US Ignoring Marijuana Research

Sun News ^ | 14 September 2002 | Bruce Mirken

[JediGirl]

Early in the morning of Sept. 5, dozens of armed men stormed a respected medical facility where nearly 300 people desperately ill from cancer, AIDS and other illnesses got their medicine. Brandishing semiautomatic weapons in the faces of terrified patients, including a woman paralyzed from childhood polio, they destroyed all of the medicine and took prisoner the facility's operators.

The work of Osama bin Laden? Hamas? Some other international terrorists?

No. This particular terrorist raid was carried out by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The facility they attacked was the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana ( WAMM ) in Santa Cruz, Calif. A co-op run entirely by and for seriously ill people - 80 percent of whom have terminal diagnoses - WAMM sold nothing. All of the medical marijuana grown was given to members without charge.

The facility was supported by the community and worked closely with local officials. According to County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt, WAMM operated in an "exemplary" fashion. After the raid - which had been planned and executed with no warning to the local government - Wormhoudt told reporters she was "appalled" by the DEA's action.

The patients WAMM served are desperately ill. For many with AIDS or cancer, marijuana is the only thing that allows them to tolerate the horrendous side effects of the harsh treatments that keep them alive. Others endure excruciating pain that conventional medicines have failed to relieve, but which marijuana helps.

Because of this raid, many of these people will die prematurely - agonizing, horrible deaths - because the only medicine that helped them has been taken away.

What could possibly motivate such cruelty?

Desperation.

All around the world, governments and scientific experts are coming to believe that marijuana shouldn't be illegal - that it is simply not dangerous enough to warrant arresting and jailing even social or recreational users, much less people using it to relieve symptoms of cancer or AIDS. The British government has already moved to make marijuana possession a nonarrestable offense.

On Sept. 4, Canada's Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs released the most exhaustive investigation of marijuana data and policy options ever conducted by any government. The 650-page report declared that criminalizing marijuana amounted to "throwing taxpayers' money down the drain in a crusade that is not warranted by the danger posed by the substance."

But marijuana - which accounts for the vast majority of illegal drug use and arrests - is the engine that drives the war on drugs and keeps massive drug-control budgets pumped up.

So even as DEA agents were shoving machine guns in the faces of sick people, White House drug czar John Walters and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson stood in front of a Washington, D.C., press conference, spouting long-discredited myths as if they were proven facts.

Marijuana, said Thompson, is "a clear and present danger to the health and well-being of all its users" - a statement contradicted by reams of scientific research.

Indeed, in 1995, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet stated flatly, "The smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health." This year, the British government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the Canadian Senate committee came to similar conclusions after extensive study.

But our government's drug war ideologues don't care about science. And they don't care how many sick people they literally torture to death in their desperate effort to pump up a collapsing policy.

[Willie Green]

The evidence is overwhelming that FDR's New Deal Commerce Clause turns your federal government into and out-of-control regulation monster. Choose.

Ohmigod... It's the dreaded "FDR's New Deal Commerce Clause".
Quick, EVERYBODY! Run for your LIVES!
Head for the hills and protect the women and children!
"FDR's New Deal Commerce Clause" is coming to get you....
Oh no! NOT THAT!
Oh $hit! They discovered where "the stash" was hidden...
Good grief! How are we ever going to get high now???
Oh, the HUMANITY!!!

</sarcasm>

[tacticalogic]

Mirken, winner of 11 journalism awards for his reporting on gay and lesbian youth, HIV/AIDS and other issues,

Get back to me when my tax dollars pay for his salary and disseminating his propaganda.

[AntiGuv]

He argued that in August 1979 as corroborated in my post #89 above. He was very much a Republican at that juncture.

[kcvl]

If you weren't such a dumb ass I would try to explain. You seem to be obessed with smoking dope and your "beauty".

[AzJP]

Sadly, although mj in schools is common, the feds seem to prefer busting high profile adults. Peter Williams is an example.

Regarding nausea, I'd suggest that different things work differently for different people.

If mj works for some, fine, make it C2. Codeine is C2 believe.

Personally, most of the prescriptive nausea relievers don't work for me. Saltines and Seven-Up do! Mother nature is weird.

[dark_lord]

Spending time in Genesis, I see. Perhaps you should skip ahead a few and read up on a certain tree, a certain lie, a certain fall... Be careful who you talk to in the garden.
Oh, what a clear statement You want to expand upong that? Like, how is the fall, the devil, and the tree of life related to this topic? I would be happy to hear of any biblical reference that indicates that God has decided marijuana=bad. Oh, and by the way - the Noah reference was after the fall! Geeze!

[Yeti]

The infantile ideologues who laud so-called 'medical marijuana' are dissembling, because they would also favor allowing anyone to consume any recreational poison in any amount at any time for any reason, even unto death.

The same could be said of right-to-life activists who fight partial birth abortion.

Of course they fight every battle they can, in the best way they can, and try to make as much headway as they can.

[AntiGuv]

Yes, I favor that and I don't dissemble in the slightest. No one is deceived that the medical marijuana movement is really a cover for full legalization. I certainly don't pretend otherwise nor am I part of the NORML crowd in that sense. However, what medical marijuana does accomplish is to highlight the irrationality of drug laws in a way that simple legalization advocacy does not do as easily. Medical marijuana makes people sit up and listen who would otherwise be too indifferent or too impatient to consider the facts about Prohibition.

[JediGirl]

My profile? What is it supposed to tell him other than the guy who lobbied so much for marijuana to be illegal was a complete racist?

[tacticalogic]

It's been responsible for the majority of the growth of the federal government for the last 65 years. If you don't think that's any big deal, why are you here?

[apochromat]

How long will you be posting idiotic garbage here?

[kcvl]

This Bill Hicks?

BILL HICKS

God's Comic

I wish you'd known me when I was alive, I was a funny feller. The crowd would hoot and holler for more. I wore a drunk's red nose for applause. Oh yes, I was a comical priest "with a joke for the flock and a hand up your fleece." Down the cardboard front of my dirty dog-collar

"If child molestation is actually your concern, how come we don't see Bradley tanks knocking down Catholic churches?"

- in reference to the Waco siege - Bill Hicks, ©1993.

[JediGirl]

Try and explain because I'm not a dumbass and I'd just like to see who really is the dumbass. Go ahead. Explain. Or I'll call you a dumbass, and I'll be right.

[gargoyle]

...Let's see. Bruce Mirken is a journalist, libertarian,,,pot lover and fag lover, and a pedophile...

...That logic says that pot lovers, aka, libertarians, are all in that group....

...You need to get a grip on reasoning, grlfrnd...

...Yer rrreal close to an abuse button...

[dyed_in_the_wool]

The evidence is already overwhelming that it turns your brains into mush.

I must have missed that study. Who commisioned it? Do you have links to it? I can't find it on google.
Is that similar to the ones that show that alcohol turns your brain 'into mush'? Please cite references.

[AntiGuv]

You seemed to be attacking me personally as a 'pot head' or 'stoner' or whatever, and that's why I chose to discuss myself. Otherwise I surely wouldn't have gotten into the subject.

The Denial of Federal Benefits which withhold things like school loans for those convicted of a prohibition violation are in 21USC§862. This statute also covers asset forfeiture and provides for federal seizure of property.

Simple possession is covered in 21USC§841 and 21USC §844 which are enabled by the Narcotics Act which is itself founded on the shoddy legal reasoning of the Firearms Act.

[WyldKard]

Ohmigod... It's the dreaded "FDR's New Deal Commerce Clause". Quick, EVERYBODY! Run for your LIVES!

So you are saying that you fully support the massive inflation of the Federal Government, the dilution of States Rights, the increase of taxes and buracracy, the furthering of Socialism in this country, and the violation of the Constution?

Are you sure you want to be posting here? Democratic Underground is two blocks down and to the right. I think you've checked in to the wrong website...

[freeforall]

Add me to your ping list.

[kcvl]

bill hicks
by Wes Moore (alephegeis@disinfo.net) - February 20, 2002

"Thank you. How you doing folks? Me too. You gotta bear with me, I'm very tired, very tired of traveling, and very tired of doing comedy, and very tired of staring out at your vacant faces looking back at me, wanting me to fill your empty lives with humor you couldn't possibly think of yourselves. Good evening."

Bill Hicks: the Nietzsche of comedy, the most legitimate social critic of the 1990s: a renegade messiah who tried to make people laugh, but usually ended up pissing them off, or drawing blank stares.

Born in 1961, Hicks died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32, just as his career was peaking. He left in his wake a legacy of biting criticisms against American society: no inadequacy or hypocrisy was immune to his scathing satires, but don't take my word for it. For Christ sakes, if anyone demands our undivided attention, it's Bill Hicks . . .The War on Drugs:

"George Bush says 'we are losing the war on drugs'. Well you know what that implies? There's a war going on, and people on drugs are winning it! Well what does that tell you about drugs? Some smart, creative motherfuckers on that side."

Television Commercials:

"Supreme Court says pornography is anything without artistic merit that causes sexual thoughts. No artistic merit, causes sexual thoughts. Hmmm . . . sounds like every commercial on TV doesn't it?"

The Kennedy Assassination:

"People come up to me: 'Bill, quit talking about Kennedy man . . . It was a long time ago . . .' And I'm like alright, then don't bring up Jesus to me. As long as we're talking about shelf life here."

Annoying Non-Smokers:

"The worst kind of non-smokers are the ones that come up to you and cough. That's pretty fucking cruel isn't it? Do you go up to cripples and dance too?"

Pornography:

"One of my big fears in life is that I'm going to die and my parents are going to have to clear out my apartment and find the porno wing I've been adding to for years. There'll be two funerals that day."

Christianity:

"A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. Do you think when Jesus comes back he ever wants to look at a fucking cross? It's kinda like going up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on."

The Gulf War:

"They said the Iraqis had the fourth largest army in the world. Well, the Hare Krishnas are the fifth largest and they've already got our airports."

Advertisers:

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the marketing people are thinking now too: 'Oh. He's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market.' Oh man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags."

Waco:

"If the FBI's motivating factor for busting down the Koresh compound was child abuse, how come we never see Bradley tanks smashing into Catholic churches?"

The Pope:

"I love the Pope, I love seeing him in his Pope-Mobile, his three feet of bullet proof plexi-glass. That's faith in action folks! You know he's got God on his side."

The Military:

"Gays in the military . . . here's how I feel about it, alright? Anyone . . . DUMB enough . . . to want to be in the military, should be allowed in. End of fucking story. That should be the only requirement."

In addition to his libertarian political philosophy, Bill was a deeply spiritual man. He advocated meditation, floatation tanks, and Terence McKenna's "heroic dose" of psilocybic mushrooms to "squeegee the third eye". He stressed that we are all one consciousness, so it doesn't make sense to hurt or lie to one another.

Bill never became popular, mainly because he didn't exactly endear himself to corporate sponsors ("advertisers: kill yourselves"). He did appear on the Late Show with David Letterman a dozen times, but his final performance (just months before his death) was cut because of "inappropriate material." The tiff was over one of Bill's jokes about pro-lifers:

"If you're so pro-life, do me a favor: don't block arms and block medical clinics. If you're so pro-life, lock arms and block cemeteries."

It was later revealed that one of the Late Show's most generous sponsors was a pro-life group whose commercial aired during the program Hicks was supposed to appear in. Hicks explains:

"See we just had a misunderstanding. I thought we lived in the U.S. of A., the United States of America. But actually we live in the U.S. of A., the United States of Advertising. Freedom of expression is guaranteed… if you've got the money!"

Hicks released two albums (1990's Dangerous and 1992's Relentless) and two videos (Sane Man and Revelations) in his lifetime. After his death, two more albums were released, both in 1997. One of these, Rant in E-Minor, is widely considered to be his defining work, by critics and fans alike. The other, Arizona Bay, was his most conceptual offering. Arizona Bay was described by Hicks as "'The Dark Side of the Moon' of comedy albums," and features musical interludes with Hicks on guitar. It was Bill's metaphor for American society, using Los Angeles (Hell-A) as a microcosm of mainstream culture.

Arizona Bay was the inspiration for Tool's album AEnima, and if you listen to the song "Third Eye" you will hear a clip of Bill (think: "rrrrrreal fuckin' high on drugs"). Radiohead's album The Bends was also dedicated to Hicks.

A fifth album, with material recorded around the same time as Rant In E-Minor, is in the works and should be released soon. Cynthia True and Janeane Garofalo's biography American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story (New York: Harper Entertainment, 2002) is definately worth checking out. Let's hope Bill Hicks continues to inspire and enlighten us all.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

If the insurance companies cover it, I'm sure it will be high.

Unless you're trying to be 'punny', I don't think the cost would be high. Mainly because anybody in the lower 48 should be able to grow it for FREE and harvest enough for use year round.
If the Insurance companies get into it, they'll try to figure out a way to increase the cost, but that doesn't mean it will be a market price.