Medical marijuana in Kansas?

A Lawrence-based group says it's going to seek a statewide law allowing medical marijuana, the Journal-World reports. (Link to the group's Web page.)

Comments

[JewwellsP]

Good Luck, three counties rule Kansas(82,277 square miles of it).
Douglas is not one of them.

[w]

we only wish...ks is wayyyy too conservative.

[jpbikerfreak]

For the record, KS Reps votes on the Hinchey Amendment:

Moore: Y
Moran: N
Tiahrt: N
Boyda: N

Please call to thank Dennis Moore if you're in the 3rd district. All others remember on election day.

[jpbikerfreak]

BTW, Laura Green is a heck of a woman who fights day in an dday out for this cause. Please give your support to her group - she needs all the help she can get!

Let's do something besides sit here and blog.

It's ridiculous that physicians can perscribe marinol (Synthetic pot) but patients aren't allowed to smoke it.

Where are all the pro-choice people who say it's best for the government to stay out of the doctor's office?

Where's the evidence that there is any harm in smoking pot - particularly when the patient is going to die anyway?

where is there any record of ANYONE dying as a direct result of marijuana ingestion? ONE?

Better stop now LOL.

[Moral City USA]

Good Luck!!

Even if they did succeed, our US Congress just rejected a measure that would have exempted citizens in local communities (with an allowance for medical marijuana) from federal prosectution.

Feds will get you anyway.

[jpbikerfreak]

Libertarian, (interesting)...

That was the hinchey amendment that I referred to.

[jpbikerfreak]

Ken,

Please e-mail me when you get a chance.. jpbikerfreak@yahoo.com

[DSW]

If there going to die anyways what the heck is the point? I mean I don’t care if there doing crack (I’m very anti drug BTW). We have all these no drugs rules to protect peoples bodies. If there dieing anyways and this would ease the pain go for it.

I don’t know how many people did pot when they where young but all it does is calm you and relaxes you. Unlike hard liquor.

Why on earth cant we just let people die in piece? I'm all for legalizing pot now. Just make it where you can only do it at home and its taxed the heck out of it. Also if you have kids, and you buy some Legalized pot, then once a month your kids get tested. If they ever fail you get fined out the rear. Then if it happens again you go to jail kid goes to a home.

Advantage would be at least this way we (government) can make sure the kids are being protected. Where right now there not.

[Mickey Mouse]

jpbikerfreak:

Synthetic THC. The big PHARM is the culprit. Just with everything else. You can't pass a drug screen until you have a prescription, then it's legal. How many people do you think are addicted to "legal drugs." sad but true... Q. Why do you think big companies wanted to drug test people anyway. A. To get the addictive "illegal" drugs out of the way to make way for addictive "legal" drugs via prescription. It's all about big business with big $$.

[Quad Kings]

Conservatives should support medical (and recreational) marijuana. Such a stance is consistent with the "government stay out of my business" stance (with which I happen to agree). The biggest controversial laws come from legislating things about which there is (perhaps) majority support but not near-universal support. Things like abortion, sentencing guidelines, and, yes...drug use. We all (almost all) agree that things like murder, rape, child molestation, and theft (to name a few) are wrong. Even things like driving over a certain speed have near-universal support. So we have laws enforcing those social norms. But when a slim majority passes morality-based legislation, or laws to protect us from ourselves, they are overreaching, do-gooders that really belong in a Socialist or Communist society. Generally, the government should keep its big fat snout out of our business!

[n]

I dont understand why people cannot get behind this type of legislation. only 62% think it is ok? what is wrong with the other 38%! seriously, we are bombarded with drugs that cary all sorts of side effects that are more dangerous than pot and they have adds on tv... we allow alcohol and tobacco to stay legal and both have shown considerably greater health concerns. why are we so 2 faced? legalize it already!

[Bill]

We do not need to legalize a drug that really has no medical benefit. The drug companies have drugs to help these people.
The people that are for this are also the people who are promoting apathy, and sloth.
When people are not in their right mind, they let others do the thinking for them.
This only leads to more government control.
Also, this would be used as a step to the full legalization of marijuana. I am not suprised that Dennis Moore voted for this. Does this guy become more and more brain dead the longer he is in Washington?

[w]

do you have proof it has no medical benefit? studies all the time point in other directions.
(I should know, i had to write a 10 page paper on it..)

[Duke]

HUGS NOT DRUGS! (Unless it's a little bit of the Chronic for my glaucoma...)

[Brett]

If you guys have the on demand channels (I can't remember if its' HBO, Cinemax or Showtime) they have a documentary on there right now called "In Pot We Trust" about the medical marijuana issue. It's an interesting watch and shows the types of people this would help (although some seem like extreme cases). If a doctor says a patient would benefit from it, who is anyone else to say they shouldn't be allowed to use it? I don't buy the slippery slope argument that this would lead to legalization either. Tons of prescription drugs are illegal without a prescription, so what's the big deal?

[JTW]

Isn't it interesting that so much is made to do about the evil marijuana .... and tobacco .... while one of the most evil drugs of all, alcohol, continues to enjoy wide-open acceptance and use free of government interference and regulations (other than restricted sales during certain days and certain times of the day.) We've all read about repeat offending DUI drivers who leave court with a slap on the wrist despite the fact that, while blitzed, they could have easily killed innocents in other vehicles. In fact, many have killed innocents in other vehicles. I don't understand it, but am resigned to the fact that the use of marijuana is not a health issue, it's a political issue.

[aaron]

There is a website that has a lot of information about both sides of the debate on medical marijuana: www.medicalmarijuanaprocon.org.

[Do Not Delete]

"our US Congress just rejected a measure that would have exempted citizens in local communities (with an allowance for medical marijuana) from federal prosectution."

Big deal. They only have so much funding and so much manpower.

Currently, AK, CA, CO, HI, ME, MT, NV, NM, OR, RI, VT, and WA all allow Medical Marijuana. That's 25% of all states.

Can the DEA police 25% of the states, covering millions of people, without State and Local police assistance? No.

It's called a "meat shield". Get enough people out in front there, and they can't possibly take us down.

The situation is reaching a tipping point. Let's push it right over.

[jessilizzi]

Glad I don't live in Kansas anymore... here in Hawaii it's even legal for those with a prescription to grow their own.

[JC_in_KC]

n - I would like to see your study with a 62% approval for weed. This will not pass, no matter what study you read from High Times, the majority is still against legal drugs, including weed. It will be great the next homie rolling down the street high as a kite shooting the police will at least have a medical excuse.

[Shawn O'Brien]

What all need to realize it is our Civil Right to smoke Cannabis. This statement should be be made by all going to court. It is your body to do with as you wish as long as you do not endanger your life or cause harm to others.

Tobacco and alcohol alone kill more people daily and harm many others also, yet it is legal for an adult to use these substances. Cannabis does not cause this much harm to any one, not even the smoker.

Now about US studies on Cannabis, not expectable in court as evidence, as they have controlled who and why it can be studied, so these studies have no back up as the Fed's have not allowed any other research to be done and will not recognize any other studies not done by them.

It is time to end this crap, and that is all it is, crap. They have lied to the people for many years to keep control over it, it is not theirs to control, it is a God given plant grown by mother nature for the benefit of man for food and shelter.

If you make the statement that your "civil rights are being violated" then later when this case is heard and one, well I believe all those that made claim to being violated would be released.

I have spent much time on this subject, need more, but a brother is being held for growing and I do hope this works, a big fight, but it has to be done, as we are all having the Fed's violate our Civil right's, it is that simple. They are also falsely enslaving American's, holding them against their will and their right to freedom, again they did not do no harm to another or themselves, so there is no crime, so why are they held in prision???????

None of us owes any government ANYTHING, other than for what we have taken from that government. we are all born free and equal, like the birds, the bears and the squirrels. And NONE of us chose the place we'd drop through that birth canal; citizenship is a toss of cosmic dice, thrown by an invisible hand.

The fact that we even have things regarded as 'consensual crimes' directly implies that we are dealing with quasi-slavery here; persons, both groups and individuals, who think that it's o.k. for one being to set the bounds for another for how they live, what they eat, drink, or smoke, etc. in a land that DARES to call itself 'free' is appalling. People have died for MUCH less offense in history.

It's a violation of the very concept of freedom and a free market-place, and an affront to a country that wants to pretend that it ended slavery in the 1800s, when, in fact, as every day goes by, Uncle Schmuck attempts to establish a greater lien of ownership on our flesh; attempting to define the courses of our lives in ever more specific and finite ways.

Plain and Simple: The Federal Government is out of touch with the will of the people. If we truly had a government of the people and for the people then the Feds wouldn't be busting the medical marijuana clinics in Ca. or the care givers in Oregon The PEOPLE voted these clinics "legal" over 10 years ago. The Feds seem to forget that their job is to protect the values set forth in the Constitution. For them to continue to persecute individuals ( Such as Ed Rosenthal and the hundreds of legal medical marijuana users)who are following the laws as voted on by "The People" is the living proof of how tyrannical our Federal Government has become. They have substituted Government by the People for Government by the Government.
These actions make the word "legal" a meaningless verb.

The drug problem is this: the United States government has usurped responsibility for running the lives of its citizens.
How is it that government continues to get away with the looting of taxpayers to fund the destruction of "free" citizens' lives due to ingestion of substances declared taboo by government?
Terrorists? That's Orwellian doublespeak --- by far the greater destruction is the oppression and imprisonment of innocent people for the "crime" of doing what they wish while harming no other.
This country has gone stunningly astray from the principles articulated in the revolutionary founding documents. The very existence of the evil DEA, ATF and such (the list of tyrannical federal agencies which WE fund, without recourse, is very long) is antithetical to liberty.
The question becomes: will America's citizens one day reach a critical mass of awareness of the usurpation of liberty by our own government to say "Im mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore"?
The US Constitution was intended to protect the liberty of Americans from government. How's it working today?

[JUST JOE]

PEOPLE*****************

Marinol does not give you the effect of pot, not even close. It is used mainly to stimulate appetite in people that are not eating, mainly elderly.

[Just Joe]

Shawn, How do you really feel?

[JUNGLE JIM]

Our government is only trying to protect us from ourselves. We are total idiots and need a full-time nanny to slap our hands whenever we try to touch something that could harm us. Here's proof....

Pensioner told she can't tend flowerbed unless she erects warning signs and wears a fluorescent jacket

[Melissa]

The only way this will EVER change is at the Federal level by ENDING the war on drugs. So instead of whinning on a blog about how you can't take control back of your personal liberties because BIG BROTHER is in control, find a presidential candidate to support that will. I found mine and it's Ron Paul. He will end the War on Drugs and all the rest of the government BS. www.ronpaul2008.com. Check him out!!!

[Rob Z]

I remember back in the 60's and 70'S we use to have go to Loose Park and Volker park for our "medical" mariquana. The government should legalize it in small quanitities.It took them over a 100 years to combat cigarattes. Alcohol is still legal. Meth and ice are now the mainstays of the farmboys. They can't stop it drugs anywhere in the world not even here. It is just another law to put on the books and not enforce. Kansas once put someone in prison for a joint. Now in many states you get a court citation. Should it be legal yes, will it ever be no.As for its' medicinal uses. Give me a break. There are lots of ways to ease pain, legally. In the meantime plan a trip to Amsterdam. Not gonna happen here.

[jason]

Pot shouldn't be illegal in the first place. Alcohol is legal and in every way worse for you than pot. Marijuana is harmless. The worst side effect is that it makes people lazy. It's not like we already aren't lazy enough, what difference is it going to make especially for sick people? All I can think of is less people would be arrested for nothing?? I guess thats a bad thing?

[jack]

I spent 20 years as an internationally cerified drug abuse counselor. Hate to rain on anyone's parade, but here are a few facts:

1) All humans have an innate desire to "mind alter". Some do it by running, some by dancing, or churching, or sexing or whatever. But all do it. Watch little kids play "helicopter". They are getting a buzz and loving it!

2) A drug's status as legal or illegal has absolutly nothing to do with it's effects, positive or negative.

3) All drugs, letgal or illegal, have serious potential harmful consequences. Anyone who has ever seen the inside of a pot pipe knows that marijuana is not "harmless". All that gooey crap is going into your lungs.

4) When alcohol was illegal, harmful use went up. It was a fun way to thumb your nose at the government.

5) Making alcohol illegal gave rise to the modern mafia.

6) Money from illegal drugs is what fuels the "gang" problem in the United States.

7) The way the problems associated with illegal alcohol were solved was to make it legal.

8) It is easier to get illegal drugs in a school than to get alcohol. Why? Because they are illegal. The liquour store has a lot to lose, the dealer has nothing to lose.

9) Anyone with 20/800 vision can see that we lost any "war on drugs" a very long time ago.

10) Virtually all the problems associated with "illegal drugs" disappear if they become legal.

Folks, it is way past time we opened up the "Kansas State Drug Store" and got it over with!

[Quad Kings]

Now Brett, that was something with which I can agree. Well said.

[KC Brougham]

They've been doing it California for quite awhile with no negative effects. What's the big deal?

When you think about the chemicals they put in cigarettes, on the paper and the tobacco and how it stinks so bad, what it does to your health, there really is no justification for disallowing medical marijuana.

[Rob Z]

will the Kansas State Drug Store, also sell condoms, birth control pills, lottery tickets, alcohol, and cigarettes? If so, where will I be able to see about a franchise? Good post Jack!I forgot that the Mafia was nurtured by the feds.

[KC Brougham]

Well gee, if it weren't for illegal booze, JFK may not have become president.

Anybody here, seen my old Bobby, can you tell me where he's gone,.

[Doc™]

10) Virtually all the problems associated with "illegal drugs" disappear if they become legal. - jack

Wow, that is so true, why when alcohol was illegal there were so many deaths, now that it's legal again death by a drunk driver has just been wiped out.

But since this is a marijuana thread, I've know many people who use it for many reasons and find it pretty funny that after they smoke they seem to forget things you tell them when they are high. That and they sure do cough a lot.

[KC Brougham]

Look at Amsterdam. They legalized pot years ago to drive a wedge between hardcore drug users and the recreational pot smoker. One problem it solved is that regular folk who want to toke a little don't have to associate with hardcore criminals. The penalties and enforcement of laws for hard drugs is much harsher than in the States. Neighboring Germany doesn't like it but "das ist aber schade". It's a viable plan.

[tagwa]

The people that dont vote in THC as a legal drug probably, fully believed in the movie "Refer Madness".

[Kansas dad]

Best article on web about use of canibus during chemo for cancer...of course, normally blocked now at libraries and schools due to URL/domain name !

http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=373

That Mr. Moran can't get facts over myths in his votes against people on chemo. will be an issue in next election.

[Old Crank]

ATTENTION DEMOCRATS: The system is broken, both parties have lost their way. Check out the Libertarian Party. If you want CHANGE in government, you have to get a party in power that is run by PRINCIPALS, not promises. Check out the Libertarian stand on pot- and other issues. They are all about personal freedom.

http://www.lp.org/issues/libertarian.shtml

wake up sheep!

The BS Tyranny has gone on too long!

I'm tired of the shepard watching me graze...

[BeProudAmerica]

One reason why marijuana will never become legal, the push for public health care.

I am all for legalizing marijuana, less harmfull that liquor and our legal systems is already overworked. Let's prosecute the real criminals.

Back to the public health care issue, we are going to see more and more rights go away to personal life. If a public health care system is put in place, more restrictions will be put in place with the argument that since the public tax dollars is paying for health care, then there should be laws for healthier lifestyles to reduce tax payer burden for health care costs.

Sad to say, we will probably see cigarette illegal before we see marijuana legal. (and I don't smoke either)

[KC Cicero]

True conservatives -- a la W. F. Buckley -- favor the decriminalization of marijuana. True liberals are willing to let others do things of which they personally disaprove. It is a combination of the religious right and nannystate fascists who disagree -- fueled, as always, by the criminal industry complex paid billions to protect us against ourselves by locking us up in fear and -- when fear doesn't work -- real chains.

Free citizens should be free to smoke what they choose. Period. If not, they are not free. Will Kansas become a Free State?

[ghost]

There is a interesting and rather old book called "The Emperior Has No Clothes" which talks about the Real reasons pot is illegal. Goes all the way back to Hurst. Check it out.

[JC_in_KC]

I love it when your best argument for legalization is that other items are worse. It clearly reminds me of my kinds when they get called out on something they have done. 'Well so and so did that'. I really do not give a damn what substances are worse, hell there are probably lots. I really do not give a damn about what countries are better, pick your @ss up and move there.

[KC Brougham]

Marijuana being illegal is not an inherently American concept or integral to being partiotic. Marijuana has been legal for the more years than not in the history of the country.

People will continue to smoke pot whether it is legal or not, so making it legal isn't necessarily going to up the number of people who will be driving around stoned. Most people don't enjoy having a foggy mind. I drink beer but I don't hit it every morning before I head out to work or every night for that matter. Beer is legal but you don't see little kids pounding down frosty cold ones in the corner of the playground. Get things in perspective. Be reasonable.

[bw]

Sounds like JC_in_KC has watched "Reefer Madness" too many times. Associating hard core criminals with something used as wide spread as pot is just shows how ignorant you are to people who use marijauna and its effects on people.

[Rush is Right]

There is no such thing as medical marijuana.

[mark]

"There is no such thing as medical marijuana."

The fact that marinol exists proves that marijuana has medicinal benefits.

[lil timmy]

Reason #229:

I moved to California from Kansas. It would certainly up my credibility out here if this would pass.

[Do Not Delete]

"I really do not give a damn about what countries are better, pick your @ss up and move there."

Such a fascist statement I would expect from a cop. A true patriot will stay and fight for his rights, his people, and his nation instead of fleeing a tyrannical police state.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

[Quad Kings]

JC_in_KC, what's your beef with pot? Why do you think it should be illegal (if you do)? And do you think booze should be illegal?

[lorene]

I agree with legalizing pot. I was diagnosed with glaucoma 10 years ago. I have been smoking it up until the VA said I had to quit. I have had no traces of glaucoma the past 5years. Now that I have to quit, it will make another appearance. I see the dark spots. This really upsets me. Just make it legal. The gov. has warehouses full, just waiting for it to become legal.