Posted by smashysmashy on 07/10/09

NH's "progressive" democratic governor vetoed our medical marijuana bill which had massive bipartisan support in our state house and senate. Lynch cited 10 concerns with the initial bill which he sent back to the house to address. The house thoroughly addressed his concerns and it was again widely approved in the house and senate. I will not list the details myself, but here is an excellent site that documented the whole process.

Well I must say that as a libertarian-republican, I found all versions of the bill to be horrendous. I think marijuana should be legalized, yet stay untouched, unregulated, uncontrolled by our incompetant government. What really disturbs me though, is that the first version of the bill (more appropriately) gave power to the people by allowing medical marijuana patients to grow their own crop. This was one of Gov Lynch's primary concern, and he reccomended that the bill be ammended to only allow 3 dispensaries to cultivate and distribute the medication. What is really disturbing is that Lynch cited this as being too costly for the state of NH once his concerns were addressed.

"Lynch also expressed concern that the administration of the bill would be so costly that only the wealthiest patients would have access to medical marijuana."

Lynch was playing to the fiscally conservative majority here in NH. He recommended they alter the bill for a bogus reason so he could cite the fiscally responsible argument and veto the bill.

This issue is extremely important to me as marijuana reform is what initially drew me to the libertarian/libertarian-leaning republican parties. There are a bunch of extremely angry and disapointed liberals in NH who are now threatning to vote for whichever republican challenges Lynch. So the cycle continues; a neo-con republican will challenge Lynch and probably win. The disheartened liberals who voted against their party line will only be dissapointed in their new neo-con governor and once again crawl back to the democratic party. I believe this is the infinite loop NH has been stuck in for decades. 

This is our perfect oppurtunity to teach these one-issue liberals who care about individual freedom what our message is all about. It is amazing how many ex-liberals have joined our movement. I highly suggest we post comments on norml.org to try and persuade some to check out our site and Ron Paul's message. The editors/moderators of that site have something against Ron Paul supporters even though they often cite him as one of the good guys. I know marijuana reformers might seem like a less than optimal group to be recruiting, but they are extremely good activists and know how to run grassroot campaigns. There numbers are HUGE and they are quite upset about the Obama admin and other "progressive" democrats treatment on marijuana reform. Let's teach them and NORML what freedom is really about. Let's show them that we ARE a viable grassroots campaign and they NEED to get behind us (NORML often cites RP and C4L as unviable and unpalatable).

Thanks!

Brian

Posted 09/03/09 mahynes Charlestown, MA

I'm right there with you Brian. I was an opinionated liberal with no real education on any of the issues I found important. I was drawn into the principles of liberty because of my views and experiences with marijuana. Once I started watching and listening to Ron Paul things started to come together and make more sense, and this website has been a great educational hub. I'm sure there are many millions more out there that could get pulled in similarly.

Posted 11/29/09 Bobachek Stoughton, WI

Sounds like a "Stoners Unite" issue to me....Same crap going on in Wisconsin....Soon every "Pot Head" with a theoretical ailment will be able to get his fix legally...

Posted 08/09/10 carcajou New York, NY

Unlike alcohol, smoke from marijuana affects anyone in the proximity of the user. It is not only household members (wives, children and babies) who are subjected to the second-hand drug smoke, nearby apartment dwellers can also be affected. Non-users are entitled to be free from the side effects of the smoker's contamination. Taking the rights from the majority to satisfy a small minority is unaccepatable.

Posted by smashysmashy on 03/20/09

You might remember the SWAT erroneous no-knock raid last summer resulting in the death's of Maryland Mayor Cheye's 2 dogs. Wikipedia has a decent description of the incident. Anyways, I thought I would share an email I recently recieved updating us and sharing a pretty nice website he started that I think is worth checking out.

Dear Brian,
 
I write these many months later to thank you for reaching out to
comfort my family and I after last summer’s terrifying SWAT
attack of our home.  The tremendous outpouring of support that we
received from our friends, neighbors, and so many complete
strangers sustained us through the worst of it, and I continued
to find comfort in the kind words as I read the emails well into
the fall.
 
Trinity and I continue to heal, and we always will miss Payton
and Chase terribly.  One thing that has helped is that we’ve
adopted another black Labrador, Marshall, who has brought
incredible joy to our lives. 
 
After the incident drew international attention and outrage,
Prince George’s County police finally exonerated my family and me
of any wrong doing.  However, they have refused to apologize and
continue to defend their actions in my case.
 
Over the last several months, I have undergone a personal journey
to try to understand how this terrible incident could happen. 
My initial reaction was that it was a terrible mistake.  However,
as I have learned more, I have come to understand that what my
family and I experienced is part of a growing and troubling trend
where law enforcement is relying on SWAT teams to perform duties
once handled by ordinary police officers.
 
In our case, the police deployed a SWAT team without performing
basic investigatory work and apparently without considering more
measured approaches.  Prince George’s County recently has
acknowledged that it indiscriminately deploys SWAT teams to serve
drug warrants.  Preliminary estimates suggest that the county
deployed SWAT teams as many as 700 times a year – that is twice a
day!  Other counties in Maryland also report hundreds of SWAT
team deployments a year, and we have uncovered numerous other
stories of botched and inappropriate raids, innocent families
terrorized, and family dogs killed.
 
In fact, the inappropriate use of SWAT teams seems to be a
national problem.  The number of SWAT team deployments nationwide
has grown exponentially from about 2,500 per year in the early
1980s to over 50,000 in 2005.  SWAT teams used to be reserved for
unusually dangerous situations such as the arrest of major
criminals known to have high-powered weapons or hostage
situations.  However, many police forces are using them today
against people they suspect of recreational drug use and other
much smaller crimes.
 
The more I have learned, the more I feel obligated to do
everything I can to rein in over-aggressive policing.  I am
working with Maryland lawmakers to pass legislation requiring
the number of SWAT deployments and their outcomes to be regularly
reported to civilian authorities.  By shining a light on
paramilitary police activities, law enforcement agencies should
find it in their best interests to change their practices and
limit the use of SWAT teams to situations where the charges are
grave and a violent response can be reasonably anticipated.  As
soon as we enact this legislation in Maryland, I intend to work
with lawmakers in other states to pass similar legislation. We
are also considering actions that can be taken on a federal level.
 
To help in this effort, we have created a web site,
www.protectourliberties.com, which tells the stories of a number
of innocent victims of traumatizing SWAT raids.  It also contains
media clips of the coverage we’ve received and information about
our legislative work.  If you are interested in staying informed
about this issue, please sign up for updates that I’ll send every
month or so.  Also, if you could volunteer for citizen advocacy
or policy development work, I would really appreciate your help. 
Our next citizen advocacy project is a Lobby Night on Monday,
March 23rd at the Maryland Capital.  Please visit our new
web site to learn more and sign up to help:
         www.protectourliberties.com 
 
Thank you, again, for your support and encouragement!   
 
Warm regards,
Cheye


Make Maryland Great, Inc.
P. O. Box 4343
Annapolis, MD  21403
(410) 757-2811

Posted 07/04/09 H Bunce lite Chariton, IA

Thanks for posting that letter, Smashy.