cannabisnews.com: Is There Hope in Dope?
Is There Hope in Dope?
Posted by CN Staff on November 16, 2006 at 08:07:14 PT
By Tristan Wheelock
Source: The Oracle
Florida -- Marijuana use has been illegal in the United States for nearly 70 years. The debates - illegal or legal, medically beneficial or not - have been around just as long. Recently, these issues made a stop at USF.Thomas W. Klein, a professor of molecular medicine and interdisciplinary oncology at USF, received a $1.45 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to continue studying marijuana's influence on the immune system.
"Our research focuses on the effects of cannabinoids on immunology and the host resistance to infection," Klein said.Kirsie Stansfield, who taught Drugs Behavior and Society at USF, believes there are two major reasons behind the illegality of marijuana. One reason is the gateway theory."This essentially says that you go through this progression of smoking cigarettes and drinking beers or drinking alcohol and using marijuana," Stansfield said. "That step to using marijuana, something that is already illegal and something that has more of an addiction potential per say than alcohol, is more likely to lead you to using heavier drugs like cocaine and heroin."Stansfield also speculates that because the drug has been demonized in the United States, society might be afraid if it were made legal. Rather than legalizing marijuana, Stansfield believes researchers will continue to isolate the active ingredients in marijuana and offer those to the public.Klein agrees with that line of thought. The chemistry associated with research pertaining to marijuana has gotten to a point where synthesizing THC in a laboratory is fairly easy, he said. Research is moving away from marijuana itself and instead focusing on synthesized THC."There is a lot of research being done, but none of it is really marijuana," Klein said. "Virtually, my experience (with) the studies in humans that are going on (is that) these people are being given chemicals; they're not being given marijuana cigarettes to smoke." The prescription drug Marinol is essentially synthesized THC. It has been used in the United States to stimulate appetite and combat nausea in AIDS patients. Marinol is classified as a schedule III controlled substance according to the DEA."Certainly the smoking aspect is reason enough not to do it, in moderation there doesn't appear to be any negative health effects," Klein said. "This is why it's not particularly unethical to give people Marinol." There have been three attempts to reschedule marijuana. Thus far, two have failed and one is still in the process of being evaluated. Despite recent studies with marijuana, prospects of it being legalized in the future don't seem bright."A lot of it is kind of political, as far as once a drug becomes illegal. Alcohol is an exception, it's not going to go back," Stansfield said. "If a drug becomes illegal, it is going to be incredibly hard for society to accept it as a drug that is beneficial for use."An article in the Hastings Center Report suggests that the battle to legalize marijuana is less a battle against drugs and more a struggle between state and federal power."The battle over legalizing marijuana for medical purposes is, at base, a battle of federalism - in other words, about the balance of power between states and federal government," states the report.According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 95 million Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once, making it the most frequently used illegal drug in the United States. With so many reported users it is curious that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has classified the active ingredient in marijuana, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as a schedule I controlled substance. Title 21 of the United States Code governs food and drugs. Statute 812 (b) specifies the findings that the government must make in order to classify a drug in a certain schedule. For schedule I drugs the findings are as follows: The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse, the drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision. Heroin and MDMA, the main ingredient in the designer drug ecstasy, are also schedule 1 controlled substances. "In my opinion, and what research has shown, the potential for abuse in marijuana, the potential for dependency is pretty low, MDMA is fairly moderate, and heroin is very high," Stansfield said. Source: The Oracle (FL Edu)Author: Tristan WheelockPublished: November 16, 2006Copyright: 2006 The Oracle Website: http://www.usforacle.com/Contact: oracleopinion yahoo.comCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #29 posted by FoM on November 17, 2006 at 13:43:49 PT
Whig
Yes that's for sure.
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Comment #28 posted by whig on November 17, 2006 at 13:42:42 PT
FoM
Plus just ending cannabis prohibition will make a very effective pain medication available to the people who might otherwise try to hook themselves on opiates.
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Comment #27 posted by FoM on November 17, 2006 at 13:40:55 PT
afterburner
If they would allow pain clinics to operate without such restrictions it would help people who are dependant on pain drugs to find relief and not push them to the streets and then illegal narcotics would start drying up.
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Comment #26 posted by afterburner on November 17, 2006 at 13:37:25 PT
FoM #25
When my brother came of age, he watched friends die of overdoses. That's one reason why I fight so hard to Repeal Prohibition. I do not want to see another generation scarred by Prohibition's evil tentacles.
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on November 17, 2006 at 07:29:46 PT
afterburner
I really feel bad about what has happened in my families city. One of my niece's children's friends died from an overdose. He was in his early twenties.
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Comment #24 posted by doc james on November 17, 2006 at 06:50:55 PT
no hope without dope
as far as I am concerned, that's the way it is. Cannabis soothes the soul and takes the edge off my pain enough for me to see a glimmer of hope. I will grow my own til the day I die, they can keep their marinol, it isn't worth a damn for me, anyway.
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Comment #23 posted by Hope on November 16, 2006 at 22:20:19 PT
Thank you, Afterburner
for posting Don't Stop. That's a good note to end today on. Good night...and more power to us!
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Comment #22 posted by Hope on November 16, 2006 at 22:19:04 PT
E_Johnson Comment 1
Very, very interesting information you have there in comparing
Marinol and cannabis. Very interesting.And it's good to hear from you. I'm always glad to see you've posted.
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Comment #21 posted by afterburner on November 16, 2006 at 21:53:24 PT
museman #3 & FoM #5
museman #3"The 'gateway theory' is about as plausible as a benevolent demon. In over 70 years of prohibition, they have not come up with anything new. It is linear thinking with a whole lot of assumption."The prohibitionists are so afraid of life that they squeeze the life out of everyone around them.FoM #5"After they raided the pain clinics heroin started pouring in to the community. Withdrawal from narcotics is the worst pain and being forced to the streets is the result of needing to get a handle on the withdrawal pain."That's how the whole drug problem got started. When Congress passed the first Opium Act, they *created* a new class of criminals, the former pain medicine patients, addicted to formerly legal opiated patent medicines.Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop LyricsDon't Stop (Christine McVie)
Fleetwood Mac from
Rumours
http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Fleetwood-Mac/Don-t-Stop.html{
If you wake up and don't want to
smile,If it takes just a little while,Open your eyes
and look at the day,You'll see things in a different
way.Don't stop, thinking about
tomorrow,Don't stop, it'll soon be
here,It'll be, better than
before,Yesterday's gone, yesterday's
gone.Why not think about times to come,And not
about the things that you've done,If your life was bad
to you,Just think what tomorrow will
do.Don't stop, thinking about
tomorrow,Don't stop, it'll soon be
here,It'll be, better than
before,Yesterday's gone, yesterday's
gone.All I want is to see you smile,If it takes
just a little while,I know you don't believe that
it's true,I never meant any harm to
you.Don't stop, thinking about
tomorrow,Don't stop, it'll soon be
here,It'll be, better than
before,Yesterday's gone, yesterday's
gone.Don't you look back,Don't you look
back.
}
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Comment #20 posted by dongenero on November 16, 2006 at 12:23:29 PT
comment #18
Who do you suppose is paying for all these legal shenanigans trying to circumvent the will of the voters???Darn right!
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Comment #19 posted by whig on November 16, 2006 at 12:22:02 PT
Taylor121
That's good news. We're winning on the ground, we're winning on the air. This war is over but for the announcement, though there are still too many being hurt until then.
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Comment #18 posted by Taylor121 on November 16, 2006 at 12:01:39 PT
Judge Rejects San Diego challenge to mmj
A state judge on Thursday rejected San Diego County's challenge of California's decade-old law permitting marijuana use for medical purposes.The ruling by Superior Court Judge William R. Nevitt, Jr. was tentative. The county's lawyers will have a chance to convince the judge to change his decision during oral arguments scheduled later Thursday.San Diego County sued the state of California and its health services director in February, saying a federal ban on marijuana use trumps state laws that permit usage of the drug with a physician's approval.Two other California counties, San Bernardino and Merced, joined San Diego as plaintiffs. All three counties have refused to comply with a state requirement that counties issue identification cards for medical marijuana users and maintain a registry of people who apply for the cards.The state argued that California is entitled to pass its own drug laws and legislate programs that allow marijuana use for medical purposes.
**snip**http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/11/16/state/n113847S73.DTL&type=politics
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Comment #17 posted by Rainbow on November 16, 2006 at 11:51:18 PT
museman
You said "One of the reasons that youth take up smoking and alcohol 'before' they might try pot, is because alcohol and tobacco are much much easier to get than the herb, and a lot of Americans have them accessible in their own houses.I think this is one of the arguments that prohibitionsts give to not making cannabis legal.
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Comment #16 posted by greenmed on November 16, 2006 at 11:28:50 PT
Milton Friedman - RIP
Economist Milton Friedman Dies at 94SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Milton Friedman, the Nobel prize-winning economist who advocated an unfettered free market and had the ear of Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, died Thursday. He was 94.Friedman died in San Francisco, said Robert Fanger, a spokesman for the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in Indianapolis. He did not know the cause of death.In more than a dozen books and in his column in Newsweek magazine, Friedman championed individual freedom in economics and politics.(snipped)http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Obit-Friedman.htmlMilton Friedman: Legalize It!http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05.n878.a08.html
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on November 16, 2006 at 11:28:41 PT
Whig
I think you are right. I have hope again. It's been a long time since I've had hope.
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Comment #14 posted by whig on November 16, 2006 at 11:22:38 PT
FoM
I would say that if the speaker and majority leader both have 100% ratings from the Drug Policy Alliance we should have a right to expect some progress.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #13 posted by FoM on November 16, 2006 at 11:20:27 PT
dongenero
That is so true. I voted for Reagan and no one else until Kerry. I voted for Reagan because he said he wanted the government out of people's homes and families. Then Just Say No was started. What a disappointment it was. I didn't vote for Carter because he didn't decriminalize marijuana like he said he was going to do. If they only knew how important it is to know the mind of the people. Maybe now they will get it because of the Internet.
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Comment #12 posted by dongenero on November 16, 2006 at 11:08:10 PT
Drug Policy Alliance ratings
This list sure puts a spotlight on the generally stinky record of the Republicans.So much for the Republican values of personal freedom and personal responsibility.....buncha hypocrites.Let their records define them, not their propaganda.
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on November 16, 2006 at 10:55:00 PT
Whig
That's good to know. I only looked for Hoyer since he beat Murtha.
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Comment #10 posted by whig on November 16, 2006 at 10:51:58 PT
FoM
Nancy Pelosi is also 100% from DPA.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on November 16, 2006 at 10:49:56 PT
Milton Friedman - RIP
I just read in my e-mail that he passed away. I don't have any details though.
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Comment #8 posted by dongenero on November 16, 2006 at 10:41:24 PT
"islamo-fascist" prohibitionists
This is a bit off topic as it has to do with the herbal intoxicant, Khat.The Islamic fundamentalists in Somalia are, (big surprise),prohibitionists. They apparently cracked down on a prohibition protest by khat users and sellers, by opening fire on the protest group, killing one and wounding several others.You know there are U.S. prohibitionists that would love to be able to do the same. My question to our U.S. prohibitionists is, "are you with us or with the terrorists?" Prohibition is "Islamo-fascist" ideology, not American values.http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061116/ts_nm/somalia_dc
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on November 16, 2006 at 10:38:27 PT
Drug Policy Alliance Rating on Hoyer
MD -- U.S. House -- 5 -- Steny H. Hoyer -- Democrat -- 100% http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_detail.php?sig_id=004135M
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Comment #6 posted by Max Flowers on November 16, 2006 at 10:35:46 PT
Poppycock
This statement,"That step to using marijuana, something that is already illegal and something that has more of an addiction potential per say (sic) than alcohol, is more likely to lead you to using heavier drugs like cocaine and heroin."even when couched in the context of "explaining the gateway theory", is extremely disingenuous coming from someone whose credentials are "teaching Drugs Behavior and Society at USF." This teacher KNOWS, if she at all deserves her teaching credential, that this is a false statement and that alcohol is very capable of physical addiction (forget addiction "potential") whereas cannabis is not. Has she heard the term DT's, delerium tremens? That is the very real withdrawal syndrome that occurs with alcoholism. Cannabis has no such syndrome and is not addictive in the clinical sense whatsoever. So for her to even spout off this patently false statement, even in the way that she does, advances that statement and invites misunderstanding and misinterpretation, and she knows it. Who ever even said that cannabis has more addiction potential per se than cannabis as part of the bogus gateway theory? I think she made up that part.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on November 16, 2006 at 10:17:02 PT
dongenero
I agree with that. They raided pain clinics in a city where most of my family lives. After they raided the pain clinics heroin started pouring in to the community. Withdrawal from narcotics is the worst pain and being forced to the streets is the result of needing to get a handle on the withdrawal pain.
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Comment #4 posted by dongenero on November 16, 2006 at 09:57:45 PT
Prescription drug crackdown leads to heroin use
This article contains some comments about cannabis.http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061116/hl_nm/drug_crackdown_dc_1I think the lessons that can be gleaned from this article, regarding cannabis, are that millions use it and will continue to use it. If you could truly curtail it, people would then pick an alternative, which would certainly be more dangerous, as cannabis is probably the most benign intoxicant that exists. Lastly, you would be better off to let people possess and cultivate cannabis, thereby removing dangerous, foreign, criminal enterprises from the equation.
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Comment #3 posted by museman on November 16, 2006 at 09:38:16 PT
dope
"Dope" is what was used to coat the canvas on aircraft wings before metal was used. It's still used on some small aircraft."Dopey" is the state of stupidity, or 'stupor' that one would get after breathing in too much of the fumes, which are tolulol, and tolulene based, like glue, and paint. "Doper" was a slang term used by my generation (first) as a general term for use of anything other than tobacco and alcohol. Most of us didn't like the term, so it became part of the vocabulary of prohibitionists.The use of derogatory, and dehumanising terminology is about as relevant to reality as Anslingers own bigoted, racist prejudice that spawned the fears of ignorance, and fanned those prejudices to flame.The 'gateway theory' is about as plausible as a benevolent demon. In over 70 years of prohibition, they have not come up with anything new. It is linear thinking with a whole lot of assumption.If their 'research' was anything but selective sourcing of those who fit their 'myth -proving' profiles for things like;"you go through this progression of smoking cigarettes and drinking beers or drinking alcohol and using marijuana... That step to using marijuana, something that is already illegal and something that has more of an addiction potential per say than alcohol, is more likely to lead you to using heavier drugs like cocaine and heroin."then we wouldn't be here fighting this war that we didn't make.I find it interesting that the REAL 'gateway substances' are listed here; Tobacco, and alcohol - both highly addictive, unhealthy, and dangerous, but certainly legal. One of the reasons that youth take up smoking and alcohol 'before' they might try pot, is because alcohol and tobacco are much much easier to get than the herb, and a lot of Americans have them accessible in their own houses.Now I personally don't smoke tobacco (anymore), and I always found the dopey-like stupor of alcohol intoxication to be too much of a state of stupidity, and it has been my experience, that like those who destroy their brain through meth, and tolulol sniffing, alcohol poisoning doesn't leave much intelligence behind after several years of addictive use. To constantly make the comparison between marijuana and alcohol - as if marijuana was even in the same field of negativity, only shows the desperation and ignorance of the few (probably half brain-dead from 'social drinking') who continue to support the destruction of innocent lives in their desperation to 'be right.' Their ignorance of the truth will only make them look like the fools they are, when the dust and grime of BS prohibition propaganda settles back into the compost pit where it was dredged up from.
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Comment #2 posted by potpal on November 16, 2006 at 09:16:11 PT
yes
There is lots of hope in ahh cannabis. Is there any hope for dopey scientist and drug warriors who work to promote synthetic chemicals over natural ones...I doubt it.Most likely...
Thomas W. Klein, a professor of molecular medicine and interdisciplinary oncology at USF, received a $1.45 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to continue studying marijuana's (negative, if any) influence on the immune system.
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Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on November 16, 2006 at 09:11:40 PT
Now let's do some math
For Marinol, Big Pharm charges about $500 for sixty capsules containing 2.5 mg of THC each. You're paying $500 for 150 mg of THC, which comes out to a cost of $3.33 per mg of THC.Suppose you buy an ounce of bud from a drug dealer at a cost of say $500. Suppose the pot is 10% THC. So you're getting 2.8 grams, that is, 2800 mg of THC for $500, which comes out to 18 cents per mg of THC.So DUH no wonder the scientists want to develop an extract!They can't get get their share of spoils if people can grow their own pot. If people are forced to pay Big Pharm prices for THC, then there will be enough revenue for scientists to make money off of it too.
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