A small victory for those fighting to legalize marijuana - a new survey suggests doctors are actually more supportive of the drug than the average consumer.

According to the survey, 62 percent of doctors said medical marijuana can be helpful in treating certain medical issues while only 52 percent of consumers said the same.

"It has a whole host of therapeutic indications. I mentioned cancer patients, i mentioned AIDS patients. It's useful for glaucoma. It has anti-inflammatory properties ... It's been used for hundreds of years for a variety of aliments." (Via CBS) According to HealthDay News, "Support for medical marijuana was highest among cancer specialists and blood disorder specialists. For those two groups, 82 percent said marijuana can provide real benefits to patients." Read more trending stories The WebMD survey looked at answers from more than 1,500 doctors and almost 3,000 consumers. However, don't count on the survey's findings having much bearing on whether states will actually legalize pot. The site explains that's because, "Solid data on marijuana's health benefits are lacking. Research has been limited because the federal government has designated marijuana as a 'Schedule I' substance, a designation used for the most dangerous drugs having 'no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse.'"

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When the 2014 General Assembly session began 10 short weeks ago, the odds of a medical cannabis bill passing this year would have been longer than having a perfect March Madness bracket in Vegas because no one was crazy enough to take that bet.

But by the time the last day of the legislative session arrived, the issue of legalizing cannabidiol oil in Georgia to help children with seizure disorders had picked up such momentum and popularity that its passage seemed almost a certainty. But, despite the overwhelming support, the effort failed on the last night. Many people have asked me what in the heck happened.

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PUEBLO WEST, Colo. - It's 9 a.m. on a weekday, and I'm at the Marisol Therapeutics pot shop. This is serious business. Security is tight. ID checks are frequent. Merchandise is strictly regulated, labeled, wrapped and controlled. The store is clean, bright and safe. The staffers are courteous and professional. Customers of all ages are here.

There's a middle-aged woman at the counter nearby who could be your school librarian. On the opposite end of the dispensary, a slender young soldier in a wheelchair with close-cropped hair, dressed in his fatigues, consults with a clerk. There's a gregarious cowboy and an inquisitive pair of baby boomers looking at edibles. A dude in a hoodie walks in with his backpack.

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On March 20, sick children, desperate parents and passionate advocates left the state Capitol disappointed. They received the unfortunate news that House Bill 885, more commonly known as the medicinal marijuana bill, failed to pass in the Senate because of a lack of compromise between the House and the Senate.

HB 885 would have allowed patients suffering from glaucoma, cancer and seizures to have access to potentially life-saving forms of medicinal marijuana. If passed, the bill could have provided thousands with the medication that they need in order to live a life free of seizures, free of pain and free of suffering. Unfortunately for these individuals, Sen. Renee Unterman destined HB 885 for failure because of her own political agenda.

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"Today's marijuana is 300 percent to 800 percent more potent than the pot of yesteryear." Heidi Heilman in an op-ed piece March 13 in The Providence (R.I.) Journal

In the debate over whether marijuana should be legalized, one issue is the question of potency. Critics of legalization say the street drug now available for sale is not the marijuana that a lot of baby boomers and Generation Xers have used.

One of them, Heidi Heilman, the director of New England field development for Smart Approaches to Marijuana and president of the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance, raised the issue March 13 in an op-ed in The Providence Journal in Rhode Island.

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Among the casualties of a failed war on drugs that has spanned more than three decades are bloated prisons that cost the nation nearly $90 billion a year. With only 5 percent of the world's population, the United States holds 25 percent of its prisoners; more than 2 million people are locked up in this country.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which sets penalty guidelines for federal judges, is considering changes that would shorten average sentences for nonviolent drug offenders by roughly one year - to 51 months from 63 months. That would result in a 17 percent sentence reduction for the average offender.

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A former Newton County sheriff 's deputy who prosecutors said sold marijuana from his marked patrol vehicle while in uniform has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing a firearm during a drug transaction.

According to United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, Darrell Mathis sold various quantities of marijuana to a confidential source who was working with the FBI as well as to an undercover FBI agent from May to September 2013.

Mathis, 41, of Lithonia, was arrested on Sept. 19 when he met with the undercover FBI agent while in possession of one pound of marijuana. He was convicted on Dec. 6 after entering a guilty plea.

"Mathis abandoned his oath as a deputy sheriff, and chose the life of a drug dealer," Yates said. "His decision to violate the law also violated the trust the public places in law enforcement."

[end]

When the 2014 General Assembly session began 10 short weeks ago, the odds of a medical cannabis bill passing this year would have been longer than having a perfect March Madness bracket in Vegas, because no one was crazy enough to take that bet. State Rep. Allen Peake with Hunter Klepinger.

But by the last day of the legislative session, the issue of legalizing cannabidiol oil in Georgia to help children with seizure disorders had picked up such momentum and popularity that its passage seemed almost a certainty.

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Finally, Georgia is No. 1. We have what must be the most NRA-friendly gun laws in the country. Combine this with a statutory rejection of the Affordable Care Act; requiring drug testing for SNAP recipients; and refusal to allow medical marijuana to comfort ill children, and our Legislature has really distinguished itself. But don't worry.

Anyone seeing one of our Confederate license tags will understand that they have experienced time travel and landed squarely in the middle of the 19th century. Or they might figure this out from the condition of our crumbling roads and bridges, a consequence of the nation's lowest taxes. Way to go, Georgia.

LLOYD E. FLEMING, DULUTH

[end]

I am one of the many parents pushing for medical cannabis here in Georgia for our children with seizure disorders. Our 8-year-old daughter, Alaina, suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy.

