Posted on 04/24/2018 4:07:27 AM PDT by Magnatron
Dear Honorable Jeff Sessions,
I feel obligated to share the results of my five-year-long investigation into the medical benefits of the cannabis plant. Before I started this worldwide, in-depth investigation, I was not particularly impressed by the results of medical marijuana research, but a few years later, as I started to dedicate time with patients and scientists in various countries, I came to a different conclusion.
Not only can cannabis work for a variety of conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and pain, sometimes, it is the only thing that works. I changed my mind, and I am certain you can, as well. It is time for safe and regulated medical marijuana to be made available nationally. I realize this is an unconventional way to reach you, but your office declined numerous requests for an interview, and as a journalist, a doctor and a citizen, I felt it imperative to make sure you had access to our findings.
Mr. Sessions, there is an added urgency, as we are in the middle of a deadly opioid epidemic that has been described as the worst self-inflicted epidemic in the history of our country.
The drug overdose scourge claimed about 68,000 US lives in 2017, just over 45,000 of them from opioids alone. Every day, 115 Americans die from opioid overdoses. It has fueled a decline in an entire country's life expectancy and will be remembered as a sad and tragic chapter in our collective history.
These are desperate times, and while some may consider making medical marijuana widely available to be a desperate measure, the evidence has become increasingly clear of the important role cannabis can have.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
With good reason. It's awful. People are literally dying on the streets, and here on this thread everyone's fretting about weed, like it's even remotely on the same danger level as an opioid.
File this 'fact' under "you can buy a gun on any street corner in America."
Yes but how does it benefit Democrats? That’s the sole reason for our local paper to exist
Be that as it may, I don’t see peanut allergies as a valid reason to make peanut butter illegal....
“Follow the money when lefties lkie this puppet are talking”
Absolutely incorrect. Legalization has come through the will of the people by referendum in every state it has been legalized but one. If you have any evidence of a “money trail” put it out there, quoting an overused Hollywood cliche is not convincing.
So offering more drugs, to get you to stop doing other drugs. Incredible medical advice! (sarcasm)
not specifically to you but....
Be extremely leery of putting opiate misusers on Suboxone.
[the buprenorphine/naloxone combo]
While I am older-school, I’d rather treat folks on a methadone maintenance program. At least with methadone we have decades of experience.
(And suboxone is ungodly expensive compared to methadone.)
Drug Store Cowboy clip
https://youtu.be/yJqvAhyMwKI
0:44
As a supervisor in manufacturing plants I have seen far too many dope heads that couldn’t stop smoking dope even when they were going to be fired.
I have a step-grandson that was smart and normal until he got hooked on smoking dope. Now he is a worthless loser that can’t get out of bed to go to school or work. Now he’ll never be worth a pinch of $hit.
A cat, after developing a large cancer tumor on his paw, sees the tumour SHRINK within days of eating cannabis-oil laced food....had also suffered two strokes, an enlarged liver and significant weight loss.
Vets prescribed Ginge antibiotics and steroids, but neither seemed to work.
His owner started adding five drops of cannabis oil to Ginge’s food.....Within just two days, the cat’s tumour shrunk and he started gaining weight.
The nutritional supplement cannabidiol (CBD), which is derived from cannabis It does not contain any THC, which is the psychoactive component of marijuana that makes users ‘high’.
You raise a valid point.
I currently have a person; loves his weed,(but is a binge drinker) worked in manufacturing 15 years ($33/hour), the company changed hands last year & drug screens were announced & scheduled 90 days in advance, and yet he would not stop toking for roughly 21 days prior to being tested. But— if you try to fire people for drug use, they can demand 21 days of inpatient. Instead, they just targeted his butt for a few months, he was tardy 3x’s and then they fired him for cause. (Now he’s on Medicaid and in a 12-step program.)
On the flip side of that equation; Big regional food-retailer here,(union shop) gave up on PRE-employment drug screens, cuz’ they couldn’t get enough applicants to fill the positions. (THC and opiates were most common)
They went to POST-ACCIDENT drug-screening regime. They don’t care what your hobby’s are, but if you have an accident at work, you get blood and hair-screened instantly. If you’re positive, you go into rehab or you resign voluntarily that day.)
I had a neighbor in his 20’s who apparently had a violent nature at one time.....Medical marijuana has calmed him sufficient that he functions normally daily, holds a job etc. He said that other psychotic drugs he had taken did further harm with the side affects ..he still couldn't hold a job nor function normally. It appears Medical marijuana works better for some...and each case is different.
Please Tell me your vast clinical experience
....”I don’t condone normal marijuana use but controlled in strength and dispensed in a non smoking form for people with chronic pain could be a way to go.”....
Well I’ll soon know as I see A Dr. tomorrow about the use of cannabidiol oil and forms of CBD’S for pain. Which though taken from the plant it does not contain any THC, which is the psychoactive component of marijuana that makes users ‘high’.
I’ve been researching this for weeks now so it’s going to be interesting.
Anxiety Irrational behavior mj addicts will display the same as any other addict You can tell they are jonesing for something Then they sign out of the hospital ama no matter how sick they are to go get their next hit. Just like any other addict.
Dr Gupta, as a lifelong resident of Humboldt county which has a world wide reputation for readily available weed, I can say you’re full of it. We are in the midst of a heroin (AKA opiod) crisis. Meth too.
I difference with heavy drinkers is that most can stay sober long enough to go to work, then drink on the weekend.
Dope heads think because you can’t smell it on their breath they will smoke dope before work.
I have never seen a “Former” heavy dope smoker like you do with drinkers. Nope, dope heads never give it up.
After my second major lower back surgery in 2002 and realizing I liked the painkillers "a bit too much" I got off off them and asked for non-narcotic pain killers. My Orthopaedic Neurosurgeon thought I was nuts but wrote a script for a non-narcotic painkiller anyway.
I will not sit here and say the non-narcotic drugs worked as well on the pain (they did not) they did however take the edge off of the pain and the side-effects from the narcotics thankfully subsided.
My third and fourth lower back surgeries in 2007 and again in 2009 were followed by non-narcotic pain management which for me worked pretty well. I may be somewhat of an exception, I'm a redhead and we're known for having high pain thresholds.
Fast forward to today: I have an inflammatory disease of the spine called Ankylosing Spondylitis which is QUITE painful at times. Besides the anti-inflammatories which wreak havoc on my digestive system, I have nerve pain management meds to take as well.
Can marijuana help here? YES, and it does. I use Cannibis Oil which is a legal product and available on Amazon of all places. Research has proven its health benefits specific to inflammation and inflammation related diseases with zero side effects. I use it daily to manage my Ankylosing Spondylitis related symptoms and pain, it works wonderfully.
I'm not "high" all the time as there's no THC in it and I'm able to reduce the amount of the expensive medications that tear up my digestive system I take as a result. I'd really like to get OFF those medications and onto just the cannibis oil if at all possible since this is a natural product vs. these complex compounded meds that have some nasty side effects.
Just my own experience since you asked about opiates being "given away." My experience? Yes they were and I believe doctors were incentivized to do it based on how they were pushed on me and how easy they were to get.
How about: thousands die every year from opioid overdose whereas there is not a single well documented case of death by cannabis overdose.
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