Marijuana is NOT medicine. Let’s not kid ourselves Patients deserve and can get real FDA approved treatments that work. In states with “medical” marijuana, pot shops are everywhere, substance abuse among teens has risen and more people need drug treatment. This experiment will cost Massachusetts taxpayers millions in oversight. And we get no tax revenue from it — because “dispenseries” (pot shops) are non-profit. So it costs every citizen more money in government oversight and addiction treatment so we can create more pot-heads and serious drug addicts.
The Massachusetts Medical Society with 24,000 doctors says No on Question 3. The author of the California Medical Marijuana law now laments it saying, “It’s become little more than dope dealers with store fronts.” If you don’t want more kids using pot, having pot shops as prolific as 7-11 stores, than Vote No on Question 3. Billionaire of Progressive Insurance dropped $1 million in MA after doing so in CA and CO because he loves pot. Good for him, smoke it! Talk about money driving politics though. Let’s not pretend this is about sick people. They deserve better and so do taxpayers and citizens.
There is no treatment that “works” to cure pancreatic cancer reliably. The five year survival rate is 6% and the majority diagnosed at Stage IV will be dead in six months. Pancreatic cancer liquifies the entire digestive tract. The current chemotherapies kill the appetite, and interfere with the ability to eat. The only “FDA approved” treatment is a synthetic recreation of one of the 68 active cannabinoids – a form of THC. Its “name brand” is marinol; its generic is drinabinol. It is not as effective as the herb. My husband’s doctor wanted him to have it three times a day; no wonder as the poor guy lost 90 pounds in four months and was wasting away. The insurance company said no, two times only – and the self pay for 30 pills of the generic would have been $3200 dollars. Do the math; $300or so a pill. LJBarstow I just spent four months staring cancer in the face and fighting it with bare bleeding haneds. THIS IS ABOUT SICK people and either you don’t know anything about what youa re talking about, or you are a drug company shill. Alcohol kills way more people than lowly pot. Some think pot was initially made illegal because it was a “poor brown person’s recreational drug” back in the day. And the medical use of marijuana is by nebulizer; you don’t smoke it. My poor husband could no longer swallow pills due to the cancer in his digestive tract but he could have used a nebulizer. 35 dispensaries for the whole state is not 7-11s for potheads. Again, this is about preventing the wasting symptoms of cancer patients with no appetite, who cannot swallow pills when truly ill. Anything that helps someone like my husband eat, want to eat, not vomit is a blessing.
If “med” pot was really just for sick people, I’d be all for it. But it’s not.
he’d not be president now.
The prohibition is absurd.
Keeping pot from people who can use it to help medical issues is even more absurd.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Legalizing marijuana in any way, shape or form can’t possibly be worse than the status quo. So many in jail, so much ancillary crime. Nuts.
Why should I value your opinion over physicians that believe in medical marijuana?
I’m not a doctor, on TV, in a blog or otherwise. but the Mass. Med. Society…which rarely sticks it’s neck out….is sticking it’s neck out for this one.
How would this be any different from a package store?
Legalize it, regulate it, tax it. And stop pissing away taxpayer money on it.
If anything, it is a shame that the question doesn’t go far enough.
California Compassionate Use Act of 1996
Proposition 215 – voter initiative
Dispensaries and growing
collectives licensed through
local city or county business
ordinances (500 – 1,000)
5.0% State Sales Tax; local sales taxes
also
Board of Equalization Special Notice –
June 2007
$21.4 million; 2007 state estimate
$58 – $105 million 2012 estimate
Colorado Colorado Medical Marijuana Act
(2010)
Original voter initiative in Nov 2000
667 dispensaries as of 12/1/11 5.0% State Sales Tax $5 million calendar
LJ Barstow is presumably tied to this site. There was some kerfufflage when the group submitted a domain name to the Secretary of State that it hadn’t actually registered. The said domain name was then registered and spoofed.
I don’t smoke it. I barely drink these days, but outlawing marijuana just hasn’t worked. All the scare stuff on the Vote No site is already happening. I have serious doubts about whether legalizing marijuana–and we’re only talking medical marijuana–will lead to increased abuse.
The opposition from the Massachusetts Medical Society is based on the suggestion that it be for “medical” use. Their (reasonable, in my view) assertion is that drugs should be tested and marijuana as a drug should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other drug. To which I say “fair enough”.
In my view, marijuana should be legalized for recreational use, alongside tobacco and alcohol. Yes, there are risks (although I suggest they are greatly exaggerated). Still, all in all, I suggest that the cost to society of legalizing marijuana for recreational use is significantly less than the cost of alcohol or tobacco. Stoners do not generally go out and see how fast they can drive. Meanwhile, the true impact of its prohibition is to:
a) Raise its street price so that far worse substances (such as meth and cocaine) become more affordable
b) Replace amateur suppliers with organized crime
c) Burden the court system with costs of prosecution and punishment while saddling far much of our population with spurious criminal records
d) Cause users and suppliers to commit crimes to avoid prosecution
Yes, recreational use of marijuana increases health risks. I suggest that those increased risks are much less than the health risks of alcohol and tobacco.
A significant number of Americans feel that government is too large, too intrusive, and too eager to curtail our “pursuit of happiness”. Legalizing marijuana is an easy and visible way to address this, and would generate much-needed tax revenue as well.
…but in the interest of keeping this site reality-based, I have to say the assessment provided by the diary seems very much at odds with the summary of the law written by the Attorney General and provided to voters via the Secretary’s voter guide. It also seems to cry out for linked citations.