Posted on 08/27/2013 8:15:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta admitted earlier this month that he had been wrong in his opposition to medical marijuana during the rollout for his documentary "Weed." Gupta reported on research that demonstrated the proven benefits of marijuana in treating neuropathic pain. Medical marijuana was the only drug that helped a 5-year-old girl with Dravet syndrome live without constant seizures. It calmed the constant hiccuping of a 19-year-old. Israelis use it to treat Parkinson's disease and other ailments.
Gupta took on the federal government's classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which has no accepted medical use but has a high potential for abuse. (Heroin also is a Schedule I drug. Methamphetamine is Schedule II.) Gupta now believes that classification is an outrage.
The doctor didn't say marijuana is all good. He cited research that found that regular use by teens can lead to a permanent decrease in IQ. But Gupta could find no documented case of a death from a marijuana overdose, whereas someone dies every 19 minutes from a prescription-drug overdose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 80,000 Americans die each year from excessive alcohol use.
Last week, Gupta's sentiments were echoed on the right when columnist Charles Krauthammer, a former psychiatrist, told Fox News that alcohol is much more harmful than marijuana. Quoth Krauthammer: "If I were starting a society from scratch and had to choose the intoxicant, I would outlaw alcohol and I'd allow marijuana." (Side note: But seeing as he can't reset the world, Krauthammer said he wouldn't legalize pot.)
Gupta's about-face might well signal a sea change in how this country looks at marijuana. Gupta told CNN's Erin Burnett that he used to look at medical marijuana advocates as "malingerers" who are "just looking to get high." But he came to see that cannabis not only helps severely ill people but also averts the dangerous side effects of more potent pharmaceuticals.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy announced Monday that his committee will hold a hearing Sept. 10 about the correct federal response to state laws legalizing the use of medical marijuana and, in the cases of Washington and Colorado, recreational use of marijuana.
Is President Barack Obama paying attention? Reporter Jessica Yellin asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest last week whether the administration was considering changing marijuana's Schedule I designation. Earnest responded with a long-winded no.
Before the American Bar Association recently, Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a speech that was supposed to signal big changes in the administration's approach to nonviolent drug offenders.
But he didn't mention marijuana enforcement, even though his Department of Justice has waged a ruthless war against medical marijuana dispensaries. Federal prosecutors have not only sent registered California dispensary operators to prison but also gone after their landlords, their bankers and contractors.
Listen to Gupta and Krauthammer and it's fair to surmise that marijuana is the least harmful of all controlled substances. It's less toxic than alcohol, which is legal. It's less lethal than prescription drugs.
So why is Washington still waging a war on weed?
Administering a palliative substance is a far cry from “healing.”
Time to end the 100 year old failed War on Drugs.
SO, whatever is in marijuana can’t be isolated and turned into a pill with the same properties? Very unlikely that it can’t.
But that’s not what the pothead lobby wants. They want to smoke it, not actually do research on what could REALLY be helpful.
Deb Saunders....bleeech a so called SF conservative....
exactly....
Yes it can and has been. The drug is known and marketed as Marinol. Very effective when used
First, the sex. Now, the drugs. Next thing you know, Bruce Springsteen will be writing the new national anthem.
If a doctor wishes to prescribe it for a patient, what exactly is the big deal? It has some fairly well described medical effects, or at least as many as other "legal" drugs. It has an "herbal" source, and contains hundreds of pharmacologically active compounds, just like morphine, quinine,digitalis, or many another medical stand-by.
The problem with it is unrestricted recreational use*, or "self-medication," as apologists for addiction like to call it.
*Heavy use of which makes people demonstrably stupid-er.
It might help an anorexic gain weight but that’s about it......
As a side note, marijuana is about 10 times more harmful on the lungs than cigarettes since it's unfiltered........
Dude has been sampling to much of the product.
Lay offa Bruce. He has learned several new chords (we're up to 8!) and he is a damn hard worker. He is also fatter. Weirdly, fellow Joisey Shore Guy, Chris Christie is getting somewhat slimmer.
This illustrates "Conservation of Mass."
oh lord...let the battle begin
i’ll bring bandages
And the 76 year old war on MJ, started because the fascist prohibitionist Harry Anslinger (the federal ‘drug czar’ of the day) testified before Congress that it made white women have sex with black jazz musicians.
1) Nobody likes to admit they were wrong... Governments least of all.
2) It's all about power and control. Legalize weed, and the powers-that-be give away their most useful tool in exercising total control over the general populace. By criminalizing an otherwise harmless act, the Government by its decree instantly makes millions of Americans "criminals." Now that's power. That's control.
3) What in the world would they do with all that free court time and prison space?
4) Where would they find another so convenient an excuse to turn thousands of rapists, muggers, murderers and pedophiles loose on the public if not the overcrowding of our prisons created by this amoral set of Drug Laws?
Power, control, and the refusal to admit their error.
The Jackboots suck huge mung.
;-\
Yet the current regime of draconian marijuana laws make even research next to impossible.
Shall we even get into the sheer madness of no-knock swat raids and lengthy prison sentences for marijuana users who are committing what amounts to a consensual crime? As long as I'm doing no harm to others, what business is it of anyone's if I dry out a plant and burn it and inhale the smoke? I personally don't, but nevertheless it speaks to a principle that I feel very strongly about.
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