Posted on 04/24/2018 4:07:27 AM PDT by Magnatron
Dear Honorable Jeff Sessions,
I feel obligated to share the results of my five-year-long investigation into the medical benefits of the cannabis plant. Before I started this worldwide, in-depth investigation, I was not particularly impressed by the results of medical marijuana research, but a few years later, as I started to dedicate time with patients and scientists in various countries, I came to a different conclusion.
Not only can cannabis work for a variety of conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and pain, sometimes, it is the only thing that works. I changed my mind, and I am certain you can, as well. It is time for safe and regulated medical marijuana to be made available nationally. I realize this is an unconventional way to reach you, but your office declined numerous requests for an interview, and as a journalist, a doctor and a citizen, I felt it imperative to make sure you had access to our findings.
Mr. Sessions, there is an added urgency, as we are in the middle of a deadly opioid epidemic that has been described as the worst self-inflicted epidemic in the history of our country.
The drug overdose scourge claimed about 68,000 US lives in 2017, just over 45,000 of them from opioids alone. Every day, 115 Americans die from opioid overdoses. It has fueled a decline in an entire country's life expectancy and will be remembered as a sad and tragic chapter in our collective history.
These are desperate times, and while some may consider making medical marijuana widely available to be a desperate measure, the evidence has become increasingly clear of the important role cannabis can have.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Actually, marijuana is physically addicting.
The problem is the addiction, not the specific drug of choice. And it is a feature of addiction that addicts become resistant to the effects of the drug, such that they have to use increasing doses to get an effect. And then they move on to a different drug that their body has not built up a tolerance for, so that they can experience the highs. Addiction occurs as much because of the body’s own chemistry as because of the drug. In fact, people who are addicted to gambling are not ingesting any drugs... but they are addicted.
Drug abuse is a complex problem, and I don’t see how making a highly addictive drug semi-legal and available is a good thing.
The research shows that the psychosis is triggered in developing brains. That means that it happens to people less than 25 years of age. There is also other brain damage that occurs in users whose brains are not fully developed.
Corelation is not causation, or are you new here?
When there is a mechanism by which A causes B, then correlation is one way to measure the effects of a cause. With the case of marijuana use, there is a mechanism. Using marijuana kills off specific brain cells, and the resulting brain damage triggers psychosis.
Cigarette smokers are 300-400% more likely to be schizophrenic than average nonsmokers.
Do you have a link to the medical literature that substantiates this claim?
[[ “When there is a mechanism by which A causes B, then correlation is one way to measure the effects of a cause. With the case of marijuana use, there is a mechanism. Using marijuana kills off specific brain cells, and the resulting brain damage triggers psychosis.” ]]
Do you have any links you can give me regarding the above? And maybe more importantly, can this brain damage be detected on an MRI? Thank you!
they’re kidding themselves...most druggies use multiple drugs....its never enough.....
No, apparently you don't, but you wouldn't be the first medical practitioner to give themselves more credit than is due.
I treat it all the time across substances but I bow to your exoeriemce I’m sure it’s vast......
As opposed to yours which appears to be "half-vast?"
You wouldn't be the first ex-dem-mom to argue against the immutable laws of logic...
Here’s how...
Opiates are a certain death - Marijuana is not.
The thing about correlation is that most people do not understand the concept. They believe that correlation between A and B always means that A caused B. Or they hear the phrase that "correlation is not causation" and then believe that A never causes B. The reality is far more complicated.
In the research world, where I live, finding a correlation can be a clue that A does cause B, and that is a rationale for doing more research to find the cause. A correlation can be completely random, it can mean that A and B have a common cause, or it can mean that A caused B.
If I throw nails in the road, and five cars that drive by on that road get flat tires the same day, I will not get very far telling the police that correlation is not causation.
Not true at all. Most pill-dopers have little interest in pot. The whole reason they ended up on pills is Pot is stinky, bulky and easily detected by parents.
Also - once an addict is in the criminal/probabtion/parole system - they are unable to use Marijuana - this makes it more likely they will re-lapse to pills - for the same reasons as above - plus THC stays in your system for a long time - making it more detectable.
The idea is allow these addicts to use pot to address any cravings for opiates. A few puffs of weed can prevent an addict from relapsing and using opiates again. Yes - it’s a crutch. We used to use Methadone for this purpose. But that’s too much like treating a whisky drunk with beer.
The doper kids all know the Candyman doctors in our county.
My step-son did about 18 months in state prison when he got busted DUI+possession on his way back from one of these doctors.
It’s not propaganda.
Just smoke a few extra cigarettes - they think nicotine may reduce symptoms of schizophrenia.
This is funny... Just yesterday, I got an email from the Army public health service warning about vaping substances that contain cannabis extracts. People have been dying from them.
Opiates are *not* a certain death. In fact, I took them for about four weeks after I broke my arm, and I am still alive. I didn’t even become addicted while taking them. I still have a considerable amount of pain, even after 11 years, but I just deal with it.
Marijuana causes overdose deaths at a lower rate than opiates, but it does cause them. And it is associated with deaths from other causes—DUI deaths, deaths from cancer and heart disease. Meanwhile, all of the great medical uses we were supposed to see from marijuana are stubbornly failing to be corroborated through medical research.
I often have to skip a meal.
Just not as hungry as I might be.
The horror!!!
Of course they are deluding themselves. Denial is a major component of addiction. Just getting addicts to admit they have a problem is a challenge. When they are sunk so far into addiction, they want that high...and they do not really care how they get it.
Yes, they do; despite your "heroic" efforts to make a clear distinction with no discernable difference.
Clearly, you need to seek professional help. < /s>
Idiots die from all sorts of black market drugs.
That’s the nice thing about pot - you can grow it yourself - so you know its what its supposed to be.
And you can choose how to ingest.
I wouldn’t vape ANYTHING for health reasons...unless I was trying to kick cigarettes - vaping is just another way of ruining your health.
Are you really incapable of understanding that when A causes B, A is correlated with B?
Is the fact that if C causes both A and B, then A and B are correlated too much to grasp?
Wow, I’ve been fortunate to not ever have a dr. that wrote pain meds prescritions. I really never asked.. I’m lucky i guess.
That’s the nice thing about pot - you can grow it yourself - so you know its what its supposed to be.
Just because you can grow it yourself does not mean it is safe. I can grow castor plants and foxglove in my garden, but that does not mean that those plants are any less deadly if I eat them.
The bottom line is that marijuana does kill, both directly and indirectly.
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