Medical Marijuana: Wisconsin Bill to Be Filed

1. Single-toke dosage info: at 25-mg. per serving, 3 ounces of properly sifted herb is 2700 units.

2. Next visit, ask about hemp cheese recipes.

I feel for the person in Wisconsin who has been harassed by the police simply over marijuana possesion. As a former resident of that benighted state, I well understand what a police state it is. Why is there no real outcry at the University at Madison over this? What is one to make of the decades of "Harvest Festival" marches in favor of marijuana law reform that have gone absolutely no where?
I call for national examination of Wisconsin by progressives. History will show the state's progressive leadership was the biggest suck-ass of the status quo of all time.
Who would have thought that even after **decades** of "Harvest Festival" protest marches at Madison, with all the out-of-state students doing their retro-sixties thing before they get jobs in daddies firm, that Wisconsin does not even have a medical marijuana program!?? To anyone who can understand the situation there, this is truly breath-taking, implicating an entire generation of fake progressives. Anyone in the Wisconsin NORML or Green Party should hang their heads in shame---and then get to work.

Now that Barack Obama's promise has been kept, sort of, it will be a lot easier for medical marijuana laws to get passed. Federal interference has been used as an excuse for refusing to enact state reforms for too long, now that's coming to an end.

It only makes sense that in this time of econonomic strife to stop spending millions/billions to prosecute maijuana users instead of making use of funds that could be generated from it. I personally know several people who would rather use maijuana for ailments ranging from post traumatic stress to cancer than take the handfulls of pills that the Drs. prescribe that have soo many adverse effects that can destroy their kidneys, liver and brain. I've helped friends get off vicodin, oxycotton and many other drugs that were destroying their bodies and mental capacity but were prescribed by Drs.. I'm not saying that marijuana is a cure all, but it's less damaging and addicting than most pain killers that are prescribed today. So instead of persecuting these people and pushing them into the "drug world"why don't we help them find a more natural remedy? People have been afraid to stand up for fear of losing jobs/benefits and being prosecuted for way to long! It's time we did something about it!!!

I live in Wisconsin. I have many severe medical issues and live everyday in so much pain. Pain that gets so bad that I just want it to end it all. Prescription drugs like oxycodone and oxycotin nearly killed me. I went back to my beloved herb after that and for two years I vaporized medical grade marijuana. The woman I was going to marry couldn't handle the stress of me being busted. So what does she do? She rats me out and hands my stuff over to the cops when I wasn't home. Now I'm back on the damn prescription drugs I was on before plus a whole lot more. I still have a lot of pain plus all the side effects of the drugs. My Dr. resigned and no other Dr. is willing to fill my prescriptions. Now I'm going through the pain clinic again and hoping they will get a Dr. in my area to fill my prescriptions. Good news is my pain clinic Dr. is all for marijuana. I can't risk getting caught again as this last time was my 3rd time. I never had more then 7 grams at a time. Vaporising with a Silver Surfer Vaporizer is the most awesome way to go. Herb helps me to live my life and be able to do something other then suffer.

I need this medical bill to pass my life depends on it!!

Greetings to all of you in WI and working to see LRB 2517 pass [and 'ello to anyone else reading this :)]!

I lived in WI from age 7 until age 19, came back for awhile to attend UWM, work, and raise my child from 1988 to 1998. So, establishing that I know WI and their politics very well, I agree with the person(s) who refer to WI as a pseudo police state. I have many of my own stories to back that up but that would simply diverge too far from the point of my post. One story though; Luckily, my only brush with the law and use of my preferred medication (used for lifelong and crippling depression, migraines, ADD, and most currently two herniated discs in my upper spine and fractures in my lumbar as well), was as a teenager (I think I was 17) in the small town where I grew up and the officer was a cousin, lol. So I got lucky. However, had we not been related, it would have been all bad as he had a reputation for stalking the smokers and laying down the law as harshly as possible - even overstepping the bounds of the law on many occasions. (hard to admit relation to this man but I guess we all have "one of those" in our families somewhere, lol)

I've spent the last seven years living in Northern California and I was lucky enough to have been a part of the medical MJ program there. My prescribing doctor made sure I had a card, and that I could legally walk into a dispensary at anytime and buy my medicine. I could even grow my own and I did (even with the blessing of the property owner from whom I rented - so there's a whole other aspect of enacting these sorts of programs; there needs to be protections for property owners!). And in CA there are even state sanctioned courses available to MMJ (medical marijuana) patients to learn how to grow and make your own edibles should you prefer your medicine in that form, and many do!! WI could learn a lot from CA's MMJ program, Prop 215. And thankfully with Obama in the WH, hopefully the raids of the honest dispensaries and threats to property owners will end - the Feds and the DEA have been absolutely brutal! You'd think with Jerry Brown as the State's Attorney General it would not be so bad however he's recently changed his stance and is on our side again (damn political wafflers!).

So my point - finally (damn ADD, lol), is that no amount of marches and protests will change the laws. We need to go right to our senators, legislators, and state representatives, and write them, call them, email them, bug them 24/7!! Do whatever you can to get the message across that LRB 2517 needs to pass and state the reasons why - so many of them obvious; end the drug wars, illegal trade and transportation, stop the cartels, release non-violent offenders from overcrowded prisons, relieve police departments from one more thing they have to worry about, and most importantly, give legitimate patients the right to choose the medicine that best serves their needs. This is so much of a quality of health care issue as well! To anyone on antidepressants, you know what I'm talking about; good mood stabilization comes at a cost of so many negative side effects of the drugs on the market. You can also support a real Medical Marijuana lobby in Washington DC - the Marijuana Policy Project (MMP - http://www.mpp.org ).

Also of interest to this issue: I'd like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to BPG (Berkeley Patients Group)! This last Saturday (10/24/09), CNN aired a one-hour report entitled "Mellowing on Medical Marijuana." Brad Senesac is the spokesperson for BPG and was part of the program; you can view his segment here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L0IWMtI1BU. All the other segments from the report are there to be viewed as well, and my review is that CNN did a nice job painting MMJ in a positive light, something along the lines of "legalize it already!!"

My story ends with the fact that this is so issue vital to me now that I've had to leave CA for financial reasons (housing costs out there are so outrageous), but needed to stay close enough to travel back and forth for my ongoing worker's compensation case regarding my back injuries (and there's another program that needs serious overhaul - Worker's Compensation). I'm now residing in AZ where there is no MMJ program, luckily I'm not in Maricopa County. But here's a state that's on the border, has serious immigration and drug trade problems and they could eliminate the latter of those severe problems by creating an MMJ program as 15 other States have done. So I have my work cut out for me here Arizona if I'm to remain here for long. However the heat is brutal in the summers and it really makes me miss the frigid cold and snow of Wisconsin, lol! I also miss my family, my daughter, who all live in the Madison, WI area so if given the opportunity, I think I'd like to move back to WI as soon as my WC case is over. The one thing that stops me from making that move though is the fact that WI is not among the states that have an MMJ program and it is a medicine that is so vital to the quality of my life. I put myself at serious risk here in AZ every time I seek out my medication and I don't like that at all so have been forced to go back to traditional pharmaceuticals and have to deal with endless and awful side-effects.

So pass LRB 2517 so I can come home!!

Thanks, and I'll be passing this info on to all my family and friends in WI to help get this legislation passed!

p.s. Does anyone know if they've tried to make marijuana cheese? hehe

The way I see it that there are two types of people who would benefit from medicinal marijuana. There are the terminally ill, such as aids, cancer, and things of the like. Then there are patients like myself who deal with pain, who could live without it but are forced to take addictive damaging substances such as vicodin in my case. Currently i have nerve damage in my leg that causes me to limp and occasionally lose complete strength and feeling in my leg causing my leg to buckle. I cant do physically therapy cause the pain is unbearable, and if i try to do pt on vicodin i get sick and so exhausted i just end up sleeping for an awful amount of time. It wouldnt be so bad if i wasnt a student and could afford a car and a place to live that isnt a third floor apartment without an elevator. Why wouldnt marijuana be legalized or atleast medicinally used. Its such a good medicine. and beyond that it should be flat out legalized for recreational use. I suggest that if you havent you should watch " The Union: The business behind getting high", and just see how pissed off you get by the end of the movie. I encourage everyone to be open minded and get involved in this fight against lies and ignorance. We the people are far ahead of our representatives and we need to push them to do what we pay them for, represent us.

