Medical marijuana bill moves forward in Senate
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- May
- 26
  The Senate Health Committee approved legislation today that would legalize marijuana for medical use. But the bill still has to go through the Senate Codes Committee before getting to the floor for a vote. If passed, seriously ill patients would be able to have up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and 12 mature plants. It has been used to relieve nausea, increase appetite, reduce muscle spasms and reduce chronic pain in patients with debilitating illnesses.
  This is the first year the legislation has a chance of passing the Assembly and Senate. The Assembly has passed bills before, but this is the first time identical bills have the support of the political party in control in both houses. Democrats have long controlled the Assembly, but the last time Democrats were in charge of the Senate before this year was 1965. Â
  Senate Health Committee Chairman Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, said the committee received a memorandum in support of the legislation from the Medical Society of the State of New York. It has received memos in opposition from the state Conservative Party, the Drug-Free Schools Coalition in New York and the New York Society of Addiction Medicine.
  The medical marijuana legislation in the Assembly was reported by the Health Committee and now sits in the Codes Committee. It is not on the latter committee’s meeting agenda for tomorrow.
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on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 4:24 pm by Cara Matthews.
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To All Of New York and To our law makers – its about time for reform and to allow medical use for Marijuana which includes the Mentally ill and others such as Cancer victims . The drug companies are reaping billions of dollars of drugs that are prescribed that causes major side effects which includes medications that is not on the warning label and was passed by the FDA. I had personally at one time or another smoked Marijuana for relief of Depression and sleep disorders and i rest assure you that i slept in a normal way others would sleep and my moods of depression had changed for better than before . The prescriptions for psychiatric use are dangerous with severe side effects in some cases . From Nunzio Bagliere Syracuse N.Y
Wow. We’re legalizing pot and allowing people to marry. All in the same week?
Welcome to the 21st century!
Give me a break. Legalization of medical marijuana is not the same thing as legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes.
The fact still remains that marijuana is a highly addictive (yes, DHT, marijuana’s active ingredient is addictive) and is a gateway drug leading to the use and abuse of more powerful and society wrecking drugs.
Legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes? Yes.
Legalize marijuana for recreational purposes? No.
Marijuana is NOT addictive.
It has been said to have the potential to be “habit forming,” but that can be applied to almost any pleasant human activity.
I’m not advocating marijuana, but any claim that it is addictive is ideological and polemical only. “Addictive” means something quite specific: physiological adaptation to a substance or activity so that it’s withdrawal causes a specific, highly aversive, physiological readjustment to its absence.
I’m not advocating for marijuana—frequent use can leave one (well, me…) unmotivated and dull, but let’s leave the “war on drugs” propaganda aside.
gary is correct. you will note, modern drug research (the kind not funded by the government) avoids use of the term ‘addiction’ entirely, because it has become so misused as to be meaningless. marijuana, weed, pot, 420 (or whatever locution you prefer) is not physically habit forming. some people do use it pathologically/compulsively, but some people play dungeons and dragons pathologically or poke holes in their legs with hatpins compulsively, so that doesn’t mean anything about marijuana itself, just people who lean towards compulsive behavior.
While it’s certainly not even remotely as addictive as nicotine, it’s still very difficult to stop smoking pot after prolonged, frequent use.
After a reasonably difficult battle with it, I managed to stop smoking pot about a year and a half ago after having smoked almost daily for about three years. Quitting pot won’t make you feel bad the way quitting cigarettes (on my to-do list still, after several attempts) does. However, you will feel uncomfortable, restless, sleepless, anxious, and disoriented while giving up pot. The upside is, after a week or two of avoiding it, you’ll feel back to normal.
Smoking pot certainly won’t kill you or lead to experimenting with other drugs. Smoking pot does, however, make you perfectly happy with being bored, boring, unproductive, forgetful, and inarticulate. It also can SERIOUSLY reduce your libido. Additionally, it’s far more expensive than it’s worth. Even though it’s not “addictive” you’re likely to find yourself always making sure that you either have some weed around or have enough money to get some more. You’ll also find that you start selecting and retaining friends based on the fact that they smoke pot. It’s not “addictive” but it becomes a lifestyle pretty quickly. I had to stop hanging out with about 75% of the people that I knew in order to quit.
