Reason.tv: Pot Wars—Battlefield California

Over the past couple of years, the medical marijuana industry in Los  Angeles has exploded. Estimates vary, but there may be as many as 800 dispensaries currently open for business in the city of angels. An ordinance recently passed by the LA city council, however, is about to change all that.

The new ordinance will force hundreds of dispensaries to close and all but a few to relocate. The goal was to bring clarity to the medical marijuana industry, but the only thing that's clear is that the transition process will be difficult. Especially now that the DEA has begun raiding dispensaries again despite the promises made by the Obama administration.

While federal, state and local governments struggle to make sense of medical marijuana laws, an increasing number of Californians support a completely different approach: marijuana legalization. Nothing more than a pipe dream? Maybe. But consider this: Fixty-six percent of Californians currently support pot legalization, the same proportion of Californians who voted for the Compassionate Use Act, which legalized medical marijuana, back in 1996.

Produced by Paul Feine. Shot and edited by Alex Manning. Graphics by Hawk Jensen.

Hosted by Nick Gillespie.

Approximately 9 minutes.

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Comments

[joebanana]

Who gave the government the power to make it illegal in the first place. They have no right to interfere with my choice of how I want to pursue happiness.Prohibition is unconstitutional. The US government is a terrorist regime.

[HeadTater]

Here's how you clarify the laws: get rid of them!

[Sean]

I'll second that. It's ridiculous that in 2010 Marijuana legalization is still an issue.

[skr]

My first gripe is with the guy who used pot showing up at Hollywood High as an indictment of Medical Marijuana. Are you f'n kidding me? Hollywood High had pot flowing through the halls way before MM legalization and regardless of what happens with MM in LA, it will have pot along with coke, heroin, etc flowing through the halls far into the future.

The second gripe is with Trutanich. I haven't tested the pot in the dispensaries, but I can say with certainty, that there isn't a single bud that has been sprayed with Raid. Now the illegal ditch weed from Mexico, that's a whole other story. Want to get rid of adulterated weed? Legalize it.

[Alex]

Raid on Weed?
What a frickin moron.
Sure are glad we have inspector gadget here taking care of us.
Would be shocking to hear a police official talk about an autistic child's doctor like that yet we get harrassed for using the meds that work for us.
Government get wise and understand the medical needs of the people.

[Paul]

Hmm, this Medical Marijuana thing is trickier than we thought. Methinks things would be easier if we just legalized it outright.

[RichN]

Conservatives are remarkably consistent in their views on the states rights, even when we're talking about legalizing marijuana. In fact, when the issue was brought before the Supreme Court in the 2005 landmark case Gonzales v. Raich, states rights advocate William Rehnquist (the only justice remaining from Roe v. Wade abortion case, which he opposed) voted in favor of California's right to legalize marijuana. He was joined by Reagan-appointee Sandra Day O'Connor and ?ber-conservative Clarence Thomas. Thomas, in his dissenting opinion, wrote:

"If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers?

"In the early days of the Republic, it would have been unthinkable that Congress could prohibit the local cultivation, possession, and consumption of marijuana?"

On the other hand, it was the liberals on the bench, those who believe that the Constitution is a flexible document that must continually bend to changing social mores, who voted unanimously against California's right to provide a little grass to sick people. (I guess the document just isn't that flexible.)

http://tinyurl.com/yhvetwp

[ssmitty13]

Rich,
You are so close to the truth . . . There is no consistency because the left right is a distraction - all liars. Only a libertarian understands what JoeBanna (above)instinctively knows. Natural rights can't be taken, Period!

[RichN]

Conservatives are remarkably consistent in their views on the states rights, even when we're talking about legalizing marijuana. In fact, when the issue was brought before the Supreme Court in the 2005 landmark case Gonzales v. Raich, states rights advocate William Rehnquist (the only justice remaining from Roe v. Wade abortion case, which he opposed) voted in favor of California's right to legalize marijuana. He was joined by Reagan-appointee Sandra Day O'Connor and ?ber-conservative Clarence Thomas. Thomas, in his dissenting opinion, wrote:

"If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers?

"In the early days of the Republic, it would have been unthinkable that Congress could prohibit the local cultivation, possession, and consumption of marijuana?"

On the other hand, it was the liberals on the bench, those who believe that the Constitution is a flexible document that must continually bend to changing social mores, who voted unanimously against California's right to provide a little grass to sick people. (I guess the document just isn't that flexible.)

http://tinyurl.com/yhvetwp

[LibertarianMatt]

Someone should spray Trutanich with Raid.

[Peter]

Whatever you think about marijuana, some of these dispensaries are dangerous. One of the dispensary owners interviewed in this segment says he has never had a law enforcement issue. He neglects to say that one of his employees was shot to death during an armed robbery a couple years ago. I guess that doesn't qualify as a "law enforcement issue," huh? That should tell you where people like him are coming from.

[Kirk Perry]

The federal government has already lost the war on weed.
If you google Federal Marijuana Research, you hit a brick wall to progress with the Feds law that says it is a crime for anyone other than the federal government to research weed.
Now, finally last week, in the San Diego Union, there was a report that a lab in La Jolla is researching the chemical properties of MJ and expects to have cannabinol concentrated in a vapor-inhaler.
The VA is making note of MJ being used by 90% of Hep-C patients who find immediate morning relief from nausea. (Me included).
Slowly the public perception of "Reefer Madness" is dissolving.
The aging seniors are going to be the ones that drive the federal gov. to it's knees. They are sick and tired of being lied to and are going to make a big stink about being refused MJ. Retirees have nothing better to do. It beats complaining non-stop about Obama, and they can see quicker results from the fed on the MJ issue.
Don't worry about the DEA raids on LA. LA is trying to go back and re-create the MJ dispensary logistics like San Diego is doing.
If you want to be a part of the "new MJ" ways and means, keep your eye on San Diego.
What scares the public to death is to see a huge bong load being huffed by total addicts every time they turn on the TV. Have you ever seen anyone on TV smoke a little bong? No they have to feature a huge bong. Jiminey Chrismas that's a bad visual.
Lets try and focus how to get the most effective smoke from the tiniest pipe loads.
It's a sin to waste good smoke.

[David]

I personally dont really like the idea of legalizing medical marijuana but hey if other people want to use let them long term use cause's damage to your lungs can give you multiple sclerosis so let them make the choice abuse a drug that others use for actual medical reasons or abuse it more until or shit outta luck

[The Great Gadfly]

Who actually controls the marijuana industry under prohibition?

[Kirk Perry]

Every 4-8 yrs. the Republicans (my party) have to "give the football back" the the other side.
It's a "safety valve" for democracy and HAS to be in place or the people would revolt.
NOW is the time to press the Dems for federal research on MJ, benefiting from the (on going) La Jolla, Calif. studies due to be released June 2010.
We'll never get cooperation on MJ from the Repubs, so we're assuming that NORML has a fed-proposal planned in advance of our resounding win in the November 2010 state elections?

If there's no current cooperation from the state of Michigan, then lets find out how they're dealing with the MJ issue(s).
Then conference-call with the other (13) MJ legal states reps and collectively prepare a single proposal for the next president-elect ballot.
???????????????????????????????????
Note: I'm voting for Meg for Calif. governor and who knows what her attitude on MJ is. Thankfully she's a businesswoman with an easy-listening, low-pitched voice and seems fairly independent at present.
Interesting times we're living in. 🙂

[Kirk Perry]

I've been in Hep-C treatment for 44 weeks at the VA. I have 4 weeks to being completely cured.
My task assigned to me by the VA was to research online, long term health risks from using MJ.
I searched the net and found the same old, outdated (1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001) studies that all have the federal spin. Times change MJ facts fast.
The VA did their research and found the same thing I did. Outdated studies, that were lacking in funding and federal support.
From the Federal gov.http://justice.gov/dea/ongoing/marijuana.html
"The DEA recently approved the University of California San Diego to undertake rigorous scientific studies to access the safety and efficacy of cannabis compounds fro treating certain debilitating medical conditions".

The DEA said that UCSD is isolating all the cannabinoids and installing the buzz in an inhalant vapor.

It's all over for the federal government. The DEA will lose the MJ fight and MJ as a "gateway" drug will be re-accessed with a different perspective now.
The DEA has not been able to separate sole-use of MJ as a "gateway".
My source in the DEA (a Mr. Rocky Raccoon) tells me that the new DEA opinion will include the facts that mixing any substance with MJ (alcohol, or hard drugs) has a modifying affect on MJ that can't be categorized.
The DEA also will admit that it's "gateway" studies never separated MJ from alcohol, but lumped them in all together.
Here's a funny story about the DEA. In 1971 my friends (J. Hagen and D. Cunnison) imported (1) one ton of Afghanistan hand-press patties, hidden in a metal tube structure that was being shipped to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.
A jealous (but calculating) boyfriend of Jeff's girlfriend informed the DEA about the shipment and it was seized at Scripps Institute.
Everybody went to prison, except the DEA gave the informant X pounds of the confiscated hashish, because months later I met people up in Big Bear, CA where the informant lived, who all had hand-press patties the informant had given them. 🙂 The unique properties of hand-press hashish, is that you can keep a lump of it in your bare pocket and pinch off a pipe load when you need it.
The DEA plays both sides of the fence.
I eagerly look forward to a DEA or FBI visit. I have a few more questions for them.

[Kirk Perry]

Has anyone heard any more on the DEA ordered UCSD research?

I'm surprised info hasn't leaked out to the public yet, being as how they have students in on the research.

I signed a bevy of Republican backed petitions yesterday from a solicitor outside of Home Depot.
He was and ex-cop who gave me the same tired statements, that most prohibitionist lean on:

1. MJ is 10 times more powerful than when we smoked it in the 60's.

When you tell "probies" that actually all MJ has a ceiling and once you've smoked any MJ for a week, you hit a ceiling high. So, in essence your "high" is finite.

Each and everyone of the "probies" will look at you with empty eyes like they don't know what you're talking about.
They're programmed for a "canned response".

When you tell a "probie" that the DEA has ordered an MJ study from UCSD, they give the same vancant distant stare.

There's not even anything about the UCSD study on this Reason site.

What's going at UCSD??

Lets send in a mole.

[Kirk Perry]

3-25-10
We all saw Fox News about our Nov. MJ ballot. Fox Legal analyst (Libertarian) Judge (big hair) Napoleano gave a "fair and balanced view":
"MJ should have been legalized a long time ago".
About the "probie's" worries that MJ may get into a child's hands (like a weapon might) -
Judge N. replied, "We can all refer to a federal ruling from long ago, that dealt with a parents tragic handgun incident, where though hidden, was found by their child:

The court ruled that a handgun is licensed to an adult over 21.
The court cannot be expected to guide "minors" lives - when the (responsible) "adult" is acting like a child".

Judge N.'s last words were:
"California is setting an example for the other 13 states, but I don't think the Cal-MJ ballot is going to succeed, this year".

Thanks to NORML and WeedMaps for all the work.

[Kirk Perry]

This morning we heard about the card-holding, Medical MJ patient who (solely under the influence of MJ we presume) ran amuck while driving and struck a slew of vehicles.
We in the MJ community wonder what else was in this persons system or his wiring.
Hope to hear more on the reasons. The "probies" are clutching to this one incident as positive proof of "reefer madness".
To the AMA, DEA, FBI, the President, and all PROHIBITIONIST ("probies"), we propose that the FED use (6) scenic "confiscated estates w/ no less than (2) wooded acres" per estate, enclosed with electric-shock fencing.

1. On one property they'll put only ALCOHOL users. The "juicers" will have all the alcohol they want, but that's the only "substance" they get.
All groups get all the healthy food they need.
2. This property gets only HEROIN users. The group will have all the heroin they want and the tools to use it.
3. This group is METH people only. They'll have piles of Meth to use and ample healthy food.
4. This group is COCAINE only. They'll be bags of it available to them, as well as ALCOHOL, since it's a favorite coke-companion.
5. This group is a mixed bag chosen by evaluating the three or four most common substances that are found in "substance" arrests.
We'll install the "mutt-group" at estate #5 with an array of the drugs they use and plenty of healthy food too.
6. This group are MJ and HASHISH users.
This substance group is whom "probies" feel provided the "GATEWAY" to all those drugs listed above (1-5).
????????????????????????????????????
Each estate has a bevy of video cameras which will feed the (6) estates to a viewing command post staffed by AMA, DEA, FBI and anyone else who wants to be there.
We'll leave the groups in their compound for a week, or until one group dies of consumption. Then the groups will continue to eliminate themselves until only one group is alert, laughing, and health-food binging.
MJ people will survive.

Then the federal group will gather and mull over the results.

[Kirk Perry]

All About MJ:

The biggest obstacle to wide acceptance of MJ, is that a large percentage of the pop. are SCARED of MJ. Given that MJ use is here to stay,
use some of our taxpayer dollars to create a fed. funded "Info Video" with a quick history of the plant, it's two basic cultivated strains (Sativa & Indica) - and all the about MJ "effect ceilings", and how MJ benefits best those people who are mentally comfortable in their own skin to begin with. Others, with extreme guilt and baggage might crack under the speed of self-realization, but they'll sleep it off and survive - fit as a fiddle the next morning. Guaranteed.
Note: The only way you can "raise" your ceiling, is to stop using MJ for a week or 10 days - and then begin treatment again - using the weakest strain that will still do the job. We called this, "Outliving the 1/2 Life" in 1965 and it's the same routine in 2010.
I like the WeedMaps site and videos, but I think MJ and a foot-high bongs are scaring alot of the "fence-sitters" and we need the fence sitters.
Basically, the users keep putting the fact that we GAINED the right to use MJ - right in the public's face. (i.e; No one wants a plume of exhaled smoke aimed at them.)
We won already, we should move on with how to best use MJ, so that everybody has a use-history archive to refer to.
Perhaps a WeedMaps video can illustrate some new tar-water removal tips. Or, how to get the MOST effect from the LEAST amount of MJ.

[Kirk Perry]

MJ users are being discriminated against by the fed. gov., in that, the Leaf Tobacco Industry is allowed to add or maintain high-levels of cancer causing carcinogens. Some people have contacted throat and lung cancer through tobacco over the years - the need for nicky (nicotine) was worth the risk to them.

MJ users should have the RIGHT to have more cancer causing carcinogens added into their Collective Leaf MJ; so that like tobacco users, MJ users can develop throat and lung cancer too. As of 5-4-10 there have been no reported cases of exclusive MJ use cancers, and it's been at least a 100 yrs. of use-history.
I'm always available for consult by the ATF & DEA & FBI and would like to hear their views expressed publically.

* Rumor from Sacramento California (being held under wraps until Sept. 2010) is that Republican Steve Poisner will support MJ - since 57% of the pop. will vote pro-MJ, and 100% of the Prop. 13 folks will vote for the stronger-favored prop. 13 candidate.
November election results will be eye openers. Thanks NORML.

[abercrombie milano]

I love your style!

[cliff smith]

http://legalweedsonlinedispens.....centrates/

[Kirk Perry]

Thanks Abercrombie.
If you have any leverage over Mssrs. Fitch, can you please ask him to contact me about adding KnuckleWear? to run parallel w/ your "Hollister?" line.
The time is ripe for focusing on mens' wear designed by men. Men are lost. Dressed by their wives and whatever is on sale at Marshall's.
Men need utility clothing. A collection of "uni's" that have many combination applications.
Contact Julian Schnabel, NY in my behalf. We want him and his goofy artwork to be a part of it.

I design replica antique Harley-Davidson parts as an avocation, for V-Twin Mfg., Inc.? - Taiwan, NY & KC.
M/C clothing is universally worn like "surf" clothing used to be.
KnuckleWear is not blue denim trousers, motorcycle boots and a black leather jacket with an eagle on the back.
Hardly.

