Michigan residents: Stop arresting patients and vote Yes on Proposal 1

Your Daily Chum is fervently behind the effort to legalize marijuana for medicinal use in the state of Michigan. In graduate school, The Chum Master has read more policy papers and patient and doctor accounts than you can imagine. Having personally met dozens of Michigan citizens who utilized marijuana to ease their sufferings from diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis, and AIDS, we strongly urge all Michigan residents to vote “Yes” on Proposal 1 on November 4th. It’s a simple issue: will we allow the seriously ill to choose their method of treatment or will we continue to buy into the decades of lies spoonfed to us by the federal government and pharmaceutical companies?

The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care (MCCC) is a grassroots organization devoted to passing Proposal 1, the medical marijuana initiative on the November 2008 ballot. Proposal 1 will protect seriously ill Michiganders suffering from illnesses like cancer, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis from the threat of arrest and jail for simply trying to alleviate their pain.

If Proposal 1 is passed by a majority of voters on November 4, Michigan law will allow these patients – some of the most vulnerable members of our community – to use, possess, and grow their own marijuana for medical purposes, with their doctors’ approval. It will create a registry of patients and a system of ID cards, so that law enforcement will easily be able to tell who is a legitimate participant in the program and who is not, and establish penalties for false statements and fraudulent cards. And by maintaining current prohibitions on public use and driving under the influence of marijuana, Proposal 1 will ensure that the law does exactly what it sets out to do – protect the seriously ill from the threat of arrest and jail, and do so responsibly.

Please take time to watch the interview below of how marijuana eased the sufferings of a woman facing cancer.

This ad features Manistee, Mich. resident Dr. George Wagoner, whose wife of 51 years, Beverly, succumbed to cancer in 2007. During her ordeal, she found that few prescription medications effectively combated her chemotherapy-related nausea as well as medical marijuana, which Dr. Wagoner procured for her. Since her passing, he has dedicated himself to ensuring that no one else has to break the law in order to relieve their loved ones’ suffering. As he notes in the ad, “It shouldn’t be a crime to follow a doctor’s advice.”

Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care

Congress likely to catch on that most people find it disgusting to jail cancer, AIDS, and MS patients. No seriously….I mean they might catch on while at least some of those paitents are still alive.

With Michigan set to become the 13th state to allow medicinal usage of marijuana, provided a voter initiative passes this fall, there’s a chance Congress might eventually wake up and show a sliver of compassion to very seriously ill folks. All the Democratic candidates pledged to end federal harassment of medicinal dispensaries and doctors and patients. Sadly, only Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo had the guts to do the same on the GOP side. And John McCain? Well, he’s either still angry at the pot-smoking hippies that cost us Vietnam, or he’s still clinging to his Reagan-era “Just Say No” booklet.

“I do not support the use of marijuana for medical purposes,” McCain said. “I believe that marijuana is a gateway drug. That is my view, and that’s the view of the federal drug czar and other experts.”

Marijuana has no medical benefits just as staying in Iraq for the next 100 yrs. is a great idea. Anyway, read more about some positive signs of ending the DEA’s cruelty and idiocy.  Better late than never.