cannabisnews.com: Drug Director, Chamber Oppose Medical Marijuana
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Drug Director, Chamber Oppose Medical Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on October 20, 2012 at 05:50:01 PT
By Andrew DeMillo, The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Little Rock, Ark. -- Arkansas' top anti-drug official and the state Chamber of Commerce joined pharmacists and law enforcement agencies Friday to announce their opposition to a measure on the November ballot that would legalize medical marijuana. State Drug Director Fran Flener said she and the groups planned to speak out against the measure that, if passed, would make Arkansas the first southern state to legalize medical marijuana. The proposal would allow patients with qualifying conditions to buy marijuana from nonprofit dispensaries with a doctor's recommendation.
"While our group's vision of compassion does not include smoked marijuana as a medicine, it does include elements that we consider equally important measures of compassion," Flener said. She said those include "compassion for our citizens who travel our roads and our highways," ''the prevention of the establishment of crime-ridden dispensaries" and "the prevention of marijuana abuse particularly by children and teens." Besides the Chamber of Commerce, other organizations joining Flener in opposing the measure include the Arkansas Sheriffs Association, the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police and the Arkansas Pharmacists Association. They plan to air advertisements against the measure. Arkansans for Compassionate Care, the group that proposed the ballot initiative, has raised more than $289,000 with most of the money coming from the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project. Scott Pace, associate executive vice president of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, said the organization worried the measure would allow marijuana to be distributed without the same regulations other drugs face. "By using untrained, nonmedical personnel, patients' safety will be jeopardized by eliminating critical tasks performed by pharmacists," Pace said. The Chamber of Commerce is opposing the measure because it would hurt efforts by employers to maintain a drug-free workplace, president Randy Zook said. "It undermines your ability to make sure your employees aren't impaired, and in a lot of work environments that can a very dangerous and even life-threatening problem," he said. Supporters of the legalization proposal say it includes provisions to prevent the type of abuse cited by those who are against the measure. "I think we share some of the same concerns," said Ryan Denham, campaign director for Arkansans for Compassionate Care. "We're concerned about children using marijuana, we're concerned about marijuana becoming out of control and this being an unregulated law, but the fact is the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act is one of the most tightly regulated medical marijuana laws ever drafted." Under the proposal, qualifying health conditions would include cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS and Alzheimer's disease. The proposal also would allow qualifying patients or a designated caregiver to grow marijuana if the patient lives more than five miles from a dispensary. The organizations against the measure announced their partnership the day after supporters, including TV host and medical marijuana advocate Montel Williams, criticized an ad opposing the initiative as racist. The 30-second ad, paid for by the conservative Family Council Action Committee, at one point features a black actor portraying a drug dealer. The committee has denied that the ad was aimed at stoking racial fears and notes that it also features white actors. Source: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Andrew DeMillo, The Associated PressPublished:  October 19, 2012Copyright: 2012 The Associated PressCannabisNews  Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #5 posted by Vincent on October 27, 2012 at 09:10:02 PT:
The same, tired garbage
"While our group's vision of compassion does not include smoked marijuana as a medicine, it does include elements that we consider equally important measures of compassion...compassion for our citizens who travel our roads and our highways, the prevention of the establishment of crime-ridden dispensaries, the prevention of marijuana abuse particularly by children and teens."How many times will they come out with that SAME crap that they've been running for years?
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on October 22, 2012 at 19:35:12 PT
All the cannabis issues and initiatives ....
Pass to victory for the people in landslide votes!
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Comment #3 posted by Dan Lee on October 22, 2012 at 17:04:36 PT:
Arkansas cannabis vote
I hope the people of Arkansas are more compassionate than the prohibition industry.
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Comment #2 posted by Paul Pot on October 20, 2012 at 23:14:14 PT:
Vested interests
A conflict of interest is when people who are in charge of administering laws then become political activist for maintaining those laws. 
Is it a coincidence that the organizations listed here all have vested interests in the prohibition industry. 
They are all employed in careers directly dependant on drug prohibition. 
If we legalize drugs they will have to retrain and who can do that when you have an IQ of just 2 and the personality of a Pit Bull. 
Hopefully the good people of Arkansas will see them for what that are, compassion less, soulless vampires who feed on human misery. 
They have no problem totally lying abut the experiences of other states that have liberalized their marijuana laws. 
Children do not get greater access to marijuana were it is regulated, in fact they get less and there is no evidence of crime around dispensaries. 
You have no idea who will be the next person to get cancer. 
It could be you or some one you love. 
Do you really want to be denied anything that could help you get through it? 
Least of all 'the safest therapeutically active substance known to mankind' Judge Francis Young of the DEA. 
Vote to legalize medical marijuana. 
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on October 20, 2012 at 18:20:14 PT
Wonder why?
Gosh, I wonder why the Arkansas Pharmacists Association is against sick citizens getting a doctor's recommendation for the plant cannabis, which would be acquired from a cannabis dispensary, rather than purchase pills from a pharmacy?
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