News

Statement from Assemblymember Jim Wood on co-authoring SB 311

“I’m proud to be a co-author on Senator Ben Hueso’s bill to provide compassionate access to medical cannabis in healthcare facilities for Californians who are terminally ill,” said Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa). SB 311, known as “Ryan’s Law,” would require that hospitals and certain types of health care facilities in California allow a terminally ill patient to use medical cannabis for treatment and/or pain relief.

BY ASM. JIM WOOD AND ASM. BRIAN DAHLE

Special to The Sacramento Bee

August 09, 2018

In less than a year, some of the worst wildfires in California history have killed 52 people, destroyed thousands of homes and scorched an area larger than greater Los Angeles.

Helping victims is our immediate priority, but we must develop policies that will prevent future mega-fires.

Opinion

NEW YORK TIMES — With towering flames bearing down, one victim delayed escape in hopes of saving his new truck — but he could not find the keys. An elderly couple slept as danger erupted, not waking until it was too late to flee down their one-lane road. Another couple, who barely missed their chance to drive away, huddled in a pool, surrounded by fire and choking smoke; he survived, but she did not.

LOS ANGELES TIMES--There's often little politicians can do when wildfires strike, besides comfort the residents who lost their homes and monitor emergency efforts to make sure they're getting the help they need.

California Assemblyman Jim Wood has another job.

"Most of my work is in the morgue at this point," he said. A Democrat from Healdsburg, Wood is also a dentist who is helping law enforcement identify victims of the deadly fires in Northern California. "These are my constituents," he said.

Readers of The Press Democrat have seen opinion pieces on Senate Bill 562, the “Healthy California Act.” That bill, often called single-payer or Medicare for all, is being held in the state Assembly, and I have been criticized for not doing more to overturn that decision.

Let me be clear, I have always supported health care for all. I am a health care provider, chairman of the Assembly Health Committee and strongly believe that health care is a right.

When it comes to fixing the dysfunctional U.S. healthcare system, state Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) knows there are bigger fish to fry than drug-company discount coupons. But as he told me: “You’ve got to start somewhere.” Wood’s anti-coupon bill, AB 265, was approved by the Assembly last week. The legislation is now making its way through the state Senate. It’s a tricky business, this bill, because what it would do is prohibit pharmaceutical companies from offering discounts to patients for name-brand drugs if there’s a cheaper generic available.

MENDOCINO CO., 5/14/17 — Sacramento is sending some money to the North Coast for “illegal” cannabis grow clean up. In a press release, Assemblyman Jim Wood (D – Santa Rosa) trumpeted a line-item of $1.5 million as a win for environmental protection in the Emerald Triangle.  Governor Jerry Brown’s new revised budget proposal will allocate this money to the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) “Fisheries Restoration Grant Program.”

An issue quietly plaguing Northern California’s forests for decades is finally coming to the surface as legalization sweeps the Golden State and mountain growers are forced out of the woodwork.

Governor Jerry Brown outlined $1.5 million in the Revised May Budget, to fund environmental clean-up of illegal cannabis grow sites in Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino Counties. Assemblymember Jim Wood comments. Sydney Morrone reports.

Assembly member Jim Wood (D- Healdsburg) has just announced that the administration is providing $1.5 million in the state budget to fund environmental cleanup of illegal cannabis grow sites in Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino Counties. “Our beautiful pristine forests have become havens for these illegal grow sites,” said Mr. Wood, who represents these North Coast counties. “These illegitimate growers have continued to ignore not only state laws for farming cannabis, but have left these sites ravaged by lethal chemicals, clear-cutting and thousands of pounds of trash.”