cannabisnews.com: Senate Backs Bills to Get MMJ Program Going!





Senate Backs Bills to Get MMJ Program Going!
Posted by FoM on June 04, 1999 at 13:19:19 PT
Really Good News!
Source: SF Gate
SACRAMENTO Two bills designed to jump-start California's embattled medical marijuana program have won Senate approval.
One measure, sent to the Assembly 21-12 Wednesday, would require the state to develop a plan to distribute marijuana to people who have a doctor's recommendation to use it. The other, approved 27-7, would allocate $1 million for the first part of a three-year study to determine whether marijuana is a safe, therapeutic drug. Both bills are by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, and similar to measures that passed the Senate last year but died in the Assembly. California voters approved a ballot measure in 1996 that let people with AIDS, cancer and other diseases use marijuana as recommended by a doctor to ease pain or nausea. Medical marijuana distribution centers popped up across the state in open defiance of federal law, which still classifies marijuana as an illegal drug. Many of the centers were shut down by federal agents and then-state Attorney General Dan Lungren. Supporters of the research bill say there won't be any change in federal law until more studies are done to determine if marijuana use is beneficial. Several Republicans joined Democrats in backing the research bill. One of them, Sen. Maurice Johannessen, R-Redding, said it was ``high time that we lay aside that paranoia'' about marijuana and conduct the study. 
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