Ask Me Help Desk - Medical Marijuana

Medical Marijuana

Hello:

My state has been wrestling with our medical marijuana law... The cops don't want to lose their ability to bust people, and the people don't want to be busted... So, they came up with a medical marijuana registry. If you voluntarily sign the registry, you will be protected from arrest. But, if you don't, your little pot smoking a$$ can be thrown in the clink..

In my view, this requirement is sooooo illegal on sooooo many levels... First off, it violates medical privacy, and second off it violates ones right against self incrimination... I'm sure there's a third, a fourth, and even a fifth, but I'll leave it to you to bring 'em up.

In my world, you can be arrested for committing a crime - NOT for refusing to sign a document...

excon

Ex are the prisons in your state privately owned or are does the state run them? I'm thinking they are privately owned don't want to lose out on that easy money busting peaceful smokers.

Hello spit:

They're public, so I don't think that is the reason... But, I can't see this registry satisfying anything..

excon

I asked that cause in PA we have a few privately owned centers where judges were being paid off to send every kid to a juvenile detention center that went in front of them. But I don't see the point of the list. Do you have to sign the list if you are prescribed Percocet or Oxycontin aka the rich man's heroin?

Are there any other registers people have to sign if they are on a certain type of medication or is this the first?

Quote:

Originally Posted by albear

Are there any other registers people have to sign if they are on a certain type of medication or is this the first?

This would be the first.

Presumably there are other medications that would be illegal to own if they had not been prescribed?

In which case wouldn't it be a better procedure to have the person caught with MJ prove it was prescribed to them for medicinal purposes by showing their prescription, instead of being on some register somewhere?

Hello again:

If signing this registry means that you AREN'T breaking the law when you smoke pot (I mean take your medicine), would it also mean that by NOT signing it, when you take your medicine, even if you LEGALLY take it, that it's NOT really legal?

I'm confused about that.

Plus, wouldn't the act of signing the registry BE the crime of conspiracy? After all, you ARE admitting that you fully intend to engage in criminal activity. And, the overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy (which is a required element of the crime) would the actual SIGNING of the registry??

I'm even more confused about that.

excon

Quote:

Originally Posted by excon

Hello again:

If signing this registry means that you AREN'T breaking the law when you smoke pot (I mean take your medicine), would it also mean that by NOT signing it, when you take your medicine, even if you LEGALLY take it, that it's NOT really legal?

I'm confused about that.

Plus, wouldn't the act of signing the registry BE the crime of conspiracy? After all, you ARE admitting that you fully intend to engage in criminal activity. And, the overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy (which is a required element of the crime) would the actual SIGNING of the registry???

I'm even more confused about that.

excon

1st question: that's what I understood from this "My state has been wrestling with our medical marijuana law... The cops don't want to lose their ability to bust people, and the people don't want to be busted... So, they came up with a medical marijuana registry. If you voluntarily sign the registry, you will be protected from arrest. But, if you don't, your little pot smoking a$$ can be thrown in the clink.."

Im thinking that it will not be illegal if you can prove it, but they won't make it easy for you too prove, i.e they will arrest you until you can phone your GP surgery to get confirmation they prescribed it, because prescriptions can be faked.

2nd question: I don't think so, because as you mentioned "My state has been wrestling with our medical marijuana law... The cops don't want to lose their ability to bust people, and the people don't want to be busted... So, they came up with a medical marijuana registry. If you voluntarily sign the registry, you will be protected from arrest. But, if you don't, your little pot smoking a$$ can be thrown in the clink.."

so if you sign it and get caught = free pass,

Hello albear:

That's good thinking... For ANY prescription, if asked by the cops, in order to avoid arrest, you'd have to produce your prescription anyway. This registry is just producing it in advance.

Of course, a law that only made medical marijuana patients do this, and not Oxycontin patients wouldn't stand up to Constitutional muster for that reason alone.

excon