cannabisnews.com: Medical Marijuana Laws Make a Farce of Medicine
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Medical Marijuana Laws Make a Farce of Medicine
Posted by CN Staff on March 07, 2012 at 10:03:41 PT
By Dinah Miller and Annette Hanson
Source: Baltimore Sun
Maryland -- Despite the fact that marijuana remains a controlled substance that is illegal in the United States under federal law, 16 states and the District of Columbia have legalized "medical marijuana." Del. Cheryl Glenn's HB15, the "Maryland Medical Marijuana Act," was introduced and first read on Jan. 11, the first day of this year's General Assembly session. Two more bills calling for legalization of medical marijuana have been introduced since. We would like to make the case that medical marijuana, as currently "prescribed," makes a farce of medicine.
While inhaled marijuana may have some medical benefits, to legislate medical treatments evades the standard protocols that the Food and Drug Administration has put in place for the regulation of all other medications. Why would this "medication" alone be exempt from the usual monitoring and safety regulations, especially given that we know significant risks are involved with the use of inhaled cannabis?In all states but one where medical marijuana is legal, access is granted with a card, authorized by a physician, and the card expires in one year. There is no stipulation as to dose or frequency of administration, or for standard follow-up appointments to determine whether the marijuana is helpful or is causing side effects. For those people in whom marijuana induces a negative reaction in the form of an addiction, lowered motivation, paranoia or even schizophrenia, no mechanism exists for the physician to monitor or halt use of the drug if the patient wishes to continue using it against medical advice. This is a strange way to prescribe the use of a controlled substance. Medical marijuana is distributed by specialized dispensaries — not pharmacies — or patients are permitted to cultivate their own. In some states, these are marketed as boutiques with a variety of "flavors" and preparations, and the message is that smoking marijuana is part of "wellness." There is no quality control to regulate the potency of the active ingredient or to standardize and safeguard the product being delivered.While it seems heartless to oppose the legalization of marijuana for those who are suffering from cancer, end-stage AIDS or debilitating pain, medical marijuana is often used for a much wider variety of conditions that fall under the realm of "chronic disorders."In Colorado, it is estimated that only 2 percent of registered medical marijuana users suffer from cancer or AIDS. Medicinal marijuana is often prescribed for psychiatric conditions such as insomnia, anxiety and mood disorders — and often by prescribers who have no specialized training in psychiatric disorders. There is no research to support this practice, and it is not the current standard to recommend marijuana for psychiatric conditions. In fact, cannabis is known to exacerbate and accelerate some psychiatric symptoms. Still, HB15 specifically stipulates five psychiatric conditions that medical marijuana would be indicated for: anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and agitation in Alzheimer's disease. As psychiatrists, we are astounded.Of the two other medical marijuana bills being considered by our state legislature, one, HB1024, would allow for medical marijuana to be distributed at academic centers with oversight by a Marijuana Commission, and would require that data and outcomes be collected and published. The other, HB1158, also would require the formation of a commission and would require training and certification of physicians who prescribe marijuana, but it would allow for prescription outside of academic centers and would not require data collection.The wide variety of ways in which our legislators believe it is appropriate to use marijuana for medical conditions leaves one to wonder whether doctors, rather than lawmakers, shouldn't be making decisions about medical treatments.Access to medical marijuana has led to litigation in facilities where controlled substances are restricted or tightly regulated, and correctional facilities have defended lawsuits by inmates seeking to continue smoking medical marijuana while incarcerated.We believe that marijuana for medical conditions should undergo the same study, scrutiny and prescription monitoring as every other prescribed medication, and the current means of "prescribing" violates all of the usual practices of medicine. What other medication do we authorize for a year, with no stipulation as to frequency, dose or certainty that there has been a positive response without side effects?It has been suggested that medicalization is the first step toward legalization, If legalization is, in fact, the goal, perhaps that can be done without physicians as intermediaries. While legalizing marijuana may not make sense from the standpoint of public health and safety, there are certainly many examples of ways we allow members of our society to put themselves at risk without legislating a role for physicians.Dr. Dinah Miller and Dr. Annette Hanson are psychiatrists in Baltimore. They are co-authors of "Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work," Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.A version of this article appeared on the Clinical Psychiatry News website.Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)Author: Dinah Miller and Annette HansonPublished: March 7, 2012Copyright: 2012 The Baltimore SunContact: letters baltsun.comWebsite: http://www.baltimoresun.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/UYqH1ugrCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #13 posted by museman on March 11, 2012 at 13:04:21 PT
Medical Marijuana Laws Make a Farce of Medicine
Well DUH!Truth has a way of making BS look like the farce that it is.What? You mean I can HEAL MYSELF? Gee. What do I need to give all those tokens of wealth to the 'medical profession' for? Like they were some kind of special elite, more deserving by right of their preference for poisoning instead of healing -so that their livelihood will continue apace....They are a farce. Like the 'profession' of politics, and 'law'. Talk about farces!"Physician, Heal thyself!"(yes I know this was an attempt by the status quo to twist understanding and truth to their own advantage -like that old amerikan standard of legaleze that is consistently passed off as something other than the lie and farce that it is. But though they try to make the truth look like the farce, ultimately they are just the blind leading the blind.)LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #12 posted by George Servantes on March 10, 2012 at 04:27:13 PT:
Corrupted lairs
"Dr. Dinah Miller and Dr. Annette Hanson are psychiatrists in Baltimore."Psychiatrists are very anti Cannabis and against any other natural medicine. Ever wonder why? They are newly invented medicine field, dating only 100 years back into not so distant past. Psychiatrists are corrupted persons that never cured anyone, but they'll never admit the truth. Thus their lies are proof of their corruption. While in the beginning they did have some credibility when they used Cannabis, LSD and other natural based medicine, right now synthetic lab made medicines are worthless for any psychic illness.
What to expect from a so called doctor that is only drugging his patients with synthetic lab invented medicine that can never cure anyone and can for most people just make them worse. But many sick have no alternative because of monopoly of synthetic lab made pharmaceuticals - all thanks to prohibition on natural drugs. Cannabis on the other side has cured many people from numerous illness, including many psychiatrist ones. Psychiatrists even lie that Cannabis make you go crazy or schizophrenic, but on quite it's the opposite of the truth. But still, ignorant corrupted liars will deny the TRUTH! Because they benefit from prohibition, while many are suffering.
But for how long will you benefit on other fellow human sufferings? You think you're better then other common laborers, or how you call us: slaves? Very soon it will be legal, like I told you 2 years ago. Times are changing, Say: 'Truth has come. Falsehood has vanished and shall return no more.'
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Comment #11 posted by dongenero on March 09, 2012 at 14:45:44 PT
FDA approval? hah
First of all, it's not even the FDA making the approvals.Perhaps Doctors Miller and Hanson didn't see the recent expose Hansen did for Dateline of FDA drug trials/approval process by private companies including those in India and other overseas sites?http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/#46615382
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Comment #10 posted by observer on March 08, 2012 at 11:36:42 PT
Arrests? Prison? Jail? - Doctors' Blind Spots
re: "Dr. Dinah Miller and Dr. Annette Hanson are psychiatrists in Baltimore. They are co-authors of "Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work," Johns Hopkins University Press"I missed any arguments for prison or jail there. Just a bunch of medicalized double-talk to divert readers from the salient aspects of the situation. Like arrest and imprisonment. How did the goodly doctors both miss the teensy detail of arrest and prison? Big blind spots? Psychological repression? re: "We believe that marijuana for medical conditions should undergo the same study, scrutiny and prescription monitoring as every other prescribed medication..."Stated so positively! Until you remember that they (while studiously avoiding mention of it, explicitly) are suggesting that people go to jail and become slaves (chattel slavery with the literal chains and bars) - all because they disagreed with the kindly doctors there and used cannabis anyway. How easily people are diverted from the real issues of jail and prison! "What luck for rulers, that men do not think." 
-- Adolph HitlerSad. 
But true. 
http://drugnewsbot.org
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Comment #9 posted by runruff on March 08, 2012 at 07:48:51 PT
Dinah will not perform without Annette.
We believe that marijuana for medical conditions should undergo the same study, scrutiny and prescription monitoring as every other prescribed medication.Apparently you have not heard of The CSA or of the DEA's latest; "Marijuana has no accepted medical use in the USA". If the DEA continues to block research on mmj, this makes your recommendation a Red Herring or Catch 22 if you will.
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Comment #8 posted by Storm Crow on March 07, 2012 at 20:17:10 PT
If you want a farce, look at Aricept! 
"Marijuana May Slow Alzheimer's" - WebMD, 2006- “THC blocks an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase, which speeds the formation of amyloid plaque in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. 
The Alzheimer's drugs Aricept and Cognex work by blocking acetylcholinesterase. When tested at double the concentration of THC, Aricept blocked plaque formation only 22% as well as THC, and Cognex blocked plaque formation only 7% as well as THC.”At TWICE the concentration of THC, Aricept worked about 1/5 as well as THC. Yet, I see Aricept advertized as THE way to slow Alzheimer's, not natural THC from cannabis! They are pawning off a poor second-best medicine on us, when there is a better, more effective and growable, alternative to Aricept- natural cannabis! When the medical facts about cannabis are known, the need for legalization becomes obvious! 
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Comment #7 posted by runruff on March 07, 2012 at 16:25:41 PT
Mickey [The Mouse] Leonhart...
...and The Barb Roach, take down the Green Menace!I am sure I've already read this in a Dell Action Comic.
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on March 07, 2012 at 14:32:43 PT
Did Obama send Barb Roach to exterminate Can?
And for Barb Roach: (see above)US CO: Marijuana training considered in CO Senate 
 Webpage: http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_20119436
Pubdate: 7 Mar. 2012
Source: Denver Post (CO)-0- We are moving forward and Barb came to Colorado to force us to pedal backwards. (Did Obama send Roach to exterminate cannabis dispensaries?)
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Comment #5 posted by HempWorld on March 07, 2012 at 14:24:03 PT
Barb Roach?
As in smoking a roach?
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on March 07, 2012 at 14:15:30 PT
Is Obama responsible for this?
US CO: Denver's new DEA chief plans to live in a city where dispensaries are banned 
 Webpage: http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_20117828
Pubdate: 7 Mar. 2012
Source: Denver Post (CO)Barbra Roach just arrived in Colorado a month ago, but as the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Denver, she's already watched her agents participate in one of the largest drug busts in state history.Roach is the new special agent in charge responsible for overseeing Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. She replaced Jeff Sweetin, who was promoted to run the DEA's training center in Virginia.Roach joined the DEA in 1987, and for........."Right now, she is choosing a city for her husband and two children to live in where no marijuana dispensaries are allowed."""By federal law, marijuana is illegal," she said. "There is no medical proof it has any benefit. ..."More spew too(This makes me want to work harder to completley (RE)legalize cannabis in November and give Barb a welcome to Colorado experience. One that teaches her to stop discriminating against responsible citizens who choose to use a substance which is clearly safer than beer, wine or whiskey. In fact cannabis is safer than Barb Roach) (((Does Barb even realize she's admitting desires to cage humans for using what God says is good on the 1st page of the bible???))) ((((According to the Christ Jesus, in John 14-16, in RED LETTERS, if we love one another, we are His friend. *You can not cage someone for using what God says is good and love them at the same time!!!*The Christ leads Me to believe Barb Roach is not His friend.Christians have eternal life. That eternal life may be different for those who are Christ Jesus friend and those who are not Christ Jesus friend.Barb Roach and fellow cannabis prohibitionist may consider their eternal life situation while not being the friend of the Christ Jesus. In case that matters.)
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on March 07, 2012 at 12:54:28 PT
Food, Herbs & Pills
"We would like to make the case that medical marijuana, as currently 'prescribed,' makes a farce of medicine."You mean the "medicine" of the Rockefeller-controlled "medical" schools and their pharmaceutical company backers? "While inhaled marijuana may have some medical benefits, to legislate medical treatments evades the standard protocols that the Food and Drug Administration has put in place for the regulation of all other medications. Why would this 'medication' alone be exempt from the usual monitoring and safety regulations, especially given that we know significant risks are involved with the use of inhaled cannabis?"You mean the FDA, controlled and partly financed by the same Rockefeller-inspired pharmaceutical companies and authorized by their Congressional puppets? Also, "safety" seems to be new government speak for "law and order." Obviously, these authors never heard of DSHEA 1994, which regulates food supplements, some of which are recommended for wellness!
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on March 07, 2012 at 12:25:12 PT
Cannabis prohibition is the problem, not cannabis.
Didn't read this but:Medical cannabis is a response to cannabis prohibition. Long before (for thousands of years)cannabis prohibition, cannabis was used for medicine.Once cannabis prohibition ends, the farce ends. And those who wish to use the superplant for health reasons will not have to deal with the real farce.Those who support caging humans for using the extremely popular, relatively safe, God-given plant are creating the farce along with so many other negative consequences.If people (authors) don't like the farce they may consider directing their energy toward endig cannabis prohibition.
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on March 07, 2012 at 10:08:03 PT
And likewise!
We would like to make the case that marijuana prohibition, as currently "applied," makes a farce of law. 
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