February 8, 2011 in Idaho

Three-quarters of Idahoans back medical marijuana

Betsy Z. Russell The Spokesman-Review

Tags:2011 Idaho LegislatureBSU Public Policy Survey

BOISE - The respected Boise State University Public Policy Survey, a statewide poll that’s been conducted in the state for more than 20 years, yielded a surprising result Tuesday: 74 percent support for allowing “terminally and seriously ill patients to use and purchase marijuana for medical purposes.”

Just 23 percent said “no” to that in the statewide survey, and 3 percent said they didn’t know.

State Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, who has pending legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Idaho in precisely those situations, said, “I’m not surprised at all, because in similar states out here in the West, the results are 65 to 75 percent (in favor), as long as you focus, like we have, very narrowly on medical marijuana for folks who are in excruciating pain with long-term diseases.”

The statewide survey queried adults in 525 randomly selected Idaho households, included cell phone as well as land-line respondents, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

It also asked how strongly Idahoans agreed that the state “should allow the sale and manufacture of marijuana for medical purposes.” Those results were less overwhelming, with 46 percent agreeing and 46 percent disagreeing.

Carole Nemnich, associate director of the BSU Public Policy Center, said the overwhelmingly favorable results on the “terminally and seriously ill” question were so startling that “we kept thinking, ‘This has to be wrong.’ ”

The survey has queried Idahoans about their views on state policy every year for more than 20 years, but the last one was taken in 2007, as budget cuts nixed the survey for the past two years. The new survey, conducted between Nov. 18 and Jan. 8, is the 20th one taken.

Trail said he’s working now to make sure his medical marijuana legislation, HB 19, gets a hearing. The bill, entitled the Idaho Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, is pending in the House Health and Welfare Committee.

Though neighboring Washington, Montana, Oregon and Nevada all have legalized medical marijuana, the substance is fully criminalized in Idaho, with possession - even traces - classified as a misdemeanor carrying a penalty of up to a year in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000. Anyone under 18 caught with any amount of marijuana also will lose their driver’s license for a year, and possession of three ounces or more is a felony, carrying up to a five-year prison sentence and fines of up to $10,000.

Trail said those neighboring states all enacted their medical marijuana laws by initiative, and he said that’s why they’ve led to problems. He said by going through the legislative process with his bill, which is modeled after a similar, restrictive measure from New Jersey, Idaho can make sure sufficient controls are in place on the use of medical marijuana, which the bill would allow only by prescription for debilitating or terminal illnesses and only up to 2 ounces per patient every 28 days.

Trail said New Jersey and Maryland both enacted their medical marijuana laws through the Legislature, rather than by initiative. “They have far fewer problems - you never see them in the headlines,” he said.

In other findings, the BSU survey also found that Idaho now has more independents than Republicans - the first time that result has been found since the survey began. It found that 39 percent of respondents identified their political affiliation as independent; 34 percent chose Republican; and 22 percent said they’re Democrats.

In the last survey in 2007, Republicans were at 40 percent, independents 28 percent, and Democrats 25 percent. Nemnich said, “This is the first year we’ve seen independents actually spike above Republicans.”

The survey also found that just 49 percent of Idahoans say the state is headed in the right direction - the lowest result ever found by the survey, which saw 70 percent choose that answer in 2004. “It could be a reflection of the tough times,” said BSU professor Stephanie Witt.

In other results, jobs were named the “most important issue” facing the state, at 33 percent, followed by education, 24 percent, and the economy, 17 percent. Fifty-six percent said their household has been “personally impacted by cuts in state programs and services;” 75 percent said budget cuts have affected the quality of children’s education; and 59 percent don’t think the state is investing enough in higher education. However, respondents were divided on whether to raise taxes; 53 percent supported raising the sales tax to support the K-12 public school budget; but only 39 percent favored raising the sales tax a penny to “close the budget gap,” and 41 percent were “strongly” opposed to that.

The survey also found Idahoans favor having their state opt out of health care reform, but also favor using public money to help those who can’t afford health insurance. In a similarly contrasting result, it found that 67 percent view immigration as a problem in Idaho and 58 percent favor passing an Arizona-style anti-immigration law, but 73 percent agree that “a program should be created that would allow illegal immigrants to stay in this country permanently.”

19 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

oneanddone on February 08 at 2:55 p.m.
Far too frequently the Cda Press has “surveys” that categorically prove that nearly EVERYONE in Coeur d’Alene wants to do whatever’s in the best interest of the Cda Resort. Case in point, McEuen Field. This pot survey smacks of the same level of credibility. Maybe if prescriptions could be filled only at pharmacies, and not at the house down the block, I’d have more faith.
PhiltheBibliophil on February 08 at 2:58 p.m.
Yep, the Real Idahoans. Dope smokin, rootin-tootin Rednecks!
greyhound2 on February 08 at 2:59 p.m.
Idaho is sandwiched between Washington, Montana and Oregon, all who have a more realistic approch to ridiculous drug program enforcement programs, other than to wasting hard earned taxpayer money - the annual cost of incarceration is about $30.000. Some judgement is required, however, depending on which drug you are talking about. Is it harmless non-violent, victim-less marijuana, or life destroying meth? Are they dealers, or are they just poor users who couldn’t afford an attorney? Building even more jails is expensive to property owners and hasn’t worked so far.
eagleproducer on February 08 at 5:03 p.m.
oneanddone: I thought you were Mr. Freedom? Why shouldn’t consenting adults be allowed to do whatever they want with their bodies if they don’t harm others or their property?
greyhound: The Mormon Church runs Idaho. Politically Idaho is simply Utah North. I guess when Joseph Smith “found” those Golden Tablets in the woods of New England, the writings said to impose an equally addlepated version of morality on everyone else.
greenlibertarian on February 08 at 7:23 p.m.
It’s not a CDA Press run survey, it comes from a highly respected polling organization. Jeeze people, READ!
Impacts on February 08 at 8:45 p.m.
Idaho should think carefully before allowing such a program into your state.
Oregon voters were told in 1998 that the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program was for the sick and dying. Now 12 years later, less than 4% is for cancer. Over 88% is used for common pain. A single doctor is responsible for recommending approximately 35% of all medical marijuana cards, with ten doctors recommending 59% of all cards.
www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/ommp/index.shtml
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/print_story.php?story_id=127128421107102600
The negativity that comes from the so-called medical marijuana program comes from the many abuses of this program, such as:
The illegal trafficking of an illegal drug to others not in the OMMP program
In-home fires caused by grow lights and illegal electrical wiring
In-home burglaries and killings over marijuana grows
Access to pot grows by children in these homes
The illegal selling of pot to kids
Illegal pesticides and chemicals that are being used on grows
and then the excess being dumped in the environment
Having your neighbor grow pot in their yard and have to smell the stink of pot
Trafficking coming in and out all day and night
Examples:
Worried by thieves, medical marijuana growers protect crops with booby traps and weapons
www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/11/medical_marijuana_growers_prot.html
15-year term in Oakridge medical marijuana robbery
www.necn.com/12/08/10/15-year-term-in-Oakridge-medical-marijua/landing_nation.html?&blockID=3&apID=51b059fc02314e6f9e6c1e0a6dfce3fe
Citizens in Oregon and Montana are not fine with marijuana because the marijuana proponents have tried to circumvent the FDA and have tried to get marijuana laws through voter ballot initiatives and legislative ballots, not by scientific FDA approved processes.
What medicine have voters ever voted for?
What medicine have citizens ever smoked?
What medicine have citizens grown in their back yard without any controls, quantity amounts, and delivery methods?
To date, fifteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws allowing doctors to recommend marijuana as a so called medicine. Many citizens and legislators in those states are already beginning repeal efforts because of the impacts to public safety, children, animals and the environment.
STATE REPEAL INFORMATION
Oregon www.protectoursociety.org
Montana http://safecommt.org/
New Mexico Repeal from new Governor Susana Martinez (R)
www.necn.com/01/31/11/NMs-medical-marijuana-law-will-continue/landing_health.html&blockID=3&apID=f85259e53a4143deae485982adfed9de
So-called medical marijuana laws were enacted with the guise that the programs were for the sick and dying, yet less than 4% in all States are for seriously ill people, the majority of users are using the programs for such things as common pain. This is not what citizens voted for!
Marijuana is a Schedule I drug under the Federal Code of Regulations and the US Supreme Court has determined that marijuana in smoked form is not medicine and dangerous to the public’s health.
According to Dr. Robert DuPont, President, Institute for Behavior and Health and first Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) the Government’s principal agency researching marijuana, “more people need to see ‘medical marijuana’ for what it is: a cynical fraud and a cruel hoax. It is not about medicine; it is about the political exploitation of the public’s compassion for suffering sick people. Legitimizing smoked marijuana as a ‘medicine’ is a serious threat to the safety of all Americans.”
www.marijuanaharmsfamilies.com
