MEDICINAL MARIJUANA
I promised I would dig out the data on medicinal marijuana in my last post
on this subject. Here is the promised data. This is only a small part of the
accumulated data on this subject.
Drs. Steven Sallan and Norman Zinberg published their results demonstrating
that marijuana was a superior anti-vomiting agent for patients undergoing
cancer chemotherapy in the October 15, 1975 NEW ENGLLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE.
Dr, Alfred Chang confirmed these results in the December, 1979 ANNALS OF
INTERNAL MEDICINE. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia conducted
studies of the medical efficacy of marijuana before the federal government
forced the states to halt their research. The Tennessee study included over
100,000 people and found that 90.4% could control their nausea and vomiting by
smoking marijuana but that only 66.7% of the people were successful when the
took Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, one of the active ingredients in marijuana,
as a pill. As opposed to smoked marijuana, which worked almost immediately,
patients suffering from severe nausea and vomiting often had trouble keeping
the THC-9 pill down long enough for it to begin to work. What was con
firmed in the 1970's with respect to the nausea and vomiting caused by
chemotherapy applies equally to the nausea and vomiting caused by AIDS.
The May 29, 2003 STAR TRIBUNE(p.D1) states that 1.3 million Americans are
diagnosed with cancer every year, that one million end up in chemotherapy, and
that 70 to 80 percent of these patients experience nausea and vomiting during
their chemotherapy. In other words, seven hundred to eight hundred thousand
people end up vomiting their guts out every year because of the government's
refusal to legalize medicinal marijuana and, every three years, the number of
people vomiting their guts out mounts up to millions withouut even considering
the enormous numbers of additional people vomiting their guts out because of
AIDS.
The June 3, 2003 STAR TRIBUNE (pp. D1&D2) trumpets the newest drug for
preventing nausea and vomiting, MCI Pharma Incorporated's Palonosetron,
currently awaiting FDA approval. This drug, introduced nearly thirty years
after plain old marijuana was proven to be a superior anti-nausea and vomiting
agent by Sallan and Zinberg, only eliminated nausea and vomiting in 72 to 81
percent of the patients during their first day of chemotherapy and in only 64
to 74 percent of the patients after five days. This in contrast to the
Tennessee study which found that marijuana could eliminate nausea and vomiting
in 90.4% of chemotherapy patients.
Therefore the federal government's so called drug war is actually a
fanatical religious jihad since they are actually willing to force sick people
to suffer and die because the government won't even allow medicinal uses of
marijuana. Cocaine may be administered in hospitals but the DEMON WEED must
forever be denied to suffering and dying people.
As a person who was a child in the 1940's and a teenager in the 1950's, I was
part of the generation that was taught that America was a land where there was
liberty and justice for all and where the government didn't do these sorts of
things to its citizens. The U.S. government, for whatever reason, forcing
millions of its citizens to suffer and die unnecessarily is only one of the
intances where I have found that what I was taught is not true.
Because of the enormous number of people with AIDS suffering nausea and
vomiting, as well as the lack of appetitite that makes their death more likely,
not to mention the many people suffering nausea and vomiting because of
chemotherapy for AIDS related cancers, medicinal marijuana IS a Gay issue and
there is thus no excuse for the Stonewall DFL endorsing City Council candidates
such as Lisa Goodman who denied the voters of Minneapolis a chance to be heard
on this issue.
Robert Halfhill rhalfhill 2juno.com Loring Park
http://halfhillviews.greatnow.com
http://www.thepen.us/e-fraud.html
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