TreeOfLiberty
Well-Known Member
Texas shot down a 2009 bill that would've allowed a medical necessity defense , but it was tried anyway before then with an Amarillo ,Texas man named Tim Stevens, a 53 yr old with HIV and chronic nausea/vomiting. This is from an 2008 article >
This week Tim Stevens, a 53-year-old Amarillo man who smokes marijuana to relieve the cyclical vomiting syndrome associated with HIV infection, used a necessity defense to win an acquittal on a possession charge. His attorney, Jeff Blackburn, says this appears to be the first time the defense, which argues that breaking the law was necessary to prevent a harm worse than the one the law is aimed at preventing, has been successful in a Texas marijuana case.
Stevens, whose vomiting has been so severe that he was hospitalized and received blood transfusions, was arrested last October after an anonymous tipster saw him sharing a joint on a friend's porch in Amarillo and called the police. He had about a twelfth of an ounce of marijuana, resulting in a Class B misdemeanor charge that carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. He probably could have gotten off with a fine or a year's probation, Blackburn says, "but he didn't want to; he wanted to take a stand." The trial lasted about 10 hours on Tuesday, and the jury came back after 11 minutes with a "not guilty" verdict.
Blackburn says the expert testimony of Steve Jenison, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Bureau in New Mexico's Department of Health, helped establish that marijuana is demonstrably effective at treating nausea and superior in some ways to the legal alternatives. (For one thing, unlike the synthetic THC capsule Marinol, it does not have to be swallowed and kept down, a feat for someone suffering from severe nausea.) Blackburn, who was not at all confident about the prospects for Stevens' unusual defense in a "very, very conservative area," also credits "a streak of independence" and a "distaste for government" that he says is common in West Texas. "I think these jurors like the idea that they get to make a decision about what the law means, about when it applies," he says, "and I don't think they were shy at all about deciding how valuable the law proscribing marijuana use really is."
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My opinion though, is most any jury in any state is going to have sympathy on any man or woman that's dying of a terminal disease like HIV/Cancer. That Texas jury that found him NOT GUILTY probably would've railroaded his ass had he just been a chronic back pain sufferer even if his spine would've had a thousand metal screws in it.
I never lived in Texas but I did live in Georgia for 33 years, and that place is super ass backwards and old fashioned, so bad that the Georgia legislature had "pot flavored" candy banned from selling in stores...now that is like reefer madness too the extreme when stores are banned from selling candy that's supposed to taste like pot because it has a wrapper called "Chronic Candy" and "Pot Suckers" with green leaf images on it.
I'd say Texas would have MMJ long before Georgia did. The way of life in southern states is just different, more people buy into the reefer madness propaganda in the southern states than any other region.Southern states have more bible thumpers too, and that mind set is like concrete. As a southerner myself, I know the way they think, they are extremely proud of tradition. They are proud and stubborn, even when they are wrong and even when they know it, they will often hold to their beliefs because of pride...you'll hear sayings like "that's the way daddy did it and his daddy before him, and that's the way I'm gonna do it". I believe the reefer madness propaganda stuck to the southern people stronger than it did to any other region in the U.S. and will continue on and on.
I'm not saying a southern toker shouldn't fight for MMJ or legalization , but the resistance to change is just insanely strong in the south, that's why I moved to Colorado.I left all my friends and family behind. I was hoping California would pass Prop 19 because it would've sped both MMJ and the legalization movement for the rest of the nation. Arizona just passed MMJ the other day, that's another step forward. Realistically, the southern states will be the last of the hanger-ons to the "old-days".
Look at these rulings on recent legislation in southern states>
Virginia- Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice on Jan. 13, 2010; Assigned to Courts of Justice Criminal Sub-Committee on Jan. 19, 2010; Subcommittee votes to table the bill, making it inactive (Jan. 27, 2010) DEAD
Tennessee -Introduced by Rep. Richardson on Jan. 13, 2010; Referred to Government Operations Committee on Jan. 27, 2010; Passed and referred to Health and Human Resources Committee on Mar. 17, 2010; Placed on committee calendar and action deferred five times; Placed on committee calendar on Apr. 21, 2010; Amended and passed the Health and Human Services Committee on Apr. 27, 2010; Passed the Finance, Ways & Means committee on May 19, 2010; Placed on calendar in Rules Committee but session ended without a vote, thus killing the bill (June 10, 2010) DEAD
North Carolina -Passed first reading in the House and referred to the Committee on Health on Apr. 13, 2009; Committee heard testimony from patients and medical professionals (June 18, 2009) - Still waiting , and the current Governor Beverly Purdue said she is very against it
Mississippi -Referred to Drug Policy Committee on Jan. 14, 2010; Died in committee (Feb. 2, 2010) DEAD
Alabama -Introduced by Rep. Todd and referred to the House of Representatives committee on Judiciary on Jan. 12, 2010; passed committee and sent to the full House on Apr. 7, 2010. Session adjourned with no vote, thus killing the legislation (Apr. 22, 2010) DEAD
This is why I left the south.They do not like progression. If they resist medical marijuana legislation like this, how much more will they even fight legalization for recreational use. I feel bad for southern tokers.
