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.