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RainDog
RainDog's Journal
RainDog's Journal
June 19, 2014
Thank you for telling that truth, Mr. Burch.
I hope the Republicans refrain from any of that Kentucky bourbon since they oppose recreational marijuana. Wouldn't want them to be blatant hypocrites for choosing a drug that's not as safe as marijuana. Think of the children!
KY Medical Marijuana Bill Dies on the Floor
http://wkms.org/post/lawmakers-say-medical-marijuana-kentucky-inevitabilityA medical marijuana bill passed by the House Health & Welfare Committee earlier this year ultimately died on the chamber floor. It’s passage planted a larger seed in the General Assembly that committee chair Tom Burch said will eventually come to fruition.
“I think eventually it will happen, because every survey I’ve run shows big percentages of people that want it legalized," Burch said. "I’m sure some of the legislators here on this panel, if they surveyed their district, probably comes back close to mine.”
“I was here when we criminalized the use of marijuana back in the 70s," Burch said. "It was a rush to get these criminals off the street, and all this kind of stuff that was going on. It was ill advised, but it was a good election year and everybody wanted to be against crime, so that's why we passed it, so that a little bag of marijuana would get you five years."
“I think eventually it will happen, because every survey I’ve run shows big percentages of people that want it legalized," Burch said. "I’m sure some of the legislators here on this panel, if they surveyed their district, probably comes back close to mine.”
“I was here when we criminalized the use of marijuana back in the 70s," Burch said. "It was a rush to get these criminals off the street, and all this kind of stuff that was going on. It was ill advised, but it was a good election year and everybody wanted to be against crime, so that's why we passed it, so that a little bag of marijuana would get you five years."
Thank you for telling that truth, Mr. Burch.
But GOP support will be crucial to the passage of the bill. Republicans in the Senate are concerned about people using the drug for recreational purposes. Senator Julie Denton, a Republican on the joint committee, said members of her party who supported a successful bipartisan effort to legalize medicinal cannabis oil still remain opposed to marijuana.
I hope the Republicans refrain from any of that Kentucky bourbon since they oppose recreational marijuana. Wouldn't want them to be blatant hypocrites for choosing a drug that's not as safe as marijuana. Think of the children!
June 19, 2014
The legislative session ends today. Cuomo had issued a set of complaints to legislators regarding provisions in the medical marijuana bill that, he said, would keep him from approving any bill. These include his refusal to acknowledge that marijuana may be smoked or vaporized, rather than ingested, for medical use. Savino (D-Staten Island) amended the bill to exclude smoking for any patient under 21. Cuomo wants to limit the conditions covered by the medical marijuana bill, and wants to remove the provision that the bill would be enacted within a year (he wants more time). In addition, Cuomo wants a 5 year sunset provision to reverse the current legislation.
NY State Medical Community Disputes Cuomo's claim
Patients and healthcare providers are outraged by Governor Cuomo’s attempt to derail the legislation. Providers were particularly disturbed by Cuomo’s claims that the bill had little support from the medical community.
“As a physician and a delegate of the Medical Society of the State of New York, I fully support the Compassionate Care Act,” said Dr. Laura Decker of Kingston. “When Governor Cuomo says that health professionals don’t support the Compassionate Care Act, he isn’t speaking for me or hundreds of other doctors who know that medical marijuana can help alleviate the pain and suffering of some patients. In fact, some of our most respected health organizations, including The New York Academy of Medicine, support the bill. It’s time that the Governor listened to health professionals and patients and get behind the Compassionate Care Act.”
More than 70 organizations support the Compassionate Care Act, including the New York State Nurses Association, the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Statewide Breast Cancer Network, the Hospice & Palliative Care Association of New York, 1 in 9: The Long Island Breast Cancer Action Coalition, GMHC, New York Physicians for Compassionate Care, and many more.
“As Chair of NY Physicians for Compassionate Care, I represent more than 600 New York physicians who want the ability to recommend medical marijuana for their patients,” said Howard Grossman, MD, of New York City. “Physicians understand that medical marijuana can be a very useful tool for some patients and, compared to other medications, has relatively little risk and minimal side effects. The science is clear, and the medical community stands behind the Compassionate Care Act. It’s time for Governor Cuomo and the Senate leadership to stop stalling and pass the Compassionate Care Act. I hope with the clock running out, the Senate and the Governor don’t let the bill die as they did last year and consign patients to another year of needless suffering."
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/health-and-fitness/53742-new-york-legislators-amend-medical-marijuana-bill-to-address-concerns-of-gov-cuomo.html
“As a physician and a delegate of the Medical Society of the State of New York, I fully support the Compassionate Care Act,” said Dr. Laura Decker of Kingston. “When Governor Cuomo says that health professionals don’t support the Compassionate Care Act, he isn’t speaking for me or hundreds of other doctors who know that medical marijuana can help alleviate the pain and suffering of some patients. In fact, some of our most respected health organizations, including The New York Academy of Medicine, support the bill. It’s time that the Governor listened to health professionals and patients and get behind the Compassionate Care Act.”
More than 70 organizations support the Compassionate Care Act, including the New York State Nurses Association, the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Statewide Breast Cancer Network, the Hospice & Palliative Care Association of New York, 1 in 9: The Long Island Breast Cancer Action Coalition, GMHC, New York Physicians for Compassionate Care, and many more.
“As Chair of NY Physicians for Compassionate Care, I represent more than 600 New York physicians who want the ability to recommend medical marijuana for their patients,” said Howard Grossman, MD, of New York City. “Physicians understand that medical marijuana can be a very useful tool for some patients and, compared to other medications, has relatively little risk and minimal side effects. The science is clear, and the medical community stands behind the Compassionate Care Act. It’s time for Governor Cuomo and the Senate leadership to stop stalling and pass the Compassionate Care Act. I hope with the clock running out, the Senate and the Governor don’t let the bill die as they did last year and consign patients to another year of needless suffering."
