Weedpipe
Active Member
In their June 2 column, Dora Dixie and Peter Bensinger, two persons who earn their living tending to the drug disaster caused by zero-tolerance prohibition and its multifaceted dire consequences - including death, disease, overdose, drug contamination, addiction, gang proliferation and rampant crime - repeat a number of misleading predictions should Illinois become the 15th state to stop arresting seriously ill patients who use marijuana with their doctors' recommendations.
First, they claim medical marijuana states have the highest rates of teen marijuana use, implying that somehow medical marijuana laws lead to more teen use.
In fact, the data suggest that medical marijuana laws are actually associated with decreases in teen use. In all 11 of the states with before-and-after data, teen use rates have fallen after medical marijuana laws were passed.
The authors also expressed concern about quality control of medical marijuana, even though a number of labs now test medical marijuana in Colorado and Montana.
Unlike California, Illinois' proposed law would require dispensaries to grow their own marijuana according to state Department of Health regulations.
The authors expressed concern about fictitious harms to employers who would not be allowed to fire seriously ill patients who are not impaired at work, even though employers currently cannot fire people just for testing positive for prescription Vicodin when they are allowed to use it.
There is no rational reason for medical marijuana patients who are not impaired to be treated any differently.
SB 1381 is endorsed by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, the state chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and the Illinois Nurses Association.
The bill cautiously creates only a three-year pilot program and provides strict penalty enhancements in the event of diversion. It provides for state oversight and regulation. Legislators should look at the facts and into their hearts, and then vote to pass this compassionate and narrowly tailored bill.
News Forum: rollitup.org
Source: dailyherald.com
Author: James E. Gierach
Contact: http://www.dailyherald.com/
Copyright: 2010 Paddock Publications, Inc.
Website: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=385995&src=
First, they claim medical marijuana states have the highest rates of teen marijuana use, implying that somehow medical marijuana laws lead to more teen use.
In fact, the data suggest that medical marijuana laws are actually associated with decreases in teen use. In all 11 of the states with before-and-after data, teen use rates have fallen after medical marijuana laws were passed.
The authors also expressed concern about quality control of medical marijuana, even though a number of labs now test medical marijuana in Colorado and Montana.
Unlike California, Illinois' proposed law would require dispensaries to grow their own marijuana according to state Department of Health regulations.
The authors expressed concern about fictitious harms to employers who would not be allowed to fire seriously ill patients who are not impaired at work, even though employers currently cannot fire people just for testing positive for prescription Vicodin when they are allowed to use it.
There is no rational reason for medical marijuana patients who are not impaired to be treated any differently.
SB 1381 is endorsed by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, the state chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and the Illinois Nurses Association.
The bill cautiously creates only a three-year pilot program and provides strict penalty enhancements in the event of diversion. It provides for state oversight and regulation. Legislators should look at the facts and into their hearts, and then vote to pass this compassionate and narrowly tailored bill.
News Forum: rollitup.org
Source: dailyherald.com
Author: James E. Gierach
Contact: http://www.dailyherald.com/
Copyright: 2010 Paddock Publications, Inc.
Website: http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=385995&src=