Free Republic

A ballot issue in Florida this November will be "Amendment 2", a measure that would legalize medical marijuana in the state. Crist and his liberal ally, attorney John Morgan, are proponents of the ballot measure, while current GOP governor Rick Scott is against it. WFTV9 reports: Crist has changed parties and changed stances on gay marriage, abortion and medical marijuana. He said he will vote yes on Amendment 2. “I do support it,” Crist said. “Rick Scott opposes it; I don't know what else to tell you.” Critics think medical marijuana was pushed onto the ballot by Attorney John Morgan...

Attorney John Morgan’s exuberantly profane comments to Amendment 2 supporters in a Lakeland bar puts a lie to the claim that the measure is aimed solely at legalizing medical marijuana. Morgan showed up at Lakeland’s Boots ’n’ Buckles Saloon after a debate with Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd about Amendment 2 last week. He continually used four-letter words to rouse the frantic pro-amendment crowd. And although he does say he is speaking on behalf of medical marijuana, Morgan, holding a drink, also jokes, “I didn’t smoke a piece of grass all the way here. But I’ll tell you this, once...

Insert your favorite marijuana-related pun here: The Florida governor's race is blazing right along, the candidates are burning up the trail, the contest is really getting in the weeds, etc. However you put it, a ballot initiative on medical marijuana could have a major effect on the re-election campaign of Republican Gov. Rick Scott. A businessman who made millions in the health care industry, Scott faces Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor now running as a Democrat after a failed Senate bid. The Florida Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative, also known as Amendment 2, would legalize medical marijuana for patients...

On Friday, Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Corey Booker (D-NJ) offered a medical marijuana amendment on the floor of the Senate. The bill is a massive win for states’ rights, as it outlaws the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Agency from undermining state marijuana laws and prohibits the DEA from interfering with the production of hemp in states where it is legal. There is simply no reason the federal government should be trampling over state laws to perform armed SWAT-team raids on state-legal medical marijuana dispensaries. Destroying property and hauling entrepreneurs off to jail is not the proper...

Forget the lighthearted puns about a new kind of Street high, Jim Cramer believes there's serious opportunity in a marijuana stock. It's GW Pharmaeuticals. Cramer is a fan of this company, in particular, because it isn't simply a bet on more states approving medical marijuana as a treatment for patients fighting cancer. Instead, this U.K.-based company is at the forefront of developing new drugs from compounds found in cannabis, or marijuana plants. And if any company has a strong pipeline of cannabis derived drugs, it's GW Pharma. "First, they've already gotten approval for their lead drug, Sativex, a mouth spray...

(Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a law on Monday allowing for the limited use of a special strain of marijuana to treat epileptic seizures and other diseases. State lawmakers passed the measure this spring with bipartisan support after impassioned appeals from parents seeking access to the form of marijuana known as "Charlotte's Web," named for a Colorado girl whose epileptic seizures have shown some response to the drug. “As a father and grandfather, you never want to see kids suffer," Scott, a Republican, said in a statement. "I am proud to stand today with families who deserve the...

The Illinois House of Representatives voted narrowly on Wednesday to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes, bringing the state a step closer to becoming the 21st in the United States to allow some form of pot use to treat illness. [...]

As the New York Legislature considers a bill to allow medical marijuana, a couple of Rhode Island business journalists are reaping the profits. Anne Holland and Ron Perry founded Medical Marijuana Business Daily two years ago in Providence to cover the emerging industry of legitimate marijuana sales, as total black market business continues to represent the single largest cash crop in America at more than $35 billion. The trade in illegal marijuana - mostly for recreational use - trumps the second-largest cash crop, corn, at a mere $23.2 billion, of which $4.5 billion worth is exported from America's breadbasket to...

SPRINGFIELD — A panel of state lawmakers Wednesday approved legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Illinois. Supporters of the plan say it would be the most tightly regulated marijuana law in the country, restricting who can use the drug to people suffering from specific diseases and limiting the total number of marijuana dispensaries statewide to 60. "This is clearly model legislation for the country if we pass it," said state Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat sponsoring the plan. An Illinois House committee approved it by an 11-4 vote this morning, sending the legislation to the full House. "Why would...

Chris Williams, a Montana medical marijuana grower, faces at least five years in federal prison when he is sentenced on Feb. 1. The penalty seems unduly severe, especially because his business openly supplied marijuana to patients who were allowed to use it under state law. Yet five years is a cakewalk compared to the sentence Williams originally faced, which would have kept the 38-year-old father behind bars for the rest of his life. The difference is due to an extremely unusual post-conviction agreement that highlights the enormous power prosecutors wield as a result of mandatory minimum sentences so grotesquely unjust...

