When you think about it, Cain's marijuana support is a natural fit.

So now there are three Republicans running for president with a better stance on state medical marijuana laws than President Obama:

(MSNBC.com) ”If states want to legalize medical marijuana, I think that’s a state’s right,” Cain said while campaigning in Iowa. “Because one of my overriding approaches to looking at all  of these issues — most of them belong at the state, because when you do something federally … you try to force one-size-fits-all.”

That sentiment wouldn’t necessarily make Cain the only Republican candidate who’s sympathetic to marijuana rights. Texas Rep. Ron Paul supports the availability of medical marijuana, and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson supports the drug’s overall legalization.

When it comes to medical pot, an April 2010 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 61 percent of Republicans favored legalization, while 37 percent of Republicans opposed that. Self-described conservatives even split in favor of legalizing medical marijuana, 54-44 percent.

The weight of this issue is becoming too much for Republicans desperate to unseat Obama to ignore.  Medical marijuana enjoys more than 75% support nationwide and majority support in any demographic group you care to choose.  Support for outright legalization is up to 50% nationwide and is rising over the past three polls in every demographic group except “self-described liberals”.

Of course, Obama said a lot of “states rights” type rhetoric on the campaign trail in 2007 and 2008 as well.  We see how that turned out.

Robert Watson drew fire in February when he said, “I suppose if you’re a gay man from Guatemala who gambles and smokes pot, you probably think that we’re onto some good ideas here,” referring to the General Assembly.  Watson refused demands to apologize.  Karma’s a bitch, dude.

nydailynews A Rhode Island lawmaker, who recently slammed his colleagues by invoking the image of pot-smoking immigrants, has been busted for alleged marijuana possession.

Republican House Minority Leader Robert Watson was arrested in East Haven, Conn., on Friday at a police checkpoint and was also charged with driving under the influence.

“Trace evidence of marijuana was discovered and I was charged with operating under the influence, a charge I vehemently deny,” Watson told the Providence Journal.

The 50-year-old smelled like alcohol and pot, he slurred his words, and his eyes “were extremely glassy and bloodshot,” according to the police report. Authorities found a “small plastic sandwich bag containing a green leafy plantlike substance and a small wooden marijuana pipe.”

His blood-alcohol level was 0.05%, which is below the state’s 0.08 limit.

[Russ adds: Yeah, but there is a synergistic effect between alcohol and cannabis.  A 0.05% blood-alcohol level combined with a few hits of green bud can make one much more impaired than a comparable 0.08% BAC driver who didn't toke.  Nobody, not even this guy, should go to jail for smoking pot... but I'm more than willing to lock up people who drive severely impaired.]

Who wants free medicated pizza? (Holy crap; I've had that tie since 2002?!?)

Dominic Holden over at the Slog tipped me off to this absolutely real legislative amendment in Washington State:

“NEW SECTION. Sec. 414.  (1) The department of health shall reimburse a qualifying patient for any pizza consumed by the qualifying patient while he or she was under the influence of medical cannabis.  The department shall reimburse the patient no later than five business days after the patient submits a receipt for the pizza.  The department may not reimburse the patient for delivery charges, gratuities, or toppings in excess of three.  (2) For purposes of this section, “pizza” means a pie with a bread crust topped with tomato sauce, cheese, and various toppings.  ”Pizza” includes Chicago style deep dish, New York style thin crust, and stuffed crust.”

It’s being proposed by Republican Washington State Representative Glenn Anderson as a joke, I suppose, or some sort of statement about the illegitimacy of medical marijuana.  If he means it as an insult or statement, I don’t get it… probably because I think it is the kindest thing a Washington Republican has ever done for medical marijuana patients.

I hope it passes; my wife has a Washington card and Vancouver is just four miles away.  And we can eat a lot of free pizza.

There remains in Montana one final bill pushed by opponents of medical marijuana. Dubbed “Repeal Lite” by activists from Kalispell on The Hot Box Podcast airing on The NORML Network, this bill seeks to create new regulations so tightly crafted as to decimate (literally) the rolls of registered patients from over 28,000 to about 2,000.

Now it appears due to time constraints, the bill will require a supermajority greater than the GOP 28-22 domination of the Senate in order to move the bill.

(The Missoulian) HELENA - The Senate was forced to postpone its scheduled debate Tuesday on Senate Bill 423, by Sen. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, so the bill will come to the floor Wednesday.

The delay now will force the Senate to obtain a supermajority vote – or 34 of the 50 senators’ votes – instead of a simple majority vote – or 26 votes – to pass Senate Bill 423 to send it to the House by Wednesday’s deadline.

Suddenly, 17 senators from the Democratic minority, or any combination of SB423 opponents, can stop it from reaching the House on time, effectively killing the bill. Republicans have a 28-22 margin over Democrats in the Senate.

If that happens, the Legislature likely will come empty-handed in imposing strict regulations on a medical marijuana industry that critics contend has spun out of control in Montana. This was considered one of the major issues facing the Legislature.

The new bill would repeal the current medical marijuana law as of July 1, as Milburn’s bill did.

