Once again a federal agency has made a ruling where politics trumps science. The FDA's recent decision to lump medical marijuana with hard drugs like cocaine and heroin that lack any medical value is bogus. What's more is that is contradicted by a wealth of goverment sponsored research.
Nevermind that is virtually impossible for scientists to legally obtain cannabis in order to conduct double-blind studies with control groups and patients receiving a placebo. Nevermind that such studies are in fact unethical because patients will receive no pallative relief from any medical conditions if they are receiving the placebo.
Researchers at UMass-Amherst where thwarted in their attempts to obtain goverment pot. The one legal source of Uncle Sams stash is at the University of Mississippi at Oxford. However, this pot is so schwaggy that heads would rather drink bong water and scrape resin rather than smoke government ganja.
No matter, there is already a wealth of information available about cannabis. For centuries, it has been used to relieve all different kinds of symptoms. It was a popular medication prior to 1937 when the plant was made illegal by Congress. Patients received extract of cannabis at the dentitst and it was used to wean addicts from opium.
Tests conducted by the US Army indicate some users actually increase their cooordination when high. Anyone who has ever played foosball, air hockey, or video games against a stoner knows what I'm talking about. A University of Miami study of rastafarians suggest that individuals who smoke five spliefs (big Bob Marley sized joints) a day had healthier lungs and were healthier than individuals that smoked only cigarettes.
Medical marijuana often provokes an irrational paranoia among Republicrooks because they claim it will lead to greater use. Considering that pot has been illegal in this country for the past 70 years, they have done little to stem the demand for herb. Two groups of patients, those with cancer or AIDS, respond more favorably to pot than other legal medications. Marinol, which is synthesized THC, is known to leave patients lethargic and overmedicated. Pot can be titrated so the patient receives a dose that will relief pain or nausea but allow them to function.
The GOP and affiliated friends in the pharmaceutical lobby want to tell terminal patients what they can put in their bodies. After all, why should someone get something that is unpatentable and cheap when they can be paying $$$ for a medicine that doesn't work in the first place.
Instead of giving extract of cannabis to terminal patients, they receive legal prescriptions of meds that are dangerous and should only be prescribed in the rarest of circumstances. These include OCs, Oramorph, and other opiates.
A few years ago, I lived in a Massachusetts city where a bunch of kids stole a package of prescriptions for a man who suffered from MS. The kids took the guy's pills and overdosed on baclafin (sp?) a powerful muscle relaxant. The point I'm trying to make is that people are forced to use powerful drugs instead of the safest most natural substance known to man.
To date, no one is known to have ever overdosed on cannabis. A frequently cited argument about the percentage of emergency room visits attributed to marijuana is blatantly inflated. All marijuana use is lumped together in that study regardless of whether the individuals used harder drugs or the purpose of their visit was in no way pot related, but somehow shows up as patients are asked if they had consumed any drugs or substances recently.
For years, the Republcrooks have been putting out studies that over inflate the dangers of pot. A recent study concludes that schizophrenics have a 50 percent greater risk if they smoke pot. However, that increased the risk from one to two percent, which is well within the margin of error of any study and could be statistically unimportant.
Pot has always been taboo. It was originally popularized by Mexican migrant workers and Black jazz musicians. The Hearst newspaper chain feared it would loosen women up so they would engage in interracial copulation. In the sixties, it had a cultural connection with the anti-war movement and hippies in general.
I have a hard time listening to blowhard addicts like "Rush" Limbaugh lecture about the evils of drugs. Call me ignorant, but when you obtain as many OCs as "Rush" you are not feeding your drug habbit: you are drug trafficking.
I would argue that kids today laugh at all the anti-pot propoganda. In fact, it probably causes them to deflect questions about many dangerous drugs like X or OCs because they think what the goverment is telling them is a lot of crap.
The last point I wish to make concerns state's rights. Funny, how if the state right involves legal suicide, personal drug use, or a woman's right to choose, it is unimportant. As long as the federal government continues to believe potsmokers are criminals, there will never be legal medical marijuana in this country.