cannabisnews.com: The Judges and The Weed





The Judges and The Weed
Posted by FoM on June 01, 2001 at 19:22:46 PT
By Dr. Jay Davis 
Source: Arcata Eye
The opening salvo in America's interminable drug war was actually fired in 1914. With the passage of the Harrison Act, it became essentially illegal for a non-physician to prescribe opiates or cocaine. At the time they passed it, some legislators wondered if the government wasn't overstepping its bounds. After all, didn't free citizens have the right to decide what substances they would put in their bodies? 
And anyway, wasn't the practice of medicine something for the States to regulate?But if the government was timid in beginning the Drug War, it quickly got over it. By 1937, marijuana had been added to the list of forbidden fruit, and by 1997 the list had been so expanded that the first of its five categories had grown to 83 named drugs.Included in Schedule I - the most dangerous and medically unredeemed - are diacetyl morphine (Heroin), dihydromorphine and other highly addicting opiates. In the same Scheduled I you'll find mescaline, LSD and DMT: all potent hallucinogens. But curiously missing from Schedule I - or Schedule II, III, IV, or V - is the drug MHM.Any kid who is savvy about drugs knows about MHM. And if he's taken a high school chemistry class, he could manufacture it. The ingredients are cheap, and the equipment needed for manufacture is easy to find. The effect of MHM varies considerably from person to person. Most users report a mild euphoria initially, but as the dose is increased, reactions become more variable. Men, more than women, are apt to become aggressive. Younger men will frequently fight, older ones may become abusive. Cases of spousal abuse from heavy MHM users are commonplace.At particularly high doses, MHM causes sedation and amnesia. This combination of effects makes it a superb date-rape drug. Among male users, stories abound of young women whose virtue was purchased for a few dollars worth of the stuff.MHM wrecks coordination and the ability to operate dangerous machinery. But, unfortunately, it also deceives the user. Although totally unfit to handle an automobile, for instance, the user feels superbly qualified. Tales of bloody mayhem in motor vehicles can be found in every police jurisdiction.And still the DEA will not act.The long-term physical dangers of MHM, are worth repeating. A small, but significant number of users become hopelessly addicted. Their entire life revolves around the drug. From the moment they open their eyes, until the time they collapse in bed, they need their "fix." Over time, it severely damages their brain, their nervous system, their internal organs. They know they should quit, but they cannot. And if - for some reason - they try to go "cold turkey" they risk seizures and possibly death.These addicts pay a terrible social price. As their addiction worsens, they become incapable of holding a job. After they lose their livelihood, they typically lose friends, and finally family. They are genuinely powerless to control their slide into social oblivion.Yet the DEA will not control MHM.Let me tell you the tale of one young man, then I will stop. He woke up in a jail cell, with both hands bandaged, and no idea how he got there. When he was told the story, he was horrified.As was his habit, he'd started the previous night with a dose of MHM, then another, and another. He'd been at a party where the drug had been plentiful, and nobody knew for certain how much he'd taken, but it was enough to make him drowsy. Some time during the night, while he was still high, his date had begun dancing with his best friend. At the end of one dance, she had kissed him. The young man, who had been dozing, opened his eyes at just the moment they kissed. Fearing the worst, he had angrily confronted his friend. They had exchanged words, then pushes, and finally punches were thrown. Although he remembered none of this, he had then grabbed a knife from a food tray and lunged. The knife went through his friend's heart.Everything I've told you about MHM is true. If anything, I've understated the damage it does. In one California college town, the police estimate that fully half their resources are spent dealing with the consequences of the drug.And what is MHM? It stands for Methyl-Hydroxy-Methane. As any chemist will tell you, that's another name for alcohol. The same stuff in wine, beer, and distilled spirits. It accounts for more death, work-loss, spousal abuse, brain damage, and physical illness than ALL of the drugs on the DEA's Schedule I. As a drug of abuse, marijuana can't hold a candle.And why is MHM unregulated by the Controlled Substances Act? Seems that when the law was written, MHM was specifically excluded. The same brilliant minds that classified marijuana as dangerous and medically useless - when it is neither - have exempted the one drug which rather nicely fits their very own criteria.Jay Davis is a local physician who reminds himself that in the Drug War, as in all wars, truth is the first casualty. Newshawk: Christian C.Source: Arcata Eye (US CA)Author: Dr. Jay Davis Published: May 29, 2001Copyright: 2001, Arcata EyeContact: info arcataeye.comWebsite: http://www.arcataeye.com/Related Article:Alcohol is by Far Our Deadliest Drughttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9936.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by lookinside on June 02, 2001 at 10:53:38 PT:
semantics...
as a recovering alcoholic(8 years), i can attest to thedamage this addictive, destructive, drug causes...(inserthorror stories...most will probably apply)the double standard the government maintains can have nopositive effect on the voter's respect for their electedofficials...the supreme court has become the lowest(morally) court inthe land...congress has proven they are merely the paidservants of the tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, and lawenforcement lobbies...for many years i tried not to think about the injusticesoccurring in the united states...i was woken up when i wasarrested 30 months ago...the legal system is money driven...most of the participants(lawyers, judges, cops) are biggercriminals than those they arrest and try...the degradation of our civil rights has become too great toignore...i write from my gut...those who post here have educated mefar beyond what a lifetime of reading the filtered news inthe papers ever could...and i'm enraged...thanks, doc, kap, et al...
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