When a police officer asked her what she was doing behind a van in the park, Pamela Hughes told him the honest truth.
“I said I was smoking a cannabis cigarette,” she said.
She presented the stunned policeman with a written recommendation from her doctor and a copy of Maryland’s “Compassionate Use Act,” which reduces the penalties for possession of medical marijuana.
Hughes ended up spending several hours in jail. She fought the charges and won, but only after a lot of time, stress and money — three things that her fibromyalgia, a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain and fatigue, and a reoccurrence of stage IV cancer were already monopolizing.
Hughes and several other patients told the House Judiciary Committee last week that while Maryland’s Compassionate Use Act was a step forward for its time, the law merely provides them with a false sense of security.
The patients testified on behalf of a bill that would establish a task force to evaluate the effectiveness and fairness of the current law and consider whether medical marijuana should become legal in the state. They said medical marijuana provides relief for certain ailments in ways no other medication can replicate.
No one testified against the bill, and a vote on the legislation has not been scheduled.
via – Fox News “Patients Urge Legalization of Medical Marijuana, Say ‘Compassionate Use’ Act Provides False Security“
Free State Stashers know what time it is: contact your Maryland officials! I would especially like to see folks write to Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Vallario Jr., D-Prince Georges, who opined:
“How can you pass something that’s against federal law?” he said. “That really is the bottom line.”
Because, Chairman Vallario, Jr., the federal law is wrong and should be abolished. The law makes criminals out of sick people and that is wrong. Sometimes the best answers are the simplest ones.
Dear Sirs:
It is my understanding that the original 13 settlements here in the U.S.A. passed a law that all of them were to grow hemp as a cash crop and use it for medicinal purposes. Since that time, the law has not been resinded. There fore, anyone locked up since then and put in jail for growing it or using it was arrested illegally. Knowing what I do about the history of this natural herb and it’s medicinal qualities I think it should be made legal. I also know about how the DOW Chemical Company pushed to have it placed in the same category with heroine, just so they could keep their plastic industry growing. As we all know by now, or should; hemp can me used to make everything from paper to food, clothing and many other worthwhile consumer goods. However, I also think there should be restrictions over its use just as we do with alcohol; no driving while smoking it and I do not want someone working heavy machinery or doing construction while smoking marijuana. With all things, responcibility to the responcible.