cannabisnews.com: Police Dispatcher Fired for Buying Pot 










  Police Dispatcher Fired for Buying Pot 

Posted by CN Staff on March 17, 2009 at 12:20:33 PT
By Lisa Black, Tribune Reporter 
Source: Chicago Tribune 

Illinois -- Laura Llanes does not regret buying her aunt marijuana, even though it has cost her a job as police dispatcher.She was stunned, nevertheless, when she was fired last week after admitting she bought the marijuana to help relieve her aunt's suffering through breast cancer and chemotherapy. Marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal with a prescription in 13 states; Illinois is not one of them.
Llanes, 28, of Lake Villa remains adamant she did the right thing, saying her biggest mistake was telling a few co-workers what she had done: "They ratted me out."Her aunt, who lives in Aurora, was "sick constantly, not eating, not having an appetite. She is diabetic. She has to eat. She was whittling away to nothing," said Llanes."I thought I will get her some marijuana so it would get her to eat. It worked. She did get the munchies."Llanes has not been charged with a crime, but when confronted by her supervisor at CenCom E-9-11, she admitted she had bought marijuana and was promptly fired Wednesday."All that mattered was that I admitted to committing an illegal act," she said.Llanes said she doesn't use marijuana, but she was able to buy some, enough to make about three joints, for her aunt about two weeks ago through a friend. Her aunt smoked the marijuana and said it worked, but, worried about the legal implications, she declined Llanes' offer to buy more.Llanes has worked seven years as a police dispatcher, the last four for CenCom E9-1-1 in Round Lake Beach. CenCom serves as a centralized dispatch service for eight north suburban police and fire departments.Calls to CenCom were referred to director Lisa Berger, who did not return messages Monday.Llanes' aunt, 60, lived with her in 2008 after undergoing a double mastectomy, Llanes said. She has since moved to Aurora and could not be reached Monday, according to Llanes."In Illinois, the law offers these folks no protection at all, unfortunately," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, which lobbies for the legalization and regulation of marijuana use.A prescription drug in pill form called Marinol contains synthetic THC, the main ingredient in marijuana. But it doesn't work for everyone, and its results are slow-arriving and unpredictable, Mirken said."If you talk to cancer patients, they don't want to get high," he said. "They just don't want to feel sick."A bill introduced in the legislature calls for allowing the medicinal use of marijuana in a three-year test program. Critics include the Illinois State Police, which opposes the legislation because of concerns about potential abuse and enforcement.State Rep. Patricia Bellock (R-Hinsdale) said she opposes the bill because it lacks support from the greater medical community. "There is absolutely no control over this by a pharmacy," said Bellock. Note: Marijuana was for sick aunt suffering from breast cancer, she says.Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)Author:  Lisa Black, Tribune ReporterPublished: March 17, 2009Copyright: 2009 Chicago Tribune CompanyContact: ctc-TribLetter Tribune.comWebsite: http://www.chicagotribune.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/Pafd0ScMRelated Articles:Ill. House Committee OKs Use of Med Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24542.shtmlMMJ Legalization Measure Passes Committeehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24540.shtml

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Comment #13 posted by FoM on March 18, 2009 at 09:48:30 PT
Thanks Sam!
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24585.shtml
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Comment #12 posted by Sam Adams on March 18, 2009 at 09:30:56 PT
Professor Craker
Looks like Obama is getting starting on Step 2 of the "Road to Med MJ"! (for those keeping track, Step 1 was ending the raids, this is step 2, step 3 is re-scheduling)Interesting snipe at the issue at the end of the article though - pure arrogance - like the political class saying "we're still going to kick you around, don't think your suffering is THAT important to us, we've got WARS going on!" Of course they started the wars in order to subjugate us more....http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/cda_20090318_1850.php
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on March 18, 2009 at 09:03:46 PT
Laura Llanes is a hero.
Fired for being hero? Seems so. But she still is a hero and she did the right thing. She helped someone. She made some one's life easier. Maybe she saved her aunt's life. I hope she finds a better job that she likes better and pays better than the one she lost because of prohibitionist idiocy. 
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on March 18, 2009 at 06:54:35 PT
runruff
Here's the title track for his new CD.http://www.neilyoung.com/forkintheroad/forkintheroadvideo.html
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on March 18, 2009 at 06:51:18 PT

runruff
That is one of my favorite songs by Neil Young. I'm looking forward to his new CD-DVD called Fork in the Road that is coming out in early April. 
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Comment #8 posted by runruff on March 18, 2009 at 06:48:06 PT

