Deep cannabis politics

[Greg Burnham]

The federal government of the United States has declared war on Medical Cannabis dispensaries for unknown reasons. The excuses they have cited to date lack foundation. Indeed, there is no justification for their behavior besides political motivations or ignorance based fear.


The proper authority to cite when contacting Washington regarding this issue is
the TENTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. This is
significant because the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution are part of the
Bill of Rights and therefore cannot themselves be amended (changed or modified).
The items in the Bill of Rights were considered sacrosanct by the Founding
Fathers and were therefore written in stone.

THE TEXT of the TENTH AMENDMENT STATES:

Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to
the people.

-------

Since the power to regulate, prohibit, or control cannabis usage was 1) never
addressed directly or peripherally by the constitution; 2) was never delegated
to the federal government by the constitution; 3) nor was it prohibited from
the states by the constitution... --then and therefore the power to determine
the legal disposition of medical cannabis usage is CONSTITUTIONALLY reserved to
the STATES or to the PEOPLE. It is therefore UNconstitutional for the Federal
Government to disregard the wishes of the people, which was determined by a
VOTE, properly conducted, by the State of California, among others.


No matter whether or not one agrees with cannabis usage for medical reasons, the fact remains that the STATES are Constitutionally authorized to decide for themselves. The fact that the Federal Government is ignoring the Constitution on such a minor matter in the big scheme of things to the detriment of patients for whom it is NOT minor--OR FOR ANY REASON--is indicative of how far we have NOT come in reigning in their tentacles and chopping them off. Can you imagine the look of horror and outrage on the faces of and in the words of Thomas Paine and James Madison if they were alive today?


We all need to be vigilant on this. It is an outrage. It is an abuse of power. It is against our Constitution.

[Keith Millea]

Even the US Supreme Court backs you up on this one Greg.It must be a political move.

May 18, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear an appeal brought by San Diego and San Bernardino counties challenging the validity of California's medical marijuana laws. The Court's order leaves intact the rulings of California's state courts, holding that state medical marijuana laws are entirely valid despite the federal prohibition on marijuana.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented California medical marijuana patients in the proceedings, had urged the Court to decline the counties' challenge. The following may be attributed to Graham Boyd, Director of the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project:

"The Supreme Court's order marks a significant victory for medical marijuana patients and advocates nationwide. This case struck at the core of the contentious intersection between state and federal medical marijuana policy, and, once again, it is clear that state medical marijuana laws are fully valid. Coupled with the Department of Justice's recent pronouncements that the agency will respect state medical marijuana laws, the Court's order leaves ample room for states to move forward with enacting and implementing independent medical marijuana policies."

The ACLU's opposition brief to the Court can be found online
at: /drugpolicy/medmarijuana/39603lgl20090415.html

http://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/...-marijuana

[Ed Jewett]

PBS documentary highlights marijuana's amazing ability to treat disease
Monday, October 10, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033829_mariju...z1aWzP8FrV

[Keith Millea]

ASA v. Holder

ASA Sues Feds To Halt Anti-Pot Surge

by FRED GARDNER

"Keep your head down. Those feds are tough."
Former San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, to every cannabis cultivator and dispensary operator who sought his advice.

In 1996, California voters overcame a lifetime of War-on-Drugs propaganda and made marijuana legal for medical use. Today more than a million Californians have been authorized by MDs to medicate with cannabis, and certain cities and counties have passed ordinances to tax and regulate cultivation and distribution. Similar (but weaker) marijuana laws have been enacted in 15 states and Washington, D.C.

For many years the relationship between the federal government and the jurisdictions that decided to tax and regulate cannabis was essentially "don't ask, don't tell." This discreet arrangement ended in the winter of 2010-11 when Oakland's plan to license four huge indoor grows became national news. The U.S. Department of Justice warned Oakland officials that they faced criminal prosecution if they allowed the cultivation venture, and the city backed down. (Not fast enough for the city attorney, who left for safer pastures.) Since then, city and county officials up and down the state have been told by federal prosecutors that they risk prosecution themselves if they permit cannabis cultivation or distribution.