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/health-and-fitness/53742-new-york-legislators-amend-medical-marijuana-bill-to-address-concerns-of-gov-cuomo.html
The legislative session ends today. Cuomo had issued a set of complaints to legislators regarding provisions in the medical marijuana bill that, he said, would keep him from approving any bill. These include his refusal to acknowledge that marijuana may be smoked or vaporized, rather than ingested, for medical use. Savino (D-Staten Island) amended the bill to exclude smoking for any patient under 21. Cuomo wants to limit the conditions covered by the medical marijuana bill, and wants to remove the provision that the bill would be enacted within a year (he wants more time). In addition, Cuomo wants a 5 year sunset provision to reverse the current legislation.
June 17, 2014
Her name was Lydia Schaeffer.
She died on Mother's Day, most likely from a seizure. Her father found her, dead, in her bed.
You, Michele Leonhart, are responsible for her death.
I am SICK of this shit in this nation. This situation needs to change. NOW. Not until another election cycle. How many more people will die because of political posturing in the U.S.?
Haven't any of you any shame? Any compassion? Why should any parent face the death of a child because the govt. is too embarrassed to admit is has lied to us all for 80 years?
We know you've been lying. Now stop.
In February, Wisc. okayed CBD-only marijuana for children with epilepsy. This was in response to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, FINALLY, as someone in a position to do so, who told the nation and the world that the DEA has lied to all of us about cannabis for the entire 50 years of the Controlled Substances Act, and Gupta demonstrated the medical benefit of cannabis for children with Dravet's syndrome epilepsy by the stories of children.
Parents swarmed hot lines to find out information. People picked up and moved their families to Colorado, rather than wait for their sleazy-ass politicians in their states to pass a law that would allow parents to choose the best medication for their children.
I say, now, to any parent with a child dealing with this - Don't wait for the politicians. Don't wait for the smarmy "think tank" jerks to recognize that children do not deserve to suffer just so they can have a job. Move your child. Start an online petition. Get your children out from under the control of a govt. that does not give a SHIT about them if it means they don't get to keep their drug war gravy train intact. Yes. I am livid.
And you should be too.
Lydia's parents thought the American government could be reasonable and responsible - they didn't understand how deeply the reefer madness has saturated this society - among those who get paid to propagate it.
Since the 1930s, Anslinger's FDN engaged in a propaganda campaign aligned with Treasure Dept. Sec. Andrew Mellon (his uncle) to make sure Harry A. had a cushy job after federal prohibition ended. Anslinger was an outright racist son of a bitch. Scum of the earth. A lying piece of scum. And so is everyone else who repeats the lies of the DEA now. To do so, you participate in 80 years of racist attacks.
Our govt. suppressed evidence that cannabis was useful to people with epileptic seizure disorders. I wonder how many people with epilepsy died over the eighty years that the prohibitionists have lied to the American people?
When the House voted to make "marihuana" illegal in everything but name in 1937, the jackasses in the House didn't even know what they were voting for - they didn't know they were voting to make hemp illegal, nor did they know they were making cannabis medicine illegal. Some did. But one upstanding legislator's famous remark was "What is this ah'm voting fowa?" Jackasses.
The doctor who served to represent the American Medical Asso. was ignored when he noted the doctors of this nation did not want Congress to prohibit a useful part of the pharmacopeia for doctors.
Congress wouldn't listen to them - they had the fat cat asssholes like Melon to appease - whose poor widdle nephew needed a job and wanted to carry a gun and beat up on black people. It's the American way - right, Congress? Isn't that what you've ALL done for this entire 80 years of prohibition? Why yes, yes it is.
Why do people who work for the DEA get away with murder and with lying to the American people for this long? Why, because our government ALLOWS THEM TO DO THIS.
It's TIME TO STOP THE DEA before they can kill any more children in this nation. We would have no problem stopping someone in a shopping mall aiming to harm children. Why should the DEA get a pass as it continues to work to kill children from its offices in D.C.?
It's REPULSIVE and it needs to stop now.
It needs to stop now - but our government officials are too scared to do the right thing. Or if they're not too scared, they're too cynical. Or they're too indebted to the campaign contributors and donors. Who will speak for the children of this nation? NOT CONGRESS. Who will stand for the ill and the disabled in this nation, rather than the defense contractors and bureaucrats who make their living by harming the American people?
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_25974591/despite-law-wisconsin-patients-still-waiting-marijuana-based
Doctors are afraid to go against the DEA. Scott Walker doesn't give a shit about the Wisconsin people - as he has demonstrated over and over again. Think tanky twits are repeating their stanky old lies in newspapers all over this nation. Who will stand up to these bullies?
If our govt. knows a life-saving substance exists, but knows it is being withheld from people for political reasons, shouldn't someone in our govt. stand up and stop this? Isn't this contributing to the death of someone by a refusal to assist in a way that could prevent such deaths?
Who will have the courage to stop this abuse of power?
It's not like the stanky liars are ever going to stop their lies. It's time to take away their mandate to do so.
Hey, DEA, look at the child that you killed.
Her name was Lydia Schaeffer.
She died on Mother's Day, most likely from a seizure. Her father found her, dead, in her bed.
You, Michele Leonhart, are responsible for her death.
I am SICK of this shit in this nation. This situation needs to change. NOW. Not until another election cycle. How many more people will die because of political posturing in the U.S.?
Haven't any of you any shame? Any compassion? Why should any parent face the death of a child because the govt. is too embarrassed to admit is has lied to us all for 80 years?
We know you've been lying. Now stop.
