cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana is Bad Medicine, Bad Policy
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Medical Marijuana is Bad Medicine, Bad Policy
Posted by CN Staff on June 03, 2010 at 04:41:57 PT
By Dora Dixie and Pete Bensinger
Source: Daily Herald
Illinois -- The Illinois organizations and doctors opposed to the proposed medical marijuana law support the research necessary to gain FDA approval of any drug, including cannabis. Physicians rely on this process to give their patients effective care and avoid serious health risks.Why is marijuana being treated differently from other drugs? Morphine and codeine come from the opium plant, but no doctor suggests that cancer patients smoke opium.
Marijuana is being treated differently because the public's hearts and minds are being tugged by stories about people who say marijuana has helped their condition when nothing else has. Do we know what else they've tried? Do we know if marijuana is actually helping their condition or just giving them the sense of feeling better? These stories don't meet accepted standards for the development of safe, effective medicine.The American Medical Association, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Glaucoma Society, American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Cancer Society all reject smoked marijuana as medicine. Crude marijuana - especially smoked - does not meet the accepted standards of medical practice. There are too many unanswered questions. Who will train doctors about when and how much to prescribe? What are the side effects and long-term risks that doctors are required to counsel patients about? Will there be warnings provided by distributors regarding possible pesticides and herbicides that have been linked to leukemia and lymphoma, microbes that could be deadly to immune-compromised patients, and other carcinogens in the marijuana plant? Who will be in charge of quality control? How does a doctor choose the appropriate plant species for the condition being treated?Beyond the unanswered medical questions, states that have passed such laws have the highest rates of teen marijuana use. Treatment admissions for marijuana now exceed alcohol at public-funded centers in Los Angeles. Illinois employers would face major problems with workplace drug policies because the proposed legislation requires that impairment be shown if someone has a medical marijuana card. Impairment has never been the standard used by employers, who now would have to wait for an accident to happen before they could act. And at a time when the state budget is in crisis, the bill would add new administrative, law enforcement, treatment and health care costs to state and local budgets.The president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police called this bill "an enforcement nightmare." Marijuana laced with the pesticides used by drug cartels in Mexico has already surfaced in Los Angeles County dispensaries. Former Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline cautioned that "street gangs will open up marijuana dispensaries and use the profits to buy guns, heroin and bail out fellow gang members."This bill allows six plants per patient that can produce 13,000 marijuana joints annually. Who could use 30 joints a day? This places the dosage of a drug in the hands of the users and increases the likelihood that marijuana will be passed on to patients' friends and families, or sold on the street.There would be no restrictions on the location of dispensaries (except 500 feet from a school), so they could be anywhere - next to a park or in a shopping mall. As with other laws, we must consider the greatest public good. Let's support existing research and science and make sure we have safe and effective medicine, following good public policy. This bill is neither.• Dr. Dora Dixie is medical director of The Women's Treatment Center in Chicago. Peter Bensinger is president of Bensinger, Dupont & Associates, a Chicago-based consultant on substance abuse, drug testing and gambling addiction.Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)Author: Dora Dixie and Pete Bensinger Published: June 2, 2010Copyright: 2010 The Daily Herald CompanyContact: fencepost dailyherald.comWebsite: http://www.dailyherald.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/wXiW8HoVCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by b4daylight on June 04, 2010 at 16:18:21 PT
subject
"Why is marijuana being treated differently from other drugs? "Good questions maybe you should write an article on this topic?
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #12 posted by Paint with light on June 03, 2010 at 22:02:43 PT
Lower 48 attractions
I used to always watch this on Sunday afternoon.http://www.rarevisionsroadtrip.com/flash/flash.htmlLegal like alcohol.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #11 posted by Hope on June 03, 2010 at 20:01:06 PT
Afterburner
Thank you!Those are cool. I love the giant geese.Somewhere here in Texas, I'm not sure where, and not sure that I want to know where, we have a Foamhenge... an exact copy of Stonehenge made of Styrofoam! How cool is that?I used to love those roadside things. There used to be more of them seems like.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #10 posted by afterburner on June 03, 2010 at 18:28:53 PT
Hope
Good to see you are still up and about and using your righteous anger to inform the public & to encourage compassionate healing. Awful article here and such obvious conflict of interest on the part of the authors.Totally Off Topic!Hope - Just for Laughs.
Think you've got 'em big in Texas -- check these out:10 quirkiest attractions in Canada
http://travel.ca.msn.com/canada/photogallery.aspx?cp-documentid=24427840Canada Goose - Wawa, Ontario
http://www.roadsideattractions.ca/goose.htmCanada Goose (2).
Wawa, Ontario
http://www.roadsideattractions.ca/wawagoose2.htmLARGE CANADIAN ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS.
TRANS-CANADA HIGHWAY.
Large Canadian Roadside Attractions found along the Trans-Canada Highway from the West Coast to the East Coast.
(Listed by Community)
http://www.roadsideattractions.ca/tch.htm
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #9 posted by Hope on June 03, 2010 at 17:21:13 PT
Quality control?
Do they mean like the quality control of the Heparin, made in China, promoted by our pharmaceutical industry, approved by our trusted and beloved government agency, the FDA, and a drug of choice of so many of our illustrious medical professionals and killed so many trusting Americans, because it was a money making poison made in filthy conditions, from filthy, rotten pig flesh, in filthy crocks in filthy hell hole Chinese "factories"?
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #8 posted by Hope on June 03, 2010 at 17:12:54 PT
Well...
My anger at the sleazy stupidity of Dixie, Bensinger, and Cline is extremely intense.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #7 posted by Paint with light on June 03, 2010 at 13:28:56 PT
comments
"Do we know if marijuana is actually helping their condition or just giving them the sense of feeling better?"Those prohibs don't want anybody feeling better.They can't make money off that."Who will be in charge of quality control?"That seems to be a problem with big Pharma recently.Cannabis consumers are quite capable of calculating quality control. "There would be no restrictions on the location of dispensaries (except 500 feet from a school), so they could be anywhere - next to a park or in a shopping mall."That is more restrictive than a drug store or in most cases even a liquor store.And cannabis has never killed anyone.Legal like alcohol.
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Comment #6 posted by dongenero on June 03, 2010 at 10:28:10 PT
I don't think they are allowed to suggest that.
"Morphine and codeine come from the opium plant, but no doctor suggests that cancer patients smoke opium."But, you could. And, it would be highly effective. It's also highly addictive however.
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Comment #5 posted by Sam Adams on June 03, 2010 at 09:33:38 PT
Dr. Dora
http://www.womenstreatmentcenter.org/staff_medical.htmI would wager that a huge chunk of their revenue is from court-mandated cannabis treatment. If cannabis get decriminalized it could whack 50% off their gross revenue.Follow the money, follow the greed.
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on June 03, 2010 at 09:29:24 PT
answers
>>>Morphine and codeine come from the opium plant, but no doctor suggests that cancer patients smoke opium. No, but doctors DID prescribe naturally extracted opium tinctures for hundreds of years. In fact it was the most-prescribed medication of the 1800's. And it was far cheaper and let patients control the dosage far better than today's corporation-enriching pills.Let's face it, any rhetorical thrust against medical cannabis is just a liar's contest. It's absurd. It's like arguing that the Sun rises in the west. We have thousands of people falling to the ground in the streets and filling morgues from taking prescription meds that are totally approved by ALL the right authority figures and uniformed thugs.I really like the increasing arguments that "no doctors would EVER tell someone to smoke medicine, or to smoke cannabis" "the medical community would NEVER do this"The glaring, obvious truth is that THOUSANDS of board-certified, state licensed physicians have recommended medical cannabis, smoked or otherwise, to suffering patients. These are men and women who have studied in our schools and passed EVERY standardized test, review board, and academic standard, as well as taking the Hippocratic Oath.The TRUTH is that hundreds of thousands of people die every year from APPROVED medications that destroy the tissue of vital organs such as the liver, kidneys, stomach, intestines, heart and vascular system.and NO ONE has ever died from smoking cannabis! So to these liars I say take your make-believe "accepted standards" and blow it out your stethoscope!
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Comment #3 posted by John Markes on June 03, 2010 at 08:36:28 PT
FDA Approval
Interesting they should mention morphine and codeine, as they did not go through the regulatory process either, just like cannabis.
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Comment #2 posted by Vincent on June 03, 2010 at 06:42:19 PT:
Two anti-marijuana knuckleheads
This article features opinions from two obvious anti-drug fanatics. What do you expect these fools to say? I notice that they make statements such as, "more teenagers go to emergency rooms for treatment because of Marijuana, than because of alcohol", and yet they offer no kind of proof, or statistic.
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Comment #1 posted by por1 on June 03, 2010 at 06:40:34 PT:
Hope
The Great Mystery (God) gives nolage to those of us who listen.Our earth mother gives us the tools to heal ourselfs.Chemo is man made radiation injected into your body.I have seen many sick from the afects and altamatly die still sick.Cannabis helped counter the afects but in the end no cure.The healing stones come from our Earth Mother and given to us by a man who listens.The only way Jay is getting away with healing so many is becouse he is a medicine man.The government cannot stop him becouse he uses rocks feathers and plants.Actualy just rocks and nutrition.When you use the stones and if they make you feel uncomfotable you just back off a little.You have no conntrol with chemo and it often does not work well.Jay has a 97% cure rate the 3% is lost to side affects from pain pills and such that our medical profesion pescribe.He and his staff can help You and God heal you.I can only pass the info on It is up to you what you do with it.You are in my prayersWith Love
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