Reschedule Cannabis

As more and more states allow medical use of the drug, and California considers outright legalization, marijuana’s supporters are pushing hard to burnish the image of pot by franchising dispensaries and building brands; establishing consulting, lobbying and law firms; setting up trade shows and a seminar circuit; and constructing a range of other marijuana-related businesses.

Not all cannabis smokers are hippies.

Boosters say it is all part of a concerted effort to trade the drug’s trippy, hippie counterculture past for what they believe will inevitably be a more buttoned-up future.

“I don’t possess a Nehru jacket, I’ve never grown a goatee, I’ve never grown my hair past the nape of my neck,” Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said. “And I don’t like patchouli.”

Go California, Legalize in November!

Steve DeAngelo, the president of CannBe — a marketing, lobbying and consulting firm here — will not even use the word “marijuana.” Calling it pejorative, he prefers the scientific term “cannabis.”

“We want to make it safe, seemly and responsible,” Mr. DeAngelo said of marijuana.

That extends to his main dispensary and headquarters, the Harborside Health Center in Oakland, with its bright fluorescent lights, a clean, spare design, and a raft of other services including chiropractic care and yoga classes. On a recent Friday, the center was packed, with a line of about 50 people waiting as the workers behind the counter walked other customers through the various buds, brownies and baked goods that were for sale.

“If we can’t demonstrate professionalism and legitimacy, we’re never going to gain the trust of our citizens,” Mr. DeAngelo said. “And without that trust, we’re never going to get where we need to go.”

The ultimate destination, for many supporters, is legalization. Californians will decide in November if that is where they want to go, when they vote on a ballot measure that would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana.

Congress, the FDA, and the DEA are responsible for keeping medicine out of the hands of dying people, while allowing the FDA to let pharmacy companies and the drug companies to sell whatever drugs they want! Even when people die from them! Because we all know, money controls the FDA not the facts.

When there is a big gap between the views of ordinary Americans on a public issue and the voting record of their elected representatives in Congress on that issue, something is wrong. In the national debate over the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the people and their representatives in Congress seem to be living on different planets. In New York, however, the gap has been closed, or nearly so.

Poll after poll show Americans, by a huge majority, want their doctors, not lawmakers, to decide whether or not marijuana should be used as a medicine. Today, however, federal laws prohibit physicians from prescribing marijuana for pain relief even where state and local laws say it is OK to do so. This has not always been the case.

“For most of American history, growing and using marijuana was legal under both federal law and the laws of individual states,” according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the U.S. Congress. The report goes to say: “From 1850 to the early 1940s, cannabis was included in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia as a recognized medicinal. (But) its decline in medicine was hastened by the development of aspirin, morphine, and other opium-derived drugs, all of which helped to replace marijuana in the treatment of pain.”

Keep in mind, even though marijuana has been prescribed for close to 100 years and is a recognized medicinal, the FDA continues to lie about medical marijuana. Claiming it has no medical value.

Freedom means nothing in America when congress and the FDA, and the DEA keep medicine out of the hands of people dying from painful illness.

In 1999 a Gallup poll asked: “Suppose that on election day this year, you could vote on key issues as well as candidates. Please tell me, would you vote for or against making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering?” Response: 73 percent of the American people said they would vote for making marijuana legally available under those conditions.

In both 2003 and 2005, Gallup polls asked: “Would you favor or oppose making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering?” In 2003, 75 percent and in 2005, 78 percent of the people said they would favor giving doctors the legal right to decide when marijuana should be prescribed to ease suffering.

Apparently, members of Congress don’t read the polls these days, nor do they care much about state laws. In 12 states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — laws already give doctors the power to decide whether or not to use marijuana to treat patients in pain.

In the U.S. House of Representatives on May 4, 2005, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), introduced H.R. 2087, a bill “to provide for the medical use of marijuana in accordance with the laws of the various states,” and to prohibit the federal government from stopping “an individual from obtaining and using marijuana from a prescription or recommendation by a physician for medical use.” On May 13, the bill was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, where it is stuck.

When will congress really represent The People?

