Medicinal Marijuana

[Gail Simone]

Okay, you guys might know, not only do I not smoke pot, I do no drugs at all, not even coffee. I just have no interest in any of it, not the slightest.

But how the hell can it be okay to give these patients, many of whom are terminal, liquid morphine and WORSE, but somehow pot is so dangerous and terrible that they can't have that?

What's the thinking, here?

Why do we say, no, you can't have this thing that could ease your suffering?

Gail

[Crowley]

hate to bring it up again but BULLSHIT! really covered this excellently.

the problem is one that some conservatives want to fight because they try to categorize all street drugs as bad... plus I think a few of them believe in the movie Reefer Madness.

the truth is that the War on Drugs is a mindnumbing failure and that drugs on the street are now stronger and cheaper than they were before it became illegal... plus the creation of the black market means gangs and mob pop up to enforce the black market rules and as a result innocent people get killed.

[Lunar Daydreamer]

My mum has a spinal disability and her doctor has offered to get her pot, because it will ease her suffering.

She hasnt taken the doctor up on it as far as I know just yet, although maybe this is the point I find out that the reason for such a relaxed Christmas was that she put tamazapan on the christmas cake?! :P

[Charles RB]

But how the hell can it be okay to give these patients, many of whom are terminal, liquid morphine and WORSE, but somehow pot is so dangerous and terrible that they can't have that?

That's a very good question and the answer is "it isn't". Seems to me the government stance here is driven less by concern for patients and more from the idea of it setting a precedent for maijuana legalisation (which would be a hot-potato issue w/ the electorate) or they're being lobbied by large pharmeceticul companies who don't like the competition.

[Phoney Bone]

It's illegal to push morphine on the street, yet, perfectly fine to pump someone full of it in a hospital.

DEFINITLY a double standard when it comes to pot.

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

I might sound like a High Times reader here (I probably look like one, too, come to think of it), but wasn't marijuana really outlawed in this country because William Randolph Hearst was intimidated by the hemp industry and what competition from it could mean for his own paper-based product?

[EdContradictory]

Why do we say, no, you can't have this thing that could ease your suffering?


Because some of us are big jerks?

[blackcanary_416]

It's a shame. It really is that all these other drugs are avaliable like Oxycotin and stuff like that and its highly addictive and creates drug trafficing. I don't know how they can do what they do and not feel bad that cancer patients cannot stop horrible pain because of them. I do think its bull crap. Major Bullcrap.

[TCJohnson]

Obviously none of you have watched Reefer Madness! It will explain all!

[Gaz]

Obviously none of you have watched Reefer Madness! It will explain all!
Nah,I prefer GOOD movies, like Rebel Without A Cause (which was a reaction to those scare tactic movies, IIRC)

[TCJohnson]

What?! WHAT?! Reefer Madness is a great movie! A true classic! And I say that without sarcasm!

[SuperGodGinrai]

medicinal marijuana... is for damn hippies!

[steeler80]

It's really ridiculous some of the double standards that go around. In my neck of the woods (southeast KY), oxycotin (sp?) is ten times the problem marijuana is yet oxycotin is tossed around (less so than a year or so before but still too much) while marijuana is a extreme no-no.

I've never used pot either but if someone is in extreme pain and pot could help, I'm all for them being able to use it.

[Charles RB]

Obviously none of you have watched Reefer Madness! It will explain all!

Bah! That explains nothing compared to the comic... (http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=droid&page=scripts&choice=reefer)

[TCJohnson]

Bah! That explains nothing compared to the comic... (http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=droid&page=scripts&choice=reefer)

man, without Dave O'Brien's performance as Ralph Wiley, it's just not the same, man! Just not the same!

(And for the record, the only drug I do is caffiene and a few social drinks.)

[matterconsumer]

One wonders at what point a physiological solution is going to be pursued rather than a pharamaceutical one.

Instead of taking drugs for the rest of one's life go in and short out the nerves...

[Andrew345]

I wouldn't be suprised if the tobacco companies are playing a role in keeping pot illegal. If pot were made legal tommorrow the tobacco industry would probably take a huge hit in profits.

[Red Berens]

Gail, this is an easy explaination; Anyone can grow and sell marijuana, but it's very difficult to manufacture morphine, vicadin, etc... Because of this, major pharmacutical companies have the narcotic pain reliever market locked up pretty tight. They can't compete with the back yard / basement marijuana growers, so they lobby to have the medical aspects of this drug taken away. It's money. Same reason alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. Regulation and money.

