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?
Nonsense - libertarianism says no more than that the only proper function of government is to defend individual rights ... nothing utopian there. Utopianism seems to better describe the war on the as-old-as-mankind urge to chemically (e.g., alcohol) alter one's mental state.
I'd love to consider that number ... what is the number?
Libertarian Party Platform is insane.
I’ve read it over the years, now they sort of put a soft focus on it but it is what it is.
1. All porn legal, and allowable anywhere, and the founder wanted kiddie porn legal too.
2. All drugs legal.
3. All prostitution of any kind legal anywhere.
4. Abortion legal.
5. Illegals legal and open borders.
People can lie, but I can read and I have a memory.
“so you think you’re better and walla...you are better...”
I wish.
I wouldn’t have to see a doctor, deal with the state gov’t bureaucracy & spend so much $$$ on medicine if that were true.
Sorry, but this is going to sound harsh. You're not "treating" anxiety and depression. You're getting high. You're avoiding finding and dealing with the real reasons. You're escaping.
But then the writer is most likely an ignorant millennial a—hole who doesn’t know that history is, like, a real thing.
Sorry but this is going to sound harsh because it’s the truth. You’re woefully ignorant & have shown this via your fallacious “diagnosis”.
You don’t know what the cause(s) of my depression & anxiety are. You don’t now if my depression/anxiety issues are due to emotional problems or for physical reasons. You are 100% ignorant of my health situation save for what I have shared on FR. You’ve not sat in a single session with me & my doctor(s). You’ve not read my chart nor have you spent a single second with me in person nor have you observed my behavior in any clinical setting. You are 100% ignorant of the medications I took prior to cannabis nor do you have any clue how effective or not they were & you never ever will.
Here’s the best part about it, Dougie. I’m going to keep following my doctor’s advice over your’s because you’re ignorant & my doctor isn’t.
Have a blessed evening. :)
I use medical marijuana for glaucoma and know that I am better and my ophthalmologist agrees. Walla, imagine that.
Nope. But as a former heavy pot smoker I know exactly what pot is. And I do know that you're smoking dope and getting high. If you want to pretend it's "medicine" then feel free to labor in that delusion.
That would be placebo effect and...just because FReepers like to be spelling police, 'walla' = voila. French for 'here it is'. You're welcome, smoke em if you've got em.
Again, you express complete ignorance. I don’t smoke cannabis. It tastes terrible & the smell is disgusting. I use edibles, pills & vapor cartridges.
Keep expressing your ignorance to me & I will be happy to keep pointing it out.
Glad cannabis is successfully treating your glaucoma!
That’s one thing I don’t understand about FR’s prohibitionists. When I & others report positive outcomes with cannabis prohibitionists are always quick to tell us we’re “fooling” ourselves or “you’re just getting high”—they seem incapable of understanding how for some of us, cannabis is welcome relief after years of misery.
If I ever run across someone who says to me, “I used X to treat my depression/anxiety symptom & it’s working great for me”, I’ll be HAPPY for them regardless of the medicine they used as I am for you now. Peace :)
Oh. Sorry. Yeah, I used to eat pot brownies. I used to smoke a bong. I was getting high. OF course i could have deluded myself and said I was dealing with depression and anxiety because getting high CERTAINLY helped with that. Until of course I stopped getting high. And then I would have to get high again. And if I stopped the depression and anxiety would be back twice as bad.
You know why? It's because POT is NOT medicine. It rearranges your neurons and gives you false feelings. It highjacks the natural, real way of dealing with depression and anxiety and makes its own shortcut which of course involves getting high. It's fake. It's false. It's destructive.
But hey, it's your life. Feel free to get high.
For you cannabis was a bad thing. Thanks for sharing that. Where you are committing error is assuming because you had problems with cannabis EVERYONE else is as well. What you’re doing is called “projecting.” Look it up :)
Your armchair diagnosis’ are quite hilarious though. Truly.
“It’s because POT is NOT medicine.”
For you that seems to be true. For myself & many others, that is not the case. Results are what matter & for almost 3 years now I’ve experienced excellent results from using cannabis & my doctor agrees.
If that bothers you, then that’s really your problem & not mine.
I'm glad you've enjoyed being high for 3 years. Let me know when you get sober and are ready to deal with life.
“I’m glad you’ve enjoyed being high for 3 years.”
Still projecting.
“Let me know when you get sober and are ready to deal with life.”
Sure thing, Dougie. I’ll be sure to let you know 1st lol!
LOL. So the big risk of marijuana is that it might lead to smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol? What kind of nonsensical reasoning is this? If the tobacco and alcohol are a problem, why not make those illegal instead?
Love the way you craftily left out the sentences that immediately followed, “After researchers adjusted the analysis to account for these factors, marijuana use was independently associated with a 26 percent increase in the risk of stroke and a 10 percent increase in the risk of developing heart failure.”
Maybe you should try reading the entire paragraph when you are not stoned; it might not seem so funny but it might have some additional meaning.
I have been fighting glaucoma for years. The prohibitionists usually ignore me because glaucoma patients can tangibly prove medical marijuana is extremely effective in treating this disease. They usually don’t attack me because how can they possibly justify that they would prefer I go blind.
"As dementia sets in for ever-increasing numbers of our older population and memory is corrupted in our younger generations due to use of drugs, the question is - with no humor intended - who is going to remember to pick-up dad’s or granddad’s meds at the pharmacy?"
"Harvard study: “We know that marijuana users tend to have deficits in functions such as working memory, attention, and certain decision-making tasks. . . ”Who would want to put dad's or granddad's meds into the hands of someone who is already predisposed to using mind-altering substances and is suffering memory deficits? Just saying."
"With chemically enhanced foods, the expanded use of mind-altering drugs, such as marijuana, along with the release by the FDA of more potent mind-numbing medicines, America appears to be in a mental downgrade making at-home-care of our elderly even less of‘ an option. Institutional or long-term care is already out of‘ the financial reach of families. A further sense of‘ hopelessness arises as legalized drug use poses a threat to safe and adequate at-home-care."
from page 72 AGING: WARNING - Navigating Life's MEDICAL, MENTAL & FINANCIAL MINEFIELDS By Sharon Sebastian
The same problem exists and existed with alcohol.
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