Since a federal bill allowing states to regulate the medical use of marijuana can’t make it to the House floor for an up or down vote, an alternative strategy is to attach a medical marijuana amendment to a spending bill that will reach the House floor. On June 15, 2005, Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY) did just that and offered Amendment 272 to H.R. 2862. The amendment would have prohibited federal agencies from preventing the implementation of state laws that authorize the use of medical marijuana. The amendment was rejected on a 264 to 161 vote.

In other words, while 78 percent of the American people favor letting doctors (and states) decide this issue, only 38 percent of the House members favored a law supporting that policy. Nationally, that’s a whopping 40 percent medical marijuana gap separating what the American people want and what their hard-of-hearing elected representatives deliver.

We need to vote these two-faced flip-flopping liars out of office and put in people who believe in personal liberty over the DEA and FDA lies about medical marijuana.

American democracy calls on lawmakers to be responsive to the common sense wisdom of ordinary citizens. Instead, some members of Congress from New York and elsewhere are standing in the way of existing state laws and the majority of Americans who want their physicians, not politicians, to decide if marijuana should be used to ease suffering in sick patients.

If these officials don’t improve their hearing, voters might consider replacing them this coming November with people who have better listening skills.

Vote these liars out of office.

(republishing this article due to copyright infringement)

Republicans dont think a man should be able to smoke marijuana in the privacy of their own home without having their door kicked in, but they are scared shitless now thinking about having THEIR Congressional doors kicked in by FBI targeting them for their corruption!

House and Senate leaders challenged the constitutionality of an FBI raid on a lawmaker’s office, saying it broke a 219-year precedent and raised concerns about the separation of power between the administration and Congress.

“The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important constitutional issues,’’ House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said in a statement last night. “I expect to seek a means to restore the delicate balance of power among the branches of government that the founders intended.’’

Frist and co are only voicing opposition to raids because they are afraid of having THEIR office searched!

I think, finally Congress understands what its like to be American now. Welcome to the club, congress. You want to kick in doors in the name of the “War on Drugs” well you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

The separation of powers argument seems to be pretty weak to me: The actual scope of Congressional immunity under the speech and debate clause is quite narrow (narrower, oddly, than the judicially-created immunities enjoyed by judges and prosecutors) and certainly doesn’t include immunity from search in a bribery case.

At any rate, members of Congress who are offended by an unannounced late-night raid on an office might profitably be asked what they think about late-night unannounced raids on private homes, which happen all the time as part of the Congressionally-mandated War on Drugs.

These same people want to stop CANCER PATIENTS from using medical marijuana and have mandated a “kick in door” policy against terminal people, to Congress I say you reap what you sow.

(republishing this article due to copyright infringement)

Our founding fathers grew hemp, so why are we arresting people for growing hemp today?

There is major difference between hemp and marijuana, for one, hemp does NOT GET YOU HIGH. Marijuana does. So here you can clearly see citizens being hassled for simply growing a non-intoxicating plant.

A Winsted man arrested for growing marijuana may avoid jail time if he agrees to remove bright green images of marijuana plants he spray-painted on his home.
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Christopher Seekins — who lives on High Street — accepted a plea agreement Thursday in Litchfield Superior Court. He’d receive three years probation on a felony charge of growing marijuana.

Seekins was arrested in October when police discovered about 100 plants in his house. He said they were hemp and part of a research project.

After his arrest, Seekins painted images of the distinctive green leaf on his Victorian-style house, each accompanied by the word hemp. Town officials say they received several complaints because Seekins’ home is visible from Winsted’s main thoroughfare.

Notice how they retreat and try to get this citizen to remove images he painted on his home in protest because they have no case. Part of the agreement is to remove images of hemp plant painted on his house? I wonder why…. because the message it sends is the truth!

There is nothing wrong or illegal about HEMP PLANTS. Marijuana is illegal but hemp does not even produce THC which is what gets you high. Our founding father grew hemp for clothes, and much more. Not only did our founding fathers grow hemp and marijuana, George Washington wrote about growing females (which get you high) and Thomas Jefferson was known to have illegally imported hemp seeds from China into America.

