SC

Lazenby: Limited Approach To Medical Marijuana Winnable In SC

“ONE SMALL BATTLE AT A TIME …” By Amy Lazenby || In a state as socially conservative as South Carolina, those who favor the legalization of marijuana for medical use are not merely facing an uphill battle – they’re climbing a mountain. Misinformation, misperception, and the stigma caused by a…

“ONE SMALL BATTLE AT A TIME …”

By Amy Lazenby || In a state as socially conservative as South Carolina, those who favor the legalization of marijuana for medical use are not merely facing an uphill battle – they’re climbing a mountain. Misinformation, misperception, and the stigma caused by a long-fought (and failed) “War on Drugs,” have medical marijuana advocates at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to getting legislation passed to allow for therapeutic uses of the cannabis plant.

Two bills calling for the legalization of a specific marijuana derivative for medical use are making their way through both houses of the SC General Assembly this term. Allowing the limited use of Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant that has been shown to have medically therapeutic benefits without giving patients a mind-altering high, could be the first step in    legitimizing medical marijuana in the Palmetto State.

Last fall, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began allowing clinical studies of CBD as an anti-seizure medication for patients with intractable epilepsy at the New York University School of Medicine and at the University of California at San Francisco. The drug – manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals and called “Epidiolex™” – comes in the form of an oil that is administered orally with a syringe dropper and is currently being prescribed by doctors to patients enrolled in the clinical trials.

South Carolina already has a little-known vehicle that allows patients to participate in this type of research. The Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act of 1980 authorized the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) to engage in clinical studies regarding certain medical therapeutic uses of marijuana. Unfortunately, the General Assembly has never allocated funding for the law, and the program has lain dormant.

Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) and Rep. Jenny Horne (R-Dorchester) have filed similar bills in their respective chambers that would allow for the legal use of CBD for those suffering from debilitating seizure disorders. Both lawmakers were motivated by the plight of constituents’ grandchildren, who suffer from extreme forms of epilepsy that cause them to have hundreds of seizures daily.

Davis’ legislation, introduced last month, would revise the 1980 law to create a research program in conjunction with DHEC allowing CBD oil to be used as an anti-seizure medication. The Medical University of South Carolina would begin controlled CBD trials through the program, and only patients participating in those trials would be eligible to receive the drug. Horne’s similar bill would also allow the legal possession of CBD oil by patients who are participating in clinical trials supervised by DHEC for the purpose of treating severe seizure disorders. Both matters, which their sponsors emphasize are narrow in scope, are currently moving through the committee process.

Broadening the legislative scope considerably, Rep. Todd Rutherford (D-Columbia) this week introduced a bill dubbed the “South Carolina Medical Marijuana Act.” Rutherford’s bill would authorize a patient who has one of several “debilitating medical conditions” listed in the act, and who has a medical verification form completed by a physician, to register with DHEC and obtain an identification card to use medical marijuana.

According to a press release accompanying the proposed act, the bill also authorizes certain persons to act as caregivers for patients under limited circumstances as well as provides for the operation of dispensaries to cultivate, grow, and dispense marijuana for medical purposes.

“Registered individuals would be allowed to possess up to six plants (three mature) and two ounces of marijuana for medical use,” Rutherford’s legislation states.

His bill also provides penalties for committing fraud in order to illegally obtain medical marijuana and defines it as a tangible item, therefore subjecting it to sales tax.

Which approach is more likely to succeed?

Given the socially conservative climate in South Carolina and the majority Republican make up of both houses of the General Assembly, Davis’ and Horne’s narrow proposals actually have a chance. Several Republican senators and House members (and some Democrats) have already co-sponsored the bills pertaining to CBD, and as the bills move through the committee process and more testimony is heard from those who will be able to benefit from the drug, several more will likely sign on. It is politically – and morally – difficult to look at a child debilitated by almost constant seizures and tell her that she cannot have access to a drug that will help her live a normal life and that won’t get her high.

