Common Sense on Medical Pot
| Mon Oct. 19, 2009 7:40 AM PDT
I'm sort of constitutionally inclined not to make too big a deal out of things like this, but it's still welcome news:
The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors today....The policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes. Fourteen 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.
Of course, here in California this comes hot on the heels of the announcment by LA's district attorney announcing that he was planning to crack down on pot dispensaries, so it's not as if our medical (wink wink) marijuana community is out of the woods yet. Still and all, it's always nice to see federal resources being used non-insanely, and choosing not to bust medical marijuana users is distinctly non-insane.
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Comments
We signed a petition outside
Submitted by Art Eclectic on Mon Oct. 19, 2009 7:54 AM PDT.
We signed a petition outside of Ralphs yesterday to put full legalization on the ballot for 2010.
We shall see if pot scares Californians more than gay marriage. I can't wait for the ad campaigns....
Why is it that all the
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Oct. 19, 2009 8:47 AM PDT.
Why is it that all the customers in that store look like urban hipsters and not little old ladies with glaucoma?
Guess how DRUDGE plays it?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Oct. 19, 2009 9:01 AM PDT.
Guess how DRUDGE plays it?
"HIGH TIMES", and he puts a picture of Obama with schoolchildren front and center.
There are very few
Submitted by House Whisperer on Mon Oct. 19, 2009 9:19 AM PDT.
There are very few indications for medical marijuana. The current setup mocks genuine medical practice. Marijuana should be legalized as an enjoyable and relatively benign substance, not marginalized as a "treatment."
All we need now
Submitted by JHeaton on Mon Oct. 19, 2009 10:17 AM PDT.
Good news. All we need now is for Obama to apply the same reasoning to same-sex marriage and order the DOJ to stop defending DOMA in court.
Drug testing for Federal Employees
Submitted by Bhelverson on Mon Oct. 19, 2009 12:17 PM PDT.
Bill Clinton never received credit for this (!), but in February 1993 he eliminated drug testing for Federal employees by executive order. This was mentioned in a very small article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Of course, The Seattle Whore Times never noticed.
I assume, of course, that Little bush reinstated drug testing.
Maybe Obama is signalng a return to sanity on the drug war.
BTW, want to know who is making out in this economy? (1) George W. bush's drug dealer and (2) North Dallas liquor stores. Their primary customer is back!
Maybe the Bloods, Crips,
Submitted by MacGruber on Mon Oct. 19, 2009 12:23 PM PDT.
Maybe the Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings and MS-13 can all apply to be health care service providers under ObamaCare. Is there a better way to get those poor gang members good well-paying jobs? I don't think so.
I'd love to see the government try to negotiate prices with them for their product, er, service.
Actually, the sensible
Submitted by Art Eclectic on Mon Oct. 19, 2009 12:50 PM PDT.
Actually, the sensible choice would be to utilize the dispensaries for distribution and ramp up the way their operations function by adding in tax reporting. Dispensary product doesn't come from Mexico (for the most part) but is legally grown here by "horticulture" grads from fine, upstanding colleges. Legalization in the USA will cripple the border drug cartels. Who would buy garbage when you can get top shelf legally?
Pot is not Medicine
Submitted by Trashhaulerd (not verified) on Tue Oct. 20, 2009 12:12 AM PDT.
Isn't it time to admit that the whole medicinal marijuana idea is just a means of getting pot legalized entirely? While there are medical benefits from marijuana, under what sort of logic do we accept the idea that a prescription drug requires no standard measurement of dosage, no standards of quality control, and no objective measurement of effect?
We wouldn't - and don't - accept such weak regulation of any other drug if it is developed and sold by Big Pharma, regardless of how benign. Even aspirin has tighter standards.
I don't have any strong objection to marijuana in general. When people talk about legalizing it, I assume they mean in a manner similar to alcohol, with continued prohibition against sale to and use by minors. Then we can tax the stuff outright and the potheads can stop pretending they inhabit some imaginary moral high ground.
Working in the
Submitted by Art Eclectic on Tue Oct. 20, 2009 7:25 AM PDT.
Working in the entertainment/music industry, I know a fair number of potheads, some with "dispensary referrals." They don't exhibit any moral high ground, they just think that the US drug laws are stupid. And they are right. There is not one single rational reason why alcohol should be legal and pot illegal.
Also, there are no "prescriptions," there are referrals that suggest that MM might help you with your medical issues. The government was the one that defined marijuana as a drug instead of tossing it into the pile with alcohol and tobacco where it belongs.
All the MM people did was say, "ok, you want to call this a drug, we'll pay ball."
Interestingly, there wasn't a peep out of RedState yesterday on this topic.
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