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Senate Expected To Pass Marijuana Resolution
Posted by CN Staff on December 12, 2010 at 16:58:59 PT
By Sarah Watson
Source: Press of Atlantic City
New Jersey -- Diane Riportella did not take pain medication Friday, hoping she could make it through the day. By evening, however, the pain from not being able to move was unbearable, the anxiety and fear inconsolable.Rather than have her husband Paul give her a few drops of cherry-flavored liquid morphine, the Egg Harbor Township resident instead asked that he light her pipe with medical grade marijuana. Almost instantly, she said, the pain dissipated, her anxiety gone and she felt the will to live come back.
Today, if everything occurs as expected, Diane Riportella will hear that the state Senate passed a resolution that could be the last hurdle in legalizing medical marijuana in New Jersey. Unfortunately, Diane, who is in the final stages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also called ALS, won’t be in Trenton to watch the vote in person.Former Gov. Jon Corzine signed legislation into law in January, just days before he left office, that allowed New Jersey to become the 14th state in the nation to legalize some form of medicinal marijuana use. But Gov. Chris Christie requested that the program’s implementation be delayed because he felt the law was too lenient and didn’t do enough to prohibit recreational users from accessing pot.Christie then proposed tight limits on the program, including reducing the number of dispensaries and growers and placing a tight limit on the amount of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, that could be allowed in legal medicinal marijuana.But the resolution scheduled to be considered today instead says those limits are not in the spirit of the January law. The same resolution passed the state Assembly in November, but a Senate vote was halted after the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, Somerset, Middlesex, said he did not have enough votes for it to pass.Now, Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, Cumberland, Salem, has said there are enough votes for the measure to pass. Riportella wanted to be there, but Friday afternoon an adviser with the advocacy group she works with said testimony would not be heard and urged her and her husband not to make the journey. Paul Riportella also said his wife has become too weak for the trip, but she still would want to go if she thought it would make a difference.The couple was last in Trenton on Nov. 8, when Diane spoke before two subcommittees. She told state legislators the difference between marijuana and morphine. The legal drug, morphine, makes her sleep too much and dulls her already weak appetite. The marijuana, which she obtains illegally through an underground network that helps terminally ill patients obtain cannabis for medicinal use, improves her breathing, increases her appetite and doesn’t force her to sleep more than she already does. The morphine makes her feel like an addict, she said, but the marijuana makes her feel like a criminal.“Morphine, to me, equals death, it equals fading away on to your death bed,” she said Sunday. “When I use the marijuana, I get to be the person I used to be. It makes me forget, it helps with the pain.”To illustrate the effect, she asked Paul Riportella to light a mechanical pipe that forces a puff of medical-grade marijuana from California into her lungs, which have little capacity these days. Within seconds, her voice became louder, her face brightened and her breathing improved from short, shallow gulps of air.Diane was diagnosed with ALS in September 2007. The degenerative disease causes nerves to stop communicating with each other, ultimately causing muscles to wither and waste away. Diane’s ability to move gradually weakened, to the point where she no longer can sit up. Her hands barely move, her fingers no longer have dexterity. The muscles on her backside have wasted away; she sits on skin and bone. She can’t move, but she feels everything and her mind is completely present.In just the past few weeks, her breathing weakened further and she now has trouble swallowing, Paul Riportella said. When the breathing machine she uses no longer is strong enough, she will die.Even if the resolution passes today, Diane, who once ran marathons to raise money for cancer research, likely won’t be around to see the results of her advocacy. The soonest marijuana will be available for medicinal use is July 2011. She and Paul say they doubt she will be alive to see that day.Her advocacy in Trenton was not just about helping other terminally ill or chronically ill patients obtain the right to use marijuana, she said.“I’m not just bringing awareness to cannabis, but bringing awareness to ALS when nobody mentions it. All this time, they mention everything else but ALS, and ALS is the most horrible disease out there.”Source: Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)Author: Sarah WatsonPublished: December 12, 2010Copyright: 2010 South Jersey Publishing Co.Contact: letters pressofac.comURL: http://drugsense.org/url/QfzFCv9lWebsite: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #27 posted by FoM on December 13, 2010 at 17:24:14 PT
Hope
ALS is really bad. It is a form of Muscular Dystrophy. My one nephew is really getting bad. To get from his scooter to  his walker he has to put a belt around his upper legs and lean his body weight onto the walker. He can barely pick up a fork anymore. My other nephew is starting to fall. He is in the earlier stages of the disease. The only thing that stays fine is the mind. Trapped in a body with a crisp and clear mind is one of the worst things to happen in my opinion. 
