cannabisnews.com: States Consider Moving Beyond Medical Marijuana
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States Consider Moving Beyond Medical Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on October 23, 2012 at 14:00:52 PT
By William M. Welch, USA Today
Source: USA Today 
USA -- Now that medical marijuana is permitted in about one-third of the nation, advocates hope to move beyond therapeutic uses with ballot questions in three states that could legalize pot for recreational use.Voters in Colorado, Washington state and Oregon face proposals to change state laws to permit possession and regulate the sale of marijuana — though the plant with psychoactive properties remains an illegal substance under federal law.
Approval in even one state would be a dramatic step that most likely would face legal challenges but could also bring pressure on the federal government to consider modifying the national prohibition on marijuana that has been in place since 1937, backers say."One of these states crossing that Rubicon will immediately set up a challenge to the federal government,'' says Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.Independent polls have shown proponents leading in Washington and Colorado a month or more before the election. But the outcome remains in doubt, and both sides are aware of what happened in California in 2010: The similar Proposition 19 lost 53.5% to 46.5% after an early lead in favor disappeared. "It's a similar trajectory here,'' contends Laura Chapin,​ spokeswoman for a group opposing Colorado's Amendment 64, who predicts the proposal will be defeated.John Matsusaka, a professor of law and business who is president of the Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California, says the ballot questions on recreational use reflect growing acceptance of marijuana. A Gallup poll in October 2011 showed support for legalization of marijuana at 50%, the highest since Gallup began asking the question in 1970, and 46% opposed. Seventeen states have permitted marijuana use and possession for medical reasons since 1996, when California became the first, and many cities have instructed police to make pot a low priority for enforcement."Public opinion is trending in this direction,'' Matsusaka says. "It's a matter of time before one of these passes.''SnippedComplete Article: http://drugsense.org/url/3hnCx9VISource: USA Today (US) Author: William M. Welch, USA TodayPublished: October 23, 2012Copyright: 2012 USA Today, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.Contact: editor usatoday.comWebsite: http://www.usatoday.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on October 26, 2012 at 12:41:36 PT
Kap
The "population reduction" monsters. They cross my mind from time to time, for sure, in trying to understand what is being done, and by whom, to humanity with cannabis prohibition.
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Comment #7 posted by museman on October 26, 2012 at 08:10:16 PT
kapt - everyone
I agree wholeheartedly.Cannabis IS THE CURE -for so much we can keep on talking about it long after it is legalized -if the rulers don't write more "laws" to further empower themselves and dis-empower all the rest.The problem has always been this small minority of 'leaders' and posers of authority (found in all the places set up to support such travesty -like governments, religions, and the 'weights and measures' of economics) and great efforts and expense has been made to keep us in the dark, and without the sovereignty and providence we were endowed with at birth by our inheritance of life and this planet.Throughout history, the people have come to realize this fact many times, and have risen up to overthrow their false masters -to no avail- because embedded within the cultures and religions, is a belief that the tools and values of mammon are valid, when they most certainly are not.People have given power to the rulers by acknowledging that the value of a thing, is worth more than a feeling, or an experience, or -bottom line- Love. And some who read this will mock the concept because it is so deeply embedded they believe it is 'reason' or 'logic' that supports this lie.I have just experienced a month and a half of death and dying of those I loved. Nothing brings you closer to the truth than those last shining moments. Those moments are eternal, and if not hi-jacked by a callous, corporate 'medical' system, much is visible to be seen by the witness.Cannabis is truly the "Herb of Renown" the "Plant given for the Healing of Nations.""If you partake of this fruit, your eyes will be opened."LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on October 25, 2012 at 17:46:54 PT:
Hope, it's always the money...and the power.
Tens, no, scores of Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on 'cancer research'...in researching the wrong substance. Damned embarrassing to find out that the real cure you could grow in your backyard, for pennies on the dollar if legal.But I submit there is a much bigger, vaster and darker reason for all this. Anything that contributes to longevity must perforce contribute to more people living longer, with the concomitant results in every sphere of Human life. Some of those results would force a change on a planetary economy based on an artificially-maintained scarcity model, in which strategic resources (water, food, oil, pharmaceuticals, etc.) are controlled by a few thousand individuals across the planet, affording them power and wealth unheard of in previous ages. And among them are some very sick people who believe in population reduction...and not through voluntary means. Google 'Agenda 21" and you'll realize they actually mean it.Bob Marley, who I consider to have been, in a subtle way, a visionary and a prophet of sorts, said it best: "The more man smoke herb, the more Babylon fall." And if by 'smoking herb' you not only open your mind but are extending your life so that you are given more time to learn and reflect on Humanity's state? The threat to the crypto-fascist agendas of the global Elite (a.k.a 'Babylon')is manifestly obvious.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on October 25, 2012 at 07:26:56 PT
Tashkin's discovery.
About this wonderful news not being reported like it would have been if it had been something bad or negative found about cannabis in the study. That would have been front page news, of course. But exactly what kind of reporter and what kind of media people would bury this news? They didn't want to believe it? What was their reasoning behind this lack of reporting something important? Were they afraid it would help, in some way, the people that smoke... and they didn't want to do that? It's just strange. Something to think about. Why? Vested interests? Vested interests in what? Why would they bury news like this? I doubt they were paid to do so. It was something in themselves that they felt it should be buried. We know they would have been hallelujahing all over the media if it had been something negative. But helping save lives... from cancer? Na. That had to be buried?
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on October 24, 2012 at 16:57:31 PT
2005:No "headlines 'Pot Doesn't Cause Cancer' ! 
Media Ignored Expert's Shocking Findings That Marijuana Helps Prevent Lung Cancer -- Now It's Med-School Material. 
By Fred Gardner, AlterNet. October 24, 2012. 
UCLA professor Donald Tashkin will now be sharing his research discoveries to medical students this week. READ MORE»
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/media-ignored-experts-shocking-findings-marijuana-helps-prevent-lung-cancer-now-its-med-school?akid=9578.313040.yDVgGb&rd=1&src=newsletter732160&t=10&paging=off
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Comment #3 posted by runruff on October 24, 2012 at 15:30:18 PT
The calm before the storm.
As we wait out these next couple of weeks to see how much, if any, progress we have made, there are as many on the professional prohib side watching as there are on our side. It will be interesting to say the least.Something I say is in the subtext of all this debate. While Jane and Joe Voter out there think they are voting to allow people to legally use pot or not. That issue is being used as a smoke screen to hide the real fear of those who would continue this ruse who's real fear is HEMP. They keep us arguing over the CSA issues around pot while in fact it is the benevolent cousin that is being kept out of the picture.How does it make sense for voters to vote out their best and possibly only escape from our current messes. All the uses of hemp and it's ability to be produced with such abundance. It is the Power folks. It is the power based on the utility and easy production of hemp. Through ignorance of hemp and a misunderstanding of the nature of a free society, most voters in Oregon may vote against their only hope for a free and independent America.
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Comment #2 posted by John Tyler on October 23, 2012 at 21:28:58 PT
vote to legalize 
It is said that the states are the laboratories of democracy. Let’s vote to legalize and get this thing going. It’s the right thing to do. The holdouts will eventually come around.  
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Comment #1 posted by schmeff on October 23, 2012 at 14:13:09 PT
A Matter of Time
"It's a matter of time before one of these passes."Two weeks?Not so long a time...but a long time comin'.
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