cannabisnews.com: Obsolete View on MMJ Holding Back State Efforts
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Obsolete View on MMJ Holding Back State Efforts
Posted by CN Staff on April 16, 2011 at 07:07:34 PT
Spokesman-Review Editorial
Source: Spokesman-Review
Washington State -- As the Washington Legislature heads toward adoption of a bill that permits marijuana growing and distribution systems for medicinal use, federal prosecutors are loudly clearing their throats and reiterating that such a law would not prevent them from prosecuting activity it deems illegal. As a result, Gov. Chris Gregoire says she won’t sign the bill.Gregoire sent a query to the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Wednesday and got a tandem reply the next day from U.S. Attorneys Mike Ormsby of Spokane and Jenny Durkan of Seattle. They warned that anyone along the supply chain could be prosecuted and that dispensary property could be seized.
Ormsby had issued an earlier warning, but the letter to the governor put the consequences in stark terms.This is the part that caught Gregoire’s attention: “In addition, state employees who conducted activities mandated by the Washington legislative proposals would not be immune from liability.…”She said she could not sign a law that would expose state workers to prosecution, according to the Associated Press.So, once again this issue returns to the same dead end constructed by an absurd, out-of-date federal categorization of marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Yes, the same law signed by President Richard Nixon remains the controlling legal authority on pot.What does Schedule I mean? “The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.” This definition is obsolete, but Congress has failed to address the matter in the intervening 41 years except to increase the penalties. Marijuana does have accepted medical uses, such as quelling nausea and stimulating hunger in chemotherapy and AIDS patients and lowering eye pressure in glaucoma patients. It should not be in the same category as heroin. There is no rational reason marijuana could not be treated the same as prescription painkillers, which have an even higher potential for abuse. Perhaps politicians can’t kick their paranoia of this “hippie drug,” a characterization that is as archaic as the federal law.Whatever the case, well-meaning state laws will continue to be stymied as long as Congress sits on the sidelines. The citizens of Washington state spoke clearly in passing the medical marijuana initiative in 1998. Both houses of the Legislature have passed bills to enable a practical application of the law. It’s time for members of the Washington delegation to carry this message to a myth-addled Congress: Tune in and stop dropping out.Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)Published: April 16, 2011Copyright: 2011 The Spokesman-ReviewContact: editor spokesman.comWebsite: http://www.spokesman.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/G4IrRG2ACannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by disvet13 on April 17, 2011 at 15:11:21 PT:
in other words
state employees wouldn't be exempt...does that mean the governor would have been liable? complete legalization for everyone, no lawyers, no politicians, no strings attached, it's the only way, once and for all, stop bowing to lawyers and politicians, they've stolen the wealth of america, take it back with complete legalization for everyone. then grow industrial cannabis on every piece of empty field and you'll feed, cloth, provide bio-fuel, clean the environment, stop destroying the earth, then grow medical marijuana and save your family from big pharmacy and all the side effects and all your money. complete legalization is the answer. do the research, without the lies and propaganda, and the lawyers and politicians.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on April 16, 2011 at 11:43:57 PT
"... quelling nausea and stimulating hunger"
Can be a key factor in keeping someone alive to survive, and the difference in them having the strength to endure and survive harsh treatments, or not.The effects of this plant can be, have been, and will be life saving.Not always but sometimes, when someone sees and realizes the effects of this plant on human kind, one can see the built in love of something greater than just human, caring about humans and animals, in that gift to mankind... that plant.
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on April 16, 2011 at 08:13:00 PT
Schedule 1
This is the ultimate defense of the Feds and congress. I don't think pharma-addled congress is going to reschedule. Only the president could do this but I don't think he will take the initiative before the 2012 elections.
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on April 16, 2011 at 08:07:14 PT
"Tune in and stop dropping out."
Greed will make you tone deaf!
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