Posted on 12/16/2016 9:39:59 AM PST by rhett october
When my mother struggled with cancer, her appetite dropped to nothing. In my state, medical marijuana is legal, so the doctor prescribed it to help her appetite.
To say it worked would be an understatement. Within a couple of days she was eating normal amounts and felt hunger for the first time in a week. With the drug, she was able to maintain her weight and strength.
She stayed with me during her treatment but went home to dad some as well. On one of her trips home to dad, she ran out of the medical marijuana and went to a local pharmacy to have the prescription refilled. She said the pharmacist had an odd look on his face and asked if her local doctor prescribed this for her. She explained to him that she was seeing an oncologist in my state.
The pharmacist told her that medical marijuana wasn’t legal in her state and that she’d need to go back to my state to get the prescription refilled.
What struck me as so silly about that was that there are legal forms of drugs that are much more extreme and addictive such as morphine and OxyContin which are medicinal heroin. Marijuana is not even considered to be an addictive drug and the results of using it, even recreationally, are really pretty mild compared to other drugs. So why would my mom’s state allow medical heroin but not medical marijuana?
There are conspiracy theories told by wide-eyed potheads that aren’t worth spreading, but there is one conspiracy-sounding story that seems to be reasonable.
The story says that marijuana can be made into paper more efficiently than trees. And this was discovered back in the early days of big-logging. For the owners of logging companies, this was terrible news because it meant that companies who developed paper would buy from marijuana growers instead of buying logged trees.
So the wealthy loggers went to politicians and convinced them that marijuana was a drug that was worse than alcohol and made people crazy. Therefore, growing the plant should be illegal. They might have also bribed the politicians. Either way, the story says that the logging companies convinced lawmakers to outlaw their competition.
Then there’s the theory that says it’s because of THC, the mind-altering ingredient in the marijuana plant. It’s what creates the buzz. According to some, the THC is used to expand your mind to levels of enlightenment – spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Government elites don’t want us peasants to expand our minds, or so goes the theory. I can’t say it makes sense to me.
As best I can tell, the conventional reason is that it’s a mind altering substance that is viewed as a gateway drug. And because it’s been illegal for so long, it seems like it’s chiseled in stone. But in terms of having medicinal value, I can tell you from what I witnessed with my mom, it most certainly is helpful. The United States has other drugs that are legal for medicinal uses and I think marijuana should make that list.
There are currently 28 states that have legalized medical marijuana and more will follow because it just makes sense.
My mom did not survive the cancer. It was advanced when they discovered it. What she took was a liquid.
Ok, its getting deep in here. You can’t get marijuana in Tennessee for loss of appetite.
What are your motives for making stuff up on this board you just joined?
I assume that was sarcasm.
There is a big prescription drug addiction problem in this country. Marijuana is practically benign compared to it.
I say this as a person who thinks using marijuana recreationally is stupid. And I have not personally touched the stuff since 1977.
Recreational use of marijuana is not good. But it is also not as bad as the budding Bill Bennetts out their would have you believe. The prescription stuff is the real problem when it comes to addiction and deadly overdose.
Because Marijuana is a schedule one drug, and the pharmaceutical companies in the US are not allowed to even use it in drug research, let alone possess it.
That, and it cuts into the pharmaceutical industries’ opiate drug market. Opium derivatives are far more addictive than anything in Marijuana, and anybody can grow it. Pot plants vs. poppies.
Oh, on a side note, other countries markets drugs based on Marijuana derivatives specifically to stimulate appetite after chemo, and it works without all of the side effects, like getting stoned.
... because many people hate hippies more than they love cancer patients.
Dave’s not here.
If the recreational users would quit using the medical aspect as the camel’s nose it probably would be.
The government knows what is best for us. Its better when they make those decisions and not us.
In some quarters this is called “conservative”.
We here in KS don't wish to legalize mj but getting an Rx for marinol is easy.
Treats genuine symptoms without the high but other similar drugs do as good a job, if not better.
The big push to legalize pot isn't to seriously treat the ill but to make it possible to get high, while claiming the need for another drug.
What continues to amaze me in this push to legalize pot is that it is pushed by some of the most militant anti-tobacco, anti-smoking nuts around but they still demand the right to smoke pot!
As a veteran who has to navigate pain management and urine/drug testing every 30-days, smoking weed for a few days or eating some brownies allow me to skip my pain med’s (Vicodin 7.5/325 mg). I also noticed that the once a month 3-4 day smoking allows me to be more creative and be pain free. The flip side is that if I got high every day I know it would not be effective, nor would I. One or two tokes once or even twice a day works for me - but the folks who smoke all the time would use more in a day than I do in a month (3-4 days every 30-days or so).
It could’ve been the synthetic. The oncologist just called it marijuana and joked with us about it. Either way, we got it at the pharmacy.
Mostly because it is not now nor has it ever been about helping sick people, it’s about legalizing for recreational use and most of those who oppose see the end game.....No one in their right mind opposes doing whatever is necessary to help people in pain but a quick look at Colorado and California tells you that it’s not about helping sick people.
In before the MM Zot.
Wow! Now it’s loggers who got weed banned. Add that to the illuminati and the ADA.
The purpose of she MM movement is too make it easier for stoners to blowout their brains out. The amount of delusion and proselytizing practised by potheads is monumental. At least drunks and junkies don’t run around sounding like faith healers. But potheads think they’ve found nirvana with their promotion of this cannabic snake oil.
Well marijuana has downsides, but as you correctly state, they’re not likely to be more serious than medical heroin. People up thread have correctly pointed out that there’s not a lot of money to made on it, too easy to grow, so the pot lobbyists going up against Big Pharma not to mention the alcohol and tobacco industries haven’t been too successful. But fortunately, in most states we have the referendum for stuff like that, and I suspect we’re not too far out from legal medical pot in nearly every state, supported by the federal government.
Yep. Personal anecdotes are scientifically and medically unsound. The ingredients in pot plants vary widely. Notice also that the pot addicts will always claim real medical THC which has been available for years doesn’t do anything.
I voted for it in Florida. I could not justify to myself allowing an 85 year old with cancer suffering because I am against Marijuana. I would not vote for it recreationally.
In before The Zot.
Notice also that the OP’s story presumes that grandma would go t a pharmacy for medical marijuana. If he really knew anything about it (ie if his story has an ounce of veracity to it), he would know how absurd that it.
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“Why is Medical Marijuana Not Legal In Every State?”
Because it creates more problems than it is said to solve?
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References? Next I’ll hear is “..the common good...”.
How ‘bout booze? Lack of sleep? Over-eating? ‘Extreme’ sports? cell-phones? DRIVING?
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The states are known in civics class as “laboratories of democracy”. One or more states can undertake an unorthodox course of action while all the others can observe and judge the results.
Works here, IMO.
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‘Unorthodox’? How ‘bout Personal choice\Freedom? Quaint, I know; getting nanny govt out of our lives.
IMO, the only reasons I suspect it has come to pass: 1) People are tired of the police state 2) Govt can get its ‘cut’ of the action.
Now, if we can only cut Fedzilla down to its rightful damn size...
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