So next time you think it’s a crime to sneak in seeds to this country, realize even Thomas Jefferson did it. Would anyone arrest Thomas Jefferson for sneaking in hemp or marijuana seeds to this country?

When will America wake up and realize not only is the war on drugs hurting this country, but you cannot arrest people for growing “hemp.”

We need 100 more guys like this every month to make a stand and maybe, just maybe we could wake up this country.

(republishing this article due to copyright infringement)

It has come to my attention that articles I have written in the past for various sites have been stolen and published under someone elses name!!

I take a lot of time writing and researching my articles and it is digusting that someone would take my work and copy it to their web site as if they wrote it!

I am going to republish my work here under my name as was intended.

The publications I did the writing for seems to have dropped out of existence but I still retain full copyright for the articles as I never sold them, the work was mine and I let cannabis related sites feature my articles.

Despite the constant fight continuing on the mainland continental United States, the Alaskan medical marijuana plan (yes, they have one) seems to be doing fine without a single arrest or problem. Imagine that.

Last week, the Obama Administration’s Justice Department announced it would no longer prosecute users and suppliers of medical marijuana — as long as they’re complying with the law in Alaska and 13 other states where medicinal pot use is legal.

But prosecutions have never been much of an issue in Alaska, where voters in 1998 passed a ballot measure that allows people who obtain permission from a doctor to possess and use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Only about 200 people currently have permission to use medical marijuana in Alaska. And since the law took effect in 1999, the state of Alaska hasn’t prosecuted a single case connected to the medical use of the drug, said Bill McAllister, a spokesman for Attorney General Dan Sullivan.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage also hasn’t ever prosecuted any cases in Alaska connected to the use or possession of medical marijuana, said spokesman Chuck Farmer.

Most of the cases have been in California, where within weeks of Obama’s inauguration, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided several pot dispensaries in Los Angeles. Those raids and others in California led some to question whether the Obama administration’s drug enforcement policies had changed much from the Bush-era policies.

But as usual, those who think they can control what the people already voted for and want, want to change the medical marijuana laws there too.

In Oregon, Washington and Alaska, there simply aren’t any dispensaries, and that lack of retail availability changes the dynamic and doesn’t lend itself to raids, St. Pierre said. For that reason, it simply isn’t on the radar of local law enforcement, either.

“We won’t be open to the kind of nonsensical fraudulent use they have in California,” said Lt. Dave Parker of the Anchorage Police Department.

Oh look, another cop who think he knows what is and what is not medicine. let me ask you, Lt. Dave Parker, are you a licensed doctor? Have you studied medicine? Ah, the answer is no, so you aren’t really qualified to make that comment above are you?

The above police quote is fine example of how cops are given leeway to say what they want in the media, when they are not only unqualified to do so, but are doing so for their own agenda. To keep marijuana illegal and profit from keeping it so.

In Alaska, anyone who wants to use marijuana to help treat an illness must get a prescription from an Alaska-licensed doctor, said Phillip Mitchell, who oversees the state’s medical marijuana registry for the Bureau of Vital Statistics within the Department of Health and Social Services.

The patient must have a “chronic or debilitating disease” that the physician certifies would be alleviated by medical pot. The diseases include cancer, glaucoma, positive HIV status, AIDS, severe pain, severe nausea, seizures and multiple sclerosis.

Those who obtain the prescription can then apply to the registry. The number of people on the registry has fluctuated, beginning with 28 in 1999 and 228 this year. They must reapply every year.

Despite their attempts, the program is increasing in popularity and the numbers of those who are using it will only increase as well.

Anyone on the registry may posses up to 1 ounce of marijuana in a usable form, and up to six plants. No more than three of the plants can be producing or flowering at any time.

As usual though they are clueless on the amount of medical marijuana a person should be allowed to have.

For one, you HAVE to allow more than six plants, it is simply not enough. Sick patients cannot get enough medicine off of three flowering plants, this is absurd and severely limits what a patient can produce for him/her self.Keeping the amount of plants to three like this makes it fairly impossible for a patient to grow his own medicine to last an entire year.

Three plants, can only produce about three ounces of marijuana every three months. Which equals about an ounce per month for medicine, that is in no way sufficient to those who must consume the plant by ingestion method. An ounce of marijuana does not go very far, and to see the police limit medical marijuana patients like this is a thinly disguised ban.

You MUST RAISE the allowable six plants to at least 20.

Although there has been raids under his watch, we can only hope he actually means what he says.

Advocates of medical marijuana praised a Justice Department decision yesterday not to target cannabis-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in the 14 states that allow marijuana use

But haven’t we heard this before?

Federal prosecutors were told about the new policy in a legal memo issued by the department yesterday. Cannabis-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in the 14 states that allow medicinal marijuana, prosecutors were told.

The guidelines make it clear, however, that federal agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medicinal marijuana as a cover for other crimes.

The memo advises prosecutors they “should not focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.’’

Exactly, let them focus on other problems in this country instead of kicking in the doors and taking medicine from sick people who are following state law.

The policy is a shift from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws regardless of state codes.

“It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal,’’ Attorney General Eric Holder said.

While this way sound like good news, Holder already said this same stuff back in January and there have been raids conducted since then and we will have to follow up on this to see if the raids actually cease or not. Something tells me they will not, considering the word on the ground in California seems to be there are activist Sheriffs and Politicians continuously trying to stop medical marijuana although it is within state law to grow and consume medical marijuana.

By the government’s count, 14 states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Some medicinal marijuana advocates say Maryland shouldn’t be included in that group, because the law there allows only reduced penalties for medicinal marijuana usage.

California stands out among those for the widespread presence of dispensaries - businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services.

Colorado also has several dispensaries, and Rhode Island and New Mexico are in the process of licensing providers, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said last week that he wants to close dispensaries that sell marijuana for profit. Cooley’s plan is the latest salvo in a prolonged conflict in California over whether medicinal marijuana is truly having its intended effect or is being abused by the larger population.

Until recently, raids on clinics typically led to federal prosecutions, but Cooley’s remarks and similar ones from Attorney General Jerry Brown signal a new approach to clear the confusion left by Proposition 215, the 1996 state ballot measure that allowed sick people with referrals from doctors and an identification card to smoke marijuana.

Advocates say marijuana is effective in treating chronic pain and nausea, among other ailments.

Holder said in March that he wanted federal law enforcement officials to pursue those who violate both federal and state law, but it has not been clear how that goal would be put into practice.

Bottom line is the fight continues and we shall not relent. Stand up for your rights and take your medicine daily!

As usual looks like the fight continues in California.

A Superior Court judge concluded today that Los Angeles’ moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries is invalid and granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ban sought by a dispensary that had sued the city.

Judge James C. Chalfant determined that the city failed to follow state law when it extended its initial moratorium. “The city cannot rely on an expired ordinance,” he said.

Green Oasis and a number of other medical marijuana collectives sued the city last month, challenging its efforts to control the dispensaries. The lawsuit argued that the City Council violated state law when it extended the ban until mid-March and that it is unconstitutionally vague.

Although the injunction applies only to Green Oasis, the judge’s ruling calls into question the city’s power to enforce the moratorium against hundreds of dispensaries that have opened in the last two years. The ruling could inspire other dispensaries to join the lawsuit or file similar actions.

Despite the moratorium, the city has seen explosive growth in the number of dispensaries. Under the ban, the city allowed 186 outlets to remain open. Many more – the exact number is unknown – are operating in neighborhoods across the city, and more continue to open.

In its answer to the lawsuit, the city argued that the moratorium is not subject to the conditions and limitations of state law because it is not an ordinance dealing with zoning, but with public safety. Zoning ordinances cannot be extended beyond 24 months. The city adopted the first of two moratoriums on Aug. 1, 2007.

The judge rejected that argument.

The city also argued that a decision to issue an injunction would cause “grave irreparable harm.” “This lawsuit is not just about one ‘bad apple.’ It is about illegally dealing marijuana,” the city’s answer said. “Hundreds of unlawful marijuana stores have cropped up throughout the City and will likely attempt to bootstrap their illegal operation on the outcome of this action.”

