Medical Marijuana

It seems unbelievable, but medical marijuana might soon be making its way towards the capital of the USA, although it's been repeatedly rejected by Congress throughout the years of research. Hopefully, soon medical marijuana doctors will celebrate the victory of their efforts as well as will people, whose only hope is marijuana treatment. Back in 1998, Washington electors placed themselves next to the leading edge of the initiating movement of marijuana, when they polled about 3-7 for physician prescribed drug, which is now known as the medicine obtaining via a medical marijuana card. This was a much larger number of people than in any of the other 8 statewide vote initiatives, which have been maintained throughout the country. But no festive smoking have then followed, at least not yet. In place, ballot workers expended that vote night disguising the voting results, in protection from a last-minute amendment of the congress drawing assets from Washington, D.C.

By the way, the election bulletins were printed before the prohibition, but it was decided by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics that to pursue the purpose of the law, the results must be kept back after the votes are figured. However, 12 years later the political scenery seems to be significantly different. Bob Barr, the sponsor of the '98 congressional prohibition has gone the entire way from a drug hunter to a libertarian, a foremost fighter for marijuana legalization. He even wrote a law-lobbying once. California did it first. There are some more states moving in this direction. In December 2009, the Barr Amendment was silently lifted by the Congress, which was already dominated by Democrats. This gave Washington an opportunity to activate its old drug law. Several weeks later, David Catania, a member of city council, moved to introduce a bill that would enact Initiative 59, and had 9 of 13 council members supporting it. He states that it is his concern, since the evidence he saw proves a powerful medical preference of marijuana, which can improve appetite and lessen pains.

With this issue going to a federal level, marijuana doctors and medical marijuana clinic workers will soon breathe a sigh of relief. Catania also believes that such a system could make 5-10 non-profit medical marijuana clinics around the city, which would at least need to be 1,000 ft. Los Angeles has had hundreds of marijuana clinics, which were privately owned and had a 500 foot rule for years. But the L.A. city council enacted an amended drug law several hours after Washington, D.C. The D.C. city council spokesman states that the bill is probable to get approved by the Congress by the summer's end. Multiple researches have found medical marijuana to be efficient in curing nausea, improving appetite in cancer and AIDS patients and acting as a pain reliever, alongside with other effects. The AMA - American Medical Association - initiates for continuous well-managed and adequate researches of marijuana and associated cannabinoids in patients in its policy statement, which takes a thorough stance on the matter. Certain Initiative 59 leading activists are same as contradictory, even though they've almost achieved some kind of light at the tunnel's end. The electoral bloc of recreational marijuana smokers is probable to be even less interested, in case Catania does what he's intended to do.

The fundamental issue had to do with weekly caps on benefits which have been in place for many years, without adjustment for inflation. The trial judge magnanimously stayed his order to allow the state legislature to change the law regarding benefit caps. That was later extended to a longer stay. The Alabama workers' compensation community is thus only now contemplating how to write a whole new statute. All the issues and ideas are on the table there for discussion. Utah's Supreme Court struck administrative limitations on attorney fees recently. Injured Workers’ Association of Utah v. State (UT May 2016), the Court concluded that such limitations violated Separation of Powers. The Court concluded that only the court could regulate the reasonableness of attorney fees in Utah. A similar outcome to the Miles and Castellanos decisions, but reached through a different route. Kentucky has been harder to understand. Beyond imaginative, that state's Supreme Court has recently been willing to abandon previous analysis and decisions.

This was seen in Livingood v. Transfreight and Consol of Kentucky v. Goodgame. There are those who see these cases as adjustments to existing law, and others who see broad and inexplicable departures. In Parker v. Webster County Coal, the Court found constitutional infirmity in a theory not even advanced by the parties. The parties likely did not challenge based on equal protection as the Court had previously explicitly rejected that argument. There are those who feel nothing changed in the interim other than the personalities on the Court. The decisional challenge is not so much in the courts interpreting the law. The challenge is in the courts refusing to remain true to the rules of construction, the rules of interpretation, the rules of judicial restraint, and the courts' own previous decisions. Stare decisis is struggling in American workers' compensation. That is aggravated by a tendency of various courts to preclude the application of stare decisis - either not "publishing" decisions or restricting their applicability. That is not to say these are the only challenges, there are regulatory issues as well.