Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) last Friday signed into law the medical marijuana bill, House Bill 5389, passed last month by the legislature, making Connecticut the 17th state to legalize the medicinal use of the herb, along with the District of Columbia. Now, licensed physicians will be able to prescribe it to adults suffering from specified diseases or medical conditions.
Medical marijuana is coming to Connecticut (CO DOT)
Under the new law, patients must receive a written recommendation from a physician and register with the Department of Consumer Protection. Patients and their primary caregivers can possess up to a one-month supply, although how much that is has yet to be determined. It will be decided by a board of eight physicians.
Qualifying conditions include cancer, glaucoma, AIDS or HIV, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity, epilepsy, cachexia (emaciation often caused by cancer or cardiac diseases), wasting syndrome, Chrohn's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other medical conditions, treatments and diseases.
Patients will be able to obtain their medicine at licensed dispensaries. Only certified pharmacists may apply to run the dispensaries. They will be supplied by at least three, but no more than 10, licensed medical marijuana growers, each of which will pay a fee of $25,000.
"We don't want Connecticut to follow the path pursued by some other states, which essentially would legalize marijuana for anyone willing to find the right doctor and get the right prescription," Malloy said. "In my opinion, such efforts run counter to federal law. Under this law, however, the Department of Consumer Protection will be able to carefully regulate and monitor the medicinal use of this drug in order to avoid the problems encountered in some other states."
Malloy thanked Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (D-New Haven, Hamden), State Senator Eric Coleman (D-Bloomfield), State Representative Gerald Fox, III (D-Stamford), and State Representative Penny Bacchiochi (R-Somers, Stafford, Union) for their leadership in passing the bill.
Passage of the bill comes after years of work by patients and advocates, including seeing an earlier version of the bill passed by the legislature only to be vetoed by then Gov. Jodi Rell (R).
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
Quite a rebuke he gave to the 33 still barbaric states
"For years, we’ve heard from so many patients with chronic diseases who undergo treatments like chemotherapy or radiation and are denied the palliative benefits that medical marijuana would provide"
How any decent human being can deny medicine to seriously ill patients is way beyond my capacity to understand. If they are not outright sadists, they might as well be.
Let it be.
To believe in prohibition you must be either ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt.
It's good that there is some reform and some sick people will be able to get their medicine but at the same time it's still absolutely ridiculous that there has to be such strict regulations around "the safest therapeutically active substance known to man", Judge Francis Young. DEA.
Legalize it and let it grow everywhere like the weed it is for the benefit of all.
Good for Conn.
Gov. Malloy needs to check his words more carefully . He say`s that some state`s medical marijuana positions run counter to Federal law . Well , under Federal law , marijuana possession of any amount is illegal . Period . Will the Feds. move to bust the pharmacists for marijuana distribution ? People with certain health problems that use marijuana need to be sure of what they`re getting . Some can`t or don`t want to grow . Medicinal marijuana will have its place . Once Colorado and possibly others legalize this November , this notion that you must be half dead to legally use marijuana will go down the toilet . When marijuana is legal in Georgia , then Cannabis prohibition will be dead .
How Many?
Just wondering if anybody knows, what percentage of the US population now has access to medical marijuana? Are we getting close to 50% yet?
A little math answered my question. About 94 million people currently have legal access to mmj. That's about 1/3 of the US population. Still have a ways to go.
Back to fundamentals
I think it is rediculous to have to legalize and allow all manner of govt. controls. I would like to see a total repeal of all drug laws, marijuana in particular, of course. If not fighting in legislatures, then how? Let's take a que from what happened with CB radio back in the 1970's.
Following the alleged fuel shortage of fall 1973 and the massive fuel price increases by spring of 1974 came the well hated "double nickle", the 55mph speed limit. Motorists universally disregarded the law and made a sport out of breaking the speed limit, assisting one another via CB radio to do so. An entire CB radio culture came out of that.
Back then, CB radio had a license requirement. At one time, CB'ers were pretty much wannabe ham operators and were proud of their licenses and official call signs and wanted to go on to get a real ham radio license, if they could ever learn morse code and pass that test and the technical exam as well. But the double nickle and cheap transistorized CB sets changed that. Folks bought their CB radios and just got on the air. The FCC eliminated license fees, people still didn't bother. The FCC mandated that CB radios all come with license apps, people threw them out. Eventually, to save face, the FCC did away with CB license requirements.
The same should happen with weed legalization via a massive popular planting campaign. Plants need to start popping up everywhere, especially on the lawns of oinksters, prostitutors, judges, and politicians, where, once seen, complaints will be phoned in. With plants coming up everywhere and enforcement impossible, govt. can then regain face by pretending to be leading the parade for the repeal of marijuana laws.
We should go back to being a free country. Freedom worked.
Pete
Hopefully MN will be next
Hopefully MN will be next like the other 17 states, but that will only happen with a DFL House, Senate, and Governor. The MN Legislature did pass a medical marijuana bill in 2009 (DFL legislature, both House and Senate) but former Governor Pawlenty (GOP) vetoed it.
"prescribing" cannabis
"Now, licensed physicians will be able to prescribe it to adults" PLEASE be more precise in your language.... this is a common misperception, and I am surprised to see it here.
Licensed physicians CANNOT "prescribe" cannabis, and will not be able to do so as long as cannabis remains on the DEA Schedule I, defined as a "drug" with no medical value and a high risk of harm and/or addiction. None of these drugs can be "prescribed" by anyone for any reason.
