cannabisnews.com: City Not Vocal on Medical Marijuana 





City Not Vocal on Medical Marijuana 
Posted by CN Staff on December 25, 2004 at 22:30:11 PT
By Eric Weslander, Journal-World
Source: Lawrence Journal-World 
To the east of Kansas, Columbia, Mo., just passed a city ordinance on the subject. To the West, Colorado has a state law. In opinion poll after poll, including one released last week by the AARP, it's becoming clear the public supports the idea that sick patients should be allowed to use marijuana if a doctor recommends it. So could Kansas or Lawrence -- a city with "Honk for Hemp" advocates on the corner and pot entwined in its history -- become the next place to pass a medical-marijuana law?
On the state level, Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, suggests people not hold their breath."It's an issue where I have not detected a groundswell of public opinion support for it, and I would suspect if I'm not hearing a lot about it in Lawrence, Kansas, then legislators in more rural parts of the state aren't hearing about it, either," Davis said.Although the issue might appeal to the Libertarian-leaning wing of Kansas' powerful Republican party, Davis said others in the party might see it as a move toward legalization of the drug for recreational purposes. "Generally, the Legislature is interested in cracking down on the drug problem and not creating what some people say is a loophole," Davis said. Columbia LawIn November, Columbia voters approved two marijuana-related ballot resolutions. One made marijuana the lowest priority for local police and required anyone caught with small amounts of the drug to be fined instead of arrested. The other said patients who used marijuana with a doctor's recommendation should not be arrested or punished in any way, or, if that part of the law was found invalid, should be punished by no more than a $50 fine.An article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the election described Columbia as the Midwest's closest thing to Berkeley or Amsterdam. But in Lawrence -- a place "60 Minutes" once dubbed the nation's marijuana capital -- no such movement has materialized. Lawrence attorney Robert V. Eye, who represented a well-known medical-marijuana grower last year in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said he thought a law eventually would pass in Kansas or Lawrence, in part because he's seen so many surveys showing public support for medical marijuana.But until Congress or the Supreme Court settles conflicts between state or local laws and federal marijuana prohibition, all medical-marijuana laws will have a "legal cloud" hanging over them, Eye said."It seems to me that we're close to having something that looks like a national consensus," Eye said. "People are saying, ‘Look, medicine is medicine, and I don't care where it comes from.'" In The NewsStudies have found marijuana has medical uses that include relieving nausea in chemotherapy patients and stimulating AIDS patients' appetites."I think it's been fairly well-studied on those two things," said Lawrence family-care physician Steven Bruner.But Bruner said he'd never had a patient bring up the subject."It's really just not a hot-button issue around here," he said.One of the federal government's many arguments against allowing medical marijuana is that the active ingredient, THC, already comes in pill form. "The idea that smoked marijuana would be an effective delivery device for medicine, I think, is ... something that really doesn't have any future as medicine," acting solicitor general Paul Clement told the U.S. Supreme Court last month. The most recent survey indicating the public's views came last week, when the AARP announced that in a random telephone poll of 1,706 adults, nearly three-fourths of respondents, including 69 percent of those over 70, supported the idea of medical marijuana.An often-cited 2002 CNN/Time Magazine poll found 80 percent of people thought marijuana use should be legal with a doctor's prescription.On a recent afternoon in the break room of Douglas County Senior Services, four employees questioned -- all of whom are seniors -- said they didn't have a problem with doctor-prescribed pot."I don't see that there's anything the matter with it," said Dorothy Resco, who gave her age as "old enough to know better, too young to care.""It's got to be with a prescription, just like any other drugs," said Norma Kelley, 66. Interest-Group MoneyAccording to the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy, 10 states -- Vermont, Montana, California, Oregon, Alaska, Washington, Maine, Hawaii, Colorado and Nevada -- have "effective" medical-marijuana laws. Most commonly, the laws allow sick patients to use marijuana with a doctor's note, and most but not all were passed by ballot initiative.Other states have laws on the books that have no practical effect. In Arizona, for example, a state law allows doctors to prescribe marijuana, but no doctors do because federal law prohibits it.Krissy Oechslin, spokeswoman for the Marijuana Policy Project, says her agency picks the states each year in which it fights legislative battles. The agency pumped $50,000 into the Columbia, Mo., campaign and has pressured lawmakers in states such as Vermont, where a law passed by the Legislature went into effect this year."It's a matter of focusing on who holds the key committee votes, working in their district., really being very savvy politically, targeting exactly who we need to target," she said.So far, the group hasn't targeted Kansas, but she said that could change."You can't discount the whole middle of the