cannabisnews.com: The False Promise Of Marijuana The False Promise Of Marijuana Posted by FoM on April 08, 2000 at 08:20:21 PT Editorial Source: Tampa Tribune Even the most vigorous opponents of drug use normally soften their stand a bit when it comes to smoking marijuana for medical purposes. The drug is said to ease the pain and enhance the appetite of cancer patients. It also may help alleviate glaucoma and other ailments. Drug advocates have pushed hard for the legalization of the medicinal use of marijuana, knowing this is one area where they can win the public's sympathy. Seven states already have approved such use through voter referendums.But the forces behind these votes are usually less interested in the compassionate treatment of the sick than in bringing the nation closer to legalizing all recreational drugs.Americans might be more suspicious of these campaigns if they read an article by James R. McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control, in the latest issue of Policy Review magazine. McDonough points out that there is no scientific evidence to prove that smoking marijuana has medical benefits.Rather, research indicates certain properties in the cannabis plant have medical potential but that more studies are needed on the matter. In any event, the therapeutic effects of smoking marijuana are mild and much less effective than available legal drugs.Physicians, too, worry about the damage the sick do to their lungs by smoking marijuana, which research indicates can be as harmful as smoking tobacco. Further, the effects of pot vary wildly, according to cultivation, so there is little control over a patient's dosage. McDonough writes that scientists interested in improving patient care favor the development of a ``smoke-free, rapid-onset delivery system for compounds found in the plant.''He does not oppose the development of such a drug. But he is right to warn against substituting harmful, mind- altering substances for effective medicines.And McDonough strips the medical pretense from the pro-drug crowd when he concludes, ``Cannabinoids found in the marijuana plant offer the potential for medical use. However, lighting the leaves of the plant on fire and smoking them amount to an impractical delivery system that involves health risks and deleterious legal consequences. There is a profound difference between an approval process that seeks to purify isolated compounds for safe and effective delivery, and legalization of smoking the raw plant material as medicine.``To advocate the latter is to bypass the safety and efficacy built into America's medical system. Ballot initiatives for smoked marijuana comprise a dangerous, impractical shortcut that circumvents the drug-approval process. The resulting decriminalization of a dangerous and harmful drug turns out to be counterproductive - legally, politically and scientifically.''MAP Posted-by: Eric ErnstPublished: April 3, 2000Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)Copyright: 2000, The Tribune Co. Bookmark: MAP's link to Florida articles is: http://www.mapinc.org/states/flNews Article Courtesy Of MapInc.http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n453/a08.htmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana & MapInc. Archives: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/MAP.shtmlhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #9 posted by jalum on August 22, 2001 at 11:09:14 PT: Marijuana Facts Fact 1 .Marijuana was brough here to the U.S. too make rope witch was called Hemp. This was also used for medical perposes.Fact 2. Yes,if you did legallize marijuana it would get us The U.S.A. out of deat Fact 3. Anyone who wishes to smoke,eat or drink the plant, will do so when ever we please no mater how much they(being the law) try to stop us.Fact 4. Man made boose, God made weed, Who do you Trust???Fact 5. if everybody who uses pot would come out at on timethere would not be enough jail space to hold all of Us... I'm not saying all drugs should be legal,Hell most all legal drugs have more side effects than all the side effects of Marijuana alone combined. but like I said earlyon, legallize Marijuana and our crime level will drop. How many times have you heard of someone being high on pot and killing someone else for their money to go buy more. Hardly ever, But how many times have you heard of someone being high on crack killing another person for their money or their crack, Just about everyday!The people who use pot,(marijuana) are more laid-back type of people. Their not out there to rob anybody or Kill anyone. Unlike the rest of the dope heads out there who are strung out on crack or just plane cocaine, or any otherhard class drugs. Dont get me wrong but there would be some laws at goes with being legal,Just as it is with Boose. Untill then welcome to the NEW USSR, where we lose more of our rights everyday... [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Roberto Eduardo on April 11, 2000 at 06:31:46 PT Legalization of Marijuana Legalize it and sell it and wipe out our national debt and world hunger. It's a weed from seed that the almighty God put on this Earth. Enjoy it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by R.Earing on April 09, 2000 at 12:14:58 PT: research? When is the last time someone researched the effectiveness of *anything* when it suddenly jumped from the test tube and said "Whoa,slow down, more studies are necessary before you know anything"? Binary test-effective or inneffective,these guys all of a sudden claim that the actual experiment performed indicated the need for more studies? Illogical,silly, and cowardly. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by arcturus on April 08, 2000 at 19:50:58 PT Kap and 'Server Yes 4d, those two are stellar. My thanks to Kap, Observer, Freedom, Rainbow, dddd, and of course FoM. We will prevail.arcturus [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by dddd on April 08, 2000 at 17:39:31 PT OUTSTANDING After reading Observers dazzling and outstanding comments,,,all I can do is offer my sincere compliments. I wish guys like Observer and Kap would stop writing such eloquent and excellent commentaries...they make me and everyone else look bad.........dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by nl5x on April 08, 2000 at 14:10:53 PT: fungus Don't forget this is the marijuana fungus guy. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on April 08, 2000 at 11:17:27 PT: Shades of Senator McCarthy Observer, once again I owe you a debt of gratitude. But this time for jarring a memory. 'Drug advocates have pushed hard for the legalization of the medicinal use of marijuana, knowing this is one area where they can win the public's sympathy. Seven states already have approved such use through voter referendums. But the forces behind these votes are usually less interested in the compassionate treatment of the sick than in bringing the nation closer to legalizing all recreational drugs. Americans might be more suspicious of these campaigns if they read an article by James R. McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control, in the latest issue of Policy Review magazine.' In the late Nineteen Forties, another man who fulminated about conspiracies, a US Senator, no less, brought the country to a state of panic with his unfounded allegations of Communists holding high ranking position within the US government and the Army. When challenged to prove those allegations, he castigated his challengers as being un-American for doubting his integrity. He threatened those who asked for the proof with prison or worse. Lives and reputations were destroyed, civil liberties took a back seat to the prosecution of a modern day witch-hunt, and the entire political process was marked by a paranoia so deep that it's only comparable analog today can be found among hard core DrugWarriors. His efforts and methods won him a place in the dictionary.Pardon my blindness. The DrugWar is modern-day McCarthyism. The DrugWarriors besmirch the reputation of all who demand proof of their Reefer Madness allegations. They destroy your rights, steal your property, seperate children from parents, even on occasion take your life. All on the most specious of arguments. The Senator McCarthy (who, by the way, was a morphine addict who was 'maintained' by none other than Harry Anslinger; how's that for irony!) got the last laugh, after all. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by observer on April 08, 2000 at 09:58:48 PT Bait and Switch, 101 (part 1) Drug advocates have pushed hard for the legalization of the medicinal use of marijuana,Notice that this propaganda piece scrupulously avoids mentioning prison. The old bait and switch: Drug "experts" (who also just happen to make their living off of the drug war) assert that "marijuana isn't medicine" (the bait), and then, quietly, use this as "reason" to lock up adults (the switch) who use marijuana anyway. Mr and Mrs Righteous American clap at this triumph. The prisons fill.But the forces behind these votes are usually less interested in the compassionate treatment of the sick than in bringing the nation closer to legalizing all recreational drugs.Ad hominem attack, in its purest form. Americans are to be locked up for smoking marijuana, because yes, even though marijuana is a medicine, there exist other people (those bad people we don't like) ... these dark and evil "forces" that are interested in other things! So therefore, "society" is justified in locking up people for using marijuana (the drug warrior's convenient reasoning goes).Americans might be more suspicious of these campaigns if they read an article by JamesR. McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control, in the latest issue of Policy Review magazine. Talk about a drug warrior with a vested interest in maintaining his gravy train! I wonder why the Tampa Tribune doesn't tell us something like:But the forces behind these laws are usually less interested in the compassionate treatment of the anyone, than in bringing the nation closer to a totalitarian drug-"free" police state.Suppose that the Tamp Tribune would care to expound upon that?McDonough points out that there is no scientific evidence to prove that smoking marijuana has medical benefits.... therefore sick people who disagree and smoke cannabis anyway should be severely punished: imprisoned, have their property stolen (whether or not they smoke their cannabis).Anyway, there is plenty of scientific evidence that that smoking marijuana has medical benefits. See: http://www.rxmarijuana.com/ etc. It depends on the scientist that you ask... Ask a government paid scientist, one who's existence relies upon toeing the party line, then they will to preserve career, income, prestige and tell you that party line. Ask a scientist who is not beholden to The State, then you get a different answer.Physicians, too, worry about the damage the sick do to their lungs by smoking marijuana, which research indicates can be as harmful as smoking tobacco.A false comparison: people tend to smoke much less quantity of marijuana than tobacco. The higher to potency of marijuana, the less they have to smoke. Often patients obtain relief with a few puffs of cannabis. Contrast this to a pack-a-day tobacco smoker.Further, the effects of pot vary wildly, according to cultivation, so there is little control over a patient's dosage.This is an effect of prohibition: the black market doesn't test and standardize potencies. Again, we see the effects of prohibition, of making something illegal, used as a very reason to keep it illegal. The epitome of circular thinking.McDonough writes that scientists interested in improving patient care favor thedevelopment of a ``smoke-free, rapid-onset delivery system for compounds found inthe plant.''More biased language. The implication is that scientists who note the obvious relief that smoked cannabis brings to patients, are scientists that somehow are not truly interested in improving patient care.But he is right to warn against substituting harmful, mind- altering substances for effective medicines.(No mainstream press bias there! No sir.) [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by observer on April 08, 2000 at 09:57:59 PT Bait and Switch, 101 (part 2) Another false statement. First line drugs that are used in combating chemotherapy nausea, like compazine for example are both severely "mind-altering" and harmful (in that they directly cause permanent, irreversible brain damage like tardive dyskinesia http://www.ionet.net/~jcott/homepage/drugdb/108.html http://www.ussc.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/search?type=all&query=compazine+tardive+dyskinesia ) So the Tampa Tribune and the good doctor were not even close to the truth on that statement, either. (Is this yet another ONDCP `For Credit' $$$ article? http://www.mapinc.org/find?K=ONDCP+Media+Campaign&COL=Body&T=All+words&MAX=1000&Y=All&DE=Low )And McDonough strips the medical pretense from the pro-drug crowd No, no bias there, either. Note the use of "pro-drug" name calling to smear those who are merely in favor of not imprisoning marijuana smokers! This propaganda piece never mentions prison, of course. But let someone suggest that marijuana smokers not be imprisoned then they are falsely called "pro-drug". That's how the propaganda technique of name calling works: the name needn't be accurate, just repeated enough by "authorities" to stick.when he concludes, ``Cannabinoids found in the marijuana plant offer the potential for medical use.Interesting! A few short years ago, such government paid "scientists" claimed that marijuana leads "to acts of shocking violence ... ending often in incurable insanity" (Tell Your Children, 1936 http://crrh.org/hemptv/misc_reefer.html ). I suppose they were forced to modify that line somewhat.However, lighting the leaves of the plant on fire and smoking them amount to an impractical delivery system that involves health risks Again, the old bait and switch. Putative "health risks" are used as implicit reasons to imprison adults for using this traditional plant remedy.and deleterious legal consequences.And once again, in a masterpiece of circular reasoning and assuming what was supposed to be demonstrated. `Marijuana is illegal because it is illegal.'There is a profound difference between an approval process that seeks to purify isolated compounds for safe and effective delivery, One gets the distinct impression that the safe and effective delivery process that McDonough seeks to foster is one where ever more power and rights are stolen from individuals for safe and effective delivery to governments and the prison industrial complex; a process where money is safly and effectively delivered to large pharmaceutical companies by means of costly patent drugs enabled by prohibition elimination of the natural but unpatentable competition.``To advocate the latter is to bypass the safety and efficacy built into America's medical system. Yes, patients increasingly want to bypass corrupted governments and restore freedoms that all Americans traditionally shared in.Ballot initiatives for smoked marijuana comprise a dangerous, impractical shortcut that circumvents the drug-approval process. And threaten the illegitimate power corrupted governments have stolen from their people. The freedom to place into your own body is a fundamental freedom. Dressing up the theft of this freedom from the people in the latest scientific garb does not disguise the nature of this theft. yes, patients want to circumvent corruption and regain freedoms that all Americans once retained.The resulting decriminalization of a Yes doctor: keep punching "decriminalization" and "legalization". But whatever you do, make sure never to mention prison. (If someone else mentions prison, then be sure to play it down as much as possible.)dangerous and harmful drug turns out to be counterproductive - legally, politically and scientifically.''More unproven assertion. He's yet to demonstrate any of this beyond a circular, `marijuana is bad for you because it is illegal and illegal because it is bad for you.' The old bait and switch: cannabis needs more research, might be like tobacco, etc. therefore cannabis-smoking adults need to be imprisoned http://november.org/ http://hr95.org/ , raped at the government's behest http://www.spr.org/ and also have their property stolen http://fear.org/ and be force treated http://mindfreedom.org/ ?No, I don't buy Mr McDonough's reasons for not returning to adult Americans traditional freedoms all Americans once shared. I'll choose freedom, instead. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: