Study Shows Support Among Missourians for Medical Marijuana

[Lilli]

Study Shows Support Among Missourians for Medical Marijuana
Kansas City Star; January 1, 2005
by Connie Farrow

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Now that Columbia has an ordinance allowing patients to smoke marijuana on doctors' orders, backers plan to push for the same medical relief for all Missourians.

A survey by Southwest Missouri State University indicates there may be growing support for legalizing marijuana as a therapy option for residents undergoing chemotherapy or suffering from illnesses such as AIDS and glaucoma.

A majority of Missouri residents support medical marijuana if it is prescribed to patients in extreme pain, according to the Springfield university's telephone survey.

Eighty-five percent of those same 720 Missourians, however, agree marijuana impairs the user's ability to function, and 79 percent believe it is addictive.

"We were surprised to realize that people apparently see marijuana the same way they see legitimate pharmaceutical drugs that carry a high potential for abuse - opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, barbiturates, etc.," said Gary Brinker, one of the associate professors who conducted the survey. "They are against recreational use of these substances, but believe they do have legitimate therapeutic uses under a doctor's supervision."

Columbia attorney Dan Viets said the survey mirrors a poll done for the nation's largest advocacy group for seniors, AARP. It shows nearly three-fourths of older Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use.

"I think it's very difficult for a politician to rationally justify not supporting this issue," said Viets, a longtime state legislative lobbyist for decriminalizing marijuana and allowing its medical use statewide.

Viets pointed to his hometown, where a city ordinance allowing medical marijuana passed in November with nearly 70 percent support. He and his supporters are now determined to see Missouri join the 11 other states that have medical marijuana laws on their books.

Legislators have rejected various bills over the years aimed at stripping criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana ordered by a licensed practitioner. The most recent was this past spring, when a bill that would have forced a November statewide vote on the issue received a public hearing but failed to get out of committee.

Rep. Vicki Walker, D-Kansas City, who sponsored the bill, did not win re-election.

Viets said he has a "loose knit alliance of support" ready to push the issue again.

"I'm not ready to discuss specifics," he said. "I expect that there will be medical marijuana bill filed in the next few weeks."

Brinker, however, said the university's survey also could be used by opponents to highlight the fact that most Missouri residents believe marijuana carries a high potential for abuse. People surveyed reflect the state's population according to 2000 U.S. Census data, he said.

The survey was conducted between Nov. 8 and Nov. 23. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

There was some variation in opinions according to age, Brinker said. Middle age respondents showed the highest support under the most extreme conditions of dying and in pain, as well as for patients who cannot hold down food. Support for medical marijuana use when the patient is in pain was consistent for those under 65, but was lower for those over 65. Eighteen-to 25-year-olds, however, more often favored allowing the doctor full discretion in ordering marijuana, Brinker said.

When people were asked if they would like to offer any other opinions on the issue, the comments ranged from fear that it might be abused to support for making it available for anyone with health problem.

"God doesn't want us to put things like this into our bodies," one respondent said.

Another said, "We have spent too much money fighting something that is going to happen anyway."

The issue is sure to get attention when the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a pending California case that questions whether patients who use marijuana in compliance with state laws are constitutionally protected from federal arrest and prosecution.

Attorney General Jay Nixon said he wanted to wait for that decision, expected by March, before commenting on the issue.

Lt. Tim Hull, spokesman for Missouri State Highway Patrol, said the agency does not take positions on legislation.

"Our business is enforcing the laws that are on the books," he said.

Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm, who opposed his city's ordinance, said he would fight against a similar state law.

"My concern is with the fact that it cannot be prescribed, so there's no clear direction as to what a physician's recommendation really is, and what makes that valid and not valid," he said.

http://www.mpp.org/MO/news_1557.html
_________________

I pass to you the torch that Christ once passed to me.
Others are still in the dark and need
the light to see.
"I AM"
"Gathering the fragments so that
none are lost"
His Shepherdess
http://missouri.thcministry.org/

[Mystic Power]

[Mystic Power]

[Stokes]

[Mystic Power]

[Mystic Power]

[Mystic Power]

P.S.

Based on info from California and British Columbia, the average age of a medical cannabis patient is 54.

Bliss
Ben
_________________
"We are the Ones we have been waiting for."
~Hopi Elder ~

"In Lak'ech"
~ Ancient Mayan: "I am another YOU." ~

[Mystic Power]

P.S.

