Posted on 02/26/2006 7:55:05 AM PST by Wolfie
Physician Advocates for Medical Marijuana
Vermont -- As he opened his remarks about medical marijuana, Dr. Joseph McSherry said he couldn't be as informative as he would like to be.
"I asked a very good friend, who happens to be a medical marijuana patient, what I should tell you today," McSherry said. "He said to tell you not to ask a doctor. Doctors don't know (expletive) about medical marijuana."
McSherry, a neurophysiologist and PhD associated with Fletcher Allen Medical Center and the University of Vermont, said his friend is largely correct: There have been few scientific studies on the effects of marijuana as a medicine, and even less research has been conducted on its medical effects in humans.
"You'll probably be more educated than your doctor by the time we get through," McSherry told his audience at the Godnick Center in Rutland on Friday.
He walked the audience through the limited medical data on cannabis and the properties of the chemicals in marijuana other than THC that can have beneficial effects.
Canabanoids, McSherry said, can boost the effectiveness of other painkillers, inhibit the growth of tumors and alleviate wet macular degeneration, which causes blindness in some cases.
"We're just beginning to scratch the surface of this iceberg," he said.
McSherry said that inhaled marijuana can be very effective at treating sudden swift pains, while many other painkillers, including marinol — a legal prescription drug that is a capsule of THC in sesame oil — can take too long to take effect.
"I don't approve of smoking for anybody," he said. "There's got to be a better way of doing it, but the U.S. government hasn't been interested in doing any research.
"If you eat it, the chemicals peak in two to four hours. Eating it is probably the worst way of intaking THC," he said. "If you inhale it, THC levels peak in a few minutes and it actually goes away in the first hour."
He noted that researchers in other countries are trying to develop different types of medical cannabis for patients.
Two members of the audience who said they use the drug for medicinal purposes offered compelling testimony about its benefits. Neither identified themselves.
The first patient said that at one point he had been on 17 different medications to treat his multiple sclerosis — some to counteract the side effects of other medications.
"Now I think I'm on four medications now," he said. "I'm not on medications for the side effects of medication. I'm not drugged out or high. From 17 meds, down to four."
A second patient said he had lost more than 50 pounds while undergoing chemotherapy before using marijuana to counteract the nausea.
"I went from 236 pounds down to 176," he said. "Part of the problem was the sickness of chemo. I couldn't hold down food, and marinol did not work for me. Cannabis did work."
Members of the audience had many questions about medical marijuana, from its chemical properties to the intricacies of growing plants to use for medicine.
"If you have a seed that has a known history of consistent product, you will get a consistent product medically," McSherry said. "That's why I think patients ought to be able to grow their own."
One audience member wondered how patients who don't grow it can access medical marijuana.
"Where does the pot come from if you're not a green thumb person?" she asked.
McSherry said "compassionate clubs" have formed in California that allow medical marijuana patients to bring in prescriptions to be filled with marijuana of a known quality rather than forcing patients to rely on what they can find on the black market, he said.
"In Vermont, if you have a friend or a grandson … you can make a provision to register with the state that you're a registered patient and they're a registered grower," he said, adding that Vermont's medical marijuana law does not shield users or growers from federal prosecution.
McSherry sees access to the drug as an uphill battle. He said many doctors are resistant to the notion of medical marijuana.
"There are very definitely a lot of doctors who are very adamant it's not a medicine," he said. "There are doctors that believe if it were a medicine, the FDA would approve it and pharmaceutical companies would make cannabis that you can take as a product.
"But patients' definition of a medicine is a different thing," he added.
The fortress walls of your fWO(s)D are beginning to crumble.
Don't know about Washington, but I remember reading that Jefferson brought back seeds (unsure if they were smuggled) from France after his and Franklin's time as ambassadors.
Eat the seeds. Package them and eat them. Just eat 'em.
Just don't plant them - if I see them I will call the authorities and it's a minimum of what? - 5 years for growing?
Don't like it? Change the laws bozo. Until that sad day - if it ever happens...you need to live in nowheresville to smoke and commune legally.
a gift from God
Here is what Hitler said about lies:
"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one."
"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it."
To make it easy for you: The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one,
And: even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it.
Slick, bring us some documentation from the web. Search "Marijuana Deaths" and see what you come up with. Post the results on this thread.
You think MJ use is so bad, prove it. You have the whole web at your disposal.
But you can't, you won't and it even ain't. You can't prove a negative, slick.
