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Published Saturday, June 4, 2011 | 10:57 a.m.
Updated Sunday, June 5, 2011 | 12:06 a.m.
Medical marijuana bill
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KSNV coverage of proposed legislation for a pilot program to let medical marijuana card-holders legally purchase the drug, June 4, 2011.
Sun Coverage
CARSON CITY – A bill that would start a pilot program to allow medical marijuana card-holders to legally purchase the drug is being pushed in the Legislature.
Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, said the bill “would eliminate the head shops” that are illegally selling marijuana. Those with a valid registry identification card to use marijuana for medical purposes face felony charges when purchasing it on the street, he said.
Senate Bill 336 would set up a company or facility to grow, warehouse and distribute marijuana under the direction of the state Board of Pharmacy.
Rebecca Gasca, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the state has neglected its responsibility since the medical marijuana program was approved in the Nevada Constitution 10 years ago.
This bill, she said, “could help the patient to have better access to medication.”
Schneider told the Senate Finance Committee there are safeguards in the program. Doctors, he said, would have to take instruction on the medical benefits of marijuana.
He said he has worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in putting the bill together. Under the bill, the state Agriculture Department would oversee the process of growing the marijuana.
The pilot program would also mean extra tax money for the state when the drug is sold legally. The committee didn't take action on the bill.
Well, as you can see more idiots trying to do things in Carson City!!!...You cant set this program up; IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE....there would be no way not to put the state at liability for loss of federal funds(you know, that important stuff like roads and schools and bailouts and all that other stuff)...not to mention the monopoly aspects this thing wreaks...You have got to be kidding me!!!! Always leave it up to PHARMA and POLITICIANS to do things the patients have not asked for and will not be extorted into participating in. Where did they come up with this garbage? Did they not get any law student to look this over to see that there are so many problems the feds will have with this garbage? I cant wait to go testify at this hearing (if there is enough time provided to know about it even). Id eat this bill up in about 30 to 60 seconds with 11th grade government knowledge and this politician should be ashamed to make it so obvious that he is taking that pharma money at the detriment to every patient in Nevada. We have some absolutely stupid politicians in Carson City and Las Vegas, but I am starting to believe this is all part of the M.O and its really obvious too...
Denying Cancer patients and terminally ill people, for example, the ability to purchase and use the Evil Weed is INSANITY brought to you by the extreme Right-WingNut Do Gooders & TeaNuts...
Give them what they need, for Heaven's sake.
What is WRONG you people!?!
"Yes, you may have a CARD that says you are eligible to use Marijuana...however, since there is NO LEGAL WAY to obtain Pot, no way to even procure a single SEED, GOOD LUCK TO YA! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Who thinks like that?
Further, FINALLY some rational discussion has entered the fray this week, with the release of a report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy, that states the BLATANTLY OBVIOUS... The War on Drugs has been a MASSIVE FAIL, that has only succeeded in enriching those who propagate it...
Those you who blame "the illegals" for coming to America certainly must be aware that the U.S.'s VORACIOUS APPETITO for illegal substances, (and the Mexican gangs' willingness to provide it at the expense of their own citizenry) is A driving force (not the ONLY one) in the exodus from south of the border.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20110603/wl...
Don't do it! The whole medicinal marijuana thing is a joke here in Los Angeles. Anyone can get a card for anything. At one point marijuana clinics were opening up every where. Now the LA city council has tried to stop the growth and it is now in court. You will be opening pandoras box!
Nevada legislature needs to reset their priorities. This medical marijuana issue affects far, far less people than the economic issues that the state is dealing with. Is time being spent on this issue and others like it so the legislature can say we ran out of time to act on the important things that affect the majority of our state. I think the term "Medical marijuana" is a ploy by pot heads to have a legal reason to walk around being stoned. If you need medical marijuana, move to a state where it is legal. @ Chuckyb221, thank you for letting us know about the problems that this issue has created in LA. By the way, for those of you that will write "Larry you are ignorant, uninformed and the likes, save it! This is my opinion.
