Angelini has her head up her ass. This is no message to children when MJ still will have a penalty for possession. How does this "message" compare with the state's "message" on alcohol or tobacco? Both do more harm than MJ and both are LEGAL. CC needs to get on board with the populace and sign this coming bill. STOP THE DRUG WARS!

Things must be very different from when I was a child as I never got a single message from a politician until after I registered to vote in 1980. The first message I ever got from a politician shortly after that was "vote for me and send me money or at least send the money." I've voted in a lot of elections since and have gotten thousands of messages from politicians, all identical to that first message.

When I was a youth I spent Saturday mornings watching cartoons and waited by the mailbox hoping to see the latest edition of MAD Magazine. Do youngsters today instead spend their Saturday mornings watching re-runs on C-Span and waiting by the mailbox for the latest edition of Congressional Quarterly?

Yes, it is OK to smoke it!

Harms your physical health? No. Harms your mental well-being? No...it might help it! Maybe the human mind benefits from marijuana? Maybe marijuana produces better adjusted people? Maybe marijuana erodes the ego, and we need more ego erosion in our society? Harms your daily work and social functions? No...many people are doing just fine, thank you for noticing. Unless you are a victim of work related bigotry and discrimination; or prejudiced, bigoted laws that won't allow you a federal school loan if you are caught with marijuana. Seems to me there is quite a social structure that sabotages people lives! And then we have people who turn off their brains, and look the other way, and say: "Look at these terrible people!...They are such losers!"

BTW, how much is Ms. Angelini paid to run the "Prevention First" dog & pony show?

It's seems silly to even be talking about this story.

As a supporter of cannabis legalization I concede people should not consume cannabis until they are at least 18 years old. I also concede treatment options must be available for those with addiction of any kind. But I don't agree with the Assemblywoman that we should continue cannabis prohibition just because she runs an organization with a large board that's well-funded by government sources.

Seems like a text-book example of conflict of interest. Furthermore, she should recuse herself from any legislative action that pertains to all drugs including cannabis.

It's nice to see your readers (at least those that voted in this poll) are way ahead of Ms Angelini.

Our kids today also know far more about the topic of cannabis than does Angelini. A simple search on google and a bit of reading and one would find that the DEA's own administrative law judge, the late Francis Young, said in his report for the DEA that "cannabis is one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man."

And could Ms Angelini state - coherently - WHY cannabis is illegal? Probably not...

Again, with a bit of education one would find that there is no <i>reason</i> behind this useful plant's banning, but there IS plenty of racism, xenophobia and self interest (Harry Anslinger needed a job after Alcohol Prohibition failed and ended) behind the Prohibition of Cannabis.

The only crime in growing, possessing consuming cannabis is the violation of bad (really, really bad) law.

Safer than alcohol, tobacco and firearms, but still illegal.

When was the last time you heard someone dying from marijuana? Never?

"THE CHILDREN"
If they really cared for the children they'd legalize and regulate marijuana. If they really wanted to keep any substance out of the hands of "The Children" they first must take control of distribution away from black market dealers. They haven't accomplished that in 40+ years at a taxpayers cost in the hundreds of billions. It's time to treat marijuana as we do alcohol. My 27 year old daughter still gets carded when she buys alcohol, yet your 13 year old can buy anything the black market dealer has for a price whether it be money or "something else".
FACT: Your kids have a better chance dying at the hands of someone enforcing marijuana laws than they do from ingesting it.(ZERO %).

LEAP member, NYPD, ret.
http://www.pitt.edu/~ugr/Hrych2.pdf
Scientific PROOF showing Marijuana isn't a "Gateway Drug"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57456999-10391704/medical-marijuana-legalization-
wont-boost-teen-pot-use-study-finds/
Study PROVING Med MJ does NOT increase teen use.

I loudly applaud Assemblywoman Anelini's stance to do whatever it takes to protect our kids and society from the terrible damage and destruction it is reeking. In California we see that the huge majority of cities all across the state are "Banning" marijuana dispensaries. Even in Los Angeles, they are strongly considering closing all the MMD'S there and completely banning them because the citizens are tired of the associated crimes; murder, robberies, and so much more. The folks in California have had enough and are saying "NO MORE", "Shut Them Down"....even yesterday, California Assemblyman Ammiano pulled his bill (AB-2312) that would have forced cities across California to allow MMD'S for a huge lack of support in the California Senate........The Folks in California are taking their state back from the dopers and just saying "NO"

You know what sends children the wrong message? Keeping marijuana and heroin classified in the same Schedule of the CSA. Now when our child sees a friend safely use marijuana they have a legitimate reason to believe that they'll be just as safe using heroin! This is a VERY dangerous message for the federal government to send to our children!!

And drug testing kids is even worse! It makes them switch from using the phenomenally safe but easy-to-detect marijuana to using incredibly dangerous but hard-to-detect other drugs like alcohol, heroin and prescription pills!

If the government wants to send the right message to our children then it can hold a press conference. It does NOT need to arrest 850,000 people a year and cause the brutal death of more than 10,000 people every year perpetuating a prohibition that DOES NOT WORK!! Taxpayers spend $40 Billion a year on this prohibition that *doesn't* stop people using marijuana. Are we all so rich that this colossal waste of money is no big deal?

Prohibition's underlying ideology is based wholly on fear, hate, envy, and greed - leading universally and invariably to abject failure, economic collapse, sickness and war.

Ending prohibition would greatly reduce, even almost eliminate, the market in illegal narcotics, cause a reduction in the number of users and addicts, greatly curtail drug related illness and deaths, reduce societal harm from problematic abusers, and bring about an enormous reduction in the presence and influence of organized crime. The people who use drugs are our own children, our brothers, our sisters, our parents and our neighbors. By allowing all adults safe and controlled legal access to psychoactive substances, we will not only greatly reduce the dangers for both them and ourselves but also greatly minimize the possibility of 'peer-initiation' and sales to minors.

Never have so many been harmed and impoverished by so few, so quickly. Prohibition is not just an extremely expensive accident. Like any harmful and completely ineffective policy, it was connived and implemented by immoral, malicious, fools. It cannot be ended soon enough.

After many decades of drug-war-dystopia, don't we all deserve a healthy, safe and prosperous future?

Just say no to prohibition-insanity, prohibition-corruption, prohibition-violence and prohibition-terrorism!

More Truth:

MEDPOTLIE – Dr Darryl Inaba – Haight Ashbury Clinic – San Francisco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_S._Inaba
Quotes from Darryl Inaba
Pharm.D. Director of the Haight-Ashbury Detoxification, Rehabilitation, and Aftercare Clinic / CNS / 20040115

"Marijuana is a substance that contains up to 360 active brain chemicals in every variety a person smokes. We found that just one of those chemicals, Delta-9 THC, thought to be the most potent and causing the greatest amount of brain effects, is altered by the liver.
The liver tries to destroy this drug and get rid of it but in the process, it actually creates 60 or more new drugs that are active in the brain. So marijuana is a multitude of drugs."
"There is marijuana growing everywhere with a very high potency of 14-20% THC. To fully understand importance of this, we must realize that people who smoked in the 1960s thought marijuana was a benign drug.
Smoking one joint today is the equivalent of smoking about 14 of those joints from the '60s. Thus, we have a much greater concern about the health consequences of today's marijuana."
"The big problem we see at the Haight-Ashbury Clinic is that the potent form of marijuana today is causing a lot more problems than we saw in the 1960s. I never treated a single self-admitted marijuana addict in the Clinic from the early '60s through the mid-'80s.

more from above............
However, by the late-1980s we started seeing people coming in saying, "Help me. I want to stop smoking pot. It is causing me to have memory problems. Causing me to be too spaced out. Not to function in my work. I can't complete tasks. It's causing me to be sick in the morning and cough. I have withdrawal symptoms. I want to stop and I can't stop." We now have at our program in San Francisco about 100 new patients every month who are in treatment specifically for marijuana addiction."