This seven minute video from the New York Times shows the story of Chris Williams in Montana. This makes me really glad that I wrote in Ron Paul for President in 2008, and voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2012. I also applaud Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s position on this issue. For those of you who voted for Obama, well, I hope you’re happy with his actions against medical marijuana. I hope you’re happy that this person could get life in prison. I hope you’re happy that people with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and other illnesses, who have...

(CNSNews.com) – New York and Massachusetts are administering food stamps to 2,000 dead people, according to Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) catalog of government waste. The 2012 Waste Book, released earlier this week, documents $4.5 billion in waste in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. Among his findings, Coburn said that, “The USDA Inspector General found roughly 2,000 dead people are still receiving food stamps in New York and Massachusetts combined.” SNIP “Marijuana has been linked to an increased appetite, known as getting the ‘munchies,’ so perhaps it is no surprise the states of Maine, New...

DIXON (CBS13) – It was one disabled woman versus 13 intruders, and she won. The Dixon homeowner, whose identity is being kept hidden, knows what the criminals were after, but wouldn’t let them have it. She went to answer an early morning knock on the door, but not before grabbing a can of bear spray. It was her only defense against 13 intruders. She was staring down the barrel of a shotgun, facing seemingly impossible odds. Most wouldn’t dare fight back, but this disabled grandmother did.

Anticipating an expensive ballot proposition, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday backed away from its total ban on medical marijuana dispensaries. In an 11-2 vote, the council gave preliminary approval to rescinding the ban as it appeals to the state legislature to come up with more clear regulations on how to control the dispensaries. The council will give final approval to its reversal next week. Councilmen Jose Huizar and Joe Buscaino voted against rescinding the measure, saying they were concerned about the problems that developed in neighborhoods from the proliferation of the dispensaries. "I have seen where children are...

DENVER—A ballot initiative in Colorado that could make the state the first to effectively legalize marijuana has an unlikely bunch of people very nervous: owners of the state's medical marijuana dispensaries. Despite an expected surge in demand, some fear passage of the initiative, called Amendment 64—which legalizes the buying and selling of up to one ounce of pot at a time for customers over the age of 21—could goad the federal government into a crackdown on the dispensaries, ending their industry's three-year miniboom. If the amendment passes, the "best-case scenario [is] you get a million new customers," the owner of...

The chairman of insurance giant Progressive Corp. this year provided another $465,000 for a ballot question to legalize medical marijuana in Massachusetts. Peter B. Lewis, who supports medical marijuana, has now contributed $990,000, including $525,000 last year, to the Committee for Compassionate Medicine, the organization leading the effort to legalize medical marijuana in Massachusetts. Lewis is nonexecutive chairman of Progressive, which is based in Mayfield Village, Ohio. ccording to reports filed with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance last last week, the Committee for Compassionate Medicine has raised $512,850 this year and spent $405,825. Including last year, the...

Cristina Sanchez, a young biologist at Complutense University in Madrid, was studying cell metabolism when she noticed something peculiar. She had been screening brain cancer cells because they grow faster than normal cell lines and thus are useful for research purposes. But the cancer cells died each time they were exposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient of marijuana. Instead of gaining insight into how cells function, Sanchez had stumbled upon the anti-cancer properties of THC. In 1998, she reported in a European biochemistry journal that THC “induces apoptosis [cell death] in C6 glioma cells,” an aggressive form of...

The issue of legalizing medical marijuana is not high on the priority list for the Romney/Ryan ticket. However, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan on Thursday told Colorado station KRDO-TV that legalizing medical marijuana is a decision that should be made by individual states. “My personal position on these issues has been let the states decide what they want to do with these things,” he said. “This is something that is not a high priority of ours.” Colorado is currently mulling whether to legalize marijuana and residents will vote on the issue in November with “Amendment 64” on the ballot....

Harold & Kumar Go to the DNC. Or at least Kumar aka Kal Penn is going to the DNC. As you can see in this video, actor Kal Penn who worked on and off for the Obama administration for a couple of years will be hosting a show at the Democrat National Convention this Thursday for BarackObama.Com. Since the main characteristic of Kumar in the movies is heavy duty marijuana smoking, how would that character feel about the big crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries by the Obama administration? Kumar would probably dare to ask Obama about the hypocrisy of trying...

Full title: The biggest current obstacles to medical marijuana are President Obama and the progressives on the Supreme Court I’m a libertarian, and I think that both medical and recreational marijuana should be legal. That being said, I myself have never smoked marijuana, or tobacco, or been drunk, or used any illegal drug. I do, however, think that it’s completely ridiculous to put non-violent people in jail for using mind altering substances. And I especially detest the idea of the government preventing people from using a medical treatment which has been proven in scientific studies to be beneficial for patients...