/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-sltrib.s3.amazonaws.com/public/I43GVGJQOJF2HBEYQYXCGELUCE.jpg)
There’s a legislative cliff hanger on the fate of the (very flawed and very slow to get started) “pilot program” for limited forms of medical cannabis to be made available to a handful of terminal patients for a limited time from from a limited number of doctor slots.
One of the bills needed to enact this boondoogle, (HB195) passed the House (?) and the other (HB197) didn’t. The votes were close on both bills.
At first glance citizens might think that the failure of both to pass – with both being needed for the program to become law – means that the matter is finished.
But is the proposal – which TRUCE has analyzed as not being in the best interests of Utah patients as we’ve discussed before – really dead yet….?
Not necessarily.
Under the rules of Utah’s House, if a bill comes close but doesn’t pass, the bill’s sponsor has a short period to ask for reconsideration, and that will happen with this bill. If a vote or two is NOT switched from “nay” to “yay” by the re-vote sometime Monday, this program will be killed for this session and will not become law as written.
The sponsor says he has reason to believe he can switch the required votes, and if so, the whole matter moves to the Senate. We shall see.
Many of our members are personally writing and calling their House members to ALSO ask House members who voted YES to switch to NO.
Politicians really do monitor constituent input, and especially on close issues, input can very much make a difference. And it’s not only sponsors who are allowed to lobby – YOU can too.
So, if you’re not impressed by this deliberate distraction from the Ballot Initiative’s proposed actual program, you can find out who represents you here:
http://ift.tt/2mbMCJm….
…and then contact them today or early Monday.
(No Sunday calls, and no personal attacks on the legislators, their faiths or party, PLEASE – these are NOT how to win friends and influence Legislators. Just state how you’d like them to vote and why.)
PS: For our part, we also disagree with the article’s characterization that passing the program would “would make Utah the 30th state to legalize medical marijuana.” These bills in NO way would have that effect.
The sponsor is attempting to give the impression that their passage would put the state on the path to maybe SOMEDAY creating SOME kind of severely limited program – with, in this case, heavy state involvement in product production and distribution – but as we read the bills and the intent behind them, they’re actually more likely DELAY Utah becoming a state with a real medicinal cannabis program.
#MMJ #HB195 #HB197 #UTleg #UTpol #ExpressYourself #TRUCE
See full article – The Utah House voted on two bills to legalize medical marijuana. Both needed to pass. One didn’t.