Does AF want to scoop Calvin? And scoop them most bitterly?
I have (7) mens clothing articles on hand. Each one is for year-round wear. We can send men off to work and the dress them for sleep. More than marble-baggers and a t-shirt.
No one else but me can put all of the existing essentials together. I know, but it's a curse I live with.

Please read what I've said about capturing the aroma of heated new-parts and a low-fume mens electric pre-shave - tentatively named "Cosmoline", on the Cyril Huze Blog.
http://www.cyrilhuzeblog.com/2.....annonball/
? "I don't know how many miles you'll put on the machines before the first major pit stop, but if every chase truck carries a large raincoat, you can charge folks a (min. $5.00 donation) to stick their head under the raincoat that's created a sweat lodge over the motor, and breathe deep.
The first pit stop would be the best fumes before all the fragrances marry.
If Japan can send a fragrance designer over to participate and he/she can capture the aroma in a Mason jar, then a mens subtle scented, electric razor pre-shave can be created ? to send men off every morning smelling like a "new car".
???????????????????????
http://www.facebook.com/profil.....3734886..1
Thanks Ab.
???????????????????????
On the MJ side of life, our local entrenched politicians are quietly trying to eliminate all MJ delivery service in North County - San Diego.
San Diego itself is handling the logistics of MJ dispensary locations very well. That's only because San Diego is basically a beach town and the city government are younger and all 'em are "surf types" and cool heads. We don't like Booze or Nickies (ciggs) anymore, here in hickville.

[Kirk Perry]

Of special note to all medical MJ patients:

My NORML member caregiver told me that Calif. and the Fed. are anxiously anticipating the dismemberment or death of ANY 14 yr. old youth, whom the gov. can certify that was SOLELY under the influence of marijuana.
All of the "incidents" on state records often include MJ as only part of a chemical mix that contributed to the death or injury.
The DEA is getting desperate.
We have no real defense against the fore mentioned, should a child roast a bowl and run a red light and kill someone. It's not happened yet.
The state is desperate for a killing incident on straight MJ.
The DEA has never stopped working business as usual.
O-bomb's short leash was just a redirection for the DEA.
We may not win the legal right in the Nov. elections, but it'll finally force the gov. to follow San Diego's MJ guidelines.
I think the November elections will have a huge voter turnout. The peeps passed term limits for city supervisors overwhelmingly, even though they knew TL in the past didn't help Sacremento, at all. 🙂

Does NORML have a permanent chair in the Meg Whitman's news conferences? Ask her about medical MJ.

This is going to be FUN!

[muddywood]

I only need to know one thing when it comes to Pot legalization.
If George Soros is for it then I am against it.

[cliff smith]

http://legalweedsonlinedispens.....centrates/

[Kirk Perry]

We welcome the support of the NAACP - to my knowledge, the biggest contributor to social change since the Civil War.
After 45 yrs. of MJ use (always under the "light-shroud" of X-felon imposed MJ use-secrecy), I've felt the essence of "riding at the back of the bus", as an MJ outlaw.
MJ has made me a better, and more task-focused person, with less applied mistakes to correct. Thanks a whole lot.
???????????????????????????????
The NAACP Calif. Chapter pledged it's support for the MJ Nov. ballot.
"...citing the unblanced ratio of blacks arrested for low-level mj crimes, exceeding whites in the states largest counties." - AP 6/30/10 (in part)

When passed, the MJ ballot measure would:
? allow adults to possess up to (1) oz. for personal use.

? Residents could legally grow small MJ gardens.

? Cities and Counties would decide whether to allow MJ sales.
????????????????????????????
Imo, we need to have on hand, all of the "sole-MJ-use" crime stats, from the counties with the largest and oldest operating MJ collectives.
? Has crime dropped in those MJ counties since Medical MJ has essentially eliminated the class of MJ's "Have's and Have-Nots"? Life runs smoother when everyone has what makes them comfortable.
? Inform the public that all MJ strains have a "ceiling" on the "high", when used by adults for more than 5 days. The MJ "high" will only take you so far (in part because of MJ's half-life, approx. 4-12 days). [If so, what exactly does that mean as fact?]
? Initiate now, MJ education of it's history and use; the economics of MJ costs to a user today; the unknown health-risks of MJ; (and for the first time in U.S. history) - a short course on MJ use and now-developing etiquette.
???????????????????????????????
The News Media battles:
We have our work cut out for us. Some of our opponents are:
? The federal government $ aid-to-states pressure.
? The TV and newspapers that will always portray the MJ users as dreadlock Rastafarians smoking cigar sized (spliff) cones, and in the ugliest, scariest, situations their paid-ad people can dream-up, starting in August 2010. Expect ads that have youths in small groups, passing around a joint while waiting for the school bus. Or, the bus driver will be selling them pot.

? We can't match the prohibitionist (probies) cash resources, but we can juxtapose (side-by-side) the propaganda of the past with the reality of today. [The early 50's school chum breaking the glass top off a Pepsi bottle in front of his girlfriend - and then jamming the ragged bottle bottom against his grinning lips and laughing, comes to mind, as a good shield-weapon to use against the probies.] Then play that against today's MJ realities. 🙂
? A good visual against the probies would be to make a collage news clips. The newscaster would say, in different combination's on a theme:
"A youth died today...alcohol was suspect." "A mother and daughter were killed in a head-on collision by a drunk driver", and more of the same, a total of about 20 fast moving newscaster anti-alcohol sound bites.
? Focus the public on alcohol related deaths, tobacco deaths, and nicotine proliferation.
Then juxtapose the KNOWN sole-use risks of MJ (no coke, heroin, tobacco, uppers, downers, spinners, zoomies, tweakers, etc. allowed at all).
Who has died in a traffic accident under the sole influence of MJ?
You'd end up with an empty list of reasons not to legalize MJ.

? Make the public feel comfortable with the "MJ use exclusion" for all public service personnel, with random drug testing. If you want to work in public service, you can't use MJ.
???????????????????????????
Associated Press (in part) 6/30/10:
"There have not been high profile organizations or elected officials within the Afro-American communities to say enough is enough, we have to end marijuana prohibition," said Stephen Gutwillig, Calif. director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

[Kirk Perry]

I thought the DEA MJ study wasn't released yet. My apologies - kp
????????????????????????????????
UCSD report concludes pot has therapeutic value
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 12:24 p.m.

Researchers at the University of California's San Diego-based Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research presented a report to the state Legislature today that concludes marijuana has a therapeutic value in treating pain.

Following five clinical trials, the researchers found there is reasonable evidence that cannabis is a promising treatment'' for some specific, pain-related medical conditions.

"We focused on illnesses where current medical treatment does not provide adequate relief or coverage of symptoms'' said Dr. Igor Grant, the center's director and executive vice chair of UCSD's Department of Psychiatry.

These findings provide a strong, science-based context in which policymakers and the public can begin discussing the place of cannabis in medical care,'' Grant said.

The studies showed that cannabis can be helpful in easing pain in selected syndromes caused by injury or diseases of the nervous system and possibly for painful muscle spasms due to multiple sclerosis.

The center was established in 2000 to conduct clinical and pre-clinical trials of cannabinoids in an effort to answer the question does marijuana have therapeutic value?''

With the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, it became legal in California for seriously ill patients under the supervision of a physician to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes. - SD Union Tribune
????????????????

Whether it's Jerry or Meg that seize the opportunity to climb on board the departing MJ caboose is yet to be seen.
One of them will support the 2010 UCSD findings and create their own task force, to master-plan logistics for legalization before October.
It's going to be fun, since it affects a lot of us directly.
This feels like the Prop 13 - Prop-tax ceiling election buzz - 1970's.
There is no place like California.