We fought to educate the legislators and the public that this is indeed life-saving medicine, without the side effects of the many FDA-approved drugs our children are forced to take today. We never dreamed that we would succeed in that fight so quickly, and get a bill introduced this session, only to have it come crashing down due to political games played with our sick children.

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During its journey through the General Assembly, a bill that would require drug testing for some applicants for food stamps and welfare generated controversy and drew fierce opposition from Democrats.

Ultimately, though, House Bill 772 was approved on the final day of the legislative session, and has been sent to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature.

It would require people applying for this government assistance to be tested if they raise "reasonable suspicion'' of illegal drug use.

A recent email from a federal official, however, shows that at least the food stamp portion of the bill may run into problems.

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In response to "Bill tying food stamps to drug tests goes to Deal" (News, March 21), one would wish Georgia legislators might one day have to rely on food stamps to feed their families. Fortunes come and go. I say to the legislators: Get closer to the people who may not have had the same advantages that you've had, and perhaps you will better understand the pride-smashing necessity of asking the state to help you pay for groceries. Adding drug tests as a requirement for receiving food stamps would violate the very freedoms this country stands for. Hopefully, Gov. Nathan Deal will not sign. Aren't there matters of education and health care to be studied and considered? It would seem the representatives in the General Assembly do not have enough real work to do.

ELLEN HUNTER ULKEN, PEACHTREE CITY

[end]

I was struck by the photo of state Rep. Rick Jasperse high-fiving another legislator subsequent to the passage of his gun bill on the last day of the session. The bill allows guns in churches. On his website, Jasperse describes himself as a Christian, like many in the General Assembly.

I'm wondering if such elation was showed when bills were defeated allowing the use of medical marijuana for Georgia's sick children and requiring insurance companies to cover children with autism. Or when a bill was passed requiring drug testing for SNAP applicants, the poorest among us.

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LaMarcus Wilkerson's story (Lesser of 3 evils, March 13, 2014) got an arrow-splitting bull's eye exposing cannabis (marijuana) prohibition. Another reason to end cannabis prohibition that doesn't get mentioned is that prohibition increases hard-drug addiction rates.

Government claims heroin is no worse than cannabis and methamphetamine and that cocaine is less harmful by insisting cannabis is a Schedule I substance alongside heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances.

How many citizens tried cannabis and realized it is not nearly as dangerous as claimed and believed other substances must not be either, only to find themselves addicted to hard drugs? Can the message from cannabis prohibitionists be any worse for vulnerable citizens?

Truthfully,

Stan White

[end]

GEORGIANS love to kick Alabama around as a model of backward thinking, and not always good-naturedly either. They had best change their tone, at least regarding matters involving simple human concern for others.

Perhaps it was to avoid embarrassment ( for Georgia), but it is somewhat amazing that little to no mention was made, either during the noisy medical marijuana debate in the recent General Assembly session or after the defeat of this measure to help seizure-plagued children wheeled before TV cameras almost daily during the argument, that the Alabama legislature had just done this very thing - the same week.

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Written in response to the March 22 column by Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis:

Dear Editor of The Calhoun Times, sane or moral argument to continue cannabis prohibition (marijuana) doesn't exist (Weed Legalization Universal? Mar. 22, 2014). Another important reason to end cannabis prohibition that doesn't get is because it increases hard drug addiction rates. It puts citizen who choose to use the relatively safe plant into contact with people who often also sell hard drugs.

Further, government claims heroin is no worse than cannabis and methamphetamine and cocaine is less harmful by insisting cannabis is a Schedule I substance alongside heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances. How many citizens tried cannabis and realized it is not nearly as dangerous as it claimed and believed other substances must not be either only to find themselves addicted to hard drugs? Can the message from cannabis prohibitionists be any worse for vulnerable citizens?

Truthfully,

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado

[end]

Written in response to the March 22 column by Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis:

Dear Editor, the people of Colorado and Washington state are way ahead of the politicians in Washington, D.C. The days when Congress can get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The U.S. has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands where marijuana is legal.

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Athens-Clarke County Mayor Nancy Denson, who made headlines earlier this week by saying she supported decriminalization of possession and use of small quantities of marijuana, has issued a statement to clarify her position.

During a Wednesday debate with local activist Tim Denson - no relation - who is challenging Mayor Denson in the upcoming May 20 nonpartisan mayoral election, the mayor revealed publicly for the first time her stance on decriminalization of marijuana, noting that possession of small quantities for personal shouldn't create a criminal record that follows someone for the rest of their life.

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Failure of medical marijuana bill leaves Hall mother sad, determined

Amendment derails cannabis oil plan despite both houses' backing

In the expiring moments of the 2014 legislative session Thursday, Georgia lawmakers gleefully threw shredded paper in the air, a tradition signifying the end of business.

In the upper gallery of the House, however, there was a much different show of raw emotion.

Oakwood mother Sarah Caruso was one of several Georgia parents distraught after a law that would have allowed access to medical marijuana failed to be brought for a House vote.

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Local family suffers after medical marijuana caught in 'political crossfire'

Five-month-old Kason Jiles of Lithia Springs has a medical file more than 600 pages thick and takes seven medications for a seizure disorder.

Kason's dad Jonathan watched the final hours of the Georgia Legislature on Thursday night on his computer, frustrated that a bill that could have helped his son and had so much support fell just short.

House Bill 885, which would have legalized cannabis oil, a nonsmokable derivative of marijuana, had overwhelming support in the House and Senate. But in the Legislature's final days, Sen. Renee Untermann (R-Buford) tried to attach a provision that would have expanded autism coverage. Untermann's attachment didn't fly in the House.

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