On April 30, 2009, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania introduced House Bill #1393 to "provide for the medical use of marijuana, and repeal provisions of the law that prohibit and penalize marijuana use. It is called the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. This is not legalization of marijuana, but decriminalization of marijuana for medical users. Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington have similar legislation already enacted. On a federal level, Obama announced in March that his administration would end the Bush Era's federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries. This is a crucial step in decriminalization. Under Bush, medical marijuana dispensaries, even when completely complying with state law, were raided under federal law. Obama's administration will not raid medical dispensaries, only drug traffickers that falsely masquerade as medical dispensaries. This is a devolution of power from the federal government to the state governments. While decriminalization is gaining momentum, legalization looms closer and closer on the horizon. There are benefits to legalization. The economy would benefit. Currently 19 billion dollars is spent annually on the war on drugs, while legalization would cut these costs in half. Also, marijuana could be taxed for revenue. Alcohol and tobacco excise taxes alone generate over 4 billion dollars per year. It is estimated that California alone could raise 1 billion in revenue generated from marijuana taxation. Also, law enforcement, federal agents, courts, and prisons would be freed of the burden of marijuana prosecution. 99 out of 100 marijuana arrests are made under the laws of states. If state laws were changed, there would be no arrests for marijuana. Also, the black market would be eliminated, robbing drug syndicates of valuable revenue and ultimately power. I'm not advocating legalization, I'm just framing the issue in a different light. I'm including the link to the house bill, its pretty interesting.
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2009&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=1393&pn=1714
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I am a strong advocate for the decriminalization of medical marijuana because i have an aunt in California who is suffering from MS. She has claimed that no medicine has reduced her daily pain as much as marijuana. I do not see why the federal government would want to make a plant and medicine that helps suffering, innocent individuals relieve their pain. There needs to be a realist perspective put on this situation. Set everyone's morals aside and look at the patients. Would the government make advil illegal if a large portion of them saw it as immoral? and you can overdose on advil, you physical cannot overdose on marijuana. I agree with you that marijuana should not be completely legal but for medical reasons only, i do not see the harm.
ReplyDeleteThis bill is a great step forward. Currently, legal (in the state's eyes) dispensaries are being raided by the federal government, even though the Constitution technically leaves the matter up to the states. It is a huge miscarriage of justice. The people that use and purchase medical marijuana from these dispensaries have a legal ID given to them because of a doctor's recommendation. Many of these patients have cancer, glaucoma, and other horrible, painful diseases. The federal government is taking away their medicine when they raid these dispensaries, and it's nice to see that this could end soon.
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