@Chucky
A joke? The only joke here is your denial that the war on drugs has been LOST! See Gmag's comment above you, referencing a new report supporting that the war on drugs has failed.
They need to legalize Marijuana. That is the bottom line. The demand is there. Haven't you been keeping up with the crazies in Mexico killing thousands of people in the most grotesque way....all in an effort to meet the U.S. demand for Marijuana?
Stop kidding yourself. Marijuana needs to be legalized, taxed, and regulated.
Larry; you are ignorant and uninformed.
Nevada might as well PROFIT from it.
Absolutely, Marijuana should be decriminalized, legalized, taxed, and regulated.
We have tobacco products that systems are in place to do all of the above. At the very least, some of the killing that is going on throughout the world over trying to supply Americans of the stuff, will come to an end.
There are plenty of people who benefit from the use of marijuana, and the choice of using marijuana over other products has the lesser side effects. It's so easy for people to judge and condemn. This is an occasion where folks should have open minds, to limit human suffering. With looming sky-high health care costs, this is one viable alternative that will become cheaper and cost stable with decriminalization and regulation.
It's about time the state does something for people who need THC to deal with their diseases and pain.
Unless you are one of those people, you really don't understand how serious of a problem this is.
It is like people who have health care insurance and just don't worry about other people who don't have insurance.
Then these insured people lose their job and they are now in a panic about health insurance.
If you don't have pain, you don't care, but when you get it (and most people will as they age) then this issue becomes quality of life savings.
It is like the song "walk a mile in my shoes"
If you are not one of the people in pain, you really don't understand this issue.
Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, said the bill "would eliminate the head shops" that are illegally selling marijuana. What would really eliminate the shops from selling marijuana is to put them in prison!
Senate Bill 336 would set up a company or facility to grow, warehouse and distribute marijuana under the direction of the state Board of Pharmacy.
This is code speak for let's also eliminate any competition and hold a monopoly.
This bill, she said, "could help the patient to have better access to medication." this is nothing more than Ostensible.
Schneider told the Senate Finance Committee there are safeguards in the program. Doctors, he said, would have to take instruction on the medical benefits of marijuana.
Yeah the same ones that brought you Hepatitis.
The committee didn't take action on the bill.
That is a good thing.
The DEA currently considers possession of such "medication" illegal -- thus, passage of SB 336 would literally be authorizing the state through its "Agriculture Department" to commit criminal active in violation of federal law under the Controlled Substances Act.
It should be expected that SB 336 will fail approval until federal law(s) currently prohibiting marijuana possession have been modified to "legally" accommodate such State desires.
Why do Nevada politicians routinely attempt to put the buggy ahead of the horse?
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I believe we should legalize marijuana for the entire USA.
It is a national security issue.
Marijuana is corrupting the Mexico government and people. It is destabilizing our border and that is a direct threat to the security of our country.
If we legalize marijuana it hopefully will hurt the drug cartels to the south of us.
Will there be a cost to this?
Yes there will be.
There will be young people who normally not get into drugs that will. Some of them will have their lives ruin. Some of them and their families will be put through hell.
But sometimes we have to do stuff like that.
The use of marijuana is too common. When a society wants to do bad then it is silly to have laws against it.
We sometimes have to give up and let people do foolish things.
It is like drinking. There is a ton of carnage that is caused by drinking. But it would be silly to try to outlaw it.
It is time to give up and move on.
We need to reduce the drug cartels. They are destabilizing the border. We need to protect our country even it means some of our young will get harmed.
At least they are talking about it. Personally, I think pot should be legal, regulated, and taxed like any other substance used by adults such as tobacco and alcohol.
But that would mean too many DEA members might have to actually work on real problems for a change.
Marijuana should be grown by the government and distributed free to the people.
While they are "thinking about it," they are currently talking about some MINING BILLS. Nevada really NEEDS a REVENUE STREAM, besides reducing costs (but you can't reduce costs if you keep letting illegals obtain FREE GOVERNMENT PROVIDED SERVICES!!!) HELLO!
So, if anyone wants to show that they care, about your concerns on the Marijuana issue and MINING, please take a read, forwarded to me from Angie:
Tell Assembly Leadership that mining revenue reform is a MUST!
Pass SJR 15 (which has been languishing in the Assembly), removing the 5% Constitutional cap on the mining tax, and SB 493*, creating a mining oversight commission and tightening up mining's tax breaks.
CALL NOW!
John Oceguera (775) 684-8595
Marcus Conklin (775) 684-8505
Debbie Smith (775) 684-8841
*Expected to be voted out of the Senate today, Saturday, June 4th!
"I think the term "Medical marijuana" is a ploy by pot heads to have a legal reason to walk around being stoned."
How blissfully ignorant.
@gmag: I am a conservative and do believe that marijuana should be legalized and taxed. So please stop stereotyping everyone it just makes you sound ignorant.
@mred: If the government grew it the quality would probably suck so nice suggestion but.
The people of Nevada voted this into law! Time for our elected officials to start honoring the will of the people who put them there.
The belief:
Hey great one more alternative to overpriced "gawd awful pharmaceuticals with a lot less side effects. Cool, I just have to pay the state a few hundred bucks & I'll get this nifty card that will allow me to use this medication without fear of prosecution.
The reality: Great I'm down a few hundred bucks,no biggie, I can't get this damn plant past a mere seedling to save my ass! Wont purchase from a dispensary for fear of a raid from metro's finest & to top it all off now the state has my info! So when there are no dispensaries left to bust, what do you suppose the chances are that they'll be "knocking" on my door? No thank you!
I've been living with severe back pain for at least 10 years because of a Bilateral pars intra-articularis at L5 or in lay mans terms some small fractures in my lower back. For this I've been prescribed every drug on the market, most of which have produced some harsh side effects, heartburn,nausea,vertigo just to name a few. For me MMJ is wonderful! yet I do not posses a card for it. Perhaps this is ignorant on my part,but it is my choice.
If you think the price of marijuana is expensive now just wait 'til the pharmaceutical companies get their way.
@ Mr. Larry Kaplan: By your post is it safe to say that you've never been prescribed any medication? & even if you were prescribed medication, you didn't take it because you probably didn't really need it & that it was just an excuse to get loaded. If this truly is the case, what's your secret?
I would be willing to bet if there was a referendum in the next election asking the citizens of Nevada if they favored the legalization of medical marijuana-the majority would say legalize it.
great, chuck333.. your a conservative.. and now your for new tax's as long as it serves your purpose. My god, its a friggin weed. it use to grow wild throughout the west.. tax it tax it..
lobotomies for conservatives- its the law...
Chuckster333...
Please take a reading comprehension class.
I mentioned nothing about conservatives in general.
I DID mention EXTREME right-wingnuts...if you are NOT ONE OF THOSE, I wouldn't get my undies in a bunch. I know many fine conservatives who aren't rightWingNuts nor TeaNuts.
However, your conservative brethren constitute pretty much the entirety of the anti-Mary-Wanna brigade. If you aren't of that particular bent, I applaud you.
Have a nice weekend.
let this bill die a quick death.
this is NOT the way to make MM available.
if they're having problems figuring out how to produce this product in a safe, legal, and controlled manner, just look at the way it's done in New Mexico.
And California is the land of fruits and nuts and they reaped what they sowed. Good luck with that.
oh, and Larry, i hope you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer. then you'll learn that big pharmacy doesn't have a pill for everything.
I used to really Luv the UNLIMITED SPEED LIMITS on the desert. WHAT HAPPENED to FREEDOM in NEVADA???
Medical marijuana is something that has been debated thoroughly. Get the medical community and the law enforcement community together to work together for a reasonable compassionate solution. Forget what other states are doing. Lets do it "our way."
