Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
The 2010 South Dakota medical marijuana bill, HB 1127, died a newborn as a House committee voted to table it only a week after it was introduced. The bill failed in the House Health and Human Services Committee on a 9-4 vote after representatives of state law enforcement claimed it would make its job more difficult.
bad legislating in the South Dakota badlands
"Medical marijuana seems to have been the best pain and anxiety relief I've received in the past 10 years," said Hannah, who was a spokesperson for the failed attempt in 2006 to pass a medical marijuana initiative. That effort garnered 48% of the popular vote.
Sioux Falls MS sufferer Patrick Lynch also testified. He said marijuana eased the symptoms of his disease and the side effects of other treatments he was taking. "By taking a few puffs after I take my shot, which is an injection, it eliminates both the headaches and the nausea that go along with it," Lynch said. "I'm not a pothead. I'm a human being with a disease."
South Dakota Chief Deputy Attorney General Charles McGuigan was much more concerned about potheads than with human beings suffering from disease. He told the panel his office is opposed to marijuana in any form.
The push for the bill came from long-time South Dakota marijuana activist Bob Newland and the organization South Dakotans for Safe Access, who are vowing to put the issue to the voters in another initiative in 2010. During the legislative session, Newland told solons this year was their chance to craft a medical marijuana bill; next year it will be his turn.
A backup bill, HB 1128, which would have allowed an affirmative medical necessity defense, also died this week. It was "deferred to the 41st legislative day" by the House Judiciary Committee. South Dakota's legislative session lasts 40 days.
Meanwhile, the South Dakota House Monday passed a bill, HB 1090 that would place salvia divinorum on Schedule I of the state's controlled substances list. The bill declares an "emergency," meaning it will go into effect 30 days from being signed into law.
"I'd like to have the drug off the street by the end of February", said Rep. Chuck Turbiville (R-Deadwood), the bill's prime sponsor. "It's just finding its way onto the Internet. It's just finding its way onto the street."
At least the House accepted an amendment by Rep. Larry Lucas (D-Mission) that would provide for a misdemeanor possession charge. Under the Lucas amendment, less than two ounces of salvia would be a misdemeanor instead of a felony.
South Dakota looks to be well down the path to criminalizing salvia, joining an accelerating trend among the states.
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Comments
Genius
"It's just finding its way onto the internet."
Earth to clueless legislator, I bought salvia off the internet in 1998 - 11 years ago!
It was the first and only time. It was an interesting experience, but nothing I'd care to repeat. It just wasn't that fun. It lasts all of 5 minutes and doesn't seem addictive.
So thanks again for wasting my money in a futile attempt to protect me from a substance I have no interest in using. I'm sure this prohibition will start a nice little illicit salvia industry that'll provide jobs to any number of high school students that will find a way to get this herb and peddle it to their peers at inflated black market prices.
thanks a lot, South Dakota law enforcement
what a bunch of sadists. They'd all think differently if they or their loved ones needed medical marijuana. That would be a whole different story.
Go have another drink of your favorite drug, boys.
"I'd like to have the drug
"I'd like to have the drug off the street by the end of February"
You mean you'd like the drug to be out of stores and *onto* the streets by the end of February, right?
Deputy Attorney General?
Does that not make him a lawyer. I guess they don't grow them too smart in that state! Good thing he is no longer in private practice, I guess!
In reply to Deputy Attorney General? by mlang52 (not verified)
"I guess they don't grow them too smart in that state!"
Take it from someone who came from that state...no, they don't.
Kudos to South Dakota Legislators
for being proactive on the Salvia vote. Salvia is the most potent hallucinogen known to man, more so than LSD. It works on the part of the brain that controls schizophrenia, drug abuse and depression. Why is has remained legal across the US is a total mystery. Fortunately, SD won't be one of those states who tells it's citizens it doesn't care what happens to them.
In reply to Kudos to South Dakota Legislators by Anonymous (not verified)
I hope you are being sarcastic
because, otherwise, that is one of the most idiotic statements I have ever read here.
If you were truly stating your opinion, then you need to do some real research on hallucinogens. Rather than being dangerous, they are paradigm expanding substances that can often be helpful in treating mental/emotional disorders.
The substances themselves do no harm to the body or the brain; what the mind experiences under their influence can, rarely, cause harm to the user or someone in the user's vicinity, but that is why we need these substances out of the control of/by criminals. It is also the reason we need to provide REAL education on drugs, ALL drugs, including OTC, currently illicit, prescription, and currently unregulated and we must remember that alcohol is a drug, too and treat it equally with other mind altering chemicals (or vice versa).
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!
Criminal big pharm mercantilism against Salvia
"Why is has remained legal across the US is a total mystery. Fortunately, SD won't be one of those states who tells it's citizens it doesn't care what happens to them."
Yet cigarettes of the highly addictive virginia bright leaf poison are OTC?
Any state official voting to ban salvia for adults, particularly making it schedule 1 are in cohoots with big pharm and should be prosecuted in some innovative way.
How can such officials be prosecuted?
