As more and more states struggle with the cost of housing people in jail for smoking a joint or simple possession, hopefully, Americans and lawmakers alike look to California as shining example of how marijuana should be dealt with. First off, it was decriminalized in 1976, and in many states there are mandatory jail time for marijuana! How can America be so polar when it comes to state to state punishment for cannabis? It is far past time America change its laws regarding cannabis and use this wonderful plant to not only aid our medicinal needs, but to help raise fund to fight the problems we do have in this country!

Look at how Cali is handling things:

SAN FRANCISCO — A drug deal plays out, California-style:

A conservatively dressed courier drives a company-leased Smart Car to an apartment on a weekday afternoon. Erick Alvaro hands over a white paper bag to his 58-year-old customer, who inspects the bag to ensure that everything he ordered over the phone is there.

An eighth-ounce of organic marijuana buds for treating his seasonal allergies? Check. An eighth of a different strain for insomnia? Check. THC-infused lozenges and tea bags? Check and check, with a free herb-laced cookie thrown in as a thank-you gift.

It’s a $102 credit-card transaction carried out with the practiced efficiency of a home-delivered pizza — and with just about as much legal scrutiny.

More and more, having premium pot delivered to your door in California is not a crime. It is a legitimate business.

Since the state became the first to legalize the drug for medicinal use, the weed the federal government puts in the same category as heroin and cocaine has become a major economic force.

It is far past time America change its laws regarding cannabis and use this wonderful plant to not only aid our medicinal needs, but to help raise fund to fight the problems we do have in this country!

Based on the quantity of marijuana that authorities seized last year, the crop alone was worth an estimated $17 billion or more, dwarfing any other sector of the state’s agricultural economy.

And pot also props up local economies, mints millionaires and feeds a thriving industry of startups — stores that sell high-tech marijuana-growing equipment, pot clubs that pay rent and hire workers, chains of for-profit clinics that specialize in medical-marijuana recommendations.

Police officers need to be relieved of marijuana duty and be sent to patrol the rapes and murders that go on right under their nose while they chase a guy for a marijuana join, its pathetic excuse for justice if you ask me.

Patients and nonviolent people are thrown to the ground and treated like rapists for partaking in their own natural medicine or growing a safe and effective plant. However, real crimes continue while these police use up millions and millions of dollars to go after marijuana possession and overlook real crimes! meth use, teen pregnancy all rising rapidly, cops should stop worrying about arresting marijuana users and go do something more beneficial to society.

Still, some lawmakers are pushing for broader legalization as a way to shore up the finances of a state that has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. The state’s top tax collector estimates that taxing marijuana like liquor could bring in more than $1.3 billion annually.

On Tuesday, Oakland will consider a measure to tax the city’s four marijuana dispensaries, which the city auditor projects will ring up $17.5 million in sales in 2010. The city faces an $83 million budget shortfall, and it expects the marijuana tax to raise $315,000.

The facts are in the numbers…

With a recent poll showing more than half of Californians supporting legalization, pot advocates believe they will prevail.

And they say other states will follow.

Tim Blake is the proprietor of a 145-acre spiritual-retreat center that holds an annual marijuana bud-growing contest in the heart of Northern California’s pot-growing country.

Politicians, he says, are “going to see the economic benefits, they’re going to see the health benefits and they’re going to jump on the bandwagon.”

We should NOT wait on states to follow, we need to RESCHEDULE CANNABIS at a federal level so states will no longer be able to still prosecute patients if they chose too. Folks in the Southern states will be forced to continue to suffer unjust persecution while citizens on the westcoast are treated with dignity and respect for being a medical marijuana patient. It is really a shame that America has become this divided, so its time we reschedule cannabis at the federal level.

California is always leading the way in regards to medical marijuana and trying to get the public to stand up to the tyrants opposing safe and effective use of cannabis as medicine.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A pro-marijuana group is launching another television bid to legalize pot in California — this time with the pitch that legalizing and taxing the drug could help solve the state’s massive budget deficit.

