Wisconsin

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Supporters of legalizing marijuana rally in Madison

(Published Monday, October 9, 2006 11:00:25 AM CDT)

Associated Press
The Janesville Gazette

MADISON, Wis. - Supporters of legalizing marijuana urged people to vote for candidates who support the drug's legalization at a rally this weekend.

Organizers estimated several hundred people attended the 36th annual Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival, which took place at State Street Mall on Saturday and Sunday.

Police did not have their estimate readily available, said Madison Police Sgt. Dave McClurg. No arrests were made for marijuana use, he said.

Last year's rally focused on supporting a bill that would have legalized medicinal marijuana in the state. But with the demise of that bill, organizer Gary Storck said this year they focused on electing officials who support legalization.

"Go out and ask the candidates where they stand and if they don't support medical marijuana or they refuse to say how they would vote on it, don't give them your vote," Storck said of this year's message at the festival.

The weekend finished with a march up State Street and rally at the steps of the Capitol Sunday afternoon.

Attendee Ricardo Jimenez, a commercial artist from Trempealeau, said the movement to legalize marijuana is gaining momentum.

"People are going to do it and you're not going to stop them," he said.

Another attendee, Janny Mayo, of Oshkosh, said she comes each year to the festival. She's hopeful marijuana will be legalized one day. She said taxes generating from its legalization could help bolster government coffers.

"I do believe one day they will realize there is nothing wrong with it," she said. "There (are) more important things to worry about than people smoking pot.... It's just going to take enough people to push it."

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Pro Marijuana March Reaches Capitol Steps


Hundreds of people marched down State Street Sunday to the steps of the Capitol in support of legalizing marijuana.

Sunday's rally is the culmination of the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival.

Supporters shouted that marijuana is a safer drug than alcohol or cigarettes, and several lit up in plain sight.

Some rally-goers have spent two years lobbying the legislature to legalize medical marijuana.

"This is a very safe medication. I'm a patient, been treated for arthritis and I know that cannibis is the drug that's least likely to harm me," says organizer Gary Storck.

The rally is hosted by the Madison branch of the group NORML, the national organization for the reform of Marijuana laws.

The Harvest festival first began back in 1970.

Capitol police roamed the grounds Sunday, but reported no disturbances and no arrests.

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"I don't see why something that is a gift from God, a herb, made in the ground. . .can't be legalized," Price said from a wheelchair. "You've never heard of anybody getting into a fist fight or beating their spouse after they smoked a joint."

Proponents like Price say cannabis provides pain relief and alleviates a host of other medical conditions without the harmful side effects or high costs of many prescription drugs.

<hr class=postrule>
<i>"I smoke weed, and I'm going to die smoking weed," he said, declining to give his last name. "If I want to smoke marijuana, I can be judged, but I can fight and die for the country, and see my battle buddies blown up on land mines in Fallujah."

Cassius, a Gary, Indiana native, says he never used drugs before joining the military but now smokes pot on a daily basis to "mellow out" since he came home to a life of unemployment and disillusionment.</i>

Marijuana fest ignites fight for legalization

By Ellen Williams-Masson
Correspondent for The Capital Times
October 9, 2006

The skies were clear but a haze hung over hundreds of marijuana activists as they paraded up State Street to the Capitol for the 36th Annual Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival.

Some who marched advocated marijuana for medicinal purposes, while others championed hemp as an answer to the state's agricultural woes.

And more than a few undoubtedly toked up for the sheer pleasure of smoking a doobie on a sunny afternoon on State Street.

"The sky didn't fall, nothing happened, nobody got hurt, and we went all the way down the road in full public view and nothing went wrong," activist Jim Miller from New Jersey said.

"It makes no sense that if this is the way it works, why are people going to jail for doing that, when nothing happened?"

Miller is part of the "Commando Squad" that has fought for the legalization of medical marijuana and carries on the battle in memory of his wife, Cheryl.

Cheryl had lobbied for medicinal marijuana to ease her pain from multiple sclerosis before her death in 2003, and Miller played a tape of her agonized screams during physical therapy treatments without benefit of the drug.

Marijuana proponents have been fighting to legalize cannabis for decades since its criminalization in 1937, and local activist and Harvest Festival organizer Ben Masel believes they are slowly making headway.

"We've gotten a lot better, at least at the political level, at stopping new bad legislation," Masel said. "A lot of progress is happening on hemp agriculture."

Masel lost the U.S. Senate Democratic primary to incumbent Herb Kohl last month but secured more than 51,000 votes, more than half of which he attributes to marijuana supporters.

Masel also lost a Republican primary to Tommy Thompson in the 1990 governor's race when he ran on a platform advocating the use of hemp in agriculture.

Gary Storck, cofounder of the Madison branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), lamented the death of the medical marijuana bill during the past congressional session and pointed to the Capitol building behind him when he spoke at the rally.

"The people in this building are responsible for that bill dying in committee," he said. "It's time to turn these mothers out. We need you to vote, and we need to get your friends to vote."

Storck, Miller and other activists will be traveling throughout the state before the Nov. 7 election in an attempt to get candidates' positions on record regarding the legalization of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Storck cited a 2002 poll conducted by his activist group "Is my medicine legal yet?" (IMMLY) that reported over 80 percent of Wisconsin residents support legalized medical marijuana.

"No candidate should be able to run for office and get elected without stating their position on medical marijuana," Storck said. "Why won't they just do the people's will?"

Joann Price of Verona suffers from spinal muscular atrophy and also questioned why her medicine of choice isn't legal.

"I don't see why something that is a gift from God, a herb, made in the ground. . .can't be legalized," Price said from a wheelchair. "You've never heard of anybody getting into a fist fight or beating their spouse after they smoked a joint."

Proponents like Price say cannabis provides pain relief and alleviates a host of other medical conditions without the harmful side effects or high costs of many prescription drugs.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a statement in April 2006 that the FDA, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Office of National Drug Control Policy "do not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes" because of a lack of sound scientific studies required for the FDA drug approval process.

Plenty of patients continue to self-medicate with marijuana, however, often as an alternative to prescription drugs. Cassius, a 23-year-old veteran who served in the Airborne Rangers, returned home from Baghdad with bottled up rage and a hand-rolled remedy to ease the pain.

"I smoke weed, and I'm going to die smoking weed," he said, declining to give his last name. "If I want to smoke marijuana, I can be judged, but I can fight and die for the country, and see my battle buddies blown up on land mines in Fallujah."

Cassius, a Gary, Indiana native, says he never used drugs before joining the military but now smokes pot on a daily basis to "mellow out" since he came home to a life of unemployment and disillusionment.

"A lot of rich guys, Caucasians, like to pull out their scotch with two ice cubes," he said. "War gives you a gift, because when you come back, you look at things differently."

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‘Medical’ marijuana results in felony charge

The Chippewa Herald
January 12, 2007

A Bloomer man was cooperative with investigators and stated his marijuana growing operation was for medical reasons, but he is still facing a felony charge.

Robert J. Bellinger, 31, 1223 15th Ave., #202, Bloomer, was charged Tuesday with manufacture or delivery of marijuana, maintaining a drug trafficking place, possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to the complaint: On Dec. 12 law enforcement received information from an anonymous source that Bellinger was growing marijuana in his apartment. Officers investigating could smell marijuana outside the door, but there was no answer. They found Bellinger at work. When approached, Bellinger confirmed he was growing marijuana in his apartment and asked who told them, which officers would not reveal. Bellinger agreed to show the officers his growing operations.

The apartment contained numerous fertilizers, pots, water jugs, lights, fans and reflective material, plus five budded marijuana plants.

Bellinger said he started growing about a year before due to a medical condition. The marijuana helped him with the pain, he said.

Bellinger said he once gave away a small amount, and did not sell marijuana, but had been thinking about doing so.

A trace amount of cocaine was found in a grinder in the apartment.

Bellinger is free on a $1,000 signature bond. He is to return to court on Feb. 6.

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January 23, 2007
The Capital Times

Gary Storck: Congress should protect Americans legally using medical marijuana

A letter to the editor

Dear Editor: Congress not only needs to enact sentencing reform, as Dave Zweifel says in "Sentencing laws should make sense," but also must protect medical marijuana patients and providers being targeted by federal agents in the 11 states that have legalized this therapy.


Not only are people acting legally under these state laws being arrested for federal offenses, they are then being sentenced to long federal prison terms. A prime example is Stephanie Landa, a 60-year-old medical cannabis patient and provider who on Jan. 4 turned herself in to federal authorities in San Francisco to begin a 41-month term for growing her medicine.

Just Wednesday, Drug Enforcement Administration agents simultaneously raided 11 medical cannabis dispensaries in the Los Angeles area. In West Hollywood, a city with a self-proclaimed "long-standing commitment" to the use of medical marijuana for patients with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses, city officials were stunned when the raids took out five of the city's seven dispensaries.

For an administration constantly harping about spreading democracy, the Bush administration's continued subverting of state laws and states' rights is the height of hypocrisy. Making war on sick people for their choice of medicine is not only cruel and immoral, but a complete misallocation of federal resources.

Medical marijuana supporters in Congress, the bulk of them Democrats, unsuccessfully tried four times since 2003 to pass a budget amendment that would eliminate these wasteful raids. Now that Democrats are in the majority, with medical marijuana supporter Nancy Pelosi as House speaker, it's time to end this madness once and for all by not just ending the raids, but by passing legislation allowing all Americans equal and legal access to this valuable medicine.

Gary Storck
Madison


Published: January 23, 2007

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Medical Cannabis Supporters Unite

The Badger-Herald
Wed, 19 Sep 2007
by Cara Harshman

Is your medicine legal?

Jacki Rickert's isn't. The Wisconsin mother suffers from several incurable medical conditions and says the only effective treatment is marijuana.

Rickert joined two state legislators and other medical marijuana supporters Tuesday for a press conference to announce the introduction of new medical marijuana legislation.

Tuesday was a symbolic day for Rickert, as it marks the 10-year anniversary of the "Journey-for-Justice," a 210-mile trek across the state Rickert and an entourage of medical marijuana supporters made in their wheelchairs that ended at the Capitol.

In honor of Rickert, Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, named the new legislation the "Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act".

"I'm real proud that for the first time we are giving the bill a real name," Boyle said. "This bill will forever be known as the Jacki Rickert Bill."

Rickert is the founder and patient coordinator of Is My Medicine Legal Yet?, a non-profit group dedicated to spreading awareness, furthering access to and research of marijuana for medical use.

"We know it works. We know it's not going to kill us," Rickert said. "I have never had an allergic reaction to a God-given herb."

IMMLY efforts are meant to support those with a variety of chronic and fatal medical conditions. If passed, patients would have to qualify with the Department of Health and Family Services to receive medicinal marijuana.

Pocan said victims of cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, persistent seizures and muscle spasms would be eligible to qualify for medical marijuana under this legislation.

"If someone [has the] written consent of their physician or [has] obtained a valid registry card from the DHFS, ... they would be allowed to have the possession or be able to grow a certain amount of medicinal marijuana," Pocan said.

Medicinal marijuana, the IMMLY believes, can benefit people of all ages.

The youngest supporter at the conference was 21 year old Lynn. Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 19, she lost her sight, mobility and independence from the disease. Lynn has smoked marijuana for an extended period of time and said it helped her finally become able to move out of her parent's house.

"If you had a 19-year-old daughter who was in pain every day, what would you do to help?" Lynn asked. "You could be put on five different drugs three times a day every day, like I was. Or you can take pot, and now I'm on two drugs a day."

A similar version of the bill was introduced by Boyle and Pocan in 2001. Former Rep. Gregg Underheim, R-Oshkosh, introduced the legislation again in 2003 and 2005; however, it failed to progress through the legislature on all three occasions.

"We want to make sure that this is the year Wisconsin gets it," Boyle said. "Twelve states have now legalized medical marijuana, and I'm sick and tired of the state of Wisconsin dying a most regressive death in what used to be progressive tradition."

Using marijuana for medical use is currently legal in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Missouri, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Alabama and Hawaii.

"Please, we have to make this legal," Rickert said. "I beg all of you."

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Reefer Madness 2007

The Scene
Mon, 1 Oct 2008
by Jim Lundstrom

<span class=postbigbold>The People Want Medical Marijuana, but Uncle Sam Is Hooked on Demonizing Weed</span>

Someone has been telling lies about Mary J.

Take, for example, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's position paper on medical marijuana (www.usdoj.gov/dea/marijuana_position.html). The lies are so blatant and self-serving that if there were any political leadership in this country, the DEA's bloated budget would be frozen immediately while it undergoes investigation into whether the public that pays its $2.5 billion budget and employs its 11,000 workers is best served by the agency's current policies and practices.

