Supreme Court rules feds may prosecute sick people who smoke pot on doctor's orders

[Hardrock69]

If the Federal Government wants to do it right, they need to either a) legalize marijuana or b) make alcohol & tobacco illegal.

There can be no middle ground without appearing to be a pack of idiots.

There has not been a single case of a human dying from marijuana use in the recorded history of man.

Yet in 2004, an estimated 16654 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes.;

That is not counting those who died because they were drunk and did something stupid like play chicken with a freight train, or were the shooting victim of someone ELSE who was drunk.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 440,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, each year. This estimate includes 35,000 deaths from secondhand smoke exposure.

So you can reasonably assume 500,000 people die each year from alcohol or tobacco, and NOBODY dies from the use of Marijuana, yet Mary Jane is illegal and tobacco and alchol are not.


BY KEEPING THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE, OUR CONGRESS IS GUILTY OF MURDER!!!

We already know the Bush administration condones murder on a large scale (9/11, Iraq War, Vietnam, etc.) but nobody bothers to think about health related issues.

BY NOT MAKING ALCOHOL & TOBACCO ILLEGAL, THE GOVERNMENT IS ALSO GUILTY OF CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER. THEY (meaning Congress) are not outlawing those things which are harmful to humans (why the fuck are seat-belt laws becoming mandatory? They save lives, right?).

Since more than ONE member of Congress are guilty of negligence in this aspect, that makes it a conspiracy. And it only follows that if they are unwilling to make these illegal, they ARE willing for people to die.

CONGRESS WANTS 500,000 PEOPLE PER YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES TO DIE, AND ARE ACTIVELY PREVENTING ANY LAWS THAT WOULD SAVE THOSE LIVES!!!!

IF THAT IS NOT CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER, WHAT IS?

[FORD]

Tobacco companies are one of the largest funders of the Republican party. Especially those fucking Neanderthals from the Southern States.

[FORD]

[Warham]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Prosecutions Unlikely of Medical Pot Users

By MARK SHERMAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; 10:23 AM



WASHINGTON -- Anyone who lights up a joint for medicinal purposes isn't likely to be pursued by federal authorities, despite a Supreme Court ruling that these marijuana users could face federal charges, people on both sides of the issue say.

In a 6-3 decision, the court on Monday said those who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, overriding medical marijuana statutes in 10 states.

While the justices expressed sympathy for two seriously ill California women who brought the case, the majority agreed that federal agents may arrest even sick people who use the drug as well as the people who grow pot for them.

The ruling could be an early test of the compassion Attorney General Alberto Gonzales promised to bring to the Justice Department following the tenure of John Ashcroft.

Gonzales and his aides were silent on the ruling Monday, but several Bush administration officials said individual users have little reason to worry. "We have never targeted the sick and dying, but rather criminals engaged in drug trafficking," Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Bill Grant said.

Yet Ashcroft's Justice Department moved aggressively following the Supreme Court's first decision against medical marijuana in 2001, seizing individuals' marijuana and raiding their suppliers.

The lawsuit that led to Monday's ruling, in fact, resulted from a raid by DEA agents and local sheriff's deputies on a garden near Oroville, Calif., where Diane Monson was cultivating six pot plants.

"I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," said Monson, an accountant who has degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants.

Javier Pena, the DEA agent in charge of the San Francisco field division, said Monday his agency took part in the raid only at the request of local authorities.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Monday that "people shouldn't panic ... there aren't going to be many changes."

Local and state officers handle nearly all marijuana prosecutions and must still follow any state laws that protect patients.

The ruling does not strike down California's law, or similar ones in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. However, it may hurt efforts to pass laws in other states because the federal government's prosecution authority trumps states' wishes.

It was unclear whether any medical marijuana users ever have been arrested by federal agents. They typically are involved only when the quantities are substantial.

Tom Riley, spokesman for the White House drug policy office, said federal prisoners convicted of marijuana possession had on average more than 100 pounds.

Growers of large amounts of medical marijuana and people who are outspoken in their use of it could face heightened scrutiny.

"From an enforcement standpoint, the federal government is not going to be crashing into people's homes trying to determine what type of medicine they're taking," said Asa Hutchinson, a former DEA administrator. "They have historically concentrated on suppliers and people who flaunt the law. There should not be any change from that circumstance."

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML, which favors legalization of marijuana, said the benchmark for federal intervention has been 50 plants.

But he said the larger point is that the ruling could stymie efforts in other states to pass laws allowing for the use of medical marijuana.

The Bush administration, like the Clinton White House before it, has taken a hard stand against state medical marijuana laws, arguing that such statutes could undermine the fight against illegal drugs. John Walters, director of national drug control policy, defended the government's ban. "Science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective," he said.

St. Pierre said the decision points up a large difference between the administration and the public.

"The disconnect is so wide here," St. Pierre said. "In no circumstance where voters have the opportunity to weigh in have they said no to medical marijuana."

Justice John Paul Stevens, an 85-year-old cancer survivor, said the Constitution allows federal regulation of homegrown marijuana as interstate commerce. But he noted the court was not passing judgment on the potential medical benefits of marijuana.

And Congress could change federal law if it desires, Stevens said, although that is not considered likely.

The case is Gonzales v. Raich, 03-1454.

Link

Finally, a sensible voice.

[hollywood5150]

Oh.........I wont get into this one....................everytime I put something on here even remotely political.......and

post something even remotely intellectual in favor of those opposing,

instead of having an adult response all i get is personal attacks....

RedBallJets is my witness..........SO I"LL MOVE TO ANOTHER FUCKING THREAD......

and have friendly exchanges of ideas..........th eway we are supposed to

[FORD]

yes...most poepel yuisually tipe thier......"remoetly intilleckshual" posts..........just like this one.....and then tipe luv notez back n fourth to their littel girlfrind blue ball jets....right in the thred instaed of using the PMS sistem.

[bobgnote]

POT is a suppressed raw material for 25K products, THAT'S WHY IT'S ILLEGAL

Jack Herer's sketchy Emperor Wears No Clothes bestseller claims hemp can make 25,000 products.

The most significant are fine biodiesel for modern engines and for all CO2-neutral energy applications, many. We SHOULD have had hemp alcohol and castor oil manufactured from California farms, for the last 110 years, no thanks to pigs, the Pope, any of their anal pals. For the last 20, we should have had good genetically engineered biodiesel.

NOT. The reason for this latest Supremes decision is nobody in the US can get past coruption. If I were a LAWYER, I wouldn't be here writing to you guys, thinking maybe some corporate rockers are smart enough to admit their progression of fraud cannot work forever. YOU don't get anymore CVH, and now, the US can take your POT if it wants.

We don't get hemp biodiesel because the oil, nuke, and pig folks are down with spinning medical marijuana media, all seeking no case in fact, churning a BURN case to the US Supreme Court, to suppress all facts of 25K lightly processed products, particularly hemp biodiesel, which makes US CO2-neutral and energy independent in the US, and lets California propose to raise its credit, 50th of 50 states.

Schwarzy wants gas-cooled nukes to make H2, and you can put H2 right through your skin, and kill yourself with a bubble, never mind how it blew up that Hindenburg all to crap and it can do that again.

I know about cruise missiles almost on the way, that make nukes a disaster, already, and more would be worse. INCOMING ALERT! Don't build more domestic nuclear plants. Without these facts and those of US obstruction of hemp as energy source, there was no case for fraud by the USA, which is at fraud severally and participates in a false controversy with pot growers, yet persists.

The US won't get EVERYBODY right away, they'll just keep us under surveillance and steal whatever is worth anything, from whomever. If they try to fund big raids NOW, I doubt the republic will last to 2020. They don't have funding infrastructure for the drug war, which feeds the denial by the idiot public, that pot is anything BUT a drug. But the public can't grasp funding basics, and the US gets to keep at us for their lack of any understanding to be put to any use. Vote for WHAT?

Most folks are too stoned to do accounting homework, much less smoke a joint and figure out a fraud. The asshole pot growers KNEW or should have known they could not petition THAT lord with the prayer they used. They wanted to make MONEY, like the corporate copouts you guys listen to, and they played off the big picture.

Anybody do motions in DC?

[hollywood5150]

BobGnote has my vote

[DLR'sCock]

Originally posted by Dr. Love
Let me know when you've come off the high horse and decided to walk amongst the common man again.

no, people usually can make me sick internally, but it usually never surfaces...alas you are right and I should just let the natural order of the self centered, self loving, and myopic view of the ones who's only purpose is of their selves and their kind carry on....



the world turns...

horse trots off into the sunset, and I walk....

[DLR'sCock]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Prosecutions Unlikely of Medical Pot Users

By MARK SHERMAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; 10:23 AM



WASHINGTON -- Anyone who lights up a joint for medicinal purposes isn't likely to be pursued by federal authorities, despite a Supreme Court ruling that these marijuana users could face federal charges, people on both sides of the issue say.

In a 6-3 decision, the court on Monday said those who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, overriding medical marijuana statutes in 10 states.

While the justices expressed sympathy for two seriously ill California women who brought the case, the majority agreed that federal agents may arrest even sick people who use the drug as well as the people who grow pot for them.

The ruling could be an early test of the compassion Attorney General Alberto Gonzales promised to bring to the Justice Department following the tenure of John Ashcroft.

Gonzales and his aides were silent on the ruling Monday, but several Bush administration officials said individual users have little reason to worry. "We have never targeted the sick and dying, but rather criminals engaged in drug trafficking," Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Bill Grant said.

Yet Ashcroft's Justice Department moved aggressively following the Supreme Court's first decision against medical marijuana in 2001, seizing individuals' marijuana and raiding their suppliers.

The lawsuit that led to Monday's ruling, in fact, resulted from a raid by DEA agents and local sheriff's deputies on a garden near Oroville, Calif., where Diane Monson was cultivating six pot plants.

"I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," said Monson, an accountant who has degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants.

Javier Pena, the DEA agent in charge of the San Francisco field division, said Monday his agency took part in the raid only at the request of local authorities.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Monday that "people shouldn't panic ... there aren't going to be many changes."

Local and state officers handle nearly all marijuana prosecutions and must still follow any state laws that protect patients.

The ruling does not strike down California's law, or similar ones in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. However, it may hurt efforts to pass laws in other states because the federal government's prosecution authority trumps states' wishes.

It was unclear whether any medical marijuana users ever have been arrested by federal agents. They typically are involved only when the quantities are substantial.

Tom Riley, spokesman for the White House drug policy office, said federal prisoners convicted of marijuana possession had on average more than 100 pounds.

Growers of large amounts of medical marijuana and people who are outspoken in their use of it could face heightened scrutiny.

"From an enforcement standpoint, the federal government is not going to be crashing into people's homes trying to determine what type of medicine they're taking," said Asa Hutchinson, a former DEA administrator. "They have historically concentrated on suppliers and people who flaunt the law. There should not be any change from that circumstance."

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML, which favors legalization of marijuana, said the benchmark for federal intervention has been 50 plants.

But he said the larger point is that the ruling could stymie efforts in other states to pass laws allowing for the use of medical marijuana.

The Bush administration, like the Clinton White House before it, has taken a hard stand against state medical marijuana laws, arguing that such statutes could undermine the fight against illegal drugs. John Walters, director of national drug control policy, defended the government's ban. "Science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective," he said.

St. Pierre said the decision points up a large difference between the administration and the public.

"The disconnect is so wide here," St. Pierre said. "In no circumstance where voters have the opportunity to weigh in have they said no to medical marijuana."

Justice John Paul Stevens, an 85-year-old cancer survivor, said the Constitution allows federal regulation of homegrown marijuana as interstate commerce. But he noted the court was not passing judgment on the potential medical benefits of marijuana.

And Congress could change federal law if it desires, Stevens said, although that is not considered likely.

The case is Gonzales v. Raich, 03-1454.

Link

we will see...

[DLR'sCock]

One more thing, according to the talking heads across the board that I have heard so far, most polls indicate that americans DO SUPPORT the medically ill to be able to use POT if their Doctor precribes it for them as a treatment....

[Hardrock69]

But since when has the gummint actually listened to what The People want?"

