Posted on 01/25/2018 8:34:31 AM PST by Kaslin
The hippies of the 70s are old. Time is merciless and none of us get out of here alive. My dad is a baby boomer born in 1944. He enjoyed his time as a 20 and 30 something in the '60s and '70s of America. It was a crazy time marked by free-love, tie-dyed shirts, pot-smoking, a free-wheeling youth, and the chaos of Vietnam.
That was a long time ago. Until a year ago, my dad, now in his early 70s, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. My dad was a strong man who worked construction much of his life. His parents had lived into their 90s, so we all assumed he had a good 20-year run remaining. We’d all noticed a little shake in his hand at Christmas and by spring it was confirmed to be a ruthless and debilitating neurological disease that has no cure.
It’s a terrifying moment when you have to resign yourself to a fate that only a miracle from heaven can cure. The conversation immediately turns to symptom management. That’s all there is. The only hope is to fight the symptoms off long enough to live another five or 10 years or maybe more if you’re lucky.
So, when the moniker of the 70s, marijuana, is found to be in many cases a miracle drug in controlling those symptoms…it can turn the most die-hard anti-drug hardliner into a libertarian.
If marijuana oil, or pot gummy bears, or an inhaler, or whatever form we choose allows my dad to be a grandfather to my kids a few years longer, then I am for it. It’s time for Congress to get on the right side of federalism and let the states decide this issue. Let the drugs get to the people who need it.
I would not wish my dad’s illness on anybody, but I wonder if Attorney General Sessions would change is bulldog stance on medical marijuana if the next time he put his pen to paper he noticed a slight tremor in his hand. Nobody should take one of the most promising medications away from those who suffer.
Conservatives in Congress have long supported the idea of federalism and the right of states to govern themselves. Right now, Congress is debating the future of the 29 states and the District of Columbia that have passed laws allowing medical marijuana’s use and distribution within the states’ borders. There are a number of conservatives who are fighting to protect federalism from Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ stated intention to free up the Justice Department to prosecute medical marijuana states.
The time is now. Congress is working on finishing up appropriations bills for this year. They’re arguing over a funding rider that prevents the DOJ from prosecuting states that allow medical marijuana. Attorney General Sessions is an aggressive voice to remove that provision from law.
Why? He hates drugs of any kind more than he believes in the states rights to govern themselves. A government closer to the people being governed is always a better government.
Medical Marijuana won’t rise to the level of DACA, but if this provision is removed from the appropriations bill, more Republicans will oppose it on February 8th when Congress takes up appropriations again.
When President Donald J. Trump was running for office, he unequivocally told a Colorado reporter, Brandon Rittman, when asked if he would allow his Attorney General to shut down adult use of marijuana in Colorado he answered, “I think it should be up to the states, absolutely.”
It’s time to hold President Trump to that promise.
Trump professed many times his support for medical marijuana and made numerous statements in support of federalism in regards to state medical marijuana laws. Literally issues like this caused many to boldly vote Trump. Constitutional conservatives supported Trump because they believed he would protect federalism and states’ rights to make laws with regard to activities that are conducted within their boundaries.
The DOJ is on the attack and medical marijuana is in their sites. Earlier this month, the Justice Department withdrew the Cole Memo that provided a safe harbor for marijuana operators in states allowing its sale and following eight law enforcement guidelines. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) Tweeted that Sessions's withdrawal of the Cole Memo contradicted, “what Attorney General Sessions told me prior to his confirmation.” Conservative Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) was the chief sponsor of an amendment in 2014 that defunded the federal government’s power to prosecute the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana and Congress voted to support his position 219-189 on May 30, 2014. His efforts were joined in the Senate by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
This is an issue that has been championed by conservatives who respect federalism from day one. This isn’t about a bunch of people sitting around in VW Vans smoking doobies. This is about my dad being able to walk into my son’s band concert and not need a wheel chair.
Does the DOJ, Trump, and the GOP for that matter, really want to be against that?
