Reschedule Cannabis

Well, after long discussion, some tears, and some laughs - my wife and I have decided to move to California for medical marijuana and will use this site to tell the story both in text and pictures.

This decision will take some sacrifice, and we will leave behind family and friends - but in the end it will be worth it as my daily life, peace of mind, and happiness will be that much greater in a state where I can use medical marijuana safely, without having to turn to the black market. If that means moving to another state, then so be it.

My plan is to sell our home, move to California, get medical marijuana cards, grow pot legally within state law, and possibly even become a caregiver for patients. Although the latter may demand more than I can perform, I still would like to help patients in some way or another.

So anyway, I barely slept on this decision, and it is a big choice to make, but I feel it is right and will be the best thing for my family. I am going to move to California, get my medical marijuana patient card, and I will tell the story on this site. Not only for myself, but to show others it is in fact possible to move from a place where pot is minimum mandatory sentencing to a place where marijuana was decriminalized in 1976, and it is true that in California, you can grow, smoke, and process your own cannabis legally for medical purposes.

Check back for more as we prepare and get the plans together for what we need to do to make this a reality.

Many people across America are not aware how medical marijuana is accepted and viewed in California.

Most researchers agree that the value of the U.S. marijuana crop has increased sharply since the mid-nineties, as California and twelve other states have passed medical-marijuana laws. A drug-policy analyst named Jon Gettman recently estimated that in 2006 Californians grew more than twenty million pot plants. He reckoned that between 1981 and 2006 domestic marijuana production increased tenfold, making pot the leading cash crop in America, displacing corn. A 2005 State Department report put the country’s marijuana crop at twenty-two million pounds. The street value of California’s crop alone may be as high as fourteen billion dollars.

Californians love their pot, and grow it generously throughout the state. To prove how popular this plant is to grow, it has displaced corn as America’s leading cash crop.

According to Americans for Safe Access, which lobbies for medical marijuana, there are now more than two hundred thousand physician-sanctioned pot users in California. They acquire their medication from hundreds of dispensaries, collectives that are kept alive by the financial contributions of their patients, who pay cash for each quarter or eighth of an ounce of pot. The dispensaries also buy marijuana from their members, and sometimes directly from growers, whose crops can also be considered legal, depending on the size of the crop, the town where the plants are grown, and the disposition of the judge who hears the case.

I am a member of Safe Access and support these types of patient/grower relationships. Any American who needs or uses medical marijuana should have safe access to it.

California’s encouragement of a licit market for pot has set off a low-level civil war with the federal government. Growing, selling, and smoking marijuana remain strictly illegal under federal law. The Drug Enforcement Administration, which maintains that marijuana poses a danger to users on a par with heroin and PCP, has kept up an energetic presence in the state, busting pot growers and dispensary owners with the cooperation of some local police departments.

In the past five years, an unwritten set of rules has emerged to govern Californians participating in the medical-marijuana trade. Federal authorities do not generally bother arresting patients or doctors who write prescriptions. Instead, the D.E.A. pressures landlords to evict dispensaries and stages periodic raids on them, either shutting them down or seizing their money and marijuana. Dispensary owners are rarely arrested, and patient records are usually left alone. Through trial and error, dispensary owners have learned how to avoid trouble: Don’t advertise in newspapers, on billboards, or on flyers distributed door to door. Don’t sell to minors or cops. Don’t open more than two stores. Any Californian who is reasonably prudent can live a life centered on the cultivation, sale, and consumption of marijuana with little fear of being fined or going to jail.

Just the way Thomas Jefferson (hemp farmer) intended our land to be. Have the congress and police forgotten these famous words… “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If there was ever a topic that deserved the passion of those seeking life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness being oppressed by the tyrants, it is now.

The most famous line of our Constitution should be the main charge or motive behind The Stand we take against those that stand in our way.

More and more politicians, whether it be Senators or Representatives, are changing their mind after meeting with patients who live with daily pain. Many politicians are caught up in the “drug war” mind-frame and have never sat down with patients and really examined the issue from a compassion point of view. As time moves on though, we see compassion and understanding regarding medical marijuana and those who need it daily.

Rep. Jerry McNerney is now willing to vote for an amendment he’d opposed last year that would bar the federal government from spending money to arrest or prosecute medical-marijuana patients in the states — including California — where medical marijuana is legal.