greenlibertarian on February 08 at 9:28 p.m.
Over 88% is used for common pain.
You might have more luck in your crusade by choosing not to lie about the statistics.
On the page can click through to on the Oregon medical marijuana stats, 66% of the patients have SEVERE PAIN (and, as the page says, may have one or more of the other covered maladies).
Know anybody with SEVERE PAIN who can’t get relief from high powered prescription narcotics without severely affecting their quality of life?
I do. And some of them ingest pot which makes the pain bearable.
Like I said, trying being honest in your rhetoric, and maybe you’ll get someone to think about what you’re pitching. There may be reasons to change the law, or retool it. Providing false information is not the way for that to happen.
Impacts on February 09 at 7:37 a.m.
Honesty begins with the acceptance that the FDA has never approved marijuana in smoked form as a medicine. The pitches and false information come from those trying to claim marijuana as medicine. The original so-called medical Marijuana bill we in Oregon were asked to support contained many hidden flaws, some of which have produced serious unintended consequences for communities across our State. The current so-called marijuana law should be repealed.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/print_story.php?story_id=127128421107102600
ReeferMad on February 09 at 11:15 a.m.
The DEA wont let any testing of cannabis so the FDA has nothing to approve. If you all are so sure that marijuana isnt medicine you best look at the truth and our history. The day they made cannabis illegal in 1937 there were 28 different US Patented medicines made with Cannabis. Everything from minor over the counter pills to stronger liquids for pain. The AMA at the time, the largest medical group in the nation, said it was the single most medically active plant on earth! Because of lies from Big Paper, Timber and Oil and Harry Anslinger they scared congress into making it illegal. Anslinger, our first Drug Czar said on the congress floor 1937 ” Marijuana Makes Darkies think they are as good as a white man” or this one ” Marijuana will make white women want to sleep with minorities and Jazz singers” thats 1937 folks, SO if that tells you anything about why it was made illegal.
Ok so say it, SMOKED pot isnt medicine, well as of 2008 the AMA has said that YES smoked cannabis is medicine in fact we now have Vaporizers that cut out all the plant matter, so what now? The FDA you say, just look at the pills the FDA has let out to the public and how many have died from their stupid mistakes, seems to me when the regulators are part of the system they are also part of the problem, FDA sure I have no problem tell Obama to let them test it, go ahead, tell them. Everyone stand up and demand an end to this debate and test it through the FDA, we are so ready!
No matter what, the facts are the facts, we humans have used Hemp and Cannabis for over 10,000years, we grew this country buy growing Hemp and even at one point we all could pay our taxes with HEMP. In 1944 when WW2 was raging we made farmers grow Hemp again, we needed it so much so they ignored their own laws and let them grow it. We have had a long long history with hemp and cannabis, the human brain is set up for the THC and CBDs in cannabis, and our own bodies make a a form of the same thing. Let alone the fact alcohol and tobacco are so much more harmful than marijuana ever could be and that we learned a long time ago, in the 1930s, that prohibition doesnt work, I wonder why some still dont see these truths about this plant.
Before you all post comments about this and say, we as marijuana supporters are the ones giving misinformation, I dare you to pick up a book or research online for more than one second, and more than just the lies coming from DC about marijuana. Do the research yourself, get to the truth because right now when you come on here and say we lie, well you have no clue what your saying at all.
Oh and as for the article saying that Maryland and NJ laws are so great, well they dont have working systems they are still fighting over it in NJ in fact the Gov is going to lose his job over this issue next election and Maryland, well they still arrest sick people, just when you go to trial you can say your sick, thats if you live through sitting in prison while you await your trial and all. So to say they have no problems or they are not in the news, there isnt any news to report they have no working laws! Its BS and no state would have any issues if they legalized it all together they wouldnt have to worry about who is medical or not.
Prohibition of Cannabis is the problem not the people who consume it. We are brothers and mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends and we even have been your President. We are 140million citizens that have tried cannabis at least once in our life, more than that we are Americans and we dont deserve the discrimination and violence that the rest of you bring about to harm us. We as the cannabis community demand to have our side heard and the truth be told. Until we do none of this will go away and the problems we are having across this land over marijuana will continue forever.
brentandrews on February 09 at 12:17 p.m.
