Should Medical Use of Marijuana be Legal?

[Fat Old Sun]

I'll try to make this quick, as I could easily ramble all day on this subject.

Marinol- Doesn't work for various reasons. It's not surprising that after stripping out cannabidiol, which is a potent anti-convulsant, reduces involuntary abnormal movements in patients suffering from movement disorders, and also happens to be an antioxidant (more effective than vitamins A&C) that protects brain cells from excess glutamate after head traumas and strokes, and removing the anti-inflammatory cannabichromine, as well as the other 57 known remaining compounds, we are left with a far more psychoactive, less effeciently processed and absorbed, far less effective Marinol for 10 times the price of mother nature's version.

Most people have no clue why it is illegal in the first place. They just buy all the BS that is fed to them. Junk science, yellow journalism, and outright racism were used to protect corporate profits just as pharmaceutical companies are being protected today. If it can't be chemically processed, a pharmaceutical company can't have exclusive rights to it. Follow the money. Why do you think that two of the largest contributors every year to The Partnership For a Drug Free America are Anheuser Busch and R.J. Reynolds?

I have more, but I have to go to work. I shall return tomorrow.

 

[Circle_One]

Ha, so why is that NOW a problem?

When All Drugs Were Legal....There Wasn't a Drugs Problem

The forbidden fruit tastes sweeter, I suppose. We always want what we can't (or shouldn't) have.

 

[anders]

By voting "yes", I assume that possible indications for use would have been researched and approved by competent authorities. I would never myself, even in the unconceivable case that a physician recommended it, try mind altering drugs. (I acknowledge, though, that minute doses of central nervous system stimulants have been proven beneficial for children with certain behavioural disturbances.) The way I understand the information available to me, drug usage is linked to high costs, too often requiring the users to use criminal means to acquire the money to support their addiction. For me, personally, this is a non-question. In the extremely unlikely event that I would feel tempted to use any kind of non-prescription drug, to arrive at an opinion out of personal experience, I would have no idea at all on where to find it.

 

[Scorn]

That era of innocence didn't end because America was threatened by a drug crisis. It was ended in the traditional way – by politicians looking for new worlds to conquer, politicians who have no interest in examining dispassionately the chaos they cause, and who will never face a single personal consequence for the lives they have ruined.

Not to mention the specter of a serious trade war and the closing of borders to American goods threatened by China at the turn of the century. A response to the racism of the time in America blaming the opium using yellow hoard for all the crime ills of the country including rape, murder and theft.

A trade mission from America was dispatched to avoid the Chinese cutting them off. And the mission was successful, but part of the deal was for America to apply pressure to Great Britain to stop the opium trade to China. An act that the British saw as their right. As many years earlier they had had it enshrined in their treaties. And the Chinese hated them for it. (At the time opium, or poppies rather, was not a naturally occurring cash crop in China. The British introduced it as a trade good). With American business interests at stake, the “War on Drugs” began. And once it started, the self interests of the parties charged with enforcing it grew beyond opium and it’s myriad of derivatives to include all substances, including marijuana. Interestingly, this happened around the same time as alcohol prohibition. Multiple agenda’s conveniently at work here? Or did one agenda create the other? Who will ever know for sure.

Now, I have to admit that most of this information was derived from a recent PBS documentary I saw. And it’s a difficult find as it’s not compiled quite in this fashion on the net. It requires quite a bit of effort to pull together the information. From the racist newspapers of Hearst, the British abuse of the treaties and the American intervention to protect their interests. It gives the war on drugs an entirely different perspective. All the information exists. The documentary just pulled it together in a cohesive manner.

There is another interesting documentary I saw a few years back that connected what was going to be the ultimate demise of the cotton industry through the increasing use of a hemp. According to the film, there was far too much money at stake and the affluent cotton producers were not about to change their traditions. A significant amount of pressure was applied to the government to stop the growth of the hemp industry by stigmatizing the hemp as a drug (although hemp is a cousin to the more potent strains of marijuana). It was successful, thereby preserving the “Old Money” and forever categorizing it’s competition as harmful to society.

These events, if memory serves, were within 20 years of each other. Not a long time to keep a cause alive and therefore develop rationalization for them, however spurious.

 

[LordZer]

I don't think it should be illegal for medicinal OR recreational purposes. I oppose the criminalization of victimless crimes. If a person chooses to smoke pot with no consequence to anyone but himself, I don't care. No one has ever died of marijuana use....look at how many deaths there are per year from alcohol and cigarette use.

