At Last! Medical Marijuana Bill Gets to Washington, DC!

It seems unbelievable, but medical marijuana might soon be making its way towards the capital of the USA, although it’s been repeatedly rejected by Congress throughout the years of research. Hopefully, soon medical marijuana doctors will celebrate the victory of their efforts as well as will people, whose only hope is marijuana treatment.

Back in 1998, Washington electors placed themselves next to the leading edge of the initiating movement of marijuana, when they polled about 3-7 for physician prescribed drug, which is now known as the medicine obtaining via a medical marijuana card. This was a much larger number of people than in any of the other 8 statewide vote initiatives, which have been maintained throughout the country. But no festive smoking have then followed, at least not yet. In place, ballot workers expended that vote night disguising the voting results, in protection from a last-minute amendment of the congress drawing assets from Washington, D.C. for the consideration of any initiative of drug certification. By the way, the election bulletins were printed before the prohibition, but it was decided by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics that to pursue the purpose of the law, the results must be kept back after the votes are figured.

However, 12 years later the political scenery seems to be significantly different. Bob Barr, the sponsor of the ’98 congressional prohibition has gone the entire way from a drug hunter to a libertarian, a foremost fighter for marijuana legalization. He even wrote a law-lobbying once. 14 states have made medical marijuana legal since the time California did it first. There are some more states moving in this direction. In December 2009, the Barr Amendment was silently lifted by the Congress, which was already dominated by Democrats. This gave Washington an opportunity to activate its old drug law. Several weeks later, David Catania, a member of city council, moved to introduce a bill that would enact Initiative 59, and had 9 of 13 council members supporting it. He states that it is his concern, since the evidence he saw proves a powerful medical preference of marijuana, which can improve appetite and lessen pains. With this issue going to a federal level, marijuana doctors and medical marijuana clinic workers will soon breathe a sigh of relief. David Catania also says that the details of the policy still have to be arranged – medical marijuana clinic quantity to allow, should they be private or non-profit, which diseases medical marijuana card will be available for, where the plant will be cultivated, etc. He tends towards a more limited realization, understanding that any legal-marijuana law might be removed by following governments.

Catania also believes that such a system could make 5-10 non-profit medical marijuana clinics around the city, which would at least need to be 1,000 ft. away from parks, schools, and other medical marijuana clinics. Los Angeles has had hundreds of marijuana clinics, which were privately owned and had a 500 foot rule for years. But the L.A. city council enacted an amended drug law several hours after Washington, D.C. enacted its own, applying its 1,000 ft. rule and reducing the medical marijuana dispensary number to about 150. The D.C. city council spokesman states that the bill is probable to get approved by the Congress by the summer’s end.

Multiple researches have found medical marijuana to be efficient in curing nausea, improving appetite in cancer and AIDS patients and acting as a pain reliever, alongside with other effects. The AMA – American Medical Association – initiates for continuous well-managed and adequate researches of marijuana and associated cannabinoids in patients in its policy statement, which takes a thorough stance on the matter.

Certain Initiative 59 leading activists are same as contradictory, even though they’ve almost achieved some kind of light at the tunnel’s end. The electoral bloc of recreational marijuana smokers is probable to be even less interested, in case Catania does what he’s intended to do. Catania says that he doesn’t see this as an opportunity to widely legalize marijuana for recreational employment and he also says that he doesn’t support the use of medical marijuana “for anxiety or hangnails.” He rather says that this bill is meant to provide marijuana to those, who are severely ill.