Comments

1
With an election coming up, Obama doesn't want to cast himself to independents as a permissive drug president. I'll bet the DEA is also probably squeezing the administration by the balls forcing a hard line on any states that get too liberal with their medical pot.

Gregoire is a weasely right centrist. Don't expect her to have to political courage to sign the legislation into law.
2
Gregoire is on her way out, and she's smart enough to know which way the wind is blowing. I have a hard time buying that she's a vindictive center-rightist looking to cement her legacy as such.
3
What have I been telling you all along? Oh, that's right, you "conveniently" forgot.

The Doj has been prosecuting legal growers here all along. Some are doing hard prison time as we speak. There's no reason to believe things would be any different there.

Obama is no friend of mine.
4
@2: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
5
Sorry, that was out of line. I meant to say: we all hope she moves back to the left, but that's not going to happen.
6
This is why I think short term decriminalizing is easier than legalizing. The State could simply decline to prosecute marijuana offences save for say selling to kids. The Feds cannot do much about that, but can rather easily go after a state liquor store employee or dispensary operator.
7
So dom. Will you know shut the fuck up about legalization? The feds will not even let us reform medical marijuana laws without intervening. I ask again, what makes you think they will not have a massive crack down if we would legalize it?

Also, nice work almost single handily putting together the medical mmj handbook this week. Very classy to see medicine treated like it is the new hipster cupcake.
8
Vetoing this bill would be completely fucked up. The big thing missing from the original med-mj initiative was some sort of regulation. This bill finally remedies that, and is good for the state, the sick, and law enforcement.

10
I'm with Baconat on this. She's appears to be a law and order conservative Democrat, with a concern for women's rights
11
@9 Not many forms of medication are irradiated into your body either, Ken. The mode of ingestion is not the pertinent matter, the pertinent matter is, does it help sick people? And it does, so it's medicine. Case closed.
12
@9 Plenty of medicines are inhaled as anyone with asthma can tell you.

All medication is is a drug that has therapeutic benefits. Marijuana is one such drug. Morphine is another. Lots of medicines also come from plants. If there was enough research done the effects of marijuana could possibly be replicated by/extract into a pill, but until then its pretty clear it helps people.
13
@9, I know as well as you that @11 and @12 have already answered your bullshit concerns better, but..
how THE FUCK do you think it's relevant if medicine is grown or smoked or..

Wait, I'm beginning to see your point. Here's another very serious question to consider:
What kind of proscription medication rhymes with Botswana?? Answer that one for me, will you?
14
Is there some kind of long-term fix for this in the works that we don't know about? We can't really halfass this fix on drugs in this country forever can we?
15
I hope people start getting fired up about I-1149! Its the only way that makes sense. No state employees are involved, it just removes criminal penalties for adults!
16
@9 The National Cancer Institute recognizes the theraputic effects (symptom management AND anti-tumor effects) The anti-tumor effects aren't anything new.

"The potential benefits of medicinal Cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep. In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal Cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russ-belvi…

17
@7 "I ask again, what makes you think they will not have a massive crack down if we would legalize it?"

What exactly the hell would the Fed do if we simply threw out every state-level law restricting it and passed a bill that said "WA neither pass nor enforce any state weed law"?

Send the FBI and DEA out on street sweeps around Broadway with drug sniffing dogs and weed detector vans from the Ministry of Weed? If you believe so, I'd like also like a license for my pet fish, because that's as plausible.
18
Sounds like it's time to email the Governor. Go to http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/defau… and ask her to sign medical marijuana bill.
19
I think it is possible the feds are really concerned about one single provision of 5073. There is no limit on the size of the grow operations allowed under 5073 that I am aware of. Patients and patient co ops seems to have finite limits, but not the Department of Agriculture approved dispensary suppliers... Please school me if I am wrong...
20
Sometimes hypocrisy is the only way to get things done. State employees and private growers alike have to be able pretend that what they're doing is legal (it's not, for the same reason bigoted state laws in the South weren't) and Federal government people have to pretend it's illegal (it doesn't have to be, for the same reason alcohol prohibition was a dead letter in New York post-1924 or so).

