Monthly Archives: October, 2013

OCT 5, 2013 - Medical marijuana has come to the District of Columbia, and the program is fully up and operational. As of October of 2013, about a dozen or so people with health aliments that are treatable by medical marijuana have signed up and received their DC medical marijuana card from the DC Department of Health. The list of health ailments for DC medical marijuana is short: HIV/AIDS, cancer, patients undergoing chemotherapy, protease inhibitors or radiotherapy treatments, glaucoma, and muscle spasticity diseases such as multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, Parkinson's disease and others. The last part is tricky, and sometimes reviewed by the DC Department of Health on a case-by-case basis, and they will be adding diseases as time goes by. Watch a brief video below detailing the whole process of a DC medical marijuana patient going through the process of obtaining a card, and filling their first prescription below. We also sat down and interviewed Rabbi Jeff Kahn, director of the Takoma Wellness Center, one of the medical marijuana dispensaries set up here in DC. JTMP strongly urges our supporters to contact your state and federal representatives, and tell them you want medical marijuana enacted or expanded in your state, and you want marijuana removed from the Category I drug classification, for marijuana DOES have many accepted medical uses and treatments.

OCT 2, 2013 - The LostWaterBoyz, three furloughed federal workers from Indiana as a result of the right-wing extremist Teabaggers shutting down the government like terrorists with ridiculous demands, used the time off to do what I like doing also; they wrote a song about it all. Set to the tune of Petula Clark's "Downtown", they updated the lyrics for the times and wrote, "Shutdown". Watch the LostWaterBoyz perform "Shutdown" below. Let's hope somebody corrals these insane Teabaggers (Hello?, Boehner?!) and gets them in line and we can get the government functioning like it is supposed to do, and these guys can get a paycheck again. They are essential! Passing a budget and keeping the government functioning is not a concession! Comments? Start a conversation on our JTMP Facebook Page.

OCT 1, 2013 - President Barack Obama's Affordable Health Care Act rolls out a huge piece today, the "mandate"; the requirement for individuals to carry health insurance. The AHCA, or "Obamacare", requires that all persons who do not have insurance already either through your employer or whatever, purchase individual insurance in the "Health Insurance Marketplace" the federal government has set up where one can shop around, and get the lowest price. In fact, it is similar to when the conservatives were whining about "exchanges across state lines". Now, one is not tied down to the health insurance company that one's employer uses either. People are now free as an individual to purchase a competitive policy. In fact, early reports coming in is that most of us will be paying very little, as little as $28 a month. Many people in poor states such as Mississippi will pay as little as $8 a month.  Read more about the low costs reported by the CBO on CBSNews.com.

So, if you do not have health insurance through work or an individual insurance policy, or you are not covered under Medicare or Medicaid, head on over to HealthCare.gov and get your heath insurance going. Senator Angus King (I-ME) said right-wing extremists who are using the government shutdown to try and stop "Obamacare" are "guilty of murder"; because having health insurance saved his life. When you have health insurance and you have checkups, they may find cancer early like they did with him; the doctor will remove it before it gets worse and save your life. Having more people access to check ups will save lives, and money. For it costs more to treat a disease in the later stages. This, and millions of other people joining the market, should bring the "cost curve" down. For more info, check our HealthCare.gov.  (Photo credit: Pete Souza/CC)