Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Initiative Makes Ballot
Voters in Massachusetts will have the chance to decide in November whether to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana. A spokesman for Secretary of State William Galvin said last Tuesday that proponents had successfully delivered the 11,000 additional signatures necessary and the measure had qualified for the ballot.
[image:1 align:right]Earlier this year, proponents had gathered some 80,000 voter signatures so that if the legislature failed to act on pending medical marijuana bills -- and it did fail to act -- by May 1, they only needed the additional 11,000 to take the issue directly to the voters.
Sponsored by the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, the initiative allows patients with specified medical conditions "and other conditions" to possess up to a 60-day supply of marijuana. Patients or their caregivers would have to obtain their medicine from one of up to 35 non-profit dispensaries or "medical marijuana treatment centers" and would not be able to grow their own unless they qualified under a hardship provision. Patients, caregivers, and dispensaries would be registered with the state. [Update: The official initiative campaign is now online as The Committee for Compassionate Medicine (CCM). Mass. Patients will continue as an advocacy group after Election Day.]
If the initiative wins at the polls in November, it will be the latest move in a trend that is seeing the Northeast become nearly as medical marijuana-friendly as the West. New England neighbors that already have medical marijuana laws include Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont, while in the Mid-Atlantic, New Jersey and Washington, DC, also have full-fledged medical marijuana laws and Maryland offers an affirmative defense.
Currently 17 states and DC have legalized medical marijuana.
Comments
SPFLD Voters Unite
we must come together but not just SPFLD but Mass in a whole as one, so please vote this coming November and also check out my tooolalife.com
YESSSS
sham , sham , sham .....
Yea , you can have it , but you can`t grow your own . What a racket . Where does that " legal possession " money go ?
the more the merrier
Awesome!!!
The more people who are exposed to honest marijuana smoking the better.
Marijuana will enlighten you and you don't even have to smoke it.
All you have to do is let someone else smoke it and you'll see there was never any need to freak out.
With progress like this it will be legal before you know it.
25 states have decriminalized or legalized medical use.
There will potentially be 5 states with initiatives on the ballot in November, looking either for medical use or legalization and all of them may be in with a real chance.
With more than half the states and half the people in serious disagreement with the fed the government is going to have to give ground on the issue.
This is a really exciting year for marijuana reform.
CAN'T GROW YOUR OWN!?!?!?!?!?!?!!
I can't believe another state that is passing a law that won't allow you to grow your own medicine, that is complete and utter bullshit. But I have the hope that once these laws go into effect (in CT and MA) patients will be fed up with the prices and eventually be true patriots and break the laws that need to be broken and grow their own damn medicine!!!
Can you legally grow your own
Can you legally grow your own in Massachusetts now, patients or anyone? I don't know for sure, but presumably the committee wrote the initiative the way they did because they did research on how different provisions would affect its chances at the ballot, and determined that home growing this time would jeopardize its chances. All of our objectives will be closer to becoming reality when this passes, whereas if it failed in a place like Massachusetts that could be a real setback and would not help anyone. We're not going to get everything we want all at once, and we don't always get to decide what we can get in the meanwhile -- with an initiative it's the voters who decide.
In reply to Can you legally grow your own by borden (not verified)
If Mass can't handle growing
If Mass can't handle growing they should have stayed out of Mass, since once the
initiative passes it won't/can't be changed to allow growing and sick people again will pay
prohibitionist street prices at their friendly local dispensary. Shame on them for filing this ballot BS.
I say vote no on this rubbish and try again. Better to lose this nonsense than pass a BAD law.
Once again these initiative people are out of touch with the needs of the sick and dying.
In reply to If Mass can't handle growing by Kim Hanna (not verified)
Stop Your Selfish Pathetic Whining
Thank you!!!
Thank you sooooo much to the people who did the hard work to get this done. My heart swells with happiness that you are out there working so i can find legal pain relief.
THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!
Hey you forgot to mention
Hey you forgot to mention Maine! We have compassion centers and you can grow your own!
In reply to Hey you forgot to mention by Jon Warner (not verified)
Jon..I am always amazed that
Jon..I am always amazed that states looking to legalize MMJ, do not copy the Maine formula lock, stock and barrel...it seems to be working quite well here: patients are getting the medicine, jobs and taxes are generated and (knock wood) no Federal interference so far despite the occasional doomsday prophecies...
No Grow is a No GO!!!!!!!!!
That's total bullshit. You can possess it if it's in a bag but not if it's growing in a pot? Those "up to 35 non-profit dispensaries or medical marijuana treatment centers" will never be allowed to operate as the Feds will threaten the state officials who must authorize those centers. The program will stall and we'll be looking at another New Jersey!
In reply to No Grow is a No GO!!!!!!!!! by Brucifer (not verified)
Hey Brucifer since you can
another bogus initiative from the big-wigs
too bad they never ask mmj states and their programs. Rhode Island program
blows this mass initiative out the window. Did they even check here?
the mass initiative will force you to buy overpriced inferior dispensary meds
when you can grow right in your own yard. another sell-out initiative. Poor people can't afford dispensaries period. Forcing people to use them is trash talking jive.
There's no provision for the
There's no provision for the state of Mass to cover the cost of marijuana medicine ( $350. oz in Maine dispensaries)
. It should be standard language in any ballot question. If the voters determine that marijuana 'IS' medicine than it should be covered by the state insurance Mass Health and not subject to taxation like all other medicines . Its a breach of Fed law anyway so it should be treated like 'legit' medicine within said state.
Instead the initiative promoters see it as a tax 'cash cow' for the State of Mass and want to ''bribe' the state/voters/pundits with said 'cash cow' in order to get what the people naturally deserve.
It shows the sponsors are as corrupt as our government since they want to bribe the voters with money bled from the guts of the sick and dying. Shame on the sponsors for this.
On top of that they deny people the right to grow their own medicine except under the exemption clause (which should have stipulated what the exact $$$ amount is for hardship.is and instead leave it up to the pols to decide the exemption basis.
Lastly a typical 60 day supply should have been specified w doctors exception to exceed said standard amount (say 6 oz a month)
Section 11. Hardship Cultivation Registrations.
The Department shall issue a cultivation registration to a qualifying patient whose access to a medical treatment center is limited by verified financial hardship, a physical incapacity to access reasonable transportation, or the lack of a treatment center within a reasonable distance of the patient’s residence. The Department may deny a registration based on the provision of false information by the applicant. Such registration shall allow the patient or the patient’s personal caregiver to cultivate a limited number of plants, sufficient to maintain a 60-day supply of marijuana, and shall require cultivation and storage only in an enclosed, locked facility.
In reply to There's no provision for the by Kim (not verified)
Shut Up
In reply to Shut Up by Peter C (not verified)
Foul Mouth
Bribing officials with taxes makes you as crooked as our politicians.
nobody in Mass pays taxes on prescriptions except pot people now.
Thanks to your initiative.
In reply to Shut Up by Peter C (not verified)
Foul Mouth
With your foul mouth you have no truth. You buy the politicians with taxes for medicine which is rightfully ours. The same as all medicine in Massachusetts it should go without taxation. But the initiative crawls to the people and bribes them with tax dollars to bail out our criminal politicians who have refused for 30 years to grant medical, The initiative therefore lacks principal which you could never understand. I'd never pay for the sins of the majority with taxes on the back of the sick and dying.
Sin Tax
They are called 'sin taxes' because the majority believes it is a sin to
use them or do them. Like tobacco, alcohol and now cannabis; since no other
medicines are considered 'sinful' and go without taxation.
So by putting marijuana medicine into the 'sin tax' category,
the initiative writer degrades our medicine to the category of sin and
makes it a lesser medicine than big pharma products. No we marijuana
activists refuse to bail out society after you persecuted us for 100 years
and won't pay you a dime in taxes for our medicine.
If they had put in the qualifications to grow your own (what $$$ would that be?)
and the amount of plants and weight limits, we would have been way better off ;
it could have been so easy. All they had to do was check with medical people.
I'm sorry I can't support it on the taxes alone and will get pub'd letters against it passing.
medical marijuana
The writer left out Maine on the list of NE states.. If it passes in Mass and it should the fact that patients can't grow their own will fall by the wayside eventually. It looks likely Colorado will legalize. less certain for Washington, and probably not for Oregon.. The lessons we all need to take from this is to VOTE.. Sign up and vote.. Sign every petition for mmj or legalization but it won't count if you're not a voter. Even here in Washington the DEA is closing down dispensaries but they are on the wrong side of history but only if we vote and take a stand...
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