Posted on 10/26/2009 10:17:19 AM PDT by presidio9
The Justice Department says it's backing off the prosecution of people who smoke pot or sell it in compliance with state laws that permit "medical marijuana." Attorney General Eric Holder says "it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers." Party hardy! I mean -- let the healing begin!
I don't think the federal government should be spending a whole lot of time on small-time druggies, and I'm undecided about legalizing pot, which enjoys 44 percent support among the general public, according to a recent poll. Recreational use is not the wisest thing -- and if my 12-year-old son is reading this, that means you! -- but it's no more harmful than other drugs (e.g., alcohol) and impossible to eradicate. On the other hand, I worry it's a gateway to harder stuff. So I think we probably should have an open debate about decriminalization.
But it should be a real debate, about real decriminalization, and not clouded -- pardon the expression -- by hokum about
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
Two beers is grounds for a “public intoxication” charge these days.
Obama has prohibited the production of candy cigarettes and all flavor tobaccos except methol.
You can’t even smoke a cigarette in your car or home in some parts of this country.
and the dopers think that this nation will be somehow more permissive when it comes to pot.
Pot does nothing to reduce pain.
As a matter of fact, the health and mental consequences from pot use far out weights any imaginary benefits.
Pot is a violation of federal law. What gives this dork the right to usurp the law? HIS own authority? Another example of selective enforcement. Laws mean nothing these days—just ask the bondholders of GM.
We’re under tyranny.
I don't think anyone claims it does. The medical claims are that it reduces nausea and increases appetite. Both of these claims seem to be true.
Two words:
States Rights.
/sarc
The author has clearly not tried it as a specific for nausea. It’s excellent.
Kinda hard to get well when you’re constantly tossing your cookies.
Some in Arcata California are wondering.
Pot City, USA
http://www.tsblogs.com/cheaperthantherapy/2009/10/pot_city.html
Not to mention the pills that are supposed to be helping you get well.
The War on Some Drugs is an even bigger insult to our intelligence.
Dude. Where is my government provided weed? Man, I thought the stimulus was going to mail me some, man.
I used to agree with you 100% about this.
However, after “research”, I have to disagree with you. Here’s why:
Pot exists in hundreds, if not thousands, of differant strains. Back when I used to smoke regularly in my youth, I had a really bad injury, and I thought I’d try to smoke to see if it would help the pain diminish. It had the exact *opposite* effect - it seems like I was very much in touch with my body, and the pain was actually amplified!
At that point right there, I said “ok, this whole thing about medicenal pot is bullcrap”, and thought that it was all just a bunch of crap to try to get pot legalized from people who want to party it up (and I still think that’s a driving force for legalization, btw.)
However! Not so long ago, I had been complaining to a friend of mine about how sore I get after working out at the gym... I’ve been lifting kind of heavy and when the day ends, I’m so sore that I literally have trouble getting up a flight of stairs. My buddy said, “here, try *this*, this is what they use for pain control in Europe.”
I was very skepticial from my previous experiance, but I said, Ok, sure, I’ll try it.
I’ll be damned if the pain wasn’t totally gone in about ten minutes. So I told my buddy about this and he was the one that told me that differant strains of the plant have differant properties. Some of the strains are great for pain management, he tells me, and some of them are great for other things. There is one strain that supposedly gives people with MS a great degree of relief. Some strains make you insanely hungry... and some strains actually dull your appitite.
Bottom line is, I used to agree with you and think that “pot” is more or less all the same, and that this whole “medical pot” thing is bullcrap to try to get people to legalize a narcotic. But I honestly really feel that there is something to pot having certain medicinal effects depending on the strain.
The problem, the way that I see it, is that suddenly you will see a HUGE influx of kids in thier late teens and early 20s suddenly running to the doctor with “sudden depression” or whatever ailment that they can fake to get a script for the government dope. I honestly can’t think of a way to get around that, and that’s one of the reasons that I’m still on the fence about whether legalization is good or not.
There are certain forms of ailments that are TREMENDOUSLY benefited from pot! MS, epilepsy, and there is argueably no better treatment for nausea. It is, in my eyes, no differant then smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. Legalizing it, however, might pave the way for the legalization of harder drugs, and I feel that legalizing things like cocaine or heroin is just about the stupidest thing that a society can do to itself.
That's my pet peeve, as they killed a family member of mine, I'll carry that grudge to the grave and beyond, you flock of seagull melon thumpers(Pulp Fiction ref.).
