Pubdate: Wed, 10 Dec 2003
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 2003 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://www.captimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author: Gary Storck
Note: Drop Quote: It's time for the mayor and City Council to take up this 
issue and find a way for local patients to have safe access to medical 
cannabis and fulfill the wishes of the more than 60 percent of Madison 
voters who passed Ordinance 23.20 into law nearly three decades ago.

MADISON NEEDS TO ALLOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA CLUBS

Dear Editor:

In April 1977 Madison voters passed an initiative that created Madison 
General Ordinance 23.20, said to be the oldest medical marijuana law on the 
books in the world. It's time for Madison to once again lead on the issue 
of medical marijuana.

With Rep. Gregg Underheim, R-Oshkosh, chair of the Assembly Health 
Committee, planning to introduce a medical marijuana bill into the 
Wisconsin Legislature, there is a chance our state could join the 10 other 
states that legalized marijuana as medicine as early as next year, if the 
Legislature follows the more than 80 percent support among state residents 
for medicinal pot.

But patients need it today. Some will not make it to tomorrow, much less 
next year. Time is a precious commodity when one suffers from serious illness.

Madison needs to look at tolerating the establishment of cannabis clubs so 
city residents following the letter of Ordinance 23.20 and using medical 
marijuana under the care of a practitioner do not have to go without and 
suffer needlessly or be forced to attempt to buy medicine of uncertain 
quality and safety on the street, risking rip-offs or arrest.

It's time for the mayor and City Council to take up this issue and find a 
way for local patients to have safe access to medical cannabis and fulfill 
the wishes of the more than 60 percent of Madison voters who passed 
Ordinance 23.20 into law nearly three decades ago. This is just simple 
human compassion.

Gary Storck

Director of communications

Is My Medicine Legal YET?

Madison
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman