Un-American to Harass Sick

Another excellent letter to the editor appeared in today's Anniston Star in support of ACC member and medical marijuana patient Michael Lapihuska. If you have not yet written a letter in support of charges being dropped against Michael please take the time to do so now. Send your letters to speakout@annistonstar.com


Un-American to harass the sick

by our readers

Re "Anniston man finds one state's medicine is another's illicit drug" (News article, Aug. 18):

Harassing the sick and dying is an un-American activity. It is overkill and morally bankrupt to arrest nonviolent people for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other medicinal/social drugs.

I am afraid murderers and other violent predators roam free while we police nonviolent adult social, medicinal and religious drug use. Regulation, science-based education and treating abuse as a medical problem is a better drug policy that increases public safety and harm reduction. Prohibition supports despicable people who sell drugs to children, recruit them to sell to their peers and arm them to kill the competition.

Across America, paramilitary drug raids trigger violence rather than lessen the risk. All this unconscionable bloodshed is on the hands of leadership as much as those who pulled the trigger or did the actual butchering and torturing. It is a policy-created problem.

Now is the time to insist American warriors get their adrenaline rush catching murderers and other violent predators. I understand that it will not be possible to stop all murders and rapes. However, get tough on violent crime. Restore justice, the guardian of liberty.

Use of illegal drugs has increased significantly during the drug war, and the use of tobacco has decreased due to truth in education and infomercials about this killer. True science-based drug education allows everyone to make better health decisions. Support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with support for individual freedom, constitutional government and the teachings of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Colleen McCool
Stephenville, Texas

Cast a Vote for Compassion

My letter in support of Michael Lapihuska was printed in the Anniston Star today.

Cast a Vote for Compassion

Cast a vote for compassion
by our readers
Aug 29, 2010 | 141 views | 2 2 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Re "Anniston man finds one state's medicine is another's illicit drug" (News article, Aug. 18):

Thanks to The Star for the article on Michael Lapihuska's situation. Michael's predicament clearly demonstrates the need for Alabama to pass comprehensive medical marijuana legislation.

What happened to Michael is a complete miscarriage of justice. Since when is geographic location used to determine whether someone is a patient or a criminal? If Michael's doctor recommended marijuana for his treatment, then who are the cops/courts to decide whether he can have that treatment? Cops and judges haven't been to medical school. They are not doctors. Their solution to every problem is taser, shoot, abuse and/or imprison. Clearly, that isn't how we want to treat patients in Alabama. It isn't against the law to be sick or to try and alleviate one's own suffering.

The state of Alabama should respect the laws and professional licenses of other states. An Alabama patient living in a state that recognizes marijuana as a valid medical treatment should not have to fear returning home to visit family and friends. They should be able to bring their medicine with them, without fear of arrest and imprisonment. As it stands now, any Alabama patient living in a medical marijuana state must decide between risking arrest and imprisonment if they bring their medicine, not bringing their medicine and thereby compromising their health, or deciding to never return home again. Imagine if the medicine in question was seizure medication or blood pressure pills. Only barbarians would uphold such a terrible law.

Alabamians for Compassionate Care will reintroduce medical marijuana legislation in the 2011 legislative session. This bill would protect patients like Michael Lapihuska by recognizing medical marijuana patients from other states. Please contact your representative and ask them to support the Compassionate Care Act when it comes before them in 2011.

Loretta Nall
Executive Director
Alabamians for Compassionate Care
Alexander City

Please go and leave comments on the Anniston Star site and then write a letter in support of Michael and send it to speakout@annistonstar.com

Fantastic Anniston Star Article on HB642

This is a truly amazing and positive article from the Anniston Star. Even the sheriff's deputy isn't really against it and didn't say anything negative.

Many thanks to Laura Camper and the Anniston Star for doing such a wonderful job with this.

Medical Marijuana Bill Clears Hurdle

Anniston Star -

After six years, a bill legalizing medical marijuana that has never seen the light of day outside of the state House of Representatives committee, passed the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and can now be debated on the floor.

“ We made history ( Wednesday),” said Loretta Nall, executive director of Alabamians for Compassionate Care and long time advocate of medicinal marijuana. “It’s also really the first time there’s been a really open and honest debate.”

The legislation, House Bill 642, would allow patients with epilepsy, cancer, HIV/ AIDS, glaucoma, hepatitis C, Alzheimer’s disease or other debilitating diseases to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana or grow up to six plants for medicinal use.


Read the rest here
Contact staff writer Laura Camper at 256-235-3545

A really dumb letter in the Anniston Star

A lady named Tonya Curvin wrote a response to ACC member and patient Chris Butts letter about medical marijuana that appeared in the Star a few weeks ago. It may be one of the dumbest things I have ever read. She suggests that terminally ill people and those suffering from severe, debilitating pain go to a counselor, a chiropractor, exercise and talk to the preacher instead of using medication of any kind to ease their pain.

What a nut!

She uses the same tired, old, unfounded propaganda to try and back up her claims.

Drugs lead to more drugs

However, her ignorance sparked a really great conversation. I encourage all of you to check it out, join in the discussion and write a letter to the Anniston Star in response.

speakout@annistonstar.com

Make Marijuana Legal

Fellow letter writer and friend Don Siebold had the following letter published in the Anniston Star today.

Make Marijuana Legal

Re "Marijuana gold mine" (Speak Out, July 31):

Letter writer Loretta Nall made a credible argument for legalizing marijuana in Alabama.

For some time I've been a proponent for legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes for those people who could benefit from it when prescribed drugs won't help them at all or as much.

It's time for our legislators to take off their blinders and do something constructive for Alabama and its residents, especially those who could benefit from using marijuana to help relieve their pain and suffering without fear of being jailed and branded as criminals.

We learned long ago that the prohibition of alcohol didn't work, so its use was made legal. Why shouldn't we do the same thing with marijuana when it could benefit patients, whereas alcohol doesn't? It likely would be less expensive to use than alcohol is if it were legal to use it.

Don Seibold
Wetumpka
----------

Great job Don! I hope many others are following suit.

Hemp in Alabama

A very nice follow up to my 'Marijuana Gold Mine" letter which appeared in the Anniston Star a few days ago. Thank you Gail Evans.

Hemp in Alabama
by our readers
Re "Marijuana gold mine" (Speak Out, July 31):

Writer Loretta Nall's letter about legalization of marijuana sparked several thoughts. Legalization would make sense, given the failure of the hugely expensive war on drugs.

Alabama is facing an economic meltdown. We have factories closing, workers laid off, people knocking themselves out to find employment where there are few, if any, jobs. Rural areas are suffering the most.

Should Alabama legalize cultivation of cannabis hemp, which contains no THC, it would be a tremendous boost to the state's economy. This crop is inexpensive to grow and harvest, using no commercial fertilizers or pesticides harmful to the environment, and the Alabama climate would allow three crops per year.

The harvested hemp requires processing before it is made into clothing, sheets, towels, paper, etc. Re-opening some of the abandoned cotton mills to process the fiber would lead to jobs for those who need them and increased tax revenue for the state. The green leaves could be processed as biomass for alternative fuels. The seed of the plant could be pressed for a nutritious oil (already included in many cosmetics and body care products), and the seed cake, which is high in protein, could be used to feed humans and livestock.

Every time I drive by a closed factory or an abandoned farm, I think how it might be different if our farmers were allowed to grow cannabis hemp.

Gail Evans
Bay Minette

Legalize Drugs

My friend and fellow activist Dawn Palmer had a great letter published in today's Anniston Star.


Legalize drugs

There seems to be a feud going on with the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the National Rifle Association concerning whether or not the guns in Mexico are coming from the United States and arming the drug cartels.

There is a possible solution to both of their grievances as well as getting a hold on our drug-abuse problem — legalize all drugs.

Sounds horrible, doesn't it? However, legalizing all drugs would stop the cartels in their tracks and the flow of guns into Mexico, as well as taking the drug-abuse problem out of our criminal-justice system and putting it into the health-care system where it belongs. Then we could focus on the biggest drug pushers of them all, the pharmaceutical companies.

Dawn Palmer
Tarrant

Go Dawn Go!!

Letter to the Editor

Christina Tidmore had the following letter published in the Anniston Star today.

Medical marijuana

I am writing in support of HB434, The Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act. In February 2007, my father was diagnosed with cancer of the liver and the lymph system. He had a grim prognosis: six months with chemotherapy, or less than six months without. At the time, I was a teenager and a high school senior, so this was devastating. Not knowing whether my father would live to see me graduate was worse than knowing he would never get to walk me down the aisle or see his grandchildren.

Once Dad started the chemo, he began wasting away. The pharmaceutical medications hardly helped his pain. My mother and I felt helpless. Then we heard about medical marijuana.

Looking at me, one wouldn't suspect anything beyond a typical college sophomore. But in Alabama, I am a criminal, a willing participant in obtaining marijuana through the black market for my cancer-stricken father. For helping my dying father, I could have been arrested, jailed and lost my college funding. I'd risk it all again to help my dad.

But I shouldn't have to. Neither should anyone else.

My father passed away in October 2007 at the premature age of 53. I was 18, and while he saw me graduate, he spent more than eight months suffering from cancer, with only illegally obtained marijuana as relief.

Please make this drug more accessible to those who need it. Cases like my father's are why legislators should vote yes on HB434.

Christina Tidmore
Birmingham

Bill proposed to legalize medical marijuana

I just came across this article from a week ago in the Anniston Star. I have written Mr. Faulk asking for a follow up to this article with a few interviews of the patients I work with and asking for the lady from the Nurses Association to back up what she said about 'problems from using it on down the road" and Rep. Steve McMillan's claim that 'Alabama isn't ready to legalize marijuana.' A poll done in 2004 showed that 76% of Alabamians support medical marijuana.

There is an Anniston Star legalization poll here . It is on the lower right side of the page.

Anniston Star
Bill proposed to legalize medical marijuana
By Mike Faulk
Staff Writer
03-12-2009

Marijuana could be coming to a pharmacy near you, but that prospect will have to travel a long, bumpy road through the Legislature.

A bill introduced by state Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, would make it legal in the state for doctors to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes. The bill is waiting to come up before the House Judiciary Committee.

"It's an important bill that many states are considering as another option for people with a terminal illness or in great pain," said Todd, who is also the associate director of AIDS Alabama.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the past, but state legislators said the proposal has never made it very far into the process. Medical marijuana is legal in 10 states, most being in the Western part of the country, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The active chemical in marijuana, THC, is widely agreed upon as useful for alleviating nausea and increasing the appetite in cancer patients and those suffering from severe illness. However, whether ingesting THC by smoking marijuana is an acceptable form of treatment has long been under fire.

"Marijuana has stuff in it that causes health problems down the line," said Charlene Roberson, leadership services director for the Alabama State Nurses Association.

Roberson's organization endorses Marinol, a pill made from synthetic THC introduced in 1985. It's legal in the state and serves the same medicinal purpose.

If the bill passes, patients would be prescribed up to two and a half ounces and have to get a registration card proving they obtained the drug for medicinal purposes. The legislation also places heavy restrictions on public use of the drug, as well as being under its influence at school, in the workplace or while operating machinery or vehicles.

"It's just another tool for physicians to use," Todd said. "This is not legalizing marijuana."

Judiciary Committee chairman Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, said the bill would likely be debated and voted on some time after the Legislature returns from a week-long hiatus beginning next week.

Black said a similar bill cleared the committee several years ago, but the makeup of the committee has changed since then.

"We'll give it a hearing," he said. "Surely there'll be plenty of questions."

Rep. Steve McMillan, R-Gulf Shores, a member of the committee, said he voted in favor of legalizing medicinal marijuana the last time it came before the committee, but now has doubts about its medical benefits. He said another concern is placing restrictions on those who grow it.

McMillan said it's unlikely the bill would become law even if it passes committee this year.

"I just don't think the people in this state are ready for legalizing marijuana," he said.

Medical Marijuana Letters Published This Week

Last week Alabamians for Compassionate Care started a letter writing campaign to newspapers across Alabama informing voters about HB434, The Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act. So far two letters have been published. One has been published twice.

Author: Don Seibold
State Should Allow Medical Marijuana (Birmingham News)

Medical Marijuana Bill Should Pass (Montgomery Advertiser)

Please Support Medical Marijuana Bill (Tuscaloosa News)

Author: Gil Joiner
Medical Marijuana (Anniston Star)

Many other letters have been written by the patients and family members who make up the membership of ACC. Mrs. Margaret Ann Newman, who was Miss Wheel Chair Alabama in 1996, carried the Olympic torch through Birmingham that year, is a wife, mother, grandmother, multiple sclerosis patient and medical marijuana user wrote a very moving letter, as did Christie Reeder, who is a chronic pain patient who survived a horrific auto accident 22 years ago. Another letter writer is the son of a woman who was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He had a gun put to his head recently while trying to acquire medical marijuana for his mother. We are hoping that many of the letters that have been written but not yet published will appear in papers across Alabama in tomorrows Sunday editions.

If others have written letters that have been published please send them to me so that I can post them here.

And the Anniston Star

My letter regarding taxing marijuana to fund education in Alabama was printed today in the Anniston Star. That makes four papers in major population centers where this letter has been published. I only hope that it will make people think about what all we are throwing away by allowing the black market to control the drug trade.