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.

[asneditor]

#48. That's all that needs to be said.
Keep up the good work gal. I like your spunk.

[kcvl]

Why don't you go check out your thighs? You seem to be obessesed with those and your dope.

[tallhappy]

Simple possession is covered in 21USC§841 and 21USC §844

OK, now think real hard.

What do you do next? How are these laws changed or done away with? What people decide and do it? What is the process it is done by?

[kcvl]

When school starts, I'm going to get into the swing of things and then see if i can handle a job. just depends. i'd like the money. i feel like blowing assloads of cash on clothes. too bad i don't have that cash to blow.

[JediGirl]

That'd be him, here are some more:

People are bringing shotguns to UFO sightings in Fife, Alabama. I asked a guy, "Why do you bring a gun to a UFO sighting?" Guy said, "Way-ul, we didn' wanna be ab-duc-ted." If I lived in Fife, Alabama, I would be on my hands and knees every night praying for abduction.

----

You're at a ball game or a concert and someone's really violent and agressive and obnoxious.
Are they drunk or are they smoking pot? Which is it?
They're drunk.
I have never seen people on pot get in a fight. F***ing impossible.
"Hey buddy!"
"Hey what?"
"Hey, hey ..."
End of agument

----

No, I don't do drugs anymore, either. But I'll tell you something about drugs. I used to do drugs, but I'll tell you something honestly about drugs, honestly, and I know it's not a very popular idea, you don't hear it very often anymore, but it is the truth: I had a great time doing drugs. Sorry. Never murdered anyone, never robbed anyone, never raped anyone, never beat anyone, never lost a job, a car, a house, a wife or kids, laughed my ass off, and went about my day.

[kcvl]

You have some strange idols...

[tacticalogic]

Ohmigod... It's the dreaded "FDR's New Deal Commerce Clause".

That comment doesn't seem to have been too popular here. Maybe you'd have better luck with it on a property rights thread.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Nothing to do with illegal drugs should be made legal.

Why? Because they're illegal?
So, when it was illegal to meet in groups and talk about subverting the King, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, et al. shouldn't have done it because it was 'illegal'?
And fighting against the crown was 'illegal', Americans shouldn't have picked up arms and fought and revolted against the Crown, again, they were morally wrong, eh?
I bet you don't speed, always wear your seatbelt and don't take the tags off of matresses. I know I don't.
However, that doesn't mean that once something is illegal, it should stay illegal. Or that because it's illegal, it's morally wrong.
Believe it or not, lawmakers are not perfect. (*shock*) Also, lawmakers want more power and the WOD is a great excuse. (*shock again*)
And wanting to overturn laws does not mean that anyone is automatically a member of, or supporter of, or in defense of 'hardcore leftist anti-American groups', regardless of whether or not they share views on certain items.
It's a wide world and not as black and white or linear as you might think.
Take a class in Ethics or Morality and you'll see what I mean. And stop small-sampling. It's disingenuous.

[WyldKard]

"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves." Ronald Reagan

Yeah...it's sad that he chose to listen to that ditzy, astrology-loving wife of his, in regards to the War on Drugs. Otherwise, he was very pro-Libertarian.

[JediGirl]

Um. What the hell is your point? My journal doesn't have to be filled with profound observations about the state of the world. Sod off.

[JediGirl]

I wouldn't be surprised if it were you who were obsessed with my thighs. Not like I could blame you, but y'know.

[AntiGuv]

Well, obviously, one would want to lobby the Congress to get these laws altered. One way to accomplish this goal is to steadily overturn state laws such as the Rockefeller Laws in New York (which Pataki has called to reform) and those in other states in order to work from the lower levels of government up to the federal level. Another way is to increase the level of popular awareness so that drug warriors such as Bob Barr get tossed out in favor of more moderate voices such as John Linder (with the eventual goal of getting true reformers into office).

For example, killing babies is covered in Roe v Wade. If you want to get Roe v Wade overturned then you want to get favorable Supreme Court justices in place. In order to get favorable Supreme Court justices in place you have to (A) get favorable politicians in office, which requires (B) expanding the level of popular awareness, support, and activism.

[LowOiL]

He argued that in August 1979 as corroborated in my post #89 above.

He argued what? He argued that he would not turn down a public voted law to legalize MJ. Not that he was for it, not that it was was NOT harmful. He was never pro drug period.

[AppyPappy]

Never murdered anyone, never robbed anyone, never raped anyone, never beat anyone, never lost a job, a car, a house, a wife or kids, laughed my ass off, and went about my day.

There are plenty of people who never murdered anyone until they did. I don't see the point.

[Roscoe]

[kcvl]

Don't flatter yourself...

[JediGirl]

Um. What the hell are you saying? That makes absolutely no sense. LOL! I mean, you say that then you fuss at us for using drugs? ROFL.

[WyldKard]

When school starts, I'm going to get into the swing of things and then see if i can handle a job. just depends. i'd like the money. i feel like blowing assloads of cash on clothes. too bad i don't have that cash to blow.

Pal, are you going to acutally debate the topic at hand, or are you going to try and attack JediGirl in a public forum just for the sake of attacking her? You look like you are begging for someone to hit the "abuse" button.

You Pro-WOD'ers need to learn the lesson of people like VA Advogado. He was given more than enough rope to hang himself, and hang himself he most merrily did...

[dark_lord]

I'd bet that 1) you're not a Christian and that 2) you find many other quotes from the Bible that you find unbelievable, if not down right loony. So please, give it a rest, hypocrite.
(1)You'd lose the bet.
(2)I find the bible to be accurate overall - I am not a biblical literalist because I do believe in "figures of speech" e.g see Bullinger for example Figures of Speech.
So what is your basis for your bet? And who are you to call me a hypocrite?

[LowOiL]

People are bringing shotguns to UFO sightings in Fife, Alabama.

That is a lie, I live close to Fyffe (notice the correct spelling).

No, I don't do drugs anymore, either.

What, you claim to do it on a weekly basis. You said the cost was the only factor that likely would slow you down a week or so ago.