cannabisnews.com: Mexican President To Open Debate on Marijuana Law
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Mexican President To Open Debate on Marijuana Law
Posted by CN Staff on November 10, 2015 at 10:20:58 PT
By Reuters
Source: Reuters
Mexico City -- Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Monday he would open a national debate to review the country's marijuana laws ahead of a key United Nations meeting next year, following a landmark court ruling.Speaking a few days after Mexico's Supreme Court ruled to allow four plaintiffs to grow and smoke pot recreationally in a decision that could eventually open the door to marijuana legalization, Pena Nieto said he was not personally in favor of legalization as it could induce people into taking harder drugs.
However, he has asked the Interior Ministry to bring together various specialists, including academics, doctors and sociologists, to debate the future of marijuana regulation in Mexico, which has suffered a decade of gruesome drug violence. "We'll need to establish a debate ... and the federal government is open to that, so that along with the legislative branch, we work together, creating specialized forums, which will allow us to have a much clearer, more open position of the horizon that's coming," he said at an event. Pena Nieto added that it was necessary for Mexico to identify a coherent position on the matter before a major United Nations drugs policy meeting in April next year. What happens next in Mexico will be keenly watched by proponents and critics of drugs reform elsewhere in the Americas, as governments from Uruguay to Canada have grown weary of the four-decades-long U.S.-led "war on drugs."Well over 100,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2007, and some think marijuana legalization in Mexico and the United States could eventually lead cartels to stop selling the drug. Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Simon Gardner and Sandra MalerSource: Reuters (Wire)Published: November 9, 2015Copyright: 2015 Thomson ReutersCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on November 11, 2015 at 09:20:33 PT
Press Release From The Drug Policy Alliance
Senate Approves Funding Bill That Allows Veterans to Access Medical MarijuanaNovember 10, 2015Amendment Would Allow VA Doctors to Recommend Medical Marijuana to Their Patients in States Where It’s LegalThe Senate today passed the FY2016 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (MilCon-VA) Appropriations Bill, which includes language to allow Veterans Administration (VA) doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients in states where medical marijuana is legal. The language was included as an amendment in the Senate Appropriations committee in May.“Veterans in medical marijuana states should be treated the same as any other resident, and should be able to discuss marijuana with their doctor,” said Michael Collins, deputy director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. “It makes no sense that a veteran can’t use medical marijuana if it helps them and it is legal in their state.”The Veterans Equal Access Amendment was sponsored by Republican Senator Steve Daines of Montana and Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. It passed the Committee 18-12 in a bipartisan vote. The funding bill will now be negotiated with the House’s version as part of an omnibus spending bill."On this eve of Veterans/Armistice Day where we remember those who served in the military and the treaty agreement to reach peace concluding WWI, we see this victory as a step toward a peace treaty with the government we volunteered to defend with our lives and as a step toward restoring our first amendment rights and dignity as citizens of the United States, " said TJ Thompson, a disabled Navy veteran.Currently, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) specifically prohibits its medical providers from completing forms brought by their patients seeking recommendations or opinions regarding participation in a state medical marijuana program. The Daines-Merkley amendment authorizes VA physicians and other health care providers to provide recommendations and opinions regarding the use of medical marijuana to veterans who live in medical marijuana states.In 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in Conant v. Walters the right of physicians to recommend medical marijuana, regardless of its illegality under federal law, as well as the right of patients to receive accurate information. The Daines-Merkley amendment supports that first amendment right and restores a healthy doctor-patient relationship.There are numerous federal healthcare programs besides the VA such as Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP – but only the VA prohibits physicians from discussing and recommending medical marijuana to their patients. A Medicare patient may freely discuss medical marijuana use with her doctor, while a returning veteran is denied the same right.Studies have shown that medical marijuana can help treat post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, illnesses typically suffered by veterans. A 2014 study of people with PTSD showed a greater than 75% reduction in severity of symptoms when patients were using marijuana to treat their illness, compared to when they were not.A legislative version of the Daines-Merkley amendment was included in groundbreaking Senate medical marijuana legislation introduced in March. The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act is the first-ever bill in the U.S. Senate to legalize marijuana for medical use and the most comprehensive medical marijuana bill ever introduced in Congress. The bill was introduced by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and generated enormous interest.With the Senate approving one element in the bill, supporters say it is time for the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on the full bill.“The politics around marijuana have shifted in recent years, yet Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley hasn’t held a hearing on the bill,” said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. “We will move the CARERS Act piece by piece if we have to but now is the time for the Senate to hold a hearing on the bill as a whole.”Contact:Tony Newman (646) 335-5384Michael Collins (404) 539 6437
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Comment #5 posted by SoupHerb on November 10, 2015 at 18:50:36 PT:
Yes, Sir, Sam
 I believe you are correct. I have heard this same echo among scholars(tv documentaries). Like it is some kind of game at the expense of the entire planet and its future. All the people on earth are just their play toys.I know it made those families mad when The United States formed a middle class with bargaining power in the 1900's. And that fiasco has been back and forth like tennis match forcing the middle class back into the poor house.It is not about Pot. It is and always has been and will be about Money the Love of it and the Power it controls...
I digress...
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on November 10, 2015 at 16:37:00 PT
poor mexico
didn't some corrupt cops just shoot a bunch of college kids down there? what a shame. Mexico is where the real tragedy of the US-driven WOD plays out. At this point, anything other than a direct action to repeal the laws is stalling and more Prohibition.Look what happened when Canada got close to legalizing in 2001 - suddenly the government goes conservative and moves the opposite way for 15 years. Don't tell me that was driven by the Canadian people. nope, the same families and interests that own the US control everything.In a way, this is what WWII was about - controlling the world's fossil fuels, and other types of power and control. Forcing the world's governments into prohibition.  It's had devastating effects around the world.WWII started with Germany and Russia carving up Poland, the richest source of fossil fuels in Europe. Where did the US go to enter WWII - France? Germany? no, northern Africa - where the oil is
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Comment #3 posted by MikeEEEEE on November 10, 2015 at 14:34:03 PT
Stalling
Debate and more research = stalling
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Comment #2 posted by Had Enough on November 10, 2015 at 14:20:50 PT
Open Debate...Sheezzee
So El Presidento... Enrique Pena Nieto... wants more debate stuff...OPEN debate at that...Changing policy on narcotics has a particular significance in Mexico, which has suffered from one of the worst drug wars in world history. Cartels and the security forces fighting them killed more than 83,000 people between 2007 and 2014 according to a government count, with some independent analysts producing even higher casualty estimates. Mexico is also the biggest narcotics supplier to American users, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. “The most significant drug trafficking organizations operating in the United States today are the dangerous and highly sophisticated Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that continue to be the principal suppliers of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana,” the DEA’s acting head Chuck Rosenberg said in the a letter published Wednesday, alongside an annual national drug threat assessment report.http://time.com/4100747/mexicos-marijuana-ruling-shakes-up-drug-policy/***Can we debate this...83,000 people killed in 7 years for the drug wars...That is way more than our brothers and sisters who never made it out of Southeast Asia...Veitnam...Yep...Debate that...probably won't hear a word about that stuff...The only thing open about this bunch is the palms of their hands
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Comment #1 posted by Had Enough on November 10, 2015 at 14:03:50 PT
Looks like Sam Adams had it right...
Same Ole' Stonewalling...."Speaking a few days after Mexico's Supreme Court ruled to allow four plaintiffs to grow and smoke pot recreationally in a decision that could eventually open the door to marijuana legalization, Pena Nieto said he was not personally in favor of legalization as it could induce people into taking harder drugs. However, he has asked the Interior Ministry to bring together various specialists, including academics, doctors and sociologists, to debate the future of marijuana regulation in Mexico, which has suffered a decade of gruesome drug violence. 
"We'll need to establish a debate ... and the federal government is open to that, so that along with the legislative branch, we work together, creating specialized forums, which will allow us to have a much clearer, more open position of the horizon that's coming," he said at an event.Pena Nieto added that it was necessary for Mexico to identify a coherent position on the matter before a major United Nations drugs policy meeting in April next year."This is the same decades old BS Breeze from these prohibitionists...They are out of ammo...I just wish they would just step aside now... 
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