In 2011 the DOJ sent letters to officials in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, and Washington threatening to prosecute those who implemented cultivation and distribution programs. The Washington legislature had recently passed a measure, supported by Gov. Christine Gregoire, that authorized dispensaries. After a warning from federal prosecutors, Gregoire decided to veto it.

California's four U.S. Attorneys held a press conference Oct. 7 to threaten growers, dispensaries, and their landlords with long prison terms and forfeiture of their property. The prosecutors claimed they were going after "egregious" profiteers and violators of state (as well as federal) law. But less than a week later, an exemplary Mendocino County collective, Northstone Organics, was taken down by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Northstone's organizer, Matt Cohen, was growing 99 plants on his property in Redwood Valley, Mendocino County -each plant with a zip-tie around its stalk to indicate that it had been authorized and inspected by the sheriff's office. Northstone's 1,700 members in the Bay Area and Los Angeles had provided letters from physicians authorizing them to use cannabis as medicine. "If we're not legal, nobody's legal," said Cohen. "We actually are a legitimate not-for-profit corporation. We worked with the county to get where we are."

At 6 a.m. on Oct. 13 DEA agents stormed into the bedroom of Matt and Courtenay Cohen, yelling and brandishing automatic weapons. When the Cohens explained that their grow was in compliance with California law and Mendocino County ordinance 9.31, the feds scoffed and called the county program permitting cultivation "a sham." The Cohens were handcuffed for eight hours while their house was ransacked and their plants chainsawed down and hauled off in a truck. The raid was a "smash-and-grab" -the Cohens were not arrested and it's unlikely that they will be charged. The effects will be to deprive Northstone Organics' members of high-quality, sungrown herb, and to make Mendocino growers question whether they want to pay for the protection of the sheriff next year. (The innovative program generated close to $300,000 for the county in 2011.) Northstone Organics -Matt Cohen's sweet dream- is finished for the foreseeable future.

If the Drug Warriors only pursued blatant profiteers and violators of state law, the fully compliant non-profits would benefit and a regulated medical marijuana industry would thrive. They have to take down some righteous growers and distributors in order to scare others into folding -or at least not expanding. (No better example than the 2002 DEA raid on WAMM, a Santa Cruz garden grown mainly for hospice patients.)

A 10th Amendment Argument
The raid on Northstone Organics is cited in a suit that Americans for Safe Access filed in federal court Oct. 27 on behalf of ASA's approximately 20,000 members in California "who are adversely affected by the federal government's selective targeting of medical marijuana providers and its direct threats against California political subdivisions in an attempt to disrupt state law."

One such patient is a 48-year-old chronic pain sufferer who first used marijuana while undergoing chemotherapy and now uses it to reduce his intake of morphine. This patient, "Due to a recent federal raid on Northstone Organics… lost his proportionate share of the medical marijuana cultivated by the cooperative and he will be impeded from obtaining his medicine because no other delivery service provides medical marijuana at the same low cost."
The defendants are U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, Melinda Haag. ASA is seeking an injunction "requiring defendant to cease the unconstitutional behavior of the Department of Justice and requiring it to return the marijuana seized from Northstone Organics."
ASA contends that California has a right under the 10th Amendment "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people" to regulate the practice of medicine. It follows that California can legalize the medical use of marijuana (defined by physician approval) while non-medical use remains a crime. The federal government has violated the 10th Amendment, ASA argues, by "seeking to coerce and commandeer the police power and legislative and executive functions of the state of California and its political subdivisions in regard to the implementation of the State's medical marijuana laws."

Eureka, Arcata, Chico, El Centro, and Sacramento are listed as California cities that have been "coerced by the federal government to change their local laws regarding medical marijuana." The threat to Eureka was typical. The City Council received a letter Aug. 15 from Melinda Haag stating that the Department of Justice was "concerned about the City of Eureka's creation of a licensing scheme that permits large-scale industrial marijuana cultivation, processing, and distribution… If the City of Eureka were to proceed, this office would consider injunctive actions, civil fines, criminal prosecution, and the forfeiture of any property used to facilitate a violation of the Controlled Substance Act."

History Matters
"This federal policy of coercion began at the inception of California's medical marijuana laws in 1996," ADA's suit asserts, referring to a series of emergency meetings chaired by Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey in the weeks after Prop 215 passed. It's an important point the federal position on medical marijuana has been consistently Prohibitionist.

The feds tried to dis-implement the new law by threatening to revoke the prescription-writing license of any doctor who approved marijuana use by patients. The threat was announced by McCaffrey at a well-publicized press conference on Dec. 30, 1996. Flanked by Attorney General Janet Reno and other Clinton Administration officials, the Drug Czar dismissed medical marijuana as "Cheech and Chong medicine" and ridiculed Tod Mikuriya's claim that it alleviated a wide range of symptoms.

Within weeks, lawyers backed by Ethan Nadelmann (whose group was then called the Lindesmith Center) filed a suit, Conant v. McCaffrey, to enjoin the feds from carrying out their threat. UCSF's Marcus Conant, MD, was a perfect lead plaintiff because of his work with AIDS patients. Tod Mikuriya, MD, was not included among the many co-plaintiffs, although it was Tod who had helped draft Prop 215 and whom McCaffrey had threatened by name.

In March '97 a federal judge who had been appointed by Reagan, Fern Smith, granted Conant et al their injunction on free-speech grounds the doctor-patient conversation is protected by the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Amendment. When the 9[SUP]th[/SUP] Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the injunction, Judge Kozinski wrote in a concurring opinion that the federal policy of threatening physicians violated the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] Amendment because it "deliberately undermines the state by incapacitating the mechanism the state has chosen for separating what is legal from what is illegal under state law."

"A minor slight," is how Tod described not being included in Conant. He was more dismayed by the reform leaders "pulling all their resources out of California to promote the master plan," i.e., to pass medical marijuana laws, no matter how restrictive, state-by-state, until so many have been enacted that the federal government has to accede somehow. Tod called Prop 215 "a unique research opportunity" and thought the movement's most important task was to document the safety and medical efficacy of cannabis a job for clinicians and epidemiologists, not campaign consultants and media messengers.

Fred Gardner was District Attorney Hallinan's public information officer, 2000-02. In 2003 he co-founded O'Shaughnessy's with Tod Mikuriya, MD. He can be reached at fred@plebesite.com.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/04/a...pot-surge/

[Peter Lemkin]

On one level they just don't like the idea of 1] cheap and effective medicine that is not produced by BIG Pharma and 2] don't like people knowing that natural substances can act as medicines 3] anyone cutting into their drug dealing 4] that allowing medical M.J. might someday allow for its complete legalization. :nono: That the decriminalization of drugs may someday follow, emptying the prison-industrial complex and not controlling a sizable swath of the population. hock:

[Keith Millea]

Scientists have decoded the genome structure of the cannibis plant.Now,they are researching the many different properties (alcoloids etc)in order to produce new medicines.I guess this is good,but of course these meds will cost a fortune.What's that old saying?

Smoke em' if you got em'........Peace Out

[Greg Burnham]

October 25, 2011

Dear Congresswoman Davis,

I am writing to urge you to sign a petition from Representative Sam Farr asking President Obama to end federal interference with state-sanctioned medical cannabis (marijuana) programs by rescheduling cannabis or by supporting the adoption of legislation that would achieve the same goal.

Earlier this month, California's four US Attorneys announced a major escalation in federal pressure against medical cannabis dispensaries and property owners in California. Despite the Obama Administration's promise not to circumvent state law, the US Attorneys stated that federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana". Not only is that statement unconstitutional, it has led to new raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration, leaving thousands of patients without access to the medication they desperately need to treat the symptoms of cancer, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, chronic pain, and other serious conditions.

