Vermont's New Medical Marijuana Amendment, S.7, violates Americans with Disabilites Act !

The State Legislative body of Vermont, the "General Assembly", Senate Committee on Judiciary, submitted a new amendment to Vermont's existing MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW.

The new amendment appears to allegedly violate the Americans with
Disabilities Act, and also President George W. Bush's Executive Order No. 13217, which addresses another part of the Americans with Disabilities Act but which is applicable here in that Mr. President writes:

"States must avoid disability-based discrimination unless doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of the service, program, or activity provided by the State."

How does the current Vermont medical marijuana law and also the new amendment, S.7, violate the ADA, the Americans with Disabilites Act?

The Vermont medical marijuana law discriminates against disabled persons with pain because it does not allow all disabled persons with pain to use medical marijuana,
it only allows SOME disabled persons with pain to use medical marijuana.

For the law to be fair,
all disabled persons with pain should be allowed to use marijuana as an alternative pain medication.

To see the new Vermont amendment to the existing Vermont medical marijuana law, S. 7, go to

http://www.leg.state.vt.us

and scroll down to
Text of Bills and Other Legislative Documents.
Click on: Read a Specific House or Senate Bill,
click to go to

http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/billtext.cfm

and enter
Bill Number: s.7
and click Display Status,
see S.0007
Medical Marijuana
and click:
Bill as introduced.

The persons working on this bill also include House member
David Zuckerman
dzuckerman [at] leg.state.vt.us
and
Vermont Norml
hardy [at] vtnorml.org
Zane Hurst, zane [at] mpp.org
state [at] mpp.org
and
Senator Richard Sears, rsears [at] leg.state.vt.us
Senator John Campbell, jcampbell [at] leg.state.vt.us
Senator Ed Flanagan, eflanagan [at] leg.state.vt.us
Senator Jeanette White, jwhite [at] leg.state.vt.us

Please see how this violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by
reading the ADA:

http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml

in the Title write
42
in the Section write
12131
and click and then click the blue line for the law and read
Title 42 United States Code, Chapter 126, Section 12131
Subchapter II, Part A

Prohibition against discrimination

(1) the term "public entity" means
(A) any state or local government;
(B) any department, agency, special purpose district, or other
instrumentality of a State or States or local government;
(2) Qualified individual with a disability means an individual with a
disability who, with or without reasonable modifications to rules,
policies, or practices, the removal of
architectural, communication, or transportation barriers,
or the provision of auxiliary aids and services,
meets the essential eligibility requirements for the receipt of
services or the participation in programs or activities
provided by a public entity.

Let's look at the details here:

"reasonable modifications to rules, policies, or practices"

SHOULD INCLUDE ALLOWING ALL DISABLED PERSONS WITH PAIN
TO USE MEDICAL MARIJUANA,
NOT JUST A FEW OF THEM,
ONLY ALLOWING A FEW OF THEM,
AND DISCRIMINATING BY THE NAME OF THE DISEASE,
RATHER THAN THE AMOUNT OF PAIN,
IS WRONGFUL DISCRIMINATION.

Let's look at more details:

"meets the essential eligibility requirements"

SHOULD BE DEFINED BY A COURT AS PERSONS WHO ARE DISABLED AND SUFFER PAIN,
SO THAT ALL DISABLED PERSONS SUFFERING PAIN
SHOULD BE LEGALLY DEFINED AS MEETING THE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.

Title 42, Section 12132
Discrimination
Subject to the provisions of this subchapter, no qualified individual
with a disability shall, by reason of such disability,
be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits
of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity,
or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.

The Vermont medical marijuana program is a PROGRAM run by the
Department of Public Safety, the state police, who do not have licenses to practice medicine and who do not have federal prescription licenses.

The amendment, S.7, proposes turning the PROGRAM over to the Department of Health.
Either way, it is still a PROGRAM, and all disabled persons in pain should be given equal access to the State program, regardless of which department runs the program.

Title 42, Section 12202
State immunity
A State shall not be immune under the eleventh amendment to the Constitution of the United States from an action in Federal or State court of competent jurisdiction for a violation of this chapter,
Chapter 126,
Equal Opportunity for individuals with Disabilities.

The minute that Medical Marijuana is legal under federal law,
then
all disabled persons may file a huge multi district litigation class action law suit
to receive equal treatment under the law
under their state medical marijuana programs
so that all disabled persons in pain may use medical marijuana,
rather than just some of them.

Disabled persons should not be discriminated against by the name of their disease or condition.

It is the symptoms that count and if the symptoms are pain, then all disabled persons in pain should be allowed to use medical marijuana.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency apparently claims that marijuana is a narcotic.

All narcotics ease pain.

Title 42, Chapter 126, Subchapter IV, Section 12210,
Illegal use of drugs

(a) the term "individual with a disability" does not include an individual who is currently engaging in the illegal use of drugs,
when the covered entity acts on the basis of such use.

21 U.S.C. Section 801 etc., Federal Controlled Substances Act
defines illegal drugs, marijuana is an illegal drug under federal law.

but 42 U.S.C. Section 12210 goes on to say,

(d) "illegal use of drug"
defined:
(1) such term does not include the use of a drug taken under
supervision by a licensed health care professional.

It is time to amend federal law and allow doctors to prescribe marijuana because it is allegedly a narcotic and the definition of a narcotic is that it eases pain.


Author: Cris Ericson http://crisericson.com