[Warham]

The courts don't listen to the people when they vote against gay marriage, so why should they stop there?

[DLR'sCock]

Re: POT is a suppressed raw material for 25K products, THAT'S WHY IT'S ILLEGAL

Originally posted by bobgnote
Jack Herer's sketchy Emperor Wears No Clothes bestseller claims hemp can make 25,000 products.

The most significant are fine biodiesel for modern engines and for all CO2-neutral energy applications, many. We SHOULD have had hemp alcohol and castor oil manufactured from California farms, for the last 110 years, no thanks to pigs, the Pope, any of their anal pals. For the last 20, we should have had good genetically engineered biodiesel.

NOT. The reason for this latest Supremes decision is nobody in the US can get past coruption. If I were a LAWYER, I wouldn't be here writing to you guys, thinking maybe some corporate rockers are smart enough to admit their progression of fraud cannot work forever. YOU don't get anymore CVH, and now, the US can take your POT if it wants.

We don't get hemp biodiesel because the oil, nuke, and pig folks are down with spinning medical marijuana media, all seeking no case in fact, churning a BURN case to the US Supreme Court, to suppress all facts of 25K lightly processed products, particularly hemp biodiesel, which makes US CO2-neutral and energy independent in the US, and lets California propose to raise its credit, 50th of 50 states.

Schwarzy wants gas-cooled nukes to make H2, and you can put H2 right through your skin, and kill yourself with a bubble, never mind how it blew up that Hindenburg all to crap and it can do that again.

I know about cruise missiles almost on the way, that make nukes a disaster, already, and more would be worse. INCOMING ALERT! Don't build more domestic nuclear plants. Without these facts and those of US obstruction of hemp as energy source, there was no case for fraud by the USA, which is at fraud severally and participates in a false controversy with pot growers, yet persists.

The US won't get EVERYBODY right away, they'll just keep us under surveillance and steal whatever is worth anything, from whomever. If they try to fund big raids NOW, I doubt the republic will last to 2020. They don't have funding infrastructure for the drug war, which feeds the denial by the idiot public, that pot is anything BUT a drug. But the public can't grasp funding basics, and the US gets to keep at us for their lack of any understanding to be put to any use. Vote for WHAT?

Most folks are too stoned to do accounting homework, much less smoke a joint and figure out a fraud. The asshole pot growers KNEW or should have known they could not petition THAT lord with the prayer they used. They wanted to make MONEY, like the corporate copouts you guys listen to, and they played off the big picture.

Anybody do motions in DC?

Oh yeah, this is true and the real reason. I also thought that the reason Hemp and MJ became illegal back in the 30's was becasue of it's threat to Oil, because it can be used as a fuel...

Didn't these guys build a car a few years ago that ran on hemp? They drove it all over the country....

[bobgnote]

Team Woody Harrelson AND another

Long about 2002, actor Woody Harrelson got a biodiesel tour. Maybe some of it is still at his VoiceYourself Forum site.

He and the others who did this have kept their agendas narrowly focused, to hide how hemp can be made into 25,000 lightly processed products, which turns around California's economy and ends dependence on foreign oil AND imports, anytime.

Enzyme reduction can be used to make any biomass into alcohols, particularly hemp. Don't use the superfood oil for fuel, since I am told CASTOR OIL is more economical, variously, including it needs less or no heat to mix well with the alcohol.

Nitriles have been used in rubber to prevent natural fuels usage. Harleys in the 70s started to lose gaskets when the ethanol added to gasoline dissolved them.

But hey, use fine biodiesel in engines, we get to use two-strokes and diesels, and stay clean and CO2-neutral, off the bat. HEMP always was the way to get that, but the media obstructs justice, all the way back to whenever drug or energy hearings were held in Congress, and they won't let ME in there with any of this, not since 1978 when President Carter got on TV blabbing about since there's methanol (wood alky) maybe it's time 'we' relegalized marijuana, no further statements or clarification for the Ayatollah OR TMI fans.

Carter sucked it all back in his peanut-chugging hole and tweaked his foundation money, and the media bogarded this, ever since! This demonstration of non-character is a real big way Republicans get in there and stay in office.