Please note that cannabis is still illegal in Amsterdam. I don't think we can do any better, especially given that drugs are a religious issue (purity and respect for Authority) rather than a rational one (fairness and nurturance) for a large number of Ametricans. Being in in eastern Washington may allow one to forget the power conservative people really hold, but the Feds can't.

I have no idea what the governor will do.
21
"Misprision of treason" knows no bounds...
22
Hi, remember me, politicians and policymakers? I'm the actual patient who's life you are deciding. I'm the taxpayer who put you into office. As a patient dependent on medical marijuana to get out of bed and work for a living to pay your salaries and your healthcare coverage I can no longer afford for myself, I'm fed up with being treated like an object, being exploited and being used by you...on both sides of the fence. May you walk a mile in my shoes before you decide what you think is 'best' for me. So, just stand there quivering in your indecision while I run you over with my big karma car.

The election cannot come soon enough for me. If you want to make it illegal then you can pay me SSDI and Medicare that I've already paid for and I'll live on the f**n couch and my kids can grow up without a functioning parent. If you want my tax money so you can enjoy your healthcare while my kids do without, then you need to meet me halfway.

Since your bullshit personal liability process and your private health insurance industry put me on the couch to begin with and left me with permanent and disabling side effects from all the lovely pain medications you shoved down my throat because of big pharma's strangle hold on this country...you can stand up to your lobbying bullies in big pharma and put an end to this madness once and for all for me and other patients suffering while you enjoy your life pain free. Or maybe I should hold you all accountable for the damages your policies have caused my body and quality of life: the lost hearing from the Vicodin, the ulcer and the high blood pressure from the N-Saids you approved because your pharma buddies told you to, or all of the other host of lifelong effects that have added insult to injury. I'll bet that if you did have to spend even a week in constant pain, your opinion of the matter would change greatly.

So, remember me when you make your decisions. Because I will not forget the decisions you make come election day.

23
Bigoted laws like Jim Crow were eliminated by an amendment to our great Constitution. However there is nothing in out Constitution that allows the Federal government to create drug policy. Therefore based on the 10th amendment which leaves all powers not designated by or prohibited by the Constitution to the States, any State creating medical marijuana or any marijuana laws is within its own right. I'm sick and tired of seeing people using a thinly veiled arguments left over from the Civil War to justify this insane idea that the Federal law should supersede State laws. I realize that today court cases generally go the way of Federal. but if people actually read the document that this Nation was founded on then they might start to see things differently.

And here is another reference to the Civil War. I think the president is an Uncle Tom.
24
you know the government want to cut spending, why dont they quit wasting all this money, on pot, your not gonna win this war, you will always be fighting this and wasting money, the main problem is our government has there heads up there asses. so yes you obama, and every one else get your head out of the clouds. theres nothing wrong with pot. make it legal and tax it, hmm tht would help us come out of debt. but you dumb fucks dont have a fkn clue on how to run this government.
25
The medical cannabis bill that passed the Washington State House of Representatives Monday is now a ghost of its former self, and is set to dramatically weaken our state's voter-approved medical cannabis law. For some folks, anything one can paint as a victory to donors helps their bottom line, and for some, adding myriad restrictions to our law is a necessary evil in a long-term political and public opinion strategy. But please be informed that the bill as amended in the state house is, on balance, shockingly horrible for medical cannabis patients in our state.

On the arguably positive side, SB 5073 implements a very limited and licensed dispensary and grower network in Washington State. It promises to provide limited protections to patients who register with the government in a future state-run database run by our Department of Health, whose current director has a history of refusing to implement medical cannabis legislation and of surreptitiously supplanting rules created in the public rule-making process with the will of our governor. It provides an affirmative defense to patients visiting from out of state. It also defines "useable cannabis" and "plant" much more favorably.

THE CURRENT BILL IS BAD FOR DOCTORS:


  • Requires an authorizing health care professional to be the primary care provider or a "specialist" -- which likely requires specialty certification, which does not exist currently for medical cannabis -- in order to authorize the medical use of cannabis. Section 301.

  • Places ten new requirements on health care professionals who recommend medical cannabis. Disallows health care professionals from running "medical cannabis only" clinics, or from making any statement on the medical use of cannabis in any advertisement for their practice. Violations would be findings of unprofessional conduct, and the punishments may include per-violation fines of up to $5,000 and license revocation under RCW 18.130.160. Most doctors in our state that currently authorize medical cannabis risk having their livelihood destroyed in doing so. Section 301.



THE CURRENT BILL IS BAD FOR PATIENTS:


  • Protections from search and arrest were gutted on the house floor yesterday. Patients will not be safe from police terror unless they register in a future government database, which we believe may never be implemented by our Department of Health. Section 402.

  • Invalidates all current "lifetime" authorizations. Section 201(32)(b)(i).

  • Places additional requirements and limits on "designated provider" documentation. Section 201(32)(b)(iii).

  • Codifies in law that state-funded housing programs may disallow the medical use of cannabis. Section 410.

  • Disavows the medical necessity common law defense. Washington appellate courts have a "division split" on the medical necessity common law defense, and the bill specifically removes its underlying support for the defense as we wait to see if our supreme court will take up the appeal. Section 102(3).

  • Denies the medical cannabis affirmative defense to members of our military. Section 501(5).

  • Expressly allows DOC or any other correctional authority to disallow the medical use of cannabis. Sections 102(4), 201(26)(b), 803(3), 1105.

  • Expressly allows Washington State hotels and motels to refuse to accommodate medical cannabis patients. Section 501(4).

  • Makes "tougher" the existing restrictions against driving "under the influence" of medical cannabis. Section 501(8).

  • Provides immunity to law enforcement and all other state actors who violate the privacy of the future state-run registry. Section 1101.



THE CURRENT BILL IS BAD FOR DISPENSARIES:


  • Removes the affirmative defense and legal underpinning for all currently operating dispensaries. Section 201(6)(d).

  • Requires currently operating dispensaries to notify local authorities of their intent to apply for a future license if they are to be afforded an affirmative defense in court. This notification -- or admission of criminal behavior -- will likely lead to threats of closure and raids from local authorities. Section 1201.

  • Places an "advertising ban" on dispensaries that forbids speech which "promotes or tends to promote the use or abuse of cannabis." Specifically states that any visual or artistic representation of cannabis is illegal. Each violation is punishable by fines of up to $1,000. Section 802.

  • Allows local jurisdictions to adopt zoning, "health and safety," licensing, and tax requirements on dispensaries. Section 1102.



READ THE BILL:

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdoc…
26
Yet another example of Obama using his executive powers to undermine human rights.

I can't really express how disappointed I am in the guy.
27
The Federal Government is in Bed with all The Big Drug Companies. And if Feds Make Medicinal Cannabis Legal. The Drug Companies Would Lose BILLIONS OF $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, if the Truth About Medicinal Cannabis Comes Out ! Face It Obama. The Pubic see's thru the BullShit and the Lie's About Medical Cannabis (AKA Marijuana) So do the right thing, and Quit putting people in Jail for trying to live a better Quality of Life !

And Support Up Coming Historic Medicinal Cannabis Trial & Use Of The Medical Necessity Defense. This Historic Trial Is May 2nd 2011, Downtown West Palm Beach, Florida. For more info see FaceBook Event Page (Palm Beach County 1st Ever Medicinal Cannabis Trial For Jeffrey Kennedy) or medicalmarijuana411.com Together We Will Achieve Victory !
Thanks To All Supporters & Be Safe,
Jeffrey & Sharon Kennedy
28
to ken mehlman perscription doesnt only have to come from a bottle at a cvs or walgreens millions of people around the world depend on medical marijuana and red wine plz keep drinkin that and all youll get is drunk i use to drink when i got depressed and it only made things worse now i smoke a few times a day and im fine i even quit drinkin and most of these pills these days like vicodin and oxys dont even help wit pain all they do is make you become addicted to them
29
In its initial release at the first of this year it was bad as well. It wasn’t gutted, so much as it only got worse. This bill has never been about protecting patients, its been about limiting dispensaries, and giving control to the industry via an expensive tax structure.