[muimi]

I might sound like a High Times reader here (I probably look like one, too, come to think of it), but wasn't marijuana really outlawed in this country because William Randolph Hearst was intimidated by the hemp industry and what competition from it could mean for his own paper-based product?

Going of off research I did back in college for speech class, I believe that marijuana was deemed illegal during a late session of Congress in the early 20th century. Sorry, I did the speech/research about five years ago so I don't remember exact dates, what not. Anyone feel free to correct me.

Basically the story goes that Congress was nearly out for the holidays and there weren't that many people that attended the session. They were just going over legislation in a hurried manner, wanting to be done.

A bill came across which proposed the illegalization of marijuana which, at the time, was used primarily by Mexican farm workers who used it as a social drug, much like tobacco. The conversation basically went like this:

"What's marijuana?"
"I think it's a narcotic."

And then they took a vote. The bill itself was a small packet of papers and was lost for years in the library until they found it again.

* *

And yeah, like others have mentioned, there's pretty much a double standard when it comes to pot. I'm not a fan of medical marijuana laws but not because I don't think it helps people. Quite the contrary in fact; I believe that especially for terminally ill patients in pain, it can help a lot more than it hurts. And yeah, like Gail said, in comparison to things like, oh, MORPHINE, it is not so bad.

I'm against medical marijuana because the current medical marijuana laws are half hearted and I had stoner friends ("had" being the operative term) that abused the medical marijuana laws in California to get pot legally. (Case in point? I knew someone who knew a doctor who would give her a prescription for marijuana for, get this, PMS. AND she planned to get pregnant and keep smoking because she "needed it" for delivery. She made me so mad. I wish I was exaggerating.)

EDIT: Oh how ironic. As I post this now, my post count is at 420. :rolleyes:

[Cam63]

Why is it illegal ? Too much marijuana use may result in the overuse of words like " mannnn " and duuuude " in sentences ?

[howyadoin]

But how the hell can it be okay to give these patients, many of whom are terminal, liquid morphine and WORSE, but somehow pot is so dangerous and terrible that they can't have that?

What's the thinking, here?They sure as hell can't fall back on the gateway drug argument here, if morphine is okay.

[Phoney Bone]

Smoking is bad for you, whether it be tobacco or pot. Bad-bad-bad.


Now brownies or Rice Crispy treats, on the other hand ...

[muimi]

Smoking is bad for you, whether it be tobacco or pot. Bad-bad-bad.


Now brownies or Rice Crispy treats, on the other hand ...

One of my friends made linguine with garlic and... *coff* "herb" infused butter sauce once.

Reports were that he and his girl were, um, very very happy for quite awhile.

[Phoney Bone]

One of my friends made linguine with garlic and... *coff* "herb" infused butter sauce once.



Wow! I'll have to try that sometime.


EDIT: I mean that I "would like to" try that sometime ... if it weren't illegal ... wouldn't want to break the law or nuthin'.

[LooksBetterDrawn]

Gail, this is an easy explaination; Anyone can grow and sell marijuana, but it's very difficult to manufacture morphine, vicadin, etc... Because of this, major pharmacutical companies have the narcotic pain reliever market locked up pretty tight. They can't compete with the back yard / basement marijuana growers, so they lobby to have the medical aspects of this drug taken away. It's money. Same reason alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. Regulation and money.

along those lines, bars would lose alot of their profit (which is alot sadly) because there would be alot of people would, instead of going out to a bar for a drink, rather sit at home and smoke a joint.

[LtMarvel]

Are there actual studies that show that medical marijuana is effective? Has mm gone through the same scientific studies process any other drug has to go through? (obviously, not in this country...)

[Melissa]

I believe it's a combination of factors:

1) People who genuinely, if ignorantly, believe that all "drugs are bad, ok"
2) Pharmaceutical companies, who prop up governments with cash donations, not wanting their markets cut.
3) Tobacco companies, who prop up governments with cash donations (and have a deadly product) not wanting their markets cut.
4) Governments, who can tax pharmaceuticals and tobacco, but who can't tax something you can grow in your backyard.

The problem is that we're told it's all due to 1), when the truth is that there are enormous amounts of money tied up in 2) 3) and 4).

[TCJohnson]

Are there actual studies that show that medical marijuana is effective?

Hundreds of studies.

Here is a small sampling:

http://www.druglibrary.org/crl/default.htm

[the4thpip]

I took a class by a pharmacologist at university once who said that even heroin is less toxic (and possibly less addictive) than a lot of prescription painkillers like percocets. He said pot would be a much safer alternative.

[GBPackNHTown]

One hundred percent with you on this Gail. Its all just beuracratic bullshit. I have a grandparent who was addicted to pain killers and the stuff he went though both during addiction and coming off of it was several times more scary than any of the things I've seen pot do to people. (Mostly just fall down and laugh alot...watch out he might land on you!)

Truth probably is Melissa nailed it with her list. Plus I think it helps make the Democrats look like a bunch of dangerous dope smoking hippies. In any case it frustrates me to no end. Lord knows we wouldn't want someone confined to their death bed to light up a j and go out with alittle less pain.

[kingdom2000]

I wouldn't mind seeing marijuana legal for medical reasons alone myself, however, as much as I hate to have to agree with the Supreme Court on this one. From a constitutionality perspective they where effectivily screwed and had to rule the way they did. Ringquist probably only ruled the way he (against) did out of his now direct experience with the need for something like that. Same reason why the Reagons suddenly decided that stem cell research is ok.

Sad part though is that means the war on making marijuana legal of any type will be fought at the federal level. Which is incredibly expensive as will basically have to pay more money then combined special interests groups of the drug companies, insurance companies, and pretty much any group that even makes a small profit from medicine.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

The story I had heard of why weed was actually made illegal was pretty silly, don't know if it's true, but here it is.

Pot was made illegal because white guys were concerned about all these Mexican guys getting it on with their girls after getting them high with their "devil's weed".

Billions of dollars and hundreds of years in prison for Fear of Mexican Man/Caucassian Woman Sex.

...I was high at the time.

[Phoney Bone]

Funny how the number of reasons why weed is illegal rises in relation to how high two or more people get when they're together, ain't it?

[howyadoin]

I can only speak anecdotally, but for me pot works quite well against nausea and heartburn, and headaches.

[Crowley]

I believe it's a combination of factors:

1) People who genuinely, if ignorantly, believe that all "drugs are bad, ok"
2) Pharmaceutical companies, who prop up governments with cash donations, not wanting their markets cut.
3) Tobacco companies, who prop up governments with cash donations (and have a deadly product) not wanting their markets cut.
4) Governments, who can tax pharmaceuticals and tobacco, but who can't tax something you can grow in your backyard.

The problem is that we're told it's all due to 1), when the truth is that there are enormous amounts of money tied up in 2) 3) and 4).

I love you more and more with each post...

[Jeff Brady]

Don't forget about making clothes and paper products with hemp. The logging industry would be hit pretty hard, wouldn't it? If you could get all those workers to sow & reap weed instead of destroying forests, that would rock.

[TheLyle]

I'm against medical marijuana because the current medical marijuana laws are half hearted and I had stoner friends ("had" being the operative term) that abused the medical marijuana laws in California to get pot legally. (Case in point? I knew someone who knew a doctor who would give her a prescription for marijuana for, get this, PMS. AND she planned to get pregnant and keep smoking because she "needed it" for delivery. She made me so mad. I wish I was exaggerating.)

Part of the problem comes from the questionable legality of medical marijuana... in some places (I think California was one of them) there's a general policy of not keeping records so that if something like the Supreme Court decision happened, there wouldn't be an easy trail. However, I think that also relaxed pressure to keep things on the up-and-up, since there's no paper trail to follow and discover that Dr Jones was prescribing it for cases that didn't need it.

In the Bay Area, a lot of cities were trying to deal with controlling the places that dispensed medical marijuana. In cities that didn't pre-emtively regulate them, like San Fran, these clinics tended not to concentrate in medical districts.

To be honest my only interest has been in cooking with the stuff. I'm not really seeking euphoric pasta, however, as much as I'm curious to the process. A friend who no longer does drugs tells me the stuff has a very distinct taste... a phrase that always leaves me wondering how I'd make that work to an advantage in a recipe. Though the interst ends there. I'm too much of a control freak to let some chemical control my mood.