So, slick, get moving and see what you can come up with. If you bubble isn't burst on this threat, it will be when you do some web research.
"even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it". Or are you one of the most stupid, easily duped by a simple lie?
Yes, the main page opens and at least some of the links on the main page work. Naturally, the one we would like to use is broken. LOL
This thread is about medicinal marijuana and not about people sititng around in a commune smoking dope and getting stoned.
If it is found that MM helps alleviate patients symptoms and ailments why shouldn't they be allowed to use it. The arguement has been that it is because it is illegal and addicting. The counter-arguement presented here is that it is less addicting than cigarettes and almost ALL the drugs prescribed by the doctors that the patients would need to take in it's stead. The problem is that the drug companies won't be able to patent MM and there goes the profits that they would have gotten on it and are currently getting for the drugs being used instead of MM.
As to the illegal part...what makes it illegal? The governement's decree does but remember at one time alcohol was illegal.
The drug war has become costly, with some $50 billion in direct outlays by all levels of government, and much higher indirect costs, such as the expanded prison system to house half a million drug-law offenders and the burdens on the court system. Civil rights sometimes are infringed. One sharply rising expense is for efforts to interdict illegal drug shipments into the U.S., which is budgeted at $1.4 billion this fiscal year, up 41% from two years ago.
Why do we as a country keep spending money on something that doesn't work?
I agree.
Usually you have to do acid before you start seeing God.
"Why do we as a country keep spending money on something that doesn't work"?
Because most of the people have been duped by a very simple lie; MJ is BAD!
Hitler took over a country with simple lies. Simple enough so even the most stupid person could understand the lie, but not understand that he was being lied to.
Sounds like George W. hadn't tried to make sinse yet. But it proves folks sure knew about it. Only reason for making sinse is for smoking it.
"The artificial preparation of Hemp" -- Hashish?
I wonder if the DEA will confiscate Mt. Vernon ...
Don't give'm any ideas...
"Bringing in the Lord to a pot discussion is sooo uncool."--eleni121
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?" --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
GOD MADE HERB Genesis 1:11
GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD Genesis 1:12
GOD GAVE IT TO MAN Genesis 1:29
Genesis 1:11
Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
Genesis 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:29
And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
It is simple fascist ignorance to believe that this herb bearing a seed is just a weed to be eradicated when its seed contains the most complete and absorbable combination of amino acids required by the human body for sustenance of any plant on the face of Earth. Yet, some persist with the belief that an herb given by God to man and beast alike at the beginning of time and which has grown freely almost everywhere, including here long before our nation was formed, is permissibly eradicable or controllable by the federal government through powers granted by the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution. Though, it is an impossible task to devise a logical explanation of how this could be true. In light of the rest of the Constitution any such perceived mandate dissolves.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Preamble: ...secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity...
Amendment V: nor shall (anyone) be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment IX: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the PEOPLE.
Amendment X: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the PEOPLE.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
Nowhere in the Constitution is it enumerated what one may put into ones body. Therefore, that right is reserved for the states or the people. However, since God has already specified in the Bible what one may consume, it is, in fact, the People’s God given right.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
A random sample of 732 registered voters nationwide was interviewed by telephone June 8-11, 2005 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. of Washington, D.C. Margin for error is plus or minus 3.7%. The survey was commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project.
65% of Americans say adults should be allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor recommends it; only one in five says it should be illegal.
QUESTION: Do you think adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor recommends it, or do you think that marijuana should remain illegal even for medical purposes?
LLEGAL 65%
ILLEGAL 20%
UNDECIDED 15%
Romans 9:32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone;
Matthew 15:11
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Ro 14:2-3
For one believeth that he may eat all things: but he that is weak, let him eat herbs.
Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not: and he that eateth not, let him not judge him that eateth. For God hath taken him to him.
"...declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling" Thomas Paine from 'Common Sense'
Member Opinion
No 85.9%
Undecided/Pass 9.1%
Yes 5.0%
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/poll?poll=124;results=1
__________________________________
Free Republic Opinion Poll: If Hillary runs against Bush for president in 2004, who will you vote for?
Member Opinion
Bush85.4%
Third Party6.9%
Hillary5.0%
Undecided2.7%
The data showing the dangers of marijuana has been around for many years,and it keeps getting more depressing regardless of what NRML the Libertarians, and Soros say.
http://www.drugabuse.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html
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.