News 14 | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | Proposal studies medical marijuana
RALEIGH — A state lawmaker wants North Carolina to study and potentially legalize medical marijuana.

Guilford County Rep. Earl Jones filed the bill. Wednesday, a former U.S. surgeon general testified in favor of it as well. From 1993-1995, Dr. Joycelyn Elders was the country’s top doctor. Nearly 20 years, later she’s here in North Carolina advocating medical marijuana.

“We’ve been using marijuana out there as I said for 5,000 years,” Elders said. “It’s safer than an awful lot of medications than we have out there on the market.”

But opponents say that’s not the case.

“When you consider the carcinogens in marijuana alone, it’s multiple to that of smoking so this is not really a safe drug to take,” said Mark Creech from the N.C. Christian Action League.

Let me help educate Mr. Creech.  First of all, don’t give me that nonsense about marijuana not being a safe drug to take:

An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.

The Florida report analyzed 168,900 deaths statewide. Cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines caused 989 deaths, it found, while legal opioids — strong painkillers in brand-name drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin — caused 2,328.

Drugs with benzodiazepine, mainly depressants like Valium and Xanax, led to 743 deaths. Alcohol was the most commonly occurring drug, appearing in the bodies of 4,179 of the dead and judged the cause of death of 466 — fewer than cocaine (843) but more than methamphetamine (25) and marijuana (0).

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Raleigh to hear from marijuana advocates | Serving Henderson, Transylvania and Polk Counties | North Carolina | BlueRidgeNow.com
Advocates and local residents will speak before the state House this week to encourage a study into the use of medicinal marijuana.

Polk County resident Jean Marlowe, Democratic Rep. Earl Jones of Guilford County, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jocelyn Elders and Saluda resident Ray Pague plan to speak Wednesday at the Capitol auditorium.

Jones said he will introduce a measure calling for a study to be done on the benefits of medicinal marijuana.

“Dr. Elders will address the Science and Technology Committee of the House about this subject,” Jones said. “I have a bill that will be requesting a study committee.”

Jones said he is introducing the bill because he believes marijuana may hold a potential cure for ailments or pain.

“Marijuana has been proven in studies to reduce the pain and suffering in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and cancer,” he said. Jones said his top priority in policy making is to benefit the public, and in this case helping the public manage pain.

“There is not a reason for marijuana not to be used legally in North Carolina if it could help our residents manage their pain and suffering,” he said.

You can hear my interview with Rep. Jones on the archived podcast from June 2.

House Joint Resolution 2405
Introduced 5/21
Referred to House Committee on Health: 5/26

Sponsors: Representatives Jones; Bordsen, Church, and Harrison.
Referred to: Health, if favorable, Judiciary III.
May 26, 2008

A JOINT RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH COMMISSION TO STUDY ISSUES RELATED TO THE PUBLIC BENEFITS OF ALLOWING MARIJUANA OR ITS CHEMICAL EQUIVALENT TO BE USED FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES.

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

SECTION 1. The Legislative Research Commission may study whether a public benefit would be derived from making it lawful for physicians to prescribe and patients to possess and use marijuana or its chemical equivalent for medicinal purposes only.

SECTION 2. The Legislative Research Commission may make an interim report to the 2009 General Assembly, and shall make its final report to the 2009 General Assembly, Regular Session 2010.

SECTION 3. The Legislative Services Officer shall allocate funds appropriated to the General Assembly for the expenditures of the Legislative Services Commission in conducting this study.

SECTION 4. This act becomes effective July 1, 2008.

This is the first small step toward bringing medical marijuana to a Southern state. The tide is turning, Stashers, after twelve years of medical marijuana, the sky hasn’t fallen and more progressive legislators are less afraid to be labeled “soft on drugs” by sponsoring commonsense legislation to protect sick and disabled people from arrest for using cannabis under doctor’s recommendation.

Charlotte Local News | Charlotte Observer
A 17-year-old who died after a police officer shocked him with a stun gun last week had marijuana hidden in his socks. And according to a search warrant, he’d been asked to leave the Food Lion where he worked before police arrived.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Jerry Dawson Jr. used his Taser after police received a disturbance call about 1:15 p.m. Thursday from the grocery store on Prosperity Church Road. Darryl Turner had worked in the University City store for about a year as a cashier and bagger.

Family members and co-workers said Turner, who graduated last year from a charter high school and planned to attend college, was a good student and reliable employee. His court record consists of three traffic offenses.His mother said her son had a temper but was not violent. She did say that Turner had come home for lunch Thursday and told her he had stolen a couple of Hot Pockets from the store. He was afraid of getting in trouble, she said, but she told him to go back to the store and admit what he did.

Police received the disturbance call soon after. As Dawson arrived at the store, police said, an “agitated” Turner threw something at a manager. Turner ignored Dawson’s commands and advanced toward him. Dawson then used the Taser to get him under control, police said.

Turner was later pronounced dead at Carolinas Medical Center-University. His death is the first Taser-related fatality in CMPD’s history.

Co-workers and friends said they never knew of Turner being reprimanded at work. Customers described him as “mannerly” and “pleasant.”

Another person’s life ended by the indiscriminate use of tasers by police.  We were introduced to tasers as a “non-lethal” method of force to subdue a violent criminal and protect police.  But lately, the taser is being used as a method of compliance even when an officer is not in any grave danger.  I encourage you to check out the Taser Files at PamsHouseBlend.com, where you can review too many of these incidents where tasers are misused and people die.  Unless a perpetrator is wielding a gun or a knife or other significant physical advantage, there is no reason for an officer to use a taser, which is a 50,000V roll of the dice.  The officer doesn’t know if that person has a heart defect or is under the influence of drugs that would make the taser an instrument of death.