In February, Wisc. okayed CBD-only marijuana for children with epilepsy. This was in response to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, FINALLY, as someone in a position to do so, who told the nation and the world that the DEA has lied to all of us about cannabis for the entire 50 years of the Controlled Substances Act, and Gupta demonstrated the medical benefit of cannabis for children with Dravet's syndrome epilepsy by the stories of children.
Parents swarmed hot lines to find out information. People picked up and moved their families to Colorado, rather than wait for their sleazy-ass politicians in their states to pass a law that would allow parents to choose the best medication for their children.
I say, now, to any parent with a child dealing with this - Don't wait for the politicians. Don't wait for the smarmy "think tank" jerks to recognize that children do not deserve to suffer just so they can have a job. Move your child. Start an online petition. Get your children out from under the control of a govt. that does not give a SHIT about them if it means they don't get to keep their drug war gravy train intact. Yes. I am livid.
And you should be too.
Lydia's parents thought the American government could be reasonable and responsible - they didn't understand how deeply the reefer madness has saturated this society - among those who get paid to propagate it.
Since the 1930s, Anslinger's FDN engaged in a propaganda campaign aligned with Treasure Dept. Sec. Andrew Mellon (his uncle) to make sure Harry A. had a cushy job after federal prohibition ended. Anslinger was an outright racist son of a bitch. Scum of the earth. A lying piece of scum. And so is everyone else who repeats the lies of the DEA now. To do so, you participate in 80 years of racist attacks.
Our govt. suppressed evidence that cannabis was useful to people with epileptic seizure disorders. I wonder how many people with epilepsy died over the eighty years that the prohibitionists have lied to the American people?
When the House voted to make "marihuana" illegal in everything but name in 1937, the jackasses in the House didn't even know what they were voting for - they didn't know they were voting to make hemp illegal, nor did they know they were making cannabis medicine illegal. Some did. But one upstanding legislator's famous remark was "What is this ah'm voting fowa?" Jackasses.
The doctor who served to represent the American Medical Asso. was ignored when he noted the doctors of this nation did not want Congress to prohibit a useful part of the pharmacopeia for doctors.
Congress wouldn't listen to them - they had the fat cat asssholes like Melon to appease - whose poor widdle nephew needed a job and wanted to carry a gun and beat up on black people. It's the American way - right, Congress? Isn't that what you've ALL done for this entire 80 years of prohibition? Why yes, yes it is.
Why do people who work for the DEA get away with murder and with lying to the American people for this long? Why, because our government ALLOWS THEM TO DO THIS.
It's TIME TO STOP THE DEA before they can kill any more children in this nation. We would have no problem stopping someone in a shopping mall aiming to harm children. Why should the DEA get a pass as it continues to work to kill children from its offices in D.C.?
It's REPULSIVE and it needs to stop now.
It needs to stop now - but our government officials are too scared to do the right thing. Or if they're not too scared, they're too cynical. Or they're too indebted to the campaign contributors and donors. Who will speak for the children of this nation? NOT CONGRESS. Who will stand for the ill and the disabled in this nation, rather than the defense contractors and bureaucrats who make their living by harming the American people?
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_25974591/despite-law-wisconsin-patients-still-waiting-marijuana-based
Wisconsin epilepsy patients are still waiting for doctors to give them a marijuana-based anti-seizure drug, two months after Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill allowing the drug's use.
Federal law prohibits the use or possession of cannabidiol, an extract derived from marijuana that's also known as CBD. Parents of children suffering from seizures believe the drug could help alleviate their suffering. Federal officials haven't approved the drug's use, but eight states including Wisconsin have passed legislation allowing doctors to dispense the drugs under certain conditions since January, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The U.S. Department of Justice has said it won't challenge the laws if they're followed.
"This law has been named after my daughter but it's not going to go anywhere," said Lydia's mother, Sally Schaeffer. "We're locked up. (The clinical trial requirement) puts everybody between this rock and a hard place."
Federal law prohibits the use or possession of cannabidiol, an extract derived from marijuana that's also known as CBD. Parents of children suffering from seizures believe the drug could help alleviate their suffering. Federal officials haven't approved the drug's use, but eight states including Wisconsin have passed legislation allowing doctors to dispense the drugs under certain conditions since January, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The U.S. Department of Justice has said it won't challenge the laws if they're followed.
"This law has been named after my daughter but it's not going to go anywhere," said Lydia's mother, Sally Schaeffer. "We're locked up. (The clinical trial requirement) puts everybody between this rock and a hard place."
Doctors are afraid to go against the DEA. Scott Walker doesn't give a shit about the Wisconsin people - as he has demonstrated over and over again. Think tanky twits are repeating their stanky old lies in newspapers all over this nation. Who will stand up to these bullies?
If our govt. knows a life-saving substance exists, but knows it is being withheld from people for political reasons, shouldn't someone in our govt. stand up and stop this? Isn't this contributing to the death of someone by a refusal to assist in a way that could prevent such deaths?
Who will have the courage to stop this abuse of power?
It's not like the stanky liars are ever going to stop their lies. It's time to take away their mandate to do so.
June 16, 2014
TX GOP votes to add Hemp to Platform, nixes mmj
But medical marijuana only lost out when the chairman of the committee broke a tie and voted against including medical marijuana as part of their state political platform.
The times, they are a changin' America. Even the GOP in Texas is getting a whiff of truth about the half century of lies about marijuana - and they can see which way the wind is blowing in regard to the American voter.
This is actually a good sign for liberals and mj reformers - marijuana reform should be far easier for Republicans to accept because there's no actual biblical statement against cannabis - and, in fact, many in favor, since Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in the 1980s, validated linguistic research in 1939 that noted cannabis had been mistranslated as "calamus" in the KJV (and earlier, for that matter).
Yeah, cannabis is in the bible, ye godly - kaneh bosem. Anywhere you see "fragrant cane" mentioned in the bible, or calamus, that's marijuana those priests were using... six pounds of it dissolved in a quart of so of olive oil and the anointment for the Levite priest to speak with god.
uh huh. It seems like it would be heretical to make cannabis illegal if you're a righteous person. Against god's very own command to the Levite priests.
If John Ashcroft had really wanted to follow the bible, he would've been anointed with cannabis oil, not Crisco™
http://blog.norml.org/2014/06/16/texas-gop-adds-hemp-cultivation-to-platform-votes-against-support-for-medical-marijuana/
June 16, 2014
Ahnuld decriminalized mj to try to stop the legalization Proposition in CA in 2010 before he left the gov's office.
So, the problem, for Republicans, is that Americans might choose a medicine that also elevates their mood while dealing with illness.
LOL.
This is the sort of ridiculousness you get after more than a half-century of drug warrior lies.
Vote for amendment 2, Florida!
Rick Scott signs "Charlotte's Web" medical mj bill
In an expected move, Gov. Rick Scott Monday signed legislation legalizing a non-euphoric strain of marijuana widely-known as Charlotte’s Web.
“The approval of Charlotte’s Web will ensure that children in Florida who suffer from seizures and other debilitating illnesses will have the medication needed to improve their quality of life,” Scott said in a news release.
The strain is low in THC, the ingredient that gives traditional marijuana users the “high” feeling associated with the drug. The strain is high in cannbidiol, which has been used to treat things like childhood epilepsy.
The forceful support of a group of conservative lawmakers was seen as both a nod to the changing perception of medical marijuana, and an attempt to stop a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize all medical marijuana.
http://www.politicalfixflorida.com/2014/06/16/charlottes-webb-medical-marijuana-bill-gets-scotts-signature/
“The approval of Charlotte’s Web will ensure that children in Florida who suffer from seizures and other debilitating illnesses will have the medication needed to improve their quality of life,” Scott said in a news release.
The strain is low in THC, the ingredient that gives traditional marijuana users the “high” feeling associated with the drug. The strain is high in cannbidiol, which has been used to treat things like childhood epilepsy.
The forceful support of a group of conservative lawmakers was seen as both a nod to the changing perception of medical marijuana, and an attempt to stop a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize all medical marijuana.
http://www.politicalfixflorida.com/2014/06/16/charlottes-webb-medical-marijuana-bill-gets-scotts-signature/
Ahnuld decriminalized mj to try to stop the legalization Proposition in CA in 2010 before he left the gov's office.
So, the problem, for Republicans, is that Americans might choose a medicine that also elevates their mood while dealing with illness.
LOL.
This is the sort of ridiculousness you get after more than a half-century of drug warrior lies.
Vote for amendment 2, Florida!
June 16, 2014
The writer of the editorial talks about attending a mental health forum sponsored by the newspaper.
YES on Amendment 2
Help register your fellow citizens to vote! It matters!
Florida Veteran: Medical marijuana can help veterans with PTSD
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140616/OPINION03/140619857/-1/images?Title=Chuck-Blessington-Medical-marijuana-can-help-veterans-with-PTSDThe writer of the editorial talks about attending a mental health forum sponsored by the newspaper.
...I was frustrated knowing that Florida ranks 49th in per-capita mental health funding. I also got frustrated knowing that a fellow veteran wanting to get off his narcotic pain medication was denied cannabis by the medical board at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center here.
...The Veterans Affairs department allows patients treated at its facilities to use medical marijuana so long as it's legal in the states where they live. I get upset knowing that Federal officials and veterans groups estimate that nearly 31 percent of Vietnam vets and 20 percent of returning service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are dealing with PTSD.
We need to decriminalize the law in Florida for possession of marijuana now. No one should be arrested and sent to jail or prison for personal use of marijuana. The resources saved to our courts, jails, mental hospitals and prisons need to go to diversion programs, treatment and rehabilitation.
If Amendment 2 is passed in November, millions in taxes could be coming into state coffers. Let's make sure these tax dollars come back to our counties. We need to use more money to education our youth about substance abuse, provide access to our health care system for the mentally ill, provide substance abuse treatment and finally to provide food and shelter for our homeless.
...The Veterans Affairs department allows patients treated at its facilities to use medical marijuana so long as it's legal in the states where they live. I get upset knowing that Federal officials and veterans groups estimate that nearly 31 percent of Vietnam vets and 20 percent of returning service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are dealing with PTSD.
We need to decriminalize the law in Florida for possession of marijuana now. No one should be arrested and sent to jail or prison for personal use of marijuana. The resources saved to our courts, jails, mental hospitals and prisons need to go to diversion programs, treatment and rehabilitation.
If Amendment 2 is passed in November, millions in taxes could be coming into state coffers. Let's make sure these tax dollars come back to our counties. We need to use more money to education our youth about substance abuse, provide access to our health care system for the mentally ill, provide substance abuse treatment and finally to provide food and shelter for our homeless.
YES on Amendment 2
Help register your fellow citizens to vote! It matters!
June 16, 2014
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/gov-cuomo-big-medical-marijuana-bill-blog-entry-1.1831030
It's so sad to see Democrats align with the drug warriors and their lies. Of course, Cuomo has genuine concerns - but they're born out of the same past that treated marijuana as something worse than heroin, when, in fact, it is less dangerous than alcohol.
But the northeast established itself long ago as a alcohol culture, when prohibition was creating a criminal class and demonstrating the utter hypocrisy of U.S. govt. policy concerning the right of Americans to control their own decisions about the things they choose to ingest. When I see this sort of thing, I think the Northeast is stuck in some mid-20th century Democrat past - while the base of the party has moved forward - and it's the west that will lead America to a better future.
