cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Reconsidered





Marijuana Reconsidered
Posted by FoM on April 06, 2002 at 11:25:51 PT
By Jared M. Fleisher and Tobias G. Snyder
Source: Harvard Crimson
Imagine that scientists at a major drug company announced the discovery of a new drug, clinically proven to be effective in the treatment of symptoms of glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and migraines, all with moderate short term side-effects and no long term ones. The drug has no potential for overdose and no risk of physical dependence. Now imagine that the United States government deemed this substance to be medically worthless, classified it with the most dangerous and addictive narcotics and, along with state and local governments, proceeded to spend over $30 billion a year attempting to eradicate it. 
Sound bizarre? It is, but it also happens to be U.S. policy on marijuana. Since the administration of President Richard Nixon, America has put billions upon billions of dollars into the War on Drugs, with the lion’s share of funds allotted to fighting marijuana. There are over 20 federal agencies involved in combating cannabis and the combined cost to taxpayers is tremendous. Yet there are few valid arguments as to why we should be involved in this fight; the justifications offered in support of marijuana prohibition crumble under scrutiny. Rhetoric has eclipsed logic, and the debate over the decriminalization of marijuana has devolved into a farce of political grandstanding and exploitation. The Harvard Coalition for Drug Policy Reform is dedicated to reversing this trend by bringing logic and science to the forefront of federal drug policy. We believe that current discourse on the issue ignores the critical question of what is more harmful to society: marijuana or the battle to eradicate it. We also believe that an appeal to the facts answers this question conclusively. In the words of the very commission convened by President Nixon to justify the prohibition of marijuana, “The drug’s relative potential for harm…and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it.” This conclusion can be supported along several lines. To begin with, marijuana has less potential for dependence and is less likely to induce withdrawal symptoms than alcohol, nicotine and even caffeine. It is considerably less harmful to the lungs than smoking cigarettes, not only because cigarette smokers tend to consume their product in much larger quantities, but also because cigarettes affect smaller airways in the lungs and thus do proportionately more damage. While there has not been a single death reported from cannabis, cigarettes kill 430,000 people annually. With regard to its impact on the brain, the most pervasive myth about cannabis is that it permanently impairs memory and other cognitive functions. However, a 1999 study from Johns Hopkins University of 1,318 marijuana users over a 15-year period revealed no significant difference in cognitive decline between heavy users, light users and non-users. While marijuana users as a group scored more poorly than non-users on a battery of cognitive tests at the outset of another study, after 27 days of non-use the test scores of the two groups were indistinguishable. Granted, the ability to learn and recall new information is impaired while high, but the effects are neither long term nor irreversible. The myth that marijuana kills brain cells is as patently false as the claim that it induces violent or aggressive behavior. The dangers of marijuana have been greatly exaggerated. These limited dangers must now be weighed against the social costs of its prohibition. The most damaging effect of marijuana prohibition is the denial of medicinal marijuana to those who need it. Marijuana dramatically reduces the severe nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy, relieves the unrelenting optic pressure that characterizes glaucoma and successfully induces appetite among AIDS patients who desperately need to eat. It has also proved effective in combating the symptoms of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and many other medical conditions. Unbelievably, the U.S. government has ignored these findings and classified marijuana as a Schedule I Drug, effectively stating that it has no potential for medicinal use. This classification is especially unwarranted as marijuana’s toxicity is minimal, particularly when compared with other commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals. The economic and social costs of prohibition are also staggering. The government spends over $30 billion battling cannabis each year, yet despite this tremendous expenditure marijuana is as available as ever, with 89 percent of high school seniors reporting last year that it was fairly easy or very easy to obtain. It is not surprising then that 734,000 people were arrested on marijuana-related charges in 2000, 88 percent for simple possession. Such enforcement produces more harm than it prevents. It criminalizes large numbers of otherwise law-abiding people who have in no way impinged upon the liberties of others. Furthermore, it disproportionately affects America’s youth and minority communities, and the harm done to their futures far outweighs the harm of marijuana itself. The government should base its policy on science and common sense. Marijuana must be decriminalized and made readily available for medicinal purposes. Jared M. Fleisher ’05 and Tobias G. Snyder ’05 are officers of the The Harvard Coalition for Drug Policy Reform. Source: Harvard Crimson (MA Edu)Author: Jared M. Fleisher and Tobias G. SnyderPublished: Thursday, March 07, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Harvard Crimson, Inc.Contact: letters thecrimson.comWebsite: http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/Related Articles:Secret Nixon Tapes Show Why US Outlawed Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12324.shtmlJust What Was He Smoking? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12302.shtml
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Comment #23 posted by jsekin on April 08, 2002 at 18:45:29 PT:
Addiction
We are a nation "addicted." The challenge we have is not the consequences of our use of addictive substances but the addiction itself. Those "warriors" fighting the war on drugs are themselves addicted. The War on Drugs feeds itself, feeds its insatiable appetite funded by political traitors who play on the War on Drugs for political power and re-election financing. We need to address the reason why people become addicted, the reason for such addiction, the root cause of such addiction. Criminalizing every citizen in the country for acts related to their addition is unpatriotic and self-defeating. 
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Comment #22 posted by kaptinemo on April 07, 2002 at 14:53:08 PT:
No, Sans, it's not all that fantastic
I mean, the CIA was looking for what they called a 'stupid bush', extracts of which could be used to paralyze a foreign nation's army and citizenry. They tried cannabis in their MK-ULTRA tests...and gave it up. Didn't cause stupidity. Hilarity and munchies, yes...but not stupidity.
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Comment #21 posted by DdC on April 07, 2002 at 14:47:21 PT
Contemplations on Cannabis..Cali Kynd actually ¶8)
Finding out about the Reefer Madness and what seemingly rational human beings can muster up can lead one to a very dark place concerning our fellow humanoids I admit. But I believe its all about personal lessons and sometimes what applies to one isn't comfortable with anothers at this particular spot in their journey. So we all have to go at our own speed even in the absorption of all of the repressed cannabis knowledge. That in itself can fabricate many fantasies, as dysfunction breeds faster in darkness. But it also hides fantastic discoveries that could be considered fantasy a short time ago. At least by the masses. So getting back to the point. Would the government luminati hotti toddies hide knowledge? I don't think thats hard to answer. Could they purposely harm a few thought of as degenerates, to help the masses or rather sell to the masses? MKULTRA Tuskegee Nukes and Prohibition Reefer Madness come to mind.The fact that every human being has THC receptors and transmitters has to arouse suspicion as to their purpose and unlike the appendix, they do seem to be functioning, somehow? Again more of mans adulterations, censoring and manipulation of the facts makes it difficult at best to discern the difference between hype and reality. But it seems a motus operandi can be mapped out. Who stands to lose is a base to start. Competition kept off the market is a gimmie. Benefits discovered by many other countries was only a matter of time before the US general public found out. Many knew of some of the medical and hemp benefits in the 60's, then Jack's and others books and High Times spread more info, repressed in public and parochial schools. Then the net blew the lid off and still the mainstream remain pushing confusion. Overload and the TV and print bias still push Reefer Mad stories over medical discoveries. They rely on their image to survive the ratings. I believe its time to tarnish those images willing to sacrifice the well being of Americans over the profits of International Korpses. But again back to the point.These receptors and transmitters in discussions I've had with Doctors could hypothetically, like radio transmitters and receptors, broadcast signals from the brain to the effected part of the body where the hard wiring is corroded with MS or Parkinson. Stopping the ailment or the symptom directly. By this theory further amplification of the THC transmitters could send thought signals to THC receptors in another body, aka psychic connection. My thought is where would the government carry this out? Where people chase red herrings, Area 51. Probably cloning armies as we speak too. When people bury