Should medical marijuana patients form a voting bloc and become single issue voters..

Its always a struggle to get medical marijuana legalized in any state. No matter what the poll numbers for medical marijuana are, the politicians refuse to vote in favor of it. If they do, theres a new trend making it impossible to pass a medical marijuana law that allows homegrow. Every medical marijuana state since 2010 with New Jersey bans homegrow when before that homegrows in the previous states were allowed. This is going backwards. In North Carolina not long ago the state law makers got so many phone calls asking them to vote for medical marijuana and they said it was harassment so the bill failed. A lot of bad stuff is going on. In states that already allow medical marijuana theres threats to take away the patients right to homegrow or take away medical marijuana entirely. Theres a lot of places on the local level that end up banning dispensaries. Theres the possibility that medical marijuana in raw plant form could be outlawed if Sativex gets approved so no homegrows, no buds, no strains, no dispensaries. None of the things patients have now would be allowed. The feds are still raiding medical marijuana after Obama said it would stop. This means medical marijuana patients have to target Congress and get marijuana off schedule 1.

Somethings gotta give. I think all the medical marijuana patients need to be organized like the NRA and vote pro medical marijuana as a single issue. Medical marijuana should have its own voting bloc. Anyone that trys to take away medical marijuana should be voted out. Every single medical marijuana patient needs to vote and get involved or else they will lose their rights. By not keeping their eye on this issue, the politicians will just stomp all over them.

hard to figure how this makes sense to folks...(meaning voting or lobbying etc)
its a plant, it comes from where we all come from and goes to where we all go, its your relative, will the real cannabis lovers please stand up' for the plants natural right to exist...stand up for your natural right to partner with the plant for your food, meds, cloths and shelter etc...stand up for truth, not lies built from compromise...
theres only one place other than a battle field where this can be resolved by the facts and that is the court room...
but pro cannabis folks almost always only go to court as the defendant...loosing battle, wrong field...
folks who love cannabis must walk into court as plaintiffs seeking to affirm the rights we were all born with...

Vutt-
I take it you are in NC? Here is a good group http://www.nccpn.org
And yes, I agree a voting block in each district would be very powerful, the threat of being voted out is the only thing that motivates most politicians.

I think the problem is the same as always: social stigma. It's the same reason it doesn't become a part of the Republican platform (even though they support limited gov't intervention), nor the Democrat platform (even though it's a social issue). No politician wants to be associated with it - and since a minority of Americans actively smoke, I think it takes the backseat as an issue. Even in Colorado, Hickenlooper mentioned that he "doesn't personally support" legalization (likely to protect his political ass).

That being said, we're at a historic point. For the first time, a majority of Americans support legalization: http://www.gallup.com/poll/165539/first-time-americans-favor-legalizing-marijuana.aspx
So, we may see it becoming a more publicly political issue; in a lot of ways this is already happening.

The problem I see with forming a voting block is fundamentally a lack of significant support. Even among marijuana smokers (say, those who have smoked in the last year), you're looking at almost 10% of the population, and they likely have more important issues (like ending the corporatocracy) informing their politics.

Though marijuana is obviously a progressive political issue, part of me hopes the current trend of state-by-state legalization will compound progressive ideals in general. Personally, I was a die-hard, straight-edge, Christian-Conservative until I started smoking weed. You can see why they oppose it so aggressively...