Dispatches…

23 February 2010
This morning’s news reports the New York State Senate and Assembly will soon take up the matter of medical marijuana and the state will be the 15th in the Union to allow for the use of cannabis in prescribed ways. This marks progress toward getting many people the help they need to deal with the litany of diseases whose symptoms are alleviated by the use of cannabis, but conservative elements are setting themselves up to limit the number of ailments marijuana might be used to treat.
In a case like this, advocates can only hope to get as much progress as they can in the first round of legislation and leave the door open to expanding usage parameters after the law has been enacted and the benefits studied. As with most civil rights legislation – and marijuana use, medicinal and recreational, is indeed a matter of personal and community liberty – when advocates attempt to drag the wide majority forward kicking and screaming into the promised land of the full extension of rights such as same-sex marriage or full decriminalization the effort stalls. If any benefit is to be gained by allowing for limited medicinal use, it would serve those interested in more loosening best to support the programs lawmakers will allow for now and let consensus catch up to what cannabis users have long known – the healing power of marijuana can soothe not only the aches in our bones, but the soul of every village and town.

Bipartisanship Reboot
Later this week the Obama Administration will present its “opening bid” in negotiations with congressional Republicans on crafting a health insurance reform bill in the wake of the legal sausage-making wreckage now on the table in the D.C. clown college.
Many observers have said the president dropped the health care ball last year in the spring when rather than presenting his majority with a clearly defined plan, the White House allowed the conversation to be hijacked by town hall screamers, lies and distortions about death panels, and to be overtaken in importance by a decaying real economy that is right now best served by knitting the safety net tighter and creating good-paying jobs. Those observers see the picture clearly, in my view, because there’s so much inertia in Congress right now that it makes little sense to keep pushing Ted Kennedy’s last wish up the Hill when most people polled who have coverage say they want no change to the system, especially in light of the deficit spending that will likely subsidize expanding coverage to those who don’t have it.
Furthermore, reaching across the aisle again only to have the hand extended bitten in defiance doesn’t strike me as politically sound; it only proves the point the election of Scott Brown made, the point the Tea Party types keep harping on, the point that CPAC made with their Ron Paul straw poll pick, etc… which is, the loyal opposition is no longer loyal to the republic, only loyal to Republican ideology.
How the administration gets meaningful reform legislation out of the current gridlock holds dire implications for the Democrats’ fortunes, but it seems more and more no matter which party wins, the voting and taxpaying public loses anyway.

© David Mark Speer