As of Friday November 12th, at 5:35 pm, it appears that Arizona's Proposition 203 has passed, by the slim margin of only 4421 votes, making Arizona the 15th state to allow the medical use of marijuana.
Under Proposition 203, doctors in Arizona will be able to 'recommend' medical marijuana to patients suffering from certain "debilitating medical conditions." Proposition 203 also creates dispensaries to supply these patients with their medical marijuana, enabling patients to purchase up to 2-1/2 ounces every two weeks; the number of dispensaries are liimited to one dispensary per 10 pharmacies. If patients do not live within 25 miles of a dispensary, then they will also be able to grow their own medical marijuana.
Oregon also looked at medical marijuana dispensaries with Measure 74, which failed 44% to 56%. While Multnomah County (primarily the city of Portland) showed overwhelming support for medical marijuana dispensaries, the remainder of the state rejected the measure. Opposition to Oregon's Measure 74 indicated some concerns with limits on the number of dispensaries and limits on how much marijuana patients could purchase over a period of time. Opponents to Measure 74 indicated that "without a state-imposed limit on the number of dispensaries, Oregon would have more marijuana than needed, encouraging illicit sale."
While it remains unclear if such limits were a determining factor in passage of Prop 203, it will not be surprising to see such limits considered in future attempts to allow medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon (and likely elsewhere). When the Oregon legislature meets in January, Representative Peter Buckley is expected to introduce language for a dispensary system - which is likely to include stricter limits than those in Measure 74.
Comments
As a medical user in California I note that, once again, medical marijuana is proving to be a winning strategy to prevent users from going to jail and facing other penalties, Recreational, whatever that is, has finally been proven to be a a failed stategy. Now what we need is federal level rescheduling to schedule iv or v. Then you could buy pot just like aspirin anywhere in the usa. end of story. Note: Pot is not "just like alcohol", nor is it like cigarettes or coffee. It is its own thing and it is a damn good thing at that!
Recreational Drug Use: (Relating to or denoting drugs) taken on an occasional basis for enjoyment, esp. when socializing.
Legalizing cannabis for adults is not a failed strategy. The government (State or Federal) has no place regulating how/why I choose to use marijuana and to lock people in jail for using/possessing/growing a plant is just wrong.
According to this line of thinking then people who use cannabis for religious purposes are criminals because they aren't sick enough?
I get that in California you cant get your recommendation for ANYTHING (no where else are the laws so lax) but that still doesn't make it right to arrest, ticket, or incarcerate someone who doesn't pay their bribe to the state. You don't buy Rights, you have them or you don't. Legalize.
For one thing, the damage to society compared to alcohol is by any objective account far less. Even the lung damage due to smoking it is, according to some evidence, far less than that of tobacco. Both of those things are legal. The need for "strategy" would seem to be a function of overcoming the propaganda-induced emotional hangups and associations the public has come to have over the years.
The attitude of those against medical cannabis is cruel and inhuman, and let's not forget that it's stupid and irrelevant. Someday I'd like to have a Know Nothing prohibitionist sit down and explain to me why they believe that there is a shortage of cannabis in Arizona. Arizona is a trans-shipment point for Mexican cartel cannabis. Don't Arizonians often wake up and while drinking their morning caffeine fix read about yet another multi-ton load of cannabis getting busted? Do people who aren't privy to the inside workings of the black market actually believe that anyone who wants cannabis ever suffers more than a minor inconvenience in getting their stash because of the law? If that is your belief it is simply fantasy land thinking without factual basis. The last time I recall having any problem finding cannabis was in 1989, and it wasn't due to the fact that the cops had 'enforced the law'.
At some point in time the people who are irrationally in favor of prohibition need to wake up and understand that we're not going to quit consuming cannabis. It's just not something you people have the power to make happen, and it's not negotiable. The only choice you people have in the matter is who you prefer to be in charge of production, distribution, and quality control. It is an act of sheer, stunning idiocy to prefer that those things be taken care of by organized criminal syndicates. Putting Arizona in the running for the stupidest state in the US for having such a fantasy is the fact that you keep re-electing as Senator a man who is married to a woman who would be a 'kingpin' level drug dealer if the drunks of America hadn't managed to carve out an exception to the stupidity of the drug war for drinking alcohol. Does
Mrs. McCain order drive by executions of the Coors cartel? Does she have retailers beaten and kneecapped because the stock Miller beer on their shelves? Have almost 30,000 people been killed because Sam Adams won't knuckle under?
But this isn't about recreational cannabis, this is about medicine. Before anyone listens to the bald faced lies lots of Know Nothing prohibitionists like to regurgitate why not check with the Iowa Board of Pharmacy and ask their opinion? Because earlier this year they acknowledged unanimously that cannabis is a valid medicine. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the table to examine the research under court order to do so. After they looked at the evidence they recommended 6-0 (that's unanimous folks) to recognize it as medicine.
I can certainly understand why Arizona doesn't want a system like California's. But that really is up to whatever Arizonians call the people who regulate doctors in AZ. California's madness is not due to having a medical cannabis law, it's having incompetent regulators who let the quacks get away with setting up shop and recommending cannabis to whoever has $150. Some might say that under Prop 215 doctors can't be penalized for recommending cannabis which is true. But they can sure as heck be disciplined for not providing treatment that meets the established standard of care. If Arizonians want to avoid a California like system take your complaints to those who regulate doctors in your state.
I certainly hope there's no one in Arizona that regrets that truly ill people will now be able to get relief from their suffering, and to do so in a safe environment. That's much more important than inconveniencing a pothead by forcing him to buy his pot from criminals. Don't kid yourselves for a minute that you can keep him sober, you just don't have that power. Perhaps someday you'll have the opportunity to watch one of your loved ones die of a disease like leukemia and you'll realize just how petty and without substance it is to worry that there's going to be diversion. Deal with it like adults, not bratty schoolchildren who didn't get their way. Had the knuckle heads in charge of medicine regulation not been intransigent in refusing to make cannabis available through the established distribution chain no one would have even thought of Prop 215.
Oh and Congratulations, you did good. Just barely, but I suppose it still counts.
Very informative comment. As time permits please take a look at documentary Run From the Cure, the Rick Simpson story.. Peace
This is good but there is no reason why marijuana should not be legalized completely. Contrary to the propaganda that the government has spread over the last century, Marijuana is harmless compared to tobacco and alcohol. It was only made illegal due to racism. I am a Republican and I view legalization as the Conservative view, as I do not believe that Big Government should be allowed to control that aspect of personal freedom. Conservatives for Marijuana in 2012!
This is a crock. The only reason this garbage has passed is because of the economics behind busting pot heads. It's a problem that has become too expensive to keep dealing with. So instead of cracking down, it's been made "medicinal". Now it's a cost effective means of "control" and it's taxable. Coming from a family thoroughly permeated by drug addicts and alcoholics, nothing about marijuana fixes anything.
Sounds like your family has genetic predispositions to addiction, and that isn't anyone's problem but yours/your family's. I know that sounds cold but punishing everyone for the actions of some is ridiculous, many people enjoy cannabis responsibly just as many people enjoy alcohol responsibly.
We here in Arizona have been trying to close a hole in the border and I feel that the sewer line was opened up with the passage of the bill.
Hey good Job Arizona, did you notice that you said a family of alcoholics and drug addicts, not pot heads. The problem with people against Marijuana is they have no factual cases as to why Marijuana is more dangerous than cigarettes and or alcohol . Go to the Center for disease control and see the stats of alcohol and related deaths- liver disease deaths= 14,406, alcohol induced deaths( not homicides or driving accidents) = 23,199 a year. Why isn't alcohol illegal? Cause it would be stupid to punish the millions of responsible adults who drink without a problem. Yet most people who are older than forty seem to think it is OK to impose you will and want to force people not to smoke Marijuana whether it is medicinal or recreational. Look up real statistics and get informed, don't just copy what others say that don't have any merit at all. And yes if Marijuana was legal like alcohol the government could tax it just like anything else. Ten think of the jobs it would create. I can see the fear again, but people will always be high and go to work high, really? Do people go to work drunk? and if they do don't they tend to get fired? If you are dumb enough to get fired from your job because of any drug use that is your problem. It's time for us Americans to look at things for what they really are not for what we feel about them. If you don't like Marijuana don't smoke, I hate cigarettes so I don't smoke them, easy fix. Get informed all of us.
It is true that alcohol and marijuana has ever fixed anything.. However, prohibition never fixed anything either and has only made matters worse. We have wasted countless BILLIONS of dollars fighting a weed that grows in the woods while enriching criminals. Al Capone comes to mind. It is high time (no pun intended) this nonsense is stopped.
As time permits please take a look at documentary Run From the Cure, the Rick Simpson story. It can be viewed free online.. Peace
that sucks that your family were drug addicts and alcoholics but weed isnt addictive and it works instead of persciribing a massive amount of morphine listen my step mom has multiple sclerosis her kidneys are horrible has a couple of teeth left in her mouth and all becuase pill forms of heroine. so what your saying is that you would rather have people take morphine and other meds like it and let there bones rot and have there organs fail than them smoke an herb that is naturally grown HMMMM Odd
Sweet!
They sky is falling- they sky is falling! Just kidding good job Arizona- even if it was a narrow win.
Hey now, no runnin that over 40 smack! I'm 47, my brothers are in their late 50s & early 60s and we have all smoked it since high school. All of us productive citizens with families. We all had to deal with our alcoholic father and the hell that can be. If you think any of us were going down that road... negatory rubber duck. We here in AZ passed a medical law in 1996, the same as California. Problem was, out "holier than thou" legislature decided we were just uninformed and would not allow the law to go forward. We passed it again. They disallowed it again. That ticked us off. We passed the Voter Protection Act, which would "prevent the legislature or governor from tampering with laws created by the voters through the citizen initiative". If the idiots in the legilature did not want to listen to the people (their bosses), we'd shut them up and make them listen to us. I think the reason it was so close is people saw what was happening to Cali and didn't want a dispensary on every corner. I see nothing wrong with that, but I digress. People got a bit worried. We need to move them slowly away from what they believed from all the propaganda. Those who wrote our law took the best from the laws of other states, and left out or modified what was the worst of the other laws so it would be more palatable to the masses. Been sweating it all week, but good triumphed over evil and close-minded stupidity in the end. I'm VERY proud of my state right now! Score one for compassion!
Monica, again another prime example of someone just flinging bull-sh*t. Explain the merits of your comments? How does passing a medical Marijuana bill open up the sewers? what basis is that on? Oh yeah it is based on feeling. Let me guess you are one of those that blames immigrants either the legal or illegal kind for everything. Please Monica get informed, people abuse prescription drugs all the time. http://www.nida.nih.gov/drugpages/prescripdrugschart.html this is a link that shows the most abused prescription drugs. We should ban those too and if the border was secured we wouldn't have a problem of people abusing prescription drugs right Monica?
Monica,
The bill has been passed in Cali, and we have not had the same "sewer" problems you guys have had
Savatage, Sorry my intentions were not to put the blame solely on over forty people, it's just from what I have read that the majority of that group age opposes it, not saying all people over forty, that would be ignorant of me. That said I too know plenty of people from all age groups who support Marijuana, you a right to state that their is too much propaganda going on and that is why again I say get informed. Look stuff up from reputable sources, don't ask billy bob what he thinks and say that is golden. No offense to anyone named Billy Bob either :)
So proud! My sister died 2 yrs ago of breast cancer, had to buy it illegally, so glad, now others won't have to.
Way To Go Arizonans!
Just say the 'over 40" reference.
My Mom is 75, she too voted YES. Watching a loved one suffer then find some relief...well, may you open your mind without having to go through it.
I am also a republican for legalizing. However this is not the point. I am very happy this passed. For one, it is a step. For two, I know many people who could benefit from this. I have close family who have fibromyalgia (sp?) And could benefit enormously from this, instead of taking a ridiculous amount of narcotics and a handful of other drugs multiple times a day. Something much less physically harsh and addictive that provides significantly more relief. I just can't see the downfall...
Monica another example of the ignorance against marijuana being legal. Monica answer me this, how is it we are now a sewer line to mexican marijuana? First off this law will stop the illegal smuggling of marijuana cause the quality isn't there to compete with what will be available. Second go to pros and cons website and get educated with why marijuana is really illegal. Third just like alcohol, marijuana will become legal after a long battle. There is more than enough written reasons why marijuana is beneficial and all those opposing have nothing but" cause I said so". I have an uncle who suffers from HEP-C and multiple FAILED back surgeries. The doctors have him on almost twenty prescribed medications and do nothing for him his only saving grace is marijuana it not only kills the pain it stops the nuasea and vomiting. I had to illegally purchase marijuana for him while working as a fire fighter risking my job to help comfort him in his terminal condition. So I ask instead of an ignorant statement of being uninformed please Monica or anyone else for that matter add a comment that actually has something to back it. To everyone else thanks for the Yes vote and let's legalize this plant once and for all. Republicans in 2011 listen to the voice of the people "Legalize it!"
As time permits please take a look at documentary Run From the Cure, the Rick Simpson story. It can be viewed free online.. Peace
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