Robert Celt
New Member
The Iowa Legislature finally took action on medical cannabis last Wednesday, an issue which has had mothers literally crying down at the Capitol for years. But instead of granting relief to desperate patients of chronic illnesses, our leaders are demonstrating once again they're quite capable of ignoring the pain and suffering of the citizens they are elected to serve.
Patient after patient testified before a House panel this week, choking out emotional pleas for relief, tears streamed down their faces. Many more crowded into the packed chambers, anxiously waiting for politicians to act. The heart-churning stories of pain and suffering could have lasted all afternoon, but the politicians budgeted less than an hour.
Cancer patients, parents of epileptic children, women with multiple sclerosis, a young woman with Crohn's, people battling cancer, the Army vet with PTSD – the patients were diverse, but their stories were strikingly similar: medical cannabis helps me, other medicines have not.
The House Commerce committee passed a bill out of committee by a vote of 17-6, but before they did, the legislation was gutted to exclude relief for many of the patients described above.
OxyContin, morphine, hydrocodone – a man in pain threw his legal medications on the table and described how each were undesirable. In contrast to these highly addictive legal painkillers, he would be a criminal if he chose the medicine that would actually help him.
The suffering and pain in that room was real. Why are politicians preventing access to medicine? How does a bureaucrat know more than a patient or doctor? How can a politician measure suffering and say this pain qualifies and this doesn't? After hearing patient after patient it became abundantly clear:
If there was any decency whatsoever in the statehouse, if the legislature had a shred of compassion, they would have passed a medical cannabis bill years ago.
Speaker of the House Linda Upmeyer has been deaf to the cries of these suffering patients. If Upmeyer chose, she could end the suffering today. It should have been done yesterday. I challenge her to look these patients straight in the eye, and tell them point-blank that she knows what medicine is best for them.
She won't. Instead, she'll hide behind political procedure to keep this bill off the House floor. Or – as we've seen – water legislation down until it's meaningless.
Upmeyer isn't just prolonging the suffering of patients, she is putting the entire Republican caucus at risk. Iowans aren't naive, they no longer believe the tired old propaganda from 20 years ago. Voters will reject any political leader that turns a blind eye to needless suffering. And deservedly so.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Iowa Lawmakers Should Allow Medical Cannabis
Author: Jeff Shipley
Contact: The Gazette
Photo Credit: None found
Website: The Gazette
Patient after patient testified before a House panel this week, choking out emotional pleas for relief, tears streamed down their faces. Many more crowded into the packed chambers, anxiously waiting for politicians to act. The heart-churning stories of pain and suffering could have lasted all afternoon, but the politicians budgeted less than an hour.
Cancer patients, parents of epileptic children, women with multiple sclerosis, a young woman with Crohn's, people battling cancer, the Army vet with PTSD – the patients were diverse, but their stories were strikingly similar: medical cannabis helps me, other medicines have not.
The House Commerce committee passed a bill out of committee by a vote of 17-6, but before they did, the legislation was gutted to exclude relief for many of the patients described above.
OxyContin, morphine, hydrocodone – a man in pain threw his legal medications on the table and described how each were undesirable. In contrast to these highly addictive legal painkillers, he would be a criminal if he chose the medicine that would actually help him.
The suffering and pain in that room was real. Why are politicians preventing access to medicine? How does a bureaucrat know more than a patient or doctor? How can a politician measure suffering and say this pain qualifies and this doesn't? After hearing patient after patient it became abundantly clear:
If there was any decency whatsoever in the statehouse, if the legislature had a shred of compassion, they would have passed a medical cannabis bill years ago.
Speaker of the House Linda Upmeyer has been deaf to the cries of these suffering patients. If Upmeyer chose, she could end the suffering today. It should have been done yesterday. I challenge her to look these patients straight in the eye, and tell them point-blank that she knows what medicine is best for them.
She won't. Instead, she'll hide behind political procedure to keep this bill off the House floor. Or – as we've seen – water legislation down until it's meaningless.
Upmeyer isn't just prolonging the suffering of patients, she is putting the entire Republican caucus at risk. Iowans aren't naive, they no longer believe the tired old propaganda from 20 years ago. Voters will reject any political leader that turns a blind eye to needless suffering. And deservedly so.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Iowa Lawmakers Should Allow Medical Cannabis
Author: Jeff Shipley
Contact: The Gazette
Photo Credit: None found
Website: The Gazette
