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    • Local Senator Diane Savino Supports Medical Marijuana Bill


    by on Apr 11th, 2012
    Cannabis Sativa

    Source: Rotational via Wikimedia Commons

    Medical marijuana is legal in 16 states. Is New York on track to become number 17?

    That could be the case as New York lawmakers are getting ready for a legislative push in Albany, where similar bills have been stalled before.

    Co-sponsor of the bill, local Democratic State Senator Diane Savino hopes so.

    The bill states that patients would have to be certified by a doctor for “serious medical conditions” only. The issued licenses would expire after a year. Also, the medical marijuana could not be consumed or displayed in public.

    Savino’s support of the bill stems from watching her parents and grandfather die of terminal cancer.

    “This is not about getting high; this is about getting relief,” Savino told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s incredibly painful. You only have morphine. You get to the point where nothing works.”

    In 2010, Quinnipiac University ran a poll that showed a 71 percent rate of support from New York’s registered voters for medically prescribed marijuana usage.

    Governor Andrew Coumo’s legislative session ends in June, allowing for only a small window of time for the bill to pass.

    When asked by Capital Tonight about the possibility of passing the bill by then, Governor Cuomo replied, “I understand the benefits, but there are also risks and I think the risks outweigh the benefits at this point. I understand there’s more research and there’s more evidence and it can always be re-evaluated. I don’t think there’s going to be time this legislative session to analyze that issue.”

    Readers, what do you think? Is this the way forward for New York?

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    • Anonymous

      Good for Senator Savino. It’s time to end the Marijuana Boogey Man. At least, if the bill gets passed, people taking Chemo and radiation treatment will be able to get some relief from the retching these treatments cause, and allow the sick to take in nutrition.

    • http://www.nedberke.com Ned Berke

      Wait – are we still talking about the flora of Bensonhurst? ;)

    • Anonymous

      Support it! Like a BOSS!

    • Secretsupporter

      There’s def not enough time to pass this, which makes me wonder why it’s being submitted so late, but all of this talk will hopefully lead to something. LEGALIZE NY!

    • Anonymous

      During alcohol prohibition, all profits went to enrich thugs and criminals. Young men died every day on inner-city streets while battling over turf. A fortune was wasted on enforcement that could have gone on education, etc. On top of the budget-busting prosecution and incarceration costs, billions in taxes were lost. Finally, the economy collapsed. Sound familiar?

      It’s possible that many of the early Prohibitionists did not actually intend to kill hundreds of thousands worldwide and put 1 in every 30 American adults under supervision of the correctional system while bringing shame upon what was once a shining beacon of liberty and prosperity. But predictively similar to our “Great Experiment” of the 1920s, this foolish and counter-productive ‘re-run’ has once again spawned rampant off-the-scale criminality, corruption, a bust economy, mass unemployment, the world’s highest incarceration rate, a civil war in Mexico, an un-winnable war in Afghanistan, and an even higher rate of drug-use (both legal & illegal) than in all other countries that have courageously refused to blindly follow us down this sadomoralistic, dystopian rat hole.

      Should we wait for complete and utter economic ruination before demanding a return to sanity and the restoration of our unalienable­ rights?

      Surely it’s high time we all stood up and told our dysfunctional government that we’re totally pooped at being abused, beaten and jailed in order that unconscionable Transnational Corporations – and their Media Enablers – can continue to dupe, addict and poison us for obscene profits.

      According to the CATO Institute, ending prohibition would save an annual $41 billion of expenditure while generating an estimated $46 billion in tax revenues.

    • Gman

      study claiming marijuana is not a gateway drug…interesting:

      http://scienceblog.com/12116/study-says-marijuana-no-gateway-drug/

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