Letter to Ike Skelton on Fed law prohibiting drug felons, food stamps

[usregimechange]

I am a Provisionally Licensed Clinical Social Worker in your district and am asking for your advice and/or assistance on a number of cases I am working on. Individuals who are dually diagnosed and who enter treatment often need to attend 5 days a week and during this process some struggle to obtain the food they need to survive. Some of my patients do not qualify for food stamps because of a provision added to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 that prohibits individuals with drug felonies from obtaining such assistance.

I would like to propose the following policy recommendations:

1). Change federal law to allow individuals with substance abuse violations who enter treatment to obtain an exemption from the normal prohibition regarding food assistance. Such an exemption could be tied to the participant’s attendance in treatment.

2). Defend this proposal by pointing out that it is advisable to be both tough and smart on crime. Defend this law by pointing out that individuals who are convicted of child molestation, murder, and terrorism are not prohibited from obtaining food stamps. Defend it by noting the importance of not placing barriers in the path of change and public health.

Please, feel free to contact me to discuss this further. I will follow up this letter with a phone call.

Thank you,



Add your name to this and send to your representative. Kick if you agree.

[Matsubara]

1. I agree, except I don't think they should necessarily have to go into treatment

Doesn't posession of the harmless weed marijuana cause felony conviction in some cases? How absurd to ban people for assistance for having it.

I suppose treatment would make sense for the actual addictive hard drugs...

But these people are dead broke - who will pay for treatment?

[usregimechange]

2. Often Medicaid will pay, although it does so less now esp in MO

[usregimechange]

3. And weed is not "harmless"

see here: http://amenclinics.com/bp/atlas/ch15.php
and

http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNvol21N1/Marijuana.html

[Matsubara]

4. Millions and millions of people disagree with you on that.

I say that as a person who has only used it a half dozen times.

It is no more a hard drug than beer, and causes less damage to society than alcohol, by far.

[usregimechange]

5. You say "less damage" right after saying "harmless"

How does that happen?

[azurnoir]

14. You are twisting what he said

which was less damage to society not to the individuals that use it, the damage to society is caused by drug laws.

[independentpiney]

6. You have to be kidding

Compare it to alcohol, tobacco,acetiminophen and any other number of unregulated or lightly regulated drugs, then tell me how harmful it is.And compared to the prescription ms drugs i either tried or had pushed on me, it's both more effective and has much less nasty potential side effects.

[usregimechange]

7. which is to say it is not "harmless"

I don't think Powel was as bad for the country as Cheney has been but I am not sure that makes his leadership agreeable.

[independentpiney]

10. what a crap analogy

with the criteria you're using, water is a 'harmful' substance.

[usregimechange]

11. I am saying that because something is less harmful than ___ illegal

drug, doesn't mean it is good for you. And our bodies can not survive without water, as far as I know our bodies would do fine without x number of chemicals in marijuana.

[askeptic]

8. Not Harmless? How many lives are ruined by the WAR on Drugs?

The most damaging thing about drugs is the damage our country does to people's lives by locking them up, prosecuting them, drug raids, creating a culture just like the 20's that creates a whole criminal culture and the law enforcement agencies and a prison system addicted to prohibition.

Who cares if its not harmless? Lets look at all the things people do and truly ask whether they're "harmless". The essence of a free society is the right to make poor choices, too, as long as you're not directly injuring or harming others.

We need to stop the war on our own citizens - i.e. the "drug war" - and start to manage it as a public health issue.

Go to mpp.org or drcnet.org and see the harm that the "drug war" causes. "

The Purple Brain: America's New Reefer Madness
Here is a quote:

"Unlike alcohol -- or even aspirin, -- today's marijuana still poses no risk of fatal overdose, regardless of the strength of its primary psychoactive ingredient, THC. Moreover, cannabis consumers readily distinguish between low and high potency marijuana and moderate their use accordingly.

Finally, despite claims that marijuana alters the brain, it is important to note that THC -- regardless of its potency -- is surprisingly non-toxic to the adult as well as the teenage brain. Recently scientists at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research reported that they could find "no ... evidence of cerebral atrophy or loss of white matter integrity" attributable to cannabis use in the brains of frequent adolescent marijuana users (compared to non-using controls) after performing MRI scans and other advanced imaging technology. Separate studies assessing the cognitive skills of long-term marijuana smokers have also reported no demonstrable deficits. "

link: http://www.alternet.org/story/54977/

You might also be interested in some facts that disagree with NIDA - after all, they have an agenda - continue funding the drug war.

Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts
Zimmer, Lynn and Morgan, John. Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review Of The Scientific Evidence. New York: The Drug Policy Alliance. 1997, 241 pages.

link: http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/bookstore/mmmf.cfm

[usregimechange]

9. I agree with you and from your last source:

a book which I own...

"Moderate smoking of marijuana appears to pose minimal danger to the lungs." Not quite harmless. But I agree, the war on drugs is neither healthy nor effective.

[LostinVA]

12. Oh brother

[usregimechange]

13. Did you have an alternate analysis of the SPECT Imaging?

[azurnoir]

15. Yep right here

from a website called Quack Watch

http://www.quackwatch.org/06ResearchProjects/amen.html