Essmann’s bill, however, then sets up a plan to impose strict regulations on the medical marijuana industry, with the expressed goal of making it much harder for people with severe and chronic pain to obtain medical marijuana cards.

Here’s what Sen. Essman thinks chronic pain patients should endure to be legal:

(c) severe chronic pain that is documented by:

(i) the patient’s primary care physician and by a specialist with expertise in the disease process that is causing the pain; and

(ii) objective proof of the etiology of the pain, including diagnostic tests that include but are not limited to the results of an x-ray, computerized tomography scan, or magnetic resonance imaging;

So now you’d need to see two doctors and get expensive special scans performed.  And your primary care physician can’t just be any old doctor…

(c) has a bona fide professional relationship with the patient that has existed for at least 6 months and has included at least four visits at which the patient’s debilitating medical condition was reviewed or assessed.

So you need to see your doctor at least four times, you have to have seen your doctor for at least six months, then you need to see the second specialist doctor and get the expensive special scans performed.

While you’re at it, Sen. Essman, make sure your corporate contributors can’t be sued for discriminating against medical marijuana patients (additions to law IN CAPS):

(b) an employer to accommodate the therapeutic use of marijuana in any workplace.

(5) NOTHING IN THIS CHAPTER MAY BE CONSTRUED TO:

(A) PROHIBIT AN EMPLOYER FROM INCLUDING IN ANY CONTRACT A PROVISION PROHIBITING THE THERAPEUTIC USE OF MARIJUANA; OR

(B) PERMIT A CAUSE OF ACTION AGAINST AN EMPLOYER FOR WRONGFUL DISCHARGE PURSUANT TO 39-2-904 OR DISCRIMINATION PURSUANT TO 49-1-102.

Sen. Essman, having a registry full of medical marijuana patients, especially those using for pain, is not “abuse”.  It is a reflection of the fact that many people suffer pain and most want a safer, non-toxic remedy to deal with it.

This post is part of our continuing series of “Politicians on Pot“. If you have written your elected official at the local, state, or federal level, email their response to stash@norml.org with the subject Politicians on Pot. Visit our Politicians on Pot map and click your state to find the responses from your elected officials. If you’d like to review all of the responses from Democrats and Republicans you can use these links. If you’d like to just review all the politicians responses, click Politicians on Pot.

Thank you for your message with regard to E2SSB 5073 the Medical Use of Cannabis bill.  This bill has been worked very hard this session with no clear consensus among the people who are currently utilizing medical marijuana.  The issue is how the current folks would fall under the new regulations if this law passes.

I am concerned about how many new, additional people will be utilizing medical marijuana as described in this proposed legislation.  For that reason, I did not support this bill in committee on March 23rd; but the bill did pass out with a striking amendment.  It is continuing through the legislative process.

Sincerely,

 

Joe Schmick

State Representative

concord monitor Liberal Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans are finding common cause in supporting a House bill that would legalize medical marijuana.

“This is a bill whose message has been heard loud and clear,” said bill sponsor Rep. Evalyn Merrick, a Lancaster Democrat. “I sense we’ll have a good deal of support on both sides of the aisle.”

The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed a bill allowing medical marijuana in 2009, but Democratic Gov. John Lynch vetoed it. The House overrode the veto, but the Senate came up two votes short.

State Sen. Jim Forsythe, a Strafford Republican and former chairman of the state Republican Liberty Caucus, said the challenge for libertarian-leaning Republicans will be to convince more socially conservative party members that allowing medical marijuana fits with conservative values.

“Conservatives traditionally oppose Obamacare because they want government out of doctor patient relationships, and medical marijuana helps satisfy that,” Forsythe said. “We believe in minimal regulation, and this helps toward that.”

Not only is Indiana considering medical marijuana, there are also looking at decriminalizing the possession of small amounts and controlling marijuana with regulated sales and taxation, as alcohol is regulated.  The Legalization Train Rolls On.

(pal-item) The Indiana Senate this week approved a study on Indiana’s marijuana policies, including costs for the state’s criminal justice system and the potential for regulation and taxation options. Senate Bill 192 was approved on a vote of 28-21.

State Rep. Tom Knollman, R-Liberty, testified last week before a Senate committee on the issue of medical uses for marijuana. Knollman, a Union County farmer who has multiple sclerosis, told the committee he’d like the opportunity to try marijuana to relieve the pain he suffers. Prescription pain medications often don’t provide much relief, he said.

If the Indiana House agrees with S.B. 192, the Criminal Law and Sentencing Policy Study Committee would review the issues later this year and make recommendations on the medical use of marijuana, decriminalizing the possession of small amounts and controlling marijuana with regulated sales and taxation, as alcohol is regulated.

Indiana would not be the first state to consider loosening state regulations of marijuana. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use and 13 states have decriminalized possession of small amounts.

While state Rep. Sal Esquivel may have a point, this is further evidence that if we accomplish complete legalization, these medical issues will be much easier to regulate and control.

(Ashland Daily Tidings) The nearly dozen legislative measures backers say are aimed at fine-tuning Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program should be pooled together, says one of the bill’s sponsors.

