cannabisnews.com: Show Compassion For The Sufferers





Show Compassion For The Sufferers
Posted by CN Staff on November 29, 2005 at 15:25:30 PT
Editorial
Source: Beloit Daily News
Wisconsin -- Is there a certain amount of hypocrisy in believing the government should be aggressive in cracking down on illegal drugs, while allowing some chronically sick people to smoke pot to relieve their symptoms? Probably. So what. Only those who have never been desperately ill - or watched a loved one struggle with pain or nausea - could be so sure it's wrong to provide the option in certain extreme cases. For opponents, it's a principle. For the sick, it's a temporary escape from their world of pain.
A proposal in the Wisconsin Assembly - AB 740 - would allow law enforcement to look the other way when marijuana is being used as a “medical necessity.” It would create a loophole in the state's criminal law which could permit patients and their caregivers to administer pot for relief of symptoms.The kicker, of course, is in determining just what is a “medical necessity.” Some potheads undoubtedly would try to slip in under the radar, and use the law as an excuse for indulging their bad habit. In such instances, authorities should make examples of those who would abuse a privilege intended for sick people.Likewise, there is debate within the medical community about the efficacy of medical marijuana. Many doctors are highly skeptical.But anecdotal evidence from patients with cancer and other serious chronic conditions suggests many people obtain relief by smoking pot. Maybe it's because of the drug, maybe it's all in their heads. Either way, if it eases their suffering, who cares?We simply cannot understand why government should make criminals out of sick people just trying to make themselves feel better. Yet even in states which have relaxed laws on medicinal marijuana, the federal government has worked to criminalize the practice anyway. There's little reason to believe Wisconsin would avoid a showdown with the feds.Still, common sense should rule. Medical marijuana should be restricted to only the most serious situations, where nothing else has worked and the patient is enduring extreme suffering. We can see no harm in allowing patients in such dire straits the opportunity to try something else.This isn't about legalizing pot. Drug abuse is a crime.It is about showing compassion for suffering human beings. What's wrong with that? Source: Beloit Daily News, The (WI)Published: Tuesday, November 29, 2005Copyright: 2005 The Greater Beloit Publishing Company Contact: dbehling beloitdailynews.comWebsite: http://www.beloitdailynews.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Wisconsin NORMLhttp://www.winorml.org/Is My Medicine Legal Yet? http://www.immly.org/Medical Pot Bill Will Get Hearinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21328.shtmlState Bill Could Legalize Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21162.shtmlMedical Marijuana To Be Proposed in Assemblyhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21160.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #22 posted by FoM on December 05, 2005 at 17:18:53 PT
Published LTE from The Beloit Daily News
 ‘Marijuana Helps Patients'***Monday, December 05, 2005 
 
 The Beloit Daily News is right to support AB 740, which would allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana to relieve pain and nausea without fear of arrest. But it is important to understand that the evidence demonstrating marijuana's safety and efficacy is not merely “anecdotal.”In fact, controlled trials dating back to the 1970s - many sponsored by state governments - demonstrated that marijuana relieves nausea in cancer chemotherapy patients. More recent studies have demonstrated relief of pain in a number of circumstances, including multiple sclerosis - evidence convincing enough that the journal The Lancet Neurology wrote two years ago that marijuana could become “the aspirin of the 21st century.”In HIV/AIDS, a recent study at San Francisco General Hospital demonstrated relief of peripheral neuropathy - an extremely painful condition caused both by HIV and some of the drugs used to treat it. Another study showed that AIDS patients suffering nausea from their drug cocktails were able to stay on their medications more consistently when they used marijuana.No drug is without risks, but today the greatest risk facing medical marijuana patients in Wisconsin is the threat of arrest and jail. AB 740 will provide such patients with desperately needed protection.  
Bruce MirkenDirector of CommunicationsMarijuana Policy ProjectWashington, D.C. 
Copyright: 2005 The Greater Beloit Publishing Company 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #21 posted by mayan on November 30, 2005 at 18:11:19 PT
Linda Taylor's Blog
Modesto City Planning Commission, HOW DARE YOU!
http://thehive.modbee.com/?q=node/310Linda1's blog:
http://thehive.modbee.com/?q=blog/236Perhaps we could all write LTE's to the Modesto Bee and counter poor Linda's lies?Submit a letter to the editor of  The Modesto Bee:
http://www.modbee.com/service/print_letters.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #20 posted by afterburner on November 30, 2005 at 10:26:43 PT
Ammo Wearing Thin? Throw a Barrage 
"Marijuana is not medicine; it is an illegal drug with dire consequences. Smoking one marijuana cigarette is the same as smoking 10 tobacco cigarettes. Recent research has linked marijuana to mental illness and brain damage. This drug is especially dangerous for our youth, as it has been linked as a gateway drug. What kind of a message is this for our children?" -Linda TaylorThis paragraph seems to encapsulate the major scare points of the federal propaganda against cannabis. To see them all together is to see a collection of viruses that inflect the body politic. To see them all together is a symptom of fear that their power individually is falling on deaf ears to a large extent.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #19 posted by afterburner on November 30, 2005 at 10:10:46 PT
RE Comment #5: Stepping Stone to Truth
AB740 - Some great holy magic there:7 - the number of days in a week, the example to rest, a Jewish magic number 40 - the number of years in the wilderness, the number of days in Jesus' fast of purification and dedication, a Jewish magic number I'm honored - ABMany hoo-mons are just beginning the holy pilgrimage to truth. This bill is a stepping stone to truth, as in one small step for humans, one giant leap for truth.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #18 posted by jared3602 on November 30, 2005 at 09:16:19 PT
ONDCP link
This article is just full of lies. 1) can impare for 24 hours. Now I would like to get some cannabis that would affect me for that long. About 4 hours I would say would be the about of time for the affects to be present. 2) Causes inablity to drive. Actually unlike drinking users of cannabis know that are imparied and take corrective measures (ie drive slower). (This was in a study)
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #17 posted by Sam Adams on November 30, 2005 at 08:44:27 PT
I like this part
"Only those who have never been desperately ill - or watched a loved one struggle with pain or nausea - could be so sure it's wrong to provide the option in certain extreme cases. For opponents, it's a principle"Ah-ha! It's a principle - just what is the principle? Could they define it for us? Is it that marijuana is evil, and we must hunt down every last pothead until they're all in camp, I mean prison? Even though alcohol sellers brainwash every kid with 5,000 ads on TV before they're even 10 years old? I guess the principle in question is hypocrisy then, isn't it? Or sanctimony? Whatever principle it is, we'd be in deep doo-doo if we exercised the principle in all areas of society.  It is one irrational and counterproductive principle.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #16 posted by dongenero on November 30, 2005 at 07:02:44 PT
from Time- The Year in Medicine
in contrast, here is a worthwhile statement.............- M --
MARIJUANA Research into the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of cannabis continued to bolster the case for the medicinal use of marijuana, making the "patient pot laws" that have passed in 11 states seem less like a social movement than a legitimate medical trend. One trial--the first controlled study of its kind--showed that a medicine containing cannabis extracts called Sativex not only lessened the pain of rheumatoid arthritis but actually suppressed the disease. An earlier study published in the Journal of Neuroscience showed that synthetic cannabinoids, the chemicals in marijuana, can reduce inflammation in the brain and may protect it from the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by dongenero on November 30, 2005 at 06:59:32 PT
another article not worth...........
the paper they wrote it on.......or hard disk, well, you know.Does anyone actually do research before the pontificate on their profound view of how things should be?
I notice that no one was proud enough to sign their name to the article.They are supporting medical marijuana but, the comments and reasoning as well as the stereotyping demonstrate plain ignorance.On a much better note......I'll post above.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by siege on November 30, 2005 at 06:07:02 PT
puppet
Who is The author of this Worthless and offensive article, just another government puppet, is it from the ONDCP!!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by FoM on November 29, 2005 at 21:44:22 PT
Off Topic: Rolling Stones Doing The Superbowl
Rolling Stones To Perform At 2006 SuperbowlNovember 30 2005The half-time entertainment of America’s illustrious Superbowl has had its fair share of controversy, but it has never been anything short of spectacular. Event organisers have now outdone themselves with 2006 set to see the world’s biggest rock and roll band, The Rolling Stones, gracing the stadium in Ford Field, Detriot on the 5th of February.http://www.undercover.com.au/news/2005/nov05/20051130_rollingstones.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by FoM on November 29, 2005 at 20:44:58 PT
Siege
I don't know what to say about the ONDCP link.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by FoM on November 29, 2005 at 20:42:18 PT
Siege 
Thank you. That was great!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by siege on November 29, 2005 at 20:40:14 PT
ONDCP
http://www.mediacampaign.org/newsroom/press05/112805.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on November 29, 2005 at 20:37:40 PT:
Another OT: The Incredible Shrinking Budget
I've been saying this for the past couple of years: the amount of money available to the Gub'mint for this "rich nation's hobby" of a DrugWar is shrinking, and the resources that would normally be allocated to it would be used for the Iraq War. Well, here's confirmation: Report: Cocaine a Growing Risk for U.S. http://tinyurl.com/dah3afrom the article:*The report prepared by the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found that U.S. cocaine seizures from 2000 to 2004 increased by 68 percent to a record 196 metric tons in the ``transit zone,'' the area between the U.S. and South America. But the Pentagon's attention to armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Homeland Security Department's focus on Hurricane Katrina threaten to undermine recent achievements, the GAO said in its report.The report, an advance copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, offers a sobering look at the future of government efforts to stymie America's $65 billion illegal drug habit. It notes that while drug seizures have increased, U.S. cocaine supplies and the number of users (2 million) have not fallen, apparently due to a rise in shipments.*Now, of course, the increase in the amount of illicits seized is being unquestionably accepted by the reporter as somehow being a proof of effectiveness, when in fact it merely shows how enormous the amount of the available stock is...and how much of that gets through. But the main point is quite clear: the agencies involved in this are facing their own budgetary Judgement Day. As has been predicted here many times before, push is coming to shove. Or as they say in Jamaica, "the bottom has dropped out" of the DrugWar well.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by siege on November 29, 2005 at 20:36:41 PT
 CTC animations intended to activate people
http://www.changetheclimate.org/tv/mayhem.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by FoM on November 29, 2005 at 20:17:56 PT
LTE Published in the Modesto Bee
Planners Suckered by Compassion *** 
 
 
  November 29, 2005Regarding "Planners reject ban of medical pot sales" (Nov. 22, Page A-1): As an anti-drug activist, I'm furious and outraged. Over the summer, I met with Police Chief Roy Wasden and other members of his staff. I was assured that the city of Modesto would indeed ban marijuana dispensaries. For that reason, I did not attend the Nov. 21 meeting.Marijuana dispensaries must be banned. Drug legalization advocates such as the Drug Policy Alliance, The Marijuana Policy Project and NORML have one goal in mind -- to legalize all drugs. Their carefully crafted words and their use of our compassionate nature is nothing more than a ploy to legalize marijuana as medicine. Marijuana is not medicine; it is an illegal drug with dire consequences. Smoking one marijuana cigarette is the same as smoking 10 tobacco cigarettes. Recent research has linked marijuana to mental illness and brain damage. This drug is especially dangerous for our youth, as it has been linked as a gateway drug. What kind of a message is this for our children?Call members of the Modesto City Council and ask them to vote No on the medical marijuana lie.LINDA TAYLORTurlockEditor's note: The City Council is scheduled to consider this issue on Dec. 6. The council meets at 5:30 p.m. in the basement of Tenth Street Place.Copyright: 2005 The Modesto Beehttp://www.modbee.com/opinion/letters/story/11533103p-12269346c.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on November 29, 2005 at 20:17:05 PT:
OT: More proof that reform sites are monitored
by the opposition:I visit GritsForBreakfast http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/ every day, sometimes several times a day. If you want to get a good idea of what it's like on the civil liberties front lines along our Southern border, and what it takes to fight for simple commonsense policies in the face of institutonalized ignorance, Scott Henson's blog does a great job...as does he. A recent posting has to do with DEAWatch. Long time readers here know that we here have been monitoring DEAWatch for years. Well, an ex-DEA agent has shown up at *Grits* and left his tuppence about the goings on there. You might want to have a look-see
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by Jim Lunsford on November 29, 2005 at 19:02:57 PT
It Matters Not...
on how he plays the song of freedom, what matters is that he is singing it. Okay, we think he's tone deaf, but I'll work with that.A lot of people truly don't understand Cannabis, and don't see it as different than what they've always understood to be the norm in their little world. But, even though he believes it is "wrong" to abuse drugs, he understands that this prohibition is wrong. Not everyone can hear the song the way we do either. Their are lots of people who don't like the idea of Cannabis being legalized. They may have bought the line that it is a horrible gateway drug. But, that doesn't mean that they are opposed to helping someone suffering. Personally, I am grateful for any voice which allows a greater acceptance of Cannabis within our society. If we are as right as we think we are, then it's introduction will truly help us to learn much more about it's benefits. If we are wrong, then that will be as far as it goes. Either way, we have a whole slew of possibilities in sight. 
But, all decisions are pending until the end of time. If not now, then later. If not later, then not at all. And then, so what? It will still be such an exciting world. One full of all this intrigue. Peace, JimRev Jim LunsfordFirst Cannabist ChurchLife: God's TV
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by FoM on November 29, 2005 at 18:26:28 PT
Drug Abuse is a Crime
What drugs are included? Is alcohol use considered drug abuse? Is it a crime? Are cigarettes considered drug abuse? Is it a crime? Sound bytes mean nothing and I wish they weren't used in articles. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on November 29, 2005 at 18:15:55 PT:
Still timid, still dancing around
You have to wonder how many of these journos sit in front of their laptops at home...with a joint in their hands...and write this stuff. And not out of medical necessity.They still fear the main problem: being 'tarred' with the same brush as the subjects they write about. They have to make the obligatory noises condemning recreational cannabis users...knowing all the while it's bilge. They have to stay (haughty sniff, nose in air) 'respectable', don't you know.Depending upon whose statistics you use, up to one-third of all Americans have toked. That means EVERY THIRD PERSON YOU PASS ON THE STREET IS A CRIMINAL. Ask them if they think they are, and you'll receive the same kind of treatment masking the same fear. So stupid. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by mayan on November 29, 2005 at 17:57:00 PT
Why Bash Cannabis Users?
The kicker, of course, is in determining just what is a “medical necessity.” Some potheads undoubtedly would try to slip in under the radar, and use the law as an excuse for indulging their bad habit. In such instances, authorities should make examples of those who would abuse a privilege intended for sick people.Potheads? How juvenile. I prefer to call them what they are, cannabis users. Bad habit? Possibly a habit but why is it bad? Cannabis is one of the most benign substances known to man and has never killed anyone. A privilege? A privilege given by who? The government? When did they become God and create plants that sprout from the earth? How can they decide whether adults have the privilege to use those plants? I suppose the author supports the "example" of a cage for the "potheads" who indulge in their "bad habit" and "abuse" the "privelidge" of "pot". This isn't about legalizing pot. Drug abuse is a crime.Pot? I prefer to call it what it is, Cannabis. Drug abuse? Cannabis is not a drug, it's a plant. Is all use abuse? Of course not. Is cannabis use a crime? No, but caging cannabis users is!It's great that the author supports medical cannabis but it is not necessary to bash recreational use in order to advocate medicinal use as nearly 80% of Americans already support the medicinal use of cannabis! The author also fails to explain why those who use recreational cannabis in their own time belong in a cage.THE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...BYU Brass Discredit Physics Professor for Saying WTC Brought Down by Controlled Demolition:
http://www.arcticbeacon.citymaker.com/articles/article/1518131/38233.htmSupreme Court rejects FBI linguist's appeal:
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=745How our governments use terrorism to control us:
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_277.shtmlPhilip Zelikow: The Bush Administration Investigates the Bush Administration:
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20051128144916707Introduction to 9/11 for Those Who Still Believe the Official Story :
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/11/introduction-to-911-for-those-who.htmlThe 9/11 WTC Collapses: You Want the Truth? You Can't Handle the Truth!
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/wtc_9-11_truth.html
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by billos on November 29, 2005 at 17:27:02 PT
                 The stigma 
still raises its ugly head, even in the light of compassion.""This isn't about legalizing pot. Drug abuse is a crime.""My question is:WHY is drug abuse a crime and WHO defines abuse??
I know it's not medical doctors.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment