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 applaud the folks in New Hampshire for their efforts, however, by not allowing patients or caregivers to grow their own medicine you are essentially stripping patients and caregivers of their right to possess and grow a natural plant that can yield organic and safe medicine. Again, I applaud the effort but this provision will ruin the entire bill in my opinion.

The New Hampshire Legislature has passed legislation that would allow chronically ill patients to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s prescription.

Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, said he would study the bill before deciding whether to sign or veto it. He has raised concerns about preventing marijuana cultivation and distribution. The bill would prohibit users or caregivers from growing the plant, which would be dispensed in licensed “compassion centers.”

Patients on the medical marijuana program should in fact be allowed to grow their own, not be overcharged and taxed on medicine! Sure, dispensaries are needed for some, but the fact is, dispensaries are not cheap and in fact are quite costly. Patients who can grow their own, and caregivers who plan on growing for sick people, should be allowed to grow this plant.

How long until they use this as a way of stopping patients from getting medicine? What do I mean? Even in California, counties are fighting to keep dispensaries open, many people do not want dispensaries in their city. These politicians will just place these “compassion centers” out of reach for most and not allow them in most cities and districts! Forcing patients to continue buying marijuana on the street, you have to open your eyes.

Allow patients to grow, allow caregivers to grow.

You cannot expect the few “compassionate centers” the state will allow to handle the entire state’s patients, you must allow patients to grow their own, if not, you are denying many safe access to medicine. How many will open? Will folks from across the state have to drive miles and miles to get medicine from an overpriced dispensary taxing their medicine? Sick people should be allowed to either grow their own if they can, or have a compassionate caregiver provide their medicine, not be overly taxed and charged for a plant that anyone can grow!

If the law is enacted, the Granite State will become the 14th state allowing medical marijuana and the fourth state to license dispensaries.

Already in California we see counties trying to eliminate dispensares, and in some cases are being successful, despite Proposition 215 being a state law politicians will always use their districts to exert influence among constituents, especially when it comes to opening marijuana dispensaries in their cities.

By not allow patients and caregivers to grow cannabis for medicine, you keep the state in full control and force patients to pay extraordinary amounts for something that can grow in any backyard in America! FOR FREE!!! Don’t let them take away your rights to a plant that was founded in your birth and arrival on this Earth. No man can take away our medicine, no one who walks on legs can stop us from using this wonderful plant to achieve a better life.

New Hampshire license plate motto is “live free or die” well, not if you plan on growing your own medicine, this state wants to make as much money as they can off of the sick and dying. If you cannot even grow your own marijuana plant there, you are hardly a free people. You are not even compassionate enough to allow sick people to grow their own cannabis to use as medicine, far from free.

Portland has medical marijuana clinics, but before this, was the only place…

The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation in Portland has opened a permanent medical marijuana clinic in Grants Pass.

The clinic, at 558 N.E. F St., No. 1, in Colonial Plaza, is the first permanent medical marijuana clinic in Oregon outside Portland.

We need to thank those brave and compassionate souls who are supporting patients right to medical marijuana in Oregon.

Retired heart surgeon Dr. Thomas Orvald of Portland has been traveling to Grants Pass to see patients about three times a month in rented facilities, said Henrik Rode, the foundation’s regional director, who organizes satellite clinics and helps set up permanent clinics around the country.

The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation’s mission is to help patients with qualifying medical conditions obtain a permit to grow and use marijuana to treat their symptoms, Rode said. Another goal is to educate people about the medicinal, social and industrial uses for cannabis to increase hemp cultivation.

Rode said medical marijuana treats a wide range of symptoms such as nausea in cancer or AIDS patients, as well as the chronic pain people suffer from medical conditions or as a result of a serious accident.

Rode said the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation already runs permanent clinics in Bellevue, Wash., Riverside, Calif., Denver and Detroit. He expects to open additional permanent clinics in Bend, Eugene and Spokane, Wash., in coming months. The foundation also holds a traveling clinic in Brookings every few months.

Without people like this, patients would have even harder time getting safe access to medical cannabis.

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.

Stunned by the spread of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, the City Council moved Tuesday to close a loophole that had encouraged their rapid growth.

The council also rejected a dozen applications from dispensaries that sought permission to operate despite the city’s moratorium and prepared to extend the ban for six months beyond its expiration in September.

When people need access to medical marijuana, are you surprised when the public’s demand meets the growing number of suppliers? Sick people need to have access to their medicine, not have 1 or 2 places miles away that sell their medicine. The number of dispensaries popping up, means that people are buying what they need, their medicine. And legally doing so. Safely, and no longer on the black market, they are paying tax and being good citizens.

The number of stores in the city has tripled, to nearly 600, since the City Council imposed a moratorium on new outlets in 2007.

Why the concern? Are these guys worried about the amount of liquor stores on every corner in their city?

And a council committee unveiled a revamped proposal for a comprehensive ordinance to replace the moratorium.

“We know that time is passing. We’ll close the loopholes, plug these floodgates,” said Councilman Ed Reyes, who leads the committee that oversees medical marijuana.

When the city adopted the moratorium in 2007, it allowed 186 dispensaries to stay open. Now there are 600 or more.

Los Angeles should be worried more about its gang problems and meth labs in stead of medical marijuana dispensary loopholes, and stop trying to stop what is obviously supported by the public demand for medical marijuana. Only legal, card holing marijuana patients can buy from dispensaries, this is safe and effective medicine, not street drugs, stop treating it as if it is. This product is taxed, and while California is doing so terrible financially right now, its best if California would make profit from this natural plant and stop trying to stop people from getting medicine into the hands of sick people, or those who need medical marijuana.

It is a good thing that the number of medical marijuana dispensaries are increasing, this will help drive the price down and create a good market for those looking for safe access to cannabis.

So, it is with a smile, I relay this latest news to you.

From L.A.’s medical pot dispensary moratorium led to a boom instead

A ban meant to prevent new dispensaries from opening included a loophole that entrepreneurs have exploited. Where four years ago there were only a handful, now there may be 600 dispensaries.

With the amount of drug and alcohol (liquor) stores near schools and churches and parks, why should people be worried about actual medical facilities that serve sick patients with medicine? The demand for medical marijuana is great enough to support the amount of dispensaries opening and this shows the public support of medical marijuana!

Four years ago, when the Los Angeles City Council started to wrestle with how to control medical marijuana, there were just four known storefront dispensaries, one each in Hancock Park, Van Nuys, Rancho Park and Cheviot Hills.

Now, police say there are as many as 600. There may be more. No one really knows.

That exponential rise came despite a moratorium passed in 2007 that was supposed to prohibit new dispensaries from opening. An exception was made for 186 that were already in business and registered with the city.

“The city of L.A. has failed us on this issue,” said Michael Larsen, public safety director with the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council. “There’s a huge loophole. L.A. city’s not watching. L.A. city’s not enforcing.”

No other city in California has seen such uncontrolled growth in dispensaries. As signs featuring the easily recognized saw-toothed cannabis leaf multiplied on commercial strips, neighborhood activists like Larsen began to ask their council members why the city was not shutting down dispensaries that opened after the moratorium.

I wonder how many liquor stores L.A. has?

The moratorium includes a standard provision that allows dispensaries to appeal to the City Council for a hardship exemption to be allowed to operate. Some time last year, medical marijuana entrepreneurs discovered that the city attorney’s office was not prosecuting dispensaries that had filed hardship applications, saying the City Council needed to rule on them first. The council has not acted on any of the applications.

So far, 508 dispensaries have applied for exemptions.

It was months before anyone at City Hall realized what was happening.

Dispensaries have spread across the city. In some places, they are clustered two or three to a block, sometimes near schools, libraries and parks. When the council passed the moratorium, it did not include LAPD Chief William J. Bratton’s recommendation to keep dispensaries at least 1,000 feet from places that children frequent.

I can understand the concern for children being around medical marijuana facilities, but this is medicine folks. People are not sitting around smoking joints at these places, strict “no smoking” rules are in effect, and the idea that there are many cities and states with liquor stores and drug stores near schools is ironic, don’t you think? One serves a drunken public, the other serves sick patients seeking legal access to their medicine.

We can all agree regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries will most likely be necessary, however, we must remain logical and proceed with reason and compassion for the patients who need these dispensaries for safe access to their medicine. Many patients are too sick to even grow their own marijuana, much less drive across three hour traffic in Los Angeles to get to a dispensary. These are sick people and just like drug stores are in our neighborhoods offering our elderly their meds, we must accept that medical marijuana grow ops and dispensaries will undoubtedly become part of the American landscape.

Until we do, we can advance no further… it is time to look past “pot” and refer only to this plant, as “medicine.” Maybe then, and only then, will some stop and consider the pain and anguish many of us go through daily trying to self medicate with a natural and effective medicine, but risk being labeled and prosecuted as a criminal by doing so under current law.

If you can grow, you should be allow to. If you cannot, you should be allowed to drive to a nearest medical marijuana dispensary and purchase your “medicine.” laws already protect California drivers from prosecution of possession while driving. All patients should have access to their medicine, even if that medicine is marijuana.

Another victory for medical marijuana.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t hear another challenge to California’s decade-old law permitting marijuana use for medical purposes.

The high court on Monday refused to hear appeals from San Diego and San Bernardino counties, which say the justices have never directly ruled on whether California’s law trumps the federal controlled substances laws.

Supporters say marijuana helps chronically ill patients relieve pain. Critics say the drug has no medical benefit and all use should be illegal.

San Diego supervisors had sued to overturn the state law after it was approved by voters in 1996, but lower courts have ruled against them.

San Diego and San Bernardino counties argued that issuing identification cards to eligible users, as required by the 1996 state law, would violate federal law, which does not recognize the state measure.

A state appeals court ruled that ID card laws “do not pose a significant impediment” to the federal Controlled Substances Act because that law is designed to “combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state’s medical practices.”

The cases are County of San Bernardino v. California, 08-897 and County of San Diego v. San Diego NORML, 08-887.

Read those quotes in bold a few times

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.

Isn’t it funny how different things can be state to state? Not all Americans are lucky enough to live in a state that allows the use of medical marijuana, but some are.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) – Following the lead of Mayor Kitty Piercy from Eugene, who recently declared Medical Marijuana Awareness Week, Portland, Oregon Mayor Samuel Adams has proclaimed May to be Medical Marijuana Awareness Month.

At the urging of medical marijuana program participants and members of the Board of Directors of Oregon NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), Tom Miller, Chief of Staff for Mayor Adams said, “I’ve discussed this with the mayor. He’s pleased to make the proclamation.”

This is why we need rescheduling of cannabis at the federal level, so all Americans can enjoy medical grade cannabis.

The proclamation was delivered by hand to Madeline Martinez, Executive Director of Oregon NORML on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 during the week following the tenth anniversary of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP).

Multnomah County is home to the largest number of OMMP patients in the entire state of Oregon.

It is a tribute to its success that Mayor Adams has honored the OMMP by recognizing the need to raise awareness.

Why will some citizens be able to experience the safe and effective use of cannabis as medicine, while others will continue to be arrested and jailed for simply trying to relieve their pain?