NY Gov. Cuomo Exhibits Signs of Latent Reefer Madness
As states across the Western United States (and some in the tippy top of the Northeast) liberalize marijuana laws, states in the South and greater Northeast are still plagued by recurring bouts of reefer madness.
Is it just a coincidence that those states with smaller African American populations are the states that are most quickly responding to the overwhelming evidence that the war on drugs has been a failure, and has, in part, been a war on African Americans?
Arrest stats indicate marijuana laws are targeted toward the African American population across the nation, while usage stats indicate whites are as likely, and sometimes more so, to use marijuana than African Americans. Should Democrats across the Northeast and the South "check their privilege" to see if their support for laws that the American public, at large, overwhelmingly does not want is really an expression of racism in their communities?
A two-part story about Gov. Cuomo's anti-medical marijuana fight with the New York Senate.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/gov-cuomo-won-part-medical-marijuana-system-wreak-havoc-blog-entry-1.1831428
Gov. Cuomo Monday morning doubled down on his aides' comments over the weekend on the concerns he has about the legislative push to legalize medical marijuana.
Appearing on public radio's "The Capitol Pressroom", Cuomo told host Susan Arbetter that he has heard major concerns from his health commissioner and superintendent of state police.
"If we can address those concerns, there will be a bill," Cuomo said. "But I'm not going to be part of a system that's just going to wreak havoc."
He also defended his desire to further restrict which diseases can be covered. He said the bill is expected to cover "serious diseases" and not include loopholes "that you can drive a truck through."
Gov. Cuomo Monday morning doubled down on his aides' comments over the weekend on the concerns he has about the legislative push to legalize medical marijuana.
Appearing on public radio's "The Capitol Pressroom", Cuomo told host Susan Arbetter that he has heard major concerns from his health commissioner and superintendent of state police.
"If we can address those concerns, there will be a bill," Cuomo said. "But I'm not going to be part of a system that's just going to wreak havoc."
He also defended his desire to further restrict which diseases can be covered. He said the bill is expected to cover "serious diseases" and not include loopholes "that you can drive a truck through."
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/gov-cuomo-big-medical-marijuana-bill-blog-entry-1.1831030
Cuomo has also told the Legislature that he wants to classify as a felony the crime of fraudulently seeking or prescribing the drug.
And he would cut down on the 20 chronic illnesses the Legislature wants to be able to treat with marijuana. The governor wants any law to cover patients suffering from cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, MS, HIV/AIDS, diabetics, and spinal cord injuries. It would have to be a neuropathic condition with "true nerve pain", a Cuomo aide said.
Cuomo also wants the Legislature to remove a provision from its bill allowing patients to receive up to 2.5 ounces of pot every 30 days. Instead, like with other drugs, he would allow doctors to prescribe pot in one-month doses that would be decided by the physicians. Cuomo would require doctors, and not physician assistants and nurse practitioners, to prescribe the pot. And he wants doctors to be pre-certified by the state Health Department to ensure they are specialists in the field they are treating with the marijuana, Cuomo officials said.
Cuomo wants to limit the registered organizations to five, with each one required to operate four dispensaries in different parts of the state to ensure there is easy access statewide, one Cuomo aide said.
And he would cut down on the 20 chronic illnesses the Legislature wants to be able to treat with marijuana. The governor wants any law to cover patients suffering from cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, MS, HIV/AIDS, diabetics, and spinal cord injuries. It would have to be a neuropathic condition with "true nerve pain", a Cuomo aide said.
Cuomo also wants the Legislature to remove a provision from its bill allowing patients to receive up to 2.5 ounces of pot every 30 days. Instead, like with other drugs, he would allow doctors to prescribe pot in one-month doses that would be decided by the physicians. Cuomo would require doctors, and not physician assistants and nurse practitioners, to prescribe the pot. And he wants doctors to be pre-certified by the state Health Department to ensure they are specialists in the field they are treating with the marijuana, Cuomo officials said.
Cuomo wants to limit the registered organizations to five, with each one required to operate four dispensaries in different parts of the state to ensure there is easy access statewide, one Cuomo aide said.
It's so sad to see Democrats align with the drug warriors and their lies. Of course, Cuomo has genuine concerns - but they're born out of the same past that treated marijuana as something worse than heroin, when, in fact, it is less dangerous than alcohol.
But the northeast established itself long ago as a alcohol culture, when prohibition was creating a criminal class and demonstrating the utter hypocrisy of U.S. govt. policy concerning the right of Americans to control their own decisions about the things they choose to ingest. When I see this sort of thing, I think the Northeast is stuck in some mid-20th century Democrat past - while the base of the party has moved forward - and it's the west that will lead America to a better future.
June 16, 2014
Nice article for those of you in the Sunshine state - and beyond. The author thinks it's strange, but offers some possible insight.
This proponent of casino gambling wants to oppose "sin" when possible - i.e. non-casino gambling, et al. Harry Reid still vouches for Adelson. Talk about strange. Even stranger when the guy you vouch for aligns with someone whose drug treatment program relies upon torture for "success."
What the drug warriors fear is that showing the least compassion for those with medical illnesses will open the way for Florida to become a haven for marijuana. As if it isn't already! LOL.
Why do these cranky old guys align, so often, with failed public policy - that's what I have to wonder. Why would any Floridian not want to completely legalize marijuana and receive tax revenues from the sale of the same. If anyone thinks people living in Florida, or people in Florida on vacation are not already using marijuana recreationally - well, that just indicates how out-of-touch they are.
Personally, I think anyone who treats marijuana users like prisoners of war should be the ones who are locked up. But I'm not going to try to influence law to make that happen.
Why Is Sheldon Adelson Trying to Defeat Medical Marijuana?
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/why-sheldon-adelson-opposing-medical-marijuanaNice article for those of you in the Sunshine state - and beyond. The author thinks it's strange, but offers some possible insight.
