{"id":16237,"date":"2015-06-06T09:18:51","date_gmt":"2015-06-06T13:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=16237"},"modified":"2015-06-06T09:18:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T13:18:08","slug":"one-man-stands-between-the-people-and-medical-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=16237","title":{"rendered":"One man stands between the people and medical marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our dysfunctional legislature hits new highs for foolishness<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong><\/span>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"TimesPoliticsUnusual\"<\/a>Greetings from one of the last Internet outposts not hacked by the Chinese (we don\u2019t rate) or calling from (allegedly) Microsoft Technical Support to assist you with your computer issues once you give us your password, credit card number and home address information.<\/p>\n

In comparison, the recent shenanigans in the state legislature probably seem a bit like the work of amateurs \u2014 I mean they don\u2019t even bother to fake the caller ID \u2014 but in some ways, they may prove more troubling.<\/p>\n

And while there are dozens of examples of why our state legislature acts like the worst of today\u2019s reality shows, here\u2019s two that may typify things, one measure blocked by one legislator and another blocked by the entire state house.<\/p>\n

First let\u2019s discuss medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

As we all know, medical marijuana is highly dangerous and in the hands of unauthorized users can led to long-term addiction and fatal overdoses. Oh wait, those are opioids like Percocet \u2014 which are perfectly legal for doctors to prescribe and the abuse of which have directly or indirectly led to the recent explosion of heroin abuse in our community.<\/p>\n

No, we\u2019re talking about marijuana, which poses a terrible, terrible threat to the nation\u2019s Doritos\u2019 supply. In fact, we\u2019re really only taking medical marijuana \u2014 not recreational use, but rather prescribed by a doctor to, you know, make someone less sick or help them to get out of pain.<\/p>\n

Now, of course, those radical hippies in the state Senate \u2014 and man, do I want to party with those wild folks \u2014 passed SB 3 to legalize the prescription of marijuana and THC-based medicines in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Which sent the measure to the state house, spoiler alert: buzz kill!<\/p>\n

One statehouse member, Rep. Matt Baker (R-68 \u2014 obviously, since it\u2019s clear he owes someone one) \u2014 has moved single-handedly to protect Pennsylvanians from doctors prescribing medicines to patients in need. As chairman of the House Health Committee, he, by his own self, can stop the legislation \u2014 which polls support show overwhelming support by the public \u2014 dead in its tracks.<\/p>\n

Democracy in action, baby.<\/p>\n

Baker claims that the use of marijuana for medical purposes needs more research and that the federal Food and Drug Administration still hasn\u2019t signed off on its use and it might be dangerous to use.<\/p>\n

More dangerous than opioids?<\/p>\n

Critics also point out that Baker has taken large amounts of bri\u2026 \u2014 uh campaign donations from large pharmaceutical companies, which may have something to do with his steadfast and courageous battle to preserve the state\u2019s Doritos population. And it has nothing, nothing, I assure you, to do with the fact that marijuana can\u2019t be patented easily and probably would be a lot less profitable for big pharma than continuing to sell opioids. Right.<\/p>\n

And before you cry foul about besmirching the reputation of the state representative, the next person who can reasonably explain the difference between bribery (paying money to an elected official to get an outcome) and campaign donations (paying money to an elected official to get an outcome) will be the first one to do so.<\/p>\n

Whether the state should legalize recreational use is another matter \u2014 and I can see why there would be issues with that and far more and than one elected official against it. But this is for trained medical professionals to prescribe to actual patients to take them out of pain, or allow them to eat during chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

That one man can stop those folks from getting help is pretty sad.<\/p>\n

Personally, I don\u2019t use anything illegal. My sins amount to a few craft beers, a cigar or two and some, gasp, reality TV. I don\u2019t think anyone has even offered me a joint since the Clinton Administration and more than likely Reagan was president the last time I consented and even then, it was never really my thing.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s hard for me to see stopping legitimate medical use of a substance far less dangerous than many others routinely prescribed by doctors. It makes even less sense that one man can stand in the way of something the overwhelming majority of people in the state support.<\/p>\n

Now, moving onto something with a little less (read virtually none) support:<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in stupid political pet tricks, the entire state house voted no on the budget proposed by Gov. Tom Wolf.<\/p>\n

Aside from the fact that the tax proposal was, well, pretty out there (proposing a tax on diapers and day care was either naive or Rendell-style arrogant), bringing it up for a vote, as the GOP did, was nothing short of a political stunt. And yes, the Republicans, as often seems to be the case of late, totally outsmarted the state\u2019s Democrats, who were forced to vote against it. That led, predictably to emails and \u201cdistrict newsletters\u201d from Republican State Representatives crowing about how Wolf\u2019s budget is so bad that \u201cnot one\u201d Democratic state house member voted yes on it.<\/p>\n

And yeah, it is pretty awful \u2014 but at the same time, the state needs more revenue and it seems like Wolf threw everything at the wall hoping something might stick, some of it far-fetched or even foolhardy, some of it worth discussion.<\/p>\n

The funny thing: even the GOP recognizes the need to increase taxes \u2014 and is proposing increases to both the income and sale tax to help close the state\u2019s structural deficit.<\/p>\n

If we could get past this sort of political theater, maybe it would be possible to get real work done, such as a viable, long-term solution to the public pension problem and finally resolve the liquor privatization issue.<\/p>\n

Any hope for a final budget deal by the state\u2019s June 30 deadline is pretty much dwindling at this point \u2014 and this may well drag out through the summer, as both sides seem more fixed on scoring points than solving problems.<\/p>\n

Such is the state of our commonwealth\u2019s government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our dysfunctional legislature hits new highs for foolishness By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Greetings from one of the last Internet outposts not hacked by the Chinese (we don\u2019t rate) or calling from (allegedly) Microsoft Technical Support to assist you with your computer issues once you give us your password, credit card number and home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[168,6281,5859,4963,18],"class_list":["post-16237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-featured","tag-budget","tag-campaign-donations","tag-gov-tom-wolf","tag-medical-marijuana","tag-state-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16238,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16237\/revisions\/16238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}