Impacts, obviously just looking for the bad. No mention of the hundreds of thousands of dollars California and Colorado cities are bringing in in new tax dollars from the dispensaries, or the quickly retreating vacancy rate of retail properties in medical marijuana states, or all the smiling going on around Denver and Portland. This is a new industry. There will be good and bad. Currently, the Spokane DEA’s policy is to bring marijuana from Oregon to sell to University of Idaho kids in cooperation with local drug authorities, so several police agencies can take a share of the money the kids’ parents bring to the table. They sell this pot over and over again, to our children. They say marijuana is low priority compared to heroin and cocaine, and phamaceutical diversion, but their pockets tell a different story: marijuana pays the overtime, buys the weapons, and all the busts convince the feds we have a “problem” and so deserve grant money to “fix” it. The local police are not independent when they are in bed with the feds over the drug war and have an immediate financial interest in a particular law. This does not bode well for our freedom in general.
Betsy, please research the potential impact medical marijuana would have on law enforcement budgets - talking 90 percent of marijuana users out of the criminal realm would really be a bummer to police agencies raking in millions in seized assets and cash every year. Look into it. How much money are we talking about? How much do the police stand to lose? Millions, I believe, even in a city just the size of Coeur d’Alene - so few police, and even fewer police leaders, can be trusted to tell the truth, here. They will fiercely defend their budgets, even if it means supporting bad public policy (the failed war on “some” drugs).
impacts, it is sad and sick that citizens with no medical training would think themselves good judges of what kind of medicine and how much medicine their fellow citizens need for their ailments. This sounds like a decision that should be left to a person and his doctor, in a free country. I can see you with some old sick victim doling out the aspirin one at a time for his old broken leg. While everyone has a heart, I do believe some people lack souls so they cannot feel compassion or sympathy. Perhaps you’re one of those people.
Meanwhile medical marijuana is everywhere you look, though presently untaxed. The profits make good pickings for the police and the drug dealers. The sickest, weakest Americans fall victim to the war between the two over all the money.
Few writers have the guts to look into police budgets. The first thing the police do when you start looking into their drug war profits is start a shell game trying to hide them. It takes hard questions few reporters are willing to ask. Reporters in lifelong beats become part of the good-ole-boy network and don’t ask any uncomfortable questions.
Betsy, you’re better than that. Ask. What do police stand to lose? I Coeur d’Alene alone it will about to more than one million dollars a year in assets and petty cash - every time marijuana is confiscated by the police, they collect all the cash anywhere around it. They auction automobiles and properties connected to it - all very quietly, and profitably, because they don’t have to share the money with anyone except those cooperating agencies.
The drug war has been a cash cow for the police. They will fight tooth and nail, to keep it.
Ask, Betsy! Ask!
Impacts on February 09 at 10:16 p.m.
No Endorsement of State Medical-Marijuana Laws by the American Medical Association
However, the panel’s report also called the patchwork of state-based medical-marijuana programs “woefully inadequate in establishing even rudimentary safeguards that normally would be applied to the appropriate clinical use of psychoactive substances,” and the AMA resolution stated that the new policy “should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product.”
http://www.jointogether.org/news/features/2009/ama-says-marijuana-has.html
ConcernedCitizenofAmerica on February 10 at 7:59 a.m.
For those who argue that Cannabis is not medicine. I challenge ANYONE to prove that they have a safer alternative to taking a patients mind off of constant pain. If in fact cannabis is dangerous in any way, simply provide the UNBIASED scientific data.
There are mountains of credible evidence to prove that Cannabis is beneficial in numerous ways. Not the least of which is the nutritional value of cannabis when eaten. Gruel was eaten for a LONG time before someone decided that grinding hemp seed and eating it could somehow harm society.
As for it’s schedule 1 status. Haven’t we had credible MD.s saying for years that it doesn’t belong there? Who has the right to keep it there while Doctors everywhere say it doesn’t belong there? Is there some panel of uber doctors we don’t know about who have evidence of some danger they aren’t sharing? I don’t think so either.
I for one don’t take 120 Lortab per month any more (sorry BigPharm), so I don’t have to worry about the poisoning effects of narcotics. You sit comfortably at home living a normal life and that is awesome for those who still have that luxury. Unfortunately, there are millions of Americans who are being forced to get relief from their “common pain” in harmful and dangerous ways. Cannabis is medicine by definition if it provides relief from discomfort or illness isn’t it?
The only problem that seems immediatly evident is that it somehow bothers a certain portion of Society to know that sufferers get relief without opening a pill bottle (or liquor bottle for that matter.)
ConcernedCitizenofAmerica on February 10 at 8:12 a.m.
As for the FDA…..