The Global Commission on Drug Policy's report concludes that criminalization and repressive measures have failed with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.
We have wasted lives, fortunes, health and economy, blown stuff up, wiped out opportunities and fed thieves and corruption while pretending to be helping.
Not legalizing, regulating and taxing the plant seems utterly insane for a place like Nevada in a time like right now.
But this is Nevada 2011 so nothing would startle me about continued ignorance of the best way to proceed!!
After our brief time on Earth has come to a close, I picture us all sitting around a big dining table somewhere in a cool room and somebody stands up, dings her glass a few times with a spoon and says something like: "Welcome all you former Earthlings! I hope the dinner was satisfying and you enjoyed yourselves. We'll have angels delivering some fresh coffee - here they come now- and there's an open bar in the blue room (she points to her left) and there's a variety of marijuana in the red room (she points to her right). Enjoy and Relax; nobody is here to BUST you!! You made it!"
I have a question for this columns dopers that claim that MJ doesn't harm anyone and smoking it just gives one a pleasent 'buzz'!
If MJ can stop the pain of a person dieing from cancer or reduce the pain of spinial damage to a tolorable level how in the hell can it be a safe substance to use for 'recreational use'?
Are you 'users' suggesting that it [MJ] only reacts in the manner that the user wants it to?
PMMart
As a non-user of this herbal supplement, I have witnessed its effect on a number of ailing people: TMJ patients who could not eat, cancer patients who could not eat, AIDS patients whose shrinking body mass approached scurvy patients, in particular.
I have also witnessed a few back pained folks who could find some relief without having to resort to Oxycontin and risk deafness and addiction like Rush and others.
As far as 'recreational use' goes, the evidence against tobacco and alcohol gives a clear nod in favor of MJ in that it seldom incites violence or is clearly linked to hundreds of thousand cancer deaths each year in out country alone, and does not addict as the two legal gateway drugs - alcohol and tobacco - have proven through the centuries to afflict us in mass numbers.
Is it moralism or just resistance to change that drives your resistance to a safer world?
And have you taken a gander at the report cited by several commenters here, the one that includes world leaders, health professionals and law enforcement among others and specifies some of the horrendous calamities created by the approach to criminalize pot??
It's easy to find. Google Global Commission on Drug Policy and read a bit. You may actually see some of the reasons that others recognize as important.
"How blissfully ignorant."
gmag39 -- you said it best right there.
airweare -- very sobering, very good posts.
That marijuana/hemp are illegal at all is one of the prime examples of utterly stupid government. That raising hemp itself is against the law is not unlike making raising cotton a crime. The only thing more incredible is We the herd actually support criminalizing the creator's botanical gift to mankind.
"Tobacco, hemp, flax and cotton, are staple commodities." -- from Thomas Jefferson "The Works," vol. 3 (Notes on Virginia I, Correspondence 1780-1782), "A Notice Of The Mines And Other Subterraneous Riches; Its Trees, Plants, Fruits, &C."
Seems to be working fine in California. If NV doesn't have a similar program soon, more potential revenue will continue to go across the state.
"The pilot program would also mean extra tax money for the state when the drug is sold legally."
-------------------------------
And Nevada needs money people, now is the time to do this.
Marijuana can save Las Vegas. .)
Sounds like MJ is a super cure all for every ailment and a preventitive for those among us that haven't any ailments.
The old medicine show barkers could have learned to improve their spiel had they the wisdom of you modern day 'poster' children.
I wonder why the CEOs of our most successful companies don't supply their people with MJ as [if we believe the dopers] they would become even more successful.
If we would legalize MJ people like the Killer could start hunting up historical quotes about the value of poppy fields and coco tree plantations.
@ pmmart
Nobody said "MJ is a super cure all for every ailment and a preventitive{sic} for those among us that haven't any ailments"
It does not likely improve successful people's chances of finding happiness or rewards or anything as you imply some are saying.
If you really feel the need to make up completely irrational strawmen in order to buttress your senseless reasoning, it's probable that your reasoning is flawed, your argument is weak and the impact of your comments will remain nil.
Nobody is suggesting poppies or coco, pmmart. If you have difficulty with the fact that we are discussing MJ here, not heroin or cocaine, then you might be more successful in
* exaggerating about the numbers of deaths from carcinogenic tobacco (500,000 per year) and
* the fact that more Native Americans die from alcoholism than any other cause,
* the number of auto fatalities associated with drunken driving monthly is bigger than the graduating class of Vegas,
* the cost of lost wages and lost productivity related to those two vices, the gateway drugs known as addictive alcohol and addictivbe tobacco, measures in the billions of dollars worth each year in this country alone.
SERIOUSLY???WHAT ABOUT THE PILL MILLS IN MIAMI??????????WHEN R U BOYZ AND LADIES GONNA FIX THIS PROBLEM THAT KILLS!!!!!!
@ pmmart,
No offense, but it's only pot. If you'd ever tried it, you'd have known it's really not much compared to whiskey or even beer.
Now the cocaine and heroin are actually strong drugs, but pot ain't. I wouldn't get the Depends in a bunch over the buds, buddy. It would help the economy here a tad, but it wouldn't cause much harm IMHO!
"If we would legalize MJ people like the Killer could start hunting up historical quotes about the value of poppy fields and coco tree plantations."
pmmart -- besides saying "ditto" to airweare's last two posts, I'd just say when you start paying attention to the REAL issues I've repeatedly posted instead of just the headlines, which seems to be all your apparently limited attention span can handle, then you can be taken seriously. Like citizens don't have to wait for this police state to "legalize" it, the real cure is to decriminalize it.
And I don't know, or have any desire, to find quotes about "poppy fields and coco tree plantations." What do you have against nice, chocolaty cocoa?
Dealing with posters like you is like trying to improve a slow child's education. But then that's a losing proposition considering the robust intellects at work here.
"Try explaining Hitler to a kid." -- the late George Carlin "Brain Droppings" (1997)
Airweare
I read your disclaimer and attempt to marginalize my comments butt butt it's you who is the BIG silly due to the fact that my post is merely restating the arguments of the dopers and their backers.
Why you might ask?
Because Mj backers like to drag out people who make the very claims that I pointed out in my earlier post and denying it ain't not going to make it so!
Every intelligent study by REAL MEDICAL EXPERTS will say that Mj is nothing but a snake oil salesmans attempt to legalize dope by dopers for dopes!
I think it would be humerous [if it wasn't soooo sad] that so called intelligent people want to legalize dope and whoores so we can elevate the educational level of "the kids" in Nevada!
KillerB
You might increase your standing in the real world IF you stood for something besides outlawing income tax and legalizing prostitution.dope and pediphilla!
Between defending those four issues and hunting up inane quotes to 'justify' your comments you have clearly lost your way!
Airweare
As to your claims that MJ doesn't hurt nobody I personally know 3 people [close friends and a relitive] who started out in the 60s smoking pot and graduated to the usual 'recreational drugs' and guess what?
If you Joe work for a living and pay income taxes [unlike out-of-kilter-b] you have been supporting them for the last 30 years [yes thirty years and counting] by paying for all of their medical bills and approx. 700 dollars a month via S.S.I. and you will pay that bill until the day that they die!
And I am willing to bet that there millions more just like these 3 people that have ruined their lives and the lives of their kids that were/are born with birth defects through dope and I am willing to bet that should you remove your rose colored glasses you too know one or more of these individuals!
Airweare Joe
You really didn't address my earlier comment about Mj for increasing brain power.
If people suffering from terminal diseases have their pain reduced to a tolerable level when using MJ how does it change to help a person without any afflictions?
Stores in the body until needed?
Helps KillerB find quotes to bolster his comments?