The same can certainly be said of the patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma, HIV and Aids that would be covered by Rutherford’s bill, but by expanding the scope of conditions covered, the act runs into a problem that can’t be overlooked. Studies exist showing that medical marijuana can treat dozens of ailments, but the FDA has only allowed clinical trials of the drug, and only in the form of CBD oil, for one ailment – seizure disorders. Davis’ and Horne’s bills follow the FDA guidelines, giving those who use the drug in the manner prescribed immunity from federal prosecution. Rutherford’s broader proposal simply calls for the use of “medical marijuana” and even allows registered patients and caregivers to possess cannabis plants. This puts those who are using the drug at risk for federal prosecution, even if they are immune from state penalties under the proposed law. The states that have legalized medical marijuana in the manner that Rutherford prescribes are taking a chance that the feds will choose not to prosecute users for the possession of what remains a controlled substance under federal law.

To be clear, I am an advocate for the use of medical marijuana in the manner that Rep. Rutherford proposes. The therapeutic use of cannabis is an idea whose time has come, and I couldn’t agree more with Rutherford’s statement that “it’s time to move forward and put the health of our citizens ahead of politics.”

But I’m also aware that in a state that remains resistant to change, his bill doesn’t stand a chance – not because it’s a bad idea, but because SC is not ready for such a broad proposal.

In the Palmetto State, the push for medical marijuana will be fought one small battle at a time. The legalization of CBD for the treatment of seizure disorders is the first battle, and I believe that, because of its narrow scope, it is a winnable one.

lazenby

Amy Lazenby is the Associate Opinion Editor for FITSNews. Contact her at amy@fitsnews.com and follow her on Twitter @Mrs_Laz.

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68 comments

allegro63 March 7, 2014 at 9:31 am

I wish the more expansive bill would pass. It would be a win/win for SC on at least three fronts. The first, the benefits it would offer residents as another option for their health care, a very real possibility to the overburdened legal system, as limited legalization could mean fewer pot related cases on the docket, and of course the third, the added revenue that could be added to state coffers, by taxing the production, distribution and sales of marijuana, as Colorado is discovering.

But this is South Carolina. A baby step may be all we get. But if it is taken, it is an important one.

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JamieLowell March 8, 2014 at 6:48 am

CBD only law, is not a baby step- it is a step backward before even getting started.

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Curiouser & Curiouser March 7, 2014 at 10:00 am

Pray tell, what is the difference in “Nullification” of the Obamacare crap and the “Nullification” of the Federal Controlled Substances Act.

Sounds like we want to have our cake and smoke it too…..

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TheFunkyMonkey March 7, 2014 at 10:07 am

Typical South Carolina politics… The debate taking place currently in the State House isn’t about what’s right or good for patients that can benefit from medicinal marijuana but rather it’s all about how these corrupt rednecks can pad their pockets even further. And taking the medicinal approach allows them to take the moral high ground when they go to church on Sunday and have to answer to their constituents…

Just another fucked-up day in South Carolina.

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Immortal Illumined March 7, 2014 at 10:34 am

we laugh at the south everyday from the free yankee states, everyday…mostly we feel bad for the citizens, i couldn’t live 1 year in cali before marijuana was legalized, never in my life could i imagine decades in the south…id die for freedom first

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TontoBubbaGoldstein March 7, 2014 at 12:27 pm

Huh?

PRO TIP:
Set the doob in an ashtray and use the “Shift” key. Just please

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Immortal Illumined March 8, 2014 at 11:42 am

huh? no wonder we are crushing prohibitionists around the globe with replies like this, lol…with a reply like that, i’d guess you live in the south….backwards and stupid

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Mike at the Beach March 8, 2014 at 5:33 pm

He’s stupid for asking you to comply with that pesky English language convention of capitalizing the first word in a sentence to ease readability and comprehension? Of course, you didn’t (technically) really have sentences, since your randomness just drifted from comma to ellipsis to comma and then sorta drifted off without terminal punctuation of any sort. No worries- I’ll straighten TBG out for you on that and get him off of your back.

Immortal Illumined March 9, 2014 at 3:39 am

i’m writing to the under 40 genration…

we no longr need structure…we make our own

Mike at the Beach March 9, 2014 at 3:00 pm

Wow, I just left the “under 40” crowd not that many years ago, and because I socialize with like-minded, professional (and therefore, usually, successful) folks I didn’t see too many folks communicating in Tweeny Text Language as a matter of course. That’s not abandoning “structure,” it’s refusing to grow up and join the mainstream. Best of luck on that next job application. Just tell them, “Hey bra, I ‘m under 40 yo!” They’ll no doubt get snapped right the hell up.

Immortal Illumined March 12, 2014 at 10:37 am

i’ve grown marijuana for 20 plus years at 100 plus grand a year…i work for no man but the people of planet earth

Mike at the Beach March 12, 2014 at 8:35 pm

In the words of the GEICO caveman, “Uhhhhh, what?!”

I, too, am self-employed, but that has little to do with English being the official language of FITS News. We voted years ago. We tried Pig Latin, but the NSA figured us out within weeks.

http://youtu.be/M79WDmOSRAU

jaybigness March 25, 2014 at 9:40 am

Unfortunately, that is the next generation. I can only assume that they attempt shortcuts in everything they do. Our 40 something generation can only try to accept the newer styles of writing, and hope that they eventually grow out of it.

Troy Hendrickson April 1, 2014 at 10:59 am

actually you appear to be just another silly little troll hiding behind your cartoon name

Mike at the Beach April 1, 2014 at 11:39 am

Hey dude- welcome to the debate three weeks after the fact. I can see that your tactics are the standard of your ilk (e.g., name-calling, ad hominem, etc.). No problem. Use all the teeny language and lack of punctuation you like, bro, but acknowledging the fact that out here in the real world we use English as the standard communicative medium doesn’t make me a troll. As for my “cartoon name,” I write (as part of my various enterprises) and publish nationally under my real name, but I don’t feel like offending clients and shaving a couple of zeroes off of my bottom line by throwing that name on here every day debating silliness like this with, well, you. This is just my 15 minutes of recreational daily Zen…

Troy Hendrickson April 1, 2014 at 12:41 pm

grow up little troll monkey

Mike at the Beach April 1, 2014 at 1:14 pm

Thoughtful and well said!

Mike at the Beach March 8, 2014 at 5:34 pm

Leave dude alone, dude. He’s obviously stoned right now. I told him I’d get you off of his back, so there.

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jeffreyg March 26, 2014 at 8:43 pm

I am all for medical mj….but “free yankee states” that limit you on the number of rounds that you can have, types of guns you can own and how large your soda can be?? No, we southerners laugh at you yankee states because you are NOT FREE AT ALL!

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Troy Hendrickson April 1, 2014 at 11:00 am

we laugh harder at you because you southern people get screwed in the rear by your masters constantly and you still think your free

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jimlewisowb March 7, 2014 at 10:13 am

5 steps to gaining passage of Therapeutic use of Cannabis
1) Create storefront group to be in charge of efforts to legalize Cannabis
2) Hire wives, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters of sitting Legislators as paid Lobbyists
3) Sponsor free junkets for Legislators to locations like Tibet, China, Bangkok whereby they can get their rocks off with twelve year olds
4) Propose a 25% tax with at least 50% of all taxes collected to be channeled back into perks for Legislators
5) Create an oversight Board to oversee the new law which in turn will hire former or soon to be former Legislators as part of their golden parachute

If you want to get a fucking big cockroach to scurry like hell, then you have to throw something on the floor

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Todd, Yeah Me March 7, 2014 at 1:19 pm

The medical marijuana thing is wrong and biased, what makes a sick person who wants to smoke marijuana because of some ‘sic-ness.’ any different from any other healthy citizen who enjoys smoking the stuff just for the sake of doing it, its two faced and reeks of segregation of the citizenry. Oh your sick so you can smoke and I can’t; get it?

