California lawmaker calls for new federal medical marijuana policy
State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Joint Resolution 14 yesterday, calling on Congress and the president to enact national policies allowing patients and their caregivers safe access to medical marijuana. The resolution urges an immediate end to DEA raids on medical marijuana facilities in accordance with statements made by Attorney General Eric Holder that such activities are no longer consistent with Department of Justice priorities.
Similar to another resolution also introduced by Mr. Leno and approved by the legislature in 2003, S.J.R. 14 calls for the federal government to permit individuals with charged with medical marijuana-related offenses to use an affirmative defense in federal court. It declares the legislature’s support for advancing clinical research trials on the therapeutic use of marijuana and enacting a federal policy that ensures “safe and legal access to any patient who would benefit from it.”
The resolution will be heard in Senate committees later this month and will hopefully be approved by the full state legislature before the end of the year. If you are from California and want to help ensure the passage of this compassionate resolution, visit mpp.org/subscribe and make sure you’re signed up for MPP’s state e-mail alerts.
Tagged with: California and Mark Leno by the author
30 comments
Medical shmedical…legalize it for everyone. Remove MJ from the sheduled drug list all together.
JD, Washington works in slow motion and needs to be in a position of Moral high ground. So us Medical Patients who need this medicine will get it from the Government first. Once that is an established protocol, then everyone else will get it next. Remember Prohibition only keeps Drug Kingpins and Prison Guards and Lawyers employed and the Drug War killed thousands in Mexico last year. Try that as a justification for legalization rather than me first, and you may win some hearts and minds. Remember Freedom needs to be Justified to the People who have taken it away. I get angry just like you JD. Keep up the good fight.
The Federal Government just needs to follow the law that they wrote and remove marijuana from Schedule I. Robert is right, that those with medical issues should have access to it NOW. Why should they continue to suffer?
There are plenty of reasons that marijuana should be available to anyone that wants to use it. That is going to be part of the debate that will enevitably need to occur once it is removed from Schedule I.
The biggest issue that I see is that every time a Government Agency talks about Medical Marijuana they use the term “smoked marijuana”. This is their only way to continue to say that there are health risk associated with “smoking marijuana” and therefore “smoking marijuana” can not be a medicine. As activists we have to continue to push back against this misleading stereotype (go to the DEA website and see what they say about medical marijuana). In every instance they refer to “smoked marijuana” as having no future in medicine.
So my question to them is this: “Why would vaporized marijuana not be considered medicine?” If you main issue with “smoked” marijuana is the fact that your inhaling carcinogens (if your harming yourself how can it be medicine) then looking at alternative, proven delivery methods should be considered. If technology allows us to eliminate the carcinogens, than what issue do you have now? (Well… besides the fact that Big Pharmaceutical Companies can’t profit off it)
State E-Mail announcements from you, MPP, have been precision moments in action to support MMJ issues.
Say hello to Congressman Bart Gordon, Democratic 6th District Congressmen, Cookeville, Tennessee.
Your either in the circle of legislation or out of the circle. Thanks for keeping me “IN” the political game sports fans at MPP!
Tennessee Activist
Just making sure I’m reading your post correctly. Did you say that you are Bart Gordon?
I’m in my 20s. College graduate with out a job in my field for the past year. Graduated college with a 3.5 GPA.
Other than that, I think I will see marijuana prohibition ended. It is clearly a push by older Americans who do not know the use value and effects of marijuana usage. It is also a push by people who are employed by the “drug war”. Like Robert Vetter said.
U.S.A. system of government is disassembled. I live in Wisco and anything with marijuana moves like the ice in the winter time. I fear it is the lobbyists of alcohol “Tavern League” and also paper industry (funny because this is something I went to school for) that aid is slow movement of marijuana in the state. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin feels ending marijuana prohibition would be sending the wrong image to our younger generation (Oh did I also tell you he cheated on his wife? What is more wrong… 1) smoking marijuana OR 2) cheating on your wife???).
medical marijuana is just clouding things up. legalize it and the problem is solved.
“HEMP REFORM”
God put hemp on the world for a reason, and the government, assumes higher power than GOD and makes anybody that has anything to do with it a criminal, That’s ABSURD
Hemp is our greatest natural resource
The industrial value
The medical value
The recreational value
We need to change the movement to “HEMP REFORM” instead of “Marijuana Legalization”
Marijuana has a bad connotation given by the corupt polititions and “Refer Madness” in the 30’s and 40’s
We should not even use the word marijuana
Then use the term Cannabis… Hemp and Cannabis are two totally different plants
hemp and cannabis are the same plant but hemp is bred to have more fibrous stalks… you cant really get high from a hemp plant because all the energy goes into the stalk and not the bud.
i agree that it should be legalized across the board. 230 cities have drug cartels profiting off of marijuana. enough is enough.
It would be nice to see states grow, regulate, tax, sell and employee through hemp and cannibis production. Some states might even have some closed textile, manufacturing (auto) plants or even family farms that could be used in some way.
I agree to taking cannibis off the narcotic schedule all together. HR 1866 should help take care of hemp.
ACOUNTABILITY has been served to the DOJ. Thanks MPP!
And here is the counter attack
http://www.examiner.com/x-11932-Portland-Drug-Policy-Examiner~y2009m6d10-Changing-the-perception-of-marijuana
In all due respect to “loves God”.I am an older American at the age of 57,I have consuned for38 years.I have forgotten more about the effects of the almighty herb than you currently know.Many of us old timers are trying just as hard as the young whippersnappers to get this legalized.Like you, I thought 38 years ago,that I woulld be smoking legal herb well before my 50th birthday.Guess what? It ain’t happened yet.Keep on tryin.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper on AC360 will be doing more coverage for more information go to
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/
When this is aired go to his blog to let our voice be heard . 10 EST
When will it be Aired? i wanna watch that.
This is what I copied from CNN the whole thing may be found at
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/
when you go there look on the right side and you will see this. I Am planning on attending the blog at that time to say this to him…..
“Evening Anderson and fellow Americans.
I and many thousands of other Americans know that if marijuana was legalized and taxed that
the the cartel would be lose 60 + % of their annual profit which would be like
cutting off the legs of a chicken to the cartel. The only thing the Govt. is doing is suppling the cartel
which gets more stronger drugs from the Taliban in which is also suppling the Taliban. What we and
the Govt. need to be doing is not suppling them but helping our nation by taking away the cartels
annual profit which would also cut off the Taliban which would make it much easier for our Govt. to
fight terrorists who pose a threat to our nation. Alcohol & Tobaco are more addictive and more
dangerous than marijuana ever could be combined yet marijuana which has a 0 death number is keep
illegal when Alcohol and Tobaco causes more death and violence yet alcohol and tobaco are legalized
and taxed.”
NEXT WEEK: ‘America’s High’
Can the U.S. afford to make pot legal? Can we afford not to? We’re keeping them honest on both sides of the argument. All next week, 10 ET
JOIN: LIVE BLOG Weeknights 10p ET
SURVEY: Your input on CNN.com and this site
Jeremy R.:
Thanks for the heads up on next weeks discussion on CNN. We all need to pass this information around to each of the activist sites so that all of us are logged on to the discussions.
“Keepin’ ‘Em Honest” —- let’s make sure we are there to do just that!
Staff @ MPP:
Do you have any more information about the programming that will be happening next week on CNN? Will any of you be participating in any debates? Two Points:
When they go on their rant about marijuana being a danger to society:
—– Zero Deaths from Overdose EVER (research proves that it is physically impossible to do so)
When they say that marijuana has no medicinal value they will inevitably mention the 1999 IOM report:
—– “Smoked” Marijuana is being used by the Government in an effort to say that it is a harmful delivery method and therefore cannot be considered medicine…. but you can bake marijuana (no carcinogens) or you can vaporize it (no carcinogens) which should eliminate the heath concerns. They have to use the term “smoked” marijuana or their claims would be proven false. Everyone knows smoking anything is bad… let’s use or knowledge of SCIENCE and CHEMISTRY to eliminate the carcinogens and the harm we do to our bodies.
—– Why does the Department of HHS hold a US Patent describing cannabinoids in a manner consistant with medicinal value (as a neuroprotectant)?
Just a word to pass along. There IS a quiet revolution going on in this country on many front and issuses.. If you see or know anyone who is getting “jumpy”, remind them that violence will only harm any progress made in any aspect of this revolution.
DarthNole:
Np I am always ready to help the cause. If / When I find out more about the CNN coverage i WILL post it for all to see. Look forward to seeing the MPP , NORML and any others who will be on there helping our cause.
#5, NO I’m not Bart Gordon you silly goose, I wanted MPP’s Congressional Commitee to say hello to my Congressman, FOR ME, if they were ever in the same room. I apologize for any confusion.
JD, I couldn’t agree more. Putting marijuana in the same catagory as heroin and opium is absolutely riduculous.
ROE, I do agree with you, but then again I dont. The civil war was fought not because a large portion of southerners wanted to have slaves *only 29% of southerners owned slaves* but they fought because they wanted and believed state’s rights should overturn ANY AND ALL federal laws. So is violence nessassary? NO. but I do believe that something like this might happen again because of our politicians. Its sad. 1000 people that are voted into office by millions will cause this country to fall…
Also, on a different note, did anyone see the Jon Stewart episode where the economist that predicted our DEPRESSION was on? He was the one that said the DEPRESSION was coming when housing market was up 30% and the DOW was at 14,000. People laughed at him. Now he is saying that the USA is not done with this DEPRESSION and we as a country will fall. The US $ will have no value. America will have to sell itself. If this is true, which it can happen, then why is Congress not legalizing and taxing pot? PULL THE ECONOMY OUT OF THE SHITTER. LEGALIZE. TAX. SMOKE. VAPORIZE.
http://www.taxcannabis2010.org/
I sure hope this advances NC’s Medical Marijuana Bill, HB 1380, whch was introduced on April 9, 2009 and passed first reading on April 13. Now in Health Committee, we are moving toward safe, legal access for NC’s patients.
Senator Mark Leno:
Thank you for trying to take the Patients out of the Governments cross hairs!!! I am a Veteran, (Army) and you’ve got my vote anytime!!!!
Once again, Thank You Senator Mark Leno!!!!
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I would like to mention in trlation to the piece I wrote on the blog concerning the clarification of DOJ policy that I support the legalization of medical, non-medical and re3ligious usus of cannabis. My objection was that many medical marijuana laws wrongly exclude people like me who have high blood pressure from having medical cannabis. I object strongly to the use of the term “recreatioal” marijuana to stand for what is more properly called non-medical cannabis. I support non-medical and religious legalization of cannabis, not just medical cannabis legalization
it’s sad but true, pain-ridden 61 year old legal card holding patient is being kicked out of a federally operated seniors’ residence in hawaii, for what? for smoking her medication to relieve her excruciating back pain. she will be joining the ranks of the homeless.
did someone say that the president mentioned that the feds will stay out of the laws which the states make in regards to medical marijuana? well, here in maui county their helicopters are harrassing medical patients and taking their plants. many patients cannot fight back, they are too sick and too scared.
when, oh when, will this mid-eaval witch hunt stop? when can these patients have a legal dispensary to buy their meds from instead of having to look over their shoulders and buy from dealers?
It seems that the U.S. Government would rather arrest inosent than the guilty. Little old ladies using Marijuana are easier to take down than Meth labs and real drug pushers. Cowards and bullies are everywere in our government. Compasion and logic…not so much. Like one great man once said; LIfe is tough, it’s even tougher if your stupid.
truly, Jack Meoff
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