Jeri Burge, an assistant city attorney, told the judge this morning that granting the injunction would “reward illegal conduct.”

“You’re going to open the floodgates,” she said.

Robert A. Kahn, an attorney for Green Oasis, argued that the dispensary did nothing wrong, noting that, under state law, the moratorium expired 45 days after it was first enacted. “The did not believe they were violating the law,” he said.

The L.A. City Council has struggled for more than two years to write a permanent ordinance to replace the temporary ban.

Dan Lutz, a co-owner of Green Oasis and president of the collective association, filed the lawsuit after the council voted to shut down his dispensary, which opened in May.

Lutz, like hundreds of other dispensary owners in Los Angeles, had filed a request with the council for an exemption from the moratorium so he could operate, but opened without permission. The council failed to act on these requests until June, an oversight that prevented city officials from taking legal steps to close the dispensaries.

Keep up the good work Cali!

What the people want is marijuana, and that is what we shall have!

The cost of medical marijuana is too high for patients. While I encourage medical marijuana dispensaries, I do however note that most people involved in these dispensaries are doing so only for proift and have no real desires to help medical marijuana patients at all.

Patients need to be allowed to grow their own marijuana and not just six plants. California allows a patient twelve (12) plants, and that still isn’t enough! In parts of California that have voted to raise the number of plants allowed, that number was raised to 99 plants! Why? Because it takes more than 6 plants to fulfill most medical marijuana users prescription.

Think of, or compare it to growing tomatoes. most people who grow tomatoes barely get a few tomatoes off the plant. marijuana grows very similar to tomato plants and most people who grow marijuana end up not getting much from the plant. This is often due to inadequate lighting or just the fact that most people are not the best with growing any kind of fruit or vegetable, and marijuana plants are no different.

BOULDER, Colo. — Boulder County Caregivers offers 16 glass jars of marijuana with names like Skinny Pineapple and Early Pearl Maui, priced at $375 to $420 an ounce. There are marijuana capsules and snacks made with cannabis butter, such as rice crispy treats.

Co-owner Jill Leigh urges customers to try a syrupy tincture she calls “the Advil of medical marijuana.” A drop under the tongue gives less of a high but the same pain relief as smoking, she says.

Leigh’s sales are legal — and taxed — under Colorado’s voter-approved medical marijuana law. Her marijuana dispensary and nearly 60 others serve a rapidly growing number of users with little oversight. Critics of the system say it’s prone to abuse and point to a growing number of younger patients. But a recent state effort to impose more controls failed.
More than 9,000 people are registered in Colorado to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation — up 2,000 in the past month.

The total is expected to rise to 15,000 by year’s end, according to the state health department, which blames the rapid increase on patient confidentiality guarantees and federal plans to stop raiding medical marijuana operations, which the U.S. government considers illegal.

Dispensaries are increasing the amount they charge and the rates of patients are increasing. Meaning, they are making more money than ever!

Meanwhile, the sick and dying, cannot afford to use marijuana that costs $375 an ounce! This is absurd prices based on the value of illegal street weed! We need to stand up for patients and stop standing up for profit!

A patient who uses cooked marijuana in its edible form, needs at least an ounce every couple of days. And at these prices, we are just making people rich and not really addressing patients pain or rights.

We need to stop letting these dispensaries make millions off dying people while basing their prices on illegal street value. Marijuana is cheap to grow, can grow very fast and yield a lot of medicine if grown properly - the prices these people are charging for medical marijuana seems as if they are selling gold!

I am glad to see dispensaries in the public, but I do not like seeing the amount of money they are making off people who can barely afford to live, let alone afford the cost of $400 an ounce, when they need at least 2 ounces a week.

Marijuana should be grown and given away, there should be large tracts of land designated to grow free pot for medical users who cannot grow their own, and stop restricting caregivers to small numbers of plants which keep the cost up! Let caregivers grow more plants and the price shall come down! If a caregiver wants to grow 500 plants to give weed away, we should allow it! Not restrict them to 10 plants which doesn’t fulfill a single patients prescription!

How come in one state a man is locked in prison, has his car taken away, his house taken away and loses his job because he is placed in prison for marijuana, while in another state men and women openly smoke marijuana in the street without fear of prosecution? How is this America? How is this fair to patients trying to relieve their symptoms using a safe and natural and most effective medicine for their ailment?? Answer that!

OAKLAND, California (CNN) — Richard Lee greets students, shopkeepers and tourists as he rolls his wheelchair down Broadway at the speed of a brisk jog, hailing them with, “Hi. How ya doin’?”

In this nine-block district of Oakland, California, called Oaksterdam, Lee is a celebrity.

Oaksterdam is Lee’s brainchild, a small pocket of urban renewal built on a thriving trade in medical marijuana. The district’s name comes from a marriage of Oakland and Amsterdam, a city in the Netherlands renowned for its easy attitude toward sex and drugs.

Lee is the founder of Oaksterdam University, which he describes as a trade school that specializes in all things marijuana: how to grow it, how to market it, how to consume it. The school, which has a curriculum, classes and teachers, claims 3,500 graduates.

Lee also owns a medical marijuana dispensary, a coffee house, a large indoor marijuana plantation, and a museum/store devoted to the cause of legalizing marijuana.

Marijuana is safer than alcohol, and they sell alcohol across the street from schools and churches and on all commercial streets that have liquor stores. Think of how many stores in your area sell alcohol, which is not even a drug, its a toxin!

“I really see this as following the history of alcohol. The way prohibition was repealed there,” Lee says, adding that he believes he is close to achieving his mission.

Lee is organizing a petition drive to place a marijuana legalization measure on the ballot in 2010, and he thinks the measure stands a good chance of being approved by voters.

It is far past time for Americans to stand up to the government regarding this incendieary topic. It is TIME TO LEGALIZE marijuana in the United States.

A recent California Field Poll showed that more than half the people in the state, where marijuana for medical use was approved more than a decade ago, would approve of decriminalizing pot.

The state’s faltering economy is one reason why. If legalized, marijuana could become California’s No. 1 cash crop. It could bring in an estimated $1 billion a year in state taxes.

Democratic State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is spearheading a cannabis legalization bill in the California Assembly. He believes the state’s need to increase tax revenues will work in his bill’s favor.

“I think it’s a seductive part of the equation,” he says.

Ammiano says there are a number of ways legalized pot could be marketed, “It could be a Walgreens, it could be a hospital, a medical marijuana facility, whatever could be convenient. Adequate enforcement of the rules. Nobody under 21. No driving under the influence.”

Even California’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says legalizing marijuana deserves serious consideration.

“I think we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana,” Schwarzenegger says.

But Ammiano says selling a legalized marijuana bill to his fellow legislators remains a delicate matter.

Delicate matter yes, but should it be allowed to those who do not feel pain everyday to decide? Should people who think “pot is bad” be able to dictate whether it has medicinal qualities or not? Fact is, marijuana has been a medicine for thousands of years, and for anyone to state otherwise is insane.

Nonviolent medical marijuana users are being arrested and thrown in jail, costing states and cities millions and millions of dollars, while drunks walk the streets free and able to get their alcohol on every street in America. Not only is this unjust, it says something about the compassion of American’s towards the ill in this land.

There are 24-hour bars, and 24 hour liquor stores in this country, but somehow police and politicians feel threatened about a medical facility that forces patients to produce a doctor’s recommendation for a medicine that helps them? Absurd! Patients must pay to see a doctor, pay to have the state issued medical marijuana card before getting access to their medicine… however, underage teens need look no further than next to the milk in the fridge to get ahold of dad’s beer.

Children drink alcohol taken from liquor cabinets and fridges every single day in America. Marijuana is much more regulated and in states like California, teen marijuana use has DECLINED since medical marijuana has become so popular and less of it is being sold illegally on the street considering so many patients have now become legal, law abiding pot smokers. Unlike liquor stores that sell alcohol to underage kids every day in America, medical marijuana dispensaries are ran like pharmacies and have security guards and one does not get their medicine until ID and doctor recommendation, or state issued card is shown!

See through their smoke screen, yes, it is time to legalize. Not tomorrow, TODAY!