constant juggling of beaurocratic statistics as if they were some kind of truth is just a sleight of hand for those who believe their mind is the faculty that perceives truth. They are easily decieved and led. The changes that are happening to the human psyche are going to leave the old left-brain consciousness in the dust, and those who depend on finite, limited status quo 'logic' to understand reality are going to be confused beyond the ability of the mind to deal.This is why in our discussions, the phenonmenon referred to as 'semantics' often gets in the way of actual communication. This is our mind trying to wrap itself around ideas just too big for words to adequately describe. Understanding a thing is not a personal attachment to being right, though society as a whole treats it that way.We've come a long way in just one generation, but we have a lot further to go, It is time to start practicing with our intutitive faculties so we don't get left behind in the dust of dead, stale thinking. [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by unkat27 on April 10, 2008 at 03:56:31 PT DEA Ulterior Motives #45 "Dozens of dispensaries in California (one of two states that allows them) have been raided by the federal government, something medical marijuana supporters say they don’t want to see happen here."Ah, yet another ulterior motive for the DEA raids on California cannabis shops. To send the message to the other states; "if you try this we'll hurt you too!" [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by Had Enough on April 09, 2008 at 16:03:12 PT Sam Adams It’s good that you can see through the curtain.The truth can not be told, it must be realized.Here is a couple of links that might help expand the knowledge of the situation.************JFK Speech on Secret Societies and Freedom of the Presshttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1710662559138481080************http://zeitgeistmovie.com/************"They must find it difficult...those who have taken the authority as truth, rather than the truth as authority." -Gerald Massey"Christianity along with all other theistic belief systems is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world and likewise each other. It supports blind submission to authority. It reduces human responsibility to the effect that God controls everything and in turn awful crimes can be justified in the name of a divine pursuit, and most importantly it empowers those who know the truth but use the myth to manipulate and control societies. The religious myth is the most powerful device ever created and serves as the psychological soil upon which other myths can flourish.""For the social manipulation of society through fear and division has completely detached humans from their sense of power and reality; a process that has been going on for centuries if not millennia. Religion, patriotism, race, wealth, class, and every other form of arbitrary, separatist identification thus conceived has served to create a controlled population- utterably malleable in the hands of the few. Divide and conquer is the motto and as long as people continue to see themselves as separate from everything else, they lend themselves to being completely enslaved. The men behind the curtain know this and they also know that if the people ever realize the truth of their relationship to nature and the truth of their personal power the entire manufactured zeitgeist they prey upon will collapse like a house of cards." [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by afterburner on April 09, 2008 at 15:57:07 PT The Pushers Prohibitionists push pain, police, prosecution, prison, punishment, politics, propaganda, pills, poverty & power. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by FoM on April 09, 2008 at 14:11:22 PT mykeyb420 I haven't that yet. Thank you for telling us. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by mykeyb420 on April 09, 2008 at 13:55:20 PT OT torch drive Im in SF and the olympic torch run has been canceled,,now it a torch drive, ( in a car) [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by FoM on April 09, 2008 at 12:42:02 PT Minnesota News Minn. House To Vote on Medical Marijuana Bill April 9, 2008 ST. PAUL (AP) - A proposal allowing patients with cancer and other debilitating illnesses to use marijuana has cleared its final legislative committee.The 13-4 vote by the House Ways and Means Committee means the bill's next stop is the House floor.The Senate approved the medical marijuana bill last year.But Governor Tim Pawlenty remains opposed because police and sheriffs say the legislation would make it harder for them to enforce drug laws.Those who oppose the bill say it would make marijuana more accessible to those who aren't sick.Supporters include patients with cancer, AIDS and other conditions who say marijuana eases their pain when other drugs don't work.A dozen states allow marijuana use for medical purposes, but the federal government doesn't recognize those laws.Copyright: 2008 The Associated Presshttp://wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8142581&nav=menu239_9_7_1 [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by museman on April 09, 2008 at 12:08:20 PT Sam Absolutely!9/11 is a perfect example. Everyone who saw it, either on TV or in person knows, KNOWS intuitively that there was something very very wrong with that picture, and not just the tragedy of it, but at least half of those people are still in denial because they just can't believe their 'glorious US government' could be capable of such, even though there is plenty of historical evidence to the contrary. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by museman on April 09, 2008 at 11:59:15 PT Hope "Is it that we see so much violence and death as entertainment that so many are so unnaturally calloused... or is it the success of the expensive propaganda that some people have fallen so subject to or is the sheer, unquenchable greed of those who benefit financially and power wise from this prohibition, as you point out?"Of course it is all those things, and more -all contrivances from the minds of kings and princes, whether known by more modern titles or not.There is a human stuggle for equality IN ALL THINGS going on here, it's been going on since the Sumerian 'Gods' first enslaved mankind for the purpose of establishing power and rule.The tricks and clever twists that make up the various compromises that freedom seeking individuals have been forced to accept from the status quo in answer to their challenges, are only temporary appearances of agreement from the powers that be. Legislative 'acts' worded as if they were in service to a 'greater good' are in fact mere compromises for the rare moments when a wise and innocent child might stand up and say "The Emperor is naked!"Ignorance and stupidity is bred as well as intelligence. making sure that the 'best' is reserved for 'the worthy' ensures a population who cannot access resource, health, and actual life itself without signing your freeedom away on the bottom line. And of course every one has been made to believe that that paper is somehow binding, and that once you have 'agreeed to the contract' there is no release. Bullshit.Belief, is a state of mind that may or may not have any bearing on reality.I once swore a binding oath to protect this country, this constitution, and the liberties of this people "with my life if need be" but I can tell you right now that the very terms of that oath force me to break and revoke it. The 'country' I was led to believe was worthy to lose my life over does not exist. I have good reason to believe, and some evidence to KNOW it never actually did. The constitution is flawed but still a great statement in the face of the kings and princes who have re-interpreted it by creating the exclusive class of 'lawyers' who must answer to the kings and princes who stil rule (albeit in other names and guises) and in my desire and resolve (I take 'my word' seriously) I must recognize that the most enemical force to the US Constitution is the government itself. That also applies to the liberties of the people.Therefore, as i do with herb, i do with all the rest of my inherent rights and liberties, I take them for myself, and do not reserve patience for those who claim they have some right to moderate and limit my liberty. If I were to wait for sanity in government, I'd wait in vain.I, and every other human not endowed with 'specialness of birthright' have waited quite long enough. Can they 'punish' me for exercising my God-given human rights and liberties? They already have. I have learned however that truth is more powerful than trickery and forced deception, so I am not afraid. They cannot bind my true liberty by jails, prisons and dog-patrols, they do not inspire fear in me, just disgust and loathing. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Sam Adams on April 09, 2008 at 11:38:16 PT Museman I've come to agree with you thinking of the drug was as mostly classist. Or forwarding the classist goals of the mega-rich elite. Don't forget the scapegoating aspect of it. Why did the Nazis attack the Jews so badly? They needed an internal devil, a bad guy that everybody knew in their life. Hating people in adjacent countries wasn't enough to enable them to get away with the domestic takeover of Germany. They needed to unite the unemployed, violent WWI vets and direct their anger away from the aristocracy and rich elite.It's all about driving a wedge between the underclasses. Directing their pent-up resentment of the upper exploitive classes against a different target.That's what the WOD is all about. Hate the drug dealers that we've created for you, not us, the people that are enslaving you and robbing you blind.Just look at 9/11. What was taken off the front page of the newspaper at the time? Corporate scandals in the ongoing high-tech crash. And that story is still buried away somewhere, 7 years later.But people sure hate those Arabs now, eh? They're the bad guy du jour. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Hope on April 09, 2008 at 11:23:01 PT Museman I knew what "list" you meant.It is far from comprehensive... and sadly, growing. There are so many, many victims this side of death, too. Many. It's hard to imagine how this is allowed to be continued. I've written so many letters, never printed, of course, to editors about how the first prohibition deaths of 7 gangsters and a dog, on that bloody St. Valentine's Day in Chicago helped end that prohibition because of the outrage and horror it created among us. Yet we have seen so many completely innocent people killed by this present prohibition... even children and babies... and we've allowed it to continue. What's wrong with society's conscience of today compared to the conscience of society in that day? Something bad... I can see. I've tried to understand it. Is it that we see so much violence and death as entertainment that so many are so unnaturally calloused... or is it the success of the expensive propaganda that some people have fallen so subject to or is the sheer, unquenchable greed of those who benefit financially and power wise from this prohibition, as you point out? [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by museman on April 09, 2008 at 10:56:31 PT Hope I know it was #6. One of the many little mistakes that get by me.Like how I consistently lose guitar picks and lighters.But seriously, that list is just scratching the surface. When all the damage is taken into account; Lives lost. Lives forced into the perverted fantasies of 'penitence.' Families destroyed and left destitute. Social divisions that are as deep or deeper than racism ever was -including the breakdown of the middle class and the increasing control of the wealthy class.Meanwhile the Rockefellers, and the DuPonts, and the Rothschildes - to name a few of the known familes descended from the Nephalim- have been riding high the whole while. They're rakin' it in right now.War is profitable for business. Every nation since Rome has known that. So bottom line in every war is the profit of the ones who engineer the wars. The WOD is certainly no exception. If we don't start to call these posers who rule us to the task and point of this fact -that prohibition is about control of wealth, and part of the design and deception to keep the classes separate (racism is literally a 'side-issue' just another division tactic)- then all we will accomplish is to give them more control over our lives, health, and welfare. If we don't recognize as a people that we are 'all created equal' and that any idea that someone is 'more than equal' -for whatever reason- is a corruption of the truth, then the road we are traveling is leading to a literal dead-end.Ultimately there is no compromising with the truth. When man embraces the commonly known facts of this reality -not continually displacing them with the inventions of society and the exclusive set of individuals who creat those inventions- in various compromises with power - and I'm sorry but that is all compromise ever was; capitulation to power because the monster is just too big. Ultimately the only way out of bondage is to stop agreeing to it.When we realize that the tools of bondage are false values, and falsly given authority, and a deeply programmed willingness to give in to those impositions upon the true reality, then we begin to glimpse true liberty and freedom. Acting upon that realization is the only solution awaiting in the wings. Taking up the actual human rights and liberties inherent in our collective understanding but denied by the status quo (which is it's purpose) is the only way freedom and liberty exists outside some literary concept.Courage to deny the status quo is desperately needed in much greater agreement and quantity. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Hope on April 09, 2008 at 10:30:39 PT Museman Comment 7 You're right. And that list is growing every day that our legislators allow this insane "War" to go on. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Hope on April 09, 2008 at 10:28:57 PT Speaking of "crazy people with guns"..... http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n372/a03.htmlTEENS ACCIDENTALLY SHOT BY HOWARD OFFICER ID'D [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by museman on April 09, 2008 at 10:22:55 PT Hope#5 That list so deserves to be recognized. It should be on the evening news right next to the list of American martyrs to the cause of Oil in the name of Iraq.But the priorities of our 'government,' and it's various lackey servants like mainstream media, are in the dark places up the butts of their monetary masters. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Hope on April 09, 2008 at 09:51:18 PT Very, very true, Museman. Very true. "Yes it's always wise to be cautious around crazy people with guns.""Crazy people with guns" = http://victims.drugwarrant.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by museman on April 09, 2008 at 09:19:17 PT backwards reality Never mind the wish and desires of the people, the bottom line is wealth, power, and posession.Things are much more important than human feelings, suffering, and pain. This value system is based, not on the only real valid experiences of humanity -those that we share with others (without expectation of reward or getting something), but on simple selfishness and greed. Laws are not for the 'peace and safety' of the public, but for the safety and security of posessions and wealth. Mankind has been laboring under a false assumption of values for a long, long time. I guess it's unreasonable to expect that those caught up in the lemming-like 'progress' towards inevitable destruction could let go of their attachments to 'having' long enough to look at the reality of the situation.It would be easy for me to just jump off the lumbering leviathan permanently, turn my back on the billions who can find no way to get free of their committment to stupidity, and as a fellow selfish human, if given the chance to separate from the wholistic collective, I might do it, but I've seen enough to know that we are all in this together, and the only 'separation' is illusion. Of course that illusion is propagated in various circles and themes; The rich, 'well-bred' believe they are more deserving and better than the rest. The religious believe they are the only ones worthy to be 'saved.' The politicians say they believe they are capable of knowing the minds and desires of others, and that they are there to serve those, yet what do they serve? They serve money, and the grand lifestyle of property and posession.John Lennon nailed it when he said "Imagine no posession, I wonder if you can."Well John, it's been 'imagined' but nobody wants to go any further with that one, even though it is the crux of the entire deception. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by museman on April 09, 2008 at 08:54:00 PT well get unstuck then “lawmakers are cautious and there are reasons for that caution; law enforcement is still stuck in a drug war mentality.”So the reasons for 'caution' are all about mentally ill gun toters with itchy fingers?Yes it's always wise to be cautious around crazy people with guns. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on April 09, 2008 at 07:31:29 PT Rhode Island News Senate Committee To Take Up Medical Marijuana LegislationApril 9, 2008PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A Senate committee is expected to vote this afternoon on a bill that would expand the state's medical marijuana program.The bill would allow nonprofit businesses to sell marijuana to seriously ill patients.The state now allows patients with chronic illnesses to possess and use marijuana for pain relief. But the law does not spell out how those patients can buy the drug, which remains illegal under federal law.The legislation would also permit so-called "compassion centers" to sell up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana to a qualified patient or caregiver every 15 days.Copyright: 2008 by The Associated Presshttp://www.wpri.com/Global/story.asp?S=8140116 [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 09, 2008 at 06:33:09 PT Nebraska News Senators Advance Measure To Increase Pot Penalties Wednesday, April 09, 2008 Nebraska -- People convicted of possessing marijuana could pay more in fines and spend more time in jail. A measure to increase fines by a couple hundred dollars got second-round approval Tuesday. The bill (LB844) from Senator Russ Karpisek of Wilber would increase the fine for possessing an ounce or less from $100 to $300 for a first offense. The fine for a second offense would increase from $200 to $400. The penalty for possessing more than an ounce but less than a pound would increase from a maximum of seven days in jail to a maximum of three months. The amount of the possible fine would remain at $500. On the Net: Nebraska Legislature: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov Copyright: 2008 The Nebraska Rural Radio Associationhttp://www.krvn.com/news/index/2060a6a0-9894-40ec-b1ac-1b02e6bf8a5f [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 09, 2008 at 05:53:39 PT Phil Donahue: Body of War I saw Phil Donahue on Morning Joe on MSNBC and I thought others might want to check out the trailer for this new movie.http://bodyofwar.com/ [ Post Comment ] Post Comment