Also, the idea of withholding pain relief from a suffering person is very cruel, in my opinion.

Alcohol kills more people a year the crack, heroin and cocaine combined. The only reason it is legall and marijuana is not is because it is more feasible to tax.

 

[LordZer]

"its not a war on drugs it's a war on personall fredoom, thats what it is i'd like you to keep that in mind at all times"

 

[michel]

We have a secret (for obvious reasons) location in the U.K where Marijuana is being grown with the specific intention of being used in medicine.
There are diseases where it has been found to be more effective that traditional medicine - ie muscular distrophy, ataxia, neuro muscular diseases in general - even the now accepted fibromyalgia. In fact, conventional drugs hitherto prescribed for a whole range of such diseases have been found to have so many side effects - some of which necessitate medication to lessen those effects........ that tests have suggested that properly prescribed doses of Marijuana would improve the health of many.

But there is nothing new in this - I was on a morphine releasing patient controlled pump for two weeks after a hip replacement operation (during which time my pelvis was accidentally fractured).

I have no problem accepting a tested, dispensed by a doctor, drug - whatever it may be. Pemanent pain is very tiring; any method of relief has got to be looked into.

 

[Yerda]

Since I feel it should be legal anyway I would have to agree with medicinal use. However, since the benefits of such use are not clear cut it may not be any more use than chewing your finger nails.

 

[Melody]

George W. Bush has stated that he will oppose legalization of the use of marijuana to ease the suffering of seriously ill people who cannot obtain relief from traditional medications.

Do you think medical use of marijuana should be legal?

I think it should be legalized....period. For years the government has said that it leads to stronger drug use. Now they're finally admitting it does not. In which case, as long as tobacco and alcohol are legal, there is no rational reason to exclude marijuana.

I'm not a user of tobacco, alcohol or marijuana so no personal axe to grind either way.

 

[Saw11_2000]

Hey, if it helps people, why not?

I'm actually agreeing with you Melody! =D

 

[Fluffy]

I think it should be legalized....period. For years the government has said that it leads to stronger drug use. Now they're finally admitting it does not. In which case, as long as tobacco and alcohol are legal, there is no rational reason to exclude marijuana.

But this is about the medical use of marijuana which is very different to legalising it completely so that it can be used in the same way as tobacco or alcohol. Im for the former but very against the latter.

 

[Sunstone]

So far, the vote is 37 to 0 in favor of the medical use of marijuana. I have a hard time understanding why this is even a political issue in this day and age. The politicians are so far behind the public on this issue that it's absurd.

 

[jamaesi]

Chiming in with the chorus. It should be legal.

 

[Valjean]

If a pharmaceutical company can market THC as a pill -- and make huge profits -- it's legal. If sold in its unrefined form, divorced from corporate control and profit, it's illegal.

Seems pretty consistant with today's corporo-fascist climate to me....

 

[Yerda]

Seems pretty consistant with today's corporo-fascist climate to me....

LOL, why is everyone a fascist? Why can't we just call them wankers? Or morons?

 

[Majikthise]

Isn't it funny that hippies lived in communes and called everyone else fascists.

 

[Valjean]

The current US political climate, with its corporate-government complex, nationalism and supression of dissent is decidedly Fascist in character.

Cf: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Fascism.html.

 

[michel]

Since I feel it should be legal anyway I would have to agree with medicinal use. However, since the benefits of such use are not clear cut it may not be any more use than chewing your finger nails.

Finger nails are mainly composed of Keratin, which is a fibrous protein which 'protects the skin' when pressure is applied, therefore it is an essential nutriment. Finger nails more often than not accumulate dirt under the part that you would chew; one of the sad facts about modern attitudes to the bringing up of children in a sanitized environment is that they will not be exposed to 'dirt' and therefore will not develop the auto-imune system to it's full potential; threfore this could be an argument for chewing fingernails.
(O.K Truthseeking soul - all a bit 'tongue in cheek' stuff, but there is some validity to that argument, you know (especially about kids and dirt))
Sorry, feeling a bit 'punch drunk' at the moment-needed ligh relief.

 

[pearl]

As a hospice nurse I support the legalization of marijuana.

 

[Sunstone]

Well, that makes it 38 to 0 in favor of legalization. Does anyone oppose it?