Faces at rally reveal tragic truth of medical marijuana patients

Sacramento Bee ^ | 22 September 2002 | Diana Griego Erwin

[JediGirl]

Tess Williams of Elk Grove wept when she saw her sister holding a sign in the crowd of protesters standing outside Santa Cruz's City Hall last week.

"It just is so unlike her," Williams said. Her sister, a soccer mom, PTA secretary "and always the more quiet and elegant of us two," isn't the sign-waving type.

[Illbay]

I'm on record that alcohol ought to be a "controlled substance" as well, so you're not really telling me anything I don't know.

I see pot and alcohol as equally odious.

[Illbay]

You cross back and forth between discussion of pot and discussion of it's use.

Pot is "bad" when it is abused. Abuse of pot is "bad" in itself, but abuse of it is also a crime. Responsible people don't perpetrate crimes.

These are separate issues.

[JediGirl]

Abuse of anything is bad. I think we obviously agree on this. But use does not imply abuse.

[Pearls Before Swine]

There's no dignity in smoking marijuana as your end draws near. Medically administered morphine will at least leave you compos mentis. Would you really want to make your last visit, to a dying relative, only to find them giggling and asking if you brought anything to eat?

Yes! Marijuana humor isn't necessarily insane.

But, I think this comment is off the mark. One can be so doped up on morphine that the patient is drifting in and out of consciousness. In that end extremity of pain, morphine is probably the only thing that will work. I think your problem here is with what is currently legal and what is not. I submit that is a problem that it should be in the public power to decide, and not writ in stone by the government.

[myrabach]

Perhaps just a generalization, but I tend to think those denying legal marijuana medical use profit quite well from keeping it illegal.

Been my experience at any rate.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

That's complete nonsense, Norm. I know a guy who rode a motorbike into a creek while under influence of the weed. Missed the bridge and went into the creek.

I see. So it was the fact that he smoked marijuana that killed him, not the fact that he made the incredibly dim-witted decision to drive a motorcycle while intoxicated?

[steve-b]

'Mellow' is a silly 60s word meaning 'under the influence of drugs.'

ETYMOLOGY: Middle English melwe, perhaps from melowe, oblique case of mele, ground grain, meal.

Really, now; hasn't the whole Bellesiles mess taught us the importance of doing our homework instead of simply making stuff up?

[steve-b]

Alcohol poisoning can't occur by ingestion. As someone else here pointed out, you pass out long before that would happen.

Nonsense. Chug some 100+ proof booze and you'll get a lethal dose before it has time to knock you out.

[steve-b]

And if it were up to me, yes, alcohol would be illegal.

Clip-n-save....

[headsonpikes]

"And if it were up to me, yes, alcohol would be illegal."

If it were up to me, people like you would be tarred and feathered. ;^)

[Moby Grape]

We already have legal pain drugs for those who are dying...the legalize pot rant is only a front for the dopers, the low lifes, the useless ( and a few who REALLY mean it).

[MrLeRoy]

We already have legal pain drugs for those who are dying

So what? Would you place an upper limit on the number of different drugs that should be legal for treating pain? Why?Would you place the same limit on drugs for treating, say, allergies?

[Virginia-American]

There is no benefit of pot that can't be derived from far safer controlled substances,

What's the 'safer' way to induce an appetitie in someone who's getting chemo?

[MrLeRoy]

if it were up to me, yes, alcohol would be illegal.

Did you know that this has been tried? Did you know that it was such a resounding failure that a supermajority of US citizens voted to overturn the ban?

[Virginia-American]

I still think the vast majority of the people who want the medical marijuana are the ingrown toenail crowd.

Unless you back it up with facts or logic, no-one cares what you 'think' (or emote)

[Moby Grape]

Do you REALLY believe that MOST of those behind the legalize pot crowd are ONLY concerned about pain? If you do, I have ocean front property....well, you know.

[MrLeRoy]

Get over it and get used to it.

Like Hell I will. If you want to lick the jackboot that's stomping your face, you go right ahead. I intend to live like a man.

[jayef]

Wow, poor people smoke pot. You may be on to something. Do they drink alcohol?

[MrLeRoy]

Do you REALLY believe that MOST of those behind the legalize pot crowd are ONLY concerned about pain?

I neither know nor care. Why should I?

And I notice you didn't answer my quesions: So what if "we already have legal pain drugs for those who are dying"? Would you place an upper limit on the number of different drugs that should be legal for treating pain? Why?Would you place the same limit on drugs for treating, say, allergies?

[jayef]

Your ignorance is astounding.