Pubdate: Mon, 30 Nov 2009
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Column: Plain Talk
Copyright: 2009 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://host.madison.com/ct/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author: Dave Zweifel
Note: Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times.
Referenced: The Assembly bill http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/AB-554.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Gary+Storck
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

TIME TO END THE WAR ON POT - PERIOD

Momentum is building to legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin. 
State Rep. Mark Pocan, a Madison Democrat, and state Sen. Jon 
Erpenbach, a Waunakee Democrat, have authored a bill that would make 
it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana as a pain reliever for 
various injuries or illnesses. Gov. Jim Doyle has said he would sign 
the bill into law.

The time for Wisconsin to become the 15th state to allow patients to 
use pot to make their lives a bit more comfortable is long past due. 
My own father, who was suffering mightily from the pains of 
pancreatic cancer, found some relief from marijuana I was able to 
illegally purchase for him in the last weeks of his life.

That was more than 30 years ago and politicians still balk at 
allowing sick people the relief that marijuana can provide some of 
them. The Bush administration had a policy to arrest and prosecute 
folks using medical marijuana even in the states that have legalized 
it. Fortunately, the Obama administration has said it will cease doing that.

Madison's Gary Storck, who has been pushing for decades to get the 
Legislature to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, put it 
bluntly the other day: "We're not criminals, we're just trying to get 
on with our lives."

Storck says he has been using marijuana since 1972 to treat his 
glaucoma and arthritis.

In the latest edition of the Hightower Lowdown, editor Jim Hightower, 
the Texas gadfly, proclaimed that America's drug war is doing far 
more harm than marijuana itself ever will. He suggests that the 
nation would be better off legalizing all marijuana use.

Hightower insists that even the most conservative estimates say the 
outlay from taxpayers now tops $10 billion a year in direct spending 
just to catch, prosecute and incarcerate marijuana users and sellers. 
And that doesn't include the costs of militarizing the border with 
Mexico to stop pot imports. Even the Wisconsin Department of Natural 
Resources this year asked deer hunters to look for pot growing in the 
woods so, presumably, wardens could go out and nab some farmers.

Some 41,000 Americans are in federal or state prisons right now on 
marijuana charges and that doesn't count the thousands more in city 
and county jails.

Plus thousands of law enforcement people are diverted from serious 
crimes to pursue someone smoking pot. That includes agents from the 
FBI, the Secret Service, Customs, and the Drug Enforcement Agency. 
Yet Congress refuses to change the long-outdated laws that cover the 
use of marijuana.

Hopefully, the Wisconsin Legislature will act quickly to legalize 
medical marijuana at the very least. Meanwhile the time has come for 
Congress to end the war on pot - period. We've got far better uses 
for all the money and resources.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake