Grassley slams Justice Department’s medical marijuana decision

Most of the marijuana is coming in by the drug lords because are goverment proscutes against people that use it what happened to freedom legalize it already at least for those who need it in there lives. Making it legal would cut off the drug lords demand in the country and would bring a much needed revenue by taxation in theese hard economic times . I dont see how some of theese bee brained politician think!!!!!

Thank you for making this public knowledge. http://www.soberliving.com

If Sen. Chuck Grassley is that far behind in his thinking and education regarding Medical Marijuana, he's about thirty years behind in his thinking, besides the fact that even in college courses such as journalism teaches that stating Medical Marijuana is a gateway drug is even far more less educated than thirty years and is no more a gateway drug than breathing leads to drunk driving which leads me to seriously worry about the competancy and gives serious concerns as to whether or not he's even maybe into accepting some sort of compensation from the big companies that see this medicine as nothing more than competition. The Senator obviously can't put his research where his mouth is and proves nothing by making such a broad and rediculous statement meant to try and get a few votes from other uneducated and uncompasionate people.

Seriously, as gateway drug? How sixties!! Time for that ol boy to retire!!!

More money for our economy... (Na, we don’t need that because we are doing so well right now)...
Arresting normal people with families, prosecuting them and making them sit in jail with real criminals over a god given plant…(just like Jesus would have done)
Spending state funds to conduct violent raids that cause destruction of property and goods...(Because it is their jobs and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said “it does not support the use of marijuana for medical purposes”. The FDA said it and other agencies with the Health and Human Services Department had "concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States”)
!!!!YEA RIGHT!!!! OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE!

We all know who the real criminals are. It isn't the people using medical marijuana! It is the ones destroying these sick people lives and making them even harder than they already are.
I live in Iowa with my wife who has multiple sclerosis; I suffer from anxiety and severe depression. Under our state law we would be arrested for using medical marijuana and have our kids taken away...for using a god given plant...

Old congressmen die and their constipated opinions die with them.
We're waiting, Chuck Schmuck.

One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights or to Cuba for political prisoners. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to ongoing persecution of hippies, radicals, and non-whites under prosecution of the war on drugs. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.

The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as life is flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. Eve ate the apple, defying Adam’s prohibition, knowing good and evil. Canadian Marc Emery sold seeds that enable American farmers to outcompete cartels with local herb. He’s being extradited to prison, for doing what government can’t do, reduce U.S. demand for Mexican.

Only on the authority of a clause about interstate commerce does the CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnate Al Capone, endanger homeland security, and throw good money after bad. Administration fiscal policy burns tax dollars to root out the number-one cash crop in the land, instead of taxing sales. Society rejected the plague of prohibition, but it mutated. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment. Father, forgive those who make it their business to know not what they do.

Nixon passed the CSA on the assurance that the Schafer Commission would justify criminalizing his enemies, but it didn’t. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research, and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use, period. Drug juries exclude bleeding hearts.

The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership or an act of Congress to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. John Doe’s free exercise of religious liberty may include entheogen sacraments to mediate communion with his maker.

Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.

Common-law must hold that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration.

Gateway drug

This argument is spurious at best. As for cannabis being a gateway drug, there are much better examples out there, such as Ritalin, Caffeine, Beer, Cigarettes, household cleansers and concentrations of solvents (aka 'huffing')

Just getting high (Legitimizing drug use)

Though this will happen with any mind altering substance that is made available to the public via legitimate or illegitimate channels, cannabis' potential for abuse and harm is far less than that of many more readily available drugs and plants on the market. Chances are, ratios of users and abusers will not fundamentally change, and statistics should adjust themselves to account for legitimate users over the long term. Seeking data from countries such as France, Great Britian, the Netherlands, Swizerland and Spain should give much more accurate statistics than those gathered in North America due to longevity of records and the nature of the punitive environment surrounding cannabis in these other nations.

