Judge allows New Hampshire woman to buy medical marijuana in Maine

[Tom Sawyer]

This poor woman's plight proves the point that "legalization", tax and regulate, etc. is a horrible mistake.

It only proves NH has horrible weed laws and bureaucrats. If she was a Maine resident she wouldn't need NH state permission, just a doctors note, and she could grow her own.

That's better for sure.

Is PTSD one of the conditions they authorize people to medicate themselves? I could of course go down a list... a spectrum of ailments and conditions that would end in just a plain old stress reliever/mood elevator. At some point you can't "legally" self medicate.

[blackie]

PTSD is covered.

Chronic pain is the catch all that allows anyone that wants a recommendation to get one. Worst case is you have to visit the doctor a few times and wait 6 months.

NH allows for chronic pain due to injury.

It looks like legalization will be on the ballot in Maine in November.
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/maine-poised-vote-marijuana-legalization-november

If it passes, it will allow anyone over 21 to grow 6 flowering plants, 12 veg plant, and unlimited seedlings(non-flowing,  under 24" height, under 18" diameter). There would be a 2.5 oz limit out of the home, but no weight limit at home.  Oh, and the department of Agriculture would be the regulating authority.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/293462439/Hyperlinked-Text-of-the-Maine-Regulation-and-Taxation-of-Marijuana-Act

[Jay]

This poor woman's plight proves the point that "legalization", tax and regulate, etc. is a horrible mistake.

It only proves NH has horrible weed laws and bureaucrats.

I think there's plenty of circumstantial evidence that government employees in NH don't want MM cutting into their black market activities.

[Free libertarian]

  The newspaper article said " A New Hampshire woman who won permission...."
   That almost sounds like somebody else owned her. 

   Kind of pisses me off... Nobody owns me.

Come on dude... Yes they do own you. You're much like I am... trying to live free in an unfree world. But, we must remember that they do lord over us. Every time we try to do much of the important stuff in our lives we are constantly being made to bow.

This poor woman's plight proves the point that "legalization", tax and regulate, etc. is a horrible mistake. The fundamental principle is that we (should) own our own bodies and be able to drink raw milk, ingest medicinal herbs etc. completely unfettered. I like the idea of a natural rights movement... it would be a broad based coalition of lefties, right wingers, libertarians etc. that want to be able to use what nature provides. I think it could grab traction, if it is not in the partisan paradigm. Politics fucks everything up... "warfare by other means" is still war.

The political effort that took the fastest path to reform didn't take the best path.

Agreed.  Prohibition shifting to permission based, plant counts, possession limits etc. continues the idea that "rights" are really just privileges.   

[Riddler]

This poor woman's plight proves the point that "legalization", tax and regulate, etc. is a horrible mistake.

It only proves NH has horrible weed laws and bureaucrats. If she was a Maine resident she wouldn't need NH state permission, just a doctors note, and she could grow her own.

On top of the protracted  legal bullshit, while she was gravely  ill....the govt. sucked out of her , how many weeks/months /years, of potentially pain-free, or at least pain-tolerable existence.  God, the enlightened, know-it-alls suck dick.....WEED UP....AMERICA

[blackie]

AG appealed order to issue marijuana ID to Alstead woman before her death

http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/ag-appealed-order-to-issue-marijuana-id-to-alstead-woman/article_302ab6a6-012a-5331-a058-ff8873b152f2.html

The attorney general appealed a judge's decision ordering the state to issue a medical marijuana ID card to Linda Horan — the Alstead woman who has since died — after issuing them to Horan and other qualifying patients.

The appeal was filed with the state Supreme Court on Dec. 22, 2015, but it wasn't previously made public.

Horan's attorney, Paul Twomey, had been served the notice of appeal, but didn't mention it publicly and told Horan he expected the appeal would be dismissed.

"I didn't want her to be worried having it in the press and by that time she was in hospice care," Twomey said Sunday.
The state argued unsuccessfully last November that Horan had to wait until the marijuana dispensary in New Hampshire designated on her application becomes operational sometime in the spring before she could obtain it. At the time she was dying from terminal lung cancer.

Assistant Attorney General Frank Fredericks said the appeal will go forward despite Horan's death.
"We want clarification on the important points of law where New Hampshire residents can obtain cannabis," Fredericks said.

