PHOENIX (AP) — A measure that would legalize medical marijuana in Arizona pulled ahead for the first time Friday, with both supporters and opponents saying they believed the proposal that went before voters on Election Day would pass.
Proposition 203 was ahead by 4,421 votes out of more than 1.63 million votes counted. The measure started out losing by about 7,200 votes on Nov. 2 and the gap gradually narrowed in the following 10 days.
Only about 10,000 early and provisional ballots remain to be counted in the state, and all are in Maricopa County.
If the measure passes, Arizona would be the 15th state with a medical marijuana law.
“We were optimistic that this is what the result was going to be today, and we’re thrilled that it came to reality,” said Andrew Myers, campaign manager for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project. “Moving forward it’s our responsibility to help implement a program that Arizona can be proud of.”
Opponents of the initiative, including all Arizona’s sheriff’s and county prosecutors, the governor, attorney general, and many other politicians, came out against the proposed law.
It’s been quite a long wait for the results.
Right …. MPP and Arizona, what a history.
All Precincts have now reported
Yes : 50.13% 835,735
NO : 49.87% 831,314
Total votes : 1,667,049
Scroll down to the bottom
Today’s UK Guardian:
When decapitated heads are rolled over disco floors in Phoenix, the US will no longer be able to ignore what is going on. The spilling of the war into the US itself may finally make Washington and the wider public seriously reconsider their failed drugs policies.
http://tinyurl.com/2wqmx8j
Time magazine has an article about how marijuana got mainstream and asks if anyone thinks it will go away.
How Marijuana Got Mainstreamed
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2030768,00.html
A video and pics at the article site.
I hope this gives Sheriff Joe(ex-DEA)Arapio(sp) a friggen heart attack.
Two things that make me absolutely crazy: That some people have no difficulty whatsoever watching other people suffer, and that legislators and sheriffs and prosecutors somehow think they know better what constitutes medicine than Doctors and the patients who benefit from them. Before any of these jackasses tries to tell me what medicine is, I want to see a medical degree. Otherwise they should just STFU.
STFU or become ill and in need of m/m!!
Thanks Clay! They had this there too:
I think we can be the next Hip-Hop
With an AK47 and a bazooka around my neck
Cutting the heads off anyone in our way
We are bloodthirsty, respected and we like to kill
We are the best robbers
Our gang always travels in convoy
We come bulletproof and ready to execute.
Sheriff Joe might have problems filling up his tent jails in a few months.” Of course he’ll point out how smart he was to not spend 10s of millions of dollars on building brick and mortar jails, saving the taxpayers a large amount of money. “…and when they start getting convicted of DUI we can just re-pitch those tents.”
Thought I’d pop over to Bakersfield again and remind them of what it means to be a true conservative. I’m getting some good responses
Arizona is a bunch of evil hater whitey racists isn’t it. That hip hop was lovely but check out Brujeria for some narcotraffic theme songs.
Malcom,
I always include fiscal responsibility as one of the fundamental ideologies of conservatism, and we all know that prohibition fails fiscally. “Despite the trillion$ spent so far, drugs are cheaper, stronger and still readily available” – so essentially we get nothing for our money.
“All of the political leaders came out and warned Arizonans that this was going to have very dire effects on a number of levels,” said Carolyn Short, chairwoman of Keep AZ Drug Free, the group that organized opposition to the initiative. “I don’t think that all Arizonans have heard those dire predictions.â€
Au contraire madame Short. I’m sure everyone heard your facks ad nausem. For their shrinking demographics, mainstream newspaper outlets have always been predisposed to circulating only malicious prohibitionist tirades that your organizations have always relied on. But electronic media affords inquiring minds access to electronic media to open sites unfettered with numerous references and links to research authenticity – which would be in conflict with your narrow bigoted stance.
Always stick to those news sites that don’t allow open discourse or sites that end in .gov which have served your cause so well. And lets hope we don’t hear that you’ve come down with a serious life-threatening ailment that could benefit from an ancient herbal solution that you fought so hard to deny patients in Arizona. The same one that millions of recreational users have no problem accessing every day.