Yeah, there’s a whole lot of antidrug scaremongering out there. Much of it is exaggerated or untrue. Nevertheless, smoking pot still isn’t a very good idea.
Really, it’s not worth it. After being off that stuff for over a year, I’m only recently starting to feel like the smart person that I was before I started. It’ll take a while to get your brain back.
Honestly, you should avoid it. I wish that I had not wasted my time or my money on it. If you’ve got enough free time that smoking pot is starting to look like a good idea, PLEASE fill you time with something else. I really wish that I’d had the forethought to have spent all those hours doing something that would have made me a smarter, more interesting person instead of being stoned.
Smoking pot is really only a moderately entertaining way to completely waste a couple hours. It makes boredom a little more fun. But you’re only ever bored if you’re a boring person.
You won’t start to really “feel addicted” and you won’t even notice that your usage is increasing. Just be aware of finding excuses or justifications to smoke. Until you become aware that it’s easy for a reasonably smart person to scrape by being stoned all the time or until you become used to existing and operating in a constantly stoned or burnt out state, you’ll probably have a quiet, nagging voice of better judgement telling you, “I have work tomorrow. I probably shouldn’t get high,” or, “I have somewhere to be soon. This probably isn’t a good idea.” As long as you consistently listen to that voice, you’ll stay in control and you can indulge infrequently (as recommended).
@Dr Strangelove, what is DHT? I have looked online for this compound in cannabis but could not find it. If you are going to spew propaganda, at least make sure you know what you are talking about. As for your gateway theory, surely alcohol would preceed cannabis if this “theory” was to be proven (which it has not). I have a theory of my own, prohibitionists spew propaganda blindly without ever researching the subject at all, instead they beleive any crap the government advertising tells them and take it as absolute fact. Case in point, in the past it was considered heresy to oppose the “FACT” that the earth was flat, claiming it was a sphere could result in execution. I know this is an extreme example, but sometimes extreme examples are needed when dealing with fundementalists.
I think he/she meant THC. That’s what gives you the “high” feeling when you smoke pot. Even still, THC has never been proven to be addictive. So I certainly agree with James. If one is going to spew propaganda they should at least understand what they’re speaking about.
“You’re entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to your own facts.” – The late, great Sen. Moynihan
Did we not learn anything from alcohol prohibition?
Marijuana prohibition has been an indisputable failure. Legalize it and take the money out of the black market. Marijuana is less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco yet both of those substances are legal (and should be). Every year our prison system releases violent offenders to make room for non-violent pot smokers. That is just plain insanity. Think of how better society would be served if our law enforcement efforts were directed more towards dealing with violent individuals. We would also save BILLIONS of dollars on prosecution costs and jail expenses every year.
There is also substantial evidence indicating marijuana has numerous medical uses as well.
We need to look at this issue using nothing more than basic common sense. Isn’t it time to drop the “Reefer Madness” stupidity?
The “Gateway” theory has been debunked so many times it’s ridiculous and to call weed “highly addictive” is plain ignorant. Those who would like to choose some herb rather than drink some beers should be allowed to do so. People who wish pot to be legal are drastically increasing and will be, if not already, in the majority. It is a waste of time and valuable resources to continue the prohibition of pot period.
I just hope that this goes through because the longer this nonsense about pot being illegal goes on, the more absurd it becomes. At this point it’s totally senseless to keep it illegal. If safety was the issue, all those damn pills that big pharma passes out would be illegal too. It’s not about safety, and it’s not about whether or not it works. What it is all about is the scum bags at big pharma who want you to become completely addicted to their dangerous pills to relieve your common human pain and suffering. What nobody is telling us daily in commercials is that pot is safer that big pharma’s pain pills and psych pills.
Legalise it already eh?
It’s time to change the laws. The penalty should fit the crime. What crime?
What’s worse is making a patient out to be a criminal.
The Obama administration really needs to step this one up.