...Stranger still when you realize Adelson's own medical research organization, the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, produced a study in December showing that medical marijuana has the potential to help those suffering from multiple sclerosis.
My take on what's going on with Adelson can be summed up in two words: Mel Sembler.
Sembler, the GOP fundraiser, St. Petersburg anti-drug crusader, ambassador to Italy who couldn't speak a word of Italian -- and, oh, yes, the founder of drug-rehab-program-from-hell STRAIGHT Inc. -- is one of Adelson's oldest friends.
I've written a couple of times about STRAIGHT Inc. and its prisoner-of-war-style torture, unrelenting cover-ups and subsequent suicides. But Sembler has always defended the program, the tactics and the need to deal harshly with teens using -- even suspected of using -- drugs. My guess is, it was Sembler who went to work hustling money out of Adelson to oppose Amendment 2, and Adelson capitulated.
My take on what's going on with Adelson can be summed up in two words: Mel Sembler.
Sembler, the GOP fundraiser, St. Petersburg anti-drug crusader, ambassador to Italy who couldn't speak a word of Italian -- and, oh, yes, the founder of drug-rehab-program-from-hell STRAIGHT Inc. -- is one of Adelson's oldest friends.
I've written a couple of times about STRAIGHT Inc. and its prisoner-of-war-style torture, unrelenting cover-ups and subsequent suicides. But Sembler has always defended the program, the tactics and the need to deal harshly with teens using -- even suspected of using -- drugs. My guess is, it was Sembler who went to work hustling money out of Adelson to oppose Amendment 2, and Adelson capitulated.
This proponent of casino gambling wants to oppose "sin" when possible - i.e. non-casino gambling, et al. Harry Reid still vouches for Adelson. Talk about strange. Even stranger when the guy you vouch for aligns with someone whose drug treatment program relies upon torture for "success."
What the drug warriors fear is that showing the least compassion for those with medical illnesses will open the way for Florida to become a haven for marijuana. As if it isn't already! LOL.
Why do these cranky old guys align, so often, with failed public policy - that's what I have to wonder. Why would any Floridian not want to completely legalize marijuana and receive tax revenues from the sale of the same. If anyone thinks people living in Florida, or people in Florida on vacation are not already using marijuana recreationally - well, that just indicates how out-of-touch they are.
Personally, I think anyone who treats marijuana users like prisoners of war should be the ones who are locked up. But I'm not going to try to influence law to make that happen.
June 16, 2014
Medical Marijuana, the illegal miracle, parts 1 & 2
Not my title, btw. Can't directly link the vids, so here are links
Part 1: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/medical-marijuana-illegal-miracle-part-121722765.html
Part 2: https://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/video/watch/24242100/medical-marijuana-the-illegal-miracle-part-2/
Reports about two families whose members use medical marijuana.
The issue in Australia.
June 15, 2014
When the study came out I, and others here, said... here it comes, the propaganda onslaught, and sure enough, every Billy Bob Jo Junior in law enforcement, and those institutes and agencies who love them some LE, has stepped up to claim as holy gospel a study that in no way indicated causation of anything. This rube, too, claims proof of terrible, horrible, no good very bad outcomes if this nation tries reefer sanity rather than reefer madness. Because of a studied promoted by the very same people that have told the very same lies for years.
EVEN THE EDITOR OF A MAJOR ONLINE SCIENCE PUBLISHER called out the freaking propaganda on that one - he saw it was coming too.
Since the DEA, the FDA, and the NIDA have conspired to exclude marijuana studies from those receiving approval, other nations have had to do the work that America used to be able to proudly proclaim as its own - unbiased scientific research not deformed by drug warrior Inquisitionists. Well, there was that time Reagan did get a scientist to suffocate Bonzo and claim that suffocating an animal demonstrated that marijuana was bad.. but it was the research that was bad... research that wasn't released for peer review until some 6 years later by force of a FOIA and was found to be a fraud. What sort of junk science needs to be hidden from review? The kind drug warriors promote.
And that's the kind of science this guy is promoting.
But there is plenty of evidence that marijuana has medicinal value. Otherwise it wouldn't be approved for use for MS in 10 other nations. This guy could look in this drug policy forum and find link after link to studies that have indicated a therapeutic use for marijuana. In fact, LaGuardia disproved your drug warrior ass lies in the 1940s - and yet you're still at it. What a racket!!!! How much money have these people scammed from the American people with their lying lies? Trillions, we know that. It pays well to lie, obviously, or we wouldn't see it so often from "powerful and important thinkers" like this guy.
With another bedtime for bonzo story for the reefer madness crowd.
But some American doctors have been able to do research on pulmonary aspects of marijuana. Did this policy institute "visonary" bother to read the work of Donald Tashkin? ...the doctor who has done the most research on this topic in the U.S. and has stated marijuana is not causally related to lung cancer - in fact, those who smoke mj have lower rates of lung cancer, even better than those who don't smoke anything? You know, the ones with thousands of patients, not twenty students that you're using to make a claim, Mr. Murray?
(the links are all here in the drug policy forum.)
If this person really gives a shit about the science, why doesn't he acknowledge that studies were published in the 1940s that indicated marijuana was useful for epileptic seizures - and then ask why the federal govt. didn't act on this? They certainly knew about it. The study was found in Anslinger's files. Why, the American people should ask, do people like Mr. Murray and others support harming the American people because they suffer from reefer madness? Shouldn't those with this madness be locked away, and not those who tell the truth about their propaganda?
Here the Rand study guy, from the Rand Institute offshoot, pulls out the REAL reason he wants voters to say no to medical marijuana -
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/12/4174571/medical-marijuana-no-proven-clinical.html#storylink=cpy
Yes. Once again the unemployed are the only people who want or need medical marijuana (if you're getting a sniff of Paul Ryan "making" scrotum sweat about now, yeah.) As McCamy Taylor, a doctor, wrote here earlier, doctors (as well as this guy) are bigots toward people with health problems. If you have major chronic pain - or "chronic pain" as this ass puts it, no medicine for you, sir! No pain relief for you. You should suffer and you should also not be prescribed opiate medication because you're just going to sell it - and, no, I will not put that cart behind the horse and ask if an adequate safety net, adequate health care, adequate people in positions of power might mitigate some of the problems for those with chronic pain.. because it's really just "chronic pain." Or just... they want the chronic, right? Oh, and look, another lie to claim that opiates are not more likely to be abused, because they actually create dependency, while marijuana is as addictive as coffee.
One guy with chronic pain, back in the 1990s, choked on his own vomit because upstanding men like you, Mr. Murray, were saying the same things about men like him... except back then, the period that was at the end of the death sentence for Peter McWilliams was that he was gay and, thus, he deserved it - according to other important and powerful think tanky men like you, Mr. Murray.
Just go ask Bush Sr., who made sure he shut down the federal compassionate investigative care program so that gays wouldn't be asking for marijuana from the government. How repulsive can you get, to be a President that works to increase the suffering of people with cancer - because they're gay? As repulsive as Bush and Reagan... and, frankly, Clinton.
Oh, but those guys with "chronic pain" already have prescriptions for opiates, prescribed by a doctor for "chronic pain?" Well, don't let the reality that cannabis can help mitigate the use of stronger and addictive opiates stop you from defaming entire populations of Americans with actual illness... or "chronic pain" - right, Mr. Murray? Don't let the reality that opiates have been under such scrutiny it is hard to believe doctors are out there writing scripts and tossing them to patients like confetti because, hey, those guys with "chronic pain" aren't working... maybe the chronic pain might have something to do with it, but why ask that question when you can try to smear every woman with breast cancer and every child with epilepsy and every daughter with MS because we all know who reallllly uses medical marijuana, right? Those with "chronic pain."
David Murray was chief scientist at the White House, Office of National Drug Control Policy and is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research. Which White House? I've looked but can't find it. Is he embarrassed to say which administration he worked for?
This "reputable" and "upstanding" "authority" on this subject regurgitates the same old Reagan-era lie that marijuana has no medical value at the end of his editorial. That's an outright lie. Even Gil Kerlikowske had to admit that was a lie.
In 2009, the American Medical Association, the largest physician organization in the U.S., admitted that marijuana has medical value.
So, what's your medical speciality, Mr. Murray?
What do you know that you could share with the American Medical Association, Dr. Donald Tashkin, GW Pharmaceuticals and its leading researcher, Roger Pertwee, 10 other nations with fewer lunatics running the asylum, apparently, Dr. Robert Melamede, Dr. Guzman, with his studies of humans with gliomas, the FDA, which fast tracked a study on cannabis and pediatric epilepsy after Dr. Sanja Gupta shared the reality that you and your friends have lied to the American public all these years and continue to do so here.
Seems like all you know is how to repeat the lies you've been paid to tell for far too long.
This nation is so over people like you. Go away.
The BULLSHITTERS are laying it on thick at the Miami Herald
et tu, Miami Herald? Why in the (bleep) does a major newspaper in a major city post such garbage uncritically? Honestly, should you trust getting your news from a paper that reprints lies that are as old and fossilized as the statues at the Vizcaya?
And who is David Murray, the author of this ditty? A fellow at The Hudson Institute.. supposedly a forward-thinking repository... begun by a man who was considered one of the inspirations for Dr. Strangelove because the founder, Herman Kahn, applied Nash's game theory to nuclear war...and decided it was winnable. OF COURSE someone there is expounding upon the lies of the DEA and pretending they're fact. Of course someone from there thinks the drug war is winnable - if only we arrest enough Americans and build enough private prisons...amirite? high fives all around for the neverending trillion dollars wasted drug war! It's made some people rich or rich enough... like this guy writing this pile of garbage.
But while the voices of residents and legislators are being heard, one crucial group has been left out of a debate — the scientific community that is assessing marijuana’s efficacy as a medical treatment.
What does this community have to say about marijuana being sold at dispensaries before it is proven effective through the FDA’s drug approval process? According to a recent study by Yale Medical School published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in May, there are very real risks associated with treating marijuana as a medical treatment, including structural brain damage, an irreversible lowering of the IQ, respiratory damage and increased risk of psychotic disorders.
What does this community have to say about marijuana being sold at dispensaries before it is proven effective through the FDA’s drug approval process? According to a recent study by Yale Medical School published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in May, there are very real risks associated with treating marijuana as a medical treatment, including structural brain damage, an irreversible lowering of the IQ, respiratory damage and increased risk of psychotic disorders.
When the study came out I, and others here, said... here it comes, the propaganda onslaught, and sure enough, every Billy Bob Jo Junior in law enforcement, and those institutes and agencies who love them some LE, has stepped up to claim as holy gospel a study that in no way indicated causation of anything. This rube, too, claims proof of terrible, horrible, no good very bad outcomes if this nation tries reefer sanity rather than reefer madness. Because of a studied promoted by the very same people that have told the very same lies for years.
EVEN THE EDITOR OF A MAJOR ONLINE SCIENCE PUBLISHER called out the freaking propaganda on that one - he saw it was coming too.
Since the DEA, the FDA, and the NIDA have conspired to exclude marijuana studies from those receiving approval, other nations have had to do the work that America used to be able to proudly proclaim as its own - unbiased scientific research not deformed by drug warrior Inquisitionists. Well, there was that time Reagan did get a scientist to suffocate Bonzo and claim that suffocating an animal demonstrated that marijuana was bad.. but it was the research that was bad... research that wasn't released for peer review until some 6 years later by force of a FOIA and was found to be a fraud. What sort of junk science needs to be hidden from review? The kind drug warriors promote.