their heads long enough, shunning common sense and logic for the word of a vested ignorant representative, anything is possible.Cannabis is or it isn't, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon 80 years to test it and Racist Fascism has never to date created medical symptoms out of plant use, only out of the effects from racist fascism. Personally I doubt UFO's ability to demolicularize to travel the speed of light to reach such vast destinies and it has to happen by shedding the physical body transmitter and entering a worm hole through some mind manipulation covered up long ago by the religions static dogma and elimination of the energy plants. I think the knowledge left with the Myans and other groups and we're experimenting and searching but haven't made the conncetion. Thus the funding has to remain and that comes from the fear factor maintaining dysfunction.DMT is the greatest hallucinogen and is produced by the human brain. Seems the energy plants aren't of this world and probably led apes to expand the capillaries in their brains to increase the size and lay out a larger picture to visualize the memories. Leading to tools and more shrooms and cannabis and bigger pictures until the split into two hemispheres and the creation of language leading to classism and domination, probably first between the sexes, men oppressing womens food supplies to create an easy time of it. Leading to Bibles or Laws to smooth out more wrinkles. Capital punishment torture rape and pillage and more laws keep us herding right along. Racist Hearst Headlines are still available and yet the liberals and black caucus and Mexican farmworkers aren't making the connection that prohibition caused their suffering, even if they never toked. Prohibition also killed Jews supplying IG Farbin and Bayer profits that stigmatizing kept from cannabis industry to this day. Indians getting raided, now trying a third crop should relate to the past treaties broken and every whitebread middle class with a kid breathing the pesticides and herbicides and fossil fuel sulfur emissions not possible with organics and biomass/biodiesel. Also the wars their kids will die in protecting Enron, Exxon and Occidental. The cost in their taxes the loss in their jobs from NAFTA now raping Central America without environmental protection. The cutting aid to the poor only means more crime and violence down the road and planning that with Supermax profits on dysfunction ain't whats best for soccer moms. Meat uses most of the Agriculture to grow its grain meals, using fresh water and tons of chemicals sprayed on the fields. Reducing consumption by 2/3rds mixing hempseeds nutrition into the Mickey D burgers won't change the taste but will reduce 2/3rds of the Ag to grow hemp with all of its versatility to replace the crude oil pestoherbocides used in what hemp does naturally as a weed itself. Stop cutting trees for wood that hemps tensile strength is greater and less chemicals processing the paper. Cottons 270,000 tons eliminated using hemp as softer stronger cloth fiber. Instead of booze and its violence and brain drain inebriation, a choice to mellow out and relax from the tensions instead of just amnesia, and to kick the white powders and maintain instead of WoD fodder.Each of us must decide what kind of world we want instead of what Rupert and Bushit Inc. say we must. Legalizing cannabis is the only start to end this modern stage of New Weird Odor World Trade Orchestrations. It is the Keystone of WoD and WoD the Keystone of Fascism. No bystanders in this war, profit depends on continuing. Peace or zero tolerance puts the Fascist out of business. Doing nothing, believing cannabis myth's, not questioning the common logic behind prohibition and allowing the fear to better your judgment keeps it all going and each year more and more frankenfoods replace real meals our grandparents ate. Each polyfiber processed and emitting future asthma kids as the crude oil potholes they sell every 3 months end up in the bottom of your coffee cup. Slaughtering baby animals as sacrificial lambs for the profit gods is the same as we treat the seniors, considered used up as worthy and warehoused, unless rich, but even they still consume as dutiful drones, spending their kids inheritance on pills, hospitals and 24 hour care. Homeless deterrents in this day and age. While computers and movies generate images beyond our dreams someone will go to bed hungry and saying its not our responsibility is like saying the infected hand is on its own and don't expect the body to care, it should have better prepared ...Ok back to the point. I discovered milk preserved longer in the extractum I make for patients. Many things need questioned, but one thats is answered is....
Safe Sacramental Cannabis is Food, Fuel and Fiber. FARM grown ceuticals and Hardrug&Booze alternative. Hornswaggled out by Fascist Administrations Eliminating Education via Legislation and its up to us to make it stop. And its up to them to see we don't.