Hispanic Sources and connection to drug violence

Study after study has shown that the violence connected with the cannabis trade stems solely from the fact that it remains illegal. High quality domestic production under loose oversight from state regulatory agencies should eliminate the need for importation and remove the organized crime element from the equation altogether.

Sen Grassley is a gateway drug not marijuana. His refusal to accept scientific and medical facts regarding the use of marijuana, its safety and its incredible therapeutic affects will drive a sane person to drink, or Grassley forbid...use marijuana. The Iowa Board Of Pharmacy has already stated they intend to recommend to the Iowa Legislature that they legalize Medical Marijuana in Iowa in their 2010 session. I think its on www.politics.com but not sure. Their decision was largely based on the scientific evidence presented by doctors and pharmacist's in the first three of a scheduled four hearing attempt throughout Iowa to gather scientific and patient evidence regarding Medical Marijuana. The Board stated they decided to recommend the removal, thus legalization, of mariuana from Schedule I after the first meeting held in Des Moines. Given the fact that marijuana is in both Schedule I and Schedule II of Iowas CSA marijuana would automatically be moved to Schedule II thus making it legal for medical use. However I predict that Medical Marijuana will be legal in Iowa in 2010, I hope if not I'm out of here, and that it will start in Schedule II but end up in a less restrictive Schedule or be removed from Scheduling altogether. Which is the way it should be. Federal legalization of at the least Medical Marijuana i.e. removal of marijuana from Federal Schedule I, would put the control of the Medical Marijuana in the states hands rather than the drug cartels. Patients who live in states where it is illegal are forced to pay inflated prices for questionable medicine while risking arrest, prosecution, imprisonment, loss of benefits and even children. This is not right. If you agree I urge you to tell that to your local politicians. Only by changing the archaic, propaganda based laws we have in place against anything marijuana will we realize true medical freedom. These laws are socially outdated and scientifcally/medically wrong. We want truth not propaganda. Now we have it, the science is out and connot be refuted. "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest, most therapeutically active substances known to man." Francis L Young, DEA Administrative Law Judge, 1988.

The only reasonable thing to do, is to boot the man to the curb.

Do you know that in the THREE Public Hearings with the Iowa Board of Pharmacy medical examiners regarding medical marijuana, the science produced
and the medical professionals who have testified, has more than proved cannabis as a safe and effective medicine ?

Marijuana is not a drug it is a plant. When a man like me is in his 40's using medical marijuana to treat multiple sclerosis, do
you think I am a "gateway-risk" Chuck?

Also regarding your "cartel" theory selling medical marijuana, marijuana grows quite well in Iowa.


ask your senator" show on mediacom 22. phone number to call in is 800-736-8255.

I'm in the quere

6,000 people were murdered by the cartels last year due to the prohibition, many of them were children, police officers and politicians.

The blood of these innocent people are on Senator Grassley's hands. While he sleeps safely in his bed at night innocent people are being butchered by the cartels to protect the illicit profits they make selling marijuana in the U.S.

END the MADNESS! Legalize the commercial production and sale of marijuana to adults, undercut the cartel prices and eliminate their marijuana incomes - this is the ONLY way to end the slaughter of so many innocent people!

Because Senator Grassley *thinks* marijuana's a gateway to harder drug use he's ok with the arrest of 800,000 people a year and with the cartels murdering more than 6,000 people every year!

Because he *thinks* marijuana's harmful he has no problem with cops dying trying to enforce the prohibition and with 7 yr-old kids being shot and burnt to death by the cartels as they work to protect their cash flows from selling marijuana in the U.S.

Well that's NOT good enough! We expect more from our elected officials and Sen. Grassley's position just don't cut it!

Grassley continues to lose my favor. Isn't he pushing the age where he should still remember the consequences of Prohibition?

One would think. Though that WOULD cut into his contributions from the pharma corporations...

When I think of Grassley, that song from The Doobie Brothers flashes thru....
What A Fool Believes

http://www.KrauseForIowa.com

It is unfortunate that a politician with only prejudice and no scientific facts can make decisions and offer opinions that are harmful to others. Medical use of Marijuana (Cannabis) has a very long history that ended in the U.S. when a combination of special interest groups found it useful to make criminals out of their citizens for the personal use of marijuana. For some scientific facts on medical marijuana see/ www.cmcr.ucsd.edu" , www.patchtek.com

It is unfortunate that a politician with only prejudice and no scientific facts can make decisions and offer opinions that are harmful to others. Medical use of Marijuana (Cannabis) has a very long history that ended in the U.S. when a combination of special interest groups found it useful to make criminals out of their fellow citizens for the personal use of marijuana. For some scientific facts on medical marijuana see:
www.cmcr.ucsd.edu
http://www.cannabis-med.org/index.php?lng=en
http://cannabinoidsociety.org/
www.patchtek.com
These are a few places where scientists, physicians and facts can be found instead of the prejudicial opinions of unqualified idiots. Mr Grassley, clear out your desk, you are not qualified to be a member of the U.S. government.

...you may convince us of your theory by citing the great impact prohibition has had on cannabis these past 70 years.
Maybe if you tell Mr. Holder how we started out with a couple of hundred cannabis users in the US to a few hundred million users during the worst most draconian prohibition of all time!

Just show him the positive results of killing people to save them from themselves.

Mr. Grassley, Mr Webster included a name in his big book just for you.

The name: Idiot Boy!

I don't even know WHERE to begin with this asshat. Let him get cancer, and get run through the ringer of the good ole Western Medical system, and then we can talk. Oh and keep in mind that it's us, the taxpayer financing his Medical care. I think I want to scream. Has this man read ANY research post 1990 outside of the US??? Is he living in a cave? Most of the "drug lords"? Most of the violence comes from the Mexican mafia, attempting to gain the upper hand in the multi-BILLION $$ black market. If it was RE-legalized and regulated like alcohol and tobacco, the violence would poof!

Let the Deities note, that Grassley is up for re-election. Please have mercy on us poor citizens of the State of Iowa, and let Bob Krause get elected instead of Grassley. Thank you. Amen. Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Shalom, Om, Omani Padre, May it Be so, May the Force be with you, Ja Rastifari, (any other religions I have missed please take note as well, my plea concerns you too, don't be offended.)

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 10/20/09

In a 3-page memo from the U.S. Department of Justice release on October 19, the Obama Administration has formally announced a new federal medical marijuana policy to respect states’ rights to exempt medical patients from the war on drugs. 13 have already enacted laws protecting medical use of marijuana, and the state of Iowa may be next.

To understand what is going on, one must understand that federal drug law is, and always has been, and unfunded mandate. Because state drug law makes the same activity illegal (possession of marijuana, for example), the unfunded part of the federal drug law is normally taken care of by the states.

states tinker with state drug law, such as legalizing the medical use of marijuana1) to step in and take up the slack; or (2) back off. The Obama Administration has chosen the hands off approach

Federal drug law is actually a contract with the states. The contract requires each of the parties to do their part in upholding the contract. Because the states have the power to amend federal drug law by way of the Administrative Procedures Act, the states have failed to uphold their part of the contract. Of the 13 states that have legalized the medical use of marijuana, not one of them has asked the federal government to remove marijuana from its current classification as a substance with no accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

Here is my testimony from Iowa City Oct 7th 2009

http://www.vimeo.com/6996770


Iowa Board of Pharmacy Hearing on Medical Marijuana

http://vimeo.com/6968195

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XorlUPNQqq8

IOWA STATE BOARD OF PHARMACY FINAL PUBLIC HEARING NOV 4
COUNCIL BLUFF IOWA HARRAH'S CASINO(of all places)

Give it up OLD MAN, science is winning at our HEARINGS against this war on Anslinger pot-bigot dinosaurs like you Greaseley........

btw Chuck, marijuana is not a drug.