I'll be waiting to hear the news.

- - NOTICE - -

YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE BOARD OF STATE CANVASSERS WILL MEET ON MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2008 AT 3:00 P.M. IN ROOM 426 OF THE STATE CAPITOL, LANSING, MICHIGAN.

Included on the Agenda will be:

This is a position paper by the ACP, and these are the positions taken:

Position 1: ACP supports programs and funding for rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and the publication of such findings.

Position 1a: ACP supports increased research for conditions where the efficacy of marijuana has been established to determine optimal dosage and route of delivery.

Position 1b: Medical marijuana research should not only focus on determining drug efficacy and safety but also on determining efficacy in comparison with other available treatments.

Position 2: ACP encourages the use of nonsmoked forms of THC that have proven therapeutic value.

Position 3: ACP supports the current process for obtaining federal research-grade cannabis.

Position 4: ACP urges review of marijuana’s status as a schedule I controlled substance and its reclassification into a more appropriate schedule, given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana’s safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions.

Position 5: ACP strongly supports exemption from federal criminal prosecution; civil liability; or professional sanctioning, such as loss of licensure or credentialing, for physicians who prescribe or dispense medical marijuana in accordance with state law. Similarly, ACP strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.

Other than Position 3, I don't have any problem with the positions taken, and certainly Positions 4 and 5 are significant in their support of state medical marijuana laws.

Goals

I. To establish and promote the highest clinical standards and ethical ideals;

II. To be the foremost comprehensive education and information resource for all internists;

III. To advocate responsible positions on individual health and on public policy relating to health care for the benefit of the public, our patients, the medical profession, and our members;

http://www.acponline.org/about_acp/who_we_are/mission/

Internal medicine is the branch and specialty of medicine concerning the diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of diseases in adults, especially of internal organs. Doctors of internal medicine, also called "internists", are required to have included in their medical schooling and postgraduate training at least three years dedicated to learning how to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases that affect adults. Internists are sometimes referred to as the "doctor's doctor," because they are often called upon to act as consultants to other physicians to help solve puzzling diagnostic problems. While the name "internal medicine" may lead one to believe that internists only treat "internal" problems, this is not the case. Doctors of internal medicine treat the whole person, not just internal organs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_medicine

The American College of Physicians’ stated mission is to enhance the quality and effectiveness of health care by fostering excellence and professionalism in the practice of medicine. It was founded in 1915 to promote the science and practice of medicine. In 1998, ACP merged with the American Society of Internal Medicine (ASIM), which was established in 1956 to study economic aspects of medicine. Known as ACP-ASIM from 1998 to 2003, the organization then re-adopted American College of Physicians as its corporate name.

Breaking up your post into manageable paragraphs makes you much more easy to read ...

I believe the best I can offer is my observation that the Roman Catholic Church must have known a lot about brain science back in 325 AD, when they decreed that ALCOHOL & WHEAT are to be the sacred sacraments-ALCOHOL TOXICITY causes, in turn, WHEAT (glutamate) TOXICITY, a virtual one-two punch that kills brain accuity.

AND WE DON'T HAVE TO WAIT 500 YEARS TO SEE THE EFFECTS.

I love the Harvard bit about how Presidential sound bites dropped from 42.8 seconds in 1968 to 9.8 in 1988-and to 7.8 seconds in 2000. At that rate we should be at about 6 seconds today-which seems to fit here.

Everybody knows the most popular sound bite that has hit you-tube in recent recording cycles is that word "zerox" that Hillary spoke about Barack's sanctioned use of good phrases in speaches of late.

The modern public has ever more shorter attention spans-which allows the controllers of policy to keep ANY COMPLEX DISCUSION FROM HAPPENING. The simpler the "position" is, the more likely any complex change is foreclosed-LIKE THE "ONE SIZE FITS ALL" response to complex "drug" issues.

"But marijuana is illegal isn't it?" always wins the day, and local police in Iowa merely cause newspaper articles about "drug busts" to note "drug residue" or otherwise, and note a "perp" was caught with a "small amount" of some drug-ie: nobody even hears what the type of drug is-THEY DON'T HAVE TO KNOW-ALL DRUGS ARE "BAA-AAD" right?

And I saw just how pernicious this lack of any attention span can be-in court a few years ago, while I was being railroaded to an intended 'conviction' for interference with official acts (because I merely spoke up about the inhumanity of police gooning a Hispanic boy in a short sleeve shirt, outside of a squad car in 19 degree weather, that is), THE COPS BROUGHT IN A TAMPERED WITH VIDEOTAPE OF THE ARREST, WHERE MY FREE SPEECH STATEMENT WAS ERASED AND COVERED OVER WITH A RADIO TALK SHOW PROGRAM-even though the cop car was totally silent that night!

My own sister, a redneck, of course, that had approached the cop car that night, and HEARD THERE WAS NO SOUND IN THE OPEN WINDOW OF THE COP CAR, started to speak up out of turn, and then judge quickly shut her up-She totally forgot her thought, because short attention span keeps a person moving on with other action (almost universally, that is).

The judge, you see, had already decided he had to protect the police from PERJURY & EVIDENCE TAMPERING CRIMES, and so he knew he would DISMISS THE CHARGE AT THE VERY END OF THE STATE'S 'CASE IN CHIEF', so he could merely do a "sweep it under the carpet" tactic, to balance the issues and 1) keep me from taking a false conviction, 2) protect the cops from their own serious evidence crimes & 3) PROTECT HIS OWN REPUTATION, BECAUSE BY DISMISSING THE CHARGE AS SOON AS HE COULD, HE COULD KEEP FROM HAVING "BLOOD" on his hands as well.

Well, it took my sister two years to finally remember that the tape MUST HAVE BEEN TAMPERED WITH, because she didn't hear the radio on in the squad car!

In other words, as soon as ANY ISSUE, gets sufficiently complicated so that it doesn't fit into the shallow memory "chips" most citizens carry around by now, NO CHANGE IS POSSIBLE.

So back to Catholic land-pump people with alcohol & gluten, and nobody thinks anymore.

Cannabis, of course, is the "antisacrament", ever since Pope Innocente VIII decreed it so-in 1474 AD. They didn't and don't want people saving their brain accuity-that just makes people talk back and question rigid authority EDICTS, which is why we get such good chains of posts here-because we belong to a dying breed of thinkers, that can still think, (of course, this is a blatant oversimplification, and sorry for that, but I have sound bite limitations, to deal with, such as the sheer knowledge that nobody wants to read long posts anymore, right?).

End of story-except it was nice to see that bit noted by Susan Jacoby from the Washington Post, 2/17/08, talking about how FDR wanted people to roll out a map so they could understand the sheer distances involved in supply issues, across the deep blue sea, in February, 1942, when we were getting hammered in the Pacific. And that "Lysenkoism" word, and to see the "operant conditioning" word in print again. Just don't forget about "Conservative Affective Disorder" (CAD) that causes those conservatives to go bye-bye back to a bygone era, when everything was simple and easy-like hitting that EZ button at Staples. And I liked seeing Ralph Waldo Emerson being brought back on-line, straight from 1837, before a few other wars got going, that thankfully were not quite as long as the new 100 year war that is just getting started over there, eh?

Have fun listening to Rust Radio FoM! I'll talk to you in a couple days. Take care.

http://www.rustradio.org/

February 24, 2008

One of America's leading medical societies has come down forcefully on the side of compassion and common sense, as Michigan voters prepare to consider a November ballot initiative to protect seriously ill patients who use medical marijuana from arrest.

These doctors have demolished myths being floated by opponents of medical marijuana.

Snipped:

I have already read some wonderful, thoughtful posts. So thank you all for those.

This ACP endorsement couldn't have came at a better time for Michigan. It will definitely push the passing percentage up a couple of points in November :)

Thank you for all your hard work Diane, you've been a huge help during this campaign. Time to educate the rest of the Great Lakes State!

I believe that this provides a pretty good thumbnail sketch as to why this has happened: http://johntaylorgatto.com/historytour/history1.htm

Looks like they succeeded, huh?

It may seem an extreme example, but given all the factual information concerning cannabis's usefulness and innate lack of toxicity, the rote acceptance of misinformation contrary to those facts as a matter of course, and the continual dissemination of that misinformation by those charged with informing of those facts and basing governmental policy upon those facts instead of that misinformation, it becomes clear that not all of the fault lies with the government.

When it comes to this - who knows how many other subjects - the average citizen has been conditioned to respond to government pronouncements with child-like acceptance. This is not education. It is what psychologists call 'operant conditioning', only a few steps above Pavlov blowing a whistle and making dogs drool in anticipation of being fed - exactly as he trained them to do.

But if you read the ACP report, I think we're starting to see the medical community awaken to an important fact: sick and dying patients will NEVER have proper access to cannabis and cannabinoid-based drugs while criminal prohibition still exists.

The report isn't a simple endorsement of medicinal cannabis use, it goes much farther. It indicts the system that has suppressed not only availability of medical cannabis, but they also focus on the obstacles to research and development of medical MJ. Obstacles that all exist because of prohibition.

It's been decades now that reformers have made every attempt to open up research into cannabis & get the medicine to the patients. While excellent progress has been made, it's still woefully inadequate, every after 30+ years of concerted effort. An impartial observer must conclude that the vested interested behind MJ prohibition are responsible. The only way to expedite progress on the medical front is to remove those vested interests from the equation, and the only way to do that is to end prohibition.

The logical scientific mind must also realize that cannabis prohibition makes no sense at any level anyway! These doctors can read the studies. I'm sure the recent Tashkin lung cancer study out of California sealed the deal for the ACP endorsement. In fact, it's likely that the Tashkin report was the impetus for the ACP's endorsement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901.html

It's talking about the fact that, even though people are educated more than ever before, we're seeing a decline in intellectualism. In fact, the trend is against rational thought.

It's interesting that the same thing is happening in the Mideast in a big way. Compare to 30 years ago, most Arab countries have far more people that are fundamentalist religious radicals. They are basically moving backwards. Secular institutions, advanced and supported by the West after WWII through the 70s are being replaced by religious institutions.

But Hilary closed spectacularly well, I thought. I was very impressed.

It is so neat to watch Obama and Clinton.

Science was muted by know-betters, know-nothings, fear-mongers, and profit-makers.

I am sure a lot of doctors remained quiet because to speak is to be silenced.

The sure path is widening. Others are finally learning the truth.

Then again, maybe it is just the money that is talking.

Didn't exactly get as much coverage as the gum disease article, did it?

It wouldn't have been the first time I'd said something stupid and didn't realize it.

Everyone here who's been here for some time knows about the politicization (perhepas 'bastardization' is a better word) of science. Drug prohibition is based upon it. The technical term is 'Lysenkoism'. The past 7 years have seen that process accelerated beyond anything imaginable. And it has had direct consequences for honest scientists, doctors, etc. And those on the receiving end of it have had little in the way of recourse; they must either prostitute themselves and their work for political goals not based upon ethics but greed, power, etc....of face ostracism. Cannabists have been suffering from the effects of policy based upon this philosophy for decades, but for many of those presently complaining about it, it's their first taste of the sharp and dirty end of the stick. Welcome to the club, ladies and gents.

And, yes, there is a mountain of truth in what MuseMan has said. These voices knew the truth about cannabis for a very long time...and chose to remain silent, thinking that they could, as Pastor Niemoller did in Nazi Germany, remain safe in silence while the intellectual - and moral! - crime of prohibition took place.

Dankhank and Max Flowers are both correct.

But Max is correct in saying we sould be greatful for the article. It is a good one.

It just, "so states the obvious!"

Hallelujah! Honesty in the air we breathe is so much better than those stinking lies that have been floating in and polluting everything for so long.

Especially the vaporization bit. Jesus christ, how long was it going to take for the medical profession to acknowledge that all the vaporization technology we'll ever need is HERE NOW! It doesn't need to be developed or investigated, it's here now.

This one big group of doctors still cares more about compassion and scientific truth than selling out to Big Pharma.

I'm going to leave my thanks on their website now!

Maybe enough of the narrow-minded generation (WWII -my parents generation - which does not mean every person in that generation, just most of 'em) has gone into the great beyond that some fresh blood has made it to the top of the medical mountain. Of course there is still the AMA, the supreme 'recognized authority' on all things prohibited, and the DEA is sure to point out that the ACP doesn't compare to the laurels of the AMA.

Getting any doctors to stand up in the truth is a big achievement however, so I'll be watching for the ACP to see if they have any impact on mainstream.