The FDA cannot be allowed to be used as a guide for what is safe and what is not safe. I’ll leave that up to my Doctor and Medical Science.
How many different commercials did you hear just TODAY stating the “harmful effects” of some FDA approved medication? “call today, you may be entitled to millions…..”
Just because the FDA does not choose to recognize Cannabis as a viable medicine does NOT mean it isn’t. In fact in the absence of evidence, we as Americans should be free to assume they have NONE and should be able to dissolve the issue based on nothing more than that if the evidence is to be taken seriously.
Impacts on February 10 at 9:42 a.m.
Psychosis Triggered by Smoking Pot? Marijuana Study Says Yes
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20031003-10391704.html
Smoke and mirrors: Colorado teenagers and marijuana
“I recently reviewed medical marijuana licenses in Colorado and found that only 3 percent belong to people with cancer and 1 percent to people with HIV. Those illnesses are not open to much interpretation; you’ve either got them or you don’t. However, a whopping 90 percent of Colorado’s medical marijuana licenses have been awarded for “pain,” which is a highly subjective qualifying condition that makes it easy to abuse the system. Also interesting is that 70 percent of Colorado’s medical marijuana prescriptions are for men, and the biggest age group of licensees is 25- to 34-year-olds.”
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_14289807#ixzz1DZvtNwD7
brentandrews on February 10 at 11:24 a.m.
impacts, again, who are you to judge what occurs between a doctor and patient? Who are you to judge someone’s pain? Nobody. I think you’re an anonymous law enforcement agent, hiding behind a pseudonym and desperately trying to protect yor cash cow. But it’s going, going …
Betsy, please keep covering this. It’s the most interesting story going.
Impacts on February 10 at 12:50 p.m.
Robert Dupont quotes that “the role of the US food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the approval of non-traditional or “alternative” treatments was recently reviewed in “Science Journal” in the Wall Street Journal. This article noted that the FDA usually focuses on single molecules in its review process while many alternative treatments use herbs, and even mixtures of herbal extracts, with the assumption that the therapeutic benefits of these treatments involved a combination of often ill-defined chemicals. The FDA has long held botanical drugs to the same standard as other medicines: sponsors applying for FDA approval of herbal remedies had to find the specific components responsible for the benefit of the treatment. In June of 2004 the FDA issued new guidance making it easier for those sponsoring herbal remedies, including “medical marijuana,” to be approved by the FDA. The FDA has now approved the first herbal treatment under these regulations. Several hundred more are now headed for clinical trails under the supervision of a new office at FDA.
There is only one reason the advocates for “medical marijuana” do not use this new openness of the FDA to fulfill their hopes, and that is the difficulty they face in proving that smoked marijuana is an effective and safe way to treat any illness.
In summary there are compelling reasons for the State of Maryland and everyone else in the country, to hold the marijuana-as medicine” advocates to the same standard that has served the nation-and the entire world-well in the approval of medicines for the past century. Approving medicines as part of the political process rather than as part of the scientific process is unwise not only for “medical marijuana” but it sets a dangerous precedent for other “medicines” seeking to bypass the standard of proven safety and efficacy.”
DuPont, Robert. “Marijuana and Medicine: The need for a Science-Based Approach.” 14, March, 2007.
[http://www.ibhinc.org/pdfs/RLDMedMJTestimony031407.pdf]
Impacts on February 13 at 8:05 a.m.
MARIJUANA INCARCERATION
It is exceedingly rare to be incarcerated in the US for the use or possession of marijuana. According to the National Center on Addiction & Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA, 2010), less than 1 percent (0.9%) of jail and prison inmates in the U.S. were incarcerated for marijuana possession as their sole offense.
Excluding jail detainees who may be held pending booking or release on bond, the rates are even lower. Prison inmates sentenced for marijuana possession account for 0.7 percent of state prisoners and 0.8 percent of federal prisoners. And, considering that many of those prisoners pled down from more serious charges, the true incarceration rate for marijuana possession can only be described as negligible.
