cannabisnews.com: Group Seeks Overhaul of Medical Pot Law 





Group Seeks Overhaul of Medical Pot Law 
Posted by FoM on April 09, 2001 at 22:25:09 PT
By Joe Rankin, Staff Writer
Source: MaineToday.com 
The Maine Vocals plan to launch petition drives this week aimed at revamping the state's medical marijuana law and making the growing of industrial grade hemp legal in the state for the first time in decades. Vocals president Donald Christen of Madison said Sunday the marijuana legalization group will try to collect the signatures of 42,000 registered voters on each of two petitions to get the issues on the November 2002 election ballot. 
The state's current medical marijuana law, passed in 1998, is unworkable, said Christen. He said the law doesn't allow patients to grow or possess enough marijuana. And the Maine Legislature has been unable to agree on rules assuring patients of a supply of the drug, he said. "They spent all session so far, with special committees working on it and yet they failed to come up with something," he said. Christen said the law only allows patients who qualify to use the drug to grow up to six plants at a time, with three of those in the flowering stage and three in the "vegetative" stage. Under the law they can possess only an ounce and a half of processed marijuana at one time, he said. "You have to be a botanist to grow it the way the petition proposed it," Christen said. The Vocals' proposed referendum question would ask voters if they want to allow qualified patients to grow up to 99 plants and possess up to 18 pounds of processed marijuana, which Christen said is about a two-year supply. The hemp petition would allow farmers to grow industrial grade hemp, which is related to the plant used to produce marijuana, but does not contain the active ingredient, he said. Almost a dozen states have taken steps toward legalizing the growing of hemp, many of them by approving research into the crop. Hemp was widely grown in the United States until the late 1930s, when Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which made it difficult for farmers to continue production. Hemp is still grown in many countries around the globe. Its fibers are used to make paper, clothingand rope, and its seeds can be used for oil. In 1999 the U.S. imported 1.5 million tons of raw hemp fiber, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "What I'm trying to do is bring out the truth about hemp," said Christen. " Marijuana has been a scapegoat to get rid of the hemp industry, but marijuana is everywhere, and hemp is nowhere. Christen said the Maine Secretary of State's Office has already approved the wording of the petition to strengthen the state's medical marijuana law. He said he expects the wording of the petition to legalize help growing with no restrictions to be approved sometime this week. He said the Vocals expect to mobilize an army of 500 volunteers to collect the signatures. Christen says that if the group is successful in getting the required number of signatures on those two petitions this year, the group might launch a referendum drive next year to bring the issue of legalizing marijuana to voters. Source: MaineToday.com (ME)Author: Joe Rankin, Staff Writer Published: Monday, April 9, 2001Copyright: 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.Contact: cmnsom mint.net Website: http://www.centralmaine.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Mainers For Medical Rightshttp://www.mainers.org/Marijuana Lobby Coalition Pitches New Initiativeshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9297.shtmlMaine Awaits Drug Ruling http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9002.shtmlCannabisNews Hemp Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/hemp.shtml 
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