From your Friendly Local Pharmacist
To Anonymous "Kudos" (2/6/09) and all others who believe what you read on government and lackey web sites, S. divinorum is NOT "the most powerful" ANYTHING, unless you consider its ability to panic scientifically-ignorant members of our legislature into banning it.
Your sentence "It works on the part of the brain that controls schizophrenia, drug abuse and depression." is pharmacologically meaningless, to say the least. I'm sorry your Google searches continue to come up with such nonsense. You have neglected to consider your sources.
Take a tip: Just because some phraseology is repeated over and over by various web sites search doesn't make it true. Thirty or so years ago, the public clamored for manufacturers to use cotton crotches in ladies panties since (as it was claimed) nylon didn't allow the crotch area to "breathe." It was an era of tight jeans, but we wanted to find a scapegoat elsewhere. And lo! Junk science, always at our beck and call, decided the culprit was a deficiency of cotton crotches in ladies' panties. Well, cotton crotch panties have been with us now for about 30 or so years and there has been NOT ONE IOTA DIFFERENCE in the ladies', er, infection rates. Ridiculous.
The truth is that the S. divinorum plant compounds are being studied TO TREAT the very schizophrenia and depression you listed. Do not be mislead, my friend. The synthesis of these compounds are of great interest to BIG PHARMA, who are quite pleased with reactions such as yours and various state legislatures, so as to assure exclusivity of these plant components. Recognize this has already occurred with cannabinoids, opiates and everything else BIG PHARMA can lobby to protect their moneyed interests.
Instead of panic over these cries of "There's a lion in the Streets (Proverbs 26:13)!" recognize instead that it is our own GOVERNMENT which "works on" even more parts of the brain than Salvia. Our insane War on Drugs is what is truly schizophrenic, costing more than the war in Iraq. Now THAT causes depression.
I remain your faithful pharmacist,
yeah, get it off the streets!
Attention South Dakota's reincarnations of Anslinger: Making Salvia divinorum will not get it off the streets. It will put it on the streets into the hands of persons not afraid to use violence to protect their unregulated capitalist enterprises. For your information SD legislature yesterday Feb 9, 2009 marked the 100th anniversary of the Opium Act which banned the importation of opium for smoking into the USA. Guess what happened within months of its passage? If you answered "everyone stopped smoking opium and the world lived happily everafter" you answered wrong. Shortly after smokable opium was made illegal to buy at the local opium den or pharmacy it began to be sold by gangsters, the kind that kill competitors and bystanders.
Well, good move SD legislators. Now you've made another substance available to gangsters for their profit.
Time to start growing Salvia and other mystical herbs in our basements since Big Daddy government is once again telling adults what's good for them.
One more "drug" to feed the violent underground income!
Wow! That's just great! Now the "drug dealing criminals" have another "drug" they can sell for profit. Then they can go out and by guns illegally and kill people while the DEA runs in circles trying to win a war that has no end! More people are now going to die over dealings with yet another "drug" made illegal. This should also help the the Mexican drug cartels since this is a plant that grows everywhere in Mexico. Nice work! Now the cartels have another illegal substance they can add to the menu and kill one another over and ship to America to help profit there organizations.
Keep in mind that this is legal in Canada and Mexico! Good luck DEA with yet another substance that you will NEVER be able to eliminate from being available to the American people. What a great way to spend our tax dollars!
How awesome is it going to be when once law biding citizens are surrounded by citizens who are now consider criminals who have never negatively effected the lives of others? With all the controls and regulations put in place by the government the people who follow their rules and regulations will be trampled by the criminals who ignore the laws put in place. The government is constantly trying to make protection like guns more expensive and hard to get for the law binding citizens while the criminals are suited up like soldiers. Seems like an unfair fight to me!!
Keep it simple, dummy! Allow American citizens to produce the substances they wise to consume in the privacy of their homes and there will be no product for the criminals to sell, kill people over, or profit from! Is it really that much different than alcohol or cigarettes! Both of these kill Americans, but they are legal! How many criminals do you see making profits and killing people over cigarettes and alcohol deals compared to "illegal drugs"???????
Over controlling Government is what fueled the birth of America and now after 233 years we are right back in the same over controlling atmosphere we fought so hard to get out of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Land of the FREE MY ASS!
In reply to One more "drug" to feed the violent underground income! by Anonymous (not verified)
i think law enforcment and
i think law enforcment and legislature are afraid of gagsters and the mafia since they cant control those types of people they go after law abiding citizens who they know wont take the law into there own hands so i ask law enforcment and legislature to grow a pair leave us law a biding citizens to our freedom of choice or u will loose the law abiding citizens and u will destroy this country from the inside out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! next they are going to want to wipe our butts for us
its sadly true that such a
its sadly true that such a few scared old men can dictate morality to so many of us hard working free south dakotans,those scared old men should keep their distance from me,, as i am a free man and AMERICAN,, a veteran, a father, a tax payer, a voter, a land owner and will not be made to conform to a regime which undermines my freedom and my safety, and my right to choose based upon the prudence of my personal values and morals.. long live the free state of south dakota and question all authority!
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