You might have missed it amid the fuss over Marsha Ternus and whether she's attentive enough in the mom department to be chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.
It's a requirement, apparently. But while the rest of the state was wondering what Ternus was doing during a night of underage drinking on the family acreage near Grimes, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy was voting to hold three monthly public hearings, starting in August, on medical marijuana.
Advertisement
While the decision hasn't generated the interest, it seems almost as important as the Ternus dust-up.
After everyone weighs in during the hearings, the pharmacy board will decide whether Iowans with severe medical problems can smoke pot to ease their pain and suffering. Then, the board will send recommendations to the Statehouse.
Who knows? It's a long shot, but maybe Iowa will join the 13 states that say it's all right for sick people to use pot as a medication.
That would please Carl Olsen, co-founder of Iowans for Medical Marijuana, and he isn't even ill.
Olsen, 57, a Web-site developer from Des Moines, brought the petition to the board but didn't get exactly what he wanted.
He wanted board members to endorse a change in marijuana's legal status to a medication that could be supervised by doctors.
They said they needed more information before bringing such an endorsement to the Statehouse. Thus, the hearings.
In refusing Olsen's request, however, they went out of their way to attack his credibility, devoting three pages to Olsen's "long history of marijuana possession and use," and his criminal drug record.
They felt compelled to tell the public what a stoner Olsen was in his younger days and how he's much more interested in broad legalization than helping sick folks.
In 1978, he was arrested on a possession charge in Jasper County. The cops flagged him down for weaving slowly on and off the highway shoulder.
During a search, they found three joints and several thousand dollars in his shirt pocket.
In the trunk of Olsen's Cadillac Eldorado were plastics bags of marijuana and a pile of money.
Not long after, he was stopped on an illegal-passing violation. A sheriff's deputy found 129 pounds of marijuana in his trunk. A paper bag behind the spare tire contained almost $11,000.
A few years later in Maine, Olsen was convicted of possession with intent to deliver. He was part of a group caught unloading 40,000 pounds of marijuana from a ship moored offshore.
Olsen argued in federal court that his marijuana possession was protected on religious grounds.
The pharmacy board doesn't see Olsen as "a sincere, credible advocate for medical marijuana use."
Olsen disagrees. He hasn't smoked pot in 19 years, he says, and who knows more about the issue's pros and cons?
He says he had a huge meth problem in the early '70s. Olsen was slowly killing himself when he met a group of Rastafarians, who believe in the spiritual benefits of marijuana.
They convinced him life was worth living and nursed him back to health. Olsen was staying in a commune when he was arrested unloading the ship.
The board also mentioned Olsen's connection to the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church and his assertion that Iowa's drug laws violate his constitutional rights by interfering with the free exercise of his religion.
The board's overblown reaction to Olsen and what happened 25 years ago leads me to believe this won't get to the State-house.
Even if it does, that is where it probably dies.
The Democrats are in power, but do they have the backbone to pass such a politically explosive measure?
It shouldn't be that politically explosive. Public opinion around the country is moving toward medical marijuana.
In Michigan in November, such an initiative won with 63 percent of the vote. Registered qualifying patients are allowed to use, cultivate and possess marijuana.
The law enables "primary caregivers" to cultivate up to 12 marijuana plants per patient and assist five patients in its medical use.
Marijuana is a mood-altering substance, so caution is necessary. Also, smoking anything can't be great for the heart or lungs.
But Ray Lakers, a multiple sclerosis patient I know, says, "I'll put a half pan of my brownies up against one of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy's Vicodin/Oxycontin any day or sleepless night."
Marijuana users, when compared with alcohol consumers, are less likely to take part in soccer riots, beat spouses, fire bullets into the air on New Year's Eve, drive 65 mph in school zones or die of overdoses.
The pharmacy board might disagree, but the benefits of medical marijuana seem to outweigh the risks by a mile.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Des Moines Register
Author: MARC HANSEN
Contact: The Des Moines Register
Copyright: 2009 The Des Moines Register
Website: Board Takes Potshot at Marijuana Backer
It's a requirement, apparently. But while the rest of the state was wondering what Ternus was doing during a night of underage drinking on the family acreage near Grimes, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy was voting to hold three monthly public hearings, starting in August, on medical marijuana.