Based on info from California and British Columbia, the average age of a medical cannabis patient is 54.

Bliss
Ben
_________________
"We are the Ones we have been waiting for."
~Hopi Elder ~

"In Lak'ech"
~ Ancient Mayan: "I am another YOU." ~

[Stokes]

[Mystic Power]

My son depends on medicaid...so I'm hoping it stays solid.

Bliss
Ben
_________________
"We are the Ones we have been waiting for."
~Hopi Elder ~

"In Lak'ech"
~ Ancient Mayan: "I am another YOU." ~

[Mystic Power]

My son depends on medicaid...so I'm hoping it stays solid.

Bliss
Ben
_________________
"We are the Ones we have been waiting for."
~Hopi Elder ~

"In Lak'ech"
~ Ancient Mayan: "I am another YOU." ~

[Fyrefly1]

[Fyrefly1]

[Stokes]

[DdC]

Blustery winds outside the Boone County Courthouse carried harsh words today against the city’s new marijuana ordinance by those who say it reduces possession of a small amount of the drug to "less than a parking ticket."

Sterling Infield, president of the Columbia Police Officers Association, or CPOA, led a news conference announcing a petition drive to reverse the ordinance passed in November. City voters also approved a separate law decriminalizing marijuana prescribed for medical purposes, which CPOA does not oppose.

Officers plan to go door-to-door in neighborhoods to gather signatures, which will be presented to the Columbia City Council.

"If that doesn’t work," Infield said, "we’ll take the issue back to the ballot."

Proponents needed 2,275 signatures for each of the marijuana measures to place them on the ballot.

Under the ordinance, possession of less than 1* ounces of marijuana earns a ticket and subjects the offender to a fine of up to $250. The offender is not arrested, and a criminal record is not created. The wording suggests suspending a fine for community service or counseling and prohibits the city prosecutor from referring the case to another prosecutor or agency unless it’s committed with a felony. The election results caught CPOA by surprise, Infield said. "We were asleep," he said.

In a letter last month, Infield asked city leaders for help. "They don’t want to take a stance at this time as far as what we’re doing," he said.

The letter garnered criticism for referencing the death of Officer Molly Bowden and the wounding of Officer Curtis Brown by a gunman with a record of misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Infield said CPOA wasn’t putting its fight on the backs of officers shot in January by Rick Evans.

"At the same time, he had drugs in his car - the same drugs we’re facing today," he said.

CPOA fears that people on parole for violent crimes would be treated like first-time offenders, he said.

Department of Corrections rules for parolees, however, consider possession of any amount of illegal drugs a violation of parole and subject offenders to revocation. A criminal charge or conviction isn’t required. However, it isn’t clear how the Board of Probation and Parole would learn about a parolee’s marijuana ticket in Columbia, corrections spokesman John Fougere said.

Eleanor Wickersham of the League of Women Voters said it’s wrong for Infield’s group to use parolees as a scare tactic.

"He’s trying to associate it with rape and murder," she said.

Police Launch Petition Drive Against Pot Law
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20349.shtml
Source: Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)
Author: Mike Wells of the Tribune’s Staff
Published: Friday, March 11, 2005
Contact: editor@tribmail.com
Website: http://www.columbiatribune.com/

Related Articles & Web Site:

Missouri NORML
http://www.gstlnorml.org/
Police Group Seeks To Alter City’s Pot Law
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20295.shtml
Bill Just Smoke, Lawmakers Say
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20145.shtml
Senator Seeks To Penalize City for Marijuana Laws
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20140.shtml
-------
Columbia Police Officers Association Bulletin Board
http://www.columbiapolice.org/forum/

Welcome to Reality
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/index.html

Sacramental Cannabis, Food, Fuel, Fiber, FARMaceuticals

D.E.A.th Deceptions
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.html

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts,
foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values.
For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood
in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
-- President John F. Kennedy

Seems Missouri is the home of Ashcroft and Monsanto in St Louis, making billions on the Ganjawar. Booming growth industries funding politicians to outlaw competition. Bloated copshop budgets, now they want to protest? Not enough Americans in cages for them? Not enough abuses of Civil and Constitutional rights for them? Not enough suffering? What is it with these piggies hating citizens? Why do we put up with their Fascists tactics? They are supposed to be public servants not lacky lapdogs for the district attorneys. Stand up for yourselves Missouri!
DdC


_________________
Safe Sacramental Cannabis, Food, Fuel, Fiber, Shelter and FARM-aceuticals
Hardrug, Booze & Petro-Chem Alternative
Eliminated by Legislation and Administrated Education Depravation!

Ganja/hemp lnfolinx

[DdC]

By Tony Messenger
CN Source: Columbia Daily Tribune March 13, 2005

The whisperer wanted me to ask a question. It was a good question, but I ignored him. We were standing outside the Boone County Courthouse on a frigid Friday morning listening to Columbia police Officer Sterling Infield announce a petition drive to try to overturn the marijuana decriminalization ordinance that voters overwhelmingly approved in November.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20354.shtml

This headline would be nice, but it seems obvious this articles author neglects to mention any of the government/corporate contributions to maintaining the Ganjawar in its present draconian state. MPP doesn't even scratch the surface of the Czars budget. Soros either. Let alone the other bogus legislations and their side effects. Censorship bills, secret searches, no knock entries, snoop dogs, hemp statistics, plea bargain forced treatment, urine testing fortunes, gutter science, any reason arrests, mandatory minimum, three strikes, anonymous tip warrants, inferred, tax shelters and undocumented government expense reports. Media coverage scripted, movies and documentaries getting kickback, school books censored and what Libraries carry determined by Reefer Madness profiteers. Missing the point that its been so one sided for so long, just a little bit of truth seeping in was enough to pass the legislation. And please witness who is always in the front of the line to whine, the bloated budget DEAth mongers.
Peace, Love and Liberty or the Merchants of DEAth
DdC

UNIVERSAL SOLDIERS by Buffy Sainte-Marie
http://www.creative-native.com/lyrics/univelyr.htm



U.S. law enforcement spends $7.5 to $10 billion annually enforcing marijuana laws.
According to the FBI, 720,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges in 2001.
Keith Stroup, (NORML) http://www.norml.org

In 2000, there were 1,579,566 drug arrests in the US.
Of those, 46.5 percent -- 734,497 arrests -- were for marijuana.
There were 646,042 arrests for simple possession of marijuana in 2000.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org

Slave Labor Means Big Bucks For U.S. Corporations
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I2A023806
UNICORE
http://www.unicor.gov

Hemp, Hemp, Hooray? No Way, Says DEA
http://makeashorterlink.com/?S200461B6

REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/Inhemp/7relhemp.htm

"How can we re-imagine the world? How can we begin to dream of a world in which there is no hunger, a world in which there are no homeless people? How can we start dreaming of a place in which kids do not have to be put aside and forgotten and attacked? How do we dream this? The answer is within the dream. If you can imagine another world, you are already beginning to build towards it."
-- Luis Rodriguez on People's Tribune Radio



Congress Recommends $145 Million For Drug Office
http://makeashorterlink.com/?I3FF320B6

Blindness of the Prohibitionists Paradigm
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H581251B6

"Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship... the Constitution of this Republic should make special provision for medical freedom as well as religious freedom."
- Benjamin Rush M.D.



Steppenwolf, "Don't Step on the Grass, Sam"

"You waste my coin Sam, all you can
To jail my fellow man
For smoking all the noble weed
You need much more than him
You've been telling lies so long
Some believe they're true
So they close their eyes to things
You have no right to do"

Istook the Constitution and set it on fire
http://makeashorterlink.com/?U2D4222D6

Harsh Souder Drug Bill Coming Soon To Congress
http://makeashorterlink.com/?E280651B6

Bush Cabal Hides Patriot II Police State in HR2417
http://makeashorterlink.com/?M6E5220E6

Astonishingly, Walters claims that the 1999 Institute of Medicine report didn't urge the government to allow seriously ill people legal access to medical marijuana on a case-by-case basis. What the institute did say about medical use of marijuana by AIDS and cancer patients was "nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting, and all can be mitigated by marijuana." Maybe these experts were duped. Maybe John Walters, unbeknown to us, has medical expertise beyond that of the world's leading physicians and researchers. Or maybe he's lying in a desperate attempt to save a collapsing policy.
BRUCE MIRKEN M P P

[DdC]

Marijuana Ticketing Increases By Joe Meyer
CN Source: Columbia Missourian March 14, 2005
Although Columbia police officers have made plain their disapproval of the city’s new marijuana ordinance, they are enforcing the law with zeal, and the numbers show it. Columbia police have ticketed more people per month for misdemeanor possession of marijuana since voters approved Proposition 2 in November, but most are not being prosecuted. First-time offenders are given a second chance as part of the municipal court’s marijuana deferral program.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20356.shtml

If cops are this afraid of a joint, how will they ever fight terrorists? DdC



RAC...KET...EERING
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/message.shtml?1x36121

National Review: AN END TO Marijuana Prohibition
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/thd7x4795.shtml

Perjury everywhere? By William Buckley
http://makeashorterlink.com/?C33723D28

Lost political causes By William Buckley
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/wfbuckley/wfb000325.shtml

Write to William Buckley at Universal Press Syndicate:
4520 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. 64111.

The Police State Cometh by Ron Paul
http://freedompage.home.mindspring.com/police_s.htm



The war on drugs corrupts our police
For example, in 1995, six Philadelphia police officers pleaded guilty to charges of planting illegal drugs on suspects, the theft of more than $100,000 and the falsification of reports. The investigations into the officers actions have led to the release of hundreds of defendants whose convictions were overturned by the appeal courts. Also in 1995, two other officers from Philadelphia received prison sentences of five to 10 years for framing young men. Since 1993, the city of Philadelphia has paid out approximately $27 million in more than 230 lawsuits alleging police misconduct.
http://taxit.org/drug_war1.htm

America's Plague of Bad Cops
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn8.htm

Cops on the Dole
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn7.htm

Cop's View of the Drug War
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn9.htm

Has the Drug War Created an Officer Liar's Club?
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn6.htm

Code of Silence Must Come to an End
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn11.htm

Bonus Payment To Informant Draws Criticism
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread9855.shtml

White-Out
A book by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. tells the whole story from 1944 until the present of CIA complicity in the trade of illegal narcotics. The book also chastises the mainstream press for its shameful blindness to the problem.



The items posted here describe the growing disillusionment with the War on Drugs in the law enforcement community, the growing support for reform, and some of the ways in which the Drug War corrupts police forces and encourages a war mentality that is at odds with a police officer's intended role as an officer of the peace.
http://www.drcnet.org/cops

The Joseph McNamara Collection
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcntoc.htm

Stop the War - A Former Police Chiefs Plea to the New Drug Czar
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn1.htm

Drug Peace
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn18.html

cops against the drug war
http://www.drcnet.org/cops/question.html

police chiefs question merit of drug policy
http://www.drcnet.org/guide1-96/police.html



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November http://www.november.org
(FAMM Foundation) http://www.famm.org
Human Rights and the WoD http://www.hr95.org

Conservative Addiction Good, Liberal Addiction Bad!
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Bushît Hypocrisy & Double Standards
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Defrauding America
http://www.defraudingamerica.com

U.S. prison population largest in world The Baltimore Sun
With a record-setting 2 million people now locked up in American jails and prisons, the United States has overtaken Russia and has a higher percentage of its citizens behind bars than any other country.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P31523E28

The Real Price of Prisons
http://www.motherjones.com/prisons
Relax Your Muscles as Much as Possible
http://makeashorterlink.com/?E1CC63B28



MAKING THE WALLS TRANSPARENT
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Journey for Justice
http://www.journeyforjustice.org
"We call it a war on drugs, but it's actually a war against our own citizens. Not only does treatment work, whereas incarceration does not, it's also less expensive. It's fiscally much more responsible to put our money in something that works, instead of continuing to put our money into this failed drug war that shows no sign of working." - Lisa Lane, Coalition of Compassionate Drug Policy Reform, in The Savannah Morning News (GA), Mon, Feb17 2003

Florida's Journey for Justice
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/1592.html

I Lost My Freedom and Can't Find It Anywhere! By Kay Lee
I am gambling with a justice system that has no wisdom or grace to judge me. I am living in a nation with laws that could steal my family's stuff and put me in jail with no guilt; dealing with mentalities that clamor to make vicious or frightened animals out of humans the laws have captured.
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread5606.shtml

Over 2 MILLION prisoners are depending on us to let our fellow Americans know the many wrongs being done in their name. We need NATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE. This can only be accomplished by YOUR participation in showing up on July 15th. We need you! Can we (and your loved ones) count on your support? Want more information? E-mail us prup2000@hotmail.com
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