And that's the kind of science this guy is promoting.
But there is plenty of evidence that marijuana has medicinal value. Otherwise it wouldn't be approved for use for MS in 10 other nations. This guy could look in this drug policy forum and find link after link to studies that have indicated a therapeutic use for marijuana. In fact, LaGuardia disproved your drug warrior ass lies in the 1940s - and yet you're still at it. What a racket!!!! How much money have these people scammed from the American people with their lying lies? Trillions, we know that. It pays well to lie, obviously, or we wouldn't see it so often from "powerful and important thinkers" like this guy.
With another bedtime for bonzo story for the reefer madness crowd.
But some American doctors have been able to do research on pulmonary aspects of marijuana. Did this policy institute "visonary" bother to read the work of Donald Tashkin? ...the doctor who has done the most research on this topic in the U.S. and has stated marijuana is not causally related to lung cancer - in fact, those who smoke mj have lower rates of lung cancer, even better than those who don't smoke anything? You know, the ones with thousands of patients, not twenty students that you're using to make a claim, Mr. Murray?
(the links are all here in the drug policy forum.)
If this person really gives a shit about the science, why doesn't he acknowledge that studies were published in the 1940s that indicated marijuana was useful for epileptic seizures - and then ask why the federal govt. didn't act on this? They certainly knew about it. The study was found in Anslinger's files. Why, the American people should ask, do people like Mr. Murray and others support harming the American people because they suffer from reefer madness? Shouldn't those with this madness be locked away, and not those who tell the truth about their propaganda?
Here the Rand study guy, from the Rand Institute offshoot, pulls out the REAL reason he wants voters to say no to medical marijuana -
Who actually uses these facilities? Participants in the study found them to be overwhelmingly male (73 percent), substantially unemployed (31 percent), largely reporting “chronic pain” (58 percent) as their medical condition (nearly half of them already having a prescription for opiates), with another 44 percent reporting either a mental or sleep disorder as their reason for needing marijuana.
To date, there is no compelling clinical need for what smoked marijuana purports to do; the medical conditions for which it might be applied are already treated by non-marijuana medicines that have been found safe, effective and without risk of abuse.
To date, there is no compelling clinical need for what smoked marijuana purports to do; the medical conditions for which it might be applied are already treated by non-marijuana medicines that have been found safe, effective and without risk of abuse.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/12/4174571/medical-marijuana-no-proven-clinical.html#storylink=cpy
Yes. Once again the unemployed are the only people who want or need medical marijuana (if you're getting a sniff of Paul Ryan "making" scrotum sweat about now, yeah.) As McCamy Taylor, a doctor, wrote here earlier, doctors (as well as this guy) are bigots toward people with health problems. If you have major chronic pain - or "chronic pain" as this ass puts it, no medicine for you, sir! No pain relief for you. You should suffer and you should also not be prescribed opiate medication because you're just going to sell it - and, no, I will not put that cart behind the horse and ask if an adequate safety net, adequate health care, adequate people in positions of power might mitigate some of the problems for those with chronic pain.. because it's really just "chronic pain." Or just... they want the chronic, right? Oh, and look, another lie to claim that opiates are not more likely to be abused, because they actually create dependency, while marijuana is as addictive as coffee.
One guy with chronic pain, back in the 1990s, choked on his own vomit because upstanding men like you, Mr. Murray, were saying the same things about men like him... except back then, the period that was at the end of the death sentence for Peter McWilliams was that he was gay and, thus, he deserved it - according to other important and powerful think tanky men like you, Mr. Murray.
Just go ask Bush Sr., who made sure he shut down the federal compassionate investigative care program so that gays wouldn't be asking for marijuana from the government. How repulsive can you get, to be a President that works to increase the suffering of people with cancer - because they're gay? As repulsive as Bush and Reagan... and, frankly, Clinton.
Oh, but those guys with "chronic pain" already have prescriptions for opiates, prescribed by a doctor for "chronic pain?" Well, don't let the reality that cannabis can help mitigate the use of stronger and addictive opiates stop you from defaming entire populations of Americans with actual illness... or "chronic pain" - right, Mr. Murray? Don't let the reality that opiates have been under such scrutiny it is hard to believe doctors are out there writing scripts and tossing them to patients like confetti because, hey, those guys with "chronic pain" aren't working... maybe the chronic pain might have something to do with it, but why ask that question when you can try to smear every woman with breast cancer and every child with epilepsy and every daughter with MS because we all know who reallllly uses medical marijuana, right? Those with "chronic pain."
David Murray was chief scientist at the White House, Office of National Drug Control Policy and is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research. Which White House? I've looked but can't find it. Is he embarrassed to say which administration he worked for?
This "reputable" and "upstanding" "authority" on this subject regurgitates the same old Reagan-era lie that marijuana has no medical value at the end of his editorial. That's an outright lie. Even Gil Kerlikowske had to admit that was a lie.
In 2009, the American Medical Association, the largest physician organization in the U.S., admitted that marijuana has medical value.
So, what's your medical speciality, Mr. Murray?
What do you know that you could share with the American Medical Association, Dr. Donald Tashkin, GW Pharmaceuticals and its leading researcher, Roger Pertwee, 10 other nations with fewer lunatics running the asylum, apparently, Dr. Robert Melamede, Dr. Guzman, with his studies of humans with gliomas, the FDA, which fast tracked a study on cannabis and pediatric epilepsy after Dr. Sanja Gupta shared the reality that you and your friends have lied to the American public all these years and continue to do so here.
Seems like all you know is how to repeat the lies you've been paid to tell for far too long.
This nation is so over people like you. Go away.
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