the state of new mexico will allow medical marijuana to be legally grown by persons who qualify for it. federal law enforcement officials may still be able to arrest those who DO grow marijuana for possession.
I think you are looking at a law enforcement and court nightmare. Unless you apply for all the legal licenses and things of that nature, you're pretty well screwed from the start. If you sell for other than medicinal purposes, you are really asking for trouble. Even if it was your your own stash, you might want to reconsider this plan.
Nightmare, period. The Dept. of Health hasn't figured out how it's supposed to grow distribute the pot?? the feds can still over-rule state law-- PLEASE don't tell me you have to be growing huge crops before they crash through the door. The medications mentioned above can have very serious side effects on some people are very expensive. In the whole fiasco, where is the humanity to care about the people who truly need it? Oh, I know. Get 'em drunk instead! I mean, alcohol is legal because it's so harmless, right? It's the people who smoke pot who go roaring off in their cars kill people, or get in a rage kill people. Boozers just sit in their comfy chairs, feeling mellow at peace with the world. RIGHT? Ignorance stupidity REIGN. Thank you Bob G. wasn't that fun!
More of a traffic control nightmare. Darn stuff grows as a weed in most of the Midwest. The whole thing got out of hand when J. Randolph Hearst bought up a bunch of forests on the west coast to be used for wood pulp. He thought that hemp would drive down the prices for the wood pulp so he had his lobbyists campaign against anything with THC in it. The amount of THC in hemp is negligible (otherwise you'd have sailors smoking rope) but they sold the idea on the false premise that Marijuana is a gateway drug. Marijuana does have a couple of things going against it. If you smoke for extended periods of time it tends to affect your short term memory, and it does burn hotter than tobacco. Most serious smokers know how to counteract both of these effects however and the documented medicinal uses far outweigh the risks, especially when the people most likely to benefit, cancer patients, aren't going to die from the marijuana in the first place and are likely to live longer from the increased appetite and reduced nausea, allowing the chemotherapy to be administered on schedule. there are also benefits for glaucoma patients, rare muscular ailments, as an aid to eliminating alcohol and drug dependence (how is that for some irony) and as a preventative for Atherosclerosis. Just as important
If regulations MUST be applied, the Health Department should determine where it's grown, in that context, individuals growing it would certainly present many problems. Federal State law conflicts like this are absurd. Until/if this is settled, ...patients will have to buy pot wherever they can find it. That means they'll have to buy it from illegal dealers, at great cost possible risk. Note ajunker's ..far safer than having a lot of marijuana coming in from outside.. Legalizing it nation-wide would stop border smuggling border patrol corruption. In spite of anti-marijuana advocates who claim marijuana leads to use of harder drugs, I have never seen any studies that have credibly drawn this conclusion. I HOPE EVERYONE WILL READ THE LINKS PROVIDED BY AJUNKER. I do not prescribe medications, but I'm quite well informed about them, their side effects contraindications with other meds.
With the state of our (dis)Union I would expect a law enforcement nightmare as every and any political rat catches wind of the cheese. Personally I believe it a good idea, and New Mexico an excellent place to grow such a crop. I think the state's Department of Agriculture and their experts are probably the best ones to say where, and the state should do the licensing and quality control. The feds should stay the heck out. When I was in College there was a big thing among the students about the secret pot fields around town. After graduation I returned there to do my clinical training at the State Hospital, part of that included night duty rounds with the local police force. I found this very enlightening as they took me around and showed me all the gardens we thought were close kept secrets. They said this supply was far safer than having a lot of marijuana coming in from outside, and the local growing conditions meant it was less potent. With two colleges in town it made for far fewer problems. It was also interesting to be given a tour of the crime lab and see a wall sized photograph of a student demonstration in the town square. It was a beautiful candlelight march and had been taken by an excellent Federal agency photographer, and there I was right dead center. I should have got Nixon's autograph. The local police got to keep a copy as art work. It explained why there were funny clicks on my phone line and unexplained calls at 2 and 4 a.m. It is wonderful to live in a free and democratic country. Vicodan and Compazine better and more effective drugs? Have you looked in the PDR lately? Incidentally I am a non-user. I have no personal brief or vendetta on this issue but I have ministered to a good number of terminal patients on Hospice who could find relief by no other means. Compazine in some of these patients produced severe liver disfunction.