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on December 13, 2010 at 17:12:38 PT
She may be right. I don't doubt it.
It's hard to say one killer disease is worse than the other. They are all horrible. But ALS is definitely one of the most horrible. It's terrifying and all of us are helpless against it as far as I know.“I’m not just bringing awareness to cannabis, but bringing awareness to ALS when nobody mentions it. All this time, they mention everything else but ALS, and ALS is the most horrible disease out there.”I'm very grateful that there is some relief for victims of the horrible, horrible disease, ALS.
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on December 13, 2010 at 14:42:31 PT
dongenero
That's where it started for me with Nixon and every Republican President since then. 
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Comment #24 posted by dongenero on December 13, 2010 at 12:47:42 PT
And then we have the moderm era of the Drug War...
..which ushers in Nixon, the ignored Shafer report calling for legalization which instead led to Nixon's Controlled Substances Act. This is when the really punitive action began. Nixon hated the hippies and everything they stood for, especially marijuana.Reagan doubled down on the Nixon approach and the term "War on Drugs" was coined. This was also the beginning of the massive growth in the prison industry, as it was a war on American citizens as much as a war on drugs.The war on cannabis and Americans was now big profitable business and handled as such. Plus if you backed it, you too could be a populist, tough on crime conservative, battling the liberal pot heads and counter culture boogey men.
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on December 13, 2010 at 12:17:33 PT
Garry
I'm still not sure what it all means. The south was against so many things and they were Democrats. They switched parties because they were angry and have been mostly Republicans ever since. I know it flipped me out when I saw the KKK in a Democrats parade or something close to that. That's when I looked to see what went wrong. They didn't like civil liberties as far as I can figure out. Blacks joined the Democratic Party and that made them even angrier.
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Comment #22 posted by Garry Minor on December 13, 2010 at 12:03:06 PT
FoM
Roosevelt was a democrat and they controlled the house two to one. That's how they got the new deal pushed through.Read this when you get time, it's kind of interesting and not too long.
http://www.forces.org/articles/files/whiteb/white05.htm
http://www.forces.org/articles/files/whiteb/white05.htm
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Comment #21 posted by sandybeach on December 13, 2010 at 11:41:39 PT
preserve the food chain,legalize hemp
I think if the crude oil is going to run out and or is polluting the atmosphere ,or we need to make war to have it, Then we should be preparing our selves to rely on our natural sustainable resources hemp.Both parties should see the advantages in utilizing this option.This is not about what the different parties want, cannabis is about what is best for the people and the environment,not what is best for crude oil or pharmacy or chemical industries.Those in both parties who have kept this option(hemp for fuel)illegal for so long should be telling us to plant hemp from sea to shinning sea.Except that they continue to support big business more than they do the rights of humanity to sustain themselves and protect their planet.It is time to tell and accept the truth about this little herb,for the sake of all humanity,preserve the food chain ,legalize hemp and cannabis. 
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Comment #20 posted by sandybeach on December 13, 2010 at 10:43:15 PT
re run ruff, sorry my bad 
As you can see I suffer from a persecution complex.I live in a town where I could never speak out on issues like this and fear I would be silenced for even trying.Hopefully this will end once the public realizes they have been lied to about cannabis and find out for themselves that it does have beneficial medical properties . 
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Comment #19 posted by runruff on December 13, 2010 at 09:23:33 PT
Sandybeach,
I am sorry you took me wrong. You speak my mind perfectly and I agree with most all you say but you see, some would say that we are stark raving?Carry on!
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Comment #18 posted by dongenero on December 13, 2010 at 09:02:58 PT
It's never as simple as black and white
To be sure, you can find some libertarian minded Republicans who may support cannabis legalization. But that is not the policy or trend behind the GOP. The conservatives of the Republican party are quite certainly a majority of prohibitionists in the party. The evangelical religious right, the prison industry corporatists, the moralists....and not just the politicians but the constituency as well.I'm not too big on political polling but, the polls that were taken along party lines with regard to prop 19 legislation were quite telling. Republicans were solidly against.