<table class=posttable align=right width=300><tr><td class=postcell>

<center><span class=postcap>HEALTH COMMITEE MEMBERS

SILENT ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA</span></center>

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act will likely be sent to the Assembly Health and Health Care Reform Committee. Bill sponsor Rep. Frank Boyle fears the bill will be buried in the Republican-dominated panel, without a public hearing and without its 13 members ever going on record for or against medical marijuana.

We polled the members for their views, and got a phone call from Rep. Wieckert's office explaining that the bill would have to go through the normal process, and an e-mail from Rep. Sheldon Wasserman, a Milwaukee Democrat, who wrote:

"Thank you for the e-mail message asking my opinion on legislation to allow medical marijuana use in Wisconsin. I have attended forums on the subject of medical marijuana in the past and done some research of my own. However, I am still undecided as to whether Wisconsin should pass a law allowing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

I am therefore looking forward to participating in legislative hearings on the subject, if a bill is introduced this session."

Chairwoman Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa), a registered nurse, is already on record against medical marijuana, as quoted in the April 10, 2007 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal: "I will refuse to put members through the circus of a hearing for a bill that is not going to go anywhere. This is nothing more than a backdoor attempt to legalize marijuana, which is not going to happen on my watch."

If you would like to know where the individual committee members (two of whom are from our area, Rep. Steve Wieckert of Appleton and Rep. Frank Lasee of Green Bay) stand on the medical marijuana issue, you should ask them yourselves. Here's how:

Chairwoman Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwautosa), 608-266-9180, 608-282-3614 (fax), Rep.Vukmir@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Falls), 608-266-9172, 608-282-3668 (fax), Rep.Moulton@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Frank Lasee (R-Green Bay), 608-266-9870, (920-406-9488 (district), 608-282-3602 (fax), Rep.Lasee@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Steve Wieckert (R-Appleton), 608-266-3070, 920-731-3000 (district), 608-282-3657 (fax), Rep.Wieckert@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Patricia Strachota (R-West Bend), 608-264-8486, 608-282-3658 (fax), Rep.Strachota@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Scott Newcomer (R-Hartland), 888-529-0033, 608-282-3633 (fax), Rep.Newcomer@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), 608-266-2343, Rep.Nygren@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Rich Zipperer (R-Pewaukee) 608-266-5120, Rep.Zipperer@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (D-Milwaukee), 888-534-0022, 608-282-3622 (fax), Rep.Wasserman@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse), 888-534-0095, 608-282-3695 (fax), Rep.Shilling@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Amy Sue Vruwink, (D-Milladore), 888-534-0070, 608-282-3670 (fax), Rep.Vruwink@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Charles Benedict (D-Beloit), 608-266-9967, 608-282-3645 (fax), Rep.Benedict@legis.wisconsin.gov

Rep. Donna Seidel (D-Wausau), 888-534-0085, 608-282-3685 (fax), Rep.Seidel@legis.wisconsin.gov </td></tr></table>The DEA medical marijuana document is so fraught with "Reefer Madness" era lies and obfuscation that it would be laughable were it not coming from a Justice Department agency that wields such unchecked power over the lives of the citizens who pay its bills, and if its regressive policies were not denying a better quality of life for the thousands - and perhaps millions - of Americans who could find relief through legal prescription marijuana.

Oh, you believe what the DEA says, that there is no such thing as medical marijuana, that it's all just a hippie ploy to legalize recreational use?

Then you must have been living under the same rock as the DEA.

"You see living, breathing, walking, rolling evidence right here," said wheelchair-bound Jacki Rickert as she and three other medical marijuana patients spoke at the state Capitol during the Sept. 18 introduction of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, a new Assembly medical marijuana bill named for Rickert.

"If you took anyone who is against medical marijuana and made them deal with what Jacki has to deal with for just five minutes, they'd be balled up in a fetal position sobbing uncontrollably," said Gary Storck, a Madison medical marijuana advocate who works with Rickert in Is My Medicine Legal YET? (a not-for-profit organization created to provide information and education about the therapeutic use of cannabis, www.immly.org). "Jacki is so strong and proud. She hurts but doesn't show it. That's why it's so fitting the act is being named after her."

Rickert suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and advanced reflex sympathetic dystrophy. She is also a stroke survivor. Many drugs have been prescribed for her conditions over the years, even Marinol, the expensive Food and Drug Administration-approved synthetic marijuana pill that many patients complain does not provide the relief of the real herb, and often has nasty side effects.

"I took Marinol with a very open mind," Rickert told the small audience of press and fellow medical marijuana advocates at the Capitol ceremony last month. "You wouldn't have to go through all this crap if you could just take a pill. It didn't work. My tongue swelled in my face."

Rickert is actually eligible for marijuana the federal government grows at the University of Mississippi and dispenses freely to a handful of patients under the Compassionate Use New Drug Program.

Rickert was approved for participation in the program in 1990, which would have provided her with 300 joints of federal schwag every month at no cost.

But the government dragged its feet on her application and those of others who tried to get in on the federal marijuana program, and in 1992 Bush I pulled the plug on the program for all but those few already receiving free government pot (see sidebar on George McMahon, one of the five surviving federal pot recipients). Bush I felt providing free, low-grade government pot to sick people would send the wrong message at a time when the federal government was amping up its continuing war on drugs.

State Reps. Frank Boyle (D-Superior) and Mark Pocan (D-Madison) sponsored the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act with the idea that putting a human face on the bill might cut through some of the nonsense that has been dispensed about the therapeutic uses of cannabis.

"I do think naming this for Jacki focuses the attention to a single individual who has been fighting her entire life to survive with this debilitating neurological disease," Boyle said. "The pain can only be relieved, she has found, by using marijuana. To deny her, this woman in a wheelchair, a solution to her pain is unconscionable, absolutely unconscionable. She is the perfect person for this."

Pocan said the Rickert Act is modeled after medical marijuana laws that have passed in 12 other states - Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.

"What this bill essentially does, it provides a medical defense to marijuana-related prosecutions and property seizure actions," he said. "It doesn't change federal law, however, 99% of the arrests are at the local and state level."

Former state Rep. Tammy Baldwin - now representing Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives - first introduced a medical marijuana bill in the state Assembly in 1993. A version of the bill has been introduced in every session since then, but it has never made it out of committee, and, so, most lawmakers have not had to go on record about where they stand on medical marijuana (see sidebar on the House Health Committee, where the new medical marijuana bill will likely end up), and resulting public input on the question has never been sought by the legislative body.

"We need a public hearing," Boyle said. "We've never been allowed a legitimate legislative hearing, and that's absolutely intolerable."

Longtime Madison marijuana activist Ben Masel says it is the stigma of recreational marijuana that keeps legislators from acting on medical marijuana.

"I don't think it's so much opposition as fear to be on record for," he said. "Plenty of members of the Legislature have been telling me for years, 'If you ever get it to a vote you'll get my vote, but you'll have to get someone else to push it that far.' It's mostly a political fear."

Boyle agrees there is a distinct lack of political backbone.

"We've been trying to get this message across for 10 years," he said. "We've had endorsements from editors around the state. Still, we have a legislative body that is running scared. They function by moral/political expediency, they don't function by what is right. That's a sad statement, but I think it's true."

And he fears the Assembly still is not ready to address medical marijuana.

"We've picked up a dozen co-sponsors on the bill, but with a Republican-controlled Assembly, we will not have a hearing on anything," he said. "The Assembly has met 13 times since January. We are the most do-nothing group of elected officials in the history of this state.

"The Health Committee chair has already said, absolutely not," he said. "This won't happen in the Assembly. It's got to come from the Senate."

Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) agrees the state Senate should be involved in the medical marijuana issue, so has scheduled an informational hearing on the subject for next month under the auspices of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee that he chairs (10:30 a.m. Nov. 14 in Room 411 South of the Capitol, but that was only tentative at press time).

Because marijuana has been so stigmatized in the federal war on drugs, Erpenbach said an informational hearing is needed before legislation is introduced in the Senate in order to open some minds to the facts about marijuana as medicine.

"I think there are a lot of misperceptions out there about medical marijuana," he said. "This is the first time I've actually chaired the health committee, but I've always wanted to hold an informational meeting on it."

Erpenbach said the format will include speakers on both sides of the issues presenting their views before the hearing is opened for public comment.

"The whole idea is to get the idea out there," he said. "I think if we just introduced a bill without shining some light on it first, it would be a little more difficult to pass legislation."

Erpenbach said he has been keeping abreast of medical marijuana issues by talking with Gary Storck, an internationally recognized medical marijuana advocate and 35-year user of medical marijuana.

"Most of us would be in a box right now if it weren't for cannabis," Storck said. "It's about legalizing it for people who are really ill. I don't think there's anybody could look Jacki (Rickert) in the face and say, 'No, you shouldn't smoke medical marijuana'."

Storck, of Madison, works with Rickert in IMMLY and is co-founder of both the Wisconsin and Madison NORML organizations.

"I was born with glaucoma and stared losing my sight at an early age," he said. "I went to see my eye doctor on Oct. 3, 1972, after having some marijuana as a high school senior of 17. He was very pleased to find my eye pressure was normal, whereas it was usually elevated. But I didn't tell him why because I was nervous about it. I've been a medical marijuana patient for 35 years now, since I could first document that it could help me." As a tireless activist, Storck said he hears from patients around the state.

"I hear some really sad stories of people who just can't get it, like multiple sclerosis patients," he said. "It's a very valuable remedy for MS. I've worked with a number of MS patients over the year."

One of those MS patients was at the introduction of the Rickert Act. Carolyn McDonough of Sun Prairie is 21 years old and she arrived at the Capitol for the unveiling of the Rickert Act with her seeing-eye service dog. McDonough was stricken with MS two years ago and lost her vision and mobility, until smoking medical marijuana.

"If you had a 19-year-old daughter who was in pain every day, what would you do to help?" she said during the bill's introduction. "You could be put on five different drugs three times a day every day, like I was. Or you can take pot, and now I'm on two drugs a day."

"To many, this is an illegal drug of use, even thought it's been scientifically shown to be so medically useful," he said. "There are literally hundreds of ailments it's good for. Cannabis is really good for people with muscle spasms. It's good for seizure disorders. It contains over 60 therapeutically active cannabinoids, with a handful of those being more important. One of them is a pain reliever and it protects your brain from trauma or stroke. There's no medication on the market that will do that. It's an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. It's very useful for neuropathic pain like diabetics get, pain that opiates just won't touch. Another irony about it all, if you are also taking opiate pain medications, cannabis and opiates work together so you can get superior relief with less sedation. This has been medically documented. The problem is that many pain doctors or clinics test you for drugs. If you test positive for cannabis, they will cut you off your opiate pain meds. They get downright barbaric."

While Storck says progress is being made in the fight to recognize legal medical marijuana, that doesn't help those suffering now and in the past.

"Things are better than they've ever been, but when one patient is at risk of being arrested or one patient won't break the law to get their medicine or one patient can't even find a joint, it's still wrong," he said. "We pride ourselves on having such a great health care system and then we turn our backs on these people who our great health care system can't help because their medications are too toxic. It's really a national shame."

Storck said a 2002 IMMLY poll found 80.3% support statewide for medical marijuana. A separate poll conducted by Chamberlain Research Consultants found 75.7% support.

"People aren't doing anything to demonstrate that support," Storck said. "They need to call their legislators and keep calling them. Let them know. Send them information. When they see them in public, say they support this. When candidates come looking for their vote, tell them they support this and they need to support it if they want their vote."

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Medical Marijuana Laws, State By State

The Scene
Mon, 1 Oct 2007
by Jim Lundstrom


More than 30 states passed medical marijuana bills in the 1970s and '80s, including Wisconsin, but all of those left the responsibility of supplying the marijuana up to the federal government.

"A bill was passed in 1981 with overwhelming majorities in both houses," said Madison marijuana activist Gary Storck. "It was signed into law by Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus in 1982, but, unfortunately, it was kind of a watered-down law that required the federal government to supply the medical marijuana, which the state would then dispense to approved patients who had glaucoma or were undergoing cancer chemotherapy. The bill was basically rendered symbolic."

Even though federal law fails to recognize marijuana for medical use (except for the five surviving federal recipients), since 1996 12 states have enacted laws that allow patients to use medical marijuana.

To be effective, a state law must remove criminal penalties for patients who use, possess and grow medical marijuana with their doctors' approval or certification. A 13th state, Maryland, has established an "affirmative defense" law, which protects medical marijuana patients from jail but not arrest.

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act introduced last month by two Assembly Democrats is modeled after the laws in those states.

<span class=postbold>Alaska</span>: Since 1999. up to 8 ounces of dried marijuana and six mature or 12 immature marijuana plants are legal with a signed physician statement certifying diagnosis and that other medications were considered.

<span class=postbold>California</span>: Since 1996, up to 8 ounces of dried marijuana and six mature or 12 immature marijuana plants.

<span class=postbold>Colorado</span>: Since 2000, for patients in possession of ID cards, up to 8 ounces.

<span class=postbold>Hawaii</span>: Since 2000, no more than 3 usable ounces and seven plants, three of which may be mature.

<span class=postbold>Maine</span>: Since 1999, 2.5 ounces and six plants, three of which may be mature.

<span class=postbold>Montana</span>: Since 2004, 1 usable ounce and six plants.

<span class=postbold>Nevada</span>: Since 2000, 1 usable ounce and seven plants, three of which may be mature. Patients may use affirmative defense to argue that greater amounts are medically necessary.

<span class=postbold>New Mexico</span>: Since 2007, "Adequate supply" to be determined by state Health Department.

<span class=postbold>Oregon</span>: Since 1998, 24 ounces of usable marijuana, six mature marijuana plants and 18 seedlings per patient jointly with his or her caregiver.

<span class=postbold>Rhode Island</span>: Since 2006, 2.5 usable ounces and 12 plants.

<span class=postbold>Vermont</span>: Since 2004, 2 usable ounces and three plants, one of which may be mature.

<span class=postbold>Washington</span>: Since 1996, a "60-day supply" is allowed.

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The Miracle Drug

The Scene
Mon, 1 Oct 2007
by Jim Lundstrom

After some research into the effects of marijuana, you might just begin to be convinced it is a miracle medicine, perhaps even Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth.

The beneficial effects among patients with everything from AIDS to Alzheimer's have been documented by doctors and scientists around the world. It was a legal medicine from mid 19th century and well into the 20th century. Tincture of cannabis - marijuana in alcohol - was available in pharmacies and recommended for a variety of circumstances - as an analgesic, muscle relaxant, anticonvulsant, for asthma and rheumatism, to ease labor pains, migraines and menstruation problems, to name a few of the most popular medical uses.

An influx of Mexican agricultural laborers bringing their marijuana culture into the United States in the 1920s, along with flappers and jazzbos getting in on the action, focused government eyes on recreational marijuana, which led to creation of the country's first anti-drug agency and designation of the nation's first drug czar, Harry Anslinger, a former railroad policeman with a hard-on for marijuana.

Anslinger worked his way up the federal bureaucracy through the Bureau of Prohibition, the federal law enforcement agency created to enforce the 1919 ban of alcohol in the United States (we all know what havoc that law wreaked). Because of his apparent incorruptibility during that very corruptible time, Anslinger was named commissioner of the Treasury Department's newly created Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930.

Technically, marijuana, not being a narcotic, was not under his jurisdiction. But Anslinger set his sights on pot and propagated horror stories about the evils of marijuana that the DEA continues to parrot to this day, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, such as marijuana being a gateway drug, that it robs people of their senses and souls, turning them into cheats, liars, skulkers, thieves, whores, insane wrecks and other assorted amoral, anti-social decadents.

Anslinger's outrageous claims against marijuana have been debunked and discredited, yet the tone he helped set beginning in the 1930s and for the next 30 years continue to dominate how your government conducts its business against you.

Overlooking states rights in the 12 states where medical marijuana bills have passed, the DEA continues to conduct raids on medical marijuana users and continues to claim medical marijuana is bogus.

"Prior to the illegalization of marijuana in general in the '30s and allocating the most severe drug penalties for its usage, medical marijuana was around for a hundred years," said. Rep. Frank Boyle, co-sponsor of the Assembly's Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act. "There was documented evidence in journals that you use marijuana for migraine headaches, certain menstrual problems, neurological relief for things such as glaucoma. It was documented for 150 years, going back to colonial times.

"Everyone knows someone who has suffered the aftereffects of chemotherapy," he continued. "There are enough very legitimate stories out there from people whose symptoms have been relieved and alleviated by the use of illegal marijuana. They regulate all kinds of pain killers - opiates, morphine, hard narcotics to relieve pain - and they deny marijuana?"

[palmspringsbum]

Federal Pot Smoker Burns Both Ends For Medical Marijuana

The Scene
Mon, 1 Oct 2007
by Jim Lundstrom

Every month George McMahon receives a silver tin of prescription marijuana courtesy of the federal government. He is one of five survivors in the Federal Drug Administration's Compassionate Investigational New Drug program.

"Personally, I won," said the Iowa man who has been receiving 300 free government joints every month since 1990. " I don't have anything to beef about. That's really hard to explain to somebody like Jacki (Rickert, for whom the new Wisconsin medical marijuana bill is named), who can't win."

Even though he can legally smoke marijuana for his medical condition, McMahon remains a tireless advocate for the majority who are still denied the benefits of medical marijuana. "We're not talking about legalization for everybody. We're talking about sick people who need it," he said.

McMahon suffers from Nail Patella Syndrome, which is characterized by abnormalities of the arms and legs as well as kidney disease and glaucoma. He has suffered countless broken bones over the years from the disease. He wrote about his medical troubles and how marijuana has helped in the 2003 book "Prescription Pot," in which he describes the quality and content of that monthly tin of joints he receives.

"Compared to all the patients who live in fear of arrest and pay hundreds of dollars each month to get black market medicine of questionable quality, I have it easy. I just cut open the joints, clean out the seeds and stems, moisturize the herb and re-roll the joints with my own papers," he wrote in the book.

McMahon said he smokes about 10 joints a day in place of other medications previously prescribed that only seemed to make him worse. "I was continually getting worse on legal pharmaceuticals," he said. "I haven't taken any other medicine in 18 years, maybe a few antibiotics and I might take as many as six aspirin in a year. That's it. It's amazing stuff."

And that, he says, is why he will continue to fight for everyone's right to legal medical marijuana. "As we teach people, we convert people. We've been converting enemies, people who really thought they were right. They just had to have the information," he said. "If they say they're against it morally, well, that's no reason. If they say science, we can debunk it. But if they just stand there and say no, that's even worse."

If anyone wants to know of the long-term health effects of smoking marijuana, McMahon refers them to the Missoula Chronic Clinical Cannabis Use Study conducted at the University of Montana-Missoula with the assistance of four federal prescription pot smokers who have used "a known dosage of a standardized, heat-sterilized quality-controlled supply of low-grade marijuana for 11 to 27 years."

Here are the conclusions and recommendations of that study:

Cannabis smoking, even of a crude low-grade product, provides effective symptomatic relief of pain, muscle spasms, and intraocular pressure elevations in selected patients failing other modes of treatment.

These clinical cannabis patients are able to reduce or eliminate other prescription medicines and their accompanying side effects.

Clinical cannabis provides an improved quality of life.

The side effect profile of NIDA cannabis in chronic usage suggest some mild pulmonary risks.

No malignant deterioration has been observed.

No consistent or attributable neuropsychological or neurological deterioration has been observed.

No endocrine, hematological or immunological sequelae have been observed.

Improvements in a clinical cannabis program would include a ready and consistent supply of sterilized, potent, organically grown unfertilized female flowering top material, thoroughly cleaned of extraneous, inert fibrous matter.

It is the authors' opinion that the Compassionate IND program should be reopened and extended to patients in need of clinical cannabis.

Failing that, local, state and federal laws might be amended to provide regulated and monitored clinical cannabis to suitable candidates.

And that, McMahon points out, is just one of many studies that have been conducted around the world.

"The studies going on are just mind-blowing," he said. It's not that misunderstood anymore. If they deny it now, it's knowingly doing it. There's no lack of credible information. The science has been done and pretty basically if they're not looking it up, it's willing ignorance. They're not really that ignorant. It's up in the air to see what they do."

[palmspringsbum]

Experts explain health benefits of marijuana

<span class=postbigbold>Lawmakers hear from experts at a capitol hearing about the medicinal use of marijuana.</span>

by Jackie Johnson, Wisconsin Radio Network
November 14th, 2007

AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report (2:10 MP3)

Dr. David Bearman is one of thousands of medical doctors who supports legalizing pot for patients.

"The fact of the matter is is that 75-to-80% of Americans in any poll done in the last 25 years has favored the legalization of medical marijuana."

The California physician who graduated from the University of Wisconsin says it's next to impossible for patients suffering from debilitating pain to find a doctor to prescribe medical marijuana. One such victim was relieved to find Dr. Bearman.

"…broke down in tears and said 'You know I'm not a criminal. This is the only thing that works.' I mean, you be really put to tears yourself to hear the stories of some of these people who say 'I would commit suicide if it hadn't been for marijuana because it relieves my pain like nothing else.'"

Dr. Bearman testified at an informational Health Committee hearing at the state capitol in support of the controversial drug. As for prescribing legal painkillers for patients in pain, Bearman says if they can find one that even works, there are usually too many side effects, so patients must take other medications to alleviate those side effects, only to create new ones, which need more meds. He says these people are not criminals.

"It's pretty absurd for the federal government to be expending precious federal dollars going around arresting people with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and failed back syndrome."

Dr. Bearman says he pre-screens each patient to make sure they have a well-documented, bona fide diagnosis. Opponents worry about the potential for abuse, saying people might use it for recreational use.

"Well I think that if we were to use that logic for all drugs we would have very few medications available for physicians to use. All drugs have an abuse potential."

Bearman has a 40-year history as a professional in providing drug abuse treatment and prevention. He says the "potential for abuse" argument is "totally bogus." Meanwhile, Bearman says many people are using alternative medicines, so their doctors would be wise to be aware of the various medications their patient is taking.

Dr. David Bearman is originally from Rice Lake, Wisconsin. He graduated from the UW in '63 before eventually finding his way to California.

<small>NOTE: Medical marijuana is currently legal in: Maine , New Hampshire , Rhode Island , Montana , Washington , Oregon , California , Nevada , Colorado , New Mexico , Alaska , and Hawaii . In Wisconsin, a poll conducted by Chamberlain Research Consultants showed a 75.7% support for legislation to permit patients with serious illnesses to use marijuana for medical purposes with their physicians' approval.</small>

[palmspringsbum]

Senate hearing on medical marijuana turns emotional

by Ken Harris, Badger Herald
November 15th, 2007


A state Senate committee heard heated testimony Wednesday morning at the Capitol both for and against medicinal marijuana.

The Committee on Health, Human Services, Insurance and Job Creation held a public information hearing about medical marijuana featuring testimony from three “expert witnesses” followed by responses from the public.

Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, who chairs the committee, said he was approached with the idea to hold the hearing “years ago” when he first took office, by Gary Storck, co-founder of Is My Medicine Legal Yet?

“I’ve asked questions of a lot of doctors and … a slim majority of them seem to think if that’s what’s going to make the patient feel better and control the pain better they’re not opposed to it,” Erpenbach said. “Some are opposed to it simply because, as they put it, there is no scientific proof.”

The two key witnesses in favor of medicinal marijuana were David Bearman, a practicing physician from Santa Barbara, Calif., and Chris Fichtner from Illinois. Fichtner is a psychiatrist who is the former head of mental health for the Illinois Department of Health and Human Services.

According to Bearman, one of the biggest problems with legalizing marijuana is the stigma that surrounds the substance. The federal government has labeled it a “schedule one substance” along with other drugs deemed not medically beneficial. Bearman said he believes there is plenty of research that proves this wrong.

“It’s still an uphill battle to remove that stigma,” Bearman said.

Addressing concerns of the committee, Bearman said marijuana is not physically addictive, causing less dependency than coffee.

“The abuse potential is extremely low,” Bearman said.

Following Bearman’s testimony, Fichtner said there is no outlet for the discussion of marijuana outside the realm of substance abuse. He said there needs to be legal research performed to make marijuana and all the chemicals in it specialized to treat different types of ailments — but such research is not allowed right now.

Fichtner also addressed a Yale study that linked marijuana use to increased psychotic brain activity. He called the findings of the study misleading and said the methods were flawed.

In response to a question from the committee, Fichtner addressed the argument that marijuana serves as a “gateway” for users to try other, more dangerous drugs.

According to Fichtner, alcohol has proven, in studies, to serve as a gateway drug at a much higher rate than marijuana.

“There is not good evidence for cannabis as a gateway drug,” Fichtner said.

Storck and fellow IMMLY co-founder Jackie Rickert gave emotional testimony, as Rickert fought to hold back the tears as she described her physical ailments and how marijuana has allowed her to play with her grandchildren.

Donna Daniels, state coordinator for Parent Corps, a national drug prevention program, spoke in opposition to the idea of legalizing the substance for medical use.

“Research has shown that marijuana is an addictive substance,” Daniels said. “Making medical marijuana legal is a stepping-stone to other legalization.”

[palmspringsbum]

Let's dance with Mary Jane

<span class=postbigbold>Medicinal marijuana really does kill the pain</span>


The Spectator
By: Theresa Schneider
Posted: 12/13/07


<table class=posttable align=right width=150><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg src=bin/schneider_theresa.jpg alt="Theresa Schneider"></td></tr></table>Usually when I get into this discussion, people think I'm just another college stoner who wants to legalize marijuana so I can have cheap access to pot without the potential legal consequences. That's not the case.

Evidence suggests that marijuana has medicinal benefits and is safer than some prescription drugs and even some substances available to the general public. That being the case, people should have access to prescribed medicinal marijuana.

Marijuana use in the United States began in the medical world. Starting in the mid-1800s up until the beginning of the 20th century, Western medical literature actually recommends and advocates for the use of marijuana cigarettes to help treat certain ailments, specifically nausea associated with some disorders. It wasn't until the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, which severely restricted physicians' ability to prescribe the drug, did marijuana leave American pharmacies.

The American Medical Association protested at the time because the act limited medicinal options for patients.

Later, in 1972, the Nixon-appointed National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse announced that there was a lack of sound evidence for the prohibition of the drug. Despite the findings in the 70s, marijuana is still prohibited. Why are fewer restrictions placed on more harmful substances, such as tobacco and alcohol? With no conclusive evidence that the drug has reason to be banned, is a patient's access to the drug still restricted?

Traditionally, medicinal marijuana has been suggested to help treat nausea, especially for people going through cancer treatments such as chemotherapy. It has also been suggested for people with gastrointestinal disorders who experience severe nausea. Marijuana does, in fact, relieve nausea and could be used to relieve suffering for many patients.

Some recent studies also suggest marijuana could not just be used as a pain-relieving drug, but that it also has the potential to delay the progression of some diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel syndrome and perhaps even Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease.

It is now believed that marijuana is actually safer than people once thought. Some studies suggest heavy use of marijuana produces significantly less damage on the lungs of the smoker and the lungs of others than equal use of tobacco cigarettes. Interestingly enough, the government requires cigarette companies to place surgeon general warnings on packages and advertisements, and the government even restricts how tobacco companies can advertise. But with all the evidence clearly linking tobacco cigarettes to cancers, there is no restriction on how much tobacco can be consumed. If a harmful substance like tobacco is not limited, why is something with clear medicinal benefits prohibited?

Studies also suggest that marijuana cigarettes are significantly less addictive than narcotics, alcohol, tobacco and even caffeine. Marijuana use proves to be much less addicting than many substances, some of which are not controlled.

Although physicians may not legally prescribe marijuana to patients, they can recommend marijuana's use to treat symptoms. On Sept. 7, 2000, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in Conant v. McCaffery that federal authorities may not sanction doctors who recommend marijuana to patients.

I am one of those patients.

As someone who suffers from a chronic gastrointestinal disorder, I have seen doctors who have actually suggested I consider smoking pot to alleviate some of my symptoms. But upon this kind of recommendation, I face a tough situation. I can break the law and buy and smoke weed to cope with symptoms, I can try medications or I can chose not to treat my uncomfortable symptoms at all.

Yes, there are many anti-nausea medications available too, but some, such as prescription based Reglan, can have side effects worse than their intended good. Some of the mild side effects include drowsiness, fatigue, headaches and confusion. Other side effects include insomnia, tachycardia (irregular heart rhythm) and mental depression with intentions of suicide. That's a large risk to take for anti-nausea medication. I would know - I've experienced some of those side effects. I'd rather not treat my symptoms.

Medicinal marijuana is safer than many available substances including prescriptions and it has established medicinal benefits. There is no reason why patients who could benefit from the drug should not have access to it.

[palmspringsbum]

Gary Storck: Dreyfus supported medical marijuana; today's pols should too

<span class=postbigbold>A letter to the editor — 1/08/2008 9:29 am </span>

The Capital Times


Dear Editor: I was sorry to read of the passing of former Wisconsin Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus. Dreyfus signed Wisconsin's first medical marijuana bill into law on April 19, 1982.

As a glaucoma patient fighting each day to save my precious eyesight, I had been using cannabis for 10 years and had lobbied for the bill. The Therapeutic Cannabis Research Act passed both houses easily. Similar legislation was passed in more than two-thirds of U.S. states.

Unfortunately, these bills were written with the expectation that the federal government would supply the program's medical marijuana. With federal authorities unwilling to supply marijuana to sick and dying U.S. citizens, the law became symbolic.

While Dreyfus remained a supporter of medical marijuana in his later years, many of the Republican legislators who followed him in state government have blocked medical marijuana legislation.

This session, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act is awaiting action in the Assembly's Health and Healthcare Reform Committee. Chair Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, a nurse, has stated that the bill will not receive a hearing. If the bill does not receive a hearing soon, it will die in committee like previous attempts dating back more than a decade.

Polling has established that popular support for medical marijuana exceeds 80 percent in Wisconsin. As an advocate for medical cannabis, I constantly receive calls from patients and family members who indicate there is a crisis in pain management in our state. I know the good folks who call me represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Memo to the GOP leadership: The sick and dying are not your enemy. I get calls from Republicans too. Let's get this done, this session, in honor of the memory of not only a man ahead of his time, Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus, but also the thousands of Wisconsinites who died in pain. Please make passage of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act a true priority when the Legislature reconvenes Jan. 15!

Gary Storck, Is My Medicine Legal YET?, Madison

[palmspringsbum]

Picketing Bill Clinton: "Where is Jacki's Medicine?"


Submitted by dane101 on Sat, 2008-02-16 12:29

<table class=posttable align=right width=200><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg width=200 src=bin/masel_clinton_picket.jpg></td></tr></table><span class=postbold>Local activist, Ben Masel provided this account of picketing at Bill Clinton's appearance on Thursday.</span>

Just back from Bill Clinton's appearance at the historic Stock Pavilion on the University of Wisconsin Campus. When Gary Storck and I approached, we were directed across the street by the most polite pair of Secret Service agents I've ever dealt with, but, as it's a narrow street, not an unreasonable "Free Speech Zone."

Our signs referred to Bill's encounter, as a Candidate, with Jacki Rickert of Mondovi, Wisconsin in 1992. Jacki had been approved for the federal medical marijuana program, but not yet admitted when Bush I closed the program to new admissions in 1989. She caught up with Bill in Osseo on his post-Convention Mississippi River bus tour. After she explained her odyssey through the federal bureaucracy, Bill "I feel your pain" promised "When I'm President, you'll get your medicine."

Come the Inaugural, Jacki sent letters, made calls seeking fulfillment of that commitment, but got back only form letters. "If drugs were legal, my brother Roger would be dead."

Delivering on this promise would not have required action by the Congress, as the Controlled Substances Act does not prohibit medical use of Cannabis, rather, it requires a permit, issued at the discretion of the Secretary of HHS. At the time Jacki was blocked, there were 14 patients receiving medical marijuana from the government's pot farm in Mississippi. They were grandfathered in. 4 survive, and get monthly deliveries.

As Bill disembarked today, we caught his eye, and I was close enough to shout, "You priomised Jacki Rickert you'd get her Medical Marijuana in 1992."

If I'm correctly reading body language, he turned to State Democratic Chair Joe Wineke, asking "what's that about?" Joe knows Jacki's story, he was around for the ceremony last fall on the introduction in the Wisconsin Assembly of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act.

[palmspringsbum]

Gary Storck: GOP control must end for medicinal pot to pass

Letter to the editor — 3/14/2008 9:27 am
The Capitol Times

Dear Editor: Thanks to Tyler Zellner for a great letter advocating legal access to medical marijuana.

One point that needs clarification. There actually was medical cannabis legislation in the Legislature this session. Assembly Bill 550, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, was introduced last September and named in honor of Rickert, a longtime Wisconsin medical cannabis patient/activist.

Unfortunately, the bill, like other unfinished business, expired as of Thursday and the Assembly's GOP leadership once again did not allow a hearing or a vote in committee. This has happened nearly every session dating back to when the Republicans gained control of the Assembly in 1993.

Two weeks ago, Michigan certified signatures for a ballot initiative that will likely put this issue before its voters this November. Every time this issue has gone to voters, it has passed.

Medical cannabis legislation is on the move in Illinois too, where a state Senate committee passed legislation last week. Supporters in Minnesota are also back to work after near success last session.

The American College of Family Physicians, the nation's second-largest doctors' group, issued a position paper this year supporting medical cannabis.

It is clear to me, as a longtime patient/activist for medical cannabis, that the only way this legislation will make it through the Legislature is if the Republican domination of the Assembly is ended. Fortunately for suffering patients and their families, the GOP majority has shrunk to just three.

Gov. Jim Doyle is on record stating he would sign a bill. It's now up to voters this fall to put representatives in place who agree with the 80 percent of us who believe medical cannabis should be a legal option for state residents.

Gary Storck

Is My Medicine Legal YET?

Madison

[Herbie]

Full Article

STURGEON BAY, Wis.(AP)
March 25, 2008

Man Nabbed for Pot-Smelling Cash Deposit

.. The musty smell of a man's money led to his arrest on possible drug charges. The 21-year-old Sturgeon Bay man tried to deposit money smelling of marijuana at a bank here last week, according to a Sturgeon Bay police report obtained by the Door County Advocate.

The $4,000 in bundled bills did not smell like burned marijuana but had a musty odor of ground sweet leaves, the report said.

The smell was so strong and distinct that a teller put the cash in a plastic bag. Sturgeon Bay police tested it for marijuana, and it came back positive, the report said.

The man was arrested when he returned to the bank to make a withdrawal. Police later found bagged marijuana at the man's home.

"All the pieces just came together," Police Chief Dan Trelka said.

The man is being held in the county jail on a probation violation, while the Door County district attorney's office reviews his case. It will be up to the district attorney to file formal charges.

`H

[palmspringsbum]

Comp Time with Gary Storck

<span class=postbigbold>Medical marijuana advocate knows how hard it can be
</span>
The Daily Page
Nathan J. Comp on Wednesday 03/26/2008 10:43 am

<table class=posttable align=right width=190><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg src=bin/storck_gary.jpg alt="Gary Storck"></td></tr><tr><td class=postcell><span class=postbold>Storck: 'We're just people trying to take care of our lives and marijuana is the only thing that works.'</span></td></tr></table>Storck, 52, has worked tirelessly over the last 30 years to get medical marijuana legislation passed in Wisconsin. His latest effort, like his previous ones, failed when the state's legislative session ended two weeks ago.

So far, 14 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal use.

Storck spoke with The Daily Page about why medical marijuana is a tough sell in Wisconsin.

<span class=postbigbold>The Daily Page: How was the medical marijuana bill railroaded this time?</span>

Storck: Rep. Leah Vukmir, the chairwoman of the Healthcare and Healthcare Reform committee, stated a year ago that the bill would not pass out of her committee. That alone did not kill it. That was the bidding of Speaker Mike Huebsch and Majority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, who could've sent it to another committee, such as Rep. J.A. Hines's Public Health committee. Rep. Hines had promised to give the bill a fair hearing. So Huebsch and Fitzgerald made the decision to put it in Vukmir's committee knowing full well it would die there.

<span class=postbigbold>How difficult is it to find sponsors to introduce medical marijuana legislation?</span>

We're fortunate to have in the Assembly the two representatives who are reliable co-sponsors of this legislation. I consider them real heroes. They're Rep. Frank Boyle and Rep. Mark Pocan. I'm really proud of them for sticking up for patients.

<span class=postbigbold>Have you ever persuaded a politician opposed to it to switch sides?</span>

Scott Suder. He'd been a long time opponent of medical marijuana. He was quoted as saying the patients at the press conference announcing the bill were tools being used to legalize marijuana for all uses. We found that very offensive, so we confronted him one day as he left the Assembly chambers.

I think we got through to him that we're just people trying to take care of our lives and marijuana is the only thing that works. Since then he actually became more open to it. He spoke with Mark Pocan and he talked to Jacki Rickert, who the legislation was named after, for 30 minutes on the phone one night, which is amazing because she couldn't even get her own state senator, who's a Democrat, to talk to her for 10 minutes.

<span class=postbigbold>Looks like our neighboring states have some promising legislation in the works.</span>

Yeah, I'm really excited. It's almost certain that medical marijuana will be on the ballot in Michigan. That means, this November, the people of Michigan will have the chance to vote on it. Not only that, but in Minnesota, efforts are underway in the Legislature, and a similar bill passed committee in Illinois a few weeks ago, so it's on the move there again.

<span class=postbigbold>At its core, medical marijuana seems to be a human rights issue. So, why are politicians reluctant to get on board?</span>

I don't know. There was a hearing in the state senate this session as well. I worked with Sen. Jon Erpenbach who chairs the Senate Health Committee and he had me bring in extra witnesses. Unfortunately, it was just an informational hearing and the only senator who stuck around for the whole thing was Jon Erpenbach. The other senators weren't even there to listen. We spent a couple thousand dollars bringing in these great experts who could've answered any questions they had and they weren't there. I've said this bill was killed by the Republican leadership in the Assembly, but there's some blame to be spread around Democrats, too.