Would Puna Community support a Medical Cannabis Di

[Kapohocat]

Just legalize it like alcohol - same restrictions - and be done with it. There are plenty of people who self medicate already.

I dont know if the DEA gets it: if everyone can grow it and it isnt illegal than the drug cartels make no money, and have no reason to murder to protect their assets.

If weed was available at maybe $25/oz, it isn't any more profitable than growing wheat.

[Orchidlandguy]

I have learned more from this one thread from LeeE than anything I have read about this before. Well done LeeEthanks for the great info

[PaulW]

"Holland allowed dispensaries for all adults thirty years ago. Works well to this day, of course."

Holland legalized medical marijuana 8 years ago. Because it is freely available in "coffeeshops", doctors only prescribe it to people who actually need it. A very different situation than California. The number of coffeeshops is ever decreasing in Holland due to more and more restrictions so I don't know if that can be regarded as "working well".

Many of the proponents of medical marijuana couldn't care less about it being used to alleviate pain. They just want to get high and don't care if their attitude leads to opposition to the bill, and possible defeat.

[LeeE]

Orchidlandguy,

Mahalo! Your kind words have made my day more than once. Mahalo, brah.



Aloha,
Lee
http://members.cruzio.com/~lionel/event

[LeeE]

PaulW,

"Dutch coffee shops celebrate thirty year anniversary
By Pete Brady - Friday, August 16 2002

Amsterdam

Three decades ago, Wernard Bruining was a bit younger, a bit more adventurous than he is now.People call him "the father of the marijuana coffee shops." According to the Dutch government, there are approximately 850 of Wernard's "babies" officially operating in Holland, each one licensed to dispense marijuana and hashish.

Back in the day, Wernard and a group of friends ran what was then called a "tea house." In the US during the early 20th century the word "tea" was slang for marijuana.

Wernard's Amsterdam tea house, which he named Mellow Yellow, was more a social club than a stoner palace....People smoked it while discussing radical politics, communes, the Vietnam War, class warfare, saving the earth.

Holland has never been the kind of country that treats pot people like real criminals. The Dutch recognize that crimes are activities in which one person harms another person or that person's property-things like rape, murder, burglary, fraud.

Wernard's Mellow Yellow was pretty much the only real pot shop in town until around 1975, when the now-famous Bulldog and Rusland shops came on line.

With a newly-elected Dutch government making ugly noises about closing coffee shops, and the European Union trying to figure out if it will adopt or reject Holland's approach, Wernard admits to being a little nervous about the future of the experiment that he helped start so many years ago.

He urges smokers to use marijuana intelligently, to pay attention to reality, and to stand up for their rights. He and Van Schaik are conducting a series of formal classes that teach how to run classy cannabis shops, and he wants marijuana users to be classy too...."

The only progressive issue making significant progress is the anti- cannabis prohibition reform movement, imho. MPP, NORMl, mapinc.org and others follow related events and do a great job bringing the big picture to the public.

Richard Cowan likes to attribute the Prohibition laws to, "bad journalism". He's right.

The internet has changed that and people are getting better quality information, as a result.

I appreciate your comments, but Mr. Cowan's right about this. btw, kudos to Rob for allowing discussion of such a broad topic on Punaweb. It may not be strictly local, but it's a popular topic here in our little corner of the world

Aloha,
Lee
http://members.cruzio.com/~lionel/event

[LeeE]

Forgot to include this. No, that's not why!**S**

Pubdate: Friday, August 16 2002

Aloha,
Lee
http://members.cruzio.com/~lionel/event

[PaulW]

This thread is about SB 1458, so it is Hawaii-related. I mentioned Holland only because you did, by falsely claiming that they have had "dispensaries" for 30 years. It's not even been 8 years and the situation there is completely different.

[LeeE]

PaulW,

Last comment on Holland, (I hope).

The history and current situation there is much more complex than as described. The far right party, Pim Fortun, is largely driving what you mention.

The coffee shops first provided to patients at half off retail. Last I checked, it's available for free as part of the Dutch health care system and their government is researching clinical quality production methods. We had a Dutch scientist visiting here a while back who spoke about it. He's involved in the research, so I assume he knows what he's talking about.


Aloha,
Lee
http://members.cruzio.com/~lionel/event

[Bob Orts]

quote:

---

Originally posted by PaulW

Whether cannabis is good or bad is not the issue here. "Medical Marijuana" is a codeword for "let's create a loophole so people can thumb their nose at the law". If it really was only for people in need of pain-killing medication, I would be in favor. Is Hawaii intending to do it differently than California?

---

There are three two groups of people at play in this issue.

You have the "legitimate medical" group. These are medical professionals, patients, law enforcement, politicians, and citizens who have recognized the legitimate medical benefits for legitimate medical purposes of cannabis. There is enough verifiable and authoritative research to support cannabis use in a pure medical setting.

The second group is the "posers". These are the people who are in it to smoke pot but hijack the medical train to reach their goal of smoking pot just to smoke pot. They are the ones who create these loopholes or exploit legitimate medical needs for strictly personal use.

The third is the group that simple wants marijuana legal and will just step into the fray with their agenda even if it means harming the legitimate medical use. The general philosophy is if they don’t acre about people who are suffering and can benefit with medical use, they want to get stoned and that’s all they care about.

In the real world of politics and law enforcement, even those who fully support legitimate medical marijuana, can't help but know the other two groups exist. Since the posers are so cleaver is exploiting medical marijuana laws, nobody wants to move forward or support any medical marijuana provisions unless they know for sure the "posers" will be shut out. Since that's very difficult, legitimate medical marijuana can't move forward.

The last group is simple viewed as legalizers so they can be ignored. But they come out in droves with their agenda, and muck up the works. It’s simpler for politicians and law enforcement to simply halt progress and not have to deal with the subject at all.

It is not the politicians, law enforcement, or the people who harm the legitimate advancement of medical marijuana; it's the posers and legalizers that do the most harm.

[LeeE]

Ok, last one.

PaulW, please see above.

Go there and talk with the people who did it, all those years ago. I did. It's well documented.

"Eventually, in 1980 there was a policy of tolerance and the coffee shops were left alone as long as they followed certain rules. They must obtain a license from the local council, they cannot advertise, there is an age limit of 18 and hard drugs must not be sold."

Aloha,
Lee
http://members.cruzio.com/~lionel/event