Colorado, like most states, is in the middle of a budget shortfall. $60 million to be exact. What better way to make up that deficit than with the state’s money from the program for medical marijuana? Gov. Bill Ritter, once an opponent of medical marijuana is all for it now. At least the revenue it generates.
Ritter who served as Colorado’s AG, opposed medical marijuana at the time. But now as Governor he’s abandoned conscience for cash. The state rakes in about $9 million dollars from it’s medical marijuana program, and Ritter likes it.
He says that he respects the law so much that he’s okay with it now. And of course there’s the $60 million budget shortfall to contend with as governor. Ritter’s not unlike most politicians in his position. When faced with a tough situation (like a $60 million dollar budget gap) they’ll abandon principle every time. Last year Colorado used about $3 million from the medical marijuana fund. Ritter said at the time it was a one time thing. Beware when a politician says “one time thing.”
So that brings us to an interesting little question I have for you people. Would you abandon principles just to fix a problem? Even if whatever you were against was legal. Bill Ritter’s medical marijuana conversion is typical political posturing.
And don’t give me the legality of medical marijuana argument. I’ve already conceded that it’s legal. That’s not the point. Do you abandon principle to get out of a jam?
August 24th, 2010 at 8:23 am
The real moral issue here is that it is supposed to be for severly sick people (at least in theory). Is if OK to tax severly ill people, some with terminal condictions, in order to balance the budget? A true Republican (who is not a politician first) would be focused on cuts rather than taxing cancer patients.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:39 am
Agreed. Legalize, but what other foods and medications are taxed, and how much?
August 24th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Ritter has played the Colorado people like fools in relation to medical marijuana. It’s not that he’s abandoning principle now — it’s that he never had any to begin with.
I’m not too worried about it though — we should expect foolishness along with the last dying breaths of a broken institution like cannabis prohibition. The people of Colorado have spoken repeatedly on this issue, and will continue to do so no matter who is in office. The truth has a funny way of being heard sooner or later.
August 24th, 2010 at 10:16 am
What really pi$$es me off is that these schmucks are grandstanding on rights all of sudden when they’re broke. Same with California.
They dont give a sht about your rights. Wake up.
August 24th, 2010 at 11:14 am
The federal government should tax cannabis (for any usage) and recover some of the money that’s been wasted on the wars abroad .
Treat cannabis like we do alcohol, at least (alcohol is much more toxic and dangerous).
God bless the governor for utilizing some tax money to fix the state budget .
More governors will soon follow and more power to them .
August 24th, 2010 at 11:20 am
ON THE BOULDER CAMERA
Sadly, even the Boulder Camera’s editorial advisory board appears to be addicted to lying: this wknd the ed adv bd wrote an article stating tha average age of Colorado’s medical cannabis patients was 20, when the latest update from CDPHE’s Medical Cannabis Registry — THE authority on the issue — states the average age is 40.
40 not 20. And over 900 different physicians have made recommenations for medicinal cannabis; so why does the DCamera focus on a few physicians who’ve made the most recommendations?
How does the Camera get away with such outrageous misrepresentations? After speaking to several employees of the DCamera, I have to conclude these misrepresentations were deliberate, as they’ve taken no steps to correct this slop, despite repeatedly being told the correct info from the correct source (all they need to do is check the source to verify the real avg age).
And the head DCamera internet people have refused to call me back, after dozens of calls over 4 days.
Cutting the average medical cannabis patients’ age in half has been popular with law enforcement and Ritter’s misguided loyalists, but this is very real propaganda created to instill fear and hysteria regarding CO’s MMJ laws. I cannot understand how some medical patients blindly support Ritter, one of the biggest obstacles to the truth and one of the biggest obstacles to implementing the Will of the People (CO voted for medicinal cannabis almost a decade ago, but Ritter and other fools and crooks have been trying to undermine it from the beginning).
Shame on the DCamera, for trying to perpetuate such outrageous, completely unnaceptable LIES!!! This illustrates the large part that local media plays in helping to block constitutionally-protected access to medicinal cannabis. Some of the biggest liar-prohibitionists are the supposedly liberal or moderate media who print blatant lies and make no attempt to clarify, when called on these lies.
For several days straight, I have tried to get a comment with the correct info posted in response to their suspicious reporting — to no avail. And all the DCamera employees who could help change this outrageous misrpepresentation have not returned my dozens of phone calls, or they are “out” for the next week.
It has become abundantly clear that our elected reps could never push through the recent hack job on CO Amend. 20, without the very yellow help from some of their ethically-challenged media friends.
Please print the comment from MedicalEfficacy, DC, and try to verify your numbers in the future.
It really doesn’t matter if a media source has printed one or two things positive about medical cannabis; when they spread blatant propaganda, without checking their sources, they help to block constitutional access to medicinal cannabis.
I hate when the media gets so darn yellow. Please help to share all accounts of media censorship and all accounts of media sabotage of Colorado’s Medical Canabis Program. And of course, I’ll never give another penny to the Camera or to any media source that prints blatant lies regarding Colorado’s Medical Cannabis Program.
August 24th, 2010 at 11:33 am
God Bless Governor Ritter for stealing money designated, by law, for some other purpose. Actually, please bless all politicians when they steal other funds’ money for their political means.
I am all for state governments using money generated from these programs to help state defecits. But when unnecessary regulation creates a regulatory body that’ll cost millions of dollars, and when the cash fund is, by law, for Colorado’s MMJ program, this is called STEALING.
If the crooks didn’t get involved in the first place — to get their cut — Colorado would have MILLIONS and MILLIONS to help ensure medical cannabis compliance and to help address the state’s defecit.
Just don’t STEAL it, when the money is supposed to go to the MMJ program!
August 24th, 2010 at 11:48 am
I agree with Rhayader, about the principle part that is. You actually have to have principles to abandon them.
I was just trying to be nice.
August 24th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Hah, that’s very charitable of you Shannon. I suppose the notion of any politician “abandoning principle” has become quite antiquated at this point. The underlying assumption — that any principle existed in the first place — is contradicted daily.
August 24th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
UPDATE 4:20 P.M COLORADO –
It appears the DPost is allowing the comments to once againg flow in response to their recent article on Ritter Raiding Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Fund.
But the Boulder DCamera has done nothing about their blatant misrepresentation of the average age of legal medicinal cannabis user in Colorado. Instead, they’ve dug themselves deeper and deeper into this lie, by not not being wise enough to admit they were wrong.
40 not 20.
And 900 different physicians have recommended the use of medicinal cannabis, according to the most recent update of Colorado’s Medical Cannabis Registry.
Google “CDPHE Medical Marijuana” (without the quotes) and when you open CDPHE’s Medical Marijuana Page, you’ll see a “statistics” option in the left column. There you’ll find the most recent figures.
We’ll be watching the media carefully, especially the ones here in Colorado and eventually, someone will go back to school to expose all this yellow poison and where it is originating. Or someone will begin doing some serious media tracking of the coverage of medicinal cannabis without school.
Heck, there are at least several hundred thousand legal medicinal cannabis users in the U.S. and at least that many who are not legal (not in Washington D.C. or in one of the 14 states that permit medicinal use of cannabis).
Isn’t time we heard the truth? We already know it, so printing more lies is not going to fly.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
The whole idea of “medical marijuana” is a joke. It’s not like it is all that hard to get a “prescription” for the stuff. I equate these guys with those so called “pain management doctors” who just peddle Lortab, Vicoden, and Oxy.
Sure, it’s okay to smoke it, but only if it helps balance the budget. Idiots.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Government was once able to simply dominate the people over whatever, and it built itself up to the point you had small town executives paying themselves a half a million a year to do God knows what. Now with tax revenues down they are desparate for money so they are turning to the segment of the population they use to incarcerate under older drug laws, to newer ones that make them legal if they pay taxes so the Gov. can fund itself. To me it shows the bankruptcy of our government in general as it grasps for cash. This is another reason why I say we must not allow “our” government to criminalize so many of our fellow citizens for sloppy lifestyle choices, effectively knocking them out of the game jobwise and policymakingwise. I think its a travesty the millions of people we have given criminal records for drinking, duis, and drugs or even urinating in public. That alone has bloated government, our justice sytem, prison and probation payrolls when simple education and diversion programs that don’t criminalize as many people would be a much better way to handle it. So the good governour is just bowing to fiscal reality. Money is real! No more of this governmental fantasy of achieving zero tolerance of lifestyle choices and then making the taxpayer pay for it.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
In essence, no need to legislatively downsize government, just let it go broke to the point where it downsizes itself by layoffs and changed policies and then we the people will have some of thier freedom back.
August 24th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Marika B.–Thank you for your facts and honesty. I have been having the same problems with every entity you mentioned—and today the Governors office tried to tell me they were allowed to take the money once the legislature okay-ed it. I had to tell them the legislature could not alter the constitution and neither could Ritter. Only a vote by the people can change the constitution. They kept insisting they had the ‘right’. Blows me away. I kept asking how the governor could STEAL from sick people and they kept saying “it’s not stealing” We the people are in a war with the media, the legislature and law enforcement.
The feds have patent 6630507 on cannabinoids and they have their own medical marijuana program since the 1970’s and yet when one gets busted by the feds in a medical state–one is not even allowed to utter the words medical marijuana in the court room. Medical cannabis can not be used as a defense.
This THEFT is not Ritter abandoning his principles–he is sticking to them. He spent his life ruining cannabis users lives by throwing them in jail, and now he is stealing from sick patients who choose the safest alternative to deadly pharmaceuticals.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:07 am
The whole idea of “medical marijuana” is a joke. It’s not like it is all that hard to get a “prescription” for the stuff. I equate these guys with those so called “pain management doctors” who just peddle Lortab, Vicoden, and Oxy.
Ugh, wake up. Pain management is a critical area of medicine, and has been for many thousands of years. The Hippocratic Oath demands that physicians take patient pain very seriously, and no good doctor would scoff at the idea of managing pain for its own sake.
And it’s the prohibition of recreational cannabis use — not the allowance of use for medical reasons — that is the real “joke” here.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:25 am
Pain management is critical. But I’ve yet to see pot ever make my boo boos hurt less. Its a great appetite stimulant and ant depressant.
Just legalize it, minimally tax it and let people choose. Shrinks and those prescribing it may not care for that draw on their traffic but, tough sht
August 25th, 2010 at 10:34 am
But I’ve yet to see pot ever make my boo boos hurt less.
Yeah, it’s more effective for neuropathic pain — the type associated with nerve damage, MS, ALS, etc — than traditional pain. It’s not a “painkiller” like opiates or NSAIDs, but many patients do find relief with it. In fact, a burgeoning area of medical cannabis research involves lessening opiate painkiller intake and combining those medicine with cannabis to cut down risks of addiction, liver damage, etc.
More generally, I think helping pain should be about making pain easier to experience for the patient. If smoking a bowl doesn’t technically “kill” pain, but it makes it a bit easier to ignore the pain and laugh at cartoons on TV instead, I’d call that real relief. If it makes people feel better, it has value.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Kathleen,
Thank YOU for your non-stop advocacy and for helping out so many patients — before the fools and crooks began trying to defy the Clear Will of Coloradoans. I frequented your dispensary and was consistently impressed with the medicine, including the most effective medible I’ve ever tried. I am heartbroken that the new regulations — made for and by the rich — forced you out of the scene.
It is not surprising you are also being censored or completely blocked from the papers owned by Medianews group (the Camera, the DPost), as it is clear these papers are becoming deplorable rags. They may publish a token-positive article on cannabis; but when the debate heats up, these news sources can be counted on to obscure and to conceal medical fact.
It is really tragic that most of our media is controlled by a few people, many of whom are still actively spreading blatant lies and eliminating any comments that contradict these lies.
With access to medicinal cannabis having 75-80 percent approval in the U.S., it is unconscionable that media like Medianews group are engaged in such blatant censorship and medical distortion [interestingly, William Dean Singleton -- the founder, vice chairman and chief executive officer of MediaNews Group -- is also Chairman of the Board for the Associated Press. Wow! Even more interesting is Singleton suffers from multiple sclerosis, a condition that is often treated with cannabis].
