Making the Case for Medical Marijuana

[patric]

I guess our AG has to sue another neighboring state.



Texas House panel approves full legalization of marijuana

AUSTIN — In a surprise move that supporters hailed as a historic victory, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee approved legislation Wednesday that would make it legal to buy and sell marijuana in the state.
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Texas-House-committee-approves-full-legalization-6247225.php

[Hoss]

I guess our AG has to sue another neighboring state.



Texas House panel approves full legalization of marijuana

AUSTIN — In a surprise move that supporters hailed as a historic victory, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee approved legislation Wednesday that would make it legal to buy and sell marijuana in the state.
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Texas-House-committee-approves-full-legalization-6247225.php

Don't think it's going anywhere very soon...but it is a little surprising...

[patric]

Don't think it's going anywhere very soon...but it is a little surprising...

Bolder leadership than Gov. Mary Fallins "we'll think about considering the possibility of studying the idea of having the narcotics squad monitor any future talks about  experiments on a hypothetical select group of undefined medical patients, maybe," but since OBNDD is shifting more towards the sex trafficking business, maybe the writing is on the wall.   

[patric]

One of the biggest worries about legalized medical marijuana was that teenagers would smoke more pot, but it turns out those fears were wrong. A study just published in The Lancet Psychiatry showed no significant difference in adolescent marijuana use in the 21 states with medical marijuana laws.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/debraborchardt/2015/06/15/legalized-medical-marijuana-doesnt-increase-teen-usage/



So the sky is not falling.  OTOH, we could just keep the status quo.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln--police-pot-shop-raid-edibles-20150612-story.html

[patric]

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell signed a bill Thursday that decriminalized marijuana use, and a host of ballot measures and legislative initiatives could push other states closer to decriminalization or legalization before the year is over.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-delaware-decriminalizes-marijuana-20150619-story.html

[patric]

Oklahomans who support medical marijuana gearing up for another petition drive
http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/oklahomans-who-support-medical-marijuana-gearing-a/nmtmh/

The drive to amend the Oklahoma Constitution to allow medical marijuana failed last year, but organizers say they learned a lot, and they're ready to take another shot at it.

While the actual petition drive won't begin until some time in August, the effort to register voters so they can sign the petition has already begun, and if it goes anything like it did last year, voter roles in Oklahoma will increase significantly.

"Last year during the petition, we broke all the records for how many people were registered during our petition," Isaac Caviness of Green the Vote told KRMG. "We registered 40,000 people to vote last year."

He added that while gathering signatures, he noticed a lot of support from combat veterans, and one day, he stopped one of them to ask why.
"He said we volunteer to go fight for your freedom so you can be here doing what you're doing fighting for ours. I'm tired of seeing my brothers commit suicide when they come home."

Many medical marijuana advocates say the drug is highly effective for people with PTSD.

A SoonerPoll conducted in 2013 indicated that 71% of Oklahomans favor medical marijuana.
The same poll indicated 57% support for the decriminalization of marijuana used for recreational purposes.

[sauerkraut]

http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/marijuana/the-harmful-effects.html   >>> Turns out one joint is like smoking 5 cigs, if M.J. did not alter the brain and get you high no one would use it, the only reason for M.J. is to get high. We have enough problems with alcohol and illegal drug use without adding many more people on our streets  with fried brains from legal M.J. use.  Some guy high on M.J. thought he could fly so he jumped off a building, he couldn't fly. Splat!

[Hoss]

http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/marijuana/the-harmful-effects.html   >>> Turns out one joint is like smoking 5 cigs, if M.J. did not alter the brain and get you high no one would use it, the only reason for M.J. is to get high. We have enough problems with alcohol and illegal drug use without adding many more people on our streets  with fried brains from legal M.J. use.  Some guy high on M.J. thought he could fly so he jumped off a building, he couldn't fly. Splat!

On the stinky cabbage's Netflix list:



Oh wait, he'd actually have to have a TV newer than 10 years old.  My bad.

What an ultramaroon.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Yes, everyone who smokes pot becomes this according to Uncle Kimchi......

[Hoss]

Yes, everyone who smokes pot becomes this according to Uncle Kimchi......

My thought has always been it's a naturally grown (well, some coaxing is involved) substance, much like tobacco.  You could argue that cocaine is, but it has to go through a lot of processing before it gets to the state in which you can snort it as a powder.  Apples and oranges.

Legalize it and tax the smile out of it.  But instead, the Oklahoma AG has seen fit, instead of watching what is going on in Colorado to see the outcome, to sue Colorado for whatever reason.

Pruitt isn't much better than Smoot.

[Vashta Nerada]

My thought has always been it's a naturally grown (well, some coaxing is involved) substance, much like tobacco.  You could argue that cocaine is, but it has to go through a lot of processing before it gets to the state in which you can snort it as a powder.  Apples and oranges.

Legalize it and tax the smile out of it.  But instead, the Oklahoma AG has seen fit, instead of watching what is going on in Colorado to see the outcome, to sue Colorado for whatever reason.

Pruitt isn't much better than Smoot.

Texas Officials Really, Really Want You To Know Sandra Bland Had Marijuana In Her System
But that really, really shouldn't matter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/texas-officials-really-really-want-you-to-know-sandra-bland-had-marijuana-in-her-system_55b14a0ce4b08f57d5d41d47

[heironymouspasparagus]

http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/marijuana/the-harmful-effects.html   >>> Turns out one joint is like smoking 5 cigs, if M.J. did not alter the brain and get you high no one would use it, the only reason for M.J. is to get high. We have enough problems with alcohol and illegal drug use without adding many more people on our streets  with fried brains from legal M.J. use.  Some guy high on M.J. thought he could fly so he jumped off a building, he couldn't fly. Splat!

Never in the history of the planet - all 4.5 billion years - has anyone smoking grass jumped off a building thinking they could fly. 

You are confusing a Mafia hit with the munchies!

[Vashta Nerada]

Texas Officials Really, Really Want You To Know Sandra Bland Had Marijuana In Her System
But that really, really shouldn't matter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/texas-officials-really-really-want-you-to-know-sandra-bland-had-marijuana-in-her-system_55b14a0ce4b08f57d5d41d47

....but not so much on who smuggled it into their jail.






At a news conference discussing the preliminary findings of an autopsy following Bland's alleged suicide at the Waller County Jail in Texas last week, officials placed heavy emphasis on marijuana reported to be found in the young woman's system.

Why this emphasis? What does this have to do with widespread demands for accountability around the circumstances of her death? Are we expected to believe the not so subtle insinuation that marijuana use played a part?

How is this still happening? Take a sample of random people in any walk of life in this country at any given moment in time, and you are likely to find marijuana in the system of many of them.

Marijuana has gone mainstream. The majority of Americans want legalization. Four states and the District of Columbia have legal recreational marijuana for adults, and analysts are predicting as much as $11 billion in legal marijuana sales in the next five years. Retirees are skipping Boca for more cannabis-friendly locales to blaze through their golden years.

So, I am sorry, are we really having to hear lurid and cryptic suggestions about how Sandra Bland might have been a marijuana user? Is it not obvious that this is completely irrelevant and a distraction?

Neuroscientist and Columbia University professor, Carl Hart, expertly pointed out the "reefer madness" fallacy of using marijuana found in the toxicology reports for Trayvon Martin to justify his murder two years ago in the New York Times. The science is still the same. Only the name being smeared has changed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharda-sekaran/sandra-bland-marijuana-smear-is-another-cheap-trick-of-racist-drug-war_b_7866454.html

[Vashta Nerada]

D.A.R.E. Published an Op-ed Calling for Marijuana Legalization
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/07/dare-calls-for-marijuana-legalization.html

They were high.

[patric]

Oklahoma City Republican Senator James Lankford wants to take away federal funds from tribes that exercise their right to grow marijuana.

"The Native American community experiences the highest drug induced death rate in the country," obviously referring to the rampant deaths of Indians from smoking marijuana.

http://newsok.com/lankford-aims-to-link-pot-tribes-funds/article/5438717

S.1948, the "Keeping out Illegal Drugs Act" of 2015 (KIDS), bars tribes that cultivate, manufacture or distribute marijuana from receiving federal funds.

Nothing says "Im here to help you" like a big dose of poverty.