The truth about marijuana prohibition:
William Randolph Hearst sympathized with Harry J. Anslinger in his war against marijuana. Hearst’s paper empire (he owned hundreds of acres of timber forests and a vast number of paper mills designed to manufacture paper from wood pulp) in the early 1930s was threatened by hemp, which: 1) like wood pulp, could also be used to manufacture paper and 2) also had an advantage over wood pulp, because it could be regrown yearly as well.
Between 1936 and 1937, Hearst associated marijuana with hemp in his newspapers and published many of the stories that Anslinger fabricated. Hearst would indeed play a major part in aiding the anti-marijuana movement, which eventually led to its prohibition in the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, a law which also effectively outlawed hemp.
legalize it and tax it just like nicotine…...............then smoke it !
It’s 4:14. You only have to wait another six minutes.
Dr Strangelove says:
“The fact still remains that marijuana is a highly addictive (yes, DHT, marijuana’s active ingredient is addictive) and is a gateway drug leading to the use and abuse of more powerful and society wrecking drugs.”
What nonsense. A highly addictive drug would be one like heroin or meth or crack that produces such a powerful addiction people will rob and steal or sell their bodies just so they can stay high. It’s been a couple of years since I smoked any pot, but I used to do it about everyday. Sometimes I’d quit for a while and I’d never experience any withdrawals except perhaps some mild cravings if I suddenly quit after having been smoking it everyday a few times a day. Over the years I just started to like it less and less so I’d mess with it less and less. I might smoke some again someday but it really just doesn’t appeal to me that much so even if I do smoke it again I’ll never get in the habit of smoking it all the time again. The last few years I smoked it a small bag, say a quarter ounce, would last me months. If it was so addictive I wouldn’t have been able to just take it or leave it and have it around the house without smoking it.
It might be habit forming to a degree but any addiction it produces is nowhere near the same as an addiction to drugs like meth, crack or heroin. In fact it’s not even in the same ballpark with nicotine addiction. I’ve never been addicted to hard drugs, but I am a nicotine fiend. I’ve quit several times and it’s always been just a miserable experience, and then I always end up going back to it. A nicotine addiction is several orders of magnitude stronger than any marijuana addiction, if such a thing exists.
And as for the gateway theory, come on. There is no proof whatsoever that there is something special about marijuana that makes people want to use other drugs. Yes, most people who will use a drug like cocaine will use marijuana first, but in all likelihood they used alcohol and tobacco before that. Are alcohol and tobacco gateway drugs that make people want to use other drugs? In all likelihood they drank milk before using any of these substances. Is milk a gateway drug?
Alcohol and tobacco are considered gateway drugs in that people who use them are several times more likely than people who do not to use a drug like cocaine. That is just a statistical fact. Are the cigarettes and alcohol causing people to want to use other drugs or is use of these substances just an indicator that someone might be the type of person who gravitates towards intoxicants and thus is more likely that Mr. Goody-two-shoes who never took a drink or smoked a cigarette to use another intoxicant, even one or more that might not be legally available? I think it’s the latter. Some people gravitate toward the use of intoxicants for whatever reason. Maybe they’re adventure seekers. Maybe they are self medicating, whatever. The natural trajectory is that people are likely to use the drugs they perceive as least dangerous first, and/or those they first have the opportunity to to use. Alcohol and cigarettes usually come first, then marijuana, then other drugs, if they’re going to go that far. The marijuana isn’t causing them to use the other drugs though. If marijuana didn’t exist they’d probably still use these other drugs because that’s the kind of people they are.
One other factor that comes into play is of course availability, the opportunity to use these substances. If someone is the type who is interested in intoxicants, the more chances he gets to use a particular intoxicant the more likely he is to use it. If you are a young person hanging around with the party crowd drinking and smoking pot, chances you are going to have opportunities to use other intoxicants. The fact that marijuana is illegal increases that likelihood greatly. Marijuana often comes from the same people that these other drugs are coming from. because it is illegal, the guy who sells you pot is often going to be someone who will sell other illegal drugs. Not only is your pot supplier likely to offer you other drugs, but acquaintances who use other drugs are likely to break those drugs out in front of you and offer to share with you because you already use one illegal drug and thus are not likely to tell on him for using another illegal drug. You are “cool,” meaning you use illegal drugs and are not likely to say anything about others using illegal drugs.