In reality, the states have the authority to pass legislation on items, including cannabis, that were not prohibited to them by the constitution. California passed such legislation 15 years ago. It is unconstitutional for the federal government to ignore the wishes of the people, particularly when those wishes were made clear through a properly conducted vote in 1996. The Department Of Justice is displaying a blatant disregard for the Bill of Rights, particularly the 10th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which states the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that: "Powers not granted to the United States [Federal Government] nor prohibited to the states by the Constitution are reserved, respectively, to the states or the people."

No matter what your personal stand on the specific issue of Medicinal Cannabis might be, it remains your responsibility, as my elected representative, to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Please sign Representative Farr's petition to President Obama to help protect safe access to medical cannabis in the sixteen states and the District of Columbia where it is already legal. By doing so, not only will you assist those in need of this medication, but you will also address a perhaps even larger illness: The unconstitutional Federal encroachment on States' Rights, which is specifically prohibited by the only portion of the Constitution that is not itself subject to amendment, aka: The Bill of Rights, which includes the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] Amendment.

Thank you in advance for acting in accordance with your sworn duty in this matter,

Gregory Burnham

[Keith Millea]

Thank You Greg....

US Reps, CA AG Chide Feds on Medical Marijuana

by Phillip Smith, November 01, 2011, 01:24am, (Issue #707)

The unhappy reaction to the renewed federal offensive against medical marijuana growers and distributors continues to spread, with several members of Congress and California's attorney general among the latest to voice their displeasure.



Since the Sacramento press conference last month where California's four US Attorneys announced a crackdown on the medical marijuana using heavy-handed raids on businesses in exemplary compliance with state and local laws and a wave of letters to dispensary landlords threaten property seizure or even criminal prosecution if they don't throw out their medical marijuana tenants, reaction among medical marijuana supporters, including elected officials, has been growing.

On Friday, nine members of Congress, led by Reps. Sam Farr (D-CA) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), sent a letter to President Obama expressing "concern with the recent activity by the Department of Justice against legitimate medical marijuana dispensaries in California that are operating legally under state law." The other congressional signers were Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO), Pete Stark (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), and Bob Filner (D-CA).

Citing "aggressive SWAT-style federal raids in at least seven states," as well as threats directed at landlords and elected officials, the solons told the president such actions "directly interfere with California's 15-year-old medical cannabis law by eliminating safe access to medication for the state's thousands of medical marijuana patients."

The nine US representatives called on the president to reschedule marijuana as either a Schedule II or Schedule III drug with recognized medicinal uses, either by administrative action or by supporting legislation to achieve that end. A bill that would do just that, H.R. 1983, the States' Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, has already been filed, they helpfully pointed out.

More[URL="http://stopthedrugwar.org/topics/drug_war_issues/marijuana_policy"] HERE
[/URL]
OMG...That old dinosaur Pete Stark is still around....:lol:

[Peter Lemkin]

In the light of full disclosure, I tried it least once - but like Clinton I didn't inhale :mexican: :rofl: I also had a personal friend dying of AIDS-HIV and they took it, illegally, as the ONLY drug that helped them through the pain and lack of appetite of the last months of their life.

[I think the poll below underestimates the numbers, but....]

The Netherlands, with its permissive marijuana laws, may be known as the cannabis capital of the world. But a survey published this month in PLoS Medicine, a journal of the Public Library of Science, suggests that the Dutch don't actually experiment with pot as much as one would expect. Despite tougher drug policies in the U.S., Americans were twice as likely to have tried marijuana than the Dutch, according to the survey. In fact, Americans were more likely to have tried marijuana or cocaine than people in any of the 16 other countries, including France, Spain, South Africa, Mexico and Colombia, that the survey covered.

Researchers found that 42% of people surveyed in the U.S. had tried marijuana at least once, and 16% had tried cocaine. About 20% of residents surveyed in the Netherlands, by contrast, reported having tried pot; in Asian countries, such as Japan and China, marijuana use was virtually "non-existent," the study found. New Zealand was the only other country to claim roughly the same percentage of pot smokers as the U.S., but no other nation came close to the proportion of Americans who reported trying cocaine.

[Albert Doyle]

Marijuana could be said to objectively lower math scores. (Not to back draconian federal action - just sayin')