Of course, cannabis fits neither criterion. The US government itself holds a patent on cannabinoids for the treatment of "...stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia." (US Pat No 6630507) The US has held this patent since 2003, nearly ten years...while at the same time insisting that cannabis has no medical value. Secondly, there are no reports of deaths directly related to cannabinoid toxicity, and there is no described withdrawal syndrome.
In any case, physicians cannot "prescribe" cannabis. They CAN certify that a person has a condition that cannabis has been shown to be helpful for.
In reply to "prescribing" cannabis by PUAAN (not verified)
Yes, they can! And so can anybody.
You apparently don't know the meaning of "prescribe". When a doctor recommends marijuana, that is a prescription. When a non-doctor tells you to use marijuana, that is a prescription too! To prescribe just means to write (taking the literal meaning of "scribe"), or more broadly to convey by any means, what is literally a command but more broadly advice -- something anyone is allowed to do. Don't let anybody tell you it has a more technical meaning than that. Statutes are allowed to define the conditions under which a prescription will afford its holder certain legal privileges, but the statute itself does not change the fact that when someone gives you medical advice to do something, that is a prescription. "Rx" is shorthand for "recipe", the imperative of the Latin for "receive" or "take", so when someone writes a Rx, they're writing an instruction to a patient to do something. Note that it is not an instruction to a pharmacist; it does not mean "give"; the best a pharmacist can do is to help the patient satisfy what the prescription is telling the patient to do.
In reply to Yes, they can! And so can anybody. by Robert G. (not verified)
Yes, of course the word
Yes, of course the word "prescribe" has a wider meaning, but when used in a sentence as it was here, that "licensed physicians will be able to prescribe it," it really suggests the very narrow, legal and tightly-regulated meaning that the DEA and state medical licensing boards have given to the word "prescribe." A physician is licensed by her state and the US DEA to "prescribe" pharmaceuticals. This prescribing privilege is tightly regulated and enforced.
You are correct that physicians, and anyone else, can "prescribe," i.e. recommend, anything to anyone. A physician (or anyone else) could "recommend" that someone take oxycontin for pain. However, if a licensed physician with a current DEA (or anyone else) pulls out a "prescription" pad and writes a "prescription" for oxycontin, it means more than just "recommending" it. If any harm were to result from the "recommendation," the legal and civil consequences would be much less harsh than the consequences for writing a "prescription."
My point is that in the discussion of medical cannabis, many are under the incorrect impression that doctors will be "writing prescriptions" for cannabis. They will not. They will be making "recommendations." Yeah, they sort of mean the same thing...but the word "prescription" in this context means more.
Emphasizing this point gives another opportunity to focus attention on the absolute absurdity of cannabis as a DEA Schedule I substance, which cannot be "prescribed" by ANYONE for ANYONE for ANY PURPOSE. Another way to get this country to come to its senses about cannabis is to attack its placement on Schedule I. This could be a much easier job than the legislative attempts for medical cannabis or regulating cannabis like alcohol. It can be a good thing to attack on more than one front.
I love word-play, though, and discussing the meaning and etymology of words. There are many cases where the accepted common usage is pretty far from the original meaning. See the word "passion," for example ... it means "suffering."
Feds Broke EVERY Public 'Promise"
The feds had no interest in dispensaries who followed their state law. The feds also stated that had no interest expect in CO. The Feds broke EVERY Promise and went and still are harassing everybody! MOST people dont know this but Heroin and Cocaine are LESS Prohibited under federal Law. Everyone has PROVEN that Pot DOES have Medical Value. Federal LAw or the Archaic Federal Law says NO it has None. SO it will be a matter of time before GOD'S PLANT will be deemed Medically sound Federally. This needs to happen so as ILL people dont have YEARS to wait! They have Hours and Days.
Do you all remember when the Feds came on TV and said we have 'No Interest" in the Pot Clinic's Patients too? Then they proved that they lied again and started saying people who go there and those who smoke pot along with those that have a clinic ID may face 30 Years in Prison for Possessing any firearms too!
Well hopefully soon the Federal Law is changed. Once pot is either changed to ANY other class than 1. Its a go from there for the States and its Patients. Whats really sad is why Pot is illegal is the 1st place. I suggest you all learn why cause many wont believe me but it was racially biased. To the extent it was- I dont dare try to explain. Google it yourself!
**However I DO see Connecticut being the Role Model in Pot Laws in CT.
Feds Broke EVERY Public 'Promise"
The feds had no interest in dispensaries who followed their state law. The feds also stated that had no interest expect in CO. The Feds broke EVERY Promise and went and still are harassing everybody! MOST people dont know this but Heroin and Cocaine are LESS Prohibited under federal Law. Everyone has PROVEN that Pot DOES have Medical Value. Federal LAw or the Archaic Federal Law says NO it has None. SO it will be a matter of time before GOD'S PLANT will be deemed Medically sound Federally. This needs to happen so as ILL people dont have YEARS to wait! They have Hours and Days.
Do you all remember when the Feds came on TV and said we have 'No Interest" in the Pot Clinic's Patients too? Then they proved that they lied again and started saying people who go there and those who smoke pot along with those that have a clinic ID may face 30 Years in Prison for Possessing any firearms too!
Well hopefully soon the Federal Law is changed. Once pot is either changed to ANY other class than 1. Its a go from there for the States and its Patients. Whats really sad is why Pot is illegal is the 1st place. I suggest you all learn why cause many wont believe me but it was racially biased. To the extent it was- I dont dare try to explain. Google it yourself!
**However I DO see Connecticut being the Role Model in Pot Laws in CT.
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