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Simplepowa
In Pursuit of Knowledge


Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 4,310
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Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition
#19036854 - 10/26/13 06:07 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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by Phillip Smith, October 23, 2013, 10:54pm, (Issue #806)
The three state agencies and the governor's office that constitute the state's medical marijuana working group on Monday released their draft recommendations for dealing with medical marijuana in the era of legal marijuana possession and state-licensed marijuana stores under the I-502 initiative. Their recommendations would essentially gut the existing medical marijuana system, and patients and advocates are crying foul.
What's the future for medical marijuana in Washington? The recommendations from the State Liquor Control Board (which is in charge of implementing the I-502 regime), the Department of Health, and the Department of Revenue would allow state-registered patients to purchase tax-exempt marijuana from the 334 stores envisioned under I-502, but would also reduce the amount patients could possess from 24 ounces to three ounces, require doctors to register patients with the state, remove the affirmative defense for medical marijuana patients, and end the right to petition for new medical conditions to be added.
The recommendations also call for eliminating the right of patients to grow their own, either individually or collectively, require existing dispensaries to comply with I-502 regulations, and force out of business those that can't. That would bring the state's medical marijuana system in line with I-502's no home grow provision.
While I-502 only envisions legalizing marijuana for adults 21 and over, the recommendations would allow 18-to-20-year-olds to use medical marijuana, but patients under the age of 18 would only be allowed to use it with parental consent and could only possess one dose at a time.
The state agencies will make their final recommendations by January 1, when they must send a final report to the state legislature, but in the meantime, they are taking for public comment between now and November 8. They can expect to get an earful from an angry medical marijuana community.
"Washington was one of the first states in the nation to recognize that patients under a physician's care have the right to use medical marijuana," said Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA). "The needs of this vulnerable population are distinctly different from the wants of recreational users and it's vital that elected officials understand the difference."
ASA, which worked with local activists to create the Health Before Happy Hour campaign to try to ensure that medical marijuana patients don't get run over by the legalization bus, is also holding a series of stakeholder meeting to mobilize the community and protect what it views as its hard-won rights. Those meetings will be held between October 27 and 30 in Bellingham, Olympia, Seattle, Spokane, and Yakima.
ASA created that campaign in part because of ominous portents coming from state officials and other key players. In May, Liquor Control Board spokesman Brian Smith warned that competition from the medical marijuana market will pose "a challenge" to the viability of the state's new recreational program, while state Rep. Chris Hurst (D-Enumclaw), chairman of the House Government Oversight and Accountability Committee, more recently called the medical marijuana industry "a sham," and urged the task force to recommend that all of the state's dispensaries be shut down.
Then, Mitch Barker of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs chimed in to claim that "the two (laws) are not going to be able to exist side by side for very long." As if that weren't enough, the DEA continues to raid dispensaries, and US Attorneys continue to menace patients and providers. US Attorney Jenny Durkan qualified the state's medical marijuana system as "untenable," and vowed to shut down the dispensaries.
"We are living with HIV/AIDS, end-stage cancers, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other serious, often painful and debilitating diseases," said Paul Feldman, who experiences relief with the help of medical marijuana. "It is wholly inappropriate to force us to get our medicine from anything resembling a liquor store and equally unacceptable to make patients pay an excise tax," continued Feldman. "No other medication is taxed this way and cannabis shouldn't be either."
Instead of gutting the medical marijuana program, the Health Before Happy Hour campaign is calling for a system of state-licensed and regulated dispensaries outside the scope of I-502. The campaign is supporting legislation similar to Senate Bill 5073, the proposal previously sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle) which was partially vetoed in 2011 by then-Governor Christine Gregoire (D).
[For extensive information about the medical marijuana debate, presented in a neutral format, visit MedicalMarijuana.ProCon.org.]
Olympia, WA United States http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2013/oct/23/washington_medical_marijuana_rec
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Carl Sagan - "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." --- Robert Pirsig - "When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." --- Brian Cox - "[One] problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense."
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Camwritesgonzo
The Unflushable Stool



Registered: 06/09/12
Posts: 2,333
Loc: On Uranus
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: Simplepowa]
#19037066 - 10/26/13 06:46 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Simplepowa said: What's the future for medical marijuana in Washington? The recommendations from the State Liquor Control Board (which is in charge of implementing the I-502
How can you run cannabis legislation through a liquor control board? They're two totally different things entirely. I could understand maybe a bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and cannabis, but trying to discuss cannabis anywhere near alcohol is going to make the booze companies want to figure out how they can stay fat. You cannot treat pot like alcohol because pot is not alcohol. Period. Anybody who thinks they're interchangeable is completely delusional.
-------------------- "I've always maintained that reality is for those who can't face drugs."-Tom Waits "I feel the same way about disco as I feel about herpes."-Hunter S. Thompson A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous, got me?
 
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Can-i-bus
Melting


Registered: 01/22/13
Posts: 1,161
Loc: WA
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: Camwritesgonzo]
#19037403 - 10/26/13 07:44 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Absolute horseshit. I know these are just recommendations but it's still BS.
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Konyap

Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
Last seen: 4 years, 2 months
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: Can-i-bus]
#19038125 - 10/26/13 09:48 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
While I-502 only envisions legalizing marijuana for adults 21 and over, the recommendations would allow 18-to-20-year-olds to use medical marijuana, but patients under the age of 18 would only be allowed to use it with parental consent and could only possess one dose at a time.
Holy fuck people lay off the speed already
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Camwritesgonzo
The Unflushable Stool



Registered: 06/09/12
Posts: 2,333
Loc: On Uranus
Last seen: 5 months, 24 days
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: Konyap]
#19038226 - 10/26/13 10:05 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Hmm and I'd like to see just what they consider 1 dose. Not to mention, how much aderall would they allow somebody to possess with a valid prescription? 30 doses in a month supply? Double standards = horseshit.
-------------------- "I've always maintained that reality is for those who can't face drugs."-Tom Waits "I feel the same way about disco as I feel about herpes."-Hunter S. Thompson A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous, got me?
 
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Konyap

Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
Last seen: 4 years, 2 months
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: Camwritesgonzo]
#19038237 - 10/26/13 10:08 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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You know alcohol is lobbying their asses off for them to even have this kind of reaction
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DebuteMachine

Registered: 09/29/06
Posts: 6,457
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: Konyap]
#19041985 - 10/27/13 06:26 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Reading this article made me cringe. This sounds horrible.
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MushyMatt
LSD-25



Registered: 10/13/11
Posts: 2,551
Loc: Under a Mushroom
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: DebuteMachine]
#19042102 - 10/27/13 06:52 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Basically they want to remove the ability to grow if you are a medical marijuana patient. Reason being, the new shops are opening up next year in June, and if there is a bunch of medical patients growing, that will decrease the amount of sales they will have. They want EVERYONE to have to buy from the stores to pay the insane 28% sales tax.
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Reborn - 6/08/13
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dokunai
Cactus, Cannabis, Cubensis

Registered: 01/31/10
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Loc: Hyphal Heights, USA
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: Camwritesgonzo]
#19042352 - 10/27/13 07:39 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Camwritesgonzo said: Hmm and I'd like to see just what they consider 1 dose. Not to mention, how much aderall would they allow somebody to possess with a valid prescription? 30 doses in a month supply? Double standards = horseshit.
These types of regulations are vestigial to the drug war. "OK pothead, you can have your dope, but we're still going to control how much you can possess of a substance that you can't, for practical purposes, overdose on or poison yourself with. By the way, pass me that beer." I think that, sadly, people on the other side of the fence from us - prohibitionists - feel that these are fair compromises, and that they somehow have some skin in the game of how much weed you can have. After all, these are the same people who have been fed lies by the media for decades and probably think you have a medical marijuana recommendation solely for the purpose of turning around and "dealing dope" to school kids.
As for adderall, or oxys for that matter, you can have as many doses as your doctor thinks you would take in a month. At least where I live, you could typically get 90 doses of adderall at once. 60mg/day is the max, and usually you would get 3 x 20mg per day. But clearly, because amphetamines are C2 and pot is C1, pot is much more dangerous. School kids can have 90 doses of speed, but more than 1 dose of pot is dangerous and immoral.
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DebuteMachine

Registered: 09/29/06
Posts: 6,457
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Re: Washington Medical Marijuana Recommendations Draw Opposition [Re: dokunai]
#19044394 - 10/28/13 05:07 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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I laughed at the immoral comment. 
I just think it's ridiculous that they are reducing the amount from 24 ounces to three. What a random series of numbers. Also, letting kids get in on this?
Why make it legal for recreational use and include kids in some MMJ laws? I don't get this shit, what the hell is going on here? I'm confused and I demand answers!!!
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