Some call it a ‘gateway law’ to complete legalization but its just the rich getting richer, where is the grow operation Todd, come on Todd, give it up! Whats your take dude?

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John Boy March 7, 2014 at 5:55 pm

Calm down…this is SC we’re talking about. We’d be very lucky to get any pro pot laws into our state. SC has to take baby steps, unfortunately.

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JamieLowell March 8, 2014 at 6:51 am

It would not be lucky to be stuck with the CBD only legislation- insist on legalizing the whole plant medicine for the citizens of SC.

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JamieLowell March 8, 2014 at 6:58 am

Medical legalization of the whole plant, may be the catalyst for the education that could lead to the legalization of personal use, but medical use ability is paramount. Whether a patient needs to smoke, use it topically, vaporize, eat it in foods or capsules, whether or not it is designed to be psychoactive, some people rely on it for a better quality of life and some rely on it for survival. Suggesting that it is just a corporate interest, is not accurate, but sometimes organized business with philosophically sound proprietors, is the most functional and efficient method for getting the education and safe access to the variety of strains, forms and methods of delivery available.

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Bible Thumper March 7, 2014 at 1:54 pm

Failed war on: drugs, poverty, domestic abuse, cancer. Besides they are not core functions anyway.

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Karolyn March 7, 2014 at 2:02 pm

It’s just too bad common sense and logic play no part in politics. God forbid there would be change in SC!

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euwe max March 7, 2014 at 4:47 pm

Marijuana abusers make it difficult for us marijuana users!

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JamieLowell March 8, 2014 at 6:49 am

What is the fear? What is the consequence of “abusing” cannabis?

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euwe max March 8, 2014 at 9:54 am

The fear is that bunch of bible thumping fear mongers will make it illegal. All because of a couple of thousand slobbering stoners.

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JamieLowell March 8, 2014 at 10:27 am

The first issue is the ignorant perspective displayed here by calling people who happen to use cannabis “slobbering stoners” and attributing the lack of progression to this imaginary and discriminated against class of people. The second issue is to not place the onus on the uneducated policy makers, and engage them with the truth.

Take action to learn and spread the truth without falling victim to viewing the supporters and the opponents as such stereo-types.

Neither side benefits from ignorance.

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euwe max March 8, 2014 at 12:26 pm

The first issue is the ignorant perspective displayed here by calling people who happen to use cannabis “slobbering stoners”
——
out of the millions of stoners, I only referred to a few thousand… not all stoners.

attributing the lack of progression to this imaginary and discriminated against class of people
——–
Not imaginary at all. I’ve sat slobbering and grinning across from similarly incapacitated stoners many times.

The second issue is to not place the onus on the uneducated policy makers, and engage them with the truth.
——-
oh.. speak truth to power, eh? How did that work out for you during the Iraq war? Seems to me that truth has a price tag.

Take action to learn and spread the truth without falling victim to viewing the supporters and the opponents as such stereo-types.
——–
Good luck with that. No one is listening. Marijuana is the safest pharmaceutically active drug known to man… but does anyone spread that truth? No.. it’s a “gateway drug” – Nancy Grace told them so, so it must be true, and it’s *horrible*.

Neither side benefits from ignorance.
——
not usually…but it’s the most comfortable way to live with contradiction, and be included in whatever popular group you managed to end up in.

jeffreyg March 26, 2014 at 8:53 pm

I really wish you would leave the Bible Thumpers alone. I a a Bible Thumper that believes MJ should be legal for all. Quit being petty and decisive. Some of the best advocates for legalization are in the Church.

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euwe max March 26, 2014 at 8:55 pm

hey! lighten up! I’m for legalization – have been since my Compu$erve days. *AND* I’m a bible thumper.

JamieLowell March 8, 2014 at 6:46 am

The CBD craze is out of control. This kind of limited legislation that does not include the whole plant, is not a start or a move forward, it is wholly inadequate and misleading. The citizens of South Carolina should settle for nothing less than whole plant medicine and the variety of strains, with different properties better for some individuals and conditions than others. THC is not evil, toxic, or addicting- it can have a psycho-active effect, but much different and considerably less dangerous than the effects of alcohol, opiates or other actual narcotics- THC is needed to be a part of the therapy and although sometimes absolutely necessary, does not have to create a ‘high’ effect.

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Immortal Illumined March 8, 2014 at 11:43 am

the greatest plant in the universe is almost free, LET FREEDOM RING!!!13

“any doctor against marijuana is a doctor of death” – cali secret 420

from 0 states to half the country, from low 20% approval to almost 70%, cali runs this planet by 2 decades, time to tie marijuana to the 2014, and 2016 elections, out with the old, in with the new

20 years behind us southern states, sad and scary….nobody denies freedoms like the south, nobody…the top ten incarcerators on the planet are southern states…even if marijuana reforms did pass the republiCANTS in charge would deny you all your freedoms, centuries of practice…no matter though, we never planned on getting your backwards brethren from day one, half the country already but not one southern state, lol…

Average spent per inmate a year = $31,286 (profit and police over people)
Average spent per student a year = $10,605 (dumber and more
in debt, each one of us is liable for around $40,000 of rising American debt)

love and freedom forever

AMERICA’S WAR ON DRUGS IS A WAR ON AMERICANS!!!33

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euwe max March 8, 2014 at 2:05 pm

Isn’t anyone going to soak that up with rolling papers??

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Bill Clinton March 8, 2014 at 2:06 pm

LEGALIZE IT for Pete’s sake…IT’S SMOKEABLE BEER!

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Mike at the Beach March 8, 2014 at 5:45 pm

Ugh, why I am doing this I don’t know. I’m like Will and his “tyranny” and “military worship” stuff…I just can’t stop myself. I will show some restraint, though, and not engage even a tiny bit in the med MJ debate. It’s pretty much DOA here, and these debates make my ears bleed anyway. I do have one question, though- how exactly have you determined that the “War on Drugs” (which is a really a dumb phrase, regardless of which “side” uses it) has been lost? It has been ridiculously expensive, no doubt, but what metric are you using to define the loss? You will no doubt spew numbers from your heroes at the ACLU, but I’m not talking about the legalization debate on moral or philosophical grounds, or even in the larger context of libertarianism. I’m just curious how the score is kept here. If we have “x” number of addicts now, have lost “x” dollars in medical and productivity costs, and experienced “x” number of deaths, how was your comparison executed to deduce what those numbers would have been absent the criminalization? Not being antagonistic (this time, anyway), just genuinely curious as a quasi-social scientist how folks make casual pronouncements like this. I went to grad school with cats who spent years trying to create such a metric, so I am genuinely curious. As they say on talk radio, I’ll hang up and take my answer off the air…

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Shepherd Yerusalem March 9, 2014 at 8:33 am

Point to someone who died from Marijuana and nothing but marijuana.

Amy Winehouse died from alcohol intoxication.

Now, your job? Point to someone who died from Marijuana… shouldn’t be hard for something that even deserves to be debated.

You point to a credible death that involves Marijuana and nothing but marijuana… and we can have a debate… otherwise.?.?

Only clowns want to debate the safety of a substance if you can’t even find a death caused by that substance.

I find it hard to believe that I actually have to point this out to supposed rational thinking people.

The world is full of dumb drunks who think they know everything… but actually they are dumb-drunk.

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Mike at the Beach March 9, 2014 at 2:55 pm

I’m neither dumb nor drunk. You obviously opted not to read my post very carefully, but that’s alright; I’ll break it down for you again and try to use simpler language. I clearly stated that I am not going to fall in to the MJ legalization debate. It’s mind-numbingly boring due to the zealotry and near-religious nature of the pro-MJ camp and the self-righteous knowitallism of most of the prohibition side. I do social science as part of one of my many jobs, and I asked a straightforward social science question regarding a definitional statement made in the original piece, that’s all. Besides, something doesn’t have to be fatal to be illegal, does it? It’s this kind of reductionism when debating a multivariate topic as complex as any type of drug legalization that makes my ears bleed.

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Shepherd Yerusalem March 9, 2014 at 3:16 pm

Point to a death or shut-up.

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Mike at the Beach March 9, 2014 at 3:35 pm

Get someone who graduated from high school (or maybe one of the GED buds with whom you no doubt socialize) to re-read my post or fuck off. I can’t help you’re mad because you’re in an entirely different conversation than I am, but luckily for both of us (and everyone suffering through this exchange) an easy solution exists! Go have your conversation with someone who will participate. However, if you pinky-promise to shut the fuck up and leave me alone, here:

http://time.com/10372/marijuana-deaths-german-study/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/marijuana-deaths_n_4868209.html

You said “a death.” There’s two (clinical/pharmocological – I am NOT talking about vehicle stuff, personal injury accidents, etc.). I even threw in a bonus reading for you to demonstrate how stupid a construct your fatality-based reasoning is (from your own camp, no less). Posting handbills is illegal in almost every city in America, despite the fact the fact that stapling your yard sale ad to a telephone pole isn’t fatal. We regulate lots of non-fatal things. I am sure you will now try to shift gears, change the ground rules, go ad hominem on me, throw a straw man or two out there, or engage in one of the other tried and true tactics of the not-so-educated troll community, but I lived up to my end, and I’m out. Adios.

Shepherd Yerusalem March 9, 2014 at 4:11 pm

See how simple you are? Can’t follow simple instructions can you?

Those links you provided are full of statements like the following:

“Autopsies showed that the younger man had a serious undetected heart problem and the older one had a history of alcohol, amphetamine and cocaine abuse.”

That is why I make it simple for you simpletons… but you can’t even follow the simpleton rules.

Remember I pointed to Amy Winehouse (gave you a nice long example of what you were supposed to do)?

Your job… which you have still failed to do is give me a name, point to a death.

I am still waiting… but your kind can never produce, just blow a bunch of B.S. propaganda that everyone knows is B.S.

I’ll be waiting.

Mike at the Beach March 9, 2014 at 4:51 pm

See, you chose (from the Troll 101 Course) a few of the old favorites:

1. Change the requirements;
2. Restate earlier (still incorrect) understanding of the conversation;
3. Pretend that you didn’t hear my explanation.

I never entered the debate you are apparently having with yourself, so you enjoy. Troll on, amigo.

Shepherd Yerusalem March 9, 2014 at 5:10 pm

SttttttiillllllllLLLL waiting… but you CAN’T produce.

Bullwinkle_T_Moose March 10, 2014 at 1:44 pm

I’ll take a room full of dope smokers over a room full of drinkers anytime. If alcohol, a drug that routinely causes blackouts in heavy drinkers, were invented today, it would be a schedule 1 narcotic and would never become legal.

War on drugs may be a stupid term but we’ve no chance of winning. Legalization and taxation of marijuana is a win win proposal. We would free up jail space for dangerous criminals and funding free rehab for all addictions would be easily covered. Colorado will see $118million in revenues from marijuana sales. SC could benefit from that.

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jeffreyg March 26, 2014 at 8:50 pm

Cops will take a room full of tokers over a couple of drunks! Every cop that I know (save for one) agrees that MJ is nothing compared to alcohol. All of my cop friends will tell you they have never been called out to a domestic dispute that involved MJ but 99% of the time alcohol is involved. MJ makes everyone happy…..where is the harm in that?

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Shepherd Yerusalem March 9, 2014 at 8:28 am

Actually Marijuana is mentioned in the bible by name:

1980, etymologists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem confirmed that cannabis is mentioned in the Bible by name, Kineboisin (Also spelled Kannabosm), in a list of measured ingredients for “an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compounded after the art of apothecary to be smeared on the head. The word was mistranslated in King James version as `calamus’ – Exudous 30:23 (Latimer 1988).

The above means it was in the oil they used to rub on their skin, it was in the bread they ate called the Lord’s Supper, and it was in the incense that was burned in the temples.

Marijuana is the Tree-Of-Life talked about in the bible, indeed it was a real tree that grew from the ground:

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree, the tree of life was also growing in the garden…

The above reveals that the Tree-Of-Life is indeed a real tree that grows in the ground.

Rev 22:2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the ocean, was the tree of life. The foliage of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

We are living in a day when the Tree-Of-Life (what the world calls marijuana) is healing everything it comes in contact with.

The ONLY thing dangerous about marijuana are the cops who shoot people for having it:

Number of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals’ reports.

TOBACCO – 340,000 to 450,000

ALCOHOL (Not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders) – 150,000+

ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdose) – 180 to 1,000+

CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heartbeats, etc.) – 1,000 to 10,000

“LEGAL” DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol – e.g. Valium/alcohol – 14,000 to 27,000

ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE – (Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs – 3,800 to 5,200

MARIJUANA – 0

(**Marijuana users also have the same or LOWER incidence of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general NON-marijuana using population as a whole.** Cancer Study, UCLA; U.S. Funded ($6 million), First & Second Jamaican Studies, 1968 to 1974; Costa Rican Studies, 1980 to 1982; et al. LOWEST TOXICITY 100% of the studies done at dozens of American universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana (UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.)

Accordingly a 1993 study done by the U.S. Department of Transportation came to the same conclusion as the above concerning marijuana and driving safety:

“Marijuana, administered in a dose of 100 µg THC per kg of whole body weight…did not significantly change mean driving performance as measured…” – U.S Department of Transportation: Marijuana and Actual Driving Performance DOT HS 808 078

The fact is people who use marijuana reflexes are not affected in a negative way and they become more conscious of safety, sometimes refusing to even drive.

Marijuana is a plant with a safety record second to none.

Anyone who would like to dispute these FACTS, point to a credible death that involves marijuana and nothing but marijuana, or hold your tongue.

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MNTR - Get in Now March 9, 2014 at 5:08 pm

Another important addition missing from your debate is the that if a state has passed medical marijuana into law, it not only gives those who need marijuana as a medicine an opportunity to use it, it also gives those who want to invest in marijuana companies the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of these businesses. One such opportunity is MNTR. MNTR is a fund that actually tracks and invests in many of the best marijuana companies which are doing business in the USA.

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GrandTango March 9, 2014 at 6:37 pm

Just what a decadent, immoral and failing society needs: MORE VICE..

Selfish liberals are able to sell damaging and deadly ideas as needed, while the country is broke and good people go w/o jobs or hope. But corrupt democrat politicians, who have never worked a day, get richer and fatter…

Drugs lead to hungry children, misery and death…And promoting drugs make liberals look like heroes to the ignorant, poor and irresponsible….

When power, form the weak and starving is you goal…why would the left care about anything else???

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jeffreyg March 26, 2014 at 8:48 pm

MJ is not a drug. It is a naturally healing plant. The crap that you can go and get prescribed by your doctors are drugs….not MJ. Try to clear out your “refer madness” and think about what you are saying. MJ is a plant from God. It is all natural. All those pills you swallow from your Dr. are man made chemical bombs that are killing you!