In the “Original Bill” section 301 started off by crossing out provisions for doctors in current like. This lingo was crossed out of current law from the get go:

“((A health care professional shall be excepted from the state’s
25 criminal laws and shall not be penalized in any manner, or denied any
26 right or privilege, for))”

Currently doctors are not included in the state law that offers penalties to doctors in regards to helping patient attain a recommend for medical marijuana. But the legislature started off with removing the exception to the law, and they crossed that lingo out (above).

You can see the original by going to this link.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdoc…

Im not saying this bill is all bad, nor did it start out being ALL bad. But it only takes a few bad parts to make the whole law useless, and if patients do not have access to their medicine, because doctors are scared of losing their license over it, then it destroys current laws and protections for doctors and patients.

Why cannabis groups supported and promoted this is beyond me..

I posted this to Radical Russ from NORML in February about SB 5073

(part1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY35cNJ3-…
(pat2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=438P3M5qy…

So when people say that it just recently got gutted. That is NOT true. The legislature have been trying to gut 69.51a since this bill originally came out.

This post is continued at, with video: http://slu2.com/LXd
30
@9 as it was previously mentioned, medicine is anything that can help a sick person through means of ingestion. and honestly, if medicine isn't something you grow, why do you think pharm. companies send scientists to rainforests and jungles all over the planet looking for new plant compounds to make into drugs? plants and herbs are where many of our medicines come from. and who cares anyway. weed smokers don't go out getting into fights because they're high, or crash into school buses full of children... but drunks do. huh. kinda funny that something that's known to cause horrible accidents several times a day is legal, but a plant that makes people hungry, easily entertained, and lazy in the worst situations is illegal. @17 i'd also like a license for my pet fish... do i also need a tax stamp?
31
@ Ken Mehlman there are a lot of pharmaceutical drugs on the market that are made from plants. How about you ask the question why is cannabis illegal? thier are many plants that are legal that you can OD from and die, but yet cannabis you would have to smoke 60 pounds in an hour to OD. And to give you a few examples of legal plants that you can OD on salvia, St. johns wart, ginkobaloba, green tea, echnacia, etc... but yet like the sheep we are we believe what the govement tells us.
32
Everyone will be taking MM soon. Israelis just found it helps in heart arrythmias too.
Glucoma. Pain. No side effects, but the munchies. which helps if you are in chemo.

the only damage found, and cited is genetic damage. that was found in one individual, and said individual was quoted as smoking 50 joints a day. dont think you could do that for more than one day.