Neil Young.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnBWrTTiw00
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Comment #7 posted by runruff on March 18, 2009 at 06:43:24 PT

"Long May You Run!"
What a great and inspiring refrain!I was just now outside, with my wireless headphones on, listening to Niel Young and dancing around my yard!My wife said she is pretty sure that is illegal in some states!
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Comment #6 posted by Celaya on March 17, 2009 at 23:20:14 PT

Sonny Bono Assassinated by Drug Cartels?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0%2C25197%2C23483093-12377%2C00.html[Excerpt] Sonny Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers who feared he was going to expose them, a former FBI agent claims.Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed."It's nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There's zero evidence in this autopsy report... to show such an accident happened. Instead, there's powerful proof he was assassinated.

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Comment #5 posted by Celaya on March 17, 2009 at 23:17:38 PT

Thanks, Paul. -- Got vape?
Great charting of medical marijuana reform. I appreciated your reference to vaporization also. As more people become aware of what happens with vaporization, It should send the sentiment for re-legalization even higher.
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Comment #4 posted by OverwhelmSam on March 17, 2009 at 20:30:00 PT

Interesting
Law enforcement is starting to turn on its own comrades.
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Comment #3 posted by mykeyb420 on March 17, 2009 at 19:47:46 PT

off topic
Funny game here
hit chris brown
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Comment #2 posted by paul armentano on March 17, 2009 at 13:41:22 PT

