Exposing the Myth of Smoked Medical Marijuana (So govt admits MJ does help...)

[The Straight Story]

Just not SMOKED MJ. See their view on it below (with my annotations)

Q. Does marijuana have any medical value?

* Any determination of a drug's valid medical use must be based on the best available science undertaken by medical professionals. The Institute of Medicine conducted a comprehensive study in 1999 to assess the potential health benefits of marijuana and its constituent cannabinoids. The study concluded that smoking marijuana is not recommended for the treatment of any disease condition. In addition, there are more effective medications currently available. For those reasons, the Institute of Medicine concluded that there is little future in smoked marijuana as a medically approved medication.8

* Advocates have promoted the use of marijuana to treat medical conditions such as glaucoma. However, this is a good example of more effective medicines already available(Note - they don't say it doesn't help, just that there are more expensive and better treatments). According to the Institute of Medicine, there are six classes of drugs and multiple surgical techniques that are available to treat glaucoma that effectively slow the progression of this disease by reducing high intraocular pressure.

* In other studies, smoked marijuana has been shown to cause a variety of health problems, including cancer, respiratory problems, increased heart rate, loss of motor skills, and increased heart rate. Furthermore, marijuana can affect the immune system by impairing the ability of T-cells to fight off infections, demonstrating that marijuana can do more harm than good in people with already compromised immune systems.9

* In addition, in a recent study by the Mayo Clinic, THC was shown to be less effective (see previous note) than standard treatments in helping cancer patients regain lost appetites.10

* The American Medical Association recommends that marijuana remain a Schedule I controlled substance.

* The DEA supports research into the safety and efficacy of THC (the major psychoactive component of marijuana), and such studies are ongoing, supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

* As a result of such research, a synthetic THC drug, Marinol,(let the big companies handle this..mmm k) has been available to the public since 1985. The Food and Drug Administration has determined that Marinol is safe, effective, and has therapeutic benefits for use as a treatment for nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy, and as a treatment of weight loss in patients with AIDS. However, it does not produce the harmful health effects associated with smoking marijuana.

* Furthermore, the DEA recently approved the University of California San Diego to undertake rigorous scientific studies to assess the safety and efficacy of cannabis compounds for treating certain debilitating medical conditions. (hmmm wonder why....maybe cause people ain't just blowing smoke out their ass on it?)

* It's also important to realize that the campaign to allow marijuana to be used as medicine is a tactical maneuver in an overall strategy to completely legalize all drugs. Pro-legalization groups have transformed the debate from decriminalizing drug use to one of compassion and care for people with serious diseases. The New York Times interviewed Ethan Nadelman, Director of the Lindesmith Center, in January 2000. Responding to criticism from former Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey that the medical marijuana issue is a stalking-horse for drug legalization, Mr. Nadelman did not contradict General McCaffrey. "Will it help lead toward marijuana legaization?" Mr. Nadelman said: "I hope so." (their first sentence does not agree with the last part of this. Pretty slick...)


http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/ongoing/marijuana.html

[sweetheart]

1. Nobody said it wasn't a drug

A drug has primary and secondary effects. Ultimately, it is the patient who is the best
judge of whether a treatment is working for them; life being a terminal condition after all.

Whats wrong with freedom? What is wrong with people choosing their own medicines,
plants, foods and lifestyles? When did those things that were pervasive and obvious
rights when the bill of rights was designed, when did those unenumerated rights become removed?

[MatrixEscape]

2. There is ...

a much larger platform and a wide range of issues involved in the government's obsessive interference in the use of herbs/drugs/natural substances by the general population.

The thing is, the propaganda has worked, and will continue to do so, despite the overall facts and any reality behind the threats and dangers versus the benefits and cures.

Without a careful, well researched, and sound view of the bigger picture concerning how certain substances have been demonized and then banned, versus other, even more potentially harmful, (short term and longterm) ones, you only have two factors in play: personal experience and preference vs. culturally induced, manipulated exigencies.

Note: If you ever want to manipulate naive or uniformed people to get behind any program or product you want to promote or push, simply start with their children and emphasize the dangers to said. That has become a proven formula for molding and shaping public opinion and beliefs, despite any sound or practical validity behind the campaign itself.

Mankind has been using various chemicals, (natural or synthetic) since time immemorial. We are that kind of creature as a matter of fact and habit. Those substances have had, (and will have) either a profound or subtle impact on our behaviors and our cultures. The effects, problems, and benefits of those substances are nothing new. They are real. They will change over time. They will not go away, but their will always be somebody or some group that has a good reason to sway opinions, and manufacture wide-spread responses to a given substance. In a pertinent way, the amount of time, money, and personal effort that goes into preventing and criminalizing usage should be suspect because, when it is left unchallenged allowed to foment and gestate unsupervised, it can represent a greater danger to the body politic and overall well-being of a populace than the so-called demon it stands to exorcise.

The war on drugs was never won. But its impact on personal freedom, choice, and common sense has made it a great success in a rather covert way. That is, not to mention the financial, (and other benefits) to special interests over the decades of mental abuse that it has foisted on the unwary in the name of a common good.

We are steeped and soaked, (and oddly, still surviving) in a proverbial vat of untried and untrue chemicals, prescription drugs, artificial foods, electromagnetic pollution, radiation, social experiments, and robust, unflinching political manipulation and experimentation. All of this profit and power motivated exploitation seems to carry very little concern about long-term outcomes. And yet, we are asked to deploy large amounts of resources and our faith in now out-of-date efforts to throw off the "new scourge" of consciousness alteration -- a rather natural human endeavor.

For every personal anecdote about how "bad drugs" have destroyed a life or a family, etc., etc., there are corresponding good stories and results. Addicts are addicts, sadly to say. Give some people anything they can enjoy easily and they will overuse it beyond proportion. Those we call, "mentally ill" will tend to exacerbate their problems and conditions with drugs, sex, or anything at their disposal. Yet, we are being sold a line that underscores the evils and elevates the experiences of the troubled, (both psychologically and conditionally) in order to serve a controlling, molding paradigm that stresses nothing but conformity and an ensuing, materialistic, bottom-line productivity, as if that is all that life is for and about. In the end, drugs, (both licit and illicit) are good and bad, depending on how, where, and by whom they are used. There is no easy way out, but America uses a vast plethora of drugs of both kinds, in major quantities, right now. So, depending on how you see the country, drugs are playing a large roll in it, no matter how you view the legality of drugs or the ethics of pharmaceutical companies that exist purely for profit.

Everything can have a good and bad side, depending on the circumstances. The bad side of propaganda is that, when we allow ourselves to absorb and believe it long enough, it gives us a very distorted sense of proportion and the price we pay can extend even unto generations to come. Free minds are extremely important in this equation, no matter how they find that freedom. In a sense, when a free mind is the end, the means to acquire it can be more easily justified.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

3. Excellent post

k&r

[Toots]

4. When suffering from nausea from chemo treatment it is hard to hold anything

down. Even their little Marinol pills. You can't throw up smoke... It has it's place and eventually people will recognize that fact...

[NashVegas]

5. If You Want MJ Legal

Donate to NORML. Take the money you'd spend on an ounce and donate that to a NORML-backed scientific study (if there is such a thing) of medical benefits.