Baron23
Well-Known Member
Florida’s Medical Marijuana Facing Obstacles Placed by State and Monopoly Interests
lorida’s misnamed Office of Compassionate Use seems not to know the meaning of the word compassion.
Supporters of Florida’s recently approved medical marijuana program are having to fight tooth and nail to get the program off the ground. They’re angry, and many are ill and in desperate need, reports Miami Herald columnist, Fred Grimm.
Office of Compassionate Use bureaucrats began hearing testimony this week around Florida, and, according to the Miami Herald, they are completely disregarding all of the “heart-rending testimony from the dying, diseased and debilitated,” the pleas from would-be cannabis farmers and entrepreneurs, as well as the voices of voters who approved of allowing medical doctors to prescribe cannabis.
On Election Day, Florida’s Amendment 2 passed by a landslide with over 71 percent of the vote. That was after two tries, three years and more than $11 million.
The amendment, in effect since January 3, is only five pages long, which means there is still a lot to work out.
Instead of working out the issues, the Office of Compassionate Use is now trying to change the rules that would allow the Florida Board of Medicine to preempt a doctor’s decision to prescribe MMJ; it is also attempting to limit the 10 treatable conditions.
This rule change, a blatant violation of doctor-patient confidentiality, would also require a 90-day waiting period before a patient could actually fill their MMJ prescriptions. And, patients will not be permitted to smoke medical cannabis, the least expensive delivery system.
The Miami Herald pointed out that these proposed rules also contemplate that Florida’s billion-dollar medical marijuana industry would remain in the grip of seven, politically influential operations—“monopolies that each hold an exclusive license to grow, process and dispense marijuana in designated geographic areas.”
These proposed rules will be adopted in July, supposedly only after public hearings. (cont)
I fucking hate government politicians and bureaucrats. I have no sypathy or patience for elitist Government apparatchiks resisting implementation of the will of the people expressed through democratic voting. If they can't support the program, then let them quit and do some honest work to make their living, for a change.
Colorado Pot Sales Hit $1.3 Billion, Taxes to Pay for ‘Game-Changing’ Program
Colorado is doing something constructive with the millions in marijuana revenue it’s raking in annually.
The Department of Human Services and Governor John Hickenlooper have requested an annual allocation of more than $6 million from the state’s marijuana-tax cash fund for a new program that would offer help to chronic drug users instead of criminalizing and jailing them.
Art Way, senior director for criminal-justice reform and Colorado director with the national Drug Policy Alliance, who worked closely with state agencies in crafting the proposal, believes the impact of this approach is potentially revolutionary for people struggling with addictions to heroin and other heavy narcotics.
In fact, Way believes the project could be a game changer.
“Marijuana tax revenue and marijuana legalization will fund broader drug-policy purposes and drug-policy concerns that have long had more of an impact on society, both from a human perspective and a fiscal perspective,” said Way, who believes mass incarceration and the failed War on Drugs has had devastating effects on society in the United States.
He also believes that if such a program can get underway anywhere in the United States, Colorado is the obvious place to start.
After all, newly released figures show that weed dispensaries sold $1.3 billion worth of recreational and medical pot in 2016. So the tax money is there. (cont)
Secret Gang of Texas Mothers Using Marijuana to Treat Postpartum Depression
The miracle of birth comes packaged with an array of trials: morning sickness, a hormonal rollercoaster, the incomparable and incomprehensible (if you are a man) sensation of passing a human child through an orifice that, not so long ago, was just big enough for something much smaller (if you are most men). And once that’s over, it’s not over.
Physical pain melts into mental anguish, as the thrill and the joy of bringing a human into the world turns into anger, sadness and weeping. For most women, the “baby blues” go away after a few days. For some, it never goes away, and becomes postpartum depression. As much as 20 percent of women have trouble sleeping, are overwhelmed with anxiety and suffer other symptoms a year after their pregnancies “ending.”
After her first child was born, Celia Behar couldn’t get out of bed. She cried uncontrollably; she had no connection to her daughter; she wanted to hurt herself. She was prescribed Prozac—and while that left her with insomnia and migraines, it was “better.” After her second child was born, she started smoking marijuana. And wouldn’t you know—it worked “right away,” she told Texas-based TV station KXAN.
Behar is lucky. She lives in California, where cannabis use is prevalent and the drug is widely available. Even so, parents who smoke weed are at best frowned upon—and they run a real risk of a visit from child-protective services. In Texas, cannabis is totally prohibited—and you may as well ride a broom and perform animal sacrifices in your front yard rather than be a pot-smoking mom. This is why, KXAN reports, there’s a “growing group of mothers in Austin” who “secretly [use] marijuana to treat postpartum depression.”(cont)
Good for them!
lorida’s misnamed Office of Compassionate Use seems not to know the meaning of the word compassion.
