We've been really busy at KCNORML! Look at the pictures below! We went to The Bob Marley Birthday Bash Friday at the Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS and Winterfest at the Uptown Theater Saturday after our meeting working with Jim Kilroy and other bands to gather some resources and give away some schwag! Contact us here if you have any other questions about this event that already took place. Here are the pics:
Patients Are Coming Together To Make Missouri Legislators Listen
Lobby Day In Support of HB 1670 On Wednesday, February 10, members of the patient organization http://www.sensiblemissouri.org will be holding a lobby day at the state Capitol in Jefferson City.
Participating medical marijuana patients from across the state will be meeting in the rotunda lower level at 9:20 am. Appointments have been scheduled with Reps. Meiners and Schaaf to thank them for sponsoring House Bill 1670. Visits with other co-sponsors of this year"s bill sponsors will follow into the afternoon as time permits.
For more information about this event, please contact MarkPedersen@sensiblemissouri.org or SherryCooper@sensiblemissouri.org. You can also follow Sensible Missouri on http://www.facebook.com.
As introduced, HB 1670 mandates that patients diagnosed with a "debilitating medical condition" shall no longer be subject to "arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner for the medical use of marijuana."
Please help Missouri become the fifteenth state to legalize the medical use of marijuana.
To learn more about HB 1670, or to send a letter of support to your state representatives, please visit NORML's 'Take Action Center' here.
From SensibleMissouri On Wednesday February 10 Sensible Missouri will be calling on legislators in Jefferson City. All patients having a diagnosis that could be ameliorated through the use of cannabis therapy are invited to attend.
We will meet in the rotunda at 9:20 am. We have appointments with Representatives Meiners and Schaff to thank them for sponsoring HB1670 and will visit with as many other cosponsors (as well as our own senate reps to request a companion bill) as time permits.
We have asked for a meeting with Speaker Ron Richards and were told "gosh, he is awful busy and couldn't possibly...but you can stop in when you are here and maybe somebody, one of his aides or something, can talk to you." We will.
If you can attend, know a patient you would like us to contact, or need more information contact our Board Member Sherry Cooper at sherrycooper@sensiblemissouri.org, for last minute info the day of the event only call Board Member Mark Pedersen at (314)422.4524
NEWS FROM NORML The Missouri Affiliate of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, January 20, 2010
For More Information Contact: Dan Viets, Missouri NORML Coordinator, 573-819-2669
MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL FILED WITH BI-PARTISAN SPONSORSHIP
A bill to permit Missouri citizens whose doctors believe they benefit from the use of marijuana as medicine to do so without fear of criminal prosecution and imprisonment has been filed by Representative Kate Meiners of Kansas City. The bill has more sponsors than ever before, with 16 House members signing onto the bill, including Republican Representative Robert Schaaf, a physician from St. Joseph. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia now have laws which permit patients to use marijuana as medicine with the approval of their doctors. Just this week, New Jersey’s legislature passed such a bill and the Governor has announced his intention to sign it. A few weeks ago, Congress voted to allow the D.C. Medical Marijuana Initiative to take effect there.
In past years, when the bill had only Democratic sponsorship, House Speaker Ron Richard failed to assign the bill to a committee. With the bipartisan sponsorship the bill now has, it is hoped that the Speaker will assign the bill to a committee promptly and allow it an opportunity to be heard.
Similar legislation is pending in many other state legislatures across the country. The Illinois Senate passed a medical marijuana bill last year and it is now pending before the House in that state.
A few months ago, the American Medical Association (AMA) reversed its longstanding opposition to the use of marijuana as medicine. The AMA now supports allowing marijuana to be prescribed and acknowledges that it has proven medical use. Medical marijuana legislation is also supported by the American College of Physicians, American Nurses Association and dozens of other major professional and health-related organizations.
House Bill 1670 would place the issue before Missouri voters in November of 2011. In 1994, the Missouri Senate passed SCR 14 which called on Congress to make marijuana available for medical use. Under current Missouri law, doctors are allowed to prescribe cocaine, opium, methamphetamine and hundreds of other potentially dangerous addictive drugs. Supporters of the bill say it is absurd to not trust those same doctors with the ability to authorize their patients to also use a relatively safe and non-addictive substance like cannabis. Polls have strong majority support for the measure among Missouri voters.
Every single day medical marijuana law reform gets stronger! Here is Mayor of Cottleville, MO Don Yarber on KSDK:
Click Here To Check Out Bill 1670 Changes the laws regarding the classification of marijuana as a controlled substance and allows the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes under certain conditions.
