After a 4 year effort to get legislators to pass a law allowing people with chronic pain, epilepsy and other medical issues, to pass a medical cannabis bill failed, proponents decided to take on the daunting task of getting the issue on the ballot. The Utah Patients Coalition and TRUCE, Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education, collected more than 144,000 signatures.”
[NOTE: TRUCE, as a 501(c)(3) non-profit provided education on the ballot initiative and shared news about it of interest – con as well as pro (with commentary) – as we continue to do, e.g., here with this story, but TRUCE didn’t gather signatures.]
“It was considered a remarkable feat, one that several groups including Drug Safe Utah, The DEA, The Eagle Forum, and The Utah Medical Association, began to thwart, trying to get people to remove their names from a petition they already signed.”
One thing in this article some of us didn’t know is that whatever the signature totals released by June 1st, legal challenges won’t be taken up until JUNE 15 – and there’s no guidance about how long they’ll last.
It’s more than conceivable during what would have been debate on the #UMCI that its ballot status may be in the courts and in doubt for months. So much of the discussion will sadly continue to be about politics and lawsuits more than the proposal’s merits, with patients as always caught in the middle.
We’ll continue to provide scientifically vetted research, informed medical commentary, and social policy analysis as we have for the last four years. Even as we also help you follow the news of what friends and foes are up to.
Meanwhile, the #UMA continues to act the wounded, innocent party who’s been attacked by activists. As if.
In the video segment Michelle McOmber, UMA’s CEO says “I don’t want it to be a nasty fight.
“They are gonna throw stuff at us. Pretty soon I’ll tell you what: It will be thrown right back at them.”
This from the group which has mischaracterized advocates, questioned their motives, accused them of deliberately endangering children, of only being stalking horses for “recreational marijuana,” even deliberately misnaming the initiative in their “statement” – and who have hired people who went out deliberately misled voters in their homes, and much more that we and the press have been documenting.”
Which isn’t “pretty soon,” rather what we’ve come to expect as “dirty business as usual” from the leader of the state’s “professional” medical association.
PS: we never set out to “throw stuff” at anyone. We’ve tried to dialogue with many of our opponents. Repeatedly. For years. Without being taken up on the offer.
We’ll let you be the judge, though. Meanwhile, settle in for a period of uncertainty. It may last awhile.
#MMJ #UTpol #Lawsuits #ProtectPatents #Patience #TRUCE
See full article – Want to pull your name off the medical cannabis petition? Too late!
