Tagged: medical marijuana ban

Posted: September 18, 2012 at 9:16 am

Legislator Admits Medical Marijuana Bill Was “Defacto Repeal” of Voter Intent in New Ad

Medical marijuana advocates today released a new radio ad in support of IR-124.  The ad urges voters to overturn Senate Bill 423 by ballot initiative at the polls this November.  SB 423 was passed by the Senate in 2011, and effectively repealed and destroyed a voter approved medical pot regime that was put in place in 2004 (also by ballot).

The ad features a statement by Sen.Larry Jent (D-Bozeman), who was caught on tape admitting that the Legislature’s final vote in the 2011 session was actually intended to functionally repeal (rather than fix) the state medical marijuana law adopted by voters.  “And it worked,” Jent concludes.  Oops.

Jent is not up for re-election this year but will be term limited out after the 2015 next session.  He had previously campaigned in the democratic gubernatorial primary but dropped out after it became clear he had no support against the popular Steve Bullock.

You can hear the ad here: No on IR-124 Ad

As you can see from the photo above, it looks like Jent may already be using some kind of illicit substance.

Legislators had claimed during the 2011 session that repealing the citizen initiative was not the intent of SB 423.  So Jent’s comments are very disappointing.   And polling has shown that Montana voters strongly oppose a repeal of the Medical Marijuana Act–62% oppose repeal while only 20% support it. The initiative passed with over 66% of the vote in 2004.

During the 2011 session, the Governor called SB 423 “unconstitutional on its face,” and issued an amendatory veto to fix the parts he considered legally defective.  The legislature rejected his changes, overriding Schweitzer’s amendatory veto and demonstrating they had the votes to override an outright veto of the bill as a whole.

Now, Montanans have a chance to decide for themselves whether they like what the legislature did.  A “no” vote on IR-124 is a vote to reject the Bat Crap Crazy legislature’s bill and allow sick people to use pot.  (An easy way to keep track of all of the initiatives and referenda on the ballot this fall is to vote no on everything but I-166, the initiative that says corporations aren’t people.)

Patients for Reform – Not Repeal today began airing the 30-second spot on the Northern Broadcasting Network, during the Aaron Flint show, and the group hopes to continue airing the ad on a daily basis through the election as fundraising allows.

Here’s the script of the ad: “Same Old Story”

Same old story. Politicians ignore the will of the people.The federal government attacks Montana’s sovereignty. And our gun rights. Fed up? Vote against IR-124 this November. It’s simple. Voters passed a ballot measure. The politicians repealed it.Here’s Democrat Larry Jent: This was meant to be a de facto repeal, and it worked. And, uh, that’s why we did it that way.

Repeal? What about respect for the voters?

 

Politicians said no to you. Now say no to them. No on IR-124.

[Paid for by Patients for Reform, Not Repeal. Sarah Baugh, Treasurer]

 

Posted: August 2, 2012 at 8:08 pm

Single-Issue Crusader Wants Free of Your Freedoms

A Mormon seminary teacher and anti-cannabis crusader David Lewis says he just wants to live in a place where he can be free of your freedoms.  He’s the Republican candidate for Rep. Margie MacDonald’s (D) house seat in Billings, HD 54.

His philosophy is simple, if not constitutional.  Lewis shared his views with the independent news magazine In These Times:

“while others are entitled to their freedoms, those who do not wish to be exposed to the freedoms of others are entitled to be free of those freedoms.”

To explain his vision, Lewis told a story about his seminary class:

Lewis asked his students at the Mormon seminary what laws they would pass if they were starting a city. One young lady said that she would outlaw cursing, says Lewis. “And a young man kind of immediately jumped on that one with both feet and said, ‘Ah, that’s against the right of free speech.’ “

But the champion of Lewis’ tale is the student who disregards the constitution in favor of Mormon doctrine:

“The point is, at the end of the class, one young lady piped up … ‘I don’t know if it’s legal or not to outlaw cursing,’ she said. ‘But I’d want to live there.’ “

So would Lewis it seems.   While voters are focused on jobs and the economy, Lewis’ sole focus is a single issue: the evils of medical marijuana.  It’s the only issue he’s spoken about at the Billings City Council, where he was the most vocal proponent of a ban on medical marijuana storefronts.

Lewis best known as the treasurer of “Safe Communities Safe Kids,” the recently-formed Billings group that decided the only aspect of safety it need focus on was medical marijuana, which Lewis describes as a “rope-a-dope” conspiracy to hook kids on drugs.

