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Listen to the Doctor: Weed Really Can Heal
Townhall.com ^ | August 27, 2013 | Debra J. Saunders

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?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: anslingersghost; charleskrauthammer; druglegalization; insanewosd; jackbootedthugs; marijuana; medicalmarijuana
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To: Kaslin

utter BS.

Gupta knows better. The “medical” elements of pot have been in pill form for decades. this medicinal pot epiphany is nothing more that ratings whoremongering for himself. Whatever benefits of unprocessed are far outdone by the toxins of the smoking.

(translation for pot heads: dave’s not here maaaaaaan.)


21 posted on 08/27/2013 8:38:42 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: bolobaby

it can.
it was.
it has been available for years.

this is just stoners watching cnn.


22 posted on 08/27/2013 8:39:40 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Hot Tabasco

You assume smoking is the only way.


23 posted on 08/27/2013 8:42:26 AM PDT by svcw (Stand or die)
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To: Hot Tabasco

You smoke far less pot than cigarettes so that notion is way off base, not to mention that cigs have lots of chemical additives.


24 posted on 08/27/2013 8:43:04 AM PDT by sakic
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To: Kaslin
No matter how one views marijuana, there is simply no reason for federal authorities to continue to arrest, prosecute, and imprison over it: states should have supreme authority over it, except in bona fide interstate commerce (not the New Deal-era SCOTUS mutation).

10th Amendment: learn it, live it, love it. Period.

RESTORE LIBERTY IN AMERICA. OVERTURN WICKARD V. FILBURN.


25 posted on 08/27/2013 8:43:21 AM PDT by bassmaner (Hey commies: I am a white male, and I am guilty of NOTHING! Sell your 'white guilt' elsewhere.)
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To: Edward Teach

newsflash it was done and is currently available. It just can’t be used recreationally, that is what potheads really want.


26 posted on 08/27/2013 8:43:22 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: virgil283; Blood of Tyrants

it’s hard to compare them...

you can drink a little with not much drunkeness

with today’s ganja it’s hard to smoke a little without being stoned...impossible for all but the most THC tolerant

but drunk versus stoned then drunk wins as most harmful hands down

and long term chronic use I’d give alcohol the winner as worse for you and society

but none of that means marihuana is harmless

it sure isn’t

but what I see mostly is chronic use produces lethargy, apathy and just reduced drive overall..impairs driving a little

which many here think is a not really a gateway to say heroin or crack but rather a gateway to becoming a progressive

yet here in Dixie where BOT and I live I know scores of pot smokers and all are gun toting God believing right wing heads..maybe a hair libertarian

but when I go to the Pacific Northwest coastal range then I see exactly what folks here hate about pot culture...it is freaky progressives

I do not like the confiscatory nature of the war on drugs nor the usurpation of rights and think many of the penalties fed wise are too severe

put me down as pro minor offense labeling for pot period


27 posted on 08/27/2013 8:43:58 AM PDT by wardaddy (the next Dark Ages are coming as Western Civilization crumbles with nary a whimper)
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To: Hot Tabasco

You clearly are unaware of the results of many recent studies.


28 posted on 08/27/2013 8:44:08 AM PDT by sakic
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To: BenLurkin

Indeed many will use any excuse to justify use.


29 posted on 08/27/2013 8:46:11 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: virgil283

There are tests for MJ. If anything it’s OVER estimated in accidents
Because the test just detects its presence not a level.


30 posted on 08/27/2013 8:46:17 AM PDT by Kozak ("Send them back your fierce defiance! Stamp upon the cursed alliance! To arms, to arms.....")
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To: Kaslin

On radio today some ad hustling a “medical marijuana” software outfit... not clear for what about it but mentions the number of states where it is “legal” and this stock would ... I don’t know. Beck show, with libertarian demographic.

REFG ticker symbol? Anyone?


31 posted on 08/27/2013 8:47:44 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: virgil283
"...there are glaring problems in that many accidents aren't attributed to pot because there weren't tests to show pot use."

You're so full of crap that this post smells. Let me drop some knowledge on you.

Alchohol is a CNS (Central Nervous System) depressant. It causes a lack of coordination and loss of motor skills. That's why drunks stumble, fall, drive all over the road and get in car accidents. Drink enough, your heart and lungs will shut down and you will die.

Marijuana is NOT a CNS depressant. Weed smokers do NOT stumble, fall, drive all over the road OR cause accidents... unless, of course, they are also drinking that demon alchohol. There is no "toxic limit" to the use of pot. It is physically impossible to ingest enough to hurt or kill yourself. Medical fact, kiddos.

Substitute facts and knowledge for your bigoted superstitions, and you might even learn something. Not that that's particularly high on your list of things "to do."

;-\

32 posted on 08/27/2013 8:48:00 AM PDT by Gargantua ("Da amber lamps. Bring dem..." LMFFAO!!!!)
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To: Kaslin

Oh, good! Haven’t had a pot ruckus on FR in awhile. I’m popping some popcorn.


33 posted on 08/27/2013 8:48:05 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: bassmaner

Don’t forget that the WOD was started under Woodrow Wilson as a way to put more black men into southern prison plantations.

And the STILL vote for Democrats.


34 posted on 08/27/2013 8:49:59 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the people. T Jefferson)
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To: svcw

Hey they all look like most of my failed girlfriend’s moms. Something to that, LOL!

Not to get into it but genetic response to all kinds of scheduled agents is a subject of a lot of pharmaco- research and it isn’t good outcomes. Like Indians and alcohol.

I mean get an EBT, gubmint cheese, car loan, obamaphone and hit the streets to “clock”. Live better than about 50% of the youth unemployed and stay high along the way. Institutionalized effort to make it OK, and of course, a ready new revenue source to expand the State.


35 posted on 08/27/2013 8:52:15 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: sakic
"You smoke far less pot than cigarettes"...no didn't work for Willie Nelson....What was it? Didn't He smoke so much weed in substitution for cigs that he collapsed a lung ???oh my
36 posted on 08/27/2013 8:52:39 AM PDT by virgil283 (When the sun spins, the cross appears, and the skies burn red)
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To: Vaduz
Indeed, many jackboots-at-heart will use any government-fomented lie to justify their tyrannical abuse of the rights of others. Doesn't make it right, or you smart. You simple chimp.

;-\

37 posted on 08/27/2013 8:53:17 AM PDT by Gargantua ("Da amber lamps. Bring dem..." LMFFAO!!!!)
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To: wardaddy

It would be hard to pick between Woodrow Wilson and Obama who did the most damage to the country, but I think I would pick Wilson (WOD, Income tax, 17th Amendment, Federal Reserve, Prohibition, and probably a number I am not aware of).


38 posted on 08/27/2013 8:54:49 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the people. T Jefferson)
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To: Kenny Bunk
Hard to lay offa Bruce, with this ringing endorsement from 2008....

"Like most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

39 posted on 08/27/2013 8:55:37 AM PDT by cincinnati65
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To: John S Mosby

At first nobody cared about drugs
Then they became illegal
Then they started to be tolerated
Now they will be legal
The problem will arise when they are mandatory


40 posted on 08/27/2013 8:58:15 AM PDT by svcw (Stand or die)
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