US Senate Committee Passes The National Criminal Justice Act
Earlier this morning the United State’s Senate, Committee on Judiciary, unanimously approved Senate Bill 714, The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009.
NORML first blogged about this federal legislation back in November, and encouraged NORML supporters to contact their U.S. Senators in favor of this long-needed reform. Fortunately, many of you did so, and today the Senate Judiciary responded accordingly.
As amended, Senate Bill 714 will establish a `National Criminal Justice Commission’ to hold public hearings and “undertake a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system, including Federal, State, local, and tribal governments’ criminal justice costs, practices, and policies. … The Commission shall make findings regarding such review and recommendations for changes in oversight, policies, practices, and laws designed to prevent, deter, and reduce crime and violence, improve cost-effectiveness, and ensure the interests of justice at every step of the criminal justice system.”
It’s been many years since a federally appointed commission has taken an objective look at American criminal justice policies, and it’s been nearly 40 years since federal lawmakers have undertaken a critical examination of U.S. drug policy. As affirmed by the bill’s chief sponsor, Democrat Senator Jim Webb of Virginia:
“America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. … The United States has by far the world’s highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world’s population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world’s reported prisoners.
… Drug offenders, most of them passive users or minor dealers, are swamping our prisons. … Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses. Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity. … African-Americans — who make up about 12% of the total U.S. population population — accounted for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.
… It is incumbent on our national leadership to find a way to fix our prison system.”
info@kcnorml.org doesn't work - use brandon@kcnorml.org
by Brandon Ryan, President Kansas City NORML. Posted on December 9th 2009.
The info@kcnorml.org no longer exists, due to spam. Please Click Here to get a hold of the Board Members that can assist you. Thank you.
We are expecting the national organization to change up our contact info; as well as Hightimes and other publications.
I actually got a call about the 2010 KC Global Marijuana March from a couple of people and explained to them that this years line up will be JUST LIKE LAST YEARS: A 1.5 mi March to a 5 hour free concert and THEN a week after this, on the 8th of January on Saturday we will just all tread lightly at the J.C. Nichols Fountain, we're we start the first march of 2010.
Former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton Was Charged With Second-Degree Assault
by Brandon Ryan, President Kansas City NORML. Posted on December 9th 2009. Thanks Heath for submitting the information! Check out what Heath had to say about it, and I don't think any one would disagree.
Bad bad bad bad Rod! Not you Rod Wells! We're talking about the Former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton whom had been charged with second-degree assault based on allegations from an unknown woman that he had hit her in the face, choked her and blacked her out unconscious several times.
He may have or may have not hurt this woman but he sure killed off chronically ill citizens who depended on fair representation and the right to self medicate with the "..safest therapeutic substance known to man."
Missouri NORML Executive Director and National NORML Foundation Chairman, Dan Viets knows all too well about Missouri's Biased Speakers:
Jetton has begun a practice of failing to discharge his duty as Speaker to assign certain bills to committees if he does not like those bills, according to Dan Viets, an attorney in private practice in Columbia, MO who specializes in the defense of civil rights and marijuana cases.
In 2007, Viets revealed that Jetton chose to withhold a committee assignment of the medical marijuana legislation until the final day of the session! WAIT! This reminds me of Ron Richard!
Patients who are suffering from symptoms of multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, cancer and the side effects of its treatment as well as other very serious ailments are presently threatened with prosecution if they use a medication recommended by their doctors as patients in twelve other states are presently allowed to do. - Joplin Independent
Even though I believe the Criminal Justice System is an ultimate disaster almost as if we're polluting our society like we do the atmosphere. When this man was Speaker, he clearly wouldn't introduce a bill if he didn't like it - a bill that would ease the pain and suffering for chronically ill Missourians. Hopefully this will change soon with the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act Of '09 and put violent offenders in prisons and release the innocent marijuana "offenders".
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009, Senator Jim Webb's Criminal Justice Act Of '09 has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. We're happy to say the bill is currently scheduled for a hearing on December 10th, 2009.
12-01-09 Michael has been a quadraplegic ever since his car accident. Cannabis has allowed him to reduce his pain medication by 80%, restoring much of his quality of life.
11-18-09 Sherry Cooper has fibromyalgia. She wants to tell her story so that others won't have to endure the senseless bigotry that denies the chronically ill of a safe, effective alternative to prescription drugs. Cannabis.
He may have or may have not hurt this woman but he sure killed off chronically ill citizens who depended on fair representation and the right to self medicate with the "..safest therapeutic substance known to man."