“IF pot WERE an effective medicine pharmaceuticals would be all over it.”
How do you come by this very special knowledge of what pharmaceuticals ‘would’ or ‘would’ not do?
Bottom line is that for some of us cannabis is medicine. I started using it in 2015 to treat depression & anxiety after 20+ years of taking pharmaceuticals as prescribed with less than acceptable results. Since then I’ve lost 81 lbs (and counting) due to increased energy & the desire to exercise & my wife has her husband back again.
“If it were an effective treatment for various maladies with no nasty side effects drug companies would be all over it.”
I can always count on most FR prohibitionists to include at least one fallacy in nearly every post. Tis’ funny!
How do you have knowledge of what drug companies would or would not be doing regarding cannabis? You’re on the board of one? A salesman for them?
The person in the article says they experienced symptomatic relief when using cannabis & prohibitionists get all bent about it. Hilarious.
I just tell my primary care providers that if my spasms get real bad tgat I take a few tokes and I’m all good. They have all said great. Why should I go pay these folks good money to get a script for my muscle relaxers?
Drug companies have and are still studying therapeutic uses for marijuana and various other drugs that are based on plant extracts.
Most of the psychotic episodes that I have personally responded to that were triggered by marijuana use were from marijuana that was eaten not smoked. Is that the “delivery method you were thinking of?
And marijuana has caused unpredictable and dangerous psychotic episodes in many individuals... which is one of the liabilities that will likely prevent most major drug company from making large investments.
Considering the number of long term pot users that are now in multi-level care facilities suffering from early and advanced dementia... it is unfortunate that the additional part of the brain they gain use of is not able to help them.
Proof....LOL, you cant, because its false!
Is anyone concerned about lung damage from smoking non-filtered joints?
“And marijuana has caused unpredictable and dangerous psychotic episodes in many individuals... which is one of the liabilities that will likely prevent most major drug company from making large investments.”
So many fallacies, so little time. Alcohol can cause psychotic episodes too. Guess all the makers of it manage their liability better than they drug companies do, eh Fireguy? Wonder how drug companies deal with the risk of psychotic episodes from benzodiazepines???
So Fireguy, do you have a relative that’s high up in the drug company food chain that let you know the inside baseball of drug company liabilities?
Nice use of moving the goalposts, Fireguy
I have been around a lot of smokers, and I mean a lot. And I have never seen a person suffer from a psychotic episode.
Where do you get your information from the DEA?
The DEA, the largest bureaucracy in fedzilla threatened with the prospect of not being able to grow and extend their budget if canibus is rescheduled.
Bump for later.
The last one I went to ate too many edibles from one of the legal pot dispensaries in the neighborhood where our fire station was located. He became convinced that he was Jesus Christ and was fighting with the police when we arrived.
My crew and I managed to get him calmed down, and I got on the radio and asked the ambulance to make a “silent approach”. Then I sent one of my crew out to ask the paramedics not to do anything to get him excited.
The paramedics of course disregarded my request and got him so spun up that it took six of us to hold him down and strap him to the gurney. A couple of us had to ride to the hospital with him in the back of the ambulance to try and help to keep him from hurting himself. This is not uncommon. I have had almost identical situations with women as well.
“...Their business model is developing novel compounds that treat a disease or symptom, having patents awarded and then selling the compound exclusively for what ever price the market will bear....”
Looks like free enterprise - a concept central to the American character.
Or it used to be; 130 years of Progressivism has altered the picture a bit.
All Progressives believe “Need creates right” - an assertion at the core of communism, a philosophy forever at odds with American society and irreducibly hostile to the United States. And they have labored for generations, to get the public to believe everyone has a right to whatever they need. Their efforts have made a hash out of medical care, nationwide.
If we are to conserve and reassert principles so central to the nation, we must turn our backs on author Steve Sherman’s family tragedies, and the many posters to this thread who so self-righteously defend unregulated marijuana use. They need to get over their hubris - and jettison their compassion.
Injustice is preferable to ruin.
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