If marijuana was legal and sold through licensed shops like alcohol, the clerks at these shops would be no more likely to offer you a drug like cocaine than the clerk at the liquor store, and since you would not be an illegal drug user just because you smoke a little pot, people who use drugs like cocaine would not be so quick to break that stuff out in front of you. You aren’t “part of the club” unless you also use illegal drugs.
Marijuana would not be legal for teens. Many teens would still get pot though just like they get beer even though that isn’t legal for them. But teenagers don’t buy their beer from drug dealers. They use fake IDs or have an older friend or relative buy it for them. In an environment where marijuana is legal and regulated like alcohol, that’s the way teens would get their marijuana. Obviously we would prefer for teens not to drink or smoke pot, but if they are going to do those things it would most certainly be better that they didn’t get these substances from people likely to offer them a drug like meth, right?
Dr Strangelove:
I just read my long (sorry about that) post and realized that I wasn’t clear about one thing. I said I quit smoking marijuana several times, but this wasn’t quitting like when I tried to quit smoking cigarettes and kept going back to them. I’d quit for a short time to study for finals in college or law school. I’d quit if I knew I was going to have to take a drug test for work. I quit for most of the time I was in the Army, except for brief periods right after a drug test or right before and during the first part of a long leave (vacation). I’d do it when I could get away with doing it, but it was easy to quit when I needed to quit. But if during waking hours I go without a cigarette for a couple of hours I’m about to climb the walls. A few days without a cigarette and I’m in agony, unable to think straight, unpleasant to be around, easily set off into a rage. People can get addicted to marijuana like they can get addicted to playing on the Internet. It can be tough to quit for some people, especially if everyone they hang around with smokes pot. If you are on a diet it’s probably not a good idea to have a bowl of candy on your desk or to frequent all you can eat buffets. Why tempt yourself like that? I won’t argue that marijuana is not addictive at all because I think it really depends on how you define addiction, but “addictions” to marijuana are nowhere near as powerful as addictions hard drugs or cigarettes.
This bill is for legalizing marijuana for medical use, and if it passes only people with very serious conditions will be eligible. It’s pointless to continue to make criminals out of sick people that have found a way to relieve their pain and suffering and, in some cases such as glaucoma, actually improve their lives and medical condition better than conventional medicine.
Marijuana has the ability, in many cases, to greatly increase the effectiveness of pharmaceutical painkillers – and using it accomplishes the exact opposite of the naysayer claim: It allows patients to use LESS of the harmful stuff with few, if any side effects.
Hey!!!! Why are we not developing our own commercials to tell folks that marijuana is non addictive and expose the big pharm drug companies. Let our voices and Ideas be heard! I mean come on can’t someone create a commercial like the celebrx, etc…. except marijuana doesn’t have side effects like death and kidney failure, etc….I really hate seeing drug commercials that say it’ll cure this but it could have serious side effects…
I was just told by my doctor that he would not treat me anymore for my disability. At my last appointment, I was drug-tested to ensure I was taking the painkillers I am being prescribed, but when marijuana showed up positive, I was discharged. (note, the test showed the opiates as well).
I have chronic pain from multiple failed back surgeries to repair herniated discs, and using weed helps me cut my opiate usage by a significant amount. Instead of 6 pills a day and still not getting much relief, I can smoke some pot and take 3-4 pills a day, with a much better result.
Dr. Strange love your a complete idiot no one should take you seriously marijuanas active ingredient is THC not DHT you idiot get life and get informed
If Marijuana ia a gateway drug then masterbation is a gateway to rape
New York Citizens Against Marijuana Prohibition
It is certainly good news that the medicinal value of marijuana is becoming more widely acknowledged in New York State and that legislators are standing up in defense of seriously ill patients who could be treated with marijuana better than with other more harmful medications and treatments. This is the least that we could ask of our elected officials, however it is still overly presumptuous for the state to leave the decission to the legislators, when the current prohibition has very shaky legal standing as it is. It would be more accurate to say that it is a moral and legal obligation for the legislature and the governor to take notice of the fraudulent and deceptive manner in which the cannabis prohibition was established in the first place and look at the real facts. Then we are truly holding our public servants accountable for the proper scrutiny of legislation.
