cannabisnews.com: Two Sides To Marijuana Two Sides To Marijuana Posted by CN Staff on July 05, 2002 at 22:46:20 PT By Tim A. Dueck Source: Grand Forks Gazette A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at the extent of the marijuana business. This week, we wanted to look at views on the harm or benefits of the drug. Marijuana is part of Canadian culture whether you are for it or against it. The fact is that marijuana farming, distribution and use is here and it's not going away. It is being grown, sold, bought, smoked and even eaten by more and more Canadians. According to federal statistics 600,000 Canadians have criminal records for marijuana possession. In comparison there are 100,000 registered Canadians playing our national summer sport of lacrosse. Marijuana culture is as much a part of Canadian identity as beaver pelts and western alienation.Marijuana is best known as a psychoactive substance that is generally smoked in order to experience an alteration of mood or consciousness. This can lead to feelings from pleasant euphoria to intense paranoia depending on the individual and amount ingested. People's attitude about altered mental perception is likely the biggest reason people either endorse or decry marijuana use. Proponents point to the relaxing effects of marijuana use as a good thing. Opponents worry that a person's impaired judgment can lead to a variety of undesirable actions ranging from prolonged apathy to safety concerns.What is generally accepted is that smoking anything is not a great thing to do to your lungs. Regular marijuana smokers will experience the same respiratory disease as tobacco smokers. Marijuana smokers counter saying that because a lesser amount is smoked, the harmful effects are reduced.This summer, Canada's house of sober second thought - the Senate - is looking at the factors underlying the use of drugs in Canada. A report is due out in August and if May's preliminary report is any indication, we can expect further steps down the road of decriminalization.So far the report has offered an opinion that marijuana is not a "gateway drug." For years marijuana has been identified as the thin edge of the wedge, a step down the path leading to the use of much more harmful drugs like cocaine and heroine. While this concept is going up in smoke, the residue remains.Brian Taylor of the Cannabis Research Institute in Grand Forks says it is confusing for kids who are being told that marijuana is part of the same genre of drugs as crystal meth and crack. "Kids are off guard because they are told marijuana is really bad. They smoke it and it's not so bad so they are confused about hard drugs."Taylor is a vocal advocate of using marijuana medicinally and points to stacks of reputable research into the medicinal use of cannabis sativa. The most common and successful medicinal uses include addressing nausea associated with some cancer and AIDS treatments, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain and epilepsy.However, like any antidote, too much cure can be just as harmful as the disease.Like all drugs cannabis comes with side effects - the most noticeable is a "high." It is this high and its associated use that make cannabis unlike any other drug Health Canada examines. However, armed with a five-year budget of $7.5 million that is exactly what the Office of Cannabis Medical Access is doing.Marilyn de Wynter has been a drug and alcohol counselor in Grand Forks for over 20 years. She is cautious about the medicinal use of marijuana. She says some of the good qualities of any substance can be duplicated for medicinal use without the side effect."Marijuana has been used as an anti-nausea agent," she says. "But there are probably much better drugs we can use to affect glaucoma."De Wynter says that the major problem of chronic marijuana use is apathy. "Marijuana use is tricky. Some people use it from the time they are 14. When they are 30 they suddenly realize that they haven't done anything. The problem is that chronic users see themselves as being just as successful as anyone else."Source: Grand Forks Gazette (CN BC) Author: Tim A. Dueck Published: July 3, 2002Copyright: 2002 Sterling Newspapers Contact: gfgazedt sunshinecable.com Website: http://www.sterlingnews.com/Forks Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis Research Institutehttp://www.cannabisresearchinstituteinc.com/Ease Pot Law, Chief Bob Sayshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13302.shtmlSenate Committee Hears from Marijuana Advocatehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12843.shtmlHearings To Seek Attitudes About Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12795.shtmlCanada: The Debate Over Decriminalization http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12697.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #9 posted by John Tyler on July 06, 2002 at 08:21:50 PT Grrrr... again I hate that apathy argument, especially from a two bit drug counselor (Marilyn de Wynter has been a drug and alcohol counselor in Grand Forks for over 20 years). Can't she get a promotion? Sounds like she is apathetic,... to be satisified with some dumb little dead end job. Also, can't newspaper writer quote somebody better, like NORML or Marc Emery, or even a knowlegable user. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on July 06, 2002 at 07:47:01 PT Grrrr... Look at this nugget:"De Wynter says that the major problem of chronic marijuana use is apathy. "Marijuana use is tricky. Some people use it from the time they are 14. When they are 30 they suddenly realize that they haven't done anything. The problem is that chronic users see themselves as being just as successful as anyone else."Maybe that's because they're corporate executives, lawyers, teachers, computer programmers, salesmen, marketing managers, hmmm, I think that includes all the cannabis users that I know.... [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on July 06, 2002 at 07:44:48 PT standard mythology & classist BS "Taylor is a vocal advocate of using marijuana medicinally and points to stacks of reputable research into the medicinal use of cannabis sativa. The most common and successful medicinal uses include addressing nausea associated with some cancer and AIDS treatments, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain and epilepsy.However, like any antidote, too much cure can be just as harmful as the disease."What? LIES! Why does the subject of cannabis make reporters feel like they can lie with impunity? I'd like to ask Mr. Dueck to find me ONE patient, just ONE, who will agree that cannabis smoking is worse that AIDS, worse that epilepsy, worse than going blind, worse than constant pain, or worse than Multiple Sclerosis.This one is so bad I'm writing a letter to the editor. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Dan B on July 06, 2002 at 07:35:48 PT Psychopharmacological Warfare check out this article, titled 'Bombing the Mind,' at Counterpunch;http://www.counterpunch.org/hammond0702.html Dan B Bombing the Mind [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by BGreen on July 06, 2002 at 04:25:30 PT Apathy and Glaucoma "Opponents worry that a person's impaired judgment can lead to a variety of undesirable actions ranging from prolonged apathy to safety concerns."This is more of a description of prison than of my use of cannabis!"Marilyn de Wynter has been a drug and alcohol counselor in Grand Forks for over 20 years. She is cautious about the medicinal use of marijuana. She says some of the good qualities of any substance can be duplicated for medicinal use without the side effect."""Marijuana has been used as an anti-nausea agent," she says. "But there are probably much better drugs we can use to affect glaucoma.""My optometrist, who is licensed by the DEA to prescribe drugs, said my use of cannabis to alleviate lower back spasms is also having a positive effect on my intraocular pressure, which, due to my family history of glaucoma, is working prophylactically to protect my vision.Drug and Alcohol counselors have NO BUSINESS interfering with the decisions of medical practitioners! [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by freedom fighter on July 06, 2002 at 03:06:43 PT Nicotine gums Only made it worse for me... I really tried.. Started chewing gum, making me all buzzed out and I ended up chewing and smoking another butt! And that made it even worse.I find that cannabis does suppress my intake of tobaccoo.. It also suppress the intake of drinking beers.. As you may know by now, I got busted. I used to smoke a pack or two a day and now its 3 to 4 packs. Used to drink 3 bottles of beer a day and now its 12 bottles.. So everytime, I have an appointment with stupid diversion officer, he would give me 4 weeks. I know he knows that too.. I would fire up a bowl after the meeting. It has immediate effect. I just dont smoke the brown leaves and dont drink that much. I breathe so much better too..I often wondered why I smoke the cigarettes.. Too many times, cigarettes had stopped me from gettin arrested for smoking cannabis since it does mask the smell of cannabis. It's really wrong. I'll bet many folks do that.I sure can't wait to get out of the "System".ff [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Lehder on July 06, 2002 at 01:17:19 PT congressman i quit with nicotine gum. i had tried it out a few times for plane flights and it seemed to work okay. i made it very easy on myself and spent a lot of my time for the first four days chewing gum and lying in bed as if i were sick. shit came out of my lungs for two weeks and then they were all clear. i always had the gum with me and chewed as much as i liked, to hell with the directions. i had several cartons of cigarettes stockpiled in a cupboard but was never tempted. i did not, as i had other times, throw my cigarettes away in a fit of determination - i always wound up buying more that way. after a week or so when i was sure that i had actually quit i took my cigarettes to the city and traded them with street people i was familiar with for bud (i.e. marijuana buds, aka "gage", "mota", "shit", "crapshoot", "deathroll"); those who were hurting sometimes got free cigarettes from me and a little money too. i smoked for many years. like you, i noticed that mj tended to keep my lungs free and healthy, then years later, here on cnews, i followed links to medical journal articles that told how mj prevents the carcinogens in cigarette smoke from activating. all in all, given these two positive effects that the smoked medicine marijuana has for cigarette smokers, i think it quite likely that had i not smoked marijuana along with cigarettes then i may well have been dead of lung cancer long ago. as it is, i am not only healthy but pretty as well. i am considering writing this all up as an inspirational story for the Reader's Digest: How street weed saved my life and lungs. i remain somewhat addicted to nicotine and still chew the gum. i like it. so what? i don't smoke coffin nails and don't miss them. i will add this: if the government were sincere about wanting people to quit smoking, and if it gave a shit about the people's health, then it would use a part of that 300 billion $ taken in litigation from the cig companies to subsidize the cost of the nicotine gum. it would also re-legalize marijuana. alternatively, one could use solvents to extract nicotine from raw tobacco; then the nicotine, to whatever purity you desire, could be taken orally. nicotine in a ready and pure form will not be made available to the public because it has a low fatal dose and people would be using it as a poison and for suicide, or so goes the theory; maybe so. extraction instructions specific to nicotine can be found in old chemistry books, but not in newer ones; several steps are needed to remove the other alkaloids. i have considered this, but do not wish to make a mess of chemicals and do not think it wise to go about these days constantly dipping into a vial of white powder and explaining how i extracted it from plant material myself: "It's nicotine, Sir." good luck to you. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by gloovins on July 06, 2002 at 00:10:29 PT "congressman" You'll quit when you want to.Desire, and the amount thereof, to really quit lies in this. Its just that simple. Hope for you, its not a tracheotomy. My friend once did a fake radio character who had, ahhh, a "relationship" (i.e sexual relations) with his wife's trache-hole. Pretty funny, no? mmm but I digress. It was on Harold Stern cpl years back. sorry if i digressed.Peeps ya just gotta ask yrselves: do you want a FRESH GREEN HERB Occasionally to puff thru the day or whenever or do you want to chain smoke all day DEAD BROWN LEAF thru a fiberglass filter???You decide. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by CongressmanSuet on July 05, 2002 at 23:20:12 PT The Lung Damage thing is my favorite.... I have been smoking cigarettes[Camel non-filter for 20+] for over 30 years. I have COPD and Emphysema, and am half assed puffing on a Marlboro Light as I write this. I use 2 inhalers a month[Albuterol and Atrovent} yet I am still unable to shake this demon. I have tried patches, nicotine inhalers[kinda liked that one, made the buts give me a REAL buzz]Hypnosis, and acupuncture[that kinda worked, my Dad and I didnt smoke for like 3 hours afterword]. Nicotine is not the only culprit, it is the actual physical presence of the butt. It is the habituation to all that is snoking that is a major culprit. As any smoker if that cup of coffee in the morning would not suck if it werent for the butt that went with it. We learn to associate pleasent memories and activities with smoking, and this gets reinforced to the 9th degree as the years go by. And that is why all the scare tactics in the world cant make many of us quit. I remember in grammer school we had a gueat speaker with a nasty tracheotomy who blamed it on smoking and tried to scare all of us into abstention. I remember seeing her lighting one uo and blowing thru the hole an the way to her car. But I digress...My original point is, hey, I have been smoking foul legal weeds for decades, but I notice that Cannabis allows me to expectorate better than any prescribed medication. I can go without inhalers if need be. A few puffs of Cannabis in the early AM will keep me pretty clear for a few hours. I consider this effect to be very important. Just one smokers observation[PS, I found this out WAY before reading Grinnspoon's work]. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment