cannabisnews.com: MMJ Opponents Fight AG on Ballot Question function share_this(num) { tit=encodeURIComponent('MMJ Opponents Fight AG on Ballot Question'); url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/26/thread26977.shtml'); site = new Array(5); site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit; site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit; window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500'); return false; } MMJ Opponents Fight AG on Ballot Question Posted by CN Staff on May 27, 2012 at 04:19:18 PT By Erin Smith Source: Boston Herald Massachusetts -- Opponents of a November ballot question to legalize medical marijuana want the state’s highest court to force Attorney General Martha Coakley to spell out for voters the exact details of the proposed law, which would open dozens of pot dispensaries and allow home-grown marijuana. “We believe the language is misleading. We will be educating the voters about the realities of this legislation and how harmful it will be,” said Heidi Heilman, president and founder of Massachusetts Prevention Alliance, who said the proposal is vague and lacks oversight. “You don’t have to smoke opium to get the benefits of morphine. We’d love to have marijuana studied as a plant to get it out on the market in a safe way.” Coakley’s office asked the Supreme Judicial Court to dismiss the group’s petition on Friday, setting up a hearing next month ahead of ballot printing in July.Coakley’s drafted ballot question “eliminating state criminal and civil penalties” for medical marijuana users is neutral, said state lawyers, who argued Heilman’s group wants to revise the language to kill the proposal. “The most important thing is to get the right result,” said Brad Puffer, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, adding the office is working with all parties involved. John Sofis Scheft, the attorney who filed MPA’s petition earlier this month, said voters may not know the law would set up 35 nonprofit marijuana dispensaries, allow for home growing if a dispensary isn’t within a reasonable distance of home and allow any approved user to carry a 60-day supply of pot. “Our position is the voters should know what they’re voting for,” said Scheft, adding the proposed law doesn’t specify the amount of a 60-day supply or the distance parameters for home growing. Heilman, a Wayland mother of three, also slammed billionaire Peter Lewis for bankrolling the ballot question, saying the out-of-state supporter has no business pushing policy in Massachusetts. Lewis donated $525,000 last year to the Committee for Compassionate Medicine’s ballot question efforts. The group raised $526,167 last year, making Lewis, an Ohio native who now lives in Florida, the majority donor. Lewis told the Herald yesterday: “I have supported various efforts in various states since the early 1990s in my general effort to make the laws surrounding marijuana less punitive and less hypocritical.” Source: Boston Herald (MA)Author: Erin SmithPublished: May 27, 2012 Copyright: 2012 The Boston Herald, Inc.Website: http://www.bostonherald.com/Contact: letterstoeditor bostonherald.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/6nMH8MohCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by Paul Pot on May 27, 2012 at 18:57:17 PT: Drug war trials. “You don’t have to smoke opium to get the benefits of morphine".But you should.Smoking opium is as safe as smoking marijuana.No-one ever OD'd on an opium bong.Heroin was invented nearly 100 years ago but did not become a drug of choice till prohibition economics replaced opium resin with concentrated powder.Cannabis and opium should growing everywhere like the weeds they are for the benefit of all who need them.Smoking is the perfect way to deliver a drug as it is such a tiny amount of the drug, it's just a bit of smoke. Much less than you would get if injecting.Cannabis and opium work best for pain relief when used together. To deny access to natures gifts in times of extreme need is mass torture and mass murder and a crime against humanity.Legalize! Apologize! Compensate! [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by runruff on May 27, 2012 at 10:38:56 PT Tools of industry. This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved. Chief Circuit Judge Ann Aiken-Klonosky's head is the size of a boxcar. She is so full of herself her ego alone fills the court chamber. I cannot help but despise someone who does so much harm in the name of good and gets to stand on that grand pedestal meant for real heroes. This person has damaged so many people, separated families, in the name of her favorite law, prohibition. There is nothing on earth more galling than an individual with power doing harm in the name of good! I steam at that notion! They are rewarded for their acts of personal aggrandizement while mindlessly destroying the life and welfare of innocent folks! Those close to Ann say she is extra hard, tough in order to prove she can put 'em away with the best of them. This is how she made it from Federal Circuit Court Judge to Chief Federal Circuit Court Judge. The system is set up thus. In the DoJ judges are monitored and steered from the AG's office. Those judges that send the right amount of people to prison and for the right reasons [prop up the PIC for instance and send in the pot people, they do good time real easy and always good workers on the inside. Plus it helps industry with their war on hemp]. I could have saved myself a lot of typing here if I would have simply said that Ann and her ilk are tools of industry. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by runruff on May 27, 2012 at 08:31:05 PT Heidi Heilman. Heidie does not have an opinion to stand on. The premise of our founding government was that we as individuals are not governed by the opinion of busy bodies.Ergo [you like that, it's dead language lawyer talk] her opinion is no more valuable than my own. So, why is she there spouting off? Who gave her a forum? Who is she to say smoking opium is bad, wrong or that I shouldn't smoke it? What experience does she have with opium or cannabis? Does she know she is trying to tell sick people how not to feel better based on what she has observed concerning addictive personalities and not a particular substance that is beneficial even in it's raw form.Yeah, that is right, do not raise questions about a particular substance calling it dangerous or addictive when we all know that humans with addictive personalities can become addictive to a variety of things narcotic and not narcotic. Heidie will find a new drum to beat after all the hoopla blows over about cannabis, this is her addiction. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on May 27, 2012 at 07:24:02 PT Your government at work Note that this group is funded by federal and state anti-drug grants. So this is your tax dollars at work...for Big Pharma apparently. Must be nice to get such "support" from the government. Propaganda! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by the GCW on May 27, 2012 at 06:30:31 PT Meanwhile, back in reality... US CO: OPED: Let's get serious about marijuanaWebpage: http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20120527/COLUMNS/120529861/1078&ParentProfile=1055Pubdate: Sun, 27 May 2012Includes interesting cartoon. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment