PA Representatives consider medical marijuana
The historic medical marijuana hearings in Pennsylvania have left everyone wanting more. Representative Matthew Baker told me that he is “adamantly opposed” to HB 1393, but as the Republican co-chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee he kept hearings going on December 2, 2009 so that all of the scheduled speakers could be considered.
Baker’s Republican peers on the committee did seem most curious about the concept of a therapeutic cannabis program for PA.
Representatives Kerry Benninghoff, Karen Beyer, Gene DiGirolamo, Seth Grove and Katie True all asked pointed questions of those presenting both sides of the issue.
Democrats on the committee were vocal as well, with Representatives Tim Seip and Paul Drucker bringing the most discussion to the floor. But it was Democrat Tony Payton from Philadelphia who offered some of the most poignant statements during the hearings that elicited applause from the audience. In comments to opposition testimony Payton said, “ This sounds like the stuff we all heard in the 80’s… and it didn’t work.”
Although Representative Baker used his position to close the hearings by highlighting the few opposing groups, such as the PA District Attorney’s Association, he seemed fully engaged with everyone who presented.
Baker voiced to me at the end of the day the one thing that all of the lawmakers on the committee seem to have consensus on, “ I think we need more hearings.”
Representative Frank Oliver, Chairman of the HHS committee agreed and has already pledged additional public testimony on the issue.
The standing-room only HHS Committee hearings included medical experts and PA residents, even a conservative Rabbi testifying in favor of the bill. Already the 12/2 hearings are being seen as a major step forward for the issue of medical marijuana in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
More about medical marijuana in Pennsylvania at www.pa4mmj.org
Comments
its' not a war on (some) drugs, it's a war on minorities, and I can speak with firsthand experience that without a doubt, alcohol is by far the most dangerous drug on the planet. Why? Because no other drug turns it's users into belligerent, stumbling morons. I've done 5 years of research into this after I nearly killed myself with booze. Thanks to google tons of information is now freely available and if anyone did any amount of research on the history of the war on (some) drugs they'd see it was done by racist Uncle Sam to replace outlawed slave labor after the civil war when slavery was outlawed. Asians smoked opium so opium was outlawed so Uncle Sam could stuff his prisons with nonviolent Asians. 'Marijuana' was outlawed so he could stuff his prisons with nonviolent Mexicans. (Of course, racist Harry Anslinger (the 'father of the drug war) paired up with William Randolph Hearst (the 'father of yellow journalism' and newspaper tycoon who had millions of acres of timber lands which he
(cont.) used to feed his presses; if cannabis were used to make paper he would have lost millions) so he wrote outrageous lies in his papers and the gullible public believed them, since they'd never heard of 'marijuana' before, even though Anslinger just used the Mexican Spanish word for what we call 'cannabis' or what American farmers have grown since before we were our own nation: industrial hemp. Then 5 years after it was outlawed federally, the USDA runs "Hemp for Victory" urging, BEGGING American farmers to grow hemp 'for the war!' This 20 minute video is readily available on youtube, google video, etc. Read tinyurl.com/1mn : "Well, there it was, you didn't have to look another foot as you went from state to state right on the floor of the state legislature. And so what was the genesis for the early state marijuana laws in the Rocky Mountain and southwestern areas of this country? It wasn't hostility to the drug, it was hostility to the newly arrived Mexican community that used it
." (In case anyone thought there was more that was cut off. Read bottom to top, please.)
Rep. Baker are you scared you can't control a controlled substance? It's OK. Keep it illegal if you're so scared about it. People will use the distribution system currently in place. No problem! The government can still control it by...what??? Catching about 5 to 10 percent of the product distributed? That's how it's currently 'controlled'. BTW, If you can't keep it out of a prison, what makes you think you control anything. Either way, people will still get anything they want within a couple of hours. Period. No questions asked. No one carded. No ID's presented. No taxes collected. And all proceeds go into the drug gang's or Mexican cartel’s till. It's OK. That’s your way to handle it right? Business as usual. Rep. Baker you act like it's going away. It's not going anywhere, you just drove it back underground. Meantime you and I send our hard earned tax dollars to the gov’t to house cannabis growers or users in prison and feed them three square meals a day. Oh, by the way, China calle
Oh, by the way, China called and they want you to quit spending their borrowed money on your stupid prohibition. They're nervous and might call in their loans to us. Business as usual.
Representatives Kerry Benninghoff, Karen Beyer, Gene DiGirolamo, Seth Grove and Katie True all asked pointed questions of those presenting both sides of the issue.
Did they all ask a question, much less were they "pointed"?
It is 'high' time scum like baker and his cohorts get out of the way and allow Pennsylvania to move into the 21st century. I am so tired of self righteous vermin like Baker and their refusal to accept scientifically established facts in favor of antiquated dogma.
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