http://www.nadcp.org/sites/default/files/nadcp/The%20Facts%20on%20Marijuana%20-%20NADCP_1.pdf
Duncan20903 on February 15 at 5:32 a.m.
Impacts thinks his cruel inhumane agenda, using bald faced lies, half truths, and hysterical rhetoric to advance his sick, perverted agenda of cruelty.
The DEA is getting ready to reschedule natural THC to schedule III. That will almost certainly happen this year.
The FDA may not yet have approved Oregon and Idaho Boards of Pharmacy have both recognized that cannabis is a valid medicine, by 4-1 and 6-0 votes respectively. The fantasy that Oregon has any significant support for repeal of the OMMA outside of a fringe group of wingnuts is simply laughable.
http://www.oregon.gov/Pharmacy/Imports/News/June2010PressReleaseMarijuana.pdf
http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2010/feb/18/iowa_board_pharmacy_recommends_m
The FDA is simply not listening to the evidence. It is a pawn of a political agenda, not a true medical watchdog by any stretch of the imagination. Impacts is quick to point out that the FDA hasn’t approved medical cannabis. Before 2004 the FDA had never approved necrotic flesh eating insect larvae or blood sucking worms as approved medical devices.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-07-07-leeches-maggots_x.htm
Canada, Holland, and Israel have all done the research and cleared cannabis as a valid medicine. Israel gives it to their mentally ravaged soldiers as mitigation for PTSD. Impacts would have you believe that Israel doesn’t care about it’s soldiers. Israel even supplies cannabis to patients in their hospitals.
Impacts is a standard issue Know Nothing prohibitionist, and unashamed, bald faced liar with a perverted political agenda. These are decisions that should be left to licensed doctors and accredited scientists, not made by Know Nothing prohibitionists and especially not by politicians with a political agenda.
Don’t let Impacts fool you into believing a bald faced lie. The truth is available, at least for people who aren’t suckers who will believe any bald faced lie or half truth that a confidence artist like Impacts tries to feed them. The best indicator of a liar in respect to this specific issue is someone who includes the health hazards of smoking in his argument. Fire is neither required nor desired as part of a delivery method for medical cannabis.
doctork on February 24 at 9:14 a.m.
When we advocate against Cannabis prohibition, we must stress not just the “denial of good” which it entails, such as the remarkable medicinal properties of the plant, its violence-suppressing potential, or its ability to induce calm and relaxed state which is “worlds apart” from the effects of alcohol and many “legal” prescription drugs. Cannabis Prohibition is an unadulterated evil, as it pushes the people to engage in a dangerous substance use, such as the stories with alcoholic caffeinated drinks just explicitly demonstrated. The cruelty and senselessness of the prohibitionists have also been made obvious recently, when an Oklahoma mom received 10-year sentence for $31worth of Cannabis, when the medicinal Cannabis providers and patients continue to be raided and harassed. What more evidence of political piracy can be presented than when the dogmatic “politicos” want to directly trample the Will of Montana voters with respect to Medicinal Cannabis, which Citizens lawfully enacted in their state, or when Las Vegas police and DEA continue to harass the Medicinal Cannabis establishments? To what level of hypocrisy and spiritual degradation can one descend when the medicinal Cannabis patients are persecuted in the city where alcohol abuse and compulsive gambling are rampant?! My only hope in the midst of all this prohibitionist outrage is that its collapse is philosophically inevitable. In particular, when the DEA and its allies blackmail politicians into voting against Medicinal Cannabis, they do so on the basis of an unreal “entity”, the so-called “gateway drug” theory that is fully discredited by now as “half-baked”! How can our so-called “representatives” put important social programs on a “chopping block” because of the “budget crisis”, while these same people waste tens of millions of dollars on the so-called “marijuana enforcement”, opposed by most of this country’s voters! The Cannabis prohibitionists are guilty of crimes against humanity, and they will be called to answer for them sooner or later!