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12/22/2009
Haering: The Sins of Leah Vukmir
Such a meanie - how could she hate “medical” marijuana? The Republican from Wauwatosa would deny medicine to disease sufferers in Wisconsin. Oh my.
"What I resent most is this facade you are putting forth, using people who are dying of cancer and have other diseases, as your shield," Vukmir said to the bill's Democratic co-sponsors who vehemently denied her claims.
"I would never advocate for this if I thought that's what would happen," said co-sponsor Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee. "Do you honestly think I want to legalize marijuana for everyone in Wisconsin? You don't even know me."
What did Hamlet’s mom say about protesting too much?
It doesn’t matter what you want, senator. If you legalize “medical” marijuana, it will be legal for everyone in Wisconsin. It will be legal for anyone who is willing to find the doctor and interprets the code phrases and writes prescriptions for legal pot. Why didn’t Vukmir mention this?
Here on the Left Coast, birthplace of medical marijuana and, earth’s newest sapient hominids -- homo californiensis – you can visit hundreds of legal cannabis clubs, get Dr. Feelgood’s address, complain of nebulous aches and pains and get a Rx for pot. Why didn’t Vukmir mention the sham illnesses that qualify for legal pot? Or the corruption it breeds in the medical community?
I know a guy, Rubin, who was shot in the shoulder at a party five years ago. He was allergic to most painkillers, but managed on Tylenol with codeine and pot. When he came of age, he wanted to get his medical pot card, but he’d been busted for OWI and had to wait until he had his license back.
Meanwhile he’d injured his other shoulder weightlifting. But like John Cleese, who was turned into a newt by a witch in Monty Python’s “Holy Grail,” he got better.
The day after his license was restored, he visited Dr. Feelgood and got his Rx. I asked, what did you tell him you needed it for?
“Well … my gunshot.” That was 5 years ago, I reminded him. “ … and my shoulder …” he continued, indicating his lifting injury, already healed. “… and insomnia,” he concluded afterthought-fully.
Then he gleefully told me of the scholarship he was applying for to attend Oaksterdam University, a college dedicated to teaching absolutely anyone how to grow pot legally. The college is an homage to the first pot school in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Find out more in CNBC’s special, “Marijuana Inc.: Inside American’s Pot Industry.”
The CNBC special did not include Michigan, which has recently passed a medical marijuana law and founded its own pot college, Med Grow Cannabis College, hoped to revitalize a slumping Flint economy. Nor did it include a new Denver eating establishment that's a a pot restaurant testing the boundaries of medical marijuana.
Why didn’t Vukmir mention ancillary symptoms - like Los Angeles’ 600 pot dispensaries, which rise from an absence of rules on what infirmities qualify for legal pot, or who can grow it or how much?
Even state-legal pot is against federal law. But the Obama administration has directed his Justice Department not to prosecute pot infractions in those states. Why didn’t Vukmir mention that? Or the fact that none of the pot-smokers appearing at the hearing were wearing orange prison garb, obviously being beneficiaries of some local law enforcement compassion?
And what about employers with zero-tolerance drug policies? What happens when they fire stoners who then sue because their “medicine” is legal? Why did she not mention the potential legal costs?
And how did stoners pass the pre-employment drug screens in the first place? Fake urine kits you buy at pot paraphernaliers. Why didn’t she mention that?
Why did Vukmir choose to audition for a remake of that 1936 classic, “Reefer Madness”? “As a parent I don't want this exposure for children,” she wagged.
Now it is too late to calmly offer support as long as it includes rules defining the illnesses eligible for medical pot, defining how medical pot is to be grown, dispensed and used – like you would any new medicine – which Erp and his supporters want no part of.
Now is it too late to kindly kill the bill?
Tim Haering, of Concord, Calif., was a policy adviser to Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.
COMMENTS
In an age when proposed environmental laws and proposed health care reform must pass the financial benefit vs cost test there is nary a whimper from the the very same people when it comes to locking people up. Lets have a real debate about marijuana from a cost/benefit analysis of our drug laws. To even consider denying medical marijuana to real suffering people is the same attitude that doctors (and families of patients) used to take when a cancer sufferer wanted more pain medication "oh you don't want to get addicted, better to suffer". What a bunch of BS. Who has the right to deny a legitimate suffering person pain relief because maybe it becomes a cottage industry? There is no reason to believe that medical marijuana will become any more of a problem than the very real problem of Oxycontin and other prescribed drugs with a huge illegal market. I think the biggest reason for fighting against medical marijuana is that Pot can be grown , not manufactured by big Pharma like Oxycontin. If pot was manufactured instead there wouldn't be a whimper.
dave allen (Tue Dec 22 06:58:51 2009)
If pot were manufactured, there would be strict, specific guidelines for its legal use.
Jo (Tue Dec 22 07:05:56 2009)
Just what America needs - yet another intoxicant!
Almost every other drug is based on an extract of some plant, carefully refined and packaged in pill form, in an inhaler, on a patch, or for injection. I refuse to believe that Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cannot be extracted and refined legally and infused into a legal, safe and consistent dosage eliminating the psychoactive cannabinoids.
But then, who among the proponents of legalizing this drug would want it under those conditions?
Duke (Tue Dec 22 09:22:15 2009)
Duke....it is available as you mention. Like you say...they don't want it that way for a reason!
John Hyland (Tue Dec 22 15:28:43 2009)
Great coverage and unanswered questions. I also wonder how they're going to control the pot people can grow at home. How about home visits from regulators in the new government run health care system?
Soapbox Jill (Tue Dec 22 20:53:47 2009)
Anyone with ties to former Gov Tommy "power to the people" Thompson must be a real gem of conservatism. Who cares about Pot Colleges and some guy who was shot in the shoulder getting a faked MaryJane prescription? It should be de-criminalized so that responsible adults can use it within responsible guidelines - like alcohol! :)
Now about all those missing files of incriminating Tommy Thompson paperwork...
Adam S Friendship (Tue Dec 22 22:06:28 2009)
Isn't anonymity a great place from which to take pot shots?
Jo (Wed Dec 23 02:56:15 2009)
Duke,
When people can be prescribed marijuana which costs less than pills and doesn't support big Pharma why would anyone want to push the pill route? (other than Big pharma). No one in this group has yet to answer my cost-benefit question: "What is the cost in enforcing current marijuana laws and denying patients access versus the benefits and side costs of relaxing the laws? "
dave allen (Wed Dec 23 07:18:24 2009)
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