Posted on 01/09/2010 7:33:31 AM PST by AtlasStalled
Medical marijuana may be legal in some states but do we want the Mexican drug cartels supplying them?
Jeff Sweetin, Special Agent In Charge of the U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Colorado, says that in his state "a large percentage of the pot consumed by medical marijuana patients 'absolutely' comes from Mexico" as reported by Tyler Lopez and Alan Gathright for KMGH:
"These are real organized crime groups. * * * The Mexican cartels are here. And they've been brought here to provide marijuana to medical marijuana dispensaries because they believe that that is a legitimate market," Sweetin said.
And in Los Angeles, CA, city officials "cannot even say how many pot storefronts are operating inside their city and who is supplying the drugs to those retailers, whether organized crime, gangs, illegal California growers or other sources" as reported by Patrick Range McDonald and Christine Pelisek for LA Weekly:
[West Hollywood Councilman John] Duran concedes a darker truth, saying, "We know that the collectives are not able to get all their marijuana from California, and some are coming from drug cartels, and the pesticides are highly toxic to AIDS patients." * * * Now cops are tracking increases in illegal "grow" operations and related electricity theft and arrests of gang members working with the Mexican Mafia to provide pot to storefronts. * * * The cops worry that the stores are giving a new toehold to organized crime here, citing busts like the one near the Northridge Mall, where a home had been gutted by associates of the vicious 18th Street and Florencia 13 Latino gangs to grow 294 plants for the Mexican Mafia and supply it to medical pot clinics.
(Excerpt) Read more at bitterqueen.typepad.com ...
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed= Food.
not a single screw up,wouldn bet on it.
I know you wouldn't but the people that matter already have bet on it with millions...for the 2nd time.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed= Food.
Exactly. God intended hemp to be eaten. If you actually happen to get a copy, read the senate debate on the 1937 stamp act. There was not a single valid argument against hemp beyond unsubstantiated fear mongering.
The greatest objectors to the hemp "tax" were food manufacturers that all claimed hemp had no equal in terms of nutritional performance.
A representative Doctor from the AMA objected to the tax. He said that there were no confirmed cases of hemp use causing damage and that a tax would only stifle research of new medical uses. At the time, there were over 50 registered hemp-based medicines produced by large drug makers (Merck, Bristol, Bayer, etc).
people that matter already have bet on it with millions...
Sounds like a used car salesman line,not one good reason to get stoned and don’t use the lame lime about medical reasons it’s just an excuse to get buzzed.
No health benefits? Tell that to chemotherapy patients, Crohn’s sufferers, people crippled by Asperger’s and countless other ailments. Hemp is the ONLY thing that helps many of them. The benefits were so unquestionable that the FDA reluctantly approved Marinol (a synthesized THC-based pill) even though it contradicted their own stance on hemp. However, Marinol is not as medicating since it lacks the modulating benefits of CBDs that hemp provides.
Should we ban opium-based painkillers because they give a buzz? Who are you to tell someone what they have no “good” reason to do anything on their free time? Is getting a buzz and reading a book much worse than sitting sober on the couch and watching trash TV?
There’s not one “good” reason to do many things to some people. Why grill a 5lb filet mignon, why go for a drive in a classic car, why bbq a whole hog, why gamble, why drink a vintage whiskey, why go hunting/fishing, why make love in a non-missionary position. I can go on forever.
All of those things can be very dangerous and some people think they are stupid or a waste of time. YOU have the right to pursue what makes you happy AND accept personal responsibility if you interfere with someone else’s rights. That is the foundation of freedom.
Prohibition laws have been used as the basis for countless nanny-state legislations and unconstitutional expansions of the federal government. That is enough reason to tear the laws down.
It’s all about the buzz nothing else.
I actually know folks thru a close relative who are way into this scheme in kali and elsewhere.
Medical pot is just a cover.
It’s a segue to legalization that is being exploited...bigtime.
that criminal gangs are supplying along with solo growers is no surprise
but for the libertarins here, the way this is being handled out there is going to in the long term hurt your cause elsewhere...hate to tell ya
i’m not sure what the answer is
btw...anyone can get pot from kali now....it’s as easy as being on internet online pot forums
i saw some hash choclate bars come in the other day...no prescrition required...just yer credit card..lol
You're welcome to have that opinion but medical fact says otherwise. You think the FDA approved Marinol(against extreme anti-hemp opposition) just because it causes a buzz? Go tell that to the people that would have died during Chemo without it.
The saddest thing I heard one cancer patient say is that he was hurt and ashamed of using hemp to stay strong for chemo. I was nearly in tears because our stupid laws made his disease even harder to fight.
And even if something is all about the buzz, people have the right to seek that on own their free time and take responsibility for themselves.
Knew five cancer patients and none used or needed it,It’s still only about the buzz to make it legal.Your argument is just to lame to make weed legal I hear the some old tired story from every weed head.
Exactly. Every person is different, each case if different and it’s YOUR OWN choice what medicine to use once you know the facts and accept responsibility. Free people have the right to choose what they grow and ingest on their own property.
It’s still only about the buzz to make it legal.Your argument is just to lame to make weed legal I hear the some old tired story from every weed head.
You’re (poorly) saying the same thing again without any argument to prove otherwise. Typical of every anti-freedom busybody that wants the government to watch everyone. They’re already trying to control how much salt we eat in NYC.
If it’s “only about the buzz”, first explain why the drug Marinol (THC) is manufactured by Solvay Pharmaceutical under patent and with approval from the FDA.
Then explain why enjoying any “buzz” responsibly is inherently bad and should be prosecuted. Intoxication is older than recorded history and part of human nature. It will happen no matter what. My grandfather spoke of remote villagers in Siberia burning a component of fresh leather and inhaling to “see visions”. They had never heard of alcohol or any other drug at that time.
No Sale
Show me single expert that says hemp is more harmful than tobacco. Just ONE that is not funded by the law enforcement or drug treatment industries.
Drug dealers, law enforcement and people scared by their propaganda are the only ones against legalization. “Prohibition 2”, just like the first one, was a good-intentioned experiment to control human nature but has failed. The facts simply aren’t there and, as an engineer, I don’t decide what to do based on ‘feelings’ or prejudices.
Billions of dollars in increased funding for decades has resulted in NOTHING but enriching private prison owners, probation counselors, dirty cops, lawyers and drug dealers.
I know it’s hard to accept but I hope you can open your eyes or find a new job.
Facts see Jama if you know what it is.
A good article is “The Case for Decriminalization of Marijuana” JAMA, 235 pgs 821-825, 1977
It's ‘conveniently’ not available online but I won't waste my time scanning it since you have taken no time or effort to prove your point.
Here's the AMA senate testimony during the 1937 debate:
American Medical Association Opposes the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937
American Medical Association
Bureau of Legal Medicine and Legislation
Chicago, July 10, 1937
Hon. Pat Harrison
Chairman, Committee on Finance, United States Senate
Washington D.C.
SIR: I have been instructed by the board of trustees of the American Medical Association to protest on behalf of the association against the enactment in its present form of so much of H.R. 6906 as relates to the medicinal use of cannabis and its preparations and derivatives. The act is entitled “An Act to impose an occupational excise tax upon certain dealers in marihuana, to impose a transfer tax upon certain dealings in marihuana, and to safeguard the revenue therefrom by registry and recording.”
Cannabis and its preparations and derivatives are covered in the bill by the term “marihuana” as that term is defined in section 1, paragraph (b). There is no evidence, however, that the medicinal use of these drugs has caused or is causing cannabis addiction. As remedial agents, they are used to an inconsiderable extent, and the obvious purpose and effect of this bill is to impose so many restrictions on their use as to prevent such use altogether. Since the medicinal use of cannabis has not caused and is not causing addiction, the prevention of the use of the drug for medicinal purposes can accomplish no good end whatsoever. How far it may serve to deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial value, it is impossible to foresee.
The American Medical Association has no objection to any reasonable regulation of the medicinal use of cannabis and its preparations and derivatives. It does protest, however, against being called upon to pay a special tax, to use special order forms in order to procure the drug, to keep special records concerning its professional use and to make special returns to the Treasury Department officials, as a condition precedent to the use of cannabis in the practice of medicine. in the several States, all separate and apart from the taxes, order forms, records, and reports required under the Harrison Narcotics Act with reference to opium and coca leaves and their preparations and derivatives.
If the medicinal use of cannabis calls for Federal legal regulation further than the legal regulation that now exists, the drug can without difficulty be covered under the provisions of the Harrison Narcotics Act by a suitable amendment. By such a procedure the professional use of cannabis may readily be controlled as effectively as are the professional uses of opium and coca leaves, with less interference with professional practice and less cost and labor on the part of the Treasury Department.
It has been suggested that the inclusion of cannabis into the Harrison Narcotics Act would jeopardize the constitutionality of that act, but that suggestion has been supported by no specific statements of its legal basis or citations of legal authorities.
Wm. C. Woodward,
Legislative Counsel {American Medical Assn}
Whereupon at 11:37 AM Monday, July 12, 1937, the subcommittee adjourned.
Gee no word of brain fungus with cannabis users let alone the dumming down factor,comes down to one thing ONLY it’s all about the buzz.Never saw a stoner with logic keep an eye open for the UFO’s.
Are those ailments worse that the SEVERE PERMANENT brain damage and cognitive impairment PROVEN to be caused by even moderate alcohol use?(1) There is not a single study that says long-term(even extreme) cannabis use will cause ANY brain damage. Except the well-debunked(2) 1982 study where poor monkeys were suffocated by smoke until brain dead.
Is "brain fungus" worse than alcohol poisoning that kills thousands every year? There is not a single case of cannabis ever causing harm to the user's body, much less death.
Alcohol has NO medical use beyond a (poor) disinfectant. ALL about the buzz, my FRiend. Marinol is 100% proof that cannabis has at least one proven medical use.
If the drug war was actually about saving people from themselves, alcohol would be illegal. Oops, almost forgot, they already tried that.
(1)Brain damage is a common and potentially severe consequence of long-term, heavy alcohol consumption. Even mild-to-moderate drinking can adversely affect cognitive functioning (i.e., mental activities that involve acquiring, storing, retrieving, and using information) (1) Evert, D.L., and Oscar-Berman, M. Alcohol-related cognitive impairments: An overview of how alcoholism may affect the workings of the brain. Alcohol Health Res World 19
(2)William Slikker, Jr. et al, "Chronic Marijuana Smoke Exposure in the Rhesus Monkey," Fundamental and Applied Toxicology 17: 321-32 (1991)
Brain fungus you just proved it happens,you got to get back to earh.
Alcohol and pot are a crutch it’s all about the buzz,get a life don’t numb youself from the world it’s a sign of weakness.
Anything can be a crutch to one person, or a visionary tool to someone else. I am acquainted with a world-famous mathematician that solved one of math's most difficult problems while exploring the solution on LSD.
The world and intangible universe extend far outside what we can ever hope to experience. Only at the outer limits of our senses and consciousness can we even get a glimpse of its vastness.
The biggest sign of weakness is a refusal to explore beyond a manufactured everyday experience and see a different perspective. It's very sad that this desire to explore was encouraged for nearly all of human history but is considered ‘dangerous’ today.
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
~Albert Einstein
You're now free to hide behind the cage of reality and tell everyone that thinks differently to get back to “earh”. I hope that one day you can see what I see and that it similarly enriches your life experience.
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.