Coastal
Post Online
October,
2003
Legalizing Marijuana To
Benefit Society:
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
By Stephen Simac
Californians and citizens of eight other
states in the federal union have made a criminal distinction between people who
smoke cannabis as a physician recommended remedy and recreational users who
just enjoy the effects of cannabis. The federal government and its drug
enforcement agencies claim there is no distinction in federal law.
The DEA and the Justice Department are just
as willing to arrest and jail the sick and dying for using pot to alleviate
their pain and suffering as they are healthy tokers who only use it to relax
and have fun. Growers and sellers of
the herb no matter what their state of health are lumped in with murderers and
rapists. They often are punished more harshly with longer prison terms.
Smoke 300 Joints A
Month Or Else
There is a small
group of individuals however who have been granted access to federally grown
medical marijuana. They can legally travel with and publicly smoke US government
issued cannabis.
The feds would prefer to keep these people
hidden away in their sick rooms until they die an unpublicized death. They are
members of the Food and Drug Association's Compassionate Investigational New
Drug program.
This is one of
the most exclusive groups in the country because you had to be nearly dying to
get in. Even then patients had to jump through an agonizing series of
bureaucratic hoops. Only 15 extremely ill patients with conditions unabated by
all other legal pharmaceutical drugs managed to get into the IND program during
the dozen years it accepted applicants. In 1992 the first Bush administration,
which made no pretense to be "compassionate conservatives," slammed
the door shut on all other applicants including 35 who had been already
approved.
Only a handful of the
original 15 are still alive and they are still alive because of medical
marijuana. As long as they live the federal government is legally obligated to
send them 300 joints of Missisippi "Muddy Waters" marijuana a
month.
George McMahon is one of
those patients still alive, born with Nail Patella Syndrome a rare genetic
disorder that has been like a life long torture chamber for him. Cannabis
literally saved his life by easing his severe pain, cramps and nausea.
With the help of writer Christopher Largen, he's written and published
his inspiring tale of how he became a federally sanctioned medical marijuana
recipient in the IND program. More importantly his book, "Prescription Pot: A leading advocate's
heroic battle to legalize medical marijuana" (New Horizon Press,
2003). is a warrior's tale of a man who
rose from his death bed with marijuana, battled to gain his legal right to his
medicine and is still fighting to change laws for millions of other
patients.
He tells his story in a compelling and straightforward voice that lays bare the
official hyprocrisy around medical marijuana. The book contains several
appendixes including an official report on the effects on health of Chronic
Cannabis Use in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program by seven
researchers. Their conclusion was that cannabis smoking provided effective
relief of pain, muscle spasms and glaucoma in these patients without causing
malignancies, neurological deterioration, immune system weakening with only
mild pulmonary risk. These were
patients smoking up to 300 joints a month of low grade, poorly cured, harsh
smoking dirt weed grown in Missisippi behind barbed wire. They are even
required to smoke it as joints, no water pipes, vaporizers or eating it. The pot they are sent is only slightly
better quality than Government Cheese, yet it kept these sick people alive. The
researchers even found that the patients were able to reduce or eliminate other
prescription pharmaceuticals with their toxic side effects. One of the real reasons feds opppose states'
rights on medical marijuana.
Miracles With Marijuana Medicine
There are many comprehensive books that
provide evidence for legalizing
marijuana as a prescription medication.
Lester Grinspoon and James Bakalar have written the classic,
"Marijuana: the Forbidden Medicine" (Yale University Press,
1997). It details the extensive
scientific research and patient testimonies for dozens of medical conditions that have been effectively treated
with cannabis.
Ethan Russo, M.D, one of the researchers on
the health of patients in the Investigational Drug Program presented a policy
paper on Cannabis and Pain Management
in Cannabis Health to the American Academy of Pain Management this year. Since half of all Americans say they suffer
from chronic pain any remedy would be enormously beneficial to society. Unless
it is cannabis the feds say. Marijuana has been shown to be helpful in
relieving neuropathic pain, inflammatory conditions, muscle spasms, nausea,
depression and anxiety while stimulating appetite.
Russo's policy
paper gives a historical overview of cannabis use for pain management, then
destroys the feds official arguments for opposing medical marijuana. He points out that higher potency pot
reduces the amount needed to smoke for equivalent effects thus reducing lung
problems.
The synthetic THC preparations Marinol and
Dronabinol, which are loosely restricted Schedule III drugs are not as
effective as smoked cannabis, a banned Schedule I drug. The more potent pills have worse side
effects and are more expensive even than black market marijuana, while
government grown medical marijuana costs only a dime a joint to grow and
roll.
The Injustice Department
It's pretty obvious that Ashcroft's
assaults on sick people to prevent them from gaining some relief from their
suffering with medical marijuana is
only done to stall the movement to legalizing cannabis entirely. The tax
potential alone for varietal cannabis grown and legally sold will beckon to
deficit ridden states as a way to stave off higher motor vehicle taxes, a
political killer.
The war on Marijuana users is the
cornerstone for the failed War on Drugs, which is a supporting wall of the ever
expanding security state. The War on
people who use illegal Drugs supports
and is supported by prosecution and defense lawyers, police unions, prison
guard unions, along with the agencies and black marketeers who thrive off it.
Many medical marijuana are even caught up in the propaganda and don't
approve of legalizing an herb for people who don't have a "medical
necessity." Those sick and injured citizens of 9 states and one closed
federal program who have gained some right to grow and smoke medical marijuana
were supported by millions of current and former recreational users.
Changes
In Altitude, Changes In Attitude
Many of these users believe that getting high is the medicine for what
ails western "civilization" and their own state of mind. It relieves stress, lowers blood pressure,
and encourages a connection with the earth.
Recreational users of cannabis have survived and prospered
despite a 70 year federal, state and local total war on them. They have created a vibrant counterculture with clandestine networks in the face of
despots using Shock and Awe campaigns to beat them down. They have bent but not
broken under the overwhelming forces arrayed against them.
There are many entertaining novels and
films that treat marijuana smokers and growers with more amusement and less
dogma than official propaganda. They
reach more people than well researched, documented treatises but focus on the
dazed and confused but harmless pothead stereotype. There's some truth to that, but they usually ignore the creative
impulses that flower from re-creational use of cannabis.
I wish to praise the leaves of grass,
especially the fragrant flowers. Without weed we'd still be listening to
oompapa bands, cheering two handed set shots in basketball, there would be no
personal computers, environmental movement, organic farming, or health food
superstores.
For all the
creative juices the kind has stirred,
it does seem to dope most of it's users into complicity with the loss of
their constitutional rights. Many
stoners won't even vote, "don't make no difference, dude."
Pot reduces your cares and worries for a while, so effectively that the
largest minority has not effectively
fought to restore their rights.
Almost all illegal drug users in America are marijuana users, only a few
percent use other illegal drugs. These
white powder drugs are unhealthy and are made worse by their criminalization.
Marijuana has been linked with these other drugs with outright lies to hoodwink
the voters, especially the elderly who would most benefit from medical cannabis
and do vote. The actual
"gateway" drug by the government's own surveys is tobacco, even for
pot smoking teens.