Twomey, who represented Horan for free, said he plans to file a motion to dismiss the notice of appeal early in the week.
"This is absurd," Twomey said. "There is no one to have a case with" now that Horan has died.

Horan was 64 when she died on Feb. 1. She had many supporters when she sued the state to obtain a medical marijuana ID card so she could buy cannabis in Maine before New Hampshire dispensaries open. She was finally able to do so just six weeks before she died.

Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, said he attended services for Horan on Friday and discussed the attorney general's appeal with Twomey.

"Here we are celebrating Linda's life and the scores of people who have access to medical marijuana because Linda broke down the opposition from the state and had the state issue the cards. And the attorney general is still appealing the decision of a dead person," Cushing said.

Twomey said the state is wrongly trying to appeal matters that were not decided in the Merrimack County Superior Court case.

But Fredericks said he expects the case to move forward. The state Supreme Court must accept the appeal, he said, conceding that the marijuana dispensaries may be operating in New Hampshire by the time the court hears the case.
When asked why the attorney general would advise the Department of Health and Human Services to issue ID cards to Horan and other qualifying patients if an appeal was planned, Fredericks said Attorney General Joseph Foster didn't advise DHHS to do so.

"They (DHHS) asked whether they could issue them. The attorney general said they could. We didn't tell them to do it," Fredericks said.

Foster denied a right-to-know-request filed by InDepthNH.org seeking written and email communications between his office and DHHS regarding the issuance of the cards stating they involved lawyer/client privilege.
The New Hampshire court website that lists filings in cases that are closely watched in the media lists Horan's case, but did not update it to include the attorney general's notice of appeal.

The state Department of Health and Human Services issued Horan's medical marijuana ID card after Judge Richard McNamara ruled in her favor on Nov. 24, 2015, and issued cards to all qualifying patients who had applied a month later.
The question the Attorney General's Office asked the Supreme Court to decide is whether the law, RSA 126-X, "authorizes a New Hampshire patient to obtain or possess cannabis from a source other than the alternative treatment center the patient designated when applying for a registry identification card with DHHS."

The state's position continues to be that the statute links a patient to the treatment center so DHHS has oversight, Fredericks said.

"We have appealed seeking the Supreme Court's interpretation," Fredericks said.

Twomey said the state didn't appeal the issuance of a card to Linda Horan. "That's the only thing the court ruled on," Twomey said.

The attorney general can't ask the Supreme Court for an advisory opinion, Twomey said. Only the Legislature can do that, he said.

Twomey said the state Supreme Court cannot rule on whether New Hampshire citizens can obtain legal marijuana in Maine.

"This court doesn't have any jurisdiction over Maine. It's none of their business what Maine does," Twomey said.

[Jay]

Jes' doin' der jerbz.

[Free libertarian]

If the Attorney General believes that the DHHS department "broke the law" how come they haven't arrested them ?

It's almost like there's some kind of club, and we ain't in it.

[Tom Sawyer]

I've heard about enough of you people bashing our "Public Servants"!

[Jim Johnson]

I could stand a little more.

[Tom Sawyer]

I could stand a little more.

Well, as everyone knows, you're just a trouble maker.

[jerryswife]

I've heard about enough of you people bashing our "Public Servants"!

Who are these "Public Servants" you talk about?  Better yet, what exactly is a "Public Servant" and when was the last time one served you?

[Jim Johnson]

I've heard about enough of you people bashing our "Public Servants"!

Who are these "Public Servants" you talk about?  Better yet, what exactly is a "Public Servant" and when was the last time one served you?

Yeah, Tom.... tell us about your love affair with the beautiful people.

[Becky Thatcher]

I've heard about enough of you people bashing our "Public Servants"!

Who are these "Public Servants" you talk about?  Better yet, what exactly is a "Public Servant" and when was the last time one served you?

Well, I had problems with an order I placed and it was dealt with competently and quickly...oh wait, that was Amazon. 

I think public servants only serve you when they're serving papers designed to screw you...and they probably contract that out to someone else. 

[Becky Thatcher]

Yeah, Tom.... tell us about your love affair with the beautiful people.

The glitterati?