[folks, like I stated above......never-ever believe a single word from the mouth of a stoner drug addict] These articles from the UK, Australia, and Dr. Inaba show you all that stoners are not to be trusted to give you the truth to the terrible damage and destruction that marijuana is reeking on our children and society......

Listen here Ron. I don't take drugs. I am not a drug addict. And I am addicted to NOTHING! Don't jump to conclusions and DON'T assume that everyone who disagrees with you is a "drug addict". You are a closed-minded supporter of a FAILED policy and you are too blind to even see it!

The claim above that California has suffered an increase in crime because of the Compassionate Use Act is demonstrably untrue. It is a fact that between 1996 when the Compassionate Use Act was passed on Election Day and 2010 that the crime rate in California has fallen 42.07% which is 22.87% better than the nation as a whole for the same time period. Don't forget that with 12% of United States citizens being California residents that the nationwide average benefits significantly from California's crime rate reduction.
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/cacrime.htm
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

The claim that Californians have turned against medicinal cannabis patient protection is also demonstrably untrue. A recent USC/LA Times poll showed 80% support for medicinal cannabis. It also showed 46% support for re-legalization. It's laughably absurd to claim that a law has been a disaster with 80% of the voters still supporting it.
http://www.gqrr.com/articles/2749/7221_052112_usc_la_times_fq_Wednesday.pdf

Dont use marijuana Mr Kirkish, just am open minded enough to let live. Rotters like you are grinding this world to a halt.

No one will ever break through the wall Mr Kirkish has made around himself. I will no longer argue with a wall, a rude and presumptuous wall at that.

Another favorite deception of the Know Nothing prohibitionist is to claim that rates of impaired driving would "skyrocket" if we re-legalize. Back here in reality California enjoyed a statistically significant reduction in the rate of "drugged" driving which was was a major factor in the statistically significant reduction in the nationwide rate of "drugged" driving between 2002 and 2009. Another interesting thing about the 2002-2009 time period is that the number of Californians claiming the protection of the Compassionate Use Act skyrocketed by at least a factor of 10.
http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/205/DruggedDriving.htm

No State suffered a statistically significant increase in the rate of "drugged" driving during the study period despite the fact that it's when a number of States implemented medicinal cannabis patient protection laws, with the corresponding hysterical predictions of highway mayhem ensuing. In every case the prohibitionist parasites were wrong, wrong, wrong.

What about the children? One of the prohibitionists' favorite stories is the 1990 Alaskan vote of 54.3-45.7 to implement an unconstitutional re-criminalization of petty possession and petty cultivation of cannabis in a person's private home, which was subsequently struck down by the Alaska Court of Appeals in 2002. In 1990 the prohibitionists issued their standard hysterical rhetoric that this would cause youth use to plummet.

SAMHSA earliest published statistics for the numbers in "treatment" were for 1992.

In 1998 Alaskans passed a ballot initiative which extended protection from conviction for Alaskan who utilize medicinal cannabis. The prohibitionists issued their standard hysterical rhetoric that this would cause youth use to skyrocket.

Between 1992 and 1998 the number of Alaskan youth in "treatment" for the fiction of merrywanna addiction skyrocketed by 184.895%. Between 1992 and 1998 the population of Alaska increased by 27,000, from 587,000 to 614,000 or 4.600%.
http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/ak92.htm
http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/ak98.htm

Between 1998 and 2011 the number of Alaskan youth in "treatment" for the fiction of merrywanna addiction fell off a cliff, plummeting 20.631%. Between 1998 and 2011 the population of Alaska increased by 108,718, from 614,000 to 722,718 or 17.707%.
http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/ak11.htm

A Ron K...........Here's what an MD, PHD and Professor of Medicine, has to say; http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/26/dr-evan-wood-the-war-on-drugs-has-failed/
Or we can take the word of Prohibitionist Parasites, like Rush Limbaugh and Angelini who condemn Marijuana but love their Oxy and Booze!