10 Years Ago Today: Feds Admit Pot Is Medicine
As today marks the ten-year-anniversary of the release the landmark study,
"Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," I have commentaries in
Reason.com and the Hill's influential Congress blog comparing what we knew
then versus what we've learned over the past decade. Enjoy, and feel free
to leave feedback. (FYI: The Hill post contains links to several studies
throughout...)http://www.reason.com/news/show/132286.htmlMedical Marijuana Has Come of Age
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of a landmark scientific studyPaul Armentano | March 17, 2009Ten years ago today, the use of medical marijuana went from fringe to
mainstream.March 17, 2009 marks the 10-year-anniversay of the publication of the
Institute for Medicine's landmark study on medical cannabis: Marijuana and
Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. At the time this report was
commissioned, in response to the passage of California's Compassionate Use
Act of 1996, many in the public and the mainstream media were skeptical
about pot's potential therapeutic value. The publication of the Institute
for Medicine's findings—which concluded that marijuana possessed medicinal
properties to treat and control pain and to stimulate appetite—provided the
issue with long-overdue credibility, and began in earnest a political
discourse that continues today.Of course, much has changed over the past 10 years. For starters, a total of
13 states, encompassing some 72 million Americans, now allow for the medical
use of cannabis under state law. In California, several clinical trials have
been conducted over the past months demonstrating that inhaled cannabis can
significantly reduce hard-to-treat neuropathic pain in patients with HIV and
spinal cord injury.Following the publication of the Institute for Medicine's report, scientific
interest into the therapeutic properties of cannabis skyrocketed. A keyword
search using the terms "cannabis, 1999" in the National Library of
Medicine's PubMed website reveals just 427 scientific journal articles
published on the subject during that year. Perform this same search for the
year 2008, and one will find over 2,100 published scientific studies.Whereas researchers in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s primarily assessed cannabis's
ability to temporarily alleviate various disease symptoms, scientists today
are exploring the potential role of medical marijuana to treat disease
itself.Of particular interest, scientists are investigating marijuana's capacity to
moderate autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid
arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease, as well as their role in the
treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Lou
Gehrig's disease.Investigators are also studying the anti-cancer activities of cannabis,
which has been shown to halt malignant tumor growth in animals. Arguably,
these later trends represent far broader and more significant applications
for cannabinoid therapeutics than the Institute for Medicine's researchers
could have imagined just 10 years ago.We've also discovered alternative ways to safely, effectively, and rapidly
deliver pot's therapeutic properties to patients. Writing in 1999, the
Institute for Medicine concluded, "Except for the harms associated with
smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana are within the range of effects
tolerate for other medications." The authors went on to recommend the
development of "rapid-onset cannabinoid [marijuana] formulations."Today, such rapid onset delivery systems exist in the form of vaporizers,
devices which heat cannabis to a temperature where active vapors form but
below the point of combustion where noxious smoke and associated toxins are
produced. In 2007, investigators at San Francisco General Hospital assessed
this technology and concluded: "Vaporization of marijuana does not result in
exposure to combustion gasses...and [was] preferred by most subjects
compared to marijuana cigarettes. The [vaporizer] device is an effective and
apparently safe vehicle for THC delivery."As hundreds of thousands of Americans have begun using marijuana under their
doctor's supervision, we've learned other lessons as well. First, we've
affirmed that medical cannabis is remarkably safe. For example, in 2008
investigators at McGill University in Montreal reviewed over 30 years of
date on marijuana and "did not find a higher incidence rate of serious
adverse events associated with medical cannabis use" compared to those who
never used the drug.We've also discovered that restricted patient access to medicinal cannabis
will not necessarily result in higher use rates among young people. In fact,
since the passage of Proposition 215, the use of pot by young people has
fallen at a greater rate than the national average.And finally we've learned—much to the chagrin of our opponents—that in fact
the sky will not fall. Rates of hard drug use and drugged driving have not
increased in California, and our social value system has not "gone to pot."So what can we expect over the next 10 years? Only time will tell, but one
thing is certain: The use of medical cannabis is here to stay. It is time
for our federal laws to reflect this reality, and it is time for our
politicians to regulate marijuana like other accepted prescription
medicines.Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, DC, and the co-author of the
forthcoming book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink.http://blog.thehill.com/2009/03/16/in-ten-years-medical-marijuana-has-gone-from-fringe-to-mainstream-so-why-is-it-still-against-the-law/In Ten Years, Medical Marijuana Has Gone From Fringe to Mainstream — So Why
Is It Still Against The Law?March 16th, 2009Tomorrow marks the 10-year anniversary of the publication of the Institute
of Medicine’s landmark study on medical cannabis: “Marijuana and Medicine:
Assessing the Science Base.”When the White House commissioned this report in response to the passage of
California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996, many in the mainstream media,
and many more lawmakers, were skeptical about marijuana’s potential
therapeutic value. The publication of the Institute of Medicine’s findings —
which concluded that cannabis possessed medicinal properties to control pain
and nausea, and to stimulate appetite — provided the issue with long-overdue
credibility, and began in earnest a political discourse that
continues today.So what have we learned in the ten years following the release of this
groundbreaking study?We’ve affirmed that the use of medical marijuana can be used remarkably
safely and effectively.We’ve learned that cannabis possesses therapeutic value beyond symptom
management, and that it can, in some cases, moderate disease progression.We¹ve discovered alternative methods to safely, effectively and rapidly
deliver marijuana’s therapeutic properties to patients that don’t involve
smoking.We¹ve learned that restricted patient access to medicinal cannabis will not
necessarily result in higher use rates among young people or among the
general public.And finally we¹ve learned — much to the chagrin of medical marijuana
opponents — that in fact the sky will not fall if we grant patients the
right to use it.Today, the only practical impediments prohibiting the legal use of medical
marijuana are political ones. The Obama administration should heed the
advice of the Institute of Medicine and initiate clinical trials regarding
the medical use of cannabis, and it should remove federal legal restrictions
so that states can regulate marijuana like other accepted prescription
medicines.Permalink | Comment on this story (12 posted)By National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Deputy Director
Paul Armentano 
http://www.reason.com/news/show/132286.html
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Comment #1 posted by itsonlyaplant on March 17, 2009 at 12:53:05 PT

Interesting thing about liers
State Rep. Patricia Bellock (R-Hinsdale) said she opposes the bill because it lacks support from the greater medical community. "There is absolutely no control over this by a pharmacy," said Bellock. Interesting, just how "little" support there is from the medical community isn't it........ Check out the link below...I love it when you can catch liers who lie to harm others in a big lie.
http://www.perkel.com/politics/issues/endorse.htm
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