Speaking before the Billings City Council, Lewis said Montana is turning into “Gomorrah.” He claimed that:

“at least three medical marijuana facilities sprouting up around ‘nearly every single institution of elementary learning’ in Billings.”

Lewis says this was “intentional.”

Creating a society where he can be free from your freedoms is theme Lewis has drawn on before.  He was a vociferous participant in the comments section of a KULR-8 story on the failed signature gathering effort Lewis lead to overturn the voter-passed medical marijuana ballot initiative.  Late into the night, Lewis typed that he doesn’t want to keep ”those who want ‘Pot’ in their lives from having it.” He just wants to live “someplace where they don’t want to live because of the Laws against it,” which makes perfect sense.  Here’s the screenshot.  

In another comment on the same story, he calls on others to join his crusade and “take your place as the Creators of a Nation.”  Screenshot here.  I hope he’s not talking about seceding already.  Typically, GOP-ers find it wise to wait until they are elected to start waving that flag.

 

Posted: August 1, 2012 at 7:11 am

New Billboard Campaign on Medical Marijuana Initiative

A billboard that reads “Welcome to Yellowstone County, Where the Will of the People Doesn’t Count” us up on Montana Avenue in Billings.  The billboard encourages Montanans to vote “NO” on IR-124.

Initiative Referendum 124 (IR-124) is the voter initiative that will appear on this year’s ballot. It allows voters keep or reject the new medical marijuana law passed by the infamous 2011 “Bat Crap Crazy” Montana legislature. (An initiative referendum is the process for citizens to put bills passed by the legislature on the ballot for everyone to vote on.) The new law, Senate Bill 423, sponsored by Billings Republican Jeff Essmann, repealed the citizen initiative voters passed in 2004 in favor of medical marijuana.  A “YES” vote is to keep the Jeff Essmann law, a “NO” vote is to reject it.  (An easy way to remember how to vote on the ballet items this year is to vote “NO” on everything except the one about Citizens United.)

During the 2011 session, the Governor called SB 423 “unconstitutional on its face,” and issued an amendatory veto to fix the parts he considered legally defective.  The legislature rejected his changes.

Essmann had thought to run for Governor on the Republican ticket, but he ended up quickly dropping out of the race.  Everywhere he went, the state Senator from Billings was hounded by by large numbers of angry protestors, upset with Essmann over the his notorious medical marijuana stance. It got so bad that when the Republican announced his campaign for Governor, Essmann did it the only way he could find to avoid the angry crowds:  on a conference call.

So voters got together and collected the signatures to get IR-124 on the ballot to let Montanans have the last word–the chance to vote “YES” or “NO” on whether Jeff Essmann’s medical marijuana bill should stand.

The billboard was put up by the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, best known for its legal challenge to the current medical marijuana law:

“Through their repeal efforts, the legislature ignored the will of the people and claimed to be abiding by it all at the same time,” says Chris Lindsey, President of the MTCIA.  “First, they rushed to repeal the original law and leave patients with nothing.  When that failed, the same group of people came up with their current back-door effort at repeal – by making participation in the state program as painful and risky as possible.   Voters need to regain control of this issue, repeal the current terrible law and demand a realistic set of regulations.  No one wants to go back to the way things were, but what we have now is worse for patients.”

Posted: April 29, 2011 at 7:26 am

Montana Legislature Moves to Add Semen to Marijuana Prohibition Bill

[This hilarious spoof article has been making the email rounds -author unknown. I have posted the spoof in it's entirety below for your reading pleasure.]

Sen. Essman adds last minute semen ban to marijuana legislation

By CHARLES S. JOHNSON IR State Bureau | Posted: Friday, April 29, 2011 12:00 am | (0) Comments

The last hours of the Montana Legislature were met with harried anticipation in the adjudicative body’s Republican Caucus today in Helena. Legislators rushed to finalize many pieces of legislation including the much debated repeal and review of Montana’s 2004 citizen passed initiative 148 allowing the legalization of Medical Marijuana. Senator Jeff Essman, R-Billings, rushed to add an important Amendment to his SB 428 which would all but end the medical marijuana industry in Montana.

Following a year of contentious and highly public moves by the medical marijuana community to bring the drug into the mainstream, the Republican dominated legislature had vowed to “remove the scourge of Marijuana and its many ills from the state.” The final touches to the legislation to do just that were only finalized today after tearful testimony on the Senate floor by Republican Senator Jeff Essman of Billings where he stated his desire add an outlaw of semen to his bill.

“Gentlemen, we have done a great thing corralling in these dopers and their evil weed, but only today was I made aware of a substance whose danger matches, yes even succeeds that of the scourge of Mary Jane, gentlemen I speak of semen. Yes semen, that most disgusting of fluids… that most common enemy of mankind itself. Now many of my brothers here in this body may be asking why semen, why now?

I’ll tell you why, because just recently scientists have discovered the true properties of semen are harmful beyond what we previously thought. The evils of lust, violence and odd behavior in young men, pollution, high school dropout and human overpopulation are all caused by semen we know for sure. Semen stands right up there with marijuana as one of nature’s great mistakes! But now many of the same properties we can point to in marijuana are being discovered in semen while we do nothing to stop its proliferation. Scientists recently discovered that semen may cause euphoria, alleviate depression and decrease the risks of some cancers. Sounds just like marijuana to me.”

Marijuana advocates and constitutional scholars, who were already critical of Essman’s legislation citing medical privacy concerns and a moralistic tone struck during debate of the bill were dumbfounded by Essman’s move to add semen to the list of substances banned under the new legislation. “I mean, wow, this guy is freakin crazy. I told you these bastards were crazy. Essman’s gone off the deep end now. I mean, how the hell does he expect to enforce this?” asked Marijuana advocate Jim Gingery of the Montana Medical Growers Association.

Constitutional scholars who had already criticized Essman’s marijuana repeal bill citing the privacy concerns with handing over medical records of all marijuana patients in Montana to law enforcement were much more diplomatic in their criticism of Senator Essman’s new Amendments banning semen. “We told the Governor this bill was unconstitutional on its face. Handing over medical records is illegal for anyone to do, but banning a body fluid. That’s ludicrous, this doesn’t have a legal foot to stand on,” said constitutional lawyer and former Montana Supreme court Justice Terry Trieweiler.

Senator Essman and his Republican caucus disagree with the contention that their legislation to ban semen with marijuana is unconstitutional. “First off, everyone has disagreements about constitutionality. It’s just how you interpret it. The Governor’s office, these dopers and the constitutional scholars all have it wrong. We’ve found we can ban any damn thing we want in our state, natural or not. Scientists tell us marijuana chemicals naturally occur in the body and we can ban that, so why not semen? Scientists now know for certain the dangers of semen, especially to women. I mean science don’t lie.”

The scientist Senator Essman speaks of and has used to justify his new amendments linking semen and it’s marijuana like effects is Lazar Greenfield, M.D. Dr. Lazar is a world renowned surgeon and until recently, he served as president-elect of the American College of Surgeons. He’s a professor and a titan in medical science. In an article titled “Gut Feelings” in February’s issue of Surgery News he extolled the therapeutic benefits of semen to women’s health and cited peer reviewed evidence that semen, like marijuana, was known to cause euphoria in those who were exposed to it. He cited evidence from a recent study of semen and its effects on humans. Dr. Lazar was forced to resign after publicly coming out as a semen advocate.

The study Lazar cited was authored in part by Dr. Steven M. Platek, Ph.D, the editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience and a co-editor of Evolutionary Psychology whose evidence Essman cites as critical in his link of Semen to marijuana. “They say only 5 percent of the ejaculate is sperm”. Essman says.

Scientists say what’s left is seminal plasma, which is a rich concoction of chemicals, including many that have the potential to produce mood-altering effects derived from hormones, neurotransmitters, and endorphins.

“What is the rest of semen made up of,” Essman asks. “We need to know before we go off half-cocked allowing this stuff into our communities. This sounds just like the evidence we heard on marijuana. It’s got all these unknown chemicals, like a gazillion of them that do all sorts of crazy stuff. If this substance is so therapeutic, then why can’t we take it to a lab, isolate its beneficial properties and prescribe it like any other drug. If semen is so good, let’s let doctors put it in a pill and prescribe it. Until we can do that I want to see it gone from our communities.”

Essman and his Republican counterparts do not expect stiff opposition to their semen ban. “We know this stuff is bad,” added House Speaker Mike Millburn, the most ardent supporter of Essman’s SB 423. “My aunt’s cousin’s daughter’s babysitter told me she’d heard that more and more middle schoolers were experimenting with semen and that in high school semen could be found in almost half of all the kids there. That’s just too much, you expect college kids to have this stuff, but now kids as young as 12. Dangerous stuff, we gotta get rid of it, and the old sock approach aint gonna cut it,” Millburn added emphatically.

The bill heads to the Governor’s desk again today. Stay tuned for updates.