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GrandTango March 27, 2014 at 8:18 am

Wonder how many people have been killed by dopers F*#ked up on weed with their automobiles. And that smoke filtering through your lungs causes cancer, not healing…It’s only recently, they’ve begun to propaganda that truth to the ignorant…

And the fact you buy that bull$#*! about medicine shows you how many brain cells pot kills…Dumb@$$…Now go hit another bong so Obama can control you….

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jeffreyg March 27, 2014 at 8:29 am

You idiot. I am a right wing, Christian conservative. I am as anti-Obama as they come. Check my posting history. Why not educate yourself on the facts you fearmonger. Stop believing the lies that the oil industry sold you about mj in the 50’s. You people amaze me with your ignorance. I take it you would prefer these children get “real meds” that make them sleep all day than allow them acces to cannabis oil that will allow them to live a normal life. Grow up. Quit drinking the kool-aid

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GrandTango March 27, 2014 at 8:40 am

You’re being used, if you’re telling the truth. And most dopers are not very smart…neither are liberals. So you can see why I make that connection.

And Conservatives believe in values…turning on and tuning out is no way to raise a family or contribute to society. Your momma and daddy should have whipped your @$$ a little more it sounds like. I’m sure they are not proud that you’ve become a slothful doper, unless they are of low wisdom, too.

jeffreyg March 27, 2014 at 8:51 am

You make too many assumptions. I am far from a slothful doper. I believe in values. Turn on and turn out? Did you really say THAT? This is about medicine. I am a very succesful person. I contribute to society through my job, my church, and by volunteering in my community. Quit getting your knowledge of mj from hollywood and get the real facts. YOU seem to be the one that can’t function properly in society. Neither me nor myparents are “of low wisdom” lol . Where did that phrase come from?

W.C. Pot Fields March 27, 2014 at 1:36 pm

Grand Tango is a damn fool.

Troy Hendrickson April 1, 2014 at 11:05 am

actually he’s a convicted pedophile which is why he hides like a coward behind a fake cartoon name.

GrandTango April 1, 2014 at 11:37 am

Next you’ll be telling me how your heroin use alleviates your AIDS symptoms. So it should be legal in your mind..Save it…

Liberals are LIARS (see Obamacare)…you never what to admit what, and who, you are…

jeffreyg August 6, 2014 at 4:51 pm

I am a conservative you dolt. There is nothing that Obama has done that I have agreed with. Medical MJ doesn’t have to get you high you idiot. Children using canabis oil are not getting high. I don’t use heroin or have aids….I am starting to see why us conservatives are hated. Please…..become a democrat. We don’t need you idiots

Troy Hendrickson April 1, 2014 at 11:04 am

Conservatives believe in values like hypocrisy and dishonesty maybe you silly little troll monkey.

jeffreyg March 27, 2014 at 8:31 am

And you do realize our founding fathers smoked weed. Especially Washington and Jefferson. They grew fields and fields of it.

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GrandTango March 27, 2014 at 8:38 am

Jefferson impregnated his slave, too. That is not a good reason to make dangerous and deadly drugs easier to obtain.

jeffreyg March 27, 2014 at 8:41 am

I agree. Thankfully mj is not dangerous or deadly. U really need some truth in your life. Its just a plant from God. But go get another rx for xanex and oxycontin and feel good about yourself. Hypocrite.

Troy Hendrickson April 1, 2014 at 11:04 am

Actually the NTSB has not founbd a single accident where cannabis was considered a significant factor.
But your alcohol kills people every single hour.

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Troy Hendrickson April 1, 2014 at 11:03 am

You’re an idiot, but you knew that.
Here’s a hint loser, alcohol costs the nation 1000 times what cannabis will ever be imagined to cause and you’re a drunk so why be a hypocrite?

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Lori March 25, 2014 at 2:27 pm

Go to change.org and sign the petition to get medical marijuana legalized

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Troy Hendrickson April 1, 2014 at 10:57 am

Funny, you have religious kooks who want to make sure people know God created mammoths, don’t they realize that God created cannabis too?

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