No vote made, but medicinal use of marijuana in N.C. discussed in Raleigh

Look around citizens, the land of limited freedom. (not of the free) you work your life, to wait to draw your social security benefits, and what half the state recognizes something the other half dont?WE ARENT FREE we need the use of medical marijuana. simple plain and simple. the government of course is going to say NO why? they are scared simple. You see CRACK heads robbing stores, alcoholics going to the sides of the road asking for money, people getting robbed blindly in the street etc. The government hates when people protest against them were suppose to be like fish in the sea and flow with the motion but thats not how it should be. its sad really. You ever seen a pot head rob a orphanage?
i dont think so. to say they are scared of the "children" being influenced or addicted to a substance has no grounds because of the vast variety of medicational pills thats on the market today and o yea the gov makes them too get F'N real people time to grow the hell up

ok lets get out of the stone age come on now. make pot legal tax it and let north carolina reap the benifits. why should we keep giving the dealer all the money?

Legalize it, there is the solution for the current economy. It will be done one day, so lets go ahead and and do it. Then maybe we can stop buying ditch-weed from Mexico! -CC

I think they should legalize all drugs. All the crack heads and such would o.d. and die off. Sure there would be other users but probably not as common. Plus the world is over populated,and this would be a great for of population control. Really who has the right to tell you what to do with your own body people? They dont have to live in it,you do. The war on drugs is because of the government anyways. They waged the war,not the drug dealers. If it was all legal why would you want to kill some 1 over some stuff you can buy all day long at the abc store or wherever they would sell it?

It's funny that this idiot cop is talking about kids smoking weed when kids can just as easily open a medicine cabinet in their own home and find pills that are a thousand fold worse than marijuana. Furthermore, lots of kids these days are prescribed pills that they intentionally abuse behind their parents backs. It isn't the governments job to decided what we do. It's their job to protect us, not manipulate and control us. If parents do what they are suppose to then the kids won't be able to get into it. I suggest that "officer" go look into some history, smoke a blunt, and then decide if he thinks marijuana should still be illegal.

The notion that it will be so much more acessable by children is absurd. People who take medications typically have their medications in a secure place in the home, if not under lock and key. Nobody leaves Meds out here and there willy nilly to be sampled by any passerby. I have Acute arthritis in my hips and neuropathy in my feet which makes walking painfull and difficult. On occasion I have smoked Marijuana when i could no longer stand the narcotc medications prescribed to me. An I was afforded some usually day long relief, smoking in the early morning and late afternoon. It was not every day either. One day of use seemed to cary over in the relief catagory for sometimes 2-3 days as it seemed to un-wind the tensed up area and associated pain. I will use it again if te pain warrents it, which I'm happy to say is subsided for now. Typically the introduction of measureable pain coresponds with weather changes, mostly barometric differences. The "high" is present, but if not dwealt upon, tends not to be to much interferance with my daily routine. THE BOTOM LINE is that you can take opiate based pain killers or smoke or ingest marijuana, and feel ten times better for it rather than narcotics.

I have smoke it since I was 11 years old and now I'm 30.from the age of 16 and on i start to smoke it daily like people do with cigaret. I would go to work normally like everybody day to day. never complain about anything or get tire of doing anything.I never have a ticket or a car accident for 10 years now.for years ago i open up a business while i was smoking it and the business was succesful.It was a salon.I always active in those time.I have a wife and a six years old daughter. My wife is a none smoker,drinker,coffee.I never smoke next, or anywhere close to them.The only two things they complain is that i smell bad after i smoke it, and it dangerour when i go to the street to get it.i have got rob many time. That why too years ago when i decide to quit and start a normal{sobor} life and become even more success like people say. Well thing don't happen that way at all. after i quit thing start to fall apart. I start to have problem with my mine and body.I had a bad depression that lost my bussiness and almost lost a beautiful wife and daughter. And for my body, pain from the neck down to the toe.It hurt so bad that i feel like i just get out of a wrack everyday.My meal and sleep have been so disorder.now i'm just a disable person.Can't seem to control my mine to finish something that like to do or need to do like a normal person. I also have no taste for anything. My doctor and socail Securit has prove and aprove that i am disable.If it was legle Medicaton for me to use it I wouldn't have been suffering like this.I also start to drink more often now to help me sleep.The medication that the doctor give me does not help at all.I will hang in there for a while long to see if I do get better normally. if the next few years if it don't, then i guess i have to go back smoke and live namorlly like i did before. Thank you for reading this..

What right does the government have in telling sick people that they can not try a safe, non-addicting alternative medication that could help with their symptoms. There has been a lot of documentation about the positive effects of marijuana with GI disorders, glucoma, cancer treatments, bipolar disorders. Why is the state and federal government trying to make criminals out of patients. Keeping it illegal forces good people to seek out drug dealers to get something that could very well make a difference in the treatment of their illness. They should be able to go to Walgreens and buy it. Just think of the very real dangerous drugs that are already there. All you need to get a enough Oxycotin to kill yourself is a perscription. If you want some marijuana to help with the kemo...you have to brave the criminal underworld. This government is totally screwed up. LEGALIZE MEDICAL MARIJUANA NOW!!!

Jeez just legalize it alreadY! Its like the entire world is corrupt with this medicine. Legalize it for ALL already!

i wish that they would make it legal. there is nothing diffrent between it and ciggerates!

Make it legal and save our tax dollars for something meaningful say like health care and pay for teachers. The war on drugs is a JOKE, marijuana has a real medical use. Meth, cocane, LSD, and crack don't have any such use. The law will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to prosecute someone who has 1 or 2 ounces of pot and they have hurt no one. Grow it on farms tax it and make a buck for the state. Then lower our property taxes or even get rid of them altogether. Then go after the hard stuff that has no use at all then we might win for once.

Ok..after reading the posts and points on all who have responded, I have to say this. If we legallize pot for medicinal purposes, I do think a lot of people will be better off. I used to flip on the issue of recreational use. At one point I thought it should be illegal all across the board, until I dated a smoker. I never tried it. The smell alone made me sick, so I just told my signifigant other to do it somewhere else and not around me. Since leaving them and raising a kid, I don't want it around my kid. If my child discovers it, it will not be by me. I do think that if it were legal and alcohol were illegal we would be a lot better off. How many potheads are out there wanting to fight? I mean really...alcohol is a downer and more often than not makes a person aggressive, whereas pot will make someone passive. Have you ever seen an angry pot head? I say that if you legalize it all across the board and not just medicinally, then put the same restrictions on it that are on alcohol or tobacco. I don't smoke it, so either way it doesnt bother me. But I think it is a lot safer than cigs or alcohol.

so if it is to be used for medicinal purposes, then you should have to have a doctor's prescription to get it right?

medical marijuana being illegal is absurd. how can you tell millions of people that you will be prosecuted for one of earths natural growing plants. but if you just so happen to set fire to this plant it could help the terminally ill.

Prohibition simply does not work. Legal marijuana would be another source of sin-tax revenue that politicians simply adore, and eventually the dopers would shut up and stop telling us how wonderful it is to get loaded. Plus, there's nothing funnier than a guy in his fifties or sixties thinking he's sooooo cool because he smokes weed. "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

To the "Nay-sayers" and "bible Thumpers", i strongly suggest, you look up the FACTS, "WHY" was Marijuana was deemed Illegal to begin with.. In short, it was made Illegal because Racist Propaganda back in the day said Black & Hispanic Men turned into sexual deviants when the "product" was consumed, in turn "corrupting" the "white-women" into well, take a guess.. Secondly, A certain person, (Harry Anslinger), connected with the Paper Industry wanted it Illegal, because HEMP was in undermining His Profits in the Timber/Paper Industry.. Hence, We got the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act. Note:The bill was passed on the grounds of different reports and hearings . Anslinger also referred to the International Opium Convention that from 1928 included cannabis as a drug, and that all states had some kind of laws against improper use of cannabis. Some testimonies included that cannabis caused "murder, insanity and death". Today, it is generally accepted that the hearings included incorrect, excessive or unfounded arguments. For those Whom say it's "Addicting", you've been watching to many re-runs of "Reefer-Madness", Listening to Government Propaganda! Marijuana As a Medicine.. I'm a Amputee, I SUFFER from Phantom Pains. I've tried everything "Legally Prescribed" to have those "pains" stopped.. nothing worked, until, a friend asked Me to try a puff, (yes I inhaled). After 20+ years of almost loosing My mind, dern near committing suicide from these "Phantom Pains", I now have RELIEF.. I smoke a couple "puffs",not enough to get "high", and I'm good for 8 hours or so. A 1/4 ounce lasts Me over a month, as MEDICINE. Should I fear the SWAT Team breaking down My door, tearing up My home, possibly shooting My Dog, Thousands of dollars in Fines/Court cost's & Jail time, ending up with a "record", because I'm trying to bring Myself "relief" that No legal Medicine has yet been able to do? Otherwise, I'm a Law-abiding Productive citizen? Additionally, did you know? The federal Government grows/processes/and ships each month 8 metal canisters containing 200 marijuana cigs to 8 medicinal users each month? "Legally"? Another thought, would you rather keep your monies here in NC, for licensing/taxes on Marijuana, or have those "Ill gotten gains" going South of the border, financing a drug/civil War in Mexico? Taxes saved by NOT sending Marijuana users to Jail, While LEO can concentrate on more serious crimes, like rape, Murder, robberies? Ya know catching the "Real Criminals"? Please don't come back with a comment,,, What about the Children????? Poppycock! I can think of at least 1 Murder that wouldn't of happened if Marijuana were legalized, without 2 young adults going to Jail on the taxpayers dime, and one victim 6 foot under.. It's time N.C. to get up to speed, stop being a Laughing Stock of the country because Were so "backwards"..Living in the 1800's. Just one final thought.. Remember Al Capone? that what Prohibition brought, the same that is happening here and Mexico now.... Ones not for legalization are LEO, whom fear for their Jobs, and the Proceeds from "forfeited" "drug monies & property", and Prison officials fearing their Job cuts, due to the decrease in Prisoners entering the system on "Marijuana Charges"... Lastly Did you know? the United States Constitution is Printed on HEMP Paper, and George Washington grew "Marijuana"?

The courts make a lot more money prosecuting than they would taxing it. And just because the government lets you do something, doesn't make it right.

"But one area undercover detective says legalizing marijuana is a bad idea. "If they start prescribing marijuana, obviously the kids are going to have access to it, just like they do prescription medication, and it will be more readily available, and you'll have problems." " Translation: Hey wait, I'll lose my job! Geez, the 'children will have access' argument means you are out of counter points. The children already have access. Cannabis is an unregulated product. Obviously, the kids currently have access. Ask any kid. Weed is easier to get than beer...because beer is regulated. Anyone that wants cannabis can get cannabis. Stand outside any convenience store. You'll get anything you want...anything. Adults should be able to use cannabis in their homes without fear of a swat team busting down the door and killing the family pet or a family member.