By Pat and Lynn Kempen

Words have meaning, and words we consider placing into our very Constitution must be particularly scrutinized and considered.  The Constitution is a document intended to protect the rights of citizens, and to establish limitations on government’s reach.
Prohibitionist profiteers would make New Approach Missouri’s (NAM’s) Toxic “Medical Marijuana” Proposal their cash cow, but how would NAM’s measure apply to most Missourians?
Under NAM’s measure, few Missourians would be able to afford to enter Missouri’s new elite “Medical Marijuana” industry.  Per NAM’s proposed measure, the Dept. of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) would be granted total authority to subjectively refuse or grant facility licenses to enter the restricted “medical marijuana” industry.

All Medical Marijuana Facility license applicants begin by paying a $3,000 non-refundable application fee (new non-refundable application fee required every 3 years.)  If fortunate enough to then be granted a license, one then must additionally pay:
$20,000/year for a Cultivation Facility licensing fee;
$10,000/year for a Dispensary Facility licensing fee;
or $10,000/year for an Infused Product Manufacturing Facility licensing fee;
in addition to whatever other limitless fees and requirements DHSS imposes.
Sections 3.(7), (8) and (9) and Sections 3.(1),(2) and (3)

Such fees, and the subjective granting of Facility licenses, would prohibit average Missourians from attempting to enter the new, profitable, “Medical Marijuana” industry.  Of course the price of all NAM’s proposed Big Government “seed to sale” micromanagement of Medical Marijuana will ultimately be paid by the sick and dying patients in need of this non-toxic plant.
Section 3.(7) thru (9), and the rest of the initiative.

The retail price of Medical Marijuana paid by qualifying patients would be without limit.  Additionally, NAM’s proposal protects insurance companies from having to cover Medical Marijuana for qualifying patients.
Section 7.(15)

NAM’s proposed measure grants almost god-like authority to DHSS to create virtually limitless new rules, regulations, requirements, fees with regard to “Medical Marijuana” in Missouri, and limitless penalties for any infraction thereof.
Section 3.(1),(2),and (3)

NAM’s measure permits no elected officials (Sheriff, Circuit Judge, MO Governor, or US President) to “interfere” in ANY way, “directly or indirectly” with DHSS’s authority regarding regulations and penalties DHSS cares to impose for any infraction of their virtually limitless “Medical Marijuana” rules.  While NAM is pitching this proposed measure as if it protects the patients, it really protects and empowers DHSS, and keeps attorneys in business.  NAM’s measure is largely focused on LIMITING citizens’ rights which is antithetical to the very purpose of our Constitution.
Section 3.(22) and 7.(6.)

Qualifying Medical Marijuana patients could say bye-bye to their 2nd Amendment rights under NAM’s “medical marijuana” proposal.  NAM’s proposal does not repudiate federal prohibition, even acknowledges supremacy of Federal law, and declares “Any information released related to patients may be used for purposes authorized by federal law.”       Section 3.(4)

“Medical Marijuana” cards and databases of patient information could be used by the Bureaus of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
DOJ & ATF have already declared “there are no exceptions in Federal law for marijuana purportedly used for medicinal purposes, even if such use is sanctioned by State law.”  Medical Marijuana qualified patients will be prohibited from legally possessing firearms or ammunition.
Open Letter from DOJ to all Federal Firearms Licensees 

Nothing in NAM’s measure curtails Missouri state funds or Missouri law enforcement personnel from assisting in enforcing federal prohibitions; in fact, their proposed measure acknowledges and concedes to supremacy of federal law (Section 7.(13)), as well as that “any court of competent jurisdiction” can adjudge any section or application of this measure to be entirely invalid; potentially voiding their initiative entirely.
Section 8.

Any appeal or denial of license or medical card would be subject to “judicial review as provided by law” of which federal law still prohibits.  Additionally, DHSS would be Constitutionally protected from any elected judge’s rulings, per the wording of NAM’s Constitutional Amendment.
Section 3.(21)

NAM’s proposal does not permit any eligible patient to “operate, navigate, or be in actual physical control of any dangerous device or motor vehicle, aircraft, or motorboat while ‘under the influence of marijuana;’” NOTE: “under the influence” remains undefined, thus ANY eligible patient, who has simply consumed their “Medical Marijuana” in the last month or week, may be prosecuted and convicted for operating “under the influence” per what NAM wants to put in the Missouri Constitution.
Section 7.(1)(c)

NAM’s proposal would not permit a qualifying “Medical Marijuana” patient to file a lawsuit against any employer for discrimination or wrongful termination.  Merely being an approved “Medical Marijuana” patient may be just cause for termination without recourse. They want to put that into the Missouri Constitution.
Section 7.(1)(d)

If an “eligible patient” consumes their “Medical Marijuana” in a public place, sanctions would be provided by current “general law.”  The term “consume” is undefined.  General law still considers considers cannabis possession to be criminal activity (certainly defiant to federal law), so NAM’s proposal puts into the Constitution that such prohibitions still apply.  Nothing in this measure stops Missouri law enforcement from enforcing federal prohibition. 
Section 7.(8)
For an eligible patient to grow their own cannabis for their own medical needs, they must:
1. Be certified by a physician to do so (doctor office visit, with physician willing to prescribe.)
2. Pay for a $25/annual ID card
3. Pay the $100/year annual personal cultivation license fee.
4. Have an enclosed, locked facility equipped with whatever security devices DHSS decides to require.
5. Pay whatever other fees DHSS comes up with, which may be limitless
6. Purchase up to 6 already “flowering” plants from a Medical Marijuana Dispensary Facility ($$$).
Yet that “eligible patient”, after paying their personal cultivation extra annual licensing fee, and meeting all those requirements will be Constitutionally prohibited from extracting the healing resins for themselves unless they pay the dispensary license ($3,000 additional non-refundable application fee to be submitted every 3 years, plus $10,000/year licensing fee)

Any infraction of patient cultivation requirements is subject to limitless penalties.
It will be cost-prohibitive for most cancer patients to “grow their own” medication, as they are prohibited from cultivating sufficient quantities, as well as prohibited from legally extracting the healing oils or resins for themselves.  The people this “up to 6 plants” limitation benefit, are those who simply want to smoke it.

Section 7.(13) of NAM’s proposal is particularly nefarious, proposing to Constitutionally protect Big Pharma by requiring that at least 75% of all physician prescriptions be for pharmaceutical medications other than cannabis……….This^ does NOT belong in our Constitution!!!

Section 7(15) of NAM’s proposal Constitutionally protects insurance companies from having to cover “Medical Marijuana”

Section 7(16) of NAM’s proposal purports that any violation of DHSS’s limitless rules they can enact with regard to “Medical Marijuana” may be subject to asset forfeiture.

Section 8. Of NAM’s proposal suggests any part or all of their measure can be “adjudged invalid by ANY court of competent jurisdiction,” which potentially and readily negates the entire measure, as any federal court will adjudicate that “marijuana” remains a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance, and is federally prohibited.

If you care to examine a more detailed critique of New Approach Missouri’s Measure, please examine Toxic Proposals: 
https://patinthehat00.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/missouri-petition-analysis-2016/

Please, join the movement.
It’s time to bring the discussion to our families, friends, businesses, churches, and communities, and return this plant to We-the-People.

Read original story here. https://patinthehat00.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/concerns/