The 30-second spot, airing Wednesday and paid for by the Marijuana Policy Project, features a retired 58-year-old state worker who says state leaders “are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes.”

“We’re marijuana consumers,” says Nadene Herndon of Fair Oaks, who says she began using marijuana after suffering multiple strokes three years ago. “Instead of being treated like criminals for using a substance safer than alcohol, we want to pay our fair share.”

State lawmakers are bitterly debating how to close a $26.3 billion budget deficit that likely means cuts to state services.
In February, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Bill supporters estimate the state’s pot industry could bring in more than $1 billion in taxes.

Some stations have refused to air the ad, which could lead to some legal issues…

The ad will air on several cable news channels and network broadcast affiliates in Los Angeles, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
The group said in a statement that three California stations — KABC-TV in Los Angeles, KGO-TV of San Francisco and KNTV-TV in San Jose — refused to air the ad.

Representatives from the three stations did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
In an e-mail to the group, a KNTV account executive said the station’s standards department had rejected the ad.
Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken said the ad was meant to promote conversation about the issues, not to encourage pot use.

“It was consciously unsensational,” Mirken said. “It’s time to talk about this, and we feel very frustrated that some of these stations have taken it upon themselves to stifle the discussion.”

Boycott these stations if you are a medical cannabis supporter or marijuana user!!!! Tune out and tune in to those who are on your side, not those who are trying to decide what medicine you should take and what is best for you.

When 58 year old people have the guts to stand up, it is the rest of our duty to stand along side her, not only in her defense and support, but to be counted and speak the truth on this issue with open minds, passionate heartfelt drive to promote the truth and end the tyranny and illegality of cannabis as medicine.

In a phone interview, Herndon said that before filming the ad, she had not told very many people about her marijuana use. But she said her concern over the state’s fiscal crisis and her support of medical marijuana led her to go public.

“I came out of the closet with this ad,” she said.
Herndon said she worked as a policy analyst for several state social services departments during a 38-year career.

I applaud her courage and stand beside her and all others with the courage to do so. Stand up, and be counted. Do not let tv stations decide whether the public deserves the right to hear open discussion about this topic!! Chances are its only because of their ties to alcohol ads and nothing to do with the commercial at all!

I was reading, Marijuana Good For Seizures, and came across this.

Oregon has the MOST successful program in the U.S. with about 22 thousand patients using it successfully for every kind of disease they can think of

Sounds like Oregon has a successful medical marijuana program.

Their snide remarks about “JUST GETTING HIGH” no longer has any validity. Besides that 3000 doctors in Oregon are signing applications – marijuana works very well for seizures.

Over 3,000 doctors in Oregon are recommending cannabis as medicine. The article even mentioned using a vaporizer as opposed to harmful method of smoking with pipes or “bongs.”

Marijuana was discovered to be effective against seizures more than one hundred years ago and it doesn’t make victims feel stupid as do most anti-seizure drugs. One of the most important features of marijuana is that if the victim inhales the VAPOR or smoke the good effects are within seconds. This is very important.

What’s interesting about what this doctor says, is also similar to what I’ve experienced with Migraine‘s.

If the patient is using or uses marijuana with the Aura, it is likely they will not have the rest of the seizure.

If you use a vaporizer just as you begin to feel the Migraine coming on, you can often mitigate much of the discomfort and pain. Although it never goes away fully for all, it can often be better than the dangerous medicines available, either for seizures or Migraine.

More and more Americans are growing comfortable with the idea/concept of medical marijuana.

Are Americans really ready to consider legalizing marijuana? This week, California’s governor said it was time to debate the issue, and a new nationwide poll suggests a majority of voters favor decriminalizing the drug.

While legalization advocates say they’ve never seen such widespread public support for reforming marijuana laws, they still don’t expect drug policy to change overnight. But, they say, the country appears to be at tipping point in how it views recreational use of marijuana, which is now legal in 13 states for medically-approved use.

“We are actually talking about historic highs when it comes to public support of taxing and regulating marijuana for adult consumption,” says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). But, he adds, “the most difficult task is how you convert public sentiment into public policy.”

