IMMLY PRESS RELEASE: Michigan vote puts legal medical marijuana on Wisconsin's doorstep
For immediate release
Thursday, November 6, 2008
MICHIGAN
VOTE PUTS LEGAL MEDICAL MARIJUANA ON WISCONSIN'S DOORSTEP
Tuesday, voters in the
state of Michigan overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, making Michigan
the 13th U.S. state to protect patients using medical
marijuana from arrest and jail. In the process, Michigan voters saw
through the lies and fear mongering of the opposition, including
federal, state and local officials, and instead chose compassion and
scientific fact.
IMMLY salutes Michigan
voters for their compassionate decision. We believe that if the
Wisconsin Constitution allowed citizens to place initiatives on our
ballot, like Michigan and some other states, medical marijuana would
easily pass in Wisconsin. Polling has established strong popular support
for medical cannabis in Wisconsin, and without an initiative process,
state residents must depend on state lawmakers to reflect that public
support.
The American Nurses
Association, Wisconsin Nurses Association, the American and Wisconsin
Public Health Associations, American College of Physicians, the Leukemia
and Lymphoma Society, the American Academy of HIV Medicine and many
other professional health care organizations have endorsed therapeutic
cannabis.
Despite popular
support, state medical cannabis legislation has failed to progress out
of committee because of purely political reasons. Residents of the 13
states where medical cannabis is now legal are not unlike those of
Wisconsin, and we call on the new Wisconsin Legislature to act quickly
to protect patients with compassionate legislation like that passed by
Michigan, when lawmakers convene the new session in January 2009.
Is My Medicine Legal
YET? is a Mondovi and Madison Wisconsin based grass roots patient and
caregiver organization dedicated to advancing public education about the
medicinal benefits of cannabis. For further information contact Jacki
Rickert at 715.926.4950 or Gary Storck at 608.241.8922 or visit the
IMMLY website at www.immly.org.
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