States Rights, I like that, yellow dent #2 corn for ethanol can't hold a sausage scented candle to the fuel value available from industrial hemp.
It used to be illegal "not" to grow it.
Not to mention the seed oil is as close to a perfect amino acid profile for human nutrition as can be found.
What gets me is CA Arnold taliking about tax revenue from “medical marijuana.”
If it’s really medical, what the hell are they taxing it for? This is lunacy!
Exactly. Med marijuana although useful is a ruse. If you’re going to legalize it than do it.
...The many beneficial aspects of cannabis are not a new discovery—the plant has a long tradition in medicine that originated in oriental and Middle Eastern countries. The Chinese documented its medicinal value more than 4,000 years ago, using seeds, leaves and sap as sedatives or painkillers and to treat fevers, nausea and ulcers. Ancient herbalists made unguents for burns and other wounds from its roots. Galen, and other physicians of the classical and Hellenistic eras, also noted cannabis as a remedy, and the Arabs started using the plant as early as the mid-1200s. Although there is evidence of cannabis use in Europe from the thirteenth century, after Marco Polo returned from his journey to the east in 1297, its medical use became more popular in the nineteenth century, when the British physician William B. O'Shaugnessy brought back an account of the remarkable effects of this plant from India. Even Queen Victoria is said to have sipped marijuana tea prescribed by her court physician to treat menstrual cramps. Such anecdotal claims of the healing properties of cannabis are now supported by modern research on the metabolism of cannabinoids—the active components of the plant—and their potential use in medicine. The plant contains more than 60 active compounds, of which the most psychoactive ingredient is Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which was first identified in the 1940s and first synthesized in 1965. THC mainly recognizes a receptor of the central nervous system called CB1, the cannabinoid receptor, which is involved in the regulation of synaptic transmission of excitatory and inhibitory neural circuits. Dronabinol, a synthetic form of THC, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to stimulate the appetite of AIDS patients and to treat their anorexia and associated weight loss. The same drug has been indicated for the treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy. Cannabis also helps in the treatment of patients suffering from glaucoma, one of the most common causes of blindness, by reducing fluid pressure in the eye.Does marijuana have a future in pharmacopoeia?
Yep, medical marijuana is nothing more than getting our children addicted to this evil weed. Everyone who says that they use it for medical purposes is a flat-out lying liberal intent on destroying the next generation. It’s as simple as that. < / sarc>
The truth, per researchers, is that "marijuana has medical benefits -- for chronic-pain syndromes, cancer pain, multiple sclerosis, AIDS wasting syndrome and the nausea that accompanies chemotherapy -- and attempts to understand and harness these are being hampered. Also, they add, science reveals that the risks of marijuana use, which have been thoroughly researched, are real but generally small."
If you or the author or one of your loved ones ever had to go through extensive chemo, you would change your mind, I did. And yes, I know there is a pill form...but if you can't keep it down, it doesn't work. Been there, done that with someone I love. As for his 12 year old son, he needs to educate him, not use him as an excuse to deprive others of relief. And the "gateway" excuse is pure garbage and has also been debunked.
And no, I am not a "doper", I am a respected professional administrator with a 23 year career, so the meme that only "dopers" want medical marijuana legalized is also false.
Be insulted all you want, Charlie. Just leave folks the hell alone.
Total BS. If marijuana is going to remain illegal, then I hope that tobacco addicts will have to deal w/ the same fate that those of us who enjoy smoking marijuana face right now. Confiscate their houses & cars & drug test them out of their jobs. Take their kids & put them up for foster care...after all, it is detrimental to the health of a child to be raised in a tobacco-smoke environment.
We need some CONSISTENCY in our drug laws. Either re-legalize marijuana & let those of us who use it responsibly do so w/o fear of gov't harassment (which is what I support), or make tobacco just as illegal as marijuana is.
All I can say, IronKros, regarding the legalization of “harder drugs”, is based on my personal experiances in my younger days.
I feel that smoking pot is no worse for you then having a beer, or a cigarette. (in fact, I would vehemently argue that having smoking cigarettes is MUCH worse for you then smoking a joint... when I used to smoke cigarettes I got massive bronchitis 3x/4x a year, and since I quit those I’m fine)
I feel that harder drugs, like cocaine, heroin, meth, LSD and the like, are NOT in that same catagory. They completely destroy your ablity to reason in short order and give you all kinds of health problems.
I believe that people should have the freedom to decide for themselves what is acceptable, and what is unacceptable. So I see where you are going with this. I don’t have an answer for you other then my firsthand experiances. Pot = not so bad. Hard drugs = very easy to get into , very hard to get out of.
I also think that this is a VERY hot issue with the younger crowd, and the ‘rats realize this and are going to work to get legistlation passed so that record numbers of young voters get out there and support the Marxist policies of the Obama “administration”.
This is one issue where so-called “conservatives” have no respect for state’s rights. Just like the Dims, they trample the 10th Amendment when it suits their purposes.
Definitely a stoner’s classic!
“Total BS. If marijuana is going to remain illegal, then I hope that tobacco addicts will have to deal w/ the same fate that those of us who enjoy smoking marijuana face right now. Confiscate their houses & cars & drug test them out of their jobs. Take their kids & put them up for foster care...after all, it is detrimental to the health of a child to be raised in a tobacco-smoke environment.”
You certainly labeled that right.”Total BS”
I would hate to see Dane miss this thread . . .
Is he still around?
I think the best thing that people who want pot decriminalized could do is to invent a small, portable device that could test for intoxication (aka a breathalyzer). Until we have that (which I don’t think we do), the whole “pot’s no worse than alcohol” argument is hollow.
That said, while pot should be a state, not federal issue, I’m not a big fan of selective enforcement. It just sends the message that rules are well, more like non-binding resolutions.
One of the comments from the You Tube page:
“How the hell does weed bring anyone to the ER?”
You have no right to smoke tobacco either and there are employers that do not permit people to smoke the legal substance even offsite on their own time.
Call it a lifestyle choice like homosexuality and you might be able to force employers to allow it.
Walt Disney didn’t permit his employees to smoke or have facial hair. “Do as I say, not as I do.”
But I know of modern companies that have a no tobacco rule.
Cocaine is already legal - my otolaryngologist swabbed it up my nose a few years back, out of a little brown bottle labelled “COCAINE HYDROCHLORIDE 10% USP SOLUTION.”
Do we have a “huge influx” of kids running to ear, nose, and throat doctors trying to get a prescription for cocaine?
The problems with drugs arise when you use the criminal justice system and the brute force of armed police officers to deal with a public health issue.
I’m familiar w/ that too....not to mention apartment complexes, etc.
You loserdopian, libertarian drug addict, pot fiend, curse to society, non productive, terrorist supporting, junkie of humanity.
Just kidding. Wanted to get that out of the way for the tunnel vision FR weed enforcement agents who are ready to pull a SWAT raid on your post.
When I was a kid I broke my nose playing sand lot football. The Doc packed both nostrils with that a few minutes before he took the palm of his hand and shoved the nose back across my face to it’s normal position.
He is no libertarian. He is ready to lace up the jackboots on things he doesn’t like. I.E smokers.
LOL...I’m used to putting up w/ FR Narco Agents....& they’re oftentimes not the “Friendly Neighborhood” types, either!
If marijuana had a recognizable medicinal use....Wouldn’t WalMart be selling a month’s supply for $10?
If the gov't would get out of the way, you betcha! I look forward to the day when they do.
Sixty-three percent (63%) of Americans believe patients should be allowed to smoke marijuana if it is prescribed by a doctor.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 24% of adults say patients should not be allowed to smoke pot in cases like that. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/october_2009/63_say_doctor_prescribed_pot_is_okay
(from 10-21-2009)
Enter (marijuana or THC) and pain into the query box at PubMed.
Find out for yourself when the link is working. It's not now.
Numerous studies show that marijuana is quite effective for treating neuropathic pain.
True, but isn’t the beneficial part of pot, “thc” obtainable in pill form?
two words for ya: "Signing statements"
Ignorance and Vice
John Adams "It is high Time for the people of this country to declare, whether they will be freemen or slaves? It is an important question which ought to be decided. It concerns us more that anything in this life. The Salvation of our souls is interested in this event. For wherever tyranny is established immorality of every kind comes in like a torrent. It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For the cannot live in a country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; therefore they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always observable, that those who are combined to destroy the people's liberties, practice every art to poison their morals. How greatly then does it concern us, at all events, to put a stop to the progress of tyranny." --
You can’t have a swimming pool without government involvement. Your garden won’t be any different.
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