Gateway drug? No way!
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.
I say, let him keep setting up that stupid straw man and knocking it down. It keeps him busy.
The biggest loss to society in the early days before the WOD polluted rational thought was the almost complete elimination of the product 'Hemp'.
In every class it beat the crap out of cotton.
But these discussions never make it that far.
What illness does marijuana cure?
"Seed. To make hemp seed, make hills of the form & size of cucumber hills, from 4 to 6 ft. apart, in proportion to the strength of the ground. Prick about a dozen seeds into each hill, in different parts of them. When they come up thin them to two. As soon as the male plants have shed their farina, cut them up that the whole nourishment may go to the female plants. Every plant thus tended will yield a quart of seed. A bushel of good brown seed is enough for an acre."
-- Thomas Jefferson
Gloucoma, at the least.
Keeps people from going blind. At the very least controls the condition and actually works.
Here is some info about a lady named Elvie Musika, who lost the sight in one eye due to gloucoma, took the feds to court for the right to use MJ as medicine and won. The feds mail the MJ to her to this day. As she lost the sight in an eye before using MJ as medicine and still has the sight in her other eye since using the MJ as medicine, few can aruge with the results. Some still will, however.
I had lunch with Elvie one day. She showed me the big brown pill bottle that the feds shipped her the medical marijuana to her in. Inside the bottle were govenment rolled marijuana cigarettes, as big as a tobacco cigarette. Elvie is still getting her medical marijuana from the feds.
Elvie still has the sight in one eye, thanks to marijuana. Used as medicine. It worked.
"People aren't going to want to grow their own pot"
You can't possibly know that. Number one, they're already growing their own pot today (how many are growing their own tobacco?).
Secondly, you don't know how much legal pot will cost, or the amount of taxes imposed. Tax it like tobacco, and we'll see a continuance of the black market.
Third, the government, as part of its legalization concession, may limit the THC content. They've discussed doing that with the nicotine content of tobacco, so it's possible.
Fourth, what will be the legal age for marijuana? Again, as a concession to legalization, the legal age could be set at 23 or 25.
There are a number of scenarios that are conducive to people growing their own. I wouldn't dismiss that possibility so flippantly.
Because it's immoral? Gasp!
Understand the concept? Lots of activities are safe, but illegal -- drugs, pornography, gambling, prostitution, etc.
Granted, the possible effects of these activities may not be conducive to a safe, healthy and functioning society, in fact they may be downright deadly, but you don't want to discuss those effects, do you?
Oh well. My dad once said that if you have to explain morality to someone you've already lost the argument. So I'll just leave it at that.
"Stupidnatural thinks that marijuana is prohibited because the public and the federal government are under the mistaken impresssion that marijuana causes death. He is on a personal quest (a jihad, if you will) to educate everyone ad nauseum that marijuana does not do that, hoping against hope that the AG will someday soon wake up and state, "Marijuana doesn't kill people? By golly then, let's legalize it!".
I say, let him keep setting up that stupid straw man and knocking it down. It keeps him busy."
I keep it up because you never respond to the question. You have had more than 1,000 chances on this thread and different threads to answer the questions but you never do.
Once again, exactly why is it illegal if it is harmless? And I asked you for proof that it is dangerous or deadly and you can't supply any proof.
Then you say "straw man" arguement when you are the one using the straw man.
Your tactics never change. Lie, distort, put up a smoke screen but never give an answer to a question, then always claim that you did. You make up your own questions and answer those when responding to someone's question. That is not the question to be answered.
Once again, exactly why is it illegal if it is harmless? And I asked you for proof that it is dangerous or deadly and you can't supply any proof.
Here's you big chance, bucko!
But you won't, you can't, the proof you need to give a legitimate reason why MJ is banned doesn't exist.
It is banned because people were brainwashed into believing MJ was dangerous. Stupid people swallowing a big lie. A lie so simple that even the stupidest person could understand it. The only thing you prove is that this country is full of stupid, easily led people who can't think for themselves.
Marijuana is bad. There is the lie. Simple to understand.
No one can prove that Marijuana is bad. Just keep on blowing hot air. Proves how stupid people are for believing that lie.
Or prove that marijuana really is bad. Again, here is your big chance.
Do a search on marijuana deaths. Report the results here. You or any other drug "warrior" is challenged to prove your point.
Prove that people have died from lung cancer from smoking marijuana. Search the web. Don't tell me it might cause cancer. Prove that it has.
Prove anything. You can't.
"If it is that safe, why is it illegal?"
"Because it's immoral? Gasp"!
Only in the minds of the brainwashed is it immoral.
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.
primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie
even the most stupid will understand it.
Looks like you meet the criteria for understanding the lie.
Most people on this board quote Madison and Jefferson -- you tend towards Hitler. Why is that?
Hitler's "shoe" of the big lie fits you and the other "warriors" perfectly.
If the shoe fits, wear it!
Gateway drug? No way!
girlyman! Where have you been?
I'll ask for what, the tenth time, what's the lie and who's telling it?
You know what the lie is. You keep believing that the lie is the truth. Shoe fits. Keep wearing it. When it wears out, replace it with the same kind of shoe.
Hitler's "shoe" of the big lie fits you and the other "warriors" perfectly.
Hitler's "shoe" of the big lie fits you and the other "warriors" perfectly.
If the shoe fits, wear it!
The shoe fits you too. Girl's size, of course!
No. I told you I don't. Tell me what the big lie is and tell me who's telling it.
Ahhhh. That explains the war on cigarettes, then.
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