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.
LOL! That's right. I've seen more teen pregnancy ads, but no AIDS commercials either, or maybe I am just tuning them out.
Obviously they meant perscription drugs by "legal drugs".
Exactly. LOL
You too, huh?
George Washington grew vast amounts of MJ on his plantation. So did Thomas Jefferson. They used it for everything from cloths to medicine for such things as medicine for menstrual cramps (the ladies in the family, of course) and stomach aches to smoking it for recreation. Washington's diary speaks of sparating the male and female plants, something done only for smoking MJ.
The Chinese have used it for thousands of years.
No one can document a death from its use. In spite of the fact that people claim you can get lung cancer from using it, no one has ever proven it.
I think more than enough is already known about MJ and no further research is needed. We going to do research for a few thousand more years beforing coming to a "conclusion"? To what point? To keep it illegal while the research is being conducted? That the trick to it all. Stall. Ignore the facts and the history. keep it illegal while pretending to do research on it.
Nobody can document a human death due to DDT ingestion.
Please provide documentation for your assertion that Thomas Jefferson or George Washington used marijuana recreationally. That is totally new to me.
There can be no doubt that Washington separated the males and the females. Two entries in his diary supply the evidence:
May 12-13 1765: "Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole by Swamp."
August 7, 1765: "--began to seperate (sic) the Male from
the Female Hemp at Do--rather too late."
George Andrews has argued, in _The Book of Grass: An Anthology of Indian Hemp_ (1967), that Washington's August 7 diary entry "clearly indiactes that he was cultivating the plant for medicinal purposes as well for its fiber."
his phrase "rather too late" suggests that he wanted to complete the separation *before the female plants were
fertilized*--and this was a practice related to drug potency
rather that to fiber culture.
It is obvious to this Editor that the Reason for George Washington's Separating male from female Hemp plant WAS INDEED for the Purpose of increased Potency...and Ingestabilty. A Hemp plant normally produces many seeds...because the pollen is air borne...it made growing Sinsemillia (without seed )Much easier to accomplish!!! it is much more Potent and easier to smoke
Here is the link: http://www.iahushua.com/T-L-J/GeoHemp.html
"What was done with the seed saved from the India Hemp last summer? It ought, all of it, to have been sewn again; that not only a stock of seed sufficient for my own purposes might have been raised, but to have disseminated the seed to others; as it is more valuable than the common Hemp."
George Washington
Writings of Washington, Vol. 35, pg. 72
http://www.hempfiles.com/php/quote.php?id=84
"Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!"
Note to the gardener at Mount Vernon, 1794 "The Writings of George Washington" Volume 33, page 270 (Library of Congress)
(George Washington, first president of the United States of America, grew cannabis on Mount Vernon, his plantation, for about 30 years).
http://www.taima.org/en/quotes.htm#washington
"I have no idea how popular it is anymore. I wonder that myself. "
Dea website says:
"Marijuana is the most widely abused and readily available illicit drug in the United States, with an estimated 11.5 million current users. At least one-third of the U.S. population has used marijuana sometime in their lives. "
1 metric ton = 35,274 ozs
if 1 chronic user = 1 oz/week = 52 oz/year
35,274ozs/ 52oz/yr = 678
1 ton= 678 chronic users year long supply
1600 tons/year interdicted by mexico = year supply for 1,084,800 chronic users.
1200 tons/year interdicted by USA= year supply for
813,600 chronic users.
11,500,000 users = nearly 17,ooo TONS being consumed while 2,800 tons gets interdicted.
The war on herb is for show, it is intimidation and terror
reigned down upon the citizenry to justify the existence
of the enforcers. It is neither a war meant to be won nor
is it waged to be won. Rather, its sole purpose is perpetual terror.
Yes legalizing it for its medicinal elements - if that can be proved beyond a doubt - in the form of a pill or serum. And most importantly, keeping it out of the hands of our children.
Keep marijuana illegal and safe!
Great post! Thanks.
I guess it is still popular, maybe even more so. LOL!
They will never stamp it out. The commies can't even stamp it out. Our own country, using commie tactics can't stamp it out either.
All they do is bring misery to people's lives and make a lot of money for attorneys. Give the more cops they need to hire something to do.
IMHO marijuana is more dangerous...although both are dangerous.
Further, 2 wrongs do not make a right.
Finally, both herbs contribute to the health care and social dysfunction costs in this nation...and those costs are borne and paid for by all taxpayers!
"I thank you as well for the Seeds as for the Pamphlets which you had the goodness to send me. The artificial preparation of Hemp, from Silesia, is really a curiosity; and I shall think myself much favored in the continuance of your corrispondence. ..."- The writings of George Washington Vol 33 To DOCTOR JAMES ANDERSON
Thanks for pitching in.
I read that Washington had people smuggle in hi-test hemp seeds from China, and if the people smuggling the seeds would have been caught by the Chinese, they would have been killed. Smuggled seeds under pain of death.
Know anything about that?
I thought I had set you straight with some posts to you.
You still don't get it, do you?
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