Peace, Love and Liberty or D.E.A.th!
DdCCan Cannabis Make One Psychic?
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=14.topicWhere do potholes go?
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=13.topicMaintaining Dysfunction 
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=142.topicRants for a Rainy Day
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=148.topic
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Comment #20 posted by SansSuperego on April 07, 2002 at 11:31:35 PT
Must agree, dddd
True, the news is the number one cause of the duping of America a la the war on some drugs. Still, cannabis users even seem more likely to see through the garbage spewed forth on the news, which is one reason why I wondered aloud about the possibility that one reason cannabis use is specifically targeted is to keep people from thinking for themselves.Of course, there are many ways to keep people from thinking for themselves. We all know about the link between prohibition of soft drugs as an effort to provide a gateway to hard drug use, which is really where the person loses control (see goneposthole's comment #15). And then there's the mass media, which is owned by six major corporation, all of which are members of the Council on Foreign Relations, by the way. But look at the so-called drug war: its principle aim is to eradicate cannabis, and it is this task that is pursued most vigorously. Hard drugs are what they find when they are looking for pot. Pot is the real target.Which brings me to my reasoning about cannabis being some kind of neural protectant against outside influences. Recent studies of driving after smoking cannabis seem to indicate a heightened focus on the task at hand, many (including myself) can attest to the heightened awareness of one's surroundings while smoking the herb, and most of the people I know who have used cannabis can see through a lot of the BS that is spewed from the mass media. These three items seem unrelated, but in fact that may be related in a very important way. Perhaps cannabis contains something that puts one's "bullshit detector" (to use an Ezra Pound term--sorry for the obscenity) on high alert. And perhaps it does so just enough to counter the effects of messages sent through radio frequency waves and microwaves. Perhaps it helps the users to focus on reality so much that one can detect the difference between a real thought and a planted one. It is a fact that the United States has been conducting experiments on mass hypnosis and psychic driving (and the like) since the 1930s--and likely before that. It may be that cannabis screws up their whole strategy. Maybe not, and there is certainly no sure way to tell. This is going to sound like a bunch of really weird sci-fi garbage to many of you, so please ignore it if you don't like what I'm saying. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that the whole war on cannabis is so farfetched, I feel a need to search for some Machiavellan purpose behind it to convince myself that for the powers that be there really is a point to it. SansSuperego
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Comment #19 posted by goneposthole on April 07, 2002 at 08:18:38 PT
free your mind
Joyce can be deemed the most useful of the 'useful idiots'.
Something like that, maybe. 
http://www.benefitsofmarijuana.com
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Comment #18 posted by The GCW on April 07, 2002 at 07:56:57 PT
I agree with all of you.
In the year 2002, it is way low to cage a human for using cannabis.ENOUGH!
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Comment #17 posted by p4me on April 06, 2002 at 22:58:23 PT
I agree with Lehder
It is nice to know there is someone that sees things with the same conclusions. I was starting to wonder if up is up depending on what the definition of is is.VAAI
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Comment #16 posted by Lehder on April 06, 2002 at 22:11:38 PT
inner cirlce
I believe the government tacitly condones hard drug use.... The illegality is a red herring, unemployable drug users are less burdensome financially than welfare. They are a source of income. 
   -- gonepostholeOne author named Berlet lists among the characteristics of totalitarian movements a "differentiation between internal in-group and external out-group reality....."(Berlet gives a nice discussion of Hannah Arendt's book Origins of Totalitarianism):http://www.darkconspiracy.com/conspiracies/militia/total.txtSurely there are people within the drug warrior class who - whatever their varied and irrelevant opinions of the drugs themselves may be - know full well that that the drug war promotes and increases drug use. This is a fact well established by the examples of the Netherlands and other European countries where a vastly attenuated drug war has brought great reductions in the addicted populations.I am not speaking about utter fools like George Bush, but true cognoscenti who are often even personally experienced with drugs, guys like Cheney, for example, the really hard core ambitious types who are competent themselves to acquire large amounts of money and who thirst for more money and power, the supremely selfish. I'd rate Ashcroft a religious tyrant and the dupe of anyone who can use him; Hutchinson an ambitious second-rater and liar, a yes man and one of the 'useful idiots'; Nixon a twisted maniac demonized by his own horrid bigotries; but George Bush #1 - there's an icy-hearted czar of the real inner circle, married to a witch, who fully knows the truth about the harmlessness and the benefits of marijuana yet ruthlessly pursued the drug war as a business for personal gain and the acquisition of power limited only by the planet itself.Good night now.
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Comment #15 posted by goneposthole on April 06, 2002 at 21:11:43 PT
more musings
I had a job working with mentally and physically challenged people many years ago now.
Nearly every single client was using a drug of some kind. One client was taking a drug called cogentin; I made sure he got it. Depression was not his problem, psychosis with a catatonic state gripped his mind. It was a tough job to reach inside and find out what bedeviled the poor soul. He was severely mistreated as a young child and he never reached adulthood; infantile regression in the flesh. The guy also scared the shit out of me.You knew each and everyone of their personages was a lost cause. They were out there.House them, feed them, clothe them, comfort them and let them search for hope.They knew they were not the norm. They would gather in a commons, stand together, and wail. A crezendo of cacophonous sounds echoed throughout the room. It would go on for five to ten minutes and then subside. A hopeless mass of lost souls wandering aimlessly in a darkness I could not comprehend. At other times they would all be happy as a lark and all hell would break loose. Jumping, singing, playing a piano, beating on drums, general merriment in such a sorry lot. It behooved me. I did my job to try and brighten their world; to help them get along. Mainstreaming into the general public and society was out of the question.In every sense of the word, they, too, were drug addicts. The drugs were used to control their behavior, otherwise, Katie bar the door. Chemical straightjackets was not a misnomer. Some had the intelligence of a four year old; most of them were on a flight over the cuckoo's nest. Without the drugs, their minds were out of control.Using drugs is a form of mind control, slavery, and I believe the government tacitly condones hard drug use. To have drugs legal undoubtedly gives people greater control over their own lives and the powers that be would not be happy. The illegality is a red herring, unemployable drug users are less burdensome financially than welfare. They are a source of income. Even if the cost of the drug war is in the 30 some billions of dollars or some figure too obscene to comprehend, it is good money for the 'good ol' boys'.
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Comment #14 posted by qqqq on April 06, 2002 at 20:22:57 PT
George Washington
....how bout this;,,,if the war on terror had been started way sooner,,like by Native Americans in the 1600s,,then they would have been hunting down guys like George Washington...who will explain,who is to blame for American terrorism?..why isnt Ronald Reagan considered the Arafat of Nicaragua??..lucky thing no one has had the balls to call anyone in the Chinese dictatorship a "terrorist",,,I guess the Chinese are for us,and not against us...boy,,I sure would hate to be in the hot seat when it came to the "for us or against us" question!??..I've often wondered if there is any way to be officially neutral?,,like if I was being grilled by Dubya himself,,and he asked the "for us or against us" question,,could I be let off the hook by saying I'm a nuetral Swiss-Norwegian type guy?,,,or if I cut the crap,and said;"I dont agree with your fuckin' terror war,,and I think you are a world class asshole.I think you are making our country into a brutal military police state,,an empire of world domination...I'm not against you,,but I think you are a shithead corporate money puppet whore!..furthermore, I dont appreciate you assuming that everyone in America is "us"!..I am a true blue zealous American Patriot! ,but I think you are an idiot for trying to make such a totalitarian,black or white,proclamation for America!,,,you might as well have said,,'if you dont agree with us we will kill the shit out of you.',!...The more I think of it,,the more absurd it sounds!..what would the world say or think if the chairman leader of China made some Texas cowboy statement like 'if you're not for us,you're against us'??..that's the kind of arrogant shit you'd expect to hear from Stalin or an ayatollah!."..
..I guess I made my point...and dont worry,,if you disagree I wont assume you are against me,,but if you do agree,,be careful about admitting it,,it kinda looks like if you're not a "for us" person,,you may end up a victim of some krystalnacht roundup,,and get shipped off to 'Camp JFK' in Cuba...not even Jonny Cochran could get you off the hook then,,because your money has been siezed,,asnd even if you were lucky enough to have some change,,Cuban payphones dont allow collect calls!!.....cock-a- fuckin doodle doo!...
...I guess I've said enough,,and I want to offer my sincere apologies to anyone who was offended by my coarse language,and harsh rhetoric.........I guess it would be wise to also apologize to the Shrub,and any other cyber-thought police type guys,,I dont want to have to call my lawyer,Alan Dershowitz!..or if you really want to get down,,I think you should know that I have Gloria Freekin Allred on retainer.!!she's like the Joan Rivers of lawyers ...
..I'm too scared to try and proofread this commentary....it aint pretty.
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Comment #13 posted by puff_tuff on April 06, 2002 at 20:06:28 PT
I am gross and perverted
I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little had changed
I am the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate youI may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I am the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I am the slime oozin' out
From your TV setYou will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't got for help...no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are soldThat's right, folks..
Don't touch that dialWell, I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin'room floorI am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me goFrank Zappa 
Overnite Sensation 
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Comment #12 posted by dddd on April 06, 2002 at 18:43:04 PT
SanSuperego
..I respect the plausible aspects of your theory concerning mind control,,,,but I think that any power that be has got the mind control situation quite sufficiently mastered through the control of the media,,,I still think it would be cool if you were right,and it turned out that the only people who were immune to the mind controllers,were Marijuana users!...
" There is no greater power in the world today than that wielded by the manipulators of public
 opinion in America. No king or pope of old, no conquering general or high priest ever disposed
 of a power even remotely approaching that of the few dozen men who control America's mass media
 of news and entertainment. Their power is not distant and impersonal; it reaches into every home in America, and it works
 its will during nearly every waking hour. It is the power that shapes and molds the mind of
 virtually every citizen, young or old, rich or poor, simple or sophisticated. The mass media form for us our image of the world and then tell us what to think about that
 image. Essentially everything we know -- or think we know -- about events outside our own
 neighborhood or circle of acquaintances comes to us via our daily newspaper, our weekly news
 magazine, our radio, or our television."...
..from "Who Rules America"
..unfortunately,,no amount of weed can make anyone immune from the "news"....dddd
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Comment #11 posted by goneposthole on April 06, 2002 at 18:03:55 PT
Harvard Schmarvard
George Washington couldn't spell. He so cherished the one tooth he had in his head, his choppers were built around it. He grew hemp for a reason, and that reason was to smoke it.Spell it out everywhere, shout it out to the world, campaign to have marijuana legalized on the moon, Mars and throughout the Milkyway. It will not help as long as we have a corrupt government lurking in the shadows.Who is going to bring it all down? 60,000 drug addicts in Baltimore? They make sure that they get their drugs today and that's about it.Don't use drugs, legal or illegal, smoke cannabis.George Washington lived better days, everyone is stuck with a reality that makes no sense.To have been slaves on his plantation would have been a favorable alternative to the life that must be endured these days. At the end of the day, you would have been able to roll one, courtesy of George. Now, a godless master enslaves the sheeple. "No matter how you struggle and strive, you'll never get out of this world alive."-Hank WilliamsBack to my Sheep Dip.
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Comment #10 posted by SansSuperego on April 06, 2002 at 17:48:09 PT
Sidenote . . . but related (somehow)
First, I heartily agree that this article is one of those gems that should be published in every major newspaper and magazine across the country.Now, for what I really wanted to talk about. I just started reading Alex Constantine's Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A., a 1995 book dealing with the government's covert use of mind control, and the thought occurred to me that perhaps one reason why the powers that be want so desperately to destroy cannabis is that it somehow interferes with their mind control technology. I am not sure how it would interefer, but there is documented evidence of, for example, a chip that can be injected into your blood stream and that lodges in the brain. From there, whoever controls the chip can control your mind--at least to an extent (I am not making this up, and I know it is hard to believe, but I have only begun to read, and this book is quite convincing and well documented--pick it up for yourself . . . and I have no connection to Alex Constantine, so it's not like I'm just trying to get you to purchase something to make him some money). Anyway, there are many other tools at their disposal, and I am thinking that maybe they are afraid of people who use cannabis because they know that many of their thought control programs would be ineffective on cannabis users. We all know that cannabis helps us to see through the lies the government has been telling us; perhaps there is something to this idea.Any thoughts?SansSuperego
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Comment #9 posted by DdC on April 06, 2002 at 14:03:27 PT
what can't it do? ¶8)
Illegal it can't stop the side effect medication cost while growing in the herb garden. Besides replacing the Buds in a bottle and the statistics from Bushit Markets keeping it and hemp as #1 narcotics assures many years of profits. OD's on the street reconnect the fear with the DEAth programmers rants and sputoms sppread accross the airwaves. It can't cause sulfer emmissions or does it have lead or dioxins. It can't keep cop budgets high eradicating nonpsychoactive ditchweed, unless someone figures out its all been a red herring sham to maintain petro chems and the wars protecting them. The chems in tobacco, booze and pills, fossil fuels and cotton crops, the grain for the meat with lobbylacky Congress doing their bidding, all in competition with the plant that has greater mass than any other plant or animal for that matter. Greater strength than tree boards and less chems than tree paper. Providing sustanence to the poor can't make deterrents out of unemployed and homeless or kids raped in juvi prison used by DARE as deterrents. Or can it reap the rewards of prison building and supply korpses, or the ventures into Colombian oil deposits. Cannabis prohibition can't provide the cops with released drunk snitches. Unless it stays illegal it will only benefit entrapraneurs, malnutritioned, chemically poisoned and the sick and knowledged of booze and hardrug alternatives that are provided by the cowardly arms of Amerika's D.E.A.th worshipers!
What it can do...
http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/29/29799.gif
Peace, Love and Liberty
DdC
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on April 06, 2002 at 13:30:17 PT
DdC
I didn't think you did DdC. I've known you a long time and know you pretty well I think. You just brought the article to my mind and I didn't want anyone to miss checking out the comments. If Cannabis can help someone with Tourettes what can't it do? I had a classmate in grade school with a bad Tic I think they are called and know how embarassed he was and how uncomfortable he must have been.
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Comment #7 posted by DdC on April 06, 2002 at 13:23:54 PT
Thanks FoM
I'm thankful to say I never have doubts about your reporting news. ¶8)Writing in the April (2001?) issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, they said anandamide interferes with the effects of nerve cells that transmit dopamine, the message-carrying chemical responsible for stimulating movement and other motor behaviour in the brain. Uncontrolled production of dopamine has been blamed for some of the symptoms of schizophrenia and the nervous tics and outbursts associated with Tourette's syndrome. A lack of dopamine is blamed for the shaking and motor hesitation that marks Parkinson's disease. "This shows for the first time how anandamides work in the brain to produce normal motor activity,"
http://www.marijuana-uses.com
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Comment #6 posted by DdC on April 06, 2002 at 13:15:18 PT
Oh btw...
Cannabis Chemical Eases Tourette's Symptoms was sent via the Washington based hempnet from Darral...
thanks all...
DdC
Hemp Net
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on April 06, 2002 at 13:12:46 PT
Check out the comments
The Tourette's article will move off the front page when I post another article so I'm bringing it back up here so no one misses reading the comments. http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12427.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by DdC on April 06, 2002 at 13:07:08 PT
Faux Rupert Decides What You Get Reported...
Wasn't this happy news just bursting out of the mouths of Katey and Matt and Disneys ABC mourning show? Gerataldo? O'Really must of exposed it for the Americans he's concerned with...Shirley Compassionate Bushit squeeked out a smile for his fellow American Tourette sufferers. Congress must be elated, tripping over themselves running to tell the Supremist so they can rule against this Reefer Mad D.E.A.th worship. Must of been mislaid, I don't think I'll wait...
Peace, Love and Liberty or D.E.A.th!
DdCCannabis Chemical Eases Tourette's Symptoms
Tue Apr 2, 2002
By Hannah Cleaver BERLIN (Reuters Health) - Chemicals found in cannabis can significantly reduce the symptoms of Tourette's syndrome, study findings suggest.Tourette's syndrome is a neurological condition characterized by uncontrollable facial grimaces, tics, and involuntary grunts, snorts and shouts. Dr. Kirsten Mueller-Vahl of the Hanover Medical College in Germany led a team that investigated the effects of chemicals called cannabinols in 12 adult Tourette's patients. In the study, each patient was given a single oral dose of d9-THC--the most psychoactive chemical in cannabis--calculated based on their body weight, sex, age and prior use of marijuana, or a dose of inactive placebo. Symptoms were measured after the first treatment, and compared to symptoms after the same patient was switched to the other pill. Neither the patient nor the investigator knew whether they were given a placebo or the active treatment first. A single dose of the cannabinol produced a significant reduction in symptoms for several hours compared to placebo, the researchers report in the April issue of Pharmacopsychiatry. "The effects were clear," Mueller-Vahl told Reuters Health. "What was also interesting was that some patients experienced far greater effects than others. Some had a great effect, some only (a small effect), and a few none at all. But generally, the level of tic activity was reduced as were the compulsions, such as to shout, spit or swear." Mueller-Vahl's team has also recently finished a 6-week long study with 24 patients. Although the results are not yet published, the researcher said, "The second study supported what we had gathered from the initial one. Those taking the THC had significantly less tic behaviour." Around 50,000 people in Germany alone have Tourette's syndrome, a complex neurological-psychiatric condition. Its cause remains unknown. Current treatments are generally limited in effectiveness and often have considerable side effects. Mueller-Vahl said she wanted to see further research conducted on the potential medical uses of cannabis-based drugs."Marijuana and hashish from cannabis plants have been used as a medicine for centuries in various cultures," she said. "In modern cultures, cannabis--because of its abusive use as a recreational drug and not least because of the long-unknown combination of chemicals--has until now barely played a role. There are around 80 different active chemicals in the cannabis plant," she noted. "There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the consumption of marijuana clearly and continuously benefits Tourette patients," Mueller-Vahl pointed out. "There is also a strong suggestion that the plant cannabis is more effective than synthetic THC, and that patients taking the mixture experience fewer unpleasant side effects." She said the results opened up other potential areas of research. "The results prompt the question of how far the central cannabinoid receptor system of the brain plays a part in the origins of the condition," Mueller-Vahl noted. "The study should encourage further research into the effects of cannabis as well as some of the individual substances it contains, with other diseases too." SOURCE: Pharmacopsychiatry 2002;33:57-61. 
FARM-aceuticals!
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Comment #3 posted by Lehder on April 06, 2002 at 13:02:49 PT
*****
Five Stars and Thumbs Up for this eminently sensible article. It really is this simple - unless you consider bigotry against cannabis users, hatred for the culture of peace, Nixon's contempt for Jews, Anslinger's contempt for Blacks and "Mexicans", and the profits of a multifaceted drug war industry. Then it gets complicated and difficult.
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Comment #2 posted by Robbie on April 06, 2002 at 11:55:14 PT
This article
should be in every newspaper, journal, lawbook, newsletter, compendium in the country, and the world.It is frank and specific, and needs to be heard by the wonks that continue to insist on cannabis prohibition.LEGALIZE IT, DON'T CRITICIZE IT!
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Comment #1 posted by Dark Star on April 06, 2002 at 11:50:43 PT
Great Job!
I wonder if these guys were legacies?
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