PA's medical marijuana bill
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
By: Kerry Grens
kgrens@whyy.org
In Harrisburg, lawmakers are locked in a record-long budget tangle. Advocates for medical marijuana are hoping that once a budget is approved, their issue will get some attention.
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Chris Goldstein is hoping Pennsylvania's proposed medical marijuana legislation can ride the momentum of 2009. Earlier this year New Jersey's bill passed the Senate and is awaiting a vote from the full assembly. The US Attorney General said there would be no more raids of medical marijuana distributors. And Pennsylvania's bill has received support from some medical leaders and advocacy groups. Goldstein is the spokesman for Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana.
Goldstein: The issue's never been considered here before. It's one of the few states in the country where there's never been legislation before. So it's a pretty exciting time.
The AIDS Law Project is also supporting the bill. Ronda Goldfein, is the executive director.
Goldfein: There have been many studies that has shown a benefit for people with all kinds of chronic illnesses including HIV. So it's a natural fit that we would be behind getting access to treatment for our clients.
Goldstein's group is collecting patient testimonials to use during committee hearings — if the bill gets consideration. There is opposition from groups like Drug Free Pennsylvania, which say the bill encourages drug abuse and crime. Jeanne Troy is the spokeswoman for Drug Free Pennsylvania.
Troy: We do not aprove this. There is prescription marijuana available through doctors for patients who have chemo or other pain and nausea related conditions and that's called marinol.
The bill has little chance of review until lawmakers break their months-long struggle over the state budget. In New Jersey, state senators passed a comparable medical marijuana bill. It now awaits a full assembly vote. Delaware's bill failed to pass.
Hello Everybody
I hope you all can take a moment this week and call your local legislator
We need to take action on this bill and a little push to the folks in Harrisburg will help
Please pass the word around to friends, family, the sick, and dying
Troy sounds like a complete moron. Marinol is ineffective compared to the plant. It is also very expensive too! I get so tired of these self righteous idiots forcing their 'morality' on normal citizens. If our drug laws were based on sound science and reason cannabis would be regulated like alcohol and alcohol would be illegal. Cannabis should be legal for any purpose including recreational use.
Yeah…just look at California. Regulated, taxed, and making a huge difference in not only the medical community, but in the state's budget. Marijuana has NEVER been a drug. It has been used as medicine for thousands of years. Just because some narrow minded and uneducated people call it a drug does not make it so. If I call a 70's Plymouth Duster a 2009 Mercedes…will you believe that too ?
Marijuana will never be legalized for the following reasons:
1. It is too easily grown at home for the government to have any hope of taxing or regulating it.
2. As long as it remains illegal, the government can continue to justify collecting taxes, and beefing-up law enforcement – all in the name of "The War On Drugs".
Legalizing marijuana would provide little tax revenues for the government.
By keeping it illegal, there is still a money stream for the government.
first we should look at how the legalization of marijuana would benefit our country, especially with the economy in such turmoil. we spend an estimated 23,000 dollars a year on 1 prisoner. (varies from state to state) there are approximately 33,655 prisoners in a state prison on marijuana charges. there are approximately 10,785 inmates in a federal prison on marijuana charges. that comes to 44,440 inmates behind bars for marijuana, and that is not including county prisons. looking at these numbers we as tax payers are spending roughly 1 billion 22 million 120 thousand dollars a year on inmates who have been prosecuted for marijuana. (note: numbers are actually higher because county jail inmates are not included) Now imagine the money we spend a year on marijuana inmates on top of the amount of money the government would make on taxing cannabis, our country's recession wouldn't be so bad. now medically, marijuana has almost no faults. It increases tar buildup in the lungs when SMOKES. this statistic shouldn't even be counted considering the hundreds of thousands of cigaret smokers who despite the surgeon generals warning still wake up and spark a cig. Especially when a vaporizer decreases the tar, or completely eliminating the tar build up by baking the marijuana and eating it in cookies or brownies etc. it helps cancer patients deal with chemotherapy, and radiation. It helps MS sufferers by relieving the symptoms. it also can be used for depression and anxiety, as opposed to the habit forming benzos that people get prescribed. at Brandon Ross the effects are nothing like alcohol, your judgement is not nearly as impaired. to much alcohol can cause death or even vomiting. and even a couple drinks can cause hang overs. Also alcohol destroys the body far more than marijuana. Alcohol attacks kidneys, liver, and the brain. More importantly there isn't ONE recorded death due to marijuana. I strongly believe our government needs to take a look at the positive uses for marijuana and rethink its view that marijuana is destructive. Mind you there needs to be laws in place to control its use and narrow down the users to medical patients and responsible adults. however there is absolutely nothing wrong with the use of marijuana, nor does it damage more than it contributes.
Prohibition didn't work with alcohol and hasn't worked with marijuana. Did we not learn anything? Let us stop spending crazy amounts of taxpayer's money fighting this and instead tax pot. Look to Portugal as a model on drug laws.
have you guys thought about looking at the laws for farming and what they are for medicals or herbs?
Listen America. I don't see the big deal with Marijuana. I myself am a user and i don't believe a little Mary Jane can hurt anybody. What do see wrong with it? It has the effects of alcohol. When you look at the all the pros that come with smoking some grass, it outweighs the cons. All the benefits include improved taste, smell, hearing and so on. Your Musical and Artistic abilities come out more when you use marijuana. It makes people happy. And don't even get me started about the people who say marijuana is a stepping stone drug because the people who do that have serious problems. Cannibis is as natural a substance as anything in the world and how dare any country tell a citizen that they cant have it. God put this plant in the world for a reason. Don't tell me Jesus and the boys back in Jerusalem werent toking up. One last thing hey hey hey smoke weed everyday.
From PA. living in Oregon and a patient covered by the OMMA. It has taken awhile to convince my parents thet marijuana can be used for good. I needed to point out to my Christian Parents that in Gennesis 1:29 The one who created marijuana seen it as GOOD. They will vote for marijuana as a medicine. Like anything… It can be made to be a bad thing or a good thing. It is good for me, a 34 year user.
Response to Tom Bemky: Reread the last two paragraphs of my post and you might find the F.D.A. & GW are seeking balance. Other than that gov't, business, and noprofit research seems credible and clear.
The "high" associated with cannabis is directly related to the concoction of the dozens of cannabinoids in cannabis. The concoction IS the medication. They work in perfect harmony together and have for thousands of years. Taking one ingredient (the more dangerous one) from that mix and using solely it, will not help hardly anyone. There is more tar in marijuana than cigarettes, but there are no unnatural chemicals in marijuana (especially if it became regulated and legal). Tobacco has many many unnatural chemicals added to it. Some companies use recycled paper and add flavoring to it so its not even real leaf. Marijuana, when eaten in food, shows no destructive patterns. When you chew tobacco however, that can cause all kinds of upper body cancers. So our only agreement is that smoked marijuana is not good. Joe Nobody has almost no idea what he's talking about. And is obviously biased from the start just like the FDA and NIDA.
Scientific Certainty of F.D.A. Clinical Trials May Well Moot NJ's Compassionate Medical Marijuana Act
Forget for the moment it is a federal crime and that the Congress, which makes the law, & the Supreme Court, which reviews its validity, agrees marijuana may only be approved for medical use when the DOJ & HHS approve its rescheduling to permit medical use & the F.D.A. approves its use for particular illnesses.
If any decision concerning the medicinal use of marijuana is as simple as some suggest one must ask why the U.S. & U.K. National MS Societies & the American Cancer Society question its use and continue to withhold their approval. It seems there are obstacles. For example, "Marijuana Smokers Face Rapid Lung Destruction — As Much As 20 Years Ahead Of Tobacco Smokers." January 2008 Respirology. And, as the Center for Disease Control points out in its 09-04-09 MMWR weekly, eating marijuana gives rise to a seperate set of problems – including efficacy, doseage, duration, etc. Finally, people with MS have higher rates of depression and suicide compared to the general population. “Since marijuana can induce psychosis and anxiety in healthy people … it was especially important to look at its effects on people with MS … February 13, 2008, online edition of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Scientific certainty, while not absolute certainty, is a precise exercise of the scientific method. F.D.A. trials are not a hodge podge of disparate studies or testimonials. While those studies may be relevant and may inform an F.D.A. review, the F.D.A. requires several phases of testing that generally includes the monitoring of several thousand participants.
Thus unless a legislature's expertise, resources and organization are greater than that of the F.D.A. there is no reason to reinvent the wheel because it appears the F.D.A. is close to resolving the issue. In 2006 GW Phamacueticals began clinical trials of "Sativex" under the supervision & in accord with F.D.A. guidelines. Marinol, available in the U.S., is the synthetic counterpart.
Clinical trials are presently in or at the end of their phase II or III level. These trials provide a clear meaning to the "scientific certainty" required for approval by measuring both its purported benefits while seeking to mitigate its potental harms. In short the tests address the foreseeable consequences of the drugs use in order to insure its application is not only accurate, valid and reliable, but its harm is insignificant and the potential for abuse minimized. Specifically, the Sativex trials for MS,cancer and other disorders demonstrate how science & and F.D.A. review seeks to benefit the patient without the damage of smoking and discouraging recreational use. (gwpharm DOT com).
According to the GW pharmaceuticals web site:
(1) "GW intends to seek marketing approval for "Sativex" by means of the conventional FDA regulatory process. As GW moves through that process, we will naturally follow the FDA's guidance …"
(2) "It is important to understand that the medical benefits of cannabis-based medicines are separate and distinct from the “high” associated with cannabis. Evidence from GW's clinical trials shows that the majority of patients can obtain the medical benefits of cannabis before any feeling of a "high". Patients emphasize that they seek to obtain the medical benefits and do not wish to experience intoxication. This is similar to the reports of patients who use self-administered morphine for pain control. Patients control or “titrate” the dose that they need to relieve their pain while minimizing unwanted side effects such as intoxication."
"Drug Free America"? There has never been a drug free world! Cannabis specifically, has been used since the beginning of recorded history. Humans utilized the medicinal properties of cannabis for thousands and thousands of years before Harry J Anslinger declared "…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” and “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” "most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”
Maybe Jeanne Troy should read the Shaffer Report, the one that Nixon commissioned to launch his "War on Drugs". Unfortunately, Nixon didn't like the truth, so it was thrown in the trash and here we are 30+ years, 20 million arrests and a TRILLION dollars later and still the lies and propaganda continue in a war on people that will never, ever, be won.
"In sum, the weight of the evidence is that marihuana does not cause violent or aggressive behavior, if anything, marihuana generally serves to inhibit the expression of such behavior. Marihuana-induced relaxation of inhibitions is not ordinarily accompanied by an exaggeration of aggressive tendencies.
No evidence exists that marihuana use will cause or lead to the commission of violent or aggressive behavior by the large majority of psychologically and socially mature individuals in the general population."
"marihuana and social policy"
A Final Comment
"We have carefully considered the spectrum of social and legal policy alternatives. On the basis of our findings, discussed in previous Chapters, we have concluded that society should seek to discourage use, while concentrating its attention on the prevention and treatment of heavy and very heavy use. The Commission feels that the criminalization of possession of marihuana for personal is socially self-defeating as a means of achieving this objective. We have attempted to balance individual freedom on one hand and the obligation of the state to consider the wider social good on the other. We believe our recommended scheme will permit society to exercise its control and influence in ways most useful and efficient, meanwhile reserving to the individual American his sense of privacy, his sense of individuality, and, within the context of ail interacting and interdependent society, his options to select his own life style, values, goals and opportunities.
The Commission sincerely hopes that the tone of cautious restraint sounded in this Report will be perpetuated in the debate which will follow it. For those who feel we have not proceeded far enough, we are reminded of Thomas Jefferson's advice to George Washington that "Delay is preferable to error." For those who argue we have gone too far, we note Roscoe Pound's statement, "The law must be stable, but it must not stand still."
We have carefully analyzed the interrelationship between marihuana the drug, marihuana use as a behavior, and marihuana as a social problem. Recognizing the extensive degree of misinformation about marihuana as a drug, we have tried to demythologize it. Viewing the use of marihuana in its wider social context, we have tried to desymbolize it.
Considering the range of social concerns in contemporary America, marihuana does not, in our considered judgment, rank very high. We would deemphasize marihuana as a problem.
The existing social and legal policy is out of proportion to the individual and social harm engendered by the use of the drug. To replace it, we have attempted to design a suitable social policy, which we believe is fair, cautious and attuned to the social realities of our time."
The "Gateway Theory" is also a lie, only 1 out of every 104 cannabis users try Cocaine, and it's less than that for Heroin. (from The Union: The Business Behind Getting High)
Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen took FBI Director Robert Mueller to task on marijuana legalization and the "gateway theory" in this video:
Also, Zogby did a poll (found here on http://www.leap.cc) in 2007 asking "If hard drugs like heroin and cocaine were legalized, would you use them? 99% responded NO. Imagine that, people deciding for themselves that they don't want to use hard drugs, regardless of law.
And yes, while Marinol exists, (and very expensively at that) for people who have problems keeping pills down due to nausea it's not as effective. Medical cannabis users can also use a vaporizer or ingest it in cookies, etc. if they don't want to smoke it. If people like Greg Cooper find that using cannabis helps them, who are any of us to judge that decision made by him and his Doctor?
It's also interesting to note that "Drug Free Pennsylvania" makes money off of drug testing.
I can't post the links (my comment was considered "Spammy" when I submitted it) so I've reposted this on my blog with the links included. maryjanecannabian.blogspot.com Here's hoping Pennsylvania's proposed medical marijuana legislation passes!
This is my opinion on this. Let’s make it Legal and Tax it. Correct me if I am wrong but the PA Govt. is looking for a product to tax for the next 3 years and doesn't want to raise excising taxes. Legalize Marijuana but for responsible adults. Treat it such as alcohol.
You must be 21 or older to purchase and you can only purchase up to an ounce per day. You can smoke at home but not while driving and it would be illegal to drive under the influence but if you got pulled over with Marijuana in the car it wouldn't be a crime. Also all people over the age of 21 would be able to grow there own supply as long as it stayed with in there own home.
1st. You can take all the money that is spent to make sure marijuana is illegal and use it for important things like health care or lowering of another tax that is currently high.
2nd. you tax the crap out of Marijuana creating a steady source of income for the next say….100 years.
On March 23, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law an amendment to the Volstead Act known as the Cullen-Harrison Act, allowing the manufacture and sale of certain kinds of alcoholic beverages. 76 Years Later and we are still making money Taxing Alcohol and we will be doing the same 76 Years from now
So it’s a win win for everyone… we get a NEW SOURCE OF TAXABLE INCOME plus we also get more money from another thing that would no longer exist.
Let us remind Jeanne Troy that marinol has killed people and cannabis has not. Aspirin has killed people and cannabis has not. Acetaminophen has killed people and cannabis has not. The list goes on and on and on. When are the rock heads going to accept facts for facts and end this waste of time and money on a war against something that does far more good than harm. Im tired of living in a world of lies.