In Washington, Mr. Armentano says, politicians are still not ready to rethink US drug policy.

In a poll released Wednesday by Zogby International, 52 percent of voters said they would support legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana use.

The survey asked voters if they would “favor or oppose the government’s effort to legalize marijuana?”

Also, the poll surveyed 3,937 voters whose political identities followed the outcome of the last presidential election – 54 percent were President Obama supporters and 46 percent voted for Sen. John McCain. “This sample may be skewed in a pro-reform direction if, as seems plausible, left-leaning Americans were especially motivated to vote in the last presidential election, while conservatives were dispirited,” he wrote.

Nonetheless, “It’s in line with building support for marijuana legalization in other surveys,” Mr. Sullum acknowledged.

As more and more states allow the use of safe and effective medical grade cannabis, we will see more support and approval of medical marijuana grow.

The Zogby findings follow last month’s ABC News/Washington Post survey that found 46 percent support for decriminalizing marijuana. And a California Field Poll published April 30 said that 56 percent of state residents were OK with marijuana becoming a taxed and regulated commodity.

California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, (D) from San Francisco, has proposed legislation to begin treating marijuana like alcohol – giving anyone over 21 the right to use it but taxing it heavily. Taxing marijuana, supporters of Mr. Ammiano’s bill say, could bring the cash-strapped state $1.3 billion annually.

Already the state collects about $18 million annually from medical marijuana. Massachusetts state legislature is also set to consider a bill to tax and regulate the sale and trade of marijuana. Last year, voters there approved an initiative to reduce the punishment for possession of small amounts of marijuana to a $100 civil citation.

On Tuesday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was responding to a question about the potential statewide boon from taxing marijuana when he said: “It’s time for debate…. I’m always for an open debate on it.”

it is time to stop arresting sick patients and citizens and decriminalize marijuana with a federal rescheduling of cannabis.

And we agree!

The argument to legalize marijuana is back in the news, after rock legend and Obama supporter Carlos Santana said that marijuana needs to be legalized, while also taking a hard swipe at California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, the Grammy-winning guitarist said, “I really believe that as soon as we legalize and decriminalize marijuana, we can actually afford a really good governor who won’t keep taking money away from education and from teachers and send him back to Hollywood where he can do ‘D’ movies and we can get an ‘A’ governor.”

Santana went on to give a heart-felt plea to President Obama, saying, “Bring the brothers home, and sisters home now. Legalize marijuana and take all that money and invest it in teachers and in education. You will see a transformation in America.”

The amount of money wasted on arresting and jailing Americans for smoking pot is in the billions. That money alone could help change our education system in America. Let alone, the money made from taxing the legalized cannabis products that would come after its legalization across the United States.

This is the way it should be. If you are following state law, growing legal medical marijuana you should never be put in jail!

After California legalized medical marijuana, Charles Lynch opened a cannabis dispensary nearly two years ago in Morro Bay, getting a license from the city and joining the chamber of commerce.

A year later, U.S. drug enforcement agents raided his business. Now Lynch is worried that he’ll get at least five years in prison when he’s sentenced tomorrow in federal court in Los Angeles on five counts of distributing marijuana.

Whatever happens, Lynch said, he’ll appeal. “I don’t feel like I deserve going through life as a convicted felon for doing things the state of California allowed me to do,” he said.

Attorney General Eric Holder has said that there would be no more federal prosecutions of cases involving medical cannabis dispensaries. He said they would be left alone as long as they were complying with state laws.

Holder said that his department will focus on people and organizations growing or cultivating “substantial amounts of marijuana and doing so in a way that’s inconsistent with federal law and state law.”

As long as you follow the rules you can grow medical marijuana in states that allow you to do so, without fear of prosecution or jail time.

isn’t that beautiful?

Now when will it be coming to a state near you??? When will sick and dying people in states that have no protection, get some???

The decision affects California and 12 other states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state.

Over the past 2½ years, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has raided at least 80 dispensaries in California.

Yet criminal charges have been filed only in several of those cases against the biggest distributors accused of breaking both federal and state laws, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Central District of California.