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on December 13, 2010 at 08:54:48 PT
dongenero
You said: It's far more instructive to find the ideological trends of party over a decade or so. I think looking at several decades old political history is pretty useless in identifying modern trends of a political party. I agree with you. The modern trends of Republicans is what I am totally against. 
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Comment #16 posted by dongenero on December 13, 2010 at 08:45:00 PT
parties and ideology
Comparing party ideologies of 75+ years ago is rather pointless as party's ideologies shift over time. Lincoln, a Republican, was obviously very liberal and was criticized as such in his day. Human rights for slaves, stimulus spending for trans continental railroads.Democrats, who are now often criticized by conservatives for kowtowing to everyone's rights and equality, were opponents of civil rights in the 1950s and 60s.They don't call politicians shifty for nothing. It happens on much shorter time frames than above. Take for instance Dick Cheney's comments on deficit.....he said "deficits" don't matter. About 6 years later, here we are with a Republican war cry against deficits. But wait, we're just about to pass a tax bill where the same, newly minted deficit hawks are wanting to add a trillion dollars to the deficit so that millionaires and billionaires will get beneficial tax treatment on their bailout bonuses.It's far more instructive to find the ideological trends of party over a decade or so. I think looking at several decades old political history is pretty useless in identifying modern trends of a political party.
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Comment #15 posted by sandybeach on December 13, 2010 at 08:25:55 PT
Garry maybe they are afraid
Garry.perhaps they fear persecution.Because of all the legal restraints placed on cannabis and all the propaganda they have been spoon fed since preschool they are afraid to speak up. Many will be silenced by way of persecution from those who oppose.They will be told they are stark raving mad for their views etc.because they have become so brainwashed by propaganda that they can not view it any other way. 
It is a tactic often used to keep people from finding out the truth.These people are very controlled by their government to think what they wish them to think even if it is a lie.Humanity needs to get past being lead by big industry and get back to being lead by their ethics and morals and what is right for humanity not big business.
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on December 13, 2010 at 08:13:02 PT
Garry
What did the Democrats do back in the 30s. If I remember correctly most Democrats became Republican in the deep south many years ago. It had something to do with civil rights I think. They didn't like it so they became Republicans.
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Comment #13 posted by Garry Minor on December 13, 2010 at 07:51:36 PT
sandybeach - FoM 
sandybeach- I believe runruff was actually giving you a compliment!FoM- I certainly understand your problem with republicans, however, I do know several, many in fact, that are on our side on this issue. My old democratic congressman blew up my computer over industrial hemp, while a republican actually called me and talked about medicinal! We need to remember that it was the democrats that got us into this mess back in the thirties, so maybe, let's pray, that some of these younger republicans can turn things around for their party too. I guess we're going to find out, aren't we?
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Comment #12 posted by sandybeach on December 13, 2010 at 07:30:10 PT
sometimes the devil (evil)
Sometimes the devil or evil is noted for sitting right up in the church with the best of the people in his effort to temp and discourage those who find happiness in truth and have faith.I do wonder if religions who oppose cannabis are even aware that Jesus's feet were anointed with cannabis oil?If it was good enough for him It is good enough for all of us. 
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on December 13, 2010 at 07:18:15 PT
The GCW
I haven't seen the movie. I do know how the Catholic church has been thruout history though. I questioned everything I was taught in parochial school. I drove them crazy with my questions. People like Susan Sarandon and George Carlin that were Catholic questioned everything too.
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Comment #10 posted by The GCW on December 13, 2010 at 07:08:57 PT
FoM,
Have you seen that movie, Luther?It showed a side of the Catholics that I think Christie is part of. Not all of any group is indicative of the whole, but often I think of Catholics in certain ways. It's generalizing in part and sometimes I welcome that; it's a time saver.It seems the Catholic church (to some extent) only does the right thing when it's forced to do it... If not forced to do the right thing they can be downright despicable.And doesn't the Pope support the "Sin of the Priests" -cannabis prohibition?Being a Republican carries certain connotations.
Being a Catholic carries certain connotations too.
Together they may induce characteristics anticipated within that combination of identities.I could be wrong however that's what I believe I'm observing.FoM, I want to ask again if You've seen that movie? It offered some potential insight of the historical Catholic and I think some of those traits still exist. Christie seems to expose it.
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Comment #9 posted by Garry Minor on December 13, 2010 at 07:04:06 PT
sandybeach
You are so right, any ETHICAL religion would stand up for the health and welfare of it's people. Cancer alone kills 1600 Americans each and every day. I have shared the cure with almost every church in my hometown and so far not one is willing to take a stand. So, are they children of God, or, are they frauds? Kaneh bosm!
