cannabisnews.com: Hands Off Medical Pot! 





Hands Off Medical Pot! 
Posted by FoM on July 23, 1999 at 06:03:42 PT
By Dennis Peron
Source: SF Gate
Editor -- I oppose the recommendations of the Lockyer Medical Marijuana Task Force (SB848) for reasons many Californians will understand readily.
I wrote Proposition 215 for patients to protect them from the people who now want to register them, and send public health officials to their homes to check the amount of medical marijuana they may have. SB848 sets up a ``voluntary'' registry, but if a person doesn't join, pay fees and jump through all their hoops, he is, by implication, guilty. That's not only coercive, but the idea of registering AIDS and cancer patients is extremely controversial. We want the state Legislature to exempt patients from the remaining pot laws, not create 16 pages of new ones targeting medical use. Why not just add ``except for medical purposes'' to the law that prohibits marijuana sales? Thank you, Gov. Davis, for protecting patients by promising to veto this imbalanced bill that would forever violate the privacy of doctor-patient relationships while costing patients hundreds of dollars per year. Our elected representatives should skip the big-brother-knows- best routine and find the courage to keep medical marijuana free from the clutches of the law enforcement establishment, health bureaucrats and the pot dealers. Why can't they just put it in pharmacies? DENNIS PERONhttp://www.marijuana.org/ Californians for Compassionate Use San Francisco Pubdate: July 23, 1999Related Medical Marijuana Articles:Balancing Medicine with the Law - 7/21/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2137.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #2 posted by jdd on July 23, 1999 at 21:46:14 PT
sb848
Doc, I understand that your heart is in the right place but, as we all well know, once you get any government program started ('voluntary' or not) it will snowball from there. If our governor and attorney general don't have the intestinal fortitude to use their constitutional authority regarding state's rights, then no registry is going to make a bit of difference. As far as Placer county, et al, are concerned, if they don't respect Prop. 215, which has already been put into the Health and Safety code (H&S11362.5) of California, they aren't going to respect an insignificant little registration card. They are already violating the law of the state, and people's rights!! Let's bombard our elected representatives, such as Mr. Lungren (oh, yeah, I mean Lockyer) and tell him to get some balls and tell the feds to stick it. What are they going to do, threaten to withhold funding from us? How about us withholding funding from them until they cave? Without California taxes, the federal government would be severely crippled (an exciting ideal!). Anyway, let's enforce our existing laws and not add a volunteer registry that probably wouldn't mean a thing anyway.
[ Post Comment ]

Comment #1 posted by Dr. Ganj on July 23, 1999 at 10:16:11 PT
SB848
Dennis might be right about bureaucratic intrusion, but we must also consider the people this registry would help, especially in counties like Placer, Butte, and Orange, where law enforcement officials don't "recognize Prop 215".If a person with a state issued valid card were questioned in one of those counties, he/she would be far better protected from wrongful arrest like what has happened so often before, and has prompted this legislation in the first place.Now, as to "why can't they just put it in pharmacies?", well that's rather obvious-all of the marijuana would have to be free of mold, fungus, pesticides, and would need to be consistent in strength and effect. That couldn't be done unless a strictly controlled cannabis processing center cultivated and distributed medical-grade cannabis to various pharmacies statewide. However, that wouldn't work because that also is in direct conflict with Federal law, and the center would be pressured to close immediately. After careful review, I still feel more medical marijuana patients would benefit from a voluntary registry, as they would be uniformly protected statewide rather than just in a few compassionate counties like it currently is.We must also consider the added pressure on the Federal Government if this registry were implemented. This should not be underestimated, as this could very well led to a rescheduling of marijuana to a more realistic II or III category, making it truly accessible to patients across the nation, and not just in a few states as it is now.This is what is really needed, and the passage of SB848 could very well the push to change our Federal marijuana laws.Dr. Ganj 
http://www.norml.org
[ Post Comment ]

Post Comment


Name: Optional Password: 
E-Mail: 
Subject: 
Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message]
Link URL: 
Link Title: