The American Medical Marijuana Association on its website declares that it "recently received official recognition by the United States government as one of the top organization websites promoting medical marijuana law reform. This recommendation appears in a briefing by the White House and is available online at the official web site for the White House Drug Policy."
I think that would be wonderful but why, I wonder, am I plagued by doubts of the validity of this assertion? But that is the reason for the link on "website." Check it out.
This is one of those stories which, in America, should not be touched with that stick I have been missing... a 10 or longer foot pole.
It is similar to Steven Hart's article here on Blogcritics, Politics Kills: Clean Needle Exchange Blocked in NJ. The answers seem simple: allow people to be safe and free of disease, allow freedom of choice, and provide access to medical needs. Oddly, there are those who disagree.
Imagine this: you have been told that you are dying of cancer. It is rotting away one of your organs - perhaps your brain. They will try valiantly to save your life. You will try chemotherapy and radiation treatment and some new drugs that interfere with the immune system. The physicians mention that you may see some side-effects. Nothing much. Nausea, fatigue, vomiting. They don't explain how bad it will be.
Mostly they don't explain that there is a drug to make it more tolerable. It doesn't matter. You aren't allowed to take it.
Imagine you suffer chronic, unbearable pain from this or that cause. It hurts. Now imagine that they have a drug to help ameliorate the agony. It doesn't matter. You aren't allowed to take it.
Imagine you were a photographer or a painter and you have developed glaucoma. While you wait for high-tech treatments terrified for your sight there is a drug that might help the disease and the fear. Don't worry. You aren't allowed to have it.
Imagine one of those digestive ailments that leave people wasting away and unable to eat, lacking appetite. There is something that might save your life by giving you the munchies. Don't worry. It is illegal.
Better yet: In those sovereign states that have democratically voted to allow the use of marijuana for medical use, the federal government — your government — is ready to arrest those who do what the state allows them to do to help ameliorate their suffering. This was understandable when some states insisted on enslavement of human beings. Studying the action of an herb and its medical uses is not quite the same thing.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Howard, great piece. If marijuana had a stronger lobby than the drug companies, maybe adults would be allowed to make their own health and recreation decisions. We could also move some of people fighting the war on drugs to the war on terror. I don't know of any Deadheads that want kill, although the album "Blues for Allah" might make the misinformed nervous. Using a water pipe cuts out some of the carcinogens.
2 - Rick Steeb
Cannabis prohibition is an abomination.
Most of prohibition's unintended consequences, e.g. our pernicious nark & gulag industries, are evil.
There are several exceptions-- one being the discovery of cannabis' effective lowering of intra-occular pressure (while looking for ways to detect and bust users). Thanks for THAT one!!
In 1974 a study, funded by NIH, looking for immune system damage by THC-- found suppression of three types of cancer. Unfortunately, the study was quashed by DEA and buried. Ponder the atrocity!
While "marijuana" may not medically help congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease, [hulled] hemp seed and its oil's EFAs are effective at maintaining good cholesterol and reducing arterial plaque!
The FDA should restrict itself to assuring purity and potency of pharmaceuticals, and not presume to restrict our unalienable rights.
3 - gonzo marx
Factoid: the Declaration and Constitution are written on paper made of hemp
1 acre of hemp produces more paper pulp than 4 acres of trees
also, a type of plastic can be made form the resin (instead of...:gasp: using oil)
it was oen of the largest cash crops until Dow Chemical spent some lobbying money to make it illegal so they could sell nylon rope to the Navy
NEVER believe me, or anyone else...go and look it up
Excelsior?
4 - Ryan
The Constitution and Declaration are NOT written on Hemp paper. Jefferson's DRAFTS of these documents were written on hemp paper. The official documents were written on animal skin parchment.
Nylon rope is stronger than hemp rope, which rots from the inside out.
5 - Lumpy
With marinol available by prescription there's no legit medical excuse for smoking marijuana.
6 - Howard Dratch
Lumpy, tell us more about Marinol. Thanks everyone for the comments.
IF CANNABIS were unknown, and bioprospectors were suddenly to find it in some remote mountain crevice, its discovery would no doubt be hailed as a medical breakthrough. Scientists would praise its potential for treating everything from pain to cancer, and marvel at its rich pharmacopoeiaâ€"many of whose chemicals mimic vital molecules in the human body.InterestinglyThe Economist has a
piece on its website (and SciTech Daily) called Reefer Madness from April 27.
Their extremely complete article includes this tidbit from a California researcher along with it informative discussion.
Donald Abrams, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, has been working on one such option. He is allowed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (the only legal supplier of cannabis in the United States) to do research on a German nebuliser that heats cannabis to the point of vaporisation, where it releases its cannabinoids without any of the smoke of a spliff, and with fewer carcinogens.
7 - Rev. Don
Lumpy, try taking a marinol pill while you are barfing your guts up... it doesn't work if you can't keep it down - and it makes you too 'high', there is no way to adjust the dose.
It is a synthetic, and not natural THC, does not have the other cannabinoids, cannabidiols or any of the other 60 known active ingredients that work in synergy - and you don't have to smoke marijuana for medicine, you can just eat it or vaporize it.
Your argument is invalid.
8 - Silas Kain
Reduce tobacco farming by 50 percent and replace these cash crops with hemp! Want to see marijuana legal? Close down K Street. Take the lobbyists out of Congress. Attack the pharmeceuticals who are blackmailing Washington into submission. In the meantime, I'm packing me a bowl and toking up for a new day in America!
9 - Ryan
Not to mention Marinol costs about $25 per DOSE. It simply doesn't make sense compared to whole cannabis unless you have an insurer that covers it.
10 - Gregor
An extremely insightful, well-written article about the vengeful squashing of medical marijuana by the federal government. The hemming and hawing of Bush’ flunky is probably hiding the fact that Bush himself, in addition to his cocaine use and alcohol abuse, has smoked a few joints in his youth.
You fail to mention Patients Out of Time, the Virginia-based medpot advocacy group that recently organized the Fourth National Conference on Cannabis therapeutics in Santa Barbara, California. Co-sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco and the California Nurses Association, this prestigious gathering of health professionals, medpot activists, and members of the legal profession went a long way to disprove Washington’s contention that marijuana has no medicinal value, whatsoever.
The American Medical Association accredited many of the presentations at the conference, including that of Dr. Donald Abrams on the use of cannabis therapy in palliative care. Other researchers delivered papers on cannabis therapeutics in pregnancy, in treating AIDS and multiple sclerosis patients, in countering the side effects of cancer drugs, and on the latest cannabinoid research in Israel, Brazil, the Netherlands, the UK, and Canada.
Much of the cannabis as medicine research is taking place outside the borders of the United States, since the federal government makes it almost impossible for researchers to obtain legal cannabis. They do however supply seven remaining patients on their Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program, whereby they receive tins of marijuana cigarettes from Uncle Sam, some of them for as long as 23 years!
Now if cannabis has no medicinal value whatsoever, why is the government supplying these seven patients with it for so long? And the IND program is administered by the Food and Drug Administration, the same FDA that has recently been pushed by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) to issue a blanket statement, without any research backup, that marijuana is not medicine.
You could have fooled me. I’m a medpot patient living in Canada and I’m growing my own medicine, in order to insure a pure and steady supply. The government here allows me to do this, provided I have my doctor’s approval and I register with the government.
I was diagnosed with Chron’s disease, an insidious ailment of the digestive system, usually treated with powerful drugs that have multiple side effects. Luckily, my doctor is open-minded and he read something about Chron’s being treated with cannabis in California, so he suggested it to me. Being of the age that missed out on the sixties and seventies drug explosion, I knew very little about marijuana.
I have never smoked cigarettes, so at first I said no. Then my doctor brought up the idea of buying a vapourizer, which allows the ingestion of THC in vapour form, without the harmful effects of smoke. I agreed to try it, and found that this healing herb did more to get rid of the unpleasant symptoms of my disease than a handful of pills.
There was a compassion club in the city where I live, but it shut down due to government harassment. It turns out that the DEA from the States came up here and talked our local law enforcement people to shut this storefront down. The long arm of Uncle Sam, or what?
When the supply dried up, I had to make a choice. Do I obtain my medicine illegally, or do I grow my own? I did some research on the web and found a company that specializes in helping licensed medpot patients grow their own grass. The company is Advanced Nutrients Medical, and they also make wonderful products that insure robust and plentiful buds at harvest time.
I was advised to plant in a secluded part of our back yard, where a high fence surrounds the corner. Cannabis plants sometimes get to be more than six feet tall. No use advertising the fact that I’m growing pot, even though it’s legal. There are thieves everywhere, even in Canada.
As for plant nourishment, they recommended Heavy Harvest, a time-release three-part fertilizer system that has to be applied only three times per year, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Being early May, the days are getting to be nice and warm here so my seedlings are going out soon. I just want to avoid any early morning frost that might damage the young plants.
Once the seedlings mature, I’ll be applying Tarantula and Piranha to my root systems. These products contain beneficial fungi and bacteria, which colonize the cannabis roots to enable them to absorb nutrients more readily.
I’ve been growing my own for four years now and my disease is tolerable, thanks to my medicine. Marijuana has been used as a sacred healing agent through the centuries and I’m grateful that the Canadian government is enlightened enough to allow me access to this wonderful herb.
I can’t believe Washington’s arrogance in denying patients like me in the U.S. the same healing benefits that I enjoy.
11 - Howard Dratch
Gregor: Thanks for the comment that is at least as complete as my original article.
My wife also suffers a digestive disease and we would consider living in Canada if the cold wasn't so hard on my heart. We may yet.
Your comment is insightful, helpful and personal and is appreciated.
Howard