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on December 13, 2010 at 06:40:07 PT
The GCW
I am curious why being Catholic is an issue. He's a Republican. That says it all to me. Senator Kennedy was a Catholic and he was on our side. I was raised Catholic and would never be a Republican. I have an open mind not a closed mind like most Republicans do.PS: I left the Catholic church when I was in my mid 20s.
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Comment #7 posted by sandybeach on December 13, 2010 at 06:35:16 PT:
WHAT EVER 
"RUN OFF "you have a right to your own opinion.
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Comment #6 posted by sandybeach on December 13, 2010 at 06:22:29 PT
NO PATENTS MEANS NO PATENTS
NO PATENTS MEANS NO PATENTS
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Comment #5 posted by runruff on December 13, 2010 at 06:18:53 PT
Sandybeach, you are stark raving mad!
You've come to the right place then!
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Comment #4 posted by sandybeach on December 13, 2010 at 06:12:27 PT
Any ethical religion would approve cure for cancer
Any ETHICAL religion should be the first to jump in here and start defending natures right to exist in its current state with out genetic alteration and mass contamination .I would think any religion would defend the rights of the sick to be healed by a natural gift from god.It is not a lack of morals that pushes these people to pursue nature over man made things that are not made freely available or no longer work to cure disease or provide us fuel.In fact I see this whole issue as an opportunity to make it clear that big industry has no right to wipe out whole species of fish with their chemical pollution and acid rain.Nor do they have the right to kill off the food chain of an entire region of the us .I think they should be forced to clean up that oil spill on the floor of the Mexican gulf.Just because we cant see it doesn't mean its all cleaned up.Any religion,in fact,any human who lives on the planet needs to be pushing for cleaner fuel and fewer chemicals and no Monsanto else we all wind up living and existing in a big toxic mess we have no control over,and who wants to go there? America needs to stand up and speak out or all of our natural resources will be taken over by those who wish to monopolize nature and control it to profit from it and by it. I used to think well next thing you know someone will be trying to modify the weather.I see HARRP has made this possible.Will we all become a slave to this as well?
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Comment #3 posted by sandybeach on December 13, 2010 at 05:28:22 PT:
no to miss use of power
Christie is not a doctor and by setting limits on cannabis content he is prescribing and because he is not a doctor he should not be aloud to prescribe any thing.
Cannabis was made illegal on false pretense by people who owned stock in pharmacy,tree cutters,crude oil and chemical companies who feared it would compete with their industries .Cannabis was miss identified by those who made it illegal because they wanted it to appear dangerous when in reality,It is a cure for many diseases and has been for thousands of years.This very important fact has been kept from the people for decades and a cure for cancer has been avoided at all costs so pharmacy could profit from the suffering of the masses .it is non toxic and is non lethal.If Christie or any other political figure wishes to do any good in this world he should legalize cannabis with out limits and just legalize it out right,with no caps or tight restrictions and let the people raise their own least they suffer with out it..I do "not" see cannabis as a product that should be regulated by tobacco or the federal government or any other big industry who originally opposed its use because i do not see this in the best interest of the consumers.Cannabis needs to belong to the people.It was big industry and their influence on big government's miss use of power who took it away from the people.and the people have suffered from its absents being forced to use only what big industry has to offer.What it offered us was poisoned and has called us off to war on its behalf again and again under false pretense.It has contaminated our lands and rivers and our food.It has modified nature distorting it and its industries are killing the food chain.
If we truly are a free people we should not be forced to be a slave to their poison.Under the circumstance,I think this plant should just be given over to the people to do with as they wish with out being regulated by any authority or any industry who ever opposed it. 
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on December 13, 2010 at 05:15:38 PT
My first garden.
It only consisted of one seed. I hid it among the gladiolas. I was so proud I named it Juanita. It grew and later I had to rename it Juan.Reminds me of the bubble gum wrapper joke, I found a cat and named him Ben...he had kittens....renamed him Ben-Her!
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on December 12, 2010 at 23:19:55 PT
I don't care for Christie types.
Unless I'm mistaken, Gov. Chris Christie is not just a Republican, He's a Catholic.I just watched the movie Luther (Martin) a night or so ago. It helps explain quite a bit.
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