Search Results: lawmaker (549)

Graphic: Darwinek

​Vermont legalized medical marijuana five years ago. But eligible patients who want to use the plant to ease chronic pain and nausea have been forced to either grow their own or resort to the black market, since the state never established a legal outlet to obtain it.

A state lawmaker plans in 2010 to introduce legislation that would solve this problem. The bill would create compassion centers where people on Vermont’s medical marijuana registry can buy their medicine, reports Peter Hirschfeld of the Vermont Press Bureau.
“What is driving me is a sense of compassion and fairness,” said Chris Bray (D-New Haven). “This is a drug we have vetted as a state as being appropriate for people with defined medical conditions and yet we haven’t provided a safe and legal way for them to purchase it.”
Bray said a constituent, one of 189 people registered as medical marijuana patients in Vermont, has suffered because of Vermont’s lack of dispensaries. “He resents the fact, and I think justifiably, that he was pushed into buying medical marijuana from illicit sources, which is expensive and illegal and often not even available to him,” Bray said.

Graphic: Cannabis Culture
The Massachusetts Bar Association — and a huge majority of state residents — favor medical marijuana.

​The Massachusetts Bar Association’s (MBA) House of Delegates voted overwhelmingly last month to support House Bill 2160, a bipartisan medical marijuana bill introduced in the State House earlier this year.

The bill would “regulate the use of marijuana by patients approved by physicians and certified by the department of public health.”
“The MBA supports this legislation because it affirms the rights of patients to be treated with medical marijuana — a drug with proven efficacy — while including important regulations to deter improper use,” said former MBA president David White, who introduced the measure.
“Provisions like state-issued ID cards for patients, state certification of a limited number of dispensaries, and rules governing secure growing sites ensure that only patients who have their doctor’s recommendation can obtain medical marijuana.”

Photo: CMMNJ
MS patient John Ray Wilson, left, and a supporter

​In a move that could be huge for the medical marijuana movement, a New Jersey judge reversed course today, allowing a multiple sclerosis patient on trial for growing 17 marijuana plants to testify about his medical condition, Brian Thompson of NBC New York reports.

Although Judge Robert Reed had earlier ruled defendant John Ray Wilson couldn’t present a defense based on medical necessity, Wilson was allowed to mention his MS after multiple conferences among lawyers and the judge.
“I told them [the arresting officers]I was not a drug dealer and I was using the marijuana for my MS,” Wilson was allowed to tell the jury.
“I think it carried weight, even though it was one sentence,” said Chris Goldstein of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey.
No follow up on Wilson’s MS was allowed.
He faces up to 20 years in prison on the “drug manufacturing” charge.

CMMR

​Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation (CMMR), a coalition of medical marijuana patients, providers and growers supporting responsible regulation of medical marijuana, today released proposed guidelines for regulating medical marijuana dispensaries.
According to CMMR, the guidelines would protect the businesses and their patients, as well as promote public safety.

Photo: www.legis.state.wi.us
Dope of the Day Leah Vukmir: Just take your pharmaceuticals, and forget about that silly marijuana.

​A Republican legislator’s accusation that medical marijuana supporters have a secret agenda of legalizing pot for everyone drew boos from many in a room packed with sick people in wheelchairs or walking with canes, AP reports.

Rep. Leah Vukmir claimed there are no medical reasons to use marijuana and that suffering patients should do things that “do not require individuals to light a joint.”
For her complete lack of empathy for her fellow human beings, along with an obnoxious dose of hubristic arrogance combined with insufferable ignorance, Toke of the Town enthusiastically awards Rep. Vukmir our ignoble Dope Of The Day award.

Iowa Dept. of Public Safety

​Iowa Board of Pharmacy regulators will decide Feb. 17 what they’ll recommend the legislature do about medical marijuana, the board announced today, according to Tony Leys at the Des Moines Register.

The board held a series of medical marijuana hearings around the state this fall.
Cannabis advocates say that Iowa should join the 13 other states which allow patients with serious diseases to use marijuana if recommended by their doctor.
The pharmacy board said it would hold a meeting from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Feb. 17 at the State Historical Building, 600 East Locust Street in Des Moines. A decision will be made at this meeting, according to the board.
If board leaders make a recommendation to legislators on Feb. 17 as planned, the lawmakers will have six weeks to act on the issue before their adjournment March 31.

Photo: Public Domain
Federal government pot farm at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS. Under Washington state’s proposed legalization bill, pot would be grown by state-licensed farmers and sold only through state liquor stores.

​Washington state pot advocates who thought they had to choose between a marijuana decrim bill ($100 fine for under 40 grams) and the status quo (including a mandatory night in jail for possessing any amount) just got another choice. A state lawmaker introduced a bill Monday to legalize marijuana in the state.

Under the bill, introduced by Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle), marijuana would be legal for persons 21 and older to use and possess, subject to regulations similar to those controlling alcohol.

Photo: Coaster420
Medical marijuana: Will Pennsylvania become the Keystoned State? Oh, yeah… Stereotypes bad.

​ The good news, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News, is that Pennsylvania is finally having a discussion about medical marijuana.

The bad news? “In our socially conservative state this is likely as far as the debate will go on the issue,” the editorial says.
Pennsylvania’s House Health and Human Services Committee last week heard from patients, doctors, and medical marijuana advocates who said the state should legalize the herb for those suffering debilitating medical conditions.

Photo: Coaster420, Wikimedia Commons
Wisconsin medical marijuana users are closer than they’ve ever been to that first legal bowl.

​​Lawmakers and marijuana advocacy groups are pushing for Wisconsin to join the 13 other states where medical marijuana is legal. Bills to do so were introduced last week in the Senate and Assembly.

“The time for Wisconsin to become the 15th state to allow patients to use pot to make their lives a bit more comfortable is long past due,” Dave Zweifel, editor emeritus of The Capital Times, editorializes.

Gary Storck of Madison, a prominent leader in the movement to legalize medical marijuana and co-founder (along with Jacki Rickert) of Is My Medicine Legal Yet?, told the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune he vaporizes pot to treat glaucoma and a heart condition. Storck said there is a groundswell of public support and Democrats, who control the Legislature, have been friendlier to past efforts to legalize the herb.
Storck has been pushing for decades to get the Wisconsin Legislature to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, according to the Capital Times. “We’re not criminals; we’re just trying to get on with our lives,” Storck said.
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