Illinois Senate Approves Medical Marijuana Bill; Measure Moves To House For Consideration
SPRINGFIELD, Ill., May. 28, 2009 cbsnews.com
(AP) The push to legalize medical marijuana in Illinois has taken a big step forward.
The Illinois Senate voted 30-28 in favor of a plan to let sick people use pot for relief from diseases like cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
The bill now goes to the Illinois House, where a committee passed a medical marijuana measure earlier this year.
Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, says that if the bill is eventually signed into law, Illinois would join 13 other states that have such measures in place.
Critics argue allowing medical marijuana would make it harder for police to enforce other marijuana laws and would be a step toward wholesale legalization of pot.
Another source: newsblog.chicagotribune.com
SPRINGFIELD---Marijuana user Lucie MacFarlane said she munched a ginger snap cannabis cookie before talking to lawmakers at the Capitol today.
Describing her condition, the 46-year-old Joliet woman testified at a House committee that she illegally uses marijuana to relieve the constant pain she suffers from neurofibromatosis and from a surgery that fused her spine incorrectly.
The tale was enough to get the panel to advance legislation that would legalize the use of medical marijuana in Illinois.
The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House Human Services Committee on a 4-3 party-line vote. It's the first time such legislation has cleared a House panel. It now goes to the full House for consideration, so it's far from becoming law.Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), who sponsored the legislation, said he wants to create a three-year test program allowing anyone with a “debilitating medical condition” to have seven dried cannabis plants and two ounces of dried usable cannabis to relieve the pain and nausea associated with conditions like cancer, HIV or Crohn’s disease.
The Illinois Senate today voted to approve legislation that would legalize the use of marijuana for medical reasons for some seriously ill patients with a physician’s permission.The 30-28 vote, with one senator voting present, means the measure now goes to the House for consideration in the waning days of the spring session.
“It is not intended to be a stealth legalization,” said sponsoring Sen. William Haine (D-Alton), a former Madison County prosecutor. “It is a program that’s enacted for the compassionate use by people who have been recommended by a doctor.”
Haine said similar legislation has been approved in all 13 states where it was on the ballot, regardless of partisan leanings. In an effort to encourage votes, the legislation would create a program that would last for three years and require renewal.
But Sen. Dale Righter (R-Charleston) said the legislation was loosely drafted and did not require criminal background checks for people who handle marijuana or grow it under license from the state Department of Public Health.
The Senate defeated similar legislation two years ago
OOPS - DUMB ASS
Want Weed, Visit Your County Sheriff's Office? Illinois County Sheriff Arrested for Dealing Marijuana
With all the ongoing chatter about legalizing marijuana, it appears that some government authorities might be thinking they'll go ahead and skip a few steps ahead and join the pot growing and distribution process. First, CNN reported about the "government's stash" of pot kept on the campus of the University of Mississippi, and now it turns out that if you lived in Gallatin County, Illinois, the person to see about buying an ounce of pot might have been your local sheriff.
Yep, according to the AP, federal authorities arrested Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin yesterday on a number of charges of distributing marijuana and carrying a firearm while trafficking drugs (the latter charge is just a tad ironic, assuming this was his service weapon).
However, the federal offense of carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime is actually a very serious offense which is commonly thrown into the mix in cases involving drug dealers. Lawmakers know well that the presence of guns at drug deals, houses, etc. is no surprise, and for this reason even just having one nearby can be enough to have these charges stick. That said, a police officer being in uniform with his service weapon, while also dealing drugs, does add a twist to the issue.
Still, if the allegations being tossed his way are true, Sheriff Raymond Martin's firearm might not have just happened to be innocently holstered, nor was he simply doing rounds and doling out pot on the side. Per the Evanville Courier & Press, a confidential informant for the DEA, who reportedly provided the basis for the allegations in the complaint, indicated the corrupt sheriff wanted to corner the local marijuana market:
"Martin then told the [informant] that there were other individuals selling marijuana in Gallatin county and that Martin was gonna try and put the fear of God in him and see if we can get them out of the business."
Then, after the informant told Sheriff Martin didn't want to take part in further activities:
So, in short, it might end up not being a stretch at all for a judge to find the roles of officer and dealer inseparable. As noted, the weapons charges really add weight to any potential prison time. According to a news release by the federal prosecutor's office in Southern Illinois, while the three drug charges might lead up to a maximum of 5 years each, it's the weapons charges with their hefty mandatory minimum sentences and maximum of life imprisonment that really could end up being the serious dose of justice for Sheriff Martin"...Martin withdrew his service revolver from its holster, pointed it towards the [informant], and told the [informant] that there was no 'getting out.'"
Another reference: thehuffingtonpost.com
ST. LOUIS — Sheriff Raymond M. Martin has been the law for nearly 20 years in a struggling southern Illinois county. But federal prosecutors say he's been breaking it lately by peddling pounds of pot, some seized by his own department, often in uniform and from his patrol vehicle.
Authorities on Monday led away a handcuffed Martin, 46, from his small Shawneetown office after his arrest on federal drug trafficking charges accusing him of supplying a dealer he threatened to kill when that man said he wanted out. The Gallatin County sheriff also allegedly pledged to use his authority to shut down rival drug traffickers.
"It's almost beyond belief," said Doug Maier, the sheriff in neighboring White County. Maier called Martin "a pretty low-key guy."
He continued, "Obviously, there was a different side that I've never observed."
Martin was jailed pending a Wednesday detention hearing on three counts of marijuana distribution and two counts of carrying a firearm, his service weapon, while trafficking drugs. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
A woman who answered his home telephone refused to comment, and Martin's court-appointed public defender did not immediately return messages.
Martin's job status was unclear Tuesday. Calls to Gallatin County Chairman Randy Drone rang unanswered, while calls to the sheriff's department rolled over to a neighboring dispatch center, which regularly answers calls when no deputies are in Martin's office. No one would say the exact size of Martin's department, other than to say it's small.
Martin's popularity in the county surrounding Shawneetown _ boasting little more than a courthouse, a couple of convenience stores and Rudy's barbecue restaurant _ swept the Democrat to re-election four times since he took office in 1990.
A criminal complaint accuses him of distributing more than two pounds of marijuana between April 27 and May 11. But an affidavit by Glenn Rountree, an investigator with the Drug Enforcement Administration, suggests Martin's dealings were many times that total.In a blow-by-blow account painting a picture of a good cop gone bad, Rountree wrote that Martin hatched a marijuana-dealing scheme in November with the drug dealer who later got cold feet.
At that time, Martin handed the dealer, unidentified in court papers, two pounds of pot and asked if the man could "get rid of that" for the sheriff, who promised he'd use his power to protect him if he ever got caught selling. If the dealer didn't comply, Rountree wrote, Martin said he could "make up" a crime against him.
From then until early last month, Martin brought 1- or 2-pound amounts of marijuana on average once every couple of weeks to a rural, secluded meeting spot, Rountree wrote. But the sheriff twice brought 10 pounds and brought 20 pounds another time, according to the affidavit.
The meetings between the two were arranged by cell phone, with the dealer using vague code words Martin supplied to confuse possible eavesdroppers, including investigators, Rountree wrote.
The dealer grew unsettled over time and wanted out, but Martin would have none of that, Rountree wrote. At least twice, the sheriff pulled his service revolver and insisted emphatically to the dealer that making him "disappear" would be "that easy," according to the affidavit.
Rountree suggested the twitchy dealer went to investigators April 9. Over the next several weeks, authorities taped the dealer's conversations with Martin and tracked the sheriff's county-issued Ford Expedition.
At least once, Rountree alleged, the sheriff gave the informant marijuana seeds, saying he could pare his debt to the sheriff by growing pot plants for him.
And the sheriff dispensed advice, cautioning the man that it'd be "silly" for the dealer to get drunk or use pills and "mess it up" because "we got a good thing going."
"(You) won't even have to work and stuff," Rountree said Martin once told the snitch.
Such profit could be particularly attractive in Gallatin County, where the population has slowly eroded in recent decades as many of the region's coal mines closed. Its 9 percent unemployment rate is typical in the region. The median household income, according to 2000 Census Bureau figures, is $26,118.
Martin's county salary was not immediately available, but he received his $6,500 annual stipend from the state this month.
The area received statewide attention in 2005, when a story by the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald noted that the tiny county with little violent crime was getting more homeland security funding per person _ more than $300,000 _ than any other in Illinois.
The article noted Martin spent "most days battling a thriving methamphetamine trade."
Allegations that Martin himself was dabbling in drugs left locals rattled, in many cases leaving them publicly reticent Tuesday. Still, many there remained in Martin's camp.
"I thought the world of that boy," said Roberta Tarrence, a 78-year-old widow with a quilting business near the county courthouse. "I've known him all of his life, and I know he was a good sheriff."
