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Repeal of Medical Marijuana Law Makes No Sense
Posted by CN Staff on February 22, 2011 at 06:32:09 PT
By Tom Daubert
Source: Billings Gazette
Montana --  Why is repealing medical marijuana backward and mistaken?Because cannabis is making a huge, positive medical difference in the lives of thousands of good Montanans. Because it makes no moral or economic sense to redefine these genuine patients as criminals and to force them back onto the narcotics that helped them less and caused worse side effects. Because a patient who has had no seizures since switching to cannabis (and used to have a dozen every day) can't fairly be asked to go back to a “life” on the drugs that didn't work.
Because a patient who has lost more than 200 pounds in a year since ceasing the use of narcotics and switching to cannabis can't be expected to happily stop. Because pain patients who used to be unable to do much of anything meaningful when needing gobs of narcotics — and who now can function, even work and pay taxes — shouldn't be required to go backward. Because people who are enduring chemo, or who have survived cancer and know of the evidence showing that cannabis has anti-cancer effects, shouldn't be required to ignore the scientific facts. Because people with glaucoma or multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis, who know that research shows cannabis can slow and even halt the progression of these diseases, shouldn't be expected to ignore what they've learned, what they can feel in their own bodies.Because the law's loopholes and gray areas that have allowed exploitation and abuse can easily be fixed and closed, with problems stopped — in ways that meet the needs of true patients as well as of law enforcement and local communities. Because it makes no sense at all, and flies in the face of democracy and the notion of individual freedom, to repeal a voter-adopted policy of compassion without ever first trying to make the law work as intended. Because thousands of Montanans suffer the common but generally permanent, progressive medical conditions specified in this law — and many can benefit enormously from cannabis.Because thousands of Montanans who would otherwise currently be unemployed today feed their families and pay their rents and mortgages solely because they are able to work producing medical-grade cannabis for legal patients. Because many hundreds of long-established Main Street businesses like garden supply and hardware stores are still operating partly because of the new business they do serving medical cannabis producers. Because it makes no sense for Montana to lose these jobs and the nourishment they supply to local economies and the state's tax base.Because elected officials who campaign for individual freedom, less government intrusion and smarter economic development should uphold these principles during their service in office. Because none of them campaigned on a platform of interfering with a patient's relationship with a licensed physician or on the theme of knowing more about health care than doctors do.Because honest Montanans, who can better address their medical challenges with this God-given natural plant, shouldn't be treated as criminals — and the rest of us shouldn't have to pay for cops to find and arrest them, or for prosecutors and courts to punish them — when all that these good patients seek is a better, more comfortable life ... and to be left alone by big government. Because patients, working with their physicians, deserve the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.Tom Daubert is founder/director of Patients & Families United, a public education group.Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)Author: Tom DaubertPublished:  February 22, 2011Copyright: 2011 The Billings GazetteContact: speakup billingsgazette.comWebsite: http://www.billingsgazette.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/5Zk3tE1eCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #5 posted by josephlacerenza on February 24, 2011 at 05:43:51 PT:
Repeal makes no CENTS!!!
Montana Biotech is prepared to move its operation out of state, if repeal takes hold. Montana Biotech is now mobile and is preparing to open labs in Oregon and Washington State!! Repeal will not stop the true entrepreneur. I really think there is too much money in this MMJ industry for the governor of Montana to sign the repeal bill.So, Montana Biotech will not go away, we just won't be based out of Montana any longer if repeal is upheld. I can not imagine what it will be like with so many "growers" if all of a sudden, over night , they become criminals. The black market here will be scary if repeal goes ahead. 
Montana Biotech, Cannabis Research Laboratory in Bozeman
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Comment #4 posted by aslader on February 23, 2011 at 17:50:56 PT:
this is..
the reason marijuana prohibition makes no sense;http://www.dosenation.com/listing.php?smlid=8258
2-year-old beats brain tumor with aid of medical marijuana
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on February 22, 2011 at 15:24:40 PT
Let this be a lesson for other states.
Montana could have created a potentially better law allowing sick citizens to use cannabis legally and they snoozed. This is what they have now, since Montana's leaders didn't do their job.There are many other states with sick citizens (or their loved ones) wishing to use the God-given plant. If those states snooze, do they all think this issue is just going to go away?  ---The word is out; cannabis is a God-send for many sick people and government is a road block that must be torn down.Those other 36 states better hurry! Because the roadblocks are coming down either way.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 22, 2011 at 08:42:09 PT
Dan B
I am very sorry. I agree with your comment too.
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Comment #1 posted by Dan B on February 22, 2011 at 08:07:55 PT
Repealing make no sense . . .
. . . but this article makes more sense than anything said by those who, in the same paper today, wrote the article that opposes medical marijuana.I am very close to someone in Montana who could have benefited from medical marijuana for more than four years now, yet because she seems to believe the lies that those opposed to medical marijuana promote, she has refused to use it. It is true that chemo has extended her life far beyond what the doctors could have predicted. Had it not been for those drugs, the cancer would have ended her life long ago. But, now she has developed leukemia, in my belief a side effect of the pharmaceuticals that she took to fight the side effects of the chemo. The doctors give her two months, maybe as long as a year if the anti-leukemia drugs work. My point is not to ask for advice. I know what she could do to help herself, and I have talked to her about it. It is her life, and I respect her right to make her own decisions, even if I disagree with them. My point is to say that the damage from cannabis prohibition extends far beyond incarcerations and fines. It extends, perhaps most profoundly, to matters of life and death. The loss of a viable medical option is devastating to the families of those who have to watch their loved ones suffer because that medical option is both demonized and illegal. People who speak out against legalizing cannabis for medical purposes have no conscience, no moral foundation. They are worse than the demons they see in this harmless, harm-reducing miracle plant. Those who are ignorant would do well to keep their mouths closed.Dan B
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