State Rep. Jim Neely's bill that would legalize medical marijuana in a smokeless form for Missourians with terminal illnesses has been criticized as too restrictive and narrow.

But the measure could jump-start the push to make Missouri the 30th state to allow medical marijuana.

More than 20 lawmakers, including three Democrats, have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. It passed out of committee this week and awaits consideration in the full House.

The legislation would permit the use of hemp extract for terminally ill patients. The state's current "Right to Try" law allows patients with terminal illnesses to try experimental drugs without approval from the Food and Drug Administration. It doesn't include marijuana.

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Rep. Jim Neely has seen firsthand how a terminal illness like cancer ravages the body.

His own daughter died from cancer three years ago. With a background in health care working as a physician and managing a hospice agency, Neely, R-Cameron, knows the importance of patients receiving comfort.

That's why he's sponsoring a bill that would legalize medical marijuana in a smokeless form for Missourians with terminal illnesses.

"It's for people who are terminal to gain access for comfort," Neely said. "This seems to me aE& as a good way to get started and seeing if there are some benefits."

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Timothy Durden Jr. made it a habit to throw his arms around his grandmother, plant a big kiss on her cheek and proclaim, "I love you, Grannie."

The former Park Hill High School basketball and football player had a passion for joking, dancing, lifting weights.

But the 18-year-old also enjoyed "smoking his weed," family wrote in his obituary, and that habit cost him his life when he allegedly tried to rob the teenager who was selling him 2 ounces of marijuana in the Northland.

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More than 100 people in five states, including Missouri, have been treated in the past month for "serious unexplained bleeding" believed to be linked to inhaling fake marijuana laced with rat poison, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Illinois alone has reported 107 cases, and three people have died, the state's Department of Public Health said Monday. People have been hospitalized for coughing up blood, blood in the urine, severe bloody nose and bleeding gums.

Elsewhere, two people have been hospitalized in Indiana, one in Maryland, one in Wisconsin and one in Missouri.

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The Kansas House of Representatives rejected medical marijuana legalization Monday.

But the closeness of the 54-69 vote and the hour of emotional testimony that preceded it made advocates more confident that Kansas is now closer to joining the 30 states that allow marijuana by prescription.

"Today was the most legislative discussion we have ever had in three years of the Kansas Safe Access Act," said Lisa Sublett, the founder and president of Bleeding Kansas Advocates.

Sublett noted the bipartisan nature of the vote on the medical marijuana amendment, which came up during debate on a bill to update the state's controlled substances listings.

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Earlier this month, Kansas state Rep. Steve Alford embarrassed himself by mistakenly repeating racist rhetoric that was originally used by Henry Anslinger, an avowed racist from the late 1920s, when referring to use of marijuana by people of color.

I do not believe Alford is a racist. But I do believe, like so many others, he is misinformed when it comes to the facts and issues related to marijuana and the history of marijuana prohibition.

Presently marijuana is considered a Schedule 1 drug under the federal government's Controlled Substances Act -- right next to heroin. I think most of us would agree marijuana is not the equivalent of heroin. Nevertheless, it remains as a classified drug for the purposes of federal prosecution.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Two plainclothes detectives were driving a white unmarked pickup truck through a heavily forested road in Polk County on an overcast day in March 2012.

A woman had called the sheriff's office in December. Her identity had been stolen, she said, and new credit cards were being sent to an address in Polk County.

The detectives couldn't find the home in the rural area 45 miles north of Springfield, so instead they stopped at the next closest address -- the home of Charles Frederick White.

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Jackson County announced Tuesday that it will join St. Louis County in a prescription drug monitoring program as a way to fight abuse of painkillers.

Missouri is the only state in the nation without a system to track the sales of prescription drugs.

Despite repeated attempts over the past decade and wide support from health advocates, law enforcement and others, the General Assembly has been unable to pass legislation that would set up a statewide program. A small number of opponents have blocked those bills, citing privacy concerns.

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Mandatory drug testing of students at a two-year technical college in Linn, Mo., has been banned by a federal appeals court.

The court has reinstated the ban on mandatory drug testing for most students at the State Technical College of Missouri. The decision was the latest ruling in a 5-year-old lawsuit.

The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Associated Press reported that by a 9-2 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit overturned an earlier decision by a three-judge panel of the court.

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Last week a group of Missouri prosecutors announced it had taken legal steps to block voter consideration of a medical marijuana proposition on the November ballot.

In a news release, the group said it opposes the measure because pot is illegal under federal law. "Missouri law cannot usurp federal law," the prosecutors claim.

That doesn't seem to have been a problem in Colorado, where recreational marijuana is sold, but let's leave that aside for the moment. Instead, let's focus on the prosecutors' central argument: state law, they say, must give way to federal law whenever there's a conflict.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Proponents of initiatives aimed at sales taxes, cigarette taxes and medical marijuana submitted petitions Sunday in hopes of getting their proposals on the November ballot in Missouri.

The petitions submitted Sunday involved two proposed constitutional amendments, one that would prohibit state and local governments from charging sales tax on any services that weren't taxed as of 2015, and another that would allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. A third ballot initiative would phase in a 23-cent-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax from 2017 to 2021.

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JEFFERSON CITY (AP) -- The Missouri House has rejected a proposal to legalize medical marijuana.

The legislation failed on a 66-87 vote Thursday after lawmakers scaled it back to only permit cancer patients in hospice to use the drug.

The pro-legalization National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said of the 23 states to permit medical cannabis, only Florida's laws were comparably narrow.

Some supporters of expanding access to marijuana said they could not support such a limited measure. Other opponents said permitting any form of legalized marijuana would lead to higher use among teenagers and, potentially, even looser drugs laws in the future.

[end]

ST. LOUIS - Clara Walker, a mother of nine and grandmother of eight, was peering out the window of her home three years ago after hearing what she initially thought were gunshots from a television crime show.

But at that moment, Anthony Jordan, who the authorities say was a gang enforcer known as "Godfather," was spraying gunfire on the street outside, and two bullets struck Ms. Walker, killing her.

"St. Louis is a dangerous place right now," Johnny Barnes, Ms. Walker's longtime boyfriend, said during a recent interview. "It's all around us."

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Prison Reform Measures Have Helped Lower Rates of Incarceration

Half of the Nation's Prison Population Has Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders

For-Profit Companies Are Maneuvering for Contracts With Cash-Strapped States

Nancy Reagan's recent death was a reminder of the shallow moralizing of the Just Say No anti-drug campaign she once championed.

Thankfully, attitudes have changed. We're more attuned to the fact that untreated mental health issues are often a precursor to drug use. Nancy's slogan to fight peer pressure won't help much there.

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Regarding the editorial "Pot or not?" (Nov. 16):

As a sitting chief of police in Missouri, I've seen the rift that our failed marijuana policy continues to create between peace officers and the citizens we serve. Young people aren't prevented from getting marijuana now, because drug dealers don't have to ask for an ID. Families are torn apart, parents lose their children, and racial minorities are arrested and incarcerated for marijuana far more often than whites.

Continuing to arrest nonviolent, responsible, adult marijuana users is generating public distrust of their police. This makes it very difficult to do our job of protecting communities and solving crimes.

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COLUMBIA - Initiative petitions have begun circulating that would revive a proposal for the decriminalization of growing up to six marijuana plants in Columbia.

The petition would limit cultivation to a person's home in locked area indoors inaccessible to children. It would make cultivation a municipal offense with a fine of $250 or community service or counseling. The petition also states that medical marijuana may be obtained, possessed and cultivated by seriously ill patients.

Under the proposal, cultivation and/or possession of up to six or fewer plants would not result in arrest, loss of driver's license, detention, incarceration or require the posting of a bond. Punishment would be limited to a city summons and a fine of up to $250. In 2004, 62 percent of Columbia voters approved an ordinance that made posession of up to 35 grams of marijuana a municipal offense with a fine of no more than $250.

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Kin, Lawmakers Argued Sentence Too Stiff As Attitudes Have Changed

Jefferson City, Mo. (AP) - A man sentenced to life without parole on a marijuana-related charge was freed Tuesday from a Missouri prison after being behind bars for two decades - a period in which the nation's attitudes toward pot steadily softened.

"I spent a third of my life in prison," said Jeff Mizanskey, 62, who was greeted by his infant great-granddaughter. "It's a shame."

His release followed years of lobbying by relatives, lawmakers and others who argued that the sentence was too stiff and that marijuana should not be forbidden.

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JEFFERSON CITY - After 21 years behind bars for marijuana-related offenses, Jeff Mizanskey is now a free man.

Mizanskey, 62, of Sedalia, was released from the Jefferson City Correctional Center early Tuesday morning with a crowd of family, friends and members of the media ready to greet him. His supporters wore black shirts with the Show-Me Cannabis logo and white lettering that said #WeFreedJeffMizanskey 09-01-2015. Mizanskey wore a similar shirt that said "I'm Jeff and I'm Free."

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(AP) - A man sentenced to life without parole on a marijuana-related charge was freed from a Missouri prison after being behind bars for more than two decades - a period in which the nation's attitudes toward pot steadily softened.

Family, friends, supporters and reporters flocked to meet Jeff Mizanskey, 62, as he stepped out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center into a sunny morning, wearing a new pair of white tennis shoes and a shirt that read, "I'm Jeff & I'm free."

His release followed years of lobbying by relatives, lawmakers and others who argued that the sentence was too stiff and that marijuana should not be forbidden.

[end]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A man sentenced to life without parole on a marijuana-related charge was freed Tuesday from a Missouri prison after being behind bars for more than two decades - a period in which the nation's attitudes toward pot steadily softened.

Family, friends, supporters and reporters flocked to meet Jeff Mizanskey as he stepped out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center, wearing a new pair of white tennis shoes and a shirt that read "I'm Jeff & I'm free."

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