http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/08/14/gop-senate-candidate-ridicules-marijuana-pain-study/http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/archives/217904.aspWashington Republican (T-Bagger) Senate Candidate Dino Rossi-
On Thursday, Rossi released a statement ridiculing the two-year, $148,000 project by psychology professor Michael Morgan, whose study involves injecting synthetic cannabinoids (the active chemicals found in marijuana) along with opiates in rats to study how to improve treatments for people with chronic pain.
Rossi said taxpayers “are tired of their money going up in smoke,” and that instead of creating jobs, the money isn’t “going to stimulate anything other than the sale of Cheetos.”
The GOP senatorial hopeful really couldn't’t be blamed for seeking a diversion to distract voters from the fact that he was recently named to a list of the 11 Most Crooked Candidates running for national office by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
“It is odd that Rossi thinks he knows more about good research than these neuroscientists,” Morgan said.
According to Morgan, he is “dumbfounded” that he is being attacked for a $150,000 study aimed at making progress in the management of pain, which one study estimates costs U.S. employers $80 billion a year in sick days and lost productivity.Sativex is already in use as a spray for people with MS in Canada.
The Lesson of Sativex
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/21818/April 19, 2005 On April 19, the Canadian government delivered what should be the final blow to the U.S. government's irrational prohibition against the medical use of marijuana. It approved prescription sale of a natural marijuana extract -- for all practical purposes, liquid marijuana -- to treat pain and other symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis.
In short, the Canadian government has just certified that virtually everything our own government has been telling us about marijuana is wrong. In defiance of a large and growing pile of scientific studies, our government still claims that marijuana has no medical value. White House Drug Czar John Walters even compared medical marijuana to "medicinal crack."
Such statements were always scientifically ridiculous, as has been noted by a wide range of authorities, including the American Public Health Association, the American Nurses Association, and the state medical societies of New York, California and Rhode Island, to name just a few. Now, GW Pharmaceuticals' research has definitively put such nonsense to rest.In addition, it is legal to grow hemp in Canada. Hemp is the best fiber for paper b/c it's the longest fiber. Hemp is competition for the lumber industry and is superior to wood pulp paper in numerous ways - b/c of the usefulness of the fiber itself, and because it is a quick growing annual that, if used for paper products, would allow us to slow the rate of deforestation which would, in turn, help to keep the planet cool and make the air quality better.
Sometimes I don't know if Republicans are just craven or really as short-sighted and backward as they appear.