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.
So how do you propose to suppport your claim that "you do not seem to be getting anyone on your side in the US"?
Had trouble with the flag?
NYS is your next door dysfunctional neighbor.
"The citizenry has already decided on what they want. They want strict enforcement against drug use...and they are mainly against so called medicinal marijuana".
First, 11 states have passed medical marijuana laws. More will follow.
Second, the citizens have been duped by a big lie that Marijuana is dangerous and bad.
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.
And the available evidence indicates that I am.
I hate to be so blunt...but you are just plain boring. When you can't stand the heat you dig up hitler quotes.
Whatever.
I don't need to get anyone "on my side"...you do.
................................................
And the available evidence indicates that I am.
Let us recap the argument.
The other side's arguement: MJ is illegal to use in states that have passed medical MJ laws because the feds say so.
The truth: The feds have no power to interfer legally with what goes on inside a state that has passed a medical MJ law.
The other side's arguement: The "commerce clause" comes into play and gives the feds the power to stop citizens from using medical MJ in a state that has a law saying this is legal.
The truth: The "commerce clause" gives no power to the feds where nothing has moved across state lines. It is perfectly legal for citizens of CA and other states to use medical MJ.
The other side's arguement: MJ has been rightfully and legally been banned by the feds.
The truth. The Constitution gives no authority to the feds to ban anything. In order to ban alcohol, the feds had to add a Constitutional Amendment to do so. The Supreme Court has said that the Constitution give no power to ban anything and has said that a Constitutional Amendment had to be added to ban alcohol across the land.
The truth: No Constitutional Amendment has been added to the Constitution to ban MJ. All power not granted to the feds by the Constitution rests with the state, and with the people.
The other side's arguement: MJ is dangerous and bad and has been rightfully banned.
The truth: No one can prove that a single death HAS EVER RESULTED FROM THE USE OF MJ. No one has ever proven that MJ causes cancer. No one has ever proven that MJ use so lessens the ability to driva a motor vehicle that its use is the cause of many accidents.
My side clearly wins. The anti-MJ people clearly lose.
Better to be just plain boring than to be just plain stupid.
327 posts in this thread, and it's obvious you didn't read any of them.
The exact opposite is true. Every one of your aguements has been shot down with facts. All you have ever offered is deception, heresay, inuendo and hyperbole.
In spite of being given chance after chance to prove your points, you have utterly failed to do so.
Pingaroo!
Prohibitionists made much the same arguments about alcohol and painted pictures of the wonderful future when "Demon Rum" was banished...but it was Prohibition that was destroying the spirit and society, and corrupted the ethos of the nation. And the current War on Drugs is doing the same thing.
Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.
- William F. Buckley, Jr.
Meth and pot, soup and sandwich, syringes and smack, Soros and socialism...
Dumb and dumber and dumbest...
Still your words, not mine.
Dumb and dumber and dumbest...
My words too.
When did the federal government say that?
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