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.

[JediGirl]

I don't have to. Thanks for letting the forum know I'm obsessed with my thighs. My anorexia and bulimia are really relevant to this debate. *rolls eyes*

[Cultural Jihad]

No one is deceived that the medical marijuana movement is really a cover for full legalization. ... Medical marijuana makes people sit up and listen who would otherwise be too indifferent or too impatient to consider the facts about Prohibition.

You contradicted yourself. If using the term 'medicine' makes people sit up and take notice when in fact it has carcinogenic properties and those who tout it couldn't care less about drug addicts dying, then it is a most pernicious dissembling. Young people hear the Marxists and Libertarians touting so-called 'medical marijuana' and think to themselves: "Well, gee. If it's okay for sick people to use it, therefore it must be really okay and harmless for well people, too!"

[dyed_in_the_wool]

You are mixing up things. Your are referring to things that happened in Europe in the middle ages. I forget what they called it. The bread got moldy but they knew they still had to eat it because it is all the had. It was called St someone or others dance.

St. Vitus Dance is something else completely.
Actually, gargoyle is right on. Here's a link about Saint Anthony's Fire and the Salem Witch Trials tracing them both to ergot.
And do a little research before responding so arrogantly. History is important to understanding the present. Shallow interpretations of things you neither believe nor understand don't help anything except your prejudices.

[JediGirl]

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.

That was a quote from Bill Hicks, dear.

[dark_lord]

So - if someone feels the DEA busting up a medical marijuana users group where the people of the state have voted to decriminalize marijuana for medical purposes is just peachy with them because they think "dopeheads" are a bunch of "leftists", but then if the ATF kicks down someones door why THAT IS A CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATION BY GOLLY - should go read the 10th amendment to the Constitution!!!!

[clamper1797]

Actually I saw that special about ergot and Salem some time ago too.

[kcvl]

Just proving the kind of people who think smoking pot is the way to live. What's the problem? Debating drugs with a druggie is like beating your head against the wall. I could care less what you do with your life but don't pretend that you care about dying people when all you are doing is making excuses for your dope. At least be honest about it.

[AppyPappy]

I don't understand your logic of "I did drugs and never killed anyone therefore drugs are OK". It doesn't make sense.

[LowOiL]

That was a quote from Bill Hicks, dear.

I stand corrected then. Sorry.

[AntiGuv]

Reagan at that time argued explicitly in favor of legalizing marijuana. Reagan said anyone who wants to should be allowed to use it so long as they are made aware of any health risks. Why don't you get the "Reagan In His Own Voice" audio set and you can listen for yourself.

[Cultural Jihad]

"To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did; I ought to know because I have done it a thousand times." -- Mark Twain

[Wolfie]

Well, I dunno, marijuana hasn't gone through clinical trials, the potency isn't regulated, the Gov't hasn't approved it. I found all those arguments to be quite effective according to this article:

Health Supplements, RIP

[JediGirl]

i think he's trying to say that it's stupid to use drugs as an to explain why you've harmed someone and he's trying to refute the crap out there that says drugs make everyone violent.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Actually I saw that special about ergot and Salem some time ago too.

It only takes a second to google it.
Of course, sometimes it's easier to be a critic.

[JediGirl]

Sorry I got a tad snappy. Kinda ticked off that someone's going to my journal and posting irrelevant things to this thread and I took that out on you. Sorry :P

[tacticalogic]

"Well, gee. If it's okay for sick people to use it, therefore it must be really okay and harmless for well people, too!"

You have just argued against the use of any medication of any kind. Bravo!

[AntiGuv]

I did not contradict myself in any manner whatsoever. I haven't the slightest problem with people poisoning themselves if they so choose and understand the consequences. Cigarettes and alcohol poison people. Why do you think people get drunk?? Because they're suffering the early stages of alcohol blood poisoning. Many medicines are quite deadly if not administered properly, including, say, Tylenol. The utter illogic of the prohibition war is to take extreme and quite rare circumstances and pass them off as rationales for general criminalization.

[AppyPappy]

Drugs don't make people "violent". Only steroids do that. Drugs reduce inhibitions.

[tacticalogic]

"Well, gee. If it's okay for sick people to use it, therefore it must be really okay and harmless for well people, too!"

You have just argued against the use of any medication of any kind. Bravo!

[Cultural Jihad]

You have just argued against the use of any medication of any kind. Bravo!

Not at all. Personally, I would not want to see chemotherapy drugs available over the counter, and most rational, caring people would agree with me.