Federal Decriminalization Bill

Federal Decriminalization Bill

stopthedrugwar.org

"I think it is poor law enforcement to keep on the books legislation that establishes as a crime behavior the government does not seriously wish to prosecute," he said.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.newsli.com
media.wildcat.arizona.edu

I have sterilized this submission in hopes of maintaining its presence in the open forums and prevent its transfer to RATS.

Please posters, if you can't share something other than your personal use, don't share anything at all. Keep your posts clean of compromising keywords. This is information to be spread. Don't force the moderators to suppress it.

These acts are vital as they would put a stop to the feds trashing the homes and lives of medical patients who live in states that have permitted their use of this plant for treatment. H.R.5842 is specifically for medical use and H.R.5843 is general decriminalization. Both are currently in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce with the latter in Committee on the Judiciary. Energy and Commerce membership. Judiciary membership. If your congressman is on either of these committees it is of the utmost importance to write them and encourage them to support these acts. Otherwise tell your congressmen to vote for them when they come to the floor. Focus on the medical and economic (wasted tax dollars) aspects as that is most likely to succeed in the present environment.

Small steps toward liberty.

stopthedrugwar.org
(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 19-4-2008 by apc]

reply to post by apc


The fact that a law like this is so difficult to pass, even though it is beyond common sense, is just another example of how this is no longer a country by the people for the people. This country is out to protect the bottom line of the wealthy. All you have to do is look and see how much money the Prison Industrial complex would stand to lose (not to mention all of the other industries that profit off of the criminalization) and you know this will never pass.

You know that the law makers that vote no on this are going to discuss it over a stiff drink, which is just insulting.

One could argue that the impact on those industries would be minimal at least in the immediate future. If the Federal legislation were repealed it would still be a State issue and most of them still have it on their books. All this would really do is put a stop to the neverending cases of sick and dying legally-authorized patients being thrown in prison to suffer without treatment. Give people the medicine they need!

5843 is probably DOA but 5842 might stand a chance since it's an election year. The Republicans won't care too much about the medical aspects but point out the wasted tax dollars and they might perk up. However given their continued arrogance in spite of national trends they may finally realize they need to take some serious steps if they hope not to lose even more seats to the Democrats.

reply to post by apc


I think that a bill like this would strike the fear of god in both Big Pharma and the Prison Industry. Big Pharma makes a fortune on different prescriptions that would be able to be supplemented with Medicinal ********. This may not be outright legalization, but it certainly starts the wheel in motion. You know that the lobbyists for the people who would be financially impacted by the legalization of ******** would lobby very hard to prevent first steps like this.

Once they get the money in the right hands, legislation like this will go nowhere. If these industries can spend a million lobbying their position to save them billions in lost revenue down the road, they will. The average joe is helpless to stop it.

[edit on 19-4-2008 by Karlhungis]

Yes Big Pharma definitely has a dog in the fight on this one. However one of the primary medical applications of this treatment is to counter the side effects produced by those expensive drugs. Nausea in particular. The minimizing of these side effects encourages continued use of the drugs which is in the best interest of the pharmaceutical manufacturer. If a box of brownie mix were provided by the company with every bottle of HIV cocktail, patients are less likely to stop taking the medicine.

Ultimately their patents expire after 20 years and the drug is available as a generic. Once that happens there's no longer a significant profit motive in the prevention of alternative beneficial treatment. They could continue to sell confections and with their market power they could easily price below local dispensaries and still make a profit.

Man... if only I worked for Big Pharma.

Here's the article from my thread that got moved to RATS... no problem, it is better off in RATS for the exposure. Thanks!!

I looked thru the list on those links and found this guy - ROY BLUNT (Missouri)* - rather appropriate.

Ok... original was replaced, and you have it linked anyway... so, here's another with maybe a little more info.

Congressman introduces bill to decriminalize...

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has made good on his promise to introduce what he called the "Make Room for the Serious Criminals Bill" on a March 21, 2008 appearance on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. Co-sponsoring the bill are Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Sam Farr (D-CA).
Text of Thursday's press release, from Rep. Frank's Congressional website, follows.

It's about time we see some common sense infecting DC for a change. Let's hope it becomes an epidemic...

[edit on 4/19/2008 by RabbitChaser]

Big Pharma does not want pot legalized because legalizing marijuanna will undercut their customer base. Big pharma makes a hefty sum of money on drugs like Vicodin and Oxycotin. While some of the people that use these drugs use them for a true legitimate medical purpose, many of the people that use thse drugs use them to get high. Many people prefer prescription drugs to get high because they lack the stigma that illegal drugs have.

If pot is legalized, Big Pharma's drugs will no longer have the market advantage of being a "stigma free" alternative. Soccer moms, trust fund brats, NASCAR dads, and their ilk would get high on the cheap by buying pot rather than buying vicodin or some other prescription drug.

Originally posted by apc
I have sterilized this submission in hopes of maintaining its presence in the open forums and prevent its transfer to RATS.

