Iowa (Of All States!) Taking Lead in Medical Marijuana Debate
Iowa, America’s breadbasket, home to liberal scion Tom Harkin and conservative contrarian Charles Grassley, is vetting the issue of medical marijuana politically like no other previous state has by conducting a series of public testimonies, convened by the Iowa Pharmacy Board (who was ordered by a Polk County judge to do so in April in response to lawsuits brought by medical marijuana patients in Iowa against the IPB).
Two of the first four public hearings have already happened (August 19 in Des Moines and Sept. 2 in Mason City); the next hearings are:
October 7 in Iowa City and November 4, Council Bluffs
At the Mason City hearing on September 2, eight speakers, all but one in favor of medical marijuana law reforms, spoke out against the prohibition of medical marijuana in Iowa.
Des Moines resident and multiple sclerosis patient Ray Lakers, 42, who was jailed for possessing less than a gram of medical marijuana in 2005, spoke of medical marijuana’s utility and benefit to his life. Conversely, Maedene Sappenfield of Mason City spoke out against it in the Globe Gazette, “I have a son-in-law in North Carolina who has MS and he functions without marijuana very well, so it is possible.”
Watch news video of the Mason City hearing here.
The IPB does not have the authority to legalize marijuana for medical use, but it could suggest to lawmakers to move marijuana to a schedule lower than I. In turn, Iowa lawmakers would have to pass amending legislation. An AP article indicates an interesting legislative challenge (some would say ‘poison pill’): “the [IPB] said that the drug [marijuana] would have to be used as treatment in all states for Iowa to reclassify it.”
Keep up with the legal and legislative struggle to bring medical marijuana to Iowa at: http://blog.iowamedicalmarijuana.org/
Iowa (Of All States!) Taking Lead in Medical Marijuana Debate
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So
"Conversely, Maedene Sappenfield of Mason City spoke out against it in the Globe Gazette, “I have a son-in- law in North Carolina who has MS and he functions without marijuana very well, so it is possible.”
And because your son functions without marijuana,you would deny it too other patients that can't function as well? And would your son use marijuana if it becomes legal in his state? And you are sure that marijuana is not a medicine .
Bearing in mind that there have been 3 independent studies that show that marijuana has cancer blocking properties,and because our government outlawed marijuana 80 years ago,and before that,cannibus was in many medicines,sold over the counter,until 1942,and may be why our society is plagued with cancer,you people better wise up.
- Clay
September 8, 2009 2:07PM
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Thank you for your wisdom
"Conversely, Maedene Sappenfield of Mason City spoke out against it in the Globe Gazette, “I have a son-in- law in North Carolina who has MS and he functions without marijuana very well, so it is possible.”
And because your son "functions",others can?
Are you a doctor or physicist? Do you work for a pharmaceutical company? What is your reasoning for this statement?
That any drug is possibly abused,is no reason to deny people of it's medical uses. Pharmaceutical drugs are the most abused drugs in the world,do we remove them from the market? And they have killed more people than all the illegal drugs put together. They have even killed more people than alcohol and
tobacco has.
Marijuana has never been listed as the cause of death on any
death certificate.
Marinol,the pharmaceutical companies answer to cannibus,has killed 4 people.
Three studies have now shown that marijuana has cancer blocking attributes,but still our government will not allow testing and studies needed by the FDA,to approve marijuana as a medicine ,and ALL studies of marijuana in the United States must be approved by the DEA.
The pharmaceutical companies are trying to synthesize and manufacture the chemical compounds in marijuana that block cancer,but so far are unsuccessful. In the meantime though,marijuana already has the chemicals in it,safely. But rather than allow people to be using it to block cancers,they keep it illegal so the pharmaceutical companies can make a pill
they can sell you.
Our country,and the world is plagued with more types of cancer than ever known and it may well be that it is because we prohibited marijuana. The only way to prove or disprove that is to legalize cannibus,and check the statistics for cancer in a few years,to see if it reduces the cancers we are suffering from.
It is not scientific,but none of my friends that have continued smoking marijuana for the last 40 years are dieing of cancer,to my knowledge. They are dieing from sugar diabetes ,heart disease,and other health issues that 60 to 70 year old people die from,but not cancer. And where I live,we are losing people too cancer every week.
- Clay
September 8, 2009 2:46PM
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