My position is I would support a revised version of the medical marijuana bill, that would call for the removal of marijuana from New York’s schedule 1 list and does not violate the patient doctor confidentiality rule by requiring government certification of every patient. In order for the medical marijuana law to be accurate, it must correct the false notion, implied by its schedule 1 listing, that it has no medical value. There are 11 government patents on the medicinal uses of cannabis. It is actually criminally negligent for any legislator who knows of the medical uses of cannabis to allow another law to be passed that perpetuates the false representation of the plant as a dangerous narcotic. The LaGuardia Report and the Nixon Shafer Commission Report both found, through extensive studies, that the reasoning behind marijuana prohibition was extremely flawed and deceptive. Therefore, New York State has the constitutional authority to make a law based on the true facts and findings, that will properly represent the rights and well being of the people. A medical marijuana law must recognize the individual’s right to choose a safe effective herbal remedy that has never proven to be a danger to public health or safety. Senator Thomas Duane’s bill, in present form, does not. Therefore it is still supported by questionable data and unconstitutional misuse of legislative power. A medical bill that refers to or treats marijuana as a dangerous narcotic is deceptive and unjust, as there is ample evidence that it is not phisically addicting and poses no major health risks to the consumer.
NY C.A.M.P. has prepared a revised version of the bill, that would follow constitutional limitations and convey true scientific observation. We are asking every legislator and governor to consider the true findings and scrutinize the blatantly unconstitutional prohibition. All New Yorkers have a right to this safe effective medicine and the government has no real authority to even consider denying that.
Let this herb be returned to it’s place in the common medicine cabinet from which it was removed by fraud and deception. Support a revised medicinal cannabis bill that would protect the individual’s right to choose without government interferance.
http://www.nycamp.org/bill
Yay for New York! Pass this law, please please! New York citizens will benefit so much from allowing sick patients to have this non addictive medicine that’s less harmful than most prescription pain medications.
We are meant to utilize marijuana in every way possible. Our brains have receptors that specifically connect with cannabinoids and the ONLY place you can find cannabinoids is the cannibis plant. If weed were made legal throughout this country, one could go out and buy a pack of joints. That pack would last you far longer than a pack of cigarettes and would and would be cheaper and healthier since the only ingredient would be marijuana, not tobacco plus all the shit they put in with it to make it addictive and deadly. There are other things that have been made with weed in it like lip balm, mouth spray, cookies, etc. which provide the medicinal effects of it but have no negative outcomes of smoking because smoking ANYTHING isn’t good for your lungs. Marijuana can be used to make rope, paper, clothing, and building material, which would generate billion dollar companies that would take up a lot of the timber industry’s work, saving our trees. The reason weed’s illegal in the first place is because William Randolph Hearst had a lot of money in the timber industry and fought for years and paid a lot of money to have it criminalized. The cultivation, distributing, selling, etc. of marijuana would generate many new jobs and help small communities flourish. In less than 20 years, the US could be out of the debt that G.W.B put us in and set us on track to another expansion like the one marijuana friendly Bill Clinton provided. I suffer from severe, crippling migraines, anxiety, and depression at times and the only thing that’s helped for me is weed. People are prescribed medications that are harmful to the body, produce severe side effects that are sometimes worse than that which they’re designed to treat, are very expensive, and very easy to overdose on. Instead, prescribe marijuana which is cheap to produce, has little to no side effects, is naturally meant to be used by humans, and is IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERDOSE ON.
I think before one makes public comments that recomend either use or prevention of use that those with advice ought to have the good sense to be studied enough to have a clue what they are speaking about…so as I have been in study and use for over 30 years I say this to DR. Strangelove….WAKE UP DO SOME RESEARCH..
there is no addictive property in cannabis and the plant is not a drug never was despite mans classing it so…a PLANT as given to man by GOD according to the Bible GEN. 1:29
And has only benificial qualitiies for mankind including the potential to stop hunger on a world wide scale…
LEARN to know to what you are speaking about…DO NOT TEACH IGNORANCE.
Thhank You.
John