Texas Medical Marijuana Update

[Easy Skanking]

Quote:Texas Medical Marijuana Update!


NORML is pleased to announce that House Bill 1534, an act to allow qualified patients to raise an affirmative defense to prosecution for the possession of medical cannabis, has been referred to the House Committee on Public Heath. If approved, this proposal would enact limited legal protections for patients who use cannabis under a doctor's supervision. It would also enact legal protections for physicians who make oral or written recommendations to their patients regarding the use of medicinal cannabis. (Read the full text of the bill: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/b.../HB01534I.htm.)

While HB 1534 does not establish statewide regulations to allow qualified patients to use and possess medical cannabis -- as have been enacted in other states -- this bill does enact new legal protections for patients by allowing them to present evidence of their medical use at trial.

Please take two minutes of your time today to contact your Representative as well as members of the House Committee on Public Health and urge them to stand up for the rights of Texas patients. For your convenience, Committee member contact information along with a pre-written letter have been included below.

Sincerely,
Erin Dame
NORML Outreach Coordinator
Erin@norml.org



Rep. Dianne White Delisi - Chair
Capitol Office: CAP 1W.5
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0630
District Address:3000 S. 31st Street, Suite 505
Temple, TX 76502
District Phone: (254) 774-9888

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg - Vice Chair
Capitol Office: EXT E2.504
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0186
District Address: 507 East Boydstun, Suite B
Rockwall, TX 75087
District Phone: (972) 772-8525

Rep. Jim Jackson - Budget and Oversight Chair
Capitol Office: EXT E1.406
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0468
District Address: 1120 Metrocrest Drive #107
Carrollton, TX 75011
District Phone: (972) 416-7698

Rep. Ellen Cohen
Capitol Office: EXT E2.302
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0389
District Address: 3355 West Alabama, Suite 1250
Houston, TX 77098
District Phone: (713) 660-0899

Rep. Garnet Coleman
Capitol Office: CAP GW.17
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0524
District Address: 5445 Alameda, Suite 501
Houston, TX 77004
District Phone: (713) 520-5355

Rep. Veronica Gonzales
Capitol Office: EXT E1.324
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0578
District Address: 4900 N. 10th Street, Suite C-2
McAllen, TX 78504
District Phone: (956) 686-5501

Rep. Susan King
Capitol Office: EXT E2.416
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0718
District Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768

Rep. Dora Olivo
Capitol Office: CAP 4N.6
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0494
District Address: P.O. Box 2130
Missouri City, TX 77459
District Phone: (281) 208-8806

Rep. Vicki Truitt
Capitol Office: EXT E2.502
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Capitol Phone: (512) 463-0690
District Address: 1256 Main Street, #248
Southlake, TX 76092
District Phone: (817) 488-4098


Dear Representative ________,

I'm writing today to urge your support for House Bill 1534, which seeks to allow qualified patients to raise an affirmative defense to prosecution for the possession and use of medical cannabis. At the same time, this proposal will not alter or interfere with existing state laws discouraging the non-medical, recreational use of marijuana.

The use of marijuana as medicine is a public health issue; it should not be part of the war on drugs. According to a national survey of U.S. physicians conducted for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, nearly half of all doctors with opinions on this issue support legalizing marijuana as a medicine. Moreover, some 80 state and national health care organizations, including the American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association and The New England Journal of Medicine, support immediate, legal patient access to medical cannabis. Locally, statewide polling data shows that 75 percent of Texas voters favor allowing "people with cancer and other serious illnesses to use marijuana for medical purposes, as long as their physician approves."

A recent meta-analysis published in the April 2006 issue of the Journal of Ethnopharamacology identifies more than 70 controlled clinical trials available in the scientific literature investigating the medical safety and efficacy of cannabinoids as therapeutic agents. Results of these patient trials indicate that cannabis and its constituents possess therapeutic utility as antiemetics, appetite stimulants in debilitating diseases, and as analgesic agents, as well as provide symptomatic relief of multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, Tourette's syndrome, epilepsy, and glaucoma, among other serious diseases. Passage of HB 1534 would ensure that patients who use cannabis under a doctor's supervision to treat these and other conditions may present medical evidence evidence at trial, and that a jury and judge may -- when appropriate -- consider it as a mitigating factor.

Once again, I urge you to support House Bill 1534.

Sincerely,
Your Name

[Gunky]

This is a good thing and I support it....but, I don't see how it will help much of anything. The judges today (for the most part) are behaving in a criminal fashion (because they ARE criminals) and do not have to allow anything into their court, let alone following any law stating what is evidence and what is not evidence.

Why are we even dealing with law reform? It's been proven to me that the "Law" in the U.S. is now clearly defunct and broken. If your house's foundation is broken, do you paint the thing to fix it? No, you tear the house to the ground, rip out the foundation and build anew. That's not to say we need to start again completely from nothing, we still have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Which is all we need, isn't it?