Bush1 spent as much money on studies to find unhealthful effects of dope, as he spent on AIDs research funding, and they never found ANY statistical damaging effects.
33
Funny how so many people are uncomfortable calling this plant medicine, meanwhile the DEA themselves are rescheduling all synthetic and otherwise patented forms of medical cannabis as "schedule III"-- yet, still attempting to claim the plant itself has no medical value or established safety record so it can still be called a "schedule I narcotic" and our senseless, insanely expensive and ineffective prohibition of this PLANT can continue.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is spearheading California's 2012 ballot initiative to end cannabis prohibition altogether, correctly -- unlike Prop 19. If Obama and other politicians wait too long to jump on the bandwagon that's going to save our economy, they have no one but themselves to blame for going down in history as worthless, clueless partisan hacks. As both medical cannabis and hemp technologies continue to evolve at unprecedented rates, their window of opportunity is closing quickly.
34
were talking about the illegal law on pot it self, WE need to start there ,make them tell the truth about why its illegal, OTHER then a LIE, STAY focused on the point. Free all pot prisnors let them WORK and TAX them dont suport them in JAIL
35
Why do they play these games they know they can never win the war on drugs and lets just imagine for a moment that they get every govt in the world to commit there military intelligence to locating every manufacturer ,smuggler,dealer, etc etc involved in any part of the drug industry and they were successful and managed in lets say one year to arrest, every single criminal involved in todays drug industry I personally think this number would run into well over 500million people worldwide if you arrest anyone who has anything to do with any part of drug manufacturing and selling. So to prosecute each of these people we would be looking at like lets even 5000 dollars per trial 500,000,000 trials for a cost of 2,500,000,000,000 so lets get that if they could actually arrest every person in the drug trade to prosecute them alone it would cost 2.5 trillion dollar, then to incarcerate 500mill people if the cost were 175$ per day that would be 64,000 per year x 500mill 32000000000000 or 32 trillion a year so if they arrest them all prosecute and convit the first year of victory of the drug war would cost 34,000,000,000,000 that trillion so what this all comes down to is we as tax payers have agreed to fund a war that is unwinable and even worse the financial devastation that would ensue if it ever was one because not only would 34 trillion be gone but the money that was put back into the economy by these drug producers and sellers wether it be for there equipment or the bling they bought when they had made alot of money its all going back into industries unconnected with the drug industry and as a result the last billions of dollar generated by drug sales in the end would hurt the economy of northamerica as well as many other large countries around the world. So what does this all mean it means that the govt will never actually try to win this war only contain it to acceptable levels in there opinions allowing these criminals many of whom are extremly violent continue there business and to make it look like they are accomplishing something they will bust smal time growers many of whom here in canada are simply medical consumers who are unable to find a Dr and take to growing there own instead of supporting a black market that is why The ontario supreme court Judge The honorable Judge Taliano I believe it was declared all cannabis laws unconstitutional as well as the medical program here in canada and gave them 90 days to fix 30 days to appeal or marijuana becomes legal in Ontario to begin with. What I am hoping for is they appeal and lose and are unable to bring the program up to the original Supreme Court judges approval of an accesible and constitutional system.
36
When a government fails to respect the will of the people it invalidates itself. People want medical marijuana to be legal. It's that simple. It is less harmful that the poison the pharma companies want to shove down our throats and has benefits the same companies refuse to try to deny the people in order to keep us dependant upon them for survival. If the federal govenrment does not except the fact that medical marijuana should be legal for anyone who needs it then that government has become invalid.
37
@9: ironic & actually hilarious choice of words, scolder: Proscription is a term used for the public identification and official condemnation of enemies of the state. A *prescription* is a plan of care written by a physician or other health care professional. Tell me, is ignorance really as blissful for you as advertised?
38
We As US Citizens Really Need To Push To Reschedule Marijuana First. I Think Were All Going About This The Wrong Way. Once It Is Rescheduled From A Schedule I Drug To Even A Schedule II Drug We Will Have A Better Chance Of Legalizing.
My Question Is Alcohol And Cigerettes Are Way More Addicting Than Marijuana And There Not A Schedule I Drug. Is It Really Going To Take A Freaking Civil War To Get Marijuana Legal In States That The Citizens Have Voted For Legalization? I Guess It Really Does Cure Cancer. The Federal Government Has The Patent For Medical Marijuana But They Also Claim There Is No Medical Use For Marijuana. Looks Like The Patent Office Needs To Revoke There Patent.
39
why not just propose a law to decriminalize marijuana. make bylaws that prohibit state agencies from helping in any raids. if you knock it down to a minor crime or less the federal government would have a hard time prosecuting any crime that they want to push. sure, they could still arrest people, but it sure would be difficult to enforce in a state that has a contradicting law. if suppeonaed to court, just say that you refuse to convict anyone of a marijuana law that doesn't exist. somewhere along the line it's going to come down to a standoff of some sorts. if they don't want the whole system to collapse they are going to have to give in. after all, it is the people that create the government. it certianly isn't the other way around.
40
The Federal Government will NEVER willingly legalize pot - they have worked too hard to make sure it was gone forever. The HEMP industry was the reason they illegally outlawed it, but after they succeeded at that, they realized how valuable it is as a medicine - so they forced the issue some more, and petrochemicals took over the mainstream medicine too. All the prescription medicines are pure poison, but formulated to work very slowly - but eventually kill their victim after draining all the money out of the family of the victims. Petrochemicals and related industries have already caused all the destruction that has been done world wide - forcing us the common people to use their ugly-environmentally unfriendly products because they have outlawed cannabis, the only plant that can save our world from contamination caused form the Corporate Government that is FARMING the people - we are their cattle! The United States Government is a corporation of the U.N.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.