I am not terminally ill or suffer from a rare disease my problem is migraines, insomnia, hyperactivity, and compulsive acts that sometimes got me into trouble. I haven't ingested any pill including aspirin or pharmaceutical medicines since I was put on ritilin as a child and it made me depressed and gave me awful stomach pain. Then I discovered pot and it helped me with all of my above symptoms. However due to it being illegal I cannot hold a job I work very hard at everything I do. I've been fired more than once from a management position that I had to work hard to achieve then have it taken away because after work I decide to go home and smoke a bowl rather than avoid my family at the bar. Although its been said many times how can people keep avoiding the fact that alcohol kills more, ruins more families, endangers innocent people not drinking, and is the cause of how many demoralizing, unprovoked crimes that would not be committed if there wasn't a bar on every corner. Not to mention the monetary gain the state would see and the jobs it would create its time to open your eyes America.

Listen to all of you hippies, get a grip on reality marijuana is not a medicine its a narcotic! People in Wisconsin don't want this bill to pass its very simple! if you don't believe me try running for state rep. and use medical marijuana as a platform it would be hilarious to see someone try and raise campaign funds with "Get up off your couch, put down the pipe and come to my fundraiser at cross roads head shop". Even better yet, try to get all you're hippie friends to turn off their boob tubes and go vote. If you can remember where and when voting takes place.

Get a life, Get a job, Get off your asses, and try not to waist anymore of my tax dollars on pipe dreams!

Thanks and enjoy the rest of your life in prison,
Paul

I am 22 yrs old and was born with a birth defect on my right leg that has casued me to have 23 surgeries so far. I curently have a staff infection in my ankle bone that can't be cured becasue I'm allergic to every antibiotic there is. My pain is excruciating and constant. I was on pain medicine for it but I became addicted to it and decided to stop taking them. So now every minute of every day I am in pain and have no relief. My mother thinks I'm the perfect canidate for medical marijuana. I have used it recently, and it does help the pain alot. Where do I go and what do I do to look into this further and possibly become a patient? Thanks, any information is appreciated,

I am 24 year male old, i have smoked marijuana since the age of seventeen reason because i was 90 pounds couldn't eat and in turn felt extremely nauseated. I always loved sports never really had the strength to play because of this problem with never being hungry. I had heard that it had given an appetite to its users. So i tryed it and my weight came up to 150lbs . But now i had to quit smoking it because i can not find employment i cannot eat again and i am 110lbs that is because i have not appetite. It is not legal in Wisconsin if they put the bill out there my vote is for Yes Legalize it, please so i can be back to healthy.

In 2002 I was a hard working mother with three children. I went to a Dr. because I couldn't feel my fingers on my left hand. Throuogh sieres of test the Dr.s said I needed to have a buldge removed from my C6-C7. After 2 months I wasn't any better so I had another MRI to find out that my MRI before surgury looked the same, so what this Dr. did noone knows but they quickly diagnoised me with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, (known as RSD). To make matter worste the Dr.s said they didn't know much about this condition. So tell me how can they help me with my pain?

For the last 7yrs I have been tring and doing everything to help with my pain. All this time I just feel like a ginny-pig for the Dr.s to do the trail and arror process. Everything I did and tried could not give me that feeling of relief, but what the Good Lord has provided can.

I had a stimutator put into me so the wires could send a electric shock down my arm so that the pain didn't reach my brain. Well marajuana does that better then that wire. It would help with my charlie hoarse I felt in upper arm but it would make my hand feel like all my bones are broken.

In August I broke my back in three places and fractured my lower back. In November I had my stimulator removed because it felt like it was electricuating me. It really wasn't what was causing the electricuating pain, but I couldn't get an MRI to find out unless I had it removed and I didn't reall use it anyways. This MRI showed that one of my lower back bone is all cracked and get this the Dr.s said I was born that way. I can't believe it didn't showed up until now. Dr. did say my fall made the pain come early, but either way sooner or latter it was going to bother me. I don't know what the Dr.s are plaining but I'll know on the 6th.

The medican I take is the strongest they can give to a person. It makes me tierd and depressed the marajuana lifts me so that I can at least do something. The Dr.s have already took my pride of working away, I wont let them take my living away.

I think that medical use is the way to go. Your own Family Doctor can Perscribe you something so worse that some marijuana. I suffer from migraines and also get nauseated. Marijuana eases the sick feeling that I get . It helps me with everyday aches and pains I am Diabetic and that too also makes me very ill , I'am all for the legalization of marijuana..

I'm not terminally ill, I get severe migraines, and I am also Bi-Polar type 2 with schitzo tendencies, borderline personality disorder, self-mutilation syndrome, anti-social disorder, a serious anxiety disorder and an injured back. Lithium, Zoloft, Zyprexa, Seroquil, Neurontin, Depakote, Vicodin, Percoset, Ambien, Tegretol, Ultram, Ultram ER....NONE of these pills, which caused horrible side effects (including my becoming all but sterilized), did more than have me playing the dosage game for months at a time. I've been put into psychiatric wards like 7 times, caused serious harm to myself (leaving constant reminders of my failure in the form of a nearly total covering of scars on my arms), and numerous suicide attempts. I smoke marijuana, and I'm sorry I'm breaking the law, but it helps me. I can find joy and humor again, my mood doesn't swing like a pendulum, I can think and speak clearly, my temper doesn't flare and I don't want to hurt myself or anyone else.

Medical marijuana should certainly cover mental problems as well, because the pain caused by my disorders is real and it effects my life to such a capacity as to have me in my home most of the time. I simply can't face people. I leave my home twice a day, for about 15 minutes at a time, other than that I simply can't manage it, except while using marijuana.

Please, won't our government see how it helps us, and have a heart? I need help and this is where it comes from, why won't my government allow me the one thing I've found on this Earth that helps me feel like I'm an actual human being?

Because I know, if I were to ever be arrested for having marijuana, I certainly wouldn't survive the jail term.

Hey all, my name is Richard, and I live in the Appleton metro area, I have suffered from debilitating pain for almost 9 years due to an accident i had when i was 14. I was climbing a tree in my front yard and fell 65 feet, had to get med flighted to Lacrosse for emergency lumbar surgery, which included an L3-4 fusion as well as constructing a titanium cage around my lower spine. I couldn't walk at all for 2 months and after that i couldn't walk on my own for almost a year. Since then the pain has only gotten worse, and until recently I had no idea why.

I guess that when I fell outta that tree, my vertebrae damaged and/or crushed most of my nerves around my lumbar area, which caused a LOT of numbness and soreness, as well as mind numbing pain. I was also recently diagnosed with RSD, or reflex sympathetic dystrophy, which is a fancy word that means basically my nerves are either dead or dying, and every time anything touches me or while i move, or any action that would normally just stimulate my nerves causes the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. I am only 23 years old, and have dealt with this for almost half my life now. I have been on a myriad of different painkillers, including methadone and morphine, most worked, but not without consequences. With methadone I did feel a lot less pain, but I was also throwing up 3-4 times a day until i weened myself off of it, which made me throw up anyways.

I guess what I am getting at is this. I am sick of pills, I used to not mind them and in some cases i enjoyed them, but my stomach is fed up with man made drugs, and so am I. I have smoked marijuana for about 7 years now, and not only does it releive my pain, but it also relieves a lot of the nerve pain associated with RSD, which is a phenomenal thing. My stomach loves that I smoke, having been able to recover from the plethora of different side effects and erosion on my stomach lining.

I love this medicine, it has so many uses, and can help so many people just like me. Please do your part to get the message out there, this medicine is SAFE, EFFECTIVE, and in most cases AFFORDABLE, and PEOPLE NEED IT!