Supporters of Florida’s recently approved medical marijuana program are having to fight tooth and nail to get the program off the ground. They’re angry, and many are ill and in desperate need, reports Miami Herald columnist, Fred Grimm.
Office of Compassionate Use bureaucrats began hearing testimony this week around Florida, and, according to the Miami Herald, they are completely disregarding all of the “heart-rending testimony from the dying, diseased and debilitated,” the pleas from would-be cannabis farmers and entrepreneurs, as well as the voices of voters who approved of allowing medical doctors to prescribe cannabis.
On Election Day, Florida’s Amendment 2 passed by a landslide with over 71 percent of the vote. That was after two tries, three years and more than $11 million.
The amendment, in effect since January 3, is only five pages long, which means there is still a lot to work out.
Instead of working out the issues, the Office of Compassionate Use is now trying to change the rules that would allow the Florida Board of Medicine to preempt a doctor’s decision to prescribe MMJ; it is also attempting to limit the 10 treatable conditions.
This rule change, a blatant violation of doctor-patient confidentiality, would also require a 90-day waiting period before a patient could actually fill their MMJ prescriptions. And, patients will not be permitted to smoke medical cannabis, the least expensive delivery system.
The Miami Herald pointed out that these proposed rules also contemplate that Florida’s billion-dollar medical marijuana industry would remain in the grip of seven, politically influential operations—“monopolies that each hold an exclusive license to grow, process and dispense marijuana in designated geographic areas.”
These proposed rules will be adopted in July, supposedly only after public hearings. (cont)
I fucking hate government politicians and bureaucrats. I have no sypathy or patience for elitist Government apparatchiks resisting implementation of the will of the people expressed through democratic voting. If they can't support the program, then let them quit and do some honest work to make their living, for a change.
Colorado Pot Sales Hit $1.3 Billion, Taxes to Pay for ‘Game-Changing’ Program
Colorado is doing something constructive with the millions in marijuana revenue it’s raking in annually.
The Department of Human Services and Governor John Hickenlooper have requested an annual allocation of more than $6 million from the state’s marijuana-tax cash fund for a new program that would offer help to chronic drug users instead of criminalizing and jailing them.
Art Way, senior director for criminal-justice reform and Colorado director with the national Drug Policy Alliance, who worked closely with state agencies in crafting the proposal, believes the impact of this approach is potentially revolutionary for people struggling with addictions to heroin and other heavy narcotics.
In fact, Way believes the project could be a game changer.
“Marijuana tax revenue and marijuana legalization will fund broader drug-policy purposes and drug-policy concerns that have long had more of an impact on society, both from a human perspective and a fiscal perspective,” said Way, who believes mass incarceration and the failed War on Drugs has had devastating effects on society in the United States.
He also believes that if such a program can get underway anywhere in the United States, Colorado is the obvious place to start.
After all, newly released figures show that weed dispensaries sold $1.3 billion worth of recreational and medical pot in 2016. So the tax money is there. (cont)
Secret Gang of Texas Mothers Using Marijuana to Treat Postpartum Depression
The miracle of birth comes packaged with an array of trials: morning sickness, a hormonal rollercoaster, the incomparable and incomprehensible (if you are a man) sensation of passing a human child through an orifice that, not so long ago, was just big enough for something much smaller (if you are most men). And once that’s over, it’s not over.
Physical pain melts into mental anguish, as the thrill and the joy of bringing a human into the world turns into anger, sadness and weeping. For most women, the “baby blues” go away after a few days. For some, it never goes away, and becomes postpartum depression. As much as 20 percent of women have trouble sleeping, are overwhelmed with anxiety and suffer other symptoms a year after their pregnancies “ending.”
After her first child was born, Celia Behar couldn’t get out of bed. She cried uncontrollably; she had no connection to her daughter; she wanted to hurt herself. She was prescribed Prozac—and while that left her with insomnia and migraines, it was “better.” After her second child was born, she started smoking marijuana. And wouldn’t you know—it worked “right away,” she told Texas-based TV station KXAN.
Behar is lucky. She lives in California, where cannabis use is prevalent and the drug is widely available. Even so, parents who smoke weed are at best frowned upon—and they run a real risk of a visit from child-protective services. In Texas, cannabis is totally prohibited—and you may as well ride a broom and perform animal sacrifices in your front yard rather than be a pot-smoking mom. This is why, KXAN reports, there’s a “growing group of mothers in Austin” who “secretly [use] marijuana to treat postpartum depression.”(cont)
Good for them!