Advertisement
While the decision hasn't generated the interest, it seems almost as important as the Ternus dust-up.
After everyone weighs in during the hearings, the pharmacy board will decide whether Iowans with severe medical problems can smoke pot to ease their pain and suffering. Then, the board will send recommendations to the Statehouse.
Who knows? It's a long shot, but maybe Iowa will join the 13 states that say it's all right for sick people to use pot as a medication.
That would please Carl Olsen, co-founder of Iowans for Medical Marijuana, and he isn't even ill.
Olsen, 57, a Web-site developer from Des Moines, brought the petition to the board but didn't get exactly what he wanted.
He wanted board members to endorse a change in marijuana's legal status to a medication that could be supervised by doctors.
They said they needed more information before bringing such an endorsement to the Statehouse. Thus, the hearings.
In refusing Olsen's request, however, they went out of their way to attack his credibility, devoting three pages to Olsen's "long history of marijuana possession and use," and his criminal drug record.
They felt compelled to tell the public what a stoner Olsen was in his younger days and how he's much more interested in broad legalization than helping sick folks.
In 1978, he was arrested on a possession charge in Jasper County. The cops flagged him down for weaving slowly on and off the highway shoulder.
During a search, they found three joints and several thousand dollars in his shirt pocket.
In the trunk of Olsen's Cadillac Eldorado were plastics bags of marijuana and a pile of money.
Not long after, he was stopped on an illegal-passing violation. A sheriff's deputy found 129 pounds of marijuana in his trunk. A paper bag behind the spare tire contained almost $11,000.
A few years later in Maine, Olsen was convicted of possession with intent to deliver. He was part of a group caught unloading 40,000 pounds of marijuana from a ship moored offshore.
Olsen argued in federal court that his marijuana possession was protected on religious grounds.
The pharmacy board doesn't see Olsen as "a sincere, credible advocate for medical marijuana use."
Olsen disagrees. He hasn't smoked pot in 19 years, he says, and who knows more about the issue's pros and cons?
He says he had a huge meth problem in the early '70s. Olsen was slowly killing himself when he met a group of Rastafarians, who believe in the spiritual benefits of marijuana.
They convinced him life was worth living and nursed him back to health. Olsen was staying in a commune when he was arrested unloading the ship.
The board also mentioned Olsen's connection to the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church and his assertion that Iowa's drug laws violate his constitutional rights by interfering with the free exercise of his religion.
The board's overblown reaction to Olsen and what happened 25 years ago leads me to believe this won't get to the State-house.
Even if it does, that is where it probably dies.
The Democrats are in power, but do they have the backbone to pass such a politically explosive measure?
It shouldn't be that politically explosive. Public opinion around the country is moving toward medical marijuana.
In Michigan in November, such an initiative won with 63 percent of the vote. Registered qualifying patients are allowed to use, cultivate and possess marijuana.
The law enables "primary caregivers" to cultivate up to 12 marijuana plants per patient and assist five patients in its medical use.
Marijuana is a mood-altering substance, so caution is necessary. Also, smoking anything can't be great for the heart or lungs.
But Ray Lakers, a multiple sclerosis patient I know, says, "I'll put a half pan of my brownies up against one of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy's Vicodin/Oxycontin any day or sleepless night."
Marijuana users, when compared with alcohol consumers, are less likely to take part in soccer riots, beat spouses, fire bullets into the air on New Year's Eve, drive 65 mph in school zones or die of overdoses.
The pharmacy board might disagree, but the benefits of medical marijuana seem to outweigh the risks by a mile.
News Hawk- Ganjarden 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: The Des Moines Register
Author: MARC HANSEN
Contact: The Des Moines Register
Copyright: 2009 The Des Moines Register
Website: Board Takes Potshot at Marijuana Backer
