Posted on 09/15/2002 8:38:29 AM PDT by 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.
When did that happen?
You have? If you see 'em again,
tell 'em I'm sorry.
They promise.
Oh no! We havent' bee ignoring it. We've been studying it for years, maaaaaan!!
We just talk about results being 'inconclusive' 'cause we, like, keep forgettin' ta write stuff down!
And, umm, uhhhhhhh....What were we talkin' about?
Oh yeah! Fire up another one, dudes! We're doin' research!
The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971 by a handful of
people meeting in David Nolan's living room in Colorado.
Today, the party is organized in all 50 states and the District
of Columbia. We also have student groups on many college
campuses.
Ah, I see the problem, a little mis-communication, I should clarify a bit.
I was refering to chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer, and then medical marijuana as a treatment for the symptoms of chemotherapy. I think you thought I was referring to cannabis as the standard practice for treating cancer itself, which I did not.
Anyway, yes, the AMA rejects it... now. Things can change, and the are changing. But I can see after asking you a simple question 4 times that am not going to get a straight answer, so thanks for your time.
But isn't smoking mold and bacteria good for you?
The 'frontier spirit' of the American West was pretty much captured, settled, changed and refined by that point - no?
Liberteens seem to be going backwards...
What does "for the record" mean?
For your info, I don't make posts in accordance with the history or positions of other posters. If the raid occurred as the writer described with no reason for the DEA to suspect armed resistance, then it WAS outrageous.
I stand by my position that marijuana should be available as a prescription drug, as are hundreds of other controlled medicines. And no, I'm not a Libertarian; I'm a realist.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.