Earlier this month, Utah\u2019s near-uniformly conservative elected representatives gathered with medical marijuana activists \u2014 the same activists behind what appeared to be a medical-cannabis legalization bill that appeared to be a near-lock for voter approval on Election Day \u2014 for what appeared to be a breakthrough kumbaya moment.<\/p>\n
Instead of fighting Proposition 2, a citizen-led voter initiative that would have granted Utah a decent and workable medical-marijuana system, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Utah Medical Association were willing to compromise and went as far as to give vocal support in principle to a compromise bill outlined in writing.<\/p>\n
Though Prop. 2 will remain on the ballot, the smart money seemed to be on the compromise bill. Everyone important lined up behind it. Gov. Gary Herbert\u00a0was on board<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and unlike Prop. 2, which had very solid support from voters, according to polls, this had guarantees.<\/p>\n Unlike in other states, state lawmakers can unilaterally amend voter initiatives. With the compromise, there was no need to worry about the Legislature gutting a voter-approved medical-marijuana bill. Everyone would go home happy.<\/p>\n There\u2019s just one problem: The compromise bill is bad, according to\u00a0analysis<\/a>\u00a0released Wednesday by Americans for Safe Access, a prominent Washington, D.C.-based medical-cannabis patients advocacy group.<\/p>\n The compromise bill puts all distribution in the charge of a state-run pharmacy \u2014 a serious problem, considering that \u201cpharmacies\u201d have federal licenses to distribute other medicines, licenses that could be at risk if they also dispense cannabis.<\/p>\n It also outlaws patient access to dried cannabis flower.<\/p>\n In other states, prohibiting access to cannabis flower has proven to be a sometimes insurmountable barrier to practical access to marijuana. And there is no other state where cannabis is available only from state agencies.<\/p>\n The compromise bill does offer patients some employment protections, safeguards not included in Prop. 2. However, \u201cthe compromise legislation creates serious issues of accessibility and functionality for patients, particularly when considering the framework of a state central pharmacy,\u201d said David Mangone, ASA\u2019s director of government affairs, in a statement released Wednesday.<\/p>\n Other patient advocates were similarly critical,\u00a0including Christine Stenquist<\/a>, a brain-tumor survivor who has been a regular fixture at the state Capitol, agitating for legal medical cannabis access.<\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest concern is that this replacement bill was born in fear and designed to fail,\u201d she said in a statement Thursday that blasted the compromise bill as a \u201cstunt.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[U]nder this replacement legislation, Utah\u2019s sick are treated as criminals until proven patients,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear how amenable Herbert or other shot-callers in\u00a0Utah<\/a>\u00a0will be to changes to the compromise bill.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Proposition 2 remains on the ballot.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>,\u00a0do you have medical marijuana in your state?<\/p>\n The post Patients: Utah\u2019s Medical Marijuana \u2018Compromise\u2019 Proposal Is Terrible<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Utah\u2019s near-uniformly conservative elected representatives gathered with medical marijuana activists \u2014 the same activists behind what appeared to be a medical-cannabis legalization bill that appeared to be a near-lock for voter approval on Election Day \u2014 for what appeared to be a breakthrough kumbaya moment. Instead ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5184,50,1813,6285,53,139,5747,424,4219],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30164,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30163\/revisions\/30164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Patients: Utah\u2019s Medical Marijuana \u2018Compromise\u2019 Proposal Is Terrible<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"