I THINK THAT THIS HERB IS WELL NEEDED FOR MANY PEOPLE HERE IN WISCONSIN. I KNOW WAY TO MANY PEOPLE WITH BACK PROBLEMS OR RLS(RESTLESS LEG SYNDROM) AND SENDING THEM TO PAIN CLINICS AND JUST PRESCRIBING THEM DANGEROUS PRESCRIPTIONS ISNT THEY WAY IT SHOULD BE. HERE THIS WILL NUMB U AND MAKE U PASS OUT.....NO NO NO NOT ACCEPTABLE U NEED TO MOVE TO FEEL BETTER AND GET BETTER AND IF WEED IS THE ONLY WAY THEN HELL YEAH THATS WHAT WE NEED...

Being a young adult, having had a battle with a rare form of cancer at the age of 12, I will never experience one day without discomfort and pain. I have undergone 5 surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy, a blood transfusion, and physical/emotional turmoil due to this illness. I have been charged with possession of marijuana and paraphanelia, and for that, I have been denied a federal level job, denied of many others, and now I'm forced to claim disability. I experience the effects of this drug war first handedly, I see young people around me indulging in poisonous drugs, for the simple fact that we are restricted from this herb that came with the land we live on. Whatever/whoever is responsible for this cruel and unusual punishment, is restricting a lot of people from living a wholesome life. I am fed up with these people looking down at me from their imaginary pedestal, wake up and realize that we need to be understanding and compassionate for all people around us.

My only problem with the bill the way it is being presented is that you are still putting it in the hands of Western medicine practitioners. I was crippled in a car accident in '68 but managed to stay off pain medicine until 20 years ago; nothing heavy, just Darvoset. I have had drs who wrote me prescriptions for Vicodin, Oxycotin, etc. which I refused to fill. I need multiple back surgeries but with no health insurance, and 'generous' Medicaid program which has a $36,000.00 ANNUAL DEDUCTIBLE (I am on SS) I wish I was back in Michigan. One doctor at Affinity Healthcare in Appleton cut my prescription in half because HE wasn't comfortable with my dosage. Another one from Affinity in Oshkosh kicked me out of his office (swear to God!) because I take vitamins and supplements. Since I have adjusted my life to the pain level I can tolerate am I now supposed to just lay down and cry for half of the day? NEITHER ONE OF THESE SO CALLED PROFESSIONALS was even interested in seeing my reports from former physicians or x-rays. Passing the law and still leaving it up to the discretion of "doctors" won't do a lot of good. It should be sufficient that if you qualify for disability by federal standards, then you can grow/use whatever minimal amounts they think will keep you out of the "dealer" range.

It's not bad at all. I'm currently suffering from severe anxiety which makes it hard to function and I can't even take Valium because it's too addictive. I also have severe scoliosis so I can barely walk half the time. Depression has been eating away at me for years and marijuana seems like a clear alternative to the pills that are issued for these medical problems.

marijuana is great for the system. Im only 18 and i cant get over 110 pounds. it helps me gain weight and relievs me of headaches and growing pains. I've got family members who have full body spasms, and the marijuana calms their body. their doctor knows they do marijuan cuz she only weighs like 105 pounds, doesn't eat much, and has constant headaches, all of which marijuana helps with. The doctor said that if he had a choice he wud legalize it to help many people. Marijuana is not an addictive drug, and so many people are denied jobs despite how smart they are. And to ur smart-ass, paul, id bet you any money that at least a quarter of the law enforcement and goverment does marijuana themselves. I'm gunna assume that ur a massive hypocrite. You would rather see people suffer in pain, allergic or not, than legalize marijuana and let them feel good and healthy. I'll bet any money that ur a jessus lover paul, and to all those who are and are against it. id like to say that it was here on earth a long time ago. Its a plant, there is no addatives like real drugs or narcotics. I dont belive in god but to make a point to those who do, it was here long ago and used as medicine for thousands of years. so you better get ur damn facts strait before you go nagging on people just because ur against it. There are marijuana users out there that would do 3 times the amount of work you would ever do.