…Criminals to the left of me criminals to the right of me….criminals behind be, a wall in front of me.
D’s , R’s , to the left and right, cartels behind me and the laws in front of me…
Ever feel trapped?
Sympathy from the devil in Michigan:
http://www.freep.com/article/20101113/BUSINESS07/11130333/1322/Arguments-heard-in-Walmart-suit
I love how the government and not my doctor tells me what can and cannot be used as medicine. Funny when republicans say they don’t want the government getting in between patients and their doctors, ughhhh
Malcolm, way to go. I don’t have the patience or the time for detailed engagements. Glad you’re out there ’cause I can’t be…
Malcom,
I always include fiscal responsibility as one of the fundamental ideologies of conservatism,
Thanks Jhelion, I’ll go back and fix it!
Thanks for the encouragement DC!
Shame on you people for wanting to use medicine that big pharma doesn’t control.
What kind of message are you sending to your children, and your children’s children, and your children’s children’s children?
Everyone with a lick of common sense knows prohibitions of actions that do not violate someone else’s rights, and based on some kind of religious morality, violates the unalienable rights of all individuals and harms society as a whole. Anyone who refuses to recognize that fact is either extremely stupid or just plain evil.
Someone on another site implied that liberty comes only from religious belief, I disagree and this is why:
Religion need play no part in liberty, ofttimes (more often than not, in fact) religion is a destroyer of liberty rather than a savior. Self government, liberty, begins with the most important property right of all — self-ownership — and expands from there to ownership of all that which is created by one’s own body and purchased with one’s labor.
Religion denies self-ownership in that it implies we are all owned by some (imaginary) deity, which causes many to extrapolate that we are (or should be) also owned by government. NOT SO!
As long as we honor self-ownership we are free! When we start denying individuals full power and right of ownership of their bodies (i.e. prohibitions of some activities, like ingesting certain intoxicants, engaging in prostitution as a whore or as a john, gambling, etc.; activities which do not violate the equal rights of others — and note that all such prohibitions come from some religion’s sense of morality) we begin down the path toward tyranny.
Support self-ownership in all things and we will return to “liberty and justice for all”.
MMMM Sheriff Joe Arpaio must be having a stroke no of course not he will just ignore it and continue to arrest folks right no pot in his county right this is going to be interesting I’m psyched now. How will they implement this and what will Senator McCain say his wife Cindy daughter Megan my god there stories are all over the placeon gay issue this is so funny at last lets this concludes and sticks at leasts some good news on our never ending march toward making marijuana legal.Yeah lets hope it does pass.
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty, He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.
~ Thomas Jefferson, 1814
Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale?
Hey ARIZONA. Welcome to the Family!!! It’s official now!
Segregation, determination, demonstration, Integration, aggravation, Humiliation, obligation to our nation. Ball of Confusion. That’s what the Ganjawar is today… Fear in the air, tension everywhere. Unemployment rising fast… Air pollution, revolution, gun control, Sound of soul. Shootin’ rockets to the moon. Kids growin’ up too soon. Politicians say more taxes will Solve everything. And the band played on… The sale of pills are at an all time high. Young folks walk around with Their heads in the sky. Cities aflame in the summer time. And, the beat goes on…
(Excerpts) Ball Of Confusion, The Temptations 1970
McCain Should Know The Truth
* Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), admitted stealing Percocet and Vicodin from the American Voluntary Medical Team, an organization that aids Third World countries. Percocet and Vicodin are schedule 2 drugs, in the same legal category as opium. Each pill theft carries a penalty of one year in prison and a monetary fine… …But rather than face prosecution, McCain was allowed to enter a pretrial diversion program and escaped with no blemish on her record. Cindy Hensley McCain, the daughter of a multimillionaire Anheuser-Busch distributor, are among the nation’s biggest beer distributors regardless of brand.
September 15, 2010
Pick your poison: Beer distributors oppose Prop. 19
The folks who deliver beer and other beverages to liquor stores have joined the fight, spending money against legalizing marijuana in California.
Sep 20, 2010
Sierra Nevada Opposes Beer Distributors Donation to No on Prop 19
“The CBBD does not represent Sierra Nevada’s political interests in any way, and does not represent the brewery’s stance on the issue.”
