Vermont medical-marijuana bill to become law

Thursday, May 20, 2004 6:44PM EDT

Vermont medical-marijuana bill to become law


By DAVID GRAM, ASSOCIATED PRESS

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Vermont will become the ninth state to let very sick patients use marijuana to alleviate pain, nausea and other symptoms without fear of state prosecution.
Gov. James Douglas will let the bill become law without his signature. "I will not oppose this decision by the elected representatives of the people, nor will I support it by signing it into law," Douglas said Wednesday.
Douglas said the bill covers "symptom relief for a small percentage of individuals with only the most debilitating conditions," like cancer and AIDS.

Patients may keep up to three marijuana plants in a locked room accessible only by the sick person and caregiver, who both must register with state police.

Opponents complained that the law would put Vermont at odds with federal law, which forbids marijuana use, and that it would send a mixed message about drug use to Vermont's young people.

more... http://newsobserver.com/24hour/nation/story/1384993p-8631179c.html

Nine states already! This is good news.

When I was growing up, all that "states' rights" ever seemed to mean was segregation and Jim Crow laws, and the people who shouted loudest about it were usually wielding, variously: ax-handles, German Shepherds, and fire hoses.

Half a dozen states had voted to legalize medical marijuana before I realized that we were actually demonstrating everything that's good about the concept of states' rights -- what one of our founding fathers was talking about when he said that each state was to be an individual work-in-progress of democracy.

The so-called War on Drugs was lost from Day One, and the stupidest target of all has been pot. The feds are going to be dragged kicking and screaming into sane policies -- Right now we are dealing with a particularly irrational Attorney General who is hell-bent on making America as repressive as Saudi Arabia; he's going to make as many people as miserable as possible before he finally fades in to the sunset.

In the long haul, medical pot will be as legal as aspirin. I'm only sorry it was not available to my mother two years ago when she vomited so hard from chemotherapy that she had a heart attack on her own bathroom floor. She survived, but her heart is quite damaged. It'd be nice if John Ashcroft could have a personal experience like that to give him a more humane outlook.

Hekate

:(

I feel pot will be legal in our lifetime, out of necessity - too many things can be made from hemp that are currently made in nonsustainable ways. It's a given, IMHO.

Bush and Ashcroft think it's "compassionate" to jail people dying of terrible diseases because they smoked a joint.