If this does not prove to you that we need change in America, nothing will. Here is a woman trying to help her sick and dying aunt just to be able to eat a little bit of food so she doesn’t die hungry, and what does she get? Fired from her job as police dispatcher, this shows how desperate Americans are becoming to get safe access to medical marijuana.

Laura Llanes does not regret buying her aunt marijuana, even though it has cost her a job as police dispatcher.

She was stunned, nevertheless, when she was fired last week after admitting she bought the marijuana to help relieve her aunt’s suffering through breast cancer and chemotherapy.

Marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal with a prescription in 13 states; Illinois is not one of them.

This is happening all across the country and it needs to stop! Sick and dying people in states that do not have protection for medical marijuana users are being persecuted, and punished when all they are trying to do is use a natural, safe, and effective medicine to combat chemotherapy loss of appetite and nausea.

Llanes, 28, of Lake Villa remains adamant she did the right thing, saying her biggest mistake was telling a few co-workers what she had done: “They ratted me out.”

It seems her co-workers did not agree with her actions, which she did not do while on employers time, and told her boss. Should people be fired because co-workers rat them out for off-duty things? This is ridiculous, I smell a lawsuit!

Her aunt, who lives in Aurora, was “sick constantly, not eating, not having an appetite. She is diabetic. She has to eat. She was whittling away to nothing,” said Llanes.

“I thought I will get her some marijuana so it would get her to eat. It worked. She did get the munchies.”

Llanes has not been charged with a crime, but when confronted by her supervisor at CenCom E-9-11, she admitted she had bought marijuana and was promptly fired Wednesday.

“All that mattered was that I admitted to committing an illegal act,” she said.

It should not be illegal to purchase marijuana in America, especially for medical reasons. This is absurd and the employees who ratted her out should be ashamed, she is only trying to help her sick aunt. And now, she has declined to buy her more, and now this woman will suffer pain while the co-workers get a pat on the back for ratting out a compassionate family member.

I hope these people sleep well tonight knowing a woman will be laying in pain dying slow because of their actions.

We need to protect patients like this and shield them from persecution like this. We need change in America regarding marijuana laws, and now is the time!!!!

A prescription drug in pill form called Marinol contains synthetic THC, the main ingredient in marijuana. But it doesn’t work for everyone, and its results are slow-arriving and unpredictable, Mirken said.

“If you talk to cancer patients, they don’t want to get high,” he said. “They just don’t want to feel sick.”

meanwhile a woman lay dying, vomiting, cannot eat in her bed… while we fight over laws regarding her smoking three (yes count them) three marijuana joints.

California will lead the way in terms of addressing American laws regarding the recreational use of cannabis.

Marijuana would be sold and taxed openly in California to adults 21 and older if legislation proposed Monday is signed into law.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said his bill could generate big bucks for a cash-starved state while freeing law enforcement agencies to focus on worse crimes.

“I think there’s a mentality throughout the state and the country that this isn’t the highest priority – and that maybe we should start to reassess,” he said.

Critics counter that it makes no sense for a Legislature so concerned about health that it has restricted use of trans fats in restaurants to legalize the smoking of a potentially harmful drug.

“I think substance abuse is just ruining our society,” said Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley. “I can’t support that.”

Maybe Paul Cook should start his ban on alcohol if he is so concerned about “substance abuse.” These old abolitionist ways of dealing with things will not work for this country, the problem is too big now. It is time to legalize the use of cannabis.

In regards to “smoking a potentially harmful drug,” these Republicans must not know that doctors have verified the non carcinogenic method of medically partaking in cannabis through the use of vaporizers, which is unlike smoking as the plant is not burned while you consume it. Vaporizers do not have the same negative effects such as smoking.

By bringing up the aspects of “smoking cannabis” this lawmaker is just trying to obscure the facts. Doctors stand by the use of vaporizers as the doctor accepted method of medical marijuana intake.

As the lawmakers said, they are not interested in medical use of marijuana, they just want to “stop the bill.” Not once caring about those who need access to marijuana.