July 01, 1999
Prop 200 Saving Arizona Millions!
Prop 200 passed in 1996 as a referendum measure, and defeated all political challenges against it in 1998. It entitles doctors to prescribe any Schedule I drug, including marijuana, heroin and LSD, and prohibited the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders.
September 04, 2002
U.S. Won’t Provide Pot to Arizona
In 1996, Arizona voters approved a measure allowing marijuana with a doctor’s prescription, but lawmakers effectively nixed its use by putting doctors at risk of losing their licenses for prescribing it. Two years later, voters again passed a similar law, but doctors still aren’t prescribing marijuana because the federal government has threatened to take their licenses away, initiative proponents said.
13th day of February, 1997
Dr. Arnold Leff: Declarations in Dr. Marcus A. Conant v. McCaffrey
1971-72 I was Deputy Associate Director for the White House Drug Abuse Office under President Richard Nixon.
#9 I am aware of threats by federal government officials against physicians who provide their patients with information regarding the potential risks or benefits of the medical use of marijuana. Due to fear caused by these threats, I feel compelled and coerced to withhold information, recommendations, and advice to patients regarding use of medical marijuana. I have postponed discussions about the use of medical marijuana and approach such discussions with trepidation. I am fearful and reluctant to engage in even limited communications regarding medical marijuana, yet I feel a duty to provide my patients with complete medical advice.
#10 Despite my extensive experience in drug policy and medicine, I am at a loss to justify the federal government’s policy of denying sick and terminal patients a medicine that can be helpful.
It’s a mixed up muddled up shook up world…
Is Cannabis Legal to Recommend?
In 2004, the United States Supreme Court upheld earlier federal court decisions that doctors have a fundamental Constitutional right to recommend cannabis to their patients.
What doctors may and may not do.
In Conant v. Walters the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the federal government could neither punish nor threaten a doctor merely for recommending the use of cannabis to a patient.
But it remains illegal for a doctor to “aid and abet” a patient in obtaining cannabis.
This means a physician may discuss the pros and cons of medical cannabis with any patient, and issue a written or oral recommendation to use cannabis without fear of legal reprisal. This is true regardless of whether the physician anticipates that the patient will, in turn, use this recommendation to obtain cannabis.
What physicians may not do is actually prescribe or dispense cannabis to a patient or tell patients how to use a written recommendation to procure it from a cannabis club or dispensary. Doctors can tell patients they may be helped by cannabis. They can put that in writing. They just can’t help patients obtain the cannabis itself.
Doctors can’t be patients or caregivers???
Of coarse they can.
HS 11362.5. (a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996
ANY OTHER ILLNESS for which marijuana provides relief.
* no physician in this state shall be punished,
* Illegal possession and cultivation of marijuana,
SHALL NOT APPLY to a patient, or to a patient’s primary caregiver
* ANY individual who provides assistance
* A DESIGNATED primary caregiver who transports, processes, administers, delivers, or gives away marijuana for medical purposes
Dr. Mollie Fry’s Medical Marijuana Conviction Upheld November 08, 2010
A panel on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the marijuana cultivation and distribution conspiracy convictions of California Dr. Marion “Mollie” Fry and her partner, Dale Schafer. Fry and Schafer, both medical marijuana patients, had been sentenced to five years in federal prison in the case, but were free on bail pending the appeal.
Dr. Mollie Fry gets 5 ******* Years! March 19, 2008
WHO are the terrorists?
Only an evil being would deny medicine to a sick person.
Bush was right when he said we need to oppose the terrorists.
That’s why I oppose the DEA.
~ Milton John Kleim, Jr. 29 Nov 2001
Reefer madness By Chuck Seidel
Courtesy Of Mollie Fry
Federal agents have gone out of their way to shut down Dr. Mollie Fry and attorney Dale Schafer of the California Medical Research Center in Cool. Their crime: providing marijuana to the seriously ill. They thought it was legal in California.
Arpaio has been training Canadian “drug recognition officers” at his camp. Guess he won’t have as many cannabis subjects for them to study now…