I just skimmed this really but wanted to raise your bp a little. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040719/lf_nm/health_marijuana_dc Didn't you post a bunch of counterevidence a few months back to indicate that these claims about super potent new mar1juana are dubious at best and straight lies at worst?
"Pot is no longer the gentle weed of the 1960s and may pose a greater threat than cocaine or even heroin because so many more people use it. So officials at the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) and at the White House are hoping to shift some of the focus in research and enforcement from "hard" drugs such as cocaine and heroin to mar1juana." That's one of the stupidest things I've read in a while. (not counting what I read here at the BBS. ) Seriously, isn't it about time for yet another government funded study, that says weed is not harmful, to get tossed out the window for political reasons? You can tell it's an election year... there's more BS like this on the way.
If these cannabinoids are what ultimately gives users the high, can't doctors find a way to put these chemicals in pill form? I think that a lot of the stigma surrounding mar1juana is the fact that it's smoked. If a doctor were able to perscribe a pill with the cannabinoids to a patient in need of pain relief, instead of perscribing mar1juana, do you think society would be more accepting of it?
I think a reasonably large percentage of society is accepting of it already. I also think it's available in pill form. And in homemade brownies, on toast with jam, sprinkled on a cinnamon roll, baked in chocolate chip cookies, and in dozens of other ways. The problem is the political football that our elected officials frequently prefer to any sort of sanity, when it comes to this subject.
Here is a pretty comprehensive list of the studies done regarding drug use and abuse in the past century. Indian Hemp Drugs Commission. mar1juana. 1893-94. (UK) A seven volume, nearly 4,000 page report on the use of mar1juana in India by British and Indian experts who concluded, “the moderate use of these drugs is the rule, and that the excessive use is comparatively exceptional. The moderate use produces practically no ill effects.” Panama Canal Zone Military Investigations. 1916-1929. (U.S.) Recommended “no steps be taken by the Canal Zone authorities to prevent the sale or use of marihuana.” Departmental Committee on Morphine and Heroin Addiction. Report. (The Rolleston Report), 1926. (UK) Codified existing practices regarding the maintenance of addicts on heroin and morphine by doctors. Mayor's Committee on Marihuana. The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York, 1965. (U.S.) Concluded mar1juana use was non-addictive, and did not lead to morphine, cocaine or heroin addiction. Committee of the America Bar Association and American Medical Association on Narcotic Drugs. Drug Addiction: Crime or Disease? Interim and Final Reports. 1961. (U.S.) Concluded drug addiction is a disease, not a crime; harsh criminal penalties are destructive; drug prohibition ought to be reexamined; and experiments should be conducted with British-style maintenance clinics for narcotic addicts. Interdepartmental Committee. Drug Addiction. (The Brain Report), 1961. (UK) Endorsed the Rolleston Committee's advice which recommended that doctors in the United Kingdom be allowed to treat addicts with maintenance doses of powerful drugs when it was deemed medically helpful to the patient. Interdepartmental Committee. Drug Addiction, Second Report. (The Second Brain Report), 1965. (UK) Made recommendations for the monitoring and licensing of doctors in the United Kingdom who prescribe maintenance doses of drugs. Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence. Cannabis. (The Wooton Report), 1968. (UK) Endorsed conclusions of the 1965 New York report which said mar1juana was non-addictive and did not lead to morphine, cocaine or heroin addiction. Also endorsed the conclusions of the Indian Hemp Commission. Government of Canada, Commission of Inquiry. The Non-Medical Use of Drugs, Interim Report, (The Le Dain Report), 1970. (Canada) Recommended serious consideration be given to decriminalization of mar1juana for personal use. National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective, 1973. (U.S.) Appointed by President Nixon, it recommended possession of mar1juana for personal use be decriminalized. National Research Council on the National Academy of Sciences, An Analysis of mar1juana Policy, 1982. (U.S.) Recommended immediate decriminalization of mar1juana possession and suggested the United States experiment with allowing states to set up their own mar1juana controls, as is done with alcohol. Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, AIDS and Drug Misuse, Part 1 1988, Part 2, 1989. (UK) Concluded that “The spread of HIV is a greater danger to the individual and public health than drug misuse.” Supported a comprehensive health plan that promoted abstinence, but above all health and life ------------------ Data from The Office of National Drug Control Policy said that the price of heroin has dropped from approx $3,200 in 1981 to approx $1,200 in 1995. The price of cocaine has similarly dropped from $275.12 per gram in 1981 to $94.52 in 1996. A kilogram of raw opium sells for $90 in Pakistan, but that same kilogram is worth $290,000 in the United States. Since 1975, the federal government has been asking high school seniors how easy it is for them to obtain mar1juana. Adolescents' access to mar1juana has been virtually unchanged by the drug war. In 1975, 87% of youths said it was “very easy” or “fairly easy” to obtain mar1juana. Twenty-three years and millions of arrests later, 89.6% said it was easily obtained. You also might find this quite enlightening, the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act passed by Congress http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/taxact.htm
It is sold in pill form as well as liquid form under the name Marinol. The catch is that Marinol isn't as effective as the smoked stuff AND if you are having nausea issues (one of the main reasons for medical MJ), you may not be able to keep the liquid or pill down long enough for those forms to have an effect.
Actually, there are at least as many conservatives who want to end prohibition. See the writings of William F. Buckley, Jr., Gary Johnson, and Sheriff Bill Masters.
One of the reasons I've always respected Buckley, and found him refreshing. He's never been shy about saying what he thinks, to put it mildly, and be damned to the "herd" and their mentality. "National Research Council on the National Academy of Sciences, An Analysis of mar1juana Policy, 1982. (U.S.) Recommended immediate decriminalization of mar1juana possession and suggested the United States experiment with allowing states to set up their own mar1juana controls, as is done with alcohol." Andy, I remember this one well. Not at all what the Reagan Administration wanted to hear. The report, which was done by a highly respected, hand-picked group, as I recall, was promptly dismissed out of hand and put in the freezer.
Well, there are mixed views on the freezer thing, but I suspect that this elite group of scientists may have been on to something... as opposed to the Reagan Administration, which had to be on something to squash the report.
And yet you couldn't resist adding your two cents. STEREOTYPICAL NEO CON. Way to push the thread forward intellectually. In regards to the pill form, the vast majority of people who try the pill as a substitute say it doesn't work. Time Magazine
Good call, Nancy. It's just the folks that are dying of cancer and AIDS would like to ease their suffering... but who cares right?