country," she said. "I think people tend to come to our side when they have the personal experience. Most people probably know someone who's had cancer, and probably would not deny them something that would ease their pain, especially if the doctor recommended it."Note: Issue has sparked activism across U.S., but not in Lawrence. Source: Lawrence Journal-World (KS)Author: Eric Weslander, Journal-World Published: Sunday, December 26, 2004 Copyright: 2004 The Lawrence Journal-WorldWebsite: http://www.ljworld.com/Contact: http://www.ljworld.com/site/submit_letter Related Articles & Web Site:Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Poll Examines Medical Marijuana Supporthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20041.shtmlColumbia Changes How MJ Cases are Handledhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19792.shtmlMarijuana Measures Pass Handily http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19765.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #7 posted by FoM on December 26, 2004 at 20:35:25 PT
DevoHawk
Thanks for mentioning that it was a copy of someone's letter. I appreciate the honesty.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by DevoHawk on December 26, 2004 at 19:25:13 PT
FOM
Thanks for the compliment about the letter but it belongs to another person.I basically copied a LTE I thought was well written, in Alabama I think, and just changed the name to Dennis Moore.Peace
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 26, 2004 at 15:16:56 PT
DevoHawk
That is very interesting information about your Dad. The letter is very good too. I hope you had a nice Christmas. We did. Way too much food. But fun anyway! LOL! If the news gets any slower I could take a vacation but just when you think the news has totally stopped a story or two pops up. Soon we will be back to regular news but not until after the New Year I think though. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by DevoHawk on December 26, 2004 at 15:08:30 PT
FOM
The last line should have read:Thanks for all the work at CN.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by DevoHawk on December 26, 2004 at 15:06:27 PT
Activism very alive in Lawrence
Happy Holidays FOMMy dad was in the House or Reps in Kansas as a Republican and in 1994 he tried to introduce a bill to legalize medical marijuana.We haven't gotten very far since then but a challenge has been issued to those people whom Paul Davis represents. He represented me until I moved in spring but I think it would be worth writing him about Medical Marijuana. I hope I can infuence friends to write and hope people from Lawrence who read CN will write Davis.If Paul Davis reads the Lawrence Journal World he would have come across this LTE:MEDICAL MARIJUANA
To the editor:I am very disappointed that Rep. Dennis Moore voted against the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment to the Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations bill. I wish he had made an effort to stop the Department of Justice raids, arrests and prosecutions of medical marijuana patients.This amendment would have prevented the federal government from targeting people who use marijuana to treat serious illnesses with their doctors' recommendations and in accordance with state laws.By casting this vote, Rep. Moore has aligned himself with a small and diminishing segment of society. According to a Time/CNN poll taken in October of last year, 80 percent of the American people "think adults should be able to use marijuana legally for medical purposes."The vote also directly contradicts the position of the 2.6 million-member American Nurses Assn., which recently passed a resolution supporting "legislation to remove criminal penalties including arrest and imprisonment for bona fide ( medical marijuana ) patients."I wish Rep. Moore had voted to take patients out of the state-federal conflict over laws regulating marijuana's medical use. Patients should not bear the burden of this conflict.I hope Rep. Moore will reconsider his position in the future so that patients do not have to fear the federal government when they use a state- and doctor-approved medicine that relieves their suffering and extends their lives.--------------Hopefully a groundswell will occur and Paul Davis will take a look at medical marijauna in Kansas.Thanks for all great work a CN.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by FoM on December 26, 2004 at 08:44:37 PT
Just a Comment
I've been looking for news but it looks like another day with no news. I'll keep looking though. If anyone is interested Rust Radio is streaming Neil Young music for the Christmas Weekend. If a person uses Windows Media Player this is what you need to put in the player. http://rustradio.org:8000
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by tokenitallup4162 on December 25, 2004 at 23:21:43 PT:
all positive!!!
If its POSITIVE, I'll take it anyday. I am an ole believer in getting your toe in the door and the rest will follow, so to speak. Eventually, your in, and wherever, whenever, and whomever you explain your issues to, someone will hear, with their ears and someone will have eyes to see, to see the truth. It is said," if you have faith of a mustard seed, then you can move the mountains and the problems that come with it. If I were to speak to others about the war on drugs, for just me, and not others, then IT would be in vain. May Kentucky be the 14th state to look/change its laws on marijuana and go back to its way of hemping for agricultural as well !!! GODSPEED !!!
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment