cannabisnews.com: One Uninsured Group Can Now Exhale





One Uninsured Group Can Now Exhale
Posted by CN Staff on January 30, 2007 at 20:45:48 PT
By Al Kamen
Source: Washington Post
Washington, DC -- Former associate attorney general and convicted felon Webb Hubbell, now working for an insurance agency, has an important message for marijuana smokers: You don't have to quit to get life insurance."If you've been declined for life insurance or are paying above-market premiums or simply want to know" about life insurance for "responsible" marijuana smokers, then give him a call, he says on an "audio message" he made for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws' Web site to explain its new life insurance program.
"Hello, this is Webb Hubbell," the recording begins, with appropriate mellow jazz in the background. "For years, responsible marijuana smokers have not been able to access affordable life insurance," explains the former Little Rock mayor and Arkansas chief justice.Hubble, longtime close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, told us that "responsible" dopers means occasional users as opposed to constant smokers -- something like social drinkers vs. lushes.So these social smokers "have been forced to lie on applications, forgo the health benefits [for people with AIDS, glaucoma, cancer, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy] of responsible marijuana use . . . or purchase . . . [policies] that did not require an application or a physical. If they were honest about their use of marijuana they were either flat-out declined or rated so high" -- well, how high were they? -- "that they could not afford" the premiums."No longer," Hubbell declares triumphantly. Two carriers have agreed to write policies for users, he said. But wait a minute! This stuff is illegal. Well, "technically it is still illegal even in the Netherlands, where you can buy it over the counter," said Allen St. Pierre, NORML's executive director. "Eleven states, with some 100 million people, have decriminalized marijuana," St. Pierre said, "and medical marijuana has been legal for 10 years in some states." We're talking a substantial underserved market here.So how did Hubbell, who did 18 months in federal prison in 1995-1996 for bilking his old law firm clients, become NORML's insurance agent? Hubbell told us he met NORML founder Keith Stroup in 1996 when both were working on reform in the criminal justice system. And on the three-minute recording he recounts the moving story of a NORML member who was unable to get a bank loan to expand his trucking business.The "bank required additional life insurance," Hubbell explains, but "his local insurance agent had told him he simply had to quit smoking marijuana to get the coverage the bank was requiring." Well, " he didn't want to quit, and he wanted NORML's help [and] they contacted me," said Hubbell, who works for the McLaughlin Company -- not to be confused with television's McLaughlin Group.Hubbell said he found a carrier to write a policy for the man and then "we decided the time was right to make traditional insurance . . . available" to other reefer aficionados. So far, two insurance companies have agreed to write life insurance policies, and Hubbell said he hopes to expand coverage to include health and disability insurance."Challenging as it may be," Hubbell says on the message, "NORML is . . . working hard to both reform cannabis laws as well as [to help] cannabis consumers all around the world." And Hubbell is ready to get them insured.Loop Fans simply must listen to Hubbard's "audio message" about the NORML life insurance program -- and the plug for his agency -- at: http://audio.norml.org/audio_stash/staff_psa/webb_jazz_test_2.mp3URL: http://tinyurl.com/2r52wcSource: Washington Post (DC)Author: Al KamenPublished: Wednesday, January 31, 2007; Page A13Copyright: 2007 Washington Post Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ CannabisNews NORML Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/NORML.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on January 31, 2007 at 07:32:15 PT
Wonderful article, Dongenero
This stood out: "But Alexza's idea of heating up a drug to create a vapor, or smoke, is unique.""Unique"? As in never thought of before? Oh, really? I think not. We've been pointing this out for years. Ah. But Alexza is a pharmaceutical company...a corporation...so when they say the same thing we've been saying...people can hear it. Corporations speak and are honored. We speak and are ridiculed and ignored...immediately. Strange.Hmmm. Some day cannabists are going to get the honor and respect from greater society that they deserve. And oh yes...the Earth really is a sphere and not flat, too!On a regular basis now, we find out that we were more "right" about all this stuff than even we realized.We have been literally begging for research into what we "KNOW" and finally, somehow, we are getting some. Obviously, the Pharms have been paying a bit more attention to us than the stupid propraganda programmed congress critters and prohibitionists....and preventionist.Once again, prohibitionists, that like to call yourselves "preventionists"...just exactly what is it you are "preventing"?Oh, I know! I know!You are preventing progress, freedom, health, and healing. Yep. You sure are.
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Comment #3 posted by dongenero on January 31, 2007 at 07:07:15 PT
"smokable" pain drugs...(vaporizing)
Reuters health news has this article about a "new" development of "smokable" pain medications. They are talking about vaporizing pain medications for the fastest action.I guess this will blow away another of the complaints you hear from so many so called experts, medical and otherwise, about medicine not being "smoked" or vaporized.http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2007-01-31T133451Z_01_N23263374_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-ALEXZA-SMOKABLE-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=NewsLanding-C9-SciHealth-3
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Comment #2 posted by ekim on January 31, 2007 at 06:39:09 PT
those here have been saying for years
how about car insurance -- set up a company that will take the case to court. More intereste in Med Cannabis in MI keep cking web site for updates.yesterday in the Kalamazoo Gazette on the Opinion page A10
 the Eds view was on Changing how the state taxes and spends.
The report cited was from the Center for Michigan think tank.it went on to say that MI rate of incarceation is 40 percent higher then its neighbors and that if MI would allow its rates to fall to the levels of its neigbors MI would save $500 million a year. There was no mention of what rates would be allowed to fall but seems that someone in the Center for Michigan think tank has been reading some of the Kaptains writings:))will post more as it develops
http://www.minorml.org
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Comment #1 posted by Toker00 on January 31, 2007 at 03:29:49 PT
Huh!
For some of us, cannabis is our Life ASSURANCE. And we benefit from it everyday, without having to die first to cash it in. True, it won't pay your final bills or financially secure your family at your death but, if you will allow people who use cannabis to legally obtain Life "INSURANCE", why not let them legally obtain Life "ASSURANCE"? Legalize Cannabis for all it's uses.Legalize cannabis for the entire population of the world. Give us the LIFE ASSURANCE that we NEED to stay healthy so we can PAY the LIFE INSURANCE. (Shouldn't this be called Death Insurance?) Toke.
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