Colorado: Police Return Medical Marijuana

Rocky Mountain News ^ | August 29, 2005

[Wolfie]

Police Return Medical Marijuana

Along with feeling redemption, Timothy Haas was also feeling queasy today as he picked up a plastic bag containing half an ounce of marijuana at the Denver Police Department.

"I just want to go home and lie down," Haas said. "The marijuana will calm me down."

Denver police returned the marijuana to Haas after authorities confiscated the drugs a month ago. Haas is prescribed to use medical marijuana for post traumatic syndrome and post concussion syndrome.

He suffered the ailments when he was attacked with a bat and stabbed three times in an attempted robbery at his wine business in 2001. Haas started using medical marijuana to deal with the pain three years ago.

In late July, Haas said he was stopped for a security check at Denver Health Medical Center when he visited his brother who was in an automobile accident. Haas showed his medical papers to police when they found marijuana in his backpack.

The drugs were taken away and Haas was never charged.

Robert Corry Jr., Haas' attorney, said he had threatened to file a lawsuit if the marijuana was not returned to his client. The two were happy after leaving the police department.

"This shows Colorado's medical marijuana program is alive and well," said Robert Corry Jr., Haas' attorney. "He wishes he didn't have to go through a lawyer to get it back."

Colorado is one of 10 states to allow people with certain medical conditions to use and grow marijuana with a doctor's approval.

Haas said the marijuana helps him deal with his muscle spasms and the constant vibrations he feels in his spine from his injury.

"I'm the voice for all the terminally ill and legitimate marijuana users who can't get out of bed," Haas said. "It's the last thing a terminal man wants to go through."

[Vaquero]

I suppose he would rather drift though that psychotic cannibis haze.....

bad choice for him....bad choice for America.

[rhombus]

Haas is prescribed to use medical marijuana for post traumatic syndrome and post concussion syndrome.

I'm all for legalization but this perscription does sound like BS. Still, when I think about the "pharmecutically approved" drugs out there that could have been perscribed for the same thing and are daily, this guy is probably safer with the weed.

[Wolfie]

...psychotic cannibis haze....

If there were such a thing.

[rhombus]

...psychotic cannibis haze.... If there were such a thing.

Give Pfisor some time... "Call your doctor now and ask for psychotic cannibis haze" :-)

[Wolfie]

ping

[Moonman62]

I'm all for legalization but this perscription does sound like BS.

It's not hard to find a handful of corrupt doctors who are sympathetic to drug abuse, and the pot users do talk to each other. That's why in states with medical marijuana, it all becomes medical marijuana.

[rhombus]

It's not hard to find a handful of corrupt doctors who are sympathetic to drug abuse, and the pot users do talk to each other. That's why in states with medical marijuana, it all becomes medical marijuana.

This should surprise no one and is no less BS than the drugs that are pushed daily by the medical profession. There are so many more important things to get stressed about. Pot smoking should be way way down on the list.

[pageonetoo]

...psychotic cannibis haze.....

If he only knew...

[tacticalogic]

It's not hard to find a handful of corrupt doctors who are sympathetic to drug abuse, and the pot users do talk to each other. That's why in states with medical marijuana, it all becomes medical marijuana.

A handful of doctors is going to write a prescription for every user in the state? Sure. In barking moonbat land.

[theDentist]

"I'm the voice for all the terminally ill and legitimate marijuana users who can't get out of bed," Haas said. "It's the last thing a terminal man wants to go through."

But you're not terminally ill, and you're able to get out of bed...

[pageonetoo]

It's not hard to find a handful of corrupt doctors who are sympathetic to drug abuse, and the pot users do talk to each other.

Hell, they even talk to other people, as well!

Your "handful of corrupt doctors" is news to the AMA... and to the millions of sufferers, everywhere. So what if a buzz goes with it! Are you the arbiter? Is it any of your business?

My grandma gave me honey and WHISKEY, when I was five. I'll bet you think that's child abuse!...

[Vaquero]

http://www.health.vic.gov.au/drugservices/pubs/cannabis.htm

[Wolfie]

That relates to psychotics using cannabis, not cannabis causing psychosis.

[headsonpikes]

You know, it gets boring to come to these threads and have to kick the sh*t out of the same cast of morons.

It's mostly not even amusing - just pathetic.

Take the losers vaquero and the Dentist on this thread this AM. They're no fun to mock!

I demand fresh morons or you can find someone else to ping!

[TKDietz]

That study is bogus because it doesn't account for the fact that people with mental illness are more likely to be drawn to drugs and alcohol. If as the study says cannabis smokers are 2.4 times more likely than non cannabis smokers to develop psychosis, is it that the marijuana caused the psychosis or that these people with underlying psychological problems turned to marijuana in hopes that it would make them feel better? And how many of these marijuana smokers were also drinkers? From your link: "[S]ome evidence suggests that substances such as alcohol and amphetamines have a greater effect than cannabis in the development of a psychosis."

[Vaquero]

there are plenty of studies out there....the stuff is a menace.

[TKDietz]

I wouldn't argue that it's good for you, but close to a hundred million Americans have smoked marijuana and these people didn't all turn into a bunch of raving lunatics. In fact, I looked a while back at statistics from SAMHSA on both marijuana use and serious mental illness. Interestingly enough, the ten states with the highest rates of serious mental illness had lower than average marijuana use rates, and the ten states with the highest marijuana use had lower than average serious mental illness rates. The difference in rates of serious mental illness was fairly significant. If marijuana makes so many people crazy why is it that we don't see much higher than average rates of serious mental illness in states with the highest percentage of marijuana smokers? Why do we see exactly the opposite?

Here is a snip from a post I made before on this with numbers and links to the data:

"I saw this study you were talking about before and found it highly suspect. It did not prove causation. Just out of curiosity I did some checking into statistics on marijuana use and serious mental illness. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) collects data on both mental health issues and drug issues. My thinking was that if marijuana really causes serious mental illness, there would be correspondingly higher rates of mental illness in states with higher rates of marijuana use. Doesn't that seem logical?

First I looked at the state with the highest past month marijuana use, New Hampshire. In that state 10.23% reported use of marijuana in the past month on the last survey and and according to SAMHSA 8.8% of New Hampshire's population suffer from serious mental illness compared to the national average of 8.76%. Then I looked at the state with the lowest marijuana use, Utah. There only 4.00% reported past month marijuana use but SAMHSA says 10.97% suffer from serious mental illness.

Now, that was interesting to me but there are too many variables that can come into play that call into question the results from just two examples. So, I dug a little deeper and looked at the ten states with the highest and ten states with the lowest marijuana use. The national average past month marijuana use was 6.18%. The top ten states averaged 8.93%. Serious mental illness in these states averaged 8.73%, compared to the national average of 8.76%. Serious mental illness in the ten states with the lowest marijuana use averaged 9.44%, even though past month marijuana use only averaged 4.73% in these states.

Why is it that the states with the highest marijuana use actually lower rates of serious mental illness than the states with the lowest marijuana use? I honestly don't know. I don't think you could conclude from that that marijuana use reduces mental illness, but it certainly does call into question research that shows that marijuana use drastically increases mental illness.

Here are the tables I used from SAMHSA's 2003 NSDUH. The link to the past month marijuana use by state is here: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k3State/appB.htm#tabB.3

The link to the serious mental illness numbers by state is here: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k3State/appB.htm#tabB.21 "

[vin-one]

Wolfie, thanks for the ping, and I must agree with HOP, we need new morons, and hopefully they will have a better argument, other than it turned one kid into a bat. (LOL)

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here