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?
Yeah, and how bout his buddie the commie Pete Seeger. Is he never going to die? Yeah, ole bruce was a folk musician, sure. jive.
The WoMarijuana and those who benefit from it are not going to quietly into the night.
Any way... smoke, shoot, drink... an approved agent is already available by prescription for medicinal use, on and off of the PDR.
Smoke from any vegetable matter... ANY.. is variously carcinogenic even without the additives in commercial cig. tobacco and flavorings. Particulate degeneration and destruction of cilia in the lung tissue is only part of the process of anoxia, and carcinogenesis. The filters— basically a delay of reality on dosing.
Well, to begin, the potency and effect of marijuana is dependent on many factors. In fact, the temperature of the soil where it was grown and even the temperature of where it is stored and used can have an effect on its chemical composition. It can become more powerful(toxic) than Cocaine. The “harmless” joint can discreetly and easily be laced with other types of drugs, increasing the toxicity. Lastly, the slow seduction of its use, for some, can be more damaging than Cocaine.
Take it for what it is worth. I do not take my life, my brain and my body for granted, nor will I will be surprised to witness the influx of emergency visits and increased social despair that will happen with increased widespread use and acceptance.
Oh yeah— like ritalin for the “disease state” of ADHD for adults...unbelievable.
Sci-fi time....15 minutes hate... red pill. Ray Bradbury.
But. We. Will. Be. Safe. LOL
Sorry, but medical marijuana is a crock. Everyone who lives in a state that passed medical marijuana knows it. Druggies get medical marijuana cards for made up illnesses just so they can get pot without getting in trouble. That was the only reason for the potheads pushing this. The “medical” red herring was pushed because they tried for years to get pot legalized and failed. But then they had the bright idea of calling it medicine which duped plenty of people in voting for it.
The state senator from Mendocino is heard from. So many armchair pharmacologists. Sounds like a discussion of how harmless sucralose or aspartame is on a LD 50 basis. They are not, of course, and for that matter nothing is, including water.
But gosh it would sure “solve” that revenue problem. LOL.
We have a war on terror providing the tools for the gendarmerie— and they will be used wherever the “woofers” can make the case, so we can feel safe.
Symptomatic treatment, not a cure. And, he could have, at any time written a prescription or gotten a fellow professional to do so... for Marinol. Working ingredient.
It can heal smart people and make them dumb
LOL you are absolutely right. Amazing how much of the healing property involves ZigZags, Cheetos and Beevis and Butthead reruns.
Not only that, legalizing marijuana has led to complaints at apartments because people smoke cheap skunk weed and no longer care if anyone smells it. You’ll be begging for a neighbor that smokes tobacco.
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
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I have never understood the argument that inebriation is a spectrum but being stoned is binary.
It doesn’t square with any of my personal experience.
I’ve seen lives ruined by BOTH products.
Alcoholics are mean, abusive and combative.
Potheads are lazy, shiftless idiots that product nothing but giggle and munch their way through life.
But neither are reason to give the FEDERAL government more power over us than is necesssary.
I (think) I stand with our Founding Fathers on this and let the STATES and THE PEOPLE decide.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
It doesn't have to be smoked. it can be taken in a variety of forms. Personally, in my younger days, in excess to honest. Today, I can't even be around when someone is smoking it. it makes me sick. With that said, though, I have come to the frame of mind that at the very least, cannabis needs to be reclassified from Schedule 1 drug to something else.
It make no sense to me that because of the classification US companies can't even raise industrial hemp for use in non-medcial MJ products. We are purposefully excluding the use of a product that would bring billions of dollars of revenue to the US, without a single bong hit, or toke taking place.
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