I don’t know whether Mr. Singleton is one of the driving forces behind much of the yellow media coverage of medical cannabis in Colorado and in the rest of the United States; but I do find it suspicious that his papers like the DCamera refuse to correct their outrageous made-up figures.
What is clear is that most of our media is owned by a small group of people who have incredible power to positively influence medicine or to help conceal medical fact.
And when papers like the DCamera deliberately obfuscate and distort the truth — and refuse to research the experts on the matter — it is not a good sign that Mr. Singleton’s papers are on the right track.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:03 am
I just find it sad that I should need to fake some bullsht to get a card.
My mom and her husband have alaways smoked recreational while simultaneously taking every psychotropic and pain med there is.
Now they have their cards and run around telling everyone this crap on how vital it is a part of their needs.
I told her the other day that she forgets who shes talking to and that she can save the stump for everyone else.
“You’ve always been a stoner mom, regardless of whatever”
August 25th, 2010 at 11:17 am
“You’ve always been a stoner mom, regardless of whatever”
Ha!
Yeah, that’s the thing: pot has tons of medical benefits, but it’s not specific enough to deserve treatment as “medicine” proper. It’s just something that adults should be able to access, whether they smoke to alleviate chemo nausea or just think it makes Family Guy funnier. Which it does.
August 25th, 2010 at 11:26 am
“it makes Family Guy funnier. Which it does.’
yeah, and it makes debates over evolution, creationism, aliens and God even funnier
August 25th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I cant even go near that thread without ending up searching for what happened before the creation of whatever happened before that creation.
So I smoke a joint, look up at the sky and just dig it all
August 25th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Yeah I hear you there Mick — although it’s not necessary to address questions like that to accept the theory of evolution. But yeah, you’re right, there’s little to gain from arguing about that stuff. Much better to burn one and say f*ck it.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Marika…. (on a mission)
Hey, we get it. Your efforts are appreciated, honestly.
But do we really need this much bureaucracy and addition to medical costs to figure it out ?
Its like a hot toddy and some of the therapuetic applications of alcohol. Not that pot is as harmful to the system even in excess or physically addictive but we didnt need doctors to tell us that booze had analgesic and antiseptic properties whenever we got a sniffle or the flu. Both pot and booze will reduce vitamin c retainment but, as it goes, everyting in moderation.
Long time ago shrinks were giving me every anti depressant and psychotropic under the sun because they thought my alcoholism was due to depression. No sht sherlock, I’m already depressed because I’m an alcoholic. Couple of these drugs sent me to the loony bin for weeks at time feeling like I’d just axe murdered a school bus full of kids.
Today I owe much of my 15 + years of sobriety and dodging weird drugs to twisting one up at appropriate times that I dont need a doctor to figure out for me.
Just put the shit on the market and all this justification we see for bigger and more governmental, insurance and medical clusterfcks will disappear
August 25th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Marika…. (on a mission)
Hey, we get it. Your efforts are appreciated, honestly.
But do we really need this much bureaucracy and addition to medical costs to figure it out ?
Its like a hot toddy and some of the therapuetic applications of alcohol. Not that pot is as harmful to the system even in excess or physically addictive but we didnt need doctors to tell us that booze had analgesic and antiseptic properties whenever we got a sniffle or the flu. Both pot and booze will reduce vitamin c retainment but, as it goes, everyting in moderation.
Long time ago shrinks were giving me every anti depressant and psychotropic under the sun because they thought my alcoholism was due to depression. No sht sherlock, I’m already depressed because I’m an alcoholic. Couple of these drugs sent me to the loony bin for weeks at time feeling like I’d just axe murdered a school bus full of kids.
Today I owe much of my 15 + years of sobriety and dodging weird drugs to twisting one up at appropriate times that I dont need a doctor to figure out for me.
Just put the sht on the market and all this justification we see for bigger and more governmental, insurance and medical clusterfcks will disappear