Group To Run Ads Calling For Repeal Of Medical Marijuana

[Jim Finnel]

A Billings group is launching a $20,000 weeklong, statewide television advertising campaign to ask Montanans to urge their state senators and Gov. Brian Schweitzer to support repealing Montana's 2004 law legalizing medical marijuana.

The ad will be taped today and will begin running on Tuesday. It will feature some kids talking about marijuana getting into schools.

Cherrie Brady of Billings heads the group, Safe Community, Safe Kids, which is running the advertising campaign.

Brady said the theme of the TV ad is that "our kids are in trouble and that medical marijuana has penetrated the schools."

"Schools are pretty much under a gag order," she added. "We're hoping to expose a little of what's going on in schools."

Brady said school officials have told her privately that there's so much excess medical marijuana in Montana that kids are selling it all over schools and that some kids are prostituting themselves to obtain it. Law enforcement officials have told her that they can't police the use of marijuana in the schools because it's often consumed in brownies and candy, she said. "It's crossing boundaries," she said. "It's not just the bad kids. They have star athletes ( using marijuana too )."

The House, on a preliminary, 63-37 vote last week, passed House Bill 161, by Speaker Mike Milburn, R-Cascade, which would repeal the state's voter-passed medical marijuana law. It is expected to face a final House vote soon before heading to the Senate.

There are also several other key bills that would keep medical marijuana legal, but institute a more comprehensive licensing and regulatory system.

The ad will direct people to the group's website, Montana Medical Marijuana Reform , where they can find links to contact their state senators and Schweitzer, who has not said where he stands on repealing the law.

Steve Zabawa, owner of a Billings car dealership, said the Safe Community, Safe Kids has already has raised the money for the advertising.

Both Zabawa and Brady said the TV ad is timed to reach Montanans around the time their legislators are on their midsession break. They will recess on Feb. 24 and return to the Capitol on March 1. During that break, many lawmakers return to their home districts and meet with their constituents at town meetings and other gatherings.

The group also is setting up phone banks to make calls to community leaders in senators' districts and to ask them to contact their key constituents to see what they think is the best approach to address medical marijuana - repealing contact other the law, regulating the industry or taxing the industry, Zabawa said.

"Most of the state in my opinion doesn't know that medical marijuana can be repealed," he said.

He said he favors repealing the law, having the state study the issue thoroughly and then possibly passing another law that would put up strict parameters to restrict the use of medical marijuana. The state needs to get the federal Food and Drug Administration involved, he said.

"Repeal's the deal," Zabawa said. "We hope to get that accomplished."

Safe Community, Safe Kids, launched an 11th hour campaign last summer to put an initiative on 2010 ballot to repeal the medical marijuana. The group obtained more than 19,000 signatures in a week, but failed by 5,000 signatures to qualify it for the ballot.


NewsHawk: Jim Behr: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Montana Standard (Butte, MT)
Copyright: 2011 Montana Standard
Contact: editor@mtstandard.com
Website: MTStandard.com - Butte, Montana
Details: MapInc
Author: Charles S. Johnson

 

[Rommel1l]

Im trying to locate this article at the website but am unable to?

Do you have a direct link to it?

 

[Jim Finnel]

Im trying to locate this article at the website but am unable to?

Do you have a direct link to it?

give this a try:
Group to run ads calling for repeal of medical marijuana

 

[Smoketahchoke]

Illegal substances in schools in pretty large supply isn't new(edited due to edit to fit guidelines I apologize for posting in a way that needed to be edited)
Prohibition doesn't work and releasing it may flood the market but re prohibition isn't the answer, it's proper education on the subject(and not that shit diatribe the conservatives have been shoving down our throats about our brains being a scrambled egg when high on any substance,) there are degrees and some things have been mislabeled for political reasons. It is still a drug but not nearly as dangerous as they want you to believe or in some cases more dangerous than you could imagine, and education on the REAL dangers of drugs needs to be used not cheezy stereotypes or fear tactics the american youth aren't the 60's sitcom kids you think they should be and if you think real hard on your past I'm pretty sure you weren't either.

 

[ProHemp]

"Its not just the bad kids. They have star athletes (using marijuana too)". This statement alone should let the State Senators, Governor and the people of Montana know the intelligence level of this group. Sounds like before MMJ came along it must have been just the so called "bad kids" getting marijuana so it wasn't a problem. What a group.

 

[Odin]

I laughed out loud when I read this:

Brady said school officials have told her privately that there's so much excess medical marijuana in Montana that kids are selling it all over schools and that some kids are prostituting themselves to obtain it.

Its sick to know it was passed in the preliminary hearing. What a joke. When it goes to the Senate, do you really think they are going to vote it down?? Doubtful. This is probably what they have been waiting for.

 

[MedicalNeed]

Brady said school officials have told her privately that there's so much excess medical marijuana in Montana that kids are selling it all over schools and that some kids are prostituting themselves to obtain it.

Just more Proof that prohibition makes it where you can get things money CAN'T buy.


I wonder how many Legislators would want their kids to have to go to the extreme to obtain something that should be readily available?

Seems to be the disgusting opposite of the Racist Reasons behind Cannabis Prohibition to begin with, forgetting the Corporate Sabotage that accompanied it.

 

[Gothmog]

If you google for the World Federation Against Drugs*, an international anti-drugs organization based in Sweden, you can find more about this on their site. There's an interview with Mike Milburn, one of the Republican sponsors of this "repeal" act.

I'm a big advocate of MMJ, and, in fact, just plain MJ for adults. But if you listen to Millburn's comments, it does seem that things did get a bit out of hand with regard to regulation. To hear his side of it, it seems that the basic regulatory procedures either are being ignored, or were not implemented in the first place.

The net result of MMJ in my state is that cannabis is much, much easier to get by people who are willing to go through the steps necessary to do so. I don't think this is a bad thing at all. But I do think that those of us who live in MMJ states, and who hold state issued permits need to observe every letter of the law. The collectives need to do the same in terms of how they operate. It troubles me a bit when I go to one and they don't ask to see my ID or permit. We shouldn't be giving our opponents any fodder with which to attack the legal MMJ system.

*I think we're not allowed to link to other websites, is that right?

 

[Jim Finnel]

I think we're not allowed to link to other websites, is that right?

It all depends on the website & the content. Check the posting guidelines for details.

 

[Gothmog]

It all depends on the website & the content. Check the posting guidelines for details.

I did do that, but it wasn't entirely clear. The anti-drug group's website could be construed as being cannabis-related, so I didn't want to give the link.

In any event, as a moderator on another board I know that hyperlinks can be a red flag for spam, regardless of the sites they lead to. I usually try to give the reader enough information to find a site on their own, rather than giving the actual hyperlink.

 

[Jim Finnel]

You can always pm me any links and I can take a look. I'm here to help.

 

[endive]

Brady said school officials have told her privately that there's so much excess medical marijuana in Montana that kids are selling it all over schools and that some kids are prostituting themselves to obtain it.

And to think I gave sex away for free, what a waste of my youth.

 

[endive]

But I do think that those of us who live in MMJ states, and who hold state issued permits need to observe every letter of the law. The collectives need to do the same in terms of how they operate. We shouldn't be giving our opponents any fodder with which to attack the legal MMJ system.

Well said!

With freedoms come responsibilities, and it is a shame when you either see medical laws and regulations so poorly written, it is almost as if the whole program were designed to fail, so opponents can just say, "See we told you it wouldn't work!", Or you see patients & providers grossly abusing the system and getting caught, thus making the majority of us look stereotypically bad in the public eye.

 

[medMUser]

What's funny is these re-prohibit numb skulls forget that is was not MJ that the school shooters were or had been on. It was junk stuff like LEGAL Rx Ritalin.

Drug free school zones my dogs hind end!

I bet if some one looked hard enough they would find some big corp that's losing $ is funding some if not all of this junk.

mM