cannabisnews.com: Congress Should Reject Assault on Medical Marijuana










  Congress Should Reject Assault on Medical Marijuana

Posted by CN Staff on May 23, 2003 at 20:34:59 PT
Editorial Opinion 
Source: Star-Bulletin  

Republicans in Congress are joining Attorney General John Ashcroft in trying to bludgeon Hawaii and other states into scrapping laws that allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Legislation being considered by a House committee would strip federal drug-enforcement money from police in states with medical-marijuana laws and undoubtedly spend it instead on prosecution of such cases in those states. States should be free to allow marijuana to be used for therapeutic purposes without federal interference.
Marijuana has been shown to be effective in relieving pain from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and other illnesses. In a study commissioned by the Clinton White House, the Institute of Medicine in 1999 confirmed those benefits. Use of marijuana is allowed for medical purposes in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Nevada and Maine.The Justice Department nevertheless brought charges of marijuana cultivation and conspiracy against Ed Rosenthal, who grew marijuana to be used in connection with a program in Oakland, Calif., that dispenses marijuana to ill and dying patients whose doctors prescribe it. A federal jury, denied information about the use of Rosenthal's marijuana, convicted him as an ordinary drug dealer in January; jurors expressed outrage after learning of those facts after the trial. In Hawaii, residents who are allowed to grow and possess marijuana for medical purposes are required to register with the state's public safety director. However, legitimate medical users were placed in jeopardy by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2001 that the federal ban against marijuana distribution allows no exceptions. The ruling concerned organized production of marijuana, not its use, but the Justice Department interprets it as allowing it to trample on states' authority to allow medical use of marijuana.Legislation sponsored by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform criminal justice subcommittee, would transfer to federal drug agents more than $11 million in drug-enforcement funds now distributed to the eight states allowing medical marijuana usage. The Souder bill also would authorize the Bush administration's drug policy office to launch an advertising campaign arguing that marijuana should not be legalized for any purpose.The federal government is able to prevail over state laws under the U.S. Constitution's provision that federal law is "the supreme law of the land." That clause has been applied for good purposes, such as forcing states to desegregate schools. Forcing states to abandon medical marijuana laws would be an abuse of federal supremacy.The Issue: A House subcommittee is considering a bill that would cut off federal drug-enforcement aid to states that allow medical marijuana.Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)Published: Friday, May 23, 2001Copyright: 2003 Honolulu Star-BulletinContact: letters starbulletin.comWebsite: http://www.starbulletin.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institutehttp://www.medijuana.com/Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htmMove Would Let Drug Czar Campaignhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16359.shtmlThe Rebellion and Its Martyrs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16346.shtml

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Comment #6 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on May 25, 2003 at 08:48:25 PT:
www.fromthewilderness.com
The correct Web address in the above comment should be www.fromthewilderness.com.
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Comment #5 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on May 25, 2003 at 08:46:57 PT:
THE CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF OUR HEALTH
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." --Benito Mussolini, www.fromthewilderness. The history of laws outlawing Cannabis has largely been the history of the rise of fascism. Please read the Web article entitled Shadow Of The Swastika, www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html? The Report From Iron Mountain, written by Henry Kissinger, back in around 1963, was the conclusions of meetings by 15 members of the Council On Foreign Relations, once a month for two years in Iron Mountain, around Croton on the Hudson, New York, of their plans to depopulate the earth INCLUDING THE USE OF BOGUS SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND CONCLUSIONS.Thus, it comes as no surprise that Big Brother uses lies to support their laws.We have three checks upon Big Brother: [1] The Ballot Box; [2] The Jury Box; and [3] The Cartridge Box. The Ballot Box should be utilized. We should vote for Libertarian Party and Green Party candidates. The Republican and Democratic Parties are in the same ball of wax. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the Ballot Box is manipulated. www.votescam.com. The Jury Box is our most valuable and powerful tool. The problem is trial judges lie to the jury that the jury MUST follow the judge's instructions to the tee. The United States Supreme Court has failed to correct this problem since they rendered their decision of Sparf & Hanson v. United States (1895). The Ed Rosenthal case comes to mind. We must contact Congress for support of The Truth In Trials Act, H.R. 1717, to begin putting an end to restrictions on arguments of counsel. The Cartridge Box has been pretty much mitigated, by keeping the people in disbelief of this option, though the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit recently rendered some opinions holding the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was intended for the individual citizen against a despotic government, e.g., Silveira v. Lockyer, 2003 WL 21004622 (May 6, 2003)(Dissenting opinion from denial of rehearing en banc).
The pot laws are unconstitutional for the reasons stated in State v. Mallan, 950 P.2d 178, 208-209, 218-219 (Hawaii 1998)(Dissent by Justice Levinson).
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on May 24, 2003 at 20:44:30 PT:
Add Souder to the Villains List
If the pilgrims had been hijacked from their ships and not allowed to establish religious freedom in the New World, they would probably be viewed in history as criminals and malcontents, similar to the way members of the cannabis culture are thwarted from unfolding their vision of a "more perfect union" through the legal, individual, free choice to partake of God's sacred herb.We could have a bigger tax cut if the federal government stopped their senseless persecution of cannabis culture.ego transcendence follows ego destruction, heart by heart, step by step, prayer by prayer, vote by vote, until there is no problem.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 23, 2003 at 22:17:25 PT
Just a Comment
The news is slowing down for the holiday weekend so I've been watching News World International. I really like that news channel. I've been reading about Sars and Mad Cow Disease and maybe because I've seen what I call the invisible world kill I believe we might soon have a desperate need for more effort in that area. Why not slowly make the DEA chase diseases and help stop them from killing many people? It will take a lot of money to put the world back together again if these or other diseases take hold. Maybe it will be financial issues that will have to stop the drug war or at least the war on Cannabis. I saw on NWI a rendering plant last night. It was unbelievable. Why does any government even allow rendering plants? They said that feed for chickens and pigs were not bound by the use of rendered parts. They showed that jelly bean type candies use rendered waste. Now that's enough to make a person sick just thinking about it! Something is wrong. I knew never to feed animal products to a horse or any grass eating animal. You just aren't suppose to do that. They worry that Cannabis might hurt us but just in this short time that I've been following these issues it shows what a real threat to all of us this issue might become.PS: After all that have a safe and Happy Memorial Day Weekend Everyone!
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on May 23, 2003 at 21:42:59 PT
P.S.- The Trillion Dollar Lie
Frontline has a show on the World Com scandal and how it and the bubble worked. When the Internet started to take off back in 1995 there was an explosion in the transport of information at an incredible rate, say 20 to 25% a month. By 1997 the rate of growth slowed but the selling line of incredible growth per month continued long after it was no longer true. The lie of continuing growth was so large and consequences so damaging that it was named. The person that told the story called it The Trillion Dollar Lie.
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on May 23, 2003 at 21:18:36 PT
Okay, I will say it
States should be free to allow marijuana to be used for therapeutic purposes without federal interference. It is one thing to say so, but it would be much more to call it The Schedule One Lie and explain the stonewall to the federal/fascist approach. In the world of federal lies, the SOL is huge. Just as Hawaii is a land mass of our physical world easily seen by astronauts in space, the SOL occupies at least a large of territory in the world of federal lies. It allows murder and misery that should never occur. When this guy explores the lies in fictional world our government promotes, the SOL, is easily seen.Maybe someone will email the editor and tell him of the story's presence on Cnews. Maybe the state budget will no longer justify arresting people for something that should not be a crime. What will the feds do then? The call from reformers and reform groups should call for legalization. When they are passing around there half way measure, advancing step by step, they might as well present the Logical Conclusion.Could it not happen that one state would show enlightenment and say we are going to concentrate on actions that have victims. What happens when a student comes back from Canada and a saliva swab at the border says he has a molecule or two of THC that will lead to the ruin of mankind if not punished. At what point is enough too much?That reminds me, how is the iniative for legalization coming in Alaska? Alaskans, don't go to Canada and induldge. It may lead to your arrest when you bring that Canadian-legal THC molecule across the Cannabis Curtain.And yes, the author may well know of the Schedule One Lie and cannot describe it in the controlled media. It would help if Dan Forbes pierced the publishing void in his next story. Then again, it cannot stay hidden forever. In the world of federal lies it is much more size of Greenland than Hawaii.
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