Maryland Further Decriminalizes Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott of Toke of the Town

Maryland on Tuesday became the 16th state to remove criminal penalties for the medical use of marijuana when Gov. Martin O’Malley signed SB 308 as promised. The bill allows seriously ill patients to avoid prosecution when charged with marijuana possession, and also creates a commission to study medical marijuana laws and make recommendations on how Maryland can institute such a program.
This is the first time since 2003 that additional protections were considered, and it’s an important step toward protecting medical marijuana patients from arrest and ensuring they have safe access to their medicine, according to the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
?”We’re very happy that the Governor signed this bill into law and listened with compassion to seriously ill Marylanders who use marijuana to treat their conditions,” said Dan Riffle, legislative analyst for MPP. “We look forward to the study group created here making helpful recommendations to further protect such patients.”
Under the new law, people diagnosed with debilitating medical conditions, such as cancer or multiple sclerosis, can avoid conviction if charged with the nonpublic use or possession of one ounce or less of marijuana.
An existing sentencing mitigation will remain part of the law, meaning that patients who don’t qualify for the full affirmative defense will still have the opportunity to present evidence of medical necessity and have their sentence reduced to a $100 fine.
In addition, a work group made up of medical, legal, and law enforcement experts will be convened to recommend more comprehensive legislation next year. Advocates hope to be able to use that recommendation to pass a bill that offers patients complete protection from arrest and prosecution.
The work group should have the ability to observe a well-regulated medical marijuana program run by their neighbors in the District of Columbia. In April, the District began implementing its long-awaited medical marijuana program by accepting applications for licensed and regulated cultivation centers and dispensaries. That program should be fully operational later this year.
Article From Toke of the Town and republished with special permission.
Related Posts:

• Medical Marijuana Study Bill Passes Maryland House By a vote of 105-29, the Maryland House of Delegates ...
• Maryland Medical Marijuana Defense Bill Makes Progress The Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee approved a bill ...
• Delaware Medical Marijuana Bill Awaiting Governor Approval By Steve Elliott of Toke of the Town Medical marijuana will ...
• Maryland Medical Marijuana Defense Bill Set For Final Senate Approval by Phillip Smith A bill that would allow Maryland medical marijuana ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7qchtYOLBs"]YouTube - ‪Medical Marijuana's Future In Md.?‬‏

 

green world of love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SZ6vFs9w20"]YouTube - ‪Lisa Thiel - Healing Power Of The Green‬‏


The healing powers of green things are far reaching. Find out why they are so healthy for you.

 

can zen survive its recent matriarchal transformations (which are claiming to be cyclical)? zen has nothing to do with man or people at all, these masters are nothing but shamans aligning their imaging to the true realization, anchoring down the way with petty logolization in the name of the concept of family or familiarity (denials of the true inherent wholeness of the self as a spontaneously arising unplanned for and incomprehensible movement to which which none but the self evident laws of awareness itself apply) and pointless tradition which will cause the novice to lose sight of the true essence, thats why one can never trust the monastery, zen is dead there, and perhaps only comes to live miraculously there sometimes for want of virtue to be equally spread, but there are no monasteries, go into the terrain of your live, know no distinction between inside or in, forest or city, lose all notion of man and woman or blatantly reject this sudden rhetoric in a blaring display of non duality and immediately move on or painlessly disintegrate, as compelled by the stream of time

• the only difference between man and woman is basically hair length
• we were trying to liberate you
• from predestined social roles caused by discrimination upon our bodies
• we don't believe in man
• nor woman
• and we believe that its these concepts, which were probably originally primitive cults which go AGAINST the intuitive teaching of divinely intuited random premature action justified by a lack of understanding of the universe or proof of anything at all

there is no monk and no layperson, no man or woman, there is no way, and no seperation from the way
still we lay down our mat at the days end and are thankful to the fairy for our good fortune and health
an emanation radiating from the soul, which by means of mystical ecstasy is percieved outside of the self, this is the same force which created the man and woman, the same trickster
seen for the illusion which it is, the spirit knows peace again, true union
end of schizophrenia

comes to see much is left behind, and is new, there is nothing to do i could keep writing or stop, i could explain any number of things, trying to make you believe i know and can lead the way to zazen, or i know nothing and its foolish to follow
buts its deeper than that, i am led away in thoughts by the fairies to the hills, we sink down, like waters, and become the wind in time, we dance then like willow wisp
and come to be breathed in by the unsuspected awareness, awarenesses meet, we are one realize there has never been anything but this...
breathed out a moment later on the way to nowhere
this is the zen way, the paths we make through the dream, that which we can accept
suddenly one looses words, looses the general gist of things, abandons momentum and rests in peace, realizing none of it is.

one is totally androgynous and silent, everything is silent

except you

a few random things are said, supposedly important things
but most people are just listening to it without thinking
seeds are thrown haphazardly, the world becomes entirely unconscious
it just happens, zen just happens
ironically theres a lot written about it,
zen is a black hole and all you wanderers beware, yet zen has never hurt anyone really,
its real... its profound,

forgive us, for we have no understanding