“We need to take the best parts of all of them and put them together in one bill,” state Rep. Sal Esquivel, R-Medford, said Tuesday.

Esquivel, sponsor of House Bill 3202, which he said would stop abuse of the program approved by voters in 1998, has asked the co-chairs of the judiciary as well as the health and human services committees to consider his proposal.

But Robert Wolfe, director of the Oregon Marijuana Policy Initiative, which represents a coalition of medical marijuana advocacy groups in the state, believes the bills are intended to severely limit and even dismantle Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program.

The bills all call for cutting thousands of patients from the program, making it harder for new patients to obtain doctor-approved medical marijuana cards for conditions such as AIDS and cancer, he said.

In addition, they would dramatically reduce the amount of medical marijuana a patient may possess, cut the number of plants a patient may grow, add new restrictions on who is eligible for the program and allow much greater access into private homes by law enforcement officials, he said.

“There are two kinds of people smoking marijuana in Oregon,” he said. “There are those who go to the black market and ignore the law. Then there are the people who want to legally participate in the program to get their medicine.

“To kick them out of the system that is self-funding and punish them by making them go to the black market doesn’t make any sense,” he added. “There is no need for it.”

A New Mexico lawmaker has introduced legislation to repeal the state’s four-year-old medical marijuana law.

House Bill 593, introduced by Santa Fe Republican James Smith, aims to completely repeal New Mexico’s existing medical marijuana law, which was initially approved by the legislature and the Governor in 2007.

Presently, over 3,200 patients are using cannabis legally in compliance with state law. In addition, state officials have licensed some 25 facilities to produce or dispense medical cannabis. To date, reports of abuses regarding the use or distribution of medical cannabis as authorized by the law have been minimal.

Nevertheless, Smith — who admits “I’m not a medical doctor, I don’t pretend to be” – states that the law sends a mixed message to young people and that other alternative medications are available.

House Bill 593 has been assigned to the House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee and awaits a scheduled hearing. Newly elected Republican Governor Susana Martinez, who recently stated that this issue would not be a legislative priority for her administration in 2011, has said she would sign Smith’s bill if it reaches her desk.

Do not let that happen! There has never been a single state medical marijuana law that has been repealed. Do not let New Mexico be the first. Please make sure that your House member has heard from you. You can contact him or her by entering your zip code below.

Read more from the original source:
New Mexico Lawmaker Introduces Legislation to Repeal Medical Marijuana Law

I also lied to my optometrist... I don't really need these glasses. Ha! See why we need to ban LensCrafters? Hey, you kids, get off my lawn! (Photo: Des Moines Register)

We told you the story of Iowa Rep. Clel Baudler who hates medical marijuana so much that he went to California and lied about his medical condition in order to obtain a doctor’s recommendation for medical marijuana.  This stunt, you see, proves how awful medical marijuana would be for Iowa, despite the fact that Iowa has never considered and would never consider a medical marijuana program as lax as California’s.

An Iowa citizen, Mike Pesce, filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Baudler.

“I think he should be investigated and impeached,” said Des Moines resident and medical marijuana advocate Mike Pesce. “If you read his e-mail he wrote while he was sitting in this Statehouse, he planned this crime. We can’t have lawmakers sitting in this Statehouse planning crimes.”

That seems fairly reasonable to me.  After all, in California, lying to a doctor to fraudulently obtain a medical marijuana recommendation is a crime worthy of a $1,000 fine or six months in jail for a first offense.

Baudler, naturally, didn’t think his lie was a criminal act because of who he was lying to:

Baudler said Wednesday he highly doubts the person he lied to has a medical degree and, therefore, he did not break California’s law.

“I spent 15 minutes with this “doctor” and six of those were used attempting to overcome the language barrier between us (he was an oriental “doctor” and only spoke broken English.)”

Maybe Baudler hasn’t gotten the memo that food is Oriental, people are Asian.  But cut the 71-year-old some slack; he thinks there are statutory limits on tattoos:

“I explained to them that I wanted “medical marijuana,” and was admitted immediately by an armed security guard that had to weigh close to 110 pounds. He had ten earrings on and about his face and ears, and (in my mind) way over the legal limit on tattoos.”

Well, the ethics board has reviewed the Baudler case and come to a unanimous decision:

(Des Moines Register) An ethics review has cleared a state lawmaker who admitted he lied about having hemorrhoids to obtain a medical marijuana prescription in California.

In a bipartisan, unanimous vote, the House Ethics Committee decided the complaint didn’t establish any violation of either Iowa Code Section 68b or House ethics.

The committee’s jurisdiction is limited, said Rep. Scott Raecker, R-Urbandale. Members can ascertain only whether there was a violation of those rules and code section. Neither the rules nor code addresses a lawmaker who allegedly broke a law in another state or told a lie, he said.

[Complainant Mike] Pesce said the Iowa Constitution clearly allows for impeachment of a state legislator who commits malfeasance, and Pesce said he believes this was malfeasance.

So apparently there is no ethical problem found in Iowa lawmakers lying or publicly admitting to breaking other state’s laws.  Good to know.