Please posters, if you can't share something other than your personal use, don't share anything at all. Keep your posts clean of compromising keywords.

hotpinkurinalmint, please edit your post to take out some of the keywords that will lead to this thread being deleted. They do not like us discussing such things at all, but I think if we can keep it free of most of the words you used then there will be no reason to remove it.

As for my opinion on this, I really hope it passes. Not for me, but for all the people who do need it. I'm sick of big pharma trying to control us and tell us what we can and cant medicate with, when some of the alternatives are much more effective, as well as not carrying any physical dependence like other medications on the market. The decriminalization bill I dont think has much of a chance, although it would be nice to free up jail cells for ACTUAL criminals.

The beauty of Big Pharma is that they have a prescription for everything. They make a lot of money selling anti nausea drugs to chemo patients. My wife was prescribed a coctail of them when she went through chemo. So, it would cut into their profits in those areas as well as many others, like other posters have mentioned (pain killers, sleep aids....etc).

Well, one would have to work out the math to see what the ratio of patients stopping treatment AMA even with anti-nausea medication is vs. those who stop treatment using the plant for nausea. Then there's cancer patients who have no other treatment... it's either smoke or die. And chronic pain sufferers who are already on the verge of liver failure from all the opioid boosted acetaminophen. Patients can't pay if they're dead. So there is a market there.

But regardless, I'd rather not try to figure out all the different reasons why legislation like this will never work. I have very little faith in the Federal Government, and I too highly doubt it is possible to bring it back to some form of true representation. But you know... it only takes five minutes to write a letter. They read them, especially during election season. There's no guarantee they'll listen, but there's nothing to lose in writing. Can't hurt to try.

I have a friend in Las Vegas who happens to be a cop. One day he wrote in his blog about how stupid it seemed that arresting people for something like pot(for medical or any other reason) is a waste of money and time, and jail space for some real criminals.

Metro has always been pretty hard line about drugs in general. But I hear this is mostly just policy. Most of them know that there are bigger fish to fry. And state taxes on marijuana would certainly give a boost to Nevada. Our economy is based on only a 3 things. But this would be another form of state revenue generated that we could certainly put to good use on top of gaming, tourism, and service.

I've posted some comments on a thread in RATS that would be applicable to this topic, so I'll copy those comments in this thread--For the convenience of those who don't have RATS access:

Another medical use for which I've heard that it's prescribed is to treat glaucoma...Such patients are even given a card to carry that indicates their medical need for it & the medical industry checks it for purity, rolls it up & packages it to send to the patient.

I've even heard of a group of researchers (I've forgotten some details like who they were & where they were conducting research because it must be at least a decade since I saw it) who were experimenting with hemp as a material for construction! They first engineered the hemp to contain such a low level of THC that anyone who would have tried to "alter their minds" with it would have to inhale enough smoke to kill an elephant & still never even catch a buzz.

During their research & experimentation, they found that hemp grows much faster than trees, could be more easily molded or shaped in any way desired & was even stronger than most common wood already in use; It also would have been much cheaper to form & use than what the lumber industries could have accomplished. They were shut down by the US government simply for growing & possessing the stuff, regardless of nearly non-existent THC content & the fact that it was for research for practical applications.

I think it may even be possible that the lumber industry may have something to do with opposing such a Bill...After all, the research conducted on hemp for use as building materials would have an impact on the lumber industry too.

I hope the bill passes, too. Other states are currently presented with such
common sense initiatives, also:

Decriminalize

An article I believe in the Harvard law Journal reported that as much as 2-5 billion has been spent just on lawyers in cases of minor infractions of the drug laws on the books Thats just since 1965. Thinking on the incremental price of court costs it won't be long before that number is in the trillions. Thats way to much money stolen from the people by our judicial system. Time for a change!
Zindo

Originally posted by MidnightDStroyer
I've even heard of a group of researchers (I've forgotten some details like who they were & where they were conducting research because it must be at least a decade since I saw it) who were experimenting with hemp as a material for construction! They first engineered the hemp to contain such a low level of THC that anyone who would have tried to "alter their minds" with it would have to inhale enough smoke to kill an elephant & still never even catch a buzz.

During their research & experimentation, they found that hemp grows much faster than trees, could be more easily molded or shaped in any way desired & was even stronger than most common wood already in use; It also would have been much cheaper to form & use than what the lumber industries could have accomplished. They were shut down by the US government simply for growing & possessing the stuff, regardless of nearly non-existent THC content & the fact that it was for research for practical applications.

I think it may even be possible that the lumber industry may have something to do with opposing such a Bill...After all, the research conducted on hemp for use as building materials would have an impact on the lumber industry too.

The industrial uses alone make this truly a "miracle plant" and thus a threat to any number of industries. I highly recommend Jack Herer's book The Emperor Wears No Clothes, which I believe you can read for free on his web site. The guy is quite evangelical about the wonders of cannabis, but if you can see beyond him being a bit 'out there,' he definitely has some good insights about how hemp could change the world.