Hey, Ronny boy, I can't see your "You are a total fraud" comment. I got it in my email but I can't see it here. Maybe it got deleted? I told you that I don't take drugs and yet you still claim that I do. This is because in your head everything is "black or white" isn't it - "good or evil", "prohibitionist or stoner". Well you know what, you're wrong. The world *isn't* black or white - it's full of shades of gray and it's full of color.

I abhor the prohibition because it makes my children LESS safe without doing anything to stop marijuana being consumed. We are forced to live with all the harms caused by the prohibition without even receiving the benefit of it actually working! Why do MY children have to be put at risk due to YOUR paranoia?

Ms. Angelini apparently thinks it is the government's job to send messages about what it is morally acceptable ("OK") to consume.

She also, apparently, can find no space in between imprisonment and complete approval in which to lodge an alternative message.

That is not very creative.

Please remember to keep this an above board, courteous conversation. Personal attacks on another user will not be tolerated and will be deleted, as per our Patch Terms of Use.

I won't cite arguments for either side. I don't want my kids smoking pot, period. I don't want them to argue that it's legal. Don't tell me it doesn't hurt anyone when I've watched it happen. Medical marijuana? No issue with that. Make it available at CVS with a prescription.

Mr. Kirkish I commend you for having the courage to engage the good folks on this site. Please elaborate, if you would, on the organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
http://www.leap.cc

a basic question to ask Prohibitionists like Ron - "if cannabis is so harmful, where are all the bodies?" I suspect Ron also missed the quote from the DEA's own administrative law judge, the late Francis Young, who said in his report (1988, Drug Enforcement Administration), "cannabis is one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man."

We need not get into how Prohibition places a product's control - production and distribution - into the hands of criminal syndicates. Organizations which pay no taxes and have profits so massive that losing 20% of their product is what shoplifting losses are to MalWart.

We better not mention that Cannabis Prohibition has taken a relatively unknown intoxicant and made it the #1 agricultural commodity in the US.

A question I WOULD like to see Ron answer - why is HEMP illegal?

"the terrible damage that marijuana is doing to our kids and society"
Just a minute Ron, how can marijuana be doing terrible damage to our kids and society when it's been illegal for more than seventy years? Are you telling us that the prohibition DOESN'T WORK?

"you are the 2nd person in this blog who claims to not abuse marijuana but strongly supports its abuse..........hummmmmmmmmmm"

Really Ron? You still see the world as black and white don't you? If somebody's not for you then they gotta be against you, right? You seem incapable of understanding the simplest concept. Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental illness or suffered a brain injury?

I do NOT support the "abuse" of marijuana. I support the legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana - just like beer and wine. I support making marijuana *harder* for minors to obtain by forcing drug dealers off the street in exactly the same way that we forced bootleggers off the street. Drug Dealers Don't Card, Supermarkets Do!

If you oppose legalizing marijuana like wine then you support a policy that makes marijuana *easier* for children to abuse. Shame on you Ron!

"5 year old little girl is killed by a woman driving under the influence of marijuana (hit & run)"

When was this Ron, 1936 (before the marijuana tax act of 1937 was passed)? Because if it was anytime after that then it's proof that your beloved prohibition DOESN'T WORK! Why should we keep an ineffective and counterproductive prohibition that doesn't stop people using marijuana? It only has one goal and it FAILS at it!

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that Ron is being attacked here. He has his opinion, just like everyone else. It doesnt make him close minded, a bigot or any of the rest.
I'm not sure where i stand on this issue. If it is legalized, its just one more thing i'll have to explain to my kids (but i would have had to do that anyway). At least when it's illegal they get a stronger message. Then in the same breath, if you want to smoke a joint in your yard while relaxing, why not?
So I'm not sure.
I do disagree though that there are no effects from smoking pot. Stoners are called that for a reason. After smoking a joint, you are NOT the sharpest tool in the shed. I dont care what anyone says. And i also know a handful of people that have gone through this as an addiction.

I'd also like to add this thought i had. You're at a bbq at a friends. I dont want the smokers of cigarettes around my kids as it is. now i have people smoking pot. Lovely.

The problem is there are to many liberals in politics, which is what got us in this jam we are in today. if we legalize a small amount today then tomorrow it's a larger amount, then before you know it we legalize prostitution, and so on..We need to get back to basics in our country and stop all this liberal garbage that everything is ok, as long as you have an excuse to do it or if enough people scream. Stick with the rules our country was built on, that's why they are called the good old days.

If u want to be a drug addict, then move to vietnam, no one is stopping you.The best solution, i hate to agree with him actually, was from charlie rangel..reinstate the draft. If you go to school then on to a four year college, which our president has made very easy to afford, then your exempt, otherwise, you serve two years. This will make it where everyone has a place to be, either working, schooling, or serving. No more illegals, no more little gangs, no more wastes of life running around high on cough medicine or whatever they shove inside themselvs today..Very simple..

No matter your views on this matter, NJ is one of a handful of states where citizens cannot put initiatives on the ballot.
http://ballotpedia.org

whatever happened to personal choice?

All I know is Barry smoked it and became President of the United States of America. While he decided to stop (a personal choice) it didn't not prevent him from making something of himself (whether you consider it good ot bad). If you leagalize it, control its distribution and tax it a la alcohol you will take away a major source of revenue from gangs and cartels and put it to use for the good of all people. Not a smoker but a free thinker.

First, the purpose of laws is not to send messages. The purpose of laws is to establish real regulations to be obeyed and impose real penalties for actual offenses, not to prescribe symbolic penalties for propaganda purposes.

Second, sending messages to children is the responsibility of their parents and their schools, not the legislature.

Third, messages are supposed to go from the people to the legislature, not from the legislature to the people. The legislature represents the people, and it is the right and the responsibility of the people to send messages to their legislators. I hope Assemblywoman Angelini gets the message we're sending.

Hello Folks,
In today's news we find that the vote in the New Hampshire Senate to override Governor Lynch's veto of "medical" marijuana legislation FAILED by a vote of 13 to 10.

This is a great victory for New Hampshire and yet another disasterous defeat for the national pro-drug lobby!

Folks,

Governor Lynch is a great politician who stood up to the pressure of the pro_drug abuse culture and prevailed. As we see below, marijuana is a very dangerous and is illegal for very good reasons:

This recent article was published in April of 2012 in the “Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network”.

The name of the article is: Cannabinoids in the Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting J Natl Compr Canc Netw 2012;10:487-492
Excerpts:

“Marijuana is not a completely benign substance as it is associated with adverse effects on the cardiovascular, respiratory, and central nervous system”.

“Marijuana smoke has more carcinogens than cigarette smoke; leading to lung cancer and the development of respiratory disease, head and neck cancer, atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, stroke, chronic bronchitis, and it also has immunosuppresive properties”.

“Children of mothers who smoked marijuana during pregnancy may have increased risk of developing leukemia”.

“Medical marijuana, although legal in some states, should NOT be a treatment option for patients with cancer”.

Why can't there be one state where marijuana is fully legalized and regulated? Someone needs to go for it and either prove or disprove its functionality. Let marijuana be grown, distributed and consumed within only its borders with strict searches upon exiting.

There needs to be some sort of "experimental state" to see how it fairs. I have a degree in Chemical Engineering and consider myself an educated and open-minded person. I have tried both smoking and ingesting pot, the latter option being slightly more healthy. I am not a stoner or a pot head or a degenerate. I have come to realize that people who are superprohibitionists have never tried cannabis and are terrified to do so by media.

In this economic time, wouldn't it be wise to create jobs and stop wasting valuable assets in our prisons and law enforcement? Have people work in cannabis fields, packing plants, distribution centers, and educational teams.

We may be wrong legalizing marijuana and we may be wrong banning it. We don't know. We do need to try something different though because our system right now is currently NOT working.

Folks,

More breaking news regarding the terrible harms that marijuana abuse causes:

'Bath Salts' Ruled OutIn Face-Chewing Attack

Jun 27, 2012 6:37 PM EDT

http://www.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=22995&external=1567038.proteus.fma

A Florida medical examiner says "ONLY MARIJUANA" was found in the system of a Florida man shot while chewing another man's face.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's released the toxicology results Tuesday on 31-year-old Rudy Eugene. Lab results found marijuana in his system, but not any other street drugs, alcohol or prescription drugs.

The department has ruled out the most common components found in the street drugs known as bath salts. An outside forensic toxicology lab also confirmed the results.

Surveillance video captured 65-year-old Ronald Poppo being attacked by Eugene on May 26. A police officer shot and killed Eugene, who bit into Poppo's face in broad daylight alongside a busy highway. Police have not released a motive for the attack on Poppo, who had been homeless for decades.

Poppo has undergone several surgeries and remains hospitalized.

am i the only thinking that ron is trolling now for fun?

Ron is most likely a govt troll here to argue their losing side of the argument. Israel uses cannabis to help cancer patients. Portugal had had cannabis legal for 10 years now. "Running from the Cure" is one of the many videos that demonstrates that cannabis actually fights cancer. A University of Virginia study showed this back in the 70s but Nixon didn't want to give in to them "damn hippies". A recent study in Spain and the US shows that it actually fights Lung Cancer. Oh, let's not forget that little baby with brain cancer who was cured through the miraculous efforts of his parents to treat the child with cannabis oil. The govt hires people like Ron and gives them access to multiple aliases in order to spread dis-information. This is a tactic studied and used by the Military and the CIA to influence populations.

Ummm... The active chemicals in bath salts are UNDETECTIBLE in the person's system. Just saying...

Also, Fox News is probably THE MOST BIASED source anyone in the world could possibly site.

who cares about the children? they are all high on prozac to notice anyway

For those who may find Ron Kirkish's comments concerning, and who wish to better understand the history of why marijuana became classified as a Schedule I narcotic... here are the facts:

In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon commissioned a hand-picked panel to review and report on the effects of marijuana on society. Headed by Pennsylvania Governor Raymond P. Shafer, the Commission’s report concluded that the private use of marijuana should not be criminalized. In a videotaped presentation before the press, Shafer stated, “The recommendation of the Commission… is that we do not feel that private use or private possession [of marijuana] in one’s own home should have the stigma of criminalization, that people who experiment [with marijuana] should not be criminalized for that particular behavior.”[1] Nixon ignored his own commission’s recommendation and marijuana was, essentially, blacklisted as a drug as dangerous as heroin and LSD. (The video link shows Shafer explaining the Commission’s conclusion about marijuana at the 6:40 mark.)

Had Nixon accepted his own commission’s recommendation, marijuana would never have become illegal… and millions of people would not have been convicted of a felony, sent to prison, and had their lives ruined… and we would not have spent 1 trillion dollars during the past 40 years fighting our Drug War.

1. http://youtu.be/C_55Mb_Qgxw

Decrimilize and educate. Alcohol prohibition caused much crime but did not prohibit alcoholism. The drug cartels want to keep it illegal so that the can profit. Stop the crim crimes against humanity. Guns cause more problems in the many wrong hands. Discourage marijuana abuse as alcohol abuse education is taught. What a waste of humanity. Cigarettes are also harmful and extremely addictive. The fear is the financial profit of marijuana may decrease because people might grow their own. Money is the the root of all evil. I mean the love of money. Greed should be criminalizes.

http://weedhub.com
awareness of medical uses for Medical marijuana should be raised