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News :: Elections & Legislation |
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Tell Naomi What To Do |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sandra Ahten
Email: spiritofsandra (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!)
Phone: 217-367-6345 |
14 Mar 2005
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State Representative Naomi Jakobsson will be hosting a town hall meeting in Urbana this month on Wednesday, March 30 from 6:30-7:30 pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers.
There are at least two bills that Jakobsoon could affect that citizens might want to educate themselves on and be prepared to educate Rep. Jakobsson. First is a bill that mandates DNA sampling for anyone arrested (not convicted) of a felony. The second is Medical Marijuana legislation. |
HB 0779
Provides that every person arrested for committing a felony shall have a sample of his or her saliva or tissue taken for DNA fingerprinting analysis, at the time of booking, for the purpose of determining identity and for certain other specified purposes. Note, that this is for being arrested of a felony – not convicted of it. Members of watchdog groups say that this is basically illegal search and seizure and others worry that the state will not be able to afford the expensive procedures and so will determine who has their DNA sampled – leaving room for racial profiling. And really is it how we want to spend our money?
You can read about the DNA legislation here:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=0779&GAID=8&GA=94&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=15330&SessionID=50
HB 0407
Another bill that Naomi Jakobsson can influence is the Medical Cannibas Act. This bill is currently in committee of the Human Services Committee and Representative Jakkobson is on that committee.
Provides that a person who has been diagnosed by a physician as having a debilitating medical condition and the person's primary caregiver may be issued a registry identification card by the Department of Human Services that permits the person or the person's primary caregiver to legally possess no more than 12 cannabis plants and two and one-half ounces of usable cannabis. Ms. Jakobsson opposed this bill in the recent past.
You can read some controversy about this bill at http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/375/fornow.shtml
You can read the official bill at
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=407&GAID=8&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=14741&SessionID=50&GA=94
Rep. Jakobsson’s phone number is 373-5000. Her email address is njakobsson (at) worldnet.att.net. |
Related stories on this site:
No Money for College for Pot Smokers
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This work is in the public domain |
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This Just In |
by Sandra Ahten
spiritofsandra (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
14 Mar 2005
|
Per Danielle of Illinois NORML
The Medical Cannabis Act is dead until we can re-introduce it next session,
because Naomi had a second chance to vote for it and it lost by ONE vote. She
could have made all the difference. So if people contact her about it it
should be to express their disappointment in her. Depending on how individuals
feel, they can contact to let her know they will not vote for her is 2006
because she does not make honest decisions and because she is voting how the
feds want her to vote instead of how her constituency has demanded she vote.
Indeed, people can be contacting her about HB779, which would require police to
collect DNA from everyone arrested (not charged!) for a felony. Although we
are not sure when this will come up for vote on the floor, it is important to
begin showing our outrage about this bill NOW. |
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What Naomi says regarding Medical Marijuana |
by Sandra
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
14 Mar 2005
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I received this in the mail from Naomi just today.
Thank you for contacting me to share your perspective on HB 407, the medical marijuana bill that as presented in the Human Services Committee. As yo may know, I voted against this bill in its current form.
Although I understand the arguments that have been made in favor of allowing medicinal marijuana, I opposed this legislation because of several issues I have with the bill. HB 407 would allow a person to possess up to 60 plants of cannabis. An important point to keep in mind is that home grown marijuana can be much more potent that the research grade cannabis used for the Compassionate Use Program. Another consideration is that there are a variety of existing, scintifically proven options available to people in need of pain relief. Among these is the FDA-approved medicine Marinol. The only property that Marinol lacks is the capacity to create a "high."
Contrary to what some have claimed, neither the American Medical Association, nor the New England Journal of Medicine have endorsed marijuana as a medicine. Further, marijuana does not meet any of the criteria established to assure the efficacy and safety of a drug.
Thank you again for contacting me regarding this important issue. I appreciate your sharing your views on theis and if the bill is heard again in the House Human Serivces Committee, I will keep your thoughts in mind. Please do not hesitate to contact me anytime about this or any other state issue.
Sincerely,
Maomi D. Jakobsson
State Representative
103rd Illinois House District |
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What a BS Form Letter: Naomi, You're the One Out of Touch with Reality |
by Dose of Reality
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Mar 2005
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Naomi seems to have her lips so firmly planted on the asses of the drug warriors that she can neither think for herself nor hear the voices of her constituents.
As for the 60 plants limitation, sure, that would be a small bonanza if you were growing it outdoors -- but only for the neighborhood kids, who would promptly steal your medicine.
Most likely, people in these circumstacnes would grow indoors. As anyone who has some old hippie friends can tell you, 60 little plants indoors is simply not the threat to the future of civilization as we know it as she makes it out to be.
First of all, unless one is using some pretty sophisticated techniques to grow with -- like taking cuttings and nurturing them from a female "mother plant" -- half of everything you plant from seeds is going to come up male -- and you'll just have to throw it away. Sure, the cops will claim the male plants count just as much as far as the legal process goes, but anyone can tell you they'll be worthless for medicine. So do you take the risk if you're a sick person of starting 120 plants, pulling the males and hoping you don't get busted before you do? Naomi is afraid you will and have too much medicine.
What is more, small, indoor plants don't yield much. A person would be lucky to end up with enough to meet their medical needs until the next crop comes in with only 60 (or more realistically 30) plants. Besides, what's the big deal about the very modest quantity of marijuana produced even with 60 plants, indoor or outdoor? Try as they might, the drug warriors can't prevent the average junior high student from copping any quantity they need on the street. The whole idea about this bill is compassionate use by sick people, which is what she is really preventing by voting against it. She sure as hell is not protecting even _one_ kid from the claimed evils of pot.
As for homegrown pot being stronger than the marginal medicinal stuff that the government hands out to less than a dozen needful citizens in the whole country, it's about time sick people got some real relief. I have personally talked to one of them and she said she prefers street reefer to the free government grass she is authorized to use. The problem for her was cost. She really can't afford it, plus she would be taking the risk of getting busted copping her medicine on the street. Naomi is full of it if she thinks that her opposition is going to keep _anyone_ from getting reefer. What her support of the stupidity of the drug war does is to keep putting sick people in prison. She should be ashamed of herself.
Besides, weed never killed anyone. Look it up. Alcohol, tabacco, aspirin and many other legal and illegal drugs can easily kill you if you're not careful through overdose. It is _impossible_ to kill yourself by overdosing on weed. No matter what potency it is, it is the safest drug on the market, even if Naomi thinks she can limit it to the blackmarket.
If she's really worried about crime and reefer, take it off the blackmarket by making it legal.
Her suggestion that tehir are artifical substitues for the effectiveness of reefer is just more smoke and mirrors. Many people can't stand marinol, because it is so overpoweringly strong. Smoking reefer allows the user to get just enough, without leaving the user dizzy headed like marinol users frequently report. Besides, god wouldn't have planted it in the first place if he didn't intend for this natural product to be useful to human kind.
Finally, if she persists in her delusional embrace of what the DEA has whispered in her ear, then I'd say this is a perfect opportunity for the Greens to run a strong campaign against her. Sure, they might not win this time, but I'll bet that they can keep her from returning to Springfield to do more damage to the interests of her constituents. |
