The late MMJ activist Mary Powers
Madison: State medical cannabis activists have established a daily presence at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison to push for passage of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act as the 2009-2010 legislative session winds down. There is a real sense of urgency and interest in the bill that extends from rural townships and villages across the state to the largest cities to people watching from around the country. A vast coalition of people across the state are getting involved, enlisting others and doing whatever they can to get the JRMMA passed: "This Bill, This Time!"
"Operation Floodgates" is an organized campaign aimed to highlight the urgency of the issue, to make people aware a bill is being considered and to allow constituents to act now and help legislators find the compassion and logic to allow the use of medical marijuana.
The daily presence on Wisconsin's Capitol Hill will soon be enhanced with the planned opening of a Wisconsin NORML office close to the Capitol. This will also create a place for supporters to help out, pick up literature, learn strategies and skills, etc.
Jay Selthofner, a Wisconsin NORML board member who is spearheading Operation Floodgates, said this, "The floodgates are opening, as the voice for many is now becoming the voice of many". Selthofner has mostly been working areas outside of Madison, and organized a successful T.H.C. "Talking Hemp and Cannabis" Expo in Berlin Feb 6 and a "Talking Hemp and Cannabis Tour event in Wisconsin Rapids on Feb 27. Both events were held in local public libraries and brought a lot of locals out to learn more about the issues of medical cannabis and industrial hemp.
Both the Berlin event and Wisconsin Rapid events received favorable media coverage from both print media and area television affiliates. A number of letters to the editor have recently been published as part of the operation, including in the La Crosse Tribune and the state's largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
"A Grass Roots Evening" on Feb 22 at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, brought a medical cannabis forum to the campus for the first time ever. The event featured not only Senate JRMMA sponsor Jon Erpenbach, but also IMMLY's Gary Storck and Rick "Legal Medicine Blues" Harris together as well as Jacki Rickert, appearing via the internet and video chat on two giant screens.
A Statewide "Day of Prayer for Compassion" has been scheduled for Tuesday March 23 and is being coordinated by IMMLY. Additional events are in the works including a benefit in Milwaukee for Wisconsin NORML and IMMLY on Sat. April 3, 2010.
Some ways to help Operation Floodgates:
* Send pre-written, editable letter to Legislators:
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=14115736 or
http://bit.ly/JRMMA
* Find out Who Represents you and their contact information: http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx
* Call your Legislators: Toll-free Legislative Hotline: 1-800-362-9472
* Send a Letter to the Editor of a local or state paper:
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/how2lte.htm
Comments (9)
Time is running out quickly this legislative session for Wisconsin patients truly in need of protection from arrest and incarceration.
Fourteen other states have allowed limited medical use. Wisconsin is supposed to be a "progressive state", ... like to see it continue.
Anyone who can donate a day, a half day, just any time or resources: print your own fliers, donate money, come and talk to your legislators or hold a sign before April 22nd would be an asset to this effort.
Please take action early and often. We are all in this together.
After attending the initial public hearing and listening to the same old lies and excuses from the people who "represent" the people, its clear this is going nowhere. It will never get out of committee. There should be no substitute for full legalization.
I thought Wisconsin is supposed to be the "Progressive" State. Our moto is forward....So much for that...
How much more positive data do our current puppets at the Capitol need to make this happen? That's the problem. There is a clear majority among the people to make this happen. They still aren't listening...and keep pushing an agenda that is ultimately cruel. If you can ease someone's pain and don't...that's cruel and mean. We need to know what these rascals think about this issue before we elect them next time.
Do you hear that lawmakers? How you vote on this issue will determine if you are elected again or not...We are watching!
Someone please grow a pair and vote YES!!!
For more information about the many medical uses of cannabis, run a search for "Granny Storm Crow's MMJ Reference List". I've gathered hundreds of links to MMJ studies and articles from PubMed, WebMD, medical journals and the news. All you have to do is click and read whatever you find interesting! Educate yourself!
So no one seems worried about the adverse side effects linked with using marijuana? I don't just mean the car accidents, dangers in the workplace and well known mental illness issues, but the studies done on heart attacks and lung problems, genetic changes passed onto any children pot users might have, the adverse consequences on your immune system and so on.
Never before in history has good medicine or science been set aside and medical decisions been determined on the floor of parliament.
See Dr. Donald Tashkin's studies, Pulmonary specialist and Federal Government researcher from UCLA Geffen School of Medicine for the lung problems.
Immune sys: "Despite the fairly large literature that developed during the past 15 years or so, the effect of cannabinoids on the immune system is still unsettled. The evidence has been contradictory and is more supportive of some degree of immunosuppression only when one considers in vitro studies. These have been seriously flawed by the very high concentrations of drug used to produce immunosuppression and by the lack of comparisons with other membrane-active drugs. The closer that experimental studies have been to actual clinical situations, the less compelling has been the evidence"
Some people do have adverse side effects from certain medicines. That is true. But the things you are saying are artifacts of the reefer madness days. It's time to do some research.
Start with Granny Storm Crow's Medical Marijuana Reference Lis
my husband has mulitable shclorsis medical merrijauunna would help him in his everyday living, lets be pattionet with the cronic sick people. it breaks my heart to see him everyday dealing with this illness.medical pot is a proven drug with peolpe that have m.s... PLEASE SAY YES TO THIS BILL,from a wife of a m.s. patient. his dr. will approve it for him he alreadt said that he will...so the drs are trying now we have to pass this bill.
It appears that I am the only one brave enough to use my real name yet in the comments section for this article. That being said, I believe legislators are afraid to take a risk and possibly lose some of the more conservative constituents in the next election if they cast a "yes" vote for medical marijuana in Wisconsin. People know it is everywhere. If they don't they only talk to people within their inner circle and have rare dealings with the real world. It shouldn't be legal for the medical reasons. It should be legal because we waste so much time on court cases for marijuana. In a marijuana museum in Amsterdam they have a wall dedicated to how prison terms are longer for some people possessing pot than for murderers. Something is wrong in the judicial system when they will let a murderer walk the streets and a person who had a lucrative business selling marijuana gets life in prison. It wastes tax dollars and puts non violent offenders in prison.
Milwaukee Dental Examiner
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