“In the past year, the congressman has met several patients with debilitating illnesses that use doctor-prescribed medical marijuana,” McNerney spokesman Andy Stone said Friday. “Hearing their stories, he feels that he cannot in good conscience deny doctor-prescribed treatment to a person that experiences excruciating pain on a daily basis.”

Asked whether this means McNerney, D-Pleasanton, will vote for the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment when it’s brought forward again in the next few weeks, Stone replied, “That’s a fair assumption.”

This is a sign of compassion and we applaud McNerney for taking this stance on this highly controversial topic. Once you get past the propaganda and cops vs drug dealers rhetoric, you will find medical cannabis is a very simple and easily discussed topic, that clearly has pros and cons - but when someone’s daily pain is in question, you have to be willing to look past your own prejudices and consider others. Again, a round of applause for Rep. Jerry McNerney.

“The support for medical marijuana and for the idea that states ought to be able to make these decisions for themselves … has grown every year” since 2004, Bernath said Friday. “So it’s very encouraging that Congressman McNerney has decided to support patients in his area, but I wouldn’t say it’s surprising.”

Public support as well as congress support seems to be growing and we hope it continues. Many people think the Civil War was fought over slavery, but it was actually “state rights” and there are Republicans as well as Democrats and Libertarians who regard state rights as Holy. This debate regarding state rights strikes at the heart of how laws are formed in this country. States have the right to make their own laws, despite Federal Law - it has been that way for a very long time.

A series of judicial defeats — including the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling in a case brought by Oakland activist Angel Raich — has had medical-marijuana advocates pinning most of their hopes on Congress. The bipartisan amendment to the Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations bill has been introduced in each year since 2003, and takes its name from sponsors Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. The amendment was defeated in 2007 on a 165-262 vote; it got 163 votes in 2006, 161 votes in 2005, 148 in 2004 and 152 in 2003.

Half of the House’s freshmen Democrats, including McNerney, opposed it last year. But with polls showing Democratic strength in this November’s House elections, it’s possible some now feel they have a bit more cover if they choose to displease a few conservative constituents this year.

Encourage and support those who vote for this.

McNerney last year had issued a statement saying his vote against the amendment was based on his conversations with law enforcement officials about the effect of drug use on his district’s communities, particularly in San Joaquin County. “We are facing a drug crisis with meth and other drug use on the rise. Until we get a handle on the crippling drug use in our society, I cannot support the relaxation of current drug policy,” he said at that time.

Glad to see McNerney has changed his position and has willfully came over to the compassion side of this debate instead of remaining on the side of the irrational. Medical marijuana is gaining support in the government and in the public.

Keep the topic on the minds of our leaders, and never stop pushing for legal and safe access to cannabis in America.

California voters have mandated public approval and citizen support for medical marijuana, and city officials are bound by state laws. The state of California has approved medical marijuana and it is required now for counties and cities to set up dispensary regulations and allow local patients safe access to doctor-approved medical cannabis.

Fresno County Supervisors tackled the controversial topic of medical marijuana this week.

On Tuesday, supervisors voted that medical marijuana patients will have to go elsewhere for i.d. cards.

The issues caused a major debate amongst the supervisors, “I’m not gonna vote for it until I get the appellate court, I’m gonna say that right up front. Until I have the information that clarifies it, I’m not gonna support it,” said Fresno County Supervisor Judith Case.

“Right now the law says that we’re supposed to do this, I mean it mandates that we do this,” countered Supervisor Susan Anderson.

In 1996 California voters passed Proposition 215, requiring counties to issue the medical marijuana cards to legitimate patients.

Since then, 40 of the 58 state counties have started the i.d. Program, including Merced, Tulare and Kern Counties. Fresno County though, has yet to get on board.

Dr. Terry Brown, a local doctor who attended the meeting and supports the use of medical marijuana, says the i.d. cards would make it easier for local law-enforcement to identify legitimate users.

“I’m incredibly anti-drug, I’m boarded in preventive medicine. It’s time as a society that we really look into marijuana more effectively and I think that’s gonna happen because the numbers of patients are becoming overwhelming.”

Fresno Counties’ Board of Supervisors is not the first set of lawmakers to take issue with the i.d. program; two years ago San Diego Supervisors sued to overturn Prop. 215. A superior court judge later ruled against that lawsuit.

