At 12:22 PM 5/23/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Yes..case in point the legalising of medicinal marijuana use at a State
>level, and the refusal of the Federal courts to recognise the state laws.
>
>Although in other instances they HAVE allowed States to have their own take
>on certain laws.
The laws in question are pretty strict and one of the reasons that they are
pretty strict is the "War on Drugs." Federal Law supercedes state law and
federal law says that marijuana is one of the most dangerous substances
available. Where federal law conflicts with local laws, federal wins.
Marijuana is simply not as addictive nor as deadly as some drugs that are
correctly classified as less dangerous, and it is the physical
addictiveness and deadly side-effects that are supposed to dictate the
classification. Caffeine is more physically addictive than marijuana. I
have yet to hear of a case of death caused by marijuana itself, as opposed
to caused by the bad judgement that its use can induce.
Its classification is also why the US can't use hemp paper, even though
hemp is an easily renewable resource (unlike trees which can take hundreds
of years to regrow) which doesn't require the chemicals needed to process
trees into paper (which are poisonous and very harmful for the
environment), and which contains THC in such small amounts that it's
unusable as a drug. (Can we say paper industry money?) Hemp clothing has
been somewhat ignored but is technically illegal-- there is now talk of
prosecuting people for having hemp soap that again contains so little THC
that it can't be used to get high. How? Under drug laws. All Hail the Drug
War! I suggest a zero-tolerance policy for all those darned hemp-soap using
hippies.
>They claim that Marijuana has no medicinal uses, even though research has
>shown otherwise, and anecdotal evidence by the people who are suffering and
>using marijuana, also shows otherwise.
They don't even claim that there are no medicinal uses-- only that the
medicinal uses suggested by anecdotal evidence has never been
comprehensively proven. Comprehensively proven means that they don't
discount the research as "having been done by potheads," that it's been
done by "respected scientists" which in part means people who have US or
European credentials, and that the results of the experiments are
repeatable by large numbers of unbiassed respected scientists. Anyone from
a country that allows use of marijuana is automatically dismissed as a
pothead. Anyone from a country that allows testing of marijuana for medical
uses is dismissed for "probably having gotten into the test materials." The
results can't be confirmed by people who can be given the benefit of the
doubt, like our own US scientists can be, because those people can't do the
necessary the experiments to prove or disprove the results.
>But I guess if people can grow a herb in their backyard, and get the
>benefits of painkillers and psycho therapeutic drugs wihtout the terrible
>stomach upsets, headaches and numerous other side effects...it would dent
>the profit margins of quite a few large drug companies ....wouldn't it?
It's not just the drug industry that stands to lose money-- there's drugs,
paper, textiles, and fuel, plus the industries that support them: chemical,
wood, cotton, wool, flax, oil, natural gas, etc. There are a lot of
businesses that would be hurt by the legalization of marijuana and/or hemp.
But, to be fair, marijuana does have side-effects. It's an hallucinogen.
Generally speaking, hallucination is considered a bad side-effect. However,
several psychiatric drugs are also hallucinogens and LSD was originally an
attempt at an anti-depressant (as was aspartame, better known as
Nutra-Sweet, which has really bad side-effects including short-term memory
loss). Many psychiatric drugs are just plain scary in terms of
mood-alteration and side-effects. The reason that people are trying to come
up with synthetics for marijuana is to allow the benefits without the
side-effects. But other substances that cause bad side-effects are
prescribed when the side-effects are less problematic than the symptoms.
These are usually last-resort medicines.
And that is what medical marijuana was intended to be. Really strong
painkillers (opiates, in particular) can cause severe nausea. If a patient
on those painkillers has nausea as a side-effect, giving him/her/it
anti-nausea medication can decrease the effectiveness of the painkillers.
I've had this side-effect while passing two kidney stones-- it is not a
withdrawl side-effect, although withdrawl can also cause nausea. If you are
already in enough pain to get that medicine, throwing up half-an-hour after
taking it every time you take it makes it a pretty horrible medication.
That side-effect in a person who already has nausea is probably much worse.
Unfortunately, there is no last resort medication for the combination of
pain and nausea. If marijuana has any medical benefit, people who are not
helped by other medication fit the requirements for a last resort
medication. Being unable to keep food in your stomach can cause death.
Death is a more severe side-effect than hallucinations. If it could be
proven to US government standards that marijuana could help these people,
it could probably be legalized federally for medicinal uses. Unfortunately,
if the current situation continues, this will never happen.
> >;-)
>
>-Gel
>And the Wheel Of Morality Turns.
>Turn Turn Turn
Show us the lesson that we should learn...
>Wheel Of Morality..
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jennifer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>
>That's not what I'm arguing. I'm arguing that "any and all efforts" (not
>even any and all existing efforts, but any and all efforts) to thwart drug
>use would include stopping drug use even when it is medically justified.
>Stopping legal use of illegal drugs is a valid effort to stop people from
>using those drugs. You have mentioned several exceptions to laws. My point
>is that "any and all" allows no room for exceptions and thus allows no room
>for legitimate or understandable uses, which makes the statement not very
>well thought out.
>
>
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at
http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at
http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
