This week in Utah, state senator Mark Madsen helped push a bill through the Utah Senate legalizing medical marijuana, despite LDS Church opposition. The LDS Church’s main concern was over “unintended consequences.” The bill moves onto the House and it is unclear how they will vote on it.
In other news, state senator Steve Urquardt has sponsored a bill outlawing the death penalty on future cases. Urquardt argues that it will save tax payer money. He has previously been a proponent of the death penalty.
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Wheat & Tares 
I wonder if the LDS Church, which teaches that killing is a sin (which, according only to my interpretation, means that the state sins just as much as a private citizen does when it puts people to death), will support the anti-death penalty bill. I’m curious to see how this one plays out.
To clarify, the church opposed Madsen’s bill originally, but he made significant revisions to make it palatable. No way it would have passed with the level of church opposition at the beginning.
Can you comment on those revisions? Ask I know is the church didn’t like m Madsen’s bill, and I was surprised it passed in the face of church opposition. I hadn’t heard about revisions.
See this Deseret News article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865648619/Utah-Senate-passes-controversial-medical-marijuana-bill.html?pg=all
“Madsen said the bill isn’t what he hoped or intended it would be, but it takes a substantive step in a responsible way.”
“Connor Boyack, president of the Libertas Institute, said Madsen worked hard to make his proposal more palatable.
“The bill changed dramatically. The LDS Church became more comfortable with it. Sen. Madsen showed he was reasonable in making changes. It’s a more conservative bill now,” said Boyack, who backed the original measure.
Madsen removed workplace protections for public employees who use medical marijuana legally; deleted provisions that would have kept cities from using zoning to block dispensaries and grow facilities; allowed random inspections of dispensaries and grow facilities; and prevented dispensaries and grow facilities from being located within 1,000 feet of schools or 600 feet of churches. He also included tighter child-proof standards for packaging medicinal marijuana in the final version.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Monday called the changes to SB73 a “substantial improvement,” though it urged lawmakers to support an “acknowledged need for scientific research in this matter and to fully address regulatory controls on manufacture and distribution.” The church had initially opposed the bill.”
The most prominent current states that allow medical marijuana use have devolved into “marijuana for everyone” in practice. This is what the church is adamantly opposed to. If a state were to come up with an implementation that restricts use to legitimate medical purposes, then I think that most church leaders would be in favor of such approach.
I really like the elimination of the workplace protections for public employees. If a cop needs marijuana, maybe he can get a desk job, but he should not be out doing a street assignment while intoxicated.
For the death penalty, eliminating it will not necessarily save the public money. Eliminating the excessive, costly appeals, by whatever means, is what will save money for the government. The AG and other state attorneys should be very selective in the progression towards executions for those on death row. This could save the money without changing the laws.
On the medical Marijuana–in its own words, the church opposes the bill–as written–citing fear of “unintended consequences”. Let us read between the lines here: regardless of what those “unintended consequences” might be, by wording the statement in this way the church has clearly, albeit implicitly, also “stated” that there are, indeed, “appropriate” medicinal uses of the plant…otherwise, the opposition would be based on ALL consequences, unintended AND intended. This would make the church’s position consistent with the Lord’s own view (as one would expect), He having both created the plant and endowed it with the properties it has–including the psychoactive properties. Everything the Lord does has at least one underlying “good reason” that is known to Him.
I have no comment on the death penalty at this time…
“In other news, state senator Steve Urquardt has sponsored a bill outlawing the death penalty on future cases. Urquardt argues that it will save tax payer money. He has previously been a proponent of the death penalty.”
Years ago I wrote a letter to the editor about that and smaller Texas County District Attorneys who wanted life without parole rather than the death penalty because death penalty cases were just too expensive.
The editor of the Texas Lawyer didn’t believe me and engaged in fact checking (on a letter to the editor?!) — and then ran the letter when he discovered I was telling him the truth.
Death Penalty cases are just too expensive and take too long. Life without parole is so much faster and cheaper (and, of course, after time, with pardons and reconsideration, isn’t really life either — which is generally a good thing).
“The most prominent current states that allow medical marijuana use have devolved into “marijuana for everyone” in practice. ”
Yep. That said, all in all it works out. The deaths from pain killer abuse drop off significantly. Cartels lose a huge source of revenue.
Pick your battles and pick your unintended consequences.