[Kirk Perry]

Medical MJ Ok'd for Ailing Veterans (NYTNS) - Dan Frosch, July 24, 2010

In part:

"The Dept. of Vet Affairs will FORMALLY allow patients treated at it's hospitals and clinics to use medical mj in California and other states where it's legal, a policy veterans have sought for several years. A dept. directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which OUTLAWS marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, EFFECTIVELY deferring to the STATES".
And the article continues to report that...."Although the veterans of the VIETNAM WAR were the first group to use marijuana widely for medical purposes, the population of veterans using it today SPANS GENERATIONS, said Michael Krawitz of Veterans for Medical MJ Access, which worked with the dept in formulating a policy".
"Under (current) dept. rules veterans can be denied pain meds if found to be using illegal drugs."
?????????????????????????????
In short order folks, imo, the feds don't care who uses MJ or has legal abortions, the fed just doesn't want to sign-on to any of it, because the fed will end up paying for MJ or paying for abortions. End of story.
???????????????????????
And in case it's not well known, the VA has created the hospital-health care model for the USA. No longer is paperwork used for patient health affairs. The VA now communicates by internet with the privately owned Kaiser Health Care. Kaiser went paperless and reflects many of the VA patient operations that Health Groups use today.

[Sunflower]

If pot is good medicine then let legalization happen already. Marijuana does not have a terrible amount of adverse affects. Instead of spending massive amounts of money on law enforcement to arrest kids with glass pipes, the government should concentrate on real problems. The medicinal use of marijuana is well proven and can used to enhance legal drug regiments to ease the suffering of ailing people.
http://www.sunflowerpipes.com

[Kirk Perry]

I purchase a Calif. MJ license renewal yearly for $100.00 Permit # 8302.
Steady availability of top-shelf MJ is not yet established. It's still a have and have-not situation. Not a good thing. However, overall MJ crime is down throughout the state.

Imo, NORML had constructed a huge outdoor, 2011 equipped, greenhouse with fully ripe "baseball bat" buds, as far as the eye can see. Imo, NORML gave-up the Santa Barbara, CA estimated 300 million dollar cash-crop to the FBI - just so the public would know, well in advance of November, that OUR California government is leaving Needed Tax Money "on the table" by keeping MJ illegal. 300 Mil. in just this one grow. Boo!!
We demanded potent-rich-stem cells. We got it.
We want MJ legalized, and stop a forthcoming "moral's civil war".
"Nip it Andy! Just Nip it!" - B. Fife

Once MJ is leaglized, everybody's going to say, "What was all the fuss about?"
I use 1 (oz.) of MJ per 42-45 days and I smoke about 5 or 8 tiny (all glass!) bong tokes daily, and have used MJ for 46 yrs (early years in a "low-level" state of paranoia that I was doing something wrong). That's all changed now. The second I received my med script, an 1/8 oz. of pysch-baggage dropped.
I'll volunteer today, to allow the Veterans Administration or California Medical, to send a camera-snake through my nostril and windpipe (with a side-trip into all sinus cavities) to see how much tar and deep tissue particles are rooted into the pit(s) of my lungs and elsewhere.
I read in the paper this week, about a bean-sprout harvest in a lung and that earlier in Russia - a fir tree taking root. 🙂 The lung-bottom is fertile ground. What's down there? Let's find out.
I've smoked MJ and exotic hashish, off and on since high school. Call the procedure an antidotal cross-section review of a long time user. Publish it.

It's an "Either/Or" when it comes to passing Prop. 19. We Either win and reap huge state tax money benefits now when we the state needs money (vs. giving any merit to any as yet unknown, but still alleged, long-time harm and false claims that MJ "leads to heroin" claims by the prohibitionist) - OR, we lose the election and go back to November 2010, $100.00 yearly medical-permits and $440.00 ounces.

Until then, watch out for tricks from the Alcohol & Tobacco & Religious Companies, the DEA, FBI, my misguided fellow Republican reps, and all News Outlets.
"The biggest bank account wins in California. It's the NEW law."

No one person has EVER died or grown cancer from Sole Use of Marijuana (mj) and the prohibitionist are getting "negative-info desperate", imo.
We want MJ user and health information, not exclusion from the population. VOTE !
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NORML has always defended accusations from the prohibitionist in a calm and dignified manner. Sweet.
I hope that when they start throwing the phrase "pothead" at us, that we'll reply with the term "Prohibitionist" - and let a beer bottle and a cigarette be their battle flag. Shaped in a cross.

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Great vid, thanks for fighting the good fight!