Category: Clel Baudler

Cannabis Oil Coming To Iowa

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad said that next week he will sign a bill legalizing the use of oil derived from marijuana to treat chronic epilepsy. This comes after the bill passed the Iowa legislature at the last moments of the session.

According to The Des Moines Register:

“The legislation requires patients with chronic epilepsy and their caregivers to acquire a registration card through Iowa’s Department of Public Health, per a written recommendation from a neurologist. The oil would have to be obtained in another state that produces it. The bill limits the amount of oil that can be in a patient or caregiver’s possession at any given time.

“Branstad said he supports the measure because of its narrow focus and applicability to a small number of people in need. He said that families with children suffering from severe epileptic seizures convinced him of the bill’s importance and that he believes the oil can help them.”

The bill is so narrowly focused that even Iowa’s anti-cannabis crusader Clel Baudler supported it. “I refuse to call it medical marijuana. It’s hemp oil. I hope it works,” he said. “Right here, right now, we have the opportunity to do something that is very good.”

Even if the further legalization of other forms of medical marijuana doesn’t take root here in Iowa, as it has in other states, at least this bill will provide some relief for some very sick children and their families now.

"The Hemorrhoid" Baudler Cleared Of Ethics Violations

Demonstrating that government oversight of itself if usually a joke, the House “Ethics” Committee unanimously cleared state Representative Clel “The Hemorrhoid” Baudler (R-Greenfield) of any wrongdoing on Wednesday.  Baudler was being investigated because he admittedly flew to California and fraudulently obtained a prescription for medical marijuana in that state by lying about suffering from hemorrhoids and depression.  California authorities declined to prosecute Baudler, who didn’t take possession of the marijuana.

Iowan  Mike Pesce, who filed the ethics complaint against The Hemorrhoid, pointed out in an early February Des Moines Register article that “the state constitution denotes grounds for impeachment as the commission of any misdemeanor or malfeasance and what Baudler did violated the law of another state.”  And it certainly was malfeasance, which Dictionary.com defines as “the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law; wrongdoing (used especially of an act in violation of a public trust).”

State Rep. Scott Raecker (R-Urbandale), Vice Chair of the House “Ethics” Committee, explained to the Register why The Hemorrhoid’s malfeasance didn’t warrant so much as a finger-wagging from the group, before he rejoined the committee in hitting paddleballs.  “The committee’s jurisdiction is limited, [Raecker] said. They can only ascertain whether there was a violation of [Iowa Code section 68b or House ethics], and neither addresses a lawmaker who allegedly broke a law in another state or told a lie, he said.”  So, the House “Ethics” Committee doesn’t have jurisdiction over stuff like, oh, ethics.

We should not be surprised when government is less than ethical.  We should be surprised whenever it is ethical.  The legislative “ethics” police aren’t going to want to set any precedent that may be used against themselves later down the road.  Also, when you think about it, ethics is anathema to government in general.  Politicians are elected by winning popularity contests where they must lie more convincingly than their opponents.  If they win, they get to help run the government which is itself nothing more than legalized theft and coercion.  No wonder Americans from Mark Twain on have cursed crooked politicians and ethics can never seem to take root.

That age old cycle continues.  Having learned nothing, according to a Radio Iowa report, Baudler says the next time he’s out west, “you won’t believe what I’ve got planned.”  The House “Ethics” Committee slumbers at the ready for whatever it may be.

Clel’s Bogus Journey

An Iowa state representative who flew to California to fraudulently obtain a medical marijuana prescription, in order to  

Rep. Clel Baudler- Former lawman
turned petty criminal

prove “how asinine it would be to legalize ‘medical marijuana'” in this state, may land in hot water.  According to DesMoinesRegister.com, “Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, is a former state trooper who says he hates illegal drugs. He wrote in an e-mail to supporters in October that he had gone to California, where he lied about having medical problems to obtain a prescription[.]  California law states that a person who fraudulently represents a medical condition to a doctor is subject to a $1,000 fine or six months in jail for their first offense.” 

Iowa medical marijuana activist Mike Pesce said, “I think he should be investigated and impeached.  If you read his e-mail he wrote while he was sitting in this Statehouse, he planned this crime. We can’t have lawmakers sitting in this Statehouse planning crimes.”

Clel chronicled his excellent adventure in an email to supporters.  While visiting his son in California, Baudler was able to get a medical marijuana prescription by complaining about depression, hemorrhoids, and an artificial left knee.  But in the email he admitted,  “I have never had an issue with depression, and to be honest, I don’t even know what hemorrhoids were [sic].”  (Take a long look at this guy’s picture above and ask yourself if you really believe that he doesn’t know about hemorrhoids.) 

During Clel’s bogus journey he met an assortment of characters that were unacceptably different than himself.  At one clinic Clel met a “security guard that had to weigh close to 110 pounds [and who] had ten earrings on and about his face and ears, and […] way over the legal limit on tattoos.”  (Judge not lest ye be judged Clel, especially when you just crossed state lines to commit prescription fraud.  Or perhaps a more fitting verse is John 7:24, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”)

If his encounter with the perforated security guard wasn’t distressing enough for him, the person who ultimately gave Clel his prescription didn’t even have the common courtesy to be an American-born white man.  According to Baudler he “was an oriental ‘doctor’ and only spoke broken English.”  Perhaps poor Clel should have considered taking his fraudulent business elsewhere.

What ultimately drove Baudler to his reefer madness was the fact that last year the Iowa Board of Pharmacy unanimously recommended allowing medical marijuana in Iowa after months of hearings.  A task force is set to report to the legislature in 2011 with recommendations on how to implement such a program.  Most people agree that any marijuana prescription program in this state would be far less permissive than in California. 

While most Iowans recognize that there should be some therapeutic uses for marijuana, Clel believes that “the ‘fight for medical marijuana’ isn’t for medical purpose [sic] at all, it is all about people just wanting to get high.”  While medical marijuana can help many who are sick or in pain, it is true that some people will abuse the system, just as they do with the prescription drugs already available at the pharmacy. 

If someone does fake an illness to get prescription pot, just imagine a supposedly free American ingesting into their own bodies a substance that Clel Baudler doesn’t approve of.  The nerve of some people!

With threats of impeachment and potential criminal prosecution against Baudler, most medical marijuana supporters wouldn’t mind seeing this overzealous drug warrior hoisted on his own petard.