First off, yes - these people are bound by law and the voters to supply medical marijuana cards to those patients who qualify. Demanding sick people to “go elsewhere” is wrong. Imagine telling cancer patients who can barely make it to the department of health or the doctors office, that they need to “go to another city” because local officials do not want to provide adequate and safe access for patients to get medical marijuana through an ID card system that protects both law enforcement and the patients?

The medical marijuana cards help officers know who is legally using cannabis and those who are distributing and selling it illegally. By denying this card system to be in place is no different than side-stepping state law, and continuing to fuel the fire under the black market marijuana on the streets of our cities. It is mandated this program be set forward, the longer these city official postpone the effort more patients will suffer.

What a shame that in a state like California patients are still having to fight for something as simple as the card system when it was approved so long ago and is working in so many counties already across California.

At least doctors are acknowledging the amount of patients coming forward, because the numbers of medical marijuana patients is growing. If we do not come out of the shadows now, when will we? Do your part, speak the truth and help others understand the importance of medical marijuana. Patient numbers are growing and more and more law enforcement agencies are siding with the patients - the time is now.

There is a big misunderstanding among the general public regarding medical marijuana, although most American support the idea of medical marijuana - there is always room for improvement in public relations regarding understanding medical marijuana.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Like other universities, Oaksterdam offers wide-eyed students an enlightening classroom experience to spark their curiosity.

In this case, though, they learn how to greet DEA agents after a residence is forcibly entered and how to make the perfect pot brownie for a homework assignment.

And the diploma confers the status of certified “budtender.”

Marijuana devotees pack classes at a unique trade school that teaches how to grow and process marijuana, use the drug in baked goods and manage medical-marijuana dispensaries.

Ilia Gvozdenovic, chancellor of the school, describes the non-accredited institution as a much-needed source of knowledge about marijuana in an age of misunderstanding.

“It’s kind of like the wild West,” said Gvozdenovic, alluding to the conflict and confusion surrounding the California law allowing the sale of medical marijuana, and the refusal of the federal government to acknowledge it.

“To me, the issue is we need better training for folks.”

The school, founded in November, already boasts about 500 graduates. It stands in a part of downtown Oakland nicknamed “Oaksterdam,” where pot clubs and cafes line the streets as in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where smoking marijuana and hashish is tolerated.

Just teaching people how to grow and use marijuana isn’t enough to draw the wrath of the federal government, said Sarah Pullen, a Los Angeles spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“If they’re not distributing, selling or cultivating marijuana, I would imagine they’re not violating any federal laws,” she said.

There should also be more info out there regarding the use of vaporizers instead of “smoke” related methods of consuming medical cannabis.

The bottom line is Americans believe doctor’s should be able to prescribe medical marijuana to patients and we should all help do our part in helping the general public understand medical marijuana and why it not only should be allowed, but supported.

Would it be right to take a diabetic person and take away their medicine and lock them up?

Is it humane to take away a person’s medicine and lock them up in jail while they are suffering pain?

Louisiana needs to stop using terror tactics against patients and stop causing pain and suffering upon medical marijuana users. Louisiana law was enacted in the 70’s for marijuana patients and it’s use, but politicians have tried to bury that fact.

THIBODAUX — There was never any intent to break the law, Matthew Zugsberger says.

Louisiana does not make the same allowances for medical marijuana use as his home state of California. But the former oilfield diver was certain his privilege of possession would be honored here.

That was until Friday, when a team of state troopers, aided by Thibodaux police, raided his St. Bernard Road apartment, allegedly seizing a little over two pounds of marijuana, some hashish oil and $4,640 in cash.

Now the 32-year-old faces multiple drug charges.

He expresses no hard feelings toward law enforcement and harbors hopes that his case will, in the long run, make life easier for people like himself.

“They didn’t mistreat me at all. In fact they were very nice,” he said of the officers. “I don’t want to fight the system. I want to help refine it.”

It all began Wednesday when Troop C officers were contacted by authorities in Mendocino, Calif., who said a “large amount of marijuana” was en route to the bayou state via a private delivery service to 2316 St. Bernard Road, Apt. E.

The package, said Troop C spokesman Gilbert Dardar, was addressed to Zugsberger and “contained three large bags of marijuana.”

Troopers agreed to take delivery of the marijuana in an attempt to further the investigation, Dardar said. The shipment was intercepted and a search of Zugsberger’s apartment commenced Friday.

Zugsberger, Dardar said, admitted to officers that he paid $6,000 per pound for the marijuana, which “appeared to be very high quality with a much higher THC content.”

THC is the active ingredient in marijuana that causes intoxication.

According to Zugsberger, the high price is one indication of his argument that he is not involved in distribution.

There would be no way, he said, to make a profit selling marijuana after paying that much for it.

At $375 an ounce, he was not reselling. Streeet price for black market marijuana is under $100 an ounce, no way he could resell that stuff for that amount and make his money back. He was buying medicine that is NOT available to him where he is, and paying high cost for it!

This is exactly why cannabis needs to be allowed for medical so regulation can occur. This man should have safe access to his medicine, not have to turn to a black market and by default commit “criminal acts” by simply trying to locate his medicine.

The need for the drug, Zugsberger said, arose after a 2005 work mishap. Debris fell on him during a dive, he said, collapsing his spine.

Prescriptions for traditional painkillers didn’t do the trick, he said, because of medical complications with his stomach.

Zugsberger has a California license allowing him to posses up to 8 ounces of medicinal cannabis at any time.

The apartment where police made the seizure is leased to his wife, Teryn Richardson, an educator taking part in a New York internship. The plan was for Zugsberger to live in the Thibodaux apartment as a housesitter.

Richardson, who flew home from New York after learning of Zugsberger’s arrest, has a less charitable view of the police action.

She complains of damaged paintings, clothes strewn on the floor and money seized in the raid that belongs to her and has nothing to do with the case.

“They made it look criminal,” Richardson said.

Zugsberger said he and Richardson are suffering dire consequences. He points to a near-empty refrigerator, explaining that they cannot buy food without money.

Normally, in his work as a freelance rock hound and gold-panner in California, he is able to afford whatever he wants, including the marijuana that eases his pain enough to allow the work.

The biggest consequence of the seizure, Zugsberger said, is the pain that continues unabated.

And he cannot leave Louisiana before his July 18 court date.

“I just have to suffer because I can’t go home for treatment,” he said.

He will have to suffer pain until this is settled. Imagine if cops would take cancer patients and stick them in a cell and not allow them medicine? Whether your opinion of medical cannabis, this is inhumane treatment of people who are just looking to relieve pain and suffering of their own body.

And never forget, Louisiana has medical laws on the books, the judges and politicians may want them removed but they are there…

Louisiana law permits some limited use of marijuana if prescribed by a doctor in the state, including treatments for glaucoma and side effects of cancer therapy.

Zugsberger glibly spouts section numbers of various laws here and in California, certain that his situation falls into a loophole somewhere.

He hopes — whether through a trial or pre-trial discussions — to convince a judge to change Louisiana’s stance on medical marijuana.

Asked if he sees himself as a crusader, Zugsberger said no.

“But given the circumstances laid at my feet with this, I will not back down,” Zugsberger said. “I’ll take this to the Supreme Court.”

The state police have put out memos today claiming: “Troopers would like to remind the public that Louisiana does not have a medical marijuana law and that possession of any amount of marijuana is punishable by at least six months in jail and a fine of up to $500.00 for the first misdemeanor offense. ”

This is simply not true, the medical marijuana bill was voted on in 1991, and marijuana taxation laws were enacted in the 70s in Louisiana. People need to wake up and accept the fact that law enforcement only wished to distort the facts regarding medical cannabis, so they can continue to unleash their brutal and tyrannical metyhods of controlling a “drug” that millions use everyday, and Louisiana has already voted for it’s medicinal use. This is ridiculous and proof that society is no longer advancing in regards to scientific fact in light of the state trooper’s propaganda.

here is a quote regarding medical cannabis in Louisiana and despite the state troopers blatant public lies, Louisiana does in fact have laws regarding medical marijuana and it’s use.

As for medical marijuana, Gov. Kathleen Blanco is the latest in a long line of chief executives with a sympathetic ear for the issue. In 1978, former Gov. Edwin Edwards signed a bill allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to those suffering from paralysis, glaucoma and cancer. The legislation also established the now-defunct Marijuana Prescription Review Board.