The brainwashed bible thumpers just have too strong of an influence in politics in the southern states against MMJ and legalization.
This week Tim Stevens, a 53-year-old Amarillo man who smokes marijuana to relieve the cyclical vomiting syndrome associated with HIV infection, used a necessity defense to win an acquittal on a possession charge. His attorney, Jeff Blackburn, says this appears to be the first time the defense, which argues that breaking the law was necessary to prevent a harm worse than the one the law is aimed at preventing, has been successful in a Texas marijuana case.
Stevens, whose vomiting has been so severe that he was hospitalized and received blood transfusions, was arrested last October after an anonymous tipster saw him sharing a joint on a friend's porch in Amarillo and called the police. He had about a twelfth of an ounce of marijuana, resulting in a Class B misdemeanor charge that carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. He probably could have gotten off with a fine or a year's probation, Blackburn says, "but he didn't want to; he wanted to take a stand." The trial lasted about 10 hours on Tuesday, and the jury came back after 11 minutes with a "not guilty" verdict.
Blackburn says the expert testimony of Steve Jenison, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Bureau in New Mexico's Department of Health, helped establish that marijuana is demonstrably effective at treating nausea and superior in some ways to the legal alternatives. (For one thing, unlike the synthetic THC capsule Marinol, it does not have to be swallowed and kept down, a feat for someone suffering from severe nausea.) Blackburn, who was not at all confident about the prospects for Stevens' unusual defense in a "very, very conservative area," also credits "a streak of independence" and a "distaste for government" that he says is common in West Texas. "I think these jurors like the idea that they get to make a decision about what the law means, about when it applies," he says, "and I don't think they were shy at all about deciding how valuable the law proscribing marijuana use really is."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My opinion though, is most any jury in any state is going to have sympathy on any man or woman that's dying of a terminal disease like HIV/Cancer. That Texas jury that found him NOT GUILTY probably would've railroaded his ass had he just been a chronic back pain sufferer even if his spine would've had a thousand metal screws in it.
I never lived in Texas but I did live in Georgia for 33 years, and that place is super ass backwards and old fashioned, so bad that the Georgia legislature had "pot flavored" candy banned from selling in stores...now that is like reefer madness too the extreme when stores are banned from selling candy that's supposed to taste like pot because it has a wrapper called "Chronic Candy" and "Pot Suckers" with green leaf images on it.
I'd say Texas would have MMJ long before Georgia did. The way of life in southern states is just different, more people buy into the reefer madness propaganda in the southern states than any other region.Southern states have more bible thumpers too, and that mind set is like concrete. As a southerner myself, I know the way they think, they are extremely proud of tradition. They are proud and stubborn, even when they are wrong and even when they know it, they will often hold to their beliefs because of pride...you'll hear sayings like "that's the way daddy did it and his daddy before him, and that's the way I'm gonna do it". I believe the reefer madness propaganda stuck to the southern people stronger than it did to any other region in the U.S. and will continue on and on.
I'm not saying a southern toker shouldn't fight for MMJ or legalization , but the resistance to change is just insanely strong in the south, that's why I moved to Colorado.I left all my friends and family behind. I was hoping California would pass Prop 19 because it would've sped both MMJ and the legalization movement for the rest of the nation. Arizona just passed MMJ the other day, that's another step forward. Realistically, the southern states will be the last of the hanger-ons to the "old-days".
Look at these rulings on recent legislation in southern states>
Virginia- Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice on Jan. 13, 2010; Assigned to Courts of Justice Criminal Sub-Committee on Jan. 19, 2010; Subcommittee votes to table the bill, making it inactive (Jan. 27, 2010) DEAD
Tennessee -Introduced by Rep. Richardson on Jan. 13, 2010; Referred to Government Operations Committee on Jan. 27, 2010; Passed and referred to Health and Human Resources Committee on Mar. 17, 2010; Placed on committee calendar and action deferred five times; Placed on committee calendar on Apr. 21, 2010; Amended and passed the Health and Human Services Committee on Apr. 27, 2010; Passed the Finance, Ways & Means committee on May 19, 2010; Placed on calendar in Rules Committee but session ended without a vote, thus killing the bill (June 10, 2010) DEAD
North Carolina -Passed first reading in the House and referred to the Committee on Health on Apr. 13, 2009; Committee heard testimony from patients and medical professionals (June 18, 2009) - Still waiting , and the current Governor Beverly Purdue said she is very against it
Mississippi -Referred to Drug Policy Committee on Jan. 14, 2010; Died in committee (Feb. 2, 2010) DEAD
Alabama -Introduced by Rep. Todd and referred to the House of Representatives committee on Judiciary on Jan. 12, 2010; passed committee and sent to the full House on Apr. 7, 2010. Session adjourned with no vote, thus killing the legislation (Apr. 22, 2010) DEAD
This is why I left the south.They do not like progression. If they resist medical marijuana legislation like this, how much more will they even fight legalization for recreational use. I feel bad for southern tokers.
The brainwashed bible thumpers just have too strong of an influence in politics in the southern states against MMJ and legalization.