“I think it’s a slippery slope,” Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, said of easing pot laws. “We’ll do everything we can to defeat it.”

But they couldn’t STOP a bill when California citizens voted for it, and the people of California should not let them stop this one either! How can an “assemblyman” try and go against the vote of the California people? He should be removed from office!

Medical use of marijuana already is legal in California, but the new legislation would go a step further by allowing recreational use.

Stop letting these guys take billions of your tax dollars to arrest you for smoking marijuana!!!!!

Assembly Bill 390 would charge cannabis wholesalers $5,000 initially and $2,500 annually for the right to distribute weed.

Retail outlets would pay fees of $50 per ounce of cannabis to generate revenue for drug education programs statewide.

The bill would prohibit cannabis near schools. It also would ban smoking it in public places or growing it in public view.

Adding $50 to the cost of an ounce if going to be felt, most people who use want to grow their own so you can tax all you want, but those who grow their own will never pay taxes on it.

Minnesota is moving closer to securing protection for medical marijuana patients.

“Medical Cannabis Bill Passes Senate Committee in Bipartisan Vote, 8-3″

One of those testifying was Joni Whiting of Jordan, a disabled Vietnam veteran who had strongly disapproved of marijuana use until her daughter was diagnosed with melanoma and began suffering unbearable nausea and pain from the treatments. “I was opposed to marijuana,” Whiting said, “but the nausea my daughter suffered from the chemotherapy was so bad she lost a lot of weight, and the pills the doctor prescribed didn’t help — including Marinol, the THC pill. Marijuana allowed her to eat and also helped ease her pain, and she looked better than I’d seen her in months. I would have rather spent the rest of my life in prison than have denied her the medicine that kept her pain at bay and allowed her to live 89 more days.”

This is exactly why medical marijuana needs to be approved. Even marinol pill does not work as effectively, and safely as the natural cannabis.

Minnesota’s medical marijuana bill, S.F. 97, cleared its first major hurdle this afternoon, passing the Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee in a bipartisan vote of 8 to 3. The committee received spoken and written testimony from a number of patients and family members describing the relief provided by medical marijuana when conventional treatments had failed.

“I believe this will be the year medical marijuana becomes law in Minnesota,” said Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing), a sponsor of the bill. “We’ve seen now from the experiences of 13 states — one-quarter of the country — that these laws work well, and that the dire warnings of opponents simply don’t come true. The voters understand that there is no reason to subject suffering patients to arrest and jail for using a doctor-recommended medicine.”

More and more law makers are choosing the side of compassion and reason…

“I’m pleased to co-author this important legislation that will empower doctors and patients while protecting sick and dying Minnesotans from the threat of criminal prosecution,” said Sen. Debbie Johnson (R-Ham Lake). “Most FDA-approved drugs assist in managing short-term pain. Chronically ill and terminal patients need alternatives. Medical marijuana is one of those alternatives.”

Even Republicans are behind the effort to legalize medical marijuana.

Thirteen states, including one-quarter of the U.S. population, now permit medical use of marijuana under state law. The newest such law was enacted by Michigan voters last November, passing with a record-setting 63 percent “yes” vote. Medical organizations which have recognized marijuana’s medical uses include the American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association, American Academy of HIV Medicine, and American College of Physicians, which noted “marijuana’s proven efficacy at treating certain symptoms and its relatively low toxicity,” in a statement issued last year.

A plan to let seriously ill patients smoke pot is back at the Minnesota Legislature.

A plan to let seriously ill patients smoke pot is back at the Minnesota Legislature. The bill from DFL Senator Steve Murphy gets its first hearing of the session in a Senate health panel on Wednesday. The legislation would allow those with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and other debilitating conditions to use marijuana to control pain and other symptoms. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has stood against the proposal and has said it would make enforcing drug laws harder. Lawmakers have considered medical marijuana bills going back a decade, without signing off. However, two years ago, the full Senate passed the bill.

Its time to stop allowing politically motivated Governors to stop people in pain from getting medical marijuana.