cannabisnews.com: Dr. Souder, We Presume?





Dr. Souder, We Presume?
Posted by CN Staff on May 14, 2006 at 07:04:27 PT
Editorial
Source: Journal Gazette
Indiana -- He might not be a doctor, but U.S. Rep. Mark Souder increasingly seems to be playing one in Congress. His intervention in a public health conference raises troubling questions about the role of politics in shaping public policy.Last week’s National STD Prevention Conference, organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was to include a panel on the role of abstinence programs in public health. But an aide to Souder sent an e-mail to the Department of Health and Human Services questioning the panel’s makeup.
Martin Green, Souder’s spokesman, told the Washington Post that the congressman was concerned because one of the speakers planned to discuss a report critical of abstinence programs.As a result of the Fort Wayne Republican’s comments, the CDC dropped one speaker and added two abstinence proponents.Green defended the change as “a more accurate reflection of the scientific opinion,” but the panel’s organizer slammed it as political meddling.“They would have been welcome to submit abstracts for review and consideration,” said Bruce Trigg of the New Mexico Department of Public Health. “The claim is this is about a public health program when it’s really about ideology and religion.”In April, the Food and Drug Administration announced that there is no evidence to support the safety or effectiveness of marijuana used for medical purchases. Its ruling was in response to a request from Souder, and it contradicts a report by the respected Institute of Medicine that supports use of marijuana for pain, nausea and anorexia.Dr. Jerome Kassirer, a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, criticized the FDA ruling. “I think it’s ridiculous. The fact is there are circumstances where smoked marijuana may be helpful to patients who are desperately ill,” he told National Public Radio.Souder’s intervention in two medical issues and the responses he drew from medical professionals is worth noting. And it should make for an interesting campaign as he faces a re-election challenge from Dr. Tom Hayhurst, a Fort Wayne physician.Source: Journal Gazette, The (IN)Published: May 14, 2006Copyright: 2006 The Journal GazetteContact: letters jg.netWebsite: http://www.journalgazette.comRelated Articles:Call for Biowar on Drugshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21825.shtml The FDA's Reefer Madness http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21779.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #18 posted by Hope on May 16, 2006 at 20:08:51 PT
Print outs of articles and studies
Get them from the original source when possible. Don't have any walking pot leaves or logos on the print outs. Probably be best.They can see that little guy after they know the medicinal value of the plant is so...oh so...real.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #17 posted by Hope on May 16, 2006 at 20:05:52 PT
Runderwo
"....how my friend might introduce the idea..."Print out pertinent information from the net or buy books and offer them first.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #16 posted by ekim on May 16, 2006 at 19:34:01 PT
runderwo thanks for caring so much
that goes for whig bgreen and afterburner.
 
i guess i will have to add my dad to the list of those who were taught a lie but being the man he was -- chose to accept me. but as with the others must carry till bury the fact that he would not join me. i does make me take a nother take on reading the other storys ----thanks to all and i do hope runderwo you do listen to those who wisper keep trying keep caring.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by afterburner on May 16, 2006 at 06:57:42 PT
Cannabis Fighting Cancer 
My dad was such a staunch believer in traditional Western medicine that when he got cancer, I wrestled with suggesting things I had learned about alternative medical treatments. I decided that it would cause him too much stress and kept quiet. Because of the suppression of the 1974 study that cannabis kills tumors, I did not even consider cannabis as a remedy for him. Pot Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/5/thread5972.shtml The anti-nausea properties of cannabis were not known at the time either, at least to me. My dad died in the early 1990's from a reaction to the chemotherapy that he trusted. The radiation therapy had also weakened him. Had I known either fact about cannabis (tumor killing or anti-nausea), I might have taken a chance and recommended that my dad try cannabis. At that time he swallowed all the drug war lies and was a staunch prohibitionist. However, one night, years previously, I was smoking a midnight joint and he came downstairs, perhaps to get a midnight snack. His only comment was "Is that marijuana?" No punishment, no lecture: his reaction surprised me and made me wonder if he had smoked "marijuana" in his youthful travels. If so, he might have been willing to try it during his cancer-chemo-radiation ordeal. Had I only known, I might have decided differently. Add another person, my dad, to the list of drug war victims. We miss him.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by BGreen on May 16, 2006 at 00:12:47 PT
Don't give up because of us
Play it by ear and use your heart. Listen to them and if you sense some desperation in a lack of pain relief then you might make an off-hand comment about cannabis helping somebody you know and watch their reaction.There are some older people who are more receptive than my stubborn dad.The Reverend Bud Green
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by runderwo on May 16, 2006 at 00:03:28 PT
BG, whig
Thanks. I guess I'll let this one pass by. I hope it is not too hard on them. Amazing how ingrained the programming is.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by BGreen on May 15, 2006 at 15:27:04 PT
runderwo
I watched my father die a horrible death back in 1978 due to pancreatic cancer (he lived for a year and a half after diagnosis, which was a year longer than they gave him,) and I kicked myself silly because I even took some to him but couldn't bring myself to offer it to him because I didn't want him to think badly about me.My step-father was recently battling cancer, and because of my lesson learned years ago, I mentioned cannabis to him.He yelled at me, saying his $200 a piece pills were enough for him (he was sick all the time so that was a BS lie,) but the propaganda has worked really well in the older generation.I don't know what you should do.The Reverend Bud Green
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by Had Enough on May 15, 2006 at 09:08:02 PT
Comment #2
U.S. drug officials `very impressed'Maybe this link workshttp://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1147211412551
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by mayan on May 15, 2006 at 03:34:02 PT
Dr. Souder???
He might not be a doctor, but U.S. Rep. Mark Souder increasingly seems to be playing one in Congress.I only read the first sentence but what an article! 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by whig on May 15, 2006 at 00:08:08 PT
runderwo
I had that situation with my grandfather recently before he passed away. I decided it was better not to upset him and everyone else with a suggestion he'd be unlikely to take. I considered special brownies without explanation but it didn't seem right to me to give someone anything without their full knowledge and consent.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by runderwo on May 14, 2006 at 23:57:19 PT
medmj
So my friend's dad has this neighbor with a cancer stricken wife. The wife was in remission for a while but now the cancer has spread to pancreas. It is likely terminal and extremely painful. My friend's dad and the neighbor are flag waving republicans who despise 'dopers', I don't know about his wife. Does anyone have any ideas how my friend might introduce the idea that marijuana might improve the lady's quality of life - perhaps by simply arranging an anonymous delivery of special brownies or something similar? Has anyone known a situation like this to turn out positively or is it better just to shake one's head and avoid disturbing a hornet's nest?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by global_warming on May 14, 2006 at 11:38:31 PT
truly prophetic sam
a screenplay writer I see..
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by Sam Adams on May 14, 2006 at 11:32:00 PT
thanks gph...
for that fascinating tidbit of info - Lilly headquarters are in Indianapolis.So interesting. You can almost see 2 ways of living developing. One way is that you feel depressed and want to feel better. So you grow a sweet smelling plant, or get some from another person, and vaporize the flowers or cook them into your food. You feel uplifted, you laugh, you join with friends to share the herb together. You have no "credentials", no pre-approval, no referral, no reimbursement, no copayment, no prescription, no advertising, no marketing, no follow-up appointment, no computers, no laboratory analysis, no profit margin, no annual report, no lobbyist, no political action committee. You DO have 5000 years of actual, real-life human civilization and experience behind you. You have the word of your friends that suggested cannabis.Now, consider lifestyle number 2. You're depressed. In one of the 20,000 commercials you'll see this year, you're told that Prozac will make you happy. It looks good, several marketing teams and network broadcast analysts have worked for years to perfect this message to you. You go in, alone, to see a professional doctor, who's spent 15 or 20 years becoming officically accredited, validated, tested, and licensed.After 15 minutes, the doctor authorizes you for Prozac. Now, this isn't just any authorization! No. This has been OFFICIALLY okay'd by a dozen different huge bureaucracies, all paid for with your taxes & fees: FDA, AMA, DEA, NIH, NIDA, ONDCP, ATF, FBI, etc.  Little did you know that you've been working hard at your job to pay all these unseen people to PROTECT you. God bless America!These folks have decided that it's best for you to take this drug 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, none of your protectors has warned you that the pills may make your want to fire a gun into your head, or jump off the roof, but it's OK, some bureaucrat somewhere is probably worrying about that for you.Your cannabis-growing friend did warn you about dry-mouth, right? I'm not even sure what my point is! I do know that when the seas rise up to swallow up our iniquity, there won't be any Prozac. When the bureaucrats are huddled together in shanties, burning McMansion wood to stay warm, there won't be any Zoloft, no Ambien. When the doctors and lawyers are canoeing through Manhattan to get the food out of their condos to feed their kids back at the tent, there won't be any press releases from Mark Souder. The plants will still be growing though, won't they?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by global_warming on May 14, 2006 at 10:43:02 PT
re: souder
I watched him talk during the hearings for the Hinchey Amendment. He had a smile on his face as he lied before his colleagues, but the thing that caught my eye was his hair.His hair was dry and brittle, as if loaded with some kind of metal poisoning, it looked as he was suffering from some bad health condition that was either yet undiscovered or already known.This may explain his behavior, yet there is hope, for even this bitter dry haired idiot will find the cold damp earth from which he was born.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by goneposthole on May 14, 2006 at 10:14:58 PT
Eli Lilly
the makers of Prozac, is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.Mark Souder knows who butters his bread.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by John Tyler on May 14, 2006 at 08:12:12 PT
comment
It is sad to see the abuse of power that Rep. Souder has wielded during his term in office. Hopefully the voters in his state will agree that it is time for him to go and the damage he has done can be repaired.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Had Enough on May 14, 2006 at 08:08:01 PT
U.S. drug officials `very impressed'
U.S. drug officials `very impressed'Pleased to be on same page as Harper's ToriesCritics, however, call `war on drugs' ineffectiveMONTREAL—A top U.S. drug official and the U.S. Ambassador to Canada say they're pleased to be on the same page as the new federal government when it comes to law and order, particularly now that Ottawa has no plans to decriminalize marijuana.and…….http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1147211412551&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on May 14, 2006 at 07:52:13 PT
one thought
In all the crazy comments I've read here on this site, I don't recall EVER hearing one of us suggest that anti-MJ researchers be gagged - prohibited from speaking or publishing.What does that say about Souder, and what does that say about us?Hopefully this will be his last hurrah. Evil people can sometimes go on a successful run in life, but it's almost always temporary. You just can't go around cranking out bad karma your whole life without it catching up to you. Looks like he's worn out his welcome in Indiana.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment