Medical Marijuana

RenaissanceLady wrote: VL, I wish.

Thanks, everyone. Nice being here.

Don't be modest...I've nominated some of your past posts for pulitzers

170?

The way I see it...if we legalize Marijuana and the growth by American farmers we eliminate Mexico.

residenttroll wrote: The way I see it...if we legalize Marijuana and the growth by American farmers we eliminate Mexico.

And thats the goal isn't it?

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Sunshine Girl wrote:

PrintSmith wrote: We're talking about violating the law in a nation built on the premise that laws, not men, are supreme. Giving someone a card that allows them to purchase marijuana for purposes other than medical need would be a violation of the medical marijuana laws just as hiring an assassin is a violation of the law. Since marijuana is still a Schedule 1 controlled substance according to federal law, which according to the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, we are talking about a felony violation of federal law in both instances.

Who here said anyone is doing that?

C'mon SG - certainly you wouldn't challenge that it is being done, would you? You think that every one of the cards issued is issued to someone having a true medical need of the drug? Not a want, a need. That the amount of "medicine" sold just prior to the annual breaking of the laws on 4/20 was up significantly shows that it isn't a medical need in many, if not most, instances. Rather, it is a subterfuge being perpetrated upon the electorate who sought to be compassionate towards those with true medical problems and symptoms and who might gain some relief from their chronic physical (as opposed to imagined mental) pain.

The whole system is currently nothing more than a sham and a scam. The legislature should have required it be dispensed from a pharmacy by a licensed pharmacist and that those who provided the "medicine" be strictly licensed and regulated akin to what those who provide other prescribed drugs face. Each batch of "medicine" should undergo quality control testing such that the THC content is within prescribed parameters, detailed records kept that are subject to being reviewed at anytime detailing harvest date, amount harvested, batch control samples kept for independent testing, test results of batch samples to ensure compliance with established drug content and potency and all the rest.

What we have instead is a form of intentional chaos aimed at achieving full legalization. It was never about providing relief to terminally ill people or those who suffer from chronic pain. From the outset it was nothing more than an inroad to legalization of marijuana, just as the current "health insurance reform" is naught but a sham intended to create a situation that leads to single payer health care for the residents (notice the absence of the word citizen) of this nation.

Wow, get a real problem PrintSmith

:chillpill:

RenaissanceLady wrote: Which brings me to point #2. A point has been made that this is the first step towards simply legalizing marijuana. I hope that this is true. For that matter, the single worst thing we could do to a drug lord is legalize drugs and take the street value out of it. I've already written about our drug wars ( http://strixfix.blogspot.com/2010/04/this-aint-your-grandpas-prohibition.html ) which was first published on Open Salon a year ago and later linked to on other sites.

The DEA's budget in 2008 was $2.4 billion. In 2001, a Mexican official leaked that illegal drugs make up 63% of Mexico's economy. Marijuana alone is considered a $35.8 billion industry and the largest cash crop in the United States. Clearly, the powers on both sides of the equation have no reasons for wanting the status to change. Medical marijuana, like so many innocent people, simply gets caught in the crossfire. This needs to change.

Legalization of marijuana will not stop the illegal dealing of the substance anymore than legalization and taxation of alcohol and tobacco has stopped the black market for those substances. Anyone who thinks or espouses otherwise is living in a fantasy land of socialistic utopia. The enforcement operations will simply shift from the DEA to the Treasury Department. Rather than being prosecuted for felony illegal possession or distribution, the charges faced will become felony tax evasion.

PrintSmith wrote:

RenaissanceLady wrote: Which brings me to point #2. A point has been made that this is the first step towards simply legalizing marijuana. I hope that this is true. For that matter, the single worst thing we could do to a drug lord is legalize drugs and take the street value out of it. I've already written about our drug wars ( http://strixfix.blogspot.com/2010/04/this-aint-your-grandpas-prohibition.html ) which was first published on Open Salon a year ago and later linked to on other sites.

The DEA's budget in 2008 was $2.4 billion. In 2001, a Mexican official leaked that illegal drugs make up 63% of Mexico's economy. Marijuana alone is considered a $35.8 billion industry and the largest cash crop in the United States. Clearly, the powers on both sides of the equation have no reasons for wanting the status to change. Medical marijuana, like so many innocent people, simply gets caught in the crossfire. This needs to change.

Legalization of marijuana will not stop the illegal dealing of the substance anymore than legalization and taxation of alcohol and tobacco has stopped the black market for those substances. Anyone who thinks or espouses otherwise is living in a fantasy land of socialistic utopia. The enforcement operations will simply shift from the DEA to the Treasury Department. Rather than being prosecuted for felony illegal possession or distribution, the charges faced will become felony tax evasion.

Yeah because we've all bought black market cigerettes and bootleg alcahol? It's a big problem

:chillpill:

Vice Lord wrote: Wow, get a real problem PrintSmith

:chillpill:

Truth hurt VL? I'm just waiting for the day that big marijuana is sued in federal court for intentionally marketing to minors, forced to pay billions towards the health care of those who develop cancers as a result of proper use of the product, vilified in public for causing thousands of deaths on the highways each year as a result of drivers intoxicated on the drug operating a motor vehicle and all the other nonsense that has been visited upon those who produce alcoholic beverages and tobacco products by the out of control tort system that exists in this nation.

Vice Lord wrote: Yeah because we've all bought black market cigerettes and bootleg alcahol? It's a big problem

:chillpill:

It cost NY nearly a billion dollars in lost tax revenue - which is a problem for NY and their budget deficit, don't you think? California and Michigan are also awash in black market tobacco sales, and the violence that comes with organized crime involvement in the black market sales.

We still have "revenuers" tracking down the back woods stills and sending folks to jail for distilling white lightning. China is starting to import cigarettes with less than reputable fillers to supply the black market sales of tobacco.

It is a problem VL, whether or not you choose to recognize it is up to you. And the same problem will be evidenced in marijuana if/when it is legalized and highly taxed. You won't stop the illegal importation of Mexican "medicine" simply by making it a legal substance. You won't stop the drug trade, you won't stop the violence that comes along with illegal drug trade, you won't stop any of the problems currently evidenced by having marijuana classified as a Class 1 controlled substance by legalizing it and selling it alongside tobacco in your local convenience store.

I'm sorry that facts cloud your sunny outlook, but rational people prefer to live in a world of reality instead of fabricated utopia.

Dear Print, Colorado has enacted state laws that provide lots more beef to tort defense than exist nationally.
On the other topic, I figure that just like one "plants extra for the bugs," it's cutting down on the volume -- rather than the complete eradication -- of destructive elements that should be the goal. One can never do away completely with life's Negative Forces, just reduce them, in other words, so I'm definitely on the Tax and Sell It wagon, with funds directed to treatment and intervention of more toxic substances.
Gently now: Your final sentence could use an edit, in your own interests, and you know that. Differing viewpoints are not irrational on their face, or the world would be a very boring place.