Former Gov. Dave Treen signed into law a similar medical marijuana bill in 1981, as did former Gov. Buddy Roemer 10 years later. While Gov. Mike Foster never saw a prescription marijuana bill land on his desk, he did vote in favor of one as a state senator.

I suggest the state troopers look up these laws and stop telling lies to the public. If the above is correct (it is) that means more than two medical marijuana related laws exist… did them up, ask some questions…

Ask questions like, why was the marijuana taxation board dismantled and never saw the light of day? Plans were in motion for medical marijuana in Louisiana decades, ago, why did it stop? Could it possibly be the big wheels of the alcohol industry that OWNS Louisiana? You can buy beer at the Zoo and Louisiana has DRIVE-THROUGH alcohol serving daquiri shops, but medical cannabis is evil?

“I think there’s a better chance that there will be a stiffening of penalties by the Legislature more than anything else because people want to be tough on crime during an election year, and that’s a shame,” he says. “As long as people want to keep paying for [the imprisonment of lawbreakers], I’m sure (Corrections Secretary) Richard Stalder will keep locking them up.”

The cops just want money for jails and guns… patients need to stand together and focus on this fight. We can win. We have a right to safe access to medical marijuana… even in good ole Louisiana.

Rep. Danny Martiny, chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee, says it probably won’t come to that, though, unless a rogue lawmaker, liberal judge or district attorney not seeking re-election takes up the charge. He also says he would oppose any move to soften Louisiana’s marijuana laws because that’s what his constituency would want. It’s a defense Martiny says other lawmakers also could easily make.

“I don’t think there are any districts in the state with a real liberal majority that would even allow this to become an issue if their legislator brought it up,” Martiny says. “The political leanings of the state are more to the right, and for the first time in the history of the Legislature, there’s a decent chance Republicans can take over the House, and I can assure you nothing like that would pass if it happens.”

So cancer patients and people who could benefit from medical marijuana will be denied that access because of politicians and the good ole boy mindframe. The citizens of New orleans and Louisiana should be ashamed. In New Orleans you can drink yourself to death (students and deaths from alcohol happen every year in Louisiana) and Bourbon street is known for it’s public nakedness - cops look the other way and don’t arrest naked people in the street - but oh no “marijuana” is such a bad thing. Open your eyes…

States have authorized and enforced laws that did not match federal laws, as is and should be the case with medical marijuana. If a state chooses to allow medicinal cannabis use, then it is law.

Federal law classifies marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical use. San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod has said the law created conflicts and ethical issues, especially with his officers who are cross-deputized to uphold federal law.

“There is a big difference between decriminalizing marijuana and authorizing its use … in violation of federal law,” argued San Diego County senior Deputy Counsel Thomas D. Bunton.

“Congress has declared that marijuana has no medical use, so using marijuana under these circumstances is drug abuse.”

But states have long practiced authorizing and enforcing laws that do not match federal law, argued ACLU/NORML attorney Adam B. Wolf.

“The counties’ position would imply the invalidity of hundreds, if not thousands, of state statutes,” Wolf told the judges. Wolf quoted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s comment that there has been countless times where states have not criminalized issues the same way as the federal government.

“It’s a bedrock principle of federalism” for states to be allowed to determine issues such as how to regulate marijuana, Wolf said

Doctors have declared marijuana’s medicinal use, congress has no place dictating what is and what is not “medicine” I think that is more suited for doctors and patients to decide, thank you very much.

This is going on because a few counties in California are debating certain aspects of the medical marijuana program, read more below…

San Bernardino and San Diego counties argued in court Tuesday that California’s medical marijuana plan violates federal law and the state constitution, while opposing attorneys argued the state is within its rights to regulate the substance.

The exchanges came in a crowded courtroom before a three-judge panel of the state 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego.

The jurists took the matter under submission and have 90 days to make their ruling. Their decision can be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Defending the state’s marijuana laws was a lawyer from the California attorney general’s office, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and a lawyer representing patients who use marijuana.

California voters in 1996 legalized the use of marijuana to treat symptoms of illnesses such as cancer and glaucoma, and chronic pain. Prop. 215 was passed by 56 percent of voters.

The two counties are not trying to overturn that initiative.

But they argue that subsequent legislation, the Medical Marijuana Program, which created a system for counties to investigate applicants, issue user cards and keep those on file, puts the counties in direct conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act.

San Bernardino County has not issued any user cards as officials await the outcome of the lawsuit. Since January 2006, Riverside County has issued 1,000 cards to patients and their caregivers. That number includes renewals, which must be done annually.

Bottom line is this: the people voted, proposition 215 was approved - and state laws have contradicted federal laws for a long time. Medical marijuana should not be stopped because of this, states have the right to make their own laws, as it states above - this is a bedrock principle of federalism.

Congressional Leader Conyers asks DEA why are they targeting medical marijuana?

A congressional leader, citing complaints from Bay Area mayors and lawmakers, wants the Drug Enforcement Administration to explain its increased use of “paramilitary-style enforcement raids” and property forfeiture orders against medical marijuana patients and suppliers in California.

With drug trafficking and violence from international cartels on the rise, “do you think the DEA’s limited resources are best utilized conducting enforcement raids on individuals and their caregivers who are conducting themselves legally under California law?” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a letter to the agency.

He also noted the DEA’s recent tactic of sending letters to hundreds of property owners who rent to medical marijuana dispensaries, advising them that they could be prosecuted and lose their property under federal law.

Property forfeitures, Conyers said, have typically been reserved for “the worst drug traffickers and kingpins” and might have the unintended effect of driving medical marijuana distribution underground. Medical marijuana advocacy groups say the letters have led to evictions and closures of dozens of supply shops that had been operating with state and local approval.

The congressman also asked how much the DEA was spending on the raids.

The letter, dated April 29, was addressed to the DEA’s acting administrator, Michele Leonhart. Agency spokeswoman Rogene Waite declined to comment on the questions Wednesday, saying only that “the federal government does not recognize medical marijuana. … The DEA, of course, would be part of the federal government.”

Conyers attached a copy of a resolution approved by San Francisco supervisors in February, attacking the DEA for “its irrational policy and hysteria” and calling on the city attorney to support property owners facing prosecution or forfeiture for renting to medical marijuana dispensaries. The Los Angeles City Council also has condemned the federal agency’s actions.

Conyers also cited statements by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums criticizing the DEA, and a resolution introduced by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, urging that Congress pass a law ending federal raids and prosecutions in states that have legalized medical marijuana.

There should be a law ending deferal raids on ALL medical marijuana users not just patients in States who have laws regarding it.

There are many Medical Marijuana users who have moved from an area that has access to medical cannabis to an area that it is still illegal, and this creates a problem for those types of patients who have no choice but to live in certain areas. Medical Marijuana should be available to all American citizens who need to use it… below is a quote from a patient defending medical marijuana in the news.

Medical marijuana bill should be law

The medical marijuana bill – passed by the Minnesota Senate last year and likely to see action on the floor of the House in the coming months – should be passed into law as soon as possible.

As a patient suffering from severe neuropathy and other pain-related conditions, this is a major issue in my life. I previously lived in

Hawaii and was a legal medical marijuana patient under that state’s program. It helped me more than the regimen of addictive, dangerous medications I’ve been prescribed over the years.

And just last month, the American College of Physicians — the second largest physician group in the United States, with a membership of over 124,000 medical professionals — recognized marijuana’s many medical benefits with 10 pages of references and citations. Their official policy position “strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.”

Unfortunately, Governor Pawlenty has threatened to veto any medical marijuana bill, based on the knee-jerk opposition of a small but influential group of non-experts. The governor seems to believe that law enforcement officers know better than medical professionals which method of treatment would best suit an individual patient.

The governor should reconsider. This is a mainstream and popular issue, with 2 to 1 support from Minnesotans. It’s time our lawmakers and governor listen to the physicians and their own constituents, and end the cruel, despicable policy of arresting suffering patients for trying to alleviate their pain.

Medical Marijuana should be legalized in your state…

The price of medical marijuana cards is going up in Santa Cruz, California.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.—The cost of medical marijuana identification cards is going up in Santa Cruz County.

Since the county program started nearly five years ago, $35 medical marijuana IDs good for three years have been issued to more than 1,600 residents.

But the IDs are only legally binding in Santa Cruz County, so the county is joining the state medical pot ID program. State-backed cards cost $101 and must be renewed annually.

The Board of Supervisors gave preliminary approval to the change Tuesday.

Santa Cruz officials assure medical pot users that information on patients is confidential, noting it is entered into a secured database at the county level before it is sent to the state.